Jack's Notes

Can You Hear Me Now?

2012-01-22T19:29:00.001-05:00

I have confession to make. I talk back to my TV. My patient wife knows this all too well. My remarks usually are sparked by some atrocious grammar error or pronunciation mistake made by a “professional” announcer or newsreader. I am not above yelling at some politician on the screen who is avoiding a question or spinning some very negative happening into a something for us all to celebrate. And don’t get me going on the father and daughter TV tag team telling me that they will put aluminum siding on the back of my house for free. Of course my TV doesn’t listen to me. That may now change.

One of the technologies that got a lot of attention at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas, was voice recognition. While this technology has been around for a several years incorporated into mobile phone auto dialers and some high end automobiles, it has been somewhat unreliable. I for one have a hard time getting my phone to dial with voice commands. That is another column.

Responding to the complexity of the once simple task of watching TV in your living room, several manufacturers have demonstrated controls for TVs that allow you to speak the commands. Want to watch some college hoops? Just say “Watch ESPN2.” Want to know what Jim Cantore has predicted for the tri-sate? Tell your TV that you want to “Watch the Weather Channel.” The TV figures out the channel number or if the service is from cable, off air or perhaps from the Internet.

Samsung is building voice recognition into some new TVs and others are making remote controls that will respond to your voice commands. Many of these devices are still not perfected. Even some of the demonstrations at the CES were plagued with some miscues. Like any technology, the bugs will be worked out and soon voice recognition will be as ubiquitous as touch screens are now. Recently Apple released “Siri,” an application for the iPhone 4s that listens to your commands and performs tasks like web searches, appointment booking and meeting reminders. Perhaps this is the best example of how far voice recognition progressed.

The reason behind this effort to add voice commands to the TV is the desire to simplify controlling the myriad of options now available even in a simple TV. Turning captions on and off, changing from cable to off air reception, and watching a DVD or playing a game often require several commands. Since many TV manufacturers want to make the TV the centerpiece of the digital home, they must find a way to keep the operation simple and intuitive. What can be simpler than just speaking your commands?

So in the not too distant future when your kids ask the TV to “Watch HBO” they might hear “I’m afraid I can’t do that until you do your homework!”

Online Shopping Not Just a Convenience Thing

2012-01-16T08:02:00.002-05:00

The recent holiday shopping season continued to show an increase in online shopping. Millions of us spent billions of dollars by eschewing the mall and the big box stores, choosing instead the convenience of shopping on line. Studies show that, even among the 55+ year old market segment, more than 70% purchased at least one item via the Internet. It is interesting to note that this is just about the same percentage of Internet customers found in the 18 – 32 year old demographic. Shopping online is something that is being embraced by young and old alike.

A deeper investigation shows that it is not just holiday shopping that is migrating to online stores. It is a trend showing that many use the Internet for most every purchase, even groceries. It is easy to come to the conclusion that the driving force for this trend is our desire to sit in our kitchen, dressed in our PJs, drinking our own coffee and still shop. So, is convenience the big draw of online shopping? A closer look might indicate it is not.

Online shopping allows for easy comparison shopping. Many online sites allow you to choose two or three similar products and compare each feature. Some actually set up a grid that makes it very easy to compare. If you are looking for a new digital camera, the grid might contain the resolution of the camera measured in megapixels, battery life, ease of use, as well as price. Many also have a place for customers to share their experiences with the products. These ratings are helpful since they are based on actual use. While on some of these sites there have been reviews that were placed by people posing as customers that were actually hired by a company selling one of the products, for the most part the reviews seem to be honest.

Another aspect of online shopping that is very attractive to the consumer is the customer service. Amazon.com and other mega online retailers often have much better support and are more customer friendly than the big box retailers. For example, the return policy of Amazon.com is extraordinary. Most of the time it is a “no questions asked” process. A trip to Best Buy after Christmas with a return in hand will reinforce how good Amazon.com really is.

Are brick and mortar stores soon to be relics of a bygone age? Not necessarily. A trip to the Apple Store demonstrates that a pleasant environment and superior customer service still appeals to shoppers. Nothing takes the place of intelligent, informed salespeople. This is especially true when buying an expensive and complicated device.

More and more the big box retailers have a cadre of sales staff that seems to be reading from a script rather than listening to what the customer wants. So if traditional retailers want to fend off their cyberspace rivals they better invest in customer service. The new lap top computer on the store shelf today is just like the one that FedEx can have on my front porch tomorrow, often with less hassle and, because the online seller doesn’t have a big store to pay for, it will be less expensive.

The Future of Newspapers

2012-01-08T21:20:00.002-05:00

I am developing a love-hate relationship with traditional newspapers. Not too long ago I would read two or three “hard copy” newspapers each day. I read The Cincinnati Enquirer to keep up on what was happening in our area. A daily read of The Wall Street Journal was more for the in-depth reporting of significant national and international issues than for gaining any financial insight. I read The New York Times as a moderating voice to offset the leanings of the Journal. More and more I find myself drifting away from the traditional “paper and ink” format to online.

The publishers of these newspapers are not helping to keep my allegiance. The Enquirer in November sent me a notice informing me that the paper on Thanksgiving Day would be priced as a Sunday edition since it was going to be very large. Let me get this straight: I pay more because they were successful in getting more advertisements aimed at getting me to spend more money. Now our friends at Gannett inform us that the paper will soon be in a format akin to a comic book than a newspaper.

The folks at The Wall Street Journal were not much better in 2011. After almost 20 years of paying for a print subscription, the process of getting the paper to the front door of my office each morning seemed to have become too complicated, so I dropped it. Don’t get me started on the hours I spent on the phone trying to get my printed subscription converted to an on-line subscription.

Now I have to say, I have so far been lucky as the folks at The New York Times have yet to cancel my online access to the paper via my smart phone. I have several colleagues who have lost access as the Times converted to a paid subscription model only.

While all of this might sound like the insignificant complaints of an aging boomer, in reality I am worried about these trends. The Internet’s immediacy, reach, and efficiency can provide valuable news reporting but such reporting does require adequate funding and a viable business model. Today, looking through the news websites you quickly find that many are aggregating reports from major traditional newspapers and wire services. If those companies continue to shrink, where will this reporting come from?

For sure there is a place for the citizen journalist. This fact continues to be demonstrated with events in Syria and last year in Egypt and Libya. The amount of information that citizens of a democracy need to know increases daily, but it is like drinking from a fire hydrant. Having newspaper professionals do the heavy lifting of gathering, synthesizing and reporting is critical. For this to happen will require the traditional press to figure out a viable business model so they can convert to digital delivery while maintaining the integrity and value of the old model. So far this seems to be an elusive quest.

What to look for in 2012

2012-01-01T20:35:00.001-05:00

It is a new year and time to take a look into my digital crystal ball and try to divine some trends, products and services that might surface on the digital landscape in 2012. Making predictions is never an easy task, nevertheless I think there are some trends that started in 2011 and will carry over into the New Year.

Tablets, especially the iPad, were very popular holiday gifts last year. These devices which merge the functionality of lap tops, mobile phones and eReaders will become even more commonplace in 2012. Already there are thousands of “apps” for tablets. Most are now aimed at the general consumer. In this coming year you will see specialized apps for specific industries. Medical charting, warehouse inventory control and student textbooks will all migrate to tablet platforms. The vision of Jon Luc Piccard reviewing the Enterprise’s operations ( http://schulzlibrary.wordpress.com/tag/jean-luc-picard/ )using a hand held tablet that once seemed far fetched will become common place.

With so many devices and services now wireless, there will be an increased need to carve out more bandwidth. The electromagnetic spectrum, the place where all these wireless channels hang out, is finite. The TV you watch, the phone calls you receive all rely on a small piece of the spectrum. Even that garage door opener needs a channel to operate.

In the late 90s the government converted all US TV channels to digital. One of the reasons was to free up some spectrum space. While some was recovered, it proved to be inadequate as more and more wireless services proliferated. Look for the government to take another look at compressing the spectrum used by radio and TV stations so channel can be opened for your Android or iPhone.

2012 looks to be the year that the auto industry turns up the digital volume. I don’t think I will see an iCar during my morning commute, but the dashboards on many new models will spot new digital features like in-car wifi, Internet radio and more sophisticated real time diagnostics beamed back to your dealer.

Don’t forget … I will be offering “A Digital Survivor’s Guide” at the Harrison Library. This 2-part presentation covers new technologies, services and devices. Part 1: Monday, January 16 and Part 2: Monday, January 23. Both run from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Please register in advance for both sessions. Call (513) 369-4442 or email Harrison@CincinnatiLibrary.org. If you have suggestions for what you would like covered in these informal non-technical sessions, drop me an email.

A Look Back

2011-12-24T09:04:00.003-05:00

At the end of each year it has been my custom to take a look into the year ahead and highlight what I feel will be some major developments in the digital world. Any prediction, be it the weather for the next day or the success on Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium is, at best, a dangerous practice. Predictions about the digital world are no exception. So before looking ahead to next year, let’s see how I did with my crystal ball this year.

One of my major predictions had to do with the increase in “cloud computing” for both individuals and businesses. I said that more and more of our information, both public and personal, would be stored on and retrieved from large centrally located cloud servers. Our personal calendars, contact lists, correspondence, medical history, entertainment and embarrassing party videos will reside not on our personal computer’s hard drive, but on drives shared by our neighbors.

For sure that has happened. Apple’s iCloud service is absolutely integral to several applications running on the iPhone and iPad. The new Kindle Fire, as well as the original Kindle models, all have cloud support hosted by Amazon.com. The music we hear, the movies we watch and even the money we make are being stored in the cloud.

I predicted an increase in online access to movies and TV programs and a trending away from traditional cable and satellite services. Cable subscriptions are down especially among the younger more digitally aware generation. Even TV ownership numbers among the 20-something generation is flagging as they watch TV on their iPads and other tablets. This past year also saw missteps by NetFlix as they struggled with changing their company from a “snail mail” based DVD library to a delivery system using broadband Internet.

While the smart phone has not yet morphed into an electronic wallet as I had predicted, other non-traditional retailing applications have increased. For example, there is an increased use of electronic coupons. Price comparison apps for smart phones are commonplace.

So all in all my predictions were close. Next week I will go out on a limb and peer into 2012.

A reminder… In January I will be offering “A Digital Survivor’s Guide” at the Harrison Library. This 2-part presentation covers new technologies, services and devices. Part 1: Monday, January 16 and Part 2: Monday, January 23. Both run from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Please register in advance for both sessions. Call (513) 369-4442 or email Harrison@CincinnatiLibrary.org.

LED Savings Long Term But Worth It!

2011-12-19T08:32:00.001-05:00

How much do you really save?

The Holiday season is in full swing. The halls are decked with holly and this year it looks like many of us have adopted a new and more “greener” approach to decorating our homes. Driving around I have noticed more and more LED lights being used as decorations. They are easy to spot as they are much brighter and pierce the darkness more than their incandescent older siblings.

This trend is really good news. The efficiency of these lights is nothing short of extraordinary. One string of 50 LED lights uses about 7 watts of power. One standard incandescent lamp that we used on our trees … you know the ones that were also used as nightlights when we were kids … consumes between 4 and 7 watts EACH. So a string of 50 lights would consume between 200 and 250 watts verses the LED’s consumption of 7 watts.

For sure the environmental impact is very positive. The amount of electricity required to power our festive displays using LED lights is a small fraction of the incandescent alternative. For sure you are being “green” when you switch over to LEDS. But will you save some “green?”

If you are buying new lights you will quickly find that the LED lights are priced at about double of what you will pay for the standard incandescent strings. I found sets of 50 LED lights at a local store for about $7. So your initial cash outlay is higher. The LED lights do have a much longer life. Most are rated for about 25,000 hours of use. That works out to almost 3 years of continuous use. So your kids’ kids’ kids will be using these lights (if they can keep track of where they store them…that’s another issue).

In the long run, and I really mean long run, someone will save money but in most cases it won’t be you. Nevertheless, the positive impact of using less energy is enough of a reason to choose LED lights for this and other lighting needs. The prices continue to fall and there are more choices of lamps that have a softer glow than the original LED offerings.

One other thing…in January I will be offering “A Digital Survivor’s Guide” at the Harrison Library. This 2-part presentation covers new technologies, services and devices. Part 1: Monday, January 16 and Part 2: Monday, January 23. Both run from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Please register in advance for both sessions. Call (513) 369-4442 or email Harrison@CincinnatiLibrary.org.

Good Time To Get Family History

2011-12-12T08:10:00.002-05:00

This is the season when many of us will give or receive video cameras or haul out of the closet and dust off cameras that we already have. Rather than just catching the scenes of your holiday, which for the most part will look much the same as the scenes of the year before, why not use that video camera to create something truly special, something that 25 years from now your kids and grandkids will appreciate more than any gift from Amazon.com or Macy’s.

During the holidays families gather for meals and celebrations. This is often the only time during the year that many families get together. What a great opportunity to ask our parents or grandparents or other relatives to share stories of their lives. This does not need to be a big production. All you need is a video camera, a somewhat quiet place and some time.

Find a room away from all the commotion of the celebrations and use that as your studio. It does not have to be soundproof and a bit of background conversation from other rooms is OK. Make sure the room is well lighted and comfortable. Don’t shine spotlights at the subject but make sure that they are not seated in front of a window or other bright colored wall. The light should come from the front.

I suggest that you mount your camera on a tripod or some solid surface. Focus it on the face of the person being interviewed and leave it there. There is no need for zooming or panning. A fixed shot is best. Since most video cameras have built in microphones, be sure the camera is no more than 6 ft from the subject especially if the person being interviewed has a quiet voice.

Have the person sit in a comfortable chair, turn on the camera, and just begin. The person asking the questions should be seated next to the camera. The interview should be a conversation between these two people; the camera should be ignored and will soon be forgotten. It may take a few minutes for everyone to relax and forget the session is being recorded.

You may begin with some simple questions about their holiday memories or what it was like when they were growing up. From there just let the conversation go. Don’t worry about pauses or hesitations. The interviewer should ask questions and clarifications but the key is to let the person being interviewed do the talking. These interviews can be targeted to a single topic like the time spent in the military or details of career or vocation, or they can be more open. One topic will soon transition into others. Have patience and just let it happen.

I suggest that you do not stop the interview before you are finished and play back a portion for the interviewee. Many will be self conscience and this will have a negative impact on the rest of the interview.

Once you are finished, you can edit out the long pauses using inexpensive video editing software. Then burn the interview on to a DVD and distribute to your family members. No gift will be more valued.

More Holiday Gift Ideas

2011-12-05T19:17:00.000-05:00

This is the second installment of my annual gift giving suggestions column. I hope that the suggestions are helpful as you search for that perfect gift.

For years I have been suggesting that an electronic picture frame would be the perfect gift for family members, especially grandparents, who want to keep up with your growing family. In the past I suggested preloading the frame with photos and periodically sending new ones, either via email or snail mail. While this works, it does require that the recipient have some degree of technical ability to load them into the frame.

A company, CEIVA, has a solution. They offer a frame and automatic updating service that allows you to send photos directly to the frame from a computer or camera phone. You can also share photos via Facebook or use any of the many online digital photo sharing sites like Flickr, Picasa or Snapfish.

The frame is connected directly to the Internet so the recipient must have a broadband Internet connection. There is a model that uses a dial-up connection but that requires the person receiving the photos to manually make a call. Don’t recommend it. The Internet connected device is automatic. The pictures just appear as you send them.

The CEIVA frames come in various models but plan to spend about $130. You can send up to 40 photos per day with the basic service. More information is at www.ceiva.com.

More and more TV programs and movies are available via the Internet from services like HuluPlus, Netflix and HBOGO. You can, of course, choose to watch these programs on your computer but most of us prefer to sit in a comfortable chair and watch on our wide screen TVs. For about $60 you can get a Roku streaming player that connects to most any TV and provides High Definition streaming to your TV from the Internet.

The Roku is simple to set up. You must have a broadband Internet connection and subscribe to one of more of the online video services. For many, these services have replaced traditional cable or satellite TV and the price is most often very competitive. More information is available at www.roku.com

I hope these suggestions have helped to take the hassle out of shopping.

Some Gift Ideas of the Digital Kind

2011-11-27T20:50:00.002-05:00

It is time again for me to give my annual suggestions for gift giving of the digital kind ranging in price from only a few bucks to a couple hundred. This week and next we will look at a few.

If your gift giving list includes someone who likes to read books, an eReader may be just the ticket. There are a number of them on the market right now and there seems to be a new offering every week. My recommendation is still the Kindle which has several models. I suggest either the Kindle Touch or Kindle Keyboard. While Amazon.com, the maker of the Kindle, now has the Kindle Fire, if the person getting the gift is really just interested in reading books, the Touch or Keyboard versions are the best as they both use eInk technology that is easy on the eyes and allows battery life to extend to weeks.

The least expensive Kindle costs about $79.00 but you have to put up with annoying advertising pitches and Amazon “special offers” on the screen. Spend the extra 20 bucks and select the version without screen saver advertisements.

The Kindle Fire has been getting a lot of attention for the very attractive price of $199 and many describe it as a less expensive iPad; I don’t agree. The Fire has great graphics and a color screen, but it is not an iPad. In my opinion, the Fire is a device primarily designed to allow the easy purchase and display of the many media products sold by Amazon.com. If that is what you are looking for, go no further. If you really want the best tablet on the market, the iPad is still the gold standard.

How about some stocking stuffers for that teen on your list. You can’t go wrong with an iTunes gift card. They come in denominations from $15 up to $100. You can get them on line at the iTunes Store. For that avid reader who uses the Kindle, Amazon.com has gift cards in most any denomination. They can be used to purchase books as well as any other product sold by Amazon.

For that digital photography buff, how about giving an extra SD Card? They can be purchased beginning at about 10 bucks. You can never have enough SD Cards especially when you are on vacation as they fill up fast.

Next week I’ll have more suggestions.

Dealing with Hikacked Email Accounts

2011-11-21T07:50:00.002-05:00

A colleague at work recently related an all too frequent tale of having an email account hijacked. One morning she began to get emails and telephone calls from friends concerned about her and asking if she was OK. It seems that several of her friends received the same email message. The email sent on her email account indicated that she was stranded in London and her purse, baggage and passport had been stolen leaving her without money to get back to the US. The email gave information for transferring money to her as soon as possible with a promise of prompt repayment when she returned to Cincinnati.

This scenario is not a new one but the details of the false dilemma do change. Sometimes the victim is a teenager asking for money from kindly grandparents asking that they don’t inform parents about the kid’s predicament. The one constant is that this is a scam. It is one of several scams that are a result of having an email account hijacked.

There are other less obvious symptoms of hijacked email accounts. If you begin to see several notifications in your email “in box” of undeliverable messages and these messages were never sent by you, your account may have been hacked.

So what do you do? There is really no one answer. For sure, the first thing you should do is change the password of the email account that has been compromised. In many cases this will keep any future emails from being posted from your account. If you are unable to make this change, you should not give up and just quit using that account. While this might be the easiest thing to do, it does not stop the hijacker from using your identity. You may need to contact your email provider to assist you in modifying this account.

If you are able to get into your account to change your password, you should look into the account settings to make sure that the hacker has not set up some forwarding or notification prompts that will keep them connected to the account.

Once you are sure that you have regained control over your email account or have established a new account, you obviously should use a new password. I have discussed password security often but it is worth repeating that a password should be chosen carefully. Using your middle name, your first born’s middle name or birth date, your home address or other name or set of numbers relating to some aspect of your life makes your account easy pickings.

It is always a good idea to maintain two email accounts. Since many, like Google, Hot Mail and Yahoo offer free accounts, having two is not an issue. That way if your main account is compromised you can contact your friends and colleagues using the other account informing them of the fact that the first account has been compromised and any strange emails allegedly from you should be ignored.

I can help you with this problem in person. Just send me your credit card info, your social security number and you new passwords. I will get back to you as soon as possible.

WiFI on the Road

2011-11-13T19:51:00.009-05:00

Wifi in Your Car, Not!

When it began it was only available to major universities, laboratories and the military. Then it migrated into the offices of the nation’s largest corporations. It wasn’t long before you could find it in k-12 schools and then in our homes. Going mobile, it found its way into our pocket or purse. It was only a matter of time before it found its way into our cars.

At a time when billboards and radio spots encourage people not to text while driving, adding more stuff to that LCD display found front and center in many new cars seems, at best, ill-advised. Nevertheless, automakers from Audi to Volkswagen are beginning to offer Internet based services in their new models.

With several mobile phone companies offering 4G services, enjoying a robust Internet connection while traveling at 65 mph down I-74 is now possible. Is it a good idea? Apparently several automakers think so.

A perusal of the cars section of the daily newspaper will show several companies touting their in-car wifi. Now, most are very careful to emphasize in the ads that this Internet access is for your passengers. In some TV spots the camera pans to a passenger in the rear seat working on a lap top. Another ad offers Internet radio services like Pandora.com to provide some music accompaniment to your daily commute.

One of my favorite TV commercials shows an LCD display on the dash of a new car replete with icons and symbols. The narrator describes how riding shotgun has never been so much fun. I have to wonder how you access all these features on the LCD screen if you are the only person in the car.

Most of us have embraced the navigation services and it seems that more people than ever are on the phone while driving. It is not uncommon to see a fellow commuter drinking coffee, putting on make up or eating an Egg Mc Muffin while driving. You may have seen someone doing all three.

So, when driving to work, don’t be surprised if you see that the “passenger” riding shotgun is really a lap top and the driver is answering email between sips of coffee.

Siri, Your New Best friend

2011-11-06T21:30:00.002-05:00

I can still remember how mesmerized I was in 1968 watching the haunting exchanges between Dr. David Bowman and the Hal 9000 Computer. This interaction between a machine and a human being was perhaps the first time the promise of operating a machine with voice commands was demonstrated to the general movie going public. Of course, if you remember the movie, all did not go as planned on that voyage through the galaxy.

The recent launch of the Apple iPhone 4s brought back memories of 2001: A Space Odyssey. While the 4s has some modest improvements to its innards over the iPhone 4, the big news is Siri. Siri has been around for a while but this new iteration is the first to allow users to give directions or ask questions to the phone using plain language. So “Open the pod bay doors Hal” or “I’m afraid I can’t do that Dave” are no longer the stuff of science fiction.

I am sure we will look back in a few years and see the current iteration of Siri as somewhat primitive. Siri works best when you ask it to do simple tasks like entering an appointment in you calendar or do a Google search for a specific piece of information. Of course, it can place voice calls and send and retrieve text messages all hands free.

Like most Apple products the interface is simple. You press a button and ask Siri a question. For example, ask Siri what the weather will be and you will get a report of the current weather in your location. What you don’t see or hear is that when you ask that question, in the background with light speed, Siri analyzes your words, checks the internal GPS to ascertain where the phone is now located and then uses that information to search for a weather service on the web that has the local information. Once obtained, Siri will read to you the information. Again all this is done in a few seconds.

Siri is not perfect. A recent exchange between Stephen Colbert and Siri on the Colbert Report demonstrated that. Unlike the Hal 9000 that seemingly could do everything to operate Dr. Bowman’s spacecraft, Siri was not of much help to Steven when he asked for help writing a script for the show. Nevertheless Siri is a big step towards the promise of voice recognition technology and artificial intelligence based personal services.

Now I have to admit that I do not yet have an iPhone 4s, but I do plan to get one when my current smart phone, which seems to be getting less smart all the time, is due for replacement. Perhaps Siri can write the column for me?

TV without a TV

2011-10-30T19:37:00.004-04:00

The other day I was asked if there was an easy way to watch TV programs and movies now available on the Internet on a large screen TV. With Netflix, Amazon.com, iTunes and Hulu all providing more and more programs once only available on broadcast TV, cable or satellite, viewers now want to watch in a more comfortable environment than is possible sitting in front of the desktop or laptop computer. Even those who have graduated to the iPad or other tablet devices often want to watch some programs on a large screen.

There are several options available. Some of them simple and inexpensive and others a bit more pricey. If you already are using a laptop computer and you have a relatively new HDTV, very likely you can connect the two. Many newer laptops have HDMI outputs and many digital TVs have more than one HDMI input. So if you have your TV connected to a cable box using one of the HDMI inputs, you can use one of the remaining HDMI inputs to connect to your computer. Once connected using an HDMI cable, the TV serves as a large monitor for the laptop by displaying on the TV any content viewable on the laptop.

If you do not have a HDMI output on the computer you most likely have a VGA port. That port can be easy to identify since it uses a plug with 15 very small pins. Look on the side or the back; I am sure you will find it. It is also called an external monitor or projector port. Again, many new TVs have a VGA input. All you need to connect your laptop to your TV is an inexpensive VGA cable.

In both of the first two options, you still need to run a separate audio cable to your TV in order to get the audio to play from the TV. This can be a hassle.

If you are in the market for a new TV you might want to consider one that already is Internet ready. This means that you can connect the TV, via either a network cable or
your home wifi network, to the Internet. These TVs have a special remote control that allows you to select between off air, cable or internet sources. All are displayed on the large screen. Deciding to watch a video from the Internet is just as easy as changing the channel on your cable box.

Since many network programs are now available on the Internet, more and more people are reconsidering the monthly cost of cable or satellite. Broadcast TV has increased the number of free over-the-air channels in the Cincinnati market from seven in the analog world to more than twenty in the digital world. There is a fee for some Internet based services like Netflix, but considering that these programs can be watched virtually on demand with a monthly cost well below what most of us pay for cable, it is not surprising that some viewers are seriously re-evaluating the price of cable or satellite services.

Look Mom, No Wires

2011-10-23T12:57:00.002-04:00

I was asked recently for some tips on how to easily export photographs and videos from a digital camera to a computer for editing and storage. All digital cameras have one or more options for this. The easiest and most often used method uses a cable between the devices to transfer the digital images. The cable connects to the USB port that is found on most every brand and model of computer. Using that cable and the software that is bundled with the camera is a straight forward process.

For cameras that use a removable storage device like a SD Card or Memory Stick, the removal of the card from the camera and plugging it into the computer is another easy method of getting your pictures into the computer. Of course, this method requires compatible slots on the computer that can accept the SD Card or Memory Stick. If your computer does not have these slots you can purchase an adapter for about 5 bucks that plugs into the USB port and has slots for most all memory cards and sticks.

There is another method that is now available that requires no slots and no cables. Marketed by Fuji it is called “Eye-Fi” and can be used in any camera that takes a SD Card. This standard size SD Card not only serves as a storage device in your camera but also contains a miniature wifi transmitter that can wirelessly send your photos to any wifi equipped device. So instead of fumbling with wires or removing the SD Card from the camera, you just instruct the SD Card to send all the photos now stored on the card to your computer.

There are various version of this card with prices starting at about $50. The card can transfer to computers, iPhones, Androids and several other devices. It can be set up to recognize more than 30 different wifi networks that you may use from time to time.

There is some set up required when you first get the card. For instance you need to tell it where to send the pictures. You can choose to send them to a special directory on your computer or instruct it to send the photos directly to one of the photo sharing web sites like Flickr or SnapFish.

There is a version that has a geo-tagging function. With geo-tagging, your photos are labeled, or “tagged”, to show where they were taken. When you save the photos you also save information about them. You can view where the photos were taken on a map. You can search photos by location. So years after coming back from that vacation in Alaska, you can have information about the trip that may have vanished from your memory since it is stored in you computer’s memory.

Now if I can only get it to remember where I put those keys…..

Some Neat eReader Features

2011-10-16T16:45:00.001-04:00

I was asked recently to give a presentation at the Batesville Public Library. The two evening sessions are titled “A Digital Survivors’ Guide.” They are aimed at people who are curious about many of the new technologies and devices but are confused by all the jargon and hype. I had a very lively and smart group of people at the sessions. To begin I asked each one of the participants to tell me what they wanted to come away with at the end of the sessions. Several told me that they already owed a Kindle eReader and used it for reading books but were not knowledgeable about some of the other features.

The Kindle, as I have often reported in my columns, is I my opinion a fantastic device for those who like to read. It is very easy to use, inexpensive and easy on the eyes. Over an above the fact that it is a great way to read books, the Kindle has some other features that, as evidenced by the comments at the Batesville sessions, might be hidden from many users.

One of my favorite features is the built in dictionary. As you are reading, if you come to a word you may not know you can highlight the word with the cursor and up pops the definition and usage information from the New Oxford American Dictionary. You can read a brief definition and continue reading or press another key and have the entire dictionary citation. If you read books that contain a lot of jargon or archaic words, this feature is awesome.

Another often overlooked feature is the “Text-to-Speech” function. This allows the Kindle to read aloud the text of the book using a computerized voice. For sure the “voice” does not have the dulcet tones of a professional narrator, but for someone with sight impairment or just learning to read it could be a great help.

Perhaps my favorite feature is the “Notes and Highlight function.” As you are reading, if you want to capture a sentence or paragraph for future reference you can highlight the text and save it to a file that is appended to your copy of the book. The quotes are saved along with the page number where it appears. You can also type in your own notes or observations and save them. All remain with your copy of the book.

If you have material you have written that you would like to have readable on your Kindle, you can email it to your Kindle account and Amazon.com will translate your file to a readable file on the Kindle. The document is sent back you your Kindle the next time your synch it with your Amazon account. This service is free.

The folks who attended my presentation in Batesville found these tips helpful. I hope you will too.

Kindle Fire, A Game Changer?

2011-10-10T13:35:00.002-04:00

Most first year marketing students can relate the story attributed to a Black & Decker executive. He is said to have once lectured to his marketing staff that “We don’t sell electric drills, we sell holes.” Whether this exchange ever happened is irrelevant. What is important is the concept of understanding what you are selling and what the customer really wants.

The recent announcement by Amazon.com indicates that the company has taken the “drill / hole” analogy to heart. Amazon.com announced a new version of the very popular Kindle called the Kindle Fire. I have discussed the Kindle in this column several times since it was released more than two years ago. Up until this iteration of the device, the Kindle was essentially an eReader, arguably the best eReader on the market. It was not designed to do much else and the millions of users appreciated the simplicity and functionality.

The Kindle Fire, which will be available in November just in time for the holiday shopping season, is much more than a color version of the original. The Fire is a multimedia viewer/player. Not only can you read books, magazines and newspapers, you can also watch movies and your favorite TV programs.

Here is where the “drill” analogy comes in. The CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos used a Steve Jobs-like multimedia extravaganza to announce the Kindle Fire, but unlike Jobs when he announced the iPad, Bezos concentrated most of his remarks on the content that was available for the Kindle Fire not on the speed of the microprocessor or other techno facts.

Bezos and Amazon.com are counting on the fact that the customer is not in the market for a new digital device, they want to watch movies or TV shows and do it effortlessly and, more important, inexpensively. A look at the marketing materials on the Amzon.com website demonstrates this emphasis. Almost 95% of the page deals with content. Only at the very bottom of the page will you find information about the innards of the device. The official iPad web page is virtually void of any mention of what you can do with the iPad instead concentrating on the device specifications, i.e., color, wifi or 4G, 16 gig or 64 gig, etc.

Since the Kindle Fire will not be shipped until November it is too early to see if it will pose significant competition to Apple’s iPAd. The price of $199 vs. the iPad starting at about $500 will certainly make some take a close look at the Fire. The real competitive advantage that Amazon.com may have is the vast library of books, movies and TV shows they have available and the seamless and hassle free method of ordering and retrieving these materials with the Kindle Fire.

3D Still Slow To Take Off

2011-10-02T19:09:00.002-04:00

About a year ago looking through the advertising circulars inserted in the Sunday newspaper you might have come to the conclusion that you were the only person in the entire universe that did not own a 3D Digital TV. Touted as the next “must have” for your home theater, all the major brands were promoting the movie-like experience possible with 3D TV. Jumping ahead about a year, the landscape has changed a lot.

A cursory look at the most recent Sunday paper indicates that last year’s hot item is, at best, lukewarm this year. There are several possible reasons for this cool consumer acceptance, not the least of which is price. The average price of a standard 2D HDTV set
continues to drop. Today the average is about $500 and dropping fast as several models are available below $150. The prices of 3D sets also are dropping but, because most have very large screens, they are still much more expensive than standard 2D HDTVs.

More than the high price, the need to wear specials 3D glasses to experience the 3D effect is a big negative for many. The glasses are expensive, so inviting several good friends over to watch the “Lion King” may require a king’s pocketbook.

When 3D TV first launched in the US, several program providers promised to provide content on cable and satellite in 3D. This promise has yet to be realized. The transmission of 3D requires a different and more complicated set of transmission technologies. Companies don’t want to invest these extra funds if there is not a large base of viewers and viewers don’t want to invest in pricey 3D HDTVs if there is not a rich program catalog. Most 3D viewers use Blue-ray DVDs as their main source of content.

Things might change in the future, but investing the extra bucks in a 3D set may not be a good idea for most of us. Of course you can always visit the guy down the street who has just about every device connected by a wire or powered by a battery. Drop in and don’t forget to bring the chips and beer and let him provide the glasses.

Mobile Hot Spot Saves the Day

2011-09-25T20:09:00.001-04:00

Time was when a vacation meant severing connections with the work a day world for a week or two. Going to the beach or to the mountains was a chance to get away for a time without many of the modern conveniences that both make our life easier and more connected. For many, vacations have turned into a time when we are prone to multitask even more than we regularly do. We are on vacation. We enjoy the beach and fresh air. We change our daily schedule. But many of us also stay connected to our “day job” using mobile phones and laptops.

When searching for a vacation spot, albeit a campground or a five star hotel, the availability of high speed Internet access is often as important as a great view or proximity to attractions. My wife and I have been taking a week each year to join friends on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The seashore there is outstanding and the weather, other than for the occasional September hurricane, is beautiful.

For the past few years we have enjoyed having high speed Internet access where we were staying. I was able to keep up with office emails and appointments and still enjoy time in the sun. This year, partially because of the recent hurricane that hit portions of the islands, we stayed at a place that did not have a working Internet connection.

This would have put a real crimp in my plans for the week but my smart phone came to the rescue. My phone, like several other phones from various vendors and carriers, can be used as a Mobile Hot Spot. This feature makes my phone a wifi hub and connects any computer device with wifi capability to the Internet using the phone’s 3G or 4G mobile connection. In other words the phone works just like the wifi hub in your house or office, but instead of connecting to the Internet via an Internet Service Provider like RoadRunner or Fuse, it uses the mobile phone network, in my case Verizon.

The connection, dubbed by some providers as “myfi,” is not as fast as a regular wifi/broadband connection but the speed is more than adequate to access email and my office network. You sign on to the hot spot the same way you sign on to any wifi service at home or at the local coffee shop. You can password protect the access if you wish.

When using “myfi” you will notice that the mobile phone’s battery will only provide about one hour of service. It is a good idea to keep the battery charger connected to the phone when using the hot spot feature for longer than a few minutes. Also, some plans charge a premium for hot spot technology. You may want to ask your provider if it is included in your plan.

If you do a lot of traveling and need Internet connection, the mobile hot spot feature on your phone may be just the ticket.

Mirror, Mirror On the Car

2011-09-19T08:37:00.002-04:00

One of the first popular high tech wireless services available to drivers is OnStar. Using a combination of cellular and GPS technologies, OnStar has been around since 1995 beginning as a partnership between General Motors and Hughes Electronics. I am sure you have seen or heard one of the commercials showing an accident victim being soothed by an OnStar operator or a person faced with keys locked inside a running car gaining entry with the aid of a friendly OnStar representative. OnStar has garnered a solid reputation for providing superior customer service and ease of use. Up until now, since the system was a factory installed option and was integrated into the systems of the car, it has only been available for those with cars and trucks manufactured by General Motors. Beginning this year the service is being expanded as an after market option for most any car regardless of make and model.

Called OnStar FMV (OnStar For My Vehicle), this expanded product packs all the electronics into the body of a rear view mirror. This special mirror replaces the existing mirror in your car and is connected with a few small wires to your car’s innards. Once installed the customer has the choice of two levels of service as well as a mobile phone service, albeit expensive, in your car.

Once you check to make sure your car is compatible with the system by going to www.onstarfmv.com, you will need to purchase the OnStar Mirror with the initial price of $299.00. Installation charges will vary.

Two service plans are then available. The first, called “Safe & Sound,” has a monthly fee of $18.99 and provides assistance if you are in an accident or your car becomes disabled. The second plan, called “Direction & Connection,” provides added services like navigation assistance, dinner reservations, stolen car recovery assistance and more. It is pricier at almost $30.00 per month. You can also get telephone directory assistance and place calls from your car but the cost per minute is very expensive.

The one thing that sets all OnStar services apart is the customer assistance. There are real live human beings at the call center. While I have not used it myself, those who do use it report exceptional support and service. This might well be an example of getting what you are paying for since the first level of service will cost almost $500 even if you never push that OnStar button.

You will need to decide if you think it is worth it. It is a service that works, and works well. If peace of mind and worry free driving is a high priority for you, OnStar FMV is worth a look.

The Web Turns 20

2011-09-12T07:40:00.003-04:00

In the summer of 1991, Tim Berners-Lee, a scientist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research or CERN (the same group who just built the Super Collider) unveiled to his colleagues a system for organizing information on the Internet. He called his invention the World Wide Web. A few months later here in the US at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, the first graphical interface or web browser called Mosaic was unveiled. Over the twenty years since these announcements the World Wide Web has become integrated into just about every aspect of daily life. The web and browsers like Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox are used by pre-schoolers and Ph.D scholars alike.

It is hard for most of us to remember a world without the web. Just the other day I had occasion to use the web for a most mundane task but with results that are nothing short of mind boggling. My wife reported that our clothes dryer had stopped working and that she found a small piece of metal in the drum. I recognized the broken piece as part of the small spring-loaded safety switch that turns the dryer off when the door is opened. Loosening a couple of screws allowed me to remove the switch and the remaining portion of the broken piece of metal. In the past I would have spent a lot of time calling around to find this 50 cent part since I am way too cheap to call a repair person for such a simple fix. The problem was that I didn’t even know what to call it, let alone the part number.

After finding the model number of the dryer, I entered it into Google and sure enough, within seconds there appeared a diagram of my Whirlpool Dryer Model LE8650XWWO. After a quick review of the diagram I found the switch and the small piece of metal that was now identified as “Dryer Door Switch Actuator Spring/Lever – Part Number PS383733.” Right on that same page was the “Add to Shopping Cart” icon. So in a matter of a few minutes I found the part and ordered it sent via priority mail to my house. Even in the best of circumstances, before introduction of the web, I would have needed to spend hours just finding the part.

For sure my experience is not, as they say, “rocket science,” but that is exactly the point. The web has transformed how we shop, how we play, how we learn, how we work and even how we think. With information simple and sublime being added to our collective inventory of knowledge at an almost exponential rate, the only way we can hope to keep track of it all is with digital tools like the World Wide Web.

The web is not even old enough to order a cold beer but I bet you can find out how to make some in less than a minute.

There Isn't an App for Steve

2011-09-05T06:53:00.006-04:00

In these weekly columns I try to keep from editorializing and make sure the content is centered on all things digital. “Things” in this context have always been hardware, software or services. This week I am going to depart from that format and reflect on the recent announcement by Steve Jobs that he is stepping down as the CEO of Apple.

Anyone who knows me well will attest to the fact that I have very strong opinions about Steve Jobs and Apple. My biggest complaint is the high degree of control he and the company maintain over every aspect of any product or service they develop. Unlike many other high tech companies who manufacture hardware or develop software that can be used on many different digital platforms, Apple has always tried to either own or control all aspects of their product. There is no doubt that this control has sometimes resulted in superior products and legendary high quality customer support and loyalty. Some of this control is understandable, but some of it seems to smack of arrogance and a way to keep the customer tethered to the Apple cult.

For example, the battery in the iPhone can’t be replaced by anyone but the authorized Apple dealer. If you should replace it yourself, you void the warranty. Another control issue relates to Mr. Jobs and his refusal to accommodate “Flash” software in any of his new products. Oblivious to the fact that Adobe Flash is the format used by millions of video producers on the Internet, Jobs forces those with an iPad or iPhone to forego viewing Flash encoded videos or face violating one of the Apple commandments by installing the forbidden “jail break” software, again resulting in a non–supported warranty.

History is replete with people who have made significant positive contributions to society but were really not easy people to like. It is reported that Edison was a less then congenial fellow. It may be apocryphal, but Mussolini was said to have the trains running on time in Italy. (“Jobophiles” may find the last reference hard to take.)

Seriously, Jobs is sure to go down in history as one of the most significant persons in the Digital Age. Almost single handedly he developed products that have become the very standard in listening to music, making phone calls and interacting with the Internet. His products not only are well designed and well made, they are also intuitive to use. It is for the latter that he and Apple may be most appreciated. At a time when some high tech companies require the user to read incomprehensible manuals to operate simple devices like TV sets and phones, Apple products require little instruction. They work the way most non-geeks think they will.

It remains to be seen how a company that was so controlled by one person will fare when that leader is no longer at the helm. One thing is for sure, if Apple never introduces another new product, it will still remain a 21st Century icon.

Wideband...Broadband on Steroids

2011-08-29T08:09:00.002-04:00

There has been a flurry of advertisements on TV and print lately touting new higher speed access to the Internet. Cincinnati Bell offers a new fiber based system which is very good and robust and provides both very high speed Internet access and high definition TV service. They promise Internet speeds up to 100 mbps. Unfortunately, they do not yet provide this enhanced service throughout the region. Time Warner Cable has been pushing what they call Wideband. According to the ads, the new service can provide up to 50 mbps. To put this all in perspective, the regular turbo RoadRunner runs at about 3 mbps.

Time was when most of us only used the Internet to send and receive emails which, for the most part, were made up of text and, on occasion, a few pictures. This required very little bandwidth and many of us used our regular telephone lines to make the Internet connection. You may remember the term “dial up.” Today we use the Internet for tasks that were unheard of just a few years ago. Watching high definition video, making video calls to persons around the world and connecting our smart phones to the cloud all require a great amount of bandwidth. The big question is what speed is right for your situation.

Watching the new TV commercials for Time Warner’s Wideband can give the impression that we all need super high speed services. This may be a bit of a stretch and can also be very expensive. For sure, if you are going to use the Internet to download full length high definition TV programming, the higher speed is a good idea. A ten page text email uses less bandwidth to download than one second of HD video. The fact is that, so far, few use the Internet as the primary way of watching TV programs.

Some people are confused about the advertisements because they blur the lines between watching TV via the Internet and watching TV via digital cable. You need the Wideband speed only if you watch programming via the Internet from services like Hulu.com or Netflix.com. If you are a digital cable subscriber you don’t need Wideband to watch TV.

I find it interesting and somewhat disingenuous on the part of Time Warner with their commercials promoting Wideband. The ads show a family happily playing games and watching movies. All of these activities require Wideband band service. Then the commercial cuts to a graphic with large text, “Starting at only $29.99 a Month.” Of course, when you investigate further, you will find that Wideband is much more expensive and will cost as much as $99.99 per month. The $29.99 per month has fine print indicating this rate is for a 2 to 10 mbps service. The remaining 40 mbps will cost you a bit more. Caveat Emptor!

Don't Leave Home Without It!

2011-08-23T07:42:00.003-04:00

For years the holy grail of radio transmission has been to design a system that could transmit information across vast distances. Recently Visa and several mobile phone manufacturers have been perfecting a technology that is designed to transmit data over distances measured in inches not miles. Dubbed Near–Field Communication or NFC, this technology is being built into many high end smartphones and will allow the user to use the phone as an electronic wallet making purchases with a simple wave of their phone.

According to a press release from Visa, NFC technology passes encrypted information between devices at close range without contact. Instead of swiping a card, shoppers can wave their smartphone near a terminal, effectively turning an NFC enabled phone into a virtual debit or credit card.

Those traveling in Europe, especially the Scandinavian countries, may have already seen this technology in action as these countries have had wireless payment systems for several years. The technology has been slower to be adopted in the US due in part to a much larger population and a more fragmented mobile phone infrastructure.

Of course, the NFC equipped smart phone is only one part of the equation. For the system to be operational and commercially viable there must be a major retrofit of millions of point-of-purchase devices. Vending machines, parking meters, gas pumps and ATMs will need to be NFC equipped. Since many of these devices already are connected to the Internet, part of the task is complete.

As other major credit card companies embrace this new wireless transaction technology, more and more smartphone makers will incorporate NFC chips into the phones and more and more retailers will accept these ePayments. The major credit card providers will continue to support a range of cardholder verification methods, including signature and PIN methods. Chip payments are generally considered to be more secure resulting in a reduction in the payment processor's fraud costs.
So, in the not too distant future, the “Don’t leave home without it” slogan may refer to your phone not your Visacard. Oh wait…they are the same thing!

Kindle or iPad?

2011-08-14T20:49:00.002-04:00

Several people have asked if they should purchase a Kindle or an iPad. The question really can’t be answered until I ascertain what they plan to do with the device. If you are a regular reader of this column you know that I think that the Kindle is one of the best electronic devices to come around in many years. You also know that I have praised the iPad as one of the most innovative and user friendly digital devices ever.

Unlike the iPad which is essentially an electronic Swiss army knife, the Kindle does one thing and only one thing extremely well. It is in my opinion the best eReader on the market. Priced about $150, the Kindle from Amazon.com is a serious reader’s dream device. It is light weight and it has awesome battery life measured in weeks not hours. The crisp black and white display uses “eInk” technology that is easily viewed in bright sunlight. It can hold thousands of full length books and most any book in the world can be downloaded in seconds into the device. The Kindle comes with software that allows you to mark and save your favorite passages and even has a dictionary to assist with words that may not be familiar. For reading text the Kindle is a near perfect device. If you want to surf the web, read magazines, play games or write the next great novel, the Kindle should not be your choice.

The iPad does most everything a desktop or lap top computer can do but it does it more elegantly and always with the user in mind. You can surf the web with ease. Watching your favorite TV show or movie can be done with a few screen touches. The number of apps, or programs for the iPad, grows almost exponentially each month. The iPad, perhaps even more than its older siblings, the iPhone and iPod, has revolutionized how we use a computer.

The iPad does indeed have several eReader apps but does not in my opinion come close to the Kindle. First of all the iPad is larger and heavier and the battery life is measured in hours. The screen, while bright and sharp, can not be viewed in bright sunlight and because it is back lighted, reading for long stretches of time can cause eye fatigue. The iPad does do a better job of displaying magazine content that uses lots of illustrations, graphs, photographs and intricate design elements. Also, if the reading material contains links to web sites and other content on the Internet, the iPad is a better choice.

The bottom line is that the devices are really very different. If you want a great eReader you can’t beat the Kindle for price and utility. If you want a mobile high end computer, the iPad should be your choice. For me having both is the best choice. You can use a Swiss army knife for occasionally tightening a loose screw. If you plan to build a deck, you may wish to have a power screw driver.

Survivor’s Guide

2011-08-08T10:51:00.001-04:00

I was asked recently what technology skills and knowledge I felt were important for non-technical boomers to have in order to function in this increasingly complex and ever changing digital environment. Presuming that most of us will not be retreating to some desert island or isolated mountain top to live out our days, like it or not we will be faced with more and more technology incorporated into even the most mundane devices and activities. I am not sure that I can really give a list of skills that you may wish to develop but I can suggest some ways you can more safely navigates this new territory.

As much as we may fight it, our banks and merchants will continue to move almost exclusively toward an electronic payment system. For now it may continue to be based on plastic credit and debit cards but soon will include mobile phones and other digital wallets. It will be important to understand that these conveniences carry with them the need to be vigilant. While most of us would never leave a wallet or purse containing our money and credit cards on our desk or car seat, we may be much less concerned about our cell phone or lap top. Very often these devices contain our passwords and account numbers. Some miscreant can easily find them.

Speaking of passwords, a recent study found that more than 30% of mobile phone users never changed the default password for their mobile phone voice mail account if one was provided by the phone or service vender. These default passwords are well publicized and not changing yours is as bad as writing it on the back of the phone. While we are on the topic of passwords, using your kid’s name or your birth date for a password is also so prevalent that hackers try those first when trying to compromise your accounts.

Wifi hot spots are springing up all over. Gas stations, coffee shops, restaurants, libraries and the doctor’s office provide wireless Internet access. Using your smart phone or lap top to find directions, check the weather or the sports scores via public wifi hotspots is fine. Checking your bank balance or paying bills is not. These wifi networks can be hacked easily and everything you type can be intercepted by that sweet old lady sitting next to you.

Using these new digital tools will continue to get easier. Using them wisely and safely will continue to be more difficult.

They are Everywhere

2011-07-31T16:45:00.005-04:00

QR Bar Codes Are Showing Up Everywhere

They are showing up all over town. You find them in newspapers and magazines, on bus cards and in museums. You will see them on real estate signs and fast food menus. At first they may look like one of those Maze Games that you played with as a kid. In reality they are an extension of the bar code you may find on the box of cereal or loaf of bread as you run through the check out at the store. Called “QR” or “two dimensional codes,” these black and white printed labels made up of lines and boxes can hold much more information that the old bar codes consisting of only vertical lines of different thickness and placement.

The reason that they are becoming so prevalent is that they can be read by most smart phones and the information can be instantly translated into an Internet address leading to additional information and detail.

For example, using a QR code on a real estate sign provides a way for the potential buyer to see much more detail about a property of interest even when the agent is not there. Scanning the code on the sign can bring the prospective buyer to a video tour of the home, information about the neighborhood and any other detail that might promote further interest. All of this played back on the mobile phone while standing in front of the house.

Your walk through a museum or gallery can be enhanced if the displays and
artwork have corresponding QR codes. Scanning the codes as you walk through can provide added information. Even an audio or video presentation about the display can be presented to you on the phone’s screen. The same technology could be employed in cities and towns providing a running narrative of your walk through historic neighborhoods or buildings.

The CR code above can be scanned by a smart phone with an appropriate scanning app will take you to a page on Wikipedia. You don’t need to enter an address or any special codes. All you need do is scan and let the phone make the connection.

Your Age and Your Technology Linked

2011-07-17T19:27:00.001-04:00

A recent conversation with a young lady tending bar at a local eatery prompts this week’s missive. As I was waiting for a lunch companion, I was speaking with a friend about how Apple had just announced that more than 15 billion Apps had been downloaded from the iTunes Store since it began a few years ago. That is “Billion” with a “B” and works out to more than 2 Apps for every person now living on the earth. The conversation was overheard by the bar tender who chimed in that she used several apps to just watch TV.

As the conversation progressed she related that she does not own a radio or a TV set but is an avid watcher of TV and listens to radio stations a lot. She does it all on her computer or digital mobile device. The young lady looked to be in her late 20s and is representative of a sea change in how we will all someday consume media. More and more of us are forsaking the cable, satellite or broadcast platforms and relying on the Internet for not only YouTube short videos but full length TV shows and movies. Pandora.com allows us to have customized “radio stations” that fit our changing moods and tastes. Many Public and Commercial TV programs can be watched on line.

For certain, the older you are the more likely you may be wedded to the more traditional forms of Radio and TV but, as sure as the VHS Tape and Cassette Audio disappeared from our media landscape, more of us will be using on line platforms and less and less using the traditional modes of delivery. Just ask a thirty year old.

This change in consumer behaviour poses lots of questions and issues. How will we pay for the programming if commercials can be deleted and skipped? When will we fill up the available band width that wireless internet requires? Will these new platforms prove reliable in emergencies and bad weather?

Perhaps the same questions were asked about the telegraph when it replaced the pony express or the steam engine when it replaced the horse.

TV Commercials for Hearing Impaired Legit.

2011-07-11T08:00:00.001-04:00

I wrote about this a few years ago but the commercials on local TV are back offering telephones that display in text form the other end of a phone conversation so that those with profound hearing loss can make and receive phone calls. The ads indicate that the phones can be free. This is only one of several similar offers aimed at older adults and just like the free cell phones and free scooters, the offer is true but the description may be a bit incomplete.

In this case, a company called CapTel (www.capTel.com) markets a hard wired telephone that has a small LCD display. The phone uses the same wires and systems as any wired telephone and requires no additional fees to the telephone company. The phone is purchased from CapTel for about $100. The phone is only half of the required system. In order to display the captions, the incoming caller’s voice needs to be digitized for display on the phone. The CapTel phone does not do this.

What the advertisements don’t tell you is that when someone wants to call you and have their voice displayed on your phone in text, they need to go though a third party. Many states, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky included, have “relay” systems that provide this service. A person calling you dials a 800 number first and then, when prompted, enters your telephone number. The systems connects with your phone and displays the callers voice as text.

In most states, the service is free. It is in the case of our three neighboring states. Some individuals, depending on their income may be eligible for assistance in purchasing the phones as well. Information can be obtained in Ohio at (800) 973-4560 and in Indiana at (317) 334-1413.

This system should not be confused with the TTY services that have been around for years where special equipment on BOTH sides of the line allow two hearing impaired people to “talk” using text only. With the proliferation of mobile phones and text messaging, TTY is quickly becoming obsolete.

The CapTel systems work well but they are not as hassle free as the smiling elderly man on the TV commercial might indicate. You do need to let your friends and relatives know that they need to go though the 800 number if their conversation is to be translated into text. For those with significant hearing loss it is worth looking into.

If It Is Not Broke....

2011-07-03T20:30:00.002-04:00

Since the very first days of the World Wide Web, most of us have grown accustomed to the various web address conventions. The dot com, dot org and dot edu suffixes are as familiar to us using Internet as Area Codes are when making a phone call. Over and above the suffixes listed above there are some that are used to designate various countries of the world like dot us for the United States and dot uk for the United Kingdom. Other than the country suffixes there are currently only about twenty other suffixes used throughout the world. The three listed above are the most used but there are others other less known like dot mil for the military, dot gov for government and dot info for reference sites. That list may get much larger very soon.
Just a couple of weeks ago, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposal that will change web address conventions forever. ICANN is the Internet’s international body that is responsible for maintaining structure and order to Internet domain names for the millions of Internet address holders and billions of Internet users.
According to some experts, this is the biggest change to domain names since the creation of dot com 26 years ago. If these changes get implemented businesses will no longer be restricted to the list of generic top level domains which now include dot com and dot org when they apply to register a website address.
So a large company like Macy’s or Procter & Gamble might be able to change their web address from the current www.macys.com or www.pg.com to www.shop.macys or www.washwith.tide.
Companies wanting to take advantage of this new domain structure will find that it does not come inexpensively. ICANN will charge $185,000 per name and levy an annual fee to maintain the names.
I think this change is really an example to fixing something that is not broken and in many cases will be introducing a system that will be harder to use. Some websites already have very long names, but they most often make sense. For example, if you want information on the CSO concert at Music Hall you can go to www.cincinnatisymphony.org. With this new method of naming web sites it is anyone’s guess how long and how complicated they might get. If I had the bucks perhaps I could get a new web site. I would call it www.jackdominic.besuretoreadmygreatcolumnsintheharrisonpress. That should be easy to remember.

Chromebooks Offer Alternative to Labtops

2011-06-27T07:47:00.003-04:00

It is interesting to see how technology prognostications often take longer to come to reality than anyone ever thinks and sometimes they never do come to reality. Back in the dark ages of the personal computer, an executive with IBM was quoted as saying that the world would someday have very few real computers. His vision was that we would all have inexpensive devices that connected us to super computers. His ideas were dismissed by many pundits in the 1980s since the PC was putting awesome computer power on the desktop. When CD Rom discs came out offering inexpensive data storage, it was predicted that everyone would have vast libraries of information in there homes stored on these shinny plastic platters.

Skip ahead to the present. Last week the first of the Google Chromebooks hit the market. These machines that look like a regular lap top computer are the incarnation of the IBM executive’s vision. The have no hard drive, they don’t require Windows or Mac software and are not prone to viruses. They have very good battery life since they are essentially a keyboard, mouse and video screen connected via the Internet to large remote servers. They are the ultimate device for cloud computing.

Unlike a desktop or laptop computer, all of the programs and all of the data files are stored in the cloud. If you should loose your computer or it gets damaged, all of your documents, pictures, videos and music are still available since those files were never actually stored in your machine.

Tasks that once required Windows or Mac operating systems and various programs like Microsoft Office, now can be done using the software available free on the Google web site. Just like your data files, the programs are never really resident in your machine.

The major drawback of using a Chromebook comes if you should loose access to the Internet. Without that connection the Chromebook is nothing more than a three pound paper weight. It can do nothing. You can’t write a paper, look at pictures or play videos.

The folks at Google are betting that since most of us are already doing much of our computing on the Internet, these machines will prove to be more than adequate for the majority of regular users. They point out that most people use their computer to access email, search for information on Google or Wikipedia or watch videos on YouTube or Hulu. These and other similar tasks can be done very well on the Chromebook.

Chromebooks connect to the Internet using wifi or the various 3G or 4G networks. The first of the Chromebooks are being made by Acer and Samsung in partnership with Google. The price is about $500 but the prices should fall quickly as more manufacturers bring versions to market. At this writing they are only available at Best Buy or Amazon.com.

Party to Mostly Cloudy

2011-06-20T09:54:00.002-04:00

The recent announcement by Apple confirms that our computing future will soon go from partly to mostly cloudy. For more than a year now I have been discussing in this column the “cloud” and how it is changing the way we keep and use our digital stuff. If you missed earlier columns, cloud computing refers to storing our data, i.e. documents, photos, videos, music, all our digital stuff, on large servers in some remote location and connecting our computer, phone, iPad or other device via the Internet. Before the cloud, all of this stuff was stored in our devices.

There are many benefits to using the cloud. Since the remote servers are operated by large tech-savvy companies, they provide a level of back up well beyond what most of us have. Even if we do have the capability to back up our files, many of us just forget or put it off to tomorrow often with dire consequences. The cloud servers handle all of that for us.

Another benefit is that all of our materials are always available. Before the cloud, if I had a song on my MP3 player and wanted to play it on my laptop, the song needed to be stored on both devices. With the cloud, the song is available to any of my devices.

There is one aspect of the cloud that needs to be emphasized. You must be connected. You must have an Internet connection, either hard wired or wireless, to access your information. That being the case, important information that you may need in an emergency should be stored locally on a regular storage device as well. That way, if you do not have an Internet connection, that information is still available.

Apple is taking the cloud to new heights (sorry, I couldn’t resist) by essentially making the cloud invisible. In previous iterations of cloud computing, you needed to actively decide where you wanted your files to be stored. Apple is simplifying this process by developing applications that automatically store all files on the cloud. When you turn on your iPad or iPod or iPhone, the device knows that your stuff is on the cloud. When you create a document or take a picture or record a video, that material is stored there automatically. You don’t have to remember where you put it and you don’t have to “synch” your devices. They do it automatically. So that picture you took on your iPhone can be viewed on your laptop or iPod.

Apple’s endorsement and, more important, their skill at making the user experience intuitive and easy will advance the cloud concept. It will soon go from a novelty to the standard for storing and accessing all our digital stuff.

No iPad for me yet!

2011-06-13T07:52:00.001-04:00

I have been getting a lot of questions recently about the iPad. For those who may be living under a rock, by circumstance or by choice, the iPad is a product from Apple that is part computer, part smart phone, part eReader, part photo album, part TV set, part music player and perhaps one of the finest products to hit the consumer electronics market ever. It is embraced by the “technoratti” and novice alike. You will find them in the hands of teenagers and their grandparents.

While I do not own one, several of my friends and colleagues do and I have had the opportunity to see first hand that the iPad is a fantastic device. The interface (that is geek-speak for the controls) is a thing of beauty and very intuitive as is the case with most all Apple products. Even someone who has never turned on a computer will find that they can easily use the iPad with little or no instruction.

So why don’t I have one? The short answer is that I am bull headed and refuse to give in to Steve Jobs and his quest to force the “Apple Way” on the world. For those who have been around a while you might remember that in 1998 it was Jobs that built a computer without a floppy disk drive. For sure he was ahead of many others at the time. Some would call that innovative. But not having a floppy forced anyone buying the computer to do things Steve’s way or go out and get a non Apple approved disk drive so they could easily save and share files until the rest of the world jettisoned the floppy technology.

Skip ahead 13 years. The iPad with all its fantastic features cannot play video in the Adobe Flash format. For those who may not know, Adobe Flash formatted video is perhaps the most universal format in the world. According to Jobs, the Flash format is old, uses too many bits and bytes and as such the iPad does not accommodate Flash video. So if you have an iPad you are disenfranchised watching millions of videos because Steve doesn’t like Adobe Flash.
I know some people who bought an iPad and have learned on the Internet to “jail break” the device. This allows programs and features not approved by Apple to run on the device. Unlike Google's Android app store, Apple's iTunes App Store is tightly controlled offering only "approved" applications. But for “jail breakers” there are more applications immediately available, allowing greater control and freedom over the hardware purchased and own. Of course by installing the software you will void the iPad warranty and support.
OK, I’ve vented. I am sure that it will not be too long until I go to the Apple Store and pledge my allegiance to Steve. I may even pick up an iPhone.

The best laid schemes of mice and men

2011-06-06T07:44:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about my installation of a back up generator for our house. I thought I would give you an update on the project as it shows that things don’t always go as smoothly as we would like with all things technical.

If you didn’t read the earlier column, here is a summary. With all the wet weather this spring I was getting increasingly concerned that we may have an extended power failure and electrical power for my two sump pumps would be interrupted. Since they were running almost constantly this spring, such a failure would certainly result in a few inches of water in our basement. I decided to install a small generator to handle the sump pumps, some lights and the fridge. All went well. I got it installed, wired and tested. You will remember that I joked about it being “cheap insurance” since we would now never need it since we had it available.

I should have been tipped off that all would not go as planned on a day in early May when I went to work. It was bright and sunny. That alone should have been a cause of concern as this was certainly not the normal for our spring. While at work in downtown Cincinnati we lost all power to the building and the emergency generator there kicked on as designed but because of a problem in one of the circuits we still were without power to some of the critical equipment. That was an omen of things to come that evening.

In the early evening we were pummeled with a big storm and the winds downed some power lines in our neighborhood. Here was my big chance. I was ready. We started the generator, plugged in a few lights, lap top and a small TV. We were set. We were back on the grid. Mother Nature didn’t get the best of us.

My smugness was short lived as the generator sputtered and stopped. All was dark, no Steve Raleigh providing blow by blow storm reports (pardon the pun) on the TV, no computer and no lights. Only wet darkness. Well, that evening ended up being anything but ordinary as I had to restart the generator several times. Wet and muddy from going in and out of the house I finally gave up and, since the sumps were not filling rapidly, we went to bed waiting for morning light and hoping for Duke’s reconnection.

The next morning still “Dukeless,” the sumps were filled. I started the generator again just to pump out the water. Later that day power was restored. Subsequently I found I had a vapor lock on the fuel system that has now been fixed. I’ll find out for sure the next time. My pride may preclude any further discussion of this project.

FCC Reports US Lags Online

2011-05-30T07:26:00.002-04:00

For most of the past year the Federal Communications Commission has discussed our country’s lagging online infrastructure. According to a 2009 broadband survey (the most recent data available to the FCC), the United States ranked ninth in broadband access out of the 29 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation on a per capita basis. That same study showed that the US ranks 12th in terms of the pure percentage of households having broadband Internet access. This places us well behind the UK, South Korea, Iceland, and the Netherlands.

When you look closer you find that even those of us with high speed or broadband access have speeds that are very slow when compared to other countries. Olympia, Washington has our nation’s highest average download speeds of about 21 Mbps. I just checked my speed and find that right now my lap top on the kitchen table has about 4.5 Mbps. Paris and Berlin average about 35.8 Mbps. We have a long way to go.

High on the FCC’s priority list is wireless broadband access. Here again we trail other developed countries in wireless broadband adoption, ranking ninth, behind the likes of Ireland, Australia and Sweden. With many of us purchasing smart phones, iPads and other tablet computers, the wireless speed lag may get worse before it gets better.

Hard wired broadband access is admittedly more of a problem in a country the size of the United States. Unlike South Korea which would almost fit into the borders of Indiana, the US must span great distances with copper or fiber networks. A high rise apartment building in Seoul may well have more people than many small towns in the US. Delivering Internet floor by floor is easy compared to running circuits to homes spread out over several square miles.

The wireless challenge is even more difficult. Wireless internet beamed to your smart phone requires the use of radio waves and we are running out of space in the radio spectrum. These hand held devices can’t use just any old radio frequency. They must use frequencies that can penetrate walls of office buildings or be received in a moving car or train. Oh yes, we consumers don’t like to have those pesky little antennas protruding from our svelte iPhone. Can you hear me now?

The FCC is looking for frequencies that can be repurposed. One of the targets may be broadcast TV stations. The frequencies used by digital TV transmission use, for the most part, the UHF band. Discussion is taking place that may again change the over-the-air TV broadcast system in the US. This is only one option; there are a few others that might free up some spectrum space but as Scotty often responded to Captain Kirk, “I cannot change the laws of physics!”

The Internet Can Provide Rose Colored Glasses

2011-05-22T20:29:00.003-04:00

For an increasing number of us, the Internet is becoming our window on the world. Gone are the days when the nightly TV news or the morning newspaper served as our source of what is happening around town or around the world. It is not only late breaking news events that beckon us to our computer screens, iPads and smart phones. We look for recipes for chicken, instructions on fixing a faucet and the current weather forecast for the weekend getaway. In short, the Internet and search engines like Google and Bing have become our trusted advisor, our news source, and in so doing have gathered more information about us than perhaps any person in our life.

For many of us who use online retailers like Amazon.com, having suggestions for items that we might like to buy when we sign on to the service is nothing new. When you are first presented with these suggestions it is kind of cool. It makes the online experience feel like talking to an old friend who knows your likes and dislikes, your interests and avocations. It is comfortable.

There has been much discussion of late about this phenomenon. In his recently published book "The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You," Eli Pariser, details what companies are doing online to personalize your Internet experience. For sure this personalization is helpful when looking for some music or a new book to read. It can have some negative impacts if it also filters what you see and hear as news.

In order to be an informed citizen and make good knowledgeable choices in the voting booth, it is necessary that we get all points of view. If our Internet experience is filtering what we see and hear based on our current political bent we can be come insular to what is really happening in the world. This can happen on both sides of the political spectrum. If we only log on to Fox.com our perception of the world will reflect that point of view. Those who only reference only MSNBC.com will be equally under-informed.

Pariser suggests that there is a simple test you can do that demonstrates how your search results may be filtered based on what the search engine “thinks” you want to see. Do a search on some news item or person. Search for Barack Obama or Osama Bin Laden. Take note of the results and the order that they are displayed on your Bing or Google search. Now ask a friend to do the same thing. Compare the results. You might be amazed at the difference.

For sure the Internet allows you to save time and effort when you are shopping by giving you selections for what you are most interested in based on what you have purchased before. A suggestion for a new restaurant based on where you have gone in the past can be very helpful. When it comes to keeping up on local or national news and issues, there may be things that you might not want to know but need to know. There may be things you are missing. According to Pariser, instead of doing what great media does, which is push us out of our comfort zone at times and show us things that we wouldn't expect to like or wouldn't expect to want to see, some online services are showing us a very narrowly constructed zone of what they think is most relevant to us.

Cheap Insurance

2011-05-15T20:43:00.003-04:00

The tri-state monsoon season was the source of real anxiety for me. It was not only the incessant gray sky or the water levels in my front yard measured in feet that made me uneasy. I was really concerned that I could hear the two sump pumps in my basement cycling on almost every five or ten minutes. They were doing their job and our basement was as dry as the Sahara. My concern centered on the frequent power outages that we experience and how long would it take for the water level to rise if the pumps lost power. Since spring is also a time for storms and wind, I figured that it was only matter of time until Duke’s lines would fail.

Other than moving to Arizona, there are other solutions to my dilemma. There are battery powered sump pumps available. And there is always the bucket method of emptying the sump. The first is expensive and the second messy. I decided that I would solve the problem with the installation of a small back up generator. I had been thinking about this for years every time the lights fail, which if you have lived in my neighborhood you know is quite often. I remember in January that I found my self reading from my Kindle using a kerosene lamp. Abe Lincoln has nothing on me.

You can purchase large systems that will power your entire home in the event of a power outage. They cycle on automatically and can handle all of the appliances in your house including the furnace and AC. These must be installed by a qualified professional and are very expensive. I did not want to spend a lot of money; I wanted only to have enough power to handle the sump pumps, our fridge and some lights and perhaps TV.

I found a small gasoline generator at a local store. I placed it in a space outside under my deck away from all windows so that the sound of the engine or more important, the carbon monoxide, would not enter the house. Rather than wiring the generator into the existing wiring in my house which requires expensive switching gear, I ran some dedicated lines to specific areas of my house so I could easily plug in certain devices when the regular power failed. In essence I have a separate electrical system, albeit with much less capacity but enough for our needs.

In order to figure out what size generator you need, you must add up all the wattage required by the devices that will be connected to it. This is basic arithmetic. Be sure that you remember that devices with motors like sump pumps and refrigerators need extra wattage when they cycle on so you have to make sure that you factor that “surge” requirement into the required capacity. Generators usually have two ratings. One for continuous output and one for “surge” peaks. Once you come up with a number, add 15% to cover what you forgot or will add later.

This solution is not for everyone, but if you are handy and just want to have some lights, a cold drink and a dry basement when the power fails, you might want to consider it. It cost us about $300 for the entire installation. According to my wife, that is cheap insurance.

Cutting Ma Bell's Apron Strings

2011-05-09T06:32:00.001-04:00

As more and more of us are using our mobile phones not only for business and emergencies but for most all of our calling, many are questioning whether they also really need a land line from the phone company. Everyday, people are disconnecting the land lines to both save money and to simplify getting in touch with friends and family. After all, how many phone numbers and voice mail boxes do we really need?

If you are among those considering severing your tether to Ma Bell’s apron strings there are some great devices that will make it easier and convenient when you are at home or at the office.

Several companies offer devices that serve as a docking/charging station for your cell phone and allow all of the phones now connected to the regular phone company lines in your home to use the cell phone connection instead. When you come home for the evening you connect the cell phone to the docking station and when you receive a call or wish to place a call you use any of the hard wired or cordless phones already in your house. Your calls are routed through your cell phone telephone number.

There are several different versions offered by companies like Panasonic, Sony and AT&T. Some require an iPhone but most will accommodate any phone that has Bluetooth connectivity. They are priced from about $75 to as much as several hundred dollars.

Over and above convenience, there are other advantages to using the cell line for your regular line. Many mobile phone plans offer free long distance and special free “family” calling discounts. Also, I find that for long calls a standard telephone handset is more comfortable to use than the cigarette-size smartphone.

Most of these systems are not capable of sending or receiving faxes, so if you have a home office you may wish to keep a land line as well. Some of the devices, like models from Panasonic, allow you to have two lines connected: one cell phone line and one regular land line. You can choose what line to use.

Some more words of caution. If you decide to cut the cord, your calls to 911 may not allow the dispatcher to pin point your location so be sure to tell them the exact address when you call. Since you will be using your mobile phone more make certain you’re your mobile service plan allows for the extra minutes. Most plans offer “free evenings and weekends” and since that is when you are most likely to be home it shouldn’t be problem.

George Jetson Would Be Proud

2011-05-02T06:41:00.005-04:00

This spring season has been a real pain in the grass for many of us trying to keep our lawns from looking like ponds filled with swamp grass. Hardly two days pass without torrential downpours making cutting the grass almost impossible. The grass is green and tall and wet and defies our attempts at keeping it trimmed. So it was with more than passing interest I came across two new high tech offerings that could help address this challenge. In the name of full disclosure, I have to say that I have not tried either, and in light of the high price, most likely will not. Nevertheless, both have a high cool factor and used together would certainly identify the user as very high tech.

Following in the steps of the Roomba, the robotic home vacuum cleaner that is featured extensively on late night TV, the folks at Husqvarna USA are offering the Automower® solar Hybrid, a fully automatic lawn mower that is powered by the sun and rechargeable batteries. The mower finds its way around your yard unattended, cutting the grass as it travels.

According to company press releases, the product uses considerably less energy than any conventional mower. That's because, in addition to a charging station, it comes with a large integrated solar panel. When there is daylight available, the solar cells enable the mower to extend its cutting periods before it needs recharging. The company suggests that the mower is for lawns up to 1/2 acre.

Once you have the robotic mower you instruct it to get to work with the second product, an iPhone app that allows you to communicate with the mower. It can begin cutting your lawn even if you are away from home. So rather than speeding up I-74 from work to get the grass cut before the next downpour, you just send a text message to the mower. With any luck the text message to the mover will get better results than one sent to any teen who might be tasked with cutting your grass.

These digital marvels don’t come cheap. The mower will run you about $3000 and does require some set up so it can cut your grass and spare the shrubs and the flowers. Again, I have not used either of these products so I can’t vouch for how well they work, but you have to admit they do put you in mind of what George Jetson would have used if he didn’t live in the Skypad Apartments in Orbit City. Perhaps his super used one.

I Am Still Scratching My Head...

2011-04-25T08:10:00.002-04:00

What do you do if you have a consumer electronics product that is universally considered to be the best in its category? It is a product that is selling exceptionally well and has some new and innovative improvements ready to be announced. Most companies, especially in these less than robust economic times, would be happy and continue to take the cash from the brisk sales to the bank. If you are Cisco, the giant computer networking products company, you discontinue the product line. That’s right; Cisco announced that the Flip video camera will no longer be manufactured.

If you are a regular follower of my column you know that from the time the Flip was released a few years ago I have been a big cheerleader for the simplicity and utility of this cigarette pack sized video camera. After reviewing the statements from the Cisco suits, I remain convinced that for the vast majority of consumers, the Flip is still the best small video camera available, albeit only for a few more months.

There have been several competitors surface in this product category, but all of them seem to fail to understand why the Flip was such a great product. Companies like Kodak, Sony, Toshiba and others retained Flip’s small size but their engineers and designers could not resist adding more features. While the Flip essentially has one button, the competitors added other features that get in the way of the point and shoot simplicity of the Flip.

Cisco, in the announcement of the cancellation of the Flip, related that it was no longer a viable product because mobile phones had added video recording capability. That may be true but a simple test proved to me that they were misinformed about the practicality of using phones to capture spur of the moment events.

I have a smart phone that has video recording capability. If I want to make a video recording I have to go through six steps, all of them embedded in on-screen menus before I am actually recording. With the Flip there are two steps. I turn it on and press the red button.

Some would accuse me of being a modern day Luddite but I am not a big supporter of the Swiss Army knife approach to all things electronic. Adding features adds complexity and often gets in the way of ease of use. In a car you should not need to look at an on- screen menu to turn on the windshield wipers or heater. The remote control for your TV should not have more buttons that the space shuttle. Guess I am showing my age.

When Is a TV Not a TV?

2011-04-17T19:58:00.001-04:00

Late last month you may have received information from Time Warner Cable about a new service being offered to area subscribers. The service allows individuals who have an Apple iPad to watch some TV programs carried on the Time Warner system. The company and other cable TV companies around the country are offering a new App that uses your iPad and home wifi to connect with your cable. Once connected, the iPad serves as a portable TV and can be used anywhere in the house without wires or other special connections.

The service was praised by many media pundits who applauded the seamless merger of the computer and the TV. This convergence has been the “holy grail” of proponents of bringing the Internet and traditional TV to a variety of screens large and small, fixed and portable. iPad users too were happy to get a free app that made watching TV more convenient.

Not everyone was so happy. Faster than it took to download the new App several program service providers were yelling foul. Several cable networks like Discovery, Fox and Viacom argued that their programming was licensed to Time Warner for distribution to TV sets not streamed to computers. They demanded that Time Warner remove their programming from the list of offerings for iPad viewing.

Welcome to the new TV landscape where ultimately the definition of a TV set will be a critical factor in your ability to watch your favorite shows. As you may expect the brouhaha centers around money. The program distributors are concerned that if viewers watch their programming on any device other than a traditional TV they will not be counted in the Nielsen surveys and as such the advertising revenue may suffer. Nielsen has been struggling to compile reliable information about TV viewing as more and more of us are using computers, smart phones and other digital devices to view TV programs. The proliferation of non traditional non real time viewing has begun to fragment audiences and the future only promises to further change viewing patterns.

TV Program producers are scrambling to keep from repeating the revolution experienced by music producers and distributors. They wish to hold on to their business as usual lucrative industry. My bet is that they are swimming against the tide and just as online music distribution has made CDs as out of date as rotary phones, the blurring of the differences between the computer screen and TV screen will make the traditional TV programming business a much different enterprise moving toward a pay per view model from the current advertising supported industry.

Faster Not Always Better

2011-04-10T19:52:00.002-04:00

Social networking and instantaneous and continuous news reporting have become so much a part of the landscape that even the most insignificant and trivial happenings get reported worldwide as important breaking news. Be it the police chasing a DUI driver on a Hollywood freeway or a robbery of a McDonalds in Fargo, we see it live on TV and on the Internet. For sure there are important news items that we need to know in a timely manner, but the ease of worldwide instantaneous distribution has provided proof that the old adage “Engage Brain Before Opening Mouth.” is truer now than ever before.

In the past since, there was a delay from the time a story came to light and the time it was reported on air or in print, there was most often sufficient time for getting the facts. Today because of the ravenous appetite of the 24/7 news services there is pressure to release a story as quickly as possible and fill in the details later.

Just recently there was a news report circulating on the Internet that Samsung, a major electronics manufacturer, was installing on their new line of laptop computers a software program that captured and transmitted back to Samsung all of the keystrokes made on that machine by the user. This type of software has been used by hackers to gather personal information from unsuspecting users. The nefarious software usually gets into a computer that has weak or non existent virus protection. For Samsung to have been accused of installing this software in the computers they were manufacturing and selling was really news. It was really bad news for Samsung as spying on customers could be devastating and not really conducive for increasing sales or improving a corporate image.

This report made the rounds on the Internet and was picked up by many individuals and forwarded in tweets and Facebook postings. As the saying goes, “It went viral.” All of this took only minutes to circulate. Within hours Samsung released an explanation that the company had not installed this spyware and that it was a very popular virus scanning program from GFI, a company with no affiliation with Samsung, that was indicating a “false positive” warning. GFI admitted this error in short order.

In the past this story would have never been released in the first place as the explanation would have been available before the newspaper article was printed or the TV and Radio news report produced. Not so in the Internet age.

My G is Faster Than Your G!

2011-04-03T19:48:00.002-04:00

The battle wages on. On TV, in newspapers and magazines, and on bill boards on the interstate you can’t miss the ads touting 4G networks. If you believe all the claims by now you must feel that if you don’t have a 4G phone you are really missing out. What you are missing other than the letter at falls between “F” and “H” in our alphabet is less than clear. It might be interesting to know that the companies that tout the 4G networks really don’t know much more than you do.

Some history will help explain what all these “Gs” really mean. Back in the dark ages of mobile phones when the smallest of the available devices was briefcase-size, they used a network dubbed “1G.” The “G” stands for generation and this mobile phone network technology was the first generation. It was developed in the early 1980s and was fine for the analog devices in service at that time. It did require phones with protruding antennas.

The 1G networks were soon replaced by 2G, the first of the digital networks. With the number of mobile phone users exploding in the USA and around the world, the old analog system just could not handle the traffic. 2G systems could accommodate 50 or more simultaneous conversations on the same frequency and allowed for smaller phones with built in antennas. It was not, however, capable of efficiently handling data.

As more and more people wanted to be able to be connected while on the go, not only with voice but with email, the web, navigation services, and now social networking, the carriers like Verizon and AT&T needed a revolutionary upgrade and that resulted in the 3G network.

This brings us to the present and the 4G networks being touted by these same big carriers. The official definition of the capacities of the all the “Gs” is set by The International Telecommunication Union, the global wireless standards-setting organization. They have determined that 4G networks must be capable of download speeds of 100 megabits per second. In reality none of the carriers are achieving anything close to this speed. In most cases they provide speeds less than 50% of real 4G. For sure they have fast networks, but no cigar, no 4G.

Not to be deterred, the marketing gurus from many of carriers seem to have decided to collectively ignore the official definition and develop their own. Perhaps this is not a big issue when you are talking about bits and bytes. I do wonder what would happen if this trend carried over to BP or Shell. Could a gallon of gas be redefined by the gasoline companies as 14 ounces?

Meet TED

2011-03-27T20:31:00.002-04:00

Today’s digital world offers so many choices for getting news and entertainment. Not only is there is a seemingly endless number of cable and satellite TV channels, with about 80% of all US households having access to the Internet, the web provides even more options for spending our free time. There are social media sites that many of us visit more than we should. If you are Facebooked out or can’t read one more Tweet, and are looking for some outstanding content on the web, I would like to introduce you to TED. Don’t worry. I am not sending you to a weird dating service. TED is not a guy it is a web site that features videos and discussions that will challenge your brain. TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) began in 1984 as a conference sponsored by the Sapling Foundation. The foundation’s mission is to disseminate "ideas worth spreading.” The initial conference invited the very top minds in the fields of technology, entertainment and design to share ideas, discoveries and inventions. The conferences are still held but videos of the individual presentations are now made available free on the web. Today there are more than 700 videos and the subject matter has broadened. You can find presentations on religion, psychology, astronomy, education, medicine and many other subjects. The great thing about TED is that it invites very best and brightest. Right now you can watch Jane Goodall, Bill Gates, and several Nobel laureates. All you need is a computer and access to a broadband Internet connection. Point your browser to www.ted.com The presentations are very fast paced. TED asks each presenter not to exceed 18 minutes. Some make use of videos and graphics while others stay with a standard lecture format. Each presentation is translated into several languages. There are topics and opinions that will challenge you. All of them will make you think. I have watched several and each of them has been outstanding. You will find a new presentation posted about every day and all of them are archived and searchable by topic or presenter. Two of my favorites were just posted recently. One is a 5 minute presentation by volunteer firefighter Mark Bezos. He tells a story of an act of heroism that didn't go quite as expected -- but that taught him a big lesson: Don't wait to be a hero. In five short minutes he captures the essence of what it means to give back to your community. Perhaps the most jaw dropping talk was by Surgeon Anthony Atala who demonstrated an early-stage experiment that could someday solve the organ-donor problem: a 3D printer that uses living cells to output a transplantable kidney. Using similar technology, Dr. Atala’s young patient Luke Massella received an engineered bladder 10 years ago; we meet him onstage. The next time you find that the 500 channel cable universe offers little to watch or your Twitter account less than stimulating, spend some time with Ted. It will be time well spent.

Print vs. Online a Non Issue

2011-03-20T20:40:00.001-04:00

It is good to see the Harrison Press providing more and more content on line. For sure this is where many of us will eventually look to find our news and views rather than from the traditional printed versions. If you are reading this column in the print edition of the Harrison Press you are already part of a shrinking minority of hard copy newspaper readers. It is true that the weekly or community newspapers seem to have been able to hold on to more print subscribers than their big brother daily counterparts but the trends indicate that this phenomenon will be short lived.

Some may lament the passing of the newsprint method of reporting the happenings of daily life. For many of us who grew up reading the newspaper, there certainly is a pleasant tactile response that we have while holding in our hands a newspaper or book. Whether that response is innate or learned is debatable.

Observing our younger generation can give us some hints on what the future holds not only for the printed word but for all media. Ask almost anyone under 35 if they regularly read a printed newspaper or watch TV programs in real time on the broadcast TV or on the cable/satellite channels. More often than not the answer will be no. It is not that they are not interested in current events and are unaware of what is happening around their town or the world. For sure they do enjoy entertainment. In most instances they are informed and conversant. They just get their information and entertainment in different ways.

Instead of half asleep saunter down the driveway before the first cup of morning coffee to retrieve the print edition of the newspaper, the “30 somethings” log on to a news web site or check Twitter and Facebook. Often the content on these sites are provided by the very newspapers they eschew. The Enquirer has Cincinnati.com and most premiere newspapers like the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal have very popular online editions. I read both on my computer and smart phone. The Kindle and other eReaders offer electronic versions of several daily newspapers.

For breaking news a printed newspaper can’t compete with an electronic edition. It was almost 24 hours after it happened that the printed edition of the Cincinnati Enquirer was able to report on the recent devastating earthquake in Japan. By then most people had consumed hours of video reports and analysis. Much was from the web.

It is not only the newspaper industry that is undergoing change. TV, both broadcast and cable are losing viewers to video services provided on the Internet. There is an increasing amount of first run programming available on line and on demand. “Appointment” viewing, that is watching a program when it is broadcast, is becoming less and less prevalent among all age groups. Among the 25 to 35 year old demographic regular TV viewing is the exception rather than the rule.

Some worry about these trends. Others, me included, feel that we should not concentrate on how we get information and entertainment as much as the quality and reliability of the information and entertainment we get.

Home Automation Worth Another Look

2011-03-12T08:25:00.001-05:00

I am not sure if it is because of the heart-stopping Duke Energy bills that many of us have been recently receiving or just a desire to be more “green,” but I have had several people ask me about home automation systems. Like so many questions of this ilk, the answer requires some background.

In the simplest form, home automation systems consist of three major components: a controller, various sensors and switches. With these components most everything in the house can be controlled remotely. You can use your home computer, your computer at work or your smart phone to set the thermostat, turn on lights, turn on the oven or open the front door. These systems have been very common in office buildings and other commercial building for years as they can save a ton of energy.

For example, if you are single and travel a lot on business you might install a system that allows you to control your heat and your hot water heater. You leave on Monday for a week-long business trip. Before you leave you set the heat to 50 degrees or so and turn off the hot water heater. Before you get on the plane at LAX for your return flight you can “call” your automation system and raise the temperature to 68 degrees and turn on the hot water. Six hours later you arrive at a warm house and can immediately take a hot shower. During the week, while you were absent, you were not wasting all that energy keeping your home warm and cozy and the water ready for that hot shower.

There are all kinds of home automation systems. The simplest is the programmable thermostat that many of us already have. While most can’t be remotely accessed, they do save energy and money. A system to handle the business trip scenario is more complex and does not come cheap.

Most new systems are wireless so the controls for the lights, furnace, hot water heater etc. do not need to be hard-wired. You do need to replace electrical outlets, switches, thermostats and any other device you want to have remote control over. Plan to pay about $35 for a regular light switch and about $100 for a switch to control a stove, oven or hot water heater.

You will also need to purchase a master controller. This device is either a stand-alone special purpose computer or a peripheral device that is attached to your home computer and the Internet. The controller sends signals to all the devices you control remotely. The higher the number of devices it can access, the more expensive it will be. You should plan on a minimum of about $250 for an entry level model.

The good news is that installation can be done by most anyone who is handy and able to replace a regular light switch or wall receptacle. You may need an electrician to handle the hot water tank module since you are dealing with higher voltages.

The good news is that you can start with controlling only a few energy hungry devices and add more as your budget and needs change. And there is always the “Wow Factor”

Skype Worth a Second Look

2011-03-06T21:11:00.002-05:00

There have been so many revolutionary changes in technology that it is difficult to keep up. How we watch TV, plan a trip, conduct our banking or shop for everything from books to broccoli … all have changed. Many of our most mundane daily tasks are now heavily dependent on technology. Even making a phone call has changed. I’m sure many can remember when making a long distance call, especially to a foreign country, was an expensive proposition. No longer is this the case.

Recently, my globe trotting wife had some teaching gigs in Australia requiring her to be “down under” for several weeks. This is the second time that she has been there, traveling around the country teaching various fiber techniques. The last time she was gone for almost two months. I remember that we talked on the phone every few days but always tried to keep the calls short because they were expensive. This time not only do we talk sometimes twice a day, but the calls are video calls and they are free.

We are using Skype. I have discussed this service in this column before and many of you may already use Skype to keep track of your kids or grandkids. So if you already know about it you can quit reading.

Skype is an Internet based communications program that allows you to use your computer and the Internet to communicate with others on the Skype network or to make calls to regular land lines or mobile phones anywhere in the world. If you are contacting someone who has a Skype account there is no charge for the call. If you are using Skype to call a regular telephone number there is a charge albeit much less than traditional international long distance rates.

Judy and I are using the free service which allows us to make video calls. Judy has a
small netbook computer with a camera built in and my computers at home and at work also are outfitted with small web cams. All of these computers have the free Skype program loaded.

Making a call is as easy as clicking on the person’s name in your Skype directory. For Judy and me we just needed to get used to the time difference. When I was just beginning my day in Cincinnati, Judy was going to sleep in Tasmania and it was the next day.

Signing up for Skype is easy. Just go to www.skype.com and follow the directions. You will need a high speed Internet connection, a PC or Mac of most any flavor, a web cam if you want to make video calls. If you wish to make only voice calls all you need is a microphone either connected to your computer or built in to your lap top.

Skype has been around for many years and millions of people worldwide use it daily to
stay in touch. It is worth a look.

Tax Prep Help

2011-02-28T07:55:00.003-05:00

Even though you may not have received mail from your favorite uncle this year, he is expecting you to send your annual contribution to his bank account no later than April 18th. In recognition of the fact that many of us don’t use the printed tax forms that have traditionally been mailed to all wage earners, the IRS is saving money and not sending them unless requested. More and more of us either use professional tax preparers or have embraced computer software. There are several options and some of them are actually free.

The two most widely used commercially available tax preparation software packages are TurboTax from Intuit and TaxCut from H&R Block. I have used both and find them almost identical in function and ease of use. Both come in various “flavors” from versions that assist in preparing simple returns to versions that walk you though filing for a small business or a Chapter S corporation. Most include a module for filing state returns as well. Be sure to get a version that allows free E-filing for both federal and state returns.

Be prepared to spend from $50 to $100 for the software. The more features and more complex the return, the higher the price. Office supply stores like Staples and OfficeMax stock the products and, of course, you can get them on line and download a copy directly to your computer.

There are several other options available on line. Some are free and others very inexpensive. With so many offers on the web you must shop carefully. A Google search will provide hundreds of “official” IRS Tax Assistance Sites. Closer scrutiny will show that most have no relation to the IRS. Look for web sites that have a “.gov” suffix on the web address rather that a “.com” as the latter indicates a for-profit company.

If your income is $58,000 or less, the IRS has some free software that might be good to check out. It is called Free File. It's available only through IRS.gov. Some 20 tax software companies have made their products available for free. Some also support state tax returns for free. Since the IRS has checked these offers out, you can feel safe using them. You will find the software offer at www.IRS.gov.

There is no paucity of companies and services that want to do you taxes. I have seen ads on TV for car dealerships offering to do your taxes if you use your tax refund to buy a car. Furniture stores, too, will be happy to help you get your refund faster if you will spend it with them. If you shop wisely, you will find lots of good tools on the web. They might not make filing your return enjoyable, but they will make it less of a hassle.

Kindle - Even Better Than I Thought

2011-02-21T08:15:00.002-05:00

A few weeks back Amazon.com announced that they were now selling more eBooks than all hardback and paperback versions combined. It was only about a year ago that they announced that eBook sales had surpassed the Amazon hardback sales. This meteoric spike in sales is due in large part to the sale of eBook readers. The Kindle from Amazon, as well as others like the Nook and the Sony Reader, are some of the most popular new digital must-haves. The iPad and other tablet computers can be used as eBook readers as can many smart phones.

My thoughtful wife placed a Kindle under the tree for me on Christmas morning and I have not put it down since. It is one of the most user friendly and well designed digital devices I have ever used. Part of the reason is that it is designed for one thing and one thing alone and that is to read eBooks.

The version I have is about the size of a paperback book but much thinner, less than ½ inch. It weighs only a few ounces. The display uses eInk rather than the traditional LCD screens found on the iPad, most laptop computers and smart phones. An eInk page looks just like a printed page and can be read in bright sunlight. The only down side is that it can’t be read in the dark. My aging eyes appreciate not reading from the bright back-lighted computer screen. eInk also is the secret behind the battery life of several weeks between charging.

Searching for and downloading a book is quick and intuitive. When you first turn it on, the Kindle takes you through a simple set up. If you already have an account with Amazon.com it links that information to your Kindle account. It took me less than five minutes to set it up and download my first book, Autobiography of Mark Twain. While I have not tried this, Amazon claims that the device can hold as many as 3000 or more books.

Purchasing a book is a breeze. The Kindle has a menu item called “Shop in Kindle Store.” The Kindle connects to Amazon either through a WiFi or 3G service. From there you can search by title, author or genre just like the regular Amazon.com online store. Once you find the book, pressing “Buy” is all you need do. The book is downloaded to the Kindle, in most cases in about 30 seconds, and your Amazon account is billed. You will get an email verifying the purchase. So in less than a minute you can have most any book in publication in your hands.

When you buy a book it is downloaded into you Kindle but is also available for free downloading in the future in case your device malfunctions or you exceed the 3000 book internal capacity. Most eBooks from Amazon are $9.00 or less. Books out of copyright are free.

For the avid reader, the Kindle is an exceptional digital device. It is inexpensive, well designed and it works.

Social Media & Internet Serious Players

2011-02-13T19:22:00.003-05:00

If you read this column regularly you know that I often take issue with new gadgets or technologies that seem to spring more from the fertile minds of engineers and computer programmers than from real needs of regular human beings. The current situation in Egypt, Tunisia and some other mid-eastern countries has demonstrated clearly that the technologies that many of us might use for some trivial pursuits in our daily lives are helping to change the geopolitical landscape.

Social networking, webcams and mobile phones have enabled direct and almost instantaneous communication among political activists. These same technologies have opened a window from which the world can watch what was happening in real time in public squares and streets from Alexandria to Tunis. Of course the major news operations, CNN, BBC and others, had people on the ground reporting with their “Special Reports.” Their network’s promo announcements looked more like ads for a new car than for a news report of worldwide significance. The real story was not originating from the major media; in many cases it was the mobile phone video or the Facebook and Twitter exchanges that gave us the real picture.

Early on it was interesting to see how those in charge were quick to try to shut down the Internet and mobile phone networks. With the proliferation of satellite phones and other long range technologies, this was futile. The days of any real control of the distribution of information are gone. Since banking, utility networks, and even traffic lights and emergency services in any modern city all require the Internet, turning it off for any length of time is not an option. Blocking certain services like Facebook and Twitter are also futile as a high school age hacker will soon navigate around these blocks.

This “brave new world” of instantaneous communication does not come without a serious negative. Seeing should not always be believing. Digital manipulation of images and video can be done on a laptop in seconds and transmitted to the world as “truth.”

We should not be too quick to embrace as the “whole truth” information coming directly from the citizen journalists on the streets of Cairo without also reviewing the more traditional reporting. I for one would like to have the critical eyes of trusted media along with the unfiltered steams of Twitter and Facebook.

Where Did My Channels Go?

2011-02-07T07:49:00.001-05:00

Now that we all have converted to the digital broadcast TV system in the US either by subscribing to a cable or satellite service or by purchasing a digital TV or converter, all should be well with the video world. Well, not quite yet. There are still a few bugs in the system. Let me try to give you some hints on solving two of the most prevalent issues.

Hardly a week passes that someone doesn’t ask me about disappearing TV channels. This is a problem experienced by individuals receiving broadcast TV using an antenna. The story usually goes something like this. “I was watching (fill in your favorite channel here) last night. When I turned on the TV today, the channel was gone and I got a message on the screen saying ‘no signal.’”

A digital TV must have stored in its memory certain technical information about each of the broadcast channels it receives. This information is loaded the first time you plug in the TV set and go through the set up process. This information is supposed to remain in the TV’s memory forever, but this does not always happen. On some TVs, the loss of electrical power will erase the memory. On other models, pressing a certain combination of buttons on the remote will erase the memory. Still other TVs seem to have a mind of their own and just drop one or more channels from memory for no apparent reason.

If you were receiving a channel one day and it is gone the next,, the fix is easy. You only need to do a channel rescan. If you still have your TV’s owner’s manual you will find directions. If not, just go to the on-screen menu and look for the “adding channels” or “scanning for channels” function. Even if you only lost one channel, I recommend doing a complete re-scan. If all else fails, bake some cookies and call a teenager to help.

For those of us with cable, many experience intermittent audio synch, or lip synch problems. When this happens it can be painful to watch a show. While there are several reasons that you might experience this problem, they are too complicated to go into here. Nevertheless there is an easy fix. I have found that on certain cable set top boxes, powering the boxes down, i.e., turning them off for 10 seconds, rather than unplugging them, will fix the problem. This will also work for some digital TV sets not connected to a cable set top box.

There is no doubt that the sound and pictures on today’s digital flat screen TVs have never been better. Nevertheless, there remain a few bugs that can be really irritating. I hope this helps. Keep the questions coming.

E-Money Coming To A Phone Near You

2011-01-30T18:57:00.003-05:00

Many of us are getting extremely dependent on our mobile phones. Not only do we rely on them to store our appointments and meetings, we use the phones to navigate to those meetings. In route we can check the weather, our stock portfolio, update our “Facebook” page and see how the Bengals are doing in the fourth quarter. Oh yes, we can also call ahead and tell the person we are meeting that we have been so busy doing all of the above that we will be a little late for the meeting! Smart phones have become the “Swiss Army Knife” of the digital age.

Well, get ready for the next “killer app” and this one will perhaps be one of the most revolutionary. Mobile Banking has been available for years in Japan and in several other countries around the world. It has been especially embraced in many developing countries where the brick and mortar banking industry has yet to take root for the general public. These counties, like Kenya, do have very robust mobile telephone networks. Up until now, in the United States the concept of using your cell phone to transfer money, pay bills and make retail purchases has not been embraced. That is changing and changing fast.

Recently, Fifth Third Bank announced that it was launching “CashEdge” in mid 2011. According to press releases from Fifth Third Bank, “CashEdge” is an email and mobile person-to-person payment service. It will allow bank customers to send money from their mobile device, by using a recipient's email, mobile number or bank account information.

Other banks have announced services that will turn your mobile phone into a digital wallet. Instead of swiping that credit card at Biggs, just press “send” on the phone and the money is transferred. Your kid away at college needs a few bucks for pizza? No worries, just email him $20. Or Not!

Of course the money is not actually stored in your phone for some miscreant to remove from your purse, the funds are in your bank account, or in the “cloud” as we now say. Sure hope it doesn’t start raining.

High Tech Snake Oil Abounds

2011-01-23T16:15:00.004-05:00

From the very first time one person sold something to another person there have been those who have tried, and succeeded, to take advantage of the buyer. The snake oil purveyors of the old west are alive and well in the digital age. This week we will look at three very popular items being sold on line and in the big box electronics stores. All three are low tech. All three are used by millions of consumers. And, all three are obscenely over-priced.

With the popularity of Blue Ray DVD players and high tech gaming systems growing, many of us need cables to connect these devices to our large flat screen TVs. These connections often require HDMI cables. HDMI cables are made up of multiple wires and special connectors at each end. These simple high tech extension cords often come with a big price. It is not uncommon for a 6 foot cable to cost more than $35. If you want one with gold plated connectors the price can reach $75 or more.

The sales person will give you the often rehearsed spiel, “You know, you just spent $1500 on this great XYZ 3-D Plasma 5.1 Dolby enhanced TV, for sure you want the best connections to your DVD player or cable box, don’t you?” The only problem with this suggestion is that there is no perceivable difference between the results you will get with a $5 HDMI cable than the one that cost $75. Go with the $5 cable.

Since the paperless society promised by the computer age is still not quite here, many of us continue to print documents and photos on paper. This brings us to another high tech rip off, the ink cartridge. It is not uncommon to be able to purchase a new ink jet printer for less money than it will cost to replace the ink cartridges about four times. This marketing strategy is akin to the “Gillette” philosophy dating back decades. You “give” the razors away for pennies and then charge a king’s ransom for the blades. From what I have found there is no reason for the ink to cost as much as it does.

Our final rip off is really hard to even see. In fact it is transparent. Most smart phones, hand held games and e-readers have touch screens. It is highly recommended that you use clear plastic protectors on these screens to prevent scratching. Most of these devices come with one but they do get dirty and develop bubbles and need to be replaced. What a surprise you will have when you go to the store and find that the little piece of clear plastic measuring about 1.5 x 3 inches has a price tag of $5 or more. Even online it is hard to find discounts for these screen protectors.

There are truly some extraordinary electronic devices on the market and the prices seem to be dropping for many of them. Nevertheless, snake oil is also available in abundance and it ain’t cheap.

How Quickly Things Change

2011-01-16T18:45:00.002-05:00

Recently there was a very cute and interesting video being circulated on the Internet. The video featured a group of young kids from Canada trying to identify various electronic items from the past. Now, we are not talking about Mr. Edison’s wax recording cylinders here. These items were from the 1990s. After watching the video I was struck with how fast things continue to change in the consumer electronics market.

One only needs to look at reports out of the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to see first hand evidence of this phenomenon. CES is the annual event where all the new high tech gizmos are announced to the retailers and the public. This year there were several items announced that demonstrate how quickly things can change.

Remember HD TV? Perhaps you bought one last year for the first time. The new screen was different from the one you had for the last 50 years. It was wider. In fact it is what we call a 16 x 9 aspect ratio screen. That means for every 16 inches in width the screen is 9 inches high. This format mimicked movie screens. Well, not really. The CES is now showing 21 x 9 sets that really are closer to the movie experience. Oh yes, many of them will also be 3D.

Speaking of TVs, one of the most often heard complaints I hear about home electronics seems to center around the number and complexity of the TV remote controls found in living rooms all over. There is a desire to have a single button that will allow you to turn on the TV and watch a program. Over the years I have suggested several universal remotes that could intuitively communicate with your TV, DVD, cable box, and audio receiver. Well, stop the presses! (Wow, that is sure an old figure of speech that makes no sense in today’s world.) The new remotes announced at CES have added a few features like a small QWERTY keyboard and mouse to accommodate the new Internet- connected TVs. So rather than simplifying your living room TV experience, we will have a few more remote control features to learn.

So, we have high speed Internet access in your car (and you thought texting while driving was an issue), Judge Judy on your cell phone and personal Tasers now offered in designer colors. These are just a few of the new offerings at CES this year. Ten years from now if we show these devices to some 6 year olds, will they recognize them? Stay tuned! (Another figure of speech that makes no sense now!)

TV Watching Getting More Complicated

2011-01-10T08:19:00.003-05:00

The line separating traditional TV from TV watching on the Internet is getting more blurry as we begin a new year. More of us have given up finding a good flick at the video store. In fact, it is harder and harder to even find a video store. The selection of DVDs in those little red kiosks is pretty lame. We don’t seem to find anything to watch from cable or satellite providers and good TV programs have almost disappeared from broadcast TV.

The Internet is becoming a major source of movies and other video TV programming; with this change comes a bevy of new devices that merge our TVs with the Internet. For the past year of so, Internet-ready flat screen TVs have been promoted by the major brands. Sony, Samsung and others have HD sets that not only can receive over the air broadcasts and cable, but can also connect directly to Internet services like Amazon Video, NetFlix, Hulu, Major League Baseball and the NFL. You don’t need a computer since the TV has a special Internet browser built in that allows you to connect with these services.

Google, a company that is finding its way into most every facet of our business and leisure lives has partnered with Sony to launch GoogleTV. If you already have a gaming system like the Wii, XBOX 360 or a PS3 you can use these devices to connect with Internet video sites and watch programs on the TV connected to the gaming console. Many Blue Ray DVD players have circuitry that allows you to connect to these online services.

There are also specialized devices that you can purchase that serve as a gateway to most all video content on the Internet. One of the most recent to hit the market is called Ruku. It requires a device which is about the size of your kid’s math textbook, allowing you to search for content across many Internet TV distributors and watch it on any TV you choose to connect to. There are standard definition models as well as full High Definition models.

These services and equipment are not free. The Ruko box runs about $60 to $100, plus you need to subscribe to one or more of the Internet TV services. Google TV and Hulu Plus cost about $8 a month and NetFlix online has several different subscription plans. In order to use the service you must also have a robust high speed Internet connection like Time Warner’s Road Runner or Cincinnati Bell’s Fuse.

Look for more and more devices that will continue to blur the line between broadcast and Internet TV. And you thought that 500 cable channels were too hard to keep track of!

Looking Ahead

2011-01-02T21:35:00.001-05:00

As has been my custom for the last few years, I am going to take a look into the year ahead and highlight what I feel will be some major developments in the digital world. My track record of being correct is running at about 75%. My confidence level for the predictions for 2011 is about at that level.

The New Year will be increasingly cloudy. Jim Cantore and his Weather Channel colleagues can rest easy since these clouds will not be meteorological but digital. Look for more and more of our information, both public and personal, to be stored on and retrieved from large centrally located cloud servers. Our personal calendars, contact lists, correspondence, medical history, entertainment and embarrassing party videos will reside not on our personal computer’s hard drive, but on drives shared by our neighbors.

You need only drive down to New Haven Road to see first hand evidence of changes in the way we will obtain movies for viewing at home. Hollywood Video has been closed for several months. Blockbuster has announced the immediate closing of several hundred stores in the US and Canada and more are predicted to be shuttered. The closings have little to do with any decrease in our collective appetite for watching movies. In fact, Nielsen will tell you that we are spending more time watching movies and DVR programming than ever. The change will be in the way we access the titles.

2011 will see the continued expansion of Internet bandwidth allowing for more of us to easily download full length HD movies to our computer or Internet-ready flat screen TV. Companies like Blockbuster and Netflix will move away from the old distribution model of handling hard copies of DVDs. Finding a Blockbuster store or kiosk will be akin to searching for a phone booth and Netflix’s use of the post office will conjure thoughts of the pony express.

The cloud will provide for more powerful and useful wireless devices. The smart phone has already morphed into a powerful computer; book stores and libraries will continue to embrace the eReader phenomenon. After almost ten years of commercial success in Europe and the Far East, look for your mobile phone to serve as an electronic wallet. Press a code on your phone and your meal at Market Street Grille is paid for complete with tip.

Look for more newspapers and magazines to make the transition from paper and ink to emedia. Full editions will be available on a variety of platforms like the iPad and various types of eReaders.

On the hardware side, I look for 3D TVs to continue to move slowly off retailer’s shelves. 3D games however will grow in popularity as they allow for a more realistic personal connection to the action on the screen.

Year End Lament

2010-12-26T20:15:00.005-05:00

…with sincere apologies to "Auld Lang Syne"

Should smart phones be your pick next year
and cords at home unplugged.
Should Apple products be your choice
and the Android phone debugged.

CHORUS:

For Sprint, Verizon, Bell, my dear,
for all but A T and T,
We'll wait another calendar year
till they offer new 4 G.

Should Bill and Steve become good friends
as if they were in heaven,
We’ll see the i-Phone running apps
on devices with Windows 7.

CHORUS

And should you want to read a book
no store trip is required.
You’ll read from Sony, Kindle and Nook;
all of them will be unwired.

CHORUS

So may your Facebook friends increase
and follow you on Twitter.
Go try a few new apps a week
so you won’t look like a quitter.

CHORUS

Thus as we end another year
We are sad and we will wail.
Take heart and have no fear for
more stuff will come in G-mail.

More Gift Ideas

2010-12-20T08:21:00.001-05:00

Last week I suggested a few hot items for gift giving. Not all electronic gifts are as expensive as flat screen TVs or eReaders. This week I have some ideas for gifts that will delight that special person on your list without breaking your budget.

Let’s start with an item I suggested last year. Based on comments I received it was a big hit. It is a gift that will be appreciated by your grandparents or your favorite aunt or uncle who may live far away. How about giving them an electronic picture frame? These frames come in various sizes from as small as 3” x 5” to as large as 11” x 17”. Essentially they consist of an LCD screen and an internal electronics that can store hundreds of digital pictures. These pictures can be displayed in several ways. You can set the frame to change the display of a different picture each minute or each day. Many will play short videos as well. Most look like traditional frames and can blend in with most any decor.

Rather than just sending the frame, take the time to load some of your family pictures that you shot over the past year. That way when it is plugged in, it will already be a very special gift. After all, your grandparents really don’t want the picture frame; they want to see pictures of your family. Each day, for years to come the frame will continue to keep giving. Most use small SD cards to store the photos. During the year you can mail some inexpensive SD cards already filled with Johnny’s tee ball game and they can enjoy keeping up to date on what’s happening.

These frames are available starting at about $30 for a small frame and can be found in discount stores, electronics stores and online. There are even smaller versions that can be carried in a purse. Won’t Grandma Edyth be a hit at the next bingo game when she shows off pictures of the new granddaughter.

It seems that most everyone has a digital camera. It also seems that whenever the time comes for that family picture there is a mad dash to find a way to set the camera up so the timer can be used allowing everyone to be in the shot. For about $10 you can get that photo buff on your list a mini tripod. They weigh only a few ounces and fold up so they can be carried in a pocket or purse but are sturdy enough to hold a regular size camera.

You don’t have top spend a lot of money to find some items that will be useful all the year long.

Gift Ideas of the Electronic Kind

2010-12-13T08:03:00.001-05:00

Each year about this time I devote a couple of columns to what is hot for gift giving. This week and next I will give you some ideas for gifts for that person who likes anything with a plug attached or battery installed. This week we will look at some fairly expensive options. Next week I’ll suggest some stocking stuffers.

Flat Screen HD TVs are always a big hit. In years past I suggested that you wait to buy a large flat screen TV till after the Super Bowl. (Oops, I mean the “The Big Game.” I didn’t pay the NFL the fee to use the term Super Bowl…sorry Ollie.) This year go ahead. There is no reason to wait since there are some great deals. There is an over supply and most likely the prices will not fall much in the first quarter of 2011.

There are so many choices and sizes to choose from. Staying with a name brand like Sony, Samsung or Panasonic is always a good idea. It is true that the display screens are all made in the same factories but many of the components and features are indeed better in the name brands. I still have a Sony in my basement that we bought when we first got married…that was more than a few years ago.

There are several small screen TVs for the kitchen or camper now available. Many are battery operated and can be used on your deck, boat or camper. They are also useful when Duke’s hamsters go on strike. If the 3D feature is available for not much more money go for it, but 3D programming is still slow to take off and paying a premium is not worth it for most of us.

Other very popular items this year are e-readers. Once the province of only the geekiest among us, e-readers have taken the market by storm. There are several brands each with different features. Amazon.com leads the pack with the Kindle, but Sony, Barnes and Noble and other have models as well.

My suggestion is to choose one that uses e-ink technology. Most electronic devices that require a viewing screen use a system that has some type of back light. Reading from a back lit screen for long periods can be tiring. Also reading in bright sunlight is very difficult. E-ink creates an image that is very much like the printed page and obtains its contrast by reflecting light off the page just like a book.

By far the Amazon.com has the most titles available for the Kindle. On all of the
e-readers the books are loaded via the Internet using either a wifi or 3G connection. Unless you travel extensively, if you have access to wifi you don’t need the 3G option. Most e-readers can hold more than two thousand books. A good e-reader can be purchased for less than $200. A newly released best seller will cost about 10 bucks.

Next week I will concentrate of some items under $35.

LED Christmas Lights Keep the Holiday Green

2010-12-06T08:03:00.002-05:00

The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden has adopted them. Many commercial buildings and malls have followed suit. This year may be the right time for you to consider replacing your decorative holiday lights with energy efficient LEDs. Doing so will save energy, reduce your electric bill and, over time, save you some hard cash.

We might overlook these strings of colored lights as a major source of energy waste. The small glass lamps individually consume only a small amount of electricity. The problem is that we don’t often use just one or two bulbs, but attach hundreds on long strings. If you are of my generation, you remember when strings of lights on trees were made up of large bulbs similar to the ones used in night lights and other small appliances. These are called C-9 bulbs. So when the mini lights came out we thought we were already saving energy. It is true that the mini lights consume only about ½ watt of power for each bulb compared to 3 to 5 watts each for the larger C-9 bulbs. Nevertheless, when compared to the efficiency of LED bulbs, even these mini lights are power gluttons.

The standard LED holiday lights consume about 15% of the power used by traditional incandescent mini lights. This not only saves money, but allows you to safely string many more lights in outdoor displays without the need for extra extension cords and power outlets.

When LED lights first came out some people did not like the fact that the light was a “bluish white” rather than the traditional soft white of a candle. Manufactures have made some great improvements and have lights that appear very much like the traditional warm mini lights.

The initial cost of LED lights compared to incandescent mini lights can be significant, as much as double, so you will not save dollars in the first few years of using them. But, since they are much more durable than mini lights and will last up to 10x longer, there will be savings down the road.

So, this year when you are untangling that green mess and trying to find which one of the bulbs is bad and keeping the entire string from lighting up, save yourself some holiday hassle and extend your “green” Christmas beyond the tree in the family room by investing in LED lights.

Digital Ups and Downs

2010-11-28T18:12:00.003-05:00

Digital solid state technology has allowed for the development of many new devices that can perform a variety of functions around the house. They dim our lights, control our heating and air conditioning and open our doors. While they are internally very complex, because they are comprised of integrated circuits with few or no moving parts many can be manufactured inexpensively. As reliable as they are, these devices do fail and often a replacement is the only real option rather than repair. For a light dimmer or door bell, that is no real issue. When the device is part of a larger system, replacement can be a hassle and expensive.

Recently a friend told me that his automatic garage door opener quit working and he had to replace it. He did all the troubleshooting steps found in the owner’s manual like checking the battery, making sure the unit was getting power, etc. He noted that he could open and close the door using the button on the wall but that neither of the remotes in the cars seemed to work. He was surprised that there might be an easy and inexpensive fix.

Rather than replacing the entire system I told him about a way to fix his problem for a fraction of the cost of a new opener. If the radio receiver in the unit has failed, you can bypass it with a replacement radio receiver. The receiver is about the size of a pack of cigarettes and plugs into any AC outlet. It comes with two new remotes for your car which will replace the ones that came with your original opener.

Installation is a breeze as all you need to do is plug the unit into an AC outlet and connect two small low voltage wires to your opener motor assembly. The new unit receives signals from the new remote controls and will operate your door just like the original remotes. The cost of the new receiver and two remotes is around $50 which is about 20% of the cost of a complete new unit.

Most home improvement stores carry the replacement kits or you can go on line to find one that is compatible with your brand of opener.

This is a great example of how digital devices can really save some money. The expensive part of any automatic garage door opener is the motor and lift assembly; the “brains” of the system are contained on a few integrated circuit chips costing pennies. So in this case we kept the expensive parts that were still working and replaced the low-cost brains which were not. An all day job of changing the entire unit is replaced by a job that takes about an hour including going to the store to buy the unit.

Don't Let Your Data Get Lost in the Cloud

2010-11-22T07:42:00.006-05:00

Last week we discussed some major changes in the way we access, use, and store information on our home and/or office computers or on many other digital devices. Since I first discussed cloud computing in this column about six months ago, this trend continues to accelerate. Our data, once stored on drives within our computers, are now stored on the cloud. The cloud being one of many large servers interconnected via the Internet.

For sure, the benefits of using the cloud for storage are many. Our pictures, music, documents and financial records are safely stored and backed up. They can be accessed from anyplace we can get access to the Internet. When the computer fails or our smart phone is lost, we still have all the information. Sounds good to me.

But, using these free and pay cloud services can make us lazy and may provide a false sense of security. Remember, you must have access to the Internet to have access to your data. I know that at my house and office Internet access is reliable but there are times when it is not available. Storms, power outages, failures with Cincinnati Bell or Time Warner’s equipment can keep us off the net.

Most of the free or low cost cloud services do not guarantee that data will always be there. While it is unlikely, even large servers with many levels of redundancy can experience catastrophic failures. Why take a chance?

The best way to be sure that your data is safe and accessible is to make sure that you keep back up copies. Storing family pictures on Flickr or Snapfish is a wonderful way to organize and share your pictures with loved ones, but these Internet services should not be the only place you have copies.

For important files like family photos or financial or tax information, you should make copies and place them in a safe place. Since most computers can burn DVD or CD discs, you can periodically make copies for only pennies. In fact, making two copies of the files takes only a minute or two. You keep one and ask a relative or friend to keep the second copy. Most of us can store all the critical files we need on a few discs so it is not a real burden to ask a friend to keep an 8x10 envelope containing the DVDs in their closet or sock drawer.

If for some reason you can’t gain access to your files stored in the cloud and your DVD copy is damaged by fire or flood, the second copy stored at another location will be a life saver. It really comes down to the old saying: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

More "Clouds" on the Computer Horizon

2010-11-15T07:51:00.002-05:00

It is getting cloudier these days. Don’t look for any heavy rains to quench our parched lawns but you may see some major changes in the way you access, use, and store information on your home and/or office computers or many other digital devices. I first discussed cloud computing in this column about six months ago. Since then the trend of migrating data, once stored on drives within your computer, to the cloud continues to accelerate.

At one point home and office computers were designed to handle all of your tasks with internal computational power. The data was in your machine. Computers were touted as having large capacity disk drives and faster processing power. Today you will see advertised laptops, netbooks, smart phones and other devices with relatively small internal storage capacity and modest internal processing power. This is possible because your programs and data are not stored on your machine. Rather, the data are sent to the cloud via the internet and the actual programs are running on very large computer servers located at datacenters around the world.

There is a famous quote by Thomas Watson, the former Chairman of IBM. In 1943 he said "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." In the years following that statement he was roundly ridiculed as computers became ubiquitous companions to most every facet of modern life. In retrospect, he may have been right on target.
What we are seeing today might be more than five large computers serving the world’s
needs, but for sure the trend is fewer “real” computers and millions of portable devices connected to them.

A few weeks ago, Steve Jobs, the flamboyant Founder and CEO of Apple held a press conference to release a new model of the MacBook Air. This newest laptop offering is less than an inch thick and weighs about the same as most fast food meals. This powerful but svelte machine from Apple has neither a hard drive nor any type of optical disc drive. You can’t insert a CD or DVD. Rather, the machine is designed to store a limited amount of data within the machine’s flash memory and use the Internet to connect to the cloud where all the heavy lifting and storage will be handled. So there is no more waiting for a DVD to come from Netflix. You will just log on to the Netflix site.

Many of us already use cloud computing without our knowing it. We store and share our pictures on Flickr or Snapfish. We listen to music on our computer or phone using Pandora. We have our calendars and address books stored on Goggle. Look for many more services to become available as the computing skies become cloudier.

Cloud computing does not come without some potential downsides. Next week we will look at some of the negative aspects and what you can do to address them.

Put Your Family in the Movies

2010-11-07T14:20:00.003-05:00

This time of year many of us are looking forward to the holiday season and the parties and festivities that fill the months of November and December. I found a great web site that can add a bit of fun and flare to your next holiday party invitation or the greetings you might send to friends and family this year.

A few years ago you might remember a series of fun animated videos that were all the rage as they were shared by millions on the Internet. The videos superimposed the heads of various celebrities and politicians on the images of real or animated bodies of other people or characters. You can see some by clicking here . That site, JibJab.com, branched out and now offers a service that allows you to make your own videos using pictures of you, your friends and relatives and even your pets. You can send specialized party invitations or create your personalized version of classic films. Last year I created a family version of “It’s a Wonderful Life” for our family and emailed copies to our relatives.

JibJab has various holiday themes already loaded on the site. You can make movies, cartoons and electronic greeting card. There is even a library of specialized certificates and awards that can be created and downloaded for printing and framing.

The process is easy and requires you to have no special computer prowess. You will need a computer connected to the Internet. After going to JibJab.com you will be prompted through all the steps. You will need to have stored on your computer copies of photographs of the people you want to feature in your creations. It is best to have pictures with close ups of the faces you want to use as it is only the head and face portion of the pictures that will be used.

There is a free version and a subscription version of the JibJab service. The annual subscription is only about $10 and provides more features than the free version.

There are other similar sites that you might find, but the JibJab site seems to be the easiest and least expensive to use. Give it a try and add some creativity to that next holiday party invitation or greeting.

The End of a Love Hate Relationship

2010-11-03T14:41:00.001-04:00

I have to tell the truth. There is another woman in my life. Don’t worry. My wife, a very understanding and open person, knows about her. This woman who has been with me for years has helped me so much. She is knowledgeable, precise, and articulate and has the patience of Job. Nevertheless, she can also be a source of utter frustration. In fact, I have decided that I am going to end my relationship with her. I would rather spend this time with a man.

The woman in question is locked inside my GPS. There she remains ready at a moment’s notice to help me find my way. She has an Australian accent (I programmed her that way since it makes me feel cosmopolitan as I drive around southern Ohio), but that will soon change.

My decision to end this relationship comes after completing a recent road trip to the east coast. Don’t get me wrong, she was always there. She offered her directions. But her inflexibility is nothing short of maddening. Here is an example.

I have taken this same trip several times. Since it requires that I get to West Virginia, I have found that taking the AA Highway from Alexandria, KY to Grayson, KY, a diagonal route through Kentucky, is better than routing through Lexington or southern Ohio. She strongly disagrees. As I drove on the AA highway, she continued to try to get me back into Ohio. I think she may be “on the take” from the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

I think that the most irritating thing about her is her patient but condescending tone. Her mantra “Recalculating …make a U–turn in .5 miles” is still burning in my ears. I figure that it is time for a change so I am going to let her go and program my GPS with a guy’s voice and see if that helps.

I think my wife will be relieved; she was beginning to question my sanity as I continued a dialogue, often heated, with “Sweetie.” That’s right; I do have to call her something. So I have to decide if my new best friend will be an American or not. Perhaps if I make him a German our relationship will be better. I don’t speak German. “Thanks for the advice, Günter, but I am taking the AA highway anyway.”

Google and Sony Partner

2010-10-25T06:33:00.003-04:00

Just when you thought you finally figured out all the options you have to watch TV, another new category of devices and services comes on the market. So was the case earlier this month when Google announced that they had partnered with Sony to develop and market a TV that is essentially the “Swiss Army Knife” of living room TV viewing.

For years pundits have been predicting the eventual merging of the various television and media services into one box. Up until now only the most technically adroit among us with ample wallets could afford and actually use the first generation hybrid devices. Google and Sony promise to change that.

I have written often about the various video services that are now available to most of us. Gone are the days when our choices for viewing were controlled by broadcasters, cable/satellite companies or the video store. The Internet has changed all of that since it levels the distribution playing field. Programs can be sent directly to the viewer whenever they want to watch.

One of the negative by-products of this explosion in choices is the ability to keep track of what is available. It is like drinking water from a fire hydrant … it might quench your thirst but the experience is not pleasant. The TV viewing choices are so vast that if there was a printed “TV Guide” containing all the channels and programs it would have be the size of the New York City phone book to list a single week’s offerings.

Google TV promises to do much more than only physically connecting all of your sources of programming such as over-the-air broadcasting, cable, satellite and the Internet. It has an easy-to-use interface that allows you to know what is available and to actually watch or record the programs. Perhaps this is the most important development.

The Google TV also allows you to access the non-video services on the Internet such as facebook, Cincinnati.com and even email. Recent studies show a significant increase in people who report that they watch TV and surf Internet simultaneously. Whether a single screen device will prove to be adequate remains to be seen.

As the Internet becomes more robust and more households get increased data delivery speed, TV will continue to migrate from the traditional distribution services. Will this improve the quality of the programming and reduce the costs? That remains to be seen. I, for one, am not holding my breath.

Bits, Bytes & Water Don't Mix

2010-10-17T10:40:00.005-04:00

It happens more often than you might think. Now that cell phones, digital cameras, MP3 players and other assorted digital gizmos are shrinking in size, they are also winding up getting damaged by getting wet. Some end up in the laundry because they were hiding undetected in a pocket. Others slip out your hand and into the bathroom sink or the other less delicate bathroom water and waste receptacle. A phone kept in the pocket of someone who is working hard or exercising vigorously can also get wet from perspiration. There is also, of course, the device that was left out in the rain.

Unfortunately digital devices and water do not mix well. The circuits in these sub miniature devices are so compact that even a small amount of moisture can render an expensive mobile smart phone useless and the owner feeling anything but smart. Other than making a trip to the store to buy a new one, is there anything that can be done to save these waterlogged digital paper weights and or save the information locked inside?

If your device gets wet, the first thing to do is get it dried out quickly. If possible, remove the battery and gently towel off any visible water. Place it in a container that you can seal with a lid and cover the entire device with regular rice (skip the Rice-A-Roni), seal the container and let it stand for 24 hours of so. Do not try to help by heating it up in an oven or with a hair dryer. Room temperature is just fine. Do not use salt or other household chemicals as many are corrosives.

After about 24 hours, remove from the high tech casserole and insert the battery and if it works you smile and go on with your life. If it doesn’t, it is time to get a new one.

Even if the device is ruined the pictures, addresses and other information locked inside can often be retrieved. If the device uses an SD card or SIMMS card, they can be removed and most often all the data transferred to a new device or your computer. Even if it has non removable storage, you may still be able to retrieve your information.

Many mobile phone providers offer a free back up system that regularly sends all the data in your phone to a central server. So if you do loose your phone, damage it or just want a new one, the information can be reloaded. You may have that feature and not know it; you need to ask your retailer.

In general, the advice given about computers is salient here to. Back up your information. Sign up for a back up plan when you buy your cell phone. Make copies of all your MP3 music files and store them both in the device and in your computer. When you finish taking those pictures, remove the SD card or make copies of all the pictures on your computer.

Many of us rely more and more on these tools to make our life easier. Without back up, they can make our life miserable.

eReaders Worth Another Look

2010-10-11T06:22:00.001-04:00

leMany of us are beginning to spend more time indoors as the weather turns cooler, and for some that means we will have more time to read. I thought that this might be a great time to review the various options for eBooks readers. An eBook reader is a digital device that allows you to read eBooks and periodicals. The term eBook refers to a variety of texts and images that are presented in digital form and able to be read on a computer or on other digital devices such as an eBook reader. Like so many new products, the first one to market often becomes the recognized moniker. So, many people refer to all eBook readers as “Kindles.” Actually Kindle, an Amazon.com product, is only one of several devices that fall into this categoy.

Beside Amazon’s Kindle and Kindle2, Sony has a product called PRS-700 and Barnes and Noble offers the Nook. While not an eReader, Apple’s iPad and other tablet compters coming to market can also be used to read eBook files.

When selecting an eReader, foremost in your selection criteria should be the quality of the display screen and how comfortable you are reading text for long periods on the screen. There are two main types of screens. In my opinion, the screens that use eInk technology are the best. Unlike the traditionl computer screens that are lighted from behind, eInk screens form the words on a white background just like a printed page. This makes the text readable in bright sunlight but does not strain your eyes if you are in low light areas. eInk is as close to real paper and ink as you can get. The Kindle, Nook and PRS-700 all use eInk technology. The iPad and other tablet computers use traditional back-lit screens.

Another feature that you should consider is how the files are loaded into the device. Some require that you have a hard-wired or wifi internet connection. Others use the 3G mobile networks. The Kindle uses the latter and makes loading books and periodicles a cinch. While it uses the 3G mobile network, it is transparent to the user meaning that you don’t need to subcribe to any new service. The Kindle does this in the background. So if you want a book from Amazon.com, you select it and it is atomatically downloaded.

Finally, be sure the eReader that you choose is able to read all of the various formats of eBooks. While all can read the most used commercial formats, there is a format called ePub. It is being used by libraries to distribute free material. As of this writing, all but the Kindle products can read ePub files.

More and more books are becoming available in electronic form and even college textbooks are adopting the format. The ease of reading, ability to have several books at your fingertips without the need of a large backpack and the lower prices of eBooks make an eBook reader something to consider.

Instant Wifi Hotspots

2010-10-04T08:11:00.002-04:00

Mobile phones keep getting better and better. Those of us with smart phones (iPhone, Droid, Pre, etc.) have the choice of thousands of applications that can run on our phones. Some are pretty lame and a waste of the time it took for some computer engineer to develop. Do I really need my smart phone to sound like an air horn? There are however some really useful applications that are time and money savers.

Among the myriad of these worthwhile applications now being offered by some smart phone manufactures and carriers is the wifi hotspot feature. I am not referring to the fact that you can access the internet from your phone using wifi hotspots at coffee shops, libraries and other public places. That feature has been around for years. This new application allows your phone to actually create a wifi hot spot. Here is how it works.

Turning on the wifi hotspot program makes your phone a wifi router. If you or a friend has a laptop computer with wifi, the laptop can wirelessly connect with your phone and use the phone’s 3G or 4G Internet connection. In essence, you are almost always able to connect to the Internet even if there is no traditional wifi or hard wired connection available.

This feature does not take the place of a lap top with wireless modem. Many road warriors have a 3G or 4G card built into their laptop since they are often away from the office and beyond traditional wifi range. Since they use it a lot, it is better to have it built in. The smart phone wifi hotspot application is for people who occasionally find the need to connect the laptop to the Internet but don’t want to spend the money for the fairly high monthly fee for the laptop modem.

When I first got my current phone from Verizon, the wifi feature was an extra $40 over and above my data and phone plan. Only a few months later Verizon began to offer the feature for free. I have used it several times and it works great.

You have to check with your carrier to see if they offer the service and you must have a phone that is capable as well. The Palm Pre Plus and the Droid models can run the application. It is interesting to note that the much heralded iPhone does not.

There are a couple things to keep in mind if you do decide to add this application to your phone. Make sure that you know what your plan covers. Some carriers give you a certain amount of data free and then begin to charge if you go over your allotment. If you have a few friends all connected to the Internet through your phone, you will use a lot of bits and bytes very quickly.

Also, the circuitry in the phone that allows this feature is very power hungry. My phone can only operate in this mode for about 1.5 hours. You can, of course, keep it plugged into your car or charger and use it without running down the battery.

So the next time you are on vacation at the beach or in a cabin in the woods, you can still stay connected. But again, you can also choose to turn it off.

Why Can't Duke Keep the Power On?

2010-09-27T08:28:00.001-04:00

Well, it happened again. I came home from work today and sure enough the clock on the stove and the one on the microwave announced that again we had a power outage. I’m not sure if the hamsters at Duke’s generating plant got tired or a misdirected squirrel got toasted in the lines. All I know is that we lost power … again!

Now I realize that I live on a semi-rural road, but Harrison Township is hardly considered the boondocks (unless, of course, you happen to live in Hyde Park…but that’s another story). I have not done a scientific survey and I have not documented every outage, but I can say that there are more power outages in our area than there should be.

My wife and I joke about it. The sky turns dark, the clouds billow and before the rain falls or the lighting brightens the sky, off go the lights and the computer and the TV and clocks and the stove and... Clear days and peaceful nights are not immune to these interruptions of our power. In fact, most seem to happen when Mother Nature is on her best behavior.

It is not just my house. My office is across the street from one of Duke’s two main distribution sub stations serving all of downtown Cincinnati. There, too, the power goes off several times a year.

For sure the big rain storms will happen and the errant driver hitting a pole can’t be prevented. Those are not the outages I am complaining about nor the once in a century wind storm of September 2009. It is the almost weekly interruptions that are driving me up the proverbial tree.

So why is this happening? One would think that with our level of technology such interruptions would be the exception, not the rule. I really don’t know for sure, but I have a hunch. I think that a high level of prevention and infrastructure improvements have fallen victim to the bottom line. Expenses for these things really don’t immediately help Duke’s profit. With companies looking for the short term gain, long term costs can get put aside. This is especially true when the consumer has no option. We aren’t going to make our own electricity. Switching to another provider doesn’t help since Duke and Dominion or any other provider still must use Duke’s lines and distribution system.

So what are we to do? Where did I put that flashlight? Thanks for letting me vent.

TV on the Go

2010-09-20T09:03:00.004-04:00

With college and professional football season in high gear, the newspaper supplements and direct mail advertisements are full of new ways to “keep up with the game” while on the road. Mobile TV, Flo TV, and other technologies are the new “must haves.” While the devices and the programming may at first glance seem familiar, they are very different from what you use today to watch TV.

Most providers of these services are touting the fact that you can watch hundreds of TV programs anywhere you wish. While these claims are often true, there are a few things you should keep in mind before you decide to sign up.

First of all, you want to be able to watch the programs so you need to have a phone that supports these video services or a special stand alone receiver. The receivers come in various flavors. There are models for hand held use, table top viewing, or for in-car installation.

The services employ different transmission technologies from those used by regular broadcasters or cable providers to send TV channels to your home. The mobile devices required for these services can not be used to watch regular TV channels and visa versa. Since the small portable receivers look very much like the battery operated mini DTVs that have been available for years, one could presume that you can use the new and old devices interchangeably. You can’t.

You can’t receive these services in all areas of the country, so before you sign up ask to see the coverage area map. Even if you are located in an area that is indicated on the map as being “covered,” you may wish to take a loaner device and make sure. The channels are broadcast using some of the same technologies used by mobile phones and wireless broadband and, as such, are prone to many of the same reception issues.

There is a growing catalog of channels and programs offered by the leading TV services like ABC, CBS, ESPN, CNN etc. Some of the programs are the same as you will see on regular broadcast channels while other programs are developed especially for the small screen size of the portable devices.

Some of the services require a multi-year contract and a monthly fee. Many mobile carriers like Verizon, AT&T and Sprint offer the service as an add-on. Depending on the programming package you chose, you can expect to pay between $15 and $50 extra per month on top of your regular mobile bill.

In a couple years, as more bandwidth becomes available and transmission technologies become more reliable, there will be other mobile TV services coming on line. Also look for devices that can receive multiple formats to be available, so you won’t need a bag full of different devices in order to watch the various services.

Online Info Requires Critical Analysis

2010-09-12T20:34:00.005-04:00

One of the truly wonderful aspects of the Internet is the fact that we can find information quickly about almost any topic. At light speed from almost any location, a pub or library, we can find answers to questions of critical or trivial importance. Google has become a household word. Each day millions of us search for information and in seconds we get answers to our queries which once would have taken hours or even days to retrieve. Wikipedia has replaced the iconic Britannica or World Book as the place to go when in doubt.

News reporting, too, has undergone exponential change in the speed with which it delivers facts and opinions. There is no question that we have more news and information. There is no question that we have it faster and in a more convenient form. There are, however, big questions about the veracity of that information.

Earlier this month Mike Wise, a Washington Post reporter, posted a fake report on his Twitter account to demonstrate how quickly such a report would be picked up by online news aggregators and published without any verification of its content. The post on his Twitter feed, @MikeWiseguy, was a reference to the length of the suspension handed down to Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger as a penalty for an offseason Georgia nightclub indiscretion. Even though it had not yet been determined by the NFL, within minutes his tweet was picked up as “fact” by several respected news organizations. The experiment, while calling attention to the serious inadequacies of online information, also resulted in Wise’s suspension by his employer. The Post saw the stunt as calling the newspaper’s credibility into question.

Talk to any teacher and they will share with you the challenge they face getting kids to use the Internet with a critical and skeptical mindset. The democratic approach of information collection and analysis pioneered by Wikipedia is fraught with issues of accuracy. Inaccurate information is not new. For sure all printed material is not factual, but the filter of the time it takes to produce and distribute “hard copy” does make it much different from contemporary digital media.

Wise’s experiment demonstrated that information, regardless of its accuracy, can reach a world wide audience in minutes. Opinion can easily morph into fact. Outrageous claims about a President’s birth certificate or NASA’s fake moon landing become credible to some because they are repeated.

Perhaps the next iteration of online news reporting and information collection will incorporate more checks and balances to assure that facts are facts and opinions are labeled as such. Even if this happens, new media and new online research techniques require our ability to critically question what we read, hear and see on the Internet.

Perhaps the 1993 The New Yorker said it best with the publication of the now famous cartoon depicting a conversation between two dogs in front of a PC. The caption read “On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Dog.”

Internet Based Phones Not For Everyone

2010-09-07T08:24:00.004-04:00

Just when many of us are getting comfortable using our mobile phones to make calls instead of using the old hard wired land line from “Ma Bell,” another digital twist to this simple task surfaces. I am referring to making phone calls, from your home or cell phone, using the Internet instead of traditional phone networks. The technical term of this technology is “Voice Over IP” or “VOIP” (voice communication using Internet protocol).

The traditional hard wired telephone networks have not changed in basic design for years. They are based on having a dedicated wire going from a central office to each phone on the network. You have a wire connecting your house to the network and all your neighbors on the street have separate wires as well. Voice over IP uses the Internet so your calls and your neighbors’ calls and your kid’s Facebook posting and that YouTube video you are watching and that email being sent to your good friend in Estonia are all sharing the same Internet.

You may have read that Google is the most recent competitor to enter this burgeoning market. Watching late night TV you will see several others. There you will find promotions for magicJack, Vonage, Skype and others. While they are all a bit different, they have in common the use of the Internet for the backbone of the service.

As you consider using one of these services there are a few things to keep in mind. First and foremost, you must have a high speed Internet connection available. In our area for most of us that means you need RoadRunner from Time Warner or ZoomTown from Cincinnati Bell. Also, you must have a computer connected to the Internet and running 24/7 to use the services.

The next important things to remember is that these services are not all the same. For example, magicJack allows you to use the regular telephones in your house to place and receive calls from any phone, traditional hard wired, mobile, or VOIP in the world. Skype uses your computer’s microphone and speakers rather than a traditional telephone handset.

Some of these services are free, others charge for all or some of the features. If you make lots of international calls, there are significant savings. If you like to make video calls to family and friends, some of this technology is wonderful. There is no question that all of our communications will one day flow over the Internet; much of it does already. In my opinion, for the vast majority of us the traditional phone and the mobile phone system is just fine for now. They are inexpensive, reliable and easy to use.

Place Yout Contacts and Calendar in the Clouds

2010-08-30T07:50:00.002-04:00

Many of us are trading in our cell phones for new models called “smartphones.” Whether these devices have any more “smarts” than their predecessors is debatable and will be grist for another essay at another time. Nevertheless, for sure there are many very cool applications that can be loaded onto your new phone. Perhaps among the most helpful are connections to your calendar and address book.

While some of us still use paper and pencil to keep track of appointments or the address for Uncle Bud’s news digs, others have loaded all this information onto a computer. While the information is easily changed and updated, it is not always easily accessible. You must have your computer on and with you. Unless you are in an office environment, these two things do not always coincide.

Using your computer, your smartphone, and some free online services, you can have access to all your calendar and contact information anywhere and anytime. And the information will be up to date.

One of the free online services you may wish to consider is provided by Google. In order to take advantage of the service you must have a Gmail email account. Just go to www.gmail.com and follow the sign-up prompts. It should be noted that this new email account does not need to be used as your primary email; you can continue to use whatever service you now have, e.g. Roadrunner, Fuse, Zoomtown, AOL. Once you have established the Gmail account, you can begin to use the Google calendar and contacts features.

Most smartphones will allow you to synchronize the information in your phone with information on your computer or stored on one of these online services. The specific set-up process for this synchronization, while similar, is different for each phone, i.e. iPhone, Droid, Pre-Plus, etc. You will need to read the manual. Most set-ups are fairly straight forward. If you have a problem, get a teenager to help.

Once the phone is “synched” with the online service, any information that you enter into the computer will show up on the phone and any information that you enter on your phone will show up on the computer.

Many of us already have hundreds of addresses and other contact information stored in our address books on our computers. There are software utilities that will allow you to upload all of this information to the Google Contact area so you do not need to re-enter it online. Another great feature is that once your information is uploaded, you won’t have to worry about backing up the files on your computer. Google takes care of that. Also, even if you don’t have your phone, all of this information is available anywhere you can access the Internet.

Setting up these applications will take a few hours but the benefits and convenience of having all this information at you fingertips is worth the time and effort.

More PBS Progams On Line

2010-08-23T07:46:00.003-04:00

Remember when you first watched video from the Internet on your home computer? Perhaps it was an attachment to an email or one of the videos posted on YouTube.com. In any case, the pictures and sound were not very good. The size of the image was limited and the movement jerky. Nevertheless, it was cool to see images of your grandkids or your neighbor’s vacation.

Unlike text, the transmission of video on the Internet requires significant bandwidth and fast computer processing speed. Both of these were once the exception but now are common place. So now the grainy, low resolution postage stamp size video images have been replaced with audio and video resolution comparable to what you see on your TV. This has sparked an explosion in video services available to most any computer user. Most are free.

Today there are movie services, high definition YouTube videos, and access to countless TV programs, new and old. Full disclosure here…while I don’t often “plug” services provided by my employer, CET, this week I am going to do just that because it is a really great service.

About four years ago CET conducted a series of focus groups seeking to find out what people wanted from on line services provided by public TV stations. One of the responses often heard centered around the desire to watch popular PBS programs on line and on demand. Nova, Frontline, American Experience, and the News Hour were all mentioned.

At that time, the technology and copyright issues precluded CET from offering most of these programs. The good news is that in a few short years, all that has changed. You can indeed watch these and many other signature PBS and CET programs on line at your convenience and the video and audio are quite good.

Finding these programs is a breeze. Just point your browser to http://www.cetconnect.org/.
On the first page you will see a box on the right side of the screen with a link to the current library of programs available. Clicking on that box is all you need to do.

You can choose from several programs and watch them in their entirety or fast forward to specific segments. You can choose to watch in a small window within your browser or choose a full screen experience. If you have a new flat screen TV with a computer input, connecting your computer to the TV will provide an even better experience.

The catalog of programs changes almost daily, so if you don’t see a program you like today, check it out tomorrow. For a complete listing of all the programs available you can click on the “Programs” icon.

CET is not the only station providing these services. So if you haven’t tried watching video on your computer for a while you may be surprised to see what you have been missing.

Everyone Should Get Off the Grid From Time to Time

2010-08-16T08:13:00.009-04:00

I recently spent a week with friends riding my bike. This annual vacation has become a ritual for me as our team members from all over the country assemble for RAGBRAI. This gathering of cyclists is the oldest, largest and longest bicycle touring event in the world. As I was riding this year I became increasingly aware of the impact that technology has had on even this very low tech event. And it is not all positive.

For sure mobile phones have made keeping track of our team members much easier. Almost ten years ago when I first started riding in this event we were using walkie-talkies to keep track of the team. We shared the same channels with thousands of other riders. The cacophony of conversations made any meaningful contact with one another the exception. Cell phones changed that. Cell phones are a good thing. Other high tech tools using GPS technology now allow medical assistance to be dispatched much more efficiently. If you are waiting on the side of some country road for the EMT to arrive, you would agree that this too is a good thing.

Not all of this technology appeals to me. Riding along it was often the case that the peaceful quiet of the countryside was pierced by the sound of a fellow rider’s cell phone demanding to be answered. More often than not it was not a call from a team member looking to meet up. Rather, the conversations centered on the most recent crisis at the office. Protracted conversations about a client’s complaint, a machine’s failure, or a boss’s demands punctuated the otherwise awesome ride.

Here on the rural roads of Middle America was playing out a wonderful example of why all of us need to sometimes get off the grid. I tried hard this year to refrain from checking my office voice mail or using my smart phone for checking office email. Other than calling my wife and sharing some details of the ride, I stayed out of touch.

The always-connected society in which we live has made the work day 24/7. While some would argue that this has increased productivity, others point out that it has exacted a high price in elevated stress. With a world economy and business environment making local time almost irrelevant, many of us do need to modify our schedules and technology has made this possible. But there is a time to just say “No” …to turn it all off.

The next time you go on vacation, for a day or a few weeks, think about leaving the lap top off, the cell phone on mute and your voice greeting message indicating that you are unreachable. To be sure, if you win the lottery or President Obama wants your advice on some pressing world issue, there are ways to find you.

Added 8/24 Here is a great NPR story relating to this issue

LEDs Can Save Your Life

2010-08-09T06:31:00.002-04:00

Having just returned from a week of riding my bike across the cornfields of mid-America, I am still very much in two wheel mode this week. While the number of riders in the Harrison area does not compare to the throngs riding with me last week, there is an increasing number of bikes on the streets, roads and trails in our community. Unfortunately, pedal power and horsepower don’t always play nice together. While the bad guy is often the automobile driver, the cyclist is not always in the right.

One of the biggest safety issues with mixing cars and bikes on the same roads is visibility. There are several inexpensive devices that can assist. For about 10 bucks you can purchase a small tail light for your bike. The light uses high intensity LEDs instead of traditional light bulbs. These tiny LEDS are very bright and the circuitry allows you to change the display from a standard red tail light to a pulsating strobe effect. While these lights are made for riding at night, I find that since they are so bright, they can be seen even in bright sunny weather by anyone approaching from the rear. Since one of the often heard comments by car drivers following a bike / car accident is “I never saw him,”
the red strobing light is just enough to get the car drivers’ attention.

There are also very bright white LED headlights available. Again, these lights are intended for riding at night so the cyclist can see the road ahead. In the day they serve the same purpose as daytime use of headlights on motorcycles and more recently on new cars: visibility. I ride a lot in the Harrison area, and on the open roads and hills you can ride at a good clip. My experience is that cars don’t realize you are approaching at 25 mph or more and as a result often pull out in front of you. Seeing a bright white light often gets their attention.

These LED lights are amazing as they are small, light weight, very bright and consume very little power. I use my tail light for months at a time using two standard AAA batteries. While the headlights use a bit more power, a couple of inexpensive batteries will last many hours. This is a small price to pay for safety.

Lightning and Electronic Devices Don't Mix

2010-08-03T20:54:00.003-04:00

A friend of mine related that his home was recently hit by lightning and that many electronic devices, from expensive digital TV sets to his garage door opener were “fried.” The more he talked the more the shear power, suddenness and unpredictability of lightning became evident. The extensive damage that the strike wreaked on my friend’s house was made even more remarkable by the fact that he is one of the most knowledgeable electronics professionals in the area and often consulted on protecting sensitive electronic gear from lightning damage. So if it can happen to him, what about the rest of us?

Here in the Ohio Valley, electrical storms happen so often that we pay little attention to them. We have all read about staying off a wired phone and turning off computers and other digital devices. Few of us really do any of those things. In fact, most of us do the opposite. The sky gets dark, the thunder rumbles and we log on to weather.com or go to the TV set to see what the local super duper Doppler mumbo jumbo channel 66 weather radar looks like.

The power of lightning is nothing short of awesome. A single bolt can pack thousands of amps, have a temperature hot enough to turn sand into glass and reach speeds approaching the speed of light. Obviously lightning is not something to be messed with.

There are things that you can do to lessen the possibility of damage from a strike. There are buildings and tall towers that get struck several times in a single summer storm without incurring damage. They have protection. The simplest protection has been around for more than 100 years. You see it today on old farm houses and barns: lightning rods. They serve a very simple function. Lightning seeks to go to the ground and the most direct and less restricted path will be followed. Most of us don’t have lightning rods, but some of us do have roof top TV antennas. Make sure that they are grounded. If you don’t know how, find a professional to do it for you.

While the inexpensive power strips will provide some protection for your computer or TV from a lightning bolt traveling along the power circuits in your home, a direct hit can jump right through the strip. If you really want to protect the devices, they need to be unplugged from wall or power strip. Since our electric grip is so interconnected, a strike on a power line several miles away can produce surges in your incoming power from Duke Energy. The power company has been marketing a new service that attaches a surge protector to the incoming power lines. Contact Duke for details.

For sure, staying off a hard wired phone is a good idea. Your mobile phone is OK to use since it is no more likely to be struck than your body.

Use common sense and remember you have a better chance of winning an Olympic Medal that you do of being struck by lightning.

"You Need a Cable For That!"

2010-08-01T15:46:00.003-04:00

OK, you researched all the brands, looked at all the reviews and found the very best price for that new flat screen 56 inch HDTV. You are now standing with the salesperson ready to fork over those green backs, or more likely a piece of plastic, and there is one more thing.

“You’re gonna need a cable for that ya know,” mumbles the salesperson. That’s right, in order to connect that new HD TV set to your cable box, Blue Ray DVD player or other digital device, you need special cables. Called HDMI cables, these short wires have special connectors on each end. You will need one cable for each component.

The salesperson will suggest that since you just forked over a month’s pay for the new TV set, you will want to make sure that you use “the best cable possible” so the picture is sharp and the audio crisp and static free. “Best” of course in the salesperson’s mind is also the most expensive. So you look at the display of cables and see that a three foot long rubber wire with two small connectors has a price of $75.00. There is another one with gold plated connectors for only $100.00. In theory gold is a superior electrical conductor. And you thought that the TV price gave you sticker shock.

The truth of the matter is that for most applications, there is no difference between the results you will get using a $15 HDMI cable or a $200 HDMI Cable. For most of us, one end of the cable will be plugged into the TV set and the other end into the DVD player or cable box and left that way for years never to be removed. So why pay a fortune for a cable that is heavy enough to tow your car?

There is one application that may require a heavier cable with more robust connectors and that would be an HDMI cable which you will use to connect a game system, lap top computer or other device that will be plugged in and out often. You will want a cable that has a heavy duty connector. There are several small contacts inside the plug that can come loose with repeated use, so a strong connector will hold up better than a less expensive cable.

For most of us mere mortals, the fact that the HDMI connector contacts are plated with gold has no discernable bearing on the quality of the pictures or sound. It adds to the price. The only added value I see comes in the form of your bragging rights. You can tell your “has-everything” neighbor that you have gold platted HDMI cables. Your spouse may on the other hand have a much different reaction to paying 100 bucks for a piece of wire.

Keep Your Car and Mind in Gear

2010-07-19T06:34:00.002-04:00

Hardly a day passes without some new report or study being released about the dangers of using mobile phones while driving. While texting seems to get most of the headlines, just talking on the phone while driving can be quite distracting. In the spirit of not throwing the first stone, I will admit to taking a call now and then while behind the wheel. I do try to make them brief but that is really not much of an excuse.

Many phones today have what is called “Bluetooth” technology. This allows for hands free operation either by using a wireless earpiece or an interface with your car’s radio. Both allow you to keep your hands on the wheel and at least potentially keep your mind on driving. Unfortunately, you can keep your hands on the wheel but your mind still is distracted.

I give a wide berth to drivers I observe to be deep in conversation. Several times I have followed cars from downtown Cincinnati all the way to Harrison with the driver deep in conversation, hands gesturing, head bobbing, car drifting right and left.

It is not just the highway where the danger lurks. I regularly jog over the lunch hour in downtown Cincinnati and Over the Rhine. I have lost count of the times that I have the right of way with the walk signal at an intersection only to have a driver look right through me and make a right turn into my path. Cell phone in hand, mouth in gear, brain somewhere else.

It is most likely not practical to think that all of us will check our phones at the front car door. There are some things that you can do to lessen the distraction.

Keep the conversation short. “Let me call you back” is an OK response. Never reach for that pen. Most phones record the number of the incoming caller. I won’t even mention texting. If you find yourself sending or reading text messages while driving, consider having your head examined by a professional ASAP.

Remember, just because you are not holding the phone in your hand does not mean that you are not distracted. Remember that thought the next time you are driving home from Cincinnati to Harrison on I-74 and you find that your next exit is Batesville-Oldenberg. “Let me call you back!”

If It Works, It's Obsolete

2010-07-12T07:38:00.002-04:00

The recent antenna problem that seems to be plaguing the new Apple iPhone 4 is certainly not an isolated case. It seems that more and more high tech products develop major flaws right out of the box. We have cars that suddenly accelerate, computers that loose your data, and television sets, once the very paragon of reliability, now have pictures that freeze and look like high tech jig-saw puzzles. I joke with my wife when she laments all the issues with her computer, phone or the TV remote. I just suggest to her that she needs to lower her expectations.

Seriously, it seems to me that this problem of reliability is getting worse and I think I know why.

Perhaps the leading cause of these problems is the complexity of even the simplest of devices. Digital controls and embedded software, once only found in the components of the likes of the Space Shuttle, today find their way into your refrigerator, toaster and coffee maker. Often the features that are made possible by these complex controls are helpful, but too often the Swiss Army Knife approach to adding features can lead to problems. It is one thing to have a refrigerator that knows when to defrost itself. It is another thing to have it automatically contact the store and order a new bottle of mustard when the one on the second shelf is half empty. The problem comes when the mustard ordering feature problem also shuts down the entire refrigerator.

Perhaps more problematic is the fierce competition and rush to get products to market. It seems that the concept of lab and field testing of products before selling them is a novel concept for many. Instead of setting up a panel of consumers to test and evaluate products, many companies now release the product and let those who purchase the product find the problems. So Steve Jobs is able to identify his phone’s propensity to drop calls now that consumers are actually trying to use it. The result of that research will no doubt be integrated into version 2.0 of the iPhone but the people who bought the first model are left holding the bag …or the phone.

For sure, many problems can be fixed with a new software download and as anyone who uses a computer or smart phone knows this happens all the time. Because of this “we can fix it in version 2” mentality, early adopters must be very careful.

A few years ago I came across a quote by Marshall McLuhan that I think sums it up: "If it works, it's obsolete."

Unfortunately There Is An App For That

2010-07-05T06:33:00.003-04:00

Just a few weeks ago the whole e-world was buzzing about the release of the iPhone 4. Lines formed days in advance so that e-geeks of all stripes could be the first on their block to have the very newest smart phone. Heaven forbid you would have a phone still operating on a 3G network even though 4G networks are still quite scarce.

Droids, iPhones, the Pre and many other models have become the “must have” electronic device and with these smart phones come all types of applications software or apps. Some apps are nothing short of awesome, others border on the ridiculous. The list of available apps grows by the hour as software developers in offices and in basements throughout the world write apps for phones.

The term “smart phone” is becoming a real misnomer as the devices do so much more than make phone calls. In fact, for many models, making a phone call may be the one application that the device does not do well. That may be the topic of a future essay.

There are a number of basic apps that you may wish to download to your phone. Most cost less than 5 bucks and can download and install in less than five minutes. For the iPhone they all must pass the Apple “good housekeeping seal of approval” before they are released.

While the Droid, Pre and other less popular phones have plenty of apps, the number doesn’t come close to the iPhone offerings. Nevertheless, you can get the most helpful apps for most any phone.

Right now on my Pre Plus I have an app that gives me the local weather, keep me abreast of local and national news, plays music from various radio stations, displays my current location on a map and helps me tune my guitar. Of course, I also have my calendar and address book loaded as well.

I have a friend who has hundreds of apps loaded on his iPhone and delights in wowing his friends by using his iPhone as a flute or imagining himself on the bridge of the starship Enterprise using his iPhone as a tricorder. Not my cup of tea, Captain Kirk.

The smart phone is quickly becoming the Swiss Army Knife of business. The computing power is derived from both the sophistication of the device design and the network to which it is connected. Look for specialized apps in the medical diagnostic field to come to market soon. Who knows, the next time you call your doctor he or she may be able to check out all your vital signs via your phone. Perhaps that tricorder isn’t such a bad idea.

Instant Slide Show

2010-06-28T08:02:00.001-04:00

Every so often there comes along a product that catches my eye. Not that I need it and not that I would buy it, but it is just a neat product. So it is with the Nikon Coolpix S1000 pj digital still camera.

This pocket size digital camera has most of the features of any mid-priced camera and is offered by Nikon, one of the world leaders in camera technology. It has a good lens and bright built in LCD viewing screen. The 12.1 megapixel resolution provides clear bright digital images. It is a very good basic camera.

What sets this camera apart from most others is not how the camera captures photos. Rather, it is what the S1000 pj can do after you take the shots. Like most digital cameras it stores the images on a SD card. Unlike most cameras it also has a built in projector so you can use a wall or screen to display the photos. The image can be projected with reasonable quality up to about 40” measured diagonally. Of course the darker the room the brighter the image will appear.

Now this is not a projector that will rival displaying your photos on a large flat screen TV or high power digital projector, but it will provide a way to share the party pictures with the crowd without the need for passing the camera around the room and repeating instructions for advancing to the next picture.

Nikon says that you can get about an hour of projection time from a single charge, but I suggest that if you are going to have a long presentation you use the AC adapter rather than the internal battery. It comes with a remote control for advancing the pictures.

The Nikon S1000 pj can be purchased at most electronic stores and on line. List price is about $400 but I have seen many discounted offers. Shop around. Next time your office mate pulls out his wallet with more pictures of his pet goat, you can trump him with a slide show right on his desk. That alone is worth the price.

June is Back Up Awareness Month

2010-06-21T07:44:00.002-04:00

Since I no longer have three teen age boys to nag, perhaps I am giving in to my repressed parental urges this week. No, I won’t tell you to be sure to buckle your seat belt (but you should) and I will take out my own garbage. I won’t lecture you about clean underwear and my embarrassment if you get hit by a car. Even though I have written about this often, I am repeating my plea for you to back up your computer files.

June is “Back Up Awareness Month.” Perhaps a better moniker would be “Back Up Unawareness Month,” since according to studies in 2010 only about one in three individuals back up computer files at least once a month. In 2008 it was only one in four so the trend is going in the right direction. Nevertheless, two-thirds of us still don’t back up our files.

The old saw regarding data storage is worth repeating. “It is not a question if your hard drive will fail, it is only a question when.” The hard drive storage in any computer device, lap top, desk top, game system or Tivo, is the most failure prone component. The reason is that it is a mechanical device with moving parts and some very precise movements at that.

In the past, back up was a real pain and often expensive. That is no longer the case. There are several options, some of them very sophisticated, others quite simple.

One of the easiest solutions is to purchase an external hard drive that has automatic back up built in. These drives connect with your computer and every time you create a file a copy is stored both on the internal hard drive and the external drive. Since the likelihood of both drives failing at the same time is remote, this is a good choice. You can purchase one of these drives at any computer store or office goods store for about 100 bucks. Of course this does not help if your have a fire or flood at your house.

In previous columns I have talked about services that literally back up everything you do by connecting your computer via the Internet to a secure, redundant data storage site. Most of these services charge a fee for the service and your computer has to be online. The chief benefit of these services is that your data is always located at another location. So a fire or flood at your house does not wipe out your files.

If nothing else for important records like taxes, bank information or family pictures, make a copy on a CD or DVD. Be sure to store it either in a fire and water proof case or place it in an envelope and ask a friend or relative to keep it for you.

I know I am nagging. Just chalk it up to old age. Oh yes, one more thing. Be sure your socks don’t have holes in them!

Enhance Your Outdoor Living Area With Music

2010-06-14T09:28:00.002-04:00

Now that summer is in full swing, many of us will be spending more time outside on our decks and patios. As we move out of our family and living rooms to enjoy the summer breezes, many want to bring along some music to add to the experience.

For sure, the tried and true method of running speaker wire through the walls and in the attic to make these connections is an option. This method can be time consuming and messy. Also, with a wired system the location of the outdoor speakers is fixed, i.e. everyplace you want a speaker must have a wired connection. In my case I have had a set of Bose weather resistant speakers installed on our deck for many years. It has worked well. If, however, we want to move the speakers to another location in the back yard, it will require more wire.

There is a solution that might be a good option for those who may not want to hassle with wiring and time consuming installation. There are several wireless speakers that can be purchased that have great sound quality, run on batteries and can be located as much as 300 feet from the music source. And, since they are wireless you can move them to wherever you want. You can use several pairs of speakers in various locations to play the same music. So if you are having a party on the deck and some of your guests are in the pool or congregating indoors in the family room, all of the speakers can be playing the same audio. If the people move, the music can move with them.

There are several types of wireless systems but all use some sort of low power wireless radio transmission. There is a base station to which you connect the music source, i.e. a radio, traditional stereo unit, mp3 player or iPod. That base station serves as a personal radio station that broadcasts to a limited area. Each of the wireless speakers receives the same signal.

For those who want music in the garden there are even speakers that are in cases disguised as rocks or tree stumps. For those who may have a pond or water feature, you can get speakers that look like a frog. Why? I have no idea.

Some of these systems use Bluetooth technology but these do not provide a wide coverage. Be sure to read the description of how far the signal will travel and purchase accordingly.

Wireless speaker systems can be purchased at most any electronic retailers or on line. My research shows models beginning at about $50 a pair and going up to several hundreds of dollars. In most cases, the more expensive the system the more efficient battery life and sound quality.

Installing a few speakers in the back yard can be a perfect way to make your home retreat even more inviting.

Internet Appliances Finding a Market

2010-06-07T15:45:00.002-04:00

Recently, Apple Computer, with its launch of the iPad and before that the iPhone, has given us a look at what “computers” should and will look like. Far from the iconic monitor, keyboard, mouse and big box CPU that many of us grew up with, these new breeds of computing devices are beginning to look like something right out of Star Trek. We are used to having computers buried in the innards of our cars, our microwaves and coffee makers. Now, there are some other special purpose computers coming on the market that may find their way onto your kitchen counter or bedroom night stand.

These devices are small, stylish, inexpensive and simple to use. Their beauty may be in that they do not do everything. Perhaps engineers and designers have abandoned the swiss-army-knife approach to all things electronic.

Sony offers one of these devices called the “dash” personal internet viewer. The dash uses wifi to connect to the internet and, just like many smart phones, can run special purpose applications. The color display touch screen measures about 8 x10 inches. It comes with built in speakers. So you can preprogram it to access the current weather, traffic and perhaps your favorite news service like CNN.com or Cincinnati.com. Of course, it has several clock features as well.

By connecting to web sites like Pandora, you can have your favorite music wake you in the morning. While you can’t send messages to Facebook or mySpace you can review postings on your sites.

Other special use devices that are getting very popular are Internet Radios. These small desk top devices look like a regular radio but they do not receive radio signals over the air. They use the Internet. Most every radio station in the US and many around the world provide their programming to listeners via the Internet. So if your taste in radio programs runs toward Lithuanian Folk Songs, you can listen to all your favorites right from Vilnius. All programs are crystal clear and you don’t need a short wave radio.

Internet radio was once a novelty. Using a regular computer to listen is a hassle since you need to boot up, connect with the Internet and then point your browser to the right address. Internet Radios make it a breeze since they automatically connect to the internet when you turn them on and you store your various internet addresses just like you do with the push buttons on your car radio.

Look for other special purpose computers and Internet appliances to show up on store shelves. Some may look and feel like your favorite lap top but most will be entirely new designs as different as a smart phone is from the black rotary dial phone in your grandma’s hallway.

More Than One Way To Surf The Web

2010-05-31T15:47:00.014-04:00

More and more of us are using the web for everything from finding an address or phone number to paying bills and banking. Those tasks, for the most part, can be accomplished without problems. Unfortunately, there are some more complex web applications that are much more prone to failure or intermittent operation. When this happens it can be frustrating.

For most people using Microsoft Windows computers, Internet Explorer is the “browser” of choice. (A “browser” is the software loaded on your computer to allow access to the web.) I guess the word “choice” may not be quite accurate since many may not know that there are others available and those browsers often do a better job than Internet Explorer.

Many find Firefox a great alternative. This software is known as “open source” software meaning that computer programmers all over the world can modify and improve it without having the Microsoft legal team increase their billable hours.

You can download the Firefox software free at http://www.mozilla.com/. Downloading and installing it on your computer takes only a few minutes. I have both Internet Explorer and Firefox loaded on all my computers and I often find that if I am having a problem with retrieving content, especially video and graphics from the web, just using the other browser fixes the problem.

There are other options. Google has a browser called Chrome. It is much newer than either Internet Explorer or Firefox and has yet to gain a lot of use. It can be downloaded free from www.google.com/chome. I have used Chome only sparingly. It does have a snappy look, but I did not find it any better that Firefox.

Finally let’s look at another option. All of the browsers discussed above have been designed for installation on a Windows PC. Many people have adopted a Mac platform and as such have been using the Safari browser developed by Apple. Safari is also available in a version that runs on a Windows PC. Like many products coming from the land of Steve Jobs, Safari is a clean, speedy browser that allows the user to have several web pages open at once and visible as panes on the screen. It can be downloaded free from Apple at www.apple.com/safari/ Downloading takes only a few minutes but setting up the various video configurations may take longer since Windows Media files and Flash Media files are not embraced by the folks at Apple.

Having more than one browser on your computer is a good idea and any of the ones listed above are good choices and are free.

A Cloudy Future for Personal Computing

2010-05-24T06:34:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about the proliferation of world wide computer networks and how they have both improved the services that we use every day and also provide ample opportunity for hackers and other miscreants to disrupt these systems. For better or worse, the trend of concentrating data and computing power on large networked servers located at strategic locations is exploding. The phenomenon is called “Cloud Computing.”

Once home and office computers were designed to handle all of your tasks with internal computational power and the data storage housed within your machine. Ads for new computers touted large capacity disk drives and faster processing power. Today you will see advertised netbooks, smart phones and other devices with relatively small internal storage capacity and modest internal processing power because the programs and data are not stored on the actual machine. Rather, the data are sent to the “cloud” via the internet and the actual programs are running on remote computers.

The benefits of cloud computing are many. First, since all your data, i.e. documents, pictures, videos, addresses and calendars, are not stored solely on your machine but are sent to the cloud, the data is much less prone to loss. A recent study found that fewer than 10% of home computer users back up their data on a regular basis. Since the weakest component in most computers is the disk drive, it is inevitable that you will loose your data if it is not backed up regularly. With cloud computing the data is sent to servers that are redundant and backed up constantly, and the data is safe.

It is not only data that can be stored on the cloud, programs too can be stored there and actually run remotely. Since the size and complexity of these programs is irrelevant to the capacity of your machine, they can provide many more features. Also, they can be continuously updated and improved without the need for sending updates to millions of computers.

Finally, while any data on the net is susceptible to hackers, the operators of these cloud datacenters are much more adroit at foiling these intrusions than most of us mere mortals. While it is not impossible for hackers to retrieve your private data from the cloud, it is very unlikely. A good hacker is more likely to get information from the computer on your desk than she can from a secure databank.

The new version of Microsoft Office was just released and one of the touted features is ease of using cloud computing. Since documents can now be sent to the cloud, collaboration is made easy. Several people, separated by thousands of miles, can work on the same documents and presentations in real time.

Google, Microsoft and others offer free or almost free cloud data storage. You can see an example at http://www.skydrive.com/. There you can sign up for free storage of up to 35 mb of information.

As networks, both wired and wireless, get faster and faster and access is more ubiquitous, look for cloud computing to become the standard.

Your Computer & Audacity Make a Great Recorder

2010-05-17T07:56:00.002-04:00

Most often I try to write about topics that will be directly applicable to my readers. This week we will look at some free software and inexpensive hardware that may not have direct utility for you, but if you share this information with your teenaged grand kids, nieces or nephews, or the kid next door, you will certainly be looked at as a tech-savvy, albeit still old, cool person.

The explosion in the computing power of even the most inexpensive lap top or desk top computer is amazing. In reality we use very little of the processing power of these machines for routine tasks of surfing the net and sending email. How about using that lap top as a very good quality audio recording studio complete with multi-track overdubbing and CD mastering? Any budding garage band will jump at trying this out and since you suggested it, you will be dubbed “cool.”

Start by downloading the free software from http://audacity.sourceforge.net. This is a free package and safe to install on your computer. Once installed there is an easy set up, but before long you will have a very sophisticated audio recording system that will allow you to record and edit individual tracks and overdub multiple tracks so a single musician can play multiple parts and you can edit them all into one recording. You can then make a CD or MP3 file.

The Audacity software also allows you to record from other sources so you can use it to transfer vinyl LPs and even audio cassette tapes to MP3 or other digital files for playback on your iPod. The features in this free package are in many ways superior to some of the commercial recording software packages costing two hundred dollars or more.

Of course, to record live music you need a microphone. The microphones that are built into lap tops or come as plug-ins for desk top computers are not very good. You will want to use a good quality microphone. There are several good microphones now available starting at about fifty bucks that have a USB connector that can be plugged directly into the computer. Check out www.Amazon.com or stop by the Music Shoppe.

If you already have a microphone with a standard XLR connector, and many garage bands do, there are adapters available that modify that XLR connector making it a USB connector and able to be plugged directly into the computer. Again, these can be purchased on line or locally at the Music Shoppe. If Brian doesn’t have it in stock, I am sure he can order it for you.

I have used Audacity for a couple years and I continue to be impressed with it. It is only available for PCs running various iterations of Windows. There is no Mac version. The web site has a lot of tips and the community of users is very free with a helping hand. Oh yes, if that garage band records in the garage next door, there is a headphone jack on most computers.

Home Network Options

2010-05-10T07:37:00.002-04:00

Many of us have installed wireless computer networks (Wi-Fi) in our homes and small businesses. The ease of sharing a single Internet connection or a printer is a real convenience. Also, Wi-Fi allows those with other Internet enabled devices like smart phones, iPods and iPads to connect to the outside world. And of course since Wi-Fi is wireless, being able to freely move around your home with your lap top or iPod is really great.

For those who want a home network but do not want to use Wi-Fi, the only option up to now was to run special wiring to various rooms in your home and install network jacks. This wiring is called CAT 5, which stands for Category 5, an electrical engineering designation. For new construction, running these thin cables is no big deal. Running them through walls and floors in older homes can be a real pain.

There is an option. There are devices that can connect all your computers, printers, scanners and Internet connection using the existing wires in your home which are being used for your electrical service. That’s right; the same receptacle into which you plug your living room lamp can also be used as a high speed data connection.

The technology used is the same that some major utility companies like Duke Energy have offered, albeit on a limited basis, to provide Internet access to customers without the need for cable TV, fiber or telephone wires.

There are a number of companies that sell the special router and adapters. You can get product information at www.Homeplug.org. There you will find information on various applications.

This type of home network is not for everyone. If you are a power-user who is using the network to send video files to the TV and store HD television programs on a central server, this is not for you. Also, if you want to use your smart phone or other wireless internet devices, this solution will not work for you. On the other hand, if you have two computers and a printer that you want to connect or just want to share a single internet connection, this might be a good option.

Networks A Mixed Blessing

2010-05-03T07:27:00.003-04:00

Many years ago at the dawn of what we now call the digital age, Thomas Watson, then CEO of IBM, was alleged to have opined, “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” While this was a misquote of a very shrewd business leader, the substance of this observation is not too far off the mark. More and more computers and other digital devices need to be interconnected in order to provide all the services now available at home, at work or on the road. The need for processing power built into the individual devices, be it a netbook, a smart phone or an iPad, is lessening as all of these devices are now interconnected via networks and the Internet. Indeed there are relatively few large super computers serving up information and services. The power of the internet is in the connectivity.

While this “distributed power” of networks and the Internet is a enabler of our world economy and our modern lifestyle, it is also our “Achilles Heal.” In his new book, Cyber War, Richard Clarke warns that warfare in the future will not be fought with bombs, guns or even unmanned aircraft. Rather, he notes, our foes are building new forces and weapons aimed at our computer networks. This cyber-arms build up is largely unnoticed by the public. Nevertheless, it is posing a danger of premeditated or accidental cyberwar, which in turn could trigger violent conflicts across the globe.

In conflicts of the past, warring armies concentrated on destroying bridges, rail lines, and highways as they were all needed for a country to carry on day to day commerce. Today with almost all of our daily routines dependent on computer networks and the Internet, the target of our foes has changed. The systems controlling the phone calls we make, the electricity flowing into our homes, the money from the ATM, and even the water used to brush our teeth in the morning, all rely on computer networks. This is the new ground zero.

Few of us using home or office computers have been spared the irritation and inconvenience of viruses. Even with software to detect them, some continue to get through wreaking havoc on our personal data. While this is a hassle, it pales in comparison to the results of a failure in one or more of these national and international networks. Clarke points out that the military has in place isolated networks protected from outside attack. That is not the case with most businesses, utilities and financial institutions They share the same Internet with us mere mortals . So a cyber warrior may be able to turn off the lights in a major city using the same network as the teen hacker uses to place compromising photo of his principal on his school’s webpage.

In the not too distant future, the military might of a nation may well be vested in the computer engineers and programmers rather than in fighter pilots and physical armaments.

Open Office Worth A Second Look

2010-04-26T08:19:00.002-04:00

The prices of desktop and lap top computers continue to be very affordable. There are net books available for about $250 and desktops loaded with features for not too much more. Once you make the purchase you are often in for a surprise. The cost of the necessary software can be as much or more than the hardware. While operating systems like XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 come included in all but the most inexpensive computers, the software required to actually do something productive with your machine costs extra.

Even a basic suite of programs like Microsoft Office (Student Version) which contains MS Word, a word processor, Excel, a spreadsheet program and Power Point, a presentation program, costs about $150. If you want the deluxe edition, the price can go over $500. That is more money than many of us will pay for the new computer.

You may be surprised to learn that you have an option and do not need to purchase these expensive software packages. There are very good programs available free on the Internet. No, they are not pirated versions of Microsoft programs. If you download them you need not worry about seeing a black Chevy Suburban coming up your driveway complete with a contingent of FBI agents led by Bill Gates.

One of the leading free packages is Open Office, a suite of programs that has been developed by some very smart volunteer programmers spread throughout the world. In fact, the code for these programs, rather than being a guarded corporate secrete, is available to anyone who wants to make improvements to the programs. As of this writing there have been more than 100 million downloads of the Open Office software.

The basic package available at www.openoffice.org contains a word processor, spreadsheet program, presentation program, database program and a neat drawing program. All of them are compatible with MS Office. You can read and write files in Open Office and use those files in MS Office and visa versa. Open Office looks and feels much like Microsoft Office. You will find many of the same conventions, icons and tools. If you have used MS Word or Excel, you will need little or no training on Open Office.

Getting Open Office is a snap. Just set your browser to www.openoffice.org and follow the downloading directions. It will take about 20 minutes to download the programs and set them up on your computer.

Open Office has been around sine the late 1990s and is used by people all over the world. Since the development is ongoing there are new features and improvements offered through the Open Office website all the time.

Before you order that new version of MS Office, you may wish to give Open Office a try. What have you got to lose? You can’t beat the price.

Where Did My Stations Go?

2010-04-19T08:09:00.002-04:00

I have been getting questions about why some or all of the TV stations are disappearing from TVs that receive the channels over-the-air using an antenna. The stories are all the same. One day the person can watch all the local channels and change channels using the Up / Down button on the remote. The next day all or some of the channels are gone and the screen has a message indicating that “no signal is found.” This can be frustrating and very inconvenient if you are sitting down after a long day ready to relax with your favorite TV program.

The problem is not with the local broadcasters. The problem is indeed in your set.
Once you understand what has happened it is easily fixed.

Digital TVs and DTV set top converters all have a built-in memory. For the devices to tune in the over-the-air stations they must have in that memory certain information about the individual TV stations. This information, once gathered, is stored in memory circuits built into the devices. Some TVs have memory chips that must have electrical power to retain the information. Since power is required, if there is an interruption in the power the chip loses its memory. I know at my house hardly a week goes by without some interruption in Duke’s service. We had two last week. Often the outages are short but there are occasions when they do last an hour or more.

You don’t have to have a power failure. I know of one person who used the outlet supplying power to her TV for her vacuum cleaner. Each time she cleaned her living room she would unplug her DTV converter box. When she wanted to watch TV, the channels were gone.

Another person was very conscientious about saving energy so every time he was done watching TV he turned off all the power by using a power strip with an on/off switch. His laudable green lifestyle did not mesh well with his digital TV set as he lost all his channels every time he finished watching for the night.

Fixing this problem is simple. All you need do is rescan for channels. On most digital TVs and DTV converters, this “scan function” will be found by pressing “menu” on your remote. Every TV has different terms for this function but if you look for terms like “channel set up” or “auto program” I am sure you will find it.

Most high quality TVs and set top converters have memory chips that do not require them to be powered all the time. These models not only more reliably maintain the memory, they also save energy.

More Than A New Gadget

2010-04-12T07:30:00.002-04:00

It has been hard to pick up a magazine or newspaper, watch a TV news program or listen to the radio without hearing some report about the release of the new iPad. Even Steven Colbert took the opportunity on his program to use an iPad to dice vegetables for salsa. As much as I would like to, I can’t make salsa with it and I really can’t review the iPad since I don’t have one and the chances of getting one soon are not good. But the major gurus of all things high tech like Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal and David Pogue of the New York Times have given the iPod their imprimatur.

The excitement over the release of the iPad, and not too long ago the release of its older sibling the iPhone, is really demonstrative of radical changes that have been happening in the way we do things in every day life. Not long ago these new electronic devices took years to become commonplace. For sure there were always the techies or geeks that would stand in line to buy anything new that had batteries and beeped. For most of us we waited. Today the time period from the release of a new device to the time it becomes indispensable has been reduced to a New York minute.

Just look around your house or office. How did you ever keep track of family members and their ever changing schedules and whereabouts without your cell phone? Need to take the dog to the new vet clinic? Where did I put that GPS? Term paper due Friday on the French Revolution? Google to the rescue. And of course keeping track of family members far from home is made easy with Facebook, email and Skype.

How long did it take from the time you first learned about the existence of the new technologies listed above to the time that they became essential to your daily routine? I am sure that it was much quicker than the time it took for you to get your first PC or even CD player once they were first introduced. Let’s not even think about the time it took for more than one or two people to use that invention of those two bicycle mechanics in Dayton.

So as the iPad and all the other tablet devices come to market, don’t be surprised how quickly they become a familiar and commonplace tool.

US Broadband Plan Overdue

2010-04-05T08:00:00.001-04:00

Recently the FCC released its much anticipated strategy for addressing the United State’s failure to provide universally available and affordable high speed broadband services. It may come as a surprise to many that US citizens have much slower access to the Internet than many much smaller and less affluent nations. The RoadRunner or Zoomtown offerings that we have available from Time Warner or Cincinnati Bell would seem like “dial up” to someone in South Korea, France or even Portugal.

There are many reasons why many of these countries are ahead of us. Some governments have been quicker than others to see the importance of universally available high speed access to the Internet for their economies to prosper. Other countries are ahead of us since they do not have in place an extensive legacy infrastructure which must be integrated into any new one. This is certainly a big issue in our country. In fact many developing counties will never have a hard wired telephone system since the installation of a cellular system is more economical and quicker to deploy.

No matter the reasons for our current less-than-adequate system, the new FCC Broadband initiative does a good job of identifying the problems and suggesting steps that need to be taken to address them. It also articulates the tremendous importance to our economy to be leaders in the digital era. While the FCC can make recommendations, it will be up to the Congress to find the funds to actually make the changes.

There are four major areas of concentration in the FCC’s Broadband plan. The first calls for policies to ensure robust competition and investment in the private sector.

The second calls for the efficient allocation and management of government controlled assets, such as spectrum, poles, and rights-of-way, to encourage network upgrades to these assets. This includes examining the wireless bandwidth now allocated to broadcasters to see if some of those channels would be better used for wireless broadband instead of radio and TV transmissions.

The third recommendation calls for reform of current Universal Service policies so that broadband services will be made available in high cost areas; and ensure that low-income Americans can afford broadband. It also supports efforts to boost adoption and utilization. The Universal Service concept began some 60 years ago to make sure telephone service was available in rural parts of the country. Expanding it to broadband seems only logical.

Finally, the FCC plan calls for the reform of laws, policies, standards and incentives to maximize the benefits of broadband in sectors that the government influences significantly, such as public education, health care and government operations.

The release of this plan is only the beginning. Over the next few years much discussion and debate will center on improving the availability and speed of our Broadband networks. I’ll try to give you updates on this critical issue.

Smart Phone Execs Seek Lighter Apps

2010-03-29T08:53:00.003-04:00

The explosion in the sale and use of smart phones has spawned a new cottage industry among computer programmers. The slogan, “There’s an App for that!” has never been more true. Whether you use a Blackberry, an iPhone, or a Palm Pre, the list of programs (or apps) that will run on your new phone grows daily.

There are apps that allow you to surf the web, check the weather and book reservations at a local eatery. You can use you iPhone as a carpenter’s level, a geographer’s compass, musical instruments of all stripes and even a video camera.

Most of these applications are free or cost less than two bucks each and can be downloaded to your smart phone using the 3G network. The cost of the purchased apps is added to your phone bill, or in the case of iPhone apps, charged to your iTunes account.

While the proliferation of these apps is welcome news to the folks at Apple and the other smart phone manufacturers, there is one concern being raised by almost all of the major players in this smart phone game.

On Wednesday of this week, Apple executives are inviting application software developers to a special meeting at the sprawling Apple Corporate Headquarters in Cupertino, CA. The meeting is open to all smart phone application developers, not just those writing software for the iPhone. Executives from Apple will be sharing the results of some new market research that shows that the interest in new apps and in new phones is beginning to dwindle and if that trend continues the brisk sales of smart phones may dwindle as well.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, will report that the increased number and complexity of the apps installed on the average smart phone are having serious negative unintended consequences. The phones are getting heavier and heavier with the installation of each new app. Jobs will urge programmers to use more efficient coding in order to keep of the files lighter.

In a recent press release, Jobs points out that a fully loaded iPhone with 100 Apps can weigh eight ounces, or a half a pound, more than the same iPhone weighs in without
the apps. “The software developers need to be more attentive to how many bits and bytes are really required for each app,” said Jobs. “If we don’t do something to address these overweight apps, before long the iPhone will feel like a brick in your pocket.”

You can read the summary of the discussions on the Apple.com web page. It will be released on Thursday, April 1st.

More on "Gs" and Smart Phones

2010-03-22T07:19:00.002-04:00

This is the second installment of our discussion about cellular data networks and smart phones. Last week we discussed the development of the high speed wireless data networks expanding the applications available on today’s smart phones. The smart phone is not only a mobile telephone but can handle many of the tasks once requiring a computer.

Smart phones began to hit the market in the late 1990s and were essentially a mobile phone with a few applications like a personal calendar and address book built in. The explosion in popularity came with the release of the Blackberry in 2002. The Blackberry was one of the first devices that were designed to take advantage of the new high speed mobile networks. That particular device was so popular, for many the name “Blackberry” has become the moniker used for any brand of smart phone. In less than 6 years the user base for Blackberries has topped 32 million. In 2007 Apple released the first iPhone and like so many Apple products, its design (both physical and technical) and applications changed the industry.

Smart phones now can do a host of tasks from the ridiculous (there is an app that turns your iPhone into a harmonica) to mind blowing (Shazam, a smart phone app can recognize music being played on the radio informing the user of the name of the song, the artist performing the song and how one can purchase a copy of the song.) There are apps that turn your smart phone into a GPS. Others will find a good restaurant close by and even make reservations.

Most now have very good digital cameras built in as well as video recorders. You can capture Billy’s dance recital on video and email it to Aunt Esmerelda. Or you can download the pictures or video to your computer and edit a masterpiece to upload to YouTube for the whole world to see. In some countries, smart phones are replacing the credit or debit card. Waving your phone in front of a soft drink machine replaces the need for cash.

With more and more of us using these devices, the 3G networks are getting overloaded. There are already instances in some of the larger metropolitan areas of the country when the networks are so overloaded that none of the subscribers can get service. While these outages last only a short time, for those truly addicted to their smart phones, a few seconds being off the net seems like an eternity.

Are Three "Gs" Better then Two "Gs"?

2010-03-15T06:27:00.002-04:00

The battle continues between AT&T and Verizon. “My 3G network is better than your 3G network!” Maps fill the pages of TV Screens, newspapers and magazines comparing the networks’ coverage. Both promise a more robust and universal network. A week or so ago I was invited to speak before the Harrison Historical Society about new technology. Among the very insightful questions was one about this very issue. The question began with a request to define the term “smart phone.” To answer that question we need to define what all these “Gs” really mean.

Back in the dark ages of mobile phones when the smallest of the available devices was briefcase-size and had a battery that weighed a pound, all mobile or “cell” phones used a network dubbed “1G.” The “G” stands for generation and this network technology was the first generation. It was developed in the early 1980s and was fine for the analog devices in service at that time. It did require phones with protruding antennas and many cars required a little black antenna to be affixed to the rear window. In fact, in the early days that antenna was a sort of status symbol indicating that the driver had a cool new cell phone. You could even buy fake antennas to fool your neighbors that you were part of the cell generation.

The 1G networks were soon replaced by 2G, the first of the digital networks. With the number of mobile phone users exploding in the USA and around the world, the old analog system just could not handle the traffic. 2G systems could accommodate 50 or more simultaneous conversations on the same frequency and allowed for smaller phones with built in antennas. It was not, however, capable of efficiently handling data.

As more and more people wanted to be able to be connected while on the go, not only with voice but with email, the web, navigation services, and now even social networking, the carriers like Verizon and AT&T needed a revolutionary upgrade and that resulted in the current 3G, and soon to be prevalent, 4G networks.

The smart phone requires these networks as it essentially is not only a mobile telephone but can handle many of the tasks once requiring a computer. Next week we will look at smart phones in more depth and answer the question about who has the better G.

Movies From NETFLIX Online

2010-03-08T07:38:00.003-05:00

In 1997 when the fledgling company NETFLIX began shipping movies on DVDs to subscribers nationwide, few would have predicted how fast the service would grow into an icon of electronic entertainment. The success of the company, which was then based on a very old business model of a physical library and 250 year old distribution system, the US Postal Service, was extraordinary. For those unfamiliar with NETFLIX, subscribers set up on line a list of movies they would like to see and, depending on the type of subscription, a selection of movies on DVDs is sent to the subscriber’s home each month. When you return one, another from your list is automatically sent. The DVDs are mailed back and forth. This system has been in place now for more than 10 years but its is about to change.

Just like the sale and distribution processes of music quickly changed from a physical product and physical distribution system, the distribution of movies is quickly following suit. Remember when CDs were once purchased in “Record” stores? Now we have a system that distributes music as MP3 files bought from on line stores like iTunes or Amazon.com.

NETFLIX now offers a complete online service that sends movies to your home using the internet. No DVDs, no trudging to the post office, no loosing the DVDs under the couch. Just like the original service, subscribers set up a list of movies they would like to see and one by one the selections are sent.

There are various ways of receiving these online movies but the one common denominator is a high speed Internet connection like Road Runner or ZoomTown. There are many devices available that can receive, store and play out the movies. For example, many of the new gaming devices such as the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3 can be used. There are several DVD players that are NETFLIX compatible. Sony and LG have HDTV sets that can receive, store and play out the movies directly from the Internet. You can also use a desktop or laptop computer.

The cost of the service runs from about $10 per month to $20. The number of movies you wish to receive dictates the price.

While the online delivery of movies is still only a small part of the NETFLIX business right now, if it develops as quickly as iTunes and Amazon MP3, it wont be long before the DVD may be as scarce at an LP.

See What You've Been Missing

2010-03-01T08:02:00.001-05:00

With all the hype and advertising promoting cable TV and satellite services, it is interesting to me that many people still don’t realize that there are many channels available free over-the- air. In fact, since the digital conversion, the number of channels that most of us can get using an antenna and a digital TV or a digital converter box on our analog TV has gone from about 6 to 17 or more.

We are indeed creatures of habit and as such we tune in good old Channel 9 or 19 and may not think about the fact that these and most other channels have multiple offerings. For example, Fox 19 has two services. Channel 19.1 carries the traditional local news and the Fox network which they have carried for years. On Channel 19.2 there is a completely different service called THISTV. This second channel broadcasts mostly movies and some children’s programming.

On CET Channel 48 (full disclosure here, I work for CET) there are three discrete services. Channel 48.1 carries the traditional schedule of PBS programming. 48.2, with the moniker “CET Create,” has a 24/7 line up of “how-to-do-it” programs. Beginning February 1st, Channel 48.3 began “CET Arts,” a full schedule of programming spanning the visual and performing arts.

All of these channels can be received using a digital TV set and antenna. If you receive the primary channel, i.e., 5.1 or 9.1 etc., you can also get the additional channels. On most TVs and digital converter boxes, all you need to do is press the “Channel UP” button on the remote and you will see the additional channels.

Some of these channels are available also on cable but none of the additional channels are available on either the Dish or DirectTv satellite services. For example, the “CET Arts” service is available on the Time Warner Cable digital tier on Channel 987.

Even if you use a cable or satellite service, you can still set up your TV to receive over- the-air channels as well. For older sets it may require some cables and switches; for most new TV’s it only requires an antenna connected to the new TV and selecting the right input. If you want directions on how to do it just send me an email (jdominic@cetconnect.org) and I will send you the information. Be sure to tell me the type of TV you have and if you have a cable or satellite service.

Look around the over-the-air landscape, you may be surprised to see what you have been missing.

Pandora, Music Lover's Dream Come True

2010-02-22T07:52:00.003-05:00

Few aspects of modern life have been more affected by the digital revolution than the music industry. The way music is performed, recorded, edited and distributed, paid for and listened to all have been revolutionized. Personal collections of recorded music, once filling shelves in the family room, are now carried around in your pocket. Browsing through a “record store” looking for some hard to find treasure is now done on line and rather than waiting for the “record” or “CD” to be delivered, it is available instantly as a down load.

I recently was introduced to an online service that will be of special interest to those who like to explore various genres of music as well as those who have very specific musical tastes. The service is called Pandora.com, and just like its namesake this Pandora’s Box is brimming with surprises. Unlike the mythic box, the surprises are delightful.

When you sign on to Pandora using your computer or smart phone, you are asked to “create a new station.” This can be based on a genre of music like classical, country, rock, etc. or more specifically based on a single performer like Michael Jackson, James Taylor or Frank Sinatra. You can also specify a single composer like John Williams, John Denver or Johann Sebastian Bach.

Once you enter the information, Pandora will create a “station” just for you and begin playing music based on your preferences. The search technology is similar to the one used by Amazon.com; “If you liked this book you might be interested in this other book.”

The really neat thing about Pandora is that the selections made by Pandora can result in music you would have never sampled but when you hear it you really like it. If you hear a song that you don’t like, you click on it, and Pandora stops playing it and uses that information to learn more about your tastes and make more informed selections in the future. You can set up several “stations” so you can listen based on your mood. While reading a book perhaps some classical sections are best. Cutting the lawn or jogging, U-2 fits the bill.

Pandora comes in different flavors. You can use it free for 40 hours a month with a few commercials per hour. For a subscription of $39.00 a year you can get an upgraded version with no commercials and better audio fidelity and no limit on the number of hours you use it. All versions give you lots of information about the music, the performer and composer. You can even order the music online as a MP-3 download or follow a link to purchase a CD.

Pandora can be used on your desktop or laptop computer as well on most mobile devices. If you use it on a mobile device make sure you have an unlimited data plan or you will have a surprise the when you get your next bill from your carrier.

If you like music, I recommend trying Pandora. I have it playing in the background often when I am writing. In fact right now I am listening to Loggins & Messina.