Shelly Palmer Digital Living - Daily Radio Report

T-Mobile made waves in the mobile market recently when it ended cell phone contracts and changed the way you bought new phones: no more subsidies, but rather a down payment and small monthly installments. Its new program, ‘Jump,’ takes that strategy to the next level and gives you the option to get a new smartphone twice a year. While T-Mobile customers could already buy a new phone whenever they want, they’d be on the hook for the rest of the payments on their old device. Jump waives all future payments on your old phone and lets you start fresh with a new device. For ten bucks a month – plus a trade-in of your old device – Jump lets you get a shiny new phone twice a year. The new program won’t save you much – if any – money, and you can’t gift your old phones to family or friends once you upgrade. But if you want to make sure you always have the best phone on the market, hey, you might as well Jump.

If you’ve ever wanted to take massively-sized photographs without lugging around a DSLR camera, I’ve got a smartphone for you. Last week, Nokia unveiled the Windows 8-powered Lumia 1020, complete with a 41-megapixel PureView camera and Carl Zeiss optics. Yep, you heard me right – 41 megapixels. The massive 41-megapixel images are processed by new Pro Camera and Smart Camera software, which are also hitting other Lumias soon. Since a 41-megapixel image is far too big for a mobile upload, the Lumia 1020 actually saves two versions of each photo you take: the full 41-megapixel image as well as a 5-megapixel version, which is far more conducive to sharing on Facebook. The rest of the Lumia 1020’s specs are good, not great: it features a 4.5-inch AMOLED display, a dual-core processor and 32 gigs of storage. If you’ve absolutely got to own the phone with the best built-in camera on the market, the Nokia Lumia 1020 will hit AT&T store shelves exclusively on July 26 for $299 with a new two-year contract.

If you’ve been waiting for a price drop to buy a Microsoft Surface tablet, your time is now. Microsoft recently announced a significant price cut in its entry-level Surface RT tablets. These are the less powerful Surface tablets on the market, and don’t run the full version of Windows 8. However, the Surface RTs are decent in their own right, and are now $150 cheaper. A 32 gig model now runs $349, and doubling the storage to 64 gigs will cost $100 more at $449. The price cut was likely the result of a few factors, including poor sales numbers and new models likely to hit store shelves later this year. The line of Surface tablets has yet to truly take off, but Microsoft is rumored to be debuting new accessories for the Surface soon, including a battery-equipped keyboard cover. If you’re looking to try out a lite version of Windows 8 or are just looking for a mid-range tablet option, the Surface RT is now available at $349, its lowest price ever.

Yahoo recently announced it would “recycle” old usernames to let more people get access to the email addresses they really want. As of this weekend, any Yahoo username not accessed in the past year was put up for grabs for others to claim; you can soon put in requests for usernames you might want, and will be notified in August if you can claim one you requested. Yahoo hasn’t mentioned how many accounts this will affect – other than to say it will happen to “a lot” of them – but it sounds like a cool idea at first. But take a minute and think about how many sites have password recovery features linked to your e-mail account, and things start to get a little hairy. Yahoo has said not to worry: it is implementing a process aimed to safeguard users and will do some cleanup work to ensure data doesn’t end up in the wrong place. To protect your Yahoo account – and your data – make sure to log into Yahoo once a year.

If you use Twitter, you’re probably familiar with the “sponsored tweets” that pop up from time to time in your feed, usually having little to do with your interests. Twitter is looking to improve that and has begun working with a more targeted method. To show you ads that you might be interested in, Twitter now uses browser cookie IDs to show you ads from sites you’ve recently visited. While a more personalized approach could be good, not everyone wants to have their browsing history tracked. To opt out of Twitter’s new advertising model, log into Twitter and go to your account settings page. Uncheck the box that says "Tailor Twitter based on my recent website visits," then uncheck the box that says "Tailor ads based on information shared by ad partners." Scroll down and click "Save Changes.” You won’t get rid of Twitter ads completely – you’ll still see generic promoted tweets – but your browsing history won’t be tracked. And in today’s world, any semblance of privacy is a good thing.

Since Instagram launched its video feature, the team over at Vine has been working overtime to prove why the original micro-video app is the one that you want. Last week, Vine pushed out its biggest update yet. The Vine team has completely re-thought the service, and now allows you to mark uploads as public or private – much like Instagram and Twitter. Vine’s camera has been re-designed to include “grid, focus and ghost tools” to raise the overall quality of your videos and make capturing your life in six-second chunks even easier. Vine also borrowed a feature from Twitter in the form of “re-vining.” Just like you can re-tweet someone on Twitter and share an update with your followers, Vine now lets you re-vine your favorite videos to share them, too. This update went live in the iOS App Store last week and will hit Google Play this week. It’s too early to tell whether Vine or Instagram will win the micro-video war, but as both strive to improve their services, the big winner is us.

Apple’s ‘Back to School’ promotion is back and bigger than ever. Even though most college students won’t head out for another month and a half or so, Apple has already begun its yearly promotion that offers discounts and App Store credit for new hardware purchases. If you’re currently a college student, just got accepted to college or making a purchase on behalf of your college-aged son or daughter, Apple will offer a $100 App Store gift card with the purchase of every Mac. The promotion also offers a $50 App Store credit with the purchase of every iPad. And, for the first time ever, Apple is also tossing in a promotion for the iPhone, giving you a $50 App Store gift card with every iPhone purchase. Teachers, don’t worry – you’re included in the promotion, too. Apple’s ‘Back to School’ sale will run through the rest of the summer, but if you want to get a jump start on the new school year, Apple’s there to make things easy for you.

If you missed your chance to own a Pebble smartwatch when it was funded on Kickstarter last year, here’s your second chance. The Pebble smartwatch is now available for purchase exclusively at Best Buy for $149. Pebble connects to your iPhone or Android device via Bluetooth, letting you read texts, e-mails and Facebook status updates right on your wrist. It offers media controls for your phone and even has access to third-party apps, like exercise trackers. Pebble has an e-paper display with a built-in backlight, which means you can see it in direct sunlight and also in the dark, and lasts a week on a single charge. Smartwatches are poised to be the next big thing in the world of tech, as Apple, Google and a handful of other companies have thrown their hats in the ring to compete for your money. But Pebble beat everyone to store shelves, so a trip to Best Buy and $149 is all you need to give all of your friends watch envy.

In-flight entertainment has come a long way over the years. Even with the vast improvements in this area, however, we’re usually stuck watching these shows on a tiny, low-res screen. Not anymore. Southwest Airlines recently teamed up with DISH Network for a new program called “TV Flies Free.” This program will let travelers access live and on-demand programming for free on their iPhone or iPad. Goodbye crummy 6” screen, hello Retina display! Flyers don’t need to be DISH Network subscribers to access the free content, but they do need to download either the DISH Anywhere or Hopper Transfers app. Once downloaded, live TV, DVR’d shows and on-demand programming are available as part of TV Flies Free. The service is available on all 400 of Southwest’s Wi-Fi enabled planes and marks the first time in-flight entertainment is free for Southwest customers. Next time you’re booking a trip and worried about falling behind on your shows, DISH and Southwest are there to help … with tons of free TV.

One of the best parts about watching a major televised event like the Academy Awards is following along at home on Twitter. But sometimes you might not be able to catch those events live, and watching them on DVR just isn’t the same without that constantly-updating Twitter feed. Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo knows how cool his platform can be, though, which is why the company is fooling around with a rewindable, DVR-type feature. It would be better than a “greatest hits” – or, in this case, greatest tweets – of the night’s event, and Costolo says it would preserve the “roar of the crowd.” He’d like you to be able to see when there were spikes in tweet traffic, and re-live what happened at that particular moment. There are no concrete plans for a Twitter DVR right now, but just knowing that the company is thinking about it is exciting. Twitter already makes every live event better, and being able to re-create that feeling would take Twitter to the next level.

We might not be ready for commercial space travel, let alone colonization of alien planets, but that hasn’t stopped PayPal from planning for that inevitable future. PayPal Galactic is a new form of mobile payments, which PayPal hopes will dominate the extraterrestrial payments market. It may seem like a goofy marketing ploy, but last week’s announcement featured Buzz Aldrin and actually kind of makes sense. We’re getting closer to making space tourism a reality, and PayPal wants to ensure that once it is the preferred way to pay from space and in space. PayPal has teamed up with SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, to help establish the beginning of a functioning society beyond Earth. Aside from establishing a future payment system for a future with space tourism, PayPal says there’s already a need for a system like this to serve astronauts whose desire for good new music hasn’t stopped, just because they’ve left Earth. So remember, before you takeoff into outer space, make sure you know your PayPal password.

The Xbox One may be a television game changer when it launches later this year, but Microsoft isn’t leaving the Xbox 360 to die. Microsoft announced a deal with Time Warner Cable to bring over 300 live channels to the Xbox 360 later this summer. The deal is similar to ones Microsoft already has in place with both Verizon FiOS and Comcast. As long as you’re a Time Warner Cable subscriber and pay $60 a year for Xbox Live Gold – which is required to do just about anything on the Xbox 360 – you’ll be able to stream hundreds of your favorite channels straight to your console. The list of channels included in the partnership hasn’t been released yet, but it’s safe to guess they’ll be very similar to the ones you find on Time Warner’s iOS apps – pretty much everything except local broadcast stations. With Microsoft aiming to take over your living room, partnering with companies like Time Warner make that more of a reality every day.

Nook HD, we hardly knew ye. During an earnings report last week, Barnes and Noble announced it would stop making its Nook line of tablets in-house. The company’s Nook business has lost a lot of money and dragged down the entire company’s results. It’s not all bad news for fans of Barnes and Noble’s mobile devices, though. The company said it would continue to develop e-readers in-house and build its digital content catalog, and would also create a partnership model for building Nook tablets with third party manufacturers. Having recently gained access to the Google Play store, Nook tablets were more appealing than ever before, but still didn’t fare well enough to help them stick around. Barnes and Noble will sell Nook tablets through the holiday season, however, which means we’re likely to see some deep discounts on the devices over the next six months. If you’re looking for an inexpensive tablet this holiday season, you could do a whole lot worse.

Last week, Samsung unveiled a slew of new Windows 8 devices, including the Ativ Q, a laptop-tablet hybrid that runs both Android and Windows 8. It runs Windows by default, but at the tap of an icon it’ll boot into Android Jelly Bean and give you access to all of your favorite apps from the Google Play store. It features a brand-new Haswell Intel i5 processor and a 13” screen with an awesome 3,200x1,800 pixel resolution. The Ativ Q’s ‘standard form’ is a 13-inch slate, but lifting up the display at the back reveals a keyboard underneath. You can then fold up the screen and lock into place behind the keys, letting you type and swipe the same way you can on any other touch screen laptop. The Ativ Q will also come bundled with its S Pen stylus for handwriting notes and drawing on the screen. Samsung has yet to announce pricing or availability, but the Ativ Q seems like one device to keep an eye on.

If you’ve received a replacement battery for your MacBook Pro from a Best Buy, listen carefully. Best Buy recently announced a recall of over 5,000 replacement batteries for MacBook Pro laptops. This recall is NOT for batteries included in brand new MacBook models, but rather just for replacement units. The recall was prompted by 13 reports of battery fires, including one that cause a “serious burn” to its user’s leg. The culprit is ATG lithium-ion batteries, and both black and white battery models are being recalled. Wonder if your battery is one of the recalled models? The batteries are labeled “MC-MBOOK13B” and “MC-MBOOK13W” – as in MacBook 13 black and MacBook 13 white. Best Buy is directly contacting its customers and offering replacement Apple brand batteries or a $50 Best Buy gift card. The recalled ATG batteries aren’t only sold at Best Buy, so if you’ve ever replaced your MacBook’s battery, double-check the model number to see if you need to take action.