Into Tomorrow Quickies

Rollin in Wilmington, Delaware, listens on News Talk Radio WDEL asked: “I was going through my father’s old stereo. He has a reel to reel, tuner, tape deck, record player. Some of them aren’t turning on all the way. I’m not sure how I can get everything working. Do you think it’s worth putting in the time and maybe the money to get them up and running? Do they sound as good as the new stereos that are out?”   Rollin, honestly, probably not. The speakers themselves may sound just as good as modern ones, but the media won’t. Another issue that you’d probably run into very quickly is that being able to pick a song from an almost limitless library on a phone is nice, and having to deal with tape, vinyl, or anything else gets old pretty fast. If you want to put in the work and fix them for the sentimental value, or because you have a large library of music on that media that you do enjoy then, by all means, do it. If you’re asking if it’s objectively worth the time and money, then… no, it’s probably not. You’ll probably get more enjoyment out of a solid modern speaker with bluetooth capabilities. Shelby in Meadville, Mississippi listens on SuperTalk 102.1 FM asked: Wondering if you have suggestions on how to speed up my android Samsung Rugby Pro. It’s less than two years old.   Shelby, your phone may not get a lot faster than it is. It was never meant to be a super fast phone, it was just meant to be really hard to break. It’s waterproof, and shockproof, but it’s got a relatively slow processor. If you don’t mind having to set everything back up, you can restore to factory settings, that should leave it as fast as it was on day one, but at the expense of all of your media and apps. Unfortunately, two years is a long time in the smartphone world If you’re using an SD card, consider replacing it with a faster one, they are not all the same and the faster ones can offer far better performance, especially if you’re storing apps there. Unfortunately, two years is a long time in the smartphone world, and it’s an even longer time when it comes to lower end phones, so there may not be much you can do, your phone may just be outclassed in a world that assumes that devices simply have more power.

Karl asked: “I love the show. Listen every Saturday from an undisclosed location on my mail route. That’s the reason I’m calling. I need an accurate weather app on my Samsung Galaxy S6 phone so I can see the current conditions for the weather. I’ve used some of the local Detroit weather station apps and they’re not so accurate. In the past I’ve used some national weather station apps and they seem to be memory hogs.”   Karl, the first thing we should mention is that hyperlocal weather forecasts are only as dependable as the weather stations they’re getting their reports from. Hyperlocal weather apps tend to get their data from consumer-level stations, since the National Weather Service doesn’t really bother to put a few reporting stations on every neighborhood imaginable. So, don’t expect the forecast to always be flawless. That disclaimer aside, you can give Dark Sky a shot. It has been a very popular weather app on iOS devices since it launched and it has since been ported to Android, so it should work just fine on your S6. Dark Sky will give you an estimate of how many minutes into the future it will start or stop raining around you, which you might appreciate if you’re constantly exposed to the elements on your route. We also like the NOAA High-Def Radar App Arcus Weather has gotten less attention but it does pretty much exactly the same thing Dark Sky does, but Dark Sky will cost you $2.99/year, while Arcus Weather offers a Pro, ad-free version, but doesn’t require it.   We also like the NOAA High-Def Radar App, available both for iPhone and Android. It’s $2 on iPhone and $3 on Android, but it’s well worth the price. It feeds live satellite information showing you what’s in your area, where and how fast it is moving. We’ve only used the iPhone version ourselves and the Android version is a bit older, but the screens all look the same so hopefully it works just as well. In our experience the NOAA High-Def Radar App has been accurate and reliable.

Willy asked: “Question about Samsung Smart TV. We do a lot of streaming on Hulu, Netflix and Amazon. My problem is my TV stops and does the little “turning thing” for a while and then starts playing again. Is there any device that you know of that will boost the signal to my router to make viewing movies more pleasant?”   Willy, there are devices that may help you with your problem but, before you buy anything, make sure that’s actually your problem. If you move the TV closer to your router, does the streaming issue stop? If it doesn’t the issue may be with your connection speed more than with your signal strength. If it does what you’re looking for is a WiFi repeater. There are many different kinds, from the simple plug in the wall and it will rebroadcast whatever it gets, to complex systems where different units talk to each other and rearrange their antennas to provide better coverage automatically. The simplest way to go about this may be to move your router, or connect a network cable to the TV, if you can. A basic network extender can cost you as little as $20 If that won’t work for you, a basic network extender can cost you as little as $20, while one of those systems with multiple units that we mentioned before can cost you many hundreds or even thousands. Mark has mentioned the “eero” system before, that one is reportedly very good, but you’re looking at around $400. If your TV is already close to your WiFi router, or is connected to your network via a cable, it’s also possible that your Internet service provider is having issues. The little spinning wheel is the classic symbol for “buffering,” and it’s your TV’s way of saying “Hey, I’d display some video here except that I’m OUT OF DATA!” Subtle, isn’t it? How fast is your Internet connection. The faster, the better.

Mark asked: “I wanted to know if you could recommend a traffic app. I’m a courier. I travel between Tennessee and Georgia. Any good recommendation would be appreciated.”   Mark, for professional driving your best bet are still pro-level GPS devices. Having said that there are a couple of apps that you can try. If you’re just concerned with traffic and nothing else you can try regular GPS apps, Waze has a lot of fans since it allows users to send real time reports. That means you get alert about road hazards, speed traps, traffic jams, and more from real people on the road. If you want to try something made for pros, Trucker Path is popular with drivers. Trucker Path is free and it includes diesel prices, truck stop locations, weigh stations, and real time parking spot availability. Waze is probably the best bet for live alerts to road problems. Trucker Path is available for both iOS and Android. Co-Pilot Truck is a well regarded GPS app focused on truckers and their routes, but it’s not free. You can try it for 14 days if you have an Android device, but after that it will cost you a subscription fee. However, as we said, Waze is probably the best bet for live alerts to road problems. It’s owned by Google now and is therefore extremely popular. And having a lot of people running the app and reporting issues is the key to having lots of accurate, up to date information. Waze includes navigation features but those aren’t really its strong suit. What’s good about Waze is the crowdsourced traffic reports.

Sally asked: “I was wondering if you can help me understand better how I’m gonna integrate my 3D camera – the Fujifilm 3D camera – it’s TV compatible with movies and stills. They say you can put it on TV. I was wondering if that’s an anaglyph process. I use it just for print at this point, but think it would be fun to do 3D movies on the TV and wanted a little bit of guidance on getting started with that.”   Sally, it’s not really anaglyph from the camera, it may be from the TV but the camera won’t split the image. For those who may not know, anaglyph is the processes that splits the image into two different images, one for each eye. Your camera can be connected to your TV either through a an A/V cable or an HDMI cable, 3D is only available via the HDMI cable, however, that’s not enough. You also need a 3D capable TV, that’s what we meant by the anaglyph process not happening at camera level, the camera just passes the 3D media along to the TV and it’s the 3D TV that plays it if it can. Otherwise all you’ll get is regular 2D. The camera can also share 3D video with a 3D LG photoframe, but the odds of you having one of those are low.

Rick asked: “Smartphones that are cracked – besides looking bad, what makes a smartphone that’s “broke”, work improperly. Sometimes the touchscreen will work fine, some days it won’t. Is there a danger to the operations of the smartphone with the screen being broken?”   Rick, sometimes your screen works and sometimes it doesn’t because under the glass there’s a digitizer that is used to sense when a finger disrupts the electric field around the screen. Capacitive screens don’t care if you touch them or not, they’re not like resistive screens that bend. Instead capacitive screens sense that the electric field near the screen was changed by something that is not the air. That’s done by a digitizer. Capacitive screens sense that the electric field near the screen was changed by something that is not the air. If your screen is cracked, the digitizer may or may not be whole. It may have been damaged too. In your case something is probably wrong, that’s why your screen is not always working as expected. Now, as to whether or not there is a danger from using your phone with a cracked screen, it works out just fine most of the time, but it’s riskier. The phone is designed to have a glass barrier between the phone’s internal components and your skin, sweat, rain drops, and everything else that designers don’t want to be making contact with the phone’s insides. You can also cut your face or fingers, but you probably figured that out already. Long term, you probably want to get that screen fixed sooner or later something will slip in there and cause some trouble.

Curtis asked: “I am visually impaired and have an LG trackfone model LGL41C. I would like to display the screen of this telephone on an LG television, model 32LH550B. How would I do this, if possible? “   Curtis, your TV supports something called Miracast, think of it as something like a built in Chromecast, roughly, though it’s not exactly the same. If your LG phone has something it calls “SmartShare” that’s what they call Miracast support on their devices. That SmartShare, if available may let you either mirror the whole screen or mirror just videos. If your phone doesn’t support SmartShare, it is possible to sideload an app called MirrorEnabler that will turn it on for you, but it may or may not work well on your phone, and it does require a rooted device.

Richard asked: “I upgraded to Win 10 and it mostly works fine, but when I restart my computer, I get three run DLL messages that popup. How do I get that to not do that anymore?”   Richard, typically the best way to fix that error would be to find out what program those DLL belong to (DLLs are Dynamic Link Libraries and they store components that programs need to be able to run) and re install those programs. Reinstalling, or even repairing will likely fix the issue, since what’s probably happening is that those files are either missing, or somehow broken. What’s probably happening is that those files are either missing, or somehow broken. If you tell us the names of the files that are missing we may be able to tell you what software they belong to. Sometimes many different programs make use of the same libraries so we can’t promise we’ll be able to give you a definite answer, but we may be able to narrow it down for you. If you’d like to tackle it yourself, copy and paste (if you can) or type out (if you can’t copy and paste) the complete, exact error message including the name of the DLL and run a Google search on that. In many instances that will yield information on what’s causing the error and how to fix it.

Consumer Reports joined Into Tomorrow this week with advice about sound systems: If you’ve been putting off upgrading to a 4K TV set, this might be the year you’ll want to make the leap, so says Consumer Reports. Their electronics spokesman James McQueen is here to tell us why. With prices falling, more 4K content available, and features such as HDR becoming widespread, you may want to purchase your first 4KTV this year. The LG OLED55E6P is currently the best 4K TV in our ratings- and among the very best TVs we’ve ever tested. The 55 –inch model boasts excellent high definition picture and excellent UHD performance. Like all OLED TVs it has an almost unlimited viewing angle, and the sound from the integrated sound bar speaker on this set is very good. Even better – it  supports both HDR10 and Dolby Vision high dynamic range technology. The Samsung UN55KS8000 LED LCD TV is also a great performer and is a relative bargain at just under $ 1,500. It has great motion-blur reduction and sound. It’s also capable of hitting the Ultra HD Alliance’s specs for brightness and colors; being one on the brightest TVS we’ve tested. Plus this TV supports the HDR10 high-dynamic range standard and has a 10-bit color processing to produce a wider range of colors. For more info on this story, visit ConsumerReports.org. For Into Tomorrow, James McQueen – Consumer Reports Dave and Chris recommended apps they’ve been playing with: I always complain about pre-installed apps and the crapware on our phones, but I’d really LOVE it if Cinemute could be a default app on every device ever sold. It keeps track of whether you’re inside a movie theater, and if so, it mutes your device so you don’t get a phone call mid-movie. False positives would have the potential to get annoying, but luckily there’s an option to blacklist specific theaters, handy if you live right next door to a multiplex. Unfortunately – at the moment – this one is Android only. Dave I have not quite found the real use for this app, but MyIdol is probably one of the coolest apps I have found in a while. It allows you to make a 3D animated avatar using your face and interact with friends that have also used the app to create avatars. Basically, you import a picture of your face which it uses to create the general shape of the face, then you select a hairstyle, eye color, facial hair and so forth. Then it creates your avatar. You can also use the app to create animated emojis of yourself that you can send to your friends. One of the coolest things, though is that you can insert your avatar into some of their many pre-built scenes. Ever wanted to see yourself play the piano or pole dance? You can, in this app! Chris

Dave talks to Erik Knight, Founder and CEO  of SimpleWan about Cybersecurity and Remote Diagnostics in business to help ensure consumers stay safe.

Dave talks to Suzanne Kantra, Founder and Editor of Techlicious about their reviews, tips and how-tos for consumer electronics & tech.

Dean asked: “I have a computer with Windows 7 and I am wondering if I should upgrade to Windows 10. Is it a suitable upgrade?”   Dean, overall people seem reasonably happy with Windows 10. Microsoft’s tactics to get people to update haven’t been welcome, but the operating system itself seems solid. So, is it a suitable upgrade? It sure seems to be, there’s a problem though… You waited out the entire year-long free upgrade period and started considering an upgrade a week AFTER the free upgrade offer expired. Right now Microsoft is selling copies of Windows 10 Home Edition for $120, more advanced versions of the operating system go for more money. If you haven’t upgraded yet, maybe it’s not for you. If you haven’t upgraded yet, maybe it’s not for you. While the free upgrade offer we would’ve encouraged you to try it, it’s a good OS, but now that the offer has expired and with you using a Windows 7 computer can’t be that new, you may be better off waiting until you need to upgrade to a new computer and have the $100+ Windows 10 would’ve cost you already saved up. Windows 10 is just an operating system, and an operating system is just the middleware that makes software and hardware talk to each other. If Windows 7 is meeting all your needs and you haven’t felt like upgrading to 10 for its flashy new features, there’s nothing wrong with that. Enjoy your 7 and just try 10 when you have to buy a new machine, 7 was a good OS.

Consumer Reports joined Into Tomorrow this week with advice about sound systems: It takes more than a good set of ears to identify great sound, especially when it comes to evaluating sound systems. According to the experts at Consumer Reports, you also need a great playlist. Their electronics spokesman James McQueen is here to explain. To evaluate a sound system, believe it or not the use of musical tracks can spot the qualities found in a top-notch system. Before you snatch up your wallet and rush off to the store, track down some audio files to help. Here are five songs that can assist in your search for your next sound system. First song to add to your playlist is Led Zeppelin: “ Whole Lotta Love”, by positioning yourself midway between the speakers, the song’s soundboard effect will begin to circle your head, demonstrating proper channel separation. Ingrid Michaelson’s:  “The Way I Am”, you can hear both fingers moving along strings and Michaelson’s breath between the lines. Within Diane Schuur’s song “Travelin’ Light”, carefully listen to catch the vocals and horns resound off the walls of the performance. Fabio Biondi, Europa Galant: “RV315 L’Estate: III. Tempo Impetuoso d’Estate (Summer in G)”, the strings are being played at breakneck speed, but on a quality sound system, each note will be distinct. Lastly, “Sin Wagon” by the Dixie Chicks on better equipment, the instruments will be easy to hear and have definition. For more info on this story, visit ConsumerReports.org. For Into Tomorrow, James McQueen – Consumer Reports Steen in Laurel, Mississippi listens on SuperTalk 99.3 FM recommended the NASA app: Not only lets you see the current sighting of the space station as it comes over, there’s over 4,000 of the neatest, coolest pictures I’ve ever seen – from space and our own planet. Listener Steen in Laurel, Mississippi Dave and Mark also recommended apps they’ve been playing with: If you’re into all things Olympic ….the (mostly Russian-free) Olympics start this weekend and provided that everything goes according to plans, it should be an interesting show. NBC has created an Olympics app for you to follow along. You get all the video highlights, TV schedules, athlete profiles and any info you could possibly want. Actual video streaming is still on the NBC Sports app, but the Olympics app should give you direct links to view events live. It’s available for iOS and Android. Dave Microsoft Pix is a camera app that is not about fancy filters. Instead, it uses your phone’s processor power to figure out the best picture that it can take, and it adjusts the settings to get just that picture. It works well for low light photography.

Stephanie asked: “My laptop is Windows 7 Home Premium. Recently, after hitting the windows button on it, I got a message saying “Preparing to configure Windows, do not turn off your computer.” That was four days ago. I can not use the computer. If I shut it down and turn it back on, I get the same message. I don’t know how to get out of that loop so that I can use the laptop.”   Stephanie, unfortunately you are not alone, many people have faced similar issues with Windows security updates, but you should be able to recover your laptop. If you’re lucky, you may be able to just press CTRL + ALT + DEL and just sign in and use your user as you normally would. However, there’s a good chance that this won’t work and, even if it does, it may not break the update loop. It’s likely that something went wrong during the update process that keeps it stuck in that loop, so you’ll probably have to roll back to a previous system restore point. To do that, you can just go to the Start Menu, then Accessories, and finally System Restore and pick a previous restore point. If you weren’t able to get into your account by holding down CTRL + ALT + DEL, don’t worry, you should still be able to log in to do this using Safe Mode. It’s likely that something went wrong during the update process Just reboot your computer, hold down F8 as your machine is booting up and ask Windows to boot into Safe Mode, that should bypass the System Update and just let you type in your password and get into your account. After you’re in, just go to System Restore and let Windows take itself back to a date when everything worked normally. If you do that, the update that locked up your system won’t be installed yet, and we understand that you may feel like skipping Windows Updates altogether, but try to give it another shot. A lot of these security updates fix holes that can make your computer less secure, so trying to install it may be a good idea.

Karl asked: “I have an old iMac. Currently take the video out of VGA into my TV and I was wondering if I changed to an HDMI Adapter, if the picture would look better. The specs say i have an ATI Radeon X1600 and my display is 1440 x 900.”   VGA is an old standard, it’s from 1987, and it’s prone to a few problems that HDMI should be immune to. VGA is analog, and it’s vulnerable to something called crosstalk, basically it means that if there are other cables nearby, it may pick up their signal and that signal may interfere with its own. The signal may even degrade even without interference if you’re using long cables. HDMI is a digital standard, which means that it has two modes: on or off. If the signal is too weak, you get nothing, if it’s strong enough you always get the same picture. Cables don’t matter, interference doesn’t matter, all that matters is “is the signal strong enough? Good, then you get full quality. It’s not? Ok, you get nothing at all.” Now, if your display is 1440 x 900, you’re below the limits of both connections, so things may not look much different, likely not at all. If your display is 1440 x 900, you’re below the limits of both connections There is no inherent improvement in going from analog to digital, at least not in this case. Furthermore, since you have an older iMac, you wouldn’t be able to get by with simply an HDMI cable. You would need to purchase a mini-DVI to  DVI-HDMI converter box and run HDMI cable from there. That’s not going to help signal quality, either. We’re sorry we don’t have better news for you, but it might be time for a bit larger of a tech upgrade than you were planning.