Into Tomorrow Quickies

Into Tomorrow listener Greg in Nashville, Tennessee listening on Supertalk 99.7 WTN has a question about Windows 10 and gaming: I'm updating to Windows 10 on my son's computer. He's wondering if Steam and Roblox games are compatible. He has updated in the past and lost his ability to play those games. If you’re updating from Windows 8.1 nothing should change, it seems like almost every game that was working for 8.1 is working fine on Windows 10 - at least so far. There are two things to consider though: 1) If you’re upgrading from Windows 7 some games may need patches like they did for Windows 8, and 2) most games seem to be ok, but that means nothing if the ones you want to run are not ok. Windows 10 has been out for a little bit by now, and people seem to at least be giving it a try, so your best bet may be to search for specific games and see if they’re playing nice with the new version of Windows. Microsoft's own forums have a list of games with reports as to whether or not they're working under Windows 10 (http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_install/windows-10-games-compatibility-list/a31335a8-730f-4ac9-8c19-7c8c3a664ced). Some have reported that Steam works but that it had given them trouble before they reinstalled everything, so make sure your son knows that there may be an easy solution if his games don’t work immediately after installing. It's not about Steam, however The real issue isn’t with Steam but rather it’s with DirectX 12 and the games themselves. Most game developers are saying that their games will work with DirectX 12, but the truth is that a lot of them aren’t working as reliably as they did under DirectX 11. We have no doubt at all this will change over time. DirectX 12 will become the new standard for Windows video games, patches will come out, and we can all go back to killing zombies or blowing up space ships with impunity. The question is why upgrade, at least right now? There isn’t one thing you’ll be able to do under Windows 10 today that you can’t already do under Windows 8.1 and, as we said, there is a chance that some things will break. Other than bragging rights, why update so quickly? There has already been one glitched Windows 10 update that put computers into an infinite reboot loop. Do you want to buy into that, right now?   Wait for a bit. You have a year before you lose the free upgrade. Maybe even wait for Service Pack 1 before you jump ship. Because you know it’s coming! Good luck!

Listener Jerry in Detroit, Michigan asked us about using mobile apps on his Windows computer: How can I play some of the app that are available for phones on my regular computer. I've used sendbackies, and other apps. I know I have to change my operation from Windows 8.1 to an android base system. But has someone finally come out with an android based operation that will work with Windows 8.1?   There are a couple of ways to run Android apps on Windows right now. The BlueStacks App Player (http://www.bluestacks.com) is a fairly seamless way to run Android apps on a Windows PC. It gives you a Windows gadget that gives you access to an Android desktop where your apps will be listed and, here’s the best part, it supports the Google Play store. So there’s no messy sideloading of APK files. You just choose an app from the Play store, it downloads, and you’re ready to go. BlueStacks is free, too. Intel, Samsung, Qualcomm, and AMD are all investors who have sponsored BlueStacks, and for obvious reasons. Each of them wants to see Android succeed and they want to see better integration of Android with Windows PC. There is a catch, however, the BlueStacks free version will download sponsored apps to your computer automatically. The hope is, of course, that you will find these apps interesting and give them a try before deleting them, but that’s entirely up to you. If you want to buy the Premium version, you will get an offer screen on your first launch of the program after installation. An annual subscription of $24 will avoid having any sponsored apps automatically shoveled on to your computer. Your next option would be an extension for Chrome called ARC Welder (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/arc-welder/emfinbmielocnlhgmfkkmkngdoccbadn). You download ARC Welder from the Chrome Web store and then launch it from your Chrome browser’s app launcher. Using Chrome as a base means ARC Welder will work not only with Windows, but also Chromebooks and Macs. Once you launch ARC Welder, you point it at the APK for the program you want to run. That’s a process called sideloading. Where do you get an APK? Well, if you’ve connected your Android phone to your Windows PC and backed it up, the APK files for the apps installed on it will be in the folders made during that backup. There is also a website called APK Mirror that runs at apkmirror.com and lets you download the APK files for many popular apps right there. ARC Welder’s big limitation is that it will only run one Android app at a time, but it’s emulation is pretty good. It doesn’t support Google’s Play store, so you can’t run any official Google apps, but when an app DOES run, it works pretty well. Finally, you can download the SDK (that’s computer speak for Software Developer’s Kit) from Google. Because Android is free, it’s free, but you will pay with sweat and tears from the setup process. In order to test your apps, the SDK includes an Android emulator for Windows. You will have to create AVDs (or Android Virtual Devices) and then sideload the APKs just as with ARC Welder, but it will work. It’s clunky, but it was never designed to be an end user product, it’s really a tool for developers. So, in the end, why don’t you just go download a copy of BlueStacks from bluestacks.com? That is far and away the easiest and best method for running Android apps on Windows.

Mark joined the show with his thoughts on the much anticipated upcoming release of Fallout 4 (http://intotomorrow.com/?p=28228)   Allan in Kissimmee, Florida listens to the Into Tomorrow podcasts and asked us about upgrading his gaming desktop: I have a gaming desktop and I'm looking to upgrade the video card. Just wondering what to look out for.   You should look out for unrealistic expectation first of all, when you upgrade your graphics card, your games should run better, but they may not run as well as you’d like them to, if the rest of your computer is still not up to the same standards of the new graphics card. You should also keep an eye out for compatibility both with the rest of your desktop’s components, but even with your desktop’s own case, some modern graphics cards are close to a foot long. Pay attention to both RAM and it’s bandwidth, you want enough memory to load the images that will fill up your screen, but also the speed to get them there without delay. You probably don’t want to spend a ton of money on the top of the line super expensive card, if it’s going to be overkill for what you need or for what the rest of your computer can use. Typically, people seem to find a sweet spot around $200 where good cards can be found that are also worth buying, but your mileage may vary. The two big names in gaming video cards are NVIDIA and AMD, but those aren’t usually the name on the card itself. They are the names of the companies making the graphics processors--the chips that make the cards go. As to which one is better? Well, what day is it? They keep releasing new chips on a regular basis, and they’re playing a game of high tech leapfrog where each company takes the lead and holds it until the other company releases a new product. Our buddy Mark Lautenschlager has said that he once was an AMD guy but has stuck with NVIDIA for a number of years. He said It’s his opinion that NVIDIA’s drivers and game support is more stable, but he also freely admits that he hasn’t kept up with AMD since making the switch. I will echo the advice we already gave you, and that is never to purchase the absolute top of the line card unless you simply have money to burn. You can usually step down one or two revisions and still get excellent performance for half the cost. But if you have the cash to spend and you want to raise the roof, I’d recommend an NVIDIA GTX 980 4G card right now, as that’s just about the fastest single card video solution for a gaming rig. Finally, don’t go by the specs on the box. They will confuse you. The specs they publish on boxes sound very similar between cards. The things they don’t publish, like shader units, clock speed, and pixel fill rate, are indicators of true speed. There is no such thing as a free lunch. A $50 video card is much slower than a $200 video card, and much, much slower than a $600 video card. The sweet spot is $150 to $350. Under that and you’re not getting enough card. Over that and you’re spending to win the benchmark race--you’ll never see the difference in the current generation games.

Chris took us back in time to the birth of the washing machine, and spending thousands on computers with kilobytes of memory (http://intotomorrow.com/this-week-in-tech-history-08-07-2015/)   Listener Shawn in Redmond, Oregon listens to the podcasts and asked us about planned obsolescence and whether it's all a big conspiracy: Seems like a few products I have around my house are mysteriously having issues, where certain things stop working or don't work properly. I'm wondering if it's a "planned obsolescence" issue. Looking for your opinion. Are these electronics companies using "planned obsolescence" and is it legal? To me it seems like ripping off the consumers and I thought I'd ask your opinion on this.   Planned obsolescence is not only legal, but probably necessary. It allows manufacturers to select materials that, while they may not last forever, will last for as long as the product itself is expected to, that means that they can be as efficient as possible when it comes to the materials they choose. Having said that, there have been cases of programmed obsolescence that are much harder to defend, inkjet cartridges have been known to stop working before they’re actually empty, for example. Now, realistically, most people want a new phone after a few years, having companies build phones that will last about that long, as opposed to decades, may make sense if it allows manufacturers to make devices affordable. The same goes for most other consumer electronics. The truth is that planned obsolescence is built into everything, you just may not have noticed. Most sneakers only last a few of years, and we don’t mean “of wearing them,” if you leave them in the box for a few of years their soles may crumble when you take them out of that box. That’s because of the materials they use, they’re cheaper, they do the job well, and the only people who seems to have noticed the problem have been collectors and fans of discontinued models that stocked up while they could get them. Planned obsolescence is probably less evil than people make it out to be. It’s not great for big name manufacturers to have products that die before they’re expected to, after all, if you bought a brand new Ford that lasted you 6 months, wouldn’t you look at Chevy for a replacement? Only, there’s more than Ford and Chevy, there are scores of manufacturers out there, so they won’t be passing customers back and forth either, they may just lose them to better competitors. The point of planned obsolescence is largely to not lose money on making things eternal when they’re only expected to work for a finite amount of time, and to have plans for the obsolete products whether those plans will be recycling them, or ending support after a set time, or anything else.

Karina in Miami Lakes, Florida listens online and asked Into Tomorrow about using her tablet as a cellphone: I have a new iPad Air that has its own cell phone number and cellular capabilities. Could this be used as a phone as well, to make or receive calls? Unfortunately the iPad Air cannot be used as a phone to make or receive calls. It may have a number assigned to it for billing and tracking purposes, but it uses a dedicated data connection and not voice. However, you can use apps like Skype to make international calls at a low price. There is one exception, you can make one kind of phone call without downloading any extra apps, you can make FaceTime Audio phone calls to anyone with an iPhone.

Listener Steven in Sparta, Missouri listens on WTN 99.7 FM and asked Into Tomorrow about signal boosters: In bad to low cell phone signal areas, is there a way to boost it, other than a Wilson booster? There are other options other than Wilson, Wilson is a big brand, but ultimately, it’s just a brand. And you should know that Wilson recently merged with zBoost is now WeBoost (http://www.weboost.com). SureCall offers good cellphone signal boosters, some specifically made for low outdoor signal areas, and you may even be able to find both boosters and extenders from your own carrier. Verizon, for example, sells both branded boosters and extenders. The extenders are made by Samsung and need internet access, but will act as a mini cellphone tower and give you service even if there’s nothing on the air to repeat. AT&T calls the same devices “Microcells,” and they also have them available to their customers. These devices are usually fairly simple to set up, you just tie them to your account, there’s typically an online registration, then they’ll try to get a GPS lock to figure out where they are and which towers they can attempt to contact, and you should be up and running after that. The advantage of going with your own cell phone company is that sometimes (not always) they may cover part or all of the cost of the repeater or extender to keep you as a customer. These devices are not cheap, you’re looking at spending many hundreds on them, so if your carrier is willing to cover even some of it, you may be in for substantial savings.

Into Tomorrow listener Andrew in Pembroke, Kentucky listens on WTN 99.7 FM asked us about iCracked franchises, he said: I'd like to know about the business iCracked. Would it be worth me investing into them as a franchisee, or not? What do you know about the business? As far as we could find out, this is the deal: You give them $1500 and become a certified “iTech” that can fix Apple and Samsung devices. You’re “certified” by them, by the way, not by any authority anyone else would recognize… sort of like how McDonald’s could certify you as a 5 star chef, but that doesn’t mean anyone who isn’t McDonald’s would care… After that, you get a kit with your first batch of supplies for repairs, tools, and a polo (we guess the polo shirt makes you official). They’ll also set you up with a Smart car wrapped with iCracked logos, but the lease is your responsibility, and the certification process to become an “iTech” involves online videos and online quizzes. You obviously don’t get a storefront for $1500, it’s more of a “drive up to your customer” - “work out of your trunk” type of situation. They’ll provide you with “leads” which basically means that they refer people trying to fix their devices to you, you fix the devices and they offer a lifetime warranty in parts, but their warranty comes at a price, as their parts are more expensive to buy than other options you could find in the market. You will get notified of leads by their “dispatch system” (an app on your phone), when someone has requested service around you. They may get you some customers, but whether that’s worth the extra money is up to you, a lot of people just do the same thing on their own, with cheaper parts, and seem to do well enough. There is no monthly franchise fee though, the rest of their income comes from the parts you buy, they may complain if you stop buying more expensive parts from them but keep taking jobs from their dispatch system, obviously.

Into Tomorrow listener Mark in Lewes, Delaware asked the following question: I was wondering if there was any type of technology in the near future to project a keyboard on a flat surface. I like to work from a smartphone and I have some webpages that I work on, and I just really can't do things on my smartphone because of the limited keyboard. I'd like to see something projected on a flat surface that I could virtually type. I'd like to hear your comments on that. There probably will be projection keyboards available in the near future, considering you can buy them today… Brookstone has a model available for about $90, it’s compatible with iOS and Android, and it works as well as a reasonable person can expect a projected keyboard to work in the real world. You’re paying for a conversation piece that sort of does what you need it to do… sort of… Now, if you really want to be able to type, get a regular bluetooth keyboard, it will be infinitely better, it will work like a keyboard should, and you will actually use it. Projection keyboards are nice and flashy, but pretty gimmicky and useless in the real world. You really don’t realize how important the feel of a keyboard is, how far the keys travel up and down, and what sort of resistance they offer when you press them, until you try and type on a flat, unmoving surface like the glass screen of a tablet...or a table using a projected keyboard. Working on web pages requires a lot of typing and moving the cursor about. A bluetooth keyboard, especially one with arrow keys, would be so much better than a projection keyboard that we don’t have a word for it. How about “super-typo-licious?” You’d have to carry another piece of gear with you anyway, so the keyboard should be no big deal. The Perixx Periboard 805 series folding Bluetooth keyboards collapse into a small package, have a decent feel to them, and cost under $50. The myType soft folding keyboard can be stuffed into a back pocket safely, costs $60, and is still much better than a keyboard projected on a table, although perhaps only just a little better, because the keys are quite mushy and they’re oddly spaced so they can interlock when you fold the keyboard in half.

Into Tomorrow listener Warren in Jackson, Mississippi listens on 97.3 FM and asked: I wanted to know if there are any phone companies considering the possibility of forwarding a voicemail. Some phone companies already allow forwarding a voicemail, but not all of them do, and even the one that allow it tend to only let you forward to other numbers within their network. To see if your carrier does allow that, you’re going to have to call your own number and go through the options on the voicemail tree. If you have any flavor of visual voicemail on your phone, you most likely will not be able to forward directly, but you can often use either a 3rd party app, or a computer program to extract the audio file and send it to a recipient.

Listener James in Bridgman, Michigan asked Into Tomorrow: I have been looking at a Raspberry Pi 2 little PC online.  It shows kids using these to learn some programs and you can get kits where they can learn to make and control some electronics.  These machines are not very expensive, about $85 for a starter kit, but before I purchase one of these I would like to ask if the same can be done with a PC I already own. Can I take an old PC, install Linux, get the breadboard kit and connect to a parallel port on the PC, or is using a machine like the Raspberry Pi way better ? Thanks for any insight you can give. A Raspberry Pi is actually worse than any reasonably modern PC… it’s pretty ok for something tiny enough to fit in almost anywhere, but it’s not powerful at all and it doesn’t offer the same flexibility a regular PC does. The Pi would be a better option if you want to be able to stick it to the top of something you’re building and let it control it, it’s a good unobtrusive “brain,” and it’s easy to hide if you want to set up a (kind of slow) media center behind a TV for example. Where does the Pi shine? The big advantages of the Pi are it’s size and it’s price, it’s cheap and easy to hide or stick to whatever electronic device you happen to be building, but if you have an old computer you can almost certainly use it just fine, it’s the traditional way to play with electronics, the Pi offers a new alternative, but it’s not necessary, it’s just a cheap way to enter the game if you don’t want to buy a full sized computer. If you still want to look at the Raspberry Pi, there are other options that you may want to research as well, like the Banana Pi (which looks the same as the Raspberry Pi, but with a yellow connector and is more powerful), the Raspberry Pi 2, and the extensive Arduino line. Where does it not? We’ve done a little pricing on the Raspberry Pi and what we’ve found is that by the time you connect up all the bits and pieces you’d need to make a complete general purpose desktop PC, you’d be paying just as much as you would for a low cost PC running Windows. We think the Raspberry Pi is excellent in its place and it’s a great tool for getting kids deeper into electronics and the internals of computers. But it’s really not a computer “system,” like we said, it’s the brains of some other project. The ultimate DIY device.   MaryAnn in Mississippi listens to Into Tomorrow on Smart Talk 100.9 FM and asked: I have a Sony Xperia L which I have enjoyed for more than a year. I have never been able to get my phone to recognize a micro-sd card.  Is a defective slot likely?  Is this repairable or should I face it and realize that after multiple attempts this techno...challenged person is most likely installing it incorrectly?  (I've had a couple of shops take a look without success though I admit one just told me to get an iphone)  Thanks and I enjoy your show. First and foremost, thank you for listening! It’s much appreciated, and you can keep those questions coming-- it is what we’re here for. However, unfortunately there’s no easy solution to your problem… aside from getting a new or refurbished phone. Surely if several repair shops were unable to locate an exact problem, they weren’t turning away your business but simply stumped at why this defect has found it’s way onto your phone. If you purchased the phone from your service provider, you should begin by letting them know about the issue and receiving their suggestions. If you have purchased insurance on the phone, it should be no problem for them to take the phone back and send you a new or refurbished one. We were unable to find an Xperia L user who is experiencing the same issue so, as far as we can tell, it must be an individual phone issue and you should look beyond a repair shop to remedy this problem. If you and several stores have all failed at putting an SD card into the phone and making it work, the phone has a problem.

Into Tomorrow With Dave Graveline listener Terry in Carthage, Missouri listens to the podcasts and asked the following question: I have a Note 4 on Verizon and a Nexus 7 Pad. Both have been updated to the Lollipop OS. I have a problem with my Nexus Pad connecting with my Note 4 on the hotspot. I had no problem before the update. Now, I enter the password and it show connected, but it keeps saying "can not authenticate." So I can't actually get a signal and use it. I'm at a loss and wanted to see if you guys could help me. First thing you should do is a little detective work. Can other devices connect on the Note 4 when it’s running as a hotspot? Can the Nexus 7 connect with other wireless access points? In other words, is this strictly a problem between that specific phone and that specific tablet? If it is, then you have two options you can try. The first is to have Lollipop “forget” the wireless network. If you display your list of networks, locate the Note 4 in it and long press (press and hold) that network. Choose “Forget this network” from the menu that pops up, and try connecting again. The Nuclear Option If that doesn’t fix it, then you’re looking at the dreaded factory reset. It’s really the only way to be certain these two devices try and connect with each other while bringing no baggage from past configurations. For what it’s worth, we’ve read about a lot of people complaining that the 2012 edition of the Nexus 7 has issues with Android 5.0. Hopefully it’s something the Google engineers will get sorted out for you!