The Real Deal Podcast

The Real Deal 210: Tom's favorite questions

Rafe Needleman — Thu, 13 May 2010 17:05:00 PDT

A moment of silence, if you please, to honor Tom Merritt, the guy who launched this podcast four years ago, hosted it solo by himself for two, and who is leaving CNET to go work at some other content company, Twit something-or-other. We'll miss you, Tom. Thanks for a great show.

For Mr. Merritt's last show, we have some of his favorite tips and tricks and questions, plus a few of mine, and more call-ins than we've ever had.

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EPISODE 210: Tom's favorite questions

QUESTIONS

What's the best keyboard shortcut ever?

Windows-D

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How do I switch user accounts on the iPhone 3GS so I post video to the right account?

Go to the YouTube app and click more then sign out.

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How can I put "X" on a thumb drive?

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What's the best free software?

OpenOffice

SeaMonkey

Paint.NET

Handbrake

VLC Media Player

Rafe: Google Docs; Process Explorer; MS Security Essentials; Evernote (duh)

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How can I charge the MiFi on my laptop and still share the connection?

Go here

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Phone question: Multiboot. Try Wikipedia or Gag

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First off- I wrote in to you about problems with my XP laptop before I had to use it to take the Bar Exam last summer. You guys saved me much stress. So, thanks.

Now, I happily have a baby on the way and my wife and I are getting our ducks in a row for the pending arrival. Unfortunately, our only camera (a Canon A-series point-and-shoot) is getting fussy and probably on its last legs. Obviously, I am going to need a new, reliable camera for when the kid arrives. I'm having trouble deciding what route to take for the new camera. I don't know if I should get a small point-and-shoot, a beginner DSLR, or something in between. I know photography basics and like to play with manual settings to achieve interesting photos. However, my wife will be using this camera a lot and she has no interest in manual features or adjustments. So, probably half of the time, the camera is going to be in auto or scene mode (maybe more if I am too sleep deprived to think about settings). While all of that would tend to point to point-and-shoot, I do need good low light performance from the camera (flashes are bad for a baby's eyes). Also, my father in law has been shooting with Pentax SLRs for decades, so I could borrow some older lenses.

I am considering the Canon S90, Canon G11, and Pentax K-x, in case you have any thoughts on those particular models.

Thank you, Jerry

PS - Tom, best of luck on your future endeavors.

Rafe: Of those, the Canon S90 and G11 are similar under the skin. I have the S90 and love it for a lot of reasons but do NOT recommend it as a baby camera. Despite its great low-light lens, it's too fussy and the shutter lag is horrendous. SLRs are faster to use and with a good lens you can just forget about flash. All now have auto modes, so you can screw around with settings when you want and just put it on A when you hand it to someone else. Pre-digital lenses from one system may not incorporate all the features in modern lenses, like autofocus or even correct metering, but if you're a pentax family, go for the KX. Personally I'm a Nikon man, and got a D50 when my son was born nearly 4 years ago. And although the lenses from my college camera fit and work, they don't autofocus and some don't meter correctly, so I had to get new lenses. Could just as well have started over. Today I'd recommend a D40 as a good entry-level camera, and a 35mm f1.8 lens for great no-flash indoor photos.

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COMMENT
I too am a HUGE fan of Evernote and use it on all my PCs, my phone and on a U3 drive at work where they won't let me install software on the hard drive. So when I heard Phil Libin say they actually prefer people to use the "free" service, I thought well who is he to tell me I can't pay for it. After the show I immediately logged on and pre-paid for a year of premium service. TAKE THAT Evernote!

Mike

p.s. Sorry to hear of Tom leaving the show, but I'll be sticking with you as you as you become CNET to the Rescue.

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WRAP-UP
Next time: Lots of changes, and one constant. Real Deal becomes the CNET to the Rescue podcast. It moves from its current timeslot, 1 p.m. Pacific on Thursday, to noon Pacific on Wednesday (this will only matter to live listeners and call-ins). And we have a new co-host, Josh Lowensohn.

Topic next week: More of your questions. And road tests from the new co-host.

Questions to rescue@cnet.com.

The Real Deal 209: Evernote (podcast)

Rafe Needleman — Thu, 06 May 2010 16:12:00 PDT

This week: A focus on Evernote! Listeners of this show know that I'm a fan of this service. It's a note-taking app and photo archive. It runs on Windows, Macs, iPads, iPhone, Android, and the Web, and syncs data across all those platforms. I use it to remember things, I take notes during interviews in it, and I even do most of my writing for CNET in Evernote. I use this app because it works for me, pure and simple, and because it rarely, if ever, stops me from doing what I want to do.

So after several suggestions from Real Deal listeners who have become sick to death of hearing me say how great this app is and who want me to finally get off the stick and just do a show on Evernote, that is what I am doing today. We'll talk about how to use this app, what it can and cannot do, and maybe even alternatives. Our special guest is Phil Libin, the CEO of Evernote.

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EPISODE 209: EVERNOTE

QUESTIONS
How are you going to stay in business? The core apps are all free, and unless you're uploading photos, you'll never reach the upload cap. I paid just because I like you, but that's not a business plan. I've used other apps that died because they went out of business. So before I put another piece of data into your business, convince me you're going to stick around.

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James, Everyone's Favorite Webmaster: There's really only one reason I don't use Evernote, and that is that I don't want Evernote to have the ability to "own" or use my documentation as they see fit, such as sharing it with evernote partners. If I store sensitive information with evernote, (such as medical or other personal details) I would not want these things to fly out of my hands in terms of being advertised on or something. If I remember correctly, any information you store with Evernote, gives evernote the consent to share your information with their partners if they want to.

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Glenn Davis also asks about "secure" notes? Something like encrypting "private" notes. So: What about security,or password-protecting notebooks or notes?

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John asks: How do they keep search engines from scanning our data? What happens to our data if they get bought?

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Chris Weatherford: I would love to see an option in Evernote to sync my files into Onenote or at least sync to my local computer. That way I could upload photos/scanned files to the web app and it would automatically sync to my Onenote. Seems like these two applications could make for a great marriage. Is local syncing something they will offer in the future?

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jkowall: I been working with them on trying to support OneNote 2010, the support people are kind of unresponsive there.

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Caleb: I'm a satisfied Motorola Droid owner planning to return to school. I was planning to purchase a laptop for note taking, etc., but the idea of saving some coin by using evernote in conjunction with some kind of Droid keyboard accessory would be great. Have either of you heard of such a thing, and if not, would any of the upcoming android tablets be likey to fit the bill? (Don't want an iPad).

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[Not aired] Mark C, CNN: How about an update from the Evernote folks about the errors in syncing across desktop client for OS X, and Android.

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tdaloisio: loving using @evernote for recipe's and other odds and ends. Any way for groups to interchange notes efficiently?

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brady I love having clients on every platform, but i am tired of the poor text editing. When will they compete with onenote on richness?

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war2d2: any Symbian S60 app in the works for Evernote?

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[Not aired] Michael K. (asim0v in the chat): As an avid cook and technology enthusiast, I have been moving from analog cookbooks to Evernote for recipes. Using Evernote on my Samsung Moment phone is fine, but finding a specific recipe or browsing through recipes is a nightmare! The problem is, the application only allows for viewing of notes in a stream by created or updated date. This is fine if it's a recent recipe I added but awful if I want to browse recipes using a specific tag (which I have meticulously added to my recipes). Is there any chance of an update to Evernote on Android that will provide better browsing of notes? The ability to edit notes to reflect alterations instead of just appending text would also be greatly appreciated!

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[Not aired] b-mon: Hi, I want to love Evernote, but I haven't quite been able to integrate it to my daily workflow. Aside from the image OCR capabilities, how would you compare it to gmail or google docs as a repository of notes and random information? E-mail is where I live, and e-mail is where I usually store and search for information. What are the benefits of using a *separate* system for storing and looking up information? ----------------------

[Not aired] Michael from Chicago: Many times I send a link to my Evernote account when I am traveling or just working from my email (and not using the web clipper). Will Evernote ever gain the ability to fetch the content (at least the text) from a link I send in and have that content stored in my Evernote account for later reading?

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[Not aired] Marc K, aka @technomensch: I guess I have you to blame for my starting to use Evernote. I had no plans on using it. I was getting sick of you constantly talking about it. But, when I decided to start my "Staying in Sync" Blog [PLUG], I decided that maybe, JUST MAYBE, I should give it a try. Well, you were right; again. I can't imagine not having it. Check this out as a killer combination:

Using either Dragon Speak for Email on the Blackberry or Vlingo, dictate note. Then copy and paste THAT into Evernote. Be nice if Evernote supported an API to either of those.

Anyway, i'm getting off-topic. Currently, if I want to see an existing note, the program first has to open the browser and THEN pull up a mobile version of the Evernote page that contains my notes. If I want to edit any of my notes, it has to be done in the BB browser, but I can create new notes through the native app. Can't the whole thing be a native app without having to rely on the BB browser? Until the 6.0 OS Webkit browser becomes available, as you can imagine, this whole process can quite time consuming.

Also, although I haven't really looked at the BB API, is there a way to add the functionality to import my existing Blackberry notes into Evernote (and maybe make it the default note program) instead of having to copy and paste each note individually? Thank in advance.

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TIPS
Sylvain Racicot, Montreal, Canada: One way I use Evernote is through Twitter. After a simple linking of my accounts on both services, anything I write in Twitter which contains "@myen" will automatically be added as an entry in my Evernote database. My main use for this is when I'm accessing Twitter on my phone and there's a message containing a link that I want to remember to open from my home computer, with full-screen and high-speed access. In that case, I'll start a "re-tweet", but change the "RT" with "d @myen" so that it will send a direct message to Evernote. I use this pretty much on a daily basis. Fast, easy, convenient and free!

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Mollie Nothnagel: I'm a big fan of the Evernote add-on for Firefox. You can clip web pages without leaving them. A tip: highlight only the part of the page you want to clip. Otherwise you'll end up with a bunch of superfluous links, ads and comments that you may not necessarily want to save.

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RogueTess: I ADORE Evernote! I'm a premium user and will buy stock in them the instant they go public.

I have notebooks for everything from Family Health and Travel Records (like passports) to more time-sensitive events like planning a Super Bowl party complete with menus and guest lists.

My latest favorite use involves syncing and storing certain notebooks locally on my iPhone so I don't have to access them through the web. Since I have embarked on a weird diet, I keep notebooks for the foods that I Can Eat or Can't Eat, as well a pictures of the packaging of Yucky Foods and Yummy Foods so I'll never accidentally buy that hideous BBQ vegan soy chip snack thing ever again.

I mostly create new notes by email to my Evernote email address. A simple "@car" #Prius in the subject line sends an iPhone photo of my license plate with the new tags on them into my Car notebook with the tag Prius. Mostly I don't even bother to tag because the search ability is so comprehensive.

My favorite use case story was when I was in a garage waiting room while my car was being smog checked and my daughter called me from the doctor's office needing the date of her last tetanus shot. I pulled up her immunization record that I'd scanned into the Health notebook in Evernote a few months before with the ScanSnap and BOOM, gave her the date. I didn't have to be at home and noone had to wait for info. Win!

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Robin Miller, Dublin, OH: You mentioned how fond you are of Evernote. It's a great application to be sure. I used it until I tried UltraRecall, which I feel does an even better job at capturing and preserving stuff from the web than Evernote. It also has been extremely useful in organizing the vast amounts of information that daily flow across our desks. You should check it out!

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Phil Libin: See the Evernote tips blog.

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COMMENTS
Scott: I just finished listening to your most recent road test episode. Someone emailed/called asking about backing up a Windows Home server. I just want to clarify something you said regarding JungleDisk. While it is true, that they discontinued their WHS plugin, the regular install works great (better in my opinion) on a WHS. The catch is that you need to Remote Desktop to the WHS and install it like you would a normal Windows app. When you install it, it runs as a Windows Service, so you don't need to worry about kicking it off. It's all scheduled. This approach is not supported by JD, but on their forums they'll say that people have had luck with it. From my experience, it works without any issues. I use it as a backup of my WHS shares. In my setup, I backup the computer images, but I also use GoodSync to do a file backup. It is that file backup that I also send to Amazon S3. The only downside is that S3 costs can get expensive if you are backing up media.

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Tom in Colorado: Just wanted to pass on a tidbit I discovered the other day. Turns out my local library system makes available Kill-A-Watt meters for checkout. Good for Garfield County, Colorado, anyways. Might be worth a check at your local branch. Here's to the library system!

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Charles from Texas: On your recent iPad episode you read an email where someone was complaining / asking about using their iPad in the kitchen to access a library of recipes. They said that, with no folders on the iPad, their "files" would be all over the place. Actually they didn't describe how they would get the files on the device in the first place. You two gave some options. I don't believe you mentioned Google Docs but that should work (assuming for now the only need is to read the files and not write since I hear that editing Google Docs is not currently working from the iPad). One of you mentioned cloud storage like DropBox but I want to reemphasize the latter because it has an iPhone/iPod/iPad app which is better than browsing the web site (at least on the smaller screen of the iPod) and nicely presents the files in the folder storage structure you create on your DropBox account. This allows you to organize your files any way you want.

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Paul from Cleveland: I can't believe you guys missed the *real* question that Kski asked! Which is NOT how to sync Outlook with Google Calendar, but how you sync Google Calendar with the iPod Touch! The answer is that you do NOT need to go through Outlook. Google allows you to access Google Calendar through Exchange on the iPod Touch. The setup is a little involved, but once it's set up, it works fantastic! Here's the link for more information.

PS. In regards to Rafe's comments about FM Transmitters in large cities with tons of radio stations, some FM Transmitters allow you to access frequencies lower than 88.1 (eg. 87.9 or 87.7, which US radio stations are not suppose to use) by turning on international mode (I know Griffin FM Transmitters, which I have, allow you to do this). I find that this gives me almost perfect signal in an otherwise congested FM spectrum. Also, I find you get what you paid for. ie. more expensive transmitters work better than cheaper ones.

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WRAP-UP
There is an official Evernote podcast. It's also on iTunes.

Next time: Tom's last Real Deal. We're planning a special episode. See it here next week. After that, Real Deal will be renamed to the CNET to the Rescue podcast -- but we'll have the same mission: Helping consumers get the most out of the technology they own. I'll be joined by a new co-host, CNET's Josh Lowensohn. We'll also be changing our timeslot, and moving to Wednesday at noon. But not until after Tom's last show, which will be next week, May 13, at 1pm.

Questions to realdeal@cnet.com.

The Real Deal 208: All questions (podcast)

Rafe Needleman — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:31:03 PDT

This week: Your questions answered! Also, some road test items. With special guest host Josh Lowensohn. Josh is the main Webware blogger, and also happens to be the guy who answers a lot of Real Deal e-mail questions for me, although he's been working behind the scenes, just feeding me intel... until now.

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EPISODE 208

ROAD TEST
- Hypermac
- Nexus One car mount
- Likebutton.me

Reader road test:
I have a road test for the next road test episode. I recently got the Flip Ultra HD Camcorder and love it. Although it does not have a far zoom, it's 2 hour hard drive, good HD quality, and HDMI port make up for it. I use it for all my YouTube videos and bring it on vacation and it works great. I highly recommend it for people who are looking for a cheap, pocket sized camcorder.

Thanks!
-Graham / Dallas, TX

Which leads us to:
How to get home movies on to ipad.

QUESTIONS

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Love the show.

I want to cut my cable cord and save myself some $. The goal is to watch live and recorded HD TV programming in my living room. I have been recording and watching HD TV on my upstairs Win7 desktop for a while now and picked up an Xbox 360 Arcade to use as a Windows Media Center extender. Despite some up-front hardware costs (Xbox, wireless gaming adapter, additional tuner card for PC) this seems like a great plan because I achieve my goal with no monthly costs.

Do you agree? Are there alternatives to achieving my goals? Any advice is helpful. Thanks.

-David from Milwaukee

A: Given that you already had a desktop recording things, this is an excellent excuse to buy an Xbox. And relatively cost-effective. Another way to go would have been to buy a second PC instead of an Xbox. Alternatively you could go with a couple Mac Minis and use iTunes sharing to share the media. It can also work as a DVR. TiVo series 3 can also bring in podcasts and record shows and share them between boxes. As a secondary to this--to anyone thinking about getting an Xbox, it might be worth waiting just a couple of months if you can. Microsoft is likely to unveil a slimmer version of the Xbox 360 at E3 in June, and if so it will probably mean an immediate price cut on the current model. The main reason to do this isn't so much cost though--it's that the Xbox 360 is freaking loud--even without a disc rattling around.

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Call - Need cheap digital camera. Canon a480

Call - Less than $100 iPod stereo: Sony Xplod. See also, the $4 cable you need.

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Need a back up solution from you guys. I have a Windows Home server (HP Media Smart EX470 to be precise) which I use to back up my computers, but it mainly serves all our music, video, and photos to the various devices in my house. Since this is the only place most of this data is kept, I really want to find a way to back all this up (right now about 2 TB of data). I have looked at sites like carbinite, but they don't seem to be able to back up a server. I know there are some really crazy stuff being done with these home servers, with add-on and multiple USB Drives etc. but I don't want to try to hack anything together, nor do I want to risk any of this data being lost. I have 2 open slots in the server, but as far as i know if I add a drive it will just create more storage and I can't actually make duplicates of the files and then remove the drive.

Please help!!! I don't want 10 years of memories lost.

Thanks
-Doctor Ricky

While talking about it I might as well give you guys a quick road test of my experience: Set up of it was fairly easy, showed up on all my devices right away, and using it for back up works great. Read/write speeds for the data has been descent, it will stream video or my xbox or PS3 without a hitch, and I don't need much more than that. Speed of the Console (used to interface for updates, add-ons, etc.) is really slow, and quite a bad experience. Add-ons (which add extra functionality) are a pain to get on even if they are HP approved, and often mess the server up. It did come with one year of web interface, which never worked even after trying multiple routers and making all the necessary ports open, so I didn't pay for another year. It didn't originally come with Mac backup allowed, once HP released it, was annoying to get going and though now works, but I had to pick a size (ie 200gigs) and if I need more, then to make a bigger storage area the first gets deleted, which is horrible. In the end, other than pure storage, its been pretty lousy.

ANSWER Yes, backing up the backup is smart. And not easy. However, you can add drvies to WHS and NOT put them in your storage pool. You designate them as backup drives. Then you can back them up from the WHS console. Instrux.

Keep in mind that it's not automated, but there's a way around that.

You might also want to look into BDBB http://www.whsplus.com/2009/09/25/whs-bdbb/

I don't know of a good offsite solution at the moment. Jungledisk used to offer something that backed up WHS to Amazon S3, but they don't anymore. Mozy is apparently also working on WHS backup. What I do is backup my PCs separately to an online service. I use Sugarsync. Expensive but flexible.

Finally, the chat room says:
I've used carbonite
but 2TB is huge amount of data
Rafe, you can get an HP plugin, like the one that currently comes with the lx195 and it has auto-backup to amazon s4

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My parents are going to Europe this Summer, for their 30th Wedding Anniversy for a whopping 4 months (Oh yeah, leaving us kids behind of course), and they've gone from bring no technology to to everything but the kitcin sink, international cell phones, mp3 players, gps, nebook, magic jack, you get my point. I recently saw Tom's how to video ob on accessing blocked websites through a proxy. I had a couple of questions. Is netflix blocked if your address is in the US? and if so is a proxy the best way to access netflix. If so your video is great but I do have one last question. How do you know if the proxy you've found is trustworthy, or reliable? Are there sites that have lists? Or is it just a matter of searching, and a bit of trial and error? Thanks for your help as always,

Blake
Tempe, AZ

PS In case your wondering they aren't super rich, far from, just have the travel bug, mom is a retired physical therapist, and dad is a family practice doctor with his own practice (One man show, , 2/3 of the patients are snowbirds that leave in the summer) so hie hired a Physician Assistant, to come in 1x/week. Still only doc I know who gives their patients their entire medical records encrypted on a thumb drive, updated each time they come in. :)

A: VP of comms says: Netflix "is U.S.-only." So you gotta hack.

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Is there any way I can sync my Gmail calendar to Outlook's Calendar? (I need to figure out a way I can sync my Google Calendar to my Ipod Touch and Outlook is the only one offered in itunes)

Thanks,
Kski

A: Hey Kski, I do this all the time through work using a peice of software through Google's Calendar Sync service. What's really nice about it is that it takes whatever events you add to Outlook and adds them to Google as well. The one caveat is that you need to have the software running on a computer with Outlook--this is assuming you're not trying to sync up with an exchange server somewhere.

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COMMENTS

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Regarding iPad stands, or the lack thereof, my wife had a great idea. She saw me trying to prop up my iPad near the kitchen sink so I could watch a movie while I did the dishes (I know, what could go wrong?) and recommended that I use her recipe book holder.

I looked at some other recipe book holders on line and there are some nice and cheap ones out there that will let you touch the iPad and view it at the same time.

Best regards,
--kevin

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Hey guys , I just saw your 206 show on iPad road test and a caller asked about printing from the iPad. I was surprised you guys weren't aware of the apps that allow you to print directly from the iPad. There's a great app called "print n share" , that allows you to use any computer in your house as a print server and print directly from your iPad. I've been using it since bought it nearly 2 weeks ago and it's great! I keep my laptop on all the time on my bookshelf and whenever i want to print any documents from my ipad its seamless. My printer wakes up from its hibernation mode and starts printing immediately.Check it out for yourselves and maybe you can inform your viewers about it.

Robert from the Bronx.

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Next time:The Evernote show is May 6

realdeal@cnet.com

http://realdeal.cnet.com/

forums.cnet.com

The Real Deal 207: Power! (podcast)

Tom Merritt — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:09:31 PDT

Martin LaMonica joins us to talk about power usage with your gadgets. What should you be concerned with and what can you do to lower power usage.

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EPISODE 207

Happy Earth Day. Welcome to the Real Deal, the weekly show where try to dispell the FUD around technology.
This week: The power show, with CNET writer Martin LaMonica, our go-to guy on energy.

QUESTIONS
*************************************

I can see 3D, but I’m one of those people who gets a headache and nauseated watching 3D for more than a few minutes. The problem is going to a movie with friends. Is it possible to watch a 3D movie in 2D? Some sort of polarized glasses? Google is worthless; it keeps turning up “how to covert 2D to 3D” sites, but nothing about how to watch a 3D movie in 2D.

TIA,

–Charlene

Answer: Not yet! But this is such a simple and great idea that I did a whole column on it for CNET To The Rescue. Here’s what we need: 3D glasses that display just one eye’s image in both eyes. Boom, problem solved. I’m working on it.

My take: A proposal for the stereo-blind:
http://www.cnet.com/8301-31361_1-20002742-254.html

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Hey guys,

My parents are using a relatively new hand-me-down Acer Windows Vista
laptop. It’s a core 2 duo with 2GB RAM, but it’s a real clunker and
now also has decided to only display in green or pink. (Warranty
expired and Acer support are more useless than a fork while eating
soup).

I was looking to get them a netbook, the Asus Eee 1201HA. I usually
know my tech, but netbooks have never interested me and as a result i
am clueless about the Atom processor.

I went for the netbook because it’s cheap and all they to is internet
based stuff, look at pictures and run itunes for ipod syncing. The
issue is that now my dad has decided he wants to backup his DVDs and
put them into his ipod using handbrake. Will this be overkill for an
Atom? I dont want to get them a piece of junk thats gonna burn out
from overuse in very little time nor do i want to get them a state of
the art overkill that is going to be left twiddling it’s thumbs 99% of
the time.

I’d love to get them a macbook but the jump from potentially 400? to
1000? is waaaay too much.

Any advice? Thanks!!
steven3

–
Lavin

A: You might look at the Gateway NV7915u
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/gateway-nv7915u/4505-3121_7-33970181.html
Pimp: Rafe’s take on refurbs:
http://www.cnet.com/8301-31361_1-20003101-254.html

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Hey Tom and Rafe,

You have covered the topic of network cameras for home surveillance on multiple occasions, such as the Panasonic BL-C131A. I own the Linksys WVC54GCA, which is cheap, and works great. However it’s software is terrible, and does not work on a Mac, which is my home platform. I can view streaming video on the web anytime I want, but I have no way of actually recording the video, which makes it pretty useless. I have looked at network storage devices which support video recording, but if someone breaks into my house and steals the drive, that would also be pretty useless. Are there any cloud storage services that will cache the streaming video over the web? Thanks – love the show!

- Chase

Dallas, TX

Answer: Dropcam:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20000103-248.html
Workaround: Have your cameras set to record video on motion-capture and then email it GMail. 7GB. Just clean it out every month or so. That’s what I do.

*************************************

Hi,
I’m going to buy a Macbook, but also i love the windows 7 on my laptop right know ( i do have Gateway MC7833u which is fancy looking computer ) but i need a computer which i can carry everywhere easly. And i want to use Windows 7 in it. My question is which software i need to go with for that. I just watched your show from back in 2007 and you were saying that vmware is better then parallels. But, how ’bout know? I’ve been in parallels website and it was showing me the fancy things that it has.

So could you please tell me which one you think is better, and you recommend.

Thanks,

Jon Rayback
from Miami Beach, FL

A: Parallels has caught up quite abit. I’m about to try it out. Some people say it’s snappier. However I have no complaints with VMWare. YOu also might consider Virtual Box.

*************************************

Hey Tom and Rafe!

I had my car window smashed a few days ago, and the unlucky thief took my 4 year old Mio Digiwalker c310 GPS unit. I thought, “Great! a chance to get a fancy new GPS!” Boy was I in for a shock! Apparently in the 4 years since the GPS industry cranked out the GPS I had loved so dearly, they spent their time coming out with hundreds of models with only the most minor variation in feature sets and almost completely negligible improvement in the actual products. So after getting depressed at the horrible selection available, I went into Radioshack…. and there was my savior!? They had an Archos 5 Internet Tablet on display with the GPS units. Now I know it isn’t a dedicated PND, and Donald Bell wasn’t very happy with it’s GPS reception skills, but doesn’t it seem like there should be some Android based PND’s out there? Maybe even small tablets like the Archos 5 that do the GPS thing?

Help!

Dwight the Key Grip,

Rafe: I recommend a Garmin or TomTom. Don’t get fancy. Just get a good dash-top device. You might want live traffic, which is a few bucks extra.
Josh: Just buy an Android phone with 2.1 on it (Droid, N1, HTC Incredible). It’s a GPS unit and a phone–and you never have to pay for maps again.

*************************************

Next time: TBD The Evernote show is May 6

realdeal@cnet.com

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The Real Deal 206: iPad Road Test

Tom Merritt — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:12:31 PDT

Tom and Rafe review the iPad after a couple weeks of using it, plus take comments and questions from iPad users.

-->

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Episode 206

What it’s good for
Media
Email
Recipes
Books
Games

What it’s not
Writing
Media editing, management

Annoyances
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-20002550-250.html
April 3: No chamois
April 4: A hobbled New York Times app
April 6: Where’s the kickstand
April 7: Missing apps
April 8: A pretty-but-dumb calendar
April 9: No user accounts
April 12: No arrow keys on the keyboard
April 13: Does not play nice with Google Docs

Tom’s most-used Apps
Comixology
MLB At Bat 2010
WeRule
Plants V Zombies
Netflix
WeatherBug
Desktop
Camera-A

Rafe’s apps
Tweetdeck
Evernote
Things (but $20… ugh)
Epicurious
email
ABC (man do I want Hulu)
Galcon Fusion
Harbor Master
Implode
Kindle
Promising: NYT; Zinio

Where the hell is…
Hulu
Facebook
Alarm clock

QUESTIONS

****************
Hey guys, hoping you can help me out here. Here’s what I’m looking for:

An internet tablet that I can install in my kitchen, preferably flush in the wall, or even mounted on a small bracket, that I can use to pull up recipes when I cook. Some recipes I would pull from the web (using WiFi in my house) and some I want to scan on my home computer and send as a document to store on the tablet. I hate having a recipe book or even my laptop out on the counter when cooking cuz it always gets covered in flour and sugar (I’m a messy cook). Something mounted on the wall will be much less likely to get dirty.

I was thinking of getting an iPad for this purpose, but the only problems with that is that 1) Apple is evil, 2) The iPad doesnt have “folders” so all my recipes would be one giant laundry list, 3) I don’t know how I’d get my scanned docs onto it and 4) Apple is evil.

The Joo-Joo is getting pretty ho-hum reviews, and jury still out on the new HP “Slate”

Do you have any suggestions as to what kind of device I can mount in my kitchen that might help me so I can organize all my recipes that I have scanned, plus pull up new ones through the internet? Or am I more likely to find a leprechaun riding a unicorn with 3-D glasses on. Thanks!

-Adam
-San Diego

Answer: iPad probably isn’t right. A Netbook might work better for you.

*************************************

COMMENTS

**********************

Next time: It’s Earth day, so we’re doing Tech and Power, with Martin Lamonica. Thanks the emailer Daryl for the idea.
realdeal@cnet.com

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forums.cnet.com

************

The Real Deal 205: 3D TV (podcast)

Tom Merritt — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:53:35 PDT

David Katzmaier and John Falcone join us to get into detail about 3D TV.

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Episode 205

How does it work?

What’s the difference between TVs

Will one pair of glasses work on all?

Is there programming yet?

Is it more expensive?

Reminder: CNET Showcase live 6pm, cnet.com/showcase

QUESTIONS

Hi Tom and Rafe-

I’ve been keeping my eyes out on the 3d tvs and finally got to see my
first one at the Microsoft store last week ( was impressed, however
glasses were heavy). I have a few questions ad to the future of 3d tv
in general as well as 3d projectors. (currently have a 1080p Sony
pearl) and don’t want to go to a smaller screen, even if it is in 3d.

My questions are this

1: When will 3d single lens projectors (for the home) be available?
At what price?

2: When do you project 3d programming will become mainstream?( blu-
Ray, ota, and cable and sat? At what price? (included in HD
programming? More than normal blu-Ray)

3: Do you think the glasses will catch on? Byog? Universal pairs?
Prescription pairs?

4: Lastly what generation/how many years do you think it will be
before a screen will be dveloped to go over the tv and elminate
glasses? How is this going to work for projectors that project onto a
surface? Is it worth waiting? ( like when the first HDTVs only had
component in and no actual digital connection).

Love the show-
Blake
Tempe Az

**********************

Next time: iPad Road Test

Pitch CNET Showscase, April 8 in SF
Tix: http://bit.ly/3dshowcase
cnet.com/showcase (soon)

realdeal@cnet.com

http://realdeal.cnet.com/

forums.cnet.com

************

The Real Deal 204: Apps (podcast)

Tom Merritt — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:07:31 PDT

Rafe and Tom talk about what apps for mobile devices are and list some of their favorites as well as a few from listeners.

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Episode 204

What is an app vs. software?

Difference between apps on a phone/tablet vs. a PC
- Limitations, benefits

Why have an app instead of a website?

A few picks:

Location-apps
-Foursquare
-Gowalla
-Rally
-Yelp
-Taxi Magic
-Routesy

Games
-Plants v. Zombies
-WeRule
-ZombieSmash
-Dark Nebula
-Wurdle
-GalCon

Travel & Real-world Entertainment
-TripIt
-Flightcaster
-Fandango
-OpenTable
-IMDB

Misc.
-MLB.com (or your favorite sports app like Hockey Night in Canada)
-Goodreads
-XComics
-DirecTV
-Qik
-Evernote
-Tweetdeck
-Google Search
-Flightcaster
-Facebook
-Pandora
-Kindle

LISTENER APP PICKS

Hi Tom and Rafe,

I love your show!! Here is my top 10 Apps for next week show. I have
a 3g iPhone that is jailbroken and unlock on Tmobile. I don’t think
you guys are interested in jailbreaking your Iphone but if you ever
decide to go over to the Dark Side then here are some Apps to get you
started.

10. Categories-allow you to organize your Apps into folder
9. Winterboard allow you to change themes to the iPhone
8. Five Icon Dock- allow you to have 5 apps in the dock
7. Intelliscreen-scroll to your Calendar,SMS,weather,email,News,and
more on your lock screen
6. MxTube-YouTube video player and downloader
5. BTstack Keyboard- allow Bluetooth Keyboard Connection
4. GPSphone/NES- Gameboy Advance /NES Emulator
3. UnlimRom-Gameboy Advance Roms
2. Backgrounder-run apps in the background
1. MyWi-turn iPhone into a wifi hotspot for internet tethering

Thank you,
Long from Scappoose, OR

*********************

QUESTIONS

*************************************

Real Deal Brain Trust,

I’m planning on visiting my parents in Mexico in a couple months and am interested in setting up a long range wifi connection between their two houses. These houses are just under a mile apart but are at similar elevations and have a pretty good line of sight from chimney to chimney. House A has a decent DSL line and a serviceable local wifi network. House B doesn’t have so much as a phone line.

I’ve poked around on the internet looking for ideas and have found several but they all seem to be a couple years old and generally require cobbling together a lot of different parts from different vendors and manufacturers.

So, I have a few questions:

Basically I am looking for the equipment that goes between the existing wifi router at House A and a new wifi router at House B. Does a kit for such a setup exist? If so, do you have any recommendations?

Do most routers have the required connections I will need (I.e. antenna out on one and antenna in on the other)?

In your opinion, is it worth trying to do? I have a sneaking suspicion that no one that has posted their user guide on the internet would actually say “After all this time and expense we were able to set up the connection but it was pretty much a waste of time because it’s so slow that it is unusable.”

Thanks a lot,

Dave

(aka Snit from the chat room)

There are now kits for this:
http://www.gnswireless.com/wireless_bridge_kits.htm

You can also do it yourself with a home-built waveguide, including, possible, a pringles can:
http://www.mikestechblog.com/joomla/networking-section/wifi-wireless-category/58-extend-wireless-wifi-network-building-24-ghz-cantenna.html

*******************************

4. I recently began looking through old image files I stored on CDs back when AOL was the way to browse the internet. These image files were saved as .art rather than the traditional .jpg, .bmp, or .gif type extensions. I’ve done a bit of research and it seems that AOL used .art as its default save format because of its ultra-compressibility, however unfortunately it seems impossible to find a program today that can view and/or convert these files. I hear that old IE browsers used to be able to, but this feature was removed due to security vulnerabilities. Do you have any suggestions on how I can get these files in a more useful format?

Thanks!
- Chandra -

Answer: That's tricky. IE used to do this before 1999. So you could try going to oldapps.com and downloading an old version of IE and then browsing the images and saving them as JPG. It might work.

Barring that, see if something on this page will work http://www.convert-extensions.com/format/ART-AOL-Johnson-Grace-Compressed-File.html

I've read reports that ACD mPower Tools works well but I haven't tried any of them myslef.

Tom

**************

Hi Tom and Rafe–

I am now in a role where we’re making decisions about which software tool to use for a diverse set of users. My experience has been that web-based cloud computing is a great way to minimize compatibility problems between Macs/PCs/Linux/etc. Still, we are finding cloud services that only support certain browsers/ OSes/ versions of Java/ etc. Some web apps run in IE8 on Vista but not on Win 7.

My question is: if a browser is a computing platform unto itself (as the Google Chrome OS people seem to think) then what makes some webapps dependent on the OS?

Thanks, and LOVE THE SHOW-
Ted the Teacher Teacher

A: Not all browsers treat Web pages the same. Different browsers render HTML coding, and more importantly, Javascript scripting, differently. I’ve found most compatible browser for cloud apps is Firefox. There are some IE-only apps but none of the new ones. And Chrome is great on the 98% of Web apps that it works with, but every now and then you see hiccups.

********************

COMMENTS

I just recently been trying to catch up on the episodes I’ve missed and on episode 195 one question you had was how to share your internet connection via the wifi from your computer to another wifi enabled device. Well there’s a free and simple solution from a program call Connectify. Here’s the download link http://download.cnet.com/Connectify/3000-18508_4-75024171.html?part=dl-10061477

I’ve used it and it’s as simple as typing in a Wifi name a password and how you want to share it either Lan or Wireless. Just thought I’d tell you about it and help out the cnet community.

Daniel Lawson

**********************

Next time: 3D TV

Pitch CNET Showscase, April 8 in SF
Tix: http://bit.ly/3dshowcase
cnet.com/showcase (soon)

realdeal@cnet.com

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forums.cnet.com

************

The Real Deal 203: Road Test (podcast)

Tom Merritt — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:19:56 PDT

Rafe and Tom talk Canon Vixia HV30, HP Windows Homne Server, Molly Wood joins to talk HP Envy and RogueTess calls in with an iPhone app road test. That and much more road tested for your enjoyment.

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Episode 203

TOM

Canon Vixia HV30 – using as webcam

Seagate Momentus Hard drive

RAFE
HP Media Smart 3.0 update – gripes with shipping and mislabeled disks, and its’ very very slow now.
Update on Canon S90 camera – handling issues

MOLLY

HP Envy

ROAD TEST ITEMS FROM ONE YEAR AGO (Feb. 25, 2009)

Kindle 2.0- Still use, still love

JungleDisk- no longer using. replaced with localized backup

Addonics NAS extender- never got to work properly with Mac. No longer use

EX 485 –new Windows Home Server

SBS 400 flash (small, cheap) LOVE IT

Windows 7- use and love

MacBook Pro sleep problems http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411

USER ROAD TESTS

I got my Standard Def Roku Box for Christmas. It was easy to hook up and easy to set up. The box walks you through initialization and wifi set-up. It walks you through linking your Roku to your online accounts. It’s super easy to browse and find stuff to watch. The remote is simple, it’s low powered and the box is practically invisible when not in use. There’s a great variety of media, including Netflix, Amazon and Pandora. My dad could use this box, without killing it. I would considered all these the pros of the Roku box.

The cons as far as I can tell, are that you do need to set up accounts for everything online at the beginning, rather than through the box. This involves going to sites for Roku and any other service you want, to get a confirmation number to input. Your Netflix queue has to be updated via internet, though it shows up on the Roku queue in a couple of minutes. These are minor inconveniences though, compared to the value of a tiny box.

I look forward to seeing what else Roku can squeeze onto my box and am always hopeful for a browser. I also hope one day to be able to upgrade to the high definition box.

Sheala, GA

*********************

I left my woes for AT&T and the closed iPhone app store back in October for the HTC Hero and Sprint. It was great. I could make calls more regularly and was loving android though this did not last very long. Google had released many updates including 2.1 and I will still stuck on 1.5 with information on updates coming in only rumors or vague updates from Sprint. I even began to look up the date my contract will end losing faith in Android. Then I realized my phone had gotten damp enough at one time to set off the warranty sticker under the back cover, so i decided it was time to destroy the warranty all the way. Before I knew it the phone was rooted and I had installed a custom ROM of 2.1 someone had hacked together. The process was incredibly simple and I have not had any problems since. I would suggest it for anyone who is growing ever more impatient waiting for updates for their android phone.

Tim
New Orleans, LA

**************

Dear Real-Dealers,

I asked recently for advice on using a second laptop as a second screen while editing video in the field.

I did the Google – which I should have done before summoning the awesome power that is Real Deal – and found ScreenRecycler which seems to fill the bill.

I run Final Cut Express on my personal Mac laptop and put the Canvas window on the screen of the company’s G4 powerbook. The connection is made with an ethernet cable using a VNC client supplied with ScreenRecycler. Not only that but the G4 is still available to FTP files to the office via a wireless card while I work.

It’s plenty fast enough for my use, is free-to-try and cost only $30.

Thanks,

Michael in Akron

“There are worse places to live”

*********************

QUESTIONS

*************************************

Hello Tom and Rafe,

Thank you for the great show. I need to “consult” you regarding what monitor I should buy. I have 15″ Macbook Pro (unibody) and I usually work back and forth between documents. Putting them side by side or in different “spaces” is inconvenient. I thought about buying additional display to solve the problem. Apple display is too expensive and I think working between two different size monitors will be “disturbing”. What monitor you recommend for that purpose? (Brand/size/resolution/connections)

Thanks in advance.

Have a great day!

Obada.

Rafe: First, Apple external monitors are unbelievably overpriced for what they do… but they sure do look good doing it. So, yeah, get another brand. Now,

In my experience, and I do this a lot, switching between differenlt-size monitors on one setup is no problem at all. What can be jarring is if the size of elements changes as you go from one to the other. What you want to match is the pixels per inch, or dot pitch, on your Mac w/ the external monitors. Your Macbook displays 110 pixels per inch. Find a monitor that’s close to that and you’ll be golden. Here’s a wikipedia page with standard PPI numbers for popular size/resolution pairings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_displays_by_pixel_density#Standard-aspect_Display

*********************

Next time: Apps

Pitch CNET Showscase, April 8 in SF
Tix: http://bit.ly/3dshowcase

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The Real Deal 202: 3G vs. 4G (podcast)

Tom Merritt — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:04:00 PDT

Kent German joins us to explain what the heck 3G and 4G are and what the difference between them in.

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Episode 202

4G vs. 3G

What is 3g? What is 4G?
Does it unite GSM and CDMA?
And LTE?
When do we get it?
From whom? Is it global
What about WiMax?

http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-10316811-85.html

QUESTIONS

*********************

1. Tom & Rafe,

I have old home recorded VHS tapes sitting in boxes in my basement.
Some as old as 25-years. I have been told that the tapes start to
degrade overtime so I have been researching VHS to Digital backup.

I know I could get a video capture card for my PC, but I do not want to
tie up my computer for the next 6-months doing nothing but rip tapes.

I have looked at the VHS to DVD Recorders, but is this really a solution
since DVD-R discs probably have a worse shelf-life than VHS tapes?

I have also looked at the Sandisk V-Mate (CNET link below). I like the
sound of it, but is 640×480 good enough resolution for TV viewing?

Any thoughts?

http://reviews.cnet.com/portable-video-players-pvps/sandisk-v-mate/4505-6499_7-32104407.html?tag=mncol;lst

Thank You,
Mark

Answer: Video capture devices like Elgato’s Eye TV will do it, but I like efficiency and cost of a VHS-DVD combo. Costs around $150. Then you can do whatever with the DVDs.
R: Standard VHS resolution is about 250 lines, so the 480 lines of VHS is just fine. SVHS is 400 lines, still less than VGA.
Also, If you can afford it, use a service like Digital Pickle. It’s about $20 a tape, less for short one. They’ll put on DVD, and then you can copy the DVD to a hard disk and keep a rolling backup forever.

********************

2. I have a question. I am thinking about switching from iPod Touch to Zune HD. I found one program to switch. aac files to mp3 and basically what is does is creates a virtual CD-ROM drive in which you are suppose to burn a mp3 CD to the virtual CD drive with the music you want to convert. However, when I tried to do this with the music I bought on iTunes, it did not let me burn a mp3 CD. Is there an easier and cheap way to convert. .aac to mp3?

I am most likely at school during the live show so please email me the answer as well, although I will be listening to the podcast.

Thanks!
-Computerkid

Answer: Use iTunes! Converts to MP3 right there. Batch convert using all kinds of software http://www.sharewareguide.net/Audio-Multimedia/Audio-Encoders-Decoders/xilisoft-audio-converter.html

********************

Hey Tom and Rafe,

A follow-up question about the iPad as an ebook reader:
When the Kindle first came out, I remember reading a lot about how the e-ink technology dramatically reduced eyestrain when compared to reading text off of a computer monitor.
Seems to me, the iPad is going to be a traditional LCD computer monitor in your lap.
Having never owned a Kindle, do you think there will be any truth to the assumption that reading books on the iPad will create a lot more eyestrain than e-ink books? Or was that a lot of Kindle marketing hype?

Love the show,

Rich the Recruiter

A: The issue is primarily contrast. Too much, as with a monitor that’s turned up too high, causes strain. Too little, as with a printed page in a dim room, also causes strain. The Kindle’s non-backlit screen is like a book: with good lighting, it’s ideal. A well-adjusted LCD monitor can also be fine. The problem with older monitors was that no matter what you did, the contrast between dark and light wasn’t high enough, and you got strain. Also, flicker from a CRT or a bad backlight causes strain.

********************

COMMENTS

**************

On episode 199 you noted that you weren’t so happy with Camtasia.

Check out http://www.screentoaster.com. It’s free, includes audio, and easy to use.

Charles from Sugar Land

*********************

Hi Tom, Hi Rafe,

A little behind, but I just finished the episode on eReaders and noticed an obvious omission: Microsoft Reader.

http://www.microsoft.com/reader/

I used this on my first Pocket PC device back in the 1999/2000 timeframe and found it quite workable. That device had bigger screen than the current generation Windows Phones, and maybe that helped. I haven’t used it (or any other eReader) for a while, but note that it is still available.

They have both DRM content for sale and DRM-free content, and have versions for Windows Mobile, Tablet/UMPC and PC.

Mike

Toronto

******************

RAFE: 3D TV Showcase for April 8
http://t.cnet.com/155
or
http://bit.ly/demo3d

*********************

Next time: Road Test

realdeal@cnet.com

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The Real Deal 201: All-questions (podcast)

Tom Merritt — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:24:00 PST

We answer questions about iPads, Xboxes, and Windows 7 sleep blue screens.

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Episode 201

All-Questions

New project: CNET to the Rescue.

First one: Chris Chirstensen, Amateur Traveler, YT ban.

3 weeks, no resolution
Called them, account reinstated, Google saying changing appeals process.
Have an injustice that needs to be righted? An ad that needs looking into? E-mail rescue@cnet.com or join the Rescue forum at http://forums.cnet.com/

http://cnet.com/rescue

Links from calls

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958233

QUESTIONS

*********************

1. Dear Tom and Rafe,

I am an xbox user and would like to be able to connect my xbox to the internet. The problem? I only have a wireless data card from verizon. I know there is a hack to connect the data card to the xbox using my laptop but I can't seem to get the darn things to recongize each other. I have asked my tech savvy friends and searched all over the internet to no avail. Please please please help me solve this dilemma.

-Danielle

P.S.: If it helps at all I am using a laptop with windows vista and a xbox 360 elite.

Josh says: The 360 is decidedly finicky about accepting data from the same devices computers would have no problems with. This is, in part a way to get people to pay for the overpriced wireless adapters, which MS sells for $70 and $100 depending on whether you're getting the 802.11g or N versions (respectively). That said, you can turn your laptop into a wireless bridge, by turning Internet sharing on, then connecting an Ethernet crossover cable from your laptop to the console. The most important thing here is that you need a crossover cable, as a standard cat5 cable won't cut it. Instructables has a fantastic guide here that works for Windows + Mac: http://www.instructables.com/id/Use-your-laptop-as-an-XboxXbox-360-wireless-adap/

*******************

2. Dear Tom and Rafe. I was wondering what is the llegality of downloading TV shows from websites such as the Pirate Bay or even application such as TED (http://www.ted.nu/). I want to download TV shows so I can watch it later on my iPod touch. Some of these shows I don't get on TV.

Love the show

Michael

Answer: Downloading copyrighted video from any source without the copyright-holder's permission is illegal. So if TED is making their videos available for download freely, then you're OK. But if you're downloading a network TV show from the Pirate Bay, that's not legal. To download and watch TV shows, make sure the source of the videos has permission to distribute them.

*********************

3. Hey Tom & Rafe,
I've been thinking about getting an xbox 360 recently but i'm not sure about the reliability, i know about all the problems in the past and was wondering if current new consoles are any better with reliability and if either of you have any first hand experiences with them. I like the idea of getting one but don't wont the hassle of getting it repaired or replaced over and over, and paying to ship it back to Microsoft.

thanks guy's love the show

Calum from The UK

Answer: Microsoft is making good on defective units with the red rings of death within the first three years of ownership. And the incidence of the red rings has decreased in the newer units. I have so far escaped from the issue, but have friends who haven't. I'd say you have 79% chance of being OK.

**********************

4. Hey tom and rafe, I've been using a plantronics 520 with my computer for the last two months and have fallen in love with it. It works almost throughout the whole house, almost. One day, I found a bluetooth dongle (vakoss) that claimed it could transmit 100m instead of the normal 10m. I bought it, uninstalled the other one, downloaded newest drivers from broadcom and installed this 100m bluetooth dongle. Sadly though, the plantronics gets static and dies at the same spots as when I was using the 10m dongle. My question is, was this some misprint on the dongle, a problem with the plantronics 520, or can bluetooth ONLY reach 10m?

Brandon Hagelgans [cmptrvir@gmail.com]

-
Hack The Planet!!!

A: Many people buy so-called 100-meter bluetooth dongles and have the same experience. There is in fact a spec for long-range Bluetooth, called Class 1. It takes more power and has longer range than most headsets and devices, which are Class 2, and which are generally limited to about 10 meters or 30 feet. A class 1 adapter connected to a class 2 device, unfortunately, will only work up to the max range of the class 2 device. I believe this is because the radio on the dongle is not sensitive enough to pick up the lower-power output from the headset.

If you want a long-range headset to go with your long-range bluetooth adapter, google Class 1 Bluetooth headset, or look at something like the Callpod Dragon: http://reviews.cnet.com/headsets/callpod-dragon-titanium-silver/4505-13831_7-32780177.html

*********************

Next time: 4G vs. 3G

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************