Episode 07 News: Boo-yah!

Not that the rumor mill ever slows down, but the arrival of Google’s Nexus 7 tablet seems to have spurred unconfirmed reports that both Apple and Amazon are working on updates to their own tablet lines. “Smaller for the iPad, thinner for the Kindle,” so go the rumors. Time will tell, but remember, video on iPods was once debunked, y’know.

While tablet touchscreens seem to be popular in the 7- to 10-inch range, Microsoft is also betting big with its purchase of Perceptive Pixel, which makes touchscreens up to 82 inches in size.  Hopefully, Microsoft can lower the price down from the current $80,000 to grab some new customers. The company also confirmed this week that PC and tablet computers running its brand-new Windows 8 operating system will arrive in late October.

Apple is also rolling into a new Mac OS X release, passing along the golden master for Mac OS X 10.8 (Cougar, er, Mountain Lion) to developers. This usually means that the system will show up in the Mac App Store within a few weeks — plenty of time to hit up the Roaring Apps Compatibility Table page to make sure al your mission-critical Mac programs play nice with the new cat.

Google is paying the price for blowing by the privacy settings in Apple’s Safari browser. And the price is $22.5 million to the Federal Trade Commission for that little indiscretion. (On the topic of Google, if you’re already fretting about next year’s announced demise of the iGoogle portal project, check out PC World’s pages for three alternatives, plus two more.)

So much for the DNSChanger Trojan that was supposed to knock hundreds of thousands of people and their infected computers off the Internet this week. The security company F-Secure estimated that about 47,000 computers in the US were still infected with the malware. If you think you may be one of them, check out these instructions. On a more annoying security note, some phish factory is spewing fake account-billing notices from United Parcel Service. (UPS is ON it.)

Mobile may be grabbing a lot of the gameplay these days, but don’t count out the consoles, with their motion controllers and other new forms of inventive interaction. On the horizon: the new Android-based Ouya console, which sports an attractive $99 price tag. (It also has a Kickstarter page with an infovid.)

Ah, game consoles. You always remember your first.

 

Tech Term of the Week: Cramming

Let me be perfectly clear from the outset, I am not condoning illegal activity nor am I suggesting that those folks who make a parasitic living by cheating hardworking people out of their money should be admired or presented as role models in any way. Furthermore, I am certainly not looking to be controversial with this particularly embarrassing admission: I’ve always had a grudging respect for scammers.

Connivers, tricksters, you know the type. The sociopaths that dedicate their lives to finding new and inventive ways to sell suckers a box full of rocks. I can’t help but be impressed by their complete lack of scruples. I guess that speaks volumes about me but hey, I’m just keeping it real.

This week’s Tech Term is cramming and from my introduction it’s pretty clear that this doesn’t mean studying for an exam at the very last minute. According to the FCC cramming is the practice of placing unauthorized, misleading or deceptive charges on your telephone bill. Crammers rely on confusing telephone bills in an attempt to trick consumers into paying for services they did not authorize or receive, or that cost more than the consumer was led to believe.

Ooooohhh, rascally!

The charges are often for non-basic services such as Caller ID or Voice Mail but more recently text message cramming has become popular on mobile devices. Slick SMS services will text you with an offer for their product but buried in the message will be an opt-out option. You will be billed for the service unless you respond to the text.

Tricksy, very tricksy

You know, crammers really do give con-men a bad name. Where’s the artistry? This scam shows no creativity at all. No need to lay on the charm, no elaborate rouse to gain the trust of a mark. Crammers simply rely on the majority of us that rarely, if ever, analyze our phone bills and just pay. According to The New York Times a U.S. Senate committee investigation into land-line cramming put the dollar amount at $2 billion a year. That’s BILLION, with a B.

Obviously an excellent way to protect yourself from getting crammed is by going over your phone bills every month and immediately disputing any suspicious charges. If you’ve been the victim of cramming you can file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission or the Federal Trade Commission if you see suspect non-telephone services on your telephone bill.

Cramming, your Pop Tech Jam tech term of the week.

Click Here to Listen to Episode 06

Some Tips For Improving the Audio Quality of Your Home Video

Do you want a surefire way alienate the audience for your film or video project? Show them your finished work with sub-par audio.  As a rule, audiences seem to be more annoyed by poor sound quality than by bad video. It isn’t just professional work I’m talking about, try sitting through a 2 hour family vacation extravaganza where the audio is too loud and distorts or is barely audible above the location noise. I guarantee you that most people watching will be taken right out of the story.

There is no arguing the point, sound is the most crucial component for producing excellent video. Yes, I’ve been a “sound guy” for decades but not many serious producers or directors would disagree with me. Ignore the quality of your sound at your own peril.

If you’ve listened to Episode 05 of our show you already know that I took the audio for granted on a video I shot of my kids making it virtually unusable. As a reminder to myself and others I offer some very basic tips that may help ensure better audio quality for your home video projects.

  1.  Make sure your video camera has a jack for an external microphone. You don’t need an pro XLR connection. A 3.5mm mini-jack connection will do just fine. Using an external microphone gives you more flexibility for controlling the sound environment.
  2. Use a quality microphone. These days you can get relatively inexpensive microphones that provide excellent quality. A built-in camera microphone will give you decent quality but no where near what you’d get with an external setup.
  3. Decide on the correct microphones for your shoot and position them carefully. Clip-on microphones (also known as a Lavalier microphone) should be placed as close to your subject’s mouth as possible. Most Lavalier mics are omnidirectional, which is to say they can pick up sound from virtually any direction, so the closer you get to the mouth the more prominent your subject’s voice will be in the video. A shotgun microphone is a highly directional microphone with a tube that resembles the barrel of a rifle and should be aimed at the source of whatever you intend to record. A hand-held mic is just that, a microphone you hold in your hand that should be tucked under your chin anywhere from a foot to 6 inches away from the mouth.
  4. Always monitor your sound as you record with full-sized headphones and not earbuds. Full-sized headphones help block out extraneous noise giving you a clearer sense of what you are committing to tape.
  5. When recording outdoors use a wind muff. A “dead cat” wind muff can be especially effective. This type of wind screen is usually an acoustically transparent, synthetic fur material with long, soft hairs. The hairs deaden the noise caused by the shock of wind.
  6. If you do end up with sub-par audio you can always try fixing it in post production. Re-recording some segments and syncing it to your video is an option. Recording a voiced over narration track or using music cues can also help cover up bad audio.

 

iPad Keyboards: Dance With The One That Brung Ya

I guess it was inevitable but it still came as a shock. Not long ago I realized that I spend significantly more time on my tablet devices than I do on laptops or PCs. In fact, there are some days I don’t use keyboard and mouse driven devices at all. My iPad has become my main content consumption device as well as a crucial part of my work arsenal. One problem though. Typing more than a sentence or two on a tablet becomes an exercise in frustration and don’t even get me started on taking quick notes on it. Not to sugarcoat it but the experience really and truly stinks.

I made it a point to find a decent iPad Bluetooth keyboard that was both portable and durable. The first keyboard and case I tried was the Koolertron Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard Case for Apple iPad 2 and iPad (don’t call it) 3. What at first appeared to be brushed aluminum turns out to be cheap plastic. The keyboard feels flimsy and when the iPad is in the case it becomes top heavy and leans too far back. I expect it to snap right off the base one day. The one redeeming feature of the keyboard case is the 4000mAh power lithium battery. It can charge the iPad while you use the keyboard and it’s rated to last 55 hours although your mileage will vary.

As the name implies, the Logitech’s Ultrathin Keyboard Cover is a Bluetooth keyboard that doubles as a case for the iPad 2 and the 3rd generation version of Apple’s tablet. A magnetic clip, similar to the one on Apple’s Smart Cover, keeps the aluminum-backed keyboard attached to the iPad. There are compromises with the keyboard, especially when it comes to the function keys, but overall Logitech’s unique cover delivers an excellent typing experience. Two deal-breaking issues (maybe two sides of the same issue) are that the Ultrathin Cover scratches very easily and it offers a total lack of compatibility with standard iPad covers that protect the back of the tablet from dents and scratches. To use the case you must leave your iPad naked as a jaybird.

If you’ve read this far I guess you really want to know what my go to iPad keyboard is. Well, turns out it’s an old familiar face: 

Yup, the Apple wireless keyboard is my preferred iPad input device. It sports Bluetooth connectivity, is compact, rugged and looks good. If you can live without the iPad specific function keys available on the the Koolertron and the Logitech cases you’ll find the Apple keyboard is a real workhorse.

Click here to listen to Episode 04. 

 

10 Tips for Using Electronics in Hot Weather

  1. MP3 players like iPods generally work best in standard room temperature, say, around 72 degrees, but can function fine in a range of 32 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. (That would be 0 to 35 on the Celsius scale).
  2. Don’t leave your MP3 players, tablet computers or other mobile gear in a hot car, especially one in direct sunlight. According to the National Weather Service, even if it’s just 80 degrees outside, the inside of the car can get up to 123 degrees in an hour.
  3. If you do have a device that gets really hot, bring it into the hotel room and wait until the gadget cools down to room temperature before trying to use it.
  4. Try to avoid hauling anything like a laptop or a tablet to the beach. Oceans tend to involve elements like salt spray in the air, water, hot sun and sand – and none of these things is good for electronics. If you do need to bring an e-reader to the beach, cover the electric and USB ports with electrical tape to keep out sand and salt — or invest in a tight-fitting protective case designed to keep Mother Nature out of the device. The same goes for camcorders and cellphones. In a pinch, keep your mobile phone sealed inside a plastic bag.
  5. If you do haul gear out in to the sun, consider storing it in a dry cooler (with no ice inside) to keep it out of the sun and sand.
  6. Wear sunscreen. If you’ve just applied sun-blocking lotion, be sure to wipe it off your hands before handing your electronics — especially touchscreen devices.
  7. A can of condensed air back in the hotel room is helpful for blowing off any sand that may have dusted the gadgets.
  8. And, if you happen to be reading iBooks on an iPad under an umbrella on the hotel balcony or in the room after a long day of sun and fun, remember that you can choose a different color-scheme theme that just black text on a white background. Just tap the Fonts icon in the top corner. In the menu that pops up, tap the Theme button for the option to switch to Sepia for a soothing light brown pages or Night, the high-contrast white type on a black background. The Fonts icon also has the screen brightness controls if you need to make the iPad’s screen dimmer or brighter.
  9. A good weather app on your smartphone is a great way to keep up with any alerts for heat advisories, approaching storms and other nature-related event that may be on the way to harsh your vacation fun.
  10. Drink plenty of fluids and stay hydrated so you don’t become woozy and drop your gear in the sand or water.

Episode 06 News: All Kinds of Things that Go BOOM!

If you’re looking for an orb-like streaming media player, Google’s new Nexus Q may fill the void. Introduced at last week’s I/O conference and reportedly even made here in the USA, the $300 black sphere connects to your audio and video system to music and video right from the cloud to your home entertainment center. (Catchy name, eh? Sorta make you think of this Nexus and this Q…)

The Q of Star Trek: The Next Generation liked to meddle — something Facebook is still being accused of after last week’s “let’s-change-everyone’s-default-email-address” incident. Seems the address swap messed up a few smartphone contact lists and The People are not happy about it.

Amazon has apologized for major outages to clients using its Amazon Web Services cloudware after power-disrupting massive thunderstorms and pesky software bugs knocked a few sites offline. The Leap Second of June 30 also tripped up a few sites, although Google smartly planned ahead for that extra tick on the clock.

MobileMe went down for good this past weekend, but that was intentional, as Apple retired the service for good in favor it its big puffy iCloud. Apple also kept up the patent lawsuit heat on Samsung, which still can’t sell its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the U.S. Off to appeals court, we go!

Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to tout its new Windows 8 system that’s due out later this year. A Windows Team blog post reports you can even upgrade your existing Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 PC to the spiffy new Windows 8 Pro for a mere $40 when the new system lands.

Twitter is marking American Independence Day this week by releasing its first Twitter Transparency Report detailing international government requests for both user information and requests received to remove content DMCA takedown notices were also noted. As a post on the Twitter blog notes: “Beyond the fireworks and barbecue, July 4th serves as an important reminder of the need to hold governments accountable, especially on behalf of those who may not have a chance to do so themselves.”

Happy American Independence Day for those who celebrate it! And for our beloved international listeners, party on anyway.