Project FI from Google– Inexpensive mobile data && more…

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For a couple of months, the audio of today’s show will be here. Recent shows are here.

 

Both Glenn and Paul were in the studio today.

 

Because of his fat fingers, Glenn is using voice-to-text more often. It can be pretty challenging, he said. There are many times the text comes out wrong. He admonished those using voice-to-text to check that the accuracy of the output.

Paul brought up the subject of video displays, in response to Glenn wondering whether one can save money buying a display (or TV) that isn’t ‘smart’ and using it with a streaming device like Apple TV. A plain display, unlike smart TVs, don’t have built-in apps to view content from Netflix, Amazon, CBS New, NBC Sports, etc. In addition to Apple TV plugin streaming devices include Google Chromecast, Roku and others. They’re all close in price, Paul said. Paul thinks it’s wiser to get a plain TV and then add a streaming device of your choice.

Samsung came out with a smart TV but, having a small market share, Paul doesn’t think it will get firmware updates as often as the more popular addon devices (Chromecast, Apple TV, Roku…).

The Samsung TV was also involved in some controversy when it was discovered that its voice command feature was on all of the time. Some speculated it was possible for the TV to eavesdrop on conversation and send it to the Samsung servers. But the same can be said of conversations people have with Siri on their iPhone, for instance. That conversation is sent to Apple servers. A similar situation exists with other brands of smartphones.

Paul said the Apple TV version 3 is being phased out. It didn’t allow you to add apps (for more content). Version 4 will let you add apps and, Paul believes, it has Siri. Siri will also be part of Sierra, the next Apple operating system for the Mac. It will be version 10.12 and it’s coming out in the Fall.

Paul noted that Mark Zuckerberg puts tape over the cameras on his devices to avoid being spied on.
<Mark Zuckerberg Covers His Laptop Camera. You Should Consider It, Too>

Glenn said he heard a story of a mother & daughter talking about some new shoes to buy, while the daughter’s Amazon tablet was nearby. After a few minutes the daughter noticed an ad on the tablet that was very close to what they were talking about. The suspicion was that the tablet was listening and relaying the information to Amazon. So it’s not just the camera that can be spying on you.

Paul mentioned that Amazon has a product called Echo ($179) that can listen to you from across the room, even with music playing in the background. He said the ability for computers to discriminate voice from noise keeps getting better.
<Alexa, what else can you do? Getting more from Amazon Echo>

Glenn thanked the listeners who support KVMR. If you’d like to become a supporting member please visit kvmr.org.

If you have any tech-related questions, you can call in to the studio during the show at 530-265-9555. or send an email to zen at kmvr dot org.

Paul remembered the time he was in high school and had a chance to hear one of the earliest pieces of synthesized music: Daisy Bell by Harry Dacre. In 1961 an IBM 7094 computer was made to sing the words to Daisy Bell and Paul played an excerpt. Incidentally, Hal the computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which came out in 1968, met his end while singing Daisy Bell. Paul thought that it’s a coincidence that letters of Hal precede the letters IBM (H-I A-B L-M).

The browsers Internet Explorer, the early Netscape, Firefox and Chrome are based on the browser called Mozilla that came out the Center For Super Computer Applications in Urbana Il.

The Chinese have taken the lead in super computers. Their machines don’t use chips made in the US, at all, Paul said. The Chinese had to develop their own because the US banned the sale of our chips to China.

Glenn talked about text shortcuts. He said the feature is built into the iPad and iPhone. You can define, for instance, two letters ‘gy’ to represent your email address. So instead of typing out your entire email address into a box, you just type ‘gy’ and the iPad replaces it with your entire address. To set it up go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard and look for an area called ‘Text Replacement’.

Paul explained a bit about the text correction feature on smartphones. When you start typing a word, the phone tries to guess what you meant and offers a word to place into your text. But there’s a little ‘x’ by the suggested word in case that word is wrong. You hit the ‘x’ to tell the phone that what you typed should be taken literally and the next time you start typing the word, the phone will remember what you meant and won’t offer the wrong word. If you don’t tell it that the suggested word is wrong and you enter a space, the suggested word is used. The more you use your phone the more it knows the words you use.

If you want to clear the dictionary where all of the words the iPhone learned from you are stored, go to Settings (the cog icon) -> General -> at the bottom find Reset (don’t touch anything there until you understand what it means). Look for ‘Reset Keyboard Dictionary’. Alternately, you can just turn of the correction feature.
<With Android go to Settings -> Language & Input -> Personal Dictionary, where you can add words and create shortcuts.>

When you sell your phone, Paul suggested you go into Settings -> General and erase all content and settings. That should delete all passwords, cache, documents and the apps you’ve installed. It will go back to the factory settings.

Neal called. He gets static on his radio whenever he turns on his PC. He said they’re not plugged into the same outlet and are about 6′ to 8′ apart.
– Computers a supposed to be made so as not to radiate interference. Paul guessed that his computer is radiating more than it should be.
– Move the computer & radio farther apart.
– Get an antenna <or better one or a directional antenna> for the radio.
– It may not be a problem with the computer but what’s connected to it. Except for “live” hard drives, unplug each item one at a time (mouse, keyboard, etc.) and see if the problem goes away.
– The cable from the monitor to the computer may be causing the problem. Better cables have an RF choke built in (noticeable as a extra fat portion of the cable). While the computer is running, unplug the monitor from the back of the computer and see if it makes a difference.
– Another Paul entered the studio and suggested moving the radio antenna around to see if the hissing changes.
– It sounds like part of the problem is that the KVMR signal comes in weakly for him. It doesn’t come in at all if his radio is set to stereo — it only comes in if set to mono.
– Try a different radio.

Saxon called from Fair Oaks. He has a 16gig iPhone 5S that’s about 2.5 years old. He’s having a problem with low available memory. When he goes into the general setting he see that 11.4 gigs are being used with 148 meg available. He’s tried clearing out his email but it doesn’t gain him any more memory. The mail is still taking up a lot of storage.

He has a Mac and Paul suggested he connect the iPhone to the Mac using a cable. The open the iPhoto or Photo application on the Mac. He should be able to see “which photographs are already in the Photo application which are still on the iPhone.” Next, transfer them to the Mac after you check the box that says ‘remove them from the iPhone’. The application is smart enough to transfer only those not already on the Mac, so you don’t get duplicates.

If you’re using Photo, not the older iPhoto, program, you should see a very small dial in the upper left when it starts the transfer. Click on it and you’ll see a more detailed progress graph.

When the transfer is complete, you should have a copy of every photo that’s on the iPhone. You can then delete all the iPhone photos — the biggest memory hog, Paul said. On the iPhone, use the app called Photos to do the deletion.

As for the mail:
– When you create an email account, IMAP should be automatically detected. Some mail providers don’t offer IMAP
– Glenn said that if you’re using IMAP and you delete the mail on your phone, the next time the mail synchs, the mail is loaded back onto the phone.

Paul had him go to Settings -> ‘Mail Contact And Calendars’ and click on the email address of the account it should say, for instance, fred@something.net. Click on that and then ‘Advanced’ and you should see the settings for that account. Under ‘Incoming Settings’, you can tell if it’s using IMAP or POP. It looked like Saxon has POP mail. Under ‘Incoming Settings’ there’s a option to ‘Delete From Server’ but Paul warned that may delete the mail forever. He said to talk to the provider about switching over to IMAP.

Paul reminded listeners that on July 29 Microsoft will stop offering Windows 10 as an upgrade. Glenn said he’s thinking about putting Linux on his ASUS touchscreen PC in place of Win10.

The disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed on KVMR are those of the speakers only and not necessarily those of KVMR management, staff or underwriters

If you have the icon that says “Get Windows 10 Now”, now may be your last chance for the free upgrade. If you don’t want it and you just want it to all go away, Paul said to google the words: gwx control panel. Install it to make it shut up for good. <There’s more about GWX in the 5-11-16 show notes>.

Nick called. He plans to do some traveling and he wants to be able to store webpage content on his Android cell phone, for those times he doesn’t have an internet connection. Paul said there is something to do that but couldn’t remember what it is.
<Opera and UCbrowser (with a plugin) both allow you to store webpages on the phone>
<Save Page Add-on for UC Browser
Links to download: UC Browser..apk or install at Android Market here.>

Paul hurried to mention Project Fi before the hour expired. Google is partnering with some cellular providers to make buying data (no voice) plans easier. It’s $10 per gig and a rebate of penny for each meg you don’t use. Glenn said a Nexus phone, which start at $199, is required

Last Updated 11:05 PM 7-29-2016

Paul hurried to mention