Listeners & Guests on the show this week:

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HOUR 1:

Tech News & Commentary

 

Rick in Visalia, California listens to the podcast and is calling via the App told us: "I've got a Windows 7 64-bit OS along with a server, 2008 R2 that I'm trying to bo backups to an external 4TB hard drive and I'm finding Windows won't backup to a 4 TB drive. is there any software out there that will allow me to backup to a 4TB drive for a Windows OS?"

 

Windows 7 supports hard drives up to 2.1TB, anything above that tends to use 4096 bytes sector sizes rather than 512 sector sizes.
Some drives offer something called Advanced Format 512e or 512 emulation. 512e drives are actually 4096 drives that tell the operating system that they’re not, so that the full size of the drive can be used.
They do that at the expense of performance, but for many it’s worth it.

Now, if your drive doesn't do that, you MAY be able to format the drive as GPT (GUID Partition Table) as opposed to MBR (Master Boot Record). MBR is from the 80s partitions have just grown beyond it’s ability to manage them, GPT should be able to handle them just fine. The downside here is that re-partitioning your drive means wiping it clean, given that you want to back up, you may need to do that before you go wiping things.

If you can’t do that, Windows 7 will not understand how to write onto something that large and software doesn’t directly interact with the hard drive, it goes through the operating system, so any backup software you try to use will only see what Windows can show it, and it will only save what Windows can write.

That means that unless you run backup software from outside of Windows itself (for example, using a live USB to clone the hard drive at boot time, which wouldn’t be an automatic and seamless thing) any backup software you run will be as limited as Windows is.

If you are trying to run the backup from the server, however, Windows Server 2008 R2 should be able to create NTFS partitions up to 256TB (less some small amount of space for overhead).

This will likely be using a 64K cluster size, not 4K, so disk space allocation won’t be as efficient if you have lots of small files. But when we’re talking hundreds of terabytes, are we REALLY concerned with 64 KILOBYTES per file being wasted? I know that I’m not.

Using a larger cluster size should work, assuming we’re talking about Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 64-bit latest version, regardless of the drive’s sector size. It may not make a bootable volume, but I didn’t get the impression that’s what you were asking about.

 

For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.

 

 

 

The "Into Tomorrow" team discussed the latest apps that they have been playing with recently.

• Mark recommends: Viggle, FREE

"If you're a couch potato slug like me, and your idea of exercise is having to get out of your chair long enough to track down a missing remote, then boy do I have an app for you. It's called Viggle, and the premise behind the app is dead simple. Viggle has deals in place with certain networks and TV shows, mostly second tier stuff like HGTV (which I've already admitted to binge-watching), and if you open the app while you're watching that network and one of those shows, Viggle records that and gives you points for every second you stay tuned in. When you accumulate enough points you can redeem them for fairly nice prizes. Now, full disclosure time. We're talking about a LOT of points here. To get something really nice, you're going to have to watch hundreds of hours of TV. On the other hand, I resemble that profile, so I'm Viggling my way to prizes. Viggle is free in the iTunes App Store." -- Mark


What are your favorite Apps? Let us know at 800-899-INTO and we'll feature them in this segment!


Tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast for more details

 

Joshua in Sparta, Tennessee listens on WTN 99.7 asked: "I lost a battle with my Samsung Galaxy S4 phone, I crushed it up against the wall so the screen is black but I can still receive phone calls-- the screen is shot otherwise. I was wondering if you thought it was worth fixing? As well as my Sanyo television, the HDMI plug in the back is starting to cause trouble. It's probably a 9-year old television, I was wondering if that would be worth repairing?"

 

We’re extremely sorry to hear about your recent troubles with electronics!  Be gentle with them. Tech is your friend! That must really cause plenty of inconveniences, especially the way you’re limited to not being able to make phone calls on your own. Just being forced to take calls from telemarketers and bill collectors must be a nightmare!

Now, your best bet is definitely not to get another phone as it will likely be way more costly than just repairing this one, and to do so, you will probably need to visit a local repair shop and have them take a look at your phone. Prices will vary depending on the issue and what the particular repair shop charges-- but it seems like that would help, because you’re still able to receive calls, meaning your phone is not entirely dead and could likely -- hopefully -- be fixed.

The more tedious but pocket-friendly solution is to order a repair kit for your phone, finding good instructions and doing it yourself. It may sound difficult, but plenty of people -- including me -- have been able to save money by doing this. Our intern had an issue previously with a broken phone screen and before paying $100 to a repair shop to fix it, his father was able to order a repair kit on Amazon that came with instructions and after it arrived-- it was fixed within an hour. He thinks that if his father, was able to fix a phone, just about anyone could do it too!
About your TV, you’re probably better off not fixing the port, a 9 year old TV is probably not worth an awful lot today.  If you have another working HDMI port, you could buy an HDMI switcher and just use that to plug in whatever was connected to the dead port.

We’ve seen estimates of about $150 to replace a broken HDMI port, a switchcan cost you as little as $5.

 

For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.

 

Michael in Colona, Illinois listens on Stitcher called in to help another listner who can't hear his phone, by suggesting the use of a smartwatch.

 

Thank you, Michael!

 

For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.

 

 

HOUR 2:

Tech News & Commentary

 

Larry in Metamora, Michigan listens on CKLW 800 asked us: "Looking to reformat a hard drive that had Windows 7 on it and I noticed that "fdisk" was not available and it did not have a saved partition that had the backup.. How would I go about reformatting the hard drive and using the Windows 7 OS?"

 

Fdisk couldn’t handle NTFS partitions, so it never made it onto Windows 7. Windows 7 does come with a tool that will let you format your drive, but it will not let you wipe the partition that Windows lives in.

If you want to do a clean Windows install, to get around that limitation, you need to boot into the Windows installer, as you would if you wanted to install a fresh copy of Windows. After accepting the license’s terms of use, you should be able to choose to do a Custom installation, and that should allow you to select an existing partition and select to delete it under “Drive Options.”

If you just want to wipe a secondary drive, do a search for Storage, then under that, go to Disk Management and you should have the option to format the drive without any trouble.

Booting into the Windows installer is a process that requires you to have one of two things: a bootable Windows CD or DVD, or a bootable USB flash drive. How you do that depends on how you originally purchased Windows.

If you bought Windows from an online store, such as Microsoft’s own, then you can go back there and download the ISO (that’s a disk image file of the Windows DVD) and something called the “Windows USB/DVD Download tool.” That program can create bootable drives.

If your copy of Windows came with your computer, then you need to find another place to download the ISO. We’ll have a link in this week’s show notes to a page that explains where you can get the ISO. But you will also need a Windows 7 key, and if you don’t have that, you won’t be able to reinstall no matter WHAT you do.

We wish that this could be easier for you, and frankly it’s not hard if you’re a tech-savvy guy, but for the average person we recognize that it’s quite fiddly.

 

For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.

 

 

Sharon in Kansas City, Missouri asked us: "Bluetooth headsets for stereo listening - The ones I find up here are out of my price range. I am hard of hearing, so I can't really hear the speaker on my iPhone, so I'd like to get a Bluetooth headset for my listening."

 

It’s hard to tell what may fit your needs without knowing what price point you’re aiming for. There are a lot of inexpensive bluetooth headsets, unfortunately, they also tend to be terrible.

You should easily be able to find lots of bluetooth stereo headsets online for between $10-15, but you can expect them to be uncomfortable and sound less than great.

If you can stretch to around $40, you’ll start running into well known brands like Plantronics and LG, they won’t be the highest end models, but at least they should sound and feel much better than they cheap $15 generic chinese versions.

If you prefer over the ear sets, they’re usually a little more, but you can still find them starting around $20 or $30, and the great ones will likely be closer to $400.

The question is, what are you looking for? will you be satisfied with mediocre sound? is the volume more important to you than the quality of the audio? If you don’t mind less than stellar sound and don’t plan to wear them for hours at a time, some of the cheaper options may work well for you.

 

For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast.

 

 

HOUR 3:

Tech News & Commentary

 

Richard in Fairbanks, Alaska listens on 970 KFBX asked: "Bluetooth headsets for stereo listening - The ones I find up here are out of my price range. I am hard of hearing, so I can't really hear the speaker on my iPhone, so I'd like to get a Bluetooth headset for my listening."

 

It’s hard to tell what may fit your needs without knowing what price point you’re aiming for. There are a lot of inexpensive bluetooth headsets, unfortunately, they also tend to be terrible.

You should easily be able to find lots of bluetooth stereo headsets online for between $10-15, but you can expect them to be uncomfortable and sound less than great.

If you can stretch to around $40, you’ll start running into well known brands like Plantronics and LG, they won’t be the highest end models, but at least they should sound and feel much better than they cheap $15 generic chinese versions.

If you prefer over the ear sets, they’re usually a little more, but you can still find them starting around $20 or $30, and the great ones will likely be closer to $400.

The question is, what are you looking for? will you be satisfied with mediocre sound? is the volume more important to you than the quality of the audio? If you don’t mind less than stellar sound and don’t plan to wear them for hours at a time, some of the cheaper options may work well for you.

 

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.

 

Josh in Tupelo, Mississippi listening on Supertalk 94.3 FM asked: "I dabble in graphic design. I'm in need of a program comparable to Adobe Photoshop but need something that is anywhere from free to much cheaper than Photoshop. Any ideas?"

 

You have several options. GIMP is great, a little rough around the edges, and with more of a Linux feel to it, but it’s totally free and it does a lot of what Photoshop does, and does it very well, there’s a version of it called “GIMPShop” that tries to mimic the Photoshop user interface as well, so you could look at that one if you’re really looking for more of a Photoshop clone.

Pixlr is another free option, it’s not as full featured as Photoshop or even GIMP and it’s web based, but it is pretty powerful, especially for a cloud-based tool. If you’re good at image editing already, just make sure you’re not on Basic mode.

Photoshop Express is Adobe’s own free online editor, again, fewer features than real Photoshop, but it will look similar and perform some basic functions. Paintshop Pro will also cost around $80, it’s has plenty of useful features and it may be enough to satisfy you, if you don’t need the most advanced Photoshop functions.

Another great free alternative is PhotoScape. PhotoScape has all of the basic image editing tools you might want, as well as some advanced features that let you add text and other objects to your images. It is far simpler than Photoshop, although admittedly doesn’t do nearly as much, but it’s free, and for someone looking to touch up their digital photos, PhotoScape is a great tool and they have both Windows and Mac versions. You can get the details at photoscape.org. And you didn’t mention whether you had Windows or Mac, but if you happen to have a Mac, look at Pixelmator in the Mac App store.

Very comparable in power to Photoshop unless you need color separations for professional printing, but much cheaper at $14.99 and, I think, much easier to use as well.

 

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.

 

 

Vince in Albuquerque, New Mexico listens to the podcast asked: "I have the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 on Verizon. They have an app that comes in the phone called VZ Protect and Verizon recommends getting the app going, and it's supposed to offer a better protection I guess for the phone if you're downloading apps. It's like a virus protection thing. My question is-- are they just promoting their own app, are there any apps that are better than that one, that are free? If there are, let me know, or is that one the best one to go with on the phone?"

 

Frankly the app is mostly useless. The whole virus scanner aspect of it is basically worthless unless your phone is rooted, the risk of malware tagging along with your apps is almost non-existent.

They do have some other features and some of them might be more useful, for example, their Site Advisor integration should warn you if you’re visiting potential malware sites (which could be achieved through a DNS server, no need for an app). Their premium features do include a privacy tool that could be useful to know what information each of your apps is trying to access.

The app is pretty much providing a service you don’t need though, most of it is just handled by Android to begin with and having an app running in the background checking everything at all times can’t be fantastic for your battery life.

Speaking of battery life, their app will estimate how long you can talk on the phone, browse the web, or use other functions on however much battery you have left, which sounds nice to know… not very useful, and totally dependent on what you’re doing that very second, but you know… nice… but you can get that for free from plenty of apps like BatteryTime without having to let them run in the background constantly.

There is one useful feature that comes with that app and it’s the ability to track your phone if you lost it, but again, Android can handle that natively too… you just need to log in to Android Device Manager, device tracking should be turned on by default, but you may need to turn on the ability to remotely lock and erase the phone.

If that’s not good enough for you, Samsung phones like yours also come with Find My Mobile to do the same thing… you probably don’t need to install Verizon’s version of the same thing too.

 

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.

 

MaryAnn in Mississippi listening on Smart Talk 100.9 FM 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 Sunday afternoon 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. There’s really nothing to it, you slide it in, then it works. Here’s the bad news though: if you’ve been enjoying the phone for a year you may have waited too long to have it repaired or exchanged under warranty. Either way, give it a shot, you may get lucky!

And whatever shop it was that told you to get an iPhone needs to be flagged 15 yards for excessive sarcasm, since iPhones don’t accept microSD cards at all. Of course, neither does the latest Galaxy smartphone from Samsung, the S6.

 

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.

 

Alex in Boynton Beach, FL listening online asked: "I have an iMac with Lion. I would like to know how I can print a gfpartial page."

 

Mac OS X allows something called "Services" to be added to automate tasks users may need to perform often. The preferred method to print a selection seems to be one of these services. It’s called Print Selection Service 2.0, and you can download it from here.

After you’ve installed it, select whatever you want to print, right click, go to Services and Print Selection. We’ve never had to use it ourselves, but it seems to satisfy the people who use it, hopefully it will work for you too.

 

For more information, tune in to Hour 3 of our podcast.

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