The Real Deal

What kinds of tech gadgets should you have in your emergency kits? We give you some ideas and take some from the audience. loadUniversalPlayer({playerType: 'ces2010-small',lumiereQueryType: 'id',lumiereQueryValue: '#######',useCurrentPageUrl: true,relatedVideo: false,preRollAd: true,hideLeftTab:true,wrapperFloat:'left'}); -- Listen now: Download today's podcast Subscribe with iTunes (audio)Subscribe with iTunes (video)Subscribe with RSS (audio)Subscribe with RSS (video) Episode 196 Power for gadgets * UPS * Batteries (code red) store around 60 degrees in a dry place. Best to store rechargables at half power. * Crank chargers * Solar chargers like Solio * Don’t forget your car as a power source – got adapters? Backup of data * Cloud storage – Mozy, Carbonite, Sugarsync. Backupify, or shared – Crashplan * USB – in Tupperware for waterproofing. In fireproof safe. (Fireproof hard drive — http://www.iosafe.com/; http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/28375/backing-up-your-digital-photos-in-a-fireproof-safe-without-opening-it.html) * Legacy Locker; InformationSafe iPhone apps to save your… * First Aid * EMT ICE Gadgets for disaster * Scott E Vest! * Radio * Walkie-talkie * Old GSM cell phone with charger. Grundig emergency crank radio with phone charger. * Cellular diversity – have different people in the family on different networks. More expensive but more fault-tolerant * Landline phone * PLBs; the SPOT messenger (http://www.findmespot.com/en/) Tech for Emergency kits * Walkie talkies * Fire makers * Stove – jetboil * Purifier (filter/tabs) * Headlamps * Find a good Twitter feed – LA fires. Best advice * Find a burner, emulate their kit *************** Hey fellas, Long time listener, first time emailer. After losing a lot of stuff in Katrina, my wife and I learned the only thing worth saving was photos. Keepsake souvenirs from trips can be replaced, or aren’t really that important to begin with. The family china and silver can be washed. Photographs, on the other hand, are irreplaceable, and if they get wet are completely unrecoverable. While we were on evacucation, we bought a scanner and scanned all the printed photos we had brought with us or could save. Now, whenever I download photos to my computer from my camera, I also upload them via S3Fox to Amazon’s S3 remote storage service. It’s about .15 per Gb/Month and well worth the piece of mind. A backup drive is only good if it’s not been flooded, burned, crushed, lost, or stolen. If Amazon’s storage server farm AND my backup drive are toast, I’ve got bigger problems than missing photographs. In Louisiana, we at least get a warning for our disasters. In earthquake country, remote storage makes even more sense. LTS, Duff Citizen of the Who Dat Nation Good advice. Here’s more: scan your old prints and negs. See Scancafe, Digital Pickle, ScanMyPhotos ***************** First, may I say how much I appreciate all your knowledge. On a podcast, you recommended FoxIt for PDFs. If you install this, do you delete Adobe Reader? If you uninstall, do you mind telling me what I can safely delete? Again, love listening and watching you. Sarah Answer: Don’t delete Adobe Reader, just uninstall it. You should see an uninstall option in for Adobe Reader specifically in your start menu. However, if you don’t, do this. Control Panel>Add-Remove Programs>Adobe Reader Don’t just delete files in Windows. It’s a bad idea. ******************* Hi Guys! I know that I need to do a clean install of Windows 7 on my Dell XPS 600 that is currently running Windows XP 32bit . On the 10/15/2009 episode of “How To: Upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7″ Tom recommended using Windows Easy Transfer wizard to back up my files and settings. My question is, I want to upgrade to Windows 7 64 bit so I can upgrade my RAM from the current 2G, but will the file that Windows Easy Transfer wizard creates from my XP 32 bit file be able to import to the Windows 7 64 bit? Steve D Answer: Good point! For an inexplicable reason, Microsoft’s Easy Transfer Wizard doesn’t support moving from 32-bit to 64-bit or 64-bit to 32-bit. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/32-bit-and-64-bit-Windows-frequently-asked-questions I have READ that you can use the backup and restore function in Windows Vista, but that doesn’t help you anyway. In this case, I might try PC Mover from LapLink. http://www.laplink.com/pcmover/ Or just export the registry and move all your files manually. ******************** Hi Guys, Love listening to the Real Deal! Have enjoyed Buzz Out Load for years, but the Real Deal always leaves me with something to try out when I get to work. I have written down a half dozen questions in the past – then they get answered on the show before I send! I wanted to ask about what software you would recommend for video editing on PC? I am fairly computer savvy and able to learn software operation. Craig Parker, Toronto, Canada Answer: I asked around with the CNET TV editors, and we all pretty much agreed Adobe Premiere ($800) is the best for Windows still. You can save a load of bucks if you don’t need a lot of pro features and go with Adobe Premiere Elements ($80). http://download.cnet.com/Adobe-Premiere-Elements/3000-2193_4-10701416.html Rafe: I used Windows Movie Maker, http://download.live.com/moviemaker. Very simple. And free! ******************** COMMENTS Greetings Rafe and Tom, On a recent episode, someone wanted to hookup their Sling Box wireless. I had this problem with other devices that only support wired Ethernet. The solution I used is a D-Link DWL-G820 Wireless Gaming Adapter. Thank you for a very informative show, Henry C Livonia MI ********************* To the engineer looking to do pen input on iPad; they make capacitive pens, and actually they make an app that turns the new giant MacBook touchpad into a “wacom” tablet. (I know that was a horribly malformed sentence, sorry) Also, what are your thoughts on multi-tasking on ipad or iPhone? I personally think it’s worthless(other than running music apps). As long as either device doesn’t have a windowing system, what’s the point of multitasking? It’s not like you are going to start a final cut render and switch to play some peggle to waste time while it renders on your iPhone or ipad. As long as apps save the last used state, it’s essentially the same as “multitasking.” Just a thought #end dwight For cutting and pasting between apps (browser/email/word processor for example), you don’t want to have to restart the app everytime you switch Next time: All-questions realdeal@cnet.com forums.cnet.com

We take a tour through the history of previous attempts at making successful tablet PCs. How is the Apple iPad different? Is it that different? Can it succeed? Also we take your calls and answer e-mails. loadUniversalPlayer({playerType: 'ces2010-small',lumiereQueryType: 'id',lumiereQueryValue: '50082918',useCurrentPageUrl: true,relatedVideo: false,preRollAd: true,hideLeftTab:true,wrapperFloat:'left'}); Listen now: Download today's podcast Subscribe with iTunes (audio)Subscribe with iTunes (video)Subscribe with RSS (audio)Subscribe with RSS (video) Episode 195 The long fail: A brief history of unsuccessful tablet computers http://technologizer.com/2010/01/27/the-long-fail-a-brief-history-of-unsuccessful-tablet-computers/ A short history of the tablet computer (http://www.osnews.com/story/22739) -DynaPAD the first concept from the late 1960s The Apple graphics tablet http://www.edibleapple.com/the-first-apple-tablet-from-1979/ Rafe: That’s an input device, dood! And I actually sold Tod Rundgren his first one. -Apple Tablet design from Frog circa 1983 http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/24/frog-design-outs-the-apple-tablet-that-could-have-been-in-198/ -Apple’s Knowledge Navigator idea in 1988 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl3CVaWtF-o -the GRiDpad was the first, real, tangible tablet computer as we would recognize it (GRiD was owned by Tandy) -Momenta (Rafe) from October 1991: http://books.google.com/books?id=2j0EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=RA1-PA142&ots=azCp6iU1z1&dq=momenta%20needleman&pg=RA1-PA142#v=onepage&q=momenta%20needleman&f=false -Jeff Hawkins left GRiD with a software license and founded Palm first successful utility (as opposed to gaming) computer product without a keyboard? -GO introduced the PenPoint operating system in 1991 (Shipped on multiple devices including ThinkPad700T -Shortly after we saw Windows for Pen Computing 1.0 (add-on for Windows 3.x – eventually developed into Windows XP Tablet edition -MessagePad running Newton OS came along in 1993. -Microsoft Tablet edition 2001 From @icesnake1950 – Fujitsu iPad 2002 http://www.currentdirections.com/hardware/fujitsu/ipad100.html -UMPC 2005 -Nokia N800 -Amazon Kindle Today’s tablets Lenovo X series. And the weird U1: http://ces.cnet.com/8301-31045_1-10424800-269.html Microsoft’s line of Slate computers from CES – HP TouchSmart tm2: http://ces.cnet.com/8301-31045_1-10423946-269.html?tag=mncol. $949 Apple tablet **************** Hey Guys, I have recently wanted to start using linux. I have done some looked around and found that there are several different distros, what are the major differences between them? Is there any particular distro that you would recommend to someone as their first distro? Love the show Gabriel Answer: Hands down for beginners I recommend Ubuntu. Wikipedia has a nice list of distros with a designation of main purpose: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Linux_distributions If you really want to dig into reading up on the differences try http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major **************** Hi Tom/Rafe, In the CES 2010 episode Tom made a comment that he used his Mifi instead of sharing the wireless on his Mac. I’ve been looking for a way of sharing my Wifi on an XP machine; the only way I’ve found is get the internet via wire and use the wireless for the sharing (and a wired connection isn’t always available). On a Mac, can you connect via wireless and share the connection at the same time? How about on Windows 7? Thanks! Chris the Accountant, Canada Answer: You want Internet Connection Sharing: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Using-ICS-Internet-Connection-Sharing. Then you have to set up an ad-hoc WiFi link. Go to Control Panel, select Network and Sharing Center. Click on the link “Set up a Connection or Network”. Select the option "Set up a wireless ad hoc (computer-to-computer) network". Caveat: I haven’t actually done this. I’d rather pay $720 a year for a MiFi than bang my head against Windows’ network configuration settings. **************** Tom, You seem to love your Thinkpad’s so maybe you can help me here. I have a t61 that used to have XP and bluetooth. Now I have Windows 7 and no bluetooth. I have tried everything. There is nothing on Lenovo’s site except for a Lazar mouse bluetooth driver. The device manager doesn’t show the hardware at all. not even as a device that is missing drivers. It is like It never existed to start with. I have installed all the hotkeys and Fnf5 only shows WiFi. You seem to work with Thinkpads so I am hoping you know about this glitch and a way to fix it. Love the shows, Ian Answer: I haven’t run across this myself, but it looks like others have: http://blog.tiensivu.com/aaron/archives/1843-Bluetooth-missing-from-Device-M anager-on-Thinkpads-with-W7-build-7057+.html **************** R&T, I see some GPS units have bluetooth. Is it possible to use a bluetooth keyboard to enter destination information on any make/model GPS units — instead of the on-screen entry? I would expect this would have a better chance than a USB keyboard with a mini-adapter since the bluetooth keyboard would have its own power supply. LTS Michael, lost in Akron Answer: Hello Michael, Your question was passed around our Reviews staff and finally ended up on my desk. I hope you don’t mind my chiming in! I’ve seen devices support hands-free calling (and a few support A2DP audio streaming and serial connections for contacts syncing), but none of the Bluetooth-capable GPS devices that I’ve tested have been compatible with Bluetooth keyboards or other input peripherals. If you absolutely can’t deal with tapping on a touch screen, then you can always try using your GPS device’s software to input points of interest (such as TomTom’s HOME or Garmin’s Connect) using your full-size keyboard; sending destinations to your device through Google Maps (works best with a GPS smartphone or a Web-connected navigation device); or finding a device that uses voice recognition. I hope that helps, Antuan ***************** Next time: Emergency preparedness realdeal@cnet.com forums.cnet.com

We take calls about solid-state drives, iPhone 4, and uninstalling networking. loadUniversalPlayer({playerType: 'ces2010-small',lumiereQueryType: 'id',lumiereQueryValue: '50082518',useCurrentPageUrl: true,relatedVideo: false,preRollAd: true,hideLeftTab:true,wrapperFloat:'left'}); Listen now: Download today's podcast Subscribe with iTunes (audio)Subscribe with iTunes (video)Subscribe with RSS (audio)Subscribe with RSS (video) Episode 194

Tom and Rafe discuss the gear they used to cover the consumer electronics show and how well it fared. loadUniversalPlayer({playerType: 'ces2010-small',lumiereQueryType: 'id',lumiereQueryValue: '50082247',useCurrentPageUrl: true,relatedVideo: false,preRollAd: true,hideLeftTab:true,wrapperFloat:'left'}); Listen now: Download today's podcast Subscribe with iTunes (audio)Subscribe with iTunes (video)Subscribe with RSS (audio)Subscribe with RSS (video) Episode 193 Tech we used to cover CES – how did it hold up? Rafe… Tech is really getting simple. Used to have to lay out a war kit for covering a show. Now, standard hardware and software does it. Macbook Sprint EVDO card (never used) Nikon D50, S400 flash, 18-200 lens Flip camera The double-wide trailer with our hard-wired connection Evernote iMovie – Great!! To stay in touch: Foursquare Twitter iPhone charge issues Timbuk2 Commute. Virgin America airlines – free wifi! Other tools I like: CoverItLive, WordPress iPhone app. Tom Laptop – MacBook Pro – issues with screen output onto big screens. Otherwise.fine. battery life adequate. iPhone MiFi – keeping it turned off is a challenge. Needed it once and battery was drained. Kensington iPhone Battery – Life saver. Not as elegant as Mophie Juice Pack. Logitech MX wireless mouse – Perfect. CALLS Darren from Hak5 (http://www.hak5.org/) called in with the gear he used at CES asus ul30a-x5 http://www.amazon.com/UL30A-X5-Light-13-3-Inch-Black-Laptop/dp/B002P3KMVC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1263503727&sr=8-1-catcorr sima sl-20lx http://www.amazon.com/Sima-SL-20LX-Ultra-Bright-Silver/dp/B000WKW69Q kata r-103 http://www.amazon.com/Kata-KT-R-103-GDC-Rucksack/dp/B0009PYV6K E-MAIL QUESTIONS Hi Tom and Rafe! I have an older desktop PC that runs Windows XP. I was wondering, how do I load Chrome OS (beta) on a flash drive, and then boot the computer from the flash drive? Is it possible that I could make is so that when the flash drive is plugged in, it will boot up Chrome OS, but when the flash drive isn’t plugged in, it will boot up the regular Windows XP? Also, could I get it to fit on a 2 GB flash drive? Also, I’m not super tech savvy so you know any simple tutorials I could use to do this? Thanks so much! You guys are the best! -George B. Answer: Use this tutorial to make the USB drive. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-google-chrome-os-and-run-on-a-real-computer/ You can set BIOS to boot in order by preference. **************** After it received rave reviews at cnet and, um, from Leo Laporte, I recently installed Microsoft Security Essentials. It told me to uninstall all my other security software, which I ignored, except for one antispyware program, which had been annoying and I was not sorry to see go. Now there is a new version of AVG Anti-Virus available. I have had the free version of this on my computer for longer than I can remember, and I have admired how light it was compared with, say, Norton, and how free it was. I feel a little guilty about uninstalling it, but the new version won’t install as long as I have Microsoft Security Essentials installed as well. Should I say goodbye to my free, shareware protector of the past and let the big corporate program take care of me in the future? And does this mean that I’m growing up? Thanks for any advice and Love. The. Show. Christopher The Administrative Law Judge in New York. Answer: Just stick with MSE. **************** Hey Tom and Rafe, I am planning on getting a sling player to stream my TV on my pc , iphone, ect. Here’s is my problem. I have my router from verizon connected via COAX cable. This router has to stay in my room on the second floor because I had linked up the router with the printers. So what I want to do is basically connect the sling box downstairs to the router via Wifi since the slingbox doesn’t include wifi built-in. I checked out the slinglink but it is I think too expensive for what it does. Is there any other alternate way to connect the slingbox via wifi? Thanks. Calvin Answer: There’s another solution, but it’s not much less expensive: Powerline networking. I’ve used it and it was reliable in my house. Costs about the same. Example product: http://www.amazon.com/Netgear-85Mbps-Powerline-Network-Adapter/dp/B001AZUTCS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1263334437&sr=1-2 Next time: All-questions! Send your questions to realdeal@cnet.com or call in live at 4 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Pacific at 888-900-CNET (2638)

We talk with Professor Karlheinz Brandenburg, co-inventor of the MP3, about how the popular audio format came about, how best to use it, and what's next in digital audio technology. loadUniversalPlayer({playerType: 'ces2010-small',lumiereQueryType: 'id',lumiereQueryValue: '50081672',useCurrentPageUrl: true,relatedVideo: false,preRollAd: true,hideLeftTab:true,wrapperFloat:'left'}); Listen now: Download today's podcast Subscribe with iTunes (audio)Subscribe with iTunes (video)Subscribe with RSS (audio)Subscribe with RSS (video) Episode 192 Professor Karlheinz Brandenburg Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology He studied digital audio coding and perceptual measurement techniques at university. The research results of his dissertation are the basis of MPEG-1 Layer 3 (mp3), MPEG-2 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) and most other modern audio compression schemes. What was MPEG-1 Layer 3 when you first worked on it? What problem were you trying to solve? Was creating MP3 a similar problem to creating digital encoding for CDs? What led to MP3 becoming so popular as a music format? Did you anticipate the use of MP3? AAC? What are the problems, if any with MP3 now? Basis of how it works – psychoacoustics? Compression? Both? Why do people like albums so much? What is “warm” sound? Why didn’t the first CDs or MP3s sound as good as they do today? Challenges yet to solve? practical advice: What’s best for ripping CDs? Is there overkill, for ex at 320kbs. You’re working on what’s next for MP3. What can we expect? Discsussion of challenges for the music industry overall? http://imdt.fraunhofer.de realdeal@cnet.com forums.cnet.com

Tom and Rafe review what they feel were the biggest and best tech products and advancements of the decade. loadUniversalPlayer({playerType: 'ces2010-small',lumiereQueryType: 'id',lumiereQueryValue: '50081080',useCurrentPageUrl: true,relatedVideo: false,preRollAd: true,hideLeftTab:true,wrapperFloat:'left'}); Listen now: Download today's podcast Subscribe with iTunes (audio)Subscribe with iTunes (video)Subscribe with RSS (audio)Subscribe with RSS (video) Episode 191 Best of 2009 http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-18438_7-10417775-82.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20 Hardware TM iPod – revolutionized how we listen to music. RN iPhone – for the store RN Kindle – again, for the economic disruption TM PlayStation 2 – Reigned throughout the decade as the best multipurpose console. RN Wii – who knew a cheap console could be so much fun? Plus, death to the dpad! TM ThinkPad – Set the standard for sturdy reliable laptops RN Macbook – setting the standard for design TM Handspring Visor – Spurred innovation in the PDA market that led to Treo which led to iPhone TM Logitech Harmony remote – Changed my coffee table into something usable again. RN Prius, Tesla RN Flatscreen TVs – relighting the TV industry RN The $49 Wi-Fi router (you can get one for $20 now) RN The DVR (Replay TV, TiVo) Apps TM: Google -For everything they do, primarily search and AdSense, in my opinion. The top search engine in 1999 was Yahoo followed closely by Alta Vista. 10 years later Google is arguably the dominant tech company. RN: Google: Docs, Maps TM: Win XP – The only edition of Windows to reign over an entire decade. RN: OS X, Leopard, Snow Leopard. RN: Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter – Social network decade RN: WordPress RN: Firefox RN: World of Warcraft TM: BitTorrent - BitTorrent was a protocol (different than Napster which was software) developed to make large downloads more efficient. It also happened to make them hard to track because no central server was used. And it was perfect for pirating video. It is much maligned by both Hollywood and ISPs, and is probably the most disruptive technology of the decade. TM: Wikipedia - For all our skepticism about its accuracy, Wikipedia has changed how we consume information. When you want to find information on any topic, you turn to a search engine, but the likely top result you click on is Wikipedia. All the more impressive for being built for free by volunteers. TM: YouTube - Online video became easy, and the desire for watching video was proven by YouTube. It spurred the major networks to create Hulu in response, as well as making every network put some video online in self-defense. And despite the criticism, kitten videos still create quite a bit of traffic. The 10s will be the decade of… Mobile Bio E-MAIL QUESTIONS **************** I have a question about Google’s Android operating system and their strategy. I’m a little (that’s a bit of an understatement) confused about what in the world Google is doing with it. Why is it that whenever I want to go buy a phone with Android, they all have different versions? The Droid is running 2.0…The Droid Eris runs 1.5…The MyTouch 3G I believe is running 1.6… What is up with all these different versions on different phones??? Why don’t they release the updated versions for all phones running Android? Wouldn’t you want your customers to have all the new features and abilities you’re putting out? – Confused Claymation Answer: Rafe? different specs needed as theos improves, plus carriers don’t want to brick phones **************** Hey Tom and Rafe! Thanks for the help! I ran ccleaner and msconfig and also fragmented my drive, it’s a 160gb drive and had 41 gigs of free space, after the defrag and ccleaner I have 53.5 gig’s of free space but some programs (iTunes in particular) still freeze and crash, I’ve tried reinstalling iTunes but it still bogs everything down. Apple needs to make an iTunes lite or something because I only need music management (I’ve got a Nano not a touch or iPhone) and don’t need all the extra fixin’s that iTunes has in it. One last thing, should I upgrade my RAM? I’ve currently got 2 gigs of RAM but was thinking about upgrading to three gigs, would this give any significant benefit? Thanks for all your help! Love the show and have a great Christmas and New Year! -Jack in TN Answer: Yes upgrade RAM. Always upgrade RAM if you can afford it. As for iTunes light, you *could* go to oldapps.com and get an older lighter version of itunes. COMMENTS Hey Real Deal, I just wanted to thank you for your advice the other week I called. I just dumped my HughesNet Satellite for my local WISP (www.arbucklecomm.com) Latency is great, download speed in primetime is faster than HughesNet at 3 a.m. My upload speed is faster than my businesses’s AT&T’s DSL service. I can now stream CNET live, I can make calls through VOIP, and even stream through Hulu. It has saved me hours of frustration and made the internet enjoyable. Thanks a lot for your advice, John in Oklahoma ********** ************ Next time: From CES 2010 Friday January 8 at 2:30 PM Pacific 5:30 PM Eastern realdeal@cnet.com forums.cnet.com

J. Sperling Reich from Showbiz Sandbox joins us to explain why the TV and movies online are restricted the way they are. loadUniversalPlayer({playerType: 'ces2010-small',lumiereQueryType: 'id',lumiereQueryValue: '50080723',useCurrentPageUrl: true,relatedVideo: false,preRollAd: true,hideLeftTab:true,wrapperFloat:'left'}); Listen now: Download today's podcast Subscribe with iTunes (audio)Subscribe with iTunes (video)Subscribe with RSS (audio)Subscribe with RSS (video) Episode 190 Joining us today is J. Sperling Reich. He’s an expert in both traditional and digital cinema technology. As an entertainment industry consultant he works with some of the industries leading motion picture exhibitors, content creators, and equipment manufacturers. He is the co-host of Showbiz Sandbox http://showbizsandbox.com/, a weekly entertainment news podcast, which can be found on iTunes, and blogs about the industry at Celluloid Junkie. Sperling can be found on Twitter by looking up @sperling. Why does Hulu remove TV shows after a few weeks? Why not leave all shows up? What’s the reason Netflix will have a movie for awhile then it disappears. Why can’t Netflix get all the movies? Can streaming services continue to be cheap/free? E-MAIL QUESTIONS Dear Tom, For Christmas, my wife wants a CD set that’s out of stock everywhere. But I could download it on iTunes or Amazon, and then press the tracks to CDs and give her the set that way. Is that still a good gift? P.S. It’d also save a lot of money. Love the show, Efar from TEN-C Answer: Well E…far…. depends on what your wife is like… but if it were mine, I’d only get her the burned CDs as a temporary holdover. **************** Hey Tom and Rafe! I have a Compaq laptop from Late 2007 running window vista home premium and up until recently it’s been running fine , but lately it’s been running really slowly (programs will not respond.) is their any software I can use to clean up my computer besides the built-in windows software which dosen’t seem to help? Thanks for the help! Love the show! -Jack in TN Answer: Try uninstalling any programs you don’t use. Then go to MSCONFIG and stop any programs from running at start-up if you don’t need them. Next run CCleaner to clean up gunk, and finally defrag. Rafe: Hard disks can get really slow when they get to 10 to 15 percent free space. But chances are it’s Registry bloat. Also, process explorer to see what’s running **************** COMMENTS Hi Tom, Rafe Hard drives just ain’t what they used to be. When Seagate reduced their standard warranty from 5 years to 3, I thought “brace yourself, quality is about to take a nose-dive”; and sadly, I was right. I think the best defense is to use a pair of RAID-1 drives as a standard system-drive on desktop machines (It’s too bad that laptops generally don’t support more than one physical drive). It may sound extravagant, but think about it this way: * Practically all new PC motherboards (is this true of Mac’s as well?) have built-in disk controllers that support RAID-1. * Drives are cheap nowadays. Why buy one when you can have two identical drives for twice the price? * * Bare-metal backups are seldom as up-to-date as you’d like, and restoring the OS from a backup is a major disruption and hassle. I’d rather pay an extra 80 bucks for peace of mind, and know that a drive failure won’t be a killer event in my life. Since I started putting RAID-1 system drives in machines I’ve had two drive failures. They were non-events, and the failed drives were still in warranty, so the additional cost was just one-way shipping, and practically no time was lost. Hopefully all this goes away when SSD finally replaces the mechanical hard drive in a few years (but the price of SSD’s better come down). Great show, keep up the good work Rob from Sedona (SlowDona in the chatroom) ********** Hey fellas- Thought I’d throw out my 2 cents on the PC vs. Mac deal. Speaking as an artist with traditional and digital skills, Macs offer truer colors on screen and the user interface is often more intuitive for visual types. Just so you know my old school SCAD, uses half and half Mac vs. PC for classes. It’s all processor power vs. cost. Luckily companies like the folks at Blue Sky studios (Ice Age) work hard on improving the PC production side. Sheala ************ REPORTERS ROUNDTABLE noon Friday on Google Chrome OS with Stephen Shankland and Gordon Haff (pervasive data center blog on cnet) NEW TIME in December at 7 p.m. Eastern / 4 p.m. Pacific on http://live.cnet.com/ Call live! 888-900-2638 (CNET) Next time: Favorite tech of the year. Send us yours! realdeal@cnet.com forums.cnet.com

Tom and Rafe talk about the gadgets they've been using, like Windows Home Server, a Canon printer, and the PS3 as a Blu-ray player. loadUniversalPlayer({playerType: 'ces2010-small',lumiereQueryType: 'id',lumiereQueryValue: '50080350',useCurrentPageUrl: true,relatedVideo: false,preRollAd: true,hideLeftTab:true,wrapperFloat:'left'}); Listen now: Download today's podcast Subscribe with iTunes (audio)Subscribe with iTunes (video)Subscribe with RSS (audio)Subscribe with RSS (video) Episode 189 Rafe- Kindle without Kindle Momentus drive – finally works! Old WHS continues to degrade – how do I get HP to replace it with a new model? Clicker & Redux Tom - Star Trek Blu-ray Switching to iCal Canon Pixma MP560 E-MAIL QUESTIONS ********************** Hi Tom & Rafe, I love RealDeal show. I have been listening around 1 year now and it is great. Information you guys provide is useful and I have used lots of tips from Essential software episode. I have a questions: My trusted Linksys WRT54G with DDWRT firmware router gave up on me. I am looking for good Wireless N router. What do you guys recommend? Thanks, Priyank Answer: When my WRT54GL died, I got a D-link DIR-655. So far, rock-solid and fast, and more configurable than the WRT ever was (although I didn't install aftermarket firmware). http://reviews.cnet.com/routers/d-link-dir-655/4505-3319_7-32145084.html ********** Dear Messrs. Merritt & Needleman, I am amateur photo-videographer who is looking to move up. Is there any benefit in this field of Mac over PCs? What? And if not, why do most pros use Macs? Thanks, David Answer: Macs have Final Cut, but you can get Adobe Premiere for PCs. Macs have iPhoto, but Picasa is available for PCs. So is there a difference? Rafe and Tom discuss. ********** Hello realdealers, This is Nate in Southern California. My question today is can I encrypt a file on a thumb drive that is already saved? If I can how hard is it to do, will it erase the things in that file, and will it be recognized on widows and mac? Thanks very much Nate Answer: With TrueCrypt you can’t encrypt an existing file, but in empty space on the USB drive you can create an encrypted volume and then move the file into that volume. And there is a Mac ver For personal use, I think Truecrypt is great. For sending protected files to friends, you can encrypt a zip file with built-in utilities. (Rafe) ***************** COMMENTS In The Real Deal 188, an e-mailer was looking for a tablet pc similar to the one Dr. Mckay used on Stargate Atlantis. I remembered reading that they often use real gadgets as props on Stargate. I searched online to see if I could find out which tablet Mckay used. The tablet Mckay uses is a Motion Computing M1400 in a “bump case”. It’s an older model but can still be found on ebay. The newer tablets from motion computing look similar to the M1400, but they are more powerful and run windows 7. http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?t=1117 http://reviews.cnet.com/Motion_M1400_Tablet_PC/4507-3126_7-30826594.html?tag=sub Nathan Grand Rapids, MI ********** Tom, I am happy to report that I followed your tip about forwarding my yahoo email to gmail and it works fine. All I did was go to settings, account and import, and instead of the pop3 option I chose the import mail and contacts option at the top of the list. Not only can you import from yahoo, but also from all other email accounts including hotmail and aol. So Tom you are not a liar, or for now you’re not. Keep up the good work and have a great holiday season! -Danielle from Cleveland, OH ************ Reporters Roundtable 9am Friday Guests Evan Konwiser, Flightcaster, Patrick Smith, Salon’s Ask the Pilot columnist NEW TIME in December at 7 PM Eastern / 4 PM Pacific on http://live.cnet.com/ Call live! 888-900-2638 (CNET) Next time: All-questions realdeal@cnet.com forums.cnet.com

Tom and Brian name the tech they think was a turkey in 2009 and get a few turkeys from listners of the show as well. loadUniversalPlayer({playerType: 'ces2010-small',lumiereQueryType: 'id',lumiereQueryValue: '50079782',useCurrentPageUrl: true,relatedVideo: false,preRollAd: true,hideLeftTab:true,wrapperFloat:'left'}); Listen now: Download today's podcast Subscribe with iTunes (audio)Subscribe with iTunes (video)Subscribe with RSS (audio)Subscribe with RSS (video) Episode 188 Twitter Peek Garmin Nuvifone G60 Danger’s Sidekick Servers Xbox 360 (Red Rings of Death) Apple Magic Mouse BlackBerry Storm PSP (no)Go Palm Pre? Brother MFC-5890CN “The Brother MFC-5890CN all-in-one is hands down the worst printer to take up space in our lab. From the irritating initial set up to the horrendous output quality and slow print speed, this device is the easiest way to flush $200 down the drain.” http://reviews.cnet.com/multifunction-devices/brother-mfc-5890cn/4505-3181_7-33303729.html?tag=mncol;lst EMAIL QUESTIONS ********************** I was looking at getting a tablet PC. I was looking for a speficic kind. I would like for it not to have a keyboard and only have sceen input. My ultmate goal is one simular to the one used on Stargate Atlantis by Dr. Mckae. I was wondering what your opion on options would be. Thanks Jason Johnston Beaver Falls, PA Answer: I think Tom’s opinon is probably “don’t”. But if you’re set on it as you seem to be, I would say Lenovo X60 Tablet. It does have a keyboard buit you can swivel it out of the way and pretend it’s not there. The thing is, it’s two years old. Nobody’s making a lot of good new tablets these days. The best recent one’s are netbook sized like the Yukyung Viliv X70EX. http://reviews.cnet.com/1770-3126_7-0.html?tag=mncol%3Bsort&query=tablet&searchtype=products&rpp=10&sort=editorsStarRatingAndReviewDate+desc HP Touchsmart TX2, another flippable tablet. Amazing specs for the price, but be warned it’s a creaky, rickety machine and the screen has sparklies on it. Or http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook ********** Tom: The Windows System Repair disk on the Oct 21, 2009 How To video doesn’t seem to do much. When my Win7 crashed for some mysterious reason within the first 2 hours, Windows 7 seemed to boot but found an error, tried but failed to repair itself. When I put in the Repair Disk, it does the same thing as the self-repairing process as Win 7 on my HD, ending with the same result. In both cases it says Unknown Error and cannot be corrected. I even tried the Windows 7 original installation DVD and used the Repair option ending with the same process and result screen. I had to do a full reinstall. Given this experience, it seems like the Repair Disk and the Windows Installation DVD does the same thing–so why would one need to create a repair disk. Thank you. Dickson Answer: Correct, the System Repair disk is included on the Windows 7 DVD. Making a system repair disk is god in a few scenarios though. 1. You didn’t get a Windows 7 disk form the manufacturer when you bought the computer. You got a ’system recovery’ disk that in fact doesn’t have a Windows System repair function on it. This is common. 2. You want a disk you can throw in your bag when you’r eon the go, without worrying about scratching up your original Windows 7 install disk. As for it not working or doing the same thing as Windows did on it’s own that’s just the luck of the draw. If your system won’t boo the system repair disk will, giving you an extra chance. It also works better if you have restore points created. But it’s not guaranteed to work every time. Rafe: Create a Sytem Repair disk. It can access system restore files, and there are instances when you will need those. ********** Hey, I was just driving through Atlanta and saw a billboard advertising a 4G Mobile Network from Comcast. Now if memory serves me right comcast is an ISP, but not a mobile ISP, so I was wondering if you could explain what was up. (if it’s any help the advertisement ad some sort of box that looked like it had something in the process of being plugged in to it, so it seems like some marketing shinangin to me) Answer: Comcast is an investor in the Clearwire WiMax service and sells a Comcast branded version of that service ins elect markets. Time Warner Cable Bright House Networks and Google are also investors. ***************** Dear Real Dealers, I was considering upgrading my 40GB PS3 hard drive with a 320GB one, as between game info files and a few movies and songs I’m just about out of drive space. I know most laptop SATA hard drives will work, but I dont want to lose the data thats on the old drive. I was thinking of trying to clone the drive, but the only way I can figure to do this is to take out the hard drive out of my laptop, put in the old PS3 40GB drive, boot a live CD with some linux backup software, clone the disk to my external hard drive, then insert the new drive into the laptop, and transfer the cloned drive to it. One, I don’t even know if the software will back up my PS3 data, and two, this seems needlessly complex, but I can’t think of a better way. Any ideas gents? Thanks Rich in Lovely Cleveland Answer: Actually the standard method requires two drives, your new 320GB drive and a second external drive that should be close ot he old 40 GB drive in capacity, though it can be a bit less. Take the small external drive formatted to Fat32, hook it up in an enclosure (or just use a USB drive) to the PS3 and back up all your data. Then just put the new hard drive in the PS3 and format it. Then take your small external drive, plug it into the PS3 and restore the backup. That’s the easy way, if you have an extra drive laying around. If you don’t, you can make a bit-for-bit clone of your PS3 drive that will work in YOUR PS3 drive. Don’t get all wide-eyed about being able to clone drives and sell them to friends with saved games on them. This bit involves mucking about with reiserdriver. The whole process is listed out here: http://www.ps3news.com/forums/ps3-hdd-news/help-transferring-old-data-new-playstation-3-a-108384.html **************** COMMENTS ********** Tom Merritt is a big fat liar! Dear Tom Merrit, Don’t take this seriously. The tip on using the free version of Yahoo Mail as a POP3 Failed me. Google got rejected by Yahoo POP3. Perhaps Yahoo realized that you were working for CNET and could give them a bad review? Maybe? Just a theory, anyway love the show. This is the error. Server denied POP3 access for the given username and password. POP access is limited to Yahoo! Mail Plus subscribers. Please contact Yahoo! Mail’s support team for more information. Server returned error: “[AUTH] invalid user/password” Ivan ************ NO EPISODE NEXT WEEK (THANKSGIVING) NEW TIME in December at 7 PM Eastern / 4 PM Pacific on http://live.cnet.com/ Call live! 888-900-2638 (CNET) Next time: Road Test realdeal@cnet.com forums.cnet.com

Should you buy that extended warranty? Tom Merritt says no. Rafe Needleman says sometimes. We'll give you some guidance on how to decide if it's worth the money. loadUniversalPlayer({playerType: 'ces2010-small',lumiereQueryType: 'id',lumiereQueryValue: '50079473',useCurrentPageUrl: true,relatedVideo: false,preRollAd: true,hideLeftTab:true,wrapperFloat:'left'}); Listen now: Download today's podcast Subscribe with iTunes (audio)Subscribe with iTunes (video)Subscribe with RSS (audio)Subscribe with RSS (video) Episode 187 Should I buy that Warranty? http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-10388909-260.html Recommended for: laptops. Applecare. Just factor it in. Not recommended for TVs Also GreenUmbrella: If you must buy an extended warranty, buy this one http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10005159-2.html sneaky anti-applecare idea: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2C388AN8YLA1K/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R2C388AN8YLA1K Best advice: Don’t buy stuff that has a chance of breaking. Ex: My seagate drive. I’m on my second. Sure, I can send it back, but what a PITA plus I have to pay shipping for the privilege. E-mail questions Hey Tom and Rafe, you said in BOL that the short answer to warranties is no. What about Best buy’s new extended warranty plan that for $140(basic) on a $400-$600 laptop, you can get a free battery at the end of two years(because your battery “won’t be functioning like it was when you bought it”), and if you have any major problems during the warranty they will more often than not replace your computer with a new one. I’ve had to use an extended warranty a few times and have been VERY grateful for them, though some are obviously better than others. Great shows, JoshuaCaleb P.S. when’s your next “all questions” ep? I have one that stumped the Geek Squad. ******************* Dear Tom and Rafe, After breaking my fourth pair of white apple earbuds in less than 10 months, I have decided to move on. I’m looking for ear buds that work with the iPhone (same clicking to answer/pause/skip + mic). I’m looking for something for no more than $100. I actually prefer durability and comfort over sound quality since I assume any decent earbud will sound better the apple’s. I checked out CNET’s reviews but their were SO MANY and I couldn’t always tell if they had the clicker/mic. Thanks for all the great advice and keep up the great work. -Dan in MA via RI Answer: Spend $20 on this http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/smarttalk Then take this advice from Jasmine France. Koss earphones (i.e. http://reviews.cnet.com/headphones/koss-keb-79/4505-7877_7-32521878.html) come with a lifetime warranty, Shure also has a good durability reputation but they’re a bit more expensive. Skull Candy “Smokin’ Buds” (http://reviews.cnet.com/headphones/skullcandy-smokin-buds-headphones/4505-7877_7-33715606.html?tag=mncol;lst) sound like crap but have cloth-coated cable and those are usually more durable. ******************* Rafe, There is an internet myth circling about the home and student edition of Microsoft Office, obviously the EULA says that: “The software is not licensed for use in any commercial, non-profit, or revenue-generating business activities.” The myth goes that if it is used for business purposes, such as writing a book that then gets published, Microsoft owns part of that book and its income. Do you know if there is anyway to verify that? I only ask because as I was searching for information, I saw an article you wrote on Microsoft Office. -Nick Answer: MS says: This rumor is untrue. You cannot use Home and Student for any business or revenue generating activities and if you do so you are in violation of the EULA. However, Microsoft does not 'own' or receive income from those business activities. ******************* Hi CNET crew, I am high school students and a couple of years ago when my needs weren’t that great I signed up to Yahoo Mail and now everything comes to Yahoo, but I want to go to Gmail for a variety of reasons, there’s not a single problem with that but I want to forward all my E-mail automatically onto G-mail which Yahoo won’t do unless I sign up to their premium version which I cannot afford. Is there a third party way of automatically forwarding all your incoming E-mail to gmail from yahoo. Any help would be great. Regards Karan (pronounced: Kar-aaan) Answer: Ingenius Linux solution – http://digitalcardboard.com/blog/2009/04/15/forwarding-yahoo-mail-to-gmail-for-free/ There’s also Mr. Postman which will transfer mail for you from your desktop http://sourceforge.net/projects/mrpostman/ Gmail will import the mail for 30 days http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ctx=mail&answer=117173 But the best way is…. Gmail go to settings. Choose Accounts and Import. Under Check Mail Using Pop3, Enter your Yahoo adress. Put in your password. And you’re set! ************ Hey guys, I’m currently coming up on the end of my iPhone contract with AT&T and I’m pretty sure I’d like to move over to Sprint’s service for the great rates. I’m looking for a smartphone and I’m considering the Pre and the HTC Hero. Which do you guys think is a more worthy iPhone competitor for the long haul, WebOS or Android? Thanks! – Tony the insurance adjuster in Miami Answer: Android. ********************** COMMENTS ********** In regards to the essential apps episode, and Rafe’s refrain throughout about how installing apps slows down the system and adds processes. Uh, what? First of all, good software doesn’t add startup items or services without your permission. And for those that do, try “msconfig”. There’s no law that says you have to have a process running in the background for every installed bit of software, and you can disable these entries in your startup list to avoid the whole problem. Antonio Rafe: Correct, good apps don’t add resident processes. Bad apps do. MSConfig is very useful. Also, Process Explorer will tell you what’s running. *********** Hey Rafe and Tom, Just so you know, download.com also offers TechTracker in Mac flavor. It’s a great app, and although it keeps my apps up-to-date, it’s best function may be reminding me of all the apps that I’ve downloaded and only used once. Keep up the good work. -Alan in New Jersey ************ Greetings Tom and Rafe, On your latest podcast of essential PC software, you mentioned HijackThis. There is a website: hijackthis.de that will take your hijackthis log file and analyze it. It displays the results in a user readable form with user feedback and rating about Each program running on your system. One other tool that I think was left out was Malwarebytes. Thanks for great podcast. Henry Cocozzoli Sr. Systems Engineer ******************** Which peripherals are covered under Apple Care http://www.tuaw.com/2009/09/11/which-peripherals-are-covered-under-applecare/ Now live Thursdays at 4 p.m Eastern / 1 p.m. Pacific on http://live.cnet.com/ Call live! 888-900-2638 (CNET) Next time: Tech Turkeys realdeal@cnet.com forums.cnet.com