Life & Technology – 2GB 26th of April 2014

 

This week I chatted with the CSIRO's Geof Heydon about the looming threat of 'peak data' in Australia, where user demand for mobile data will soon outstrip the country's available radiofrequency spectrum. His solution? A cutting edge beam forming technology that will help to create 'A world without wires'.

 

And are you ready to do your banking on your wrist? St. George Banks' Head of Mobile, Travis Tyler dropped by to tell me about their new smartphone app that will help customers access their finances on the go. 

 

Finally, smartphone fingerprint scanners have hit the mainstream with devices such as the iPhone 5S and Galaxy S5. But how secure is the technology? Professor Willy Susilo from the University of Wollongong taught me a thing or two about why fingerprint scanners may not be the best biometric solution for sensitive mobile payments. For true security vein scanning may be the better tech.

 

John asked me how to make his Facebook friends list private. 

 

John, by default, everyone can see who your friends are in the Friends section of your Timeline. If you want to change this you'll need to:

 

1.   Go to your Timeline

 

2.   Click on the Friends section under your cover photo

 

3.   Click the pencil icon at the top of the page and select Edit Privacy from the dropdown menu

 

4.   Use the audience selector to choose who you share your friend list with on your Timeline

 

Stacey via Twitter wondered why her PC is running so slowly.

 

Stacey, it could be a number of reasons. A likely reason is that your hard drive could be full. Check your storage capacity. It may be time to get an external drive. It could also be spyware, malware or viruses. Download Microsoft’s security scanner. The site will determine which version of the software you need depending on your version of Windows. Use the scanner and it will help clean away the bad stuff. 

 

Daniel wanted to know how to buy music on iTunes and then get it on his iPhone. 

 

You can easily set the iPhone to automatically download new music.

 

1.    Open iTunes. If you haven't already, authorize your computer for use with your Apple ID by choosing Store > Authorize This Computer

 

2.    Head to iTunes Preferences > Store. Head down to Automatic Downloads and click the Music checkbox.

 

Near the end of the show, we discussed the resources online for looking up ex-servicemen of the Australian armed forces. If you would like to follow some of the links we were discussing, please vist these sites (if you know of any other great sites on this subject, link them in the comments section below):

1. Australian War Memorial

2. Army Service Records

 

We also discussed a program called C Cleaner, which is a great (and free!) software solution to clean the rubbish from your PC. Download the CCleaner 'FREE' version from here – Click Here – Please note there is also a more feature rich version that you pay for, but for cleaning your PC or Mac, the free version is fine.