Life & Technology

Hi Everybody

Welcome to my new website, lifeandtechnology.com.au, which is the next step in the evolution of how we help you navigate through the world of technology. We have taken onboard your feedback in what you want to see on my blog, and have incorporated it into the latest iteration.

Ease of navigation, crisp, clean images and top-notch video content were high on the agenda, as was the ability for you to ask questions and give feedback. As you can see, we have made it look more lively, and hope you enjoy the new look.

As usual, we are open to new ideas and thoughts to make it even better, so if you have any ideas, please don’t hesitate to contact me via the email address in the contacts section, or leave a message in the comments box found at the end of each article.

2010 is going to be a giant year in the consumer technology space, and I think lifeandtechnology.com.au is a great place to start!

I look forward to hearing from you throughout the year.

Charlie

Spoke with Karl about the Apple iPad, which was released in the US. So what is it?. I tell people it is something between a smartphone and laptop, and has the interactivity of both. With a 10-inch touch screen it is bigger that the iPhone, smaller than the iMac, but quite thin so you can use it on the train or bus on the way to work.

You can surf the net, use it as an e-reader, stream videos etc. It is similar to the Sony Dash that was on display at CES, and expect a lot more all-in-one multimedia devices to be forthcoming from other vendors over the next 18 months.

Also talked to Karl about the My School website, which crashed after going live. There’s no surprise there, as the developers of the website built it with a certain amount of traffic in mind, but it has obviously way surpassed the number of people they would regularly expect to visit the site at any one time. This is of no surprise due to the huge interest parents have in the site. You will be happy to know that the site will probably running at normal speed if they log on now.

Tonnes of questions today from listeners, and it seems that people all over the show are having a problem with digital television. Have received quite a few queries over the past few months, and I wouldn\’t be surprised if this is just the tip of the iceberg. A digital picture may be better, but the drop out rate seems to be a lot higher than that of analogue.

Keith has had his digital set-top box for only six months and WIN and Channel 8 are dropping out, whereas before they weren\’t. Now, I\’m no expert on signals – that’s something that I’ll leave to the experts – but I do know you need a clean signal and it doesn\’t take much to interrupt it – a tall building, aeroplane flying overhead, or if it is raining. There also might be something wrong with the set-top box, too.

Gary has had a similar problem with signals, but has lost all digital channels. He has a Sony Bravia with a built-in tuner, so that could be the problem. As he is under warranty, he should go back to the retailer with the problem. It is unusual for all channels to drop out.

Geoff has a DVD recorder that won’t record the television. Without having a look at it myself, I don\’t know the exact problem. It could be that there is something wrong with the cabling, because a new DVD player should work with a new LCD television.

Chris was wondering how to transfer old VHS tapes to DVD. Sony and a couple of other vendors did have VHS-to-DVD converters for sale a while back, and as far as I\’m aware are still on the market. They\’re very easy to use. Put your tape in one slot, your blank DVD in another, and hit record. They should cost between $200-$300 a pop.

Ron is looking at buying a name brand computer after having a generic one for the past six years. It’s a good time to buy as all the vendors are rolling out their new products over the next couple of weeks. He wondered about operating systems, and from what I\’ve seen, Windows 7 puts XP to shame. I also discussed the new Apple product coming out next week. Apple are keeping mum, but I\’m pretty sure it is a multimedia device known as the iSlate. It fills that gap between an iTablet and iPhone and I\’m guessing it have an e-book reader, video player and a few other features covering the multimedia medium.

Finally, talked about the mobile Protector from Taser, more of which, can be read about here.