LITTLE ROCK — We were in a crowded Apple store the other day and sat down to watch the new Apple TV service while we waited for a relative. We were there for an hour. During this time, not a single person stopped to look at the TV, despite movie trailers going by on the screen.
Does this mean Apple TV is a bust? It may seem great, but it certainly wasn’t drawing any interest while we were there. Will this also be the fate of Google TV, coming out Oct. 17 in the U.S. and launching internationally early next year? For that one, you can either buy a new TV that has Google on it or a separate box expected to cost about $150 that plugs into a TV.
Google TV combines regular TV broadcasts with a digital video recorder (DVR) and Internet connection. You can search for shows and record them from broadcasts or the Web. You can choose to get news, photos, music or online games. Many of the 50,000 “apps” from the Android marketplace also will be available. (These are worth the price of admission on their own.) If you’re watching a foreign video, Google will translate the dialogue as it plays.
Another choice is the new Veebeam, which beams anything from your computer to your TV, including Hulu TV shows that have been blocked on other devices. You plug the Veebeam box into your TV and attach an included USB antenna to your laptop. Veebeam will be out sometime in September and will cost $99 for the regular model and $139 for the HD model. It can be pre-ordered at veebeam.com. But there will be no translations.
WHAT YOU’LL DO
Hunch.com can predict how you’ll think or act in a given situation. Of course there is always room for error. When Joy tried it out, the program was right 86 percent of the time in predicting how she would act or what she would prefer in any given situation. And the things it got wrong were relatively minor: For instance, Joy likes Donald Duck to Mickey Mouse. And shesides with “nature” on the nature versus nurture debate.
To get the hunches going toward accurate results, you start by answering a lot of questions. This is so it can get to know you. It was interesting and surprisingly accurate. You can share your hunch results on Facebook or Twitter.
BIG WORDS, SMALL PRICES
BigWords.com has lowprice deals on textbook sales and rentals. You have to be a student (or know one) to get the deals.
We looked up Materials Science and Engineering, an Introduction, for example. Amazon was selling it for $115, but BigWords had it for $28. We looked up the Norton Anthology of English Literature, which was selling for $30 at BigWords; the lowest price at Amazon was $53. But we bought it at a library sale for $1. Don’t forget to attend your local library sales.
What makes the BigWords site a bit different from other book dealers is that you can keep adding books to your “book bag,” and the site’s search engine will put together the best deal from other sellers. It had the best prices on whatever titles we could think of to look up.
THE DIGITAL DORIAN GRAY
We came across Portrait Professional 9 in the latest issue of PC World magazine. They called it “Digital Dorian Gray App,” because like the famous portrait in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, its subject stayed young and good looking. In this case, the software makes you look younger and better-looking in photos. (Why would anyone want to do that?)
We tried the free trial version, which starts by asking you to choose a picture of yourself and mark the corners of the eyes and mouth and the tip of the nose. Then you get sliders for categories such as thin out wrinkles, fine shadows, imperfections, shine, etc. Enhance as much or as little as you want.
The free trial version lets you manipulate the picture but won’t let you save it. You could get around that by doing a screen capture of your work, but unfortunately, each finished face has the word “trial” marked across the forehead. (Of course you could say you were on trial right then and not available.) The program is currently $50, at portraitprofessional.com.
YOUR OWN WI-FI HOT SPOT
Joy recently was asked to give a presentation in a converted barn. (The audience was human.)
Being a real barn, there was no Internet connection. But for $15, she could set one up for the day. What she needed was a new “MiFi 2200” from Virgin Mobile. It’s a pocket-sized device that creates a Wi-Fi region around any device within 30 feet. It gets its initial signal from a cell phone tower and converts that into a Wi-Fi signal. If you want friends to get on the Internet too, you just show them the password printed on the bottom of the device.
Unlike all other such personal Wi-Fi hot spots, the MiFi, doesn’t need a contract, which can be expensive. A typical cell phone contract is $80 a month, or $60 a month to get a special air card for your laptop. The Virgin Mobile deal is $40 per month for however long you choose. Or you can pay $10 for 10 days of service. You can get more information at VirginMobileUSA.com. We saw it for $224 (without a contract) at Amazon.com, or $75 used. We find it worth buying on Amazon because of the company’s easy return policy. We bought a similar device from a “Clearwire” store. We couldn’t get a signal but never got our money back.
PC TO MAC
Laplink just came out with “Switch & Sync” which copies all files and folders from a PC to a Mac. This includes your documents, e-mail, contact lists and calendars.
Ironically, not as many people are switching to the Mac. Apple’s Mac operating system had an all-time high market share of 5.33 percent back in March. This has since declined to 5 percent in August.
Oddly enough, when we first started writing this column, 30 years ago, the Apple operating system’s market share ranged between 5 percent and 6 percent. In 30 years there has been no change. What then explains the growth in Apple’s sales? The increase has come from other products, primarily the iPhone and iPod, and now the iPad, which use their own operating systems.
Switch & Sync is $40 at laplink.com.
NOTE: Readers can search several years' worth of On Computers columns at oncomp.com. Bob and Joy can be contacted by e-mail at bobschwab@gmail.com and joydee@oncomp.com.
Business, Pages 24 on 09/27/2010