Category: News

LA Talk Radio 2 – Smart Devices For Your Home

Play Audio – Turn on Tech, Friday, June 27th, 2014

Apple and Google both made a big push into connected home automation in their developer conferences this year. I had a chance to speak about smart devices you can already buy at your local Best Buy on this week’s Turn on Tech Show on LA Talk Radio 2.

Some of the devices we spoke about:

Connected home automation will no doubt become even more interesting as more companies sign onto the open Nest API that allows developers to make their products work together.

WTAM 1100 – WWDC and Geek Squad Summer Academy

 
WTAM 1100 Newsradio Cleveland OhioThis week’s Tech Tuesday on WTAM 1100’s Wills & Snyder in the Morning focused on Monday’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote in San Francisco. During the 2 hour presentation, Apple introduced upcoming software updates, including Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite and iOS 8, scheduled for later this fall.

This week also sees the Geek Squad Summer Academy landing in Cleveland. Geek Squad is partnering with University Settlement to host technology immersion classes for under-served middle and high school students. The 2 day event starts at Willow Elementary on Thursday, June 5th. The camp will have interactive classes in robotics, 3D printing, video production and other technologies taught by Geek Squad Agents and Best Buy Blue Shirts.

For more information and registration, visit http://academy.geeksquad.com/register.

WTAM 1100 – 911 Texting & Tech Support Phone Scammers

 
WTAM 1100 Newsradio Cleveland OhioThis week, I spoke to Bill Wills on WTAM 1100 Newsradio about how the national wireless carriers are going to enable the use of “text-to-911” to allow 911 emergencies to be reported through the standard text messaging system on your mobile phone.

While the carriers will be supporting the service, only a select few local city emergency systems are setup to access that network. Visit the FCC’s Text-to-911 page for more information.

I also brought up the continuing threat of phone scammers pretending to be your tech support company. The Geek Squad Blog has more details on this ongoing attempt to fool the public into giving criminals access to their systems.

WTAM 1100 – Heartbleed & Windows XP

 
WTAM 1100 Newsradio Cleveland OhioTwo topics dominated tech news last week, with the new Heartbleed security vulnerability hitting web servers and the end of consumer Windows XP support by Microsoft.

I spoke to Bill Wills of Cleveland’s WTAM 1100 Newsradio about what regular users can do to protect themselves.

Cleaning the Mobile Germ Warehouse

Your mobile gadgets go everywhere with you, and when you’re handling your smartphone or tablet on a daily basis, they can be a common carrier for unknown germs. I contributed to a New York Times article on how to protect and clean your mobile devices that may help reduce the number of Winter colds you might get while on the go.