Andy TaylorApple, Computers, Facebook, Netflix, Online Tools, Safety, Technology News, TechtalkRadio, TTR Website, , ,

Is that Site Down?

In this Weeks Show we discussed the recent issues with Facebook and Instagram with widespread reports of the services being down which affected 2.3 Billion Users! Of course this drove traffic to Twitter, even Facebook itself took to Twitter to let users know that the services were facing a downtime. It’s amazing how many people felt disconnected and shared the frustrations on Twitter and Snapchat with Meme’s and the pondering what the user may have down to infuriate the FB Gods to be ignored when trying to login!

It wasn’t you or your fault that sites were having an outage although I did tell my 78 year Great Aunt Delores it was her that took them down and to stay off the Internet! While we still haven’t heard the story of why the Sites were on Timeout other sites have taken a similar turn this week including Apple, Verizon, YouTube and Gmail and its services.

There are a few online tools available as we discussed on this weeks show which can give you a head up if a Service/Site is having an issue. Apple features a System Control Panel giving you a quick look at the different services and display the areas of trouble and accessible to the general public. Check it out at the Apple System Status page.

There are a couple of sites which can give you a pretty good overview of the many services online and when they may be having issues:

  1. Is It Down Right Now – Gives you current status on Netflix, YouTube, Gmail, Facebook, Steam and many other services https://www.isitdownrightnow.com/
  2. Down – Type in the URL and it will tell you if it’s down https://down.com/
  3. Down Detector – This Site is easy to use however requires you to click through to get your answer https://downdetector.com

These will give you a good overview of a Sites Status.

Screen Shot of the System Status Screen at Apple
System Status Screen on the Apple Website
Andy TaylorRecall, ,

HP Recall Expanded

Back in January a Recall was Expanded for Batteries due to the possibility of damage, fire to devices. The Batteries affected are lithium-ion batteries for HP ProBooks (64x G2 and G3 series, 65x G2 and G3 series, 4xx G4 series), HPx360 (310 G2), HP Pavilion x360 11inch Notebook PC, HP 11 Notebook PC, HP ZBook (17 G3, and Studio G3) mobile workstations. The batteries were also sold as accessories or replacement batteries for the HP ZBook Studio G4 mobile workstation, HP ProBook 4xx G5 series, HP ENVY 15, HP Mobile Thin Clients (mt21, mt22, and mt31)

For More Information on this recall and what it means to you be sure to check out the special webpage at HP to see if your battery is included in the recall – that address is http://www.HP.com/go/batteryprogram2018

You will also find info on how to enable “Battery Safety Mode” if their battery is included in the recall. The website provides consumers instructions on how to initiate the validation utility to check their battery and what to download if their battery is included in the recall. These batteries are not customer-replaceable. HP will provide free battery replacement services by an authorized technician.  

I have been through the recall scenario some years ago and HP was fantastic on how they handled it and got a replacement quickly out. This Recall notice posted on the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission website is of importance due to reports of  these battery packs in the U.S. overheating, melting, or charring, including one report of minor injury and two reports of property damage.

For More Information you could also call HP toll-free at 866-671-7362 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. CT Monday through Friday

Andy TaylorAmazon Prime, Apple, Bluetooth Technology, Broadband, Computers, Hardware, Microsoft Windows 10, Music, Review, Samsung, TechtalkRadio, TTR Website, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If I Fits, I Sit

Sometimes we have no real clue how we come up with these titles for the shows but they just seem to fall in place! In this Weeks Show Below we cover a variety of topics. First off, it seems like there is a race for Fold-able Smartphones.  The Cost for this technology will more than likely drive the price tag of smart phones in the 2k region. Justin talks about some new smartphone technology that could be coming from Google. Justin adopted the Pixel 3 as his smartphone not too long ago and loves it! He shares his reasons.

Snow Day in Tucson has Andy taking photos with both the iPhone and Canon DSLR and has a tough time viewing the differences on Instagram – Justin talks about the compression used on Social Media on Images. An upcoming trip to Japan has Justin talking about ways to use technology overseas and stay connected. Justin also shares the love for Pokemon and how the game has been re-energized recently by groups playing the game and looks forward to catching creatures in Japan.

Justin talks about a New Super responsive Mouse from Logitech he purchased. The G-502 Hero Mouse. He shares the differences between an “office mouse” and Gaming Mouse. A story on a New USB 3.2 Standard which could achieve speeds of up to 20Gbps transfer speed. Justin shares a story from How To Geek on Transferring a Windows Licence. The guys talk about the Battle of the OS and the different versions of Windows. Justin talks about some new updates to the Xbox One with the introduction of Dolby Atmos Sound. Justin tells us about Playstation Vue for watching Content.

Blu-Ray and 4kUHD Players may eventually disappear, More content is going digital however Andy shares info on an older gentleman who purchased a VCR on Ebay and wrote a letter to the seller on how appreciated he was to be able to purchase the older technology to watch content he hadn’t see in a many years. Andy talks about Nuraphone headphones available at B8TA in Scottsdale as well as online at Nuraphone.Com. A recent story about Stevie Wonder trying them out a CES and loving them so much he bought three pairs! If you get a chance, Please Visit iTunes or Google Play and Drop us a review!

Have a Great Week!

Justin and Andy

Andy TaylorTechtalkRadio

New Show Posted – Time to Put The Cat Down

It is our latest Show, Episode 234 “Time to Put The Cat Down”

Please Share, Like, Subscribe!

In this TechtalkRadio Episode, Justin and Andy talk about the confusion of the holidays and wonder why it is so darn difficult to adjust to getting back to work over the holiday’s. Justin gets his hands on Super Smash-brothers for the Nintendo Switch and gives us his thoughts on it and while amazing, what is the downside?

Careers in Gaming are discussed with a recent story about Ninja and his income from gaming and endorsements for 2018 which superseded projections of 500k per month which even then seemed amazing. Justin talks about the Twitch platform along with others for Streaming Games and what they are about. Along with Streaming Games at Twitch.TV, other content can be found. Can watching Video Gamers be fun? We have had some great laughs checking out the different streamers which have built quite a following. Some of Justin and Andy’s favorites include Dr Disrespect, Darkness429 and Poolshark. Andy asks the question, Are there gamers streaming online which aren’t fantastic at the game but great fun watching? Justin tosses one under the bus.

The new Black Mirror film Bandersnatch is out with a new interactive feature for different paths for the characters. Justin gives us a review about Welcome to Marwan. Andy and Justin disagree on the Film Bird Box however Andy raves about Ralph breaks the Internet. The guys get an email on how to locate good podcast content. Justin and Andy share some locations and how to find via hash tag searches on Twitter such as PodernFamily.

Justin shares his experience moving from Wink back to Raspberry Pi for Home Automation. The process has been made easier and Justin shares the reason behind it.

This Weeks Special Feature is a Website to give info on films called ReelGood.Com

Andy TaylorComputers, Consumer Electronics, Hardware, Movies, TechtalkRadio, TTR Website, web design, Websites, , , , ,

TechBlast 01/08/2018

Happy to Be Back and Happy New Year!

In Mid December we changed out the Server to a new Hosting Provider – We have more changes coming but we didn’t want to lost our blog, even if we haven’t updated in a while – Best Advice I could ever share, Make your Backups, make them frequently. We did indeed do ours however it still took time to figure out how to bring it back!

We also want to start bringing back the TechtalkRadio Tech Blast! Here is today’s!