MR. KOJO NNAMDIFrom WAMU 88.5 at American University in Washington, welcome to "The Kojo Nnamdi Show," connecting your neighborhood with the world. It's The Computer Guys and Gal. It's the first Tuesday of October, you know what that means. Along with the chill in the air and pumpkins on porches, we've got pumpkins in the studio. The computer guys and gal (laugh) are here...

MR. JOHN GILROYPumpkin head come on.

NNAMDI...ready to explain (laugh) the tech world's newest discoveries and fiercest fights all with their well-known cool, calm logic. Not.

NNAMDISo John, Bill and Allison will warm you up with stories of wonder and discovery. They'll explain why browser wars are back and why, after many years in decline, Internet Explorer 9 could actually make Firefox or Safari users jealous. And they'll answer deep questions why, why, why does General Motors think integrating Facebook into my dashboard is a good idea. (laugh)

GILROYGood idea.

MR. BILL HARLOW(unintelligible)

NNAMDIYou know...

GILROYBad, bad, bad.

NNAMDIYou know our guests today. They are John Gilroy. He is director of business development at solutionsdevelopers.com. Good to see you, John.

GILROYHi.

NNAMDINot. (laugh) Also with us is computer guy Bill Harlow. He's a former math genius and now works on PCs and Macs with Mid-Atlantic Consulting. Good to see you, Bill.

HARLOWGood to see you too.

GILROYNot.

NNAMDIHey.

GILROY(laugh) I stole that from you.

MS. ALLISON DRUINBe nice.

NNAMDII didn't say that.

DRUINYou have to be nice to him.

NNAMDIComputer guy Allison Druin is an associate dean for research in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. She also directs the Human-computer Interaction Lab there. Allison, a pleasure to welcome you here.

DRUINOh, a pleasure as always. And don't you say not. (laugh)

NNAMDIAnd it's a pleasure to welcome all of you who call 800-433-8850. That's 800-433-8850. Or you can send e-mail to kojo@wamu.org, a tweet @kojoshow or go to our website kojoshow.org, join the conversation there. Big news. Big, big news. Verizon is giving millions in refund to customers. Be sure, Allison, to thank the Federal Communications Commission.

DRUINYeah. They've been investigating this for, actually, almost a year. This -- so some of you that actually have Verizon phones may not even realize this, but 15 million cellular customers may be getting actual rebates or credits in their next bill, because if they access the web or had some software that was built into their phone, they may have been inadvertently triggering something at Verizon where they charged you for data plan. Okay? But you didn't have the data plan. And this has been going on, they think, since 2007. I mean, incredible, incredible. And...

NNAMDIHow much money are those of us who either once owned or currently owned a Verizon phone, (laugh) on an average, each likely to get back?

DRUINWe're talking $2 to $6, folks. Okay, so it's not enormous. But, you know what? (laugh) Verizon -- but Verizon is actually potentially gonna give back $90 million. I mean, this is serious. But, you know, what's even more serious is that the FCC actually asked them about this in 2009 and they said, oh, everything's fine. No problem. And then it wasn't, folks. It wasn't. They potentially may pay penalties and everything under the sun. So, honestly, they deserve this one.

HARLOWI am shocked, shocked that a cell carrier nickel and dine people. (laugh)

GILROYI am shocked as well.

HARLOWThis is big, big news.

DRUINNot nice.

GILROYI might have to call the ambulance to take to hospital from a heart attack here.

DRUINNot nice.

GILROYThey'd actually tried to do scam-of-the-month. Come on.

DRUINYeah. Oh, come on. But how long has this been going on? This is supposed to...

HARLOWI'm glad they got caught.

DRUINYeah.

NNAMDIWell, welcome to your refund. It will pay half of your fare on Metro to go buy a new phone.

HARLOWMaybe. (laugh)

DRUINIt will be a good for a latte, come on. (laugh)

NNAMDIJohn Gilroy, Netflix is moving in with Amazon, and it's changing everything. They're shacking up together?

GILROYWell, yeah. It's an interesting little development here. I think Bill knows that -- let me see, now how does this go? Video killed the radio Gods, okay. Then Netflix killed the...

HARLOWBlockbuster.

GILROY...Blockbuster. And now, Netflix is moving to its original plan, is going online. And so what Netflix is saying is that, geez, should we go out and spend money on buying servers and hiring people to maintain the servers or why don't we just use someone else's servers? Why don't we use Amazon web services? And so...

DRUINThat's just...

NNAMDIHang on to their cloud.

GILROYYeah. That's what they'll do. They're using someone else's services in the cloud and this is really is a -- it's a tectonic -- it's a major shift in technology. So people are gonna say, well if Netflix can do it profitably, maybe we should start considering this whole transition to the clouds.

HARLOWSee, if I remember...

NNAMDICue to music, Rolling Stones, "Hey, You, Get Off of my Clouds."

HARLOWGet off of my clouds. (laugh)

GILROYYeah. It was actually what the Amazon say that. They had their own downloading and streaming services of movies as well. So is there a bit of a conflict of interest there.

HARLOWOh, heck, no. I mean, you know, in World War II, Sweden sold Barbarians to the Nazis and to the Brits. I mean, (laugh) whoever's got the money -- and I'm sure Amazon says, hey, you got the money, we would gladly take it."

HARLOWSo Amazon is an arms dealer, good to know.

NNAMDISee, that's what Gilroy is here for.

DRUINIt's good to know.

NNAMDIHis institutional memory.

DRUINExperience.

NNAMDIHis memory…

GILROYYes. I remember World War II.

NNAMDIThat's exactly right.

HARLOWThose Swedes weren't dummies. (laugh)

NNAMDIBig day for Mac owners on Oct. the 26th. Bill Harlow, what's happening on Oct. 26?

HARLOWWell, anybody who uses a Mac probably has copy of Microsoft office. I mean, if you're collaborating with anybody, you need Word, you need Excel, you need PowerPoints. But you've also suffered with the program called Entourage, which is a good mail program, but it is not -- it's not Outlook. But...

DRUINOh, it's horrid. It's horrid. Yeah.

HARLOWGood TV show too. (laugh) So on the 26th, Outlook 2011 for Mac comes out. It's supposed to be very, very close to the Windows Office 2010. So, you know, all the features you were jealous off, they're rolling them in. You've got your Visual Basic pack if you're a Power User in Excel. And probably the biggest news for a lot of these users is Outlook 2011 for Mac.

DRUINYeah.

HARLOW(laugh) So much better exchange support. Much closer to the -- when was the last time we had Outlook on a Mac, 2001, I think. So, yeah, nine years later, we have it back. So if you're in corporate environment with a Mac and you have to connect through an exchange server, I think this is big, big news.

DRUINOh, I'm dancing the Happy Dance because I have to use the -- I have to use a virtual machine every time I'm working on office. And I have to say...

HARLOWSo you're running Outlook in Windows in your Mac?

DRUINYeah. And it's -- and this would make it, so I can live in the Mac environment natively. Boy, I am so excited. So I'm waiting right now.

NNAMDIYou all know the computer guys and gal and everyone else that Columbus Day is coming up, so we're interested in you sharing some of your own new discoveries with us. I'll start first. I discovered we don't get that day off.

GILROYThat's discovering.

HARLOWThat's a big discovery.

DRUINOh.

NNAMDISo I don't know. Allison Druin, you can share one of your favorite new discoveries, an improved touchscreen for your Smartphone?

DRUINYeah, this is interesting. Nokia -- in Nokia research labs over the U.K., they actually are making it so that potentially you could move your finger over your screen and feel the icons, and that you can start to feel the picture. And the way they're doing this is with electro-vibration. Okay, John, now, don't get too excited here. Basically, the idea is that it's a frequency. They're alternating voltage, and it fakes out your finger, and it makes you feel like there's something there. The higher the frequency, the smoother it feels. The lower the frequency, the more bumpy. And so what they've done is put two layers on top of the display screen, the two very thin layers that you won't even be able to see to make this happen. So this is very exciting. I'm -- you know, it's probably a year's out I think.

GILROYI got the application, so Bill sitting in the classroom, he could put his Smartphone under the desk, and he can text his friends by feel.

DRUINPerfect that's it, that's it.

GILROYIs that the way they're coming up? And I guess what are their applications could be possibly be for that.

HARLOWWell, the blind. The blind love the iPhone, for example...

GILROYOh, definitely.

HARLOW…because of the lot of the feedback. So any touch feedback you can get could be a good thing.

DRUINNo. This is actually and – you know, people have been talking about forced feedback for a while where things come back at you either through a joystick or through the screen, regular touchscreens, but we've not – this is the sense that's really been missing on the phones so...

HARLOWOh, smell too. I want my smell phone.

DRUINOh, gosh, I don't want to smell anything.

GILROYWe did that last month with the smell diary, okay?

DRUINNo, no. no. (laugh)

NNAMDIOkay. What do you have that you have discovered, Bill Harlow?

HARLOWWell...

NNAMDIYou said we can discover hidden abilities in our Intel CPUs?

HARLOWYes. Apparently, a Best Buy shopper discovered that there are these cards that you could buy that basically unlocks features that are already in some of these Intel CPU. So you already spent the money on this processor. You got it in there, and, oh, look, it turns out that some of the things built in are actually shut off. And if you actually want to get the full power of this processor you already bought, you can spend another 50 bucks, download some software and then unlock the hidden abilities. So you can pay for your CPU twice.

GILROYThose software developers and their Easter eggs, huh?

HARLOWYeah.

HARLOWEaster eggs are free, though. This is $50. Luckily, it's just a pilot program. Hopefully, it doesn't catch on.

NNAMDIJohn Gilroy, what have you discovered? And I don't mean in the realm of cocktails.

NNAMDIDiscovered the technology.

GILROYWell, I discovered an article by Wayne Rash, friend of the show...

NNAMDIOh, yeah.

GILROY...and he makes a rash prediction here, and I think all the listeners would be interested in this, especially the iPhone users, and I'm looking at three of them.

GILROYWayne is looking at them next year and saying, well, look here, boys and girls, Android is going to take over the market, and iPhones may go away real soon. The reason is because if you look at the old school Windows would have even greater applications for it. They aren't in a locked system. Apple is a locked system, so he's making this real rash prediction that Apple is going to get beat up. And I'm just amazed. I don't see Steven Jobs...

HARLOWThat is a...

GILROY...walking away from this market.

HARLOWYeah.

GILROYI think he's going to fight.

HARLOWI agree. And even if Android is the most popular one. I mean, the thing is – at least right now, I mean, Android is growing. iPhone is still growing. Apple, you know, is making the most profit in the phone industry right now. I mean, even if they're not the majority, they're still going to be a very significant minority, and they are, I think, setting the tone for the way phones are and will be for at least the next few years.

DRUINBut, you know, Nokia has got more phones out there than anybody and who's talking about Nokia. Well, why because...

GILROYDidn't they just fire their CEO?

DRUINYes, they did that, too. But that's because they're basically doing the low-end market, and they got more phones. So more phones may not spell death to the rest, but it's definitely going to change the landscape. I agree, it's very interesting.

GILROYI can't wait and get Wayne on the phone a year and a half and go, well, Wayne (laugh) we're gonna hold your feet to the fire here buddy...

NNAMDIMy response, note to self, cancel Wayne Rash's next appearance.

GILROYOh.

DRUINOh.

GILROYI just stole his thunder, I guess.

DRUINNo.

NNAMDIHere is Cheter (sp?) in Stafford, Va. Cheter, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

CHETEROh, I'm so excited. I didn't know I was going to be the first one.

NNAMDIYou are indeed the first one.

CHETERWell, thank you very much for taking my call. My husband bought me an Droid X for my birthday, and I am a very loyal Microsoft Outlook user with my contacts and calendar, and I took back the Droid X because I was really concerned about the way you have to sync your contacts and your calendar with Google through, I guess, the cloud.

NNAMDIAnd now you want us to find your husband and reunite you, is that correct?

CHETERYes.

NNAMDIGo ahead, please.

CHETERAnd I didn't like the Google app that syncs those particular things like contacts and calendar. You have to like upload it, and then it syncs with your phone rather than a computer-to-phone sync, which I'm used to with my Microsoft-based phone. And I was wondering if there are any other solutions out there. I know that there are some third-party software programs out there. Some tested, some not, some not charged, some are free, but none have been proven yet. Any ideas?

HARLOWWell, in the case of the Android, I can't say for certain that these guys have a solution for Android-based devices, but they got a pretty good track record. If you go to markspace.com, these companies make a product called the Missing Sync, and they make them for a pretty much every single device out there. I'm sure they got one for Android-based devices. So check and see if they make one for the Droid X. They're always adding support for new devices, you know, every week it seems. And they may offer something that will suit your needs.

CHETEROkay, great. And because I just didn't like the idea of having all my information kind of out there in the Internet. I just like the computer to phone sync. So do you think they'll still be able to help?

HARLOWI think it's worth a look because that's what they specialize in, you know, syncing over USB.

CHETEROkay. All right...

NNAMDIThank you very much...

CHETER...thank you very much.

NNAMDI...and good luck to you, Cheter. You too can call us with your favorite discovery with Columbus Day coming up, 800-433-8850. Or share your favorite discovery with us at our website, kojoshow.org. Here is Casey in Washington, D.C. Hi, Casey.

CASEYHi, Kojo. Great show, guys. Listen, I am trying to decide what kind of e-reader to get, and I was leaning towards the iPad. But I've been looking at the Kindle and I still wanna have Internet accessibility, and I wanted to know what your panel thinks is the best bet going into the future because I got limited dollars, so I don't wanna buy something now and then regret it like (unintelligible)

NNAMDIHey, I got Kindle on my iPad. Here is Bill.

HARLOWI guess one quick...

CASEYOh, really.

DRUINYeah. Yeah.

HARLOWOne quick question is, when you say Internet access, do you mean like a web browser or the ability to buy books over the Internet?

CASEYBoth.

HARLOWDoesn't the Kindle have a basic browser? I mean, it's pretty basic though, but it's something.

DRUINYeah. There is something basic, but if you're looking for full Internet access then you're probably looking at the iPad and...

HARLOWThe iPad with the Kindle app. Yeah.

DRUINYeah. And as -- yeah. As Kojo said, you can have the app anywhere, and in fact many people -- in fact, I like the library, the Kindle library, better than I do other libraries so I'll access the Kindle library from other places…

HARLOWRight.

DRUIN...from other machines.

HARLOWPlus Kindle's -- they just have the Kindle 3. It's a lot cheaper now and who knows, the price might keep going down. So maybe you can get an iPad now and get a Kindle as well later on, have the best of both worlds.

NNAMDIHow's that work for you, Casey?

CASEYOkay. That sounds good, but I'm a little concerned if Android is taking over the world then iPad and phones may go away. What does that say for the iPad?

HARLOWWell, you can always send it to me when you're done with that. I'll gladly take it off your hands.

GILROYCasey, this is a horserace. You gotta put your money in the right horse, and good luck. Who knows what's gonna happen?

NNAMDIBut Casey, thank you very much for your call.

CASEYOkay.

NNAMDIWe're gonna take a short break. When we come back, more with the Computer Guys & Gal and your phone calls at 800-433-8850. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.

NNAMDIThe voices you hear in the background are those of the Computer Guys & Gal, mostly Allison Druin. She's an associate dean for research in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, where she also directs the Human-Computer Interaction Lab. Bill Harlow is a former Mac Genius who now works on PCs & Macs with Mid-Atlantic Consulting. And John Gilroy is, well, here. John Gilroy is...

GILROY(unintelligible) getting 20 bucks that time (unintelligible) .

NNAMDI...is director of business development at solutionsdevelopers.com. Another favorite discovery of yours this month, Allison Druin, a cardboard computer that really works. Yes, you heard me right. Cardboard.

DRUINYeah. It's from Recompute. It's totally cool. It's a real computer inside, okay, but on the outside it looks like packing material. But it -- I mean, talk about green, it is seriously green. So the only problem is it's double the cost of a regular desktop. But it's a Linux-based system and the components are off-the-shelf PC. And from the outside it looks like, as I said, packing material. It's awesome. Go take a look at Recompute if you're totally into something like you can't figure out what to give to the next person you know.

NNAMDICue the John Gilroy obvious retort.

GILROYThat's the dumbest idea I've ever heard. Come on. Are they taking stupid pills? Come on now. I mean, that's -- what about making a cardboard car? It's dumb.

HARLOWYou know what? It would never get stolen.

GILROYIt would never get stolen. They'd be laughing. They'd try to steal it and start laughing.

NNAMDIHow would you tell the difference between the computer and the box that it came in?

GILROYYeah.

GILROYI don't know. If I throw away the wrong thing -- oh, I threw away the computer. (laugh)

NNAMDIThe computer is the box that it came in. Well, apparently.

GILROYOh, no more dumb ideas. Thank you.

NNAMDIEnough amusement for the time being. Here is Jim in North Potomac, Md.. Jim, you're on the air. Go ahead, please

JIMHi. Good afternoon to everybody. I just wanted to comment, I guess for the woman who called earlier, regarding her Droid X and not being able to contact to an exchange server. There's a really good software out there called Touchdown by nitrodesk.com, and it works really well. And of course, your mileage may vary but that was the only solution that I found and I have the original Droid.

NNAMDIOkay. Thank you very much for your call.

HARLOWPerfect.

DRUINAll right.

GILROYServing listeners every day.

HARLOWRight.

NNAMDII hope she's still listening and that she appreciates your call. In honor of Halloween, Bill Harlow, let's talk about what gamers should be excited about that's available for the Mac today.

HARLOWActually, for a lot of things. I want to start with one that I think is really creative and original called Costume Quest. Tim Schafer has made a lot of games over the years that have been very witty and very creative. And this one, you have to take your little sister out trick or treating, but there are monsters with a sweet tooth out there looking to get in the way of things. So -- it's got a great sense of humor. It's coming out for PlayStation and Xbox as a downloadable game. One of the most appealing things is that the costumes actually grant you the powers so, you know, you kind of inhabit the costumes and there's sort of -- I love it 'cause it sort of takes the idea of what you probably experienced as a kid and makes it a little more real. And then some of the other ones are Plants vs. Zombies, which is basically out for anything you possibly could own, you know, phones, computers, what not (laugh) and...

GILROYCardboard computers?

HARLOWYes, actually. Cardboard computers will run this.

DRUINAll right, yummy. (laugh)

HARLOWBut, yes, so the idea behind this is if you've ever heard of tower defense game, similar idea. You've got to defend a garden using plants that can attack zombies that are slowly coming in to take over.

GILROYWe should have a daily zombie update and what to represent (laugh) different zombie attack.

NNAMDII forgot to say cutest mark -- remark from John. Go ahead please Bill Harlow.

GILROYRidiculous game (laugh)

HARLOWAnd the last one I wanna go over is called Left 4 Dead 2. This is out today for the Mac.

GILROYWhat Kojo wants do to me (laugh)

HARLOWIt's also been out for the Xbox and for the PC. And it's kind of cool. It's your classic zombie apocalypse thing.

GILROYClassic.

HARLOWGeorge Romero.

GILROYFive hundred years old.

HARLOWBut what would makes this so much fun is that the trappings are very much like a horror zombie movie. So...

GILROYClassic.

HARLOWSo what you do throughout the game actually...

NNAMDISecurity. Go ahead.

HARLOWSo what you do throughout the game actually impacts the ending, so it's a lot of fun. It's great to play with a bunch of friends 'cause it's just about survival and it's a great scare too.

NNAMDILeft 4 Dead 2, and that may be funny. What is not funny, Allison Druin, is what Google discovered when it sent street view cameras to Brazil.

DRUINThis was amazing. I mean, all right, so we're talking about fake zombies and dead people, but this is real. This is...

NNAMDIAnd very disturbing.

DRUINOh, it’s very disturbing. Basically -- I don't know if you all know but when, you know, Google goes out and gets you all those wonderful images for Google Maps and such, they have a street view cameras. And they went to Brazil and basically they discovered dead bodies laying in the street. Okay. And now we're not talking about like in an alley...

HARLOWThese are bustling intersections.

DRUINBustling intersections. And so basically -- I mean, very disturbing images, so they immediately removed the images. And they're actually -- there are blank screens there right now. But this is -- you know, honestly when Google was out to these street view capture, they've uncovered in Australia. There was a man passed out because he was, you know, he was mourning his family's -- one of his family member's death and so he was passed out, so there was an image of him. Then in the UK, there was a little girl that was actually having a prank on another kid and laying there as if she was passed out. Now thankful she was not dead in the UK. But this is, you know, you got to be careful what you're gonna find.

NNAMDIIt's quite disturbing. John Gilroy, if somebody thinks Netscape when I say browser wars, that person must be, well, ancient, but apparently...

DRUINLike John. (laugh)

NNAMDIWell, I didn't say present company. Today's browser war apparently is between Internet Explorer and Firefox.

GILROYYeah, we set up these -- all these fights in the start of the show. You know, I can remember the first time I had Netscape fired up and it moved. That was just great. And then it get swarmed by Internet Explorer, and now we see something on the Horizon, you know, Firefox and so far a lot of them are on the Horizon. What's happening is that there is a paradigm -- the whole game is shifting to a whole different playing field, and the different playing field is HTML5. And so, for example, Kojo is looking for a rich Internet application, rich Internet experience with Silverlight or with different types of IRAs out there, they're gonna switch to HTML5, which will incorporate that. So we have another browser war and it's more of, well, what's gonna adapt -- if the Internet is 90 percent HTML, maybe a better flavor of HTML can provide that rather than all these services like Flash out there. So it's an interesting time to see the fights and it's just -- it's a whole different world now so...

HARLOWAnd I think part of what pushed that is mobile browsing as well. Since a lot of, you know, the devices out there can't really run Flash, I mean, certainly not the iPhone and just now the Android phones are starting to support that.

DRUINThat's right, yeah.

NNAMDIHere's Robin in Woodbridge, Va. Robin, you're on the air. Go ahead please.

ROBINHi, everybody. I am right now calling on a Verizon wireless cell phone. I'm the only Verizon wireless user in my family. Everybody else is on AT&T.

HARLOWWell, you get a rebate check out of it. (laugh)

NNAMDIHey, big fat $2 or four bucks. (laugh)

DRUINSix maybe.

ROBINAnd I'm paying two big wireless phone bills every month. My plan ends -- with Verizon, my two-year contract, December 15. And here's my question, do I move over to AT&T and become an iPhone user? In Virginia and the Greater Washington, D.C. region, the AT&T wireless service is more dependable, or excuse me, the Verizon Wireless service is more dependable than AT&T. And I keep asking everybody and nobody knows the answer. Is Verizon going to have the iPhone?

HARLOWThat is a big question. I guess, you know what, we don't know. I mean, Apple doesn't say anything.

ROBINOkay.

HARLOWVerizon is very, very cryptic at best. All the rumors up to this point have been flat out wrong. Although, my prediction that it would not be this year. It looks like it might be accurate, for better or for worse. I guess what I would say is if you really, really, really want an iPhone, I mean, you better be really sure that AT&T services will be up to your standards. And the other thing too is if your contract's ending and you maybe don't do anything for a while. You know, sit in a holding pattern for as long as possible. Stay months to months so you have some flexibility, you know, and see how much time you're willing to stay on your current plan and how much time you wanna give Verizon to, you know, maybe or maybe not release a new iPhone.

DRUINIt also depends on compatibility with your -- with the rest of your family members. So it may be that it -- it may be better to actually have similar phones...

HARLOWThey're all in AT&T...

DRUINYeah.

HARLOW..and then they're all doing in-plan calling.

DRUINYeah.

HARLOWThat's a lot cheaper.

DRUINIt is a lot cheaper. So I don't know, you know? It depends on your pocketbook as well.

NNAMDIThank you very much for your call, Robin. We move on to Tony in Rockville, Md. Tony, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

TONYYeah. It's interesting. I've been listening to you guys talk about, you know, with the phone service through AT&T. I work for a bookstore here in the area. I assume it's okay to mention it. I work for Borders. And I hear you guys talking about Kindle a lot, and I wonder if people are aware of the fact that there are several other good readers out there and that, you know, the reader -- the other readers that are out there, you know, Kudoo's for example, Kobo, whatever. They aren't a lock system that there are a lot of different places and even a lot of different applications that you can use on a smart pad or an e-reader that will, you know, that you can buy books through. Are your, you know, your visitors, are your guests aware of that? And can they talk about that a little bit?

NNAMDIYes, they are. As a matter of fact, Tony, listen to this e-mail we got from Tony in Alexandria, Va., your namesake. Since you mentioned borders, this Tony says, "When people ask about iPad v. Kindle for reading and downloading books, why don't you guys ever mention the Nook sold by Barnes & Noble? I love mine. It has the great e-paper screen like the Kindle plus a colored touch screen area like iPad for navigation. It feels really nice to hold in your hand. And yes, it does include a simple web browser. The big benefit over Kindle? Just walk into your nearest Barnes & Noble bookstore and try it out." Care to comment, Bill Harlow?

HARLOWI thought -- I've actually seen some Kindles on display, by the way, so there are places you can play with those. I can't remember where. I wanna say at Target, maybe. But I guess -- I mean, John, you always say things are a horse race. I think that's where we are with e-books right now.

NNAMDIYup.

HARLOWThat's why we tend to oversimplify and say things like the Kindle because it seems to be the biggest player right now. And anytime you're buying any sort of media that is somewhat locked down, you wanna go with the biggest guy that, you know, with the best chances of sticking around.

DRUINOr the biggest woman, you know, whichever.

GILROYThe biggest entity.

DRUINOh, yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think it also has to do with content. And I think that Kindle came out early enough and -- or Amazon came out early enough in the race to really think about how to make content king. And honestly, that's why a lot of people are still accessing them. But you make a very good point, Tony, and you're absolutely right. There are many other things to try out and to play with.

NNAMDITony, thank you very much for your call. While we are on that subject, let's go to Greg in Chantilly, Va. Greg, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

GREGYes. How are you doing, Kojo? And my surprise is that nobody has mentioned something as simple as a netbook, which is basically a full-feature computer except a little bit smaller for about half the price of an iPad, maybe twice the price of a Kindle. Yet it can support multiple platforms of readers including the Kindle platform and other readers such as Acrobat reader and other things like that. Yet you can just install or buy simple off-the-shelf software that you can buy anywhere that you don't have to be depending on apps that are built for one specific device. And also the fact that you can get versions of it that come with four times the amount of memory than an iPad, and the 3G connections direct through internet and long-lasting battery, beautiful screen. It's just -- to me it just seems like an obvious choice.

NNAMDIGreg, you mentioned a lot of functionality, but you ignore the cool factor.

GILROYAha. Yeah. You know, Greg, if you went to the Consumer Electronics Show in 2009, everyone was talking about the netbook.

HARLOWYeah.

GILROYIf you go to 2010, what netbook? What happened to netbook? It's...

HARLOWEverybody is making tablets now.

GILROYRight, right. Let's say, it's just it shifted so fast. It's almost like a school of fish, you know? And all of sudden, it switched a 90 degree turn. What happened? I mean -- and it's just not stylish. Unfortunately, it's cool to have an iPad.

DRUINYeah, but you're absolutely right Greg. Netbooks are a good option for those people that do want full features. And -- but I have to say, when a netbook falls in your face, you know, because you're falling asleep, you know, in bed reading, it's not really pretty.

NNAMDIObviously, some of us have had this experience. (laugh) Greg, thank you much for your call.

GILROYA cardboard netbook would be a lot lighter.

HARLOWHe used a cardboard netbook. (laugh)

DRUINThe next is a pillow one. Oh, let's make a pillow one.

NNAMDIWill you please stop already before -- I'd have to call security for John Gilroy again?

NNAMDIAllison, AOL is becoming a content company and gobbling up lots of content websites. Its latest acquisition, TechCrunch. Why does this scare you?

DRUINOh, this is for Halloween big time, okay? I have to say, I mean, you know, if content is king and, you know, you've got one company owning some of the big players in terms of online sites for tech trends, so like suddenly, maybe they don't wanna put something in there that's not so good about AOL, okay? Or, I mean -- so when, you know, when you're talking about an awful a lot of these tech trends and everyone's looking up your Gizmodo and TechCrunch and, you know, and Engadget, and suddenly, Engadget and TechCrunch don't have certain things, you start to wonder what's -- you know, is this good or not? So, yeah, the power to of the press, I don't know.

HARLOWOh, any writer worth his salt would not put up with any of -- they'd leave.

DRUINYeah, they would. They definitely would.

HARLOWSo I'm not worried about that all. That's the least of my concerns. I mean, like an influenced editorial decisions .

DRUINOh, come on. Look at the Wall Street Journal.

GILROYWell, doesn't AOL already own or run Engadget?

DRUINYeah, yeah, yeah.

GILROYI mean, they've had a lot of blogs already.

DRUINYeah. Absolutely. But in -- and then it's funny because most people don't really -- didn't realize about Engadget, but people are starting to notice now that they're acquiring more and more of the same things.

NNAMDI800-433-8850 is the number to call if you'd like to join the conversation with the Computer Guys and Gal. We got this e-mail from Gretchen in Arlington, Va. "I would like to get my 83-year-old aunt who lives on the West Coast to use e-mail. During a visit last year, I gave her a Dell Mini, and it was a disaster. She mailed it back to me and my daughter very happily took it over. I'll be visiting her in November, and I'm thinking about taking an iPad with keyboard for her. What do you think? Are there other products out there that would be better? She has never used a computer in her life and is convinced she cannot learn how to use one."

DRUINYeah. Well, I absolutely believe that the iPad would be the right thing for her because the Dell Mini, even though, it's got more functionality and I can imagine her daughter is probably loving it, the iPad is exactly for who this woman is. It is for the novice user. It's for the occasional consumer of information and e-mail or -- so yeah, I would go with that.

GILROYI've got the answer.

NNAMDIYup, what's the answer?

GILROYThe answer is get one of those GMs with a Facebook and you can have voice recognition just talking to the computer, and it'll e-mail automatically. I mean, that's the answer.

HARLOWThat's what I like about you. You always go for cheap options.

GILROYIt's a cheap option.

DRUINBizarre options, you're talking.

NNAMDIGrandmother will love grandchildren's photos in the way they look on the iPad, won't they?

DRUINYeah. They really will. It'll be -- it'll look quite beautiful.

HARLOWYeah that's a nice -- I think a it's nice solution really.

DRUINYeah. Yes, absolutely.

NNAMDICatch her with the photos of the grandchildren. Here is Jim in Washington, D.C. Jim, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

JIMWell thanks for taking my call. When I'm on the web using Safari on my MacBook, I keep getting redirected to sites I don't want and also gets pop-ups that say I've got a virus on my machine and click here, and that kind of thing. And I took it to an Apple genius and he said that I should just reset the Safari three times, which I did.

GILROYClick your heels together three times.

JIMThat's what they said. And actually he did it. And then when I noticed when I started up Safari, I just, I can start to type something and, you know, the URL would come up anyway. So I did some research and I found out there's something called flash cookies.

HARLOWMm-hmm.

JIMAnd they're not in Safari. They have a separate location. And so my question -- and so the flash cookies collects a lot of information on you and they're harder to get rid off apparently.

HARLOWRight.

JIMSo my question is, apparently, a lot of cookie management software for Safari and other programs, and also Adobe has something on their site about security using flash and getting rid of its cookies, but it's very complicated. Do you have any advice on both how to manage your cookies to keep these unwanted redirects...

NNAMDISo you've come to the right Mac genius, Jim.

JIM...and especially flash cookies.

NNAMDIHere's Bill Harlow.

HARLOWWell, in the case of flash cookies, I generally -- in case of flash on my computer, I generally don't even run it if I can help it. So I use a flash blocking software. You just click to flash so I don't even -- you know, first of all, it makes things a lot faster. And, secondly, if I go to YouTube and I wanna watch something, I can then very easily click to activate it. As far as cookie management software, I usually just do it by hand. I mean, it's pretty easy to manage the HTML cookies within Safari. And in the case of flash cookies, I believe you can do some of that just by right-clicking in a flash element within a Web page, and then you can go into security details there. But the other thing I would say that's very important if you are gonna run flash is keep it up to date. There have been some recent updates from Adobe adopt flash 10.1 different build numbers. And I would even check that on a regular basis. Just go to adobe.com and download the latest flash player.

GILROYThis is why the big move is to nuke html and this is why Steve Jobs goes crazy without flash.

HARLOWYeah.

GILROYFor reasons like this.

HARLOWOther things too. I mean, just generally, you see, you can -- and make sure you have pop-up blockers enabled within Safari. You may wanna consider disabling java or JavaScript, you know, and turn on only as needed as well 'cause those are also other things that can run some code and, you know, make your browsing experience less than savory depending on what you're doing.

NNAMDIJim, thank you very much for your call. We'll take another break. When we come back, we'll get back to your telephone calls and e-mails for the computer guys and gal. You can call us at 800-433-8850, or send us a tweet @kojoshow. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.

NNAMDIWelcome back to The Computer Guys and Gal. They are Bill Harlow. He's a former Mac genius who now works on PCs and Macs with Mid-Atlantic Consulting. John Gilroy is director of business development at solutionsdevelopers.com. And Allison Druin is associate dean for research in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland where she also directs the Human-Computer Interaction Lab. John, why should Google be worried about Facebook?

GILROYYou know, it's a fun thing. We got this movie coming out and everything's -- it's like the perfect storm for this movie, isn't it? Last month, for the first time, our friends in Reston, comScore, figured this out and more people are going to Facebook and Google. I mean, it's just -- it's this phenomenon that can't be explained. So I think it's real exciting. And that guy's worth a whole lot of money, that guy who started Facebook. So I just think it's...

NNAMDIHave you seen the movie?

GILROYNo, no. I'll never see that movie. But... (laugh)

NNAMDIOh, really?

DRUINAh.

GILROYBut it's interesting to see these trends.

DRUINOkay. I'm going with Bill. (laugh)

GILROYAnd, I mean, four years ago, we're doing a show four years ago. No one had predicted something like this. Now, all of a sudden, I don't know where, Google gets sidelined.

NNAMDIAre you not seeing the movie, "The Social Network," because you didn't get a free ticket, an advance free ticket?

DRUINHe's not social. That's why.

GILROYI'm not sociable. That's true.

NNAMDIJohn, why my next update on Facebook say, I'm driving? What's with OnStar and Facebook working together?

GILROYWell, I hinted at that earlier. And what GM -- this is really a silly thing. What GM is trying to do now is enabling Facebook while you're driving. So they have these cars out there, you know, that you'd start off with OnStar, then move to Digital OnStar, now move to maybe Internet access through OnStar and have updates to your Facebook account as you're driving home.

HARLOWWell, this is great. So now your status can be sideswiped a school bus. Ran a red light.

GILROYGot distracted.

NNAMDII'm on the phone, I'm texting and I'm on Facebook at the same time. (laugh)

HARLOWWhile drinking a coffee.

GILROYYou know, friend to the show, Rob Pegoraro, he writes about this, the washingtonpost.com. And he said something really smart. He said now, you know, do you really need to know what your friends are doing while you're driving home? I mean, isn't there maybe 30 seconds of your life where it's not important, you know, what party Kojo is going to tonight or something?

HARLOWWell, what kind of friend would you be, John?

DRUINWell, that's...

GILROY(laugh) I mean, come on.

DRUIN...the big question.

NNAMDIIt's all-important. Allison, if I'm wondering how much radiation my iPhone is giving off, why does it matter how far away I am from a cell tower?

DRUINWell, this is actually – you really won't be able to – well, this is interesting. All right. First of all, it emits more radiation when you actually make the phone work harder...

GILROYMm-hmm.

DRUIN…all right, to find a signal. And so if you cover up the antenna or if you're far away from a cell tower, you are gonna emit more radiation. There happens to be an app that just came out from TalkOn, which is a new company, for androids. So honestly, you iPhone people are gosh darn out of luck, okay? But the idea is that they actually have a little app that you can see. You know, it goes red if it's emitting more radiation, and, of course, this totally freaked me out and started making me wear my earphones like I should be wearing. So – and they're also creating a map of all the users that are checking their radiation show dead zones. I know this goes back go zombies and stuff. But basically they show radiation level, so you'll be able to see where they're -- you're not gonna get a good cell tone – cell phone tower access.

GILROYSpeaking of Halloween, are there any apps out there for detecting zombies attacking?

NNAMDIYes.

GILROY(laugh) There are. That's good.

HARLOWMigraines.com. Yeah, go there.

GILROYYou probably have one.

DRUINYeah.

NNAMDIWhy, Bill Harlow, do sophisticated gamers turn to Alan Wake?

HARLOWWell, I wouldn't say that sophisticated. What John would say, no gamer is sophisticated.

GILROYExactly what I said.

HARLOWYou know, speaking on his behalf. Well, it's a little different. I mean, some of the games we mentioned, they're fun, they're cheesy or they're just about, you know, zombie, family, towards Uno, cheap thrills. And this one's a little more interesting. You know, it takes place in a small town. You're a writer. You've got writer's block. So you go to this idyllic setting to try to get your Mojo back. And bad things happen. You wake up. Your wife's missing. You're exploring the town trying to find her. So there's some action, but it can be a bit more cerebral, too, and it's a nice story the way it unfolds. It's like a serial. You'll go through a chapter, it'll finish and then there will be a little preview, you know, last week on Alan Wake, and, you know, it drives the story along. It keeps you interested. And, you know, it's pretty neat. It's been in development a while, but it came out and it's a good game. I recommend it.

NNAMDISounds like a lot of fun. Let's play it, John.

GILROYNo, it's not.

DRUINWhat does he do for fun? Now come on.

NNAMDIGordon comes here and bothers us. Gordon.

HARLOWWe need to get him a game then.

NNAMDIGordon in Falls Church, Va. Gordon, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

GORDON...everybody. Thanks for the opportunity. I called to vent about MobileMe a little bit. My wife and I are both Mac users and iPhone owners, and I also have an iPad. And ideally, everything will sync back and forth between computers and iPhones and the iPad, but it's just not very reliable. And there are frequent messages about how much information it's going to change on your computer. And the notes on the iPad don't seem to sync back and forth. It has to be connected directly. Is MobileMe ever going to be a really reliable service that's worth the $100 a year I'm paying for it?

HARLOWWell, it has been for me. Where I've seen it fall apart is if you're trying to really use one MobileMe account across not so much different devices, but really, you know, one account with multiple computers with different users. I've had that. I've had really bad luck doing that, and it's not really designed for that. In those cases, they have a Family Pack version, which allows you to actually make distinct accounts, and that seems to work a little better. In the case of things like the notes, one thing you have to check there is in the settings because you can make settings on the – make changes on the device, and those notes are only there, or you can tell it to sync it with an account and then they're actually just -- they're treated almost like mail messages, and those will sync back and forth. And if you're seeing messages about the amount of data being changed, it would lead me to believe there are probably changes being made in, let's say, more than one computer device at the same time, which tends to happen when you have more than one person using the same account. So I would try to simplify, remove devices from the chain, you know, maybe start with just one computer, you know, the iPad, see how that goes. And, you know, if you're using it and your wife is using it, either get her off your account and get her, her own, or consider a Family Pack upgrade.

NNAMDIGordon...

GORDONOkay, great.

NNAMDI...thank you very much for your call. Good luck to you. Allison, let's give it one more shot to see if John Gilroy might like this for Halloween mischief's or, no, really any other time of year. You recommend The ThinkGeek Annoy-a-tron 2.0.

HARLOWHe's sitting to your left.

DRUINThis is very good.

GILROYYou recommend that?

NNAMDIYes.

DRUINOkay. So it's an upgrade from 1.0. (laugh)

HARLOWWore mine out. Cutting-edge annoying technology.

GILROYCutting-edge. Cardboard only, though. (laugh) Cardboard computer. Updates for a cardboard computer.

NNAMDIFor our listeners who may have missed that, this is The ThinkGeek Annoy-a-tron 2.0. Go ahead, Allison.

GILROYPut that on my business card. (laugh)

DRUINOh, shush, John. Okay, so you wanna drive your friends crazy or the people like John that you -- really aren't your friends. Basically, it's got this teeny -- it's this teeny little box that you can hide anywhere.

GILROYDo you have a PhD? (laugh) Okay, it's a teeny little box.

DRUINHey – sssh, be quiet. Be quiet. (laugh) All right, that's not fair.

NNAMDIIs this a radio show or a giggling competition? (laugh) John Gilroy, leave the room.

GILROYA teeny little box. Thank you for that explanation. What is a smart phone? A teeny little box.

DRUINOkay, no.

NNAMDIOkay, tell us.

DRUINIt's a teeny box, and it can make six different sounds, and it can make sounds that totally annoy people, or you can even hear. So you can make crickets, doorbells, electronic beeps.

HARLOWJohn Gilroy.

DRUINYeah.

GILROYJohn Gilroy impression.

DRUINJohn – yeah, exactly. (laugh)

NNAMDIThe Think – the -- what's it called? The...

HARLOWAnnoy-a-tron.

NNAMDIThe ThinkGeek Annoy-a-tron 2.0.

GILROYAnnoy-a-tron by Gilco Industries (sp?). (laugh)

NNAMDISmitha (sp?) in Herndon, Va. Save us, Smitha. Go ahead. You're on the air.

SMITHAWanna say first I love you guys and the show, I'm very excited that I can talk to you. I just got an iPhone 4, and I've tried to connect it to my iMac that I've had for a few years. And I'm running Tiger and it doesn't connect 'cause they don't -- it doesn't support it.

HARLOWThat's right.

SMITHAAnd so tried to upgrade to Snow Leopard, realized my computer is really old and it doesn't have the memory for it. Now, ideally, I'd like to buy a new iMac...

HARLOWMm-hmm.

SMITHA...'cause I'm a big fan, but to buy myself some time at least a couple of years, is it worth getting new memory, which is pretty cheap? And I saw it online for, like, $40 for 2 gigs. And then installing Snow Leopard on my old one and then going from there. Or should I just scrap that and go with the new one?

NNAMDIWe would recommend The ThinkGeek Annoy-a-tron 2.0.

NNAMDINo, I'm sorry. Here's Bill Harlow.

HARLOWWell, first of all, is it cardboard or electronics in your computer?

SMITHAIt's not a cardboard computer (unintelligible)

HARLOWHopefully you can hear me over this.

NNAMDISorry, I started that, Smitha. Here's Bill.

HARLOWBut...

DRUINIt's your fault.

HARLOWYes, it'll cost more than an Annoy-a-tron, (laugh) but I think it really depends on how old your Mac is. If it's at least, let's say, from '06 so...

SMITHAOkay.

HARLOW...it's an Intel iMac.

SMITHAIt is.

HARLOWThen I would say yeah. You can start with the memory 'cause you can, I think, put up to 2 gigs in one of those iMacs and yeah, it's pretty affordable.

SMITHAOkay.

HARLOWAnd, you know, it'll make a big a difference in everyday computing, not just in the ability to run Snow Leopard. That's -- I'm guessing you're using the same amount of memory that came with it when you bought it and that'll create...

SMITHAI am, 512. I didn't realize how low it was until now.

DRUINOh, wow.

HARLOWYeah. So going to 2 gigs will make it -- it'll just make the computer a lot more enjoyable even if you don't go the Snow Leopard route.

SMITHAOkay.

HARLOWBut I would do that. I would also suggest that if you don't have one now, grab an external hard drive. You know, plugs in over FireWire.

SMITHAYes.

HARLOWBack up everything on your computer.

SMITHAI do that. Yup.

HARLOWOkay, great. So that's a good starting point. And then, yeah, give it a shot. I think that that should work fine. Your Mac has USB 2.0, so that's fast enough to sync your iPhone.

SMITHAIs the processor fast enough to be able to manage? I mean, (unintelligible)

HARLOWYeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That'll be fine for that.

SMITHAOkay.

HARLOWI mean, it's -- it'll be fine for syncing in iTunes, web browsing, e-mail, that sort of thing.

SMITHAExcellent. Okay. Thank you so much, guys. Thank you.

NNAMDISmitha, thank you for your call. From Smitha to Rita in Vienna, Va. Rita, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

RITAYou're all having too much fun today.

GILROYYes, we know, Rita.

DRUINWe're gonna be reprimanded later. Don't worry.

NNAMDIOh, yeah.

RITAAbout the grandmother who was afraid she couldn't learn, I make a living going to people's homes. Most of my clients are seniors, and you're dealing with technophobes all the time. And I'd like some time for you guys to go and address the tortoises and the hares in terms of stream down simple stuff that are best for these folks. And I -- by stream down, I mean, like a lot of times I'll recommend a desktop for somebody, bigger keyboard, you can get a much bigger screen, you know, ergonomically, it's better, and stuff like that, but also all kinds of technology. I have a cousin who's almost entirely blind and he wants to get a cell phone, but too many buttons. And so if sometime you all can spend a little short segment just on, you know, what's best for the people who don't want bells and whistles or scared of it, who just want real basic functionality...

NNAMDIOr people with disabilities, for that matter.

RITA...that would be great.

NNAMDIYeah, we've done that before. Maybe we'll revisit that again.

RITAOh, you did?

NNAMDIYeah, well, that was some years ago. Maybe we need to do it again.

DRUINNo, but you have very good points. And sometimes -- I have a dad who -- he actually pays $100 a year for the Apple Genius Bar so he can just go up there anytime and actually get -- not fixing his technology but actually asking questions to learn more about a certain application. And I always suggest to folks that that's a great start. But people like you are really needed in the world to really help -- it could be -- 'cause it sometimes just not the technology, it is the person and it's the person-to-person interaction that's the most needed. And Apple figured it out with those Genius Bars, huh, Bill?

HARLOWThey did. I spend a lot of time there. (laugh)

NNAMDIRita, thank you very much for your call. Allison, the government is using special software to target disgruntled U.S. veterans?

DRUINNo, no. Oh, my goodness. I read this thing on the Internet and -- or it turns out that the MIT has something called the Mind Machine Project. And what they're able to do is understand from people's tone in terms of their words, in terms of conversation or through e-mail, to basically -- apparently, they have a construct for what is resentment, okay? And so this site decided, oh, well, if they're figuring this out and they're showing this to the government, then the government's probably trying to figure out who is resenting the government and they're gonna come after that...

NNAMDIMilitary veteran.

DRUINRight. Exactly. (laugh) Those people.

GILROYI was gonna say stand-up comedians.

DRUINRight. Exactly. And so people don't get concerned when you see things sometimes they're bit rants that are making three steps away from, here's a technology. They're showing it to the government. Oh, my goodness. The government must be watching me. And it's not true.

NNAMDIIf you wanna hear resentment, just force John Gilroy to say The ThinkGeek Annoy-a-tron 2.0.

GILROYAnnoy-a-tron 2.0 from Gilco Industries.

NNAMDIJohn Gilroy is director of business development at solutionsdevelopers.com Bill Harlow is a former Mac genius who now works on PCs and Macs with Mid-Atlantic Consulting. And Allison Druin is associate dean for research in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, and she also directs the Human-Computer Interaction Lab there. Thank you all for listening. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.