Tech News and Commentary

Dave and the team discuss Amazon's streaming DVR, Tinder U, Google's response to the Echo Show, Kroger's driverless cars, a handshake mouse, Apple's acquisition of Shazam, Walmart's VR shopping plans, and more.

JZ in Reno, Nevada asked: "For a while now, I think since Windows 7, whenever you hovered over a hyperlink, you got that little box that shows the entire hyperlink and it blocked everything that's right there around it. How do you turn the silly thing off? "

 

JZ, as far as we know, You don’t.

The last browser we heard of that still let you disable those was Firefox many years ago, but even back then it was a convoluted process that involved going into the advanced settings and finding a flag with a name that wasn’t too descriptive, switching it off and hoping you didn’t turn off something you actually need by accident.

Nowadays, there doesn’t seem to even be that option, we couldn’t even find as much as a Chrome Extension that will do it.

That’s probably in part because seeing the URL is both useful and important to your security as you try to avoid things like phishing schemes, but also probably at least in part because you rarely hover over links for long enough for them to display a tool tip, and you can move the mouse away to make them instantly disappear.

As far as we can tell, that may be your only option these days. Don’t park your mouse over links you don’t want information about, or switch browsers and see if the new one has an interface you like better.

Kathy in Milton, Delaware listens on Delaware 105.9 WXDE and asked: "I have an antenna and it's through my 65-inch TV. I want to know the best kind of antennas. I have a huge antenna outside my house and a lot of trees around my house. Even with an amplifier, I can't get the stations I want. I've gotten more stations than I got with a cheap Walmart antenna. Any suggestions would be great."

 

Kathy, you can try raising the antenna above the treeline, or try to get a more directional antenna, but keep in mind that they’ll only do so much. If the signal isn’t there, it just isn’t there.

Any yagi antenna is probably a good bet for distance, but keep in mind that even at line of sight that are some pretty low limits on how far a signal will travel.

Lifting your antenna up will help you in two ways, you may clear the trees blocking the signal and you may may improve the antenna’s reception radius, which will help your improve your maximum line of sight distance.

All that said, make your peace with the fact that antennas do have a limit, if you’re already getting more channels than before, this may be your limit.

Penny in Windsor Ontario, Canada listens on AM800 CKLW “The Information Station.” and asked: "Is there any PC add-on to auto-correct while you're typing, without having to open it first. Like, if I'm answering an e-mail on the computer, or a Facebook message, I don't have to open the add-on; it's just there to auto-correct."

 

Penny, there are autocorrect solutions for computers, Macs actually include them from the factory, but keep in mind that you may not find it easy to get used to them. They’re not for everyone.

You may want to give Grammarly a try. It’s free and can check both spelling and grammar. It will automatically work almost anywhere you type. White Smoke and Jetpack are some of the alternatives you can try too, but they’re not as popular.

Keep in mind that any checker that studies your grammar and spelling may slow down your typing. Sometimes you’ll notice that words take a while to catch up to your typing.