Tech News and Commentary

Dave and the team discuss home robots and their troubles, cyborgs taking over, a modern smartphone with a physical keyboard, Amazon real estate, Target's small-format store success, modern anti-trust issues, and more.

Steve in Green Bay, Wisconsin listens to the podcasts and asked: "When I go into projects, or schools, I go into a mechanical room with a cell phone, sometimes I lose cell service in the mechanical room when I'm trying to get tech support from a factory. Is there a device I could use myself, or have my customers use, in this type of application to boost a cell phone call in a building?"

http://www.intotomorrow.com/media/podcasts/2019/07-26-2019/07-26-2019-H3S1.mp3

Steve, do those locations still have a landline? If they do, that’s probably the best thing you can use.

Internal rooms with plenty of machinery are not the best environment for cell signals to penetrate.

Failing that, you can try WiFi calling or cellphone signal boosters. A booster may be a very viable and portable solution if there is a good signal outside the room you’re working in.

We reached out to our friends at Wilson Electronics, who specialize in these boosters. In fact, they provided a few of their consumer models for our Summer Giveaway. Scott Lucas, their VP of commercial sales has some input for you:

"The caller brings up a very common concerns and it exists in many commercial environments, it's a great question and one we enjoy hearing. At Wilson Electronics we provide modular, in-building solutions that take quality or less-than-quality outside cell signal from any carrier and get that past construction materials that kill outdoor signals.

We place an outside antenna typically on the roof refered to as the donor antenna which captures and sends a signal to an amplifier which then builds the signal strength outside back to better FCC approved strengths and distributed throughout the building utilizing indoor antennas.

Whether it's a mechanical room, server room, or a tornado shelter we can deliver a signal and keep people connected.

Specific to the caller's need, a site walk should be done is to validate the distance from the mechanical room to the donor antenna, amplifier, and internal antenna and where they should be placed our Wilson Pro 1100 will easily light up the space referred to, and is the strongest amplifier and the category."

In theory that should take care of the signal issues, since you’d be connected to the repeater rather than the regular cell tower, and the repeater itself will be getting a signal from the tower somewhere in the building where that signal is available.

Dwight in Mississippi listens on SuperTalk Mississippi and asked: "I have a Sony Vaio computer I truly love and I haven't turned it on in a while. It's Windows 7 which is going away. But I've got these two pop-ups about updating the drivers and I don't know if it's spam or what. I can't get rid of them. Can you help?"

http://www.intotomorrow.com/media/podcasts/2019/07-26-2019/07-26-2019-H3S3.mp3

Dwight, without knowing more about the popups there’s not much we can say.

If they are spam, you can run an antivirus or freeware software like CCleaner or Adaware to try to get rid of them.

Having said that,