Tech News and Commentary

Dave and the team discuss Samsung phones randomly sharing pictures, Amazon Prime Day, several federal agencies investigating Facebook, iOS sharing location with first responders, and more.

Joe in Durham, North Carolina listens on NewsRadio 680WPTF and asked: "I have noticed recently on Amazon that for example, with the latest Lara Croft Tomb Raider video release that it is no longer available on regular DVD. Is the regular DVD format on its way out? If so, how soon do you think it will be eliminated?"

 

Joe, even Bluray is probably on its way out by now, let alone DVD.

DVDs won’t be fully gone any time soon, keep in mind that until this week you could buy CDs at BestBuy and how many young people even know what a CD is by now?

They’ll be around for as long as they sell well enough to be around, but both newer generations and older generations have adopted streaming as an easier alternative to physical media, and odds are that you’re going to see fewer and fewer discs every year.

You can add to just the evolution of the technology another fact that will likely push DVDs out of existence quicker than CDs: Amazon owns Prime Video, Walmart owns Vudu. It’s not just tech companies like Apple and Google pushing iTunes and the Play Store, the same people who sell the physical media are invested in seeing it go away and be replaced by something with virtually no delivery or manufacturing costs and with an infrastructure investment that’s already been made.

Enjoy DVDs while you can, but start getting ready to upgrade because they’re dead already.

Cheryl asked: "I read that OLED’s pixels have their own light and an LED is a backlight behind all the pixels. Why else would OLED’s be so expensive if it was just about them being thinner?"

Cheryl, OLED pixels do have their own backlight, that removes a layer of equipment and allows the TVs to be paper thin.

It’s true that having their own backlight enable OLEDs to produce a better picture with blacker blacks since some pixels can just not be lit at all, but unless you’re extremely serious about your picture quality, you probably won’t really notice.

If you have the money and are serious about having the sharpest, best TV image, OLEDs are probably a good choice for you, but the difference in picture quality will be so hard to ever notice that we can’t really say that it’s worth the price difference from a regular LED TV.

Jody in Unionville, Tennessee asked: "My son is going to attend the Nashville Software School and he's wanting to know the best set of wireless headphones on the market today to do some research."

Jody, the list is pretty much endless these days, everybody has wireless headphones from legitimate audio companies to players who had promise but couldn’t cut it in pro football.

If you want to get him “cool” headphones just get him Beats and move along, no one will question their coolness. Although I still feel that Beats Headphones have become more of a fashion accessory than headphone. Especially when you see younger (and even some older) people walking around with then just hanging around their neck. But that’s just my opinion.

For a little bit more money Sony’s 1000XM2s have AI built into them and will adjust to their environment, recognizing whether or not they should be noise cancelling, how much, and what frequencies. That’s pretty great in that you could be isolated from the world, but if there’s an annoucement you’ll still hear it.

If he’s studying anything that requires good quality sound, he may be better off with a wired pair that costs the same but provides be...