Tech News and Commentary

Dave and the team discuss the FCC's new robocall rules, a lawsuit against Amazon for the way Alexa manages health information, and more.

Our guest this hour:

Markos Kern , CEO - Fun With Balls

Dustin in Woodbine, Georgia listens on WBQO When You Need to Know and is calling via the App and asked: "I'm looking at purchasing a TV for outside, underneath my screen enclosure. Do you recommend any certain TVs for the outside, for being down in Georgia in the weather and hot climate, or can I just put a regular TV?"

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Dustin, regular TVs may survive outside but you shouldnt count on it. Its not what theyre built for and the weather in some areas can fall outside of their operating specs.

Georgia mostly has relatively mild weather compared to places like South Florida for the humidity or Minnesota for the cold, but there are still no guarantees that the TV will last.

If you want to try this with a regular TV, dont buy one thats too expensive at least until you know your weather wont kill it.

If you want something that will live outside permanently and dont mind paying a steeper price for it, there are weatherproof TVs.

For example, the Furrion brand sells them almost exclusively. Their TVs tend to be a little bit more expensive ($1000 is not rare), but you can find outdoor TV from lots of brands from pretty unknown and inexpensive ones like QIMO to huge names like Samsung, which will sell them at a premium and will most likely ask for a few thousand dollars (for example, a Samsung 55 Terrace retails for roughly $3500).

If youre happy to test this out with a relatively cheap TV knowing you may lose it, give it a try. Georgia weather is not that extreme so you may luck out and be able to use an indoor TV outside without any issues, but you dont want to spend your money on a top of the line indoor TV without at least testing with a cheaper model first.

Either way you go, Id recommend also getting an outdoor cover for your TV. While it wont make it waterproof, itll at least offer some protection when youre not using it. You can find those on Amazon for like $20.

Jeff in Ackerman, Mississippi listens on SuperTalk Mississippi and asked: "Is there any laptop that compares to the iMac - on the IBM side?"

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Jeff, the iMac is a desktop computer but even if you mean the MacBook line the answer is still no.

IBM sold their consumer PC line to Lenovo back in 2005 and they havent made consumer laptops or desktops since then.

They still do make high end corporate servers and other machines, but nothing for the consumer market.

If you want to buy the descendants of their old Thinkpad line, Lenovo still makes them and their higher end models are competitive with MacBooks. Lenovo also makes very inexpensive models that are not comparable, so you will have to spend a little more money and buy a premium model if you want it to compe...