Tech News and Commentary

Dave and the team discuss Tom Tom losing a partner to Google, Pokemon Go and Halloween, Twitter's attempt at more positive conversations, hacking prevention for household appliances, a bagel emoji's replacement, Elon Musk's Twitter problems, tech and surprise parties, Google's search deletion, games and the holiday, and more.

 

Bob in El Paso, Texas listens to the Podcast and asked: "I have a couple questions. I have an iPhone and trying to find a very portable, user-friendly 360-degree camera where I can take photos of them in the yard playing around. Also - I'm trying to cut the cord on cable. The subscription on my satellite service went up $40 a month and I'm looking for the best way to cut the cord and still record some of my favorite shows. "

 

Bob, if you want a camera that you can use with your iPhone, as opposed to a standalone camera, you can look at an Insta 360, it’s a $100, 360 degree camera that attaches to your iPhone and works with it.

For about the same price you can also get at Giroptic iO HD 360.

There are also standalone cameras that play nice with your phone and can be controlled by your phone, but they are separate devices. Think something like a GoPro. Plenty of well known brands from Polaroid to Kodak have made these and they’re usually marketed as durable action cameras. They’ll typically cost you a lot more than the options we already gave though.

As far as your satellite service goes, you can look into Hulu with Live TV for $40/month including DVR. I switched to that at my house - from Comcast - and I don’t regret it one bit! YouTube TV is also available for $40, or Sling. They all provide a good lineup of channels, and they are all month-to-month. You will need to retain your internet connection on top of that, so make sure you factor that into the cost.

You can also use devices like the Tablo and ChannelMaster to record TV over-the-air, if that will cover your needs, and over-the-air TV won’t cost you anything.

If you don’t care about local channels, take a look at Philo. Named after Philo T. Farnsworth, an early television visionary, Philo offers 40 of the most popular cable channels at $16/mo, including free DVR and on-demand content. Up to three people can watch on their devices, including Roku, Amazon FireTV, Apple TV, Android, and iOS devices.

 

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