Headsets, Keyboards, Mouse Without Borders, TouchPad, Windows 8 – HT044

Jim and Andrew and Christian are joined by Gary Johnson for this week’s installment of the Home Tech Podcast.

After some chat about the benefit of purchasing a decent quality headset if you are getting into podcasting, the guys kick the show off.

Jim tells us about a letter received from Cox Communication after he and his family exceeded their expected data usage in a month by 150GB, from a family member catching up on TV episodes via Netflix streaming – a bit of a reminder to those who are on excess charge Internet plans, that this would have been a super-expensive exercise had Jim had to pay for extra GB downloaded.  The guys discuss the various Internet plans they use, and the value of bundling Internet and video services.

Hot on the heels of last weeks’ talk about the PC control software Input Director, the guys talk about the software release from the Microsoft Garage, Mouse Without Borders.  Check out the video from The Garage on from when Mouse Without Borders was released.

The guys talk about how they use their multiple monitor setups, and how multiple monitors can increase your productivity, especially when editing something like a website, and being able to make changes on one screen and see the outcome on another, without swapping windows or applications.

Andrew also talks about the arrival of his HP Touchpad, and his first impressions of using the device, as well as some of the accessories, including the Touch Stone charger, and Bluetooth keyboard that are available for the device.  The guys then go on to discuss keyboards, such as the Apple Mac keyboard, and the various keyboards they have been using over the past few years, and their preferences for wired or wireless keyboards.

In Christians’ Corner this week, we talk about the Windows 8 Developer Preview, which hit the wire during the week.  Christian and Jim talk about their experiences with the Preview so far.  If you’re interested in seeing the “Next Windows”, it is downloadable from the Microsoft Developer Network, and will be sure to attract a lot of conversation in the coming months.

Christian also talks about the price drop in DDR3 memory that we have seen happening in the past couple of months – if you’re looking to upgrade your memory, now could be the time!

Christians’ Tip of the Week is the Glary Utilities, an all-in-one utility, which helps you fix, speed up, maintain and protect your PC.

After a bunch of Skype failures, Gary talks about a couple of hard drive failures, with Windows Home Server saving the day for restoring the system to a new disk, and having Gary back up in running in no time.  Gary tells us about his very positive experience in having an RMA processed by Samsung for a couple of failed hard disks.

The guys talk some more about Windows 8, and the benefits of upgrading, and how the enterprise is still using older technologies, for various reasons.

The show wraps up, with Gary talking about the benefit of pulling the trigger on a purchase when stock is available, following an experience of deciding to perform an upgrade, only to find that his system board of choice was no longer available.

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