User:RahalMccall69
@@@ Our obsession with connectivity is now carrying over to cars. Surveys show that young drivers who don鈥檛 care a wit about horsepower want their vehicles to connect to the Internet so they can listen to Pandora, find a nearby restaurant on Yelp and check the weather and traffic.
In response, carmakers are racing to build 鈥渃onnected cars.鈥?Many 2015 models from even come with technology that lets you turn the car into a 4G LTE hotspot.
That would be a great idea 鈥?if it didn鈥檛 already exist. To create a hotspot in your car, all you need do is enable the mobile hotspot feature on your smartphone.
GM argues that its in-car hotspot is better because you don鈥檛 have to worry about your phone battery running down, and because its system uses the car antenna, which pulls in a stronger signal than a phone. But a phone hotspot can still be more than adequate.
Anyway, who needs a hotspot in a car? It might be good for giving carpoolers free Internet so they can work on their way to work, or streaming movies on tablets to keep kids from killing each other on long trips. But most of the time, a hotspot in a car is as useful as a screen door on a submarine.
Oh, and did I mention that in-car hotspots aren鈥檛 free. Just as with mobile phones, they require a data plan.
And there鈥檚 another problem: If you buy a connected car today, the technology probably will be obsolete by the time you make your final car payment five or six years from now. Software upgrades could keep some of the system current, but hardware (modems and such) may have to be replaced.
Bottom line: Don鈥檛 be fooled by commercials for connected cars. Right now, connectivity is still a novelty not worth paying extra for.
Q: I would be interested in hearing what you have to say about TV sound quality. My husband and I have difficulty hearing the sound on the TV, especially when there鈥檚 background sound or music and the dialogue seems to get covered up. I think there should be a way to separate the dialogue in the foreground from the sound in the background, but they do not seem to be on separate bands. So what is the best TV for hearing dialogue?
A: Today鈥檚 HDTVs do a lousy job with sound in general, mostly because the sets are so thin there鈥檚 no place to put decent speakers. But that doesn鈥檛 mean all is lost. Dolby Digital sound 鈥?used for Hollywood movies and prime-time TV programs 鈥?concentrates most dialogue in a center channel. With a home-theater system or sound bar designed for Dolby 5.1 (five speakers and a subwoofer for bass), you can control that channel (the front-center speaker) to make the dialogue louder.
Some home-theater systems and sound bars designed for Dolby 2.1 (two speakers and a subwoofer) have a 鈥減hantom center channel,鈥?although that鈥檚 a compromise solution. A better option 鈥?if you don鈥檛 want the rear surround-sound speakers of a Dolby 5.1 system 鈥?is a Vizio 3.0 sound bar. It has a dedicated center channel for enhanced dialogue.
Q: The power adapter and USB cable for my HTC phone disappeared on a recent trip. I found what was advertised as replacements for $8.90 on Amazon. I phoned AT T and they quoted $35 for the same thing (as did Verizon). When questioned, they said their power plug prevented overcharging of the battery and the plug on Amazon did not. Is this true and is overcharging a significant issue?
A: No. Most phones, tablets and other portable devices have standard micro USB connections, which means USB cables are pretty universal. Power adapters have small differences in output, depending on the kind of device they鈥檙e designed for. A tablet adapter may push more electric current (amperage) into a battery than an adapter for a phone. But the pressure of the current (voltage) is virtually the same for all adapters.
The upshot is that an amped-up tablet adapter may reduce the time it takes to charge a phone battery, but you can use any adapter without worrying about hurting your phone. Also, there鈥檚 no need to spend extra for original-equipment replacement parts. An after-market adapter/cable will work fine.
By the way, I鈥檇 be wary of anything told to me by a telephone salesperson. Even technical support people get things wrong, and I鈥檝e found they鈥檒l sometimes improvise when they get into unscripted territory.
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