Tech Table Tuesday, November 19, 2013
November 19, 2013
Justin: Welcome to MPA’s Tech Table. I’m Justin.
Diana: And I’m Diana.
Justin: And we’re your hosts. We’ll be serving up a heaping spoonful of all things tech.
Diana: We promise it’ll be easy to digest. Howdy.
Justin: Hey, Diana. It is Tuesday.
Diana: Yeah, I’m feeling good today.
Justin: I’m trying to wake up, clearly.
Diana: Wake up.
Justin: Yeah. It’s Tech Tuesday so we talk about something tech related. What do we have today?
Diana: Let’s see. The temperature is dropping unfortunately. It’s that time of year.
Justin: It is. It’s getting cold.
Diana: Although we had some good temperatures I think recently but yeah, it’s getting cold. So technology we can’t leave in extreme temperatures, including extreme cold so we’re just going to talk a little bit today about when the temperature drops what we should do.
Justin: Right. So, what should we do?
Diana: We shouldn’t leave things in a car or where they’re exposed to those extreme cold temperatures, like laptops.
Justin: So laptops, iPods, cell phones, any device basically; it’s not good for it to be in the cold. You also shouldn’t put it in the microwave but that’s a whole ‘nother story. Yeah, so the two biggest things that get damaged are the screens since most are liquid crystal displays.
Diana: LCD.
Justin: That’s LCD, liquid crystal display. If you didn’t know that, that’s what LCD means. And batteries because they are lithium ion.
Diana: Right and the cold temperatures can actually freeze the screens and cause them to turn white or become very pixelated.
Justin: Wow.
Diana: Yeah.
Justin: That’s not fun. So, cold can ruin the lithium in batteries causing them to no longer charge.
Diana: That’s no good and we struggle enough to keep our devices charged.
Justin: Yeah, we do.
Diana: You don’t need to be ruining the batteries.
Justin: Absolutely, yeah. So, what is the best temperature for your devices?
Diana: You know, like a lot of things, it’s kind of a nice middle of the road 50-80 degrees. So you do have a range there that you can keep your devices in but you don’t want it to be in less than 50 degrees Fahrenheit or more than 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
Justin: Sure, so not heat either.
Diana: Correct.
Justin: I mean that’s a valid point, too. You know? And they used to, back when I was young, back in the day…
Diana: You’re still young.
Justin: I know but they always said don’t leave CDs, don’t leave your Discman. Remember those things back…
Diana: Medication.
Justin: Yeah, don’t leave those things in the heat. So, yeah you shouldn’t leave anything in the cold or the heat. 50-80 degrees is pretty much the best temperature for all of your devices to stay at. It’s interesting because even some hot… If you have a computer in an office on a farm but it’s an office in a building like a hog confinement or something like that, then you have to think about that too with the temperature. I’ve seen computers in cold environments that perform as well. They don’t have a long life because they’re either too cold or too hot because they’re not in a temperature controlled building.
Diana: Right.
Justin: Unfortunately, there aren’t any real special insulated cases or anything.
Diana: Right. I mean you can buy cases for… Like I have a makeup case. I know, this is totally not something you would normally go… But it’s insulated. Or for your meals, lunch bags and things, have insulation to protect it from different temperatures. But there aren’t really any things for your tech devices.
Justin: Interesting. Interesting. You’d think they’d come up with something.
Diana: You would think.
Justin: Maybe there’s your goldmine, Diana.
Diana: Yeah.
Justin: Yeah, interesting. For extreme cases that you have to use devices in the freezing cold, they do make weather appropriate devices for instance but those can be very expensive. Those are like specialized industry sort of devices. Yeah, so keep your tech with you and stay in the warm. Until next time…
Diana: Take care.
Justin: Tech Table is brought to you by MPA of Bloomfield, Iowa, and God’s Country Radio. You can visit us online at askmpa.com.
Diana: If you have questions or comments, please send them to questions@askmpa.com. That’s questions@askmpa.com.
Justin: And thanks for listening.
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