• Josh Benson, Television News Anchor
  • Josh Benson is a television News Anchor and Reporter in Orlando, Florida. He specializes in technology and investigative reporting.
  • Lake Eola in Orlando Florida
  • Lake Eola in Orlando Florida
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  • May19

    3 Comments

    Increase local storage? iPhone message

    Posted in: iPhone, The Web

    The other day I was on my Safari browser on my iPhone 4 looking over a Twitter profile when a dialogue box popped up asking:

    “Increase local storage? Do you want to allow the website http://www.google.com to use up to 10mb of storage on your iPhone?”

    Increase local storage?

    This is an example of the message I received on Safari.

    I thought it was a virus, but I was on Twitter, so I was a little suspect of being suspect. After poking around, I was surprised to find how little was written about this notification. What I came up with was the following:

      Since recent updates for iOS, mobile devices can use memory (or cache) to boost page load. After all, the content we view these days is much more advanced than the platform at which its delivered (sadly).

    So any way to ‘juice up’ speed is a nice benefit.

      So Google is asking to use some of your iPhone’s memory (or cache) to remember some elements of websites you visit on you iPhone, so the next time you come back, viola!, faster load times.

    Clear the Cache

    To clear the web cache, just go to 'Website Data' and delete some or all pages.

      10MB isn’t too high in the scheme of things. Your phone is likely several Gigabytes in size (1000MB), so you should be good to go. And you can free up any space the cache is currently using (see below). I’m not sure what happens if you ‘run out’ of memory. I haven’t been there yet.

      What’s happening from what I understand is that the WebApp (in this case Twitter Mobile) is requesting a certain amount of local storage space to load faster. If it’s not getting enough, it will ask for some more (the warning message).

    In summary, if you have a lot of space, click ‘Increase’ and you’re good to go. If not, try these steps to clear out your web memory:

    1. Click SETTINGS.
    2. Click SAFARI.
    3. Scroll to the bottom and click ADVANCED.
    4. Click WEBSITE DATA.
    5. Here you can swipe one by one to delete, or just click REMOVE ALL WEBSITE DATA to free ups some cache!

    Hope that helps. Happy surfing.

  • May18

    No Comments

    Adios, DVDs

    Posted in: Life, Technology

    Remember cassette tapes? Or ‘Walkmans’? They were great inventions and served us well. But no more. When was the last time you’ve seen a Walkman? I think I still have one back at my parent’s house up in the attic. And I know there’s a copy of the Top Gun soundtrack cassette tape nearby. That, I’m sure.

    Sony Walkman

    "Say man, can I snag that Tears for Fears tape for a few hours?"

    But as we fondly remember the cassette tape era, could it be that DVDs are the next in line to be a distant memory? For those of you with the massive DVD rack you bought from the SkyMall catalog loaded with your favorite DVD movies and music CDs, brace yourselves. I think the end is near. Start offloading them.

    My girlfriend sent me an article from 9to5Mac.com that really shouted something about laptops, specifically MacBook Pros, “what’s the need for a combo-drive anymore?”.

    Basically, there’s news that Apple is soon to launch a new MacBook Pro. And it WON’T have a combo drive. There’s no need. They have the app store. I couldn’t believe it.

    But then I quickly could believe it. When was the last time you stuck a DVD or CD into your laptop? Really. It hasn’t happened much, I bet. So in order to make the sleekest, hippest, and most technological laptop, they wanna burn the drive. Here’s a blurb:

    As the MacBook Air pioneered, and the latest Mac mini models have followed, the new 15-inch MacBook Pro loses the optical drive in order to reach Apple’s new standard for notebook thinness. Apple has made it clear that professionals could lose the optical drive in favor of the wildly popular Mac App Store for software installations. Take Final Cut Pro X or Aperture for example. For those few who still need an optical drive, Apple has been selling a USB Superdrive since the first-generation MacBook Air launched.

    New MacBook Pro 2012

    Mockup of new MacBook Pro without a Combo Drive.

    Sure, this new MacBook Pro will have a ton of new features. It’ll be much faster (USB3, Thunderbolt?) and a Retina Display for crisp graphics, but that’s for another blog post.

    So just as every other trend has come and gone, I fear that DVDs and CDs are about to enter the fold. You can trust Apple has a pretty good eye on ‘what’s next’.

    Speaking of which…I feel that Apple will get into the ‘television’ game very soon if not within the year. Others agree. Imagine Apple creating an interactive TV. That will be sweet. And everyone will want one. And have no fear, it’ll most likely come with several inputs so you can keep that Pioneer DVD player you have and the SkyWall of DVDs you own. There may even me an audio jack to connect that sweet Walkman of yours. Crank up Enya to 11!

    Geez.

  • May13

    2 Comments

    The Friday Squad: My favorite story

    Posted in: TV News

    I often ask people in TV News about their favorite story. Many times they didn’t even cover it. It’s always interesting to see great work from other reporters and photographers from stations around the country. I saw what would be my favorite story when I became an intern at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis all the way back in 2001 (seems like forever ago).

    Old Logo and Slogan

    This is the WCCO-TV logo and slogan from the late 1990s.

    I worked alongside David Schechter at the time. David could cover any story and was out-of-the-box, wildly creative. His stand-ups were original and outstanding. He’s now a successful Senior reporter in Dallas (and I just came across his great website SheckMo.com).  David taught me how to tell a good story, create a great stand-up and just get the job done. They were lessons that have helped my career.

    Back then, we worked in what used to be called the “Dimension” unit. It was housed in a small, dark, corner office stuffed with a 4-person team that produced dynamite investigative and other in-depth stories. The stories were often long-form and would sometimes run 5-8 minutes. Long-form stories seem to be a dying trend as more and more TV stations demand faster-paced, shorter stories to help feed viewer demand. Dimension no longer exists.

    In that office I learned how to log tape…and a lot of it. It was tedious, boring and painful. No, it wasn’t the most glamorous job in TV, but at the time, it was TV…and walking through the halls was enough to make me giddy.

    The Friday Squad

    Watch 'The Friday Squad' by Tom Aviles (WCCO-TV)

    David often worked with Photojournalist Tom Aviles. I remember Tom as a really funny guy and one hell of a talent. I learned just how good he was in the first few months I started, while logging away on tape in the Dimension office. He had just finished up “The Friday Squad”, a year-long project he tackled that celebrated the ‘Memorial Rifle Squad’ at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minnesota. With Memorial Day around the corner, it’s a very fitting story to talk about.

    Tom didn’t use any overly-fancy techniques or flashy graphics. He didn’t need them.  He knew the recipe for a solid story: homework, hard work, patience and a true story that could tell itself. He just let the story breathe. And his eye for great shots, sound and time lapse tied it all together. So much so, it won a national Emmy Award and he earned respect from reporters and photographers nationwide.

    In honor of Memorial Day and all of the Veterans who fought for our freedom I’m posting the video so everyone can see it. It’s a great piece of work celebrating individuals who truly care about what’s important.

    I miss the days of the dark Dimension unit office, the long-form stories and the giddiness of walking down the TV station halls for the first time (although that still happens from time to time).  As for logging tape?

    I still can’t stand it. (:

  • May11

    No Comments

    Oh, those old stacks of magazines

    Posted in: Productivity, Spreecast, Technology

    Stacks of Magazines

    They're growing! They're under the bed! Agghh!

    I can’t stand it. What is it with some women (I guess some men fit this bill too) and their desire to keep magazines, stack them up and 1) claim they’re going to read them or 2) save them for reference for ‘future ideas’?

    I love my mom to death but she used to be a major ‘mag-hoarder’. I remember the stacks of Better Homes and Gardens. Higher and higher they climbed. It was quite a sight: “Mom, why the magazines,” I’d ask.

    “Because I have ideas bookmarked and I like to go back and look at them,” she’d sweetly reply. Very well, I digress. But after today I’ve learned there’s no longer a reason to keep them. Away with the magazines! Introducing: Houzz.com.

    Houzz is a Palo Alto start-up that is really starting to kill it. It’s a leading destination website for home design enthusiasts, professionals or homeowners. The site has over 450,000 hi-res images of anything you can imagine related to your home: basements, bedrooms, wine cellars, offices, kitchens, etc. And they have links to buy some of the materials and furniture they display. Basically designers and architects promote their work on the site. And the work is unreal.

    A Houzz Screen Shot

    A screen shot from Houzz.com

    That’s the short of it, but if you’re interior-design challenged like I am (I still have a blank picture frame on my wall), then you should check it out. One day I plan to build the greatest office in the world in my future house. But first I need a house and then I need the world’s greatest plan to do so. Hopefully that’s where Houzz comes in.

    Thanks to the very talented Liza Hausman, Vice-President of Marketing for Houzz for stopping by and letting me know how the company operates and where they’re headed. You can check out the interview on the archived Spreecast here in the Tech and Biz Channel.

    And Mom, Happy early Mother’s Day. I just ordered you a subscription to Better Homes and Gardens! (That’s a lie) – But you will get something nice, that won’t add any new clutter to the room.

    As for my girlfriend and her ‘fashion’ and ‘celebriDirt’ mags…I give up.

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