It seems the stories of analog TV’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

While we’ve all seen the endless number of ads on television about how analog TV signals were going away on February 17th, it seems that isn’t the case any more.  Due to the actions of the Senate of the United States, it seems the stay of execucution for the old style over the air television signal will be extended until June 12th, 2009.  This new date has also been supported by President Obama, and many others in the government.

The reason for the delay is that there have been many problems with the $40 vouchers to get the necessary converter boxes.  Extending the deadline will keep millions of people from losing their television signal come the day of the transition.  Although, we here at StarterTech are a little befuddled that there are still that many people receiving their television signals this way.

As always, please remember that if you receive your TV via a cable company or home dish system, you do not need a converter box, and this change over will have absolutely no effect on you.

It seems the rumors of AT&T Wireless prepping an in-home femtocell device are indeed true.

We reported recently that AT&T has been testing their own femtocell device to be released at some point in the future, but all of a sudden the device seems much more real with the launch of an informational page on their website.  The most shocking revelation is that opposed to the Sprint AIRAVE and Verizon Network Extender, this device will work only with 3G phones, such as their exclusive iPhone.

Other tidbits of information that have been revealed is that it will handle up to four calls at once, there will be individual and family plans for service (meaning Verizon is alone in not having you pay a monthly fee to use their device), will cover the standard 5,000 square feet of space and more.  The biggest omissions in the information is the release date, the cost of the unit and the costs of the different monthly service plans.

Soon everyone will be able to have one of these cell phone extenders in their home or office, meaning companies will never need to build another tower at this rate.

Verizon has officially launched their Network Extender femtocell device to increase cell phone coverage in your home or office.

We reported the other day that it looked like January 25th would be the day that the Verizon Network Extender would be launched, and it turned out that date was correct.  Using your existing broadband Internet connection, the device will increase your mobile phone signal inside your home or office, routing the calls over your connection as opposed to the traditional cell phone bands.

Also correct was the price we reported of $249.99, but the difference between this and the $99 Sprint AIRAVE is that there is no service plan with the Network Extender.  The current Sprint device costs you $99 up front and then either $4.99 a month for limited service, or $24.95 a month for up to 3 phones and unlimited calls.  While the initial investment for the Verizon device is higher, you can easily see how it is the better bargain over the long haul.

You can read more about the device, as well as order it, at the Verizon site.

Yesterday, Paisano shared the following video on his Twitter account, and we just couldn’t resist sharing it with you also for what it teaches us about modern day computers.

While this may be funny to look back at now, it is startling in how close to correct they were. True, online shopping doesn’t involve a camera in a store, and you don’t write out emails on your “electronic correspondence machine”, but the basic ideas are all there for what you are reading this very article on now.

Why is this important to a blog about simplifying technology?  Can you imagine how overwhelming this would seem to someone watching it in 1969?  The idea that their lives would be overtaken by computer screens and monitors, letting them shop from home, print out documents, sending electronic letters to one another, banking online and so on?  Now think about how today’s technology seems overwhelming to you at times.

Get it yet?

All new technologies seem like something you’ll never grasp when they first appear, but later on they become so common place that you don’t even think about it.  Sure it can be scary when you first hear about them, but could you imagine life without the “electronic corrspondence machine” now?  Doubtful.

This video is a perfect example of why we started StarterTech.com, and that is try to make technology more accessible and a little less scary.

It seems that the biggest competitor to the popular Apple iPhone may be… the Apple iPod Touch.

With the release of the Apple sales figures for the holiday period this week, it showed that iPods were up 3% over the same period last year, but iPhone sales were down from 6.9 million units in the third quarter, to 4.4 million in the fourth.  While that is still a respectable number of units to move, it didn’t meet expectations from Wall Street.

While Apple doesn’t break iPod sales figures down by the various units, web traffic for the mobile version of Safari, the built-in browser, tripled on Christmas day.  There was also a 100% increase in downloads from the App Store, that, again, serves both the iPhone and iPod Touch users. While these numbers aren’t concrete since we do not have explicit iPod Touch sales figures, it does leave one to wonder if this device is cannibalizing some of the sales from its bigger brother.

The iPod Touch is lacking two things that the iPhone offers: a built-in phone and an exclusive contract with AT&T.

The phone part has partially been solved by the second generation of Touches having the ability to use a microphone/headset combination.  Because of this new feature, you can now use various VoIP apps to make and receive phone calls with it whenever you are near an open Wi-Fi network.  That is one major hurdle overcome.

As for the AT&T contract, well, while iPhones may appear cheaper in the short term, when you add in the service plans they require you to buy to make your device work, the Touch is an absolute steal at $399 for the 32GB version.

We here at StarterTech are huge fans of the iPod Touch, even to the point that our very first post was about the device.  While we would love it even more if we had a fully functioning phone, and didn’t have to rely on Wi-Fi, we also are not big fans of AT&T service.  For now we carry our first generation Touches and BlackBerrys, and are quite happy we don’t need to deal with AT&T.  We are not alone in this feeling as it was also stated by CNet News.

The iPod Touch: everything great about the iPhone, minus AT&T.

That pretty much sums up how we feel too, and it also appears to be how a lot of consumers are beginning to also feel.

Have you given any thought to how to protect your child as they navigate the wilds of social networking?

This is something I have talked about numerous times on my personal blog, SeanPAune.com, and something I can’t help but wonder how many peopel actually think about it.  It came to my attention again today when Linda Furrier wrote an article on Furrier.org about how she had recently attended a panel at her child’s school about safety on Facebook that was even attended by an employee of that popular social network.  I will quote the most imporant section:

The event l was billed as an event to increase your knowledge of your kids’ cyber culture on Facebook. The Facebook employee panelist was informative enough, but I couldn’t help feel that he really didn’t “get it”. His youth was indicative of the Facebook employee culture, but I am guessing he has never worried about a child getting home safely or being stalked on the Internet.

Questions were answered relating to privacy settings & Facebook procedures for blocking inappropriate posts and or members. The slide show was informative, but didn’t really reach the heart of the matter. The high school principal spoke with us about how the administration disciplines kids who post inappropriately in the high school network. The two high school age panelists spoke to their methods of protecting and sharing their information on Facebook. Yes, interesting, but I still left the event feeling hungry for more parenting tools.

I was left wondering, who is monitoring cyberspace outside of school hours? Whose responsibility is it? Should Facebook default to the most restrictive privacy settings for minors? Wouldn’t restrictions to spreading networks be highly counter to their business goals. Is Facebook’s sharing and connecting utility and business growth plan in conflict with the best interest of the kids?

This is a common issue that I hear time and time again about parents wondering why more wasn’t done to protect their children while they are online.  I always pose the exact same reply, “Why didn’t YOU do more to protect your children?

I applaud this school for trying to educate parents, and I also applaud Mrs. Furrier for trying to get more educated on the subject, but I always wonder why people bring up the idea it is the social network’s responsibility to protect their children.  Why should the school even be involved in anything a child does off of school grounds?  The whole point is that you are ultimately responsible for what happens inside of your own home, and this includes how your children interact with the Internet.

There are some very simple steps you can follow to watch over your child is they wander through cyberspace:

• The cheapest, and easiest, solution is no computer in their room.  If they have a computer in their room, simply don’t allow it to connect to the Internet.  Computers should be kept in a common room until you feel that your child has proven to be responsible enough to surf the Internet on their own.
• Install parental control software that limits when they may access the computer, the Internet or even just specific sites.
• Most routers have the ability to block access to certain sites based on address.

Essentially it all comes down to educating yourself and setting rules for Internet usage just like you do anything else in your house.  Your child’s safety is ultimately your responsibility, and not that of schools, the social networks or anyone else.  Always make sure that you are fully aware of what your child is doing online, no matter how much they may complain about it.

Google is at it again by adding more features to Gmail Chat.

Pretty much everyone that has ever used Gmail Chat has sent the person they are talking to a YouTube video to look at.  While fun, it can be annoying as it means changing to a different tab or window to watch it, leaving your conversation behind.  According to the Gmail Blog, they have now released a new feature that will solve this issue.

Whenever some shares a YouTube or Google Video link in Gmail Chat, you will now receive a preview of the video that you can play right in the chat window.  You will be able to continue your conversation while checking out whatever the clip may be.  This will certainly save you the troubles of changing tabs and the inevitable pause in conversation as you take a look at it.

While all of these recent additions to Gmail Chat are nice, SMS Texting Support and Video Chat being the biggest, one has to wonder why these features are not making the transition over to the stand-alone version of Google’s chat system, Gtalk.  I, for one, much prefer using the desktop application as I don’t have to watch my Gmail window 24/7, but I am starting to feel a bit left behind by all of the nifty new features that are missing from it.  We don’t even the ability to appear offline while logged in, something the Gmail version has had for quite some time.

Come on Google, where is the Gtalk love?

Rumors are circulating that Verizon Wireless customers may have the ability to get their own femtocell devices as early as January 25th.

According to Engadget, Verzion is preparing to release the Verizon Network Extender by the end of this month.  For those unfamiliar with femtocell devices, these are units that plug into your home Internet connection and give you extra cell phone coverage within a building by routing your calls over the Internet.  This gives the customer better coverage in their home or office, and helps out the cellular provider in that they don’t have to build additional towers to cover out of the way locations.

Sprint has been offering their own femtocell device, the AIRAVE, for several months now, and, as we reported, it appears AT&T may also be entering into the femtocell market sometime in the future.

With the AIRAVE having been first out of the gate, we have a barometer to measure these devices by, and the Verizon option is certainly falling short of it.  Sprint offered their device for $99 and unlimited calls with their service plan.  At this time it appears that Verizon’s device will run an amazing $249 with no mention of unlimited calls.  Of course, it can also be said that these devices should be free with the extra service plans they are selling since you are technically assisting the carrier, but we are unlikely to ever see that.

Could the August 1st cut-off date of the Windows 7 beta be a clue as to when Microsoft plans to launch the final product?

While the rumor of a fall 2009 release for Windows 7 has been heralded by some, and scoffed at by others, the idea has picked up some more steam since Alexander Wolfe of Information Week decided this truly may be a clue.

… even a Clouseau-like analysis (the Peter Sellers version, not Steve Martin) of that August 1st beta shut-off date leads one to the realization that Microsoft is probably planning to release the final version around that time. I’d say we can expect to see Windows 7 ship around back-to-school time.

I Think Mr. Wolfe has the right idea.  Seeing as the beta shuts down on August 1st, this means either you will have to roll back to an older version of Windows, a slim chance of going for a Beta 2 version, or, and this seems the more likely scenario, be told you can now go out and purchase the full version.

While there is nothing concrete to back this up as of yet, it is certainly something to keep in mind if you ware in the market for a new computer over the next eight months.  Can you squeeze by until the all new operating system comes out?  And would you even want to buy it when it first launches due to potential problems.  Only time will tell the answers to thse questions, but be sure to keep your ear to the ground, or your browser pointed here, to find out what the final result is.

Google, the leading search engine in the marketplace, has come up with a new tool that gives you more control over what you see in your results.

According to Google Operating System, the search giant has launched a new service called “Preferred Sites”.  The new service is currently in early testing, so it is not yet avaialble to every one, but you can read more about it on a help page Google created.

Essentially what the service does is allow you to dictate sites that you would like to have priority anytime you conduct a search.  Say you would like to include your local newspaper any time you went to search on a news story, it would now be given priority to show up on your first page of results with a marker underneath of it that says “My preferred site”.

If this feature ever goes live to all users, which seems likely, you would be able to make a list of sites that you find authoritative and trustworthy, and this could possibly be used to influence their regular rankings in the search results based on the number of people who choose each site.

While there are certainly some uses for such a service, we at StarterTech find it a bit worrisome that it might someday influence search results.  While it could be bad enough that individuals use it and just continually go to the same sites over and over again, never discovering new sites, this becomes really bothersome when you think of everyone on Google being influenced by this.  Say that PopularSiteX.com gets listed by thousands of people, and their ranking in search results goes up because of it, what happens when WannaBePopularSiteX.com starts up in the same niche topic and can’t get a toehold on their area of expertise because the other site has been pushed up so far in the results?

This certainly may be useful to some individuals, it could also possibly unbalance the way the Web works today, making it even harder for new blogs to ever be discovered.