Speaker 1: Amazon has a new robot, but I'm more excited about
Speaker 1: their new smart home thermostat. My thoughts on the iPhone
Speaker 1: thirteen pro after using it for a few weeks plus
Speaker 1: your tech questions answered? What is going on? I'm Rich
Speaker 1: Demiro and this is Rich on Tech, the podcast where
Speaker 1: I talk about the tech stuff I think you should
Speaker 1: know about. It's also the place where I answer the
Speaker 1: questions you send me, and yes, yes, send me a
Speaker 1: lot of them, and that's okay. I do try to
Speaker 1: answer them more so than just on the podcast, But
Speaker 1: the podcast is a good place because it helps other
Speaker 1: people know what's going on. So who am I? I'm
Speaker 1: the tech reporter at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Hope you are having a fantastic week. I did something
Speaker 1: totally wild this week. I flew home for my mom's birthday.
Speaker 1: And I was supposed to go home Monday through Wednesday
Speaker 1: of the week. And now, mind you, my mom lives
Speaker 1: in New Jersey, so not necessarily the easiest thing to
Speaker 1: get to. I mean, you can there's millions of direct
Speaker 1: flights a day, well not millions, but there's a lot
Speaker 1: of direct flights. But you know it's expensive. It's cost costly. Well,
Speaker 1: did I say that time consuming? I have to take
Speaker 1: off work. So I said, you know what, I got
Speaker 1: to do this. You know, people aren't getting any younger,
Speaker 1: and you know, I just felt like I've missed a
Speaker 1: lot of things living out in Los Angeles. I've been
Speaker 1: there for a lot. But I just said, you know,
Speaker 1: I've never really done this. Let me just do this.
Speaker 1: And so I talked to my boss. I said, hey,
Speaker 1: can can I do this? Can I surprise my mom?
Speaker 1: Can I kind of work remotely a little bit? And
Speaker 1: she said sure. And so I did it and I
Speaker 1: was ready to fly out Monday morning, but I had
Speaker 1: this major toothache that could not I couldn't deal with.
Speaker 1: And so thankfully nowadays the airlines let you switch your
Speaker 1: flights for free. Because I switched my flight like three times.
Speaker 1: I got into the dentist. They were very nice and
Speaker 1: helped me out there. I don't really know if it's solved.
Speaker 1: Still think I've got an issue that I don't know
Speaker 1: what the deal is with. When it hurts to eat,
Speaker 1: that's a problem, right anyway, Still working through that. But
Speaker 1: I did fly home on the Red Eye that night,
Speaker 1: and I got home surprised my mom in the morning,
Speaker 1: and it was fantastic. We had a nice big dinner
Speaker 1: for her birthday dinner, got to see all my family members,
Speaker 1: and then I flew out the next day. So it
Speaker 1: was I think it takes the award for the shortest
Speaker 1: I've ever been in New Jersey for a trip. It
Speaker 1: was less than thirty six hours and so or let's see, yeah,
Speaker 1: twenty four Yeah, probably thirty six hours, so whatever, Yeah,
Speaker 1: twelve plus twenty four Okay, So it was great though.
Speaker 1: I got to say, it was pretty fantastic and it
Speaker 1: was well worth it. And my only advice if you
Speaker 1: are planning any sort of travel at this point. It
Speaker 1: used to be I would look up the flights and
Speaker 1: then you know, then later on I would figure out
Speaker 1: the rental car situation and the hotel room situation. But nowadays, honestly,
Speaker 1: if you're going somewhere, if you're flying somewhere, look up
Speaker 1: the rental car situation first, because the rental car situation
Speaker 1: right now is absolutely oops, not that one, bananas, it's
Speaker 1: so bad. I ended up doing so. The cheapest rental
Speaker 1: car for a forty eight hour rental was six hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: I'm talking a compact car from Hertz, and I was like,
Speaker 1: there's no way. I got so taken in Hawaii with
Speaker 1: my rental car. I thought that was expensive. This takes
Speaker 1: the cake. So I was like, no way. So I
Speaker 1: was willing to just Uber if I had to, but
Speaker 1: even Uber's expensive these days. So I ended up doing
Speaker 1: price Line. But price Line and I know, I'm going off.
Speaker 1: This is a much longer story than you need at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the podcast. But whatever. You tuned in
Speaker 1: for the rich On Tech show, and so I'm just
Speaker 1: telling you rich On Tech stuff. But I did the
Speaker 1: price line thing where you name your own price. Well,
Speaker 1: they don't do that anymore. They just give you a
Speaker 1: price and you say yes, and then they tell you
Speaker 1: the rental car company. So I got Avis. But the
Speaker 1: problem is I changed my whole flight, and so I
Speaker 1: wasn't arriving at the time, and it was this whole
Speaker 1: big thing, and I couldn't get anyone on AVIS. I
Speaker 1: couldn't get anyone from price Line to help me out.
Speaker 1: And so finally I just said, you know, I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna go up to the desk. And so I go
Speaker 1: up to the desk and the woman sitting there I'm
Speaker 1: just like, Hi, I'm a little late for my reservation,
Speaker 1: like by twenty four hours or something, and she's like,
Speaker 1: driver's license, didn't really care. The whole thing was prepaid,
Speaker 1: so whatever, I'm still paying for the time, right, and
Speaker 1: I got my car and it all worked out. But anyway,
Speaker 1: it was just it was a great trip. And it's
Speaker 1: one of these things where I just feel like sometimes
Speaker 1: in life you have to do some things that are
Speaker 1: a little bit out of your comfort zone. And I'm
Speaker 1: very comfortable flying, I'm very comfortable traveling. But it's like
Speaker 1: one of those things where if you really analyze, you like,
Speaker 1: I'm going I'm spending all this money to go home
Speaker 1: for a dinner with my mom. And yes, when you
Speaker 1: say it like that, you're like, well, of course, what's
Speaker 1: that worth. It's worth everything. But when you actually have
Speaker 1: to put a price to it and it costs you
Speaker 1: your time and your money and your days of work
Speaker 1: and all this stuff, it is tough and so but
Speaker 1: sometimes I feel like it's just really nice to just
Speaker 1: challenge yourself into doing things. And it's kind of like
Speaker 1: the reason why I went to Chattanooga, Tennessee a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, and I shot my own story with
Speaker 1: my iPhone because I like to challenge myself. I think
Speaker 1: it keeps you fresh, it keeps you young, it keeps
Speaker 1: you thinking. I've been doing my job now for ten
Speaker 1: plus years, and yes, I could do the same thing
Speaker 1: every day. I could do the same routine. I could
Speaker 1: dubh blah blah blah blah. But it really helps to
Speaker 1: challenge your brain. And I always talk about this with
Speaker 1: your pathways and your brain. I feel like when you read,
Speaker 1: when you do different things, when you have experiences, it
Speaker 1: opens up different pathways. It kind of like forges these
Speaker 1: little paths in your brain. And I think that's really
Speaker 1: important for keeping you young, keeping you fresh, keeping you challenged,
Speaker 1: keeping you interested, inspired, all these different things. And so
Speaker 1: I had a really great time. It was so worth
Speaker 1: it and it was a lot of fun. And anyway,
Speaker 1: that's my story and I'm sticking to it. All right,
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the Let's talk about Amazon. They had
Speaker 1: a big event this week and Amazon. I was watching
Speaker 1: this while I was at home, and I was It's
Speaker 1: just amazing how many products they release and Amazon. It's
Speaker 1: kind of interesting because when when Amazon Facebook, what are
Speaker 1: the other ones? Uh, Google. They were always software companies, right,
Speaker 1: They always came out with products that were software, you know,
Speaker 1: Google Search and Google Maps and this and that, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden they started coming out with hardware.
Speaker 1: And now these big tech companies are also the big
Speaker 1: tech hardware companies, which is kind of scary for some people.
Speaker 1: But clearly they have, you know, the integrations that they
Speaker 1: have kind of the beauty of their products working together
Speaker 1: is really the magic. And these companies are big into
Speaker 1: AI and so that's all playing a role as well.
Speaker 1: But anyway, Amazon has a bunch of new products that
Speaker 1: they came out with this week. I'm gonna go over
Speaker 1: some of them. I think the most exciting one, I
Speaker 1: know it's kind of funny, but I think the most
Speaker 1: exciting one for the average person is this Amazon smart thermostat.
Speaker 1: And so I've had a Nest thermostat was the first
Speaker 1: thing I ever installed in my house when I moved in,
Speaker 1: and it's been fine. I mean, I don't think it's
Speaker 1: anything that exciting. I don't know if it saves me
Speaker 1: a lot of money. I don't know if it works
Speaker 1: that great. It's just there. But I was big into
Speaker 1: Amazon Google products, like Google home, and so it was
Speaker 1: great it worked with that. But as I sort of
Speaker 1: move away from those more towards the Ring products more sorts,
Speaker 1: the Amazon Echo line and the Alexa stuff, I feel
Speaker 1: like this smart thermostat I might have to switch to.
Speaker 1: And the best part is it's only sixty dollars, so
Speaker 1: it's DIY. It works with Alexa, and the reality of
Speaker 1: this thermost is that it learns what you like. It's
Speaker 1: super simple. It has a very simple display on it
Speaker 1: with like it looks like to be three buttons and
Speaker 1: two digits, so it shows you your temperature and then
Speaker 1: you can go up down and there's something in the
Speaker 1: middle which I'm not sure that one's for. But this
Speaker 1: is sixty dollars, which Amazon says it will save you
Speaker 1: at least fifty dollars on your yearly energy bill, which
Speaker 1: I know it's not too much money, but still every
Speaker 1: nickel counts, especially when it comes to the thermostat. So
Speaker 1: in my house, when we leave for you know, leave
Speaker 1: the house, it turns off the air. It'll like turn
Speaker 1: it to like an eco savings and so if you're
Speaker 1: not doing that, if you're just having a regular thermostat,
Speaker 1: that's programming give me a break. You're never going to
Speaker 1: program a thermostat. They're so complicated. But if you're just
Speaker 1: turning it off and turning it on when you come home, okay,
Speaker 1: that's one way, but probably most people are just leaving
Speaker 1: it on and forgetting about it. And so the idea
Speaker 1: that this knows when you're home, when you're away, it
Speaker 1: learns your preferences, it learns when you're sleeping, that's a
Speaker 1: big deal. And so I think this is a huge,
Speaker 1: huge win for consumers at sixty dollars. And the best
Speaker 1: part about Amazon, They've already done their homework and when
Speaker 1: you purchase this thing, they're actually going to send you
Speaker 1: an email with any available rebates in your area. So
Speaker 1: I think that that's a really cool feature as well.
Speaker 1: So I think this is a winner. I think this
Speaker 1: is a really cool device, and I think that it's
Speaker 1: probably one of the better things that they announced. There
Speaker 1: is no speaker or microphone built into this Amazon Smart thermostat,
Speaker 1: but if you have an Alexa compatible device like an
Speaker 1: Echo or the app, it will work with all of
Speaker 1: that stuff and you can DIY, I install this thing myself.
Speaker 1: The last one, the next one, I think I'm gonna
Speaker 1: switch to this. I think I'm gonna try it out
Speaker 1: because the next one is getting kind of old. It's
Speaker 1: going on a couple of years, many many years, so
Speaker 1: actually yeah, like five six years old. So I think
Speaker 1: that it's kind of nice for something new. And Amazon
Speaker 1: worked with Honeywell to to make this thing, so it's
Speaker 1: not just them that made this thermos that they did
Speaker 1: work with a trusted provider as well. Sixty dollars available
Speaker 1: November fourth, twenty twenty one. Let me know if you
Speaker 1: get it. Let's get to the first question of the
Speaker 1: day we have, Miriam. She says, I don't understand why
Speaker 1: this update is different than the usual ones. Am I
Speaker 1: supposed to install it? Or wait? Thank you very much
Speaker 1: for your help. And she included a screenshot of iOS
Speaker 1: the update screen under software settings or software update under
Speaker 1: the settings on iOS on her iPhone and what it
Speaker 1: shows is it says iOS fourteen up to date or
Speaker 1: at the bottom it says install iOS fifteen. And Miriam,
Speaker 1: you are one hundred percent right. This is a new
Speaker 1: way that Apple is doing updates for the iPhone. It
Speaker 1: is the first time ever that you can stick with
Speaker 1: the old iOS fourteen. The previous generation, or you can
Speaker 1: update to the new one. And what they're doing is
Speaker 1: they are going to still send you security updates security
Speaker 1: patches for your old operating system, even though you haven't
Speaker 1: updated to the new one. And this is the first
Speaker 1: time Apple's ever done this. Previously, if you stayed on
Speaker 1: an old operating system, you were stuck in time, You
Speaker 1: were frozen in time, you did not get software updates
Speaker 1: that dealt with the security updates. Usually Apple would bundle
Speaker 1: iOS updates, those little incremental ones like iOS fourteen point two,
Speaker 1: fourteen point four, fourteen point six, fourteen point eight, they
Speaker 1: would bundle the security updates into the overall iOS update.
Speaker 1: They're no longer doing that now they're parsing them out.
Speaker 1: So if you choose to stay on iOS fourteen, your
Speaker 1: phone will be just as secure as someone who is
Speaker 1: on the latest and greatest iOS fifteen. And why did
Speaker 1: they do this, Well, I think enough people want the
Speaker 1: choice at this point. I think it's pretty smart and
Speaker 1: they don't want people who are on old devices getting
Speaker 1: security holes. It seems like there's more and more kind
Speaker 1: of security issues with the iPhone. Not in a big way,
Speaker 1: but there's definitely things that are being discovered, and so
Speaker 1: I think Apple understands they've got a billion people using
Speaker 1: this device around the world, like, hey, we probably shouldn't
Speaker 1: shut those folks out. So Miriam, it is your choice.
Speaker 1: You can continue to do just the software updates or
Speaker 1: the software patches or the security patches, I should say,
Speaker 1: for iOS fourteen and stick with what you know, or
Speaker 1: you can update to iOS fifteen and get the new features.
Speaker 1: Are the new features worth it? I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's up to you. I feel like the focus feature
Speaker 1: is kind of a It's way too complicated for the
Speaker 1: average person to set up and use. I'd never know.
Speaker 1: My phone is always switching into a different one of
Speaker 1: these focus groups. I don't know what you want to
Speaker 1: call it, but it goes from from bedtime to sleep
Speaker 1: to weekend to war to personal. I'm like, these are
Speaker 1: way too many. I don't need all these different things,
Speaker 1: and it's just too complicated to set up, even for me,
Speaker 1: a tech guy. And so for that reason, I think
Speaker 1: that Apple is going to go back to the drawing
Speaker 1: board and simplify the focus over the next year or so,
Speaker 1: so we'll see some changes with that, I'm sure. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you can choose now if you want to go with
Speaker 1: the new update or if you just want to continue
Speaker 1: running what you got and do some of the security
Speaker 1: patches along the way. All State drop the iPhone thirteen
Speaker 1: and thirteen pro to figure out how durable they are,
Speaker 1: and they say they are compatible comparable to durability to
Speaker 1: their iPhone twelve predecessors, but they also drop them in
Speaker 1: their cases. So why does all State do this well
Speaker 1: because All State offers protection plans, and so they want
Speaker 1: to sell you insurance on your phone. Which look, I
Speaker 1: test a lot of devices. I can tell you that
Speaker 1: in my ten fifteen years of testing devices, I have
Speaker 1: dropped maybe maybe four or five devices over the years,
Speaker 1: and I have cracked or broken maybe three over the years.
Speaker 1: And so most of the time I will tell you
Speaker 1: how you break devices. It is someone that is maybe
Speaker 1: a kid or another person that hits into your phone
Speaker 1: while it is in your hand and your kind of
Speaker 1: your phone is rested in your hand and someone bumps
Speaker 1: into you and the phone pops out of your hand
Speaker 1: onto the floor it shatters. That's one way that it
Speaker 1: has happened to me several times. The other way is
Speaker 1: that it falls out of your pocket when you're getting
Speaker 1: out of the car, and that's another big way. But
Speaker 1: most of the time we have a pretty good grip
Speaker 1: on our phone, and if you have a good case
Speaker 1: on your phone that offers some protection, especially a raised
Speaker 1: lip around the edge of the case, your phone is
Speaker 1: going to fall and it's going to be fine most
Speaker 1: of the time. Now, there are some instances where it
Speaker 1: falls specifically on its face or on an edge where
Speaker 1: it will shatter, But most of the time when your
Speaker 1: phone screen shatters, it's based on several small drops and
Speaker 1: then one drop just pushes it over the edge. So
Speaker 1: with all that said, face down drop test iPhone thirteen
Speaker 1: without a case when drops six feet onto a sidewalk
Speaker 1: onto its front screen. It survived one drop with only
Speaker 1: minor damage. On the second drop, it cracked at the
Speaker 1: top and bottom. The iPhone thirteen pro cracked across the
Speaker 1: top across the bottom after one drop, and so again
Speaker 1: it may do a small crack or a big crack
Speaker 1: with just one drop. But yeah, so back back down
Speaker 1: drop test without a case, when drops six feet onto
Speaker 1: a sidewalk onto its back the iPhone thirteen survived with
Speaker 1: no damage virtually no damage after three drops. Minor cracks
Speaker 1: on one of its cameras along a corner, and the
Speaker 1: iPhone thirteen Pro shattered after one drop. So the iPhone
Speaker 1: thirteen Pro is a lot heavier and bigger and bulkier
Speaker 1: than the iPhone thirteen. Oh sorry, this is Pro. That's
Speaker 1: not pro maax but interesting, So the Pro, Well, it
Speaker 1: is bigger, it is heavier, so or it's not bigger,
Speaker 1: but it's definitely heavier, so that's probably why it's shattering
Speaker 1: after one drop. iPhone thirteen with the silicone case with
Speaker 1: a mag safe silicone case made a significant difference in
Speaker 1: durability when dropped back down. It survived three drops with
Speaker 1: only a small scratch on a camera lens. When dropped
Speaker 1: face down, iPhone thirteen cracked on its second drop. iPhone
Speaker 1: thirteen Pro in a leather case. The leather case made
Speaker 1: a significant difference in durability when dropped face down or
Speaker 1: back down. iPhone thirteen Pro survived three drops with no
Speaker 1: damage and performed best in our drop test. When dropped
Speaker 1: face down, iPhone thirteen Pro cracked on its first drop.
Speaker 1: So again, iPhone thirteen Pro. So what do we learn
Speaker 1: from this number? One? Get a case on your phone,
Speaker 1: any sort of case is going to be better because
Speaker 1: it's going to protect you in the case of a fall.
Speaker 1: Now you may say, rich, I've got insurance. I really
Speaker 1: don't care. But to me, why do you want to
Speaker 1: go through the hause of insurance claims? And also, some
Speaker 1: of these cases are pretty nice and thin. They still
Speaker 1: give you a decent amount of durability, like they're saying here.
Speaker 1: Even the silicone case and the leather case, which are
Speaker 1: two pretty thin cases, these are not thick cases are
Speaker 1: giving you a lot of protection, especially on the standard
Speaker 1: iPhone iPhone thirteen. Yeah, it's gonna crack a little bit
Speaker 1: more readily, so you might want a slightly more pronounced
Speaker 1: case on that. I like cases if you want something
Speaker 1: basic from Spegan that's really cheap, doesn't offer much drop
Speaker 1: protection for their basic hybrid case, but it's gonna be
Speaker 1: nice on your phone. I like if you want a
Speaker 1: lot of protection, I like the Spec Presidio grip. And
Speaker 1: if you want a lot of protection at not a
Speaker 1: lot of price, the Smartish cases are really nice and
Speaker 1: they have a good grip around them. So that's the
Speaker 1: deal with the iPhone thirteen. Get a case on it
Speaker 1: if you're upgrading personally. I've been using the iPhone thirteen
Speaker 1: Pro for I don't know, two weeks now, and I
Speaker 1: gotta say it's fantastic. Battery life is definitely better than
Speaker 1: the previous model, the iPhone twelve Pro. The cameras, I mean,
Speaker 1: I can't say they are significantly better, but it's a
Speaker 1: camera that is basically, I think, the best that you
Speaker 1: can get on a smartphone today. The video camera is
Speaker 1: absolutely the best you can get on any smartphone out there.
Speaker 1: The Pixel six Pro is coming out in a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks, and so I have to compare and see,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't really matter. I'm not going to say
Speaker 1: switch to the Pixel six Pro because it has a
Speaker 1: better camera, even if it does, because Apple has so
Speaker 1: many other things going for it. Just when you look
Speaker 1: at the accessories and the ecosystem compared to the Android,
Speaker 1: it's like Apple Watch. You're just not getting if you're
Speaker 1: switching to that, And that's gonna be a problem for
Speaker 1: me if I want to switch to the Pixel six Pro,
Speaker 1: which I've been talking about on this podcast, but I
Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, the iPhone is just so standardized.
Speaker 1: I mean, everything just works so nicely, whether it's the
Speaker 1: wallet features, whether it's the apps, whether it's all these
Speaker 1: little things that Apple is built in and just kind
Speaker 1: of put its It's what do you call it, tentacles
Speaker 1: out into the world. It kind of grips so many
Speaker 1: different things that it's tough to just switch at this
Speaker 1: point because they've done so many good things. So I
Speaker 1: love the iPhone thirteen Pro. I think it's a great upgrade.
Speaker 1: If you have an iPhone twelve model, you probably don't
Speaker 1: have to upgrade to the iPhone thirteen unless you really
Speaker 1: want the better cameras on the iPhone thirteen Pro. When
Speaker 1: it comes between the Pro and the Promax, I can't
Speaker 1: do the Promax. It's way too big. They didn't make
Speaker 1: you choose this time, so it's the same camera setup
Speaker 1: on the thirteen Pro and the Promax. So for me personally,
Speaker 1: I really like the Pro because it's a great combination
Speaker 1: of features and size. If you don't mind a giant
Speaker 1: phone in your pocket, then go ahead get the Promax.
Speaker 1: Some people just want the added screen real estate, and
Speaker 1: I totally understand that. As for the iPhone twelve, it's
Speaker 1: your basic phone. I don't see a big, big difference
Speaker 1: in the cameras. This year over last year. But you know,
Speaker 1: for the battery life, it's probably a little litle bit better.
Speaker 1: But if you're going from any phone before the iPhone twelve,
Speaker 1: if you're on the eleven or the ten or the
Speaker 1: ten are or the nine or the eight or the
Speaker 1: seven or the six, you are going to see a
Speaker 1: huge increase in performance. And also cameras. Oh, in cinematic
Speaker 1: mode it's pretty cool too, But I don't know when
Speaker 1: I really ever use that. All right, Debbie says, Hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: I'm hoping you can help me. I posted a few
Speaker 1: things on Facebook Marketplace today. I got a message right away.
Speaker 1: Oh that's good. They asked for my phone number to
Speaker 1: call me. Then I got a text with a Google
Speaker 1: verification number and they asked for it to make sure
Speaker 1: I was legit. I feel so dumb. I've never heard
Speaker 1: of this. Then they started asking me for other numbers.
Speaker 1: I don't really know what this means for my Google account.
Speaker 1: I'm not aware I ever set up a Google Voice.
Speaker 1: Is my information in danger? If so, what can I do?
Speaker 1: Thanks so much? Debbie in Utah. Oh, Debbie, I hate
Speaker 1: that people have to go through these scam artists. These
Speaker 1: scam artists are lurking around every corner. No matter what
Speaker 1: we do nowadays, whether it's applying for jobs online, whether
Speaker 1: it's texting for food orders, whether it's ordering something or
Speaker 1: selling something online, all we want to do is a
Speaker 1: person to person transaction, and these scam artists love to
Speaker 1: get in between us, figure out the holes in the system,
Speaker 1: and really really take advantage of our good nature. And
Speaker 1: that's what's happened right here. I don't know what the
Speaker 1: scam is. I'm not sure. I'm trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1: Did they sign you up for a Google Voice number
Speaker 1: and now they're asking you for that verification number that
Speaker 1: Google sends to you. Are they trying to break into
Speaker 1: your email account and Google sent you that two factor
Speaker 1: authentication number, and by calling you and asking for it
Speaker 1: at that very moment, are they going to be able
Speaker 1: to hack your account? All of these things could be
Speaker 1: what's happening. Did they try to steal your password when
Speaker 1: you logged in for this Facebook marketplace? I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: But the reality is you have to stay on your
Speaker 1: toes because these scam artists are working looking twenty four
Speaker 1: to seven to figure out ways of separating us from
Speaker 1: our money, from our goods, from our accounts, from whatever.
Speaker 1: They just want to come in between us. All we
Speaker 1: want to do is act like a normal human being
Speaker 1: that is in general, very nice to other human beings.
Speaker 1: But these people, they don't care. They want to scam us.
Speaker 1: And when it's done, it's too late. The damage is done.
Speaker 1: You're out your money, you're out your product, you're out whatever.
Speaker 1: You sent them, whatever, you gave them the information. So
Speaker 1: I'm glad that you emailed me, And it sounds like
Speaker 1: you did not give them the information they asked for
Speaker 1: because you said, your little spidey sense is said, this
Speaker 1: doesn't seem right. Why are they asking me for this?
Speaker 1: I just want to sell them my snow globe from
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four Worldfair or whatever. So yeah, don't give
Speaker 1: anyone these numbers. And so the scams that I see
Speaker 1: that are happening right now, when you apply for jobs online,
Speaker 1: they text you right back and scam you. Don't fall
Speaker 1: for that. Make sure it's a legit company. Make sure
Speaker 1: it's legit what they're asking you. Don't give out your
Speaker 1: personal information. Ever, be very very cognizant of these scams.
Speaker 1: Whenever you're giving out I don't care if it's your
Speaker 1: date of birth. I don't care. I mean social obviously
Speaker 1: you should be giving that out maybe once a decade
Speaker 1: when you apply for a mortgage. But that's about it.
Speaker 1: Nobody needs your soci security number. Nobody what else your
Speaker 1: phone number? Be careful when you're giving your phone number out.
Speaker 1: If you have to set up a fake phone number,
Speaker 1: set it up. There's an app called Burner. If you're
Speaker 1: selling something online, create a phone number with the app
Speaker 1: called Burner, and that's how you use to sell. Because yeah,
Speaker 1: it seems fine to give your phone number out, but
Speaker 1: guess what now that goes into this major database. It
Speaker 1: gets out there on the web. You'd rather have your
Speaker 1: stuff close to the vest. And I don't know why
Speaker 1: I'm using that term because I don't even know what
Speaker 1: that means, but I think a vest keeps stuff close
Speaker 1: to you, and so maybe it keeps you warm, It
Speaker 1: keeps your stuff close. So keep it close to the vest.
Speaker 1: But just imagine, like even giving out your email address.
Speaker 1: Just try to keep tabs on your personal information. And
Speaker 1: there's a good feature in the in the iPhone on
Speaker 1: iCloud Plus if you subscribe or you can now give
Speaker 1: outgus not bogus disposable email addresses. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: services that offer this. I think one password is doing
Speaker 1: it now. Hopefully all the password managers will let you
Speaker 1: do that. But give out, you know, these disposable email
Speaker 1: addresses when you're signing up for services or if you're
Speaker 1: selling something online, and so that's a good thing too.
Speaker 1: And credit cards, I don't know what happened, but it
Speaker 1: seemed like my debit card was hacked. And believe me,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how it happened, but it happened. And
Speaker 1: next thing you know, boom boom boom boom boom boom
Speaker 1: boom boom boom, trying to get a million authorization charges
Speaker 1: on my debit card. And what a pain to cancel that.
Speaker 1: So I don't know how it happened, but you know,
Speaker 1: you give out your debit card to one p and
Speaker 1: next thing you know, boom, it's it's out there. And
Speaker 1: so my general rule of thumb, and I've talked about
Speaker 1: how I'm not a big credit card person, but I've
Speaker 1: been using mine in the last week or two because
Speaker 1: I don't have a debit card right now. But the
Speaker 1: reality is, when you're using your cards the way I
Speaker 1: like to do it in the past is if my
Speaker 1: card is leaving my hand, which means if it's going
Speaker 1: on the internet, or if it's being handed over to
Speaker 1: someone or it's being swiped, I will use my credit card.
Speaker 1: And if it's something that I'm doing which only involves
Speaker 1: a chip or pin transaction, then I can use my
Speaker 1: debit card. But having your debit card on all your
Speaker 1: accounts is definitely dicey because you know, these people get
Speaker 1: a hold of it and that's your bank account, which
Speaker 1: is really annoying. And so for me, of course, you know,
Speaker 1: all the phone calls came in from all my recurring
Speaker 1: charges because I was trying to be good and use
Speaker 1: my debit card, which is more like cash, and you
Speaker 1: know that backfired. So I'm sitting there. Every single place
Speaker 1: is emailing me rich we can't bill you, we can't
Speaker 1: bill you, we can't bill you, and it you know.
Speaker 1: But I like having it on my debit because I
Speaker 1: like spending money on my debit because it's more like cash.
Speaker 1: And you know, I've talked about that, and I try
Speaker 1: to go cash, but it's tough because once you get hacked,
Speaker 1: it's or your card numbers compromised. It's really tough to
Speaker 1: figure all that out. So do those things, do the
Speaker 1: best you can. And yeah, that's that's my advice. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk more Amazon products. Echo Show fifteen. This is
Speaker 1: another product I want that they announced at this big event,
Speaker 1: and this is a giant Echo. It's a Giant Echo Show.
Speaker 1: So it's a screen. It looks like it's flat, it
Speaker 1: looks like a picture frame, and it's a display. It's
Speaker 1: a fifteen point six inch display that you can mount
Speaker 1: on your wall. Yes, you can place it on your counter.
Speaker 1: But this is kind of like the New Family corkboard
Speaker 1: and the New Family whiteboard, right, So you can leave
Speaker 1: messages on it for each other. You can watch TV,
Speaker 1: which is kind of cool. It's got a full HD display.
Speaker 1: It's got widgets so you can add you know, your
Speaker 1: package update widgets, you know when they're going to be delivered.
Speaker 1: You can add little sticky notes, you know, the weather,
Speaker 1: whatever you want. It also recognizes your face, so when
Speaker 1: you look at it, it will show you your personalized
Speaker 1: information like your calendar, your shopping list, whatever you want.
Speaker 1: You can keep a shopping list on this thing, so
Speaker 1: if you need to, you know, buy stuff at the
Speaker 1: grocery store, you can, you know, the whole family can
Speaker 1: see what you need. It's got picture and picture, so
Speaker 1: you can be watching or looking at a recipe, but
Speaker 1: also keeping an eye on one of the cameras in
Speaker 1: your house, which is also really cool. This is a
Speaker 1: great idea because I'm always following a recipe on my
Speaker 1: phone and it's kind of a pain to keep unlocking
Speaker 1: your phone, especially if your hands are dirty touching meat.
Speaker 1: You know, if I'm like making something like I'm one
Speaker 1: of those people that I don't know how some people
Speaker 1: do it, but when I'm cooking anything that's meat like
Speaker 1: or beef or you know, steak or fish, like, I
Speaker 1: have to wash my hands every single time I come
Speaker 1: into contact with the with the meat. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: that's You're like, well, rich, yeah, of course you should
Speaker 1: do that, but you'd be surprised how many people on
Speaker 1: them over their houses they're not doing that, you know.
Speaker 1: They just wipe their hand on a towel, or they
Speaker 1: just wipe it on a paper towel, And I'm like,
Speaker 1: I've got to wash my hands with soap and water
Speaker 1: every single time. So I'm talking even when i'm seasoning
Speaker 1: like the fish or the steak I have to, you know,
Speaker 1: when I flip it over. Okay, so now my hand
Speaker 1: just touched it. Now I got to rinch, not rinch,
Speaker 1: but like wash my hands again with soap before I
Speaker 1: even put the steak seasoning on the other side. I
Speaker 1: don't even want to touch the steak seasoning bottle. Maybe I'm
Speaker 1: just typical, or maybe I'm atypical. I don't know, but
Speaker 1: whatever I am, that's the way I cook, and so
Speaker 1: let me know if you cook that way. But I'm
Speaker 1: I'm kind of a stickler for washing my hands a
Speaker 1: lot while I cook. Okay, anyway, so I think having
Speaker 1: the recipe on there would be nice. Echo Show fifteen
Speaker 1: can also double as your kitchen TV. You can play
Speaker 1: videos from Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu or even Sling TV
Speaker 1: coming soon. That's really cool. So basically, this is a
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty dollars device coming out soon, and
Speaker 1: I think I might have to purchase this from my
Speaker 1: house because I just love the idea of this thing.
Speaker 1: Plus I can show your pictures when you're not using it.
Speaker 1: So did they mention that photos? Yeah, of course they did, Okay,
Speaker 1: full screen photos or art. Oh, that's so cool. I
Speaker 1: love it. I love the idea. Okay, you know what.
Speaker 1: I have to get this just for the fact that
Speaker 1: it can show my photos on the wall, because I've
Speaker 1: always wanted a moving picture frame. And yes, I've got
Speaker 1: the Google Home device which does that, but it's not
Speaker 1: the same because it's on my desk, and I want
Speaker 1: something on the wall that looks more like a picture
Speaker 1: that's just rotating through my favorite pictures at any given time.
Speaker 1: So that's gonna take a little bit of effort because
Speaker 1: I use Google Photos and not the Amazon Photos. But
Speaker 1: I can make pick some selects that just rotate through
Speaker 1: and that that will work that way. So don't you
Speaker 1: love when I just go off on tangents on this show.
Speaker 1: You're like, Rich, I listened for the tech and you're
Speaker 1: talking about making steak, You're talking about your trip home,
Speaker 1: You're talking about this and that, and oh my gosh, Rich,
Speaker 1: I tune in for the tech news. Well, if you
Speaker 1: do that, I'm sorry to tell you. If you follow
Speaker 1: me on social media, you know that I am not
Speaker 1: just about tech news. Yes i am, that's my main thing.
Speaker 1: But I'm sharing my life and I'm sharing who I am.
Speaker 1: I'm sharing personal stuff and that's just the reality of it,
Speaker 1: So enjoy it. Bab says, in your opinion, what is
Speaker 1: the best screen protector in case for the iPhone thirteen?
Speaker 1: I remember you saying something about Spegan, but can't find
Speaker 1: where you mentioned it. Much appreciation, Babs sent for my iPad. Babs,
Speaker 1: I did mention the Spegan the Spegan screen protector. I
Speaker 1: mentioned it because I installed it on my iPhone twelve
Speaker 1: pro and I thought it was excellent. I really really
Speaker 1: was impressed. It was so easy to apply, and I
Speaker 1: definitely recommend it. It was great. It was actually one
Speaker 1: of the better screen protectors I've installed. And the reason
Speaker 1: I liked it is because the edges were slightly tapered,
Speaker 1: which meant it was really smooth on my phone, Like
Speaker 1: it didn't feel like a sharp edge, which some screen
Speaker 1: protectors can feel like. So I can highly recommend the
Speaker 1: Speaking screen Protector. The cases, I kind of went through
Speaker 1: the cases a bit earlier, but I like stuff from Spec,
Speaker 1: I like stuff from Tech twenty one. I like, you
Speaker 1: know what, the case stuff is really tricky because it's
Speaker 1: such a personal thing. But I get that it's really
Speaker 1: tough to like buy a case at the store or
Speaker 1: you know, like, just figure out what you like. But
Speaker 1: what I would do is just order a couple cases
Speaker 1: on Amazon and take advantage of their generous you know,
Speaker 1: return policy, and get like three or four cases and
Speaker 1: then just send back the that you don't like, because
Speaker 1: I think that it's a case is something that you
Speaker 1: got to kind of feel on your phone, and what
Speaker 1: I like is not necessarily what you like. I've seen
Speaker 1: all kinds of cases on phones, and so yeah, I
Speaker 1: can tell you I do like the Smartish case. I
Speaker 1: like that case line for stuff that is pretty inexpensive,
Speaker 1: but I also like stuff from Tech twenty one. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's just so many different cases I like. So I
Speaker 1: think that you just have to go on Amazon look
Speaker 1: for cases that have a lot of ratings and reviews
Speaker 1: and have the features that you like. So if you
Speaker 1: want a thicker case, you know, look up thick case.
Speaker 1: If you want a grippy case, look up grippy case.
Speaker 1: If you want an invisible case, look up invisible. If
Speaker 1: you want a case that's a color, look up that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can get really specific and so, but
Speaker 1: order a couple of them and just see which ones
Speaker 1: you like. They've got cases with stands you know, whatever
Speaker 1: you like, go ahead and order it. But yes, I
Speaker 1: can highly recommend the speak in scream protector for sure.
Speaker 1: I think you will like that. All right, More Amazon
Speaker 1: on stuff. I know it's all Amazon. That's what a
Speaker 1: big announcement was this week. Amazon Glow is a new
Speaker 1: device for kids. This is a device that's pretty unique.
Speaker 1: It's got an eight inch screen, but it also has
Speaker 1: a nineteen inch projected space. So it's got a little
Speaker 1: projector on it at the top that projects out onto
Speaker 1: the floor or onto the table, and that area is
Speaker 1: touch sensitive. So not only can you make video calls
Speaker 1: with loved ones. They don't have to have one of these.
Speaker 1: They can use, you know, the Alexa app or one
Speaker 1: of their echos or whatever. But there's this area where
Speaker 1: you can interact and you can read. There's a bunch
Speaker 1: of books you can read on the projected space. You
Speaker 1: can play. There's games like chest, there's checkers which is
Speaker 1: kind of fun, memory match. You can create art so
Speaker 1: you can have digital pencils, crayons, paint brushes or spray paint.
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool. And then there's animations and sounds that
Speaker 1: the kids will like. There's object scanning, so You can
Speaker 1: scan an object and create a jigsaw puzzle out of it,
Speaker 1: which is kind of cool. You can scan a favorite
Speaker 1: art project or school work and you can you know,
Speaker 1: the loved one can help look at it as well.
Speaker 1: And then there's a thing called glow bits, which are
Speaker 1: physical objects that sort of interact with the touch area
Speaker 1: as well. So I think that Amazon did their homework.
Speaker 1: They definitely tried to make this not your typical, you know,
Speaker 1: video chat device or your typical toy. They made it
Speaker 1: something that takes advantage of technology, which is this projected space,
Speaker 1: and it's something that you would think would be in
Speaker 1: the future. But we'll see. It's expensive. It's two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars their introductory price. That includes one year
Speaker 1: of Amazon Kids Plus, which includes some of those books.
Speaker 1: It also includes those those glowing bits, and it also
Speaker 1: includes a two year worry free guarantee, so if your
Speaker 1: kid breaks it, you can replace it. Now this thing
Speaker 1: is going to settle at three hundred dollars. I don't
Speaker 1: really understand. Amazon did this with a lot of their products.
Speaker 1: They made an early access price, which is cheaper than
Speaker 1: the standard price. But I think if I was me,
Speaker 1: which I am, I am me, I would never pay
Speaker 1: more than two fifty for this because it's clear that
Speaker 1: two point fifty is the price, and why are they
Speaker 1: penalizing me for ordering this later and paying three hundred?
Speaker 1: So I will wait until the price drops back down
Speaker 1: to the two fifty. So I think that Amazon is
Speaker 1: not doing a service to customers by making these weird
Speaker 1: introductory prices that go up later, because if I'm a customer,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna wait for the price to go back down,
Speaker 1: which I know it's going to because Amazon has proven
Speaker 1: that they will sell it for the cheaper price, So
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna wait for that cheaper price. So that's
Speaker 1: the idea with the the Echo, the Amazon Glow. It's
Speaker 1: it's a lot. It's an expensive device for for two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars, But I can see if this
Speaker 1: thing is paired up with you know, your loved one
Speaker 1: that has an Echo device and they can video chat
Speaker 1: with them. And it's also something that's not an iPad.
Speaker 1: But the problem is a lot of kids have their
Speaker 1: own tablets, so to spend another two fifty on this
Speaker 1: dedicated device is definitely going to be a reach. So
Speaker 1: I'm not convinced that this device is going to take off.
Speaker 1: But we will see. We'll see what Amazon does with it,
Speaker 1: with their with their marketing skills. Next question from Leonard.
Speaker 1: He says, Hey, Rich, congrats on the Tesla. I was
Speaker 1: hoping you would give me your thoughts on a couple
Speaker 1: of companies that do things I think are pretty cool
Speaker 1: for ev and Tesla owners. One is updawat. They tell
Speaker 1: you how much you spend on charging and also schedule
Speaker 1: your charging. Seems pretty cool. The other one is a
Speaker 1: local company called license Plate Rap. It's a great concept.
Speaker 1: It's a decal for your front license plate that is
Speaker 1: approved by the state of California. It's a good way
Speaker 1: for people who don't want to drill into their car's
Speaker 1: front bumper to add the license plate. It's also a
Speaker 1: local company. I'm also a new Tesla owner. If you
Speaker 1: have any questions about putting in a new charger at home,
Speaker 1: let me know. I just put my in. I have
Speaker 1: some thoughts about the process if you're interested. Regards Leonard, Leonard,
Speaker 1: thank you. Now you know this podcast is going to
Speaker 1: turn into a weekly dose of Tesla because I am
Speaker 1: just obsessed with my new car. I love it. I
Speaker 1: am learning so much. I think it's so great for
Speaker 1: me to have purchased this car because it expands my
Speaker 1: horizon into ev so much, and they are such a
Speaker 1: growing area that for me to actually be knowledgeable and
Speaker 1: pretty much becoming an expert in this area is just
Speaker 1: I think invaluable to my report, to my podcast, to
Speaker 1: people that listen to me and ask me advice, Because
Speaker 1: like this week I learned about putting in this install
Speaker 1: or this charger at home, had a guy come give
Speaker 1: me an estimate. It was like three thousand bucks, and
Speaker 1: that didn't include the price of the charger that I bought,
Speaker 1: which was six hundred. So number one, there's no gas
Speaker 1: savings when you're spending thirty six hundred dollars to install
Speaker 1: a charger at home. Getting an electric car is not
Speaker 1: about gas savings. And I know some people might be
Speaker 1: lured in by that, but the reality is you're not
Speaker 1: saving money. This car is expensive. Gases everywhere it's easy
Speaker 1: to fill up, and especially in different places outside California,
Speaker 1: gas is a lot cheaper, and so you're not really
Speaker 1: doing it for the gas savings. Now, to me, I
Speaker 1: think you're doing it for the lifestyle, and I love
Speaker 1: the fact that I've not used gas now in going
Speaker 1: on three four weeks. I think that's amazing. And yes,
Speaker 1: electricity has a cost. I don't know how they make it.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's probably just as bad as whatever they're
Speaker 1: doing to the Earth for gas, but maybe not. And
Speaker 1: if you can get a clean source of electricity like solar,
Speaker 1: then yeah, that's really really amazing. I'm not there just yet,
Speaker 1: but with all that said, I think that you know,
Speaker 1: learning about this stuff learning. I went on a road
Speaker 1: trip with it and that was interesting to see how
Speaker 1: that you know how you gas up or how you
Speaker 1: fuel up with that, or how you charge up. I
Speaker 1: should say this Optowa. I did some research on it.
Speaker 1: It's really cool. It's an app that you link up
Speaker 1: to your your Tesla and it kind of goes into
Speaker 1: your electricity company, figures out how much they charge at
Speaker 1: different times, and then automatically talks to your tesla and
Speaker 1: will schedule your charging based on that. And of course
Speaker 1: there's parameters like when you leave for work, so you
Speaker 1: want your car to be charged up for that. But
Speaker 1: I thought that was really cool and that's a great concept,
Speaker 1: and so Optowa Optiwatt is something that's really Neat the
Speaker 1: license plate wrap, I had to do a little investigation because, yeah,
Speaker 1: my car came with no front license plate area, but
Speaker 1: it came with like sort of a bracket that I
Speaker 1: have not opened, and I was under the impression that
Speaker 1: you just stick it on there, but clearly looking at
Speaker 1: some of these YouTube videos, I guess people have to
Speaker 1: make their own holes and their Tesla bumper, which, yeah,
Speaker 1: you think I'm gonna do that? Probably not. So if
Speaker 1: this little license plate rap is legal and easier to apply,
Speaker 1: I think that that's a really cool option. And just
Speaker 1: looking at their website, it looked like it was about
Speaker 1: eighty bucks and I've got to figure out how this
Speaker 1: works now. I would love to do kind of a
Speaker 1: Tesla wrap up story, like where I do a couple
Speaker 1: of these things like optowa and license plate wrap, but
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how much I'm gonna get into the
Speaker 1: whole Testlas situation on my TV segment, which I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe I should, because it's kind of an interesting journey
Speaker 1: that I'm taking in this electric car, because it changes
Speaker 1: your whole perspective on things, changes your perspective on I
Speaker 1: love the idea that when you leave your house. Your
Speaker 1: car is a full tank, so to say, which is
Speaker 1: really cool. Going on your road trips, you have to
Speaker 1: plan them differently. It takes a little bit more time.
Speaker 1: You have to kind of take your time. But I've
Speaker 1: also found that that's really nice because when you're on
Speaker 1: a road trip, your mind frame, your state of mind
Speaker 1: is really just like, let me get there, let me
Speaker 1: get there as fast as possible. Yes, I'll fill up
Speaker 1: with gas, but I'll grab a Red Bull and get
Speaker 1: back on the road with a power bar. Or I'll
Speaker 1: eat fast food in my car on the way to Vegas.
Speaker 1: But now it shifts your paradigm into We sat out
Speaker 1: at a Wendy's with my kids and we waited for
Speaker 1: the car to charge up, and we just sat there
Speaker 1: and kind of chatted for twenty five minutes. And by
Speaker 1: the way, the Tesla's supercharging is really really fast, faster
Speaker 1: than you think, and it gets you on your way
Speaker 1: pretty pretty speedy. So it was really nice. And my
Speaker 1: wife and I were discussing it and we're like, this
Speaker 1: is kind of a nice change of pace. Like road
Speaker 1: trips don't have to be go go, go, go go.
Speaker 1: They can be a little bit more. I mean unless
Speaker 1: you're trying to get there for something at a certain time.
Speaker 1: Most of the time there's some built in flexibility. My
Speaker 1: grandma used to say, if you have time to spare,
Speaker 1: go by air. But now that's kind of like an
Speaker 1: EV road trip. You got time to spare, take the
Speaker 1: EV because it does force you to take a little
Speaker 1: bit extra time to enjoy the stops, to enjoy life. Life.
Speaker 1: Up when I was in Visalia, we went and charged
Speaker 1: my Tesla. It just mostly to show my little brother
Speaker 1: how it works. And we went to a supercharger that
Speaker 1: was next to a little farm, so we were petting sheep.
Speaker 1: Then we went inside and we just like looked at
Speaker 1: all the little knickknacks and we had so much fun
Speaker 1: kind of comparing all of them and talking about them.
Speaker 1: And then you know, buying magnets. You know, spend a
Speaker 1: couple bucks and then your car's charge, you're ready to go,
Speaker 1: And it was it's a very different way of thinking
Speaker 1: about things. And so again it goes back to what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about with your brain making these different pathways.
Speaker 1: It's kind of fun because it forces you to change
Speaker 1: the way that you historically do things in a good way.
Speaker 1: So Leonard keep those those suggestions coming. I'm in this
Speaker 1: wild path with the Tesla where I am looking at
Speaker 1: every YouTube video about tips and tricks on the Tesla,
Speaker 1: and it's just so much fun. Like I said, it's
Speaker 1: kind of like getting an iPhone for the first time
Speaker 1: and just discovering all the different things that it can do. Oh,
Speaker 1: by the way, also got really into cleaning my car,
Speaker 1: so now I'm one of those people that carries the
Speaker 1: microfiber cloth in the trunk along with a little detailing spray.
Speaker 1: I went to this place called the Chemical Guys, and
Speaker 1: I just bought a whole bunch of stuff and I
Speaker 1: cleaned the car with my kids, which was amazing. We
Speaker 1: washed my car and then we washed my wife's car,
Speaker 1: and they've never been so shiny with this stuff. Because
Speaker 1: I asked the guy all about the stuff I needed,
Speaker 1: I was like, you know what, I'm just going to
Speaker 1: spend as much money as I need to on my cars,
Speaker 1: because when I get my car washed, I usually spend
Speaker 1: about twenty five thirty five dollars to get it washed.
Speaker 1: And so I said, you know what if I spend
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty two hundred bucks on this car
Speaker 1: wash stuff, if I get four washes or five washes
Speaker 1: out of it, it'll be worth it. And the time
Speaker 1: that you spend with your kids washing your car is invaluable.
Speaker 1: They had so much fun they wanted to open up
Speaker 1: a little car wash, which we didn't do. My wife
Speaker 1: came back and she was just like amazed at how
Speaker 1: clean her car was. I got my one kids spraying
Speaker 1: it with a wash, I got my other kid doing
Speaker 1: detail work. I mean, it was fantastic. So I sat there,
Speaker 1: and by the way, when I went into the chemical guys,
Speaker 1: the store happened to be twenty percent off, so I
Speaker 1: was like, all right, well that's cool. So I ended
Speaker 1: up spending like one hundred and thirty dollars, which I
Speaker 1: know is a lot on car wash stuff, but I've
Speaker 1: already used it now once. I'll probably wash my car again,
Speaker 1: maybe next weekend. And I got this foamer spray, like
Speaker 1: this thing that attaches to your hose that foams up
Speaker 1: the spray, and that is game changing, so real quick.
Speaker 1: I know, I know you tune in for tech, but
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you some of the stuff I learned
Speaker 1: along the way in my life. And I learned how
Speaker 1: to wash a car from this guy. Because my dad
Speaker 1: mentioned something about, oh, yeah, everyone's using foam nowadays. I said, huh,
Speaker 1: I don't know what that means. So when I got
Speaker 1: in there, I said, hey, what's the deal with this foam? Like,
Speaker 1: why is everyone using it? He goes, oh, well, here's
Speaker 1: how you wash your car. You get this foam sprayer.
Speaker 1: You put a little bit of the cleaning solution and
Speaker 1: this thing that foams up. And so what you do
Speaker 1: is most people they just put stuff in a bucket,
Speaker 1: like I've been doing for thirty years, and you put
Speaker 1: stuff in a bucket, you take a sponge in the
Speaker 1: bucket and you start washing your car. Well, what that's
Speaker 1: doing is scratching the heck out of the paint on
Speaker 1: your car. And so what this guy said to do
Speaker 1: is you take the foam sprayer. Just foam spray the
Speaker 1: entire car. So you douse it in this foam. You
Speaker 1: let the foam penetrate for a minute or two and
Speaker 1: it kind of seeps in, and then you rinse the
Speaker 1: car and that will get all of your initial layer
Speaker 1: of dust and dirt off of the car. And then
Speaker 1: you go through you foam it up again. You wash
Speaker 1: it and you clean it and then you detail it
Speaker 1: with the spray and I'm not kidding perfection. It came
Speaker 1: out so nice and shiny. I was just in love
Speaker 1: with our cars. I was just like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: this is amazing. So it took me many years to
Speaker 1: figure out how to wash a car for real, But
Speaker 1: now I think I know, and I'm imparting that knowledge
Speaker 1: to you. All right. Another Amazon product? Are you sick
Speaker 1: of them yet? Amazon Halo. I'm not gonna spend too
Speaker 1: much time on this. This is basically their version of
Speaker 1: a fitbit. It now has a color display, touchscreen display.
Speaker 1: For eighty bucks if you want Amazon Fitness. I don't
Speaker 1: know why you'd want Amazon Fitness over something like a fitbit.
Speaker 1: I would still probably recommend a fitbit, but you get
Speaker 1: for eighty bucks, it's a pretty compelling price. You get
Speaker 1: all your tracking that you need, your activity scores, your
Speaker 1: sleep scores, blood oxygen levels, live workout trackings, your texts,
Speaker 1: your move notifications, their sensors for heart rate and blood oxygen,
Speaker 1: skin temperature sensor, accelerometer. It's got up to seven days
Speaker 1: battery life, and it's got a whole bunch of workouts
Speaker 1: built in so you can watch these kind of. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna call them Apple Fitness Plus workouts because I'm
Speaker 1: not sure there's the same quality, but maybe they are, but
Speaker 1: I haven't tested them Studio quality workouts that are also
Speaker 1: included plus nutrition. But here's the thing. You have to
Speaker 1: pay a membership fee. So the Halo membership is included
Speaker 1: for a year, and it's eighty bucks for the Halo
Speaker 1: band plus the membership, and then the membership is let's
Speaker 1: see how much that is? It is it is? They
Speaker 1: tell you how much it is, three ninety nine a month,
Speaker 1: So after a year you got to pay four bucks
Speaker 1: a month, which I know. Fitbit has their own membership
Speaker 1: as well. I think it's nine ninety nine or six,
Speaker 1: and I don't know. But everything's a membership. Now, everything
Speaker 1: is a membership, all right, Mary says, I think you
Speaker 1: mentioned an app to use to borrow ebooks library ebooks
Speaker 1: on a kindle. Please explain, Thanks Mary. Mary. The app
Speaker 1: is called Libby. I've talked about it on this podcast
Speaker 1: many a times and it is my absolute favorite thing
Speaker 1: in the world because I don't think I've paid for
Speaker 1: a book in a couple of years since I learned
Speaker 1: about this app, and I know oh rich, Oh, come on,
Speaker 1: you can afford books. Give me a break, you're on TV.
Speaker 1: It's not about affording books. It's about why why do
Speaker 1: I need to buy books when I have a library
Speaker 1: that offers e books. I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm
Speaker 1: not doing anything bad. I'm not taking anyone's job away.
Speaker 1: These are e books that are purchased by the library
Speaker 1: and they are given out to people to read, and
Speaker 1: I'm doing exactly as they intended. Libby is not operating
Speaker 1: in a gray zone. This is not shady. It is
Speaker 1: in fact, they want you to do this. This is
Speaker 1: your tax dollars or however the books get to the library.
Speaker 1: This is what public service is all about. These libraries
Speaker 1: exist for you to use them, and so if you're
Speaker 1: not taking advantage of them, why not someone else will? Yes,
Speaker 1: now a lot of these books on the Libby. Here's
Speaker 1: the catch. You can't always get the latest, greatest book.
Speaker 1: There are sometimes major weights for the new releases. But
Speaker 1: the trick, there's a couple of little tricks to Libby.
Speaker 1: Number one is that you can look at a section
Speaker 1: in search called available now and then sort by popularity,
Speaker 1: and so you will see that some of these books
Speaker 1: are just like a bonus available right now. Some of
Speaker 1: the hottest books available are there. So like the book
Speaker 1: I'm reading right now is called The Silent Patient, and
Speaker 1: I got it through the now Available and sometimes it's
Speaker 1: a shorter loan window, it'd be two weeks instead of three.
Speaker 1: But the reality is you can read some of the
Speaker 1: latest greatest releases by doing now available and then sort
Speaker 1: by popularity and then by the way. The sorting by
Speaker 1: popularity is also really helpful in general, because if you
Speaker 1: want to find something to read, that's a good way
Speaker 1: of doing it. The other thing I like to do
Speaker 1: is go on either the Wall Street Journal Best Selling List,
Speaker 1: New York Times best Selling List and just search and
Speaker 1: sometimes you'll get a surprise skip the line for one
Speaker 1: of the books that you want, and you can do
Speaker 1: it that way and they'll just give you that book
Speaker 1: because you're They're just a kind hearted app. So I
Speaker 1: love Libby. It's so cool. Definitely download it. And once
Speaker 1: you download it, you can read books on your iPad.
Speaker 1: You can read them on your smartphone, or you can
Speaker 1: send the book right to your Kindle app on your
Speaker 1: iPhone on your iPad, or you can send it to
Speaker 1: a physical kindle as well, no matter how you do it.
Speaker 1: It is one of my favorite things and something that
Speaker 1: I think not enough people are taking advantage of. So
Speaker 1: good question, Mary, and thanks for listening. And not where
Speaker 1: did I mention that on TV? I did? Yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: let's talk about another Amazon product, the Amazon Blink video doorbell.
Speaker 1: Now you might be wondering why is Amazon doing a
Speaker 1: video doorbell when they own Ring? Why are they doing
Speaker 1: this Blink thing? Well, you know, different strokes, different folks
Speaker 1: and or different folks, different strokes, however you say it.
Speaker 1: But there are a lot of people out there. Not
Speaker 1: everyone wants ring, and I think some of this is
Speaker 1: a play because Ring in certain groups has this connotation of,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe they don't like it because there's been
Speaker 1: some privacy gaffs with that company. That's there's a big
Speaker 1: brother aspect to the company. They just don't like how
Speaker 1: it's operating. And that's understandable, you know. So this is
Speaker 1: why they have a Blink brand, which is not Ring.
Speaker 1: And this camera's only fifty bucks and it's a video doorbell.
Speaker 1: It's fifty dollars. It gives you pretty much what you need.
Speaker 1: You can do it wired, you can do it wired free.
Speaker 1: You can do HD day night video, two way audio,
Speaker 1: and also alerts to your smartphone when someone is seen
Speaker 1: at your door. Now, the main thing is that I
Speaker 1: don't think this is as full featured as Ring, but
Speaker 1: you know, it works with Alexa and it's a simple doorbell.
Speaker 1: So if you just live in an apartment building and
Speaker 1: you don't really want a big install this is something
Speaker 1: that's super simple. Two double A batteries. Now here's the
Speaker 1: trick here. It is fifty dollars, but there is a
Speaker 1: little catch. If you want this thing to last up
Speaker 1: to two years on two lithium batteries double A batteries,
Speaker 1: not alkaline lithium. Those are the slightly more expensive batteries,
Speaker 1: you have to pair it with a sink module two. Now,
Speaker 1: this module has like an SD card slot and a
Speaker 1: couple other things in it. It's kind of like the
Speaker 1: brains of the device, and I think that gets plugged
Speaker 1: in and that enables the kind of offloads some of
Speaker 1: the processing power of the Blink video doorbell, so that
Speaker 1: it's not using all of its energy all the time.
Speaker 1: And so that is how it's getting the two years
Speaker 1: of battery life, which is still really cool. I mean,
Speaker 1: but here's the thing. The sync module too costs thirty
Speaker 1: five dollars. So realistically, if you want to use this
Speaker 1: thing the way it's intended, it's going to be an
Speaker 1: eighty five dollars investment, which is still cheaper than I
Speaker 1: think the typical or the cheapest Ring video doorbell. I think,
Speaker 1: let me see how much it is. I think that
Speaker 1: it's one fifty. But let's see shop all video doorbells.
Speaker 1: Oh well, that's a wired doorbell. So the cheapest battery doorbell, okay,
Speaker 1: is a ninety nine dollars doorbell video doorbell. So personally,
Speaker 1: if I was getting a new video doorbell, I would
Speaker 1: go with the ninety nine dollars video doorbell from Ring.
Speaker 1: I think they're a little bit more full featured. You
Speaker 1: don't need the separate thing, and the battery you can
Speaker 1: swap out pretty easily and it lasts, you know, a
Speaker 1: couple of months and it will just recharge, So I
Speaker 1: would go with that. But again, option options are always good.
Speaker 1: So blank video doorbell fifty bucks available soon. Jenny says,
Speaker 1: I found an iPhone thirteen Promax on the side of
Speaker 1: the road. It was raining cats and dogs, so it
Speaker 1: wouldn't work for a few days. I called Apple with
Speaker 1: the IMEI and the serial number. That was useless. We
Speaker 1: were told call the police. How do we find the owner?
Speaker 1: Thank you, Jenny. Oh wow, that's a good question. iPhone
Speaker 1: thirteen pro max? How did someone lose an iPhone thirteen
Speaker 1: promax already? I mean, come on, I don't know if
Speaker 1: I believe this question, but I'll trust you. And here's
Speaker 1: what you do. So you call the police. Yeah, what
Speaker 1: are they gonna do with it? I don't know if
Speaker 1: the police have like a major lost and found, but
Speaker 1: I guess they don't, so they don't really care. Apple
Speaker 1: is not going to hand over any sort of personal
Speaker 1: information to relocate this owner, so that is useless. But
Speaker 1: the thing I think you could do is plug this
Speaker 1: phone in, turn it on, connect it to Wi Fi
Speaker 1: if you can, let it get a connection if it's
Speaker 1: on cellular, and wait for a message from the owner
Speaker 1: that is either calling the phone or is sending a
Speaker 1: lost message, like setting this up as lost. So if
Speaker 1: you have iCloud, you can mark a device as lost
Speaker 1: and set some recovery info, which might be you know
Speaker 1: your phone number or you know they can I don't
Speaker 1: know exactly how it works, but there is a way
Speaker 1: to do that to mark something as lost. So if
Speaker 1: you have iCloud or I guess find my is how
Speaker 1: you do it. So go in to find my and
Speaker 1: say report item as lost. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: can report. I think it's just lost or misplaced. And
Speaker 1: that way on this iPhone you should pop up or
Speaker 1: there should be a message that pops up saying hey,
Speaker 1: call me you got my phone. Please, I will give
Speaker 1: you a reward. But Jenny, you sound so nice that
Speaker 1: you probably don't even need a reward to return this phone.
Speaker 1: So that's what I would do. So if you lose
Speaker 1: your phone, definitely set that lost message through iCloud on
Speaker 1: find my, open to find my app and set it up.
Speaker 1: And by the way, set up find my lost iPhone
Speaker 1: before you lose your gadget. There are some settings in
Speaker 1: there that need to be tweaked by default. I think
Speaker 1: Apple tries to, you know, run you through all those
Speaker 1: settings when you set up your phone, but if you've
Speaker 1: set up your phone a long time ago, that might
Speaker 1: not have happened. So just go in too find my
Speaker 1: and make sure that your lost settings are all intact.
Speaker 1: In that way, if you lose your brand new iPhone
Speaker 1: thirteen promacs on the side of the road when it's
Speaker 1: raining cats and dogs, you'll get it back. All right,
Speaker 1: A couple more stories here, Let's see. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to go into this Amazon Astro too much except for
Speaker 1: the fact that, look, we all want to robot. Well
Speaker 1: maybe I do. I want to robot in my house.
Speaker 1: It's been a dream since, you know, growing up with
Speaker 1: the Jetsons. But so far no tech company has delivered.
Speaker 1: Every robot has failed. Amazon Astro will share the same fate.
Speaker 1: I mean, it looks cool, but it's one thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: Eventually it's going to be fifteen hundred dollars, which is
Speaker 1: just come on, don't do this to us. Amazon, Who
Speaker 1: is gonna buy this product knowing they can buy it
Speaker 1: for nine ninety nine right now, but a year from
Speaker 1: now they can buy it for fifteen hundred. That does
Speaker 1: not make sense. So no one's gonna buy it when
Speaker 1: it's fifteen hundred dollars knowing that it's sold for a thousand.
Speaker 1: So now you're just making five hundred dollars of profit
Speaker 1: on me. No, not gonna happen. So they will sell
Speaker 1: this for nine ninety nine. It will go on sale
Speaker 1: for nine ninety nine, so don't buy it at fifteen hundred.
Speaker 1: You have to request an invitation to purchase this thing.
Speaker 1: And what does it do? It can monitor your home.
Speaker 1: So it's got a screen, it's got fun cute sounds,
Speaker 1: it's got sensors, it's got cameras. It has one camera
Speaker 1: that telescopes up. So if you'll leave the oven on,
Speaker 1: like I always think I do when I leave the house,
Speaker 1: you can send astro to the oven, have the robot
Speaker 1: put up the telescoping arm camera, look at the switch
Speaker 1: on the oven, and say, now you left it off,
Speaker 1: just like you did every other time that you thought
Speaker 1: you left it on. Let's see what else. It can
Speaker 1: patrol your house, so if it recognizes someone unknown, it can,
Speaker 1: you know, question that person or send you a notification.
Speaker 1: But honestly, if someone's in your house and they come
Speaker 1: across this robot, unless this robot is armed, it's not
Speaker 1: gonna be able to do anything except get a picture
Speaker 1: of them, which might be fine. Hopefully it sends that
Speaker 1: picture up to the cloud immediately before it's destroyed by
Speaker 1: a baseball bat by the person intruding in your house,
Speaker 1: or you know, smashing it or kicking it, whatever they're
Speaker 1: gonna do. Let's see what else you can check in
Speaker 1: on loved one. So theoretically, if you have a loved
Speaker 1: one across the miles, you can give them one of
Speaker 1: these devices. It can be in their home and you
Speaker 1: can check in on them. But honestly, come on, if
Speaker 1: you have an elderly parent that's across the miles, it's
Speaker 1: tough enough to get them to FaceTime or to video
Speaker 1: chat on a dedicated device screen. How are they gonna
Speaker 1: have this device that needs to be charged roaming around
Speaker 1: their house. It's one thousand dollars. That's also a big no,
Speaker 1: not gonna happen. So for all these reasons, I'm not
Speaker 1: very what's the word is it bearish when you are
Speaker 1: not really into something. I think bullish is when you're
Speaker 1: into it. Bearish is when you're not a I think
Speaker 1: it's really tough for me to say, but I just
Speaker 1: don't know if this is gonna take off. But with
Speaker 1: that said, we are maybe entering the era where companies
Speaker 1: are getting a little bit better at robots. But every
Speaker 1: robot I've seen so far seems to be a screen
Speaker 1: rolling around on wheels, and they need to do more
Speaker 1: than that. They need to have a function. So I
Speaker 1: would say, if we can get Rumba to have a
Speaker 1: vacuum robot that also does all this stuff like an
Speaker 1: astro sitting on top of a roomba, that's a step
Speaker 1: in the right direction. Because Rumbas can be five six
Speaker 1: hundred bucks for the nice ones. So if this can
Speaker 1: do dual duty, that's a better step I think in
Speaker 1: the right direction. And then if it can you know,
Speaker 1: put away clothes or pick up things around the house,
Speaker 1: or charge my phone for me, that's all good stuff too.
Speaker 1: So hopefully we'll see more things in the future. All right,
Speaker 1: do I have time for one more question? I don't
Speaker 1: think I do. Yeah, I don't have time for another question. So,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I have so many more questions. I'll
Speaker 1: do one more. Help Hey, Rich Hope, Hey Rich Hope,
Speaker 1: you can help me out. My friend's mom just passed
Speaker 1: away on Sunday. Oh so sorry to hear that. She
Speaker 1: was trying to download photos off of her iPhone, but
Speaker 1: instead of save, she accidentally deleted them. She click restore
Speaker 1: on her phone. Apple support said they couldn't help and
Speaker 1: told her she needed data recovery services. We tried the
Speaker 1: recently deleted folder, nothing was in there. Any help would
Speaker 1: be greatly appreciated. Thanks in Advanced Steve, Steve, what happened?
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry that your friend's
Speaker 1: mom passed away, but I'm really sorry that these photos
Speaker 1: got deleted. Now I'm not really sure what happened here
Speaker 1: because when you delete photos off an iPhone, and it's
Speaker 1: interesting because you mentioned both places that they go, but
Speaker 1: why would your friend delete the pictures? And then I
Speaker 1: go into the folder and empty them and it takes
Speaker 1: a lot to empty them. So I'm wondering if there
Speaker 1: was a picture in there that they didn't want someone
Speaker 1: to see, or there's something more going on here, because
Speaker 1: this is really odd and I feel really bad. I
Speaker 1: feel really really bad. But the reality is when you
Speaker 1: delete pictures off an iPhone, they go into a folder
Speaker 1: called recently deleted, and then they delete after thirty days.
Speaker 1: In that they sit in that folder for thirty days
Speaker 1: and then they get deleted, and there's even a little
Speaker 1: countdown on each photo to say it's going to be
Speaker 1: deleted in fifteen days. Next day it has fourteen, thirteen
Speaker 1: twelve whatever, And if you really want those deleted immediately,
Speaker 1: like let's say you're getting rid of some incriminating evidence,
Speaker 1: you would go and say empty and you have to
Speaker 1: like select all and then it says are you sure?
Speaker 1: So ah, I can't believe that your friend did all
Speaker 1: of that stuff. But the reality is, I hope that
Speaker 1: they're still in this folder. That's what I hope, because
Speaker 1: they should be. But if they're not, the the other
Speaker 1: two things I would hope is hopefully this mom had
Speaker 1: her pictures backed up somewhere else, like an Amazon Photo.
Speaker 1: So look on the phone for other apps that the
Speaker 1: pictures might have been uploaded to, like oneedrive, Amazon Photos, iedrive,
Speaker 1: Google Photos. Maybe they're in there. Then I would go
Speaker 1: to iCloud dot com. Disconnect this phone from the Wi Fi,
Speaker 1: go to iCloud dot com and see if the photos
Speaker 1: are in there, and if they're not in any of
Speaker 1: those places, don't do anything else on this phone, and
Speaker 1: like Apple said, search Yelp for data recovery services in
Speaker 1: your area, find a highly rated one and see if
Speaker 1: they can recover those pictures on the phone. I'm so
Speaker 1: sorry for your friend's mom, and I'm hopeful that you
Speaker 1: can get some of these pictures back. Oh wow, already
Speaker 1: that is going to do it for the end of
Speaker 1: this show. Thanks so much for listening to the rich
Speaker 1: on Tech podcast. If you have a question you'd like
Speaker 1: for me to answer, just go to my Facebook page, Facebook,
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Speaker 1: all my TV segments on demand. My name is rich Dedimiro.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. Hope you enjoyed this week's show.
Speaker 1: There are so many ways you can spend an hour
Speaker 1: of your time. I do appreciate you spending it right
Speaker 1: here with me. I'll talk to you real soon.