Speaker 1: Starwood and Marriott reveal a major data breach. Apple Music
Speaker 1: is coming to the echo. Instagram makes it easier to
Speaker 1: share stories with close friends and pay less fools influencers
Speaker 1: or do they what's going on? I'm rich Demiro. This
Speaker 1: is Rich on Tech coming to you with an extended
Speaker 1: version of the podcast. This is the version where I
Speaker 1: talk about all the cool things happening in the tech world,
Speaker 1: all the stuff that I think you should know about,
Speaker 1: including some of these top stories like the Starwood and
Speaker 1: Marriott hack. I'm also going to talk a bit about
Speaker 1: recast TV. You guys apparently love the idea of that
Speaker 1: cord cutting DVR. Plus my book one hundred and one
Speaker 1: Handy Tech Tips for the iPhone published as a paperback
Speaker 1: this week, so I'll talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 1: But let's get started. First off with star Ward. This
Speaker 1: is really interesting and we're seeing these large scale data
Speaker 1: hacks more and more. Basically, what happened was they had
Speaker 1: an investigation. They determined there was an un authorized access
Speaker 1: to a guest database which contained information relating to reservations
Speaker 1: as Starwood properties on or before September tenth, twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: So you're talking a lot of people staying at these hotels.
Speaker 1: They basically got an alert from an internal security tool
Speaker 1: regarding an attempt to access this database, and they realized
Speaker 1: that apparently there had been unauthorized access to the Starwood
Speaker 1: network since twenty fourteen, so this went on for quite
Speaker 1: a long time. Not sure why they didn't notice it
Speaker 1: before that time. But here's the deal. They have not
Speaker 1: figured out exactly. They have to kind of clean up
Speaker 1: the database that they found that was kind of taken
Speaker 1: in the hack, but they say they think it contains
Speaker 1: information on approximately up to five hundred million guests who
Speaker 1: made a reservation at a Starwood property, and for three
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty seven million of these guests, that information
Speaker 1: includes name, milling address, phone number, email address, passport number,
Speaker 1: your star War preferred guest number, which may have changed
Speaker 1: now that they took over with the Marriotte rewards as well.
Speaker 1: They merged those recently data birth gender, arrival and departure information,
Speaker 1: reservation date and communications preference. All that stuff not so bad,
Speaker 1: with the exception of the passport number. But the one
Speaker 1: thing that is bad is the payment card numbers and
Speaker 1: payment card expiration dates. So that was all taken apparently
Speaker 1: as well, but the information used to decrypt all of
Speaker 1: that data on the payment cards, they're not sure that
Speaker 1: that wasn't taken as well. So again, let's say that
Speaker 1: they took the database that was encrypted star Woods saying
Speaker 1: that they also might have gotten the key to unlock
Speaker 1: that database as well. So for other guests, information was
Speaker 1: limited to name and other data like the mailing address,
Speaker 1: email address, and other information. So what is Marriott doing
Speaker 1: now that this all happened. They've set up a dedicated
Speaker 1: call center email notification so they've been starting to send
Speaker 1: emails to affected guests on November thirtieth, so that's the
Speaker 1: first day, so if you haven't gotten an email yet,
Speaker 1: they just started doing that, so it could take a
Speaker 1: couple days for them to do that. And they're also
Speaker 1: letting folks enroll in this web Watcher service, and this
Speaker 1: is a service that monitors Internet sites where personal information
Speaker 1: is shared, and you'll get an alert if some of
Speaker 1: your information is shared. And if you're not sure what
Speaker 1: a star War hotel is, if you stayed at a
Speaker 1: w hotel A Saint Regis Chreton Weston element a Loft
Speaker 1: luxury collection, Tribute Portfolio Lee Meridian four points and design
Speaker 1: and also their timeshare properties. I have stayed in the
Speaker 1: recent years at the w Shareton Weston element Aloft and
Speaker 1: that's about it. So yeah, my information is probably out there.
Speaker 1: This is bad. I mean the information that they got
Speaker 1: not so bad. I mean, passport number definitely not something
Speaker 1: you necessarily want random people to have. But it doesn't
Speaker 1: seem like they got passwords, which is good. And if
Speaker 1: you're still reusing your password on various websites, don't do that.
Speaker 1: And this is another example of why you don't want
Speaker 1: to do that. This is some big news coming out
Speaker 1: of Apple and Amazon. Who would have thought that these
Speaker 1: two would be playing so nice now? Recently Amazon and
Speaker 1: Apple announced that Apple products would be available for sale
Speaker 1: on Amazon. Now they're taking a step further. Apple Music
Speaker 1: will be available on Echo devices beginning the week of
Speaker 1: December seventeenth, and that's just in time for you to
Speaker 1: enjoy some holiday music on your Echo device if you're
Speaker 1: a subscriber to Apple Music. And it's funny because someone
Speaker 1: was just asking me the other day what the deal
Speaker 1: is with Apple Music, and I was saying, they really
Speaker 1: aren't available on any of these smart speakers except for
Speaker 1: the HomePod obviously and Sonos, but you have to have
Speaker 1: a complex Sonos system for that to work. But now
Speaker 1: here they are on the Echo devices, so you can
Speaker 1: now ask ex A, I'll say, to play Beats one
Speaker 1: to hear Apple's radio station. I've listened to that on
Speaker 1: my run through the Apple Watch. It's okay, it's not
Speaker 1: my thing. I'm sure it's good if you listen to
Speaker 1: maybe some of the shows, and maybe you'll find a
Speaker 1: show in there that you like, but just to listen
Speaker 1: to it as radio. I've kind of gotten beyond that
Speaker 1: with Spotify and kind of all the playlists that I like,
Speaker 1: so it's tough for me to just kind of get
Speaker 1: involved in Beats one, But if you want to start
Speaker 1: listening to that, and of course all the other stuff
Speaker 1: I mean, now you can ask al Exa to stream
Speaker 1: all the stations that they have. You can also ask
Speaker 1: for music by name, so basically anything that you can
Speaker 1: do with Siri on the iPhone, if you have Apple
Speaker 1: Music and calling out your music, you can now do
Speaker 1: on the Echo. And to get started, all you have
Speaker 1: to do is enable the Apple Music skill in the
Speaker 1: al Exa app, and you can link up your account
Speaker 1: and start listening which is really cool and a little
Speaker 1: fun fact they put out on the press release here,
Speaker 1: top Country is the most requested music to wake up too,
Speaker 1: So okay, there you go. Instagram is changing things up
Speaker 1: with stories. This is basically the most popular feature of
Speaker 1: Instagram right now, stories, and I love it. I mean,
Speaker 1: everyone loves Instagram Stories right It's just basically showing you
Speaker 1: throughout the day. It's easy, it's simple, it expires after
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. You don't have to put too much
Speaker 1: thought into it, although a lot of people do. And
Speaker 1: it's just a fun way to kind of share what's
Speaker 1: happening in your life in a very casual way. And
Speaker 1: people love looking at these stories. They love posting them.
Speaker 1: I personally love posting them. I always forget to do it,
Speaker 1: but when I do it, it's really fun. Well, now
Speaker 1: Instagram is letting you make a close friends list on Stories,
Speaker 1: so now you can share with just the people you've
Speaker 1: added to close friends. And I'm not a big Snapchat user,
Speaker 1: but this kind of reminds me of something that you
Speaker 1: can do on Snapchat with groups of people, and I
Speaker 1: feel like this is something that you used to be
Speaker 1: able to do on Instagram anyway. With groups. Maybe there's
Speaker 1: some kind of difference here, but I'm not sure, but
Speaker 1: it seems like it's just a revamp of groups. But
Speaker 1: to add people to your list, you can go to
Speaker 1: your profile and tap on close Friends. In the side
Speaker 1: menu only you can see your close friends list. No
Speaker 1: one can request to be added to this list, so
Speaker 1: you can adjust it at any time. But people do
Speaker 1: kind of know that they're on this list because when
Speaker 1: you share to stories, you'll have an option to share
Speaker 1: just with the people on your close friends list, And
Speaker 1: if someone has added you to their list, you'll see
Speaker 1: a green badge when you're viewing their stories, So that
Speaker 1: little green badge means like, oh, this is super special,
Speaker 1: and you'll also see a green ring around their profile
Speaker 1: photo in the stories trey, which is up at the
Speaker 1: top of your Instagram. So it's kind of a fun
Speaker 1: little feature. I immediately think of this as something I
Speaker 1: can do with my family. I've got a huge family
Speaker 1: back east in New Jersey, all my family members, and
Speaker 1: sometimes you just want to share maybe a little bit
Speaker 1: more intimate pictures of your life, your kids, all that
Speaker 1: good stuff, a little bit more personal than what you
Speaker 1: might do on your public So I think This is
Speaker 1: a really cool feet for that, because it just makes
Speaker 1: sense that there are different levels of sharing, and Instagram
Speaker 1: is kind of admitting that. Speaking of Instagram this, I
Speaker 1: don't believe this story one way. I don't believe this
Speaker 1: story at all. But it's making the rounds. Payless fools
Speaker 1: influencers with a fake store. That's the CNN headline, and
Speaker 1: I just don't believe it. I don't believe that this
Speaker 1: was real. I don't think that influencers were fooled. But
Speaker 1: I'll tell you the story, and I'll tell you why
Speaker 1: I think that. So Payless you obviously know them. They
Speaker 1: have Payless shoe stores. They opened up a fake pop
Speaker 1: up store called pay Lessie in a Santa Monica I
Speaker 1: guess it was somewhere in Santa Monica, maybe on the promenade,
Speaker 1: And they invited influencers to a grand opening, and they
Speaker 1: had all these Payless shoes there, but they had prices,
Speaker 1: you know, four or five hundred, six hundred dollars. Really
Speaker 1: the shoes were twenty bucks, right, So they fooled, or
Speaker 1: they said they fooled all these people. They of course
Speaker 1: did this stunt. They recorded the whole thing. They made
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of ads getting a lot of press
Speaker 1: and a lot of play out of this. And according
Speaker 1: to the CNN article, it says that shut up, are
Speaker 1: you serious? One of the shoppers says when she heard
Speaker 1: that the shoes were twenty dollars. It says over eighty
Speaker 1: influencers attended over two nights. According to Payless, they shelled
Speaker 1: out a total of three thousand dollars. One shopper spent
Speaker 1: six hundred and forty dollars for a pair of boots,
Speaker 1: which represents a eighteen hundred percent markup Payless. However, he
Speaker 1: turned their money and let them keep the shoes. They said.
Speaker 1: The influencers were paid a small stipend to a tend
Speaker 1: So let me tell you why this story's bogus, because
Speaker 1: number one, influencers do not spend any money when they
Speaker 1: go to events. Okay, I've never been to an influencer event,
Speaker 1: and believe me, I get invited to a lot of
Speaker 1: these things where you are expected to spend any money whatsoever.
Speaker 1: And I'm talking big electronics events where they're giving out
Speaker 1: a gift bag at the end of the thing where
Speaker 1: it might have a high value piece of electronics. For
Speaker 1: these influencers. I'm talking clothes, shoes, there is There's never
Speaker 1: been an influencer event I've ever been to where someone
Speaker 1: is expected to shell out cash. Okay, in fact, I
Speaker 1: don't think I've ever seen that. Usually there's an open bar,
Speaker 1: there's you know, food, there are little you know, things
Speaker 1: that you can take home, you know. So that's number one.
Speaker 1: So if any influencer was at this event spending four
Speaker 1: or five hundred dollars or six hundred and forty dollars
Speaker 1: for a pair of boots, that's got to be bogus
Speaker 1: because that just doesn't happen at an influencer event. So
Speaker 1: clearly whoever was going to this event knew that there
Speaker 1: was something more going on here, especially when they got
Speaker 1: paid a small stipend to attend. That tells me that
Speaker 1: these were not influencers, but they were actors that were
Speaker 1: sort of told that this would be happening. You know,
Speaker 1: we want you to act natural, We want you to
Speaker 1: maybe purchase some stuff, but don't worry. We're you know,
Speaker 1: you can purchase it, but we're going to reimburse you
Speaker 1: at the end. Whatever. I think that this was all
Speaker 1: highly set up. I'm sorry, but no one on. None
Speaker 1: of these influencers are spending six hundred and forty dollars
Speaker 1: on a pair of shoes at an event. It just
Speaker 1: doesn't happen. They're getting these shoes gifted if they are
Speaker 1: an influencer of any worth. That's number one. Number two.
Speaker 1: I kind of looked up the tag on these, the
Speaker 1: hashtag pay lessie on Instagram, and guess what, there's almost
Speaker 1: zero posts. Okay, so if they had real influencers at
Speaker 1: this event, there would have been a bunch of posts
Speaker 1: on Instagram about this event. The only posts that I
Speaker 1: saw that were on Instagram were from the people that
Speaker 1: actually set up this event, the advertising agency and the
Speaker 1: event marketing company that set up the whole quote unquote
Speaker 1: bogus Payless storefront right, pay Less e storefront. So again,
Speaker 1: I think that this is all kind of bogus. It's
Speaker 1: all marketing scheme by Payless. It's fun, Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1: I'm not pooh poohing the whole you know idea that
Speaker 1: people can be tricked, And yes, we live in a
Speaker 1: society where people are influenced by marketing and they're influenced
Speaker 1: by price. You put two bottles of wine in front
Speaker 1: of someone in a brown bag. I can tell the difference.
Speaker 1: I can tell you which one's the cheap one. Not
Speaker 1: everyone can. And sometimes I might be tricked and think
Speaker 1: that a ten dollars bottle of wine actually tastes better.
Speaker 1: But I'm not gonna think it's an eighty dollars bottle
Speaker 1: of wine most of the time. But yes, you can
Speaker 1: brown bag stuff and fool people. It's human nature. If
Speaker 1: you are treated a certain way and something is presented
Speaker 1: to you in a certain way, you're gonna feel better
Speaker 1: about it. And that's not a bad thing. I mean,
Speaker 1: you spend ten dollars for a bottle of water inside
Speaker 1: a five star hotel. That bottle of water is literally
Speaker 1: twenty five cents at Costco and you're spending ten dollars
Speaker 1: on it. Why because you're in a five star hotel.
Speaker 1: That's what you expect to pay when you're in a
Speaker 1: five star hotel. Now, personally, I will stay away from
Speaker 1: that water by all means possible if I can, unless
Speaker 1: I am so thirsty I'm about to faint from hydration dehydration.
Speaker 1: But the reality is we have these kind of idea
Speaker 1: is in our mind of what we expect to pay
Speaker 1: and how things are presented. And if you're in a
Speaker 1: store that's called pay less and it looks like a
Speaker 1: high end store, you're not expecting to be tricked, even
Speaker 1: though yes you can be. So I just thought that
Speaker 1: was an interesting little story. It's getting a lot of
Speaker 1: play in the media, but I just wanted to give
Speaker 1: you kind of my thoughts on that stuff. One story
Speaker 1: we did on KTLA that was got a lot of
Speaker 1: play for real was the Amazon Fire TV recast. And
Speaker 1: you guys love this thing. This is a DVR for
Speaker 1: cord cutters. It lets you connect an antenna to this
Speaker 1: little box and then watch live TV on your TV.
Speaker 1: I know, what a concept, but also record that TV
Speaker 1: and it reminds me of TVO back in the day.
Speaker 1: I got super excited about that. I was a big
Speaker 1: TV fan. But the cool thing about this is that
Speaker 1: we are getting away from DVRs because we're so into
Speaker 1: streaming and on demand right so all of our shows
Speaker 1: are on demand and every major network has an app
Speaker 1: for on demand. But I'll tell you why DVRs are
Speaker 1: still more interesting to me, and that's because the DVR
Speaker 1: actually lets you skip those commercials when you're watching on
Speaker 1: demand on Hulu and all these different services out there,
Speaker 1: you're not able to skip those commercials. So these big
Speaker 1: media companies actually like the fact that we're all moving
Speaker 1: to on demand because guess what, they now control that
Speaker 1: experience again, and I get it. I work for a
Speaker 1: place that's free over the air, and I would love
Speaker 1: for you to watch commercials. I'd love for you to
Speaker 1: listen to the commercials in this podcast and others. But
Speaker 1: the reality is people have that control, and we have
Speaker 1: technology to give you that control, and it's kind of
Speaker 1: nice to have that control. And now, if it's a
Speaker 1: good commercial, I like to stop and watch it. Other
Speaker 1: people like to stop and watch it, and that's part
Speaker 1: of the marketers to figure that stuff out, but it's
Speaker 1: kind of cool. So anyway, the Recast TV also has
Speaker 1: no monthly fees, which is really nice as well, and
Speaker 1: that's a huge part of it, so you don't have
Speaker 1: to pay any monthly fees. The device is two hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty dollars. Let you record seventy five hours of TV.
Speaker 1: If you want, you can spend a little bit more
Speaker 1: and record I think it's one hundred and fifty hours
Speaker 1: of TV. I've been using this thing at home. It
Speaker 1: is fantastic. The integration with fireTV is just amazing because
Speaker 1: I can go from watching a show on Netflix right
Speaker 1: next to it, it says, hey, KTLA Morning News is streaming,
Speaker 1: or sorry is on live, and I can flip right
Speaker 1: to that, or I can flip right to a show
Speaker 1: that I DVRD, like Jimmy Fallon and watch that. And
Speaker 1: it's really really cool to have that all on one screen.
Speaker 1: And you might be thinking, Rich, come on, we've had antenna.
Speaker 1: You can connect an antenna to a TV forever. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: but now it's all on the same screen. It's all
Speaker 1: on the fireTV screen. And yes, you do need a
Speaker 1: fireTV to make this all happen. Now, you don't necessarily
Speaker 1: have to have a fireTV. You can actually use this
Speaker 1: thing and set it up independently of a fireTV, but
Speaker 1: to really get the most use out of it, you
Speaker 1: do have to have a fireTV because that's really the
Speaker 1: only way that you can set recordings. As far as
Speaker 1: I can tell, you can view your recordings from the app,
Speaker 1: and you can watch live TV from an app on
Speaker 1: your tablet or your iPhone or your Andrew, But as
Speaker 1: far as I can tell, the only way to actually
Speaker 1: set those recordings and to kind of manage everything is
Speaker 1: to go through the actual fireTV interface. Now that may
Speaker 1: change in the future. Also, at this point there is
Speaker 1: no support for third party streaming boxes like the Apple TV,
Speaker 1: like Rouke Roku. That may come in the future, and
Speaker 1: I do think that Amazon will eventually build some of
Speaker 1: that stuff in, but right now that's not there. So
Speaker 1: you have to have, let's say, a fireTV stick. I
Speaker 1: really like the fireTV four K, the brand new one.
Speaker 1: That is fantastic because the remote control has universal volume
Speaker 1: and mute buttons and power buttons on it, which is
Speaker 1: really nice because now you can have literally one remote
Speaker 1: control to control your entire interface and home theater setup,
Speaker 1: and one interface on your TV screen to not only
Speaker 1: watch streaming stuff, but also to watch your live over
Speaker 1: the air channels and your DVR stuff. And again, this
Speaker 1: does not work with cable. So I got a lot
Speaker 1: of emails yesterday folks saying, hey, Rich, what if I
Speaker 1: want to watch Bravo, what if I want to watch
Speaker 1: Fox Sports? What if I want to watch this? No,
Speaker 1: none of that is included in over the air. These
Speaker 1: are local channels, Channel two, Channel four, Channel five, Channel seven,
Speaker 1: Channel nine, Channel thirteen, Channel eleven here in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: and very similar channels where you live. You have to
Speaker 1: have an antenna to get those channels. Bravo is not
Speaker 1: delivered over an antenna, so if you want something like Bravo,
Speaker 1: or if you want CNN or some of these cable channels,
Speaker 1: you would have to supplement this setup with a subscription
Speaker 1: to some sort of streaming service like DirectTV Now or
Speaker 1: Sling TV. Those will work. And again, the other flip
Speaker 1: side of that is that those services have a lot
Speaker 1: of the local channels included in them, but not PBS,
Speaker 1: not KTLA. If you're in Los Angeles and maybe in
Speaker 1: your market, they may have other local channels that you like,
Speaker 1: especially some international ones that they just don't offer on
Speaker 1: the direct TV Now or the Sling TV or the
Speaker 1: YouTube TV. So long story short, this is a not
Speaker 1: a perfect solution, but it's a really nice solution if
Speaker 1: theoretically you wanted to cut the cord, stop paying for
Speaker 1: cable TV, still have to pay for cable internet, some
Speaker 1: sort of high speed internet, and also have all your
Speaker 1: local channels for free DVR, all that content, all those
Speaker 1: network shows that you know that air like Modern Family,
Speaker 1: and I was gonna say Letterman in Leno, but there
Speaker 1: is no more Letterman in Leno. But you know Fallon
Speaker 1: and Jimmy Kimmel. You can record that stuff. You can
Speaker 1: record your local news, all the sports that air locally,
Speaker 1: and that's a lot of programming. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: good stuff there. You can have all that for free
Speaker 1: over the air with this device. And then you can
Speaker 1: have let's say Netflix, because you pay fourteen bucks a
Speaker 1: month for that, you can have that. And then you
Speaker 1: can also have you know, Amazon Prime Video if you
Speaker 1: have an Amazon Prime membership. So just those three things alone,
Speaker 1: all the over the air stuff plus your Netflix plus
Speaker 1: your Prime's that's a large amount of content. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you need much more than that. So if
Speaker 1: you like some of these cable channels, though, you will
Speaker 1: have to have a subscription for that. So some of
Speaker 1: you may know that my book one hundred and one
Speaker 1: Handy Tech Tips for the iPhone came out as a paperback.
Speaker 1: This is very exciting because I published the ebook over
Speaker 1: the summer. It did very well. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for supporting the book. I did it as a PDF
Speaker 1: and also as an e book, and also on the Kindle,
Speaker 1: and the number one question I got was Rich, I
Speaker 1: want to read this thing as a paperback, And I'll
Speaker 1: be honest, what happened with the first book is I
Speaker 1: had every intention of making it up. Well, actually I didn't.
Speaker 1: When I to be honest, I actually wasn't going to
Speaker 1: make it a paperback at all. But when I started
Speaker 1: to kind of tease it a little bit, people were saying,
Speaker 1: you know, when can I buy this as a paperback?
Speaker 1: And I was like, all right, well, I guess maybe
Speaker 1: I'll make it a paperback. The problem was that formatting
Speaker 1: for a paperback was so different than formatting for an ebook.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that, and I couldn't go back. By
Speaker 1: the time it was published, it was just not There
Speaker 1: was no time to actually go back and make it
Speaker 1: a paperback. So I said, I'll take everything I learned
Speaker 1: from here and when I do my next book, especially
Speaker 1: with all the emails I got, I will make this
Speaker 1: thing a paperback because that's what people want. And I did.
Speaker 1: I started this second version of the book, which was
Speaker 1: updated for iOS twelve, as a paperback in mind, and
Speaker 1: when you do a paperback you have to think about
Speaker 1: different things, most specifically the formatting of the book, the
Speaker 1: way it looks. The pictures. They have to be a
Speaker 1: certain quality, they have to lay a certain way on
Speaker 1: the printed page. And I kind of thought about all
Speaker 1: that stuff as I wrote it from the beginning, and
Speaker 1: here it is in my hand, the paperback book one
Speaker 1: hundred and one Handy Tech Tips for the iPhone, all
Speaker 1: updated for iOS twelve. So I talk about all the
Speaker 1: things that are new in iOS twelve. Creating a momoji
Speaker 1: that looks like you memoji, taking control of your notifications
Speaker 1: because they're much easier now. To manage screen time, Do
Speaker 1: not disturb time limits for apps, screen time and content
Speaker 1: limits for your kids, downtime. This is a great one.
Speaker 1: If you want to say, like from five to seven pm,
Speaker 1: your phone does let you do anything. You can set
Speaker 1: that up Google Maps and ways. Adding that to CarPlay,
Speaker 1: fun message effects, USB accessories, How to keep them from
Speaker 1: siphoning off your data. Turn your iPhone into a virtual
Speaker 1: measuring tape. How to autofill passwords. If you're not using
Speaker 1: one of these password management systems, and you can even
Speaker 1: use a free one that's built into the iPhone. I
Speaker 1: tell you how to set that up. It is essential
Speaker 1: in Today's Day and age group FaceTime. Let's see series shortcuts.
Speaker 1: Setting up a second phone line, deleting a used boarding pass.
Speaker 1: I know that sounds simple, but those things linger forever.
Speaker 1: Look in your Apple wallet if you ever use them,
Speaker 1: you probably have a bunch of them in there. And
Speaker 1: then I go into the basics, taking a screenshot, checking
Speaker 1: for app updates, how to cancel a subscription, setting up
Speaker 1: two factor authentication, creating a medical ID from emergencies that's
Speaker 1: really important, emergency sos. One cool thing. You can change
Speaker 1: the brightness of the flashlight. Did you know you could
Speaker 1: do that on your phone? Let's see revealing the hidden
Speaker 1: search bar that are all over, erasing one calculator digit.
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool, the secret redial button. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: so many little things. Changing your airdrop preferences fast. I mean,
Speaker 1: this thing just goes on and on and on. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh. I love this book, and I'm not just
Speaker 1: saying that because I wrote it. I love it because
Speaker 1: you have no idea how many questions I get from
Speaker 1: people about the iPhone on a daily basis, and it
Speaker 1: does not frustrate me. It's just one of those things
Speaker 1: that we all use this device. But we don't truly
Speaker 1: know how to manage it and all the things that
Speaker 1: it's capable of. And so this book just kind of
Speaker 1: goes through all those things that your phone does. You
Speaker 1: may not need to know how to do all this
Speaker 1: stuff right now today, but the reality is I want
Speaker 1: to give you the tools you need to know just
Speaker 1: to understand what the phone is capable of. And then
Speaker 1: when someone says, hey, can you sign this piece of
Speaker 1: paper and email it to me, and you go, I
Speaker 1: don't know how to do that. Oh wait, I read
Speaker 1: in Rich's book. I can sign a PDF right from
Speaker 1: my eyes iPhone. I can make a piece of paper
Speaker 1: into a PDF right for my iPhone. Oh yeah. These
Speaker 1: are the kind of things I just want to plant
Speaker 1: in your brain so that when you need the functionality,
Speaker 1: you know how to access it or you know that
Speaker 1: it's there, and then you can go back to the
Speaker 1: book and actually follow the step by steps and do it.
Speaker 1: So the book is one hundred and one Handy Tech
Speaker 1: Tips for the iPhone. It's on Amazon. It's amazing the process.
Speaker 1: I really want to write another book on just publishing
Speaker 1: a book. I self published this on Amazon. The process
Speaker 1: is just amazing the fact that we can do this
Speaker 1: in this day and age is just phenomenal. And the
Speaker 1: fact that I can reach so many people and get
Speaker 1: this book into their hands on the most popular shopping
Speaker 1: platform in America, maybe the world. I don't know, maybe
Speaker 1: China has something bigger. But the reality is it's just
Speaker 1: so cool and I love it. When Sam Rubin, one
Speaker 1: of my colleagues at KTLA, looked at the book, he goes, oh,
Speaker 1: my gosh, this is real. I said, yes, it's real.
Speaker 1: It's a real it's a paperback, it's thick, it has
Speaker 1: a lot of information, and when you get this thing
Speaker 1: mailed to you, there's gonna be a little smile that
Speaker 1: comes on your face because you're gonna go wow. I've
Speaker 1: known Rich, I've followed him, and I feel like this
Speaker 1: is like literally Rich placing this in my hands from
Speaker 1: Rich's brain right to mine. And that's the way I feel.
Speaker 1: So it's on Amazon now. It makes a great gift
Speaker 1: for the holidays. If someone has an iPhone in your life,
Speaker 1: especially someone that doesn't necessarily know how to use all
Speaker 1: the features, and you're kind of sick of telling them
Speaker 1: how to do all these things on it, get them
Speaker 1: this book. They will love you for it, and I
Speaker 1: guarantee you they will come back to you and tell you,
Speaker 1: you know what, I really learned this or that from
Speaker 1: the book, and I appreciate it. And so there you go.
Speaker 1: That's the book, one hundred and one Handy Tech Tips
Speaker 1: for the iPhone, updated, simplified and revised for iOS twelve.
Speaker 1: So thank you so much in advance for that. It
Speaker 1: is already climbing the charts on Amazon, and I love
Speaker 1: the fact that they are doing that. All Right, a
Speaker 1: couple more stories to talk about and then I'll let
Speaker 1: you guys go. But Dji Osmo they came out with
Speaker 1: DGI is the company known for their drones. They came
Speaker 1: out with this little thing called the Osmo Pocket. This
Speaker 1: is a new stabilized camera. They say it's the world's
Speaker 1: smallest three axi three axis axi axis stabilized camera. Now
Speaker 1: I'm torn on this kind of stuff because I do
Speaker 1: carry around a GoPro in my bag. But I'll be
Speaker 1: honest with the cell phones nowadays, I find myself needing
Speaker 1: these kind of small point and shoot cameras, video cameras
Speaker 1: less and less, and I get it. If you're a
Speaker 1: blogger influencer, maybe you want to have one of these
Speaker 1: things on hand to produce content. I do that stuff,
Speaker 1: and I rarely find myself needing it. It's nice to have.
Speaker 1: And this is a really cool thing because it's basically
Speaker 1: a highly stabilized GoPro. Imagine a go Pro mixed with
Speaker 1: a flipcam member flipcams from back in the day. That's
Speaker 1: kind of what this thing reminds me of. It's four
Speaker 1: inches tall, it's got a little gimbal, little stabilizer, it's
Speaker 1: got twelve megapixels for pictures and four K video up
Speaker 1: to sixty frames per second, and it's a great little
Speaker 1: device if you can afford it three hundred fifty dollars.
Speaker 1: It also has a one inch touchscreen on it, which
Speaker 1: is cool because you can see what you're shooting. And
Speaker 1: you can plug this thing into a USBC or an
Speaker 1: iOS lightning port to bring some extra functionality. The Osmo
Speaker 1: Pocket sells for three hundred and fifty dollars and it
Speaker 1: will ship on December fifteenth. Check it out if you're
Speaker 1: one of those people that is looking for kind of
Speaker 1: a go Pro style solution, but this is just a
Speaker 1: little bit different because you've got the go pro style
Speaker 1: camera but also it's stabilized and it just looks cool.
Speaker 1: It's really small. Android Auto is giving a little revamp
Speaker 1: to make things a little simpler now. I've been using
Speaker 1: Android Auto and Apple CarPlay for a while now, I
Speaker 1: personally think that Apple CarPlay has the much better layout.
Speaker 1: It's easier to access your apps, it's quicker to access
Speaker 1: your music, and the messaging function works better. And I
Speaker 1: think that Google is realizing this with their Android Auto
Speaker 1: layout and they're kind of revamping stuff. So they have
Speaker 1: now made media browsing a little bit more visual and
Speaker 1: a little easier. Plus, you also see a visual preview
Speaker 1: of a message that someone sends you, which is also
Speaker 1: really smart. That only happens when your car is stopped,
Speaker 1: by the way, So if you come to a stop
Speaker 1: and you're at a stop sign or a light and
Speaker 1: someone texts you, you'll be able to see what their
Speaker 1: text says, which is really handy. I know distracted driving
Speaker 1: is dangerous and I don't ever want you to text
Speaker 1: or even look at your phone while you drive, but
Speaker 1: this is smart because sometimes you just want to see
Speaker 1: the response. You don't need to wait for Siri or
Speaker 1: for Google Assistant to read the whole response if you
Speaker 1: can just see something like okay, because it's actually more
Speaker 1: distracting for you to have to tap to hear that
Speaker 1: message from Siri or from the assistant. But this new
Speaker 1: revample be live in Google play Books, Google play Music, iHeartRadio,
Speaker 1: Pocket Casts, and Spotify. Also popular messaging apps like Messages, Hangouts,
Speaker 1: and Whatsapple work with the new messaging features. So when
Speaker 1: it comes to the media, there's an improved layout with
Speaker 1: larger album art views, so that's easier to find and
Speaker 1: browse than I guess the old way of doing it.
Speaker 1: And they also have improvements to voice search, so you
Speaker 1: can ask Google now to play songs and playlists and
Speaker 1: also types of music, and apparently you'll get some categorized
Speaker 1: search results from your app right on the screen, which
Speaker 1: is also brilliant because the reason why I've stopped using
Speaker 1: the voice commands in Android autos because if you don't
Speaker 1: get them just right, it starts playing some playlist you
Speaker 1: don't even know if it's the right one. It's kind
Speaker 1: of nice that they will actually now give you that
Speaker 1: visual response and you're like eighties music and it will
Speaker 1: show you kind of like the different playlists that have
Speaker 1: to do with eighties music. That's smart. The functionality will
Speaker 1: be rolling out over the next few days, so check
Speaker 1: it out. And finally, let's end on this. I've got
Speaker 1: a friend who we always talk about the interest rate
Speaker 1: on our savings account because they seem to be going
Speaker 1: up at some of these online banks, right. And I
Speaker 1: remember back in the day, when I think it was
Speaker 1: E Trade, I had an account there was like five
Speaker 1: percent interest, which is pretty awesome. Now, obviously we know
Speaker 1: that those I think that same account is down to
Speaker 1: like point one zero. But some of these big accounts
Speaker 1: they do have, you know, one to two percent interest.
Speaker 1: Maybe some of the online accounts have even more than that.
Speaker 1: But T Mobile now has their own virtual bank that
Speaker 1: you can sign up for. It's called t Mobile Money,
Speaker 1: and they give you a debit card and for all
Speaker 1: intents and purposes, this is a little checking account that
Speaker 1: you can use. I don't think they actually give you checks,
Speaker 1: but you can obviously bill pay and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Maybe they let's see, do they have checks in here.
Speaker 1: I don't think they do. You know, maybe they do.
Speaker 1: Let's see Mobile check deposits pay bills with T Mobile Money. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you do have to use all the mobile functions,
Speaker 1: and for me personally, I write like one check a
Speaker 1: month to one place that does not take a credit
Speaker 1: card or a a bill pay. I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: I could do bill pay with them, but it's just
Speaker 1: easier to write the check. But yeah, I hate writing checks,
Speaker 1: so I don't really use that functionality on my checking account.
Speaker 1: But long story short, the magic of this account is
Speaker 1: that they give you four percent interest on your money
Speaker 1: in the checking account, which is pretty rare. So there
Speaker 1: is a catch. You have to be a T mobile
Speaker 1: customer not to get the account, but to get that
Speaker 1: four percent. Anyone can sign up for T Mobile Money,
Speaker 1: and if you sign up, it's actually a pretty cool
Speaker 1: little account. It's all digital, it's very high tech, it's
Speaker 1: very slick. You get a MasterCard, debit card, you get
Speaker 1: fee free ATMs at the All Point network, which there
Speaker 1: are a bunch of All Point ATMs out there, fifty
Speaker 1: five thousand of them. There's also no fees whatsoever, so
Speaker 1: there's no overdrafts. No, there's really nothing. There's no fees
Speaker 1: whatsoever with this, no monthly maintenance fees whatever. You do
Speaker 1: have to deposit two hundred dollars a month. Into the account.
Speaker 1: And does that have to be direct deposit. I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: but yeah, so I mean there's really no fees at all,
Speaker 1: which is nice. So if you're a T Mobile customer,
Speaker 1: you get four percent interest on your money in this
Speaker 1: checking account. If you're just a everyday person without tea Mobile,
Speaker 1: you do get one percent interest, which is pretty much
Speaker 1: in line with a lot of the major bank accounts.
Speaker 1: So I think this is a cool deal, and if
Speaker 1: you're a T Mobile customer, I take a look at it. Personally,
Speaker 1: I have a a separate I don't. I don't like
Speaker 1: using credit cards as much as I do my debit card,
Speaker 1: and there's reasons for that. I like to stay out
Speaker 1: of debt, so that's why I use my debit card
Speaker 1: as much as possible. If I'm traveling, yes I will
Speaker 1: use my credit card, but for day to day stuff,
Speaker 1: I really like to use my debit card as much
Speaker 1: as humanly possible because guess what, the money's there, and
Speaker 1: it it actually hurts me more to spend real money
Speaker 1: than it does to have me spend money on a
Speaker 1: credit card. And I'm sure you feel that way too,
Speaker 1: So I love using a debit card, but I do
Speaker 1: like the idea of having a separate a separate account
Speaker 1: for your debit card of the day to day spend money,
Speaker 1: right and so this is a perfect account for that
Speaker 1: because you can get your debit card, you can put
Speaker 1: your money in there. If you're T mobile customer, you're
Speaker 1: getting four percent. There is one more catch, you only
Speaker 1: get it up to three thousand dollars. But you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know how many people are keeping
Speaker 1: more than three grand and they're checking account. So it's
Speaker 1: it's not a bad deal. And you can use this
Speaker 1: kind of as your day to day spending account. And
Speaker 1: I love it because you're staying out of debt, you're
Speaker 1: getting a good a return, there's no fees. You can
Speaker 1: use it with Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, you
Speaker 1: can use it with bill pay. You can deposit checks
Speaker 1: into there, you can have your portion of your paycheck
Speaker 1: put into this, and it's a pretty nice little offering.
Speaker 1: So again T Mobile Money dot Com, you can check
Speaker 1: it out and see if that's something that's right for you.
Speaker 1: And that's going to bring us to the end of
Speaker 1: the podcast. Thanks so much for all of your emails,
Speaker 1: your tweets, your messages. I do read them. I do
Speaker 1: respond to them. If you want to follow me on Instagram,
Speaker 1: I'm at rich on Tech. On Twitter, I'm at rich DeMuro.
Speaker 1: My website is rich on tech dot tv. You've probably
Speaker 1: heard me say that a zillion times, and my Facebook
Speaker 1: is Facebook dot com slash rich on tech. Let me
Speaker 1: know what you think of this longer version of the podcast,
Speaker 1: and if you like the podcast, you've been enjoying what
Speaker 1: I'm doing here, take a screenshot of it and post
Speaker 1: it out on social media and be sure to tag
Speaker 1: me so I can restory that, or I can retweet it,
Speaker 1: or I can just enjoy it and smile and sit
Speaker 1: back and know that when I am talking into this microphone,
Speaker 1: someone out there is listening, responding and smiling. When I
Speaker 1: say thank you so much for listening, I do really
Speaker 1: appreciate it. If you want links to anything I talk
Speaker 1: about here, look in the show notes or go to
Speaker 1: my website rich on tech dot tv, and you have
Speaker 1: a great day. Thanks so much for listening. I'm rich Damiro.
Speaker 1: I will talk to you real soon