Speaker 1: What's up with Apple? A CS twenty nineteen preview? Where's
Speaker 1: the wish list? In iOS? Twelve apps to help you
Speaker 1: stay fit and be more mindful in twenty nineteen, plus snackbots.
Speaker 1: What's going on? I'm Rich Demiro. This is Rich on
Speaker 1: Tech and welcome to the first episode of twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: I had a very good vacation for the most part.
Speaker 1: I'll get into that in a moment, but very relaxing.
Speaker 1: Didn't have to wake up at any specific time, had
Speaker 1: some nice time off, had my mom in town from
Speaker 1: New Jersey for the holidays, so that was cool, and
Speaker 1: we got to see a couple of shows. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was really nice. And we're gonna talk some tech.
Speaker 1: Let's get started. I mean, there's not too much going on.
Speaker 1: This is the week between the New Year and CS
Speaker 1: or the holidays in CS, so not a whole lot happens,
Speaker 1: but we will go through some of the things that
Speaker 1: I thought were interesting. This is the show where I
Speaker 1: kind of talk about this that I think you should
Speaker 1: know about apps, gadgets, just tech news in general, and
Speaker 1: I'll take some time to kind of discuss those things.
Speaker 1: I do want to address one thing that did happen
Speaker 1: over the holidays. That was an absolute tragedy. And if
Speaker 1: you're in the LA area listening to this, you heard
Speaker 1: about it. But my colleague Chris Burrows at KTLA passed
Speaker 1: away truly truly tragic circumstances. And Chris and I had
Speaker 1: worked together for many years here in Los Angeles. We
Speaker 1: actually worked together before he came to LA. He was
Speaker 1: on a TV show that I did. I do segments
Speaker 1: for various TV stations, so he worked at the one
Speaker 1: in New York City, so we actually kind of knew
Speaker 1: each other before he even came here. And just very
Speaker 1: tragic circumstances of his passing. And I just want to
Speaker 1: say that I'm still in shock over what happened. I'm angry.
Speaker 1: Here's a guy that was at the height or just
Speaker 1: beginning a very successful career, really had so many things
Speaker 1: going for him, and to see what happened was just
Speaker 1: absolutely unbelievable to me. I mean, I woke up to
Speaker 1: text messages from friends and I just could not believe it.
Speaker 1: And I still don't believe it. It's been over a week,
Speaker 1: and I just everything I think about is just all
Speaker 1: the interactions we had over the years and the conversations
Speaker 1: we had, and I keep searching for clues or anything
Speaker 1: that could have led me to maybe help him, and
Speaker 1: I obviously that probably would not happen. But I do
Speaker 1: want to say my takeaway, and I've already kind of
Speaker 1: shared my thoughts on my Facebook page, my Instagram and Twitter.
Speaker 1: But my takeaway is just be the friend now that
Speaker 1: you want to be to people, and don't wait, because
Speaker 1: life is very short and things like this just kind
Speaker 1: of reiterate that. So Chris Burrows, thinking of you, man,
Speaker 1: and you were a very big inspiration to me here
Speaker 1: because you were so successful and the way that you
Speaker 1: had such an ease and air about yourself on air
Speaker 1: is something that not many journalists can do. So am
Speaker 1: thinking of you. All right, let's talk about CS twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: This is happening next week, and man, this is I've
Speaker 1: been covering CS now for probably a decade, if not more.
Speaker 1: I can't remember it. It might be about a decade now,
Speaker 1: so maybe a little bit more, maybe eleven years, but
Speaker 1: I don't want to count because it is the craziest
Speaker 1: time of my year. Every year, the whole tech industry
Speaker 1: descends upon Las Vegas. There's a million tech companies. This
Speaker 1: show just keeps getting bigger and bigger because there's so
Speaker 1: many accessory makers and smart home and just about everything
Speaker 1: you can think of. It's all there in one place,
Speaker 1: And how does a journalist like myself even attempt to
Speaker 1: cover something like this? Now, in recent years, you set
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff up, You get a lot of
Speaker 1: advanced meetings with the Samsungs of the world, and you know,
Speaker 1: whatever big companies that you have relationships with, you can
Speaker 1: get in and kind of see what they're doing. But
Speaker 1: the reality is, you never really know what's going to
Speaker 1: be big at CS until you actually get there on
Speaker 1: the ground and you start covering stuff and you start
Speaker 1: experiencing things. Because all these pitches that we get in
Speaker 1: our email it's tough to tell. I mean, they all
Speaker 1: sound great, but are they really that good? So what
Speaker 1: are we going to see at this year CS? I
Speaker 1: think the big theme this year is really going to
Speaker 1: be five G. And five G is the successor to
Speaker 1: four G, which is basically faster internet on our phones
Speaker 1: but also for our homes, our cars, basically everything. And
Speaker 1: so five G is going to be a big kind
Speaker 1: of catch all phrase that we're going to see all
Speaker 1: over the place. Five G is going to happen in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, but I don't think in a huge meaningful
Speaker 1: way it will be there. But I think we're still
Speaker 1: on a longer runway when it comes to five G.
Speaker 1: So that's one thing. Health technology that'll be another one.
Speaker 1: Robots there, of course, everywhere, all over the floor. So
Speaker 1: I always try to find cool stuff about robots and
Speaker 1: fun little videos to post digital assistance. So this is
Speaker 1: a big one because Alexa and Google are kind of
Speaker 1: fighting it out for the market share. Personally, I'm on
Speaker 1: the Google side. I think Alexa has done some really
Speaker 1: great things and Amazon has done a great job of
Speaker 1: getting her everywhere. But the thing is I'm seeing is
Speaker 1: kind of like assistant fatigue. I mean, every device, I'm
Speaker 1: getting pitches from every single company about these assistants being
Speaker 1: built into the devices. And a couple of years ago
Speaker 1: it was all about the Internet getting built into these devices,
Speaker 1: so we saw that happen. Now we see the assistants,
Speaker 1: and then of course next year, who knows what'll be,
Speaker 1: but the assistance that will be big because we'll see
Speaker 1: kind of like where they're building them in. I didn't
Speaker 1: think they can put them in anything else, but who knows,
Speaker 1: machine learning, artificial intelligence, and of course driverless cars. I'm
Speaker 1: getting some driverless car kind of rides at CES as
Speaker 1: well this year, So those are the kind of the
Speaker 1: big trends that I'll be on the lookout for. I
Speaker 1: like to find the little gadgets that just kind of
Speaker 1: help you out in everyday life that are really you know,
Speaker 1: not like the thousand dollars things or the big picture things,
Speaker 1: but a lot of the little things, they're just cool
Speaker 1: gadgets that every company is out there showing off their stuff.
Speaker 1: I like to discover the little things that I'll show
Speaker 1: throughout the year, and a lot of things you get
Speaker 1: a preview of, so you see stuff before it actually
Speaker 1: is ready for the public. So we'll see stuff that
Speaker 1: might come out, you know, in the second half of
Speaker 1: the year, the third half, the third of the year,
Speaker 1: third half, I don't think there's a third half of
Speaker 1: the year. I think we'll just leave it at second half.
Speaker 1: But my advice for CS is stay as healthy as possible.
Speaker 1: I'm probably gonna be big on Instagram this year, so
Speaker 1: if you're not following me there, find me on Instagram.
Speaker 1: I'm at rich on Tech and I will show you
Speaker 1: all the good stuff when it comes to CS twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen in Las Vegas. And if you see me there,
Speaker 1: say hi for sure. Even if I look busy, Believe me,
Speaker 1: I'm always willing to say hi to folks. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about a new app available to the city of Los
Speaker 1: Angeles and residents here. It's called Shake alert LA. And
Speaker 1: this is getting a lot of publicity because it's a
Speaker 1: mobile app that sends alerts to users in La County
Speaker 1: if there's an earthquake of magnitude five or more. And
Speaker 1: this is not an earthquake alert app. This is supposed
Speaker 1: to give you a little bit of a heads up
Speaker 1: that you may soon feel shaking. So does it work.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I've downloaded it to my phone. It
Speaker 1: seems like it's pretty straightforward. The thing that a lot
Speaker 1: of people are a little bit concerned about are the
Speaker 1: privacy concerns, and I agree, because when you download this app,
Speaker 1: you have to agree to give up your location at
Speaker 1: all times. And I'm not sure why that is. I
Speaker 1: guess so they can see the proximity of the earthquake
Speaker 1: to you so they can give you a better alert,
Speaker 1: or I guess so they can use your location services
Speaker 1: to only deliver to you if you're in the LA area.
Speaker 1: But here's the deal with these apps. And I did
Speaker 1: a story on another app, which is I'm trying to
Speaker 1: get some clarity on it. But there's another app, let's
Speaker 1: see quake Alert. And this is an app that was
Speaker 1: also done in partnership with the US Geological Survey. Let's see,
Speaker 1: let's see quake Alert. I'm I'm on the beta program.
Speaker 1: And so when I was talking to the folks at
Speaker 1: Quake Alert, they were saying that it's really tough to
Speaker 1: do an app like this because the notifications on Android
Speaker 1: and iOS are not a perfect system. So you can
Speaker 1: send a notification to a phone, but there is no
Speaker 1: guarantee from the cellular providers or iOS or Android that
Speaker 1: that alert will be received, or that notification will be
Speaker 1: received in a timely manner. Now, I always wondered about
Speaker 1: that because it seems like when you do these things
Speaker 1: where you get a text message confirmation or a push
Speaker 1: alert from like Facebook, they come through pretty much immediately.
Speaker 1: But I think the problem is when you're talking about
Speaker 1: a lot of people, like half a million people or
Speaker 1: a million people, you can't really guarantee that all those
Speaker 1: people are going to get that notification at the same time.
Speaker 1: But they say it's an official pilot, So again, what
Speaker 1: does pilot mean. It means that it may not work.
Speaker 1: This is not a guarantee that you're going to get
Speaker 1: a one minute alert of an earthquake. You know, you're
Speaker 1: not guaranteed anything. But this is definitely probably going to help.
Speaker 1: I think once we have the first quake that triggers
Speaker 1: an alert on this app, we'll have a lot more
Speaker 1: data about the effectiveness of this app. So if you
Speaker 1: want to download it, it's available for Android and iOS.
Speaker 1: It is called shake alert La Shake Alert La. And again,
Speaker 1: this is a pilot program, so it's not going to
Speaker 1: be perfect. And if you're worried about your privacy and
Speaker 1: we're you know, the city and all these companies or
Speaker 1: whoever is creating this app having access to your location
Speaker 1: at all times, you may want to skip it because
Speaker 1: you do have to enable that for it to work.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go to the emails now. Ruth says, hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: happy New Year along with your family. My question to
Speaker 1: you is what internet company do you recommend? I have
Speaker 1: Spectrum four hundred megabits per second and I'm paying eighty dollars.
Speaker 1: I've been having problems with the Wi Fi. They've come
Speaker 1: out to quote unquote fix it, but continues with the buffering. Therefore,
Speaker 1: my ring isn't at its best. Help. Thank you, Ruth. Okay, Ruth.
Speaker 1: I think the problem is not your internet, because four
Speaker 1: hundred megabits per second is actually really fast. So at
Speaker 1: my house, I only have one hundred. I wish I
Speaker 1: had four hundred, But it's not your internet. I don't
Speaker 1: think that there's a problem with the actual speed that's
Speaker 1: coming in. And you can confirm this by hooking your
Speaker 1: computer up with an Ethernet cable to the modem that
Speaker 1: Spectrum provides and doing a quick speed test. And you
Speaker 1: can do a speed test by just going to fast
Speaker 1: dot com and seeing what that speed comes up as.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's going to be your problem. I
Speaker 1: think your problem is actually that your WiFi does not
Speaker 1: your ring doorbell. And this is very common because the
Speaker 1: routers that Spectrum and other companies provide are not necessarily
Speaker 1: the best at blanket blanketing your entire home with internet.
Speaker 1: Yeah it works around the device, and yeah it'll probably
Speaker 1: work upstairs downstairs, but if you really look at these things,
Speaker 1: half the time, you're getting really just half the speed
Speaker 1: and maybe not in all portions of your home. So
Speaker 1: Ruth I would recommend, if you really want to get
Speaker 1: the value out of your eighty dollars a month, you
Speaker 1: got to upgrade to one of these mesh networking systems
Speaker 1: like ero ee Ro, Google Wi Fi or Netgear or
Speaker 1: b I think those will definitely fix the issue and
Speaker 1: it will make the Wi Fi reach the ring outside
Speaker 1: your front door. I think that's going to really solve
Speaker 1: all your problems. And here's a little quick tip for
Speaker 1: you if you don't want to change the log in.
Speaker 1: You know, when you change out your Wi Fi system,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to go around to all your different
Speaker 1: gadgets and reconnect them with the new network credentials. The
Speaker 1: network the Wi Fi I know network name and also
Speaker 1: the password. So if you don't want to do that,
Speaker 1: you can just name your new Wi Fi network the
Speaker 1: same exact name as your old one and set the
Speaker 1: password the same exact as your old network password. Once
Speaker 1: you make the network name and also the password the same,
Speaker 1: your devices should seamlessly find that new network on your
Speaker 1: new equipment and log in as usual, it should be
Speaker 1: pretty seamless. I did that at my place. I know
Speaker 1: it's not the most secure thing to do because I
Speaker 1: always recommend changing passwords when you upgrade stuff. But if
Speaker 1: you don't want to go through the hassle of changing
Speaker 1: all your smart home devices, you can definitely do that
Speaker 1: and everything will follow in line. So that's a little
Speaker 1: tip for you there. Now. I mentioned CS twenty nineteen
Speaker 1: is happening very soon, but already companies are coming out
Speaker 1: with some of their announcements, and this one I really
Speaker 1: like because c Byge is a brand that was not
Speaker 1: around for very long. But I was very very impressed
Speaker 1: with the light bulbs that they sent me, and these
Speaker 1: were the first generation of their life light bulbs. They
Speaker 1: were basically just your standard light bulbs that kind of
Speaker 1: you can use Google Home to adjust right. But the
Speaker 1: secret of these light bulbs is that they do not
Speaker 1: need a hub, and the Google Home app finds them instantly.
Speaker 1: So if you haven't set up any of these smart
Speaker 1: home devices like smart light bulbs, what happens is you
Speaker 1: either need some sort of hub like Phillips Hugh. You
Speaker 1: have a hub that you have to connect to your network.
Speaker 1: The light bulbs talk to that hub, and then the
Speaker 1: Google Home app or the Google Assistant will interface with
Speaker 1: the I know it's kind of complicated, but they'll interface
Speaker 1: on the back end with the hub and talk to
Speaker 1: those light bulbs kind of through a third party. Right now,
Speaker 1: with Ge, the way they do it is their bulbs
Speaker 1: actually interface with Google Assistant directly. So here's how it worked.
Speaker 1: I put one of the light bulbs in a socket
Speaker 1: at my home, I opened up the Google Home app
Speaker 1: on my phone and boom, right on the Google Home
Speaker 1: app is said, Hey, we found a light bulb. Do
Speaker 1: you want to set this thing up? And I was
Speaker 1: so impressed because generally that's not the way it works.
Speaker 1: You have to go to the h app, set up
Speaker 1: the light bulb there, and then link the h app
Speaker 1: to your Google Assistant and then it can then control
Speaker 1: those devices. So this is kind of cutting out the middleman.
Speaker 1: And now c BYGE has new light bulbs. These are
Speaker 1: full color LEDs, and these are gonna come out. Now
Speaker 1: they're not available right away, but they will come out
Speaker 1: this quarter, so first quarter of twenty nineteen. So full
Speaker 1: color LEDs. They're gonna have millions of color options, plus
Speaker 1: tunable whites in sixty wah equivalent A nineteen a BR
Speaker 1: thirty for recessed cans, and a custom sized light strip.
Speaker 1: And these are all controllable with your voice or through
Speaker 1: the app, or with custom routines and schedules, so that's
Speaker 1: really cool. And the price point on these bulbs they
Speaker 1: haven't said yet, but the original bulbs that they sent
Speaker 1: me were a very good price. So I would say
Speaker 1: definitely look into these things if you want something that's
Speaker 1: super simple, especially if setting something up for someone else
Speaker 1: in your family. Definitely check out c by ge because
Speaker 1: I was very impressed. I love that they are seamlessly
Speaker 1: integrated with Google Assistant. And again this is all working
Speaker 1: through Bluetooth, so the bulbs have Bluetooth built into them,
Speaker 1: so that your phone can recognize a Bluetooth bulb nearby
Speaker 1: and then connect it to Google Assistant. Some other devices
Speaker 1: that they're gonna have is a smart switch. So this
Speaker 1: is really cool too, because a lot of times if
Speaker 1: you're using these bulbs with the switches in, like for instance,
Speaker 1: in my office at home, I have a bunch of
Speaker 1: smart bulbs, but it's kind of a pain because sometimes
Speaker 1: I turn off the light switch in the office, and
Speaker 1: sometimes I leave it on and turn off the bulbs
Speaker 1: with my voice. So when I turn off the light switch,
Speaker 1: I can't then turn on the bulbs with my voice.
Speaker 1: And if I leave them on and turn them off
Speaker 1: with my voice, then the switch I have to flip
Speaker 1: it down and then back up to turn them on.
Speaker 1: So with these new smart switches, they will actually allow
Speaker 1: you to turn your lights on and off. You can
Speaker 1: dim them and control them away from home with just
Speaker 1: the voice assistant or an app. And what's really cool
Speaker 1: about that is that, let's say you have someone come
Speaker 1: to your house and turn off all the light switches
Speaker 1: like they normally would do when they leave a room,
Speaker 1: then you can't control your light bulbs from afar. So
Speaker 1: let's say you wanna Let's say you're on vage. Okay,
Speaker 1: let me give you a scenario. Let's say I don't know.
Speaker 1: Let's say I'm in New York City. My wife is
Speaker 1: going to meet me in New York. Right, I'm there
Speaker 1: day early for work. Right, she comes out of the house,
Speaker 1: she turns off all the lights, and then she meets
Speaker 1: me in New York And I said, oh no, I
Speaker 1: want to leave those lights on so I can make
Speaker 1: it look like someone's at our house, right and have
Speaker 1: these lights turn on and off throughout the day. Well,
Speaker 1: if you have one of these smart switches, even if
Speaker 1: she flipped the switch off, you'll still be able to
Speaker 1: control those light bulbs from afar using the app or
Speaker 1: your voice or whatever. And I think that's pretty useful.
Speaker 1: So in fact, it's nice too because you don't even
Speaker 1: have to wire your house for new switches. You just
Speaker 1: use the switches that GE has and you can now
Speaker 1: dim your lights and turn them on, turn them off
Speaker 1: whatever you want, and it's fully controllable from the app
Speaker 1: or the light switches. So I think that's a really
Speaker 1: nice edition. So again c by GE, I think they're
Speaker 1: doing some cool stuff and we're gonna see a lot
Speaker 1: more of this in the future as well. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about Apple. Oh my gosh, Apple, Apple Apple. This was
Speaker 1: one of the biggest stories of the week because Apple
Speaker 1: revised their earnings estimates and they basically said that they
Speaker 1: were gonna make about up to nine billion dollars less
Speaker 1: than they originally thought. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm
Speaker 1: not crying for Apple here. They are still making a
Speaker 1: ton of money. But what happened with Apple is that
Speaker 1: sales of iPhones were not as good as they expected.
Speaker 1: So Apple said they Now, you can read this a
Speaker 1: million different ways, and I'm not gonna go into it
Speaker 1: too too much because it's been said and said and
Speaker 1: over said. So I'm just gonna give you my quick
Speaker 1: thoughts on this. But the bottom line is Apple said, look,
Speaker 1: number one, our phones came out later in the year
Speaker 1: than usual, and so they shipped later, which means that
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter of twenty eighteen, people didn't have
Speaker 1: as much opportunity to purchase their phones. Okay, that could
Speaker 1: be true. Then they said that China was also not
Speaker 1: as strong as they expected, so weak economics in China
Speaker 1: contributed to this less revenue or they expect less revenue.
Speaker 1: And then they also said that folks upgraded their batteries
Speaker 1: because battery replacements. Remember that whole thing with the battery
Speaker 1: where they were throttling the phones and they said, okay, fine,
Speaker 1: we'll let you replace your battery for thirty bucks. Well
Speaker 1: that was throughout the end of the year, so that
Speaker 1: ended actually on December thirty first. Now batteries go up
Speaker 1: to their normal price of I believe I put this
Speaker 1: in my book one hundred and one handy tech tips
Speaker 1: for the iPhone. I believe it was either fifty nine
Speaker 1: or oh gosh, now you're gonna make me find this,
Speaker 1: so let's see battery. I think it was fifty nine dollars. Nope,
Speaker 1: let's see seventy nine dollars. Seventy nine So yeah, So
Speaker 1: the batteries now are okay, between forty nine and seventy
Speaker 1: nine dollars for replacement, depending on your iPhone model. Before
Speaker 1: they were charging twenty nine dollars. So they said a
Speaker 1: lot of people took advantage of that. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I'm buying that. I mean, yes, I think that
Speaker 1: people did take advantage of the battery replacement and it
Speaker 1: did make their phone feel newer because it wasn't as slow,
Speaker 1: But I don't think that is nine billion dollars worth.
Speaker 1: The other thing they did say is that consumers are
Speaker 1: adapting to a world with fewer carrier subsidies, and I
Speaker 1: do agree with that. I think that once we saw
Speaker 1: these carriers stop charging two hundred dollars for a phone,
Speaker 1: and now that the phone is charging is costing closer
Speaker 1: to one thousand dollars, it does make people wait longer
Speaker 1: to upgrade their phone. We're seeing a longer upgrade cycle
Speaker 1: in general because phones are just getting better and you
Speaker 1: don't need a new one all the time. Even I
Speaker 1: see this with my wife, I mean her phone, except
Speaker 1: for the camera. She had an iPhone. What does she have?
Speaker 1: A seven? And I did notice up to the the
Speaker 1: camera is a little bit better. But I think with
Speaker 1: like a ten R or a ten S, the I
Speaker 1: do think the camera actually got a lot better with
Speaker 1: the ten S and the ten R. So if you
Speaker 1: are thinking of upgrading for the camera and you have
Speaker 1: an older device, it is worth it. But the reality
Speaker 1: is you don't necessarily need that. If things are working
Speaker 1: just fine for you, it's fine. So anyway, Apple was
Speaker 1: saying that a lot of these a lot of these
Speaker 1: things all came to fruition at the same time, and
Speaker 1: that impacted their quarterly revenue, and we don't know exactly what,
Speaker 1: you know. They haven't reported the full revenue just yet,
Speaker 1: but when they do, we'll kind of see what happened here.
Speaker 1: But I think the bottom line is people are upgrading
Speaker 1: their phones less and the iPhone is not as magical
Speaker 1: as it used to be. There are so many other
Speaker 1: options for phones there are so many more people keeping
Speaker 1: their phones for longer, and there's not that one feature
Speaker 1: every year that people are upgrading for, and phones are
Speaker 1: costing a lot more. It's taking people two or three
Speaker 1: years to pay off a phone. So we're gonna follow
Speaker 1: Apple very closely. But I think that the reality is
Speaker 1: this company's still doing very well. I still think that
Speaker 1: they have a lot of great products. But do they
Speaker 1: have that magical product in the pipeline that is just
Speaker 1: going to keep this company going at the speed that
Speaker 1: it was going at for so many years with the
Speaker 1: iPhone and the iPad? I don't know. So a question
Speaker 1: from Purple Butterfly, Let's see, Oh Pamela, Okay, Pamela, Purple Butterfly, Hello, Rich,
Speaker 1: is there's still a wish list on the iOS app store?
Speaker 1: I know there used to be one, but now I
Speaker 1: can't seem to find it. And the answer Pamela is no,
Speaker 1: And I agree, what a bummer. Apparently Apple removed us
Speaker 1: this in iOS eleven. And I'm not sure why I
Speaker 1: loved having the wish list, because a lot of times
Speaker 1: you hear about apps that you're not necessarily ready to download,
Speaker 1: and you just want to keep them on like a
Speaker 1: little list so that you can refer to them later.
Speaker 1: And I used to keep a lot of things on
Speaker 1: my wish list, but now it's gone, So I will
Speaker 1: be honest, I have not found a good way to
Speaker 1: keep these things in a I have lots of different
Speaker 1: lists and lots of different places, and when I need
Speaker 1: to find an app that I heard about, I can
Speaker 1: never seem to find it myself. So I think maybe
Speaker 1: the best thing to do is just share the app
Speaker 1: to you know, you can use the share button inside
Speaker 1: the app store to share it to whatever you like.
Speaker 1: So if that's maybe a list in reminders, maybe it's
Speaker 1: a list in ever note, Maybe it's your email and
Speaker 1: then you tag it with something so you can find
Speaker 1: it later, or maybe on your notes app, you can
Speaker 1: create a special list of you know, a list called
Speaker 1: wish list or a folder called wish list, however you
Speaker 1: want to do it. But Pamela, I agree. I don't
Speaker 1: know why they got rid of that, but I guess,
Speaker 1: you know, Apple knows what people are using, so I
Speaker 1: guess maybe just people weren't using it as much, or
Speaker 1: they just figure people have their lists and their reminders
Speaker 1: in so many different places that they just don't need
Speaker 1: a dedicated wish list inside the app store. Speaking of apps,
Speaker 1: it is a new year, so I know a lot
Speaker 1: of you are looking for ways to kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: change things up in twenty nineteen, get healthy again, get
Speaker 1: more mindful. So so on KTLA, we did a couple
Speaker 1: segments with some apps that we looked at. We researched
Speaker 1: a bunch of them. I narrowed it down to six
Speaker 1: that I kind of liked for getting fit and having
Speaker 1: some more wellness in your life and mindfulness in your
Speaker 1: life in twenty nineteen. So let me go over some
Speaker 1: of these apps. Carrot Fit, this is kind of an
Speaker 1: interesting one. This is a developer we talked to out
Speaker 1: of Philadelphia, I believe, and he's got this whole bunch
Speaker 1: of apps, this whole family of apps based around this
Speaker 1: snarky character named Carrot, and this app rewards you for
Speaker 1: getting stuff done and punishes you for failing to get
Speaker 1: stuff done. So his name is Brian Mueller. He is
Speaker 1: the founder of these Carrot apps, and he basically started
Speaker 1: out with a to do list, found that people like
Speaker 1: this kind of angry motivation or this snarky motivation, and
Speaker 1: came up with a whole bunch of other apps. So
Speaker 1: there's Carrot Fit, there's the to do List, and there's
Speaker 1: a weather app and maybe some others. But the thing
Speaker 1: about this Carrot app is it has a seven minute
Speaker 1: workout which helps you out. So if you have seven
Speaker 1: minutes you want to get a little workout in, check
Speaker 1: out car Fit. Charity Miles is an app that is
Speaker 1: kind of cool because you're basically using your movements to
Speaker 1: help charities. So after you complete a workout, it will
Speaker 1: tell you how much money you raised for a charity
Speaker 1: that you choose, and they work with a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of different charities and the way they do this is
Speaker 1: various brands sponsor kind of the donations that they're gonna
Speaker 1: give to the charity. So after your workout, it will
Speaker 1: tell you how much you raised and also who handed
Speaker 1: over that money on your behalf. Now, when it comes
Speaker 1: to music, I'm a big fan of music for my
Speaker 1: workouts and I'm always kind of trying to find the
Speaker 1: best music to get me motivated. This is a really
Speaker 1: cool app. It's called fit Radio and they have a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of playlists specifically for working out. And these
Speaker 1: playlists are programmed by DJs. So it's got like clublike
Speaker 1: mixes that have certain beats, certain genres, all in an
Speaker 1: effort to help you move and you know, complement the
Speaker 1: exercise that you're doing. So if you're on a spinning by,
Speaker 1: it'll help you with that, if you're running, it'll help
Speaker 1: you with that, if you're you know, whatever you're doing
Speaker 1: working out. I personally always kind of like music remixes
Speaker 1: for my workouts. So if there's like a pop song
Speaker 1: that I like, or any sort of song that I like,
Speaker 1: I usually like the remix of it for working out
Speaker 1: specifically because I think that it, you know, just speeds
Speaker 1: up the beat a little bit more when you're working
Speaker 1: out now when it comes to being more mindful. In
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, couple of apps to try. One of them
Speaker 1: is called pocket Yoga, and this is a very simple app,
Speaker 1: but it has two hundred illustrated poses or more than that,
Speaker 1: along with detailed voice instructions, so you can do all
Speaker 1: the different poses like bird of Paradise or sleeping swan
Speaker 1: or what's the other one, don't there's so warrior pose.
Speaker 1: I'm not a big yoga person. I would love to be,
Speaker 1: but I need to stretch more, but I guess yoga
Speaker 1: to help me with that. But this is an app
Speaker 1: that's three dollars and it also runs on all the
Speaker 1: different platforms, so you've got Android, you got iOS and
Speaker 1: also Apple TV, so if you want to practice at home.
Speaker 1: But Yoga, I know a lot of people love it
Speaker 1: for when it comes to kind of mindfulness and just
Speaker 1: a general well being, So pocket Yoga can maybe help
Speaker 1: you with that. Headspace this is one of the more
Speaker 1: popular mindfulness apps meditation. It's funny because I guess they
Speaker 1: all have to do with meditation, but you don't necessarily
Speaker 1: hear that word thrown around because it's very intimidating. And
Speaker 1: I agree meditation sounds like something that takes a lot
Speaker 1: of work and a lot of effort in something I
Speaker 1: might not know how to do as a layperson. So
Speaker 1: Headspace helps you practice mindfulness and it's one of the
Speaker 1: more popular meditation apps out there. They've got all kinds
Speaker 1: of different little programs you can do, including a daily
Speaker 1: a daily program. Let's see. Do they even call it
Speaker 1: a daily meditation on there? I'm not sure, but I've
Speaker 1: had this on my phone and I will admit, oh,
Speaker 1: they call it everyday Headspace, so will and intention is
Speaker 1: today's but they have all kinds stuff. They've got courses,
Speaker 1: basic courses. Then you can go into the library and
Speaker 1: find all kinds of things for stress and anxiety, a sleep,
Speaker 1: personal growth, growth, work and productivity, oh my gosh, physical health, students, kids.
Speaker 1: They even have Headspace Kids, which I've wanted to try
Speaker 1: with my kids. I've done a little bit, but I
Speaker 1: feel like they can't sis still enough to listen to
Speaker 1: these things. But if you want to just try out
Speaker 1: Headspace without even downloading the app, you can actually just
Speaker 1: ask Lexa or Google just say open Headspace and you'll
Speaker 1: get a little sample of what you can expect. But
Speaker 1: according to the person we interviewed at Headspace, they say
Speaker 1: that you can reduce stress in just ten days of
Speaker 1: using the product for just ten minutes a day, So
Speaker 1: I say it's worth it. I'm going to try to
Speaker 1: do it this year, so I'll let you know how
Speaker 1: it feels. But I know our society is so always on.
Speaker 1: It's really tough to just stop for a moment and
Speaker 1: just be But I'm gonna try to be better about that.
Speaker 1: But I find I get nervous even if I'm not
Speaker 1: doing something for like five ten minutes, so I need
Speaker 1: to get over that. And finally, one more app called Pacifica.
Speaker 1: This is a little bit more focused on kind of
Speaker 1: like serious stress and anxiety. So this app has daily
Speaker 1: tools for stress, anxiety, and depression. It's based on cognitive
Speaker 1: behavioral therapy, so it has like deep breathing exercises, positive
Speaker 1: visualizations and more. But this is like a serious one.
Speaker 1: So Pacifica if you're really serious about stress and anxiety
Speaker 1: and you want to do something to help yourself with that.
Speaker 1: It's got a built in health tracker to help you
Speaker 1: track your daily mood so you can look for patterns.
Speaker 1: So if you're, you know, feeling down at your job
Speaker 1: every day and you're sitting there wondering like what's going on?
Speaker 1: I really, you know, I have good days, I have
Speaker 1: bad days. If you really want to track that and see, Okay,
Speaker 1: well maybe I notice like every Friday I'm happy, but
Speaker 1: the rest of the week I'm not so happy. So
Speaker 1: maybe you can kind of see the patterns, and this
Speaker 1: app can help you identify those patterns and help you
Speaker 1: do something about them. I'm not a doctor, I'm not
Speaker 1: an expert, but I think that these things could definitely
Speaker 1: help you because it's not just about exercising or just
Speaker 1: about you know, being with friends. You know you have
Speaker 1: to look inside a little bit. In this day and
Speaker 1: age of twenty four to seven, always on all right?
Speaker 1: Another email here from Mark pawsin Hey Rich. As a
Speaker 1: solo operator of a small business, I use Google Suite,
Speaker 1: seventeen hats and a couple other third party providers. We
Speaker 1: use iPhones, iPads and a MacBook. My question is what's
Speaker 1: your recommendation for backing everything up? Also the best affordable
Speaker 1: way to clean out all the crap on my aging MacBook,
Speaker 1: that is without having to go file by file which
Speaker 1: would take forever. Thanks for any help, Mark Powsin. Mark,
Speaker 1: I think it's tough to tell exactly what you want
Speaker 1: to back up. But if you're backing up a business,
Speaker 1: so with something like a MacBook, well, I mean, if
Speaker 1: you have all three Apple products, I think iCloud is
Speaker 1: definitely the easiest to kind of just have an overall
Speaker 1: backup of whatever you've got on there. But then I
Speaker 1: think after that, when it comes to a MacBook, you're
Speaker 1: definitely gonna have to plug in external drive and do
Speaker 1: a time capsule backup and that will take a snapshot
Speaker 1: of your entire system, and I would definitely do that
Speaker 1: as well. So I think with iPhone and iPad you're
Speaker 1: going to be covered with iCloud. With the MacBook, definitely
Speaker 1: do a time capsule backup. You can also do something
Speaker 1: like a you know, like a back blaze or something
Speaker 1: like that crash Plan, Carbonite backblaze. You know, there's so
Speaker 1: many of these little like all in one backup solutions online.
Speaker 1: You can check out one of those and see which
Speaker 1: one you think is going to work the best for you.
Speaker 1: But you know you want to have your stuff backed
Speaker 1: up all the time. And also Google Photos if you
Speaker 1: just want to back up your pictures, you can use that.
Speaker 1: But the thing about your aging MacBook, if you want
Speaker 1: to do a nice clean out of that, I recommend
Speaker 1: clean my Mac. That's the program that I use, and
Speaker 1: I find it to be very helpful. It will ferret
Speaker 1: out all those old files, all the big files, clean
Speaker 1: up all the garbage, like you said, the crap, and
Speaker 1: I find that I've relied on that for many years
Speaker 1: now and it does a great job. I think the
Speaker 1: best thing that you can do is if you have
Speaker 1: an aging MacBook, you probably want to format that hard
Speaker 1: drive and start all over at some point, So when
Speaker 1: you're mentally ready to do that, make sure you have
Speaker 1: a good backup, and then wipe the thing clean using utility,
Speaker 1: which is built into the Mac. You have to come
Speaker 1: up with a way to restore the operating system on there,
Speaker 1: which you can create a little thumb drive and install
Speaker 1: like the latest Mac operating system on there and just
Speaker 1: literally do a full format of your entire system and
Speaker 1: then reinstall the latest operating system from the thumb drive.
Speaker 1: And when you do that, I think you're going to
Speaker 1: find that your computer is going to work a whole
Speaker 1: lot better. I actually do this as a rule pretty
Speaker 1: much every year as the new systems come out. I
Speaker 1: did not do it with high Sierra, but I did
Speaker 1: do it with Mojave or Mahave, Mahave, Mojave. I don't
Speaker 1: know however you say that I didn't grow up in California,
Speaker 1: but I did do it with Mojave and it worked
Speaker 1: very nicely. And it's just nice because as you use
Speaker 1: your computer for a long time, a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: builds up on there, and it's just nice to kind
Speaker 1: of start fresh, get all that stuff off of there.
Speaker 1: I'm always testing out a lot of apps, So the
Speaker 1: fact that I can go through and start fresh and
Speaker 1: install just the apps I need, it's nice. But the
Speaker 1: problem is you do lose a lot of stuff in
Speaker 1: the process, not files and stuff, but just configurations. You
Speaker 1: got to download and start over with everything. So maybe
Speaker 1: every other year is easier to do if you're running
Speaker 1: a business. Some people are really hesitant to do that.
Speaker 1: I personally love it with my phones and my computers
Speaker 1: because I'm testing so much stuff. It's nice to have
Speaker 1: that clean start. Let's end things today with the snack Bot.
Speaker 1: So if you're a student at the University of the
Speaker 1: Pacific in Stockton, California, there is a new visitor on campus.
Speaker 1: It is called the Snackbot. This is an outdoor, self
Speaker 1: driving robot that brings snacks and beverages right to students.
Speaker 1: And I would love this. When I was at USC,
Speaker 1: we did not have anything like this. You actually had
Speaker 1: to go downstairs to pick up something. In fact, students
Speaker 1: are probably so spoiled now because you have all these
Speaker 1: delivery services that yeah, we had like delivery, but it
Speaker 1: was like pizza, Chinese food. It wasn't like now now
Speaker 1: it's like I think kids live on this grub Hub
Speaker 1: and all these different delivery services where you can have
Speaker 1: Postmates anything delivered to your dorm. And I didn't have
Speaker 1: the money for that. I don't know how people would
Speaker 1: afford that, but you know, I was a broke college kid,
Speaker 1: so I was eating as many free meals as I
Speaker 1: could find. And yeah, anyway, so this is let's see,
Speaker 1: PepsiCo is putting these things on campus. So you might think,
Speaker 1: oh gosh, what are they stocked with? Well, Hello Goodness
Speaker 1: apparently is a portfolio of better stuff. Let's see Hello Goodness.
Speaker 1: So this is a portfolio I guess better foods for
Speaker 1: you from Pepsi. So what are those foods? Smart Food,
Speaker 1: Baked Lays, sun Chips, Pure Leaf Tea, Bubbly Life water,
Speaker 1: and Starbucks cold Brew. Oh that's funny. We actually have
Speaker 1: this vending machine at KTLA. It's held Hello Goodness. I
Speaker 1: didn't realize that was like a brand from PepsiCo. So
Speaker 1: it's I guess the lighter stuff that they sell. That's
Speaker 1: you know, less sugar, you know, better for you kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. But those are the things that are inside
Speaker 1: this little vending machine. And here's how it works. From
Speaker 1: nine to five nine am to five pm use the
Speaker 1: snackbot app on campus and it will deliver the items
Speaker 1: to more than fifty designated areas across the one hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy five acre campus. So let's say you have
Speaker 1: a break between classes. You can have this little snack
Speaker 1: bot show up at your class outside your class and
Speaker 1: you can just I guess, open the top of it
Speaker 1: and pull out your snack. So it's fun. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's vending machines all around campus in general, but these
Speaker 1: are cool because they have a you know, they're rolling around.
Speaker 1: It's just cool looking. So they have a range of
Speaker 1: twenty miles on a charge, they have cameras and headlights
Speaker 1: that allow them to see and navigate in full dark
Speaker 1: or even the rain, and they have all wheel capabilities
Speaker 1: so they can handle curbs and steep hills. So if
Speaker 1: you're at the University of the Pacific, you have to
Speaker 1: have one of their email addresses, so presumably a student
Speaker 1: or faculty. The app is available for iOS, but pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Robbie Technologies is the company I guess that's making the robot,
Speaker 1: So Robbie dot io if you want to learn more
Speaker 1: about that. But I just think this is a who
Speaker 1: the fact that these little robots are scurring around on campus.
Speaker 1: I mean, how fun is that? Right? And I'm sure
Speaker 1: a lot of students are probably just trying this out
Speaker 1: just to see what it's all about. All right, couple
Speaker 1: of housekeeping notes before I go. First Off, thanks to
Speaker 1: everyone who purchased the book over the holidays. I know
Speaker 1: it was very much sold out through Amazon one hundred
Speaker 1: and one handy tech tips for the iPhone. The reviews
Speaker 1: are coming in. If you bought the book, please review
Speaker 1: it on Amazon obviously, if it's a positive review. If
Speaker 1: it's a negative review, get in touch with me, because
Speaker 1: there's a couple of them on there that I'm kind
Speaker 1: of like, huh, it's kind of weird because you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of these negative reviews are a little suspect.
Speaker 1: They're very not very specific. So the reviews that people
Speaker 1: are leaving are very the positive reviews are very specific.
Speaker 1: The negative reviews are very vague, and so I'm kind
Speaker 1: of like, Okay, did you really read it? Did you
Speaker 1: really don't like this book because it didn't have the
Speaker 1: one tip you needed? Whatever you're saying, So anyway, leave
Speaker 1: those reviews. It really helps people when they're finding this book.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much to everyone who purchased it. I
Speaker 1: really do appreciate it, and you guys for the most part.
Speaker 1: From what I'm seeing from the reviews and also the
Speaker 1: emails and tweets, you guys are loving it, so I'm
Speaker 1: glad I was able to do that for you guys.
Speaker 1: I do have signed copies available as well, so if
Speaker 1: you want to sign copy from me, you can go
Speaker 1: to my website rich on tech dot Tv. There's a
Speaker 1: banner at the top that says order a signed copy
Speaker 1: and I will get that out to you as well.
Speaker 1: If you want to hear me on another podcast, I'm
Speaker 1: in a podcast called The News Director's Office. This is
Speaker 1: a podcast that they produce at KTLA with my boss Jason.
Speaker 1: He is the news director here, which is basically the
Speaker 1: person in charge of the news at KTLA. He interviews
Speaker 1: interesting folks in the news business. So this is kind
Speaker 1: of more behind the scenes. So if you're interested in
Speaker 1: me as a human, how I got here, how my
Speaker 1: career started, and all that good stuff, then definitely check
Speaker 1: out the podcast. It's called The News Director's Office News
Speaker 1: Director's Office, and you can find it on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 1: The episode that I was in was on January third,
Speaker 1: So again, if you want to hear more about me,
Speaker 1: learn more about me, how I got here, what it's
Speaker 1: like to cover technology for a living. That's all in
Speaker 1: the podcast, and it's fun. It's a fun little listen,
Speaker 1: and you know, if you're curious about that stuff and
Speaker 1: me as a person a little bit more behind the
Speaker 1: scenes inside baseball, definitely check that one out. That's going
Speaker 1: to do it for this episode of the show. If
Speaker 1: you want notes to everything I talked about, check out
Speaker 1: the show notes or go to my website rich on Tech. Again,
Speaker 1: this is the year of Instagram for me, So if
Speaker 1: you're not following me on Instagram, I am at rich
Speaker 1: on Tech. Thanks so much for all of your emails
Speaker 1: and tweets and messages. Keep them coming and let me
Speaker 1: know what you like. I'm also doing a lot more
Speaker 1: little videos on Instagram, kind of like how to's, behind
Speaker 1: the scenes, all that good stuff. So let me know
Speaker 1: what you think of those, and please share them with
Speaker 1: your friends. Thanks so much for listening. I'm rich damiro
Speaker 1: This is rich on Tech. I'll talk to you real soon.