Speaker 1: My review of Samsung's new foldable phones. Apple makes some
Speaker 1: big changes to the app store kind of sort of,
Speaker 1: plus your tech questions answered. What's going on? I'm Rich
Speaker 1: Temiro 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, and it's also the place where I answer
Speaker 1: the questions you send me. I'm the tech reporter at
Speaker 1: KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: Coming to you this time around from Las Vegas. So
Speaker 1: if it sounds just a little bit different, that is
Speaker 1: why I'm sitting here in the MGM Park or is
Speaker 1: it Park MGM. It's one of those park MGM. So
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here in the Park MGM, which I have
Speaker 1: not stayed in for many many years. In fact, I
Speaker 1: think it was my bachelor party the last time I
Speaker 1: stayed in this hotel. They've totally redone it, and I
Speaker 1: got to say it's quite nice, you know. I like
Speaker 1: the room. It's kind of hip, it's young, it's modern.
Speaker 1: It's a smoke free casino, which is really unique. And
Speaker 1: you know, even though I do sound a little stuffy,
Speaker 1: probably because I'm in Las Vegas, that's to be expected.
Speaker 1: It's such a breath of fresh air when you can
Speaker 1: be on that casino floor and not really have the
Speaker 1: cigarette smoke, which you know, that's a choice, that's a
Speaker 1: choice that they made. They probably lose a lot of
Speaker 1: people that may not stay here or come here if
Speaker 1: they don't want to deal with that. So anyway, I
Speaker 1: kind of like it. One thing I noticed in the
Speaker 1: room there is no alarm clock. So, like I said,
Speaker 1: this is kind of a hotel geared towards millennials, and
Speaker 1: it's young, it's hip, it's fresh, and no alarm clock,
Speaker 1: which is kind of interesting because I'm taken aback by that.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, when was the last time
Speaker 1: I used an alarm clock in a hotel room. In fact,
Speaker 1: I don't even look at the time on the alarm
Speaker 1: clock in the hotel room because it's off half the time.
Speaker 1: The things are not set. There is a short period
Speaker 1: of time for a couple of years when all hotel
Speaker 1: rooms had an iPhone dock. Do you remember this. You
Speaker 1: go into the room and it'd have a dock for
Speaker 1: your thirty pin connector iPhone, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: Apple switched to the lightning connector and no hotel ever
Speaker 1: updated those docks. It was like either too expensive or
Speaker 1: they're just like, ah, we got burned one time, we're
Speaker 1: not doing it again. So you never really find an
Speaker 1: iPhone doc. But I was thinking about it. The one
Speaker 1: thing that I would like in a hotel room is
Speaker 1: like a Bluetooth speaker, you know, a way to connect,
Speaker 1: and I've been in a couple rooms where they have that,
Speaker 1: but it's not a big feature that you see in
Speaker 1: a lot of places. So anyway, I'm here in Las
Speaker 1: Vegas for a new attraction they're opening. It's called the Flyover,
Speaker 1: and it's basically if you've ever been on like the
Speaker 1: Back to the Future ride at Universal back in the
Speaker 1: day or the Soar and Ride at California Adventure, it's
Speaker 1: very similar to that, except a little bit more high
Speaker 1: tech because the thing moves in more ways. So I
Speaker 1: was very impressed. I'll have that story on KTLA soon
Speaker 1: and of course you can experience it here in Las Vegas.
Speaker 1: It's opening very soon. And then the other thing that
Speaker 1: I checked out, and I'm just giving you lots of
Speaker 1: inside details here. The other thing I checked out. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you saw the story about elon Musk
Speaker 1: living in this fifty thousand dollars tiny home. While I
Speaker 1: tracked down the company, I said, can we come and
Speaker 1: see this tiny house? And can we see it most
Speaker 1: importantly unfolding. It's a house that unfolds, and they said, sure,
Speaker 1: come on by. And it took a lot of wrangling
Speaker 1: and figuring out and coordinating, but I did get out
Speaker 1: here to see that, and I gotta say, pretty impressive,
Speaker 1: Like I want this thing in my backyard so badly,
Speaker 1: and I'm trying to like jump to the top of
Speaker 1: the list by saying, like I could really use one
Speaker 1: of these, but they just weren't having it. So I
Speaker 1: can't wait to show you that story. I actually got
Speaker 1: to open full help unfold, I guess you can say
Speaker 1: the house, which was kind of cool. So all in all,
Speaker 1: I'd say it was a very successful four hours in
Speaker 1: Las Vegas. A quick trip, but I always love coming
Speaker 1: here because there's always something new and there's always something interesting,
Speaker 1: and you know, I just enjoy it. So we had
Speaker 1: a great time yesterday and let's get out with the podcast.
Speaker 1: Oh one more thing that I did at the park MGM,
Speaker 1: because it's so high tech and you know, everything is
Speaker 1: touchless these days. It's really fascinating to see just how
Speaker 1: much impact the pandemic has had on the technology that
Speaker 1: companies are using, and especially hotels, restaurants, the mobile ordering.
Speaker 1: We've seen all of that, but this was one of
Speaker 1: the first times that I actually checked into the hotel
Speaker 1: fully from the phone. And I've done that on Hilton before,
Speaker 1: and I've used my Hilton app as a digital key,
Speaker 1: but this was something that I was not a member
Speaker 1: of before. So I literally in the lobby. I saw
Speaker 1: there was a self check in and I said, oh,
Speaker 1: that's really interesting, but you had to scan a QR code.
Speaker 1: But to get that QR you had to, I guess,
Speaker 1: somehow go on your phone. So I ended up downloading
Speaker 1: the MGM app and somehow it found my reservation. I
Speaker 1: have no idea how. It said, hey, is this your reservation?
Speaker 1: And I said yeah, And next thing, you know, he said, okay, well,
Speaker 1: let's just check you in right here on the app.
Speaker 1: And so I went through the process and at one
Speaker 1: point the two things I had to enter was my
Speaker 1: date of birth and my phone number to verify who
Speaker 1: I was, And somehow they verified who I was based
Speaker 1: on that. So I don't know, the system was pretty cool.
Speaker 1: It worked, and then you know, as soon as I
Speaker 1: registered it was all good. I said, we'll tell you
Speaker 1: when your room is ready. I got a notification to
Speaker 1: my phone about a minute later it said, hey, your
Speaker 1: room is ready, and it said you could just use
Speaker 1: a digital key. And I did use my phone as
Speaker 1: the digital key the whole time here, which was cool.
Speaker 1: The only downside to that, if you follow me on Instagram,
Speaker 1: you saw that I've been using this new mag Safe
Speaker 1: wallet on the back of my phone of pop sockets,
Speaker 1: and that does not play nicely with the digital key,
Speaker 1: so you have to remove that from the back of
Speaker 1: your phone. And basically your I'm guessing uses a Bluetooth
Speaker 1: beacon or some sort of It must spit out like
Speaker 1: a Bluetooth code or something. I'm not really sure. It
Speaker 1: could be RFID, but I don't know if the iPhone
Speaker 1: can generate an RFID. I'm not really sure how it works.
Speaker 1: I should find this out. I should know this stuff
Speaker 1: as a tech as a tech reporter. But it worked
Speaker 1: every time, and I would say, the only downside to
Speaker 1: that is if your phone dies. So we were in
Speaker 1: a situation out in the desert here recording our story,
Speaker 1: and my phone just of course overheated in like five minutes.
Speaker 1: And so if that was the case and I wasn't
Speaker 1: able or the battery fully died, and you were coming
Speaker 1: back to your room, that would be a little bit
Speaker 1: of a bit of a problem because you would have
Speaker 1: to stop at the front desk and get a key.
Speaker 1: But the other one more thing, I'm not gonna harp
Speaker 1: on all this stuff, but one more thing that was
Speaker 1: kind of interesting. I've never seen this before with a
Speaker 1: self check in area they had here at the Park MGM.
Speaker 1: They had one of those machines where you actually code
Speaker 1: your own key, So they just had a stack of
Speaker 1: room keys and a machine where you tap the room
Speaker 1: key to the machine to actually program the key for
Speaker 1: your room. And I thought that was pretty wild because
Speaker 1: I get the whole digital your phone is a digital key,
Speaker 1: but to actually sit there and like code a key,
Speaker 1: like you're literally like a front desk clerk at that point.
Speaker 1: So now I personally like this kind of stuff. I've
Speaker 1: always liked self service. I think that it's interesting. You know,
Speaker 1: you always hope for the upgrade at the hotel, but
Speaker 1: I've come to the conclusion that that rarely happens, so
Speaker 1: I've kind of decided the self service, the self check
Speaker 1: in is is better anyway. So, by the way, one
Speaker 1: more tip if you're ever here in Las Vegas, definitely
Speaker 1: try to eat at the Nomad Bar or look at
Speaker 1: the Nomad Restaurant. They're so cool. One of the coolest
Speaker 1: places I visited when I was in New York City,
Speaker 1: and they have an outpost here and I probably mentioned
Speaker 1: this on the podcast before, but it's such a cool place,
Speaker 1: just such a cool ambiance. And I got the burger
Speaker 1: last night and it was fantastic. So all right, let's
Speaker 1: start with some of the news this week. All right,
Speaker 1: let's start with my review of Samsung's foldable phone. So
Speaker 1: I have talked about them a little bit on the podcast,
Speaker 1: but I've been playing with the Fold three and the
Speaker 1: Flip three. I'm gonna take a little sip of my
Speaker 1: coffee here since I'm doing this in the morning, but
Speaker 1: the fold Let's start with the Fold three. So now here,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. If you read my review on KTLA
Speaker 1: dot com, you know, or you can go to Rich
Speaker 1: on tech dot tv for the link. You might say, oh, Rich,
Speaker 1: you're you're a little harsh on these phones. Well, here's
Speaker 1: the thing. I want to be harsh because you have
Speaker 1: to know what you're getting into. These are not phones
Speaker 1: for the masses just yet. Now, the Flip three is
Speaker 1: very close to that, and I have no problems recommending
Speaker 1: that phone with some with some caveats, the Fold three
Speaker 1: is definitely a very ambitious phone. It is something that
Speaker 1: is not for everyone. Do I love it? Yes, I
Speaker 1: think it's awesome. Do I think it's really cool? Of course,
Speaker 1: You've got this little screen on the outside that you
Speaker 1: can do stuff on, but then it opens up to
Speaker 1: this giant screen on the inside, which is basically kind
Speaker 1: of like a tablet, kind of like a kindle, kind
Speaker 1: of like a cool way to watch videos. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just a nice big screen. So if you're traveling
Speaker 1: a lot, it's amazing. Now, with that said, this phone
Speaker 1: is bulky, it's heavy. You know, we don't know about
Speaker 1: the long term durability of these screens. I think that's
Speaker 1: a big question mark. But here's the thing. If you're
Speaker 1: spending eighteen hundred dollars on a cutting edge device, I
Speaker 1: don't think you're expecting to use this phone for three
Speaker 1: four years. I just don't. I think you're the kind
Speaker 1: of person that's probably buying a phone every year or
Speaker 1: every other year, more likely every year, and so for
Speaker 1: that reason, you probably are going to trade this in
Speaker 1: next year when the new one comes out. So the
Speaker 1: screen thing is probably not that big of a deal
Speaker 1: because Samsung's also giving you. I think it's one free fix. Overall.
Speaker 1: It's the phone is fast, it's really snappy. The cameras
Speaker 1: are good on this thing. They're not Samsung's best, but
Speaker 1: they're really good. I have no problems with them. You
Speaker 1: get that big, giant screen on the inside, you get
Speaker 1: the small screen on the outside, which is kind of cramped.
Speaker 1: Especially like every time I wanted to do something on
Speaker 1: the small screen, I would just end up opening it
Speaker 1: up to the big screens. I'm like, why am I
Speaker 1: messing with this tiny screen? Like, let me just look
Speaker 1: at something on the big screen. And so you do that.
Speaker 1: The opening close is you know, I'd like a little
Speaker 1: bit more of like a click, like a you know,
Speaker 1: a solid like okay, this is open, click, this is
Speaker 1: closed click. When you close it, there's definitely a little
Speaker 1: bit more of like a click, But when you open it,
Speaker 1: there's like no you don't really know when it's fully
Speaker 1: open except the fact that it's open. Let's see, I
Speaker 1: mentioned that it's eighteen hundred dollars. Everyone's gonna have questions.
Speaker 1: Everyone that sees this phone thinks it's really cool, but
Speaker 1: that's not a reason to get it. The main problem
Speaker 1: is that this technology is not all there yet. So
Speaker 1: when these two sides fold together, they don't completely meet
Speaker 1: in the middle. There is a gap between the screens,
Speaker 1: and obviously what I would expect this phone to evolve
Speaker 1: to is being half of the size folded and the
Speaker 1: screens would fold completely flat. But with all that said,
Speaker 1: I don't think this is a bad phone. I think
Speaker 1: that it's a really cool phone, and if I was
Speaker 1: traveling a lot, I think that I would definitely consider
Speaker 1: this because it's such a you know, you get your kindle,
Speaker 1: you get your big screen for watching Netflix, and then
Speaker 1: you get, you know, a nice screen that you can
Speaker 1: do stuff. The g board, the Google keyboard is not
Speaker 1: really optimized for such a big screen, so I'd probably
Speaker 1: recommend using the Samsung keyboard. All right, now, let's move
Speaker 1: on to the Flip three. This phone is easily more recommendable.
Speaker 1: I say in my review it is narrow and long,
Speaker 1: so when you open it up, there is some weight
Speaker 1: issues where you know, if you're balancing it on your hand,
Speaker 1: it could fall over, you know, because it's it's a
Speaker 1: little top heavy with the cameras on the top, but
Speaker 1: not a deal breaker. It's not easy to open and
Speaker 1: close with one hand, and I think that's a big
Speaker 1: deal because if you remember back to the motorole Eraser
Speaker 1: and all those flip phones, they were very easy to
Speaker 1: open and close with just one hand. You kind of
Speaker 1: use your thumb to get in between. You flip it open,
Speaker 1: you do your stuff, boop boop poop, and you close it.
Speaker 1: Phone feels like it should do that. It does not.
Speaker 1: And it also has this weird like the closure mechanism,
Speaker 1: like the it doesn't like have a good snap close
Speaker 1: or a good snap open, so you're not quite sure
Speaker 1: when it's closed. When it's open, it does it, but
Speaker 1: it's not like this reassuring like snap. What else about
Speaker 1: this phone? The cameras on this are definitely a weak point.
Speaker 1: It's they're they're not even they're good, They're not great.
Speaker 1: You're gonna be just fine if you don't really care
Speaker 1: about the best cameras in the world. You're gonna take
Speaker 1: everyday pictures with this thing. It's gonna be just fine.
Speaker 1: I noticed in low light a little slow, little laggy.
Speaker 1: It takes a little bit longer than you'd think to
Speaker 1: take a picture, and they don't come out as good
Speaker 1: as the iPhone. But again, this is a really cool phone.
Speaker 1: This one's one thousand dollars, so it's still very expensive,
Speaker 1: but you're probably gonna be trading in another phone, which
Speaker 1: is gonna bring the price down, or you might get
Speaker 1: a a you know, some sort of promotion from your carrier.
Speaker 1: But you know, I like it. I it's the phone
Speaker 1: that I would personally switch to if I was gonna
Speaker 1: switch to a foldable. And I say my review that
Speaker 1: I think it's one generation from being perfect. It's close,
Speaker 1: but it's not there just yet. So if you want
Speaker 1: to read my full review and also watch my video
Speaker 1: on the foldables from Samsung, you can go to rich
Speaker 1: on tech dot tv click the link, or you can
Speaker 1: download the KTLA plus app and you can watch it
Speaker 1: right there now. Because I'm on the road, I don't
Speaker 1: have my little music for the people that email me.
Speaker 1: But let's start with Donna's question, Donna says, I tried
Speaker 1: your tip about using Spotify to play music on my
Speaker 1: I Watch, and I can't get it to allow me
Speaker 1: to play on the watch. Do I have to pay
Speaker 1: for the upgraded version to have it give me the
Speaker 1: choice of where it plays? Frustrating, I went back and
Speaker 1: looked at your directions and could not find it. Thanks
Speaker 1: for your help. I do like your spot and Channel
Speaker 1: five News. I hope this gets to you. I am old,
Speaker 1: but I'm new at all of this tech stuff. Sincerely, Donna. Well, Donna,
Speaker 1: thanks for your question. So you're referring to the tip
Speaker 1: I put on on Instagram about downloading Spotify music to
Speaker 1: your Apple Watch. So I feel like a lot of
Speaker 1: people just don't know that that's available. And the thing
Speaker 1: about the Apple Watch, I feel like the it's like
Speaker 1: one of these weird things where you don't really need
Speaker 1: the music downloaded to it unless you're running without your
Speaker 1: phone nearby. And I'm trying to think of a scenario
Speaker 1: besides running that you would be listening to music from
Speaker 1: your watch that's actually downloaded to your watch where your
Speaker 1: phone is not nearby, and I can't really think of many.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's scenarios, but to me, in my head,
Speaker 1: the only one I can think of is running. But
Speaker 1: if you're running, you probably want a cellular connection on
Speaker 1: your watch because if there's ever an emergency, if you
Speaker 1: just had your watch, you wouldn't be able to call
Speaker 1: for help. Now, I know that's funny because I've been
Speaker 1: running for twenty years and I've only had that capability
Speaker 1: in the last like three or five or whatever. But
Speaker 1: now that I have it, I can't live without it,
Speaker 1: and I just think it's such a cool future to have.
Speaker 1: So I don't run with my phone. I just run
Speaker 1: with my watch with the music loaded on it. And
Speaker 1: if I ever need help or something, or you know,
Speaker 1: fall into a ditch, I can, you know, call nine
Speaker 1: one one from the cellular capability on the watch. So
Speaker 1: the question that Donna says is do you need to
Speaker 1: have the upgraded version? Yes, you do, so to download
Speaker 1: Spotify to your watch, you have to have Spotify Premium,
Speaker 1: and that is a ten dollars a month fee. I
Speaker 1: think it's worth it because if you don't have it,
Speaker 1: the ads on Spotify are just so so intense. And
Speaker 1: the other thing is that you might be familiar with
Speaker 1: Apple Music that is sort of the default on the
Speaker 1: Apple Watch, and that's been around forever. And they've also
Speaker 1: had the ability to download music from the Apple Music
Speaker 1: to the Apple Watch. That's been pretty much the only
Speaker 1: provider that allows you to do that, except I also
Speaker 1: believe Pandora does. But now you have Spotify. About six
Speaker 1: months ago maybe they announced that they would let you
Speaker 1: do it, so it's still, you know, coming around. But anyway,
Speaker 1: if you want to do this on your Apple Watch,
Speaker 1: you go make sure the Spotify app is installed on
Speaker 1: your Spotify Watch by going into the Watch app on
Speaker 1: your iPhone, I know, very confusing. Then you choose a
Speaker 1: playlist on your iPhone or yeah, I guess iPhone on Spotify,
Speaker 1: and then you click the three little dots underneath the
Speaker 1: playlist name. Like once you're in the playlist, like there's
Speaker 1: like a download button and there's a heart button, and
Speaker 1: then there's three little dots. You press those three little
Speaker 1: dots and it says download to Apple Watch, and you
Speaker 1: tap that and it will sync those songs to your
Speaker 1: Apple Watch, which you can now listen to without a connection.
Speaker 1: The other thing is that sometimes you know, because you
Speaker 1: can you can live stream music as well, but sometimes
Speaker 1: when you're out there in the middle of nowhere, the
Speaker 1: cellular connection is not very good, and so for that reason,
Speaker 1: it's also good to have the music stored on your phone.
Speaker 1: I just like having music store on my phone. You
Speaker 1: never know when you need it. You get a pair
Speaker 1: of Bluetooth ear butt and you can listen you know,
Speaker 1: wherever you are. But yes, you do need Spotify Premium.
Speaker 1: This week, I've also been testing out Pandora Premium because
Speaker 1: I can't believe that there's not a feature on Spotify
Speaker 1: to just shuffle all the music that I've downloaded to
Speaker 1: my phone. Like remember that used to be the main
Speaker 1: feature of the iPod, is that you downloaded a bunch
Speaker 1: of music to your iPod and you could shuffle it.
Speaker 1: Now they still have that feature on the iPhone with
Speaker 1: Apple Music, but it's only music that you've added to
Speaker 1: your library, and so that makes no sense in today's
Speaker 1: day and age, because I don't add any music to
Speaker 1: my library. I download playlists. I've got my country playlist,
Speaker 1: I've got my pop playlist, I've got my indie playlist,
Speaker 1: I've got my chill playlist. And what I want to
Speaker 1: do is make like a shuffle of all of those playlists,
Speaker 1: and as far as I can tell, unless I go
Speaker 1: through and manually add every one of those songs to
Speaker 1: my library, I can't do that on the iPhone. And
Speaker 1: I just want that mixture of like, you know, if
Speaker 1: you're in a market where they have the same called
Speaker 1: like jack FM, that's kind of like an iPod on shuffle.
Speaker 1: It just plays like random songs one after another, and
Speaker 1: you know, it's just good songs that you like, but
Speaker 1: they're not particularly one genre. And I just want that
Speaker 1: on my on my phone because I think that would
Speaker 1: be a really fun way to listen to music. So
Speaker 1: Pandora does offer that. But so you pick your stations
Speaker 1: on Pandora and then you can say shuffle all my
Speaker 1: stations and it'll play a country song and then a
Speaker 1: pop song, and then an indie song and then a
Speaker 1: rock song, whatever you want. But the problem with that
Speaker 1: is that they don't let you download that. They do
Speaker 1: let you download that music offline if you are a
Speaker 1: premium subscriber, which I did like the free trial, but
Speaker 1: then when you're offline, they don't let you shuffle. So
Speaker 1: I'm like, what is going on here with all these music?
Speaker 1: Music services they give you like a little portion of
Speaker 1: what you want, but they don't give you the whole thing.
Speaker 1: So maybe one day we'll get exactly what we want.
Speaker 1: I don't know, let's hope. So all right, so big news.
Speaker 1: You'll probably hear about this news on the news. Apple basically,
Speaker 1: you know, they had this lawsuit and there are it's
Speaker 1: a class action suit from developers, and they say Apple
Speaker 1: puts a nice rosy picture on this that it's gonna,
Speaker 1: you know, really help developers with all of their changes,
Speaker 1: and the reality is they didn't really change much. So
Speaker 1: the big thing if you've been following kind of the
Speaker 1: developer struggle with Apple, is that Apple is amazing. Right,
Speaker 1: you get your app on the App Store and it
Speaker 1: could be liquid gold for you if you have a hit.
Speaker 1: And the thing is Apple makes everything so easy because
Speaker 1: they handle the payments, they handle the customers, they handle
Speaker 1: you know, promotion. If your app is getting a lot
Speaker 1: of good you know buzz, they're gonna put it higher
Speaker 1: in the App Store, They're gonna help surface it to
Speaker 1: more people. But there's also this double edged sort of
Speaker 1: this whole thing where Apple controls the entire experience. So
Speaker 1: if you're a developer and you somehow aren't playing by
Speaker 1: Apple's exact rules. You could be booted at any time
Speaker 1: and there goes your entire app and your livelihood on
Speaker 1: the iPhone. Or if there's a feature in your app
Speaker 1: that Apple doesn't like, they may just not approve it,
Speaker 1: and now you know, you just don't have an app
Speaker 1: that has the feature that you want. So there's a
Speaker 1: lot of things that are not so good. And then also,
Speaker 1: of course this idea of the thirty percent cut that
Speaker 1: Apple takes. Sometimes it's fifteen, but to me, I mean
Speaker 1: it's kind of I always go back to when I
Speaker 1: sold my book on Amazon. Like Amazon, at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, I think it was like forty percent
Speaker 1: of my book price, which was like twenty bucks, went
Speaker 1: to fees. And you know that didn't include the taxes
Speaker 1: I had to pay on the money I made as well.
Speaker 1: But like, you know the fees you know that Amazon
Speaker 1: also charged, you know, shipping, you know, promotion. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's so many fees. By the time you get it,
Speaker 1: it's like half of what you actually sell the book
Speaker 1: for you're getting. And then by the time you do
Speaker 1: taxes it might be you know, I said, I get
Speaker 1: about twenty five pen of the book price at the
Speaker 1: end of the day. So if it was a twenty
Speaker 1: dollars book, I would probably end up with, you know,
Speaker 1: five dollars, which is great because guess what, it's five
Speaker 1: dollars that I didn't have before. And so all of
Speaker 1: those little fees were just kind of the price of
Speaker 1: doing business. And this is what bugs me about businesses
Speaker 1: that charge you an extra four percent to use your
Speaker 1: credit card or debit card or whatever, mostly credit cards,
Speaker 1: because I'm like, well, if I don't spend this money
Speaker 1: here there, you get no money. And so if I'm
Speaker 1: spending my money here, the four percent that you have
Speaker 1: to pay, or the three percent you got to pay
Speaker 1: the visa for the interchange fees or whatever, is just
Speaker 1: kind of the cost of doing business, Like you're accepting
Speaker 1: this convenient way for me to pay. We all know
Speaker 1: that people tend to spend more money when they use
Speaker 1: their their plastic, and so why are we charging me extra?
Speaker 1: Because now I'm gonna use cash, I'm gonna be very
Speaker 1: cognizant of how much I'm spending. I'm gonna have a
Speaker 1: bad user experience. I'm probably not gonna go back to
Speaker 1: your business because it's just annoying, and so for all
Speaker 1: those reasons, I'm kind of like, just just take the
Speaker 1: credit card, don't say a word, and just you know,
Speaker 1: it's like I got my air conditioning redone. And by
Speaker 1: the way, that's one of those things that I call
Speaker 1: it the the fixes that get you back to where
Speaker 1: you were. You know, they fix the air, which, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a little bit colder, but it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: the guy charged like three percent on top just to
Speaker 1: use a card, which was much more convenient than writing
Speaker 1: a check and this and that. But it's like, you're
Speaker 1: charging me so much for this, Like you really got
Speaker 1: to charge me another three percent? And I get it.
Speaker 1: The business margins are very slim. But anyway, I'm going
Speaker 1: off on a tangent here. But so here's what Apple
Speaker 1: says they're going to do. These are like the big
Speaker 1: things that Apple says are going to do. Okay, they
Speaker 1: are going to give businesses earning less than a million
Speaker 1: a reduced commission. So that's I guess better. Apple has
Speaker 1: agreed to keep search the same way for three years,
Speaker 1: which I don't really understand that that seems like a loss,
Speaker 1: but there you go. And this is like the big
Speaker 1: change that it's kind of like it sounds good, but
Speaker 1: it's not that good. So Apple is clarifying that developers
Speaker 1: can use can use communications such as email to share
Speaker 1: information about payment methods outside of their iOS app. So
Speaker 1: if if let's say I sign up for Spotify through
Speaker 1: iTunes or through the app store, right, and I pay
Speaker 1: twelve ninety nine a month, and then you know somehow,
Speaker 1: Now the question is do developers get my email address?
Speaker 1: That's the big question. Okay, I don't know if developers
Speaker 1: get the emails from their users. I guess when you
Speaker 1: sign up you probably do anyway, So I guess Spotify
Speaker 1: can now turn around and say, hey, Rich, you know
Speaker 1: that if you sign up through our website you can
Speaker 1: pay nine to ninety nine a month instead of twelve
Speaker 1: ninety nine a month. And I go, oh, that's cool. Now, yes,
Speaker 1: there will be some people that do that immediately, but
Speaker 1: some people are just gonna say, ah, that it's more convenient
Speaker 1: just to leave the subscription through through Apple, through the
Speaker 1: app store and just leave it at that. But that's
Speaker 1: the main I'm trying to read through some of the
Speaker 1: uh yeah, some of the comments on this on tech meme,
Speaker 1: and you know, a lot of people are saying the
Speaker 1: main thing about this is that they're allowing developers to
Speaker 1: email users and just say, look, you can. I guess
Speaker 1: if you sign up for a service, they're going to
Speaker 1: have your email address if you use like a you know,
Speaker 1: a real email, So no matter what, And here's the thing,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you realize this, but whenever you
Speaker 1: sign up for a service, a lot of them are
Speaker 1: a little bit more expensive if you sign up through
Speaker 1: the app store. So if it's a monthly subscription, it
Speaker 1: may be you know U for Pandora, Let's say it
Speaker 1: might be six dollars a month if you sign up
Speaker 1: through the app Store, but it might be five dollars
Speaker 1: a month if you went to their website and signed up.
Speaker 1: And again it goes back to that charging a little
Speaker 1: bit of a premium. The developers charge a premium because
Speaker 1: they have to pay Apple thirty percent or whatever, h
Speaker 1: fifteen to thirty percent forever on that subscription. So they're like, well,
Speaker 1: if you have to do that, let's just charge people
Speaker 1: a little bit more for that convenience. So now I
Speaker 1: guess the big thing is that Pandora can now email
Speaker 1: me and say, hey, you do have some other options
Speaker 1: for subscriptions. Do you want to put your credit card
Speaker 1: in on our website and get a little cheaper rate?
Speaker 1: And I see both sides. It's like, you know, it
Speaker 1: opens up a lot of things where you can now
Speaker 1: accept bitcoin for your payment, you can accept PayPal, you
Speaker 1: can accept you know, whatever you want. That makes it
Speaker 1: easy for the customers instead of just the you know,
Speaker 1: Apple payment. So it's not a huge huge change, but
Speaker 1: I do think that it will help developers in a
Speaker 1: little bit, just to just to expand and give people
Speaker 1: some options. All right, Again, I don't have my little sound,
Speaker 1: you know, my little sound I make. But let's go
Speaker 1: to the next question. Michael says, Rich, I'm in the
Speaker 1: market for a new tablet for my seven year old daughter.
Speaker 1: Is there a tablet you recommend for her? Also? She
Speaker 1: is a heavy Roadblocks user. Any information you can share
Speaker 1: will be appreciated. Mike, Mike, if I had my buzzer,
Speaker 1: I would say to Roadblocks because it is banned in
Speaker 1: my house. I don't like it. I feel like it's
Speaker 1: a lot of nonsense, and it's just it's one of
Speaker 1: those games that every kid is playing. It's easy, it's convenient,
Speaker 1: there's so much on there. It's free, and the reality
Speaker 1: is they're just getting you on the back end, because
Speaker 1: what kids do is after a while of playing roadblocks,
Speaker 1: what do they want? They just want parents to buy
Speaker 1: the Roebucks and also some of the games on there.
Speaker 1: I just don't like anyway. For that reason, it is
Speaker 1: banned in my house. It has been banned for a
Speaker 1: long time. My kids begged me to play it. Not
Speaker 1: so much my older kid, but my younger kid, you know,
Speaker 1: begs me pretty much every day, please, guy, have an hour, please,
Speaker 1: And I'm so mean, I just say no. But I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm protecting him from something that's just nonsense.
Speaker 1: You know. It's just like, you don't really need this.
Speaker 1: The problem is a lot of kids are playing it,
Speaker 1: and so you kind of take that out of the works.
Speaker 1: Where my kid is very social and he's fine, he
Speaker 1: has other things to talk about with his friends, but
Speaker 1: he said, you know, it's like, oh, this is what
Speaker 1: the kids talk about in class. And so I understand
Speaker 1: that it's tough and I don't know, it's just one
Speaker 1: of these things. But anyway, So the tablet I would
Speaker 1: recommend that I always recommend for every child is the iPad,
Speaker 1: and it used to be the iPad Mini, but they're
Speaker 1: not really updating that as much. So definitely the standard iPad.
Speaker 1: It's you know, it sells for three twenty nine and
Speaker 1: I would go find the deals, so search on Google
Speaker 1: iPad deals or deal and then hit the news tab
Speaker 1: and then you will find all of the people that
Speaker 1: are blogging about the deals on this on this iPad,
Speaker 1: so you can find it typically for you know, anywhere
Speaker 1: from thirty to fifty dollars off, sometimes more. So that's
Speaker 1: what I would recommend. I did test the I know,
Speaker 1: the Amazon Fire Kids tab is very compelling because it's
Speaker 1: so inexpensive, but the reality is I just can't recommend
Speaker 1: that in good faith because the iPad is going to
Speaker 1: last you four years minimum, whereas the tablet from Amazon
Speaker 1: on out of the box is laggy, it's slow, it's cumbersome.
Speaker 1: It's just not a good experience. And that's on day one.
Speaker 1: So imagine three years in your kid's going to be
Speaker 1: pulling their hair out. Now. I get it that it's cheaper,
Speaker 1: but when you do the math over the three years,
Speaker 1: the three hundred dollars that you're gonna spend on the
Speaker 1: iPad is well well worth it. And also there's much
Speaker 1: there's just so much better accessories, so many better accessories,
Speaker 1: I should say, if I'm using the English language properly,
Speaker 1: there's so many better accessories, there's so many better apps,
Speaker 1: And it's just one of those things that it's like
Speaker 1: when you're looking for a case, you're just gonna find
Speaker 1: a better case. When you're looking, you know you want
Speaker 1: to use the Apple pencil, you can use that. You
Speaker 1: know you're looking for apps, and you know you might
Speaker 1: even have an iPhone Mic so it'll work nicely with that.
Speaker 1: But those are all the reasons that I recommend that
Speaker 1: I can't recommend any other tablet. In fact, my kids,
Speaker 1: when they tested the Amazon Fire Kids tablet, basically gave
Speaker 1: up on it because they could not get roadblocks to
Speaker 1: work on it properly. And I don't know if it
Speaker 1: was a defective tablet that I got, but I agree
Speaker 1: it was just a nightmare of getting it to work,
Speaker 1: and so I just can't recommend it for that. So
Speaker 1: go for the standard iPad. If you were really being really,
Speaker 1: really good, I would recommend the bump up to the
Speaker 1: one twenty eight gigs. My father in law had just
Speaker 1: helped him buy a new iPad for his trip overseas,
Speaker 1: and we sat there and we purchased it online. And
Speaker 1: excuse me, it was you know, you had a thirty
Speaker 1: two gig model or the one twenty eight. I think
Speaker 1: it's hundred dollars more for the one twenty eight. I
Speaker 1: don't think you necessarily need that for your child, but
Speaker 1: for him. You know, if you're traveling you want to
Speaker 1: download movies on this thing. Your kid's probably gonna be
Speaker 1: streaming most of the time anyway, so it's probably not
Speaker 1: that big of a deal. But you know, if you
Speaker 1: if money was, you know, if you had the budget
Speaker 1: for it, I'd say go for the higher one. But
Speaker 1: you don't have to anyway. But by the time we
Speaker 1: set it all up, it was kind of cool. They
Speaker 1: actually come to you, at least in LA and help
Speaker 1: you set up the tablet, so they literally give you
Speaker 1: an appointment, and it was couple days later they bring
Speaker 1: the iPad to you and they will sit there and
Speaker 1: help you set up all of your stuff. And he said,
Speaker 1: it was a fantastic experience and it's just one of
Speaker 1: those magical things that only Apple does, and this is
Speaker 1: why they are so on top with things, all right,
Speaker 1: a little bit of news here from Fitbit. I won't
Speaker 1: spend too much time on it, but they have a
Speaker 1: new Fitbit Charge five, and Google says this is their
Speaker 1: most advanced health and fitness tracker, and it's got all
Speaker 1: kinds of things. So it's thinner, it's sleeker, it's got
Speaker 1: a brighter touch screen. It's got up to seven days
Speaker 1: of battery life, which is really nice. And so far
Speaker 1: we haven't seen a real, real strong alternative to the
Speaker 1: Apple Watch, but we've seen a lot of alternatives, and
Speaker 1: so I think that this new Fitbit Charge five is
Speaker 1: definitely if you're on the Android side of things, I
Speaker 1: think that this is something that could fit the bill.
Speaker 1: I have not tested it, but it looks really cool.
Speaker 1: And if I end up switching to the Pixel six
Speaker 1: later this year, I'll see if I can stay on
Speaker 1: the Apple Watch, which would be ideal, but I might
Speaker 1: have to switch to this. But the one thing that
Speaker 1: they're really pushing on this is this new Fitbit Premium,
Speaker 1: which seems like if it's really ten dollars a month,
Speaker 1: that seems like a lot to pay for like a
Speaker 1: fitness I mean, I know Apple has Apple Fitness plus,
Speaker 1: but that's a lot. Yeah, ten dollars a month. I
Speaker 1: don't know, like I mean, I know they have like
Speaker 1: all kinds of like little workout plans and you get
Speaker 1: all this like insights, but that's a tall order ten
Speaker 1: dollars a month. But anyway, so you get six months,
Speaker 1: six months of that included. But a couple of features
Speaker 1: is that you get this new This is kind of
Speaker 1: interesting and I think a lot of the news people
Speaker 1: picked up on this. But you get a fitness fatigue Okay,
Speaker 1: So you get a workout readiness score, so it'll tell
Speaker 1: you if your body is ready for a workout or
Speaker 1: if you should prioritize recovery, which means just sitting on
Speaker 1: the couch. So in the morning, you're gonna get a
Speaker 1: score based on your fitness activity, so how much you
Speaker 1: did the day before, I guess your heart rate variability
Speaker 1: and your recent sleep and so you will see it.
Speaker 1: It'll be like, yeah, you used to work out. Yeah
Speaker 1: you shouldn't work out today, which is important because recovery
Speaker 1: is a big part of working out. Right, You got
Speaker 1: to give your body that rest so it can otherwise
Speaker 1: sometimes you feel really tired during your next workout or
Speaker 1: feel like you have no energy. It also gives you
Speaker 1: recommended target active zone minutes a goal, which is pretty
Speaker 1: much the only thing that I look at on the
Speaker 1: Apple Watch is if I'm meeting my goal for the
Speaker 1: active minutes that I should have. So I don't care
Speaker 1: about steps, I don't care about you know the standing.
Speaker 1: All I care about is that I my heart rate
Speaker 1: reached a certain point for a certain amount of minutes
Speaker 1: every day, and for me, that's thirty minutes of I
Speaker 1: don't know what the rate is, but it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's elevated heart rate. And so as long as I
Speaker 1: get that, I feel like I'm I'm doing a good thing.
Speaker 1: Some days are more than others, but I do try
Speaker 1: to hit that thirty minutes a day. And then it
Speaker 1: also has built in GPS. It's got twenty exercise modes,
Speaker 1: automatic exercise recognition, it can recognize your oxygen. Let's see
Speaker 1: what else. You get a stress management score, which is
Speaker 1: kind of cool. I think that we are definitely going
Speaker 1: to see more of an emphasis on total well being. Right.
Speaker 1: It used to be if you know, you had a
Speaker 1: six pack, or you had good you know, biceps, big arms, whatever,
Speaker 1: or if you were thin you know, that was fine,
Speaker 1: but nowadays it's I think that physical health is way
Speaker 1: more than just those things. It is really how you
Speaker 1: feel on a daily basis. It's you know, it's how
Speaker 1: you the stress levels that you have. You know, it's
Speaker 1: your mood, it's your anxiety, it's it's a lot of things,
Speaker 1: not just do you look physically fit. And so I
Speaker 1: think we're gonna see a lot more emphasis on kind
Speaker 1: of you know, like I said, kind of a holistic
Speaker 1: view of well being. So you've got a lot of
Speaker 1: different things, like just so many things that you know,
Speaker 1: the sleep, Like I said, sleep, Like people are just
Speaker 1: kind of putting this big emphasis on sleep, which we
Speaker 1: always knew was important, but now we're realizing, like this
Speaker 1: whole idea of getting no sleep is just not good
Speaker 1: for you, not healthy. And it's funny because I never
Speaker 1: really cared about sleep. I've always been not a light sleeper,
Speaker 1: but I've always been kind of an early riser, and
Speaker 1: obviously with my current job, I'm you know, always waking
Speaker 1: up very early. But I never really cared about, you know,
Speaker 1: the hours I slept until I met my wife, and
Speaker 1: she's very much into, like I need my eight or
Speaker 1: nine hours. I'm like, wow, that's a lot. I think
Speaker 1: I personally need closer to six or seven hours to
Speaker 1: function pretty well. And honestly, like even on a little
Speaker 1: bit of sleep, I can still function. So a lot
Speaker 1: of people if they get only a couple hours like
Speaker 1: I can, I'm just not available to do anything. I
Speaker 1: don't typically feel like that. It all depends, like you
Speaker 1: know what the situation is. Anyway, Charge five gonna be
Speaker 1: available for one hundred and eighty dollars. That includes six
Speaker 1: months of the premium membership, and it's going to be
Speaker 1: available this fall. Looking forward to checking that one out.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get on to the next question. Let's see, Cindy,
Speaker 1: let's let's see. I'm trying to find a good question here. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's one from Ray. Ray says, hey, Rich, thanks for
Speaker 1: the oh thanks for continuing links in your podcast. Okay, thanks.
Speaker 1: I did put back the links in case you haven't
Speaker 1: noticed in the Great Google Search segment. This is a
Speaker 1: segment I did on KTLA and I mentioned it on
Speaker 1: the podcast about how to search better. I learned some
Speaker 1: good things PDF and versus. The one thing I want, though,
Speaker 1: is default is a default search timeframe? Why would I
Speaker 1: want results from three years ago, and why do I
Speaker 1: have to pre select the time one year every time
Speaker 1: I initiate a search. Is there a default mode on
Speaker 1: Google or my new favorite Neva cheers. Good question. So
Speaker 1: what you're referring to, Ray is the when you do
Speaker 1: a search on Google, if you look to the right
Speaker 1: of the search, it says tools, and then you can
Speaker 1: drill down and you can choose a time frame for
Speaker 1: your results. And that timeframe could be you know, a week,
Speaker 1: it could be a day, it could be a year.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's a day. Let's let me try.
Speaker 1: Let's try Rich, I'll just search myself and tools. Okay,
Speaker 1: So you can do anytime past oh, past hour? Wow,
Speaker 1: I can see if people mentioned me in the past
Speaker 1: hour and yeah, wow, twenty three minutes ago, kfi. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you can do past hour, you can do oh wow,
Speaker 1: oh interesting. You can do past twenty four hours, past week,
Speaker 1: past month, past year, and then custom range. So Ray,
Speaker 1: to answer your question, I don't see a way of
Speaker 1: selecting a default for that. I agree. I think that
Speaker 1: would be good, but you would also be missing out
Speaker 1: on some very relevant results that may not be from
Speaker 1: a year ago. Or three months ago or whatever. Like.
Speaker 1: They may be older results, but it's like the most
Speaker 1: relevant results. So I understand why Google's not necessarily snapping
Speaker 1: to like whatever you last choose. But I also do
Speaker 1: think that if you know the limitations of that search
Speaker 1: that you know and you set it, that should be fine.
Speaker 1: So I don't see this as a default with Google,
Speaker 1: and I'm not sure that Neva does it as well.
Speaker 1: But I think there might be a you know, like
Speaker 1: a power Let's see if there's like a power Google
Speaker 1: Chrome extension. Oh, here we go, power up Google. So
Speaker 1: there might be let's see, what does it do ensures
Speaker 1: that video animations and gifts embedded in your Oh no, no,
Speaker 1: that's not it. So you know, there might be like
Speaker 1: an extension that helps you change kind of the default
Speaker 1: settings on Chrome or on Google to the way you
Speaker 1: want them. But I haven't. I have not found it
Speaker 1: in just a quick but I would look for something
Speaker 1: like Google Settings extension on Chrome or like you know,
Speaker 1: power user on Chrome. I don't know. I mean it's
Speaker 1: it's I don't know, but it's not clearly it's not
Speaker 1: something that's there and easily doable. But that is a
Speaker 1: good question, and I wish it, yeah, but I'm glad
Speaker 1: you learned from the Google segment that was That was
Speaker 1: one of the most popular segments this year. Actually the
Speaker 1: most popular segment this year so far is the digital
Speaker 1: vaccination card for your phone and so I talked about
Speaker 1: that on the last podcast. But oh, Google search tips
Speaker 1: is a close second, okay. So, and then refurbished tech
Speaker 1: deals was popular. My Orange Chicken beyond Orange Chicken Taste
Speaker 1: test was very popular. The Wi Fi system, the Villo
Speaker 1: was really popular. The gadgets to track your kids was
Speaker 1: really popular. And the only way I know if segments
Speaker 1: are popular, there's only two ways I know if you're
Speaker 1: watching my segments. Number one is if you click on
Speaker 1: my rich on tech dot Tv, I get like a
Speaker 1: you know, it'll say how many people clicked on the link,
Speaker 1: so I can see that. And then on KTLA they
Speaker 1: will send out like the links every day so I
Speaker 1: can see that. I can see the top videos. And
Speaker 1: then of course I can just tell the interest on
Speaker 1: Instagram and Facebook and Twitter, if you know, if you're
Speaker 1: you know, sharing a lot or commenting a lot, that's
Speaker 1: another way that I can see what you're into. But
Speaker 1: it's tough. I mean, since we're not fully fully digital
Speaker 1: and like all this stuff is kind of fragmented. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of I go into this stuff, like, you know,
Speaker 1: just with a gut feeling of Hey, do I think
Speaker 1: people will really like this? Or do I think this
Speaker 1: is a story that people will like? All right, Cindy,
Speaker 1: let's go to another question. Cindy says, is there a
Speaker 1: way to retrieve text messages and photos deleted from an iPhone? Twelve?
Speaker 1: Thanks Cindy sent for my iPhone. Cindy, you would think
Speaker 1: that it would be easy to do this. Now. I
Speaker 1: know you said photos, but you said text message in photos,
Speaker 1: so it's not like photos. There is a way to
Speaker 1: retrieve those if you go into your if you go
Speaker 1: into the photos app and you deleted something, you can
Speaker 1: go into your albums and all the way at the
Speaker 1: bottom it says recently deleted. So if I was a
Speaker 1: sleuth on someone's iPhone and I was kind of snooping around,
Speaker 1: that'd be the first place I look for what they
Speaker 1: recently deleted. But I'm just saying you can also empty
Speaker 1: that out as well. But when it comes to text messages,
Speaker 1: there's no trash on the text messages so when you
Speaker 1: delete something, it is gone, and the only way to
Speaker 1: get that back would be to dig through a recent
Speaker 1: backup of your I messages. And guess what, the average
Speaker 1: person is never going to be able to do that
Speaker 1: because it's just so complicated. You would think that you'd
Speaker 1: be able, and I talk about this all the time
Speaker 1: on the podcast. You think that you'd be able to
Speaker 1: go onto iCloud dot com and just download, you know,
Speaker 1: or just sift through your trash on your messages, but
Speaker 1: you can't. You think on your iPhone you might have
Speaker 1: a messages trash, but you don't. And I don't know
Speaker 1: why they don't have that. I don't know what the
Speaker 1: reasoning was for that, because you would think it would
Speaker 1: make sense, like on Gmail you have a trash. Now
Speaker 1: maybe I'm completely wrong. Maybe you're listening to this right
Speaker 1: now and you're saying, Rich, what are you talking about.
Speaker 1: The trash is at the bottom of the messages pile
Speaker 1: or something like that, But I don't think it is.
Speaker 1: I think when you delete a message, there's just no
Speaker 1: way to get it back as far as I know,
Speaker 1: except for it says would you like to delete this conversation?
Speaker 1: This conversation will be deleted from all of your devices.
Speaker 1: Delete boom, It's gone, and I have no way of
Speaker 1: seeing that again. So the only way is if your
Speaker 1: phone was backed up the night before and you can
Speaker 1: get into that backup. And the only way that I
Speaker 1: know how to do that is with an app called
Speaker 1: i Amazing or something similar Imazing dot com. There's a
Speaker 1: bunch of these apps. There's also one called doctor Phone
Speaker 1: Doctor fone, and this is kind of like a recovery
Speaker 1: solution for iPhone. But both of them require you to
Speaker 1: have a backup of your iPhone on your computer, and
Speaker 1: that's that's kind of tricky. Now you might say, well,
Speaker 1: can I use a third party to sort of import
Speaker 1: my mesa, you know, on a daily basis from the iPhone,
Speaker 1: And no, you can't. Apple just doesn't allow that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. And maybe it's a security reason, but you know,
Speaker 1: an Android, you could back up your text messages no problem,
Speaker 1: using an app like SMS backup and restore. You know,
Speaker 1: they're backed up in various places, so you can do
Speaker 1: that quite easily. But on on iPhone it's just not easy.
Speaker 1: And again I talked about this in the last podcast.
Speaker 1: I hate the fact that we put so much emphasis,
Speaker 1: and so many of our communications are done through text
Speaker 1: messages because it's such a it's such a terrible way
Speaker 1: to have messages, and it's such a it's not a
Speaker 1: platform that was made for what we're using it for now. Yes,
Speaker 1: I Message is amazing, but it's because it's Apple. It's
Speaker 1: so limited in the way that they let you do
Speaker 1: anything with your data. And I just wish that I wish.
Speaker 1: I mean, I use Telegram and I love it. And
Speaker 1: it was funny because my kid was scrolling through one
Speaker 1: of my message threads with my photographer Luis, and he
Speaker 1: was scrolling and he scrolled up and up and up,
Speaker 1: and he said, oh my gosh, you guys chat so much.
Speaker 1: And I said, yes, I have all my chats in
Speaker 1: here for two or three years with this guy, so
Speaker 1: I can go back to like anything. I can also
Speaker 1: sort through all the files we sent, all the music
Speaker 1: we transferred, all the voice files, all the links, all
Speaker 1: the gifts, anything that we mentioned in here, and I
Speaker 1: can also search. So I mean, it's just such a
Speaker 1: to me, a beautiful way. And by the way, if
Speaker 1: I ever want to export that, I can into a
Speaker 1: format that I can then read in other programs, whereas
Speaker 1: all those things I just mentioned are like nearly impossible
Speaker 1: on I Message, except yes, you can go into your
Speaker 1: I message and search, and yes you can go and
Speaker 1: look at like the pictures that you exchange with someone
Speaker 1: over the times, but it's just not easy anyway. So
Speaker 1: that's my long drawn out answer to what you asked.
Speaker 1: But it's just one of those things that the iPhone
Speaker 1: just does not make it very easy. All right, let's
Speaker 1: get to the next question. Kay says Rich. If you
Speaker 1: have any advice on computer backups, external backup or online service,
Speaker 1: it would be for both personal computer and small business computer.
Speaker 1: Both are laptops, Thank you, Ka. So I would recommend
Speaker 1: the service that I actually recommended a few weeks back
Speaker 1: for the picture backup, and it's called I Drive. And
Speaker 1: the reason why I like I Drive there's a couple
Speaker 1: of them out there. So you've got eye Drive, you've
Speaker 1: got Carbonite, you've got crash Plan, you've got Backblaze. You know,
Speaker 1: you can also use like iCloud, Google Drive. But because
Speaker 1: you're saying you have, you're basically trying to back up
Speaker 1: your entire computer, and so something like Google Drive it
Speaker 1: will back up your whole computer. But it's not really,
Speaker 1: it's I don't think it's the best for that iCloud.
Speaker 1: It's probably fine, but it's not. Again, it's not the best.
Speaker 1: Something like a back Blaze or crash Plan or Carbonite
Speaker 1: or an eye drive is actually meant to back up
Speaker 1: your entire computer. So they have software that pretty much
Speaker 1: backs it up and if you ever have a problem,
Speaker 1: you can get it back. So the reason I like
Speaker 1: I Drive is mostly because I met with them in person.
Speaker 1: So whenever I meet with someone in person, I like
Speaker 1: the company because I get to know them and I
Speaker 1: get to see that there's like an actual person. I
Speaker 1: get to kind of quiz them on things and ask
Speaker 1: them questions. And I did all that with Iedrive, and
Speaker 1: I like them. Now, the other competition you have there
Speaker 1: is something like, let's say, I think like a backblaze
Speaker 1: or crash Plan or kind of two of the most popular.
Speaker 1: But the thing is the big downside to like backblaze.
Speaker 1: Let's say, so it's sixty dollars a year for eye Drive,
Speaker 1: but this is for unlimited computers and smartphones, So that means,
Speaker 1: if you know, if you're on a business plant, it's
Speaker 1: a little bit more expensive, but you get several computers.
Speaker 1: So you said you wanted to back up two computers,
Speaker 1: whereas on something like backblaze, you're only going to be
Speaker 1: able to back up one computer at that price. If
Speaker 1: you want to do another computer, you have to pay more.
Speaker 1: And so that's number one, and I think that's the
Speaker 1: big delineation. Let's look at yeah again, crash Plan, same thing.
Speaker 1: So if you're subscribing to crash Plan, you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to pay more if you want to back up more
Speaker 1: than one computer. So I would just look at iDrive
Speaker 1: dot com. It's anywhere. It's you know, sixty bucks for
Speaker 1: the first year, but it's like eighty dollars after that,
Speaker 1: and either maybe one hundred dollars for business plans. But
Speaker 1: I don't think you need the business plan per se.
Speaker 1: I think you just need the personal plan, and you
Speaker 1: can back up both computers. Now, it is capped at
Speaker 1: a five terabyte backup, so if you have more than
Speaker 1: five terabytes between those two computers, you might have to go,
Speaker 1: you know, you might have to go with a bigger plan.
Speaker 1: But in general, those are the two i'd recommend. I
Speaker 1: used to do this. I used to back up my
Speaker 1: whole computer using one of these services. But now because
Speaker 1: I store so much in the cloud, like all of
Speaker 1: my photos are in Google Photos, I use Google Drive,
Speaker 1: I use drop Box, you know, I use a combination
Speaker 1: of these. I use iCloud, So I use a combination
Speaker 1: of these cloud services. So I don't necessarily need one
Speaker 1: kind of big backup of my computer. In fact, I
Speaker 1: don't want to restore. I don't want to restore my
Speaker 1: computer from a one backup. Now, if you are a business, yes,
Speaker 1: you probably want to do this, because in the case
Speaker 1: of ransomware, you probably want to just restore your entire
Speaker 1: computer so that you're you don't skip a beat. But me,
Speaker 1: with my personal computer, I don't have a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff on here that can't just be reinstalled and then
Speaker 1: linked to the cloud. And so that's kind of how
Speaker 1: I do things. But it just depends on your situation.
Speaker 1: So for me, if you know, if my computer was
Speaker 1: ever you know, if the you know, hard drive crashes,
Speaker 1: I would just go ahead and install all the programs
Speaker 1: that I use again, and a lot of my stuff
Speaker 1: is just in the cloud. And in fact, the way
Speaker 1: that Google Drive works now they just kind of updated
Speaker 1: their app. They don't really download anything to your computer anymore.
Speaker 1: It's like all stream. They call it like drive stream
Speaker 1: or something, and they basically just you know, when you
Speaker 1: need a file, they download it to your computer on demand,
Speaker 1: kind of the way Dropbox. I use it that way
Speaker 1: as well. It's a little bit, you know, you have
Speaker 1: to have a fast Internet connection because if you need
Speaker 1: like a two gigabyte file, it does take a little
Speaker 1: bit for that to come down to your computer, but
Speaker 1: it works, and it works pretty well. So that's the
Speaker 1: way I use Dropbox an the other ones. All right,
Speaker 1: let's go to another question. I'm trying to figure out
Speaker 1: if I talked about all the tech stuff I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about this week, because there wasn't two, it
Speaker 1: wasn't a whole whole lot. So I figured I'd do
Speaker 1: more questions on this on this podcast since I'm also
Speaker 1: on the road anyway. All right, let's get to Diane.
Speaker 1: Hey Rich, wondering if you know anything about the Samsung
Speaker 1: Galaxy A thirty two. Do you know if it's a
Speaker 1: good quality phone to replace my Samsung S six. Thanks
Speaker 1: for any information you can supply me with, Sincerely, Diane. Diane,
Speaker 1: the A thirty two is pretty much Samsung's I think
Speaker 1: it's like their most inexpensive phone. In fact, I requested
Speaker 1: this phone from them to test, and they ended up
Speaker 1: sending me the A fifty two, which is a little
Speaker 1: bit higher end. I think that one's four ninety nine.
Speaker 1: This one you can get for a little bit cheaper.
Speaker 1: I'm seeing it for as cheap as I think it.
Speaker 1: I think that the price was like two point fifty
Speaker 1: when it came out, maybe a little bit more. Let
Speaker 1: me see by now, Samsung when they put their prices,
Speaker 1: they only put them with a trade in. It's like
Speaker 1: you can't even you got to like click around to
Speaker 1: see how much this costs without a trade in. So
Speaker 1: let's do no trade in. Okay, so no trade in?
Speaker 1: It is two hundred, Yeah, it was two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty bucks, so or two eighty and then it's really
Speaker 1: they're selling it for like two forty unlocked. So do
Speaker 1: I recommend this phone? I mean, I think this phone
Speaker 1: will be fine. And I think you know the price
Speaker 1: that you're you're asking, you know you're you're looking at
Speaker 1: a very inexpensive price point. So at this price point,
Speaker 1: I think this phone is going to be okay. I
Speaker 1: would say, if you can if you can if you
Speaker 1: can squeeze out an extra two hundred dollars, which I
Speaker 1: know is a lot when you're looking at a two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars phone, and I'm now recommending a
Speaker 1: four hundred and fifty dollars phone, But I would look
Speaker 1: at the pixel five A. I mean, I just think
Speaker 1: that you're gonna get better software, You're gonna get a
Speaker 1: way better camera, You're gonna get a better experience. It's
Speaker 1: gonna last longer, it's gonna have less hassle. It's just
Speaker 1: gonna overall, I think, be a better experience. And some
Speaker 1: of these cheapy Galaxy phones, they just, you know, it's
Speaker 1: not the best experience. And I just I feel like
Speaker 1: at the top of the line Samsung, if you have
Speaker 1: a lot of RAM on it and you've got a
Speaker 1: lot of storage, it's it's fine and the software is good.
Speaker 1: But when you get to these little, less expensive phones,
Speaker 1: it's just the experience is just not as good. It
Speaker 1: has five G it's got a you know, it's got
Speaker 1: a camera, it's got you know, good cameras. But it's
Speaker 1: just one of these things where I just feel like
Speaker 1: the experience is just not gonna be like, let's see
Speaker 1: what's the screen. So it's gonna point five inch screen.
Speaker 1: It doesn't really say what type of screen it is,
Speaker 1: but anyway, so I think this is fine. The other
Speaker 1: phone I would look at is the TCL. They make
Speaker 1: a twenty series and it's the twenty. It's let's see TCL.
Speaker 1: It's uh, let's see there's there's a high end and
Speaker 1: there's a low end. So let's see mobile phones. They've
Speaker 1: got the okay, so they've got the twenty pro five G.
Speaker 1: They've got the twenty S, and they've got the twenty S.
Speaker 1: So I would perhaps look at one of these phones
Speaker 1: as well, because the tcl's so the twenty S is
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty dollars. And then let's see what
Speaker 1: the SE is. And I reviewed the last model, the ten,
Speaker 1: and it was I actually found it to be really
Speaker 1: good for the price, so I was very impressed with
Speaker 1: what they did. The camera is fine, it's not the best,
Speaker 1: but yeah, the twenty se is only one eighty nine,
Speaker 1: So I would look I would compare. I would look
Speaker 1: at three device. I would look at the Pixel five A.
Speaker 1: That would be my top pick. And then I also
Speaker 1: like this TCL, the twenty s. I would look at
Speaker 1: that phone and see what you think about that, because
Speaker 1: I think it's it's a little bit of a better
Speaker 1: I think it's a better device because of the software.
Speaker 1: It's like a little bit cleaner, and it's a little
Speaker 1: bit more expensive two fifty. But I think you'll be
Speaker 1: okay with the Samsung if you if you're comfortable with it.
Speaker 1: But it is going to be a little step back
Speaker 1: because you're on the Galaxy S series and this is
Speaker 1: the Galaxy A series, which is a little bit lesser
Speaker 1: SPECX wise than in performance wise than the phone that
Speaker 1: you've been used to. But your phone is old, so
Speaker 1: maybe you know it wouldn't be as bad, all right.
Speaker 1: Pamela says, Hey, Rich, hope you and your family are
Speaker 1: doing well. Thinking you know what, Actually, let's go to
Speaker 1: Let's go to Gene. Gene in Pasadena says I'm an
Speaker 1: old geezer seventy six that's not too much into tech stuff,
Speaker 1: so please bear with me. I have a sand disc
Speaker 1: MP three clip jam Wow, which I use while walking.
Speaker 1: Is there a table model MP three player which I
Speaker 1: can plug in a flash drive like I do in
Speaker 1: my car to listen to music in my home. I
Speaker 1: have a speaker system that's hooked up to my Denin
Speaker 1: stereo components. It would be nice if the denin unit
Speaker 1: had a flash drive port, but it's a few years old.
Speaker 1: We bought at Pacific Stereo, which has long ceased to operate.
Speaker 1: I thought Pacific Stereo was built inside best Buy. Thank
Speaker 1: you for any suggestions for your continued informative segments on
Speaker 1: the KTLA five News Gene and Pasadena Gene. Here's a
Speaker 1: solution I think you should do. I think that your denin,
Speaker 1: even this old stereo has either an audio like an
Speaker 1: RCA input left and right, or a standard headphone jack input,
Speaker 1: you know, like a stereo what is it? A quarter
Speaker 1: inch stereo input is an eighth inch? I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's an eighth or oh gosh, this is where
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, what is what is it? Is it
Speaker 1: a quarter or an eighth inch? I think it's a
Speaker 1: quarter into and it's it's just a standard headphone jack,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, stand oh Google, no standard headphone jack size. Okay,
Speaker 1: three point five inch, three point five millimeter, so whatever
Speaker 1: that is? So three point five millimeter, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. It's like the standard you know headphone jack, right,
Speaker 1: So I would say that I think that your stereo
Speaker 1: receiver is going to have a standard headphone jack input,
Speaker 1: and so what I would do is look for that
Speaker 1: input and then I would just get an iPod Touch
Speaker 1: and you can use that as your music player. And
Speaker 1: if you really want to be wild, you can just
Speaker 1: subscribe to Apple Music if it's available on there, and
Speaker 1: now you can have your music unlimited on that device,
Speaker 1: or you can use Spotify, or you can whatever you want.
Speaker 1: So I would just do that, and now you have
Speaker 1: the iPod Touch is going to be one hundred and
Speaker 1: ninety nine bucks. You can probably get one cheaper. If
Speaker 1: you want to go old school, you can just buy
Speaker 1: one on eBay too, and used one and plug it
Speaker 1: into your stereo system and that's it. Now you've got
Speaker 1: all the music in the world on your stereo. And
Speaker 1: again there's two ways that you can plug this thing in.
Speaker 1: On the back of your stereo, you might have RCA input,
Speaker 1: So if you look for you know, it's basically the
Speaker 1: old school cable. That's RCA Audio cable to three point
Speaker 1: five millimeter. So if you have the RCA on one
Speaker 1: side and then it's the three point five millimeter jack
Speaker 1: on the other side. You can plug the three point
Speaker 1: five into your iPod Touch and then the other ones
Speaker 1: into the back of your stereo. And by the way,
Speaker 1: that cable is seven dollars and sixty two cents. Now,
Speaker 1: the iPod Touch, I believe it still has a headphone jack.
Speaker 1: Let's make sure. If it doesn't, you can just use
Speaker 1: the lightning connector. Let's see doesn't have a headphone jack.
Speaker 1: Come on audio playback external connectors. Yes, it does have
Speaker 1: a three point five millimeter headphone jack. So that is
Speaker 1: going to be the simplest way to connect it. If
Speaker 1: it if it connects to the back of your receiver,
Speaker 1: it's probably like you know AUCS input. Uh. If it's
Speaker 1: if it has the three point five millimeter headphone or
Speaker 1: input somewhere on there, you can use that cable and
Speaker 1: that's a three point five milimeter to three point five
Speaker 1: millimeter and that is six dollars and ninety cents. So
Speaker 1: you're looking at if you really want to be you know,
Speaker 1: brand new and get the the iPod Touch, it's one
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety nine dollars for that plus two dollars,
Speaker 1: or you know, it's eight bucks for the cable and
Speaker 1: you'll have exactly what you need. Now, if you want
Speaker 1: to go even cheaper, you can, uh you know, you
Speaker 1: can go on eBay and get a used iPod Touch,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure that you can find one that's, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, considerably cheaper than the one ninety nine new.
Speaker 1: All you need this thing is to work and to
Speaker 1: play music, and so I'm seeing them on here for
Speaker 1: a pretty cheap But that's what I would recommend. I
Speaker 1: think that that's gonna be the way to do it.
Speaker 1: And you know, just because it's an old sound system,
Speaker 1: it probably has those standard connectors that are that are
Speaker 1: gonna work really, really well. All right, let's do one
Speaker 1: more question real quick. Chuck Asks in Temple City. Hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: thanks for all you do. I'm considering upgrading my one
Speaker 1: plus six T to a one plus nine Pro. But
Speaker 1: I'm concerned if it's a good decision because none of
Speaker 1: the T Mobile stores carry the phone. What is your
Speaker 1: opinion about a phone that no one seems to carry.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing it's not selling well, Chuck. I think it's
Speaker 1: more of a supply and demand or more of a
Speaker 1: supply chain issue. I would say the one plus nine
Speaker 1: Pro is one of my favorite phones right now. It's
Speaker 1: a great phone. You have the one plus six T
Speaker 1: you know all about the one plus I would say
Speaker 1: it's an easy upgrade to the nine Pro. It's a
Speaker 1: fantastic phone. It's got the best software out there besides
Speaker 1: the pixel. It's got a great camera. I wouldn't say
Speaker 1: it's the best, but it's an excellent camera, very capable.
Speaker 1: And again you're getting a really I spect out phone
Speaker 1: with amazing specs. You're getting great software, and I see
Speaker 1: no trouble upgrading. If you're trying to use it on
Speaker 1: T Mobile, obviously you might get an upgrade deal through
Speaker 1: T Mobile. See if you can order it online through them,
Speaker 1: See if you can place the order. But I have
Speaker 1: no problem recommending the one plus nine Pro at all.
Speaker 1: I think it's a fantastic device. So no hesitations whatsoever.
Speaker 1: Go ahead and treat yourself. All right. That is going
Speaker 1: to do it for this episode of the show. I've
Speaker 1: got a flight to catch. If you'd like to submit
Speaker 1: a question for me to answer, you can go to
Speaker 1: my Facebook page, Facebook dot com, slash rich on Tech,
Speaker 1: hit the big blue send email button, or you can
Speaker 1: just go to rich on Tech dot TV and look
Speaker 1: for the email icon under my name and you can
Speaker 1: submit it there. Also, I would love it if you
Speaker 1: would rate and review this podcast. Don't use this episode
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Speaker 1: quality is a little different from typical episodes, but write
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Speaker 1: And I'll be honest, we're getting way more listeners right now.
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened, but we've basically doubled the listenership.
Speaker 1: So people are gonna start seeing it on those iTunes
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Speaker 1: what's this? What's this rich on Tech show? So if
Speaker 1: you have good reviews there from someone like you that's
Speaker 1: listening to the show, it can help them say oh,
Speaker 1: can push them over the edge to that follow button
Speaker 1: and then we grow the show even more. So you
Speaker 1: can go to rate this podcast dot com slash rich
Speaker 1: on Tech to submit your review, or just figure it
Speaker 1: out on the podcast app on Apple to figure out
Speaker 1: how to do that. You can find me on social media.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you know this, but I am at rich
Speaker 1: on Tech and no matter where you live in the US,
Speaker 1: you can download the free KTLA Plus app on Apple TV, fireTV,
Speaker 1: and Roku. Then scroll to the tech section and watch
Speaker 1: all of my TV segments on demand. My name is
Speaker 1: Rich Dmiro. My only decision right now is do I
Speaker 1: spend another twenty dollars in the slot machine before I
Speaker 1: head out to my flight. It's like one of those
Speaker 1: things where if I do it, it feels like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I got my last twenty dollars in. I don't really
Speaker 1: gamble too much, but you know, it's like, I'm in Vegas,
Speaker 1: so I might as well rite when in Rome. But
Speaker 1: then I'm like, eh, Then you leave Vegas feeling like
Speaker 1: I just wasted twenty dollars when I could have purchased
Speaker 1: something that's like two months of Spotify. Anyway, That's what
Speaker 1: I'm dealing with over here. Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1: There are so many ways you can spend an hour
Speaker 1: of your time. I do appreciate it you spending it
Speaker 1: with me. I will talk to you real soon.