Speaker 1: Google ditches one level of tracking. Could you give up
Speaker 1: your phone for a day? The first car with Amazon
Speaker 1: Fire TV built in? Plus your tech questions answered? What's
Speaker 1: going on? I'm Rich Damiro and this is Rich on Tech,
Speaker 1: the podcast where I talk about the tech stuff I
Speaker 1: think you should know about. It's also the place where
Speaker 1: I answer the questions you send me and believe you
Speaker 1: me yes, send them in. I am fielding questions all
Speaker 1: day long on Instagram, on Facebook, on Twitter. Email is
Speaker 1: like very popular. I guess that's because my Facebook page
Speaker 1: is linked up to that, and I don't mind answering them.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just sometimes, you know, if you email me,
Speaker 1: sometimes it could take a while. But that's why I
Speaker 1: like this show. So this show is really the place
Speaker 1: where I take kind of the questions I get that
Speaker 1: I think apply to you know, more than one person.
Speaker 1: You know. If you're like Rich, I need a you know,
Speaker 1: a highly specific app to monitor you know, I don't
Speaker 1: know whatever. It's like, Okay, now if I feel like
Speaker 1: a lot of people need that app, fine, that's you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's what I include in this show. That's kind
Speaker 1: of what you know. The idea of this is is
Speaker 1: that what you know, the questions I answer I'm seeing
Speaker 1: over and over and I think that it can help
Speaker 1: a bunch of people that listen. So, by the way,
Speaker 1: I'm the tech reporter at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: In case you're listening from a different city or a
Speaker 1: different place, or maybe you know you saw my segment
Speaker 1: on one of these stations that it's played on, because
Speaker 1: it's not you know, most of the time people think
Speaker 1: I'm just on KTLA, but we you know, I do
Speaker 1: work for a big company. They have a bunch of
Speaker 1: TV stations everywhere, and what I do is I just
Speaker 1: send them my my segment, my report, and they send
Speaker 1: it to all the stations, and the TV stations just
Speaker 1: run it. So like this morning, you know, I saw
Speaker 1: someone tagged me in like Mississippi they ran it, and
Speaker 1: then in Honolulu where they ran it, which I thought
Speaker 1: was so cool, and I think that deserves a visit, right,
Speaker 1: don't I need to go there and see what's going on.
Speaker 1: But it's one of these things where you know, people
Speaker 1: just they don't realize that I'm oh. Las Vegas is
Speaker 1: another one. But people don't realize that I'm in these
Speaker 1: different places until they're traveling or a family member, or
Speaker 1: they move and they're like, oh my gosh, I can
Speaker 1: watch you in North Carolina. Wow, that's cool. So I
Speaker 1: feel like the gears of progress are churning when it
Speaker 1: comes to this whole pandemic in this vaccine. So that's
Speaker 1: good news. I know people are getting it. Numbers are dropping.
Speaker 1: That feels good. It feels like we're getting to a
Speaker 1: place where we can all feel like this big sigh
Speaker 1: of relief for not there just yet, but it's I
Speaker 1: feel it we're getting there, and people are just feeling better.
Speaker 1: I think we're seeing this like cloud being lifted off
Speaker 1: of the world in a way. I mean, I still
Speaker 1: think that there. You know, there's a lot that it's
Speaker 1: going to take for us to go back. I was
Speaker 1: looking at my pictures I just typed in on Google
Speaker 1: Photos crowds, and oh my gosh, it's like, it's so
Speaker 1: strange to look at a picture with all these people
Speaker 1: in the background and you know, the Apple events and
Speaker 1: all these you know, concerts that I went to, and
Speaker 1: so it's probably gonna take a little bit of getting
Speaker 1: used to to to do that, But I do think
Speaker 1: we will get there. Someone told me the other day,
Speaker 1: they you know, this whole vaccine thing. They said, oh,
Speaker 1: I saw on social media that this person got a vaccine,
Speaker 1: Now how did they get it? And I didn't get
Speaker 1: it when I'm older and you know, they don't look
Speaker 1: like they have any health issues or anything. And I said, well,
Speaker 1: you know, you don't really know what's going on in
Speaker 1: their lives. You know that if you have some sort
Speaker 1: of issue, you don't always wear on your sleeve, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, I see myself as a as a pretty
Speaker 1: positive person in life. Yes, I have good days and
Speaker 1: I have bad days, but for the most part, I
Speaker 1: have prided myself on being positive and being a you know,
Speaker 1: an inspiration for people to to, you know, with my
Speaker 1: posts and what I say and how I do and
Speaker 1: what I conduct myself. And I just feel like that's
Speaker 1: kind of what I want to do. And you know,
Speaker 1: you don't know from day to day what's happening in
Speaker 1: my life, per se. I mean, sometimes I'll explain, you know,
Speaker 1: when I feel like it's the time, but it's the
Speaker 1: same thing with other people. You know, you just don't know.
Speaker 1: And this is not just with health issues and the vaccine,
Speaker 1: it's with anything. I mean, you may have people at
Speaker 1: work that you know are a little grumpy and grumbly
Speaker 1: and and you know, who knows what's happening in their
Speaker 1: lives at home. And this happens over and over everywhere.
Speaker 1: And I think with social media, we see this, you know,
Speaker 1: polished version of people. We see them on vacation, We
Speaker 1: see them having the best food, drinking the coolest drinks,
Speaker 1: you know, hanging out with the coolest friends. And you
Speaker 1: know that doesn't always tell you the full story. And
Speaker 1: believe me, we all know that, but sometimes we forget.
Speaker 1: So you know, it's kind of like we went on
Speaker 1: a little mini you know, weekend get away a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago, and you know, the kids were like,
Speaker 1: you know, they all they want to do is play
Speaker 1: their iPads. And I'm like, here we are in this
Speaker 1: beautiful place, and you know, all you want to do
Speaker 1: is play your iPad on the couch, Like come on.
Speaker 1: And so I had to have a little you know
Speaker 1: talk with them and explain to them and not so
Speaker 1: uncertain terms that like, you know, this is what we're
Speaker 1: doing and this is how we're doing it. And you
Speaker 1: know I'm not going to sit there and you know,
Speaker 1: put that on Instagram, you know, but it's something as
Speaker 1: parents we've all had to do. And so again, you know,
Speaker 1: on Instagram, you probably just saw the nice picture of
Speaker 1: us hanging out as a family, which is fine because
Speaker 1: that's the memory you want to have, right and that's
Speaker 1: the thing that you want to strive towards. But the
Speaker 1: reality is, you know, people get real. People are real.
Speaker 1: We're all human and you know, we all have our
Speaker 1: struggles and you know it's not a bad thing to
Speaker 1: sometimes share those with other people because sometimes it just
Speaker 1: feels good, you know. So anyway, that's about as uh
Speaker 1: as uh what's My wife is a counselor so believe me,
Speaker 1: I I hear about, you know, all these things a lot.
Speaker 1: You know, she deals with a lot of issues with
Speaker 1: people and stuff like that. So I am you know,
Speaker 1: I hear about this stuff a lot. And it's it's
Speaker 1: taken many years of her wearing me down to sort
Speaker 1: of come to the realization that, you know, we're all
Speaker 1: human and you just have to accept that and understand
Speaker 1: that and life is a better place when you do that.
Speaker 1: So anyway, that's it. That's my that's my talk for
Speaker 1: this time around. But anyway, that's it. All right, let's
Speaker 1: let's move into more techi techie stuff. Google. This is
Speaker 1: a big announcement this week. It got a lot of headlines.
Speaker 1: I think it was a little misconstrued in the headlines.
Speaker 1: But what Google said is that they are going to
Speaker 1: track us a little bit less, and they explained exactly why.
Speaker 1: But I think the headline was mainly, like a lot
Speaker 1: of it was like Google is not going to search
Speaker 1: track your searches, which not really true. They're still going
Speaker 1: to track your searches. What they're doing is is they're
Speaker 1: giving up on third party cookies, and so third party
Speaker 1: cookies are okay. Let's let me give you example. So
Speaker 1: you go to a website that sells socks and you
Speaker 1: look at some socks, and then you move on and
Speaker 1: you move on with your life. And now you go
Speaker 1: over to you know, another website, you read an article
Speaker 1: on a newspaper, website or whatever, and you see an
Speaker 1: ad for those socks served up by Google and you're like,
Speaker 1: how did they know? Well, they know because that website
Speaker 1: tracked it using you know, double click or whatever you
Speaker 1: know Google has, and that little tracking cookie now reports
Speaker 1: back to Google. And then when you know, those sock
Speaker 1: plays advertised. They said, we want to we want to
Speaker 1: target people that already came to our website in the
Speaker 1: last thirty days and boom, now their ad shows up
Speaker 1: everywhere you go. And so that's really how third party
Speaker 1: cookie tracking works, and I probably overly simplified it, but
Speaker 1: that's kind of how I understand it to work. And
Speaker 1: so what Google is saying is like, We're not really
Speaker 1: going to do that anymore. Now what are they going
Speaker 1: to do? Now? This is a big, you know, kind
Speaker 1: of a problem for advertisers because they you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of this sharing of information really helps to target
Speaker 1: you with stuff. But what they did say is that
Speaker 1: number one, they are not gonna come up with some
Speaker 1: alter alternative to this, Like they're not going to band
Speaker 1: together with the advertising agencies and come up with some alternative.
Speaker 1: That was the big question. The other thing they're going
Speaker 1: to do is they're still going to use their relationship
Speaker 1: with you to target things to you. So what does
Speaker 1: that mean If you search for socks on Amazon right
Speaker 1: brightly colored socks, fun socks, cool socks, they can still
Speaker 1: use that data to funnel into their advertising system. So
Speaker 1: that when someone says we want to target people who
Speaker 1: have looked at socks. They will still have that data
Speaker 1: about you. Now, they may not know the specific website
Speaker 1: you ended up visiting, or they may not share that
Speaker 1: information to what sock website you've been to, but they
Speaker 1: will know that you're a lover of socks, and so
Speaker 1: that information will still be there. The videos that you
Speaker 1: look up on YouTube, that will still feed into their information.
Speaker 1: So they're still using what they call their first party
Speaker 1: information to understand you better. And if you think about Google,
Speaker 1: they've got a lot of first party information. I don't
Speaker 1: think they're you using Gmail information anymore. Back when Gmail started,
Speaker 1: the whole thing was that they would scan your email
Speaker 1: and sell you ads against that. I don't believe they're
Speaker 1: doing that anymore. I think that was a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago. They switched. They said, you know what, we
Speaker 1: already know enough about you. And that's what they're saying again,
Speaker 1: we already know so much about you from the way
Speaker 1: you use our products that we don't really need all
Speaker 1: this extra data. Sure it'd be great, but they're trying
Speaker 1: to be a good citizen, right And I say that
Speaker 1: a little facetiously because they're trying to be a good
Speaker 1: citizen in the fact that they'd rather do this on
Speaker 1: their own than have the government come after them and say, uh,
Speaker 1: you gotta do this, because they would rather steer the
Speaker 1: ship than have the federal government or all these you know,
Speaker 1: we saw it happen in Europe with privacy laws. They
Speaker 1: would rather just kind of say, hey, we're gonna you know,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be a little bit more like Apple, and
Speaker 1: we're going to say we're so privacy centric that you
Speaker 1: don't even need to worry about coming up with laws
Speaker 1: for us, because we love privacy, we love protecting folks privacy.
Speaker 1: And so I think that's part of what's going on here.
Speaker 1: And I think part of it is that Google knows
Speaker 1: they've got a lot of data on us, more more
Speaker 1: so than probably anyone except for Facebook, And so you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's kind of what's happening here, is it? And
Speaker 1: the other side of it is that it actually makes
Speaker 1: their advertising stronger because now it's like these third party
Speaker 1: advertising systems may not have as much data as the
Speaker 1: first party, which is like a Facebook or a Google.
Speaker 1: What's the other one? Am I missing one? What is it? Facebook? Google?
Speaker 1: Maybe Microsoft? I don't know, but that's it all right,
Speaker 1: let us get to the first question of the day.
Speaker 1: This question comes from Okay, this is an interesting one.
Speaker 1: I said that I do. I said that I do
Speaker 1: questions that are appeal to a lot of people. I
Speaker 1: don't know if this does. Dear Rich, I'm wondering if
Speaker 1: you know how to run DOS on iOS. I'm an
Speaker 1: old school fan of a game called Begin Tactical Starship
Speaker 1: Simulation on my computer, but I can't run it on
Speaker 1: my iPhone ten? Is there an app that can unzip
Speaker 1: and run it so it can be run on my
Speaker 1: iPhone ten? My personal favorite is the one point eighty
Speaker 1: five version. I can only find one point six y five.
Speaker 1: Is there a way? I'd be grateful? Sincerely, Mark, So
Speaker 1: I I don't know. I don't I don't think that
Speaker 1: there is a way to uh, oh what happened here.
Speaker 1: I think there's a way to run you know, DOS
Speaker 1: on your iPhone with like an emulator, But as far
Speaker 1: as installing a game on top of that, I don't
Speaker 1: think that would be possible with the iPhone. But I
Speaker 1: could be wrong, and so, uh maybe that's why I
Speaker 1: want to do this question so I can mention it
Speaker 1: on the podcast, and if if you know you're listening.
Speaker 1: You're like, Rich, this is what I used to do this,
Speaker 1: you know, tweet me at rich on tech and let
Speaker 1: me know. I did find an app called power Dos
Speaker 1: on uh on, you know, the app store. Let's see
Speaker 1: dos on iPhone. So I mean, yeah, power dos comes up,
Speaker 1: DOS two, I dos comes up, but I don't think
Speaker 1: that it I just don't know if it comes with
Speaker 1: uh oh, look at this, yes, look at this. It
Speaker 1: looks like you can wow. Okay. This is an app
Speaker 1: called I Dos DOS Box for iOS. Recently Apple approved
Speaker 1: iTunes file sharing for I DOS, so you can put
Speaker 1: your games in iCloud drive and launch from the files app.
Speaker 1: So I think that this might work. Let's see one
Speaker 1: of the comments from three years ago. So I don't know.
Speaker 1: Check out I Dos DOS Box for iOS and is
Speaker 1: it still on the app store. Indeed, it is play
Speaker 1: classic DOS games, So I think that's it. I Dos too.
Speaker 1: I'll put this in the links on the notes, but
Speaker 1: that's I think that's going to do it. It sounds
Speaker 1: like you just put the file that you have that
Speaker 1: exc or would you say it was a ZIP file.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it can unzip it, but maybe
Speaker 1: depending on how you put it, but it sounds like
Speaker 1: you put it in in your files in your iCloud
Speaker 1: and boom. You can just do it. So let me
Speaker 1: know if this works for you, because that's a mark.
Speaker 1: That's an interesting question. So very cool. I you know,
Speaker 1: I used to know all those doss commands when I
Speaker 1: was a kid, like CD slash whatever was CD slash
Speaker 1: dr you know, all those little oh when I was
Speaker 1: such like a nerdy computer kid. I wasn't that nerdy,
Speaker 1: Like I wasn't like programming my own stuff, but I
Speaker 1: was definitely you know, like formatting drives and you know,
Speaker 1: installing stuff, and I knew my way around tos to
Speaker 1: a certain extent, and then you know, things change. Best
Speaker 1: Buy is now offering an an Apple Watch app that
Speaker 1: is basically kind of like a triple A on your wrist,
Speaker 1: but for kind of like senior citizens. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is for anyone, but it's kind of it's definitely aimed
Speaker 1: at the seniors. It's called Lively and this is in
Speaker 1: a company that they purchased. I think it was a
Speaker 1: great call. Is the name of the company, and Lively
Speaker 1: is uh is kind of their brand that they're using
Speaker 1: for this app, and so you install the SAP on
Speaker 1: the Apple Watch, and it does a couple things. It
Speaker 1: can get you in touch with an urgent response agent
Speaker 1: that can help out an emergency and non emergency situations.
Speaker 1: They can even do things like if your car has trouble,
Speaker 1: help you figure out, you know, how to get help. Now.
Speaker 1: I was immediately going to dismiss this until I read
Speaker 1: this line. And it also detects if you take a
Speaker 1: fall and can you know, notify your family members or
Speaker 1: they can call you to make sure you're okay. Now
Speaker 1: you might be saying rich, you know Apple Watch already
Speaker 1: has that built in. Well, kind of the way that
Speaker 1: Apple Watch has it built in is it It just
Speaker 1: basically calls nine one one if you don't respond within
Speaker 1: sixty seconds after a hard fall, and it can text
Speaker 1: I believe a couple family members to say you know
Speaker 1: this happened, and your location. But this kind of takes
Speaker 1: it a step further where it calls the user. Again,
Speaker 1: this is for more like aimed at seniors that might
Speaker 1: need a little bit more hand holding, a little bit
Speaker 1: more assistance than sort of, you know, just the average
Speaker 1: person like myself who might just be fine with the
Speaker 1: fall detection right, So I was going to discount this
Speaker 1: whole thing until I read this line. Best by Health
Speaker 1: worked closely with Apple on this upcoming feature which is
Speaker 1: coming soon, which is the first to use Apple's new
Speaker 1: fall detection API to protect the health and safety of
Speaker 1: users who've taken a hard fall. Now, I didn't realize
Speaker 1: that this fall detection in the Apple Watches an API.
Speaker 1: That's pretty amazing, And what that means is that developers
Speaker 1: can build their apps on top of this fall detection,
Speaker 1: so eventually, not just you don't have to just use
Speaker 1: Apple's fall detection or Apple's system for fall detection. So
Speaker 1: this means that a startup can come with can come
Speaker 1: up with a better way of doing the fall detection,
Speaker 1: maybe not the algorithm, but a better way of encompassing
Speaker 1: what happens after that fall, whether it connects you directly
Speaker 1: to someone or you know, in this case, you know
Speaker 1: their agents. So I think that's pretty cool. And that's
Speaker 1: why I mentioned this because it's not just like a
Speaker 1: quote unquote dumb app that's on the iPhone that's trying
Speaker 1: to replicate what Apple's doing. It's it's deeply integrated into
Speaker 1: the Apple Watch. And I love when I see stuff
Speaker 1: like that because it means that it opens up options
Speaker 1: for people. It's not just one thing. It's not just
Speaker 1: Apple solution. Apple's saying, hey, we came up with this
Speaker 1: solution as a start, but you know, you if you
Speaker 1: can come up with something better, by all means, here's
Speaker 1: kind of like the insides of what we did, and
Speaker 1: you can play around with them and rearrange them and
Speaker 1: make them work for you. And I just love that idea.
Speaker 1: So again it's called lively. Here's the downside. It you know,
Speaker 1: obviously requires an Apple Watch, but the plan that I
Speaker 1: saw looks like it costs about thirty dollars a month,
Speaker 1: which you know, I think to get the full benefit
Speaker 1: of this, you'd probably want an Apple Watch cellular that
Speaker 1: has you know, the calling in it. So that's another
Speaker 1: ten dollars a month, plus a slightly more expensive Apple Watch.
Speaker 1: So now you're talking forty dollars a month for this feature.
Speaker 1: I think my my family members are worth it. I
Speaker 1: don't know, I mean, but a lot of seniors on
Speaker 1: fixed incomes. It's it's you know, it's expensive, that's pricey,
Speaker 1: and you know, eventually I would like to get my
Speaker 1: mom an Apple Watch with this feature, maybe not the
Speaker 1: lively one, maybe just the fall detection because to me,
Speaker 1: like I have it on my watch and it just
Speaker 1: feels like a little guardian protecting you. Right. The other day,
Speaker 1: I was playing with my kids in the Oh, gosh,
Speaker 1: I just thought of another story. I was playing my
Speaker 1: kids in the backyard and you know, we were just
Speaker 1: rough housing, and I whatever, it triggered the fall detection
Speaker 1: on the watch, and I said, I'm okay, you know
Speaker 1: it's fine, but I will tell you. Okay. So I
Speaker 1: was out on a run with my kid. We were
Speaker 1: doing what we call bike run, where he goes on
Speaker 1: the bike and I run with him. And I've ran forever.
Speaker 1: I've run for many many years, and I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm at a really good place with the running situation
Speaker 1: because at this point, all I need is my Apple Watch,
Speaker 1: which has music and cellular and fitness tracking on it,
Speaker 1: as well as the AirPods, which you know, with those
Speaker 1: two things, I can just run without anything else. And
Speaker 1: it feels so amazing, you know, because I remember the
Speaker 1: days of running through the years with like a tape
Speaker 1: player and you know, a CD player and then a
Speaker 1: mini disc player and an MP three player and then
Speaker 1: the iPhone strapped your arm. You know, wired headphones. Now
Speaker 1: it's wireless. So we've seen this big evolution. And now,
Speaker 1: of course with cellular it means that you know wherever
Speaker 1: I am. If there's an emergency while I'm running, I
Speaker 1: can get the help I need. Now. I was running
Speaker 1: along Merry Old Way, no big deal, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I'm not kidding, I tripped in a way
Speaker 1: that I have never ever tripped in a run ever,
Speaker 1: and it was a you know, Los Angeles gotta love
Speaker 1: the uneven sidewalks that I don't think the city takes
Speaker 1: care of. I think it's on the homeowner to take
Speaker 1: care of. Anyway, that's a whole nother thing. But anyway,
Speaker 1: you know, the sidewalk was a little uneven and I
Speaker 1: just missed whatever my brain did, it miscalculated the where
Speaker 1: I should land, and I hit the sidewalk instead of
Speaker 1: the higher part of the sidewalk, instead of the lower part,
Speaker 1: which was like an inch lower, you know, I mean
Speaker 1: an inch away, and the sidewalk was pretty high, and
Speaker 1: so I don't know, whatever this was was enough for
Speaker 1: me with the momentum I was doing to literally I
Speaker 1: projected forward, so hard and so fast and so with
Speaker 1: such an uncertainty that has never happened to me. And
Speaker 1: it was one of those things where I felt myself
Speaker 1: in a slow motion stumble where I would have landed
Speaker 1: on my face. I was able to get my balance
Speaker 1: and maybe because I run a lot and I have
Speaker 1: a little bit more stability or whatever, I don't know,
Speaker 1: whatever did something saved me. And if not, I'm not kidding,
Speaker 1: I would have probably bashed my face into the ground.
Speaker 1: And so again the reason I tell you this story
Speaker 1: is not so you feel sorry for me. I mean,
Speaker 1: definitely I was shaken up and my kid was like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, like he saw me, you know, wow.
Speaker 1: But I had the Apple Watch, and I said, this
Speaker 1: would have been one of those moments if my kid
Speaker 1: wasn't with me and I had the Apple Watch on
Speaker 1: and I actually did not recover from that fall or
Speaker 1: that stumble, I should say, this would have been a
Speaker 1: time when the Apple Watch probably would have sprung into
Speaker 1: action action and called nine one one for me, and
Speaker 1: I probably would have needed it. So anyway, I like
Speaker 1: stuff like this. I think it's it's very important and
Speaker 1: I feel like we're going to see I mean, Google
Speaker 1: or sorry. Apple is really ahead on this, but I
Speaker 1: think we're going to see much more, you know, where
Speaker 1: our electronics that we carry on our body are going
Speaker 1: to help us in these situations. And by the way,
Speaker 1: I mentioned this on the Pixel phone on my Facebook page.
Speaker 1: Pixel has a feature called crash Detection, where your phone
Speaker 1: will detect if it's in a car crash and send help.
Speaker 1: And so I think if you have a Pixel which
Speaker 1: I know is only a few of you, sign up,
Speaker 1: you know, definitely open up that's called the safety app.
Speaker 1: Open that up and get that going. I think that
Speaker 1: Samsung really needs to step this up and get a
Speaker 1: safety app on their phone, and I think that Apple
Speaker 1: should do the same on the iPhone. So if these
Speaker 1: phones detect, you know, they have all these sensors on them,
Speaker 1: they detect a sudden impact, they need to spring into
Speaker 1: action and help us. The Apple Watch is a good start,
Speaker 1: but I don't think you should have to have an
Speaker 1: Apple Watch for that to happen because many more people
Speaker 1: are carrying phone. M mmmmmm, all right, let's get to
Speaker 1: another question. Joanne says, uh, hey, Rich, you've been so
Speaker 1: kind with your recommendations. I'm wondering if I can bother
Speaker 1: you with a question. We've been using e set as
Speaker 1: our virus protection company for the last decade and we're delighted. However,
Speaker 1: they're no longer offering protection with computers running Windows seven.
Speaker 1: I've got two computers doing this. I know there are
Speaker 1: millions of people who use Windows seven. I'm wondering if
Speaker 1: you'd be so kind if you have any suggestions for
Speaker 1: a company who would cover us with Windows seven machines.
Speaker 1: My husband is scouring the web as we speak for leads,
Speaker 1: but we would trust your recommendation for the best out
Speaker 1: there above any reviews on the net. Thank you, Joanne.
Speaker 1: So Joanne, I you know, to be honest, I don't
Speaker 1: really use virus protection on my Mac, so I can't
Speaker 1: and I don't really have a Windows I mean I
Speaker 1: do have a Windows computer for my kid. But again,
Speaker 1: I think for most people with Windows ten, I think
Speaker 1: Windows Defender is going to be just fine. But the
Speaker 1: website that I like that has the ratings of this
Speaker 1: stuff is avdash test dot org. Av dash test dot org,
Speaker 1: and they test these things all the time, and so
Speaker 1: if you look at their website, which for default shows
Speaker 1: up in German for me, but you can just press
Speaker 1: English and you'll get it in English. But uh, you know,
Speaker 1: they've got all the different virus protection for computers for
Speaker 1: you know, Android, and you know they break it out
Speaker 1: by Android, Mac and Windows, so they've got home users companies,
Speaker 1: and then you know mobile. Now iPhone, we've already been
Speaker 1: through this. You don't really need it for iPhone, so
Speaker 1: don't worry about it. Android. I probably would recommend it,
Speaker 1: although I hate the persistent notification that has to have
Speaker 1: on there to be able to do real, real time
Speaker 1: scans mac os. I mean, that's up to you. If
Speaker 1: you feel like you're clicking a lot of random links,
Speaker 1: go ahead. I don't think you need it. But you know,
Speaker 1: we are seeing more instances of things happening on the Mac,
Speaker 1: and honestly, we always talk about viruses, but I think
Speaker 1: malware is way bigger of a problem. I'm talking these
Speaker 1: browser extensions, these apps that are similar sounding to the
Speaker 1: ones that I recommend, and people go and they Google
Speaker 1: and they download some random app that's totally malware. That
Speaker 1: I think is much more of an issue for people
Speaker 1: than say a virus. You know, we think of this
Speaker 1: virus that's gonna weasel its way into the innerds of
Speaker 1: our computer and ruin everything. But honestly, the malware is
Speaker 1: the stuff that affects us on a day to day basis,
Speaker 1: and it's just annoying. With the pop ups and the
Speaker 1: redirection of our web search history and the incessant notifications
Speaker 1: on our computer. That is what I think is much
Speaker 1: bigger of a problem. So I recommend malware bites for
Speaker 1: those scans. But anyway, so Windows virus protection, if I'm
Speaker 1: looking at this, the top three that they recommend. The
Speaker 1: first one is called on lab Ahn lab I have
Speaker 1: not heard of that one, but they like it. But
Speaker 1: the two that I do like that are next are
Speaker 1: a VAST and AVG. And a vast has free antivirus.
Speaker 1: I would go with that. Let me just confirm that
Speaker 1: a Vast actually has a version for Windows seven. It
Speaker 1: may not because you're saying Windows seven. A lot of
Speaker 1: these companies have ditched support because Windows seven is not
Speaker 1: really you know, a big it's not really out there anymore. Okay,
Speaker 1: So let's see. Let's go to Windows and let's see
Speaker 1: also available for PC. Okay, I'm looking and let's see
Speaker 1: system requirements. Gotta scroll all the way down. Oh, interesting,
Speaker 1: they answer the question. They answer the question about Windows Defender.
Speaker 1: Can I just use Windows Defender? And it says Windows
Speaker 1: Defender exists to protect your PC if you don't have
Speaker 1: anything else. It was not designed to be your long
Speaker 1: term AV solution. Okay, all right, so now this says
Speaker 1: Windows ten. Oh okay, yep, Windows seven compatible. So there
Speaker 1: you go. So there you go. Of asked free antivirus,
Speaker 1: go ahead, download it. That's what I recommend it. It's free,
Speaker 1: it's easy, and people seem to like it. All right,
Speaker 1: could you do without your smartphone or any screen for
Speaker 1: twenty four hours? I am going to try this. I
Speaker 1: challenge you to try it as well. This is gonna
Speaker 1: be tough National Day of Unplugging. Did the story on
Speaker 1: KTLA today happened sundown Friday March fifth to sundown Saturday,
Speaker 1: March sixth, So even if you're listening to this past
Speaker 1: that time, which some of you may be, you know,
Speaker 1: you can still try this on your own. I mean,
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be the day that you know
Speaker 1: it happens, but anyway, this is the day that is happening,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna try it. I am going to put
Speaker 1: my phone in this little sleeping bag. They gave me,
Speaker 1: and see if I can stay off my phone for
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. And the idea behind this is, you know,
Speaker 1: we know that that social media number one, and our
Speaker 1: phones have led to number one incessant scrolling, right, whether
Speaker 1: it's you or your spouse or your friends. When you
Speaker 1: have a free moment in your life, what do you do.
Speaker 1: You take your phone out of your pocket, and you
Speaker 1: start scrolling, and you look around, and you go and
Speaker 1: And it's funny because notifications started as a way to
Speaker 1: kind of train us to get back into these apps,
Speaker 1: even when we stopped using them, you know, even when
Speaker 1: we kind of put the phone down. But I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you realize, as I have realized, doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: take a notification for me to check Facebook. So here's
Speaker 1: my little routine. I open my phone, I go Gmail,
Speaker 1: I go Instagram, I go to probably Twitter first, then Instagram,
Speaker 1: then Facebook. And it's a cycle, cycle, cycle, cycle, cycle, cycle, cycle, cycle, cycle,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if there's a notification or not. Now I've got,
Speaker 1: you know, eight hundred thousand followers on Facebook, one hundred
Speaker 1: thousand on Instagram, and you know a couple hundred on Twitter,
Speaker 1: maybe more. But you know, so I'm getting you know,
Speaker 1: there's always something like it's a slot machine. There's always
Speaker 1: something interesting for me to look at. Right, There's always
Speaker 1: a comment coming in, there's always a message coming in,
Speaker 1: there's always a reply coming into something I've posted. So
Speaker 1: I get that. I am in a position that you
Speaker 1: know is tricky because you know, I'm there's always something new,
Speaker 1: and so I'm always being rewarded with that little hit
Speaker 1: a dopamine when I open my phone. Now, for you,
Speaker 1: it may be a little bit different because you may
Speaker 1: not have all those things coming in, but the problem
Speaker 1: is still the same. You know, you're checking it for
Speaker 1: your Instagram stories and you know, see what people posted
Speaker 1: and whatever. So no matter what, we all have a problem,
Speaker 1: and our phones are just this this constant you know,
Speaker 1: I call it the slot machine. It's this constant source
Speaker 1: of a little bit of like little little push up.
Speaker 1: You know, you go, you see that message, you see
Speaker 1: that reply, you see that post, and it just kind
Speaker 1: of your brain feels good for a second. And so
Speaker 1: this National Day of Unplugging is just something that kind
Speaker 1: of it started actually many many years ago in two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, and you know they've been doing ever
Speaker 1: since so twenty four hours, try to give up your phone.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to do it. And they, you know,
Speaker 1: in our segment on KTLA, we talked about all the
Speaker 1: ways to kind of help you get through this mental
Speaker 1: breakdown that you're going to eventually have because your phone
Speaker 1: is like literally your lifeline. And so you know, they say,
Speaker 1: it's kind of plan your day, plan a hike. You know,
Speaker 1: I said, don't worry about taking pictures for the day,
Speaker 1: because you know, for me, it's always like, well, I
Speaker 1: have an Apple Watch, which is fine, but I need
Speaker 1: my phone for pictures. Well that camera. Why do you
Speaker 1: think they keep getting better? It's because, oh, it continues
Speaker 1: to latch you onto your phone. I know, I get
Speaker 1: fired up about this stuff because I love technology. You
Speaker 1: know that you're listening to a person whose name is
Speaker 1: rich on Tech, right. I love technology, but I also
Speaker 1: see the impact it has had in our lives in
Speaker 1: a very negative way. When I go out to dinner
Speaker 1: and I see couples on their phones at the table,
Speaker 1: which you know, I'm talking about years ago, back when
Speaker 1: you know, in the before days. But you know, when
Speaker 1: you sit there at a dinner and people are just
Speaker 1: looking at their phones, and the kids are all zombies.
Speaker 1: I call them iPad zombies. It's really sad to me,
Speaker 1: and there's a place for it. And of course, you
Speaker 1: know I'm not perfect. Believe me, I do the same
Speaker 1: thing I you know, not on my dinners. Believe me,
Speaker 1: not on my dinners. I do when I am at
Speaker 1: dinner and with friends. Most of the time I am.
Speaker 1: I am very cognizant of having my phone away. Now.
Speaker 1: I am on my phone a lot, probably more than
Speaker 1: a lot of people. In fact, let's just take a
Speaker 1: look at what my screen time is averaging. Let's see
Speaker 1: how do I go settings? I need to put that
Speaker 1: thing back on my phone. Okay, screen time for me, okay, ready,
Speaker 1: daily average three out four hours a day. That's a lot.
Speaker 1: That's four hours a day is a lot. I think
Speaker 1: that's a lot to be staring at my phone. So
Speaker 1: let's see. My kids are kids daily average are two
Speaker 1: hours a day. So and I you know that's that's
Speaker 1: not including their laptops though, that includes their iPad. That
Speaker 1: includes their iPad. So yeah, two hours a day. But
Speaker 1: I severely limit their time on there, not severely, but
Speaker 1: I mean they you know, they do have time on there,
Speaker 1: but you know, Look, this is one of those things
Speaker 1: that I think as we evolve as a tech centric world,
Speaker 1: we are gonna we are gonna come to a realization
Speaker 1: with all the stuff that it's good and it's bad.
Speaker 1: And I think that tech is amazing. I think the
Speaker 1: way it connects people is amazing. This stuff, what technology
Speaker 1: has done in our lives is just mind boggling, and
Speaker 1: the benefits are so there. But there are some downsides
Speaker 1: that I think, especially as the younger folks come up
Speaker 1: through this world and post every single thing that happens
Speaker 1: in their lives in real time, and you know, I
Speaker 1: just that that's gonna have an impact that is not
Speaker 1: a very positive impact. So as long as we're aware
Speaker 1: of this stuff and you try it out, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, I think it's a good thing to just
Speaker 1: just be aware of. So all right, let's get to
Speaker 1: the next question. By the way, you can check out
Speaker 1: my little sleeping bag on my Instagram at rich on Tech,
Speaker 1: my little National Day of Unplugging sleeping bag for my phone.
Speaker 1: I might need to lock it up to really not
Speaker 1: use it. Craig says, Hey, rich I'm in the mac
Speaker 1: universe with an iMac, a MacBook an iPad in an iPhone. Wow,
Speaker 1: how do you suggest I set up my file system?
Speaker 1: I have many folders for all of my various interest
Speaker 1: in work categories and many subfolders. I have most folders
Speaker 1: in my home folder, with some shared to other devices.
Speaker 1: With Dropbox in iCloud Drive, I don't really use the
Speaker 1: documents folder, at least on purpose me either. I also
Speaker 1: have a lot of folders or aliases on my desktop.
Speaker 1: It's a bit unwieldy. What do you suggest? Thank you,
Speaker 1: Greg Greig, This is a good question. I'll tell you
Speaker 1: what I do, and you can you know, you can
Speaker 1: kind of follow along or you know, do whatever you like.
Speaker 1: So a couple of things. I use Google Drive, I
Speaker 1: use Dropbox, and I use iCloud Drive, and then I
Speaker 1: that's basically it. I try to keep everything in the cloud.
Speaker 1: So no matter what, if I'm you know, doing anything
Speaker 1: on my computer, it's it's sync to the cloud. Now.
Speaker 1: The only exception to that is I believe my desktop
Speaker 1: on my computer it used to be sync to iCloud drive.
Speaker 1: I don't think it is anymore. Let me say no,
Speaker 1: it's not. So there's a way to do that where
Speaker 1: you can set it up. I personally would recommend it.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I actually have it turned off.
Speaker 1: I forgot about that. I think I turned it off
Speaker 1: because I use my desktop as kind of a respite
Speaker 1: from the cloud. So if I have like a big
Speaker 1: file that I don't really want to sync to the cloud,
Speaker 1: or I'm just like, you know, I'm doing a lot
Speaker 1: of video stuff, you know, if I just want to
Speaker 1: have like a file in transition, right, so I will
Speaker 1: just keep it on my desktop and it's not going
Speaker 1: up to the file the cloud for like thirty seconds
Speaker 1: and then coming back down. You know, it's just there.
Speaker 1: But you know, you have to forget, have to remember
Speaker 1: not to put anything important there. So that's how I
Speaker 1: use my desktop. I agree the document's folder. Things only
Speaker 1: go in there if it's a mistake, if like an
Speaker 1: app synks to it by itself. But what I do
Speaker 1: is on my sidebar on my finder, I just keep
Speaker 1: my most popular folder. So I've got my Google Drive,
Speaker 1: you know some of the folders that I go in
Speaker 1: and out of all the time. Like I've got this
Speaker 1: folder on my drop box called shared with Rich and
Speaker 1: that's the folder that I use to exchange stuff with
Speaker 1: my camera. Person you know, for editing, and then I
Speaker 1: keep all of my KTLA stuff in there so it's
Speaker 1: all you know, organized. And then I, you know, once
Speaker 1: I'm inside my folders, I keep it all very organized.
Speaker 1: And what I found that works really well is just
Speaker 1: set up a new year for every year. So Google
Speaker 1: Drive twenty twenty one. Inside twenty twenty one is where
Speaker 1: all of my files live. So when I get a
Speaker 1: bank statement from my bank, I make a new folder
Speaker 1: that is called you know, you know, Bank of America,
Speaker 1: and I put it inside the twenty twenty one and
Speaker 1: I drag and dropped it into there. When my kid
Speaker 1: brings home a piece of art from school that I scan,
Speaker 1: I scan it in and put you know, Parker's artwork
Speaker 1: inside the twenty twenty one folder. And I feel like
Speaker 1: future rich will enjoy that, because when I need to
Speaker 1: find something, I don't think i'd want one giant folder
Speaker 1: called Bank of America with everything I've ever gotten from
Speaker 1: Bank of America in there. It makes a little bit
Speaker 1: more sense for me anyway to break it out by year. Now,
Speaker 1: when it comes to iCloud drive again, that's kind of
Speaker 1: a transitory folder as well, so I keep you know,
Speaker 1: some stuff in there, but it's mostly, you know, just
Speaker 1: quick things that I need to access on my iPhone
Speaker 1: and if I want anything, you know a little bit
Speaker 1: more longer term. I have this new folder called iOS
Speaker 1: Transfer and that enables me to use Google Drive with
Speaker 1: both an Android and an iOS device. So iCloud Drive
Speaker 1: snks really nicely with you know, the iPhone, but then
Speaker 1: if you go to Android you can't find that stuff.
Speaker 1: So I've started a new folder called iOS Transfer, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, if you install Google Drive or I
Speaker 1: think any of these like Dropbox, you can go on
Speaker 1: your files folder on your on your iPhone or iPad
Speaker 1: and under locations you can add the locations from these folders,
Speaker 1: so you can add like a drop Box folder, you
Speaker 1: can add a Google Drive folder. I think one Drive
Speaker 1: is supported, so Apple has done a really good job
Speaker 1: of blending in our I guess, building in support for
Speaker 1: one Drive and Google Drive, and it's really quite slick.
Speaker 1: So I know iCloud Drive. Everyone has iOS products and
Speaker 1: Apple products is familiar with, but you can almost get
Speaker 1: that same level of functionality that drag and drop from
Speaker 1: your desktop to to your iPad or your iPhone if
Speaker 1: you just install the app for like say Dropbox or
Speaker 1: Google Drive, and then when you go in to your
Speaker 1: iCloud locations, you can add a new location, which is
Speaker 1: like you know, an iCloud or a Google Drive location
Speaker 1: or whatever. So it's pretty slick, and I know it's
Speaker 1: a long answer for how I do it. Look, you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's the most important thing is to just
Speaker 1: come up with a system, and it's your system, and
Speaker 1: that's it, and that's the main thing. Now, don't ask
Speaker 1: me how much stuff I have in there that's not organized,
Speaker 1: because you know, before I came up with my nice
Speaker 1: yearly system, I think it was twenty twenty, no, twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen maybe, and so before I came up with that,
Speaker 1: I kind of was all over the place. And so
Speaker 1: I'm still going through and actually organizing my Google Drive
Speaker 1: and getting all that stuff organized. Oh, twenty seventeen is
Speaker 1: when I started the year thing. Ah, that's been that's
Speaker 1: been quite a while. Twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, twenty twenty one. And I also share that
Speaker 1: that folder with my wife so she can access everything
Speaker 1: in there as well, which is really cool. So good question,
Speaker 1: Thanks for asking, And let's move on to the next story,
Speaker 1: which is yet another streaming service. Why why as yet
Speaker 1: another streaming service, Mount Plus is launching to replace CBS
Speaker 1: All Access. I'm not gonna do too much on this,
Speaker 1: but ten dollars a month, add free, six dollars a
Speaker 1: month with advertising, and yeah, what do you get? You
Speaker 1: get all the brands from you know, Viacom, SO, CBS, MTV, Beet,
Speaker 1: Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network plus, Paramount Pictures. So Paramount
Speaker 1: Pictures was a big holdout with some of the like
Speaker 1: movies anywhere, like some of this stuff. So you know,
Speaker 1: Paramount Pictures probably has a lot of movies on this thing.
Speaker 1: I actually need to try this out. So what do
Speaker 1: you do? You? Oh, the one big show that's not
Speaker 1: on here is Yellowstone, which I know a lot of
Speaker 1: people will find surprising. It's on Peacock. I guess they
Speaker 1: cut that deal before Paramount Plus was going to be
Speaker 1: a thing, and maybe before they knew not Peacock, but
Speaker 1: Yellowstone was going to be such a hit. It's like
Speaker 1: one of these things where Paramount Plus like, ah, we
Speaker 1: could have built our entire, you know, our entire streaming
Speaker 1: marketing plan off a Yellowstone, you know, and what do
Speaker 1: they have now? SpongeBob is the big thing I've seen
Speaker 1: them advertise, and some other you know, like what SpongeBob
Speaker 1: the news? You know some of these shows they have
Speaker 1: and the original shows. I guess they have Star Trek stuff.
Speaker 1: But it seems like it's a pretty solid streaming service.
Speaker 1: You get a lot of stuff for your money. But
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'll subscribe to this. I'll definitely
Speaker 1: try it right now. They're giving you one month free,
Speaker 1: and after March it's only gonna be a one week trial,
Speaker 1: so I would try to get the free now and
Speaker 1: then they're also going to do a five dollars a
Speaker 1: month based here that is supported by advertising, but removes
Speaker 1: your local CBS live live stream. So if you like that,
Speaker 1: They've got Fraser on there, They've got rug Rats. If
Speaker 1: you have CBS all Access, your CBS all Access apps
Speaker 1: are meant to switch automatically update to switch to Paramount
Speaker 1: Plus and you can sign in with your CBS all
Speaker 1: Access credentials, so they made that easy. But this is
Speaker 1: a you know, this isn't a sea of streaming services.
Speaker 1: Disney plus, HBO Max, Apple TV plus, Peacock, Discovery Plus.
Speaker 1: There's a lot to subscribe to. I'm subscribed to a
Speaker 1: lot of these things. This, by the way, I'm going
Speaker 1: off of a c neet article. Can I just say
Speaker 1: cnet dot com has really up their game? So c
Speaker 1: net was was owned I used to work there, by
Speaker 1: the way, you may remember that some of you, but
Speaker 1: CBS bought c net, and I feel like the quality
Speaker 1: took a little nose dive. And the reason for that
Speaker 1: is that CBS, this giant company, they didn't really understand
Speaker 1: what to do with cnet, and there was all these
Speaker 1: competitors that came up that were just much more digital
Speaker 1: centric and much more kind of nimble than this big
Speaker 1: giant CBS owned c net, and so cnet kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, it was it was kind of like a
Speaker 1: boat being tossed around in the waves. I feel like,
Speaker 1: I don't this is not any insider info. This is
Speaker 1: just a way I saw it. And then, you know,
Speaker 1: c neet kind of struggled to compete against even someone
Speaker 1: like an MKBHD who's like, you know, a YouTuber that
Speaker 1: does his own thing. You know, his videos are killing
Speaker 1: what you know c net would do. And now I
Speaker 1: feel like they've kind of hit their stride a little
Speaker 1: bit more. They were actually purchased by a company I
Speaker 1: think it's called Red Ventures, and they own the Point
Speaker 1: Sky and they own a whole bunch of other properties
Speaker 1: like digital. It's a very digital first products, right or
Speaker 1: company or portfolio, I should say. And so now I
Speaker 1: feel like what I've seen on the homepage on c net,
Speaker 1: I feel like they're really starting to kill it and
Speaker 1: they're really starting to hit their stride of they get it,
Speaker 1: they get what they are now. They're a website that
Speaker 1: people go to to get information. It's not just tech stuff.
Speaker 1: It's like almost like an enthusiast website of like stuff
Speaker 1: that tech people like myself might be into. So you know,
Speaker 1: you're talking cars, even COVID nineteen, information, how to articles,
Speaker 1: money articles, health articles, smart home deals. So I think
Speaker 1: they're doing a really good job and I'm starting to
Speaker 1: see a lot more stuff that when I look at
Speaker 1: their website, I'm like, Okay, I want to read this.
Speaker 1: I want to I'm digging this, and so I it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's a daily stop for me. And I
Speaker 1: think that they're just doing a lot more now. I
Speaker 1: think the synergy with the you know, marketing backing that
Speaker 1: they have with the points guy and that company read
Speaker 1: you know, red Ventures is huge because they are a
Speaker 1: kind of an affiliate marketing company. So I think that
Speaker 1: they are going to see a lot of synergy with
Speaker 1: that because you read an article about this thing and
Speaker 1: then you buy it on Amazon or wherever, and I
Speaker 1: think that's that's going to do really well for them.
Speaker 1: So anyway, seen a nice job. And I'm not just
Speaker 1: saying that because I used to work there, you know,
Speaker 1: I really do and I know a lot of the
Speaker 1: people there. But I do think they are doing a
Speaker 1: really nice job. So let's get to the next question.
Speaker 1: Dana says, Hey, Richie helped me with a question a
Speaker 1: while back. Wow, trend here, I'm hoping you have the
Speaker 1: answer to this. I picked up my iPhone earlier this
Speaker 1: morning to see the apps wiggling and the little X
Speaker 1: sign on them. I clicked the home button and thought
Speaker 1: all was well, But now I realized that I deleted
Speaker 1: one of my apps on my first screen, and I
Speaker 1: don't know which one it was. Is there a way
Speaker 1: to detect the last app that was deleted? Thank you, Dana, Dana,
Speaker 1: I don't know of a way to detect the last
Speaker 1: item deleted. But I will say I think if the
Speaker 1: app was on your home screen, you should be able
Speaker 1: to figure out which app it was pretty quickly in
Speaker 1: the next couple of days because you probably used it
Speaker 1: a lot, right, I mean, that's my advice. Now, this
Speaker 1: is the reason my mom has an Android, and this
Speaker 1: is the reason why I use a feature that locks
Speaker 1: down the home screen. And on a lot of these phones,
Speaker 1: like the Samsung phones have it built in I think
Speaker 1: LG and a lot of these third party app you
Speaker 1: know app what are they call them launchers? They have
Speaker 1: it built in where you can lock down the home screen.
Speaker 1: So if you're setting up a phone for a loved
Speaker 1: one that's an Android, look into that feature where you
Speaker 1: can lock down their home screen once you set it
Speaker 1: up on iPhone. I'll be honest, iPhone gets a total
Speaker 1: from me. What I did. I got so frustrated with
Speaker 1: the iPhone and their system. By the way, it's been
Speaker 1: the same system to rearrange apps on the iPhone since
Speaker 1: day one, and it has not gotten even a millimeter
Speaker 1: better in ten years or however many years the iPhone
Speaker 1: has been around thirteen years now, fourteen years. It is terrible.
Speaker 1: I in fact a dread trying to rearrange apps on
Speaker 1: the iPhone because it is so horrible. And now with widgets,
Speaker 1: god forbid. You try to try out a new widget,
Speaker 1: it rearranges everything and messes you up. So Apple needs
Speaker 1: to come up with a way where you can save
Speaker 1: a home screen profile so that you can then change
Speaker 1: that home screen, rearrange things, and then just go back
Speaker 1: to what you had. Say I want to go back
Speaker 1: to my old profile, you know that, and save. Maybe
Speaker 1: you want to save a couple of these, kind of
Speaker 1: like the way you can have a couple faces on
Speaker 1: the Apple Watch. So what I did was on the iPhone.
Speaker 1: I've actually declared bankruptcy on the iPhone. I have now
Speaker 1: just one home screen and the rest of my home
Speaker 1: screens are all gone. And I now just use the
Speaker 1: app library and pull down to search because that's all
Speaker 1: I can do. I don't want to deal with these
Speaker 1: apps moving around in a bunch of different places every
Speaker 1: time I try a new app out. I just don't.
Speaker 1: And so that's what I do now, and you know,
Speaker 1: there you go. So that's I feel like sometimes I'm
Speaker 1: very angry on this podcast with my views, but at
Speaker 1: the same time, it's just so frustrating when you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, as a person who is involved in
Speaker 1: this stuff every day and understands like what's happening, fine,
Speaker 1: I get it. And if it's frustrating for me, I
Speaker 1: can't imagine how frustrating it is for the average end
Speaker 1: you who is just trying to like make it through
Speaker 1: life and you know, do this stuff and it's just like, ugh,
Speaker 1: you're like a salmon swimming upstream. But maybe they do
Speaker 1: it pretty well, so maybe it's not a salmon. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's like a I don't know, a guppy, like a
Speaker 1: goldfish that's trying to swim upstream because they probably have
Speaker 1: much much tougher time. All Right. I mentioned this in
Speaker 1: the intro the I'm not gonna, you know, go into
Speaker 1: this too much. I always say that Wagoneer from Jeep
Speaker 1: this is an upcoming car. It is gonna be the
Speaker 1: first to have fire TV for auto. And at first
Speaker 1: when I saw this, I was like, what a fire
Speaker 1: TV in your car? Like that doesn't seem dangerous on
Speaker 1: the home screen right on the central dashboard screen. So
Speaker 1: here's the deal. Grand Wagoneer and the Wagoneer are gonna
Speaker 1: make their debut on March eleventh, they're gonna be the
Speaker 1: first to have Amazon Fire TV for Auto, which gives
Speaker 1: you access to apps, movies, shows, and alexa. And so
Speaker 1: what this does is you can start to show on
Speaker 1: your TV at home and it will sink the location
Speaker 1: of where you're at to your car. And at first
Speaker 1: I thought this sounded, like I said, very dangerous. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, they say that this is for
Speaker 1: passengers only, so the passenger and the backseat folks can
Speaker 1: watch this stuff and the driver can't see the screen
Speaker 1: unless the vehicle is in park, and then the driver
Speaker 1: can also join in on the fire TV magic. So
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's kind of cool. I think it's
Speaker 1: kind of weird. But at the same time, we're definitely,
Speaker 1: you know, we're seeing more and more of the slow
Speaker 1: march towards autonomous cars, and I think we're just seeing
Speaker 1: more entertainment in cars, more streaming services, and I think
Speaker 1: that they've probably you know, gone to great lines to
Speaker 1: make sure that the driver is not distracted by this.
Speaker 1: My big question is if the passenger is listening to something.
Speaker 1: I assume they have to use Bluetooth headphones so that
Speaker 1: they don't, you know, the drivers want to be listening
Speaker 1: to like SpongeBob SquarePants playing on you know, the new
Speaker 1: Paramount All Access while he's driving or she and you know, so,
Speaker 1: how does that work now with our kids? You know,
Speaker 1: in the back seat they're just on their iPads. We're like,
Speaker 1: can you blaze put your headphones on so mom and
Speaker 1: dad don't have to listen to this. And I also
Speaker 1: feel like it's sad if my wife was just watching
Speaker 1: a show while I'm driving, maybe on a long road trip.
Speaker 1: But it's just kind of like, again, we're getting into
Speaker 1: this thing of like everyone's doing their own thing, everyone's
Speaker 1: on their own pace. At this point. It used to
Speaker 1: be in the world everyone was at almost the same
Speaker 1: place right when it came to You would watch the
Speaker 1: Friends finale on the Friday night or Thursday night, and
Speaker 1: you would watch the Seinfeldt finale and we all talked
Speaker 1: about the next day. But now every single person in
Speaker 1: the world is at their own pace, even couples. So
Speaker 1: you may be watching a show side by side with
Speaker 1: your wife, but she's two episodes ahead of you and
Speaker 1: you have to wait to discuss it, or your people,
Speaker 1: your friends at work. So it's this really weird society
Speaker 1: that we're getting into where we're all at like a
Speaker 1: it's like a marathon that we're all just like at
Speaker 1: a different stride and we come together certain times. I
Speaker 1: think there's these big events like the super Bowl, and
Speaker 1: you know, it used to be like the Emmys or
Speaker 1: the most it the Oscars, but now even that stuff
Speaker 1: people just aren't watching. You know. It's like live sporting
Speaker 1: events are pretty much the only place where we're all
Speaker 1: on the same page, you know, these live events, these
Speaker 1: shared experiences, concerts and all this stuff. And I think
Speaker 1: that's why we're seeing more and more of an interest
Speaker 1: in this kind of stuff because we're we're longing for
Speaker 1: that human connection and some of these things are enabling that. Yes,
Speaker 1: you can, you know, have a watch party on Huglo,
Speaker 1: but is that really the same now? I get it.
Speaker 1: It's fun, and it's it's a good replacement for some
Speaker 1: of these things that you just couldn't do before. But
Speaker 1: you know, at the same time, I think we're all
Speaker 1: longing for that shared experience. While I'm on the the
Speaker 1: conversation of cars, let me tell you about the Chevy
Speaker 1: Bolt EUV I test drove this last week and I
Speaker 1: gotta say, I'm really digging the electric cars. I think
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna go all in and purchase an electric
Speaker 1: car because I just see the writing on the wall.
Speaker 1: Volvo announced this week that they are going all electric
Speaker 1: by twenty thirty, and I'm just seeing more and more
Speaker 1: electric cars, and I know Tesla is the big one.
Speaker 1: That's the one I just assumed i'd get, like the
Speaker 1: Model three after driving the Chevy Bolt EUV. Honestly, there's
Speaker 1: a lot I like about this car, and it probably
Speaker 1: would be one of my choices. So what is the
Speaker 1: Bolt EUV. It's kind of like the Chevy Bolt, but
Speaker 1: it's a little bit bigger. It gets two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty miles to the gallon to the charge. It doesn't
Speaker 1: have the fastest DC charging, so a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't like that. I think it only goes up to
Speaker 1: like level two charging. So I don't quote me on
Speaker 1: that because I'm not an expert in the charging stuff,
Speaker 1: but I think that's what the deal is with this.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have the new GM Ultium, which is like
Speaker 1: their new platform that's going to be like amazing for
Speaker 1: electric cars. It's got like lighter batteries, you know, more
Speaker 1: efficient all that good stuff, but you know, it's thirty
Speaker 1: four thousand bucks. And the big thing that I think
Speaker 1: is going to be a problem for this car is
Speaker 1: that it does not get that seventy five hundred dollars
Speaker 1: rebate even though it's a new car model. GM has
Speaker 1: kind of eclipsed there two hundred thousand cars they can
Speaker 1: sell with that, you know, with that whole situation, So
Speaker 1: I think that's a problem. I read an article where
Speaker 1: the government was looking to revise that law to make
Speaker 1: it so that, you know, as these companies come out
Speaker 1: with new car models, maybe they still will capture that
Speaker 1: seventy five hundred dollars rebate. So I say this all
Speaker 1: because me as a purchaser of a car, I may
Speaker 1: look at something like the Volkswagen ID four, which I
Speaker 1: also test drove this week, and I'll share some more
Speaker 1: thoughts about that next week or when I do the
Speaker 1: story on KTLA. But that car I really really liked,
Speaker 1: and the difference is the Okay, So the Chevy Bolt
Speaker 1: EUV has the super Cruise feature, which I just love
Speaker 1: and I would want on my car. Doesn't change lanes,
Speaker 1: but it drives for you basically hands free, which is
Speaker 1: really interesting, but it doesn't have the credit and then
Speaker 1: the ID four. I'll be honest, when I drove that around,
Speaker 1: I can't believe how many people looked at the car
Speaker 1: and we're like, oh my gosh, what is that? What
Speaker 1: is that? What is that? Because nobody ever seen it before,
Speaker 1: and so that really appeals to me, is to you know,
Speaker 1: and plus you get that seventy five hundred dollars credit,
Speaker 1: so you know, and it gets about the same two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty miles on a charge, but it also
Speaker 1: has this the DC Fast Charging, which gives it a
Speaker 1: slight advantage there. So I think these cars are going
Speaker 1: to be battling it out. They're both an alternative to
Speaker 1: the Tesla model Why, which my wife saw on the
Speaker 1: road and she said, nope, I don't like that, so
Speaker 1: don't get that. And I kind of agree. I'm not
Speaker 1: a huge fan of the Why. I mean, it's cute,
Speaker 1: but it's I think the three for me is just like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, it just speaks to me more than
Speaker 1: the Why. But uh, you know, anyway, so we'll see
Speaker 1: what happens. I don't know. I don't think I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get it anytime soon, Like today, or tomorrow or this
Speaker 1: year even but I think maybe you know, definitely the
Speaker 1: next car will well, I think it's going to be
Speaker 1: electric for sure. Let's see here. Okay Francis via Instagram
Speaker 1: at Richon Tech. How does Frontier one fifty one to
Speaker 1: fifty Internet compare to Spectrum Internet. I've always been confused,
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking about switching my cable and internet, but
Speaker 1: I do not want to sacrifice my speed with all
Speaker 1: the remote things we are currently doing. Great question, So
Speaker 1: here's the deal. The biggest difference between the Frontier one
Speaker 1: fifty one fifty, and it's very smart that you you
Speaker 1: put that the one fifty one fifty versus Spectrum is
Speaker 1: going to be the upload speed. So Frontier the upload
Speaker 1: and download are going to be the same, which means
Speaker 1: whether you're uploading or downloading something, your speed is going
Speaker 1: to be consistent with Spectrum. They advertise just their download speed,
Speaker 1: which the default is two hundred, but their upload speed
Speaker 1: does not change. It's i think capped like thirty five.
Speaker 1: So that means that when you upload stuff, it's gonna
Speaker 1: to take longer than it would for you to download something.
Speaker 1: And that's very highly simplified, but the reality is none
Speaker 1: of this matters. None of the speed matters. If you
Speaker 1: are simply streaming stuff on Netflix. If you're just streaming shows,
Speaker 1: it's all going to be fine. But if you are,
Speaker 1: you know, uploading and downloading large files, that's when the
Speaker 1: difference might be clear. And so for me at home,
Speaker 1: I have a thousand up and a thousand down and
Speaker 1: when I upload or download it's very fast. When I
Speaker 1: had Spectrum, it wasn't as fast for the upload. And
Speaker 1: even when I was considering changing to Spectrum for the
Speaker 1: they offer a one thousand, it was still capped at
Speaker 1: like I forget what the upload was, but it wasn't
Speaker 1: very fast. And so you kind of, Francis just need
Speaker 1: to decide do you want upload download being consistent the same,
Speaker 1: like you upload a lot of stuff and download a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff, or you just stream and you'd be
Speaker 1: fine with Spectrum. So the other thing is that Spectrum
Speaker 1: is going to be slightly fast on the download because
Speaker 1: it's two hundred for their basic versus one p fifty. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't think that's going to be a huge difference,
Speaker 1: but it just kind of depends what you need. So
Speaker 1: that's the main thing these companies don't really like to
Speaker 1: advertise their upload speed unless they are doing I don't
Speaker 1: know if the word is asynchronous where it's like the same,
Speaker 1: but you know, if they do the same, which a
Speaker 1: lot of these fiber companies do, they like to put
Speaker 1: that in your face because it sounds much better because
Speaker 1: they know that Spectrum's not doing that, and some of
Speaker 1: these cable companies are not doing that. But for ninety
Speaker 1: nine percent of people, that doesn't necessarily matter because most
Speaker 1: people are just streaming their stuff and they're not really
Speaker 1: uploading large video files like myself every single day, and
Speaker 1: so it's not that big of a deal. Now with
Speaker 1: working from home, yes, you're right, a lot of us
Speaker 1: have have put a little bit of that monocle on
Speaker 1: the speeds that we have at home, and we're saying,
Speaker 1: what are we getting up and down? I want to know.
Speaker 1: So that's a good question, and it's something that I
Speaker 1: think people should look into. All right, I think I
Speaker 1: have time for like one more, maybe two more things,
Speaker 1: all right. Apple has a new tool that lets you
Speaker 1: transfer your iCloud photos to Google Photos. This is according
Speaker 1: to nine to five Mac, and it's kind of like
Speaker 1: one of these data portability features remember what I talked
Speaker 1: about earlier, where these tech companies want to be seen as,
Speaker 1: you know, very open and very customer centric or I
Speaker 1: should say consumer centric. You know, they're not just trying
Speaker 1: to gobble up all your data and keep it and
Speaker 1: make it so it's really tough for you to move
Speaker 1: somewhere else, which you know some of them do to
Speaker 1: some extent. But this is a great new feature. If
Speaker 1: you want to ditch iCloud photos and go to Google
Speaker 1: Photos Boom, you can do it. So all you have
Speaker 1: to do is basically log into privacy dot Apple dot
Speaker 1: com and you click the thing that says transfer your
Speaker 1: iCloud photos and videos, and it will do it within
Speaker 1: three to seven days according to this article, and you
Speaker 1: get all of your photos and videos copied over. Now.
Speaker 1: According to this article, says that smart albums, live photos,
Speaker 1: and some raw files will not transfer over, but they
Speaker 1: say it looks like a still version of your live
Speaker 1: photos will transfer over. So I think that's a deal
Speaker 1: breaker for me because I want my live photos and
Speaker 1: when I upload directly from my iPhone to Google, I
Speaker 1: do get that live photos, So I'm not sure why
Speaker 1: they're not transferring that over. And maybe this needs some
Speaker 1: more investigation, but that would be a deal breaker for me.
Speaker 1: But I think it's cool that you can transfer and
Speaker 1: I actually think here's where I see this could be
Speaker 1: really interesting and maybe someone can build a tool like this.
Speaker 1: But you know, Google Photos. Right now, all my photos
Speaker 1: are sort of locked in there, and it's a lot
Speaker 1: to you know, get them out because I've got such
Speaker 1: a large collection. But I do think it would be
Speaker 1: interesting to transfer them to a service that would dedupe
Speaker 1: these photos and kind of organize them in a way
Speaker 1: that maybe Google Photos doesn't. And let's say I can
Speaker 1: one click, boom, everything's transferred over to this new service
Speaker 1: called photo Genie, and they go through it. You know,
Speaker 1: of course fits very private. That would be the main thing.
Speaker 1: They go through it. They say, okay, rich, here's all
Speaker 1: your duplicates, here's your biggest files, here's all they slice
Speaker 1: and dices in a way that Google Photos does not.
Speaker 1: And next thing, you know, then they say, okay, now
Speaker 1: we're done. We can transfer back. And by the way,
Speaker 1: this whole process costs me, you know, a one time
Speaker 1: fee of nine ninety nine and they say, boom, now
Speaker 1: we're going to transfer everything back to your Google Photos
Speaker 1: and it's all going to be cleaned up and perfect.
Speaker 1: That would be pretty cool. So this is an idea.
Speaker 1: Why you know why I like this idea of data
Speaker 1: portability is that it gives us more options. And as
Speaker 1: you've heard on this podcast over and over, I like
Speaker 1: when people have options. And that's just one other good option.
Speaker 1: All right, Brianna Final question Brianna Versus via Instagram. Hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: I'm hoping you can help me out. I just got
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty one Honda Accord. I see that Apple
Speaker 1: has a key feature that can be added to the
Speaker 1: wallet app. What I need help with is trying to
Speaker 1: find out if my car is compatible. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: sure where to search. I've checked with the dealership and
Speaker 1: nobody there was able to give me an answer. They
Speaker 1: weren't even aware of the feature. How do I find
Speaker 1: out if my car is compatible? Also, I've Google search,
Speaker 1: but nothing is coming up. I've also being searched. Not
Speaker 1: just kidding, she didn't say that. Hoping you can help.
Speaker 1: If not, thanks anyway, big fan of yours. Let's see,
Speaker 1: so you're talking about the digital key feature on Apple
Speaker 1: on the iPhone, which they showed off at WWDC, and
Speaker 1: they showed it off with a BMW, and as far
Speaker 1: as I know, I think BMW is the only car
Speaker 1: that is compatible. I think we're going to see a
Speaker 1: lot more cars compatible with this, but right now I
Speaker 1: do not believe that your Honda Cord is compatible. But
Speaker 1: it's funny you sent this to me because I when
Speaker 1: I was test driving the Bolt and the Volkswagen this week,
Speaker 1: I was thinking, oh my gosh, how cool would it
Speaker 1: be to have a car that takes advantage of your
Speaker 1: iPhone as a key. One less thing for me to carry,
Speaker 1: one less thing for me to worry about. And yes,
Speaker 1: there's like a whole thing of like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: am I gonna it's my phone? Not going to be
Speaker 1: charged whatever? Like I don't care. I would just rather
Speaker 1: have it on my phone. In fact, I did a
Speaker 1: story with a company called open Path, I think it
Speaker 1: was last week, and this is something that seems like
Speaker 1: a no brainer to me as well. But they work
Speaker 1: to put your key card for your work on your iPhone.
Speaker 1: Now your company has to subscribe to this thing, and
Speaker 1: of course you know it has to be set up
Speaker 1: that way. But you know, I've carried around my key
Speaker 1: card for KTLA for ten years now, and I always think, like,
Speaker 1: why can't my wallet on my iPhone just do this?
Speaker 1: And I asked the guy, the CEO, James Siegel, and
Speaker 1: I said, or is it Jamie Sorry open Path? Open
Speaker 1: Path CEO Seagual, sorry if if I got your name wrong. Jane, Yeah,
Speaker 1: James Siegal. So I asked him, I said, hey, what
Speaker 1: does it use in my little you know, my card?
Speaker 1: Is it RFI D or is it NFC? And I
Speaker 1: guess the card uses RFI D, which I don't think
Speaker 1: is on the iPhone, so I don't know anyway, So
Speaker 1: his system uses a whole combination of things to make
Speaker 1: it work. Its magic, and I imagine these car keys
Speaker 1: in the wallet do the same thing. But I can't wait.
Speaker 1: I mean, I am totally on board with the UH,
Speaker 1: with the idea of using my iPhone as a Let's see,
Speaker 1: there's a digital key consortium. Is that how you say it? Consortium? Consortium?
Speaker 1: So let's see who's on board and we'll see. This
Speaker 1: will give us a little idea of who is going
Speaker 1: to be a part of this in the future. So
Speaker 1: let's see where are the companies. Come on, where are
Speaker 1: the companies? Here we go, Apple BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, LG, Panasonic, Samsung,
Speaker 1: and Volkswagen. So the good news is we are going
Speaker 1: to see BMW's IT, General Motors have IT, Honda, Hyundai, Volkswagen,
Speaker 1: and even Samsung phones support this as well on LG phone,
Speaker 1: So we are gonna see a lot of these of
Speaker 1: these digital keys in the future. I cannot wait. In fact,
Speaker 1: you know what, maybe I'll wait to buy my car
Speaker 1: until this happens, because I really think that's a key feature.
Speaker 1: When I bought my last car, car play and uh
Speaker 1: and Android Auto was a key feature it had to have,
Speaker 1: And so I think with my next car, it's going
Speaker 1: to have to be the the digital key. Let's hear
Speaker 1: how you say consortium consortium not consortium consortium. There you go.
Speaker 1: So you learn something new every week on this podcast,
Speaker 1: Well I do mostly how to pronounce stuff. Oh, there
Speaker 1: it is. That's the music that means. That's gonna do
Speaker 1: it for this episode of the show. If you would
Speaker 1: like to submit a question for me to answer, two
Speaker 1: ways to do that. Go to Rich on tech dot
Speaker 1: tv slash podcast, hit the microphone button to leave a voicemail,
Speaker 1: or go to my Facebook page Facebook dot com slash
Speaker 1: rich on Tech hit the big blue send email button. Also,
Speaker 1: I would love it if you would rate and review
Speaker 1: this podcast to help other people discover it. Just go
Speaker 1: to rate this podcast dot com slash rich on Tech.
Speaker 1: When you leave that review, I will tweet it out.
Speaker 1: You can find me online at rich on Tech, and
Speaker 1: no matter where you live in the US, you can
Speaker 1: now download the free ktla plus app on Apple TV,
Speaker 1: Fire TV, and Roku, and you can scroll down to
Speaker 1: the tech section and watch all of my TV segments
Speaker 1: on demand. So if you somehow found me on this
Speaker 1: podcast in some odd way, you can now watch my
Speaker 1: segments as they air on TV. I love that. My
Speaker 1: sister just did it and for the first time I
Speaker 1: think she's ever seen me on TV. Her and her
Speaker 1: son were watching me and they were just cracking up.
Speaker 1: They finally get my sense of humor. My name is
Speaker 1: rich Dimiro. Thanks so much for listening. I know there
Speaker 1: are so many ways you can spend an hour of
Speaker 1: your time, so I really appreciate you spending it with me.
Speaker 1: Stay safe, I will talk to you real soon.