WEBVTT - Try These New Google Home Features

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<v Speaker 1>Trying out new features on Google Home. What's going on

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<v Speaker 1>on rich Tomiro? This is Rich on Tech. I really

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<v Speaker 1>enjoy the Google Homes I have in my house because

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<v Speaker 1>of several reasons. The first is that it's always evolving.

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<v Speaker 1>It understands almost every command that you bark in it,

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<v Speaker 1>you don't need to say things in a particular way,

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<v Speaker 1>and it's always getting new features. Recently, Google sent me

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<v Speaker 1>a bunch of gadgets so I could try out some

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<v Speaker 1>new Google Home features, including Spanish routines, continued conversations, and more.

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<v Speaker 1>So let's go through a few of the new features

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<v Speaker 1>available on Google Home. Now. One of those is Spanish.

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<v Speaker 1>So you know that Google Home used to be able

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<v Speaker 1>to translate Spanish, Well, now it can understand commands actually

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<v Speaker 1>spoken in Spanish, and that's a big deal for a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of people that want to speak to Google Home

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<v Speaker 1>in a different language other than English. So if you

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<v Speaker 1>want to set that up, all you have to do

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<v Speaker 1>is open the Google Home app and tap menu. Then

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<v Speaker 1>you go into Settings, select Preferences, and there will be

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<v Speaker 1>an option for Espanol. Next up, Continue Conversation. Now, this

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<v Speaker 1>one I'm kind of torn on because I see the

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<v Speaker 1>pros and cons of it. Now, a bit of background, Usually,

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<v Speaker 1>when you want to activate your Google Home you have

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<v Speaker 1>to say those hot words that start with okay or

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<v Speaker 1>hey right. I'm not gonna say I'm here because I

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<v Speaker 1>don't want to activate your phone or your speaker in

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<v Speaker 1>the background. But now with this new feature called Continued Conversation,

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<v Speaker 1>you can basically continue talking to Google without saying the

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<v Speaker 1>activation phrase every time. So that means you can say,

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<v Speaker 1>what's the weather in Hawaii, and then you can follow

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<v Speaker 1>up with how about next week? Or you know, maybe

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<v Speaker 1>the weather in a different place, or you can just

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<v Speaker 1>continue back and forth with your original query instead of

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<v Speaker 1>saying those keywords every single time. So it's more like

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<v Speaker 1>a conversation with Google rather than that very specific here's

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<v Speaker 1>my hot word and my question. Okay, here's another hot word,

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<v Speaker 1>here's another question. Now. To set this up, you have

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<v Speaker 1>to go into the Google Home app, hit the menu button,

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<v Speaker 1>then more Settings, then you go into Preferences, and then

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<v Speaker 1>you tap continued Conversation to turn it on. Now, keep

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<v Speaker 1>in mind, once you turn this feature on, your Google

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<v Speaker 1>Home basically keeps listening even after it answers your original question,

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<v Speaker 1>because it's waiting for a follow up question. Now. After

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<v Speaker 1>a certain amount of time, it will time out and

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<v Speaker 1>close the mic. But if you want to manually stop

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<v Speaker 1>the conversation, you can say thank you or stop when

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<v Speaker 1>you're actually finished. Now. In my testing, I don't know.

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<v Speaker 1>I kind of like this feature because I like the

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<v Speaker 1>ability to go back and forth with Google. But at

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<v Speaker 1>the same time, I find that in my house with

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of people talking, the microphone pretty much stayed

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<v Speaker 1>open the whole time because it kept interpreting things that

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<v Speaker 1>we were saying. So you can try this out see

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<v Speaker 1>if you like it, turn it off if you don't

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<v Speaker 1>like that continued conversation all right. Next up routines. These

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<v Speaker 1>lets you get multiple things done by speaking just a

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<v Speaker 1>single command, and they can be really handy if you

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<v Speaker 1>set them up properly, so you can say things like

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<v Speaker 1>your keyword and then I'm home, and this can turn

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<v Speaker 1>on the lights, share your reminders, play your favorite music,

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<v Speaker 1>and whatever else you want it to do. Google has

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<v Speaker 1>six pre built routines that are right inside the app,

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<v Speaker 1>including good morning, bedtime, and leaving home. You can also

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<v Speaker 1>build your own routines right inside the Google Home app,

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<v Speaker 1>and it makes it pretty easy. First, you set a

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<v Speaker 1>command using whatever words you want. Then you add actions,

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<v Speaker 1>so whatever you want those actions to be, like adjusting

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<v Speaker 1>the lights or turning on a smart plug. Then you

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<v Speaker 1>can also add other things like you can have Google

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<v Speaker 1>say details from your calendar or play a playlist. The

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<v Speaker 1>possibilities are really unlimited here. You can do what you want,

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<v Speaker 1>and the Google app helps you kind of move along

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<v Speaker 1>with your command. So it starts by saying, Okay, what

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<v Speaker 1>do you want your command word to be? Then what

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<v Speaker 1>do you want me to do? Here are some popular

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<v Speaker 1>things you can do, so it gives you ideas. Of course,

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<v Speaker 1>you are free to really make this your own, and

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<v Speaker 1>this is going to take a little bit more work,

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<v Speaker 1>but I think if you play around with it, you

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<v Speaker 1>can really find some useful things. So, for instance, for

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<v Speaker 1>a bedtime routine, even though they've pre built one, you

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<v Speaker 1>can kind of adjust what you want the music to be,

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<v Speaker 1>how you want the lights to be adjusted, or what

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<v Speaker 1>you want Google to tell you before you go to sleep.

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<v Speaker 1>We built one in my TV segment to start popping

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<v Speaker 1>popcorn by setting a routine called movie Night. So we

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<v Speaker 1>had a smart plug. It's connected to a popcorn maker.

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<v Speaker 1>You can have the popcorn maker activate and You can

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<v Speaker 1>even go as far as having your Chrome Cast connected

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<v Speaker 1>to your TV start playing a certain movie that you want,

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<v Speaker 1>although if you say movie night every Friday night and

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<v Speaker 1>it plays the same movie, that'd be kind of weird.

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<v Speaker 1>But again, you can have it play something like a

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<v Speaker 1>YouTube playlist of the most popular videos. Whatever you want.

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<v Speaker 1>And I've built a few of these mainly for my music.

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<v Speaker 1>So I have certain routines like play some country music,

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<v Speaker 1>play some pop music, play some new music, play some

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<v Speaker 1>chill music. And then what I have those routines do

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<v Speaker 1>is those commands that I've customized actually link up to

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<v Speaker 1>a specific Spotify playlist. So even though I'm saying play

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<v Speaker 1>some country music, what Google Home does is it goes

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<v Speaker 1>into Spotify and it shuffles a country playlist called hot Country.

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<v Speaker 1>So instead of saying something like Google shuffle the Spotify

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<v Speaker 1>playlist called hot Country, all I have to do is

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<v Speaker 1>say Google play some country music. See how that works.

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<v Speaker 1>So that's a good one. Definitely check out the routines

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<v Speaker 1>in the Google Home app. All Right, one final thing

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<v Speaker 1>that I really like, and this has been around for

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<v Speaker 1>a while, but it's called broadcast, and this turns your

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<v Speaker 1>Google Home speakers into an old school PA system, so

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<v Speaker 1>you can open up the Google Assistant app on your phone.

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<v Speaker 1>If you have an iPhone, you can download an app

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<v Speaker 1>called the Google Assistant, or if you have Android, you

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<v Speaker 1>can just activate the Google Assistant and then you say

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<v Speaker 1>something like Google broadcast I'm heading home, and next thing

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<v Speaker 1>you know, all your speakers will spring to life and

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<v Speaker 1>play a little recording of what you just said. Into

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<v Speaker 1>Google Assistant, you can say something like Google broadcast, I'm

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<v Speaker 1>headed home and I picked up dinner, so don't worry

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<v Speaker 1>about it, We're having tacos for dinner, and every one

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<v Speaker 1>of your speakers in your home will play that little recording. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>a little word to the wise. I tried this out

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<v Speaker 1>without telling my family what I was doing, and they

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<v Speaker 1>were all kind of spooked because all of a sudden,

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<v Speaker 1>the speakers in my house came to life and played

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<v Speaker 1>a little recording of me. So that was kind of weird.

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<v Speaker 1>So tell people in your house before you actually use

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<v Speaker 1>this command. Google also has some pre built messages and

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<v Speaker 1>sounds that you can share automatically, so you can say

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<v Speaker 1>things like it's dinner time and it will broadcast at

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<v Speaker 1>dinner bell all kinds of fun stuff like that and

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<v Speaker 1>you can see a full list of suggestions linked in

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<v Speaker 1>the show notes. All right, so some of the products

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<v Speaker 1>we use that Google sent us for testing the Google

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<v Speaker 1>Home Mini, the smart light bulb. Google sent us one

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<v Speaker 1>from tp Link. I also like the ones from Lifix,

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<v Speaker 1>but I find the most reliable ones are from Phillips Hugh.

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<v Speaker 1>They also sent us a Wi Fi plug, also from

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<v Speaker 1>tp Link. I've used ones from Wemo and also another

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<v Speaker 1>company on Amazon called Greenie, and they are really cheap

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<v Speaker 1>and they work just as well. And they also sent

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<v Speaker 1>a Chrome Cast, which of course I already have in

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<v Speaker 1>my home. The chrome Cast can really be fun because

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<v Speaker 1>you can use it to literally play things off of

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<v Speaker 1>Netflix or play things off of YouTube. All you have

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<v Speaker 1>to do is talk to your Google Home and it's

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<v Speaker 1>a command like Google play Stranger Things on my living

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<v Speaker 1>room TV. So the syntax is play the show that

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<v Speaker 1>you want to see along with the Romecast device however

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<v Speaker 1>you have that named, and your TV will spring to

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<v Speaker 1>life and play that show. It is very cool. Right now,

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<v Speaker 1>you can't say the actual specific episode and season of

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<v Speaker 1>the show you want to watch, but you can also

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<v Speaker 1>search YouTube there you have it. Just some of the

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<v Speaker 1>fun things you can do with the new Google Home features.

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<v Speaker 1>If you want a full rundown and links to everything

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<v Speaker 1>I mentioned, just go to my website. It is richon

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<v Speaker 1>tech dot tv. And if you're loving the podcast, which

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<v Speaker 1>I hope you play every single day, that is available,

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<v Speaker 1>I would love if you rted and reviewed it. It only

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<v Speaker 1>takes a second. Just go into Apple Podcasts, search for

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<v Speaker 1>my podcast and tap the write a review functionality. You

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<v Speaker 1>can even just leave stars. That works too, but if

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<v Speaker 1>you write something that's really nice, I'm Rich Dimiro. Thanks

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<v Speaker 1>so much for listening. I'll talk to you real soon.