Speaker 1: Amazon sets a date for Prime Day twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: My international travel tips fresh off my trip to Rome,
Speaker 1: had to opt out of t mobiles, new plan to.
Speaker 2: Sell your data?
Speaker 1: Plus your tech questions answered? What's going on on rich Damiro?
Speaker 1: And this is Rich on Tech, the podcast where I
Speaker 1: talk about the tech stuff I think you should know about.
Speaker 2: It's also the place where I answer the questions you
Speaker 2: send me. Once again. My name Rich Damiro. My name
Speaker 2: Rich Damiro.
Speaker 1: My name is Rich Dmiro, tech reporter at KTLA Channel
Speaker 1: five in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: So, as I mentioned in.
Speaker 1: The opening, I did just get back from Rome this week,
Speaker 1: and uh, what a whirlwind trip. It's actually the longest
Speaker 1: I've ever taken off from work in my entire life.
Speaker 2: Maybe when I had my kids, I might have taken
Speaker 2: off two weeks, but well, two week vacation.
Speaker 1: So anyway, I had already It's kind of a long story,
Speaker 1: but I was already going to New York and New Jersey,
Speaker 1: and then my wife had something come up in Rome
Speaker 1: for work, and so then we decided, well, we're kind
Speaker 1: of already halfway there, so let's just go to Rome.
Speaker 1: But it required staying out for very long It required
Speaker 1: my family watching my kids while we went to Rome
Speaker 1: because their passports weren't up to date. And my family
Speaker 1: when we were leaving, like they all said they would
Speaker 1: I have a big family back in New Jersey, and
Speaker 1: they all said, yeah, yeah, we'll watch your kids, but
Speaker 1: no one would actually commit to anything specific, like where
Speaker 1: they were sleeping, what they were going to be doing,
Speaker 1: and so it was kind of a little bit of
Speaker 1: a leap of faith to say, Okay, we're gonna leave
Speaker 1: our kids here, like this is serious, Like we are
Speaker 1: leaving them here, you are responsible for them.
Speaker 2: It all worked out. They had a fantastic time.
Speaker 1: They hung out with their cousins, their aunts, their uncles,
Speaker 1: their grandparents, so it was really really kind of nice
Speaker 1: for them. We went to Rome. I had a fan
Speaker 1: fantastic time. It was amazing. It was only four days.
Speaker 1: I need way way longer in that country. But I
Speaker 1: did you know while I was there. It's just one
Speaker 1: of these things. Number One, I love international travel because
Speaker 1: it gives you so much perspective. I think any travel
Speaker 1: gives you perspective on life, and it just kind of
Speaker 1: resets you into new ways of thinking. It builds new
Speaker 1: pathways in your brain. Big fan of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Any travel, I mean literally going to another city will
Speaker 1: do the same, but international is especially special because it's
Speaker 1: so different. You know, the language, the culture, the architecture, everything,
Speaker 1: the history. So it really just puts your brain into
Speaker 1: like overdrive. You're just thinking about a lot of different
Speaker 1: things all at once. So I think that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: The food was amazing. Everything was really fun. While I
Speaker 1: was over there. It just occurred to me that I
Speaker 1: should do a segment for KTLA on all of these
Speaker 1: sort of international tech tips and tricks and gadgets and
Speaker 1: things that I packed. I really tried to pack light.
Speaker 1: I tried not to bring a lot of stuff. It
Speaker 1: was one of these things where I wanted to just
Speaker 1: enjoy and just have one phone, and you know, I
Speaker 1: had to bring a tablet because I wanted to watch
Speaker 1: stuff on the long plane ride. I watched that show
Speaker 1: Severance on Apple TV plus. I binge that I haven't
Speaker 1: binged a show in a long time, and I enjoyed
Speaker 1: the show. I mean, I thought it it was good.
Speaker 1: I mean it was really weird, and I think that's
Speaker 1: what I liked about it. It was like I was just
Speaker 1: waiting for something to happen and you kind of wait
Speaker 1: until I'm not going to give away.
Speaker 2: Any spoilers, but it was a good show. All right.
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about my international tech tips and
Speaker 1: tricks in a bit, but first let me just start
Speaker 1: with with Amazon Prime Day. So Prime Day is happening
Speaker 1: on July twelfth and thirteenth this year.
Speaker 2: And Prime Day, you know, it used to get a
Speaker 2: lot of publicity, a lot of press.
Speaker 1: It probably still will, but it's just not it seems
Speaker 1: like people are disappointed year in year out with Prime Day.
Speaker 1: It seems like, you know, like already, like one of
Speaker 1: the things I want to purchase on Amazon is like
Speaker 1: half the price, so one of their products, and so
Speaker 1: that's great. And so the thing is with Prime Day,
Speaker 1: if you need something, it's great because it might be
Speaker 1: on sale. If you don't need something, don't just go
Speaker 1: looking around for stuff to buy, because you're gonna waste
Speaker 1: your money. The forty eight hour event kicks off July
Speaker 1: twelfth at three am Eastern, which I believe is midnight Pacific,
Speaker 1: and runs through July thirteenth.
Speaker 2: This is not just in the US. They have it
Speaker 2: in a whole bunch of countries.
Speaker 1: They've got brands, their brands, it says top national brands,
Speaker 1: plus more third party sellers than last year.
Speaker 2: Which you know, that's good news.
Speaker 1: Already, Amazon devices are on sale. You can save a
Speaker 1: bunch on the Echo Show five, the Kindle Paper White,
Speaker 1: the Echo Dot, the Ring Alarm eight piece kit, and
Speaker 1: euro Mesh Wi Fi routers. They've got a lot of TVs.
Speaker 1: All the Amazon TVs are on sale wow, anywhere from
Speaker 1: thirty seven to fifty percent off. So if you're looking
Speaker 1: for a new TV, then definitely check out these Amazon TVs.
Speaker 1: They're not the best quality, but they're pretty good for
Speaker 1: the price. I mean, you can get a fifty five
Speaker 1: inch Amazon Fire TV four k UHD for two hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty four bucks two hundred and eighty four dollars
Speaker 1: for a t for a fifty five inch TV, and
Speaker 1: that includes fireTV, which I think is a great streaming service.
Speaker 1: You know, we already heard about this whole Apple Pay
Speaker 1: thing where they're letting you split payments into four equal
Speaker 1: payments with no fees, no interest. Well, it seems like
Speaker 1: that's already having some ripples through the industry because a
Speaker 1: firm which is one of those buy now pay later
Speaker 1: companies is working with Amazon to give you three monthly
Speaker 1: payments with no interest. No, well it doesn't say no fees,
Speaker 1: but it just has You could basically split up a
Speaker 1: purchase of fifty dollars or more into three equal payments,
Speaker 1: so it doesn't seem like there's any fees on that
Speaker 1: unless you default. As always my disclaimer, I like to
Speaker 1: use a debit card as much as possible, pay with
Speaker 1: cash as much as possible. Yes, I used a credit
Speaker 1: card overseas. Yes, the bill was really high and scary
Speaker 1: when I got done. That's why I like to use
Speaker 1: my debit card because the money is gone, it's done,
Speaker 1: it's spent. I don't have to look at a bill
Speaker 1: two weeks later that's really expensive and say, wow, that's
Speaker 1: how much I spent. I'd rather just spend as I
Speaker 1: go and check my balance as I go along.
Speaker 2: But I get it.
Speaker 1: Credit cards are easier in a lot of ways, especially
Speaker 1: for international travel, so I'm not going to fault you there.
Speaker 1: There's this new Amazon Fresh store Prime benefit starting June
Speaker 1: twenty ninth, which has elapsed, So now there's a twenty
Speaker 1: percent off on select everyday essentials at Amazon Fresh stores.
Speaker 1: That's kind of like what they did with with Whole Foods,
Speaker 1: where they gave the Prime I think it was ten
Speaker 1: percent off sale items. So now they're doing that at
Speaker 1: the Amazon Fresh stores. And so if you have an
Speaker 1: Amazon Fresh grocery store near you, you'll save twenty percent,
Speaker 1: not on everything, but just on certain things. And every
Speaker 1: week Prime members will receive twenty percent off on a
Speaker 1: weekly rotating selection of prepared foods and every day essentials
Speaker 1: across the aisles.
Speaker 2: So that's kind of cool.
Speaker 1: And if you want ten dollars off Amazon, you can
Speaker 1: do the Prime Stamp card. So from now through Prime
Speaker 1: Day you can receive a ten dollar credit towards a
Speaker 1: future purchase on Amazon. All you have to do is
Speaker 1: for Prime activities, stream a Prime video, listen to a
Speaker 1: Prime song, borrow a Prime reading book, and make a
Speaker 1: Prime shipping eligible purchase. Seems pretty simple.
Speaker 2: Ten dollars, pretty pretty easy to get. All right, Well,
Speaker 2: I said I was going to do my Rome.
Speaker 1: Travel tips, but first let's get to a question and
Speaker 1: then we will get to the Rome travel tips. All right,
Speaker 1: Virginia says, hey, Rich, thank you for all of your
Speaker 1: valuable tech info. My husband and I are empty nesters
Speaker 1: and not very tech savy. One of our more tech
Speaker 1: savvy sons live in northern California and they're not.
Speaker 2: Always available to help us.
Speaker 1: We just moved into a new home and it appears
Speaker 1: our vast computer protection has expired. We just want to
Speaker 1: know what's the best, non expensive program for our home computer.
Speaker 1: We don't use it for business, just household bills and info.
Speaker 1: Please advise, Sincerely, Virginia, Virginia.
Speaker 2: I don't think.
Speaker 1: I know this is a crazy thing to say, but
Speaker 1: I don't think you need a lot of extra protection
Speaker 1: on your computer outside of what Windows has with Windows Defender.
Speaker 1: So there's been this whole push for anti virus on
Speaker 1: Windows computers. I think a lot of it just kind
Speaker 1: of bogs down the computer and it makes it pop
Speaker 1: up messages all the time. It's always doing something, it's
Speaker 1: always scanning. Do you really need all that?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: If you're just surfing the web and getting most of
Speaker 1: your apps from Windows or using the built in web
Speaker 1: browser or even Chrome or whatever, a lot of these
Speaker 1: systems now protect you from stuff. Realistically, the only thing
Speaker 1: you really have to worry about is when you download
Speaker 1: random files, Like if you're downloading a file from a
Speaker 1: random website, if you're clicking random links that then download malware.
Speaker 2: But a lot of times we're not doing this.
Speaker 1: I mean, you have to be on the lookout for this,
Speaker 1: but most people I think are not really doing that.
Speaker 1: Maybe they are, I don't know, but I think that
Speaker 1: Windows Defender, if you have that up to date, that
Speaker 1: is an anti virus software that is built into Windows.
Speaker 2: I think that that's probably your best bet.
Speaker 1: Now if you want to have something else on your
Speaker 1: computer as a as a backup or as an addition,
Speaker 1: if you go to av test avavsdash test dot org,
Speaker 1: you can look up the best Windows antivirus software for
Speaker 1: home users. And right now the top one is on Lab,
Speaker 1: which I've never heard of, ahn l a B. Number
Speaker 1: two is a Vast, Number three is AVG and I
Speaker 1: believe those are the same company. Now, then you've got Avira,
Speaker 1: then you've got Bitdefender. Then all the way down. It's
Speaker 1: funny it says you've got Microsoft Defender is pretty down there,
Speaker 1: but it's only a five point five out of six.
Speaker 1: The tops are six. Then you've got Norton Total av
Speaker 1: Those are at the bottom of the list. But again
Speaker 1: a lot of these products it looks like they're all
Speaker 1: about the same because the protection is almost every one
Speaker 1: of them is a six out of six in every category.
Speaker 1: So I mean, realistically, I think you'll be fine with
Speaker 1: any of these. I would just stick to something free.
Speaker 1: I don't think you need to pay a lot for
Speaker 1: this protection. I think the more important thing is to
Speaker 1: just to be aware of what you're doing online. So
Speaker 1: if you're just surfing the web, you're probably gonna be fine.
Speaker 1: It really comes into play when you're downloading stuff. And
Speaker 1: I think the bigger threat, or the biggest threat to
Speaker 1: people today is phishing schemes. And so that means when
Speaker 1: you're looking at your email and it says, hey, your
Speaker 1: Amazon account is about to be deactivated, or did you
Speaker 1: make this large purchase on your Amazon account because we're
Speaker 1: sending it to you and if not, call this number
Speaker 1: or click this link, that's what you need to be
Speaker 1: concerned about, because those are things that are trying to
Speaker 1: trick you into handing over your personal information. I think
Speaker 1: that's a bigger threat than just random things taken over
Speaker 1: your computer, which does happen. Believe me, We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about that a little bit later in the show. But
Speaker 1: I think that that's the main thing, is just be
Speaker 1: aware of what you're doing and just be very critical
Speaker 1: of every single thing you are doing.
Speaker 2: On your computer. I'm not kidding the most the most
Speaker 2: menial tasks.
Speaker 1: Just be super aware of where you're plugging, putting in
Speaker 1: your passwords, the links that you're clicking, the software that
Speaker 1: you're downloading. I think that's the most important thing. And
Speaker 1: I think Apple really did an interesting service for people
Speaker 1: when they came up with the idea of the App store,
Speaker 1: where these the apps inside that store. I mean with
Speaker 1: Apple they're sandbox, but I mean the way that you're
Speaker 1: sort of trusting the store at large. And Windows now
Speaker 1: does this with their Windows Store, and Chrome does it
Speaker 1: with maybe their extensions. I'm not sure how vetted those are,
Speaker 1: but you know, it's just one of these things where
Speaker 1: it's just we've come a long way. But I think
Speaker 1: the biggest thing is really the social engineering. That's that's
Speaker 1: kind of the biggest problem for most people. All right,
Speaker 1: let's get to the trip. So again, takeaways from Rome.
Speaker 1: Food was awesome. I had no problems with my flights whatsoever.
Speaker 1: I know the news it's scary, scary. Scary flights are
Speaker 1: delayed flights are canceled.
Speaker 2: I had zero.
Speaker 1: Problems knock on wood. So our flights were on time,
Speaker 1: they were smooth, they were great. You know, we got
Speaker 1: the seats we wanted and it was fine. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was really overall just fine. The travel was simple,
Speaker 1: the luggage got there, and in Rome it was just
Speaker 1: such a It's been a while since I traveled because
Speaker 1: of COVID, like internationally at least, and so, you know,
Speaker 1: it's one of these things where technology has evolved. This
Speaker 1: was the first time I got to try out an
Speaker 1: e sim On I phone. I had the iPhone thirteen Pro,
Speaker 1: which is just a fantastic camera, the best camera I've
Speaker 1: ever used on a vacation. So it's just like a
Speaker 1: lot of things were new to me. And so while
Speaker 1: I was on this trip in Rome, I was like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I think I'm gonna share some of
Speaker 1: these things that I've learned. Now, let me just go
Speaker 1: through number one. I think the best trips start with
Speaker 1: a lot of planning, and I think that with the
Speaker 1: Internet and with social media, there are so many great
Speaker 1: ways to plan trips right now, and it's getting you know,
Speaker 1: it's just getting so much easier to like, go to
Speaker 1: the place you want to go, do the things that
Speaker 1: you want to.
Speaker 2: Do, avoid the tourist traps, all that good stuff.
Speaker 1: I think the best, single, best thing you can use
Speaker 1: on a trip is Google Maps.
Speaker 2: And specifically the saved feature on Google Maps.
Speaker 1: So on Google Maps, there's this little row of icons
Speaker 1: at the bottom. One of them says saved. That's where
Speaker 1: you can create lists of things that you want to do.
Speaker 1: I've got lists for restaurant recommendations. I've got lists for
Speaker 1: the cities that I'm going to that I'm planning on
Speaker 1: going to. I've got just random lists that you know,
Speaker 1: if someone tells me something you should go to with
Speaker 1: the kids, I put it in that list. And so
Speaker 1: if you're searching Google Maps, what I like to do
Speaker 1: is create a new list for the city you're going to.
Speaker 1: Let's say you're going to Paris, and then you start
Speaker 1: putting things into that list. When someone says, oh, you're
Speaker 1: going to Paris, you got to see the Eiffel Tower,
Speaker 1: bookmark the Eiffel Tower. So you go on Google Maps,
Speaker 1: you type in Eiffel Tower. It says save, and you
Speaker 1: save it to your list, and now it's in that list.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Eiffel Tower. I get it.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna forget to go to that. But then
Speaker 1: someone says, oh, you're going to Paris. I know this
Speaker 1: great little cafe. You gotta go to it, and you
Speaker 1: look it up on Google Maps, you bookmark it. Oh,
Speaker 1: this restaurant is excellent. Get the croissant there. It's the
Speaker 1: best raspberry croissant you'll ever have. I don't even know
Speaker 1: if that's a thing, but I'm just saying. And so
Speaker 1: now to take it a step further, when you bookmark
Speaker 1: that little item inside your list, there's a little place
Speaker 1: that says notes, and you can type in my friend
Speaker 1: Jan said that this has the best raspberry croissant in Paris.
Speaker 1: And now when you go there, you'll have perspective on
Speaker 1: that restaurant. Oh yeah, Jan said to get the raspberry croissant,
Speaker 1: or you know, my friend said to get this type
Speaker 1: of pasta, or get this steak or you know whatever.
Speaker 1: And so you just keep doing that and you finally
Speaker 1: have this list. I had like sixty five items on
Speaker 1: list for Rome. And when you go to these places,
Speaker 1: you can read your little notes about them. And then
Speaker 1: also you know, for me, like I pulled people on
Speaker 1: Instagram and said where should I go? You can also
Speaker 1: thank people on Instagram, like, hey, you know, I had
Speaker 1: a couple of viewers and you know followers that gave
Speaker 1: me some recommendations. I tag them on Instagram because I
Speaker 1: remember that that's where they.
Speaker 2: Told me to go. So that is my ultimate tip.
Speaker 1: The other tip is if you google whatever city things
Speaker 1: to do, there is like this magically generated Google kind
Speaker 1: of travel guide that is just I don't even want
Speaker 1: to tell you about it because I feel like it's
Speaker 1: the best kept secret online. So if you google any city,
Speaker 1: like if I put in Paris things to do, look for,
Speaker 1: scroll down a bit until you get to this top
Speaker 1: sites in Paris area on Google Search, and then you
Speaker 1: click more things to do, and it literally gives you
Speaker 1: everything in that city based on all the Google knowledge
Speaker 1: that they have from what people search and where people visit.
Speaker 1: It's just such, it's just amazing. I mean, you don't
Speaker 1: even need these travel guides in these travel books anymore
Speaker 1: because Google has so much data that's even more real
Speaker 1: time than anywhere else. I mean, if you're looking at
Speaker 1: a map of Paris, it will tell you this is
Speaker 1: a popular area because it knows that there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of cell phones in that area at any given time.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's really really fantastic stuff.
Speaker 2: All right, let's see.
Speaker 1: Oh, the one other thing I wanted to mention about
Speaker 1: that saved list thing. The best feature about it is
Speaker 1: that when you're walking around town, you look at your
Speaker 1: saved list and Google will order it based on proximity.
Speaker 1: So let's say, for instance, we got out of the Vatican,
Speaker 1: right Cistine Chapel, whatever, we were hungry. I went to
Speaker 1: my list and I saw here are the three restaurants
Speaker 1: that are closest to my list right now. Because what
Speaker 1: happens is you fall into a tourist trap because you're hungry,
Speaker 1: you're tired, you're you're hot, and you just want to
Speaker 1: duck into the first restaurant you see that has food
Speaker 1: and drink. And so that's how you get stuck with
Speaker 1: a tourist trap. And so if you have a list
Speaker 1: of places and you know, okay, this one is three
Speaker 1: blocks away from the Trevy Fountain, but it's not a
Speaker 1: tourist trap, and we can go there and someone recommended it,
Speaker 1: it's on my list. Let's go walk there, and you
Speaker 1: have kind of a purpose rather than trying to find
Speaker 1: something in the moment, which.
Speaker 2: Is very, very tricky.
Speaker 1: All right, So when you're flying, definitely download the app
Speaker 1: of the airline that you're flying, because a lot of
Speaker 1: times to get the entertainment, you have to use that. Also,
Speaker 1: I would even look into connecting to the inflight Wi
Speaker 1: Fi even if you're not using it or paying for it,
Speaker 1: because a lot of these airlines offer free messaging through
Speaker 1: apps like I Message and Telegram. It's funny even notifications
Speaker 1: will come through a lot of times on your iPhone
Speaker 1: because somehow the way the notifications are sent through it
Speaker 1: just bypasses, sort of like the paid Wi Fi. So
Speaker 1: you may not be able to like see, you know,
Speaker 1: activate your ring doorbell, but you might get a notification
Speaker 1: that someone's in front of your house and you can
Speaker 1: see that, which is kind of cool. Now, when it
Speaker 1: comes to money, I always skip the airport exchange the
Speaker 1: money exchange stations. I just don't think you need them
Speaker 1: in this modern day and age. Now here's my reason.
Speaker 1: The best way to get money out at a foreign
Speaker 1: location is to use your ATM card at a local
Speaker 1: ATM when you arrive. Now, I've only had a problem
Speaker 1: with this exactly once in my entire life, and I
Speaker 1: think it was in Japan where my ATM card was
Speaker 1: not working at the ATMs and I had to like
Speaker 1: find a specific one. But otherwise this works almost every
Speaker 1: single time. And so what I do is to make
Speaker 1: sure that you have a little cash on you just
Speaker 1: in case is I make sure I have some American
Speaker 1: dollars on my person when I fly, and so when
Speaker 1: I land, I'll bline it to the first ATM and
Speaker 1: take out local money. Now, if the ATM doesn't work,
Speaker 1: or it's out of order, or I just can't access it, whatever,
Speaker 1: I will take those American dollars and begrudgingly exchange them
Speaker 1: on the wherever I'm landing. And you're not gonna get
Speaker 1: as good as an exchange rate. You're you're gonna pay
Speaker 1: some fees. But it's just a really you know, it's
Speaker 1: a backup method that Okay, if you have a hundred
Speaker 1: bucks on you, at least that one hundred dollars can
Speaker 1: get you from the airport to your hotel. You can
Speaker 1: settle down, figure out what's going on, figure out how
Speaker 1: to get some more cash, or maybe find a different
Speaker 1: ATM that does work. One of the things about the
Speaker 1: ATM is they're going to try to trick you into
Speaker 1: taking cash out with a conversion, and when they convert
Speaker 1: it says like, oh, accept conversion. It's you're like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: because I'm doing American dollars, Like, of course I want
Speaker 1: to accept the conversion. No, no, no, you want to
Speaker 1: decline the conversion because then you're going to take out
Speaker 1: money in their currency using their rules, and your bank
Speaker 1: is going to do the conversion on the back end
Speaker 1: to US dollars. Your bank is going to give you
Speaker 1: a much better deal and they're not going to charge
Speaker 1: you any sort of extra fees for that, which the
Speaker 1: ATM will. The other thing is tap to pay. Definitely
Speaker 1: set that up on your phone. I was reading about
Speaker 1: Rome and it said, oh, a lot of places like
Speaker 1: to accept cash this and that. I did not find
Speaker 1: that to be the case at all. Every single place
Speaker 1: I went to accepted tap to pay. It was so easy,
Speaker 1: it was so fast. In the restaurants they bring they
Speaker 1: bring the check whatever tapper thing to you. So when
Speaker 1: you pay a restaurant here in America, you give them
Speaker 1: your credit card, you put it in a little folio sleeve,
Speaker 1: they take it away and then they come back ten
Speaker 1: minutes later with the receipt you sign it give them
Speaker 1: a tip. In Europe, they just bring this little machine
Speaker 1: to your table, you tap your card, you're done. There's
Speaker 1: no tipping in Europe, which is really cool, even though
Speaker 1: I did tip certain places and certain things, because I
Speaker 1: think no matter what culture you're in, you still enjoy
Speaker 1: a tip if you're doing your job well with a smile.
Speaker 1: When it comes to wireless service, Verizon AT and T,
Speaker 1: we'll charge you ten dollars to use your phone overseas.
Speaker 2: AT and T has a.
Speaker 1: Pretty good international plan, So if you just want to
Speaker 1: stick to the easiest possible thing, just let AT and
Speaker 1: T charge you ten dollars a day. However, that's going
Speaker 1: to add up really fast. Verizon's international plan is not
Speaker 1: very good. They only give you half a gig of
Speaker 1: high speed data a day for ten dollars. That's not
Speaker 1: very good. I think you can do better than that
Speaker 1: with an eSIM and so this was the first time
Speaker 1: that I purchased an eSIM right for my phone. It's
Speaker 1: supported on newer Samsung iPhone and Pixel models. I used
Speaker 1: an app called Errolo air Alo, and you buy the
Speaker 1: SIM card right from your smartphone. It pops it into
Speaker 1: your esimps. There's no physical card, it just activates the
Speaker 1: eSIM on your phone. I paid sixteen dollars for ten
Speaker 1: gigs of data. In fact, I might have only paid
Speaker 1: thirteen dollars because Aerolow has like a referral thing, so
Speaker 1: if you put in a referral code, you get three
Speaker 1: dollars off. Mine is rich five three seven five. You
Speaker 1: can use that for three dollars off, and it was
Speaker 1: just fantastic. The data lasts thir thirty days, so I
Speaker 1: got ten gigs of data for the price of less
Speaker 1: than two days that Verizon wanted.
Speaker 2: To charge me.
Speaker 1: So now my wife is a little scared of the
Speaker 1: eSIM so she stuck with Verizon. She got charged ten
Speaker 1: dollars a day. She doesn't do as much social media
Speaker 1: as me, so it was fine. But realistically I would
Speaker 1: definitely check out the eSIM thing.
Speaker 2: It's so much better.
Speaker 1: The only downside to them is the fact that you're
Speaker 1: going to want to turn off your primary simcard, which
Speaker 1: is your US one. You can do that right from
Speaker 1: your phone, and that just means you're not gonna get
Speaker 1: phone calls or traditional traditional text messages you'll still get
Speaker 1: I message, but you just won't get regular texts all right.
Speaker 1: The other thing turn off cellular uploads for things like
Speaker 1: Google Photos or Dropbox, because you don't want that to
Speaker 1: be gobbling up all of your data. Power adapter. I
Speaker 1: use this model from a company called Epica. It was
Speaker 1: top rated on Amazon. It's got a standard plug which
Speaker 1: you can plug stuff into, along with four USB ports
Speaker 1: and a USB C port. That was twenty three dollars. Siri,
Speaker 1: I gotta say, really, really did well. I use Siri
Speaker 1: the entire time to convert money, to convert text, like
Speaker 1: to say, like, Hciri, how do I say, can I
Speaker 1: get the bill please? In Italian? And boom, she just
Speaker 1: comes up with the answer. It's very very good. Google
Speaker 1: Assistant will do the same thing. Make sure you have
Speaker 1: an external battery pack and walking directions if you have
Speaker 1: an Apple Watch. I got to say, I'm not a
Speaker 1: huge fan of Apple Maps, but it came in real
Speaker 1: handy with the Apple Watch because you can just tap
Speaker 1: the little crown on your Apple Watch and just say,
Speaker 1: you know, give me walking directions to the coliseum, and
Speaker 1: it will just spring into action, give you those walking
Speaker 1: directions right on your wrist and your watch will just
Speaker 1: vibrate when it's time to take a left or right.
Speaker 1: It's a really really cool system and it's fantastic for that.
Speaker 2: So anyway, I hope you enjoyed my tips.
Speaker 1: I've got it all on my Instagram at rich on Tech.
Speaker 1: I literally did the entire trip from start to finish
Speaker 1: on Instagram.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I didn't do it live in real time because I
Speaker 1: wanted to enjoy my trip, so a lot of people
Speaker 1: were confused or like, wait, rich how am I seeing
Speaker 1: you on TV when you're posting about Rome right now?
Speaker 1: It's like, well, I posted after I went because I
Speaker 1: was like a couple of days behind with my post.
Speaker 1: Because while I was in Rome, I truly wanted to
Speaker 1: just be immersed in what I was doing, and so
Speaker 1: I took a lot of pictures with the intent of
Speaker 1: later instagramming them. Typically I do things in more real time,
Speaker 1: but I tried something different this time where I just
Speaker 1: kind of just lived in the moment, took a bunch
Speaker 1: of pictures and said, oh, that'll be interesting for Instagram later,
Speaker 1: and then I posted them all as one big story.
Speaker 1: So you can see my entire Rome highlights on my
Speaker 1: Instagram go to my profile page and just click under
Speaker 1: the highlights it says Rome and it's right there.
Speaker 2: It's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1: All right, Let's get to the next question from ron.
Speaker 1: Ron says, Hey, I'm a senior looking for a three
Speaker 1: and one device that will act as my voice, cable
Speaker 1: telephone modem, cable modem, and Wi Fi router, all in
Speaker 1: a single unit slash device. Currently have three devices and
Speaker 1: would like to move to one. I've contacted my cable
Speaker 1: company for assistance. They were no help at all. Oh, surprise, surprise.
Speaker 1: I've searched the Internet and it's frustrating to figure out
Speaker 1: what to buy that would be compatible with my cable carrier,
Speaker 1: which is Cox. Can you direct me to someone who
Speaker 1: sells a three and one device? Ron Ron, You need
Speaker 1: to just search COS approved modems, Cox approved modems, and
Speaker 1: when you go there, what you want to do is
Speaker 1: look for a modem that provides how do you say it, telephony.
Speaker 2: So if you go on that site.
Speaker 1: So now I'm on that site and I type in
Speaker 1: telephone T E L E, P H O N, and
Speaker 1: now it says combination Internet and telephone modems purchased are
Speaker 1: not certified for use with the cocks Network. Let's see,
Speaker 1: oh interesting, Oh so hold on, interesting, that's combination.
Speaker 2: Received a new from third party retailers.
Speaker 1: If you'd not I said, okay, it's weird because it
Speaker 1: says there is one that.
Speaker 2: Says that there is one that.
Speaker 1: Works with it, the RS Surfboard TM thirty four O two.
Speaker 1: It says, oh see, hmm interesting. Okay, yeah, Ron, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure you're going to find something from a third party.
Speaker 2: It looks like you have to get it. Let's see.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it looks like you have to get it
Speaker 1: from them, and you're not gonna it's either it's either
Speaker 1: telephone and modem or Wi Fi and modem. You're not
Speaker 1: gonna get all three in one, it looks like from them,
Speaker 1: So I think that's why you had so much trouble.
Speaker 1: So it looks like I would just get one of
Speaker 1: these if you want to purchase it, do the math
Speaker 1: on the break even. Otherwise, maybe just continue with what
Speaker 1: you're doing. It looks like you can consolidate a non
Speaker 1: Wi Fi Internet and telephone modem into one, but then
Speaker 1: you'd still need to put a Wi Fi router attached
Speaker 1: to that. I'd recommend VILLO v I L O or
Speaker 1: eero E E r O as.
Speaker 2: Your solution there. But yeah, this is it's tricky stuff.
Speaker 1: These cable companies don't really they don't like when people
Speaker 1: use their own stuff because it's more work for them.
Speaker 2: It's kind of it's kind of annoying.
Speaker 1: If there's trouble with it, they say, oh, they put
Speaker 1: their hands up and they say, sorry, we can't help you.
Speaker 1: That's not ours, that's not our equipment. Sorry you went
Speaker 1: you went out and bought your own stuff.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: For me, I feel like mine's included. Whatever I have
Speaker 1: is included in my internet service. It's not like it's
Speaker 1: not a line item that says I'm paying ten bucks
Speaker 1: a month to rent this thing. So if you're not paying,
Speaker 1: then just stick with what they're giving you. But if
Speaker 1: you are paying, yeah, do the break even if you're
Speaker 1: If it's ten bucks a month and the new one
Speaker 1: is uh is you know, one hundred and twenty dollars,
Speaker 1: that's twelve months. If you're gonna stick with them for
Speaker 1: twelve months, then you're all good. So it's it's often
Speaker 1: these tech things are often a math equation.
Speaker 2: Just just figure out what the math is.
Speaker 1: But good question, Good luck, with that, all right, T Mobile, Oh,
Speaker 1: these cellular companies, there's there's only three of them, three
Speaker 1: big ones, and they are tricky because even like with
Speaker 1: the with the data, with the international data, it's just
Speaker 1: like it's just it's so tricky that Verizon charges you
Speaker 1: ten dollars at and T charge you ten dollars. T
Speaker 1: Mobile doesn't charge you anything to use your phone internationally,
Speaker 1: but then they charge you for text, or not for text,
Speaker 1: but for phone calls. It looks like so if you
Speaker 1: look at the T Mobile International they charge it's it's free,
Speaker 1: free data and texting while traveling without roaming fees, but
Speaker 1: they're going to charge you for phone calls. And yeah,
Speaker 1: you're probably not going to get that many phone calls,
Speaker 1: but it's twenty five cents a minute, so unlimited basic data,
Speaker 1: unlimited texting, and twenty five cents a minute calling. That's
Speaker 1: not so again, it's like all these little things and
Speaker 1: that's up to five gigs of high speed data, which
Speaker 1: is pretty good, but that's only over you know, like
Speaker 1: I guess however long you're over there a month, I
Speaker 1: don't know. So it's it's so tricky. This's why I'm
Speaker 1: saying it's just so nice to have the e SIM
Speaker 1: thing such a better option. Anyway, this is unrelated to
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about with T Mobile. T Mobile is
Speaker 1: now going to sell some of your usage data to
Speaker 1: advertisers unless you opt out. So this was first noticed
Speaker 1: by a website called ad Exchanger, And the bottom line
Speaker 1: is that you know, we we've heard of third party cookies,
Speaker 1: we've heard of tracking online, but your ISP, the person
Speaker 1: who actually supplies your Internet to you, whether it is
Speaker 1: Wi Fi, whether it is cellular, whether it is your work,
Speaker 1: whoever is giving you that connection to the Internet, they
Speaker 1: see everything no matter what, unless you're using a VPN,
Speaker 1: but that's for another conversation. But if you're just connected
Speaker 1: to the Internet, pretty much, whatever website you're going to,
Speaker 1: whatever you're doing on there, that activity is visible to
Speaker 1: your ISP Internet service provider. Now, the level of detail
Speaker 1: may not be one hundred percent available to them. So
Speaker 1: they may see that you go to Google, but once
Speaker 1: you start searching on Google, they may not be able
Speaker 1: to see the actual search term because Google then encrypts
Speaker 1: what you're doing between them and your computer, so they
Speaker 1: may not be able to see exact details. But that's
Speaker 1: where those third party cookies come into play. So those
Speaker 1: third party cookies are on websites, they report back to
Speaker 1: the big marketing companies and say, oh, Rich was shopping
Speaker 1: for a comforter on overstock, so you should sell him
Speaker 1: comforter ads. Things like that. People are getting hip to
Speaker 1: those or blocking more of them. The web browsers are
Speaker 1: blocking more of them. But again, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, your ISP does have a lot of information,
Speaker 1: and so these ISPs are sitting there going hmm, can
Speaker 1: we sell this information? And sure enough, T Mobile is
Speaker 1: one of those companies that's doing that. I think verizon
Speaker 1: Ate and T are also doing same things. But what
Speaker 1: T Mobile is doing that's a little interesting is that
Speaker 1: they're doing what's called App Insights, So they're layering on
Speaker 1: top the apps that you have installed on your phone.
Speaker 1: And before you get all bent out of shape, this
Speaker 1: is primarily gear to Android users at this point because
Speaker 1: iPhone is a little bit more locked down when it
Speaker 1: comes to these privacy things. I think that Android has
Speaker 1: gotten a lot better, but the iPhone is not included
Speaker 1: in this program. So it's called App Insights, and it
Speaker 1: pretty much layers on top of all the stuff you're
Speaker 1: doing on your T mobile connection, the apps that are
Speaker 1: installed in your phone. So if they see that you
Speaker 1: have a furniture store app on your phone, another furniture
Speaker 1: furniture store might say, hmm, Rich just installed two furniture
Speaker 1: app furniture store apps. Let's send him an advertisement for
Speaker 1: our furniture store app, because clearly he's shopping for furniture.
Speaker 1: So again, it's just one more way of selling you stuff.
Speaker 1: If you want to opt out of this, and I
Speaker 1: probably think you should, you can download the Magenta Ads
Speaker 1: Platform Choices app. It's available on both Android and iOS,
Speaker 1: and so that will let you opt out of this program.
Speaker 1: You probably should if you care about your privacy. My
Speaker 1: thing is, you know, look the whole privacy thing online, Like,
Speaker 1: I get it.
Speaker 2: It's scary, it's.
Speaker 1: It's you know, there's definitely a lot of implications about it,
Speaker 1: and you can say, well, I'm not doing anything that
Speaker 1: anyone cares about.
Speaker 2: Big deal.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, they're selling you stuff.
Speaker 1: And so if you want to save your money and
Speaker 1: not be berated and what's the word barraged with ads,
Speaker 1: then you know, as much as you can keep yourself
Speaker 1: private online, I don't think you need to use a
Speaker 1: VPN twenty four to seven. You know, that's kind of
Speaker 1: like the most secure I guess you can be. But
Speaker 1: I do think that, you know, blocking third party cookies
Speaker 1: is good blocking a lot of these ads that are
Speaker 1: online using you know, private search engines if you want to.
Speaker 1: I think that Google is still the best search engine.
Speaker 1: But again, the little ways that you can protect yourself,
Speaker 1: especially with the blocking third party cookies, is.
Speaker 2: A good thing.
Speaker 1: I talked about this, I think in my last podcast.
Speaker 1: But if you on Chrome can block third party cookies
Speaker 1: by going to the settings, which is by clicking those
Speaker 1: three little dots next to your username or your user
Speaker 1: profile I should say, in the upper right hand corner,
Speaker 1: then clicking settings. Then you go to Privacy and Security
Speaker 1: and it says cookies and other site data, and then
Speaker 1: you say block third party cookies. And that's just a simple,
Speaker 1: simple way that you can kind of protect a little
Speaker 1: bit of your web browsing online. And so that's just
Speaker 1: one thing you can do. I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: more that you can do as well, but that's just
Speaker 1: one simple, simple way to do it.
Speaker 2: All right, Let's get to the next question here.
Speaker 1: Let's see Paullette says I've been thinking about ditching Spectrum
Speaker 1: and getting the Verizon five G Home Internet. The only
Speaker 1: problem is it's not offered at my address. The Verizon
Speaker 1: LTE Home Internet is offered. I was wondering if I'd
Speaker 1: be okay with the LTE version instead of the five G. Also,
Speaker 1: how often does Verizon expand the availability of their five
Speaker 1: G home Internet? Great, great question, Paulette. So number one,
Speaker 1: Verizon five G Home Internet. If you're not familiar with
Speaker 1: what that is, it is basically a giant hotspot.
Speaker 2: For your house.
Speaker 1: So you call Verizon or I guess you go online,
Speaker 1: you order the service. They send you this box, which
Speaker 1: is pretty much a glorified Wi Fi hotspot for your
Speaker 1: entire home. You plug it in and I mean plug
Speaker 1: it into an outlet and that's it. It pulls in
Speaker 1: a cellular signal, it turns that cellular signal into a
Speaker 1: Wi Fi signal. And the reason why this is so
Speaker 1: great is because five G, especially five GUW with Verizon
Speaker 1: is a really fat pipe, which means you're getting a
Speaker 1: really good Internet connection wherever you are. And so the
Speaker 1: fact that they have this now in the in the
Speaker 1: air and they can pull it out of the air
Speaker 1: and broadcast it into Wi Fi. Is a really cool
Speaker 1: thing for your house because now they can compete with
Speaker 1: wired internet connections like the likes of Fiber and you know,
Speaker 1: Spectrum and Cox and all these other companies that offer
Speaker 1: Wi Fi you know at your house or I guess
Speaker 1: wired connections that you turn into Wi Fi. So Verizon
Speaker 1: five G Home Internet definitely something that is excellent and
Speaker 1: I would recommend it. I tested it. It was fantastic.
Speaker 1: I tried it in three different locations at my home.
Speaker 1: Just like your home PAULTT. I do not get the
Speaker 1: five G Internet so signal, so I only got an
Speaker 1: LTE signal. The Verizon LTE signal is not better than
Speaker 1: the wired signal I can get from my internet service provider,
Speaker 1: which is one thousand down. The Verizon was like, I think,
Speaker 1: seventy five down. So I think that I'm gonna stick
Speaker 1: with what I've got. Now, if I had five GUW
Speaker 1: it's much cheaper. It's only fifty bucks a month. It's
Speaker 1: cheaper if you're a.
Speaker 2: Verizon customer, So definitely look into that. I would go
Speaker 2: for it.
Speaker 1: So the LTE Internet, my thought process on that is
Speaker 1: I don't think it's as good as the five GUW.
Speaker 1: But it all comes down to the speed that you get.
Speaker 1: So if you do a Verizon speed test, So if
Speaker 1: you don't have a Verizon phone, get someone that's a
Speaker 1: friend that has it. Stand right in the middle of
Speaker 1: your house, in the center or where you might put this.
Speaker 1: Technically you're supposed to put these Wi Fi hotspots in
Speaker 1: you're a window or the cellular hotp whatever you want
Speaker 1: to call it, cellular hotspot and so and I would
Speaker 1: do a test. So download the app called medior met em.
Speaker 1: How do you spell that MEI medior met e o
Speaker 1: R app m e t e o R medior app.
Speaker 1: Download that app, do a speed test. Make sure you're
Speaker 1: not on your Wi Fi. Make sure you're on specifically
Speaker 1: the LTE connection from Verizon.
Speaker 2: Do a speed test.
Speaker 1: See where the upspeed is, see what the downspeed is.
Speaker 1: If you're doing just basic things on the Internet like
Speaker 1: watching Netflix, surfing the web, checking your email, you know,
Speaker 1: any connection, even a seventy five connection, will be fine,
Speaker 1: like I have at my house. The problem is, why
Speaker 1: deal with seventy five for fifty bucks when I'm paying
Speaker 1: just a little bit more for a thousand and so
Speaker 1: I would say, you know, stick to that. It's just
Speaker 1: it's just again it's a math problem. See what you're paying,
Speaker 1: See what speed you're getting. Again, if it's fifty dollars
Speaker 1: for Verizon and one hundred dollars for your Spectrum and
Speaker 1: you're getting two hundred on Spectrum and seventy five on Verizon,
Speaker 1: go with the Verizon. You may not need all that
Speaker 1: extra speed and it's going to be just fine. And
Speaker 1: also the price they've got to I think guaranteed for
Speaker 1: two years. So again it's just kind of like weighing
Speaker 1: what's best for you. I can't give you that answer,
Speaker 1: but I will say if the five G was in
Speaker 1: your house and it was a really good speed and
Speaker 1: it was that fifty dollars a month price point, that's fantastic,
Speaker 1: and it's wireless. I personally love the idea of going
Speaker 1: with the Verizon five G home Internet because it's it's
Speaker 1: like there's no wire so it's one less wire. It's
Speaker 1: one I mean, I get it. It's just an Ethernet
Speaker 1: cable from your house. But you know, I've lived through
Speaker 1: many times. I've moved so many time. For these internet
Speaker 1: installers have to come to your house, they've got to
Speaker 1: run the cable under the house, they've got to put
Speaker 1: it in. You got to ask the person if they
Speaker 1: could run a new cable because I don't want to
Speaker 1: use the one that's existing inside the house, because you know,
Speaker 1: I want a fresh, nice cable that's not gnawed by
Speaker 1: any squirrels or anything. And all these things take time,
Speaker 1: they take effort, they take convincing. And if you have
Speaker 1: this wireless connection, it's like, Okay, it's coming from Verizon's
Speaker 1: tower straight to this little box, no middle man, no wiring,
Speaker 1: no nothing, and now it broadcasts that signal throughout my
Speaker 1: house as Wi Fi's that's pretty cool to me. So
Speaker 1: starlink same thing. It's like a very cool way of
Speaker 1: getting Internet.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: Paultte also said here thanks in advance, your trip to
Speaker 1: Rome look divine.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you, Paultte.
Speaker 1: So that's my answer. But again it's a math problem.
Speaker 1: Just do the math. Do the basic needs situation, Like,
Speaker 1: depending on if you're telling me you're running a home
Speaker 1: based business and doing zoom calls twenty four to seven
Speaker 1: and live streaming and all this stuff and your connection
Speaker 1: on Verizon's twenty five, then no, that would not work out.
Speaker 1: But if you're just doing basic emails, web surfing, and Netflix,
Speaker 1: and there you go. That'll be just fine on a
Speaker 1: seventy five to fifty one hundred connection from Verizon. But
Speaker 1: just see what that connection is good question.
Speaker 2: All right, let's.
Speaker 1: Get to the next story of the week. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about this tech support scam.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Look, I know that you're listening to a podcast. You're
Speaker 1: a little bit tech savvier than the average individual because
Speaker 1: somehow you figured out how to find me.
Speaker 2: You downloaded this podcast, which is.
Speaker 1: You know, ahead of a lot of other people, even
Speaker 1: though podcasts are very popular.
Speaker 2: But clearly you're a little step ahead.
Speaker 1: So what I'm talking about right now maybe something that
Speaker 1: you roll your eyes at and say, Rich, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to fall for that.
Speaker 2: Come on, give me a break.
Speaker 1: But I'm telling you because people do fall for it,
Speaker 1: and you need to look out for the other people
Speaker 1: in your life, the people that you love, the people
Speaker 1: that are your friends. I was home in New Jersey
Speaker 1: for a week, and I'm not kidding you. It is
Speaker 1: such a gut check when it comes to what the
Speaker 1: average person knows about technology. When you just talk to
Speaker 1: regular friends and family members about things that you just
Speaker 1: take for granted that you know how to do on
Speaker 1: your phone or on a computer or with a router,
Speaker 1: and they're just sitting there looking at you.
Speaker 2: Like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: So do not take for granted that everyone has the
Speaker 1: same level of tech ex expertise that you have. Consider
Speaker 1: yourself very lucky that you have that expertise, and share
Speaker 1: it with other people, enlighten them and really help protect
Speaker 1: them against this kind of stuff, because this is garbage
Speaker 1: tech support scam. It's been happening for years. And here's
Speaker 1: what happened. So I got an email from a viewer
Speaker 1: who actually did not fall for the scam, but they
Speaker 1: were quick enough and smart enough to record their computer screen.
Speaker 1: So a lot of times these things happen, people get
Speaker 1: caught up in them, they pay money to some sort
Speaker 1: of scam artists, they feel really ashamed, and they never
Speaker 1: want to talk about it again. This person, Beverly Morse,
Speaker 1: down at Redondo Beach, she grabbed her camera. She's an
Speaker 1: older woman too, she grabbed her but she's a smart cookie.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you that she grabbed.
Speaker 1: Her cell phone camera, she started recording the screen. So
Speaker 1: she sent me this amazing video of these scam artists
Speaker 1: at work, saying you know, if you got to watch
Speaker 1: the video, go to my Instagram at rich on Tech
Speaker 1: and just look for it.
Speaker 2: You can see it.
Speaker 1: It looks like a blue Windows screen, but the Windows
Speaker 1: you know, it pops up all of your computer screen.
Speaker 1: It looks like it's a Windows Defender message.
Speaker 2: It says there's a virus detected illegal activity. Do not
Speaker 2: shut off your computer. You're gonna lose all your data.
Speaker 1: Call this toll free number and someone from Microsoft will
Speaker 1: be happy to help you.
Speaker 2: Well, she knew better.
Speaker 1: She didn't call. All she did was turn off your computer.
Speaker 1: And by the way, that's the right thing to do.
Speaker 1: If you're tech savvy enough, you might be able to
Speaker 1: do control all, delete and force quit the browser that's
Speaker 1: running this giant full screen program. But realistically, if this happens,
Speaker 1: if they take over your computer, they're not really taking
Speaker 1: over your computer most of the time. It's just they're
Speaker 1: taking advantage of your web browser and making it full
Speaker 1: screen and putting you know what we call toast notifications
Speaker 1: over your screen, which are like these kind of just
Speaker 1: messages that live on top of every window. And so
Speaker 1: just realize that you can turn off your computer in
Speaker 1: these situations unless you actually have ransomware on your computer.
Speaker 1: That's a whole nother story. But most of the times
Speaker 1: these things are just they're somehow popped up on your
Speaker 1: computer through an ad, malware whatever, and they sort of
Speaker 1: take over your screen, even your computer speakers, so the
Speaker 1: speakers might say, please do not shut down your computer. Warning, warning, warning,
Speaker 1: and it's just all bogus. So turn down the volume,
Speaker 1: turn off your computer, restart it, and you should be okay.
Speaker 1: I talked to Microsoft about this. They said, yeah, they've
Speaker 1: been tracking this for years now, since twenty fourteen.
Speaker 2: It's scary.
Speaker 1: But you can turn off your computer, or you can
Speaker 1: go to Microsoft dot com slash report a scam to
Speaker 1: explain what happened. You know, maybe you'll get some satisfaction
Speaker 1: that way by them kind of going after these people.
Speaker 1: But realistically, this happens day in, day out. If you
Speaker 1: see a pop up window that urges you to call
Speaker 1: a tech support number or a tech support operator.
Speaker 2: Calls you, do not fall for it. It is bogus.
Speaker 1: Google does not call you. Microsoft does not call you.
Speaker 1: These companies do not call you. Instagram doesn't call you,
Speaker 1: Facebooked doesn't call you. They don't make you call them.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't happen. The other thing is that if
Speaker 1: you do fall for one of these scams, what they
Speaker 1: try to make you do is install some sort of
Speaker 1: remote desktop software on your computer. They say, look, we're
Speaker 1: gonna help you work through this. Go to this address
Speaker 1: one nine to two dot six eight dot two four
Speaker 1: dot nine to two and download this software and then
Speaker 1: we will Okay, now give us the code on the screen. Okay,
Speaker 1: now we're gonna access your computer. We're gonna help you
Speaker 1: get rid of this program. We're gonna help you get
Speaker 1: rid of this malware that is actually the scam.
Speaker 2: They're gonna lock up your computer. They're gonna hold.
Speaker 1: It hostage until you pay them money. Do not fall
Speaker 1: for any of this, Tell your friends and family about it,
Speaker 1: share the Instagram story on your story so that people
Speaker 1: can see this, and just just take care of these
Speaker 1: less tech savvy people in your life and let them
Speaker 1: know that it's scary, it's frustrating, but it's just not
Speaker 1: a thing like. Don't call these numbers, do not accept
Speaker 1: these calls. Don't let anyone take control of your computer.
Speaker 2: Please please, please, please please, Oh wow, speak of the devil.
Speaker 1: Cheryl says, Hello, does Amazon have a security center that
Speaker 1: will call you and walk you through the process of
Speaker 1: clearing your computer and showing you your screen. Also wanting
Speaker 1: to install the app on your phone called any Desk.
Speaker 1: They want you to go to Target and get a
Speaker 1: card to clean your computer of the mess. They tell
Speaker 1: you someone ordered something your name, They show your bank account.
Speaker 1: I do have a phone number, Thank you, Cheryl.
Speaker 2: Do not do it. Stop stop, stop, stop stop. All
Speaker 2: of this is exactly what I was talking about. I
Speaker 2: didn't even plan this in my.
Speaker 1: Program here, like I didn't plan to have this right
Speaker 1: after what I was talking about, but it just so
Speaker 1: happened to work out that way.
Speaker 2: But don't do it. This is what we're talking about.
Speaker 1: Any Desk that's an app that will it's a legitimate app,
Speaker 1: but they use it for nefarious purposes. So they're making
Speaker 1: you install something like Team Viewer or any Desk on
Speaker 1: your computer. She's saying your phone, just don't do it.
Speaker 1: Amazon will not call you. They will not say hey,
Speaker 1: you have you know. The only thing Amazon will do
Speaker 1: is say we're not gonna ship you out this product
Speaker 1: because your your card was declined. That's it, And they'll
Speaker 1: make you go to your Amazon account. But it is
Speaker 1: tricky for Amazon because they do send those kind of
Speaker 1: alerts and.
Speaker 2: You sit there and you say, okay, well what do
Speaker 2: I do?
Speaker 1: So what I think Amazon should do in this case
Speaker 1: is just say, we're not even gonna give you a
Speaker 1: link in our emails.
Speaker 2: We're never gonna give you a link.
Speaker 1: You have to go to Amazon dot com log in,
Speaker 1: and when you log in, they should put a big
Speaker 1: banner on your.
Speaker 2: Page that says, hey, please update your card.
Speaker 1: For this account. But again, this is what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: You don't want to fall for these tricks.
Speaker 2: Cheryl.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if you fell for this, but please
Speaker 1: do not install any software on your computer. Just ignore
Speaker 1: these these things from Amazon and Microsoft and all these
Speaker 1: different companies. That's that's the bottom line there. All right,
Speaker 1: Since that was a question that was kind of related
Speaker 1: to the last thing, let's go to the next question.
Speaker 1: Roger says, Hello, Rich, a longtime fan and viewer. We
Speaker 1: enjoy your informative segments. You're the only one I trust
Speaker 1: for tech advice. Well, that's very common. I'm kind of
Speaker 1: over iPods and iTunes. Is there a good alternative device
Speaker 1: to download device and download platform like iTunes?
Speaker 2: Thanks? Well, yes, there is.
Speaker 1: And so there's a company I've mentioned them on the
Speaker 1: show many times called soft Reno. They are based in Ukraine.
Speaker 1: They have a company or they have a.
Speaker 2: Piece of software called walter Pro. Walter Pro.
Speaker 1: Is a program that will let you put any file
Speaker 1: onto an iPhone or an iPad.
Speaker 2: I'm talking. You can drag and drop a PDF.
Speaker 1: You can drag and drop a photo, a video, an
Speaker 1: MP three, pretty much a photo or video or MP
Speaker 1: three or music or anything in any format, and it
Speaker 1: will figure out the format, it will convert it, and
Speaker 1: it will put it into the right place on your
Speaker 1: phone and in the native place on your phone, which
Speaker 1: means it'll put it in your photos, it'll put it
Speaker 1: into your audio player, it'll put it into your video area.
Speaker 2: So that is what you want to use. I think
Speaker 2: it's I don't know how much it is.
Speaker 1: They change the pricing on this stuff, but that's the
Speaker 1: program that I've used in the past. It is fantastic.
Speaker 1: It's easy, drag and drop, it'll convert it. Now, you
Speaker 1: mentioned a platform like iTunes, so I'm not sure if
Speaker 1: you have the music that you already want to put
Speaker 1: on there, or if you need to locate music now
Speaker 1: there are third party music stores that.
Speaker 2: You can download music from.
Speaker 1: I am not really privy to the names of those things,
Speaker 1: but they are out there. I'm not sure if they
Speaker 1: sell music like, you know, mainstream music like a Coldplay album,
Speaker 1: but they probably have third party music from like independent
Speaker 1: artists and things like that. So you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: find the source of where you want to get these
Speaker 1: files from. But you can use walter Pro to actually
Speaker 1: get them onto your iPhone if you find a good
Speaker 1: you know, I think, what's the one SoundCloud? Like if
Speaker 1: you download music from SoundCloud, sound Cloud, you can just
Speaker 1: drag that into walter Pro and it will place that
Speaker 1: into your music player on the iPhone.
Speaker 2: So great question.
Speaker 1: Definitely something that is possible, and it you know, it's
Speaker 1: a little bit of you know, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: say it's a little bit of reverse engineering by this
Speaker 1: company to make this possible because Apple would rather you
Speaker 1: go through iTunes. iTunes I think is such a pain
Speaker 1: to use that I just don't even use it. I'll
Speaker 1: use this program instead. All right, let's talk about Google's
Speaker 1: password manager. I'm always talking about the importance of a
Speaker 1: password manager, but ninety nine point nine percent of people
Speaker 1: do not want to use a password manager because it's
Speaker 1: so complicated and it's just.
Speaker 2: Kind of a pain.
Speaker 1: Now there are password managers built into iOS, built into Android,
Speaker 1: built into Chrome. The problem is, in the past I've
Speaker 1: only recommended those if you're only using iOS or if
Speaker 1: you're are sorry, if you're only using Apple products, you're
Speaker 1: only using Chrome or a combination of Chrome and Android.
Speaker 1: But Google has done something very, very smart. They have
Speaker 1: now made what might be the best free password manager
Speaker 1: because they're just expanding the available ability of what they've
Speaker 1: already had for years, which is a really good free
Speaker 1: password manager that's built into Chrome and Android. But now
Speaker 1: they're expanding that to work on iOS as well with autofill.
Speaker 1: And so if you have Chrome installed on your iOS device,
Speaker 1: you can now go into your settings on iOS, go
Speaker 1: into passwords, go into autofill, and select Chrome or Google
Speaker 1: as your autofill of choice for your passwords.
Speaker 2: What does that mean.
Speaker 1: It means you can now use Google Chrome Androids password
Speaker 1: manager on iOS devices as the default, which is a
Speaker 1: huge deal. In the past, I have recommended third party
Speaker 1: independent password managers, something like dash Lane, something like one Password,
Speaker 1: something like bitwarden, because they were platform agnostic. They worked
Speaker 1: across all platforms where they're using Windows PC and then
Speaker 1: an iPhone, whether you're using an Android and then a Mac,
Speaker 1: these platform agnostic password managers will work everywhere. But now
Speaker 1: Google is making something that also works everywhere, and I
Speaker 1: think that is a huge win for passwords. So all
Speaker 1: you have to do is start using it. And I've
Speaker 1: tested this out. It works fantastic, it's great. I may
Speaker 1: switch to it myself because now that it's free and
Speaker 1: it works on everywhere, why not. Right now I'm using
Speaker 1: a paid solution and I'd rather use free. I think
Speaker 1: it's just as good to use the free version from Google.
Speaker 1: You got to put a little bit of trust in Google.
Speaker 1: Of course, you got to continue to use Google. I
Speaker 1: think overall, I would still recommend an independent third party
Speaker 1: platform if you are very tech savvy. If you're not,
Speaker 1: I would definitely one percent just recommend using what Chrome
Speaker 1: is doing, what Google is doing. If you are just Apple,
Speaker 1: if you're only using Apple products, if you use a
Speaker 1: Mac computer and iPad, Apple TV which doesn't really have
Speaker 1: the password manager on it anyways, don't worry.
Speaker 2: Disregard that, and.
Speaker 1: An iPhone, just use the built in iCloud keychain, that's
Speaker 1: what they call it.
Speaker 2: Just use that. It will work like a charm.
Speaker 1: It will suggest passwords when you need to make one,
Speaker 1: it will fill them into apps.
Speaker 2: It will use face ID. Just use that across your devices.
Speaker 1: You don't have to get fancy if you're using If
Speaker 1: you're a Google person and you're using Chrome, you're using
Speaker 1: you know, maybe you're just like you just like Chrome,
Speaker 1: and so you're using Google Chrome on your computer as
Speaker 1: your web browser, and then on your phone you're using
Speaker 1: an iPhone, but you also have Chrome installed.
Speaker 2: Go ahead and use this. It's very simple, it will work,
Speaker 2: it's great, it's free, highly highly recommend it. Definitely check
Speaker 2: it out.
Speaker 1: I think that is a pretty big win by Google
Speaker 1: that people are just going to sort of get savvy to.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to one more question before we
Speaker 1: close out the show.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: Steven says, I've been getting messages from my Experience Complete
Speaker 1: ID monitoring service that we subscribe if you telling me
Speaker 1: my cell phone number has been found on the dark web?
Speaker 1: What do I do? Do I need to change my
Speaker 1: phone number? Thank you so much for your help. I
Speaker 1: don't think you need to change your phone number. It's
Speaker 1: pretty commonplace that cell phone numbers are out there. Sadly,
Speaker 1: it's just the norm nowadays that our information is leaked
Speaker 1: and breached day in, day out. The main things that
Speaker 1: are out there are your email address, your phone number,
Speaker 1: your address. Credit card information is leaked a lot, but
Speaker 1: your data birth is out there. So this information is
Speaker 1: out there. It's the reason why you get so many
Speaker 1: spam phone calls, it's the reason why you get so
Speaker 1: many phishing emails. It's the reason why hackers are having
Speaker 1: a field day right now because there's so much information
Speaker 1: about us out there, they just merge it all together
Speaker 1: and send us these emails, send us these phone calls
Speaker 1: and say hey, we know you have a mortgage with
Speaker 1: this company, or we know you have a credit card,
Speaker 1: or we know you have your car. There's just so
Speaker 1: much information floating around there about us. So I think
Speaker 1: it's good that you have the experience complete ID. I
Speaker 1: don't think you need to change your cell phone number.
Speaker 1: I do think you need to be d vigilant about
Speaker 1: the phone calls that you get. So if you notice
Speaker 1: an uptick in sort of spamy calls, that's where they're
Speaker 1: originating from. Just don't trust people that say, hey, we're
Speaker 1: calling you about your American Express, We're calling you about
Speaker 1: your you know, mortgage company, We're calling you about your car,
Speaker 1: we're calling you about this your bank. Just just be very,
Speaker 1: very vigilant about understanding that those are probably scams. All right,
Speaker 1: let's one more question from Marcia. She says, I leave
Speaker 1: for a cruise in Europe in less than two weeks.
Speaker 1: I'm interested in getting luggage tags.
Speaker 2: Are they worth it?
Speaker 1: I've heard about Apple tags, but I do not have
Speaker 1: Apple products. What I probably can't use them? Can I
Speaker 1: what other brands of luggage tags are good? What's the
Speaker 1: distance that they work? Which ones have the longest distance?
Speaker 1: The distance is not a problem because of the way
Speaker 1: these things work. It's more about the Bluetooth network that
Speaker 1: they are on Apple tags, the biggest competitor is Tile,
Speaker 1: so I would go with Tile tags. The way that
Speaker 1: these wars, and the reason why Apple is really so
Speaker 1: great is because Apple has turned every single Apple device
Speaker 1: around the world into a beacon station for these little tags.
Speaker 1: And so when one of these Apple tags sees one
Speaker 1: of these Apple devices, and there are billions of them
Speaker 1: out there, I mean there's a lot. It says, Oh, okay,
Speaker 1: here noted location of this device of the little tag.
Speaker 1: And so for that reason, whether you travel to Italy,
Speaker 1: whether you travel to Tokyo, whether you travel to wherever,
Speaker 1: even though your phone is not near these devices, chances
Speaker 1: are someone's Apple device is near these devices, which allows
Speaker 1: them to check in and send their location to your device.
Speaker 2: And so that's how they work. Tiles the closest.
Speaker 1: The biggest difference between Tile and Apple is that every
Speaker 1: product that is sort of a beacon for the Tiled
Speaker 1: products has to opt into that, and so someone had
Speaker 1: to physically install the file app on their phone to
Speaker 1: get that functionality. Now, Tile did a deal with Amazon
Speaker 1: and specifically there I think it was their Echo devices
Speaker 1: and their ring devices, So there are more of them
Speaker 1: on the network, sort of unwittingly, and so there are more.
Speaker 1: I just think you're going to get a lock on
Speaker 1: an Apple device way faster than you will on a
Speaker 1: Tile device. But if you want the biggest competition, go
Speaker 1: with the Tile devices, and you know you're taking a
Speaker 1: little bit of a chance there.
Speaker 2: I don't think they're going to be as great as Apple.
Speaker 1: You can also activate the Apple tags with any Apple device,
Speaker 1: whether it's a Mac, computer or an iPad or an iPhone.
Speaker 1: So can you do with a Mac computer, I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: I know you can do it with the iPad. So
Speaker 1: if you have an iPad, you can definitely activate the
Speaker 1: Apple tags as well.
Speaker 2: So those were amazing.
Speaker 1: Music came in a little bit earlier then I anticipated.
Speaker 1: You know, I get a lot of these Apple air
Speaker 1: tag alerts on my phone. I kind of ignore because
Speaker 1: it's like, I haven't really lost the stuff. I guess,
Speaker 1: knock on wood, maybe one day if I did lose something,
Speaker 1: which hopefully I don't. But I did track my stuff
Speaker 1: all throughout Europe and on the plane and all that,
Speaker 1: and it did work. So I got to say, Apple
Speaker 1: really really built a special device with these Apple tags,
Speaker 1: these air tags.
Speaker 2: They really really do a good job of helping you
Speaker 2: keep track of your stuff, all right. That music means
Speaker 2: that's gonna do it for this episode of the show.
Speaker 2: If you'd like to.
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Speaker 1: You can scroll to the tech section and watch all
Speaker 1: of my TV segments. They are a lot of fun,
Speaker 1: so please do that. My name is Rich Deimiro. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for listening. There are so many ways
Speaker 1: you could spend an hour of your time. I really
Speaker 1: appreciate you spending it right here with little old mate.
Speaker 2: I'll talk to you real soon.