Speaker 1: Apple sets a date to unveil the iPhone fourteen. Fitbit
Speaker 1: has a new fall line up, a wordle lives on
Speaker 1: in a new app. Plus your tech questions answered. What's
Speaker 1: going on? I'm Rich Demiro and this is Rich on Tech.
Speaker 1: It's the podcast where I talk about the tech stuff
Speaker 1: I think you should know about. It's also the place
Speaker 1: where I answer the questions you send me. I'm the
Speaker 1: tech reporter at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the show. Hope you are having a fantastic day. Ah,
Speaker 1: what a week. What a week? Not necessarily for tech news,
Speaker 1: although we did get the iPhone fourteen announcement, not the announcement,
Speaker 1: but the announcement before the announcement, which still gets a
Speaker 1: lot of announcements because people love iPhone news. But there's
Speaker 1: so much going on this week. All right. First off,
Speaker 1: let me just talk about this Instagram precise location thing,
Speaker 1: because oh my gosh, I have never seen something go
Speaker 1: so viral so fast. That is so not true. Hold on,
Speaker 1: let me get a like, what in the world. It's
Speaker 1: just it's amazing to me. I actually I am actually
Speaker 1: losing faith in our system of informing people because it
Speaker 1: is getting broken. I don't know what to do. I
Speaker 1: don't know what to say. But how does a random
Speaker 1: post go viral? And I'm not kidding. I got no
Speaker 1: less than you know, several under a dozen messages about
Speaker 1: this post. People were just going nuts about it, asking
Speaker 1: me if it's true, asking me what the deal is
Speaker 1: with it. Let me tell you what the post says. Okay,
Speaker 1: so the post said, please read. If you have an iPhone,
Speaker 1: listen up. After a recent iOS update, people can now
Speaker 1: find your exact location from Instagram. For example, if you
Speaker 1: put the location tag of Salt Lake City, it will
Speaker 1: show your exact location versus a general location. There are
Speaker 1: allegedly stalkers and criminals using this feature to find people
Speaker 1: and break into homes and cars. Now is this rooted
Speaker 1: in truth? Yes? I think as many half truths are,
Speaker 1: there is a little bit of truth to them which
Speaker 1: makes them believable. So if people went into their Instagram
Speaker 1: location on iPhone, they saw lo and behold, precise location
Speaker 1: was turned on. Does that mean that Instagram is sharing
Speaker 1: your precise location? No, it does not. It means that
Speaker 1: when you breezed past the location permissions when you installed Instagram,
Speaker 1: you didn't really notice that there was an option to
Speaker 1: toggle precise location versus non precise location on or off.
Speaker 1: But here's how Instagram shares your location anyhow. Number One,
Speaker 1: they don't really share exact locations on Instagram. They used
Speaker 1: to on Twitter. I'm not even sure they do it
Speaker 1: on Twitter anymore. But I was a big advocate of
Speaker 1: saying do not share your exact location on Twitter. I
Speaker 1: think there's a lot of pros to that, especially when
Speaker 1: there's an event happening and you're trying to tell people
Speaker 1: exactly where it's happening. But on Instagram, you're tagging food,
Speaker 1: you're tagging vacation spots, you're tagging various places. Do people
Speaker 1: need to know exact location GPS coordinates of where you are? No?
Speaker 1: Do they need to know that you're at a restaurant
Speaker 1: that you like. Sure, if you want to tag that restaurant.
Speaker 1: The way that it works on Instagram, when you post something,
Speaker 1: it says tag location, and it gives you a choice
Speaker 1: of locations. Now, even if you pick the most basic choice,
Speaker 1: let's say Los Angeles, it still does not reveal the
Speaker 1: exact coordinates of where you are in Los Angeles, even
Speaker 1: if you clicked it. If a person viewing your post
Speaker 1: tapped the location, it would show them a generalized Los
Speaker 1: Angeles location, not even in the area you're in, really
Speaker 1: the downtown of the city that you tagged. So that's
Speaker 1: the way Instagram works. Now. Instagram came out on a
Speaker 1: post on Twitter and they said, we've seen the meme
Speaker 1: going around about how Instagram uses quote precise location. To
Speaker 1: be clear, we don't share your location with others similar
Speaker 1: to other social media companies. We use precise location for
Speaker 1: things like location tags and map features. People can manage
Speaker 1: location services via their device settings and tag locations on
Speaker 1: their posts if they want to share that information. And
Speaker 1: even when you're sharing that information, it's not the precise location.
Speaker 1: But in general, like I mentioned, there's always some sort
Speaker 1: of lesson to be learned from this, and the lesson
Speaker 1: here is that you need to be careful when you're
Speaker 1: sharing your location. And on the flip side, these companies
Speaker 1: do want access to your precise location because guess what,
Speaker 1: it helps them sell more stuff, It helps them target
Speaker 1: ads towards you. So does Instagram want everyone in the
Speaker 1: world to turn off their precise location? Not really. If
Speaker 1: a lot of people do, sure, they've already been hammered
Speaker 1: by the way by Apple's you know tracking situation where
Speaker 1: they kind of turned off the cross tracking. So these
Speaker 1: companies are all trying to figure out new ways of
Speaker 1: doing business, and by us protecting our privacy, that definitely
Speaker 1: it challenges them a little bit more because they have
Speaker 1: to figure out, Okay, we've got less information about this individual,
Speaker 1: how do we still sell them stuff and how do
Speaker 1: we still make a good profit? Are actually have our
Speaker 1: targeting systems still at a very high level that we
Speaker 1: can sell them stuff that we think that they're going
Speaker 1: to buy, and that way advertisers want to sell that.
Speaker 1: So anyway, if you want to look into your location
Speaker 1: on whether it's you know, whether it's Instagram or sorry,
Speaker 1: whether it's Instagram or iOS or Android or anything that
Speaker 1: you've got on iOS, you can go into settings, you
Speaker 1: can go into Privacy Location Services, and you can check
Speaker 1: the location settings for any of your apps, and in general,
Speaker 1: when you're installing an app for the first time, you
Speaker 1: can say you don't want to give access to your
Speaker 1: precise location. There's a little map that pops up and
Speaker 1: it says, do you want precise or do you not
Speaker 1: want precise? Now, an android's a little clearer because they
Speaker 1: have a choice where you tap and it says you
Speaker 1: know exact location or not exact location, but you can
Speaker 1: check again. You can press and hold down an app
Speaker 1: and then go into the little eye and then tap
Speaker 1: permissions and then tap location and you will see so
Speaker 1: on Instagram on Android, I've got allow only while using
Speaker 1: the app, you can say ask every time, don't allow,
Speaker 1: and then use precise location. You can toggle that on
Speaker 1: or off, and so you can rinse and repeat for
Speaker 1: all of your various apps. But to just be able
Speaker 1: to post something, and since you have a lot of
Speaker 1: followers and goes viral, it's really kind of scary the
Speaker 1: information that gets out there so quickly, and there's no
Speaker 1: turning back. Once people hear this, they read the headline
Speaker 1: and that's it that they do no more research. And
Speaker 1: now they think that Instagram is spying on their precise
Speaker 1: location and stalkers can use it to find them. And
Speaker 1: again again I'm not downplaying how vigilant we need to
Speaker 1: be about protecting our privacy online. If I had my way,
Speaker 1: you would never share your location. You would never share
Speaker 1: where you are, you would never share a picture of
Speaker 1: your kids, you would never share anything in a public manner,
Speaker 1: but we don't live in that world anymore. That has
Speaker 1: all gone to the wayside, and so just just be
Speaker 1: aware of how you're sharing, what you're sharing, and the
Speaker 1: implications of what you're sharing. And I think that's the
Speaker 1: most important thing you could do. All right, let's get
Speaker 1: to the first question of the podcast. Randy says, thanks
Speaker 1: for your info and knowledge in advance. I always joint
Speaker 1: benefit from the segments you do on KTLA. Yesterday I
Speaker 1: bought a car for the first time driver in the family.
Speaker 1: I'd love to say that I have one hundred percent
Speaker 1: confidence in the fact that all rules will be followed,
Speaker 1: but I live in the real world. Oftentimes my daughter's
Speaker 1: iPhone battery in quotes dies explaining why her location on
Speaker 1: the Find My app cannot be found. So there are
Speaker 1: many different GPS tracking devices out there. Most require a
Speaker 1: monthly subscription, some covering the first year with purchase. Have
Speaker 1: you done a segment on these? I'd love to get
Speaker 1: your opinion on which ones offer the best value, features
Speaker 1: and performance. Thanks for your time, best Randy. All Right, So, Randy,
Speaker 1: a couple of options here, and yes, I get it.
Speaker 1: It's it's a game of cat and mouse when it
Speaker 1: comes to these GPS trackers. The kids are always trying
Speaker 1: to get around it. When I was a kid, I mean,
Speaker 1: there was no such thing as tracking. There was no
Speaker 1: such thing as you know, even at the beginning of
Speaker 1: my driving there was There's cell phones were just sort
Speaker 1: of starting, and I did have one, but you know,
Speaker 1: it was like a dollar a minute or something. She
Speaker 1: didn't really use it, and there's no way your parents
Speaker 1: can tap into to the GPS on that phone. So
Speaker 1: we've come a long way where we expect to know
Speaker 1: someone's location, especially of family members twenty four to seven.
Speaker 1: It's just kind of how it is. And even our
Speaker 1: close friends. There's a lot of friends that share their
Speaker 1: location with other friends in a real time basis. So
Speaker 1: I understand why you want to keep an eye on
Speaker 1: your daughter in this manner, for safety and for other reasons.
Speaker 1: So a couple of ways you can do this. Number One,
Speaker 1: the air tag is probably the easiest and the cheapest,
Speaker 1: but it's not GPS. It will only get a location
Speaker 1: lock when there's some sort of iOS or Apple device nearby. Thankfully,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of iOS and Apple devices nearby, so
Speaker 1: you probably will get a pretty good reading most of
Speaker 1: the time may not be exact, but it'll probably give
Speaker 1: you a pretty good indication of where your daughter is.
Speaker 1: So that's the easiest. The cheapest you pop the tracker
Speaker 1: in the car, you kind of forget about it and
Speaker 1: there you go. It's not real time and it may
Speaker 1: not be updated. That's the downside. So if you want
Speaker 1: something that's real time and always updated, I would look
Speaker 1: into something like a dedicated tre and T mobile has
Speaker 1: something called the sync Up. I have not tested these,
Speaker 1: and so I can't tell you how great it is,
Speaker 1: but it it is basically exactly what you're wanting. And
Speaker 1: the beauty of this is that it's plugged into your car.
Speaker 1: It's always on, it gets a GPS signal, it's got
Speaker 1: cellular so it's it's a very easy solution that was
Speaker 1: pretty much made with what you want in mind. And
Speaker 1: you know, it also does things like track driving behavior
Speaker 1: and all kinds of other things. It plugs into the
Speaker 1: I don't know what it's called. It's like the OBD
Speaker 1: M port or whatever it is on your car. I
Speaker 1: used to know what this thing was called. But you
Speaker 1: got to plug it into your car, and that's basically
Speaker 1: it it's ten dollars. Let's see how much is it?
Speaker 1: Ten dollars a month for the service, and then you
Speaker 1: have to pay for the actual device. This is called
Speaker 1: sync up Drive and again this from T Mobile. You
Speaker 1: need a subscription from T Mobile, so it's a little
Speaker 1: bit of a you know, you got to be a
Speaker 1: customer there, and then you can pay in full. It's
Speaker 1: one hundred and eight dollars if you pay for this
Speaker 1: thing in full, or you can do free if you
Speaker 1: add a line. So if you're adding this to your
Speaker 1: T Mobile account, it's actually a free device. You just
Speaker 1: have to pay for the monthly which is ten dollars.
Speaker 1: So that's one way to do it. Let's see. The
Speaker 1: other way to do it is I haven't tested this yet,
Speaker 1: but I do have it in for testing. And this
Speaker 1: is brand new. This is a gadget from log Logie Stemistics,
Speaker 1: Loistical Logistomatics, Logistimatics there it is Logistomatics. It's the car
Speaker 1: charger GPS tracker with live audio monitoring. So this tracker
Speaker 1: plugs into your vehicle's charging port. You can hear audio
Speaker 1: from inside the vehicle with a live audio feature and
Speaker 1: it tracks the location and it updates every four hundred
Speaker 1: meters while the vehicle is in motion. So again, this
Speaker 1: is probably not going to work if your car is
Speaker 1: turned off because this plugs into your charging port. So
Speaker 1: many cars the charging port, you know, the cigarette lighter
Speaker 1: as we've called it in the past, that turns off
Speaker 1: when the car turns off. So this will only work
Speaker 1: and get an update when the car is in motion
Speaker 1: and when the car is powered. Seventy bucks I believe
Speaker 1: it's for the device, and then fifteen dollars a month
Speaker 1: for the actual service. But these are all going to
Speaker 1: be solutions that you can use. The other thing you
Speaker 1: can look into is a geobit tracker geobit jiob it.
Speaker 1: We did interview this company. They were recently purchased by
Speaker 1: oh gosh, was it Life three sixty. Yeah, they were
Speaker 1: purchased by Life three sixty, so they've got a big
Speaker 1: company behind them. You can just clip this to your
Speaker 1: car inside the car, and that's going to be a
Speaker 1: real time GPS device as well. So a lot of options.
Speaker 1: I think that one of these should work. This has
Speaker 1: a monthly fee as well, but there are so many
Speaker 1: ways to do this. I think that you've got plenty
Speaker 1: of options to help track your daughter and you know,
Speaker 1: have a conversation with her why you want to do this.
Speaker 1: I don't really think that parents should be secretly tracking
Speaker 1: their kids, you know. I think that it's it's better
Speaker 1: to have a conversation and explain so that way everyone's
Speaker 1: kind of upfront about this, and it's it's out of love.
Speaker 1: You want to make sure that if something ever happened,
Speaker 1: you'd be able to find where she is. So there
Speaker 1: you have it, all right, let's talk about the fold.
Speaker 1: So Amazon Samsung's Flip and Fold are on sale now,
Speaker 1: and I've been testing both phones. I tested the Flip,
Speaker 1: which is the smaller of the two, and it's great.
Speaker 1: It's a great little phone. It's fun if you want
Speaker 1: to kind of tiptoe into the whole foldable world. It's
Speaker 1: not the most high powered phone out there, but it's fun.
Speaker 1: It's different. It's like having a regular phone, except at
Speaker 1: folds in half people will ask, oh, wow, what are
Speaker 1: you doing with that thing? Like what's going on there?
Speaker 1: And you'll have plenty of conversations over the next year.
Speaker 1: So can I one recommend it to replace your phone
Speaker 1: that you have if you're in love with it? No,
Speaker 1: but if you want to try something new and you
Speaker 1: don't mind being on the cutting edge, it is a
Speaker 1: really cool phone. I think that I think that Samsung
Speaker 1: has addressed many of the shortcomings, except for the camera.
Speaker 1: I mean, the camera's still not as good as like
Speaker 1: the best cameras out there. But if you just want
Speaker 1: something that's fun and you know, usable on a daily
Speaker 1: basis and it folds up and it's kind of cool,
Speaker 1: then there you go. And it's a pretty decent price
Speaker 1: point as well. Now the other phone I've really been
Speaker 1: trying to test by By Really, I've been hesitant in
Speaker 1: years past to even hold this thing for more than
Speaker 1: a day or two because I'm like, ah, that's just
Speaker 1: not for me. That's the fold four and that's the
Speaker 1: one that folds in half, so the flip flips up
Speaker 1: and down like an old school flip phone. The fold
Speaker 1: folds in half like a greeting card that you would
Speaker 1: give someone. And this phone has the bigger screen on
Speaker 1: the outside, the giant screen on the inside, and look,
Speaker 1: it is a really amazing device. And the more I
Speaker 1: use it, the more I actually fell in love with
Speaker 1: it. It's just I struggle because it's it's just a there's
Speaker 1: a lot of things that you give up to get
Speaker 1: that foldable, giant inside screen, and so what you're giving
Speaker 1: up is mainly the outside screen that you have to
Speaker 1: do most of your stuff on when you're just casually
Speaker 1: checking email and Twitter and Instagram and all those things,
Speaker 1: is just really narrow and it's a little bit tricky
Speaker 1: to type on. It's a little bit smaller than we've
Speaker 1: gotten used to with our big screen phones, and you know,
Speaker 1: and then when it comes to taking pictures, the cameras
Speaker 1: are good. They're not the best, but you know, you
Speaker 1: can use the rear cameras to take your selfies, which
Speaker 1: is kind of cool. But also, you're touching a lot
Speaker 1: of screen on this phone all the same time, so
Speaker 1: you're always like kind of messing up the screen by
Speaker 1: going into a menu or an app or something that
Speaker 1: you didn't want to because you're always sort of touching
Speaker 1: a screen no matter how you're holding this thing. So otherwise,
Speaker 1: I actually like it. I think I'm gonna take it
Speaker 1: on a flight to kind of see what it feels
Speaker 1: like to actually have like a little cool tablet that's
Speaker 1: your phone. I love the fact that you can fold
Speaker 1: it up. That's kind of fun. I've noticed some quirks,
Speaker 1: Like I was listen to Spotify the other day in
Speaker 1: that mode where the phone is sort of flipped a
Speaker 1: folded in half, like a half fold, and so it
Speaker 1: can rest on your desk, and then you can have
Speaker 1: like half the screen facing up. Half the screen is
Speaker 1: resting on your desk. I was listening to Spotify and
Speaker 1: then I got a text and it was like a
Speaker 1: whole big thing to like it flipped into like a
Speaker 1: different landscape versus portrait. So there's a lot of like
Speaker 1: little things. Multitasking is really cool on it. The battery
Speaker 1: life has been pretty good. I mean it's not the best,
Speaker 1: but you know, Samsung's charge up so fast now if
Speaker 1: you have a good charger that it doesn't really matter
Speaker 1: about the battery life, You're gonna get through what you
Speaker 1: need to do. It's just you may have to recharge
Speaker 1: at some point during the day. What else. It's a
Speaker 1: little heavy, it's a little bulky, but I actually like
Speaker 1: the form factor when it's closed because it's really narrow,
Speaker 1: which is kind of nice and refreshing compared to all
Speaker 1: these big phones I test all the time. Let's see,
Speaker 1: it's expensive, it's eighteen hundred dollars, so it's not for everyone. Clearly,
Speaker 1: Samsung has a lot of promotions out there to bring
Speaker 1: the price down and in line with one thing more
Speaker 1: people want to pay. Maybe you're not going to get
Speaker 1: this one really down unless you have a very new
Speaker 1: phone to trade in. The software is good, it's fast,
Speaker 1: the little taskbar at the bottom is really handy, and
Speaker 1: it's it's just a lot. I mean, there's a lot
Speaker 1: going on on this phone. So this is not something
Speaker 1: I can recommend for the average person. This is for
Speaker 1: someone who travels a lot, is maybe not so much
Speaker 1: doing a lot of content creation, but is doing a
Speaker 1: lot of productivity. So I think there's a difference there.
Speaker 1: Like I feel like I fall on the content creator
Speaker 1: side more because I'm always recording and editing videos for
Speaker 1: my phone and doing all kinds of like little you know, Canva,
Speaker 1: dot com and all that kind of stuff. Whereas if
Speaker 1: you're like more a business person checking email, sending texts
Speaker 1: and then watching videos on your phone listening to music,
Speaker 1: I think this will be just fine. I use it
Speaker 1: at the gym to do a peloton workout where I
Speaker 1: had the you know, the instructor on the screen. It
Speaker 1: was nice and big and so awesome, So that was
Speaker 1: a cool. Another use of it. The also the earbuds
Speaker 1: that Samsung released this year, the Galaxy Buds Too Pro
Speaker 1: or Galaxy Buds pro to, whatever they're called. They are fantastic.
Speaker 1: I should know what they're called. What are they called?
Speaker 1: Let me let me get the name of what they're called,
Speaker 1: so you don't think, Rich I'm listening to and you're
Speaker 1: recommending this stuff and you don't even know what they're called.
Speaker 1: Galaxy Buds to Pro. They are absolutely fantastic. I really
Speaker 1: really like them. The noise cancelation is amazing, the just
Speaker 1: the rubbery feel of them is really great. The case
Speaker 1: is great, the battery lasts, they sound awesome. I can't
Speaker 1: recommend them highly enough. They're expensive. I think they're two
Speaker 1: twenty nine retail, but of course again you can get
Speaker 1: them for cheaper. But I will say I think this
Speaker 1: year twenty twenty two is the year that Samsung really
Speaker 1: hit its stride with all of their phones, every single
Speaker 1: one of them. They did a knock it out of
Speaker 1: the park job. Now I think next year, hopefully barring
Speaker 1: any weird changes or things or setbacks that they do,
Speaker 1: I think those phones are gonna be near perfect. The
Speaker 1: foldables are getting to the point where they are really
Speaker 1: really compelling, and so I think it's just the work
Speaker 1: they've done in this area is really cool, and the
Speaker 1: ecosystem is getting to the point where if you want Samsung,
Speaker 1: and you want everything Samsung, from the you know, the
Speaker 1: earbuds to the watch to the phone, you are in
Speaker 1: a very good place at this point. So good job
Speaker 1: Samsung if you get one of these phones. Let me know,
Speaker 1: most people like get them, really love them, and I
Speaker 1: think it's a part that they are adopting something new
Speaker 1: and so they're in their mind they're like, all right,
Speaker 1: I'm doing this. I'm gonna try this out the foldable.
Speaker 1: The foldables, like if the flip had just a little
Speaker 1: bit of a better camera, I think that would be
Speaker 1: something I would consider switching to, because I love the
Speaker 1: convenience factor the fold I love it, love it, love it.
Speaker 1: But I just don't think it's for me, unfortunately, Because
Speaker 1: I just really really think this is so cool and
Speaker 1: it's great and I love the cutting edge nature of it,
Speaker 1: I'm just not sure I'm ready to dive in. And
Speaker 1: so we'll see, But I have I will say, I've
Speaker 1: really really been enjoying Samsung software lately. You know, I
Speaker 1: love the pixel but the software is great, but the
Speaker 1: rest of the package is kind of like eh. Whereas
Speaker 1: the Samsung's they've really come up in the world when
Speaker 1: it comes to like they're getting software updates, they're getting
Speaker 1: the features you want. There's so many little features built in.
Speaker 1: It just makes you feel like you are in command
Speaker 1: of that phone and you can make it act the
Speaker 1: way you want it to act. So there you have it,
Speaker 1: all right, Let's get to another question. Hey, Rich, I
Speaker 1: have a Visio TV that's less than five years old.
Speaker 1: I've always had a problem with the streaming apps. The
Speaker 1: playback is very buggy, with video audios starting, stopping erratically,
Speaker 1: and occasionally locking up for thirty seconds or more at
Speaker 1: a time. Some days it works just fine. I've had
Speaker 1: zero luck identifying any cause for the problems. Issues occur
Speaker 1: when it's on Wi Fi as well as wired internet. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's surprising. And even when no one else is in
Speaker 1: the home and the internet using the internet at all.
Speaker 1: We have an expensive two hundred and fifty megabits per
Speaker 1: second Internet plan, so I don't believe that's the problem.
Speaker 1: This is driving me batty, especially more as more and
Speaker 1: more of our TV time utilizes these streaming services. So
Speaker 1: here's my question. Do I buy a new smart TV
Speaker 1: thinking it's just a problem with this unit, or is
Speaker 1: it time to move to something like a fire stick?
Speaker 1: Your advice would be greatly appreciated. Jennifer in Laguna Hills, Jennifer,
Speaker 1: Laguna Hills. Wasn't that the TV show? Didn't they have that?
Speaker 1: Was that? It? Yeah? Laguna? Oh maybe it was Laguna Beach?
Speaker 1: What was it? Or maybe it was The Hills. What
Speaker 1: was the show on MTV? Let's see MTV. Yes, it
Speaker 1: was called Laguna Beach. There was The Hills and Laguna Beach.
Speaker 1: Maybe the Laguna Beach was a spin off. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I'm really dating myself. How old was this? Two thousand?
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, two thousand and four to two thousand
Speaker 1: and six. Oh my gosh. This like got me through
Speaker 1: my small markets when I was working in like little
Speaker 1: cities like Shreveport, Louisiana, or maybe I was in New
Speaker 1: York at the time, but it just watching shows about
Speaker 1: La was like a crutch of mine because I just like, oh,
Speaker 1: I want to be back there. But they always make
Speaker 1: these shows look so good. I mean, they really do.
Speaker 1: Like LA never looks so good except in these shows
Speaker 1: where they they shoot the sunset at the right moment.
Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, LA is a beautiful place,
Speaker 1: but they really hype it up in these TV shows
Speaker 1: and they get it at the they catch it at
Speaker 1: the exact moment that when you see it at that moment,
Speaker 1: you think it's awesome. So okay, so let's see, let's see,
Speaker 1: let's see. Let's uh, let's what am I talking about?
Speaker 1: This visio stuff? All right? So I digress on this
Speaker 1: show so often? All right, So the TV's five years old,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm. I think it's odd that this is happening,
Speaker 1: and I think it's especially odd that is happening on
Speaker 1: both your wired internet and on your Wi Fi. So
Speaker 1: I that's so odd, And I don't think it should
Speaker 1: be happening, because if you're wired, there should be no
Speaker 1: audio video issues at all. The only thing I can
Speaker 1: think of is that it's the TV itself and it's
Speaker 1: just a laggy TV because it's just not very high powered.
Speaker 1: Now it is five years old or less, you said,
Speaker 1: so I'm guessing you know four to five years old,
Speaker 1: and I can't say I have a smart TV. I
Speaker 1: do have a smart TV that's that old a Visio actually,
Speaker 1: so I should try this and see. But I never
Speaker 1: use the smart side of it. And this is why
Speaker 1: I'm a fan of picking your TV and then you know,
Speaker 1: sort of getting one of these sticks to put in there.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, if you get a Roku TV,
Speaker 1: it's built in. If you get a fire TV, it's
Speaker 1: built in. But I mean, I think that number one,
Speaker 1: I don't recommend getting a new TV just yet. I mean,
Speaker 1: you can solve this problem for thirty five dollars potentially.
Speaker 1: So what I'd recommend, like you said, get the fire stick,
Speaker 1: plug it in, set it up, set up your streaming apps,
Speaker 1: and see if it happens. If it doesn't happen, and fine,
Speaker 1: you just bought yourself a couple more years with this TV.
Speaker 1: If it does happen, then I would say, it's probably
Speaker 1: a problem with your Wi Fi. And if it's a
Speaker 1: problem with your Wi Fi, then I think you need
Speaker 1: to look into what's going on on your network. Is
Speaker 1: there a some sort of bottleneck on your network? Is
Speaker 1: there some sort of interference on your network? Move your
Speaker 1: router to a new place, or maybe reset your entire router,
Speaker 1: reset your cable internet box, whatever you want to do
Speaker 1: to get everything sort of back to square one to
Speaker 1: see what's going on. If you're not having problems with
Speaker 1: ther other devices, then that's probably not the issue. But yes,
Speaker 1: get the fire stick, try it out, see what happens,
Speaker 1: and I think that you know, you'll get a new
Speaker 1: lease on your streaming life. So this is why I
Speaker 1: like these streaming sticks, because they're upgradeable very easily. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've got a TV that's, you know, pretty old too.
Speaker 1: Both of my TVs are pretty old, and I use
Speaker 1: an Apple TV on one of them, a Firestick on another,
Speaker 1: and then an Apple TV on another one, and they're great.
Speaker 1: And I also have a I had a Roku setup
Speaker 1: and you know, just for testing. And you know, every
Speaker 1: one of these platforms has their pros and cons. But
Speaker 1: what I like about them is whether you go Apple,
Speaker 1: fire or Roku, they're all going to be updated regularly.
Speaker 1: So this video TV, it has its own platform. I
Speaker 1: think it's like smart cast or something, which is fine,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people have videos, but let's be real,
Speaker 1: when people talk about streaming services sticks they talk are
Speaker 1: streaming boxes, they're talking about Roku, they're talking about Fire,
Speaker 1: and they're talking about Apple and sometimes Chrome cast. So
Speaker 1: Visio is in there, but it's just kind of a
Speaker 1: distant in there. And so yeah, they're updating apps and
Speaker 1: they're adding apps and they're adding features. But realistically, these
Speaker 1: main platforms are going to be updated with the best
Speaker 1: software and the fastest. So try it out, Jennifer, let
Speaker 1: me know what you think and hopefully you get your No.
Speaker 1: One wants to be buffering when you're watching stuff. That's
Speaker 1: not fun at all. All right, let's talk. Wow, we're
Speaker 1: this far in the show and we haven't even talked
Speaker 1: about the iPhone. So iPhone fourteen event is confirmed for
Speaker 1: September seventh. I got an invite to the event, which
Speaker 1: is happening at the Coopertino campus, which is cool. I
Speaker 1: don't know what the format is gonna be. Last time
Speaker 1: we went up there for WWDC it was outside. Oh okay. Well,
Speaker 1: according to nine to five Mac, they say the in
Speaker 1: person component will take place in the Steve Jobs Theater.
Speaker 1: There you go, okay, so huh interesting. So with that said,
Speaker 1: it sounds like we're getting back to a slightly standardized
Speaker 1: Apple event, which typically you go in there, you sit
Speaker 1: in the Steve Jobs Theater, live on stage, they demo
Speaker 1: all the stuff. I don't know if that's gonna be
Speaker 1: happening or if this is still gonna be taped, but
Speaker 1: and then and then they let all the journalists out
Speaker 1: into an area that has a hands on area where
Speaker 1: it's kind of a free for all where you go
Speaker 1: hands on with all the new devices. They're just, oh,
Speaker 1: my gosh, so many people fighting for not fighting and
Speaker 1: for real, but just like trying to get their hands
Speaker 1: on these devices so that they can be among the
Speaker 1: first to tweet them out and get their coverage for
Speaker 1: TV and radio and all this other stuff. That's what
Speaker 1: the lineup is. So iPhone fourteen, we're expecting a couple
Speaker 1: of new models. The tagline for the event was is
Speaker 1: I should say is far out And it showed sort
Speaker 1: of an Apple logo swirling around made of stars or
Speaker 1: in the space. So this has led people to speculate
Speaker 1: what the new iPhone will have as a feature, and
Speaker 1: some people have said it's going to be a zoom lens.
Speaker 1: Some people are bigger zoom. Some people have said it's
Speaker 1: going to be astrophotography. Some people have said it's going
Speaker 1: to be more megapixels, so we don't know, and we
Speaker 1: never know until it actually happens. There's so many rumors,
Speaker 1: there are a dime a dozen, but the reality is,
Speaker 1: I think at this point all you need to know
Speaker 1: is that the iPhone event is happening on September seventh.
Speaker 1: If you're thinking about buying a phone, maybe wait until
Speaker 1: then because prices do change, or you can kind of
Speaker 1: get the full scope of what your availability and what
Speaker 1: your offers are. And also, you know, we should see
Speaker 1: a new Apple Watch, maybe some new iPads, maybe some
Speaker 1: new MacBooks. You just never know, but typically this event
Speaker 1: is reserved for the iPhone and Apple Watch. And so
Speaker 1: that's what I expect to see the iPhones this year.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to get into too many rumors
Speaker 1: because there's just so many of them and I don't
Speaker 1: really care about them until I hear until I see
Speaker 1: it for myself. But the rumor mill says that the
Speaker 1: lower model phones, the iPhone fourteen, will keep the same
Speaker 1: processor as a thirteen and maybe get a little bit
Speaker 1: of improvements here and there, but the iPhone fourteen pros
Speaker 1: will be the ones that get a much better processor,
Speaker 1: much better camera. So we will see and I think
Speaker 1: and the iPhone Mini is going to be dead, so
Speaker 1: we'll see what happens during this event. But again it's
Speaker 1: happening September seventh, the expected on sale date. And again
Speaker 1: this is a rumor is that the iPhone fourteen would
Speaker 1: go on sale in September fourteenth, which makes sense. It's
Speaker 1: a Friday, it's the fourteenth, it's the same day as
Speaker 1: the model number, so that all makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned. I will be there at the Apple event
Speaker 1: to bring you all of the updates. All right, next
Speaker 1: question here, uh Roger, Let's see this doesn't look like
Speaker 1: a question, more like just a mention. Hey, Rich, I
Speaker 1: wrote to you for your recommendations to replace the iPod
Speaker 1: and iTunes. Well, most of the candidates were basically the same,
Speaker 1: so I went with a Sony Walkman NW one five
Speaker 1: A for two main reasons nostalgia, the og of portable
Speaker 1: cassette players, and the cool cassette tape screen saver. Since
Speaker 1: again for my usage, all offered basically what I need. Yes,
Speaker 1: it takes some time to get used to and how
Speaker 1: to operate it, but so far I'm successful in purchasing
Speaker 1: and downloading songs. I need to see how to burn
Speaker 1: CDs then tran for it to the Walkman. I see
Speaker 1: it's similar to a file directory and a PC. Just
Speaker 1: drag and drop. Anyway, I just wanted to get back
Speaker 1: to you since you were so kind and gave me
Speaker 1: a list of your replacement choices. Thank you and see
Speaker 1: you on the tube. All right, Well this is an
Speaker 1: interesting uh, Roger, this is an interesting choice. So the
Speaker 1: player that you got is three hundred dollars, which is expensive.
Speaker 1: It's it's basically all screen on the front. It's a
Speaker 1: small uh that's cool. It does have a tape screen saver,
Speaker 1: which is cool. It's a Sony Walkman. But the new
Speaker 1: Walkman has a micro SD card on it. And this
Speaker 1: is for the person who I guess does not have
Speaker 1: an iPhone, does not want an iPhone, does not want
Speaker 1: to use their Android device as a music player. You
Speaker 1: want a dedicated MP three player, and there could be
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons for that. I'm not sure what
Speaker 1: you need this for or why you wanted it, but
Speaker 1: I can't remember the original email. But you're right, it's
Speaker 1: just a dragon drop and so I get a lot
Speaker 1: of emails from people saying, rich, how do I get
Speaker 1: my songs off of the iPod? I've got an old
Speaker 1: iPod sitting around? How do I get my songs off?
Speaker 1: I can't seem to find a way. And the answer is,
Speaker 1: there's not an easy way. Apple made these devices one
Speaker 1: way for some reason, and I don't know if that
Speaker 1: was for you know, file sharing or copying or you know,
Speaker 1: what's the term the DC what is it copyright stuff?
Speaker 1: I don't know why did they do that. I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: but they did. And so yes, there's some apps that
Speaker 1: will help you, you know, crack into these things and
Speaker 1: liberate your music. But you know, something like the Walkman
Speaker 1: that you have, it's just a simple drag and drop
Speaker 1: one way or the other. You can drag it on,
Speaker 1: you can drag it off, you can delete, you can
Speaker 1: do whatever you want. And there are some apps that
Speaker 1: let you do this with the iPhone. They're not as
Speaker 1: there's still one way. But an app I really like
Speaker 1: that is super simple is called Walter w A L
Speaker 1: w A W hold on, let me find exactly how
Speaker 1: it's spelled. W A l t R w A l
Speaker 1: t R Walter Pro And what's cool about this app
Speaker 1: from soft a Reno is that you can drag and
Speaker 1: drop pretty much any file onto an iPhone or an
Speaker 1: iPad and it will put it in its place where
Speaker 1: it needs to go. So whether it's an MP three file,
Speaker 1: I mean really the other thing is any format. So
Speaker 1: this the formats that this works with is pretty pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: Let's see, do they have a list of formats that
Speaker 1: they that it works with. It will, It will transform
Speaker 1: it into a the proper format and put it right
Speaker 1: into the app that it needs to go in. So
Speaker 1: if it needs to go into Apple Music, if it
Speaker 1: needs to go into Photos, if it needs to go
Speaker 1: into you know whatever, it will go there. So it's
Speaker 1: kind of a cool little app. Highly highly recommend it.
Speaker 1: Oh interesting, it's on the Oh wow, Okay, that's anyway.
Speaker 1: So they have a lot of little things that they
Speaker 1: can do. And they also have a new free app
Speaker 1: called files by Walter, Simple File Manager for your iPhone
Speaker 1: to quickly drop and share files across any iOS app
Speaker 1: with I message app built in. That's really cool. So
Speaker 1: I think that this is something that anyway, if you
Speaker 1: it's not going to get the stuff off, but it's
Speaker 1: going to help you easily get stuff on because I
Speaker 1: know they changed the way that iTunes works and so
Speaker 1: it's a little bit different these days and it's not
Speaker 1: as supported. So this is a super simple way to
Speaker 1: drag stuff onto your iPhone. And it sounds like Roger.
Speaker 1: You don't need this because you are on the Walkmanded
Speaker 1: the Walkman Bandwagon. Once again. It's kind of fun, it's different,
Speaker 1: and this is you know, there's a lot of different
Speaker 1: folks out there, a lot of different ways to do things,
Speaker 1: and you found a different way. So good for you.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about fibit. Fipbit has a new
Speaker 1: fall lineup. They've got three new products that are coming out.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to spend a whole bunch of time
Speaker 1: because these are sort of, you know, iterations on what's
Speaker 1: already working. If you like the fitbit, everyone's waiting for
Speaker 1: sort of the pixel watch, and they're also waiting for
Speaker 1: when Fitbit becomes you know, just gobbled up by Apple
Speaker 1: and just are gobbled up by Google completely and they
Speaker 1: start just making these like Google devices. So right now
Speaker 1: they're still kind of keeping that fitbit world. There haven't
Speaker 1: there hasn't been a huge takeover in software by Google,
Speaker 1: but I'm sure there's a little bits of Google blended
Speaker 1: in just taking a look at these. There's three. There's
Speaker 1: the Inspire three, which is sort of the cheapest band
Speaker 1: that I think most people will buy. It's basically the
Speaker 1: classic fitbit tracker, but with a lot of features. Now,
Speaker 1: I mean, this thing's a hundred bucks and you get
Speaker 1: so much stuff. You you know, can track your activities,
Speaker 1: you get ten days of battery life, there's all kinds
Speaker 1: of metrics that it'll it'll track. There's no GPS on board,
Speaker 1: but it's simple. It's easy. If you're just trying to
Speaker 1: track your steps, your basic activity, it's going to be perfect.
Speaker 1: Then you move up to the Versa four and the
Speaker 1: Sense too. The Versa is kind of like they're middle
Speaker 1: of the ground device. It looks like an Apple y,
Speaker 1: maybe not as expensive and not as full featured, but
Speaker 1: it's fitness focused. It's got forty exercise modes, real time stats,
Speaker 1: the GPS is built in, Active Zone minutes is built in.
Speaker 1: You get six days of battery life. It's thinner and
Speaker 1: it's lighter. And the new wristbands that they have on
Speaker 1: these things, I mean, they really took a page from Apple,
Speaker 1: and they look identical to the Apple wristband, So I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, people like to copy a good thing. The
Speaker 1: Apple wristbands when those came out were just brilliant, and
Speaker 1: now we're getting to see those on the fitbits as well.
Speaker 1: The Sense too is the most advanced. This is basically
Speaker 1: a health focused smart watch. This has more than six
Speaker 1: days of battery life, helps you manage stress, which I
Speaker 1: think is pretty cool. It tracks your heart rate health
Speaker 1: with sensors that can detect a fib It's got heart
Speaker 1: rate variability, which is good. If your heart rate goes
Speaker 1: really high or really low, it'll notify you. It's got
Speaker 1: skin temperature which is really neat and rumored to be
Speaker 1: in the Apple Watch or the new one. And it
Speaker 1: measures your stress all day long. So that's kind of cool. Now,
Speaker 1: what about the prices on these things? So I mentioned
Speaker 1: the first one is the Inspire threes one hundred bucks,
Speaker 1: the Versa four. Let's see how much this one is.
Speaker 1: Versa four is two hundred and thirty dollars and the
Speaker 1: Cents two is three hundred dollars. And they all include
Speaker 1: that six month premium membership you know the name of
Speaker 1: the game. These days is all about subscriptions, so you
Speaker 1: do have to pay for a subscription eventually if you
Speaker 1: want the premium stuff, which you probably will break down
Speaker 1: and do. But again, these are an option if you
Speaker 1: don't want an Apple Watch. I think these look pretty great.
Speaker 1: I like the idea of these. I like them as
Speaker 1: an alternative to the Apple Watch if you have an
Speaker 1: Android device. I think that the pixel Watch is going
Speaker 1: to be good, and I know a lot of people
Speaker 1: are waiting for that, but I'm not sure, and I
Speaker 1: don't know. Maybe it'll be better than the fitbits, but
Speaker 1: I think Fipbit has been doing their thing for a
Speaker 1: very long time. People are used to the Fitbit, and
Speaker 1: so I think that these have evolved over the years
Speaker 1: to be exactly what people need when it comes to
Speaker 1: just basic fitness trackers and also a little bit more.
Speaker 1: And so the pixel Watches is more of a smart
Speaker 1: watch versus these. These are sort of more fitness focused
Speaker 1: first and then they also do some smart things. But
Speaker 1: we'll say, lots of options for people. Whether you get
Speaker 1: a Fitbit, whether you get the Samsung Watches, whether you
Speaker 1: get the new upcoming pixel Watch, or the Apple Watch,
Speaker 1: which is sort of the og and still I think
Speaker 1: is one of the better things out there. But there's
Speaker 1: so many options that I think whatever's best for you
Speaker 1: and you're happy with, that's what you need. All right.
Speaker 1: Let's get to the next question, and this one Carol says, Rich,
Speaker 1: do you know if any of the new fitbits with
Speaker 1: heart rate monitor can sync with the fitbit dashboard on PC?
Speaker 1: And so that question goes right into the last thing
Speaker 1: that I just talked about. And let's see what I
Speaker 1: found this article from nine to five. I wasn't familiar
Speaker 1: with this app, this desktop app that Carol was talking about,
Speaker 1: but I assumed because most of the companies are getting
Speaker 1: away from desktop apps. It's not very often that we
Speaker 1: see desktop apps anymore. Most of the companies put their
Speaker 1: effort into web apps, and that's kind of the reality.
Speaker 1: Even on my computer, there's no Google Photos app. I
Speaker 1: have a what's called a Progressive web app a PWA
Speaker 1: that is installed on my computer. But it's it's basically
Speaker 1: when you click it, it just opens up a web
Speaker 1: browser into the Google Photos app. And I've got the
Speaker 1: same thing for Outlook. So I think it's easy, it's simple,
Speaker 1: there's less installation on your computer. And because so many
Speaker 1: people use chromebooks anyway. A lot of those are similar,
Speaker 1: like you can do you can do so much on
Speaker 1: your on the web these days, like all these you know,
Speaker 1: nobody downloads like a photo editing program anymore. They just
Speaker 1: use Canva or they use you know, something on the
Speaker 1: way web that helps them edit or trim or do
Speaker 1: something to their picture or crop it whatever. On our phones,
Speaker 1: you know, it's the opposite because the iPhone has made
Speaker 1: the apps so prevalent, we haven't seen as many of
Speaker 1: these web apps take place on the iPhone now on
Speaker 1: Android for a little bit there, we saw that trend
Speaker 1: where you know, oh, you can do anything with the
Speaker 1: web apps on the iPhone on the Android. But yeah,
Speaker 1: Android's the same way. They it's all about apps on
Speaker 1: the phone, so phone apps desktop more about the web
Speaker 1: and what you can do on the web. So when
Speaker 1: I saw this, I was like, I don't really think
Speaker 1: that they're probably gonna continue with the fippit app for
Speaker 1: the desktop, And sure enough nine to five Google says
Speaker 1: fippit is removing the Mac and PC sinking and transfer
Speaker 1: music this year. Looks like it is going away. On
Speaker 1: October thirteenth, twenty twenty two, so you have a little
Speaker 1: bit of time to do this. But otherwise they want
Speaker 1: you to use the fippit app on Android and iOS.
Speaker 1: But Carol, bad news. I don't think these new products
Speaker 1: will well do that, that's for sure, because it's just
Speaker 1: again it's all about the the web apps and it's
Speaker 1: all about the apps on your phone. Good question though,
Speaker 1: all right, speaking of apps on your phone. Oh, the
Speaker 1: free ride is so over. I mean, I know you've
Speaker 1: been seeing all the prices go up on just about everything,
Speaker 1: but also you know all these things that we took
Speaker 1: for granted, for free online, all the apps that we use,
Speaker 1: all these free products and services, Like, for instance, I've
Speaker 1: been using this free app or this free website called
Speaker 1: promo dot com. They have this great image resizer that
Speaker 1: you pop. You drag an image onto it, and it
Speaker 1: resizes it for every single social media network you can imagine,
Speaker 1: whether it's Twitter, whether it's Google, whether it's Facebook LinkedIn,
Speaker 1: but not just resizes it it, it resizes it in
Speaker 1: all the different formats for that social media network. So
Speaker 1: for instance, on Instagram, when you drag it in, it'll
Speaker 1: give you a profile pick that's three twenty by three
Speaker 1: twenty it'll give you a square picture ten eighty by
Speaker 1: ten eighty. It'll give you a landscape post ten eighty
Speaker 1: by five sixty six. It'll give you a portrait post
Speaker 1: ten eighty by thirteen fifty. It'll give you a square
Speaker 1: ten eighty by ten eighty. It'll give you a reels
Speaker 1: ten eighty by nineteen twenty. It'll give you an IGTV
Speaker 1: cover four twenty by six fifty four. So it's a
Speaker 1: really handy way to you know, adapt a thumbnail for
Speaker 1: basically anything you need it for. And I use that
Speaker 1: for so many years or however long it's been around,
Speaker 1: and then one day I go to use it and
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, sorry, you got to sign up to
Speaker 1: use this. Now it's still free, but it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of friction there. And now every
Speaker 1: time I use it, sometimes I'm logged in, sometimes i'm not.
Speaker 1: So again, this free, totally free public product went behind
Speaker 1: a login wall. It's not a pay login wall, but
Speaker 1: it's still a log in wall, and so it's just
Speaker 1: a little bit of the friction. They collect an email address.
Speaker 1: Now they can market to me. I've been getting email
Speaker 1: saying sign up for you know, a paid product from us,
Speaker 1: and it's just like ugh, same thing with a lot
Speaker 1: of other products. It's just the thing that's happening is
Speaker 1: that these companies want to make money. And so I
Speaker 1: say this all because Microsoft Outlook. If you use their
Speaker 1: email app, they are going to be showing more ads
Speaker 1: inside their app. So according to nine to five Mac,
Speaker 1: they have about five hundred million users around the world.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how many of those are free users
Speaker 1: versus paid users. I use Outlook, but I have a
Speaker 1: corporate account with it, so I am not going to
Speaker 1: see ads. You have a corporate account, you're not going
Speaker 1: to see ads. If you have a standard account, you
Speaker 1: will see more ads. So if you use Outlook with
Speaker 1: another account or your own free account, you're going to
Speaker 1: start seeing more ads, and not just in the other inbox,
Speaker 1: because I guess they were always sort of lingering in
Speaker 1: the other inbox. Now they're going to be inside the
Speaker 1: focused inbox. And the focused inbox is where your most
Speaker 1: important emails live, so that means you're probably gonna see
Speaker 1: these ads more often because they're they're mixed into your
Speaker 1: regular emails. And so so again the free ride is
Speaker 1: over this Microsoft, big company. A lot of money. But
Speaker 1: they're sitting there saying, We've got a lot of users
Speaker 1: of this app, and so far it's been a free
Speaker 1: lunch for them. But why, I mean, they're using something
Speaker 1: that takes us resources and energy to update and to
Speaker 1: patch and to keep you going. And so now we're
Speaker 1: going to show them ads and by turning these on
Speaker 1: or turning them up, they are literally just printing money
Speaker 1: that can be used to maintain this app or add
Speaker 1: to the bottom line of Microsoft. So Microsoft Outlook, if
Speaker 1: you're using it for iOS or Android on a free account,
Speaker 1: just keep in mind if you start seeing those apps, say,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, Rich mentioned something about that, but if you're
Speaker 1: on a corporate account, you should not see those. And
Speaker 1: apparently the Outlook app only showed ads in the other
Speaker 1: tab for free users. But yes, it will be coming
Speaker 1: to the focused tab. All right, let's get to the
Speaker 1: next question of the podcast. So many questions, Robert says,
Speaker 1: iPhone thirteen anti virus app. We just purchased the iPhone
Speaker 1: thirteen and updated the software. Should we also purchase Norton
Speaker 1: three sixty or McAfee. I apologize if you've already addressed this,
Speaker 1: but I'm currently caretaking for my husband and very often
Speaker 1: unable to watch TV. I appreciate your knowledge regarding the
Speaker 1: Apple Uh Robert, So, um, do you need an anti
Speaker 1: virus app on your iPhone? I don't think so. I
Speaker 1: think that spending money on something like Norton three sixty
Speaker 1: or McAfee is kind of a waste of money for
Speaker 1: your iPhone because the iPhone, I've said this before, does
Speaker 1: not work in the way that your computer does, and
Speaker 1: therefore these apps can't really protect you against anything. Now,
Speaker 1: if you're running everything through a VPN, perhaps it can
Speaker 1: catch a malicious link or something like that. But the
Speaker 1: reality is the way that these the iPhone works is
Speaker 1: most things are sandboxed, so you're not going to have
Speaker 1: a huge problem with an app interacting with the rest
Speaker 1: of your device unless there is a major, major exploit
Speaker 1: on your device, and that's a whole other issue. But
Speaker 1: for day to day random stuff, most of the time,
Speaker 1: your biggest threat is going to be a phishing email
Speaker 1: or a phishing text, or a text that takes you
Speaker 1: to a malicious website, and maybe these apps can protect
Speaker 1: you from that, but I don't think that they do
Speaker 1: a very good job of that on the iPhone. Just
Speaker 1: due to the architecture of the iPhone. I think you're
Speaker 1: better with something like Chrome that's actively trying to protect
Speaker 1: you with various scans of the links you're clicking in
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, So I don't think you need it.
Speaker 1: I think that more importantly, you should be aware of
Speaker 1: what you're doing on your phone, and I think that
Speaker 1: you should be keeping the software on your phone up
Speaker 1: to date. I think that's the most important thing here,
Speaker 1: is make sure that you don't have any vulnerabilities on
Speaker 1: your operating system or your apps by keeping them up
Speaker 1: to date. And that is I think the most important
Speaker 1: piece of the puzzle here. So save your money, no
Speaker 1: need to get these apps on your phone at least,
Speaker 1: and just you know, just be aware of what you're doing.
Speaker 1: And I think you should be okay, all right Wordle?
Speaker 1: Who is still playing Wordle? Are you? I'm not. I
Speaker 1: kind of stopped, but maybe I'll play again now that
Speaker 1: it's kind of installed on my phone. Wordle is this
Speaker 1: app or this it was a web app? Talk about
Speaker 1: web apps that people see. This is where it kind
Speaker 1: of caused some confusion. When Wordle first came out, it
Speaker 1: was only available as a web app, and you had
Speaker 1: to kind of add a bookmark to your homepage on
Speaker 1: your iPhone if you wanted to play. Otherwise, you could
Speaker 1: play it on the website on the desktop. And then
Speaker 1: what happened was, when Wordle first came out, everyone said, ooh,
Speaker 1: there's an opportunity here. We know that people are gonna
Speaker 1: be searching the app store for Wordle, so let's make
Speaker 1: fake Wordle apps. And so they did, and some of
Speaker 1: them were malicious, some of them were just whatever. Some
Speaker 1: of them tried to get you to pay. But Wordle
Speaker 1: was never available as an app until now. And now
Speaker 1: New York Times bought Wordle for about a million bucks
Speaker 1: or something in that area a couple months after it launched,
Speaker 1: and they mixed it into their games offering. Now, Wordle
Speaker 1: is built into the New York Times Crossword app. You
Speaker 1: may or may not have this installed already on your phone.
Speaker 1: I do, so I opened it up and sure enough,
Speaker 1: there's Wordle. And the cool thing about this, it's available
Speaker 1: Apple Google Play. If you are a person that likes
Speaker 1: your streak, you can now log in and save it,
Speaker 1: save your streaks and your stats, or a free New
Speaker 1: York Times account, which if you have that pretty simple
Speaker 1: you can also pick up where you left off on
Speaker 1: any device. So I was not a big wordle like
Speaker 1: streak person, but I think there were some issues with
Speaker 1: if something changed and you, like, I don't know, deleted
Speaker 1: the bookmark or cleared your cookies or whatever you did
Speaker 1: on your phone, you would lose your entire streak. That
Speaker 1: no longer is the case. If you have a New
Speaker 1: York Times account, you can use various devices, You can
Speaker 1: see your streak, you can save your streaks, all that
Speaker 1: good stuff. Not much more to say about that. It,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just a matter of is this game.
Speaker 1: Does this game have the lasting power of a fun
Speaker 1: game like a crossword puzzle or Sodoku or any of
Speaker 1: these other games, these word games that come and go.
Speaker 1: It seems like people are still playing it. I don't
Speaker 1: definitely don't see the tweets like I used to. I mean,
Speaker 1: there used to be a lot more tweets about this stuff.
Speaker 1: But you know, things come and go and it's still fun.
Speaker 1: It's inside the app. I think that's gonna make it
Speaker 1: a lot easier to access for a lot of people.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, go check it out. If you've got
Speaker 1: the New York Time. It's not the crosswords app. It's
Speaker 1: the crossword app New York Times Crossword App. There's no
Speaker 1: plural there. iOS and Android wordle is baked inside now,
Speaker 1: so go check it out. Patrick says, hey, Rich, we're
Speaker 1: heading too England. In England and Ireland in September October.
Speaker 1: My Team Mobile gives me unlimited data in both countries.
Speaker 1: Some bills will have to be paid while we're gone.
Speaker 1: Do you know what will be the most secure? My
Speaker 1: iPhone hospat our hotel Wi Fi. Thank you you've been
Speaker 1: a great sources I prepare for this trip. Patrick. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I read this question in the last podcast,
Speaker 1: but if I did, I forgive forgive me, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I would use your iPhone hot spot for sure. Now,
Speaker 1: I think you'll be fine on the hotel WiFi. But
Speaker 1: it's always best to be safe and secure if you're
Speaker 1: doing banking. So if you're doing banking, log it in,
Speaker 1: go ahead and use your iPhone hotspot. That's going to
Speaker 1: be the safest way to do it. If you're using
Speaker 1: a hotel Wi Fi, you can use a trusted VPN
Speaker 1: to do it, or you can just do it and
Speaker 1: take your chances. You'll probably be fine. But I would.
Speaker 1: I would. I think it's safer if you're asking this
Speaker 1: question to use your iPhone hot spot if you have
Speaker 1: that option, So uh yeah, that's you know, the hot
Speaker 1: spot is the cellular connection is always going to be
Speaker 1: the most secure connection to a website. Hotel wi fi,
Speaker 1: I know, it's scary anyone can see what you're doing
Speaker 1: on public wi fi. Not exactly true, but especially most
Speaker 1: of the websites nowadays are encrypted, so they may see
Speaker 1: that you're visiting that website, but they should not be
Speaker 1: able to as long as that's a secured transmission, they
Speaker 1: should not be able to see what you're doing on
Speaker 1: that website. So again, they can see you visited the website,
Speaker 1: they may not see what you do once you're on
Speaker 1: that website. That's a big delineation there. But again, because
Speaker 1: it's a public network, because it has access to a
Speaker 1: lot of people, or a lot of people have access
Speaker 1: to it, there could be some malicious actors on that
Speaker 1: site or on that network, and they could have installed
Speaker 1: something that intercepts the traffic or whatever. So just to
Speaker 1: be safe, I would go with my iPhone hotspot. But
Speaker 1: in general, hotel WiFi is going to be just fine
Speaker 1: for what you need to do, like Netflix and surfing
Speaker 1: the web and checking your email and all that good stuff.
Speaker 1: I think you're going to be okay with that. But
Speaker 1: when end out, use a VPN or use the iPhone hotspot,
Speaker 1: and that will be a much more secure way to
Speaker 1: do it. Tim says, I just listened to you talking
Speaker 1: on your podcast about Fire versus Roku. Oh yes, I
Speaker 1: talked about it in the last show. I said how
Speaker 1: they're both pretty much equal, and I said that Roku
Speaker 1: was kind of like the Switzerland of streaming services. But
Speaker 1: he says it is unfortunate, but Fire does not support
Speaker 1: the spectrum map. I tried to siload it with three
Speaker 1: different versions. It did not work, by the way. I've
Speaker 1: had the fire stick and it was very slow. Then
Speaker 1: I got the Cube. But it's much faster, more ram better,
Speaker 1: and faster processor regards Tim. Yeah, Tim. Some of the
Speaker 1: and this is what I don't like about Amazon is
Speaker 1: that they sell these really really cheap fire sticks, which
Speaker 1: people gobble up, especially during Prime Day and this, and
Speaker 1: that they're like ten dollars, twelve dollars, you know, they're
Speaker 1: twenty five dollars on a regular day, and they are
Speaker 1: so slow right out of the gate, and it's like
Speaker 1: they're just infiltrating so many people's homes to these super
Speaker 1: slow streaming sticks. When if you spend the thirty five
Speaker 1: bucks or the fifty five dollars for the max I
Speaker 1: think it's called the max, which is when I got
Speaker 1: or yeah, better yet, the Cube. The problem is when
Speaker 1: you're looking at these fire sticks, you don't realize the
Speaker 1: average person doesn't realize that there's such a huge difference
Speaker 1: in like the processing power and memory on these things.
Speaker 1: And so you see twelve dollars for a firestick versus
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars, and you're like, why would I spend
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars for the same thing. I don't need
Speaker 1: all those extra fancy features. Oops, I don't need all
Speaker 1: those extrape just drop my iPhone. That's why I always
Speaker 1: like to have a case on my phone. You never
Speaker 1: know if you're gonna drop it and scuff it. But
Speaker 1: the point is, uh, yeah, I agree, you get the cube,
Speaker 1: get THEE at least, get the fire TV Max and
Speaker 1: that fire TV Stick Max. I think though, get the
Speaker 1: four K version, like I think they're all four K
Speaker 1: at this point, but get the highest one. You can afford,
Speaker 1: because you're gonna you're gonna. It's gonna be the loading
Speaker 1: times of the apps is really where you notice it
Speaker 1: once it's streaming, not that big of a deal. Doesn't
Speaker 1: take much to stream. It's more about switching between apps
Speaker 1: and loading apps and downloading things. That's when you're really
Speaker 1: gonna notice a difference. Now with your question about Spectrum,
Speaker 1: you're right. There is no Spectrum for the Fire TV,
Speaker 1: so you gotta go Roku if you are using the
Speaker 1: Spectrum app. A lot of people. If you have Spectrum,
Speaker 1: you are going to be streaming some cable stuff through Spectrum.
Speaker 1: So yeah, if you want that and that's a priority,
Speaker 1: definitely go with Roku over Fire. But good insight there, Tim,
Speaker 1: Thanks for adding that. All Right, Before I go, let
Speaker 1: me just talk about TV chef Giata. So I talk
Speaker 1: about this last podcast. I never remember, but I think
Speaker 1: I met her after I recorded my last podcast. So
Speaker 1: this is what I love about my job. I get
Speaker 1: to meet people in real life that I never thought
Speaker 1: I would. And I talked about this with Cris Bianco,
Speaker 1: the Pizza Guy, a couple of weeks ago. Now it's Giata.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you there's something about rich and tech with food.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what it is, but it's definitely there.
Speaker 1: And I've been doing a lot of robots making food
Speaker 1: restaurants and the impact that technology has had on them.
Speaker 1: But it's clear that there is a link between food
Speaker 1: and technology. And so I talked to Giada, got to
Speaker 1: meet her last week and she was really really great.
Speaker 1: You know Jiada from the Food Network. She's kind of
Speaker 1: up there with Bobby Flay, Giada, Guy Fieri, and who's
Speaker 1: the other one, oh, Rachel Ray. These are like the
Speaker 1: OG's of the Food Network. These people have built empires.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm talking empires on their TV shows. And
Speaker 1: I say that not lightly. I was watching the h
Speaker 1: I subscribe to Discovery Plus so I can watch this
Speaker 1: new show with Bobby Flay and his daughter. The show
Speaker 1: name is Bobby and Sophie on the Coast. So I
Speaker 1: haven't met Bobby Flay's daughter, Sophie in person, but we
Speaker 1: chat on social media. She's very nice, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of cool to watch her up and coming
Speaker 1: rising star as her dad has kind of you know,
Speaker 1: been around for many, many years. And anyway, so I
Speaker 1: was looking at last night, just browsing Discovery Plus, which
Speaker 1: I subscribe to to watch their show, and which I
Speaker 1: got free through Verizon by the way, so if you
Speaker 1: have Verizon, it might be including your plan for a
Speaker 1: couple months. But I say this all because there were
Speaker 1: like twenty six seasons of Beat Bobby Flay, which I
Speaker 1: was like, Wow, that's a lot of shows. And then
Speaker 1: I was looking at Guy Fieri who has Diners, Drive Ins,
Speaker 1: and Dives, and he has so many shows. And then Giada,
Speaker 1: she's been doing this for fifteen years on Food Network,
Speaker 1: so so many. Anyway, these people have built a great
Speaker 1: brand for themselves and really really cool stuff. And she
Speaker 1: was talking to me about her new website, Giazzi, that
Speaker 1: sells two hundred Italian specialties. So of course, if you're Giata,
Speaker 1: everyone wants to know, well, what's the pasta you're boiling,
Speaker 1: or what's the olive oil that you're using, or what's
Speaker 1: the olives that you're serving at your party. And so
Speaker 1: now she's like, huh, I should make a website with
Speaker 1: all these curated products, and she did. So these are
Speaker 1: all products that she got from Italy and and now
Speaker 1: she sells them directly to people, and it's just kind
Speaker 1: of a cool thing. Now Here in Los Angeles we
Speaker 1: have something called Italy which sells a lot of these
Speaker 1: Italian products. But again, even when you're there, you're like, way,
Speaker 1: which olives do I get? So if you live in
Speaker 1: a place that doesn't necessarily have that, like somewhere in
Speaker 1: you know, the rest of the US or outside of
Speaker 1: New York or Los Angeles, this is a cool thing
Speaker 1: that you can go to Giada's website and say, oh, hey,
Speaker 1: I know Giada likes these olives. I'm gonna buy them
Speaker 1: or this jam or these cookies. I had one of
Speaker 1: these Amaretto cookies. I say Amoretti. It was so I
Speaker 1: love that Ani. How do you say anni eas or anazette?
Speaker 1: I guess it's anisett anazette flavor. Not everyone likes the
Speaker 1: anazette flavor. It's like a licorice flavor. I love annazette.
Speaker 1: Anything is just it's my favorite. I just love it,
Speaker 1: like the you know, the black jelly beans I love
Speaker 1: during Easter. I love Stella. Dora has these Anazette cookies,
Speaker 1: which I guess are kind of an imitation of what
Speaker 1: Giada gave me for real from Italy, and it was
Speaker 1: just so good. Anyway, So I love that flavor. It's
Speaker 1: a very like you know, not many people like I
Speaker 1: like fennel. Fenel is a very similar flavor. It's kind
Speaker 1: of that black licorice flavor. Right. If you like that,
Speaker 1: you know you'll like anazette or vice versa. So anyway,
Speaker 1: why do I tell you all this? It was just
Speaker 1: cool to meet her, just kind of fun. And we
Speaker 1: talked about social media, we talked about tech. I'm always,
Speaker 1: you know, fascinated by a celebrity who's done very well
Speaker 1: for themselves, but you know, they still have an iPhone
Speaker 1: and they still sit there and they have to post
Speaker 1: on social media. Yes, some of them have teams that
Speaker 1: do it, but you know they still have to kind
Speaker 1: of come up with ways of doing this stuff. Even
Speaker 1: if you're you know, celebrity on TV, you know, you
Speaker 1: gotta have some sort of presence these days. So it's
Speaker 1: kind of fun. If you want to watch my story
Speaker 1: with Giata ooh, I tasted this this cheese with lemon honey.
Speaker 1: Oh so good. It was so delicious. You had this
Speaker 1: antipasto spread that was just amazing. It like, looks so cool.
Speaker 1: It's a whole tape. I also learned that Charcuterie is
Speaker 1: French and Topasto is Italian. So the things that you
Speaker 1: learn and the people that you meet, it's why I
Speaker 1: continue to love what I do. It's not just tech,
Speaker 1: it's the world, It's everything. Ah that sound does mean
Speaker 1: that is gonna do it for this episode of the show.
Speaker 1: If you have a question you'd like me to answer,
Speaker 1: you can go to my Facebook page, Facebook dot com,
Speaker 1: slash rich on Tech, hit the big blue send email button,
Speaker 1: or go to rich on Tech dot tv hit the
Speaker 1: email icon. I'd love it if you would rate and
Speaker 1: review this podcast. Go to the listening app of your choice.
Speaker 1: Write a quick line about what you like about this
Speaker 1: show to help other people understand why they should listen.
Speaker 1: You can find me on social media at rich on
Speaker 1: Tech and no matter where you live in the US,
Speaker 1: download the free ktla plus app on Apple, TV, Fire TV,
Speaker 1: and Roku. Once you do, scroll to the tech section
Speaker 1: and you can watch all of my tech segments, including
Speaker 1: the one with YadA, on demand. My name is rich Demiro.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. There are so many ways
Speaker 1: you can spend an hour of your time. I do
Speaker 1: appreciate you spending it right here. With me. I'll talk
Speaker 1: to you real soon.