Speaker 1: American Airlines adding free Wi Fi to their planes with
Speaker 1: a small catch. At and T customers, your auto pay
Speaker 1: discounts are changing. You could lose half for all of
Speaker 1: it depending on how you pay. And Microsoft says they've
Speaker 1: blocked four billion dollars in fraud attempts in the last
Speaker 1: year alone. And AI is making scams faster, smarter, and
Speaker 1: harder to spot. Plus your tech questions answered.
Speaker 2: What's going on?
Speaker 1: I'm rich Demiro and this is rich on Tech. This
Speaker 1: is the show 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 your questions about technology. I believe the
Speaker 1: tech should be interesting, useful, and fun. Let's open up
Speaker 1: those phone lines at triple eight rich one oh one.
Speaker 1: That's eight eight eight seven four to two four one
Speaker 1: zero one. Give me a call if you have a
Speaker 1: question about technology. Email is also an option. Just go
Speaker 1: to rich on Tech dot tv hit contact guests. This week,
Speaker 1: we've got Lauren brow On from Apple, Apple's environmental product manager.
Speaker 1: She'll talk trade in and recycling. At Apple stores, you
Speaker 1: can turn in old devices the right way and what
Speaker 1: really happens to all the stuff inside of them and
Speaker 1: the gadgets themselves. Then later in the show, We've got
Speaker 1: Menca sang Vi, author of Your Best Digital Life, Use
Speaker 1: Your Mind to Tame Your Tech. She will talk technology
Speaker 1: and how to take control of your screen time. Well,
Speaker 1: this week we saw two major lawsuits against big tech companies.
Speaker 1: Early in the week, it was the FTC against Meta,
Speaker 1: saying its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were strategic moves
Speaker 1: to eliminate competition. And then later in the week, it
Speaker 1: was the Department of Justice winning a case against Google,
Speaker 1: ruling that the company illegally monopolized the digital advertising market.
Speaker 1: They found that Google's control over both the buying and
Speaker 1: selling of online ads harmed publishers and consumers. And you
Speaker 1: might remember Google was under fire earlier last year. Back
Speaker 1: in August, another court ruled that Google violated antitrust laws
Speaker 1: by maintaining its dominance in search. They said that Google
Speaker 1: secured its position through those exclusionary agreements you know, like
Speaker 1: where they pay Apple and Samsung and other companies to
Speaker 1: make Google the default search engine on their devices. So
Speaker 1: the government nothing has come of these cases just yet,
Speaker 1: but the government says they might look into making Google
Speaker 1: and these agreements or even forcing them to sell Chrome.
Speaker 1: Of course, Google, for their part, has appealed both rulings
Speaker 1: meta fighting theirs as well. But let's discuss here is
Speaker 1: a pattern that I've seen over and over in the
Speaker 1: time that I've been covering technology. Companies built something great,
Speaker 1: they dominate the market, and then someone else comes along
Speaker 1: and just does it better. And when that happens, the
Speaker 1: old guard falls usually pretty fast. Now, in the early days,
Speaker 1: you might remember it was all about Internet Explorer, and yes,
Speaker 1: we know how that came to be on top, But
Speaker 1: after that was fixed, it was a different story. Firefox
Speaker 1: beat Internet Explorer. Then Chrome came along and beat out Firefox.
Speaker 1: And now because of the blow and privacy of Chrome,
Speaker 1: people are moving to other browsers like Brave and Duck
Speaker 1: Duck Go. Now you might think, Rich, why is in
Speaker 1: everyone on Edge because that's pre installed on every Windows laptop?
Speaker 1: Why is in everyone on Safari that's pre installed on
Speaker 1: every Mac laptop? People go to the products that work well. BlackBerry,
Speaker 1: remember that one it was dominant. It was the force
Speaker 1: in the phone industry until the iPhone came along and
Speaker 1: instantly wiped it out. And now that is just a
Speaker 1: distant memory. Search Yahoo at a time was absolute king
Speaker 1: of search. Then Google came along and they did something better.
Speaker 1: You actually got the search results you were looking for.
Speaker 1: And again people switched email. Before Gmail, everyone was on
Speaker 1: high hotmail and Yahoo Hotmail gave you like a megabyte
Speaker 1: of storage for your email, maybe a little bit more.
Speaker 1: Yahoo a little bit more than that. And that's the
Speaker 1: one that I used back in the day. It was
Speaker 1: pretty good. But then Gmail came along and gave people
Speaker 1: unlimited space, better search, and a much cleaner design. And
Speaker 1: what did people do? They switched to Gmail. Consumers will
Speaker 1: switch if something better comes along. We've seen it over
Speaker 1: and over. Remember ask Jeeves. This was the hottest search
Speaker 1: engine for a hot minute because it promised natural language search.
Speaker 1: It did not deliver, and people moved on. More on
Speaker 1: that in a bit now. In the early days of technology, yes,
Speaker 1: we did need a lot of these rules to keep
Speaker 1: companies from forcing us to stick to their products. Companies
Speaker 1: used to use physical tactics to get us to stay,
Speaker 1: like installing a satellite dish on our roof, putting a
Speaker 1: cable box under our TV, locking us into a three
Speaker 1: year contract for a free phone that barely got reception. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about you original iPhone on AT and T.
Speaker 1: I switched to Verizon the day the iPhone was offered
Speaker 1: on that better service. Now, back in the day monopoly laws,
Speaker 1: they all seemed rooted in physical infrastructure right, protecting us
Speaker 1: from this railroads, oil pipelines, telephone lines that these big
Speaker 1: giant companies maintained and kept us on and also charged
Speaker 1: us a good price. For these days, we can jump
Speaker 1: between streaming services, phone carriers, and even home internet in minutes.
Speaker 1: Another example, YouTube dominates video, but they couldn't figure out shorts.
Speaker 1: TikTok came along and ate their lunch. Now I message
Speaker 1: this one actually still bothers me. This is one of
Speaker 1: the few services that I still believe hijacks your phone number.
Speaker 1: And there's really no alternative to it, at least on
Speaker 1: the iPhone. That is sort of more lock in if
Speaker 1: you ask me, versus innovation. And yes, you can argue
Speaker 1: there's a million messaging alternatives on the iPhone, but none
Speaker 1: of them are as integrated with the operating system, so
Speaker 1: that one I still take an issue with. Now, sometimes
Speaker 1: imitation does work. Instagram stole stories from Snapchat, and yes
Speaker 1: it's become a main mode of storytelling on that platform.
Speaker 1: But they also tried to copy TikTok's magic with reels
Speaker 1: and guess what most people are talking TikTok not reels,
Speaker 1: and again better we'll win.
Speaker 2: And right now, TikTok does short videos better.
Speaker 1: So this is kind of the issue I have with
Speaker 1: some of these heavy handed lawsuits and government regulation. They
Speaker 1: all assume that we're trapped, but these days we're not.
Speaker 1: We're not always trapped, and sometimes the best regulation is
Speaker 1: really choice. We saw that with Spotify. Okay, so think
Speaker 1: about back in the day. You paid a lot of
Speaker 1: money for your albums, right, your records, your CDs, your tapes,
Speaker 1: your cassettes. And then Apple came along with iTunes. You
Speaker 1: not only could put all your music in one place,
Speaker 1: but they decimated an entire music business overnight, inventing a
Speaker 1: whole new way to buy just one song at a
Speaker 1: time for ninety nine cents. Now, you would think that
Speaker 1: when screaming services came along, Apple would have the upper hand, right,
Speaker 1: everyone would just transition to Apple Music.
Speaker 2: That did not happen.
Speaker 1: Everyone transitioned to Spotify, and that knocked out what Apple
Speaker 1: built over the last ten fifteen years overnight.
Speaker 2: What about Netflix. Same thing.
Speaker 1: Blockbuster was the way to get your movies back in
Speaker 1: the day, and somehow Blockbuster could not stay current with
Speaker 1: the times. They couldn't figure out how to do DVD
Speaker 1: by mail like Netflix was doing. Even though they offered
Speaker 1: that service, it was not as good. And even today,
Speaker 1: Netflix still remains the top streaming service. But think about it,
Speaker 1: they do it with little promotion. When was the last
Speaker 1: time you saw Netflix ad on TV? What about discounts?
Speaker 1: They don't offer any discounts. They don't offer free trials anymore.
Speaker 1: You can't even try the service without paying. And by
Speaker 1: the way, when you go to cancel Netflix, if you've
Speaker 1: ever gone to cancel, there is no screen begging you
Speaker 1: to stay. They say, okay, we'll see you later, come
Speaker 1: back anytime now. I do think that would change if
Speaker 1: Netflix continues making these terrible movies that they're making, because
Speaker 1: not every movie. You know, they have a lot of stuff,
Speaker 1: not all of it is very good. Yes, they have
Speaker 1: some gems on there, but I'm not sitting there every
Speaker 1: Friday night saying, oh my gosh, Netflix, you're making the
Speaker 1: best stuff. But the overall experience of Netflix is very good.
Speaker 1: The search is good, the way you can download stuff,
Speaker 1: the fact that there's always something on there, the fact
Speaker 1: that there's stuff for everyone in the family. But people
Speaker 1: will leave if they mess up. They always do. Even
Speaker 1: Google Search, the king of searching for so many years.
Speaker 1: If you asked me a couple of years ago, is
Speaker 1: Google search the search in town? Is it ever gonna
Speaker 1: go away? Probably would have said no. But guess what
Speaker 1: happened November twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three, when chatchybt
Speaker 1: came out boom overnight, Google is left scrambling. Chatchybt is
Speaker 1: now the way to search for so many people. It's faster,
Speaker 1: it's less cluttered, it's more direct, and Google has been
Speaker 1: left scrambling. Not only are people using traditional search less,
Speaker 1: no one is using Gemini, which is Google's AI as
Speaker 1: a proprietary eponym for AI. And yes, Google and Meta
Speaker 1: are both being sued by the government, and I get it.
Speaker 1: I'm not one of these people that says no government absolutely,
Speaker 1: oh my Google phone is disputing what I just said
Speaker 1: about Google Search. It literally just said, I think there's
Speaker 1: a misunderstanding in your statement. Okay, Gemini, not only okay,
Speaker 1: so yes, So I'm not one of these people that
Speaker 1: says no government oversight, right, Like, of course we need
Speaker 1: government oversight in various aspects of our lives.
Speaker 2: Guardrails matter on this stuff. We have AI.
Speaker 1: The tech industry has been largely unchecked for years. But
Speaker 1: that's been very important for the growth of a lot
Speaker 1: of these things. But let's not forget a lot of
Speaker 1: these giants did earn their spot by building something better.
Speaker 1: Back to those whole ad networks, right, this whole lawsuit
Speaker 1: against Google. I'm not an expert in the ad networks
Speaker 1: are publishing, but think about the ads that you see
Speaker 1: on the bottom of so many ad publishers pages, right,
Speaker 1: it's all garbage, all that stuff with those weird pictures
Speaker 1: and the weird headlines and the clickbait. You skip right
Speaker 1: past them.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Google made ads that are relevant, People click them. It's
Speaker 1: good for the publisher, it's good for the ad network.
Speaker 1: It's good for everyone. Now Instagram it's the unifying social network.
Speaker 1: Everyone is on it.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: The market moves when the product improves. It's just that simple.
Speaker 1: So the companies that are still out there thinking that
Speaker 1: they can cling to their market share with gimmicks or
Speaker 1: digital strongholds that may work in the short term, but
Speaker 1: as history shows us, in the long term, all you
Speaker 1: have to do is build something better or someone else will.
Speaker 1: It's still happening today. All right, coming up, we are
Speaker 1: going to have some of your questions. Triple eight rich
Speaker 1: one on one eight eight eight seven four to two
Speaker 1: four one zero one. You are listening to rich on Tech.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging
Speaker 1: out with you, talking technology at triple eight rich one
Speaker 1: oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four two four
Speaker 1: one zero one. Richard is in bell California. You're on
Speaker 1: with rich.
Speaker 2: Richard.
Speaker 3: Hell, when I click on check out, you know you
Speaker 3: get that lock symbol with a spinning thing around it. Well,
Speaker 3: that never stops. It just keeps going and going for hours.
Speaker 3: What's going on there?
Speaker 1: So you're trying to check out on PayPal and you
Speaker 1: can't get past that spinny screen.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: Typically what's happening there is you have something that's interfering
Speaker 1: with the functionality of the website. Ninety nine percent of
Speaker 1: the time if there is a problem with a website loading,
Speaker 1: it is some sort of extension on your browser, or
Speaker 1: an AD blocker or a VPN. So those are the
Speaker 1: things to look for anytime there's a problem that what
Speaker 1: I do is typically toggle off if you're if you're
Speaker 1: using a good ad block or there should be an
Speaker 1: option on the ad blocker to pause on that website.
Speaker 1: So try reloading the site by pausing it and then
Speaker 1: reloading and see if that helps. If that does not,
Speaker 1: make sure you're not running sort of a network ad
Speaker 1: blocker or a VPN on the entire network. And then
Speaker 1: the other thing you can do is wipe that site
Speaker 1: off of your browser and start over so you can
Speaker 1: go in on Google. When you're on a website, there's
Speaker 1: actually a way to just erase the cookies from that
Speaker 1: particular website. To the left, if you're on Chrome, to
Speaker 1: the left of the URL bar, you'll see kind of
Speaker 1: two little I know, they almost look like dashes with circles,
Speaker 1: And you tap that, it says view site information, and
Speaker 1: it tells you connection is secure, third party sign in
Speaker 1: cookies and site data, So you can tap the cookies
Speaker 1: and site data and it says manage on device site
Speaker 1: data and you can tap that and you can actually
Speaker 1: delete the data from that web site.
Speaker 2: So right now I'm on Reddit and I've got.
Speaker 1: The two little cookies from Reddit, and I can just
Speaker 1: delete those cookies and then what's going to happen is
Speaker 1: it's basically if you're signing to that website or it
Speaker 1: has saved any information on your computer, that information will
Speaker 1: be wiped clean and now you can deal with that
Speaker 1: website in.
Speaker 2: A fresh way.
Speaker 1: So, Robert Richard, the other thing I would try to
Speaker 1: do is go to this website, the PayPal site, from
Speaker 1: a private browser window or use a different browser.
Speaker 2: That's the other thing I'll do.
Speaker 1: So if I really don't want to deal with all
Speaker 1: these things, I'll just open up like say Safari on
Speaker 1: my computer or something. And because that's kind of a
Speaker 1: browser I don't typically use on a daily basis, there's
Speaker 1: nothing in there, so it doesn't have any extensions on it,
Speaker 1: it's got no ad blockers, and so I'll just go
Speaker 1: to that website from there and see if that website's working.
Speaker 1: And if it is, then you know it's something that
Speaker 1: you have installed on your other browser that is interfering
Speaker 1: with this website. But I would say my experience, ninety
Speaker 1: nine percent of the time it is either an ad
Speaker 1: blocker situation. It's basically stopping some sort of code from
Speaker 1: running on that site, or it is a cookie that's
Speaker 1: just kind of needs to be cleared out and started over.
Speaker 2: A great question.
Speaker 1: Happens all the time, and it is very frustrating when
Speaker 1: that happens, because you're sitting there wondering like, hey, is
Speaker 1: this me? Is it the website? But I would say
Speaker 1: a majority of the time, if it's a large website,
Speaker 1: it's probably something on your end, because it's not like
Speaker 1: Paypalace sitting there for hours of the day and the
Speaker 1: website is not allowing people to complete their transactions. Great question.
Speaker 1: Thanks for the call. Let's go to Dennis and San Dimas. Dennis,
Speaker 1: you're on with Rich.
Speaker 5: Hi, Rich, and thank you for taking my call.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, what can I help you?
Speaker 6: Hear me?
Speaker 5: All right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you sound great.
Speaker 5: Thank you. I work in a small printing company and
Speaker 5: we have a mixed Macintosh and a Windows environment. I'm sorry,
Speaker 5: I'm kind of old school. I still call it an
Speaker 5: IBM environment, but it's a Windows environment, and we heavily
Speaker 5: use Adobe type products like in design, Photoshop and so
Speaker 5: on and so forth. So we have a large amount of
Speaker 5: customer files that are in design files, and then we
Speaker 5: have terabytes worth of this data. I'm trying to find
Speaker 5: some type of attached storage network attached storage or something
Speaker 5: similar to it, a server maybe that we can store
Speaker 5: all the data and files for our customers, but it
Speaker 5: also needs to be friendly with not only Macintosh, but
Speaker 5: Windows computers also are shared on the same network. Do
Speaker 5: you have any recommendations?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, so here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I think that you're going to find that this is
Speaker 1: a lot easier than you think these You know, the
Speaker 1: cross compatibility of both Mac and PC has come a
Speaker 1: long way since you know, you mentioned the IBM stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's pretty much plug and play at this
Speaker 1: point for all of the main provider.
Speaker 2: So I can tell you the one that I've tried.
Speaker 1: I've tried the consumer side of things, but these companies
Speaker 1: make them for sort of the business. This sounds like
Speaker 1: you need kind of a prosumer version of one of
Speaker 1: these NAS drives. But basically you're looking what you want
Speaker 1: to look for is make sure it supports SMB. That's
Speaker 1: the standard one for Windows Apple. There is something called
Speaker 1: AFP Apple Filing Protocol, but that is I don't really
Speaker 1: think you necessarily need to look for that specifically. I
Speaker 1: think you just want to look on these NAS drives
Speaker 1: or these NAS servers, and make sure they say they're
Speaker 1: compatible with Mac and PC. Sinology and q nap are
Speaker 1: the two brands that I've just looked up and confirmed.
Speaker 1: They both will work for home and business. I think
Speaker 1: they're great for that and they will support both the
Speaker 1: Mac and PC side of things. So check out Synology,
Speaker 1: check out q nap. Just make sure that the server
Speaker 1: that you get is maybe a step above what you
Speaker 1: would get as a consumer, because a lot of people
Speaker 1: are going to be accessing this. Sounds like you're moving
Speaker 1: big file for sort of a high transfer rate as
Speaker 1: well like a faster support speed on this thing. So
Speaker 1: but Dennis, I think you'll find it pretty easy. These days,
Speaker 1: most of those are plug and play. Thanks for the call.
Speaker 1: Eight eight eight rich one oh one eight eight eight
Speaker 1: seven four to two four one zero one. Coming up,
Speaker 1: we'll talk more tech right here.
Speaker 2: I'm rich on Tech.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to rich on Tech. Nintendo has updated it's
Speaker 1: information for the upcoming switch to remember, there was this
Speaker 1: whole issue with tariffs and they're worried that they might
Speaker 1: have to change the prices or the pre orders. But
Speaker 1: pre orders are going to start in the US on
Speaker 1: April twenty fourth. The launch date will stay the same,
Speaker 1: June fifth, twenty twenty five. I know a lot of
Speaker 1: people are excited for this console. It's been many years
Speaker 1: since Nintendo completely revamped this. The base console price will
Speaker 1: still remain at four hundred and fifty dollars, that's what
Speaker 1: they said from day one. The bundle with Mario Kart World,
Speaker 1: that's going to be five hundred dollars. So if you
Speaker 1: want to play that game, get the bundle. It's going
Speaker 1: to save you at least thirty dollars. Game pricing, Mario
Speaker 1: Kart World at least eighty dollars, Donkey Kong Bonanza seventy dollars. Now,
Speaker 1: what Nintendo said is they are raising prices on some
Speaker 1: of the accessory on some of the accessories for this
Speaker 1: device due to quote market conditions. So a pro controller
Speaker 1: eighty five bucks, a new pair of the JOYCN twos
Speaker 1: which magnetically attached to this thing ninety five dollars, the
Speaker 1: doc set one hundred and twenty dollars, carrying case bundle
Speaker 1: eighty five dollars, and Nintendo says it may adjust prices
Speaker 1: again based on anything that shifts. But the good news
Speaker 1: is the price of the console is staying the same.
Speaker 1: The accessories, you know, you can get those over time,
Speaker 1: but I know people were interested in the pre launch
Speaker 1: date or the pre order date and the actual price
Speaker 1: of the bundle and the base console. By the way,
Speaker 1: my pal Matt Swider, who you've heard on this show
Speaker 1: many times, the short com He's got all the details
Speaker 1: on the Prouder stuff.
Speaker 2: He stays up with that stuff much more than I do.
Speaker 2: So check him out. Let's go to another Richard. Wow,
Speaker 2: Richard and Arcadia, you're on with rich Hello.
Speaker 7: Hi, I'm looking for a recommendation for photo scanner, and
Speaker 7: also you can suggest app or a software so I
Speaker 7: can label a file picture so I can locate it
Speaker 7: or find it easier.
Speaker 1: Okay, what are you scanning? Prints or negatives?
Speaker 7: Basically a picture?
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, all right, So there's a couple ways do this.
Speaker 1: The first is the most expensive but also the fastest,
Speaker 1: and I've tested this it is incredible. It's the EPSOM
Speaker 1: Fast Photo FF six' eighty w and this is a
Speaker 1: real high speed system. You take a bunch of your pictures,
Speaker 1: you put them in the feeder. It goes through them
Speaker 1: just as fast as you can imagine. So you can
Speaker 1: put a whole bunch of in there at a time,
Speaker 1: it'll scan them. That's the absolute quickest way to get
Speaker 1: these things scanned. It's also very expensive, over five hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: So when I did my segment on this for TV,
Speaker 1: I said, look, split this with a family member, right,
Speaker 1: you pay two hundred and fifty bucks. You can you know,
Speaker 1: scan your pictures. You go and have these and now
Speaker 1: it's a lot cheaper. And everyone has photos around in
Speaker 1: their garage they want to scan, So ask a couple
Speaker 1: of family members, or you can sell this thing on
Speaker 1: you know, let go or offer up when you're done,
Speaker 1: something like that. So that's the first way, the fastest,
Speaker 1: but the most expensive. The second way is a flatbed scanner.
Speaker 1: And also I would look to epsyn. They've got a
Speaker 1: couple of these flatbed scanners much cheaper. You can get
Speaker 1: one for under one hundred dollars. They go under the
Speaker 1: Perfection name. And the downside to that is that you
Speaker 1: are going to be taking a much longer time to
Speaker 1: scan these pictures because you got to put them on
Speaker 1: that flat bed tray or that. Yeah, I guess it's
Speaker 1: a tray one at a time, and so that's going
Speaker 1: to be a much slower undertaking, but again, you can
Speaker 1: do it. And the nice thing about that is that
Speaker 1: if your pictures are different sizes, it'll be a lot
Speaker 1: easier to scan those, you know, if they're different thicknesses,
Speaker 1: weight sizes. A flatbed makes that process much easier. Now
Speaker 1: the third way, the third option is to use an app.
Speaker 1: So if you don't necessarily care about the highest quality
Speaker 1: of these photos, if you just want to get them
Speaker 1: scanned in Google has an app called photo scan.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 1: I do not think that they have updated this in
Speaker 1: a while, so that's the only downside, But I mean,
Speaker 1: it does what it needs to do, and the big
Speaker 1: thing about photo scan is that it will remove the
Speaker 1: glare from the pictures because it makes you take four
Speaker 1: pictures of the picture and then it uses some machine
Speaker 1: learning to merge those together. Yeah, the last time this
Speaker 1: was updated was in twenty twenty two, so it's not
Speaker 1: the most up to date version of a photo scanner app.
Speaker 1: But Google still keeps it on the App Store and
Speaker 1: it's available for iPhone and Android. The other one I've
Speaker 1: tested that's actually really good Photo Mine p h O
Speaker 1: t O M y n E, and this one is
Speaker 1: much more updated regularly. It's got five million downloads. And
Speaker 1: this is a company that lets you scan photos. You
Speaker 1: can scan negatives, so they do a great job of
Speaker 1: not only scanning your photos but also restoring them as well.
Speaker 1: And again the name is photo Mine P H O
Speaker 1: T O M y n E. And finally, to answer
Speaker 1: your question, Richard, when it comes to labeling your pictures,
Speaker 1: I do not believe you need to do that. We've
Speaker 1: got AI. You can put these into any sort of
Speaker 1: photo storage site like a Google Photos, a OneDrive, Amazon Photos,
Speaker 1: and Apple iCloud, whatever you want, and every single one
Speaker 1: of them will slice and dice these pictures based on
Speaker 1: what is in them. So if it has people, you
Speaker 1: can easily find the people in those. It will identify
Speaker 1: that places, it will look for landmarks. You'll be able
Speaker 1: to search Paris and see all your pictures from Paris,
Speaker 1: and on and on and on. So I don't really
Speaker 1: think there is a need to organize pictures anymore because
Speaker 1: AI has gotten so good at helping us find pictures.
Speaker 1: I know I can find any picture in my library
Speaker 1: in about one second, except for the actual picture.
Speaker 2: I'm looking for.
Speaker 1: Any other picture that's similar. Sure, I will be able
Speaker 1: to find. But that one that I know I took,
Speaker 1: that's the one that does not get on earthed. I'm
Speaker 1: kind of kidding. Most of the time it does work.
Speaker 1: But those are the ways that I would recommend. You know,
Speaker 1: the scanning stuff, it's going to take a while if
Speaker 1: you want, if you want just an expert to do it.
Speaker 1: There are some companies out there that can do that.
Speaker 1: But scan my Photos is one that I actually use
Speaker 1: to scan my pictures. They're based i think in Irvine, California.
Speaker 1: Issue They used to allow you to drop them off
Speaker 1: if you wanted to, like, if you don't want to
Speaker 1: send them through the mail, because that's kind of the
Speaker 1: big thing with scanning pictures is you got to send
Speaker 1: them in the mail and so that there's you know
Speaker 1: a little bit of apprehension there if you're sending pictures
Speaker 1: through the mail, because something could happen there. Great question, Richard,
Speaker 1: thanks for it, and yes, get those pictures scanned. It's
Speaker 1: so great to have the old pictures in your digital
Speaker 1: library because it's fun, you know, not only for Flashback
Speaker 1: Friday and Throwback Thursday and all that fun stuff on
Speaker 1: social media, but you know, it's kind of fun to
Speaker 1: have these things show up on your photo frames or
Speaker 1: just on your memories on Google Photos. Like half of
Speaker 1: my fun on my phone now is just watching the
Speaker 1: Google Photos memories. Kind of makes me sad at some
Speaker 1: point because I'm like, oh my gosh, my kids have
Speaker 1: grown so fast, but it's also really cool. Let's see
Speaker 1: here if you are if you bought something from HP.
Speaker 1: There is a settlement this week that has they put
Speaker 1: up their website, so four million dollars settlement. HP has
Speaker 1: agreed to overclaims that it advertised misleading discounts on its website,
Speaker 1: So if you bought something from HP's website recently, you
Speaker 1: could be owed up to one hundred dollars. The lawsuits
Speaker 1: said that HP made deals look better than they actually were,
Speaker 1: causing customers to overpay. Of course, as with every settlement
Speaker 1: with every company, HP admits to no wrongdoing. But they
Speaker 1: are paying out this four million dollars, which quite honestly
Speaker 1: is not very much for a company of this size,
Speaker 1: but I guess to make this thing go away, that's
Speaker 1: what they did. If you bought an HP laptop, a desktop, mice,
Speaker 1: or keyboards from HP dot com between June fifth, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one and October twenty eighth, twenty twenty four, you
Speaker 1: may qualify. Like I said, the payouts range from ten
Speaker 1: to one hundred dollars, So if you bought a mouse,
Speaker 1: you're probably gonna get closer to ten dollars. If you
Speaker 1: bought a laptop, you're probably gonna get closer to one
Speaker 1: hundred dollars. Claims are due by June ninth, so we've
Speaker 1: got a couple months here. You will need some details
Speaker 1: from your order, like the product name, order number, purchase date,
Speaker 1: and the final court approval is set for August twenty first,
Speaker 1: so nothing's gonna happen before then. But you can go
Speaker 1: in the meantime to hpsettlement dot com HP settlement dot
Speaker 1: com to put your information in and you know, search
Speaker 1: your email to see if if you think you bought
Speaker 1: something on HP dot com might be worse fit to
Speaker 1: put your name in for that. One little programming note.
Speaker 1: So I was off last week. We did a best
Speaker 1: of show. I don't typically announce those before I go
Speaker 1: on vacation, but I did. While I was on vacation,
Speaker 1: got so many emails from folks saying, hey, Rich, where's
Speaker 1: the podcast?
Speaker 2: What the heck? Happened, is my podcast working.
Speaker 1: I know Bobo just perked up because he delivered the
Speaker 1: podcast to me, But I don't typically post the podcast
Speaker 1: when I'm on vacation, and there's a couple of reasons
Speaker 1: for that. A. I'm trying to stay on vacation number one.
Speaker 1: B It's a best of show, so I feel like, Okay,
Speaker 1: people have heard what I said before, but from what
Speaker 1: I've heard from you emailing me, you would rather have
Speaker 1: all of the shows in your podcast reader no matter what.
Speaker 1: So in the future I will probably post those. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to guarantee, but I will probably post those
Speaker 1: from here on out because I got so many emails
Speaker 1: from people that said, Rich, you ruined my whole weekend.
Speaker 1: I was waiting there, I was trying to download your show.
Speaker 1: I was trying to listen and I couldn't. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a laborating a little bit, but that's kind of
Speaker 1: the uh, it's kind of the image I got in
Speaker 1: my head. So anyway, moving forward, if you follow the
Speaker 1: newsletter rich on tech dot TV, I will give you
Speaker 1: a quick heads up on that if that does happen
Speaker 1: in the future. But I know from what I've gathered
Speaker 1: you like to hear the show, you like to have
Speaker 1: the podcast, So it's probably better to have the best
Speaker 1: of show in the feed versus not eight eight eight
Speaker 1: rich one o one eight eight eight seven four to
Speaker 1: two four one zero one. The website rich on tech
Speaker 1: dot tv coming up. If you're a college student, you
Speaker 1: can get free access to Google's AI. I'll tell you
Speaker 1: how right here, I'm rich on Tech. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you
Speaker 1: talking technology at triple eight rich one oh one eight
Speaker 1: eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned, I was on vacation last weekend.
Speaker 2: We went to Hawaii.
Speaker 1: It was a great trip. Always fun there. The kids
Speaker 1: have a great time. Actually, one of our best friends,
Speaker 1: Bald Bryan of you might know him from he's on
Speaker 1: the Adam Kroll Show for a long time. Now he's
Speaker 1: doing his own newsletter all about movie picks. And by
Speaker 1: the way, I so I helped him, you know, I
Speaker 1: do this newsletter. And so he was asking me about,
Speaker 1: you know, starting a newsletter, and I said, absolutely should
Speaker 1: start one. And he's a great writer. He knows his movies,
Speaker 1: that's his big thing. And so as a test because
Speaker 1: he kind of pitched himself to come on this show
Speaker 1: during while we were in Hawaii, and I said, you know,
Speaker 1: I might consider that, you know, the streaming kind of
Speaker 1: a tech angle. You start a newsletter, and so as
Speaker 1: a little test, I watched a movie that he recommended
Speaker 1: on his newsletter and so I was like, let me
Speaker 1: just see. It was like, so he does this pick,
Speaker 1: like a streaming pick each week, maybe a couple of them,
Speaker 1: like stuff that you can watch for free on your
Speaker 1: streaming services, and so he recommends, you know, stuff you
Speaker 1: might not have heard of. And it was this movie
Speaker 1: called Logan Lucky twenty seventeen. It was a crime action
Speaker 1: thriller actually had like Katie Holmes, so big stars in
Speaker 1: this movie Channing Tatum by the way, Bobo, you'll appreciate this.
Speaker 1: My wife and I are surfing through the movies, you know,
Speaker 1: on on the TV. Yeah, and she just somehow, somehow
Speaker 1: happened to knew who Channing Tatum was.
Speaker 2: She like like, oh, the movie with that hot guy
Speaker 2: in it.
Speaker 6: I'm like.
Speaker 2: She just kind of like slipped it in there, right.
Speaker 1: She was like kind of like Jones gonna watch that movie,
Speaker 1: but didn't realize, like I don't know if that movie
Speaker 1: really appeals to us. She's like, well, that guy's in it,
Speaker 1: that guy's in it, we can watch it.
Speaker 2: That was funny.
Speaker 1: But Adam Driver's in this, Daniel Craig, Riley Keo, Hillary Swank,
Speaker 1: Katie Home so all star casts, but I never heard
Speaker 1: of it. Anyway, long story short, or probably longer in
Speaker 1: this case, I did watch it on the plane on
Speaker 1: Netflix and it was great. And so yes, Brian will
Speaker 1: be appearing on the show because I do trust his recommendations,
Speaker 1: not that I question them, but he's doing a great
Speaker 1: job with his newsletter. And anyway, his kid was there.
Speaker 1: So one thing I learned on this trip is that
Speaker 1: when you were on a trip with your kids, having
Speaker 1: other kids to play with, it kind of leaves a
Speaker 1: lot of time for the parents to have time to themselves.
Speaker 1: And my wife and I went on so many vacations
Speaker 1: over the years where our kids were little and it's
Speaker 1: like all hands on deck, and this time around, it
Speaker 1: was like, really, like, wait, do we like disturb the children?
Speaker 1: They're doing well? Now, I will tell you my kids
Speaker 1: both had their smart watches on, right, so they can
Speaker 1: kind of roam free, right, And it's so funny when
Speaker 1: you give a kid a smart watch, it's a good
Speaker 1: thing and a bad thing. The good thing is you
Speaker 1: can be in touch with them. The bad thing is
Speaker 1: they are in touch with you for every single decision
Speaker 1: that they need to make in their little lives.
Speaker 2: Hey, dad, can I order the burger at lunch? Yes,
Speaker 2: you can order the burger? Dad. Can we do this?
Speaker 2: Can we walk over to that?
Speaker 1: Yes, you can walk over there, as long as you're
Speaker 1: not leaving the property, jumping in the ocean, whatever. But
Speaker 1: it's like all these little decisions we used to make
Speaker 1: on our own as kids. Right, Like we were out
Speaker 1: all day. I know, you were bobo and I was too,
Speaker 1: Like we were just roaming the neighborhood. Good luck fine
Speaker 1: to me, Yeah exactly. You came home for dinner, that
Speaker 1: was it. And I had to come home when street
Speaker 1: lights came on. Yeah, yeah too, because you couldn't see
Speaker 1: anymore pretty much.
Speaker 2: That was it, and you knew dinner was being served.
Speaker 1: And by the way, it's like back in the day,
Speaker 1: we made very questionable decisions, like very questionable, and not
Speaker 1: all of them, but we made we found our way.
Speaker 1: So I guess my thesis here is that I think
Speaker 1: and I talked to my wife about this. She says,
Speaker 1: it's leading to a generation with no grit, right, Like
Speaker 1: these kids are much more fragile than we are because
Speaker 1: they are always pinging someone. It's kind of like me
Speaker 1: with CHATCHYBT. Now, I don't make any decision without asking CHATCHYBT.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm becoming frail. Bobo laughed at that one. Come on, man,
Speaker 1: I'm not kidding. It's tough people. I'm not the only one.
Speaker 1: People are asking chatchybt all kinds of stuff. One other
Speaker 1: thing I noticed when I landed at the airport, Uber
Speaker 1: and Lyft both sent me notifications, Hey, welcome back to Lax.
Speaker 2: Do you need a ride home?
Speaker 1: And I just thought that was so interesting because it's
Speaker 1: a little reminder to check the privacy permissions for all
Speaker 1: these apps on your phone now. I went into the
Speaker 1: the location privacy for both Lyft and Uber, and I
Speaker 1: thought maybe they had access because the apps love to
Speaker 1: have unfettered access to your location, right. They want always
Speaker 1: on access, And most of the time I will say no,
Speaker 1: you can have access only when this app is open
Speaker 1: or only when I'm using the app, But then they
Speaker 1: try to convince you otherwise. So anyway, look in your
Speaker 1: privacy permissions on your phone and just check to see
Speaker 1: the location privacy of the various apps, because you might
Speaker 1: have said, hey, you can have permission to this, and
Speaker 1: now they don't really need that anymore.
Speaker 2: So just a reminder for that.
Speaker 1: Oh and the other thing I got into crossword puzzles,
Speaker 1: I did so many. I've never done a crossword puzzle
Speaker 1: in my life. Now, Bobo's what what?
Speaker 2: Now? What just such a nerd? What have you ever
Speaker 2: tried a crossword puzzle?
Speaker 6: Yes?
Speaker 2: I used to do them a lot. Okay, so you're
Speaker 2: the original nerd. Now now who's the nerd?
Speaker 1: Now at all?
Speaker 4: It?
Speaker 1: Okay, you grow about it out of crossword puzzles. But
Speaker 1: I will tell you here's what made me like crossword puzzles.
Speaker 1: They have a feature and they may not have had
Speaker 1: this when you're doing them, uh, when you're younger, Bobo
Speaker 1: an auto check feature, so as you go along you
Speaker 1: type in the word, it will.
Speaker 2: Check the letters. So if you have to play it
Speaker 2: on like any of any of them have it.
Speaker 6: I know.
Speaker 1: That's why back in the day we get paper, paper
Speaker 1: and pen or pencil, and you did them on slate anyway,
Speaker 1: So they so now they have this auto check feature
Speaker 1: where it will check the letters as you go along,
Speaker 1: And to me that has been the best thing because
Speaker 1: I cannot do a crossword puzzle with just guessing all
Speaker 1: the words and at the end saying, oh, check the puzzle,
Speaker 1: and I got to go back and rechange everything. So
Speaker 1: having that feature, that auto check, even though it feels
Speaker 1: a little bit like cheating, it's like, hey, if it's
Speaker 1: making me do this, why not.
Speaker 2: I think that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: Uh, let's go quickly to Albert and Chatsworth.
Speaker 2: Albert, you're on with Rich.
Speaker 8: Thanks for taking my call. Sure, I'm kind of surprised
Speaker 8: I'm able to talk to you. I've got I've got
Speaker 8: for some reason, I've got pop up ads that are
Speaker 8: driving me totally. It's paralyzing my phone, and I'm trying
Speaker 8: to figure what I can do to get either get
Speaker 8: the ad where programs or something you recommend, or or
Speaker 8: what else where the procedures I can do to check
Speaker 8: before I'm I'm clicking any of these new apps and.
Speaker 2: Stuff you've got.
Speaker 1: You've got You've got a bunch of websites that you
Speaker 1: visited or apps installed in this phone that are delivering
Speaker 1: these pop up ads. So first off, on your Android phone,
Speaker 1: I would go through, go through and uninstall any app
Speaker 1: that you no longer need or recognize. That's the number
Speaker 1: one thing. Then restart your phone, and then on your browser,
Speaker 1: I would completely clear out the cash and browser history
Speaker 1: on your browser. So on Android, go into your Brouser storage,
Speaker 1: clear the cash and that should do it. Now, if
Speaker 1: these things are putting pop ups, there is a section
Speaker 1: inside Chrome where you can get rid of the pop
Speaker 1: up notifications as well, So look in there for that,
Speaker 1: but get rid of the apps that you no longer
Speaker 1: need to use. That should typically take care of it.
Speaker 1: Eighty to eight rich one oh one. This is rich
Speaker 1: on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro
Speaker 1: here hanging out with you, talking technology at triple A
Speaker 1: rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four
Speaker 1: to two four one zero one. The website for the
Speaker 1: show rich on Tech dot TV. If you're not following
Speaker 1: me on social media at rich on Tech, yeah, you
Speaker 1: guessed it.
Speaker 2: Just go down the line there.
Speaker 9: Uh.
Speaker 1: Coming up this hour, we've got Lauren Brawn, Apple's environmental
Speaker 1: product manager. She's going to talk trade in and recycling
Speaker 1: at Apple stores. Yeah, if you have some old gadgets
Speaker 1: laying around the house, you might be able to get
Speaker 1: cash for those or at least recycle them. And they're
Speaker 1: offering a discount, so she'll explain that. And then later
Speaker 1: in the show, we've got Menka Sang, the author of
Speaker 1: Your Best Digital Life. She will talk technology and how
Speaker 1: to take control of your screen time. Let's go to
Speaker 1: uh to me in Orange, California. Did I get that right?
Speaker 4: Yes? You did. I love your show.
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you. That means a lot.
Speaker 4: Yeah, oh, yes, you're such a body accessor to Leo.
Speaker 4: My question to you is I had I'm talking about
Speaker 4: an iPhone and I had, you know, all my contacts
Speaker 4: on an exchange server, and then after that it became Yahoo, Gmail.
Speaker 4: So my contacts are spread over all these oh servers.
Speaker 4: I guess I want your recommendation on how to consolidate
Speaker 4: them into just one.
Speaker 2: One like main list. Great, great questions.
Speaker 1: This is this is such an issue, and to me,
Speaker 1: I've kind of I've declared like contact bankruptcy because I've
Speaker 1: given up on organizing my contacts. I've given up on
Speaker 1: organizing my photos and my contacts because thankfully the storage
Speaker 1: is there and the search is there.
Speaker 2: So I do have all these.
Speaker 1: Contacts that I'm like, eh, I'm not gonna sit there
Speaker 1: and try to fix these and make a perfect address book.
Speaker 1: But what you're trying to do is really consolidate these
Speaker 1: contacts and kind of get them all into one place.
Speaker 1: So there are many many ways you can do this.
Speaker 1: I'll go over a couple of the ways. So number one,
Speaker 1: what you want to do is export your contacts from
Speaker 1: these various services. So no matter what, download them all right,
Speaker 1: put them into an export file, make sure you've got them,
Speaker 1: and then you know, once you have them all in
Speaker 1: one place. Now what you want to do is upload
Speaker 1: them to a different place and organize them. So there
Speaker 1: is a there is an app out there called contactsplus
Speaker 1: dot com, and this will allow you to go through.
Speaker 1: It basically does exactly what you need. It'll help you
Speaker 1: sort of merge all of these contacts and put them
Speaker 1: into one place and organize them. That's probably going to
Speaker 1: be the most expensive way to do it, because you
Speaker 1: got to pay for that. If you're going over one
Speaker 1: thousand contacts, which may not be that you know, you
Speaker 1: may be fine with just a thousand. I'm looking at
Speaker 1: mine I've got let's see here, nine hundred and fifty nine,
Speaker 1: so I guess i'd be okay, I'm just under that
Speaker 1: total there. But depending on how many you have this,
Speaker 1: it's free for a thousand, okay. So what you want
Speaker 1: to do is upload all of those there and get
Speaker 1: those kind of cleaned up and SYNCD up and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. And then once you have them uploaded, then
Speaker 1: you want to download them and re upload them to
Speaker 1: the contact manager of your choice. So if that's your iPhone,
Speaker 1: if it's iCloud, if it's Google, then you re upload
Speaker 1: those okay. So that's number one. And by the way,
Speaker 1: you want to delete them from that service before you
Speaker 1: upload them. So download them all to lead them off
Speaker 1: those services. And now you have a couple of files,
Speaker 1: upload them to this third party service, get them cleaned up,
Speaker 1: download and then redo it. Now, there are many many
Speaker 1: ways to do this, like I said, So even if
Speaker 1: you're just uploading them all to your iPhone, like you
Speaker 1: said you have iPhone, there is a I think it's
Speaker 1: a relatively new feature in iPhone where you can open
Speaker 1: up your Contacts app and it says show duplicates. So
Speaker 1: let me see where that is to this. So if
Speaker 1: I go to all contacts, well, I thought there was
Speaker 1: a way to do that, but I guess it's in
Speaker 1: there somewhere, but I know on Google there is. So
Speaker 1: what I would do is, this is probably the easiest
Speaker 1: way to do it is if you go to Contacts
Speaker 1: dot Google dot com. And this is completely free, whether
Speaker 1: you use Google or not. Just you know, you can
Speaker 1: just go here contacts dot Google dot com, upload all
Speaker 1: of your contacts.
Speaker 2: Let it kind of sift through them.
Speaker 1: It's gonna take a little bit, it's not gonna be instant,
Speaker 1: but you will see this little section on the left
Speaker 1: hand side that says merge and fix. Okay, So if
Speaker 1: you tap that, it will show you all of your
Speaker 1: contacts that have multiples and you can go through all
Speaker 1: of those and do whatever you need to do. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, I've got my first contact to modify. It
Speaker 1: says there's a secondary email address. I can add that
Speaker 1: and now it's in one contact. So this will merge duplicates,
Speaker 1: we'll add all the useful details, everything you need to do.
Speaker 1: And by the way, that's completely free. Now, if you're
Speaker 1: not going to use Google afterwards, like if you still
Speaker 1: are stuck with iCloud or you want to do something
Speaker 1: like that. Once you're done with this process, you can
Speaker 1: just export these out of Google Contacts and upload them
Speaker 1: to your iPhone. So that's going to be the free,
Speaker 1: the cheapest, the easiest way to do it. If you
Speaker 1: want to keep everything on your iPhone. There's an app.
Speaker 1: I've not tested it, but it's very popular. It's called
Speaker 1: Cleaner Merge Contacts, and it's got a bunch of ratings.
Speaker 2: Let's see when was this updated.
Speaker 1: It was just recently updated January twenty seventh, twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: So that's going to be a good way to do
Speaker 1: it again. And you're probably gonna have to pay a
Speaker 1: little bit for that when it looks like it's about
Speaker 1: six dollars. So you know, some of these things, when
Speaker 1: they know you're just using it one time, you've got
Speaker 1: this like specific thing you want to do with it,
Speaker 1: they're gonna charge you for that.
Speaker 2: But those are the ways.
Speaker 6: To do it.
Speaker 1: I think the Google Contacts dot Google dot com is
Speaker 1: probably gonna be the easiest, but all of the phones
Speaker 1: have some sort of way of kind of merging contacts
Speaker 1: and things in there. I'm trying to find I can't
Speaker 1: where in the world did this go? Maybe I don't
Speaker 1: have any duplicate contacts anymore, but I could have sworn
Speaker 1: there's a little section.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's in the settings. Let me look.
Speaker 1: Sometimes Apple puts things in like different places on the
Speaker 1: iPhone and let's see here. So if I go to
Speaker 1: contacts and let's see it, does I have duplicates?
Speaker 2: Now it doesn't.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you would think that would be something that
Speaker 1: would be front and center, but it's not. But anyway,
Speaker 1: good question, and I think that's gonna do it. Just
Speaker 1: contacts doc Google dot com. If you want to do
Speaker 1: something for free, great question there, Thanks for the call.
Speaker 1: Eight eight eight rich one oh one eight eight eight
Speaker 1: seven four to two four one zero one. Google is
Speaker 1: giving students free access to their Gemini AI. So if
Speaker 1: you know a student, you can get not only free
Speaker 1: access to Gemini Advanced plus two terabytes of Google storage
Speaker 1: and basically from what I understand, you probably just need
Speaker 1: to use an edu email address. This is part of
Speaker 1: Google's AI Premium plan. This typically costs twenty dollars a month.
Speaker 1: You'll be able to use Gemini Advance Notebook, LM AI
Speaker 1: tools and docs, sheets, slides, and of course their image
Speaker 1: and video generation tools VO and Whisk.
Speaker 2: So you have to.
Speaker 1: Sign up by June thirtieth, twenty twenty five. It stays
Speaker 1: free through June thirtieth, twenty twenty six. So you basically
Speaker 1: get this for a year.
Speaker 2: Do the math.
Speaker 1: That's a two hundred and forty dollars value. I have
Speaker 1: to be eighteen and older and you have to have
Speaker 1: a dot edu email. So enroll by June thirtieth, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five and basically just get Ai for free.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 1: I know chat GBT is obviously, uh you know a
Speaker 1: lot of people like to use that. They're doing a
Speaker 1: similar thing. They're giving their service for free, but only
Speaker 1: for the next I think two months through like the
Speaker 1: end of May. So they're all these companies, you know,
Speaker 1: they want to get the college kids using it because
Speaker 1: guess what, the more you get these college kids to
Speaker 1: use it, the more they may stick with it when
Speaker 1: they're out of college.
Speaker 2: And so it's it's been the same thing ever.
Speaker 1: I mean I remember remember they used to sign you
Speaker 1: up for a credit card on campus, right, Like the
Speaker 1: credit card you got on campus was the one that
Speaker 1: you probably used for a while and the one that
Speaker 1: got me into a lot of debt. Thank you, MBNA
Speaker 1: or whatever that company was. I got a free T
Speaker 1: shirt and like five grand in debt. Thank you paid
Speaker 1: took me forever to pay that off.
Speaker 10: Uh.
Speaker 1: Gemini dot Google slash students is the website Gemini dot
Speaker 1: Google slash students.
Speaker 11: Uh.
Speaker 1: American Airlines gonna give you free Wi Fi? Uh sponsored
Speaker 1: by AT and T. That's kind of interesting, right, So
Speaker 1: starting this is going to take a bit. But January
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, American Airline is going to offer free
Speaker 1: in flight Wi Fi. But here's the catch. You have
Speaker 1: to be an Advantage Loyalty member, which is not that
Speaker 1: big of a deal. Just remember to sign up before
Speaker 1: you take their flight. Now, they are going to be
Speaker 1: doing this on planes equipped with Via Sat and Intel
Speaker 1: Sat satellite internet, so I'm guessing that internet is faster
Speaker 1: than what they have. I would hope they have about
Speaker 1: ninety percent of their fleet covered. I would guess that's
Speaker 1: the case. I didn't look this up to see if
Speaker 1: it's like the super fast like Starlink type satellite. But
Speaker 1: what's interesting about Wi Fi on planes is that this
Speaker 1: is something that used to cost.
Speaker 2: A lot of money.
Speaker 1: Like I remember on United it was fifty bucks to
Speaker 1: connect from New York to LA fifty bucks and now
Speaker 1: it is down to ten dollars. And then with Starlink
Speaker 1: coming on board a lot of these airlines, they're making
Speaker 1: that free, which is ironic because the capital outlay to
Speaker 1: install starlink on all these planes is probably a lot.
Speaker 1: But yet they're subsidizing it in the form of, you know,
Speaker 1: their ticket prices and all the other fees that they charge.
Speaker 1: But I guess they've identified that people do not like
Speaker 1: to pay for Wi Fi or I guess this is
Speaker 1: a lost leader where you know, you want to fly
Speaker 1: on a plane that has fast Wi Fi. For instance, Like,
Speaker 1: I'm getting kind of annoyed now that I've tried this
Speaker 1: the starlink on Hawaiian Whenever I go on an airline
Speaker 1: that doesn't have starlink, it's like, I can't even use
Speaker 1: this basically, So anyway you'll be able to get to
Speaker 1: do all this stuff messaging, web browsing, email and streaming,
Speaker 1: which leads me to believe it's fast internet, no need
Speaker 1: to pay or sign up, so uh yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: They tested the service on select flights and saw strong
Speaker 1: performance and reliability, and AT and T sees this as
Speaker 1: a way to extend always on connectivity even in the sky.
Speaker 1: So there you have it. I guess it's an ad
Speaker 1: for AT and T. That's I guess they're subsidizing it.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 1: Eighty eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven
Speaker 1: four to two four one zero one. The website for
Speaker 1: this show, so Rich on tech dot TV. If you
Speaker 1: want show notes for anything I mentioned, just go to
Speaker 1: the website. Rich on tech dot TV. This is episode
Speaker 1: one seventeen. Back after this, Welcome back to Rich on
Speaker 1: tech Rich DeMuro here talking technology with you. Eighty eight
Speaker 1: rich one oh one rich on tech dot TV. Let's
Speaker 1: go to Jeff in Clearwater, Florida. Jeff, you're on with Rich.
Speaker 6: Hey, Rich, good to talk to you. You know, I
Speaker 6: always enjoy your show. Hey, got a quick question for
Speaker 6: you on those you know, earbud translator products. Sorry, I
Speaker 6: just you know what I'm talking about. I have a
Speaker 6: specific question. I got kind of an odd hobby. I
Speaker 6: like to listen to news talkstations from around the world.
Speaker 6: Pretty much limits myself to just English speaking stations, but
Speaker 6: I have an interest in listening to, you know, Spanish
Speaker 6: stations and other things. So looking for an earbud translator
Speaker 6: that I could live in to my iPad, you know,
Speaker 6: with a streaming newscast or talk show coming in on Spanish,
Speaker 6: giving me real time translation. Is the technology there to
Speaker 6: do that? Or am I ahead of my time on that?
Speaker 6: Is that not yet possible?
Speaker 1: So you're saying you want to take the audio from
Speaker 1: the stream on your iPad and and feed that into
Speaker 1: the earbuds and then have them translate.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, just you know, nothing fancy, just you know
Speaker 6: over you know, just over my iPad speaker, you know,
Speaker 6: just in the air with and with the thing in
Speaker 6: my ear.
Speaker 1: Oh, the iPad speaker. Okay, so it's not I was
Speaker 1: wondering if you were trying to get like that direct
Speaker 1: link from the now.
Speaker 6: Okay, nothing that fancy. So you're just so.
Speaker 1: You're just listening and having them transcribe as if it
Speaker 1: was another person.
Speaker 6: Yeah, but I wanted to, you know, I want to
Speaker 6: hear English, you know, hopefully in live time when he's
Speaker 6: close to now. I know it's going to be a
Speaker 6: little confusing because I'm going to be hearing the Spanish
Speaker 6: in the background sort to speak, and also hopefully the
Speaker 6: English translation coming back to me. Maybe a millisecond later.
Speaker 6: But does that work? And if so, which specific product
Speaker 6: would you brand? So forth model would you recommend?
Speaker 1: Well, it's uh, yeah, So it's interesting. I for most
Speaker 1: of these that I've seen to have that continuous translation
Speaker 1: might be tricky because it is, you know, it's NonStop.
Speaker 1: So there are things, you know, transcribing and translation has
Speaker 1: gotten a lot better in recent years, and so I
Speaker 1: think that it's not impossible. I'm trying to see if
Speaker 1: there's a way that you can use something like live
Speaker 1: Transcribe on Google. But it doesn't I don't think they
Speaker 1: read anything out to you. Yeah, let's see, you'll have
Speaker 1: an option to type your Yeah, I'm looking at the
Speaker 1: so there's a couple of things.
Speaker 6: I don't want to see tex right, you want to
Speaker 6: hear that that's complicated so that it's hard to read
Speaker 6: and listen and so forth.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 1: And I'm trying to see if the Google Pixel earbuds,
Speaker 1: which have you looked at the Google Pixel buds not specific,
Speaker 1: because they have they're kind of known for their translation features.
Speaker 1: So let's say translation, I'm trying to find her translation.
Speaker 1: So the Google Pixel buds they can do a lot
Speaker 1: of translating, but I think the brand that has like
Speaker 1: made their name on translating in real time is Time Kettle,
Speaker 1: Time Kettle dot Co. And all the folks that I've
Speaker 1: talked to that you know that have done this and
Speaker 1: use these say that these are the best. I have
Speaker 1: not personally tested them. I actually reached out to them
Speaker 1: to try to get a pair to test out some
Speaker 1: I'm waiting on that, but those are the brand. That's
Speaker 1: the brand.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The main thing is I understand between the most expensive
Speaker 1: because you look on their website, they've got some really
Speaker 1: expensive stuff and they've got some less expensive stuff. As
Speaker 1: I understand, the more you pay for this stuff, the
Speaker 1: more immediate and wide ranging the translation is going to be.
Speaker 1: So I think in your case, you know, the cheap,
Speaker 1: the cheapest pair at like one hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 1: may not cut it because that might be more for conversation.
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah, yeah, okay? Would would the would battery life
Speaker 6: also be an issue because you know, a talk show
Speaker 6: might be on for an hour or something. I suppose
Speaker 6: the batteries might burn up pretty quick.
Speaker 7: Huh.
Speaker 1: I don't think an hour is going to be that
Speaker 1: that wild. Let me look at the specs on here,
Speaker 1: let's see. So uh yeah, so the the most expensive
Speaker 1: pair they have is about four hundred dollars And I'm
Speaker 1: trying to find like the specs on the battery life,
Speaker 1: but I think, I mean earbuds battery life in general
Speaker 1: is pretty I think they're pretty good. An hour is
Speaker 1: not going to be a problem. But I think it
Speaker 1: depends on, you know, how long you're going with these
Speaker 1: things and between charging.
Speaker 2: But I think you'll be okay for that.
Speaker 6: I wouldn't worry for this time Time Cattle and the
Speaker 6: higher end Time Kettle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, I what I would do is
Speaker 1: just beware. I would for sure check the return policy.
Speaker 1: Make sure because you're you know, if you're not buying
Speaker 1: these from Amazon. You know, the return policy could be
Speaker 1: a little tricky because it's a third party. But that
Speaker 1: would be the main thing that I would do, is
Speaker 1: check the time, check the uh the return policy. Like
Speaker 1: see if you have to do this. I'm looking at
Speaker 1: the charging time. Uh translation period on a single charge
Speaker 1: is about six hours for the expensive ones, three hours
Speaker 1: for the less expensive So again I think six hours
Speaker 1: you'll be fine. But again the website Time Kettle, Dot
Speaker 1: Coco and uh yeah, that's a very specific use case.
Speaker 1: But if you look at their website, I mean they
Speaker 1: have everything. They have not just earbuds, They've got all
Speaker 1: kinds of handheld translators, a lot of stuff out there
Speaker 1: for this. For this company, they sort of specialize in this.
Speaker 1: Like I said, thanks for the call, Jeff, appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Eight eight eight rich one O one eight eight eight
Speaker 1: seven four to two four one zero one. Coming up,
Speaker 1: we are going to talk to Lauren Braun. She is
Speaker 1: Apple's environmental product manager. If you've got some gadgets laying
Speaker 1: around the house, you want to trade them in, maybe
Speaker 1: you want to get some cash for them, maybe you
Speaker 1: want to recycle them. You can actually do this at
Speaker 1: Apple stores. And so she's going to talk all about
Speaker 1: that and most importantly, not only what you can do,
Speaker 1: but what happens to these things once you recycle them.
Speaker 1: Because people are worried about the batteries, you know, the
Speaker 1: minerals inside these things.
Speaker 2: She will explain how they reclaim a lot of that stuff.
Speaker 1: Eighty eight rich one on one eight eight eight seven
Speaker 1: four to two four one zero one. Back after this,
Speaker 1: Welcome back to rich On Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging
Speaker 1: out with you talking Technology at Triple eight Rich one
Speaker 1: O one eight eight eight seven four to two four
Speaker 1: one zero one. You can call me up with a question,
Speaker 1: submit it on the website rich on tech dot TV.
Speaker 1: We'll get back to your calls in.
Speaker 2: Just a moment.
Speaker 1: But first, did you know that the Apple Store can
Speaker 1: actually help you recycle your old gadgets? I didn't know
Speaker 1: that until I met with them and brought in a
Speaker 1: couple of my own. I brought in four things, I
Speaker 1: got money for two of them, and then two were
Speaker 1: properly recycled. So if you've got an old Apple product
Speaker 1: or an Android phone, you can have them look at
Speaker 1: the value of that and you'll walk out with a
Speaker 1: gift card. Or if you just have cables and clutter
Speaker 1: at home, you can just bring that stuff in and
Speaker 1: they will recycle it. So let's hear from Lauren Braun,
Speaker 1: Apple's environmental product manager, about this entire process and what
Speaker 1: happens to those devices you bring in. Environmental concerns at
Speaker 1: Apple always kind of a big part of the presentations
Speaker 1: that Apple does.
Speaker 5: Yep.
Speaker 11: Why because it's one of our core values the environment
Speaker 11: and making products that are not only amazing for users,
Speaker 11: but also are better for the environment. So we really
Speaker 11: believe that you can have both, right, you can have
Speaker 11: a great product that also has a lighter footprint. And
Speaker 11: so you see that come through not only in the
Speaker 11: keynotes and the presentations, you also see it come through
Speaker 11: when you shop right. You can learn about how these
Speaker 11: products are made with recycled materials, We use renewable electricity
Speaker 11: for manufacturing, and we try to ship them with modes
Speaker 11: that create less carbon, right, not on an airplane, on
Speaker 11: a boat, on a trent, or on a truck. So
Speaker 11: we think about, you know, not only how to make
Speaker 11: it beautiful and yellow and fast and performant, but also
Speaker 11: to make it in a way that.
Speaker 12: Uses less resources.
Speaker 1: And so I mean, with so many products being made,
Speaker 1: aren't there some there like carbon neutral at this point?
Speaker 1: Like wasn't the Apple Watch like the first carbon neutral
Speaker 1: Apple products?
Speaker 11: Yes, the Apple Watch was our first carbon neutral Apple product.
Speaker 12: That was two years.
Speaker 11: Ago now series nine and apple Watch Ultra and the
Speaker 11: things I just mentioned using recycled material and manufacturing the devices,
Speaker 11: renewable electricity, and lower carbon transportation, those are the ways
Speaker 11: that we made that product carbon neutral. And the Macmini
Speaker 11: which is also carbon neutral, So we really make efforts
Speaker 11: to reduce the amount of emissions that are generated from
Speaker 11: that products. So with Apple Watch series and I'm reduced
Speaker 11: them by seventy eight percent.
Speaker 1: So I always get a lot of questions around batteries, right, Oh,
Speaker 1: people are always like batteries, they're bad, this and that.
Speaker 1: Can you explain kind of like where these batteries come from,
Speaker 1: and do they get a second life or can they
Speaker 1: be recycled in any way?
Speaker 11: Yeah, So batteries actually can be recycled, and we've taken
Speaker 11: steps really recently to put more and more recycled materials
Speaker 11: into our batteries. So within the last year, almost all
Speaker 11: of our products use recycled cobalt in their batteries. And
Speaker 11: something like that really matters because cobalt is used in
Speaker 11: every lithium ion battery, and batteries are everywhere, right, You're
Speaker 11: in your car, they're in your iPad, they're in all
Speaker 11: the devices in your house. And so by creating a
Speaker 11: source of recycled cobalt, not only make that available to
Speaker 11: add the products, but also to other companies, right, create
Speaker 11: a marketplace for that. And so when you use recycled cobalt,
Speaker 11: it means you decrease the dependence on mining cobalt from there.
Speaker 1: I've also noticed that the product packaging has changed over
Speaker 1: the years. It's gotten slim or less inside. Can you
Speaker 1: talk about that a.
Speaker 12: Little bit for sure?
Speaker 11: Yeah, are very brilliant packaging engineers, in addition to making
Speaker 11: it sound good and look perfect, also take great care
Speaker 11: to figure out how can we package our devices in
Speaker 11: a way that is still incredibly secure. They're safe during shipment,
Speaker 11: but uses less volume less packaging. And also we've been
Speaker 11: working on transitioning all of our packaging to one hundred
Speaker 11: percent fiber based. So we're not quite there yet, but
Speaker 11: we're very, very close.
Speaker 12: And when you have.
Speaker 11: Something that's fiber based means that it's easier to recycle
Speaker 11: in most places.
Speaker 1: So Apple Store, you buy new products, obviously they're made
Speaker 1: from some recycled stuff. What about the products you have
Speaker 1: at home that you may not want anymore?
Speaker 5: What can we do with those?
Speaker 1: I always say what I like about Apple products that
Speaker 1: you can pass them down to, like someone else in
Speaker 1: your family when you're done with it and you upgrade.
Speaker 1: So explain some of the things that you can do
Speaker 1: with a product that you're done with.
Speaker 11: Sure, will you nail it rich? Like The best thing
Speaker 11: you can do with an Apple product you're not using
Speaker 11: is to give it to someone else to use it.
Speaker 11: Because the longer that product stays in circulation, the more
Speaker 11: use you get out of it, and the better it
Speaker 11: is for the planet. So if you can't pass it down,
Speaker 11: you have a couple of options. You can trade it in,
Speaker 11: or you can bring it to any Apple store and
Speaker 11: recycle it. A lot of people don't know that every
Speaker 11: Apple store can recycle your old devices and accessories, and
Speaker 11: we'll do it for free. And if you don't live
Speaker 11: near an Apple store, you can.
Speaker 5: Do it by mail.
Speaker 1: So when you talk about bringing it in for let's
Speaker 1: talk about trade in first. How do you know if
Speaker 1: the product has any value?
Speaker 11: So our store specialists will take you through an immediate
Speaker 11: assessment of the value. They can do it on the
Speaker 11: spot and they'll let you know what the value is.
Speaker 11: And the thing about Apple devices is that they hold
Speaker 11: their value longer than competitors. So compared to Android smartphones,
Speaker 11: iPhones hold forty percent more of their value, which means
Speaker 11: that even if you have a really old device, you
Speaker 11: might still get some value for it. And when you
Speaker 11: bring it in, you capture the value that's in that device,
Speaker 11: rather than letting it sit in your drawer for another
Speaker 11: year where the value goes down.
Speaker 1: Okay, and then what about just recycling. What do you
Speaker 1: accept for recycling and what happens to that product?
Speaker 11: Sure, so we accept a lot more than you might think.
Speaker 11: Will take any of your old Apple products, but we'll
Speaker 11: also take accessories. I have a couple of examples here.
Speaker 11: We will take the cables that you no longer use,
Speaker 11: maybe with USBA. We will take adapters and dongles, things
Speaker 11: that you know, accessories to devices you might not have anymore.
Speaker 11: Other examples of cables, Maybe you have some old Lightnings,
Speaker 11: So we'll take accessories. We will take older Apple devices,
Speaker 11: and then we'll also take devices from manufacturers in ourn't Apple,
Speaker 11: but we will take your Android smartphones. We will take
Speaker 11: you know, things like printers and scanners. Uh, there's a
Speaker 11: whole list on our website if you go to Apple
Speaker 11: dot com sash Recycling and you can actually see every
Speaker 11: kind of device or accessory that will take.
Speaker 1: Now, I'll be honest, Like a lot of people ask
Speaker 1: me like where I can cycle stuff?
Speaker 2: I usually say like best Buy or Staples.
Speaker 1: I wasn't really aware that you guys took non apple products.
Speaker 1: So that's a pretty good thing because.
Speaker 2: You have so many stores everywhere.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, do.
Speaker 11: You try to don't need an apartment to come in.
Speaker 11: You could just walk in with your products. It's a
Speaker 11: great idea to check online first to see you know
Speaker 11: which products you can bring in, and then any of
Speaker 11: our associates can help you recycle it. And what's cool
Speaker 11: is that you know those recycled products they actually get used. Right,
Speaker 11: even if there's not value for you and trading, there's
Speaker 11: still value that's locked up in that product because we'll
Speaker 11: take them, we'll disassemble them, and then we'll cover the
Speaker 11: key materials inside of them, like gold or tin or aluminium.
Speaker 11: And so by recovering those materials and then recycling them
Speaker 11: to a new form, we're able to use them again.
Speaker 11: So that aluminum, maybe it goes and becomes part of
Speaker 11: a window frame or part of a car part. By
Speaker 11: bringing it in, we're able to recapture those materials instead.
Speaker 12: Of letting them be lost.
Speaker 1: People are always concerned about privacy and security of their data,
Speaker 1: especially on a product that may not turn on. Do
Speaker 1: I need to format it, wipe it before it comes in?
Speaker 1: I mean it'd be nice if I can. But what
Speaker 1: if I can't?
Speaker 11: Yeah, I don't know how, Yes, we hear that a lot.
Speaker 11: You can go to Apple dot com and you can
Speaker 11: find all of the steps for getting your device ready
Speaker 11: for a new owner. It's actually quite quick and easy.
Speaker 11: It will walk you through how to sign out a iCloud,
Speaker 11: how to transfer your data, how to wipe all of
Speaker 11: your data, turn off, activation, lock, all the things you
Speaker 11: need to do to get it set up.
Speaker 12: And if you can't do that, that's okay.
Speaker 11: You just bring it into an Apple store and one
Speaker 11: of our specialists can help.
Speaker 6: You do it.
Speaker 2: You've got a robot named Daisy.
Speaker 11: Got a robotnam Daisy and what to Okay? So, Daisy
Speaker 11: is an iPhone disassembly robot. Will be built especially to
Speaker 11: be able to recover all the materials that are inside
Speaker 11: an iPhone. So an iPhone passes through several stages where
Speaker 11: we take off the back and we remove the battery
Speaker 11: and remove the glass. Throughout this Daisy put so that
Speaker 11: those materials can then be used recycled for other products.
Speaker 11: Daisy can do thirty six types of iPhones and up
Speaker 11: to two hundred iPhones in an hour.
Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, getting the job done.
Speaker 1: She really is, and you're going through that many I mean,
Speaker 1: I assume a lot of them are coming in. Fortunately.
Speaker 11: People are really keen to recycle or iPhones, which is
Speaker 11: great because the more we can get back. If we
Speaker 11: can get you to take them out of your drawer
Speaker 11: right instead of leaving them there, we can actually put
Speaker 11: them to good use. I think the best thing to know.
Speaker 11: You know, everyone has that drawer at home right that
Speaker 11: is full of the devices we don't use, the accessories
Speaker 11: that are long gone. Bringing the stuff in that drawer
Speaker 11: into an Apple store is a much better thing for
Speaker 11: the planet than just leaving it there for another year.
Speaker 11: And regardless of what happens to it, whether it gets recycled, repaired,
Speaker 11: traded in or passed on, that is better for the
Speaker 11: Earth than.
Speaker 5: Leaving it there.
Speaker 9: All right.
Speaker 1: Once again, that was Lauren Brawn, Apple's environmental product manager.
Speaker 1: So right now, if you if you bring something in,
Speaker 1: like I said, you can get one of two kind
Speaker 1: of paths. You can either get value for that item.
Speaker 1: If it has any value, they'll give you a gift card,
Speaker 1: or if it doesn't have any value, they'll give you
Speaker 1: ten percent off select accessories. This is sort of an
Speaker 1: Earth Day promotion that Apple is doing. This runs through
Speaker 1: May sixteenth. It is only in store, so you have
Speaker 1: to bring in something and then they will recycle it
Speaker 1: and they'll give you that ten percent off. You can
Speaker 1: use it on things like selected air pods and various
Speaker 1: other things, Apple watch bands, a lot of accessories basically,
Speaker 1: and so that is the promotion. I'll put the full details.
Speaker 1: There are some terms and conditions on my website. Rich
Speaker 1: on tech dot TV. I did get an email from
Speaker 1: Shelley into Pega. She was actually disappointed. She said she
Speaker 1: brought in all of her old products to the Apple Store.
Speaker 1: She gathered up her old Apple gear, mouse, keyboard, iPod,
Speaker 1: brought them to the gifts the Apple Store, expecting a
Speaker 1: gift card and got nothing but a thank you. She says,
Speaker 1: you should have mentioned only newer items qualify for credit.
Speaker 1: But Shelley, I can't predict what your items are gonna
Speaker 1: be valued at. When I brought in my stuff, I
Speaker 1: had no idea. One of the laptops I brought in
Speaker 1: was worth nine hundred and forty dollars, the other was
Speaker 1: worth one hundred and ten dollars, and I thought the
Speaker 1: second one was just gonna be recycled, so you never know.
Speaker 2: And that's the thing.
Speaker 1: Now, you can go on Apple's website, check out the
Speaker 1: recycling section and you can put in your product and
Speaker 1: start there to at least get an idea of the value.
Speaker 1: But if you're talking old gear like a mouse or
Speaker 1: a keyboard, that's probably not gonna be worth much. Even
Speaker 1: an old iPod and even some of the older Android
Speaker 1: phones as well. So my point is it's better to
Speaker 1: know that this exists and to actually try it, and
Speaker 1: to get this stuff properly recycled. And the bonus is
Speaker 1: that you might get a gift card as well. Eight
Speaker 1: and eight rich one one eight eight seven four to
Speaker 1: two four one zero one. Coming up, we'll take more
Speaker 1: of your questions on rich on Tech. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you,
Speaker 1: talking technology. I mentioned how I went to Hawaii and
Speaker 1: I was so surprised that I still had to fill
Speaker 1: out that little declaration form. It's like saying that you're
Speaker 1: not bringing any plants or animals into the country. And
Speaker 1: I'm looking at my friend Johnny Jet's newsletter johnnyjet dot
Speaker 1: com and he said, uh, Hawaii makes landing procedure easier
Speaker 1: for visitors with a new digital declaration form. Genius, and
Speaker 1: now I can fill this out on your phone. I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's a permanent thing or oh, it's
Speaker 1: a pilot test. So according to the Governor's office, purpose
Speaker 1: of the pilot is to test the effectiveness, compliance, and
Speaker 1: use of the online form. But what a great thing
Speaker 1: because like they pass out these forms on the plane,
Speaker 1: you got to fill them out. Half the people don't
Speaker 1: have a pen, you know, and you're sitting there like
Speaker 1: writing stuff out. So having that digital form you can
Speaker 1: do on your phone so much easier. Although I wonder
Speaker 1: how it works because if you don't have internet in
Speaker 1: the air, you gotta do it. I guess right when
Speaker 1: you land. But anyway, Johnny Jet dot com, thanks for
Speaker 1: that information.
Speaker 2: Let's go to.
Speaker 1: George in Laguna Hills, California. George, you're on with Rich.
Speaker 9: Yes, thank you very much for speaking with me. I
Speaker 9: have a problem in I've had T Mobile for five
Speaker 9: years and I had no problems with reception for with
Speaker 9: my router until the end of twenty twenty four. Since
Speaker 9: that time, I've had haphazard connections. When I went to
Speaker 9: the store and I called up the text. They said
Speaker 9: it was a router problem. I replaced eight routers over
Speaker 9: the several months. It turns out that it's traffic congestion
Speaker 9: from the tower that's closest to my house and they
Speaker 9: need to increase the bandwidth. They put high priority with
Speaker 9: the engineers, and it turns out they're.
Speaker 2: Not going to do that.
Speaker 9: What are my options because I can't switch to AT
Speaker 9: and T and I can't switch to Rising because they
Speaker 9: all use the tower, and there are other towers in
Speaker 9: my area, but I guess they're too far away. And
Speaker 9: they said that they have to construct a new tower
Speaker 9: and they're not going to invest the money in that
Speaker 9: at this time.
Speaker 1: Well, okay, first off, I'm a little confused because you
Speaker 1: said the router. What do you mean, because routers don't
Speaker 1: have anything to do. Is this your cell phone or
Speaker 1: is this your home internet?
Speaker 9: No, it's it's the router. Is the galaxy that the
Speaker 9: for my home internet? I have one of these these
Speaker 9: devices that will connect my home computer to their signal.
Speaker 1: So it sounds to me, George, that you're probably using
Speaker 1: too much data and they're slowing you down.
Speaker 2: That's what's happening here.
Speaker 9: What okay, but I'm able to get with the think
Speaker 9: I can get the reception sometimes and I can't get
Speaker 9: at other times. And they're telling me that the tower
Speaker 9: that's near my house. I live in Orange County. I'm
Speaker 9: not in the total sub boondocks of where I live,
Speaker 9: but they said there's too much traffic congestion on there
Speaker 9: and the bandwidth needs to go. Okay, not the it's
Speaker 9: not the galaxy here whatever you call that a box
Speaker 9: because I get good connection when it works.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well when it works, and that's the thing. So
Speaker 1: what's happening is I'm guessing at the beginning of the month,
Speaker 1: this is starting out fast, and then as they realize
Speaker 1: you're going through gigs and gigs of data, they're slowing
Speaker 1: this down to prioritize other users in the area. That's,
Speaker 1: you know, well within their rules and regulations. You know,
Speaker 1: the fact that you're using this line as a router
Speaker 1: for your home computer, you know that changes things because
Speaker 1: you're using a lot more data than what a cell
Speaker 1: phone would typically use. And I think their network is
Speaker 1: picking up on that and deprioritizing some of your network.
Speaker 2: Now are some of your speeds? Now?
Speaker 1: What they're saying about this tower and you know the
Speaker 1: building and the priority. I think that's all just kind
Speaker 1: of like, you know, gobbledygook for the customer service folks
Speaker 1: to tell you. I don't think that they have investigated
Speaker 1: your specific tower. I don't think they're looking at the
Speaker 1: information on how many people are using it, nor do
Speaker 1: I think they would share that information to a customer,
Speaker 1: because it just doesn't sound right. So I think your
Speaker 1: options here are to switch to a T Mobile, a
Speaker 1: proper T mobile home Internet connection, which they do offer,
Speaker 1: and I think that would probably clear up your problem.
Speaker 1: Switch to a proper home internet connection in general, you know,
Speaker 1: from a traditional carrier that's providing internet at the you
Speaker 1: know the amount that you need to run an entire home,
Speaker 1: or you can switch to AT and Team Verizon if
Speaker 1: you feel like T Mobile is not giving you what
Speaker 1: you are paying for now. The fact that it's the
Speaker 1: same tower does not mean that you would get the
Speaker 1: same experience from AT and T or Verizon, because even
Speaker 1: though they may share a tower, they are not sharing
Speaker 1: the bandwidth on that tower. They have independent controls of that,
Speaker 1: and if you were to sign up with AT and
Speaker 1: T or Verizon, you would get something of a different experience.
Speaker 1: It also could be the plan you're on with T Mobile.
Speaker 1: You know, these plans, they do allow the carriers to
Speaker 1: deprioritize your signal when you go over a certain amount,
Speaker 1: and typically if you're in a congested area where a
Speaker 1: lot of people are using that tower and you're sort
Speaker 1: of gobbling up all of the data there, they may
Speaker 1: reserve the right to slow you down. And that can
Speaker 1: happen at any point throughout the month, and it's just
Speaker 1: something that they reserve in their terms and conditions. There
Speaker 1: are some plans like now here's the other thing. There
Speaker 1: is a little bit of a and I'm not sure
Speaker 1: of you know what AT and tier of Verizon or
Speaker 1: T Mobile would think about using their system as a
Speaker 1: router for other products. You know, that's well within the
Speaker 1: idea of a hot spot on your phone, sure, but
Speaker 1: if it's like completely like dedicated for your home internet,
Speaker 1: that's kind of a different use case scenario than what
Speaker 1: they spelled out. So the other thing you can do
Speaker 1: is look at a plan, like I know AT and
Speaker 1: T if you look at their plans, they've got some
Speaker 1: sort of plan that says like you will not be
Speaker 1: deprioritized whatsoever.
Speaker 2: They've got this like.
Speaker 1: At and T unlimited Premium pl unlimited talk, text, and
Speaker 1: high speed data that can't slow down based on how
Speaker 1: much you use. And I think that they're the only
Speaker 1: ones that do that. I don't think that Verizon or
Speaker 1: T Mobile offer that. Now there are some other third
Speaker 1: party carriers that may do that as well, but I
Speaker 1: think at the end of the day, you're sort of
Speaker 1: using this service in a way it wasn't necessarily intended.
Speaker 1: So I don't think the carriers are really hip to
Speaker 1: help you out. But the options you have are to
Speaker 1: switch to a different carrier, try it out, see if
Speaker 1: it works, and see if it helps. But I don't
Speaker 1: think the tower is the problem. I don't think that
Speaker 1: the UH. I think it's just their algorithms are kicking
Speaker 1: in and saying, hey, this guy's using a lot of
Speaker 1: data in a way that is, you know, we're not
Speaker 1: seeing any of this type of usage. We're seeing all
Speaker 1: this type of usage, So that might be the problem there.
Speaker 2: All right, good.
Speaker 1: Question, George, thanks a lot, appreciate it. Eight eight eight
Speaker 1: rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to
Speaker 1: two four one zero one. The website for the show
Speaker 1: rich on tech dot TV, you can submit your questions.
Speaker 1: There gets your emails, No big deal there. Coming up,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about the rise of AI powered frauds.
Speaker 1: So many scams floating around. I've got scam warnings from Microsoft,
Speaker 1: Google and the FBI coming up pure On rich on Tech.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to rich On Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging
Speaker 1: out with you, talking technology at Triple eight Rich one
Speaker 1: O one eight eight eight seven four to two four.
Speaker 2: One zero one.
Speaker 1: If you can't hop on the phone, go to the
Speaker 1: website rich on Tech dot TV. All my segments from
Speaker 1: TV are there. All the notes from the show were there.
Speaker 1: My newsletter is there. If you have not signed up
Speaker 1: for that, We've got forty seven thousand of you strong.
Speaker 1: So thank you for continuing to read that. And uh,
Speaker 1: it is my excitement of the weekend writing that and
Speaker 1: getting that into your inbox.
Speaker 2: So appreciate you enjoying that.
Speaker 1: I got an email or a message from let's see
Speaker 1: Amy on Instagram. She said, Hey, Rich, I keep getting
Speaker 1: an email that my iCloud account is going to expire
Speaker 1: and I can't tell if it's fraud. Can you tell? Oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can tell it's fraud. I don't even have to
Speaker 1: look at the email, and I know it's fraud. It's
Speaker 1: not fraud, it's it's bogus. They're trying to get you
Speaker 1: to click the link, and they're trying to make you
Speaker 1: put in some information that they're then going to steal.
Speaker 1: Either they're either going to steal your payment information or
Speaker 1: your personal information. Apple does not send emails like this.
Speaker 1: I posted this on my Instagram actually a while ago,
Speaker 1: trying to see when was this post. This was one
Speaker 1: of my first January fourth, so it's been a couple
Speaker 1: months since I posted that. But that is fake and
Speaker 1: got a couple of fraud notes here. You know, scams
Speaker 1: are big, and so if you follow me on Instagram
Speaker 1: at riche on Tech, you know that I love to
Speaker 1: post these things. I call them anatomy of a scam
Speaker 1: because I get these emails, either I get them or
Speaker 1: you send them to me, and then I kind of
Speaker 1: break them down and explain what's happening there. So if
Speaker 1: you're not following me on Instagram to stay ahead of
Speaker 1: the curve at rich on tech, do it for sure.
Speaker 1: And the best part is you can share these things
Speaker 1: with your less tech savvy friends and family, or just
Speaker 1: for yourself because the more you see these things, it's like,
Speaker 1: the more you can identify and spot them, and so
Speaker 1: that's why I kind of keep posting these to break
Speaker 1: them down and explain what happened. I just did one
Speaker 1: about Instagram to let you know how they hack your
Speaker 1: account there, and so it's just information that's useful. Now
Speaker 1: I've got three notes on that topic. One from Microsoft.
Speaker 1: They say that AI powered fraud is really taking off.
Speaker 1: They said they stopped four billion dollars in fraud attempts
Speaker 1: last year and get this, one point six million bots
Speaker 1: sign up attempts per hour, So they have one point
Speaker 1: six million bots are trying to sign up for Microsoft
Speaker 1: services every single hour of every day. That is insane.
Speaker 1: That's what we're up against here. AI powered scams are
Speaker 1: making scams easier to create.
Speaker 2: Criminals are using.
Speaker 1: Tools like deep fakes, fake storefronts, and chatbot based fraud
Speaker 1: to deceive people. So here are the places that are
Speaker 1: growing fastest. E Commerce scammers use AI to clone real websites.
Speaker 1: They include fake reviews, chatbots, customer service you buy something
Speaker 1: from their game, over job listings. AI generated job scams
Speaker 1: now include even fake interviews and profiles. So not only
Speaker 1: are they trying to lure you in, but they're also
Speaker 1: applying for jobs in a fake way.
Speaker 2: Maybe I don't know, maybe that's not true.
Speaker 1: I mean I know they were, but that's a much
Speaker 1: larger scam. But most of them are trying to get
Speaker 1: you tech support scams. This has been going on forever.
Speaker 1: They impersonate IT staff and they trick you into granting
Speaker 1: access to your computer via remote access tools like Windows
Speaker 1: quick Assist, which is built into Microsoft Windows.
Speaker 2: So what are they doing.
Speaker 1: They are fighting back with various scareware blocker tools, fake
Speaker 1: job detection tools, deep learning fraud protection, and they're also
Speaker 1: blocking forty four hundred suspicious Quick Assist connections per day.
Speaker 1: So when they say, hi, we're tech support, we just
Speaker 1: need to connect to your computer here do this. If
Speaker 1: it looks like it's coming from some sort of server
Speaker 1: farm in another country, they're going to block those connections,
Speaker 1: So be careful. Anything that looks too good to be
Speaker 1: true it usually isfy. Verify anyone that you are giving
Speaker 1: your personal information to and never click those links and
Speaker 1: share your bank account or personal information. And if you
Speaker 1: have a scam from Microsoft, you can go to Microsoft
Speaker 1: dot com slash report a scam Now, Google let's see
Speaker 1: this is. Developer Nick Johnson posted details on x about
Speaker 1: this sophisticated phishing scam he came up against the email.
Speaker 1: This is the twist here. You know, I always tell
Speaker 1: you to check the email address that you know, let's
Speaker 1: say Google saying hey, your account's going away, sign here
Speaker 1: or do something here. Well, if you look at the
Speaker 1: email address and it's usually something like Google Tech support
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com or something, it's like, come on,
Speaker 1: give me a break. That's not the real email address
Speaker 1: that Google's sending things from. But here's the twist. Now
Speaker 1: they've gotten so sophisticated. They are actually sending these emails
Speaker 1: from an actual Google account. So it says no reply
Speaker 1: at accounts dot Google dot com. How did they do that? Well,
Speaker 1: it gets very complicated, but basically, the attackers figured out
Speaker 1: a little hack in Google system to let them send
Speaker 1: They tricked Gmail into signing that email as legitimate. And
Speaker 1: it's kind of a complicated process. But if it's your
Speaker 1: full time job to do this stuff, that's what you're
Speaker 1: figuring out. So now we have to worry about Okay,
Speaker 1: these emails look real? Are they real? So the now
Speaker 1: the thing you have to do is double check the URL,
Speaker 1: So if the email is claiming to be from Google,
Speaker 1: make sure you double check the URL. Do not enter
Speaker 1: info on a support page unless your shirt's the real thing.
Speaker 1: But basically, if you click this link, it takes you
Speaker 1: to a fake support page on Google Sites, which then
Speaker 1: redirects to a fake Google sign in page. So always
Speaker 1: always always check the URL before you put in any information. Again,
Speaker 1: this is the thing we're up against, these scammers that
Speaker 1: are working twenty four to seven to make these things
Speaker 1: look more real and to trick us. And that's what
Speaker 1: it really comes down to. We're just tricked. We're tricked
Speaker 1: into signing into something that we think is real and
Speaker 1: it's not. And by the time you realize it isn't,
Speaker 1: they've already taken action and hacked you. Third one, FBI
Speaker 1: warning of a new scam where scammers are impersonating employees
Speaker 1: from the Internet Crime Complaint Center. They call it the
Speaker 1: IC three. So this is where people go to report
Speaker 1: scams that they've been a part of or lost money in.
Speaker 1: And this scheme targets people who actually lost money in
Speaker 1: previous scams, so they offer help to help you recover
Speaker 1: these funds. They contact victims through email, phone, social media,
Speaker 1: and even forms. One tactic they use is they fake
Speaker 1: profiles to gain trust in online support groups. So if
Speaker 1: you're on some sort of like Facebook page or group
Speaker 1: talking about what happened to you, they come in and say, hey,
Speaker 1: we can help. I'm sorry, We'll help you recover this money,
Speaker 1: and then, guess what, You're led down the path where
Speaker 1: they're just gonna get your financial info and steal even
Speaker 1: more from you. So please do not fall for this.
Speaker 1: The IC three says it never contacts victims directly through
Speaker 1: social media, email, or messaging apps. They don't charge to
Speaker 1: help you recover funds, and don't send money, gift cards
Speaker 1: or crypto to someone you met online. Seems like a
Speaker 1: pretty like basic thing, right, But you'd be surprised. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: they don't have those signs at Target by the gift
Speaker 1: cards for no reason. Every gift card I purchased now
Speaker 1: it's like, hey, you're not. Like the last time I
Speaker 1: got one was like a verbal yes. I had to
Speaker 1: say that I was not sending this to someone on
Speaker 1: the internet. I couldn't believe it. It was like, does
Speaker 1: my eleven year old grandson in Idaho count as sending
Speaker 1: to someone on the internet.
Speaker 2: No, I think that's okay. You can do that.
Speaker 1: But if it's somebody you haven't met, if it's your
Speaker 1: long lost grandson that you've never met before, that's appealing
Speaker 1: to you. For this iTunes gift card no. Ic three
Speaker 1: dot gov is where you can report suspicious activity. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, man, that's what we're up against here. Let's
Speaker 1: go to Craig in Los Angele list. Craig, you're on
Speaker 1: with Rich Welcome to the show.
Speaker 13: I'd be going on a bit.
Speaker 2: I'm doing it all.
Speaker 13: I'm going to La. Well, I'm in La. I'm going
Speaker 13: to joun the Tree, and I'm going up in the mountains.
Speaker 13: Now there the I don't know the website. Well, you
Speaker 13: don't have cell towers?
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, Joshua Tree, Yep.
Speaker 13: That's stunding on the iPhone. We that have a high
Speaker 13: sixteen plus. What did that happen and what is it for?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: So you're you're talking about staying in touch with satellite messaging.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm hearing here, right, I guess. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So if you are in a section of an area
Speaker 1: that does not have cellular service, almost all of the
Speaker 1: major new smartphones we're talking the Pixel nine series. Uh,
Speaker 1: the iPhone they've had this actually since the iPhone fourteen
Speaker 1: I believe, and then the Samsung is the latest S
Speaker 1: twenty five has this. The S twenty five series, they
Speaker 1: all have built in support for satellite messaging. So this
Speaker 1: started on the iPhone with just emergency messages. And so
Speaker 1: if you want to try this out, Craig, go into
Speaker 1: your settings on the iPhone, scroll down to Emergency SOS
Speaker 1: and then scroll all the way down to where it
Speaker 1: says emergency SOS via satellite and it says try demo,
Speaker 1: and so you can try a demo of what this
Speaker 1: would work or how this would work if you actually
Speaker 1: needed it. Now with now there might be a different place.
Speaker 1: Let me just see, because they actually expanded this. So
Speaker 1: it started out as just for emergencies, and now it's
Speaker 1: actually encompassing. You can use satellite on the iPhone just
Speaker 1: to text message people and share your location with folks.
Speaker 1: So let me see if I can find that satellite.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, surprising, I can't find it on the US.
Speaker 1: But anyway, if you go into this does kick in
Speaker 1: automatically if you are in an area that does not
Speaker 1: have a cellular connection. You will notice in the upper
Speaker 1: right hand corner of your phone it will have a
Speaker 1: little icon of a satellite. Now, there is some confusion
Speaker 1: because when this first came out, people were thinking when
Speaker 1: it said SOS in their upper right hand corner, that
Speaker 1: meant they had access to satellite. That does not mean
Speaker 1: you have access to satellite. It's only when you see
Speaker 1: the satellite icon. So again, you can go into your
Speaker 1: settings and look for under emergency and SOS satellite and
Speaker 1: you can do a demo of how to work and
Speaker 1: that'll kick in automatically. Now, if you're on the Samsung,
Speaker 1: they let the carriers handle this. So on Samsung you
Speaker 1: can go into your connections and see under your plan
Speaker 1: if it has satellite connectivity. So, for instance, Mine sets
Speaker 1: satellite networks Verizon included with your account. You're subscribed, and
Speaker 1: so I can send text messages via satellite when a
Speaker 1: mobile network is not available. Mobile also has that functionality
Speaker 1: at and T has that functionality with certain respects. I
Speaker 1: think they're rolling it out. I'm not sure everyone has access.
Speaker 1: Starlink obviously is another way to get that through T Mobile,
Speaker 1: and then on the Pixel they have the satellite messaging
Speaker 1: as well. For emergencies. So it's a little bit different
Speaker 1: depending on the carrier. But here's the thing I've realized
Speaker 1: with these mv and os, you know, these mobile virtual
Speaker 1: network operators that people are saving a lot of money on,
Speaker 1: they so far have not announced support for this satellite
Speaker 1: messaging or satellite help, and so I think that's going
Speaker 1: to be a big differentiator in the future for your plan,
Speaker 1: because if you're saving a lot of money, you may
Speaker 1: not have access to that. I don't know how they're
Speaker 1: going to handle it, because so far I haven't seen
Speaker 1: one say hey, we're going to add this to our plan.
Speaker 1: But if you're on one of the big carriers, the
Speaker 1: big plans, or you're on an iPhone, no matter what
Speaker 1: plan you're on, you do have access to that satellite
Speaker 1: messaging as long as you have a recent iPhone. All right,
Speaker 1: coming up, we will take more of your calls at
Speaker 1: eight eight eight rich one oh one eight eight eight
Speaker 1: seven four to two four one zero one. Plus we'll
Speaker 1: hear from you on some of your emails. Right here,
Speaker 1: I'm rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech.
Speaker 1: Rich Demiro here hanging out with you talking technology. The
Speaker 1: website for the show Rich on tech dot TV. I
Speaker 1: take very good notes. Everything that is mentioned on the
Speaker 1: show is listed there. So if I mentioned, you know,
Speaker 1: a solution to a problem, or a website or some
Speaker 1: sort of link to something, it is all there. Craig
Speaker 1: was asking about satellite messaging on the iPhone, the demo.
Speaker 1: If you want to try it, just open the Settings app,
Speaker 1: go to Apps and then messages and tap satellite connection
Speaker 1: demo if you want to try that, and so, and
Speaker 1: then Kim was asking, Hey, is this free? And so
Speaker 1: it's interesting because when the iPhone first came out, this
Speaker 1: came out on iPhone fourteen, and they originally said that
Speaker 1: this was going to be free for two years, and
Speaker 1: then at the end of I guess maybe a year
Speaker 1: or so, they said, we're actually going to extend it
Speaker 1: by another year. So, so far Apple has not charged
Speaker 1: for any of this satellite messaging on their iPhone. But
Speaker 1: I think they're in a very tricky situation. They've invested
Speaker 1: a lot of money in the company that they are
Speaker 1: partnering with, Global Star, and so they want to recoup
Speaker 1: some of this. But at this point it's kind of
Speaker 1: getting tougher and tougher to charge because a lot of
Speaker 1: these companies, the cellular companies are building it into their plans,
Speaker 1: and so it's kind of like, who's going to pay
Speaker 1: an extra fifteen twenty dollars a month. That's how much
Speaker 1: T Mobile wants for non subscribers if they just want
Speaker 1: to add Starlink satellite messaging to their phone. I think
Speaker 1: it's fifteen or twenty dollars a month. So we're going
Speaker 1: to see this is going to be interesting because in
Speaker 1: the future, we're going to be connected no matter where
Speaker 1: we are, and eventually the satellite's going to get so
Speaker 1: good that you'll have satellite calling as well and even
Speaker 1: satellite data, so it continues to get better. So Verizon
Speaker 1: has satellite messaging on the Galaxy S twenty five series.
Speaker 1: It's currently free on the Pixel. Google said it's going
Speaker 1: to be free for two years on the Pixel nine
Speaker 1: and later models, but they haven't said how much it's
Speaker 1: going to cost after that. So again it's really kind
Speaker 1: of this new uncharted territory where nobody wants to make
Speaker 1: the first move because if it's going to cost ten
Speaker 1: dollars a month for this carrier, but Verizon's offering it
Speaker 1: for free, now you might jump to Verizon so, but
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, it's a great thing
Speaker 1: that we have this. It has already saved lives and
Speaker 1: keeps people connected, especially in places like national parks and
Speaker 1: wherever else you may may not have a signal anymore.
Speaker 1: Robert writes in on the website, Hey, Rich, I'm hoping
Speaker 1: you can steer me in the right direction. I'm looking
Speaker 1: for an Android app that's free for faxing documents and
Speaker 1: hip a compliant. Thanks Robert, Robert, I had to do
Speaker 1: some research on this one because you know, here's the deal.
Speaker 1: When you're looking for something like a free fax, yeah,
Speaker 1: no problem. Those are easy to find. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of apps out there that can offer you a free
Speaker 1: fact But when you're looking for something like a premium
Speaker 1: feature like hip a compliancy, that is something that the
Speaker 1: app has to go the extra mile to do, and
Speaker 1: most of the time that kind of stuff is not
Speaker 1: going to necessarily be free. But I think the best
Speaker 1: option to look for to start is facts dot plus.
Speaker 1: So facts dot plus they do have paid plans, but
Speaker 1: they have a free plan that lets you send up
Speaker 1: to ten pages, and then they have Hippo compliant plans.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if the free tier is Hippo compliant,
Speaker 1: but I would guess you're using maybe the same sort
Speaker 1: of technology, so that's the first place to look. There's
Speaker 1: another website called I Facts, which lets you send a
Speaker 1: fact for free through their website. The paid service, once
Speaker 1: again is Hippo compliant. They don't mention on the free service.
Speaker 1: If that's Hippo compliant. Then there's HP Mobile Facts. So
Speaker 1: this is an app that you can download to your phone.
Speaker 1: It is free and according to their website, it says
Speaker 1: it does support hip hop compliant transmissions. So HP Mobile
Speaker 1: Facts that actually came with my printer when I installed
Speaker 1: my printer app that was part of it. The HP
Speaker 1: Mobile Facts was like built into the printer. So that's
Speaker 1: another app that you can download, and my favorite fact
Speaker 1: service in general. I've not used this in a while
Speaker 1: because it's been a while since I had to. You know,
Speaker 1: most people have switched to just scanning documents and DocuSign
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. But it used to be called
Speaker 1: Hello Facts and now it's called Dropbox Facts. So Dropbox
Speaker 1: purchased Hellofax. They built it into their service and you
Speaker 1: can use that as well. They offer a free few
Speaker 1: faxes to get started, but otherwise you will have to
Speaker 1: pay for that. I was using Hellofacts for a while,
Speaker 1: signing a lot of stuff and never really ran into
Speaker 1: a price ride to pay, And if I did, I
Speaker 1: think it was like ninety nine cents or something. But anyway,
Speaker 1: those are the places to look, investigate, see which one
Speaker 1: works best for you. But I guarantee if you email
Speaker 1: the doctor's office or whoever you're sending this to, they'll
Speaker 1: probably just accept a scan in an email. Trish writes
Speaker 1: in I love your show all the good info. I
Speaker 1: work in a management office of a mobile home park.
Speaker 1: Once in a while we need to notify residents, about
Speaker 1: two hundred of them via text. I'm an Apple person,
Speaker 1: and I'm wondering if there's a way to send a
Speaker 1: mass text without everyone seeing everyone else's info or replies.
Speaker 1: Looks like iPhone messages can't do this. I don't mind
Speaker 1: paying a small fee for it. So again, you're right,
Speaker 1: I message does not do this. You can send a
Speaker 1: group text, but you probably don't want to do that
Speaker 1: for this sort of mass communication. So you probably want
Speaker 1: to use a service that is paid, because texting is
Speaker 1: one of those things that if it's not paid, it's
Speaker 1: probably going to be abuse. So most of the texting
Speaker 1: services are paid, so I would check out Simple Texting.
Speaker 2: That is the one that I identified.
Speaker 1: Seems like it works the best, It does exactly what
Speaker 1: you need, and it's pretty much geared towards solutions like yours.
Speaker 1: To check it out Simple Texting. The alternative is textedly.
Speaker 2: All Right.
Speaker 1: Coming up, we're gonna talk about breaking free of the
Speaker 1: stranglehold of your smartphone on rich on Tech. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you,
Speaker 1: talking technology the website for the show rich on Tech
Speaker 1: dot TV. Thanks for hanging out with me and talk
Speaker 1: about how great tech is. But sometimes it can be
Speaker 1: kind of mind numbing. And if you've been on vacation,
Speaker 1: or in a high school, or around pretty much any
Speaker 1: human being in this world, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: folks who are just sort of addicted and using their
Speaker 1: phone a lot. And I'm not saying I'm perfect, believe me,
Speaker 1: because I think that this stuff really challenges all of us.
Speaker 1: And I think the main part of it is that
Speaker 1: our phones are so useful that we want to have
Speaker 1: them twenty four to seven. But we also do a
Speaker 1: lot of mindless stuff on them. So joining me now
Speaker 1: is Menka Sang, the author of your Best Digital Life,
Speaker 1: Use your Mind to Tame your Tech. Thanks for joining me,
Speaker 1: Hi Rich Pleasure to be online. Yeah, So tell me
Speaker 1: about the problem we face in our world with technology.
Speaker 10: You know, I think a lot of people think that
Speaker 10: it's just that we're spending too much time on our phones,
Speaker 10: but it's so much deeper than that. It's the way
Speaker 10: that it it affects our attention and because of that,
Speaker 10: the way that it affects our well being, our productivity,
Speaker 10: and our relationships with each other. And it's the fact
Speaker 10: that we always have them in our pockets, so they're
Speaker 10: always accessible to us. It's constantly interrupting us like a
Speaker 10: kind of a metronome throughout the day. I think that
Speaker 10: the latest studies show that we know we're touching our
Speaker 10: phones every four minutes or so, and it adds up
Speaker 10: to a lot like thirty percent of our waking life.
Speaker 2: Basically, that's wild.
Speaker 1: And so I'm a big fan. You know, I have
Speaker 1: an Apple Watch, I've got an iPhone, and I'm a
Speaker 1: big fan of when I get a notification from an
Speaker 1: app on my especially on my watch, that I do
Speaker 1: not need. I immediately take action and I swipe and
Speaker 1: get rid of not only the notification, but say no
Speaker 1: more notifications from this app, because I call them notification abusers, right,
Speaker 1: Like some of these apps that just they take our
Speaker 1: time and it's like these nonsense things that they're sending me, like, hey,
Speaker 1: have you thought of ordering doors today? It's like, no, no,
Speaker 1: I don't need you. Like I will when I'm hungry,
Speaker 1: I will decide when I want to order door dash.
Speaker 1: But these phones are not going away. And so what
Speaker 1: do you think is the solution here? What does your
Speaker 1: book kind of delve into?
Speaker 10: So I think that at the end of the day,
Speaker 10: digital tech is an extension of our minds, and so
Speaker 10: our relationship with technology can only ever be as good
Speaker 10: as our relationship with our own minds. And so the
Speaker 10: book is really a deep dive into mindfulness, neuroscience, behavioral change,
Speaker 10: trying to get people to understand that that actually it's
Speaker 10: one and the same thing. And so I'll give you
Speaker 10: an example. You know, if you have a little a
Speaker 10: notepad with you and you make a note of every
Speaker 10: time you sort of unconsciously pick up your phone or
Speaker 10: turn to your device and then write down exactly what
Speaker 10: you're feeling just before you did that. It's usually some
Speaker 10: sort of discomfort, you know, whether it's boredom or being stuck,
Speaker 10: frustrated with your work, or it's something that you just
Speaker 10: don't want to be feeling. And so unless you apply
Speaker 10: mindfulness to that feeling and try to get to the
Speaker 10: bottom of that, we're always going to be turning to
Speaker 10: our phones.
Speaker 12: You know, that's the easiest solution.
Speaker 1: So that's interesting because I notice a lot that people
Speaker 1: will pull out their phones in sort of social situations
Speaker 1: where they may not want to engage. Does that apply there,
Speaker 1: Like if you're you know, if you're in a Starbucks line,
Speaker 1: or you are at a cocktail party and you don't
Speaker 1: have someone to talk to at that moment, people kind
Speaker 1: of turn to their phones to take up the time.
Speaker 2: Is that what you're talking about?
Speaker 12: Totally?
Speaker 10: I mean, that's that's a perfect example, because in a
Speaker 10: situation where you're feeling a little bit uncomfortable, and come on,
Speaker 10: we all know relationships are uncomfortable.
Speaker 12: That's like part and parcel of.
Speaker 10: Being human and communicating with each other is that there's
Speaker 10: going to be awkwardness, there's going to be misunderstandings. You
Speaker 10: know that people don't speak with subtitles yet anyways, and
Speaker 10: so the idea is that it's more convenient to turn
Speaker 10: to our phones and now with with you know, AI
Speaker 10: personalized companions, people are preferring to talk to their bots
Speaker 10: then to talk to their friends and family because they're
Speaker 10: very empathetic.
Speaker 12: Now AI bots and just that much more seamless.
Speaker 10: So you know when you say people are already turning
Speaker 10: to their phones when they're in a social situation and
Speaker 10: it's getting a bit awkward, that's just going to get
Speaker 10: worse and worse. And we're slowly going to start losing
Speaker 10: the skills to be able to have those relationships and
Speaker 10: deal with the challenging aspect of relationships.
Speaker 1: Now, I don't want to call out the younger generation
Speaker 1: because look, I mean, I think adults are affected by this,
Speaker 1: but we have grown up and we actually matured having
Speaker 1: to do these things for ourselves, whereas our kids don't,
Speaker 1: like they're growing up in this always on demand kind
Speaker 1: of Like you said, asking chat Gibt, I made a
Speaker 1: joke earlier in the show that I asked chat Gibt
Speaker 1: before I make any decision. I mean, people are doing this,
Speaker 1: like I joked, but it's actually happening. Like people are
Speaker 1: using it as a therapist, they're using it as a companion,
Speaker 1: they're using it to just chat back and forth. And
Speaker 1: I always make the statement that, imagine, right now this
Speaker 1: is just on our computers. When it's embodied in sort
Speaker 1: of a robot that is rolling around our house or
Speaker 1: sort of a companion, I mean, it's just going to
Speaker 1: get worse, Like people are humans are just we're not
Speaker 1: long for this world, are we.
Speaker 12: Yeah?
Speaker 10: Yeah, no, I completely get it. We don't want to say, well,
Speaker 10: you know, young people are getting it all wrong. I
Speaker 10: actually want to make make an interesting kind of point
Speaker 10: about digital detoxes, which is that a lot of young
Speaker 10: people are using tech in a really skillful way. And
Speaker 10: it's the nuance is when they get really clear about
Speaker 10: what they want to get out of that relationship with
Speaker 10: their tech and they start customizing it, they start getting
Speaker 10: into the settings and experimenting with it, that's when it
Speaker 10: gets interesting. That's when you can really start using it
Speaker 10: like a tool, you know, which is what.
Speaker 12: It meant to be.
Speaker 1: Like this is my phone, I'm in control. Here's what
Speaker 1: I want it to do. Like, for instance, my phone
Speaker 1: right now has a focus mode that I've created called
Speaker 1: reduce Interruptions, and on the weekends it flips into that
Speaker 1: mode and nobody can text me except maybe one or
Speaker 1: two people like it doesn't break through that reduce interruptions.
Speaker 1: And so what happens is at the end of the
Speaker 1: day or something like, I will look at my phone
Speaker 1: and be like, oh, here's a bunch of notifications that
Speaker 1: I didn't need at the moment, and I'm in control,
Speaker 1: and so does that What it comes down to is
Speaker 1: like kind of you say, tame your tech, use your
Speaker 1: mind to tame your tech.
Speaker 2: Is that?
Speaker 1: Is that what we need to do is come up
Speaker 1: with these ways of kind of we're in charge exactly exactly.
Speaker 10: It's like almost like becoming a power user or a
Speaker 10: tech connoisseur, you know. I think the key message, if
Speaker 10: I was going to say one thing, is not to
Speaker 10: use tech in a passive, default, automated way. And research
Speaker 10: shows that hardly anyone ever changes the default settings of
Speaker 10: an app.
Speaker 12: And that's shocking, isn't it. But it's just we open it,
Speaker 12: we start using it.
Speaker 10: And the opposite of that is to think, well, this
Speaker 10: is a tool, what do I want to use it for,
Speaker 10: What time of the day do.
Speaker 12: I want to use it for? And how can I
Speaker 12: really make it work for me?
Speaker 10: And knowing that your best digital life is going to
Speaker 10: be very different from everyone else's.
Speaker 1: And so what's the takeaway from the book? What will
Speaker 1: people learn in your best digital life?
Speaker 10: To We have a method called more, which I really
Speaker 10: love because it's really practical. It's about not letting any
Speaker 10: digital well being expert like me or anyone else tell
Speaker 10: you what to do with your tech, but develop your
Speaker 10: own strategy. And to do that you need to start experimenting, so,
Speaker 10: you know, figure out why your values, your goals, observe yourself,
Speaker 10: not the aspirational version of yourself, but the real you
Speaker 10: reflect on that, figure out how it's impacting your well being,
Speaker 10: your productivity, your relationships, and then test things out like
Speaker 10: small things, changes, microadjustments, beats, you know, grand big gestures
Speaker 10: any day, and then customize your experience, you know.
Speaker 12: So that's what the book is about.
Speaker 10: And we are kind of trying to approach this with
Speaker 10: this kind of positive spirit because I think tech is
Speaker 10: really exciting, especially right now, and so just because it's overwhelming,
Speaker 10: we kind of check out of it and an alternative
Speaker 10: approach is to lean into it and to figure out
Speaker 10: how to make it work for us.
Speaker 2: Oh that's so true.
Speaker 1: I hear from so many people that just say, Rich,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't understand this. And I call
Speaker 1: it like laying you know, you just you just turn
Speaker 1: over and lay down. It's like you just I don't
Speaker 1: I don't understand this.
Speaker 2: I give up.
Speaker 1: It's like, no, let's figure this out and figure it
Speaker 1: out for you. Because, by the way, these are tools
Speaker 1: built for us, and so we are ultimately in control
Speaker 1: of them.
Speaker 2: And I get it.
Speaker 1: It's overwhelming and people think they're gonna break something, or
Speaker 1: they're you know, not going to get a phone call
Speaker 1: or going to flip their phone into some mode that
Speaker 1: ruins it. But at the end of the day, go
Speaker 1: through the settings on these apps and really engineer them
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 2: Real quick before we go.
Speaker 1: Uh, if you wake up every day you reach for
Speaker 1: your phone, what's one tiny change you can make on
Speaker 1: that note starting immediately.
Speaker 10: It is a perfect example of what we're talking about,
Speaker 10: because that's the cliche of a bad digital habit. You know,
Speaker 10: for one person like me, I have a rule not
Speaker 10: to check my phone until I've dropped my son to
Speaker 10: school and I'm at my desk and that keeps my
Speaker 10: mind free for you know, enjoying my breakfast and singing
Speaker 10: more on the songs on the school run, right, But
Speaker 10: for someone else it's important to wake up and actually
Speaker 10: check in on family and friends abroad to check that
Speaker 10: they're alive and healthy. That's really important and what a
Speaker 10: magical thing to be able to actually do that, and
Speaker 10: that's a great digital habit for them, you know.
Speaker 12: And so having said that, if you do conclude that you.
Speaker 10: Don't want to reach for your phone, the first thing, easiest,
Speaker 10: best thing to do is just keep your phone out
Speaker 10: of the bedroom or if you can't do that, away
Speaker 10: inside a drawer that you can't reach, and have an
Speaker 10: alarm clock instead right next to your bed. And also
Speaker 10: think about the second time you reach for your phone.
Speaker 10: A lot of people make this mistake. Just put an
Speaker 10: alarm clock, your phone's out of the way, but then
Speaker 10: ten minutes in the bathroom they're using the phone, you know.
Speaker 10: And so for me living in London, the second thing
Speaker 10: I usually want to do is check the weather, so
Speaker 10: unpredictable for other people as a traffic update, So think
Speaker 10: about how you can get the information you need in
Speaker 10: the morning without having to expose yourself to the everythingness
Speaker 10: of the phone.
Speaker 12: You know, all the messages or the updates.
Speaker 10: Maybe the answer is an AI voice assistant like Alexa Siri.
Speaker 10: It's not necessarily anti tech. It's just selecting your tools
Speaker 10: using them wisely.
Speaker 2: Excellent advice.
Speaker 1: We're gonna leave it there, Amenka saying VI, thanks so
Speaker 1: much for joining me. Author of Your Best Digital Life,
Speaker 1: Use Your Mind to Tame Your Tech, available now right
Speaker 1: on Amazon.
Speaker 12: Indeed, yeah, get the book. I think you like him.
Speaker 2: Congrats on the book launch.
Speaker 1: Very exciting again, your Best Digital Life, Use your Mind
Speaker 1: to Tame Your Tech. I will link it up on
Speaker 1: my website. Rich on Tech dot TV. Small changes, big impact.
Speaker 1: That is what I'm hearing when it comes to technology.
Speaker 1: All right, coming up, we are going to open up
Speaker 1: the feedback two weeks worth. I hope we can get
Speaker 1: through all of it. You're listening to rich on Tech.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here talking
Speaker 1: technology with you. We're going to get to the feedback
Speaker 1: in just a moment. But first two items of note.
Speaker 1: First off, if you have AT and T. If you
Speaker 1: have an AT and T, service, your autopaid discount could
Speaker 1: be changing. Starting on April twenty fourth, twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: AT and T is changing its autopay discount rules for
Speaker 1: wireless and Internet customers. So if you pay with a
Speaker 1: debit card, your discount is dropping from ten dollars a
Speaker 1: month to five dollars a month. If you use a
Speaker 1: credit card, you're not going to get a discount anymore
Speaker 1: at all, unless it's the Yeah, unless it's the AT
Speaker 1: and T Points Plus card from City Bank, then you'll
Speaker 1: keep a five dollars discount. If you want the full
Speaker 1: ten dollars per month per line discount, you'll have to
Speaker 1: switch to a bank account. That's what I did yesterday. Sadly,
Speaker 1: I handed over my bank account and it's not something
Speaker 1: I like to do. But basically they're raising prices unless
Speaker 1: you do that. So again, this change applies to all
Speaker 1: wireless and internet plans using auto pay and paperless billing.
Speaker 1: You can change your payment method at att, dot com,
Speaker 1: slash chain And I'm not a fan of this, but
Speaker 1: it's a trend we're seeing with all these companies. Like basically,
Speaker 1: if you want to save the most, you either have
Speaker 1: to sign up for their credit card, or you got
Speaker 1: to hand over access to your account. They like that
Speaker 1: because A it costs them less to process the payment,
Speaker 1: and b when something goes wrong, it's much easier to
Speaker 1: dispute on a credit card doing that versus them putting
Speaker 1: the money back into your account. And it is National
Speaker 1: Park Week runs through April twenty seventh. The booking site
Speaker 1: camp spot says the top searched parks for twenty twenty
Speaker 1: five include Yosemite or as I like to call it,
Speaker 1: Yosumite I love when Bobo just shakes his head, Yellowstone, Glacier,
Speaker 1: gran Titan, Sequoia, Acadia, and more and more, of course
Speaker 1: and more. Yosemite number one for its waterfalls, cliffs and trails,
Speaker 1: Yellowstone for geyser's and wildlife like bison and Bear's Glacier,
Speaker 1: Grand Teeton, high alpine drama and fewer crowds. Okay, under
Speaker 1: the radar Gems, Indiana Dunes and Hot Springs National Park.
Speaker 1: If you're not familiar with camp spot, they highlight nearby
Speaker 1: private campgrounds with amenities and easier booking than inside the parks.
Speaker 2: Have not tested them, but I've wanted to try that
Speaker 2: out all right.
Speaker 1: Time for the feedback These are the emails that you
Speaker 1: send me throughout the week. First off, Timothy from Ohio
Speaker 1: writes in, I watched your recent report on the amaze
Speaker 1: Fit Bip six smart watch. I have a bip Pro
Speaker 1: that I've used for a couple of years. I agree
Speaker 1: with your overall take on a maze Fit. The one
Speaker 1: issue I've had is with step tracking. It doesn't count
Speaker 1: steps accurately unless I'm actively swinging my arms. I've reached
Speaker 1: out to the company a few times with so far
Speaker 1: no fixed battery life is starting to fade. Otherwise it's
Speaker 1: been reliable. I appreciate how they keep improving the free app,
Speaker 1: which also works great with my Android phone. I really
Speaker 1: enjoy your reports and always get something useful from them. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: amaze Fit great smart watch for eighty bucks, and I
Speaker 1: agree it's really good for the price. And I don't
Speaker 1: know about the step tracking with the non moving arms,
Speaker 1: but I mean, maybe they've got to just adjust their algorithm.
Speaker 1: Last week, in my newsletter at richontech dot tv, I
Speaker 1: mentioned all of the apps that I like to use
Speaker 1: on a daily basis, and I asked you to write
Speaker 1: in with yours. Pete says, Hey, Rich, I'm really enjoying
Speaker 1: rock Ai Beta on x. It seems way more thorough
Speaker 1: than the others. Marie from Downey, California writes in The
Speaker 1: live Transcribe app helps those of us with hearing loss
Speaker 1: by captioning audio dialogue. It's not perfect. It once displayed
Speaker 1: a swear word my dad's doctor definitely didn't say, and
Speaker 1: it occasionally misses words, but overall it's been a big help.
Speaker 1: Mike from Fargo, North Carolina, North Dakota writes in via
Speaker 1: kvl kV l y picture, this is a great app
Speaker 1: that lets you snap a photo of any plant or
Speaker 1: flour and instantly get an ID. I use it all
Speaker 1: the time I'm in my garden on my iPad. It
Speaker 1: does have a twenty five dollars annual fee, but it's
Speaker 1: way more accurate than the free apps. Speaking of free,
Speaker 1: my wife uses plant net on her Android phone. It
Speaker 1: works fairly well. And did I mention it's free?
Speaker 2: Let's see.
Speaker 1: Mia writes in Hey Rich, I'm not trying to fall
Speaker 1: for anything thanks to you.
Speaker 5: Lol.
Speaker 1: Is this Venmo Facebook settlement legit? So I always go
Speaker 1: to the website Topclassactions dot com to search for that.
Speaker 2: It looks like this is legit.
Speaker 1: It stems from a class action lawsuit alleging that Facebook
Speaker 1: improperly tracked users' activities on non Facebook websites with the
Speaker 1: like button. So it was a ninety million dollars settlement,
Speaker 1: So yeah, you might be getting that. Let's see here, John,
Speaker 1: how long do we have a low?
Speaker 2: Less than a minute? Okay? This is this goes by fast.
Speaker 2: John says Rich.
Speaker 1: I took your advice and ordered one of these products,
Speaker 1: But what you didn't point out is their horrible return policy.
Speaker 1: Ourch twelve dollars shipping plus a handling fee. Who does
Speaker 1: that anymore? All for a power bank that doesn't fit
Speaker 1: our iPhone eleven promacs. I might try to get an
Speaker 1: adapter rather than losing half my money on a fifty
Speaker 1: dollars item, But next time I'm sticking with Amazon. John
Speaker 1: apologies that that happened, but yes, always always check the
Speaker 1: return policy on a website before you purchase. Most of
Speaker 1: the time I link the original website from the company,
Speaker 1: but just because that's where you get the most information.
Speaker 1: But if you're going to purchase from them directly, I
Speaker 1: would definitely check the return policy every single time. I
Speaker 1: always default to Amazon. Sometimes you pay a little bit
Speaker 1: more because the shipping quote unquote free shipping is built
Speaker 1: into the price, but it's definitely worth it. I ordered
Speaker 1: a case yesterday put out on my phone. It did
Speaker 1: not work. Sending it right back is going to be
Speaker 1: completely free to do that. Thanks for the email.
Speaker 2: That's going to do it.
Speaker 1: For this episode of the show, you can find links
Speaker 1: to everything I mentioned on the website rich on tech
Speaker 1: dot tv.
Speaker 2: I'm on social media at rich on tech. Next week
Speaker 2: we'll have an expert.
Speaker 1: With a alternative take on how social media platforms really work.
Speaker 2: My name is rich d'miro. I'll talk to you real soon.