Speaker 1: The app that invests in the companies that you do
Speaker 1: business with. Last Pass makes some big changes and not
Speaker 1: everyone's gonna like them. New Samsung features come to last
Speaker 1: year's phones. Plus your tech questions answered. What's going on?
Speaker 1: I'm Rich Demiro and this is Rich on Tech, the
Speaker 1: podcast where I talk about the tech stuff I think
Speaker 1: you should know about. It's also the place where I
Speaker 1: answer the questions you send me. My name is Rich Dmiro,
Speaker 1: tech reporter at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles. Hope
Speaker 1: you are having a wonderful, wonderful day. I know, I
Speaker 1: know not the best of circumstances in our world right
Speaker 1: now with this whole pandemic, but you know, people are
Speaker 1: getting vaccinated and the numbers are coming down, which is nice.
Speaker 1: It feels good. It feels like we're getting to a
Speaker 1: place where there is some light at the end of
Speaker 1: the tunnel, and I am excited for that. So thanks
Speaker 1: for doing your part. Ten years at KTLA, That's what
Speaker 1: I'm celebrating this week. Ten years at KTLA. I can't
Speaker 1: believe it. I truly cannot believe that I have been
Speaker 1: at this TV station for ten years. So just to
Speaker 1: give you some perspective, when I joined KTLA, I had
Speaker 1: no kids, now I have two. Probably had a lot
Speaker 1: less wrinkles. Let's see what else. Oh, gosh, it probably
Speaker 1: went through two different cars, three different cars, perhaps, God.
Speaker 1: I mean just so many things. I mean, so much
Speaker 1: has changed in ten years. But I will say one
Speaker 1: thing is, oh, two different studios, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: different producers. I mean, it's really been interesting because when
Speaker 1: you're doing something for that long, it doesn't feel like
Speaker 1: that long. Like I can remember the day that I
Speaker 1: walked into KTLA, literally can remember the day. I could
Speaker 1: remember my first story. I could remember my first interactions
Speaker 1: with people I'll never forget. I wrote down everyone's name
Speaker 1: that I met in in an ever not note so
Speaker 1: that I could like go back and memorize names of
Speaker 1: all the producers and all these people. And so I
Speaker 1: wonder if I could find that note because I had
Speaker 1: everyone's name, because I wanted to like make sure that
Speaker 1: I was doing the right thing. This was a big
Speaker 1: jump for me. And one thing that has not changed
Speaker 1: is really, you know, just well, I guess it has.
Speaker 1: I guess it's evolved the way that I do things,
Speaker 1: the way that I do my stories. I mean, I
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't really know what I was doing
Speaker 1: when I came into there. You know, I knew that
Speaker 1: I wanted to do tech, but I wasn't sure. And
Speaker 1: now I think the biggest change is that I am
Speaker 1: so honed in on my stories and what I think
Speaker 1: a story on TV should be and who I think
Speaker 1: it should be for. And a lot of it comes
Speaker 1: down to just helping people like this podcast. Like I
Speaker 1: take for granted that I cover tech news twenty four
Speaker 1: to seven. It's all I think about. It's all on
Speaker 1: you know, saturated with every day, day in, day out.
Speaker 1: And then I talk to a regular person and I
Speaker 1: realize that the stuff that I am just immersed with,
Speaker 1: they have no clue, and it's like wow. So this
Speaker 1: is why people like to watch the segment, because I
Speaker 1: am sitting here taking all this information in about the
Speaker 1: tech world and distilling it into something that you need
Speaker 1: to know about. And that's for me too. I mean
Speaker 1: I do the same thing with people that I read
Speaker 1: and people that I look up to that you know,
Speaker 1: do nutrition or you know, like I've talked about this
Speaker 1: guy that I follow on YouTube, flave City, and he's
Speaker 1: the guy that I look to to find things in
Speaker 1: target that are good and healthy for you when you shop.
Speaker 1: And I don't know about that stuff, but he does
Speaker 1: because he's sitting there taking the time to go through
Speaker 1: it all. And so again it's like this circle that
Speaker 1: you know, I cover this stuff and keep track of
Speaker 1: it so that you don't have to. And if you're
Speaker 1: a tech enthusiast, of course you're a little bit more involved.
Speaker 1: But most of the people that are watching on KTLA
Speaker 1: and our other partner stations are just I call them
Speaker 1: drive by techies. They're just watching the news and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, my segment comes on and I explain,
Speaker 1: you know, the new Clubhouse app and they're like, oh, interesting,
Speaker 1: I haven't heard of that before. But then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden they're at a you know, a little get
Speaker 1: together with their with their niece or nephew or whatever,
Speaker 1: and someone's like, oh, I'm using Clubhouse, and like, I
Speaker 1: know what that is. I heard it on the news
Speaker 1: and that's what it's all about. So thank you for
Speaker 1: ten great years. It's it's been awesome. I'm not going
Speaker 1: anywhere anytime soon, so I'll be here for another couple
Speaker 1: of years, you know. I mean, it's just continues on
Speaker 1: and I will continue to grow the product, grow what
Speaker 1: I do, and just continue to reach people in new ways.
Speaker 1: So thank you for being a part of it. All. Right,
Speaker 1: let's get started with the first story of the week.
Speaker 1: This is always interesting to me, so Samsung. Not a
Speaker 1: huge story, but Samsung this week announced that the features
Speaker 1: from the Galaxy twenty one are coming to the Galaxy
Speaker 1: S twenty and not every feature, but a lot of them.
Speaker 1: And what I think is funny about this is that
Speaker 1: they don't really say this information at the beginning when
Speaker 1: they're selling the S twenty one because they don't want
Speaker 1: to give you that information. They want you to wonder, hmmm,
Speaker 1: is this new object eraser coming to other phones? I
Speaker 1: don't know. I guess I'll just have to buy the
Speaker 1: new one. And so it's like clockwork that we see
Speaker 1: as soon as the initial marketing push is over, and
Speaker 1: it's been about four weeks for the Samsung Galaxy S
Speaker 1: twenty one series, now they're like, oh, oh, by the way,
Speaker 1: if you didn't buy one, we're just gonna give you
Speaker 1: some of those features and some of the features coming
Speaker 1: to the Let's see, it's the S twenty, S twenty
Speaker 1: plus S twenty Ultra S twenty FE which was a
Speaker 1: huge seller last year, Galaxy Note twenty series and the
Speaker 1: Galaxy Z foll two and the Z Flip. So here's
Speaker 1: the update which is rolling out right now. It's called
Speaker 1: one UI three point one. You'll get an improved single take.
Speaker 1: I'm not a huge fan of the single take feature.
Speaker 1: I think it takes a lot of unnecessary pictures. But
Speaker 1: I could see how it could be useful in certain circumstances,
Speaker 1: like if your kid is jumping off, like, you know,
Speaker 1: a rock into the water or something, which why would
Speaker 1: your kid be doing that, you know, like they'd probably
Speaker 1: be a teenager. Actually, I don't want anyone jumping off
Speaker 1: any rocks anytime. I see that. And I grew up
Speaker 1: going to lakes. Believe me, I've seen plenty of people
Speaker 1: jump off rocks into the lake. I just wasn't one
Speaker 1: of them. I'm just too like, I can't do it,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just not my thing. So bad example,
Speaker 1: But let's say they're blowing out birthday cake candles, then
Speaker 1: this is where you'd want the single take because with
Speaker 1: one shutter hit or you know, click of the shutter,
Speaker 1: it will take some pictures. It will take some videos,
Speaker 1: it will take some white angles, black and white color whatever,
Speaker 1: and so you get all these variety of pictures with
Speaker 1: a variety of lenses all at once, and it's cool.
Speaker 1: But I find that you just get a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff that you don't really need. But there are definitely
Speaker 1: some circumstances where that would be cool. Object Eraser, which
Speaker 1: I think is just amazing. If you haven't watched my
Speaker 1: YouTube video on it, please go to YouTube and search
Speaker 1: rich on Tech object Eraser Samsung. It's so cool. You
Speaker 1: take a picture, you go to object Eraser, you tap
Speaker 1: the thing you don't want in the picture, and it
Speaker 1: removes it pretty amazingly and effortlessly improved touch auto focus
Speaker 1: and auto exposure controller. I wasn't really aware of that one,
Speaker 1: but it's there. And then multi mic recording, which in
Speaker 1: pro video mode you can record audio through your phone
Speaker 1: and a connected Bluetooth device, so that's really cool. I
Speaker 1: Comfort Shield, which is with blue light. And then Private Share,
Speaker 1: which I think is a very very great feature. So
Speaker 1: when you're sharing a photo from the gallery, you know
Speaker 1: this is from the native gallery, not like Google Photos.
Speaker 1: But if you share a photo, it will say there
Speaker 1: will be an option to include the location. And I
Speaker 1: think that's really smart because, you know, especially if you're
Speaker 1: just sending a picture to you know, Craigslist or something
Speaker 1: or I don't know, whatever people do with pictures, you
Speaker 1: don't always want your private information in there because it
Speaker 1: shows exactly where you took that picture. So those are
Speaker 1: the features from the S twenty one coming to the
Speaker 1: S twenty So if you have one of those phones,
Speaker 1: definitely check for an update. Those are rolling out right now.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to the first question of the day. Hey, rich, First,
Speaker 1: thank you for all your help to all of us.
Speaker 1: I've been shopping for a computer for my mom. She
Speaker 1: just needs it for email, web search, and YouTube. Do
Speaker 1: you think this is legitimate? See the link? Have you
Speaker 1: heard of these guys? Seems too good to be true?
Speaker 1: What do you think? Thank you? Michael and Michael sent
Speaker 1: this long link from a thing called I'm not you
Speaker 1: know what. Maybe I won't say the name of the company,
Speaker 1: but it's just some random thing that I've never heard of.
Speaker 1: The domain endzine dot top and you click it and
Speaker 1: let's see redirecting you to a MacBook Pro website I've
Speaker 1: never seen before. One hundred and forty nine ninety five
Speaker 1: for an Apple sixteen inch MacBook Pro with touchbar, ninth Gen,
Speaker 1: eighth core, Intel two point four gigaherts, sixty four gigs
Speaker 1: of RAM. Oh my god, this thing is maxed out
Speaker 1: four terabytes SSD drive for one hundred and fifty bucks. Now,
Speaker 1: if you got this computer on Apple dot com, it
Speaker 1: would be about four thousand dollars, and this is one
Speaker 1: hundred and forty nine ninety five. Let's see add to
Speaker 1: Karte and let's check out, and let's see what the
Speaker 1: scam is here, because this is definitely a scam. So
Speaker 1: an order, an item you ordered is in very high demand,
Speaker 1: no worries. We have reserved your order so it doesn't
Speaker 1: run out of stock. Before checkout, you have nine minutes
Speaker 1: and forty eight seconds, and they have a sixty day
Speaker 1: satisfaction guarantee over thirty two hundred and forty five successfully
Speaker 1: shipped orders, and you place your order, and I don't
Speaker 1: even understand what the scam is here. I mean, you're
Speaker 1: just basically getting scammed as soon as you check out here,
Speaker 1: You're not getting a four thousand dollars computer for one
Speaker 1: hundred and forty nine ninety five. There's just no way.
Speaker 1: So I get it, and I think, you know, let's
Speaker 1: see what was it, Brian Michael. I think Michael was
Speaker 1: pretty smart in having his spidey sense saying something doesn't
Speaker 1: seem right here. So this is just totally now Here's
Speaker 1: how we figure out if this store is legit. Okay,
Speaker 1: Number one. You go to the page that this MacBook
Speaker 1: is on, okay, and I'm looking for anything. If you
Speaker 1: scroll down, I mean, it's got a screenshot of the
Speaker 1: Apple website as the description. Then it's got random pictures
Speaker 1: of this computer that seem like they're from random people.
Speaker 1: You scroll all the way down to the bottom of
Speaker 1: the website and there's literally nothing, no contact information, no nothing.
Speaker 1: If you go to about us, congrats you found a
Speaker 1: place with the coolest items. We have spent years searching
Speaker 1: for creative, smart, and useful products around the world. No
Speaker 1: contact information, no social media information, know nothing. This is
Speaker 1: a totally bogus website that if you try to purchase
Speaker 1: this MacBook from Number one, your credit card is probably
Speaker 1: off to some marketplace that people will be purchasing your
Speaker 1: number in seconds and you will never see this computer.
Speaker 1: So Michael, good job. If it seems too good to
Speaker 1: be true. It is. I see this stuff all the time.
Speaker 1: In fact, whenever I do a story on a product,
Speaker 1: people send me screenshots of those products and they say,
Speaker 1: is this a good place to buy it? I found
Speaker 1: it cheaper? No, it is not. If you're not buying
Speaker 1: from Amazon, best Buy, you know these main retailers that
Speaker 1: you've heard of, it's probably not a good idea, especially
Speaker 1: if the price is too good to be true. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying you can't buy from a mom and pop,
Speaker 1: but you have to make sure it's legitimate. Look for
Speaker 1: the contact information, look for the return policy, look for
Speaker 1: a physical address, look for you know, social media links
Speaker 1: to their Instagram and Twitter. If they don't have any
Speaker 1: of that stuff, stay away, all right. Good? First question,
Speaker 1: by the way, Michael, I would recommend a chromebook for
Speaker 1: your mom because if she is just doing email, web search,
Speaker 1: and YouTube, why does she need more than a chromebook.
Speaker 1: So I would specifically recommend the new Samsung Chromebook because
Speaker 1: they are coming out with a brand new chromebook. I
Speaker 1: think it's the Chromek Samsung Chromebook two. Let me see
Speaker 1: computing and sal a Galaxy Chromebook two. It's five hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty bucks and it's a great chromebook. It's got
Speaker 1: all day battery life. You know, it's light, it's thin.
Speaker 1: I mean, this might be too much for mom, but
Speaker 1: it's just a really nice, brand new chromebook that I
Speaker 1: think Mom would like. And it's you know, the good
Speaker 1: news about this with Mom is that you don't have
Speaker 1: to worry about any sort of Oh it also folds
Speaker 1: back as a tablet. That's even better. Yeah, five hundred
Speaker 1: and forty nine dollars Intel Celeron with US sixty four
Speaker 1: gigs of RAM and or sixty four gigs of storage
Speaker 1: and four giga by RAM. So you can get it
Speaker 1: in Fiesta red or Mercury gray. And you could even
Speaker 1: trade in a phone or an old tablet. So if
Speaker 1: you have an old tablet that you can trade in,
Speaker 1: let's say you have an old iPad, let's see iPad
Speaker 1: air eighty bucks off or an older iPad one hundred
Speaker 1: bucks off. So do that. Speaking of chromebooks, according to
Speaker 1: geek Wire, chromebooks outsold max worldwide in twenty twenty, and
Speaker 1: this was at the expense of Windows computers. And this
Speaker 1: makes a ton of sense because the pandemic had everyone
Speaker 1: rushing to get a chromebook. People as I saw. I mean,
Speaker 1: many people are rushing to get some sort of mobile
Speaker 1: computing device for their kids or themselves. If you work
Speaker 1: for a company, clearly they're probably going to supply that
Speaker 1: for you. But there's a lot of other people out there,
Speaker 1: and especially kids, and chromebooks really were the way to
Speaker 1: go for kids. There's a lot of very bad chromebooks
Speaker 1: out there, and I think people experience that. But I think,
Speaker 1: like I said, with this Samsung Chromebook, pay a little
Speaker 1: extra and get a better, proper chromebook. Don't don't spend
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty bucks in a chromebook. It's going
Speaker 1: to be horrible. It's gonna last you less than a year,
Speaker 1: and do the math. Spend a little bit more and
Speaker 1: get something that's gonna last you a couple of years,
Speaker 1: and that's going to not make you want to pull
Speaker 1: your hair out because it's so slow and so terrible.
Speaker 1: So let's see, Windows was down year over year five
Speaker 1: points from eighty five percent to eighty percent in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty market share. So Windows, when you think Windows, oh
Speaker 1: so sad Microsoft nobody uses them anymore? Not true. Lots
Speaker 1: of people use Windows. Chrome up four point four percent,
Speaker 1: Chrome OS four point four points rather so six percent
Speaker 1: market share to eleven percent market share in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: So when you think about Chrome Os, wow, it has
Speaker 1: a ways to go. And you look at mac Os
Speaker 1: up less than a point from six point seven percent
Speaker 1: market share in twenty nineteen to seven point five percent.
Speaker 1: So right now we've got Windows at eighty percent, chro
Speaker 1: Home at eleven percent, or let's round these up. Windows
Speaker 1: at eighty one percent, Chrome at eleven percent, and mac
Speaker 1: Os at eight percent. This is according to IDC. And
Speaker 1: so when you think about it now, I live in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, a very very MacBook centric town. You go
Speaker 1: to any meeting, what are people clickity clocking on the MacBooks?
Speaker 1: But they're only seven eight percent of the share, Chrome
Speaker 1: books eleven percent, Windows eighty one percent. So still Windows
Speaker 1: has the lion's share. And it just depends what you need,
Speaker 1: you know. For me, I use Mac because I like
Speaker 1: to edit and the programs I use are on here
Speaker 1: and Windows is fine. I think it's I think what
Speaker 1: Windows is doing is really good, especially with the touch screens.
Speaker 1: I think that's amazing. When I use my MacBook, it's
Speaker 1: and my kid, one of my kids has a Windows computer.
Speaker 1: One has a MacBook and one with the windows, with
Speaker 1: the you know, the ability to touch the screen is
Speaker 1: just amazing, whereas the one that doesn't. He is always
Speaker 1: trying to touch the screen, and there's so many times
Speaker 1: when that would come in hand and we just don't
Speaker 1: have it. So I think that touch screen is definitely
Speaker 1: a feature that Apple needs to integrate into their laptops.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's gonna happen because they've got
Speaker 1: the iPad thing going on, but it definitely, it definitely
Speaker 1: helps in many many circumstances. All right, let's see here
Speaker 1: we have got let's see Sherry, Hey, Rich, I received
Speaker 1: two voicemails today and an email telling me not to
Speaker 1: use my Apple device until I contact Apple. Is this
Speaker 1: some kind of a hoax? Stay thank you and stay safe, Sherry. Sherry,
Speaker 1: You're right, it is some kind of hoax. And I
Speaker 1: see this stuff all the time, and it's so exhausting
Speaker 1: because these scammers are just never ending. And good example,
Speaker 1: I put on my Facebook page Facebook dot com slash
Speaker 1: Rich on tech I had another woman email me saying, hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: is this jit? I don't think it is, but just
Speaker 1: tell me if you think it is. And it was
Speaker 1: a screenshot of you know, an Apple case ID. Hello.
Speaker 1: Due to a problem with the payment method, we couldn't
Speaker 1: charge your account for your case and this, you know,
Speaker 1: goes on with this long case number that you know
Speaker 1: they just made up. If you don't update your information
Speaker 1: in twenty four hours, your Apple idea will be permanently locked.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. To unlock Apple ID, please visit this
Speaker 1: link to log in with your Apple ID and update
Speaker 1: your billing information, and it gives you an Apple Apple
Speaker 1: dot com slash update slash billing which I asked the
Speaker 1: person who originally sent this to me to send me
Speaker 1: the actual screen, you know, the email, so I can
Speaker 1: click the link. And I don't recommend that you click links,
Speaker 1: but if you're going to click links to see what
Speaker 1: they're all about, what you do on the iPhone is
Speaker 1: you press and hold the link. You don't actually tap it.
Speaker 1: If you press and hold, it will bring up a
Speaker 1: preview of that link, and then on that preview you
Speaker 1: can see in the upper left hand corner what the
Speaker 1: actual link is. Because just because a link says appleid
Speaker 1: dot com, that doesn't actually mean it brings you to
Speaker 1: appleid dot com. What they do is they use that
Speaker 1: as the URL, and then they hide the actual link
Speaker 1: under that URL, and so when you click it, it's
Speaker 1: a totally different link, and it's usually bogus. And so
Speaker 1: in this case, the actual link when I pressed and
Speaker 1: held it to see the preview, is an ninety one
Speaker 1: dash S eight F four U five three sp dot
Speaker 1: uc dns dot org. That does not sound like an
Speaker 1: Apple website to me. And Apple is not sending these
Speaker 1: urgent emails to you. Oh my gosh, you need to
Speaker 1: update your your credit card information where we freeze your
Speaker 1: account forever. No, they don't do that. I mean, all
Speaker 1: I know is I get no emails from Apple. I
Speaker 1: just get my credit card and actually, okay, so here's
Speaker 1: what was happening, truthfully, is that I, you know, I
Speaker 1: have all these little things that get purchased on my
Speaker 1: Apple ID, and it goes to an old email address.
Speaker 1: I can't seem to change my Apple ID to like
Speaker 1: my current emails, so I have to use this old
Speaker 1: email address I never use, which I guess in some
Speaker 1: ways is more secure. But I really was trying to
Speaker 1: figure out, like I get these charges on my credit
Speaker 1: card or debit card for nine ninety nine two ninety nine,
Speaker 1: a dollar ninety nine, two ninety nine, a dollar ninety nine.
Speaker 1: It just keeps going, and I'm like, what are these
Speaker 1: charges for? Like, shouldn't Apple send an email to me
Speaker 1: letting me know what these charges are? Sure enough, they do,
Speaker 1: but they were all going to spam in my old
Speaker 1: email address. So I created a filter on that old
Speaker 1: email to make them not go to spam and also
Speaker 1: forward to my current email address. And so now I'm
Speaker 1: getting all these emails from Apple and yeah, they just
Speaker 1: charge you. And you know they're not going to send
Speaker 1: you an email that says your account's going to be
Speaker 1: permanently disabled. I mean, that just doesn't happen. They're not
Speaker 1: going to call you to tell you anything. That's just
Speaker 1: not how these tech companies operate. So if these things
Speaker 1: happen to you, and if you're listening to this podcast,
Speaker 1: you're a little bit ahead of the curve. So this
Speaker 1: is the kind of stuff you need to tell your
Speaker 1: family members and just make sure they're aware. Because I
Speaker 1: had this thing where my mom sent me a message
Speaker 1: on LinkedIn and it said, hey, Rich, just saying hi,
Speaker 1: And I was like, what, my mom is not on LinkedIn?
Speaker 1: So I text her and I because I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: she must have gotten hacked. I text her, I said, Mom,
Speaker 1: did you text me through LinkedIn? Like did you send
Speaker 1: me a message? Because yeah, I just found my password,
Speaker 1: so I figured I just send you a message and
Speaker 1: I'm like, what, okay. But the good news is that
Speaker 1: I actually did not sort of interact with her or
Speaker 1: do anything or you know, I wanted to warn her, like, hey,
Speaker 1: you got hacked, but I wanted to make sure so
Speaker 1: when in doubt, do a little research, check things out
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, find the source before you just
Speaker 1: hand over your information. Because these people are are really
Speaker 1: really just ugh, they just they never never end, all right.
Speaker 1: Last Pass is speaking of passwords. Last Pass is a
Speaker 1: free or was a good free option for password saving,
Speaker 1: and now it is no longer because there basically is
Speaker 1: still a free option, but it's it's kind of worthless
Speaker 1: for the average person. And I say this because last
Speaker 1: Pass is now changing the way they do business for
Speaker 1: their free users, and it's kind of sad because so
Speaker 1: many people probably chose Last Pass because of this free
Speaker 1: option that is now going away. And yes, you can
Speaker 1: still get a free option from last Pass, but it
Speaker 1: is so so cobbled that you're not going to want
Speaker 1: to use it because it just doesn't. You'd be better
Speaker 1: off paying for a service that actually works than this. Okay,
Speaker 1: so this is their blog post saying each week millions
Speaker 1: of last Pass users add millions of passwords and blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah for more than twenty million users. They
Speaker 1: have twenty million users, and they have a free offering.
Speaker 1: But they're making some changes. And here's the free offering change.
Speaker 1: In a nutshell. You now have to choose what types
Speaker 1: of devices you want to access your free passwords on.
Speaker 1: You can only choose one. You can choose either computers
Speaker 1: or mobile devices, but not both at the same time.
Speaker 1: So why is that a problem? Let me give you
Speaker 1: a scenario you have. You've got a computer and a
Speaker 1: smartphone and they both have last Pass installed in them,
Speaker 1: the free last Pass. Now, all of a sudden, you
Speaker 1: only get that option on one. So you go on
Speaker 1: your mobile device, you choose that and you make a
Speaker 1: new password, and of course, because you're using last Pass,
Speaker 1: you're making a really strong password for this new website
Speaker 1: that you're signing up for. Well, now you want to
Speaker 1: log into that website on your desktop computer well, guess what.
Speaker 1: You can't just go to last Pass and have it
Speaker 1: automatically fill that password in on your browser, nor can
Speaker 1: you copy and paste. You have to go to your
Speaker 1: phone look at that password, and you know, bring it
Speaker 1: and type it in on your computer and it's going
Speaker 1: to be twenty seven characters long and it's going to
Speaker 1: be a pain. So now you're just frustrated and you say, oh,
Speaker 1: I'll just break down and purchase last Pass premium, which
Speaker 1: is what they're trying to make you do. Now, if
Speaker 1: you have a Mac computer and an iPhone, yes you
Speaker 1: can say, rich, can't you just copy the password on
Speaker 1: your iPhone and use handoff to paste it onto your MacBook?
Speaker 1: Yes you can, which would work. But if you're using
Speaker 1: both of those services, then you know you can use
Speaker 1: my next solution, which is just to use iCloud Keychain,
Speaker 1: which is built in It's a it's a password manager
Speaker 1: that's built into the iOS and well the Apple ecosystem,
Speaker 1: and if you have all Apple products, that's what I
Speaker 1: recommend you use because it's free. I mean, you're already
Speaker 1: paying the price by being in the app Apple ecosystem,
Speaker 1: which is not a cheap thing to be in so
Speaker 1: you might as well use it, and it's great. It's
Speaker 1: integrated into Safari. Now you're not going to get the
Speaker 1: robust features that a independent third party password management software
Speaker 1: will give you. But if you're just on Apple and
Speaker 1: you want a free solution, it works great. And yes,
Speaker 1: it works very nicely. So Last Past changing the way
Speaker 1: they do it. You got to choose one or the other.
Speaker 1: You can see and you know, use your passwords on
Speaker 1: mobile devices or computers as of March sixteenth, So this
Speaker 1: is gonna have a lot of people either upgrading, you know,
Speaker 1: and paying for the premium, which is not that expensive.
Speaker 1: It's it's if you build annually. It's two twenty five
Speaker 1: a month. Twenty five times twelve is twenty seven dollars
Speaker 1: for the year. No big deal, but it's more of
Speaker 1: a it's more of like a kick in the shin. Right,
Speaker 1: you signed up for this thing because it was free,
Speaker 1: and they kind of got rid of that trust because
Speaker 1: now it's like, I mean, there's still trustworthy business and
Speaker 1: I still think last Pass is good. And it's yes
Speaker 1: to twenty seven dollars a year. It's fine. I pay
Speaker 1: for password software and it's you know, it's fine. I've
Speaker 1: been paying for it for a long time and it's
Speaker 1: great and I get my use out of it. But
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: signed up for this because they didn't have to pay.
Speaker 1: And this is why when people always ask me, hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: what do you recommend for password software? I would always
Speaker 1: give them a couple options because I want them to
Speaker 1: choose the best option for them. So in general, what
Speaker 1: I would tell people is, and if you've listened to
Speaker 1: this podcast, you've heard this, I say, a lot of
Speaker 1: people like last Pass because it's free or they have
Speaker 1: a free option. A lot of people like dash Lane,
Speaker 1: a lot of people like one password. And now the
Speaker 1: new one that a lot of people are using, and
Speaker 1: I might actually do a story with them, is called bitwarden.
Speaker 1: And this one is an open source password manager. And
Speaker 1: of course I think they still have plans and pricing.
Speaker 1: So free is personal plans, free is zero, So I
Speaker 1: mean you can get that for zero and that includes
Speaker 1: two people. That's pretty good. Actually, oh that's business plans. Sorry,
Speaker 1: personal plans free. Okay, it's free, all right, So that's
Speaker 1: probably where you want to go. Now, let's see hold on, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Bitwarden is free across all devices, So there you go.
Speaker 1: If you're looking to switch now, I have switched these
Speaker 1: in the past and it will hold on. I'm going
Speaker 1: through these. Yeah, we need to do a story on
Speaker 1: bitwarden because this is pretty good. So max users for
Speaker 1: free is one access to the apps, item storage, unlimited
Speaker 1: sync across all your devices is. Yes, you cannot share things,
Speaker 1: so you have to have a family account for that
Speaker 1: secure password generator. You can't attach a gig of files
Speaker 1: that you have to pay for encrypted export so you
Speaker 1: can do that. So what I was saying is these
Speaker 1: password management programs usually have an export feature where you
Speaker 1: can export and then import your password to another one.
Speaker 1: So if you're thinking of leaving last pass, I would
Speaker 1: take a good look at bitwarden. I have not used
Speaker 1: it personally, but it looks pretty strong and I like
Speaker 1: that it's open source, two step log in. It supports that.
Speaker 1: Now it doesn't support let's see. Yeah, so I think
Speaker 1: Bitwarden sounds pretty good. Otherwise, it's ten dollars a year
Speaker 1: for the premium and forty dollars a year for the family,
Speaker 1: So I think this sounds like a great alternative. I've
Speaker 1: gotten so many people on Twitter to tell me that
Speaker 1: they're using Bitwarden. And by the way, you know, I
Speaker 1: struggle with this privacy stuff. I don't think it's a
Speaker 1: great idea to advertise which password manager you're using. Now,
Speaker 1: I get it, you're you're not you know on TV.
Speaker 1: You're not a major, you know, celebrity or someone that
Speaker 1: you know whatever. My point is, I think that it's
Speaker 1: fine to telp your friends and family, but I wouldn't
Speaker 1: post it on social media because why give the bad
Speaker 1: guys one extra step to figuring out where to target you? Right,
Speaker 1: So that's my advice. And you know you're you're listening
Speaker 1: to the rich On Tech show, so that means it's
Speaker 1: my advice on this show. I'm just telling you what
Speaker 1: I think, and that's what I think. So there you
Speaker 1: have it, Sandy says Hi. I used to watch you
Speaker 1: all the time. Unfortunately we moved to Bakersfield. I stream occasionally.
Speaker 1: What website do you recommend to find the cheapest flight?
Speaker 1: Also our Tuesday's cheaper round trip. I need to fly
Speaker 1: from lax to Dallas Fort Worth tomorrow. Any suggestions, Sandy? Well, Sandy,
Speaker 1: this is a great question, and you know I use
Speaker 1: to fly a lot. I haven't. I've only flown once
Speaker 1: in the last year, which is just wild to me.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to get back up there. But I
Speaker 1: only use one website, and that one website is Google Flights,
Speaker 1: and that's flights dot Google dot com. I don't think
Speaker 1: you need another website to search for flights. And the
Speaker 1: reason I think that is because Google is the best
Speaker 1: when it comes to finding the cheapest flights, the way
Speaker 1: you can slice and dice flights, even just popping in
Speaker 1: a place and searching and finding suggestions on where to
Speaker 1: go that are cheap. So right now, if I look
Speaker 1: from Los Angeles and I want to let's I just
Speaker 1: want to do a one way ticket somewhere, you know,
Speaker 1: in the next six months. Let's just say in March,
Speaker 1: I can now look at an entire map of the US,
Speaker 1: and let's say I want to go NonStop. I only
Speaker 1: want to go NonStop. This map continues to change with
Speaker 1: all of the information that I'm putting in. Let's say
Speaker 1: I just want to look at skiing. Now it changes
Speaker 1: to skiing, and I see that I can go to
Speaker 1: Aspen for three hundred and thirty five dollars. On Wednesday,
Speaker 1: March seventeenth, or I can go to Reno on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: March seventeenth for thirty nine dollars, or I can go
Speaker 1: to Portland for sixty nine bucks. Let's say I don't
Speaker 1: want skiing. Let's say I only want to fly on
Speaker 1: a certain airline because I am with Star Alliance. Now
Speaker 1: I can see just those flights. So I think Google
Speaker 1: Flights is just the best. It is so amazing, it's
Speaker 1: so easy. It's the only thing I've used to search
Speaker 1: for flights for as long as it's been around. Now
Speaker 1: I have actually booked a flight through Google Flights. But
Speaker 1: most of the time it links you right to the
Speaker 1: specific carrier, and in some ways it'll even find you
Speaker 1: cheaper flights because they call these hacker fares, which hacker
Speaker 1: fares are fares that maybe leave on one airline and
Speaker 1: come back on another airline, and so that's on there.
Speaker 1: I mean, it really is good. So check out Google Flights,
Speaker 1: and to answer your question, I probably missed your flight
Speaker 1: that you needed, but you know this is what I
Speaker 1: look at, and you can save your trips, you can
Speaker 1: watch trips, you can. I mean, it's just so full
Speaker 1: featured that I love it. I just and you wonder
Speaker 1: where is Google get this information? Many years ago, they
Speaker 1: bought a site or I don't know, it was a
Speaker 1: company called I think it was called it Google Ita
Speaker 1: or is it x I think it was Google Ita
Speaker 1: Ita software Matrix by Google. So Matrix is from ITA
Speaker 1: and they bought this a long time ago and it's
Speaker 1: basically the software that all the travel agents used to use,
Speaker 1: and now Google has it. And of course the best
Speaker 1: thing about Google is that the the information around the
Speaker 1: flights is not just one thing. They're using so many
Speaker 1: signals to help you figure out these flights that I
Speaker 1: just think it's brilliant. And I know I love Google,
Speaker 1: but this is just one of those examples of how
Speaker 1: big data just really wins for the consumer when it
Speaker 1: comes to booking these things. And yeah, there's some ads
Speaker 1: and stuff, but the way that you can slice and
Speaker 1: dice the fly data is just so amazing to me.
Speaker 1: I don't you know, Kayak does a good job too,
Speaker 1: But I think there's a lot of there's a lot
Speaker 1: of like noise on these other websites, and I think
Speaker 1: that Google Flights is just kind of the cleanest and
Speaker 1: the easiest for me to understand. So that's the only
Speaker 1: one that I look at. And my personal favorite feature
Speaker 1: is if you are flexible with your flights, look at
Speaker 1: the calendar view. So if I type in the flight
Speaker 1: that I always do, which is LAX to EWR, and
Speaker 1: then I put round trip one person, first class, of course,
Speaker 1: just kidding, I wish, but you know, you can put
Speaker 1: in economy, premium, economy, business, or first and then you
Speaker 1: just click instead of choosing a date, you just click
Speaker 1: and wait a second, and the calendar populates with green
Speaker 1: numbers showing the cheapest days to fly. And if you
Speaker 1: just pick those two days, so if I want to
Speaker 1: fly there right now, I would go, Okay, March first
Speaker 1: is out. Second, Okay, I gotta go to March ninth,
Speaker 1: which is ninety five dollars. Oh ooh, March tenth was
Speaker 1: even cheaper, So I'm gonna reset the calendar. Let's go
Speaker 1: to March tenth. And then I wait a second on
Speaker 1: the calendar and I wait for the return dates to
Speaker 1: light up green, and the cheapest return date is the fourteenth,
Speaker 1: and I can go round trip for seventy nine dollars.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, seventy nine dollars for round trip to
Speaker 1: Newark Okay, Now this is on Spirit Airlines with one
Speaker 1: stop in Florida. I am not gonna do that, so
Speaker 1: I'm gonna change it to NonStop, which is again. And
Speaker 1: now I can go back to my calendar and check
Speaker 1: for the cheapest dates. Press reset one more time, and
Speaker 1: I'm looking at all the dates and the cheapest is
Speaker 1: one ninety seven. And if I go on March fourth
Speaker 1: to March seventh, eighth, I can go for the whole
Speaker 1: week if I want fifth through seventh, and there we
Speaker 1: go one hundred ninety seven bucks round trip. So that
Speaker 1: is how I search for flights, and you gotta be
Speaker 1: a little flexible to get those cheapest dates. But I
Speaker 1: just love how they show you all this information, So
Speaker 1: check it out. That's the way I do it, and
Speaker 1: I hope you love it. All right, what should we
Speaker 1: talk about next? All right? I talked about this a
Speaker 1: little bit last week. I'm not going to spend too
Speaker 1: much time, but I got a question about do you
Speaker 1: install antivirus software on your iPhone? And on this podcast
Speaker 1: for many years, I've been saying no, no, no, you
Speaker 1: don't need it, and I got to thinking, oh gosh,
Speaker 1: what if I'm giving people the wrong information all this time, right, Like,
Speaker 1: what if I'm totally wrong about this? So what I did?
Speaker 1: I went to a cybersecurity expert, Kevin Tatavosian. He runs
Speaker 1: a company called cyber Duo here in Los Angeles, and
Speaker 1: I said, Kevin, what is the deal with antivirus software
Speaker 1: on your iPhone? And my heart was like a little
Speaker 1: bit shaky because I was like, oh my gosh, what's
Speaker 1: his answer going to be? Have I been giving out
Speaker 1: the wrong advice all the time? And he said, after
Speaker 1: a little bit of like one little breath, he said,
Speaker 1: you don't really need it, and here's why. And I said, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: I've been giving people the right information. Here's why, and
Speaker 1: it's exactactly what I have been saying. He said. His
Speaker 1: term was that apps on the iPhone live in separate containers,
Speaker 1: which makes them secure. The way I've been explaining it
Speaker 1: is that each app is sort of sandbox. And if
Speaker 1: you think about a sandbox, think about a sandbox with
Speaker 1: really high sides. The sand isn't going anywhere. You can
Speaker 1: plain that sandbox as much as you want throw the
Speaker 1: sand around, but as long as those sides are high,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna get the sand outside that box. And
Speaker 1: this is the way you can think of of iPhone apps.
Speaker 1: They are sandbox, which means they've got really high sides,
Speaker 1: which even if they're getting all wild and crazy inside
Speaker 1: that sandbox, they're not going to affect other apps because
Speaker 1: the way iOS is is engineered, it's everything is sandboxed
Speaker 1: on its own, so one app can't reach out of
Speaker 1: that sandbox and grab onto another app the way it
Speaker 1: can on a Windows machine or even a Mac computer.
Speaker 1: And so that's why I've said, you don't really need
Speaker 1: this stuff on your phone, and you especially don't need
Speaker 1: to pay for it. So that's that. Now. The other
Speaker 1: thing you did say is on Android, and I've been
Speaker 1: saying on Android, I was a little bit waffly. I
Speaker 1: don't really think you need it, but there's definitely more
Speaker 1: potential for apps to interact with each other on Android,
Speaker 1: and that's what he agreed with. So on Android, I
Speaker 1: probably would recommend if you are, you know, someone who
Speaker 1: may click a link that's bad, or someone who may
Speaker 1: be downloading stuff that's bad. Not bad, I mean, like mau,
Speaker 1: you know it could be potentially bad, like you just
Speaker 1: don't know, like if you're setting up your phone for
Speaker 1: a family member that is less than tech inclient, you
Speaker 1: might want to put antivirus on there because it might
Speaker 1: click a link in one of these text messages that
Speaker 1: is less than smart to click. And so there's a
Speaker 1: website called what is it called avtest dot dot org
Speaker 1: that kind of ranks all of these antivirus software for
Speaker 1: both the laptop and the or you know, desktops and laptops.
Speaker 1: And why is it coming up in German? Weird? Okay,
Speaker 1: let me get that English. So anyway, they I recommend
Speaker 1: a VAST and AVEG, which I would concur with. I've
Speaker 1: heard good things about them. I did install them on
Speaker 1: my Android phone. The only thing I don't like about
Speaker 1: them is I don't know if this is an Android thing,
Speaker 1: but they have to have a persistent notification to work
Speaker 1: all the time, and I hate that. I hate persistent
Speaker 1: notifications on my Androids. And what that means is it's
Speaker 1: a notification that never goes away. It just stays there forever,
Speaker 1: and it's like a vast is running and protecting you.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, I get it. Can I just
Speaker 1: get rid of that? I don't want you there. But
Speaker 1: I think because of the way this operating system is engineered.
Speaker 1: They have to have that notification so that it can
Speaker 1: run all the time and basically take over in a
Speaker 1: heartbeat if you click a link that it needs to scan.
Speaker 1: So I think that's why. But there's other antivirus apps
Speaker 1: out there. You can check the av testavdash test dot
Speaker 1: org if you want to see what's good for you.
Speaker 1: And I think my Windows computer, you know, my advice
Speaker 1: for that stands as well, which is, you know, if
Speaker 1: you have a Windows computer, just update your software. They've
Speaker 1: got Windows Defender built in, so you know, use that.
Speaker 1: And uh they recommend this website called on Lab a
Speaker 1: h N lab. I've never heard of that, but that's
Speaker 1: what they recommend. And then a VAST and AVG so
Speaker 1: I would go with one of those. They actually rank okay,
Speaker 1: so they rank Microsoft Defender way down. They rank it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like tenth on the list. So maybe you want
Speaker 1: to put, you know, one of these other ones on
Speaker 1: your Windows computer. They're free, so you know, it should
Speaker 1: it should help. But anyway, that that's the advice on
Speaker 1: the the iPhone antivirus. Don't worry about it an iPhone
Speaker 1: if you have an Android probably and if you have
Speaker 1: a Windows computer, you might want to look into it.
Speaker 1: And if you have a Mac, I don't really think
Speaker 1: you need it on the Mac just yet, but that
Speaker 1: could change as max continue to get more popular. All right,
Speaker 1: Raymond sent a very cryptic email. All it said was
Speaker 1: how to save data and numbers. That's it, And I'm
Speaker 1: guessing he means he's switching to a new phone. Oh oh,
Speaker 1: his subject line did say upgrade phone. Okay, so upgrade phone,
Speaker 1: how to change, how to save data and numbers. So
Speaker 1: I get it. You're switching phones. You want to save
Speaker 1: and it says sent from Inxfinity Connect application. So my advice,
Speaker 1: if you have a phone on iPhone, you can just
Speaker 1: back everything up to the iCloud. So if you have
Speaker 1: an iPhone, back everything up to iCloud, you can use that.
Speaker 1: Or if you have one of these third party apps,
Speaker 1: like if you have like Verizon or like AT and
Speaker 1: T and maybe T Mobile has one as well. They
Speaker 1: have like these cloud apps that come included usually with
Speaker 1: like a you know, the higher end subscription plans, like
Speaker 1: an unlimited plan, and you get like a little maybe
Speaker 1: a little bit of cloud space on there, but like
Speaker 1: there's like a Verizon backup Assistant app. Okay, so if
Speaker 1: you yeah, how to use backup assistant, so they call
Speaker 1: it Verizon Cloud Slash Backup Assistant. So most of them
Speaker 1: haven't installed. If not, you can install it by you know,
Speaker 1: searching for backup Assistant. So I wonder if they have
Speaker 1: backup Assistant for iPhone. Let's see iPhone. I don't know
Speaker 1: if they do. They may, it looks like it might
Speaker 1: be just Android. But anyway, so the point is you
Speaker 1: can you can use one of those, but I think
Speaker 1: your best bet on iPhone is just to use iicloud.
Speaker 1: Make sure everything's backed up into I Cloud. Doesn't cost
Speaker 1: you much if you're just doing data in numbers. You
Speaker 1: can also use Google. So on Android you can download
Speaker 1: the Google one app. And so if you download Google one,
Speaker 1: even if you're not as paying subscriber, you still get
Speaker 1: fifteen gigs of storage for Google. And the Google one
Speaker 1: app has really upped the anti lately because it will
Speaker 1: it will save the things that you need, which are
Speaker 1: your contacts and your I think it does. Let's see
Speaker 1: what does it do? Let me see Google one. Oh
Speaker 1: on Android or iPhone? So on iPhone it will back
Speaker 1: up your contacts, calendar, photos, and videos. So if you
Speaker 1: just have a couple of things, you can back up
Speaker 1: all that stuff, which is really cool. So you have
Speaker 1: this on iPhone and Android, and it does the same
Speaker 1: on Android. So I would use Google One. It's an
Speaker 1: app and Google Play and also on the App Store
Speaker 1: for Apple and you get fifteen gigs. That's probably the
Speaker 1: easiest because you can just back up your contacts, you
Speaker 1: back up your calendar, back up your photos, your videos,
Speaker 1: and boom, it's all there. It's in Google. It's safe.
Speaker 1: And then when you get your new phone, download that
Speaker 1: Google One app and just bring it back to you.
Speaker 1: Now this is a little confusing because it also if
Speaker 1: you're signed into Google, you can back up all your
Speaker 1: contacts and stuff to Google, and of course your calendar.
Speaker 1: But I think that this makes it a little bit
Speaker 1: clearer that you are backed up, and I think that
Speaker 1: that's an easy way to do it, and especially if
Speaker 1: you're helping migrate like a friend or a family member,
Speaker 1: that's an easy way to do it as well. So
Speaker 1: I think people forget about these apps, but they are
Speaker 1: out there, so just search for them. And then there's
Speaker 1: of course third party apps, which you know you have
Speaker 1: to be a little bit wary about those, because you know,
Speaker 1: you are talking about your calendar and your contacts and
Speaker 1: giving access to the items on your phone. So just
Speaker 1: be a little bit more aware. If it's like a
Speaker 1: random app that you're, you know, downloading to back up
Speaker 1: your contacts, you want to use a trusted source in
Speaker 1: that case, because these are your contacts, all right. Quick
Speaker 1: housekeeping note, Apple TV is now Apple TV app is
Speaker 1: now available on chrome Cast with Google TV. And when
Speaker 1: I posted this on my Facebook page, I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't even know how to explain this because here,
Speaker 1: let's let's break this down for a second. The Apple
Speaker 1: TV app, which includes Apple Plus, is now available on
Speaker 1: chrome Cast, but only chrome Cast with Google TV. Do
Speaker 1: you see how many things are mixed in there. It's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're talking about, Rich, So breaking
Speaker 1: it down, Google TV is the chrome cast that came out.
Speaker 1: I think it's called Chrome Cast with Google TV. This
Speaker 1: is the fifty dollars chrome cast that came out. I
Speaker 1: think it was last year, maybe October and maybe earlier,
Speaker 1: but I bought one immediately. It has the best way
Speaker 1: I can describe it. It's the only chrome cast that
Speaker 1: has a remote control, so that's the way I describe it.
Speaker 1: If your Chrome Cast has a remote control, that's the
Speaker 1: one that is sort of an all in one system
Speaker 1: that I think is a great streaming device. And in fact,
Speaker 1: this was the one app that was not available on
Speaker 1: chrome Cast with Google TV that I wanted, and I
Speaker 1: ended up going back to my Apple TV. But now
Speaker 1: I may go back to this because I really like
Speaker 1: this device for various reasons. It continues to get better.
Speaker 1: The thing I did not like about it is that
Speaker 1: the apps take a little bit longer to load than
Speaker 1: I would like. It doesn't seem to be as snappy
Speaker 1: as Apple TV for loading apps. And my wife she
Speaker 1: noticed that too. She's like, oh, Netflix takes a long
Speaker 1: time to load. And so you know, if you're not
Speaker 1: getting access to those those racy scenes in Bridgerton like
Speaker 1: right away, I mean, you know, people get a little
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, what's going on. I need need to
Speaker 1: get my Bridgerton fixed, right if you watch Bridgerton, which
Speaker 1: I didn't, I'm just joking because I know that there's
Speaker 1: a joke because it's like the racist show apparently on Netflix. Anyway.
Speaker 1: So Apple TV app now available on Chromecast with Google
Speaker 1: TV and The reason I say this is because it
Speaker 1: includes Apple TV Plus. So the first thing you could
Speaker 1: do with the Apple TV app is access all the
Speaker 1: items that you've purchased over the years on Apple TV
Speaker 1: or i should say on iTunes. So all the movies
Speaker 1: that you had, like if you're building a collection, you
Speaker 1: can now finally access them through this Apple TV app.
Speaker 1: But more importantly I think for more people is the
Speaker 1: Apple TV Plus of ability to you know, ability to
Speaker 1: access those items, which those are TV shows like ted Lasso,
Speaker 1: the morning show Greyhound, which I did watch with Tom Hanks.
Speaker 1: It was a pretty good movie Palmer starring Justin Timberlake.
Speaker 1: I did not watch, but I've heard it's decent, and
Speaker 1: there's a lot of random stuff like for the kids
Speaker 1: on there, like the Snoopy show, which my kid I'm
Speaker 1: trying to get him to watch that, but they're so
Speaker 1: obsessed with Minecraft that it's like tough to take their
Speaker 1: eyes off anything said Minecraft. I did. I did successfully
Speaker 1: get rid of Roadblocks, though I will tell you that
Speaker 1: in my home Roadblocks is limited to one hour on
Speaker 1: a Saturday night and it's worked out. It's it's amazing
Speaker 1: these these kids, the resiliency when they don't have something,
Speaker 1: they don't really miss it, and yeah, I get a little,
Speaker 1: you know, a little whining here and there. Oh, my
Speaker 1: friends are playing roadblocks. Well yeah, and guess what. When
Speaker 1: I talk to your friend's parents, they all say the
Speaker 1: same thing. My kids are addicted to roadblocks and I
Speaker 1: don't like it. And so, you know, it's this, it's
Speaker 1: this honeymoon period with roadblocks where parents love it because oh,
Speaker 1: my kid is so into this. Oh my gosh, it's
Speaker 1: like I can take a little breather here for one hour,
Speaker 1: two hours, three hour, four hours, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
Speaker 1: unlimited hours because kids can stay on that unlimited. It's
Speaker 1: unlike anything I've ever seen in my life, because when
Speaker 1: I was a kid, you watched the show and you
Speaker 1: couldn't wait to get back outside. Yeah, we were couch
Speaker 1: potatoes on certain occasions, but for the most part, we
Speaker 1: were outside all the time. And I know him sounding
Speaker 1: like old man Rich, but I am. I'm getting older
Speaker 1: and I'm realizing that some of this stuff is not
Speaker 1: very good for our children. Now. I'm guilty of the
Speaker 1: fact that I don't just let my kids go outside
Speaker 1: and play for hours without me being out there. But
Speaker 1: they can go in the backyard and play and it's like,
Speaker 1: come on, you'll survive. My kid the other day told
Speaker 1: me when I said go outside, he said there was
Speaker 1: cat poop on the lawn somewhere. And we don't have
Speaker 1: a cat, but there's some cats that run around the
Speaker 1: neighborhood and they leave, you know, the little surprises for
Speaker 1: me on the lawn, which is horrendous, but it happens.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, really, the entire backyard is ruined because
Speaker 1: there's one little area where a cat went to the bathroom. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't want to step in it. Okay, okay, stay
Speaker 1: away from that area because you know, Dad didn't really
Speaker 1: feel like going to clean it up. I've had to
Speaker 1: do that many times on our on our property. But uh,
Speaker 1: you know, anyway, I digress. But the point is, I
Speaker 1: don't know what the point was. But Apple TV Plus
Speaker 1: is now on Google TV, and yeah you can get
Speaker 1: it and limit limit roadblocks time. That's that's my advice.
Speaker 1: Limit the time we have they So the funny thing
Speaker 1: is now they're playing Minecraft. They get they get I
Speaker 1: think it's two hours of Minecraft a day, but they
Speaker 1: found this game on Minecraft, which I think looks a
Speaker 1: lot like roadblocks called egg Wars, and now they're just
Speaker 1: playing nah. So it's like I give up. You know,
Speaker 1: It's like they just they just channel their energy into
Speaker 1: these little games, and I get it. All the kids
Speaker 1: we played games. I used to get a Nintendo thumb
Speaker 1: from playing RC What was it RC pro Am? Is
Speaker 1: that it was it RC pro Am? Yeah? RC pro Am.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, I'm really dating myself. Oh gosh. RC pro
Speaker 1: Am was developed in for Nintendo in February nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 1: Oh god, yeah, but I used to get Nintendo thumb
Speaker 1: from playing that. In paper Boy, we used to play
Speaker 1: that forever and all these other video games. But you know,
Speaker 1: you had to go into the basement and you know,
Speaker 1: you came up to go outside. That's what we did anyway.
Speaker 1: All right, let's take another question. Enough of my complaining.
Speaker 1: Mario says, hello, oh, how appropriate. We just talked about
Speaker 1: Nintendo And his name is Mario. Hello. My son is
Speaker 1: fourteen years old and loves to sing and likes to
Speaker 1: create his own sound slash music and is now combining
Speaker 1: it with videos using a light motion app. I don't
Speaker 1: know that one, and for making music he's using Soundtrap.
Speaker 1: Can I suggest, Can you suggest what I can get
Speaker 1: him to expand his interest looking for under three hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: We don't have an Apple computer, just an HP Chromebook,
Speaker 1: and he has an Apple phone, Mario, So Mario, my
Speaker 1: advice is to get him an iPad. And I know, oh, Rich,
Speaker 1: you only like Apple stuff. Oh my gosh, we stop
Speaker 1: recommending Apple stuff. Well, I mean, look, this is the best.
Speaker 1: You're saying you want to spend three hundred bucks. An
Speaker 1: iPad is three hundred and thirty dollars usually on sale.
Speaker 1: The latest generation is about three hundred and so look
Speaker 1: around a little bit from a reputable place. Even Amazon
Speaker 1: has it for three hundred. Generally, Google search iPad deals
Speaker 1: and click the news and look for the bloggers blogging
Speaker 1: about these deals because they like to blog about them
Speaker 1: because they get a little cut of the product, and
Speaker 1: you know the purchase price, and so you win and
Speaker 1: they win, and we all win because they're tracking these
Speaker 1: prices for you, and you don't have to go search
Speaker 1: in Google for these random places. They'll they'll do the
Speaker 1: math for you. So get them an iPad. And just
Speaker 1: there are so many amazing apps on iPad that can
Speaker 1: work with music and I think garage band is on
Speaker 1: there for free, so he can start there. I've never
Speaker 1: figured out garage band, but if but he's fourteen, so
Speaker 1: he will and you'll find he'll find so many things.
Speaker 1: Now he can use the microphone on the iPad to start.
Speaker 1: But I would recommend you probably want to get them
Speaker 1: a little microphone that he can plug into the iPad.
Speaker 1: There are plenty that work with it. You might have
Speaker 1: to get an adapter. You might not, but I would say, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, they do have a USB to lightning adapter
Speaker 1: for the iPad. Get them that and just do some research.
Speaker 1: Look at Blue Microphones. They've got some really inexpensive microphones
Speaker 1: for starters, and I believe one of them will plug
Speaker 1: into the iPad. So if you look at microphones and
Speaker 1: you know they've got this snowball mic for fifty bucks,
Speaker 1: let's see if that is compatible with the iPad. Because
Speaker 1: let's see, uh this is Let's see can you use
Speaker 1: it with the iPad features and specs, USB output, plug
Speaker 1: and play with Mac and PC. So let me just
Speaker 1: google Snowball Snowball mic iPad and let's see if it
Speaker 1: works with it. How to use Blue USB microphones with
Speaker 1: an iPhone or iPad. And the answer is, it looks
Speaker 1: like you can. They confirmed to work with Apple Lightning
Speaker 1: to USB and USB C T USB adapters as well
Speaker 1: as USB on the go technology. So there you have it.
Speaker 1: You can get a little it looks like interesting. You
Speaker 1: can connect it to an iPhone. Wow, Okay, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of different Yeah, so just get the USB Lightning
Speaker 1: to USB adapter and boom you're done. So that's what
Speaker 1: I recommend. So you're talking four hundred bucks for a
Speaker 1: full setup and he can grow from there. And now,
Speaker 1: the microphone that I recently reviewed, which I am just
Speaker 1: in love with, is called the Tula mic to Ula
Speaker 1: and I'm not saying that you have to get this overnight,
Speaker 1: but it's a two hundred dollars microphone that records into itself,
Speaker 1: but you can also use it as USB. And I
Speaker 1: have not confirmed if it works with I'm sure, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sure. You can plug it into an iPhone with
Speaker 1: the with the adapter as well, So with that he
Speaker 1: can record music by itself and then he can bring
Speaker 1: the audio files into iPads. So I mean, there's just
Speaker 1: a world of possibility here. And I love the fact
Speaker 1: that your son is doing this because let him be creative,
Speaker 1: let him make stuff, and I think the iPad is
Speaker 1: going to be the best way for him to get
Speaker 1: started doing that. Eventually, you want to get him a MacBook,
Speaker 1: But these these kids, I'm telling you, they are mobile first,
Speaker 1: and he may not need a MacBook to do it.
Speaker 1: He may be able to do everything he needs to
Speaker 1: do on this on this computer, so on this tablet rather.
Speaker 1: So that's that's what I re commend. All right, Let's see, uh,
Speaker 1: let's see. Let's see what do we want to talk
Speaker 1: about next. We got that, We got that, We talked
Speaker 1: about that. Okay, let's talk about this one real quick.
Speaker 1: In Google Maps, really cool feature. You'll you will be
Speaker 1: able to pay for parking meters inside Google Maps. And
Speaker 1: this is like a no brainer. I every time I
Speaker 1: pull up to a parking meet, it amazes me that
Speaker 1: I have to find a quarter in my car and
Speaker 1: pay for that parking meter using a quarter. Now, yes,
Speaker 1: a lot of the parking meters around here in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles do take a credit card or a debit card,
Speaker 1: But why do you even need to take that? Why
Speaker 1: we all have smartphones. Put a QR code on that
Speaker 1: parking meter, bring me to a page that lets me
Speaker 1: pay for that meter with Apple Pay instantly, no sign up,
Speaker 1: no nothing, nothing, just let me pay. And yeah, there's
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of these companies that have set up
Speaker 1: these systems that are super complicated where you gotta sign
Speaker 1: up and sign in and download an app, and it's
Speaker 1: such a pain that every city has a different system.
Speaker 1: Just give me a QR code, let me scan it
Speaker 1: and let me pay. Let me pay with Google Pay,
Speaker 1: let me pay with Apple Pay, let me pay with
Speaker 1: Samsung Pay. Is should just come up in the browser.
Speaker 1: Oh we see you're at parking meter two seventy five
Speaker 1: on North First Street. Would you like an hour of
Speaker 1: time or two hours of time and boom you pay?
Speaker 1: Maybe that's out there, but it's not out there in
Speaker 1: a big enough way. So anyway, I say this because
Speaker 1: Google Maps is now letting you pay for parking meters
Speaker 1: from inside Google Maps. And so now when you park
Speaker 1: at a meter, you can look for a pay for
Speaker 1: parking button that appears when you get near your destination.
Speaker 1: And this is okay, but I feel like this is
Speaker 1: a little bit of an in between technology. We're going
Speaker 1: to get there, but Google's trying and What Google's really
Speaker 1: good at is like taking you know, because there's so
Speaker 1: many of these providers out there that are doing parking.
Speaker 1: What they are good at doing is taking all of
Speaker 1: them and integrating them into their app and saying, it
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter who's doing the back end processing of
Speaker 1: this parking meter. We're just going to present a big
Speaker 1: pay button to you and you press it and boom,
Speaker 1: you're done. And that's basically what they've done. So they're
Speaker 1: working right now with up two organizations. One is a
Speaker 1: Passport and one is park Mobile. I did a story
Speaker 1: with park Mobile many years ago in Hollywood when they
Speaker 1: outfitted a whole bunch of meters in Hollywood with the
Speaker 1: park mobile technology and it was great. This was at
Speaker 1: least probably five, six, maybe seven years ago. And you know,
Speaker 1: now Google is just making it easier because how many
Speaker 1: people are actually gonna, you know, go to a new
Speaker 1: city say, oh, that's cool, they use park Mobile. Let
Speaker 1: me let me download the app, let me sign up,
Speaker 1: let me sign in. No, half the people don't do
Speaker 1: that because it's too much work. So if it's in
Speaker 1: Google and they're just using park Mobile's back end network
Speaker 1: and then on the front end, it's Google Pay. You're
Speaker 1: in Google. It's all signed in with your email address.
Speaker 1: You already you already have a you know, Google account. Boom.
Speaker 1: It's easy. More people use it. So I think this
Speaker 1: is brilliant. I love it. I hope they expand it.
Speaker 1: Hopefully Apple Maps will do the same thing, because Apple
Speaker 1: Maps is very similar. Both Apple Maps and Google Maps
Speaker 1: are understanding that people are using these apps as a
Speaker 1: one stop shop for everything, whether it's finding a restaurant
Speaker 1: to eat app. Maybe not so much yet, but it's
Speaker 1: it's happening. I get the idea that you type in
Speaker 1: Seattle and it gives you everything you need to know
Speaker 1: about Seattle. Not just driving directions in Seattle, you get
Speaker 1: biking directions, you get transit. So the other thing that
Speaker 1: Google is doing in Google Maps is letting you pay
Speaker 1: for your transit fares. So they're working with over eighty
Speaker 1: transit agencies. Now, going back to my days when I
Speaker 1: lived in New York City, I will tell you that
Speaker 1: I could not half the problem of living in New
Speaker 1: York City when I was there is there was no
Speaker 1: such thing as Apple Maps or Google Maps. There were,
Speaker 1: there just wasn't, and so you would have to there
Speaker 1: was a website or I think an app called like
Speaker 1: Hopper or sub hoop or subway hop or something that
Speaker 1: you would before you went somewhere. You go on your
Speaker 1: desktop computer, you type in your destination and you would
Speaker 1: print out subway maps like directions to get to the place.
Speaker 1: And now when I go to New York City, I
Speaker 1: feel like I own that city when I'm on Google
Speaker 1: Maps or Apple Maps, because it tells me exactly which
Speaker 1: train to take, where the station is, how much time
Speaker 1: it's going to take me. And with this new update
Speaker 1: with buses and trains, you can pay for your fare.
Speaker 1: So that's the other thing is that, you know, if
Speaker 1: I was ever buying like a let's say I went
Speaker 1: to San Francisco for the day, you'd you know, it
Speaker 1: would tell you you need to take the bar to
Speaker 1: this station, and it would tell you how much it is,
Speaker 1: six dollars, eighty five cents, whatever it is. And now
Speaker 1: you'll be able to tap there and actually buy your
Speaker 1: fare right from Google Maps and save that in your
Speaker 1: little wallet and just show that or scan it or
Speaker 1: whatever that you do for Clipper when you get there. Brilliant.
Speaker 1: Same thing, you know, Las Vegas, you take the Monteroail.
Speaker 1: It says, oh, you can take the monorail. You buy
Speaker 1: your monorail pass right from within Google Maps. Now I'm
Speaker 1: not saying, I'm not confirming that those two things are
Speaker 1: indeed supported, but I'm just giving you an idea. You
Speaker 1: go to Japan and it's like, oh, I need to
Speaker 1: take this train to wherever, and used to need this.
Speaker 1: It's called a sweek a card and maybe that's integrated now.
Speaker 1: So again it used to tell you how much it
Speaker 1: would cost to get there. Now the next level is
Speaker 1: to actually let you purchase that fare from right inside
Speaker 1: Google Maps. You are so ready, you don't have to
Speaker 1: deal with these little payment terminals inside the you know station.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, let me tell you a quick story. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh. I was in Japan once and I don't
Speaker 1: know if I took the wrong train or whatever I did,
Speaker 1: but I exited the train station and for some reason
Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember this story, but I could not
Speaker 1: get back into the train station because I did not
Speaker 1: have a valid fare card. So whatever I did, I
Speaker 1: really screwed up. And I don't know what I did,
Speaker 1: but long story short, I ended up. I ended up,
Speaker 1: and I thought I was gonna be arrested, And oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, this was like the scariest moment because I
Speaker 1: had to go through the exit and literally go to
Speaker 1: the exit that I came out of. I had to
Speaker 1: go the wrong way and buy my fare card, and
Speaker 1: like I was like a salmon swimming upstream amongst all
Speaker 1: these people, and I had to buy my fare card
Speaker 1: to get back into the station so that I could
Speaker 1: take the right train that I needed. And I don't
Speaker 1: really remember the circumst answers. All I remember is that
Speaker 1: it was very complicated and I had no cash, and
Speaker 1: I it was like a whole big thing. Because in
Speaker 1: Japan it's changed a lot. But back in the day
Speaker 1: when I first started visiting the financial system, like they
Speaker 1: did not take like American credit or debit cards anywhere
Speaker 1: like they do now, like they used to. You know,
Speaker 1: now it's gotten a lot better with tap to pay,
Speaker 1: But back in the day, Japan was very advanced and
Speaker 1: everything was taped to pay, whereas American credit cards were not,
Speaker 1: and it was it was either tap to pay or
Speaker 1: like a chip card, I think, and American cards were
Speaker 1: swipe and I just you just didn't have anywhere where
Speaker 1: you could swipe anywhere. It just didn't. It wasn't a thing,
Speaker 1: and so I think that's what the thing was. I
Speaker 1: needed cash or I needed a Oh my gosh, And
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking about it now because I haven't thought
Speaker 1: about the story in so long. But it was so
Speaker 1: scary that I just thought I was gonna be thrown
Speaker 1: in a jail over there because I went through the
Speaker 1: exit and I forget what happened if I ended up
Speaker 1: asking one of the people if I could do it
Speaker 1: or whatever it was. I did it and it worked
Speaker 1: and I'm still here. So but oh my gosh, that
Speaker 1: was That was a bad, bad feeling. All right, Do
Speaker 1: I have time for one more question? I don't think
Speaker 1: I do. I think it's uh. I think it's that time.
Speaker 1: I think it's that time when you hear this music.
Speaker 1: That music means it's the end of the show. I
Speaker 1: didn't get to talk about everything I want to talk about,
Speaker 1: but I never do. That's why you gotta follow me
Speaker 1: on social media, rich on Tech. That's where I talk about,
Speaker 1: you know, random things from time to time. That's gonna
Speaker 1: do it for this episode of the show. If you
Speaker 1: would like to submit a question for me to answer,
Speaker 1: Just go to rich on Tech dot tv slash podcast,
Speaker 1: hit the microphone button to leave a voicemail, or go
Speaker 1: to my Facebook page Facebook dot com slash rich on tech,
Speaker 1: hit the big blue send email button, or if you
Speaker 1: want to just bypass all that Hello at richon tech
Speaker 1: dot tv. Also, I would love it if you would
Speaker 1: rate and review this podcast to help other people discover it.
Speaker 1: I did recently get a new rating, which I will
Speaker 1: read to you right now. Yeah you could see. I
Speaker 1: don't prep for this because it's taking all this time
Speaker 1: to bring it up here it says. Mariott on January seventeenth,
Speaker 1: said the host a great show, five stars. The host
Speaker 1: is knowledgeable and interesting. I always learn something from every podcast.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Pe Mariette. Appreciate that. If you would like
Speaker 1: to rate this podcast, just go to rate this podcast
Speaker 1: dot com, slash rich on tech. You can find me
Speaker 1: on all social media at rich on tech. I'm Richidmirol.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. Stay safe, I will talk
Speaker 1: to you real soon