Speaker 1: Not one, not two, but three tech events in one
Speaker 1: week from Apple, Google, and Samsung. Can You Handle It?
Speaker 1: Tyle revamps its lineup, and best Buy introduces total Tech Everywhere.
Speaker 1: Plus your tech questions Answered? What's going on? I'm Rich
Speaker 1: Damiro and this is Rich on Tech, the podcast where
Speaker 1: I talk about the tech stuff I think you should
Speaker 1: know about. It's also the place where I answer the
Speaker 1: questions you send me. That's right, you right there listening. Yeah,
Speaker 1: don't look around, it's you. My name is Rich Smiro,
Speaker 1: tech reporter at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles. Hopefully
Speaker 1: you are having a fantastic day. Hope all as well.
Speaker 1: Right before I came on to the show, McDonald's announced
Speaker 1: they are going to have the mcplant burger at eight
Speaker 1: restaurants in the US starting November three. They worked with
Speaker 1: Beyond on the patty, which is made from peas, rice
Speaker 1: and potatoes. It's got all the regular toppings, including American cheese,
Speaker 1: so not really a vegan dish here, But locations that
Speaker 1: they're going to test it include Texas, Iowa, Louisiana, and California.
Speaker 1: Kind of a cross section of the US. Nothing on
Speaker 1: the East coast. Interesting, of course, I am going to
Speaker 1: try to get my hands on one of these burgers
Speaker 1: to taste test it, because I if you follow me,
Speaker 1: you know that I love tasting the new I don't
Speaker 1: want to call it fake food because it's food, but
Speaker 1: and I don't want to call it franken food because
Speaker 1: you know it's it's not necessarily manufacturer well I guess
Speaker 1: it is, but it's made from things in the in
Speaker 1: the world. It's not something that's like made in a
Speaker 1: chemical factory. And I've been to these the Beyond, like
Speaker 1: plant where they come up with this stuff, and it's
Speaker 1: really fascinating. They kind of like they take little cross
Speaker 1: sections of all kinds of food and figure out how
Speaker 1: to reproduce it, or I guess recreate it using different things,
Speaker 1: you know, different seasonings, different plants. So it's really fascinating. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I can't wait. Maybe I'm just hungry, but it looks
Speaker 1: delicious to me, and I'm up for you know, I'm
Speaker 1: fine with a regular burger, but I'm always fine with
Speaker 1: a plant burger as well. So the thing is a
Speaker 1: lot of the comments on my Facebook page are quite negative,
Speaker 1: but the reality is these things can coexist and we're
Speaker 1: not trying to replace meat. We're just trying to give
Speaker 1: people an option, especially in places where you know you
Speaker 1: may not be able to have all the options that
Speaker 1: you want. I think I've talked about this before, but anyway,
Speaker 1: we've got a lot to talk about in today's show,
Speaker 1: so let's just get right to it. Next week, a big,
Speaker 1: big event happening or three, well probably two big events
Speaker 1: or just one, depending on how you look at it.
Speaker 1: But there's going to be an Apple event on Monday,
Speaker 1: then a Google event on Tuesday for the Pixel, and
Speaker 1: then a Samsung event on Wednesday. And of course all
Speaker 1: three companies except for Google, haven't really said what we're
Speaker 1: gonna see. But Apple, according to nine to five Mac,
Speaker 1: expecting redesigned fourteen and sixteen inch MacBook pros, which I've
Speaker 1: talked about how much I can't wait to get a
Speaker 1: new MacBook Pro sixteen with the new M one chip.
Speaker 1: And this is gonna be the M one X, which
Speaker 1: is gonna be a little bit modified, probably even better.
Speaker 1: But now that push comes to shove and I have
Speaker 1: to spend my hard earned cash, I don't know. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I think my computer's just fine. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I need that, but you know I want it, so
Speaker 1: we'll see. And since I'm not selling my old devices
Speaker 1: anymore because I have so many kids, I have to
Speaker 1: trade them, you know, pass them down to them. So
Speaker 1: it's not like I have any trade in money either.
Speaker 1: So this is this gonna be a big expenditure, but
Speaker 1: we'll see. I don't know if I'm gonna do it
Speaker 1: just yet. We'll have to see. Like I said, they'll
Speaker 1: have the new M one x chip which might support
Speaker 1: up to thirty two gigs a RAM, which you need
Speaker 1: on the MacBook Pro. Mine's got sixteen and it it's fine,
Speaker 1: but it could be better. Return of mag safe to
Speaker 1: plug it in, which is the magnetic connector that not
Speaker 1: the same as the thing on the iPhone, but similar.
Speaker 1: I mean it's all magnetic charging. And then let's see
Speaker 1: HDMI port. They say they're bringing back in an SD
Speaker 1: card slot, which would be really handy. No more touch bar,
Speaker 1: which touch bar is horrible. There's no reason for it.
Speaker 1: It's literally the worst thing on this computer. And I
Speaker 1: don't understand why they dedicated a tiny strip at the
Speaker 1: top to it. There's just no need. And if you're
Speaker 1: not getting a new computer, we'll find out when mac
Speaker 1: Os Monterey comes out. That should launch probably any day
Speaker 1: now in October. And then let's see, we've got Google
Speaker 1: with the Google Pixel. Very excited for that. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm also thinking about getting one of those Google Pixel six.
Speaker 1: I'll probably go for the pro. If I get it,
Speaker 1: we'll see. I definitely don't have to review it because
Speaker 1: I'm curious what the camera is all about. But that's exciting.
Speaker 1: A lot of that been leaked, but we don't know
Speaker 1: the full picture just yet. We know a lot of
Speaker 1: bits and pieces, but until reviewers get them in their hands,
Speaker 1: which some of them probably already have for the past
Speaker 1: couple of weeks under embargo, we won't know what the
Speaker 1: capabilities of that camera really is. And then, finally, not
Speaker 1: to be left out, Samsung says, oh, we're doing one too,
Speaker 1: Galaxy Unpacked Part two, And I don't know this one
Speaker 1: is a little sketchy because they say it's very I mean,
Speaker 1: Samsung's already released all of their big devices for the year,
Speaker 1: so there's not like they need to do something else.
Speaker 1: But they say, our users live life in so many colorful,
Speaker 1: interesting and unique ways. As such, the technology they use
Speaker 1: every day should reflect their individual out individuality. Come see
Speaker 1: how Samsung is opening up new experiences for self expression
Speaker 1: through technology. That to me sounds like it's not that exciting.
Speaker 1: Some people are speculating that it's different color phone. I
Speaker 1: don't know. We'll see, but they're not really promising too
Speaker 1: much there, so it's not like it's that big of
Speaker 1: a deal. All right, Let's get right to the first
Speaker 1: question of the day. Joyce says, my name is Joyce.
Speaker 1: My husband and I watch you in Saint Louis. We're
Speaker 1: interested in buying a home security system for the outside
Speaker 1: of our home, preferably three cameras. We do not want
Speaker 1: inside cameras. We're in our sixties and pretty overwhelmed with
Speaker 1: all the choices options. Don't know if I can get
Speaker 1: recommendations from you on good, reliable system that will help
Speaker 1: us monitor the outside of our home, anything would be appreciated.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Joyce. Well, Joyce, there's a couple
Speaker 1: different may I mean, there's so many different cameras. You're right,
Speaker 1: there are many different brands out there, from Google to
Speaker 1: to Whys to Blink to you know, even like the
Speaker 1: simply safes of the world, like if you want like
Speaker 1: a full alarm system. Then of course you have the
Speaker 1: wise cameras, the ring cameras, I mean there's a lot,
Speaker 1: But then you have Arlow. Of course you have SWAN
Speaker 1: for like the actual like DVR systems. But I would
Speaker 1: say I would say it comes down to two things
Speaker 1: that you need to decide. Do you want to record
Speaker 1: this footage the entire time, like twenty four to seven
Speaker 1: you can go back and see anything that happened on
Speaker 1: those cameras, or do you just want events to be recorded?
Speaker 1: And events mean when someone walks in front of your camera,
Speaker 1: it will trigger a recording for sixty to ninety seconds.
Speaker 1: So if you want the simplest and the cheapest solution,
Speaker 1: I think for that is definitely going to be the
Speaker 1: ring cameras and also the most elaborate when it comes
Speaker 1: to setting them up. Because you say you want three cameras,
Speaker 1: you can easily put up three ring cameras either with
Speaker 1: solar or with a battery and just replace that battery,
Speaker 1: which I wouldn't fully recommend, or you can plug them
Speaker 1: in a do they make an outdoor that you can
Speaker 1: plug in? I'm not sure, but I think you would
Speaker 1: just go solar in that circumstance. So that's option one.
Speaker 1: I think that's going to be your best option. You
Speaker 1: can see all the cameras on the same page. They
Speaker 1: work really well. Ring is very proven. Once you fall
Speaker 1: in love with the Ring cameras, you'll buy a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of other stuff from Ring as well. Now, your
Speaker 1: other option, which I think is your cheapest option, and
Speaker 1: this will give you twenty four to seven recording, is
Speaker 1: going to be the wisecams and so they've got a
Speaker 1: Wisecam outdoor bundle. You get the bundle which will include
Speaker 1: a little base station inside and then one camera, and
Speaker 1: then you can purchase two other additional cameras that will
Speaker 1: work with that wireless base station. And these cameras are
Speaker 1: they are battery operated, so you know you'd have to
Speaker 1: decide if that's right for you. You can also get
Speaker 1: a solar panel for them if you want, but I
Speaker 1: don't think they make a native one. I think you
Speaker 1: have to buy like a I tested one from a
Speaker 1: third party company which worked just fine. And that's your
Speaker 1: second option, And that does give you the option to
Speaker 1: put a micro SD card into the base station and
Speaker 1: record the cameras twenty four to seven, So that will
Speaker 1: use significant amounts of battery. So I would say, if
Speaker 1: you want twenty four seven recording, you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: invest neither these solar panels or the plug in cameras.
Speaker 1: And Whyse does make cameras that plug in outdoors as well,
Speaker 1: it's just not the outdoor camera. It's just the Whyse.
Speaker 1: I think it's the version three just works indoors outdoors,
Speaker 1: so you can put that outside. So you can do
Speaker 1: that too. Now if you want something that's a little
Speaker 1: bit more expensive, but let Google handle sort of the recording.
Speaker 1: Twenty four to seven. Those are gonna be your nest
Speaker 1: cams and they just came out, the whole lineup of
Speaker 1: new ones and those will record twenty four to seven
Speaker 1: onto Google servers, and it's really easy to sort of
Speaker 1: go back and see what's going on and make clips
Speaker 1: and all that good stuff. And that's I think it's
Speaker 1: from six to twelve dollars a month for that. You
Speaker 1: will pay a monthly service. With Ring you will pay
Speaker 1: a monthly service as well, But I think it's just
Speaker 1: three dollars a month for the for the entire system,
Speaker 1: you know, for all those cameras unlimited, So those are
Speaker 1: your main choices. I would probably go with RING, just
Speaker 1: because most people just need the standard event based recording.
Speaker 1: They don't need it to be rolling twenty four to
Speaker 1: seven unless you've got some sort of high security operation
Speaker 1: happening at your house or around your house, or neighbors
Speaker 1: that you don't like, or something that you know you
Speaker 1: want to keep an eye on all the time. But
Speaker 1: I would just go with RING personally or wise. I
Speaker 1: would just compare those two and see which ones you
Speaker 1: like better. All right, let's talk Apple Watch. Apple Watch
Speaker 1: Series seven launched or launches depending on when you're listening
Speaker 1: to this, on Friday, October fifteenth. It is available. I've
Speaker 1: had it on my wrist for a while now, and
Speaker 1: what can I say, It is the perfect accessory. You've
Speaker 1: heard me go on and on about how much I
Speaker 1: love the Apple Watch, and this is no different, and
Speaker 1: well it is a little different. So let me go
Speaker 1: through some of the differences on the new Apple Watch
Speaker 1: Series seven. And the number one difference is that it's
Speaker 1: the case is just a millimeter bigger, but the screen
Speaker 1: is twenty percent bigger. And you might think that that
Speaker 1: doesn't make a big difference, but it does. And so
Speaker 1: as soon as the first time I had to type
Speaker 1: in my pin code to unlock this watch. I noticed
Speaker 1: the difference in screen size. The buttons were so much bigger,
Speaker 1: and it was much easier to tap in that four
Speaker 1: digit code. Now, that's not a reason to upgrade, but
Speaker 1: and I'm not sure there's any reason to upgrade on
Speaker 1: this device other than the fact that you need a
Speaker 1: new Apple Watch. So if you have one of the
Speaker 1: older models that doesn't have the the only reason really
Speaker 1: to upgrade your Apple Watch at this point in time
Speaker 1: is if the model you currently have does not have
Speaker 1: the sensor that you need, whether that's blood oxygen or
Speaker 1: whether it's some of the newer sensors that they've added
Speaker 1: to these watches. But if you don't need those, there's
Speaker 1: no reason to upgrade, because the Apple Watch is one
Speaker 1: of those things that you only upgrade for a key
Speaker 1: feature that you need. And I might even change that
Speaker 1: to a want, because do you really need it? Maybe not,
Speaker 1: because most of the watches, even from the Apple the
Speaker 1: Series three and up, I think they all do like
Speaker 1: the fall detection and all that good stuff. So okay,
Speaker 1: so you've got the bigger screen you've got for the
Speaker 1: first time ever on an Apple Watch built in a
Speaker 1: quirty keyboard, which the irony is that the the buttons
Speaker 1: are so tiny on that you would only use that
Speaker 1: for like the most extreme circumstances of like you'd want
Speaker 1: to type something out that's like a proper name or
Speaker 1: an address or something like that, or Siri just isn't
Speaker 1: understanding what you're saying and you have to type something,
Speaker 1: so that is a good thing. You can also swipe
Speaker 1: on that keyboard, which actually is much more useful. So
Speaker 1: this is exclusive to the series seven at least for now.
Speaker 1: Apple could always add that to any other watch in
Speaker 1: a heartbeat with an OS update, but they're saying that
Speaker 1: the screen the larger real estate is the only reason
Speaker 1: that's possible, but who knows. Then there's two new watch
Speaker 1: faces that take advantage of the extra screen real estate.
Speaker 1: One is called Contour. This has numbers that go to
Speaker 1: the edge. It's kind of like a mix of old
Speaker 1: school and just it just kind of looks like a
Speaker 1: like a melted watch face on the edges. I don't
Speaker 1: know how to explain it. And then Modular Duo if
Speaker 1: you want the maximum amount of information on a screen,
Speaker 1: like if you wanted two of the giant Modular displays.
Speaker 1: You know how most on almost every well on all
Speaker 1: the Apple Watch faces, there's only one big kind of
Speaker 1: complication and the rest are all small ones. Well, this
Speaker 1: one you can actually get two complications on the screen
Speaker 1: at once. Other improvements include a more crack resistant face,
Speaker 1: which will be nice because I've scratched a lot of
Speaker 1: the old Apple watches. Dust resistance, but I've never had
Speaker 1: an issue with dust on previous Apple Watches, so I'm
Speaker 1: not really sure what that would add. I've taken mind
Speaker 1: to the beach, I've taken them on hikes. I've never
Speaker 1: even thought about dust in my life. Now. Battery life
Speaker 1: is not improved, which is a total bummer, but they
Speaker 1: did improve the charging by about fifteen minutes. It's fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes faster, double is fast. If you have an older model,
Speaker 1: like if you have one of the Series three or
Speaker 1: something like that, you're gonna see significant charging upgrades to this.
Speaker 1: There's also a new USBC charging cable in the box.
Speaker 1: It's got this silver I don't know what you call it.
Speaker 1: The puck is like silver, so you know that it's new, right,
Speaker 1: instead of the old ones. The old ones will still
Speaker 1: work with the new watches. The new thing will still
Speaker 1: work with the old watches. They just will charge at
Speaker 1: their appropriate speech. You're not gonna get faster charges on
Speaker 1: the old watches, and it will be slower on the
Speaker 1: new one with the old ones, so he kind of
Speaker 1: need that new one to unlock the faster charge. Now.
Speaker 1: The other thing they're doing is eight minutes of charging
Speaker 1: on this watch will give you enough juice to track
Speaker 1: eight hours of sleep. But quite honestly, the sleep data
Speaker 1: on the Apple Watch is pretty much the native sleep
Speaker 1: data is just not there. And I think Apple's doing
Speaker 1: that on purpose because in the future they are going
Speaker 1: to upgrade the sleep capabilities of this when they finally
Speaker 1: mix in that startup that they purchased, I forget what
Speaker 1: it's called, like Bettet or something. Once they get that
Speaker 1: sleep thing figured out on the back end, they will
Speaker 1: make a big to do about it and that will
Speaker 1: be the new crown feature of the Apple Watch. But
Speaker 1: that's not ready right now and it's not here. That's
Speaker 1: for sure. Basically tells you how long you've slept, which
Speaker 1: is like useless compared to things you get from Fitpit
Speaker 1: and all that. Lots of fun new colors you've got
Speaker 1: Midnight you've got Starlight, you've got blue, red, and green.
Speaker 1: It starts at three hundred and ninety nine dollars four
Speaker 1: ninety nine for Cellular, which I think is actually a
Speaker 1: price increase. I think Cellular used to cost less. Still
Speaker 1: the best smart watch around no matter what it's, it
Speaker 1: just is. It's amazing. You've got great notifications, excellent fitness tracking,
Speaker 1: fun faces, wide range of helpful complications, although I wish
Speaker 1: there were some more, and Siri is probably the biggest
Speaker 1: sore spot. She just can't figure out what you're saying,
Speaker 1: especially when it's proper nouns, especially when it's anything that's
Speaker 1: like a business name. It's just really painful to use
Speaker 1: her to dictate almost anything to this watch. And that's
Speaker 1: my biggest downside to the Apple Watch is that if
Speaker 1: it had Google Assistant on it, it would be a
Speaker 1: real killer device. But overall still an amazing, amazing accessory
Speaker 1: if you have an iPhone. I really wish that Apple
Speaker 1: would set this device free and let it work without
Speaker 1: an iPhone. I know it does with the family set up,
Speaker 1: but it's still a little convoluted. They hold back some
Speaker 1: features and it's not a pretty setup. So Apple, please
Speaker 1: let people activate in Apple Watch all by themselves without
Speaker 1: anything else, which, yes, the family set up kind of
Speaker 1: does that, but it's still it's not meant to be
Speaker 1: just a standalone device. But there you have it. Let
Speaker 1: me know if you're gonna get an Apple Watch, big
Speaker 1: upgrade if you have like a three, maybe or a four,
Speaker 1: But if you have a five or six, obviously not
Speaker 1: a huge update. All right, let's talk about Tile. Tile
Speaker 1: is upgrading all of their products in an effort to
Speaker 1: better compete with the air tag, and so Tyle says
Speaker 1: that in the first half of twenty twenty one, Tile
Speaker 1: has grown revenue over fifty percent and it shows no
Speaker 1: sign of slowing down. So the company is sending a
Speaker 1: message saying air tags did not destroy our business. So
Speaker 1: first off, you've got the Pro, which is Tyle's most
Speaker 1: powerful tracker, that's got a four hundred foot finding range,
Speaker 1: and it's got a new look and feel, So basically
Speaker 1: it has a hole in it, a big old hole
Speaker 1: that enables you to clip it to a bag or
Speaker 1: a purse or a key chain. Then you've got the Mate,
Speaker 1: the Sticker, and the Slim. Those all have a two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty foot finding range. Which is twenty five
Speaker 1: percent more and sixty seven percent more for the sticker.
Speaker 1: The sticker is really handy for a remote control. In fact,
Speaker 1: I may buy the sticker just for my remote because
Speaker 1: I need that. The kids don't care about the remote,
Speaker 1: They let it fall between the couch cushions, and I
Speaker 1: think I need that. How much is the sticker The
Speaker 1: sticker is twenty nine ninety nine. I'm definitely that is
Speaker 1: that's a purchase right now now. Additionally, the three models
Speaker 1: now have a louder ring, which makes it easier to
Speaker 1: find them, especially like I said, the remote control. They've
Speaker 1: got a three year battery life and they've got IP
Speaker 1: sixty seven water resistance, all of them do, which means
Speaker 1: they could be submerged in one meter of water for
Speaker 1: up to thirty minutes. There's also this new QR code,
Speaker 1: and I love the fact that I've been talking about
Speaker 1: QR codes for literally a decade and it took a
Speaker 1: pandemic for people to actually care about them. And now
Speaker 1: everyone in the world knows how to scan a QR code,
Speaker 1: which is really cool because QR codes do have a
Speaker 1: lot of uses. It brings you directly to something fast,
Speaker 1: whether that's information, a website, someone's contact information, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: It's just an easy way versus typing. You just aim
Speaker 1: your phone at something. And so we've seen those things everywhere.
Speaker 1: And now all tiles are going to have this little
Speaker 1: QR code on them that lets you scan the QR
Speaker 1: code and see who it belongs to or not who
Speaker 1: it belongs to. Well, I guess they will allow owners
Speaker 1: to put their contact information in there, but you can
Speaker 1: put in whatever you want, whatever you feel comfortable with.
Speaker 1: Then they've got a new app to help with unwanted tracking.
Speaker 1: It's called Scan and Secure feature, So anyone with a tile,
Speaker 1: it's actually just a feature inside the tile app can
Speaker 1: scan for nearby devices and identify an unknown device near them.
Speaker 1: That's for like the stalker situations. And then you've got
Speaker 1: looking to the future, the new Tile Ultra because Tyle
Speaker 1: doesn't want to say they're being left out in this
Speaker 1: race with the ultra wideband technology, so they will have
Speaker 1: Bluetooth an Ultra wideband built into a tile that's coming
Speaker 1: out in early twenty twenty two. All right, So the
Speaker 1: Tile Pro is thirty five bucks, the Mate is twenty five,
Speaker 1: the Slim thirty five, and the sticker is thirty and yes,
Speaker 1: I need to go buy that sticker right about now.
Speaker 1: All right, next question comes from Laura. I'm a single,
Speaker 1: disabled mom. I need to spend my money wisely. It's
Speaker 1: finally time for a new iPhone. My old one has
Speaker 1: had it. Can you cut through the chase and tell
Speaker 1: me which iPhone is your fave? I have the iPhone
Speaker 1: six Plus. I love it. I've been thinking maybe I
Speaker 1: should just get another one, but I'm certain that if
Speaker 1: anyone knows which phone can top this six plus, that
Speaker 1: would be you. I'm going straight to the top. Rich
Speaker 1: Which phone is the easiest to operate with? The very
Speaker 1: best camera feature? Is all I ask? Please share, sincerely, Laura, Laura. Uh, Laura, Laura,
Speaker 1: Laura U. Well, you want Okay, you're giving me a
Speaker 1: couple things here. You're saying that you want the best camera,
Speaker 1: but you also want You love the six plus, which
Speaker 1: is a bigger phone, So that would lead me to
Speaker 1: believe that the iPhone thirteen Pro Max would be your
Speaker 1: best choice. But I'll be honest, I think that's way
Speaker 1: too big of a device. Now, maybe you're so used
Speaker 1: to the size of this phone that it's fine and
Speaker 1: you don't mind. But it's also a very expensive device.
Speaker 1: And I think that if you are willing to sacrifice
Speaker 1: a little bit in the screen size, the standard iPhone
Speaker 1: thirteen will be exactly what you need. You're gonna get
Speaker 1: a great camera, not the very best, but you're gonna
Speaker 1: get a great camera, and you're going to get a
Speaker 1: really fast processor. You're gonna get a big screen. You're
Speaker 1: not gonna get the biggest screen. But the problem is
Speaker 1: is they don't make that middle phone anymore. The the
Speaker 1: you know, the ten R sort of phone, you know
Speaker 1: that used to be like in between the iPhone, the
Speaker 1: Promax and the standard iPhone. They don't really make a
Speaker 1: model like that anymore. So I think that if you
Speaker 1: want to go with the thirteen Promax, that will be
Speaker 1: the absolute best of the best. The Crem to the crem,
Speaker 1: is it the cream of the crop, cream of the crop.
Speaker 1: But I don't I think that's a little bit overkill.
Speaker 1: I think that the twelve will be just fine or sorry,
Speaker 1: the thirteen will be just fine, And I think that'll
Speaker 1: be a good combination of price and features. You've got
Speaker 1: an iPhone six plus, which came out several years ago,
Speaker 1: so it's not as if you are, you know, needing
Speaker 1: the latest, greatest, best, fastest, most amazing thing. You You've
Speaker 1: been happy with this device, so I think you're gonna
Speaker 1: be happy with the iPhone thirteen. That would be my
Speaker 1: choice for you. Let me know what you get. Let's
Speaker 1: talk best by their Total Tech is now available nation wide. Now,
Speaker 1: this is an interesting membership. It costs two hundred dollars
Speaker 1: for the year, So I don't know. Here's what you get.
Speaker 1: You tell me if you think this is a good deal.
Speaker 1: It's available nationwide starting now. Okay, so free geek Squad
Speaker 1: Tech support available twenty four to seven, three sixty five
Speaker 1: on all the technology in your home, no matter where
Speaker 1: you bought it. So basically that's like me in this podcast.
Speaker 1: But twenty four to seven available for two hundred bucks
Speaker 1: a year. Now, that does not mean that geek Squad
Speaker 1: is going to come to your house to do anything.
Speaker 1: That's a thing that I think people need to realize
Speaker 1: about this. That's not totally totally clear here. It's geek
Speaker 1: Squad tech support, not hands on support, Total tech expert
Speaker 1: access of VIP service with access to get dedicated phone
Speaker 1: and chat teams. Whatever that means. Up to now, this
Speaker 1: is pretty good up to twenty four months product protection
Speaker 1: on most Best Buy purchases during your active membership, including
Speaker 1: Apple Care Plus on Apple products. So if you just
Speaker 1: do the price of Apple Care Plus on the iPhone thirteen,
Speaker 1: which I don't know how much that costs, but let's
Speaker 1: find out how much it is, do they tell you?
Speaker 1: Let's see by now, so let's see that is the iPhone? Uh,
Speaker 1: you have to sign in darn it. Well, I don't
Speaker 1: know how much it costs then, but the reality of
Speaker 1: it is it's not cheap. So if you get something
Speaker 1: like Apple Care, let's see, let's see if I can
Speaker 1: find the price of this thing. Hmm. That doesn't okay,
Speaker 1: so uh doesn't really say okay, here we go. Apple
Speaker 1: Care pricing according to mac rumors for the iPhone, it's
Speaker 1: one twenty nine to one nine nine. So if you
Speaker 1: paid the one twenty nine and this is sixty dollars
Speaker 1: more or how much would that be eighty dollars more?
Speaker 1: I don't know. One's seventy to two hundred, al right, sorry,
Speaker 1: one thirty would be seventy dollars more. So for seventy
Speaker 1: dollars more, you get protection on all of your products,
Speaker 1: including your iPhone, free delivery and standard installation, exclusive member prices,
Speaker 1: twenty percent off labor for repairs, sixty day extended return window,
Speaker 1: and free haul away on most product replacements. So that's
Speaker 1: the deal. I mean, I don't know. I think that
Speaker 1: this is you're buying peace of mind with something like this.
Speaker 1: I think if they came to your house and fixed stuff,
Speaker 1: I think that would be a huge win on this plan.
Speaker 1: But the problem is the plan that would be I
Speaker 1: think prohibitively expensive for Best Buy to offer. But I
Speaker 1: think there's this a good start. It's funny because they're
Speaker 1: doing one ninety nine per year because most people like
Speaker 1: to pay monthly. So I think if they introduce this
Speaker 1: as a monthly, so two hundred divided by twelve would
Speaker 1: be sixteen seventeen dollars a month, which, you know, let's
Speaker 1: say they rounded it down to fifteen a month. I
Speaker 1: think that they would maybe have a bit of a
Speaker 1: winning hand here. It's gonna say winning hand in their hand.
Speaker 1: But that doesn't you can't use the word twice, you know.
Speaker 1: All right, Let's see Mary Anne says, is there a
Speaker 1: virus or something making the monitor go black? I was
Speaker 1: using the desktop and the monitor blinked and went black.
Speaker 1: I got to use monitor, same thing. I got to
Speaker 1: use desktop the same My sister's computer do the same
Speaker 1: at the same time. We have tried three computers, four monitors,
Speaker 1: and four cables. Nothing seems to work any ideas there
Speaker 1: is power to all. Monitor says it's going to sleep.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Mary, R. Mary. This is quite the quite
Speaker 1: the question. You're telling me that you got three different computers,
Speaker 1: four different monitors, and four different cables and tried them
Speaker 1: all and none of this worked and the computers all
Speaker 1: go to sleep. Wow, that's quite interesting. Well, I think
Speaker 1: it sounds like you've got your sleep settings, can figure
Speaker 1: in your Windows energy settings or your Mac energy settings,
Speaker 1: and that's what's causing this to go to sleep. Now,
Speaker 1: that typically would happen, if you know, if your computer's laptop, yes,
Speaker 1: the monitor goes to sleep. If it's a desktop, typically
Speaker 1: it takes a little bit longer to go to sleep,
Speaker 1: but it will go to sleep eventually. Now, if you
Speaker 1: said you're actively using the computer, that's odd because typically
Speaker 1: computers don't go to sleep when you're actively using them.
Speaker 1: There's a timeout period of anywhere you can set it
Speaker 1: from one minute to never. But this is odd, and
Speaker 1: I can't believe it's happening with your sister's computer as well.
Speaker 1: And you bought a used monitor, same thing you got
Speaker 1: to use desktop. I can't believe it. You troubleshooted all
Speaker 1: these things. So is there a virus on all these things?
Speaker 1: I think not, But if I had to guess, it
Speaker 1: is either the power settings. The other thing could be
Speaker 1: is whatever program you're using, there's some sort of something
Speaker 1: happening with the video I'll put and maybe that's causing
Speaker 1: this to not work properly. But that's a that's an
Speaker 1: odd question or an odd problem to have. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Let me know if you find a solution to that one,
Speaker 1: because that's a that's a weird one. All right, let's
Speaker 1: talk about fire TV stick. So I was listening to
Speaker 1: an interview with gosh, what's his name, Dave Limp of Amazon.
Speaker 1: He runs up their products division. There wasn't a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of like stuff that I was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: like this is such good stuff. But there was a
Speaker 1: couple of little nuggets in there that I thought were
Speaker 1: really good. And you know, there's a couple of little
Speaker 1: things he revealed about how Amazon does business. But I
Speaker 1: just read the Amazon book, so some of that stuff
Speaker 1: wasn't new. But you know, I thought it was interesting
Speaker 1: how he talks about how Alexa makes money. And I
Speaker 1: found it fascinating that, you know, if you're listening for
Speaker 1: free on Spotify, that Amazon just like kind of like TV,
Speaker 1: they get a couple barter ads, so inside your your
Speaker 1: ads that they are playing, Amazon owns a couple of
Speaker 1: those spots and can sell them. So I thought that
Speaker 1: was pretty interesting because that's how old school TV works.
Speaker 1: Like let's say I gave my tech segment to a
Speaker 1: bunch of random TV stations nationwide. You know, not we
Speaker 1: do that, but those are stations we own. But let's
Speaker 1: say I just happen to have, you know, my own business,
Speaker 1: and I made a tech segment. I sold it to
Speaker 1: TV stations. I would say, okay, you can have this
Speaker 1: segment for free, but you got to run this advertisement,
Speaker 1: and you give me one of your commercials an hour,
Speaker 1: and then I go to best Buy and I sell
Speaker 1: them a sponsorship package and saying, hey, you know, a
Speaker 1: hundred stations are running my tech segment. Here's you know,
Speaker 1: pay me a million bucks and they will run your
Speaker 1: commercial in the in their breaks. And that's how that's
Speaker 1: how that barter system sort of works. Very simplified obviously,
Speaker 1: But anyway, this is the new streaming stick. It's fifty
Speaker 1: five bucks and if you have a fire TV stick.
Speaker 1: This is one of the things that Dave mentioned that
Speaker 1: I thought was pretty interesting. He said that, you know,
Speaker 1: Amazon is not really interested in you upgrading your products
Speaker 1: every year. Said in fact, if that's kind of happening,
Speaker 1: they're not doing their job very well. They want you
Speaker 1: to buy something and use it pretty much until it's
Speaker 1: broken because they want to update it through software and
Speaker 1: make it function better. And so I thought that was
Speaker 1: pretty interesting because he's right. I mean, it's like the
Speaker 1: new Kindles came out and I'm like, well, why do
Speaker 1: I need a new one? Or the new fire stick
Speaker 1: comes out and it's like, oh, my old one's working
Speaker 1: just fine. It still streams Netflix, still does whatever you
Speaker 1: need to do. And so that's why it's kind of
Speaker 1: one of these things kind of similar to the Apple Watch.
Speaker 1: It's like you upgrade when you need it, you know,
Speaker 1: if it breaks or if there's a new feature that
Speaker 1: you have to have. Now, the new feature here is
Speaker 1: Wi Fi six. Wi Fi six is you know, it
Speaker 1: might work in the further recesses of your home, it
Speaker 1: might stream faster, it might buffer less, but you have
Speaker 1: to have a Wi Fi six compatible streamer. And I'm
Speaker 1: looking at a review here for Mashable, by the way,
Speaker 1: so that's basically the new feature. It's all also a
Speaker 1: little bit faster. It's got a quad core processor, two
Speaker 1: gigs of rams, so supposedly it's forty percent faster than
Speaker 1: the previous four K model. So this reviewer says that
Speaker 1: it does of as they say, hums along beautifully, So
Speaker 1: that's nice. The UI, you know, all the fire sticks
Speaker 1: got the UI, and again you know doubles as a
Speaker 1: gaming stick. But are people really playing the Amazon games
Speaker 1: just yet? I'm not sure. But the reality is, if
Speaker 1: you need a new fire stick, fifty five bucks is
Speaker 1: pretty inexpensive. Yes, it's a little bit more than some
Speaker 1: of the other Roku sticks out there that are like
Speaker 1: twenty twenty or thirty dollars, and even some of the
Speaker 1: cheaper fire sticks out there, but I would go with
Speaker 1: the most expensive firestick you can get because these are
Speaker 1: the kind of things that you keep for a few years.
Speaker 1: They're cheap to begin with, at fifty five dollars. Buy
Speaker 1: them on a day when they go on sale, which
Speaker 1: is you know, Black Friday's coming up, or any day
Speaker 1: that Amazon, you know, just do a price watch on
Speaker 1: these things. All of Amazon's first party electronics that they
Speaker 1: make go on sale, and so I would definitely just
Speaker 1: do a watch on those. But the other thing is
Speaker 1: that fifty five dollars you can save. The offer I
Speaker 1: got was they said, if you trade in one of
Speaker 1: your old fire sticks, you'll save twenty percent. So right there,
Speaker 1: you can save a little bit more than ten bucks
Speaker 1: if you want to, you know, trade in one of
Speaker 1: your old sticks, which you probably would, you know, wouldn't
Speaker 1: mind doing. And in fact, I've got a couple sitting
Speaker 1: around here because I purchased almost all of them over
Speaker 1: the years. So just trade in one of the oldest
Speaker 1: the oldest one gets traded in, and you save twenty percent.
Speaker 1: That's a pretty pretty simple deal. But anyway, fire TV
Speaker 1: stick four K, the new one is available now. It's
Speaker 1: been a couple of years since they updated it. So
Speaker 1: if it's been a couple years since you upgraded, you
Speaker 1: feel like you're just getting a little slow. You want
Speaker 1: that new remote control with the voice Alexa voice on it,
Speaker 1: go ahead and give it the old upgrade. I do
Speaker 1: like the Fire TV stick. I think it's the one
Speaker 1: I recommend, I think for most people because it just
Speaker 1: does everything and it's I like it slightly better than Roku. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Apple TV is nice, but it's so expensive, and the
Speaker 1: Google Chrome Cast is nice. But I feel like there's
Speaker 1: definitely more progress behind the Fire platform or the Fire
Speaker 1: TV platform. I should say all right, Tye says, Hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: this might be a stupid question. I was going to
Speaker 1: change my ISP from Frontier FiOS to Spectrum since I'll
Speaker 1: be moving. I've read that fiber optic is faster than cable,
Speaker 1: and I was told that Frontier will no longer offer
Speaker 1: FiOS to new customers. Should I keep Frontier FiOS for speed?
Speaker 1: Love your tech reports? Thanks tie Well. I hadn't heard
Speaker 1: that Frontier is no longer offering FiOS to new customers.
Speaker 1: That's news to me. That's interesting because I saw commercials
Speaker 1: for Frontier like as of a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1: But your question is should I change my ISP to Spectrum.
Speaker 1: So it really comes down to the speed and the price.
Speaker 1: I think when it comes to Internet, I've got a
Speaker 1: gigabit connection here, which is a thousand down, a thousand up,
Speaker 1: and honestly, my life is not that much different than
Speaker 1: when I had a four hundred megabit connection. So is
Speaker 1: it slightly faster sometimes? Yes? Is it fully noticeable every
Speaker 1: single thing I do in my house? No? Now, the
Speaker 1: one thing that I think is the big differentiator here
Speaker 1: besides the price, I mean would I would go on
Speaker 1: price first, because Spectrum standard is four hundred, Frontier is
Speaker 1: either five hundred or one thousand, and I would go
Speaker 1: by price. So whoever gives you the better price, just
Speaker 1: go with because that both of those speeds are going
Speaker 1: to be just fine for anything that you need to
Speaker 1: do in the house. Now, the big difference is the
Speaker 1: up the upload speed. So when you upload on a
Speaker 1: Spectrum versus Frontier, Frontier is going to be the same
Speaker 1: speed up and down. So if you're getting five hundred down,
Speaker 1: it's most likely five hundred up. And if you're uploading
Speaker 1: large video files, you will notice the difference there. Now,
Speaker 1: Spectrum sneaky sneaky, They don't mention the upload speeds almost anywhere,
Speaker 1: it's always a four hundred download speed, and so the
Speaker 1: UP I think last I checked was like thirty five.
Speaker 1: Maybe they've changed that, but that's basically it now. To
Speaker 1: their defense, they're saving bandwidth on the other side, because
Speaker 1: they know people want faster downloads than uploads ninety nine
Speaker 1: point nine percent of the time, unless you're someone like
Speaker 1: me or a creator, or someone who's exchanging large video
Speaker 1: files on a daily basis like myself. And so for
Speaker 1: that reason, if you have any sort of job where
Speaker 1: you need the upload speeds to be really fast, I
Speaker 1: would consider sticking with Spectrum with a FiOS otherwise, Spectrum,
Speaker 1: I think will be just fine. But in the big
Speaker 1: scheme of things, I think that you go with whoever's cheaper,
Speaker 1: and those prices do kind of expire after a year
Speaker 1: or two, so you can always swap after that. One
Speaker 1: Password has a new feature where you can securely share
Speaker 1: your password with anyone and even if they don't use
Speaker 1: one password. But this feature is only for one password users.
Speaker 1: So I thought at first maybe you could share it
Speaker 1: like through a web aapp, but no, you have to
Speaker 1: be a one password customer. And the company says in
Speaker 1: a blog post that they know. A lot of people
Speaker 1: share passwords for things like streaming services and whatever, and
Speaker 1: we've all shared a password with someone, right, And what
Speaker 1: you do is you typically text it to them or
Speaker 1: you send it in the email. All these very insecure
Speaker 1: ways of moving information, especially a password. So now this
Speaker 1: is a link that you generate and the link can
Speaker 1: expire in thirty days, fourteen days, one day, or one hour,
Speaker 1: or even after one person views it. Now that doesn't
Speaker 1: keep them from taking a screen shot or anything like that,
Speaker 1: but yes, you can do this. It is a little
Speaker 1: bit more secure. And again they can copy the screenshot
Speaker 1: or a screenshot or copy it and write it down
Speaker 1: somewhere else. Doesn't keep them from doing that, but it's
Speaker 1: just one more way of making it a little bit
Speaker 1: more safe to share a password with someone. And then
Speaker 1: you can also change the password right after they use it.
Speaker 1: You're not sharing the original item in one password, you're
Speaker 1: sharing a copy of the original item, so it's kind
Speaker 1: of a snapshot, so they want to make that clear.
Speaker 1: That's in bold. But you also get an activity log
Speaker 1: as the owner, so you can see the name of
Speaker 1: the shared item, who shared it, along their IP address,
Speaker 1: the day and time when the link expires, the email address,
Speaker 1: how many times the recipient viewed it, and the IP
Speaker 1: address of the recipient who viewed it. So it's kind
Speaker 1: of a cool feature. I think that it's I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, people, look, people are still going to share
Speaker 1: the same old way they share over and over. People
Speaker 1: are still going to have weak passwords over and over.
Speaker 1: I don't understand why people don't get the message to
Speaker 1: stop using terrible passwords, stop using the same password over
Speaker 1: and over, and stop sharing common passwords with your friends
Speaker 1: and family, because all these things just lead into the
Speaker 1: fact that if something gets hacked, like you know, today
Speaker 1: we heard about Visible getting hacked, and Visible did not
Speaker 1: actually get hacked, so to say, like they didn't figure
Speaker 1: out people's email addresses. It was really social engineering. These
Speaker 1: hackers found a bunch of passwords on line and user names,
Speaker 1: and they said, wonder if they'll work Invisible, And sure enough,
Speaker 1: they went over there and a whole bunch of them worked.
Speaker 1: Because guess what, people use the same email address and
Speaker 1: password across a bunch of websites and if you do that,
Speaker 1: you're putting yourself at major risk. Let me say that again.
Speaker 1: If you're using the same password across multiple websites. You're
Speaker 1: putting yourself at major risk Because I get these things
Speaker 1: all the time. I get email notifications from this monitoring
Speaker 1: service I have for identity monitoring, and it's like, rich,
Speaker 1: your information has been found on the open web. And
Speaker 1: just this week it was everything my name, my address,
Speaker 1: my phone number, my email address, passwords. I mean, it's like,
Speaker 1: if you're in this came from a website that I
Speaker 1: signed up for and ordered something from one time, and
Speaker 1: now they were breached, and now my information is everywhere
Speaker 1: on the open Web for people to find. And that
Speaker 1: really is not fun. And as soon as this happens,
Speaker 1: what do you think happens next thing? No, I start
Speaker 1: getting a whole bunch of emails in my inbox. You
Speaker 1: know with spam that you can tell is all based
Speaker 1: on the fact that a fresh email just made its
Speaker 1: way into the spammer's hands or the hackers hands, And
Speaker 1: so the reality is you can't really recall that information.
Speaker 1: But if you have unique passwords on every website, sure
Speaker 1: they can get that password, but it's going to look
Speaker 1: like gobbledegook to any other pass to any other website.
Speaker 1: And you don't want your Amazon password out there. You
Speaker 1: don't want your cell phone password out there. You don't
Speaker 1: want your email password, you don't want your bank password,
Speaker 1: you don't want your credit card password. Make these things different.
Speaker 1: If at the very least you just make your core
Speaker 1: passwords different, that's the best I can ask right now.
Speaker 1: I don't think you should be re using the same
Speaker 1: password for anything, but you know, that's just the reality is.
Speaker 1: It's a lot to ask of people. They don't want
Speaker 1: to use these password managers. It's too much work, it's
Speaker 1: too much effort, too much energy. But this is your information.
Speaker 1: You don't want a breach. Believe me, they're not fun.
Speaker 1: So change those passwords and make sure that you're not
Speaker 1: using the same one across various websites. Roy says, Hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: if I delete a photo for my Google Photos, will
Speaker 1: it automatically delete from my iCloud photo library. Thank you
Speaker 1: for your help. Roy. So there's a lot of confusion
Speaker 1: about how iCloud photo Library works because it's kind of
Speaker 1: built into the iPhone, And it's one more reason I
Speaker 1: don't really like to use it, because I like things
Speaker 1: that I understand, and I'll be honest, I'm a tech expert.
Speaker 1: Or a tech I guess I like told myself a
Speaker 1: tech enthusiast. But I'll be honest, I'm a tech enthusiast
Speaker 1: and I don't understand how iCloud Photo Library works. Now
Speaker 1: I get it, I get how it will. Okay, yes,
Speaker 1: I understand how it works. But it's too complicated because
Speaker 1: this happens to so many people. They don't realize that
Speaker 1: when you delete a photo off your iPhone, you're not
Speaker 1: just saving the space on your iPhone. You're going in
Speaker 1: and you're that photo is linked to the cloud and
Speaker 1: next thing you know, it's getting deleted from my cloud.
Speaker 1: So yes, there are times when deleting a Google Photos,
Speaker 1: we'll delete it from your iCloud photolibrary. And let me
Speaker 1: explain when that happens. When you delete in Google Photos.
Speaker 1: There is a Google Photos app for your iPhone. If
Speaker 1: you are inside that app and you delete a photo
Speaker 1: that is also stored on your phone, it will say
Speaker 1: would you like us to also delete this picture off
Speaker 1: your phone? And if you say yes to that, yes,
Speaker 1: it will delete from the iCloud photolibrary to keep that
Speaker 1: from happening. To delete it just from Google Photos and
Speaker 1: not from your iCloud photolibrary, which by the way, will
Speaker 1: get really confusing very fast. You want to go to
Speaker 1: Google Photos on the web, which is photos dot Google
Speaker 1: dot com, and if you delete a picture from there,
Speaker 1: it has no way of knowing if it's linked up
Speaker 1: to the picture on your phone, because it's not on
Speaker 1: your iPhone. So go to a web browser on a
Speaker 1: computer and do it from there, and then you can
Speaker 1: prune your collection that way and it will not affect
Speaker 1: your iCloud photolibrary. Now, the way I do stuff like
Speaker 1: this is since I'm a perpetual tester, I will always
Speaker 1: test things out before I actually do them in a
Speaker 1: big way. So what I would do is I would
Speaker 1: take a picture of something I recognize. I would take
Speaker 1: two or three, and you know, fresh new pictures that
Speaker 1: are on my iPhone, and then I would go ahead
Speaker 1: and delete them in various ways. I would go into
Speaker 1: Google Photos and delete it. Then I would on my phone.
Speaker 1: Then I would go into my iCloud photo library on
Speaker 1: my phone and delete it there and see if it
Speaker 1: deletes from Google Photos. And then I would go into
Speaker 1: Google Photos on the web and see if it deletes
Speaker 1: it from my phone. And you will find that each
Speaker 1: one of those will do something slightly different. So Roy,
Speaker 1: good question. I know it's confusing, but hopefully that helped
Speaker 1: you out. All right. I got a couple of folks
Speaker 1: saying they want me to talk more about electric cars
Speaker 1: in this podcast, which I will definitely do. I still absolutely,
Speaker 1: one hundred percent, love, love, love my Tesla, best thing
Speaker 1: I've ever purchased. I can't believe they raised the price
Speaker 1: by two thousand dollars on my car. So I bought
Speaker 1: it just in time because I really would have felt
Speaker 1: I honestly, if they raised the price by two grand
Speaker 1: when I was still contemplating buying it, it probably would
Speaker 1: have put my purchase off by another six months to
Speaker 1: a year because I would have been like, oh, I mean,
Speaker 1: we're seeing inflation across various parts of the economy, and
Speaker 1: you know, cars. I don't know what made Tesla raise
Speaker 1: the price by two grand, but it just seems like
Speaker 1: everything is sort of being raised right now because now
Speaker 1: parts are more expensive, they're harder to get, and so
Speaker 1: Tesla is kind of known for raising prices and also
Speaker 1: lowering them when appropriate. But yeah, that happened, and I
Speaker 1: was kind of angry that well, I was angry, but
Speaker 1: I was also relieved that I actually got the car
Speaker 1: before that price went up, so I still love it.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think there's anything new. There's a couple
Speaker 1: of things I would like to change, especially with the software.
Speaker 1: Like I'm so surprised that there's not a button on
Speaker 1: the console, like on the big screen for voice assistant
Speaker 1: like you would now maybe they just want you to
Speaker 1: use the button on your steering wheel because that's safer
Speaker 1: and you're not touching as many things, but that's like
Speaker 1: to me, it's kind of a no brainer to have
Speaker 1: a voice activation either, even like a Hey, Tesla would
Speaker 1: be nice, which I'm just surprised they don't have. The
Speaker 1: other thing that I don't particularly like is the way
Speaker 1: music is handled. I like that you can use Spotify,
Speaker 1: but the way that the music it's tough to explain
Speaker 1: if you have a Tesla, but the music selector there's
Speaker 1: like a button that you press for music to come up.
Speaker 1: But then when you have there's like three levels of
Speaker 1: how it's how big it is on the screen, almost
Speaker 1: like a Windows application. So if you press it once,
Speaker 1: then you have to swipe up to bring it bigger,
Speaker 1: and then swipe up to bring it even bigger. Then
Speaker 1: you swipe down to bring it medium, and then swipe
Speaker 1: it down to make it a small player, and then
Speaker 1: you can get rid of it all completely. It is
Speaker 1: way too many steps to be fiddling with while you're
Speaker 1: trying to figure out music on your car. So what
Speaker 1: I think Tesla should do is they should allow you
Speaker 1: in the settings to set your defaults, so if you
Speaker 1: to me, I always want a mini player underneath my maps.
Speaker 1: So what I want is I want two things. I
Speaker 1: want a mini player and I want the big full screen.
Speaker 1: Because of full screen, I'm selecting what I'm gonna listen to,
Speaker 1: and then as soon as I'm done with that, I
Speaker 1: want to just minimize it to the mini player. Those
Speaker 1: are the two things I want. Maybe someone else wants
Speaker 1: favorites and then the mini player, or maybe they want
Speaker 1: favorites and the big screen. I don't know, or maybe
Speaker 1: they want no player and then the favorites, or they
Speaker 1: want no player plus the big screen. There's like twenty
Speaker 1: five different combinations, and Tesla should allow us to choose
Speaker 1: which one we want when we tap the little music
Speaker 1: button once twice three times to cycle through that. But
Speaker 1: those are small, small things, because overall I love, love,
Speaker 1: love the car, and I love the idea that I'm
Speaker 1: starting out like pretty much every day with a full
Speaker 1: tank of gas. That's just like our electricity. But it's
Speaker 1: such a weird concept that I just absolutely love. And
Speaker 1: it makes you realize how the miles you drive in
Speaker 1: a day, like I can tell you like the average
Speaker 1: miles I drive in a day, Like I never knew
Speaker 1: that before because now I'm watching like the mileage every day.
Speaker 1: I say this all because GM and not so much
Speaker 1: of a good place with the Chevy Bolt. And this
Speaker 1: is really a black eye for Chevy with this bolt,
Speaker 1: because they put so much effort and energy and it's
Speaker 1: a cool little car. I've test driven it several times
Speaker 1: and I really like it. I ended up not going
Speaker 1: with a Chevy Bolt because I felt like it was
Speaker 1: just a very it was too similar to the other
Speaker 1: Cheves out there, and I just felt like I wanted
Speaker 1: something totally different. But anyway, Chevy has to replace the
Speaker 1: batteries and a bunch of these Chevy Bolts. According to
Speaker 1: tech Crunch, the replacement batteries have started shipping to dealers.
Speaker 1: Vehicles will be prioritized according to when they were made,
Speaker 1: and then the replacement process should take about two days.
Speaker 1: The new batteries come with an eight year or one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand mile limited warranty, and there's also going to
Speaker 1: be diagnostic software that dealers can use to check to
Speaker 1: see if your car is okay and all so monitor
Speaker 1: the battery. So I guess every time you bring in
Speaker 1: for some sort of service, they'll say, like, Okay, your
Speaker 1: battery's looking okay. There's two manufacturing defects. And I can
Speaker 1: tell you having been inside the battery manufacturing plant in Volkswagen,
Speaker 1: it's a Tennessee plant. I mean, I gotta tell you,
Speaker 1: I'm amazed that these batteries can last one hundred thousand
Speaker 1: miles with the intricacies of how they're put together, since
Speaker 1: there's so many different parts and they start out as
Speaker 1: so many different cells that are then all fused together
Speaker 1: with wires and you know, I mean, it's just it's
Speaker 1: quite the process. It's not just like one giant like battery.
Speaker 1: It's like a whole bunch of little battery cells that
Speaker 1: they link together to make this big battery. And I
Speaker 1: asked Volkswagen, I said, you know, if one of these
Speaker 1: cells ever went bad, is there could you ever replace
Speaker 1: the cell and they said, yeah, they actually could. So
Speaker 1: it's clearly a process to do this and something that
Speaker 1: GM does not want to do, but they have to,
Speaker 1: especially because some of these drivers were recommended to park
Speaker 1: their vehicles away from their home in case of a
Speaker 1: fire and also don't park within fifty feet of other vehicles,
Speaker 1: which is really scary. So, I mean, I don't know
Speaker 1: if those were official things or just kind of recommendations,
Speaker 1: but GM is supposed to is probably going to spend
Speaker 1: about almost two billion dollars, which part of that is
Speaker 1: going to be from LGKM, which made these batteries apparently,
Speaker 1: or help them make these batteries. But wow, it's just
Speaker 1: one of these things that you know, I'm giving you
Speaker 1: the full story, but in mainstream news that people are
Speaker 1: just going to read the headlines or hear about it.
Speaker 1: They just know that the bolt batteries light on fire,
Speaker 1: and that's not a good thing. That's horrible. It reminds
Speaker 1: me of the situation with Samsung with the with their
Speaker 1: note phones. Now they've gotten over that. Yes, people still
Speaker 1: buy Samsung's, but the reality is, for a while, it
Speaker 1: was the butt of the joke all the time. Was
Speaker 1: the Samsung battery, and so you don't want the wind
Speaker 1: to be knocked out of your sales at this point, GM,
Speaker 1: because you know, these electric cars are really starting to
Speaker 1: take off in a big way. Coming from someone who
Speaker 1: just bought one and is in Los Angeles, so maybe
Speaker 1: not so much of the rest of the US, but
Speaker 1: they are. The momentum is behind them, and to see
Speaker 1: this kind of thing happen, it's just not good for
Speaker 1: the entire situation. Coming from someone who just loves, loves,
Speaker 1: loves evs now, it's just not good. Okay. Riley says,
Speaker 1: Hey rich through Instagram at rich on Tech, do you
Speaker 1: have any RECs on apps to track or organize streaming
Speaker 1: shows you watched? I can never remember what show is
Speaker 1: on what service and the episode drop dates. Thank you. Yes,
Speaker 1: I have the perfect app for this. It is called
Speaker 1: Real Good r E E L g oo D. It
Speaker 1: is what I use. It is fantastic. You can choose
Speaker 1: your streaming services to not only see what's new on there,
Speaker 1: but you can also keep track of shows. It will
Speaker 1: help you even mark off each episode that you've watched,
Speaker 1: and you can keep track of the movies you want
Speaker 1: to see on there, and you can sort them in
Speaker 1: different ways. So every time I get a recommendation for
Speaker 1: a movie or a TV show, it goes on my
Speaker 1: real good list. And not only does it tell me
Speaker 1: when it's available, I can sort it by like popularity,
Speaker 1: by recent by whatever. I mean. There's a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of ways to sort and slice and dice, and so
Speaker 1: it is. I think it's the best one that I found,
Speaker 1: and I think that it's just a really handy thing
Speaker 1: to have. Now, there's lots of other ways you can
Speaker 1: do it. You can do it in Apple TV, the
Speaker 1: Apple It's so confusing because Apple. You've got Apple TV
Speaker 1: and then Apple TV Plus, and then you've got Apple
Speaker 1: So you go, okay, Actually you have Apple TV, the
Speaker 1: physical device that sits under your TV. Then you have
Speaker 1: the Apple TV app, which is also on your TV,
Speaker 1: but it's also on your phone. Then you have Apple
Speaker 1: TV Plus, which is a streaming service that is available
Speaker 1: across various devices. Now, the Apple TV app is the
Speaker 1: one that you can actually use to keep track of
Speaker 1: things that you want to watch, and that is your
Speaker 1: or I think they call it the up next list
Speaker 1: or something like that, and you can also search just
Speaker 1: to see when things are available. And what services they're on.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's as good as Real Good, but
Speaker 1: it'll it'll do something similar. The other thing you can
Speaker 1: do if you're on Android is the Android Let's see
Speaker 1: what is it called. It's called Google TV. I think
Speaker 1: it's called on the the app. It used to be
Speaker 1: Google play Watch or something like that or Google I
Speaker 1: don't know. See it's a little app that you used
Speaker 1: to let you watch videos on your iPhone on your
Speaker 1: Android side of things. I can't remember what they changed
Speaker 1: the name. I think it's just Google TV now. But anyway,
Speaker 1: that app has a way of searching for, you know,
Speaker 1: stuff that you want to watch. It'll show you when
Speaker 1: it's available, and then it has a bookmarking feature called
Speaker 1: what to watch or no watch list, and you can
Speaker 1: set that up now. I set that up as well.
Speaker 1: But I do think that Real Good, since it's platform agnostic,
Speaker 1: it works on iPhone and Android, and it's free, is
Speaker 1: definitely your best option overall. There are other apps as well.
Speaker 1: There's one called just Watch which does something similar, but
Speaker 1: I find that Real Good has the look and feel
Speaker 1: that I like, and so definitely check that out. Website
Speaker 1: called Redact Dot Photo I thought was pretty cool. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you want to share something online or on Twitter or whatever,
Speaker 1: and there's just something in it that you don't really
Speaker 1: want displayed, like a username, or you know, could be
Speaker 1: just some sort of private information, and you can do
Speaker 1: the thing where you scribble it out on the iPhone,
Speaker 1: but that doesn't always work, and some people say that
Speaker 1: you can actually remove that somehow. But I found this
Speaker 1: website on a product hunt. It's called Redact dot Photo.
Speaker 1: I've been using Skitch for a long time, but it's
Speaker 1: not supported anymore. It doesn't seem to be new, but
Speaker 1: it's still on my phone, so it works. But this
Speaker 1: is very similar. It works in the browser. You drag
Speaker 1: and drop a photo and then all you have to
Speaker 1: do is drag and drop wherever you want to redact
Speaker 1: some of the information on the photo. And the person
Speaker 1: who coded this app says every thing happens in browser.
Speaker 1: They don't upload any data, and it's all free, and
Speaker 1: it's actually really cool. It's really useful. I'm gonna start
Speaker 1: using this to redact stuff. You can do some simple
Speaker 1: cropping and rotating, but the most important thing is that
Speaker 1: you can literally get something blurred out in a picture
Speaker 1: very very quickly. If you need it, and we've all
Speaker 1: needed that sometimes. Website again is redact dot photo. I
Speaker 1: will put it in the show notes, all right. That
Speaker 1: sound means it's gonna do it for the end of
Speaker 1: this That's gonna do it for this episode of the show.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to submit a question for me to answer,
Speaker 1: just go to my Facebook page Facebook dot com slash
Speaker 1: rich on tech. Hit the big blue send email button. Also,
Speaker 1: I would love it if you would rate and review
Speaker 1: this podcast. Write a quick line about what you like
Speaker 1: to help other people know why they should listen. Just
Speaker 1: go to rate this podcast dot com slash rich on Tech.
Speaker 1: You can find me on all social media at rich
Speaker 1: on Tech and no matter where you live in the US,
Speaker 1: can download the free KTLA plus on plus app on Apple, TV,
Speaker 1: Fire TV, and Roku. Then once you're there, scroll to
Speaker 1: the tech section and watch all of my tech TV
Speaker 1: segments my TV segments on demand. My name is rich Demiro.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. There are so many ways
Speaker 1: you can spend an hour of your time. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know most of it's probably spent watching squid Game,
Speaker 1: which I've not watched, but I do appreciate you spending
Speaker 1: it with me. I'll talk to you real soon.