Speaker 1: Face app privacy concerns. CS makes some progressive changes. Amazon
Speaker 1: dishes on Prime Day totals a new way to never
Speaker 1: get charged for a free trial ever again. And we're
Speaker 1: answering your pressing tech questions.
Speaker 2: What's going on. I'm Rich Dmiro.
Speaker 1: This is Rich on Tech, the podcast where I talk
Speaker 1: about the stuff I think you should know about happening
Speaker 1: in the tech world. Plus, I'm answering your tech questions.
Speaker 1: You send a lot of them to me. This is
Speaker 1: where I answer them. Producer Megan is joining me today.
Speaker 3: Hello, how's it going.
Speaker 2: It's been a while.
Speaker 3: Welcome back, I know, thank you.
Speaker 2: I feel like I've been gone forever.
Speaker 1: You ever feel like that when you go on vacation
Speaker 1: like that, it's just like you'll never come back.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's the way I feel.
Speaker 3: And then you kind of miss it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Oh I do.
Speaker 1: I miss it a lot. I definitely definitely miss work.
Speaker 1: In fact, when i'm I'm such a creature of like
Speaker 1: routine that when I'm not doing it, I'm like everything
Speaker 1: is just thrown away. Like I slept late over my vacation,
Speaker 1: I wasn't. I actually deleted Instagram and Facebook off my
Speaker 1: phone before I left. That's smart, and I will tell
Speaker 1: you the weirdest thing about deleting Instagram was that I
Speaker 1: did not miss it. Like, so I figured out what
Speaker 1: happens every picture I take when I have Instagram my phone,
Speaker 1: I think, could this be an Instagram picture without it?
Speaker 1: Never thought about that. I just took pictures and it
Speaker 1: was really sad because I wanted them to be Instagram pictures.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, this would be so good, but
Speaker 2: I don't have the app, so.
Speaker 3: But that's good to detox a little bit.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: It was good, and then I came back towards the
Speaker 1: end of the trip and put it back on my phone,
Speaker 1: posted a couple of pictures. It was fun, but it's
Speaker 1: weirdest one of those things that when you don't have it,
Speaker 1: you almost don't miss it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's kind of nice to get a break that's
Speaker 4: like a vacation in and of itself.
Speaker 1: Yes, I do check like my email like a little bit,
Speaker 1: like not as much. And that's the other thing I've
Speaker 1: never done, like an out of office thing, so I
Speaker 1: don't ever set that. So people are like, Rich, I
Speaker 1: need your your RSVP by like tomorrow, and I get
Speaker 1: it like three days later. I'm like look, I'm on it.
Speaker 1: Like I'm in the tech world. There's nothing that's so
Speaker 1: pressing that it's going to be that big of a
Speaker 1: deal for you know, the week that I'm.
Speaker 3: Gone, you know, except for face App.
Speaker 2: Just kidding, yeah, face app. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: So of course I started seeing all the people posting
Speaker 1: these pictures of face you know, their old faces, and
Speaker 1: I was like, I feel like I remember that app.
Speaker 1: So I searched my email and I actually remember doing
Speaker 1: this app like back in the day. So this was
Speaker 1: like you're talking, I don't know. I think it was
Speaker 1: like two years ago, twenty.
Speaker 2: Seventeen the day.
Speaker 1: Well that's a while in tech terms. Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: have it right here.
Speaker 2: Let's see.
Speaker 1: The date of the email was Tuesday, April twenty fifth,
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, four to seventeen am sent to my producer.
Speaker 1: Producer back then was Vanessa, and uh it was here's
Speaker 1: the app everyone is using to make themselves look older, and.
Speaker 3: So fiz we were on trend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well this app.
Speaker 1: I think I feel I forget how I learned about
Speaker 1: this app, but they actually I feel like this app
Speaker 1: was actually kind of controversial when it first came out
Speaker 1: because it changed I think it changed like your gender,
Speaker 1: it changed your skin tone, like it did a lot
Speaker 1: of weird things that people were kind of like up
Speaker 1: in arms over, but we focused on like the fun
Speaker 1: you know, old person anyway, So you've seen all the
Speaker 1: pictures everyone in there, you know, and their mother has
Speaker 1: posted the well maybe not mother's just yet because I
Speaker 1: haven't seen.
Speaker 2: My mom do it. Yeah, you know what I don't
Speaker 2: want to know right now. It's everyone.
Speaker 1: But the the big concern over this app, And as
Speaker 1: soon as I saw this app come up again, I
Speaker 1: thought to myself, oh gosh, camera roll access, right, Like,
Speaker 1: you don't want to give your camera roll access to
Speaker 1: just anyone because you never know what they're going to
Speaker 1: do with those pictures. And it's not just like that
Speaker 1: your pictures might show up on the front page of
Speaker 1: the New York Times. It's that there's a lot of
Speaker 1: metadata in those pictures, you know, GPS data, and I
Speaker 1: think Apple is is locking down a lot of that.
Speaker 1: So like when you share I think your camera roll,
Speaker 1: I think they said in iOS thirteen, when you share
Speaker 1: pictures now, it's not to include your metadata, which is
Speaker 1: smart because they knew that like anytime you share a picture, out.
Speaker 1: It goes with your GPS, which can reveal a lot.
Speaker 1: If you took a picture at your house, people know.
Speaker 2: Where you live.
Speaker 1: If you take ten pictures, they analyze you know your
Speaker 1: camera role. They can see where you work, where you live,
Speaker 1: where you go to the gym, because you see those
Speaker 1: patterns of where you take pictures. Hopefully you're not taking
Speaker 1: too many at the gym, right unless you're one of
Speaker 1: those people that does that. Yeah, And I have my
Speaker 1: thoughts on those people, and we all know them, we.
Speaker 3: Know we do know that I know a lot of
Speaker 3: you know them, and you know that so funny.
Speaker 1: Not as bad as people that take bathroom selfies, though
Speaker 1: I can deal with the gym selfie. Bathroom selfie is
Speaker 1: like next level, like come on, so cool. The big
Speaker 1: thing about the face app is that it's made by
Speaker 1: Russian developers. Now, I think that this app is actually
Speaker 1: just fine. I have not taken a deep dive. I
Speaker 1: have not toward the developers offices or anything like that.
Speaker 1: But my guess is that what they're doing here is
Speaker 1: they're using artificial intelligence to make you look old. The
Speaker 1: technology is actually pretty good. And I have been to
Speaker 1: Russia and I actually went to a tech convention in Russia,
Speaker 1: and they're doing a lot of interesting things with tech
Speaker 1: over in Russia. I'm not defending that country, but I'm
Speaker 1: just saying that I think this app, when it comes
Speaker 1: to privacy concerns, is probably just fine. I think that
Speaker 1: there should always be a concern when you're sharing your
Speaker 1: pictures in an app. But tech Crunch did talk to
Speaker 1: the developer and he did kind of go over some
Speaker 1: of the claims that people have had with it, some
Speaker 1: of the issues, and a couple of things that they said.
Speaker 1: Number one, they do not upload your entire camera role.
Speaker 1: They just upload the picture that you select, so that's
Speaker 1: number one. Then they say most images are deleted from
Speaker 1: servers within forty eight hours from the upload date. They
Speaker 1: say no user data is transferred to Russia, so apparently
Speaker 1: they use Amazon's Web Services and Google Cloud to process this,
Speaker 1: which apparently, I guess are here in the US. So
Speaker 1: that's why they say it doesn't go to Russia, which
Speaker 1: I don't know if I believe, because I feel like
Speaker 1: some of your data has to go to Russia, but
Speaker 1: maybe not. They say they don't share any user data
Speaker 1: with third parties. To delete your data from the app,
Speaker 1: is kind of tough because I think these guys made
Speaker 1: this app and they never really thought it would go
Speaker 1: viral this way.
Speaker 2: So the way you have to delete your data is
Speaker 2: really tough.
Speaker 1: You can't just like you have to send them like
Speaker 1: a bug report with the word privacy in the subject line,
Speaker 1: which is not really that easy. Time and he said,
Speaker 1: most people don't log in, So bottom line, would I
Speaker 1: use this app? Yes, it's on my phone. No, I
Speaker 1: did not allow the camera roll access. You did, right,
Speaker 1: so I mean and the developer said, look, you can
Speaker 1: use an internet kind of like network sniffing program to
Speaker 1: kind of see the data that's going off your phone,
Speaker 1: and you'll notice that as soon as you press except
Speaker 1: to the camera roll. We're not just sending all of
Speaker 1: your pictures up to the cloud. Like you can see
Speaker 1: that on a server kind of an analysis, you know,
Speaker 1: like you can see the data flow. Apparently they say
Speaker 1: that you can do that, it's not going to happen.
Speaker 1: So the way that I would be okay with this app,
Speaker 1: and the way that I did it on my phone
Speaker 1: is there's a way to allow access to your camera
Speaker 1: to take a selfie and then affect that picture. Now,
Speaker 1: you say, Rich I mean, isn't that worse to give
Speaker 1: them access to your camera because aren't they going to
Speaker 1: activate your camera on your phone and listen to you
Speaker 1: and spy and oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: But I don't think they're gonna do that either, So
Speaker 2: do what you want.
Speaker 1: But you know, when it comes to any of these apps,
Speaker 1: I think the bottom line is that it's good that
Speaker 1: people are much more aware of our privacy totally.
Speaker 3: So yeah, people care.
Speaker 2: What do you make of the app? Do you think it?
Speaker 2: I mean, if the pictures are fun, you can't deny that.
Speaker 3: But I'm probably going to delete it in a week.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And if I delete it, do they still have access
Speaker 4: to like all my photos?
Speaker 2: Well, it depends what you think.
Speaker 1: If you think that as soon as you gave them
Speaker 1: access to that you know, camera role, they just immediately started,
Speaker 1: you know, taking in every picture, right, so by the
Speaker 1: time you delete it off your phone, it's too late.
Speaker 2: The damage is done. I don't think that's happening.
Speaker 1: But again, I think it's good that people are aware
Speaker 1: of the fact that we should be aware of the
Speaker 1: privacy implications of any app that we download to our phones.
Speaker 1: But I think if you want to look at some apps,
Speaker 1: or even worse. You look at the facebooks of the world.
Speaker 1: You look at the twitters of the world, and the
Speaker 1: Instagrams and the snapchats. They're taking all this stuff and
Speaker 1: all the stuff that we upload.
Speaker 2: And they have you know.
Speaker 1: So look, it's it's you know, as long as we
Speaker 1: know that we're aware of this stuff, I think that's
Speaker 1: the best thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I agree. Let's start with a question from you, Megan.
Speaker 4: Okay, so our first question comes from Shirley Lopez. Which
Speaker 4: smartphone is best for starter? I am seventy nine and
Speaker 4: I'm preparing to move to a smartphone from a flip phone.
Speaker 4: After researching, I'm thinking IP seven looks best for my
Speaker 4: needs sell, email, texting, FaceTime, camera, just the basics.
Speaker 3: Am I on.
Speaker 1: Target IP seven? When you first said that, I thought
Speaker 1: that she meant so. In the tech world, there's something
Speaker 1: called an IP rating, like or is it IPX?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: IPX, So it's like, you know that basically says like
Speaker 1: how waterproof a phone is. So when she said IP seven,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, what she wants a waterproof phone?
Speaker 1: But no, she means iPhone seven. Oh, so okay, iPhone seven.
Speaker 1: At this point, is I feel like it's getting kind
Speaker 1: of tired. You know, you had the iPhone seven. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the iPhone eight is. I mean, I would say I
Speaker 1: think that the iPhone ten R would be her best bet,
Speaker 1: and I recommend that to almost everyone that asks me
Speaker 1: for a starter phone, because the ten R you're getting
Speaker 1: the best of what Apple can offer, but in ways
Speaker 1: they cut back on that phone in ways that don't
Speaker 1: really matter as much.
Speaker 2: So you're still getting.
Speaker 1: A really nice big screen, but it's not as good
Speaker 1: as the screen on the iPhone ten or the Tennis Max.
Speaker 1: You're getting an LCD screen versus an OLED screen, so
Speaker 1: it's not gonna be as bright or as clear or vibrant,
Speaker 1: but it's going to be just fine.
Speaker 2: With the iPhone seven.
Speaker 1: You're also getting a really old camera at this point
Speaker 1: versus the iPhone ten are you're getting iPhone or Apple's
Speaker 1: best camera right now, which is basically the same or
Speaker 1: similar camera that's in the iPhone ten S and TENNS Max,
Speaker 1: which is, by the way, way improved over the ten,
Speaker 1: way improved over the eight.
Speaker 2: So let's see what else you're getting.
Speaker 1: You're also getting the full screen with the face ID,
Speaker 1: which is really nice, and I just feel like you're
Speaker 1: doing yourself a disservice if you buy the iPhone seven
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: Oh, you're also getting the best processor.
Speaker 1: So you're getting the Bionic twelve, which is way better
Speaker 1: than what's in the seven. You're talking The seven is
Speaker 1: several generations ago, at least what three years? Yeah, so
Speaker 1: the processor has greatly improved in this time. So for
Speaker 1: all of those reasons, i'd say go for the ten
Speaker 1: R and if you can. She doesn't specify which phone
Speaker 1: she has right now, but I would try to trade
Speaker 1: in your old phone for a credit towards the new.
Speaker 3: Phone, even if it's a flip phone.
Speaker 2: Oh is that what she has right now?
Speaker 1: Okay, she's not going to get anything from that then,
Speaker 1: So you're talking for the iPhone ten R. Apple says
Speaker 1: as low as four to seventy nine when you trade in,
Speaker 1: but that's if you have a good phone to trade in.
Speaker 1: So you're really looking at seven hundred and fifty dollars.
Speaker 1: So now seven hundred and fifty for the iPhone ten R.
Speaker 1: The iPhone seven is and I think this is probably
Speaker 1: why she was looking at it. It starts at four fifty.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing, you're already paying four to fifty.
Speaker 1: Go the extra three hundred, sell some stuff in your garage. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and get the better phone, because the iPhone ten R
Speaker 1: is gonna last you way longer. I'm talking for three
Speaker 1: to four years versus the iPhone seven. You're getting a
Speaker 1: phone that's already three years old.
Speaker 3: It might have more issues.
Speaker 2: It might.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just yes, especially with the newer apps, and
Speaker 1: it's just gonna be a little bit slower. So that's
Speaker 1: what I would recommend if you ask me, and you
Speaker 1: did because you emailed me.
Speaker 3: That's why she asked.
Speaker 1: Let's talk Netflix. Because Netflix is a cancel in my house.
Speaker 1: It's a big it's a big debate. My wife refused
Speaker 1: to cancel. I think it's way too expensive. I never
Speaker 1: watched anything on there. I tried watching a show this
Speaker 1: year called Dead to Me?
Speaker 2: Have you heard of that?
Speaker 1: A lot of people watched it was like Christina Applegate,
Speaker 1: So no, I didn't watch that. I'll tell you the
Speaker 1: things I've watched on Netflix in the past year or so.
Speaker 1: Dead to Me, which I only I think I got
Speaker 1: through four episodes before I got totally bored, where I
Speaker 1: was almost dead, like I thought I was gonna drop
Speaker 1: dead watching this show.
Speaker 2: It was dead to me. Let's see what's the other one.
Speaker 1: I did watch the date movie that was was it
Speaker 1: always be My Maybe it was like the one where
Speaker 1: Subway had like a prominent role in the movie.
Speaker 3: I didn't watch that.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I watched that as a young adult. I'm
Speaker 2: not the target demo for that.
Speaker 1: But I did watch on my wife because we wanted
Speaker 1: to watch romantic comedy. And what else did I watch?
Speaker 1: I think I watched and like one of those comedy specials.
Speaker 1: So long story short, I don't get my value out
Speaker 1: of this fifteen ninety nine or whatever I paid to Netflix.
Speaker 1: At this point, my wife loves it because she just
Speaker 1: watches whatever junk they have on there every night. You know,
Speaker 1: She'll just find something to watch, which is what a
Speaker 1: lot of people do. Yeah, but I tell you this
Speaker 1: because Netflix, for the first time in the US in
Speaker 1: about a decade, actually lost subscribers to the tune of
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty thousand people.
Speaker 3: That is insane.
Speaker 1: It is insane because you think everyone has Netflix, everyone
Speaker 1: loves it, everyone pays for it. But I think it's
Speaker 1: become this thing where we just assume everyone keeps it.
Speaker 1: And at this point, with the price increases, people and
Speaker 1: the content that really not there as much as it
Speaker 1: used to be. People are kind of like, why do
Speaker 1: I need this? There's a lot of other place to
Speaker 1: go for content these days. So Netflix in general had
Speaker 1: a major miss with their forecasting. They only grew by
Speaker 1: two point seven million subscribers this is worldwide in the
Speaker 1: last quarter, which is still great, but they expected five
Speaker 1: million new subscribers. So you're talking half of the people
Speaker 1: that they thought were going to sign up for Netflix
Speaker 1: signed up.
Speaker 2: That's bad.
Speaker 1: Now, I'm not an investor, you know all this stuff,
Speaker 1: and I don't do like the individual stocks and all that.
Speaker 1: But if you're an investor in Netflix, you're thinking, oh,
Speaker 1: how did this company miss two and a half million
Speaker 1: people worldwide? Now, Netflix says it is not because of
Speaker 1: the price increase, which for the average plan went from
Speaker 1: ten ninety nine to twelve ninety nine a month. My
Speaker 1: plan went to a little bit more because I think
Speaker 1: I paid fifteen ninety nine a month because I have
Speaker 1: the h the four K streaming plan. So but they
Speaker 1: said that they think their content slate was actually not
Speaker 1: that good and it drove less paid. But they do
Speaker 1: say that the things that were good was dead to me.
Speaker 1: Apparently thirty million people watched it in the first four weeks.
Speaker 1: That's mainly because there was nothing else on there, and
Speaker 1: so that's why they did that Netflix. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people like that show. I'm in the minority
Speaker 1: there because people did like it. My sisters loved it.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm not the demo. You should try it and
Speaker 1: let us know. Yes, will The other thing that that
Speaker 1: was a hit was The Perfect Date, which we did
Speaker 1: have on our watch list, another young adult romantic comedy.
Speaker 2: Did you watch that? No?
Speaker 1: Okay, Wow, you're like the worst netflixer. What did you
Speaker 1: watch on Netflix?
Speaker 2: Megan?
Speaker 3: What's the one with Jennifer Aniston?
Speaker 2: And that is the murder mystery movie?
Speaker 3: I watched that?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 3: It was weird.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you didn't like that. See, that's the only
Speaker 2: thing I wanted to watch because I love Adam Saymer
Speaker 2: watch that. I haven't had a chance, and I was.
Speaker 1: I know, I know, I worked on the plane there
Speaker 1: and back. Would you believe I did not work. I
Speaker 1: did not watch anything on the plane.
Speaker 2: I know. I just I'm a workaholic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you really checked my email yesterday? And then the
Speaker 1: way out there, I don't even know what I did.
Speaker 1: I think I don't even know what I did. I
Speaker 1: didn't watch anything. I did not watch a movie on
Speaker 1: the plane, which is so dumb. Anyway, The thing that
Speaker 1: I do watch on Netflix once in a while is
Speaker 1: called Friends.
Speaker 2: Have you heard of this show?
Speaker 3: Yes? I was about to Yes.
Speaker 1: And that's leaving and the office. So here are the
Speaker 1: things we have to look forward to in the next
Speaker 1: couple of months. Disney's launching their streaming service. Apple is
Speaker 1: launching their streaming service. Warner Media is launching some weird
Speaker 1: thing called HBO Max, like could you not have thought of.
Speaker 2: A better name?
Speaker 1: The dumbest name since the iPhone Max. NBCU is launching
Speaker 1: something so again, this is going to be a problem
Speaker 1: for Netflix because where do you put all your subscription dollars.
Speaker 1: It's getting a little bit crazy out there.
Speaker 3: Do you think they're getting really nervous?
Speaker 1: I don't, because I think that Netflix is pretty is
Speaker 1: pretty splished.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 1: I think they're pretty full of themselves and they think
Speaker 1: that they can do no wrong. And I think they
Speaker 1: will realize when people can jump around pretty easily to
Speaker 1: these things. And there isn't a main show that you
Speaker 1: must watch like, I bet HBO lost a lot of
Speaker 1: people after Game of Thrones went away totally because it's like, well,
Speaker 1: what am I watching on HBO right now?
Speaker 2: Can you name another hit right now? On there?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: Oh, big little lies?
Speaker 1: That is okay, that is true. They did transition to that,
Speaker 1: and I am watching.
Speaker 2: That with my yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So what was I going to say about Netflix?
Speaker 4: I'm curious to see the one hundred and thirty thousand
Speaker 4: people that left, like what they watched. What if it
Speaker 4: was like just The Office or Friends and they were.
Speaker 1: Like, well, don't forget, it's one hundred and thirty thousand
Speaker 1: net They gained two point seven million, So again, how
Speaker 1: many people shifted?
Speaker 2: Like how much churning is going on at Netflix? And
Speaker 2: this is the thing.
Speaker 1: You don't want Netflix to become a thing that people
Speaker 1: subscribe to for three months, they get rid of for
Speaker 1: eight months, they come back for three months.
Speaker 2: That is Netflix's biggest fear.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because imagine trying to build a budget on ten
Speaker 1: million people one year one month, five million people the
Speaker 1: next month, fifteen million the next month. So they've got
Speaker 1: a lot of thinking to do, and I think they
Speaker 1: just need to get much better stuff, which they seem
Speaker 1: to be doing. They're getting a lot of bigger names,
Speaker 1: bigger movies. I think they're still evolving. But the fear
Speaker 1: is that we've all these new things coming along, and.
Speaker 2: Where are people going to put their dollars.
Speaker 1: There's no way people are going to subscribe to ten
Speaker 1: different things and pay fifteen dollars a month for each
Speaker 1: one of those.
Speaker 2: It just doesn't work.
Speaker 3: It's crazy, all right.
Speaker 4: Next question is from Lori Wartik Roku versus Amazon. Hi, Rich,
Speaker 4: I'm interested in purchasing a thirty two inch ten eighty
Speaker 4: p smart TV. Some come with Roku, others come with Amazon.
Speaker 4: Please tell me which streaming service you recommend, especially for Netflix, Oh.
Speaker 2: She said, especially for Netflix. Interesting.
Speaker 1: Okay, So she's basically trying to figure out Amazon versus Roku,
Speaker 1: which is great. Those are two big companies that have
Speaker 1: two very established streaming platforms. So with Amazon, you've got
Speaker 1: the Fire platform, which they also make TV, so it's
Speaker 1: a little it's a little confusing because they call it
Speaker 1: Amazon Fire TV. And you can get that as a
Speaker 1: stick which is like a USB that you are sorry
Speaker 1: HDMI thing you plug into the back of your TV,
Speaker 1: or you can get a box which goes under your TV,
Speaker 1: or you can just buy the TV that has the
Speaker 1: software included. Roku's kind of the same way. You can
Speaker 1: either get a Roku stick that plugs on the back
Speaker 1: of your TV. You can get a Roku box that
Speaker 1: goes under your TV, or you can get a Roku
Speaker 1: TV that has the Roku software built in, which I
Speaker 1: think you.
Speaker 4: Have right and I have and my parents have the
Speaker 4: Amazon Fire TV Stick.
Speaker 2: Okay, they have the stick.
Speaker 1: I have the Fire TV Stick four K plus the
Speaker 1: their box which is a DVR under my TV. So
Speaker 1: the way I see Amazon versus Roku, I think you're
Speaker 1: gonna be fine with either, especially due to the fact
Speaker 1: that Amazon just made nice with Google again. Because for
Speaker 1: a while you could not get the YouTube app on
Speaker 1: the Fire TV. Now you can. Everything's good.
Speaker 2: My kid just downloaded it yesterday unbeknownst to me, but
Speaker 2: it's there again, so now you have full YouTube.
Speaker 1: Plus Amazon has access to all the major streaming services.
Speaker 1: There's nothing at this point. There's really none of the
Speaker 1: major stuff that you can't get on either. So when
Speaker 1: you look at Netflix on Roku versus versus Amazon, it's
Speaker 1: going to be pretty much the same experience now because
Speaker 1: you're on two major platforms, and she says, especially Netflix,
Speaker 1: your Netflix app is going to be great on either
Speaker 1: one of those because they're always updating it. Roku is
Speaker 1: a huge platform for Netflix. In fact, Netflix's first or
Speaker 1: Roku's first box, was a Netflix streaming box. A little
Speaker 1: bit of trivia for you. Back in the day before
Speaker 1: Roku is Roku, they basically made a box that was
Speaker 1: I forget what it's called, but it was a Netflix box.
Speaker 1: It only did Netflix basically. They since expanded obviously, So
Speaker 1: my advice is, if you're an Amazon shopper and you
Speaker 1: love Amazon and all things Amazon your prime, I would
Speaker 1: go with the Fire platform. If not, then go with
Speaker 1: the Roku platform. And Roku, like I said, is kind
Speaker 1: of like the Switzerland of streaming. They just want to
Speaker 1: please everyone. Pretty much everything is available on there, and
Speaker 1: I think she's gonna be very happy with both. I
Speaker 1: think it comes down to the features you want. So
Speaker 1: if there's a feature on one of those that you
Speaker 1: don't see on the other, then go that. Let that
Speaker 1: be your dividing line. But when it comes to apps,
Speaker 1: you're pretty much going to be covered on both of
Speaker 1: those platforms.
Speaker 2: So hope that answers your question. So you went to
Speaker 2: CS with me last year?
Speaker 3: Correct this year?
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that's right, it was this here. So
Speaker 1: we're looking forward to CS in twenty twenty. And I
Speaker 1: get this email from CTA, which is the Consumer Technology
Speaker 1: Association which puts on CS, and here's the headline. CTA
Speaker 1: announces policy updates, new partnerships, and new programming track for
Speaker 1: CS twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: If you saw that email, what would you do? You
Speaker 2: would hit.
Speaker 1: The delete button right because it sounds so boring. Well,
Speaker 1: I just happened to open this email out of due diligence,
Speaker 1: and guess what it announces in not so unto certain
Speaker 1: terms about CS twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, there will be.
Speaker 1: Tech based sexual products at CS. Okay, that's a bomb
Speaker 1: that they just drop inside this email that you know,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, wait what so CS has always had
Speaker 1: this weird thing where, you know, there's been one thing
Speaker 1: at CS that is always kind of weird, and it's
Speaker 1: this one company that does like virtual reality adult movies, right,
Speaker 1: and so they always pitch me, They're like, come to
Speaker 1: our booth and experience it, and I never do so,
Speaker 1: but some people do. And it's like kind of like
Speaker 1: the undercurrent talk of the town that these people go
Speaker 1: and they you know whatever. So now you have sex
Speaker 1: Tech will be a part of CS twenty twenty on
Speaker 1: a one year trial basis, because number one, you got
Speaker 1: to imagine if you're CS, You've got two things happening here.
Speaker 1: You've got a lot of money being thrown your way
Speaker 1: by these companies. Yeah, and there's a lot of them
Speaker 1: that make these products. On the other hand, you're kind
Speaker 1: of like, we don't really want to be known as
Speaker 1: like a sex show. And so because there used to
Speaker 1: be a show in Vegas which I did cover for
Speaker 1: c NET called I forget what it was called, but
Speaker 1: it was some sort of like basically the Porn Convention.
Speaker 2: It was. It was pretty crazy. I did it, and
Speaker 2: it was we did three stories and it was.
Speaker 3: Like, they're gonna have like porn stars.
Speaker 1: Well they will not, So they said porn is still banned.
Speaker 1: The existing CS ban on pornography will be strictly enforced
Speaker 1: with no exceptions. So they're taking this as a health
Speaker 1: and wellness thing, and they're gonna have products that must
Speaker 1: be innovative or products must be innovative and include new
Speaker 1: or emerging tech to qualify, and this will be part
Speaker 1: of the startup area and the health and wellness area
Speaker 1: of Eureka Park, which Eureka Park I believe is not
Speaker 1: at the main convention floor.
Speaker 2: I think it's like off site all the Yeah, so
Speaker 2: you will have to go seek this stuff out.
Speaker 1: But I'm saying that I think this is gonna make
Speaker 1: headlines for CS because it is a change. There will
Speaker 1: be now CES will be associated with these products, and
Speaker 1: it will be in the same headline. So and of
Speaker 1: course it's going to be you know, it's going to
Speaker 1: be headline capturing because it's link baity, it's click baity,
Speaker 1: it's it makes for good pictures, it makes for good story,
Speaker 1: it makes for good videos. So CS has this really interesting,
Speaker 1: interesting thing happening in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: We'll see what happens with that. Yeah, so that's how.
Speaker 3: Much we can actually cover with that.
Speaker 2: I don't see us covering it for the morning news.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's a it's probably if I had to guess,
Speaker 1: it's a web only thing, you know, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a web slide show or something like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But anyway, so I thought this was so interesting that
Speaker 2: they sent out.
Speaker 1: This email that basically doesn't really say anything, and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you get to this line, you're like,
Speaker 1: wait what now. The other thing they're doing is they're
Speaker 1: basically banning booth babes, which you went to CS I
Speaker 1: didn't really see that many this year, and booth babes
Speaker 1: for the uninitiated is kind of like these women that
Speaker 1: stand outside booths and basically scantily clad bikinis or less
Speaker 1: and you know, less, well maybe not less, but you know,
Speaker 1: really like a lot.
Speaker 3: Is going on a lot, Yeah, trying to get attention.
Speaker 1: They're trying to get you to come to the booth,
Speaker 1: and to me, I always see that as like the
Speaker 1: saddest way of getting me to the booth, because that's
Speaker 1: it's a booth. I'm basically not going to visit because
Speaker 1: it's really sad that they have to go to.
Speaker 2: That measures, you know, totally.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So they are banning booth babes by doing this.
Speaker 1: Booth personnel may not wear clothing that is sexually revealing
Speaker 1: or could be interpreted as undergarments.
Speaker 2: That's the less I was talking about, like.
Speaker 3: Lingerie based okay, okay.
Speaker 1: Clothing that reveals an excess of bear skin or body
Speaker 1: conforming clothing that hugs hugs genitalia must not be worn.
Speaker 1: These guidelines are applica applicable to all staff, regardless of gender.
Speaker 1: So anyway, interesting, kind of interesting for CS. You've got
Speaker 1: the toys on one side, but no booth babes on
Speaker 1: the other right, So.
Speaker 2: CS, Yeah, they're trying to you know, controversial this year,
Speaker 2: I think. So we'll see what happens with that.
Speaker 4: All right, so switching gears. Our next question comes from
Speaker 4: Patty Edstrom. Subject is videophone for elderly Hi rich, we
Speaker 4: enjoy your segments in Sacramento. I have an elderly mom
Speaker 4: ninety two years old who lives in Tennessee and we
Speaker 4: chat daily, but would like to have a video device
Speaker 4: so we can do something similar to Skype. Her vision
Speaker 4: and hearing are good. I've looked at view clicks, grand
Speaker 4: Pad connect portal from Facebook. There does not seem to
Speaker 4: be much out there as far as reviews. It would
Speaker 4: have to be super simple to use and reliable. And
Speaker 4: she lives she lives in an assisted living facility and they.
Speaker 3: Do have Wi Fi.
Speaker 1: Okay, so she wants a video chat device, which to me,
Speaker 1: I'm still confused why there is not a good video
Speaker 1: chat device that sits on top of your TV, because
Speaker 1: to me, the simplest way to do video chat is
Speaker 1: to sit at your TV and you have a camera
Speaker 1: on the top of your TV and you just chat
Speaker 1: with the person on the other end. The problem I
Speaker 1: find with FaceTime and all these other ones that use
Speaker 1: your phone is that people don't really understand how to
Speaker 1: video chat. I don't want to be moving around your house.
Speaker 1: It's tough to hold your phone there. And I know
Speaker 1: you're you're probably I don't know if you FaceTime a lot,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean I don't. And I have family
Speaker 1: across the US, and it's always been like this dream
Speaker 1: of like being able to face to face with them, right,
Speaker 1: but we never do it because it's just kind of annoying. Plus,
Speaker 1: when you're video chatting with someone, you don't really know
Speaker 1: where to look. You're like kind of holding your phone.
Speaker 1: Then you kind of like you look at different parts
Speaker 1: of your screen.
Speaker 2: It's kind of weird.
Speaker 1: You're you're wishing you could be checking Instagram while you're
Speaker 1: talking or your mom's talking, and.
Speaker 4: Then when you check Instagram, it's like where'd you go exactly?
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, it's a weird thing. It is, so
Speaker 1: nobody has really cracked video chatting. Of course, you know
Speaker 1: in the business world people do it, and FaceTime is
Speaker 1: very popular, and so Skype. But to answer your question,
Speaker 1: I think that something like the Echo Show would probably
Speaker 1: be your best bet. The Facebook Portal is probably great
Speaker 1: as well. And then there's also so the main options,
Speaker 1: all those other ones she mentioned, like the view click
Speaker 1: and all those things, the ones that are made for seniors,
Speaker 1: I would stay away from. And the reason I'd stay
Speaker 1: away from them is because they probably made them simple
Speaker 1: for seniors, but because nobody's really using them in a
Speaker 1: big way. I just don't see them as being very good.
Speaker 1: The software is probably wonky, it's probably not updated as
Speaker 1: much as I'd like. It's also Mike Mike go out
Speaker 1: of business and you rely on their backbone to do
Speaker 1: your video chatting, so like, if that happens, you just
Speaker 1: wasted all this money. So I would stick to one
Speaker 1: of the big ones, which is Facebook Portal, which is
Speaker 1: Amazon's Echo Show. Or there's an upcoming one from Google
Speaker 1: that we did a story on. Do you remember this
Speaker 1: was the Google nest Hub Max, Yes, And it's kind
Speaker 1: of like their Google Yeah. It's like a big screen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like a big iPad. Now, I think that one
Speaker 1: would be your best bet, but it's probably too expensive.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the pricing is. I think it's
Speaker 1: over two hundred for that. And it's also supposed to
Speaker 1: be coming out any day now, because Google told me
Speaker 1: that it would come out mid June. They actually missed
Speaker 1: the date that they told me, but that was not official,
Speaker 1: so they said it could be you know, could be
Speaker 1: anytime in the summer basically. So the reason why I
Speaker 1: like the Echo Show five. It's brand new, it's small,
Speaker 1: it's just like a five inch display. It works with Sky,
Speaker 1: which is a common thing that a lot of people have.
Speaker 1: You sign up once. It works on both yours and
Speaker 1: your mom's. That's funny to say that, right, it works
Speaker 1: on your mom's.
Speaker 2: I know. I'm also a kid at heart.
Speaker 3: You'll be able to use this too.
Speaker 1: It's ninety dollars for one, or if you buy two,
Speaker 1: which you probably want to do in this case, it
Speaker 1: will be nine times two is one eighty minus thirty dollars,
Speaker 1: so it's one.
Speaker 2: Fifty for two.
Speaker 1: That's a pretty good deal for video chat. You set it,
Speaker 1: you forget it. Don't forget. This also has all the
Speaker 1: benefits of an Alexa, so she can use it to
Speaker 1: play music when you're not doing video chatting. There's also
Speaker 1: a feature called drop in, so if she, if mom
Speaker 1: approves it, you can actually drop in to her room
Speaker 1: and see the camera at any time. Now, I don't
Speaker 1: know if Mom's gonna go for that, but that's a
Speaker 1: feature that's available.
Speaker 3: Can Mom do the same to you?
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you set it up, Yeah, of course. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so you can just drop in.
Speaker 1: And basically, I think the way it works is that
Speaker 1: the drop in doesn't let you see their camera immediately.
Speaker 1: So let's say you had this in your office. You
Speaker 1: can drop in by being like, I'd be on your screen.
Speaker 1: You would see me on your screen. I'd be like, hey,
Speaker 1: what's up, Megan?
Speaker 2: You around?
Speaker 1: You would be at your desk and you would see me,
Speaker 1: and then no, you would approve it, so I wouldn't
Speaker 1: see your camera without you being like, oh, yeah, I'm here.
Speaker 1: And I think that's how it works. I should test
Speaker 1: that because I haven't actually tried it, but I think
Speaker 1: that's pretty pretty much the way it work. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: drop in is kind of fun and it's cheap and
Speaker 1: it's Amazon's you know, it's going to be around for
Speaker 1: a while. It uses Skype, or if you don't want
Speaker 1: to use Skype, you can just use their built in
Speaker 1: video chat. They have their own, so either way you're covered.
Speaker 1: But I think for ninety bucks, I was thinking after
Speaker 1: I It's like, I was planning on getting my mom
Speaker 1: the Amazon or the Google one, because I want to
Speaker 1: be able to do this with her. But I was
Speaker 1: thinking because I'm not really in the Alexa ecosystem right now.
Speaker 1: So right now I'm in the Google ecosystem, So I'm
Speaker 1: waiting for that one to come out with my mom
Speaker 1: because I think that'd be perfect.
Speaker 3: That's two hundred and thirty dollars.
Speaker 2: Two thirty okay, so there you go.
Speaker 1: That's the Google Nest Hub Max, which has not come
Speaker 1: out yet right No, still being released.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it says release date summer.
Speaker 2: Okay. Yeah, so some of they said June or July
Speaker 2: mid July, but I guess that's.
Speaker 1: Uh, it could be any day now. Okay, So that's
Speaker 1: that's the way i'd go with that. Let me tell you,
Speaker 1: have you ever had this happen to you where you
Speaker 1: sign up for something and you forget you say you're
Speaker 1: going to cancel, but you forget and you get that
Speaker 1: charge on your credit card, and next thing you know,
Speaker 1: you're like, ah, and now some companies are really good
Speaker 1: about giving you the money back.
Speaker 3: This just happened to me. Oh yeah, class pass.
Speaker 2: Oh with class Pass, I forgot. I forgot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but then I ended up actually using the credit.
Speaker 2: So how much was it?
Speaker 3: Eighty dollars?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a lot.
Speaker 3: That's a lot.
Speaker 2: That's a lot. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And if it's on a debit card where you're right
Speaker 1: in the line of like do I have that money
Speaker 1: in my account, it could be an overcharge, which you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully your debit card is connected to some sort of
Speaker 1: savings account that like will overflow or I guess overdraft
Speaker 1: into there, yeah, and not charge you like thirty five dollars.
Speaker 1: But that can happen too, you know. And that's why
Speaker 1: I don't do my auto pays on my debit card.
Speaker 1: That's why I do use a credit card because if
Speaker 1: something is on there, I have a little bit of time,
Speaker 1: and I can also kind of what's it, debate the
Speaker 1: charge if I.
Speaker 2: Need to, or what's the word dispute the charge? Yeah,
Speaker 2: So in a lot of times.
Speaker 1: I will tell you these companies, even though they do
Speaker 1: the automatic, they will almost a majority of the time
Speaker 1: will give you a credit like if you forget and
Speaker 1: you say, oh I forgot.
Speaker 2: It might take some getting in contact with them. But anyway,
Speaker 2: I digress.
Speaker 1: The reason I'm telling you about this is because this
Speaker 1: twenty two year old entrepreneur called or named Joshua Browder
Speaker 1: has come up with something called a free trial card,
Speaker 1: and this is through his app called Do Not Pay.
Speaker 1: This guy has come up with all kinds of stuff
Speaker 1: and Do Not Pay. This is like a one stop
Speaker 1: shop for like if you get a parking ticket, if
Speaker 1: you have all these different things, Like, they do a
Speaker 1: lot of different things inside this app.
Speaker 2: But the main thing that he got famous for.
Speaker 1: Was the ticket dispute, which was if you get a
Speaker 1: parking ticket, you can have him kind of dispute it
Speaker 1: for you through this app. So anyway, he has this
Speaker 1: new thing where you basically use their virtual credit card
Speaker 1: to sign up for the free trial, and at the
Speaker 1: end of the free trial, they can't charge you because
Speaker 1: the credit card doesn't work. Now, if you do want
Speaker 1: to continue with the trial, there's an option they will
Speaker 1: send you an email before the end of the trial,
Speaker 1: saying like, hey, if you want to keep this, switch
Speaker 1: to your own credit or debit card and it'll just
Speaker 1: continue on. So it's a good idea. I have not
Speaker 1: tried this, so I don't know how simple it is.
Speaker 1: But a writer for Wired, Emily Dreyfus, she did try
Speaker 1: it out and she said it was pretty simple and
Speaker 1: it did work. And so in fact, they give you
Speaker 1: a fake email address as well, so they give you
Speaker 1: like entirely free credentials.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: So the good news about that is personally, the way
Speaker 1: I would do it is sign up for the free trial.
Speaker 1: You get a free trial, and then if you like it,
Speaker 1: sign up with your own and you basically get two
Speaker 1: free trials.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's actually smart, and that's.
Speaker 1: Part of the cost of business of these companies, Like
Speaker 1: they know if they're doing a free trial that a
Speaker 1: lot of people are going to, you know, sign up
Speaker 1: for the system, like using like a lot of people
Speaker 1: have two email addresses. She might sign up with one,
Speaker 1: like with class Pass, and then go into a second
Speaker 1: do that. The thing I don't like about this, and
Speaker 1: this happened to me with Aptive because I signed up
Speaker 1: first with my KTLA email because testing it out for
Speaker 1: a story, but then I wanted to continue on my
Speaker 1: own and I had to sign up again and it
Speaker 1: lost all my data for like the month, which I
Speaker 1: kind of didn't like. So let's say you sign up
Speaker 1: for Netflix on a free trial, you add all this
Speaker 1: stuff to your watch list, and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden you have to get rid of it and start
Speaker 1: over again.
Speaker 2: You lose all that stuff.
Speaker 1: So there is a catch twenty two with kind of
Speaker 1: scamming these companies totally. My trick is, and I just
Speaker 1: started doing this on iOS thanks to a life Hacker article,
Speaker 1: is to cancel the subscription as soon as you sign up.
Speaker 2: So as soon as you sign up, you go.
Speaker 1: In and you cancel right away, and a lot of
Speaker 1: them will let you use it until the end of
Speaker 1: your free trial. Some of them won't, but a lot
Speaker 1: of them do. And so like for the instance I
Speaker 1: did for my last trip to China, actually I sign
Speaker 1: up for I think it was like HBO or Cinemax
Speaker 1: or one of those, or Showtime through Apple, and I
Speaker 1: immediately canceled, so I'd have a week of using the
Speaker 1: app to watch shows and then I could you know,
Speaker 1: i'n't have to remember to cancel it. I did this
Speaker 1: for you can do this for iOS. I did for
Speaker 1: Amazon when my kid wanted to watch something on PBS.
Speaker 1: Kids subscribe to the app, and I immediately canceled it,
Speaker 1: but I still had a use of the app for
Speaker 1: a week.
Speaker 2: And so again a lot of things.
Speaker 1: So you're if you're in the mindset of like, let
Speaker 1: me do the subscription and then let me cancel it,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: Or fine, you'll be fine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So just remember to do that.
Speaker 1: And you might think that it's stupid and you're like, oh, rich,
Speaker 1: well that's so mean to the companies. I actually think
Speaker 1: it's a better thing because you remember, you do it,
Speaker 1: and if you like it, you'll just resubscribe, So it's fine.
Speaker 2: I think it works all around, all right.
Speaker 4: So this next question is from Facebook.
Speaker 3: Her name is Karla Abu Lahian.
Speaker 2: She asks, I'll just assume you didn't pronounce that properly.
Speaker 1: But I mean there's h oh lash Carla abu lashin, yeah,
Speaker 1: lash and lashin lashing.
Speaker 4: Okay, Okay, So anyways, I saw in the morning News
Speaker 4: that you noted Apple laptops, and I was wondering the
Speaker 4: best place to purchase their products directly.
Speaker 3: From them, maybe Amazon Prime Day, Best Buy.
Speaker 4: Oh this is a little dated, but she's asking the
Speaker 4: best place to buy the new Apple laptops.
Speaker 1: Okay, So my thoughts on this is I will tell
Speaker 1: you one story. So Amazon used to sell Apple laptops
Speaker 1: for a little bit cheaper than your regular you know,
Speaker 1: the Apple store, right, and.
Speaker 2: They all do.
Speaker 1: Basically, if you go through anywhere except the Apple Store,
Speaker 1: you're going to find the prices for Apple products fluctuate
Speaker 1: and there's usually deals.
Speaker 2: They're usually cheaper.
Speaker 1: Like right now, I'm looking at this Apple MacBook Air
Speaker 1: on Amazon's website. It's nine nine ninety three versus nine
Speaker 1: ninety nine on Apples. Okay, or here's the yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: so but the main thing, Okay, there's two things to
Speaker 1: look out for here. You have to think about if
Speaker 1: you're getting this thing service. So where this bit me
Speaker 1: in the in the in the behind is bit you period?
Speaker 2: Where it bit me was?
Speaker 1: I had a logic board failure on the laptop that
Speaker 1: I bought from Amazon, and I brought it to the
Speaker 1: Apple Store and they started doing all this stuff, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: you need a new logic board. It's failed, blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, they were ready to
Speaker 1: hand me a new laptop, and they said, oh, you
Speaker 1: bought this not through an Apple authorized reseller, and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh shoot, I didn't realize there was a distinction.
Speaker 1: So they said, you have to return this sto where
Speaker 1: you bought it. So I had to return it through Amazon,
Speaker 1: which was fine, I mean, big deal. I had all
Speaker 1: my stuff on there. Is kind of annoying because I
Speaker 1: had to get a new one, so I returned it
Speaker 1: to Amazon without buying a new one through them.
Speaker 2: I bought the new one through the Apple Store.
Speaker 1: Because I learned my lesson, I said, Okay, in the future,
Speaker 1: if something happens to this, I want to be able
Speaker 1: to service it at the Apple Store. And of course
Speaker 1: they can always service things there. It's just how much
Speaker 1: it's going to cost you. But if you get it
Speaker 1: through you know your official warranty whatever. That's the long story.
Speaker 1: The short story is, I do believe at this point
Speaker 1: that Apple and Amazon have made up, and I think
Speaker 1: that if you buy things through Amazon they are authorized.
Speaker 1: At this point it should say on there. But that's
Speaker 1: my main thing is always make sure that wherever you're
Speaker 1: purchasing your laptop or Apple product it is from an
Speaker 1: Apple authorized reseller, because I did buy my second one
Speaker 1: through B and H and they are an authorized reseller,
Speaker 1: so I still I made sure I emailed them. I said, hey,
Speaker 1: if I buy this through you, because it was like
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars less, do I still get the ability
Speaker 1: to bring it to an Apple store for warranty issues,
Speaker 1: right if something goes wrong, you know whatever?
Speaker 2: And they said yes.
Speaker 1: And with that laptop, my kid threw a toy at
Speaker 1: it and broke the screen and I had to replace
Speaker 1: it was like six hundred dollars.
Speaker 2: But that was my fault. It was not.
Speaker 1: It was not defective, even though I brought it to
Speaker 1: the Apple Store and I'm like, I don't know what happened,
Speaker 1: can you It just cracked.
Speaker 2: I didn't say that. I didn't lie.
Speaker 1: I just said, here's my screen, and you know, I
Speaker 1: let them go through the things. They're like, yeah, this
Speaker 1: is clearly damaged on your part. And I had to
Speaker 1: pay the six hundred dollars, which is fine. I knew
Speaker 1: I would, but I was like, you never know, maybe
Speaker 1: they looked at it and they're like, oh, this screen,
Speaker 1: it's the We knew there was a problem with this
Speaker 1: glass on this screen.
Speaker 2: So here's a freedom that would have been nice.
Speaker 1: That's not the way it happened. So my recommendation is
Speaker 1: shop get the best price. But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, I tend to buy my stuff through the
Speaker 1: Apple Store just because it's the most seamless when you
Speaker 1: need to get things fixed, if it's an authorized reseller.
Speaker 1: And now the best Buy is also an authorized repair
Speaker 1: center for Apple stuff, I'm sure if you buy it
Speaker 1: through best Buy you can get it repair there, no problem,
Speaker 1: and it's just as if you brought it to the
Speaker 1: Apple Store. So things have gotten better since that time
Speaker 1: when I bought on Amazon. Yes, but I'm looking on Amazon.
Speaker 1: Well I'm trying to see, like what it says on Amazon,
Speaker 1: like where you know, if it says on here, we're
Speaker 1: an authorized reseller or reseller, but I think they are
Speaker 1: just based on what I'm seeing here, it looks like
Speaker 1: they have made amends with Apple and everything's okay.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's the good news.
Speaker 3: That's good.
Speaker 2: Speaking of Amazon, did you do any Prime Day shopping?
Speaker 3: No, we messed up.
Speaker 4: We were supposed we should have gotten the ero I
Speaker 4: know price, and it was the we were like, okay,
Speaker 4: let's do it.
Speaker 3: And then it was gone, Yeah, that was.
Speaker 1: The best deal, like two hundred dollars off. I tweeted
Speaker 1: about that. I know that I came out of retirement
Speaker 1: for that, for that, I was totally on vacation during
Speaker 1: during Amazon Prime Day. So Prime Day, I think is
Speaker 1: a big letdown every year. I think that people search.
Speaker 1: I'm so negative. I talked crap about Netflix, I talk
Speaker 1: crap about Amazon, but.
Speaker 3: The reality is critical of it.
Speaker 1: I'm I am a consumer like everyone else. And what
Speaker 1: did I do on Amazon Prime Day? I looked at
Speaker 1: Amazon on Monday and I was like, eh, I looked
Speaker 1: on Tuesday, Eh, all the stuff that I had my
Speaker 1: shopping cart e, I did that.
Speaker 2: Nothing. Nothing really went down in price.
Speaker 1: I haven't looked at my Amazon Essentials pants, my joggers
Speaker 1: that I love now that were like twenty two dollars.
Speaker 1: They were twenty two dollars on Prime Day. And I
Speaker 1: looked at my receipt from my original order to see, like,
Speaker 1: are these two dollars off?
Speaker 2: Are they a dollar? Nothing?
Speaker 3: I like that. You're like going, yeah, I had to Yeah.
Speaker 2: I didn't remember how much played.
Speaker 1: So Prime Day twenty nineteen, of course, in Amazon's world
Speaker 1: was like the best day ever. But here's what Prime
Speaker 1: Day does. It drives Prime Day subscriptions, which they said
Speaker 1: on July fifteenth and sixteenth, more people sign up for
Speaker 1: Amazon Prime than.
Speaker 2: Like any other day in history. But I'll tell you
Speaker 2: what they did.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 1: Top selling items include the i Robot, Rumba, the MiQ
Speaker 1: Smart garage door opener, and Amazon Smart Plug. They also
Speaker 1: purchased two times as many ring and blink.
Speaker 2: Devices this year.
Speaker 1: They also purchased one hundred thousand lunch boxes, one hundred
Speaker 1: thousand laptops, two hundred thousand TVs, three hundred thousand headphones,
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty thousand luxury beauty products, four hundred
Speaker 1: thousand pet products, six hundred fifty thousand cleaning supplies, and
Speaker 1: one million toys. Prime members purchased more than two hundred
Speaker 1: thousand life straw personal water filters.
Speaker 2: Gross never using that unless I had to.
Speaker 1: You know, those are four like drink out of like
Speaker 1: a river, which, by the way, I went on a
Speaker 1: couple of hikes over my trip and I did see
Speaker 1: people using those, and I was explaining to my family,
Speaker 1: like what they are, and the water in the bottle
Speaker 1: was like brown, and you drink it through the thing
Speaker 1: and it's miraculously cured. Now I get it if you're
Speaker 1: in a country that does not have clean water, these
Speaker 1: things are amazing. Yeah, and if you're a backpacker for
Speaker 1: four months, you need to get them.
Speaker 2: But I personally don't want to like use that.
Speaker 4: That's funny because I randomly watched your package from like
Speaker 4: two two years ago because I was going through our
Speaker 4: camping one. No, no, the one the story about the
Speaker 4: like the just like the gross water turned into water
Speaker 4: like clean water.
Speaker 2: Oh, that was my favorite story every Yeah, if you ever,
Speaker 2: that was one of my apps, was favorite story.
Speaker 1: It was called watch this tap water turn into watch
Speaker 1: this toilet water turn into water.
Speaker 2: I still watch that story. I love it.
Speaker 1: They literally take water that is flushed down the toilet, yeah,
Speaker 1: clean it, and I drank it at the end.
Speaker 4: Of the piece, I know, which was really hard to
Speaker 4: watch because I was like, I can't believe he's.
Speaker 2: Doing I felt sick for two days after that. Of course,
Speaker 2: it was all my.
Speaker 1: Head totally back to Prime day. Anyways, This was a
Speaker 1: big shopping day I did. There was four items in
Speaker 1: my basket that were cheaper than normal that I did
Speaker 1: not buy. And we actually bought them today. So I
Speaker 1: told my wife, I was like, why don't we just
Speaker 1: buy these on Prime Day? It's like you almost don't
Speaker 1: want to because you're like, eh.
Speaker 2: Prime Day. Yeah, So I didn't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't. I didn't buy anything. But apparently it
Speaker 1: was a big success for Amazon. But all the stuff
Speaker 1: they sell, the stuff that I found that has the
Speaker 1: biggest discounts is their own products, which is great if
Speaker 1: you need like a ring, doorbell or a video camera
Speaker 1: or anything, Amazon, fire stick, fire TV, They're always a
Speaker 1: great deal. The rest of the stuff you really have
Speaker 1: to hunt, you know, and you have to see like
Speaker 1: is this a good deal? Is this is this worth
Speaker 1: my time and effort, or just buy stuff.
Speaker 2: When you need it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's about it. All right, that's gonna do
Speaker 1: it for today's show. Thanks so much for listening. Subscribe
Speaker 1: if you haven't already done so. So if you're just
Speaker 1: listening to this, like on the web somewhere you found
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Speaker 1: forget sign up for my newsletter at rich on tech
Speaker 1: dot tv. If you're keeping track of my whereabouts, you
Speaker 1: know I have not sent one out in the last
Speaker 1: two weeks. So your inbox is welcome. But it is
Speaker 1: coming back tomorrow or maybe not. We'll say it probably
Speaker 1: won't come back tomorrow. I don't say that it's I
Speaker 1: don't say it's my weekly newsletter. It's just my newsletter. Yes,
Speaker 1: I have done it weekly on a regular basis, but
Speaker 1: if I don't feel.
Speaker 2: Like doing it, you don't get it, which is fine.
Speaker 2: Your life will go on. You do you say, oh
Speaker 2: my gosh.
Speaker 1: That's my brother and I were saying that the whole
Speaker 1: trip for when we went to STONA.
Speaker 2: Producer Megan, did you enjoy the show? Yeah?
Speaker 3: That was fun?
Speaker 2: You glad to be back in the saddle here?
Speaker 3: Yes, it's been it feels like forever.
Speaker 1: Did you sad listen to the show that you weren't
Speaker 1: a part of and be like I could have been there.
Speaker 3: I just didn't even listen.
Speaker 2: I know, I don't want to.
Speaker 3: I don't want to listen to just Rich.
Speaker 1: All right, thanks so much for listening. Find producer Megan
Speaker 1: on Twitter at producer Megan. You can find me at
Speaker 1: rich on Tech. I'm Rich tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Have a great day. We'll talk to you real soon