Speaker 1: Apple sets a date for the iPhone reveal. Amazon sets
Speaker 1: a date for Prime Day. Instagram celebrates ten years plus.
Speaker 1: Your tech questions answered? What's going on? My name is
Speaker 1: Rich Dumiro and this is Rich on Tech, the podcast
Speaker 1: where I talk about the tech stuff I think you
Speaker 1: should know about. It's also the place where I answer
Speaker 1: the questions that you send me. Once again, my name
Speaker 1: is Rich Dumiro, tech reporter at KTLA Channel five in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the show. I can't
Speaker 1: get over the tech season right now. There is so
Speaker 1: much going on. Every company wants to send me stuff
Speaker 1: to test out, and I just have to hold them
Speaker 1: all back because I'm like, look, I gotta do just
Speaker 1: the stuff that I think my audience is interested in
Speaker 1: at this point, because there's just two watch, too many phones,
Speaker 1: too many gadgets, too many things, And you know, it's
Speaker 1: just one of these things where I am the editor,
Speaker 1: I'm the filter, and I do try to filter things
Speaker 1: down to just the stuff that I think is the
Speaker 1: most interesting, the most compelling, and the most valuable. I'm
Speaker 1: not always right, but you know, I have to do
Speaker 1: my best because I only have so much time and
Speaker 1: placements on TV and on you know, the radio and anyway.
Speaker 1: So this week bunch of stuff arrived. But the Pixel
Speaker 1: four A is in the house, and I have already
Speaker 1: fallen in love with this device. It's a four hundred
Speaker 1: and ninety nine dollars phone. It's got that amazing Google
Speaker 1: camera on it. The other thing, so I'm playing with that.
Speaker 1: I'm playing with the Pixel four A, comparing that against
Speaker 1: some of the other phones out there. The other thing
Speaker 1: that I've been playing with, the Google Chrome Cast TV
Speaker 1: is just awesome. I am absolutely loving this thing. It
Speaker 1: is so simple. And it occurred to me why this
Speaker 1: is so brilliant, because Google has basically done for streaming
Speaker 1: services what they've done for data on the Internet, so
Speaker 1: web pages. So they have gone through and they've scanned
Speaker 1: all the streaming services and they now have made this
Speaker 1: major index on the back end. And so when you
Speaker 1: want to watch a Halloween movie, you just asked the
Speaker 1: Google assistant for Halloween movies and they will show you
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of them. You can narrow down to
Speaker 1: just kids movies, or just slasher movies or thriller movies,
Speaker 1: or you know, whatever you're into, and it's the same
Speaker 1: thing as searching on Google and it's like, okay, well
Speaker 1: here it is, and this is the movie you want.
Speaker 1: And by the way, it's on HBO Max. So brilliant,
Speaker 1: so awesome. And it really just came to me this
Speaker 1: week as I was using it because I have found
Speaker 1: more to watch on Google chrome cast TV. I'm giving
Speaker 1: it the wrong name, by the way, it's Chrome cast
Speaker 1: with Google TV. I've found more to watch on that
Speaker 1: device in the past week than I ever have across
Speaker 1: any other device. Because the way most other streaming devices
Speaker 1: work is that they're all about the apps, and so
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, here's Hulu, here's to be TV, here's YouTube.
Speaker 1: Google does not care about any of that. All they
Speaker 1: care about is content, and so it's a really interesting
Speaker 1: kind of flipping of the roles of these streaming devices
Speaker 1: because it feels like the Internet now. So you just
Speaker 1: search for what you want and boom, it's there, and
Speaker 1: then you'll figure out if you can stream it for
Speaker 1: free or not. But I thought that was really really neat.
Speaker 1: So so that's the chrome Cast TV. Let's get into
Speaker 1: the first story of the week, which is Apple finally
Speaker 1: announced their iPhone event for October thirteenth, they sent out
Speaker 1: an invitation to journalists, including myself called time. Sorry that's
Speaker 1: the last one. This one said, Hi Comma Speed, Hi
Speaker 1: Comma Speed. And what is that tagline? You know? Apple
Speaker 1: always sends these things out in kind of a little
Speaker 1: way of giving you a hint as to what's to come.
Speaker 1: They're they're so cool over there, They're so creative, and
Speaker 1: they are the best at what they do. Let's be honest,
Speaker 1: But this one is all about high speed, which is
Speaker 1: a nod to five G arriving on the iPhone for
Speaker 1: the first time. And if you've listened to this podcast
Speaker 1: for any length of time. If you haven't, welcome to
Speaker 1: the show. If you have, sorry, sorry that you have
Speaker 1: to deal with this show. But no, you'll love it,
Speaker 1: and so do I, and I appreciate you. But the
Speaker 1: five G networks are not all there yet, and so
Speaker 1: does that mean you shouldn't get a five G phone? No?
Speaker 1: Does that mean you shouldn't be excited for a five
Speaker 1: G phone? No? In fact, I want to switch carriers
Speaker 1: just to go to five G. I'm on Verizon right
Speaker 1: now and I'm kind of looking at a move to
Speaker 1: AT and T or T mo O. Well, just because
Speaker 1: they have five G in a bigger way than Verizon.
Speaker 1: Verizon also is gonna have five G sometime this year,
Speaker 1: so I kind of holding out for what they have
Speaker 1: because I know it's going to be good. But anyway,
Speaker 1: I digress the what are we expecting from this event?
Speaker 1: We're expecting apparently, according to nine to five Mac four
Speaker 1: different iPhones and iPhone twelve Mini and iPhone twelve six inch,
Speaker 1: iPhone Pro, iPhone Pro Max with the biggest screen, they're
Speaker 1: all gonna have O LED displays, and of course they're
Speaker 1: gonna be faster, they're gonna have better cameras, They're gonna
Speaker 1: already have iOS fourteen on them. So I mean, if
Speaker 1: you already have an iPhone with that, it's kind of
Speaker 1: like you have the software. So I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: it's one of these things where it's it's gonna be
Speaker 1: exciting and no matter what, it's funny because whenever I
Speaker 1: cover Apple, what happens. I get all the haters coming
Speaker 1: out of the woodwork to you know, oh, well you
Speaker 1: do is cover Apple? Why youse such an Apple fanboy?
Speaker 1: And then I post something like the pixel four A
Speaker 1: five G A little first look on my Facebook and
Speaker 1: my Instagram and it is crickets. Nobody comments, nobody watches
Speaker 1: the video, so I don't really understand it. Where are
Speaker 1: all the Samsung lovers? Where all the Android lovers? When
Speaker 1: I post something about Android, they're not there. They don't
Speaker 1: say anything. So say something when I post the Android
Speaker 1: stuff or the non Apple stuff. So I know that's
Speaker 1: your care. But when I post the iPhone video on
Speaker 1: next week, not that I have an iPhone, but if
Speaker 1: I get one or whatever I do with the iPhone,
Speaker 1: I know it's gonna be popular. So you know, give
Speaker 1: me a break. I mean, I do. I cover whatever
Speaker 1: is out there that I think most people should know about.
Speaker 1: And I think that people should know about the Pixel
Speaker 1: four A five G. When I had the Samsung the
Speaker 1: Friends and Family Edition or whatever it's called, the Fan Edition,
Speaker 1: I talked all about that and I got a lot
Speaker 1: of you know, I got some feedback on it. But again,
Speaker 1: if it's iPhone, it's oh, it just blows up and
Speaker 1: everyone wants to know. So I get it. iPhone's very popular.
Speaker 1: But I do try to cover a wide spance of stuff.
Speaker 1: Is that a word spance spans? Let's see, no spans.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't think spans. No, there's no way
Speaker 1: spans is a word. No, I don't think so. Uh okay,
Speaker 1: So anyway, the iPhone event is happening on October thirteenth,
Speaker 1: ten am Pacific. You can watch it online, you can
Speaker 1: watch it on all the different you know channels, you
Speaker 1: know YouTube, all that good stuff, or you know, an
Speaker 1: Apple device. But uh, the basic thing is going to
Speaker 1: be new iPhones, and then of course there's the rumors
Speaker 1: about everything else. You know, new AirPods over the earheadphones,
Speaker 1: air tag trackers, which you know, we've heard about these
Speaker 1: things for like three years now, a new Apple TV perhaps,
Speaker 1: and of course maybe an update on the Apple Silicon
Speaker 1: for you know, the new Mac computers maybe what else?
Speaker 1: What are they saying? You know, It's one of these
Speaker 1: things where you never know with Apple. I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: the iPhone is the most popular thing that they've got,
Speaker 1: but they use these opportunities to kind of give us
Speaker 1: other other things as well. So I will be watching that,
Speaker 1: I will be covering that, and I'm excited, to be honest,
Speaker 1: to be one hundred percent honest, I am more excited
Speaker 1: for the Pixel five than I am the iPhone twelve.
Speaker 1: I'll be honest, I think the iPhone is an amazing
Speaker 1: piece of machinery and I love, love, love it. But
Speaker 1: I'm getting a little bored, and so I've already had
Speaker 1: iPhone iOS fourteen on my phone. But when I look
Speaker 1: at the pixel software, I feel like it just it's
Speaker 1: doing more interesting things for me versus the iPhone, which
Speaker 1: it kind of does what the iPhone has been doing.
Speaker 1: It's amazing, it works. I love how it integrates with
Speaker 1: the AirPods and the Apple Watch and the iPhone and
Speaker 1: my messages on my computer. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I feel like I've been doing that for a while now,
Speaker 1: So I don't know. I feel like maybe I'm ready
Speaker 1: for a change. I don't know if I can handle it, though,
Speaker 1: because every time I use an Android, I'm always like
Speaker 1: I'm always feeling like sad about my iPhone. So I
Speaker 1: don't know. Maybe these are just my problems. Maybe this
Speaker 1: is just my internal monologue. Let's get some questions, let's
Speaker 1: get some other people's problems, right opp Hugo says, I
Speaker 1: need your help asap. I have an iPhone ten and
Speaker 1: money wise, well, I don't want to do an upgrade
Speaker 1: just yet. I've got at and T. I have insurance
Speaker 1: on my phone. All of a sudden, it looks like
Speaker 1: the battery or something got really big inside my phone
Speaker 1: and it popped open. I'm afraid of charging it or
Speaker 1: answering calls it might explode. I checked AT and T
Speaker 1: insurance for replacement shows I have to pay two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars. I understand if it's my fault or
Speaker 1: I dropped it or I broke it. But do you
Speaker 1: know if I can dispute this two fifty or something
Speaker 1: else for something I didn't do. HUGO, do not pay
Speaker 1: the two fifty. In fact, do not pass go. Do
Speaker 1: not go to AT and T on this, go directly
Speaker 1: to Apple. It's an iPhone ten, which has been you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of years. But Apple is is pretty particular
Speaker 1: about batteries. They kind of carve out special circumstances for
Speaker 1: batteries on the phone, and so I do believe that
Speaker 1: if you bring this into an Apple store, they will
Speaker 1: replace the battery for you at a very re reasonable price.
Speaker 1: And they may not even replace the battery. They may
Speaker 1: just give you a new phone or a refurbished phone.
Speaker 1: But that is the first thing that I would do
Speaker 1: before you go through your insurance because unless you did
Speaker 1: something to this phone to make this battery pop like this,
Speaker 1: which I don't think you did. I think the battery
Speaker 1: is just faulty, and they're going to know that, they're
Speaker 1: gonna figure it out, and they're going to give you
Speaker 1: a reasonable replacement, something in the under one hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: I think the out of battery replacement is something like
Speaker 1: eighty bucks. So I would go right to the Apple store,
Speaker 1: make an appointment online with the genius, and again, you
Speaker 1: are kind of onto something. I would not make calls
Speaker 1: or use this phone right now, and definitely don't charge
Speaker 1: it because when those batteries start to pop, there is
Speaker 1: a chemical issue happening. It's a reaction that's happening inside
Speaker 1: your phone. You do not want to further that or
Speaker 1: be a part of that. So get it, get it
Speaker 1: to a store as soon as possible, stop using it,
Speaker 1: and do this today. That's my advice. But let me
Speaker 1: know what happens, because I think that they are going
Speaker 1: to be understanding of this issue, and yeah, everything will
Speaker 1: be good, all right. Next story on the list here,
Speaker 1: let's talk about Prime Day on Amazon, because Prime Day
Speaker 1: is the most overhyped non holiday in the world, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, what's up with Prime Day? I didn't even
Speaker 1: shop on the last two Prime Days. I'll be honest,
Speaker 1: this year I might because I've kind of been looking
Speaker 1: at some of the I'm gonna go through some of
Speaker 1: these things. But this year seems like Amazon maybe they're
Speaker 1: taking mercy on us because they know that they are
Speaker 1: kind of just ruling in our world, especially in the pandemic.
Speaker 1: Maybe they know that people's budgets aren't as big these days,
Speaker 1: and so they just start giving more deals. But it
Speaker 1: seems like they're doing a good job this year. So
Speaker 1: let's go over Prime Day Real quick starts Tuesday, October
Speaker 1: thirteenth at midnight Pacific. It runs for forty eight hours,
Speaker 1: so it'll run through Wednesday, October fourteenth. If you want
Speaker 1: to get a credit right now, if you buy something
Speaker 1: from a small business on Amazon, you can get a
Speaker 1: ten dollars credit to spend on Prime Day. And the
Speaker 1: way to find that is, let's see, you gotta go
Speaker 1: to like Amazon dot com slash small business. Is that
Speaker 1: what it is Amazon dot com? Or maybe it's shop
Speaker 1: small Let's see. You know, you would think I would
Speaker 1: do my you think i'd do my homework before I
Speaker 1: come onto this podcast, but I don't. So let's see.
Speaker 1: I know I've got it somewhere, and let's see where
Speaker 1: is it. Oh my gosh, I have so many here
Speaker 1: we go. I have so many different scripts. I write
Speaker 1: for TV radio. You know how many things I'm doing
Speaker 1: at this point, I'm doing TV. So with TV, I'm
Speaker 1: doing KTLA, all the other stations we do. We just
Speaker 1: added like things like Las Vegas, you know, and I
Speaker 1: already went over this. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: humble brag anymore. So anyway, we're on a lot of places.
Speaker 1: Let's see where are we Amazon dot Com, Slash Support
Speaker 1: Small So if you buy something from one of those
Speaker 1: and says you'll get a ten dollars credit. The other
Speaker 1: thing you can do is through October fourteenth, if you
Speaker 1: spend ten dollars at an Amazon Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh,
Speaker 1: Amazon Go or Amazon Grocery, Amazon Books, or an Amazon
Speaker 1: pop up or an Amazon four Star store, you can
Speaker 1: get up to fifty dollars in credit. Oh wow, so
Speaker 1: you can do that a couple of times. Interesting, that's
Speaker 1: why I've gotten that a couple times. I was wondering
Speaker 1: why they kept emailing me ten bucks. I thought it
Speaker 1: was like a problem. I was like, I'll keep taking it,
Speaker 1: but I think you're mistaking. So I have Oh gosh,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out where my Amazon like credit
Speaker 1: is because I have like a little let me see,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna Amazon ten dollars. Let's see. So they gave
Speaker 1: me like this reward for shopping at Whole Foods and
Speaker 1: how do I see it? Come on, where is it? Man?
Speaker 1: Oh man? They have like this little they have this
Speaker 1: little like web page that you can actually see your
Speaker 1: credits on there, and when I claimed it, I had
Speaker 1: this little thing where it was like ten dollars. So anyway,
Speaker 1: I've got twenty bucks to spend so far, which is
Speaker 1: kind of cool. I don't know where that website is,
Speaker 1: but I wish I did, because you know, the whole
Speaker 1: point of this podcast is to give you news that
Speaker 1: you can use. And when I'm sitting here telling you
Speaker 1: something and I'm not saying where it is, well that's
Speaker 1: a problem. So anyway, I don't know where it is,
Speaker 1: and it seems like the whatever website they gave me
Speaker 1: where I claim my credit, it's now redirecting somewhere that's
Speaker 1: not really working anyway, So that's another way to do it.
Speaker 1: Let's see shop with an Alexa on an Echo device
Speaker 1: starting Sunday, October eleventh to get early access to deals,
Speaker 1: and that is let's see what's the deals there. You
Speaker 1: have to say, you know, a what are my Prime
Speaker 1: Day deals? And that's where they reserve a lot of deals.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about some of these deals. They've got
Speaker 1: a lot. I'm just going to go through some of
Speaker 1: the early Prime Day deals that Amazon already has announced.
Speaker 1: Echo Dot third generation nineteen bucks, Fire TV Smart Edition TVs.
Speaker 1: You can get a thirty two inch for one hundred
Speaker 1: and nine dollars, a forty three inch for two oh
Speaker 1: nine seventy five bucks off the euro Mesh Wi Fi system,
Speaker 1: which I'm guessing is the old one, but that's one
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy five bucks. Ring Video, Doorbell second gen
Speaker 1: for seventy dollars. Do you see the trends here? All
Speaker 1: the older stuff, like the last generation stuff, is on sale.
Speaker 1: So I'm not saying that they're just trying to like
Speaker 1: clear the warehouses, but you know, let's be honest, the
Speaker 1: new stuff is not as much on sale as the
Speaker 1: old stuff is. So it's just I mean, isn't that
Speaker 1: how it works in general? Fifty dollars off a Kindle
Speaker 1: paper white, that's eighty bucks. This is what I'm interested
Speaker 1: in because my kids are all about their Nintendo Switch.
Speaker 1: Save thirty six dollars on a twelve month Nintendo Switch
Speaker 1: Online family membership plus a sand disc one twenty eight
Speaker 1: gig memory card, So I'll definitely be picking up two
Speaker 1: of those thirty three percent off Nintendo Switch titles. I
Speaker 1: just realized when I bought my kid the Switch my
Speaker 1: other kid, that you basically have to have two different
Speaker 1: You have to buy two copies of the game if
Speaker 1: your kids want to play at the same time. Yes,
Speaker 1: there's some workarounds, I have not really figured them out
Speaker 1: in an easy way, So that's what I'm sticking to.
Speaker 1: Thirty three percent off of Room Buzz and Yeah, I
Speaker 1: would definitely look into those. Those are awesome. Twenty percent
Speaker 1: off Pumpkin Bakery Soy candles from Amazon, handmade maker Loren
Speaker 1: lorenz In Candle Company. I'm loving I went to I went.
Speaker 1: I dragged my wife to what's that place called Bath
Speaker 1: and Body Works for some pumpkin candles, and they're really strong.
Speaker 1: By the way we've got them. You can only burn
Speaker 1: them for like a little bit because it like really
Speaker 1: really fills up your house. But anyway, so I'm obsessed
Speaker 1: with those thirty seven percent off Ninja kitchen products. We've
Speaker 1: got one of those and I love it. Oh wait,
Speaker 1: is it Ninja or the other one? I think it
Speaker 1: is a Ninja. Yeah, it's really great. Thirty five percent
Speaker 1: off water pick and I just bought one of those,
Speaker 1: a water pick for flossing, and I love that. So
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you this stuff that I like that
Speaker 1: I've purchased recently that you should get on Prime Day.
Speaker 1: Thirty percent off a fitbit versa two a versa light.
Speaker 1: Those are a good deal. But again, last Year's and
Speaker 1: then Amazon brands all kinds of percentages off on Amazon brands,
Speaker 1: so things like Solomo, Happy Belly, Mama Bear, Belisi's skincare,
Speaker 1: and Amazon gift cards. This is interesting. Prime members get
Speaker 1: a ten dollars promotional credit when they purchase an Amazon
Speaker 1: gift card or of forty dollars or more, which I'll
Speaker 1: definitely be doing that. Why not reload your own card
Speaker 1: balance of forty dollars or more. That is perfect one
Speaker 1: per Amazon customer. Definitely doing that. So I mean, why
Speaker 1: not you put forty bucks in your gift card account
Speaker 1: and you get ten extra dollars. Why would you not
Speaker 1: do that? So, I mean, you know you're gonna spend
Speaker 1: money on Amazon, all right. So now some of the
Speaker 1: things that I'll mention on KTLA that I think you
Speaker 1: should be looking at when it comes to Prime Day.
Speaker 1: I already mentioned Alexa Lightning deals obviously go on the
Speaker 1: app make list now, So start shopping on Amazon now
Speaker 1: and add stuff to your cart. And that way, number one,
Speaker 1: you're buying the stuff that you actually want and not
Speaker 1: just garbage that you're like, oh, this is a good deal.
Speaker 1: This is ten percent off, like to you know, get
Speaker 1: the stuff that you actually need, and if it doesn't
Speaker 1: go on sale, just don't worry about buying it just yet.
Speaker 1: You don't. Not everything goes on sale during Prime Day.
Speaker 1: The other place is to look slick deals Wirecutter and
Speaker 1: deal News. They always do a big deal on Prime
Speaker 1: Day because guess what, they get a percentage. So what
Speaker 1: they do is they look through all the deals, they
Speaker 1: pick out the best stuff, they link it, they use
Speaker 1: their affiliate link from Amazon, and when you shop there,
Speaker 1: they get a little percentage of what you buy, and
Speaker 1: you know a percentage of that sale, and so it
Speaker 1: works out for everyone. They they do their job because
Speaker 1: they're looking for the best stuff. You get the discount.
Speaker 1: You don't have to look for all the stuff. They
Speaker 1: get a little reward. Amazon Assistant on Chrome you can
Speaker 1: try that. I've not used that, but apparently it compares prices.
Speaker 1: Honey is another good one. I've got that installed on
Speaker 1: my computer and that will compare prices and it will
Speaker 1: tell you kind of the history of a price as well.
Speaker 1: But if you really want the best price history is
Speaker 1: the website Camel Camel Camel. That will show you the
Speaker 1: price history chart for basically everything. All right, have fun
Speaker 1: on Prime Day. I'll probably shop this year for sure.
Speaker 1: Let's go to another question. Let's see, let's go to Hovic.
Speaker 1: Hovic says, good morning, I have a question about converting
Speaker 1: DVDs to thumb drive. What are the best options? Thank
Speaker 1: you in advance, and thank you for all the technology
Speaker 1: updates and ahead what Okay, maybe I don't know, maybe
Speaker 1: I got Hovic's name wrong, but anyway, so uh oh gosh,
Speaker 1: so if you're talking about regular DVDs, you know, like
Speaker 1: the Hollywood Studio DVDs, there is not a simple way
Speaker 1: to convert those to like thumb drive. Like there's not
Speaker 1: like a simple like oh you know, there you go.
Speaker 1: So there are our programs that will do it. But
Speaker 1: in my experience, it is not an easy process. It's
Speaker 1: not something that is you know, it's not even it's
Speaker 1: actually like a gray process. But you can do it.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's your stuff. I mean it's your house.
Speaker 1: You can, you know, as long as you're not selling
Speaker 1: this stuff. I think you can make a backup copy
Speaker 1: of it. But the program that will do it is
Speaker 1: handbreak h A N D B R A k E.
Speaker 1: And once you download that, I think you need another
Speaker 1: program called f f mp mpeg, which or sorry, that's
Speaker 1: that's different. I think that's different. So never mind, don't
Speaker 1: don't listen to me on that one. But I think
Speaker 1: there's another little like plugin you need for handbreak once
Speaker 1: you download it to like make it work, because what
Speaker 1: it has to do is it actually has to like
Speaker 1: decrypt the disc the DVD. If you're talking about commercial DVDs,
Speaker 1: if you're talking about something that you've burned yourself. It's
Speaker 1: super easy. Just put it in a handbreak it'll it'll
Speaker 1: do it in seconds. It'll rip it to any format
Speaker 1: you want. But I I don't know, I don't know
Speaker 1: why you want to do this. I don't recommend doing
Speaker 1: this because why. I mean, we're streaming. It's kind of
Speaker 1: like music. For back in the day, I kept my
Speaker 1: whole big music collection and then I said, you know what,
Speaker 1: who cares? I pay ten bucks a month to whatever
Speaker 1: and I get all the music I want. I don't
Speaker 1: need to hold on to the past. And so with
Speaker 1: the DVDs, they're not gonna be as clear. It's going
Speaker 1: to be a pain to do this. I mean, unless
Speaker 1: you have all the free time in the world. I
Speaker 1: just don't see the point of this. I get it,
Speaker 1: you paid for this stuff. Maybe you're building a collection whatever,
Speaker 1: and if that's the case, fine, I mean, do whatever
Speaker 1: you want. But I'm just saying to me, it's so
Speaker 1: much easier. Then you got to figure out a way
Speaker 1: to play these things on your TV, which you know,
Speaker 1: you gotta get Plex or one of these other systems,
Speaker 1: so you know, do what you want. It's fine, but
Speaker 1: I'll just that's what I'm saying, it's not that easy.
Speaker 1: There was another little tiny h gosh, what was it called.
Speaker 1: It was like it was like tiny ripper or something,
Speaker 1: and it was like a little tiny app for for
Speaker 1: the Mac computers that would rip the DVDs. I can't
Speaker 1: remember I had it part of it. I had it
Speaker 1: back in the day. But again, it's all pain and
Speaker 1: I just don't do it because it's just such a
Speaker 1: pain to do. But if you want to do it,
Speaker 1: I think the program to look at is handbrake, and
Speaker 1: that should point you in the right direction. Let's get
Speaker 1: to another story, and what do we want to talk
Speaker 1: about next. Let's talk about Instagram. Talk about Instagram because
Speaker 1: everyone uses it. A couple of new features on Instagram.
Speaker 1: Instagram is turning ten. I can't believe it. I can't
Speaker 1: believe that Instagram has been around for ten years. That's unbelievable.
Speaker 1: But when I think about it, my kid is nine,
Speaker 1: and I think that when he was born, we were
Speaker 1: still using Facebook, but shortly after that we must have
Speaker 1: switched to Instagram. So I can't tell you. I actually
Speaker 1: can't go back to my Instagram account and say, like
Speaker 1: when I opened it, because I deleted it at some
Speaker 1: point and then, you know, I said I'm done with this,
Speaker 1: no more Instagram, no more social media. And then I
Speaker 1: came back, so well, there's definitely all the stuff that
Speaker 1: I first had on my Instagram is gone. And then
Speaker 1: I came back sometime and restarted my not I even
Speaker 1: restart my account. I started a new account with a
Speaker 1: rich on Tech because I think my old account used
Speaker 1: to be rich to Miuro. So anyway, I you know,
Speaker 1: so Instagram is great. I love it. It's gotten a lot
Speaker 1: more blow over the years. It continues to be more like,
Speaker 1: you know, Facebook is great, but they realize that Facebook
Speaker 1: is not as hot and cool as it used to
Speaker 1: be and Instagram is, so they're just trying to push
Speaker 1: everything on Instagram. Anyway. A couple of features you're getting
Speaker 1: is with your archives. I don't know if you realize this,
Speaker 1: but when you post a story on Instagram, it does
Speaker 1: stick around, even though it looks like it disappears after
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. It goes into something called your archive.
Speaker 1: And this is something only you can see and access,
Speaker 1: but it's still there. So if you go into your
Speaker 1: settings and look at archive, yes, it will be there,
Speaker 1: so you can see all your old stories. Previously it
Speaker 1: was just one big, massive scroll. Now they're bringing back
Speaker 1: this app view, which you can you know, if you
Speaker 1: went to Japan, you can see all the things you
Speaker 1: posted in Japan. You can also see it as a
Speaker 1: calendar of view as well, so if you want to
Speaker 1: go back to your birthday last year, or the year
Speaker 1: before and the year before and the year before and
Speaker 1: the year before, you can see what you posted on
Speaker 1: your birthday. So that's cool. The other thing they're doing
Speaker 1: is with bullying. I guess there's a big problem with
Speaker 1: comments that are rude. Surprise online. I never thought that
Speaker 1: would happen, But they are now going to automatically hide
Speaker 1: comments that they're AI deems bullying or rude or whatever.
Speaker 1: And they're also going to expand the whole thing where
Speaker 1: if you're like you're ugly, they will say, are you
Speaker 1: sure you want to post that? Because it's not very nice?
Speaker 1: Why would you say that? And if you look at
Speaker 1: my Instagram today you'll see, you know, this whole idea
Speaker 1: of the perfect picture on Instagram. I'm guilty of it.
Speaker 1: Everyone is. But it's really tough to post like real,
Speaker 1: honest portrayals of you and your life on Instagram, and
Speaker 1: I'm guilty of not doing that sometimes. You know, you
Speaker 1: post the best looking picture you post, you know, your
Speaker 1: the favorite part of your day or your best vacation picture.
Speaker 1: But you know, today, after I took a run, I
Speaker 1: just posted like me, you know, sweaty and all, doing
Speaker 1: a little review of the power bar I was eating.
Speaker 1: So you can watch that, and yeah, you're gonna be like,
Speaker 1: whoa rich, oh now looking so good? But you know what,
Speaker 1: it's real and we all do that, right. You don't
Speaker 1: go out to dinner on a Friday night, you know,
Speaker 1: rolling out of bed and just you know, throwing on sweats.
Speaker 1: You put on something nice, right, You're gonna be paying
Speaker 1: someone to be your waiter and bring you food and
Speaker 1: sit at a nice restaurant. And of course I'm talking
Speaker 1: about pre COVID days, right, remember remember going to the restaurant.
Speaker 1: I don't even care about going to the restaurants anymore.
Speaker 1: I've gotten so used to just staying at home for
Speaker 1: everything that I like it. I like the money savings.
Speaker 1: And yeah we've gone out to eat a couple of
Speaker 1: times throughout the pandemic, but it's just not as fun.
Speaker 1: You know, you've got the person talking through the mask
Speaker 1: and they've got the the face shield on. It's just
Speaker 1: not fun. So and you're outside, which is fine in LA.
Speaker 1: It's great when you're outside. I mean, that's that's that's
Speaker 1: the only normal part. But it's like, you know, you
Speaker 1: feel like every time, like, oh my gosh, every time
Speaker 1: you touch something, you touch the menu, you gotta sanitize
Speaker 1: your hands, go to the bathroom, you gotta like, you know,
Speaker 1: wash your hands. Just kidding. I mean, I hope you,
Speaker 1: I would hope you have done that before covid. Okay,
Speaker 1: enough about that, but Instagram does have an Easter egg
Speaker 1: as well, which if you follow me on any sort
Speaker 1: of social media, you've probably already seen this. But you
Speaker 1: can now change your icon on the app to a
Speaker 1: retro icon or just any icon you want. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like a different day, have like twelve to choose
Speaker 1: from that are unique, and so if you want to
Speaker 1: do that, just go tap your profile, go into settings
Speaker 1: and then pull down on the settings page until you
Speaker 1: reveal some emojis and then it'll go into like this
Speaker 1: ole confetti burst and you'll get a hidden menu that
Speaker 1: lets you change your icon on'm Android and iOS. So
Speaker 1: pretty cool. Next question comes from Danielle. Hey Rich. I
Speaker 1: purchased a Toshiba laptop a few years back and it
Speaker 1: had Windows ten. I didn't like the format, so I
Speaker 1: took it into Staples and spent a lot of money
Speaker 1: to have them convert it to Windows seven. And let
Speaker 1: me tell you, it was quite a challenge for them.
Speaker 1: It took longer than I expected. I ended up spending
Speaker 1: a couple hundred bucks. Yeah, I would imagine. So I've
Speaker 1: had no problem. But now we're being advised to purchase
Speaker 1: a new computer that has Windows ten and my Windows
Speaker 1: seven is no longer supported. Should I give up and
Speaker 1: purchase a new computer? Or do you think my Toshiba
Speaker 1: still has the brain power and capability of being converted
Speaker 1: back to Windows ten. I'm scared to do anything on
Speaker 1: my laptop until this is resolved. Thank you, Danielle. I
Speaker 1: wonder there must be it must be something work related.
Speaker 1: If we're being advised to purchase it must be work related.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing which is odd because they're making her buy it.
Speaker 1: But whatever, Danielle, it's funny that you converted your Windows
Speaker 1: ten computer to Windows seven because my father in law
Speaker 1: I talk about him a lot on this show, I've realized.
Speaker 1: But he's a funny tech guy. He's like very like
Speaker 1: particular about his technology, and so he I remember when
Speaker 1: Windows ten was kind of this big transformation, and he
Speaker 1: searched high and low for a computer that's still like
Speaker 1: a desktop that still came with Windows seven because he
Speaker 1: hated Windows ten and Windows ten. Yes, was a rough
Speaker 1: start at the beginning. So I understand that, but now
Speaker 1: it's fine and it's actually quite good. So to answer
Speaker 1: your question, I would say, since your computer already had
Speaker 1: Windows ten at the beginning, and it sounds like you
Speaker 1: said this a couple of years ago, and so I'm guessing,
Speaker 1: you know, three years maybe I think your computer. Here's
Speaker 1: what I would do. I would find the installation discs
Speaker 1: for your Windows ten that came with your computer, and
Speaker 1: I would format your computer with the Windows ten on
Speaker 1: it and see how it does. It's not going to
Speaker 1: cost you a dime, and so that would be my
Speaker 1: first You know, whenever I'm looking at solutions to things,
Speaker 1: I'm looking for the path of least resistance number one
Speaker 1: and of course the lowest cost. So that's what I
Speaker 1: would do. First off, get the disk, spend the afternoon formatting.
Speaker 1: You know, of course, back up your computer, put everything
Speaker 1: in the cloud, and then you know, format it, bring
Speaker 1: it to Windows ten, and then see what happens. Now.
Speaker 1: You can probably also just do an upgrade to Windows ten,
Speaker 1: depending on how your computer is set up, But personally,
Speaker 1: I would do a clean install just to kind of
Speaker 1: set things fresh, and you know that would give you
Speaker 1: your the most mileage out of this older computer going forward,
Speaker 1: because if you just install it on top, things get
Speaker 1: a little ichy and you know it might run slower
Speaker 1: than you'd like or whatever. So I would personally do
Speaker 1: a format a clean install and look that up and
Speaker 1: you can see how to do that. But I would
Speaker 1: do a clean install, install Windows ten, try it out
Speaker 1: for a little bit, and if it totally is a
Speaker 1: terrible experience, everything's laggy and slow and just annoying, then
Speaker 1: I would go ahead and buy a new computer. But again,
Speaker 1: go with the Windows ten. It came with a computer,
Speaker 1: so clearly it can handle it. It's been a couple
Speaker 1: of years, so maybe it's gotten slow, but just see
Speaker 1: how it works and you know, go from there. So
Speaker 1: first solution doesn't cost you anything, and then you've you've
Speaker 1: exhausted that solution, then you can go and try out
Speaker 1: the next So that's what I would do. All right,
Speaker 1: let's go to the next question. I just realize I'm
Speaker 1: trying today. If I'm a little bit slower today, it's
Speaker 1: because I'm trying to be eco friendly. So I go
Speaker 1: through this thing with you know, whatever I talk about
Speaker 1: in the show, I kind of print out from the web, like,
Speaker 1: you know, the articles that I want to talk about,
Speaker 1: and when I do that, I once I do that,
Speaker 1: I put them, I print them out and then I
Speaker 1: highlight the stuff that I want to talk about in
Speaker 1: those articles. Well it's a lot of paper. It's like
Speaker 1: fifty pages every week, and you know, I hate that
Speaker 1: because that's it. I just print it and it goes
Speaker 1: into the trash or recycle whatever. So I'm trying this
Speaker 1: week to use my iPad, and I've done this a
Speaker 1: couple times. It's not as pretty, it's not as easy,
Speaker 1: but it just takes me a little bit longer to
Speaker 1: navigate the iPad because it's kind of like the same
Speaker 1: but not really. I mean, printed page is always going
Speaker 1: to be better. But I'm trying to use the iPad
Speaker 1: for eco reasons. So bear with me if it takes
Speaker 1: me a little bit longer because the stories are not
Speaker 1: as easily. I can't just pull a piece of paper
Speaker 1: and start looking at it and interpreting it. I have
Speaker 1: to kind of like look through this list of things,
Speaker 1: and you're getting the real inside baseball this week. I
Speaker 1: hope you enjoy this podcast because you know, when I'm
Speaker 1: on TV, I'm on KTLA for about blink and you
Speaker 1: might miss it. So when I get here, I just
Speaker 1: talk and I talk and I talk and I talk
Speaker 1: and I talk, because I feel like if you've gone
Speaker 1: through the trouble of finding me online, following me online,
Speaker 1: giving me a chance to download my podcast, and listening
Speaker 1: this far in thirty minutes, you might like what I
Speaker 1: have to say, and so I feel like you deserve
Speaker 1: to be rewarded for all of your effort. And I
Speaker 1: will tell you really what's going on in my life
Speaker 1: and really what's happening with everything. So that's why I
Speaker 1: do all this. All right, let's move on to uh,
Speaker 1: let's see T Mobile. This is interesting. So T Mobile
Speaker 1: they are expanding their T Mobile ISP, which I think
Speaker 1: is really cool. I just have yet to see a
Speaker 1: place for this actually works. But I love that they're
Speaker 1: doing this. So T Mobile is T Mobile is like
Speaker 1: kind of like all excited because they finally have all
Speaker 1: the spectrum with the purchase of sprints, So they just
Speaker 1: have like a lot of like spectrum. And I think
Speaker 1: what that means is that they have a lot of
Speaker 1: bandwidth that they're kind of able to use in different
Speaker 1: ways and you know whatever. And I get that their
Speaker 1: network is still you know, they're still figuring things out
Speaker 1: with how they're merging these two networks and with the
Speaker 1: five G and stuff. But I like what they're doing.
Speaker 1: I really do like T Mobile as a carrier. I
Speaker 1: think that they are very customer centric, let's put it
Speaker 1: that way. And so what they're doing is they are
Speaker 1: opening up what's called T mobile ISP to more people
Speaker 1: four hundred and fifty cities and towns. And what they're
Speaker 1: doing is they're just using their their network that they have,
Speaker 1: their wireless network. They give you what amounts to sort
Speaker 1: of a little router that taps into their wireless network
Speaker 1: at your house and then creates a Wi Fi signal.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like having a hot spot, but
Speaker 1: a little bit more industrial. And also the plan is
Speaker 1: a fifty dollars unlimited plan, and so I think this
Speaker 1: is really cool because it kind of opens up Internet
Speaker 1: without getting a wire to your house for a lot
Speaker 1: of people nationwide. And so they say they're fifty fifty
Speaker 1: dollars a month, no contract. Internet Home service is now
Speaker 1: available in four hundred and fifties, four hundred fifty cities
Speaker 1: in towns and that's it. So if you're one of these,
Speaker 1: you can do this in fifty dollars with auto pay,
Speaker 1: of course. But here's here's some of the details. It's
Speaker 1: self installation, so no one comes to your house. They
Speaker 1: just send you this little device. No hardware fees, so
Speaker 1: zero hardware. Lease with service. So lease means they send
Speaker 1: you the device to use. When you cancel service, you
Speaker 1: have to send it back. Taxes and fees are included.
Speaker 1: No contracts, no introductory price off offers, what you sign
Speaker 1: up for is what you pay, and no data caps.
Speaker 1: So they talk about cities in Alabama, Arkansas, California, including
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, Florida, Georgia, Florida, Georgia, Line, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan,
Speaker 1: miniapp Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: South Carolina, Tennessee. Is this just every state? Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: West Virginia. So anyway, I would check it out. T
Speaker 1: mobile dot com slash isp is the place to go
Speaker 1: to check it out. I put in my address. I
Speaker 1: put in a couple other addresses. I know. None of
Speaker 1: them are coming up as like service. Yes, service in
Speaker 1: your place, which I know T mobile works at my house,
Speaker 1: so I don't know what their criteria is, but and
Speaker 1: maybe it's still kind of like propagating. But anyway, that's
Speaker 1: the deal. And if you are in a rural area
Speaker 1: or you just want a different alternative to what's available
Speaker 1: at your place, pop your address in and see if
Speaker 1: it's available. Because this is really cool. I wish all
Speaker 1: the service providers did this. All right, let's get to
Speaker 1: the next question. Let's go to Oh, this is a
Speaker 1: good one. Richard in Hemmett says, good morning, rich Sorry,
Speaker 1: I heard you mention. You get a lot of questions
Speaker 1: referencing mornings. I usually listen to podcasts the first half
Speaker 1: of the day and then news radio the second half.
Speaker 1: My question is a sign in prompt. I see with
Speaker 1: every new app sign up, a lot or a lot
Speaker 1: of them have the option to sign in using my
Speaker 1: Google credentials. I almost never use that option, but with
Speaker 1: an email sign up, since I use a password app,
Speaker 1: you recommend it a long time ago dash Lane, I
Speaker 1: don't have a problem remembering passwords, although I have to
Speaker 1: go through the steps to open dash Lane and had
Speaker 1: the app info. Is there any danger in going with
Speaker 1: Google to sign up sign in? Any advantages? Thank you
Speaker 1: rich Richard In hemet a great question. I love this
Speaker 1: question and it's a great opportunity for me to explain this.
Speaker 1: So you see this a lot, and you see at
Speaker 1: this point when you go to download a new app,
Speaker 1: you see a sign in for you know, one click
Speaker 1: sign in for Facebook. Sometimes it's Twitter, let's see Google
Speaker 1: and now Apple is also up there, and it's super easy, right,
Speaker 1: It's so tempting to just click that and boom, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like there you go, You're in. But here's why
Speaker 1: I do not recommend doing this. And I think you're
Speaker 1: doing the right thing by creating an independent log in
Speaker 1: through something like a password manager, because then that does
Speaker 1: not link your account. Now you have to understand why
Speaker 1: all these companies want you to, you know, sign in
Speaker 1: with them. It's in their best interest because if you
Speaker 1: have one hundred sign ins with Twitter, are you ever
Speaker 1: gonna cancel your Twitter account? Absolutely not, You're gonna keep
Speaker 1: that account forever. Same thing especially with Facebook. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is what Facebook specialized in. It's that stickiness, right,
Speaker 1: They just get you because they have you signed in.
Speaker 1: You can't cancel your Facebook Now. I use that to
Speaker 1: sign in on one hundred different websites. Apple. I like
Speaker 1: Apple's approach a little bit more because they had the
Speaker 1: whole privacy thing where it will create like an anonymous
Speaker 1: login for you, which is great, and I will admit
Speaker 1: I do use that sometimes when I'm testing apps because
Speaker 1: it's so easy. But again it's the sticky factor. Apple
Speaker 1: is doing that because the more you log in with
Speaker 1: their stuff, the less you're gonna give up your iPhone
Speaker 1: or any Apple product. So what I recommend is that
Speaker 1: you continue to create these independent app sign ins. I
Speaker 1: know it's a little bit more work and it takes
Speaker 1: a little bit more time, and I know we're all
Speaker 1: rushing through these app sign up processes, but believe me,
Speaker 1: it's better. And there's a couple of reasons why it's better.
Speaker 1: Number one, if the site has ever hacked, you know,
Speaker 1: you've got an independent password on there. It's a unique
Speaker 1: password and it's just on its own right, You're not
Speaker 1: sharing that with anything else. The second thing is that
Speaker 1: when you sign in using one of these you know credentials,
Speaker 1: these shared credentials, they're always trying to get a little
Speaker 1: bit more information from you then you like. And that's
Speaker 1: why Apple did the anonymous login is because when you
Speaker 1: sign in with Google, you know, you have to watch
Speaker 1: out for what they're able to access on your Google account.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it could be your entire Gmail, like, everything in
Speaker 1: your Gmail, it could be everything in your Google Drive.
Speaker 1: You don't want to do that with Facebook. It could
Speaker 1: be your friend list, it could be your date of birth. Basically,
Speaker 1: why should you give them any more information than they need.
Speaker 1: And it's also linked to that account, so there could
Speaker 1: be some cross talk on the back end there that
Speaker 1: you may not know about. So again, go with the
Speaker 1: independent logins. That's my advice, and it will keep it's
Speaker 1: a little bit longer, a little bit more of a process,
Speaker 1: but it keeps everything separate, and it keeps everything nice
Speaker 1: and tidy. Now, I'm not saying I never sign in
Speaker 1: with Google or some of these other third party providers.
Speaker 1: I do sometimes when it's a trusted site and when
Speaker 1: I know what's happening. So for something like you know
Speaker 1: a certain website that I understand what's going on, I
Speaker 1: will sign in with Google, and there are pup I
Speaker 1: have with that, and it is easy, it is convenient.
Speaker 1: But as a rule I always sign up with an
Speaker 1: independent username and password, and that is the way to
Speaker 1: do it. And you're doing it right if you're going
Speaker 1: through something like dash Lane. All right, Richard, great question,
Speaker 1: Thanks for submitting that and thanks for listening. All right,
Speaker 1: something to know about this is pretty quick, but the
Speaker 1: Roku channel. Roku has been really expanding the reach of
Speaker 1: the Roku channel that came out. I think I talked
Speaker 1: about it last week with an app that's on Android
Speaker 1: and iOS, and now they have it on fire TV.
Speaker 1: So if you like to watch free stuff, this is
Speaker 1: another option. And I've noticed with these free services like
Speaker 1: to b and Pluto that the free live streaming stuff
Speaker 1: is really getting interesting. So a lot of them are
Speaker 1: doing like live streaming of like news networks. So this
Speaker 1: is where it's at. I mean, people love free It's
Speaker 1: kind of like TV all over again. It's free TV,
Speaker 1: but it's streaming, and I get it. I'm not everyone
Speaker 1: minds the commercials. In fact, my kids we watched Shrek
Speaker 1: or they watched Shrek on UH. I think it's called
Speaker 1: is it IMDb TV whatever? What's uh? What's Amazon's free one?
Speaker 1: Amazon free streaming they have like their own I forget
Speaker 1: they I forget what it was called. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: it was called IMDbTV, I think when it first came out,
Speaker 1: and then they changed the name to something else. So
Speaker 1: let's see if I can find that. Let's see im
Speaker 1: D Yeah, I think it's IMDb TV, but it was
Speaker 1: something else when it first came out. That was like
Speaker 1: kind of confusing anyway, So my kids watched Shrek on
Speaker 1: this and and it was so funny because my wife
Speaker 1: is like, well, it's gonna have ads because it says
Speaker 1: ads supported, and they're like, nah, it won't have ads,
Speaker 1: And sure enough, it didn't have any ads. So it
Speaker 1: was great. And by the way, Shrek looked like a
Speaker 1: really funny movie. I'm gonna I'm gonna watch that. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go back to watch that because I was laughing,
Speaker 1: just watching it sort of in the background. So let's
Speaker 1: see see showtimes. See this is what I'm saying. Okay,
Speaker 1: rent By, I'm so confused because what is this? I
Speaker 1: did a story about it, and now it's not free anymore,
Speaker 1: which is also odd. So what is Amazon's Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I can't believe Amazon's. Maybe it was called Freeview when
Speaker 1: it first came out. I can't remember what it was called,
Speaker 1: and I talked about it, but oh my gosh, you
Speaker 1: know what, this podcast is just worthless to you this
Speaker 1: week because I'm talking about all this stuff that I
Speaker 1: just don't even know what I'm talking about anymore. But
Speaker 1: it's on Prime anyway. So again, Roku Channel is another
Speaker 1: option that is totally free and you can watch it
Speaker 1: and you don't need anything except a Roku account. The
Speaker 1: only caveat here is that you can't subscribe to premium
Speaker 1: channels through the Roku channel app, so if you want to,
Speaker 1: you have to sign up for those directly through Rokuti.
Speaker 1: And this is another weird thing that, like, it's so
Speaker 1: funny that all these little streaming things is becoming like
Speaker 1: a cable TV service. So if you have Roku Channel,
Speaker 1: you can subscribe to Showtime, Stars, Epics or HBO through
Speaker 1: the Roku channel, which is so weird, but you know,
Speaker 1: Roku makes a little percentage on that, so that's why
Speaker 1: they do it. But anyway, that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1: And I still can't believe I can't remember what this
Speaker 1: thing was called because I did the story on it.
Speaker 1: It was like, I think it's just IMDbTV now, but
Speaker 1: it was something. It was IMDb formerly known as let's
Speaker 1: see I think it was. Oh that's what it was. Okay,
Speaker 1: used to be called IMDb Free Dive. I knew it
Speaker 1: had a different name. And now it's called IMDbTV. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so there you go. Now, you know, I like to
Speaker 1: give you the full story. Okay, So that's it. And
Speaker 1: if you want just again, you can say, find the
Speaker 1: Roku channel app to Alexa on Fire and you can
Speaker 1: download that, and I would say, go for it. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you don't mind setting up a Roku account, which
Speaker 1: you know, I actually, you know what, when I did
Speaker 1: that on my iPhone because I tested the Roku channel
Speaker 1: on my iPhone when you can download it, they didn't
Speaker 1: even ask me to set up an account. So maybe
Speaker 1: that's the same way on Fire TV. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: I have not downloaded it just yet, but yeah, so
Speaker 1: check that out if you like free stuff. All right,
Speaker 1: do I have time for another question? I think I do.
Speaker 1: My timing on this podcast is all off because I
Speaker 1: tried to do it again. Whenever I try to do
Speaker 1: things differently, it never works out. So I try to
Speaker 1: do the timer on my Apple Watch this time because
Speaker 1: it kind of gives me, like a little to keep
Speaker 1: the pacing of the show. I try to, you know,
Speaker 1: I have like a little like buzzer that buzzes every
Speaker 1: three minutes or so to keep me moving. And sure enough,
Speaker 1: I did it on my Apple Watch this time, and
Speaker 1: it my Apple Watch is set to silent, and nothing happened,
Speaker 1: so the timer is over. I can't tell if it's
Speaker 1: done or whatever happened, but I will just keep going
Speaker 1: for another ten minutes. And if it's a long podcast,
Speaker 1: too bad. All right, Raoul says, good morning, Rich. What's
Speaker 1: the best way to protect your iPhone from viruses? Malware? Oh?
Speaker 1: Was I supposed to do that? What's the best way
Speaker 1: to protect your iPhone from viruses, malware and other cyber attacks?
Speaker 1: Is there an app for this purpose? Any assistance will
Speaker 1: be greatly appreciated. Thanks Raoul. Raoul, the answer is, you
Speaker 1: do not need anything. There are a million and one
Speaker 1: anti virus and malware apps on the App Store. I
Speaker 1: don't even understand why Apple approves them because they don't
Speaker 1: do anything you can't the iPhone. And I've said this before,
Speaker 1: but the iPhone operating system is sandboxed, which means when
Speaker 1: you are running an app, that app can only interact
Speaker 1: with other parts of the operating system and other apps
Speaker 1: in very specific ways that Apple outlines. It is not
Speaker 1: like a Windows computer where when you get a virus
Speaker 1: on there, it can take hold of that whole thing,
Speaker 1: and you know. And again, this gets very complicated because
Speaker 1: almost all all of the new platforms are set up
Speaker 1: this way. Android a little bit more at risk, but
Speaker 1: I still think that overall, on your smartphone, the chances
Speaker 1: I guess on Android you could definitely download malware and
Speaker 1: and apps outside of Google Play. Google Play is pretty safe,
Speaker 1: but if you're sideloading apps, yes, you can definitely install
Speaker 1: an app on there that can wreck havoc on your phone.
Speaker 1: On iPhone, there's no real way to install a third
Speaker 1: party app outside of the App Store. Unless you've jail
Speaker 1: broken your phone. And if you've done that, that's way
Speaker 1: above this podcast. This podcast is for the average consumer,
Speaker 1: and if you're jail breaking your phone and doing things
Speaker 1: like that, you're probably not listening to this. So I'm
Speaker 1: not really even going into that because I would never
Speaker 1: recommend jail breaking an iPhone. There's just no point to me.
Speaker 1: Now an Android. What I like about Android is much
Speaker 1: more open. You can do whatever you want an Android now. Again,
Speaker 1: So to get to your question, Raoul, I don't think
Speaker 1: you need anything on and they're the biggest The biggest
Speaker 1: danger on an iPhone is really clicking links, and so
Speaker 1: most of the exploits we've seen on iPhone have to
Speaker 1: do with links that you might get through a text message.
Speaker 1: And even when you get you know, your average text
Speaker 1: message link that you might get with like spam on
Speaker 1: the iPhone, and I've clicked all of them, believe me,
Speaker 1: this is what I do to test stuff. It most
Speaker 1: of the time is trying to either steal your personal
Speaker 1: information through a phishing scheme, or it's trying to get
Speaker 1: your personal information or you to sign up for some
Speaker 1: sort of offer. So I don't recommend clicking those links,
Speaker 1: And I would say if you're using an iPhone, just
Speaker 1: be aware of the links that you're clicking more so
Speaker 1: than apps that you're downloading. So if an app is
Speaker 1: done through the app store, chances are it's not going
Speaker 1: to be real malware. It might be annoying when you
Speaker 1: open it, but it can't really once you close out
Speaker 1: an app on the iPhone, it's not really doing anything
Speaker 1: in the background, So it can't like, you know, nefariously,
Speaker 1: like put a key logger on your phone. Now that's
Speaker 1: not to say, hey, this stuff can't be done. Believe me.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there are government organizations and you know others
Speaker 1: out there that have devised things to do this stuff.
Speaker 1: They're just not very prevalent in a main way on
Speaker 1: your phone, Raoul, So I don't think you have to
Speaker 1: worry too much about this stuff. But yeah, there's not
Speaker 1: there's not an app I recommend to to protect your iPhone.
Speaker 1: Let's put it that way. It's more of your personal
Speaker 1: kind of just looking out for what you're doing on
Speaker 1: the phone that is the most important. Let's see, this
Speaker 1: is just a really small thing. But uh, you know,
Speaker 1: since you're if you bought an iPhone last year, and
Speaker 1: you did the free trial of Apple TV Plus, like
Speaker 1: if you got the free year that is coming up
Speaker 1: on November first, because on my phone it says that
Speaker 1: I'll be billed on November first for Apple TV Plus.
Speaker 1: And if you cancel it, you know you lose access.
Speaker 1: So don't cancel it because according to nine to five Mac,
Speaker 1: they're automatically extending all Apple TV Plus trials through February
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, which means you will get another couple
Speaker 1: of months to get you through the pandemic of watching
Speaker 1: Apple TV stuff Apple TV Plus stuff. So that's just
Speaker 1: something to know. If you pay for a plan, you're
Speaker 1: gonna get three free months of your plan. So I
Speaker 1: have not played. Now here's the funny thing. Almost every
Speaker 1: single subscription through the iTunes store, let's say you have
Speaker 1: a free trial, you can cancel. This is a little
Speaker 1: tip by the way. Let's say you sign up for
Speaker 1: something that's a two week free trial, right, you can
Speaker 1: go into the subscriptions and cancel that free trial immediately,
Speaker 1: and nine times out of ten, you still have access
Speaker 1: to that service until the free trial is over. At
Speaker 1: that point it'll just end and your card won't be charged.
Speaker 1: But Apple lovely Apple. The way they do it is
Speaker 1: if so, I've done this many times because I go
Speaker 1: in there, I'm like, oh, I'm gonna miss this this
Speaker 1: November first deadline. I'm gonna get charged for a year
Speaker 1: of Apple TV or a month whatever it is. And
Speaker 1: so I keep going in there a couple times throughout
Speaker 1: the year and I say cancel because I figure, oh,
Speaker 1: it'll it'll last through November first. Oh no, it doesn't.
Speaker 1: Apple says, if you cancel this, you lose your access immediately.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of interesting that Apple does that with
Speaker 1: most of their services that I've noticed, But yet every
Speaker 1: other app developer is pretty nice and saying, yeah, we'll
Speaker 1: give you the two weeks and you can cancel tomorrow,
Speaker 1: but you'll still have access for those two weeks. So
Speaker 1: I have not, even though nine to five Max says
Speaker 1: that this is happening, it has not hit my personal
Speaker 1: iPhone just yet. So if you're in kind of the
Speaker 1: boat like I am, where you bought an iPhone around
Speaker 1: launchtime last year, go into your subscriptions and kind of
Speaker 1: monitor this, because if you have not canceled Apple TV
Speaker 1: Plus just yet, check that date and see if it's extended.
Speaker 1: To February twenty twenty one, and then you know you've
Speaker 1: got a couple more months, but especially as you get
Speaker 1: towards that November first date, depending on when you bought
Speaker 1: your iPhone, this is coming up, so just be aware.
Speaker 1: And I'm not really watching anything on Apple TV plus anymore,
Speaker 1: especially now with Google Chrome Casts, I don't really have
Speaker 1: access to it anymore. So you know, I don't particularly care,
Speaker 1: and I do want to watch Greyhound, but I do.
Speaker 1: I am looking forward to the second season of Morning
Speaker 1: Show if that I know it's happening, but I'm not
Speaker 1: sure when. All right, let's do one more question. Let's see,
Speaker 1: let's do one more question from Keith. Keith says, I
Speaker 1: want to be able to watch TV using earbuds and
Speaker 1: the TV sound on mute. I currently have a chord
Speaker 1: connected to an audio port on the TV, but the
Speaker 1: chord is a hazard and I have no volume control.
Speaker 1: Is there an easy solution? I would like to use
Speaker 1: Apple AirPods if possible. So I don't know what type
Speaker 1: of TV or setup you have, Keith, but the easiest way,
Speaker 1: I think is just to get a Bluetooth transmitter. If
Speaker 1: you're if I mean it sounds like whatever your TV
Speaker 1: is has a three point five millimeter out because you're
Speaker 1: plugging a chord in there to the audio port on
Speaker 1: the TV. So if you're if you're doing that, then
Speaker 1: it sounds like you're halfway there. So I look on
Speaker 1: Amazon and I see you know, if you just search
Speaker 1: three point five millimeter to Bluetooth transmitter, this one is
Speaker 1: called Teotronics Bluetooth five point zero transmitter and for TV,
Speaker 1: home sound system, car, Nintendo switch. Pretty simple. You plug
Speaker 1: it into the three point five millimeter jack and this
Speaker 1: has a Bluetooth transmitter on it. Then you connect your
Speaker 1: AirPods to this device and boom. There's even a transmit
Speaker 1: or receive toggle switch on here, so you'd want this
Speaker 1: in transmit mode. Obviously, this is thirty dollars and that
Speaker 1: would solve your problem and make it pretty simple. The
Speaker 1: other thing you can do is if you're using one
Speaker 1: of these streaming services like an Amazon fireTV stick or
Speaker 1: an Apple TV or even a Roku, a lot of
Speaker 1: them allow you to plug headphones. Sorry, a lot of
Speaker 1: them allow you to bluetooth stream the audio from the
Speaker 1: device to Bluetooth headphones. So check there and see what
Speaker 1: type of device you're using. If you're using a Roku,
Speaker 1: the higher end remotes have a plug, which I love.
Speaker 1: I think this is a brilliant, brilliant solution. The higher
Speaker 1: end remotes have a three point five millimeter jack right
Speaker 1: on the remote, so you can plug your headphones into
Speaker 1: the remote. That is amazing. Now, I do think that
Speaker 1: almost all the Rokus allow you to use the Roku
Speaker 1: app on your phone to then plug headphones into your
Speaker 1: phone and listen that way as well. So if you
Speaker 1: have a Roku, I think they've thought about this. But again,
Speaker 1: I think it sounds like you're just listening to regular TV.
Speaker 1: But you've got the Apple AirPods, which you know, leads
Speaker 1: me to believe, you know, maybe you have a streaming
Speaker 1: setup going on. But that's what I would do. You
Speaker 1: got a couple options, and any of them, just pick
Speaker 1: the one that works best for you. All right, let's
Speaker 1: just end on this way. MOO is opening its driverless
Speaker 1: cars to the general public in Phoenix. How cool is that?
Speaker 1: So would you take a ride in one of these
Speaker 1: driverless cars? I don't know. I think I would. They've
Speaker 1: been around Phoenix for a while. Waimo. I don't know
Speaker 1: if the rules over there are easier. The streets are easier,
Speaker 1: but that's where they've been testing them a lot. But
Speaker 1: beginning October eighth, they're opening up their fully driverless offering
Speaker 1: to Waimo one riders. Members of the public can now
Speaker 1: take rides, can now take friends and family along in
Speaker 1: their rides and share their experience with the world. We'll
Speaker 1: start with those who are part of Waimo one, and
Speaker 1: over the next several weeks more people will be able
Speaker 1: to book directly through the app, the Waimo App. One
Speaker 1: hundred percent of our rides will be fully driverless. Pretty cool,
Speaker 1: I mean, kind of neat, kind of scary to get
Speaker 1: into a driverless car for the first time. I've been
Speaker 1: in several of them, so I know what it's like.
Speaker 1: It's a little nerve racking, thinking like this computer might
Speaker 1: make a wrong decision and end my life. That is
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm saying that, but it's I'm not joking.
Speaker 1: I mean it's weird, right, this computer is in charge
Speaker 1: of you, but you know who. Hopefully they have these
Speaker 1: things to a point where they're pretty safe if they're
Speaker 1: letting random people into them. So the other cool thing
Speaker 1: is that there's no driver so COVID times. It's it's
Speaker 1: kind of like you don't have to worry about someone
Speaker 1: coughing in there or sneezing. Now you might have to
Speaker 1: worry about the drive, the passenger before or after you,
Speaker 1: But you know that gets into a whole nother conversation. Anyway,
Speaker 1: kind of cool if you're in Phoenix. I would try
Speaker 1: it out. In fact, I might make a drive to
Speaker 1: Phoenix to do a story on this. Why wouldn't I write.
Speaker 1: I've emailed Waymo to ask them if I can do
Speaker 1: this with their help, you know, pr and they've said no.
Speaker 1: So now if I just go there as a regular person,
Speaker 1: they can't stop me. So I might be Yeah, I
Speaker 1: might be in Phoenix very soon to try this out.
Speaker 1: But it looks like it's rolling out, so it's probably
Speaker 1: not going to be immediate, but I will. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna check the app and see if I can
Speaker 1: book a drive or a ride. I should say, pretty cool.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm I'm I like the idea of driverless cars.
Speaker 1: They do scare me in weird ways. That again, it
Speaker 1: is a computer in charge of your life, so kind
Speaker 1: of scary. I mean, you drop your iPhone and you
Speaker 1: know it's gonna be just fine. You know, screen myke crack,
Speaker 1: but you know, this car makes a wrong decision or
Speaker 1: you know whatever, and it's a little different. Interesting. That's
Speaker 1: gonna do it for this episode of the show. If
Speaker 1: you'd like to submit a question for me to answer,
Speaker 1: just go to rich on tech dot tv hit the
Speaker 1: email button at the bottom of the page. You can
Speaker 1: also email me a voice memo Hello at richon tech
Speaker 1: dot TV. So far nobody's taken advantage of that, which
Speaker 1: is fine. I get it. That's a lot of work,
Speaker 1: so I wouldn't I wouldn't do that either, but you know,
Speaker 1: if you want to, it's an option. Also, i'd love
Speaker 1: it if you would rate and review this podcast to
Speaker 1: help other people discover it. Just go to rate this
Speaker 1: podcast dot com slash rich on tech got I think
Speaker 1: two hundred and something reviews. We're doing really well. There
Speaker 1: a lot of you actually review the show by giving
Speaker 1: it stars, but you don't write anything. So if you
Speaker 1: write something, I will read it on the show. But
Speaker 1: so far, nobody's writing anything new. It takes a little
Speaker 1: bit longer to get those, So write something and you'll
Speaker 1: hear your name on the show. How exciting is that
Speaker 1: you can find me all the time at rich on
Speaker 1: Tech across all of the various social media platforms. My name,
Speaker 1: once again, in case you don't know, is rich Demiro.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. Stay safe, I'll talk to
Speaker 1: you real soon