Speaker 1: The tech that can prevent ports pirates. What's going on?
Speaker 1: I'm Rich Demiro. This is Rich on Tech Erg Madies.
Speaker 1: Whether you believe it or not, ports pirates are a thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the USPS actually says they deliver eight hundred million
Speaker 2: holiday packages and nearly one third of Americans are reporting
Speaker 2: package theft.
Speaker 1: That's Google Search trends expert Justin Burr, So.
Speaker 2: Google's here to help with that. Actually, we have two
Speaker 2: security cameras, the Nest Cam and then the smart doorbell
Speaker 2: the Nest to load it can actually just help you
Speaker 2: know what's going on on your doorstep at all times,
Speaker 2: so you see a package be delivered and can go
Speaker 2: out there and make sure that it's not sitting out
Speaker 2: there for too long and actually just grab it and
Speaker 2: put it inside. So just making sure that you are
Speaker 2: aware of when that package is actually delivered, so you
Speaker 2: can't give those individuals any any time to actually go
Speaker 2: out there and potentially steal from the doorstep.
Speaker 1: I love my nestcams which do a unique thing with AI.
Speaker 1: They can actually recognize faces in and outside of your
Speaker 1: home and send you an alert when one of their
Speaker 1: cameras recognized as an unfamiliar face It's not always perfect,
Speaker 1: but it is pretty neat to get a little thumbnail
Speaker 1: sent to your smartphone that has a snapshot of the
Speaker 1: person walking up to your home. Both the nestcams and
Speaker 1: the Nest Video doorbell are great for live video, but
Speaker 1: you do need a subscription to go back and watch
Speaker 1: anything that just happened. So the other day, my kid
Speaker 1: fell in the dining room and we wanted to figure
Speaker 1: out what happened? Do you slip on the rug? What
Speaker 1: do you slip on a toy? When I went back
Speaker 1: to look at the tape from our nestcam, I realized
Speaker 1: it wasn't actually recording. Yeah, big problem. So when you
Speaker 1: first get one of these cameras, you do get the
Speaker 1: recording history as a free trial, but if you don't
Speaker 1: sign up for the monitoring service afterwards, you don't get it.
Speaker 1: So otherwise you can only access a live stream. And
Speaker 1: if you were holding out because it was too expensive
Speaker 1: for the monitoring service, you'll be happy to know that
Speaker 1: Nest just introduced a cheaper version of its yearly subscription,
Speaker 1: which is called Nest Aware. You can now get a
Speaker 1: five day recording history, which we'll have twenty four to
Speaker 1: seven video for five full days for just fifty dollars
Speaker 1: for the year. They still have the ten days video
Speaker 1: history for one hundred dollars a year and a thirty
Speaker 1: day video history for three hundred dollars a year. But
Speaker 1: I think for a lot of people five days is
Speaker 1: probably enough to know that something happened and you want
Speaker 1: to go back and look. You might need more time, though,
Speaker 1: if you're using one of these cameras at a rental property,
Speaker 1: or if you just like the idea of having the
Speaker 1: extra time. Nestcam start at two hundred dollars. The Nest
Speaker 1: Hello video doorbell is two hundred and twenty nine dollars.
Speaker 1: The big thing to know about the video doorbell from
Speaker 1: Nest is that you need a wired doorbell. You also
Speaker 1: need a chime and the right transformer for it to work.
Speaker 1: It's not as diy as the video doorbell that started
Speaker 1: at all from the folks at Ring. Recently I met
Speaker 1: up with founder Jamie Simonov. He was famously on Shark
Speaker 1: Tank but did not make a deal. But a lot
Speaker 1: has changed since then.
Speaker 3: What Rings change is presence. So we were not in
Speaker 3: our neighborhoods where both you know, both spouses work. Now
Speaker 3: our kids are busier, so our houses are empty, and
Speaker 3: now we have these packages there. What Rings change is
Speaker 3: the presence someone comes up, you get an alert, you
Speaker 3: open it up. They're bending down and you have these videos.
Speaker 3: They're bending down to pick up that package and say, hey,
Speaker 3: get out of here. And that's how you can stop
Speaker 3: the porch piracy.
Speaker 1: Ring's second generation video doorbell is two hundred dollars. What's
Speaker 1: neat about Ring is that it can be installed on
Speaker 1: the outside of any home. Now, they do have models
Speaker 1: that do require some wiring, but they're basic versions. You
Speaker 1: just pop on the wall and that's it. It's ready
Speaker 1: to go as long as you have a Wi Fi connection.
Speaker 1: The new version of their product, the Ring Video Doorbell, too,
Speaker 1: has better video quality, plus a battery that you can
Speaker 1: easily pop out of the bottom of the device so
Speaker 1: you can recharge it.
Speaker 3: During the holidays. You want to be much more sensitive
Speaker 3: to this. There's just more of these packages out there,
Speaker 3: which brings out more of these porch pirates. So if
Speaker 3: you don't have a Ring, have a neighbor come over
Speaker 3: and check for packages. If you're going to be away,
Speaker 3: maybe ask the package person to put it around the side.
Speaker 3: There's things also like Amazon Key, which is a way
Speaker 3: of actually allowing the delivery to go into the home.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of different options you can do. Obviously,
Speaker 3: we believe a ring system is great, but really it's
Speaker 3: delivering that presence of getting that package either out of
Speaker 3: the way or being as if you're home.
Speaker 1: I did a story with Ring back in the day
Speaker 1: when their first product was called the door Bot. I
Speaker 1: remember Jamie telling me that people didn't like the name
Speaker 1: because it was too techy for something that they placed
Speaker 1: outside their front door, which apparently many see as a
Speaker 1: very sacred place. So I wanted to know from Jamie
Speaker 1: after all these years, does having a ring video doorbell
Speaker 1: make a difference.
Speaker 3: So not only do I think having a ring has
Speaker 3: affected the difference of your safety, but we have video
Speaker 3: after video after video showing how it's proven that when
Speaker 3: someone comes and you answer it and you talk to
Speaker 3: that person, that we've been able to stop crimes before
Speaker 3: they happen.
Speaker 1: Earlier this year, Amazon purchased Ring for a reported billion dollars.
Speaker 1: These synergy makes a lot of sense. Less packages stolen
Speaker 1: mean happier customers and less money lost due to theft. Plus,
Speaker 1: Amazon can promote the heck out of Rings products.
Speaker 3: So yeah, Amazon purchased us earlier this year, and it's
Speaker 3: actually been great. They've really left us alone to build
Speaker 3: and to keep building on our mission and reducing crime
Speaker 3: in neighborhoods, and they've just they've been a great foundation
Speaker 3: to accelerate off of. So far, we've really worked more
Speaker 3: on just having them sort of assist RING at really
Speaker 3: realizing our vision and our mission it is. I mean,
Speaker 3: Amazon is a huge force, and you know, we're just
Speaker 3: happy to be part of the team with that.
Speaker 1: Ring charges thirty dollars a year for their monitoring service,
Speaker 1: which again I highly recommend. This lets you access recordings
Speaker 1: of everyone who walks up to your front door or
Speaker 1: rings your doorbell. Depending on how you have things set up,
Speaker 1: you can set up RING in two different ways. You
Speaker 1: can do these motion zones where anyone who walks in
Speaker 1: that zone will trigger a recording, or you can actually
Speaker 1: have it set up where it only records when someone
Speaker 1: actually physically presses the doorbell. That will result in longer
Speaker 1: battery life, but I find that the battery either way
Speaker 1: is pretty darn good. And finally, for a more fortified solution,
Speaker 1: I talk to the founders of dino Safe. This is
Speaker 1: another trend we're seeing giant lock boxes that you can
Speaker 1: put outside your front door. This goes back to the
Speaker 1: old days of the milkman. I used to have a
Speaker 1: lot of neighbors that had those refrigerated boxes where you
Speaker 1: get milk delivered outside your porch. Now those were not locked. Yes,
Speaker 1: people didn't really steal milk. But these things are giant
Speaker 1: kind of coolers that can hold packages and in this case,
Speaker 1: refrigerated goods because you actually plug the dino safe in
Speaker 1: and it's climate controlled. I talked to founder Rebecca Romanucci,
Speaker 1: founder and CEO of dino Safe.
Speaker 4: It's a container that secures to your porch and it's
Speaker 4: climate controlled. So now you can order all of your
Speaker 4: online orders that you normally do, but now you can
Speaker 4: also order perishable items like groceries and electronics, flowers, medication,
Speaker 4: and it's going to be kept safe from theft of
Speaker 4: porch pirates as well as secure from the elements heat, rain, ice,
Speaker 4: all of those things. So it provides the opportunity for
Speaker 4: us to order everything.
Speaker 1: So imagine a high tech cooler. This thing is a
Speaker 1: bit big, but we're only getting more and more stuff delivered.
Speaker 1: And this one even lets you get items like groceries,
Speaker 1: which is handy for Amazon Prime. Now sometimes you get
Speaker 1: milk delivered through their eggs. Whatever you need, this thing
Speaker 1: can hold on to it.
Speaker 4: It also has an alarm, so if it's moved, it
Speaker 4: will notify the owner as well as let your neighbors know.
Speaker 1: So how does it work, Well, it's all about those
Speaker 1: one time codes.
Speaker 4: You go over to our app, you get a one
Speaker 4: time use for digit code. You put that on the
Speaker 4: delivery instructions on your order, and when the delivery person
Speaker 4: makes that delivery, he or she puts that four digit
Speaker 4: code in. The device unlocks, they put the order in
Speaker 4: and it closes. This is the first device that also
Speaker 4: permits you to have multiple deliveries in a day. They
Speaker 4: all have their own code and they all lock as soon.
Speaker 1: As it's closed.
Speaker 4: Then you wherever you are receive an alert on your
Speaker 4: phone that or smart device that a delivery has been made.
Speaker 1: I love this idea and I'm getting lots of pitches
Speaker 1: for similar boxes. The Dino Safe is eight hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty dollars. It goes on sale in twenty nineteen. No
Speaker 1: doubt there will be plenty of others and the prices
Speaker 1: will come down. There are even apartment and condo buildings
Speaker 1: building in similar technologies. I mean, let's face it, the
Speaker 1: delivery thing is only going to get bigger, and to
Speaker 1: be able to get regular stuff, expensive stuff, and even
Speaker 1: cold stuff just takes the stress out of online ordering.
Speaker 1: Just want to say a quick thanks to everyone who
Speaker 1: has purchased a copy of my book, and boy there
Speaker 1: are a lot of you. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: the support. It's called one hundred and one handy tech
Speaker 1: tips for the iPhone. If you're finding any of my
Speaker 1: book helpful, useful in enlightening, whatever, I would love a
Speaker 1: review on Amazon. It really helps, so thanks so much
Speaker 1: in advance for that. It only takes a second and
Speaker 1: it really helps other buyers of the book. You can
Speaker 1: find links to everything I mentioned here on the website,
Speaker 1: Rich on tech dot tv, or you can check the
Speaker 1: show notes. I'm Rich Demiro. I'll talk to you real soon.