Speaker 1: It's a special edition of the Rich on Tech podcast
Speaker 1: direct from China. What's going on? I'm Rich Dmiro here
Speaker 1: in Shanghai for cs Asia, where tech companies are showing
Speaker 1: off their gadgets for a marketplace of over a billion
Speaker 1: people here in this region. And yes, I've got some
Speaker 1: thoughts on that show the country at large and lots
Speaker 1: of international lessons learned. We also got to go to
Speaker 1: Shanghai Disneyland, so we're going to talk about that and
Speaker 1: of course answer your pressing tech questions as always. Joining
Speaker 1: me is producer Megan, the driving force behind this trip. Meghan,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. Me How she she? That's about
Speaker 1: all I've learned so far since I've been here. But
Speaker 1: you really wanted to do this? Why?
Speaker 2: I just I've never been to Asia and it just
Speaker 2: sounded like such a cool opportunity to bring you know,
Speaker 2: the Tech show here and just see, you.
Speaker 3: Know how what CS Asia is all about.
Speaker 1: So and on that note, thank you to CES Asia
Speaker 1: for hosting us. They brought us out here to experience
Speaker 1: the show. Now. I was actually here for the very
Speaker 1: first show, which was five years ago. I came here
Speaker 1: with my photographer Phil Ega, and it was the inaugural show,
Speaker 1: So I mean it was like the first time. I
Speaker 1: didn't know anything about it, and I don't think neither
Speaker 1: either did see Yes Asia, I mean it was a smaller,
Speaker 1: much smaller show than it is today. It has definitely grown.
Speaker 1: So this year, five or six giant halls of exhibits.
Speaker 1: And yeah, there's a lot of random tech accessories. I
Speaker 1: mean that's to be expected because we're in Asia. I
Speaker 1: mean that's this is where they're all made. But they
Speaker 1: had a lot of cartech, they had Ai, they had
Speaker 1: five g lots of keynotes from big companies. Huawei gave
Speaker 1: the keynote, which is kind of awkward because you know,
Speaker 1: you've heard Huawei in the news so much. They're they're
Speaker 1: facing that major band in the US. I think they're
Speaker 1: already banned at this point, so but I think they're
Speaker 1: fighting it. But my big takeaway from the show, did
Speaker 1: I see one thing that just like blew my mind?
Speaker 1: Not really, but I saw lots of little things and
Speaker 1: a lot of cool stuff too. That all kind of
Speaker 1: makes you realize it is a very big world out there.
Speaker 1: In the US, we're very focused on Apple on Samsung,
Speaker 1: but here there are so many people and what I've
Speaker 1: noticed about people in Asia is that there is not
Speaker 1: one theme I see right, except for the fact that
Speaker 1: everyone's on their phone all the time. But they use
Speaker 1: a lot of different tech. Like in the US, it's
Speaker 1: all Apple, it's all Samsung, and you know, a couple
Speaker 1: other brands. But here it is like I was looking
Speaker 1: at people's phones and I couldn't identify what phone models
Speaker 1: they were because there's so many different types. So I
Speaker 1: think that's my big takeaway is that really this is
Speaker 1: a huge world. Keep in mind that when you talk
Speaker 1: about tech and you see tech, there are a lot
Speaker 1: of different people out there and there's something for everyone. Okay,
Speaker 1: so let me talk about the way this show is
Speaker 1: gonna work, because it's a little different than our previous shows.
Speaker 1: Instead of talking about all the tech topics from this week,
Speaker 1: I'm going to share my thoughts about this whole experience
Speaker 1: here in China. But we're still going to answer questions.
Speaker 1: So in between my thoughts, I'll take a question. And
Speaker 1: I guess now's the perfect time to start with our
Speaker 1: first question, So Megankay take it away.
Speaker 2: Okay, so our first question comes from Peggy Lane. Hey, Rich,
Speaker 2: we are very interested in purchasing something that attaches to
Speaker 2: our house as a water meter and alert to you
Speaker 2: when there is a possible leak. I would also like
Speaker 2: to be able to turn off the house water with
Speaker 2: my iPhone. How is the technology advanced in this department?
Speaker 2: Any suggestion?
Speaker 1: Ooh, that's a really good question, and it's something that
Speaker 1: here's the thing with all this smart home stuff. Once
Speaker 1: you have it, you realize that you can't imagine life
Speaker 1: without it and the smart like okay, so for me,
Speaker 1: example of me, for example, I just installed a smart
Speaker 1: lock on my front door, and now that I have it,
Speaker 1: I literally can't imagine life without it because I can
Speaker 1: see when my door is locked, I can see when
Speaker 1: it's unlocked. I can assign codes to people everyone. I
Speaker 1: don't have to have keys anymore for people. So I've
Speaker 1: given out codes to like so many people because they
Speaker 1: can just like my in laws, they can come in
Speaker 1: when they need to. You can say when you want
Speaker 1: them to have access. So like for instance, with the
Speaker 1: with the cleaning service I have them, they can only
Speaker 1: access it at a certain time, like they come on
Speaker 1: this day from you know, seven to nine. That's it,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. They don't need access twenty
Speaker 1: four to seven. So it's like these little things I
Speaker 1: never thought of, Like here's for the past twenty years,
Speaker 1: you know, cleaning service had a key to my house.
Speaker 1: This makes so much more sense. So anyway, when it
Speaker 1: comes to the water leaks at your house, and by
Speaker 1: the way, I had this happen at my house, and
Speaker 1: it's not pretty a water leak. I think it cost
Speaker 1: us insurance. I think it was about almost fifty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars for I'm talking one little leak that was from
Speaker 1: the water heater. It exploded basically overnight and got leaked
Speaker 1: into our floor like for about twenty four hours. And
Speaker 1: I thought, no big deal. I just stepped on the
Speaker 1: floor and it was kind of mushy. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: I had no idea. You have to replace the entire
Speaker 1: wood floor, I mean, the walls. They gotta cut the
Speaker 1: walls up to like you know, so they can replace
Speaker 1: all the everything had to be replaced, mold exactly had
Speaker 1: to be dried out for a week. Well not because
Speaker 1: we've found it quickly, you know, but they still have
Speaker 1: to dry out your house for like a week to
Speaker 1: make sure that doesn't get any more.
Speaker 3: I mean, it was.
Speaker 1: Crazy My point is for a little tiny leak, it
Speaker 1: was like so much money. Yeah, and yeah, insurance will
Speaker 1: cover a lot of that, but I mean I still
Speaker 1: was out a lot. But anyway, so my point is
Speaker 1: these things are going to become even more crucial because
Speaker 1: how they work is they go on your main pipe
Speaker 1: that brings the water into your house and they sense
Speaker 1: what's happening with that water going through there. So number one,
Speaker 1: they can sense like is your toilet leaking because they
Speaker 1: use an algorithm to kind of figure out, like we
Speaker 1: we can fingerprint this leak, and we know from the
Speaker 1: other millions of fingerprints that we've taken that this is
Speaker 1: a water leak from the toilet, or this is a
Speaker 1: water leak from the shower, or this is your washing
Speaker 1: machine using too much water. So it's really fascinating what
Speaker 1: they're doing with the fingerprinting of this of the water
Speaker 1: flow in your house. So the two that I would
Speaker 1: probably take a look at. Number one is called flow
Speaker 1: Flo and this is actually owned by Mowen. You've heard
Speaker 1: of them, right, the brand, Yeah, So that's number one.
Speaker 1: The one that I know that I've seen a demo
Speaker 1: of is Finn p h y N And this is
Speaker 1: made by Belkan, which I guess they used to be.
Speaker 1: I mean I think they are and.
Speaker 3: We saw both of these companies at CES in Vegas.
Speaker 1: Right and this this is one of those things. But
Speaker 1: it's really expensive. So I think by the time you
Speaker 1: get it installed in everything, you're looking at over one
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, but in my case, for you know, being
Speaker 1: out a couple several thousand dollars with that leak. This
Speaker 1: is something that I do want to get and I keep,
Speaker 1: but it's like one of those things like do you
Speaker 1: really like you know, you have all these things of
Speaker 1: what you want to spend your money on, like a
Speaker 1: water flow leak detector in your house is not really
Speaker 1: on the top of my list. It's probably last on
Speaker 1: the list, but it is something to look into. So
Speaker 1: I think the technology this is going to be something
Speaker 1: that's on every home in the future, especially when it
Speaker 1: comes to water conservation. So those are the two that
Speaker 1: I look at, Flow and finn and you know, I think,
Speaker 1: once you have it, you probably gonna like it. YEA,
Speaker 1: So good question. Okay, So moving on with China, the
Speaker 1: number one thing that I have noticed about this country
Speaker 1: is the Great Firewall, as they call it right. It
Speaker 1: is real. You've experienced it. Connectivity here is such a challenge.
Speaker 1: And that doesn't mean that there's not Wi Fi. Doesn't
Speaker 1: mean there's not cellular. There's cellular everywhere, there's Wi Fi everywhere,
Speaker 1: but it does not work the way we think about
Speaker 1: it working in America. So everything that we use on
Speaker 1: a daily basis is pretty much blocked. And that includes Facebook,
Speaker 1: that includes Instagram, that includes Google, that includes Gmail, that
Speaker 1: includes Google Photos, Google Drive. As you figured out, the
Speaker 1: list just goes on and on, like all this stuff
Speaker 1: that you just think. You open up Instagram, it's just
Speaker 1: like sorry, could not connect, and you're like wait, what, Like, no,
Speaker 1: there's Instagram. You send a message to someone on Instagram
Speaker 1: doesn't work, nop. So the thing that I found is
Speaker 1: twofold number one. If you are using a cellular connection
Speaker 1: from an account from the US, like I have Verizon,
Speaker 1: if I'm using that on my phone, even though I'm
Speaker 1: going through China Mobile on my phone because it's roaming,
Speaker 1: it still works just fine. So that's number one. But
Speaker 1: on your computer, what do you do right? So right
Speaker 1: now I'm using a hot spot from my phone that
Speaker 1: gets expensive.
Speaker 3: We just figured it out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which I just figured it out, by the way.
Speaker 1: But the other thing I've been doing is using a VPN,
Speaker 1: so that has really saved me. But the problem with
Speaker 1: the VPN is it kicks you off every couple of minutes,
Speaker 1: so it's not like you just log onto your VPN
Speaker 1: and it works the whole time. So it has been
Speaker 1: really frustrating. And the other thing I noticed is that
Speaker 1: I always talk about people always asking me, hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: how do I roam when I'm in whatever country? And
Speaker 1: a given you, your experience in other countries is a
Speaker 1: lot easier because you do have WiFi. That's that works.
Speaker 1: Like if you go to Italy, the WiFi is gonna
Speaker 1: let you access all the stuff you normally access right
Speaker 1: so here it's a little more challenging. But what I
Speaker 1: did recognize is I always recommend to go on the
Speaker 1: travel paths or whatever they call it, like international travel whatever.
Speaker 1: It's ten dollars a day usually on AT and T
Speaker 1: and Verius and the two big ones, and that gives
Speaker 1: you your plan as normal in any country in the
Speaker 1: world pretty much. So if you use your phone it's
Speaker 1: a ten dollars charge, it works as normal, like you
Speaker 1: can call people, you can use your Internet whatever. But
Speaker 1: what I did not know until this trip is that
Speaker 1: you only get a half a gigabyte of high speed
Speaker 1: data and after that they slow you down to a crawl,
Speaker 1: which is basically unusable. So now I feel like it's
Speaker 1: still the easiest way to travel internationally, but that half
Speaker 1: a gig is not enough. I mean, you know, you
Speaker 1: want to upload a couple pictures to Instagram find but
Speaker 1: for me, like I was uploading a couple of videos
Speaker 1: and stuff to like Facebook, and I want to back
Speaker 1: up my pictures to Google Photos. No dice, because half
Speaker 1: a gig is like nothing. You'll burn through that instantly.
Speaker 1: And the best part is when you're done with that
Speaker 1: half a gig and text you and they say, oh,
Speaker 1: we notice that you burn through your half a gig.
Speaker 1: We're gonna slow you down or reply yes for another
Speaker 1: ten dollars, we'll give you another half a gig.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's how they make the money.
Speaker 1: That can add up really fast. Yeah. Serious. Personally, I
Speaker 1: don't know how China survives without Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google.
Speaker 1: Maybe they're better off, because you know, it's a source
Speaker 1: of a lot of discontent in America, you know, like
Speaker 1: people are surfing Instagram all day and they're jealous of
Speaker 1: like their friends they see on vacation what's not blocked,
Speaker 1: which has been really good? I message, so that's been
Speaker 1: a savior there. And you had an experience with a
Speaker 1: couple of things that were censored, so tell me about that.
Speaker 3: Oh so.
Speaker 2: The second day that I was here, I decided to
Speaker 2: like turn on the TV and just like see what
Speaker 2: was there. And I turned on CNN and I was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: see I thought CNN would have been like blocked, and
Speaker 2: I was just watching it, and.
Speaker 3: Then suddenly they started CNN was talking.
Speaker 2: About Trump, and then I was like, oh, weird, so
Speaker 2: they like talk about Trump here. And then suddenly and
Speaker 2: it was like obviously an American CNN because it was
Speaker 2: like Cenn anchors. And then within literally thirty seconds, it
Speaker 2: just went.
Speaker 1: Black because they were talking about something that was happening
Speaker 1: in Hong Kong, a protest.
Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, and then it was black for just like
Speaker 2: five minutes.
Speaker 1: So it's so crazy that they have it here. But
Speaker 1: yet someone is literally sitting there watching the CNN feed
Speaker 1: for all of China and just like pressing a button too,
Speaker 1: like blackout. Whatever. They don't agree with. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: so crazy. It must be a huge like business here,
Speaker 1: like industry here, like the government doing that. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: then a phone call with your mom something weird happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I called my mom and within like ten seconds,
Speaker 2: she was like, oh, are you listening to music? And
Speaker 2: I was like no, and she said, oh, well, I
Speaker 2: just heard like a Beatles song playing.
Speaker 3: And I was like, well, I'm not listening to any music.
Speaker 2: And she was like, okay, Well it was very clear,
Speaker 2: like I could hear a song playing for like three seconds.
Speaker 2: It like basically to me, like she couldn't hear me,
Speaker 2: she just heard the song. So like something happened. I
Speaker 2: have no idea. It was really strange. And then like
Speaker 2: throughout the call, I just was like, I feel like
Speaker 2: someone's listening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, That's the way I felt on all my calls. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the guy listening probably he probably like was listening to
Speaker 1: music in the background and like forgot to mute it
Speaker 1: when he like started listening to you. Actually, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: So crazy. It's just such a weird thing. Because yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sure in America they do stuff like that, Like
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's a level of surveillance not on the
Speaker 1: average person, but in general, Like you know, I'm sure
Speaker 1: America does that to certain people and things that are
Speaker 1: being watched. We do have the FBI, but it just
Speaker 1: doesn't feel as in your face as it does here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, another question, Megan, you're up.
Speaker 3: Okay. Next question is from Roger Massius.
Speaker 2: My kid downloaded some free software and along with it
Speaker 2: a virus that redirects my browser to bing.
Speaker 3: I noticed during the redirect.
Speaker 2: Process it tags a site called my Search team to
Speaker 2: get rid of it, and I'm getting really frustrated. Do
Speaker 2: you have any ideas on how to get off how
Speaker 2: to get it off my PC?
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, this is the worst. It's funny that this
Speaker 1: still happens because this was such a problem a long
Speaker 1: time ago, but it still happens. So what happened was
Speaker 1: your son probably downloaded some software that had I don't
Speaker 1: know what you call it, like drive by software included.
Speaker 1: Like a lot of times you download free software. The
Speaker 1: reason it's free is because they'll get money from a
Speaker 1: company like my Search, and my Search will say, well,
Speaker 1: let's bundle our toolbar in and we'll pay you ten
Speaker 1: dollars every time someone downloads your software. And you're like, okay, cool.
Speaker 1: I mean it's just so it comes with that software.
Speaker 1: So that's what happened. And it's, by the way, really
Speaker 1: tough to usually get rid of this software because it
Speaker 1: doesn't show up in the uninstalled tool but you know,
Speaker 1: uninstalled panel. It's just not like as legitimate as like
Speaker 1: a Google toolbar back in the day or like a
Speaker 1: normal company, So it's just tougher to get off your machine.
Speaker 1: So what I'd recommend is malware bytes. So I think
Speaker 1: that malware bytes is you know, it will find this
Speaker 1: stuff on your computer and help you uninstall it. So
Speaker 1: that's the main thing. If that doesn't work, I mean
Speaker 1: I think that'll work. So it should work. And there's
Speaker 1: if you actually search on Google for how to get
Speaker 1: rid of my search dot com redirect, you'll see. It's
Speaker 1: funny because I you know, I help a lot of
Speaker 1: people with their computers, and I can tell whenever someone's
Speaker 1: like I'm having trouble with my computer. If I start
Speaker 1: searching on Google and it goes like some random search,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, well, first off, you have malware on
Speaker 1: your computer. And this happens all the time, Like people
Speaker 1: don't even realize, like you'll get like these random like
Speaker 1: my Way Search. I mean, there's so many random search toolbars. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like engines that are like and they're all just the
Speaker 1: way they make money is they're just hijacking the ad data,
Speaker 1: so they're trying to get you to click on ads.
Speaker 1: They get a little portion of that referral fee, and
Speaker 1: then they make money. It's a whole terrible industry. But
Speaker 1: malware bytes I think should get rid of it. They're
Speaker 1: the biggest kind of like anti malware. And it's usually free.
Speaker 1: You can download it for free. I'm sure there's some
Speaker 1: paid versions of it, but it's it's usually free and
Speaker 1: it gets good reviews, Like a lot of the tech
Speaker 1: people recommend it because it is pretty legit. So now
Speaker 1: we talked about the bad side of China, which is
Speaker 1: the censorship, but I will talk about the benefit of China,
Speaker 1: the amazing part of China, which is like the people
Speaker 1: here are very kind. I describe them as gentle, like
Speaker 1: they just seem like I mean, we're in a city
Speaker 1: of Shanghai which has I think like twenty four million people,
Speaker 1: and it seems like the people here are just so
Speaker 1: like nice and like not just nice to us, but
Speaker 1: kind to like they're fellow human, which I find really
Speaker 1: interesting because you're in LA and it's like it's every
Speaker 1: man for himself, you know, and especially with the traffic
Speaker 1: and all this stuff. But it's and it's also really clean.
Speaker 1: So the city we were driving and I just could
Speaker 1: not believe, and I remember this from China last time,
Speaker 1: they keep this place so clean. It's just unbelievable because
Speaker 1: you're in a big city, but it is pristine and
Speaker 1: you can argue, you know, the government the way it
Speaker 1: is here and all that stuff, but I don't care.
Speaker 1: I'm putting all that aside. Like still they have figured
Speaker 1: out somehow in twenty nineteen, with twenty four million people
Speaker 1: to keep the streets clean. The flowers were like, I mean,
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe that just a regular street where you're
Speaker 1: driving was so nice. Now let's compare that to Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: where I always say that the big city has given
Speaker 1: up on the people because you drive in La even
Speaker 1: Sunset Boulevard, which is a street that is like the
Speaker 1: nicest street in the world. I mean, who doesn't know
Speaker 1: Sunset Boulevard or Hollywood Boulevard and you drive down them
Speaker 1: and there's trash, everywhere. I mean, you know the problem
Speaker 1: in LA it's really bad. I mean it's trash everywhere.
Speaker 1: The streets, you're not maintained, nothing's maintained. And so to
Speaker 1: see a city like this that has somehow figured it out.
Speaker 1: And I'm not just singling out LA. I mean New
Speaker 1: York City, same thing, a lot of this. It's just
Speaker 1: thirty San Francisco. I don't even want to start on
Speaker 1: that one. And that's like the dirtiest city I've ever
Speaker 1: seen at this point. So what is it about America?
Speaker 1: And again, and you know, don't call me like a
Speaker 1: China lover. I mean, look at Tokyo, Japan, same thing,
Speaker 1: huge city it is. I would eat my lunch off
Speaker 1: the streets in Tokyo. It's that clean. For a yeah,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't do that. But my point is, like it's part.
Speaker 2: Of Sunset that I was saying, But there's that one
Speaker 2: part of Sunset, Well that's in West Hollywood, which.
Speaker 3: Is part of LA. So like they figured something out.
Speaker 1: You go to the Hills, Beverly Hills, you go through
Speaker 1: the streets there, they're perfect. You go through West Hollywood,
Speaker 1: they're perfect. You go to Santa Monica. It starts you know.
Speaker 1: I mean some areas of Santa Monica could be a
Speaker 1: little dicey, but it's it's pretty clean compared to its
Speaker 1: LA at large, So city of Los Angeles, you know,
Speaker 1: bring your people out here to China and see how
Speaker 1: it works in Shanghai. How do they have all these
Speaker 1: people and somehow they keep the place clean because LA
Speaker 1: we can't seem to figure that out, and it'd be
Speaker 1: nice if we could. The other thing I noticed about
Speaker 1: the people here is that everything is mobile, Like everything
Speaker 1: is done on your phone. We can't get I've I've
Speaker 1: been talking about QR codes literally for fifteen years talking
Speaker 1: about technology. I still can't get the average person to
Speaker 1: scan a QR code. Here in China, everything is scan
Speaker 1: this QR code, you can pay, scan this we Chat
Speaker 1: you can do payment. Everything's through we Chat, this app
Speaker 1: that's kind of like their messaging app basically, but it
Speaker 1: does everything, does everything. So I mean, it's just funny that,
Speaker 1: like somehow it's America is very forward facing. Yeah, Like
Speaker 1: we're very old school in a lot of like weird ways,
Speaker 1: like with this whole mobile payment thing, like people are
Speaker 1: you know, like mobile payments and tap to pay have
Speaker 1: been a thing in other countries for like years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and like somehow in the US, like people are still
Speaker 1: hesitant to use tap to pay or like mobile payment.
Speaker 1: Venmo is taken off, but I'm not a big fan
Speaker 1: of that. So right anyway, right, all right, I feel
Speaker 1: I sound like I'm moving to China.
Speaker 3: I know you're gonna move.
Speaker 1: I just bought an apartment here, So okay.
Speaker 3: That's what you're doing yesterday.
Speaker 1: You're looking at apartments house hunting International house Hunters, which
Speaker 1: with Rich DeMuro.
Speaker 3: Okay, so question time. Next question comes from Anthony Laura.
Speaker 3: This name sounds very familiar.
Speaker 1: I feel like we've had a question or do we
Speaker 1: do this question? Okay, well, let's hear we'ven't done it yet. Okay.
Speaker 2: So his question has to do with Pandora or Spotify.
Speaker 2: He said, I might have missed something, but what is
Speaker 2: your review and or recommendation between Pandora or Spotify?
Speaker 3: Paid or free? Either one.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna go paid, I'd go Spotify. I mean
Speaker 1: it's kind of like the market leader, you know, it
Speaker 1: just has everything you need. So I mean that would
Speaker 1: be my choice for a paid now for free, I
Speaker 1: really like Pandora. I think it's great. I think that
Speaker 1: there's two things going on here. Number one to me
Speaker 1: when I started using Pandora, because one the feature I
Speaker 1: love about Pandora and I have used it off. Okay,
Speaker 1: so have you ever seen We're like basically you choose
Speaker 1: your stations, right and once you have them, they're great.
Speaker 1: They play music that you kind of love, right like
Speaker 1: it always kind of figures out like good music for you.
Speaker 1: But my favorite feature was the Shuffle all of your
Speaker 1: Stations feature. So like a lot of times with like Spotify,
Speaker 1: you're locked into like country music or pop music or
Speaker 1: rap music, right well, sometimes I like a mix of
Speaker 1: things like everyone has, Like you know, remember the old
Speaker 1: mixtape where you get like a bunch like a random
Speaker 1: song next to another random song, right, Well, that's kind
Speaker 1: of lost with all these playlists now that we're experiencing
Speaker 1: on these services. And so I really like the feature
Speaker 1: on Pandora where you choose your whatever stations, you know,
Speaker 1: five stations or whatever you want, and then you say
Speaker 1: shuffle my stations, and then all of a sudden, I'll
Speaker 1: pull a country song from your country station, It'll pull
Speaker 1: a pop song from your pop station, it'll pull a
Speaker 1: jazz song from your jazz station. I find that really cool.
Speaker 1: So that's what I like about Pandora. The downside of
Speaker 1: Pandora to me is that I don't think the it
Speaker 1: doesn't have as much music as like Spotify, so I
Speaker 1: feel like you hear the same stuff over and over
Speaker 1: and over. So that's that's number one. And ads. Also,
Speaker 1: like you said free or paid, I mean you got
Speaker 1: to pay because even if you're doing the free Pandora,
Speaker 1: there's way too many ads, so you have to pay
Speaker 1: the five dollars a month just to get Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: it's crazy. And nothing bugs me more than like being
Speaker 1: like a you know, hairplace, like a whatever, like where
Speaker 1: they're playing like Pandora or like an uber and you
Speaker 1: hear like an ad and I'm like, seriously, like just
Speaker 1: pay the five dollars a month and get rid of
Speaker 1: these ads because you're like, come on, wasting my time.
Speaker 1: But also check out Spotify Stations. That's the new app
Speaker 1: that is kind of like their answer to Pandora. So
Speaker 1: what I do was it Jose Laura Anthony, Anthony, Lara Anthony.
Speaker 1: What I would say is I would pay for Spotify
Speaker 1: ten dollars a month download Spotify and then download Spotify Stations,
Speaker 1: which is basically their version of Pandora, So you get
Speaker 1: the best of both worlds. When you want all the
Speaker 1: cool playlists, you go there. If you just want the
Speaker 1: sort of Pandora, sit back, not really think very much,
Speaker 1: experience use the stations. So what do you think of that?
Speaker 1: Answer Megan, I love.
Speaker 2: It, and I love their new app to Spotify's new
Speaker 2: like the stations.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's really fast. It's like basically you download
Speaker 1: it and you choose the station and it just starts
Speaker 1: playing and then when you open the app again, it
Speaker 1: just starts playing music like instantly. Yeah, and it's really
Speaker 1: really fast. More about China. So back to China. So
Speaker 1: one of the things I thought was really interesting here
Speaker 1: is that. So when I was in China the last time,
Speaker 1: which was a couple of years ago, they had Uber
Speaker 1: and I thought it was so cool that I was
Speaker 1: able to use Uber and I got actually got tripped
Speaker 1: up because here's what happened. So I took Uber from
Speaker 1: let's say, the convention center to the electronics store that
Speaker 1: I wanted to check out. It's like this giant, giant,
Speaker 1: like twelve story electronics store, right, So That was easy
Speaker 1: because I just my pick up point was a convention center,
Speaker 1: which is well known, and the electronic store is well known.
Speaker 1: Super simple. What I did not think about is going
Speaker 1: from the electronics store back to the convention center. IMPOSSI
Speaker 1: to get my Uber because it was such a busy
Speaker 1: area there was no way. So what happened was I said,
Speaker 1: you know, I could put the locations in, but the
Speaker 1: Uber driver kept calling me to say where are you?
Speaker 1: Like who are you? You know? Because yes, I could
Speaker 1: not understand. So it was really bad. And I was like, so,
Speaker 1: bottom line, we have to take a taxi because I
Speaker 1: just waved one down, but you know, not ideal because
Speaker 1: I don't you know.
Speaker 3: But with that, did you have to show them in
Speaker 3: Chinese where you were trying to go?
Speaker 1: It was pretty easy, yeah, because I just said conventions,
Speaker 1: you know, I showed them like I forget what I
Speaker 1: showed them, but it was it was easy. They figured out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but Uber is gone. They're no longer in China as
Speaker 1: far as I can tell. What they do have is
Speaker 1: this thing called d D And I was very hesitant
Speaker 1: because I was like, well, this is a Chinese service.
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure how it's going to work, you know.
Speaker 1: I just don't know. And when you don't know, it's like,
Speaker 1: especially when it's a service that's not from your native country,
Speaker 1: I'm like hesitant to sign up. Are they going to
Speaker 1: take my credit card? I just didn't know, right. So
Speaker 1: I was at breakfast and one of the other people
Speaker 1: on the trip was like, oh, DDI's great, got to
Speaker 1: try it. So I was like, oh, so that's all
Speaker 1: I need another American and so I downloaded d D
Speaker 1: and I signed up, which was, you know, pretty simple,
Speaker 1: and they took my credit card, and I got to
Speaker 1: say very impressed they We have taken them about ten
Speaker 1: times since we've been here. They have so many selections,
Speaker 1: kind of like Uber where you can choose like what
Speaker 1: kind of car you want? You know, the drivers, I
Speaker 1: will say, the level of driver I've seen was amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like drivers are really great here.
Speaker 1: Like they don't talk, and if they did talk, they
Speaker 1: were very friendly. They didn't really speak English most of
Speaker 1: the time, or they would speak Chinese.
Speaker 2: They keep speaking, but they like totally knew we didn't
Speaker 2: speak Chinese. But it was just to show that they
Speaker 2: were like trying to be social.
Speaker 1: I never understand that okay, like like you're literally looking
Speaker 1: at them like with the most blank stare in your eyes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they're still just like every step of the way,
Speaker 1: they're like talking like telling you something. Yeah, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't even understand what you're saying. But they were amazing.
Speaker 1: And the other thing that we noticed is what that
Speaker 1: they never they.
Speaker 3: Oh no radio. Yeah, it's completely silent.
Speaker 1: It's silent, like I'm talking. It's not even that the
Speaker 1: radio is turned down, Like in the center console was
Speaker 1: just a clock every time, right, it was like the
Speaker 1: the system was turned off.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I don't know if that's a d D thing
Speaker 1: or you know whatever, but that's or that's just the way.
Speaker 1: But and they were so professional. I'm talking on like
Speaker 1: when I'm in Uber number one. Sorry Uber, but the
Speaker 1: driving is terrible. I mean is it's horrible.
Speaker 3: The drivers are bad.
Speaker 1: They're so bad, and you get on the freeway and
Speaker 1: your life is at state because they're going one hundred
Speaker 1: miles an hour on the way to the airport. And
Speaker 1: this is why I don't like to take Uber to
Speaker 1: the airport, because they're going one hundred miles an hour
Speaker 1: on the four or five and I'm like, dude, I
Speaker 1: don't need to die on the way to the airport. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't need to go one hundred miles an hour.
Speaker 1: I will easily be happy with the speed limit. So
Speaker 1: you know, I've got kids at home, like please.
Speaker 3: Like just want to make it.
Speaker 1: I want to make it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And it's not like they're good drivers at a hundred
Speaker 1: miles or like they're literally I will tell you, I
Speaker 1: think out of the past twenty times I've been an UBER,
Speaker 1: I might have gotten into an accident twenty times because
Speaker 1: they do weird things that like normal drivers don't do,
Speaker 1: Like they pull out into the thing without looking, or
Speaker 1: like they you know, switch lanes and there's a car
Speaker 1: that hanks at them. It's really bad. Yeah, and I'm
Speaker 1: not you know, maybe it's not the higher levels, like
Speaker 1: I'm talking Uber X most of the time if i
Speaker 1: want like a better drive, like if I'm putting my
Speaker 1: mom in an Uber most of the time, getting her
Speaker 1: like the select or something like that, right, because the
Speaker 1: drivers do get better when you get the higher levels, right,
Speaker 1: But it's it's kind of it's sketchy, like they let
Speaker 1: anyone be a driver for Uber at this point.
Speaker 3: And I think the reason why, Deity what, I don't know.
Speaker 5: I think it works well because right when you order
Speaker 5: your ride, it asks to like listen to you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's also really weird.
Speaker 2: Basically accesses your audio and your camera so they can
Speaker 2: like watch you. But I'm sure it's the same for
Speaker 2: the driver, so like they really can't like there's a
Speaker 2: reason why they do that so that you don't get
Speaker 2: in the car and you're not crazy, you're like saying weird.
Speaker 3: Stuff to the driver, right vice versa.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And like I think that's another reason why Uber
Speaker 2: has a lot of challenges is because there's no one
Speaker 2: like really watching to make sure that like everything's going right.
Speaker 1: It was weird because and what Megan's referring to is
Speaker 1: when you download the app and you take your first ride,
Speaker 1: they're very big on safety. Like they say, we number
Speaker 1: one set in emergency contact. They tell you exactly how
Speaker 1: to call the police. Like it was a little disconcerted,
Speaker 1: like an option, yeah, like emergency you're in the car,
Speaker 1: which Uber has gotten. Now they do have that like
Speaker 1: a safety center, but it's like legit. They're like number one.
Speaker 1: They asked me for we need to record your audio
Speaker 1: while you're in the car. When you start this trip,
Speaker 1: we're going to access your microphone and record everything, which
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, I mean that's kind of weird,
Speaker 1: but it makes sense, right, Yeah. And then the second
Speaker 1: second drive we took, they asked for video permission. They said,
Speaker 1: can we access your camera? And I thought, I mean again,
Speaker 1: it kind of is funny because we're in China with
Speaker 1: the surveillance society, and it like, yeah, it's kind of
Speaker 1: funny that the d D would ask to do that.
Speaker 1: But I was totally like, all right, cool, yeah, and
Speaker 1: maybe it does bring that higher level of quality because
Speaker 1: they know that they're being watched. Ye, so and I
Speaker 1: was on my best behavior because of that.
Speaker 3: The driver, oh, by the way, yellows at drivers.
Speaker 1: And one thing I did not talk about was how
Speaker 1: cheap the d D drives were. I mean, I'm talking.
Speaker 1: I couldn't when I was doing the translations or the
Speaker 1: conversions of the currency, I was like, this doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2: It was like eight bucks for like also, by the way,
Speaker 2: on his Apple Watch, which maybe you want to get
Speaker 2: an Apple Watch even more, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: The best app that I downloaded gat it's called elk
Speaker 1: elk and it is just amazing. It's so easy to
Speaker 1: convert your currency in like two seconds. I loved it.
Speaker 1: I was doing it the whole time when you saw me.
Speaker 1: It's just fantastic. Elk elk. I think I'm on a
Speaker 1: free trial. I think it's a paid app. But I
Speaker 1: did a lot of free trials for this trip. I
Speaker 1: did like a free trial of that. I did a
Speaker 1: free trial of Apple News Plus to download magazines. I
Speaker 1: did a free trial like HBO, Cinemax Showtime to download
Speaker 1: movies through Apple TV, like the new service because all
Speaker 1: their channels you can download everything.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So anyway, so I did a lot of free trials. Oh,
Speaker 1: by the way, one little tip about free trials. When
Speaker 1: you sign up for them, go do you know this? No,
Speaker 1: cancel it right away. Just go right into subscriptions on
Speaker 1: your iPhone and cancel because you still get it till
Speaker 1: the end of the thing. Now. The only one I
Speaker 1: noticed that does not let you do that, Apple, Shame
Speaker 1: on you is Apple News. They say su as you cancel,
Speaker 1: it's over. So that one I do have to cancel
Speaker 1: after before my month is I think it's a month, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: But all the other ones, Cinemax do cancel su as
Speaker 1: you sign up because you don't forget, just go right
Speaker 1: in and you still have it for the week.
Speaker 3: What that reminds me because I signed up for one
Speaker 3: of those gym things. It's like you can go to
Speaker 3: a gym ten times.
Speaker 1: For oh okay, I don't know, gym pass or something,
Speaker 1: and yeah, well good luck canceling that from China. Oh
Speaker 1: all right, you have another question?
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, So next question is from Teresa Malone.
Speaker 3: Is this a scam? Is the subject?
Speaker 2: I just go I just got a telephone robocall saying
Speaker 2: that Microsoft is going to automatically deduct four hundred and
Speaker 2: thirty four dollars from my bank account for support on
Speaker 2: a Microsoft product. The recorded voice asked me to press
Speaker 2: a number for a reason that I don't remember.
Speaker 3: As I was so freaked out, I hung up after that.
Speaker 2: I believe this is a scam, as I have never
Speaker 2: given Microsoft any financial information.
Speaker 3: Is this real or a new way to cheat people?
Speaker 3: Please look into this.
Speaker 1: This this has been going on for a long time.
Speaker 1: The Microsoft scams are like a dime a dozen they
Speaker 1: are calling. I mean, we've done stories on this on
Speaker 1: KTLA for years. I've been talking about Microsoft scams for
Speaker 1: I don't know a couple of years, like five six years.
Speaker 1: So here's the thing. It's not Microsoft. They're not scamming anyone.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. It's a company that touches a
Speaker 1: lot of people. So a lot of people have a
Speaker 1: computer that has Microsoft on it and they need tech
Speaker 1: support whatever, and so you just think like, oh, I
Speaker 1: have a computer and Microsoft is calling me to say
Speaker 1: I need help or I got to pay this fee
Speaker 1: or whatever it is, and you think like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: like I think that that might sound legit. And given
Speaker 1: this person, she obviously was hiped to it and was
Speaker 1: like I don't remember signing up for that. But they're
Speaker 1: just doing a numbers game. So they're just getting a
Speaker 1: lot of people, you know, doing millions of these robo calls.
Speaker 1: And if one person falls for it, which by the way,
Speaker 1: I know someone personally that called me frantic saying that
Speaker 1: they had fallen for this and they gave their credit
Speaker 1: card number and all this stuff over the phone, and
Speaker 1: they go halfway through they realized like, wait a second,
Speaker 1: what am I doing. The person took control of their computer.
Speaker 1: So this is a scam. It's just a new twist
Speaker 1: on an old scam. So I'm not sure where this
Speaker 1: scam is because she said they wanted to charge her
Speaker 1: like four hundred and thirty dollars, Like where does it
Speaker 1: if they're like, oh, let's confirm your credit card number
Speaker 1: and maybe you give it over again, Like I be like,
Speaker 1: come on, let's you know. I don't know how this
Speaker 1: scam works exactly, Yeah, but clearly they're trying to get
Speaker 1: money out of you, right, so weird And.
Speaker 2: I mean like they must the scam must know that
Speaker 2: she has a Microsoft product or it's just random.
Speaker 1: It's totally random. They're just if you call, you know,
Speaker 1: if you don't if you use a Mac, you're sitting there.
Speaker 1: I don't have a Microsoft computer, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: I've definitely seen Apple, Like obviously it's not Apple, but
Speaker 2: like again, like it's easy to like make an email
Speaker 2: look like it's from Apple, and it's all you know,
Speaker 2: A couple letters are changed in the email address and
Speaker 2: that's how they get people.
Speaker 1: And the other thing they're doing with Apple on the
Speaker 1: Apple side of scams is built into every iPhone is
Speaker 1: the phone number for Apple. So what the robo callers
Speaker 1: do is they spoof Apple's phone number call you from
Speaker 1: that number and then it comes up on your phone
Speaker 1: Apple and you go, oh, this is Apple calling me
Speaker 1: so clearly, and they say, like you need to read
Speaker 1: your iCloud or whatever. And that's a really good scam
Speaker 1: because you know, in every iPhone, built into the contact
Speaker 1: address book is the Apple phone number, so you have
Speaker 1: to just spoof that and your iPhone looks like Apple's calling,
Speaker 1: So watch out for that one if that ever happens
Speaker 1: to you. But it's so these scam artists, I mean,
Speaker 1: this is why they call them scam artists, because they
Speaker 1: try these things and they do work and people fall
Speaker 1: for and you know, it's one of these things where
Speaker 1: it just happens, and it's been going on forever, even
Speaker 1: before there was I mean, scams have been there forever,
Speaker 1: you know, whether it was back in the day when
Speaker 1: they sold like, you know, oil with a snake oil,
Speaker 1: you know, like all these things like vitamins, I mean whatever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: still scam. It doesn't work. It's someone's selling you on something, right, And.
Speaker 3: You're haney hammies, Are.
Speaker 1: Those a scam? Well, Megan, are you? Are you dissing
Speaker 1: the hair gummies?
Speaker 3: Well that's what like the Kardas vitamins in there. I'm
Speaker 3: sure there's something in it. Can't prove it, Yeah, you
Speaker 3: can't prove it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's talk about the food in China. So number
Speaker 1: one food here, I'm you know.
Speaker 3: Me, Well, what did we have for dinner last night?
Speaker 1: I know? Well Italian? Yeah, which I look, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I'm a very simple okay, So I'll tell the story.
Speaker 1: So we go to this place that's just around the
Speaker 1: corner here, and you know it's an Italian restaurant, which whatever,
Speaker 1: I mean, It's fine. Look, I eat a lot of food.
Speaker 1: It's like you're eating every day of your life, like
Speaker 1: you can't just I'm not gonna have authentic Chinese like
Speaker 1: every day of my life, right. And I've had fried
Speaker 1: rice since I've been here every single day, and I've
Speaker 1: had other weird little things that like not that that's weird,
Speaker 1: like other like I've tried one little random thing off
Speaker 1: the buffet every day that like I wouldn't normally eat, right,
Speaker 1: like dragon fruit. I know, Yeah, I didn't try anything
Speaker 1: like noodles like I had. I had spare ribs yesterday,
Speaker 1: like at Disney. We'll talk about Disney in the moment, Yes,
Speaker 1: but I had spare like, and it was like bones,
Speaker 1: I'm like pulling bones.
Speaker 3: Out like I mean, it was you know, they don't
Speaker 3: care about bones here.
Speaker 1: They don't care about bones here. Everything has bones. They
Speaker 1: just somehow they just yeah, get through the bones. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So we went to this place last night. There was
Speaker 1: an Italian restaurant and I'm I'm getting a pizza, right
Speaker 1: cause I'm not a weird eater. I eat like pretty basic.
Speaker 1: I eat like steak, potatoes, chicken, salmon. I know, I'm
Speaker 1: the worst. I don't eat anything weird. So same, you're
Speaker 1: much more adventurous than I am. So I get a
Speaker 1: pizza and I asked the guy because it was a
Speaker 1: pizza that had it said the description was margarita or sauce,
Speaker 1: garlic and chili paste. And I was like, oh, that
Speaker 1: sounds good. I asked the guy. So just making sure
Speaker 1: this has cheese on it, right, And he goes, sorry,
Speaker 1: it's a pizza of course that has cheese. And sure enough,
Speaker 1: what happens when I get my pizza.
Speaker 3: No cheese, no cheese.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Megan over here has this giant pizza with three
Speaker 1: different types of cheeses and like double sausage or no
Speaker 1: double pepperoni. Yeah.
Speaker 3: It was literally covered in pepperoni's. And I asked the
Speaker 3: same waiter. I was like, oh, so is this good,
Speaker 3: Like have you had this before?
Speaker 2: And he was like, well, if you like pepperoni, like
Speaker 2: you'll like it. And I was like, oh, okay, well,
Speaker 2: yeah sounds great and it was amazing. But it was
Speaker 2: literally like triple the amount of food compared to Rich's pizza.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I had a diet dinner. I mean I felt great.
Speaker 1: So the other thing we went to was luck In
Speaker 1: Coffee yeah, which is I don't know if I'm saying
Speaker 1: it right, but luck In or luke In. But anyway,
Speaker 1: so we found luck In Coffee, which by the way,
Speaker 1: didn't exist until like a couple of years ago, and
Speaker 1: there's like thousands of them everywhere. And I gotta say
Speaker 1: it was good. I had a Macha is that what
Speaker 1: it was called? Like, that's like a green tea freeze
Speaker 1: or something. They call it an X freeze, right, which
Speaker 1: is a frappuccino basically so good. It was really good,
Speaker 1: Like it tasted so much more real than the green
Speaker 1: tea frappuccino I've gotten in La Yeah in Starbucks. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So and I'm not like a big green tea person either,
Speaker 1: but I do like it. I mean it's nice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, green tea definitely tastes better here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it makes sense. I feel like they know their
Speaker 1: tea here. Although did you have any tea while you're here?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've had well, not like fancy.
Speaker 2: I could have had tea this morning at breakfast they offered,
Speaker 2: and I said, no, I'll stick with coffee.
Speaker 3: But I've had tea like in my room and stuff.
Speaker 1: It's funny because even though you think of China like
Speaker 1: growing up as like a tea culture, like you don't
Speaker 1: it's not very overt, like you don't see tea everywhere.
Speaker 1: It's not like tea houses everywhere as far as I saw, right,
Speaker 1: but there is like tea like in a. I guess
Speaker 1: it's kind of offered everywhere, but it's offered everywhere in
Speaker 1: the US.
Speaker 3: Right right.
Speaker 1: But yeah, anyway, so we did that. Then I went
Speaker 1: to McDonald's. I know, I'm just the world traveler here,
Speaker 1: but I love going to like a McDonald's and other
Speaker 1: countries because I love seeing what's on the menu. So
Speaker 1: I totally took a little video of like what they
Speaker 1: have there, and it was pretty random. Like they had
Speaker 1: some really interesting like stuff that we do not have
Speaker 1: at the McDonald's in the US.
Speaker 3: And it was like super nice too, right.
Speaker 1: Oh so nice. They're so friendly, like they're just oh
Speaker 1: that's the other thing, like so friendly, like they're.
Speaker 3: Just so welcoming.
Speaker 2: Like I mean, if I was a tourist that visited
Speaker 2: La I would it would probably be like an opposite
Speaker 2: like experience.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they you'd be like, oh, Americans are the worst. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which they kind of are sometimes. All right, let me
Speaker 1: tell you some of the random things they had on here.
Speaker 1: A German sausage, double beef burger, a Seschwan spicy double
Speaker 1: chicken burger, a Japanese beef ball. Let's see what else
Speaker 1: they have here, ran I got a cheeseburger, by the way,
Speaker 1: spoiler alert, the most boring thing on the menu, loaded fries, spicy.
Speaker 1: Remember those chicken wings they had at McDonald's a couple
Speaker 1: years ago, it was like a big thing. Well those
Speaker 1: those are still here, Chris cut fries, veggie cup and
Speaker 1: Chris cut fries, and a small corn cup which I
Speaker 1: saw someone actually orders. I thought it was pretty cool.
Speaker 1: But Chris cut fries. I really wanted to try but
Speaker 1: this is how this is how lame I am. I
Speaker 1: was like, I don't want to ruin my experience in
Speaker 1: case they weren't good. I like regular fries. Two other
Speaker 1: drinks that were at the McDonald's coconut drink with jelly,
Speaker 1: and coconut drink with bubble, and then coconut water. I'm
Speaker 1: guessing I don't know, maybe it or was just bubbly.
Speaker 1: All right, get another question. Then we're gonna get to
Speaker 1: Disney real quick, and then we'll yes the last question.
Speaker 1: Make it a quick question, Okay, don't read it quick
Speaker 1: like maybe I can answer it quick.
Speaker 3: Okay. Next question is from James E.
Speaker 1: South.
Speaker 2: Hello, Rich, I was given iTunes gift cards and don't
Speaker 2: know how I can use them.
Speaker 3: Since I have an Android? What can I do?
Speaker 2: Sir?
Speaker 1: No, this is a quick question. My quick answer is
Speaker 1: to sell him to a friend. I mean, who doesn't
Speaker 1: need an iTunes gift card? Like, if you got a
Speaker 1: fifty dollars gift card, sell to your friend for forty
Speaker 1: You're still making forty bucks on the deal, right, So
Speaker 1: I mean that that would be my advice, Like, just
Speaker 1: find a like, literally post on your Facebook page. I've
Speaker 1: got a fifty dollars iTunes gift card, Like I'll sell
Speaker 1: it for a best offer.
Speaker 3: We could also can you buy movies?
Speaker 1: You go buy movies, but he's saying he doesn't want to.
Speaker 1: He doesn't want to, he doesn't have I mean, you
Speaker 1: could still use an iTunes gift card if you're on Android,
Speaker 1: like for different things. But nah, it's he doesn't what's
Speaker 1: he gonna buy a movie for, you know, Like how's
Speaker 1: he gonna watch it? You know, like probably doesn't have
Speaker 1: an Apple TV. Yeah, he can connect his account to
Speaker 1: movies anywhere and do it that way. It's too complicated.
Speaker 1: He just wants to get rid of it. He wants
Speaker 1: to unload this gift card done, so sell it to
Speaker 1: your friend on Facebook, or you can go to raise
Speaker 1: dot com so our ai s. Have you heard of this?
Speaker 1: It lets you buy gift cards at a discount, and
Speaker 1: you can also sell your gift cards. Now, when you
Speaker 1: sell your gift card, you're not going to get very
Speaker 1: much on your dollar. So but here's the thing. These companies,
Speaker 1: and there's more than just Raises the one that I use,
Speaker 1: so I kind of like it and I have experience
Speaker 1: with it. There's other ones that work the same way.
Speaker 1: But this is the thing the whole market is. If
Speaker 1: you get one hundred dollars gift card from a store
Speaker 1: that you don't use, right like sharper image. Let's say
Speaker 1: I don't even know if that exists anymore. Let's say
Speaker 1: you get that. You don't care if you get eighty
Speaker 1: dollars for that, right, because you're still getting eighty dollars cash.
Speaker 1: You don't care about the value of that card. You're
Speaker 1: not worried about one hundred dollars because you never use
Speaker 1: it. It might go to waste in your drawer. So that's
Speaker 1: how these companies kind of work is that they you know,
Speaker 1: they're basically not praying on but they're they're catering to
Speaker 1: the fact that you don't care if you get fifty
Speaker 1: bucks for this hundred dollars gift card, right, and then
Speaker 1: they go and they sell it for seventy. They pay
Speaker 1: you fifty. You're happy they go and sell it for seventy.
Speaker 1: The person who buys a seventy dollars gift card or
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars gift card for seventy is also happy.
Speaker 1: Everyone makes money in that scenario. The person who loses
Speaker 1: out is Grandma who actually spent one hundred dollars to
Speaker 1: buy the gift card.
Speaker 3: Originally a business.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's a big business. Okay, So let's talk
Speaker 1: Disney before we go. So we got to go. Megan
Speaker 1: hooked us up with Shanghai Disneyland, and by hookup, not
Speaker 1: out of your pocket, but you contacted Disney and you said, hey,
Speaker 1: rich would love to check it out, and I'd love
Speaker 1: to check it out. And so they were very nice
Speaker 1: and they hooked us up with tickets, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: are a lot cheaper than Disney tickets in America. So
Speaker 1: we did our thing and we went to Disney and
Speaker 1: it was Disney Shanghai, which is pretty new. I think
Speaker 1: it opened in twenty sixteen, and number one great. I
Speaker 1: love new places, right it was. It was really nice
Speaker 1: and it's like little like shiny, like that's how different,
Speaker 1: so different than than Disneyland. Number one. The line to
Speaker 1: get in was absolutely bananas.
Speaker 3: It was a complete nightmare, to be honest.
Speaker 1: It was no it was very organized. It was organized,
Speaker 1: but it was just it was not a nightmare. It
Speaker 1: was just waiting in line. That was the worst part.
Speaker 1: But once we got in the park was amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, park.
Speaker 1: The rides were phenomenal, like they're all brand new, so
Speaker 1: all new technology. So we went on the first ride
Speaker 1: we went on, by the way, we had to buy
Speaker 1: the fast pass bundle, which was I don't know how
Speaker 1: much it was, but it was like one hundred bucks,
Speaker 1: let's say, yeah, and it really it paid off. It
Speaker 1: gave us six rides for the one hundred dollars that
Speaker 1: you get to go right on. And the first one
Speaker 1: we went on was Tron, which.
Speaker 2: Was just amazing, so cool, so futuristic, like just walking
Speaker 2: to the ride.
Speaker 1: Yes, just the way they built this place was amazing.
Speaker 1: I would describe it as a space mountain, but a
Speaker 1: kind of a bigger It kind of was outside and inside.
Speaker 1: It was in the dark for most of it. It
Speaker 1: was fantastic. That was awesome. The other one that was
Speaker 1: really cool was the Pirates of the Caribbean.
Speaker 4: Oh that was like the reason why you really Disneyland,
Speaker 4: and it was the way I described that is if
Speaker 4: you if you have been on the I believe it's
Speaker 4: the Transformers ride at Universal.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, it's like kind of a screen but
Speaker 1: also like you move.
Speaker 3: Move and then there's like graphics. Right, But this was
Speaker 3: like on another lovel This was.
Speaker 1: Next level because you're in a boat which is huge,
Speaker 1: by the way, compared to the boat at Pirates in
Speaker 1: La or Anaheim, and it is just it's so smooth.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. I mean, it was amazing. It was really
Speaker 1: a feat that they accomplished.
Speaker 2: And the Pirates at Disneyland is just like a boat
Speaker 2: that's just moving, like it's not on a track. This
Speaker 2: boat was on a track, so like it was moving
Speaker 2: you at the right times, and like it was flipped.
Speaker 2: It literally flipped around and we went on a drop
Speaker 2: backwards which.
Speaker 1: Was like turned around. We didn't flip over, but we
Speaker 1: turned around like you went backwards basically at one point
Speaker 1: on the ride, which is it was. It was amazing.
Speaker 1: They really did a great job on that one. Like
Speaker 1: that was worth Tron and Pirates was worth the admission
Speaker 1: that we didn't pay, I know, but still if you
Speaker 1: paid admission, like we paid the fast pass thing, which
Speaker 1: was expensive, but it was worth going for those two
Speaker 1: and to see the park. The park is just beautiful.
Speaker 1: Everything is double the size of America, Like the streets
Speaker 1: are double as wide as they are you know in Disneyland,
Speaker 1: and it's just I mean, the food was good, Like.
Speaker 3: Obviously there was a huge crowd, but like the crowd
Speaker 3: split up.
Speaker 5: Like the way that they engineered the park was absolutely
Speaker 5: genius because whenever we went to a restaurant there was
Speaker 5: no line, so like there were so many restaurants and
Speaker 5: they were able to accommodate definitely over like three hundred
Speaker 5: thousand people that were there.
Speaker 1: Wait, how do you know you just made that You
Speaker 1: just totally made up that number. You have no idea.
Speaker 3: I asked you, how many people do you think?
Speaker 1: I don't know, I just made that up. It could
Speaker 1: have been one hundred. I have no idea how many
Speaker 1: people were in that park that day, but it was
Speaker 1: a lot, and it was That was great. The other
Speaker 1: ride that was really fun was the train, the seven
Speaker 1: Dwarfs train, because again it was like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad,
Speaker 1: except brand new. So the train is signed, but they
Speaker 1: add like the effect of the train sound. It is
Speaker 1: so silent. You're on this amazing track. The technology they
Speaker 1: have now for rides is just so so way ahead
Speaker 1: of what we had twenty years ago, you know, So
Speaker 1: it's just it was amazing. I loved it. My lunch
Speaker 1: was not very good. I got like something weird that
Speaker 1: was not That was the low point of it. I
Speaker 1: did get good popcorn they have. They had really strange
Speaker 1: popcorn flavors. I got caramel because I'm of course boring.
Speaker 1: But they had crayfish, which is like I remember Louisiana crawfish.
Speaker 1: It's like probably like a crayole thing.
Speaker 3: Oh okay.
Speaker 1: And then they had strawberry popcorn, which was we didn't try.
Speaker 1: We're so boring.
Speaker 3: We both want just like plain popcorn, and they're like, yeah.
Speaker 1: They wouldn't sell us plain popcorn. They don't sell plain
Speaker 1: popcorn there. As far as I could tell, it was
Speaker 1: only flavored. Anyway, Disneyland was great. Thank you Disney Shanghai
Speaker 1: for hosting us. Shout out to Vincent, who, by the way,
Speaker 1: was awesome. A lot of the people there do speak English,
Speaker 1: like a lot of the help but not well, actually
Speaker 1: that's not true. A lot of them didn't, but a
Speaker 1: lot of them they knew.
Speaker 3: Like the main words, like if you said, you.
Speaker 1: Know, restaurant. But Vincent totally spoke English. And I asked him,
Speaker 1: I said, dude, how do you speak such good English?
Speaker 1: And he said I did my residency or whatever in
Speaker 1: Anaheim like he basically worked in Anaheim, and I was like,
Speaker 1: you're amazing, Like he was so nice, he was on point.
Speaker 2: So he was like a lot of people in China, well,
Speaker 2: a lot of people do speak English, they just don't
Speaker 2: have the opportunity to use it, which is the same
Speaker 2: as like I learned Spanish in high school and I
Speaker 2: hate speaking it because I get uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: That's what he said.
Speaker 3: He said the same thing.
Speaker 1: They don't want to speak English because they don't want
Speaker 1: to mess up.
Speaker 3: You know, embarrassed and you know. So, I mean, that's
Speaker 3: interesting to know. I'm sure maybe our drivers like knew
Speaker 3: what we were talking about.
Speaker 1: I hope not because we were making fun of them,
Speaker 1: just kidding, d D. All Right, this has been a
Speaker 1: lot of fun. We are headed back to the States.
Speaker 1: So thank you China. This was great. I mean, we
Speaker 1: talked about the good, we talked about the bad, we
Speaker 1: answered some question I thought. Overall, the rich On Tech
Speaker 1: Special Edition China Podcast was awesome. Yeah, and thanks to
Speaker 1: you for listening to the show. It continues to grow,
Speaker 1: by the way, So you guys obviously like what we're doing,
Speaker 1: so we're going to keep the format the way it is.
Speaker 1: I think Megan is going to stay as part of
Speaker 1: the show. Is that cool with you? So you like
Speaker 1: the questions keeping coming? If you have a question, send
Speaker 1: it to me. You can go to my website rich
Speaker 1: on tech dot tv, or you can send it to
Speaker 1: Hello at rich on tech dot tv. Just put in
Speaker 1: your subject either way podcast question and we'll do our
Speaker 1: best to answer it. And thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1: If you haven't subscribed already, do so. Just search rich
Speaker 1: on tech in your favorite podcast app. That could be
Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, that could be pocket casts. Overcast is also
Speaker 1: a really good one. My book is called one hundred
Speaker 1: and one Handy Tech Tips for the iPhone. It's on
Speaker 1: Amazon and paperback. It's for iOS twelve, iOS thirteen. Yes
Speaker 1: is coming out, so Megan knows. I've been struggling with
Speaker 1: the fact that I will probably be writing rewriting my
Speaker 1: book very soon. So that's the last you'll ever see
Speaker 1: of me. Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter.
Speaker 1: It's at richon tech dot tv. Producer Megan. I always
Speaker 1: ask did you enjoy the show?
Speaker 3: Yes, I enjoyed the show.
Speaker 1: Do you enjoy China?
Speaker 3: I really liked China.
Speaker 1: Are you ready for the twelve hour flight back.
Speaker 3: Yes, I think so. I'm just going to sleep and watch.
Speaker 1: TV and movies and have those little tiny drinks you
Speaker 1: always like. All Right, I'm rich tomorrow. Thanks so much
Speaker 1: for listening. Have a great day. We will talk to you.
Speaker 1: We'll soon