Speaker 1: Hands on with the latest Samsung Galaxy S twenty five
Speaker 1: lineup plus the surprise phone.
Speaker 2: They announced a major.
Speaker 1: Data breach puts tens of millions of students personal information
Speaker 1: at risk. And is it really the end of the
Speaker 1: line for Blu ray discs? Plus your tech questions answered?
Speaker 1: What's going on? I'm Rich Demiro and this is Rich
Speaker 1: on Tech. This is the show where I talk about
Speaker 1: the tech stuff I think you should know about. It's
Speaker 1: also the place where I answer your questions about technology.
Speaker 1: I believe that tech should be interesting, useful, and fun.
Speaker 1: Let's open up those phone lines at triple eight Rich
Speaker 1: one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to
Speaker 1: two four one zero one eight eight eight seven four
Speaker 1: to two four one zero one. Give me a call.
Speaker 1: If you have a question about technology. Email is also open.
Speaker 1: Just go to Rich on tech dot tv and hit contact.
Speaker 1: That's Rich on tech dot tv. Hit con tact guests.
Speaker 1: This week, we've got Nick Gray, editor in chief at
Speaker 1: the website Fandroid. He's gonna cover the key features of
Speaker 1: Samsung's S twenty five series, and later we've got radio
Speaker 1: host and accessibility consultant Paul Lane. He's gonna explore how
Speaker 1: tech can empower people with disabilities.
Speaker 2: He is a great guy.
Speaker 1: He's at all the tech events and I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to having a chat with him. Well, in my hand,
Speaker 1: if you can see it, I've got my badges from
Speaker 1: the big Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event up in San Jose, California.
Speaker 1: And I've also got the phone in my hand right here,
Speaker 1: the Galaxy S twenty five Ultra. So let me give
Speaker 1: you my impressions of this device. So three new models
Speaker 1: of Samsung's smartphones, the S twenty five, the S twenty
Speaker 1: five plus, and the S twenty five Ultra. Now the
Speaker 1: twenty five and the twenty five plus are just I
Speaker 1: think the Ultra is really always where all the most
Speaker 1: exciting upgrades are. So this has a bigger screen, yes,
Speaker 1: can you believe it? A bigger screen six point nine inches,
Speaker 1: But they managed to put that screen in a form
Speaker 1: factor that's actually easier to hold and no larger than
Speaker 1: last year's device. So that means less bezel, that little
Speaker 1: tiny border around the screen. Prices for these devices, I
Speaker 1: won't save it to the end. I'll just tell you
Speaker 1: right now. Cut to the chase. Eight hundred dollars for
Speaker 1: the S twenty five S twenty five Plus starts at
Speaker 1: one thousand, the S twenty five Ultra starts at thirteen hundred,
Speaker 1: and no price increases from last year, So I really
Speaker 1: like that and don't get scared by those prices. Almost
Speaker 1: nobody pays full retail price for Samsung device, so there
Speaker 1: are always some sort of trade in or some sort
Speaker 1: of discount. I was looking at their discounts the other
Speaker 1: day and Samsung gives discounts for just about all kinds
Speaker 1: of folks like students, military, employee discounts, and more, friends
Speaker 1: and family. So definitely check out that offer page. All right,
Speaker 1: So what do I think of these devices? First off,
Speaker 1: they made a very good choice. They have replaced the
Speaker 1: Bixby on the side button with Gemini, so Google Gemini
Speaker 1: now comes up when you press the side button like
Speaker 1: the long press of the power button, which is really
Speaker 1: great because this is going to be a lot of
Speaker 1: people's first use of AI, and they've done it in
Speaker 1: a very smart way, so Bixby is not gone. But
Speaker 1: what they do is they kind of assess what your
Speaker 1: question is to the AI assistant and they will hand
Speaker 1: it off based on what you want to do, and
Speaker 1: it can even do combination tasks. So for instance, if
Speaker 1: I say, you know, what's the Lakers score, it will
Speaker 1: just give me that score. It's going to go to Gemini,
Speaker 1: it's going to figure that out. If I say restart
Speaker 1: my phone, it's going to hand it off to Bixby
Speaker 1: and show me the restart my phone menu on the screen.
Speaker 1: So where it gets really cool is where you do
Speaker 1: combination stuff. So you can say, tell me when the
Speaker 1: Chiefs are playing next, and it to my calendar and
Speaker 1: it will go pull Gemini for that information then add
Speaker 1: it to your calendar. So that's kind of a new
Speaker 1: thing where they've integrated all of the Samsung apps or
Speaker 1: a lot of them to make that functionality possible. So
Speaker 1: that's really neat, and some of the Google apps as well,
Speaker 1: like Google Calendar and things like that. Two other new
Speaker 1: AI features the now Brief. This is a tiny widget
Speaker 1: that sits on your home screen or at the bottom
Speaker 1: of your phone, and it gives you like a personalized
Speaker 1: update for your day. So it'll give your weather, your
Speaker 1: calendar events, if it's someone's birthday, it'll tell you that,
Speaker 1: give you little videos to watch, all kinds of stuff
Speaker 1: that's AI infused.
Speaker 2: Then you've got the now bar.
Speaker 1: This is on the lock screen, and this is kind
Speaker 1: of like Apple's Live activities, So if you're catching an uber,
Speaker 1: or you're watching a sports game, or you're navigating somewhere,
Speaker 1: it will put that information on the lock screen and
Speaker 1: a little now bar at the bottom. I think it's
Speaker 1: actually too small. I think they need to make it bigger.
Speaker 1: But you know, again, this is day one of all
Speaker 1: this stuff. So the ultra camera, so the camera are
Speaker 1: not dramatically improved on these devices. So if you're looking
Speaker 1: for like completely different camera functionality, you're not really gonna
Speaker 1: get it. What they did was they improved one of
Speaker 1: the lenses, the ultra wide angle lens. They did bring
Speaker 1: that up to fifty megapixels, up from twelve megapixels. So
Speaker 1: all of your wide angle stuff is going to look
Speaker 1: a lot better, a lot brighter. Night video has been
Speaker 1: dramatically improved thanks to AI. So they're running this through
Speaker 1: some sort of algorithms. The video I took of a
Speaker 1: DJ at a party they threw was just incredible, Like
Speaker 1: it just was so it pops because it's so crystal
Speaker 1: clear and bright. Macro shots are going to give you
Speaker 1: four times more detail. They've also got this audio eraser feature,
Speaker 1: which means you can get rid of background noise in
Speaker 1: your videos. So if you have a nice video of
Speaker 1: your kid taking its first steps with the dog is
Speaker 1: barking in the back, you can try to get some
Speaker 1: of that out of there. Now for content creators, they've
Speaker 1: got log video support. For most users, this will not
Speaker 1: matter because you're not color grading your video, but if
Speaker 1: you are using your phone for professional reasons, this is
Speaker 1: a really nice addition. Seven years of updates on these
Speaker 1: devices that is incredible. So if you buy this phone today,
Speaker 1: it will get seven years of updates, both operating system
Speaker 1: and security updates. They're also giving you six months of
Speaker 1: Google Gemini Advanced included two terabytes of storage included.
Speaker 2: I think that's just for the six months, not forever.
Speaker 1: And overall, I am really impressed with this device, all
Speaker 1: of these devices, but specifically the Ultra, and I'll tell
Speaker 1: you why they nailed it. They finally got this phone
Speaker 1: to a place where it is easy to hold. Everything works,
Speaker 1: the cameras are excellent, and it is just an overall
Speaker 1: all around excellent package which I have no problems recommending
Speaker 1: to anyone. Easier to hold, they are noticeably lighter. They
Speaker 1: all have more gigabytes of RAM, so they all start
Speaker 1: at twelve gigabytes of RAM. Now the Ultra didlast year
Speaker 1: and this year it's the same. I would have loved
Speaker 1: to see sixteen on the Ultra, but you know, we'll
Speaker 1: take what we can get. And they all have two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty six gigabytes of storage for starters, except
Speaker 1: for that S twenty five base model. So overall, you know,
Speaker 1: throwing out a lot of numbers at you, but these
Speaker 1: are just really solid devices. Like Samsung went back to
Speaker 1: the drawing board. They did their homework. They figured out
Speaker 1: what people want, what people can use on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: and these phones are just smart. Oh I didn't even mention.
Speaker 1: You know, they make a big deal out of this
Speaker 1: Circle to Search, and if you've used it, it is
Speaker 1: my absolute I think this is the differentiating factor right
Speaker 1: now between iPhone and Android. Circle to Search means that
Speaker 1: anything on your screen is tappable and searchable, and they
Speaker 1: took it a step further. So if you do Circle
Speaker 1: to search on your screen, bring that up. Anything that's
Speaker 1: a link of phone number or an email, you can
Speaker 1: just tap it to go there. See no how on Instagram.
Speaker 1: People put links on Instagram in the captions, you can't
Speaker 1: click them. Long press your home screen. Boom, you can
Speaker 1: click that in one second. It's little tiny things like
Speaker 1: that that make this a smart phone. Wi Fi seven
Speaker 1: also on these devices, which is faster and more reliable,
Speaker 1: but most routers at home don't have that yet, so
Speaker 1: this will be good for the future. The batteries are
Speaker 1: made of fifty percent recycled material from old Samsung Galaxy batteries.
Speaker 1: Now the downsides. The Spen did lose bluetooth, which means
Speaker 1: it can no longer be used as a remote control
Speaker 1: for the camera. If you leave it behind, you're not
Speaker 1: going to get an alert on your phone. The back
Speaker 1: material on this phone is a fingerprint magnet, so most
Speaker 1: people are going to use a case. Not a big deal,
Speaker 1: but this thing is just a fingerprint magnet. You can
Speaker 1: train people on an episode of CSI on this phone.
Speaker 1: That's how bad the fingerprints are. They did not put
Speaker 1: mag safe support into the phone, so if you're familiar
Speaker 1: with mag Safe on the iPhone, it's got those magnets
Speaker 1: around the back so you can attach accessories wirelessly. So
Speaker 1: they did it kind of weird here, They did build
Speaker 1: in the latest CH two wireless charging support, but you
Speaker 1: got to put a case on to get the magnets.
Speaker 1: Not a big deal. Again, most people are going to
Speaker 1: have a case. And if you're wondering about getting this phone,
Speaker 1: switching from another phone, even the iPhone, what are you
Speaker 1: going to miss out on? Realistically, nothing except Apple's ecosystem
Speaker 1: and of course the occasional family member or friend who's
Speaker 1: going to give you trouble for having a green bubble
Speaker 1: or having, you know, not an iPhone. But you know what,
Speaker 1: too bad those people. Yeah, FaceTime of course, but you
Speaker 1: know what, there's so many ways to make a video call.
Speaker 1: But I get it. Apple has really built this nice,
Speaker 1: this infrastructure in this ecosystem that people just love and
Speaker 1: they love to be on. And I understand that airdrop
Speaker 1: all those kind of things, but I'm telling you this
Speaker 1: is the year. If you're on the fence about upgrading,
Speaker 1: this is the year to do it. I really think
Speaker 1: that they did an amazing job on this phone. I've
Speaker 1: been taking pictures and videos. You can see them on
Speaker 1: my website, rich on tech dot TV. They are all
Speaker 1: looking really, really good. Do I think it's a clipsing?
Speaker 1: What the iPhone does no, But I think that you're
Speaker 1: in a place where where the pictures and the videos
Speaker 1: you take on this device are going to be excellent
Speaker 1: a large majority of the time. Now, I will tell
Speaker 1: you my iPhone's been collecting dust for the past four days.
Speaker 1: Since I got this thing. I've just I've not even
Speaker 1: given it a second thought because I'm sitting here using it,
Speaker 1: and I love it. I love all these little features
Speaker 1: on this phone that make it feel so smart and
Speaker 1: so futuristic. It's really fun, and they're doing AI in
Speaker 1: such a smart way. Also, when I get a Samsung phone,
Speaker 1: especially the new ones, I'm always waiting for some sort
Speaker 1: of first software update to kind of smooth things over,
Speaker 1: to make this better. And I'm not even thinking about
Speaker 1: that right now because everything is just so good out
Speaker 1: of the gate. So if I feel like I'm really
Speaker 1: bullish on this, I am. I really like this phone.
Speaker 1: I think that Samsung did a great job. I think
Speaker 1: they listen to people. And the icing on the cake
Speaker 1: when you scroll through your apps, they are now scrolling
Speaker 1: vertically like every other proper Android phone out there.
Speaker 2: You no longer have to swipe left and right for
Speaker 2: your apps.
Speaker 1: I love it. Thank you Samsung, all right eight eight
Speaker 1: eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four
Speaker 1: to two four one zero one. If you want to
Speaker 1: read all of my thoughts on the Samsung, go to
Speaker 1: the website rich on Tech dot tv. Can also see
Speaker 1: the pictures and videos I've been taking. Coming up, we're
Speaker 1: gonna take some of your calls at eight eight eight
Speaker 1: rich one oh one. This is rich on Tech. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out
Speaker 1: with you, talking technology at eight eight eight rich one
Speaker 1: O one eight eight eight seven four to two four
Speaker 1: one zero one. The website for the show rich on
Speaker 1: Tech dot TV. Let's go to Freddy in Yonkers, New York. Freddie,
Speaker 1: you're on with Rich.
Speaker 3: Rich for for sure. I have enjoyed you's show. Thank
Speaker 3: you and add to questions question number one. If you
Speaker 3: know of a program that rips music from a CD
Speaker 3: and copy into a full.
Speaker 2: Room okay on a Mac or a PC PC okay? Yes?
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: The the top program for this is a program called
Speaker 1: Exact Audio Copy. Exactly exact Audio copy, and that will
Speaker 1: rip your CDs obviously for personal use, and that will
Speaker 1: it is completely free, so that is the way to go.
Speaker 3: Okay, to question number two. Program there I could record,
Speaker 3: well record.
Speaker 4: I mean.
Speaker 3: Record from from from from the ambuss a program before
Speaker 3: there I'm watching, I could record the from.
Speaker 1: Okay, record from an Amazon Stick. So that is tricky
Speaker 1: because everything on the Amazon Stick is on demand, so
Speaker 1: there is not an easy way to record that. There
Speaker 1: may be some workarounds or maybe some devices you can
Speaker 1: get that might record the screen. I can't vouch for those.
Speaker 1: I don't know of those, but the the short answer
Speaker 1: is no. Most of the stuff that's on Amazon is
Speaker 1: on demand. So yes, are there ways that you can
Speaker 1: hack the system and record?
Speaker 2: Probably?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 2: Am I going to go over that right now?
Speaker 1: No, So if you want to record programming, I would
Speaker 1: say the only thing I can think of there is one.
Speaker 1: I don't even know if I can recommend this on the
Speaker 1: radio because it's it may be operating in the gray area.
Speaker 1: So if you want to record like regular shows, I
Speaker 1: would say you have to sign up with something like
Speaker 1: a YouTube TV or.
Speaker 2: Fubo TV.
Speaker 1: But if you want to get over the air programming,
Speaker 1: you can get a device like a Tableau, tab t,
Speaker 1: a b l O and that will record. You connect
Speaker 1: an antenna to it, you can record over the air
Speaker 1: stuff and you can watch that on the TV. So
Speaker 1: thanks for the call, Freddy and Yonkers appreciate it. Eight
Speaker 1: eight eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven
Speaker 1: four two four one zero one. Let's see if we
Speaker 1: can get one more in here. Let's go to Drew
Speaker 1: in Sherman Oaks. Drew, you're on with Rich.
Speaker 6: Hey, Rich, I have a couple of Apple questions.
Speaker 2: Okay, we can tell them one question, so we I okay,
Speaker 2: time for one.
Speaker 6: All right, I have an older iPad and it's always saying,
Speaker 6: you know, my memory is full, and so when I
Speaker 6: go and look and try and clear out stuff, it's
Speaker 6: always photos that are the the bulk of it. Okay,
Speaker 6: if I clean out, if I clean out photos and
Speaker 6: videos on the iPad, if I delete them, are they
Speaker 6: being deleted on my Mac and phone and all.
Speaker 2: My other Yes they are. So yeah.
Speaker 1: That is that is a that is a functionality of
Speaker 1: iCloud and pretty brilliant actually, so Apple makes it really
Speaker 1: tricky to do that, but they do have a setting
Speaker 1: that you can that you can change on your iPad. Okay,
Speaker 1: and it's caud Let's see, it's called optimize iCloud storage.
Speaker 1: And this is under h hold on, I gotta find it.
Speaker 1: Let's see iPhone. So under the I in the iPhone,
Speaker 1: there is a setting that will optimize the storage automatically,
Speaker 1: so you have to turn it on and you go
Speaker 1: into iCloud and you'll see it says optimized cloud storage,
Speaker 1: optimized iPhone storage, optimized iPad storage. And what that's doing
Speaker 1: is it's actually in the background, going to delete the
Speaker 1: full resolution photos from your and videos from your iPad,
Speaker 1: but it's still going to allow you to view those
Speaker 1: and they will still be stored in the cloud. So
Speaker 1: the the caveat here is that you have to have
Speaker 1: enough storage in the cloud for those photos. So if
Speaker 1: you don't, you're gonna it's not gonna work.
Speaker 6: So you change the setting on the iPad.
Speaker 1: Or so you have to go into the iPad where
Speaker 1: you yeah, where you want to go, where you want
Speaker 1: the storage reclaimed. You can do this on your iPad
Speaker 1: and your iPhone. So I'm going to try to find
Speaker 1: it right now. If we go into your iCloud account
Speaker 1: and we I got to find where it is. My gosh,
Speaker 1: they changed everything here. Usually it's settings, your name, iCloud,
Speaker 1: and then photos. Okay, so there's photos and there it
Speaker 1: is where it says manage storage and you can tap
Speaker 1: that and it will say, oh wow, they changed everything
Speaker 1: in iOS.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But the but the solution is called optimized iPhone Storage.
Speaker 1: That's what you're searching. You can search for that on
Speaker 1: your on your device under the settings, but optimize iCloud
Speaker 1: or iPhone storage or iPad storage. But that's the way
Speaker 1: to do it, to keep it there. It's very confusing
Speaker 1: with iCloud because anything you do on your iPhone is
Speaker 1: reflected in eCloud unless you have that setting on. And
Speaker 1: even when you have that setting on, if you delete
Speaker 1: a picture or a video on your iPhone, it's still
Speaker 1: going to delete out of the iCloud. So you want
Speaker 1: to let that do its magic. Where again it's just
Speaker 1: showing your thumbnails on your phone, but the high resolution
Speaker 1: photo is still stored in the cloud. If you tap
Speaker 1: that photo or you want to share it, then it
Speaker 1: will go from the cloud. It will grab that full
Speaker 1: resolution photo and kind of put it back on your
Speaker 1: device for sharing all that stuff.
Speaker 2: Good question.
Speaker 1: Drew eight eight eight rich one O one eight eight
Speaker 1: eight seven four to two four one zero one.
Speaker 2: Coming up.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you about a website that can help you
Speaker 1: delete your old accounts. Rick, Welcome back to rich On Tech.
Speaker 1: Rich to Miro here hanging out with you, talking technology
Speaker 1: at triple eight Rich one O one. That's eight eight
Speaker 1: eight seven four to two four one zero one. If
Speaker 1: you have a question or a comment, or you want
Speaker 1: to see something that I mentioned on the show, just
Speaker 1: go to the website rich on Tech dot tv. You
Speaker 1: can hit the light bulb icon that will bring you
Speaker 1: to all of the shows. This is episode one hundred
Speaker 1: and six, so you can get show notes for that
Speaker 1: as well. You might want to look this up because
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you about a great website I discovered
Speaker 1: called delete deesk dot org. Deletedesk dot org. This is
Speaker 1: a free database with over ten thousand records showing you
Speaker 1: how to delete your online accounts. It's got step by
Speaker 1: step account deletion instructions, direct links, and contact information, and
Speaker 1: it's got all the different categories technologies, shopping, social media
Speaker 1: or more. Or you can just search for the website
Speaker 1: that you want to delete. So this is all in
Speaker 1: an effort to kind of clean up your online identity. Right,
Speaker 1: it's a new year, maybe you want to kind of
Speaker 1: get rid of some of the old accounts that you
Speaker 1: opened up and you no longer use, or maybe you're
Speaker 1: sick of social media you want to get rid of those.
Speaker 1: But again, the website deletedesk dot org. And this is
Speaker 1: really good. My old ones, my old recommendations for this
Speaker 1: were getting kind of what's that term long in the
Speaker 1: tooth or something like that. It's not even a term
Speaker 1: long in the tooth. That's a weird thing to say.
Speaker 1: All the stuff we say is so weird, right, like
Speaker 1: all the old sayings. There's a book I had ones.
Speaker 1: There's a book I had once. It's called like why
Speaker 1: do we say the things we do? And they're all
Speaker 1: rooted in something. But anyway, deletedesk dot org is the
Speaker 1: website to go to.
Speaker 2: Let's go to.
Speaker 1: Bill in Santa Monica. Bill, you're on with Rich. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the show.
Speaker 7: Hi, I have a question. I was in evacuee due
Speaker 7: to the Palisades fire. I'm actually based in Santa Monica,
Speaker 7: but we had very serious smoke problems in my general
Speaker 7: area and specifically in my apartment building. Cell I was
Speaker 7: in evacuee for eleven days. Oh wow, what the Red
Speaker 7: Cross did? Because many of us had either misplaced or
Speaker 7: damaged cell phones. They brought in a brand that I
Speaker 7: have never seen. It's not a garden variety brand. It's
Speaker 7: the TCL thirty XE five gv are unlocked phones. Presently
Speaker 7: it's on the T Mobile network. But what I'm wondering
Speaker 7: about right now is this simply a burner or is
Speaker 7: it a possible keeper. Because we're able to hold on
Speaker 7: to the phones, we don't have to return them to
Speaker 7: the Red Cross cell phone service on T Mobile is
Speaker 7: free through the end of March. So I'm not quite
Speaker 7: sure if I'm really going to have to go out
Speaker 7: and get a brand new phone or I should hold
Speaker 7: on to this.
Speaker 2: What'd you have before?
Speaker 6: Bell?
Speaker 7: I had Samson?
Speaker 2: Okay, and how's this phone working for you?
Speaker 7: It's a little problematic, and I looked up the reviews
Speaker 7: and the reviews don't really instill confidence in me. But
Speaker 7: I am really on the fence about this, and I'm
Speaker 7: still dealing with smoke issues in my Arkansas. I'm not
Speaker 7: running out to get a brand new phone right now.
Speaker 7: I'm using this pretty much by default.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, first off, by the way, sorry to hear about
Speaker 1: what you're going through. I know it's rough and it's
Speaker 1: a conversation that so many people are having, and I
Speaker 1: know a lot of people are going through so much
Speaker 1: with these fires. So I am thinking of the folks
Speaker 1: that this is happening to, including yourself, and I understand
Speaker 1: it's not an easy time. My advice on the phone
Speaker 1: bill is that if it's working for you, keep it.
Speaker 1: You've got free service through the end of March. Why
Speaker 1: not take advantage of that. Why have one more thing
Speaker 1: to stress about during this trying time. This phone is basic.
Speaker 1: You're correct in that assessment. Is TCL is a large
Speaker 1: maker of TVs. They make smartphones as well, mostly kind
Speaker 1: of budget smartphones, the type that you're getting, you know,
Speaker 1: where it's maybe given out for free or free of
Speaker 1: the contract or through a government program sometimes. But they
Speaker 1: also sell these things and I've reviewed some of them
Speaker 1: and they're fine.
Speaker 2: This phone is.
Speaker 1: It actually has an SD card, which is very rare
Speaker 1: these days. It's got a decent battery, you know, the
Speaker 1: chip on it, the media tech chip is just okay,
Speaker 1: it's going to be fine. It's got a ninety megahertz
Speaker 1: a ninety hertz refresh rate. It's got a decent screen.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I think that this is going to be just fine.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know how this compares to your
Speaker 1: old phone, if you had a nice new Samsung or.
Speaker 7: An older one.
Speaker 1: Okay, So my advice to you is that if the
Speaker 1: phone is working and it's doing the things you need
Speaker 1: it to do, then just stick with it as long
Speaker 1: as humanly possible.
Speaker 2: That's that's my advice. This is not a bad phone.
Speaker 1: It's just not the most high powered phone out there.
Speaker 1: It's also been around for a couple of years. It
Speaker 1: looks like it launched about two years ago. So my
Speaker 1: advice to you on this phone bill is to get
Speaker 1: do all the software updates that you can on this device,
Speaker 1: and then go through the apps and get rid of
Speaker 1: any app that you do not need on this device,
Speaker 1: because anything that's running that's extra is just going to
Speaker 1: bog this thing down. So go through all of the
Speaker 1: apps and uninstall anything that it allows you to uninstall.
Speaker 1: It may have some bloat wear on there, but I
Speaker 1: would just get rid of anything you can that you
Speaker 1: don't need, and then I would restart the phone and
Speaker 1: that's it. I mean, you've got T Mobile for free
Speaker 1: for a couple of months. You've got the phone for free.
Speaker 1: You know, you've suffered a you know, pretty big loss
Speaker 1: and not having access to your apartment, you said, for
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks. So again, stop stressing about the phone.
Speaker 1: Let this thing do it's thing. You focus on getting
Speaker 1: a life back in order. So that's my advice, Bill,
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for the call today. In Santa Monica
Speaker 1: eight eight eight Rich one oh one eight eight eight
Speaker 1: seven four to two four one zero one at the
Speaker 1: Samsung event again, you know, I was at the CS
Speaker 1: everyone was talking about the fires Samsung. Every single conversation
Speaker 1: started with hey, rich how are you doing, How are
Speaker 1: people in La doing? How is La going to rebuild
Speaker 1: from these fires? I mean, it really is just top
Speaker 1: of my mind for so many people right now. And
Speaker 1: it's just so many people in the world are thinking
Speaker 1: about this because it's a situation that, yes, we've seen
Speaker 1: devastation in places across America right now. I know people
Speaker 1: in North Carolina are still dealing with it Florida, and
Speaker 1: it just goes on on New Orleans before that. I mean,
Speaker 1: remember watching the devastation from Katrina. I mean, this stuff
Speaker 1: takes years and years to recover from. So yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just a lot of people thinking about it. On another note,
Speaker 1: I will tell you, I don't know if you saw
Speaker 1: this movie advertised, but this is kind of a side
Speaker 1: note for a personal but you got to watch the
Speaker 1: movie called Wild Robot. I don't know if you saw
Speaker 1: it advertised on the billboards. Maybe your kids read the
Speaker 1: book in school, but we sat down. It just became
Speaker 1: available on Peacock Streaming included if you have Peacock, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, Peacock is like the Sleeper streaming service.
Speaker 2: I'm not kidding.
Speaker 1: The blockbusters on that service are so good because guess
Speaker 1: who owns Peacock Universal. So a lot of the Universal
Speaker 1: movies go to Peacock, and it's like this service that
Speaker 1: you never hear about, but yet they get some really
Speaker 1: good movies on there and they're all included. Typically, most
Speaker 1: people with Peacock probably have the ads supported, which I do,
Speaker 1: and it's fine. You watch I don't even think we
Speaker 1: watched any ads with this one, but a lot of them.
Speaker 1: You might watch like a minute thirty of ads at
Speaker 1: the beginning, and then there might be one ad through
Speaker 1: it or something.
Speaker 2: But it's fine.
Speaker 1: And I know I've got so used to Netflix having
Speaker 1: no ads, but I kind of like the ads in
Speaker 1: the movies because it gives me a break. I can
Speaker 1: get up, I can go grab something from the kitchen,
Speaker 1: you can use the bathroom. It's like the old days.
Speaker 1: I'm watching TV. You get these natural breaks. So they're
Speaker 1: not all that bad with these streaming services. And right
Speaker 1: now they don't have too many ads in them, but
Speaker 1: in the future, of course they'll have more. But wild robot.
Speaker 1: My kid read this book. I saw the cover did
Speaker 1: not appeal to me. I saw all the ads around town.
Speaker 1: Did not appeal to me in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 1: We started watching this movie and I'm not kidding. About
Speaker 1: halfway through, there's not a dry eye in the room
Speaker 1: in this movie. How they made a tear jerker of
Speaker 1: a movie with a robot, I don't know, but somehow
Speaker 1: they did. This movie is phenomenal. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's nominated for any awards or anything like that. It
Speaker 1: should be because it's you know, I'll be honest. When
Speaker 1: it's movie night with the kids, most of the time,
Speaker 1: the adults are kind of left like, eugh, do we
Speaker 1: really have to watch this movie? Because it's rare that
Speaker 1: a movie appeals to both kids and adults in the
Speaker 1: same way. Now this movie and I get it, like
Speaker 1: stuff like you know, the superhero movies and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: There's a lot going on, Like they don't stop from
Speaker 1: the second you turn it on till the second you
Speaker 1: turn it off. There's just so much going on that, yeah,
Speaker 1: gets your attention. There's all these things. This did not
Speaker 1: use any of those tricks. This was like actually a
Speaker 1: great story. And so I'm telling you fired up tonight
Speaker 1: tomorrow night with your kids, without the kids, adults, kids, whatever.
Speaker 1: This is a fantastic movie. Wild Robot. Speaking of Netflix
Speaker 1: price hike on Netflix, once again, we need like a
Speaker 1: stinger for any every time Netflix raises prices because prices
Speaker 1: are going up. AD free plan is now well, let
Speaker 1: me start at the beginning, the standard plan without okay,
Speaker 1: let's start with the AD plan. The AD supported plan
Speaker 1: goes to seven ninety nine a month, up from six
Speaker 1: to ninety nine. The standard plan without ADS is now
Speaker 1: seventeen ninety nine a month, up from fifteen to forty nine.
Speaker 1: So that's going up two dollars and fifty cents. And
Speaker 1: then the Premium plan now goes up two dollars a month,
Speaker 1: so it's at twenty five dollars.
Speaker 2: So you're talking.
Speaker 1: Netflix is now eight dollars minimum or eighteen dollars or
Speaker 1: twenty five dollars. And by the way, if you have
Speaker 1: an extra member on your plan, it's now up to nine.
Speaker 2: Dollars a month, up from eight dollars.
Speaker 8: I'm done.
Speaker 2: Netflix says, you got invest in programming, You're done, Bobo done.
Speaker 8: Twenty five dollars a month is too much. It's crazy,
Speaker 8: and you're only getting HD movies like, I'm good.
Speaker 2: No, well, twenty five dollars you do get four K. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 8: AHD four K, same difference.
Speaker 2: But I'm just it didn't look like I mean, it's not. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm telling you twenty.
Speaker 8: Five dollars a month. Yeah, that's another cable bill.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's is. So I was thinking about this.
Speaker 1: Back in the day, HBO was probably about a twenty
Speaker 1: dollars add on for your cable bill. This is twenty
Speaker 1: five and so I get it. It's not unheard of,
Speaker 1: but there's I think at this point the the Netflix
Speaker 1: subscribers are kind of gonna think twice about reding start
Speaker 1: immediately in your next billing cycle. So, and by the way,
Speaker 1: you know, they just added the most new subscribers every million,
Speaker 1: nineteen million new subscribers last quarter. I mean this, this
Speaker 1: is a company that's making money handover fist and they
Speaker 1: couldn't even get that fight right. They did get the
Speaker 1: football game stream properly. I'll give them that, but anyway,
Speaker 1: I mean, Netflix also doesn't have the best stuff.
Speaker 2: I just ranted and raved about Peacock.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you the last time I watched a
Speaker 1: movie on Netflix where I'm like, you gotta see it.
Speaker 1: This is rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech.
Speaker 1: Rich Demiro here hanging out with you, talking technology at
Speaker 1: Triple eight Rich one O one eight eight eight seven
Speaker 1: four two four one zero one. The website rich on
Speaker 1: tech dot tv. I know I mentioned a couple of
Speaker 1: links like that delete desk website to help you delete
Speaker 1: your old accounts online. Uh, the link is up rich
Speaker 1: on Tech dot tv. Hit the light bulb icon to
Speaker 1: see episode one oh six. You can also write me
Speaker 1: there just hit contact. Rick did just that, He says,
Speaker 1: your vast knowledge continues to impress. This is the year
Speaker 1: to upgrade my Samsung's cell phone. I'm using an S
Speaker 1: twenty one. In the past I've always bought my phone
Speaker 1: directly from AT and T, either in full or over time.
Speaker 1: If I want the new Ultra that works on all
Speaker 1: carriers and can pay cash, what's the best way to
Speaker 1: buy it and sell my old phone?
Speaker 2: Rick great idea.
Speaker 1: I think the best way to purchase this is through
Speaker 1: Samsung themselves. I would go to Samsung's website, so Samsung
Speaker 1: dot com. They right now before the phones are available, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, I forgot to tell you, February seventh
Speaker 1: is when they're available. They have the best deals, and
Speaker 1: I'm telling you usually the deal that they have between
Speaker 1: now and February seventh they never have again. So they
Speaker 1: will give you top dollar for your old phone, they
Speaker 1: will take it back, and they will give you the
Speaker 1: new phone, which is unlocked.
Speaker 2: You can buy it unlocked. You can get all the
Speaker 2: different colors.
Speaker 1: They've got all the premium you know, online exclusive colors
Speaker 1: from the website, And I would go through that way
Speaker 1: for you. The AT and T thing is fine, and
Speaker 1: I usually I guess my advice to anyone would be
Speaker 1: to check your carrier deal against what Samsung offers directly.
Speaker 1: Your carrier is always going to be a lot easier
Speaker 1: because you can bring your old phone in. I think
Speaker 1: they take those trade ins right there at the store
Speaker 1: sometimes or you just have to send it in. And
Speaker 1: also you're going to just walk out with your new phone,
Speaker 1: and so the transaction is very simple. With the Samsung website,
Speaker 1: the transaction is going to be just a little bit
Speaker 1: different because you do have to activate your phone after
Speaker 1: you get it. You got to send back your old
Speaker 1: phone in the mail. So it's just a little bit
Speaker 1: more complicated. But I think it's worth it for the
Speaker 1: savings if you compare it against what your carrier is
Speaker 1: going to do. Rick, good question, Thanks for the call.
Speaker 1: Eight eight eight rich one oh one eight eight eight
Speaker 1: seven four to two four.
Speaker 2: One zero one.
Speaker 1: Big data breach, Big data breach. Sixty four million students,
Speaker 1: nine point five million teachers across sixty five hundred school
Speaker 1: districts in the US, Canada and beyond. This is a company,
Speaker 1: a tech company called power School that has very very
Speaker 1: popular and this is an example of they collect a
Speaker 1: lot of information about the students social security numbers, medical data, grades,
Speaker 1: and other personal details. And guess what hackers got in
Speaker 1: and got this information. Sixty four sixty two million students,
Speaker 1: nine point five million teachers. Yes, this is really bad.
Speaker 1: Now the company says that only twenty five percent of
Speaker 1: the students have their social Security numbers compromise. Oh, that
Speaker 1: makes me feel better. So now we're talking. Because of
Speaker 1: the world we live in. You've got kids under eighteen.
Speaker 1: They're starting their lives with their Social Security number already
Speaker 1: out there on the dark web, already under eighteen. This
Speaker 1: is something that in my lifetime took a couple of
Speaker 1: years in my adult age for my social to be hacked,
Speaker 1: and yours is probably hacked as well. We've seen many
Speaker 1: instances where socials were hacked and they're out there. So
Speaker 1: they're given affected individuals two years of identity protection. You
Speaker 1: know what the amount of identity protection letters I have
Speaker 1: at my house from all these different companies that I've
Speaker 1: been hacked from, I just put them in a pileo.
Speaker 1: It's like I have so many of them and it's like,
Speaker 1: what is it really going to do? So they're given
Speaker 1: that out Power Schools coordinating the notifications to families. The
Speaker 1: timing is unclearer, But how did the hackers get in?
Speaker 1: Stolen credentials? So hackers were able to access Power schools.
Speaker 1: Power Source customer support portal, and then through here they
Speaker 1: exploited a customer support maintenance tool to download the sensitive
Speaker 1: data from all of the district's databases. So again, these
Speaker 1: schools use this power school to manage their students and
Speaker 1: grades and sending information to parents. And all that information
Speaker 1: was in databases both at the schools and I guess
Speaker 1: in a central database as well, And so that's how
Speaker 1: they got access to this through a hack. And I
Speaker 1: guess the hack has been fixed. I guess the whole
Speaker 1: has been fixed, but it's it's too late. I mean,
Speaker 1: all this information's out there.
Speaker 2: What a bummer. All right, let's go to Sue in Duarte. Sue,
Speaker 2: you're on with Rich.
Speaker 9: Hi, Rich, I have a question. I was hacked by
Speaker 9: email from Yahoo on my iPhone and was packed and
Speaker 9: I did all of the things that was recommended to do,
Speaker 9: like change the.
Speaker 10: Passwords and that, and I have not.
Speaker 9: Been able to receive emails since that time.
Speaker 10: Even if I did it.
Speaker 9: I'm not really techy. I got my son to help
Speaker 9: me out.
Speaker 10: And he says, I can't figure that.
Speaker 9: If out, mom, it should be working, but it doesn't.
Speaker 9: So my question is is there a place that I
Speaker 9: can go where someone can actually help me correct this,
Speaker 9: like maybe the Apple store.
Speaker 1: Or Apple Store won't help you unless it's an Apple problem.
Speaker 1: Have you deleted the account off of your phone is
Speaker 1: an iPhone?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Have you? Okay? Two things.
Speaker 1: Have you tried using the Yahoo mail app to access
Speaker 1: your email or gone online?
Speaker 9: Yes?
Speaker 2: You can't and you can't log in?
Speaker 10: Can log in?
Speaker 2: Do you have?
Speaker 1: Do you have access to your account at all? Have
Speaker 1: you been like you are you back on this account
Speaker 1: in any way, shape or form?
Speaker 9: If I went, yes, I can access and see like
Speaker 9: I went and I deleted a lot of the emails
Speaker 9: from here before, and I have only whatever is left.
Speaker 9: I have access to that.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you do have access, okay, but it sounds
Speaker 1: like it's not sinking new emails.
Speaker 2: So what I would do is number one.
Speaker 1: I would go to the Yahoo website help dot Yahoo
Speaker 1: dot com, type in hacked, and I would make sure
Speaker 1: that you can access your email. So as long as
Speaker 1: you can log in, so go to just first off,
Speaker 1: go to your Yahoo email on the web, use your
Speaker 1: user name and your password. See if you can log in.
Speaker 1: That's the first thing. If you can't log in, is
Speaker 1: this it? We got to go to break Okay, try
Speaker 1: that first and then delete the email off your iPhone,
Speaker 1: log it back in see if that helps. But use
Speaker 1: the Yahoo customer service to try to see if you
Speaker 1: can get back into this account. Welcome back to rich
Speaker 1: on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking
Speaker 1: technology at Triple eight Rich one oh one eight eight
Speaker 1: eight seven four to two four to one zero one.
Speaker 1: Just wanted to tell you some more about the Samsung event.
Speaker 1: So Samsung a couple other things they announced at their event,
Speaker 1: the unpacked here. Uh we was in San Jose, California,
Speaker 1: and you know it was it was a good event.
Speaker 1: I mean there was actually a surprise at this event,
Speaker 1: which we typically don't see it tech events anymore. But
Speaker 1: they did tease a new phone. It's called the S
Speaker 1: twenty five Edge, so the Galaxy S twenty five Edge
Speaker 1: coming later this year. And this is just a super
Speaker 1: thin phone. They did not give us any details whatsoever.
Speaker 1: And you had to fight to see this thing. There
Speaker 1: are so many people around it the mack. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was a real production model or mock
Speaker 1: up whatever it was, but from what we can tell,
Speaker 1: two cameras on the back instead of three, sort of
Speaker 1: a finish, very premium, looking very thin, Thinner than the
Speaker 1: S twenty three and definitely thinner than the S twenty
Speaker 1: What was it they had the S twenty four and
Speaker 1: the S twenty three, I think next to it. Anyway,
Speaker 1: there's a lot thinner than those phones. And so this
Speaker 1: is not going to have Samsung's best camera, best processor.
Speaker 2: Well maybe it'll have the best process or we're not sure.
Speaker 5: On that one.
Speaker 1: I mean, we have nothing, We have no details on this.
Speaker 1: But the point is if you want a really thin
Speaker 1: phone from Samsung, that's all you care about, then you
Speaker 1: will have the ability to get one of these later
Speaker 1: this year Samsung Galaxy S twenty five Edge. The other
Speaker 1: thing they showed off is the first time we saw
Speaker 1: their Project Muhan in real life. So this is their
Speaker 1: answer to Apple Vision Pro. This is their headset. So
Speaker 1: this is something that they've been teasing for a couple
Speaker 1: of years now. They're calling it an x R headset.
Speaker 1: XR means mixed reality. That means this will be both
Speaker 1: virtual reality and augmented reality, presumably, So what does that mean?
Speaker 1: Virtual reality is when you put this helmet on and
Speaker 1: you don't see anything else around you except what is
Speaker 1: on the screens in front of your eyes. Augmented reality
Speaker 1: means you can still see the world around you, but
Speaker 1: you can also see stuff that's augmented on top.
Speaker 2: Placed on top.
Speaker 1: Now, the Vision Pro kind of does augmented reality, but
Speaker 1: it's interesting because it's still actually fully enclosed on your face.
Speaker 1: I think that this one looks like it is too.
Speaker 1: But again, no real details, no hands on demo. No
Speaker 1: you know, they didn't let anyone touch this thing. It
Speaker 1: was just kind of set up there. So this is
Speaker 1: slated to launch in twenty twenty five. No pricing, no nothing.
Speaker 1: We don't know anything about this except that that Samsung
Speaker 1: is making an XR headset and then some real news
Speaker 1: that actually is a thing. Samsung Galaxy Watch seven has
Speaker 1: added a kid friendly mode, so the Galaxy Watch seven
Speaker 1: can now function as a standalone smart watch for kids.
Speaker 1: With this new Galaxy Watch for Kids mode, kids can
Speaker 1: call and text their trusted contacts. They can parents can
Speaker 1: access GPS location tracking, emergency SOS let's kids send alerts
Speaker 1: by pressing the side button five times. Obviously, for all
Speaker 1: these features, you will need a cellular connection on these watches,
Speaker 1: but kids can download twenty teacher approved apps and watch faces,
Speaker 1: but p rental approval is required for third party app downloads.
Speaker 1: This will work on Verizon T Mobile and AT and T. Now,
Speaker 1: the Watch seven is, you know, their premium watch. The
Speaker 1: fe is their kind of basic budget watch that starts
Speaker 1: at two hundred and fifty dollars. That would be a
Speaker 1: really good use case of this Samsung Galaxy Watch for
Speaker 1: kids mode, but so far we have no word that
Speaker 1: is coming to that watch. But that would be a
Speaker 1: winner because then parents don't have to spend so much
Speaker 1: money on a Galaxy Watch seven, they can get the
Speaker 1: inexpensive Watch fe. Let's go to Oscars here in Winchester, California, Oscar.
Speaker 8: You're on with rich Ry Rich.
Speaker 10: So, yeah, I've got a problem. First of all, I've
Speaker 10: got a Windows ten desktop system, and I'm gonna give
Speaker 10: you the only time I see with this problem is
Speaker 10: when the game that they play on Kfi A thousand
Speaker 10: you win a thousand dollars every hour they announced a
Speaker 10: keyword and you put the keyword into the pop up
Speaker 10: window on the screen, on the Kfi screen, and you know,
Speaker 10: it goes, It's accepted, and that's it. The only reason
Speaker 10: I told you that is because you may be familiar
Speaker 10: with the game. But the problem that I'm having is
Speaker 10: that the Windows.
Speaker 5: Stops popping up.
Speaker 10: And it started probably about a week ago. It stopped
Speaker 10: popping up, and I figured it may it must be
Speaker 10: the caching or something.
Speaker 2: What browser are you using?
Speaker 10: That was on a Chrome browser?
Speaker 2: Okay, And so I.
Speaker 10: I also have an Edge browser on my system that
Speaker 10: I don't normally use. So I tried it on the
Speaker 10: on the Edge browser and that's when didn't the window
Speaker 10: It didn't pop up either. Okay, So I downloaded a
Speaker 10: Firefox browser.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, you're collecting browsers at this point, Oscar.
Speaker 10: Right, so it's had a brand new browser.
Speaker 1: On the Oscar for most browsers goes to Oscar.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Keep so it's it's not me. It's not working on
Speaker 1: any of these No, and I cleared the cash. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's what's happening. I'm looking at this page right now,
Speaker 1: and what they've done is they've embedded some sort of
Speaker 1: third party applet on this page. And so if you
Speaker 1: are running a pop up blocker, that is going to uh,
Speaker 1: that's not going to load. If you're running any sort
Speaker 1: of ad blocker, are you running an ad blocker on
Speaker 1: your network, or I'm okay, so here's what I think
Speaker 1: you should do to get this to load. There's a
Speaker 1: couple of things you can do on Chrome next to
Speaker 1: a website, and this if any website is giving you trouble,
Speaker 1: if they're in general, if any website is giving you
Speaker 1: an issue in the future. Number one, you have to
Speaker 1: check for your AD blocker. If you're using a web
Speaker 1: browser like Brave, or you have an AD blocker installed
Speaker 1: like u block Origin or Ghostry, you gotta disable that
Speaker 1: and then try the website. Because what happens is a
Speaker 1: lot of these websites if you're using an AD blocker,
Speaker 1: they don't they don't properly work, especially if you're trying
Speaker 1: to use like things that are loading in the background
Speaker 1: or you know, like this, it says please disable ad
Speaker 1: or pop up blocker to load this. So that's the
Speaker 1: first two things you need to do. The third thing
Speaker 1: you can do is to the left of any URL
Speaker 1: on Chrome. Websites leave little bits of data on your computer,
Speaker 1: and sometimes if something's going wrong on that website, it'll
Speaker 1: continue to go wrong on so you clear out that data. Now, Oscar,
Speaker 1: you were correct in saying that you got rid of
Speaker 1: your cash, that can help, but sometimes that means you
Speaker 1: got to delete all your history on your computer, and
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't want to do that because
Speaker 1: you lose your logins and things. So if you just
Speaker 1: want to do this for one website, and you probably
Speaker 1: never noticed this before, if you look to the left
Speaker 1: of any URL on Chrome, there's like two little bars.
Speaker 1: It looks like almost like a site I don't know,
Speaker 1: like a settings bar. So you tap that button and
Speaker 1: that will give you all the information about the website,
Speaker 1: says KFI. Connection is secure, third party sign in, cookies
Speaker 1: and site data, site settings. So what I would do
Speaker 1: is tap the cookies and site data and you can
Speaker 1: tap manage on device site data. And so what you
Speaker 1: do is you delete all that stuff in there. All
Speaker 1: the stuff that's in there will delete all of the
Speaker 1: information that is stored on your computer. So this then
Speaker 1: you will reload the website and that website should load
Speaker 1: properly after you do that. So that's the way to
Speaker 1: kind of fix anything that's happening on individual websites if
Speaker 1: they're just being wonky. Now, the second thing to do
Speaker 1: is if you have a lot of extensions installed in
Speaker 1: your computer, it could be interfering with the functionality of
Speaker 1: that website in general, just any extension that you have.
Speaker 1: So I've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
Speaker 1: at least ten extensions that are interacting with every website
Speaker 1: that I bring up, and sometimes they just don't agree.
Speaker 1: So the other way to do it is to open
Speaker 1: up what's called a private browsing window or an incognito window.
Speaker 1: And typically when you open up an incognito window, unless
Speaker 1: you've specifically said I want my extensions to run on
Speaker 1: this incognito window, it's almost like a fresh web browser
Speaker 1: without anything signed in, without any of your extensions running,
Speaker 1: without any of your ad blockers running.
Speaker 2: And what this.
Speaker 1: Does is it gives you the ability to see this
Speaker 1: website from a fresh set of eyes. It has no logins,
Speaker 1: it's got no cookies saved, it's got nothing saved in
Speaker 1: the background. And so in that way, you can actually
Speaker 1: go in and paste this website now, the one you
Speaker 1: just mentioned, Oscar, I'm putting in here, and voila, it
Speaker 1: opens up perfectly because there's nothing, it's almost like a
Speaker 1: pure web browser. So I'm not sure why it wasn't
Speaker 1: running on the other web browsers that you downloaded. It
Speaker 1: seems odd. Maybe those web browsers were importing other settings
Speaker 1: from your other web browsers and some of the extensions,
Speaker 1: but that could be it. But I would go through
Speaker 1: those things that I just mentioned to see if you
Speaker 1: can get this to load. And finally, the other thing
Speaker 1: is that on some networks levels like on some networks
Speaker 1: like mine at home, I'm running an AD blocker across
Speaker 1: my entire network. So for instance, if a Google AD
Speaker 1: pops up on my phone and I try to click it,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be able to click it. It's not
Speaker 1: gonna go to the website, it says error. Now that
Speaker 1: may be frustrating for people that are trying to click
Speaker 1: websites and links and ads and stuff like that, but
Speaker 1: I know that that's a network wide restriction. And so
Speaker 1: if I ever need to tap on an AD on
Speaker 1: a web result or any in general, I will turn
Speaker 1: off my Wi Fi and I'll use Cellular and then
Speaker 1: I can access those ads. So you may have a
Speaker 1: network like EUO allows you to turn off ads system
Speaker 1: wide on your network if you're paying for their euro
Speaker 1: Secure or whatever they call it nowadays. But again that's
Speaker 1: something to check too, like someone you know might have
Speaker 1: installed a network wide ad blocker or a desktop wide
Speaker 1: ad blocker. That's usually the culprit in things like this.
Speaker 1: So Oscar, thanks for the question. Great question. Allowed me
Speaker 1: to explain just a little bit of that. All right,
Speaker 1: before are we going to break? Okay, let's just go
Speaker 1: to break eight eight eight rich one oh one eight
Speaker 1: eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.
Speaker 1: Coming up this hour, we're going to talk to Nick Gray,
Speaker 1: editor in chief at Fandroid. He's gonna discuss all all
Speaker 1: the Samsung S twenty five stuff with me.
Speaker 2: He was also at the event.
Speaker 1: Plus micro another price increase Microsoft three sixty five. But
Speaker 1: I'll tell you how you can get around it. There
Speaker 1: is something you can do. This is rich on Tech.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to rich on Tech, rich DeMuro hanging out
Speaker 1: with you talking technology at Triple A rich one oh
Speaker 1: one eight eight eight seven four to two four one
Speaker 1: zero one. If you are not following me on social media,
Speaker 1: I suggest you check it out at rich on Tech
Speaker 1: on Instagram, also on x I'm also on Facebook, but
Speaker 1: Instagram is where I do a majority of my posts.
Speaker 1: This week, I've got posts if you want to see
Speaker 1: all the Samsung stuff.
Speaker 2: I was talking about hands on with the phones. Uh ohs.
Speaker 1: I mentioned they have a Crocs case, Bobo, you'll like this.
Speaker 1: They have a CrOx official CROs case for the Samsung
Speaker 1: S twenty five series. No, come on, you said you
Speaker 1: you change your tune on crocs that I have a
Speaker 1: pair that I only walk around the house in or slides. Well,
Speaker 1: I so, so, just to give you a little behind
Speaker 1: the scenes, I didn't wear my crocs here for many
Speaker 1: weeks because Bobo a couple of months.
Speaker 2: Might have been the first whole year. Bobo's what we
Speaker 2: call a sneakerhead. Is that what it's called?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so he really every week he matches his sneakers
Speaker 1: to some sort of aspect of his outfit. Today, let's
Speaker 1: see the sneakers. Is it lakers because they're playing the
Speaker 1: Warriors tonight?
Speaker 2: Yep? See there you go. I knew it. Where's our bell?
Speaker 2: We need a bell on this show.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so he is clearly very fashionable and you know,
Speaker 1: takes his sneakers very seriously. I, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: go for comfort and typically to this show, I am
Speaker 1: wearing crocs because it is simple, it's easy and by
Speaker 1: the way.
Speaker 8: You know, I have a confession. Yeah, So DSW is.
Speaker 11: Closing across the street, that going out of business, okay,
Speaker 11: And they had a pair of crocs in there and
Speaker 11: I did tribal and they were slides, but they were
Speaker 11: too big, so I left them.
Speaker 8: They're only gonna be like twenty bucks. Yeah, like why not?
Speaker 2: Crocs are more expensive than you would think.
Speaker 1: So anyway, they have official crocs for the the samsungs uh.
Speaker 2: And you know, you can just see all the stuff.
Speaker 1: I post, but you know, I've been doing a lot
Speaker 1: more of like all like since all these people send
Speaker 1: me the scams that they're getting texts and emailed all day,
Speaker 1: I put these posts of all the scams to know
Speaker 1: about because it's just it's amazing to me how many.
Speaker 2: There are out there. I mean, just amazing what we're
Speaker 2: up against.
Speaker 1: And so I'll post those and just kind of keep
Speaker 1: you on the cutting edge when it comes to all
Speaker 1: the latest scams that people are trying to, you know,
Speaker 1: separate you from your identity or your hard earned money
Speaker 1: or you know, your loved ones, because you may be
Speaker 1: you may be tech savvy, but there are people in
Speaker 1: your family that I'm sure are not and they need
Speaker 1: to help. Eighty eight Rich one O one eight eight
Speaker 1: eight seven four to two four one zero one website
Speaker 1: for the show Rich on tech dot TV. There you
Speaker 1: can also sign up for my newsletter, which you know
Speaker 1: my goal, if you haven't realized, is just to help
Speaker 1: you with good information. Let's go to David in Tulsa, Oklahoma. David,
Speaker 1: you're on with Rich.
Speaker 4: Hi. Rich. I am a seventy six year old to say,
Speaker 4: will be a non veteran.
Speaker 10: I have.
Speaker 4: I never have had a smartphone, and I was wondering,
Speaker 4: would you what would you recommend me for?
Speaker 5: What?
Speaker 2: What are you trying to do?
Speaker 4: I want to get started on I want to get
Speaker 4: a smartphone. I don't know, I never I've never had one.
Speaker 1: I use a land man Okay, so use a land
Speaker 1: lighter and get rid of the landline and go with
Speaker 1: the smartphone.
Speaker 5: Yes, sir, okay.
Speaker 2: Do you have a preference of iPhone or Android?
Speaker 4: I don't know anything about them, Ridge, Okay.
Speaker 1: Do you have any friends or family that use a smartphone?
Speaker 1: And do they use iPhone or Android?
Speaker 4: I have a friend a named Mike. He he uses
Speaker 4: the iPhone and he says that he wouldn't use anything
Speaker 4: ill because it's the best.
Speaker 1: Sounds like an iPhone user. Again, where's our bell? So yeah,
Speaker 1: so here's the deal iPhone. I think, what David for you?
Speaker 1: I think the iPhone is a great choice because of
Speaker 1: the support you can get. So there are Apple stores everywhere,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna see if there's an Apple store in Tulsa.
Speaker 2: Let's see, is there?
Speaker 4: I think? So he said he's got to go to
Speaker 4: the Southland or Woodland.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, Woodland Hills.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh that's so weird because I looked that up and
Speaker 1: that came up and I said, well, no, that's here
Speaker 1: in LA. I thought, because we have a Woodland Hills
Speaker 1: here in Los Angeles. So I thought, okay, there you go.
Speaker 1: So you have a Woodland Hills in Tulsa. So the thing,
Speaker 1: the beauty of the iPhone is that if you need
Speaker 1: help with this thing, you can go to the store.
Speaker 1: And I think that is a differentiator that that iPhone
Speaker 1: has that Android just doesn't. And you also have the
Speaker 1: friend that has it, so they can recommend things that
Speaker 1: they like. Plus it's a pretty universal device, so if
Speaker 1: you need help, or you need repairs or anything, is
Speaker 1: very easy to get. So when it comes to the
Speaker 1: model of the iPhone. That is what is kind of like,
Speaker 1: you know, what you need versus what they want to
Speaker 1: sell you. So the basic current iPhone is the iPhone
Speaker 1: sixteen and that's going to run about eight hundred dollars.
Speaker 2: Is that how much you want to spend or do
Speaker 2: you want to spend less than that?
Speaker 4: No, it's the thing. Rich money is no problem. I'll
Speaker 4: save plenty of money. And what I wanted to do,
Speaker 4: I just wanted to get the best with all the
Speaker 4: bails and whistle.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, if that's the case, And David, I love
Speaker 1: I love to hear that because so many people when
Speaker 1: they're in retirement, you know, they don't have any money.
Speaker 1: And so the fact that you're ahead in that aspect,
Speaker 1: I really think that that's a great thing that you,
Speaker 1: you know, you sacrifice to have that money at your
Speaker 1: age now. So really congrats on that. I love hearing
Speaker 1: that so refreshing. I never hear that. But anyway, so
Speaker 1: go to the iPhone. I'd go iPhone. If you want
Speaker 1: the best of the best, iPhone sixteen pro. If you
Speaker 1: want just the standard iPhone, I'd go iPhone sixteen. Go
Speaker 1: to the Apple store. They will walk you through all
Speaker 1: the different plans you can get. You can sign up
Speaker 1: right in the store. I think you're gonna love it.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have a great new phone. Coming up, we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk Samsung with Nick Gray, editor in chief at Fandroid.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging
Speaker 1: out with you, talking technology at eight eight eight rich
Speaker 1: one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to
Speaker 1: two four one zero one. The website for the show
Speaker 1: rich on Tech dot TV. If you want links to
Speaker 1: anything I mentioned there, just go to the website and
Speaker 1: you can see them. So let me give you my
Speaker 1: TikTok update of the week because last week when I
Speaker 1: did the show, I said that TikTok would probably not
Speaker 1: be banned, and this week I'm here to tell you
Speaker 1: that it was banned for about, I don't know, twelve hours.
Speaker 1: So after I left the show last week, TikTok went
Speaker 1: away for just the evening and it basically I got
Speaker 1: a message on my phone that was like, sorry, TikTok's
Speaker 1: no longer available, and then a couple hours later it
Speaker 1: was like, oh wait, we're back, just kidding, and it
Speaker 1: had this message that said, thanks to you, our new
Speaker 1: President it is back, which I think rubbed a lot
Speaker 1: of people the wrong way too. But anyway, the thing
Speaker 1: about TikTok to know right now is that if you
Speaker 1: have the app on your phone, you can still use it.
Speaker 2: Same goes for cap Cut.
Speaker 1: If you don't have the app on your phone, cap
Speaker 1: Cut or TikTok, you cannot download them right now.
Speaker 2: So even though the.
Speaker 1: President has assured that he's going to work out a
Speaker 1: deal and try to get this up and running, the
Speaker 1: companies that provide the servers and the storage and the
Speaker 1: transmission of these apps are saying, not so fast. We
Speaker 1: don't want to be sued later on. And so that's
Speaker 1: why they are not allowing you to re download these
Speaker 1: right now. Because even though one persons saying one thing,
Speaker 1: we still have a whole Congress and a whole you know,
Speaker 1: government that may say something else.
Speaker 2: So this is TBD.
Speaker 1: But if you really need your TikTok fixed and you
Speaker 1: can't get it, two things are happening. First off, people
Speaker 1: are selling phones preloaded with TikTok on eBay for like
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars. I don't think any of them are
Speaker 1: actually selling, but people are doing it. And by the way,
Speaker 1: You can always access TikTok on the website TikTok dot
Speaker 1: com if you need to.
Speaker 2: All right, that's my TikTok update.
Speaker 1: Let's bring on Nick Gray, editor in chief at Fanroid.
Speaker 1: Nick Gray is uh, he's a big Android guy. He's
Speaker 1: he was at the event with Samsung. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Uh did you did you do you care about the
Speaker 1: TikTok stuff?
Speaker 2: Do you use TikTok? I do use TikTok.
Speaker 11: We we do a lot of short form content and
Speaker 11: we honestly it's the same across you know, YouTube shorts,
Speaker 11: Instagram reels, and TikTok. So when it went down, we
Speaker 11: kind of had that moment of oh my gosh, we're
Speaker 11: gonna lose a big portion of our audience. But then,
Speaker 11: you know, as you said, twelve hours later it was
Speaker 11: back up and running. And you know, as soon as
Speaker 11: it did, I had another video to upload and just
Speaker 11: trying to get work done.
Speaker 2: Yep, I hear you.
Speaker 1: I mean you got to look, I mean you got
Speaker 1: to be across all three or what is it?
Speaker 2: Reels, TikTok and what's the other one?
Speaker 8: YouTube short?
Speaker 7: Ye?
Speaker 5: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: All right, So Nick tell me about fandroid. First off,
Speaker 1: what do you cover there? What's fandroid all about?
Speaker 11: And android is all about Android.
Speaker 2: It's right there in the name.
Speaker 11: If you're a fan of Android, we definitely have a
Speaker 11: spot for you there. It was actually the first Android
Speaker 11: related news blog to pop up. The original owner put
Speaker 11: the website up within twenty four hours of Google announcing
Speaker 11: the operating system, way back in the day, about a
Speaker 11: year and a half before the first Android phone, And
Speaker 11: our claim the fame back then was within twenty four hours.
Speaker 11: Wired I wrote an article about fandroid saying Google announces Android,
Speaker 11: f android is bill are and they now have fans
Speaker 11: to go along with it. So way back in the day.
Speaker 11: That's so over fifteen years ago at this point though.
Speaker 2: And so what do you like about Android? Because you know,
Speaker 2: there's this debate.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if you've heard, but there's a debate
Speaker 1: of iOS versus Android.
Speaker 2: I really I've never heard of it. No, Okay, well
Speaker 2: now I'm telling you for the first time.
Speaker 1: So what do you What do you like about Android
Speaker 1: versus iPhone?
Speaker 11: Personally, I love the customization options that you've always had
Speaker 11: on the Android platform. iOS has gotten those with the
Speaker 11: iPhone over the years. I know that one of the
Speaker 11: latest ones widgets and custom icons, but those were something
Speaker 11: that we've had on Android for over a decade now.
Speaker 11: You've always been able to, you know, dig deep into
Speaker 11: the iPhone and like root it in order to get
Speaker 11: some of those features, something that you really can't do
Speaker 11: now these days, just because you lose a lot of
Speaker 11: the security features. But if you did want those customizations
Speaker 11: back in the day, you had to be on Android.
Speaker 11: And that kind to suck me in over the years.
Speaker 11: And also there's just a whole lot of diversity with
Speaker 11: the hardware. With iPhone, you're kind of stuck with, you know,
Speaker 11: one or two phones per year. Within the Android space,
Speaker 11: I'm typically looking at fifty to sixty phones a year,
Speaker 11: and those are just devices that I get, and there's
Speaker 11: a whole lot more than that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that the it's always been like
Speaker 1: the way I see Android is you can make your
Speaker 1: phone do whatever you want it to do.
Speaker 2: Whereas iPhone.
Speaker 1: Yes, now you can customize the color and the looks
Speaker 1: and the widgets and all that stuff, but like there
Speaker 1: are certain things that just like hands off, like you
Speaker 1: cannot change how things work on the iPhone, you know,
Speaker 1: if Apple's locked that down and so exactly, that's kind
Speaker 1: of the main thing I see. All right, So what's
Speaker 1: your overall impressions of Samsung's event? We were up there
Speaker 1: in San Jose. What do you think? What was your takeaway?
Speaker 11: My takeaway is there's not a whole lot new. When
Speaker 11: it comes to the hardware of this phone, it looks
Speaker 11: pretty similar to last year's device. As far as cameras go,
Speaker 11: they're pretty similar. We do have a new and prove
Speaker 11: moved ultra wide camera. But as you noticed, they didn't
Speaker 11: talk about the phone for the first thirty minutes of
Speaker 11: their keynote. They got up there and talked about software improvements,
Speaker 11: all the AI stuff, their new collaborations with Google, and
Speaker 11: what Gemini is doing on this phone, and then thirty
Speaker 11: minutes later they're like, oh, yeah, and you know there's
Speaker 11: a phone to go along with all of these new
Speaker 11: AI features.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: That was the main thing, is that a lot of
Speaker 1: it was the software. But I think in that aspect
Speaker 1: they did nail a lot of the software, Like this
Speaker 1: whole Gemini I you know, Bixby kind of handoff stuff
Speaker 1: I think is really useful.
Speaker 11: I do see that there's some really good things here.
Speaker 11: One of the things that they forgot to mention is
Speaker 11: that if you have pretty much any other Android phone,
Speaker 11: these features are available there as well. Google actually took
Speaker 11: like a twelve hours to announce Oh yeah, it's available
Speaker 11: on the Pixel and if you have the new one
Speaker 11: plus device, it's available there too. You can add you
Speaker 11: know something to your calendar with a big spy search
Speaker 11: and it just puts it onto your calendar or not
Speaker 11: a big spy a Gemini search sorry, and it's working
Speaker 11: there as well. So I think Samsung kind of overplayed
Speaker 11: how much they are doing as opposed to you know,
Speaker 11: what Google is doing overall for the Android platform.
Speaker 1: Well, and that's an interesting line that we've seen Samsung
Speaker 1: ride for a long time, is that how many of
Speaker 1: these things that they do are either duplicated, replicated, or
Speaker 1: have been done by Android at Large or vice versas.
Speaker 1: Sometimes things come out on Samsung first and then they
Speaker 1: make their way to Android at Large.
Speaker 2: Other times it's the opposite way.
Speaker 1: So I do think that you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: these things that they announced, like the circle to search
Speaker 1: and all those cool features, yeah, you can get them
Speaker 1: on a lot of phones. But I think that this
Speaker 1: hardware is what a lot of people end up purchasing,
Speaker 1: and so the fact that the hardware and the software
Speaker 1: is good makes me like this phone a lot.
Speaker 11: Yeah, and I think Google kind of dovetails on the
Speaker 11: success of Samsung, you know, the like as you mentioned,
Speaker 11: Circle to Search was the big one last year when
Speaker 11: they introduced the S series, and it was actually an
Speaker 11: exclusive on the Samsung phone for about a month and
Speaker 11: then it came through the Pixel phones and then slowly
Speaker 11: rolled out to other devices. But it was always a
Speaker 11: Google feature, right, But Google's trying to piggyback on They
Speaker 11: know so many people are going to be buying the
Speaker 11: Samsung smartphones, the Galaxy S twenty five Ultra definitely at
Speaker 11: the high end, but even the cheaper ones, you know,
Speaker 11: the Galaxy S twenty five or the Test twenty five plus.
Speaker 11: So if you want the latest software from Google with
Speaker 11: the newest hardware from Samsung, this is definitely the place
Speaker 11: to step into it.
Speaker 2: What are you thinking about the camera? Are you thinking
Speaker 2: the camera? The videos? The photos? Are they looking any
Speaker 2: better any different?
Speaker 11: I do think there are some differences here between last
Speaker 11: year's device. On the Ultra, this is the only one
Speaker 11: I've actually been able to test. I think you have
Speaker 11: the Ultra there for review, as do I, and it's
Speaker 11: I think it's mainly the software because the main camera,
Speaker 11: the two hundred megapixel main sensor, and the fifty megapixel
Speaker 11: zoom camera on the back of the phone are the
Speaker 11: same as before. But we do have a brand new
Speaker 11: fifty megapixel Ultra Wide, and I think that's a huge
Speaker 11: step up, just because there was so much the resolution
Speaker 11: was so low last time that you lost a lot
Speaker 11: of the detail. But now we do have the higher
Speaker 11: resolution sensor. And that also ties into macro shots as well.
Speaker 11: If you're into you know, getting up really close to
Speaker 11: a flower or something and taking a photo of that
Speaker 11: and just seeing those details, you will see some differences there.
Speaker 11: Overall image processing though for me, seems to be a
Speaker 11: little bit dark in compared to last year. I think
Speaker 11: they just bumped down the exposure a little bit, but
Speaker 11: that's something that we might see a change with a
Speaker 11: future software update. So that's one of the things with
Speaker 11: a lot of a lot of smartphones these days, you
Speaker 11: get one month in and you get an update that
Speaker 11: dramatic changes how the overall experiences or the photos that
Speaker 11: you're taking actually.
Speaker 1: Look, it's interesting because I mentioned that earlier in the show,
Speaker 1: is that you know, typically when I get a Samsung device,
Speaker 1: I'm waiting for like the first update, the first big update,
Speaker 1: and this one, I mean, I've been using this NonStop
Speaker 1: since I got it, and I really am not missing anything.
Speaker 1: I think that like it's very polished right out of
Speaker 1: the gate.
Speaker 11: It is, and like we as you mentioned there are
Speaker 11: that first update does usually bring something to it, but
Speaker 11: this actually feels like, oh, it's ready to go, even
Speaker 11: though right now the phone's only on pre order, so
Speaker 11: we have a couple of weeks until the device actually
Speaker 11: shows up in stores, and that's usually when we might
Speaker 11: see something drop for a quick update. But there might
Speaker 11: be some just bug fixes here and there. But as
Speaker 11: far as the camera goes, I doubt they're going to
Speaker 11: launch any camera improvements that early on.
Speaker 1: All I've got less than a minute, Nick, what's your
Speaker 1: buying advice? What's your you know? Where do you get
Speaker 1: the best deal? How do you get the best deal.
Speaker 11: If you're looking for the best deals, honestly going through
Speaker 11: your carrier store. Most people buy their phones through carriers
Speaker 11: these days, T Mobile, Verizon, AT and T They all
Speaker 11: have some pretty good deals that you could almost get
Speaker 11: the phone completely for free if you trade in your
Speaker 11: old one. So head over to your local store and
Speaker 11: see what they got, or just hit up their website
Speaker 11: or else. Samsung dot COM's got some decent deals about
Speaker 11: three hundred dollars credit for upgrading your storage. But also
Speaker 11: they have a nine hundred dollars trade in bonus if
Speaker 11: you have a newer device that you're willing to trade in.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, nine hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: So that's pretty good, all right, Nick Gray, Editor in
Speaker 1: chief at Fandroid. That's p h A N D R
Speaker 1: O I dfandroid dot com. Thanks so much for joining
Speaker 1: me today. Welcome back to rich on tech. Rich Demiro
Speaker 1: here hanging out with you, talking technology at Triple A
Speaker 1: Rich one O one that's eight eight eight seven four
Speaker 1: to two four to one zero one. New feature on
Speaker 1: inste lets you reset your content suggestions. So if you
Speaker 1: want a fresh star, it's a new year, maybe you
Speaker 1: just don't like all the stuff that you're seeing across
Speaker 1: your explore page, your reels, your feeds. You can now
Speaker 1: reset these recommendations. I tried this.
Speaker 2: I've been waiting. They announced this back in November.
Speaker 1: I've been waiting for it to actually hit the app,
Speaker 1: and it finally did a couple of days ago. So
Speaker 1: you can reset. And if you want to try this,
Speaker 1: open up your Instagram app, tap your profile and then
Speaker 1: tap menu that's like the three little lines, and then
Speaker 1: scroll down to where it says suggested content. So in
Speaker 1: the setting screen, basically you're looking for suggested content and
Speaker 1: then there's an option that says reset suggested content. Now
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I've tapped a few
Speaker 1: things in my life on Instagram that bring up a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of videos that I no longer am interested in,
Speaker 1: and so I've been waiting for this feature to kind
Speaker 1: of like refresh my account, restart my account, and so
Speaker 1: I tried it, and it doesn't happen instantly. I will
Speaker 1: tell you that, like, if you go to it and
Speaker 1: you just try it, you're not going to see the
Speaker 1: recommendations change instantly.
Speaker 2: But they did after a day or two. They're now
Speaker 2: all reset.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because it starts to kind of pick
Speaker 1: up on stuff that you're now tapping, and so my
Speaker 1: entire Explore feed is now filled with everything Samsung and
Speaker 1: iPhone because you know, I've been doing a lot of
Speaker 1: phone stuff in the past couple of days. But again
Speaker 1: you don't see it. Well, you got to go to
Speaker 1: your profile. Go to profile the three little lines in
Speaker 1: the upper right hand corner and scroll down to suggested content. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's under what you see suggested content, and then it
Speaker 1: says reset suggested content. Now, not everyone is going to
Speaker 1: have that option of reset right away, but enough people do.
Speaker 1: And I can confirm this because I did post this
Speaker 1: to my Instagram at Richon Tech and enough people said, yep,
Speaker 1: I see it.
Speaker 2: I did it.
Speaker 1: Some people are worried about actually resetting because they rich
Speaker 1: I took ten years to build my recommendations on Instagram.
Speaker 1: I don't want to get rid of them all. Well,
Speaker 1: that's fine, you don't have to. You can leave them.
Speaker 1: This does not get rid of anyone you're following or
Speaker 1: anyone that that is following you. It does not change
Speaker 1: any of that. Although when you're going through this process,
Speaker 1: this cleansing process, Instagram does give you the option of
Speaker 1: on following people that you don't look at their stuff
Speaker 1: very often, or people that you don't like anymore, or whatever.
Speaker 1: It's like, do you still like this person in your family?
Speaker 2: Instagram. How'd you know?
Speaker 1: Well, we notice you skip over all their stuff every time.
Speaker 1: You don't even like their stuff anymore. You sure you
Speaker 1: still like them?
Speaker 5: Man?
Speaker 1: If people saw you like or didn't like, this could
Speaker 1: cause some family issues, right.
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 2: I know, yeah, they got rid of all that on
Speaker 2: all the platforms.
Speaker 8: Cause I don't think I have the update yet because
Speaker 8: it's not their o mine yet.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, still rolling out rolling out are the worst
Speaker 1: two words in the tech language that means not everyone
Speaker 1: gets it. At the same time, Jim writes in from Portland, Oregon, saying, Hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: I hope you're doing well. I'm reaching out because I'm
Speaker 1: having some trouble with an old Dropbox account. I used
Speaker 1: to have a Dropbox account linked to an email address
Speaker 1: that's no longer in service. I then change it to
Speaker 1: another email that one's no longer in service. I moved
Speaker 1: to Gmail, but I lost all the information now due
Speaker 1: to a computer crash. Okay, man, Jim, you're having a
Speaker 1: lot of tech issues here. Despite this all, I'm still
Speaker 1: being charged for the Dropbox subscription. When I try to
Speaker 1: contact Dropbox support, I only encounter chatbots. I've also checked
Speaker 1: my PayPal receipts to see if there's any contact information.
Speaker 1: What steps can I take to cancel this subscription? Thanks
Speaker 1: so much, Jim, All right, Jim, Yes you can cancel this.
Speaker 1: So there's a couple. This is where it gets a
Speaker 1: little complicated because subscriptions could be done in a variety
Speaker 1: of ways. It can be done through Apple, iTunes, it
Speaker 1: could be done through Google Play, it could be done
Speaker 1: through PayPal, and it can be done through the website itself.
Speaker 1: So it sounds like you have PayPal linked to this,
Speaker 1: which I would go into PayPal and there is a
Speaker 1: page on PayPal that says recurring subscriptions, and you can
Speaker 1: go in and de authorize this Dropbox subscription. So if
Speaker 1: that's what's happening, that's where you want to go and
Speaker 1: get rid of it. If it's happening through Apple, you
Speaker 1: got to go to iTunes, check your subscriptions on iTunes
Speaker 1: and stop the recurring charges there. If it's happening through
Speaker 1: Google Play, go to Google Play, go to your subscriptions
Speaker 1: and stop it through there. Now, if it's none of
Speaker 1: those things, you can actually go to the Dropbox website itself.
Speaker 1: Help dot dropbox dot com. They have a help page
Speaker 1: that says, what if I can't cancel online. If you
Speaker 1: cannot cancel online, you can cancel your subscription by physical mail.
Speaker 1: Cancel your subscription. Download this template, fill it out, and
Speaker 1: send it to the address below. This includes your first
Speaker 1: and last name, the email address if you can remember it,
Speaker 1: the payment method PayPal, credit card, transaction ID, and then
Speaker 1: you send it to them in San francisc. Lets go
Speaker 1: and they will get back to you, presumably and cancel this.
Speaker 1: So that's the last ditch effort, Jim. If you cannot
Speaker 1: get in touch with this company or cancel this online
Speaker 1: in any way, that's what you do, and I'll link
Speaker 1: that up on the website. Rich on tech dot tv
Speaker 1: seems kind of funny to send a physical letter to dropbox,
Speaker 1: but yeah, you can still do that.
Speaker 2: That's what you have to do. It sounds like.
Speaker 1: The other thing I would do is I would dispute
Speaker 1: these charges. If you have not used the app in
Speaker 1: a long time, I would dispute the charges through your
Speaker 1: credit card and you can go on Usually it's automated now,
Speaker 1: it's gotten so easy. You just go on the website,
Speaker 1: click the charge, dispute it, and you can do that.
Speaker 2: By the way, with Apple.
Speaker 1: I think there's is report a problem, report a problem Apple.
Speaker 1: So if you go to report a problem dot Apple
Speaker 1: dot com, this is a great website. If you ever
Speaker 1: buy something on Apple, you don't like it, you want
Speaker 1: to refund, you literally go to this website. They'll give
Speaker 1: you a refund within forty eight hours. Report a problem
Speaker 1: dot Apple dot com and just request a refund, request
Speaker 1: a refund. Yeah, it's my first day here, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just learning. But report a problem dot Apple dot com.
Speaker 1: Or go to your debit card, your credit card and
Speaker 1: just dispute the charge from dropbox.
Speaker 2: If you haven't used the service, if.
Speaker 1: You're still using it, you can't really, you know, do
Speaker 1: that with a good conscience. But if you haven't used it,
Speaker 1: no harm, no foul, request the refund. Eight A eight
Speaker 1: rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to
Speaker 1: two four one zero one. This is rich on Tech.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging
Speaker 1: out with you, talking technology at triple eight rich one
Speaker 1: O one. That's eight eight eight seven four to two
Speaker 1: four one zero one. The website for the show rich
Speaker 1: on Tech dot TV. I did mention another price increase
Speaker 1: Microsoft three sixty five This is their suite of programs
Speaker 1: on the computer, Word Excel, power Point, Outlook one Note.
Speaker 1: It also gives you storage and some other perks, one drive,
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. They are raising prices, so
Speaker 1: the personal plan is going from seven dollars a month
Speaker 1: to ten dollars a month, or seventy dollars a year
Speaker 1: to one hundred dollars a year. Now, I know people
Speaker 1: don't like to pay for things in advance, but I
Speaker 1: will tell you, if you're sticking with a subscription, the
Speaker 1: yearly payment is the way to go. I know it
Speaker 1: costs more money upfront and we all hate that, but
Speaker 1: it will save you significant, significant amount of money. So
Speaker 1: instead of paying you know, ten dollars a month, that's
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty dollars a year, this is one
Speaker 1: hundred bucks a year. So better deal to go with
Speaker 1: the Well it's only twenty bucks. That's a problem. It's like,
Speaker 1: why would I do that just to save twenty dollars?
Speaker 1: But you know, if you're using it over and over
Speaker 1: after five years, you know it's one hundred bucks. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm still not selling it, but you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: The Family plan goes from ten dollars a month to
Speaker 1: thirteen dollars a month or one hundred dollars to one
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty a year. So here's how you get
Speaker 1: around this. This rarely happens, but you can. If you're
Speaker 1: an existing user of Microsoft three sixty five, you can
Speaker 1: switch your account to a Classic plan, which will keep
Speaker 1: your current price. That's only if you're an existing subscriber.
Speaker 1: You can stick to your seven dollars or ten dollars
Speaker 1: a month instead of paying ten or thirteen a month,
Speaker 1: So you can switch to a Classic plan. Got to
Speaker 1: go into your settings and downgrade to Classic. Now here's
Speaker 1: the thing. The way they're selling this price increase is
Speaker 1: they're adding AI features. So you're getting Copilot AI in Word, Excel,
Speaker 1: PowerPoint Outlook in one Note. Plus you're getting Microsoft Designer
Speaker 1: for image creation. So that is how they're selling this
Speaker 1: to people. But I will tell you, unless you need
Speaker 1: those things, probably switch to the Classic. And by the way,
Speaker 1: you do know that you can use Google Docs completely
Speaker 1: free if you want to just use like word processing.
Speaker 1: So googleed that's what I use for everything. Docs dot
Speaker 1: Google dot com. That's their online word process saying and
Speaker 1: they have everything they've got everything you need, slides, all
Speaker 1: all the stuff that they do here. Okay, let's go
Speaker 1: to Helen. Helen in South Pasadena.
Speaker 2: You're on with Rich.
Speaker 10: Hi. Rich.
Speaker 12: I'm having trouble with my flashlight. It doesn't seem to
Speaker 12: want to work since I got an upgrade from my Android.
Speaker 2: What doesn't work about it?
Speaker 12: Just when I try to swipe down, I usually just
Speaker 12: swipe down from the upper right hand corner. Uh huh,
Speaker 12: and it and it appears as one of the options.
Speaker 12: And now when I do that swipe down, there's no
Speaker 12: the option comes up. So when I tap it, it
Speaker 12: stays dark. Really, I know, I can't figure that out.
Speaker 12: And each I've tried, you know, there's lots of suggestions
Speaker 12: for help from other people.
Speaker 2: That really you search online and people have opinions.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and other.
Speaker 12: People say, well I did this and I did that,
Speaker 12: and I you know, I sat here yesterday for like
Speaker 12: an hour trying all those things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, see, you've wasted your time. Because I'll
Speaker 1: be honest, all that stuff. It's like Bobo just came
Speaker 1: in here telling me about something, and you know he's
Speaker 1: searching online. Other people have the problem. It's a waste
Speaker 1: of time because people. They chime in with these things,
Speaker 1: and you're going through the settings, you're going through this
Speaker 1: and you're downloading, and it's all nonsense, like ninety nine
Speaker 1: percent of it. So yeah, so you found that, you
Speaker 1: just went, you ran around in circles, and it's still
Speaker 1: not working.
Speaker 2: So here's my question to you.
Speaker 1: So you can see the flashlight tile when you swipe
Speaker 1: down on Android, you can see it there, but when
Speaker 1: you tap.
Speaker 2: It, nothing happens.
Speaker 12: That's correct.
Speaker 2: Okay, what if you long press it? What happens there?
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 12: Let me try that.
Speaker 2: There should be a brightness indicator.
Speaker 12: Perhaps, Oh Rich, I thought I had done that. Okay,
Speaker 12: now let me see it because now all of a
Speaker 12: sudden it says it's on. So let me try it again.
Speaker 12: Let me swipe down and see if it's a hearing hold.
Speaker 2: On, we're waiting. You get the whole country on with
Speaker 2: baited breath.
Speaker 7: Here, guess what what it's odd?
Speaker 2: Where's our bell?
Speaker 4: You need?
Speaker 2: Helen? We love it.
Speaker 4: I love it. I love it.
Speaker 12: I remember the place they said hold it down, but
Speaker 12: I guess not that one. Anyway, that boy, you are
Speaker 12: a wizard.
Speaker 1: This show is changing lives, Helen. I'm telling you don't
Speaker 1: underestimate it.
Speaker 12: I needed that flashlight really badly. Yesterday I lost something
Speaker 12: in my car.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, oh yeah, my stuff.
Speaker 1: My If I wear sweatpants, whatever I've got in my
Speaker 1: pocket falls between the seats, so I need I need
Speaker 1: zippered sweatpants.
Speaker 2: Okay, So I'm glad we helped you out.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you spent hours yesterday on the web, you know,
Speaker 1: looking at those Reddit forms and all the you know,
Speaker 1: a technical assistance. But all you have to do is
Speaker 1: make one call. Thank you, Helen, Thank you Rich have
Speaker 1: a fantastic day in the future. If you know, if
Speaker 1: something's not working like that, I would recommend, you know,
Speaker 1: restarting your phone. Obviously the long press on the tile
Speaker 1: to come up with the options can help.
Speaker 2: Uh. If none of that works, you can download an app.
Speaker 1: And no, you have to be careful with flashlight apps
Speaker 1: because you know, we had this whole thing back in
Speaker 1: the day where they were stealing your data by taking
Speaker 1: your GPS location and selling ads. But there is an
Speaker 1: app called Flashy f l a s h y, which
Speaker 1: is a third party flashlight app on Android. You can
Speaker 1: download that if nothing else is working. But I'm glad
Speaker 1: we got Helen's flashlight to work.
Speaker 2: You know what.
Speaker 1: I Am going to sleep so well tonight, just knowing
Speaker 1: the impact that I have on this world, like changing
Speaker 1: lives one day at a time. Bobo Bobo's leaving. He
Speaker 1: actually just turned off the lights in the studio and
Speaker 1: he's he's walked out.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, I'm glad I got that figured out.
Speaker 1: Oh eighty eight rich one on one eight eight eight
Speaker 1: seven four to two four one zero. And in all seriousness,
Speaker 1: you know, I do love this show for this reason.
Speaker 2: It's it's really a forum.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: It's really like, it's really a forum to let you
Speaker 1: know that you are not crazy. You have these problems,
Speaker 1: they are irking you, and sometimes the solutions are so easy.
Speaker 1: It's the stuff that you don't even think about. And
Speaker 1: this happens all the time. Okay, I got an email
Speaker 1: from Let's See Here. Susan said, I hope you have
Speaker 1: some suggestions. My mom is close to ninety five. She
Speaker 1: suspect to all these scams and ads. Is there any
Speaker 1: way to change in her faces so that she only
Speaker 1: sees things from her friends and family? I need an
Speaker 1: easy way to help protect her. This is a great
Speaker 1: article posted by Jeremy Kaplan of the wonder Tools blog.
Speaker 1: He posted a simple guide to keeping parents Safe online,
Speaker 1: and he just goes through the recommendations. And this is
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff we talk about here on the show,
Speaker 1: but I just figured i'd go over them and definitely
Speaker 1: check out the blog post. I'll link it up on
Speaker 1: the website. Rich on tech dot tv. Jeremy does a
Speaker 1: great job with all the AI stuff. This is not
Speaker 1: necessarily AI, but number one, he says, go for simple
Speaker 1: devices iPad or Chromebook. They are tough to mess up.
Speaker 1: They will do all the basics like email and browsing.
Speaker 1: If they need something higher and than that, a MacBook
Speaker 1: error is really good because it's just a fantastic notebook
Speaker 1: that's fast and great networking. Replace your router with an
Speaker 1: Euro That way you can remote manage the setup. You
Speaker 1: can make sure everything's working. It's got a great app.
Speaker 1: I know, I can log into my dad's eurosystem from
Speaker 1: across the country and check on it, make sure everything's working,
Speaker 1: and help him with things. Account safety, so it's saying
Speaker 1: to create two accounts, one admin account and then one
Speaker 1: as a standard account to limit risk from malware. So
Speaker 1: on a computer, you know maybe don't give your parents
Speaker 1: that admin access, and that way they can you know
Speaker 1: if they download something that's gonna be malware, it's not
Speaker 1: going to ruin the whole computer. Add yourself as a
Speaker 1: recovery and legacy contact on Apple or Google for easy
Speaker 1: password resets and future access ad blockers. Install a free
Speaker 1: ad blocker like u block Origin, or you can get
Speaker 1: a premium option like one blocker for Safari. Use trusted reviews.
Speaker 1: So many people send me reviews, Hey, Rich, have you
Speaker 1: heard of this product? And literally the website is just
Speaker 1: advertising the product. It looks like a review, but it's
Speaker 1: a total fake review. So use vetted reviews like Consumer Reports, Wirecutter,
Speaker 1: or vetted. Make sure they know those websites they avoid
Speaker 1: fake reviews. Make them use a password manager. I try
Speaker 1: this with my family members. I know it is very tough,
Speaker 1: but use a password manager to help them secure at
Speaker 1: least their top twenty five accounts like their email and
Speaker 1: their Facebook and their Instagram. Just make sure those are
Speaker 1: secured with strong passwords and help them understand how to
Speaker 1: get those passwords or to use autofill clean up all
Speaker 1: the unused apps, duplicate files, all this stuff on their devices.
Speaker 1: Like you know, when I go home, I always do
Speaker 1: like a spring cleaning on my parents' devices, on their
Speaker 1: phones and on their computers. I do all the software updates,
Speaker 1: get rid of any apps they don't use, and ask
Speaker 1: them questions, Hey, do you use this app?
Speaker 2: Do you need this app?
Speaker 1: If not, get rid of it, boot it out the door,
Speaker 1: and then just make things simple for them. Clean My
Speaker 1: Mac is good for maintenance. I love that on the
Speaker 1: Mac delete unused accounts. I mentioned that website earlier. What
Speaker 1: was it called now? Oh gosh, delete delete deesk dot org.
Speaker 1: You can help them delete their old accounts and just
Speaker 1: you know, it's spring cleaning. It's just a a you'll
Speaker 1: feel better and I know they're gonna have a lot
Speaker 1: of questions. But the thing is help them understand the
Speaker 1: scams too. There's a great website, scam spotter dot org.
Speaker 1: Have them go to that website and learn the main
Speaker 1: thing about scams is that they're trying to rush you
Speaker 1: into doing something you don't really want to do, and
Speaker 1: that's how they take advantage of you. So teach them
Speaker 1: the signs of scams and as a bonus, have them
Speaker 1: sign up for my Instagram at rich on Tech because
Speaker 1: I always post the latest scams, share them with them
Speaker 1: and just let them know, like, here's what you're up against,
Speaker 1: here's what people are trying to do. Do not fall
Speaker 1: for Amazon Prime, email your stuff didn't go through. Don't
Speaker 1: fall for Apple reset your ID, don't fall for it.
Speaker 1: This is rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech.
Speaker 1: Rich Demiro here, look at my Facebook page, Facebook dot
Speaker 1: com slash rich on tech. Letitia says, I work from
Speaker 1: home two days a week and sometimes need to scan
Speaker 1: a document or two. Is there an app that you recommend?
Speaker 1: There are so many ways you can do this from
Speaker 1: your phone, so many ways. I think the app that
Speaker 1: works the best across everything is Adobe Scan. So Adobe,
Speaker 1: you know they make Acrobat, they are the leaders in PDF.
Speaker 1: But they have an app for both iPhone and Android
Speaker 1: that works really well. And basically I don't believe you
Speaker 1: have to pay for any aspect of it. They might
Speaker 1: try to upsell you, but the basic functionality a document
Speaker 1: scanner that creates a PDF is just built in. It's free,
Speaker 1: it's simple, it's and it's the one that I recommend
Speaker 1: because it just works. Now, there's a million ways you
Speaker 1: can do this if you don't want to download a
Speaker 1: new app, and you've got Android, you can just go
Speaker 1: on your Android and long press the Google Drive icon
Speaker 1: and you'll see an option that pops up called scan
Speaker 1: and you can tap that and that will scan on there.
Speaker 1: And then if you're on iPhone, you can scan from
Speaker 1: the files app, So open up the files app and
Speaker 1: if you go into there, hold on, let me get that,
Speaker 1: and then you just go upper right hand corner it
Speaker 1: says scan documents. You can scan documents that way, So
Speaker 1: three ways to scan documents. And there's a million other
Speaker 1: apps on iPhone and Android that will scan documents, like
Speaker 1: so many document scanner apps. But the Adobe Scan I
Speaker 1: like because it's just simple, comes from a brand name,
Speaker 1: and it just does what you need without a lot
Speaker 1: of fuss, and it's just what I use. Well, I
Speaker 1: use the Google Drive most of the time to scan.
Speaker 1: But thanks to the call thanks for the Facebook post.
Speaker 1: I guess let's see. True Caller is bringing real time
Speaker 1: caller ID to iOS. So this has been a big
Speaker 1: difference between Android and iPhone. Android has had caller ID
Speaker 1: since like day one, so when someone calls you on Android,
Speaker 1: typically your phone looks up the number and shows you
Speaker 1: who's calling. Now, I'm not saying the number, I'm saying
Speaker 1: like the business or the person's name. On iPhone, this
Speaker 1: was always trickier if the person was not in your
Speaker 1: address book, you couldn't really tell who they were. Now
Speaker 1: some businesses might pop up, but now True Caller. Apple
Speaker 1: added this feature in iOS eighteen, which I don't want
Speaker 1: to get into how Apple does things, but it was
Speaker 1: like very tricky for programs like an app to actually
Speaker 1: look up a phone number in real time and display
Speaker 1: it on your lock screen. But now Apple gave that
Speaker 1: ability to happen in iOS eighteen. Is called live Caller
Speaker 1: ID look Up feature, so True Caller took advantage of
Speaker 1: this immediately. The downside is you do have to pay
Speaker 1: for their subscription to get the so it is ten
Speaker 1: dollars a month or seventy five dollars a year.
Speaker 2: So maybe they give.
Speaker 1: You a free level of caller ID on the app,
Speaker 1: but I'm not sure, but if you want to, once
Speaker 1: you download the app, you go into your settings and
Speaker 1: go to a call blocking and identification to an a
Speaker 1: p LIT. I tried this the other day on the
Speaker 1: True Caller idea. I couldn't find the setting it didn't
Speaker 1: work on my phone, so maybe your results may vary.
Speaker 2: Let's see what else Sony.
Speaker 1: You probably heard the story that Blu ray is dead
Speaker 1: because Sony is exiting the Blu ray production business. But
Speaker 1: there's a little more to that story. Okay, Sony is
Speaker 1: no longer making recordable Blu rays.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I don't know the
Speaker 1: last time that you made your own Blu ray in
Speaker 1: your house. You probably haven't in a long time. Nobody
Speaker 1: has same, probably the same timeline that you made your
Speaker 1: last cassette tape in your house, or recorded your last
Speaker 1: VHS tape, or recorded your last VCR tape or DVD
Speaker 1: tape or DVD tape. It's my first day, folks, you know,
Speaker 1: give me a break. Hey, we did fix that woman's flashlight, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: So Sony, Sony is.
Speaker 2: No longer doing the recordable Blu ray discs.
Speaker 1: You're still gonna be able to buy Blu rays at
Speaker 1: Target and Walmart Best Buy, as you might recall, got
Speaker 1: rid of their section of physical media a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, or they're in the process of doing that,
Speaker 1: depending on the store. But yes, I mean, look at
Speaker 1: the bigger answer here is that physical media is going away.
Speaker 2: It just is.
Speaker 1: It's it's been on a death march forever and it
Speaker 1: just continues to be that way.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I know there's people that want to collect their physical movies,
Speaker 1: they want to have physical media. I'm not one of
Speaker 1: those people, So I understand the nostalgia around it. I
Speaker 1: totally get it. And I understand the ownership of having
Speaker 1: something that is yours. All these movies that you're buying
Speaker 1: on Amazon and on Apple and all, they're not really yours.
Speaker 1: They can take them away at any time, look in
Speaker 1: the terms of service. So I understand having something that's yours.
Speaker 1: I totally get that. But at the same time, you
Speaker 1: can't have a big business around this stuff when nobody's
Speaker 1: actually selling them or buying them. And then Tesla is
Speaker 1: refreshing the model. Why this is a major refresh first
Speaker 1: launched in China, now it's coming to the US in March.
Speaker 1: Big changes. Not to the range though, three and twenty miles.
Speaker 1: I really wish that they could get this thing to
Speaker 1: four hundred miles. That is the sweet spot for an
Speaker 1: Evy range is four hundred miles. But again, they did
Speaker 1: get a tiny range increase about two point eight percent.
Speaker 2: That's not that much.
Speaker 1: Upgraded suspension for a better ride, less vibration on rough roads,
Speaker 1: less road noise. The doors feel better, more premium when
Speaker 1: you close them. There's a brighter and more responsive touchscreen. Yes,
Speaker 1: they definitely need that. There's also a passenger rear passenger
Speaker 1: eight inch touchscreen. There's a better glass in all the windows,
Speaker 1: so it's gonna be quieter. Let's see. The Fronk has
Speaker 1: a drain hole. I don't know what that means. I
Speaker 1: guess you can put like ice in the front, like
Speaker 1: you can keep stuff.
Speaker 2: That's kind of cool. It's actually a smart idea. Have
Speaker 2: that on mind. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 8: The Mustang Machy has that same feature.
Speaker 2: Have you ice down anything?
Speaker 8: I haven't yet, any reason too.
Speaker 2: I mean it's kind of fun.
Speaker 10: I get it.
Speaker 1: You got a tailgate you put the I I mean
Speaker 1: that's cool. So that's a fun feature. Three sixty five
Speaker 1: watt USBC chargers, which means you can charge like your
Speaker 1: laptop and things. They're much higher power than before front
Speaker 1: light bar. I know a lot of people it's kind
Speaker 1: of very similar to the cyber truck. I know, it's
Speaker 1: very Some people like that. Some people don't better cellular reception,
Speaker 1: better Wi Fi, and better phone recognition. All these little
Speaker 1: things that I have issue with on the Tesla. They
Speaker 1: have fixed delivery start twenty twenty five forty five to
Speaker 1: sixty thousand dollars for the new model. Why coming up,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk accessible tech right after this. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out
Speaker 1: with you, Talking technology. The website for the show rich
Speaker 1: on Tech dot tv. There you can email me, sign
Speaker 1: up for the newsletter, find me on social media, subscribe
Speaker 1: to the podcast. Pretty much your one stop shop for
Speaker 1: all things related to this show. Vincent writes in, Hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: I hope all as well with you and your family.
Speaker 1: Can you recommend a good QR code scanner I can
Speaker 1: download on my Android phone? Thanks, Vinnie, Well, you don't
Speaker 1: really need to download an app. Most of the modern
Speaker 1: Android smartphones have the QR code scanning feature built into
Speaker 1: your phone's camera, So if it's not on, you can
Speaker 1: go into your phone settings and it should say QR
Speaker 1: code scanning and you can toggle that on. Or you
Speaker 1: can use Google Lens, which is also built into almost
Speaker 1: all of the Android phones. You can also use Circle
Speaker 1: the Search to scan QR codes. If you see on
Speaker 1: on your screen, you can just use circle to search
Speaker 1: and tap it. But if you must download a standalone app,
Speaker 1: you can download one called bar Code Scanner. And this
Speaker 1: is a bar code scanner. It's uh, let's see who's
Speaker 1: the Let me see who the person who makes it
Speaker 1: is so you can make sure you're getting the right one.
Speaker 1: At the rock a t h A R okay Ather
Speaker 1: Rock Scanner, QR Code and products. All right, let me
Speaker 1: bring up my guest, Paul amideis Lane is a radio
Speaker 1: host and accessibility consultant, and he's going to talk about
Speaker 1: how tech can empower folks with disabilities.
Speaker 2: Paul, welcome to the show.
Speaker 5: Rich, Thank you so much. How are you, my friend?
Speaker 2: I am doing fantastic.
Speaker 1: So we often run run into each other at the
Speaker 1: tech events far and wide. So how is the tech
Speaker 1: world going for you these days?
Speaker 5: You know what, Rich? Is amazing?
Speaker 13: I am optimistic at just some of the technologies out
Speaker 13: there that help ones like myself in the entire disabled community,
Speaker 13: just to enjoy all this amazing tech that's out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's I think a really another side of
Speaker 1: technology is that it is helping folks with different abilities
Speaker 1: to accomplish a lot of the same things that anyone can,
Speaker 1: and I think that that's what's really neat about what
Speaker 1: we've seen recently. Paul, can you share a little bit
Speaker 1: about your story, your personal story, like what happened to
Speaker 1: you and where you're at today?
Speaker 5: Absolutely?
Speaker 13: I rich Back in nineteen ninety three, I was involved
Speaker 13: in an automobile accident that left me a quadriplegic and
Speaker 13: a power wheelchair user.
Speaker 5: My C six and seven vertebrae was damaged.
Speaker 13: So what that means is I do have some hand movement,
Speaker 13: it's risk movement, but I don't have any finger movements.
Speaker 13: A lot of sensation is done is a numb like
Speaker 13: under my nipple line.
Speaker 5: So that's my disability. Wow.
Speaker 1: And so I mean, do you remember, I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know how you were when this happened, but do
Speaker 1: you remember having full ability and now having this?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely?
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 13: I remember being at vibrant youngster, playing basketball, being a musician,
Speaker 13: loving video games, and living an amazing life.
Speaker 5: And then when this happened, it was like a new normal, Like, Okay, I.
Speaker 13: Had to learn how to adapt to just what my
Speaker 13: abilities would be now.
Speaker 1: And what was that process like and has it gotten
Speaker 1: you know, you're talking what ninety three, almost thirty years now,
Speaker 1: so I mean, has technology has changed in that time.
Speaker 2: I'm guessing, oh it has.
Speaker 5: Rich.
Speaker 13: I remember when I when I first got injured, you know,
Speaker 13: just trying to turn on the TV. I wouldn't able
Speaker 13: to do it. I would have to have a family
Speaker 13: member do it for me. And then I would like
Speaker 13: take a remote and use like my lip I'm holding
Speaker 13: it in the palm of my hand just to turn
Speaker 13: the different stations and couldn't turn on lights, couldn't do
Speaker 13: any of those things. So I was just left at
Speaker 13: everyone's mercy to try to do things for me.
Speaker 5: So it was a really challenging time for me. And
Speaker 5: what about now, Ah, Now, Rich, I am unstoppable, man.
Speaker 13: I can use technology to control my environmentals. I can
Speaker 13: use it to open my back door. I can use
Speaker 13: it just to be as independent as possible now and
Speaker 13: it's amazing.
Speaker 1: And one thing to know about Paul, he is always
Speaker 1: smiling every tech event I see. And by the way,
Speaker 1: it's not like you know, you're in a wheelchair, but
Speaker 1: you're you're not limited like you. I've seen you all
Speaker 1: over the place, like in Vegas, here in La So
Speaker 1: I mean you definitely get around.
Speaker 13: Uh, you know I do. And uh it's funny. You
Speaker 13: know my family always joke around and be like you're
Speaker 13: too busy, stop being so busy. But I'm like, no,
Speaker 13: you know, I have to keep going, have to be
Speaker 13: going to different events and everything just to find out
Speaker 13: more about it. I can just live in life to
Speaker 13: the fullest, rich and meeting amazing people like you so.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you and yourself included too. What I guess,
Speaker 1: what are some of the brands or some of the
Speaker 1: things that you think people should be aware of, you know,
Speaker 1: looking into accessible technology.
Speaker 13: Well, let's let's take smartphones to uh to be precise,
Speaker 13: and I would say, instead of measuring on what smartphone
Speaker 13: is more accessible, look at the different accessibility features and
Speaker 13: the different smartphones like me, I have iPhone, also have androids,
Speaker 13: So I would say, like for the Android model, voice access,
Speaker 13: especially if you have limited mobility in your hands like
Speaker 13: I do. Voice access allows me to say things like
Speaker 13: open Gmail, scroll down, tap reply. I can do all
Speaker 13: types of things with my voice and even like with Siri,
Speaker 13: using that to open up different apps and helping me
Speaker 13: to do it. Now for once you're a vision impaired
Speaker 13: who has maybe some hearing hearing challenges, some of the
Speaker 13: features on there are amazing too, like live Transcribe, you
Speaker 13: have other type of sound notifications on Android allows you
Speaker 13: to if your coffee maker is a is completed, you'll
Speaker 13: get a notification on your phone that's done. So some
Speaker 13: of these features out there make it amazingly to be independent.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: And do you think that these companies have put more
Speaker 1: emphasis on these accessibility features over the past couple of years.
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, And it's been incredible.
Speaker 13: And even though I started my career in journalism, but
Speaker 13: now parlaying into being an accessibility consultant working with these
Speaker 13: different companies to make this a reality and seeing kind
Speaker 13: of the inner workings of it. Now, Rich, it's like
Speaker 13: they're really prioritizing this now because I think we finally
Speaker 13: got people to understand that all of us one day
Speaker 13: are going to age into some type of disability. So
Speaker 13: they're getting that now, Rich, So now they are creating
Speaker 13: and wanted to put these things out there so if
Speaker 13: something ever happens to them, are when they get a
Speaker 13: little older, they'll be able to use technology.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because even as we age, I mean, you're talking
Speaker 1: limited mobility, limited vision. I mean, these are all things
Speaker 1: that just happened to you know, able body people over
Speaker 1: the years.
Speaker 2: Anyway. Absolutely, So what about when it.
Speaker 1: Comes to like video games any kind of Like I
Speaker 1: was at the the there was like a season accessibility
Speaker 1: conference and they had a whole bunch of like PlayStation
Speaker 1: had like video game controllers that were very accessible. I've
Speaker 1: been to Microsoft where they have a whole line of
Speaker 1: accessories that are very customizable.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I am partial to PlayStation. I'll tell you. I'll
Speaker 5: let you know why.
Speaker 13: Rich, I've had the privilege of working on some of
Speaker 13: their top Triple A games, putting accessibility features and working
Speaker 13: with their development teams, and just some of the features
Speaker 13: that they have in there now will allow you to
Speaker 13: make it so that you can don't have to have
Speaker 13: these complex button pushes or if your vision impaired, have
Speaker 13: an audio description, having all these certain things that make
Speaker 13: gaming more accessible. And working on the access controller with
Speaker 13: PlayStation that was like my Crown Jewel, being able to
Speaker 13: help them to carve out how they can have this
Speaker 13: controller where it's customizable, you can have different profiles in there.
Speaker 13: And before that, Rich, when I used to game man,
Speaker 13: I used to put the controller in the palm of
Speaker 13: my hand and use my chin, use my lip to
Speaker 13: manipulate the controller. But now single what's out there? I mean,
Speaker 13: the sky is the limit. Rich's coming down the pipe
Speaker 13: this year is gonna be mind blowing.
Speaker 2: Oh that's amazing. That's good to hear.
Speaker 1: What about all these voice assistants and AI, like, I
Speaker 1: feel like that's probably like CHATCHYBT and all that.
Speaker 2: Are you able to use that or what?
Speaker 5: Oh? Yeah, Rich?
Speaker 13: And you know, like when we're preparing to do certain things,
Speaker 13: you know, I'm having like my own virtual personal assistant
Speaker 13: has just been been been a game changer for me.
Speaker 13: You know, I can it can help me out to
Speaker 13: edit some copy that I'm working on. It can it
Speaker 13: can act as giving me reminders out there, being able
Speaker 13: to put something together like an email.
Speaker 5: It makes me sound like like you're Rich, Like I'm like, I'm.
Speaker 2: Intelligent way you are intelligent.
Speaker 13: But you know, it really just helps me out to
Speaker 13: be able to be more independent, not having to rely
Speaker 13: on family members and help me do certain things.
Speaker 5: But but that that's been a game change.
Speaker 13: And even like smart home devices too, I mean, Rich,
Speaker 13: that is just I tell you, it's wild.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like all the just the things that you can
Speaker 2: program in to do and use your voice to command
Speaker 2: those things.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 13: And Rich I see, yes, I know you've probably got
Speaker 13: you got a chance to see to see what Samsung's BOLLI. Yeah,
Speaker 13: and that right there. I was like, I can't wait
Speaker 13: to get that in my house, to be able to
Speaker 13: use that kind of smart artificial intelligence, to be able
Speaker 13: to take Alexa and Google to the next level.
Speaker 5: We're doing certain things.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So Bali, if you don't know, is this little robot
Speaker 1: that sort of rolls around on the floor, but it
Speaker 1: can control your smart home devices. It's all voice activated,
Speaker 1: and it can also has a projector built in, so
Speaker 1: almost like R two D two style, where it's like
Speaker 1: it can project a movie on the wall or a
Speaker 1: website whatever you need.
Speaker 2: It can read stuff too.
Speaker 1: It's got cameras, like if you hold a bottle of
Speaker 1: wine in front of it, it'll tell you like all
Speaker 1: about the wine or what it pairs with and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff.
Speaker 13: Yeah, And you know, Rich, that caught my attention because
Speaker 13: I'm like, when I next have my Rabbi, I won't
Speaker 13: bother to let me know either. Boom Farms or Thunderbird,
Speaker 13: whichever goes with it, right.
Speaker 2: I love it?
Speaker 1: Hey, So for you, you know, I know that this
Speaker 1: has been a big change for you in your life.
Speaker 1: What do you think people need to know about people
Speaker 1: like yourself? When you know you're a bit different and
Speaker 1: you know people see that and sometimes people are scared
Speaker 1: or they you know, their standoffish.
Speaker 2: What do you what's your message to people?
Speaker 5: You know, I'm like, just treat us like like like
Speaker 5: regular folks. You know what I mean.
Speaker 13: We we laugh, we cry, we hug, we love, you know,
Speaker 13: all the differences. We use a sense of and adaptive technologies.
Speaker 13: You know, I'm a I'm an open book.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 13: When someone comes to me and asks me, hey, do
Speaker 13: you mind telling me what happened to you?
Speaker 5: I don't mind at all.
Speaker 13: You know, just come and talk and ask us if
Speaker 13: we need any assistance. You know, you know, we we
Speaker 13: love it and interact. We love to be sociable, you know,
Speaker 13: just don't fear us. You know, just let's get a
Speaker 13: chance to know each other.
Speaker 1: Approaches absolutely great advice, Paul. What's the best way for
Speaker 1: folks to keep up with you?
Speaker 13: Well, they can always reach out to me. Paulamadeas Lane
Speaker 13: dot com. That's my website and even on all social
Speaker 13: media platforms, Paul Amadea's Lane even LinkedIn because I am
Speaker 13: a not a businessman, but a businessman, so you can
Speaker 13: reach me on LinkedIn to it.
Speaker 1: Paul Almadea's Lane all right, and I'll link it up
Speaker 1: on the website. Paulamedeis Lane dot com. Go to rich
Speaker 1: on Tech dot TV. Paul, what a pleasure speaking with
Speaker 1: you this morning.
Speaker 5: Same here, Rich Rich.
Speaker 13: Thank you so much for the honor for me to
Speaker 13: be able to come on the show and talk with you.
Speaker 5: My friends.
Speaker 1: Same here, same here, more rich on Tech coming your way,
Speaker 1: plus the feedback right after this. Welcome back to rich
Speaker 1: on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you, just
Speaker 1: processing the last conversation. What an incredible interview, what incredible story,
Speaker 1: what incredible person. And it just goes to show that,
Speaker 1: you know, just because people are different, are different from
Speaker 1: us or different from what you're used to, it's just
Speaker 1: got to talk to them and you got to like
Speaker 1: get to know them and understand where they're coming from.
Speaker 1: And it's just you know, I've seen Paul for so
Speaker 1: many years and I wasn't really aware of what his
Speaker 1: original story was, and he was so happy to share
Speaker 1: it and so happy to be a wealth of information
Speaker 1: for the you know, accessible community. I mean, it's just
Speaker 1: really really amazing. So thank you Paul for doing that.
Speaker 1: Appreciate it. And actually this goes to a bigger kind
Speaker 1: of topic I had. So I was at the Samsung
Speaker 1: event this week. I was there for about four days,
Speaker 1: and Samsung, full disclosure, they did bring me up there,
Speaker 1: as they did with a lot of people, and so
Speaker 1: you know, it doesn't influence what I think of the
Speaker 1: products or anything like that. But part of the benefit
Speaker 1: of being at these events is the people. And I
Speaker 1: spent four days with the all the tech reviewers. I
Speaker 1: mean I'm talking every major tech reviewer you've seen on
Speaker 1: YouTube or on TV or the internet or whatever was there.
Speaker 1: And you get to hang out with them, and you
Speaker 1: get to go to the events and then afterwards you
Speaker 1: go to parties, and that is really an incredible thing
Speaker 1: in any business, not just mine, but like the people,
Speaker 1: that is what it all comes down to. So the
Speaker 1: relationships and understanding and exchanging information, you know, just asking
Speaker 1: everyone how they do their job, and you know, just
Speaker 1: it's really incredible. So Anyway, the more people that you
Speaker 1: kind of talk to, the more that you interact with them,
Speaker 1: it just really makes such a difference in your life
Speaker 1: that I highly recommend it.
Speaker 2: So don't just stay home and play video.
Speaker 1: Games, I guess, don't just like stay home and watch
Speaker 1: Netflix all day. Like get out and like even for me,
Speaker 1: it takes me out of my comfort zone. Like we
Speaker 1: go to these events and you know, I can handle
Speaker 1: this stuff, like the Samsung presentation and that, but like
Speaker 1: you know, going to like cocktail parties, going to parties,
Speaker 1: going to events, like you got to put yourself out
Speaker 1: there a little bit, right You're you know, you may
Speaker 1: not have a wingman or someone you can hang out
Speaker 1: with all the time, or someone that's close to you,
Speaker 1: and so you got to like go in and just
Speaker 1: you know, say hi to people and talk to them.
Speaker 1: So it's it takes a lot to put yourself out
Speaker 1: there in those in that respect. All right, Let's see
Speaker 1: if there's any other news that I want to get
Speaker 1: to before I get to the feedback here circle to Search.
Speaker 1: I know I mentioned it earlier, but it is getting smarter.
Speaker 1: I think I mentioned it can now instantly recognize the
Speaker 1: phone numbers, the email addresses and URLs on your screen.
Speaker 1: So that's pretty cool. I'm gonna link up a cool
Speaker 1: blog post from the popcar Bear blog about free software gems.
Speaker 1: This was posted by my pal Jared Newman from advisorator
Speaker 1: dot com. If you're not signed up for his newsletter,
Speaker 1: his is really good, but he posted this link. It's
Speaker 1: got all these different little apps that can really help,
Speaker 1: like local send, which is kind of like an air
Speaker 1: drop but for everything, send, which is like a drop
Speaker 1: Box but for like, you know, just sharing a temporary
Speaker 1: link to a file. Joplin open source note taking software,
Speaker 1: audio Mass Have you heard of that one? Bobo audio Mass,
Speaker 1: a web based audio editor quick things like splitting tracks,
Speaker 1: removing silence, applying filters audio Mass, Yeah, Calces calculator app.
Speaker 1: Let's see Chris Titus win util Windows customization tool for
Speaker 1: disabling bloatwear and optimizing the OS. So anyway, I'll put
Speaker 1: that on the link and the website as well. Rich
Speaker 1: on tech dot tv, all right, let's open up this feedback.
Speaker 1: See what you had to say this week. Efrin from
Speaker 1: Oxnard writes in, Hey, Rich, I was listening to your
Speaker 1: podcast from January eighteenth, when Stanley asked about recording shows
Speaker 1: with Spectrum. You suggested getting the Zuomo Box for his
Speaker 1: main TV, but wanted to share that Spectrum already offers
Speaker 1: digital recording for a fee. You can access your recorded
Speaker 1: programs via their app on any device. Since he uses
Speaker 1: Roku that's all he needs, it could save him the
Speaker 1: cost of renting the Zuomo de Thank you for your
Speaker 1: great advice. I love listening to your podcast and watching
Speaker 1: you on TV. Keep up the great work and say
Speaker 1: hi to Bobo what up? I love it? Thank you, Efran.
Speaker 1: I think that our caller, if I remember, was saying
Speaker 1: that he had two TVs. One he wanted the Box
Speaker 1: four and one he wanted the Roku app with the
Speaker 1: Spectrum so or the Roku Box with Spectrum.
Speaker 2: So good.
Speaker 1: Good stuff there. Matt from Queen Creek, Arizona, rights in rich.
Speaker 1: I recently discovered your podcast and love it. A few
Speaker 1: weeks ago you discussed photo backup for phones, but I
Speaker 1: didn't hear Microsoft three sixty five mentioned it includes one drive,
Speaker 1: which I use for about seventy dollars a year. It
Speaker 1: works great on my Samsung phone. Thanks yes, Matt, and
Speaker 1: now you have to deal with that price increase. We
Speaker 1: talked about, so change to that classic plan if you
Speaker 1: want to pay more. Thanks for listening to the podcast.
Speaker 1: Amanda from Westlake Village rights in My family loves your
Speaker 1: tech reports on TV and in the car on KFI.
Speaker 2: Thank you well, thank you, Amanda. That means a lot
Speaker 2: to me.
Speaker 1: Alvin from Tewksbury, Massachusetts writes in your radio show has
Speaker 1: taught me, at seventy five, quite a lot about the
Speaker 1: technology available in everyday life.
Speaker 2: Thanks for that, well, thank you, Alvin. Let's see here.
Speaker 1: Ruth from San Pedro writes in your answer to the
Speaker 1: caller's question today on the iPad storage saved me. I
Speaker 1: had called Apple support too. No one can help me,
Speaker 1: but you. Thank you, thank you, thank you three thank
Speaker 1: yous in that one. I'm telling you, the feeling I
Speaker 1: get from this show and we actually help people is
Speaker 1: really nice, I will say. Lynn writes in hey, a
Speaker 1: warning about scams when a scam. When a scam hits
Speaker 1: your computer screen, it might not let you turn off
Speaker 1: your computer normally if you're not using battery power. Just
Speaker 1: unplug the machine either at its back or the electrical receptacle.
Speaker 1: Wait ten seconds, plug it in, and the scam is gone.
Speaker 1: I speak from experience. If you're on laptop power first,
Speaker 1: I don't know, but i'd shut the lid fast cheers. Yes,
Speaker 1: when you get those things that take over your screen,
Speaker 1: do whatever you can to get out of there. You
Speaker 1: might have to just restart your computer, unplug it if
Speaker 1: you have to, unplug it from the internet. If you
Speaker 1: have to, that's going to do it. Links to everything
Speaker 1: on the website rich on tech dot tv. I'm on
Speaker 1: social media at rich on Tech. Next week Philip Swan,
Speaker 1: the TV answer man, we'll talk about the Super Bowl coverage.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. I'm rich Demiro. I'll talk
Speaker 1: to you real soon.