Speaker 1: Apple launches very expensive headphones Disney Plus, ready's a price increase.
Speaker 1: Google assistant routines are easier than ever. Plus your tech
Speaker 1: questions answered? What's going on? I'm Rich Demiro and this
Speaker 1: is Rich on Tech the podcast right talk about the
Speaker 1: tech stuff I think you should know about. It's also
Speaker 1: the place where I answer the questions that you send me.
Speaker 1: And boy, do you send a lot of them? Well,
Speaker 1: I should say boys and girls. It's not just boys,
Speaker 1: it's everyone. I mean I met boy as like, boy,
Speaker 1: do you send a lot of them? And yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I get them always. I mean Instagram, DMS, email, Facebook posts,
Speaker 1: text messages. I mean, you guys, you find me, you
Speaker 1: figure out how to get in touch with me, and
Speaker 1: I reply to a lot of them. But this is
Speaker 1: the place where I really take the time to kind
Speaker 1: of share what I'm talking to you about privately with everyone,
Speaker 1: whether you like it or not, if you email me
Speaker 1: or text me, that's just what happens. I'm the tech
Speaker 1: reporter at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: been quite the year. We're almost done with it, if
Speaker 1: you can believe it. And I've been enjoying the holidays
Speaker 1: a lot last night, we went to this. It's so
Speaker 1: funny that a drive through Christmas light display is a thing,
Speaker 1: but that's the thing here in Los Angeles. And we
Speaker 1: went through this it's called like Wonderland last night. It
Speaker 1: was really cool and they put a lot of work
Speaker 1: into it. It was like, you know, a whole drive through.
Speaker 1: We went to one that was just lights. This one
Speaker 1: was sort of a whole wonderland, you know, with like
Speaker 1: snow and you know, different buildings and just all kinds
Speaker 1: of stuff and dancers moving around like it was. It
Speaker 1: was pretty well done. I got to say, seventy bucks
Speaker 1: for a car loads, so I mean, you know, it
Speaker 1: wasn't cheap, but I mean, we're My wife and I
Speaker 1: were discussing this and it's like, well, you know, if
Speaker 1: you go to a movie for a family of four,
Speaker 1: you're gonna easily spend seventy bucks. I mean, tickets alone
Speaker 1: here in La are probably you know, depending on the
Speaker 1: depending on the time in the theater. You know, I've
Speaker 1: gotten them as low as like nine dollars for like
Speaker 1: a cheap matinee to like as much as like eighteen
Speaker 1: dollars depending on where you go.
Speaker 2: So it can it can add up.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: So that was fun.
Speaker 1: And I've just been really enjoying the holidays with a
Speaker 1: lot of holiday movies and music and decorating the house
Speaker 1: because i've just been I figured out the word I
Speaker 1: was trying to get last week. I've been nesting. That's
Speaker 1: the word I was looking for. I not that you
Speaker 1: think back all the way to last week's show, but
Speaker 1: I do. Once I record the show. For the rest
Speaker 1: of the week, I just it plays over and over
Speaker 1: in my head and I'm like, what did I say wrong?
Speaker 1: What did I say weird? What did I say bad?
Speaker 1: What did I say good? Who did I offend? And
Speaker 1: the one word that I was looking for last week
Speaker 1: was nesting. That's what I've been doing. And so everything
Speaker 1: is nice and cozy in my place, lots of fireplaces
Speaker 1: at night.
Speaker 2: We finally got our fireplace.
Speaker 1: Hooked up, and it's just been nice, lots of you know,
Speaker 1: it's been really really fun. On Hulu, they have a
Speaker 1: section of like all holiday stuff, and they have all
Speaker 1: the old shows that I used to watch as a
Speaker 1: kid with their holiday shows like Wonder Years, step by Step,
Speaker 1: Family Matters, Full House, Brady Bunch, and it's just fun,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's nostalgic. That's what I need this
Speaker 1: year to get through this because it's been such a
Speaker 1: weird year. I can't go home for the holidays. We
Speaker 1: canceled everything. We canceled Near's Eve, Christmas Eve, all of
Speaker 1: our vacations this year. And yeah, I know, poor Rich,
Speaker 1: I know, so tough, but.
Speaker 2: You know it is. It's been. It's been.
Speaker 1: We've been in our house for pretty much the whole year.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's really interesting. Never have I spent
Speaker 1: so much time at home, and it's fun. I like
Speaker 1: the the aspect of everyone being together. And my wife
Speaker 1: had to go to work today out of the house
Speaker 1: and it was, you know, we had to rush in
Speaker 1: the morning.
Speaker 2: Oh go go, go, get the kids ready.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, you see, see the pandemic
Speaker 1: there are some positives because you know, you haven't had
Speaker 1: to rush out of the house like this in a
Speaker 1: long time. So I spent a couple of days cleaning
Speaker 1: up my Google drive. I think I talked about this
Speaker 1: in the last show, but it just felt so good.
Speaker 1: You know, I think I'm having deja vu. I think
Speaker 1: I already talked about this, but anyway, I've been cleaning
Speaker 1: up my Google Drive because you know, I'm on this
Speaker 1: mission to get it, you know, as low as possible,
Speaker 1: so I don't have to pay any extra come June
Speaker 1: next year or whenever they're doing it. I think it's June,
Speaker 1: and I've been I've been making some progress on that.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to some of the news. I
Speaker 1: guess this was big news for the week. I mean,
Speaker 1: if it's Apple, it's always big news, right. Apple introduced
Speaker 1: a new pair of headphones called the AirPods Max. They love,
Speaker 1: they love using. For a while, it was plus. Now
Speaker 1: plus is anything like a subscription that you're paying extra for,
Speaker 1: like Disney Plus US or the upcoming Apple Fitness Plus.
Speaker 1: Anything with a plus at the end means they're going
Speaker 1: to be slowly but surely sapping the money out of
Speaker 1: your bank account over a long period of time. That's
Speaker 1: what the plus means in any name, ESPN plus. Oh,
Speaker 1: we'll take this six ninety nine a month. Where's the
Speaker 1: Spotify Plus? All these music services started before there was
Speaker 1: plus in the name. So the AirPods Max are headphones
Speaker 1: that go over the ear. And the big headline that
Speaker 1: you know everyone was talking about is that these are
Speaker 1: five hundred and forty nine dollars WHOA for a.
Speaker 2: Pair of headphones?
Speaker 1: Now, I remember it was like ten years ago when
Speaker 1: I bought my Bow's noise canceling headphones for a trip
Speaker 1: to Japan. It was like my first international trip with KTLA,
Speaker 1: and I was like, should I spend the three point
Speaker 1: fifty on this pair of headphones? Oh my gosh, it's
Speaker 1: so expensive. And by the way, I've had them ever since.
Speaker 1: They still work great, although a little bit of the
Speaker 1: pads are sort of wearing off, but you know, they're
Speaker 1: they're still still cranking. And three point fifty was very
Speaker 1: well spent because I've divided up by all the international
Speaker 1: trips I've and air trips I've taken with them, and yeah,
Speaker 1: you do by the hour, and it's like a penny
Speaker 1: per hour at this point. So anyway, now I'm not
Speaker 1: defending these AirPods Max. I know that that price is
Speaker 1: extremely high. But with s said, they've got the Apple
Speaker 1: Magic built in, they've got the noise cancelation, they've got
Speaker 1: you know, three D audio, they've got adaptive sound.
Speaker 2: They come in five cool.
Speaker 1: Colors, gray, silver, blue, green, pink, and you know it's breathable.
Speaker 1: I did not get a sample of these from Apple,
Speaker 1: so that goes to show the importance of my report
Speaker 1: to them. But I did see that a lot of
Speaker 1: the YouTubers got them, and you know, I didn't watch
Speaker 1: any of the videos just yet, so I'll maybe do
Speaker 1: that this weekend and see kind of what their response is.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's all gonna be cheery, because you know,
Speaker 1: what are they gonna say. I mean, they're these these
Speaker 1: headphones are probably beautiful, they probably sound great, and they're
Speaker 1: probably nice and lightweight, just as advertised. But the reality is,
Speaker 1: is the average person ready to plunk down five hundred
Speaker 1: and forty nine dollars? Probably not? But will there be
Speaker 1: enough people that say, yeah, I was thinking of spending
Speaker 1: three fifty. I mean, what's another two hundred if I'm
Speaker 1: going to three fifty? And I don't think that's me
Speaker 1: per se, but there will be a lot of people,
Speaker 1: especially I'm thinking like the frequent flyer set, sort of
Speaker 1: the influencer set, the quasi celebrity set, and you know,
Speaker 1: the business folks set, and you know, the typical person,
Speaker 1: you know, the average Joe might get these. Yeah, probably not,
Speaker 1: I don't think so. So twenty hours of audio and
Speaker 1: you know, it does everything as you would imagine. It's
Speaker 1: basically a beautiful pair of AirPods in a different form
Speaker 1: function or different form factor. Five hundred forty nine dollars
Speaker 1: shipping on Tuesday, December fifteenth. You know, I'll be honest
Speaker 1: if I'm if I'm being completely honest with you, if
Speaker 1: I was, you know, using an iPhone, which you know
Speaker 1: I do, but I struggle because I always want to
Speaker 1: switch to my Android. But if I'm using an iPhone,
Speaker 1: you know, like permanently, which I have been for two years.
Speaker 2: But you know, I.
Speaker 1: Feel like I use an iPhone, but I'm not like
Speaker 1: one hundred percent committed, you know, but I still love it,
Speaker 1: and I'm just like and I'll get to you know,
Speaker 1: I don't want to get into all the reasons, but
Speaker 1: you know, so anyway, I would be tempted because I'd
Speaker 1: be like, you know what, if if I'm traveling again
Speaker 1: on an airplane, like these are probably amazing and with
Speaker 1: Siri built in and how lightweight they are, they probably
Speaker 1: feel great. I mean, AirPods are pretty magical, and so
Speaker 1: if you can get that same thing with a pair
Speaker 1: of over the year headphones, I mean, that's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to our first question, and this
Speaker 1: one is a little different because I've got a new
Speaker 1: podcast home. Just go to podcast dot rich on tech
Speaker 1: dot TV or rich on TV, rich on TV, rich
Speaker 1: on tech dot TV, slash podcast, and that will take
Speaker 1: you to the new home for my podcast.
Speaker 2: It looks really cool.
Speaker 1: I'm testing this service called pod page and it's really
Speaker 1: really slick and I love it. But the cool thing
Speaker 1: about it is that in the lower right hand corner
Speaker 1: there is a microphone and you can leave me a
Speaker 1: voicemail and it's super easy. It's super fun and we
Speaker 1: can do cool things like this.
Speaker 3: Hey, Rich, my name's Charlie van Kirk. Been a fan
Speaker 3: of the show for a long time, really enjoicing your segments.
Speaker 3: And I'm a tech you guy too. One thing that
Speaker 3: I just purchased is ub key five, the NFC version,
Speaker 3: and I use last Pass. I've used it for years.
Speaker 3: I also use last Past Authenticator app. I was just
Speaker 3: wondering if you'd be able to do a segment, you know,
Speaker 3: showing people the advantages of using hardware encryption and authentication
Speaker 3: and maybe just kind of simplify it for people. It's
Speaker 3: pretty complex stuff. You know, let people know that it's
Speaker 3: not difficult to step your level of security a notch.
Speaker 1: All right now, thank you, Thank you Charlie for being
Speaker 1: the very first person to use the microphone to leave
Speaker 1: a voicemail. Love It Again podcast dot richon tech dot
Speaker 1: tv or rich on tech dot tv Slash podcast will
Speaker 1: bring you to the new home for the podcast. Okay,
Speaker 1: to answer your question, Charlie, well, I love the fact
Speaker 1: that you are staying extra extra secure with this ubikey.
Speaker 1: I am aware of these. I have not used them,
Speaker 1: nor have I tested them in the past, but I'm
Speaker 1: looking at the website and it looks really cool. So
Speaker 1: what sort of if I'm understanding this, it's kind of
Speaker 1: like a physical key that unlocks your two factor authentication
Speaker 1: for your various accounts. So instead of having to like
Speaker 1: type in a number with like an authenticator app, you
Speaker 1: would just use this and it would authenticate automatically and seamlessly.
Speaker 1: Because the idea being is that you have this little
Speaker 1: key and it's on your body, and you're the one
Speaker 1: that that would be able to authenticate.
Speaker 2: So I imagine there's some sort of.
Speaker 1: You know, since it is two factor, I need to
Speaker 1: look into this more because I'm not exactly sure how
Speaker 1: this works, but it seems cool and I'm trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how it's better than my authenticator app. There's
Speaker 1: obviously an extra level of security here that I'm missing
Speaker 1: right now at first glance.
Speaker 2: But and here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, I love the fact that you're trying to
Speaker 1: get me to you know, my segment is on TV,
Speaker 1: it's on mainstream media, and it's for an average audience
Speaker 1: that is not necessarily techies, and so the challenge there
Speaker 1: is honestly just getting people to use a password that
Speaker 1: is not the same password for ten different websites is
Speaker 1: really really tough. And I will say in recent years,
Speaker 1: I have seen a lot more people show interest in
Speaker 1: password managers, which I think is amazing. And you know,
Speaker 1: I use one, my wife uses one. I told my
Speaker 1: dad about it on or who'd I tell to just
Speaker 1: use it? You know, Like the iPhone and Android have
Speaker 1: them built in, and they're getting a little bit more
Speaker 1: aggressive now, like it's kind of on by default. I
Speaker 1: feel like when you download Chrome on Android or it's
Speaker 1: called like Google smart lock or something, it's like the
Speaker 1: first time you type in a pass word, it's like,
Speaker 1: do you want us to save that for you, and
Speaker 1: you're like what, Or I've noticed on iPhone it will
Speaker 1: just suggest them for you if you're in Safari. So
Speaker 1: we're making progress, folks. It's just a matter of like
Speaker 1: this this UBI key is like next next level, and
Speaker 1: so I'm not sure. In the past, I've kind of
Speaker 1: shied away from this with a mainstream audience because it
Speaker 1: it might like you also have to think on TV,
Speaker 1: how do you tease something? How do you say to
Speaker 1: people you know, you know why they should tune in
Speaker 1: and watch your story, And with this one it would
Speaker 1: be kind of tough. I mean, it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: a better way to secure your accounts, you know, and
Speaker 1: maybe it's easier, but again I need to research. So
Speaker 1: thank you for the for the voicemail and thanks for
Speaker 1: the story suggestion. I will definitely look into it. And
Speaker 1: it looks cool. I remember so many years ago my
Speaker 1: roommate was he had a job, and he sat down
Speaker 1: at his computer and he had like this little keychain
Speaker 1: thing that would like I think it was for like
Speaker 1: e trade or something, and it would like randomly generate
Speaker 1: a number every thirty seconds or whatever it was, and
Speaker 1: it was a two factor authenticator and at the time
Speaker 1: I didn't even know what it was, but he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got to pop in this number to make sure
Speaker 1: it's me when I log in. I was like, oh, interesting,
Speaker 1: So I'm guessing this ubkey sort of functions in that
Speaker 1: way without a physical display.
Speaker 2: Very cool.
Speaker 1: Thanks again, Podcast dot Rich on tech dot TV. Leave
Speaker 1: a voicemail and you might hear your voice on the
Speaker 1: next podcast not just mine. Disney Plus is already raising
Speaker 1: prices and I can't really complain about this one, but
Speaker 1: I will tell you that I predicted this in this
Speaker 1: very podcast last year when I announced that Disney Plus
Speaker 1: was coming out for six ninety nine a month. So
Speaker 1: what is happening here? Disney had a big announcement. They
Speaker 1: said they have one hundred and thirty seven million paid subscribers,
Speaker 1: which is eleven and a half million ESPN Plus subscribers,
Speaker 1: thirty eight point eight million Hulu subscribers, and eighty six
Speaker 1: point eight million Disney Plus subscribers. That's just since launched
Speaker 1: in November twenty nineteen. So we are just one year
Speaker 1: into Disney Plus and they think they're gonna hit three
Speaker 1: hundred to three hundred and fifty million total subscribers by
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, and they say Disney Plus is gonna
Speaker 1: release more than one hundred titles this year.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: But then they go on to say, oh, by the way,
Speaker 1: March twenty six, twenty twenty one, Disney Plus is going
Speaker 1: to be priced at seven ninety nine a month or
Speaker 1: seventy nine ninety nine a year. So that's a dollar
Speaker 1: extra a month. And for the yearly, I think it
Speaker 1: used to be sixty nine ninety nine, so seventy nine
Speaker 1: so eighty dollars a year divided by twelve is six
Speaker 1: dollars and sixty seven cents a month. That is the
Speaker 1: way to go. Save yourself a dollar thirty a month.
Speaker 1: I mean, here's the thing about these subscriptions. It's great
Speaker 1: that they're monthly, but I like the fact that you
Speaker 1: can save yearly. But who wants to pay these bills yearly?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: I don't like.
Speaker 1: I like the idea of just the Like I've had
Speaker 1: my Google my Google Drive account for so long at
Speaker 1: ten dollars a month, and they keep bugging me to
Speaker 1: pay ninety nine bucks for a year, which would save me.
Speaker 1: You know, if you do the math, I think it's
Speaker 1: twenty dollars a year saves me, but I just can't
Speaker 1: get myself to do it because I'm like, ah, I
Speaker 1: hate when these bills just like bill your account randomly,
Speaker 1: Like I got my bill for like Nest and it
Speaker 1: was like one hundred and fifty bucks for the year,
Speaker 1: just like randomly, like it just shows up on your
Speaker 1: card and you're like, oh, I forgot about that, or
Speaker 1: like sirious XM used to be a big one that
Speaker 1: used to do that, but now I have them bill me.
Speaker 2: You know, they send me.
Speaker 1: A paper bill, So I just don't like being surprised.
Speaker 1: So I think this six seventy or seven ninety nine
Speaker 1: a month is like easier to manage. But I'll say,
Speaker 1: you know what, it's tough to really scoff at this
Speaker 1: because Disney Plus has a lot of stuff. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you watch one thing a month on there, you're
Speaker 1: talking you're getting your values worth. I personally am watching
Speaker 1: a lot of Hulu recently, and I have I pretty
Speaker 1: much have all the streaming services because my feeling is
Speaker 1: I just you know, when you add them all up
Speaker 1: for me personally, it's kind of like what I was
Speaker 1: paying for cable, and I'm just like This is so
Speaker 1: much easier.
Speaker 2: It's so much better.
Speaker 1: The kids love it. I like having the choices. I
Speaker 1: don't you know what, I don't subscribe to all. I
Speaker 1: don't do Showtime, and there's a couple I don't do cable.
Speaker 1: So I don't have like a you know, I don't
Speaker 1: have like a YouTube TV kind of thing, but I
Speaker 1: do have YouTube. But anyway, there you go seven ninety
Speaker 1: nine a month. But here's the thing that that is
Speaker 1: the problem. So a dollar is fine, but now we
Speaker 1: also have Netflix that went up two dollars or is
Speaker 1: going up two dollars on my next bill, So that's
Speaker 1: three dollars a month now. And okay, the music services
Speaker 1: they have not budged from nine ninety nine for a
Speaker 1: long time, so I feel like maybe they're gonna sneak
Speaker 1: in a dollar price increase in twenty twenty one, so
Speaker 1: now they can be up to ten ninety nine a month.
Speaker 1: I mean, it gets so when you have five or
Speaker 1: six of these things, when they all start raising the bills,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just like cable TV back in the day,
Speaker 1: they always raised the bill like clockwork. Cable TV rates
Speaker 1: went up every year, and that's sort of what we're
Speaker 1: seeing with a lot of these streaming services. It's just
Speaker 1: a little more staggered because not all of them do
Speaker 1: the price increase every year, but enough of them do
Speaker 1: where it's becoming kind of in line with what.
Speaker 2: We used to do with cable. So just something to watch,
Speaker 2: something to be aware of.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to cancel Disney Plus anytime soon, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure out of their ninety million subscribers, I don't
Speaker 1: think a lot are going to get rid of it,
Speaker 1: but you never know. All right, let's get to the
Speaker 1: next question. Jennette says, Hello, Rich, my brother has an old,
Speaker 1: at least five years or more, Samsung phone. He very
Speaker 1: much wants a smart watch to link and use, but
Speaker 1: I don't even know how to find a compatible item.
Speaker 2: Can you help?
Speaker 1: Not sure what questions I should be asking? Love your
Speaker 1: segments from the most technologically challenged viewer, Jenny, Jenny, I
Speaker 1: don't think you're my most technologically challenged viewer because you
Speaker 1: were able to email.
Speaker 2: Me, so that's a pro. There you go.
Speaker 1: Let's see Samsung phone. So immediately what comes to mind
Speaker 1: is a Samsung smart watch. But I'm not a big
Speaker 1: fan of them, so I would say a fitbit, So
Speaker 1: I think a fitbit would probably be his best bet.
Speaker 1: It's a five year old Samsung, so I'm guessing he
Speaker 1: doesn't need the latest, greatest, best whatever. So I would
Speaker 1: say something like the Fitbit versa, and I think they're
Speaker 1: up to the three you probably you know, you could
Speaker 1: probably get away with the two, but I would go
Speaker 1: with probably a fitbit. I would also kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: see what he needs, see what he wants, Like, he
Speaker 1: may not need all the features of the smart watch.
Speaker 1: Maybe he just needs a regular fitbit or maybe even
Speaker 1: like the whys they're coming out with the new smart watch.
Speaker 1: Maybe wait till that one comes out in January, and
Speaker 1: that's only twenty dollars. But the fitbits, you know, the
Speaker 1: versus is kind of pricey. You're looking at probably over
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars for that, but you can get cheaper
Speaker 1: fitbits as well. It really depends what he wants to
Speaker 1: do with this thing. If he really wants, like all
Speaker 1: the features on a smart watch, yeah.
Speaker 2: I'd probably go fitbit.
Speaker 1: You can also look into some of the Google Nah,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna recommend that those are too complicated, so
Speaker 1: I would I would say go with a Fitbit. I
Speaker 1: think that'll do what he needs. And if you can
Speaker 1: wait until February for the wise Watch to come out,
Speaker 1: I mean he's been waiting five years with his phone
Speaker 1: to upgrade, so I mean, I'm sure he can wait
Speaker 1: two months to get a new smart watch. But maybe
Speaker 1: you want to get it for Christmas, so you know,
Speaker 1: there you go. I would just say get the fitbit versa.
Speaker 1: I think he'll be very happy with it. The main
Speaker 1: thing about that, you know what, there's no downside. I
Speaker 1: think he'll be just fine speaking of smartphones. You know, look,
Speaker 1: I don't want to get into like the whole you know,
Speaker 1: this whole coronavirus stuff. It's so it's so wild to
Speaker 1: me that it has become polarizing to try to get
Speaker 1: through this virus, right And look, do I want to
Speaker 1: sit there and wear a mask every day? Of course,
Speaker 1: not like I want to be on with my regular life.
Speaker 2: But I do. And when I go out, I respect the.
Speaker 1: Rules that are around me. And do I want to
Speaker 1: not eat in restaurants right now? Of course not. But
Speaker 1: I live in California and those are the rules and
Speaker 1: I'm following them and I get it. There are a
Speaker 1: lot of people out there that you know, don't think
Speaker 1: it's right, and believe me, like, do I think my
Speaker 1: kids should have been in school?
Speaker 2: Probably? But I get it.
Speaker 1: We're all in this together and we're all trying to
Speaker 1: get through this. And so I was very surprised when
Speaker 1: I posted my videos about California and their COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: apps for the iPhone and Android that they finally got
Speaker 1: on board with Google and Apple's API, which is called
Speaker 1: Exposure Notifications. And I was, you know, I've been kind
Speaker 1: of like tweeting out for a long time, like California,
Speaker 1: what's going on? Why aren't you on board with this?
Speaker 1: You know, because it's been around for a while. Well,
Speaker 1: they finally did get on board this week with an
Speaker 1: app called ca Notify. And the way this works is
Speaker 1: if you have a you know, Android or iPhone, it
Speaker 1: basically sends out a little tiny Bluetooth number that changes
Speaker 1: like all the time, and when the two devices are
Speaker 1: near each other within six feet for fifteen minutes, they
Speaker 1: exchange those numbers. And what this does is if someone
Speaker 1: comes down with COVID nineteen, they pop a special code
Speaker 1: into their phone and their phone will then notify the
Speaker 1: other phones that belong to those random numbers. It's all anonymous,
Speaker 1: there's no location, and it was you know, this system
Speaker 1: was created by like really smart people at Apple and Google,
Speaker 1: and I mean, come on, these two giants are working together,
Speaker 1: like there's not any secrets here. You know, they had
Speaker 1: everything published. It was all up and up and like
Speaker 1: you know, long story short, I published these videos and
Speaker 1: everyone was just like Rich, oh my gosh, no way,
Speaker 1: Like I'm not big brother government, well whatever, and like yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean is does government always do like what's best?
Speaker 1: I don't, you know, don't want to get into that either.
Speaker 1: But the reality is, I think this program's pretty good.
Speaker 1: I think if a lot of people use it, it
Speaker 1: would help notify you earlier that you came into contact
Speaker 1: with someone coronavirus. But the reality is a lot of
Speaker 1: people don't want to use it. Clearly is evidence by
Speaker 1: the comments on my social media. And maybe that's just
Speaker 1: the commenters on social media.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're listening and you're like Rich, yeah, you're crazy,
Speaker 1: Like why would you ever want that on your phone?
Speaker 1: Like more tracking? But the way I see it is
Speaker 1: it has potential to help slow the spread, which means
Speaker 1: I can get back to my normal life, and you know,
Speaker 1: I think we all want that. But anyway, so I
Speaker 1: have it turned on on my phones, and I you know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna leave it on.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's gonna.
Speaker 1: Work though, because of the reaction I saw. I don't
Speaker 1: know if there's enough people that are on board with
Speaker 1: this to make this truly worthwhile.
Speaker 2: And I think that's gonna be the downfall.
Speaker 1: Of it is that it just doesn't have enough support
Speaker 1: from people turning this on. Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe maybe
Speaker 1: it was just the dissenters that were loud on my
Speaker 1: social media, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I recommend that
Speaker 1: you turn it on. There is no personal information that's
Speaker 1: collected now, and I will tell you if I thought
Speaker 1: there was, because when when Los Angeles partnered with with
Speaker 1: Citizen for their I think it was called a safe
Speaker 1: Path something, I recommended that you don't use it because
Speaker 1: it did use personal information, it had location, they didn't
Speaker 1: turn off GPS it. You know, it was just the
Speaker 1: privacy policy was like kind of tough to figure out,
Speaker 1: and so I recommended that people did not participate in that.
Speaker 1: And so with this one, I do think it's different,
Speaker 1: and I do recommend that you participate. But again, you know,
Speaker 1: we can have different opinions and it's fine. I'm not
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not saying that you have to agree
Speaker 1: with me, but I do think that if a lot
Speaker 1: of people are on board, it probably would help in
Speaker 1: the bigger scheme of things.
Speaker 2: But that's just you know, we'll leave it there.
Speaker 1: Oh, I guess I should probably say that I do
Speaker 1: have the videos on how to turn those on on
Speaker 1: my Instagram at Richon Tech, and I've got the video
Speaker 1: for iOS and Android. On iOS, it's really easy, you
Speaker 1: literally just go into the settings and flip it on.
Speaker 1: But on Android it's a little different. You actually have
Speaker 1: to download the CAA Notify app to turn it on,
Speaker 1: and you can easily turn either of them off at
Speaker 1: the end of the day.
Speaker 2: All right, let's see.
Speaker 1: Midge says, I'm really frustrated with the podcast app on
Speaker 1: my iPhone. I play a podcast and at the end
Speaker 1: of it, I delete it and then the next day it
Speaker 1: comes back.
Speaker 2: What am I doing wrong?
Speaker 1: I choose to automatically download because I don't have un
Speaker 1: limited data, so I'm picking from the download list when
Speaker 1: I want to play them. I know it says it
Speaker 1: will delete after twenty four hours, but I want to
Speaker 1: go ahead and delete it to get it off that page.
Speaker 1: I tried one of the podcasts apps you recommended a
Speaker 1: while ago and didn't like it. Is there another podcast
Speaker 1: app you like? I agree Midge that the podcast app
Speaker 1: on iPhone is very, very complicated if you want to
Speaker 1: do anything more than just like subscribe to a couple
Speaker 1: shows and play them, but you can't build a playlist,
Speaker 1: you know. It's like it's just very weird, and it
Speaker 1: downloads everything all the time. It's like, if you ever
Speaker 1: look in your storage on your iPhone, if you have
Speaker 1: podcasts enabled, it's it's gobbling up like gigs and gigs
Speaker 1: of data just by itself if you don't change the
Speaker 1: default settings. And I've tried to change the defaut settings,
Speaker 1: but there's there's no one way to turn them all
Speaker 1: off or turn them all on. It's really really tricky.
Speaker 1: So I agree it is a frustrating app, and I'm
Speaker 1: not sure why Apple doesn't put more effort into like
Speaker 1: giving it some features, or maybe purchasing one of the
Speaker 1: other podcast apps and incorporating some of their features in there.
Speaker 1: And there are a lot of alternatives. I mean, The
Speaker 1: big difference is that you know, they just don't integrate
Speaker 1: as well with your iPhone as the of course Apple
Speaker 1: version does. But the one that I go back to
Speaker 1: over and over is called pocket Casts, And again it's
Speaker 1: got a lot of features under the hood. You don't
Speaker 1: need to necessarily use all of them, but it does
Speaker 1: have a lot of stuff. A couple of the features
Speaker 1: I like is the ability to create smart playlists where
Speaker 1: I like to back when I was like driving to work,
Speaker 1: I like to have a podcast, like almost like a
Speaker 1: playlist of all the little things I want to listen
Speaker 1: to on my ride into work. And it can easily
Speaker 1: do that and filter out by like Okay, I want
Speaker 1: these five podcasts. I want them in this order, and
Speaker 1: I want them to play only one episode, and I
Speaker 1: want it to be the most recent, like you can
Speaker 1: do that. It's powerful, and you can do where it
Speaker 1: automatically downloads like a podcast that you star or it
Speaker 1: can you know, it's just it just does a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff. So I have my podcast kind of organized
Speaker 1: by I have like interviews, and so I go through
Speaker 1: and any interview I want to listen to in that list,
Speaker 1: I download and then I look at my downloads and
Speaker 1: see the list of things that I wanted to listen to,
Speaker 1: and then I have like a tech list, and then
Speaker 1: I have like a you know, like a news list,
Speaker 1: and then I have, uh, what's the other one. I
Speaker 1: have a special list for Leo Laporte. Every Monday, I
Speaker 1: listen to his we call it the Leo log or
Speaker 1: you know, the monologue that he does on Saturday morning.
Speaker 1: Like I don't know if you know, but Leo on
Speaker 1: his show, you know, for the when he first comes on,
Speaker 1: he says like a it's like a ten minute like
Speaker 1: I don't know what you call it monologue basically like
Speaker 1: you know whatever, And so I like to listen to
Speaker 1: that because I like to hear what he has to say.
Speaker 1: So I listen to that on my commute and anyway,
Speaker 1: that's on Monday mornings.
Speaker 2: Anyway, you know, you can do whatever you want.
Speaker 1: But that's kind of the podcast app that I always
Speaker 1: go back to over and over. The one that I
Speaker 1: want to love is called Overcast, but it just doesn't
Speaker 1: have like one feature that I need for some reason,
Speaker 1: and I'm not sure why. It's like I think the
Speaker 1: one that filters whatever. Anyway, that's that's my thing. But
Speaker 1: Overcast is also really nice, so that might have been
Speaker 1: the one that I recommended. I think it's that one's
Speaker 1: a little bit nuanced for a lot of people. But
Speaker 1: pocket Cast is pretty good and pretty popular. So talking
Speaker 1: about music, and I was really surprised at this announcement.
Speaker 1: Apple Music is now available on Google smart speakers and displays.
Speaker 1: I thought this was fantastic. I love to see that
Speaker 1: Google continues to be a little bit more open than
Speaker 1: you would expect when it comes to integrating different services.
Speaker 1: Apple has gotten a lot better too, but they always
Speaker 1: prefer their own stuff over anyone else for a long
Speaker 1: long time, and they begrudgingly kind of incorporate other stuff.
Speaker 1: But Google, I feel like they they always try to
Speaker 1: do you know, like the right thing by you know,
Speaker 1: incorporating every service and like giving you a choice. And
Speaker 1: I think that that's lessening, but it's still going. And
Speaker 1: I think these tech companies are realizing as they get
Speaker 1: bigger and bigger, that they kind of need to do
Speaker 1: this to you know, stay out of the the ire
Speaker 1: of you know, all those those government regulators that want
Speaker 1: to regulate them and say like, uh, well you gotta
Speaker 1: break up because you know, uh all the it's like Apple, Apple, Apple, Apple, Apple,
Speaker 1: Apple Apple Apple. Okay, Google, Google, Google Google Google.
Speaker 2: Uh, and what's the other one? Oh?
Speaker 1: Amazon, Amazon, Amazon and Amazon a little. So anyway, I
Speaker 1: thought this was great that Apple Music can be a
Speaker 1: default streaming music service in Google Assistant devices. And I
Speaker 1: didn't think I'd see that day. And it's great now
Speaker 1: for me personally, I it's it's really I'm like so
Speaker 1: close to getting rid of my I I've been using
Speaker 1: YouTube music for so long, but when you have an
Speaker 1: Apple Watch, you kind of have to use Apple Music.
Speaker 1: I've talked about using iHeartRadio as an alternative, but I
Speaker 1: realized my mistake with that, and the mistake is that
Speaker 1: you can't off load the music offline. So I was
Speaker 1: up on a hike and there was no signal for
Speaker 1: my watch and guess what. I could not listen to iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: And that was a it came to me. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: here's the downside of this setup. So as much as
Speaker 1: I wanted to save that ten dollars a month, I'm
Speaker 1: back to being an Apple Music subscriber so I can
Speaker 1: download music to my Apple Watch and my wife as well.
Speaker 1: But so my point is that I've always had Google
Speaker 1: Play as my music of choice on the Google smart speakers,
Speaker 1: but now I'm kind of like, okay, well now i
Speaker 1: could use Apple Music. That's really cool. But the only thing,
Speaker 1: and this is where they get kind of tricky. Google's
Speaker 1: very smart. They link Google Play music or sorry, YouTube
Speaker 1: music to a YouTube premium subscription, so you sort of
Speaker 1: get it thrown in, and as far as I know,
Speaker 1: there's not a way to separate them.
Speaker 2: Maybe there is.
Speaker 1: I'm going to look into that because I'd like to
Speaker 1: save a little bit more money by getting rid of
Speaker 1: YouTube music and just going with Apple Music because I
Speaker 1: can use it everywhere now. But and yes, it works
Speaker 1: on Android phones too, So anyway, that's it. You can
Speaker 1: do all the stuff you need to do by saying,
Speaker 1: h Google and you know.
Speaker 2: Playing those Apple stuff.
Speaker 1: So to do this, you go into the home app
Speaker 1: on your iPhone or Android and I got a little
Speaker 1: notification on it that said, you.
Speaker 2: Know, link Apple Music, which is pretty cool. I think
Speaker 2: that's that's great.
Speaker 1: Brian Smith writes in can you recommend an Android version
Speaker 1: of the I expand sand disc flash drive shown in
Speaker 1: your segment?
Speaker 2: Thank you?
Speaker 1: This was brilliant. I did a segment on KTLA. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying this is brilliant. I'm saying the pick is brilliant.
Speaker 1: So I did a segment on KTLA where I emailed
Speaker 1: a couple of my tech friends and I said, hey,
Speaker 1: would you mind just like you know, putting a camera
Speaker 1: in front of your face and just saying, like what
Speaker 1: your favorite gadget is of the year under fifty bucks
Speaker 1: for like little stocking stuffer.
Speaker 2: Well, I had no idea. Number one.
Speaker 1: Almost every single person I email said yes, and I
Speaker 1: was like thoroughly surprised. So if you're listening, thank you
Speaker 1: for doing that. That was very very nice of you.
Speaker 1: The second thing is I had no idea just how
Speaker 1: popular this segment would be. It by clicks, it is
Speaker 1: the most popular segment of the year. Now maybe that's
Speaker 1: because all these you know, influencers you know, tweeted it
Speaker 1: out to their friends and you know, of course the
Speaker 1: network effect took over. Or maybe it was just because
Speaker 1: so many people like the idea of under fifty dollars
Speaker 1: gadgets recommended by tech experts. Whatever it was, it was
Speaker 1: super duper popular. And the I'll just go over the
Speaker 1: gadgets real quick, since i'm talking this up right. One
Speaker 1: of them was this sand disc drive or I expand
Speaker 1: from sand Disc and it was it was a It
Speaker 1: was a pick from Jefferson Graham, who is my friend
Speaker 1: over at USA Today.
Speaker 2: So let me just give you the picks.
Speaker 1: Lamar Wilson, my pal from YouTube. He picked the Google
Speaker 1: Nest Home Mini speaker. Brett from Tech with Brett on YouTube.
Speaker 1: We become sort of pals on Twitter. He recommended the
Speaker 1: gov LED light strips for eighteen bucks. Kevin Nether, who
Speaker 1: is known as Kevin the Tech Ninja on YouTube. He
Speaker 1: also picked the gov LED light strips. My pal Brian
Speaker 1: Tong on YouTube. We used to work at scenet together.
Speaker 1: He picked the airfly. This is like a Bluetooth splitter
Speaker 1: slash coupler. I guess you can call it for forty
Speaker 1: five bucks. Lance Yulanoff, he works on the Or he's
Speaker 1: a guest on the Live with Kelly and Ryan Show.
Speaker 1: He does tech stuff there and all kinds of he's been.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's just you know, legend in tech. He
Speaker 1: liked the Nintendo game and Watch for fifty bucks. Jefferson Graham,
Speaker 1: like I said, USA Today Tech columnists, who just recently
Speaker 1: announced his retirement from USA today, but he's still going
Speaker 1: to be doing stuff, just not there. He recommended the
Speaker 1: sand Disc I Expand flash Drive Go, which is all
Speaker 1: drive you plug into the bottom of your iPhone and it,
Speaker 1: you know, backs up the pictures. And so the question
Speaker 1: is is there a Android version? The answer is yes.
Speaker 1: In fact, pretty much any flash drive will plug into
Speaker 1: the bottom of an Android phone. It's just copying the
Speaker 1: pictures over that could be kind of tough, and that's
Speaker 1: what the sand disc software does nicely. It does it automatically.
Speaker 1: But if you go on sand discs I expand, if
Speaker 1: you if you just type in sand disk I expand,
Speaker 1: micro USB or USB C. It depends on what kind
Speaker 1: of phone you have which device you would get, Brian.
Speaker 1: So if you just search that on you on Google,
Speaker 1: you'll find it, and yeah, they make it for sure.
Speaker 1: Andrew Edwards gear Live. He picked the Chrome Cast with
Speaker 1: Google TV for fifty bucks. Jacqueline Dallas from Nothing but
Speaker 1: Tech we met at a one plus event many years ago,
Speaker 1: or probably like three, but still and we've kept in touch.
Speaker 1: She's doing really well on YouTube and she's she recommended
Speaker 1: a USBC hub from Hutu for twenty three dollars, which
Speaker 1: you got to have a USBC hub if you've got
Speaker 1: one of these newer laptops. And Leo Laporte, my pal
Speaker 1: that I just mentioned earlier, he recommended the au Key
Speaker 1: Omnia one hundred watt charger, which I will probably end
Speaker 1: up purchasing because he talked it up. And it's a
Speaker 1: charger that's one hundred watts, so that means it can
Speaker 1: charge everything, your computer, your phone, anything that's USBC from
Speaker 1: a laptop to a tablet to a phone. And I'm
Speaker 1: getting into this whole thing of you know, less is
Speaker 1: more and so if I can plug everything into that
Speaker 1: Omnia USBC charger, that's that's a win in my book.
Speaker 1: And then I threw in my recommendation, which is the
Speaker 1: Nano Leaf Essential Smart Bulb nineteen dollars. And this is
Speaker 1: a smart bulb that is really tough to find, but
Speaker 1: they sell it at the Apple Store and online on
Speaker 1: the Apple Store, and it's just easy to set up,
Speaker 1: it's fun, it's hubless, which means you know, it connects
Speaker 1: easily to your iPhone or Android, and it changes to
Speaker 1: sixteen million different colors. So there the picks, and that
Speaker 1: was a fun story. I got emails, I got tweets.
Speaker 1: I mean, people really liked that story. And my editor
Speaker 1: Luis put it together. I gathered all the videos and
Speaker 1: then I said, hey, ar, I wrote like kind of
Speaker 1: a rough script, but he didn't follow it. He just
Speaker 1: like kind of made a montage and graphics and it
Speaker 1: just really came out nice. So if you want to
Speaker 1: watch that, go to my website rich on tech dot
Speaker 1: tv and look for I'll tell you what the uh
Speaker 1: come on, I'll tell you what to look for on there.
Speaker 1: It's tech experts recommend their favorite stocking stuffers under fifty
Speaker 1: dollars speaking, I always say speaking. But Apple and Google
Speaker 1: another thing that they're doing this is gosh a lot
Speaker 1: of Apple and Google news this week, but it's kind
Speaker 1: of light on tech news now right now because of
Speaker 1: the holidays. But I thought this was fantastic.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: I love just when things get a little bit easier
Speaker 1: in life. And now you can if you use Google Photos.
Speaker 1: One of the big things that's always been kind of
Speaker 1: a friction between the two is they don't necessarily sync
Speaker 1: up that well when you want to make like albums
Speaker 1: or like favorite some pictures.
Speaker 2: So now you can star a.
Speaker 1: Photo in Google Photos and it will become a favorite
Speaker 1: in Apple Photos, you know, with that little heart, or
Speaker 1: vice versa. If you favorite a photo in Apple Photos,
Speaker 1: you know, tap that little heart, it becomes starred in
Speaker 1: Google Photos. I love this making my life easier. So
Speaker 1: here's how you turn on this tiny, little life changing feature.
Speaker 1: Go to Google Photos, tap your profile account photo in
Speaker 1: the upper right hand corner, tap photo settings, Apple Photos,
Speaker 1: and sink favorites, and then turn on SINK or turn
Speaker 1: off SNC.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe this is not useful to anyone else,
Speaker 1: but it's highly useful to me because as your resident instagrammer,
Speaker 1: what I usually do, Like for instance, last night, when
Speaker 1: I went to that Wonderland place, you know, the Winter
Speaker 1: Wonderland I was talking about, I took a bunch of pictures,
Speaker 1: you know, I take a lot of pictures, and then
Speaker 1: the way I would posts them to Instagram is I
Speaker 1: would go through my gallery heart the ones I think
Speaker 1: are good, and then I would go into Instagram and
Speaker 1: I would, you know, look for my favorites and then
Speaker 1: they would all be there, like in a row, instead
Speaker 1: of having to look through each one individually. Now, with
Speaker 1: Google Photos, which is my preferred photos app, I would
Speaker 1: have to not use that. I would have to go
Speaker 1: into Apple Photos and heart them there, because you know,
Speaker 1: on iOS it does not interface with Google Photos. Now
Speaker 1: an Android it does, but it doesn't even show your favorites.
Speaker 1: It's it's getting there. We're getting there on Android. And
Speaker 1: in fact, this is the extent to which I test stuff,
Speaker 1: just so you know. And this is why I say
Speaker 1: when I struggle carrying an iPhone versus Android, it's because
Speaker 1: I love aspects of both, because I use both of
Speaker 1: them so much. So, for instance, on Android, I love
Speaker 1: how there's a lot less clicks required to do things. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, on iPhone, when you want to connect to
Speaker 1: something on Bluetooth, you have to swipe down, you have to,
Speaker 1: you know, look at your little Bluetooth indicator in the
Speaker 1: control center. You have to press and hold to see
Speaker 1: all the Bluetooth and then you have to press settings
Speaker 1: and then it brings you to settings. It's like ten clicks.
Speaker 1: On Android, you literally just swipe down from the top,
Speaker 1: press and hold on the Bluetooth and it brings you
Speaker 1: directly to the settings. So it's just like a couple
Speaker 1: steps less, and it's like that with a lot of
Speaker 1: things on Android anyway, So to challenge myself, because I
Speaker 1: do think social media is way tougher on an Android
Speaker 1: than it is on iPhone, I was like, Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: going to post all these pictures that I took, which
Speaker 1: I took, by the way, with the Samsung S twenty
Speaker 1: fe and they came out pretty darn good. I gotta
Speaker 1: say that phone is really rocking. I took them all
Speaker 1: with that, and I went through the gallery on Samsung
Speaker 1: and I favorited the pictures that I liked, and then
Speaker 1: I went into Instagram and I found the native gallery
Speaker 1: chooser and it worked, and I posted all the pictures
Speaker 1: and anyway, if you want to see them, we can
Speaker 1: go on Instagram and see those. But so I you know,
Speaker 1: I do this stuff for a reason. There's a method
Speaker 1: to my madness so that I understand how these things work,
Speaker 1: because if I only used an iPhone every single day
Speaker 1: of my life and never went to an Android or
Speaker 1: never went back and forth, I wouldn't really understand the
Speaker 1: nuances between the two, and it's tough to compare in
Speaker 1: contrast if you're not using them. So it all worked out,
Speaker 1: and I always joke that whenever I post something from
Speaker 1: my Android. It never does as well as stuff I
Speaker 1: post from iPhone. I'm not sure if they favor iPhone
Speaker 1: posts on social media for some reason, but that post
Speaker 1: did find so I guess that's not really a thing.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to spread conspiracy theories here in the
Speaker 1: rich on Tech podcast, Marty is it March. I'm guessing
Speaker 1: it's Marty, but it looks like they put an extra
Speaker 1: letter in. Marty says, help please. I adopted my son
Speaker 1: and lost a very valuable picture of him and his
Speaker 1: biological father when he was a baby that was deleted
Speaker 1: from an SD card during a Samsung S twenty fe
Speaker 1: factory or set.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, we were just talking about the S twenty Fi.
Speaker 2: Please let me know if you have any solutions or suggestions.
Speaker 1: Oh Marty, I hate hey, hey, hey.
Speaker 2: Hearing this, and this is why I say.
Speaker 1: Please back up your pictures. Please back up your pictures.
Speaker 1: Don't do it tomorrow, don't do it the next day.
Speaker 1: Don't say you distrust the cloud. Please just back up
Speaker 1: your pictures. You can use Amazon Photos, you can use
Speaker 1: Google Photos, you can use one drive.
Speaker 2: There are so many ways to back up pictures these days.
Speaker 1: Please get them into the cloud and that way, you
Speaker 1: don't have something like this happened. You shouldn't have pictures
Speaker 1: in just one place. And with that said, I've not
Speaker 1: actually ever tried to do this myself, but there is
Speaker 1: software that can recover lost data on things or erased data,
Speaker 1: and this one they sent me some info on it,
Speaker 1: but it's called Stellar Info s T E l l
Speaker 1: A r Info dot com.
Speaker 2: And what I like about this.
Speaker 1: Is they have a free data recovery software up to
Speaker 1: one gig, so that is what I would say. And
Speaker 1: they say recover lost or deleted documents, email, data files, videos, photos,
Speaker 1: retrieve data from a laptop, PC, hard driver, USB stick,
Speaker 1: recover files due to drive formatting or corruption. Drive formatting
Speaker 1: is what you mentioned. So up to a gig you
Speaker 1: should you should be able to get this picture back
Speaker 1: theoretically if if you know, this software works. So again
Speaker 1: I haven't tried it personally, but stellarinfo dot com slash uh.
Speaker 1: Just go to their website and it should say somewhere
Speaker 1: on there free Data recovery.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it does when you click it.
Speaker 1: So they sent me a little note about this a
Speaker 1: couple of months ago, and I just kept it in
Speaker 1: my notes because I knew i'd get a question about this,
Speaker 1: and sure enough I did. And I hate to get
Speaker 1: a questions like this because it's really sad to me.
Speaker 1: I hate people losing their pictures. And I think I
Speaker 1: told the story last week, but I can't remember. But
Speaker 1: when you know, I had all these gigs of pictures
Speaker 1: from my sister and my dad on my Google Drive
Speaker 1: because when I was upgrading their phones, they'd be like,
Speaker 1: I'd be like, all right, now, what would you like
Speaker 1: me to do with your pictures? Like, Ah, don't care
Speaker 1: about them? And I go, what do you mean you
Speaker 1: don't care about them? Of course you care about the
Speaker 1: pictures that were on your phone. Why would you just
Speaker 1: get rid of all these pictures because you're upgrading to
Speaker 1: a new phone and it's just you know, they didn't
Speaker 1: want to clog up their memory or whatever. And I
Speaker 1: was like, look, I'll take the pictures and I'll put
Speaker 1: them my Google Drive and one of these days I'll
Speaker 1: get him back to you. And I think it was
Speaker 1: like before Google Photos, so it was like there was
Speaker 1: no easy way to like just kind of put their
Speaker 1: pictures back because they don't want to pay for like
Speaker 1: iCloud drive or something dumb like that, and I already
Speaker 1: gave my dad the warning. I said, look, once we
Speaker 1: get all these pictures in there, you may have to
Speaker 1: pay the two dollars a month, you know, to Google Photos,
Speaker 1: because they're going to start charging. And he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's okay. I mean, you know, hopefully that's okay, you
Speaker 1: pictures all right. Here's another reason I was. I was
Speaker 1: talking about the reasons why I like Android, certain aspects
Speaker 1: of it better than iPhone, and this is a prime example.
Speaker 1: So they added this feature this week called a Google
Speaker 1: Assistant Routines shortcuts. So I have one Google Assistant routine
Speaker 1: that I use almost every single night is called turn
Speaker 1: on my night Stands, and it turns on my night
Speaker 1: stands next to my bed, and it also dims them
Speaker 1: to a reading light level, so nice level. I had
Speaker 1: at one point some like nice soothing music play as
Speaker 1: well on the speaker. I turn that off because you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know why I turned it off, but I
Speaker 1: just did. But it was kind of like a bedtime routine, right.
Speaker 1: So but the thing is, every single night I feel
Speaker 1: kind of dumb going into my room and be like,
Speaker 1: h Google, turn on the night stands. It just sounds weird, right,
Speaker 1: So now you can take these little routines that you
Speaker 1: build and you can make a home screen shortcut out
Speaker 1: of them. And of course, every time I go into
Speaker 1: my room at night, I always take my phone and
Speaker 1: I put it out on my charger.
Speaker 2: So what would I do. I would just unlock it
Speaker 2: and boom.
Speaker 1: I would press a little routine and write on the
Speaker 1: home screen and there it goes. Now, I don't always
Speaker 1: use my Android, so you know this doesn't work on iPhone.
Speaker 1: You can't make a little routine that's pinned to your
Speaker 1: home screen because well, you know what, I take that back.
Speaker 1: You probably could with shortcuts, So you know what, I
Speaker 1: take that. I totally take that back.
Speaker 2: You could. It's just not gonna be as pretty.
Speaker 1: So I like the idea that you can do this,
Speaker 1: and I think it's going to make people use routines
Speaker 1: a lot more.
Speaker 2: It's easy.
Speaker 1: When I opened up my Google Home app, it literally
Speaker 1: had like when I went into the routine, So if
Speaker 1: you click routines, it had like a big kind of
Speaker 1: pop up that said pin this to your home screen.
Speaker 1: I said, ah, there, it is so cool, and I
Speaker 1: did it and I pinned it and there it is
Speaker 1: and it's.
Speaker 2: A great little feature. So build some routines.
Speaker 1: I was talking about this on Twitter and my friend
Speaker 1: Dave Malcoff, he's a reporter at the Weather Channel well,
Speaker 1: but he just like takes everything to the next level.
Speaker 1: Like I do things like kind of you know, like
Speaker 1: halfway there, he does it like, you know, the full way.
Speaker 1: So I was saying how I had a couple of
Speaker 1: these routines and he's like, he tweeted me and he's like, Oh,
Speaker 1: I've got a routine that when I go into my
Speaker 1: office and start editing, there's an emotion sensor under my
Speaker 1: desk that notices my legs and it will cue this
Speaker 1: routine which dims the lights and it turns on XM
Speaker 1: chill serious, XM im my smart speaker, and I think,
Speaker 1: I don't know if it does something else, but I
Speaker 1: was like, ah see, that's cool, and so I need
Speaker 1: to do that for my office because I do like
Speaker 1: to have my lights at a certain level and a
Speaker 1: little music playing in the background. So I'm calming, you know.
Speaker 1: I do like the XM chill. That's one of my
Speaker 1: favorite stations as well, but I haven't done that yet.
Speaker 1: So I need to do that. And we just need to.
Speaker 1: It's just some of this smart home stuff can get
Speaker 1: a little intimidating because it's like how many things like
Speaker 1: I you know, it's like, oh, I got the Christmas
Speaker 1: tree on. I've got all these things like with the
Speaker 1: smart stuff, and you know, it's fun, but it does
Speaker 1: take a little bit of work to set it up.
Speaker 1: But once you set it up and you kind of
Speaker 1: get used to it and you remember to do it,
Speaker 1: it is kind of fun.
Speaker 2: So there you have it.
Speaker 1: Let's see here, Sharon says, I have a ring doorbell
Speaker 1: and saw your piece on Fox two now that's my
Speaker 1: station in Saint Louis. Thanks for watching there. I saw
Speaker 1: that piece this morning about sidewalk internet for Alexa and Ring.
Speaker 1: I hope this isn't a silly question, but if I'm
Speaker 1: not logged into my Alexa app, well I need to
Speaker 1: log in and turn off the sidewalk option. If I
Speaker 1: don't log in, will it default to sidewalk? Thanks sent
Speaker 1: for my iPad iPhone Sharon, Sharon, great question, and it's
Speaker 1: not a silly question because it's exactly what Amazon doesn't
Speaker 1: want people to do. This is why they made sidewalk
Speaker 1: on by default, because half the people that you know
Speaker 1: set up an Alexa. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to
Speaker 1: say that word and echo. You know, they set it
Speaker 1: up and they just don't think twice about the app.
Speaker 1: Maybe they deleted off their phone, maybe they don't need
Speaker 1: it anymore. Maybe the thing comes set up from the factory.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm not sure why you don't have
Speaker 2: the Alexa.
Speaker 1: Oh sorry, the app on your phone, but I mean
Speaker 1: because I feel like you need it to set up
Speaker 1: the device. But anyway, correct, if you do not have
Speaker 1: the app and you're not logged in, it will automatically
Speaker 1: trigger sidewalk on your device, and it's it'll be turned
Speaker 1: on by default. And that's what Amazon wants because they
Speaker 1: want as many devices as possible to be on this
Speaker 1: sidewalk network. So yes, I would recommend if you don't
Speaker 1: want to be a part of it, you have to
Speaker 1: download the app a L e Xa and go into
Speaker 1: these settings. You can follow the instructions I posted on
Speaker 1: the blog post. If you look at richontech dot tv
Speaker 1: or on my scroll through my Instagram and you'll see
Speaker 1: the post with the app on there, and I show
Speaker 1: you exactly how to turn it off. And again I've
Speaker 1: said that I'm leaving mine on. I'm excited. I think
Speaker 1: sidewalk is kind of cool, even though I know that
Speaker 1: I was having a big debate with my brother. He
Speaker 1: was saying that, you know, no way would he ever
Speaker 1: do this. Well, maybe he would like later on, but
Speaker 1: he's not going to be part of the first wave.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, all, I understand that, but I'm kind
Speaker 1: of a tech optimist. I think it's really cool and
Speaker 1: I see the potential of this thing. I just hope
Speaker 1: that I'm proven right and not wrong, and I hope
Speaker 1: that there's no major security gaffes with the Amazon sidewalk. Anyway,
Speaker 1: if you want to get out of it, download the
Speaker 1: app and change those settings, all right. I thought this
Speaker 1: was interesting for several reasons. This is an article from
Speaker 1: Fast Company, and they did a little piece about how
Speaker 1: a new study from a Utah pharmacy student suggests that
Speaker 1: mail order prescriptions are spending too much time in too
Speaker 1: hot or too cold temperatures in root to your house.
Speaker 1: And I thought this was interesting for a couple reasons.
Speaker 1: Number one, recently Amazon started their own pharmacy like mail
Speaker 1: delivery kind of thing, our mail order prescription thing, and
Speaker 1: you know, anytime I think of stuff that arrives through
Speaker 1: the mail, I always think about the whole temperature thing,
Speaker 1: because if you think about it, when you leave stuff
Speaker 1: in your car or overnight in a truck, it gets
Speaker 1: really hot or really cold. And so I always think
Speaker 1: about this, like we're members of a wine club, and
Speaker 1: you know, it's like, okay, well, they actually wait to
Speaker 1: ship the wine even though it's just coming from California.
Speaker 1: They wait to ship it, you know, a on a
Speaker 1: week where the temperatures are not extreme. And I was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: that's smart, because you don't want it to, you know,
Speaker 1: turn to vinegar in a hot fed X truck. So
Speaker 1: with these prescriptions, they found that in the winter, packages
Speaker 1: spend sixty eight to eighty seven percent of the time
Speaker 1: in conditions outside the ideal range for medications, and twenty
Speaker 1: seven to fifty four percent during the summer. Most medications
Speaker 1: are purposely formulated to be stored at room temperature around
Speaker 1: sixty eight to seventy seven degrees, and they shipped like
Speaker 1: forty eight bubble wrapped packages to six cities nationwide during
Speaker 1: the summer and winter. So I bring this up just
Speaker 1: because I always think about this, like the other day,
Speaker 1: I ordered these energy drinks from Amazon. It was a
Speaker 1: good deal on Slick Deals, so I got them as
Speaker 1: like five bucks.
Speaker 2: But I thought about it.
Speaker 1: I was like, Ah, it's so funny, Like how how
Speaker 1: much they shake around these energy drinks, like on the
Speaker 1: way to my house. I mean, aren't you told like
Speaker 1: not to shake cans? But like, you know, these these
Speaker 1: truck people, you know, the people in the trucks don't
Speaker 1: even know what they're karting, you know, so it's like
Speaker 1: they don't know that they're shaking up this stuff.
Speaker 2: It's just really interesting. Anyway.
Speaker 1: I just mentioned that because I always think about that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff, and I'm glad that I'm not weird,
Speaker 1: because I do think about like I always thought about
Speaker 1: like ordering like chocolate off Amazon. My wife likes this
Speaker 1: certain kind of chocolate that's like super duper expensive, and
Speaker 1: I know it's ridiculous, but it's really good and it's
Speaker 1: like got all these good ingredients and stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: Like a friend at work recommended it to her. Now
Speaker 1: she eats it. But it's expensive. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: a couple bucks for a bar. And I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I bet you. Amazon has it cheaper. And I was like, oh, okay, well,
Speaker 1: isn't it gonna be like a melted blob by the
Speaker 1: time I get it? And then I think, well, wait
Speaker 1: a second, doesn't it have to like get from wherever
Speaker 1: it comes from the factory to the grocery store. So
Speaker 1: I mean, clearly it's not being anyway.
Speaker 2: So this is the way my mind works.
Speaker 1: Since you're listening to the rich on Tech podcast, I
Speaker 1: like to give you insight into my brain, and you
Speaker 1: know that's the way it works. Those are the things
Speaker 1: that I think of. All right, final question before we go.
Speaker 1: Dave says, I have Spectrum cable four hundred megabits per second. Oh,
Speaker 1: I have Spectrum Cable four hundred megabits per second and
Speaker 1: the Ero Wi Fi mesh. When I conduct a Wi
Speaker 1: Fi speed test, I get wildly different results. I'm running
Speaker 1: the test on a six year old Samsung tablet and
Speaker 1: a Samsung S eight phone. Most recent results show fifteen
Speaker 1: up thirteen down on the tablet versus three eighty two up,
Speaker 1: twenty three down on the phone. Or I guess vice versa.
Speaker 1: Why in your opinion the big difference?
Speaker 2: Thanks Dave.
Speaker 1: Dave, I think it comes down to the antennas on
Speaker 1: these devices. The essay is relatively new, so it probably
Speaker 1: has better antennas than the six year old Samsung tablet.
Speaker 1: That would be my guess. But having done a lot
Speaker 1: of these speed tests myself, I mean, you're not a
Speaker 1: nerd unless you're doing speed tests at least a couple
Speaker 1: times a week. I mean, it's like one of my
Speaker 1: favorite things to do. It's just like I'm always doing
Speaker 1: a speed test, like just out of curiosity, what's what's
Speaker 1: my speed here? So I would say it's probably due
Speaker 1: to the antennas and the tablet versus the antennas in
Speaker 1: the phone, if I had to guess, I don't want
Speaker 1: to get too complicated, but there's different arrays. There's different
Speaker 1: types of antenna arrays that you know, newer gadgets like
Speaker 1: the new Roku.
Speaker 2: One of the big selling points.
Speaker 1: When when I was in my you know, meeting with
Speaker 1: them and they were telling me about the what's new
Speaker 1: on the Ultra versus the old one. They said, oh,
Speaker 1: the range is like fifty percent greater because we, you know,
Speaker 1: we the antenna array is better. It's like, well interesting,
Speaker 1: And I remember when Amazon came out with their tablets,
Speaker 1: they mentioned that there. I think it was called like memommo,
Speaker 1: and it's like, you know, gives you better range on
Speaker 1: these tablets, and it's like stuff you don't think about,
Speaker 1: you know, as an average consumer, you're not necessarily thinking
Speaker 1: about the fact that, you know, what do you get
Speaker 1: for a four hundred dollars tablet versus a fifty dollars tablet.
Speaker 1: They both seem to do the same thing. They let
Speaker 1: you watch Netflix, but the little nuances are things like
Speaker 1: that the antenna range to drop off, how fast it
Speaker 1: you know, like those kind of things. So that would
Speaker 1: be my guest Dave, And I'm sure that's probably what
Speaker 1: it is. Oh I hear it. That is the sound
Speaker 1: that means it is the end of the show. If
Speaker 1: you'd like to submit a question for me to answer,
Speaker 1: all you have to do is go to rich on
Speaker 1: tech Actually, you know it's even easier now, so easy.
Speaker 1: All you have to do is go to rich on
Speaker 1: tech dot TV slash podcast and click contact and you'll
Speaker 1: get a little form that gives you all the information
Speaker 1: you need, or you can press the microphone button at
Speaker 1: the lower right hand corner of the page. Richon tech dot,
Speaker 1: TV slash Podcast. We'll take you right there and leave
Speaker 1: those voicemails. It's kind of fun. I used to do calls,
Speaker 1: and I just I wish I can get back to that,
Speaker 1: but it's so complicated, but I love doing the phone calls.
Speaker 2: You can find me online.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'd also like I'd also like it if you
Speaker 1: would rate and review this podcast to help other people
Speaker 1: discover it. Just go to rate this podcast dot com
Speaker 1: slash rich on tech. You can find me online at
Speaker 1: rich on tech. Thank you so much for listening. My
Speaker 1: name is rich Dmiro. Stay safe, I will talk to
Speaker 1: you real soon