Speaker 1: Netflix loses subscribers for the first time ever. Amazon Prime
Speaker 1: membership benefits, but on other websites, Chili's puts more robots
Speaker 1: in their restaurants. Plus your tech questions answered. What's going on?
Speaker 1: I'm Rich Demiro and this is Rich on Teche, the
Speaker 1: podcast where I talk about the tech stuff I think
Speaker 1: you should know about. It's also the place where I
Speaker 1: answer the questions you send me. I'm the tech reporter
Speaker 1: at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles, and I'm a
Speaker 1: little distracted because whenever I do my podcast in front
Speaker 1: of the live audience on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter,
Speaker 1: it's a little distracting. But I love it because I
Speaker 1: get the instant feedback. People are talking, people are chatting,
Speaker 1: but it's a little distracting, so I'm reading what people
Speaker 1: are saying. So it's something in that. You know. Typically,
Speaker 1: if I do a show without the live feedback, it's
Speaker 1: a little bit easier, but it's more fun to do
Speaker 1: the show when people are listening because they respond and
Speaker 1: they say stuff. And so anyway, I have been off
Speaker 1: for a week now, so I'm just getting back. It's weird.
Speaker 1: I usually I typically if I go on vacation, like
Speaker 1: to do it from you know, the weekend to the weekend, right,
Speaker 1: so you don't come back to work in the middle
Speaker 1: of the week. But this time, just because of scheduling,
Speaker 1: we actually went away and came back yesterday. And so
Speaker 1: it's been weird because I went back to work on
Speaker 1: a Thursday, which is totally odd. Right, So I'm just
Speaker 1: kind of I'm totally discombobulated, and I my wife and
Speaker 1: I were discussing this. We went to Scottsdale by the way, Arizona,
Speaker 1: which was beautiful, great place. The weather was perfect, everything
Speaker 1: was really We had some amazing restaurants that we went to. Actually,
Speaker 1: our favorite restaurant was a little tiny place called Pomo
Speaker 1: Pom in Scottsdale. Look it up. It was I'm from
Speaker 1: New Jersey. You know I love my pizza. You know
Speaker 1: I love my Italian food. It was excellent. We had
Speaker 1: a great, great time, and so it was a really
Speaker 1: nice place. And we kept saying our joke the entire time.
Speaker 1: You know, when you go on vacation, you don't like
Speaker 1: typically go to the same place twice, But our joke
Speaker 1: the entire time was, let's just go to Pomo again.
Speaker 1: It was like this casual little place, but it was
Speaker 1: so good. And some of the other restaurants we went
Speaker 1: to that were super hyped up and much more expensive.
Speaker 1: You know, they left a little bit to be desired.
Speaker 1: But we overall thought the city was beautiful. Everything was clean,
Speaker 1: everything was really nice, brand new. It's so different than La.
Speaker 1: Like La it seems like an old city compared to
Speaker 1: Phoenix or Scottsdale. Everything looks brand new. I'm so not
Speaker 1: used to that. Like every single building seemed like it
Speaker 1: was new construction, which I don't really understand. I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel like it's been around for a while, but
Speaker 1: it's just a very different kind of different landscape, I guess.
Speaker 1: And here everything is much more compact, right like when
Speaker 1: you see a Best Buy store. Here it's like wedged
Speaker 1: in between like two other places or three other places.
Speaker 1: But there everything is just so grand and big, and like,
Speaker 1: I guess, they just have a lot of space to
Speaker 1: put stuff in and so they just build these places.
Speaker 1: Like I could not believe the chain restaurants we were seeing,
Speaker 1: like just something as simple like a Chili's or like
Speaker 1: a Maggiano's, or you know, all these steakhouses and stuff.
Speaker 1: They were all so big. I mean, so big. I
Speaker 1: was like, how do they fit? Like, what's with all
Speaker 1: the people? Like do they these these restaurants must see
Speaker 1: a thousand people if not more. But anyway, it was
Speaker 1: a nice time. It was a quick drive. We drove
Speaker 1: from Los Angeles. It was probably like seven hours. We
Speaker 1: actually just drove. My trick was on the way there.
Speaker 1: We stopped over and over and over and over. We
Speaker 1: stopped for food. We stopped for this, we stopped for that,
Speaker 1: and way back we only stopped for restroom breaks and
Speaker 1: we just ate snacks the whole time that we had
Speaker 1: packed and the drive went really really fast. So I
Speaker 1: kind of I've talked about this on the podcast before.
Speaker 1: Growing up, you know, my parents never stopped, and so
Speaker 1: I kind of when I started doing road trips with
Speaker 1: my kids, I would stop, just like the kids would
Speaker 1: be like, I think I've to go to the bathroom.
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, let's stop, no problem. And you know,
Speaker 1: now it's like I'm kind of pulling back a little
Speaker 1: bit because I realized it takes so much longer to
Speaker 1: do that. So all right, let's get to the podcast.
Speaker 1: And so during the vacation, I revisited the Samsung Galaxy
Speaker 1: S twenty two Ultra. I figured it was a good
Speaker 1: time since I was off. I didn't switch my SIM
Speaker 1: card back into the phone, but I did use the
Speaker 1: phone for the week and just to kind of revisit things.
Speaker 1: There's been like three major software updates since I initially
Speaker 1: reviewed the phone, and I will tell you the Samsung
Speaker 1: Galaxy S twenty two Ultra is is is is the
Speaker 1: best phone of twenty twenty two when it comes to androids. Now,
Speaker 1: when I talk about phones in general, like I still
Speaker 1: really really like the iPhone, and there's certain things that
Speaker 1: I like about the iPhone, especially when it comes to
Speaker 1: like the total package, but when you look at the
Speaker 1: S twenty two Ultra, it's just like there was things
Speaker 1: I was able to do on it that you just
Speaker 1: can't do on the iPhone, like zoom, and a couple
Speaker 1: things in general, like like turning around the video, like
Speaker 1: just being able to flip while you're recording front facing
Speaker 1: camera or sorry, the back camera, then you can just
Speaker 1: flip to yourself and record yourself as well, so that
Speaker 1: was kind of cool. You can also record both of
Speaker 1: those cameras at the same time, although there's an app
Speaker 1: on iOS that lets you do that. Called double take.
Speaker 1: What was the other thing? So my main takeaway was
Speaker 1: the fact that on iOS, I feel like I'm constantly
Speaker 1: trying to outsmart the operating system. So just having voice
Speaker 1: search alone on the Android was so refreshing because I'm
Speaker 1: so not used to that with iOS, and so I
Speaker 1: was doing by the end of the week, ninety nine
Speaker 1: point nine percent of my searches were just voice and
Speaker 1: so I would just start by asking a question or
Speaker 1: just saying a bunch of search terms, and nine times
Speaker 1: out of ten that would like bring me to what
Speaker 1: I needed. The other thing I felt like is that
Speaker 1: the operating system is much more cohesive on Android because
Speaker 1: it feels like everything works together. So when you set
Speaker 1: like a default for an app, it just works. Like
Speaker 1: when I was clicking, I noticed myself like not having
Speaker 1: to worry about clicking links because they would take me
Speaker 1: to the right app. So if I wanted, like if
Speaker 1: I clicked an address, it would take me to my
Speaker 1: Google Maps instead of on iOS, right, I know not
Speaker 1: to click links for addresses because it's going to take
Speaker 1: me to Apple Maps and I have to go copy
Speaker 1: and paste things into the maps Google Maps app. On
Speaker 1: the flip side, I felt like, you know, like on iOS,
Speaker 1: everything kind of brings you back to Apple stuff, like
Speaker 1: it's always trying to push you into Apple, Apple, Apple Apple.
Speaker 1: And I feel like with Android it's like much more
Speaker 1: you know, I've said this before, but it's much more customizable,
Speaker 1: so it becomes what you want it to be. If
Speaker 1: you want to change the entire look and feel of
Speaker 1: the operating system, you can do that. So I felt
Speaker 1: like that stuff was pretty interesting. What else did I
Speaker 1: observe in that time? I mean, I just felt like
Speaker 1: the camera was really good. It was really solid. My
Speaker 1: only problem with the S twenty two Ultra is that
Speaker 1: it's a really big phone. And oh the other thing
Speaker 1: I really really liked is the charging was just so fast.
Speaker 1: I'm so not used to that on the iPhone because
Speaker 1: the iPhone charges pretty slow still, especially if you're using
Speaker 1: wireless charging. But the the Samsung, you plug it in
Speaker 1: and I'm telling you, it's just like it's so fast,
Speaker 1: it's unbelievable. If you have the right charger and it
Speaker 1: just really charges up fast. I never I don't think
Speaker 1: I ever dropped below fifty percent charge the entire time,
Speaker 1: because I would just come back to the hotel room
Speaker 1: to do something real quick, plug it in for fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes and be done. And so it was it was
Speaker 1: really really interesting to kind of to play around with
Speaker 1: it for another week. And you know, I'm tempted to switch,
Speaker 1: but it's definitely I see the pros and cons of both.
Speaker 1: I think it really comes down to preference, you know,
Speaker 1: and also not just preference, but kind of like what
Speaker 1: you're already into. So it's like if you're already if
Speaker 1: you have an Apple Watch like I do, I just
Speaker 1: I love the Apple Watch and it's really tough to
Speaker 1: give that up just to switch over to Android. And
Speaker 1: so it's thees little things. I think some of the
Speaker 1: apps work better on iOS, but then a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff works on Android as well. Let's see, we've got
Speaker 1: a question here on the live stream. What do you
Speaker 1: think of iPhone thirteen? What is your advice on getting
Speaker 1: a new iPhone weight for next year when I upgrade.
Speaker 1: I think it's a good time to get one. I
Speaker 1: think the iPhone thirteen is a really, really solid phone.
Speaker 1: It's definitely the best best iPhone that Apple has ever
Speaker 1: come out with, and I see no problem with continuing
Speaker 1: to get it, even in this late in the game.
Speaker 1: I know it's April. The new iPhone comes out in
Speaker 1: September October. I think that you'll be perfectly happy with
Speaker 1: the iPhone thirteen. There is literally not a thing on
Speaker 1: that phone that I'd improve. So it's just it's really
Speaker 1: just a matter of deciding, you know, do you want
Speaker 1: the smaller one, do you want the bigger one? Dutch
Speaker 1: Boy Az says, I love my Android Samsung F twenty
Speaker 1: So yeah that. I mean, look the Samsungs of the world,
Speaker 1: they really do give you a lot of choices. So, oh,
Speaker 1: I should mention. I saw this article from droid Life
Speaker 1: right now. If you're if you want to upgrade, you're
Speaker 1: if you have a Galaxy S twenty one, they are
Speaker 1: giving you one thousand dollars off the S twenty two
Speaker 1: if you trade in the Galaxy S twenty one Ultra.
Speaker 1: So it's interesting because Mkbhd, the you know, the pre
Speaker 1: eminent tech reviewer on YouTube. He actually, even after a
Speaker 1: bunch of software updates, said that he is still sticking
Speaker 1: with the S twenty one Ultra as his daily driver
Speaker 1: over the S twenty two Ultra, which is pretty bold,
Speaker 1: and I think his main reasoning is that he feels
Speaker 1: like the cameras aren't considerably better, and also the stylus.
Speaker 1: He's not using it, so why carry around a bigger phone?
Speaker 1: I would say, I still think the cameras are a
Speaker 1: bit improved, especially in low light and the video with
Speaker 1: the S twenty two Ultra, I agree with the fact
Speaker 1: that I don't need the stylus, and so I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm carrying around a phone that is a little
Speaker 1: bit bigger, a little bit bulkier, for a feature that
Speaker 1: I don't need. And so I do agree with him
Speaker 1: on that the S twenty two the standard one S
Speaker 1: twenty two plus for me personally as a power user,
Speaker 1: they don't offer the power that I need with the
Speaker 1: speed of video editing, and so that's just kind of
Speaker 1: a deal breaker for me. And also, if I'm going
Speaker 1: to have something that's different than the iPhone, you want
Speaker 1: something that's better than the iPhone. And so the reality
Speaker 1: is when it comes to the camera, you can zoom
Speaker 1: in ten x on the S twenty two Ultra, something
Speaker 1: that you just can't do on the iph and so
Speaker 1: that would lead me to believe that I just need
Speaker 1: to use the S twenty two Ultra over the iPhone.
Speaker 1: Thirteen pro if I was gonna switch, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I didn't say I'm doing that. And Tommy says, do
Speaker 1: you what can I do to make Android messages come
Speaker 1: clear when I send to iPhone? You can't. You've got
Speaker 1: to You've got to switch to a messaging app. So
Speaker 1: you've got to get You've got to get the person
Speaker 1: to switch to Telegram. There is a setting in the
Speaker 1: Messages app on Android that lets you send photos through
Speaker 1: Google Photos. If you go into your settings, you can
Speaker 1: toggle that on, and basically it sends people a link,
Speaker 1: which is not perfect, but it's better than just if
Speaker 1: you try to send a message from an Android to
Speaker 1: an iPhone, a video message, it's gonna look like garbage.
Speaker 1: It just is because SMS was not meant to send
Speaker 1: large files, and so it's just not gonna be very good.
Speaker 1: And I'm getting a message that says Signal is a
Speaker 1: good messaging app. Signal is great. It just it really
Speaker 1: depends on what your friends are on, so just pick
Speaker 1: one and stick to it. So, for instance, with my family,
Speaker 1: we all decided Telegram a couple of years ago. During
Speaker 1: the holidays, we all joined up. We all made a
Speaker 1: group text and It's been fantastic. It has been so
Speaker 1: good because a couple of us are on iPhone, a
Speaker 1: couple of us are on Android, and none of it matters.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what people are on. Everything works perfectly.
Speaker 1: Yo iPhone says, how do I get my Tesla to
Speaker 1: recognize my wife's iPhone? It doesn't seem to know which
Speaker 1: phone is close. There is a setting in Tesla that
Speaker 1: lets you say, prioritize a certain phone, So you can
Speaker 1: list your phones in there and it will let you
Speaker 1: prioritize her phone or your phone. My wife does not.
Speaker 1: She doesn't go near the Tesla because she doesn't like
Speaker 1: the idea of the phone key. I'm like, what's the
Speaker 1: difference you have your You have your phone near you
Speaker 1: at all times, that's your key. But she doesn't like that.
Speaker 1: Although I haven't actually set up her phone as the key,
Speaker 1: so maybe that's part of the problem. All right, let's
Speaker 1: get to the first question of the show. I know
Speaker 1: I got so many questions. I've said this before, but
Speaker 1: I need to do a version of this show that
Speaker 1: is just one hundred percent questions from Instagram, and that
Speaker 1: could be an entire hour, super easily. But I do
Speaker 1: want to get to some of these questions that I
Speaker 1: do have prepared here that people email me at Hello
Speaker 1: at richontech dot TV, Steve says, good evening, love the show.
Speaker 1: Like what you did there, Steve. Since I have unlimited
Speaker 1: data on Verizon, I rarely need to use Wi Fi
Speaker 1: when I'm out and about. But even when I've signed
Speaker 1: on to Wi Fi, say at Kaiser, which is a
Speaker 1: local hospital here or healthcare facility in Los Angeles, I
Speaker 1: find the service so slow as to be useless. Do
Speaker 1: you ever run into that problem? Thanks Steve, Steve one
Speaker 1: hundred percent? So I agree with this. In fact, I
Speaker 1: never use the Wi Fi anywhere unless I have to.
Speaker 1: I also have an unlimited data plan I happen to
Speaker 1: be on Verizon as well. I use gobs and gobs
Speaker 1: of data. I have never been slowed down. I'm on
Speaker 1: five G and I find that Verizon service is so solid.
Speaker 1: Nine times out of ten it is faster than the
Speaker 1: Wi Fi than I'm on. Now, with that said, what
Speaker 1: I do whenever I get into a hotel room or
Speaker 1: somewhere where I'm gonna be using Wi Fi, like let's
Speaker 1: say a sports stadium, I do two speed tests. I
Speaker 1: open up my meteor app met EO R, and I
Speaker 1: do a speed test of my standard signal on my
Speaker 1: cellular carrier. Then I do I connect to the Wi
Speaker 1: Fi and then I do a speed test with that
Speaker 1: as well, and I just see which one's faster nine
Speaker 1: times out of ten. Unless I'm in a place with
Speaker 1: a really good Wi Fi signal, I just leave my
Speaker 1: Wi Fi off and I will use my data. I'm
Speaker 1: paying for a big data plan. My plan is so
Speaker 1: expensive it's ridiculous, and so I'm going to get my
Speaker 1: use out of it until they decide to slow me down.
Speaker 1: And I've yet to see a place or a time
Speaker 1: when I've been slowed down. The only thing we've come
Speaker 1: close to on this last road trip my kid. We're
Speaker 1: using my wife's hot spot, and it did say that
Speaker 1: you came like ninety percent close to using all the
Speaker 1: data on your hot spot. And after these certain data
Speaker 1: was used, I think, I don't know how many gigs
Speaker 1: you get, they do slow that down. So that's an
Speaker 1: example of where it told me that. But I've never
Speaker 1: gotten an email or a text that says, hey, you've
Speaker 1: used you know, one hundred gigabytes this month. We are
Speaker 1: going to start slowing you down. I'm getting some texts
Speaker 1: here on the live stream saying about dead zones in
Speaker 1: different places. Yeah, when you're in these big box stores
Speaker 1: like a Walmart or a best Buy or a hospital
Speaker 1: even a lot of times there are a lot of
Speaker 1: dead zones where your cellular is not going to work
Speaker 1: that well, and so in those cases it's it's critical
Speaker 1: to have those Wi Fi connections. So, for instance, at
Speaker 1: the hotel I was staying at recently, the Verizon signal
Speaker 1: was not very good. I happen to have a T
Speaker 1: Mobile account and so I was using that to test against.
Speaker 1: T Mobile was like super duper fast. They must have
Speaker 1: had a Tea Mobile cell site on property or something,
Speaker 1: because I was getting like over one hundred down on
Speaker 1: T Mobile and I was getting like five on Verizon.
Speaker 1: And then the hotel Wi Fi, I can't remember, it
Speaker 1: was like twenty five something in the middle. So I
Speaker 1: did use the hotel Wi Fi when you know, when
Speaker 1: I figured when I could not get a signal whatsoever,
Speaker 1: like in the room and in certain areas of the hotel,
Speaker 1: and also when I'm at different places, like if you're
Speaker 1: a if you're in a big box place, that's like
Speaker 1: a big metal box store. A lot of times your
Speaker 1: cell phone signal doesn't work as well. I've noticed this
Speaker 1: in like a home depot things like that. It just
Speaker 1: really depends where you are. But that's what I do.
Speaker 1: I typically do the two speed tests if I'm going
Speaker 1: to be in that place for a while, and whatever
Speaker 1: one's faster, I'll just stick to that disconnect from the
Speaker 1: regular Wi Fi and that's it, and I'll use my
Speaker 1: cellular data. I think it's more security user cellular in general.
Speaker 1: It's just you know, we talked about it on the
Speaker 1: last show. Is Wi Fi safe? Most of the time?
Speaker 1: It's perfectly safe. But I do think that, of course
Speaker 1: cellular is going to be the same because it is
Speaker 1: a very secure connection. It's not a public connection. All right.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about everyone's favorite topic, uh, Netflix. So I
Speaker 1: posted about Netflix losing subscribers. Anytime you post about Netflix,
Speaker 1: I'll just tell you this right now. It is very,
Speaker 1: very controversial. People they love Netflix, they hate Netflix. They
Speaker 1: think it's too expensive, they think it's a great deal.
Speaker 1: It's one of those things that has become so prevalent
Speaker 1: in our lives that we have formed a lot of
Speaker 1: opinions about it. And that's fine. I personally sit somewhere
Speaker 1: in the middle in the in the middle in the
Speaker 1: middle with Netflix. I feel like I'm paying too much.
Speaker 1: It's twenty dollars a month. It's my most expensive service. Yes,
Speaker 1: I am sharing my service with other people. It's just
Speaker 1: the way it is. When they decide to clamp down
Speaker 1: on that, of course, I will tell the people that
Speaker 1: i'm sharing with, sorry, you got to you gotta pay
Speaker 1: for your own service. And I'm sharing with you know,
Speaker 1: household members and things like that. But you know, there
Speaker 1: may be some people that still have my password that
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure what's happening, and maybe they're using it.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but it just happens. You share it
Speaker 1: once and next thing, you know, these people they cling
Speaker 1: on forever. So quarter one in twenty twenty two, big
Speaker 1: big loss for Netflix. They lost Let's see, they had
Speaker 1: two hundred and they have two hundred and twenty one
Speaker 1: million subscribers, so overall they're doing great. But they lost
Speaker 1: two hundred thousand subscribers, which is I mean, absolutely horrible.
Speaker 1: You would think this service would still be growing. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to get into I'm not like a Wall
Speaker 1: Street person So we're not going to get into all
Speaker 1: these like wild numbers with Wall Street, but let's just
Speaker 1: put it this way. Investors expected them to gain two
Speaker 1: and a half million subscribers. They lost two hundred thousand subscribers.
Speaker 1: That is just wild. Now, they're still up four million
Speaker 1: subscribers year over year, they still have two hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty one million subscribers, but the reality is they gained
Speaker 1: four million subscribers Q one last year. They lost two
Speaker 1: hundred thousand overall this year. So that is really really
Speaker 1: bad for Netflix. If you've been following the news, their
Speaker 1: stock price went way down. They said that part of
Speaker 1: it was getting out of Russia, but Russia only had
Speaker 1: seven hundred thousand subscribers, so that really wasn't that big
Speaker 1: of a deal. US and Canada they lost six hundred
Speaker 1: thousand subscribers. So what does this tell us? When I
Speaker 1: posted on my Facebook page that Netflix was putting that
Speaker 1: price increase in once again, people were like, I say,
Speaker 1: I'm canceling, this is the last straw. People were serious.
Speaker 1: Six hundred thousand people in the US and Canada. They
Speaker 1: didn't break down exactly how many in each cancel their service.
Speaker 1: They lost six hundred thousand. That is that is a
Speaker 1: huge loss, and that's a net loss. So we don't
Speaker 1: know how many people actually joined and still you canceled.
Speaker 1: But the reality is are people getting streaming fatigue? Probably
Speaker 1: this was you know, Netflix has enjoyed ten years of growth,
Speaker 1: maybe twenty years of growth, whatever it's been since they started.
Speaker 1: Things just kept going up, up up. Now they're getting
Speaker 1: to a point where every move they make is being
Speaker 1: analyzed by their subscribers and and people are just saying,
Speaker 1: you know what, I only watched two shows on Netflix
Speaker 1: last year. Maybe I'll just subscribe to it for six months.
Speaker 1: That's actually an interesting way to look at this service.
Speaker 1: Do you cut your price in half by just subscribing
Speaker 1: for six months out of the year. Now, when Netflix,
Speaker 1: and this is why it always comes down to hit shows.
Speaker 1: When services have a hit show, you do not want
Speaker 1: to get rid of them. So what these services try
Speaker 1: to do is get a hit show that ends and
Speaker 1: then they get another hit show. But Netflix puts all
Speaker 1: their shows, they let you binge them, so you could
Speaker 1: theoretically join for six months and then join for another
Speaker 1: you know, drop out for six months and then join
Speaker 1: for another six months. John says, I dropped cable, but
Speaker 1: now how I pay the same with all these services.
Speaker 1: The perceive value is gone. That is one hundred percent correct,
Speaker 1: And that's what I've talked about. When we first joined
Speaker 1: these streaming services, it was a money saving There was
Speaker 1: a money saving aspect to it, and now that that
Speaker 1: money saving aspect is gone, we can be more critical
Speaker 1: about these services and which ones we pay money for.
Speaker 1: So for me personally, I feel like I'm not getting
Speaker 1: my value out of Netflix. I'm not definitely not getting
Speaker 1: my value out of HBO Plus or whatever max or
Speaker 1: whatever it's called. I feel like I'm not totally getting
Speaker 1: my value out of my YouTube Premium because I'm not
Speaker 1: using their music. I'm paying for Spotify. So it's this
Speaker 1: thing where you're just constantly evaluating. But some of these
Speaker 1: prices are so low that you're like whatever. Some of
Speaker 1: their bundles you're like whatever. But the reality is when
Speaker 1: you really add up all the fees that you're paying
Speaker 1: for these various services, it does add up to a
Speaker 1: lot of money, and it's sometimes you feel like maybe
Speaker 1: it's not enough to cancel. You know, when you look
Speaker 1: at Netflix, you go, oh, twenty bucks and I always
Speaker 1: call it the beer comparison. You know, you spend twenty
Speaker 1: bucks on you know, a round of drinks for so well,
Speaker 1: not in la around of drinks like fifty bucks here,
Speaker 1: but you know, you get a you know, you buy
Speaker 1: a beer, it's five ten bucks and it's okay. That
Speaker 1: lasted a half an hour to an hour versus Netflix
Speaker 1: for twenty dollars lasts for a whole month of entertainment
Speaker 1: for the entire family plus some klingons. But the reality
Speaker 1: is it's one of these situations where we're all kind
Speaker 1: of looking a little bit closer and saying, Netflix, if
Speaker 1: you raise it another two dollars, you know, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, that may impact our relationship. And so Netflix.
Speaker 1: The other thing that they said, which is kind of
Speaker 1: interesting is that they have one hundred million people that
Speaker 1: are sharing passwords, thirty million in the US. And I know,
Speaker 1: I put this on my Facebook page. A lot of
Speaker 1: people said, look, you know, as long as they're let
Speaker 1: me do it, I'll do it. You're either a password
Speaker 1: share or you're someone who's leeching off of someone else.
Speaker 1: Either way, it's been very acceptable for Netflix. And Michael
Speaker 1: just said, yeah, for about the price of a pizza
Speaker 1: once a month, and that is true. If you ever
Speaker 1: order takeout or if you ever get fast food, you
Speaker 1: see how fast that adds up. So, for instance, you
Speaker 1: go to the grocery store, you spend one hundred bucks.
Speaker 1: Right last night we order you know, two nights we
Speaker 1: ordered pizza and it was like thirty forty bucks I
Speaker 1: think for pizza and a salad. Here in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: it's it's absolutely incredible how much things cost some times here.
Speaker 1: But you know, we order pizza on a salad for
Speaker 1: forty dollars. We got one meal out of that. So
Speaker 1: again it's like, okay, for twenty dollars, I'm getting a
Speaker 1: whole month's worth of entertainment. So it really comes down
Speaker 1: to how you spend your money and also what you
Speaker 1: prioritize in life. If you're going out to eat dinner,
Speaker 1: it is a very expensive thing to do. If you
Speaker 1: can afford it, that's great, but the reality is that
Speaker 1: is a very expensive way to eat. Netflix still in
Speaker 1: the scheme of things, for twenty dollars a month is
Speaker 1: still a very inexpensive way to get entertainment. You go
Speaker 1: to one movie and the ticket's going to be twenty
Speaker 1: bucks at least here in Los Angeles, and so that
Speaker 1: is not a very efficient use of your money. Is
Speaker 1: it enjoyable? Is it a good experience? Sure, it's fun,
Speaker 1: It's different. It's just it depends how you look at
Speaker 1: this stuff. And so it all comes down to what
Speaker 1: you prioritize and how you decide to spend your money.
Speaker 1: You know, if you have one hundred dollars to spend
Speaker 1: on entertainment a month and you or let's say you
Speaker 1: only have twenty dollars to spend on entertainment, Netflix is great,
Speaker 1: and it's a really good way of getting a lot
Speaker 1: of entertainment for cheap. But if you're paying twenty dollars
Speaker 1: for Netflix, plus twenty dollars for this, plus twenty dollars
Speaker 1: for that, plus you're going to the movies, plus you're
Speaker 1: doing this, that is a very expensive way to get
Speaker 1: your entertainment. So again, it all comes down to kind
Speaker 1: of what you want. But I'm just saying be prepared
Speaker 1: for Netflix to really start looking into this idea of
Speaker 1: people sharing their passwords and sharing their entertainment with other people.
Speaker 1: Because they they can do it, they can turn on,
Speaker 1: they can crank it up very quickly and just say okay, computers.
Speaker 1: From now on, when people start to log in from
Speaker 1: different locations on this account, we're gonna be a little
Speaker 1: bit more critical about how we allow that login to happen.
Speaker 1: So just be aware that if Netflix starts trying to
Speaker 1: look for ways to cut costs and to I guess
Speaker 1: increase the value out of their memberships or increase I
Speaker 1: don't know what the term is, but they're basically trying
Speaker 1: to crank things up just a little bit. They might
Speaker 1: put the pressure on people to stop sharing passwords. They
Speaker 1: might not make it as easy. The other thing they
Speaker 1: said they're going to do is look into add supported plans,
Speaker 1: something they've never wanted to do, but I think it's
Speaker 1: inevitable at this point because if they can make a
Speaker 1: ten dollars plan that has ads a lot of people,
Speaker 1: we'll go over to that plan for sure. All right,
Speaker 1: next question, let's see here. Oh, this is a okay,
Speaker 1: So this is a good one because I got this
Speaker 1: email from Sandra. She attached an email to the email
Speaker 1: she sent me, which was a screenshot, and the subject
Speaker 1: line was new billing proof your order will be processed soon.
Speaker 1: Please check the following attachment for more information, and Sandra
Speaker 1: said to me, hey, Rich, I didn't make this purchase.
Speaker 1: It doesn't look authentic. It says click on cancel, and
Speaker 1: I did. I still wasn't sure. I checked my bank
Speaker 1: accounts and no purchase shows just yet. What should I do?
Speaker 1: Thank you, Sandy, Sandy, you made one mistake here and
Speaker 1: that was clicking the links to cancel, because that's exactly
Speaker 1: what they want to do. So I made a video
Speaker 1: about this scam email on my Instagram and I posted it,
Speaker 1: so if you want to check it out, check out
Speaker 1: my latest post at richon Tech on Instagram. What happened
Speaker 1: here is a very common common scam and it's been
Speaker 1: going on forever. And so this example is she got
Speaker 1: a receipt it looks like an Apple receipt for a
Speaker 1: in app purchase of thirty dollars and it's for some
Speaker 1: Marvel I don't know game or something. And so what
Speaker 1: they want you to do is look at this and say, well,
Speaker 1: I didn't make that purchase. And it's so convenient that
Speaker 1: right inside that same email are too easy links to
Speaker 1: cancel your purchase and to also change your password, because
Speaker 1: clearly someone has access to your account. But beware, do
Speaker 1: not click the links inside these emails. So if you
Speaker 1: look a little bit closer at these emails, and this
Speaker 1: one was actually pretty good because it looked kind of authentic.
Speaker 1: It looked like something that Apple might send. But if
Speaker 1: you look closely at the links. So when you're on
Speaker 1: a phone, it's a little bit trickier because you can't
Speaker 1: hover over the link. You can do it's called a
Speaker 1: peek at the link, but that's a little tricky too.
Speaker 1: But if you are on a desktop, you can just
Speaker 1: hover your mouse over a link and in the lower
Speaker 1: portion of the of the browser or right kind of
Speaker 1: near the link, it will give you the full URL
Speaker 1: of that link, and so it will tell you where
Speaker 1: that link goes to. So if you're on Chrome, it
Speaker 1: shows you in the lower left hand corner. If you're
Speaker 1: on different apps, it may just kind of show you
Speaker 1: the link near the or show you the full URL
Speaker 1: near the link. But the reality is you need to
Speaker 1: be very concerned about emails like this. Number one, do
Speaker 1: not click the links. I'm telling you do not click
Speaker 1: the links for a reason. Even if you're smart like me,
Speaker 1: and you're a tech savvy person that knows technology and
Speaker 1: knows a fake email when they see it. Pretty much instantly,
Speaker 1: you don't want to click these links because guess what,
Speaker 1: they are tracking the people that click those links. So
Speaker 1: as soon as you click that link, even if you
Speaker 1: don't type anything in, it immediately sends the bad people
Speaker 1: a signal that says, oh, we got a good email address,
Speaker 1: we got a hot one, Let's send them more emails.
Speaker 1: And so that's why you don't want to click on
Speaker 1: the links at all. In fact, I go so far
Speaker 1: as to have all images turned off in my emails,
Speaker 1: so my email programs do not load images by default.
Speaker 1: The reason for that is that means they can't see
Speaker 1: when I load images. These scammers have gotten so good
Speaker 1: they put tiny, little, tiny little pixels in their emails,
Speaker 1: and when that pixel gets loaded from a remote server,
Speaker 1: it goes ding ning, ning, ning ning. It says, we
Speaker 1: got a hot one, we got an email address that
Speaker 1: actually works, we got a human that's actually checking this email.
Speaker 1: Let's send them more emails, let's target them even more.
Speaker 1: Same things happened, Same thing happens with with spam texts.
Speaker 1: So this is the reason why you don't even want
Speaker 1: to interact with these emails at all. Don't click on subscribe,
Speaker 1: don't click the links in them, don't even test things out,
Speaker 1: just delete. And the reason why I tell you this
Speaker 1: is because this is a problem over and over and
Speaker 1: over the problem is that when you click these links,
Speaker 1: it's saying, oh, cancel your membership, or cancel this product,
Speaker 1: or get a credit. What they're really trying to do
Speaker 1: is that link is going to bring you to a
Speaker 1: log in page for Apple, and it looks just like
Speaker 1: the Apple login page, but you can type anything into
Speaker 1: that Apple login page and it will still accept it
Speaker 1: because it is just trying to capture your password and
Speaker 1: your user name as soon as humanly possible. And the
Speaker 1: second that you type those two things into that page,
Speaker 1: it immediately alerts someone with a big red alert and
Speaker 1: they say, oh, we got a good email and we
Speaker 1: got a good password because this person didn't realize the scam.
Speaker 1: And next thing you know, they are logging into your account.
Speaker 1: They're changing the password, they're changing your two factor authentication
Speaker 1: or turning it on with their stuff, and they are
Speaker 1: now taking control of your account. And that's when the
Speaker 1: real scam happens, because that's when they take control and
Speaker 1: they really make some purchases and do stuff, and by
Speaker 1: the time you realize that you just typed into a
Speaker 1: page that doesn't go anywhere, it's too late. They've already
Speaker 1: taken control of your account. So please do not fall
Speaker 1: for this stuff. If you are ever typing your information
Speaker 1: into a web page, I want you to go to
Speaker 1: that web page yourself. If it is an Apple thing,
Speaker 1: you need to go to Apple dot com and navigate
Speaker 1: to the pages. I don't even care if you google it. Honestly,
Speaker 1: if you do like Apple refund for purchase, you should.
Speaker 1: It should bring up a support page for Apple, and
Speaker 1: then you can click where the actual sign in page
Speaker 1: is Report a problem dot Apple dot com. And so
Speaker 1: this is how these scams work. It happens so fast
Speaker 1: that people don't realize it, and they tell me all
Speaker 1: the time. Believe me. I get these emails every single
Speaker 1: day they say, Rich, my Instagram was hacked. Your Instagram
Speaker 1: was not hacked. What happened was you fell prey to
Speaker 1: a social engineering email. And that social engineering email, which
Speaker 1: I get every single day of my life, says, hey,
Speaker 1: there's been a problem with your Instagram account. Please log
Speaker 1: in here and we'll figure it out for you. As
Speaker 1: soon as you log in, it is it is taking
Speaker 1: your information, so don't do that. Okay. With that said,
Speaker 1: a couple couple takeaways from Herember one, just don't log
Speaker 1: in ever, ever, ever, ever, unless you know and trust
Speaker 1: the website. Make sure you look at the link that
Speaker 1: you are clicking. Don't even click the link. Some of
Speaker 1: you are asking about unsubscribed links. Here is how you
Speaker 1: deal with unsubscribe. You only unsubscribe to websites that are legitimate,
Speaker 1: so again to review. If Apple officially sends you an email, yes,
Speaker 1: you can on subscribe. If Macy sends you an email,
Speaker 1: you can unsubscribe. If best By send you an email,
Speaker 1: you can safely unsubscribe. Even if the real ator that
Speaker 1: you went to an open house start sending you text
Speaker 1: to your phone, you can safely unsubscribe to those texts
Speaker 1: by typing stop. If you get a random text message
Speaker 1: that says you can grow more hair or you know
Speaker 1: whatever these text messages say. You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: You've seen them all. You cannot write stop to those
Speaker 1: text messages. Do not even don't do anything, just delete
Speaker 1: them because it's believe me, it just makes you get
Speaker 1: more stuff. And right now I'll be honest, we are
Speaker 1: in a primetime right now where I don't know about you,
Speaker 1: but I am getting so many spam emails on a
Speaker 1: daily basis because what these spammers do is they go
Speaker 1: through all the leaks, all the hacks out there that
Speaker 1: you know, when target gets hacked and a big bunch
Speaker 1: of email addresses are out on the web, when you know,
Speaker 1: anyone gets hacked, and all these email addresses get out
Speaker 1: on the open web, they go through, they parse those
Speaker 1: email addresses, and they start spamming them like crazy until
Speaker 1: things settle down and they move on to the next list.
Speaker 1: So believe me, right now, the spam texts and the
Speaker 1: spam emails are at an all time high at least
Speaker 1: for my accounts, and it's taking all my energy every
Speaker 1: day to just be like, what is happening. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: this is absolutely wild, So just ignore them if you want.
Speaker 1: If you can go into your email program and turn
Speaker 1: off loading of images, that is really smart. So you
Speaker 1: can just google, like, let's say you use the iPhone
Speaker 1: iPhone mail app turn off images. Let's see if that
Speaker 1: brings you to it. Yeah, it'll tell you how to
Speaker 1: stop images from automatically downloading an email, so just do that,
Speaker 1: Panda Bearer. Panda Bear says, it's called phishing. Yes, it
Speaker 1: is called phishing, and it's a terrible thing. And basically
Speaker 1: when people say they are hacked, honestly they are. It
Speaker 1: is being hacked in a certain way. But you're really
Speaker 1: being fished, you're being scammed, You're being socially engineered. They
Speaker 1: are preying upon the fact that you get this email
Speaker 1: that says, oh, just confirming your purchase for eighty dollars,
Speaker 1: and you're like what, and you're so mad that you're like,
Speaker 1: I didn't make that purchase. Let me click the link
Speaker 1: to get rid of that purchase. It says here, click
Speaker 1: this for a refund, and you click it and next
Speaker 1: thing you know, that's how you've been socially engineered. I
Speaker 1: was at a gas station when we were traveling last week.
Speaker 1: I was at a gas station and I used Tap
Speaker 1: to pay, like I have recommended for you to use.
Speaker 1: I used Tap to pay and it said sorry, it
Speaker 1: doesn't work. And I said, huh, that's weird. I'm like,
Speaker 1: am I hacked? Tried tap to pay again, gas station
Speaker 1: didn't work, and so I said, that's weird. And so
Speaker 1: I went into the gas station, tried I used a
Speaker 1: different card. I went to the gas station, tried tap
Speaker 1: to pay again, didn't work. Next thing you know, I
Speaker 1: get back to my car. I had like three texts
Speaker 1: from my bank saying was this you trying to use
Speaker 1: your card at this gas station? And sure enough it was,
Speaker 1: but I didn't see the text. But here's the deal again,
Speaker 1: these bad people are socially engineering even those texts. So
Speaker 1: they're sending you a text that says, did you just
Speaker 1: make this purchase? Press one for yes, press two for no,
Speaker 1: And you're confused because you're like, oh, that's weird. I
Speaker 1: didn't make that purchase. You pressed two. But it's actually
Speaker 1: just a fake spam text. And now they know that
Speaker 1: your phone number is alive. So these spammers believe me
Speaker 1: they are smart, and they are they're working NonStop to
Speaker 1: try to trick us out of our money and hand
Speaker 1: over our credentials in ways that we have not thought of.
Speaker 1: If you know me, well, you're like, rich, hold on,
Speaker 1: why did you Why did you drive a gas car?
Speaker 1: I thought you had a tesla? What's going on? We
Speaker 1: actually took my wife's car because it was she didn't
Speaker 1: want to deal with the drive and charging and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. So I said, okay, that's fine, we'll not
Speaker 1: We'll take the regular gas car. It's very different. I'm
Speaker 1: so used to driving the Tesla that it drives so
Speaker 1: different than a gas car. That anyway, all right, good question.
Speaker 1: So I think I went really long on a question
Speaker 1: to just explain that. But I feel like it's very
Speaker 1: very important to explain. So let's get to the next
Speaker 1: Let's see next story on the podcast. Amazon has a
Speaker 1: new way to shop. Okay, so this is actually pretty smart.
Speaker 1: Amazon has a new program called Bye with Prime. I know,
Speaker 1: Amazon is kind of like Netflix, either love it or
Speaker 1: hate it. I think probably more people hate Amazon than
Speaker 1: they do Netflix. But Amazon is definitely getting up there
Speaker 1: with with the hate. And whenever I post something about
Speaker 1: Amazon because they've gotten so big, I mean, it's it's
Speaker 1: realistically the situation where Amazon has become the pre eminent
Speaker 1: search engine so for shopping. So if you're searching for
Speaker 1: some information, you're going to go to Google. If you're
Speaker 1: searching for something to buy, if you have Amazon Prime,
Speaker 1: if you have a Prime membership, you're probably gonna go
Speaker 1: to Amazon first and just search inside that box for
Speaker 1: what you're looking for. That item may be cheaper on
Speaker 1: other websites, it might be available on other websites, but
Speaker 1: because you're an Amazon Prime member, you turn to Amazon first.
Speaker 1: And so with that in mind, Amazon has gotten some
Speaker 1: you know, some blowback or pushback, whatever you want to
Speaker 1: call it for kind of taking over the web and
Speaker 1: making people shop just at Amazon, and especially small sellers who.
Speaker 1: Let's put it this way, you are shopping for something
Speaker 1: and it is either one click to purchase it on Amazon,
Speaker 1: or you can go to another website that you've never
Speaker 1: shopped on before and purchased a similar item. But you
Speaker 1: have to sign up, you gotta log in, you got
Speaker 1: to put your credit card number in, you gotta wait
Speaker 1: for this really long shipping process. And so nine times
Speaker 1: out of ten you're gonna go, eh, I'll just buy
Speaker 1: it on Amazon. I'll give you an example about this.
Speaker 1: So I like the soaps from doctor Squatch, right, and
Speaker 1: so Doctor Squatch is a website that they advertised during
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. I made fun of them. A couple
Speaker 1: weeks later, here I am ordering soap off their website. Now,
Speaker 1: when I ordered soap off their website the first time,
Speaker 1: it took so long to get to my house that
Speaker 1: I was like, Eh, never mind, I'm not gonna I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna buy here anymore. And I was like, ah,
Speaker 1: but I like this soap so much, so let me
Speaker 1: keep shopping there. The second time order it again, it
Speaker 1: just took so long. Oh my gosh. So the third
Speaker 1: time I ordered, I said, you know what, let me
Speaker 1: just buy it off Amazon. Let me search for Doctor
Speaker 1: Squatch soap on Amazon. They didn't have the same selection.
Speaker 1: It was more expensive, but I did order it from
Speaker 1: Amazon because it was like overnight shipping. But then I
Speaker 1: was like, ah, that's much cheaper through the direct website.
Speaker 1: Let me order it there again. Fourth or fifth time
Speaker 1: I ordered the soap, it was this shipping was really fast,
Speaker 1: so I think it was a COVID thing that's a
Speaker 1: shipping took really long. But I tell you all of
Speaker 1: this because imagine the next time I go to this
Speaker 1: Doctor Squatch website and they have enabled this new buy
Speaker 1: with Prime button. So what this button does is it
Speaker 1: lets you check out using your Amazon Prime membership. So
Speaker 1: if you have an Amazon Prime membership and you're on
Speaker 1: this random candle website or soap website or whatever website,
Speaker 1: it says, hey, buy with your Prime, and you buy
Speaker 1: with Prime. Next thing, you know, your shipping information is
Speaker 1: all is all kind of preloaded, your payment information is preloaded.
Speaker 1: You're also going to get fast free delivery and easy
Speaker 1: free returns. So again, it's a really easy way of
Speaker 1: expanding the Amazon kind of experience to any website that
Speaker 1: wants to offer it. So let's say I don't want
Speaker 1: to put my stuff on Amazon, but I want to
Speaker 1: continue selling on my own website, so I can sort
Speaker 1: of control the experience, but I can still offer that
Speaker 1: Prime membership kind of benefit. So will this be successful.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure because a lot of these small sellers,
Speaker 1: like I said, have a love hate relationship with Amazon.
Speaker 1: They love Amazon because they know that they can get
Speaker 1: their stuff out in front of a lot of people,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people go to Amazon first to
Speaker 1: search for something like candles, and next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: they buy them through there. But they don't like Amazon
Speaker 1: because they take a large part of the profit, or
Speaker 1: they don't want to be Okay, Let's say your candle
Speaker 1: sells for forty dollars and you search candles. The next
Speaker 1: thing you know, the candle underneath is the same flavor
Speaker 1: and it sells for twenty dollars and the person goes,
Speaker 1: I'll just buy that one for twenty bucks. So again
Speaker 1: you can kind of build a better, more boutiquey business
Speaker 1: but still give that Amazon Prime membership benefit to your customers.
Speaker 1: And so we'll see what happens. This buy with Prime
Speaker 1: checkout button is going to start appearing on websites soon.
Speaker 1: We'll see if if it kind of takes takes up,
Speaker 1: or if retailers say, I'm a little scared of doing
Speaker 1: that on my website. But if you notice already, if
Speaker 1: you look at these websites that you shop on, when
Speaker 1: you go to any independent website, you can check out
Speaker 1: with PayPal, you can check out with Chase, you can
Speaker 1: check out with Visa, you can check out with Apple pay,
Speaker 1: Google Pay, Shopify. There's so many ways to kind of
Speaker 1: buy through these websites, but they don't give you that benefit.
Speaker 1: Shop Runner is another one that gives you like that
Speaker 1: two day free shipping. So now Amazon's getting into this game,
Speaker 1: it could be pretty competitive for a local seller. So
Speaker 1: if you do have a small business, it is something
Speaker 1: to look into because again it's one of these things
Speaker 1: that Amazon people are going to shop on Amazon, and
Speaker 1: so if you can expand that and say, hey, you
Speaker 1: can buy your candle from my website, but you're still
Speaker 1: going to get those Amazon benefits, kind of a smart
Speaker 1: play on Amazon's part. We'll see if it happens, all right,
Speaker 1: Sharon says, I trust your advice, so please help me.
Speaker 1: Do I need antivirus on my iPhone? Verizon has an
Speaker 1: antivirus program called Safe, not sure if I need to
Speaker 1: install it or another one that you recommend. I appreciate
Speaker 1: your advice, and I know this sounds weird, but you
Speaker 1: don't need it. There's no such thing as antivirus for
Speaker 1: the iPhone. So the reality is the iPhone is built
Speaker 1: in such a way that there is no antivirus that
Speaker 1: actually works on the iPhone. In fact, if you really
Speaker 1: look closely at the things that these programs that say
Speaker 1: their anti viruses do, they really can't protect you from
Speaker 1: viruses because so far, there has not been a quote
Speaker 1: unquote virus for the iPhone. There has been malware, there
Speaker 1: has been exploits, but the way that the iPhone works,
Speaker 1: every app works or lives in its own little sandbox,
Speaker 1: so apps are not able to interact with the operating system.
Speaker 1: At large or other apps in a way that they
Speaker 1: can on androids. So on Android, yes, I would recommend
Speaker 1: an antivirus program if you want, but on iPhone you
Speaker 1: do not need it. So it's just the way that
Speaker 1: the phone is built that makes it where antivirus doesn't
Speaker 1: even like an antivirus program historically kind of monitors in
Speaker 1: real time what you're doing on that device, and then
Speaker 1: alternatively you can kind of do a scan of the
Speaker 1: entire device. So there's no app out there that can
Speaker 1: scan Apple's iPhone root settings or system because it doesn't
Speaker 1: allow access to that. So that's the reason why I
Speaker 1: don't recommend it. Now. With that said, and as Hortensias
Speaker 1: says on the live stream, please mention folks should still
Speaker 1: not click links. Yes, this goes back to what I
Speaker 1: was explaining earlier. When in doubt, do not click links
Speaker 1: that you don't know the origin of or if you
Speaker 1: are unsure of those links. And when in doubt, you
Speaker 1: know a lot of times people will get these pop
Speaker 1: ups they say your phone is infected, you know, call
Speaker 1: this number or you need to run this program. You know,
Speaker 1: on the iPhone, you can just close out that program
Speaker 1: and that's it. You're not going to see that that
Speaker 1: thing happen. It just shuts that off. So kind of
Speaker 1: on Windows computer, it's a little bit trickier because it
Speaker 1: can be a little bit more convincing, but it's the
Speaker 1: same exact thing. Whenever you see those pop ups, it's
Speaker 1: basically what I call malvertizing. It's malware masquerading as advertising.
Speaker 1: So sometimes it takes over advertising where it's just this
Speaker 1: big box on your screen that says, you know, you
Speaker 1: got to do this, you got to call this number,
Speaker 1: or you know, install this antivirus, or your system is infected.
Speaker 1: You can ignore almost all of that. It is usually bogus.
Speaker 1: Just close out that app, force close it, and you
Speaker 1: should be good to go. But the problem is, you know,
Speaker 1: since you're listening to me on Instagram, you're probably a
Speaker 1: little bit tech savvier than the average folks. And that's
Speaker 1: the problem is that they are targeting average people that
Speaker 1: may not be as savvy, and so you just have
Speaker 1: to be aware and really tell people, tell your friends
Speaker 1: and family, like explain the stuff that I'm telling you
Speaker 1: to them and so that they understand. A lot of
Speaker 1: folks in the chat talking about password managers recommending different
Speaker 1: ones Yeah, dash Lane is a great one. Another part
Speaker 1: of this is do not use the same password over
Speaker 1: and over. I know. It is a total pain in
Speaker 1: the you know what to make unique passwords for every
Speaker 1: website to save them in those password managers. It is
Speaker 1: a total pain. It's a pain for me. I hate it.
Speaker 1: I have all my stuff with two factor authentication. I
Speaker 1: cannot stand it. It's so annoying when I want to
Speaker 1: log into a website because it takes me twenty five
Speaker 1: seconds to do it instead of one second typing in
Speaker 1: the password that I remembered for many many years that
Speaker 1: I used over and over. So don't do that. Just
Speaker 1: take the extra two minutes to create a unique password.
Speaker 1: Turn on that two factor authentication, especially for your main apps,
Speaker 1: and it will really save you a headache. I've had
Speaker 1: so many people get in touch with me about their
Speaker 1: accounts being hacked that I feel bad for them, But
Speaker 1: I also don't because I asked them the same two questions.
Speaker 1: I say, did you have two factor authentication on? No?
Speaker 1: What's that? Did you back up your pictures? No? I
Speaker 1: know I should have back up your pictures, back up
Speaker 1: your files, back up your computer, and make sure that
Speaker 1: you use strong passwords and two factor authentication, and that
Speaker 1: will help you out of ninety nine percent of these
Speaker 1: situations you might get yourself into. Even if you're tricked
Speaker 1: a lot of times, if you have these protections in place,
Speaker 1: it'll save you against yourself because let's say you got tricked.
Speaker 1: Let's say you got tricked on Instagram into giving up
Speaker 1: your password, right and you had two factor authentication turned on.
Speaker 1: Let's say you gave up your password. Next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: they would try to log in, and they would try
Speaker 1: that two factor authentication would pop up and say, oh
Speaker 1: can you put in this code? That code would be
Speaker 1: texted to your phone and you go, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: oh no, oh no, hold on, and you would not
Speaker 1: give them that code. Now, it's still going to be
Speaker 1: a problem that they have your password, but it's just
Speaker 1: going to be a little bit of friction. So you
Speaker 1: just really need to be careful about this stuff because
Speaker 1: it is a nightmare if you actually end up getting hacked.
Speaker 1: So good question there, and the reality is no antivirus,
Speaker 1: but be be be on the lookout and be safe
Speaker 1: and just be aware. That is the number one thing
Speaker 1: is just take your time, don't just go boom boom boom,
Speaker 1: boom boom, because you need to just kind of look
Speaker 1: at the screens that you're tapping through, because that's really
Speaker 1: what's happening, is that all these scam artists know that
Speaker 1: we're doing everything so fast, and we're doing it all
Speaker 1: from memory, that the quicker we just kind of click
Speaker 1: click click click click. They know that they're gonna they're
Speaker 1: gonna hook us and get us, so just be aware.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about best Buy. They've got a
Speaker 1: new program called Standalone Haul Away Service. I'm telling you
Speaker 1: this because I feel like in California it's pretty easy
Speaker 1: to get big bulky electronics taken away from your house.
Speaker 1: But not every state has these programs. So if you've
Speaker 1: ever tried to recycle electronics, it's easy, but it's also tough.
Speaker 1: So Staples had a really good They may they may
Speaker 1: have reinstated it. They had a really good program where
Speaker 1: you can base drop anything off. Best Buy has a
Speaker 1: really good program too, but it depends in some states
Speaker 1: they charge you. In California they do not. You can
Speaker 1: basically bring them a whole bunch of little things and
Speaker 1: it should be fine. So hold on, I got to
Speaker 1: block someone here because they're just being not so nice
Speaker 1: on here. So anyway, the reality is it depends where
Speaker 1: you live on how easy it is to actually recycle stuff,
Speaker 1: and so in LA, in California at large, it's pretty easy.
Speaker 1: In fact, when you buy something that's in electronics in California,
Speaker 1: look at your receipt next time. You're paying a little
Speaker 1: premium for this recycling program that is yours. So in
Speaker 1: California it's pretty simple. But outside of California, and you
Speaker 1: may even need this in California if you want. But
Speaker 1: they've got this new standalone holloway service at best Buy
Speaker 1: which will come to your house and help you recycle
Speaker 1: big bulky electronics. And that includes appliances like refrigerators, TVs, dishwaisures, whatever,
Speaker 1: and you don't have to buy it from best Buy.
Speaker 1: They will just come to your house for two hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: Dimension that it's kind of expensive, yeah, two hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: and they will bring two large products, they will haul
Speaker 1: those away and select smaller products like laptops, cameras, cords,
Speaker 1: gaming consoles and more. Again, this is called best Buy
Speaker 1: standalone halloway service. You may say, rich, I can bring
Speaker 1: stuff to best Buy why would I pay them money. Yes,
Speaker 1: you can bring stuff to best Buy and they will
Speaker 1: take it. That's typically smaller gadgets, so you can't really
Speaker 1: bring a refrigerator to best Buy and have them recycle it.
Speaker 1: If you live in Los Angeles, they've got this app
Speaker 1: called my La three point one. You can request bulk
Speaker 1: electronics pickups through that. It is free as far as
Speaker 1: I know, they might charge you. This is the weird thing.
Speaker 1: So I've done this a couple of times. I can't
Speaker 1: tell if they charge you or not, but it asks
Speaker 1: if you're if you're getting the pickup for yourself or
Speaker 1: if you're getting the pickup for someone else, And if
Speaker 1: it's an abandoned product, they'll pick it up for free.
Speaker 1: If if it's yourself, I don't know. Do they charge you.
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure. I've done it a bunch of times.
Speaker 1: I can't tell if they've charged me on my LEDWP
Speaker 1: bill or not. But the reality is it is available
Speaker 1: to you. So again, if you're looking to recycle stuff
Speaker 1: a couple of different things. If it's something that's valuable
Speaker 1: like a smartphone, definitely get a trade in value, So
Speaker 1: go to best Buy. They'll trade it in for you
Speaker 1: and give you a gift card, or you can go
Speaker 1: to gizmo Go, which I've talked about gizmogo dot com.
Speaker 1: I've done a story on them. They will buy your
Speaker 1: old electronics from you, or if it's something that doesn't
Speaker 1: have much value, you can just go ahead and recycle it.
Speaker 1: And you want to do this properly. You don't want
Speaker 1: to just throw this stuff in the trash because there
Speaker 1: are a lot of materials that can be safely reclaimed
Speaker 1: from these old gadgets, and you can also bring some
Speaker 1: of them to like Goodwill. They'll take certain things that
Speaker 1: are you know, if they still have a life to them,
Speaker 1: that's good. If it's something like a laptop you definitely
Speaker 1: want to clear your personal information, or a phone, you
Speaker 1: definitely want to clear your personal information off of that.
Speaker 1: I understand that some people may not know how to
Speaker 1: do that. So if you're not going to clear your
Speaker 1: personal information off of it, which I highly recommend you do,
Speaker 1: you know, do a little quick Google search on how
Speaker 1: to do that, get a friend that might know how
Speaker 1: to do it, or at the very least bring it
Speaker 1: to a place where they will do it in front
Speaker 1: of you. Or it's safely done. So a lot of places,
Speaker 1: you know, you just have to make sure that they
Speaker 1: know what they're doing and they're not, you know, you're
Speaker 1: not just like leaving this thing somewhere where someone could
Speaker 1: get your personal information. Let's see, so that two hundred
Speaker 1: dollars actually includes two large products including major TVs, major appliances,
Speaker 1: all in one computers and monitors, and smaller products like laptops, cameras, cords,
Speaker 1: gaming consoles, and more. So for two hundred dollars, if
Speaker 1: you're just trying to like clear out your house, it's
Speaker 1: not a bad deal if you want someone to come
Speaker 1: to you and take this stuff away from you. But again,
Speaker 1: if you can do it yourself, that's going to be
Speaker 1: cheaper and in many cases free, depending on where you go.
Speaker 1: Last time I check Staples recycling program, Let's see if
Speaker 1: it's still there, because last time I checked, it was
Speaker 1: paused for COVID, and it looks like it is still okay.
Speaker 1: It looks like it looks like Staples still has a
Speaker 1: recycling program and it is up and running. So it
Speaker 1: looks like they have brought it back and they will
Speaker 1: take pretty much anything. It's not somewhere you would never
Speaker 1: necessarily take, but they will accept for free recycling all
Speaker 1: in one computers, cable and satellite receivers, camquarders, Blu ray players,
Speaker 1: coffee brewers up to forty pounds, computer speakers, copiers, desktop computers,
Speaker 1: digital cameras, fax machines, gaming consoles, GPS, mobile phones. I mean,
Speaker 1: all kinds of stuff. So if you want to recycle something,
Speaker 1: that's pretty good because they will take it for free
Speaker 1: seven items per day. That's the limit as Staples, So
Speaker 1: definitely check how much it depends. Like someone is commenting
Speaker 1: here on the on the live feed saying best Buy
Speaker 1: does charge for some stuff, including monitors. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: Let's see if that's the case in California. I know
Speaker 1: in certain states they do charge a fee, so products
Speaker 1: they recycle for free. Depends on what they do, but
Speaker 1: it all depends on the state that you live in.
Speaker 1: Let's see, Yeah, it depends on the state. So anyway,
Speaker 1: just go to best Buy Recycling or Staples Recycling and
Speaker 1: check it out. Just giving you options. Options are good.
Speaker 1: Mama G via Instagram says, hey, Rich, I've been using
Speaker 1: ghost sund smart plugs, but recently upgraded my Spectrum home
Speaker 1: router and now it's only five g which the ghost
Speaker 1: und plugs don't work with. Do you have any suggestions
Speaker 1: for smart plugs? I currently use three and see some
Speaker 1: plugs can run up to thirty dollars each. So two
Speaker 1: things here number one. A lot of times in your
Speaker 1: router you can there's mode. Typically it's turned off by default,
Speaker 1: but on your router you can turn on two point
Speaker 1: four gigaherts. So if you use a lot of smart
Speaker 1: home devices, you've noticed that many of them, because it's
Speaker 1: cheaper to just run on two point four gigaherts, they
Speaker 1: have to pay for the more expensive antennas or include
Speaker 1: various antennas, they will just run on two point four gigaherts,
Speaker 1: and so a lot of times if you try to
Speaker 1: connect them to a five gigahertz network, which a lot
Speaker 1: of the speedy, fast newer networks are, they don't connect
Speaker 1: and so you'll have problems. Now, if you have a
Speaker 1: modern Wi Fi system, you should be able to go
Speaker 1: into your settings on your router and toggle on the
Speaker 1: two point four gigahertz system, and that way you can
Speaker 1: connect your smart products. So I think you should be
Speaker 1: able to do that even on the spectrum routers. I
Speaker 1: can't imagine that they're only five gigaherts. But if you
Speaker 1: want a recommendation for a smart plug, the Kasa Smart
Speaker 1: Wi Fi Plug Mini. I've had great, great, They've They've
Speaker 1: worked perfectly for me. So I've bought them in a
Speaker 1: four pack and they're really good. Now do they work
Speaker 1: with two point four gigaherts is a good question. So
Speaker 1: I think I connected them without any sort of problem
Speaker 1: with my WiFi. But I also have a Wi Fi
Speaker 1: where I can turn on two point four gigaherts when
Speaker 1: I need to, So anyway, I would check into those.
Speaker 1: But they But yeah, when you're buying smart home stuff,
Speaker 1: if you only have a five gigahertz network, you definitely
Speaker 1: need to do a quick Google search to see if
Speaker 1: that product works on a two point four network. Sometimes
Speaker 1: the cheaper ones don't because they're just they're that they're cheap.
Speaker 1: They do the job, but they're cheap. And by the way,
Speaker 1: always always always make sure that you change the password
Speaker 1: on your smart home stuff. Your IoT products do not
Speaker 1: use the default password, because that is another way that
Speaker 1: they hack you. I was just thinking about this the
Speaker 1: other day when you see those stories on the news
Speaker 1: about people getting their ring products hacked or people getting
Speaker 1: their you know, their cameras hacked or whatever. A lot
Speaker 1: of times they're not being hacked. They're just using the
Speaker 1: default password and they're finding your network and you're using
Speaker 1: the faultassword and that's how they're getting it. So that's
Speaker 1: what's happening there. All right, let's end the show with
Speaker 1: a little robot news. Chili's is expanding Rita the Robot
Speaker 1: to fifty one more stores. And this is a trend
Speaker 1: we are seeing over and over and over robots everywhere,
Speaker 1: automation everywhere. So there are two things happening in our world.
Speaker 1: The cost of labor is going up, but a lot
Speaker 1: of these businesses are going to automation and also robots.
Speaker 1: And we just I just tweeted out today that Amazon
Speaker 1: is opening up three more grocery stores in southern California,
Speaker 1: and all three of them are basically cashier list. All
Speaker 1: three of them use what's called their just Walk Out technology,
Speaker 1: which I've tested, which basically, you walk in to the store,
Speaker 1: it recognizes you with a whole bunch of cameras, recognizes
Speaker 1: not you, but what you're buying, and it will just
Speaker 1: charge you on the way out, So you have to
Speaker 1: understand that as we you know, as we're going forward,
Speaker 1: I'm seeing more and more of this. So this is
Speaker 1: a trend. And Chili's I did not realize was using
Speaker 1: this server robot. They are, and this server robot I
Speaker 1: saw at CS it it's basically it doesn't look like
Speaker 1: a traditional robot. It basically looks like one of those
Speaker 1: server trays on wheels, so it moves around and it
Speaker 1: can kind of be programmed to do different things. And
Speaker 1: so these fifty one more restaurants are getting it, and
Speaker 1: that's going to surprise a lot of people. They started
Speaker 1: it in ten restaurants since twenty twenty, so these Rita
Speaker 1: is the name of the robot, by the way, and
Speaker 1: eighty two percent of guests in Chile's survey felt better,
Speaker 1: the experience was better. Overall. Seventy seven percent of them
Speaker 1: said that their servers spent more time with them due
Speaker 1: to Rita. So here's what this robot does at the restaurant.
Speaker 1: It can lead you to your table, so it takes
Speaker 1: over for the host, which is scary. When I worked
Speaker 1: in a restaurant, the host was kind of the first
Speaker 1: person that greeted you. Right, They walked you to your table.
Speaker 1: They'll probably still have someone greeting you, but now that
Speaker 1: person can actually just concentrate on greeting customers and doing
Speaker 1: all the you know, the reservations and stuff while this rida.
Speaker 1: The robot leads the person their party to the table,
Speaker 1: which is just wild to me. It also pitches you
Speaker 1: for the my Chileese reward program while they're walking you
Speaker 1: to the table, which is just wild. It can run food,
Speaker 1: so it will take food from the back of the house,
Speaker 1: so the kitchen to your table, which is I think
Speaker 1: that's actually a pretty smart thing because if you've ever
Speaker 1: gotten a cold item because it's been sitting in the back,
Speaker 1: because your waiter is what's called in the weeds, and
Speaker 1: they're working on all the different tables, and your food,
Speaker 1: you could tell has been sitting in the back. It's
Speaker 1: happened to me. It's happened to be on both sides,
Speaker 1: as a server and also as someone on the receiving
Speaker 1: end waiting for my food. You could tell, like when
Speaker 1: you get it, it's been waiting under the lights for
Speaker 1: a while. So the robot will run the food from
Speaker 1: the back to your table, and that's actually pretty helpful.
Speaker 1: Because you can have people that are dedicated in the
Speaker 1: back just putting food on these robots, and as soon
Speaker 1: as that food is hot, it's ready to go, it
Speaker 1: goes out to the table. That's pretty smart. It also
Speaker 1: carries dishes back, but it can't take over for existing
Speaker 1: runners because you know, if you think about it, this
Speaker 1: robot does not have arms, so it just takes you know,
Speaker 1: when the server can pile the food or the I
Speaker 1: guess whoever, can pile the food on the empty dishes
Speaker 1: on the robot, and the robot will then take it back,
Speaker 1: which again frees up a couple minutes of the server's
Speaker 1: time to go to the next table. Instead of having
Speaker 1: to run that stuff back, scrape it all off and
Speaker 1: put it in the dishwasher, they can just go on
Speaker 1: to the next table. And this is what I thought
Speaker 1: was the funniest part of this server or this robot.
Speaker 1: It can actually sing, so now this is so wild.
Speaker 1: It can now lead the same the birthday song and
Speaker 1: deliver a scoop of ice cream to celebrate. It doesn't
Speaker 1: say whether the birthday song is only sang by the robot,
Speaker 1: which would be really sad, but it does bring your
Speaker 1: scoop of ice cream and sings the song for you.
Speaker 1: So this robot is made by California based Bear Robotics.
Speaker 1: I saw this bear, this server at or this robot
Speaker 1: at CS. It just basically looks like a robot. That
Speaker 1: is the arm, you know, the top of it. It's
Speaker 1: like got two trays on it. So it just it's
Speaker 1: just a tray basically on wheels. It could be programmed,
Speaker 1: but I'm just telling you you heard it here first.
Speaker 1: You are going to see many, many, many more robots,
Speaker 1: much more automation. It is happening fast. It is happening
Speaker 1: in a big, big way. We are just at the
Speaker 1: beginning of this stuff. So you just have to be
Speaker 1: under understand what's out there, Understand what's happening. Understand the
Speaker 1: world that we're living in. And these companies are looking
Speaker 1: to cut costs, they're looking for efficiencies. Humans are sick,
Speaker 1: they call in sick, They they talk to other humans.
Speaker 1: They you know, they take break, they do things wrong.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we are human, that's what happens, that's built into us.
Speaker 1: Robots don't make those same mistakes. They are highly efficient,
Speaker 1: they don't take breaks. So you have to understand why
Speaker 1: these companies are moving towards these things. It's not replacing
Speaker 1: humans one hundred percent of the time, but it is
Speaker 1: definitely definitely moving into places where humans traditionally were. We
Speaker 1: need to be aware of that, and we need to
Speaker 1: understand why this is happening and also understand for our
Speaker 1: future kind of where we fit in as humans and
Speaker 1: the evolving nature of jobs. Oh my gosh, well you
Speaker 1: know what that music means. That means. That's going to
Speaker 1: do it for this episode of the show. If you
Speaker 1: would like to submit a question for me to answer,
Speaker 1: just go to my Facebook page, Facebook dot com, slash
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Speaker 1: My name is rich Dmiro. Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1: There are so many ways you can spend an hour
Speaker 1: of your time. I do appreciate you spending it right
Speaker 1: here with me. I'll hang on here for just a
Speaker 1: couple moments with the social media folks, but thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you real soon.