Speaker 1: Brand new Fitbits, a more private Facebook, Roku hooks up
Speaker 1: with Alexa, an app to prevent spying on your computer,
Speaker 1: and Tesla Supercharges.
Speaker 2: They're superchargers. What's going on? I'm rich dmiro.
Speaker 1: This is rich on Tech, the podcast where I talk
Speaker 1: about technology and answer your questions and talk about the
Speaker 1: things that I think you should know about that happened
Speaker 1: in the world of tech. The number one story, well maybe,
Speaker 1: I mean there's a lot of number one stories. But
Speaker 1: what I think is interesting from the consumer perspective is
Speaker 1: this is the week that the Samsung Galaxy S ten
Speaker 1: is finally in stores. And you've heard a lot of
Speaker 1: people talking about these devices because a lot of tech
Speaker 1: journalists have had them for a couple of weeks now,
Speaker 1: including myself. We've all had time to play with them,
Speaker 1: and I think the consensus is there this is one
Speaker 1: of the best Android devices, if not the best Android device.
Speaker 1: And my review on my website at richon Tech dot tv,
Speaker 1: I go into all the details on this thing, but
Speaker 1: the bottom line is this. I've been using the S
Speaker 1: ten for about I think two or three weeks now,
Speaker 1: and it's one of those devices that when you're on
Speaker 1: the Android side of things. It is everything that Android.
Speaker 2: Is all about. Right.
Speaker 1: It's got all the features you can ever imagine, including
Speaker 1: the wireless charging, including a headphone jack, including the expandable storage,
Speaker 1: the fingerprint sensor. Not a big fan of that in
Speaker 1: the screen, but it works. It's not that it doesn't
Speaker 1: work fast. It's mainly that I can't find it fast enough.
Speaker 1: So my suggestion to Samsung is to and this is
Speaker 1: very very simple for them to do. All they need
Speaker 1: to do is add it to their always on.
Speaker 2: Display software update.
Speaker 1: But just let me always have the target area for
Speaker 1: the fingerprint sensor on the screen at all times.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that is going to mess it
Speaker 1: up with burnin or whatever, but right now you kind
Speaker 1: of have to. You know, if you lift up your phone,
Speaker 1: it doesn't necessarily it shows you you're always on display.
Speaker 1: It sometimes goes to your main screen with the thing
Speaker 1: your print sensor icon on there, but I'd like to
Speaker 1: see it there all the time. Maybe they can't do
Speaker 1: that for burn in reasons, but that's really my only
Speaker 1: problem with this device. Otherwise, I am super impressed. The
Speaker 1: screen is beautiful, the design is beautiful. You will need
Speaker 1: a case with this thing. The cameras are amazing now,
Speaker 1: I mean amazing in their flexibility. Are they the best
Speaker 1: best cameras on any smartphone?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: I still think the pixel takes better pictures, but I
Speaker 1: do love having the three lenses. I think the iPhone
Speaker 1: ten R takes really nice pictures, as does the ten S.
Speaker 1: But when it comes to an Android device, when you
Speaker 1: crave that customizability is that a word?
Speaker 2: Customizability?
Speaker 1: When you want to be able to customize every aspect
Speaker 1: of this device, you can because guess what, you want
Speaker 1: to change the browser, you can change the browser. You
Speaker 1: want to change your email program, you can change your
Speaker 1: email program. You want to change the default map app,
Speaker 1: you can do that. You want to change what bixby
Speaker 1: button opens, Yeah, you can almost do that, except for
Speaker 1: Google Assistant. So the beauty of the Android platform is
Speaker 1: that you're in control. And if you ever had an iPhone,
Speaker 1: they're amazing. They're great, great, great devices. But it is
Speaker 1: Apple's way or the highway, and that's the bottom line
Speaker 1: with an Apple device. Yeah, sure, you can download Apple
Speaker 1: Maps or Google Maps and ways and all these other
Speaker 1: music players and stuff, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: ninety nine point nine percent of the time everything is
Speaker 1: leading to Apple's way, which is you know, Apple Music, Safari,
Speaker 1: for the browser, Apple Maps, Siri. Everything is going towards Apple.
Speaker 1: And it's not a bad thing if you've embraced the
Speaker 1: Apple world. But there's a whole other world out there
Speaker 1: of people that want to kind of set their own
Speaker 1: direction in life, and that's what Android lets you do.
Speaker 1: And I think right now the Samsung Galaxy S ten.
Speaker 2: Is the best device for that. Is it perfect?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Is it pretty darn awesome? Yeah? So again in stores now.
Speaker 1: You can read my full review on the website rich
Speaker 1: on tech dot TV. But I think people are gonna
Speaker 1: be very happy with this Samsung Galaxy device. I think
Speaker 1: the only source besides the fingerprint reader for me is
Speaker 1: really some of the time it takes to get a
Speaker 1: good picture in lower light situation. So I was at
Speaker 1: a event with my wife and we were trying to
Speaker 1: take a selfie and it just wasn't doing as good
Speaker 1: of a job as say the iPhone or the pixel
Speaker 1: and the iPhone even though the selfies in low light
Speaker 1: and especially any low light pictures just don't look very good,
Speaker 1: they get very pixelated. They still happen fast, right, It
Speaker 1: still focuses fast, it takes them fast. I find with
Speaker 1: the Samsung there's like a little bit of a delay
Speaker 1: in low light situations where it really affects how you
Speaker 1: get a good picture. And maybe that's a software update,
Speaker 1: who knows, But that's really my only problem. Otherwise, this
Speaker 1: phone has been so much fun to play with over
Speaker 1: the past couple of weeks. I really think that anyone
Speaker 1: that gets it will be very very happy with it. Now,
Speaker 1: if you are getting a Samsung phone and you are
Speaker 1: not a Spotify customer, they've got a pretty good deal
Speaker 1: for you six months of free Spotify premium if you
Speaker 1: are new to Spotify. So this only works if you
Speaker 1: have not had Spotify before according to the Verge, but
Speaker 1: this is all part of Samsung's sponsorship or partnership, I should.
Speaker 2: Say, with Spotify.
Speaker 1: So you can get six months of free Spotify, which
Speaker 1: is pretty cool. I mean that's sixty bucks right there.
Speaker 1: And again, just look for the Spotify app on your
Speaker 1: s ten, open it up, and if you sign up
Speaker 1: through there, you will get your six months free. So
Speaker 1: I do like that Pippitt has announced a few new devices.
Speaker 1: I feel like Pippit is always coming out with new devices.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because Pippit is one of these companies
Speaker 1: that a lot of people get their stuff. Yet Fitbit
Speaker 1: doesn't do any big events Like this is a company
Speaker 1: that would do really well with a nice launch event.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: You can have reporters go there, journalists, YouTubers, whatever. You
Speaker 1: can have it all set up kind of cool with like,
Speaker 1: you know, different stations for exercise and all this stuff.
Speaker 1: But they never do that. They just literally send out
Speaker 1: a press release and boom, you have like five new fitbits.
Speaker 1: So the Fitbits, I'll go through them real quick. The
Speaker 1: Fippit Versa Light is basically the smart watch that I'm
Speaker 1: wearing right now, but it a lesser version apparently has
Speaker 1: all the core fitness and smart features of Versa like activity,
Speaker 1: sleep and heart rate tracking, plus notifications, apps and four
Speaker 1: day battery life. But the difference is the Versa I
Speaker 1: have has three buttons on it. The new Versa Light
Speaker 1: only has one button. And that makes a lot of
Speaker 1: sense because the funny thing about my Versa is that
Speaker 1: the most confusing thing to me is what are these
Speaker 1: buttons do? I'm always pressing them and it's the wrong button.
Speaker 1: So I think they realize that and they're testing that
Speaker 1: one button is just fine. That's all they need. That's
Speaker 1: going to sell for one hundred and sixty bucks, and
Speaker 1: it comes in a bunch of cool colors, so that's
Speaker 1: kind of nice. The Fitbit Inspire HR is sort of
Speaker 1: like their classic, you know, fitness tracker that looks like
Speaker 1: a wristband. This is twenty four to seven heart rate tracking,
Speaker 1: fifteen goal based exercises, sleep stages, whatever that means, and
Speaker 1: up to five days of battery life. So you can
Speaker 1: wear this for five days, and that's really nice, don't
Speaker 1: you know? You can't really knock the five days off
Speaker 1: because it's so nice to not have to charge your
Speaker 1: wearable every day. When I was wearing the Apple Watch,
Speaker 1: it's like every single night you gotta charge it and
Speaker 1: you don't get sleep tracking.
Speaker 2: So with the with.
Speaker 1: The versa, I love it that I literally just charge
Speaker 1: it when I take a shower and it's charged up
Speaker 1: enough for the day, and you know, over the weekend,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll charge it one of the one of the
Speaker 1: full days or something. But I like having all my stats,
Speaker 1: so I don't I don't want to not have it on.
Speaker 2: Especially for sleep. I love having the sleep stats.
Speaker 1: On the Fippits, and so the Fippit Inspire HR is
Speaker 1: also swim proof, and that will sell for one hundred bucks.
Speaker 2: That's kind of like the most common one.
Speaker 1: That's probably the one i'd recommend for ninety nine percent
Speaker 1: of people, unless you like the idea of a smart
Speaker 1: watch one. Now, this one I don't really recommend. This
Speaker 1: is the Fipbit Inspire. They call it their most affordable tracker.
Speaker 1: But the thing I don't like about this is there
Speaker 1: is no heart rate sensor on this, So to me,
Speaker 1: these are not worth it. If you're not getting the
Speaker 1: heart rate sensor. Spend the extra thirty dollars get the
Speaker 1: heart rate censor. You get a whole bunch more data,
Speaker 1: much more useful data. And I just think that the
Speaker 1: Inspire is something to get people on board because it's
Speaker 1: seventy bucks, but clearly it's going to sell for a
Speaker 1: lot less when you get it on special and deal
Speaker 1: and sale, So I think that it's just a better
Speaker 1: deal to get the Inspire HR or the versa with
Speaker 1: the heart rate. So just make sure when you're buying
Speaker 1: one of these trackers it does do heart rate, because
Speaker 1: I think that's the most important aspect and.
Speaker 2: Finally, there's a Fitbit ACE two.
Speaker 1: This is for kids ages six and up, and this
Speaker 1: has a swim proof design, fun colors, kid friendly features,
Speaker 1: and encourages more family time through physical activity, which is
Speaker 1: kind of cool, but also has parental controls to safeguard
Speaker 1: kids privacy and parents can look at their sleep habits,
Speaker 1: which I really like. That's pretty awesome. It's going to
Speaker 1: be seventy dollars. And I will tell you my kid
Speaker 1: has been testing a smart watch, the cool Pad Dino
Speaker 1: smart watch, and it's funny because the feature he likes
Speaker 1: the most about it is the step count, which I
Speaker 1: would have never thought he loves getting those steps up.
Speaker 1: So I kind of love the idea that he's into that,
Speaker 1: and I like the idea that the fipbit does that.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I have a tough time with all these things with
Speaker 1: the kids, because, like, kids need to be kids. Right
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, I never thought about my
Speaker 1: step count or how much activity I was getting.
Speaker 2: I just did stuff.
Speaker 1: I was out all afternoon, just kind of playing in
Speaker 1: the street with my friends, riding our bikes, doing whatever
Speaker 1: until my parents called.
Speaker 2: Me in for dinner.
Speaker 1: So the fact that my kid has to think about,
Speaker 1: am I hitting ten thousand steps today? I don't know
Speaker 1: if I like that idea. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: if you know, if you have a kid that you
Speaker 1: think could benefit from this, I'm all for it, you know.
Speaker 1: So that's gonna be seventy dollars. These don't have a
Speaker 1: launch date just yet. They are on pre sale though,
Speaker 1: so you can order them. The fitbit feature that everyone
Speaker 1: will benefit from is a major redesign of the mobile app,
Speaker 1: so that's coming soon.
Speaker 2: Fitbit says this will let you.
Speaker 1: Further personalize your dashboard, better understand your data, discover new content,
Speaker 1: and connect with each other in fitbit social community. And
Speaker 1: I have not connected with anyone on Fitbit, but I
Speaker 1: was when I was wearing the Apple Watch. Connected with
Speaker 1: my wife and my sister who's a big fitness guru.
Speaker 1: Follow her on Instagram. She is your fave veggie gal.
Speaker 1: So that's my sister on Instagram, so go find her there.
Speaker 1: But she's a big trainer and really into fitness and
Speaker 1: health and all that stuff. So I was on linked
Speaker 1: up with her and linked up with my wife, and
Speaker 1: so every time we completed a workout, we would see
Speaker 1: that and with one little tap on your Apple Watch,
Speaker 1: you could say nice job. Or they had these little
Speaker 1: cheesy things that were so funny, but they were canned,
Speaker 1: but I loved them, so we'd all send those to
Speaker 1: each other. So I think that the community when it
Speaker 1: comes to fitness is really important, and I like that
Speaker 1: fitbit is doubling down on that aspect as well. Facebook
Speaker 1: founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had a big post over
Speaker 1: the last week talking about Facebook and Instagram and how
Speaker 1: over the past fifteen years it has helped connect a
Speaker 1: lot of people.
Speaker 2: But he's talking about kind of.
Speaker 1: The future of things and where he sees everything going,
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to communication, and he says, but
Speaker 1: the ways people are communicating right now that are growing
Speaker 1: the fastest are private messaging, which is like Facebook Messenger,
Speaker 1: ephemeral stories, which is like Instagram stories. You can do
Speaker 1: stories a messenger, you can do stories on Facebook. You've
Speaker 1: got small groups, which I know the groups on Facebook pages.
Speaker 1: A lot of people do that for small groups, and
Speaker 1: of course anyone can create a group on Facebook.
Speaker 2: But the thing that he's noticing.
Speaker 1: Is that people are preferring the intimacy of communicating one
Speaker 1: on one or just with a few friends and they're
Speaker 1: more cautious of having a permanent record of what they shared.
Speaker 1: And these are all very true things. So when Facebook
Speaker 1: came out and all these different platforms, people love sharing
Speaker 1: with as many people as possible. And that's still true
Speaker 1: for like influencers and stuff. But I think for the
Speaker 1: average person, they're much more focused on kind of the
Speaker 1: idea of privacy. And if I post this, who sees this?
Speaker 1: Does my employer see this? Will my kids see this
Speaker 1: in the future, Can other people in my class see this?
Speaker 2: Can my family members see this?
Speaker 1: So I think we're all much more hyper aware of
Speaker 1: this based on just kind of how things changed. But Facebook,
Speaker 1: this is my favorite line. He basically says that they
Speaker 1: want to put privacy first on their simpler platform, right,
Speaker 1: So this is my favorite line. I understand that many
Speaker 1: people don't think Facebook can or even would want to
Speaker 1: build this kind of privacy focused platform because frankly, we
Speaker 1: don't have We don't currently have a strong reputation for
Speaker 1: building privacy protective services. We've historically focused on tools for
Speaker 1: open sharing. But then Zuckerberg goes on to say that
Speaker 1: we have repeatedly shown that we can evolve, and I
Speaker 1: agree they have evolved, and so now they're going to
Speaker 1: do private encrypted services. So he goes through a couple
Speaker 1: of these things here, like private interactions, So again these
Speaker 1: are kind of like direct messages encryption. He's going to
Speaker 1: focus more on end to end encryption, which means that
Speaker 1: basically no one can see your messages, not the government,
Speaker 1: not Facebook, no one unless they have the key to
Speaker 1: your message, which they don't, reducing permanence, which these are
Speaker 1: kind of like stories that last twenty four hours. I
Speaker 1: think the irony of that is that most people don't
Speaker 1: realize that their Facebook and Instagram stories.
Speaker 2: I don't know about Facebook, but Instagram.
Speaker 1: Stories, there's like your Stories archive, which I think is
Speaker 1: on by default, which does keep all your stories forever,
Speaker 1: but in a private way that you can go back
Speaker 1: to but other people can't see.
Speaker 2: So I think that's kind of ironic.
Speaker 1: Safety interoperability, which this is his big push to kind
Speaker 1: of unify messaging across WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger, and maybe Instagram.
Speaker 2: Is that the other one, so yeah, let's see.
Speaker 1: I think I forget which one it is, but anyway,
Speaker 1: but he wants to kind of build keep all those
Speaker 1: all that messaging together, which I kind of like and
Speaker 1: then secure data storage. So again, Facebook, you know, they're
Speaker 1: trying to change with the times, and I think that
Speaker 1: will they be successful probably. I mean Facebook has adapted
Speaker 1: over the years, and I think that at this point,
Speaker 1: people love what Facebook has done for them. You know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of connected people in amazing ways. But we're
Speaker 1: also smarter now and we understand and like, I find
Speaker 1: myself using stories way more now than ever before, because
Speaker 1: I like the idea of what I share there is.
Speaker 2: On for twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: If I share something stupid or lame or like, who
Speaker 1: really cares, It's only there for twenty four hours, right,
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying I'm gonna sit there and say
Speaker 1: mean things or really get at people because it's only
Speaker 1: there for twenty four hours. But I'm just saying I
Speaker 1: like the idea of I don't have to be so serious.
Speaker 1: Like Twitter is like a solid, like you know, record
Speaker 1: of everything you say and it stays there forever. But
Speaker 1: I love the idea that story is just kind of like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is fun, this is cool, this is witty, this
Speaker 1: is interesting, this is something I just noticed and I
Speaker 1: can share it on there and boom, it's gone in
Speaker 1: twenty four hours and I don't really have to think
Speaker 1: about it ever.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: Oh, by the way, in case you haven't noticed, on
Speaker 1: this week's show, I will not have phone calls because
Speaker 1: I was not able to do it some weeks.
Speaker 2: I'm just busy.
Speaker 1: I was out sick from work on one day this
Speaker 1: week and that really put me behind on a couple
Speaker 1: of things I'm doing. So no phone calls. But I
Speaker 1: still will talk about the stuff that I think I
Speaker 1: find interesting for you guys. But let's talk about Roku.
Speaker 1: They are hooking up with Alexa. So now if you
Speaker 1: have an Alexa, you can turn on the new Roku
Speaker 1: skill and basically let your Roku be controlled by Alexa.
Speaker 1: So again, this works with the Amazon show, the Echo Show,
Speaker 1: the Dot, the Spot, the Plus, we got a lot
Speaker 1: of them out there.
Speaker 2: But you can pause a show.
Speaker 1: You can launch a streaming channel and search for entertainment
Speaker 1: by saying things like LEXA find comedies on Roku, lexa
Speaker 1: pause Roku, LEXA open Hulu on Roku.
Speaker 2: Now here's my problem with all this.
Speaker 1: I love that you can do this, right, but who
Speaker 1: in the world says something like lexa open Hulu on
Speaker 1: Roku right, or LEXA pause Roku No if I wanted to,
Speaker 1: if I wanted to pause, I would literally look at
Speaker 1: the TV and be like, can you pause that?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: I mean that's kind of like where we're trying to
Speaker 1: get with these voice commands, and I think that we're
Speaker 1: getting better, and I see, look, this is a longer road.
Speaker 1: We're not going to have this overnight because if you
Speaker 1: just screamed out pause this, that means that your your
Speaker 1: device would have to be listening for all things at
Speaker 1: all times, and not just the code word. But it's
Speaker 1: funny that we have to do these things in a
Speaker 1: very I call the very precise syntax. Right, you have
Speaker 1: to say things in a certain way, and eventually that
Speaker 1: will go away. But right now we're kind of in
Speaker 1: this in between stage of voice commands, and so that's
Speaker 1: why you have to say, find comedies on Roku. You
Speaker 1: know with that robotic voice. You don't have to use
Speaker 1: the robotic voice. That's just optional. But if you have
Speaker 1: a Roku TV, you can take things a step further.
Speaker 1: You can turn on the TV, change the volume, mute
Speaker 1: the TV, change inputs, change channels, so I love that,
Speaker 1: or even turn the volume up. So again, if you
Speaker 1: have Alexa you've got Roku, you can link them up
Speaker 1: and you can do this. I have this hooked up
Speaker 1: in my house with Google Chrome Cast and also the
Speaker 1: Google Assistant, and it's it's great. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: use it very often, but the level of support is
Speaker 1: pretty cool. Like I can come home and I can say,
Speaker 1: you know, hg hey, Oogle, show me kids science experiments
Speaker 1: videos on YouTube, and oh, that's just activated my phone.
Speaker 1: So I apologize if I just activated your stuff. I
Speaker 1: didn't think that would happen. But anyway, so you know,
Speaker 1: the reality is it's really cool. And on my TV
Speaker 1: the way you know the modern TVs, the Chrome Cast
Speaker 1: will literally turn on your TV, tune to YouTube, and
Speaker 1: start playing the video.
Speaker 2: And I find that really fascinating. I love it. I
Speaker 2: think that's really cool. Do I use it very often?
Speaker 1: No, because oftentimes I can narrow down and choose what
Speaker 1: I want to watch in a much simpler way by
Speaker 1: doing it for my phone and then casting it to
Speaker 1: the TV.
Speaker 2: But again, we're in the.
Speaker 1: Beginning stages of this stuff, and in the future it
Speaker 1: will get better.
Speaker 2: Okay, speaking of.
Speaker 1: Google Assistant and Google Home, Google is rolling out according
Speaker 1: to Android Central. Continued conversations on their smart displays. So
Speaker 1: what is continued conversations? Basically, you don't have to say
Speaker 1: the code word or the hot word or the keyword
Speaker 1: whatever you call it, in between every command. Right, So,
Speaker 1: so we're in this place right now where everything you
Speaker 1: want to do you have to keep saying the little
Speaker 1: hot word to get Google to interact with you.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: Well, if you have continued conversations turned on, which, by
Speaker 1: the way, you can turn this on for your smart speakers.
Speaker 1: So that's already been a thing, but now it's coming
Speaker 1: to the smart display.
Speaker 2: So I've got one of.
Speaker 1: These in my kitchen, and if you want to say,
Speaker 1: narrow something down after your original question, you can now
Speaker 1: do that.
Speaker 2: So let's see.
Speaker 1: It's gonna roll out over the next few days to
Speaker 1: all smart displays powered by the Google Assistant that are
Speaker 1: set to English. This is an optional feature that users
Speaker 1: can opt in and out of.
Speaker 2: Now is it opted in for me? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I have not tried this out, but I did have it.
Speaker 1: I did try it out on my smart speaker. I
Speaker 1: did not like it because it was listening too much
Speaker 1: after I was done, and so I turned it off
Speaker 1: like usually with my smart speaker. I'm doing like one command,
Speaker 1: what's the weather gonna be like tomorrow?
Speaker 2: Fine?
Speaker 1: And sometimes you know, I'll do another command, you know,
Speaker 1: like and what about next week?
Speaker 2: But I'll it's fine. I can do to two hot
Speaker 2: words with a smart display.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because you might be narrowing things down, like
Speaker 1: if I was looking up, Hey, show me recipes of
Speaker 1: sturfried fajitas or you know, sturfried beef sturfry. I don't know,
Speaker 1: show me recipes with beef sturfry, right, and it shows
Speaker 1: you a couple of recipes. I'd like to say, Okay,
Speaker 1: show me that first one, right, Like that's something that
Speaker 1: you'd want to use continued conversation for.
Speaker 2: So it's useful.
Speaker 1: I think it's more useful on the displays than it
Speaker 1: is on the speakers. I mean, everything has a place,
Speaker 1: depends on your use. But on the smart displays, a
Speaker 1: small assistant icon will appear in the upper left hand
Speaker 1: corner to let you know it's listening, and if you
Speaker 1: want to turn it off, you can go into your settings. Now,
Speaker 1: speaking of Google Assistant, remember Duplex.
Speaker 2: That was that service that.
Speaker 1: Would use Google Assistant to call restaurants or you know,
Speaker 1: a hair salon to book you a table or an appointment. Well,
Speaker 1: apparently it's doing pretty well. I have yet to use it,
Speaker 1: but Google says the system is getting much much better
Speaker 1: and because of all the feedback, they're making this feature
Speaker 1: available to more people. You can now use it on
Speaker 1: pixel phones in forty three US states.
Speaker 2: So wow, wow, wow.
Speaker 1: This was something that was literally just coming to like
Speaker 1: a couple of cities when they first announced it. And
Speaker 1: now and by the way, just the pixel three, so
Speaker 1: now it's all pixels and in forty three states. This
Speaker 1: stuff must be really good. It must be really useful.
Speaker 1: I'm going to try it on my phone and see
Speaker 1: what happens. Not right now, but when I'm done.
Speaker 2: But yeah, all you have to do is.
Speaker 1: Tell assistant, hey, can you book me a table for
Speaker 1: four at a restaurant tomorrow night? And the assistant will
Speaker 1: call a restaurant to see if they can do it,
Speaker 1: and then once the reservation is successful, you get a
Speaker 1: notification on your phone, an email update, and a calendar invite,
Speaker 1: so you don't forget about your reservation.
Speaker 2: Brilliant.
Speaker 1: It's the kind of thing that, of course I can
Speaker 1: see some restaurants being annoyed at but it's like, why not.
Speaker 1: If this works and the technology is good, hey, let's
Speaker 1: use it. So the other interesting part about this is
Speaker 1: that they're going to use it on, roll it out
Speaker 1: to Android devices, other Android devices, and also iOS devices,
Speaker 1: So this is clearly this is working really well. Again
Speaker 1: Google Duplex, I've got to I think I have a
Speaker 1: YouTube video on this.
Speaker 2: If you search, I'll put it in the show notes.
Speaker 1: But I saw this demo at Io. I think it
Speaker 1: was last year in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2: It was just so cool.
Speaker 1: It just blew everyone away, and clearly it's doing very well.
Speaker 1: Facebook Messenger has a secret dark mode.
Speaker 2: You should know about, so I will tell you.
Speaker 1: I was not a big fan of dark mode, but
Speaker 1: when I downloaded Mojave on my MacBook, they had the
Speaker 1: dark mode.
Speaker 2: I turned it on. I have been using it ever since,
Speaker 2: and I understand if.
Speaker 1: You work in like a dark room, you'd like it,
Speaker 1: like a studio, editing bay, whatever.
Speaker 2: But I don't know. I've just grown to like the
Speaker 2: dark mode.
Speaker 1: And on the new Samsung Galaxy S ten, I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's automatic or what, but my phone switches
Speaker 1: into dark mode after a certain time of day. Maybe
Speaker 1: I turned that feature on I don't know, but it's
Speaker 1: built into the operating system. And I got to say,
Speaker 1: it's really cool when I'm looking at my phone late
Speaker 1: at night before I go to bed. Well not really
Speaker 1: late because I get up really early, but you know,
Speaker 1: for me seven pm, it's in dark mode and it's
Speaker 1: kind of cool, and it takes me a second to realize, like,
Speaker 1: what's different about my phone right now?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's in dark mode. So the reason I
Speaker 2: tell you this.
Speaker 1: Is because dark mode seems to be like all the
Speaker 1: rage right like dark mode is just super hot right now.
Speaker 1: And dark mode now has or Facebook Messenger now has
Speaker 1: a dark mode, so you can activate it. It's a
Speaker 1: secret activation right now. You send a crescent moon emoji
Speaker 1: in any Messenger chat, so someone told me, including myself,
Speaker 1: So you can send it to yourself and activate it.
Speaker 1: If you don't have a friend to try this with,
Speaker 1: Hopefully you have a friend to try it with, you know,
Speaker 1: like come on, one of your friends should have a
Speaker 1: good sense of humor. But you can send the crescent
Speaker 1: moon emoji in a Messenger chat and next thing you know,
Speaker 1: you'll get the setting to turn on dark mode. And
Speaker 1: so dark mode on Facebook Messenger provides lower brightness while
Speaker 1: maintaining contrast and vibrant vibrancy, so it cuts down on
Speaker 1: the glare for use in low light situations. So Dark
Speaker 1: Mode is available for all Messenger users around the world
Speaker 1: on the latest version of iOS and Android. Just send
Speaker 1: the crescent moon emoji and it will be in the
Speaker 1: settings eventually. But this is how you activate it right now.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I got a lot of emails
Speaker 1: when I mentioned this on TV, people saying, hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: I can't find this, why is it?
Speaker 2: You know, what's going on.
Speaker 1: You have to update your Messenger app to get you know,
Speaker 1: to use it. So my producer she she tried it
Speaker 1: and she's like, Rich, I'm not getting it. And I said, well,
Speaker 1: is your thing updated? And she looks you had like
Speaker 1: eighty nine updates. I was like, uh, there you go.
Speaker 1: So a lot of times, you know, on iPhone especially,
Speaker 1: you just kind of forget or even on Android, you
Speaker 1: just forget to update your apps.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I don't.
Speaker 1: Personally, I'm obsessed with updating my app, so I never
Speaker 1: forget to do that. But if you haven't updated your
Speaker 1: apps in a while, that's probably why you can't find
Speaker 1: the dark mode another app I talked about on TV
Speaker 1: this week, which i'll mention here, which is really cool.
Speaker 1: It's called Aptive. I don't know if I mentioned it
Speaker 1: in podcast before, but I did my segment on TV
Speaker 1: this week about it and Aptive aap tiv is a
Speaker 1: really cool fitness app. It is think like a workout app,
Speaker 1: but no video, so it's all audio driven, so you choose.
Speaker 2: My favorite part is just filtering the workouts.
Speaker 1: They have them for running, they have them for cycling,
Speaker 1: they have them for spinning, they've got them for treadmill,
Speaker 1: they've got them for the Staremaster, and it's great. You
Speaker 1: pick how long you have for your workout, you pick
Speaker 1: what kind of music you want, you pick your level
Speaker 1: of intensity, beginner, intermedia, advance, and next thing you know,
Speaker 1: you're off and you've got a personal trainer basically in
Speaker 1: your ear telling you what to do.
Speaker 2: It's amazing. I love it.
Speaker 1: Highly recommend you check it out. You can use it
Speaker 1: in the gym or anywhere else. Obviously you might need
Speaker 1: some equipment for some of the workouts, but it's pretty
Speaker 1: darn awesome. They've done a great job. It's super high quality.
Speaker 1: They've got deals with the record label so the music
Speaker 1: is actually legit and you're not listening to some manufactured
Speaker 1: music on like garage Band.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: If you want to read the full review, go to
Speaker 1: my website richon tech dot tv and look for Aptive.
Speaker 1: It's available for iOS and Android. The only thing I'll
Speaker 1: say about them, which I don't personally like is they
Speaker 1: are a little aggressive in their tactics for getting you
Speaker 1: to sign up. So my advice sign up for the
Speaker 1: free trial, and yes, I think you have to put
Speaker 1: a credit card in, but even if you cancel in
Speaker 1: your free trial, you will get a lot of emails
Speaker 1: about signing up at cheaper and cheaper rates. So that's
Speaker 1: my advice for you with Aptive. I think you're gonna
Speaker 1: love it. It's fifteen bucks a month for full price,
Speaker 1: by the way, one hundred dollars for the year. I
Speaker 1: think at one point I got an email for either
Speaker 1: seventy dollars for the whole year or even fifty dollars
Speaker 1: for the whole year, which is a fantastic deal for
Speaker 1: that app. Another app to know about if you have
Speaker 1: a Mac is called Oversight. This is an app that
Speaker 1: I found on product Hunt. I thought it was pretty
Speaker 1: cool because it sends you a notification anytime a device
Speaker 1: tries to activate your camera or your microphone on your computer.
Speaker 1: And you might think, well, Max, don't have malware, But
Speaker 1: that's not true.
Speaker 2: They list a.
Speaker 1: Couple of them, fruitfly crisis mokes. They all attempt to
Speaker 1: spy on Mac users. And here's the thing you might
Speaker 1: be saying, Well, Rich, I can tell when my microphone
Speaker 1: or my webcam is on because my little light lights
Speaker 1: up next.
Speaker 2: To the webcam.
Speaker 1: Yes, I get that, but number one, these guys are smart.
Speaker 1: You think they don't know that there's a little light
Speaker 1: when it's activated. They can figure out some way to
Speaker 1: turn that light off.
Speaker 2: Maybe they can't. Maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: I don't know, But if I was trying to hack computers,
Speaker 1: I try to activate the microphone and the webcam without
Speaker 1: turning on the little light. But they're saying in this
Speaker 1: little blog post about oversight is that these apps will
Speaker 1: actually piggyback onto existing sessions. Like if you're using FaceTime
Speaker 1: and your micro and your web I keep saying microphone
Speaker 1: and your webcam light is already on. Guess what, my
Speaker 1: little malware will piggyback on top of that. So you
Speaker 1: think you're just on a Skype call, but realistically, this
Speaker 1: malware is still monitoring you because you have an active
Speaker 1: webcam connection, and then even when you stop that Skype call,
Speaker 1: you might not notice for a while that your light
Speaker 1: is still on. So that's pretty interesting. But the app
Speaker 1: is called oversite and you can get it at a
Speaker 1: website called objective dash c see dot com Objective dashc
Speaker 1: dot com and it monitors your max mic and webcam
Speaker 1: and alerts you when it's activated or whenever a process
Speaker 1: activates the webcam. And you have the option to allow
Speaker 1: or block this every single time, or you can say,
Speaker 1: like yeah, FaceTime wants to do it all allowed every time,
Speaker 1: so it's up to you. But this is again available
Speaker 1: for the Mac.
Speaker 2: It's free. I've got installed on my computer, definitely liking it.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen anyone activate my stuff just yet without
Speaker 1: me knowing, so that's a good thing.
Speaker 2: But there you have it.
Speaker 1: Another fun little app I discovered again on product hunt
Speaker 1: this week, which is, by the way, a fantastic resource.
Speaker 1: You got to go through a lot of stuff, but
Speaker 1: they do everything that happens in the tech world is
Speaker 1: posted there.
Speaker 2: Really.
Speaker 1: But this one's called twimage and so it does something
Speaker 1: very simple. It's only for Android, by the way, but
Speaker 1: it turns tweets into shareable images. So I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've ever been surfing on Instagram, but you see
Speaker 1: how people post, like what they said on Twitter to
Speaker 1: their Instagram.
Speaker 2: People that have a large following will do this.
Speaker 1: They'll post something to Twitter, it goes viral or a
Speaker 1: lot of people like it, and the next thing you know,
Speaker 1: there's like a screenshot of it, format it and post
Speaker 1: it on Instagram.
Speaker 2: Well, this lets you do that pretty easily. But with
Speaker 2: any tweet.
Speaker 1: It could be your own tweet, it could be someone
Speaker 1: else's tweet, something you saw, a quote that you saw
Speaker 1: that you like.
Speaker 2: So it's very simple.
Speaker 1: You just basically download it on Android, You search for
Speaker 1: the username of the person that you want to quote
Speaker 1: their tweet, You tap the tweet you want, and next
Speaker 1: thing you know, it puts it into that square format
Speaker 1: and you can change the background. You can make it
Speaker 1: a custom color, custom background, and then you can share
Speaker 1: the square image to wherever you want Instagram or wherever.
Speaker 2: If you want to do the.
Speaker 1: Classic which is basically like just tweet on white background,
Speaker 1: it does that, or you can do anything you want.
Speaker 1: You can do various colors, you can do leopard skin,
Speaker 1: whatever you want. But again the app is called Twimage
Speaker 1: twimm Age. And finally in the podcast, Let's Talk Tesla. Now,
Speaker 1: I was not obsessed with Tesla until they came out
Speaker 1: with the actual thirty five thousand dollars version of the
Speaker 1: Model three. And now I've built one no less than
Speaker 1: like three times online because I really can't believe that
Speaker 1: Elon Musk made good on his promise for a thirty
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars car. So it's there. When I first
Speaker 1: looked it up last week. I think I might have
Speaker 1: talked about it in the podcast. Even it literally was
Speaker 1: shipping in like two weeks.
Speaker 2: Now that has.
Speaker 1: Slid to about six to eight weeks, so it's not
Speaker 1: as immediate gratification. But again, Tesla doing a great job
Speaker 1: with the getting the Model threes out there. Now they're
Speaker 1: announcing the Model Why next week in Los Angeles. For
Speaker 1: some reason, Tesla does not like me and they will
Speaker 1: not respond to any of my emails when it comes
Speaker 1: to these events. I don't know what I said about them,
Speaker 1: what I did to them, but they.
Speaker 2: Literally just it's so weird. I get to a certain
Speaker 2: point with the Tesla folks where they're.
Speaker 1: Like, oh yeah, yeah, here, let me get you the
Speaker 1: right person, and as soon as I get to the
Speaker 1: right person, it's crickets. So clearly I'm on some kind
Speaker 1: of list there at Tesla where they're like Rich Demiro
Speaker 1: is not allowed to come to our events. Which is
Speaker 1: so weird because five years ago when Tesla was starting,
Speaker 1: six years ago, eight years ago, no more than that,
Speaker 1: because I was at I think I was at Kekel,
Speaker 1: Like I mean, I did an interview with Elon Musk
Speaker 1: at the last at the event at the UH when
Speaker 1: they launched.
Speaker 2: I forget was that.
Speaker 1: Tesla whatever it was, but like literally they're like, well,
Speaker 1: would you like to interview Elon?
Speaker 2: I'm like, of course I would, and I got a
Speaker 2: ride in the car. But after that, I.
Speaker 1: Don't know what I did wrong, but clearly I am
Speaker 1: not welcome at Tesla anymore. I don't know why, Tesla,
Speaker 1: if you're listening, which I don't know why you'd be,
Speaker 1: but please, what do you have again?
Speaker 2: It's me anyway, but they are.
Speaker 1: They just unveiled the version three of their supercharger, and
Speaker 1: this is in Fremont, California.
Speaker 2: According to Teslarati.
Speaker 1: I guess they were invited to this this event, but
Speaker 1: really cool. So all you need to know about this
Speaker 1: model of about this version three is that it charges
Speaker 1: cars really fast. So I'm not going to go into
Speaker 1: like the peak rate. I mean maybe you know what
Speaker 1: that means, two hundred and fifty kilowatts per vehicle, but
Speaker 1: basically the long range Model three can replenish seventy five
Speaker 1: miles of its range in just five minutes.
Speaker 2: That's awesome.
Speaker 1: The in comparison, according to Teslarati, the V two would
Speaker 1: have a peak rate of one hundred and twenty kilowats
Speaker 1: per vehicle. So again, the V three upgrade would reduce
Speaker 1: typical charging times to about fifteen minutes. That is phenomenal.
Speaker 1: I think when I charged, I did do a test
Speaker 1: drive with the Tesla. This was the last thing I
Speaker 1: did with them. They lent me a the ludicrous edition
Speaker 1: of the regular Tesla and it was amazing, and I
Speaker 1: had to charge it a couple of times. I think
Speaker 1: it was about a half an hour for a charge.
Speaker 1: You're talking about half the time for a charge. So anyway,
Speaker 1: that's the supercharger. It's just you know, the reason I
Speaker 1: tell you this not you know, if you own a Tesla.
Speaker 1: I you already know this stuff. But what I'm saying
Speaker 1: is this stuff is advancing at a very rapid pace,
Speaker 1: and it's pretty amazing when you have a company like
Speaker 1: Tesla that just continues to push the envelope. I mean,
Speaker 1: I was a naysayer. Maybe that's what happened. Maybe that's
Speaker 1: why they don't like me, because I was like when
Speaker 1: they when the Model three was coming out, I was like,
Speaker 1: give me a break. Nobody's my friends were putting down
Speaker 1: thousand dollars deposits. I was like, you're never going to
Speaker 1: see this car, And sure enough, they all have it now.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm I'm a little jealous because the
Speaker 1: Tesla Model three. Every time I see it now on
Speaker 1: the road, I'm like, I kind of want that car.
Speaker 1: But you guys know, I'm a Dave Ramsey guy, and
Speaker 1: for me to buy a brand new car is tough.
Speaker 1: For me to buy an unproved electric car is tougher,
Speaker 1: and for me to not buy a one to two
Speaker 1: year old used car is toughest. So maybe when the
Speaker 1: Model threes are like three years old, I'll put my
Speaker 1: used you know, I'll buy one for twenty grand used.
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe that's what my plan should be.
Speaker 1: But I do love the look and the feel of
Speaker 1: the Model three. It's a great looking car, and the
Speaker 1: fact that Elon has delivered props to him because against
Speaker 1: all odds, and this company is not.
Speaker 2: Out of the woods just yet.
Speaker 1: They have everything against them, basically except consumers who love
Speaker 1: what they're doing. You know, all the other car companies,
Speaker 1: you know, they all want them to fail, but consumers
Speaker 1: love what they're doing. It's very clear, especially on the
Speaker 1: roads of California, that this car is popular, and the
Speaker 1: Model three. They've gotten so many of them out there,
Speaker 1: more than I imagined, and they're they're continuing to just try
Speaker 1: to do what they can to change the way that
Speaker 1: we think about driving, especially with gas cars. So anyway,
Speaker 1: love that they're doing that. And that's going to take
Speaker 1: us to the end of today's show. Thanks much for
Speaker 1: listening to the podcast. I do appreciate it. You can
Speaker 1: find me online rich on Tech on Instagram. I'm on Facebook,
Speaker 1: Facebook dot com, slash rich on Tech. The website is
Speaker 1: rich on Tech dot tv. Now, if you're listening to
Speaker 1: this podcast and you're about to press that stop button
Speaker 1: and you're like Okay, thanks for another good podcast. Rich
Speaker 1: Let me just tell you the best thing you can
Speaker 1: do for me.
Speaker 2: Two things.
Speaker 1: Right now, you can buy a copy of my book
Speaker 1: one hundred and one Handy Tech Tips for the iPhone
Speaker 1: on Amazon.
Speaker 2: You may not need it.
Speaker 1: But maybe someone you know does and they if you
Speaker 1: know someone with an iPhone that you think could use
Speaker 1: a book that tells them how to use it in
Speaker 1: a very simple way. Things got almost seventy ratings on
Speaker 1: Amazon and it's four and a half stars, which is amazing.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not easy. It's not easy to get
Speaker 1: four and a half stars on Amazon.
Speaker 2: So people love this book.
Speaker 1: The reviews all say the same thing, I am learning
Speaker 1: about my phone. I love the tips, and it's easy
Speaker 1: to understand. That's the most important part. This is not
Speaker 1: a book for tech nerds. This is a book for
Speaker 1: someone in your life that maybe a little bit tech
Speaker 1: challenged or someone that even knows about the phone, and
Speaker 1: you still think, like, hey, I bet you I can
Speaker 1: teach them something about it. So that's the other way,
Speaker 1: or the one way. The other way is to tell
Speaker 1: folks about this podcast, tell folks about me, Share my Instagram,
Speaker 1: share my Facebook, share a screenshot of this podcast. Let
Speaker 1: your friends know, Hey, this guy Rich, you know, he's
Speaker 1: talking about some cool stuff and I pick up some
Speaker 1: good tips from him. So the podcast again, just tell
Speaker 1: him is Rich on tech or share on social media.
Speaker 1: That's the best way because then they see that you're
Speaker 1: listening and say that you're learning a lot, and let
Speaker 1: people know that it's not just for the nerds, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously I love you guys. If you're a
Speaker 1: nerd like me, I love you, But I try to
Speaker 1: appeal to the everyday person that's busy, that's working, and
Speaker 1: just you know, I'm giving you kind of the rundown
Speaker 1: of some of the interesting things happening in this fast
Speaker 1: changing tech world. All right, the website again, Rich on
Speaker 1: tech dot TV. I'm Richdmiro. Catch me on KTLA mornings
Speaker 1: at some crazy hours five am, seven am, nine am,
Speaker 1: or watch me in other places around the country on
Speaker 1: our tribune TV stations.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening. I'm Rich Demiro, rich on
Speaker 2: tech dot TV. I'll talk to you real soon.