Speaker 1: What's going on. I'm rich Damiro. This is rich on
Speaker 1: Tech trying something just a little different this time around.
Speaker 1: So let me know what you think of it, whether
Speaker 1: you like it, you hate it, or you want more.
Speaker 1: This is going to be kind of a roundup of
Speaker 1: some of the things that are happening in the tech world,
Speaker 1: just some stories that I come across, some my daily
Speaker 1: research that I think are interesting and you should know about.
Speaker 1: So let's just get right into it and start with
Speaker 1: the Google Pixel three. All of the reviews are out,
Speaker 1: the embargo has been lifted, and we're getting a lot
Speaker 1: of different opinions on this phone, but they all seem
Speaker 1: to center around the same thing. The camera, of course,
Speaker 1: is amazing. There are little tweaks, little things that have
Speaker 1: been improved, and of course there are some things that
Speaker 1: people don't like, most notably the notch. Everyone's going crazy
Speaker 1: over that. Now. Personally, I've been testing the smaller of
Speaker 1: the two, the Google Pixel three. I will say that
Speaker 1: Google has improved pretty much everything that I had a
Speaker 1: problem with personally on the last devices. So for me,
Speaker 1: it was mainly the fact that I could not use
Speaker 1: this as a content creation tool because it did not
Speaker 1: have the ability to have an external mic input on
Speaker 1: the native camera app, and I am very excited to
Speaker 1: announce that, yes, you can finally use an external mic
Speaker 1: input on the video camera. Now for most people that's
Speaker 1: not a big deal, but for me it is. And
Speaker 1: I also think it's a bigger deal in the scheme
Speaker 1: of things because think about it. When you think about
Speaker 1: all these YouTubers, what phone are they using. They're all
Speaker 1: using the iPhone because they're plugging accessories in, they're recording themselves,
Speaker 1: they're vlogging. And if you try out a PIXEL and
Speaker 1: you realize that you can't do these things with it, well,
Speaker 1: guess what, You're not really going to use it much.
Speaker 1: So in my day to day I will say that
Speaker 1: I found that the phone is a bit laggy, which
Speaker 1: is kind of odd, and I feel like it wasn't
Speaker 1: laggy before. So maybe in the next couple of days,
Speaker 1: when Google puts out their big software update for day
Speaker 1: one of the Pixel, some of those things will be fixed.
Speaker 1: But I actually had to reformat my device, so I
Speaker 1: said it up when I was in New York when
Speaker 1: I got it, and then when I got home, I
Speaker 1: just could not deal with what kind of like the
Speaker 1: jumpiness that was happening on it, and so I ended
Speaker 1: up wiping it clean, and instead of doing a restore
Speaker 1: for my old device, my old Android, I just ended
Speaker 1: up installing everything again, which is kind of a pain
Speaker 1: because you have to log into every app and download
Speaker 1: every app, and set up your home screens and go
Speaker 1: through every single alarm and every single setting and redo
Speaker 1: it all. And I don't particularly like doing that every
Speaker 1: single time. But I felt like I wanted to give
Speaker 1: this thing the full benefit of the doubt and see
Speaker 1: if it was something that got transferred over that was
Speaker 1: kind of weird, or if it was the actual device.
Speaker 1: I would say I'm getting less of the problem now,
Speaker 1: but it's still a little bit jumpy compared to the
Speaker 1: way I think it should be, and I think that
Speaker 1: hopefully that will be improved. But otherwise, so what can
Speaker 1: I say about the Pixel? I mean, personally, I think
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start recommending this device more so than ever
Speaker 1: because I find that it really does everything you need,
Speaker 1: and I think the camera is really amazing. Software is
Speaker 1: nice and polished, the apps they leave a little bit
Speaker 1: to be desired. I know that's not Google's fault, but
Speaker 1: when you look at what you can accomplish on the
Speaker 1: apps on the iPhone, they're just better. I mean almost
Speaker 1: every single app that is made by a big company
Speaker 1: outside of Google. So when you look at Google apps,
Speaker 1: those are all better on Android. When it comes to Gmail,
Speaker 1: when it comes to things like Google Voice, when it
Speaker 1: comes to Google Photos, Calendar maps, all of those things
Speaker 1: are better on the Android. But when it comes to
Speaker 1: these other apps like Instagram and Twitter, even something like
Speaker 1: Audible which I use for my audiobooks, Spotify kind of
Speaker 1: on the fence. I think that works very similar on
Speaker 1: both of them. Yelp pretty similar, Netflix, pretty similar. YouTube.
Speaker 1: Obviously Google apps, so that's going to work better. The
Speaker 1: one app that I have a major problem with is Facebook.
Speaker 1: I use Creator on the iPhone and it's just amazing.
Speaker 1: If you want to keep in touch with people, keep
Speaker 1: in touch with your fans, Facebook Pages is terrible on
Speaker 1: the Android, and so is the Creator port so to me,
Speaker 1: and again, I'm coming from sort of the content creator
Speaker 1: journalism kind of world where I am looking to do
Speaker 1: content creation on my devices. So for the average person,
Speaker 1: probably the camera is going to be the most important
Speaker 1: aspect in some of these other apps. But I understand
Speaker 1: when it comes from switching to the Android platform from
Speaker 1: the iOS platform. It's tough, and especially giving up things
Speaker 1: like FaceTime and I Message. I Message. You can basically
Speaker 1: I message almost anyone in the world, right because they
Speaker 1: seem to be on there. And when it comes to Android,
Speaker 1: it's like, you know, when I go to text someone,
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure which number is the right one.
Speaker 1: On iOS, it just sort of highlights in blue the
Speaker 1: number that's the right one for them get to get
Speaker 1: to their I message, and that's really helpful. I just
Speaker 1: find that I kind of missed that when I'm using
Speaker 1: my Android device. So not a deal breaker, but it's
Speaker 1: definitely one of those things that does make life a
Speaker 1: little more complicated. And then FaceTime. Of course, you know,
Speaker 1: my entire f family is on iPhone back in New Jersey,
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm not gonna it's really tough to
Speaker 1: get them to download Duo. I was talking to someone
Speaker 1: at work today and he was joking that, you know
Speaker 1: who's on duo, you know, like, who says duo me?
Speaker 1: No one that never comes up. Taking a look at
Speaker 1: some of the headlines on tech meme, so, I mean
Speaker 1: the Verge saying the best camera gets a better phone
Speaker 1: with a far better screen, loud speakers, but the notch
Speaker 1: is doofy. I don't know. I don't have the one
Speaker 1: with the notch, so I really can't talk much about that.
Speaker 1: I don't find the notches on any other device has
Speaker 1: ever bothered me, so it's really not that big of
Speaker 1: a deal. The screen is definitely better the phone. You know.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing. I call this a sort of boring device,
Speaker 1: and it kind of is. It's not the most exciting
Speaker 1: device out there, but it's it's like a quiet confidence.
Speaker 1: Like I've said before in my previous podcast, it's just
Speaker 1: one of these things that it works. The pictures are
Speaker 1: pretty amazing, the software works overall, and it's just one
Speaker 1: of these devices that just kind of you don't have
Speaker 1: to think much about it. Can you do as many
Speaker 1: of the crazy cool things you can do on the iPhone?
Speaker 1: Probably not, but in other aspects it does really cool
Speaker 1: things like the call screening feature. So generally I'm always
Speaker 1: kind of avoiding those calls, which I kind of still
Speaker 1: believe you should because if you think about it, when
Speaker 1: you get scam calls and spam calls and robo calls,
Speaker 1: I've always recommended to people to never pick them up,
Speaker 1: because if you pick them up, it signifies to them
Speaker 1: that your phone number is live, right. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: if these people have these computer systems, maybe they're not
Speaker 1: that sophisticated to know that, okay, this number picked up,
Speaker 1: let's hammer them now with a lot more calls. Maybe
Speaker 1: they're not that smart, but to me, it seems like
Speaker 1: they probably are. And I've noticed, you know, I get
Speaker 1: a couple of these robo calls, you know, every couple
Speaker 1: of days, and I've been using the screen, the call
Speaker 1: screen feature on the PIXEL, and it's actually kind of fun,
Speaker 1: and I don't mind having the computer pick it up
Speaker 1: because at least I know if the call is is
Speaker 1: a robo call or not, and I can kind of
Speaker 1: decide whether to answer it. So today I had a
Speaker 1: call that I was unsure of came from a number
Speaker 1: that was near mind, and I was like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it could be someone that I called, could be a
Speaker 1: person called me back. But the other thing on the
Speaker 1: PIXEL is that if you have you know, basically Pixel
Speaker 1: has like free caller ID, and if a phone number
Speaker 1: comes in without any call or ID on it, it's
Speaker 1: kind of a giveaway that that's going to be a problem.
Speaker 1: Let's see what else c neet Pixel three XL big
Speaker 1: phone with a fantastic camera and a big notch Gizmoto
Speaker 1: the other way to make a killer phone. And by
Speaker 1: that they're probably alluding to the software versus the hardware,
Speaker 1: because the hardware on the Pixel is not anything special.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm happy that they upgraded the processor, but
Speaker 1: it's not like it's not like where the iPhone kind
Speaker 1: of evolves and just gets better and better with all
Speaker 1: these cool new features. No, it looks almost identical to
Speaker 1: last year's model. And Gadget says Google's hardware takes a
Speaker 1: backseat to software. Android Police says, come for the camera,
Speaker 1: stay for everything else. Ours Technica says Google software deserves
Speaker 1: better than this hardware. I agree. If it was up
Speaker 1: to me, I would go with the Samsung hardware and
Speaker 1: the Google software. That to me is kind of the
Speaker 1: killer Android combination. And I remember back in the day,
Speaker 1: I had one of those I bought back when Samsung
Speaker 1: was doing this. They would do a gosh I forget
Speaker 1: what it was called. It was like a not pure Android.
Speaker 1: It was vanilla Android. It maybe it was pure. Basically,
Speaker 1: they were installing Stock Android on a Galaxy device and
Speaker 1: I can't remember which one I bought. That was it.
Speaker 1: It was like, you know, eight hundred bucks or something
Speaker 1: like that, and I scratched the screen and I was
Speaker 1: so mad because I really that was like one of
Speaker 1: my favorite devices because I had the Google Stock software,
Speaker 1: but I had the beauty of being the Samsung hardware.
Speaker 1: And I think that Google and and Samsung should really
Speaker 1: think about this a little bit harder because Samsung is
Speaker 1: just killing it with the hardware and Google is just
Speaker 1: killing it with the software. So why don't we bring
Speaker 1: something back like this? I mean, we're trying to compete
Speaker 1: against iOS and iPhone dominance, and I get it dominance,
Speaker 1: I mean here in the US. But the reality is
Speaker 1: why not put everything you got towards that and do
Speaker 1: something like a stock Android version of a Samsung device?
Speaker 1: And the other thing. The other idea is why not
Speaker 1: make the pixel camera you know, ported officially to these
Speaker 1: other devices and make it an option, because it seems
Speaker 1: like a lot of this stuff is software oriented. People
Speaker 1: are already porting the camera app to other devices like
Speaker 1: the Essential and the one plus phone, So why not
Speaker 1: just give these phonemakers access to this camera and kind
Speaker 1: of I think it would just expand the Android kind
Speaker 1: of ecosystem in a much better way. And I think
Speaker 1: more people would would kind of take it more seriously
Speaker 1: if they knew they were getting an amazing device that
Speaker 1: has the hardware, amazing software that has the hardware that
Speaker 1: they want. One thing that's been kind of hit or
Speaker 1: missed for me personally on the Pixel three is the
Speaker 1: charging stand. So I actually had to move it away
Speaker 1: from my bed and into my office because it was
Speaker 1: just unreliable. So the Pixel charging stand is basically a
Speaker 1: new wireless charging stand for the Pixel that kind of
Speaker 1: reacts specifically to it. So when you place your phone
Speaker 1: on there, up pops a special screen that you can
Speaker 1: kind of set up so you can have it become
Speaker 1: a photo frame while you're not using it. You can
Speaker 1: have it basically it displays a couple of little assistant
Speaker 1: one touch features down below, so you can, you know,
Speaker 1: play your favorite playlist, whatever it predicts or thinks that
Speaker 1: you want to do. Those buttons will be right on screen.
Speaker 1: And I love this, and I love the fact that
Speaker 1: they added wireless charging to the Pixel three, but I
Speaker 1: still think in general wireless charging is very unreliable because
Speaker 1: if your phone is off the charger, even by a
Speaker 1: mirror like a millimeter, it's like your phone may not charge.
Speaker 1: And to me, I thought my phone was charging. There
Speaker 1: was two nights out of like maybe five nights where
Speaker 1: it just didn't charge, and that's very unacceptable. I woke
Speaker 1: up with a sixty percent battery, which was basically where
Speaker 1: I went to sleep on the thing, and that's a surprise,
Speaker 1: and I found that I was like trying to recover
Speaker 1: the whole day. When you don't start with a full battery,
Speaker 1: you're trying to recover the whole day basically from that
Speaker 1: battery situation. So I moved the pixel the charging stand
Speaker 1: to my office, so I like my phone on there
Speaker 1: as kind of a place to see it and just
Speaker 1: kind of have it charging and I can monitor it
Speaker 1: more like I just popped it on there and it's
Speaker 1: it says charging rapidly. And the thing that popped up
Speaker 1: with the assistant is tell me a joke, So I
Speaker 1: guess it thinks that in the afternoon on a Monday,
Speaker 1: I want to hear a joke from my phone. So
Speaker 1: that's eighty dollars. I definitely recommend it. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you don't care about the stuff on screen, the special
Speaker 1: kind of assistant mode that it pops into, you can
Speaker 1: use any wireless charger with the PIXEL you'll be just fine.
Speaker 1: But again, personally, I think at night bedside, I'm just
Speaker 1: going with the regular plug in charge because that, to me,
Speaker 1: is more reliable. I know my phone is plugged in,
Speaker 1: I know it's going to work, and I don't really
Speaker 1: have to think about it. But bottom line, and I can't,
Speaker 1: you know, say one hundred percent. I've only been using
Speaker 1: the phone for a couple of days, but I will
Speaker 1: say that for me personally, the Pixel, other than all
Speaker 1: little issues that I mentioned when it comes to software
Speaker 1: and some of the bigger features on it, for me,
Speaker 1: they have fixed a lot of the stuff that would
Speaker 1: keep me on the iPhone side. So personally, I like
Speaker 1: the way that the Android operating system is more cohesive
Speaker 1: than iOS iOS. I always feel like apps are trying
Speaker 1: to fit into that whole sandbox that Apple puts them in,
Speaker 1: which is great for security, but not so good for
Speaker 1: things like, you know, just various little tasks that you're
Speaker 1: trying to do on the iPhone sometimes can be more complicated.
Speaker 1: I think on the flip side, a lot of things
Speaker 1: are simpler because of the way they set things up,
Speaker 1: where you know that everything is just kind of sandboxed,
Speaker 1: and that's the way it is, right. So but personally
Speaker 1: I will be recommending the Pixel for sure. I think
Speaker 1: that a lot of people will be happy with it.
Speaker 1: I'm glad they added headphones. That was an another big thing,
Speaker 1: because what a pain just to get a pair of
Speaker 1: headphones for this thing, right, I mean, USBC, I get it.
Speaker 1: Not everyone's plugging in headphones anymore, but the reality is
Speaker 1: it's nice to have a pair of headphones in the
Speaker 1: box when you purchase a smartphone. I've been wearing the
Speaker 1: headphones a lot, even though I have a pair of
Speaker 1: AirPods that I can pair with my androids, But I
Speaker 1: really like the idea of just plugging in the headphones
Speaker 1: and they work and you go right, and plus they
Speaker 1: have assistant built in, which is really nice. So I
Speaker 1: think that overall, for the price and the features and
Speaker 1: what you're getting, especially when it comes to the camera,
Speaker 1: the Pixel is really nice. I think that the iPhone
Speaker 1: is still the gold standard when it comes to mobile devices,
Speaker 1: but I think like the Pixel is definitely is definitely
Speaker 1: giving people a second option, you know, especially with Samsung
Speaker 1: out there. Samsung is great, but there's some little things
Speaker 1: I don't like about Samsung, and I think that the
Speaker 1: Pixel kind of addresses those. And again, like I said,
Speaker 1: for all the little things they corrected for me personally,
Speaker 1: I think that they did a really nice job. And
Speaker 1: if you can live without the I Message of the
Speaker 1: World and the FaceTime of the world, and all the
Speaker 1: amazing app features that come with iOS and all of
Speaker 1: the slick integration with things like the Apple Watch and
Speaker 1: you know, your computer and your messages I Message on computer,
Speaker 1: all those little things, if you can live without those,
Speaker 1: the Pixel is kind of a nice alter. Now let's
Speaker 1: move on to a phone that's making a comeback. The Palm.
Speaker 1: They are returning as a sort of a small what
Speaker 1: they're calling ultramobile smartphone. So this is a tiny, little
Speaker 1: palm sized device literally fits in the palm of your hand.
Speaker 1: It has just a tiny display three point three inches
Speaker 1: and this is being now produced by TCL. So that's
Speaker 1: the big Chinese conglomerate. They have some really popular TVs.
Speaker 1: They're a big electronics maker. They also own BlackBerry. They
Speaker 1: also own Alcatel, so all these brands in the mobile space,
Speaker 1: that's the company behind them. But this new little phone
Speaker 1: is three hundred and fifty dollars and it's being seen
Speaker 1: as an accessory. So the common complaint nowadays is that
Speaker 1: we're all on our phones way too much, and on
Speaker 1: the weekends. And I've had this kind of this little
Speaker 1: theory too, is that you know, maybe on the weekends,
Speaker 1: i'd have a secondary phone. You know, have you have
Speaker 1: you heard of that light phone. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: that phone that just has a dial tone, you know,
Speaker 1: or so to say, it's just a phone that can
Speaker 1: dial numbers. Right, So no camera, no no MP three player,
Speaker 1: no nothing. Now, the Palm does have a camera, it
Speaker 1: does have Android on it, so it is a real phone,
Speaker 1: but it's not meant to be your primary phone. So
Speaker 1: you actually it's exclusive to Verizon and you link it
Speaker 1: up using I don't know what Verizon calls it, the
Speaker 1: number share kind of thing, where it's basically you're activating
Speaker 1: a second line, but it's the same phone number as
Speaker 1: your primary line. So that's an additional ten dollars a month.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like what the Apple Watch does with
Speaker 1: the iPhone and the Apple Watch cellular is kind of
Speaker 1: the closest thing I can think of to this scenario
Speaker 1: where we're so addicted to our devices we actually have
Speaker 1: to rescue ourselves from ourselves, right, So if we're out
Speaker 1: of sight, out of mind, you don't really think about
Speaker 1: it as much. So if you're wearing the Apple Watch
Speaker 1: with the cellular, you can still go out, enjoy your day,
Speaker 1: enjoy your life with your kids, but also be connected
Speaker 1: in case of an emergency or if you need a
Speaker 1: cell phone for anything. The downside to that is that
Speaker 1: there's no camera on the Apple Watch, and that's one
Speaker 1: of the main reasons people have a cell phone now
Speaker 1: on them is we want to be able to take
Speaker 1: pictures wherever we go. So this palm kind of addresses that.
Speaker 1: But the reality is I find this to be way
Speaker 1: too complicated. I mean, two different cell phone devices are
Speaker 1: kind of crazy to have. You're gonna keep swapping them out,
Speaker 1: You're gonna keep what Okay, oh wait, I'm going hold on,
Speaker 1: let me think where I'm going tonight. Okay, do I
Speaker 1: want to take good pictures? Because you know, the camera
Speaker 1: on this thing is not going to be very good, right,
Speaker 1: So it doesn't even matter what the megapixels are, But
Speaker 1: the reality is it's a small device. It's not meant
Speaker 1: as your primary device. It's just not going to be
Speaker 1: as capable as your normal phone. But it's one of
Speaker 1: those ideas that I can understand why people like the
Speaker 1: idea of it, right, they like the fantasy of having
Speaker 1: less distractions in their life. But the reality is we
Speaker 1: can't go without our phones. You know, it's kind of tough,
Speaker 1: especially your primary device. And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: now you're setting up two different devices. So every time
Speaker 1: you switch between them, you're thinking. You know, your muscle
Speaker 1: memory is changing, the way you're using it is changing.
Speaker 1: You have to think about, oh, do I need Uber
Speaker 1: on this device? Yes, okay, it's it linked to my
Speaker 1: Uber account. It's just too much to think about. So
Speaker 1: I don't think this thing is going to do very well.
Speaker 1: I think it might have a lot of interest in
Speaker 1: circles where people talk about it, talk about wanting something
Speaker 1: like this, but no one's going to actually get this thing.
Speaker 1: And three hundred and fifty dollars is a lot of
Speaker 1: money for a secondary device, and it's got a very
Speaker 1: underpowered processor. It's got a a last year's processor, so
Speaker 1: it just doesn't seem like something that a lot of
Speaker 1: people would get, but it seems like something that is
Speaker 1: solving a problem that we have, but the solution is
Speaker 1: not very good. So I think the solution in the
Speaker 1: future will probably probably be more kind of connected smart
Speaker 1: watches and not something like this. Now, an app that
Speaker 1: was launched today was really interesting. This is from Adobe,
Speaker 1: and this is really cool for the content creators out there,
Speaker 1: including myself. And this is another problem that we have
Speaker 1: is you want to be able to create content on
Speaker 1: the go. And for me, I always talk about how
Speaker 1: I'm kind of locked into using a MacBook Pro right
Speaker 1: because a MacBook Pro gives me Final Cut, and that's
Speaker 1: the program that I use to edit my videos. Right now,
Speaker 1: I'm not sitting there editing crazy amounts of videos, but
Speaker 1: I do want to make some things for social media,
Speaker 1: do a quick quick cut here and there, maybe add
Speaker 1: some graphics. Recently, I did a story on going to
Speaker 1: the the Amazon four Star store in New York City.
Speaker 1: If you haven't watched that, you can find it in
Speaker 1: the show notes. But that did take a lot of
Speaker 1: horsepower because I edited a whole bunch of stuff on
Speaker 1: Final Cut, but most of the time. I don't need
Speaker 1: all that horsepower. And so this Adobe premiere rush CC
Speaker 1: is basically a little tiny app that works across all
Speaker 1: your platforms. So right now they're launching it on sort
Speaker 1: of the iPhone and the iPad, and it's going to
Speaker 1: be a desktop app and also on Android. And in
Speaker 1: the video they show, they show the social influencer that's
Speaker 1: using this kind of starting a video on her iPhone
Speaker 1: and then finishing it on her computer. And I find
Speaker 1: that really fascinating because that's not a bad idea at all,
Speaker 1: something that I've never done. And the idea is that
Speaker 1: this takes advantage of the cloud. So all of your video,
Speaker 1: I guess, must go up to the cloud, which takes
Speaker 1: a while. Because that video that I did when I
Speaker 1: was in New York, I shot all my own stuff
Speaker 1: for the Pixel three and I overnighted it in dropbox
Speaker 1: to my photographer slash editor in Los Angeles at KTLA
Speaker 1: and it was like thirty five gigs and Mann did
Speaker 1: that take a long time. So I don't really know
Speaker 1: how this is gonna work. Maybe if you have short clips,
Speaker 1: it's not that big of a deal. But I love
Speaker 1: this idea. I can't wait to try out this program
Speaker 1: Right now, it's only available for iOS, so I have
Speaker 1: to download it to my iPad, but I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to this being across all platforms. It sounds really cool
Speaker 1: and a couple of things on the website when it
Speaker 1: comes to this program, it looked like there is a
Speaker 1: free version of it, but then there's also a paid version.
Speaker 1: So let's see share right from the app to your
Speaker 1: favorite social media platforms. It looks like they have a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of cool graphics and easy kind of formatting
Speaker 1: built in for Instagram, so if you want to do
Speaker 1: something that's square, you can do that. I've got a
Speaker 1: bunch of styles which is really cool. Let's see everything
Speaker 1: is synced to the clouds. Your latest edit is always
Speaker 1: at your fingertips. Available on iOS, Mac, and DOS, so
Speaker 1: it looks like it's available now on those. Sign up
Speaker 1: to be notified when it's available on Android and Premiere.
Speaker 1: Rush is included with Premiere Pro and as part of
Speaker 1: the Creative Cloud All Apps plan, So if you want
Speaker 1: to start for free, you can get three exports, two
Speaker 1: gigs of cloud storage, and Adobe fonts. If you get
Speaker 1: the Let's See Rush single app, I guess you can
Speaker 1: buy it all by itself with unlimited exports. See how
Speaker 1: much that is? I wonder if he even tells me, Oh,
Speaker 1: ten dollars a month, Okay, so you just have to
Speaker 1: go monthly plan is ten? Oh? I see, so the
Speaker 1: monthly plan is ten dollars for that if you want
Speaker 1: the all access. I think the Creative Cloud is like
Speaker 1: twenty dollars. So I don't know. If you're an influencer
Speaker 1: and you're doing this kind of stuff, ten bucks a
Speaker 1: month is easily worth it if it makes your life
Speaker 1: just a little simpler. Moving on now to Microsoft. So
Speaker 1: this is the thing. I get these these tech support
Speaker 1: scam kind of emails all the time from people saying
Speaker 1: that they fell for it, And you think that nobody
Speaker 1: falls for this stuff, but you do. And I thought
Speaker 1: this was just crazy. Microsoft came out with this little
Speaker 1: article about how they're going to partner with AARP to
Speaker 1: kind of stop these scams, but I thought this number
Speaker 1: was crazy. Each month, Microsoft receives about eleven thousand complaints
Speaker 1: from people across the globe who have been the victim
Speaker 1: of a tech support scam, with fraudsters pretending to be
Speaker 1: from reputable tech companies, including Microsoft, Dell and Apple eleven
Speaker 1: thousand complaints. That's from people who say they've been victims.
Speaker 1: So how many people are actually getting these things? And
Speaker 1: I'm not really sure what the point of this whole
Speaker 1: article is. I guess they're just talking about how they're
Speaker 1: fighting back with AARP. But they did release a new
Speaker 1: survey focused on these tech support scams, and okay, October's
Speaker 1: National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, so I guess that's why they're
Speaker 1: talking about it. But let's see. So, if faced with
Speaker 1: unsolicited contacts from a reputable tech company, thirty eight percent
Speaker 1: of consumers would try to block that company from making
Speaker 1: contact in the future. I don't know that that means.
Speaker 1: I mean, what are you going to do? Block the
Speaker 1: phone number? They're just going to call back from a
Speaker 1: different one. Thirty three percent would look up the issue online.
Speaker 1: Forty six percent rely on search engines to research tech
Speaker 1: support scams. None of that means anything to me, but
Speaker 1: it says that three out of five consumers has been
Speaker 1: exposed to a tech support scam of the previous twelve months.
Speaker 1: And what I've noticed is that I actually followed one
Speaker 1: of these things, like that got the phone call at work,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to see what they tried to do,
Speaker 1: and it was pretty wild. The lady had me immediately
Speaker 1: go to a website that I downloaded some software that
Speaker 1: would like take over my computer. I didn't get to
Speaker 1: do all this stuff because obviously I don't want to
Speaker 1: take over my computer, but I was just kind of
Speaker 1: listening to what she said, and it was very convincing
Speaker 1: and just kind of crazy that I see how people
Speaker 1: can fall for this stuff, especially if you're of a
Speaker 1: certain generation or of a certain age, let's say. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think the younger kids probably wouldn't fall for it
Speaker 1: as much as the older people, which is why they're
Speaker 1: teaming up with AARP to do this. But scammers, according
Speaker 1: to this Microsoft article, use changing technology and more sophisticated
Speaker 1: tactics with phishing emails. That's probably the main way phony
Speaker 1: websites and pop up windows to gain access. And that's
Speaker 1: the thing. So when you get one of these pop
Speaker 1: up windows, it kind of takes over your computer screen. Now,
Speaker 1: people like you know, my mom and dad wouldn't really
Speaker 1: understand how to do like a control alt delete or
Speaker 1: you know, just a way to figure out how to
Speaker 1: get around that menu or that window. That's taking up
Speaker 1: their whole screen, right, so they think there's something wrong
Speaker 1: and they have to call that number, whereas you know,
Speaker 1: someone that's a little bit more tech savvy would just
Speaker 1: kind of get rid of that screen and move on
Speaker 1: with life. So anyway, I just thought that number was
Speaker 1: really crazy, eleven thousand people every single month. But hopefully
Speaker 1: they'll figure out something with this, because it just feels
Speaker 1: like this is a major problem, and they give some
Speaker 1: tips on how to do this. You know, don't if
Speaker 1: you get an unsolicited pop up message on your device,
Speaker 1: don't click it, don't call the number. But the reality is,
Speaker 1: you know, the tough part is that come companies are
Speaker 1: always using new technology to sort of help you get
Speaker 1: in touch with them, like, you know, like let's say
Speaker 1: you're out and about and now the new thing is
Speaker 1: that banks are texting you when you use your credit
Speaker 1: card somewhere. Right, Let's say you're using your credit card
Speaker 1: overseas and the first time you use it at a terminal,
Speaker 1: it like texts you and it says, hey, did you
Speaker 1: just authorize that charge? And you text back it says
Speaker 1: text back yes or no. This happened with me with
Speaker 1: American Express the other day, and I said, yes, I
Speaker 1: just used my card there. And you know you might think, like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: that's interesting that they're doing that. I never really asked
Speaker 1: to have that happen. I guess I gave them my
Speaker 1: phone number at some point. Well, now you think about
Speaker 1: these scam artists. They take whatever is happening legitimately and
Speaker 1: they spin it to their benefit. Right, so they know
Speaker 1: that pop up ads and all these pop up windows
Speaker 1: in your computer tell you when something's going wrong. They
Speaker 1: make theirs look just like it, and that's how they
Speaker 1: get past people because they're kind of doing stuff that
Speaker 1: looks similar to what's already happening, and that's how they
Speaker 1: hook people. Kodak, I think, okay, speaking, I guess we're
Speaker 1: on the older generation here, but this is really cool Kodak.
Speaker 1: And I'm not sure if this is the way to
Speaker 1: go about it, but I just love the idea that
Speaker 1: people are getting hip to digitizing their old stuff. If
Speaker 1: you watch me on KTLA, you know that I was
Speaker 1: doing my own digitizing of some of my old videos
Speaker 1: and I used my own system I just bought in Elgado.
Speaker 1: It was a digital converter kind of thing that you
Speaker 1: hook up to your computer to the USB drive. Then
Speaker 1: you have to hook up like a a VCR or
Speaker 1: a camcorder, pop in your tape. It records it to
Speaker 1: your computer and then you can go on with your
Speaker 1: Mary life and throw out the tape and you've got
Speaker 1: a digitized version of this thing that you can upload somewhere. Well. Now,
Speaker 1: Kodak has introduced the Kodak Digitizing Box, and this is
Speaker 1: a service where you just dump a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: media in this box, ship it to them, and they
Speaker 1: will send it back to you digitally convert it so
Speaker 1: you can get it on DVDs, you can get it
Speaker 1: as a digital download, you can get it on a
Speaker 1: flash drive, and you also at all that stuff. Let's see,
Speaker 1: do they send back the tapes. I'm guessing they send
Speaker 1: back the tape. But this is neat because they have
Speaker 1: four options of service with nineteen different types of media
Speaker 1: that they can convert, including VHS tapes, real to real
Speaker 1: audio tape, super eight thirty five millimeters, slides, and picture negatives. So,
Speaker 1: if you think about it, this is a trusted company,
Speaker 1: which you know obviously is Kodak. But Kodak is doing
Speaker 1: this weird thing nowadays where they just basically use their branding,
Speaker 1: so they're actually using a Oh interesting, Okay, that's interesting.
Speaker 1: So I'm looking at this. I just googled the amb media, right,
Speaker 1: which is what they're using to Okay, hold on, this
Speaker 1: is kind of interesting. So amb Media is what they're
Speaker 1: using to actually do the digitization. But when I google that,
Speaker 1: it comes up as Legacy Box, so, which is Legacy
Speaker 1: Boxes pretty much the company that does all of this stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and interesting. Okay, so this is basically just a Kodak
Speaker 1: branded version of Legacy Box. So that's interesting. So I
Speaker 1: wonder if the I wonder if the pricing is different.
Speaker 1: So Legacy Box, let's see the pricing there versus the Kodak.
Speaker 1: So Legacy Box, let's see pricing. Let's see so three
Speaker 1: piece starter is eighty seven dollars to convert up to
Speaker 1: three tapes. And if you look at the Kodak digitizing box,
Speaker 1: let's see how much that one is get started. Let's
Speaker 1: see how much it is. So there's see pricing. So
Speaker 1: their pricing is three tapes is sixty nine ninety nine. Interesting,
Speaker 1: So maybe you go with the Kodak one. It's the
Speaker 1: same thing and you're gonna get it for cheaper. Now,
Speaker 1: I know Legacy Box has a lot of codes out
Speaker 1: there for discounts, so maybe theodac one does not. But anyway,
Speaker 1: that's it. So my only concern with all these things
Speaker 1: I love, and I recommend one hundred percent, by the way,
Speaker 1: that you get your stuff digitized. Very very important to
Speaker 1: do that because these tapes are turning into mush not
Speaker 1: so much to film. Maybe I don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: have film, but I do have tapes, and I can
Speaker 1: tell you the VHS tapes are just about gone, So
Speaker 1: get those things digitized. Some of the other newer ones
Speaker 1: from the nineties, like the High eight and all those
Speaker 1: kind of tapes, those are still doing pretty well. But
Speaker 1: just get this stuff digitized. It's so much easier, by
Speaker 1: the way, to not have a box of this stuff
Speaker 1: laying around your house. Right. That's getting hot, it's getting
Speaker 1: cold in the different seasons you probably have in your garage.
Speaker 1: It's not being kept at the proper temperatures and storage
Speaker 1: conditions it should be, so it's basically being abused. And
Speaker 1: these are your memories. So get this stuff done. You
Speaker 1: can do it yourself if you want to put the
Speaker 1: time into it. But again, that's the best way to
Speaker 1: do it. I feel like because you can monitor the process.
Speaker 1: You can watch the process, you can see what happens.
Speaker 1: But you can also you don't have to let your
Speaker 1: tapes leave your your house, right, so you control them
Speaker 1: at all times. The problem with sending in the legacy
Speaker 1: box and the Kodak stuff is that, yes, I'm sure
Speaker 1: nine thousand times out of ten thousand times it's fine,
Speaker 1: or nine hundred ninety nine times out of ten thousand
Speaker 1: times it's fine. But the one time that it gets
Speaker 1: lost in the mail, that's the problem. And if it's
Speaker 1: your problem, that's a big problem. So if you can
Speaker 1: find a place locally now in Los Angeles where I am,
Speaker 1: there's a ton of places that will do this. In
Speaker 1: smaller cities, it's going to be really tough. It's just
Speaker 1: not one of those things that's a huge business. So
Speaker 1: I don't know, I feel like just you got to
Speaker 1: maybe just send them out a couple at a time,
Speaker 1: and you know, obviously it's cheaper to do more because
Speaker 1: you know, you just they just send you a big box.
Speaker 1: So if you do forty tapes is eleven hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: which is, by the way, a ton of money, so
Speaker 1: you can do it yourself for basically unlimited, for a
Speaker 1: lot cheaper. The problem is, and I've talked about this
Speaker 1: in a previous podcast, is you have to have the
Speaker 1: device to actually play the tape or the media, and
Speaker 1: especially with some of these old things, you just don't
Speaker 1: have that around your house. So it may be worth
Speaker 1: one thousand dollars, because when I was looking online for
Speaker 1: a replacement camquarter, they were expensive. People know that that
Speaker 1: people want to buy these things to do this. So
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily cheap to digitize this stuff if you're
Speaker 1: doing it yourself, if you don't have the right equipment.
Speaker 1: So something to keep in mind. All right, moving on now,
Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan is back to life as a hologram at
Speaker 1: the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Siami Valley, California. This
Speaker 1: is a library, his presidential Library, which I've been to.
Speaker 1: It's just north of LA it's kind of out in
Speaker 1: the valley and it's kind of a hike, but it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's in the LA area, and now they
Speaker 1: have a hologram of Ronald Reagan. This costs one point
Speaker 1: five million dollars and basically you're put in this room,
Speaker 1: where a three D version of Reagan appears on the
Speaker 1: stage in one of three scenes. According to USA Today,
Speaker 1: he's either riding speaking from the back of a train
Speaker 1: during a nineteen eighty four tour, or he's in his
Speaker 1: horse riding attire at his California ranch. Or he's at
Speaker 1: the Oval office after stepping off Marine one, which is
Speaker 1: the presidential helicopter. So I love this idea. I think
Speaker 1: that these holograms are becoming more and more realistic looking.
Speaker 1: And I just did a story for KTLA on Roy Orbison,
Speaker 1: who was transformed into a hologram for a new tour
Speaker 1: that they're doing. So this company that did this one
Speaker 1: was called Base Hologram. The one that's doing this Ronald
Speaker 1: Reagan one is called Hologram USA. So there's a lot
Speaker 1: of these competing hologram companies out there because they see
Speaker 1: this as big business in the future because they can
Speaker 1: basically bring anyone back. Now, it's not easy. In the
Speaker 1: case of Reagan. You know, they did a body double
Speaker 1: that kind of moves and that's you know, and then
Speaker 1: they put a fake head that they had to make
Speaker 1: a model out of. But then they have to get
Speaker 1: you know, the original audio. So basically they have to
Speaker 1: use they have to match up original audio with new
Speaker 1: kind of three D video because just because you have
Speaker 1: a video of someone that's passed away doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: it clearly one hundred percent matches up to what you
Speaker 1: need to do to make this thing look realistic. So
Speaker 1: with the case of Roy Orbison, same thing. It basically
Speaker 1: used an original recording that he had made, but then
Speaker 1: they had to recreate kind of everything else his likeness
Speaker 1: around that. So anyway, but this is this is really interesting.
Speaker 1: And the other thing I noticed is that these companies
Speaker 1: are doing I did a story with another company that
Speaker 1: was kind of beaming people in. Like Tony Robbins is
Speaker 1: a big believer in this apparently, where he can do
Speaker 1: a seminar or I guess a conference whatever he calls him,
Speaker 1: that he does where he is in you know, let's
Speaker 1: say he can be in his house in Beverly Hills
Speaker 1: and he can be doing a live interactive concert or
Speaker 1: a conference with people in Tokyo, right, so you don't
Speaker 1: have to travel as much, but to the people in
Speaker 1: that room in Tokyo, it feels like he's with them
Speaker 1: for all intense purposes because he can interact with them.
Speaker 1: He can look at that, he could talk back and
Speaker 1: forth with them. That's you know, obviously, with a living person,
Speaker 1: it makes things a little bit more flexible. But the
Speaker 1: neat thing about this hologram stuff is that it just
Speaker 1: keeps getting better and better. And when I saw it
Speaker 1: in real life, it was pretty amazing. I saw myself
Speaker 1: up on a screen and I was beamed there live,
Speaker 1: and that looked really cool. And then I saw the
Speaker 1: other people and it's quite convincing because it does look
Speaker 1: like they're there, and you know it's fake, but you
Speaker 1: know it's a hologram, but it's still is pretty cool
Speaker 1: to see in person. So I'll probably have to check
Speaker 1: this out at the Reagan Library just to see how
Speaker 1: it looks. But I'm sure the visitors there love it.
Speaker 1: They get four hundred thousand a year. According to this
Speaker 1: article I read Amazon, Alexa is going to tell you
Speaker 1: when you're sick. So there's a new patent filing. And
Speaker 1: I don't really cover patent filings most of the time.
Speaker 1: I know there's always patent stuff for Apple and what
Speaker 1: all these companies are working on, so this one makes
Speaker 1: a lot of sense. Alexa can notice a user's illness
Speaker 1: by detecting a change in their voice. So apparently if
Speaker 1: it does, it can suggest medicine or a recipe for
Speaker 1: chicken noodle soup. This is all according to the next
Speaker 1: Web who looked at the patent, and they can also
Speaker 1: detect or the patent wants to be able to detect
Speaker 1: things like emotional states, sub spotting things like happiness, joy sadness, anger, boredom,
Speaker 1: and fear, the user's voice, what it sounds like if
Speaker 1: they're sleepy or crying, and what the user is doing
Speaker 1: by analyzing background noise. So this makes a lot of
Speaker 1: sense because these personal assistants are The goal of them
Speaker 1: is to make them more personal, and the more that
Speaker 1: they can do that, the better it is for the
Speaker 1: end user. Now, some of this stuff may sound creepy, like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, alex is going to know that I'm sick. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, it just makes sense for what Amazon wants
Speaker 1: to do, which is either sell you stuff or suggest stuff,
Speaker 1: or react in a certain way. I mean, if you're
Speaker 1: crying and you ask alexis something, you don't want her
Speaker 1: to have a joyful voice in telling you a joke.
Speaker 1: You want her to have some empathy, and it's just
Speaker 1: like a real person, would you want them to react
Speaker 1: to the way that you're sort of feeling. And so
Speaker 1: that's why they're doing this. And I think that of
Speaker 1: course Google and Siri will do just about the same
Speaker 1: in the future, but it's just neat to kind of
Speaker 1: keep track of what they're looking at doing with these systems,
Speaker 1: because I love these systems. I don't think they're perfect
Speaker 1: just yet, but I do think that they are getting
Speaker 1: to a place where they're getting pretty useful to me.
Speaker 1: And when they can, you know, make them kind of
Speaker 1: basically feel like a person that knows you really well,
Speaker 1: I think that that's going to be really cool when
Speaker 1: it comes to the all right email came in through
Speaker 1: my website, Rich on tech dot TV. This is from Mark.
Speaker 1: He says, Hey, Rich, I'm traveling to Italy on October
Speaker 1: twenty seventh. Verizon wants me to wants to charge me
Speaker 1: seventy dollars to receive calls and data usage. With the
Speaker 1: time difference, I don't really know if I'll be receiving
Speaker 1: the calls unless I keep my phone on all night,
Speaker 1: which I don't want to do. Any recommendations, Mark, most
Speaker 1: of the wireless companies nowadays do something called the passport
Speaker 1: or international passport, and I know Verizon and AT and
Speaker 1: T do this, but it's basically ten dollars a day.
Speaker 1: So if you're going to Italy on October twenty seventh,
Speaker 1: you said seventy dollars, I'm guessing you're going for seven days,
Speaker 1: and that's where they got that number from. But the
Speaker 1: reality the way this works is you just tell Verizon
Speaker 1: that you're traveling and make sure that international passport feature
Speaker 1: is activated on your account, and any of the days
Speaker 1: that you use your phone when you're overseas, that's when
Speaker 1: you get charged at ten dollars. So they don't care
Speaker 1: if you use one megabyte of data or a bunch
Speaker 1: of megabytes or a bunch of phone calls, as long
Speaker 1: as you do something on that day, you're going to
Speaker 1: trigger that ten dollars charge. So personally, as someone who's
Speaker 1: done things both ways, where I've had the hot spot
Speaker 1: that I've rented, which is cool because you get unlimited data,
Speaker 1: but I rarely find I find that those aren't really
Speaker 1: in use much anymore because so many people are using
Speaker 1: their regular carrier from home. This is something that's pretty
Speaker 1: relatively new. It used to be have these crazy roaming charges.
Speaker 1: Now the companies are just basically saying, hey, for ten
Speaker 1: dollars a day, you can use your phone pretty much
Speaker 1: the way you use it in the US. Now there
Speaker 1: are some limits on there. You're not gonna get a
Speaker 1: ton of you know, they will slow down your data
Speaker 1: if you use over a certain amount each day. I
Speaker 1: didn't run into any problems, though I did use my phone.
Speaker 1: I think it was in Mexico. Well, in Mexico was
Speaker 1: included though, so I think it was in Where Do
Speaker 1: I Go? Last year Portugal where I use my phone,
Speaker 1: and it was just ten bucks a day. It was great.
Speaker 1: Everything worked just fine, and I was very impressed and
Speaker 1: I loved it because it was so convenient. Nobody had
Speaker 1: to text me to a different number. I didn't have
Speaker 1: to worry about finding Wi Fi hotspots. And I just
Speaker 1: say go for it. Just do the ten dollars a
Speaker 1: day and be done with it. And again, if you
Speaker 1: don't use it one day, if you go a whole
Speaker 1: twenty four hours without using it, then you're fine. And
Speaker 1: so if you can, if you want to save the money,
Speaker 1: just make sure your phone is connected to Wi Fi
Speaker 1: when possible, and you don't really have to think about
Speaker 1: this too much. And if you do go into data,
Speaker 1: or you do get a couple of calls, you'll get
Speaker 1: charged at ten dollars. So I say go for it,
Speaker 1: and I think you'll be fine with that. So good question.
Speaker 1: Let's see, Joanne emails in on richontech dot TV. Let's see,
Speaker 1: I have a home bound sister seventy five that lives
Speaker 1: out of state. Is the grand Pad by Consumer Cellular
Speaker 1: something that is a reasonably priced item. She is unable
Speaker 1: to use the computer because of back issues and shaking hands.
Speaker 1: So the grand Pad by Consumer Cellular, right, is kind
Speaker 1: of a tablet for seniors, So it's you know, grant uh.
Speaker 1: Consumer Cellular is one of those companies that kind of
Speaker 1: they do all that stuff for like the you know,
Speaker 1: the cell phones that have the big keys and all
Speaker 1: that good stuff. So if we look at this grand Pad,
Speaker 1: I guess this started out interesting. This looks like they're
Speaker 1: just in a partnership with Consumer Cellular. So it's it's
Speaker 1: an it's a device that was actually created for grandparents,
Speaker 1: so it's a it's a tablet and they kind of
Speaker 1: built like special things into it. So it's got, like,
Speaker 1: you know, a big kind of it looks like an
Speaker 1: Android tablet that has a custom skin on it. So
Speaker 1: it has simple video chatting. Let's see what else. Say,
Speaker 1: You can share photos, send send emails, popular games, customized music. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think that this is gonna be
Speaker 1: too much, you know, like it's and how much is it?
Speaker 1: Let's see how much it is? So the device is
Speaker 1: two hundred dollars plus forty dollars a month, so I
Speaker 1: guess it has LTE built in. So I'm gonna say no,
Speaker 1: I'm sure this is great, but the reality is if
Speaker 1: they're sending photos, if they're making calls, if they're doing
Speaker 1: you know, video calls, I feel like you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to have the Companion app. On the other end, I
Speaker 1: would recommend maybe just getting a fire tablet from Amazon.
Speaker 1: And I think that if you said your sister is
Speaker 1: at home, she's home bound, so she's not using this
Speaker 1: out of the house. And so I think that if
Speaker 1: she has Wi Fi in her house, she can save
Speaker 1: forty dollars a month minimum by going with a fire
Speaker 1: HD ten tablet, which is just one hundred and fifty bucks.
Speaker 1: You can get all the apps on there, and they're
Speaker 1: all universal apps, which means you know, it's Skype, it's Netflix,
Speaker 1: like all these apps that are actually like kind of
Speaker 1: the main apps. And maybe with the Grandpad you can
Speaker 1: install some of those, but I'm not sure if you can.
Speaker 1: I don't see. Let's see, I don't know. The only
Speaker 1: thing is that the phone number, the dialing, and then
Speaker 1: the wireless, so I don't know. I still think it's
Speaker 1: a better deal just to go with a regular tablet.
Speaker 1: I think that's going to be a lot easier, and
Speaker 1: it's cheaper upfront, and it's cheaper over the monthly time.
Speaker 1: So hope that answers your question again, Joanne, thanks for
Speaker 1: writing in. If you have a question for me, you
Speaker 1: can email me it's hello at richon tech dot tv,
Speaker 1: or just go to my website rich on tech dot
Speaker 1: tv and you can submit your question there. I get
Speaker 1: a lot of these things every day, so I'm not
Speaker 1: just I'm just picking out a couple that I got recently.
Speaker 1: But believe me, I do try to answer all my emails,
Speaker 1: but it sometimes takes me a couple days to get
Speaker 1: to them. I'll tell you that because it's a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff and you guys are always emailing me about
Speaker 1: every decision you make. You're you're asking me before you
Speaker 1: make it, so I'm happy to help. Just know that
Speaker 1: sometimes it does take me a bit to get to those,
Speaker 1: but not always. Sometimes I write back like within a minute,
Speaker 1: and people are like, wha what was that. I just
Speaker 1: happened to be looking at my phone and you emailed me.
Speaker 1: And it's a simple question. I can just you know,
Speaker 1: pop off an answer really quick. So all right, finally
Speaker 1: today Android police out with the Google Assistant Easter eggs
Speaker 1: when it comes to Halloween. So last year I was
Speaker 1: doing this and I tested these things out, and my
Speaker 1: house is filled with all the the Google stuff and
Speaker 1: the Google Assistant, and last year I thought one of
Speaker 1: the commands was pretty cool. It was like I feel
Speaker 1: I think it was like can we get spooky or
Speaker 1: something like that. And next thing you know, my entire
Speaker 1: house all the lights changed, the chrome casts fired up
Speaker 1: on the TVs, it started playing spooky music on the
Speaker 1: Google homes. So my wife went crazy because I didn't
Speaker 1: realize this was happening across all my smart devices in
Speaker 1: every room of the house. So she comes running into
Speaker 1: my office, She's like, what are you doing, so maybe
Speaker 1: that one still works and I'll try it. But here
Speaker 1: are some of the commands that you can use for
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen which are new. So you can ask are
Speaker 1: you celebrating Halloween? You can just say boo, let's try
Speaker 1: that one. Oh wait, I can't. I don't want to
Speaker 1: say the word on here because it'll activate all yours.
Speaker 1: Do you know any scary stories? Happy Halloween? It's almost Halloween?
Speaker 1: Scare me, trick or treat? What are you going to
Speaker 1: be for Halloween? What should I wear for Halloween? Do
Speaker 1: you have any monster fighting tips? I want to hear
Speaker 1: something spooky. Give me a Halloween sound, tell me a
Speaker 1: Halloween joke, tell me a Halloween fact. So all those
Speaker 1: are fantastic. If you have kids like me that are
Speaker 1: obsessed with the Google assistant and get answers from her,
Speaker 1: then these will be great. And I always find this
Speaker 1: stuff kind of fun. This is kind of like the
Speaker 1: fun side of the assistance. But again it also shows
Speaker 1: the problem with these assistants is that you have to
Speaker 1: know all these specific things to ask to make these
Speaker 1: little easter eggs work. And I get it. Someone might,
Speaker 1: in passing say to their Google assistant, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: do you know any scary stories? And they might get
Speaker 1: one of these responses. In the future, we won't necessarily
Speaker 1: have to think about commands and responses that are pre programmed.
Speaker 1: It'll just be like, you know, the point of the
Speaker 1: assistant is just to be there as an assistant and
Speaker 1: do stuff. No matter how you phrase the question or
Speaker 1: no matter what you're kind of looking for, you will
Speaker 1: get it. So again, this is from Android Police, Spooky
Speaker 1: Google Assistant East Eggs just in time. Oh what happened?
Speaker 1: My phone did activate? I didn't think I said it,
Speaker 1: but there you have it. So all right, thanks so
Speaker 1: much for listening to this version of the podcast. Tell
Speaker 1: me what you think about it. I know it's a
Speaker 1: lot longer than the typical version, but maybe that's a
Speaker 1: better thing. I probably won't do something like this every
Speaker 1: day because it's kind of a deeper dive. But what
Speaker 1: happens is I check a lot of blogs every single
Speaker 1: day for stories that I like to talk about. I
Speaker 1: don't always get to talk about them. Sometimes they talk
Speaker 1: about them on the radio on KFI. Sometimes I talk
Speaker 1: about them on KTLA. Other times the talk about them
Speaker 1: just on my Facebook page, or I'll post them but
Speaker 1: this is kind of like a longer deep dive into
Speaker 1: those stories, the stuff that I find interesting, the stuff
Speaker 1: that I think you should know about, and whether it's
Speaker 1: a link to a new app or a website, or
Speaker 1: you know, some kind of news that's happening or a review,
Speaker 1: it's just kind of a bigger mix of stories and
Speaker 1: I can take a little bit more time to dive
Speaker 1: into them and explain stuff a little bit more. So,
Speaker 1: if you like it, let me know. If not, I
Speaker 1: don't know. We'll see. We'll see how I feel the
Speaker 1: reaction is to this. So thanks so much for listening,
Speaker 1: and hopefully if you're not already doing so, follow me
Speaker 1: on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Facebook is at rich on Tech,
Speaker 1: Twitter is at rich Demiro, and Instagram is at rich
Speaker 1: on Tech. Thanks so much for listening. I mrich Demiro,
Speaker 1: rich on Tech dot TV. I'll talk to you real soon.
Speaker 1: M