Speaker 1: What's going on on Rich Damiro And this is Rich
Speaker 1: on Tech, the podcast where I talk about the tech
Speaker 1: stuff I think you should know about and it's where
Speaker 1: I answer the questions you send me. Again, my name
Speaker 1: is Rich Dmiro, tech reporter at KTLA Channel five in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. I hope you are having a great day.
Speaker 1: It is Black Friday. It is the kickoff to the
Speaker 1: holiday shopping season. Although let's be honest, we've all been
Speaker 1: working from home, We've been shopping all all the time,
Speaker 1: and this weekend we'll just be more shopping. Now, normally
Speaker 1: I don't make a big deal about the day that
Speaker 1: it is, but since this is the uh, pretty much
Speaker 1: the official kickoff to the holiday shopping season, this show
Speaker 1: is going to be dedicated to just your question So
Speaker 1: just the questions that you send me. This is a
Speaker 1: special episode to the show. And before you tune out,
Speaker 1: wait wait, wait, it's gonna be good. I got a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff to talk about, so many questions that
Speaker 1: need to be answered. But like I said, it is
Speaker 1: Black Friday, or if you're listening on the weekend, it
Speaker 1: is this kind of you know, kickoff to the holiday
Speaker 1: shopping season. Before you know, the day we all give
Speaker 1: gifts to each other. And you might think that people
Speaker 1: are not going to be spending money this season, and yes,
Speaker 1: some might not be, but apparently people are. And according
Speaker 1: to Adobe Analytics, I love the data that they always
Speaker 1: put out, US online holiday sales are going to total
Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty nine billion dollars this year, thirty
Speaker 1: three percent year over year increase. Wow, that's two years
Speaker 1: of growth in one season. Now, I don't know what
Speaker 1: that is related to. I think that's because they're talking
Speaker 1: about online sales, and I'm guessing, if I had to guess,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing that's taking some of the chunk out of
Speaker 1: the brick and mortar sales as they normally say, you know,
Speaker 1: like going into a Best Buy, because I can't really imagine,
Speaker 1: you know, I used to love waiting in line for
Speaker 1: a Black Friday, and believe me, I've done many many
Speaker 1: a Black Friday in my past. And I've waited in
Speaker 1: line at Sears for a TV deal one time, Best Buy,
Speaker 1: many times Target, one time for a PlayStation. I won't
Speaker 1: say which one because it was a long time ago,
Speaker 1: but I've been known to do that. In fact, that
Speaker 1: used to be my tradition. My wife thought I was crazy.
Speaker 1: She's like, why would you do this? Why do you
Speaker 1: do this? Now? I haven't done it in years past,
Speaker 1: Like in the last couple of years, I haven't really
Speaker 1: done it. But you know this is I'm talking. You know,
Speaker 1: ten years ago. It used to be my thing because
Speaker 1: I used to love it. You know, it used to
Speaker 1: get such great deals. And there's also a camaraderie of
Speaker 1: sitting outside in the freezing cold. And no matter where
Speaker 1: you live, at three am when you have to be
Speaker 1: out there, it's pretty much cold. You know, there's not
Speaker 1: a warm three am anywhere that I know, and it's
Speaker 1: like this camaraderie. The store would come and like, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe give you some like donuts and some coffee or something.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe I'm confusing the Apple launch events,
Speaker 1: but you know I've done a lot of those too,
Speaker 1: so you know what, I've been outside early in the
Speaker 1: morning many times and with lots of shoppers. And the
Speaker 1: thing about it, people think they're crazy, but you know what,
Speaker 1: it is fun and there is, like I said, a
Speaker 1: camaraderie and a kind of shared experience that you know,
Speaker 1: you only get in certain aspects of life. And right
Speaker 1: now there's none. I mean during the pandemic. You know,
Speaker 1: you're not going to sporting events together. You're not going
Speaker 1: to bars, you're not going to restaurants, you're not going
Speaker 1: to concerts, you're not going to live show. So I
Speaker 1: mean the shared experience right now is is zero. So
Speaker 1: I mean you gotta think about it. You got to
Speaker 1: you gotta take it where you can get it. Now.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying to go out for these you know,
Speaker 1: early morning things. I think you're gonna be perfectly great
Speaker 1: just sitting at home and shopping you from your from
Speaker 1: your computer this year. And let me tell you about
Speaker 1: some of the sites that I visit because I love
Speaker 1: all these sites. I love looking at the deal sites
Speaker 1: because I'm always, you know, I always have my eye
Speaker 1: on something right. So dealnews dot com is a great
Speaker 1: website that you know. What I like about them is
Speaker 1: they just have a whole bunch of deals, endless scrolling
Speaker 1: on their on their homepage. But I like about their
Speaker 1: deals is that they're legit number one, because they do
Speaker 1: have a team of editors. Number Two, they actually give
Speaker 1: you kind of some some basis for that deal. Like,
Speaker 1: for instance, I'm looking at this Sony noise canceling over
Speaker 1: ear wireless bluetooth headphones eighty eight dollars normally two hundred.
Speaker 1: It's the best deal we could find by two dollars,
Speaker 1: So I mean, there you go. Or this, let's see
Speaker 1: like open box Samsung two channel wireless rear system speaker
Speaker 1: system fifty five dollars in cart It's thirteen dollars under
Speaker 1: the lowest price we could find for a new system.
Speaker 1: So it gives you just kind of that perspective on
Speaker 1: a deal that most of the time you got to
Speaker 1: go around looking for on the web, and it's not
Speaker 1: always easy to find all right, slickdeals dot Net. I
Speaker 1: love this website. I check this website every single morning.
Speaker 1: I check about fifty five websites every morning to kind
Speaker 1: of go through the tech world and see what's happening,
Speaker 1: and slick deals dot net is definitely one of those,
Speaker 1: and I just love seeing just all the deals. And
Speaker 1: what's cool about this website is that anyone can submit
Speaker 1: a deal, but then the members vote them up. So
Speaker 1: the front page deals are going to be fantastic because
Speaker 1: people have said, yeah, these are really good deals. And
Speaker 1: then not just the front page, but there's also a
Speaker 1: bunch of other a bunch of other pages as well,
Speaker 1: where you can kind of narrow down and see exactly
Speaker 1: what you want. Maybe you only want computers, maybe only
Speaker 1: want video game systems. But I mean, just looking at
Speaker 1: the deals here, I mean it's great, Like look at this,
Speaker 1: so I mean it's also cool because they give you
Speaker 1: like just ideas on how to use. It's just great.
Speaker 1: Like here one month's CBS All Access membership for new
Speaker 1: or returning members. So you might think, oh, I already
Speaker 1: had a freeze. Tryal to that I can never sign
Speaker 1: up again unless I pay. Well, if you're checking slick deals,
Speaker 1: now you can watch you know, some of those shows
Speaker 1: again for free for you know, a month. Wow, let's
Speaker 1: see fifty dollars. Nintendo E Shop gift card for forty
Speaker 1: five dollars. Ooh, that's not a bad one. That's a
Speaker 1: new egg. My kids want that three hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: day red Pocket prepaid plan unlimited talking text plus three
Speaker 1: gigs of LTE data for one hundred and seventy dollars.
Speaker 1: So if you have like a loved one like a
Speaker 1: mom or a grandma or someone in your family that
Speaker 1: does not need a lot of data, look at this
Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy dollars covers you for the whole year.
Speaker 1: Three gigs every thirty days for a year for one
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy bucks. I mean that's pretty good. So anyway,
Speaker 1: slick Deal's always a fun site to visit. Clarkdeals dot com.
Speaker 1: I wasn't I know Clark. I don't know Clark Howard,
Speaker 1: but I know of him and I really like his show,
Speaker 1: But I didn't know this little website that he keeps
Speaker 1: clarkdeals dot Com. They're also really great, and again they
Speaker 1: kind of do the same thing that these better sites do,
Speaker 1: which they vet the deals. They say like, oh this is,
Speaker 1: you know, better than the five dollars or five dollars
Speaker 1: less than we've ever seen on this deal. So clarkdeals
Speaker 1: dot Com, then I've got another another way to kind
Speaker 1: of price check things, Like I do this a lot
Speaker 1: if I want a deal on a particular item. So
Speaker 1: let's say you want like the Note twenty ultra and
Speaker 1: you want to see the best deal on that. And
Speaker 1: I've mentioned this on the podcast before, but you just
Speaker 1: search Note twenty ultra deal on Google and then hit
Speaker 1: the news tab. You would think you'd hit shopping, but no,
Speaker 1: you hit news and then you'll see all the blog
Speaker 1: posts about that deal. So if there's a deal on
Speaker 1: that item, chances are someone has blogged about it, and
Speaker 1: now here you go and note twenty is fifty percent
Speaker 1: off at Google five. Note twenty ultras is seven ninety nine.
Speaker 1: Well I want the regular one, the not the five version. Well,
Speaker 1: I guess five would be fine. Coupon cabin This one
Speaker 1: is someone I interviewed for a KTLA segment. Wasn't really
Speaker 1: familiar with the site. It's merrily one of those sites
Speaker 1: that tries to give you, like the cash back, so
Speaker 1: like shop at Macy's and they give you, you know,
Speaker 1: ten percent back on your order or whatever, but they
Speaker 1: also have a pretty good coupon. Repository Is that a
Speaker 1: word that sounds weird? Is that really? Let me look
Speaker 1: that up. Repository Is that that sounds like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: a place, a building or receptacle where things are stored.
Speaker 1: And uh, here I can I can prove that it's
Speaker 1: actually a word. Oh it didn't go in repository there
Speaker 1: it is repository. Okay, I know what I'm talking about here.
Speaker 1: Let's see, so I will say, like the other day,
Speaker 1: I was searching for I order from a what's that place?
Speaker 1: Panera a lot, and I was like, ah, you know,
Speaker 1: usually they send me like a deal, and they didn't
Speaker 1: in a while, and so I was like, let me
Speaker 1: just search coupon cabin and sure enough, I got five
Speaker 1: dollars off my uh my curbside chin order, and I
Speaker 1: got to say, coupon cabin came through. So check it out.
Speaker 1: Couponcabin dot com. All right, let's see what else Amazon
Speaker 1: dot com slash Black Friday is another place to go
Speaker 1: couple of deals. You know, if you're looking for an
Speaker 1: Amazon product like a you know, ring, Echo, fire sticks,
Speaker 1: all that stuff, tablets, anything Amazon brand, and they have
Speaker 1: a lot of brands by the way, Amazon Basics, wag Bali, Solim,
Speaker 1: Happy Belly, all that stuff is on sale. But let's see.
Speaker 1: If you use Amazon reloads replenish your Amazon Gift card
Speaker 1: of one hundred dollars or more, you get a ten
Speaker 1: dollars bonus that you have to be the first time
Speaker 1: user for that. Oh no, I think it says all customers. Oh,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll do that. And then first time Amazon gift
Speaker 1: card shoppers get a fifteen dollars promo credit with a
Speaker 1: purchase of fifty dollars or more in Amazon gift card.
Speaker 1: So that's like a no brainer if you've never purchased
Speaker 1: an Amazon gift card, purchased a fifty dollars gift card
Speaker 1: and get a fifteen dollars promo credit. And Amazon says
Speaker 1: they've extended returns windows to January thirty first, twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: And if you're not aware of this, a lot of
Speaker 1: these returns you can bring to like a coal store
Speaker 1: or a UPS store without even having them in a box.
Speaker 1: And I've done this with the UPS Store a bunch.
Speaker 1: Now Cole's just twice because it's kind of far from
Speaker 1: where I live. But UPS store has been fantastic and
Speaker 1: you just literally bring the thing in there and they
Speaker 1: think they ship it all up. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know how they do that, but that's what they do,
Speaker 1: all right. Two more sites to go through Wirecutter Deals,
Speaker 1: And you know, I love Wirecutter. It's a great, fantastic
Speaker 1: website that always has a lot of great picks in
Speaker 1: various categories. Their deals are cool because it's only stuff
Speaker 1: that they've said is good, so it's like stuff that
Speaker 1: they've reviewed which is really cool. And then Reddit Deals.
Speaker 1: This is one that I don't generally check, but I've
Speaker 1: been researching for my stories on KTLA and the Reddit
Speaker 1: deals is cool. It's just a little bit more disorganized
Speaker 1: because you know, people just submit stuff they voted up.
Speaker 1: But it's not as organized as some of the other ones.
Speaker 1: But still, I mean, you just scroll through there and
Speaker 1: you see, you know a couple of great things that
Speaker 1: you might like. And so all those are sites that
Speaker 1: I will be keeping an eye on over this weekend,
Speaker 1: and you should too. So let's get to the first question.
Speaker 1: Oh you know what, Yeah, let's just get to the
Speaker 1: first question. Enough of me talking. Oh wait, no, I
Speaker 1: have to talk to this whole show. I kind of forgot.
Speaker 1: Liz says, have you ever Oh and let's see, Liz says,
Speaker 1: have you ever checked out the photo stick? I'm always
Speaker 1: looking for something from my mister gadget brother. I saw
Speaker 1: this on Facebook and it's supposed to organize your photos,
Speaker 1: remove duplicates, et cetera. What is your opinion on this gadget, Liz, Liz,
Speaker 1: my opinion on that gadget is I don't like it.
Speaker 1: So here's the reason. I am very suspect of anything
Speaker 1: that's advertised on Facebook or Instagram, because the main thing
Speaker 1: about the stuff that's advertised is it all looks too
Speaker 1: good to be true, Like it all like does exactly
Speaker 1: what you need, which is, oh, this stick can just
Speaker 1: go through my whole computer, find all the pictures, ferret
Speaker 1: them out them on this thing, and organize them. And yeah,
Speaker 1: and also I've looked at these things. These websites that
Speaker 1: sell them are very kind of scammy, not scammy, I
Speaker 1: should say spammy. You know, it's a lot of high
Speaker 1: pressure sales tactics like this, this deal is going away
Speaker 1: in three minutes, two minutes, one minute, whoa, watch how
Speaker 1: it's over? Oh, refresh the page, it's still there. So
Speaker 1: I mean I don't like it for that reason, I
Speaker 1: would say, And I know that Google Photos is kind
Speaker 1: of annoying to me at this point, but I would
Speaker 1: say stick to something like a Google Photos. And Google
Speaker 1: Photos does have a program, it's like their desktop app
Speaker 1: that will actually find all the all the photos on
Speaker 1: your computer and upload them to Google Photos. Now, I
Speaker 1: know Google Photos just went paid instead of being free.
Speaker 1: Next year, you're gonna have to start paying for anything
Speaker 1: over fifteen gigs of storage, even with the free high
Speaker 1: quality storage. I know I talked about it my last podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm not going over that again, but I still think
Speaker 1: think it's a pretty good way to store your stuff. Now.
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's another program that will scan
Speaker 1: your computer. I'm sure there are. But that's the thing
Speaker 1: about these photosticks. It's like it's all about the program,
Speaker 1: like the software that has to be really good for
Speaker 1: it to kind of find all these pictures wherever they're
Speaker 1: stored in your computer. Now, Picasa used to do a
Speaker 1: really good job at this, and in fact, that's what
Speaker 1: ended up becoming Google Photos. But Picassa was really great.
Speaker 1: You would just set it loose in your computer, and
Speaker 1: you know, in an hour, all of your pictures would
Speaker 1: be organized in this wonderful timeline. And you know, that's
Speaker 1: that's become Google Photos, just a little bit different. So
Speaker 1: I don't recommend the photostick if you want something similar
Speaker 1: that doesn't organize your photos, but you can plug into
Speaker 1: your iPhone or your Android. Look at the sand disc
Speaker 1: I expand the other thing I like is called the
Speaker 1: eb ib i, And I think that they're going to
Speaker 1: be in a good position because It's like a networked
Speaker 1: hard drive that you connect to your WiFi and it,
Speaker 1: you know, it finds all the pictures on your phone
Speaker 1: and I I don't know if it does your computer,
Speaker 1: but it'll put them all in this drive. That's sort of,
Speaker 1: you know, a backup at your house. And again, I
Speaker 1: always recommend having all your pictures backed up in two places,
Speaker 1: so make sure they're not just on one hard drive somewhere.
Speaker 1: They've got to be somewhere else as well. All Right,
Speaker 1: Richard writes, good morning, rich everyone says good morning. I
Speaker 1: hope you and your family are continuing to stay healthy
Speaker 1: and happy. I have a non tech related question with
Speaker 1: your trying out new tech almost weekly at home. Does
Speaker 1: that constant swapping of phones and especially home network speakers,
Speaker 1: Wi Fi and Mesh systems create stress for your wife
Speaker 1: or is she just used to your techiness? Lol? That
Speaker 1: was just a thought as you were discussing the home
Speaker 1: pods versus Sonos on your November thirteenth podcast. Be well,
Speaker 1: rich and may you and yours have a blessed Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: and Christmas. Richard, Oh, I love this question because it
Speaker 1: is so appropriate for the DeMuro house. And to answer
Speaker 1: your question, Richard. Yes, it is a big pain in
Speaker 1: the you know what, to live in the DeMuro house
Speaker 1: because I am always hooking up new stuff to try out. Now,
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean it always stays hooked up, and so
Speaker 1: a lot of times my family has to deal with
Speaker 1: whatever I'm testing at the time and kind of get
Speaker 1: used to that for a little bit, and usually it's,
Speaker 1: you know, a week or two before you know, I
Speaker 1: take it down. Now, if I really like something, I
Speaker 1: will end up getting it and kind of mixing it
Speaker 1: into my my tech mix here. But to be honest,
Speaker 1: most of the stuff that I've had that stays with
Speaker 1: me is stuff that I've been using for a while now.
Speaker 1: Like my TV doesn't change. I have swapped out my
Speaker 1: YEAH underneath my TV. Like the I went like I
Speaker 1: used to be all Amazon Fire, then I went to
Speaker 1: Apple TV. Then I went to Chrome Cast with Google TV,
Speaker 1: which I still really like, but I kind of went
Speaker 1: back to Apple TV speakers. I went through Google Home
Speaker 1: son no Apple, and I went back to my Sonos,
Speaker 1: which you know, I've collected over the years. So I mean,
Speaker 1: and I realized at the end of the day that
Speaker 1: Sons kind of offers everything that I want and I
Speaker 1: already have the speakers that I want, so I just
Speaker 1: don't have the new fancy, you know, exciting new thing,
Speaker 1: but they work. And and Richard, to answer your question
Speaker 1: in kind of a bigger scheme of things, it is
Speaker 1: tough to test this stuff, like right now, I've got
Speaker 1: you know, like, I do like to go hands on
Speaker 1: with the stuff that I feature because I know people
Speaker 1: are gonna ask me about it, and so I do
Speaker 1: like to know kind of like how it works. I
Speaker 1: don't just like to use like the handout video. I
Speaker 1: like to like see how this stuff works. And I
Speaker 1: think that it goes a long way because then when
Speaker 1: I get questions on the podcast or on Instagram or
Speaker 1: on Facebook or on Twitter, I can really tell people
Speaker 1: what they need to know about this stuff. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: you know, Ring is this new mailbox sensor that I've
Speaker 1: been meeting to set up, and it's been sitting here
Speaker 1: for like a week, and I need to set that
Speaker 1: up so I can have some experience and then do
Speaker 1: the story on it. But I don't really do the
Speaker 1: stories unless I test stuff. I've got the Amazon Echo
Speaker 1: sitting here right next to my Google Home because I
Speaker 1: like to know, like if there's a question that I
Speaker 1: get about one of those two things, I want to
Speaker 1: see how they answer them differently. And you know that's why,
Speaker 1: you know, it behooves these testers and these you know,
Speaker 1: these testers to really test this stuff. Now with phones,
Speaker 1: I really had to stop kind of putting my simcard
Speaker 1: into the tester phones because that became a nightmare and
Speaker 1: it's just easier to kind of just carry around the
Speaker 1: other phone for a little bit, just in addition to
Speaker 1: my standard bearer. Because believe me, that was like what
Speaker 1: I said earlier in a podcast, like the telegram thing.
Speaker 1: We switched to that because you know, it'd be tough
Speaker 1: for my wife to be like, oh, I can't get
Speaker 1: a hold of you right now because your phone number
Speaker 1: is not working or whatever. You have like a test
Speaker 1: phone on you and you left your regular phone at home.
Speaker 1: So I've got a couple of little tricks up my
Speaker 1: sleeve that helped me deal with all this tech stuff
Speaker 1: on a daily basis. But that is a fantastic question.
Speaker 1: Thanks for asking. Elber writes, question which exercise bike similar
Speaker 1: to Peloton did you recommend from the Amazon website? Thank you, Well,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to mention the one so This is
Speaker 1: kind of a wild story. This happened a couple months ago,
Speaker 1: where gosh, it was so wild. Basically, you know, everyone
Speaker 1: wants this Peloton bike that is so expensive, and you know,
Speaker 1: not only is a bike expensive, then the membership is expensive.
Speaker 1: But it's great. I mean, I love the Peloton situation.
Speaker 1: I use the app, I don't use their bike. Now,
Speaker 1: if I was buying a new bike, I probably would
Speaker 1: buy the Peloton because when I bought my bike, I
Speaker 1: stold a gym membership and I didn't want to pay
Speaker 1: I just couldn't imagine paying even more for like the
Speaker 1: Peloton membership on top of my gym. Of course, I've
Speaker 1: since canceled my gym membership because you know, when are
Speaker 1: we going back to the gym in California, don't know.
Speaker 1: And so I bought the Bowflex C six, which I love.
Speaker 1: I saw it at CS and it just was like
Speaker 1: the most brilliant thing ever. I was like, wait, this
Speaker 1: is amazing. It's a spin bike that has a spot
Speaker 1: for an iPad and it also connects via bluetooth to
Speaker 1: the app. So you don't get all the little kind
Speaker 1: of you know, all the little benefits of Peloton that
Speaker 1: the real bike has but you get enough Like for me,
Speaker 1: it tells me, you know, my cadence, which is how
Speaker 1: fast you're going, and that's it. I mean, that's all
Speaker 1: I need. And then of course, oh, I think that
Speaker 1: the resistance kind of matches up and I'm not really sure,
Speaker 1: but it works for me. So anyway, I bought the
Speaker 1: Bowflex C six. It was I think it was about
Speaker 1: one thousand bucks versus you know, two thousand for the
Speaker 1: Peloton and it's been great. It has gotten us through
Speaker 1: the pandemic. We love it. It is amazing. Now the
Speaker 1: one you're mentioning this was like the Echelon or something,
Speaker 1: and this was like a this was kind of a
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened here, but basically, this company
Speaker 1: named Shalon I think that's how you say it came
Speaker 1: out with a bike exclusively for Prime members called the
Speaker 1: the Prime Bike. It was five hundred dollars and you know,
Speaker 1: this thing was you know, widely promoted for like a
Speaker 1: couple hours, and all of a sudden Amazon was like, er, no,
Speaker 1: they have nothing to do with us. They I think
Speaker 1: they just called it the Prime Bike. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened, but the whole thing is pulled.
Speaker 1: So don't get the Prime bike for five hundred bucks.
Speaker 1: If you want an inexpensive Peloton alternative, go for the
Speaker 1: Bowflex C six. You can see my video on it
Speaker 1: type Boflex C six. DeMuro into YouTube and you will
Speaker 1: see the video I did on a SCS. And that
Speaker 1: video was really the light or the idea that just
Speaker 1: popped into my head. It was like, oh wow, this
Speaker 1: is brilliant, Like I don't need to spend all this
Speaker 1: money on a on a Peloton. I can spend half
Speaker 1: the price. And by the way, the app, when you
Speaker 1: have just the app based version of Peloton is about
Speaker 1: thirteen dollars a month versus I think it's forty for
Speaker 1: the membership that you have if you have the bike,
Speaker 1: which is kind of counto counter intuitive. You would think
Speaker 1: that if you bought the big old bike you would
Speaker 1: get the membership app for lesser, but no, you spend
Speaker 1: more on that. So it's a great thing. You Look,
Speaker 1: I have no problems with Peloton. I think they're amazing.
Speaker 1: I did a story with them back in like twenty fifteen.
Speaker 1: I think it was. I forget what year it was,
Speaker 1: but I remember the guy who started it. I think
Speaker 1: his name is John Foley, you know, he's like, you know,
Speaker 1: they pitched me on it, like can you meet this
Speaker 1: guy at the Century City Mall here in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, sure, what's this thing? And it's like
Speaker 1: this new bike that connects to the internet and serves
Speaker 1: up classes digitally. And I was like, what, Oh, come on,
Speaker 1: give me a break. And it took me like three
Speaker 1: years to realize just what an amazing idea this guy had.
Speaker 1: And it's it's absolutely brilliant, and the peloton classes are fantastic,
Speaker 1: the instructors are fantastic. But I do see some headwinds
Speaker 1: come in their way because a gyms are going to
Speaker 1: reopen eventually, and so of course there's gonna be a
Speaker 1: little bit less interest at home workouts. But also Apple
Speaker 1: Fitness is coming out with their version of this, and
Speaker 1: so it'll be interesting to see. You know, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be tough for people to have two memberships to two
Speaker 1: different things, and the Apple Fitness is probably not gonna
Speaker 1: play very nicely with the Pelotons of the world, so
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to have a bike like the Bowflex.
Speaker 1: So anyway, these are the things that keep me up
Speaker 1: at night. Folks. All right, Jose says, Hey, Rich, I
Speaker 1: was wondering if I can get your help. I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about getting my wife the ie Robot S nine, but
Speaker 1: not sure if it's a goodbye or worth it. If
Speaker 1: it's not too much to ask, can I get your input?
Speaker 1: Thank you in advance, Jose. So I'm taking a look
Speaker 1: at this ie Robot Rumba S nine and this is
Speaker 1: one of the more expensive rumbas. If not is it
Speaker 1: the most expensive, it's it's pushing up almost you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: almost one thousand dollars at full price, so, you know,
Speaker 1: not on sale, but let's see. Definitely, these robotic vacuums
Speaker 1: are going to be a very hot cellar through this
Speaker 1: entire holiday season. Do I think you need the best one? So?
Speaker 1: I think if you, you know, have a dog or
Speaker 1: some sort of animal or pet in your house, you
Speaker 1: probably want something that's really high end. I have been
Speaker 1: testing out the I seven series, and this is the
Speaker 1: one that kind of puts itself in its own little vacuum,
Speaker 1: so it kind of, you know, like it goes back
Speaker 1: to home base and then it sucks all the stuff
Speaker 1: out of the vacuum like into a separate vacuum that
Speaker 1: you then empty. I know it's kind of tough to imagine,
Speaker 1: but it's kind of like the uh if you've ever
Speaker 1: been to a hair salon or a barber shop that
Speaker 1: has like one of those little suction things on the
Speaker 1: wall that like they brush all the hair like nearby,
Speaker 1: and then they turn it on. It like sucks all
Speaker 1: the hair into this little like vacuum container canister thing.
Speaker 1: That's kind of what the Ruma does. So it does
Speaker 1: its own vacuuming, then it goes to home base and
Speaker 1: then the canister kind of gets it like sucks out
Speaker 1: all the stuff that it just sucked up from your floor.
Speaker 1: So it's really cool, it's really amazing. I think that
Speaker 1: the Rumba. I used to have a d bot. I
Speaker 1: think that the Rumba is really really advanced with some
Speaker 1: of the features it has. It also gets stuck less
Speaker 1: than my old vacuum, and so I do highly recommend it.
Speaker 1: But do you need this super super expensive one. I
Speaker 1: don't think so. I mean, you can get the I
Speaker 1: seven without the you know, the little cradle thing that
Speaker 1: sucks up the dirt, and that's even less. So I
Speaker 1: think that you probably don't need the nine, Jose, you
Speaker 1: could probably go with a slightly lesser expensive I'd go
Speaker 1: with a seven, or maybe even lower than the seven
Speaker 1: if you don't have a pet because or especially if
Speaker 1: you have like hardwood floors throughout the house. But it
Speaker 1: really depends. But I think Rumba does a really nice job.
Speaker 1: There's so many of these out there. I mean it really,
Speaker 1: you know, like I think the differences with these things
Speaker 1: the quality of the suction of obviously, the kind of
Speaker 1: the app, how much you know, how much do you
Speaker 1: want to deal with like a poorly formed app if
Speaker 1: you even want to connect it to your WiFi, you know,
Speaker 1: and like the mapping abilities, the ability for it to
Speaker 1: kind of figure out where it's been before and not
Speaker 1: just go over the same spots, and and also the
Speaker 1: ability not to get stuck in different places. So those
Speaker 1: are the things that I'd say are probably most important
Speaker 1: when looking at these things, especially when you go and
Speaker 1: look at like the hundred dollars ones or the two
Speaker 1: hundred dollars ones, which are fine. I think my old
Speaker 1: one was a couple hundred bucks and it was fine.
Speaker 1: It just got stuck a lot. But I do recommend
Speaker 1: that brand I like the Rumba. I like the old
Speaker 1: brand I had, but you know, just beware when you're
Speaker 1: getting some of these really off brands that you know,
Speaker 1: the things I mentioned are the things that you might
Speaker 1: be sacrificing. But once you do have one of these things,
Speaker 1: they are fantastic. I mean, you leave the house, you
Speaker 1: turn it on, and when you come back, it's got
Speaker 1: those nice little you know, lines on the carpet where
Speaker 1: it went over it. It's just so great. And then
Speaker 1: when you close it in a room, you know, you
Speaker 1: hear it like just hitting do it sounds like there's
Speaker 1: like a crazy like you know, someone just like having
Speaker 1: a fight in that room when it's like knocking on
Speaker 1: the door a bunch of times, just like boom boom
Speaker 1: boom boom boom boom boom. I mean, it's really funny.
Speaker 1: So these things have a mind of their own too.
Speaker 1: And just watch them around cables, because, uh, once they
Speaker 1: get that cable stuck in them, it's like, augh, that
Speaker 1: cable is really tough to get. I've had to cut
Speaker 1: many things out of the little spinners on the bottom
Speaker 1: of these things. All right, Debbie writes, Hey, Rich, I
Speaker 1: just found a cool new feature in iOS fourteen point two.
Speaker 1: You may have already found it, but just in case
Speaker 1: you hadn't. It has to do with a new Shazam
Speaker 1: button in the control center. Pretty cool. Have a good weekend,
Speaker 1: Debbie in Bakersfield. Yes, Debbie, I did know about this
Speaker 1: because the folks at Shazam actually emailed me about this
Speaker 1: and mentioned that it will be there. Let's see. So
Speaker 1: what Uh okay, this wasn't this was embargoed, so I
Speaker 1: can I can read it now. Let's see what are
Speaker 1: they saying? So Shazam has two hundred million monthly users
Speaker 1: around the world. Let's see. Oh tones an I dance Monkey,
Speaker 1: my Kid's My Kid's favorite song in the world is
Speaker 1: the all time most Shazam song with thirty six point
Speaker 1: six million Shazam's Wow, Okay, that's wild. Prayer and see
Speaker 1: Robin Schultz and passengers Let Her Go is number three. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's wild. I love that song. Let her Go, Let
Speaker 1: her Go. Let's see. Shazam Control Center module is now
Speaker 1: available for iOS and iPad users. Uh and on a
Speaker 1: note in Shazam from notifications bar is now enabled un
Speaker 1: Android for quick recognition access to recognition of music playing.
Speaker 1: Oh not only around you. But on device and in
Speaker 1: other apps. I wonder if that. I don't think that
Speaker 1: works on iOS, but on Android probably interesting, Maybe it
Speaker 1: does work on iOS. I should try it. Let me see,
Speaker 1: can I play I'm gonna play some music on my
Speaker 1: phone and let's see if it can recognize what the
Speaker 1: song is. So let's do let's see if I can
Speaker 1: find a song. All my music right now is h
Speaker 1: is like Christmas all right? So here I'm playing Marshmallow
Speaker 1: one thing right, and I'm gonna do this. Now, let's
Speaker 1: see Shazam Music recognition. Oh wow, it did figure it out. Wow,
Speaker 1: look at that. Okay, good for you. Cool okay. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so you know I'm gonna do Hold on, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: turn the volume down on my phone fully now I'm
Speaker 1: gonna play the song. And now I'm gonna try it
Speaker 1: and let's see if it works. So Shazam Music Recognition on,
Speaker 1: and let's see if it can figure it out even
Speaker 1: with the mic off. H I don't think so. I
Speaker 1: think it needed the mic on. Let's see if I
Speaker 1: put my volume on. No, okay, so you have to
Speaker 1: have your mic on. You have to or you actually
Speaker 1: have the volume up on the song. But anyway, so, yes,
Speaker 1: that is a cool feature. It is in the control center.
Speaker 1: So if you're not familiar with what the control center
Speaker 1: is on iOS, you can just swipe down from the
Speaker 1: lower right hand or the upper right hand corner of
Speaker 1: your phone, or if you have a phone with a
Speaker 1: home button, you swipe up from the bottom. But that's
Speaker 1: your control center. It's like all those little controls on
Speaker 1: your phone. But you can add Shazam to that. So
Speaker 1: the way to do that on the iPhone is to
Speaker 1: go into settings and then look for a control center
Speaker 1: and where it says shazam, or actually it doesn't say Shazam,
Speaker 1: it says music recognition. Tap the little plus sign next
Speaker 1: to that, and now when you swipe down from the
Speaker 1: upper right hand corner, you'll see the little Shazam button
Speaker 1: and let's see, does it say anything? Okay? Yeah, the
Speaker 1: control the control recognizes music playing in apps, even when
Speaker 1: you're listening with air pods or headphones. Works with both
Speaker 1: internal and external audio sources. So there you go. See,
Speaker 1: if I just read the stuff that I get sent
Speaker 1: to me, may I would actually have an understanding of
Speaker 1: some of this stuff. So if I just would have
Speaker 1: read that, it would have I would have known that
Speaker 1: you can use it for internal and external audio. But
Speaker 1: now I know. Anyway, cool find Debbie. I think it's
Speaker 1: awesome too. Now you know, I don't really use Shazam
Speaker 1: as much anymore. I don't I don't really have as
Speaker 1: much of a use for it, but it's still cool.
Speaker 1: I guess if you're hearing a song for the first time,
Speaker 1: I do know that Shazam is well. I think I
Speaker 1: talked about this another podcast, But anyway, it's a cool feature.
Speaker 1: It's been around for a while, and you know, or
Speaker 1: the service has been around for a while, but now
Speaker 1: that new way of accessing it on the iPhone, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, Apple bought Shazam. That's why this is
Speaker 1: all happening. Lorii Wrights, Hey Rich, what do you think
Speaker 1: about the app get Upside? I'm just trying it and
Speaker 1: wondering if there is a catch. Seems pretty good so far.
Speaker 1: Thanks Lourie. All right, I had to look this one
Speaker 1: up because I don't know anything about get Upside, but
Speaker 1: I can tell what is going on here, and so
Speaker 1: what it looks like is an app that you download
Speaker 1: and then you go to these certain businesses and once
Speaker 1: you kind of use your you know card at these businesses,
Speaker 1: you get you know offers, so you know, it's like
Speaker 1: you can save on food. About twenty thousand businesses so
Speaker 1: like Shell, BP, Circle K, Marathon, a lot of gas stations,
Speaker 1: Burger King, Papa John's, Dunkin Donuts, Popeyes, Gelson's, Wendy's, a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of gas stations. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: here's the thing with these these sort of apps. I mean,
Speaker 1: the main thing is that I'm just searching my areas,
Speaker 1: see what's what's here. The main thing with this is
Speaker 1: that you know, you kind of well, twenty two percent
Speaker 1: cash back. I gotta see. I'm curious how this works?
Speaker 1: Like what this It doesn't really say like how the
Speaker 1: how it works? Oh, how does it work? Okay, let
Speaker 1: me see there's a little link. So, I mean a
Speaker 1: lot of these apps, the way they work is that
Speaker 1: you know, you're doing business with the with the companies
Speaker 1: that they want them to do business with, or they're
Speaker 1: you know that they partner with, and then you know,
Speaker 1: you get the the little money I guess the kickback
Speaker 1: they're split. They're splitting some of the kickback with you
Speaker 1: that they get from these companies. So I mean, you
Speaker 1: know what, this one actually doesn't look so bad. You know.
Speaker 1: The main thing that you're giving up is that you
Speaker 1: are giving up sort of your privacy because when it
Speaker 1: comes to these apps, you're sharing some of the data. Okay,
Speaker 1: here it is. How does it work? Claim your offer
Speaker 1: through the app, Pay as usual with any credit or
Speaker 1: debit card, check in or snap and submit a photo
Speaker 1: of your receipt. Cash out anywhere you want. You can
Speaker 1: cash out via PayPal, E check, E gift card, or check.
Speaker 1: We partner with local businesses who want to win you
Speaker 1: over with experiences personalized for you. So I mean, it
Speaker 1: looks cool. I don't have a problem with it. I
Speaker 1: need to try it out and see if it works.
Speaker 1: But there's another one that I that I used to
Speaker 1: use called drop I think that was yeah, yeah, Earn Yes,
Speaker 1: so it was the same thing Earn withdrop dot com.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of these apps out there that
Speaker 1: sort of want to reward you for shopping at places.
Speaker 1: But here's the bottom line. With all these apps, and
Speaker 1: as a person who is always trying to spend less money,
Speaker 1: not more, you know, the reality is with these apps, yes,
Speaker 1: you can argue that you would be going to Dunkin
Speaker 1: Donuts anyway, and spending that money anyway and getting that,
Speaker 1: you know, five ten percent cash back is amazing. It's
Speaker 1: free money. But the reality is this, no matter what
Speaker 1: you think, these marketing geniuses that are employed by these apps,
Speaker 1: that have degrees in marketing and degrees in psychology and
Speaker 1: all this stuff, they are smarter than our little brains.
Speaker 1: And what they're doing is they are marketing to us.
Speaker 1: So in the back of your head, when you know
Speaker 1: that you're getting five percent cash back at dunkin Donut's
Speaker 1: just for shopping there as normal, you are a gonna
Speaker 1: spend more money there and b You're gonna go there
Speaker 1: more often. And I know this for a fact because
Speaker 1: I know it happens to me when I you know,
Speaker 1: my credit card and you know I'm not a big
Speaker 1: credit card person, but yes I have one. But my
Speaker 1: credit card has these things called like offers built in right,
Speaker 1: and so you can activate these offers and then when
Speaker 1: you shop there, you get you know, five percent back,
Speaker 1: ten percent back, a dollar back, whatever. But the reality
Speaker 1: is it's always in the back of your head, like, oh,
Speaker 1: I should go to this place today because I would
Speaker 1: get you know, if I use uber, I get ten
Speaker 1: percent back, and so it just it works. And this
Speaker 1: is why these companies do this, because it works. It
Speaker 1: builds sales, it generates sales, it generates higher per check averages.
Speaker 1: So yes, you can use this app. And if you
Speaker 1: only use it to buy a gas at the gas
Speaker 1: station that you always shop at. Perfect, But you know,
Speaker 1: once you start venturing out and start buying Burger King
Speaker 1: and Wendy's and all these other things that you may
Speaker 1: or may not have purchased, you know, the couple of
Speaker 1: dollars that you're getting in cash back, I don't know,
Speaker 1: you got to see. But with that said, I am
Speaker 1: going to download this app. I'm gonna try it out
Speaker 1: and see what it's all about. But I do think
Speaker 1: you are giving up a little bit of your privacy
Speaker 1: in exchange. And also, of course you know you're also
Speaker 1: going to be spending just a little bit more I
Speaker 1: think than you normally or typically would if you didn't
Speaker 1: have these things. But good question. And you know, hey,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, whatever works for you, right,
Speaker 1: if you like it, you like it, and it's fine.
Speaker 1: A lot of people like these cash back apps, all right,
Speaker 1: let's see Hamela says hey, Rich, just a quick question.
Speaker 1: I've seen your review many different products. I have two
Speaker 1: boys and I've never gotten them any video game consoles.
Speaker 1: I'd like to know how to place Xbox which you
Speaker 1: would recommend. Their ages are fourteen to nine. They're always
Speaker 1: watching other people play games on YouTube. Thank you, helima. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that sounds like my kids too. I can't believe that
Speaker 1: watching people play video games on TV, or i should say,
Speaker 1: on YouTube is a multi billion dollar business. I don't know,
Speaker 1: it seems like it definitely multi million. My kids love
Speaker 1: watching these people play video games, and I get it.
Speaker 1: It's like it's just you're playing the game. You want
Speaker 1: to see how they do it. And they've got good personalities,
Speaker 1: a lot of them. So to answer the question, PlayStation
Speaker 1: or Xbox, I think that you can find your answer
Speaker 1: by checking out who they're watching on YouTube and the
Speaker 1: games that they're watching them play. So if it's all Minecraft,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe the Xbox is better. If it's all,
Speaker 1: you know, Gears of War or what I you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm not a big gamer, but I
Speaker 1: think that it all comes down to the games they
Speaker 1: play and also where their friends are. That's a huge one. Now,
Speaker 1: if they're friends are all in PlayStation, your boys probably
Speaker 1: want to be on PlayStation. If they're all on Xbox,
Speaker 1: they probably want to be an Xbox. So that's my advice.
Speaker 1: And you know, you can get an idea just by
Speaker 1: asking them, say like, hey, you know, show me some
Speaker 1: of these YouTubers that you follow. Let me see and
Speaker 1: kind of do your research on them and see what
Speaker 1: games they play, you know, because a lot of them
Speaker 1: are known for like a big game like a you know,
Speaker 1: Roadblocks or a Minecraft or a Animal Crossing or whatever. Like,
Speaker 1: they all have their favorites and so once you figure
Speaker 1: that out, I think it'll lead you to the right console.
Speaker 1: But with that said, good luck getting your hands on
Speaker 1: these consoles. I cannot believe how popular they are. And
Speaker 1: it's just like it's the same thing that's been going
Speaker 1: on since I was a kid. I mean, I remember
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, I dragged my dad from
Speaker 1: store to store in North Jersey before I finally found
Speaker 1: the copy of Super Mario Brothers three in the yellow
Speaker 1: box that I wanted so bad, and we went from
Speaker 1: store to stooris or and I remember, you know, saving
Speaker 1: up my money for the game Boy and also I
Speaker 1: had to have a turbographics sixteen. I mean, I just
Speaker 1: had to have all these gaming systems and it's the
Speaker 1: same thing. Nothing has changed in all these years, PlayStation, Xbox.
Speaker 1: And yes I am spoiled because I got to play
Speaker 1: with these things way before everyone else. But you know,
Speaker 1: and do you need them first day? Probably not? But
Speaker 1: do your kids know that? No, of course they want it.
Speaker 1: They're getting marketed left and right to buy these things.
Speaker 1: And it's fun, it's different. We're in a pandemic. People
Speaker 1: want new things and you know, something that's different. But
Speaker 1: the reality is these two devices will be around in
Speaker 1: six months. They'll be around in three months. And I mean,
Speaker 1: maybe I'm wrong because here we are. I don't know
Speaker 1: how long the Nintendo Switch has been out, and it's
Speaker 1: still tough to get. So I know it's tough to
Speaker 1: wait for these things. But if you can, you know
Speaker 1: what you can wait, you can get it or you know,
Speaker 1: of course you can go to the website. So got
Speaker 1: them linked up on mine rich on tech dot tv.
Speaker 1: Look for let's see how do I have it? Labeled?
Speaker 1: It says where to find the new Xbox in PlayStation
Speaker 1: five in stock and it's got a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: websites listed there that you can try. I say try
Speaker 1: because it's gonna be tough. It's it's really really tough
Speaker 1: to find these things anyway. Cool, good luck with that,
Speaker 1: and I hope you find one. Laura writes in Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, I still have so many questions. Hold and
Speaker 1: let me see if there's a Oh. I didn't realize
Speaker 1: that I had so many questions here, Okay, Laura says,
Speaker 1: I'd like to scan and store my photos front and backside.
Speaker 1: Which scanner would you recommend? I'd also like to be
Speaker 1: able to tag people, places, dates, et cetera. Thank you, Laura, Laura,
Speaker 1: easy answer. It's the epsyn Fast Photo. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: what model number they're up to, and they're a little expensive,
Speaker 1: but I'm telling you it's the best. We did this
Speaker 1: with my mom for a story on KTLA and it
Speaker 1: was amazing. It scans the front and back. It can
Speaker 1: restore your pictures. You can add tags, although to be
Speaker 1: totally honest, I don't think you need to add tags
Speaker 1: to your pictures anymore because what's gonna happen is, you know,
Speaker 1: if you put them in something like an Apple Photos
Speaker 1: or a even Amazon Photos or Google Photos. It's going
Speaker 1: to do a really good job of slicing and dicing
Speaker 1: these pictures by people places things inside your pictures, and
Speaker 1: you should be able to find pretty much any picture
Speaker 1: you need one of those ways, like, okay, let's find
Speaker 1: Aunt Edna and all the pictures. Okay, there here she is.
Speaker 1: Let's find all the pictures of Paris. Okay, there we are.
Speaker 1: Because now it's not gonna get every Paris picture, but
Speaker 1: it you know, if it has monuments in them, it
Speaker 1: will figure that out too. What else is gonna do?
Speaker 1: It can do things? So all we want all the
Speaker 1: Christmas pictures, Okay, search Christmas. So you can do all
Speaker 1: that stuff. But you know, I think you're gonna be
Speaker 1: just fine letting letting this do its thing and just
Speaker 1: putting it in one of these photo organizing websites. The
Speaker 1: other thing about this device is that you can batch
Speaker 1: at it. When you put these things through the scanner,
Speaker 1: you can say, like these were all taken in April
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight or whatever. But that's the one epsyn
Speaker 1: fast photo. It's a little expensive, so you know, like
Speaker 1: my mom's advice was to split it with a friend
Speaker 1: or family member. Like, you know, even if this thing
Speaker 1: is like four hundred bucks, once you're done with it,
Speaker 1: you can, you know, of course, sell it on eBay,
Speaker 1: but you can, you know, maybe split it with a
Speaker 1: family member who also wants to do the same thing.
Speaker 1: And now now you've just had your costs and you
Speaker 1: don't need this thing forever. So there you go. All right,
Speaker 1: let's see Timothy who Timothy via Instagram. Rich love your
Speaker 1: podcast Thank You was listening this morning and you stated
Speaker 1: that your phone bill was two hundred dollars for two lines.
Speaker 1: Take a look at Visible. It works off Horizon cell
Speaker 1: phone towers. It's all set up for forty dollars a
Speaker 1: month per line, unlimited everything. Start a party and get
Speaker 1: three others to join Visible, and your bill becomes twenty
Speaker 1: five dollars a month. Have a good one and stay safe.
Speaker 1: This is a great idea, Timothy. In fact, I was
Speaker 1: one of the first people ever on TV to feature Visit,
Speaker 1: and even I couldn't believe the price. I didn't know
Speaker 1: what was going on because I knew they were owned
Speaker 1: by Verizon. I knew they were kind of a startup
Speaker 1: inside Verizon. But I was like, I don't get it.
Speaker 1: How can Verizon be ninety bucks in this be forty
Speaker 1: and so a couple things. Number one, Yes, it's unlimited,
Speaker 1: but the data is capped or the speed is capped
Speaker 1: at it was at least at five megabits per second,
Speaker 1: so which is plenty fast for most of the things
Speaker 1: that you know the typical person is doing on their phone. Now,
Speaker 1: I am a power user. I want the full throttle speed,
Speaker 1: so this would actually not be that good for me
Speaker 1: because of that reason. When I'm out and about, I
Speaker 1: need to live stream or upload giant files. When I'm
Speaker 1: in the field, video files we're talking about, and so
Speaker 1: I can't be limited in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 1: So I do want the maximum throughput of the network,
Speaker 1: So that's number one. Number two, they don't support Apple Watches,
Speaker 1: and so I have a cellular Apple Watch and I
Speaker 1: need that connection, and so I can't for those those
Speaker 1: two reasons, I can't do it. Now with that said,
Speaker 1: I've gotten some of my family members to sign up.
Speaker 1: My brother signed up and he loves it. It's fantastic,
Speaker 1: it works, it's forty dollars a month, it's predictable, and
Speaker 1: there you have it. I mean, what more do you need?
Speaker 1: To know. So yes, Visible is fantastic. The other one
Speaker 1: I really like, and I got my mom to sign
Speaker 1: up for this one is mint Mobile, and mint Mobile
Speaker 1: is really good. The difference is you can get even
Speaker 1: cheaper than their plans, you know, forty dollars a month.
Speaker 1: So I think her plan is like, I think it's
Speaker 1: twenty five or thirty a month, and you know, it's
Speaker 1: only a certain amount of gigs per month, but that's
Speaker 1: all she needs. I think it's eight gigs a month
Speaker 1: and that's it. And Visible Mint now has a unlimited
Speaker 1: thirty dollars a month plan, which is even amazing too.
Speaker 1: Now unlimited after thirty five gigs of data, they do
Speaker 1: slow you down. So but anyway, there are Timothy, to
Speaker 1: answer your question, there are lots of alternatives. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I personally need I am. I am like a power
Speaker 1: power user, and so I just need the maximum maximum
Speaker 1: and that's just the reality of it. So I do
Speaker 1: appreciate you trying to save me money, and believe me,
Speaker 1: I'm always I did save on my bill twenty dollars
Speaker 1: a month because I did switch my plan recently. In fact,
Speaker 1: it was so jarring to my credit card or bank
Speaker 1: account or something that I got like a message saying
Speaker 1: you normally spend two hundred dollars a month at Verizon
Speaker 1: and this month you only spent one seventy five. What
Speaker 1: is wrong? And I was like, uh no, sweat, you know,
Speaker 1: virtual assistant over here checking my account out. But I
Speaker 1: didn't know they spied on my account like that. But yes,
Speaker 1: I saved twenty dollars a month by switching my plan,
Speaker 1: and so I lost like fifteen gigs of hotspot data
Speaker 1: a month, but otherwise everything's the same. And you know,
Speaker 1: I was looking at my data usage anyway and it
Speaker 1: wasn't even that great. So I mean, I get it.
Speaker 1: It's smaller right now because of the bend, but I
Speaker 1: can always go back. But for twenty bucks a month,
Speaker 1: you know, I immediately went and spent that on something else.
Speaker 1: The Hallmark the Hallmark app, which we've been watching all
Speaker 1: those cheesy Hallmark movies which are so good during the holidays.
Speaker 1: So good question, Thank you, thank you, thank you. Rich
Speaker 1: Can you point me in the direction of the Apple
Speaker 1: refund rebate for the iPhone six S plus? Is Apple
Speaker 1: still issuing a twenty five or thirty dollars refund? Jay Zambrano. No,
Speaker 1: that one that you're talking about, the iPhone speed settlement,
Speaker 1: there was a oh gosh, I forget what the website was,
Speaker 1: but that one is expired. There was a there was
Speaker 1: a thing where they would pay you twenty five bucks
Speaker 1: to do that. But now there is a new one.
Speaker 1: So now there is a new battery gate, another one
Speaker 1: hundred and thirteen million dollars that Apple is paying out.
Speaker 1: But I'm unclear if states are going to see this
Speaker 1: money or if people are going to see this money.
Speaker 1: So I don't know. We I don't know still, so
Speaker 1: it'll be one of these things where I'll just kind
Speaker 1: of watch it. But yes, there is another settlement coming up,
Speaker 1: and I will of course keep you posted on that.
Speaker 1: But right now the old one is closed up. I
Speaker 1: believe the deadline was a couple of weeks ago because
Speaker 1: I did do a segment on it for News Nation,
Speaker 1: our national news program, and that was it was like
Speaker 1: the deadline was there. So but I will keep you
Speaker 1: posted on the new one. All right, I'm just getting
Speaker 1: right through these questions. We got so many. Veronica says,
Speaker 1: have you checked the app total av for Android users?
Speaker 1: It's three dollars. Please let me know if it's good.
Speaker 1: I watch Enjoy and try to use your good info. Gosh,
Speaker 1: I don't think you need this, Veronica. Total av does
Speaker 1: a really good job of advertising, and it's pretty clear
Speaker 1: because when you look through the websites, ninety nine percent
Speaker 1: of them are pretty much somehow related to total Av's website.
Speaker 1: So total av is you know it's there. I just
Speaker 1: don't think you need it on your mobile phone. I
Speaker 1: really don't. I mean Android devices. I mean, let's see,
Speaker 1: let's see features, and I've gone through this before, let's
Speaker 1: see applications. I just don't think. I think on your
Speaker 1: it's just really tough for me to recommend this, especially
Speaker 1: on iOS. You don't need it Android device. Make sure
Speaker 1: your phone is virus free, reclaim disk space and increased speed.
Speaker 1: I don't think you need to pay for that. So
Speaker 1: virus free. You probably don't have a virus on your
Speaker 1: Android unless you're downloading stuff from third party app stores
Speaker 1: which you know, or you're sideloading apps. And if you
Speaker 1: don't even know what those things mean, then you probably
Speaker 1: aren't going to get a virus. Reclaim disk space. You
Speaker 1: can use the free Google's Files app to do that.
Speaker 1: That will do it for free, so you don't need
Speaker 1: anything except that free thing, free app to do that
Speaker 1: increase speed. If you have a Samsung, you can just
Speaker 1: go through and they have like a little thing in
Speaker 1: the settings that will speed up your phone by kind
Speaker 1: of closing out all the apps, or you can just
Speaker 1: close out the apps, or you can just restart your
Speaker 1: phone and you'll probably do the same thing. So for
Speaker 1: all those reasons, I say, don't go with the total
Speaker 1: av I know it sounds like it's only three bucks,
Speaker 1: but I'm sure there's some bigger cell later on, so
Speaker 1: just don't worry about it. All right, We're gonna wrap
Speaker 1: up soon. Get through two more questions. Hey, Rich, any
Speaker 1: recommendations on portable instant photoprinters El Mikey vs. Okay, El
Speaker 1: mikey VS. This is funny. You asked this because my
Speaker 1: wife wants to get this from my kids for the holidays,
Speaker 1: and I'm kind of like, eh, I don't know. I mean, okay,
Speaker 1: So the one I tested a while back was called
Speaker 1: the HP Sprocket, and this is like one of those.
Speaker 1: There's a company named Zinc that came out many years ago.
Speaker 1: They were the ones who pioneered these portable printers, and
Speaker 1: I think that became the Sprocket And this is about
Speaker 1: eighty bucks, and they make two by three inch prints
Speaker 1: and I think some of them can be stickers. It's
Speaker 1: cool and it's like a small, tiny polaroid picture. And yeah,
Speaker 1: it's cool that you can stick it up. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure that you know, the teens and the tweens would
Speaker 1: probably like this, But I think that it's a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of nothing. I mean that the paper is expensive,
Speaker 1: the device itself is expensive, and how many times are
Speaker 1: you really going to print out these little stickers? So
Speaker 1: I think that that's something I would not recommend, but
Speaker 1: that's one option. The other option and this is something
Speaker 1: I actually think I would get and I might even
Speaker 1: get this from my kids is a Canon selfie printer
Speaker 1: and selfie not like the selfie you take but it's
Speaker 1: Selphy and these are about a hundred bucks and they're
Speaker 1: on sale, you know, because it's the holiday shopping season,
Speaker 1: and you know, the printer paper, I think you do
Speaker 1: need special paper, but it's not as expensive. But you
Speaker 1: can print from your phone, which is kind of cool,
Speaker 1: and I think it just gives you more options and
Speaker 1: of course there's more sizes of paper. I think it's
Speaker 1: a four x six or there might even be larger paper,
Speaker 1: but I think that is a better choice. It's a
Speaker 1: little bit more expensive, but I think the printer is
Speaker 1: more more flexible. Now I might even step it up
Speaker 1: a notch a little bit more and just go with
Speaker 1: a nice printer that can print photos. So like a
Speaker 1: nice Cannon printer or a nice HP printer that's highly
Speaker 1: rated that can handle prints up to like eight x twelve,
Speaker 1: because for me, that's what I you know, I started
Speaker 1: at what you were saying, like my wife's like, oh,
Speaker 1: let's just get one of these little photoprinters. I'm like, ah,
Speaker 1: let's go with the Cannon. Well that only does four
Speaker 1: by six. Let's go even bigger. Let's just go with
Speaker 1: a photoprinter, and that way I can print and I
Speaker 1: can finally put some new pictures in all these photo
Speaker 1: frames around my house that are just sitting here with
Speaker 1: pictures that are ancient or pictures that I never even
Speaker 1: bothered to replace from the factory. But I would recommend
Speaker 1: one of those. So, el mikey Vis, there you go.
Speaker 1: That's my recommendation for a instant photo printer. All right,
Speaker 1: I think we have time for one more. Let's uh,
Speaker 1: let's see Ca moon Forever rights buying myself a gift?
Speaker 1: Is it better to buy now or will prices get
Speaker 1: better after the holidays? And they sent a link to
Speaker 1: my Instagram story that I posted about Apple's Black Friday
Speaker 1: deals and Cyber Monday deals? Is it better to buy
Speaker 1: now or price? Prices will probably not get better on
Speaker 1: these things after the holidays. So specifically, Ca Moon Forever
Speaker 1: was looking at the Apple deals for their Apple Black
Speaker 1: Friday Cyber Monday deals, which goes the whole weekend, and
Speaker 1: what they're doing. Apple doesn't really discount their items, so
Speaker 1: they'll give you like a gift card in addition to
Speaker 1: your item. So some of the deals they have are
Speaker 1: fifty dollars if you buy an iPhone se and iPhone
Speaker 1: eleven or a ten R, twenty five dollars with an
Speaker 1: Apple Watch Series three, twenty five dollars with an air pods,
Speaker 1: one hundred bucks with an iPad pro or a Mini,
Speaker 1: and up to one fifty with a computer. So I'm
Speaker 1: assuming you're probably getting yourself a phone, maybe, but I
Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, I think that these are good
Speaker 1: but I think you can do better. I think that
Speaker 1: you can do if you look at some of the deals,
Speaker 1: Like let's say you want an iPhone twelve, which I
Speaker 1: highly recommend, I would just search like iPhone twelve deals
Speaker 1: and see if on Google, like I said earlier the news,
Speaker 1: and just see if you can get like a better deal,
Speaker 1: and I think you're gonna find. iPhone deals are always tough,
Speaker 1: especially on the new model, but and usually have to
Speaker 1: like switch lines or switch into a different carrier. But
Speaker 1: I think you know that that might be a better
Speaker 1: way to do it. Or if you want one of
Speaker 1: these that they're advertising, let's see iPhone se eleven or
Speaker 1: ten R, I'd maybe go with the eleven out of
Speaker 1: all those phones. But I think that you know, you'll
Speaker 1: just keep an eye out for deals on these iPhones
Speaker 1: if you If that's what you want for the other ones,
Speaker 1: I think again, just search. Sometimes these third party websites
Speaker 1: like a best buy or an Amazon actually have way
Speaker 1: better deals on Apple products than Apple themselves does. And
Speaker 1: with the competition very intense right now, most of the time,
Speaker 1: if Apple is offering like a twenty five dollars gift
Speaker 1: card with AirPods, you could probably find air prods for
Speaker 1: twenty five dollars less at some other retailer. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: there it is the music you know and love. That's
Speaker 1: gonna do it for this episode of the show. If
Speaker 1: you would like to submit a question for me to answer,
Speaker 1: just go to rich on tech dot tv hit the
Speaker 1: email button at the bottom of the page. Sure, you
Speaker 1: can write me on my Facebook page. You can DM
Speaker 1: me on my Instagram or reply to me on Twitter,
Speaker 1: but you know, the guaranteed way that I'm mostly gonna
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Speaker 1: social media at rich on tech. Come on follow me
Speaker 1: on Instagram. That's where I'm putting a lot of my
Speaker 1: effort these days, So spar I'm spending a lot of time.
Speaker 1: What else do I want to say to you? Have
Speaker 1: a fantastic weekend, happy shopping, don't buy anything that you
Speaker 1: don't really need. If you need advice on stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: try not to text me too much because I might
Speaker 1: be off my phone. I might be trying to detox
Speaker 1: from my phone on Saturday and Sunday. MY name is Richdimiro.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. Stay safe, I'll talk to
Speaker 1: you real soon