Speaker 1: Amazon ready to activate Sidewalk should you opt out? Warner
Speaker 1: Brothers going to release movies in a totally new way.
Speaker 1: Wise makes a twenty dollars smart watch. Plus your tech
Speaker 1: questions answered?
Speaker 2: What's going on?
Speaker 1: I'm Rich Dmurro and this is Rich on Tech, the
Speaker 1: podcast where I talk about the tech stuff I.
Speaker 2: Think you should know about.
Speaker 1: It's also the place where I answer the questions that
Speaker 1: you send me.
Speaker 2: Hope you're having a great day.
Speaker 1: Rich DeMuro with you tech reporter at KTLA Channel five
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. If you're listening for the first time, welcome.
Speaker 1: If you're listening for the one hundredth time, I'm sorry now,
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding. I always say that why am I
Speaker 1: so deprecating on this podcast is that the word I
Speaker 1: should have a list of words that I don't really
Speaker 1: know that I use in this podcast, because it happens
Speaker 1: often where I have to like look them up and
Speaker 1: be like, wait, did I mean that? So lots of
Speaker 1: things happening in the DeMuro house. It is the slide
Speaker 1: to the holidays. I've been very busy with all kinds
Speaker 1: of reviews and testing and this and that, but I
Speaker 1: did do something with my own home network. I did
Speaker 1: upgrade to Eero Pro six, so this is Euro's new
Speaker 1: It's basically their top of the line system that you know.
Speaker 1: I purchased this myself. This is not a test for
Speaker 1: you know TV. This is just something I wanted because
Speaker 1: it works with gigabit Internet, which is what I have
Speaker 1: at my house, and the Eero Pro six. I got
Speaker 1: a great deal because what they were doing was they
Speaker 1: were doing a trade in promotion where you got like
Speaker 1: twenty percent off if you traded in one of your
Speaker 1: old routers, and then they also had like a deal.
Speaker 1: It was like a Cyber Monday, Black Friday kind of deal.
Speaker 2: So I jumped on it. I got it. It's great
Speaker 2: the Internet.
Speaker 1: I guess access points whatever you call them, are enormous
Speaker 1: compared to the old ones, so there must be something
Speaker 1: better in there. But I will tell you with all that,
Speaker 1: my speed is still just okay. I mean I'm literally
Speaker 1: doing a speed test right now on my computer and
Speaker 1: it's coming in at eighty eight ninety two, ninety six
Speaker 1: ninety four out of a thousand, So I still have
Speaker 1: some work to do, clearly, and getting this thing set
Speaker 1: up and working. I think it has something to do
Speaker 1: with two things going on every time when I switch
Speaker 1: my routers out, I am. I have like a million
Speaker 1: devices here that all latch on, so I use the
Speaker 1: same Wi Fi network and password, and so I think
Speaker 1: there might be some device that's keeping things like from
Speaker 1: working properly.
Speaker 2: But I don't know.
Speaker 1: I gotta figure this out, because when I connect directly
Speaker 1: to my modem's it's totally getting me the gig. When
Speaker 1: I'm in my main room, it's getting about six hundred
Speaker 1: if I do a good speed test and then a
Speaker 1: sort as soon as I get away from it, it's
Speaker 1: getting less.
Speaker 2: So I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's just the makeup of my home that just
Speaker 1: doesn't lend itself to fast. But I want fast in
Speaker 1: every room, like I want exactly what I'm paying for
Speaker 1: in every room, and I'm just not getting it. So
Speaker 1: I need to figure out what's going on there. But anyway,
Speaker 1: the Eero Pro six is a good system overall. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've noticed that it's definitely a little bit more reliable
Speaker 1: than the old one I had, which was the old
Speaker 1: Eero Pro, like less lag and stuff like that. So
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to iron out the kinks here. But anyway,
Speaker 1: I will continue to test that, and so far, so good.
Speaker 1: I think overall, I love that on certain phones, like
Speaker 1: especially the Android phones that I've been testing. There's like
Speaker 1: a little Wi Fi six signal on the in the
Speaker 1: Wi Fi bar, which I thought was pretty cool.
Speaker 2: In the icon, I'm like, yeah, I'm on that Wi
Speaker 2: Fi six.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it means or why it's better,
Speaker 1: but it seems to be better, so that's kind of fun.
Speaker 1: The other thing I've been testing is this ring mailbox sensor.
Speaker 1: If you follow me on Twitter or I think that's
Speaker 1: where I posted it. I was so excited the day
Speaker 1: I set this thing up because it occurred to me
Speaker 1: that you can link your ring video doorbell and also
Speaker 1: this little ring mailbox sensor which is thirty dollars to
Speaker 1: your Alexa. Oh there she goes, she's lighting up, listening
Speaker 1: nothing for you today, right now, Alexa stand down please?
Speaker 2: Oh she did. When I said that, wow, the lights
Speaker 2: on off.
Speaker 1: I didn't know if that's an actual command, but I
Speaker 1: linked up the ring stuff and next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: when my mail get you put this little sensor in
Speaker 1: your mailbox and it you know, it just basically tells
Speaker 1: you when you get your mail delivered. And so you
Speaker 1: can get a notification on your phone or your Apple
Speaker 1: Watch if you got one of those. And you can
Speaker 1: also rig it so that your Alexa says whatever you want.
Speaker 1: And for me, I said, you've got mail, and I
Speaker 1: had to do you've and like I had to like
Speaker 1: write it in a different way, because you can't use
Speaker 1: any sort of punctuation, Like the apostrophe is not an
Speaker 1: acceptable character. So I spelled it like youve or something
Speaker 1: like that. And sure enough, when the mail gets delivered.
Speaker 1: Now I hear at a little chime in my office
Speaker 1: and it says you've got mail, and it's great. I mean,
Speaker 1: why would you not want that? I have been obsessed
Speaker 1: with mail my entire life. And there's people, Okay, there's
Speaker 1: two types of people in this world. People that are
Speaker 1: obsessed with the mail and people that don't care. So
Speaker 1: there are there's a group of people in America that
Speaker 1: when their mail is delivered, they look forward to it
Speaker 1: and they do go check it immediately or they check
Speaker 1: it pretty quickly. I've used to be like the immediate kind.
Speaker 1: Now I'm somewhere in the middle. I try to go
Speaker 1: like a week without checking if I can, But that's
Speaker 1: really really tough, but because I'm not really getting anything.
Speaker 1: I just like the idea of mail. I don't really
Speaker 1: get anything of substance, but except bills of course, which
Speaker 1: you know who.
Speaker 2: Wants to open those?
Speaker 1: But anyway, I've been loving that and i'll have that
Speaker 1: next week in Tech Smart on KTLA.
Speaker 2: I'll talk about that.
Speaker 1: The other thing that I've been oh, by the way,
Speaker 1: I love what Ring is doing. I mean, I'm going
Speaker 1: to talk about Amazon Sidewalk in a second, and you know,
Speaker 1: poo poo all over Ring, But but right now, I
Speaker 1: really love I think that there's two companies that are
Speaker 1: just doing such cool stuff, and one of them is Ring.
Speaker 1: When you go on their website and just look at
Speaker 1: how many products they have, it's like, whoa, you could
Speaker 1: outfit your entire house with all their stuff, and I
Speaker 1: kind of want to do that now. And then the
Speaker 1: other one is Why Is and I'll talk about them
Speaker 1: today in the show as well. Another app that I
Speaker 1: discovered this week was eXplorist, which I had not ever
Speaker 1: heard of, but it is an app that is on
Speaker 1: iPhone and Android and it's really cool. It's an app
Speaker 1: that sort of helps you discover cool places to take pictures.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure if you're a photographer, you've known all
Speaker 1: about this. But I'm not a big photographer, but now
Speaker 1: I want to be because I'm looking at this and
Speaker 1: it's just super super cool. So it's cool because it
Speaker 1: gives you locations that are nearby. So if you're in
Speaker 1: a city and you want to take all the coolest
Speaker 1: pictures you can when you start traveling again, right, I
Speaker 1: need a sound for this podcast, because that's why it feels.
Speaker 1: I did travel last weekend safely. Of course, we went
Speaker 1: to solving and it was a nightmare, honestly, Like I
Speaker 1: I it was the straw that broke the camel's back
Speaker 1: from me. Not that I'm traveling a lot, but I
Speaker 1: always have this idea of yeah, I could still do
Speaker 1: stuff like yeah, and no, I just it. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of people there and it was just not fun.
Speaker 1: It was like, you know, you had to eat outside
Speaker 1: in the freezing cold and this and that, and it's
Speaker 1: just it was not fun. It made me realize that
Speaker 1: I like my safe space here at home throughout this pandemic.
Speaker 1: This is where I've lived and I've nested, and I
Speaker 1: just like it because it's my place it's safe. I
Speaker 1: know what happens here, I know it comes, I know
Speaker 1: it goes, and it just it's where I can be
Speaker 1: who I want to be, which is a home by
Speaker 1: right now. And I have dreams of going out of
Speaker 1: the house, but then you get out and it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, the mask thing and the you know, the
Speaker 1: all the social distancing, and it's just not fun. It's
Speaker 1: like not the way we want our world to be.
Speaker 1: And yes, I do think you need to be safe,
Speaker 1: so of course, if you're out and about, you need
Speaker 1: to follow all those protocols. But it's exhausting, let's be honest.
Speaker 1: And so I just realized this weekend that it was
Speaker 1: just kind of exhausting and sad and I'd just rather
Speaker 1: be at home. And so that's where I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: staying from now on until these vaccines start to work
Speaker 1: on folks and whatever happens and these numbers go down.
Speaker 2: So anyway, all right, I'm done with all that.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Amazon sidewalk big story. Amazon sent out
Speaker 1: this email to folks probably about two weeks ago, maybe
Speaker 1: a week saying, Hey, we're gonna turn on sidewalk and
Speaker 1: by the way, it's gonna be on by default.
Speaker 2: Wait, what back up?
Speaker 1: What is sidewalk? What is what's going on here? And
Speaker 1: what does it involve? And here's the basic of sidewalk
Speaker 1: is that it's a new communications network that Amazon is
Speaker 1: sort of launching using their Ring and Echo products as
Speaker 1: the router. So if you imagine that this is a big,
Speaker 1: big Wi Fi network across the US, the routers are
Speaker 1: going to be these Echo and Ring products, and the
Speaker 1: Internet they're getting to put into these things is coming
Speaker 1: from your home internet. So what they're doing is they're
Speaker 1: taking just a little tiny bit of your home Internet
Speaker 1: and sort of rebroadcasting it to the whole crowd. And yes,
Speaker 1: they're doing this in a way that they say is safe,
Speaker 1: in private and encrypted, and they're only using a portion
Speaker 1: of your band with less than five hundred megabytes a month.
Speaker 1: And the benefit is that all of these Amazon devices
Speaker 1: and Tile devices at the beginning, and theoretically other smart
Speaker 1: home devices will always have a signal to latch onto
Speaker 1: no matter what.
Speaker 2: So let's just give an example.
Speaker 1: Let's say out on your front lawn, you have a
Speaker 1: ring smart light like one of these you know, these
Speaker 1: walkway lights that you know, you know, the typical way
Speaker 1: of setting it up. Right, You have to plug it in,
Speaker 1: turn it on, you have to open up the app
Speaker 1: on your phone, you have to connect, disconnect from your
Speaker 1: Wi Fi, connect directly to the Wi Fi on the device,
Speaker 1: or use Bluetooth, share your Wi Fi credentials with the device. Okay, disconnect, reconnect, disconnect, reconnect. Okay,
Speaker 1: finally it works. And now this little device is off
Speaker 1: on its own and it's connected to your Wi Fi
Speaker 1: and it works just fine until your Wi Fi goes out,
Speaker 1: and now you have to troubleshoot, and now this thing
Speaker 1: doesn't work anymore, it doesn't respond. So Amazon's idea is
Speaker 1: that if they can create this kind of super network
Speaker 1: called sidewalk that's just always pervasive in every network in
Speaker 1: every neighborhood. When you open up that same Ring app
Speaker 1: on your phone or Amazon app to set up a
Speaker 1: new device, it says.
Speaker 2: Oh, we see it. Is this your device right here?
Speaker 1: We can tell that it's proximity based with Bluetooth that
Speaker 1: it seems to be on your lawn.
Speaker 2: Is this yours? Okay?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 2: Or maybe a scanic QR code on it whatever to
Speaker 2: link it.
Speaker 1: Up, and they say okay, and magically it goes through
Speaker 1: the sidewalk network to sort of connect and exchange the
Speaker 1: information that it needs and all that stuff, and it says, okay,
Speaker 1: all set up. What that was easy. So that's one aspect.
Speaker 1: The other aspect is, you know, a couple months down
Speaker 1: the line, your Wi Fi goes down and this little
Speaker 1: ring light on your lawn, Sorry, can't work anymore because
Speaker 1: I have no connection to anything, and I don't really
Speaker 1: know how to reconnect because I can't get to your internet. Well,
Speaker 1: if sidewalk was around, it would just go, oh, Rich's
Speaker 1: Wi Fi is not working anymore. Let's latch onto this
Speaker 1: sidewalk network that we find here, and okay, let me
Speaker 1: go send it a notification to Rich, Hey this is
Speaker 1: not working. We need to reconnect. And then you go,
Speaker 1: oh interesting, okay cool, and or just self heals somehow,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: So that's a couple of the ways to use this.
Speaker 1: The other thing, and I think the one that Amazon
Speaker 1: is promoting a lot, is your pet has one of
Speaker 1: these tile trackers on it around their collar and next thing,
Speaker 1: you know, this that used to only work when someone's
Speaker 1: phone had Bluetooth nearby, can now latch onto this sidewalk
Speaker 1: network that theoretically is like everywhere now and wow, now
Speaker 1: you can find your devices or your pet anywhere. So
Speaker 1: that's another aspect. So if you want my thoughts on this,
Speaker 1: and I know that my thoughts are probably not the
Speaker 1: general thoughts, but I think it's pretty awesome. And yeah,
Speaker 1: you can sit there and say, Rich, I'm never listening
Speaker 1: to you again, because how dare you say that this
Speaker 1: is awesome? Because this sounds like an invasion of my privacy,
Speaker 1: and I get it, it does sound that way. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, what Amazon is trying
Speaker 1: to build here is actually pretty cool. It's a crowdsourced
Speaker 1: Wi Fi network that sort of goes anywhere and helps
Speaker 1: a lot of people. Now, yes, it helps their products
Speaker 1: the most, and theoretically or later on, they'll probably have
Speaker 1: other products that latch on, and Amazon may or may
Speaker 1: not charge these other products to latch onto this network
Speaker 1: that's being crowdsourced by our free internet. But I like
Speaker 1: the idea of my tile working everywhere. And I've had
Speaker 1: tiles in the past and I dropped them because I mean,
Speaker 1: I got rid of them because they're just not worth it.
Speaker 1: If if there's no phone in the area where your
Speaker 1: tile is It's just it's useless, and so what's the point.
Speaker 1: And with all these smart home stuff, I am deathly
Speaker 1: afraid of changing my Wi Fi password or network because
Speaker 1: all of my smart home devices will not follow through.
Speaker 1: Now if they were on this sidewalk thing. Guess what, Oh,
Speaker 1: you change your WiFi. You tell one time inside your
Speaker 1: app that you're changing your network credentials, and it says
Speaker 1: to all these little devices, oh, bing binging Rich changed
Speaker 1: all of his stuff here take it. And so, yes,
Speaker 1: there are privacy concerns. I get it, but I also
Speaker 1: see the benefit of this network. If it is robust
Speaker 1: and it is working in a big way, I think
Speaker 1: it's pretty darn cool. So with all that said, the
Speaker 1: main thing that a lot of the tech folks are
Speaker 1: having problems with is the fact that Amazon is turning
Speaker 1: on this network by default. And I take issue with
Speaker 1: that as well. But I see why they're doing it.
Speaker 1: They're doing it because they want to make sure as
Speaker 1: many products as possible are on board. Now, I mentioned
Speaker 1: it was Ring and Echo products. When it comes to
Speaker 1: the Ring side of things, it's this is the reason
Speaker 1: I did not show a video doorbell in my story
Speaker 1: on KTLA at all, it's because it doesn't affect the
Speaker 1: video doorbell for the broadcasting side of things, right, so
Speaker 1: the video doorbells are not going to be bridges, at
Speaker 1: least not now.
Speaker 2: And so the bridges.
Speaker 1: The things that are going to be broadcasting this network
Speaker 1: are the ring floodlights, so the things that are sort
Speaker 1: of like that you install on the side of your house.
Speaker 1: Those are the ones which not as many people have those,
Speaker 1: and also the spotlight cams. Then with the echo products,
Speaker 1: it is a lot. It's almost every echo that I
Speaker 1: know of. It's a lot of echo products which are everywhere.
Speaker 2: I mean, they have lots of echo.
Speaker 1: Even the little dot that I'm looking at right now
Speaker 1: would become a bridge, and this would broadcast this little
Speaker 1: low power network across my neighborhood. And you know what,
Speaker 1: I am going to stay on and I'm going to
Speaker 1: help this thing go because I kind of see the
Speaker 1: benefit of it and I kind of want to make
Speaker 1: it work. And so you know, you can disagree with
Speaker 1: me and say, Rich I'm opting out. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to do this, And I do agree that Amazon. I mean,
Speaker 1: they made the opt out instructions easy and clear, and
Speaker 1: they sent them to everyone, But give me a break.
Speaker 1: Ninety nine point nine percent of people that bought an
Speaker 1: Echo Dot for thirty bucks are not going to take
Speaker 1: the time to go into their Alexa app and switch
Speaker 1: this thing off. And Amazon knows that, and that's why
Speaker 1: they made this opt out and they said, oh, it's
Speaker 1: going to be on by default, by the way, And
Speaker 1: so I do take I do take issue with that.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, as a tech reporter, this
Speaker 1: is why I kind of, you know, made this a
Speaker 1: big deal on my social media and on KTLA and
Speaker 1: my other stations, because people need to know about this
Speaker 1: and they need to opt out if they're not comfortable.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying I'm not telling you whether you should
Speaker 1: be comfortable or not. I'm just telling you how I feel.
Speaker 1: And if you feel that same way, opt out. It's
Speaker 1: pretty easy. Just go into the app, open up your
Speaker 1: Alexa app, tap more, tap settings, tap account settings, tap
Speaker 1: Amazon Sidewalk, and switch it off and you're out if
Speaker 1: you don't want to be a part of it. But
Speaker 1: you know, if you do want to be a part
Speaker 1: of it. And this is you know, Amazon and all
Speaker 1: these tech companies, they try a lot of stuff, not
Speaker 1: all of it works. This may not take off. Who knows.
Speaker 1: As more of the mainstream media get gets word of this,
Speaker 1: you know, it'll probably blow up a little bit and
Speaker 1: people know about it and it'll be aware, and then
Speaker 1: maybe enough people will turn it off where it just
Speaker 1: doesn't work for Amazon and they'll have to figure out
Speaker 1: plan B. But we'll say they have enough products out
Speaker 1: there and enough people out there that won't really understand
Speaker 1: this that it may work and it will have some
Speaker 1: benefits and it will be free to people to use.
Speaker 1: I hope, I mean it can't. Could you imagine if
Speaker 1: they use our internet to power this thing and then
Speaker 1: end up charging for it. I mean, that would be
Speaker 1: a problem. But anyway, there you have that sidewalk now,
Speaker 1: you know. Let's get to our first question on the show.
Speaker 1: It is from Deborah. Deborah says, do you like Edge Browser?
Speaker 1: Is it compatible with Max? Chrome has been having issues,
Speaker 1: Safari has beach balls. I heard you were using it
Speaker 1: testing it out. Thanks Debra, Debra, you are correct. I
Speaker 1: have been using the Edge browser from Microsoft. In fact,
Speaker 1: it's what I'm looking at right now. And I never
Speaker 1: thought I would do this, but I did because Chrome
Speaker 1: was grinding to a halt on my MacBook, and it
Speaker 1: would do this weird thing where when I would first
Speaker 1: start up my MacBook and first start using Chrome, or
Speaker 1: actually just any time while I'm using it, it would just
Speaker 1: sort of freeze up and stop working, like literally just
Speaker 1: freeze and I couldn't do anything for about, you know,
Speaker 1: anywhere from ten seconds to thirty seconds. And it got
Speaker 1: pretty frustrating. And so I dealt with that for many,
Speaker 1: many months, and then I was like, okay, let me
Speaker 1: you know, and it's just slow. I can't do my
Speaker 1: WordPress posts in it. It's just really really slow. Checking
Speaker 1: email became so slow. Gmail inside Chrome became slow. I mean,
Speaker 1: how does that happen? Not very good? So I said,
Speaker 1: all right, you know what, and I tried Safari. And
Speaker 1: I like Safari because it's very fast, but I feel
Speaker 1: like it's limited with my extensions that I need. I
Speaker 1: need specific extensions that I use for my job, and
Speaker 1: I don't think I had all those. I'm not really
Speaker 1: sure because didn't really check it out. And so I said,
Speaker 1: you know what, let me check out Edge. Edge is
Speaker 1: kind of built on the same exact platform as Chrome.
Speaker 1: It's Microsoft, which is kind of weird. But honestly, I've
Speaker 1: been very impressed with other Microsoft products, like I've been
Speaker 1: using Outlook, I used OneDrive, I used I used Microsoft
Speaker 1: to Do and I'm kind of like, gosh, I feel
Speaker 1: like Microsoft's doing kind of a nice job of things,
Speaker 1: and so let me test this out. I downloaded it
Speaker 1: and it's been fast. It's been speedy. Yes, it is
Speaker 1: slowed down in certain aspects, like especially yesterday I was
Speaker 1: writing a blog post on word Press and it was
Speaker 1: it was pretty slow, but I'm beginning to think that's
Speaker 1: more of a word Press thing, and I, you know, anyway,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm gonna stick with it forever,
Speaker 1: but so far, I'm loving it and I think it's
Speaker 1: pretty great and I haven't missed anything from Chrome. The
Speaker 1: only thing is you do have to change your default
Speaker 1: browser to Google if you want that. The other feature
Speaker 1: I really like, that's kind of cool. When I open
Speaker 1: up a new tab, it gives me this cool new
Speaker 1: tab page, which is kind of fun. They try to
Speaker 1: like push MSN on me, which I'm like, ugh, these
Speaker 1: stories are so gross. They're like I call them lowest
Speaker 1: common LCD Lowest Common Denominator stories. They're like these headlines
Speaker 1: that are just so click Baity and whatever.
Speaker 2: Anyway, those are on there at the bottom. You can
Speaker 2: turn that off.
Speaker 1: But the other feature I really like is called Collections.
Speaker 1: And this is like this little thing on the side
Speaker 1: of your like a side tab window kind of thing
Speaker 1: where you can just drag like links in there and
Speaker 1: stuff like that, and it's really just cool. It's like
Speaker 1: a little like place to collect kind of like as
Speaker 1: you're web browsing things you want to remember, you can
Speaker 1: type in notes. That's been really fun and so anyway,
Speaker 1: I'll probably ditch it eventually, but for now, I'm loving
Speaker 1: Microsoft Edge. It's faster, it's cleaner, it's simpler. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: say it's cleaner, actually, but it is. It's just kind
Speaker 1: of working. So I never thought i'd see the day
Speaker 1: where I go back, go back in time to a
Speaker 1: Microsoft Internet browser. Okay, speaking of the future, Warner Brothers
Speaker 1: is just kind of blowing up Hollywood. It is totally
Speaker 1: changing the way that we see movies and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be pretty awesome next year. So Warner Brothers is going
Speaker 1: to release all of their new movies next year on
Speaker 1: HBO Max for a month and this is.
Speaker 2: Let's see before No, it's going to be just a month.
Speaker 1: So same day that you get the movie in the theater,
Speaker 1: it's going to come to HBO Max, which.
Speaker 2: Is really really cool.
Speaker 1: And I was trying to figure out if there's some
Speaker 1: sort of catch, like they were going to charge for
Speaker 1: the movie like Mulan, but no, it seems like they're
Speaker 1: literally just gonna put these movies on HBO Max, which
Speaker 1: makes the fifteen dollars a month that it that it
Speaker 1: costs like really worth it. And so here's the movies,
Speaker 1: the little things. Let's see I don't even know some
Speaker 1: of these movies, Tom and Jerry, Godzilla Versus Kong, Mortal Kombat,
Speaker 1: The Conjuring, Let's see Dune, that's gonna be a good one,
Speaker 1: Matrix four. So not every movie on here. I didn't
Speaker 1: mention everyone because I don't really know all of them.
Speaker 1: I don't really follow too many movies. But it just
Speaker 1: sounds awesome. I know they're doing wonder Woman. I talked
Speaker 1: about it that that's gonna be on Christmas Day, so
Speaker 1: I think it's really cool. So what they're doing is
Speaker 1: again they released the movie in the theater, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be on HBO Max for one month, and then it's
Speaker 1: gonna come off HBO Max and sort of go through
Speaker 1: what they call the the platform Windows or whatever. So
Speaker 1: it's gonna go to like, you know, Video on Demand
Speaker 1: and then Blu Ray and then finally make its way
Speaker 1: back to HBO Max eventually, or maybe be sold to
Speaker 1: like different products like you know who Hulu or are
Speaker 1: what's the other one?
Speaker 2: I subscribed to?
Speaker 1: All these things? There's so many now, Oh Netflix, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: remember Netflix? Remember that one. But I think it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: They're gonna do this for twenty twenty one. It's a
Speaker 1: one year plan. It's not you know, they're not doing
Speaker 1: it forever, so to say, but they're just gonna see
Speaker 1: how it works.
Speaker 2: And this will be a cool.
Speaker 1: Thing for consumers. And I am sad because I love
Speaker 1: the movie theater. I love movie theater popcorn, I love
Speaker 1: sitting there. But it's something we can't do, nor do
Speaker 1: I do as much as I'd like to do it.
Speaker 1: And so if I can watch these new movies at home,
Speaker 1: it's kind of fun. It's different, it's not the same,
Speaker 1: but there are some benefits to watching at home. And
Speaker 1: we will all see how much we like this in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. All right, Next question comes from Chris.
Speaker 1: Why does Apple Music? Apple keep putting music in my
Speaker 1: music from a certain artist? You too, I delete it
Speaker 1: every time, but their music keeps coming into my music
Speaker 1: when I play my music shuffled. I've never downloaded any
Speaker 1: of their music. I don't really care for them. As
Speaker 1: far as I can see, I'm not being charged for
Speaker 1: the download. I'm just curious why music was added to
Speaker 1: my music. Great podcast, Keep up the good work.
Speaker 2: PS.
Speaker 1: I get your newsletter, but sporadically, Chris, Well, Chris, to
Speaker 1: answer your newsletter question, I do that usually every other week,
Speaker 1: and so it may seem sporadic. And sometimes if I'm
Speaker 1: off on that Friday when i'm doing it, I'm you know,
Speaker 1: I don't do it, or I'm away for the weekend.
Speaker 2: But thank you for the newsletter.
Speaker 1: You can subscribe at richon tech dot substack dot com.
Speaker 1: It's free and it's it's pretty much this podcast. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know what I talk about, what I think you
Speaker 1: should know about, just kind of in text. Okay, to
Speaker 1: answer your question about you two, this was a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago. I mean, Chris, you're kind of a
Speaker 1: little bit behind on this one. But you two performed
Speaker 1: at an Apple event many years ago which I happen
Speaker 1: to be at. They were at Oh my gosh, this
Speaker 1: was in twenty fourteen, and I was there and I
Speaker 1: remember they said, and now you two is up on
Speaker 1: stage and wow, okay, boom YouTube performs, which is kind
Speaker 1: of cool. And then they said, and by the way,
Speaker 1: we are gifting everyone their latest album in their Apple
Speaker 1: Music You open your iPhone and boom, it's magically there.
Speaker 1: And I'll admit I never really listened to it, and
Speaker 1: I didn't really care for it, but whatever, I mean,
Speaker 1: it was fine.
Speaker 2: A lot of people like you too. I mean, I
Speaker 2: like a lot of their music. I just don't seek
Speaker 2: it out per se.
Speaker 1: But the album it irked a lot of people saying, hey,
Speaker 1: how dare you put this in my music collection. Well,
Speaker 1: they had a way to get rid of it. They
Speaker 1: had like this little tool that you can use to
Speaker 1: get rid of it, and they they got rid of
Speaker 1: the tool like a couple of years ago, and so
Speaker 1: you can no longer use this tool to get it
Speaker 1: out of your collection. So what you have to do
Speaker 1: if you really want to get rid of this, Chris,
Speaker 1: is contact Apple Music Support or Apple Support and they
Speaker 1: will help you get it out of your collection. No,
Speaker 1: you can't get rid of it by deleting it. It's
Speaker 1: just there forever.
Speaker 2: And let me see. I'm gonna open up my.
Speaker 1: iTunes or what's it called Apple Music now, the music app,
Speaker 1: and let's see.
Speaker 2: Do I still have my library albums?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: There it is the first thing in my.
Speaker 1: First thing in my album in my library is YouTube
Speaker 1: songs of Innocence.
Speaker 2: And I don't know how to get rid of it.
Speaker 2: Delete from library. Let's see what happens.
Speaker 1: Are you sure you'd like to hide this item? This
Speaker 1: item will be hidden from your iTunes purchases.
Speaker 2: Hide Boom.
Speaker 1: Okay, it's gone, all right, so just do that. You
Speaker 1: don't have to contact Apple if it comes back. It
Speaker 1: comes back, But it seems like it's gone. Seems like
Speaker 1: all you have to do is hide it. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: not there anymore. So just go into your iTunes press
Speaker 1: hide album, and boom, it's hidden forever.
Speaker 2: All right. Now.
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier that I love Whyse. I really really
Speaker 1: like what Wyse is doing. I think that they're just
Speaker 1: it's really really doing a great job with their products.
Speaker 1: I think they work really nicely, and I love the
Speaker 1: integration with Google. So they are coming out with a
Speaker 1: twenty dollars smart watch, twenty dollars smart watch with a
Speaker 1: nine day battery life. It's called the Wise Watch. It
Speaker 1: comes in two sizes. It does most of the things
Speaker 1: that you need a smart watch to do, including blood
Speaker 1: oxygen monitoring, heart rate tracking. It's got water and dust resistance.
Speaker 1: It's got your activity tracking, it's got sleep tracking. It
Speaker 1: works with Google Fit and Apple Health, and it will
Speaker 1: also let you control the Wise products from your wrist,
Speaker 1: so that's cool. It works with notifications. It's got all
Speaker 1: the apps that it works with, so you can get
Speaker 1: the notifications you need on your wrist. And this is
Speaker 1: coming in February. I emailed Wise immediately. I said, you
Speaker 1: got to get me on this list. You got to
Speaker 1: extend me one of these things as soon as it's available,
Speaker 1: because I'm going to get a bazillion questions about it.
Speaker 1: They said, sure, So I should be get this thing,
Speaker 1: hopefully early next year. It's shipping in February. Pre Orders
Speaker 1: are open now. You know, I find pre orders to
Speaker 1: be a tricky thing for the average consumer. I am
Speaker 1: I am privileged in the fact that I can get
Speaker 1: things before a lot of people and test them out
Speaker 1: and form opinions on them before a lot of people
Speaker 1: have to pony up their actual hard earned cash. Now
Speaker 1: that's part of my job, so I mean, that's what
Speaker 1: I do. And it's a good thing at the end
Speaker 1: of the day for consumers because you know, I can
Speaker 1: tell you what you think in that timeframe of the
Speaker 1: pre order. Now, with a lot of pre orders, it's
Speaker 1: tricky because you're buying stuff sight onseen and with something
Speaker 1: like the Wise Watch, now it's twenty bucks, so it's
Speaker 1: not that much money. And if you bought it and
Speaker 1: you hated it, yeah, you just return the thing, or
Speaker 1: even at the very worst, you know, give it to
Speaker 1: a friend, or you lost twenty dollars if you just
Speaker 1: stomp on it and say, this is the worst thing
Speaker 1: I've ever spent my money on.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's gonna happen, but you know it could.
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 1: Twenty dollars pretty amazing. We need a good, cheap smart watch.
Speaker 1: I reviewed one earlier this year called the Let's Fit,
Speaker 1: which was decent. I like their headphones a lot better.
Speaker 1: The watch was just okay. But so far I've not
Speaker 1: come across a good, good, good alternative to the Apple Watch,
Speaker 1: and this might be it. I don't think it's gonna
Speaker 1: be the end all, but as an alternative, it's a
Speaker 1: pretty good thing for twenty dollars that you know, a
Speaker 1: lot of people just want to track their steps.
Speaker 2: They want to you know. I mean, it does blood.
Speaker 1: Oxygen, does heart rate. I mean, they've got some good
Speaker 1: stuff on here. So the main thing it does not have,
Speaker 1: and why it would probably be a deal breaker for me,
Speaker 1: is that it does not have GPS tracking. They were
Speaker 1: not clear if it's going to have excuse me, if
Speaker 1: it's gonna have GPS tracking with your watch nearby or
Speaker 1: your phone nearby, which is how fippits the cheap ones.
Speaker 2: Do it there.
Speaker 1: I would assume that'd be the case, but it may
Speaker 1: not be. So I'm trying to remember with the the
Speaker 1: Wyse band, which is twenty five dollars, how they did it.
Speaker 1: I think I gotta see if I gotta try that
Speaker 1: again and see what happens.
Speaker 2: But I don't know. We'll see.
Speaker 1: It looks nice and hopefully I think the thing that
Speaker 1: will set this apart is the software. So a lot
Speaker 1: of these cheap smart watches you get the software is
Speaker 1: just terrible. Makes for a bad experience. Whys you know
Speaker 1: it's crafted up in Seattle. So if it's a good
Speaker 1: experience and good software, maybe it will kind of put
Speaker 1: this thing above some of these cheap things and they
Speaker 1: can have a really good watch at a very inexpensive price.
Speaker 1: So wise watch. Continue to kind of keep track of
Speaker 1: that one and just see how it progresses, because I
Speaker 1: have high hopes for it.
Speaker 2: We'll see how it does, all right.
Speaker 1: David says, do you have any hacks for stopping spam texts?
Speaker 1: I used to get a lot of spam calls. For
Speaker 1: some reason, they've dropped off, but now I'm getting a
Speaker 1: lot of spam texts all hours of the night.
Speaker 2: Is there an answer? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Spam text, spam calls, it's a problem. My wife gets
Speaker 1: so many of these spam calls. I get a couple,
Speaker 1: not as many as you think for someone that I
Speaker 1: feel like I've had my phone number for a long time,
Speaker 1: and I you know, I don't know, I don't get
Speaker 1: that many. Even spam texts, I don't get that many.
Speaker 1: So if you're getting a lot of these things, I
Speaker 1: would recommend two things. Number one, if you have an iPhone,
Speaker 1: you can turn on a filter that's called filter messages
Speaker 1: from unknown senders, and that I believe is let's see,
Speaker 1: is that inside the phone app could be inside the
Speaker 1: phone Let's see. Okay, So go into messages and it
Speaker 1: says filter onknown senders.
Speaker 2: Just flip that on.
Speaker 1: And the only thing I don't like about this is
Speaker 1: that there's they put these into a new tab in
Speaker 1: your messages, your I Messages app, and it's kind of
Speaker 1: like you forget about these things because sometimes some of
Speaker 1: these things do go into the unknown folder and it's
Speaker 1: from people that you actually do want to talk to.
Speaker 1: So I think, you know, they're using their serious smarts
Speaker 1: to kind of identify numbers that you've never done any
Speaker 1: business with or that have never appeared in your email.
Speaker 2: So it should work a.
Speaker 1: Majority of the time, but it's not always going to
Speaker 1: be perfect. Just know that going into this. The other thing,
Speaker 1: if you're an Android, I would recommend using the Google
Speaker 1: Messages app. They've got spam filtering built into their messages
Speaker 1: app and it's Google, so they're smart and googly and
Speaker 1: so that should work pretty well on the Android side
Speaker 1: of things. And that is the Google Messages app just
Speaker 1: because you have a messages app on your phone, it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean it's the Google one. It might be Samsung's,
Speaker 1: it might be a third party. But if you want,
Speaker 1: you can switch to the Google one and get their
Speaker 1: spam protection and it is built right in and it's free.
Speaker 2: So that's what I'd recommend. David, good luck with the spam.
Speaker 1: This is a really cool feature that is coming to
Speaker 1: the Amazon Fire TV Cube. It's it's limited, but I
Speaker 1: still want to talk about it because I still think
Speaker 1: it's like, we need this, especially with this pandemic going on.
Speaker 1: Everyone's doing video calls. Well, Fire TV cube second generation
Speaker 1: Fire TV cubes can now accommodate a webcam, and so
Speaker 1: what does that mean you can use I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: look up how much a fire TV cube is. You
Speaker 1: can use a webcam on your TV, which means you
Speaker 1: can make video calls on your TV, which I've been
Speaker 1: waiting for forever. No one seems to have figured this
Speaker 1: out in a big way. Oh wow, Fire TV Cube
Speaker 1: is eighty bucks. I thought this was more like one twenty,
Speaker 1: but eighty dollars. Oh used to be one twenty right
Speaker 1: now it's eighty I might actually buy one of these
Speaker 1: things from my mom right now, because I want to
Speaker 1: do this. I want her to have a webcam on
Speaker 1: her TV. If she's okay with it. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: I get it. It's a little privacy insensitive because you've
Speaker 1: got a you know, a camera staring at you on
Speaker 1: your TV all day. But you can get one with
Speaker 1: a little slider thing that you know, covers up the lens.
Speaker 1: You don't feel like big brother's watching you all day.
Speaker 1: But you plug the webcam into the back of the
Speaker 1: into the back of the fire TV cube. It says, oh,
Speaker 1: you plugged in a webcam. Here, let's set up video
Speaker 1: came and you can video call in a couple different ways.
Speaker 2: The main way that it seems.
Speaker 1: You can do it is through the Alexa, their own
Speaker 1: sort of homegrown video calling. And this means that anyone
Speaker 1: on the other end that has the Alexa Alexa stop.
Speaker 2: I gotta do that.
Speaker 1: Oh she really likes to listen, so anyway, Alexa stand down.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, she really okay.
Speaker 1: Remind me to she goes, I'm not guarding your home.
Speaker 1: Remind me to turn off. I gotta press the microphone
Speaker 1: mute on there next time. Anyway, I'll try not to
Speaker 1: say her name anymore. Anyway, you plug in the webcam
Speaker 1: and you can call someone with this app, so all
Speaker 1: they need is the app on their phone and you'd
Speaker 1: be able to call them, which is pretty cool, so
Speaker 1: you don't have to like you know, most people have
Speaker 1: like an Amazon account, so they can just sign in
Speaker 1: through that use it on their phone, or if you
Speaker 1: have an Echo device like one of their Echo display devices,
Speaker 1: it'll work through that. And hopefully as this thing gets
Speaker 1: more robust, you'll be able to do more things like
Speaker 1: maybe use Skype or maybe use Zoom and call anyone
Speaker 1: that way. But anyway, it's very early stage. It's not
Speaker 1: very simple. I don't think this is going to be
Speaker 1: the end all with this, but I think it's cool
Speaker 1: to have this as an option because it's pretty much,
Speaker 1: I think, at this point, the most inexpensive option for
Speaker 1: adding video calling to your TV eighty dollars plus a webcam,
Speaker 1: which is probably they gave a list of them that works,
Speaker 1: but could probably maybe get one for you anywhere from
Speaker 1: fifty to one hundred bucks. And yes it's expensive, but
Speaker 1: it's still a nice solution. And I think the problem
Speaker 1: with all of these solutions are that is it something
Speaker 1: that someone that is not very tech savvy can sign
Speaker 1: up for and set up.
Speaker 2: Probably not, but it's a step in the right direction.
Speaker 1: And this is what makes it so complicated, because I
Speaker 1: want to set this up for my mom today because
Speaker 1: it's so much easier to just video call on the couch,
Speaker 1: But you know that would require me flying home to
Speaker 1: New Jersey, breaking all the rules, meeting with my mom,
Speaker 1: who I don't want to put at risk, and setting
Speaker 1: this thing up, and I just can't do that. So
Speaker 1: it's like this catch twenty two situation we're in right now,
Speaker 1: where we're getting these things that can help us communicate
Speaker 1: during this pandemic, but it's really tough to set up
Speaker 1: for the people that need them the most, which is
Speaker 1: people like my mom that I live far away from
Speaker 1: that I want to stay in touch with, but I
Speaker 1: can't go there to set this up for her, and
Speaker 1: she's not doing herself. You need a compatible webcam, a
Speaker 1: micro USB to USB adapter, and your fire TV cube.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, okay, hey, Mom, just pull that micro USB
Speaker 1: to USB adapter you got laying in the drawer there. No,
Speaker 1: of course she doesn't have that, nobody has that. I do,
Speaker 1: actually do I have micro USB to USB. Probably not,
Speaker 1: that's yeah, I probably don't have that if I can
Speaker 1: order it from Amazon. Kind of cool though. I love
Speaker 1: the idea of video chatting on the TV. Also, the
Speaker 1: other aspect I like of this is that you don't
Speaker 1: have to switch inputs. Uses a fire TV stick, I
Speaker 1: would just switch her to the cube and now when
Speaker 1: I video call, it's just like while she's watching TV boom,
Speaker 1: video call incoming. How neat is that you don't have
Speaker 1: to switch inputs, whereas with something like a standalone device,
Speaker 1: like if you somehow created a webcam that sat on
Speaker 1: your TV that was able to plug into the HDMI,
Speaker 1: you'd still have the issue of changing HDMI inputs. It
Speaker 1: wasn't it wouldn't always be on and ready to go
Speaker 1: to receive calls, because you know, even if the thing
Speaker 1: physically or visual visually, even if the thing made an
Speaker 1: audible ring. I mean, how many people are techy enough
Speaker 1: to like run over to their TV, pick up the remote,
Speaker 1: change to a different input.
Speaker 2: No, it's just not gonna work. It's not. It's not
Speaker 2: slick enough to do that.
Speaker 1: And so for this reason, these devices like the Apple TV,
Speaker 1: the Fire TV Roku, where are you Roku, Are you listening.
Speaker 1: You need to let people connect a webcam to your
Speaker 1: device because they need to be able to see the
Speaker 1: fact that video calls are incoming on their TV screen
Speaker 1: so they can answer them on their TV screen. Nobody
Speaker 1: is switching an input to take a video call. It's
Speaker 1: just not happening. It's never going to happen. So again,
Speaker 1: I get it. There are ways of doing this, but
Speaker 1: you need to make it easy for the average person
Speaker 1: so that they can answer a call. The things we
Speaker 1: take for granted that just are very complicated for people
Speaker 1: that are not Techi. All right, let's see, Elaine says.
Speaker 1: I'm a senior that listens to your broadcasts on TV.
Speaker 1: I use a Dell computer and an iPhone seven. I'd
Speaker 1: like to buy a tablet, not an Apple, and would
Speaker 1: like your device on what to buy many thanks Elaine.
Speaker 2: Elaine.
Speaker 1: If you don't want to buy a tablet that's Apple,
Speaker 1: which I'm not sure why, I don't know, I would
Speaker 1: recommend the Amazon Fire HD ten. Well, I'll recommend two.
Speaker 1: I'll actually recommend three. Amazon Fire HG ten. I think
Speaker 1: overall is going to be your best bang for your buck.
Speaker 1: It is a nice, big tablet and it's uh, you know,
Speaker 1: a nice big screen. It's relatively inexpensive. It's one hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty nine dollars, which is kind of expensive for
Speaker 1: how much it was during Black Friday sales. It's gone
Speaker 1: down to ninety dollars. So I would say it sells
Speaker 1: a lot at one nineteen, so i'd look for that price.
Speaker 1: And it has gone down to ninety over and over
Speaker 1: and over.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's use pricing. I don't want use pricing. That's terrible.
Speaker 2: I just want new okay, just new pricing.
Speaker 1: M Yeah, new pricing. It's gone down to one nineteen,
Speaker 1: so just look for one nineteen. That's that's the target
Speaker 1: price you want. I'm using an app called kipa k
Speaker 1: e e p A on It's an extension that plugs
Speaker 1: in and it gives you the pricing history on Amazon.
Speaker 2: I would I would do.
Speaker 1: That if you can. Honey does price history as well.
Speaker 1: Let's see what they say. They say, Yeah, one nineteen
Speaker 1: has been about the price. So that's the price you
Speaker 1: want to look for. That's the target one hundred and
Speaker 1: nineteen bucks. No problem recommending that. It sounds pretty good.
Speaker 1: It does what you need. The only thing is You're
Speaker 1: not gonna have access to all the Google apps easily,
Speaker 1: and so if you're looking for something like Gmail or
Speaker 1: Chrome or Apple or Google Maps, you're just not gonna
Speaker 1: be able to install those easily. Yes, they can be installed,
Speaker 1: not easily. And if you're telling me you're not very techy, oh,
Speaker 1: you didn't say you're not very techy. You just said
Speaker 1: you're a senior that listens.
Speaker 2: So I don't know. Maybe you are techie, but you
Speaker 2: don't want Apple.
Speaker 1: So the next one i'd recommend is probably the maybe
Speaker 1: a Samsung.
Speaker 2: I think it's the A seven tablet.
Speaker 1: I would recommend that one, which is going to give
Speaker 1: you easy access to the Google apps because it does
Speaker 1: have Google Play. And at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I'd say you're best served by going with the gold
Speaker 1: standard of tablets, which is an iPad three hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty nine dollars for the iPad ten point two latest generation,
Speaker 1: which is I believe the eighth generation three hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty nine dollars and many, many times you can find
Speaker 1: it cheaper if you just go on Google and just
Speaker 1: type you know, iPad and deals and yeah, ten point
Speaker 1: two inch iPad goes down to two ninety nine very often,
Speaker 1: especially on on Amazon. And why I say that is
Speaker 1: because look, Apple invented the tablet.
Speaker 2: It is the best. You can't get better than an
Speaker 2: Apple tablet.
Speaker 1: If you want something that's going to last the longest,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be the most compatible with every app out there,
Speaker 1: It's gonna have the best selection of apps, the best accessories.
Speaker 2: Go with the iPad.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit more expensive, but you will get
Speaker 1: your money's worth over the long term because you already
Speaker 1: use an iPhone, so it's gonna it's gonna have some
Speaker 1: synergies with that. But I would say go with that.
Speaker 1: If you know, if you're very basic and all you
Speaker 1: want is something that's simple and you know whatever, no frills,
Speaker 1: go with the Amazon Fire HD. But if you want
Speaker 1: something that's going to give you the least headaches, I
Speaker 1: think the iPad is going to do that. And I
Speaker 1: had a person email or tweet me and said they're
Speaker 1: still using their original original iPad from I mean, how
Speaker 1: many years ago did the iPad come out. It's got
Speaker 1: to be you know, ten years. Maybe I don't know,
Speaker 1: something something wild like that. Yeah, I was working at
Speaker 1: tech Meme, so I think it was ten years, at
Speaker 1: least ten years. I've been at KTLA for ten years
Speaker 1: and tech Meme was before that, so ten years. I
Speaker 1: remember sitting there watching the unveiling of the tablet. I
Speaker 1: was not at the event, and Steve Jobs on stage
Speaker 1: and just you know, this tablet came out and I
Speaker 1: just thought to myself, Oh my gosh, they've done it again.
Speaker 1: They have changed the world one more time. They did
Speaker 1: it with the iPhone, now they're doing it with the tablet.
Speaker 1: And I remember going out and buying that immediately. It
Speaker 1: was this big honkin' thick tablet that just was like
Speaker 1: a slab of like thick bezel glass and thick aluminum
Speaker 1: on the back that was like kind of brushed. I
Speaker 1: feel like I can't I'm trying to remember if it
Speaker 1: was like a brush like almost like a little grittier
Speaker 1: than the slick.
Speaker 2: Stuff they used today.
Speaker 1: But it was just so big and thick, and like
Speaker 1: this thing was like massive, and it was expensive and
Speaker 1: it just you know, now it was like super slow.
Speaker 2: I wonder if I kept that tablet. I probably have
Speaker 2: it somewhere here.
Speaker 1: But anyway, Uh, it's just it's come a long way
Speaker 1: and it's just still the best. They've just continued to
Speaker 1: perfect it. And if you want a tablet, the iPad
Speaker 1: is still the best tablet out there. Oh, speaking of nostalgia,
Speaker 1: Google play Music is dead. It's officially dead. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna harp on this too much, but I have a
Speaker 1: fond spot in my heart for Google play Music because
Speaker 1: it was the music app of my choice for many,
Speaker 1: many years. And I switched to YouTube Music when the
Speaker 1: writing was on the wall that this was going away.
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you the one reason, the one reason
Speaker 1: why I used Google play Music over anything else was
Speaker 1: a single playlist from Songza and the playlist was called
Speaker 1: drum roll Please blogged fifty the most buzzed about tracks
Speaker 1: from the worlds of pop, R and B, hip hop,
Speaker 1: electronic and indie. And the reason I loved blog fifty
Speaker 1: is because I felt like I was so cool knowing
Speaker 1: about every major popular song before anyone else in the world,
Speaker 1: and this was my secret way of figuring them out.
Speaker 1: I knew every song from every artist before anyone else
Speaker 1: knew about it. And why because I just listened to
Speaker 1: this blog fifty and it was what it is and
Speaker 1: it still is. It's still around, it still lives on
Speaker 1: in YouTube music, but Blogged fifty looks at what all
Speaker 1: the bloggers are writing about on all these things, like
Speaker 1: remember I ever hear of like Pitchfork. I don't even
Speaker 1: understand what Pitchfork is saying when they write posts about things.
Speaker 1: It's like it just does. It's not even written in
Speaker 1: English to me. But yet somehow they know about the
Speaker 1: hot new artists that are coming out, and it's like
Speaker 1: Pitchfork and stuff like that. They look at all their
Speaker 1: posts and then they come up with this playlist and
Speaker 1: you know, it's just the playlist that for me define
Speaker 1: music for so many years. I've gotten a little way
Speaker 1: from it because now I listen to mostly country music
Speaker 1: and thanks to my wife, and now I know every
Speaker 1: country artist, and I just have gotten away from like
Speaker 1: the Jenny Lewises of the world, and I'm looking through
Speaker 1: their playlist. BTS is on there, Megan the Stallion, Like
Speaker 1: no idea, who that is? Miley Cyrus, I know who
Speaker 1: that is, The Weekend, I know who that is. Rico,
Speaker 1: Nasty Goodie Mob, Oh my gosh, I can't believe they're
Speaker 1: still around because Goodie Mob.
Speaker 2: Funny story.
Speaker 1: Many many years ago, I was at USC covering stuff
Speaker 1: for the newspaper, and Goodie Mob invited me to their
Speaker 1: show at the House of Blues, and this was pretty
Speaker 1: much the first like thing I was ever invited to
Speaker 1: as a journalist, and I thought I was so cool.
Speaker 1: I'm at the Goodie Mob show at the House of Blues.
Speaker 1: Goodie Mob not necessarily my type of music personally, but
Speaker 1: it was still really awesome to be a part of this.
Speaker 1: And after the show, the guys come up to me
Speaker 1: and they're like, hey, you want to go come party
Speaker 1: with us? And I was like no, and I like
Speaker 1: ran away because I was like so scared because here
Speaker 1: I am, this little college kid who had no idea
Speaker 1: what Hollywood was all about. Was like literally just off
Speaker 1: the plane from New Jersey, and I'm so scared of
Speaker 1: everything in Los Angeles and I'm like.
Speaker 2: Uh, no ah, sorry, i can't party with old people.
Speaker 1: These people in Goodie Mob at the time were probably
Speaker 1: like twenty five, They're probably three years older than me.
Speaker 1: And I was so like intimidated. I was such a
Speaker 1: little loser. Oh gosh. And now, of course I'd be like, yes,
Speaker 1: oh heck yeah, let me. Where are you going? What
Speaker 1: kind of cool Hollywood Hills party? Are we going to
Speaker 1: let me absorb it all and see what it's all like?
Speaker 1: And I was so, oh my gosh, so timid, and
Speaker 1: so what what a difference a couple of years and
Speaker 1: some experience makes. Right Now, I just say yes to everything,
Speaker 1: and it somehow sometimes backfires. Anyway, That's why I that's
Speaker 1: why I used Google play Music for so many years,
Speaker 1: and now I've tried Spotify. I also have a subscription
Speaker 1: to Apple Music, and you know, I use them for
Speaker 1: different things. Apple Music mainly for my watch, and I
Speaker 1: talked about how I got away from it, but I
Speaker 1: ended up breaking down and getting it again because of
Speaker 1: various things.
Speaker 2: And also my wife. I hate to you know.
Speaker 1: Anyway, it's a whole big thing. But anyway, so I'm
Speaker 1: paying for Apple Music again.
Speaker 2: And that's it.
Speaker 1: So you Google music, Google play Music is dead. It's
Speaker 1: now YouTube music.
Speaker 2: And there you have.
Speaker 1: It, all right, let's see, Oh, speaking of playing paying
Speaker 1: for music, Hi, Rich, I'm a regular listener of the
Speaker 1: podcast from Faraway New Jersey, represent Jersey, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: from there. I enjoy listening to reviews and tech answers.
Speaker 1: I was listening to the November thirteenth podcast and appreciated
Speaker 1: how you started out expressing that you understand we are
Speaker 1: in difficult financial times for many Americans. However, I feel
Speaker 1: it was a bit insensitive when you called out the
Speaker 1: uber driver that doesn't pay five dollars a month for Pandora. Yes,
Speaker 1: five dollars is not much, but you don't know the
Speaker 1: financial situation of this person or what this person may
Speaker 1: be doing with that five dollars, maybe paying down credit
Speaker 1: card debt, maybe giving it to charity. I think young
Speaker 1: people are being targeted by companies with messages of just
Speaker 1: a few dollars a month, and as you know, it
Speaker 1: adds up quickly. I think a better message would be
Speaker 1: to give the uber driver props for saying no at
Speaker 1: some point to monthly fees. Just thought i'd share my
Speaker 1: thoughts and perspectives. Thanks for doing what you do and
Speaker 1: making it easy to connect, Chris. Chris, I one hundred percent,
Speaker 1: one hundred percent understand where you're coming from. And yes,
Speaker 1: maybe my privilege was just showing through my words, and
Speaker 1: I totally understand what you're saying. And it's interesting because
Speaker 1: I was there when I was you know, coming up
Speaker 1: through the business. I was broke for many, many, many years,
Speaker 1: and I can still tell you exactly what that feels like.
Speaker 1: I still am scared every day of you know, where
Speaker 1: I'm going to get my next meal, where I'm going
Speaker 1: to you know, how I'm gonna pay for this, How
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pay for that. It's also one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why I found Dave Ramsey in my life and
Speaker 1: made it my lifelong goal to not be beholden to
Speaker 1: debt and credit cards and companies that just love to
Speaker 1: get you on this monthly payment. And I guess that's
Speaker 1: why I don't see the five dollars a month these
Speaker 1: days as so much of a big deal, because I
Speaker 1: know I can stop it at any time. And I
Speaker 1: always say, if I was, you know, unemployed tomorrow, I
Speaker 1: would Spotify's going, YouTube Music is going, every tiny little subscription,
Speaker 1: HBO Max. It's been nice knowing you, and it's happened
Speaker 1: before to me. You know, I have been I have
Speaker 1: been laid off twice in my life and I have
Speaker 1: left a job once. And so I've been working for
Speaker 1: you know, twenty years, and in those twenty years, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's been some ups and downs, and I totally totally
Speaker 1: get it, and it's not something I talk about all
Speaker 1: the time. But believe me, I am very cognizant of
Speaker 1: you know, financial situations of people. And it's a reason
Speaker 1: why I don't like to judge folks for what they do.
Speaker 2: And how they choose to do things.
Speaker 1: And maybe I was going off a little bit on
Speaker 1: a tangent with that five dollars a month for Pandora,
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking back to what I said, and I
Speaker 1: was kind of being a little flippant, I think, And
Speaker 1: so you're right, you know what, I will happily, happily
Speaker 1: listen to the ads the next time I'm in someone's
Speaker 1: car or in a hair studio where they're cutting my hair,
Speaker 1: and you know, I hear ads come up on Pandora.
Speaker 1: You know what, Chris, you are right, And who is
Speaker 1: it for me? You know, who's it for me to
Speaker 1: judge someone who may not be doing as well as
Speaker 1: I am. And so you know what, and no matter
Speaker 1: where you are on any level, that should be the case.
Speaker 1: And so believe me, I ate rice and beans and
Speaker 1: beans and rice for many years of my life, and
Speaker 1: the ninety nine cent pizzas and the free food. You know,
Speaker 1: I used to go to these events and if there
Speaker 1: was free food. It was like the most amazing thing
Speaker 1: of my life, you know, as a journalist, and it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: what kind of cheap free eats can I have? And
Speaker 1: you know, it's just it's part of you know, journalism
Speaker 1: is not the most lucrative job in the world, and
Speaker 1: there are many other jobs that are not as not
Speaker 1: as great, and so no, I mean, my job is great.
Speaker 1: I love my job, and you know, it's been very
Speaker 1: good to me, and so I'm not complaining.
Speaker 2: But I just will say that Chris, you checked.
Speaker 1: Me, and I totally understand, and you know, that's about
Speaker 1: all I can say on that. And I just want
Speaker 1: to make it clear that I am very much understanding
Speaker 1: of different backgrounds, and believe me, I worked through my
Speaker 1: student loans. I worked through my credit card debt, and
Speaker 1: it was not easy and it's something that I wish
Speaker 1: many many people can do because it is gosh. I
Speaker 1: remember when I was working in Louisiana, I used to
Speaker 1: get my paycheck and I was so so messed up
Speaker 1: with my debt and stuff that I used to have
Speaker 1: to literally pay the credit card companies by a cashier
Speaker 1: check because they wouldn't take anything else or a money order,
Speaker 1: and so I used to have to get my paycheck
Speaker 1: and secretly i'd run to the post office get my
Speaker 1: little money order and pay my credit cards because I
Speaker 1: was paying them off. They were all frozen and done,
Speaker 1: and nobody would give me a credit card at that time,
Speaker 1: and I just it was so like, I was so embarrassed.
Speaker 1: I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want anyone to
Speaker 1: know that I had this. Like now, of course, you know,
Speaker 1: many more people talk about debt and there's a million
Speaker 1: podcasts about it, and it's my biggest goal to stay
Speaker 1: out of it at this point.
Speaker 2: And anyway, so thank you, Chris. I appreciate it, and I.
Speaker 1: Don't want you to think that I ever felt like
Speaker 1: I was judging people. I was just kind of saying,
Speaker 1: you know, if you spend five bucks on a Coca Cola,
Speaker 1: you know you can maybe afford the five dollars for
Speaker 1: the Pandora, but I get it anyway, all right, moving
Speaker 1: on now, Verizon, this is interesting. I just want to
Speaker 1: mention it quickly because it's a new option. I don't
Speaker 1: know if everyone's going to take advantage of it or
Speaker 1: a lot of you are, but it's just kind of
Speaker 1: nice to know, especially since Google Photos is now going
Speaker 1: to charge. And I said on last week's podcast that
Speaker 1: now that they're going to charge, it kind of opens
Speaker 1: the door for everyone. And so there's lots of options.
Speaker 1: Now anyone who has cloud storage is on kind of
Speaker 1: an even playing field. And Verizon is now doing unlimited
Speaker 1: clouds storage for twenty dollars a month, which is pretty
Speaker 1: interesting to me, someone who pays ten dollars a month
Speaker 1: for two terabytes.
Speaker 2: Now am I.
Speaker 1: Ready to switch over all my Google Photos to Verizon Cloud?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: And I think that you probably have to have a
Speaker 1: Verizon Mobile account to keep this active, which means it
Speaker 1: locks you into them, which I'm not really a big
Speaker 1: fan of because I like kind of independent things. But
Speaker 1: twenty dollars a month for unlimited cloud storage not a
Speaker 1: bad deal. And so if you have a Verizon unlimited plan.
Speaker 1: By the way, they do include a couple one hundred
Speaker 1: gigabytes of storage, so my old plan. I had to
Speaker 1: look this up because I went and I downloaded the
Speaker 1: whole Verizon desktop. They have a desktop app. I went
Speaker 1: and I downloaded it, and sure enough, it said, oh,
Speaker 1: which one do you want to sign up for? And
Speaker 1: I was like, wait, I thought I got some free
Speaker 1: Verizon cloud storage. I apparently don't anymore because on a
Speaker 1: couple a couple months ago, I downgraded my Verizon plan
Speaker 1: to save me twenty dollars a month, and I guess
Speaker 1: one of the things that was a casualty and that
Speaker 1: was my free cloud storage. So I no longer get it.
Speaker 1: I couldn't even try this out without paying. Well, you
Speaker 1: can try thirty days for free, which I may do that,
Speaker 1: but I.
Speaker 2: Don't think I'm gonna switch.
Speaker 1: But it's just nice to know that there are options,
Speaker 1: and if you are a Verizon customer that's not leaving
Speaker 1: anytime soon. I mean, twenty dollars a month for family
Speaker 1: shared unlimited storage is pretty darn good and I don't
Speaker 1: know so anyway, there's your options. It's two terabytes for
Speaker 1: fifteen a month and six hundred gigs for five ninety nine.
Speaker 1: Or just look into your Verizon plan and see if
Speaker 1: your plan offers cloud storage. It may the one that
Speaker 1: I used to be on offered the cloud.
Speaker 2: Storage for free.
Speaker 1: It was let's see, it was the if you are
Speaker 1: on the Do More Unlimited, you get six hundred gigs.
Speaker 1: If you're on the get more unlimited, you get six
Speaker 1: hundred gigs. I mean, six hundred gigs is not bad,
Speaker 1: especially with all these people starting to charge, you know,
Speaker 1: move some of your bigger, lesser used files to that.
Speaker 1: If you have it available, they have a desktop app,
Speaker 1: might as well use it, all right, one more question here,
Speaker 1: let's see here, Adam says. I hope you had a
Speaker 1: happy Thanksgiving and some quality time with your family. My wife, Sally,
Speaker 1: and I are looking for an audio system for our home.
Speaker 1: We are torn behind the Sonos and the new Apple
Speaker 1: Pods HomePods. We saw your report and now we're intrigued
Speaker 1: in your opinion, which would give us more bang for
Speaker 1: our buck. At this point, we're kind of leaning towards
Speaker 1: the Apple. Thank you for your insight, Adam. I did
Speaker 1: have the HomePods set up in my house and I
Speaker 1: was so ready to switch over. But I'll be honest,
Speaker 1: it just became too much work and it was too complicated,
Speaker 1: and as good as Apple has made it for me personally,
Speaker 1: I already have my sons it performs better. And I
Speaker 1: sat there and I said, why am I trying to
Speaker 1: go crazy implementing this Apple system that is a little
Speaker 1: bit more complicated when I already have Sonos and it
Speaker 1: works with all my music services, and that's what I'm
Speaker 1: sticking with. So my Sonos system is old at this point.
Speaker 1: All my speakers are out of date. I need to
Speaker 1: buy new ones. And I almost pulled the trigger on
Speaker 1: a Black Friday with their Cyber Monday deal and I didn't,
Speaker 1: but I will. I mean, because speakers are speakers. They
Speaker 1: still work. It's just I don't know what I'm missing,
Speaker 1: but it just feels like I need something new. And
Speaker 1: the HomePods are great, and I still think if you
Speaker 1: have let's say, you know, if you're setting this up
Speaker 1: for the first time and you are super Apple centric,
Speaker 1: the HomePods are amazing and they're pretty darn good for
Speaker 1: ninety nine dollars for all the rooms of your house.
Speaker 1: It's just it's going to be a little bit trickier
Speaker 1: to set them up, like for the home whole home audio,
Speaker 1: and it's not really that tricky. It's just once you're
Speaker 1: used to the way Sonos works, it's just kind of
Speaker 1: like it's just there. Sonos entire business is whole home audio,
Speaker 1: and so Apple has a lot of different things. They
Speaker 1: do them pretty well. But you know this the HomePods
Speaker 1: are great, and I can't recommend them enough. I think
Speaker 1: they're awesome. But you're saying, what's the most for your buck?
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess bang for your buck would probably
Speaker 1: be the Apple stuff. But I think the best whole
Speaker 1: home audio solution is still the sons. So I hope
Speaker 1: that answers your question. I know I'm kind of like
Speaker 1: waffling here and you're probably sitting here going, oh my gosh, Rich,
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, you're talking about how great
Speaker 1: they are. But you know, these things take a little
Speaker 1: bit of time to kind of figure out. And what
Speaker 1: got me with the Apple stuff is it just became
Speaker 1: a matter of like I didn't know which speakers were
Speaker 1: in the group where the volume was at, and it
Speaker 1: became a little bit tricky. And so when things get
Speaker 1: tricky and complicated and I press play in the bedroom
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, I hear the music blasting
Speaker 1: in the dining room, like, oh, what's going on here?
Speaker 1: And that's what caused me to just go and get
Speaker 1: all the Sono speakers back out of the garage, set
Speaker 1: them all up, and.
Speaker 2: Boom, I'm back on Sonos and.
Speaker 1: It's been pretty good. I'll be honest, it's been pretty nice.
Speaker 1: I love my sonos now. It's just expensive to set
Speaker 1: up and it took me a while to do it,
Speaker 1: so kind of like investing in the system. All right,
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it for this episode of the show.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to submit a question for me to answer,
Speaker 1: just go to Richontech dot tv hit the email button
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the page. Also, I would love
Speaker 1: it if you would rate and review this podcast to
Speaker 1: help other people discover it. Just go to rate this
Speaker 1: podcast dot com, slash rich on tech, or just submit
Speaker 1: your rating, you know, on iTunes or whatever you use,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or whatever app. You can find me online
Speaker 1: at rich on tech. I'm on all social media networks there.
Speaker 1: My name is Rich Jamiro. Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1: Thanks for being a part of this show. I do
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Stay safe, keep that feedback coming, keep the
Speaker 1: emails coming, keep the likes and the posts and the favorites,
Speaker 1: and whatever you do on my social media.
Speaker 2: I do appreciate it. I do read a lot of it.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Again.
Speaker 1: My name is Rich Dmiro. I will talk to you
Speaker 1: real soon. Turn then thunder the