Speaker 1: iPhone gets a lockdown mode, excellent earbuds for just forty bucks,
Speaker 1: my favorite video editing apps, plus your tech questions answered.
Speaker 1: What's going on? I'm Rich Demiro 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 the
Speaker 1: place where I answer the questions you sent me. I'm
Speaker 1: a tech reporter at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. Hope you're having a fantastic week.
Speaker 1: Welcome to my friends listening on Twitter spaces. Sometimes when
Speaker 1: I'm recording the podcast just depends how I'm feeling if
Speaker 1: I want to live stream it or not. There's a
Speaker 1: little bit more pressure with the live stream because you
Speaker 1: kind of see people coming in and out, maybe people
Speaker 1: are clapping whatever they're doing. But the reality is it's
Speaker 1: just me and you for the next hour here, and
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about some of the stuff that
Speaker 1: I think is important. All right, let's talk about the
Speaker 1: new lockdown mode on iOS sixteen. This is for the iPhone.
Speaker 1: So this is a mode on the iPhone you probably
Speaker 1: will never have to use, but it is in extreme
Speaker 1: security mode. Do you remember back in the day, I
Speaker 1: think it was President Obama who had a BlackBerry for
Speaker 1: a long time, and everyone was kind of giving him
Speaker 1: a little bit of grief because it's like, come on,
Speaker 1: get an iPhone. And then it came out that you
Speaker 1: can't just give the president an iPhone because of the
Speaker 1: security implications of the iPhone. Now, eventually that changed, and
Speaker 1: I don't know if we lessened the security on the
Speaker 1: president's phone or we just decided it was fine. But
Speaker 1: you know, we do know that presidents, I think even
Speaker 1: Obama towards the end, and we know other presidents have
Speaker 1: had the iPhone, so I guess now it's fine. But anyway,
Speaker 1: the reality is if you are a journal or a dissident,
Speaker 1: or an activist, or a head of state or someone
Speaker 1: with a high net worth, you are targeted all the time,
Speaker 1: and you're targeted by malware, by spyware, by governments trying
Speaker 1: to get in on your phone. There's all kinds of
Speaker 1: threat levels that you are exposed to. And so Apple
Speaker 1: knows this. For the average person, I mean, we always
Speaker 1: hear about security with the phones, but the reality is,
Speaker 1: for the average person, the biggest security risk is themselves,
Speaker 1: and that is because they may click on a link
Speaker 1: that either tries to steal their information via phishing. In
Speaker 1: the worst case scenario, it may download malware to your phone,
Speaker 1: but that is like very very small chance, especially with
Speaker 1: the way the architecture of the iPhone is designed. That's
Speaker 1: just really really tough to do, but it happens. And
Speaker 1: so now this new lockdown mode is to gear towards
Speaker 1: protecting a very small number of users who may be
Speaker 1: a risk of a highly targeted cyber attack. And the
Speaker 1: feature is going to be built into iOS sixteen. It's
Speaker 1: also going to be built into the iPad and the
Speaker 1: new mac os Ventura. Right now, it's in the betas,
Speaker 1: it will be in maybe not the public beta, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure, but it will be in the final version
Speaker 1: that's released in the fall. So lockdown mode is turned
Speaker 1: off by default. You can enable it in the Privacy
Speaker 1: and Security section. And once it's turned on, here's what's
Speaker 1: going to happen. Messages app most message attachments will be blocked.
Speaker 1: In coming FaceTime calls from people who don't know those
Speaker 1: will be blocked. Web browsing will be impacted. A lot
Speaker 1: of the JavaScript type things, anything that requires a little
Speaker 1: bit of extra things to run on the web browser.
Speaker 1: That will be blocked. Shared albums on the photos app
Speaker 1: will be blocked when the device is in lockdown. Wired
Speaker 1: connections will be blocked or I guess when the device
Speaker 1: is locked, but they do that anyway. Figuration profiles will
Speaker 1: be not accessible. So the phone kind of becomes a
Speaker 1: very basic device that you can use to make and
Speaker 1: receive phone calls, and nothing can sort of make its
Speaker 1: way onto that device. So whether it's you know, spyware, malware,
Speaker 1: any sort of key loggers, whatever that these organizations might
Speaker 1: be using to spy, it just won't be possible to
Speaker 1: put that on the iPhone. And so again, this is
Speaker 1: something that not a lot of people need, but it's
Speaker 1: really really smart that Apple has this mode on the
Speaker 1: phone because if someone needs this, it is available, and
Speaker 1: it's available quickly, simply, and it's accessible to everyone from
Speaker 1: a person who's just speaking out against their government to
Speaker 1: someone who is, you know whatever, I mean, any sort
Speaker 1: of situation you're in, maybe you're in a country that
Speaker 1: you don't feel safe in and you're worried about spying,
Speaker 1: you can act this mode. So again iOS sixteen lockdown
Speaker 1: mode coming in the fall on the iPhone. All right,
Speaker 1: let's get to the first question comes from Dave. Hey,
Speaker 1: my name is Dave. It appeals. It appears my email
Speaker 1: has been compromised. I'm getting a ton of emails from
Speaker 1: people that I don't know, who seem to think that
Speaker 1: I've sent them a scamming type of email. I've placed
Speaker 1: a complaint with the FTC, but I haven't received any
Speaker 1: type of help from them stopping the emails I'm getting. Well,
Speaker 1: I didn't expect them to stop them. Is there anything
Speaker 1: you know of that I can do? Any help would
Speaker 1: be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Dave. Dave, it sounds like
Speaker 1: your email account was hacked or compromised. Most likely just compromised,
Speaker 1: like you said, Uh, probably in one of two ways.
Speaker 1: Either I'm guessing that and I don't want to place
Speaker 1: the blame on you, but I'm guessing that at some
Speaker 1: point you clicked a link and logged in with your
Speaker 1: email or handed over your password unwillingly or I should
Speaker 1: say unwittingly, like you didn't know this was happening, and
Speaker 1: once they got a hold of your email, they then
Speaker 1: turned your email into a bot account that would then
Speaker 1: send out emails on your behalf with spammy messages and
Speaker 1: the reason why they do that is because when hackers
Speaker 1: get a hold of your email account, that's a good
Speaker 1: email account, and so the chances that your email will
Speaker 1: go through the spam filters on Gmail and Outlook and
Speaker 1: Yahoo and all these other things is pretty good because
Speaker 1: your email account has a track record of being legitimate,
Speaker 1: and so they use that to their advantage. So what
Speaker 1: can you do, Well, what you need to do is
Speaker 1: change your password immediately, if that's even possible. If you
Speaker 1: can still try to log in from a web page,
Speaker 1: log in, change your password, and then I would go
Speaker 1: in and set up two factor authentication. You're emailing me
Speaker 1: from an att dot net email address. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if that's the one that got compromised, but if it is,
Speaker 1: a just definitely go in, try to change the password,
Speaker 1: turn on two factor authentication, and then the other thing
Speaker 1: I would do, and you're gonna have to search to
Speaker 1: see how to do this is what's called log out
Speaker 1: of all active devices. So most of the systems these days,
Speaker 1: some of the big social media companies, the apps, the
Speaker 1: email the Googles of the world, they have provisions for
Speaker 1: helping you log out of any device that you've previously
Speaker 1: authorized and then what that does is it triggers a
Speaker 1: new authorization. So to understand this better, you know, you
Speaker 1: log into your email on your computer at work, and
Speaker 1: you know, let's say you're your personal account. You don't
Speaker 1: necessarily have to log into that every single day when
Speaker 1: you come into work. Maybe once every couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: It might ask you to reauthorize your password, but for
Speaker 1: the most part, you just sit down, you go to
Speaker 1: Gmail dot com and it's already logged in somehow magically.
Speaker 1: So they're doing that with a combination of cookies and
Speaker 1: also so some sort of algorithm security that they have built, saying, Okay,
Speaker 1: it seems like this is pretty secure, seems like there's
Speaker 1: not anything weird happening on this computer. We're going to
Speaker 1: allow this connection until we think that something changes. And
Speaker 1: in the case of that manual change that I talked about,
Speaker 1: if you trigger that, it's something that will log out.
Speaker 1: It sends a little notice to all these systems that
Speaker 1: are logged in, saying the next time someone tries to
Speaker 1: use this account, ask them for their password again. And
Speaker 1: you can do this on Netflix, you can do it
Speaker 1: on I believe Google. I know you can do it
Speaker 1: on their Apple you can log out devices, so basically
Speaker 1: you want to look for a functionality to log out
Speaker 1: all active devices. Sometimes you can even see a list
Speaker 1: of these devices, but that is probably what you want
Speaker 1: to do, Dave, to reclaim this email. If it's an
Speaker 1: email that you don't really care about anymore, you can
Speaker 1: delete the account completely. But it depends what type of
Speaker 1: account you're using. But that's what I would recommend. This
Speaker 1: happens every day. Don't use the same path word over
Speaker 1: and over. That's number one. Definitely use a password manager
Speaker 1: if you can, and use two factor authentication on every
Speaker 1: single account that you can think of that supports it,
Speaker 1: and not just two factor. But I would use an
Speaker 1: app to generate the authentication codes. I would not just
Speaker 1: send them to your text message because phone numbers can
Speaker 1: be compromised and it's much more secure to do it
Speaker 1: to an app. And I know this stuff is so
Speaker 1: it's so complicated, and I think I talked about this
Speaker 1: when I was in when I came back from my trip,
Speaker 1: but you know, I was in New Jersey just kind
Speaker 1: of dealing with my family and watching how they deal
Speaker 1: with stuff. And it's a real struggle for people with
Speaker 1: these passwords and with the security. I mean, people stay
Speaker 1: logged in on a computer and if that thing gets
Speaker 1: logged out, like their entire world goes away because they
Speaker 1: don't know whether where their password is and they don't
Speaker 1: know how to get back in, or they don't know
Speaker 1: which email address they used, or they don't know where
Speaker 1: they saved it. I mean, it's pretty wild how loosey
Speaker 1: goosey people are with this password and security stuff. And
Speaker 1: I just to me, I don't get it. I do
Speaker 1: get it, because there have been times when I've wanted
Speaker 1: to quickly log into a website where I'm ready to
Speaker 1: just throw all caution into the wind and say all right,
Speaker 1: let me just use whatever, and then I'd have to
Speaker 1: sit there and say, no, wait, what's the repercussion of
Speaker 1: this later? Later? Yeah, it's going to be easy for
Speaker 1: me to log in, but if I don't take good
Speaker 1: notes and if I don't put down the information that
Speaker 1: I need later, it's going to come back to bite me.
Speaker 1: And so good example, I was trying to log into
Speaker 1: my kids. We set up like a frequent flyer account
Speaker 1: for him when he was born and we've been using
Speaker 1: it ever since, and I was like, oh, I'm curious
Speaker 1: how many miles my kid has racked up in this account?
Speaker 1: And sure enough, I went into my password manager and
Speaker 1: I had no recollection of I had his password. But then,
Speaker 1: because it had been so long, that I logged in
Speaker 1: and asked me for his security questions, and of course
Speaker 1: I couldn't come up with the answers because I never
Speaker 1: use real answers for security questions because that's too obvious.
Speaker 1: So I always make up answers or use answers that
Speaker 1: are not true. But you have to keep track of
Speaker 1: those answers because the problem is when you come back
Speaker 1: to answer those, they're not the true answers, Like what's
Speaker 1: the color of the house you grew up in? Why
Speaker 1: would I use that when someone could look up the
Speaker 1: house I grew up on Google Maps and see what
Speaker 1: color it is. And now Google Maps let's you go
Speaker 1: back in time, so you could just go back in
Speaker 1: time and see all the different colors of that house
Speaker 1: over the years. So my advice is to actually use
Speaker 1: another generated password in place of these answers. Now, not
Speaker 1: every website lets you put in your own answer, but
Speaker 1: a lot of them do. Some of them make you
Speaker 1: select them. If they make you select them, just select
Speaker 1: a random answer. I usually take a screenshot of that
Speaker 1: and then I will put that in a secure place,
Speaker 1: or I will write down the question and answers in
Speaker 1: my password manager in the notes section. Of course, I
Speaker 1: did neither of that, so I had to figure out
Speaker 1: the answers to these questions, which was not easy. So
Speaker 1: that's my advice. But you got to just keep on
Speaker 1: top of this stuff. I know it's complicated, I know
Speaker 1: it's a pain, but it's I'm telling you, just a
Speaker 1: couple of minutes of time on the front end, we'll
Speaker 1: save you a lot of headaches on the back end.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about these forty dollars earbuds. So
Speaker 1: I had these forty dollars one plus earbuds sitting around
Speaker 1: my house for I don't know, a couple weeks at
Speaker 1: least maybe a month or two before I got around
Speaker 1: reviewing them. Because they're earbuds, I get sent so many
Speaker 1: earbuds and ninety nine percent of the time I put
Speaker 1: them in my ears for about ten seconds and I say, Nope,
Speaker 1: these are not the ones, and that's it. Now. These
Speaker 1: I put in my ears after I got back from Rome,
Speaker 1: and I meant to take them to Rome, but I
Speaker 1: didn't want to test them on the trip because I
Speaker 1: needed noise cancelation earbuds, so I waited till I got back.
Speaker 1: I put them my ears. I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: let me try these for a workout. Immediately as soon
Speaker 1: as I put them my ears. There's certain types of
Speaker 1: earbuds that when you put them in, they sort of
Speaker 1: like magnetically attached to your ears. I'm not saying with magnets,
Speaker 1: but they just feel like they just fit so perfectly
Speaker 1: that they're not going to come out, and I'm like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: that's a good first sign. Then they were easy to pair.
Speaker 1: They don't have fast pairing, but they were easy to
Speaker 1: pair because they have a little button on the back
Speaker 1: and they were paired in seconds. And the next thing
Speaker 1: you know, I'm playing music, it sounds good, I'm working out.
Speaker 1: They don't fall out of my ears, and I'm just like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I think I'm onto something here. I think these are
Speaker 1: a winner. And so I kept using them for a
Speaker 1: little bit, and then I did an interview with someone
Speaker 1: at nine to five Google who also reviewed them, and
Speaker 1: he agreed that he really liked them and didn't want
Speaker 1: to like them because of the price tag, and I
Speaker 1: think the OnePlus Nord buds are a winner. Forty dollars
Speaker 1: and what do you get? You get simple wireless earbuds.
Speaker 1: They come in a case that is definitely an odd shape.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit bulky, it's a little bit not
Speaker 1: sort of ergonomic in your hands, but it works. It
Speaker 1: charges the earbuds. You get seven hours on a charge
Speaker 1: and then thirty hours if you include the case, so
Speaker 1: that's a pretty good charge. Then you also have USB
Speaker 1: C on the back, which I like. So they didn't
Speaker 1: put the micro USB C or micro USB which some
Speaker 1: it's actually happening a lot less. But you know, that's
Speaker 1: one way that manufacturers can be a little cheap with things.
Speaker 1: Let's see what else unique design. They've got tappable areas
Speaker 1: on the side so you can play, skip and pause
Speaker 1: your music. They're comfortable, Like I said, they stay in
Speaker 1: your ears. There's four microphones total for high quality phone calls.
Speaker 1: I made a phone call to my brother. He said
Speaker 1: it sounded excellent, so as opposed to sometimes when I
Speaker 1: call him when I'm testing earbuds, and he said, what
Speaker 1: are you in a cave right now? He said, none
Speaker 1: of that the sound is excellent. Like I said, there's
Speaker 1: no sensor, so when you pull all these out of
Speaker 1: your ears, I've gotten so used to these sensors on
Speaker 1: all these earbuds that will play and pause music. That
Speaker 1: did not happen this time because these don't have those
Speaker 1: built in sensors, so you will have to do that manually.
Speaker 1: The music sounds good. It's not the best sounding earbuds
Speaker 1: I've ever tested, but again, forty dollars, so you get
Speaker 1: what you pay for. You get a lot of features
Speaker 1: for this forty dollars. They're good for just everyday use.
Speaker 1: I would not recommend these if you are traveling with
Speaker 1: them on a plane because they don't block out a
Speaker 1: lot of exterior sound. They do block out some because
Speaker 1: they kind of seal up your ears, which typically I
Speaker 1: don't like. But these are totally comfortable. But they're good
Speaker 1: for music, good for phone calls, good for exercising. They're
Speaker 1: on sale now again. They're called the one plus nord Buds.
Speaker 1: They only come in one color, black slate. They're on
Speaker 1: sale at Amazon and OnePlus website. Personally, i'd get them
Speaker 1: from Amazon just because they're easy to return if you
Speaker 1: end up not liking them, but we did feature them
Speaker 1: on KTLA, so they were sold out out after about
Speaker 1: two seconds. So of course I put them on TV
Speaker 1: in the five am hour, and I immediately got the
Speaker 1: emails from people saying you can't purchase them, but I
Speaker 1: you know, look Amazon, they restock stuff pretty quickly. I
Speaker 1: assume these will be restocked, so I would just continue
Speaker 1: to kind of monitor there. But you can also buy
Speaker 1: them from the OnePlus website as well. I've I don't
Speaker 1: know what that purchase experience is like for these, but
Speaker 1: it says it's free shipping, so I don't know, Maybe
Speaker 1: take your chances there. But again, one plus nord Buds,
Speaker 1: nord is sort of their inexpensive line of phones, and
Speaker 1: then Nord is, I guess just their budget stuff in general.
Speaker 1: But I love the one plus What were they the
Speaker 1: one plus buds pro last year, but those were closer
Speaker 1: to one hundred and something dollars. These are like forty bucks.
Speaker 1: I'm not kidding. Really really great deal for inexpensive headphones,
Speaker 1: so go check them out. I'll put the line in
Speaker 1: the show notes. Brenda says, Rich, I'm hoping you have
Speaker 1: some suggestions. My eighty eight year old father keeps falling
Speaker 1: for scams on his computer. He has a PC. Originally
Speaker 1: I was hoping he wouldn't need an email, because that's
Speaker 1: how the scams get him. Trying to find out if
Speaker 1: there's a good computer printal lock or something I could
Speaker 1: do to protect him. I'm going to get him a
Speaker 1: new Gmail account, and I didn't know if I should
Speaker 1: get him a Chromebook or any computer. I know this
Speaker 1: isn't worded very well, but I think you could understand
Speaker 1: what I'm asking for. Thank you so much, Brenda, Brenda,
Speaker 1: I get it. Your dad keeps falling for the oldest
Speaker 1: tricks in the book, which these scam artists have gotten
Speaker 1: very very good at. The phishing scams, the Amazon emails,
Speaker 1: the emails that want your phone number and your address
Speaker 1: and your logins and oh, your Gmail account is messed up.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's so many scams out there. A lot
Speaker 1: of them have to do with phishing, which they send
Speaker 1: an email that looks like it's something legitimate, and next
Speaker 1: thing you know, you log in and your account is cut,
Speaker 1: or they ask you to send them gift cards, or
Speaker 1: they want you to put in your credit card number
Speaker 1: so you can fix something, whatever it is. It's it's
Speaker 1: all out there. It's happening every single day. And yes,
Speaker 1: the elderly, less tech savvy, or anyone honestly can fall
Speaker 1: for these scams given the right circumstances. And I always
Speaker 1: give the example of our banks. So banks like to
Speaker 1: send a lot of emails and text nowadays with fraud alerts.
Speaker 1: Hey did you just use your credit card? Here? Press
Speaker 1: one or reply one to say yes, reply to to
Speaker 1: say no. Hey, we're just confirming that you purchase this,
Speaker 1: or hey, your your membership is confirmed. Click here to
Speaker 1: you know, check out the details whatever. Anyone can fall
Speaker 1: for this stuff, and it's just a matter of taking
Speaker 1: a little bit of a pause. And in fact, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna quote from this website that I'm going to refer
Speaker 1: you to scamspotter dot org. So here are the three
Speaker 1: golden rules of scams. Number one, slow it down. According
Speaker 1: to the website, scammers often create a sense of urgency
Speaker 1: so they can bypass your better instincts. Take your time
Speaker 1: and ask questions to avoid being rushed into a bad situation.
Speaker 1: If you need to act fast, just don't do it.
Speaker 1: Number two, spot check do your research to This is
Speaker 1: again from the website scamspotter dot org. Do your research
Speaker 1: to double check the details you're getting. If you get
Speaker 1: an unexpected phone call, hang up, look up the bank,
Speaker 1: the agency, or the organization that's supposedly calling, and get
Speaker 1: in touch with them directly. The IRS does not call you.
Speaker 1: Your phone company does not call you. Your bank does
Speaker 1: not call you, your Google does not call you, the whatever,
Speaker 1: Amazon does not call you. These companies rarely call, and
Speaker 1: they rarely call and ask for immediate action. Number three, stop,
Speaker 1: don't send. No reputable person or agency will ever demand
Speaker 1: payment on the spot. Often scammers tell you to go
Speaker 1: buy gift cards, which are meant to be given as
Speaker 1: a gift, not as payment under a threat. So if
Speaker 1: you think something feels fishy, it probably is. Do not
Speaker 1: send gift cards. So it's at Target the other day
Speaker 1: they have a signed by the gift card section that says,
Speaker 1: if you're buying this gift card to send us a
Speaker 1: payment to someone, don't do it. I don't even understand
Speaker 1: how someone could fall for that, but again I'm not judging.
Speaker 1: People do. And what they do is they make you
Speaker 1: scratch off the back of the gift card, read them
Speaker 1: the numbers and the code and they use that gift
Speaker 1: card instantly, it's untraceable, it's done, it's fast, your money's gone.
Speaker 1: They they get the money, and you never hear from
Speaker 1: them again. So again, the website I would show your
Speaker 1: dad is scamspotder dot org. Watch the little videos with him,
Speaker 1: take the quizzes, and share this with your friends, because
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, it's just really, really a wild West
Speaker 1: out there on the internet. And you're sitting here listening
Speaker 1: to a podcast. You're a little bit more tech savvy
Speaker 1: than the average person, telling you. People fall for this
Speaker 1: stuff every single day. Smart people. I get the emails.
Speaker 1: Believe me, parents of people, siblings of people, friends of people,
Speaker 1: regular people. You don't have to be quote unquote stupid
Speaker 1: to fall for this stuff. You don't have to be
Speaker 1: uneducated to fall for this stuff. You just have to
Speaker 1: be a human being that is highly, highly targeted with
Speaker 1: these social engineering scams. These scam artists spend all day
Speaker 1: coming up with ways of getting stuff from us, and
Speaker 1: believe me, it just takes one tiny little mishap for
Speaker 1: it to happen to you. So you know, don't laugh,
Speaker 1: but really feel for these people, because it's really sad
Speaker 1: when a kid talks to their parent, and their parents
Speaker 1: starts telling them something and you're like, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: you were totally scammed. And we've all been scammed in
Speaker 1: our lives in so many little ways. I told the story,
Speaker 1: or maybe I didn't tell it here, but I told
Speaker 1: the story of how you know, we ate it at
Speaker 1: a tourist trap in Rome because we were hungry, we
Speaker 1: were tired, we were hot, we were sweaty. We just
Speaker 1: wanted to sit down and eat. And we sat at
Speaker 1: a restaurant that was totally just kind of a tourist trap.
Speaker 1: Food was overpriced, food was not very good. Did it
Speaker 1: ruin our lives? No? Would I say I was scammed? Yeap,
Speaker 1: kind of. I mean the person give us a good,
Speaker 1: a good spiel about why we should eat there, and
Speaker 1: we did. You know, you spend a little bit more
Speaker 1: money than you should on something, You get a dent
Speaker 1: removed by someone, you know, whatever. We get scammed all
Speaker 1: the time in lots of little waste. Does it always
Speaker 1: ruin our lives, No, but it happens. It's you know,
Speaker 1: you could get over sold on something, you could pay
Speaker 1: more than you should for something. It's just it happens
Speaker 1: in lots of little ways, so just be aware of
Speaker 1: it and try to help people when you can. All right,
Speaker 1: Amazon Prime new benefit you get a year worth of
Speaker 1: grub Hub Plus. Grub Hub Plus is their subscription. I
Speaker 1: don't know what you call membership. So if you basically,
Speaker 1: if you have Amazon Prime, you can go to a
Speaker 1: website and sign up for a free year of Grubhub Plus.
Speaker 1: Now I don't use grubhub, so I can't tell you
Speaker 1: how good Grubhub Plus is, but I know that you
Speaker 1: get discounts on things, you get free delivery on things,
Speaker 1: or reduced delivery fees on orders that are like over
Speaker 1: twelve dollars. But here's a reality. If you think you're
Speaker 1: saving money in any possible way with any food delivery service,
Speaker 1: you are absolutely just out of your mind right now.
Speaker 1: Because food delivery is not cheap. It is not a
Speaker 1: deal it is It's never going to be a better
Speaker 1: deal than going and picking up the food yourself or
Speaker 1: cooking at home. Now, with that said, is it convenient,
Speaker 1: of course, is it nice to have, Yes, But to
Speaker 1: think that you're saving money somehow even with one of
Speaker 1: these Grubhub Plus memberships, you're not. You're gonna be spending
Speaker 1: more on delivery because you actually have this member. Amazon
Speaker 1: knows that, Grubhub knows that. Why do you think they're
Speaker 1: offering it to you for free? Now, with all that said, yes,
Speaker 1: I have Door Dash whatever they call it, dash Pass.
Speaker 1: It's included in my credit card, so I have it.
Speaker 1: Do I spend money on it once in a while? Yes?
Speaker 1: I do. Is it more expensive than buying salads that
Speaker 1: I can go and make myself or pick up? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Was it really convenient the other night when I just
Speaker 1: wanted dinner fast on the table, when I was just
Speaker 1: home with the kids by myself. Sure? Did I overspend
Speaker 1: on salads? Of course I did. Was it easy? Cheat?
Speaker 1: Not cheap? But was it easy and simple? Yes? It was.
Speaker 1: So I'm not saying you can't do this, but I'm
Speaker 1: just saying, don't think that you're like getting ahead by
Speaker 1: getting this free Grubhub perk from Amazon. This is a
Speaker 1: marketing deal. It helps Amazon, it helps Grubhub, and that's
Speaker 1: the reality here. Normally Grubhub Plus is nine ninety nine
Speaker 1: a month. Once you activate it, you will get twelve
Speaker 1: months free, or I should say twelve months included in
Speaker 1: your prime membership. Now, after the twelve months. It does
Speaker 1: auto renew, so you need to realize either you put
Speaker 1: something on your calendar that says cancel before the end
Speaker 1: of the time, or you just go ahead and cancel
Speaker 1: immediately someplace I always check whenever I sign up for something,
Speaker 1: I always check to see if I can cancel my
Speaker 1: subscription or membership or whatever immediately, and if I can,
Speaker 1: I'll do that. Sometimes it'll just say it'll say on
Speaker 1: the you know, in the account settings, it'll say, if
Speaker 1: you cancel now, you will still have access to your
Speaker 1: to your whatever through the date. So it will tell
Speaker 1: you that. On Apple you can do that a lot,
Speaker 1: except with a lot of the Apple subscriptions, on a
Speaker 1: lot of the uh you know, you know, third party apps,
Speaker 1: But you just have to check. Like I sign up
Speaker 1: for a free trial of Paramount Plus the other day,
Speaker 1: and you could go in right after you sign up
Speaker 1: and just cancel, but you'll still have your Paramount Plus
Speaker 1: membership through the end of the time. You can you
Speaker 1: can tell usually if you can do it right on
Speaker 1: the page on your account when you go to cancel,
Speaker 1: it should usually tell you you'll still have access. Again,
Speaker 1: speaking of scams, this wasn't a scam, but I totally
Speaker 1: paid for two months or three months worth of Audible
Speaker 1: after I meant to cancel, because I just kept forgetting
Speaker 1: to cancel. It was on my list. But again I
Speaker 1: got charged three months, you know, one month, two month,
Speaker 1: three months at fourteen ninety five for stuff I didn't
Speaker 1: really want to buy. But is it the end of
Speaker 1: the world. No, So what I did was I finally
Speaker 1: canceled because I remember to do it, But I, you know,
Speaker 1: just bought three books. When you the thing they changed
Speaker 1: about Audible it used to be even if you canceled
Speaker 1: your membership, your Audible credits would last and you could
Speaker 1: still use those even after you cancel. Well, Amazon got
Speaker 1: hipped to that and they said, oh, let's actually make
Speaker 1: this a little tougher for people. Let's make them make
Speaker 1: their decisions now before they cancel. And so if let's
Speaker 1: say you have two credits in your Audible membership and
Speaker 1: you say I want to cancel, It'll say, okay, you're
Speaker 1: gonna lose these credits right away. So you have to
Speaker 1: go back in. You got to shop for books, you
Speaker 1: got to use those credits, and you have to cancel.
Speaker 1: And so what happened to me is that I started
Speaker 1: this little process of buying and using the audible credits,
Speaker 1: but then I kind of forgot to go back and cancel,
Speaker 1: and so that happened another month, and then it happened
Speaker 1: another month, and finally this month I remembered and I
Speaker 1: did it. So would I call it a scam, No,
Speaker 1: It's it's kind of like they just are getting over
Speaker 1: on you because you're just forgetting. You get busy and
Speaker 1: you kind of forget about this stuff. So anyway, when
Speaker 1: in doubt, you can cancel things immediately and or set
Speaker 1: a reminder to trigger, but you know, just make sure
Speaker 1: you don't get taken like I did. All right, uh,
Speaker 1: Stacy says Rome question. I want to be sure I
Speaker 1: have the right tap to pay. I sent you a
Speaker 1: message on Instagram, but I don't know if you see
Speaker 1: those is the tap to pay by off Gate. Thanks
Speaker 1: for everything, Stacy sent from my iPhone. So, Stacey, it's
Speaker 1: actually funny. I got this question a couple of times.
Speaker 1: And this is why I try to explain things in
Speaker 1: very easy to understand terms. Because I mentioned in my
Speaker 1: Rome piece I did a piece, you know, I went
Speaker 1: to Rome. I did a little kind of travel tips
Speaker 1: piece when I came back to KTLA and I mentioned
Speaker 1: that you should set up tap to pay on your
Speaker 1: phone because it's accepted nearly everywhere you travel, and it's
Speaker 1: really easy, it's safe, it's secure, it's fast, and I
Speaker 1: was very surprised how many places in Rome took tap
Speaker 1: to pay. It was just very, very easy to use.
Speaker 1: And a lot of people texted me and said, rich,
Speaker 1: which app is tap to pay? I see a bunch
Speaker 1: of them, and I had I didn't realize I have
Speaker 1: to explain this, but I should explain this. But tap
Speaker 1: to pay is the technology, it's not the app. But
Speaker 1: I am sure if you search in the app Store,
Speaker 1: there are a bunch of scammy apps that use the
Speaker 1: term tap to pay so that you download them. And
Speaker 1: I don't know what their endgame is, but they probably
Speaker 1: either try to ski or get some sort of payment
Speaker 1: out of you. I'm not sure. I haven't looked them up,
Speaker 1: but I got this question enough where I realize that
Speaker 1: clearly there are those apps in the app Store. So
Speaker 1: tap to pay is the technology that means that you
Speaker 1: hold your phone over a reader making a tapping motion.
Speaker 1: You don't actually have to touch your phone to the reader,
Speaker 1: but you hold your phone over this little receiver on
Speaker 1: the reader. It looks like a little Wi Fi symbol
Speaker 1: on its side, and you tap there or you hover there,
Speaker 1: and your phone exchanges the payment information with the terminal,
Speaker 1: So instead of swiping, instead of dipping your card, you
Speaker 1: just hover your phone and it wirelessly transmits your credit
Speaker 1: or debit card number to the reader. And what I
Speaker 1: like about Tap to Pay is that it transmits a
Speaker 1: one time code. So if you're using a debit card
Speaker 1: or a credit card credit card, I know we don't
Speaker 1: care as much, but you still should care because if
Speaker 1: you do have to change your number if it's hacked,
Speaker 1: it's a pain because that happened to me, and it's
Speaker 1: like I'm still getting like, oh, your credit card can't
Speaker 1: be authorized. Ugh. So with debit card, it's definitely most
Speaker 1: annoying because it's linked to your checking account and that
Speaker 1: money goes away very quickly. So what you want to
Speaker 1: do is set up your credit or your debit card
Speaker 1: on this Tap to pay and it transmits a one
Speaker 1: time code, which means if that retailer is ever hacked,
Speaker 1: your number is safe. Because all the numbers that these
Speaker 1: hackers get on the back end when they hack something,
Speaker 1: it won't work. It only worked that one time, and
Speaker 1: so that's what's really nice about tap to pay and
Speaker 1: that's also why I recommend using it now. There are
Speaker 1: three tap to pay apps in the US that I
Speaker 1: know of that work on the iPhone. It's just one.
Speaker 1: It's Apple Pay. And Apple has not been forced to
Speaker 1: open up their tap to pay to any other third
Speaker 1: party app, although I think some of the companies are
Speaker 1: trying to get that changed because tap to pay could
Speaker 1: be from anyone the other ones. On an Apple Pay
Speaker 1: is built into the iPhone. You just have to set
Speaker 1: it up. You can open up Apple Walla and set
Speaker 1: it up on the Android. You have your choice of
Speaker 1: two that I know of, and that is Google Pay
Speaker 1: and then Samsung Pay. And I don't know if Samsung
Speaker 1: Pay works on non Samsung Pay devices, but you can
Speaker 1: try it. Samsung Pay versus Google Pay is really a preference.
Speaker 1: I used to prefer Samsung Pay because it had a
Speaker 1: little trick built into the Samsung phones, and that is
Speaker 1: it worked even on credit card terminals that were not
Speaker 1: Tapped to Pay enabled. I know, very complicated, but Samsung
Speaker 1: very many years ago bought this company. I think it
Speaker 1: was called loop that they had a wireless technology that
Speaker 1: would broadcast a signal. They had a special antenna inside
Speaker 1: Samsung phones that would broadcast a signal to the magnetic
Speaker 1: stripe receiver on a credit card terminal, and you actually
Speaker 1: really kind of just tapped your phone there. Your phone
Speaker 1: would somehow emit a strong enough magnetic signal that this
Speaker 1: magnetic reader could read, and it would work on any
Speaker 1: credit card terminal, even credit card terminals before tap to
Speaker 1: pay was a big thing. I'll never forget trying this
Speaker 1: out for the first time. I was at someplace in
Speaker 1: Marina del Rey here in California, and it was like
Speaker 1: a lunch place, and the credit card reader was one
Speaker 1: of those that were like a swipe on the actual
Speaker 1: like you know, the cashier is sitting behind a screen
Speaker 1: where it's like a touch screen where they tap and
Speaker 1: some of them are swivel mounted now, but back then
Speaker 1: it was just literally a fixed terminal with a touch
Speaker 1: screen and then a swipe reader on the right. And
Speaker 1: so the person was like, Okay, it'll be whatever, ten
Speaker 1: dollars forty eight cents and let me, you know, swipe
Speaker 1: your card. And I said, oh, I said, I'm testing
Speaker 1: this new tech. Where I can use my phone as
Speaker 1: a credit card, and they're like, oh, that's not gonna work.
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, no, it will work. But sure enough
Speaker 1: it didn't work. But I'm sitting there like tapping the
Speaker 1: side of their terminal. They probably thought I was like
Speaker 1: trying to hack the system because nobody knew about this,
Speaker 1: you know, this Samsung tap to pay system. It was
Speaker 1: so embarrassing. It ended up not working, and I kept saying,
Speaker 1: let me try one more time, and the cashier was
Speaker 1: actually friendly enough to let me try it a couple
Speaker 1: times before they're like, all right, kid, no more, We're
Speaker 1: done with this. You know, do you have a regular
Speaker 1: credit card? And so finally it didn't work and I
Speaker 1: got my regular credit card out. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, the Samsung system was kind of cool
Speaker 1: because it would work in a lot of mom and
Speaker 1: pop shops that didn't have tap to pay set up
Speaker 1: just yet, but the credit card terminal was there typically
Speaker 1: where you either swipe your card or dip it. But
Speaker 1: it was kind of cool. But then they ended up
Speaker 1: stopping that technology. They stopped building it into their phones.
Speaker 1: I forget which phone. It was either the S twenty
Speaker 1: or the S twenty one. I think it was yes,
Speaker 1: twenty maybe, but they stopped building that technology in and
Speaker 1: so that's when I stopped favoring Samsung Pay because it
Speaker 1: was there's no longer an advantage over Google Pay unless
Speaker 1: you just like the way Samsung Pay worked. But just
Speaker 1: these little things I have over the years. You know,
Speaker 1: I've been working at KTLA and testing technology for like
Speaker 1: what fifteen years now, and so well, I've been working
Speaker 1: at KTLA for over ten but before that, I did
Speaker 1: cover technology as well for cnet and some other places,
Speaker 1: and so I've been testing technology in one form or
Speaker 1: another for many many years. And it's just so funny
Speaker 1: the things that you have to do. You know, Like
Speaker 1: I was on a plane once and I was testing
Speaker 1: out a VR headset for watching a movie, and it's
Speaker 1: just like people were probably looking at me like what
Speaker 1: in the world is this person doing, you know, And
Speaker 1: it's the thing, the silly little things you have to
Speaker 1: do to test out this technology. You know, we're on vacation,
Speaker 1: I asked my wife, I'm like, hey, do you mind
Speaker 1: if we, you know, use this thing on the beach
Speaker 1: or you know, can you can you get a shot
Speaker 1: of me trying this out or whatever, and it's it's
Speaker 1: just always like kind of a little eye roll. But
Speaker 1: now I've got kids in on it, so my kids
Speaker 1: will really help me out. I'll be like, hey, can
Speaker 1: you just get a shot of me doing this or whatever.
Speaker 1: But it is fun. It's just funny the things that
Speaker 1: you you know, technology is evolving, it's ever changing, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't always work exactly the way it's supposed to
Speaker 1: on day one, and so you know, but I do
Speaker 1: enjoy testing this stuff out. It just takes a little
Speaker 1: bit longer and people think you're a little bit nutty
Speaker 1: sometimes anyway, So those are the tap to pay situations
Speaker 1: you need to be aware of. Pick an app, whether
Speaker 1: it's Apple Pay on your iPhone, definitely definitely use it,
Speaker 1: or pick Google Pay or Samsung Pay on the Android.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to the next story of the week.
Speaker 1: E three is returning in twenty twenty three. E three
Speaker 1: I call it the Video Game Convention now it's more
Speaker 1: of an interactive entertainment show. It's finally coming back to
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Convention Center the second week of June
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. Many people thought this show was completely dead.
Speaker 1: It has been put on for many years by the
Speaker 1: Entertainment Software Association. It looks like they still own the show,
Speaker 1: but it went away during COVID and then it kind
Speaker 1: of came back as a virtual thing, you know, but
Speaker 1: it was not. It just lost its luster. In person
Speaker 1: still the way to go with a lot of these
Speaker 1: big shows, and it is coming back. They made an
Speaker 1: announcement that they are now teaming up with this company
Speaker 1: called whereas it read pop, I guess. They put on
Speaker 1: a lot of shows, including packs, the New York Comic
Speaker 1: Con and Star Wars celebration. So E three twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three will welcome back publishers, developers, journalists, content creators, manufacturers, buyers,
Speaker 1: and licensers. The event will highlight digital showcases and feature
Speaker 1: in person consumer components. So it sounds like this is
Speaker 1: a win for video game fans. In recent years it
Speaker 1: has been open to the public. It looks like they
Speaker 1: will probably continue to do that again. Registration will be
Speaker 1: announced in late twenty twenty two. Media creators, industry professionals
Speaker 1: and fans. There you go. Fans are encouraged to visit
Speaker 1: the website for updates. SO again E three returning in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. So video game. Folks, mark your calendar
Speaker 1: second week of June if you want to travel to
Speaker 1: Los Angeles or just kind of if you're in LA.
Speaker 1: Definitely a place to go. COVID took a really hard
Speaker 1: hit on a lot of these in person things, but
Speaker 1: this is the year a lot of them are coming
Speaker 1: back or potentially next year if they couldn't get their
Speaker 1: act together for this year. All right, let's get to
Speaker 1: the next question. Let's see this comes from no one.
Speaker 1: They didn't put a name. I would like to purchase
Speaker 1: the locator tags to put on my trailer and off
Speaker 1: road car. I am not an Apple person. I have
Speaker 1: looked at several that need to be charged every two weeks.
Speaker 1: What type do you recommend? Thank you? If you don't
Speaker 1: have Apple products, I would recommend Tile instead of Apple.
Speaker 1: The ones that you're looking at that need to be
Speaker 1: charged every two weeks, those are GPS receivers and if
Speaker 1: you really want like the most secure tag for your
Speaker 1: trailer and off road car, yes, I would recommend those.
Speaker 1: I know there's a bunch of I think T Mobile
Speaker 1: makes one that's a GPS tracker. There are some other
Speaker 1: ones out there, but the reality is if it's a
Speaker 1: GPS tracker. The battery is gonna die very quickly because
Speaker 1: GPS takes a lot of battery to continually update the location.
Speaker 1: The way that the air tags work and the way
Speaker 1: that TILE works is a combination of Bluetooth and a
Speaker 1: finding network, and so there is not actual GPS on
Speaker 1: these devices. What's happening is when a locator device gets nearby,
Speaker 1: and a locator device could be an Android phone with
Speaker 1: the Tile app installed on it, or an iPhone that
Speaker 1: is just nearby with the air tags, or I guess
Speaker 1: with Tile as well. But those devices kind of ping
Speaker 1: the locator device and they say, oh, okay, here I am,
Speaker 1: and the locator device says, okay, I know I'm in
Speaker 1: this little area, so that must be the area that
Speaker 1: the tag is in. So they're not exact, they're not precise,
Speaker 1: and they're not real time, but they still give you
Speaker 1: a pretty good idea of where things are. And they
Speaker 1: also have built in audible tones, and when it's when
Speaker 1: it's within range of Bluetooth, like near your phone, you
Speaker 1: can use a Bluetooth to really hone in on the
Speaker 1: location of these tags specifically, So if you don't have Apple,
Speaker 1: I would recommend looking into Tile. Tile is the second
Speaker 1: best when it comes to the locator tags, and I
Speaker 1: would say they are a distant second because Apple just
Speaker 1: has way more, way, way, way more products attempting to
Speaker 1: locate their tags than Tie does and Tile has. They're
Speaker 1: getting better because I think people have really ramped up
Speaker 1: the knowledge of these tags, and so more people are
Speaker 1: using Tile because of air tag is kind of the
Speaker 1: halo effect. But also I think that Amazon activated what's
Speaker 1: called Amazon Sidewalk, which also works with Tile, so many
Speaker 1: more devices are sort of linked in to this finding
Speaker 1: network for Tile. But that's what I recommend. Check them out.
Speaker 1: And you know, I don't know if it's gonna work,
Speaker 1: but it's better to have it on there than to not.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about what do you want to
Speaker 1: talk about gas prices? Let's talk about gas prices. So
Speaker 1: I did a segment on KTLA about expensive gas prices.
Speaker 1: I know, very expensive, but I was trying to find
Speaker 1: some new ways to sort of, you know, cut down
Speaker 1: on some of these expensive gas prices. So I saw
Speaker 1: a lot of these gas stations want you to pay
Speaker 1: through their app. So I noticed seventy six has an app,
Speaker 1: has an app exon mobile has an app, and all
Speaker 1: of these apps, the trick is that they want you
Speaker 1: to sign up for their rewards program. They'll give you
Speaker 1: a little bit of either cash back or points based
Speaker 1: on that. But then if you pay by linking your
Speaker 1: checking account, they'll give you a little bit more cash back.
Speaker 1: And I typically would not recommend doing that. I'd say,
Speaker 1: just use your card at the pump because it's much easier.
Speaker 1: It's just quicker. I know a lot of people get
Speaker 1: cash back on their credit cards. So but in this case,
Speaker 1: you know, I think because gas prices are so high,
Speaker 1: you've got to look for some new ways of saving
Speaker 1: even more. Anything helps, Even if you could save five
Speaker 1: to ten cents a gallon with the prices this high,
Speaker 1: it's better than nothing. And so what these companies want
Speaker 1: you to do is pay through your checking account. And
Speaker 1: the reason why they like your checking account is because
Speaker 1: they pay less fees and so they pass along some
Speaker 1: of that savings to you. And so I wouldn't typically
Speaker 1: recommend giving out your checking account to various companies. But
Speaker 1: if it does save you some money, do your research
Speaker 1: see if it's worth it. It's only worth it if
Speaker 1: you go to the same station I wouldn't say sign
Speaker 1: up for every rewards app from a gas station and
Speaker 1: put in your checking account number on all of them.
Speaker 1: No way. I think that you pick and choose, like
Speaker 1: one gas station that you like, and then kind of
Speaker 1: hone in on that. Obviously, you can use gas Buddy,
Speaker 1: you can use gas Guru, you can use ways to
Speaker 1: find low gas prices. Also, an app called i Exit
Speaker 1: is really good and their prices are very much updated
Speaker 1: and it can tell you where to go for the
Speaker 1: best gas price, especially when you're traveling on the freeway
Speaker 1: or the highway and you're on a road trip filling up.
Speaker 1: You know, most of the time we just stop at
Speaker 1: the most convenient station. But if you have this power
Speaker 1: and knowledge of knowing that the gas station two stops
Speaker 1: ahead is cheaper than the exit right up ahead, then
Speaker 1: that is good knowledge. It's power, and that will translate
Speaker 1: into savings. The other app that I've been testing out,
Speaker 1: which I think is kind of cool. Now, you know,
Speaker 1: if you listen to this show, I do drive a Teslas,
Speaker 1: so don't say I'm biased and I don't know anything
Speaker 1: about gas price. I still do have a gas car
Speaker 1: in the family, and so it is definitely something that
Speaker 1: we look to save money on when we fill up,
Speaker 1: but this upside app can help you do that because
Speaker 1: it's an app that's like a cash back rewards app.
Speaker 1: And typically I wouldn't really recommend these things in the
Speaker 1: past because they're kind of a hassle. But I did
Speaker 1: test it out, not with gas, but with groceries, and
Speaker 1: so a grocery store was giving a bunch of cash back.
Speaker 1: I think it was like eighteen percent, which is pretty wild.
Speaker 1: So I went in there. You have to So what
Speaker 1: I did was I had to activate the deal from
Speaker 1: the app. Then I had to put in my credit
Speaker 1: card number on the app. You only have to put
Speaker 1: in your first six digits in the last four you
Speaker 1: activate the offer. You go in there and you just
Speaker 1: shop as usual, and that's it. You have like a
Speaker 1: window of time to shop. I think it was four hours.
Speaker 1: And so somehow they figure out that you actually indeed
Speaker 1: shop there. I guess they somehow scour the credit card
Speaker 1: numbers on their back end. I don't know if the
Speaker 1: grocery store shares that with them. I have no idea,
Speaker 1: but somehow the next morning it said, up, we verified
Speaker 1: your purchase, and it knew exactly how much I spent
Speaker 1: and I got my eighteen percent cash back. It was
Speaker 1: like seven bucks. I thought that was pretty cool, and
Speaker 1: it was like somewhere I would go normally to shop.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like I was going out of my way. Now,
Speaker 1: the idea of this app is that it is marketing
Speaker 1: to you. So I've talked about this in the past.
Speaker 1: They are not doing you a favor, They are not
Speaker 1: helping you out. They are marketing to you. So you
Speaker 1: may not know it, but eventually you will purchase a
Speaker 1: pizza at a place that has twenty percent off through
Speaker 1: this app because you think it's a good deal. And
Speaker 1: it may be. But again, this is all marketing, and
Speaker 1: so that's the end game here, is that they're trying
Speaker 1: to get you to eventually spend more money or money
Speaker 1: that you wouldn't typically spend, and that's why they give
Speaker 1: you these cash back deals throughout the the regular money
Speaker 1: that you're spending, to get you to spend even more eventually. Look,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying don't do it. I'm just saying these
Speaker 1: are the facts of how these things work. These things
Speaker 1: are not doing you a favor. They are marketing machines
Speaker 1: that are built to help market things to you. And
Speaker 1: that marketing could be a new restaurant that opens up
Speaker 1: and it may say, hey, twenty five percent off if
Speaker 1: you go get a burger at this new restaurant. But
Speaker 1: I mean, is that a bad thing? Not necessarily if
Speaker 1: you're gonna buy a burger anyway, if you're gonna go
Speaker 1: get dinner anyway, why not go to the places twenty
Speaker 1: five percent off and give it a try so upside app.
Speaker 1: You can find the link on my I'll put it
Speaker 1: on the show notes. But they also have this referral
Speaker 1: system where you can earn money off of people that
Speaker 1: sign up under you and then people that sign up
Speaker 1: under them. So it's kind of like a little pyramid scheme,
Speaker 1: although I technically don't know if it's called that. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying it's that, but it feels that way because
Speaker 1: anyone who signs up under your link, you get a
Speaker 1: little cash back from them, and anyone who signs up
Speaker 1: from them, you get a little off of them. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like this little thing, but it does add
Speaker 1: up and it seems to be worth it. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna save money on gas going to the
Speaker 1: station that you typically go to and it's a better deal.
Speaker 1: Why not? But again I did try it, so I
Speaker 1: was telling you about that one. So upside app is
Speaker 1: the details on that. Pam says, Hey, Rich, happy fourth.
Speaker 1: Can you recommend a monthly budget slash bill tracker app?
Speaker 1: There are so many out there as always, Thank you, Pam, Pam.
Speaker 1: I don't really use too many of these budget and
Speaker 1: bill track apps. I did use true Bill at one point.
Speaker 1: I thought it was great. Mint is also a good
Speaker 1: one that I've used throughout the years. I think that
Speaker 1: one's good. Personal Capital is one that seems to be
Speaker 1: pretty good as well. They're all they're all kind of
Speaker 1: the same thing. They all aggregate your different accounts that
Speaker 1: you have and put them all into one place and
Speaker 1: you can see your net worth. They also have some
Speaker 1: sort of monthly bill slash budgeting built into them, slash
Speaker 1: subscription trackers, so you can see the things you're subscribed to.
Speaker 1: Quite honestly, I use a spreadsheet. I use an Excel
Speaker 1: spread or just a spreadsheet. I should say that I
Speaker 1: go in every single week and I put in everything
Speaker 1: that I expect to spend and the money that I
Speaker 1: expect to have come in, and I get it to zero,
Speaker 1: and so I've basically spent all of my money on
Speaker 1: paper before I've gotten it, and then as I go
Speaker 1: along the week, I put in the transactions that I
Speaker 1: do and continue to make sure that everything is zeroed out,
Speaker 1: putting in money for savings, putting in money for you know, kids, college,
Speaker 1: whatever I can throughout the way. But again, it's a
Speaker 1: very manual process. There is no easy way that I've
Speaker 1: found to do this. There are many apps that promise
Speaker 1: to make it easy, but quite honestly, I've been doing
Speaker 1: this method for fifteen years now and I find it
Speaker 1: to be the best method for actually seeing where your
Speaker 1: money's going and directing your money to where you want
Speaker 1: it to go. I know I'm a little weird in
Speaker 1: that aspect, but I don't think that there is a
Speaker 1: simple automated way to do your budget because you're you know,
Speaker 1: it's just you got to figure out where your money's going,
Speaker 1: where it's going before the month starts, and then direct
Speaker 1: it towards those places. And for me personally, I just
Speaker 1: find that that putting all the money down and spending
Speaker 1: it on paper before I get it gives me a
Speaker 1: better understanding of how much spending ability I have that month.
Speaker 1: Some months are are worse than others. You know, you
Speaker 1: get these big bills that come in, you get these
Speaker 1: unexpected charges. You know, you're paying for your insurance that month,
Speaker 1: and it's a little bit more than the month before.
Speaker 1: And so again it's just it's just easier for me
Speaker 1: to do this spreadsheet and figure it all out on
Speaker 1: paper and then just kind of when I do get
Speaker 1: those things in, just mark them off and continually optimize
Speaker 1: and and save. That's the best advice is to really
Speaker 1: save and to always be optimizing what you're spending your
Speaker 1: money on. All right, let's get to the final spot,
Speaker 1: the final talking point. I'm gonna talk about some of
Speaker 1: the editing apps I like. I did a segment on
Speaker 1: KTLA because I will admit that an editing app called well,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you about it in a little bit, but
Speaker 1: this editing app really changed my life. So I was
Speaker 1: really struggling to edit my Instagram reels and I follow
Speaker 1: a guy named Zach Honig Honing I think you say
Speaker 1: is his name. He I believe, used to be with
Speaker 1: the Points guy and now he's off at a different startup.
Speaker 1: But he's a big travel guy. He's just traveling all
Speaker 1: the time, and so his tips are really really handy.
Speaker 1: Let me see if I can find him on here
Speaker 1: Instagram Zach h O n I G. Yeah, Zach Hoenig
Speaker 1: h O nig. And he's just very very handy person.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, he's got one hundred and nineteen thousand followers,
Speaker 1: so clearly people like like what he's what. He's tweeting
Speaker 1: our instagramming about as much as I do. And so
Speaker 1: he wrote me, I forget, but I just said, oh,
Speaker 1: your stories are so I forget what I said to him.
Speaker 1: But he was like, oh dude. He's like, don't use
Speaker 1: the built in Instagram editing. He's like, use an app
Speaker 1: called Splice. That's what I use. And I downloaded it.
Speaker 1: It was a two week free trial. It was very
Speaker 1: expensive to purchase. It was like seventy bucks for the year.
Speaker 1: But I said, you know what, I kind of like,
Speaker 1: do this for a living, so let me let me
Speaker 1: actually pay for this, and so I did, and I
Speaker 1: will tell you it has changed my life because it's
Speaker 1: so much better to edit on that app than anything
Speaker 1: else that these built in editors give you on the
Speaker 1: social media apps. And so I'm telling you that because
Speaker 1: I don't think you need to go out and buy
Speaker 1: Splice for seventy dollars for the year, or even three
Speaker 1: dollars a week, which I think is what they charge
Speaker 1: if you buy it weekly. But there are two other
Speaker 1: apps I think are really good. Splice is the best.
Speaker 1: I'll just tell you that. But yes, not everyone wants
Speaker 1: to pay for editing. If you just want to do
Speaker 1: this for fun, for friends, for family, for your Instagram,
Speaker 1: you probably want to use a free option, and that
Speaker 1: is probably why cap Cut. Cap Cut is the most
Speaker 1: popular free video editing app. It is always at the
Speaker 1: top of the app store lists. It's for I wes
Speaker 1: and Android. This app is amazing. There are so many
Speaker 1: features built in to help you make creative reels. It
Speaker 1: is great. The downside is that it's owned by TikTok,
Speaker 1: so if you are not comfortable with that reality, you
Speaker 1: may want to use the different app. But it is
Speaker 1: really really good. There is just about every editing tool
Speaker 1: you can think of built into cap Cut. Inshot has
Speaker 1: been around forever. You might have used it back in
Speaker 1: the day to help squeeze your your four x three
Speaker 1: Instagram pictures into a square with some borders on the side.
Speaker 1: Now they have a fully robust editing app. This one
Speaker 1: is fully free as well, but they will try to
Speaker 1: pay you make you pay to upgrade, but you don't
Speaker 1: have to if you don't. There are on screen ads
Speaker 1: just about everywhere. There's also a watermark logo, but you
Speaker 1: can get rid of that by watching an ad. And
Speaker 1: it's just a great all around editing app. It does
Speaker 1: work really well with both photos and videos. And finally,
Speaker 1: like I mentioned, Splice is really good. But Splice is
Speaker 1: definitely a little bit more on the high end because
Speaker 1: it does cost more money. All right, So those are
Speaker 1: the three apps I recommend. Oh wow, and if you want,
Speaker 1: by the way, check out my Instagram reels. I do
Speaker 1: you know, I don't put a tonnel work into them,
Speaker 1: but I do enjoy doing those and I do enjoy
Speaker 1: coming up with those on a reasonably regular basis. All right.
Speaker 1: That sound means that is going to do it for
Speaker 1: this episode of the show. If you would like to
Speaker 1: submit a question for me to answer, just go to
Speaker 1: my Facebook page, Facebook dot com, slash rich on Tech
Speaker 1: hit the big blue send email button, or go to
Speaker 1: rich on Tech dot tv and hit the email icon. Also,
Speaker 1: I would love it if you had a rate and
Speaker 1: review this podcast. Just go to the listening app of
Speaker 1: your choice write a quick line about what you like
Speaker 1: about this show to help other people understand why they
Speaker 1: should listen. You can find me on all social media.
Speaker 1: I am at Rich on tech and no matter where
Speaker 1: you live in the US, you can download the free
Speaker 1: KTLA plus app on Apple, TV, Fire TV, and Roku.
Speaker 1: Scroll to the tech section and you can watch all
Speaker 1: of my TV segments on demand. My name is Rich Demiro.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening. There are so many
Speaker 1: ways you can spend an hour of your time. I
Speaker 1: do appreciate you. I do appreciate you spending it right
Speaker 1: here with me. Thank you. I'll talk to you real soon.