Speaker 1: Amazon announces new fire tablets, nestcams have a new subscription model,
Speaker 1: and what you're really spending your money on during quarantine times?
Speaker 1: Oh plus your tech questions answered? What's going on? I'm
Speaker 1: Rich Demiro and this is Rich on Tech, the podcast
Speaker 1: where I talk about the tech stuff I think you
Speaker 1: should know about and I also answer the questions that
Speaker 1: you send me. My name is Rich Dmiro, tech reporter
Speaker 1: at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles. Joining me is
Speaker 1: producer Megan, who is doing this podcast with a mask
Speaker 1: on even though we're on video chat. Welcome to the show, Megan.
Speaker 2: You know, I just love wearing my mask everywhere. I
Speaker 2: just have to.
Speaker 1: I went from my first run in a mask yesterday
Speaker 1: and it wasn't that bad. It was I stopped kind
Speaker 1: of running outside because I don't want to deal with
Speaker 1: the looks. So I I said, you.
Speaker 2: Know, what do you feel like you were getting? Look?
Speaker 1: I got one guy who I was passing who would
Speaker 1: give me like the cross symbol, you know, like I
Speaker 1: was the devil, and so that was enough. I got
Speaker 1: that twice from him and no.
Speaker 2: Are you kidding?
Speaker 1: Are you kidding kidding?
Speaker 2: That actually happened.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that actually happened, so I you know, but I
Speaker 1: so I counted because you know, my wife and I
Speaker 1: went on a walk with the kids, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: should we have these on? Should we not? Now I'm
Speaker 1: still unclear if you have to because they said you
Speaker 1: have to have masks whenever you leave your house. But
Speaker 1: it's still very like like the documentation is not clear.
Speaker 1: But anyway, so I was counting, like the amount of people.
Speaker 1: This was the day before he said you always have
Speaker 1: to have masks, you know. Yeah, so I would say
Speaker 1: it's about when I was running, it was about fifty
Speaker 1: percent of people, like maybe even last maybe thirty percent
Speaker 1: that had them on. But now I guess everyone is
Speaker 1: in LA. I'm not really sure. So how are you doing.
Speaker 2: I'm good. You know.
Speaker 3: I have a cotton mask which like it's I got
Speaker 3: it on like at sea, and it's totally like bradable,
Speaker 3: So like I like that I have that when I
Speaker 3: go outside because it's not like super uncomfortable like the
Speaker 3: medical masks are.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I was.
Speaker 1: Using saran wrap and it just seemed like that's probably
Speaker 1: not a good idea. It definitely it protects you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that sounds really uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: It was it was. Yeah, So I did my run
Speaker 1: and I actually did not think it was that bad.
Speaker 1: It was. It's not ideal, and but you know, it's
Speaker 1: I don't know anyway, So how weird is this? So
Speaker 1: last night I had a dream that we had an earthquake.
Speaker 1: And I never dreamed about earthquakes. I don't really think
Speaker 1: about them or care about them. But I just happen
Speaker 1: to have a dream. And the other part about the
Speaker 1: dream is that I was in Las Vegas, Like I
Speaker 1: was in like a casino with like a bunch of
Speaker 1: friends and like whatever, and we were woken up by
Speaker 1: this earthquake. And then when I wake up, the first
Speaker 1: story I see is that there was like a huge
Speaker 1: earthquake in on the border of like whatever, California and Nevada.
Speaker 1: Oh that's strange.
Speaker 2: Oh crazy? Are you predicting the future?
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I'm gonna I'm gonna see if
Speaker 1: I can remember my dream tonight, and maybe it'll be
Speaker 1: some lottery numbers. All right, let's get make that happen.
Speaker 1: Let's get into the first story of the week. Amazon
Speaker 1: has some new fire tablets, and it's interesting how many
Speaker 1: tech products have come out during the quarantine. And I
Speaker 1: guess a lot of these were in the pipeline and
Speaker 1: it's they come at a good time because people are
Speaker 1: at home, we need technology, and tablets are very very
Speaker 1: popular right now. So three new tablets. So, and they're
Speaker 1: not brand new, they're just kind of building upon what
Speaker 1: they've already had. But this is kind of their I
Speaker 1: would say, this is let's see, I'm gonna see if
Speaker 1: this is kind of their middle line or you know,
Speaker 1: cause they Amazon. I would say all of their tablets
Speaker 1: are pretty budget friendly, but they have some that are
Speaker 1: super duper cheap and some that are not so cheap.
Speaker 1: So I think these are right about in the middle. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So there's the fire seven, which is like their basic
Speaker 1: basic tablet for fifty dollars. Then you have the fire
Speaker 1: HD eight, and then the ten is kind of their
Speaker 1: flagship one. So these are the eight. So Fire HD
Speaker 1: eight has an eight inch display, faster performance with two
Speaker 1: gigabytes a RAM instead of one, Oh my gosh, or
Speaker 1: thirty percent faster, I don't know. It says thirty percent
Speaker 1: faster with two gigs. That means I'm guessing the old
Speaker 1: one used to have one. That's really sad. Two times
Speaker 1: the expandable storage with up to one terabyte via a
Speaker 1: micro SD card, twelve hours of battery life. And the
Speaker 1: big thing I think that they changed here is the
Speaker 1: USB C. It used to come with micro USB, which
Speaker 1: is the older version of charging, and USB C is
Speaker 1: much more modern. And this is only ninety dollars, which
Speaker 1: is pretty good for a tablet. Now. I generally do
Speaker 1: not recommend this tablet because it is so bare, it's
Speaker 1: so basic. It's kind of like it's not very good.
Speaker 1: Then they have the but we'll see I have not
Speaker 1: tested this recently. Then they have the fire HD eight plus.
Speaker 1: This is kind of the same thing as before, except
Speaker 1: you get wireless charging and kind of nice right to have.
Speaker 1: I personally don't think you need wireless charging on a
Speaker 1: tablet because you just plug it in. Tablets usually last
Speaker 1: for a while. Yeah, but there you go. And that
Speaker 1: one's one hundred and nine dollars one hundred and ten,
Speaker 1: so twenty more dollars for wireless charging. If you're gonna
Speaker 1: get this, I would say, I don't even think you
Speaker 1: need that. I would say just skip it if you're
Speaker 1: gonna go with that. And then finally they have a
Speaker 1: fire HD eight Kids Edition which includes one year of
Speaker 1: Amazon Free Time Unlimited, a new kid proof case with
Speaker 1: a stand, which is cool, and then a two year
Speaker 1: worry free guarantee which means that if your kid breaks this,
Speaker 1: you can easily just get another one, which is kind
Speaker 1: of nice. And so again I did put a request
Speaker 1: out to Amazon to get these tablets in because I
Speaker 1: feel like it's been a while since I did anything
Speaker 1: with these tablets and I kind of want to see
Speaker 1: what the deal is with them. And so I think
Speaker 1: we're gonna do a story on these three tablets just
Speaker 1: to kind of give them the once over and see
Speaker 1: what the deal is. Because the kids one is one forty,
Speaker 1: the other one's one ten, and the basic one is ninety.
Speaker 1: And I still overall think that you're if you're buying
Speaker 1: a tablet, you are one best served with the entry
Speaker 1: level iPad just because of what you get on it.
Speaker 1: You know, all the apps, all the features, the Apple ecosystem,
Speaker 1: so so.
Speaker 2: You you will not be buying I.
Speaker 1: Will not be. In fact, I did buy a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago. I bought these tablets for my kids,
Speaker 1: and I returned them the next day because they were
Speaker 1: such a value. But they just the kids didn't like them.
Speaker 1: They they kept doing things wrong on them. That just
Speaker 1: wasn't the app selection that you get on the iPad.
Speaker 1: The iPad is more money, but you get way more
Speaker 1: out of it, so cheaper is not always better.
Speaker 3: Right, Okay, So our first question today comes from Anna simply,
Speaker 3: how can you tell if a website is a true
Speaker 3: retail website?
Speaker 1: Is true true retail website? You mean, like she means
Speaker 1: like legitimate retail website.
Speaker 2: I'm guessing I'm assuming that's what she means. Yeah, like
Speaker 2: it's a legit store online store.
Speaker 1: That's a good question. I I don't know that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a that's a good question because you kind of
Speaker 1: just it's like you kind of know, right you look
Speaker 1: at it and you kind of know if you see Okay,
Speaker 1: So I'll give you some of my thoughts on this
Speaker 1: because a lot of times I get questions about things
Speaker 1: that are selling online and you can tell they're own websites. Okay.
Speaker 1: Number one giveaway that you don't want to order from
Speaker 1: that website is if it has like a flashing bar
Speaker 1: with like a countdown to like, if you get off
Speaker 1: this website, you are going to lose that deal. That's
Speaker 1: number one.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, right, yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, Amazon does actually do that, which is
Speaker 1: kind of funny because they do with their lightning deals,
Speaker 1: but not to the way that these random websites will
Speaker 1: do it. So if you see that, I would I
Speaker 1: would walk away. Number two, If you see any sort
Speaker 1: of pop ups like all over the place with like
Speaker 1: codes on them and like just just a lot of
Speaker 1: pop ups like the high the high pressure sales tactics,
Speaker 1: if you see that, get away. That's it's just not
Speaker 1: going to be a legit website. You don't want to
Speaker 1: order from a web get this deal right now, exactly right,
Speaker 1: because they know that they somehow got you to that
Speaker 1: website in a shady way, and now they don't want
Speaker 1: you to leave from that website without purchasing. Does that
Speaker 1: make sense?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: And the other the other thing I always do and
Speaker 1: not that. Look, I don't really order from random websites.
Speaker 1: I kind of order from Amazon, from best Buy, from Target,
Speaker 1: from Walmart. And I did order something the other day
Speaker 1: from Oxo dot com, which is you do you know that brand?
Speaker 1: It's like the kitchen supplies, It's like they're, you know,
Speaker 1: fancy kitchen supplies. So I cut my finger on a
Speaker 1: on a can the other day, and so I need
Speaker 1: a new can opener because that's like the third time
Speaker 1: I cut myself on this can opener. So I said,
Speaker 1: no more, I'm going back to this old can opener.
Speaker 1: And I had to order it directly from the website
Speaker 1: because no other store had it in stock. And you know,
Speaker 1: you know that's a legit website because it's a big company.
Speaker 1: So those are the ways. I also look for contact information,
Speaker 1: So at the bottom, if you can't find an address,
Speaker 1: a physical address, a physical email address. And also if
Speaker 1: people aren't linking to the website, it's probably not legit.
Speaker 1: If they don't have an Instagram presence or a Twitter
Speaker 1: presence or a Facebook presence, or you click on those
Speaker 1: links and they bring you nowhere, that means that they
Speaker 1: just went to WordPress, they downloaded a template and they
Speaker 1: forgot to put in or at the end it's like
Speaker 1: the yeah, this is the biggest giveaway. If you go
Speaker 1: to the bottom of the website and the it's literally
Speaker 1: still the word Press template, like they forgot to fill
Speaker 1: in their Instagram or fill in their Twitter, and it's
Speaker 1: still such a sampler demo. So those are the kind
Speaker 1: of things that I would look out for.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've I've been on Instagram before and I'll get
Speaker 3: ads and I'll like click the ad because it looks
Speaker 3: like a cute dress. And then I go to the
Speaker 3: Instagram account and there's like five followers and like it's
Speaker 3: just sketchy. It's like where did this come from? Like
Speaker 3: is it actually? I don't know who knows if it's
Speaker 3: real or not.
Speaker 1: But I and I see both sides because I don't
Speaker 1: want to put someone like let's say, Megan, you started
Speaker 1: making something and selling it on Etsy, or I don't
Speaker 1: want to put you at a disadvantage because a small
Speaker 1: business has to start somewhere. But I feel like there
Speaker 1: are telltale signs and like you said, you probably used
Speaker 1: your common sense when it came to looking at that,
Speaker 1: saying I don't know, this is just someone that didn't
Speaker 1: add by on Instagram and not much more. And who
Speaker 1: knows if I'm ever going to see this dress. If
Speaker 1: you have some Nest cameras in your house, they are
Speaker 1: changing your subscription or they're asking you to change your subscription.
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is going to be forced
Speaker 1: on you or if eventually you'll have to switch over
Speaker 1: what but now it's called nest Aware, and this is
Speaker 1: something that Google announced last year, actually in about October,
Speaker 1: I believe it was at their event in New York City.
Speaker 1: And it's kind of cool. So some people are gonna
Speaker 1: actually win in this scenario, other people might not, depending
Speaker 1: on how many cameras you have. I think in my
Speaker 1: case it comes out to be cheaper with their new
Speaker 1: subscription than it did for what I was paying before.
Speaker 1: So instead of paying per camera, now any device you
Speaker 1: have in your house is all covered by one price
Speaker 1: per month. So you can do a six dollars a
Speaker 1: month subscription or sixty dollars a year, which saves you
Speaker 1: six times twelve of seventy two versus. So you can
Speaker 1: save two dollars a month or dollar a month by
Speaker 1: going for the yearly, which most people probably would, or
Speaker 1: you can just go monthly. Sometimes people like monthly because
Speaker 1: it's just easier to budget that way. Six bucks, you know,
Speaker 1: that's so much it costs. So the new nest Aware
Speaker 1: comes with thirty days of event video history. Now let
Speaker 1: me explain the difference here. Now, the new thing is
Speaker 1: you can pay more, So you can pay twelve dollars
Speaker 1: a month, which is double or one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: for the year and get ten days of history or sorry,
Speaker 1: the sixty days of event history and twenty four to
Speaker 1: seven video. So let me break this down for you.
Speaker 1: What they're doing here is they're kind of making the
Speaker 1: default where your camera is not continuously recording anymore. It
Speaker 1: is now looking for motion, and once it sees motion,
Speaker 1: that's when it will start recording a clip and sending
Speaker 1: it to you. What does that mean? That saves Google
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of money because they're not recording millions
Speaker 1: and millions of cameras twenty four to seven three sixty five.
Speaker 1: Only people who pay extra will get that twenty four
Speaker 1: to seven recording history. And I would say for a
Speaker 1: majority of people, they probably don't need the twenty four
Speaker 1: to seven recording history unless you're running a business operation
Speaker 1: out of your home right or a business operation in general,
Speaker 1: because if someone walks past your house, it you know,
Speaker 1: it triggers the clip, It will record the clip and
Speaker 1: then you have the clip of the person. Most of
Speaker 1: the time you don't need the full twenty four to
Speaker 1: seven So.
Speaker 2: I mean you don't need the still the like this
Speaker 2: ill shots. Anyways, if there's nothing going on.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, basically, And I think the way that these
Speaker 1: cameras work is I think they are recording, well maybe not,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm curious if they're still recording to
Speaker 1: the cloud twenty four to seven but not actually giving
Speaker 1: it to you unless you get that little clip, you know,
Speaker 1: or unless you pay for the extra amount. But the
Speaker 1: bottom line is for ninety nine percent of people, this
Speaker 1: is probably gonna save them some money, and on Google's
Speaker 1: back end, it saves them a lot of money. The
Speaker 1: other thing is that, let's see, I mean, that's basically it.
Speaker 1: They're going to send you a clip a notification to
Speaker 1: your phone when something happens. So they send you an
Speaker 1: alert and it says if you prefer twenty four to
Speaker 1: seven continuous recording, then you have to go to the
Speaker 1: Nest Aware Plus, which is that expensive one. Now here's
Speaker 1: the other thing that I think is kind of cool,
Speaker 1: and they talked about this at the event as well.
Speaker 1: They are now turning all those Nest speakers, like you
Speaker 1: know that little Google Home that you have one of
Speaker 1: those kind of things, or the Nest Display, They're turning
Speaker 1: those into almost a security system because now those are
Speaker 1: going to listen for critical sounds like a smoke alarm
Speaker 1: or glass breaking. So if you have one of these
Speaker 1: speakers in your home, you now have a kind of
Speaker 1: a little security system in a.
Speaker 2: Or if you have just the Google Wi Fi, it'll
Speaker 2: listen that one.
Speaker 1: I don't know, because Google Wi Fi does have Google
Speaker 1: Assistant built in, and it does have it has microphones, right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because you can use Google Assistant on it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, you can talk to it.
Speaker 1: So that's interesting. So I guess that probably would be
Speaker 1: a part of it. It says it says Nest speakers
Speaker 1: and displays, So I'm not sure if the Google Nest
Speaker 1: Wi Fi is included in that because it's not necessarily
Speaker 1: a speaker or a display, but it does function that way.
Speaker 1: But that's a good question. Now, the other thing they're
Speaker 1: going to do is you can call nine one one
Speaker 1: from the app. So let's say you're vacationing in Florida.
Speaker 1: You get a little alert that there is glass breakage
Speaker 1: in your room with your you know, Google Home. You
Speaker 1: can open up the app from the alert and it
Speaker 1: will dial nine one one in the LA area where
Speaker 1: you live. Not you know, if you just dialed nine
Speaker 1: one on your smartphone in Florida, it would rout you
Speaker 1: to you know, Tampa or wherever you are. So that's
Speaker 1: kind of a cool thing, too smart.
Speaker 2: That's really cool. That's really cool.
Speaker 1: Now, the big caveat to all this, and some people
Speaker 1: might not like this, is that you have to let's see,
Speaker 1: if you are an existing Nesta ware subscription, you can
Speaker 1: upgrade to the new version through the Google Store. Keep
Speaker 1: in mind that you have to migrate to the Google
Speaker 1: account if you haven't done so already. You also have
Speaker 1: the option to keep your current subscription if you choose.
Speaker 1: So I need to actually switch to the new subscription
Speaker 1: because I checked my price and it was more to
Speaker 1: keep my subscription than to go to this new one.
Speaker 1: So I'll definitely be doing that. Save me some money
Speaker 1: for the year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 3: Okay, This next question comes from Rick. Good afternoon, Rich.
Speaker 3: Have you tried the Wi Fi Blast product?
Speaker 1: Oh, that's kind of like what we were just talking
Speaker 1: about with the Nest. I have not tried the Wi
Speaker 1: Fi Blaster. It sounds like it would work really well.
Speaker 1: I've gotten a lot of questions about this device, so
Speaker 1: clearly a lot of Clearly, a lot of people are
Speaker 1: seeing this ad. I'm looking at this. I actually just
Speaker 1: it must be called Wi Fi Blast because I just
Speaker 1: googled it and Wi Fi Blastered is not. Oh here,
Speaker 1: it is Wi Fi Blast. Okay, So now.
Speaker 2: Two point six rating on Amazon.
Speaker 1: Well okay, so now where are you seeing that? Okay?
Speaker 1: Wi Fi Blast? Okay, I see that, but like, where
Speaker 1: is this website? That's okay? So now if you okay,
Speaker 1: I see it on Groupon. I see Better Business Bureau.
Speaker 1: So I think that this this is an example of
Speaker 1: what the earlier the earlier question was talking about, how
Speaker 1: do you know a legit website? So here's here's the
Speaker 1: Wi Fi Wi Fi Blast seems to be used by
Speaker 1: a lot of different companies to describe a Wi Fi extender,
Speaker 1: and for that reason, I don't trust it and I
Speaker 1: don't like it, and I'm looking number one, I don't
Speaker 1: really recommend Wi Fi extenders anymore because they just don't
Speaker 1: really work. This one, in particular, I'm finding a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of different ones that all look similar, but they're
Speaker 1: all sold by different companies. So for that reason, I
Speaker 1: would say stay away from the Wi Fi Blaster.
Speaker 2: And if you yeah, it seems sketchy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you need to. If you need to get
Speaker 1: an extender versus a full new Wi Fi system, which
Speaker 1: I would recommend, I'd recommend EO, Google, Nest Wi Fi
Speaker 1: or neck your Orbi. If you don't want to splurge
Speaker 1: on that, I would say AMP. Look at AMPED Wireless.
Speaker 1: They make a lot of these things, and I have
Speaker 1: tried them in the past. They are legit, they do work.
Speaker 1: It's actually a local company, I believe, in the LA area.
Speaker 1: But the problem with these Wi Fi extenders is that
Speaker 1: they take a signal that's not very good to begin with,
Speaker 1: and they kind of boomerang it around your house, and
Speaker 1: so you're just taking a signal it's not very good
Speaker 1: and you're moving it around, Whereas the way that the
Speaker 1: mesh systems work is they're taking a signal and they're
Speaker 1: actually working in unison to create a better signal throughout
Speaker 1: your home. So that's the big difference with these things,
Speaker 1: and that's why i'd recommend going with the legit new system.
Speaker 1: I know it costs more, but I'm telling you you
Speaker 1: will get Even if this Wi Fi blaster was forty bucks,
Speaker 1: you're kind of wasting that forty dollars because you could
Speaker 1: put that forty dollars towards a new system that would
Speaker 1: give you what you're paying for it when it comes
Speaker 1: to your WiFi, let me tell you about the secret
Speaker 1: X ray capabilities of the one plus eight Pro smartphone.
Speaker 1: This was such a fun story. I love technology. I
Speaker 1: love when technology is fun. I love when it's exciting.
Speaker 1: I love when it's interesting. I did a review of
Speaker 1: the one plus eight pro smartphone, which I do believe
Speaker 1: right now is the best Android smartphone on the market
Speaker 1: right now, And in fact, I wanted to switch to
Speaker 1: this phone. It doesn't have one fee, Meghan that I want.
Speaker 1: That is well, two things that are keeping me from switching.
Speaker 1: Number one my Apple Watch.
Speaker 2: I I, oh no, yeah, that's that's like part of you.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. It is so it's so tough to
Speaker 1: go without an Apple Watch.
Speaker 3: I just I think I might literally get one, like
Speaker 3: this weekend.
Speaker 1: Okay, you really should. No, I mean, once you experience it,
Speaker 1: it is so tough to I will give you one example. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I you know, I've been at home, so I've
Speaker 1: you know, whatever, I've been trying different phones and seeing whatever.
Speaker 1: So I was on the one plus for a while
Speaker 1: and Lindsey. My wife kept yelling at me, saying, like,
Speaker 1: what why is your phone going off all day?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: She realized that she just kept hearing notifications all day long,
Speaker 1: and I told her, she goes, who is texting you
Speaker 1: all day? I said, it's not that anyone's texting me
Speaker 1: more now than ever before. You just never heard any
Speaker 1: of my notifications on my phone because guess what. Everything
Speaker 1: always went to my wrist and my watch would vibrate
Speaker 1: when I got a notification. I haven't heard a sound
Speaker 1: on my phone in five years since I got.
Speaker 2: The Apple Watch.
Speaker 1: It always goes to my watch. I never have the
Speaker 1: sound on on my phone. I never have ever since
Speaker 1: the watch, because you don't need it now. In general,
Speaker 1: I never had the sound on because I work at
Speaker 1: a TV station where you don't want your phone ringing
Speaker 1: in the middle of a newscast. But so anyway, so
Speaker 1: she was like, what is the deal? So just that
Speaker 1: little thing alone where I was adjusting the volume. So
Speaker 1: I'd go to sleep, I'd have to turn the volume off.
Speaker 1: I'd wake up, Oh, let me turn the volume on.
Speaker 1: I'd be outside, Oh, I can't hear my phone, let
Speaker 1: me come inside. I missed a notification that feature alone
Speaker 1: of the Apple Watch. It's weird because it was oddly
Speaker 1: satisfying to be disconnected from my notifications all day long
Speaker 1: when I was using an Android. But it also like
Speaker 1: is stressful too, because like if my mom calls or
Speaker 1: someone calls, I can just literally answer right on my wrist,
Speaker 1: like if I'm outside in the yard with the kids.
Speaker 1: So anyway, then the other thing about the one plus
Speaker 1: was the it does not as far as I know,
Speaker 1: you can't plug an external microphone into it with the
Speaker 1: onboard camera app. And for me, you know that I
Speaker 1: record a lot of stuff. I need that feature and
Speaker 1: it does work, and an external microphone on the one
Speaker 1: plus eight Pro does work with the voice recording program,
Speaker 1: so I know it works to plug in a microphone.
Speaker 1: It just does not work with their camera program. And
Speaker 1: so I asked them, hey, are you going to add this?
Speaker 1: And they were under the impression that they were going
Speaker 1: to add it. But there's been a couple updates. There's
Speaker 1: actually a new update now which I'm going to test
Speaker 1: it out on and see. But I still don't think
Speaker 1: I could switch, just because of the whole watch thing. AnyWho.
Speaker 1: That's just to set up this cool feature that people
Speaker 1: have seemed to discovered, which is the X ray vision
Speaker 1: on the one. Plus they've got an extra lens in there,
Speaker 1: a color lens that I guess either filters out IR
Speaker 1: light or doesn't feature filter infra red light. I'm not
Speaker 1: an expert in this field, but all I know is
Speaker 1: that it can see through certain plastics. And you saw
Speaker 1: the video, Megan, and yeah, would you think, I.
Speaker 2: Just can't believe that that's pop ball. So it can.
Speaker 3: Basically, it's like an X ray machine, not an X
Speaker 3: ray machine, but it can see through technology, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: It was mostly plastic that was that looked it was.
Speaker 1: It's mostly plastic that kind of looks like it's black,
Speaker 1: but it's really not. It's kind of like if you can,
Speaker 1: you know, if you can see further, you see that
Speaker 1: it's kind of more plastic is not. It's semi translucent,
Speaker 1: I guess. So the best thing I tried to know
Speaker 1: was the Amazon Fire TV and the Amazon Fire TV remote.
Speaker 1: I try it on a Nintendo switch. I try it
Speaker 1: on my toaster, which was the scariest look ever, because
Speaker 1: your toaster looks like it's off, but then you aim
Speaker 1: this IR camera at it and it is so hot
Speaker 1: and like it's like on fire. Yes, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just wild. And then of course everyone asked if it
Speaker 1: works through clothes, and I had to this is embarrassing,
Speaker 1: but I had to drag Lindsay. I was like, Lenn,
Speaker 1: you're gonna you're gonna have to help me test this out.
Speaker 1: And I tried it unclosed.
Speaker 3: It shouldn't have gone on the street and just like
Speaker 3: gone up to people.
Speaker 1: Well it was also like six am, so I like
Speaker 1: kind of had to wake her up.
Speaker 2: So, oh my god, it's not annoying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, not at all. It doesn't. It does not
Speaker 1: work on close, but one one of the YouTubers did
Speaker 1: find that it does work on close if you have
Speaker 1: he put like a like a an apple like an
Speaker 1: iPhone box underneath like his T shirt, and like if
Speaker 1: he held it really tight next to the box and
Speaker 1: then he did the thing on it, it did see
Speaker 1: through it a little bit. So I'm hoping that one
Speaker 1: plus does not get rid of this feature because it's
Speaker 1: it's kind of fun.
Speaker 2: So huh.
Speaker 3: I wonder if there's any like weird thing that's going
Speaker 3: to come out about that feature though, like someone figures
Speaker 3: out like, oh, you can.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh I know. I'm sure people are because like
Speaker 1: the Verge, we did our thing two days ago. The
Speaker 1: Verge just did it today. So it's still being like
Speaker 1: it's still percolating, like it has really reached mainstream media
Speaker 1: just yet except on KTLA. But you know, it'll it'll
Speaker 1: probably take I you know, Megan, I always say this,
Speaker 1: how mainstream media, you know, like the stuff I see
Speaker 1: in the tech world, it bubbles up in mainstream and
Speaker 1: probably like three days after I see it, or maybe
Speaker 1: up to a week. So this is one of those
Speaker 1: examples of I feel like it's gonna take a little
Speaker 1: bit to percolate, but it will get there. One plus
Speaker 1: is not a house.
Speaker 3: Some after some famous actors gonna like do something of
Speaker 3: it with it, and then everyone's.
Speaker 2: Gonna be like, oh wow, that's such a cool feature.
Speaker 2: Like Rich found it two.
Speaker 1: Weeks ago, brah Bro, we were on this.
Speaker 2: Yeah you don't even know.
Speaker 1: No, But I was not the flaet. I did not
Speaker 1: find it. I saw it. I saw someone who posted
Speaker 1: it I think on either Twitter or Reddit, who saw
Speaker 1: it on Reddit, So either way it was I was
Speaker 1: not the originator. I just I just found I just
Speaker 1: did it, and you know saw how cool it was.
Speaker 2: Isn't there an app for that?
Speaker 1: Uh? Not yet?
Speaker 2: Not? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, So next question comes from Susie. I
Speaker 3: was wondering if you happen to know of an alert
Speaker 3: device for a senior citizen, something that they could wear
Speaker 3: on their wrist. I know they have necklaces or something
Speaker 3: like that, but my stepmother doesn't want a necklace. She
Speaker 3: wants something that you can wear on her wrist, like
Speaker 3: a watch. She fell on Saturday night and no one
Speaker 3: was around. I thought maybe you were a great source
Speaker 3: to go for something like this.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Susie.
Speaker 1: It's a good question, and the immediate thing that comes
Speaker 1: to mind is obviously the Apple Watch, and the Apple
Speaker 1: Watch would be perfect for this situation. If you get
Speaker 1: the generation four or five, it will have this functionality
Speaker 1: built in, which is sort of life alert functionality. But
Speaker 1: the Apple Watch requires an iPhone and it also requires
Speaker 1: the Apple Watch, which is expensive. But I would say,
Speaker 1: no matter what any of these other systems that you're getting,
Speaker 1: I think that the Apple Watch would actually be cheaper
Speaker 1: over time. Now you don't need the Apple Watch to
Speaker 1: have cellular capability because okay, so is it her mom?
Speaker 1: She said, let's see senior citizens just say stepmother. Oh, stepmother. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I don't know if she but she says she's
Speaker 1: living alone, right yeah, yeah, no, Oh she fell Saturday
Speaker 1: night and no one was around.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it leads me to believe that either she was
Speaker 1: home alone, or she lives home alone. I don't know,
Speaker 1: or she lives at a nursing home and maybe you know,
Speaker 1: there's no one around and that's you know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't think that could happen though. Wouldn't you be
Speaker 1: at a nursing home to have people around all the time.
Speaker 1: So I think the Apple Watch would be the best
Speaker 1: case scenario. I don't know if the stepmother uses an
Speaker 1: iPhone or not, but if she does, that's the no,
Speaker 1: no brainer thing to do. As soon as you put
Speaker 1: in her date of birth on that Apple Watch when
Speaker 1: you set it up, if she's over I believe sixty
Speaker 1: five or sixty, it will say do you want the
Speaker 1: fall or enabled? Otherwise you can just enable that. I
Speaker 1: think that's the best way to do. I've only had
Speaker 1: the fall alert on my watch activate once when my
Speaker 1: kid I forget it wasn't like he hit me, but
Speaker 1: he I think we were wrestling or something and my
Speaker 1: arm hit the ground really hard and it did alert,
Speaker 1: and it was like we're calling the nine to one
Speaker 1: one in five four three. I'm like oo, but I
Speaker 1: thought it was really cool that it worked.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: It takes a pretty it takes a pretty rough hit
Speaker 1: for it to activate. But it's not just a rough hit.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's algorithms that they've developed that that can
Speaker 1: detect a fall. So it's not necessarily just if you
Speaker 1: just hit your arm really hard on a table it's
Speaker 1: going to do it. It's they've done a bunch of
Speaker 1: falls with people and recorded that and then came up
Speaker 1: with an algorithm it decides like, this is a fall,
Speaker 1: this could be a fall, and this could be a fall.
Speaker 1: That could be a fall because not everyone falls the
Speaker 1: same exact way. In fact, you may fall and your
Speaker 1: arm maybe the last thing to hit because of the
Speaker 1: way you fell, so you may your arm may not
Speaker 1: hit that hard because the rest of your body absorbed it.
Speaker 1: So it really comes down to the algorithms anyway. So
Speaker 1: the other things that I would recommend looking into is
Speaker 1: obviously life Alert is the big one. There's something called
Speaker 1: Medical Guardian, which I don't I don't think any of
Speaker 1: them have as good of a system as Apple, but
Speaker 1: they're more dedicated to the elderly. That's the other thing.
Speaker 1: But all these systems are going to cost money to
Speaker 1: buy the product and also the service. And I think
Speaker 1: the other one is doesn't isn't Jitterbug? Isn't that like
Speaker 1: the local company that does the flip phones, Great Call,
Speaker 1: so I think they have. They're based out of Carlsbad. Yes,
Speaker 1: so they have they have family caregiving services. Let's see
Speaker 1: what do they have? Yeah, but most of these Oh,
Speaker 1: they do have a watch? Hold on. Oh they have
Speaker 1: the Lively wearable too, but I don't know if it
Speaker 1: detects falls. Let's see, this is from great Call dot com.
Speaker 1: Does it respond to falls? Oh, it does have fall detection.
Speaker 1: There you go fifty bucks? Now how much do you have? Oh?
Speaker 1: But hold on, you have to have it. You have
Speaker 1: to have it. You have to have an Android or iPhone.
Speaker 1: So if you're going to spend fifty on this, I
Speaker 1: would say go the extra mile and probably just get
Speaker 1: the Apple Watch because you're also going to have to
Speaker 1: buy a service contract. Or a service from them. I'm
Speaker 1: guessing every month, Yeah, twenty five dollars a month. Oh,
Speaker 1: fall detection is forty dollars a month. Megan. That's that's
Speaker 1: basically included with the.
Speaker 2: Apple Watch at.
Speaker 1: The Apple Watch. Yeah, that's that's what I say to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So have you been spending more or less money since
Speaker 1: you've been cooped up at home? Megan?
Speaker 2: Less?
Speaker 3: But I feel like it was like nothing and then
Speaker 3: suddenly I was like, it's time to shop again.
Speaker 2: So that's yeah, less overall.
Speaker 1: Less overall, I would say less. And now, given this
Speaker 1: is a very privileged conversation we're having right now because
Speaker 1: we both have our jobs. Yeah, thankfully. I know many
Speaker 1: people have been impacted by this pandemic, and it is
Speaker 1: just it's insane actually, how many people have lost their job,
Speaker 1: are underemployed, are not employed, want to work, can't work.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's so many situations right now that are outstanding.
Speaker 1: So we are very fortunate right now. So when I
Speaker 1: talk about this story, it's coming from a place of
Speaker 1: you know, there are people that still need to work, shop, play, eat, whatever.
Speaker 1: So this is the Adobe Digital Economy Index, and this
Speaker 1: is from Adobe Analytics you know, I love Adobe Analytics
Speaker 1: because they always come out. They kind of monitor a
Speaker 1: bunch of receipts and online transactions around the web to
Speaker 1: come up with all these data points that I just
Speaker 1: love because they have great data. So Number one key
Speaker 1: finding online shopping has become the primary means of commerce
Speaker 1: during COVID nineteen. I mean, duh, who doesn't know that?
Speaker 1: The analysis found that by online pick up in stores
Speaker 1: orders serge two hundred and eight percent year over year
Speaker 1: in April. Did you have you done that yet where
Speaker 1: you bought something online and picked it up in the
Speaker 1: store or at the store. Yeah, yeah, me too, Best Buy.
Speaker 1: Let's see what else? Us digital purchase power I thought
Speaker 1: was cool, grew four point one percent, which means consumers
Speaker 1: can now get for one hundred dollars what used to
Speaker 1: cost them one hundred and four dollars last year. So
Speaker 1: what does that mean? Oh wow, I don't know what
Speaker 1: that means. Yeah, it's a lot. Let's see online prices
Speaker 1: for apparel dropped by twelve percent, which is the largest
Speaker 1: April price drop in five years. Now, that's bittersweet because
Speaker 1: nobody's buying clothes, That's why the prices are dropping. Who's
Speaker 1: buying new clothes right now? Nobody. I'll tell you what
Speaker 1: they are buying. According to the report, what is it?
Speaker 1: Workout close, Yes, workout clothes. That's not on here, but
Speaker 1: I know they are. But pajamas up by one hundred
Speaker 1: and forty three percent, pants fell by thirteen percent, jackets
Speaker 1: by thirty three percent. Electronics are up.
Speaker 2: What is it, sweatsuit?
Speaker 1: Yeah, sweatsuits. The sweatsuit is back. Electronics sales are up
Speaker 1: fifty eight percent, which makes a lot of sense because
Speaker 1: everyone's outfitting their home offices. And electronics prices actually went up,
Speaker 1: which is true because if you look at some of
Speaker 1: these things like the uh, if you look at some
Speaker 1: of these things like the people hold on, people are
Speaker 1: saying they can't hear us, but I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's true. If you look at things like the webcams,
Speaker 1: those have those you can't even get so those are
Speaker 1: really expensive. Yeah, So that's that's another one. Now here's
Speaker 1: my favorite, and maybe oh, online grocery shopping one hundred
Speaker 1: and ten percent boost, which I could see that we've
Speaker 1: still been going to the grocery store, but we've also
Speaker 1: been buying stuff online as well. So the final noteworthy
Speaker 1: finding is that e commerce purchases of wine, beer spirits,
Speaker 1: and accessories like wineglasses and corkscrews saw a seventy four
Speaker 1: percent increase in April as consumers look for ways to
Speaker 1: wind down, kickback and relax. And you are actually working
Speaker 1: on a story right now with subscription wine. Did you
Speaker 1: get a chance to break into those yet?
Speaker 2: We're going to do it tonight.
Speaker 1: So tonight is the big wine party at the mcdonaga house.
Speaker 3: We shot some beer roll the other day with Louise,
Speaker 3: and Louise wanted us to like open up a can
Speaker 3: of one of the wine, so I did it.
Speaker 1: Can wait, this is canned wine.
Speaker 2: Canned wine? What? Yeah? It comes in the company way, comes.
Speaker 3: In a can and each can is one point five glasses.
Speaker 1: What okay? That's actually kind of cool. So if you
Speaker 1: just want like a little bit at the end of
Speaker 1: the day or something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the company when you order, like your first order,
Speaker 3: they send you this wasn't just for me because it
Speaker 3: was pressed.
Speaker 2: I like looked it up. I was like, why did
Speaker 2: I get this? They send you like a called No,
Speaker 2: what's the thing you wear around your waist like a
Speaker 2: like a purse pack?
Speaker 3: Fanny pack, fanny pack for the cans of wine with
Speaker 3: a with a little tiny like sound system.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really funny.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's that's unique. Okay, that's definitely aimed at a
Speaker 1: certain intel.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, but you know, but yeah, it was good,
Speaker 3: very cool.
Speaker 1: Looking forward to that. That should air soon. I'm looking
Speaker 1: forward to that story. So we did a story. I've
Speaker 1: realized one thing, we hardly ever talk about the stories
Speaker 1: that we actually cover on KTLA here on the podcast,
Speaker 1: and I need to do a better job of remembering
Speaker 1: some of those stories. So this was one that I
Speaker 1: got a ton of emails about. This is the wise
Speaker 1: Remember this camera they made? Are this company? They make
Speaker 1: the twenty dollars security camera you heard me talk about
Speaker 1: on this podcast. They did a story on KTLA back
Speaker 1: in like twenty seventeen. This company, which is a bunch
Speaker 1: of X or at least a couple x Amazon folks,
Speaker 1: they came out with a twenty dollars security camera. And
Speaker 1: when they came out with that, people could not believe
Speaker 1: that a security camera could be twenty dollars. So of
Speaker 1: course there's all these conspiracy theories that all your video
Speaker 1: is being sent to China and all this crazy stuff.
Speaker 1: But the reality is is just a really good deal.
Speaker 1: And this company has continued to innovate in a very
Speaker 1: cool way, but in a very cheap way. So everything
Speaker 1: that they have is way cheaper than what you would
Speaker 1: pay if you got it from another company. And so
Speaker 1: now they have two new devices that I tested out.
Speaker 1: One is a twenty five dollars activity tracker called the
Speaker 1: Wyse Band, and the other thing is a twenty dollars
Speaker 1: scale called the Wyse Scale. Now, when I took this
Speaker 1: y scale out of the box, a lot of times
Speaker 1: people when they send me stuff, I don't really look
Speaker 1: at all the details. I kind of know, like I
Speaker 1: saw that this was really cheap, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh that's cool, And I was actually more interested in
Speaker 1: the activity tracker, not the scale. So when they sent both,
Speaker 1: I really didn't even know how much the scale was.
Speaker 1: I set it up, I was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: this is so cool. It gives you all of your
Speaker 1: information when you stand on it, like your body mass,
Speaker 1: your you know, your muscle mass, your bone body water,
Speaker 1: your bone mass, your metabolic age and all this, like
Speaker 1: all these metrics which I thought was really cool, and
Speaker 1: I was like, this thing is pretty cool, but it's
Speaker 1: probably like sixty bucks. It's kind of a tough sell
Speaker 1: because you know, we've had our same scale for twenty years. Right. Well,
Speaker 1: when I found out the scale is twenty dollars, game changer.
Speaker 1: I mean, that is a that is it is insane,
Speaker 1: Like I don't even understand how they can make a
Speaker 1: scale for that cheap. And it's a really nice scale.
Speaker 1: You saw the video on it. It's it's like a
Speaker 1: good looking scale and you don't have to tap to
Speaker 1: activate it. Do you have one of these like electronic
Speaker 1: scales or no?
Speaker 3: No, we have like an old school scale from like
Speaker 3: the seventeen hundred.
Speaker 1: You like slide the thing? Is that that kind that
Speaker 1: old school? Or yeah?
Speaker 2: I like it?
Speaker 3: Like some days it's like it's nice, it's really you're like,
Speaker 3: oh okay, that's how much I weigh, and then other
Speaker 3: days it's like someone messed with it. I don't know,
Speaker 3: but yeah, yes we have a.
Speaker 2: Scale, but it's old. But it's old, so maybe I need.
Speaker 1: This and it's really cool. It works with up to
Speaker 1: eight people in your home and you just have to
Speaker 1: step on it. You don't have to like ours, You
Speaker 1: have to tap. You have to wait for it to initialize.
Speaker 1: It takes a little bit. You got to say if
Speaker 1: your user one or two this you just go ahead
Speaker 1: and stand on it and it figures out who you
Speaker 1: are and you'll have to turn it on. You have
Speaker 1: to turn it off. All the data is synced to
Speaker 1: your phone. You don't have to have your phone open
Speaker 1: to use it. You can, you know, you can have
Speaker 1: your phone open and then it'll sink the back data
Speaker 1: once you open your phone back. It's really cool. So
Speaker 1: I was very impressed with that. Why scale and then
Speaker 1: whyse banned? This is a simple activity tracker with Alexa
Speaker 1: built in, and this one is This is just if
Speaker 1: you want to get your ten thousand steps right. It's basic,
Speaker 1: but it does a lot of stuff. You've got Alexa
Speaker 1: built in, you've got your step tracker, you've got a
Speaker 1: run keeper. There is no GPS on board, so if
Speaker 1: you're a true runner, you probably want something with GPS
Speaker 1: built in. But again it's so cheap, attracts your sleep.
Speaker 1: I found that the screen was not as responsive as
Speaker 1: I'd like, but again twenty five dollars. This is for
Speaker 1: someone that just wants to make sure they're getting ten
Speaker 1: thousand steps a day, plus getting a couple things extra
Speaker 1: if you want the next closest device. This also does
Speaker 1: your heart rate. By the way, the closest fitbit to
Speaker 1: this device is about seventy to seventy five dollars, so
Speaker 1: that's a significant savings. That's a third of the price. Now,
Speaker 1: the problem with both of these devices is that they're
Speaker 1: really tough to get, just like the camera back in
Speaker 1: the day. So when I did the story on the
Speaker 1: security camera, the number one thing I got back from
Speaker 1: people was that I can't buy this. It's not available.
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what happened with these two products. They're
Speaker 1: just really tough to get because they make a couple
Speaker 1: of them and then they sell out, and they make
Speaker 1: some more and they sell out. So just get on
Speaker 1: that list and that's the best you can do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm looking now, I'll to see once the scale is.
Speaker 2: I think they have one available.
Speaker 1: So do they really?
Speaker 2: So it tells you your like body mass and how
Speaker 2: much water.
Speaker 1: Oh everything, Megan, I'm telling you, when.
Speaker 2: I know, I don't understand, Like how does it it just.
Speaker 1: Reads your blood or your your I don't know it
Speaker 1: like reads your It's like electric it sends I'm guessing
Speaker 1: it sends an electro electrostatic current through your body through
Speaker 1: your feet just to be barefoot when you go on it,
Speaker 1: and it just that's how it reads, like all the
Speaker 1: different metrics in your body and it the metrics are
Speaker 1: quite impressive. I mean, it really is everything you need,
Speaker 1: like if you want it to lose weight, if you
Speaker 1: want it to gain muscle mass, if you wanted to
Speaker 1: make sure your body water. You know, if you're not dehyde,
Speaker 1: you can look at it. You know. My sister is
Speaker 1: a she's a trainer, and she looked at it and
Speaker 1: she's like, yeah, this is legit. Oh my gosh. Are
Speaker 1: we almost at the end? Okay, yeah, we have one
Speaker 1: more question. Go ahead.
Speaker 2: Okay, this next question is for me. Oh okay, it's
Speaker 2: from It's from Laurie.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: Can you ask producer Magan.
Speaker 3: Which pilates app or site she she is using that
Speaker 3: She said she loves thinks. So the website that I'm
Speaker 3: using is called Melissa would Help, and it's basically a website,
Speaker 3: but you pay ten dollars a month and then there's
Speaker 3: an app that you can put on your TV that
Speaker 3: has all her videos and it's just has a lot
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 2: She has a schedule of all.
Speaker 3: These pilates videos, so every week it's updated with what
Speaker 3: to do every day and really like, I mean they're
Speaker 3: not per easy, but it ranges from like fifteen minutes
Speaker 3: to forty minutes totally like doable if you're like me
Speaker 3: and I don't like to work out, So the fact
Speaker 3: that I'm able to do it is telling something.
Speaker 1: So that's is this a family friend? How did you
Speaker 1: find this person?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: I how did I find her? A friend recommended her,
Speaker 3: and then a lot of like YouTubers like okay flincers
Speaker 3: like her.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Interesting, so she's kind of blowing up. I feel
Speaker 2: you were.
Speaker 1: Influenced by the influencers. So they did they did their jobs.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, I don't know if they were paid by her, but.
Speaker 1: Oh I'm sure there's something well maybe not, who knows.
Speaker 1: I mean, some of that can be organic, but if
Speaker 1: you're if you're making a living on that, it's like
Speaker 1: what you say is like somehow paid or whatever. I
Speaker 1: feel bad for all the I mean I don't really
Speaker 1: feel bad, but like, imagine you're like a travel influencer,
Speaker 1: Like what are you doing right now?
Speaker 2: That's tricky no, no.
Speaker 1: I mean fashion blogger. I guess you could still be
Speaker 1: doing but travel not so much kind of tough and
Speaker 1: don't even.
Speaker 2: Think about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you're not You're not really supposed to go
Speaker 3: on road trips right now.
Speaker 1: So well that's the thing. I mean, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you're not supposed to, but you well they're saying
Speaker 1: not to, like I know, there's like I because Linday
Speaker 1: and I we were planning, like to get out of
Speaker 1: town for like either a weekend or like whatever, and
Speaker 1: then I started reading the CDC website and it's like,
Speaker 1: do not travel if you don't have to do not travel.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I did'n't really think about that,
Speaker 1: you know, like that you just because places are being
Speaker 1: opened in other places, like they don't really want you
Speaker 1: traveling either, So that was tricky. Yeah, so yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean you're not I think that. Yeah, it's it's tough
Speaker 1: for them because you can't really do anything.
Speaker 2: So yeah, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: All right. Final story, Yes, final story of the podcast.
Speaker 1: We did a story on KTLA today about these copper
Speaker 1: touch tools. You've probably seen them advertised. They look like
Speaker 1: a key and they use them to like you know,
Speaker 1: touch a touch screen, the pin pad. They have like
Speaker 1: a hook on them so you can open up a
Speaker 1: door handle. Had you seen these things before I brought
Speaker 1: these this story to you.
Speaker 2: No, okay, no, I hadn't seen them.
Speaker 1: So the thing about these is that because copper is
Speaker 1: anti microbial, the germs die on this thing, so you
Speaker 1: can use it, you know, to push all these buttons
Speaker 1: and stuff and not get sick. So I was a
Speaker 1: little bit skeptical because I'm like, come on, that sounds
Speaker 1: a little bit hooky, right, So I ended up getting
Speaker 1: in touch with this guy at the Medical University of
Speaker 1: South Carolina. His name is Michael Schmidt, and he's the
Speaker 1: guru of copper. He does a podcast called This Week
Speaker 1: in Microbiology. I mean, this guy, you know, he knows
Speaker 1: what he's talking about. And he was like, yeah, this
Speaker 1: is legit. And his whole thesis is that, you know,
Speaker 1: number one, people have been using copper for thousands of
Speaker 1: years because they figured out back in the day. Did
Speaker 1: I tell you the story that when they were carrying
Speaker 1: their water in like a copper vessel, their family didn't
Speaker 1: get as sick as much as when they cop carried
Speaker 1: it in like anything else. And they just realized that like, oh,
Speaker 1: oh my god, copper must like kill stuff in you know,
Speaker 1: or not not be conducive to germs. So and then
Speaker 1: so the whole thing about this these things is that
Speaker 1: they take time. They don't kill the germs in seconds,
Speaker 1: you know. Most of the time, it could take up
Speaker 1: to four hours. And that was this big study that
Speaker 1: was cited in a whole bunch of articles saying that
Speaker 1: these things are kind of a waste of money. And
Speaker 1: I asked them about that. I said, well, what about
Speaker 1: this four hour time limit for like this bacteria to die.
Speaker 1: Because by the time you have four hours, you let's
Speaker 1: say you use a pin pad and then you put
Speaker 1: this thing in your pocket. Now your pocket's infected with COVID, right,
Speaker 1: or whatever germs. And so he said, well, if for
Speaker 1: that four hours, that is the most extreme example, you
Speaker 1: would have to literally sneeze on something over and over
Speaker 1: for it to get that infected. Where it would take
Speaker 1: four hours for this thing to kill it. He said,
Speaker 1: at that point, the surface would look wet, He's like,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna use common sense at that point to
Speaker 1: not touch that surface or interact with it because it's wet, right,
Speaker 1: if you saw if you went up to an ATM
Speaker 1: machine and the keys were all wet, would you touch it? No,
Speaker 1: I don't think certainly, not so any anyway, So and
Speaker 1: he explained how copper works to like kill these things.
Speaker 1: It's very complicated, but it apparently does. And the alternative
Speaker 1: if you want something super cheap, if you don't want
Speaker 1: to buy one of these keys that are like twenty
Speaker 1: five bucks. They're popping up everywhere. By the way, Megan,
Speaker 1: I got one hundred emails this morning from people who
Speaker 1: are making them locally or just in general around the world,
Speaker 1: like or around the US, that like want to be
Speaker 1: a part of the story. I guess anyone that knows
Speaker 1: anything about brass or copper can make these things. He's
Speaker 1: shape it into a key. But you can use a penny.
Speaker 1: Penny apparently is made from or coated with copper, and
Speaker 1: it will kill germs. Can use a quarter, You can
Speaker 1: use any any change apparently, yeah, any change. Now, the
Speaker 1: dirtiest thing is cash, So you do not want to
Speaker 1: touch cash, because there I thought he was going to
Speaker 1: say that they put antimicrobial properties in cash in America,
Speaker 1: but they don't, and over in Europe. I guess they
Speaker 1: use plastic for their money, Like it's made out of
Speaker 1: like a plastic and it's even dirtier than money over
Speaker 1: here than paper money.
Speaker 2: So so crazy.
Speaker 1: So I always thought money was dirty, but now it's like,
Speaker 1: I you know, it's it's funny because we're taking a
Speaker 1: fresh look at almost everything in life and being like what,
Speaker 1: like it's just going out Like how clean is that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Like the things we used to take for granted is like,
Speaker 1: you know, feels like you're doing something wrong now.
Speaker 3: I was on TikTok yesterday surprise surprise, and one of
Speaker 3: the videos that came up for me was this new
Speaker 3: trend of putting your strawberries in a bowl of water
Speaker 3: with salt in it. Like after you buy your strawberries
Speaker 3: from the market and bugs come out of the strawberries.
Speaker 3: What And it's disgusting, yes, And like so all these
Speaker 3: people are posting videos of like they take their strawberries
Speaker 3: out and they put them in the water with salt
Speaker 3: and they pour salt and they wait five minutes and
Speaker 3: they watch as like bugs come out of the strawberries
Speaker 3: and oh my gosh, now I will never eat strawberries.
Speaker 1: I just had strawberries this morning, and my kids love them.
Speaker 1: Should I try it.
Speaker 2: Either extra crunchy? I mean, you know, sorry for telling you.
Speaker 1: No, it's here's here's the thing. Back in the day,
Speaker 1: I used to love this book that would tell you
Speaker 1: all these like little like factoids and stuff, and one
Speaker 1: of them was that every food we eat there is
Speaker 1: a level of acceptable bug fragments in pretty much everything.
Speaker 1: So like in a bottle of peanut butter, they're allowed
Speaker 1: to have like seventy four fragments of like insect legs
Speaker 1: or whatever. So it's just the reality. I mean, you
Speaker 1: can't not have it, and it's it's just the way
Speaker 1: it is.
Speaker 2: I could have gone without seeing it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. I agree. What you sometimes that you
Speaker 1: don't know is better than you know what you do know. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I used to love that book, by the way, I
Speaker 1: wish I remember they had a couple of like sequels
Speaker 1: to it. I used to I used to love that.
Speaker 1: All right, that's gonna do it for this episode of
Speaker 1: the show. If you'd like to submit a question for me,
Speaker 1: just go to rich on tech dot tv, scroll all
Speaker 1: the way down to the bottom and hit that email
Speaker 1: button and you can submit your question to be on
Speaker 1: the show. We'd also love it if you would rate
Speaker 1: and review this podcast to help other people discover it.
Speaker 1: Just go to rate this podcast dot com slash rich
Speaker 1: on Tech producer Megan. Where can folks find you on
Speaker 1: social media?
Speaker 2: I am on Twitter at producer Megan.
Speaker 1: You can find me at rich on Tech. I'm richiemire
Speaker 1: On behalf of everyone that gets this show to your ears.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. We will talk to you
Speaker 1: real soon