Speaker 1: Apple Fitness Plus launches, I'll share my thoughts on it.
Speaker 1: I've got an announcement to make about CS twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: lots of streaming apps finally make it to lots of
Speaker 1: different places. Plus your tech questions answered? What is going on?
Speaker 1: My name is Rich Dmiro and this is Rich on Tech,
Speaker 1: the podcast where I talk about the tech stuff that
Speaker 1: I think you should know about. It's also the place
Speaker 1: where I answer the questions you send me. Yes, I'm
Speaker 1: the tech reporter at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: and also for Nextstar TV stations nationwide. It's been interesting because,
Speaker 1: you know, Katla was purchased by a new company that
Speaker 1: I used to work for actually, which is kind of
Speaker 1: interesting back in my early days of my career, and
Speaker 1: you know, we own a whole bunch of TV stations,
Speaker 1: and so they're starting to notice that I do this
Speaker 1: little report and they're starting to use them, and so
Speaker 1: it's really been fun to kind of see my stuff
Speaker 1: just popping up in different places across the US. We
Speaker 1: used to be on a bunch of stations with Tribune,
Speaker 1: our old company, and we're still on a lot of
Speaker 1: those stations, but now it's like you know, every station
Speaker 1: has access, which is kind of fun. So it's been
Speaker 1: really good expanding, you know, the reach and just kind
Speaker 1: of doing what I do and what you know, my
Speaker 1: thesis on all of this stuff, my mission statement has
Speaker 1: always been sort of helping people understand technology, you know,
Speaker 1: in an easy way, and helping the everyday person. So
Speaker 1: you know, there's every one of us has to use technology,
Speaker 1: whether we like it or not. That's just the reality
Speaker 1: of the world in twenty twenty. So you have your phone,
Speaker 1: and it really all stems from the phone. You have
Speaker 1: your phone and you kind of say, oh, smart light
Speaker 1: looks kind of cool. One of those Amazon echoes looks
Speaker 1: kind of cool. And next thing, you know, you've got
Speaker 1: all this stuff and you're just trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1: And you know, then you have the apps and you know,
Speaker 1: privacy and so I just try to every one of
Speaker 1: my reports, I just try to be helpful and I
Speaker 1: hope that comes through because that's that's really what my
Speaker 1: mission is. I can't believe that we are done, almost
Speaker 1: done with twenty twenty. I mean, I just can't believe it.
Speaker 1: I can remember sitting in a van at CS doing
Speaker 1: the podcast at the beginning of the Year in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty in Las Vegas, and literally I can remember it
Speaker 1: like it's yesterday, and here we are a year later,
Speaker 1: almost a year later, and honestly, this is the year
Speaker 1: that sort of didn't happen because we've been quarantined and
Speaker 1: just you know, not leaving our home and this and that.
Speaker 1: So wow, I just can't believe it. But holidays are here.
Speaker 1: I'm excited. This is the last show of twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: which is pretty wild. Be back next year. But let
Speaker 1: me and I hope you're you know, I hope you're
Speaker 1: staying safe during the holidays. I know all my plans
Speaker 1: are canceled. I was supposed to go to New Jersey.
Speaker 1: That is not happening. Then we were supposed to go
Speaker 1: to Arizona. That's not happening. We are just staying put
Speaker 1: because it just seems like the thing to do this year.
Speaker 1: And honestly, I'll enjoy the time, the downtime and just sit.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna finally install Big sur on my computer and
Speaker 1: hopefully get organized once again, you know, kind of reset
Speaker 1: for the new year. And the new year is gonna
Speaker 1: kick off pretty strong, because I have an announcement to
Speaker 1: make I will be working pretty closely with CS twenty
Speaker 1: one this year or next year because I am going
Speaker 1: to be one of their hosts for the digital show.
Speaker 1: So we've talked a lot about CS in this podcast
Speaker 1: because it's kind of the biggest event of the year.
Speaker 1: I get so many of my story ideas, I get
Speaker 1: so many of my videos, my social media videos I get.
Speaker 1: I mean, I get so much from CS every year,
Speaker 1: b roll like I have in my Google Photos. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here editing stuff for this for the segments,
Speaker 1: and you know, I just go into my CES video
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I have a shot of a ring
Speaker 1: video doorbell, or I have a shot of a microphone,
Speaker 1: or I have a shot of that smart toilet. And
Speaker 1: it's become sort of a little a place where I
Speaker 1: just get stuff that I need and you know, anyway,
Speaker 1: So CS twenty twenty one is going to be their
Speaker 1: first all digital show, happening in happening in January. It
Speaker 1: is virtual, so no need to go to Las Vegas.
Speaker 1: This year. They're gonna have over one hundred conference sessions.
Speaker 1: They're gonna have more than a thousand exhibitors from around
Speaker 1: the world. AI five G Digital health, smart cities, vehicle tech,
Speaker 1: and then they're gonna have this thing called the CS
Speaker 1: Digital Venue, and this is in partnership with Microsoft, and
Speaker 1: this is what I'll be doing. And it's basically kind
Speaker 1: of a live anchor desk where you'll see myself and
Speaker 1: a couple other folks and I'm very excited about who
Speaker 1: those other folks are. But we will be kind of
Speaker 1: navigating the show, doing you know, tech updates, interviews, all
Speaker 1: kinds of stuff. I haven't even heard like everything I'm doing,
Speaker 1: but it sounds awesome. And here's why I get to play.
Speaker 1: I say play with, but work with. Okay, it's it's
Speaker 1: not play, it's work. I justine, which I love. I mean,
Speaker 1: we've we actually did CS together many years ago, and
Speaker 1: we've been you know, we stayed in touch ever since.
Speaker 1: My friend Brian Tong, who you know, we worked at
Speaker 1: c net together. He is doing a great job on
Speaker 1: his own with his own YouTube channel. I mean just
Speaker 1: really really doing a nice job. But it's a lot
Speaker 1: of work. I watch him work, and it's well, I
Speaker 1: don't like to sit there and watch him at it,
Speaker 1: but I talk to him very often on text, and
Speaker 1: you know, believe me, he's working hard. And then Naomi Kyle,
Speaker 1: who I don't know personally but I'm aware of, and
Speaker 1: she is an actress, producer, does a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: in the video game world, so it'll be nice to
Speaker 1: have her perspective as well, because that's a huge part
Speaker 1: of this. So you've got four of us and it's
Speaker 1: just kind of cool. So we will be hosting CS
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one virtually and I'm excited for it. Last
Speaker 1: day for media registration complimentary media registration is January eighth,
Speaker 1: and CS twenty twenty one takes place January eleventh through fourteenth.
Speaker 1: I know, I believe that I'm a start on like
Speaker 1: the I think it's the eighth maybe or the ninth,
Speaker 1: just to get prepped, but it's gonna be fun. And
Speaker 1: then CS returns to Las Vegas January fifth through eighth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, So mark your calendars January eleventh through fourteenth.
Speaker 1: You'll see me online and if you you know, see
Speaker 1: me wave high. So exciting because everyone was asking me like,
Speaker 1: what are you doing for CS? And I couldn't really
Speaker 1: tell them for a while because I was, you know,
Speaker 1: contracts hadn't been signed in all that stuff. But now
Speaker 1: that it's a done deal. And thank you to KTLA
Speaker 1: by the way for letting me do this, because of course,
Speaker 1: you know, they had to approve, so that was exciting,
Speaker 1: all right. Tony McDowell says, is there an address program
Speaker 1: that you can input once and it updates the address book, email,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Also when you delete a name, you only
Speaker 1: have to do it once, Tony. You know, Tony, I
Speaker 1: have been looking for something like this for a long
Speaker 1: time and there's not really there's not really a one
Speaker 1: size fits fits all with this sort of thing. There
Speaker 1: used to be something I loved back in the day
Speaker 1: called Plaxo, which, if you've been in tech for a
Speaker 1: little bit that might ring a bell. It was this
Speaker 1: program that was sort of spammy, but it was great.
Speaker 1: You would upload your whole address book to this program
Speaker 1: and it would send an email to all your contacts
Speaker 1: and say, hey, can you update you know, just take
Speaker 1: a look and make sure everything looks right. And it
Speaker 1: was brilliant. And then if someone I think there was
Speaker 1: like a opt in that if you just said, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, keep my stuff updated at all times, you
Speaker 1: could go into your own app and update your info
Speaker 1: and everyone else who's using Plaso on the network would
Speaker 1: also see your latest info. I thought it was brilliant,
Speaker 1: but people just thought it was spammy, and it never
Speaker 1: really took off, and I think Comcast bought it at
Speaker 1: some point, and you know, of course it doesn't really
Speaker 1: exist anymore. But I have been testing something new called
Speaker 1: Sunshine Contacts, and this is very similar. It's very similar
Speaker 1: to what but Plaxo was trying to do, maybe in
Speaker 1: a less invasive way. They don't send out automatic updates,
Speaker 1: but you can send like a link to a friend
Speaker 1: or a contact and say, hey, would you mind just
Speaker 1: taking a look at this and updating your stuff? Now,
Speaker 1: this app is actually from the former CEO of Yahoo,
Speaker 1: Mersa Meyer. She came up. I don't know if she
Speaker 1: came up with it, but she's kind of behind this
Speaker 1: and it's been interesting on my iPhone now. The last
Speaker 1: I checked, when I went into there, it somehow goes
Speaker 1: through all your emails and like finds the contacts. So
Speaker 1: now I have twenty three thousand, eight hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: six contacts imported fifteen thousand, nine hundred and thirty six
Speaker 1: total without duplicates fourteen thousand, nine hundred and twelve enhanced
Speaker 1: by sunshine. So I have enough contacts now to last
Speaker 1: me seventeen lifetimes. And it's interesting what they do when
Speaker 1: they you know, you go into a contact and it
Speaker 1: kind of uses I don't know, some sort of I
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know how it does it, but
Speaker 1: it gives you the info, you know, when you tap
Speaker 1: into the contact, and then not only does it give
Speaker 1: you the info, but it gives you like some other
Speaker 1: info you have, and then it marks it as obsolete somehow,
Speaker 1: and some of it's pretty good. So anyway, it's not perfect.
Speaker 1: It's interesting. It's it's opt or. It's beta right now.
Speaker 1: So you have to have an invitation. I don't know
Speaker 1: if can I invite people. I don't even I don't
Speaker 1: even see a way to invite people, but you can,
Speaker 1: you know. It took me a little bit to to
Speaker 1: get on there, but it shouldn't take too long. But anyway,
Speaker 1: that's the one I've been testing. There's other ones, like
Speaker 1: there's ever Contact. I mean, there's a couple of things
Speaker 1: like that, but I found that, you know, full contact,
Speaker 1: I just found that not many of them work that well.
Speaker 1: And honestly, the thing that I think works. The best
Speaker 1: is really just Siri. If you connect your email to
Speaker 1: you know, your iPhone, like if you log into their
Speaker 1: email app, it will search sort of like the signatures
Speaker 1: in your email and kind of put a serie kind
Speaker 1: of uses all the informations that when you look someone up,
Speaker 1: it will tell you you, you know, hey, here's the information
Speaker 1: we think we have for them, based on you know,
Speaker 1: your previous It even is smart enough to know that,
Speaker 1: like the last time they texted you, it came from
Speaker 1: this number, so that's the number that it kind of
Speaker 1: puts at the top of the list when you go
Speaker 1: to call them. I mean, it's pretty smart, and it's
Speaker 1: something that's not very nuanced in the iPhone, like people
Speaker 1: don't really or not very apparent. It's very nuanced, so
Speaker 1: people don't realize that that's happening. But I think that's
Speaker 1: a really cool little feature. And now this Sunshine Contacts,
Speaker 1: I don't know because it's updated all my contacts my
Speaker 1: address book, and I don't know if there's any going
Speaker 1: back at this point. I have so many contacts in here,
Speaker 1: I don't even know what to do with myself. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh. Okay, speaking of Apple, Apple Fitness Plus launched
Speaker 1: this week and I was an early tester, which is
Speaker 1: kind of cool. So they sent me they actually had
Speaker 1: to send me. Well I don't mean if I can,
Speaker 1: can I really talk about that, but anyway, they had
Speaker 1: to send me the software early to try it out,
Speaker 1: so it was cool. It was great, I really have.
Speaker 1: I've grown to love it and it's now part of
Speaker 1: my life. Apple Fitness Plus Now. The thing to know
Speaker 1: about it is it requires an Apple Watch. These are
Speaker 1: fitness classes that are on your iPhone, your iPad, or
Speaker 1: Apple TV, but you have to have an Apple Watch
Speaker 1: to sort of unlock it, and a subscription which is
Speaker 1: ten dollars a month, which I think is very reasonable.
Speaker 1: You can also bundle that with one of their Apple
Speaker 1: you know subscription bundle plans. What is it called Apple
Speaker 1: one And so to get it, you have to update
Speaker 1: all of your apps. So I sat there and I
Speaker 1: like updated my Apple TV and the iPad and the
Speaker 1: Apple Watch and the iPhone and it showed up on
Speaker 1: all of them. It's fourteen point three if you're keeping track.
Speaker 1: And with the Apple TV. It's kind of cool because
Speaker 1: it works on any Apple TV, even if it's not yours,
Speaker 1: which is really interesting. So let's say you were at
Speaker 1: an Airbnb and they had an Apple TV. When you
Speaker 1: have your when you open up the fitness app on
Speaker 1: that Apple TV, it kind of scans the room for
Speaker 1: any Apple Watches, It sees yours, and then it says, okay,
Speaker 1: do you want to log in? And you just tap
Speaker 1: you know, yes on your watch and it kind of
Speaker 1: up it handshakes with the TV somehow. And I thought
Speaker 1: that was really cool because if I had an Airbnb,
Speaker 1: like if I was an owner of one, I would
Speaker 1: that would push me over to put like, you know,
Speaker 1: an Apple TV in there, because you know, anyone who
Speaker 1: comes there with an Apple Watch could get a quick
Speaker 1: workout in, which is kind of cool. So the workouts
Speaker 1: across all kinds of things. It's not, you know, it's
Speaker 1: not a one trick pony. It's not just like one
Speaker 1: type of workout. They do it all hit, dance, strength, core.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's all there, and it's great. They always
Speaker 1: have three instructors, which I really like. So one is
Speaker 1: doing the typical, one's doing a beginner, one's doing in advance.
Speaker 1: The instructors are really cool. They're all kind of you know,
Speaker 1: very apply, you know, excited, and enthusiastic and just a
Speaker 1: nice mix of folks from different backgrounds and different abilities
Speaker 1: as well, which is really cool because you know, some
Speaker 1: of these trainers in these programs that you know, they
Speaker 1: are all these like young fit people, and you know,
Speaker 1: not everyone's like that, so it's kind of nice that
Speaker 1: they have a very wide range of folks, which is
Speaker 1: really really nice. The best part is really kind of
Speaker 1: the on screen data that it gets from your Apple Watch.
Speaker 1: I've grown to love that, and you know, if you
Speaker 1: have an Apple Watch, you know it's all about closing
Speaker 1: those those circles or those rings rather and so for me,
Speaker 1: pretty much every day I'm trying to do that unless
Speaker 1: I'm knowingly taking a day off from any sort of exercise.
Speaker 1: And so like yesterday, I went on a little run
Speaker 1: and then I came back home and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: let me do ten minutes of strength and then a
Speaker 1: five minute cool down, and so it was great. There's
Speaker 1: no live classes, so that's a big difference between this
Speaker 1: and Peloton, but I don't really think that's missing, Like
Speaker 1: I don't really I'm still gonna stick with the peloton
Speaker 1: for the spin classes at least for now, but I
Speaker 1: do like the Apple Fitness Plus for everything else. So
Speaker 1: I love the strength, I love the hit, I love
Speaker 1: the core, and the mindful cool downs have been really
Speaker 1: nice too, and new classes come out on Mondays. So
Speaker 1: I don't think that people are gonna flock over from
Speaker 1: Peloton to this, but it makes me very happy that
Speaker 1: I did not buy a Peloton bike. I'm glad I
Speaker 1: bought a you know, a generic by that works with
Speaker 1: all services, because if I feel like it, I can
Speaker 1: use the Apple Fitness Spin class, or I can use
Speaker 1: the Peloton Spin Class, or if something better comes along tomorrow,
Speaker 1: I can use that as well. So for all those reasons,
Speaker 1: I think that Apple Fitness Plus is really cool. If
Speaker 1: you have an Apple Watch, you definitely have to try
Speaker 1: it out. You get a month free if you you know,
Speaker 1: for all users, three months free if you bought an
Speaker 1: Apple Watch after September fifteenth through March thirty first. And
Speaker 1: I don't know what to say except for the fact
Speaker 1: that I just love this. I love having another option.
Speaker 1: I love the fact that they have ten minute classes,
Speaker 1: because ten minutes to me, I mean, like the other night,
Speaker 1: I was literally dumb with my day and I just
Speaker 1: waiting for my wife to get out of a meeting,
Speaker 1: and I was just like, you know what, let me
Speaker 1: just do a ten minute class with the kids. And
Speaker 1: so we just sat there, we all picked up some
Speaker 1: weights and we just did like a ten minute strength
Speaker 1: class and it felt so good. And then I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: let me do one more. And so then I did
Speaker 1: like a ten minute core class, and so I just
Speaker 1: got twenty minutes of working out, you know, basically in
Speaker 1: a day that I knew I wasn't going to. So
Speaker 1: so I really think that it's a really cool addition
Speaker 1: to the portfolio. Of course, it keeps people in the
Speaker 1: Apple ecosystem, and you know, but as long as you're
Speaker 1: putting out good stuff, why not. Eric says, Hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: I enjoy your podcast. I appreciate your knowledge. Any suggestions
Speaker 1: for a music manager app for Android. As you know,
Speaker 1: Google play Music went away put people into YouTube music
Speaker 1: and I'm not so far enjoying the user experience with
Speaker 1: that app. Any suggestions on other apps or services that
Speaker 1: would work. I do have a small catalog of purchase
Speaker 1: music I would need to store in the cloud with
Speaker 1: the service as well. Thank you, Eric in Visalia, California.
Speaker 1: Is that like the onions Vesalia. So I've gotten this
Speaker 1: question from a lot of people. In fact, when I
Speaker 1: get this many questions from people, I'm like, do I
Speaker 1: need to do a segment on KTLA. I feel like
Speaker 1: it's a small use case scenario of these folks that
Speaker 1: are still out there that are sort of using their
Speaker 1: own music collection of MP three's on their phone. I
Speaker 1: don't think that's a very popular thing to do right now.
Speaker 1: Obviously people have moved to streaming, but I think for
Speaker 1: you know, some of the more techier folks or the
Speaker 1: people who have built up a collection that they like,
Speaker 1: they still want to stick with it and not pay
Speaker 1: the ten dollars a month, which I'm totally fine with,
Speaker 1: but when it comes so for most of the folks,
Speaker 1: I've just been recommending, you know, use the YouTube music
Speaker 1: because it plays your own files and it's got I
Speaker 1: believe it still has the cloud element. I know Spotify
Speaker 1: also plays local files, but I don't think you can
Speaker 1: upload them to the cloud. So I think there's two ways,
Speaker 1: or a couple of ways you can do this. I
Speaker 1: think one is you can do plex. I think plex
Speaker 1: is probably the best way to do this. And what
Speaker 1: plex does is it kind of you just make your
Speaker 1: own server and it's specifically created for music, movies, TV shows, photos,
Speaker 1: it's just everything. And so I think that that's probably
Speaker 1: the way to do it is just just get plex
Speaker 1: and you know there is a there is like a pricing.
Speaker 1: Let's see where is the pricing on this thing? If
Speaker 1: you have to go premium, so I don't know how
Speaker 1: much it is, let's see it doesn't really I hate
Speaker 1: websites that don't just have like a pricing, like I
Speaker 1: have to create an account to see what the price is.
Speaker 1: Come on Plex, let me just see how much it is.
Speaker 1: Let's see plex pricing.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I like these websites say literally just say pricing and
Speaker 1: you can just like there's literally not a place that
Speaker 1: I can see how much it costs. Oh, here we
Speaker 1: go five dollars a month, forty dollars for the year,
Speaker 1: I mean, or one hundred and twenty dollars for the lifetime.
Speaker 1: I would do the forty dollars for the year. Right now,
Speaker 1: they're doing a forty eight hour sale for twenty percent
Speaker 1: off a lifetime. I would proably wouldn't go lifetime because
Speaker 1: you might change your mind, but a yearly is definitely
Speaker 1: a better deal than monthly, or maybe just start with
Speaker 1: monthly and see if you like it and then go
Speaker 1: to the yearly. But I would just do plex. I
Speaker 1: think that's gonna I think that's gonna be the best
Speaker 1: case for what you need. I think you could probably
Speaker 1: build your own tracks and SoundCloud, but I'm not sure
Speaker 1: that that's really I'm not sure that's the spirit of
Speaker 1: what they do. Maybe it is, I mean, maybe that
Speaker 1: would work, but it doesn't seem like it would. Samsung
Speaker 1: is getting ready for twenty twenty one. They have already
Speaker 1: put out a blog post about their new phones that
Speaker 1: they're gonna concentrate on, and we've already heard rumors that
Speaker 1: they're going to launch their new phones early in January
Speaker 1: versus February, which is pretty interesting. And I think that
Speaker 1: that's a good idea because you know, people are really
Speaker 1: buying the iPhone twelve a lot, I think, or considering it,
Speaker 1: and with the Samsungs, you know, not so much. Like
Speaker 1: I feel like, yes, they did fine with the S
Speaker 1: twenty lineup, but it was not the breakout, crazy hit
Speaker 1: that they wanted, and the reason for that is that
Speaker 1: the S twenty Ultra was really kind of a bomb
Speaker 1: and It's really sad because that's an amazing device, but
Speaker 1: it just the camera never lived up to the expectations.
Speaker 1: And I would argue that the S twenty Fe was fantastic,
Speaker 1: the Note Ultro was amazing, but just that's not the
Speaker 1: phone for everyone. That's not a mainstream mass phone. But
Speaker 1: it did pretty well, but it's just not the phone
Speaker 1: for everyone. So when I'm sitting here as a tech
Speaker 1: person recommending you a phone, the S twenty Ultra was
Speaker 1: just not something that I recommend it to people. Now,
Speaker 1: the S twenty Fe, the Fan Edition, I did, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't it's not the high end phone that people,
Speaker 1: you know, everyone wants. So looking forward to twenty twenty
Speaker 1: one with Samsung, what do we have? So a couple
Speaker 1: things from this blog post that they put out. I
Speaker 1: thought this was really interesting. They are Samsung Galaxies will
Speaker 1: be more than ready to meet the demands of the
Speaker 1: video obsessed in twenty twenty one. When it comes to
Speaker 1: advancement in this space, it's going to be an epic
Speaker 1: new year. I love the sound of that because I
Speaker 1: am all about video on my smartphone, and that's a
Speaker 1: primary reason why I use the iPhone, because it just
Speaker 1: you can't match it. It's just the video is so
Speaker 1: good on there, it's just unbelievable, and editing on there
Speaker 1: is so amazing. Our engineers and developers have been expanding
Speaker 1: our on device AI, enabling our devices to continually learn
Speaker 1: from daily activities to take better pictures, maximize battery life,
Speaker 1: optimize displays, and more. They talk about privacy. Number one
Speaker 1: goal is and always will be to create experiences users
Speaker 1: can trust knowing we'll treat their data with the utmost
Speaker 1: care every step of the way. So that's interesting, it's
Speaker 1: kind of sounding aptly. And then they talk about expanding
Speaker 1: their portfolio of foldables and we're gonna never stop trying
Speaker 1: to outdo ourselves, so be on the lookout for super intelligent,
Speaker 1: pro grade camera and video capabilities in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: And here's a line that had everyone going nuts. We've
Speaker 1: also been paying attention to people's favorite aspects of the
Speaker 1: Galaxy Note experience and are excited to add some of
Speaker 1: its most well loved features to other devices in our lineup,
Speaker 1: which led a lot of people to think that they're
Speaker 1: going to get rid of the Note and just put
Speaker 1: the stylust in the S twenty one Ultra. Who knows.
Speaker 1: I mean, they may do that. We'll see, but I'm
Speaker 1: excited reading that blog post. If they can get me
Speaker 1: to switch to Android, I'm all for it. I mean
Speaker 1: I was ready to switch with the S twenty Ultra
Speaker 1: and the note. The note was just too big for me,
Speaker 1: and I just it was just I don't need the
Speaker 1: stylist per se. But if they build that into the
Speaker 1: S twenty and that's smaller form factor, slightly smaller, I'm
Speaker 1: all for it. And it would be tough to move
Speaker 1: from iPhone in the Apple Watch, but I would probably
Speaker 1: come up with somewhere in the middle where I maybe
Speaker 1: still wear the Apple Watch but use the Android. But
Speaker 1: we'll say, you hear me drinking my tea?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: Should we check a voicemail? Let's check a voicemail. If
Speaker 1: you haven't left a voicemail for the show, you can
Speaker 1: do so at rich on tech dot TV slash podcast.
Speaker 1: There's a little microphone in the lower right hand corner
Speaker 1: and you can leave a message just like Jeff Thomas did.
Speaker 2: Hey Rich, Jeff Thomas, listen to your show your podcast
Speaker 2: not just have one simple to make and that's it. Otherwise,
Speaker 2: I really liked it that as you give and glad
Speaker 2: to know that you and Brian Tong are good friends
Speaker 2: because you guys in terms of how you just keep
Speaker 2: it real for everyone, stay safe, man.
Speaker 1: All right, So, clearly some technical difficulties with that voicemail.
Speaker 1: And I'm not sure what happened there. It could have
Speaker 1: been a connection thing or whatever, but I kind of
Speaker 1: heard I think he said I have one comment to
Speaker 1: make that. I think you said you're amazing. That's just
Speaker 1: what I heard, So I'm gonna take that. But I
Speaker 1: don't know, but it just sounded like you just, you know,
Speaker 1: Jeff is a fan of the show, just wanted to,
Speaker 1: you know, leave a voicemail and voice that. And I
Speaker 1: love it. So thanks Jeff for leaving the voicemail. Try
Speaker 1: it again. I'm not sure. I tried doing this on
Speaker 1: like Chrome on my iPhone. It definitely is a little quirky.
Speaker 1: It seems to work best on a desktop web browser
Speaker 1: to hit the microphone. But I mean, you would think that,
Speaker 1: you know, since everyone's using phones, and especially with the iPhone,
Speaker 1: and this is I don't want to get into the
Speaker 1: differencestween an iPhone Android, but it always everything's a little
Speaker 1: more complicated because when you're in a browser on the iPhone,
Speaker 1: it's always like a browser inside of a browser, inside
Speaker 1: of an app. If you're getting to somewhere from an app,
Speaker 1: it's very complicated. But anyway, that's the way the architecture
Speaker 1: set up most of the time on the iPhone, so
Speaker 1: I feel like that has something to do with it.
Speaker 1: But like when I tried to do this from Instagram,
Speaker 1: it was like it was a web browser inside Instagram
Speaker 1: from a link. It just was weird. So anyway, thank
Speaker 1: you Jeff for the voicemail. I'll do a question as well,
Speaker 1: since you know that was sort of a just a comment.
Speaker 1: Steve Brown says, first off, I really enjoy your podcast.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate what you do for us in the
Speaker 1: tech world. I watch you on KTLA. Enjoy your podcast.
Speaker 1: I've been an Apple across the board for decades, but
Speaker 1: never had a MacBook Pro. I'm looking at getting a
Speaker 1: new m one MacBook Pro, but had a few questions.
Speaker 1: I'm a photographer with thirty years and do a lot
Speaker 1: of photo editing with Pixel Made or Pro. I started
Speaker 1: dabbling in video using emovies. I might upgrade to final cut.
Speaker 1: My question is do I need sixteen gigs a RAM
Speaker 1: or should I be good with the eight I've read
Speaker 1: conflicting articles online stating that with the powerful M one chip,
Speaker 1: sixteen isn't needed for what I would do. I don't
Speaker 1: mind spending the extra two hundred, but if it wouldn't
Speaker 1: make a difference, I'd rather throw the money into some
Speaker 1: extra memory or use external drives. I'd appreciate and respect
Speaker 1: your feedback, Steve from Long Beach. All right, Steve, definitely
Speaker 1: go with the sixteen gigs. I have not personally tested
Speaker 1: the M one, but everything I've seen from other tech folks,
Speaker 1: they love it. It's fast, it's amazing. Apple of course
Speaker 1: applied their magic and did a great job. But I
Speaker 1: come from the world that you can never have enough memory.
Speaker 1: And yes, a lot of the new apps will be
Speaker 1: written and optimized for this computer, but some of them
Speaker 1: may not be. And I would just especially if you're
Speaker 1: telling me you're getting into videos, I think that, yeah,
Speaker 1: you'll be able to edit a little simple things on
Speaker 1: your you know, with just eight gigs. You know, I
Speaker 1: could edit little videos on my iPhone. But I think
Speaker 1: if you you know, this is a this is a
Speaker 1: MacBook that you're going to keep for at least three
Speaker 1: to four years, I'm guessing, so you know, if not more,
Speaker 1: and so why you know you're going the the eleven
Speaker 1: hundred bucks, go the extra two hundred, right, So that's
Speaker 1: what i'd recommend. Always, always, always get the extra when
Speaker 1: you buy laptop. You got to max out to your
Speaker 1: budget the memory and the storage because you will always
Speaker 1: need more of both of those things. That is what
Speaker 1: I recommend. We got a little bit of news this week,
Speaker 1: good news if you're in the streaming world, and I
Speaker 1: just I gotta say, I'm seeing what's happening here and
Speaker 1: I'm I'm very much liking it. And I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if it's due to like the whole anti trust, you know,
Speaker 1: crackdowns that have been going on, or these tech companies
Speaker 1: are just realizing that they can't be emote. But I
Speaker 1: like what's going on and I'm seeing it more and more.
Speaker 1: And two announcements this week. Number one, HBO Max coming
Speaker 1: to Roku and they made this announcement and you know,
Speaker 1: they said just in time for Wonder Woman eighty four,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four, which is gonna be on HBO Max
Speaker 1: streaming on Christmas Day. I asked my wife I'm like,
Speaker 1: do you think we'll be able to watch that on
Speaker 1: Christmas Day? She's like, I don't know, but definitely the
Speaker 1: day after if I can't get to it on Christmas Day.
Speaker 1: But there you have it, HBO Max on Roku. This
Speaker 1: was a you know, really a big missing piece on Roku.
Speaker 1: So many people emailed me saying, rich, where is HBO Max.
Speaker 1: And it's confusing because like the old HBO app was
Speaker 1: on there and it's just you know, not a good thing.
Speaker 1: So it took them what six months to make a deal.
Speaker 1: And this is because these platforms like Roku, and you know,
Speaker 1: I would say Roku and fire tv probably have a
Speaker 1: lot of what's the word the power when you negotiation
Speaker 1: power because they are the two biggest And so it's
Speaker 1: no longer Oh, I'm HBO Max and I just published
Speaker 1: my app to rokuh. It doesn't seem to work that
Speaker 1: way anymore. Maybe back in the day it did, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem to work that way now. You have
Speaker 1: to be approved and you have to be negotiated in
Speaker 1: and that means that Roku wants a little cut of
Speaker 1: the money because HBO Max, you know, if they're just
Speaker 1: on the platform and you know, if any if everyone
Speaker 1: just used Roku to access these apps and Roku didn't
Speaker 1: get a little cut of the you know, action, Roku
Speaker 1: would not survive because their business is not selling those
Speaker 1: streaming sticks. Their business is advertising, and so they get
Speaker 1: a little bit of a commission. I don't know what
Speaker 1: what they get. I mean, that's all, that's all private,
Speaker 1: but they do get something, whether it's a cut of
Speaker 1: someone who signs up to HBO Max through Roku, or
Speaker 1: when they stream they get like a little portion of
Speaker 1: you know, some ad time on there, or they get
Speaker 1: you know, some free movies for their HBO or their
Speaker 1: Roku channel. There's something, you know, there's some kind of
Speaker 1: deal that's made. So anyway, the deal has been made,
Speaker 1: and we all know that HBO Max can be showing
Speaker 1: all the Warner Brothers films next year on for thirty
Speaker 1: days on HBO Max. That's gonna be amazing. I mean,
Speaker 1: what a good year to be an HBO Max subscriber.
Speaker 1: To get at least I mean, in this article in
Speaker 1: the Roku blog, one Matrix, four Dune, Suicide Squad and
Speaker 1: Space Jam and New Legacy. So at least four movies
Speaker 1: right there. The other piece of news is that Apple
Speaker 1: TV app is coming to chrome Cast with Google TV.
Speaker 1: And this is a big win because when I initially
Speaker 1: set up my Chrome Cast with Google TV, I was
Speaker 1: scratching my head and I was like, no, what am
Speaker 1: I missing here over Apple t Oh yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: missing the Apple TV the Apple TV app, And sure
Speaker 1: enough it's coming to Google chrome cast with Google TV.
Speaker 1: Does it say when it says let's see the all
Speaker 1: new early next year, which I'm I mean, come on,
Speaker 1: that's like a long I mean early next year. It
Speaker 1: could be like any that could be like January, February, March.
Speaker 1: Why does it take so long? I mean, how long
Speaker 1: does it take to make an Apple TV app for Android?
Speaker 1: So with the Apple TV app, it's very confusing because
Speaker 1: so a couple things you'll be able to do. You'll
Speaker 1: be able to watch Apple TV plus stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: the stuff that needs a subscription, but you'll also be
Speaker 1: able to watch, you know, all the movies that you
Speaker 1: purchased in the past on Apple TV or through Apple
Speaker 1: or iTunes whatever. You know. It gets so complicated because
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's so it's there's too many Apple
Speaker 1: things with Apple. Everything is Apple, Apple, Apple something. Let's
Speaker 1: see it says this makes Chrome cast with Google TV
Speaker 1: one of the only streaming devices with all the major
Speaker 1: video subscriptions. But I think at this point that's uh
Speaker 1: kind of that's no longer the case because now HBO
Speaker 1: Max has made its way to Roku and fire TV,
Speaker 1: and I think that was the last holdout. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, these major apps are mostly on these platforms
Speaker 1: at this point. Oh wow, I guess that will be
Speaker 1: my new audio for the voicemails. Let's go to another
Speaker 1: voicemail at rich on tech dot tv slash podcast. This
Speaker 1: is from Jerry Rick.
Speaker 3: It's Jerry Good. Heard you mentioned the ear muffs on
Speaker 3: your bows headsets and showing where signs on them. Same
Speaker 3: thing happened to my wife. So I ordered some new
Speaker 3: muffs from Amazon and it comes with a little tool
Speaker 3: for inserting them. Hope this helps enjoy your podcast and
Speaker 3: your segments on kate La and buy now now.
Speaker 1: This is why I love doing a podcast with an
Speaker 1: amazing community of folks like Jerry, because I mentioned on
Speaker 1: my podcast, I don't know if it was last week
Speaker 1: or the week before, probably last week when I talked
Speaker 1: about the AirPods Max headphones from apple that my bows.
Speaker 1: You know, when you put them on, there's sort of
Speaker 1: like little little fragments of the ear muffs or whatever
Speaker 1: you call them, the pads on the ears that sort
Speaker 1: of stay on my ear because they're kind of disintegrating.
Speaker 1: And he said, you know they're on Amazon and you
Speaker 1: can get you know, replacement, And why didn't I think
Speaker 1: of that? I mean, that's such a bowse replacement earpads,
Speaker 1: I mean so brilliant. There they are left and right
Speaker 1: now these are twelve ninety nine. Now I will say
Speaker 1: the ones, okay, the ones that came with it are
Speaker 1: extremely comfortable. And yes they have the official ones which
Speaker 1: are thirty five dollars, so you can get anything as
Speaker 1: cheap as twelve ninety nine sixteen ninety nine, or you
Speaker 1: can go official and get the thirty five dollars. But
Speaker 1: I love that. It's great, great voicemail. Thank you, Jerry.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, I'm I'm a little bit tempted
Speaker 1: to splurge on those headphones, but I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: like it's it's a big that's a big investment. And
Speaker 1: I'm looking at some of the reviews and they're not
Speaker 1: like glowing, so I don't know. Maybe maybe just stick
Speaker 1: with what I got and go with that. All right,
Speaker 1: let's do another question here from Kathy. Hey, Rich, love
Speaker 1: your tips. I'm a long time iPhone user, want to
Speaker 1: upgrade to get a better camera. I'm currently using the
Speaker 1: iPhone seven. Can you suggest a next step up on
Speaker 1: getting a better camera? I don't want the Pro model,
Speaker 1: just want a better pictures and don't want to spend
Speaker 1: a bundle. Also, if I get something unlocked, does that
Speaker 1: mean AT and T my preferred provider can insert their
Speaker 1: SIM card. Help Kathy in Kansas City. So, Kathy, to
Speaker 1: answer your first question, I would recommend I'd recommend the
Speaker 1: iPhone twelve and I would trade in the iPhone seven.
Speaker 1: You're not going to get a whole bunch for that,
Speaker 1: but I would trade that in and go with that.
Speaker 1: And you know, see what the deal is there, I
Speaker 1: you know, and I think that you know. The reason
Speaker 1: I recommend the twelve is because realistically you could go.
Speaker 1: I would also say the eleven is just fine as well.
Speaker 1: And the reason why I would say the eleven is
Speaker 1: because you want you know, the eleven had a good
Speaker 1: camera on it, So I think that the well, actually
Speaker 1: I think you have to go eleven pro. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think you have to go. Let me see here. It's
Speaker 1: been a while since I looked at this. But the
Speaker 1: you know, because Apple's only selling certain phones. So let's
Speaker 1: see what they're selling in the eleven lineup. They are
Speaker 1: selling Oh interesting, so they're selling just the eleven, not
Speaker 1: the eleven pro. Okay, but I think the eleven will
Speaker 1: be fine. So I mean, if you want to go
Speaker 1: with the eleven, you can do that. But I would
Speaker 1: just say, duke a price comparison between the twelve, just
Speaker 1: the standard twelve and the eleven, and see how much
Speaker 1: that is. Now, when it comes to your second question,
Speaker 1: if I get something unlocked, that means AT and T,
Speaker 1: my preferred provider can insert their SIM. Yes, so unlocked
Speaker 1: means that the phone will work with any carrier. But
Speaker 1: here's the thing. You don't necessarily need unlocked if you're
Speaker 1: sticking with your carrier and if they give you a
Speaker 1: better deal, I would go with that because unlocked is
Speaker 1: good for people like me that you know, are finicky
Speaker 1: and we switch providers and we're moving from Google five
Speaker 1: to Verizon, to Sprint to T Mobile, and we're trying
Speaker 1: to you know, we're always moving around, not that I'm
Speaker 1: doing that often, but you know, it's just and it.
Speaker 1: You know, it's just nice when you sell your phone,
Speaker 1: it's easy to sell because it's unlocked. But if you're
Speaker 1: sticking with AT and T, like you said, you have
Speaker 1: an iPhone seven, which tells me you've probably had this
Speaker 1: phone for a good you know, four years, so uh,
Speaker 1: you know, just stick with AT and T and get
Speaker 1: their deal and see if it's better than what Apple
Speaker 1: offers you, which I think it would be. So it's
Speaker 1: if you're not moving providers, it's not a big deal
Speaker 1: to stick with the lock device to AT and T
Speaker 1: and after a certain amount of time anyway, they will
Speaker 1: unlock it, which is generally you know, when your contract,
Speaker 1: not that you have a contract, but like when your
Speaker 1: phone is paid off usually that's what it is. And
Speaker 1: most people are doing their phones on a on a
Speaker 1: monthly installment anyway, So buying unlocked doesn't really mean anything
Speaker 1: because even if you wanted to move, you couldn't because
Speaker 1: you have to pay off your phone. So I feel like,
Speaker 1: if your carrier's given you a good deal, no need
Speaker 1: to go the unlocked route. But yes, if you're buying
Speaker 1: from the Apple website. I would probably go the unlocked
Speaker 1: route for sure, So I hope that makes sense. All right,
Speaker 1: Let's talk about third party extensions, and this is this
Speaker 1: disconfirms my fears about all these Chrome extensions that I
Speaker 1: install the time. And I think that Google and I
Speaker 1: think I heard that they're going to start kind of
Speaker 1: clamping down a little bit on these things because I
Speaker 1: think it's a big privacy hole. So when you install
Speaker 1: a lot of these extensions, it says this can read
Speaker 1: and change site data like what like you can see
Speaker 1: every website that I'm going to because I install this
Speaker 1: extension that shouldn't be but it is. And so a
Speaker 1: vast you know, they make security products. They identified malware
Speaker 1: in twenty eight third party Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge extensions.
Speaker 1: And what they do is they redirect your traffic to
Speaker 1: ads or phishing sites to try to steal your information
Speaker 1: or just make money off of you. And this is
Speaker 1: what happens when you do a search and it brings
Speaker 1: you to some like googly looking site, but it's not
Speaker 1: it's like my search, my way, and like it's like
Speaker 1: what has all ads on the screen? You're like, how
Speaker 1: did that happen? When I just did a Google search. Well,
Speaker 1: it's a it's malware redirecting you. So these extensions, they
Speaker 1: are all about downloading videos from various platforms, which is
Speaker 1: very popular because people are always trying to like, you know,
Speaker 1: download videos and put them on their Instagram or their
Speaker 1: Facebook page. And so a lot of these extensions piggyback
Speaker 1: on popular names like video downloader for Facebook, Vimeo video downloader,
Speaker 1: Instagram story downloader, VK on block and you know, they
Speaker 1: they basically, you know, hijack your computer. And so you know,
Speaker 1: some of these extensions are still available. Others have probably
Speaker 1: been taken down. But they said three million people have
Speaker 1: installed these and I've got the full list on my
Speaker 1: website or I'll put it in the show notes. But
Speaker 1: the reality is this just makes me very, you know,
Speaker 1: wary about these these third party extensions I have. I
Speaker 1: have a couple of them. I'll tell you which ones
Speaker 1: I use. I use Pocket, I use ever Note, I
Speaker 1: use print Friendly, I use Buffer And how do I
Speaker 1: see the rest of my extensions? They like hide them, honey,
Speaker 1: keep a let's see grammarly. And then I have a
Speaker 1: couple that a popcart screen recorder, auto scroll. See I'm
Speaker 1: gonna turn some of these off because I don't need them.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean it's like one of these things
Speaker 1: that you know you have to I mean you kind
Speaker 1: of have to like be just be aware when you
Speaker 1: put these extensions, and you know, if they get installed
Speaker 1: on your computer, you know accidentally, that could be you know,
Speaker 1: a problem too. And the extensions in Chrome have really
Speaker 1: greatly increased the functionality of the web browser. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, again, they are sort of a glaring
Speaker 1: security hole, I think, and I think that in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one, we're going to see Google do a lot
Speaker 1: more to make sure that stuff like this does not happen.
Speaker 1: All right, let's see, Chris says, I have a question.
Speaker 1: We're looking to cancel our cable. It's two hundred and
Speaker 1: sixteen dollars a month. We're looking at YouTube TV it's
Speaker 1: sixty five bucks a month. What's your thoughts on it.
Speaker 1: We move from California to Boise three years ago, but
Speaker 1: we still watch your show. We enjoy it. Thank you, Chris. Well.
Speaker 1: The thing about switching from cable to YouTube TV or
Speaker 1: any of these streaming services is that you're not gonna
Speaker 1: get You have to still pay for internet and when
Speaker 1: you get rid of the bundle, they boost your monthly
Speaker 1: for your internet. So if you're paying to sixteen a month,
Speaker 1: that is high. But you probably have everything in that bundle.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing you probably have high speed internet, you probably
Speaker 1: have a phone line, and you also have you know,
Speaker 1: a top of the line cable TV package that you
Speaker 1: probably don't need because you're probably not using all of it.
Speaker 1: So if you switch to YouTube TV, which I thought
Speaker 1: YouTube TV just raised prices, let me see how much
Speaker 1: it is. Okay, yeah, it's sixty five bucks. Okay, so
Speaker 1: sixty five dollars that includes the DVR. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I love YouTube TV. I think it's one of
Speaker 1: the best out there as long as it has the
Speaker 1: channels that you want in Boise. Yeah, Now, the thing
Speaker 1: is your internet is gonna go up. So right now,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever you're paying for internet in that bundle,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever it's it's going to be more expensive.
Speaker 1: Now you might get a deal to switch to a
Speaker 1: new provider or whatever. But you're looking at let's say
Speaker 1: another let's just say it was sixty to eighty a month,
Speaker 1: you're still looking at only one hundred and you know,
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty bucks, so you're still saving fifty
Speaker 1: dollars a month with this changeover. The only thing you
Speaker 1: just need to be aware of is if your local
Speaker 1: channels are available on YouTube tv. You can go to
Speaker 1: YouTube tv and type in your zip code and it
Speaker 1: will tell you that in a second. But otherwise sure,
Speaker 1: now I would argue, do you even need YouTube tv?
Speaker 1: You know? With all these other services, don't forget you
Speaker 1: have to pile those on top of this price as well.
Speaker 1: So unless you're not subscribing to Netflix or Disney Plus
Speaker 1: or Hulu or HBO Max, you know, yeah, that's one fifty.
Speaker 1: But now when you add all those in, now you're
Speaker 1: back up to two sixteen. So to me, the idea
Speaker 1: of cutting the cord, which I did a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago, has never been about saving money, because I'm
Speaker 1: still not convinced I'm saving money at this point with
Speaker 1: all the subscriptions. But what I love is that I'm
Speaker 1: in control, and so if I wanted to cancel anything,
Speaker 1: I can, And it's a matter of these services have
Speaker 1: to provide a value for me for me to continue
Speaker 1: with them, and so far, you know, so good. I mean,
Speaker 1: I pay for you know, pretty much all of them
Speaker 1: at this point, Netflix, Hulu with no ads, Disney plus
Speaker 1: what else do I have? HBO Max Right now, we're
Speaker 1: doing a Hallmark channel for all their sappy Christmas movies.
Speaker 1: But you know again, I'm gonna cancel that when Christmas
Speaker 1: is over. So for seven bucks a month, it's been
Speaker 1: great and I feel like we've gotten our value because
Speaker 1: we've watched you know, four movies. Of course, I'm sharing
Speaker 1: that log in with several folks. Can I say that? No,
Speaker 1: I'm not. No one does that, and so you know,
Speaker 1: it's one of these things where you just have to
Speaker 1: decide if it's worth it. I think it's worth it
Speaker 1: because of the control you get, and you get a
Speaker 1: slicker interface for me. I get my interface on either
Speaker 1: you know, a Roku device or a Chrome cast or
Speaker 1: Apple TV, which is infinitely better than what most of
Speaker 1: the cable companies offer you. So for all those reasons, Chris,
Speaker 1: go ahead, drop the cable and pick up YouTube TV.
Speaker 1: And if you don't like it, guess what, you can
Speaker 1: get rid of it and you don't have to call
Speaker 1: someone to come over to your house to do it.
Speaker 1: Story out of Apple all the well, I guess not
Speaker 1: all the developers, but maybe some of them are going nuts,
Speaker 1: but definitely Facebook. You know, these privacy labels are now
Speaker 1: on the iPhone in the app store. So if you
Speaker 1: go into the app store, if you select one of
Speaker 1: the apps that you like, you can scroll down and
Speaker 1: see what their privacy policy is. So let's go to
Speaker 1: Snapchat and if we scroll down, it's kind of like
Speaker 1: a nutrition facts label but for app privacy and so
Speaker 1: data use to track you contact info identifiers, data link
Speaker 1: to you, purchases, contact info, user content identifiers, diagnostics, location,
Speaker 1: contact search history, usage data. Wow. Snapchat, you know, tracks everything,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of what they're doing is bringing to
Speaker 1: light the fact that these apps, as much as we
Speaker 1: love them, you know, their business is making money. And
Speaker 1: how do they make money by tracking the heck out
Speaker 1: of us? And that means, you know, watching everything we
Speaker 1: do on Snapchat to sort of make us use Snapchat
Speaker 1: more and also target ads to us. And that just
Speaker 1: happens with every one of these apps. And so these
Speaker 1: little nutrition facts labels for data is what it's all about.
Speaker 1: And if you know, so, the main thing is that
Speaker 1: Facebook is going kind of you know, they're saying, look,
Speaker 1: you know now that we have to, you know, put
Speaker 1: all this out there. It looks scary. Number one. And
Speaker 1: then number two, they're saying that the they're not able
Speaker 1: to target our businesses, can't buy ads and target small
Speaker 1: business or people as well as they used to be
Speaker 1: able to. And that's probably true because now on you know,
Speaker 1: on iPhone, you can choose to not be you know,
Speaker 1: not hand over your location, your bluetooth, your precise location.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot of privacy of privacy protections
Speaker 1: in place on the iPhone this year than there ever
Speaker 1: have been, and so it is, it is tough for
Speaker 1: these companies that have built their entire business on targeting ads.
Speaker 1: It makes it a lot tougher for them. And I
Speaker 1: would argue that, yeah, it's you know, especially if you
Speaker 1: have a small business that you're used you're used to
Speaker 1: targeting people in a very specialized way. It does take
Speaker 1: that away and that is tough. But I'm not crying
Speaker 1: for Facebook. I mean, you know, they've had some privacy
Speaker 1: issues in the past, and you know, I think that
Speaker 1: it's nice that Apple is is kind of giving a
Speaker 1: wake up call to everyone with this privacy and we've
Speaker 1: taken it for granted for so many years on the
Speaker 1: phones that yeah, we're all just being tracked and everything's
Speaker 1: being seen, and they've really given us a lot of
Speaker 1: the the power back to the consumer. Whether a consumer
Speaker 1: chooses to use all of it is remains to be seen.
Speaker 1: And it's also very confusing even myself when I get,
Speaker 1: you know, an app, it's like Google Maps has been
Speaker 1: using your location in the background. Do you want to
Speaker 1: switch to just you know, just when you're using the app?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh yeah, sure, oh wait, no, no,
Speaker 1: Like there's some of these things that they write, these
Speaker 1: little warning labels are tricky. You have to really read
Speaker 1: them before you accept anything that they say. But it's
Speaker 1: nice to know that we can do that, all right.
Speaker 1: Final question from Babs happy holidays. Is there a way
Speaker 1: to do a holiday or any other backgrounds on Zoom
Speaker 1: with an iPhone? And I had to do some searching
Speaker 1: on this, but yes, there is a way to do it.
Speaker 1: And you have to start a meeting in Zoom on
Speaker 1: your iPhone. So make sure that your iPhone has Zoom downloaded,
Speaker 1: you know, sign in all that good stuff, do new meeting,
Speaker 1: start a meeting, and then you know, you get this
Speaker 1: weird thing that says to hear others. Please join audio
Speaker 1: call using Internet audio, which makes no sense to me.
Speaker 1: I don't even know what that means. But that means
Speaker 1: that you're using the audio on your phone, like you're
Speaker 1: not calling, you're just whatever weird, weird message from them.
Speaker 1: Then you go to more and it says virtual background
Speaker 1: and you've got three to choose from that are defaults
Speaker 1: or you can add your own and let's see, I
Speaker 1: can put a nice background there. Done, and there you
Speaker 1: go right on your iPhone. So it may not be
Speaker 1: every version of the iPhone software, Like if you have
Speaker 1: an older phone, it may not work because I do
Speaker 1: know that the virtual backgrounds take a little heavy lifting.
Speaker 1: So if you have like I don't know, but I
Speaker 1: do know on this iPhone, which is the newest one,
Speaker 1: it does work. So there you go again, just open
Speaker 1: up the app and go into more and virtual background
Speaker 1: and there you have it all. Right, final story, real quick.
Speaker 1: Just Google Pay is Google's new app that's sort of
Speaker 1: like their venmo slash, you know, banking app whatever, payment
Speaker 1: to payment, person to person. But right now they're trying
Speaker 1: to get people to sign up and you can net
Speaker 1: twenty one dollars if you refer someone to the app,
Speaker 1: So if you bring a new user to the app,
Speaker 1: you get twenty one dollars and the person that signed
Speaker 1: up also gets twenty one dollars as long as they
Speaker 1: spend ten dollars using the app. It used to be
Speaker 1: you could refer like a whole bunch of people, ten people.
Speaker 1: Now you can only do three because I guess so
Speaker 1: many people did this. So if you want an easy
Speaker 1: twenty one bucks, refer a friend to this and boom. Also,
Speaker 1: they have an offer at Target in the US if
Speaker 1: you spend fifty using Google Pay at Target, you'll get
Speaker 1: twenty one dollars cash back, which is really cool and
Speaker 1: that's awesome. It's funny. I was at the gas station
Speaker 1: the other day and I saw a sticker with a
Speaker 1: QR code for Google Pay. So clearly Google is really
Speaker 1: going all out on this mobile payment app this time,
Speaker 1: because you know, at my local gas station it had
Speaker 1: the sticker, which is you know, goes to show that
Speaker 1: they're really promoting this app. The thing is I can't
Speaker 1: sign up for I don't know what the problem is,
Speaker 1: but my phone number is clearly in some sort of
Speaker 1: Google limbo because when I go to sign up It
Speaker 1: just gives me an error message every single time. And
Speaker 1: I tried both my phone numbers, my cell phone and
Speaker 1: my Google Voice and it just didn't work. So I
Speaker 1: don't know what the deal is. But I'd like to
Speaker 1: sign up, but I can't, so I don't know. You
Speaker 1: know what that music means. It means that is going
Speaker 1: to do it for this episode of the show. If
Speaker 1: you'd like to submit a question for me to answer,
Speaker 1: just go to richon tech dot TV slash podcast and
Speaker 1: you can hit a little voicemail microphone or of course
Speaker 1: you can send an email as well. It says contact
Speaker 1: on there. Just hit that and boom, it'll get right
Speaker 1: to me. Probably won't get it till next year's show,
Speaker 1: but yeah, because this is it. This is the last
Speaker 1: show of twenty twenty. Also, I would love it if
Speaker 1: you would rate and review this podcast to help other
Speaker 1: people discover it. You can also just go to rich
Speaker 1: on tech dot, TV, slash podcast and you'll see a
Speaker 1: rate button. See everything's in one place now. How cool
Speaker 1: is that? You can also find me at rich on
Speaker 1: tech and I think those social media links are there
Speaker 1: as well. My name is rich Demiro. I want to
Speaker 1: say a sincere thanks to you for listening in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: I really do appreciate it. I have a blast doing
Speaker 1: this show. I know there's been some changes with the
Speaker 1: show over twenty twenty, but I feel feel like it's
Speaker 1: gotten to a really good place, and I'm happy where
Speaker 1: it's at. I love the community that we've built with
Speaker 1: the show. The questions keep coming, the comments. It is
Speaker 1: so interesting to me that, just as many people say
Speaker 1: when they email me that hey, Rich, I listen to
Speaker 1: your podcast, as people say they hear me on the
Speaker 1: radio or on KTLA or some other stations that I'm on,
Speaker 1: and I just love it. So Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Have a fantastic holiday season. Hang in there. We are
Speaker 1: almost through this pandemic. I do believe that. Stay safe.
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk to you in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: My name is Rich Demiro. Have a fantastic day. I'll
Speaker 1: talk to you real soon.