Speaker 1: Amazon buys Eero, a potential new way to save on
Speaker 1: spectrum Internet. Samsung opens its news stores just like Apple,
Speaker 1: And are you willing to share your ring.
Speaker 2: Video doorbell feed with the police. What's going on? I'm
Speaker 2: Rich Demiro.
Speaker 1: This is Rich on Tech, the podcast where I talk
Speaker 1: about all the things I think you should know that
Speaker 1: happened this week in technology, plus I take your phone
Speaker 1: calls live.
Speaker 2: What's going on? I'm Rich Demiro, the.
Speaker 1: Tech reporter at KTLA five News in Los Angeles, and
Speaker 1: this is for me to kind of expand on all
Speaker 1: the stuff that I talk about throughout the week that
Speaker 1: I just think is interesting that happened in the tech week.
Speaker 1: It is not a comprehensive look at every single thing
Speaker 1: that happened in technology, but it's mainly the stuff that
Speaker 1: I think is interesting I think you should know about.
Speaker 1: And of course your calls will take your first call
Speaker 1: in just a little bit. But first let's talk about
Speaker 1: some of the big news this week. Amazon dominating the
Speaker 1: headlines in several ways. Number One, they totally ditched their
Speaker 1: East Coast headquarters HQ two in New York City, more
Speaker 1: specifically Queens in New York. So that is not happening,
Speaker 1: And I'm not going to spend a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: time on that because you've probably heard it over and
Speaker 1: over and over, and realistically, for the average consumer, it
Speaker 1: does not affect you. And what I like to talk
Speaker 1: about when it comes to technology is stuff that affects
Speaker 1: the average person.
Speaker 2: So you're still going to get your packages just fine.
Speaker 2: But the fact that New York.
Speaker 1: City and the unions and politics got involved in this
Speaker 1: whole Amazon debacle over there does not really affect you
Speaker 1: unless you live in Queens, unless you put a big
Speaker 1: down payment on a condo in Queens thinking that this
Speaker 1: was going to be the next big place. But realistically,
Speaker 1: I think the bigger news for the average person this
Speaker 1: week is the fact that Amazon is acquiring euro And
Speaker 1: if you've listened to me talk at all, you know
Speaker 1: I've talked about Eo a lot. And what Eero is
Speaker 1: it is a smart Wi Fi system for your home,
Speaker 1: otherwise known as a mesh Wi Fi network. And so
Speaker 1: what you do is you put a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: these little network appliances in your home and they all
Speaker 1: work together to give you really good Internet. And sometimes
Speaker 1: they get the question of hey, rich if I buy
Speaker 1: one of these systems. Do I still need internet from
Speaker 1: my company like Spectrum or.
Speaker 2: AT and T. Yes.
Speaker 1: This is just a system that broadcasts the Internet throughout
Speaker 1: your house. And if you haven't used one of these before,
Speaker 1: they are pretty amazing. They make the Internet in your
Speaker 1: house work really, really well. And I've had this for
Speaker 1: a couple of years. Actually interviewed the guy who started
Speaker 1: this company, Nick Weaver, many years ago. He came to
Speaker 1: KTLA when they were just a little baby startup and
Speaker 1: we talked about it and it was such a new concept,
Speaker 1: and it was also very expensive, and it's still kind
Speaker 1: of pricey. It's more expensive than your typical router. But
Speaker 1: I always tell people, if you get one of the systems,
Speaker 1: you are going to have the best Internet in your
Speaker 1: home and you're getting what you pay for. So why
Speaker 1: does Amazon want this company? Well, mainly it's because they
Speaker 1: are now a platform company where they now have Wi
Speaker 1: Fi that works in people's homes. So by enabling better
Speaker 1: Wi Fi and people's homes, all the products that people
Speaker 1: are buying from Amazon will now work better in people's homes.
Speaker 1: Products like Alexa and the Echo. Of course, running Alexa
Speaker 1: products like Amazon fireTV products like ring video doorbells, products
Speaker 1: like Amazon's cloud video cameras, so all these things, tablets,
Speaker 1: I mean, there's so many things that Amazon sells, Amazon Shopping,
Speaker 1: Amazon Prime. Now anything that you do in your home
Speaker 1: with Internet will now work better because of this acquisition.
Speaker 1: So over at Amazon they said, we're incredibly impressed with
Speaker 1: the Euro team and how quickly they invented a Wi
Speaker 1: Fi solution that makes connected devices just work. And then
Speaker 1: Nick Weaver said, as we started with Wi Fi because
Speaker 1: it's the foundation of the modern home. Every customer deserves
Speaker 1: reliable and secure Wi Fi in every room. So the
Speaker 1: bad side of this, and by the way, some of
Speaker 1: the benefits of having one of these systems is you
Speaker 1: don't have any dead zones in your house. You can
Speaker 1: put parental controls on your network level, you could run
Speaker 1: speed tests, you can see what's associated with the what
Speaker 1: devices are on your Internet connection at any time. So
Speaker 1: for instance, in my house, I have a regular network
Speaker 1: and also a guest network. And by the way, if
Speaker 1: you do have one of these systems, if you have
Speaker 1: an eurosystem, something that a lot of you guys don't
Speaker 1: realize is when people come to your home, you do
Speaker 1: not have to give them the password to your internet.
Speaker 1: So number one, there's a guest network that you should
Speaker 1: have activated in your EUO app. So if you haven't
Speaker 1: downloaded the app to your phone, which I think you
Speaker 1: need to to set it up. If you haven't done that,
Speaker 1: download the app to your phone and then when someone
Speaker 1: comes to your house, go into your app, the euro app,
Speaker 1: and look in the settings and look under guests Access
Speaker 1: and there's a little QR code. All they have to
Speaker 1: do is hold their iPhone camera over that QR code
Speaker 1: and it will link them up to your guest Wi
Speaker 1: Fi network. It is really cool. It's really fast, and
Speaker 1: that way you don't have to share network passwords and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. If you are going to share network password,
Speaker 1: just share the guest Wi Fi access. And the reason
Speaker 1: why we like a guest access is because they are
Speaker 1: limited to less access to your main network, so they
Speaker 1: can't really tweak with things, change settings, all that good stuff.
Speaker 1: So it kind of keeps them in a and you know,
Speaker 1: they can still get internet, but it just kind of
Speaker 1: keeps people in check. So I think that the downside
Speaker 1: of Amazon acquiring Ero is really the fact that now
Speaker 1: we have a big company getting bigger. You know, Amazon
Speaker 1: just continues to absorb these other little companies, and at
Speaker 1: this point, it's really tough to have a startup that
Speaker 1: is not absorbed by one of the giant companies, whether
Speaker 1: it is Amazon, whether it's Microsoft, whether it's Google, whether
Speaker 1: it's Facebook, Book, all these companies are Apple. All these
Speaker 1: companies now basically purchase up any cool startup. Which it's
Speaker 1: funny because if you're a startup, yeah, the end game
Speaker 1: is that you either want to become gigantic or you
Speaker 1: want to.
Speaker 2: Have one of these big companies by you.
Speaker 1: But it's kind of interesting for the consumer at this
Speaker 1: point that now we're just seeding more of our information
Speaker 1: and more of our data to Amazon. And while Eero
Speaker 1: says that it's private and they're not sharing what you
Speaker 1: do on your home Wi Fi network with Amazon, you
Speaker 1: never know how they're going to use the data that
Speaker 1: they got in this acquisition because your internet is basically
Speaker 1: ground zero for everything that happens in your house, whether
Speaker 1: you're doing smart home devices or what you're surfing or
Speaker 1: what you're streaming, it all goes through your internet. So
Speaker 1: Amazon definitely gets a lot of data in this transaction
Speaker 1: as well. A net from Sunland you're on with Rich.
Speaker 2: Hello, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3: Thank you. My question is kind of weird, But if
Speaker 3: you have a twenty ten automobile and it's equipped with Bluetooth,
Speaker 3: is there any way you can get Wi Fi installed
Speaker 3: to the vehicle?
Speaker 1: There actually is, Yes, there's a couple of products that
Speaker 1: you can add.
Speaker 2: One of them.
Speaker 1: Basically, Verizon and T Mobile both make a product, and
Speaker 1: Sprint I believe, so Verizons is uh let's see, oh gosh.
Speaker 2: What is I know?
Speaker 1: One of them is called hum h M h u
Speaker 1: M so Verizon hum uh And it's basically a little
Speaker 1: device that you pop into your cars.
Speaker 2: I think it's called like an.
Speaker 1: ODB oh gosh, ODB port something like that, and you
Speaker 1: plug this thing into the bottom of your car and
Speaker 1: it will link onto the Verizon network and give you
Speaker 1: a Wi Fi hotspot in your car. So that's just
Speaker 1: one option. T Mobile has one.
Speaker 3: Okay, what about Sprint?
Speaker 1: Yes, Sprint with Sprint Okay, Sprint just came out with one. Actually,
Speaker 1: so Sprint is there's is called Sprint Drive and it's
Speaker 1: the same thing. You plug it into your car and
Speaker 1: that's how it works. It kind of, you know, goes
Speaker 1: off their network. And I'm looking at the price here.
Speaker 1: It looks like it is twenty four months. Oh, it
Speaker 1: looks like it's free. So if you if you do
Speaker 1: it for twenty four months. So what they do is
Speaker 1: they get you on the plan. You got to pay
Speaker 1: for the plan. So it looks like unlimited plan is
Speaker 1: like twenty five a month, a two gig plan is
Speaker 1: ten dollars a month. And of course I'm assuming you
Speaker 1: could add that right to your plan that you have
Speaker 1: with Sprint. So but again it's called Sprint Drive and yeah,
Speaker 1: it'll it'll basically, once you pop this thing in, it'll
Speaker 1: latch onto the Sprint network and then it'll create a
Speaker 1: Wi Fi hotspot in your car that you can use
Speaker 1: for whatever you want.
Speaker 3: Thank you, all right, You're rich.
Speaker 1: Good day, all right, Arnette, Thanks for calling in.
Speaker 2: Appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Well. One of the most popular questions I get is
Speaker 1: about cord cutting. Everyone wants to know how do I
Speaker 1: cut the cord, how do I save some money? And
Speaker 1: how do I subscribe to some of these newer services,
Speaker 1: like we all know Netflix, but there's others like Direct TV. Now,
Speaker 1: there's Sling TV, there's Hulu TV. There's a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of them, and there's only more coming down the pipe
Speaker 1: as well. We've got lots of new services. But the
Speaker 1: headline at a variety is that the five biggest pay
Speaker 1: television providers. These are the traditional kind of like cable services, Comcast,
Speaker 1: AT and T, DirecTV, Charter, Dish, and Verizon everyone lost customers.
Speaker 1: So three point two customers three point two million customers
Speaker 1: total among these big companies were lost in the past year.
Speaker 1: So that's a lot of people. So one of the
Speaker 1: most popular questions I get, like I said, is about
Speaker 1: cord cutting. People want to cut the cord. And here's
Speaker 1: my theory on this is, I don't really see chord
Speaker 1: cutting as necessarily a money saving trick anymore. It used
Speaker 1: to be you could save a lot of money. Right
Speaker 1: you're paying a couple hundred dollars to these big companies,
Speaker 1: and now you'd just be paying you know, fifteen ninety
Speaker 1: nine or something to Netflix, or you know, ten dollars
Speaker 1: to Netflix, whatever it is.
Speaker 2: But here's what's happened.
Speaker 1: The more people cut the cord, the more these companies
Speaker 1: get smart, and the more other services pop up. So
Speaker 1: I look at myself and I'm paying forty dollars a
Speaker 1: month for DirecTV. Now I'm paying sixty dollars for my
Speaker 1: internet connection, whereas my internet connection might have used to
Speaker 1: cost only thirty dollars. So it's interesting how we're watching
Speaker 1: all these companies jack the fees on the streaming services.
Speaker 1: So I don't really think these big companies are crying.
Speaker 1: I think, yes, they're losing a lot of customers, but
Speaker 1: I don't think if you if you think Dish Network
Speaker 1: thinks that they are going to have satellite viewers, you know,
Speaker 1: in the next ten years, I think they're planning for
Speaker 1: the fact that everyone is going to switch gears into
Speaker 1: an Internet delivered system, and it just makes sense. In fact,
Speaker 1: I think they like it. When I had Direct TV
Speaker 1: come to my house, I couldn't tell you how expensive
Speaker 1: it was for them to come here and install.
Speaker 2: This dish on my roof.
Speaker 1: So now, of course I ended up paying because I
Speaker 1: broke my contract, so I had to pay them like
Speaker 1: four hundred dollars to get out of it. But the
Speaker 1: reality is it costs big money for these companies to
Speaker 1: come to your house to install the network, to install
Speaker 1: the wiring, to install the boxes, to run the cables
Speaker 1: for the TVs. So I personally think that all these
Speaker 1: companies kind of like what's happening. And when it comes
Speaker 1: to something like Comcast or AT and T or Charter
Speaker 1: which owns Spectrum, I mean they also own the cable
Speaker 1: pipes that come to your house. So until the networks
Speaker 1: come along, the wireless networks come along, that can really
Speaker 1: take over your home Internet, and we haven't seen that
Speaker 1: in a big way just yet. I think they're still
Speaker 1: sitting pretty good, in a pretty good position. Yes, are
Speaker 1: things changing, Yes, are things evolving. Absolutely, But if you
Speaker 1: look at it up Comcast, you know they own Internet
Speaker 1: and a lot of the direct TV, and AT and T, yeah,
Speaker 1: they own a lot of Internet. They also own DirecTV
Speaker 1: now Dish network, they own Sling TV, Verizon they own
Speaker 1: well they're gonna own you know, these five G networks
Speaker 1: that they're putting out all over the US or they're
Speaker 1: trying to. So again, they know that they're gonna capture
Speaker 1: a lot of those wireless customers as well. And they
Speaker 1: ditched FiOS in a lot of places too, so they
Speaker 1: don't even care about their cable companies. And then who
Speaker 1: else do we have and I miss anyone. Charter is
Speaker 1: obviously Spectrum. They own the internet pipes and you know,
Speaker 1: so the reality is you can save money right now
Speaker 1: and by cutting all these services, Like for me, I
Speaker 1: was paying I think it was I think it was
Speaker 1: about two hundred dollars a month to direct TV and
Speaker 1: now I have direct TV Now which is forty I
Speaker 1: also have you know, I have Netflix, which is another
Speaker 1: sixteen dollars a month, And I think that's it for
Speaker 1: my main services. But the reality is they're just going
Speaker 1: to keep uping these prices. We've already seen Netflix up
Speaker 1: its prices. I've already been in the two years I've
Speaker 1: been a Direct TV Now customer, my price is gone
Speaker 1: up by five dollars. So we're noticing the same kind
Speaker 1: of trend that we saw with wired cable that we're
Speaker 1: seeing with all these streaming services. They just continue to
Speaker 1: up the rates over the years. And by the way,
Speaker 1: we're going to see a couple of new services. According
Speaker 1: to Variety, Disney Plus a lot of parents very excited
Speaker 1: for what Disney Plus is gonna do. WarnerMedia they are
Speaker 1: going to have a new streaming service. And don't forget
Speaker 1: they own CNN and a whole bunch of other networks, NBCUniversal,
Speaker 1: they own a whole bunch of networks like E and
Speaker 1: a ton of cable channels. So again, the funny thing
Speaker 1: that we're not seeing in this world of cord cutting
Speaker 1: is what consumers wanted all along from the beginning, and
Speaker 1: that is the ability to subscribe to individual channels that
Speaker 1: they enjoy. So, for instance, if you're into golf, what
Speaker 1: channel do you want in your cable network? All you
Speaker 1: want is the golf channel that's your favorite. That's the
Speaker 1: only one. You pay five bucks a month for that easily.
Speaker 1: If you're into entertainment, all you want is a standalone
Speaker 1: subscription to E. If you're into news, all you want
Speaker 1: is a standalone CNN subscription or something like that. But
Speaker 1: we haven't seen all these channels break out. We have
Speaker 1: seen a couple of premium channels breakout, like I think
Speaker 1: you can get Showtime on its own. I think you
Speaker 1: can get Obviously, you can get HBO on its own.
Speaker 1: I think they were the first to do it, and
Speaker 1: let's see. The other one is Stars that you can
Speaker 1: get on sown as well.
Speaker 2: But we haven't seen.
Speaker 1: These little cable channels really break out, like the Food Network.
Speaker 1: I mean, some people just love the Food Network and
Speaker 1: would pay, you know, three dollars a month just to
Speaker 1: have Food Network, and it would save them eighty bucks
Speaker 1: a month on the other channels that they don't care about.
Speaker 1: So again we're seeing all these companies. The trend is
Speaker 1: that the wired companies and the satellite companies are losing subscribers,
Speaker 1: but we are seeing an uptake in some of the
Speaker 1: streaming services. And one interesting note that they mentioned in
Speaker 1: this article from Variety, Todd Spangler's the author here is
Speaker 1: these virtual PayTV services have a much lower subscri fiber
Speaker 1: acquisition costs. Like I mentioned, they don't have to come
Speaker 1: to your house to do anything. You just download an
Speaker 1: app to your Apple TV and next thing you know,
Speaker 1: you're watching YouTube TV or HBO. But they also have
Speaker 1: higher churn. You can easily cancel these services. So when
Speaker 1: you had cable, you had to physically get rid of
Speaker 1: the cable box. When I my my Dish Direct TV
Speaker 1: and Dish Network. I had Dish back in the day,
Speaker 1: I had to send back my DVR. It was a
Speaker 1: big pain in the butt because you know, they're like,
Speaker 1: you know, you're gonna lose all your recordings and you
Speaker 1: gotta They wanted me to go up to the dish
Speaker 1: and take off the transmitter. I said, no way am
Speaker 1: I ever doing that. You can come here and take
Speaker 1: the transmitter off, but no, I'm not doing I'm not
Speaker 1: climbing on top of my house and doing that. Direct
Speaker 1: TV did not ask me to do that, I don't believe.
Speaker 1: But yeah, dish wanted me to go up on the
Speaker 1: tree and grab the the whatever the transmitter was off
Speaker 1: the dish and I said, no, not doing that. I'll
Speaker 1: send back your box, but I'm not doing that. But
Speaker 1: here's something I thought was pretty interesting. Saw this on
Speaker 1: Reddit Los Angeles. This guy says he just got his
Speaker 1: Spectrum Internet only bill lowered from sixty five ninety nine
Speaker 1: a month to fifty ninety nine for one hundred megabits
Speaker 1: per second.
Speaker 2: Now I pay on mine.
Speaker 1: I believe it's fifty five a month, so I'm ten
Speaker 1: dollars lower. Now, I will tell you they did try.
Speaker 1: So I was on the promotion. It was forty five
Speaker 1: bucks a month for one hundred and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, my promotion ended after a year. I called
Speaker 1: in because it went to sixty five ninety nine and
Speaker 1: they didn't care.
Speaker 2: And that's what he says in his.
Speaker 1: Comment, he says, for the past five months, I've been
Speaker 1: pissed that I had to pay sixty five ninety five
Speaker 1: a month after the forty five ninety nine new customer
Speaker 1: promo year was up. And he said he called and
Speaker 1: threatened to switch services. They didn't care. Now, I will
Speaker 1: tell you I've called Spectrum now about three times since
Speaker 1: I've been a customer for I think the past two years,
Speaker 1: and they do not care. They know that you are
Speaker 1: streaming all kinds of stuff like Netflix, and they know
Speaker 1: that your providers are limited. They know that you probably
Speaker 1: only have one other choice when it comes to internet
Speaker 1: coming into your house, so they do not care. You
Speaker 1: can threaten to quit all you want. I called the
Speaker 1: other day and I threatened to quit. They literally did
Speaker 1: not care. Now they said, okay, that's fine, let me
Speaker 1: transfer you. They were going to transfer me to another
Speaker 1: department to see if they can figure out a deal.
Speaker 1: But I didn't get that far because I waited on
Speaker 1: hold for ten minutes and I just couldn't put up
Speaker 1: with it anymore.
Speaker 2: But what we're.
Speaker 1: Seeing is these companies don't care.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: This guy, what he says is he got a piece
Speaker 1: of mail in his mailbox that said they had an
Speaker 1: Internet plus cable promo for forty four ninety nine, and
Speaker 1: he said, hey, what's up with that?
Speaker 2: I'm paying sixty five.
Speaker 1: Dollars just for internet and they lowered it to fifty dollars.
Speaker 1: But and he's locked in for the next twelve months.
Speaker 1: So bottom line, it's worth calling Spectrum and just saying, hey, look,
Speaker 1: I'm seeing that you're giving this new deal forty five
Speaker 1: bucks a month, and can I get something that's just
Speaker 1: as good, and also be prepared to switch. Now where
Speaker 1: I live, I can get another internet provider which is
Speaker 1: actually faster than Spectrum, for a little bit more a month.
Speaker 1: So it's one of these things where you have to
Speaker 1: be prepared to switch, and I was. I was prepared
Speaker 1: to switch if I have to. I'm going to probably
Speaker 1: call in and actually talk to someone and just see
Speaker 1: if I can do this as well. But I will
Speaker 1: say the only thing that I thought is a little
Speaker 1: bit tough about this is when I got the cable
Speaker 1: plus internet promo in my mail. I just got this
Speaker 1: in my mail as well this week. I thought the
Speaker 1: forty four to ninety nine was each. I thought it
Speaker 1: was forty five dollars for Internet and forty five dollars
Speaker 1: for the TV service, which would be ninety dollars a month.
Speaker 1: He's saying that it was forty five dollars for both.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's the case. So you can check,
Speaker 1: but look closely when you get that mail, or if
Speaker 1: you haven't already gotten it. But I remember it saying
Speaker 1: that it was forty five dollars a month for each service.
Speaker 1: And so that's why I didn't really call in like
Speaker 1: he did, because I was like, well, they're not going
Speaker 1: to really do anything for me, because this is something
Speaker 1: they want you to bundle, right. The whole point of
Speaker 1: their business is to get you to spend more by
Speaker 1: bundling more things. Justine from the red Lands with rich
Speaker 1: what can I help you with?
Speaker 4: Hi?
Speaker 5: Yes, I just upgraded from the Pixel to the Verizon customer.
Speaker 5: I was a Sprint for like twelve years and I
Speaker 5: went to Verizon. I got tired of Spring and I
Speaker 5: had a Pixel.
Speaker 6: For like a year and a half and it gave
Speaker 6: me to a lot of problems, and I went with
Speaker 6: the Galaxy T eight.
Speaker 5: Is that what it's called? Okay, maybe I'm saying maybe
Speaker 5: I'm saying it wrong.
Speaker 1: That could be a model. I'm not totally familiar with that.
Speaker 5: It's got a pen.
Speaker 1: Oh oh the Galaxy no date? Got it?
Speaker 5: Yes, yes, I'm sorry the no date. Thank you? And okay,
Speaker 5: I'm gonna say my question stupid too. Okay, I'm having
Speaker 5: I keep hitting the left side of the phone and
Speaker 5: I keep getting this. Fix me what is that? And
Speaker 5: it's annoying and how can I get it?
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, Bixby, Bixby is is basically their version of
Speaker 1: Google Assistant or Siri. But that's Samsung's version of that.
Speaker 1: So what what's happening is there's a dedicated button on
Speaker 1: the left side of the phone, right underneath the two
Speaker 1: volume buttons. That is the Bixby activation button. And and yes,
Speaker 1: I'm well aware that I say button a little bit different,
Speaker 1: but I'm from New Jersey, so give me a break.
Speaker 5: But you're oh.
Speaker 1: You're from New Jersey.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: See then I say then I say button just the
Speaker 1: way you'd say button. So you can basically disable this
Speaker 1: in the settings. So the first time that you open Bixby,
Speaker 1: you can't fully disable it, but you can kind of
Speaker 1: turn off some aspects of it. But go into Bixby
Speaker 1: once you turn it on or activate it, and then
Speaker 1: go into your settings and basically turn off everything that
Speaker 1: says to activate Bixby. I believe they kind of go
Speaker 1: through soft or changes. At one point, you could turn
Speaker 1: off the button completely. Some people actually use these apps
Speaker 1: called remappers, and it will actually when you press that button,
Speaker 1: it'll bring up like Google Assistant or another app that's
Speaker 1: actually useful to you.
Speaker 2: You can do that.
Speaker 1: I don't really recommend those because they kind of it's
Speaker 1: a not a very clean system, so I would just
Speaker 1: try to disable it as much as possible. So you've
Speaker 1: got let's see what they lets you do right now.
Speaker 1: Bixby key is one of the options right now, press
Speaker 1: once to open or press twice to open, So I
Speaker 1: would recommend the option to press twice to open, and
Speaker 1: there will be a less chance that you will accidentally
Speaker 1: activate that.
Speaker 5: Justine, Oh, okay, no problem.
Speaker 1: How are you liking the phone otherwise?
Speaker 5: I am. I did not like the pixel.
Speaker 1: Oh what about the pixels?
Speaker 5: I don't know. I was having a lot of issues
Speaker 5: with the part I did like about Verizon after switching
Speaker 5: from Sprint was that I do like that they have
Speaker 5: the tech coach. Okay on the phone, and I use
Speaker 5: it a whole lot. So I'm not tech savvy, so
Speaker 5: I do like that, and so I'm a big fan
Speaker 5: of Verizon. I don't know, I had a lot of
Speaker 5: problems I was getting, like I would miss phone calls
Speaker 5: and things like that. Wow, And so the Pixel was
Speaker 5: not I was not a fan of the Pixel.
Speaker 1: I call it a one trick pony because it really is.
Speaker 1: It's a great camera, but other than that, it kind
Speaker 1: of leaves other things to be desired. It's got some
Speaker 1: good software from Google. But I think the note the
Speaker 1: Samsung devices, they've got so many cool features that people
Speaker 1: that's why people really have seen them as the alternative
Speaker 1: to the iPhone.
Speaker 5: Exactly it did take Yeah, pictures are fine. Pictures are
Speaker 5: exactly fine.
Speaker 1: You are so right, all right, Justine.
Speaker 2: Thanks for calling in.
Speaker 1: Justine in the Redlands formerly of New Jersey, and thanks for.
Speaker 2: Calling in on the show.
Speaker 5: Thanks, thanks so much. Rich.
Speaker 1: Today's podcast brought to you by one and one Handy
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Speaker 1: and one Handy Tech Tips for the iPhone is a
Speaker 1: best selling iPhone guide on Amazon. I wrote it. You
Speaker 1: guys have reviewed it. The reviews have come in. They've
Speaker 1: been excellent. Thank you for that. Believe last time I
Speaker 1: checked it was about four and a half stars on Amazon,
Speaker 1: which is no easy feat. By the way, I wrote
Speaker 1: the book so anyone can understand it. It's written for
Speaker 1: Apple's latest operating system iOS twelve, so you get all
Speaker 1: the latest tips like how to create a memoji, how
Speaker 1: to take control of your notifications, how to utilize screen
Speaker 1: time and set content limits for kids, and more. You
Speaker 1: also learn how to use the fun new camera effects
Speaker 1: in I message, keep USB accessories from stealing your data set,
Speaker 1: and remember more secure passwords, use group FaceTime, which yeah,
Speaker 1: we know what happened with group FaceTime, but there is
Speaker 1: a fix for that one so you can use it
Speaker 1: again if you have the latest version of iOS. I'll
Speaker 1: also talk about series shortcuts, how to use the second
Speaker 1: phone line on your device, and there's also fun stuff
Speaker 1: like the tips that started at all. I've shared these
Speaker 1: on TV, like changing the brightness of the built in
Speaker 1: flashlight and turning your iPhone into a magnifying glass. I
Speaker 1: also talk about iCloud extensively, like how to free up storage,
Speaker 1: how to manage that, how to control what your kids
Speaker 1: are doing on their devices, and how to stop double
Speaker 1: paying for all the apps and movies that you buy
Speaker 1: if you want to share them with family members. Bottom line,
Speaker 1: you're gonna feel smarter about your iPhone, You're going to
Speaker 1: accomplish more in less time, and you're gonna feel better
Speaker 1: about the money you've spent on this very expensive device.
Speaker 1: I get a lot of questions about which iPhones it
Speaker 1: works for. If you have iOS twelve installed on your device,
Speaker 1: this book applies to you. It's called one hundred and
Speaker 1: one Handy Tech Tips for the iPhone. It's available now
Speaker 1: in paperback and in kindle editions on Amazon. Just go
Speaker 1: to rich on tech dot tv slash book for more information,
Speaker 1: or just search one hundred and one Handy Tech Tips
Speaker 1: for the iPhone on Amazon. Well, well, well, it is
Speaker 1: a long time coming, but Samsung finally has their answer
Speaker 1: to the Apple Store. The company is opening up three
Speaker 1: new retail stores. And guess what I got an early
Speaker 1: sneak peek at their location in Los Angeles or near
Speaker 1: Los Angeles if you're really getting me on a technicality.
Speaker 1: It's in Glendale at the Americana at Brand And let
Speaker 1: me tell you, I got a tour of the store
Speaker 1: and this is the real deal. This is Samsung's first
Speaker 1: retail store. Now some of you may say, wait a second, rich,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about. Samsung has had stores in
Speaker 1: the past. Well they really haven't. They've got a store
Speaker 1: in New York, but it's not actually a store. They
Speaker 1: call it Samsung eight thirty seven. I've been there. It's
Speaker 1: in the meatpacking district, and that's what's what they call
Speaker 1: an experience center. So you can't actually buy the stuff
Speaker 1: that's on display there, which I think is a missed
Speaker 1: opportunity by the way. But this new store, they call
Speaker 1: a Samsung Experience Store, is a store where you can
Speaker 1: see all the different Samsung products, but you can also
Speaker 1: purchase them at the end of the day. Now that's great.
Speaker 1: They have all this stuff on hand, you know, like
Speaker 1: the phones, the TVs, they have all the accessories that
Speaker 1: they sell, all the watches, all the watch bands. So
Speaker 1: if you're a Samsung fan, this is a must stop.
Speaker 1: You gotta see this place. It looks you know, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna say it looks like an Apple store, but
Speaker 1: of course it has that same feel where you can
Speaker 1: go in, you can hang out, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: places to sit everything's on display, you can play with everything.
Speaker 2: Hopefully the people that.
Speaker 1: Are in there are very knowledgeable about the products, because
Speaker 1: that's one of the differentiating factors between say a Samsung
Speaker 1: store and just going into like you know, a wireless
Speaker 1: carrier store and buying the product or maybe a Best Buy.
Speaker 1: A lot of these locations with Samsung, you know, they
Speaker 1: they've trained the people that are at those little stores.
Speaker 1: So I know they have like a Samsung store inside
Speaker 1: a lot of Best Buys, and a lot of times
Speaker 1: the people inside that little Samsung store inside the Best
Speaker 1: Buy are trained by Samsung, so they're.
Speaker 2: Knowledgeable about the products.
Speaker 1: But this takes it to the next level because these
Speaker 1: people are living, breathing it every single day. So, like
Speaker 1: I said, the first stores are opening at the Americana
Speaker 1: at Brand in Los Angeles, which is just outside just
Speaker 1: outside Los Angeles, I should say, which is Glendale, beautiful place,
Speaker 1: the Americana, by the way. The second store is Long
Speaker 1: Island in Garden City, and then you've got the Galleria
Speaker 1: in Houston. So those are the first three, and I
Speaker 1: know for a fact that the Americana is opening on
Speaker 1: February twentieth.
Speaker 2: It says that three stores are going to.
Speaker 1: Open all on the twentieth of February, so that's the
Speaker 1: target date. Now, the thing I think is the most
Speaker 1: interesting aspect of these stores is the fact that you
Speaker 1: can finally go into a Samsung store and get your
Speaker 1: Samsung product serviced.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I know that there's been a lot of these repair
Speaker 1: shops that you can bring your Samsung to they'll replace
Speaker 1: the screen, all that kind of stuff, But how nice
Speaker 1: is it that Samsung will have a physical location where
Speaker 1: you can bring your device, get help, ask questions, and
Speaker 1: also get some on site repairs.
Speaker 2: Now, beyond the screen.
Speaker 1: Repair, Samsung wasn't very forthcoming about what other repairs they
Speaker 1: can do, but I do know that you can get.
Speaker 2: Your screen repaired on site.
Speaker 1: Could also get a TV repaired there, which I don't
Speaker 1: really understand because I mean, to me, TVs are so
Speaker 1: cheap these days.
Speaker 2: Who brings them in for repair?
Speaker 1: I don't even know if TV's break, but it has
Speaker 1: to be under forty inches so you can bring your
Speaker 1: flat screen in and they will troubleshoot it. But I mean,
Speaker 1: do TVs really break?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've had my TVs forever and I don't
Speaker 1: feel like they ever break these days back in the day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe tube and projection, but flat.
Speaker 2: Screens, I don't know. They just kind of they're kind
Speaker 2: of like a workhorse.
Speaker 1: These are also permanent locations. These are not just pop
Speaker 1: up shops. These are permanent locations. And I asked Samsung
Speaker 1: if they're going to open more past these three. They
Speaker 1: did not say. Now, I personally think I would expect
Speaker 1: that they will transform their Samsung eight thirty seven at
Speaker 1: the Meatpacking District into a real store. I would hope
Speaker 1: they would do that. I'm not sure. They didn't say
Speaker 1: they were gonna do that. But again, this is now
Speaker 1: their answer to the Apple Store. And I think it's
Speaker 1: a really cool thing for Samsung enthusiasts because you've got
Speaker 1: this great community of Samsung fans with nowhere to go,
Speaker 1: and now that they have a location. It's kind of
Speaker 1: cool because you go into Apple stores, there's always a
Speaker 1: million Apple people in there and they're all, you know,
Speaker 1: talking and chatting or whatever. I think it's really cool
Speaker 1: now that you can go into a Samsung store and
Speaker 1: you can sit in one of these like lounge areas
Speaker 1: that they have there and just kind of see other
Speaker 1: people and talk to other people and just kind of
Speaker 1: be part of that community. Two things you have to
Speaker 1: check out if you go there. Number One, right now,
Speaker 1: they're doing a promotion if you buy a case at
Speaker 1: one of these Samsung Experience retail stores, they will laser
Speaker 1: engrave it on site for free. So that's kind of cool.
Speaker 1: So definitely take advantage of that if you need a
Speaker 1: case for your Galaxy phone or your tablet or whatever.
Speaker 1: Well I don't know, yeah, I guess for a tablet
Speaker 1: they would do that too. The other thing is that
Speaker 1: they have this VR set up there and it's with
Speaker 1: the Gear VR, but they've got this seat that you
Speaker 1: sit in and it's like a full VR experience. They
Speaker 1: call it four D, and believe me, it was pretty
Speaker 1: I went on it. It was a roller coaster, a
Speaker 1: six Flags roller coaster, and I'll admit I was a
Speaker 1: little apprehensive when I got on this roller coaster because
Speaker 1: not a huge fan of the crazy roller coasters.
Speaker 2: I'll go on them.
Speaker 1: It's been a while, but I will go on them,
Speaker 1: and this was pretty realistic and so definitely check that out.
Speaker 2: I thought it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: They have like the chair will actually blow air into
Speaker 1: your face if the whole chair moves, you actually strap
Speaker 1: yourself in, so it doesn't go upside down or anything.
Speaker 1: I mean, the roller coaster does, but it's all simulated.
Speaker 1: So that was pretty cool. And again, the new Samsung
Speaker 1: Experience stores open in Los Angeles, Long Island, and Houston
Speaker 1: on February twentieth. I should mention, since we're talking about Samsung,
Speaker 1: if you're in the market for a Samsung device, you
Speaker 1: probably want to hold off until February twentieth because that's
Speaker 1: when Samsung is unveiling their brand new devices. So they'll
Speaker 1: be unveiling their brand new S ten lineup. And also
Speaker 1: the rumor is a foldable device as well. I don't
Speaker 1: think you're able to buy that very soon, but I
Speaker 1: guess sometime this year perhaps, And also we could see
Speaker 1: some surprises like wearables and stuff like that. So if
Speaker 1: you're in the market for the S nine, I would
Speaker 1: just wait to see what the S ten does. Even
Speaker 1: if you don't want to buy the latest, greatest, newest one,
Speaker 1: usually the prices drop on the old devices when the
Speaker 1: new ones come out. Now again, these stores open on
Speaker 1: February twentieth. I don't think they're going to have the
Speaker 1: new devices in the stores that day, because usually what
Speaker 1: happens is Samsung announces the devices and then it's about,
Speaker 1: you know, a couple of weeks, a week or two
Speaker 1: before they come out, So that'll give the stores about
Speaker 1: a week to change over everything. But just something to
Speaker 1: know again, big Samsung event on Wednesday, February twentieth, so
Speaker 1: we will have much more Samsung news then. Mark from
Speaker 1: OHI you're on with Rich? How's it going?
Speaker 4: Hey? Rich? How are you doing today?
Speaker 1: I'm doing fantastic.
Speaker 2: How are you?
Speaker 4: We're doing great? Love your book, pon it for Christmas.
Speaker 4: Can't get enough of it.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 4: We had to upgrade, just had to upgrade from my
Speaker 4: iPhone six battery went dead. Didn't want to put money
Speaker 4: into it, so I upgraded to the iPhone XR. Okay,
Speaker 4: I've been sitting here on a rainy day, look at
Speaker 4: reading your book, trying to get familiar with the phone.
Speaker 4: And the one thing I'm having issues with is my
Speaker 4: voice control in my truck I have. I'll give it
Speaker 4: a voice command to dial a number and it won't
Speaker 4: go through. It just dies. So what do I need
Speaker 4: to do?
Speaker 1: M Okay? So well, thanks for buying the book. By
Speaker 1: the way, one hundred and one handy tech tips to
Speaker 1: the iPhone. Appreciate that. So what kind of truck do
Speaker 1: you have? And how are you making these calls? Is
Speaker 1: it straight up bluetooth or are using.
Speaker 4: Car play Bluetooth? My truck does not have that year.
Speaker 4: It's a twenty sixteen Ford F one fifty. Okay, and
Speaker 4: so when you meet, but I'm just blue just bluetooth.
Speaker 1: So you're just doing bluetooth and you what do you say?
Speaker 1: Do you say hey Siri and then try to call it?
Speaker 1: How do you how are you actually calling it?
Speaker 4: Mike? I hit the voice activation and I say please
Speaker 4: call so and so?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 2: And then what happens?
Speaker 1: So you're using Ford's Ford Sync to do that? Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: so the voice three, So the voice command is going
Speaker 1: to sync three and then it's handing it off to
Speaker 1: the iPhone somehow, or it's actually probably just using the
Speaker 1: address book from your device. So where does it go
Speaker 1: after that? What happens?
Speaker 4: It dies? My iPhone six I had no problem with,
Speaker 4: so I know there's got to be a toggle that
Speaker 4: I haven't switched on or something to that nature.
Speaker 1: So does the call ever connect or does it just
Speaker 1: literally it drops everything like it says, does it ever
Speaker 1: say calling the person?
Speaker 4: No, it never makes it that far. Oh wow, it
Speaker 4: just as soon as I make the voice command, it dies.
Speaker 1: Interesting, it sounds like it's something on your phone. Have
Speaker 1: you so you connected your phone? Did you disconnect your
Speaker 1: old phone? Have you deleted it out of the system
Speaker 1: on the ford?
Speaker 4: I did?
Speaker 1: You did? Okay, and it's still happening. What about when
Speaker 1: you go into your settings on Bluetooth and you go
Speaker 1: into your car, is everything like sync contacts, all your groups,
Speaker 1: all the contacts. Are those all kind of synced up?
Speaker 1: All those toggles.
Speaker 4: I'll have to double check that, right man. That might
Speaker 4: be one place to look.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would. I would start there. So my to
Speaker 1: troubleshoot this for me personally, what I would do is
Speaker 1: I would on your car, I would delete everything out
Speaker 1: of there, so delete the phone, delete the old phone,
Speaker 1: make sure everything is disconnected from Bluetooth. Then I would
Speaker 1: go into your phone. I would disconnect everything from your phone.
Speaker 1: So whatever you have connected to this car, I would
Speaker 1: make sure it's disconnected, and then I would, you know,
Speaker 1: restart my phone, and then I would reconnect the phone
Speaker 1: to sync. And also i'd make sure that there aren't
Speaker 1: any software updates with SINC because the ten hour is
Speaker 1: a new device. This is an older model. It's I mean,
Speaker 1: it's not old. It's only a couple of years old.
Speaker 4: I know, right, but I know technology goes quickly.
Speaker 1: It does, and especially with Bluetooth. I mean, it should
Speaker 1: be backwards compatible, but everything as they change these protocols
Speaker 1: is like different. Sometimes. The base functionality though, of a
Speaker 1: voice command to your phone activating should work. I mean
Speaker 1: that that's a pretty basic thing. So I would check
Speaker 1: those things and see if that will help. I think
Speaker 1: I've had there and you're not. You're just dialing out
Speaker 1: regular kind of like you're not using Google Voice or
Speaker 1: anything like that.
Speaker 4: Now, just call it just just my standard my standard
Speaker 4: call list.
Speaker 1: And has it ever worked with this device?
Speaker 4: No, because I've only had this device for two days.
Speaker 4: Oh okay, my old phone work perfectly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, Well, if your old phone worked perfectly, I
Speaker 1: think there's hope for this one working. So I think
Speaker 1: it's it's obviously going to work. I think that there
Speaker 1: might be either the address book isn't fully synced or
Speaker 1: there's something kind of holding this up. So I would, like,
Speaker 1: I said, delete everything start over again, make sure that
Speaker 1: it's all fresh, restart your phone, and then connect, make
Speaker 1: the connection again with Bluetooth and try it again. And
Speaker 1: i'd also just go online and make sure that you
Speaker 1: have the latest version of Sync on your device in
Speaker 1: your car, because that could make a difference too. Sometimes
Speaker 1: when these new phones come out, you know, there's there's
Speaker 1: some growing pains there. But it's a pretty popular truck
Speaker 1: model and it's a pretty popular phone model, so I
Speaker 1: would I would hope that they would end up working. Okay,
Speaker 1: what if what if you learned in the book so
Speaker 1: far mark that you, uh, did this surprised you anything yet?
Speaker 4: Significant locations?
Speaker 1: Okay, that's a good one.
Speaker 4: And then just learning some of the serie tips on
Speaker 4: That's what I've been reading today since it's raining today.
Speaker 4: It just reading some of the SERI tips and how
Speaker 4: it can assist you that way. That's what I've been
Speaker 4: doing most of the day to day.
Speaker 2: Very cool.
Speaker 1: Well, thanks for buying the book. I appreciate it. And
Speaker 1: when you get through it a little bit more, maybe
Speaker 1: leave a review on Amazon. That always helps. Let me
Speaker 1: know what happens. Email, Give me an email and tell
Speaker 1: me what happens with the truck will do.
Speaker 4: Thanks Rich, see you tomorrow morning.
Speaker 1: All right, Mark, thank you see then bye bye. All
Speaker 1: State announced that it has acquired I Cracked. And this
Speaker 1: is again another company where man, I'm I'm doing pretty
Speaker 1: well here. I had this company in when they first
Speaker 1: started at KTLA. They came in for an interview and
Speaker 1: it was such a crazy idea back then because it
Speaker 1: was a guy who started it, Aj and he started
Speaker 1: this company where it was kind of like the uber
Speaker 1: of screen repair. So let's say you were a guy
Speaker 1: that was into technology or a girl and you knew
Speaker 1: how to do these screen repairs, Like I replaced the
Speaker 1: battery on my iPod once and I thought I was
Speaker 1: like so cool. And then I did the story with
Speaker 1: this guy called the iPod Surgeon, Joe Kempy in Central
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. And again this guy he had people come
Speaker 1: to him. But again, if you know how to do
Speaker 1: this and you can go to people, you can drive.
Speaker 1: This is what I Crack did. So they had these
Speaker 1: techs all over the US and they would just go
Speaker 1: to you and do on site screen repairs and also
Speaker 1: other little repairs. Well guess what it paid off because
Speaker 1: several years later, Square Trade, which is owned by all State,
Speaker 1: is now buying I Cracked. And what does this mean
Speaker 1: for Square Trade, Well, it means that if you have
Speaker 1: the protection plan from Square Trade, which I highly recommend,
Speaker 1: by the way, versus your carrier protection plans, it's a
Speaker 1: whole lot cheaper. You can now get I Cracked service
Speaker 1: with your plan, which is really cool. So that means
Speaker 1: you don't have to go to a facility to get
Speaker 1: your phone repaired, or you don't have to send in
Speaker 1: your phone. So again, I Cracked will come right to you.
Speaker 1: And Aj Forsyth, the I Cracked CEO, said, we are
Speaker 1: excited to join Square Trade, a company that shares our
Speaker 1: commitment to delivering high quality, on demand service to customers.
Speaker 1: They operate in sixty plus metropolitan areas in the US
Speaker 1: and Canada. And there you have it. So now I
Speaker 1: Cracked is part of Square Trade, which is part of
Speaker 1: All State. And congratulations to Aj, a guy who I've
Speaker 1: I think I've interviewed him two or three times, and
Speaker 1: I'll never forget the first time they came into KTLA.
Speaker 1: It's like this little company and this guy, he was
Speaker 1: a kid basically, and he comes in with this new
Speaker 1: idea and I was just like, wow, it kind of
Speaker 1: blew my mind that this could be a thing.
Speaker 2: But Uber was just starting and it was kind.
Speaker 1: Of like the just the seeds of our undemanned economy,
Speaker 1: and he really had the foresight to kind of see
Speaker 1: the potential for that.
Speaker 2: And kudos to him now.
Speaker 1: He's his idea has really really done well.
Speaker 2: So congrats to you.
Speaker 1: Ring is rolling out a new feature. Okay, this one
Speaker 1: you got to stick with me on. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if it's good, bad, indifferent, whatever. But they have this
Speaker 1: Neighborhoods app which is if you have a ring video doorbell,
Speaker 1: they have this separate app called Neighborhoods right, which is
Speaker 1: kind of like their next door for neighborhoods, and it's
Speaker 1: a place where people can share videos and you know,
Speaker 1: things that are happening in their neighborhood, videos from the
Speaker 1: ring doorbell, people stealing packages, whatever. But here's the thing
Speaker 1: they're doing now, So they're linking up with police in neighborhoods.
Speaker 1: So police have this software where they can now contact
Speaker 1: people in the area that have a ring video doorbell
Speaker 1: and ask them if they don't mind sharing their ring
Speaker 1: videos if there's been a crime in the area. So
Speaker 1: they don't have access to your camera. Let's just be
Speaker 1: clear about that. The police cannot tap into your camera,
Speaker 1: nor can anyone see a live feet of your camera
Speaker 1: at any time. Right, But if you choose to share
Speaker 1: a video from your camera, that is made public to people,
Speaker 1: so you can share a clip. But the layer, the
Speaker 1: wrinkle that's really interesting is let's say there's a crime
Speaker 1: in your neighborhood. You know a lot of times, you know,
Speaker 1: a car gets stolen, or there's a you know, kidnapping,
Speaker 1: whatever happens, or some sort of crazy thing happens in
Speaker 1: a neighborhood, and all these people have video doorbells that
Speaker 1: may capture something.
Speaker 2: Right, you never know. I work in the news.
Speaker 1: Ever, nine times out of ten, when something happens, there
Speaker 1: is some sort of surveillance video camera that caught this
Speaker 1: thing on camera, this incident. But how do you find it.
Speaker 1: There's no real way except knocking on the.
Speaker 2: Doors of the businesses. Hey, do you have a camera installed?
Speaker 2: Was it running?
Speaker 1: It operating this night, here's the time, here's the place,
Speaker 1: and you know, yes, no, whatever, it's a lot of work. Well,
Speaker 1: imagine now, if you're in this neighborhood, something happens on
Speaker 1: your street, and the police can now send everyone that
Speaker 1: has a ring a little notification that says, hey, we
Speaker 1: had a crime in your neighborhood. We're looking for this person.
Speaker 1: Would you mind sharing a video from your camera at
Speaker 1: you know, one am to two am with the police department.
Speaker 2: And that's kind of the deal here.
Speaker 1: Now I understand it's kind of scary, it's kind of
Speaker 1: big brotherish, But again, they don't have access to your camera.
Speaker 1: You are feeding. You are giving this video to them willingly, right.
Speaker 1: But here's where it gets interesting. What if one day
Speaker 1: it's not willingly. What if one day they're like, look,
Speaker 1: we have to subpoena this video from your camera because
Speaker 1: you have it. Why are you hiding this from us?
Speaker 1: Why are you keeping this from us? Why are you
Speaker 1: maybe we're going to start investigating you. So again, it
Speaker 1: gets kind of crazy when you really think of the implications.
Speaker 1: At first, it sounds innocent and you're helping and you're
Speaker 1: contributing to a greater good of society. But when you
Speaker 1: really think about it, these new systems and all these
Speaker 1: speakers and microphones and monitoring systems, they do add a
Speaker 1: wrinkle to the fabric of society. When it comes to
Speaker 1: who owns this stuff? I mean, who is it mine?
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 1: Should I hand this over? Do I have to hand
Speaker 1: it over? Is there you know? Is there precedent that
Speaker 1: says I must hand over this this video that's mine.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's on my personal property. But I was
Speaker 1: recording something that you know, the police are investigating. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's very fascinating. I can talk about it all day,
Speaker 1: but I just want you to be aware of that.
Speaker 1: I understand there are privacy concerns, but we are in
Speaker 1: a brave new world of this stuff, so there's gonna
Speaker 1: be some some fumbles and stumbles along the way.
Speaker 2: But I like having mine. I think it's a good
Speaker 2: thing overall.
Speaker 1: And I think if you have one of these things,
Speaker 1: the benefit has outweighed the potential concerns you've had over.
Speaker 2: This thing when it comes to privacy.
Speaker 1: And finally, Kroger this week day viewed a new mobile
Speaker 1: payment option. It's going to be launching in two states,
Speaker 1: but they say it's going to go nationwide by the
Speaker 1: end of the year.
Speaker 2: It's called Kroger Pay.
Speaker 1: And if you're wondering why I'm talking about Kroger, well,
Speaker 1: they pretty much own every grocery store in America. They
Speaker 1: own Ralphs in the southern California area. They own a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of different grocery store chains all across America.
Speaker 1: They're one of the biggest, if not the biggest, and
Speaker 1: they are one of the last holdouts when it comes
Speaker 1: to mobile payments. And when you think mobile payments, a
Speaker 1: couple of the big companies that don't accept them. Target
Speaker 1: was one of them, and they just got on board
Speaker 1: with Apple Pay and the others. And the other one
Speaker 1: is Walmart. They do not accept any mobile pay except
Speaker 1: their own, which you know, here's the thing, and I'll
Speaker 1: just be honest. I mean, look all these companies that
Speaker 1: are holding out and doing their own mobile payments.
Speaker 2: It's going to fail.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but I'm not going to use Well, let
Speaker 1: me just explain what this is. So. Kroger Pay is
Speaker 1: an app that generates you link your credit or debit
Speaker 1: card and then when you get to check out, they
Speaker 1: put a you know, you basically bring up the app,
Speaker 1: it makes a QR code, the cashier scans it, and
Speaker 1: now you can pay for your purchase right and it
Speaker 1: takes the money out of your.
Speaker 2: Credit or your debit card. Well, here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Do you really want to use one separate thing just
Speaker 1: for Kroger. I mean, that's very unrealistic for the average consumer.
Speaker 1: And I get it the rewards, because they're going to
Speaker 1: link rewards and fuel points to this purchase, you know,
Speaker 1: these purchases at Kroger. But is that really enough? So, yes,
Speaker 1: you will get some people to adopt this payment system.
Speaker 1: But here's my mantra. You gotta do what's best for
Speaker 1: the customer. And this is not in the spirit of
Speaker 1: things for the customer. The customer wants to use Samsung
Speaker 1: Pay if they have a Samsung phone. The customer wants
Speaker 1: to use Google Pay if they have an Android. The
Speaker 1: customer wants to use Apple Pay if they have an iPhone.
Speaker 1: They don't want to use Kroger Pay. And I'm telling
Speaker 1: you this, and I know this as a person who
Speaker 1: covers technology on a daily basis.
Speaker 2: Kroger, you're doing the wrong thing.
Speaker 1: It's the same kind of thing. It happened when you
Speaker 1: looked at CVS. They were trying to do something their
Speaker 1: own payment system and guess what never even saw the
Speaker 1: light of day. And now CVS is I think they're
Speaker 1: taking mobile payments as well, I think they're doing it too,
Speaker 1: but people don't want to have different ways to pay.
Speaker 1: I get you can have your loyalty card. That's fine,
Speaker 1: but you can't sit there and you know, expect us
Speaker 1: to download ten different apps for ten different stores just
Speaker 1: because you want to control the entire experience. Right, So,
Speaker 1: I think that this is going to be a major fail.
Speaker 1: But again, we'll see what happens Kroger Pay and Kroger Rewards,
Speaker 1: will you know, we'll be They're starting it in Columbus
Speaker 1: in Colorado, then they're going to expand it to ten
Speaker 1: cities this spring and then go nationwide later this year.
Speaker 1: All this according to WCPO. I guess they got the
Speaker 1: exclusive with Kroger, but Kroger, I get it there the
Speaker 1: margins are very thin in the grocery store business. But
Speaker 1: come on, I mean, look at even Whole Foods owned
Speaker 1: by Amazon. Amazon, if they wanted to, could require everyone
Speaker 1: that shops on their website to use their checking account,
Speaker 1: right they would say, look, we're not accepting Visa MasterCard
Speaker 1: debit cards because it's too expensive. We want you to
Speaker 1: just use your checking account number to pay with us.
Speaker 1: And by the way, they do do that they allow that,
Speaker 1: and they incentivize it. They actually give you a little
Speaker 1: bit bonus on your money if you do it that way.
Speaker 1: But again, I haven't done it that way because guess what,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna use my credit card just like everyone else,
Speaker 1: or my debit card, and I just don't think that
Speaker 1: people want to use all these different systems. And here's
Speaker 1: the other thing. Kroger wants to control the data too,
Speaker 1: because when you shop at Kroger with your Visa card
Speaker 1: or your MasterCard or your Apple pay number one, Apple
Speaker 1: Pay and Samsung, they all get a little tiny percentage
Speaker 1: of that profit. So does Visa, so does MasterCard. So
Speaker 1: if Kroger can get you just on their system, they
Speaker 1: can control not only more the data of that transaction,
Speaker 1: but also more of that financial transaction. So if they're
Speaker 1: letting you link a debit card and a credit card, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're still going to be paying those transaction fees on
Speaker 1: those on those transactions, but at the same time they
Speaker 1: control more of the experience. So it's not anything different
Speaker 1: than they're already doing. They already let you use your
Speaker 1: Visa or MasterCard. But personally, Kroger, it annoys me every
Speaker 1: time I go into Ralph's, and I just I can't
Speaker 1: stand the fact that it's like the one store I
Speaker 1: shop at that I cannot use mobile payments, even at McDonald's.
Speaker 1: I mean, all these fast food places they'll know they'll
Speaker 1: accept mobile payments as well. Well, that's gonna take us
Speaker 1: to the end of the show. Thanks so much for
Speaker 1: listening to the rich on Tech podcast. You can get
Speaker 1: in touch with me rich Demiro on Instagram. I am
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Speaker 2: I'm just not on there as much.
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Speaker 2: But the reality is it's just your.
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Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: The book is one hundred and one Handy Tech Tips
Speaker 1: for the iPhone. I am aware that many of you
Speaker 1: want a book for Android as well. If I can
Speaker 1: figure out a way to do that and fit it
Speaker 1: into my schedule, I will absolutely write a book on
Speaker 1: Android too, But don't hold me to that because I
Speaker 1: don't currently have any plans to do that, but I
Speaker 1: do hear you, guys. Thanks so much for listening, Thanks
Speaker 1: so much for watching me on KTLA every morning five am,
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Speaker 5: Mhm.