Speaker 1: How tech companies are responding to the crisis in Ukraine.
Speaker 1: Apple sets a date for its next event, Amazon closing
Speaker 1: its physical stores. Plus your tech questions answered. What's going on?
Speaker 1: I'm Rich Damiro and this is Rich on Tech, the
Speaker 1: podcast where I talk about the tech stuff I think
Speaker 1: you should know about. It's also the place where I
Speaker 1: answer the questions you send me. I'm the tech reporter
Speaker 1: at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles. What is going on?
Speaker 1: Hopefully you're having a great day. Let's talk about the
Speaker 1: big topic of the week. I mean, gosh, so we
Speaker 1: finally I mean I live in Los Angeles, one of
Speaker 1: the most tightly locked down cities in the world for
Speaker 1: the pandemic, and we are finally, finally, just getting out
Speaker 1: of it. I think tomorrow, as every request, this is
Speaker 1: the first day that a majority of the restrictions are
Speaker 1: finally being lifted when it comes to masks and rules
Speaker 1: and all this stuff. I think for kids in schools,
Speaker 1: it's happening in the next two weeks. So we are
Speaker 1: very much behind the rest of the world, the rest
Speaker 1: of the US, But nonetheless none of that matters because
Speaker 1: this is where I live, and so for me personally,
Speaker 1: it's a very exciting time because I went to the
Speaker 1: gym the other day and today and you know, no
Speaker 1: mask required, walked into a couple stores, didn't require mask.
Speaker 1: So and also people's attitudes just around this are changing,
Speaker 1: like we're finally getting to a point where people are
Speaker 1: a little bit more comfortable, people are gathering more, and
Speaker 1: so it feels like a sigh of relief. And then
Speaker 1: we have Russia invade Ukraine. So it's like we go
Speaker 1: from finally some sense of taking a breath to this.
Speaker 1: And I'm not going to get into the entire war
Speaker 1: because number one, I'm not even sure it is a war,
Speaker 1: because it's just basically Russia invading Ukraine. And I'm not
Speaker 1: an expert in anything's anything politics over there. I have
Speaker 1: no idea. I mean, I've tried to read up and
Speaker 1: try to understand what's happening. But the reality is this
Speaker 1: affects a lot of people. It affects a lot of
Speaker 1: innocent people. It affects the fabric of those two nations
Speaker 1: and our world at large, because this this world we
Speaker 1: live in is no longer an isolated place. It is
Speaker 1: it is fully connected in every way, shape and form.
Speaker 1: I've been to Russia and I've I've been to Moscow
Speaker 1: and it was, uh, you know, it was it was
Speaker 1: intimidating to be there in regular times. And I'm just
Speaker 1: not sure what the future holds for for visitors to
Speaker 1: that country, if anything ever gets back to a place
Speaker 1: where we might be able to do that again. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just it's a very like it's always been such
Speaker 1: a mysterious place to Americans and now it's just very
Speaker 1: much so even more so, and just trying to understand
Speaker 1: and unpack everything is really tough, I think for the
Speaker 1: average American myself included. So my thoughts are with the
Speaker 1: people over there in Ukraine and also you know, the
Speaker 1: people in Russia that don't don't want what's happening to happen.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there are many dissenters and people that just
Speaker 1: want to have a regular life that are totally one
Speaker 1: hundred percent affected by this. And what I'm going to
Speaker 1: talk about is really the way that the average person
Speaker 1: over there has been or is just greatly affected by
Speaker 1: what's going on. And so I'm going to take this
Speaker 1: from the tech angle because that's what I cover, and
Speaker 1: it's just it's been phenomenal Obviously, America and other countries
Speaker 1: have sanctions against Russia, but when it comes to private corporations,
Speaker 1: these sanctions have been really swift and really far reaching.
Speaker 1: And technology is this connector for all of us in
Speaker 1: the world, and the tech world has really come down
Speaker 1: fast and hard on Russia and restricting so many of
Speaker 1: the things that people there can do, and so it's
Speaker 1: really really quite wild. So let's start with Apple. Apple
Speaker 1: paused all of their product sales in Russia, so you
Speaker 1: can't buy an iPhone over there if you wanted to.
Speaker 1: You can't buy a Mac computer if you wanted to.
Speaker 1: They also remove the RT News and Sputnik News from
Speaker 1: the app store outside of Russia, so people in Russia
Speaker 1: can still access those, if you're outside Russia they can't,
Speaker 1: the idea being that those are spreading propaganda and so
Speaker 1: they don't want that happening. They also disabled apple maps
Speaker 1: live traffic feature in Ukraine. The idea there is that,
Speaker 1: you know, the Russian forces could use the live traffic
Speaker 1: information to see where people are going, where people are headed,
Speaker 1: where the concentration of people are and so that has
Speaker 1: been disabled. When it comes to Google, they also removed
Speaker 1: the RT and Sputnek apps from the play Store. They
Speaker 1: also removed Oh Wow, Russia state outlets from its news,
Speaker 1: so if you're looking at Google News, you're not going
Speaker 1: to see those. Google Maps is also not displaying the
Speaker 1: live traffic information or what they call the busy areas.
Speaker 1: So in Google Maps they've really ramped this up, but
Speaker 1: there's something called busy areas. So let's say you fly
Speaker 1: into Indianapolis for the night and you want to see
Speaker 1: where the hot areas of town are. You can just
Speaker 1: go onto the Indianapolis map on Google Maps and we'll
Speaker 1: say busy area and you can say, Okay, that's kind
Speaker 1: of a cool pedestrian walking area. There's a bunch of restaurants, shops, whatever.
Speaker 1: They've disabled that in Ukraine because again, if you're seeing
Speaker 1: where a large concentration of people are, that could potentially
Speaker 1: be risky for those people. Traffic navigation is still available. Meta,
Speaker 1: which of course owns Facebook, is demoting any content that's
Speaker 1: linked to Russian state media outlets on Facebook and Instagram.
Speaker 1: They also are doing encrypted Instagram dms in Ukraine and Russia,
Speaker 1: which we should have that every day everywhere. Encrypted is
Speaker 1: good and the idea there is that you know, Russian
Speaker 1: intelligence could not see what people are writing on their dms.
Speaker 1: YouTube also part of Google blocking the Russia back to
Speaker 1: RT and Sputnik in the EU and also in the UK,
Speaker 1: TikTok is shutting down access to RT and Sputnik in Europe.
Speaker 1: Netflix is not adding any Russian channels in the country.
Speaker 1: So apparently there's this new law in Russia that says
Speaker 1: you have to carry twenty or so local channels, which
Speaker 1: of course people call propaganda channels. You know, they're channels
Speaker 1: that are state sponsored. And so Netflix was supposed to
Speaker 1: add about twenty of these channels on March first. They
Speaker 1: have not done that. So Netflix's future in Russia at
Speaker 1: this point is definitely up up in the air for
Speaker 1: going against that law. Snapchat is not doing any ads
Speaker 1: in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. They also pledge fifteen million
Speaker 1: dollars to relief organizations. They also have three hundred UK
Speaker 1: Tranian staff members in its ar in their ar arm.
Speaker 1: They are helping to relocate them as well. Twitter is
Speaker 1: labeling tweets that link to Russian state backed media outlets,
Speaker 1: So if you tweet something that's from one of these
Speaker 1: Russian media outlets, it's going to say, hey, this is
Speaker 1: from a state backed organization, and they actually do that
Speaker 1: kind of across the board with a lot of government
Speaker 1: officials and things to let people know, you know, they're
Speaker 1: trying to avoid this fake news and this you know,
Speaker 1: this propaganda stuff and just just in general trying to
Speaker 1: give people more clarity about what they're seeing and what
Speaker 1: these news sources are. It's really really tough for all
Speaker 1: of these social media networks, but they're trying. Airbnb says
Speaker 1: it's going to provide short term housing for free from
Speaker 1: up to one hundred Ukrainian refugees. Last year they housed
Speaker 1: over twenty one thousand Afghan refugees. But we know from
Speaker 1: the latest numbers that there's nearly a million Ukrainian refugees
Speaker 1: and this could be one of the biggest refugee crisises
Speaker 1: crises in history because people are getting out of that
Speaker 1: country as fast as possible and they are going to
Speaker 1: other countries. Some countries many countries are welcoming them. But
Speaker 1: no matter what, when you have a million people on
Speaker 1: the move or more, it causes so many issues. And
Speaker 1: so it's just I mean, I was talking to my
Speaker 1: wife just like, can you imagine that you just have
Speaker 1: to get up and go and you don't know where
Speaker 1: your next meal is coming from, you don't know where
Speaker 1: your next this is coming I mean, and then families
Speaker 1: are separated. I mean, it really really is a terrible
Speaker 1: humanitarian disaster over there. Now. One one, I guess, one
Speaker 1: sector that is sort of bucking the trend is cryptocurrency.
Speaker 1: So if you've been following cryptocurrency with this war and
Speaker 1: this invasion, it's actually been kind of a savior. It's
Speaker 1: there's both sides to it. So it's been a savior
Speaker 1: for the Ukrainians because people were tweeting out QR codes
Speaker 1: that were super easy to scan and send money to
Speaker 1: where it's needed instantly, fast efficient. But on the flip side,
Speaker 1: Russian you know, anyone in Russia also has access to
Speaker 1: the same thing, so they can use cryptocurrency to get
Speaker 1: around some of the sanctions that have come down from
Speaker 1: some of the major banks and some of the major
Speaker 1: clearinghouses like they Russia is basically banned from like Swift,
Speaker 1: which is like the bank the international bank clearinghouse. So
Speaker 1: if I want to send money from one bank to another,
Speaker 1: it all goes through this Swift thing. So yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: even if you're using PayPal and all this stuff, it
Speaker 1: still has to go through some sort of clearinghouse when
Speaker 1: you're doing ach transfers, and so swift is a big
Speaker 1: way of doing that. You kind of learn all that
Speaker 1: stuff when you buy a house, like all these wire
Speaker 1: transfers and things like that. But cryptocurrency is really peer
Speaker 1: to peer and so it's kind of it can be
Speaker 1: sent to anyone anywhere, anytime without a middleman, and so
Speaker 1: that has been key on both sides, you know, good
Speaker 1: and bad. But so with that in mind, you know,
Speaker 1: the government, I think the government asks to I guess
Speaker 1: Ukrainian the government they're asked to freeze Russian and Belarusian accounts.
Speaker 1: But coinbase, Binance and some other cryptocurrency exchanges said, now,
Speaker 1: we can't really do that because you know, the whole
Speaker 1: point and what we promote about cryptocurrency is that it
Speaker 1: is sort of a leveling currency, you know, available to everyone.
Speaker 1: And if we start doing this then it causes problems
Speaker 1: down the line with like the entire fabric of this system.
Speaker 1: But on the flip side, if there's sanctions against a
Speaker 1: particular person or you know, a group, they will comply
Speaker 1: with those and so if those sanctions come down from
Speaker 1: like a government, then that's different, and I guess they
Speaker 1: will comply, like if they want to freeze someone's assets
Speaker 1: or something like that. So it gets a little tricky.
Speaker 1: I'm not exactly sure how they're doing all that stuff,
Speaker 1: but I know there is some ways. I like, if
Speaker 1: you have you know, there's there's something called a custodial account.
Speaker 1: So if you have an account in coinbase, basicly Coinbase
Speaker 1: is managing that money for you, But there are ways
Speaker 1: of having a cryptocurrency account that is non custodial, which
Speaker 1: means it's like literally you're on the blockchain directly, and
Speaker 1: so in that case it's a lot harder to control,
Speaker 1: whereas if your money is being managed by Coinbase in
Speaker 1: a custodial account, they control it, so it's much easier.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of a quick rundown of what the
Speaker 1: media or sorry, what the tech companies are doing in
Speaker 1: their efforts to kind of help out here. But it's
Speaker 1: just just observing what's happening over in Russia. I mean,
Speaker 1: are they are essentially isolated from the rest of the world,
Speaker 1: both by sanctions and by what individual companies are doing so.
Speaker 1: Another example is like I don't know how you say
Speaker 1: the name, but it's like Saber or Sabre. It's the
Speaker 1: company that does all of the flight coordinations, like they
Speaker 1: basically you've seen the name before, it's Sabre and they
Speaker 1: do kind of all of the coordinations of you know,
Speaker 1: flight bookings, and they kind of do the back end stuff.
Speaker 1: So if you're booking a ticket on an airline, they
Speaker 1: sort of handle the interaction between the website and the
Speaker 1: actual you know, taking the payment and all that stuff
Speaker 1: and actually you know, making sure that seat is available
Speaker 1: or you know, with working with all these expedias and
Speaker 1: stuff on the back end to make sure that everything
Speaker 1: runs smoothly. Well, they basically went ahead and said, you
Speaker 1: know what, we're no longer servicing Aeroflot, which is the
Speaker 1: UH I guess it's the state airline of Russia. That's
Speaker 1: actually the airline that I flew to Russia at one point.
Speaker 1: And so they said, we're no longer funding or not
Speaker 1: funding it, but we're no longer powering their back end.
Speaker 1: So that makes them unable to sell seats on their planes.
Speaker 1: So again it's just all these tentacles that we have
Speaker 1: in the world where everything is so far intertwined that
Speaker 1: it's really it's really tough to be an isolated nation.
Speaker 1: And I mean, you know, the only other nation I
Speaker 1: can think of in the world that is very ice
Speaker 1: like this is North Korea, and Russia is getting right
Speaker 1: up there with them with all these sanctions. I mean,
Speaker 1: you can't travel in there out, you can't you know,
Speaker 1: you can't buy stuff you couldn't use. They actually disabled
Speaker 1: Apple Pay for a lot of people. So I saw
Speaker 1: a tweet on Twitter. I guess that's where you'd see
Speaker 1: a tweet. I saw a tweet on Twitter where there
Speaker 1: was like long lines of people trying to get into
Speaker 1: the subway in Russia because they couldn't use their tap
Speaker 1: to pay, and so it was just you know, in
Speaker 1: Google Pay, I'm sure is affected too. It's just it's
Speaker 1: just pretty wild and far reaching. Just how much, you know,
Speaker 1: we rely on these systems that are sort of global
Speaker 1: and international, and when something goes wrong here and the
Speaker 1: wrong is being this invasion, that's when all these companies
Speaker 1: can can jump in and say, hey, you know, we're
Speaker 1: gonna stop, We're gonna stop servicing you, and that in
Speaker 1: some ways is really really going to affect your day
Speaker 1: to day life there in Russia. So anyway, thoughts are
Speaker 1: with everyone that is affected by this, whether you're here,
Speaker 1: whether you're there, innocent people that are just you know,
Speaker 1: kind of bystanders in this whole thing. But let's hope
Speaker 1: for a resolution on that very soon, and a peaceful
Speaker 1: one at that, if that's even possible at this point.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to the first question of the podcast.
Speaker 1: Brenda says, thanks for always showing a variety of things.
Speaker 1: My sister just got an S twenty two Ultra and
Speaker 1: can't seem to figure out how to turn off text
Speaker 1: messaging previews. We looked and looked and can't seem to
Speaker 1: find that feature on this phone. Hope you can help.
Speaker 1: Thanks in advance, sent for my iPhone. Oh interesting, okay,
Speaker 1: so Brenda, Oh that's funny. Brenda has an iPhone and
Speaker 1: her sister got the S twenty two Ultra. And the
Speaker 1: way that the iPhone works is you're by default, your
Speaker 1: messages are private until you do face ID, and once
Speaker 1: you do face ID, it unlocks your phone, but it
Speaker 1: also reveals your notification. So typically it would say something
Speaker 1: like I message if your phone is locked on a notification,
Speaker 1: but then if your phone is you know, if the
Speaker 1: lock is undone with your face, it would then reveal
Speaker 1: the contents of the message. So that's sort of like,
Speaker 1: I think that's a fault on Apple. You can turn
Speaker 1: that off, you can make it so that your messages
Speaker 1: are private no matter what. I'm always a little suspect
Speaker 1: when I see that on someone's phone. I'm like, what's
Speaker 1: you hiding over there? Huh, why do you need those
Speaker 1: to be so private all the time? But it's I understand.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a privacy thing. So if you want
Speaker 1: to stay private, absolutely you should. They do have a
Speaker 1: similar feature on the S twenty two Ultra because when
Speaker 1: I get a phone. When I was testing the S
Speaker 1: twenty two Ultra, I go through every single setting on
Speaker 1: that phone because I want to see exactly what's going on,
Speaker 1: what's new, what's different, what my options are. And on
Speaker 1: the Samsung there are just so many options. And this
Speaker 1: is one of the things that really strikes me about
Speaker 1: Android versus iPhone is that iPhone has a lot of options,
Speaker 1: but they're kind of like they're all kind of you know,
Speaker 1: it's what Apple wants you to do. You know, you
Speaker 1: get your choice of a couple of little things, but
Speaker 1: you can't truly, truly like change the fabric of the
Speaker 1: whole phone, whereas on Android you could really just make
Speaker 1: it all your own. And so one of the things
Speaker 1: you can do is turn off those previews. And the
Speaker 1: way you do it is you go to settings and
Speaker 1: then you go to lock screen and notifications. So I
Speaker 1: noticed this on the Samsung a couple of generations ago,
Speaker 1: where they switched it from showing the actual notification to
Speaker 1: just showing an icon of the notification, which bugs me.
Speaker 1: I don't want to just see that I have an icon.
Speaker 1: I want to see the actual notification. That's part of it.
Speaker 1: It's like triaging my messages or my notifications is seeing
Speaker 1: like what is what's what am I getting pinged about?
Speaker 1: And so if you go in there, you should be
Speaker 1: able to turn it on so you can actually see
Speaker 1: or just see it that you have a notification and
Speaker 1: not exactly what the contents of that notification is. All right,
Speaker 1: moving on, Let's talk Apple, everyone's favorite tech company in
Speaker 1: one way or another. Right, So Apple has their first
Speaker 1: event of twenty twenty two, and it is called Peak
Speaker 1: Performance p E e K. What does that mean? And
Speaker 1: it's an ar invite, so they've done that before. But
Speaker 1: the event is happening on Tuesday, March eighth, at ten
Speaker 1: am Pacific Steve Jobs Theater, probably pre recorded, they already
Speaker 1: sent out. So I got an invitation from Apple, but
Speaker 1: it's not in person. So there's no way of going
Speaker 1: to this thing in person at all. So the reality
Speaker 1: is it's probably I would have to guess their final
Speaker 1: virtual event. I believe WWDC will hopefully be in person,
Speaker 1: but I'm not sure because WWDC happens in June, and
Speaker 1: you know, people come from all over the world, about
Speaker 1: five thousand people, five thousand developers, and so to get
Speaker 1: that many people March April May June, I got a
Speaker 1: couple months March April May. It's really about three four
Speaker 1: months max, depending on when they do it in June.
Speaker 1: So I mean, you could technically probably hold that in person,
Speaker 1: and I think it really does help to have those
Speaker 1: things in person. I think by then we should be,
Speaker 1: you know, clear and clear out of this whole pandemic.
Speaker 1: And you know, right now we're sort of we're in
Speaker 1: the kind of the the end phase of it, but
Speaker 1: hopefully by June we should be in a phase where
Speaker 1: people are much more comfortable in a big way. Although
Speaker 1: if you go to some concerts and things, people have
Speaker 1: been comfortable for a long time. But it just depends
Speaker 1: what group you're in, you know, it depends who you're
Speaker 1: run with. Let's see so Steve Jobs Theater, first event
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty two, again I said there will be
Speaker 1: no one in person. In fact, all these you know,
Speaker 1: these things are all recorded. But so peak performance, what
Speaker 1: does that mean? Pee K? Of course, we've been waiting
Speaker 1: for two major things from Apple at this point, in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two and in twenty twenty one. In twenty
Speaker 1: twenty we've been waiting for the VR headset and we've
Speaker 1: also been waiting for the Apple Car. And so those
Speaker 1: are the two things that we need to figure out.
Speaker 1: What's going on with them? Are they gonna come out
Speaker 1: with these things? And so I don't know. Is a
Speaker 1: peak a peak at the car? Is it a peak
Speaker 1: at the Virtual Reality headset? Does it mean peak eyes?
Speaker 1: I don't know. But what we can't expect to see
Speaker 1: here is a next generation of the iPhone se, the
Speaker 1: iPhone SE three, which may have five G probably will
Speaker 1: of revamped iPad Air and some sort of Mac with
Speaker 1: the Apple Silicon Chip updated M two. So yeah, if
Speaker 1: you're yawning right now, I understand this event has never
Speaker 1: been Apple's most exciting event. It just never has. And
Speaker 1: so it's just, you know, we'll see I mean, look,
Speaker 1: it's Apple. There's always something in there. There's always some
Speaker 1: sort of nugget that's really interesting. But if it's these
Speaker 1: three gadgets and nothing else, no car peak, no VR,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna be the most exciting thing. But then again,
Speaker 1: you know that's that's the reality of this stuff. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, Apple is very much. It's so interesting with
Speaker 1: the whole idea of where everyone's waiting for this car
Speaker 1: and waiting for this VR headset. But Apple takes their
Speaker 1: time with things, and so it could just be a
Speaker 1: while before we see those things or before they're ready
Speaker 1: to divulge even a snake peak of those All right,
Speaker 1: let's get to the next question of the podcast. Adrian says, Hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: I enjoy your report, your tech reports and podcasts. What's
Speaker 1: the best app block for a Samsung phone? Wow, lots
Speaker 1: of Samsung questions. I know why. It's because I did
Speaker 1: my Samsung S twenty two Ultra review the other day.
Speaker 1: A security app to keep people from accessing things like
Speaker 1: Facebook contacts, financial apps, or other apps that have personal information.
Speaker 1: I have the Galaxy S twenty one to five G.
Speaker 1: Thanks for your recommendations in advance. Well, I had a
Speaker 1: feeling that the Samsung has this built in because Samsung
Speaker 1: has this security system called Knox. And I remember, you
Speaker 1: know the fact that there's like some sort of secure
Speaker 1: folder that is, you know, that is available on there,
Speaker 1: and so I dove into the settings on the Samsung
Speaker 1: and sure enough, there it is. It's under Settings Biometrics
Speaker 1: and Security and then Secure Folder. Now I did not
Speaker 1: play enough with the secure folder to completely figure out
Speaker 1: how it works, but it looks like you can just
Speaker 1: drop apps in there and then when you want to
Speaker 1: use them, it will require your fingerprint or some sort
Speaker 1: of biometrics to unlock that. You can also put little
Speaker 1: pictures in there, you can put notes in there, whatever
Speaker 1: you want basically, so it's kind of just a simple lock.
Speaker 1: It's a secondary lock for your apps. So you know
Speaker 1: you've got the standard lock that unlocks your phone, that
Speaker 1: gives people access to everything. This is sort of a
Speaker 1: secondary lock that will secure anything that you want on
Speaker 1: your phone and on the iPhone, they have this with
Speaker 1: a lot of not that there's a secure folder you
Speaker 1: can put things in, but many of the apps that
Speaker 1: might have personal data will ask you if you want
Speaker 1: to do a secondary face ID or fingerprint. Not so
Speaker 1: much these days anymore because a lot of those phones
Speaker 1: are faced out, but a face ID to truly unlock
Speaker 1: the app one more time. So kind of think of
Speaker 1: your banking app, like, even though your phone's unlocked, you
Speaker 1: open up your banking app, it doesn't just go into
Speaker 1: your accounts. You got to do a secondary authentication. So
Speaker 1: again settings, biometrics, and security, secure folder. Check it out,
Speaker 1: set it up, and get on with life. All right,
Speaker 1: Let's talk Amazon. This came as a huge surprise to me.
Speaker 1: But Amazon, you know, this is the thing I was
Speaker 1: I was really thinking about this with Amazon and also
Speaker 1: with Google. Compared to Apple and even Facebook, I mean
Speaker 1: basically anyone compared to Apple. Apple does things, and I
Speaker 1: mentioned this earlier, they do things very slow, very methodic,
Speaker 1: very well thought out, and they don't kind of shut
Speaker 1: down a lot of stuff fast now when it comes
Speaker 1: to even if it's not working, like even like things
Speaker 1: like paying remember their little social network, their music social network,
Speaker 1: like it takes them a while and they don't make
Speaker 1: a big deal. They just kind of like sunset it,
Speaker 1: you know, and you just kind of never hear about
Speaker 1: it again. But they do. I mean a lot of
Speaker 1: their stuff has a long I mean, look at the
Speaker 1: iPod Touch. That thing is like still still being sold
Speaker 1: in stores after all these years, and it's like really
Speaker 1: not being developed. But it's just they have it if
Speaker 1: you want it. So again, when you look at Amazon
Speaker 1: and you look at Google, and you look at Facebook
Speaker 1: and these companies, they just throw anything at the wall
Speaker 1: and see what sticks, and if it doesn't, they move
Speaker 1: on and they just kind of cancel it. Now with
Speaker 1: that in mind, Amazon, according to Reuter's, is shutting down
Speaker 1: sixty eight retail stores, including sixty six of them here
Speaker 1: in the US. Now, these are not Amazon Fresh stores.
Speaker 1: These are not there just walk out stores. They're Amazon
Speaker 1: Books stores. They're four Star stores and also any pop
Speaker 1: up shops they might have at the mall or in
Speaker 1: other places. Most of the time they're at the mall.
Speaker 1: In fact, most a lot of these stores are at malls.
Speaker 1: So clearly, if they're shutting these things down, many of
Speaker 1: them have not been around that long. I mean, you're
Speaker 1: talking just a handful of years. That is not a
Speaker 1: good sign. So you're telling me that Amazon, the world's
Speaker 1: smartest online retailer, cannot figure out a way to have
Speaker 1: a harmonious relationship between an online store and an in
Speaker 1: person store. That's unbelievable to me. Now, every time I've
Speaker 1: been into one of these stores, ninety nine percent of
Speaker 1: the people are returning stuff, and I think that that's
Speaker 1: probably where it's at. So to staff these stores, even
Speaker 1: though Amazon has a lot of data about their customers, like,
Speaker 1: for instance, the four Star stores and even the bookstores,
Speaker 1: what they did was they sold a lot of products
Speaker 1: that were top sellers in those areas. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Most people that are Amazon shoppers are so used to
Speaker 1: shopping online for Amazon stuff that they don't want to
Speaker 1: go into a store. And so, yes, they were brought
Speaker 1: into the store when they needed to return something or
Speaker 1: when they were in a mall and they happen to
Speaker 1: see it and they said, all right, let me stop
Speaker 1: in here. But were these destinations probably not. Were they
Speaker 1: even a big hit on people's radar when they went
Speaker 1: to the mall, probably not. Now, personally, I could not
Speaker 1: go to any mall without stopping one of these. I
Speaker 1: love the Amazon stores. I thought they were so cool.
Speaker 1: I love the fact that I knew the prices in
Speaker 1: them were really good and just the same that I
Speaker 1: was going to pay on the website you as a
Speaker 1: prime member. And so I think it's kind of confusing
Speaker 1: that they're getting rid of these now. There may be
Speaker 1: some more things at work here. There may be some
Speaker 1: union labor issues there, maybe some pay issues, like who knows.
Speaker 1: I mean, it seems like Amazon is always pursuing efficiency,
Speaker 1: and I think that these stores, just by nature of
Speaker 1: having a brick and mortar store, they're just not very efficient.
Speaker 1: There's just a lot of waste, in know, in human workers.
Speaker 1: And I'm not knocking human workers. Obviously they're fantastic, but
Speaker 1: I'm saying I'm saying waste the in the When you
Speaker 1: look at an online website, it's just like running twenty
Speaker 1: four to seven on a server. It's so efficient. When
Speaker 1: you look at a store, you've got to have someone
Speaker 1: to clean it. You've got to have someone to do
Speaker 1: loss prevention. You've got to have someone to organize it.
Speaker 1: Stock the shelves, you know, put things out, put things back.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a whole thing. I mean there's just
Speaker 1: a lot of manpower or people power that you need
Speaker 1: to run a store. And Amazon is like, wait a second,
Speaker 1: it's costing us all this money to run this thing
Speaker 1: when we can run our website and make even more sales,
Speaker 1: and okay, let's close them. So what are they going
Speaker 1: to concentrate on now. They're going to concentrate on their
Speaker 1: physical stores, including Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods, and a lot
Speaker 1: of the whole food stores are now being converted into
Speaker 1: the just walk out technology. I know, they just opened
Speaker 1: the first one in Washington, d C. They converted it
Speaker 1: or they I don't know if it was new or converted,
Speaker 1: but that's happening and I've heard that they're going to
Speaker 1: do that to more stores as well. So the writing
Speaker 1: is on the wall. Amazon wants to be fully automated.
Speaker 1: That's the reality. They want you to go into their
Speaker 1: stores walk out. It's got to be a very efficient thing,
Speaker 1: just as efficient as the website. So they're concentrating on
Speaker 1: Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods, Amazon Go, which is their convenience
Speaker 1: stores again that have that just walk out, and also
Speaker 1: the Amazon style. So a bunch of stores in the
Speaker 1: LA area are going to be closed, and of course nationwide,
Speaker 1: but we've got a bunch here in LA. And so
Speaker 1: Amazon's Style was a new clothing store that was going
Speaker 1: up at the Americana at Brand. It looks like that's
Speaker 1: still going to happen, but again, that is a store
Speaker 1: that employs some efficiencies with when it comes to workers
Speaker 1: and the way that they do things. And so I
Speaker 1: guess they'll test that and if it doesn't work, they'll
Speaker 1: cancel that as well. Christina writes, Hey, Rich, I'm a
Speaker 1: longtime Android user. Wow, this is all andro today. I'm
Speaker 1: looking to upgrade. Which phone do you recommend? I'm open
Speaker 1: to switching to iPhone. I'm curious what you have to
Speaker 1: say about each product and your overall pick. Kind regards
Speaker 1: and blessings, Christina. Christina, you are asking me the million
Speaker 1: dollar question. I mean, here's a thing, like you know,
Speaker 1: I love the iPhone. I love, love, love the iPhone.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's like the perfect phone. In fact,
Speaker 1: I can't get away from it. I wanted to switch
Speaker 1: to the S twenty two Ultra because it was so great,
Speaker 1: but there's just so many little things that the iPhone
Speaker 1: does and Honestly, it's really about the ecosystem that they've
Speaker 1: got you in. And I'm not talking I message like,
Speaker 1: that's a big part of it, for sure, but it's
Speaker 1: also the Apple Watch, It's the air tags, it's how
Speaker 1: it works with the Apple TV, it's how it works
Speaker 1: with Apple Fitness, and you know how it works with
Speaker 1: you know, I can see where my kid is on
Speaker 1: a map. I mean, there's just so many little things
Speaker 1: that Apple has over the years built into the phone
Speaker 1: that it's not just the iPhone anymore. It's this entire
Speaker 1: world that you're entering. Yes, we've heard the ecosystem all
Speaker 1: the time, but it's true. I mean, it really is.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a world that you get into
Speaker 1: that is not just one thing. It's not just the iPhone.
Speaker 1: It is a whole bunch of stuff that all adds
Speaker 1: up to a really really unique experience. Now with that said,
Speaker 1: I am open to you switching and if your friends
Speaker 1: have the iPhone, it's kind of nice because you can
Speaker 1: finally get on those group conversations with them and not
Speaker 1: be the green bubble. You also get access to a
Speaker 1: ton of accessories, the best apps, easy repairs, you can
Speaker 1: go to any store. If you need help with your iPhone,
Speaker 1: you can ask any random person on the street, a
Speaker 1: do you know how to do this? How do I
Speaker 1: flip my phone into airplane mode? And any random person
Speaker 1: can tell you because they've chances are have an iPhone
Speaker 1: here in the US. Now, when it comes to Android,
Speaker 1: you have more choices, and so there are many many
Speaker 1: different types of phones out there. With Apple there are
Speaker 1: two at this point, You've got everything from the Mini
Speaker 1: to the Standard, to the Pro to the Promax and
Speaker 1: also the iPhone SE and then you've got all the
Speaker 1: old models as well. But with the Android, of course,
Speaker 1: there's a bunch of different models. The only Android phones
Speaker 1: I'd recommend at this point are the Pixel six, the
Speaker 1: Pixel six Pro, and the Samsung S twenty two plus
Speaker 1: or the S twenty two and then the Ultra. You
Speaker 1: didn't say which phone you have, so oh, longtime Android user,
Speaker 1: but you didn't say exactly which one you have, and
Speaker 1: you know, so those are the phones with the Android
Speaker 1: that I'd recommend. But the you know, it just kind
Speaker 1: of depends. It depends what you want. Do you want
Speaker 1: to customize your phone? Do you want more options? It's
Speaker 1: just a different world, and so personally, I love the
Speaker 1: operating system and the way it works on Android and
Speaker 1: the way I can customize things. But it's the iPhone
Speaker 1: has really gotten me so locked into like this world
Speaker 1: of apps and things and the way stuff works that
Speaker 1: it's really tough for me to switch at this point,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of frustrating. Actually, oh, the Apple watched.
Speaker 1: I even mentioned that that's a whole nother thing. So
Speaker 1: you know, if your friends and family have iPhone, you're curious,
Speaker 1: you just want to see what it's all about, what
Speaker 1: the hype is, go for it. It's a good time
Speaker 1: to switch. The new phones just came out on both sides,
Speaker 1: whether it's a pixel you know, they all came out
Speaker 1: kind of October November or I guess September October and
Speaker 1: now with the SAMSUNGS, so you're you're getting pretty new,
Speaker 1: new model phones that are going to last a bunch
Speaker 1: of years. So either way, you know, like I said,
Speaker 1: it comes down to a personal choice. Do you want
Speaker 1: to get jump into that Apple world where you're gonna
Speaker 1: start buying a bunch of stuff to accessorize your phone
Speaker 1: and accessorize you know, your experience, or do you want
Speaker 1: to go Android where you have a bunch more options
Speaker 1: and a little bit more flexibility when it comes to
Speaker 1: how you personalize your phone and device. It's just it's
Speaker 1: just like I said, personal preference. But I'm fine with
Speaker 1: you switching if you want. If your family members are
Speaker 1: on there and they're really pressuring you, then maybe it's
Speaker 1: time to take a look at that. Instagram is shutting down.
Speaker 1: It's this doesn't this This is like a story for
Speaker 1: the one percent, one percent of people who care. Rahm
Speaker 1: is shutting down at standalone IGTV app. I mean, have
Speaker 1: you used the IGTV app anytime in the past year.
Speaker 1: Absolutely not. I don't think so. So IGTV was this
Speaker 1: big push by Instagram. You know, Instagram started as a
Speaker 1: pure photo sharing app, and then they added IGTV so
Speaker 1: they can get into video or I think I think
Speaker 1: they had maybe short videos where you can do like
Speaker 1: a sixty second video. Then they did IGTV so you
Speaker 1: can have longer form, bigger videos. That were they all
Speaker 1: had to be sixteen by nine, which was a whole pain.
Speaker 1: And now they're just saying, you know what, never mind,
Speaker 1: We're just going to do video on Instagram. That's what
Speaker 1: it's called. You can do sixteen by nine. You can
Speaker 1: do square, you can do four by three, you can
Speaker 1: do horizontal, vertical, whatever you want. It's all gonna work
Speaker 1: inside Instagram video. Now. The one major downside to this
Speaker 1: is that a lot of people made money on IGTV videos.
Speaker 1: There was like, if you're you can have ads in
Speaker 1: your videos, and you would make money on those ads.
Speaker 1: So that's going away. But on the flip side, right now,
Speaker 1: what Instagram's doing this is the reason why you're seeing
Speaker 1: so many reels. And I've talked about this because they're
Speaker 1: paying creators' money bonuses to make those reels, and so
Speaker 1: when you make those reels, you make a little money
Speaker 1: on them, and so that's how they're getting so many
Speaker 1: people to do those reels, and so that's why you're
Speaker 1: seeing so many of them. So you know, look, we're
Speaker 1: seeing an evolution. Instagram used to be the absolute top
Speaker 1: of the mountain, and now it is TikTok. And now
Speaker 1: not for everything just yet, but TikTok is where a
Speaker 1: lot a lot of the energy is and a lot
Speaker 1: of the momentum, I should say, the momentum is behind TikTok.
Speaker 1: It may be younger people right now, but it will
Speaker 1: eventually switch and so you know, you might be saying, oh,
Speaker 1: why is Instagram have to change so much? Why is
Speaker 1: I have to change? But the reality is Instagram needs
Speaker 1: to survive. I mean, it's not a given. It is
Speaker 1: not a given that this app is going to be. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's owned by Facebook or Meta, i should say, and
Speaker 1: Facebook itself, yes, is still a behemoth. But again, this
Speaker 1: is what's so wild about the tech world. Any app
Speaker 1: can come along and suddenly take the reins. And yes,
Speaker 1: it's tougher and tougher because of the money that these
Speaker 1: other bigger apps have and a lot of times they
Speaker 1: swallow the smaller apps, but there is still a chance.
Speaker 1: I mean, TikTok's a great example. TikTok came out of
Speaker 1: nowhere and it is absolutely dominating. It dominated that short
Speaker 1: form video and YouTube had to race to catch up.
Speaker 1: Instagram had to race to catch up. Facebook is just
Speaker 1: starting with short form. They just introduced reels on Facebook.
Speaker 1: So it is one of these things where you see
Speaker 1: these these apps come along and they just kind of
Speaker 1: sweep everyone off their feet and next thing you know,
Speaker 1: everyone's using them, they've all downloaded them. And TikTok is
Speaker 1: definitely that app. I find myself using it more and more,
Speaker 1: and it's, Uh, it's full of a lot of garbage,
Speaker 1: but there's also a lot of really interesting, useful, fun
Speaker 1: silly stuff on there, and it's it's definitely something that
Speaker 1: is is it keeps making its way into my mix
Speaker 1: because it's really easy to like kind of watch when
Speaker 1: you have a couple of minutes of downtime. But it's
Speaker 1: also like I have a love hate because I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: all these things are so frustrating, Like there's zero production
Speaker 1: quality on ninety nine percent of the videos people will
Speaker 1: watch anything. There's so much stuff that's like either you know,
Speaker 1: fake or like not real or just like I'm like what.
Speaker 1: So you gotta be careful when you're when you're watching
Speaker 1: any of these you gotta just keep a keep a
Speaker 1: critical eye no matter what you're watching. April says, Hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: what do you think of the T mobile five G
Speaker 1: home Internet? Good or not good? Sent from my iPad? April, Uh,
Speaker 1: It's funny you ask, because I'm actually well doing a
Speaker 1: story I've already done it. Did some research on this
Speaker 1: for my story for KTLA, where I looked at T
Speaker 1: Mobile five G Home Internet and Verizon's five G home Internet.
Speaker 1: So those are the two that I would compare Team
Speaker 1: AT and T. At this point, I do not believe
Speaker 1: has A has a five G home Internet offering, at
Speaker 1: least not widely available that I know of. So you've
Speaker 1: got T Mobile and you've got eighteen Verison. So I
Speaker 1: tested the Verizon five G. You think it's called five
Speaker 1: G home or something like that, And I'll be honest,
Speaker 1: it's pretty phenomenal. It's so easy, it's it's actually one
Speaker 1: of those things. And this happens to me. I've been
Speaker 1: covering this stuff for a long time, but every so
Speaker 1: often a product comes along and it's just brilliant. So
Speaker 1: for so many years, and I've moved to so many
Speaker 1: places around the US and my job as a reporter,
Speaker 1: and what do you do when you move into a
Speaker 1: new place. The first thing you do is you call
Speaker 1: the cable people. They install your cable, they install your internet,
Speaker 1: and you get your water and power hooked up. You
Speaker 1: might get your direct TV installed, whatever you do. But
Speaker 1: this was the way you did things for so long.
Speaker 1: When you moved, you would have to call someone to
Speaker 1: come to your place and connect it, and there would
Speaker 1: be a date they'd say, Okay, we're coming out next Saturday.
Speaker 1: The cable person will be there from ten am until
Speaker 1: seven pm. You're like, oh, thanks for the thanks for
Speaker 1: the long extended window that they'll arrive at. You know,
Speaker 1: whenever you leave your house or want to, that's when
Speaker 1: they'll arrive. But you know, the reality is that's the
Speaker 1: way it was done for many, many years. And so
Speaker 1: when I tried this team a Verizon box that you
Speaker 1: just plug in, and so you plug this box in
Speaker 1: it you have to do it in your window so
Speaker 1: it can get the best signal. You plug it in,
Speaker 1: it latches onto the five G signal, which is brand
Speaker 1: new by the way, this five GUW signal, which is
Speaker 1: like the ultra wideband that Verizon has. T Mobile is
Speaker 1: like I think it's called UC but it's these these
Speaker 1: five G spectrum that the carriers have gotten a hold
Speaker 1: of is so vast that they are now able to
Speaker 1: do this. So when you think of cellular connections, all
Speaker 1: we have thought about in the past is our smartphone.
Speaker 1: It's like this a little tiny connection that's powering this
Speaker 1: tiny screen. Sometimes you might hotspot your phone to your
Speaker 1: tablet or your laptop, but it was always like a
Speaker 1: not like a very long term thing. So the idea
Speaker 1: of having five G wireless internet power everything in your
Speaker 1: home is just one of those things that you have
Speaker 1: to kind of shift your paradigm. You know, it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: well can this really work? And I can say yes.
Speaker 1: And so at my house, I personally don't get the
Speaker 1: best Verizon signal. So I didn't test the Tea mobile one,
Speaker 1: by the way, but you know, they work very similarly.
Speaker 1: But I was able to test the Verizon signal at
Speaker 1: a hotel in San Francisco and also at KTLA in
Speaker 1: the studio, they have a really good five G Verizon signal.
Speaker 1: And so here's the bottom line with this. The plans
Speaker 1: are cheaper. T Mobile is fifty bucks, no data caps.
Speaker 1: Verizon's even cheap, or if you're a customer, it's like
Speaker 1: twenty five dollars for one plan or like fifty or seven.
Speaker 1: You know, it just depends on if you're a customer
Speaker 1: or not, and also the plan that you want. And
Speaker 1: I'm telling you for twenty five bucks a month, if
Speaker 1: you're a Verizon customer, this is like a no brainer.
Speaker 1: If if you get a good five G UW signal
Speaker 1: at your house. If you do not get that signal,
Speaker 1: I would not recommend this because the speeds you're not
Speaker 1: going to be that great. Now, you might not need
Speaker 1: the best speeds. I mean, even if you get one
Speaker 1: hundred or fifty, you'll be fine with things, like you know,
Speaker 1: if you're just watching Netflix or just surfing the web.
Speaker 1: But if you're doing things like heavy duty uploads, heavy
Speaker 1: duty downloads, that's where it could it could slow down
Speaker 1: a little bit. But otherwise this is a great, great
Speaker 1: alternative for so many people if you have access to it.
Speaker 1: So there's a couple of things. You have to have access.
Speaker 1: You have to be in one of the cities that
Speaker 1: Verizon allows it or T Mobile. You also have to
Speaker 1: be an address that's approved for it. And once you
Speaker 1: qualify on those two things, you I think with T
Speaker 1: Mobile you don't need to be a customer to get
Speaker 1: that fifty dollars rate, but with Verizon you really have
Speaker 1: to be a customer to get the best deal. Otherwise
Speaker 1: it's just the deal goes downhill pretty fast because the
Speaker 1: prices go up. Also, at least with Verizon, they're guaranteeing
Speaker 1: the pricing is going to stay the same for two
Speaker 1: to three years. Which is kind of cool. I think
Speaker 1: it's amazing. In fact, I would probably switch mine at
Speaker 1: home if I was able to get that signal that
Speaker 1: I wanted here at my house, which I just don't have.
Speaker 1: And so it's amazing. You set this thing up and
Speaker 1: you can tell your cable company goodbye. You could tell
Speaker 1: whatever company you have see you later. And the best
Speaker 1: part is if it doesn't work out, Like, there's no contract,
Speaker 1: so if it doesn't work out, you unplug it, you
Speaker 1: ship it back, and you say, okay, that didn't work out,
Speaker 1: and you reconnect your internet from your cable provider. Oh whoops,
Speaker 1: we already did a Let's move on to a story. Oh,
Speaker 1: speaking of TikTok, TikTok now taking aim at YouTube even
Speaker 1: more with longer ten minute video uploads. So not much
Speaker 1: more to know about this except you know, TikTok started
Speaker 1: out either like fifteen seconds, then they went to like
Speaker 1: thirty and sixty, then they went to three minutes. Now
Speaker 1: they're going up to well, I guess, okay, so TikTok,
Speaker 1: I guess was always sixty seconds. I thought that they
Speaker 1: were like fifteen seconds when they first started out, but
Speaker 1: maybe they were sixty I don't know, because I wasn't
Speaker 1: on TikTok at the very very beginning. But anyway, so
Speaker 1: let's just say they were sixty then they tried three minutes,
Speaker 1: and now they're doing ten minutes, and that's that's a
Speaker 1: significant change because you know, sixty seconds is a challenge
Speaker 1: if you're trying to do certain things. You know, if
Speaker 1: you're trying to you know, most of the things you
Speaker 1: see on TikTok are very very short form, and so
Speaker 1: because their short form, people are are forced to sort
Speaker 1: of get their point across very quickly, and so they
Speaker 1: try all kinds of different things and all different ways
Speaker 1: of doing that. And that's why TikTok is very creative,
Speaker 1: because creators have to figure out ways of getting there
Speaker 1: are points across very fast. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: why not have a flexibility to go with longer videos
Speaker 1: if you if you have a big following on there
Speaker 1: and you want to start doing more, like you know,
Speaker 1: more in depth travel videos or more in depth tech
Speaker 1: reviews or whatever, it's nice to have this option. So
Speaker 1: we'll see. I mean, but this takes aim at YouTube
Speaker 1: because you know, YouTube used to be the place where
Speaker 1: you would watch longer videos and if you don't have
Speaker 1: to go there anymore. You know, it takes away some
Speaker 1: of their viewing time. But we'll see, let's not get
Speaker 1: ahead of ourselves. I was gonna say so TikTok. One
Speaker 1: of the things that TikTok is kind of like very
Speaker 1: famous for is their algorithm and what their algorithm does.
Speaker 1: And I've noticed this after using it for a couple months.
Speaker 1: It really latches on to It knows exactly how long
Speaker 1: you're watching videos for, and so if you're watching a
Speaker 1: video to the end or even loop that video, it
Speaker 1: really registers a real deep kind of like check mark
Speaker 1: in its algorithm. And so next thing you know, you
Speaker 1: are going to start seeing those types of videos over
Speaker 1: and over and over. And so for me, there's a
Speaker 1: couple of videos that i'd see, especially the iPhone tip videos.
Speaker 1: Like you you start watching one of those, next thing,
Speaker 1: you know, your entire feed is a lot of those.
Speaker 1: You know, it just depends what you're into because it's
Speaker 1: very customized for you. But I've noticed that that TikTok
Speaker 1: really latches on and so if you if you watched
Speaker 1: a video and now you're kind of like like I
Speaker 1: was doing, like a healthy trader Joe's Trader Joe's meals,
Speaker 1: and so you know those will be in my in
Speaker 1: my feed. But let's say that I get bored of
Speaker 1: those healthy Trader Joe's meals because they just don't appealch
Speaker 1: to me anymore. I figure this out today. You can
Speaker 1: press and hold on a video and it will give
Speaker 1: you the option to say not interested, and so you
Speaker 1: can press that and now you can get rid of
Speaker 1: that sort of type of video on your feed. Next question,
Speaker 1: Paul says, Hey, Rich, I have a one plus seventy
Speaker 1: Android phone. Wow, another Android. Do you know if anyway
Speaker 1: I can permanently save the voicemails on that phone? My
Speaker 1: dad just passed away, sorry to hear that, and I
Speaker 1: have seven of his voicemails and don't want to lose
Speaker 1: them to the automatic deletion. After a certain period of time,
Speaker 1: I have to go in and play each one and
Speaker 1: resave it. I'm not really at the point where I
Speaker 1: could even listen to my dad's voice right now, so
Speaker 1: it's kind of tough. My fears if I forget to
Speaker 1: retrieve them for a couple of days, they will get deleted.
Speaker 1: Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you, Rich. Well, Paul,
Speaker 1: First off, I am so sorry if you're a loss,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine and it's even tough for me to
Speaker 1: like think about your situation right now. So that's that.
Speaker 1: But with this said, I have actually gotten this question before,
Speaker 1: and it's a very common thing, and it actually makes
Speaker 1: me really sad to even think of this situation because
Speaker 1: I do have voicemails for my parents on my voicemail,
Speaker 1: and my voicemail isn't even set up it anymore. These
Speaker 1: these are voicemails that have been lingering for a long time.
Speaker 1: But here are my suggestions. Number one, I believe the
Speaker 1: one plus seventy. I'm not sure if it has a
Speaker 1: headphone jack, but you can no matter what, if it
Speaker 1: has a headphone jack. You can get a cable, a
Speaker 1: three point five millimeter cable on both ends, plug one
Speaker 1: end into your phone, plug the other end into a computer,
Speaker 1: and then open up something like you know, Windows Record
Speaker 1: or any sort of recording program you know, or on
Speaker 1: a Mac you can open up quick Time and record
Speaker 1: and record play the voicemails from your phone while your
Speaker 1: phone is plugged in and record them to the computer,
Speaker 1: and you know, you can ask a friend to help
Speaker 1: you with that, and just you know, try to figure
Speaker 1: out how you can do that and just save those
Speaker 1: voicemails as MP three's. And again we're talking the Android
Speaker 1: here on iPhone. I believe you can download these as
Speaker 1: a voice memo. Android. I don't think gives you that option.
Speaker 1: But now the other way and okay, now, if you
Speaker 1: don't have a headphone jack on that phone, which I'm
Speaker 1: not sure it is, if it's on there or not,
Speaker 1: you'll you're gonna need a USB C to three point
Speaker 1: five millimeter connector that should be in the box with
Speaker 1: the OnePlus they included them for a very long time.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they include those anymore. But if
Speaker 1: you can find your box and you can find that
Speaker 1: little connector, it's just a little tiny dongle I guess,
Speaker 1: for lack of a better term, that has a three
Speaker 1: point five millimeter on one side. That's kind of an
Speaker 1: input and then yeah, an input, is it an input? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And then it has a a three point or a
Speaker 1: USB C on the other side. I guess it's a
Speaker 1: female connector is what they call it, on the on
Speaker 1: the one side, and then USB C on the other side.
Speaker 1: So that's what I would do. That's gonna give you
Speaker 1: the cleanest audio. The other thing you can do is
Speaker 1: if you just want to make sure that you've got
Speaker 1: these things saved. I know you said it's tough to
Speaker 1: hear your dad's voice, so maybe have a friend do this.
Speaker 1: But you can have your phone, just place it next
Speaker 1: to another phone, open up the recorder on that phone,
Speaker 1: press record, and then play these these voicemails and they're
Speaker 1: going to be better than nothing. I mean, the audio
Speaker 1: quality is going to be pretty darn good when you
Speaker 1: do it that way, as long as you're in a
Speaker 1: quiet room, so at least you have something. Obviously, the
Speaker 1: cord the corded way of connecting these would be a
Speaker 1: lot cleaner of a connection. But anyway, thanks for the question.
Speaker 1: That is a good one and something that you know
Speaker 1: is just uh, something that sadly we don't want to
Speaker 1: have to do it, but it is. It is good
Speaker 1: to be able to do that, all right. Waimo. The
Speaker 1: self driving unit of of you know, Google's alphabet I
Speaker 1: guess start out as Google self driving car is now
Speaker 1: able to charge for rides up in San Francisco. So
Speaker 1: this is a an autonomous car that's driving by itself
Speaker 1: that now has the ability to charge people for rides.
Speaker 1: So it's really pretty wild to see the progression of this.
Speaker 1: It's also allowed to operate twenty four to seven in
Speaker 1: various parts of San Francisco, except if it's raining or
Speaker 1: if there's heavy fog, which is like every morning in
Speaker 1: San Francisco. Maybe not in the city streets so much,
Speaker 1: but definitely in the in the mountain areas or I guess,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, there's a lot of fog
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. I mean, people that live up there
Speaker 1: would no better than me of where it actually makes
Speaker 1: its way in. But I've you know, I was blown
Speaker 1: away by the fog up there. It's so beautiful. But
Speaker 1: that's it. So now we have what accounts to an
Speaker 1: Uber style service that is autonomous, but you're also you know,
Speaker 1: they can charge for us. So that means no tire drivers,
Speaker 1: no human drivers, no one you know, drowsy, and it's
Speaker 1: just like twenty four to seven. These cars can go.
Speaker 1: Maybe they need to be refueled at some point throughout
Speaker 1: the day, but that's pretty amazing. Now there is one
Speaker 1: little caveat the California State says that they have to
Speaker 1: have a safety driver in this vehicle at this point,
Speaker 1: still present because they are charging for rides, and that
Speaker 1: person can of course take over the steering wheel or
Speaker 1: the controls if necessary. But I am sure these cars
Speaker 1: have done many, many, many of thousands of miles. I
Speaker 1: know they are doing fully autonomous, no driver or no
Speaker 1: supervisor in their Phoenix area, where Waimo is also operating.
Speaker 1: So it's probably just a matter of time before this
Speaker 1: comes to California. But I just figured i'd tell you
Speaker 1: that because it's something to keep in mind. I mean, really,
Speaker 1: you know, these car services like Uber and Lyft, they've
Speaker 1: built they've been built on human drivers. But there will
Speaker 1: come a time when there will be a transition, at
Speaker 1: least for some of the fleet, not for all of it,
Speaker 1: where they will have just cars that just drive you around,
Speaker 1: that don't have people and in them no driver. And
Speaker 1: it's just one of those things to be aware of.
Speaker 1: All right, Lee and Cathy, we enjoy all your tech info.
Speaker 1: We are Android owners right now with Pixel threes. We're
Speaker 1: having our first grandchild. Oh congratulations. Wondering which phone do
Speaker 1: you think is best? We're on Google Fi. They have
Speaker 1: the new Samsung S twenty two on sale for eight
Speaker 1: ninety nine the Pixel six pro same price. Thanks in advance,
Speaker 1: Lee and Kathy yeeha um. And they sent a nice
Speaker 1: picture of them with their I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: them with their their fish they cow. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but Lee and Kathy here's the thing. So I would
Speaker 1: totally recommend the Samsung S twenty two except for one reason.
Speaker 1: You mentioned your grandchild. Now, I will tell you nearly
Speaker 1: every phone that I test has problem with kids and
Speaker 1: their movement except for two phones, and that is the
Speaker 1: iPhone and that is the Pixel phones. I don't know
Speaker 1: what it is, but the iPhone nails it. They seem
Speaker 1: to flee, freeze things in mid movement and they just
Speaker 1: get it and you get a clear picture. And the
Speaker 1: Pixel six does the same thing. The pixels have always
Speaker 1: done this, but the Pixel six actually steps it up
Speaker 1: a notch. They have something called like I think it's
Speaker 1: called face on blur where it's actively looking for like.
Speaker 1: They use the example of kids like moving around, and
Speaker 1: it will use I believe it uses the wide angle
Speaker 1: camera to find a secondary shot of the child's face
Speaker 1: not moving. Then it will superimpose that. I know it
Speaker 1: sounds weird, but somehow it works and you don't even notice.
Speaker 1: I've seen it show up. You can't activate it manually,
Speaker 1: but if you're flipping through your pictures in Google Photos,
Speaker 1: you'll see that some of them have this little face
Speaker 1: on blur icon and you're like, huh, I guess Google
Speaker 1: applied some smarts to make sure that this face is
Speaker 1: not blurry. So for that reason, and just in general,
Speaker 1: I was doing some testing last night with the iPhone
Speaker 1: versus the Pixel versus the Samsung, and the Pixel definitely
Speaker 1: in the iPhone definitely have a slight advantage over Samsung.
Speaker 1: Maybe not even slight, maybe like a really clear advantage
Speaker 1: over Samsung when it comes to moving people and getting
Speaker 1: a clear shot of those moving people. I mean, I've
Speaker 1: got kids, and you know, quite honestly, kids often kind
Speaker 1: of direct which phone you need to carry, because you
Speaker 1: do not want your pictures of your grandchild to be
Speaker 1: all over the place and blurry and smeared looking, because
Speaker 1: that's just not good, not good. And so for that
Speaker 1: reason I would recommend the Pixel six pro. Go for it,
Speaker 1: and I think you are going to enjoy it. Oh
Speaker 1: there is that sound, you know what that means? That's
Speaker 1: gonna do it for this show. If you would like
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Speaker 1: My name is rich Merril. Thanks so much for listening.
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