Speaker 1: Apple lets you repair your own iPhone. I try out
Speaker 1: Amazon's new just Walk Out technology, where to find the
Speaker 1: best Black Friday shopping deals. Plus your tech questions answered.
Speaker 1: What's going on? I'm Rich Demiro and this is Rich
Speaker 1: on Tech, the podcast where I talk about the tech
Speaker 1: stuff I think you should know about. It's also the
Speaker 1: place where I answer the questions you send me. I'm
Speaker 1: the tech reporter at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. Well, this is typically where I
Speaker 1: talk about something that is happening in the week that's
Speaker 1: interesting or notable, and quite honestly, I don't really have much.
Speaker 1: What a great show, What a great way to start
Speaker 1: it out. This is what happens when I don't things.
Speaker 1: You know. It's funny because I always talk about being organized,
Speaker 1: and I've really I'll just be totally honest, I've really
Speaker 1: really struggled with one system of organization and I don't
Speaker 1: know what it is. I think it's because my TV
Speaker 1: world and my personal world are so mixed. Like if someone,
Speaker 1: let's just say, someone I'm out with a friend, right
Speaker 1: and they tell me about a really cool app, or
Speaker 1: they tell me about something that I should look into,
Speaker 1: or they just give me I don't know anything. They
Speaker 1: just start talking crypto and I, you know, whatever, Where
Speaker 1: do I put that note? Do I put it in
Speaker 1: my notes app? Do I put it in my to
Speaker 1: do app? Do I put it in my email? I've
Speaker 1: got this thing where I can email myself. I mean
Speaker 1: I just I've literally I have so many places, like
Speaker 1: so many nooks and crannies where I put little notes
Speaker 1: and things that when I need to actually look at
Speaker 1: them or organize them, I just don't know where they are.
Speaker 1: So I've got a pretty good system for TV, Like
Speaker 1: I've got a system for the radio where I talk
Speaker 1: about stuff and TV. But when it comes to like
Speaker 1: anything after that, it just totally drops off an edge
Speaker 1: or a cliff. I should say, like I have this
Speaker 1: system for Okay, simple thing I want to do is
Speaker 1: read articles later, right, Like simplest thing in the world.
Speaker 1: Just put them in pocket. Well, it turns out I
Speaker 1: never open the pocket app on my phone ever ever. Ever,
Speaker 1: I just never think to open it. It's there, it's on. Well, no,
Speaker 1: I demoted it for my homepage, so I guess that's
Speaker 1: probably part of the problem. And then you mix in
Speaker 1: the fact that I'm always kind of swapping between phones
Speaker 1: because right now I'm testing the pixel and so a
Speaker 1: lot of times I will take that out and about
Speaker 1: and so someone Okay, So the other day I was
Speaker 1: at my kids baseball game and another dad is like, hey,
Speaker 1: let me give you my number so we can chat.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I don't have my phone on me
Speaker 1: right now. He's like, well, your phone's right there, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, it's a tester phone and it's like
Speaker 1: so I ended up putting the phone his phone number
Speaker 1: in like my notes app, the keep app on Android,
Speaker 1: and I don't really use that app anywhere else. So
Speaker 1: it is such a it's a lot. It's a lot
Speaker 1: to keep track of. But I will say, oh, one
Speaker 1: thing I did this week. I did purchase the Amazon
Speaker 1: Fire TV Stick four K Max. I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's the full name of it, but I'm very excited
Speaker 1: because I've got the old stick in the bedroom TV
Speaker 1: and it's kind of slow, and so I'm very excited
Speaker 1: for this new one. But I also did the thing
Speaker 1: where I waited for it to go on sale. I
Speaker 1: knew it was gonna go on sale, so it was
Speaker 1: thirty five dollars instead of fifty five, so I purchased
Speaker 1: it at thirty five. But then you can trade in
Speaker 1: your old stick for twenty percent off. So I got
Speaker 1: the old stick and I actually used that thing called
Speaker 1: repair Mates return Mates that I did a story on
Speaker 1: I probably talked about it on the podcast. And they
Speaker 1: just come and pick up the stuff from your front door.
Speaker 1: And so I just you know, you send the whatever
Speaker 1: the system is, the label, you upload that, they put
Speaker 1: it in a box, they send it on its way.
Speaker 1: So I haven't gotten my credit just yet for that,
Speaker 1: but they picked it up yesterday, and so it's all.
Speaker 1: I love that service Returnmates. Right now, I'm on a
Speaker 1: free trial of the fifteen dollars a month, so after
Speaker 1: that runs out, I don't know if I'll keep it,
Speaker 1: but it certainly makes sending gadgets back easier, both for
Speaker 1: my work and for personal when I'm just kind of
Speaker 1: like sending back returns or anything. So I have a
Speaker 1: little sip of my tea here, thank you for putting
Speaker 1: up with that. But anyway, so that's basically I haven't
Speaker 1: set it up yet. I've also been doing Oh I
Speaker 1: talked about the reels last week. Remember I was talking
Speaker 1: about the reels on Instagram and how everyone's starting to
Speaker 1: do them because Instagram is really favoring them and paying
Speaker 1: out bonuses. Well I got sucked into that, so I
Speaker 1: started doing reels because they're playing them. I've got like
Speaker 1: a bonus play of like I think they'll play them
Speaker 1: like a million extra times or something like that. So
Speaker 1: it's like all these people are seeing these and like, oh, Rich,
Speaker 1: this is so cool, thank you, I'm so glad I
Speaker 1: follow you. I'm like, well, you're not seeing any of
Speaker 1: my other stuff. But of course Facebook is showing this
Speaker 1: to you because this is the thing they want to promote.
Speaker 1: So it's just it's I find this stuff just so fascinating.
Speaker 1: It's just a like, even though I'm on TV and
Speaker 1: talking about tech all the time, like a lot of
Speaker 1: it is and I understand a lot of it, but
Speaker 1: a lot of it is still like it's just a
Speaker 1: process of kind of figuring it out what works, what
Speaker 1: doesn't work, and that's kind of what I love about it.
Speaker 1: But quite honestly, if I was like just a regular
Speaker 1: person that was not talking about this stuff on TV,
Speaker 1: I probably would stick to like just one thing and
Speaker 1: I wouldn't really you know, might just use the iPhone
Speaker 1: and just use like literally whatever the apps that are
Speaker 1: built into it, because that's the easiest. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: that you know, Apple banks on that, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: Android banks on that. But I do try to find
Speaker 1: the best for different solutions, like the best to do app,
Speaker 1: the best calendar app, the best map app. And that's
Speaker 1: why I do constantly test this stuff. So that's my
Speaker 1: story and I'm sticking to it. Let's get to the
Speaker 1: first story of the week. Apple announces this program that
Speaker 1: nobody thought would ever happen. Now, back in the day,
Speaker 1: it was pretty easy to repair your own iPhone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess so maybe, yeah, I guess not so much
Speaker 1: the iPhone, but like the iPod touches of the world,
Speaker 1: you know, the iPods of the world, computers. And then
Speaker 1: it became tougher and tougher. Apples started making parts smaller,
Speaker 1: they started gluing things together more, just parts that were
Speaker 1: not you know, they're so tiny and so integrated that
Speaker 1: it just became tougher and tougher to do anything yourself.
Speaker 1: And yeah, there was always a great repair market where
Speaker 1: people could figure stuff out and do things, but it
Speaker 1: was very complicated. Well, now Apple says, you know what,
Speaker 1: We've got a new program called self Service Repair. We
Speaker 1: are gonna give you manuals, we're gonna give you genuine
Speaker 1: parts and tools. Well, we're not gonna give it to you,
Speaker 1: you're gonna buy them. And then once you repair your phone,
Speaker 1: you can send back the parts that were used and
Speaker 1: we'll give you credit. Now, no, they haven't said how
Speaker 1: much any of this is going to cost. I'm guessing
Speaker 1: it's not going to be cheap, but it's kind of
Speaker 1: cool if you're if you're in a position where you
Speaker 1: think you can crack open your iPhone and replace the battery,
Speaker 1: the fact that you can do that yourself is pretty cool.
Speaker 1: And I think that this gives people options. There's a
Speaker 1: you know, an entire generation of kids out there that
Speaker 1: grew up or are growing up thinking that when gadgets
Speaker 1: are are done or broken, you just get a new one.
Speaker 1: And so the fact that if someone feels like they
Speaker 1: can do this, that they can, I love it. So
Speaker 1: this is going to start with the iPhone twelve and
Speaker 1: the iPhone thirteen, initially the display, the battery, and the camera,
Speaker 1: and then eventually they are going to expand this to
Speaker 1: the Mac computers. That have the M one chip. So
Speaker 1: basically only Apple's recent laptops and things like that, and
Speaker 1: I guess desktops they didn't. They didn't really specify, they
Speaker 1: just Mac computers. But the store is gonna have two
Speaker 1: hundred individual parts and tools. And this is like I said,
Speaker 1: for the iPhone twelve and thirteen, So if you have
Speaker 1: anything older than that's probably not gonna happen, but kind
Speaker 1: of neat. I mean, I might try this just to
Speaker 1: just to see. Maybe I'll do a segment on it
Speaker 1: when this happens. This is happening early twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: and then it will expand from there. All right, let's
Speaker 1: get to the first question of the show. The first
Speaker 1: question comes from Sharon. She says, Hey, Rich, which Android
Speaker 1: phone do you recommend? I'm looking to buy a new
Speaker 1: one soon, Sharon. Sharon definitely going to be the Pixel six.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of Android phones out there, but
Speaker 1: I just think that the Pixel six is the best
Speaker 1: overall device at the combination of price and features. If
Speaker 1: you need to get something, so the I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's a caveat, but it's definitely there are other
Speaker 1: Android phones I would recommend, and it really depends on
Speaker 1: your situation, but I would say overall, easiest phone to recommend.
Speaker 1: Pixel six Done. Now, I'm still doing my review of
Speaker 1: that phone. I have not not formalized my opinions just
Speaker 1: yet because I do think that this is a phone
Speaker 1: that needs some software updates. In fact, it got one
Speaker 1: little software update yesterday. It did not hit my phone,
Speaker 1: but it fixes or I guess it improves the fingerprint scanner,
Speaker 1: and I guess that's just not I don't know. It
Speaker 1: didn't go to all phones. Mine did not get that yet.
Speaker 1: So I'm hoping that by the time I do my review,
Speaker 1: which is happening very soon, there will be at least
Speaker 1: one software update, but those usually come on like December first,
Speaker 1: so I don't know if I can hold out that long.
Speaker 1: But I want to give it the benefit of the
Speaker 1: doubt because I think it's an amazing phone. I just
Speaker 1: think that, you know, and I'm pretty confident that ninety
Speaker 1: nine percent of my problems with it will be fixed
Speaker 1: with software updates. Maybe not everything. It won't be perfect.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, the iPhone is still overall like a
Speaker 1: better device and a better ecosystem. But if you like Android,
Speaker 1: then the iPhone is, or the Pixel six is where
Speaker 1: it's at. If you want to get a little bit
Speaker 1: better zoom and a little bit more memory inside, then
Speaker 1: I would go with the six Pro. But I think
Speaker 1: the six is going to be just perfect. Now there's
Speaker 1: other phones i'd recommend. If you want the best zoom
Speaker 1: camera on a phone, you're probably gonna have to go
Speaker 1: with the Samsung Galaxy S twenty one Ultra. And I
Speaker 1: think that's if you want like a Flip phone, you
Speaker 1: can go with the Galaxy Flip. I probably wouldn't recommend
Speaker 1: the Fold at this point, just because it's it's you know,
Speaker 1: that's like a real expensive phone, and it's for someone
Speaker 1: that really is an early adopter. But I think the
Speaker 1: Pixel six will be just perfect for what you need.
Speaker 1: Sharon so cool. This was a big story in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles this week, and not just LA but really the world.
Speaker 1: I mean number one, everyone knows Los Angeles. Everyone's heard
Speaker 1: of Staple Center, and Staple Center is being renamed the
Speaker 1: Crypto well not even the it's just Crypto dot Com Arena.
Speaker 1: And this is going to have a new name starting
Speaker 1: on Christmas Day. People are going to see it, but
Speaker 1: it's going to take them a while to actually change
Speaker 1: the exterior signage on the building, it's going to take
Speaker 1: till about June twenty twenty two, so it's got about
Speaker 1: six months before it's fully going to be switched over now.
Speaker 1: Staple Center. I was here when that was built, and
Speaker 1: it was kind of an odd name. And I always
Speaker 1: I never understood why they had never had a Staple
Speaker 1: store in the in the Staple Center. And you might
Speaker 1: be thinking, like, Rich, that makes zero sense when you're
Speaker 1: going to a Lakers game, you don't need to buy
Speaker 1: office supplies. Well, I don't know, just like an honorary
Speaker 1: store inside the Staple Center. I just found it so
Speaker 1: odd that it was like the name has become very iconic,
Speaker 1: but the the name was very disconnected from anything inside
Speaker 1: the Staple Center, Like Staple Center just became almost like
Speaker 1: a proprietary eponym for that building without even thinking that, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is this is something to do with a brand,
Speaker 1: Like it never occurred to me going to the Staple
Speaker 1: Center over many many events that it was the company Staples,
Speaker 1: like the office supply store, There's nothing inside that had
Speaker 1: anything to do with that. Now that's going to change
Speaker 1: with Crypto dot Com. Crypto dot com is a is
Speaker 1: a place where you can buy and sell crypto. It does,
Speaker 1: you know, just does all kinds of crypto stuff, which
Speaker 1: I think is ironic as well, because I had never
Speaker 1: heard of crypto dot com. Now, if it was coinbase,
Speaker 1: or if it was like square cash, or if it
Speaker 1: was wee Bowl or all these other apps Robinhood that
Speaker 1: let you buy crypto, sure, crypto dot Com never heard
Speaker 1: of it. So how does this come out of nowhere
Speaker 1: to spend seven hundred million dollars to buy the naming
Speaker 1: rights for twenty years on the stadium. I have no idea. Now,
Speaker 1: there's many many jokes made about you know, hopefully they
Speaker 1: paid in regular and not crypto. But the bottom line
Speaker 1: on all this stuff is that, look, crypto is a thing.
Speaker 1: It is a big thing. We don't know how big
Speaker 1: just yet. I think time will tell on that. And
Speaker 1: everyone I know is talking about it. And I'm talking
Speaker 1: just regular people. I'm not talking tech folks. I'm just
Speaker 1: saying like everyday people when you're out at a party
Speaker 1: are talking crypto and they're just saying, like, do you
Speaker 1: know about it? Which coins? I can't believe how many
Speaker 1: people are invested in these random coins that are, you know,
Speaker 1: half a penny or you know, fifty cents or ten
Speaker 1: cents and they're sitting there putting all this money in there.
Speaker 1: I was out and I could not believe that someone
Speaker 1: I talked to took out alone to invest in crypto.
Speaker 1: And I just, I don't know, like that to me,
Speaker 1: and maybe they're smarter than I am, but to me,
Speaker 1: it's like whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm just not sure that's
Speaker 1: the right thing to do. But I you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know everything. This is not a financial crypto show.
Speaker 1: So it's fascinating. I think that if I would have
Speaker 1: purchased many many years ago when I did my first
Speaker 1: story on crypto, i'd have a lot of money right now,
Speaker 1: and I didn't do that. So and I had friends
Speaker 1: that told me about crypto a long time ago. So look,
Speaker 1: I think that this is a good thing for the
Speaker 1: crypto industry. But I also think that if anything happens
Speaker 1: to this crypto dot com website, it's going to be
Speaker 1: a very big it's gonna be a very sore spot
Speaker 1: for this entire industry. So this crypto dot com, I
Speaker 1: hope it's as legitimate and as big as they seem
Speaker 1: to think they are. I don't know how the naming
Speaker 1: rights money works, like do they ask for it all
Speaker 1: up front or do they give it to them over time.
Speaker 1: But if anything goes wrong in these twenty years, there's
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of people that say, oh, I
Speaker 1: told you so, I knew this was all kind of
Speaker 1: a bubble. I knew this was all not right. So
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of pressure there for Crypto.
Speaker 1: The other thing, like I said, there are they are
Speaker 1: gonna have thirty three hundred square feet of area that
Speaker 1: is dedicated to Crypto dot Com, So there will be
Speaker 1: things throughout the uh, you know, throughout the building and
Speaker 1: that basically tie back in. So whether that's Crypto dot Com,
Speaker 1: touch kiosks, whether those are are areas where they have
Speaker 1: a cell phone station where you can download the app
Speaker 1: and talk to someone or sign up, it just it
Speaker 1: doesn't elaborate on what they're going to do, but it
Speaker 1: says there will be premium branded areas of the arena,
Speaker 1: including a thirty three hundred square foot activation space at
Speaker 1: the building's entrance, as well as dedicated activation areas on
Speaker 1: the main concourse of the arena and throughout the La
Speaker 1: Live Campus. So I mean this is this is big time.
Speaker 1: This is gonna expose a lot of regular people to
Speaker 1: crypto and probably get a lot of regular people to,
Speaker 1: uh to perhaps invest. All right, let's see, Dean says, Hello, Rich,
Speaker 1: I hope that you and your family are well. I
Speaker 1: have a question for you regarding Bitcoin champion. Oh look
Speaker 1: at this. I can't even write this stuff. I mean,
Speaker 1: I didn't put this in any specific order, but it's
Speaker 1: kind of funny that it follows that story. What do
Speaker 1: you know of it? Is it a scam? Is it
Speaker 1: legitimate for cryptocurrency trading? I am hearing conflicting reviews regarding
Speaker 1: its legitimacy. I greatly appreciate any info you can provide
Speaker 1: whether or not it's a viable trading source to invest in.
Speaker 1: Would you use it, Dean Ryan? Dean Ryan, would I
Speaker 1: use it? No? Because I've not heard of it. And
Speaker 1: so what I think is odd is when I google it,
Speaker 1: anytime that you see when you search something on Google,
Speaker 1: and anytime the first couple of results are is it
Speaker 1: a scam or legit? Is it a legit? Is it reliable?
Speaker 1: Is it legit? Is it a scam? Is it? I
Speaker 1: mean literally those are like number one, the entire first
Speaker 1: page of Google. So for me, this is a giant
Speaker 1: absolutely not. And the other thing is that, I you know,
Speaker 1: there's so many places out there that let you invest.
Speaker 1: Why would you invest in a place that people are
Speaker 1: generally debating the merits of. So if I type in
Speaker 1: robin Hood, Let's say, if I type in robin Hood
Speaker 1: the entire first page, there is nothing to do about scams. Okay,
Speaker 1: if I type in Coinbase, If I type in Coinbase,
Speaker 1: there is nothing about Coinbase being a scam. If I
Speaker 1: type type in wee Bowl, there is absolutely nothing about
Speaker 1: whether it's a scam. Now there is a Business Insider
Speaker 1: article that says pros and cons and who should set
Speaker 1: up an account and nerd wallet pros and cons. So
Speaker 1: I would say if if you're stuff like that, that's
Speaker 1: great because if Nerdwala is reviewing it, that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: That means that people are actually using it. So no,
Speaker 1: I would definitely not use this. And what Bitcoin Champion
Speaker 1: looks like it does? It looks like it's robot investing, isn't.
Speaker 1: A Bitcoin is a legit trading app powered by tested
Speaker 1: and proven auto traded technologies. The robot makes money by
Speaker 1: speculating on bitcoins through CfDS. So yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm not doing that, that's for sure. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of stuff out there. I think you got to remain
Speaker 1: very careful about what you use and what you do,
Speaker 1: and especially the money that you're putting in there. Just
Speaker 1: be sure that it's money that you can depart with
Speaker 1: if it ever goes away. All right, let's talk Black Friday.
Speaker 1: Black Friday used to be one of my favorite days
Speaker 1: of the year. Now it's Cyber Monday because I'm not
Speaker 1: really going out to shop anymore, and I have not
Speaker 1: shopped on Black Friday in many many years, many many years.
Speaker 1: But I did used to wait outside the Best Buys
Speaker 1: and the Sears, Yes Sears back in the day about
Speaker 1: this is how old. This was a thirteen inch tube TV,
Speaker 1: Like what did I need a thirteen inch TV for?
Speaker 1: And it was, like I believe it was like fifty
Speaker 1: nine dollars on sale at Sears and I waited in
Speaker 1: line for that. I wait in line for a PlayStation
Speaker 1: at Target. Let's see what else have I waited in
Speaker 1: line for. I waited in line at Best Buy for
Speaker 1: random like I don't even remember, but I that used
Speaker 1: to actually be fun for me. It's just waiting in line.
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you when it stopped becoming fun is
Speaker 1: when I started covering it for c NET. So when
Speaker 1: I worked at c NEET, we had to go out
Speaker 1: on Black Friday. That was a big day. Obviously, they
Speaker 1: did this thing called like Holiday Help Desk, and I
Speaker 1: had to be the guy that went out to Best
Speaker 1: Buy and all these other stores in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night to get reactions from people. And I did
Speaker 1: a little bit of it for like my reporting before,
Speaker 1: but c NEET was really like solidified it, and after that,
Speaker 1: it's just I lost it's fun for me. Like I
Speaker 1: was like, I don't need to wait outside anymore. And
Speaker 1: it's also cold, and yeah, it's fun. The camaraderie is fun.
Speaker 1: I will say that, like you sit there and you
Speaker 1: chat with people. But after that, and I've been to
Speaker 1: many many Apple store lines, believe me, with people waiting
Speaker 1: in line for the iPhone, so I've seen it is fun.
Speaker 1: It is there is a spirit of lightness in the line,
Speaker 1: and I guess some of the lines do get out
Speaker 1: of control. We've all seen those videos on TV. But
Speaker 1: for me, all the ones that I've been a part of,
Speaker 1: it's been very fun. I interviewed Nathan Burrow, the deal's
Speaker 1: editor over at Wirecutter, one of my favorite review sites,
Speaker 1: and he says that this year, yeah, don't expect wild,
Speaker 1: wild deals because there's a lot going on. You've got
Speaker 1: the supply constraints, you've got inflation, and it's just overall
Speaker 1: still a weird time. But in store, we'll be back
Speaker 1: this year. Last year there was some but not really
Speaker 1: so this year, yes, people will be in store, and
Speaker 1: he says the benefit of that is that you can
Speaker 1: get the item you need immediately, so if you see it,
Speaker 1: you can get it, and that's an advantage over online
Speaker 1: where you may not be able to get it. Now.
Speaker 1: Some of the things that will be still not discounted.
Speaker 1: That includes consoles, game consoles, these are still tough to
Speaker 1: get Discounts on hottest on the hot toys and closed
Speaker 1: probably won't be there, but you should be able to
Speaker 1: get deals on audio gear, smart home devices those are
Speaker 1: always discounted, small kitchen appliances, and robot vacuum. So this
Speaker 1: is kind of like I call this my blackout period.
Speaker 1: I do not buy stuff right now up until Cyber Monday,
Speaker 1: and the reason for that is because most of it
Speaker 1: will go on sale. Now you're probably saying, rich, didn't
Speaker 1: you just say you bought the Amazon Fire TV Stick Max?
Speaker 1: And yes I did, And so I felt like that
Speaker 1: twenty dollars combined with the twenty percent rebate on my
Speaker 1: trade in was a big enough discount for me. Will
Speaker 1: those things be any cheaper over the Black Fry and
Speaker 1: Cyber Monday? Maybe, but I'm fine with thirty five dollars.
Speaker 1: Twenty dollars off was a pretty good discount for me
Speaker 1: because that thing was fifty five dollars. So to me,
Speaker 1: that's a great deal. And if it gets cheaper, then
Speaker 1: so be it. But I already have it in my hand,
Speaker 1: so I don't have to wait for it, all right,
Speaker 1: So places to check for some of these deals nine
Speaker 1: to five Toys, So Wirecutter has their own deals page.
Speaker 1: That's a good one. And the thing there is that
Speaker 1: they they vet all the products, so they're not going
Speaker 1: to recommend a thing that's a deal just because it's
Speaker 1: a deal. They're going to make sure that it's actually
Speaker 1: a quality product. Nine to five Toys, they will have
Speaker 1: discounts prominently displayed there. I love the nine to five
Speaker 1: websites deal news dot com this is an excellent one.
Speaker 1: They've got a team of editors that kind of research
Speaker 1: the deals from year to year, and they'll say things like,
Speaker 1: this is the cheapest we've ever seen this Amazon fire
Speaker 1: stick in two years. It's less. It's a dollar less
Speaker 1: than it's ever been. So they do cool stuff like
Speaker 1: that at dealnews dot com. Slick Deals. Obviously, if you
Speaker 1: ever follow me for more than a minute, you've heard
Speaker 1: me talk about this. I check this site every single
Speaker 1: day of my life. Slick Deals crowdsources deals, so people
Speaker 1: just submit a deal, others voted up, and the best
Speaker 1: ones rise to the top, which is really cool. And
Speaker 1: Amazon is doing theirs. At Amazon dot com slash Black Friday,
Speaker 1: their deals will start on Thanksgiving and run for forty
Speaker 1: eight hours. So you know, you've got Black Friday, you've
Speaker 1: got that weekend, you've got Cyber Monday. In my experience,
Speaker 1: so I usually wait until Cyber Monday to make my
Speaker 1: purchases and I come up with a list of all
Speaker 1: the things that I want. So whether that is a
Speaker 1: you know anything, I'm talking like, I like the Doctor
Speaker 1: Squatch stuff, right the soap and the shampoo and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. Like, I know that on Black Friday or
Speaker 1: probably mostly Cyber Monday, it will be at a slightly
Speaker 1: better deal than I've ever seen before. So let's say
Speaker 1: doctor Squatch typically gives you a fifteen you know, the
Speaker 1: best you can find online is like a fifteen percent discount.
Speaker 1: Usually on Cyber mind, the discount's just a little bit better.
Speaker 1: It might be twenty percent. So again, a website like
Speaker 1: pair of Thieves, Right, I buy my undershirts. I really like,
Speaker 1: they're like the best undershirts I've ever gotten, and they're
Speaker 1: not that expensive. It's like, I mean, they're a little
Speaker 1: bit more expensive than typical undershirts, but it's like twenty
Speaker 1: bucks twenty two dollars or twenty three dollars for a
Speaker 1: two pack. Right, And so I just bought a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of those. I think I got a ten percent
Speaker 1: discount through signing up for their newsletter. I would expect
Speaker 1: that to be a twenty percent discount on Cyber Monday.
Speaker 1: So again, I make a list of the stuff that
Speaker 1: I want, and then on Cyber Monday, I will hit
Speaker 1: up those websites and get the best discount. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'll be able to tell pretty quickly if it's like
Speaker 1: a better discount than it typically is. But again, they
Speaker 1: will do that for almost every website. So something like ever,
Speaker 1: note like if I want to renew my Evernote subscription,
Speaker 1: I will go on Black Friday or sorry, Cyber Monday,
Speaker 1: and you know, see if they have a deal on
Speaker 1: their on their resubscription or their subscriptions, which they typically do.
Speaker 1: Almost anything, almost anything has a deal. So that's what
Speaker 1: I would do at this point. Just start start writing
Speaker 1: the things down that you want, and that way you're
Speaker 1: ready to go when it's time to buy. All right,
Speaker 1: let's see kk's Angels says Wi Fi extenders. Hello, Rich,
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on those devices that claim to
Speaker 1: boost your Internet? Our router is in our office, but
Speaker 1: we watch TV in the family room. We stritched switched
Speaker 1: to streaming, and the TV seems to lag. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Sent from the Samsung Galaxy Note nine and AT and
Speaker 1: T five G Evolution capable smartphone. Kk's angels. I don't
Speaker 1: like Wi Fi extenders anymore. I think that they don't
Speaker 1: really work, and so I don't recommend those anymore. All
Speaker 1: those boosters I get so many emails from people you know,
Speaker 1: they're they're advertising on social media, the boosters. So what
Speaker 1: I would recommend is I did a story on it. Well,
Speaker 1: I'd recommend two things. Number one, I would recommend Euro
Speaker 1: E E R O that that's what I have, which
Speaker 1: is an Amazon company at this point. But this is
Speaker 1: the guy who basically invented the Mesh networking system, and
Speaker 1: I'll never forget he emails me about this thing called
Speaker 1: Ero and his name is escaping me right now. But
Speaker 1: let me see. The first time he emailed me about this.
Speaker 1: This was many, many, many years ago. Okay, here we go.
Speaker 1: First time twenty sixteen, so this is twenty sixteen. Wow, okay,
Speaker 1: that's even that's this is wild, just so long ago.
Speaker 1: This was actually the first time was twenty fifteen, and
Speaker 1: this wasn't an Amazon Launchpad device anyway. So we ended
Speaker 1: up having euro come into KTLA and do a segment
Speaker 1: about it, and it was great. But it was like
Speaker 1: one of these things that you just never really heard
Speaker 1: of before. And so oh yeah, here is okay to
Speaker 1: the first time they emailed me was twenty sixteen, and
Speaker 1: so I think the guy's name was Nick, Yeah, Nick Weaver.
Speaker 1: That was that was the co founder. So anyway, he
Speaker 1: came to KTLA, I mean young kid at the time,
Speaker 1: seemed very young, and I'm like, wow, you invented this
Speaker 1: and he's like, yeah, you know, we talked about it
Speaker 1: and just like you know, I tried it and it
Speaker 1: was great. I mean, it just worked. And so I've
Speaker 1: been using it ever since. I've I've since upgraded to
Speaker 1: several different of their you know, they've come out with
Speaker 1: several different models over the years. Now I have the
Speaker 1: pro and it works good. I mean, it gets me
Speaker 1: a good signal in every corner of the house, which
Speaker 1: I really like. But it's expensive. If you don't want
Speaker 1: to spend as much as I did on this thing,
Speaker 1: then I would do what's called Villo v I l
Speaker 1: O And this is sixty bucks for a three unit system.
Speaker 1: And it's sixty bucks so it's about it's twenty dollars
Speaker 1: a unit plus shipping, so it really comes out to
Speaker 1: about seventy dollars. And so I would go with that one.
Speaker 1: And it's a Vlo living dot com and it doesn't
Speaker 1: give you Wi Fi six so if you need that,
Speaker 1: you got to go with something else. But you got
Speaker 1: to go with the euro but I think that for
Speaker 1: most people, you probably don't need that, So that's what
Speaker 1: I would do. So Kk's Angels. Yeah, glad you hopped
Speaker 1: on board with the streaming service. I hope you've got
Speaker 1: KTLA Plus on that TV and you can watch all
Speaker 1: my tech segments there. All right, let's see Amazon Fresh.
Speaker 1: I checked out a new store in Critos, California that
Speaker 1: uses their just Walk out technology. And I've tried this
Speaker 1: before and I probably talked about on the podcast, but
Speaker 1: I tried it at the airport in Newark, New Jersey.
Speaker 1: They you know, Amazon is licensing this technology to pretty
Speaker 1: much anyone who wants it, but they're also using it
Speaker 1: themselves in their own stores. So in New Jersey, it
Speaker 1: was at a Hudson you know, one of those little
Speaker 1: like places you go to before you board the plane
Speaker 1: where you buy some waters. I pop my credit card
Speaker 1: in the reader and I grabbed I think it was
Speaker 1: just two waters, and I walked out and it charged
Speaker 1: my card for the two waters. So now in Siritos, California,
Speaker 1: this is the first Amazon Fresh store in California to
Speaker 1: feature this. It's also the biggest store to feature this.
Speaker 1: It's like forty thousand square feet and I checked it out.
Speaker 1: Amazon invited me there to check it out, and I said,
Speaker 1: of course, I want to come in here and try
Speaker 1: this because I think this is amazing. You go inside
Speaker 1: and there's just like hundreds of cameras hanging from the ceiling.
Speaker 1: I mean, it is wild. I don't know who keeps
Speaker 1: track of all of them, who has to repair all those,
Speaker 1: who has to maintain them, what the feed looks like.
Speaker 1: They wouldn't show me that, obviously, but it is quite
Speaker 1: the operation. So you go in there. You can scan
Speaker 1: your palm, you can put a credit card in, or
Speaker 1: you can scan your Amazon app and that registers you
Speaker 1: and you walk into the store and you start picking
Speaker 1: stuff out and when you pick stuff out, it just
Speaker 1: links it to you. You can put it back on
Speaker 1: the shelf you don't want it, and when you're done,
Speaker 1: you just literally walk out and it figures out using algorithms,
Speaker 1: using machine learning, using artificial intelligence, yeah all the buzzwords,
Speaker 1: using those cameras, and also using sensors embedded in the shelves,
Speaker 1: so it uses a combination of all of those things
Speaker 1: to figure out what you purchased. And you literally just
Speaker 1: walk out of the store with your purchases. Now, I
Speaker 1: did this, and I bought a whole bunch of stuff,
Speaker 1: fifty seven dollars worth of stuff. To be well, that's
Speaker 1: not the exact amount. Let's see Amazon Fresh. I'm looking
Speaker 1: from my receipt, so I spent fifty seven dollars and
Speaker 1: fourteen cents, and I would say that's pretty accurate. The
Speaker 1: prices are pretty good in this store. And I said
Speaker 1: to the pr person, I said, look, you know, this
Speaker 1: is kind of on your honor, like what if something
Speaker 1: is wrong, like how do you prove that you did
Speaker 1: or did not take this item? And Amazon sort of said, like, look,
Speaker 1: you know, we're not going to go back to the
Speaker 1: tape so to say, we're not going to like look
Speaker 1: at the security cameras and say, like, you know, and
Speaker 1: see if you purchase something and you didn't or whatever.
Speaker 1: But you know they're going to send you an itemized receipt,
Speaker 1: so you're gonna be able to see, you know, did
Speaker 1: I get this thing? Did I not? And I asked Amazon,
Speaker 1: they said, this thing does not make mistakes. It basically
Speaker 1: I said, what about when it makes you know, you
Speaker 1: put something down and said, it doesn't. It really does
Speaker 1: not make mistakes, so which was not just one person,
Speaker 1: but like several people in the store told me that,
Speaker 1: and I was like, wow, that's very very confident that
Speaker 1: that this thing will not make mistakes. But in my case,
Speaker 1: it did not seem to make a mistake, and we
Speaker 1: were really putting stuff up, taking it down, I mean,
Speaker 1: really really messing with this thing. So if this is
Speaker 1: the ninth, I believe, let's see it is the it
Speaker 1: is the twenty second. Okay, so this is the twenty
Speaker 1: second Amazon Fresh store in the US. It's the fourth
Speaker 1: just walk out Amazon Fresh store, and they're gonna have
Speaker 1: two more in California, Lehabra and more Park. And I
Speaker 1: think they said it was the ninth total Amazon Just
Speaker 1: walk Out store, but they have. I don't quote me
Speaker 1: on that one, but it was pretty amazing. I think
Speaker 1: this is is it's super duper cool. It's so weird
Speaker 1: that it works, and it's very odd that we can
Speaker 1: even have this technology in our world. I do think
Speaker 1: there will be people that try to abuse it, but
Speaker 1: then again, people try to abuse everything, so there's not
Speaker 1: really there's not a reason for not doing it, because
Speaker 1: there's going to be some people that try to trick
Speaker 1: the system because ninety nine percent of people are good
Speaker 1: and they won't trick the system where they won't try
Speaker 1: to and I don't know, quite frankly, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: you can trick it. I don't know. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: a pretty the system they've got. You have to go
Speaker 1: through sort of a security door to get in and
Speaker 1: then a security door to go out, so it's very
Speaker 1: much I don't know, it's pretty amazing. I really, It's
Speaker 1: one of these things that kind of is mind boggling,
Speaker 1: and the fact that Amazon has been able to figure
Speaker 1: this out is pretty cool. Now, I don't know, they
Speaker 1: clearly have to be saving a lot of money or
Speaker 1: potentially have the potential to save a lot of money
Speaker 1: with this, because if you think about it, it does displace
Speaker 1: a lot of people. Now at this store, there are
Speaker 1: there are still traditional cashiers if you choose to check
Speaker 1: out that way, so you can do that. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, if you can imagine a
Speaker 1: world where you have these Amazon Fresh stores or even whatever,
Speaker 1: any kind of store, I mean it's seven to eleven
Speaker 1: operating twenty four to seven, where you can just walk
Speaker 1: in and walk out with your stuff. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: that's a pretty big money savings. Or maybe it's just
Speaker 1: walk out at the middle of the night, but there's
Speaker 1: also some security precautions that you probably want to take.
Speaker 1: You probably don't want an unmanned store at all. There's
Speaker 1: also a liquor aisle in this store, and that is
Speaker 1: interesting because they have to scan your ID at the
Speaker 1: entrance of the liquor store aisle and then it's kind
Speaker 1: of gated off, so there's like another security door at
Speaker 1: the opening end at the end, because you can't just
Speaker 1: have people walking out with liquor without you know, having
Speaker 1: their IDs checked. In California, it's really weird. They sell
Speaker 1: basically liquor, yeah, everything, liquor, beer, and wine in side
Speaker 1: grocery stores, which having visited many many other states, that
Speaker 1: is not the norm. Many states do not allow that,
Speaker 1: or they allowed just one type of thing or that.
Speaker 1: If most states you go to it's a standalone liquor store.
Speaker 1: In California, it's just it's everywhere. It's like in the CVS,
Speaker 1: the routs. I mean, I couldn't believe the first time
Speaker 1: I'm in college, not that I could purchase this store
Speaker 1: in college, but I saw it when I went to
Speaker 1: the store, and you know at the raups they had
Speaker 1: like beer and you know, beer and well whatever, I
Speaker 1: guess alcohol. I don't know what you call it, because
Speaker 1: back then it's like you didn't even know what it was.
Speaker 1: It's just like the cheapest beer and the cheapest booze
Speaker 1: was basically the only thing that that mattered, you know,
Speaker 1: if if you were into that not I'm not saying
Speaker 1: I was personally, but I'm just saying, like you would
Speaker 1: just buy like the it was like vodka on the
Speaker 1: front of the vodka, you know, it had you had
Speaker 1: no like there was no such thing as like a
Speaker 1: preference for one of the what are the vodka brands,
Speaker 1: Like I would like a Tito's, Like no, no, no,
Speaker 1: it was like vodka and beer was like literally just beer.
Speaker 1: It's like cores light, you know whatever. And so now,
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny with the with the craft beer situation,
Speaker 1: I don't think I've had the same beer twice like
Speaker 1: ever at this point in the past like five years,
Speaker 1: because there's so many different beers that it's like everywhere
Speaker 1: you go has a craft beer on tap or craft
Speaker 1: beer that they're serving that it's like there's just so
Speaker 1: many of them nowadays. Anyway, did I digress on that.
Speaker 1: I think it's really cool that they have this Amazon
Speaker 1: just walk out technology. I'm glad I was among the
Speaker 1: first to try it out here in California, and I
Speaker 1: think people are gonna be pleasantly surprised just how interesting
Speaker 1: it is. All right, let's see. Tiffany says, good morning,
Speaker 1: mister Demiro. I have watched you on KTLA and listen
Speaker 1: to you on KFI for years, so your input would
Speaker 1: be gospel. I want to start a podcast from home.
Speaker 1: I'm not a huge risk taker, but I think this
Speaker 1: might work and with hard work. My daughter helped my
Speaker 1: daughter with their student loans. Can you please advise me
Speaker 1: on what equipment would be best for me to start with.
Speaker 1: Thank you kindly, Tiffany. Well, Tiffany, it's very exciting that
Speaker 1: you want to start a podcast. That's very cool and
Speaker 1: if you have something good to talk about, you'll find
Speaker 1: an audience. And the equipment that you need is not much,
Speaker 1: especially when you're starting out and you say you're not
Speaker 1: a huge risk taker, so I would not go out
Speaker 1: and buy a one thousand dollars worth of equipment. You
Speaker 1: just don't need it to start your show. When I
Speaker 1: started my podcast, I literally started by speaking into my
Speaker 1: iPhone and I used an app called anchor Or. Actually
Speaker 1: I didn't even use an app back that, sorry, it
Speaker 1: was just like the Voice Memos app. I would just
Speaker 1: use the Voice Memos app. And then I got a
Speaker 1: little Lavalier microphone that plugged into the iPhone, and then
Speaker 1: I graduated from that to the computer and I got
Speaker 1: a USB microphone that plugged into the computer and that
Speaker 1: was from Blue Microphones. And then I finally got a
Speaker 1: soundboard from road and now I use the Roadcaster Pro,
Speaker 1: which is just phenomenal, and that is sort of the
Speaker 1: progression of my podcast. So I think for you, what
Speaker 1: I would start with is just download the Anchor app,
Speaker 1: Anchor FM, anchor dot fm and start with that and
Speaker 1: start speaking into your phone. You can use your phone
Speaker 1: as a microphone, and if you want to upgrade that
Speaker 1: a little bit, you can go on Amazon and just
Speaker 1: get a microphone that plugs into the bottom of your phone.
Speaker 1: Then once you get a little bit more comfortable and
Speaker 1: you get into the routine, you actually do shows on
Speaker 1: a regular basis. And that's the number one advice I
Speaker 1: would give to you is do your show regularly every week.
Speaker 1: When I sit down to do this show, it is
Speaker 1: the last thing in my life I feel like doing. No,
Speaker 1: I'm just kidd but it takes a lot of work.
Speaker 1: Over the past couple of years, it has taken a
Speaker 1: lot of work for me to do this show on
Speaker 1: a regular regular basis, and I've brought my equipment to
Speaker 1: different cities. I have done my show at different times.
Speaker 1: I always look at the end of the week and
Speaker 1: I say, Okay, what's happening on you know, typically I
Speaker 1: do it on Friday, So what's happening on that Friday.
Speaker 1: Oh I'm not there during that time. Okay, So let
Speaker 1: me see what's happening on Thursday. Let me see what's
Speaker 1: happening on Saturday morning. Let me see what's happening. Because
Speaker 1: I want to make sure that I get a show
Speaker 1: out every single week unless I'm on vacation and like,
Speaker 1: for instance, next week there will not be a show
Speaker 1: just because it is a holiday week and it's it's
Speaker 1: an abnormality. But if I'm working and i'm you know, somewhere,
Speaker 1: I will do the show. And we've done them in
Speaker 1: different countries. I've done it in China, I've done it
Speaker 1: in different cities. I did it a couple weeks ago
Speaker 1: in Chattanooga. I've done it in Back East. I've done
Speaker 1: it in different locations. I mean, if I'm at a
Speaker 1: hotel room, I'll do it there. If I'm at my
Speaker 1: in law's house, I'll do it there. I mean, I've
Speaker 1: done it in all kinds of different places. And you know,
Speaker 1: I don't really mention when I Sometimes I will, but
Speaker 1: I like to not really make a huge deal out
Speaker 1: of it every time, because you know, I don't want
Speaker 1: every I don't want you the listener, to be fixating
Speaker 1: on whether the show sounds differently or what you know, whatever.
Speaker 1: But anyway, when when it's fun, I will tell you
Speaker 1: when i'm you know, when something's a little bit different.
Speaker 1: But anyway, that's what I would do is get that equipment,
Speaker 1: and then eventually I would get a USB microphone from
Speaker 1: Blue and Blue Microphones. They have a thing called the
Speaker 1: Snowball or the Yetty. You can use one of those,
Speaker 1: and then you know, later on you can upgrade to
Speaker 1: a mixer or whatever you need to really get this
Speaker 1: podcast going in a big way. But that's what I
Speaker 1: would recommend. Just just start small and work your way up,
Speaker 1: And like I said, the number one thing is that
Speaker 1: you really want to keep the podcast going on a
Speaker 1: regular basis. It is the holiday shopping season and Google
Speaker 1: has some new tools in Google Maps, and the one
Speaker 1: that I think is the most interesting is the fact
Speaker 1: that Google can tell you what's in the directory, the
Speaker 1: mall directory. So this is a feature that you would
Speaker 1: just think would be on Google Maps. And for so
Speaker 1: many years I've tried looking for like every time I
Speaker 1: go to a mall in a new city, which is
Speaker 1: quite often actually, I'm always like, Okay, do they have
Speaker 1: this store? Do they have a Casper store there? Do
Speaker 1: they have a Amazon four Star store? Do they have
Speaker 1: an Express for men or whatever? Now I think it's
Speaker 1: just Express. But finding that information generally required you going
Speaker 1: to the mall website, which let's be honest, they're usually
Speaker 1: not very well designed, and searching that site or scrolling
Speaker 1: through a whole bunch of stores to see if they
Speaker 1: have it, And you would just think that you'd be
Speaker 1: able to find it easily. Well, now you've finally can
Speaker 1: on Google Maps. If you search the mall and underneath
Speaker 1: the mall there will be a listing that says directory
Speaker 1: and so you just tap that and you can search
Speaker 1: not only for a specific place, but you can also
Speaker 1: narrow down by food and drink or you know whatever else.
Speaker 1: Like I'm trying to see what else it says. Here,
Speaker 1: hold on, so it had food and drink. Let's see
Speaker 1: what types of stores airport. Let's see. That's kind of weird.
Speaker 1: But okay, let me here we go directory. It's coming
Speaker 1: up again. I'm watching an animation on the web. There
Speaker 1: we go, food and drink, shopping, recreation service. So there's
Speaker 1: all different things. But anyway, search for a mall iOS
Speaker 1: and android. It's supported, and it's just so much easier
Speaker 1: because for me personally, I just always want to know
Speaker 1: if there's a cinnabon there. Not that I get it
Speaker 1: every time, but I just want to know I have
Speaker 1: my option open, you know, for that that Wetzel's pretzel.
Speaker 1: And if you can't, you know, if you don't instantly
Speaker 1: walk into the mall and it's not you know, wafting
Speaker 1: towards you, that smell, that the delicious cinnamon smell. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's like the siren smell of Wetzels is just like
Speaker 1: it's so inescapable. Or cinnabon and I'll tell you. When
Speaker 1: I was growing up, my dad had a strong affinity
Speaker 1: for cinnabon. Probably doesn't eat it as much now, but
Speaker 1: we always every time we visited the mall, getting a
Speaker 1: Cinnabon was like the gold standard. We treated the Cinnabon
Speaker 1: like royalty, and we'd always get the Cinnabon with extra frosting.
Speaker 1: That was kind of the thing. And now they charge
Speaker 1: for extra frosting, which is funny because back then they
Speaker 1: didn't sell. They were hip to the people that would
Speaker 1: ask for extra frosting. Anyway, I did relive the memory
Speaker 1: a little bit with my son. We went to the
Speaker 1: mall a couple of weeks ago and I said, do
Speaker 1: you want a Sinnabon? Do you want a Sinnabon? And
Speaker 1: sure enough he said yes. We got the minis, which
Speaker 1: are the small ones, and it was fantastic, What a
Speaker 1: glorious experience to He said, Dad, this is so good.
Speaker 1: And I said, I know, oh, I know, believe me.
Speaker 1: All right, now, this is a really long email, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna read it and see if we can get
Speaker 1: through some of this. Nas Sean says, just want you
Speaker 1: to reach out and let you know about a new
Speaker 1: Instagram scam that I fell for. People are hacking into
Speaker 1: people's Instagram accounts and posting a video of how turning
Speaker 1: one thousand dollars into ten thousand dollars is legit and works.
Speaker 1: They call it cryptomning. Someone I know posted an Instagram
Speaker 1: story for himself saying how real it is and he
Speaker 1: just did it and got the money. He then posted
Speaker 1: a screenshot of his cash app balance with his username.
Speaker 1: Everything seemed legit, so I messaged him and was interested.
Speaker 1: He was very brief and not descriptive about the process,
Speaker 1: but assured me it was legit. So I followed through
Speaker 1: and messaged the person that's in charge of the whole operation.
Speaker 1: She wanted me to buy a thousand dollars worth of bitcoin.
Speaker 1: Once it was purchased, transfer it to a wallet ID
Speaker 1: she provided. After sending it, she deposited the amount into
Speaker 1: a website that lets you create a pile. Once that's
Speaker 1: all set up, you see the one thousand dollars she
Speaker 1: sent to her account. She has for another two thousand
Speaker 1: for the mining cost that's not disclosed in the beginning.
Speaker 1: I told her all communications were done through Instagram messenger,
Speaker 1: so I purchased another two thousand dollars with a bitcoin
Speaker 1: and sent it to her wallet, and she said she
Speaker 1: never got it. I would message her and my friend,
Speaker 1: and at that point I realized their responses were almost identical,
Speaker 1: and at that point it was a scam. I reached
Speaker 1: out to my friend and he said someone had hacked
Speaker 1: his account. I would have never fallen for it if
Speaker 1: it wasn't for the video of himself saying how legit
Speaker 1: the whole process was. I filed a dispute with coinbase
Speaker 1: in my bank. However, because I authorized the transactions, they
Speaker 1: can't retrieve my funds. I lost three thousand, fifteen dollars.
Speaker 1: After that experience, three other friends profiles have been hacked
Speaker 1: on the same promise and videos of themselves talking about
Speaker 1: how real this is. Just want to let you know,
Speaker 1: maybe you could do a story on this to help
Speaker 1: prevent others from falling for the scam. Thanks Nashan. Okay, Wow,
Speaker 1: this is quite the scam and I see exactly how
Speaker 1: it works, except for one thing is not very clear
Speaker 1: to me. How well are they making the video of
Speaker 1: the person talking about how real it is. That's the
Speaker 1: part that does not make any sense. Because I understand
Speaker 1: here's how I see this working. So basically, these scam
Speaker 1: artists take hold of someone's account, right, so they get
Speaker 1: someone's Instagram and then they post a story on there
Speaker 1: that says, oh my gosh, I just made all this
Speaker 1: money on Instagram. They doctor the photos of their cash account,
Speaker 1: and then they post it on there, and then you,
Speaker 1: as their friend, message them. But since this scam artist
Speaker 1: is still in control of the account, they message back saying,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, yes, this is so amazing. But this
Speaker 1: obviously is a distant friend, because if it was a
Speaker 1: close friend, you would have called them and I would
Speaker 1: have discussed it with them in person. So then once
Speaker 1: you're in, they know you're in, and now they start
Speaker 1: asking you for money. You send it to a Bitcoin address,
Speaker 1: which clearly is where the scam gets the money, and
Speaker 1: after that point they're just taking your money and all
Speaker 1: the rest is gravy. So I'm just trying to figure
Speaker 1: out how the Let's see someone I know post an
Speaker 1: Instagram story of for himself saying how real it was,
Speaker 1: and he just did it. So I think the Instagram
Speaker 1: story does not include the actual person. It just includes
Speaker 1: like a text story that says, oh my gosh, I
Speaker 1: just bought this bitcoin or I just did this investment
Speaker 1: and it worked, and here's my cash app and wow,
Speaker 1: wow wow wow wow. So I think that's how it works,
Speaker 1: and it Yeah, you could definitely easily fall for this.
Speaker 1: I don't think you're stupid for falling for this, because
Speaker 1: here's the thing. These hackers get so smart. They're I mean,
Speaker 1: these people are just they're so smart in figuring out
Speaker 1: the ways of getting it. I would call this a
Speaker 1: social engineering attack because they're praying upon the fact that
Speaker 1: you think this is your friend posting this and he
Speaker 1: didn't realize that their Instagram was actually hacked. I think
Speaker 1: it's a pretty good scam. But the fact that you
Speaker 1: continued to do this, and the fact that you went
Speaker 1: through instant Facebook Messenger, that you know, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of signs and signals here that something's not right. But
Speaker 1: I get it. You saw your friend saying how great
Speaker 1: it was, and so I think that it's a We
Speaker 1: live in a world right now where it's tough to
Speaker 1: know if people are promoting things, if people are you know,
Speaker 1: hacked or not, because there's so many the social media
Speaker 1: world has led us post stuff like this is my
Speaker 1: favorite and I have people you know, text me back
Speaker 1: saying Rich is this, like do you really like that product?
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, yeah, I posted about it, like of
Speaker 1: course I like it, Like why would I not? You know?
Speaker 1: But they're wondering, like did Rich really post that? So
Speaker 1: I think that I feel bad that you fell for
Speaker 1: this and you lost the three thousand dollars. That's unfortunate.
Speaker 1: I would still dispute and just keep fighting this for
Speaker 1: a little bit longer to see if maybe you can
Speaker 1: get something back, but you probably won't. I would go
Speaker 1: to coinbase as well and say, hey, you know whatever,
Speaker 1: and just see what they say. I mean, you're probably
Speaker 1: not gonna get your money back. But I do think
Speaker 1: I thank you for sending this to me because by
Speaker 1: me letting people know about this, I do think that
Speaker 1: it's important because just knowing that these scams are out
Speaker 1: there helps us all. Because it's it's really tricky these days,
Speaker 1: because everything happens online, right, all of your emails, everything's
Speaker 1: a confirmation, everything's a click to confirm. Pop this number
Speaker 1: in because it's a confirmation number. Track this package because
Speaker 1: here you go, claim this refund, because here you go,
Speaker 1: here's how you do it. File this and it's it's
Speaker 1: really tricky. So the more that we do online, the
Speaker 1: more we're going to run into these issues. And phishing
Speaker 1: was just a beginning. Now these social engineering attacks are
Speaker 1: really really where these scam artists are getting people. They're
Speaker 1: a little bit more work, but they find out ways
Speaker 1: to automate them and they figure it out and they
Speaker 1: get it going. So that's not really a question. But
Speaker 1: thanks for sending that, and I guess I'll do another
Speaker 1: question just because Ben says, Hey, Rich, big fan of
Speaker 1: your TV work and also your excellent podcast question. I'm
Speaker 1: purchasing a chromebook for my daughter for Christmas, and four
Speaker 1: gigabytes of RAM. Are four gigabytes of RAM enough to
Speaker 1: watch YouTube videos in four K Her primary usage will
Speaker 1: be to consume content. Well, I mean, look, when you
Speaker 1: look at chromebooks, ninety nine percent of them have two
Speaker 1: to four gigabytes of RAM on them. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know if i'd recommend that, but it's the reality
Speaker 1: of how these things are. I think four is fine
Speaker 1: for watching YouTube. I think that eight would be better.
Speaker 1: But the problem is if you're looking at eight, the
Speaker 1: prices are going to go up because almost none of
Speaker 1: these chromebooks are are going to have eight that are
Speaker 1: at a decent price. So I'm just on the I'm
Speaker 1: just on the best buy website. So let's see four
Speaker 1: gigs of memory Lenovo for one hundred and nineteen dollars,
Speaker 1: four gigs for three fifty nine. So if I go
Speaker 1: to eight gigs, yeah, minimum price is four fifty nine.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I would just go with the four. I
Speaker 1: think it'll be fine. I mean, if you think about it,
Speaker 1: all these little streaming sticks and stuff, they don't have
Speaker 1: more than like four gigs of RAM on them, so
Speaker 1: you're you're fine. I think that that will be just fine.
Speaker 1: But thanks for the kind words, and Chromebooks just just
Speaker 1: keep in mind. I think for this situation, just watching
Speaker 1: YouTube videos that will be totally fine. I mean, I mean, look,
Speaker 1: these are this is Google software. If it can't handle
Speaker 1: YouTube videos and pretty much you can play a YouTube
Speaker 1: video on anything, I think you'd have a problem there.
Speaker 1: So I think that'll that'll be a great little gift
Speaker 1: and hopefully she likes it. Okay, let's see. Samsung is
Speaker 1: delivering a new update to their S twenty one lineup
Speaker 1: S twenty one, S twenty one plus S twenty one
Speaker 1: Ultra and this is one UI four, which is pretty
Speaker 1: wild because I feel like I just just I feel
Speaker 1: like one UI, like two or three just came out.
Speaker 1: Now we're on four already. So one UI four is
Speaker 1: based on Android twelve as far as I can tell,
Speaker 1: can I is it Android twelve. It's funny they don't
Speaker 1: really mention Android twelve in here, but I'm guessing it's
Speaker 1: it's built on that. But the couple of things they do.
Speaker 1: Number one, you get the Android twelve feature that matches
Speaker 1: the colors on the phone to your your wallpaper. So
Speaker 1: that's I mean, I don't know why people are going
Speaker 1: nuts over that feature. I don't. I don't really understand
Speaker 1: why it's so exciting. I mean, I've tried it on
Speaker 1: the pixel It's like, okay, So I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess your phone if you want to all to
Speaker 1: have one standard look, I guess that's fine. It's kind
Speaker 1: of cool. One UI four Samsung has the latest privacy
Speaker 1: and security feature. So again, this is the privacy dashboard
Speaker 1: that was introduced in Android twelve with all the settings
Speaker 1: in one place. And also it will tell you when
Speaker 1: app is accessing your camera or microphone, and so that
Speaker 1: will be on there. So one UI four will be
Speaker 1: on the S twenty one series starting on November fifteenth,
Speaker 1: and it's coming soon to the previous S series and
Speaker 1: the Note series, as well as the Galaxy Z series,
Speaker 1: the A series and tablets. So I mean that's a
Speaker 1: lot of this is this is one of the problems.
Speaker 1: I think Samsung has gotten a lot, lot, lot, lot
Speaker 1: lot better with their software updates. But this is one
Speaker 1: of the reasons why I do like the Pixel. You know,
Speaker 1: so I guess Samsung's been doing the same thing the Pixel.
Speaker 1: You pretty much know on the first of every month
Speaker 1: you're gonna get a software update. And I think Samsung's
Speaker 1: been doing the same thing for a couple of you know,
Speaker 1: i'd say in recent memory, for the last couple of phones.
Speaker 1: But just think about how many phones they have to update.
Speaker 1: I mean, just getting the S twenty one, the S
Speaker 1: twenty one plus the S twenty one Ultra. Then you've
Speaker 1: got you know, the Z series, You've got the Flip,
Speaker 1: the Fold, You've got several versions of those. I mean,
Speaker 1: getting all those phones to a software update is pretty
Speaker 1: that's no easy task. And so when you think about
Speaker 1: someone like Apple. Yes, they have to update a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of old phones, but the software pretty much runs
Speaker 1: the same on most of the devices. There are some
Speaker 1: differences with a few key features, but most of the
Speaker 1: time it's the same. So if you haven't SD twenty
Speaker 1: one phone, definitely go into these settings and check to
Speaker 1: see if you have a software update. To me, this
Speaker 1: is something I do almost every day on my devices.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's kind of a nerd thing. It's kind
Speaker 1: of a I don't know why I do it, it's
Speaker 1: just habit. I check my app updates and my system
Speaker 1: updates pretty much every day. And it's funny because my wife,
Speaker 1: you know, she something came up on the phone the
Speaker 1: other day and she's like, I don't have it on
Speaker 1: my phone yet, And I'm like, well, do you update
Speaker 1: Instagram or whatever it was? And she goes into her
Speaker 1: apps and there's like ninety eight apps that needed updating.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh man, what are you doing, Like gotta
Speaker 1: update these. My phone is on automatic updates, but it's
Speaker 1: there's not long enough to go between the updates for
Speaker 1: them to actually take effect. All right. Final question, Derek says,
Speaker 1: log in with Google Rich, do you suggest the log
Speaker 1: in with Google prompt when registering at new websites, or
Speaker 1: do you suggest the traditional way of creating your own
Speaker 1: password each time? Is there any risk or drawback from
Speaker 1: the login with Google registration on new sites? Thanks for
Speaker 1: all you do. Typically I steer clear of the log
Speaker 1: in with Google, log in with Twitter, log in with Apple,
Speaker 1: log in with Facebook, log in with whatever. Just don't
Speaker 1: use it when possible. Now, there are times when I
Speaker 1: need to get into a website very fast. I want
Speaker 1: to log in really quickly, and I will tap that
Speaker 1: button and I will log in with either Apple using
Speaker 1: an anonymous you know email, or I'll log in with Google,
Speaker 1: or I will log in with That's basically it. Those
Speaker 1: are the two that I'll use. Now. The reason I
Speaker 1: don't like this is because why do you want to
Speaker 1: connect your your accounts to another account? So now all
Speaker 1: these accounts are reliant on Google, and all these websites
Speaker 1: have gotten really good at kind of like pushing the
Speaker 1: envelope with like signing you up, Like when you go
Speaker 1: to Zillow, it'll just like be in the corner like oh,
Speaker 1: sign in as rich to Miro and I'm like, oh cool,
Speaker 1: I must have signed in before. But like it's kind
Speaker 1: of like tricking you. It's like a almost like a
Speaker 1: dark pattern where it's you know, it's making you feel
Speaker 1: like that's the way you just log in because it's
Speaker 1: a box that's there and you click it without really thinking.
Speaker 1: I don't like that, But a lot of websites are
Speaker 1: doing that now. And the reason why the website's like
Speaker 1: this is because it's easy. It's simple ease of access.
Speaker 1: You already have a Google account's already logged in on
Speaker 1: your computer. The reason I don't like it is because
Speaker 1: it doesn't separate things. I want to keep things separate.
Speaker 1: I want to keep a separate log in for every website,
Speaker 1: with a separate password for every website. And I think
Speaker 1: that you should do that as well. So that's what
Speaker 1: i'd recommend doing, especially when it comes to like Facebook.
Speaker 1: It just presents too many issues when you want to
Speaker 1: step away. Let's say you want to deactivate your Facebook
Speaker 1: account or maybe I don't know, Google probably so less
Speaker 1: or so, but maybe you don't want to use Google
Speaker 1: for something for a while, and now you're stuck logging
Speaker 1: into all these webs sites the other side of it,
Speaker 1: And I think that this is more of the security
Speaker 1: side of things is that they can trick you with
Speaker 1: how much information they get. So when it comes to Google,
Speaker 1: you probably have your Google Photos, you probably have Google Drive.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of information at stake there, so you
Speaker 1: have to be real careful when you log in with
Speaker 1: Google that it's only getting things like maybe your email address,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot of data that you have on
Speaker 1: your Google profile that they can request, and so you
Speaker 1: just have to be very very careful about what you
Speaker 1: are handing over when you sign up with these websites.
Speaker 1: So that's that's my recommendation, but I would just say
Speaker 1: in general, get a password manager and sign up best
Speaker 1: you can with individual individual passwords. Every time, Oh look
Speaker 1: at that that sound. No, not the lawnmower you might
Speaker 1: have heard outside. That sound means that's going to do
Speaker 1: it for this episode of the show. If you'd like
Speaker 1: to submit a question for me to answer, just go
Speaker 1: to my Facebook page, Facebook dot com, slash rich on
Speaker 1: Tech hit the big blue end email button, or you
Speaker 1: can go to Richontech dot tv and hit the email icon. Also,
Speaker 1: i'd love it if you would rate and review this podcast.
Speaker 1: Just go to the listening app of your choice, write
Speaker 1: a quick line about what you like about this show
Speaker 1: to help others understand why they should listen. You can
Speaker 1: find me on all social media at rich on Tech
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Speaker 1: can download the free KTLA plus app on Apple TV, fireTV,
Speaker 1: and Roku. Once you do, scroll to the tech section
Speaker 1: and watch all of my segments on demand. My name
Speaker 1: is rich Demiro. Thanks so much for listening. There are
Speaker 1: so many ways you can spend an hour of your time.
Speaker 1: I do appreciate you spending it with me. I'll talk
Speaker 1: to you real soon.