Speaker 1: It's a special edition of the rich on Tech podcast
Speaker 1: What's going On? I'm Rich DeMuro and this is rich
Speaker 1: on Tech, the podcast where we talk about the tech
Speaker 1: stuff I think you should know about and I answer
Speaker 1: the questions that you send me. My name is Richdmiro,
Speaker 1: tech reporter at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles. Joining
Speaker 1: me via zoom is producer Megan.
Speaker 2: How are you? How's it going?
Speaker 1: Oh, live in the dream, quarantined in my home. I
Speaker 1: think we're going on week number three.
Speaker 2: It feels like week number ten.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, this is this is I just I
Speaker 1: think I say this every podcast, but this is the
Speaker 1: most insane thing I have ever experienced in my life.
Speaker 1: I'm actually asking every day to go back to work,
Speaker 1: and work is saying no, you can't, Like you cannot
Speaker 1: come to work. I mean, when do you ever have
Speaker 1: a job that says that.
Speaker 3: I know, it's it is the craziest thing that's ever happened,
Speaker 3: and in many and like everyone's lifetime, Like it's just
Speaker 3: it's insane.
Speaker 1: I keep saying, I cannot wait till the history book
Speaker 1: is written on coronavirus, because I can't wait to read it.
Speaker 1: I'm just so curious like what went right, what went wrong?
Speaker 1: What did we do right? What did we do wrong?
Speaker 1: And you know how the city's reacted. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: a really wild thing. And you know, I'm glad a
Speaker 1: lot of people out there are safe, you know, and
Speaker 1: I know people that have been affected. I know, I
Speaker 1: know personally several people that actually got coronavirus, which is
Speaker 1: also crazy.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just this wild thing that's happening. My
Speaker 1: mom is is you know, she's by herself, which is
Speaker 1: really tricky. You know, It's just it's just a very
Speaker 1: odd thing. So anyway, everything's been fine here. I've been
Speaker 1: going to the grocery store the most out of any
Speaker 1: person I know, because I'm the designated survivor in my
Speaker 1: house to like go out and do things. So okay,
Speaker 1: if anyone's at most risk here, it's me. But so far,
Speaker 1: so good. I did order some masks and wait for those.
Speaker 1: But anyway, if you're tuning in on the Facebook Live,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining us. We do appreciate it. This is
Speaker 1: going to be a little different, you guys know that
Speaker 1: I've experimented. It's very it looks like it's easy to
Speaker 1: go live on Facebook doing all this stuff, But it's
Speaker 1: not because what I'm trying to do is get a
Speaker 1: quality recording of the broadcast for the podcast, but also
Speaker 1: go live, and so it's a lot of little tricky
Speaker 1: things to do that. And so if you're watching on Facebook,
Speaker 1: thanks for doing that. If you ditch out, that's fine,
Speaker 1: but we do appreciate you joining us. This version of
Speaker 1: the podcast is going to be all questions. So let
Speaker 1: me see if we have our sound effects. Megan, let's
Speaker 1: see if they work. Oh nope, that's not it. Do
Speaker 1: you hear that?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I hear it.
Speaker 1: So we got the sound effects. So let's here we go.
Speaker 2: Can they hear the sound effects?
Speaker 1: I don't know. We'll find out.
Speaker 2: Oh, okay, okay, all right.
Speaker 3: Our first question comes from Nancy and she wrote on
Speaker 3: your Facebook page. She asked, have you ever reviewed blue
Speaker 3: Tooth microphones for the iPad? We are doing a lot
Speaker 3: of zooming, but need a microphone for people to hear
Speaker 3: us better.
Speaker 2: That's a good question.
Speaker 1: That is a good question, and it's something that yeah,
Speaker 1: everyone's been doing, is these You know, people are connecting
Speaker 1: their zooms to the big screen because you can just
Speaker 1: go ahead and chrome cast it to your big screen
Speaker 1: or you can use airplay and reflect it to your
Speaker 1: big screen. I love doing that and I've done that
Speaker 1: several times, and I think it's a really good way
Speaker 1: of doing it. But what she's saying is she's connecting
Speaker 1: it via a cable, and so the difference is is
Speaker 1: that her iPad is really close to the TV, whereas
Speaker 1: she's not doing airplay. So that's the difference, and that's
Speaker 1: why her setup is a little trickier because I actually
Speaker 1: had to email her for some clarification on this question.
Speaker 1: And so what she needs to do, and what I
Speaker 1: think is the best recommendation for her, is to get
Speaker 1: a portable Bluetooth speaker and she can connect that Bluetooth
Speaker 1: speaker to her iPad, put that in front of her.
Speaker 1: Like at my house, of the couch, then we have
Speaker 1: like an automan and then the TV on the wall.
Speaker 1: So if the if the iPad was near the TV screen,
Speaker 1: then I would put the little speaker in front of me.
Speaker 1: And if you look on Amazon, they have a bunch
Speaker 1: of these little Bluetooth speakers. I personally would just go
Speaker 1: Amazon Basics and let me just search here right now. Oh, now,
Speaker 1: did you guys hear that? I hope you didn't. Did
Speaker 1: you hear that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I hope you guys don't hear my computer
Speaker 1: sound effects. Now, if I go on Amazon and I
Speaker 1: get an Amazon Bluetooth speaker, it is twenty five dollars
Speaker 1: and that has a microphone built in for hands free calling,
Speaker 1: and that's super easy. So I love that. Twenty five
Speaker 1: dollars will solve all of her problems. Now here's the
Speaker 1: bigger problem that she's going to run into. Oh, free
Speaker 1: delivery on Tuesday. So nevermind. I was gonna say a
Speaker 1: lot of these you know, Amazon, we've talked about this
Speaker 1: where you can't get a lot of stuff, but apparently
Speaker 1: this is one of those things that you can get delivered.
Speaker 1: So that's the solution you can use. If you want
Speaker 1: to go more expensive, you can just get a pair
Speaker 1: of Bluetooth headphones, and I bet you Amazon Basics has
Speaker 1: those two. But the problem with the headphones is that
Speaker 1: your family can't listen in and you want your whole
Speaker 1: family to Yeah, do that.
Speaker 2: I was going to say air pods, but that does
Speaker 2: not work.
Speaker 1: Oh really well because it just to you. Yeah exactly,
Speaker 1: nobody heard except you. But well, okay, good question. Oh
Speaker 1: I guess we just keep doing that because it's more questions.
Speaker 3: Okay, this next question comes from deb Hi Rich. I
Speaker 3: was wondering if you could tell me if all the
Speaker 3: worry about five G towers and phones are true, will
Speaker 3: they be super bad for our bodies?
Speaker 2: And what's this talk about?
Speaker 3: What's this talk about going around that they would want
Speaker 3: to put a chip implanted for protection against the bag?
Speaker 1: Oh wow? This is like some men in black stuff
Speaker 1: whose this is like really yeah.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, any input on these subjects would be appreciated.
Speaker 1: Okay, so they're asking in your body. Wow, that's what
Speaker 1: I haven't heard.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I also haven't heard a lot about this
Speaker 3: five G, like the five G theory.
Speaker 1: I just okay, I have. So what happens is, here's
Speaker 1: a couple of things are happening. So five G is
Speaker 1: the new advanced wireless, right like there we have four G,
Speaker 1: we had three G, we had two G that they
Speaker 1: didn't really call two G at the time, but now
Speaker 1: we have five G, and so five G is like
Speaker 1: this super fast wireless. The problem is with the super
Speaker 1: fast wireless is that people think that it's connected to
Speaker 1: all these problems with COVID, And I just don't see
Speaker 1: that happening. So uh, And the bigger problem is just like.
Speaker 2: Trying to see the connection.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the big the bigger problem is that over in
Speaker 1: Europe they are burning down these five G towers because
Speaker 1: or they're setting fire to them apparently. And I guess
Speaker 1: a lot of it was connected to like celebrities tweeting
Speaker 1: about it, like saying like these towers are evil. There's
Speaker 1: been a bunch of conspiracy theory videos on YouTube and
Speaker 1: on Facebook, and so there's a lot going on. Now.
Speaker 1: I am not an expert in wireless communication, so can
Speaker 1: I say for certain that there's no connection. I feel
Speaker 1: like I actually am concerned sometimes about all the wireless
Speaker 1: frequencies around US. I work in a TV station where
Speaker 1: there's a lot of wireless frequencies, so I'm concerned. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not an exp But am I saying there's a
Speaker 1: connection between COVID and five G. I don't think so,
Speaker 1: And nor do I think you should believe that, And
Speaker 1: nor do I think we should stop advancement of RF
Speaker 1: and wireless frequency because of a new technology. I think
Speaker 1: it's just they're packing the radio waves in a different way.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's millions of radio waves all around us
Speaker 1: every day, no matter where you are, And I think
Speaker 1: that's actually the most fascinating thing, the fact that think
Speaker 1: about this. When you're walking through like your street, they're
Speaker 1: like everything is being broadcast. They're like every radio station,
Speaker 1: every TV station, like it's all like in the air.
Speaker 1: Like don't you think that's crazy?
Speaker 2: That is crazy?
Speaker 3: And I never think about that, And now, like that's
Speaker 3: pretty trippy.
Speaker 2: And also, like most people, I mean, I sleep with
Speaker 2: my phone like, yes, literally a foot away from.
Speaker 3: My head, and like I've heard you're not supposed to
Speaker 3: do that, but you know, now I'm kind of like,
Speaker 3: is there some weird stic Further.
Speaker 1: Dick, I have my phone next to my bed wirelessly charging,
Speaker 1: and so I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm getting like
Speaker 1: a one two punch of like my phone radiation plus
Speaker 1: the wireless charging radiation. And again, we're told that these
Speaker 1: things are safe, and I do believe that they are safe.
Speaker 1: But I also think that as a human you have
Speaker 1: to you know, you have to have a a little
Speaker 1: bit of not skepticism, but you have to be smart.
Speaker 1: And for a while, I didn't charge my phone wirelessly
Speaker 1: next to me because I thought that wired charging was safer.
Speaker 1: And the other thing I didn't like is that my
Speaker 1: Apple Watch has LTE connected to it. And I thought
Speaker 1: that it's a little bit weird because if you think
Speaker 1: about it, it's on your wrist at all times. So
Speaker 1: the LTE connection is one on your wrist all day long, weird.
Speaker 1: Whereas a phone you have it in your pocket, you
Speaker 1: have it on your desk, it's in different places. But
Speaker 1: this is literally on my body at all times. Now
Speaker 1: I sound like one of the crazy conspiracy theory people.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's really easy to go down that rabbit hole,
Speaker 3: it is.
Speaker 1: And yeah, so I don't think I don't. I still
Speaker 1: don't know where she's getting the microchip from.
Speaker 3: But yeah, wait, so they're going to put chips in
Speaker 3: people's bodies to protect them against the bad I.
Speaker 1: Mean, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that one. I don't know about that.
Speaker 1: But what I don't know about? Uh Okay, that was
Speaker 1: a great question, And look at this, it's time for another.
Speaker 1: I don't I hope you have enough question for a
Speaker 1: whole show we have.
Speaker 2: We actually have a lot of questions. We might be good. Okay,
Speaker 2: so this next question, Yes.
Speaker 1: We can also take some questions from the Facebook folks
Speaker 1: if they put them on there. So if you guys
Speaker 1: want to put a question in the chat, I can.
Speaker 1: I don't think you can see those, but I can.
Speaker 2: So okay, okay. So this next question comes from TJ.
Speaker 3: The subject is video call with Grandma rich My ninety
Speaker 3: seven year old grandma is quarantined in the nursing home
Speaker 3: and she's getting lonely. We bought an iPad and I
Speaker 3: set up FaceTime and Google Duo for the family to
Speaker 3: call her. I have disabled all security, so when a
Speaker 3: call comes in, all she would have to do is
Speaker 3: slide to accept. This works perfectly on FaceTime, However, she
Speaker 3: would have to press another button to start video on
Speaker 3: Duo after the slide to accept. Is there a way
Speaker 3: to have video enabled automatically when accepting a Google Duo
Speaker 3: call on iPad?
Speaker 1: That's okay, so no, I actually tested this, and the
Speaker 1: problem is the way that and I think it's great.
Speaker 1: I think that the way that Apple has done they've
Speaker 1: implemented these things is great, but it's also oh wow,
Speaker 1: I just realized that I can make this bigger on
Speaker 1: the screen for everyone. So okay, So what he's asking is,
Speaker 1: can you make it so that when you slide to
Speaker 1: answer a call on Duo when it's coming in to
Speaker 1: just go write to video. And I tested this on
Speaker 1: my iPhone and here's what happens. You can slide to
Speaker 1: answer the call, but then you also have to do
Speaker 1: one more button press to start the video. And I'm
Speaker 1: not sure if that's an Apple thing or a security thing,
Speaker 1: but that's the way it is, and there's no way
Speaker 1: around it as far as I could tell. Now on
Speaker 1: Android it's different. You just swipe up and boom, it
Speaker 1: starts the video. And Google actually Duo has this cool
Speaker 1: feature which is called knock Knock, So when you're using
Speaker 1: Google Duo, it actually shows the person if you allow
Speaker 1: of video of you, like a preview. Have you seen
Speaker 1: that ever?
Speaker 3: We test this out, Yeah, you said you. We tested
Speaker 3: it the other day, but I didn't see the preview.
Speaker 1: I think because on iPhone, I don't think you see
Speaker 1: the preview.
Speaker 2: It's only on androids, so yeah, so but that's cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is cool. And I'm trying to trying to
Speaker 1: see if I have any phones that I'm testing that
Speaker 1: are out that I can't show.
Speaker 4: Oh gosh, no, I don't, okay, just making sure, uh,
Speaker 4: so yeah, you can't do that, but I I totally
Speaker 4: what was the guy's name again, TJ TJ.
Speaker 1: I totally identify with him because I am all about
Speaker 1: getting the literally the simplest possible way of getting like
Speaker 1: these things to friends and family, Like I want to
Speaker 1: make it so that they can just swipe and boom,
Speaker 1: it's done. Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna do a question
Speaker 1: from the screen, so I'll do this ready, that'll be
Speaker 1: the question from the street. Sylvia says, Megan's microphone looks awesome.
Speaker 1: Can you share what type it is and where one
Speaker 1: may purchase it? So, Megan, do you want to give
Speaker 1: us some details on that microphone? Let me see, it
Speaker 1: is a I know what it is. It's a blue snowball.
Speaker 2: And so it's a blue snowball.
Speaker 1: Blue. Yeah, blue.
Speaker 2: Oh, the brand is called blue.
Speaker 1: Okay, the brand is called Blue, and it's a snowball microphone.
Speaker 1: And I actually looked this up the other day because
Speaker 1: I was recommending it to someone and they have a
Speaker 1: couple of different levels, I guess because it used to
Speaker 1: have just one, I think, which was like eighty bucks,
Speaker 1: and now I think they have like one for fifty dollars,
Speaker 1: but I think there might be different.
Speaker 2: Can Yeah, that's what I see.
Speaker 1: What you have the seventy dollars one.
Speaker 3: I don't know which one I have because I got
Speaker 3: it from work, but it looks like this.
Speaker 2: The fifty dollars one.
Speaker 1: Well, the fifty dollars I'm wondering if the fifty dollars
Speaker 1: doesn't have one of the connections, like maybe it doesn't
Speaker 1: have like a certain connection maybe me. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but I do know that Blue is owned by Logitech
Speaker 1: now and Blue microphones have been forever like the best
Speaker 1: microphone for podcasting because they're so simple, they're so easy. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's a snowball ice, and I wonder that's that's what
Speaker 1: I have. That's the fifty dollars one. No, I think
Speaker 1: you have the the other one?
Speaker 2: Is this one snowball ice on the side.
Speaker 1: Oh it says ice. Oh well, then there we go.
Speaker 1: So I don't know what the other one is. Then
Speaker 1: that's interesting. The snowball is classic. Who knows anyway, So
Speaker 1: you got the fifty you got the cheap one fifty bucks.
Speaker 2: I have the cheap one. But it sounds good. That's good. Sorry,
Speaker 2: I just like messed.
Speaker 1: Up oh great, So now we have no no stand Sylvia.
Speaker 2: No, I mean I just have to okay.
Speaker 1: It's all good.
Speaker 2: Get lower. Yeah, all right, should.
Speaker 1: We go to your question?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 3: Okay, So this next question comes from Michael Hi Rich.
Speaker 3: I'm hoping you will call out the internet providers that
Speaker 3: are supplying slower than advertised speeds for the same price.
Speaker 3: I understand it may be due to everyone being at
Speaker 3: home during the coronavirus, but as auto insurance companies have
Speaker 3: cut insurance for people that are driving less, internet providers
Speaker 3: that are unable to provide their advertised speeds advertised prices
Speaker 3: should reduce their prices during this time. I'm working during
Speaker 3: this time, so my usage has not increased on their system.
Speaker 3: I have Spectrum in Santa Clarita, and I pay seventy
Speaker 3: dollars a month for four hundred megabytes with a guarantee
Speaker 3: minimum of two hundred and I guess the last few
Speaker 3: days he's been getting between twenty two and fifty megabytes max.
Speaker 1: Okay, so little formality thing. By the way, the way
Speaker 1: they measure internet speed, and this is for everyone, is
Speaker 1: megabits per second. So when someone says I have a
Speaker 1: a twenty five connection, that's twenty five megabits per second.
Speaker 1: And to be honest, I'm not really sure why that
Speaker 1: is versus megabytes, but that's how they measure it. And
Speaker 1: so when he says, like, for me personally, I have
Speaker 1: a two hundred megabit connection, and if you go into fiber,
Speaker 1: which is like the fastest, it's one gig. So one
Speaker 1: gig gig connection. That's one gigabits per second, I believe.
Speaker 1: But anyway, so when people have Internet connections, like back
Speaker 1: in the day, they used to be closer to like
Speaker 1: twenty five and now they're closer to you know, one hundred,
Speaker 1: two hundred. Some people have much more than that. But
Speaker 1: that's kind of like the little lesson on those. But
Speaker 1: with that said, I don't know what to say. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is the reality of everyone working from home. Megan.
Speaker 1: You can talk about your Internet connection. It's it's terrible, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like it's good sometimes.
Speaker 2: And I have Spectrum too.
Speaker 3: We had to get Google Wi Fi to like make
Speaker 3: the connection like go like stronger throughout the house.
Speaker 1: Network.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that helped.
Speaker 3: Google Wi Fi definitely helped. But yeah, like yesterday it
Speaker 3: just like went out for an hour and we don't
Speaker 3: really know why. But two weeks ago, right when everyone
Speaker 3: started working from home, like it was horrible, but now
Speaker 3: it's a lot better.
Speaker 2: I think it's a lot better.
Speaker 1: So it's better because of Google Wi Fi or because
Speaker 1: of I think.
Speaker 2: I think, I think Google Wi Fi.
Speaker 3: And I also think that Spectrum like figured out some issues.
Speaker 3: I don't know, but my mom actually stopped a Spectrum
Speaker 3: van last week.
Speaker 2: She like stopped the card and.
Speaker 3: We need help, and not we need help, but like
Speaker 3: was like, you know, stopped him. He stopped, and she
Speaker 3: was like, we just got Google Wi Fi, Like what's
Speaker 3: wrong with Spectrum?
Speaker 2: And the guy said, we'll keep Google Wi Fi.
Speaker 3: He said Google Wi Fi is great because we thought
Speaker 3: it was Google Wi Fi because we were still having issues.
Speaker 2: He was like, Google Wi Fi is great.
Speaker 3: But yeah, no, Spectrum is obviously over capacity because everyone,
Speaker 3: everyone in the house is using the internet.
Speaker 2: So it's just I think it's just going to take
Speaker 2: a little bit of time, you know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but maybe Michael needs a router.
Speaker 1: Well that's the thing. So my question is because he
Speaker 1: said he was getting twenty five. It's a lot of
Speaker 1: times when people come to me and say their internet
Speaker 1: is really bad. It's not necessarily their Internet. It's actually
Speaker 1: it's the router that they're using, Like the Wi Fi
Speaker 1: connection that they're using in their home is just not
Speaker 1: very good. And then the other thing is where you're
Speaker 1: testing your connection. So you know that when you're using
Speaker 1: Wi Fi on your laptop, your connection is probably about
Speaker 1: half of the speed that's coming in at the router.
Speaker 1: So most of the time now unless you have one
Speaker 1: of these new systems, like Megan, have you done a
Speaker 1: speed test on your Wi Fi from where you are
Speaker 1: right now, like compared to where they because I assume
Speaker 1: when the Spectrum guy came there, he was kind of like,
Speaker 1: let me test the Internet at the source, right, is
Speaker 1: that kind of what happened? Yeah, And he's probably like
Speaker 1: you're getting your full speed right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well so we have someone come the guy the
Speaker 3: car that just went by that was.
Speaker 1: Just like okay, speaking of internet.
Speaker 2: By the way, the one coming to our house for us,
Speaker 2: that was someone.
Speaker 1: Speaking of internet. Megan, your your connection just literally went
Speaker 1: out of internet. Yeah, like it's just it went out
Speaker 1: so badly, just now stopped. So anyway, Megan, I just got.
Speaker 2: A thing saying your internet connection is unstable.
Speaker 1: So yeah, oh my gosh, yeah, this is what happens
Speaker 1: with the whole internet a little bit. Just keep just
Speaker 1: stay on it. It'll come back. It just takes a
Speaker 1: little bit. I'll just I'll just talk, I'll read some
Speaker 1: of the comments online. But uh so and and see
Speaker 1: one of the commenters said, uh, where did I see that? Okay,
Speaker 1: Michael said your picture was flipped the wrong way, So
Speaker 1: I did fix that. And then let's see here. I
Speaker 1: thought someone said, no, I don't know. I thought someone
Speaker 1: said that it depends on the time of day as well.
Speaker 1: But oh yeah, Jason James said the time of day
Speaker 1: impacts the speed and reliability as well. And that's very
Speaker 1: true because it depends like at night. It's really it
Speaker 1: slows down during the day. Actually, it used to be
Speaker 1: at night when it would slow down. Lindsey would always
Speaker 1: complain to me because she would say, rich, every time
Speaker 1: I watched TV at night, like the streaming like Netflix
Speaker 1: would like slow to a crawl. And I said, no way,
Speaker 1: I use the Internet all afternoon and it's totally fine.
Speaker 1: And then next thing you know, I was watching a
Speaker 1: show at night and I'm like, sure enough, that's the
Speaker 1: way it is. Your your video is frozen now Megan,
Speaker 1: you're you're time.
Speaker 2: I don't know what to do or.
Speaker 1: Literally just dragged down. Now it's it's back. Now it's
Speaker 1: a little bit, but anyway, it's back.
Speaker 2: Okay. It says I have forty five megabytes per second.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's good. So I mean now your internet
Speaker 1: that you're getting at your source is probably two hundred.
Speaker 1: George says it's best to keep the router towards the
Speaker 1: ceiling for a larger coverage of the area, and that
Speaker 1: is true. A lot of people put their routers like
Speaker 1: on the ground especially, that's a really bad place for them.
Speaker 1: So you want them as close to the center of
Speaker 1: the room as well. Okay, And Jason James says for him,
Speaker 1: it's six thirty to eight pm when I guess it's
Speaker 1: like the worst time. All right, Megan, we'll try try again.
Speaker 2: I just dropped my mic. Okay, okay. This next question
Speaker 2: comes from Bill hi Rich.
Speaker 3: Do you know about smile dot Amazon dot com. You
Speaker 3: sign in with your username and password and get to
Speaker 3: pick a charity like feed America and Saint Jude's Children's Research.
Speaker 3: I think it's worth a mention after you check it out.
Speaker 3: And then also so most Walmarts have online ordering and
Speaker 3: you can drive to a special door at your local
Speaker 3: Walmart where you call a number and you can pick
Speaker 3: up groceries that day. He said that I've done I've
Speaker 3: done that with Walmart three times and I've picked up
Speaker 3: about one hundred and forty dollars of food.
Speaker 1: That's interesting that he says you can call special number.
Speaker 1: I don't that's I don't know about that one.
Speaker 2: He said. You so you order online and then you
Speaker 2: drive to.
Speaker 3: A door, yes, door at the Walmart, and then you
Speaker 3: can like you look for a call number.
Speaker 1: We actually did a story on this before you joined tech,
Speaker 1: and yeah, we went to Walmart and this was kind
Speaker 1: of crazy. I'd like to know when that story was
Speaker 1: because it felt so long ago and it was like
Speaker 1: way before grocery shopping online was like a thing. Which
Speaker 1: is really funny because now it seemed like actually, Lindsay
Speaker 1: was able my wife was able to get an Amazon
Speaker 1: Prime delivery for today, which is saying because so many
Speaker 1: people have been having trouble getting those delivery times and she's.
Speaker 2: Been actually not one for today too.
Speaker 1: So maybe today is like the day that they increased
Speaker 1: their thing. Because I went to the store yesterday to
Speaker 1: buy stuff for Easter, and I wasn't able to get
Speaker 1: like anything I needed, Like I had no eggs, no flour,
Speaker 1: no vodka. I was kidding. What was the other.
Speaker 2: Thing that they.
Speaker 1: Didn't have was, oh, the sweet potatoes, like I love.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're what you guys do for
Speaker 1: your Easter, but we do like the sweet potato castrole
Speaker 1: that my mom has always made. That's like candied sweet
Speaker 1: potatoes and with like.
Speaker 2: Mark smellow, Yes, yeah, I've had those. Those are so good.
Speaker 1: It's like my absolute favorite thing. And my mom is
Speaker 1: like a very She's like a stickler when it comes
Speaker 1: to recipes, Like she doesn't like to modify anything. So
Speaker 1: when she like made that recipe for the first time,
Speaker 1: it was like she had to like there's only like,
Speaker 1: you know, like five marshmallows on top, and every time
Speaker 1: I'm always like, I want like a thousand marks, Like
Speaker 1: so when I made it one year, I literally dumped
Speaker 1: the whole bag of marshmallows. Do I want to be
Speaker 1: able to cut through a layer of marshmallows to get
Speaker 1: to the candy yams?
Speaker 2: Right? Because that's the point.
Speaker 1: And don't get me started on yams. Versus sweet potatoes,
Speaker 1: because I'm still not sure what the difference is.
Speaker 2: Oh I I when you said yams, I just thought
Speaker 2: of sweet.
Speaker 1: Potatoes, and I so and I actually so I had
Speaker 1: to buy purple sweet potatoes. Like they're I think they're
Speaker 1: like Japanese. They're like the purple ones.
Speaker 2: Huh yeah, okay, so interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I've had them before. They're really good. They
Speaker 1: just literally the color is just different. I think they're
Speaker 1: a little bit like the consistency maybe is a little
Speaker 1: bit thicker, like it's not as maybe they don't get
Speaker 1: as mushy as a candy sweet potato. It's not that
Speaker 1: big of a deal anyway. So she was able to
Speaker 1: get all that stuff on Amazon today. So back to
Speaker 1: the whole Amazon and Walmart thing. So we did a
Speaker 1: story with Walmart, and my biggest question was, I don't
Speaker 1: like other people picking out my fruits and meats.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's weird.
Speaker 1: Don't you think you're the expert of your own meat
Speaker 1: and veggies, Like you're the best at picking out your stuff?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Ever, now I would feel weird with someone bringing
Speaker 3: me like apples and like chicken.
Speaker 2: Actually, I don't think I would care that much. About
Speaker 2: the meats, more about the fruits really the vegetables. So yeah,
Speaker 2: because they have to touch it, and I don't know, well.
Speaker 1: You wash it, but I'm I'm more like certain, like
Speaker 1: like if I'm going to shop for your sake, I
Speaker 1: don't care, I just pick one of Like you're like,
Speaker 1: I want to rib you're.
Speaker 2: Picking the bruised apple.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just like I don't care. Yeah, you don't care.
Speaker 1: But so here's what Walmart's answer was. They said they
Speaker 1: train all of their people to pick the best. And
Speaker 1: on the flip side, what I've noticed with these like
Speaker 1: Amazon Fresh and all that, like they now Walmart's little
Speaker 1: differ because they're actually picking the stuff from the store floor, right,
Speaker 1: but whereas Amazon Fresh and maybe this is different now
Speaker 1: with Whole Foods. Maybe they're going into Whole Foods. I
Speaker 1: don't know, but like in the past they would have
Speaker 1: like there, it's kind of like no one was in
Speaker 1: that grocery store except the people that are picking your
Speaker 1: stuff for you. So my theory was that the produce
Speaker 1: selection was very good because in a typical grocery store,
Speaker 1: how many people's hands are touching those apples and feeling
Speaker 1: them and putting them back versus behind the scenes kind
Speaker 1: of thing where everything is perfect, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, I guess in a sense, it's kind of
Speaker 3: more monitored versus like someone goes into pavilions and gets
Speaker 3: your food right now, you don't know how many people
Speaker 3: have touched it, right, And.
Speaker 1: I'm fine with it with how many, Like I don't
Speaker 1: care if a bunch of people touch the food as
Speaker 1: long as it's still crispy when I get it, Like,
Speaker 1: it's fine, but things do get picked through. I also
Speaker 1: think about how much waste is I imagine the produce
Speaker 1: section is generates the most waste in a grocery store.
Speaker 1: Maybe not, but it just seems it's so like kind
Speaker 1: of sad. Like if someone could figure out a perfect
Speaker 1: kind of store for you know, like eBay they call
Speaker 1: it the perfect store because you have a supply and demand,
Speaker 1: like someone bids on something at the exact price that
Speaker 1: they want to buy it for. Like if that could
Speaker 1: be for produce, like every single apple that ever gets grown,
Speaker 1: like it never gets wasted, Like that'd be amazing. That'd
Speaker 1: be my dream. Let me read some of the comments
Speaker 1: here because we are on Let's see here. Danielle says,
Speaker 1: I used to work at Walmart. Not anymore items out
Speaker 1: of stock now and there are limited spots available for pickup,
Speaker 1: depends on the area. But no luck here. Frank says.
Speaker 1: Grocery shopping online was a thing in two thousand. It was,
Speaker 1: it's been around for a while. But and let's see,
Speaker 1: and daniel says, right, banana's yellow. I want to eat
Speaker 1: many right away. That's the other thing, Danielle, You're stumbling
Speaker 1: upon a very good thing. When I order bananas, I
Speaker 1: would like fifty percent to be green and fifty percent
Speaker 1: to be yellow, right, because this is the problem with bananas.
Speaker 1: It's like half of them. Yeah, it's every fruit goes
Speaker 1: from like amazing to cannot eat instantly.
Speaker 2: You're at a fifty really.
Speaker 3: Fast, right, Yeah, they just figure out, well didn't we
Speaker 3: do a story?
Speaker 1: Yeah we did, And I guess they did figure out
Speaker 1: something like that.
Speaker 2: But like that's okay. Yeah, that's another okay.
Speaker 3: And actually I've never been to Walmart because there aren't
Speaker 3: many Walmart.
Speaker 2: Hold on, say it again, I've never been to Walmart.
Speaker 1: Never been to a Walmart in your entire life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like it's I mean, I've seen commercials. I know
Speaker 3: that they're out there, but I've never been. There's not
Speaker 3: a Walmart like in LA. I don't think there's any
Speaker 3: Walmart in That's why US never always Yeah, I know,
Speaker 3: super weird, not culture.
Speaker 1: That is amazing. Well, I will say that I probably
Speaker 1: never was in a Walmart until I moved to Louisiana,
Speaker 1: and that's when I first or no, actually my first
Speaker 1: Walmart was when I moved to Washington State and US
Speaker 1: I lived in Yakama and I went to my first
Speaker 1: Walmart and and I loved it. I mean, I know
Speaker 1: Walmart is kind of like, you know, lover hate kind
Speaker 1: of thing, but I I'm all about it.
Speaker 2: Isn't it just like Target?
Speaker 1: Oh, Target, except like thirty percent cheaper? Like oh wow?
Speaker 1: I mean it's you think Target's cheap until you go
Speaker 1: into a Walmart and it's Walmart is much. It's you know,
Speaker 1: like Target used to. I used to consider Target inexpensive,
Speaker 1: and now I don't consider it inexpensive anymore, at least
Speaker 1: not the LA locations LA locations. Now here's the other thing.
Speaker 1: I talk about this because I've lived in various states,
Speaker 1: and I've lived in I've lived in Washington State, I've
Speaker 1: lived in Louisiana, New Jersey and La and in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles stores are not cheap, Like you don't even realize, Megan,
Speaker 1: but the grocery store in Los Angeles is probably forty
Speaker 1: to fifty percent more expensive than a grocery store in anywhere,
Speaker 1: even even out of like La County, like not Orange County.
Speaker 2: Insane.
Speaker 1: You have no idea here is five dollars catch up
Speaker 1: in Louisiana's two fifty the same exact bottle. And you
Speaker 1: just don't realize that they're building in a bunch of
Speaker 1: costs of doing business in Los Angeles. So it's just
Speaker 1: a reality. But you don't realize because you're you're doing
Speaker 1: business here. And the only reason I know this is
Speaker 1: because I've lived in other places and I'll never forget
Speaker 1: one time, you know, even ordering pizza. So you order
Speaker 1: pizza in Louisiana or you know, North Dakota, a pizza
Speaker 1: delivery is going to be fifty percent less than pizza
Speaker 1: delivery here. It's just the way it is.
Speaker 2: And it's insane. It's even more expensive though.
Speaker 3: In Hawaii, oh gosh, it goes up like another fifty times.
Speaker 1: From La times square Hawaii, and what's the other one
Speaker 1: times square in Alaska. I've never been to Alaska, though.
Speaker 2: Alaska it's supposed to be really Oh that makes.
Speaker 1: Super expensive up there. Now when I'm in Hawaii, I
Speaker 1: do not care.
Speaker 2: I don't care.
Speaker 1: I will say whatever it takes, because number one, I
Speaker 1: can't imagine how you get that stuff there.
Speaker 2: It all. I can't complain. You can't complain if you're
Speaker 2: not allowed to complain.
Speaker 1: But like you know, if you live there, if I
Speaker 1: live there, I'd become curmudgeting, like two weeks.
Speaker 2: You'd have to grow your own food, you know.
Speaker 1: A little, a little trivia for you. I am supposed
Speaker 1: to be in Hawaii right now. Do I have the
Speaker 1: tiniest violin sound on my board here? No? I don't
Speaker 1: think I do. I'm supposed to be in Hawaii right now.
Speaker 1: And not only that, but my calendar still shows me
Speaker 1: all the restaurant reservations I had for every single night,
Speaker 1: And so every night this week I have gone to
Speaker 1: my wife and I'm like, we're supposed to be at
Speaker 1: you know, of a restaurant tonight.
Speaker 2: It's so depressing, it is depressing.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I had I was supposed to be in
Speaker 3: Italy last week, and I had like a bunch of
Speaker 3: tours like set up on my calendar and so I
Speaker 3: didn't delete those, but it was like Vatican Tour, Colisseum Tour, and.
Speaker 2: I was just like, I, this is sad.
Speaker 1: And then all the nightclubs down below, yeah, polic the
Speaker 1: disco Teca, day Roma.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: That's all I remember about going to Europe when I
Speaker 1: was a kid, was like the disco Teca's right.
Speaker 2: The disco tecas?
Speaker 1: Isn't that like the thing? Okay?
Speaker 2: All right, all right?
Speaker 3: This next question comes from Melissa. With the increasing demand
Speaker 3: for wireless signal at home due to an increase in
Speaker 3: working from home and more devices, what router do you
Speaker 3: recommend for high residential usage for the carrier Verizon or
Speaker 3: Frontier and a three thousand square foot home?
Speaker 1: So what am I recommending for those? Out of those two? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think they're both going to be fine. But oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, my watch, I'm like, where is this? Where
Speaker 1: this come from? What the siri? Quiet? Now? I missed
Speaker 1: the question? So what was the question again? So basically,
Speaker 1: they have a house three thousand square foot and they
Speaker 1: want to get internet and they're trying to decide if
Speaker 1: Spectrum or FiOS is going to be better.
Speaker 2: No no, no, no no. So I didn't hear anything asking
Speaker 2: what router do you recommend? They have? Verizon slash Frontier.
Speaker 1: Used to be used to be Verise and now it's
Speaker 1: Frontier FiOS.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, okay, so so yeah, So basically Google Wi
Speaker 3: Fi or Ero is what you're going to say.
Speaker 1: Megan already knows all my answers because I just have
Speaker 1: the same answers every time.
Speaker 3: Some of these questions we like, I've asked so many
Speaker 3: times that.
Speaker 1: I just here's the thing. Now, people don't listen to
Speaker 1: everything I'm saying. They're not like, like I'm keeping track
Speaker 1: of everything I say because it's come out of my mouth.
Speaker 1: But you know, there aren't people sitting there like listening
Speaker 1: to every single thing I say on every podcast, on
Speaker 1: every news clip, on every kfi thing. But I say
Speaker 1: these things over and over.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The reality, well, which one do you like better?
Speaker 2: Google Wi Fi or Hero? Well?
Speaker 1: I have I personally have Eero and I've had no
Speaker 1: problems with it whatsoever. But I think that Google Wi
Speaker 1: Fi is good. I think it really comes down to
Speaker 1: price and what you need. So if you go and
Speaker 1: you look at EO and they only have a three
Speaker 1: pack and you just need a two pack. Like Google
Speaker 1: Wi Fi I think has a bit more options. I
Speaker 1: think the standard Google Wi Fi is just one node
Speaker 1: and then like one access point, so one one and
Speaker 1: or you can even just get one thing, and they
Speaker 1: say that covers a pretty large house. So it kind
Speaker 1: of depends on what you need. And I think it
Speaker 1: in what's on sale. So if you go online and
Speaker 1: you see that Google wi fis or Google Nest WiFi
Speaker 1: is on sale at a really great price, then go
Speaker 1: with that, right Or if you see that ero is
Speaker 1: having some sort of sale, go with that. So I
Speaker 1: have no preference in the game. I think that all
Speaker 1: and in fact, I really have no preference among all
Speaker 1: of the mesh networks as they call them. I think
Speaker 1: that they're all fantastic and they're going to be way
Speaker 1: better than what you have typically, which is the typical
Speaker 1: setup is what you get from your Internet service provider,
Speaker 1: and that Wi Fi is going to cover about a
Speaker 1: you know, three square foot area around your router and
Speaker 1: that's it. So and Alma is asking on on the
Speaker 1: live chat, what do you think of Orby? And I
Speaker 1: think Orby is great too, I haven't tested Orby personally,
Speaker 1: but it gets a lot of great reviews and that's
Speaker 1: Netgear's product and it's perfect. Are yeah, that's Neckgear Orby right?
Speaker 1: Or is it links to Orby? I think it's Neckgear.
Speaker 1: I'm like scared to do anything on my computer because
Speaker 1: I don't know what shows up. Oh you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know what you see. But yeah, Orby is from Neckgear,
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think that one's great too, So I
Speaker 1: think any of them are going to be perfect for sure.
Speaker 3: All right, Okay, this next question comes from Larry. Is
Speaker 3: it worth the money for Phone Soap three? And if so,
Speaker 3: how much is it worth buying for?
Speaker 1: Ooh, well, I will tell you Phone Soap. Let me
Speaker 1: explain what it is. It's a it's a sanitizer for
Speaker 1: your phone and it's also a charger as well. So
Speaker 1: we interviewed the CEO of the company. And I never
Speaker 1: used my Phone Soap. I got one for Christmas. I
Speaker 1: think it was a year ago or two years ago,
Speaker 1: and I never plugged it in until coronavirus. And now
Speaker 1: I have it on my bedside and I put my
Speaker 1: phone in there, not every day, but definitely after I
Speaker 1: visit the grocery store. I pop it in there and
Speaker 1: probably every you know, two or three days, I'll throw
Speaker 1: it in there, and it's a UV light, so it
Speaker 1: kind of closes up over it. It splashes your phone
Speaker 1: with UV light and there's no water. That's the bad,
Speaker 1: bad word to use.
Speaker 2: It was gonna be like what no, but it puts.
Speaker 1: It bathes your phone in UV light, and UV light
Speaker 1: is proven to kill bacteria and viruses on the surface,
Speaker 1: and so it kind of renders anything on your phone
Speaker 1: that's a virus or bacteria useless. And so for that reason,
Speaker 1: I like it. Now. I will tell you what I
Speaker 1: learned from another infection specialist that told me that they
Speaker 1: believe that the germs and stuff on your phone are
Speaker 1: not that harmful to you because ninety nine percent of
Speaker 1: the time they are our own germs. So I thought
Speaker 1: that was interesting, and it kind of makes sense because
Speaker 1: you would think people would be getting sick from their
Speaker 1: phones all the time because we're carrying them everywhere. But
Speaker 1: if you think about it, most of the time, it's
Speaker 1: just you handling your phone. Now, people hand me their
Speaker 1: phone all the time to do things. I generally don't
Speaker 1: like to touch them because they're very dirty, and I
Speaker 1: think that's where you get that cross contamination is when
Speaker 1: you touch something else that's not yours. But most of
Speaker 1: the time, so the argument being is that you're probably
Speaker 1: more at risk of getting sick by touching someone else's phone,
Speaker 1: or someone else's desk or on the you know, an airplane,
Speaker 1: like the tray table that's dirty from the last person,
Speaker 1: you know, anything, you're you're getting other people's germs. So
Speaker 1: our homes are probably filled with germs, but they're mostly ours,
Speaker 1: and that's why people think they get sick more when
Speaker 1: they travel or they go out somewhere, you know whatever.
Speaker 1: With all that said, I think that the I don't
Speaker 1: think it can hurt to have a phone soap it's
Speaker 1: eighty bucks for this device, and he's asking how much
Speaker 1: do I think it's worth? Probably because the devices are
Speaker 1: sold out everywhere, and so maybe he's looking at it
Speaker 1: on eBay and that's why how much is it worth?
Speaker 1: But I think it's worth it, And I don't know,
Speaker 1: do you have one of these things? I think also
Speaker 1: with a phone. With a phone, ever since Apple said
Speaker 1: that you can use a liceol wipe on it, I
Speaker 1: think it'll be just just as well served with a
Speaker 1: lice al wipe.
Speaker 3: You can buy liceol wipes. They're literally like I found
Speaker 3: available Lifesol wipes and Clorox wipes yesterday and they were
Speaker 3: gone in a second.
Speaker 2: Did you order on Amazon? No, they were gone.
Speaker 1: So you were watching the websites that tell you about
Speaker 1: the Yeah, yep, yeah, yeah. I find most of the
Speaker 1: time those things are just sold out instantly and that's it.
Speaker 1: They're there. They keep going in stock. But yeah, they're
Speaker 1: really tough to get. But if you can, and my
Speaker 1: only advice with those when you're using them on your
Speaker 1: phone is to ring them out a little bit, Like
Speaker 1: you don't want like a sopping wet lice all wipe
Speaker 1: on your phone because it's no, it's just a little
Speaker 1: bit too wet. I think if you ring it out
Speaker 1: just a little bit, you don't want to get rid
Speaker 1: of everything. But then you use that and that'll clean
Speaker 1: your phone. And I've been using them on my phone
Speaker 1: in my computer now and it's great, so nice. All right,
Speaker 1: I think we have time for one more question, Megan.
Speaker 3: Okay, this next question comes from Sally. We tried having
Speaker 3: a virtual dance birthday party for our friend's birthday last night, but.
Speaker 2: Everyone could barely hear the music.
Speaker 3: Is there an app we can use in which everyone
Speaker 3: in the group can hear the music at the same time?
Speaker 3: Any other suggestions.
Speaker 2: On how to do this?
Speaker 1: Did she say how she did the party? Did she
Speaker 1: say she did it on Zoom? No? Okay, Now, I'd
Speaker 1: probably just recommend Zoom. And the way I would recommend
Speaker 1: it is you can do a couple of things. If
Speaker 1: you have like another like another, like I would Here's
Speaker 1: what I would do. I would personally either share my
Speaker 1: screen and have YouTube up on the screen, and that
Speaker 1: is my audio. So YouTube is basically one of the participants.
Speaker 1: So I think that that's probably the best way of
Speaker 1: doing it, and then you have the audio is sort
Speaker 1: of piped in from your computer into Zoom. The other
Speaker 1: way you can do it is if you want, you
Speaker 1: can connect your phone to your computer. But the thing
Speaker 1: is you want to have the music as a participant
Speaker 1: on your Zoom. That's the best way of doing it.
Speaker 1: So I would use my phone to connect for me
Speaker 1: to show my face, and then on my I would
Speaker 1: be a participant and share my screen, but I would
Speaker 1: have YouTube on the computer and that would be piping
Speaker 1: in the audio, and that way everyone hears the audio
Speaker 1: nice and clean. I can play DJ on YouTube and
Speaker 1: we can all be participating from our phones. That would
Speaker 1: probably be the best way to do it.
Speaker 2: That makes sense.
Speaker 1: I like that it's a little bit of set up
Speaker 1: and you need two devices. But I would say a
Speaker 1: lot of people have a computer and a phone, so
Speaker 1: or access to that.
Speaker 2: And also parties take a little bit of setup in general.
Speaker 1: So yeah, like you wouldn't expect a DJ to just
Speaker 1: come to your party and like play music off his
Speaker 1: smartphone speaker. Right, you gotta pipe into something.
Speaker 2: You gotta put some effort into it.
Speaker 1: Got anything in life, if you want it to be good,
Speaker 1: you gotta put a little effort into it. So that's
Speaker 1: that's my life advice for you. Can you believe it, Megan,
Speaker 1: that's going to take us to the end of this show.
Speaker 1: That's going to do it for this episode, I would say,
Speaker 1: if you want links to what we talk about, take
Speaker 1: a look at the show notes. But we really don't
Speaker 1: have links to what we talked about because we just
Speaker 1: talked about a lot of stuff. But if you want
Speaker 1: to submit a question for me, you can go to
Speaker 1: my website. Rich on tech Dot TV. At the bottom
Speaker 1: scroll down, there's a little envelope for email. Just tap
Speaker 1: that and you can send me a question. Or you
Speaker 1: can find me on Instagram. I am at rich on
Speaker 1: Tech Megan. How can folks find you?
Speaker 2: I'm on Twitter at producer.
Speaker 1: Megan And if you like this podcast, notwithstanding all of
Speaker 1: these crazy coronavirus episodes, please rate and review it. Go
Speaker 1: to rate this podcast dot com, slash rich on Tech
Speaker 1: and send a link to a friend tell them that
Speaker 1: you liked it, because that really helps us. I don't
Speaker 1: know how, but it does, right, it does.
Speaker 2: It helps us. It makes us feel the connection.
Speaker 1: It makes us feel the connection. That's true. I'm rich
Speaker 1: to arou on behalf of everyone that gets this show
Speaker 1: to your ears. Thanks for listening. We'll talk to you
Speaker 1: real soon.