Speaker 1: The program that saves people fifty dollars off their monthly
Speaker 1: Internet bill. Amazon releases new Echo shows, a cool file
Speaker 1: sharing app from one plus plus. Your tech questions answered?
Speaker 1: What's going on? I'm Rich Dmuiro 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. My
Speaker 1: name is rich Demiro, tech reporter at KTLA Channel five
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. What a show I
Speaker 1: have planned for you today? Well, yeah, sure, okay. You
Speaker 1: know I plan these things throughout the week, and I
Speaker 1: always want to think about, like, oh, what should I
Speaker 1: talk about at the beginning of the show, And then
Speaker 1: of course I kind of forget. I don't I have
Speaker 1: yet to master a place where I can just keep notes,
Speaker 1: like I have so many little note taking I actually
Speaker 1: went back to ever Note, which is just wild. But
Speaker 1: I've got ever Note, I've got Google Keep, I've got
Speaker 1: the notes on my you know whatever, the Apple what's
Speaker 1: the apple one called notes? Is it just literally called notes? Yes,
Speaker 1: it is called notes. Then I got an email from
Speaker 1: Notion the other day. I signed up for them to
Speaker 1: take notes, and I've got reminders in my calendar, I've
Speaker 1: got my to do list for Microsoft. Then I have
Speaker 1: Google keep did I mentioned that one? Then I have
Speaker 1: posted notes I don't know what to do. Then I
Speaker 1: have voice memos that I have reminders. I mean, seriously,
Speaker 1: how do you keep track of all the different places
Speaker 1: where you take notes? Like? Do you have just one
Speaker 1: place where you take your notes? I don't. It seems
Speaker 1: like that's a problem for me. I just I can't.
Speaker 1: The problem is in you know, you might say, oh, Rich,
Speaker 1: just use the notes app on on you know, the
Speaker 1: Apple or the iPhone. Well, I like to have cross
Speaker 1: platform things like I don't like to use anything that's
Speaker 1: locked into a platform. So honestly, as I use the iPhone,
Speaker 1: if I just used all Apple stuff, it would be perfect,
Speaker 1: like the calendar, you know, the contacts, the email like
Speaker 1: everything like it would just be so easy. But the
Speaker 1: problem is I don't want to do that because then
Speaker 1: I am beholden to one company, and so I like
Speaker 1: to use things that are cross platform. And I also
Speaker 1: like to find the best that's out there. So when
Speaker 1: I was looking at to do lists, you know, you think, oh,
Speaker 1: just use Google to do because you use Gmail. Well, no,
Speaker 1: when I started looking at what you can do with
Speaker 1: the Microsoft one, it's just so much better. I mean
Speaker 1: it's like really really good. Like it's definitely my favorite.
Speaker 1: I've tested them all, believe me, and the Microsoft to
Speaker 1: Do app is just fantastic because it lets you do
Speaker 1: every single thing you need. And my favorite feature is
Speaker 1: how every day you get a fresh start so you
Speaker 1: can have all your tasks. Let's say you I have
Speaker 1: nineteen tasks right now, but on my day where it
Speaker 1: says my day, it's clean, so there's no tasks on
Speaker 1: there now, so I can add tasks just to my day,
Speaker 1: but after that day they fall into my main like
Speaker 1: you know, all the different tasks in the background, so
Speaker 1: and then you can always go back to those. I'm
Speaker 1: not describing it very well, but anyway, it's the best.
Speaker 1: So my point is I don't know how to keep
Speaker 1: track of the stuff that I want to talk about
Speaker 1: here on the show, But maybe one of these days,
Speaker 1: I mean I've done three hundred episodes, so maybe one
Speaker 1: of these days I'll get better at it. I just
Speaker 1: saw that on the podcast app on Apple, three hundred
Speaker 1: episodes of this. Wow, I am fostering kittens. If you've
Speaker 1: been following me on Instagram, you know that that's happening.
Speaker 1: I'm now growing my own plants. I'm doing some research
Speaker 1: for a segment i'm doing on these in home gardens,
Speaker 1: and so Rise Gardens sent an in home growing system
Speaker 1: and I'm just I am amazed. I am amazed that
Speaker 1: I am growing plants right now. I'm looking at them.
Speaker 1: When the little buds first came up, like the little
Speaker 1: I forget which one was the first one to kind
Speaker 1: of pop, I couldn't believe it. It's like being a
Speaker 1: kid all over again, growing a garden out in your backyard.
Speaker 1: And then my kids came in and they couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: And the little pods that they give you tell you
Speaker 1: how many days it takes for them to like sprout,
Speaker 1: and so some of them were five, some of them
Speaker 1: are eight. So I'm still waiting for the eight. But
Speaker 1: it's just amazing. Anyway, let's talk about the first story
Speaker 1: of the week. I know you heard about this major hack,
Speaker 1: and this is a consumer tech news podcast, so I'm
Speaker 1: not going to really go into the whole geopolitical situation
Speaker 1: with our gas and things like that, but I do
Speaker 1: want to talk about this hacking group and kind of
Speaker 1: just how scary it's getting when it comes to cybersecurity
Speaker 1: and why you really really need to protect yourself and
Speaker 1: I'm not even convinced we can protect ourselves, Like I'm
Speaker 1: sure that people are just so smart out there that
Speaker 1: it's like a losing battle, like you have to do
Speaker 1: everything you can, and I believe me. I get emails
Speaker 1: on a daily basis from people that say their Facebook
Speaker 1: account is hacked, their Instagram account is hacked. People trying
Speaker 1: to log in to their accounts and they get the
Speaker 1: email that says, hey, did you just try to log
Speaker 1: in from whatever random city in the world And you're
Speaker 1: like no, And that's a scary thing to get. So
Speaker 1: this hacker group called dark Side is the one that's
Speaker 1: behind this cyber attack on that colonial pipeline. CNBC had
Speaker 1: an interesting little article about them where they try to
Speaker 1: position themselves as an ethical hacker group. Now I saw
Speaker 1: something this morning about how maybe they're not even hacking anymore,
Speaker 1: so that this could all be moot. But they were
Speaker 1: saying that, you know, they operated kind of like a
Speaker 1: software as a service, like they would just make this
Speaker 1: software that helped anyone hack into things, and it was
Speaker 1: kind of like a little startup, like a like an
Speaker 1: evil Silicon Valley startup, which is, you know, kind of weird.
Speaker 1: But they said that a couple things were off limits.
Speaker 1: Number one, they weren't political, okay, but of course the
Speaker 1: gas thing became very political. But the things they said
Speaker 1: were off limits protected organizations not to be harmed include hospitals, hospices, schools, universities, nonprofits,
Speaker 1: and government agencies. So basically that means all for profit
Speaker 1: companies here in the US are they are at risk.
Speaker 1: And if I ran a giant company, it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: I would make sure that my stuff is pretty locked down.
Speaker 1: They also say that they're going to donate a portion
Speaker 1: of their profits to charity, although what charity is going
Speaker 1: to accept a donation from a hacking group. I don't
Speaker 1: really think that that's something that they would do. So
Speaker 1: how these hacking groups work is they typically lock up
Speaker 1: people's computers or corporation's computers, and then they demand ransom
Speaker 1: to unlock those computers, and if they don't get the ransom,
Speaker 1: then they say that they are going to release that
Speaker 1: data into the wild. I actually did a demo with
Speaker 1: a company, Oh Gosh, Silance I think was their name,
Speaker 1: and they showed me a demo of live ransomware software,
Speaker 1: like it was actually on the computer that they were
Speaker 1: showing me, and they showed me how their software could
Speaker 1: stop it, but it was scary to see how it
Speaker 1: actually starts working. And this one in particular that they
Speaker 1: showed me was you get it through like a Microsoft
Speaker 1: word file. And so what happens is like you basically
Speaker 1: enable a macro and all of a sudden, it just
Speaker 1: takes over your system and it's scary and it takes
Speaker 1: it over in a big way. And once that happens,
Speaker 1: it's it's just game over. So my advice to you
Speaker 1: is to use a password manager strong password as your
Speaker 1: master password. Definitely use two factor authentication, and honestly, I
Speaker 1: don't even think you should be using texts for two
Speaker 1: factor anymore. You have to use an app, an authenticator app.
Speaker 1: So there's things like Google Authenticator, there's Authie, there's Microsoft Authenticator.
Speaker 1: I think what's the Microsoft one called. I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe it's just authenticator. But I'm telling you use one
Speaker 1: of these apps, and you got to secure your stuff.
Speaker 1: I know it's tough. I know it's annoying. When my
Speaker 1: kids want to download an app on their iPad, it's
Speaker 1: like the biggest process ever, and they're just so annoyed.
Speaker 1: They're like, why is this so annoying? And I said, well,
Speaker 1: because we got to stay protected and I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to do the best I can in protecting these digital assets.
Speaker 1: So anyway, all right, let's get to the first question
Speaker 1: of the day. This comes from let's see here, Christine. Hey, rich,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of getting a Joby grip tight one, oh
Speaker 1: tight one gorilla pod stan. Wow, that's quite the name.
Speaker 1: Joby Grip Tight one Gorilla pod stand for our upcoming
Speaker 1: Disney trip, Disneyland trip in a few weeks. I recently
Speaker 1: got an S twenty one Samsung Ultra five G and
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if you could advise if the Joby is compatible.
Speaker 1: We'll hold up my phone since it's bigger and heavier
Speaker 1: than most phones. Thank you. Any help you could provide
Speaker 1: would be greatly appreciated. Christine, Christine, good question. The Joby's
Speaker 1: are fine. Let me look up this specific one. This
Speaker 1: is the Joby Grip Tight one Gorilla pod stand. And
Speaker 1: that's a good concern that you have because you know
Speaker 1: that your phone is a little bit bigger than the rest,
Speaker 1: So yes, this will probably hold up your phone. But honestly,
Speaker 1: and this is twenty five bucks. It's a small one,
Speaker 1: so it may not be like the most heavy duty
Speaker 1: for your big phone, but I'll be honest. My favorite
Speaker 1: mount right now is from a company called tenacol t
Speaker 1: E n I k l E So Tenacle three sixty,
Speaker 1: and it's a little more expensive, it's forty bucks. But
Speaker 1: this thing is phenomenal. I love it, love it, love it.
Speaker 1: And it's basically kind of like the Jobe except it
Speaker 1: has a more kind of a flexible bottom mount similar,
Speaker 1: but it's a different kind of flexibility, but it has
Speaker 1: suction cups on it. And so these suction cups give
Speaker 1: you that added benefit of being able to suction your
Speaker 1: phone to different things. Now, like you said, you've got
Speaker 1: this giant phone, you gotta be a little careful because
Speaker 1: you definitely don't want to have your brand new S
Speaker 1: twenty one ultra fall. And that thing is a that's
Speaker 1: a that's a heavy phone. That's a big, big, big phone.
Speaker 1: And so it'll work because I've I used the Tentacle
Speaker 1: three sixty with it when I had my test unit
Speaker 1: of the Samsung. I did use it with this thing
Speaker 1: and it does work. But yes, you do need to
Speaker 1: be a little bit more aware of where you're sticking
Speaker 1: this and making sure it's stuck for real. And even
Speaker 1: if you're you're hooking it onto something, you just have
Speaker 1: to be very careful. But again, it's tentacle t E
Speaker 1: n I k l E Tenacle three sixty. The guy
Speaker 1: who invented it, he lives here in southern California, and
Speaker 1: I interviewed him for a segment on KTLA, and I
Speaker 1: just number one, I love this is what I love
Speaker 1: about my job. I love the fact that I can
Speaker 1: just I love this device. And all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I just call the guy that invents it, and he
Speaker 1: talks to me like that's so cool to me, right,
Speaker 1: And he was telling me the story about how he
Speaker 1: invented it, and he was on a hiking trip and
Speaker 1: he wanted, well, first off, he tried to put his
Speaker 1: phone like in a tree or something, and it just
Speaker 1: fell and it fell into like rocks and it broke
Speaker 1: all over the place. So he's like, all right, it's
Speaker 1: got to be a better way. And then he's like
Speaker 1: why can't I use the same thing in my car
Speaker 1: for amount that I use in my that I use
Speaker 1: like take it out of the car. And so he
Speaker 1: came up with this thing with the stickies and he
Speaker 1: had to go through a whole bunch of iterations. But
Speaker 1: this is this has become my absolute favorite tool in
Speaker 1: my back. So I carry this thing and I do
Speaker 1: not go anywhere without it because you can use it
Speaker 1: as a tripod, a stabilizer, so many different things. It
Speaker 1: is just really really good. So again about forty dollars,
Speaker 1: they had a code rich on tech. I don't know
Speaker 1: if it still works. Let me see, let me see
Speaker 1: if they have a place to put in my code.
Speaker 1: Proceed to check out. Let's see is there a place
Speaker 1: Let's see rich on tech apply and the code still
Speaker 1: works for ten percent off. It looks like, so there
Speaker 1: you go ten percent on tech. Anyway, that's what I
Speaker 1: would recommend, and check it out and have fun at Disneyland.
Speaker 1: I we're kind of we're like debating whether to go,
Speaker 1: Like we're like, do we think it's going to be good?
Speaker 1: Do we not think it's going to be fun? But
Speaker 1: let me know, let me know how it is. Christine,
Speaker 1: all Right, let's talk about this new government program that
Speaker 1: gives eligible households fifty dollars off their monthly internet bill.
Speaker 1: This is called the Emergency Broadband Benefit. You probably couldn't
Speaker 1: go anywhere this week without hearing about it. FCC set
Speaker 1: aside three point two billion dollars. All the major providers
Speaker 1: are participating at and T spectrum. They're pretty much all
Speaker 1: on board. And if you have low income, or if
Speaker 1: you lost your job or you somehow are participating in
Speaker 1: a federal program and some sort of low income program,
Speaker 1: you're probably eligible for this bill. And so that could
Speaker 1: be if you're you know, I think it's like near
Speaker 1: the poverty level. Oh yeah, income that is added below
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty five percent of the poverty level.
Speaker 1: So it's not even it could be a little bit above.
Speaker 1: But if you're in snap, Medicaid aid, the Lifeline program,
Speaker 1: you get free lunch, you know, all these different things,
Speaker 1: even if you experienced a loss of income in the
Speaker 1: past year since February twenty ninth, twenty twenty, and the
Speaker 1: income level is reasonably high ninety nine thousand for single filers,
Speaker 1: one hundred and ninety eight thousand for joint So again,
Speaker 1: if you feel like you might qualify for this program,
Speaker 1: or more importantly, since you're listening to this podcast, if
Speaker 1: you know someone that might be eligible, get them signed up.
Speaker 1: It's online. You go to the website get Emergency Broadband
Speaker 1: dot org. You can apply right online. And I got
Speaker 1: so many emails from people telling me after we did
Speaker 1: this story on TV that they took advantage of this
Speaker 1: and they got it, and I just felt so great,
Speaker 1: Like for my job, if I can get if I
Speaker 1: can just affect one person a day with some kind
Speaker 1: of help I give them, that is my ultimate goal.
Speaker 1: And I love that, like I love getting emails from
Speaker 1: people saying, rich, I heard about this program, I applied,
Speaker 1: I got it, and now you just save me fifty
Speaker 1: bucks a month and thank you, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 1: And so I just I love that, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's just it's one of those things where you feel
Speaker 1: good knowing that you've helped someone. And so I definitely
Speaker 1: helped a bunch of people with that. And it's not
Speaker 1: like I'm the only one talking about it. Believe me,
Speaker 1: everyone is, but not everyone listens to everyone. If they
Speaker 1: happen to listen to me and they heard it from me,
Speaker 1: then that's what matters. Right, I'll take that as the
Speaker 1: the win in my book. But anyway, that's the program again,
Speaker 1: is called Emergency Broadband Benefit. You got friends or family
Speaker 1: members that may be eligible, definitely tell them about it,
Speaker 1: help them through and get them on that program if
Speaker 1: they can, because the money is good until it runs out.
Speaker 1: So the money is good until it runs out, which
Speaker 1: means it could last you know, six months, could last
Speaker 1: a year depending on how many people sign up. Again,
Speaker 1: three point two billion dollars that's earmarked. Good luck with that.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to the next question. This is
Speaker 1: not so much a question, but this is something that
Speaker 1: I've always found really interesting. So the whole cell phone thing, right,
Speaker 1: so we know that the carriers gave up the on
Speaker 1: the whole idea of doing contracts. Right, So a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, when remember when the iPhone, it went
Speaker 1: from like you would pay one hundred ninety nine dollars
Speaker 1: every time you upgraded to like, oh wait, now I
Speaker 1: have to pay this full amount, like it's a seven
Speaker 1: hundred dollars phone. And everyone was like, so what what
Speaker 1: The phone was always seven hundred, but the carrier was
Speaker 1: subsidizing a portion of that in exchange for your two
Speaker 1: year contract. And then when they did away with the
Speaker 1: two year contracts, they just made the price of the
Speaker 1: phone they lowered. Okay, so they lowered the price of
Speaker 1: your monthly service. Then they made you pay for the phone,
Speaker 1: so it ended up being about the same every month.
Speaker 1: But it's just a different way of looking at it.
Speaker 1: So but they also got to advertise no more contracts,
Speaker 1: which is totally at this point kind of bogus. And
Speaker 1: here's why. So the reason I say this is because
Speaker 1: lots of these cell phone companies, like Okay, Verizon's the
Speaker 1: latest example. They're doing this program that says you broke
Speaker 1: your phone. So Verizon is breaking the rules, yay, And
Speaker 1: so if you have a damage phone or a cracked phone, whatever,
Speaker 1: you can still bring that phone to Verizon and you'll
Speaker 1: get up to one thousand dollars off a new phone.
Speaker 1: Sounds amazing, right, But here's what they're actually doing. And
Speaker 1: this is thanks to my friend Jim Lawson, who I
Speaker 1: talked about in the last podcast. I guess he's gonna
Speaker 1: get a mention in every show, but he told me
Speaker 1: that he upgraded his phone because T Mobile was doing
Speaker 1: something similar, and so he told me that he upgraded
Speaker 1: his phone and he got a new iPhone twelve Pro
Speaker 1: and I said, ooh, and he said, they gave me
Speaker 1: eight hundred and thirty dollars for his old iPhone ten S,
Speaker 1: which I thought, wow, that's that's like an extremely that's
Speaker 1: a lot of money for an old phone. And so
Speaker 1: here's how they did it, and this is what he
Speaker 1: confirmed to me. So he got a eight hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty dollars promotional credit U. The one time bill credit
Speaker 1: was two hundred and twenty two dollars and that was
Speaker 1: off your U let's see, off your after two bill cycles.
Speaker 1: So that to me is probably the amount that they're
Speaker 1: actually paying for that iPhone ten sy, maybe a little
Speaker 1: bit more. But then he gets another twenty five dollars
Speaker 1: and thirty four cents off his next twenty four bills,
Speaker 1: and that's six hundred and eight dollars plus two twenty
Speaker 1: two for a total of eight thirty. So what have
Speaker 1: we learned from this? We learned that this eight hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty dollars is actually just a different type of
Speaker 1: contract for the next twenty four months. Now, Jim is
Speaker 1: not going anywhere, he said, I'm sticking with T Mobile.
Speaker 1: I like him. Whatever people that go to Verizon, and
Speaker 1: I looked at the fine print on the Verizon deal,
Speaker 1: same thing. Here we go, trade in slash, Promo credits
Speaker 1: applied over twenty four months. Promo credit ends if eligibility
Speaker 1: requirements are no longer met. So what does this tell
Speaker 1: us all these carriers are doing with these fancy, big, big,
Speaker 1: big big trade in numbers, is they are just moving
Speaker 1: the making it so that you are locked in for
Speaker 1: twenty four months. And you might say, rich, big deal.
Speaker 1: I mean I'm gonna be anyway. Well, I think it
Speaker 1: is a big deal because I just did a segment
Speaker 1: on cheap cell phone plans and I was researching some
Speaker 1: of these really inexpensive plans, and yeah, you know a
Speaker 1: lot of us on these mainstream you know, Verizon, T Mobile,
Speaker 1: AT and T. There's only three of them now here
Speaker 1: in the US. Uh. You know those plans are like
Speaker 1: ninety bucks a month for an unlimited Not everyone needs unlimited. Uh,
Speaker 1: but if you're on a plan and you've got your
Speaker 1: phone and you just pay your bill and it's one
Speaker 1: hundred and ten bucks a month or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: you just kind of feel like Okay, that's that's how
Speaker 1: much I pay. But doing research for these cheap phone plans,
Speaker 1: and I know firsthand, because you know I have. I've
Speaker 1: been testing this one called us US Mobile. I've already
Speaker 1: spoken about my mom. She's on Mint Mobile. I mean
Speaker 1: she's paying uh, it's like unlimited for thirty dollars a month.
Speaker 1: Now she pays UH for the fifteen gigabyte plan. It's
Speaker 1: like two fifty two. I think we just paid two
Speaker 1: sixty five for the year, two hundred and sixty five
Speaker 1: dollars for the year of service. And she just can't
Speaker 1: imagine paying any more than that because she's been paying
Speaker 1: it for three years and she just thinks it's amazing.
Speaker 1: And so it's again, these twenty four month lock in
Speaker 1: things kind of just keep you from moving on to
Speaker 1: a different carrier. And that's what I don't like. But look,
Speaker 1: I get it. You know, everyone kind of you know,
Speaker 1: is comfortable with what they do in a different way.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to give you the knowledge so that
Speaker 1: you are prepared when it comes time to make one
Speaker 1: of these decisions. I'm not saying what you need to
Speaker 1: do or whether it's right or wrong. I'm just giving
Speaker 1: you the knowledge, so you have all the information so
Speaker 1: before you say, oh yeah, I'll take eight thirty for
Speaker 1: my phone and then you know, oh wait, but that's
Speaker 1: gonna lock me in for two years, which means I
Speaker 1: can't ever go to a different carrier for two years. Like,
Speaker 1: oh okay, I better like this. You have to see
Speaker 1: what your opportunity cost is to stick with that carrier
Speaker 1: for two years. Anyway, thank you Jim for screenshotting the
Speaker 1: order process and sending it to me. I do appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I love getting little insights into things like that because
Speaker 1: it just really is fascinating to just you know, it's
Speaker 1: all about just building up this knowledge right as a consumer,
Speaker 1: just understanding how things work. And again I'm not judging
Speaker 1: you either way. I'm not passing judgment on what these
Speaker 1: carriers are doing. I'm just getting letting you know, like,
Speaker 1: this is how things work. It's not just eight hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty dollars for free. There is a purpose why
Speaker 1: they offer that as a promotion. Tesla this week stopped
Speaker 1: accepting bitcoin, and woo, the bitcoin bitcoin price went a
Speaker 1: little wild. Huh. Bitcoin is so fascinating to me because
Speaker 1: here it is this thing that's supposed to be like
Speaker 1: the future of money, cryptocurrency, but yet it's so volatile
Speaker 1: that it's it's just how do you know? You put
Speaker 1: it in a thousand bucks and next thing you know,
Speaker 1: it's down to you know, eight hundred the next day
Speaker 1: when you wake up, and the next day you have
Speaker 1: twelve hundred in your wallet, and the next day you're
Speaker 1: a bitcoin millionaire. So it's like, how do you really know?
Speaker 1: Like do you ever want to spend this money? Like
Speaker 1: I always wonder like why would you ever spend bitcoin
Speaker 1: when it goes up in value? Is it going to
Speaker 1: stop going up in value eventually? Perhaps? But this was
Speaker 1: a big blow to bitcoin when Elon Musk said on
Speaker 1: a tweet that, you know what, we can't accept bitcoin
Speaker 1: anymore because this stuff is just too expensive or too
Speaker 1: taxing on the government, on the government, on the environment.
Speaker 1: And you know the thing about bitcoin that's uh the
Speaker 1: system that they use to kind of verify it, which
Speaker 1: is called blockchain, it's it's completely independent, which is so amazing.
Speaker 1: That's what's so No bank owns it, no one country
Speaker 1: owns it, no one person owns it. It's all just
Speaker 1: kind of like exists out there, kind of like the Internet,
Speaker 1: but the method that is used to kind of qualify
Speaker 1: all these transactions takes a lot of computing power, and
Speaker 1: so that's what he took issue with, saying that, you know,
Speaker 1: like somewhere somewhere, somehow coal is being shoved into an
Speaker 1: oven to create the energy necessary to power the blockchain.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of the bottom line. So until the
Speaker 1: entire blockchain is like powered by solar, which maybe it
Speaker 1: will be the solar panels from from Elon's company, and
Speaker 1: maybe it'll be the what's the other thing he has?
Speaker 1: This is the solar wall, the power the Tesla power wall.
Speaker 1: You know, until it's all powered by that, you know,
Speaker 1: he's just not gonna accept it. So bitcoin price went
Speaker 1: way down. And again this is a consumer podcast, so
Speaker 1: I don't you know, I'm not telling you buy bitcoin
Speaker 1: or not or invest in it or whatever. But these
Speaker 1: are the things that consumers are talking about. Like everyday
Speaker 1: people are like, are you in doge coin? Are you
Speaker 1: in bitcoin? Are you buying it? What do you think
Speaker 1: of it? Do you think it's the future. So these
Speaker 1: are the these things that like used to be super
Speaker 1: duper nerdy have percolated and bubbled up to the surface
Speaker 1: of just like party conversation, you know, just like everyday
Speaker 1: people that are hanging out with their friends are talking
Speaker 1: about how much dose cooin they have, or how much
Speaker 1: Bitcoin they have, or whether they're gonna sell or whether
Speaker 1: they're gonna keep it. So we'll see. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is just something to follow. I was also following the
Speaker 1: whole I don't have any doze coin, but I was
Speaker 1: following the the the whole situation on Saturday Night Live
Speaker 1: when when Elon was hosting and people were just literally,
Speaker 1: I mean the YouTube streams that I was on was
Speaker 1: literally a chart of dosee coin, which is another type
Speaker 1: of cryptocurrency. You've probably heard of it. It's one with
Speaker 1: a friendly little dog face and it's it sells for
Speaker 1: like under a dollar. So at one point it was
Speaker 1: like a couple pennies. It went up to like I
Speaker 1: think the top I saw it was like seventy five
Speaker 1: cents or maybe sixty seven cents whatever it was. But
Speaker 1: if you bought it at ten cents, that's a huge increase, right,
Speaker 1: And so all these people were sitting there watching Saturday
Speaker 1: Night Live thinking that when Elon would mention dosee coin
Speaker 1: on TV boom, the price would pop, they could sell
Speaker 1: and they're next thing to another doze coin millionaire. That did
Speaker 1: not happen. In fact, the price went down really really bad.
Speaker 1: I mean it went I don't think it's recovered. And
Speaker 1: so that didn't really work out, and it was it
Speaker 1: was kind of funny to watch. I was actually going
Speaker 1: to purchase some just you know, it's kind of like
Speaker 1: a it's kind of like gambling. It's like you've got
Speaker 1: to be in it to win it. It's just kind
Speaker 1: of fun. And I was going to purchase, you know,
Speaker 1: like I don't know one hundred who knows. And I
Speaker 1: went to robin Hood, which I have the app. I
Speaker 1: don't I don't have anything in the app, but I
Speaker 1: just you know, I signed up when I did a
Speaker 1: story on it many many years ago, so I still
Speaker 1: had an account. My login worked. Then when I went
Speaker 1: to buy it, it was like, oh, you have to verify
Speaker 1: your bank account. I was like, oh, and I did it,
Speaker 1: but it was like we need two to three days
Speaker 1: to do that, and that did not happen in time
Speaker 1: for the for the giant fall of dose coins. So
Speaker 1: I guess it worked out in my benefit because I
Speaker 1: did not lose a whole bunch of money on the doge.
Speaker 1: All Right, Steve asks, Hey, Rich, what's your recommendation for
Speaker 1: a video download software for a Mac to pull videos
Speaker 1: off websites like YouTube. There seems to be a lot
Speaker 1: of shady ones out there that I'm afraid to load
Speaker 1: onto my Mac. Steve. All right, Steve, I will tell
Speaker 1: you the answer to this, but with the idea that
Speaker 1: you know, this is a very legitimate app. It's my favorite.
Speaker 1: It works fantastically. In fact, once I tell you the
Speaker 1: name of this company, all of their software is really
Speaker 1: really spectacular and you will just be amazed at it.
Speaker 1: But the one that I like is called YouTube Converter two.
Speaker 1: It's by soft O Reno so soft O r I
Speaker 1: n O, and they make a bunch of products that
Speaker 1: are just really smart products. So they have two in
Speaker 1: particular that I really like. Number one is called Walter
Speaker 1: Pro w A L t R pro And what that
Speaker 1: does is you plug in your iPhone and you can
Speaker 1: drag and drop any file you want onto your iPhone
Speaker 1: and it's filed away. Now, with the advent of iCloud,
Speaker 1: it's a little bit easier to kind of put documents
Speaker 1: and things on your phone. So you can just drag
Speaker 1: them from your computer onto iCloud and you know iCloud
Speaker 1: drive and it's on your phone and you can access
Speaker 1: them through the files app. But music, MP three's videos,
Speaker 1: you know, home video, whatever, you can put it all
Speaker 1: on this app and it will just go to your iPhone.
Speaker 1: Now that's not what you asked. You asked for the
Speaker 1: ute tube pulling. Now, I can't recommend that you take
Speaker 1: videos off of YouTube, right unless there is a legitimate reason.
Speaker 1: Perhaps it's the video that you uploaded and it's your
Speaker 1: personal video and you want to make a backup of it.
Speaker 1: That's one way you could do it is with this app.
Speaker 1: But what you do is your progative. I'm just telling
Speaker 1: you what's out there and what is really good. And
Speaker 1: this program has been out for a long time. It's great,
Speaker 1: it's legitimate, it's it really works well. It's called soft
Speaker 1: a Reno YouTube Converter two. And you're not going to
Speaker 1: get it for free. By the way, it is going
Speaker 1: to be twenty dollars oh yearly. Now wow, okay, so
Speaker 1: it's twenty dollars a year now, But you know that's
Speaker 1: just everything has become a recurring subscription it's kind of interesting.
Speaker 1: Even with software, I think it's pretty rare to find
Speaker 1: any app these days that you purchase that is an
Speaker 1: outright purchase, except for my Final Cut still going strong.
Speaker 1: I purchased Final Cut so many years ago. I think
Speaker 1: it was two hundred and ninety nine dollars, and of
Speaker 1: course at the time, you know, I was a struggling
Speaker 1: student or whatever, maybe my first job, and oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: two hundred and ninety nine dollars was such a leap.
Speaker 1: But I needed it, and I you know, cobbled together
Speaker 1: the funds I bought it, and I got to say,
Speaker 1: it's been it's been fantastic ever since. I have not
Speaker 1: paid for it again. I've installed it on all my machines,
Speaker 1: or I should say, all my computers that I get,
Speaker 1: like every time I get a new computer. It installs
Speaker 1: just fine, It gets updates, it keeps getting updates. So Apple,
Speaker 1: thank you for your continued service on Final Cut pro.
Speaker 1: It has just been the most amazing thing I've ever purchased. Now,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, you know Premiere, you know, if
Speaker 1: you want to use that, which thankfully my company pays for,
Speaker 1: but they you know, that's like you got I don't
Speaker 1: think you can buy that outright anymore. I might be wrong,
Speaker 1: but I think almost every piece of software at this
Speaker 1: point you have to purchase on a yearly basis or
Speaker 1: some sort of recurring thing. And you know, that's the
Speaker 1: the idea is these recurring subscriptions. Everyone wants them, and
Speaker 1: who wouldn't. I mean, it's so lucrative. You know, these
Speaker 1: people that sold you know, these ninety nine cent apps.
Speaker 1: It's like, Okay, how can we add something in that's
Speaker 1: just you know, a little bit more, a little bit
Speaker 1: more recurring than just ninety nine cents. So there you go, Steve,
Speaker 1: that's the answer. Amazon introduced new Echo Show devices. They've
Speaker 1: got the new Echo Show eight, they've got the Echo
Speaker 1: Show five, and an Echo Show for kids. So the
Speaker 1: main thing about these these new Echo Shows is that
Speaker 1: the cameras are better for better video calling. And the
Speaker 1: cameras also digital pan and zoom zoom, so that means
Speaker 1: it kind of follows you around. So a lot of
Speaker 1: these cameras we've seen the first time I saw this
Speaker 1: was actually was it Facebook or was it Google? Either
Speaker 1: the Facebook portal or the Google Nest Hub. Max was
Speaker 1: the first one to do this, where the camera kind
Speaker 1: of follows you around. So for me, if I'm cooking
Speaker 1: in the kitchen, I have my mom on the other end,
Speaker 1: and you know, she can see kind of like the
Speaker 1: camera follows me around as I'm moving around. So I'm cooking,
Speaker 1: She's like, you're always cooking? Yeah, ring a pandemic. I
Speaker 1: was always cooking. I still am. But yeah, so these
Speaker 1: these are you know the thing I take issue with
Speaker 1: all of these devices. And I was just in the
Speaker 1: Amazon four Star store yesterday. I had to return something,
Speaker 1: and you know, they gave me a ten percent off
Speaker 1: coupon for any purchase that day, and I was like
Speaker 1: literally looking through the store for something to spend my
Speaker 1: money on. And I, you know, I was sitting there,
Speaker 1: I'm like, why am I going to buy something that
Speaker 1: I don't need? Right? And I had my eye on
Speaker 1: like an Echo Show five. I had my eye on
Speaker 1: the Echo Show ten. I had my eye on some
Speaker 1: stuff from Ring and then just some random assorted stuff.
Speaker 1: But I ended up not getting anything. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna walk out, and so I did. I
Speaker 1: gave up the ten percent, but I was playing around
Speaker 1: a little bit with the I think it was the
Speaker 1: old Echo Show five, which they had for a pretty
Speaker 1: good deal. I think it was like fifty bucks forty
Speaker 1: five dollars, and you know, you tap it and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, is this thing working? And it's like
Speaker 1: the delay on the screen like when you like. It's
Speaker 1: just these things seem to be very underpowered, and I
Speaker 1: don't really understand why. You know, I've used them from
Speaker 1: you know, basically it's just Google and Amazon. And I'll
Speaker 1: be honest, I don't have an Echo Show. I've never
Speaker 1: actually had one in my place, so maybe it was
Speaker 1: just a fluke, but I just get the impression that
Speaker 1: these things are a little bit more underpowered than they
Speaker 1: need to be. And I feel like that within the
Speaker 1: Google Nest tub Max. I feel like that with the
Speaker 1: Google Nest Hub. It's just like the delay from when
Speaker 1: you swipe it or tap it is just like a
Speaker 1: little bit. It's like kind of like a cheaper Android phone.
Speaker 1: You know, it doesn't responds as beautifully as the iPhone does.
Speaker 1: Like the iPhone and the OnePlus devices, you touch them
Speaker 1: and they're like boom, instant, instant. Everything's so fast and fluid.
Speaker 1: But the rest of the phones that I test are
Speaker 1: just a little bit like you're like, did I touch?
Speaker 1: Did I did? I? Wait? Hold, did I touch that?
Speaker 1: Did I? Okay, yeah I did? Because then it responds.
Speaker 1: So the Echo Show eight is uh has a thirteen
Speaker 1: megapixel wide angle camera with this is a eight inch
Speaker 1: HD screen. It's got a built in shutter. It Oh,
Speaker 1: it has a new process or a new octacore processor.
Speaker 1: So there we go. Dual stereo speaker. So maybe I
Speaker 1: should go with the Echo Show eight and the camera
Speaker 1: pans and zooms when you're on calls. That's one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty nine dollars. My advice with any Amazon product
Speaker 1: is to always always wait for them to go on sale.
Speaker 1: The Amazon Amazon branded devices always go on sale no
Speaker 1: matter what. In fact, if you have an Amazon four
Speaker 1: Star store near you or whatever they call me, yeah
Speaker 1: Amazon Books, Amazon four Star, go visit the store because
Speaker 1: often I've seen in the store the prices are considerably
Speaker 1: less than the price you would pay online. And they
Speaker 1: do it on purpose because they want to get you
Speaker 1: in there and they say, oh wow, this has cool deals,
Speaker 1: like they don't want to make it like, oh, why
Speaker 1: wouldn't I just shop on Amazon? Well, the reason to
Speaker 1: come into the store is because they have deals that
Speaker 1: are not available anywhere else. So in fact, when I
Speaker 1: went there to look at the Amazon Echo Show ten,
Speaker 1: it was on sale for one hundred and ninety nine
Speaker 1: dollars and I was like, wait, that's better than the
Speaker 1: website for two point fifteen. They said, yeah, it's an
Speaker 1: in store deal, and sure enough, that was the only price.
Speaker 1: Like when I went back home, you couldn't get that deal. Now.
Speaker 1: I think the Echo Show went on sale for one
Speaker 1: ninety nine at some point on the website. But again,
Speaker 1: you know, set up some sort of alert to get
Speaker 1: an alert on these devices, either using honey or camel,
Speaker 1: camel camel, whatever you want to do, but just get it.
Speaker 1: Get an alert that tells you when these things go
Speaker 1: on sale. And that's when you buy ring products too,
Speaker 1: because those will often go on sale. So any Amazon stuff.
Speaker 1: Echo Show five is eighty five bucks, and it's got
Speaker 1: a five point five inch display, and it's got a
Speaker 1: bunch of different colors charcoal, glacier white, and deep sea blue,
Speaker 1: and it has an upgraded HD camera with double the pixels.
Speaker 1: So I and then the kids won is ninety five bucks.
Speaker 1: And that comes to the two year worry free guarantee.
Speaker 1: And these are available in it looks like June. But
Speaker 1: here's the thing with all this stuff, So I've been
Speaker 1: really testing out the you know, the A word al
Speaker 1: Exa versus Google and all their stuff versus Apple. And
Speaker 1: here's my thoughts. Apple is of course like the slickest
Speaker 1: of all three, right, but there's little little design things
Speaker 1: that I don't like. And I feel like their home
Speaker 1: app is like kind of confusing because it's just like
Speaker 1: it's a lot like and you have to like hard
Speaker 1: press to get certain features, and like a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff is like hidden and just not like you could
Speaker 1: tell there's a lot to go there. Google I'm so
Speaker 1: used to because that's the one that I use and
Speaker 1: I have used for many years, and I just assumed
Speaker 1: it was the best. But then I started playing with
Speaker 1: the Amazon stuff and I'm like, wait a second. The app.
Speaker 1: Al Exa app is like very full featured, especially when
Speaker 1: it comes to things like creating routines. I think it's
Speaker 1: very friendly, and I'm actually now tempted to switch my
Speaker 1: entire house over to al Exa for all the home
Speaker 1: stuff because I feel like I'm kind of missing out.
Speaker 1: Like I tried to do a routine on Google, and
Speaker 1: it's it's just horrible. It doesn't work half the time.
Speaker 1: It's like it's just weird, Like I they don't you
Speaker 1: have to like spell out commands, whereas with like Alexa.
Speaker 1: Sorry now I said it. But the way it works
Speaker 1: on the Echo or whatever the Amazon app is that
Speaker 1: you just literally like pick and choose almost like puzzle pieces,
Speaker 1: you like pop them into your routine and it's got
Speaker 1: like everything listed. That's the way it should be because
Speaker 1: that's smart. But you know that's I don't know. So
Speaker 1: I will say I don't know if I'm gonna switch today,
Speaker 1: but I'm moving in that direction becausehen I first tested
Speaker 1: out you know Who, the response was not as good
Speaker 1: as Google. Like Google gets like the commands, like nails
Speaker 1: them when it comes to voice commands. But it's just
Speaker 1: the automations I find are just really lacking on Google.
Speaker 1: And maybe it's just I hung out with my friend
Speaker 1: Dave Malcoff, who I always say he is nerdier than
Speaker 1: me in a good way, and he just inspires me
Speaker 1: to be nerdier because he's like, oh, I've got my
Speaker 1: whole house. Everything is automated with with you know who,
Speaker 1: and you know I say I say I'm leaving and
Speaker 1: it does this. And I say I'm home and it
Speaker 1: does this. And every room has a you know, automatic light.
Speaker 1: So if the kids leave the lights on, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: why am I not doing this? Like I'm literally I've
Speaker 1: I've stalled on my home smart home improvements over the
Speaker 1: past like three years, Like I just stopped. I don't
Speaker 1: know why. Like I'm in my office in my kids room,
Speaker 1: and my kids room is a great example. They have
Speaker 1: two smart lights and and a Google Home And why
Speaker 1: every night I say, change the lights and candle light
Speaker 1: when I'm reading to them, and then we change them
Speaker 1: to bright white during the day. But I'm like, Number one,
Speaker 1: that could be automated. Number two, why don't I have
Speaker 1: a smart switch in there that would notice when they
Speaker 1: leave the room and of course they inevitably leave the
Speaker 1: lights on, and it would just turn the lights off. Now, yes,
Speaker 1: I will still teach my kids that they should turn
Speaker 1: off the lights when they leave the room, but honestly,
Speaker 1: like we're getting to this place in the world where
Speaker 1: you really don't have to turn off lights anywhere. You
Speaker 1: go to bathroom and the lights turn on, the water
Speaker 1: turns on, the soap automatically dispenses. So I get it.
Speaker 1: These classic things of like turn off the light when
Speaker 1: you leave the room, but like, in the future, we
Speaker 1: probably won't have to do that because these lights are
Speaker 1: smart enough. Even with the Amazon or the Apple stuff.
Speaker 1: I noticed there's some sort of detector that tells when
Speaker 1: people leave the room. I don't know where it's getting
Speaker 1: that data from. I got to figure it out, but
Speaker 1: it's like, Oh, when the last person leaves the room,
Speaker 1: do you want us to turn everything off? That's an
Speaker 1: option inside the Apple HomeKit. I'm like, wait, where are
Speaker 1: you getting that from? Hold on, how do you know
Speaker 1: when the last person leaves the room? Like are you listening?
Speaker 1: Is there some sort of motion sensor? And my fillips
Speaker 1: you hub like, because I think it's getting it from that,
Speaker 1: but I'm just not sure what was I talking about? Oh,
Speaker 1: the Amazon stuff. So anyway, this is the stuff that
Speaker 1: keeps me up at night. If you've listened to this podcast,
Speaker 1: you know that the stuff that percolates in my brain
Speaker 1: is always just like, I really hate the idea that
Speaker 1: these tech companies are trying to ilo us into their
Speaker 1: little corners. I think we're gonna see that happening less
Speaker 1: and less even though it's it's this is what I
Speaker 1: find interesting. A lot of these light bulbs that you
Speaker 1: purchase even though they say like home Kit or Google
Speaker 1: Assistant or you know, you know who compatible. I don't
Speaker 1: want to say her name because she pops up easily.
Speaker 1: A lot of them just work with each other without
Speaker 1: really saying it like they they A lot of them
Speaker 1: just are interchangeable, and I think people are getting hip
Speaker 1: to that. But now they came up with this alliance Google,
Speaker 1: Apple and Amazon that they're going to start making stuff
Speaker 1: that all works together, which I think is a win
Speaker 1: for consumers because you know, if something better comes along,
Speaker 1: kind of like I was talking with the cell phone stuff.
Speaker 1: You want to be able to switch and you want
Speaker 1: to be able to, you know, be fluid and and
Speaker 1: move on. All right, Next question from Laura. She says, Hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: I really enjoy your advice. I have a Fitbit watch
Speaker 1: that I enjoy, but then I have apps on my
Speaker 1: phone that only use the iOS data. What is the
Speaker 1: best and affordable way to get my fitbit data on
Speaker 1: my iOS on a continuous basis. The apps I like
Speaker 1: or Map, my run and Pacer I use the Fippit
Speaker 1: more for sleeping sleep monitoring. While I'm running, I carry
Speaker 1: my phone with me for those two apps. Please help.
Speaker 1: Thanks Laura, Laura, this is a great question and it's
Speaker 1: one that is so Fippit is kind of one of
Speaker 1: the holdouts with So what you're talking about is called
Speaker 1: Apple Health, and so if an app is made, you know,
Speaker 1: a fitness app on the iOS ecosystem, basically feeds data
Speaker 1: into Apple Health. And the idea is that Apple Health
Speaker 1: is kind of like this one stop shop to see
Speaker 1: all of your health related data, no matter which app
Speaker 1: it came from. So it can come from the workout
Speaker 1: app built into the iPhone or the Apple Watch rather
Speaker 1: I guess both, or it can come from you know,
Speaker 1: Sweat with Kla. Is that the is that the app
Speaker 1: Sweat with Kayla? Yeah, Sweat with Kla. And then there's like,
Speaker 1: you know, there's so many fitness apps, right, and so
Speaker 1: they all feed you know, Peloton, they all feed into
Speaker 1: the Apple the health app using what's called HealthKit, but
Speaker 1: Fitbit does not. So how can you get around this
Speaker 1: to get all your stuff in one place? What I
Speaker 1: would do is maybe just ditch Apple Health and switch
Speaker 1: over to Google Google Fit and Google Fit will work
Speaker 1: with fitbit. And the question is, well, it should actually
Speaker 1: import data from on my phone. It does. It imports
Speaker 1: the data from from Apple Health. So let me give
Speaker 1: you the scenario. Map my run and Pacer feed into
Speaker 1: Apple Health. They might also feed in directly to Google Fit.
Speaker 1: You can. Let's let's let me just do a quick
Speaker 1: search and see. So map my run google Fit. Let's
Speaker 1: see if it works with it. Yes, it does. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you can you can do map my run directly
Speaker 1: into Google fit. And what's the other one. Pay I'm
Speaker 1: guessing Pacer goes into Google Fit. Let's see, Pacer goes
Speaker 1: into Google Fit. But that's with Pacer, Yeah, it might
Speaker 1: be just yeah, so you can feed all of these
Speaker 1: apps into Google Fit, and then your fitbit will also
Speaker 1: go into Google Fit. Now you might be saying, rich,
Speaker 1: I have an iPhone. I just said, I have an iPhone.
Speaker 1: Why are you telling me about Google Fit? Well, google
Speaker 1: Fit works on the iPhone, I know, surprise, surprise. So
Speaker 1: I installed it on my iPhone when I was testing
Speaker 1: the one plus watch and I've left it on there.
Speaker 1: And it's actually kind of cool because I kind of
Speaker 1: like the way that they slice and dice your information.
Speaker 1: So once you have all this information flowing into the
Speaker 1: google Fit app, it's actually pretty it. It presents it
Speaker 1: in a nice manner and it also gives you insights
Speaker 1: that I think are are pretty cool. Now, the Apple
Speaker 1: Health app is pretty good, but I just I think
Speaker 1: that if you're wanting your sleep and you want the
Speaker 1: maps of the runs and the pacer stuff all in
Speaker 1: one place, you got to go with google Fit download
Speaker 1: at your phone, connect all the apps or google Fit.
Speaker 1: If these if map my run and pacer on iOS
Speaker 1: do not feed directly into google Fit, which they may not,
Speaker 1: that might just be an Android feature. You can just
Speaker 1: use the use them to keep talking to Apple Health
Speaker 1: and then google Fit will read the data from Apple Health.
Speaker 1: So again it's kind of like an aggregator, and that's
Speaker 1: what these apps were meant to be, and so is
Speaker 1: the Apple app. But that's the way I would do
Speaker 1: it and see if it'll work. And the sleep monitoring
Speaker 1: all fitbit is pretty good, so that should be pretty
Speaker 1: nice to see inside of the Google Fit app. All right,
Speaker 1: I thought this was pretty cool. We did a story
Speaker 1: with this company called Deep Sentinel, and let me just
Speaker 1: make sure I didn't talk about this on my last podcast.
Speaker 1: I don't think I did, but I just want to
Speaker 1: be sure because let's see, did I talk about it? No?
Speaker 1: I did not. Okay, So we did a story with
Speaker 1: this security system called deep Sentinel, and I just thought
Speaker 1: this was the coolest, smartest idea ever. It's very expensive,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you upfront, but once you see these cameras,
Speaker 1: you're like, wow, why doesn't every camera have that? So
Speaker 1: the guy who started this company is one of the
Speaker 1: co founders of redfin and I'm always amazed when these
Speaker 1: people meet up with me. By the way I talked earlier,
Speaker 1: how you know, the guy with tentacle, how they'll just
Speaker 1: you know, but some people actually fly in to like
Speaker 1: meet with Rich DeMuro to like talk about their stuff,
Speaker 1: and I'm always impressed when they do that. So thank
Speaker 1: you when you decide to do that. I know I'm
Speaker 1: local news, but you know, it's kind of cool when
Speaker 1: you when you take things seriously enough that you don't
Speaker 1: mind flying in. So David, you know, co founder of Redfinn.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he made a bazillion dollars starting that company.
Speaker 1: He was the chief technical officer. So he was telling
Speaker 1: me some of the things that they came up with
Speaker 1: at Redfinn that are still like their patents, that are
Speaker 1: just phenomenal when it comes to like the way you
Speaker 1: browse houses. And the main thing he was telling me
Speaker 1: is they came up with the idea of houses and
Speaker 1: they're pricing like laid out on a map like nobody
Speaker 1: had ever done that before. We can just roll down
Speaker 1: a street and see every house lined up and see
Speaker 1: how much each one of those homes either is selling
Speaker 1: for or costs or is valued at. And I just
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just like little things like that we
Speaker 1: take for granted now that these people had to invent
Speaker 1: back in the day and come up with and he
Speaker 1: was one of them, so he did really well there anyway,
Speaker 1: So now he does this thing called Deep Sentinel. We
Speaker 1: met up and he showed me these cameras on a
Speaker 1: house here in La and the cameras come with a
Speaker 1: speaker on top and then the also there's AI. So
Speaker 1: there's a box in your house that's sort of like
Speaker 1: a little computer box that the cameras feed into. That
Speaker 1: box is programmed with an algorithm that looks for any
Speaker 1: signs of trouble. And he wouldn't tell me exactly what
Speaker 1: it looks for. I'm sure that's proprietary with their algorithm,
Speaker 1: and who really knows what a sign of trouble is, Like,
Speaker 1: I mean, me running around the backyard with my kids.
Speaker 1: Like do they think that that looks like trouble? It
Speaker 1: could be. So what happens is when the AI senses trouble,
Speaker 1: it flicks the feed from your house up to a
Speaker 1: virtual guard at station somewhere in you somewhere in the US.
Speaker 1: Like they're I don't know if they're working from home
Speaker 1: or some sort of office or whatever, but they start
Speaker 1: seeing the feed from your house and they kind of
Speaker 1: analyze with their human eyes what's going on. So if
Speaker 1: they see me just running with the kids, okay, fine,
Speaker 1: But if they see a guy with a crowbar at
Speaker 1: the edge of the house, they're like, hey, what's going on?
Speaker 1: And they can immediately speak through the microphone on the
Speaker 1: camera on the speaker on the camera and question people
Speaker 1: talk to them do whatever. Now, you might say, well,
Speaker 1: rich a big deal. It's a security like what are
Speaker 1: they gonna do. They're gonna stop. Well, if you're at
Speaker 1: someone's house and someone yells out through the speaker saying, hey,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? Here, you're gonna run. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna keep doing what you're doing. Chances are right.
Speaker 1: So he told me that they're stopping crimes on a
Speaker 1: daily basis. I just when I think about this feature,
Speaker 1: it's just like wow, it's really like all these other
Speaker 1: security cameras I've talked about over the years now seem
Speaker 1: like they are child's play compared to this one, because
Speaker 1: it comes with a guard. Like, imagine that your cameras
Speaker 1: are monitored, Like that's so cool. They only do outside
Speaker 1: for security reasons. They don't monitor inside cameras. A three pack,
Speaker 1: like a starter pack, is like seven hundred dollars for
Speaker 1: the three cameras, and then it's one hundred dollars a
Speaker 1: month for monitoring, which I know sounds super expensive, but
Speaker 1: even like if you're paying you know some of the
Speaker 1: ADT plans like fifty five sixty bucks a month, and
Speaker 1: you know that of course includes equipment a lot of times.
Speaker 1: But the reality is the guy I talked to you
Speaker 1: that had this said, look, it's it's like the price
Speaker 1: you pay, it's like you feel better, you feel like
Speaker 1: your family's safe. And I really like, this has really
Speaker 1: gotten to me because I love these cameras. I love
Speaker 1: all the Ring cameras and stuff. But I feel like,
Speaker 1: mark my words, either Ring will purchase this company or
Speaker 1: this will be built into more cameras in the future.
Speaker 1: Like this, this has to be a feature of these cameras,
Speaker 1: and it will probably be an add on or a
Speaker 1: premium feature. Or I could even see Deep Sentinel being
Speaker 1: an add on to a Ring like you Ring my
Speaker 1: contract or I don't who knows or whys or one
Speaker 1: of these camera companies or any of them. Like imagine
Speaker 1: that you could just plug this service into any camera
Speaker 1: that you get. Now, I think there's some technical issues
Speaker 1: there because this camera has to feed into the AI first,
Speaker 1: because the AI is really what gets the trigger. So
Speaker 1: someone's not watching the camera all the time because that
Speaker 1: would be prohibitively expensive. So again this is where David
Speaker 1: Smarts come in, Like he thought of, Okay, well, it's
Speaker 1: too expensive to have humans sitting there watching thousands of
Speaker 1: cameras across America at any good time. You can't even
Speaker 1: do that. But what if we had AI watching those cameras,
Speaker 1: which could be doing it twenty four to seven and
Speaker 1: then every time it senses a problem, it flips that
Speaker 1: feed up to a human. I mean, ah, this is
Speaker 1: why I love this stuff. Just brilliant. So again expensive
Speaker 1: right now, but I think that this is a really
Speaker 1: really fascinating concept, and I think we're going to see
Speaker 1: more of this type of thing. All right, let's see
Speaker 1: good Morning Rich if you listen to the podcast I
Speaker 1: always joke about. Good Morning, Phil says, my mom has
Speaker 1: Windows ten and I'm still on Windows seven? Is this
Speaker 1: still possible for me to log into my mom's computer
Speaker 1: with minimal steps? At many times I show her how
Speaker 1: to log into her laptop, she still needs my remote assistance.
Speaker 1: She even has trouble just logging into the computer with
Speaker 1: her four digit password. I currently use the free version
Speaker 1: of Team Viewer, but sometimes she has trouble finding the
Speaker 1: ID and password to successfully connect. There's got to be
Speaker 1: others like me with elderly parents who need remote assistance.
Speaker 1: Your recommendation is appreciated. Love all your techie content, respectfully,
Speaker 1: Phil and Lyn. Great question. It's funny. This is how
Speaker 1: me and my brother log into my mom's computer when
Speaker 1: we need to give her tech support. And it's worked
Speaker 1: out pretty well. And my mom is not very techy.
Speaker 1: I talk about her often on the show. But she's
Speaker 1: a tech trooper and she's willing to participate in any
Speaker 1: tech that we will sort of you know, set her
Speaker 1: up with like she's not like no no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no. Like so my brother set her up a
Speaker 1: Team viewer and you know, he uses it. I use
Speaker 1: it and it's fantastic. But yes, there's two steps involved.
Speaker 1: Number one, computer has to be on. Number two, she
Speaker 1: probably has to be logged in. We haven't, I don't.
Speaker 1: I think we made it so that she doesn't really
Speaker 1: have a log in, like it just stays on all
Speaker 1: the time. And then number three, you need the password
Speaker 1: and the your ID. Now the idea is saved from
Speaker 1: session to session. The password is what changes. And so
Speaker 1: you're right, they do need to locate the password. Now.
Speaker 1: In the past, my mom has said, oh I can't
Speaker 1: find the password. Where'd it go? It's usually she doesn't
Speaker 1: call it the tray, the system tray, but that's where
Speaker 1: it lives. And maybe Team Viewer like shut down or something,
Speaker 1: so it's not there or it kind of went behind,
Speaker 1: you know how. Sometimes Windows will consolidate the stuff in
Speaker 1: the system tray. Sometimes it does that and you have
Speaker 1: to expand it. But there's never been a problem, like
Speaker 1: she's always been able to find it. Now when it
Speaker 1: comes to the logging into the computer with her four
Speaker 1: digit password, I would suggest changing that if you can
Speaker 1: to the Windows Hello, if you can do it with
Speaker 1: her face, like if she can just sit in front
Speaker 1: of the computer and log in with the face, that
Speaker 1: might help where it recognizes you and just logs in. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: the Team Viewer, I know you don't want to hear this,
Speaker 1: but you can. I think the trick is Team Viewer
Speaker 1: for free. It changes the password every time, of course
Speaker 1: because they don't want people to get used to it.
Speaker 1: But I think if you pay for team Viewer, the
Speaker 1: password can stay the same. So you might consider maybe
Speaker 1: purchasing a subscription to team Viewer and you can attack
Speaker 1: it that way. Or I use Microsoft Remote Desktop for
Speaker 1: my computer at work and that works fantastic, and I
Speaker 1: believe it's free. So maybe you check out Microsoft Remote
Speaker 1: Desktop and see if it's compatible with Windows seven. And
Speaker 1: if it is, that might be a little bit easier
Speaker 1: because you can log in with a username with her
Speaker 1: username and password, and so you can get in that
Speaker 1: way and it's it's free. So I would try that
Speaker 1: and see what happens. System requirements. Uh oh, Windows, yep,
Speaker 1: it looks like you do need Windows eight minimum, so
Speaker 1: that may not work, but you know they might have
Speaker 1: an older version that that could work. So those are
Speaker 1: my two, uh my two pieces of advice. But thank
Speaker 1: you for helping out your mom with her computer. I
Speaker 1: know it's it's definitely a struggle sometimes, and you know,
Speaker 1: I get frustrated sometimes when I'm when I'm helping her,
Speaker 1: and I have to think that like it's you know,
Speaker 1: you come from this idea of like everything just makes
Speaker 1: sense for you if you're a techie, and to literally
Speaker 1: just wipe that off the the what do you call
Speaker 1: the plate, I don't know, whatever you want to call it,
Speaker 1: just wipe that away and just like come from a
Speaker 1: standpoint of I don't understand any of this stuff, like
Speaker 1: none of it. Like the biggest thing I see with
Speaker 1: people with their with their devices and their phones and
Speaker 1: their their computers is they don't want to mess anything up, right.
Speaker 1: They think that they're going to do one thing and
Speaker 1: everything's going to be messed. It keeps people from changing
Speaker 1: their passwords, It keeps people people from switching to a
Speaker 1: better system for something or switching to a new app.
Speaker 1: It's like, nobody wants to mess up the status quo
Speaker 1: on their devices if they're not a techie. And I
Speaker 1: get it. We take for granted if you're a techie that, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to break stuff every day. I want to
Speaker 1: try something new every day. I want to try a
Speaker 1: new pre you know, upgrade my software. There's there's people
Speaker 1: that don't want to update their iPhone software because it's
Speaker 1: gonna change something. And I get it, it's gonna Yeah.
Speaker 1: My son updated his computer the other day and now
Speaker 1: he's a he's a digital native, so he's sitting there like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, this is the best update ever. Apple
Speaker 1: is just so amazing. Oh my gosh. Like he got
Speaker 1: big sur finally, Like I don't know if it forced
Speaker 1: him to or he just decided to do it, but
Speaker 1: his laptop got big sur and he's like, this is
Speaker 1: so cool, and he was just going off. And that's
Speaker 1: a reaction from someone who embraces and loves technology, whereas
Speaker 1: a lot of people are not like that. And you
Speaker 1: have to keep that in mind. A lot of people
Speaker 1: sit there and they fear any change when it comes
Speaker 1: to tech. And I get it. I totally understand. I'm
Speaker 1: not like that, Like I am the person that's breaking
Speaker 1: stuff on a daily basis, and I love it. But
Speaker 1: it's just one of these things that you just have
Speaker 1: to keep in mind. There are different folks out there,
Speaker 1: all right, this is kind of cool. This is a
Speaker 1: new app from OnePlus, and here's here's the biggest thing,
Speaker 1: and I talk about I'm look, I'm probably gonna switch
Speaker 1: to a Pixel phone when it comes out. I'm hoping
Speaker 1: next week when Google has their big event. They've got
Speaker 1: Google Io on let's see, I think it's on the
Speaker 1: eighteenth of May. And so usually historically they've either announced
Speaker 1: a phone during that event, or they haven't, or they've
Speaker 1: they've teased a phone, a new phone. Usually the Pixels
Speaker 1: come out in October. But you know, all things are
Speaker 1: off the table at this point because Apple is so
Speaker 1: far ahead of the rest of these cell phone companies
Speaker 1: that they've all been forced to push up the release dates,
Speaker 1: like they are all releasing their phones earlier because the
Speaker 1: iphonees are just so good that they need something to
Speaker 1: compete with them. All these phones they've been putting out
Speaker 1: are just iPhones better. And so Samsung came out with
Speaker 1: their phones earlier. OnePlus was a little earlier, I believe,
Speaker 1: and now hopefully we'll see Google do that as well.
Speaker 1: But anyway, I digress. But the one, you know, big
Speaker 1: difference between the iPhone and the Androids of the world
Speaker 1: is kind of the innercompatibility, interoperability with your laptop and
Speaker 1: other assorted devices, right, and so airdrop is like this
Speaker 1: magical thing that the Mac has with the iPhone and
Speaker 1: with Android you really don't have that. Now Android to
Speaker 1: Android has finally gotten a feature called nearby Share, which
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone ever uses or knows about, but
Speaker 1: it's there and it works, and it works really well.
Speaker 1: But now we've got this program from one plus. It's
Speaker 1: called clipped clipt and this is a little app that
Speaker 1: lets you share text, photos and files between your computer
Speaker 1: and I have this installed in my Mac and also
Speaker 1: an Android phone. And what it does, it's kind of brilliant. Actually.
Speaker 1: It uses your Google Drive to transfer the data in
Speaker 1: a secure and encrypted way, and so when you copy something,
Speaker 1: and you could use it as simple as the clipboard,
Speaker 1: So if you copy something on your computer, it will
Speaker 1: show up on your phone immediately, or you can take
Speaker 1: it a step further and send files and so you
Speaker 1: can send like large files. Now it's not air drop,
Speaker 1: it's not going direct Wi Fi, so it's not as fast,
Speaker 1: but it is efficient and it works and I don't know,
Speaker 1: I've had it on my phone for a bit now
Speaker 1: and it's pretty cool. And you know, you can do
Speaker 1: large file sizes. And they've come up with a way
Speaker 1: to use Google Drive in a secure way where thank
Speaker 1: you OnePlus for the way they authenticate your Google Drive.
Speaker 1: And this is why I don't allow third party access
Speaker 1: to my Google Drive or Gmail is because they want
Speaker 1: to read all the contents re and access and be
Speaker 1: able to delete or modify all the contents of your drive.
Speaker 1: And so if you ever see when you sign in
Speaker 1: with Google, which I don't recommend you doing anyway, but
Speaker 1: if you have to for something like this, if you
Speaker 1: ever see where it says read, write, modify and delete
Speaker 1: the entire contents of your Google Drive or your Gmail,
Speaker 1: say absolutely not. Now, these developers are being lazy or
Speaker 1: they're trying to steal your information. I say steal, I
Speaker 1: mean scrape your information. A lot of times they're trying
Speaker 1: to scrape it so that they can, like with the
Speaker 1: case of Gmail, a lot of services want access to
Speaker 1: your full inbox so that they can gather information from
Speaker 1: your purchase history and then sell that data and whatever.
Speaker 1: So but the other group of developers are just being lazy,
Speaker 1: and the way they should develop their app in the
Speaker 1: way that Clipped did is it only has access to
Speaker 1: the data that it creates. So it will create a
Speaker 1: little file folder inside Google Drive that says clipped and
Speaker 1: it can only access that, and it will say that
Speaker 1: on that authorization screen, it'll say full access, delete, read,
Speaker 1: write to the data that we create. That's what you want.
Speaker 1: That is safe. That is much better than just giving
Speaker 1: full No way, why do you want to get full
Speaker 1: access to your Google Drive? Huhuh that's that's like a
Speaker 1: no no anyway. The uh So, the app Clipped works
Speaker 1: on Android and Mac, Android and Windows, and it's it's
Speaker 1: really cool and it's I've used it. I would check
Speaker 1: it out if you want like a kind of a
Speaker 1: little convenient and simple copy and paste or file sharing
Speaker 1: between Android and your Mac basically any computer that runs Chrome,
Speaker 1: because that's you get you get the Chrome extension on
Speaker 1: your computer and then you get the the little Clipped
Speaker 1: app on your phone and it works great. I'm I'm
Speaker 1: loving it. So I've got you know, little Mac extension.
Speaker 1: It says text image file link and boom you can
Speaker 1: upload a file. It goes to your phone, vice versa.
Speaker 1: So it's pretty cool. So check it out. All right,
Speaker 1: I think we have time for one more question from Carol.
Speaker 1: Carol dear Rich. Years ago there was Gateway Computers. They
Speaker 1: had cowprint boxes and you can go to the store
Speaker 1: and get a whole computer set up in a box, tower, monitor, printer, mouse, keyboard,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Is there anything like that now for seniors? Oh?
Speaker 1: That is a great, great question. I love. Can I
Speaker 1: just reminisce for a moment about Gateway Gateway two thousand.
Speaker 1: Back in the day, do you remember that Gateway two thousand?
Speaker 1: It was my favorite thing to look through the PC
Speaker 1: World magazine every month when it came to my house.
Speaker 1: And the thickest part of the magazine was the center,
Speaker 1: and the center had the Gateway two thousand ads and
Speaker 1: they were so good. They were thick card stocks. You
Speaker 1: can find them super easily. Now, as the company sort
Speaker 1: of waned in the later years, the ads were less thick.
Speaker 1: They were just printed on the paper the standard pages
Speaker 1: but ted Waite was their founder and CEO. He was
Speaker 1: always in it. It was always these wild situations. It
Speaker 1: was almost like a story where I'm trying to remember.
Speaker 1: Most of the ones I remember right now were like
Speaker 1: the holiday scenes where it was just it's like, ah,
Speaker 1: it was just so cool. They were in Sioux Falls,
Speaker 1: South Dakota. It was just h One of my favorite companies.
Speaker 1: E Machines ended up buying them, and then I believe
Speaker 1: Acer bought them. I don't know, but I think that's
Speaker 1: what happened to them. And yes, they had stores. At
Speaker 1: some point they had kind of the equivalent of the
Speaker 1: Apple stores. They had a bunch in Los Angeles called
Speaker 1: Gateway Country Stores, and one of them was it became
Speaker 1: I think a lot of them became relaxed. The back stores.
Speaker 1: If you're in LA and it's like a chain of
Speaker 1: stores that's for like chairs and stuff. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't even think those are around anymore. But anyway,
Speaker 1: I digress. So I love Gateway. It was one of
Speaker 1: my first computers. It was my favorite computer. I love
Speaker 1: the motif of the cows. Uh. But what you're looking for.
Speaker 1: I was just at Costco yesterday. I always recommend go
Speaker 1: to Costco get a computer there. Now, they don't have
Speaker 1: the print in the box, but they will have the
Speaker 1: mouse and the keyboard and the computer. I was there yesterday,
Speaker 1: and yeah, they're a little bit more expensive. I think
Speaker 1: the cheapest one I saw there was five seventy nine,
Speaker 1: But typically typically at Costco they have two all in
Speaker 1: one PCs that are a fantastic value. I saw two yesterday.
Speaker 1: I think one was five to seventy nine. One was
Speaker 1: six ninety nine, which I know is a little expensive,
Speaker 1: but not really for what you're getting. You're getting a
Speaker 1: really solid computer. And what the trick is about Costco
Speaker 1: versus like Best Buyer these other places, is that the
Speaker 1: computer you're getting is just a little bit better. It's
Speaker 1: got the specs are just a little bit more specked
Speaker 1: out then, like you might be getting a bigger hard drive,
Speaker 1: more memory, slightly better processor. And it's Costco. They always
Speaker 1: negotiate sort of like better deals than everyone else. So
Speaker 1: it's kind of like anything you buy at Costco, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be just a little bit better quality than anywhere
Speaker 1: else you get it. So that's what I would recommend, Carol,
Speaker 1: if you have a membership to Costco, check it out.
Speaker 1: And I know it might seem you know, people want
Speaker 1: these all in ones for like three hundred bucks, but
Speaker 1: believe me, I made that mistake of buying one of
Speaker 1: those once and it was garbage. So spend a little
Speaker 1: bit more, get something that's going to last just a
Speaker 1: little bit longer. Oh yeah, hear that sound. That means
Speaker 1: it's going to do it for this episode of the show.
Speaker 1: If you would like to submit a question for me
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Speaker 1: find it. You can also find me on social media
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Speaker 1: I love Twitter too. Facebook It's fun. I got a
Speaker 1: lot of people on there, so the conversations are always fun.
Speaker 1: Like if I post like you know, you know, how
Speaker 1: do you like your eggs? And get like a thousand responses,
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Speaker 1: name is rich Demiro. Thanks so much for listening. There
Speaker 1: are so many ways you can spend an hour of
Speaker 1: your day. I do appreciate you spending it with me.
Speaker 1: Stay safe, I will talk to you real soon.