Speaker 1: Cees returns to Las Vegas for twenty twenty two. Samsung
Speaker 1: has some really slick looking laptops, and T Mobile debuts
Speaker 1: their own tracker. Plus your tech questions answered. What's going on?
Speaker 1: I'mrich Demiro and this is Rich on Tech, the podcast
Speaker 1: where I talk about the tech stuff I think you
Speaker 1: should know about. It's also the place right answer the
Speaker 1: questions you send me. I'm the tech reporter at KTLA
Speaker 1: Channel five in Los Angeles. Thanks for tuning into the show.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to me, because if you noticed, I wasn't here.
Speaker 1: Last week. I flew to New Jersey to see my
Speaker 1: family for the first time in a year, marking the
Speaker 1: third time I've been on a plane during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: and it's all been very different experiences. Number One, well
Speaker 1: these the last two times the planes were packed, so
Speaker 1: that's for starters, but overall good experience. This my flight
Speaker 1: to New Jersey. They were very particular about, you know,
Speaker 1: when to take off your mask to eat. You know,
Speaker 1: you had to you have to put it back up
Speaker 1: in between bites anyway, all this stuff, so it was fine.
Speaker 1: I did get a chance to check out a really
Speaker 1: really wild place in New Jersey called the American Dream.
Speaker 1: This is a mall that was being built for I
Speaker 1: think like at least twenty years. I mean, this thing
Speaker 1: started out something called like Xana Do, and it just
Speaker 1: it never came to fruition, and it just sat vacant
Speaker 1: for so long, and then finally someone purchased it. I
Speaker 1: did some research. It looks like it's the same owners
Speaker 1: as the Mall of America, so they know a thing
Speaker 1: or two about giant malls. But I'm telling you, this
Speaker 1: thing is huge. It's right outside New York City in
Speaker 1: the Meadowlands, if you're familiar with New Jersey at all,
Speaker 1: kind of where when I grew up it was called
Speaker 1: the Continental Airlines Arena and Giants Stadium. Now, of course
Speaker 1: it's MetLife Arena, and I don't think the other one
Speaker 1: or MetLife Stadium, and I don't think the other one
Speaker 1: is even there anymore. But this thing has a water
Speaker 1: park inside a theme park inside let's see mini golf
Speaker 1: inside a Lego land type place, but not the full
Speaker 1: like rides and all that stuff, Sea Life aquarium, no
Speaker 1: movie theater, which I thought was kind of interesting. That
Speaker 1: seems like an omission. But not everything was open just
Speaker 1: yet because I think it just recently opened, but they're
Speaker 1: still kind of getting stores on board and stuff. But anyway,
Speaker 1: kind of fun. Did a little video on my YouTube
Speaker 1: and all the various social channels, but I don't know,
Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting, you know, the mall is
Speaker 1: like this very I spent the most time in the
Speaker 1: Amazon store. I mean, isn't that wild. That's where I
Speaker 1: went After all that, I just went to the place
Speaker 1: where I shop all the time. But it's just cool
Speaker 1: to see. Definitely an experience, and I can see it
Speaker 1: being more crowded once things kind of get up and
Speaker 1: running a little bit more. But they do have thirty
Speaker 1: thousand parking spots, so I think they're prepared. No, no, uh,
Speaker 1: the parking was free while I was there. That was
Speaker 1: the best part. You know, they're gonna end up charging
Speaker 1: so much for that, but right now it's free. The
Speaker 1: other thing I did in New Jersey was help my
Speaker 1: family out with all their tech. Every time I go
Speaker 1: out to Jersey, you know, I'm sitting there upgrading their
Speaker 1: Wi Fi and just making sure everything's working properly. So
Speaker 1: that's always fun and always, you know, I feel like
Speaker 1: I have a good handle on the average person when
Speaker 1: it comes to technology, because I get so many emails
Speaker 1: and stuff and you hear them on the show, but
Speaker 1: when I go home, I really truly get that first
Speaker 1: kind of hands on, Like, you know, the questions that
Speaker 1: I get from my family about tech is like, wow,
Speaker 1: this is like people just generally. I guess since I'm
Speaker 1: immersed in it on a daily basis and I'm following
Speaker 1: it so closely, I just know the nuances of everything.
Speaker 1: But when you really just think of the average person,
Speaker 1: like the questions you get, it makes me realize that
Speaker 1: I have to start at the very basics when I
Speaker 1: present something on TV or pretty much anywhere else on
Speaker 1: my Facebook, social media whatever. For instance, I just posted
Speaker 1: a video of the air tag. This is Apple's tracking
Speaker 1: device that we didn't really get to talk about in
Speaker 1: the last show because there was no last show. When
Speaker 1: it happened, I went on Brian Tong's podcast, so if
Speaker 1: you want to listen to that, you can. I talked
Speaker 1: at length about the air tag and how much I
Speaker 1: believe there the future and all this stuff. But anyway,
Speaker 1: so I got one and I am playing around with it,
Speaker 1: and I put a little video on my Instagram. The
Speaker 1: number one question is wait a second, Rich, how do
Speaker 1: you attach that to your stuff? And it just didn't
Speaker 1: even occur to me that I would have to show
Speaker 1: people that you need like a little loop or keychain
Speaker 1: to attach it, which, of course Apple will gladly sell
Speaker 1: you for twenty nine dollars. There's a bunch of third
Speaker 1: party devices that let you attach these or accessories. I
Speaker 1: should say that lets you attack the air tag to things,
Speaker 1: but I mean you've probably heard about the air tag
Speaker 1: over and over. I'm gonna do my review next week
Speaker 1: for KTLA, but I am very, very bullish on these things.
Speaker 1: I think that's the good one, right. I mean, Apple
Speaker 1: has nearly a billion devices out there in the world
Speaker 1: that can help you locate these things. Chances are it's
Speaker 1: not gonna go lost because someone with an iPhone is
Speaker 1: going to wander past your little air tag and update
Speaker 1: its location. So I find these things to be quite
Speaker 1: quite fascinating. Although I will say, knock on wood, is
Speaker 1: that wood? I don't know some others would. I have
Speaker 1: not really lost a lot of items in the past
Speaker 1: couple of years or many years, but you never know.
Speaker 1: It only takes once, right, all right? Big News of
Speaker 1: the Week CTA announcing the return to Las Vegas for
Speaker 1: CS twenty twenty two. This is a big announcement saying
Speaker 1: that CS will happen in Lost Vegas January fifth through eighth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. Now you might remember that I was
Speaker 1: a part of the All Digital CS this year. For
Speaker 1: CS twenty twenty one, they actually announced. You may have
Speaker 1: forgotten about this, but they actually announced that CS was
Speaker 1: going to happen in Las Vegas back before, you know,
Speaker 1: like this was like six months prior or eight months
Speaker 1: whatever it was. They're like, yeah, we're still going to
Speaker 1: have it, and then all of a sudden, it was like, uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: this this pandemic is a little more serious than we imagined.
Speaker 1: Uh and yeah it's not happening. And that was kind
Speaker 1: of like understandable. Now it seems wild and unfathomable that
Speaker 1: someone would think an in person event would happen in
Speaker 1: January of this year, But you got to remember to
Speaker 1: when this pandemic first started, we really did not know
Speaker 1: anything about the scope of it. I mean, I remember
Speaker 1: when I came home from work, I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're all gonna kind of, you know, take a breather
Speaker 1: for two weeks, three weeks whatever, No, it turned into
Speaker 1: like a year and I'm still working from home. So anyway,
Speaker 1: CS twenty twenty two happening in Las Vegas. I already
Speaker 1: checked hotel rooms. Yes, they're already expensive. But they do
Speaker 1: say that there will be a digital aspect to this.
Speaker 1: So the CS anchor Desk, which debuted at CS twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one, will travel to Las Vegas and connect the
Speaker 1: digital audience with everything. And so the big question is,
Speaker 1: you know, there was four of us at the digital
Speaker 1: anchor desk at CS twenty twenty one. Will any of
Speaker 1: us get that phone call to come back and do
Speaker 1: the anchor desk again for CS twenty twenty two. So
Speaker 1: it was myself, I, Justine, Brian Tongue, and Naomi Kyle.
Speaker 1: Will any of us be there for CS twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two for the digital anchor desk? I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 1: I would be honored if they asked me back. I
Speaker 1: certainly don't expect them. It's not like a given, it's
Speaker 1: not a shoe, and they may want to just rotate
Speaker 1: different people who who knows, But anyway, I'm excited for
Speaker 1: CS twenty twenty two. No matter what, I will be
Speaker 1: there in Las Vegas. I can't wait because my camera
Speaker 1: roll was getting a little thinned out of stuff to post.
Speaker 1: I get so much good stuff to post at CS
Speaker 1: every year. I end up posting videos from that throughout
Speaker 1: the year. In fact, I recently post a video posted
Speaker 1: a video of I still have more stuff to post
Speaker 1: from CS twenty twenty that I'd never posted because I
Speaker 1: felt like at a certain point it was like too late,
Speaker 1: and then I was like eh, But I did end
Speaker 1: up just reposting or posting something for the first time.
Speaker 1: You know, you're talking what two years later, and it
Speaker 1: still did really well because you know, people it's the
Speaker 1: first time they're seeing this stuff. All right, Let's get
Speaker 1: to the first question of the day. Jam says, I
Speaker 1: watch your TV show every day, wondering if you know
Speaker 1: how to say photos, stories, events, and articles online independently
Speaker 1: from other sites so that they would stay on forever.
Speaker 1: More So, many sites remove articles after a shelf life burnout.
Speaker 1: I'm looking to keep things posted for a lifetime, hoping
Speaker 1: for free. Thanks for your advice, JM. Good question, JM.
Speaker 1: So I would recommend for saving things. Ever, note and
Speaker 1: the name just implies that it will be around forever,
Speaker 1: when in fact, we know we've been proven over and
Speaker 1: over that things don't necessarily last forever. But Evernote has
Speaker 1: a pretty good track record, They've been around for a
Speaker 1: long time, and they do have a free option. So
Speaker 1: did you say, yeah, hoping for free? So basically, you
Speaker 1: install the app on your computer and then you install
Speaker 1: what's called the Evernote web clipper. And the reason I
Speaker 1: would say Evernote first, I don't agree with everything Evernote does.
Speaker 1: I feel like their application is a little bit crowded
Speaker 1: and kind of it's gotten crowded over the years, But
Speaker 1: I think that they have the best solution out there overall,
Speaker 1: and their web clipper is the best you can get online.
Speaker 1: So I would say Evernote is the way to go.
Speaker 1: Sign up for the free service, and you know, if
Speaker 1: you outgrow the free service and you find that you
Speaker 1: have to subscribe, you will end up having to pay
Speaker 1: a little bit each year. But in the times I
Speaker 1: had it, there's always some sort of deal that they
Speaker 1: offered to renew. That's number one. Number two, I would
Speaker 1: say Microsoft one Note is a is another one that's
Speaker 1: really good. I don't find it. I don't like it
Speaker 1: as much as as the Evernote, but I like, I
Speaker 1: think it's a good second, and it's Microsoft. It's going
Speaker 1: to be around forever. They also have a web clipper,
Speaker 1: and there's this free for fifteen gigs of storage, so
Speaker 1: you really don't run into the situation that ever Note.
Speaker 1: Evernote does it like by the month, so it's like
Speaker 1: you get a certain amount like ten megabytes or something
Speaker 1: of clipping a month. I don't know what it is,
Speaker 1: but you know, Evernote does it. Or one Drive. One
Speaker 1: note is linked to one drive and they do it
Speaker 1: by your fifteen gigs. If you have fifteen gigs of storage,
Speaker 1: I don't care really what you're doing with that, but
Speaker 1: once you go through it, you will have to pay.
Speaker 1: And there's some other little things that they do, I
Speaker 1: think to try to make you pay, But for the
Speaker 1: most part, that's a really good one as well. And
Speaker 1: then there's other options. I mean, you can use Google
Speaker 1: Keep that will do it. Google keep just doesn't really
Speaker 1: have a good What I like about ever Know and
Speaker 1: one Drive is that they will clip the actual text
Speaker 1: from articles online and also the pictures and stuff, so
Speaker 1: it saves it kind of locally, like you're asking that
Speaker 1: will work indefinitely, so even if the original site is
Speaker 1: taken down, you'll still have your copy of it. So
Speaker 1: those are the things I would recommend. Look into those things.
Speaker 1: One of them will likely work for you. Now let's
Speaker 1: move on to Samsung. Oh wow, Samsung. I have never
Speaker 1: been more excited for laptops than these samsungs. I didn't
Speaker 1: get to go hands on with these. Looks like they
Speaker 1: did something in New York City with some media there
Speaker 1: being in LA. I did not go out. I wasn't
Speaker 1: actually even invited. They were inviting me at the beginning
Speaker 1: to these things that they were doing in New York City,
Speaker 1: and then they kind of just like, we're not even
Speaker 1: gonna ask people to travel right now. So if you
Speaker 1: can make it there, you know, fine, But that's fine.
Speaker 1: I'm not no hard feelings there. But Samsung Galaxy Book
Speaker 1: Pro and Galaxy Book Pro three sixty. So here's the
Speaker 1: skinny on these. The number one, they're thin in light,
Speaker 1: They kind of have all the features that you would
Speaker 1: imagine a Samsung laptop would have. They kind of look
Speaker 1: and feel like almost like a smartphone, you know, inspired
Speaker 1: by smartphone. So some of these models have touch screens.
Speaker 1: They've got the smart switch, which you know you used
Speaker 1: to kind of take all your old files and settings
Speaker 1: from your old laptop to your new one. Of course,
Speaker 1: Windows is what they're running. Thin in light. I interviewed
Speaker 1: Sam Rutherford from Gizmoto and he actually got to go
Speaker 1: hands on with these, and he said he just could
Speaker 1: not believe how thin and light they were. They were
Speaker 1: like astonishingly thin and light. So that's really cool. Some
Speaker 1: of them have either have LTE or five G and
Speaker 1: then they've got a lot of little like pain points
Speaker 1: that they figured out, like kind of just I don't know.
Speaker 1: There's like a stylist you can get with some models,
Speaker 1: touchscreen on some models. The ports, they have a lot
Speaker 1: of them, Like you know, they have various USB C ports,
Speaker 1: various USB ports, various thunderbolt ports, you know, headphone jack.
Speaker 1: So there's just a lot going on here. The keyboard
Speaker 1: they say they made as comfortable as possible. There's all
Speaker 1: kinds of things like screen recording and stuff for making
Speaker 1: you look better on video chat. And then of course
Speaker 1: it links to your Samsung Galaxy phone or just an
Speaker 1: Android phone in general really nicely. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: integration and a lot of that stuff. You were able
Speaker 1: to get on other Windows laptops, but this is kind
Speaker 1: of they worked with Microsoft and Samsung and Microsoft have
Speaker 1: gotten really close in the whole Apple world. You know,
Speaker 1: Apple has such a tight ecosystem with their stuff that
Speaker 1: these other manufacturers realize that they need something to compete
Speaker 1: with that. And I think this Galaxy Book Pro, if
Speaker 1: you have an Android, this is kind of the closest
Speaker 1: you get to having an Android plus a laptop that
Speaker 1: works seamlessly, just the way and an iPhone works with
Speaker 1: a Mac laptop. And of course you can also you
Speaker 1: know nearby share files. I mean, your photos show up
Speaker 1: in the gallery on the computer. There's just a lot
Speaker 1: going on here. So available May fourteenth, the thirteen inch
Speaker 1: Galaxy Book Pro starts at one thousand, the fifteen inch
Speaker 1: starts at eleven hundred. Then you've got the Galaxy Pro
Speaker 1: three to sixty. This is the one that has the
Speaker 1: touchscreen and also the convertible so it bends fully backwards.
Speaker 1: That's going to start at twelve hundred for the thirteen
Speaker 1: inch and then thirteen hundred for the fifteen inch. And
Speaker 1: if you order it pre order, which is now until
Speaker 1: May thirteenth, you get one hundred and fifty dollars in
Speaker 1: credits for a future order, or if you purchase at launch,
Speaker 1: which is starting May fourteenth through May thirty, if you
Speaker 1: get one hundred dollars credit and the hard drives on
Speaker 1: these things. It's kind of the only sore point for me.
Speaker 1: Up to five twelve gigs on the smaller models and
Speaker 1: a terabyte on the bigger models. But I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, if I was, if I was a Galaxy user,
Speaker 1: I think I would have to rock one of these
Speaker 1: laptops and I would I guess I would just go
Speaker 1: all Premiere. I mean, we're using Premiere at KTLA to
Speaker 1: edit our pieces for air. I personally use Final Cut
Speaker 1: for any of my social media stuff. But I could
Speaker 1: maybe be convinced to move over if I was switching
Speaker 1: to an S twenty one Ultra. I don't know, just
Speaker 1: saying all right. Next question, Charlene says bicyclist here, would
Speaker 1: you have a recommendation for a communication device between riders
Speaker 1: in a group? Would rather not depend on cell service
Speaker 1: more of a hands free walkie talkie? Thank you? This
Speaker 1: is an interesting question. I don't know, I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: sure the biker community out there knows of something that
Speaker 1: maybe I'm just not thinking of. But to me, I'm
Speaker 1: so kind of cell phone centric that I'm not really sure.
Speaker 1: I mean, you could just spring for regular walkie talkies,
Speaker 1: would that work? I mean, just clip them to your bike.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they have those, like you know, those little
Speaker 1: attachments that you can put on your shirt or something
Speaker 1: that I don't know. I mean, you're you're saying you're bicyclists,
Speaker 1: so I'm sure you're not going as fast as a motorcycle.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking more motorcycle where there'd be a lot of
Speaker 1: wind noise, and how do you even communicate you need
Speaker 1: something in your ear? But I think you can get
Speaker 1: you know, just regular walkie talkies with a head piece.
Speaker 1: Just start with that perhaps, But if you're in a group,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, how many people can use
Speaker 1: walkie talkies with I don't know. It's just there's the
Speaker 1: other thing there's on Apple Watch. They have the walkie
Speaker 1: talkie feature which you could also use, but again you
Speaker 1: would have to have you know, cell phone service with that.
Speaker 1: And then there's something called Zello, which I know this
Speaker 1: app is very popular. This was kind of I don't
Speaker 1: know what the deal was with this during the whole
Speaker 1: like fire season and all that stuff. But Zello has
Speaker 1: some stuff, so I would check out ze Lllo dot com.
Speaker 1: But I don't know. If you have a suggestion, at
Speaker 1: me at rich on tech on Twitter and let me
Speaker 1: know what would you suggest for bicyclists to keep in
Speaker 1: touch kind of a lah walkie talkie. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just think smartphone, smartphone, smartphone, But maybe there's something
Speaker 1: that's so obvious I'm just not really thinking about. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk about T Mobile. Now. We talked about the
Speaker 1: air tag, which I'm very bullish on, but the air
Speaker 1: tag is not really meant to keep track of people
Speaker 1: or of things that are you know, It's really meant
Speaker 1: for items, right, And so when you think about sort
Speaker 1: of your dog or a kid, you might want maybe
Speaker 1: more of a full fledged tracking device. And T Mobile
Speaker 1: has something that might fit the bill. This is called
Speaker 1: the sync up Tracker, and this is more of a
Speaker 1: like almost like a digital GPS device. So this is
Speaker 1: it works on T mobiles LTE network. So this does
Speaker 1: have a cellular connection built in, which the air tag
Speaker 1: does not. It works with iOS and Android, which the
Speaker 1: air tag only works with iOS. It's available Friday, May seventh.
Speaker 1: And the reality here is that this is more of
Speaker 1: a GPS tracker, and so you can set virtual boundaries.
Speaker 1: So if you set a boundary for your kid at school,
Speaker 1: you'll get a notification when this tracker leaves that boundary,
Speaker 1: so that's kind of cool. It does not need to
Speaker 1: be near a smartphone to work, so this just connects
Speaker 1: directly to the cellular network, unlike the air tag, which
Speaker 1: does need to piggyback off of phones. You can ring
Speaker 1: it when it's lost. You've got a light sensor, so
Speaker 1: it can even sense when it from light to dark
Speaker 1: or dark to light. So let's say you put it
Speaker 1: in something and someone opens that like a refrigerator door,
Speaker 1: you would get a notification. It's also water and dust
Speaker 1: resistant IP sixty seven, which is the same as the
Speaker 1: air tag, and it has a nine hundred million hour
Speaker 1: rechargeable battery, so this is rechargeable versus the air tag,
Speaker 1: which has a replaceable battery. But the battery on T
Speaker 1: Mobile's device only lasts for seven days, and that makes
Speaker 1: a lot of sense because it is constantly using cellular
Speaker 1: to ping the network and use that and grab a
Speaker 1: GPS location, So it's not going to last as long
Speaker 1: as what Apple has, which is just basically using Bluetooth
Speaker 1: low energy to ping a cell phone that's nearby, or
Speaker 1: cell phone pings, I don't know either way. It's also
Speaker 1: a little bit more expensive sixty dollars and then five
Speaker 1: dollars a month for data. So again at first, at
Speaker 1: first thought, you might be like, rich, why would I
Speaker 1: ever Why would I ever get something like the sink
Speaker 1: up tracker when I could get the air tag for
Speaker 1: half the price and no monthly fee. Well, they are
Speaker 1: very different devices. The sync up tracker would be probably
Speaker 1: something more along the lines of what I would put
Speaker 1: on a dog, or more along the lines of what
Speaker 1: I would clip to my kids backpack to keep track
Speaker 1: of them, more so than the than the air tag,
Speaker 1: which is not really meant for kids. It's not really
Speaker 1: meant for pets, but I know people are going to
Speaker 1: use it for that. But we'll see as people experience
Speaker 1: these things just how well they will work with kids
Speaker 1: and pets. Because you know, there are some things built
Speaker 1: into the to the air tag that makes it not
Speaker 1: a good solution for third party clips. You know, when
Speaker 1: you're when you're clipping it to something that is not
Speaker 1: near your phone all the time. It it does some
Speaker 1: things to make sure that it's not being used in
Speaker 1: a nefarious way. So we'll have to see if that
Speaker 1: does work with kids and backpacks all that stuff. But
Speaker 1: our kids and dogs, I should say so. Anyway, I
Speaker 1: think we're gonna see a lot more of these trackers
Speaker 1: out in the marketplace, just because battery technology is getting better.
Speaker 1: Cellular companies want to make money on their networks, and
Speaker 1: you know we already see that. Samsung is coming out
Speaker 1: with They announced at their Galaxy Unpacked event. They made
Speaker 1: a big deal about their oh gosh, what did they
Speaker 1: call it? They called it the Galaxy Oh did they
Speaker 1: mention it in here? The smart Things Find, that's what
Speaker 1: they call Smart Things Find, and they say they have
Speaker 1: like sixty eight million devices on their network to help
Speaker 1: people find stuff. So it's it's you know, we're never
Speaker 1: going to be lost ever again, folks. This is just
Speaker 1: the way it is. You try to go on vacation
Speaker 1: and get lost in you know the world around you,
Speaker 1: and you can't. Someone's tracking you. You're tracking yourself, you're
Speaker 1: tracking your stuff, You're getting updates about where your stuff is.
Speaker 1: It's just the way the world is these days. And
Speaker 1: I don't blame you. I mean it's tough for me
Speaker 1: to go offline, it really is. It's not easy, Gloria
Speaker 1: says your recommendation as my first cell phone was an
Speaker 1: iPhone twelve, which is eight hundred dollars. But after that
Speaker 1: you spoke of the Samsung A thirty two to five G.
Speaker 1: Since the Samsung would be a lot less money than
Speaker 1: the iPhone twelve, which you recommend the Samsung as a
Speaker 1: better buy for my first phone? Or should I stick
Speaker 1: with buying the iPhone twelve. I'll only be using the
Speaker 1: phone for general use. I won't be streaming movies, won't
Speaker 1: be playing video games, and I'll only be using the
Speaker 1: camera at once in a while. Even though the iPhone
Speaker 1: twelve is more money, I would not hesitate to buy
Speaker 1: if it turned out the iPhone twelve would be a
Speaker 1: better buy, Gloria. Well, interesting question, Gloria. So I don't
Speaker 1: I have knockne hands on with the A thirty two. Now,
Speaker 1: I will tell you that I do have the Samsung
Speaker 1: Galaxy A fifty two five G which they sent me
Speaker 1: to test out. And this is still this is five
Speaker 1: hundred dollars, not as inexpensive as the A thirty two G,
Speaker 1: but it's oh wow, interesting. It looks just like a
Speaker 1: Mini S twenty one Ultra. I got to turn that on. Ah.
Speaker 1: But here's my feeling. You are buying a phone that
Speaker 1: I think you are going to use for a while.
Speaker 1: And I think that the iPhone twelve is going to
Speaker 1: age better than the Samsung A thirty two. And I
Speaker 1: know Samsung is guaranteeing years of updates, probably three years
Speaker 1: of updates perhaps with the A thirty two. Don't quote
Speaker 1: me on that, but that's kind of what they've been
Speaker 1: doing lately, and in fact, it might even be four
Speaker 1: at this point. But I feel like the iPhone is
Speaker 1: easier in several ways. Number One, there's a lot more
Speaker 1: accessories for it. Number Two, it's kind of a universal device,
Speaker 1: at least here in the US, which means if you
Speaker 1: need help with it, someone's going to be able to
Speaker 1: help you, whether that's a friend or family member, they're
Speaker 1: going to be familiar with it. You also have the
Speaker 1: Genius Bar at the Apple Store, so if you ever
Speaker 1: get into a problem with it anywhere you are in
Speaker 1: the world, you'll be able to walk into a store
Speaker 1: and get help. And I think the lifetime of that
Speaker 1: phone is going to just be a little bit better
Speaker 1: and a little bit longer than the A thirty two
Speaker 1: five G, which might show some signs of age after
Speaker 1: you know, two years, Whereas the iPhone twelve, I think
Speaker 1: you're gonna get a good, solid four years, if not longer,
Speaker 1: of use out of that device. So when you say
Speaker 1: you want a better buy, I think the iPhone twelve
Speaker 1: is going to be your best buy. Nothing against the
Speaker 1: A thirty two. I think that's a great little phone
Speaker 1: for an inexpensive device. And you say you're not using
Speaker 1: your device very much, But I just think for all
Speaker 1: the reasons I mentioned, the iPhone twelve just might be
Speaker 1: a better buy for your first phone, because yes, it's
Speaker 1: more expensive, but do the math over a couple of years,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna work itself out, and you're gonna have
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a support system with that,
Speaker 1: better apps, better accessories, and overall, I think that might
Speaker 1: be just a better way to go. All right, let's
Speaker 1: talk about the Should I do another question? Yeah, let
Speaker 1: me do another question. Let's do another question. Wow, I
Speaker 1: never do this, rich? Are you a what's what's going on?
Speaker 1: Why are you're doing two questions in a row? I
Speaker 1: don't know why not surface pro does not wake up?
Speaker 1: Says Marta. Dear Rich, I love your tech advice. So
Speaker 1: here I am with a cry for help. I have
Speaker 1: a surface Pro seven, which I bought a couple months ago.
Speaker 1: Suddenly it does not wake up. I read it's a
Speaker 1: common problem, but my case is not fixable and I
Speaker 1: need to send it in for repairs. I need to
Speaker 1: wipe off all my data. But how can I do
Speaker 1: that if my computer does not wake up. I understand
Speaker 1: you're a super busy guy, but if you are able,
Speaker 1: would you please give me some advice? Thanks? Marta. Good
Speaker 1: good question, Marta, and I love that you are trying
Speaker 1: to protect your personal information by asking this question. And
Speaker 1: so this is a tough one. Your computer doesn't turn
Speaker 1: it on, but you have to send it in. So
Speaker 1: what do you do? What do you do with a
Speaker 1: computer that doesn't turn on? Well? Two things. I hope
Speaker 1: you have a password on your computer. That's number one.
Speaker 1: I hope you've got a password protecting all of your data.
Speaker 1: If you don't, I would not send it in personally.
Speaker 1: That's number one. Number two, I hope you have a
Speaker 1: backup of your data. So if you have a backup
Speaker 1: of your data, here's what I think. Okay, so if
Speaker 1: you have a backup and your computer's password protected, normally
Speaker 1: I would not say to send it in, But in
Speaker 1: this case, if you have to send it in, that's
Speaker 1: your only option. You're going to have to trust the
Speaker 1: system and send it in. Now, if you have a
Speaker 1: password on your computer, there's not much that they're going
Speaker 1: to be able to do to bypass that. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: could be ways of them bypassing, but in general, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're sending it to a reputable outlet, they're not
Speaker 1: going to try to bypass your password. They're going to
Speaker 1: either sign in, you know, create a new administrator account
Speaker 1: or something if they can, if that's even possible, or
Speaker 1: they're just going to try to work on your computer
Speaker 1: and get it started without getting into your account. If
Speaker 1: they ask you for your passas word, which has happened
Speaker 1: to me. I've brought my laptop in places and they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: can you write down your password? Uh uh, no way,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing that. No way shape or form my
Speaker 1: writing down my password for anyone, And if you need
Speaker 1: it to get into this system, then I will go elsewhere.
Speaker 1: And so I was just in the U Break I
Speaker 1: Fixed store in Los Angeles and they were saying that, yeah,
Speaker 1: people bring their phones in all the time and don't
Speaker 1: know their password or they you know, they don't know
Speaker 1: how to get into the phone, and there's really nothing
Speaker 1: they can do to get in. Now. I know that's
Speaker 1: a phone versus a laptop. Here. There might be something
Speaker 1: on Windows that I don't know about that lets you
Speaker 1: get into someone's account without having their password, but I
Speaker 1: don't know of that. Maybe there is, maybe the administrator profile.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. But what I would do is if
Speaker 1: you have a backup, then just send it in and
Speaker 1: just hope for the best. Now, the thing is they're
Speaker 1: probably gonna have to wipe your computer clean, which means
Speaker 1: you're gonna lose all your data. So if you don't
Speaker 1: have a good bath, that's going to be a problem.
Speaker 1: In that case, I would find a local repair place
Speaker 1: and see what they say. So what they were telling
Speaker 1: me is that what they'll do at the you break
Speaker 1: I Fix if you can't remember your password on the
Speaker 1: phone and they're you know, there's some sort of water
Speaker 1: damage or whatever that's keeping it from working. They will
Speaker 1: what they call frankenstein it. They will do whatever they
Speaker 1: can to preserve your data, but just get the device
Speaker 1: to turn on and make it get to a screen
Speaker 1: where you can put in your password and recover your data.
Speaker 1: So that's what they told me, and that's what I
Speaker 1: would hope they would do here as well with your
Speaker 1: Surface Pro seven. But yeah, the bottom line is that
Speaker 1: you never really want to send something in that has
Speaker 1: you know, that's unlocked, number one, and if it has
Speaker 1: a password protection, I would probably I would not feel
Speaker 1: comfortable sending that in, even though I actually I have
Speaker 1: done that. I have left mine with a password on
Speaker 1: it to get it repaired when my hard drive failed.
Speaker 1: So but they did ask me to give them a passport,
Speaker 1: and I was like, no, I'm not doing that. Apple.
Speaker 1: I think they just tell you, look, we can't really
Speaker 1: do anything with your computer outside of your password, like
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to either wipe this or you know,
Speaker 1: your your data mayor they don't guarantee that your data
Speaker 1: will be safe. Let's put it that way. So that
Speaker 1: is my advice. I know it's always This is why
Speaker 1: I say you got to have a backup got to
Speaker 1: have a backup, got to have a backup, because you
Speaker 1: never know what is going to happen with your device.
Speaker 1: It can happen at a moment's notice, and when it does, ah,
Speaker 1: it's the worst feeling in the world. All right, let's
Speaker 1: move on to Amazon. They've got some new tablets this week.
Speaker 1: Amazon is so funny. They just release stuff. They are like,
Speaker 1: secretly the world's biggest consumer electronics company. Like I think
Speaker 1: they might sell as many things as Apple. I don't
Speaker 1: even know, but they just release so many products. They've
Speaker 1: got all the fire stuff, They've got all the ring stuff,
Speaker 1: They've got all their own Amazon on essentials, Amazon based
Speaker 1: or I guess essentials might be closed on Amazon's basics.
Speaker 1: I mean they have so many, you know, all their
Speaker 1: al Exa devices. They just have so many devices at
Speaker 1: this point, they don't even have events anymore. They just
Speaker 1: launch them all. They've got earbuds, they've got sunglasses or glasses.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's just so many things. Speakers. These are
Speaker 1: the fire HD tablets, So fire HD tablets, you know.
Speaker 1: I I see them as very mass market. They're very inexpensive,
Speaker 1: which which leads a lot of people to purchase them.
Speaker 1: I've never felt felt they were very good, but I
Speaker 1: felt like they've been okay for like a device that is,
Speaker 1: if you're just trying to basically watch videos on them
Speaker 1: and maybe read a book or something. You know, if
Speaker 1: you're gonna just read a book, I'd go with a Kindle.
Speaker 1: But if you're gonna you know, just you just want
Speaker 1: something that's kind of an entertainment device, Sure, the Fire
Speaker 1: ten is gonna be fine. I always recommend the iPad
Speaker 1: for three twenty nine no matter what, because it's going
Speaker 1: to have the best accessories, going to have the best apps.
Speaker 1: But if you must and money and budget is your
Speaker 1: number one concern, yeah, the Fire HD is going to
Speaker 1: be just fine. Now, the Fire HD ten is kind
Speaker 1: of their top of the line tablet because it's got
Speaker 1: a bigger screen and it usually has slightly better specs
Speaker 1: than the Fire than the eights. So now they have
Speaker 1: a new Fire HD ten and HD ten plus, and
Speaker 1: they've got some you know, some upgrades to these, better performance,
Speaker 1: a brighter full HD display, better design, and they've got
Speaker 1: some interesting productivity things that they've done with these. And
Speaker 1: generally Amazon has never sold these as productivity devices, but
Speaker 1: now you can get a detachable keyboard, and some stuff
Speaker 1: from Microsoft to make it more of a productivity device.
Speaker 1: So I have k not gone hands on with these.
Speaker 1: I requested them from Amazon so I can test them.
Speaker 1: But I'm curious because I would never think that you
Speaker 1: would use this for work, but if you could do
Speaker 1: your email on it, you know, it might be a okay.
Speaker 1: They also have fire HD ten kids tablet, and again
Speaker 1: with the kids stuff. I always like the iPad because
Speaker 1: I just feel like it's more, it's it's friendlier to kids.
Speaker 1: But I know a lot of parents get the fire
Speaker 1: tablets because they're inexpensive and they just sort of work.
Speaker 1: But I just think the iPad is better in that aspect.
Speaker 1: But let's go over the new features. Fire HD ten
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty bucks. It's got some sort of
Speaker 1: processor in it. Three gigs a RAM, which is fifty
Speaker 1: percent more, so that's one gig of RAM more. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh. It's got a ten point one inch ten
Speaker 1: eighty full HD display. It's ten percent brighter, it's got
Speaker 1: a thinner bezel. It's got all day battery life, twelve
Speaker 1: hours of battery, plenty of storage, thirty two or sixty
Speaker 1: four plus support for a one up to a terabyte
Speaker 1: microSD card slot. So I always like that about the
Speaker 1: Amazon Fire HD tablets is that they have that microSD
Speaker 1: card slot, which means you can pretty much put a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of memory in this thing. So by the
Speaker 1: cheapest one and just put the memory in it. It's
Speaker 1: got a two megapixel front facing camera. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if that's improved or not. They don't say, let's see,
Speaker 1: you've got a headphone jack, which is cool. It's always
Speaker 1: nice to have. And let's see, for thirty dollars more
Speaker 1: so you're talking one eighty, you get four gigs of rams,
Speaker 1: so one extra gigabyte, and then a premium finish wireless charging,
Speaker 1: which I guess, I you know what, I guess the
Speaker 1: wireless charging would be kind of cool with the tablet.
Speaker 1: I leave mine plugged in at all times on my desk,
Speaker 1: but it would be kind of nice to just have
Speaker 1: it resting on a wireless charger and it's just always ready,
Speaker 1: you know. So that's kind of cool. Now, this is
Speaker 1: where it gets interesting. So two hundred and twenty dollars,
Speaker 1: which is a full fifty six seventy dollars more than
Speaker 1: the original. You get a Productivity bundle which includes the
Speaker 1: Fire HD ten or a fire HD ten plus, and
Speaker 1: it includes a detachable keyboard case. So that is interesting,
Speaker 1: and you know, I feel like they've had a keyboard
Speaker 1: case in the past, and I'm sure there's been some,
Speaker 1: but this is interesting that you now have a keyboard case,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of nice. It magnetically attaches, you know,
Speaker 1: for you to check email, take notes, browse the internet.
Speaker 1: But here's the other thing that's interesting. You get a
Speaker 1: Microsoft three sixty five Personal subscription which is twelve months,
Speaker 1: which comes to the terabyte of cloud storage, and that
Speaker 1: alone would be just seventy dollars for the year. So
Speaker 1: for two hundred and twenty dollars, which is again fifty
Speaker 1: sixty seventy dollars more, I would go with the you're
Speaker 1: basically getting a Microsoft three sixty five subscription for a
Speaker 1: year and a detachable keyboard case. Now you might not
Speaker 1: need that Microsoft three sixty five because you use all
Speaker 1: Google stuff, but it's interesting that you get all these
Speaker 1: office apps on the Fire HD, which, if you know
Speaker 1: anything about the fire system, the reason I don't like
Speaker 1: it as much is be because you don't get the
Speaker 1: Google apps so if you're trying to use you know,
Speaker 1: Google Drive or Gmail or Chrome, none of those apps
Speaker 1: are actually on the Fire tablet. You have to sideload them,
Speaker 1: which is not necessarily the easiest thing to do for
Speaker 1: the average person. So I don't know, all right, that's
Speaker 1: the tablets, and they didn't say when they're available, but
Speaker 1: I guess soon. By the way, I never mentioned the
Speaker 1: chirping sound that the air tag makes. I know just
Speaker 1: since it's on my desk. So I'm going to detach
Speaker 1: the uh, the little battery and once you attach it,
Speaker 1: oh well, okay, never mind, I thought I couldn't really
Speaker 1: hear that. All right, Well, let's get to another question.
Speaker 1: All right, Hi, Rich Hope it's okay to ask a
Speaker 1: specific question, but I really trust your input and advice.
Speaker 1: We're going to Alaska in August for eight days after
Speaker 1: postponing the trip for two years. I'm going to need
Speaker 1: a phone with a really great camera. I currently have
Speaker 1: the Samsung seven Edge. I know it's been a while.
Speaker 1: I want to stay in the Android phone zone or
Speaker 1: phone verse. Any suggestions on new phones that would give
Speaker 1: me great zoom and wide screen capabilities. That's not an
Speaker 1: iPhone appreciate any suggestions you have. Going online to research
Speaker 1: can be crazy making and overwhelming. Many thanks. You really
Speaker 1: do demystify tech for us. Quote older folks, best Ava Ava.
Speaker 1: There is one phone to know, one phone. This is it.
Speaker 1: There is no other phone that I think given everything
Speaker 1: that you've mentioned. You want a really great camera, you
Speaker 1: already have a Samsung. You want to stay in Android,
Speaker 1: you want wide screen, you want zoom. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: it is the Samsung Galaxy S twenty one Ultra. That
Speaker 1: is it. That's all you need to know. Don't read
Speaker 1: any reviews, don't go any further. That is the phone
Speaker 1: to get. The zoom on that phone is fantastic. It's
Speaker 1: gonna make your pictures in Alaska. Just pop. I dig
Speaker 1: dig dig the camera on the Samsung S twenty one Ultra.
Speaker 1: I'm not the only one. Everyone agrees in the tech
Speaker 1: world that it is the best Android at this point. Now,
Speaker 1: the pixel might be nice, it might have good pictures,
Speaker 1: but it's not gonna have the zoom that you want.
Speaker 1: And that's why I wouldn't recommend that the one plus
Speaker 1: nine Pro. Yeah, it might look pretty good, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't have the zoom either. In fact, the zoom on
Speaker 1: that phone is not very good. What would I give it?
Speaker 1: It's gonna give it a trash sound, but I couldn't.
Speaker 1: And I love the nine Pro, it's great. But the
Speaker 1: S twenty one, oh gosh, I just I'm you know,
Speaker 1: I had to send it back to Samsung, but I
Speaker 1: really I've been looking at it on Amazon. I've been
Speaker 1: eyeing it because the price came down two hundred dollars
Speaker 1: and I'm kind of like, I really want to get
Speaker 1: one of these things as my you know, as my Android,
Speaker 1: because I just I don't know that the zoom on
Speaker 1: that and the quality is just so nice. Samsung just
Speaker 1: does such a nice job with their processing and it
Speaker 1: makes pictures. Just all the pictures you're gonna take in
Speaker 1: Alaska are just gonna look so good with that phone.
Speaker 1: I'm jealous. So that's what I recommend you get a
Speaker 1: fifty or is it one hundred times zoom on that phone.
Speaker 1: But reality is ten times is optical, and I think
Speaker 1: that's gonna be just fine for what you're doing. And
Speaker 1: that's as far as you want to go. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: can go further, believe me, but I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: look so so nice. And you're gonna get just so
Speaker 1: many options for shooting with the S twenty one Ultra.
Speaker 1: That is gonna be a great, great upgrade to your
Speaker 1: Samsung S seven Edge. Right now, it is nine to
Speaker 1: ninety nine for a one hundred and twenty eight gigabyte model.
Speaker 1: It's weird on Amazon. It's actually one the same price
Speaker 1: for a two fifty six, But the two fifty six
Speaker 1: isn't shipping for like a month. So I would say,
Speaker 1: let's see, it's the end of April, you're going in August.
Speaker 1: You want to have this phone for a month, you know,
Speaker 1: just to make sure you're familiar with it. So I
Speaker 1: would say, throughout the month of May, I would just
Speaker 1: do a little search for Samsung S twenty one Ultra
Speaker 1: deals and see what kind of deals you can get.
Speaker 1: You can also trade in your Samsung Edge and see
Speaker 1: what you get for that. So I would for sure
Speaker 1: trade that phone in. Let's see how much they'll give you.
Speaker 1: I'm going to the website and let's see. So one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty eight gigabyte unlocked, don't forget if you
Speaker 1: really wanna, you know, if you can't add a memory
Speaker 1: card to this phone, so you might consider the two
Speaker 1: fifty six if you're you know, if you're taking a
Speaker 1: ton of videos in four K. Let's see Phantom Silver.
Speaker 1: I kind of like the Phantom Black, but the Phantom
Speaker 1: I love the Phantom titanium. That's that's pretty slick looking.
Speaker 1: Maybe since it's get by June first. Okay, let's see
Speaker 1: how much they'll give you for your trade in. So
Speaker 1: Samsung S seven got to go all the way down
Speaker 1: to the bottom of the list here because it's kind
Speaker 1: of kind of aging. One hundred bucks so not too much.
Speaker 1: But honestly, what are you gonna do with that S
Speaker 1: seven when you're done? Okay, I picked a phone that's
Speaker 1: way too expensive, So let's go with the silver, which
Speaker 1: is one eight. Well I thought it was nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 1: Why is it saying one ninety nine? Oh? Maybe Amazon's
Speaker 1: cheaper right now, so yeah, hm, that's odd. Anyway, check Amazon.
Speaker 1: Check Samsung dot com and check S twenty one ultra
Speaker 1: deals on Google as a search and hit the news
Speaker 1: section and see if anyone's blogging about some deals that
Speaker 1: I may not know about, or deals that are not
Speaker 1: yet readily available. But good question. Enjoy the trip. Okay, uh,
Speaker 1: this is a great article from nine to five Google
Speaker 1: from Ben shon Love Love love this tip, and I
Speaker 1: guess someone shared it on I don't know somewhere. Steph Hippo,
Speaker 1: site reliability manager at Google, shared this little tip that
Speaker 1: I have been I never knew I needed it, and
Speaker 1: I knew I wanted to do this, I just never
Speaker 1: really took the time to do it. But you know,
Speaker 1: when you go to a website and of course you
Speaker 1: get blasted with that whole like GDPR thing where you
Speaker 1: have to except old cookies. I mean, oh so annoying.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you have to do that on every website.
Speaker 1: But then I'm kidding so excited, I'm hitting the mic.
Speaker 1: Then you get blasted with this whole. Can we send
Speaker 1: you notifications? No, I don't want notifications from any website.
Speaker 1: No no, no, you're not my phone. I don't need
Speaker 1: notifications from you on especially if you're on an Android
Speaker 1: and it's sending you notifications, and then on your desktop
Speaker 1: you're getting notifications. No no, no. So here's what you do.
Speaker 1: You go into Chrome and this is I think for
Speaker 1: the desktop, but you go into desktop Settings, Site settings,
Speaker 1: notifications and turn every thing off you can turn off.
Speaker 1: There's a global setting. Alternatively, you can just type Chrome
Speaker 1: colon slash slash settings, slash content, slash notifications into your
Speaker 1: address bar and turn it off from there. I did
Speaker 1: this this morning, and wow, my life is so much
Speaker 1: better and I'm not getting bombarded with every website asking
Speaker 1: can we please send you notifications? No no, no, no no.
Speaker 1: Life is so much better without this, all right, So
Speaker 1: if you're on Android, you can do it. You go
Speaker 1: into Chrome Settings Notifications, toggle each site off, or the
Speaker 1: show notifications toggle. Not as clean as the desktop, but wow.
Speaker 1: Thank you Ben for writing this up, Thank you Steph
Speaker 1: for sharing this. But we all need this because I
Speaker 1: don't need no I've seen. It's so funny because you know,
Speaker 1: people say yes to this by accident, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I'm working on someone's computer and I see
Speaker 1: that they get notifications from all these different websites I've
Speaker 1: signed up for them by accident. Next thing you know,
Speaker 1: I'm getting all kinds of notifications from a website, like
Speaker 1: a random site, and I'm like, no, no, no, goodbye.
Speaker 1: Don't need that. Paul asks, Hey, Rich, what's the best
Speaker 1: way to transfer playlists from Spotify to YouTube music? Looks
Speaker 1: like we got a switcher. Thanks Rich, appreciate it. I
Speaker 1: did a quick search and found a website called Sounddiz
Speaker 1: sounddiz dot com or I guess sounds dot com, sound
Speaker 1: sounds dot com. I don't know. But you can transfer
Speaker 1: from anything YouTube to YouTube, YouTube to Apple music, Apple
Speaker 1: Music to Spotify, Spotify to Deezer Dezer to Napster, Napster
Speaker 1: to Apple Music. iHeartRadio. They all looks like it has everything.
Speaker 1: Everything is supported, so the plans are free. So there
Speaker 1: are some free plans available and it says convert your
Speaker 1: playlists one by one, so you know, for zero dollars
Speaker 1: you can do playlists and up to two hundred tracks,
Speaker 1: and it includes one sink, so if you want to
Speaker 1: synk between services, you can just do one. But if
Speaker 1: you really want to get the most out of these,
Speaker 1: you have to go with the premium plan, which is
Speaker 1: three dollars a month, build annually, which is thirty six
Speaker 1: dollars a year. That's probably what you want to end
Speaker 1: up doing if you're doing this a lot. I don't
Speaker 1: have a use for this. I don't really care about
Speaker 1: playlists anymore, so I just, you know, I just listen
Speaker 1: to whatever, you know they make on their own like
Speaker 1: hot Country or you know, Chill fifty whatever. I don't
Speaker 1: care as long as it's got the music I like.
Speaker 1: I've stopped making playlists. I don't even bother at all
Speaker 1: in any way, shape or form. And so if you
Speaker 1: still have you know, I know a lot of people
Speaker 1: still have playlists that they craft and they curate whatever.
Speaker 1: If you got it, great, do this, but sound dz
Speaker 1: dot com. And I actually heard back from let's see
Speaker 1: from Paul and he said, hey, Rich, it worked. It's great,
Speaker 1: and it's fast. You can transfer music from any platform Apple, Spotify,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Really appreciate that answer, Thanks Rich. This was
Speaker 1: Paul who wrote in maybe on my Facebook page or something,
Speaker 1: but anyway, there you have it. Someone tried it. Sounddiz
Speaker 1: dot com transfer all your music no matter where it lives.
Speaker 1: If you're still using playlists, which you know people do, well,
Speaker 1: I guess I'm all out of stories for the week,
Speaker 1: which I don't know how that's possible. Oh you know
Speaker 1: what I didn't even talk about. I should talk about
Speaker 1: iOS fourteen point five, you know, so I do have
Speaker 1: a story. So iOS fourteen point five launched this week,
Speaker 1: and there's a couple of things that are notable in it.
Speaker 1: Number one, you can use your Apple Watch to unlock
Speaker 1: your phone, which came in Can I say came in clutch?
Speaker 1: Is that like a term the kids are using. I
Speaker 1: don't know, but I was dropping my kid off at
Speaker 1: school and you have to do this like app where
Speaker 1: you got to like, you know, say that they're okay
Speaker 1: and there's no COVID floating around your house, and so
Speaker 1: I had to. You know, you go on this app
Speaker 1: and you get like a QR code that lets you proceed. Well,
Speaker 1: I didn't realize you have to show it to the
Speaker 1: person when you're dropping off. So I dropped my kid
Speaker 1: off and they're like, oh, do you have the app?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh, yeah, here it is. And I
Speaker 1: went to unlock my phone, but of course I'm wearing
Speaker 1: a mask, so my phone is like. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's gonna you know, I gotta put in my pass code,
Speaker 1: but no, all of a sudden, I feel a little
Speaker 1: haptic on my wrist and boom, my phone unlocks. And
Speaker 1: yes it works because in iOS fourteen point five, you
Speaker 1: can now use your iPhone and your Apple Watch in
Speaker 1: Unison to unlock your iPhone when you're wearing a mask now,
Speaker 1: I will tell you, I am very excited that the
Speaker 1: government has said you don't need a mask when you're outside.
Speaker 1: And yes, there's a million caveats, but the good news
Speaker 1: is I was able to run yesterday without a mask.
Speaker 1: And please don't get me on the whole mask thing. Look,
Speaker 1: I don't want to wear a mask, just as much
Speaker 1: as everyone else out there, but I do you know,
Speaker 1: if I need to, if I'm in a place where
Speaker 1: they say you have to, I will wear it. I'm
Speaker 1: not fighting it. I'm not saying it dumb whatever. It's
Speaker 1: just the rules of the land right now, and I'm
Speaker 1: following them. And so the good news is that La,
Speaker 1: and you know, the US government has said that you
Speaker 1: don't need a mask when you're outside, and so that's
Speaker 1: great and fantastic, and so I listened to that. Yesterday
Speaker 1: I went for a run and I ran without a mask,
Speaker 1: and it was glorious. And I kind of forgot what
Speaker 1: it was like to do that. And you might say, rich, well,
Speaker 1: you never needed one anyway, but I know, but here
Speaker 1: in LA you did. And so I just follow the
Speaker 1: rules like a good citizen. And anyway, So iOS fourteen
Speaker 1: point five you no longer need or you no longer anyway,
Speaker 1: it's not a pain to unlock your iPhone if you're
Speaker 1: wearing a mask, if you have an Apple Watch on,
Speaker 1: because it just notices that you have an Apple Watch
Speaker 1: and boom it unlocks. And so how do you turn
Speaker 1: that on? You got to update both your Apple Watch
Speaker 1: and your iPhone so to the latest software on Apple Watch.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that is, but on iPhone it's
Speaker 1: fourteen point five. And then once you do, you go
Speaker 1: into settings, face ID unlock with Apple Watch, turn that
Speaker 1: on and it'll take a second. But now it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: It's just if you have an Apple Watch, it's a
Speaker 1: lot easier to unlock your phone. I know. If you're
Speaker 1: an Android person, you're like rich. This has been around
Speaker 1: forever on Android. It's called smart unlock. Yes I know.
Speaker 1: But Apple, you know they do things at their own pace,
Speaker 1: so yes, we have it. Uh. The other thing is
Speaker 1: this whole privacy tracking so or I guess whatever you
Speaker 1: want to call it app transparency. So now apps have
Speaker 1: to ask if they can track you. And who's gonna
Speaker 1: say yes to that? No one. So now when you
Speaker 1: download an app on iOS, fourteen point five. You run it,
Speaker 1: it's gonna say, hey, do you mind if we track
Speaker 1: you across all the websites that you visit and share
Speaker 1: that information with everyone else so that we can serve
Speaker 1: up better ads and make more money off of you.
Speaker 1: And what are you gonna say? You're probably gonna say no.
Speaker 1: And yes, I feel bad for all these companies that
Speaker 1: now have to deal with this new reality, notably Google
Speaker 1: and Facebook. And I say that a little facetiously. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: they'll figure it out, but it's the end of an era.
Speaker 1: The wild West of tracking folks is over, at least
Speaker 1: on the iPhone, and I'm sure that Android will follow
Speaker 1: suit because you know, if Apple this is a big,
Speaker 1: big advantage that they have, and people are like, well,
Speaker 1: why would I ever get an Android because it's a
Speaker 1: wild West for tracking there. But on the iPhone it's
Speaker 1: all buttoned down. You know, the Android's going to have
Speaker 1: to probably figure something out to make it feel like
Speaker 1: it's in line. So if you don't even want apps
Speaker 1: to give you the option to track, you just go
Speaker 1: into Settings once you've updated to fourteen point five. It's
Speaker 1: Settings Privacy Tracking, and then the option to allow apps
Speaker 1: to request to track, Just turn it off and boom,
Speaker 1: they cannot even ask to track you. That is that's it,
Speaker 1: that's where you want to go. And fourteen point five
Speaker 1: has a lot of other little refinements as well. Siri
Speaker 1: has gotten some new voices. There's no longer de fault,
Speaker 1: so when you first set up Siri for the first time,
Speaker 1: it will say, Hey, which voice do you like? Which
Speaker 1: one do you want to choose? And there are some
Speaker 1: more diverse options there, so you can choose one of
Speaker 1: those to your liking. What else, Yeah, she's no longer
Speaker 1: or I should say, it is no longer defaulting to
Speaker 1: a female voice, So now you will have the option
Speaker 1: to choose and that's probably a good thing because I
Speaker 1: always thought it was odd that Siri is a she, Like,
Speaker 1: how do we know? You know, like, just pick what
Speaker 1: you like and go with it. So that's that. What
Speaker 1: else is in there, Let's see fourteen point five little
Speaker 1: things here and there. I've noticed they've kind of cleaned
Speaker 1: some things up, They've kind of you know, fixed some bugs,
Speaker 1: made some things nicer. But that's fourteen point five in
Speaker 1: a nutshell. I would update it because there are some
Speaker 1: things that do really improve upon Okay, now to another. Oh, okay,
Speaker 1: this is not really a question. This is more of
Speaker 1: a comment to rich Ta says, hey, which, how about
Speaker 1: doing some stories on Android products? Apple? Apple, Apple? It's
Speaker 1: grown tiresome. Ta, I know, I hear you. But what
Speaker 1: am I supposed to do? I mean, what am I
Speaker 1: supposed to do? I don't want to go off right now,
Speaker 1: But the reality is, I do Android stuff. I do
Speaker 1: Apple stuff. I do Android stuff, I do Apple stuff.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow my story on KTLA is Samsung. When Apple comes
Speaker 1: out with their stuff, I do Apple stuff. And the
Speaker 1: reality is, I'll just be completely honest. When I do
Speaker 1: Apple stuff, it does better. There clearly are more Apple
Speaker 1: folks in my listening and viewing world than there are Android,
Speaker 1: because when I do Apple, it really does well. And
Speaker 1: when I do Android it's fine. I don't get as
Speaker 1: much feedback, I don't get as much views, I don't
Speaker 1: get as many clicks. But I love Android. Don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong. I love Android. In fact, I've said this,
Speaker 1: I really enjoy the Android operating system. But there's a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff I appreciate about Apple, and I think
Speaker 1: Apple does a lot of things better, and I think
Speaker 1: Android does a lot of things better. So it's not
Speaker 1: a war, it's not a race. It's just options. And
Speaker 1: so the reality is there are lots of options out there.
Speaker 1: I don't tell people which one they should choose unless
Speaker 1: you ask me, and I'll give you the best option
Speaker 1: for your situation. But Ta, I'm not sitting here trying
Speaker 1: to do more Apple or trying to do more Android.
Speaker 1: I'm just doing kind of what the market dictates dictates.
Speaker 1: And when Apple comes out with stuff, I'll gladly cover it.
Speaker 1: When Google comes out with stuff, I'll cover it. When
Speaker 1: Samsung comes out with stuff, I'll cover it. When TCL
Speaker 1: comes out with stuff, I'll cover it. So it's just
Speaker 1: kind of the EBB and flow of things when it's
Speaker 1: an Apple event, like it was probably when you wrote me,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna be talking about Apple stuff for
Speaker 1: a bit because you've got the cycle of Apple stuff
Speaker 1: is announced and then we go hands on, and then
Speaker 1: I get more hands on and I talk about it.
Speaker 1: Same thing with Android. So I hope that you know
Speaker 1: you understand that, and that's just the reality of what's
Speaker 1: happening here. All right, let's do one more segment or
Speaker 1: one more question, I should say, all right, Kathy says, Hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: I'm hoping you can help. I watched your segment a
Speaker 1: few days ago about an app to help teachers. It's
Speaker 1: called Overviewer. It's exactly what I've needed, so I purchased
Speaker 1: the stand for my phone and of course just went
Speaker 1: to the site to download it and darn it is
Speaker 1: for Apple products only and I'm Android. Do you have
Speaker 1: any suggestions for another app? I've been using Zoom and
Speaker 1: Canvas to teach for the past year. I've been able
Speaker 1: to integrate more technology for my students. Tomorrow, I'm teaching
Speaker 1: them how to sew online. I thought this would be
Speaker 1: perfect and helping me come up with questions while we're
Speaker 1: on Zoom, so I have them out. I have a
Speaker 1: smartphone from Samsung, and I'd like to hook up my
Speaker 1: camera as a video monitor to my computer so I
Speaker 1: can share the screen for my students. Do you have
Speaker 1: any thoughts? Thanks for your help, Kathy. All right, Kathy,
Speaker 1: So you're referring to an app called Overviewer that I
Speaker 1: featured on KTLA, and this is an app that uses
Speaker 1: your iPhone as a camera for a wireless camera Zoom.
Speaker 1: So I showed a little amount that you can use
Speaker 1: and kind of switch between cameras. So if you want
Speaker 1: to show you know what you're reading, or what you're writing,
Speaker 1: or what you're doing, like in your case sewing, your
Speaker 1: hands are free and your camera is right above and
Speaker 1: the kids can see it or the students. I should say,
Speaker 1: now to be fair and back to what TA was saying,
Speaker 1: I said. When I interviewed the developer of Overviewer, I said, oh,
Speaker 1: my gosh, do you have any idea if there's an
Speaker 1: Android version of this? Because I know people are going
Speaker 1: to ask me? And he said no, I don't know,
Speaker 1: and I figured he would be the best. I did
Speaker 1: a kind of a cursory search to see I didn't
Speaker 1: really find anything that was just as good, and you know,
Speaker 1: I left it at that, but I knew I was
Speaker 1: going to get questions about the Android side of things,
Speaker 1: and I don't have a very good answer except I
Speaker 1: think I think this might work. And it's called air Squirrels,
Speaker 1: and air Squirrels is an app that mirrors or reflects
Speaker 1: your phone screen, whether it's iOS or Android or even tablets,
Speaker 1: fire tablets, whatever, it will mirror that on your screen
Speaker 1: and you can use it in coordination with Zoom now
Speaker 1: this is eighteen dollars. And that's another thing that I
Speaker 1: like to recommend stuff that's free. And the Overviewer app
Speaker 1: is free, but it's only for iOS. So my advice
Speaker 1: is if you can find they have like a teacher's resource,
Speaker 1: it says reflector Student. I don't know if that's for teachers,
Speaker 1: but it looks like they have some stuff for education,
Speaker 1: So I would check to see maybe just google air Squirrels,
Speaker 1: you know, teacher and see if they have a special
Speaker 1: deal for teachers. But that's what I would recommend looking into.
Speaker 1: I think it'll work, and I think it'll work with
Speaker 1: your Samsung and I think that's the best advice that
Speaker 1: I have. But the one for iOS is called Overviewer.
Speaker 1: It's completely free. Otherwise, check out air Squirrels Reflector if
Speaker 1: you're on the Android side of things. But great question, Kathy,
Speaker 1: And yes I did try to have your back with Android,
Speaker 1: but I just didn't come up with a free solution
Speaker 1: for that. Ope, that's it. That's the sound of the music.
Speaker 1: That means that's gonna do it for this episode of
Speaker 1: the show. If you'd like to submit a question for
Speaker 1: me to answer, there are two ways to do. Just
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Speaker 1: like Tom, who gave me I think five stars and
Speaker 1: said a tech guy for us non techs. Rich is
Speaker 1: incredibly well versed in all things tech. He gives us
Speaker 1: his real opinions on new and current technology and explains
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Speaker 1: Leave your review at ratethipodcast dot com slash rich on Tech.
Speaker 1: You can find me on social media at rich on Tech,
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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. There are so many ways
Speaker 1: you can spend an hour of your hard earned time.
Speaker 1: I do appreciate you spending it with me. Stay safe,
Speaker 1: I will talk to you real soon. Have a fantastic
Speaker 1: day later