Speaker 1: Amazon has a new Echo and an even better new
Speaker 1: privacy feature. Airport USB ports are they safe? iPhone trackers?
Speaker 1: The Yolo app, How to focus without your phone? Plus
Speaker 1: your pressing tech questions.
Speaker 2: What's going on? I'm Rich Dmiro.
Speaker 1: This is Rich on Tech, the podcast where I talk
Speaker 1: about this stuff I think you should know about happening
Speaker 1: in the tech world. Plus I answer your tech questions
Speaker 1: with the help of producer Megan.
Speaker 2: What's up? Producer Megan?
Speaker 3: You know, just it's Friday.
Speaker 2: It is Friday, Happy Friday.
Speaker 1: Normally we record this on Thursdays, but this week I
Speaker 1: was on death's door.
Speaker 2: Is that what you call it? Or deathbed?
Speaker 4: What do you call it when you're basically knocking on
Speaker 4: my door?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Death was knocking it still is. You can tell.
Speaker 3: And I thought you said you aren't sick.
Speaker 2: Well I'm you feel it's your mentally.
Speaker 1: I feel great. Physically, I am like a bag of ashes.
Speaker 1: Basically I'm about one step away from being dead. But
Speaker 1: you could probably hear it my voice. I feel like
Speaker 1: my mind is just as good as it always is,
Speaker 1: even on all these day quill meds. So yes, I
Speaker 1: am a little under the weather, but I think it's
Speaker 1: the end of it, because we are going to China
Speaker 1: next week and I really do not want to be
Speaker 1: sick for China. So I'm getting over that. So bear
Speaker 1: with me as we get through the podcast. It's going
Speaker 1: to be just as good of a show as if
Speaker 1: I'm not sick. The other thing is, uh, maybe you've noticed,
Speaker 1: but we do have kind of it's kind of a.
Speaker 2: New show this week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because if you look at the artwork, we now
Speaker 1: are officially under the KTLA banner.
Speaker 2: So so exciting. Oh wait, whoops, that's not it isn't
Speaker 2: there clapping? No? Okay? I yeah, as you can see,
Speaker 2: the show is just as good as ever. Don't we
Speaker 2: have clapping? I No? Okay.
Speaker 1: Anyway, So if you notice, the show is now part
Speaker 1: of KTLA. So this is kind of a big deal
Speaker 1: for me here at KTLA because I've been doing this
Speaker 1: podcast on my own for a while and KTLA's had
Speaker 1: their eye on it for a while. It's been kind
Speaker 1: of a separate thing. Now it's part of KATLA. So
Speaker 1: there's no more swearing, Megan, no more potty mouth. Yeah
Speaker 1: you got it, no more swearing. A couple of things,
Speaker 1: A couple listeners we have to say goodbye to No.
Speaker 2: I'm just kidding. It's all good.
Speaker 1: So basically nothing changes for you at the home audience,
Speaker 1: but for us it just means that it's like just
Speaker 1: a little.
Speaker 2: Bit more official.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: We have a new host as well, new podcast host,
Speaker 1: not like me, but like I thought you.
Speaker 3: Were actually firing me podcast.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, I just wanted to tell you, Megan.
Speaker 3: She starts on Monday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, no, we have like a new like Art
Speaker 1: nineteen is our new host. So basically now there's like
Speaker 1: all these new analytics, like they're gonna be like like before,
Speaker 1: I didn't care how many people listen right now of
Speaker 1: course Katla is like how many listeners did you have?
Speaker 1: How many downloads? But again, none of this changes for
Speaker 1: me or you. It just changes for like the corporate
Speaker 1: big wigs right like they only care. We don't care.
Speaker 1: We're doing the same thing here. Before we get into
Speaker 1: the questions, Megan, I we've talked about Economy Basic before
Speaker 1: in the show, and I do know you were surprised
Speaker 1: because you're on a flight San Francisco and you booked
Speaker 1: Economy Basic by accident or you thought you were saving
Speaker 1: some money.
Speaker 2: How was it?
Speaker 5: Uh, well, I basically booked this flight thinking like, oh,
Speaker 5: I'm saving money, like it's one hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 5: like round trip, and then the night.
Speaker 2: Before versus one sixty for regular economy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5: And then and I was going to carry on a suitcase.
Speaker 5: And so then when I went to check in, they
Speaker 5: were like, well, you can't check in.
Speaker 4: First of all, check in.
Speaker 3: At the airport.
Speaker 5: So I was like, okay, and then I get to
Speaker 5: the next page and it says and you can't bring
Speaker 5: a carry on suitcase.
Speaker 4: And I was like, uh rich literally just had this happen.
Speaker 3: And so I immediately like told you. I was like,
Speaker 3: I messed up.
Speaker 2: So how was it? I mean, you get out the board,
Speaker 2: you get were you in the middle.
Speaker 4: I end up being like so much more money because
Speaker 4: I had to check my luggage so.
Speaker 2: You had to check like a standard bag could have carried.
Speaker 5: Dollars, and then on top of another thirty dollars, So
Speaker 5: then the ticket ended up being too hundred and ten dollars.
Speaker 4: So I should have just, you know, I should have
Speaker 4: just booked the.
Speaker 1: Regular So our word to you on this podcast, if
Speaker 1: you get nothing else, is just beware of basic economy.
Speaker 2: It is not good.
Speaker 1: You don't get your seat in advance, you can't use
Speaker 1: the overhead, you can't. You know, it's basically were you
Speaker 1: in the middle though you got you didn't get a middle.
Speaker 2: Digit did not get So that's good.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Was it a full flight? Uh?
Speaker 3: Pretty full? Yeah? Pretty much?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: Still yeah, still not good. Let's get into the first
Speaker 1: story of the podcast. This is Amazon launching a new
Speaker 1: Echo Show. And I've not bought one of these Echo shows,
Speaker 1: but they're very popular because a lot of people like Amazon,
Speaker 1: they like the Echo They're in the Alexa world. I
Speaker 1: hate that I just said that because I just activated
Speaker 1: a bunch of them. But the Echo Show five is
Speaker 1: now basically Amazon's answer to the Google Home Hub, the
Speaker 1: small one, not the big one. And so this has
Speaker 1: a compact design five point five inch screen HD camera
Speaker 1: and a built in camera shutter. So the reason that
Speaker 1: shutter is important is because because now this can be
Speaker 1: something that is good for the bedside, right, don't necessarily
Speaker 1: want to have a camera next to your bed. A
Speaker 1: lot of people think that's kind of weird. So this
Speaker 1: has a camera shutter where you can physically see that
Speaker 1: the camera is blocked and it's interesting because in the notes,
Speaker 1: Amazon says, this is kind of a big thing with
Speaker 1: all this privacy. The Echo Show five has a microphone
Speaker 1: camera off button that electronically disconnects both the camera and microphone.
Speaker 1: Now that's electronically, which means it can still be hacked
Speaker 1: into staying on right, whereas a lot of the new
Speaker 1: devices we're seeing have a physical disabler, like the MacBook Pro.
Speaker 1: When you close the cover, it physically disconnects the microphone,
Speaker 1: which means if the cover is in that closed position,
Speaker 1: no hacker can go in with software and reconnect the
Speaker 1: microphone because it's like almost like this and you're breaking
Speaker 1: that connection, right.
Speaker 2: And same thing on.
Speaker 1: The new Google Home Hub, Nest Max whatever they call it,
Speaker 1: that has a physical disconnection. So if you turn off
Speaker 1: that slider switch, it's physically disconnecting the camera and microphone.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's going to be a huge problem
Speaker 1: with this, But the Echo Show five is ninety dollars.
Speaker 2: It goes on sale.
Speaker 1: It's on sale right now pre order, but it will
Speaker 1: come out in late June, I think it said June
Speaker 1: twenty sixth. But here's the other thing that's really interesting
Speaker 1: about this, and this will come to all Alexa devices.
Speaker 1: But you can now say a delete everything I said today,
Speaker 1: and she will delete all the stuff that you said.
Speaker 1: And coming soon you'll be able to say, ay, delete
Speaker 1: what I just said.
Speaker 2: So if you're like, hey, you know, hey, what's this
Speaker 2: rash on my leg?
Speaker 1: It looks like I'm about to die? And you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't really want my friends or wife to see
Speaker 1: this in my account, you can just say, hey, delete
Speaker 1: what I just said. I always try to think of
Speaker 1: the scenarios when you need this, right, Like, what are
Speaker 1: you asking Alexa?
Speaker 2: That's so bad that like you need to delete? Delete
Speaker 2: everything I said? Forget we ever spoke today.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm like, what like we'll say.
Speaker 2: They probably say a lot of weird stuff.
Speaker 1: But here's the other thing, Like if you were law enforcement,
Speaker 1: wouldn't you be thinking like, hey, can you give me
Speaker 1: a red flag on anyone who said delete everything I've
Speaker 1: seen said today? Like give me give me all those
Speaker 1: accounts please, because.
Speaker 2: We're just curious.
Speaker 3: You don't want to.
Speaker 1: See Maybe you don't want to say that. Yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: producer Megan, Yes, I do you have a question for me?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: So I'm actually going to start off with two similar
Speaker 5: questions that you received this week. The first one is
Speaker 5: from Kelly Burns and then the second one is from
Speaker 5: Donna Monig, and they both have an iPhone six and
Speaker 5: they're looking to upgrade. Kelly asks, I was wondering if
Speaker 5: the iPhone eight or the iPhone XS was better. And
Speaker 5: then Donna she said she can't decide between the iPhone
Speaker 5: X or the XR.
Speaker 4: And she says, I take a lot of pictures. I
Speaker 4: do Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat. I'm a sixty seven year old Nana.
Speaker 4: You're number one fan.
Speaker 2: Wow, thank you, Nana.
Speaker 1: Well, okay, so the questions are very similar. They basically
Speaker 1: want to know which iPhone to get, right.
Speaker 4: They both have an iPhone six and they want to know, like,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 1: I think I don't think they need to go with
Speaker 1: the ten S like I think there or the ten
Speaker 1: S max or whatever or the ten whatever. I think
Speaker 1: they go with the ten R. I think the ten
Speaker 1: R is a From what I've seen in the evolution
Speaker 1: of the iPhone, the cameras did not really get much
Speaker 1: better from the six, seven and eight.
Speaker 2: Even though Apple kind of made it seem like they did.
Speaker 1: I really didn't see the leap until the ten and
Speaker 1: then to be honest, from the ten to the ten R,
Speaker 1: and the ten S a big improvement, like super big improvement.
Speaker 1: So if you're looking at the iPhone you're thinking about
Speaker 1: getting last year's model, like the ten, just go with
Speaker 1: the ten R because you're getting a better camera with
Speaker 1: the ten R than you are with a ten Which
Speaker 1: is crazy because when I thought when the ten came
Speaker 1: out that had a really nice camera, and then I
Speaker 1: used the ten R and the ten S, I was like,
Speaker 1: oh no, this camera is way better. So don't go
Speaker 1: with the eight, don't go with the seven, go definitely
Speaker 1: go with the ten R. And it's a good price
Speaker 1: point too, So I think that that's probably your best
Speaker 1: bet for most people. I think that the iPhone ten
Speaker 1: R is your best solution. That's one my wife uses.
Speaker 1: She's very happy with that. She's a very standard iPhone user.
Speaker 1: Takes a couple of pictures a day, you know, not
Speaker 1: like a you know, but this grandma is saying that
Speaker 1: she likes you know, Instagram and all that stuff.
Speaker 3: Snapchat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she on Snapchat. She says, she said she did
Speaker 2: really I know, wow, Okay, snapshot.
Speaker 3: Is with it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she knows what's up.
Speaker 1: So I think the ten R is your best bet
Speaker 1: for the average person and trade in your old phone
Speaker 1: and Apple will give you some money towards your new
Speaker 1: one if you don't need it. iPhones are great because
Speaker 1: you can always resell them on the secondary market eBay.
Speaker 1: Obviously you're going to get the most for your old phone.
Speaker 1: But if you just want something that's easy, just bringing
Speaker 1: it to the Apple store and they'll give you like
Speaker 1: a couple hundred bucks for it, probably like one hundred
Speaker 1: dollars for that one, maybe one twenty five. Speaking of Apple,
Speaker 1: they did introduce a new iPod Touch. This is kind
Speaker 1: of a head scratcher because who needs an iPod Touch
Speaker 1: these days? Right, And it's one hundred ninety nine dollars
Speaker 1: for starting price. The real difference here, there's two things
Speaker 1: that they've changed. Number One, they added a new chip,
Speaker 1: the A ten fusion chip, which means that this device
Speaker 1: is faster, and because it's faster, it can now handle
Speaker 1: group FaceTime and augmented reality, so if you want to
Speaker 1: do that on your iPod Touch, you can do that now.
Speaker 1: The other thing is it has a new capacity two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty six gigabytes, which again, this is a
Speaker 1: tiny screen, Like, what are you doing on this thing
Speaker 1: that you need two hundred and fifty six gigs. They
Speaker 1: don't even say the screen size on the press release
Speaker 1: because it's so embarrassingly small. But again, and by the way,
Speaker 1: that two hundred and fifty six gig model is three
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety nine dollars. You're talking, you're getting up
Speaker 1: into like iPad territory. So unless I can't imagine a
Speaker 1: reason for an iPod Touch, but they do have one,
Speaker 1: I guess even with a kid, I'd rather get them
Speaker 1: like an iPod iPad mini.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, like go with the iPad Mini. I don't know,
Speaker 2: all right, Producer Megan.
Speaker 5: Okay, so let's segue into an Apple question, another Apple question,
Speaker 5: and this is about the Apple Watch. Mike Larsen asks, question, Rich,
Speaker 5: is there a smart watch that is every bit as
Speaker 5: functional the Apple Watch with an iPhone but has a
Speaker 5: round face?
Speaker 2: Ooh, interesting, that's a good question. I don't think so. There.
Speaker 1: The Apple Watch, when it comes to like smartphone watches,
Speaker 1: really is the best. I mean, it does such a
Speaker 1: great job. And believe me, I'm not you know, mister
Speaker 1: Apple fanboy over here, like you no I'm trying to
Speaker 1: be fair about things, but I when I come across
Speaker 1: something that's.
Speaker 2: Really good, like the Apple Watch is really good.
Speaker 1: Like I have a Fitbit Versa on right now, and
Speaker 1: this thing just depresses me, Like it's so it's so
Speaker 1: sad compared to the Apple Watch, Like I love this thing,
Speaker 1: but it's just not the Apple Watch.
Speaker 2: Like the Apple Watch.
Speaker 1: Has a lot of great functionality on it. Not to
Speaker 1: knock the Fitbit Versa if you know, I did a
Speaker 1: great review on it, because it's a great it's a
Speaker 1: great alternative to the Apple Watch. But he's asking for
Speaker 1: a device that does everything that the Apple Watch does,
Speaker 1: which is really tough because there's a lot of apps
Speaker 1: for it. You can control so many things on it.
Speaker 1: The only thing I'd say is similar in like a
Speaker 1: very roundabout way is the Samsung Galaxy Watch, which is
Speaker 1: their latest watch. Actually sorry, that's not their latest one.
Speaker 1: The uh it's always get I always mess up the
Speaker 1: name on this thing. This is what happens when companies
Speaker 1: don't send me stuff to try out because I forget,
Speaker 1: Like if I just see it at like an event
Speaker 1: and I never get to play with it at home,
Speaker 1: I kind of forget about it. But it's the Galaxy
Speaker 1: Watch Active. And okay, sorry to Samsung. They actually did
Speaker 1: offer to send me one and I said don't because
Speaker 1: I'm not I don't have time to review it right now.
Speaker 1: But it's called the Galaxy so I take that back.
Speaker 1: But this is the Galaxy Watch Active, and it is
Speaker 1: a beautiful device as a really nice round face. We
Speaker 1: saw this at the Samsung event and again, it will
Speaker 1: work with iOS. It just won't be pretty, you know,
Speaker 1: it'll it'll do your basic functionality. But if you really want,
Speaker 1: like the way that the iOS operating system is, if
Speaker 1: you want things to work properly, you have to use
Speaker 1: Apple products and that's kind of the reality here. It'll work,
Speaker 1: but it's just not going to be that good. So
Speaker 1: it does do everything you need. It keeps track of
Speaker 1: all your stuff. Let me just make sure that it
Speaker 1: still works with iOS, because yeah, it does. iPhone five
Speaker 1: and above iOS nine. I mean, that's that's basically your
Speaker 1: best next bet is the Galaxy Watch Active. It's two
Speaker 1: hundred dollars, really nice design. It looks like a real watch,
Speaker 1: but again it's not an Apple watch, and it doesn't
Speaker 1: have a lot of the functionality that the Apple Watch
Speaker 1: is gonna have, especially when you're syncing it with an iPhone.
Speaker 2: Does that make sense?
Speaker 3: Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: Okay, So there's this big article. My old producer, actually,
Speaker 1: Vanessa sent this to me. She actually tweeted me and said, hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: I saw this on Forbes.
Speaker 2: Is this true?
Speaker 1: And she was way ahead of the curve because a
Speaker 1: lot of other people sent this article to me as well,
Speaker 1: and I talked about on the radio this week and
Speaker 1: the article headline is why you should never use airport
Speaker 1: USB charging stations.
Speaker 2: Now have you heard of Forbes?
Speaker 3: You mean, like the news?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, So they have historically been a very nice,
Speaker 1: like kind of historic like old school media site, right,
Speaker 1: like old school magazine fair right, this their website. Throw
Speaker 1: all that out the window, Like they just go for
Speaker 1: clickbait one hundred percent. Like they just let everyone contribute
Speaker 1: to their website. Anyone can write anything. And man, I
Speaker 1: think this medicine is really just bringing out the honesty and.
Speaker 3: Tell it how it is.
Speaker 1: But the reality is, like I look at every Forbes
Speaker 1: article and I'm like, this is bs because it's just
Speaker 1: clickbait like ninety nine percent of the time. And you
Speaker 1: can always tell when an article is clickbait by the
Speaker 1: way they write the headline, and so instead of giving
Speaker 1: you good detailed information in the headline, they just try
Speaker 1: to get you to click to find the information in
Speaker 1: the article.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: So this article is why you should never use airport
Speaker 1: USB charging stations, and it's like, oh, that's interesting, I
Speaker 1: want to know, right, Like ry, so I click the article.
Speaker 1: I read it. It's an interview with a security person
Speaker 1: at IBM Security. So already they're trying to sell you
Speaker 1: know security, right. Their their job is to make you scared. Right,
Speaker 1: So let's put it this way. I've been in airports
Speaker 1: around the world and never once have I been like,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't plug my phone in there because it's going
Speaker 1: to sap all of my data off my phone, right, Like,
Speaker 1: give me a break in the airport.
Speaker 2: It's you're gonna be fine.
Speaker 1: But the reality is she does bring up some good
Speaker 1: things and the bigger point, and I'm not just knocking
Speaker 1: Forbes or knocking this article or this writer, but I
Speaker 1: am just saying like, you should always be hyper aware
Speaker 1: of any sort of security breach or potential security breach
Speaker 1: in anything that you do with technology. So if you're
Speaker 1: hopping on a Wi Fi network, or if you're plugging
Speaker 1: something in, or god forbid, you're using the computer in
Speaker 1: the lobby at the air at the hotel, which I
Speaker 1: would never do that in a million years, don't ever
Speaker 1: do that.
Speaker 2: So those places, yes, you have to think.
Speaker 1: About this stuff, But the reality is nine times out
Speaker 1: of ten, if you plug your phone into a USB
Speaker 1: port at the airport, you're probably gonna be just fine.
Speaker 1: But they're saying that this is a major security issue
Speaker 1: because when you plug your phone in, there's there could
Speaker 1: be malware on that port that someone popped in there,
Speaker 1: somehow loaded it on there, and it's putting it on
Speaker 1: your phone, and then it's basically sending all your data
Speaker 1: of your phone to like a malicious third part.
Speaker 2: The chance of that happening very slim. Right.
Speaker 1: There may be some countries where this kind of stuff happens,
Speaker 1: especially if you're in like the CIA or something, but
Speaker 1: for the average person plugging at lax like at the armrest,
Speaker 1: probably not gonna happen.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The other reason I say that this is not that
Speaker 1: big of a deal is because on the iPhone, when
Speaker 1: you plug your iPhone into a new device, you've probably
Speaker 1: seen this screen before. It says, do you want to
Speaker 1: trust this device? Have you ever seen that where it's like,
Speaker 1: do you want to trust this computer?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: That was added recently to iOS, and again it's like
Speaker 1: an extra security precaution because it's saying, hey, we might
Speaker 1: be exchanging some data here, like are you aware of that?
Speaker 1: Like you trust this computer? And that was put in
Speaker 1: for circumstances like this where you might plug your phone
Speaker 1: into something and on the back end they just go, oh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get all her pictures right now. So Apple
Speaker 1: is smart and they did that, and you know, they
Speaker 1: basically made that little note that you have to say, yes,
Speaker 1: I trust this now. The other thing they do recommend
Speaker 1: if you're really worried about this is a ten dollars
Speaker 1: device called a juice Jack Defender, And this is a
Speaker 1: little tiny dongle that goes beatred between your cord and
Speaker 1: the port and it basically makes it so that no
Speaker 1: data can pass through, only power passes through, and so
Speaker 1: to charge your phone. But if there's like malware on
Speaker 1: the other end, it's not going to affect your phone.
Speaker 1: So long story short, always be hyper sensitive to the
Speaker 1: security issues around you, but use common sense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1: Let's get some level headedness in here, Megan, why don't
Speaker 1: you give me another pot?
Speaker 5: Okay, So our next question is from Facebook. It's from
Speaker 5: Joe Sett McGlynn and she asks, my kids are going
Speaker 5: to Italy and they were told to use WhatsApp.
Speaker 2: Is that a problem? No, WhatsApp is.
Speaker 1: WhatsApp is a very standard app that is used for
Speaker 1: communication around the world. And WhatsApp is actually owned by Facebook.
Speaker 1: So Facebook runs Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram. Did I miss
Speaker 1: anything Facebook? So no, WhatsApp is very standard in other countries.
Speaker 1: If you're in Europe, WhatsApp is all the rage, if
Speaker 1: you're in the US, it's all I Message, and if
Speaker 1: you're in Asia, it's all WhatsApp. So, like I said,
Speaker 1: we're going to China next week, we are going to
Speaker 1: be using we Chat the whole time basically, and there's
Speaker 1: different things I like about them. So Facebook Messenger, what
Speaker 1: I don't like is that it's linked to your Facebook.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be, but you know, it's weird,
Speaker 1: Like when I message you, it comes up as like
Speaker 1: my full formal Facebook name on Facebook Messenger, which is
Speaker 1: kind of weird. Yeah, and then with we Chat, what
Speaker 1: I really like about it is that it's just a
Speaker 1: QR code. So if you want to link up with
Speaker 1: someone anywhere, you don't need to figure out their.
Speaker 2: Phone number or their username.
Speaker 1: You literally just hold your phone over their screen with
Speaker 1: your QR code and it links you up and you
Speaker 1: can now chat. And so that makes it really easy,
Speaker 1: especially when you're in Asia, different language barriers and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, where you can chat with someone you know
Speaker 1: simply and link up with them. And you might be thinking, well, rich,
Speaker 1: if we have a language barrier, how would we be
Speaker 1: talking to each other. Well, sometimes you just might meet
Speaker 1: up your person and be like, Okay, when's the party
Speaker 1: tonight or whatever, and like they'll just text you like
Speaker 1: some information, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Oh okay, got it?
Speaker 1: Like you don't always need to have like a full
Speaker 1: fledged conversation, you know, yeah, or they might send you
Speaker 1: more information or a.
Speaker 4: Picture they just translated themselves.
Speaker 1: Depends, Yeah, I mean, and you could you know, you
Speaker 1: can always copy and paste. Or they might speak a
Speaker 1: little bit of English sometimes you know, and they can
Speaker 1: you know, or you might speak a little bit of
Speaker 1: probably not Chinese.
Speaker 3: I didn't tell you I speak Chinese.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was wondering you've been you've been working on that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, language, so WhatsApp is just fine. I wish this
Speaker 1: is my wish for all of the world. I just
Speaker 1: wish there was a standard. And I know people say like, oh,
Speaker 1: can't I message just be everywhere? No, my message should
Speaker 1: not be everywhere, like I would like a I would
Speaker 1: like a set of standards for messaging so that these
Speaker 1: apps can interact with each other, because my message is fantastic.
Speaker 1: If the other person's using an iPhone, and you know, megan,
Speaker 1: as soon as I switched to an Android, all hell
Speaker 1: breaks loose, right, and it's just like we were chatting
Speaker 1: on three different screens the other day because it.
Speaker 2: Was so insane.
Speaker 1: So I wish there were some standards that people and
Speaker 1: text messaging is a standard, and so is RCS, which
Speaker 1: is the next standard for texting.
Speaker 2: But nobody has adopted it yet.
Speaker 1: And so until that's adopted in a big way, and
Speaker 1: Apple is kind of like the holdout there, it's just
Speaker 1: not gonna happen because people on iPhone don't even know
Speaker 1: there's a problem with messaging, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: It's funny too because I have a friend who lives
Speaker 5: in London and she's the only reason why why I
Speaker 5: have a What's Up account, and so like I'll text
Speaker 5: her on I Message and she won't respond to me
Speaker 5: for weeks, and then I'll go on WhatsApp and I'll
Speaker 5: be like, did you get any of my I messages?
Speaker 5: And she's like, I don't check I message. So it's
Speaker 5: just hard to like even think that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, It's just it was funny because I was going
Speaker 1: through my wife's phone like I normally do, not just
Speaker 1: kidding me, but I see on my wife's phone that
Speaker 1: she had WhatsApp, and I'm like, wait, you have WhatsApp?
Speaker 2: Like here. It is like all the.
Speaker 1: Time I've like try to figure out how to like
Speaker 1: message my wife because she knows I'm always using like
Speaker 1: a different test her phone, and I, you know, I
Speaker 1: see WhatsApp on there. I'm like, oh my gosh, you
Speaker 1: have WhatsApps to go. Oh yeah, my friend in Rome
Speaker 1: asked me to sign up, so I did. I'm like,
Speaker 1: you sign up for Like I have not asked her
Speaker 1: to do that because I thought it was like so
Speaker 1: complicated to like say.
Speaker 2: Hey, can you get this third party messaging app?
Speaker 1: So when people communication will find a way making exactly.
Speaker 1: So there's an article in the Washington Post this week
Speaker 1: that kind of tells us stuff that we already knew,
Speaker 1: but when you see it written out, it's kind of scary.
Speaker 1: But the writer there, Jeff Fowler I believe, wrote about this.
Speaker 1: He basically hooked up his iPhone to a little monitoring
Speaker 1: app to kind of see how much is being how
Speaker 1: much data is being sent on his phone without him knowing, you,
Speaker 1: like all these trackers and stuff, And he found that
Speaker 1: fifty four hundred app trackers were on his phone.
Speaker 2: So he used.
Speaker 1: He just basically plugged his phone in at night. And
Speaker 1: what happens is when your iPhone is plugged in all
Speaker 1: your apps, it's like a free for all.
Speaker 2: They're like, oh my gosh, we've got power.
Speaker 1: So the operating system on iOS lets them kind of
Speaker 1: do whatever they want when there's power, with limit limitations.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But because you have power, your phone saying okay, you guys,
Speaker 1: if you need to go talk to your servers or whatever,
Speaker 1: go ahead, like Facebook, go talk to your server, WhatsApp,
Speaker 1: talk to your server Google Photos.
Speaker 2: You can kind of refresh your photos whatever you want
Speaker 2: to do.
Speaker 1: Because it knows it has a power source, right, it
Speaker 1: doesn't want to use your whole battery up by letting
Speaker 1: these things what's called background refresh. When your phone is
Speaker 1: on just a cellular plan, So when it gets on
Speaker 1: Wi Fi and it gets plugged in, does that make sense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 2: Everything just goes to down.
Speaker 5: It's really funny though, the way you describe it and
Speaker 5: makes it sound like it's like a little cartoon.
Speaker 2: It's like a little party.
Speaker 3: They go do what you need to do.
Speaker 2: It's like they're all like, yeah, we got like six.
Speaker 1: Hours, yes exactly, that's they all run and they're like, okay,
Speaker 1: let me report back everything I can in these six hours.
Speaker 1: So he found fifty four hundred trackers, mostly in apps Yelp,
Speaker 1: all these all these different trackers sending back data like
Speaker 1: his phone number, email, exact location, digital fingerprint of his phone,
Speaker 1: all these different things. And it sounds really scary, but
Speaker 1: the reality is this is what happens on your phone.
Speaker 1: These are how apps are free. A lot of this
Speaker 1: stuff is just nonchalant. It's like, you know, Facebook wants
Speaker 1: to know where you are because they can serve ads
Speaker 1: in your area, or Yelp wants to know where you
Speaker 1: are so they can say, hey, we found a great
Speaker 1: you know Vegan restaurant near you, and.
Speaker 2: We notice you like Vegan. So a lot of these
Speaker 2: things are like that.
Speaker 1: A lot of it is just tallying the data from
Speaker 1: the day, like Google Maps track your location the whole day.
Speaker 1: Now it's sending it all back to Google so that
Speaker 1: it can put it in your timeline. But it's kind
Speaker 1: of scary when you see it all laid out there, right,
Speaker 1: And so there's no real solution offered up in his article.
Speaker 1: I mean, you could turn off background refresh on your iPhone,
Speaker 1: but you would really severely limit what your apps do,
Speaker 1: so I don't really recommend that.
Speaker 2: But it's just a.
Speaker 1: Great article to read. And again we've said this before
Speaker 1: in the podcast. When you're getting something for free, you
Speaker 1: are the product, right like your data, your stuff, and
Speaker 1: you know, there's little ways you can limit this stuff,
Speaker 1: but not really like you can't limit the trackers. And
Speaker 1: if you go to like a major website, even like
Speaker 1: ktla dot com, there's a million trackers that are looking
Speaker 1: to do different things to serve up ads, to see
Speaker 1: who you are, to you know, track how long you
Speaker 1: spend on the way website, And a lot of this
Speaker 1: stuff is actually useful data because like for me, let's
Speaker 1: say you go to rich on tech dot tv. I
Speaker 1: can see kind of the things that you looked at,
Speaker 1: so that I know, like one of the most popular
Speaker 1: stories on the website, how far down did you scroll
Speaker 1: on this story? I don't really look at that, but
Speaker 1: that's something you could do if you're really smart. I'm
Speaker 1: not that good, but again, these are things you can do.
Speaker 1: How many links did you click on in that story?
Speaker 1: So you understand your user. So the better an app
Speaker 1: is at this, the better they can use that information
Speaker 1: to make the app better, but also make the experience
Speaker 1: better as well.
Speaker 2: Cool, that's your Cueh's right, I know there's no audio
Speaker 2: this time. Let me try to keep you on your toes.
Speaker 5: Okay, So this next question is from Shana and Bob Hi.
Speaker 3: Rich.
Speaker 4: You gave me a great recommendation for a laptop for
Speaker 4: my oldest daughter four years ago. I need one for
Speaker 4: my other daughter.
Speaker 5: She is starting college but is also an artist, drawing
Speaker 5: and painting. She isn't sure what she wants to do yet,
Speaker 5: but I wanted to get her a laptop that would
Speaker 5: accommodate both educational and artistic qualities. Any recommendations mid price
Speaker 5: range if.
Speaker 4: Possible, Thanks so much.
Speaker 1: Well, as soon as she said art and computer, what
Speaker 1: do you think came to mind?
Speaker 4: All right, Well, the surface I was gonna say.
Speaker 3: Like a Microsoft.
Speaker 1: I mean, like like Apple is good for creative stuff.
Speaker 1: But like if you're thinking of like art, which I
Speaker 1: think of like drawing on the screen, like you can
Speaker 1: do an iPad pro, I guess you could do that,
Speaker 1: but that's really expensive. So is the surface surface not cheap?
Speaker 1: But I would recommend probably a surface there's so many
Speaker 1: of them now, the surface I would recommend the Surface
Speaker 1: Studio too. It's like it's like three thousand dollars, but
Speaker 1: it's beautiful.
Speaker 2: It's like a giant screen. It's really nice.
Speaker 3: What about just a MacBook?
Speaker 1: No, because the MacBook you're not gonna be able to
Speaker 1: do any art on, Like you can't draw on the screen,
Speaker 1: there's not really any touch functionality.
Speaker 2: So I don't I don't think that would be very good.
Speaker 1: I really think that a surface pro would probably be
Speaker 1: your best bet. The problem is the surface pro is
Speaker 1: not cheap. It's I think, let's see how much does
Speaker 1: it start at? Surface Pro six starts at eight hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: So I mean, but if you do it over time.
Speaker 1: If you think about if you're using this thing for
Speaker 1: four years, like you said, our last computer recommended was
Speaker 1: four years. You know, it's two hundred bucks a year.
Speaker 1: So if you think about how much you're gonna be
Speaker 1: using this computer. And here's the other thing. If you
Speaker 1: sell yourself short and you get something that's a little
Speaker 1: bit cheaper, like a chromebook or something, you're not gonna
Speaker 1: be able to tap into that creativity that you're talking about.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: If you want to be an artist, you want to
Speaker 1: be able to draw on that screen and to be
Speaker 1: able to sketch things, and to be able to, you know,
Speaker 1: flex your creativity. And I just don't think that another
Speaker 1: computer is going to enable you to do that without
Speaker 1: a touch screen. So my advice, I would say look
Speaker 1: into two things. I look at the surface pro six.
Speaker 1: You can look at the surface Go, which is a
Speaker 1: much cheaper version. It starts at four hundred dollars, but
Speaker 1: it's just not gonna be as fast, but you do
Speaker 1: get a lot of the same functionality. So that's four
Speaker 1: hundred bucks. Maybe try that, you know, And I'd also
Speaker 1: look at the surf the UH. I'd go for either
Speaker 1: an IP had Pro or maybe just an iPad because
Speaker 1: now they have pencil support on those as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but with both of these things, you're going to be
Speaker 1: buying the device, which is basically a tablet, and then
Speaker 1: you have to buy all the accessories.
Speaker 2: Which is the pen which is the keyboard case.
Speaker 1: You know, So you're looking at a couple hundred dollars
Speaker 1: over the price tag. It adds up, It adds up,
Speaker 1: It adds up quickly. Story we did this week on
Speaker 1: KTLA is about the Yolo app and Megan, you were
Speaker 1: very instrumental in helping us set this up because you
Speaker 1: helped us find the teens to talk to. So I
Speaker 1: saw an article about this app, which is an app
Speaker 1: that sits on top of Snapchat, and Snapchat is kind
Speaker 1: of all but dead for a lot of people, but
Speaker 1: people still use it.
Speaker 2: They still have I think like three hundred million or
Speaker 2: four hundred million users. You still use it on a
Speaker 2: daily basis.
Speaker 4: Yeah, kind of, but not as much as Instagram.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Instagram Stories really kind of took over, but there
Speaker 1: are some hardcorees that are still on Yolo or on
Speaker 1: a Snapchat that are still checking on a daily basis
Speaker 1: just to see what their friends are doing or whatever,
Speaker 1: or you don't want to miss that streak.
Speaker 2: Do you have a streak with anyone right now?
Speaker 3: I have streaks my friends.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, got to keep up the streak.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So Yolo is an app that sits on top of
Speaker 1: uh Snapchat, and what it does is it's basically an
Speaker 1: anonymous Q and A app. So we did the story
Speaker 1: about what parents kind of need to know about this.
Speaker 1: The reality is these Q and A apps are very
Speaker 1: quick to come to market, and they're very quick to
Speaker 1: crash and burn. So they come out and they're popular
Speaker 1: for six months and you never hear about them again.
Speaker 2: There's been so many in the past.
Speaker 1: So I remember doing a story here at Katla where
Speaker 1: they came to my house to interview me like five
Speaker 1: years ago about that one. It was called like I
Speaker 1: think it was yik yak or something or oh yeah
Speaker 1: it yak that sounds It was like, I mean, there's
Speaker 1: been so many of them.
Speaker 2: What was yak like the same thing? You just go
Speaker 2: on It was just an app and you go on.
Speaker 4: Wait, was that related to like colleges?
Speaker 2: Yes, I had that.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, yes, I remember that so well.
Speaker 3: We used to use that all the time.
Speaker 2: Totally.
Speaker 1: We used to write the Weirdest Yes, so this was
Speaker 1: back in twenty thirteen, and you could call yes and
Speaker 1: you can comment, and of course it was all anonymous.
Speaker 2: Anyway, what happens with anonymous messaging apps.
Speaker 1: You think it's gonna be great, right, You find you
Speaker 1: know the person you have a crush on and.
Speaker 2: They tell you, yes, it's me.
Speaker 1: Or you figure out you know something that you wanted
Speaker 1: to know that you you know, people think you're beautiful
Speaker 1: and they tell you that in this app. But guess
Speaker 1: what people get really mean when it's anonymous and they
Speaker 1: feel like they can say anything. And of course that's
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen with teenagers who are already anxious, who
Speaker 1: already you.
Speaker 3: Know, not hormonal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, there's a lot going on there. There's a
Speaker 2: lot going on.
Speaker 1: So yolo, what you need to know if your parent
Speaker 1: is basically that this will go away. But if your
Speaker 1: kids are using it, it's probably not healthy for them
Speaker 1: because sure they'll get some nice things like I like
Speaker 1: your hair, but the rest of it is nonsense and
Speaker 1: there might be some mean stuff bullying going on in there.
Speaker 1: And again we talked to expert Josh Oakes over at
Speaker 1: smartsocial dot com and he told us that, you know,
Speaker 1: don't let your kids be on platforms or you can't
Speaker 1: be friends with them, which is kind of like that's
Speaker 1: like a very dream way to look at it. I
Speaker 1: think I think that that's tough for most parents because
Speaker 1: kids are just inherently more forward thinking and they're just
Speaker 1: a little bit more ahead of their parents. So and
Speaker 1: they're going to be on some things that their parents
Speaker 1: just aren't on or aren't interested in being on. But
Speaker 1: you can still have an awareness of this stuff so
Speaker 1: that you can maybe have a conversation with your kids
Speaker 1: be like, hey, I know, I know a lot of
Speaker 1: you kids are using yolo these days. Is anyone saying
Speaker 1: anything mean to you?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: Yeah, just like that, just like that, like you know,
Speaker 1: old Grandpa rich Yeah, Grandpa rich on.
Speaker 2: Text, Hey, kids, what about this Yolo thing? Yolo on it?
Speaker 2: You only live once. The teens that we talked to,
Speaker 2: what was your thoughts on them?
Speaker 3: They were awesome.
Speaker 2: They well, they were very smart.
Speaker 5: They were very smart and like wise and they you know,
Speaker 5: they both thought that the app or the ad on
Speaker 5: was you know, fun, But at the same time, like
Speaker 5: you do expose yourself to like potential bullies. And I
Speaker 5: think one girl actually had gotten bullied on like a
Speaker 5: previous app.
Speaker 4: So was sensitive to it.
Speaker 5: And so I think, you know it's you don't think
Speaker 5: you're gonna get mean messages, but you never know.
Speaker 4: It's so easy and.
Speaker 2: Like I'm gonna start that app? What why?
Speaker 1: And Okay, you never know. You never know, might be good,
Speaker 1: might be bad. You never know when you open this.
Speaker 4: If they could actually program one of these anonymous.
Speaker 5: Apps to just like never be mean, like if if
Speaker 5: someone was trying to say no Instagram.
Speaker 1: Instagram does that. So on Instagram, yes, they have filters,
Speaker 1: Yes they have secret I called the Taylor Swift's uh,
Speaker 1: the Taylor Swift filter because she complained to Instagram many
Speaker 1: years ago. And they basically built AI that kind of
Speaker 1: senses when you're saying something mean and it will kind
Speaker 1: of filter it out without even you knowing it. Like
Speaker 1: basically the person that did that post won't even see it.
Speaker 2: Now. On Facebook, I they don't.
Speaker 1: Use that because I get even on my my page,
Speaker 1: which my face rich on Facebook dot Com, slush rich
Speaker 1: on Tech. People are generally nice, but there are some
Speaker 1: negative comments.
Speaker 2: And it's funny.
Speaker 1: Because if write a swear word, generally Facebook will will
Speaker 1: grade out, so I can still see the comment, but
Speaker 1: other people can't.
Speaker 2: But if they write.
Speaker 1: Something mean, a lot of times when you're being mean,
Speaker 1: it's kind of how you interpret it, right, Like it
Speaker 1: may not be mean words, but when you're saying it
Speaker 1: for the context, and that's really tough for AI to
Speaker 1: figure out, right, So sometimes let's just say, like, it's
Speaker 1: really tough, like if you're like, let's say you ran
Speaker 1: like uglyproduce dot com.
Speaker 2: Have you ever seen that.
Speaker 1: It's like they they sell like the produce that's like
Speaker 1: a little bit uglier, so like you know, it's cheap
Speaker 1: or whatever.
Speaker 2: So let's say you ran that Instagram page.
Speaker 1: And you're like, these tomatoes are so ugly but tasty,
Speaker 1: you know, and like, how does AI figure out that?
Speaker 1: Like you're not saying anything mean about these tomatoes, but
Speaker 1: it's just you know, it's like these weird things that
Speaker 1: we have to think about in the tech world. So anyway,
Speaker 1: on Instagram, if you've noticed, most of the comments are
Speaker 1: generally pretty positive because there is some level of AI
Speaker 1: going on filtering there. In fact, I believe, and don't
Speaker 1: quote me on this, but I believe that they're even
Speaker 1: filtering out things like if you write like suicide related
Speaker 1: or bullying related, they will help you get some help,
Speaker 1: like with even if your comment doesn't like get posted,
Speaker 1: they'd be like, hey, do you need help like or
Speaker 1: something like if you write something like a suicide thing,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that's happening, don't quote me on it.
Speaker 1: But if it's not, Instagram get there.
Speaker 5: And even for celebrities, like the comments the you know,
Speaker 5: if you want to read the comments, it's always done
Speaker 5: like kind of people with the most liked their comments
Speaker 5: are the top, so it's hard to find the mean
Speaker 5: comments that are they get blended out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they don't get liked, so which is also that's smart.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, all right, you're up.
Speaker 3: I'm up.
Speaker 5: Okay, So this next question is from Larry hi Rich.
Speaker 5: I love all your shows, watch them all the time.
Speaker 5: My Samsung smart TV has no Bluetooth and no audio
Speaker 5: such as a headphone jack, but I would like to
Speaker 5: use my Bluetooth headphones and speakers with it.
Speaker 3: How can this be done? Thank you?
Speaker 1: So he's got a smart Samsung TV, no Bluetooth and
Speaker 1: no audio out except like the standard stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah okay, So he wants to plug in headphones, is
Speaker 2: that what he's saying, or he wants to.
Speaker 4: Use he wants to use his Bluetooth.
Speaker 2: So a couple things.
Speaker 1: Number One, if you connect something like Amazon fireTV or
Speaker 1: a Roku or an Apple TV, and I think we've
Speaker 1: talked about this on the podcast, a lot of those
Speaker 1: will give you the Bluetooth functionality, but obviously only for
Speaker 1: stuff that's running through that device. Right, So if you're
Speaker 1: watching like you know, Netflix or something like that, like, yes,
Speaker 1: you'll get the Bluetooth and you can just hook those
Speaker 1: up to your Fire TV. If you're talking about everything
Speaker 1: else that's running through this TV, that gets a little
Speaker 1: bit more complicated. But I do think that you probably
Speaker 1: need something like a little Bluetooth transmitter that you would hook.
Speaker 2: Up to the back of the TV.
Speaker 1: Now he said that there are no external like there's
Speaker 1: no headphone jack, there's no RCA out whatever, which.
Speaker 2: There probably is.
Speaker 1: But I think that most TVs, including mine, which my
Speaker 1: TV is a twenty fifteen, it has an optical out
Speaker 1: and so a lot of times you don't even notice
Speaker 1: this on your but it's like this little weird fiber
Speaker 1: optic kind of out that will work and it serves
Speaker 1: as an out. And I looked up on Amazon they
Speaker 1: do have a Bluetooth transmitter with a optical input, so
Speaker 1: it's thirty five dollars and all you do is connect
Speaker 1: that optical input from your TV to this Bluetooth transmitter.
Speaker 1: Then you connect your Bluetooth headphones to the transmitter. And
Speaker 1: this one that I just looked up on Amazon is
Speaker 1: called the Home Spot Bluetooth Transmitter thirty five ninety nine
Speaker 1: and it will basically take the output from your TV,
Speaker 1: pipe it into the Bluetooth pipe it into your headphones.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 1: Now, if you don't have the optical I would check
Speaker 1: and see if you have some RCA outs. Maybe you do,
Speaker 1: but I don't know what model this TV is, but
Speaker 1: I've found that a lot of the older TVs have
Speaker 1: the optical so it's not that big of a deal.
Speaker 1: So again that's why.
Speaker 2: I use mine.
Speaker 1: I've got mine hooked up to a so nose and
Speaker 1: so the optical cable is how it gets all the
Speaker 1: audio from the TV, no matter what's playing on there.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like a catch all for the
Speaker 1: TV audio.
Speaker 2: So there you go.
Speaker 3: That's really cool.
Speaker 1: This was a great segue to my next story, Megan,
Speaker 1: because Visio has some new features rolling out to their
Speaker 1: smart TVs. And again, I have a video. My main
Speaker 1: TV is a Visio back in twenty fifteen. I bought it,
Speaker 1: I think. So this does not apply to me, sadly,
Speaker 1: but it does apply to twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2: And above TVs.
Speaker 1: But they're upgrading what they call their smart cast, which
Speaker 1: is they're you know, all TVs. Do we talk about
Speaker 1: this in the last week's podcast. I hope we didn't,
Speaker 1: because I think I might have. I'm gonna look real quick,
Speaker 1: because if we did, I'm just gonna skip to the
Speaker 1: next story.
Speaker 4: We did because we did the story on Friday.
Speaker 2: You're right, okay, I'm looking. We did not stay up.
Speaker 1: You're right, okay. So smart Cast three point zero is
Speaker 1: the newest version. All the TVs now have smart software
Speaker 1: on them, right, And so this is they call their
Speaker 1: smart cast, and smart cast is kind of like that
Speaker 1: home screen that you see if you press the Visio
Speaker 1: button on your TV, right. And so what they're doing
Speaker 1: is a couple of new things. Number One, they're revamping
Speaker 1: the screen so that there's more access to kind of
Speaker 1: the content that you want. So they're adding all the
Speaker 1: apps and things like that. They're also adding watch free,
Speaker 1: which there is a big trend in the US right now,
Speaker 1: a free content for streaming because a lot of people
Speaker 1: are cutting the cord and they're like, now that I
Speaker 1: cut the cord, I just want to watch free stuff.
Speaker 1: Like I don't really care if it has ads or not,
Speaker 1: but I just want free stuff. And so all these
Speaker 1: companies are coming out with like free stuff to watch
Speaker 1: that doesn't require a subscription, like to Be and yeah,
Speaker 1: all these weird like I call them weird, but like
Speaker 1: I personally it's not for me.
Speaker 4: But they can add ads to it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they there's totally ads. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now I don't want to see ads, so I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna watch any of this stuff.
Speaker 2: But people love it.
Speaker 1: Like when I was at Roku, they were talking about
Speaker 1: how their most popular feature is like this Roku channel
Speaker 1: that they have that's like all free stuff to watch.
Speaker 1: I need to try the Roku channel, but it's all
Speaker 1: I mean, you might like it so for fun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I personally love the premium feel of Netflix that doesn't
Speaker 1: have ads, Like really, I just love that. Like I'm like,
Speaker 1: there's no ads like Hulu. I remember for a time
Speaker 1: they would have all these ads and I just hated it.
Speaker 1: I hated that I was paying like five ninety nine
Speaker 1: a month whatever it was, and I was still seeing ads. Now,
Speaker 1: I know they have that premium premium which you can
Speaker 1: pay for no ads.
Speaker 4: This was before kind of like how you like to
Speaker 4: use your iPhone without.
Speaker 2: A case, right, you know, I'm elitist like that.
Speaker 3: I had to call you out.
Speaker 1: I'm so elitist that I just anyway, So watch free
Speaker 1: has a whole bunch of channels, so you can watch
Speaker 1: literally CNN, Paramount Movie Channel, MTV channels, Comedy Central, Spike,
Speaker 1: all these channels like are just literally streaming on your
Speaker 1: TV for free.
Speaker 2: So that's Visio. Now.
Speaker 1: The other big feature that I think most people are
Speaker 1: going to be interested in is Airplay. So you are
Speaker 1: now getting Airplay two on your TV with this software update,
Speaker 1: and so that means you can stream anything from your
Speaker 1: phone that's Airplay enabled, which is a lot of apps.
Speaker 1: But the other thing you can do is show your
Speaker 1: pictures off from your iPhone to your TV screen, which
Speaker 1: is always really tough unless you had an Apple TV,
Speaker 1: and Apple TV is one hundred and eighty bucks.
Speaker 2: This is free.
Speaker 1: So bottom line, if you have a Visio TV that
Speaker 1: was made twenty sixteen or late, or go into the
Speaker 1: software updates and check for this update, and if you
Speaker 1: have it, you'll get airplay too, which is really cool
Speaker 1: with your iPhone, and you also get some new Alexa functionality,
Speaker 1: some new Google Assistant functionality.
Speaker 2: Visio is trying.
Speaker 1: To take on the world with just having everything work
Speaker 1: with their TVs, which is really smart. And it's kind
Speaker 1: of weird because we've seen this progression from everyone was
Speaker 1: getting a smart TV with this proprietary software to now
Speaker 1: all these smart TVs are sort of working with the
Speaker 1: software that everyone has, like Chrome Cast and Airplay and
Speaker 1: all these apps and things. So I think that's pretty smart. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that they're doing that. All right, I've got one minute
Speaker 1: for a question, so it's a quick.
Speaker 5: One, not a question of The last remark is from
Speaker 5: Raymond and I don't know if you want to read this,
Speaker 5: but it go Donut. Finally, here Go Donut, world's most
Speaker 5: portable and universal stand for tabs and smartphones, and they're
Speaker 5: now available at Walmart nationwide, and he just says, please
Speaker 5: help us spread the great news to your community.
Speaker 1: Okay, go Donut yes, this is a little tiny device.
Speaker 1: This guy sent me some a couple of years ago
Speaker 1: and he said it's available at like Facebook and all
Speaker 1: this stuff, and it was too tough to buy, so
Speaker 1: I never really featured it.
Speaker 2: But it's a I have him at home. I've got
Speaker 2: a couple of them.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like it looks like a little ashtray
Speaker 1: that has like little cutouts for your iPad or your phone.
Speaker 4: I think I have one of these two that you
Speaker 4: gave me.
Speaker 2: I give you one of these.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So it's it's a great it's a great little
Speaker 1: stand and it's at Walmart. So if you see it,
Speaker 1: support a local business. Go Donut is the name of it.
Speaker 1: And I think it's like fifteen bucks or so. But
Speaker 1: it's a it's a cute little device that I was
Speaker 1: waiting to kind of tell people about.
Speaker 2: Until you could get them easily. So now that they're.
Speaker 1: At Walmart, my gosh, good job, by the way, you
Speaker 1: did a great job of getting this thing in Walmart,
Speaker 1: because now I mean, if you're in Walmart's cross the nation,
Speaker 1: that's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2: So again, it's.
Speaker 1: Called Godonut dot com if you want to check it out.
Speaker 1: But again, we have a couple of them laying around
Speaker 1: my house, which I used just to like set up
Speaker 1: the tablet or like store my phone on my desk
Speaker 1: so you can see it.
Speaker 2: It just kind of props up your device.
Speaker 1: So all right, we're running out of time, but I
Speaker 1: just want to mention a couple of things. Ktla dot
Speaker 1: com story on focusing. We did this today on KTLA.
Speaker 1: It's a great story. This was inspired by me at
Speaker 1: my kids basketball game. My wife kind of shamed me
Speaker 1: into saying, why you're on your phone and your kid
Speaker 1: is playing? Shamed and I said, okay, And so I realized,
Speaker 1: great little feature on your phone, just turn your phone
Speaker 1: off for twenty minutes at a time and like focus
Speaker 1: on whatever you're doing. I was in the uber the
Speaker 1: other night and I kept checking my phone incessantly. I said,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm just gonna look out the window,
Speaker 1: turned on the downtime and twenty minutes, didn't look at
Speaker 1: my phone and it was great, felt like really nice,
Speaker 1: and didn't talk to the driver, but I just kind
Speaker 1: of looked out the window.
Speaker 3: I like how you had to say that.
Speaker 1: And another cool little feature Google Maps. Now if you're
Speaker 1: on Android, this is kind of cool. Search for a
Speaker 1: restaurant and Google Maps and then tap menu and it
Speaker 1: shows you the popular dishes at that restaurant. I like that,
Speaker 1: So that's kind of fun. It's not on iPhone just yet,
Speaker 1: but it is on Android. So if you have an Android,
Speaker 1: Google Maps, search restaurant, and tap menu and it will
Speaker 1: show you the popular dishes at that restaurant. Do you
Speaker 1: like to order the popular thing or do you not?
Speaker 1: Like when you go to a restaurant, do you research
Speaker 1: the restaurant menu before you go?
Speaker 4: I do it while I'm there?
Speaker 2: Is that bad? So you look up?
Speaker 5: Like let's say, let's say we go to like an
Speaker 5: Italian restaurant. I'll like at the restaurant, I'll go on
Speaker 5: Yelp and I'll just like go through pictures and like
Speaker 5: see what looks good.
Speaker 4: I want to like know what it looks like.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: See, I'm just the opposite. I guess my wife does
Speaker 1: all the research. She wants to know exactly what it
Speaker 1: looks like inside this and that. I do want to
Speaker 1: know what it looks like inside, but I don't want
Speaker 1: to know the menu. I don't want to see what's
Speaker 1: on there. I don't want to see the pictures by
Speaker 1: the way, can we just say that food pictures always
Speaker 1: look disgusting, like when they're on Yelp, Like unless you're.
Speaker 2: Like a true helper.
Speaker 3: That's so true.
Speaker 1: Average Joe takes a picture of like something at his table.
Speaker 1: It looks terrible, like I don't want to eat that.
Speaker 1: So I like to be a mystery. I will ask
Speaker 1: the waiter what's popular. But I also don't necessarily I'm
Speaker 1: not necessarily swayed by that because what's popular isn't always
Speaker 1: what's the best for you.
Speaker 5: But see, sometimes I don't know what like a term
Speaker 5: is for like a type of like pasta, and so
Speaker 5: then I'm like, is this the this kind of pasta?
Speaker 5: And so like the pictures help you know, right, Okay,
Speaker 5: So that's just like I just need to.
Speaker 4: Be more educated than the food department.
Speaker 2: I hear you. That's going to do it for today's show.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening, and please subscribe if you
Speaker 1: haven't done so already. Just search Rich on Tech in
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Speaker 2: I did figure out that.
Speaker 1: We were not getting our feed to Google podcasts for
Speaker 1: the past couple of weeks, like maybe a month. So
Speaker 1: that is fixed and everything we should be firing on
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Speaker 1: write all the tips over again because who knows what
Speaker 1: Apple's going to change coming up this week at WWDC.
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Speaker 1: You can find that at rich on tech Dot TV
Speaker 1: producer Megan Where can people find you?
Speaker 5: I'm on Twitter at producer Megan within h and.
Speaker 1: By the way, you have surpassed your oh followers.
Speaker 2: This was a big deal.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I said when you changed your username you
Speaker 1: would have more followers than the people you're following. You
Speaker 1: now have four one hundred and seventy two followers. You're
Speaker 1: following four fifty nine.
Speaker 3: I know I was right, So thanks.
Speaker 4: Thanks for all the new follows.
Speaker 2: All right, I'm Rich Dimiro. Have a great day. We
Speaker 2: will talk to you real soon.