Speaker 1: Instagram might be bringing back chronological order Life three sixty
Speaker 1: apparently selling user location data. Big time people are spending
Speaker 1: how much on NFTs plus your tech questions answered? What's
Speaker 1: going on? I'm Rich Tomiro and this is Rich on Tech,
Speaker 1: the podcast where I talk about the tech stuff I
Speaker 1: think you should know about. It's also the place where
Speaker 1: I answer the questions you sent me. I'm the tech
Speaker 1: reporter at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles. There's a
Speaker 1: little bit of hesitation there, as if I didn't know,
Speaker 1: as if I hadn't been doing that for eleven years.
Speaker 1: Now eleven years. Isn't that wild to be at one
Speaker 1: place for eleven years? I mean I never really considered that.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just time fly, it really does. I
Speaker 1: mean I've had two kids since I've been working there,
Speaker 1: you know, bought a house, different cars. I mean, a
Speaker 1: lot has changed, but not me. I mean, well, I
Speaker 1: guess I have. But I feel like I'm the same person.
Speaker 1: But I'm not. I mean, I know I'm not, that's
Speaker 1: for sure. I Mean a lot changes in ten years,
Speaker 1: but I've got to say, overall, it's been really fun
Speaker 1: and gosh, now I sound like I'm stopping this I'm
Speaker 1: just introing this show. I don't know why did I
Speaker 1: get on that tangent. Anyway, So the holidays are in
Speaker 1: full swing. I'm sure you've decorated at this point. Perhaps
Speaker 1: I know I did, and I'm kind of one of
Speaker 1: these people that I love once the decorations are up,
Speaker 1: and I don't mind decorating. It's just the idea of
Speaker 1: decorating that really really kind of scares me. It's like, okay,
Speaker 1: it just gives me a little bit of anxiety, Like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I've got to go out into the garage. I've got
Speaker 1: to find all this stuff. I've got to organize it.
Speaker 1: I've got to clip it up. You know. The lights
Speaker 1: I never really understand, Like every year I think I
Speaker 1: throw out my lights, saying oh, I'm gonna get new
Speaker 1: lights next year or new deck. I'm gonna throw out
Speaker 1: this decoration and get a new one next year. And
Speaker 1: then the next year I'm like, now where's that decoration?
Speaker 1: And my wife is like, well, you threw it out.
Speaker 1: Remember of course, you know when the next year comes by,
Speaker 1: and it always comes by so fast, says remember, you're
Speaker 1: gonna buy all the new lights in July. Well that
Speaker 1: didn't happen. But once everything is decorated, I really do
Speaker 1: enjoy it. And this year especially, I really like having
Speaker 1: alex A controlling my lights. I've got all the outdoor
Speaker 1: lights coming on at a certain time. I've got the
Speaker 1: inside lights coming on. The only thing I really wish
Speaker 1: I could do because when I come home, I say
Speaker 1: alex A, Merry Christmas, and that flips on the lights.
Speaker 1: I just wish I could have all my music come
Speaker 1: on at the same time. And I know there's a
Speaker 1: way to do it, but I can't seem to figure
Speaker 1: out how to do it with my sonos. I can
Speaker 1: do it with like the Amazon speakers, but not my sons,
Speaker 1: and I think I could do it with like one sons.
Speaker 1: But anyway, you know, little things. But my dad is
Speaker 1: also in town, which has been really fun. And it's
Speaker 1: funny because I asked my dad when he was you know,
Speaker 1: when he's here, and I'm like, Dad, did you like
Speaker 1: decorating for the holidays when we were kids? And I
Speaker 1: fully expected him to be like, oh no, I just
Speaker 1: did that for you guys, but he was like, oh no,
Speaker 1: I loved it. It was the greatest. I always look
Speaker 1: forward to that and I was like, oh, man, so
Speaker 1: I guess, I guess. I just I don't have the
Speaker 1: spirit as much. I don't know, but I do. I mean,
Speaker 1: last night we watched one of those Hallmark movies, you know,
Speaker 1: those cheesy movies, and it was it was fine. The
Speaker 1: movie wasn't the best one, but you know, it's fun
Speaker 1: to sit there with your tea and you know, we
Speaker 1: have these little I don't know why, we like these
Speaker 1: special little cookies. The are the uh oh, what are they?
Speaker 1: The what's that brand? Pepperidge Farms. They're called Chessman cookies
Speaker 1: and they're just simple, like little I don't even they're
Speaker 1: not even sugar sugar cookies. They're just like cookies that
Speaker 1: are so simple, but they're so fun with like tea
Speaker 1: and watching your movie and you know, so we did
Speaker 1: that and it was nice and it's just like that
Speaker 1: cozy feeling you have right like once a year, like
Speaker 1: let all the the issues and troubles in the world
Speaker 1: drift away for like two hours while you watch this
Speaker 1: show and it's just anyway, it was nice when all
Speaker 1: the lights are on you're just sitting there and anyway, So,
Speaker 1: by the way, Dad's in town, Like I mentioned, and
Speaker 1: it's so funny the impact that I guess television and
Speaker 1: movies have on a tourist when they come to Los
Speaker 1: Angeles because and YouTube, by the way, So I mean,
Speaker 1: my dad knew about everything in Los Angeles and wanted
Speaker 1: to do it all. And I'm like, really, so they
Speaker 1: want like Universal Studios, Paramount Studios, a tour of Dodger Stadium.
Speaker 1: They knew places in the valley, they knew places at
Speaker 1: the beach, and I'm like, how do you know all
Speaker 1: these places? They knew Sunset Boulevard, some little like real
Speaker 1: estate place that we passed on Sunset Bulevard, Like that's
Speaker 1: selling Sunset I'm like what, and they just it's so
Speaker 1: I see why the tourist industry in Los Angeles is flourishing.
Speaker 1: It's because Los Angeles is plastered across every movie and
Speaker 1: TV show and YouTube video around the world, and so
Speaker 1: when people come here, they just want to see it all.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to the first story of the show.
Speaker 1: Instagram might be bringing back a chronological feed. This might
Speaker 1: be happening in twenty twenty two. So I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if you saw, but Instagram head Adam Mosei was he
Speaker 1: was speaking before Congress. I guess speaking is a nice
Speaker 1: way to put it, or this was the Senate rather
Speaker 1: and I guess being grilled is a nicer way of
Speaker 1: putting it, and or the real way of putting it. So,
Speaker 1: you know, Instagram has come under fire, like Facebook and
Speaker 1: like other social media for really having an effect on teens' lives,
Speaker 1: not only the behavior, but also their habits and just
Speaker 1: you know, they're also doing dumb things because of it.
Speaker 1: Not so much Instagram, but I feel like TikTok is
Speaker 1: really an up and coming kind of source of interestingness.
Speaker 1: Let's put it that way with these TikTok challenges. But anyway,
Speaker 1: it's funny because the way I see the laws and
Speaker 1: kind of things happening, like right now, we're so fixated
Speaker 1: on Instagram and Facebook, but the reality is TikTok is
Speaker 1: having a very big impact in these young people's lives,
Speaker 1: maybe even more so than Instagram, especially more than Facebook.
Speaker 1: I mean, Facebook is now I hate to say this,
Speaker 1: but it's for the olds, you know, It's for the
Speaker 1: older generation who have stuck with it or found it
Speaker 1: later than the younger generation. The younger generation moved on
Speaker 1: to Instagram, and then the older generation found that and
Speaker 1: now the younger generation has moved on to TikTok, and
Speaker 1: that's just the way it is. I mean, there's always
Speaker 1: going to be that element of the youngest people finding
Speaker 1: the newest ways of doing things. That's kind of been
Speaker 1: like that forever. But anyway, so Instagram, you know, the
Speaker 1: whole thing about the hearing is just basically, do we
Speaker 1: need regulation for these apps? And Instagram, of course and
Speaker 1: Facebook want to have self regulation, kind of like the
Speaker 1: Motion Picture Association. You know, they rate movies themselves. Nobody
Speaker 1: there's no governing body from the government that rates movies.
Speaker 1: It's the industry association. And that's sort of the model
Speaker 1: that Instagram and Facebook want, whereas the government says, I
Speaker 1: think we need something that's more from the government. And
Speaker 1: of course that's debatable, I mean, depending on how you
Speaker 1: feel about this stuff. But the reality is that is happening.
Speaker 1: It's actively happening. But during this Senate hearing, the head
Speaker 1: of Instagram, Adam Moseerri, who's not one of the guys
Speaker 1: who founded Instagram. The founders of Instagram left a long
Speaker 1: time ago. They were pretty unhappy with how Instagram was
Speaker 1: being changed. It started as just a place to share
Speaker 1: beautiful pictures, and as you know, it's become kind of
Speaker 1: a mini clone of Facebook and so anyway, but one
Speaker 1: of the big changes over the years is this chronological feed.
Speaker 1: When you used to have Instagram, when you logged in,
Speaker 1: you would see pictures in the order of your friends
Speaker 1: posted them from the oldest to or I guess the
Speaker 1: newest to the oldest, and you know that went away
Speaker 1: for an algorithm. An algorithm decides based on how likely
Speaker 1: you are to interact with something, and because of course
Speaker 1: these apps want you to stay on there as long
Speaker 1: as humanly possible, they put stuff in front of you
Speaker 1: that they think you will interact with. And you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of people cry about that. They don't want
Speaker 1: they want the chronological feedback. And now it looks like
Speaker 1: Instagram is going to give people that option. It looks
Speaker 1: like it's gonna be an option to see posts from
Speaker 1: people you follow in a chronological order, and a favorites
Speaker 1: feed from a posts that you designate from friends. Those
Speaker 1: will be higher in the feed. And all of this
Speaker 1: will be optional, of course, you know, and they won't
Speaker 1: make it. They'll probably make it easy to switch, but
Speaker 1: they won't make it apparent to switch. You know, they'll
Speaker 1: they because they want the algorithm. That's really of course,
Speaker 1: they want the algorithm because that makes them the most
Speaker 1: money and it keeps you on there the longest, which
Speaker 1: I guess makes them the most money. The other thing,
Speaker 1: and I don't know, maybe I was on the test
Speaker 1: of this, but they are doing suggested posts from accounts
Speaker 1: you don't follow. I've been seeing this for a while
Speaker 1: and I feel like I actually haven't seen it in
Speaker 1: a little bit, but it was definitely there for a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks and I was like, what are all
Speaker 1: these posts from people that don't follow? Some were cool,
Speaker 1: some were not. I might have found one or two
Speaker 1: people that I've do I do follow, but again, it's
Speaker 1: trying to be more of a place of discovery. If
Speaker 1: you look at TikTok, you don't have to follow anyone
Speaker 1: to use that service, and you can just swipe through
Speaker 1: and swipe through. And that's how reels works on Instagram,
Speaker 1: and that's how they want the main feed to work
Speaker 1: as well. So lots of changes come into Instagram in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, We'll see what happens with the time
Speaker 1: limits and all that stuff. They said they're going to
Speaker 1: give parents away to do time limits for their kids,
Speaker 1: which I think is very very smart. All right, first
Speaker 1: question comes from Lauren. I have a Samsung S eight
Speaker 1: phone with the three G going away. I need a
Speaker 1: new phone. I'm looking to switch to an iPhone since
Speaker 1: most of my other devices are Apple. Will my data
Speaker 1: transfer to the iPhone? Thirteen? Thank you, Lauren. Yes, all
Speaker 1: of your information will transfer to the iPhone. It's actually
Speaker 1: pretty amazing. There is an app called Move to iOS,
Speaker 1: which is from Apple. But have they updated this in
Speaker 1: a while. I feel like they haven't let me see,
Speaker 1: and I'm not even sure you need it. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: they did November nine, twenty twenty one, so you know
Speaker 1: you can do that. But I think yeah, Move to
Speaker 1: iOS is Let's see. Everything about iOS is designed to
Speaker 1: be easy. This includes switching. With just a few steps.
Speaker 1: You can migrate your content automatically and securely from your
Speaker 1: Android with the Move to iOS. No need to save yourself,
Speaker 1: your stelf, your stuff anywhere before switching to Android. It
Speaker 1: will transfer your contacts, your message history, camera photos and videos,
Speaker 1: your bookmarks, your mail accounts, and your calendars. So yeah, Basically,
Speaker 1: it says that your iPhone creates a private Wi Fi network,
Speaker 1: it finds your Android device running Move to iOS and
Speaker 1: it transfers all of your stuff, so pretty simple, and honestly,
Speaker 1: all of the phone manufacturers have made it very easy
Speaker 1: to swap between devices, whether it's Samsung to iPhone, iPhone
Speaker 1: to Samsung Android. You know at large like one Plus,
Speaker 1: also Google Pixel, they've all made it pretty easy to
Speaker 1: kind of sucking suction up all your data from another phone,
Speaker 1: and sometimes with the iPhone to iPhone it's very very easy.
Speaker 1: And you know, with these other cross carriers it's actually
Speaker 1: pretty easy as well, or cross manufacturers, So yes, Lauren,
Speaker 1: will be very easy. Download the move to iOS app
Speaker 1: on your Samsung and then have your iPhone nearby. The
Speaker 1: main thing you don't want to do is get rid
Speaker 1: of your Samsung before you have your new phone, and
Speaker 1: that's in general with any phone that you get. The
Speaker 1: best way to do it is to have your old
Speaker 1: phone physically there. That way you don't have to back
Speaker 1: up everything to the cloud. It will pretty much directly
Speaker 1: transfer things from your phone to phone, which is much
Speaker 1: faster than going up to the cloud and then back
Speaker 1: down to the new phone. Speaking of apps, this is
Speaker 1: a popular app app called Life three sixty. A lot
Speaker 1: of people rely on this app as a family safety app.
Speaker 1: It can show you where your family members are on
Speaker 1: a map. I've recommended it many times. It also can
Speaker 1: help in a car crash situation. There's just a lot
Speaker 1: of family safety features built in, so a lot of
Speaker 1: people rely on this. They've got like over thirty million users,
Speaker 1: a lot of them kids and parents. But this website,
Speaker 1: the Markup has a big kind of an expose on them,
Speaker 1: saying that they are one of the biggest data brokers,
Speaker 1: or they're not a data broker, but they're one of
Speaker 1: the biggest data sources in the world. And this is
Speaker 1: from two former employees who say they you know, they
Speaker 1: worked at Location data brokers and the Life three sixty
Speaker 1: people were one of the biggest sources of data for them.
Speaker 1: Now let me explain how this works. So number one,
Speaker 1: they are not doing anything that's personally identifiable. So yes,
Speaker 1: they're sharing location of all their users and where they are.
Speaker 1: And this can be very valuable because think about it,
Speaker 1: if they've got thirty three million users, they can tell
Speaker 1: which restaurants are hot, they can tell where people are going,
Speaker 1: they can see trends there's a lot of information that
Speaker 1: can be gleamed just from location data. And again it's
Speaker 1: these Life three sixty is not necessarily selling that trend data.
Speaker 1: They're just selling the raw data to a data broker
Speaker 1: who then sells it to marketers. So it's kind of
Speaker 1: a one to two process to get this into someone
Speaker 1: else's hands. And so you know, Life three sixty has
Speaker 1: said that they actually emailed a response from the CEO
Speaker 1: to the markup saying that we see data as an
Speaker 1: important part of our business model that allows us to
Speaker 1: keep the core Life three sixty services for free for
Speaker 1: a majority of users. And that's probably true. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's this old adage in the tech world that you know,
Speaker 1: if you're not paying for something, you are the product,
Speaker 1: you know, especially if it involves data. And we've seen
Speaker 1: that with Google, We've seen that with Twitter, We've seen
Speaker 1: that with Instagram, We've seen that with Facebook. I mean,
Speaker 1: these are giant platforms YouTube that we rely on for information,
Speaker 1: data services, and they're all pretty much free. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: might be some paid level to them, but the basics
Speaker 1: are free. And so they're free because they are either
Speaker 1: selling us ads or they are gathering our information and
Speaker 1: using that to sell us ads, or they're selling that location,
Speaker 1: or they're doing a combination of both. So Life through
Speaker 1: sixty I don't think you necessarily need to stop using it,
Speaker 1: but it probably would have been nicer if it was
Speaker 1: a little bit clearer that they were using data in
Speaker 1: this way. Now, if you dive into their terms and
Speaker 1: conditions the privacy policy, it does say that they use
Speaker 1: the user data that it sells. It does say it
Speaker 1: sells the user data, and it also may share your
Speaker 1: information with third parties in a form that does not
Speaker 1: reasonably identify you directly. And so they're saying it in
Speaker 1: the privacy policy. But who reads that, no one? But
Speaker 1: I think the big takeaway here is you just have
Speaker 1: to realize that your information is being taken in many,
Speaker 1: many different ways, take advantage of the ways to fight back,
Speaker 1: and that the main thing is that when you are
Speaker 1: downloading an app on your phone, there are a couple
Speaker 1: questions that asks you when it comes to user location.
Speaker 1: Number one, it will ask you if you want to
Speaker 1: give precise location or a general location. So always always
Speaker 1: always go with general location, unless it's an app that
Speaker 1: requires specific location, and that would be an app like
Speaker 1: Life three sixty, which is why their business is so brilliant.
Speaker 1: People don't want to see that their kids are in town.
Speaker 1: They want to see that their kids are in their
Speaker 1: specific school. And so if you did precise location, you
Speaker 1: would see their school. If you said, oh, I'm only
Speaker 1: going to give you the general location, yeah, that would
Speaker 1: not be very helpful with an app like this. Now
Speaker 1: with an app like uh Uber, yeah you got to
Speaker 1: give specific location. But there's another way you can do
Speaker 1: it too, is say only while using app. So ninety
Speaker 1: nine percent of the time these apps want to trick
Speaker 1: you into giving your data up twenty four to seven
Speaker 1: so they can always just siphon this off and sell it.
Speaker 1: But again, you got to fight back with some of
Speaker 1: these things. Don't give more permissions than they need, and
Speaker 1: don't give them those permissions for a longer time than
Speaker 1: they require, and really think about it with apps, do
Speaker 1: they need your precise location? No? If they don't, then
Speaker 1: just give them your general location. If you can give
Speaker 1: them one time access to your location, that's even better,
Speaker 1: so that when that app closes out, that's it. They
Speaker 1: don't have access to your location anymore, and they're going
Speaker 1: to nag you the next time. That you open up
Speaker 1: that app. But that's fine. Next time you need to
Speaker 1: use an app, you can just say okay, like a
Speaker 1: you know, even something as simple as a weather app,
Speaker 1: you can say, yeah, just one time use like I
Speaker 1: just want to check the weather right now, close it out.
Speaker 1: It doesn't do anything in the background. Next time you
Speaker 1: open up that app, you can give it the information
Speaker 1: again or location access again. So just you know, these
Speaker 1: little things, these little menus that you kind of go
Speaker 1: past really quickly on your phone, just take a second
Speaker 1: to read them, because there is some important stuff, important
Speaker 1: choices inside these menus or inside these I guess they're
Speaker 1: what would you call them, like a pop up box,
Speaker 1: Like you know, when you're first setting up the app,
Speaker 1: that's when you see it. Okay, Lama Locks says, what's
Speaker 1: the best Android cell phone? Uh? I would say the
Speaker 1: best Android cell phone is the Pixel six. Pixel six
Speaker 1: is going to be your best phone of the year.
Speaker 1: There are many Android phones out there. I absolutely love
Speaker 1: the Pixel six. Now I've been using the Pixel six Pro,
Speaker 1: so I actually don't really have hands on time with
Speaker 1: a Pixel six, But I'm just saying Pixel six because
Speaker 1: it's three let's see six eight hundred. I think it's
Speaker 1: two to three hundred dollars cheaper. How much is it?
Speaker 1: Let me say so. The let's see, the Pixel six
Speaker 1: is six hundred. The Pixel six Pro is I thought
Speaker 1: it was eight ninety nine. Hold on, hold on, I
Speaker 1: gotta see something here. I'm right. I actually just did
Speaker 1: my review of the Pixel six Pro, and yep, I've
Speaker 1: got to I've got to change that. I don't know
Speaker 1: why I said eight hundred dollars. It's it's actually nine
Speaker 1: hundred dollars. I gotta I gotta redo that. But yeah,
Speaker 1: nine hundred dollars uh for the Pixel six Pro, six
Speaker 1: hundred for the Pixel six. So great, great value there
Speaker 1: for either one of them. But I think that the
Speaker 1: Pixel six is probably gonna be best for most people. It's
Speaker 1: got a great camera, it's got great software, it's got
Speaker 1: good processor, it's got that tensor, it's got a great
Speaker 1: voice to text. The main thing you don't get with
Speaker 1: the Pixel six versus the Pro is the telephoto lens
Speaker 1: and a little bit less ram, which means your phone's
Speaker 1: gonna be a little bit slower than the other one,
Speaker 1: than the higher end. But I think for that three
Speaker 1: hundred dollars you're you're doing just fine, and plus you
Speaker 1: get the nice Google software and it's just a great
Speaker 1: all around phone. I can't I can't speak highly enough
Speaker 1: of it, and it's really challenged me with the iPhone
Speaker 1: because I love the iPhone, but this, this Android Pixel
Speaker 1: six Pro, it's one of those phones like I can't
Speaker 1: really put down. I really really like it. I'll have
Speaker 1: my full review soon on TV. But I've just, yeah,
Speaker 1: really fall in love with this thing. The funny thing is,
Speaker 1: you know, Pixel is supposed to have a monthly update
Speaker 1: on the first Monday of every month, and so I've
Speaker 1: been waiting for that for the Pixel six Pro because
Speaker 1: there are some little things that I wish were fixed,
Speaker 1: like the fingerprint reader is really slow. But it's funny
Speaker 1: because the one time that I've been waiting for an update,
Speaker 1: of course they don't do the update on the schedule,
Speaker 1: and they said, oh, we're going to do that update
Speaker 1: in the middle of the month, and so I've been
Speaker 1: waiting for that update and it's still not here. But
Speaker 1: I did my review anyway, and it's still a fantastic phone.
Speaker 1: The only the only main thing, the only main issues
Speaker 1: I have is that the phones are big and the
Speaker 1: fingerprint reader is really slow, but otherwise I think it
Speaker 1: is excellent. Uh okay, Oh, speaking of Android, if you
Speaker 1: have one, you need to know about this. Google is
Speaker 1: confirming an Android bug that prevents people from dialing nine
Speaker 1: to one one. So here's what you need to know. So,
Speaker 1: there was a Reddit user that tried to dial nine
Speaker 1: one one for his grandmother and his Android Pixel three
Speaker 1: got stuck it like wouldn't dial it. Now, that is
Speaker 1: a horrible, horrible scenario. Can you imagine not being able
Speaker 1: to dial nine one? And I've thought about this because
Speaker 1: I test a lot of phones, and you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: I've been out and about with like a test phone.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my gosh, do I have a you know,
Speaker 1: working simcard in this? Like will this let me dial
Speaker 1: nine one? Like, I've thought about this, and it's a
Speaker 1: bad scenario to be in if you need help. So
Speaker 1: this redditor said that it was a Pixel three running
Speaker 1: Android eleven on Verizon tried to dial nine one one.
Speaker 1: And it turns out the problem here is Microsoft Teams.
Speaker 1: So if Microsoft Teams is installed on the phone but
Speaker 1: specifically not logged in, so there could be a various
Speaker 1: scenarios where you install the app. Maybe it was a
Speaker 1: restore whatever, you just never got around to logging in.
Speaker 1: That is somehow interacting with Android eleven and not letting
Speaker 1: you dial nine one one. So Google did look into
Speaker 1: this situation because it's got a lot of play on Reddit,
Speaker 1: and they said, oh, yeah, we did. This is true,
Speaker 1: and so here's what you need to do. They are
Speaker 1: going to fix it, right, there's gonna be a permanent fix,
Speaker 1: but they in the meantime, they said, if you want,
Speaker 1: if you're using Android ten or newer devices and you
Speaker 1: have Microsoft Teams installed, sign out or sorry, uninstall it
Speaker 1: and then reinstall the app. Or you can just uninstall
Speaker 1: the app. So what I would do personally, if I
Speaker 1: don't use Microsoft Teams on my phone, like maybe I
Speaker 1: needed it during the pandemic, I don't need it any
Speaker 1: more on my mobile, I would just uninstall it and
Speaker 1: then restart my phone. The other thing you can do
Speaker 1: is uninstall it, reinstall it, and then make sure you're
Speaker 1: logged in. And the problem with nine one one is
Speaker 1: you can't really do a test call. You know, It's
Speaker 1: not like you're gonna sit there and dial nine one
Speaker 1: one and say, oh, oh okay, just making sure everything's
Speaker 1: working here. Man, I to dial nine one one? Was it?
Speaker 1: It was a it was a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: and it's it's scary when you have to dial nine one.
Speaker 1: I mean it's but I gotta say that the help
Speaker 1: arrived fast. I was impressed with that and it wow,
Speaker 1: but my gosh, that was a yeah. Not not something
Speaker 1: you want to do all the time. So anyway, those
Speaker 1: people that answer those calls are are well trained. We
Speaker 1: went to a facility where they answer those calls, and
Speaker 1: those people are trained well and they're they're very very calm,
Speaker 1: and they're doing they're doing good work. Anyway. So if
Speaker 1: you have Microsoft Teams and you're not signed in on Android,
Speaker 1: uninstall the app, reinstall it, or just leave it uninstalled
Speaker 1: and uh and wait for this permanent fix. All right.
Speaker 1: Next question is from Lance. Hey, Rich, my inbox is full.
Speaker 1: I have one hundred plus emails from br dot com.
Speaker 1: Can I block all emails coming from Brazil on iOS
Speaker 1: and Mac? Thanks? Lance? Yeah, you should be able to
Speaker 1: do that. So what you want to do is set
Speaker 1: up a filter. And I tested this with Gmail. Gmail
Speaker 1: filters are pretty easy. Just type into the search box now,
Speaker 1: I didn't see what kind of email you have, but
Speaker 1: pretty much you should be able to do this with
Speaker 1: any email provider. So you're saying on iOS and Mac,
Speaker 1: what I would do is go to your web your
Speaker 1: webmail interface for whatever provider you have, and make a
Speaker 1: filter for br dot com and just filter all those
Speaker 1: into the trash and or block them whatever you want
Speaker 1: to do. Or you can just maybe block one or
Speaker 1: two or three of these and it might train your
Speaker 1: inbox to block them all, but that's the way to
Speaker 1: do it. Just go to your webmail interface and set
Speaker 1: up a filter or block the domain br dot com.
Speaker 1: The other thing is that these things typically come in waves,
Speaker 1: So if you avoid this for a bit and just
Speaker 1: deal with it. I mean, it says you have one
Speaker 1: hundred of these. I don't know why they all came in,
Speaker 1: but you can just ignore it or block them or whatever,
Speaker 1: delete them and hopefully they should go away. Like right now,
Speaker 1: clearly someone got my cell phone number and I'm getting
Speaker 1: all kinds of text messages, all kinds of spam text
Speaker 1: right now, and it's a lot. But I know that
Speaker 1: they will go away eventually, because they come and go
Speaker 1: in waves, just like the robo calls do. It's like
Speaker 1: these marketers or these spammers get a hold of like
Speaker 1: a new list. They're like, yes, new list of victims. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's text them all. Let's text them all for a week,
Speaker 1: Let's text them all about CBD and all this other stuff.
Speaker 1: And oh no one's responding, Oh okay, well okay, let's
Speaker 1: find a new list. And so that's the way I
Speaker 1: see it happening. And I just kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't take dressed. I don't even block this stuff
Speaker 1: on my phone because it's like it's just going to
Speaker 1: go away. And right now I'm getting a lot of
Speaker 1: phone calls from my own phone number, like the you
Speaker 1: know where it spoofs the numbers around you, and those
Speaker 1: are happening, and so now I've just stopped answering them.
Speaker 1: And the more you answer them, the more they're gonna
Speaker 1: do it. So just just ignore this stuff. That's probably
Speaker 1: the best way to do it. But if you need
Speaker 1: to set up that filter, lance, definitely go into your
Speaker 1: webmail interface, set it up, filter it to the trash,
Speaker 1: and hopefully that should take care of some of it.
Speaker 1: CES twenty twenty two, happening in Las Vegas in just
Speaker 1: a few short weeks. Wow, I mean, I just can't believe.
Speaker 1: It feels like yesterday, yesterday that I was flying up
Speaker 1: to Seattle to host the virtual show that they did
Speaker 1: last year, or I guess this year at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the year in twenty twenty one. So I'm not
Speaker 1: doing the virtual show this year. I'm just attending as
Speaker 1: a regular attendee, and yeah, I'm going. I mean, I
Speaker 1: got my booster shot a couple days ago, so you know,
Speaker 1: I'm all boosted up and ready to go. So you know,
Speaker 1: January fifth through eighth is what when this thing is
Speaker 1: happening They've got Now here's the thing. The reason I
Speaker 1: tell you all this is because CS put out a
Speaker 1: press release with the headline strong Momentum continues for CS
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two in Las Vegas. So the fact that
Speaker 1: they have to put out this press release tells me
Speaker 1: a lot. Yes, there's been a lot of debate over people,
Speaker 1: journalists and exhibitors whether they're going. And from what I've seen,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of people are excited to go,
Speaker 1: a lot of people are not excited or not going,
Speaker 1: And so I think at this point it is a
Speaker 1: toss up what this show is going to be like
Speaker 1: and I'm curious. I mean, I'm right here and it's
Speaker 1: easy for me to get there, and like I said,
Speaker 1: I'm boosted up, I'm ready to go. I'm going to
Speaker 1: cover it, and I'm more curious just to see what
Speaker 1: the deal is. Now, I haven't missed a CS and
Speaker 1: like it's probably going on twelve or thirteen or fourteen
Speaker 1: years at this point, maybe thir I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: been a long time, and so I'm not going to
Speaker 1: miss this one. And this let's see what do they say.
Speaker 1: They've I've got new categories including food, tech, space tech,
Speaker 1: and NFTs. The automotive sector is tracking for record growth
Speaker 1: with over two hundred exhibitors, which is thirty percent more
Speaker 1: over twenty twenty. Wow. And they also said they have
Speaker 1: let's see, twenty four hundred members of the media are
Speaker 1: registered to attend, as well as ten thousand additional ten
Speaker 1: thousand attendees. So they haven't said how many attendees now.
Speaker 1: Usually CS says they have over one one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty thousand. I doubt they're going to have that this year,
Speaker 1: just with everything going on. I mean, there's no look
Speaker 1: if you're not comfortable going, or you can't go, or
Speaker 1: you're still just uncertain. That's totally fine. I mean there's
Speaker 1: no it's not like you have to go because the
Speaker 1: things are not back to normal in a big way,
Speaker 1: especially where I live in Los Angeles. I mean, we
Speaker 1: still have mask mandates here. CS happening January fifth, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two. I will be there. I am so curious
Speaker 1: to see what it's going to be like. It's you know,
Speaker 1: it's I don't know, it's so weird because it's like
Speaker 1: we went from nothing to you know, a little bit,
Speaker 1: to now this is just like a big old show
Speaker 1: and so we'll see. Anyway. I not much more to
Speaker 1: say about that, but I just want to get that
Speaker 1: in there. But they have to put that that. They
Speaker 1: have to put that press release out because there is
Speaker 1: so much uncertainty around this year's show. All right, Michelle says, Hey, Rich,
Speaker 1: quick question, do you know anything about the Superbox S
Speaker 1: three Pro? I was wondering if they're worth purchasing? Thank you, Michelle. Well,
Speaker 1: I have never heard of the Superbox S three Pro,
Speaker 1: but when I get emails like this, I know exactly
Speaker 1: what people are talking about. And Michelle is talking about
Speaker 1: one of these so called black boxes that helps you
Speaker 1: get it all. You can watch pay per view, you
Speaker 1: can watch thousands of streaming videos, you can watch every
Speaker 1: movie from every studio, and it's all for free, free, free, free.
Speaker 1: And guess what, No, I cannot recommend this. It's not
Speaker 1: worth purchasing. No, these things are totally operating in a
Speaker 1: gray to illegal area. And if not scam, total scam.
Speaker 1: Why why deal with all that? No? Uh, if you
Speaker 1: finally get to sit down in front of this thing
Speaker 1: and watch something, it's gonna be from a torrent. The
Speaker 1: video quality is probably gonna be horrible. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: stuff that's ripped off of a movie screen so or
Speaker 1: a Blu ray or downloaded somehow. So just no, just
Speaker 1: go the legit route. Get a fire TV stick, the
Speaker 1: fire TV four K Max, and sign up for legit
Speaker 1: streaming services. And that's the way I recommend going. Why
Speaker 1: I never understood this when the whole kind of bit
Speaker 1: torrent thing was happening, And I know there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people that do this stuff, even with the MP
Speaker 1: three's I you know, maybe it's because I work in
Speaker 1: sort of the creator world as a journalist, where where
Speaker 1: you know, like I do a lot of hard work,
Speaker 1: and you know, now most of the stuff that I
Speaker 1: do is free, which is nice, so people can just
Speaker 1: watch it. But you know, these people work hard in
Speaker 1: these movies, and I get it. Ticket prices are so expensive,
Speaker 1: but like, don't you want to see it in like
Speaker 1: the best possible quality? Like do you really want to
Speaker 1: watch some like ripped version of a movie? Like I don't.
Speaker 1: And so you know, for me, like, yeah, I pay
Speaker 1: for these streaming services. They're of course they're expensive, and
Speaker 1: they're getting more expensive. But at the same time, you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like I don't mind it because I'm
Speaker 1: getting quality stuff and you know, and of course I'm
Speaker 1: doing the right thing. But these boxes, they're just you know,
Speaker 1: one little change and the whole box could be could
Speaker 1: put you know, it might not work anymore because someone
Speaker 1: might you know, make some sort of change that makes
Speaker 1: it so it doesn't work. I mean, there's not gonna
Speaker 1: be any tech support for these things. If it doesn't work,
Speaker 1: you just spend one hundred and fifty bucks where ever
Speaker 1: these things go for, and it it's like, what are
Speaker 1: you going to do? Get a refund from some random
Speaker 1: third party? Website that sold you this thing, Like, no,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be totally out of luck. So I don't
Speaker 1: like these things. I don't want you to buy one,
Speaker 1: nor do I think you should, and just go through
Speaker 1: the legitimate means of acquiring these videos and movies and
Speaker 1: shows and streaming services. And I think that that's the
Speaker 1: best way to do it. So I know I'm a
Speaker 1: goodie two shoes. What can I say? You've probably heard
Speaker 1: of NFTs. These are non fungible tokens. And there's some
Speaker 1: new data out of a website called chain Analysis, and
Speaker 1: they said that folks have spent in twenty twenty one
Speaker 1: almost twenty seven billion dollars worth of cryptocurrency, So twenty
Speaker 1: seven billion dollars in twenty twenty one on NFTs. What
Speaker 1: is an NFT? An NFT is basically a digital collectible.
Speaker 1: This can be an image, it can be a video,
Speaker 1: it can be audio. In some cases, it can be
Speaker 1: a physical object that's tied to a virtual object or
Speaker 1: a digital object. These are built on the blockchain Ethereum
Speaker 1: blockchain to be specific, and usually they're purchased with cryptocurrency. Now,
Speaker 1: what is the blockchain? What does this all mean? Rich?
Speaker 1: What the heck is going on with this stuff? How
Speaker 1: are people spending thirty billion dollars in something I don't
Speaker 1: even understand? Well, people spend a lot of money and
Speaker 1: things I don't understand, Like, you know, I guess I
Speaker 1: would understand a giant yacht. But let me just get
Speaker 1: through the rest of these things and I'll explain what
Speaker 1: I think this all is about. The most popular place
Speaker 1: to buy them is open c that's Open Sea. Oh look,
Speaker 1: I just talked about yachts sixteen billion dollars worth in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. Some of the most popular collections are
Speaker 1: crypto punks. This was established in twenty seventeen, most popular
Speaker 1: NFT collection during the time period, with more than three
Speaker 1: billion dollars in transactions. All right, so what are NFTs?
Speaker 1: NFTs are, Like I said, it's almost the equivalent of
Speaker 1: and this is dumbing it down very simply. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like a digital beanie baby. Right. So people love
Speaker 1: to collect stuff, They love originals, and the reality is
Speaker 1: we live in a world where everything is turning digital,
Speaker 1: and so how do you create the next thing that
Speaker 1: is an item people want to collect that's digital. Well,
Speaker 1: that's NFT, it's artwork. It's audio, it's video. Someone sent
Speaker 1: me their NFT. I guess they got of their ticket
Speaker 1: to a RAMS game. So if you buy a ticket,
Speaker 1: you go in, they give you an NFT of your ticket,
Speaker 1: which is kind of cool. Now do I want to
Speaker 1: pay that person for that NFT. No, But in thirty
Speaker 1: years might that be valuable if that game, if something
Speaker 1: amazing happened during it, and I want a piece of that. Yeah. Sure.
Speaker 1: So the reality is these are items that are you know,
Speaker 1: they're valuable in the eye of the beholder and someone
Speaker 1: else who might want to purchase this from the beholder,
Speaker 1: just like or the holder anyone else or any other
Speaker 1: thing we've seen in the world that is valuable. It's scarcity,
Speaker 1: it's uniqueness. And yes, if you have a digital NFT
Speaker 1: that is an image, someone else could could make a
Speaker 1: copy or you could give a copy of that to someone,
Speaker 1: but you are the rights holder. You are the original
Speaker 1: person that has that. And I know with digital stuff,
Speaker 1: it's a little weird because you're like, well, it's digital,
Speaker 1: it's the same thing, right, Well not really, because if
Speaker 1: someone were to profit off of that, you can say, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm the rights holder here, Like you can't just go
Speaker 1: ahead and sell copies of this. I can, or maybe
Speaker 1: you can, depending on how the NFT is set up.
Speaker 1: But if you want to give an example for that,
Speaker 1: So there's only one Mona Lisa in the world, right,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure this example has been given before, But
Speaker 1: there's only one Mona Lisa, but there's plenty of copies
Speaker 1: of it hanging around places in the world. Same thing,
Speaker 1: with a lot of different stuff. Now here's an example.
Speaker 1: If someone gives me the excuse, rich, I'm not paying
Speaker 1: all that money for something that's digital only you're out
Speaker 1: of your mind thinking that I would ever do that.
Speaker 1: Let me give you my example there. So my best
Speaker 1: example is let's say you've got a child, a family member,
Speaker 1: you know, grandparent, whatever. There is just a scenario where
Speaker 1: there's only one digital picture of them remaining in the
Speaker 1: entire world of your Let's say your kid is a baby, right,
Speaker 1: there's only one use something happened. Every digital picture you
Speaker 1: ever had of them is lost except for this one
Speaker 1: that your friend happens to have on their phone, and
Speaker 1: it's the original picture. Maybe you sent them the file
Speaker 1: back in the day. Is it valuable to you if
Speaker 1: your friend said, hey, for a hundred bucks, I'll give
Speaker 1: you this file and it's yours to keep forever. Would
Speaker 1: you give them that hundred bucks? You probably would. There
Speaker 1: you go, there's an NFT for you. It's digital. To
Speaker 1: anyone else, it might not have much value, but to you,
Speaker 1: it does have a lot of value, and it might
Speaker 1: have more value to the person you pass it down to.
Speaker 1: So that is a very very simple example of how
Speaker 1: I see value in something that is purely digital. Now
Speaker 1: you've probably actually spent a lot of money on purely
Speaker 1: digital things that you don't have. I remember this was
Speaker 1: a big thing back in the day when there was
Speaker 1: kind of this transition from DVDs to digital copies of movies.
Speaker 1: I was, I know, this is kind of funny, but
Speaker 1: I was a holdout. I was like, I'm not buying
Speaker 1: a digital copy of a movie on iTunes for twenty dollars.
Speaker 1: I'm buying the DVD because I own something physical and
Speaker 1: that DVD is mine and I can do whatever I
Speaker 1: want with it, or the Blu Ray. And I said,
Speaker 1: I'm not buying something that Apple overnight can just be
Speaker 1: like poof, goodbye, this is out of your collection, and
Speaker 1: that's not happened. But I mean, it might be cases
Speaker 1: where it's happened, but I just thought it was so
Speaker 1: weird that you would just own a digital copy of
Speaker 1: a movie without actually owning the physical copy. So I
Speaker 1: would buy the Blu ray that contained a digital copy.
Speaker 1: And of course now I don't even think they do
Speaker 1: that anymore. But to me, I thought I was getting
Speaker 1: over on the system because or I was smarter than
Speaker 1: the system, because I was like, I own something physical.
Speaker 1: Well flash forward ten years and I do not own
Speaker 1: a Blu Ray player. I don't have a way of
Speaker 1: playing that movie. And I do still have my movies
Speaker 1: from my iTunes because I can play them on my
Speaker 1: Apple TV, and thanks to a wonderful service called Movies Anywhere,
Speaker 1: those movies have been unlocked to work on various services
Speaker 1: and not just iTunes or wherever I purchase them from.
Speaker 1: So now, yes, we are at the mercy of these
Speaker 1: digital copies. If Amazon said tomorrow, guess what, We're taking
Speaker 1: back all those digital copies, like your copy of you know,
Speaker 1: die Hard poof Goodbye, It's gone. There's nothing you could
Speaker 1: do about it. I'm sure it's in the terms and conditions,
Speaker 1: and that's just the way it is. So yeah, we
Speaker 1: have gone through this phase of we are permanently what
Speaker 1: do you want to call it? Perma rent? Now most
Speaker 1: of us are streaming anyway, so it's a move point
Speaker 1: to begin with. But the reality is things have changed,
Speaker 1: we have adapted, and I think with NFTs it is
Speaker 1: definitely definitely something to watch because there is something there.
Speaker 1: There's too many smart people talking about them for them
Speaker 1: to be a non thing, so there is something to them.
Speaker 1: Apple car Play is the subject of our next message.
Speaker 1: Victoria says, my son has a twenty fifteen Chevy Vault.
Speaker 1: He has asked on his Christmas list for an Apple
Speaker 1: car Play. I know they come stock in certain models
Speaker 1: of the Vault. Is this something I could buy for
Speaker 1: him in Christmas for Christmas and have installed. I value
Speaker 1: your expertise and thank you for your help. Victoria. Well, Victoria,
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen Chevy Vault. I'm surprised. That must have been
Speaker 1: right before they put CarPlay in first Chevy Vault model
Speaker 1: to have car play, so, uh, twenty sixteen, darn it,
Speaker 1: you're so close. Twenty sixteen was the first one to
Speaker 1: get car play, So I would not recommend upgrading. And
Speaker 1: here's why. I mean, there are yes, So there are
Speaker 1: ways to do it. There there are pioneer I don't
Speaker 1: know what do you call them, bulkheads. I don't know
Speaker 1: what you call them. I forget there's the head is
Speaker 1: in the name receivers. I guess receiver heads. I don't know.
Speaker 1: But there are pioneer receivers that do have car play.
Speaker 1: There are third party receivers, and you could look into it.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not gonna say no, but I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's compatible. And so you would have to
Speaker 1: look up the pioneer car play. It's usually a double
Speaker 1: din unit. That's probably what's in the let's see you
Speaker 1: might you know what you might be able to. I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's been so long since I looked for this,
Speaker 1: but let's see. Let's let's just look at one of
Speaker 1: these things. So this the Avik W eight four hundred ex.
Speaker 1: And I'm guessing, oh, you know what the good way
Speaker 1: of doing it. Let's go, let's go crutch Field. That's
Speaker 1: the way to do it, Crutchfield dot com. So let's
Speaker 1: go Crutchfield dot com. I'm just gonna do this with you.
Speaker 1: Come on, come on to my journey, and let's go
Speaker 1: car audio and find what fits your vehicle. So let's
Speaker 1: say we're gonna do a twenty fifteen. Chevy is a
Speaker 1: great website. By the way, when I was back into
Speaker 1: my cars, like back in the day, I used to
Speaker 1: have like a Ford Explorer for many years, and I've
Speaker 1: of course got all this stuff after market installed in
Speaker 1: it because you could. It was a simple way to
Speaker 1: do it. You got the double Din. It was either
Speaker 1: double Din or a single di in. And so when
Speaker 1: I had the single di in, I of course got
Speaker 1: my little stereo that had XM installed, and I got that,
Speaker 1: and then when I had my doubled in, I got
Speaker 1: the doubled in. Uh, Chevy volt hatchback twenty fifteen. Do
Speaker 1: you see a Bose logo on the front speaker grills?
Speaker 1: Let's just say no. And let's see what they say
Speaker 1: checking fit and let's see what do we have. Let's
Speaker 1: see what can we replace? Oh, it doesn't say yeah,
Speaker 1: it looks like you can replace car stereos. We don't
Speaker 1: recommend replacing the radio in your vehicle. Now, let me
Speaker 1: see with the Bose audio system, maybe you can. Let's see.
Speaker 1: Let's see, let's see and it is saying car stereos. No,
Speaker 1: we don't recommend it. So there you go. That's your answer.
Speaker 1: You can't really do it. So Apple CarPlay, I would say,
Speaker 1: I wish that car Play did this, but I don't
Speaker 1: think they do. It'd be nice if Apple had a
Speaker 1: way of seeing car play on your phone without car Play,
Speaker 1: but they don't do it. I don't think they. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't think they do it with just your phone.
Speaker 1: So like on Android, you can do Android Auto with
Speaker 1: just your phone. It will like kind of mimic the screen,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't look like CarPlay lets you do that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, there's not much you can do about it, Victoria.
Speaker 1: So with other cars, if you want to do it, yeah,
Speaker 1: go to Crutchfield dot com and see just look for
Speaker 1: a receiver that uses CarPlay and you can just get
Speaker 1: someone to replace it here in Los Angeles's place called
Speaker 1: Alan Ed's. Of course, nationwide you can go to best
Speaker 1: Buy or something like that. But good question, and you're
Speaker 1: just right on that cusp, right on that cusp. All right, Uh,
Speaker 1: we have some more time here. Let's go to our
Speaker 1: favorite chrome extensions of twenty twenty one, not mine, but Google.
Speaker 1: Google came out with a big list of its favorite
Speaker 1: chrome This is the you know, the end of the year,
Speaker 1: so we have all these year end lists and this
Speaker 1: is their year end Chrome extensions. So a couple highlights
Speaker 1: here at number one is Loom. So Loom is an
Speaker 1: extension that makes it easy to capture and share your videos,
Speaker 1: so you can install that. My kids have installed it
Speaker 1: on theirs. They like to do these, like kind of tutorials.
Speaker 1: You can record your voice or your video as well
Speaker 1: as your screen, so if you're helping or trying to
Speaker 1: explain something on the web or on an app, you
Speaker 1: can record yourself doing it. Kind of like a tutorial
Speaker 1: word tune I have not heard of, but it helps
Speaker 1: you clearly communicate by rephrasing sentences and catching typos in
Speaker 1: emails and documents, and so that's kind of cool. And
Speaker 1: that's maybe one that I'll add. I've been using one
Speaker 1: called it's kind of like Grammarly, but it's Microsoft Editor,
Speaker 1: and it's the same thing as Grammarly, except the difference
Speaker 1: is that because my company subscribes to Office three sixty five,
Speaker 1: I get the premium version of this Microsoft Editor for free.
Speaker 1: It's included in their three sixty five subscription, so it
Speaker 1: gives me access to all of the premium feature. So
Speaker 1: with Grammarly it's great, but you know you've got to
Speaker 1: pay up if you want these premium features. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure word Tune might be the same way, but let's
Speaker 1: see it is word tune. Yeah, so they have different plants.
Speaker 1: They have a free plan, they have a premium plan,
Speaker 1: and so there you go. But it's kind of cool.
Speaker 1: It says rephrasing sentences, so if you want to kind
Speaker 1: of stand out from the rest, that's kind of a
Speaker 1: neat extension forrest. This is funny. We actually featured this
Speaker 1: in a tech report a long time ago. It helps
Speaker 1: you be more productive by planting virtual trees and giving
Speaker 1: your rewards for focusing and helping those trees grow. There's
Speaker 1: dark Reader that protects your eyes during long work days.
Speaker 1: Tab Manager Plus helps you manage your tabs, and then
Speaker 1: there's Nimbus Screenshot and Screen Video Recorder which I have
Speaker 1: installed that helps you record your screen and also do screenshots.
Speaker 1: And then there's one called Remember Barry which helps you
Speaker 1: organize vocabulary words into flashcard decks for quick studying throughout
Speaker 1: the day. Oh and then one more rattukan raccoon. Oh gosh,
Speaker 1: how do you say this raccoont rack? Oh gosh, now
Speaker 1: I r A k U T e N. How do
Speaker 1: you pronounce it? I know, it's like a weird way
Speaker 1: to pronounce it. Rakotin, racketin, racketin. There you go, racketin, racketin, racketin.
Speaker 1: Can I bring up my computer audio? Let's see? Can
Speaker 1: it come in here? No? I don't think so. No
Speaker 1: it doesn't. I bet you I can. Let me just
Speaker 1: try one more thing here, let me change my sound
Speaker 1: to output to be USB, and now let me try
Speaker 1: this ready. Still doesn't work. Okay, but anyway, racketin. So
Speaker 1: there you have it. Yeah, I can't hear it. But
Speaker 1: those are some extensions you can get for Chrome. I
Speaker 1: love Chrome extensions. Just be careful installing some of the
Speaker 1: more spammy ones, because now my Racketin and my Honey
Speaker 1: extension are at war. Racketin wants me to get cash back,
Speaker 1: Honey wants me to put promo codes, and you can't
Speaker 1: use them both at the same time. They get really
Speaker 1: really angry at each other when you try to do that.
Speaker 1: So let's get to another question, shall we. This looks
Speaker 1: more like an observation, Richard says, Movie Night versus Tesla Autonomy.
Speaker 1: Good morning, rich Listen to your latest podcast where you
Speaker 1: won't pay for a movie ticket unless it's a matin a,
Speaker 1: but you'll pay for Tesla Autonomy rationalizations. We may hash
Speaker 1: tag anyway. Just an observation, not a criticism. Love your
Speaker 1: shows on and off tv KFI and your podcast. Merry
Speaker 1: Christmas and a happy New Year to you and your
Speaker 1: family in his service, Richard Richard, thank you. Ohps, I
Speaker 1: will do as you suggested in this podcast and engage
Speaker 1: with your social media accounts. Thank you. I'm Att rich
Speaker 1: on tech if you want to find me there, which
Speaker 1: I'm sure you have. But you're right. I agree. Sometimes
Speaker 1: my decisions are not fully rational, and I think that
Speaker 1: as a human we can all fall susceptible or fall
Speaker 1: prey to that. You know. To me, it's like the
Speaker 1: two hundred and eighteen dollars I spent on the Tesla
Speaker 1: self driving for the month was rationalized based on the
Speaker 1: fact that it was a work not expense. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think. Well, maybe I probably could expense it
Speaker 1: if I do a story about it, but it's more
Speaker 1: of a a write off in my head because I
Speaker 1: can justify it by saying well, I need to know
Speaker 1: what this is all about, so I can talk informed.
Speaker 1: I can talk, I can't say it. I'm looking for
Speaker 1: the word. I can talk as an informed human being
Speaker 1: about the self driving features on the Tesla, or as
Speaker 1: an educated individual or informed. I don't know what the
Speaker 1: word is, but I basically know what I'm talking about
Speaker 1: because I've experienced it firsthand. And so I know what
Speaker 1: the Tesla is all about because I've actually tried it.
Speaker 1: I've gone hands on. And this is why I think
Speaker 1: hands going hands on with tech stuff is so important.
Speaker 1: As much as it pains me to go hands on
Speaker 1: with so many different gadgets, to crack them open and
Speaker 1: play with them and set them up, it's because I
Speaker 1: want to know what the experience is like. Yes, I
Speaker 1: can read what other people have to say, and I
Speaker 1: can see it, and I can watch the YouTube, but
Speaker 1: I want to know what it's like because that way
Speaker 1: I can talk in a smart way about it, and
Speaker 1: also and also compare and contrast to other devices out
Speaker 1: there that are similar. And so now I know because
Speaker 1: I've I've driven the Rivan with the self driving, I've
Speaker 1: driven the super Cruise with the self driving, or I
Speaker 1: guess the driver assist. I've driven Volkswagens driver assist. I've
Speaker 1: driven the Tesla with the autopilot, so I know I can.
Speaker 1: I can compare notes, I can contrast the differences and
Speaker 1: the nuances, and with the Tesla, I'm actually I keep
Speaker 1: finding new little things, like the other day I found
Speaker 1: the auto park, which is just so great. But the
Speaker 1: problem with the auto park. You know it'll it'll automatically
Speaker 1: pull into a parking spot for you. The problem is,
Speaker 1: most of the time we need that is on kind
Speaker 1: of like a busy street, and if cars are trying
Speaker 1: to get past you, it's it's a little dicey to
Speaker 1: have your your your car doing the backing up because
Speaker 1: it just goes for it. I mean, it's when the
Speaker 1: Tesla does something, it is so confident in its moves,
Speaker 1: like when it was pulling into parallel spaces or yeah,
Speaker 1: parallel parking. When I was testing it, it's just like boom,
Speaker 1: it turns that wheel fast, it backs right in, it stops,
Speaker 1: moves forward, it backs, it goes right up to the
Speaker 1: car behind it, right up to the car in front
Speaker 1: of it, and it's much more, much more not aggressive,
Speaker 1: but much more affirmative. Then I am. When I'm driving,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of like inching, you know, very slowly. This
Speaker 1: is like, now we know we got six inches to go,
Speaker 1: so we're just gonna stop. We stop there. Okay, we
Speaker 1: go forward. We know we can go forward pretty fast.
Speaker 1: We stopped there. We angle in. I mean they know
Speaker 1: the angles for the spot. I mean it's it's pretty phenomenal.
Speaker 1: So that feature is really cool, and I will miss that.
Speaker 1: There's a couple of features I'll miss with the autopilot
Speaker 1: that I purchased, and that is the chime when the
Speaker 1: light turns green. I really like that. And I really
Speaker 1: like the self changing lanes. The you know, auto lane
Speaker 1: change is again very confident. And then I will miss
Speaker 1: the parking, the self parking. I don't think those three
Speaker 1: features are worth two hundred and eighteen dollars a month.
Speaker 1: No way, I mean that is that's a lot of
Speaker 1: money for three little features that I can do myself. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's nice to have, but I will I will do myself.
Speaker 1: So anyway, Richard, thanks for the notes for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's no rhyme or reasons. Sometimes Apple awards the best
Speaker 1: apps in Games of twenty twenty one, so there's a
Speaker 1: whole laundry list of them. I'm not gonna go over
Speaker 1: all of them. I'll just go over some of the
Speaker 1: notables that I think are interesting. iPhone app of the
Speaker 1: Year Toca Life World from Tokeboca. Tokoboca back in the
Speaker 1: day when I had a little tiny tike, was like
Speaker 1: the best game. And I love them because Tokeboca's big
Speaker 1: thing is that they were ad free. There were no
Speaker 1: sales whatsoever. They didn't sell you on anything. And slowly
Speaker 1: but surely the inn app purchases came into play, and
Speaker 1: then the big purchase by another company. So I actually
Speaker 1: interviewed the guy who founded this, Bjorn Jeffrey. I forget
Speaker 1: how you say his name exactly, but he came into
Speaker 1: the studio and I was like, you're the guy that
Speaker 1: started Tokboca. How cool is that? And sure enough, yeah,
Speaker 1: he started the whole thing. I love when companies send
Speaker 1: like the actual person to me, Like, yeah, of course
Speaker 1: I interviewed Tim Cook and Elon Musk in the past,
Speaker 1: but like, I love when I get to interview the
Speaker 1: actual founders because they just have insights that are are
Speaker 1: just greater than you know, a chief marketing officer or
Speaker 1: you know some person that they send a PR spokesperson.
Speaker 1: They're just you know, I love these people too, but
Speaker 1: they're just you know, they're figureheads for the company. They
Speaker 1: they've got the party line down. When you get the founder.
Speaker 1: They are someone who saw a need for something and
Speaker 1: made it and they figured it out. And I love
Speaker 1: interviewing those kinds of people because they are the real
Speaker 1: movers and shakers in this world. And so someone like this,
Speaker 1: I remember him coming to the studio and I was
Speaker 1: just so impressed. I was like, ah, that's so cool
Speaker 1: that I get to talk to the guy who started
Speaker 1: the games that my kid loves to play. Back then,
Speaker 1: I only had one kid, and you know, he was little.
Speaker 1: He's probably three years old, and it was just so great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the guy was from Sweden. I think, let me
Speaker 1: see tokoboca ktla. Let's see when I interviewed him July fourteenth,
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen. Ohough, it wasn't that long ago. Yeah, here
Speaker 1: he is. CEO. Bjorn Jeffrey came up with the came
Speaker 1: up with the idea when he noticed the tablet trend
Speaker 1: taking off. He imagined lots of kids would soon be
Speaker 1: playing on their iPads at all times. Each game was
Speaker 1: meant to be different from the standard games they might
Speaker 1: play or the videos they might watch. Each game is
Speaker 1: three dollars and there are no ads inside except promotions
Speaker 1: for other Tokboca games. Now, right after I interviewed Bjorn,
Speaker 1: they were purchased by Spinmaster, the same company who owns
Speaker 1: Paul Patrol and they own a whole bunch of toys
Speaker 1: and he left. Now no comment on that, but clearly
Speaker 1: when people leave companies like that, just like I talked
Speaker 1: with the Instagram founders, you know, they're just kind of like, Ah,
Speaker 1: this is not my thing anymore. You guys take it.
Speaker 1: And sure enough, Tokeboca has very much exploded in popularity
Speaker 1: since he left because they've probably done things that he
Speaker 1: wouldn't have done, like they had like a line of
Speaker 1: clothes and target, a lot of in app purchases, a
Speaker 1: lot of cross promotion. I haven't seen the Tokeboca TV
Speaker 1: show yet, but anyway, Tokoboca Life World is the number
Speaker 1: one iPhone app of the year, and it's cute. I
Speaker 1: still think it's very cute. It's just these little characters,
Speaker 1: you do little things. It's a it's a great, great game,
Speaker 1: and I have no problem recommending that Apple Watch app
Speaker 1: of the Year. Also one that we have mentioned in
Speaker 1: the past Carrot Weather. Let me see when I mentioned
Speaker 1: this Carrot Weather. And I don't say this to brag,
Speaker 1: but I just say that, like, you know, I definitely
Speaker 1: have a knack for seeing things that you know, that
Speaker 1: I think are cool before a lot of people think
Speaker 1: are cool. What was it? Come on, Carrot Ah? There
Speaker 1: is uh, there was a I don't know, I can't
Speaker 1: I can't seem to find the story. But we definitely
Speaker 1: interviewed the guy who started Carrott and I can't remember
Speaker 1: what the deal was with it. It was like it
Speaker 1: was mean to you or something. It was kind of
Speaker 1: like it was a weight loss app. Ah, that was it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a Carrott weight loss. I don't know, something
Speaker 1: like that. Let's see carrot app and let's see what
Speaker 1: the other app was, Carrott. Oh is it to do?
Speaker 1: I think that's what it was. Yeah, Oh is carrot fit.
Speaker 1: That's that's who it was. So and I remember interviewing
Speaker 1: the founder again and I'm trying to find the guy
Speaker 1: who he interviewed. But anyway, Oh, Brian, was this it Yep,
Speaker 1: here he is Brian Muller. Let's see Brian Muller KTLA
Speaker 1: here it is January two, twenty nineteen. The Apps that
Speaker 1: will help You Get Fit in twenty nineteen. So I
Speaker 1: love it. I love I love discovering these little things.
Speaker 1: You know, there's just something about them. You see him
Speaker 1: and you just there's something special about it. You put
Speaker 1: it on TV and boom, A couple of years later,
Speaker 1: they are they're making lists. So anyway, Apple Watch of
Speaker 1: the Year, Apple Watch App of the Year, Carrot Weather.
Speaker 1: Let's see what else I think was notable on here?
Speaker 1: The trend of the Year Connection. The goals to identify
Speaker 1: a movement that had lasting impact and recognize apps that
Speaker 1: met this moment. The chop trend of twenty twenty one
Speaker 1: chop top is connection. This year's trend winners brought people
Speaker 1: together in a meaningful way. So among Us was a
Speaker 1: big one. My kids played that. Bumble, Canva and Peanut
Speaker 1: were some of the top top apps. There just a
Speaker 1: lot going on with this stuff. Oh man, that's it,
Speaker 1: no more time. Guess that sound does mean it is
Speaker 1: the end of the show. If you'd like to submit
Speaker 1: a question for me to answer, Just go to my
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Speaker 1: You can find me on social media. I am at
Speaker 1: rich on Tech. If you're listening to this, you probably
Speaker 1: already know that if you go to my Instagram, I've
Speaker 1: got a new reels. It is about changing your ring
Speaker 1: video doorbell chime to play fun holiday tones. And I
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not like one of these people that
Speaker 1: does a tip every day, but when I think of
Speaker 1: a tip, and you know, it takes a while to
Speaker 1: do these things actually, and so I want to do them.
Speaker 1: I would love to do one every day. It's just tough,
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Speaker 1: rich Dimiro. Thanks so much for listening. There are so
Speaker 1: many ways you can spend an hour of your time,
Speaker 1: especially during the holidays. I do appreciate you spending it
Speaker 1: with me. Stay safe, have a great holiday. If I
Speaker 1: don't talk to you before that, which I probably will,
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you real soon