AI-enhanced wizardry, iPhone storage fixes & esports insights - Best of (154, December 27, 2025) - Rich On Tech

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, thanks for tuning in. Appreciate you listening. This week.
A couple things. Well, first off, I celebrated my birthday,
which was a big one. Well it wasn't a big one.
It wasn't like a milestone birthday, so don't don't, yeah,
but it was. It was just fun. My mom was
in town, you know, my family was there. It was great.
And you know, it was during the work week, so

(00:22):
it was like I still went to work and everything.
But I did post on social media and the many, many,
many of you did comment, and I do appreciate that.
You made me feel very very special because I wasn't
even gonna post about it, and I was like, ah,
you know, why not I give you some attention. Just kidding.
But this week I also so right after my birthday,
I went to I blined it to Las Vegas. I

(00:44):
was very excited for this, the premiere of The Wizard
of Oz at the Sphere. Now, if you haven't been
to the Sphere yet, it is quite incredible. It's this
giant ball that just sits in the middle of Las Vegas.
It's always showing something cool on it'so exosphere, the lights,
the programmable screen on the outside it's always showing some

(01:05):
kind of funny little face or whatever they want. And
so I did that, went there, and you know, I
was wondering. I was like, Okay, I want to see this,
but I'm not exactly sure how it's technology. But as
soon as I started interviewing some of the principles that
created this film, like the director and some of the
other folks behind it, I was like, Okay, this is
all technology. Interesting. So the big question is how do

(01:28):
you take an eighty six year old film and then
sort of remake it for a giant screen and with
new technology. And so they used AI a lot. I
would pretty much say this is the first AI film.
That's really what it is. They took an old movie
and they recreated the entire thing with AI. That's the
way I see it. I'll explain. But the original movie,

(01:50):
you know, premiered back in nineteen thirty nine. Now, what's
the TCL Chinese theater? It used to be the I
think it was a man's Chinese theater back in the day,
and that was twenty four foot screen. Okay, Now the
sphere if you haven't been inside, this is a sixteen
K resolution one hundred and sixty thousand square foot screen huge.

(02:12):
I mean, it's it's almost wrap around, that's really what
it is. It's very immersive. The seats move, so they've
got these rumble seats in there, they've got fans for wind,
they've got a scent system, they've got just all kinds
of tricks in there, all the latest technology, and the
sound system is like nothing you've ever experienced. They can
direct sounds right to your seat, so it is really

(02:36):
quite impressive. Now, the experience starts right when you get in.
They call it the atrium. This is kind of like
when you go to an event at the Sphere. They've
got like an hour of time before you actually go
into the event, right, you just kind of stand around
and explore what's in the what they call the atrium,
and they sort of dress it up for the show.
So for this, it's all sepiotoned when you get in.

(02:59):
So I imagine the beginning of the movie where it's
back in time and it's just you know, she's in Kansas,
and so the whole kind of atrium looks like that,
and then when you leave, it transforms fully into all
green an emerald city, and there's like an interactive wizard
that you can interact with, kind of like so if

(03:19):
you've been to a sphere thing before, or if you haven't,
they used to have these really high tech robots in
there that you can interact with. The wizard is sort
of replacing them. But you know, they can do multiple
things at this place at once. It's not just like
one thing at a time anyway. See, you get inside
and it's very exciting. I was there for the opening
premiere and so it was kind of cool. I mean

(03:39):
to me, one of the best best things was all
the food was free, so I was like grabbing, Like
I grab so much stuff. I grab like popcorn and
like candy and drinks whatever I could. So that was
kind of fun. When do you ever get that right
at a movie? But when you get inside the screen,
it's like you get inside and it looks like Radio
City Music Hall, which is also the same company that

(03:59):
owns this, and so it tricks you because the movie
starts in the middle of that little screen and then
all of a sudden it widens out to take up
the whole dome and people. That is the first awe moment, like,
oh my gosh, this is going to be different, and
the whole audience is like audibly wowed right there, and
so now you know you're in for something special. And

(04:21):
that was really cool. Then comes the tornado scene. Now
this is this is just incredible what they've done. So
they are using every single thing available to them in
that sphere. I'm talking wind leaves, like there's actual leaves
that kind of move around in there. The seats are rumbling,
people were covering their faces, they were hooting, they were hollering.

(04:43):
It was so cool, Like I'm just sitting there smiling, Like,
as an adult, how many times you have a smile
on your face? Not very often, right, I'm just kidding,
I mean, but yes, you know, like something that brings
a true childish smile to your face. Every single person
in there was just literally and figuratively blown away. And
by the way, they I haven't seen the original movie

(05:05):
in a long time, but that tornado scene lasted so long.
I think they just made it longer just to have
fun with like all the effects and that it was
so crazy. I want to post the video to my Instagram,
but they told us not to, you know, record video
during the movie, but I did, just because you know,
I like to break the rules every once in a while.
But I want to share it, but I don't because
I want to ruin it for you. It is it

(05:26):
is worth the price of admission right there. Anyway, once
you get into the movie, it's clear that AI is everywhere,
so they used it to do things like you know,
if you think about how small this was when it
first came out, they had to expand it to fit
this screen, so they used AI to sort of rebuild
the edges, the backgrounds, the extras, the crowds of people.
So it was it's very apparent to me the AI

(05:49):
use in this movie. And by the way, they worked
with Google Cloud to do this, and it was very
apparent to me. And yes, it's sometimes I'm like, okay,
that's AI, that's AI. That's AI. But you can't let
that ruin your impression of this, like you still have
to just like any other movie. You gotta have a
little suspension of disbelief. They used AI to make, you know,
to make the resolution look better, so you know, you

(06:11):
can spot it if you're looking for it, but if
you just kind of enjoy, you'll enjoy it. Now there's
also physical effects, so they've got apples falling from the sky,
there was snow in there. At one point, there's fire,
real fire, flying monkeys. I mean, I'm not kidding. They
went all out on this thing, and it was like,
I think at one point they're just like, you know what,

(06:31):
We're just gonna do the craziest, wildest stuff we can
imagine inside of a movie experience, and they did. Now,
this was about eighty minutes, so I think that's that's
shorter than the standard movie. But I'm not kidding. It
flew by so fast. There were some jump scares. I mean, look,
if you're a purist about the Wizard of Oz, you
might not like this version of it. But if you're

(06:54):
just someone that's like, okay, I want to see how
technology can change the way we tell stories, this is
like the best example I've ever experienced. People are asking me,
is it for kids? I think so. It's it's intense.
There's intense moments, so you have to understand, like what
the you know, what your kids can deal with, But
it's nothing like super scary. Also, the best place to
sit We sat in the two hundred section, which is

(07:15):
right front and center, so that I thought was pretty cool.
Tickets are not cheap. I mean, tickets start about over
one hundred dollars and they go up from there by
the way, and then you've got the popcorn and the drinks,
and it's not a cheap experience. But here's the deal.
Number one, you're in Vegas, you're gonna be spending money. Anyway.
I proceeded to gamble one hundred dollars in like less
than an hour. Guess what I have to tell you

(07:35):
about that? Zero nothing. I have no memories of it.
It was a waste of money. The experience I had
at the Wizard of Oz was incredible, and I'll be
telling my grandkids about it. Well, I mean, maybe we'll see.
I'll just tell them to listen to this. Anyway. I
thought it was pretty cool. Definitely worth it if you
are in Las Vegas or you're planning a trip. And
how wild is it in this day and age twenty

(07:56):
twenty five that now Apple, Amazon, and Google are making movies.
I mean, I get that Netflix is it's a studio house,
but these three companies, the three tech companies in our world,
are now making movies. Just let that Just think about
that for a moment. Did you ever think that would happen.
And by the way, this was also brilliant because guess what,
half the people that walk out of this sphere when

(08:18):
they see this version are gonna go home and rent
the original. So now the IP folks make money again. Anyway,
you can read my whole review on the website rich
on tech dot TV. Coming up, I'm gonna tell you
about the free app that can help you clear up
the storage on your iPhone. You have to download this.
This is rich on tech. The website for the show

(08:51):
is rich on tech dot tv. There you can go
for all the show notes. Often get a lot of
emails throughout the week people say, Rich, how do I
find this? How do I find that? It's all on
the website. I take really good notes And if you
scroll down to the section where it says radio show,
you will see all the notes for not just today's show,
but all of the shows out there. Let's go to

(09:12):
John and Moore Park. John, you're on with Rich Yes
I am.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
How are you today?

Speaker 1 (09:17):
I'm doing fantastic. What can I help you with?

Speaker 2 (09:20):
I appreciate you and your RINGO program. I have been
been listening to you since day one.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
Oh well, I'd love to hear that. Thank you so much.
Anything changed throughout the years that we've been doing this,
It's been almost three now.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Well it's just I'm going updates to the tech world.
Really really appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
All right, what can I help you with?

Speaker 2 (09:41):
I'm actually coming on behalf of our friend who's sevens
is a terrible time with cell phones. Okay, she has
been through five cell phones in the past year or so,
four androids in an iPhone, and somehow, some way someone
seems to be able to to find her phone and
tap into it and even control her phone.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Oh wow, that's not good.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
That's what I'm calling you for. Any brought or suggestions.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
He even tried to I phone and it was having
the same problem and got into us. Would the Apple
who did not believe her?

Speaker 1 (10:19):
Well, yeah I could. I could see that. Well, let
me let me let me go through some of the
steps I think that could help. Number one. It sounds
to me, number one, it's not I get these emails
all the time people tell me their phone is hacked,
and I don't really understand what they mean by that,
because there is not a simple way for someone to

(10:42):
claim control over your phone. There just is not. These
are two platforms that are very secure, iOS and Android
and now an Android. There are ways that could make
that process easier if you gave someone access to your phone.
But there's really not a way that someone can remotely
control your smartphone, Like there's not just like some website

(11:05):
they can log into and say, okay, let me target
this woman's phone, let me get in there and let
me do all that stuff. So it's tough to say
that someone has taken over control of your phone. Now,
there are apps that you can install on your phone
that may do something similar to that, like a team
viewer or something like that. But you know remote access apps,
but you know you would have to really install those

(11:26):
and give someone access and hand over the credentials. And
also you would see what's happening on your screen if
that was the case. So it's very unlikely that the
phone is being taken over by someone. Now, with that said,
there are ways that someone can get access to different
parts of the device, And what this really comes down
to is your social media, your email, your iPhone, iCloud,

(11:50):
and also Android. So if they had access to their login,
which is either their Apple ID or their Android Google ID,
they might be able to do something there, but again
highly unlikely because there's so many safeguards in place by
Apple and Google to not let this stuff happen. And

(12:12):
the only times we've ever seen a true example of
a phone being hacked is in a couple of ways.
Number One, you're sort of a head of state or
someone that's very prominent, and you click on a link
and you get some sort of spyware or malware downloaded
to your phone, and next thing you know, that is
you know, And the only times you've ever seen that

(12:33):
is really, like I said, heads of state or journalists,
it's not just regular people that that's happening too. Now,
the more common way is if you sideload an app,
and this is why Apple is fought sideloading for years,
so it doesn't even happen on the iPhone at least
in the US. And then with Android, yes you can sideload,
but there's so many precautions in place. When you get

(12:54):
a new phone, it doesn't just let you sideload anymore.
You have to say yes like three different times to
be able to download something that's not from the Google
Play Store and install it on your phone. So again
not very plausible that someone could just take over access
on your phone. So when it comes to the hacking,
when it comes to your friend, what I would recommend
is start with the big accounts, your Apple account and

(13:17):
your Google account and your social media. Go through. Change
those passwords. That's number one. Change the passwords is something strong,
Use something that's at least fourteen characters. Use a password
generator to make those and save those. Then you got
to go in and turn on two factor authentication. It's
not bulletproof, but it is the best protection you have
against someone gaining access to your account. And the third

(13:39):
thing I would do is find the in the settings.
There's typically in your account settings under security, there's typically
a setting that says log me out everywhere else. And
so I just had to do this with my Instagram
because it thought someone was hacking me, but I was
just logging in from a new phone, and so it
logged me out everywhere. Every one of my phones Stagram

(14:00):
installed on. It logged me out. And you can go
in and said we we have logged you out of
all your other devices. You can do that on Facebook,
on Instagram, on Gmail. You can just go through and
just log yourself out of all these other places that
you might be logged in, and if someone happened to
have access, they would be logged out as well. So
those are the things I would do. And if you
need a good two factor authentication app, which I always

(14:21):
recommend an app over a phone number is a Proton
Authenticator is excellent, excellent, excellent, and that is available for
iPhone and Android. But again, change all those passwords, set
up the two factor authentication. That should be your best
defense against quote unquote someone hacking or taking over your phone.
Eighty to eight rich one O one eight eight eight

(14:43):
seven four two four one zero one rich on tech
dot TV coming up. Yes, I'm gonna tell you about
the app to clear your phone storage and we're gonna
talk projectors right here. Chad writes in on the website,

(15:08):
rich on tech dot tv, what is the best power
bank to buy for your iPhone and iPad pro twenty
thousand and above? I would appreciate it, So, Chad, I
would recommend the a Belcan power bank. It's called the
boost Charge power Bank twenty k. I've got one of
these and it's it's forty dollars or less. Comes in

(15:29):
a bunch of Colors and that's a twenty twenty thousand
millionamp hours, which means you're gonna get a lot of
extra playback on your devices there, and it'll work with
both It's got three ports, got the USBC and USBA,
so you'll be able to plug in whatever you need.
And a belcan you know they do a good job.
They really do. I also like Anchor, probably find them
for cheaper and I do carry around an Anchor. They've

(15:51):
had some issues lately with some of the recalls, but
they're still good brands. So those are the two that
I would recommend taking a look at. Thanks for the email.
All right on with us now is Philip Jones, technical
editor and lead reviewer at Projector Reviews projector reviews dot com.
We're going to talk about projectors. Philip, Welcome to the show.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
Hey, how are you rich?

Speaker 1 (16:12):
I am doing fantastic, Thanks so much for joining me.
So what is the current trend in the projector industry.

Speaker 4 (16:20):
Well, A lot of times when you look at projectors,
you're thinking about the old traditional home cinema, but the
trend seems to be utilizing projectors as TV replacements or
in applications where you would not want to utilize a
flat panel TV like maybe a campsite or backyard theater.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
So those seems to be the bigger trends right now.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
That was the first time that I I mean as
a kid, I remember the giant like they used to
have like projector TVs too, right where it was like
the three lights at the bottom, like those giant lights.
I mean that was I don't We didn't have one
of those, but I know a friend did. It was
like yeah, it was like I just that like just
came back to me. I kind of forgot about those.
But the first time I use the projector was during
the pandemic when we were starting to watch backyard movies

(17:05):
and so the whole name of the game was getting
like you know, the brightness and all this stuff. But
I feel like that's when a lot of people that
were not projector people got into that world. Is that true?
You think?

Speaker 3 (17:16):
I think so.

Speaker 4 (17:16):
And while flat panels are getting larger, there's still some
applications where even those gigantic flat panels are not going
to work. Yes, you can go out and buy a
one hundred inch flat panel now. I saw them at
Costco for under like three or four thousand bucks, But
I'd like to see you carry one of those up
up eight flight of stairs in a New York walk
up apartment or so A lot of times, even though

(17:37):
you can get a massive flat panel, a projector with
a small screen, or a projector on a wall maybe
a better application for you.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
So I was going to ask about that, are people
using projectors to replace their TV? And what do you
think the consideration is for that? Like, what are you
going to miss if you do that?

Speaker 4 (17:52):
Well, normally, there's a lot of people that are starting
to use projectors as a replacement for their TVs. There's
actually two types of categories of projectors that are designed
to do that.

Speaker 3 (18:00):
The first is they call them kind of a laser TV.

Speaker 4 (18:03):
These are ultra short throw projectors that sit maybe less
than a foot from your wall, but can project like
one hundred and twenty inch image and you can use
it on a white wall or you could use it
on a screen.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
The other one is called a lifestyle projector.

Speaker 4 (18:17):
It looks almost like a tube, but it has a
projector and a sound system in it, and it also
has all the smart features which makes that really easy
to move from place to place, like maybe in an apartment.
The big thing that had to happen was more brightness,
and you're starting to see that in projectors to help
overcome ambient light, along with specialized screens that actually reject

(18:37):
light from any direction.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
But when a projector is shining light.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
At it, that's interesting. So you kind of have to
decide you want the short throw. Those are more expensive
than a standard projector, is that right?

Speaker 3 (18:48):
I mean, for brightness, it is possible.

Speaker 4 (18:52):
Normally you have those premium home theater projectors and those
are what you're paying for is more of the black
level than anything else. But when you can here the
lens assembly on an ultra short throw to a standard
throw projector, the ultra short throw lens is more complex,
so it normally does carry a little bit more command,
a little bit more of a price premium, but not

(19:12):
that much.

Speaker 5 (19:13):
These days.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
You can get a great one starting at about twenty
five hundred dollars, and you can get and maybe one
of the top of the alliance is maybe seven or
eight thousand dollars.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
So you how long you been covering this stuff?

Speaker 4 (19:24):
Well, I used to be the product technology manager for
Sony Electronics for over a decade, so I've been messing
around projectors for probably fifteen years. I have been the
one of the principal members of Projector Reviews for about
six years now.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
Okay, so what have you I mean like, if someone
is just thinking, oh, projectors, and they kind of have
this old kind of thought in their head about what
projectors are, how do you think the tech has changed
or improved over the years.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
Okay, So the first thing the brightness.

Speaker 4 (19:53):
That there has been a massive improvement in the efficiency
of the light sources that are built into these projectors,
so they're much much, much, much much brighter in a
smaller package. And that tends to be the biggest problem
because a lot of times you want to watch video
or football games or something and the room is not
pitch black. Having more brightness allows you to overcome that

(20:16):
and maybe have someone sitting right next to you reading
a book and you still get a vibrant a vibrant image.
Then you add things like smart features, so they want
because they wanted to replace TVs. You're starting to see
Google TV or Android TV operating systems, and you're also
start to see much better sound systems than what you
can put into a flat panel, because a flat a
thin panel makes thin sound, so these projectors have more

(20:39):
room for speakers, so they actually sound better.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
So what is the best type of content? You mentioned sports?
I mean, obviously sports and movies come to mind. Is
that you know, do those work on a projector?

Speaker 6 (20:50):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (20:50):
Absolutely?

Speaker 4 (20:50):
I mean, of course, most people when they think of projectors,
they think of movies, you know, turning off the lights
and watching the latest blockbuster. But if you but watching
a football game, I'm going to when I get done
with this, I'm gonna go watch and is watching I
think the text is Ohio game and watching that game
on a one hundred and thirty inch screen is dramatic.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
My house is super Bowl Central.

Speaker 4 (21:12):
I can't tell you how people email me every Super
Bowl saying are you having a party?

Speaker 3 (21:16):
Can I come over? The other?

Speaker 1 (21:18):
I mean, look at your job, I mean come on,
It's like that's what I want to watch.

Speaker 3 (21:22):
Yeah. The other thing that's really growing in popularity is gaming.

Speaker 4 (21:25):
The input lag on these units are getting really really small,
really really fast, rivaling rivalry that will rival a consumer
flat panel TV and playing Halo or Grand Turismo on
a one hundred and twenty, one hundred and fifty or
two hundred inch screen is a little bit better of
a perspective than playing in on a fifty five inch TV.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
My pretty sure, Bobo just put his arm up. He's like,
yes please, I'll well Halo is that the is that the?

Speaker 5 (21:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (21:49):
He wants to play Halo? So what about these small
projectors like I did a story with ex Jimmy. There's
also one like the Nebula capsule, Like these are like
really small portable projectors that you can bring like you know,
hotel room if you want it. What about those coming
on the scene, Like what should people look for in those?

Speaker 4 (22:06):
Well, the there's a couple of things the Some of
them are battery operated, but I will tell you the
battery is nice for super convenience, but battery is going
to limit the brightness of the unit. So and it
also takes a real estate that could be that could
be utilized for sound or a more powerful light source.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
So if you.

Speaker 4 (22:24):
Ultimate portability, maybe battery smart features are great and a
sound system because you just grab this thing, connect it
to your phone and you're all as a hot spot
and you can watch movies or Netflix anywhere.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
If you if I would say, probably look.

Speaker 4 (22:39):
For a little bit more brightness A lot of times
people will use these these terms such as lux or
or think led lumens.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
The one you'll look for is lumens.

Speaker 4 (22:50):
That's like, that is the standard measurement, So you need
more lumens to overcome ambient light or a brighter scrap.
So if I'm going to get a small projector, like
I like the anchors, the little the little nebulous those
are those are great. The x GM's are great. There's
a lot of companies that make really great projectors. Those
little small ones are normally maybe uh, seven hundred lumens,

(23:16):
which is great for an eight inch TV, but you
can get some companies are making them that size that
are now fourteen hundred and fifteen hundred lumens. It's not
going to have a battery built. Then it'll be around
the same price, but that'll allow you to put like
one hundred and something one hundred and twenty inch screen outside,
which is actually nice.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
But minimum seven hundred lumens is a pretty good number
for any about an eighty inch viewing screen.

Speaker 4 (23:39):
Yeah, I would say even if you seven hundred looks
really really good at a minimum, you probably want to
be at four hundred would be my recommendation because that
will make it look the colors look more vibrant.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
When they're shown at brighter at with higher brightnesses.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
All right, we're running out of time here, but I
want to get some from some specific recommendations from you.
Any any recommendations you want to leave us with for
the pricey and then the budget projector.

Speaker 3 (24:06):
Okay, so if I was.

Speaker 4 (24:06):
Gonna buy a big boy a pricey unit, those are
normally there's there's big there's brands that are way out
there at the price of a small BMW. But the
ones that if you're looking for ultra premium right now,
it's probably epsoin, JBC and Sony. So my favorite right
now is the big It's an EPSIN. It's called a
QL seven thousand. It has ten thousand lumens of brightness.

(24:28):
We're going to be showing one of those at Cedia
on a two hundred inch cinema screen and you'll be
able to watch that thing with the lights on.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
It's ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
Well, okay, am I getting the price right? About thirty
something thousand?

Speaker 3 (24:41):
It's about thirty six thousand.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
Oh okay, now I'll just get this.

Speaker 4 (24:45):
Yeah, so that's what somebody wants, it's super bright. If
you're looking for inky inky inky blacks like a I
would probably do something like a JVC n Z nine
hundred or a Sony Bravia nine. Okay, Now, value people,
My favorite value syst a unit out there under five
hundred bucks. It'd be something like Yaba makes one that's

(25:05):
called a V twelve. It's like three hundred ninety nine
dollars about seven hundred lumens. It's it's a good little
projector for the price. And then there's another one called
there's a little epson called a Epivision flex I think
COO WO one. That's about four hundred actually that's about

(25:26):
four hundred dollars, but that is three thousand lumens. But
it has a bulb, so it's not like these. Most
of these a solid state that has a bulb. But
if you just want brightness in an itty bitty box,
that's the way to go.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
All right. Phillip Jones with projector Reviews dot com. Thanks
so much for joining me today. Great information. Really appreciate it.
I'll put a link to everything you mentioned on the
website rich on tech dot tv. Coming up, I will
share that app that helps you clear the storage on
your iPhone right here on rich On Tech. All right

(26:08):
here it is. I know you've been waiting for this.
I love when I find something like this. When I
find something like this, I don't know why there's this Like,
there's this part of me that I'm like, I don't
want to share this because it's so good. Why do
I feel that way? Is that that's like a bad
way to feel. But every time I find something that's
so good, I'm like, I don't want to share this
with anyone because it's so good. But that's my whole

(26:29):
job is to share this with you. So when I
found this, I had to check and double check to
see if it is as good as I believe it is,
and it really is. So one of the most popular
questions I get is rich how do I clear out
the storage on my iPhone? I am up against the
storage they want me to pay for iCloud or I'm
out of my iCloud Because basically what's happening is this

(26:49):
becomes so easy to take large videos and tons of
photos on our phone. No one goes through and takes
the time to actually clear those out. So what do
we do? We get that email from Google or that
email from Apple saying hey, you need to up your
Eyecloud or pay for Eyecloud, and you probably just do
it because it starts out at ninety nine cents a
dollars ninety nine. Then it just keeps going up and
up and up. So here is the way to clear

(27:12):
out the photos that you don't need on your iPhone
or the large videos. Okay, and the app, this app
that I'm gonna tell you about is completely free. There
are no ads. I couldn't believe it. No ads, and
I had to double check. There are no in app purchases.
So it's not even gonna try to sell you on
anything else. I mean, talk about the long game. What

(27:33):
this company is doing is they're basically going to say, oh,
you're gonna love this so much, you're probably gonna check
out the other software that we offer, and you might
buy that because they do offer some other software that's
really good, by the way, So here it is. It's
called Clever Cleaner. Clever Cleaner, and if you go on
the app Store, you want to search this up it
says Clever Cleaner AI Cleanup app Clever Files Incorporated. Okay,

(27:59):
make sure you get the right one.

Speaker 7 (28:00):
One.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
Right now, it's number ninety four in productivity. I'm guessing
tomorrow it's gonna be number one, because once the word
gets out about this app, it's gonna jump. So here's
the deal. It was developed by Clever Files. This is
a company that makes another app that I really like
called disc Drill. It's a data recovery app and it
helps you do all kinds of stuff. But this is
using AI and it's all happening local on your phone,

(28:22):
by the way, so it's not sending anything to the cloud.
You can do this app with your phone in airplane
mode it'll still work. But basically it's gonna use AI
to find not just duplicates, but also similar photos and videos.
So when you go into this app, there are four
screens at the bottom, four little tabs, okay, and the
first tab is similars and so it's gonna scan through

(28:43):
all your stuff and I've got two six hundred ninety
two files and it's going to say, you know, you
can do smart cleanup, which will just do this stuff
for you, or you can do one by one. It'll
show you the pictures side by side and you can decide.
It'll say which one it thinks is the better shot.
You can choose that and and move the other one
to trash. So that's number one. Then you've got my favorite,

(29:04):
the heavies. The heavies are your large files basically your
large videos, and so you can sort by your largest videos.
And this is just the feature that I don't think
it's built into the iPhone, but I wish it was.
It's built into Android, not iPhone. But you can sort
your videos by the largest So if you are having

(29:26):
trouble with taking new pictures on your phone, just literally
go to the heavies, delete the largest video file as
long as you don't need it anymore, and that will
get rid of all that storage and free up space
on your phone. I've got my first one is seven gigs,
second one is seven gigs, third one is six gigs,
five gigs, five gigs, four gigs. So that's my recommendation.

(29:47):
If you need to free up storage fast. Then you've
got the screen shots. This is all the screen shots
on your phone. You take up all these screenshots. I've
got one point twenty nine gigabytes of screenshots on my phone.
Guess what, I probably don't need any of those. I
can delete those then you've got your lives, so you
can convert them into a standard picture if you want

(30:07):
to save space, like this live photo is twelve megabytes,
twelve megabytes, ten megabytes. You probably don't need all those.
And then you've got another feature in the middle, a
Tinder like feature called swipe Photos, so it groups all
your photos by month, and then you can just swipe through.
So if I see this photo, I can swipe left
and it deletes it, swipe right to keep it, swipe

(30:29):
right to keep it, swipe right to keep it. So
you can do all that. So this app is really
really handy, and I just love it, and I think
it's one of those things that once you discover it,
you're gonna be like, oh my gosh, now here is
the caveat. You have to understand if you are using
iCloud to save your photos, any changes you make inside

(30:50):
this app, if you are deleting photos, they will delete
out of your eye cloud. That is the way the
iPhone works. It is a mirror image of your camera roll.
So let me repeat that. If you go through and
delete all your pictures and think, oh, I'm just clearing
up the storage on my phone, no, you will delete
those out of your iCloud. So understand that you are
only deleting stuff that you do not need ever again

(31:11):
in your life. Okay, you have to be very understanding
of that. Now, if you are using something like a
Google Photos on your iPhone, if you deleted these pictures,
they're not going to delete out of your Google Photos.
So if you're just trying to clear up space on
your physical phone and not in the cloud for Google Photos,
you can also do this, but just keep in mind
your photos will stay in Google, they will delete off

(31:33):
your phone. So that's what you need to know. Again.
It is called Clever Cleaner, and it is available for
the iPhone and it is free no ads. And I
think this is really really cool. And the thing is,
you might say, rich, the iPhone has a feature that
will show me my duplicates. It's right in the photos

(31:54):
app I got you. And I would say to you, well,
I'm glad you noticed that, because I don't think anyone
ever has. But Apple literally only matches the exact file.
Like if you have two of the exact same photos
somehow on your phone, this will find the similar photos
that are very very similar. There the logo looks like

(32:15):
it's like colorful and it's it looks like almost a
circle with like a little film and photos inside. But
it's only available for iPhone, not Android. Now, if you're
on Android and you want something, there are some things
that are similar. There is one called Remo, which is
let's see Remo photos. I gotta find this, Oh gosh, oh,

(32:37):
I gotta find the photo, the duplicate photo. Find you're
on there. But there is a an app that might
be already be on your phone, but it's called Files
by Google. And if you open up Files by Google
or download it again no ads, no in app purchases,
you can go in the upper left hand corner. They
have a feature called clean and that will show you
your large files, your unused apps, your download files. And

(33:01):
that's an easy way again to reclaim some storage on
your Android phone. If you're using Google Photos on your Android,
literally just press and hold on the Google Photos app,
and there's an option that says free up Space. And
what that does is it deletes all the photos off
your phone, but it keeps them in the clouds. You
still have a copy, but your phone storage is freed up. Anyway,

(33:23):
I've linked this all up on the website. Go to
richon Tech dot TV eighty to eight rich one oh
one eight eight eight seven four to two four one
zero one. This is rich on Tech. Let's go to

(33:45):
Jim in Northern Arizona. Jim, you're on with Rich.

Speaker 5 (33:50):
Hey Rich, i'd him Presco Valley again.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
Hello, welcome back.

Speaker 5 (33:54):
I'm so glad you're okay. That photo of your car was.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
Something to see, boy, yeah, something of being into Yeah.

Speaker 5 (34:01):
I imagine I currently use a password manager across multiple
Windows devices and iOS devices, and I'm getting more and
more prompts to switch to pass key and I wasn't
quite sure how that would work across multiple devices Windows
and PCs and iOS. And can I still use my

(34:23):
user idea and password if I switched to it?

Speaker 1 (34:26):
Good question. So pass keys are the new way to
log in that uses sort of a digital handshake with
the device that you're on. It exchanges a little token
and it replaces the password. Now, I will tell you
in my experience, and I've set up a couple of
these pass keys. When they work, they're amazing. But here

(34:46):
is the thing that I've noticed, and a lot of
these websites are pushing hard for pass keys and Jim,
I think you're doing the right thing by using a
universal password manager that works across all of your devices.
Because many of the password managers, like a Bitwarden or
a dash Lane or a one password, a lot of
them can handle passkeys. But also your Windows computer can

(35:08):
do pass keys, and Chrome can do pass keys, and
iOS can do passkeys. So what I've noticed is that
when the past key prompt comes up, it's trying to
ping all these different ways of getting that pass key,
because unlike a password, you can have a pass key
for different devices, And this is where it gets a
little bit confusing. So let's just use home Depot as

(35:31):
an example. Let's say you go to the home Depot
website and it says, hey, would you like to set
up a pass key? And you go sure. It puts
a little piece of data wherever you save that passkey,
so it could be on your Windows computer, it could
be through your password manager, it could be through your
Apple computer, could be through your iOS passwords app. So
wherever you store that, it stays there and then it's

(35:53):
used the next time. So not only could you use
your password manager, but you could also have a pass
key on your phone. You could also have a pass
key on your laptop. You could have a pass key
on your tablet, and so it gets a little confusing
to use these. But I guess my advice is to
try it out with a website that you don't really
care about too much, like a home depot. Sorry home depot,

(36:15):
I mean, you know what I mean, any any website
that's just you know, you're not not like your Google like,
maybe start with one of these other websites just to
get a flavor of it. And once you set up
the pass key, logging in is pretty easy because however
you typically log into your computer is how you would
authorize that pass key. So, for instance, if you're on
your phone and you try to log in with a

(36:36):
pass key and you use a password manager, all you
have to do is just use face ide or your
fingerprint reader for your to open up your password manager
and it would just exchange that pass key. So you're
not typing anything in, you're not copying and pasting, it's
not filling in a password. And the beauty of past
keys is that they're not easily hacked because you can

(36:57):
go to a phishing website and copy and paste your
password in there, or In the worst case scenario, your
password manager gets tricked and it pasts that password in
there and you log in and next thing you know,
they're stealing your information past key. It's really, really, almost
nearly impossible for that to happen because the website has

(37:18):
to exchange a special token with your password manager to
get that pass key back, and so it is much
more secure in that aspect, and there's no nothing to forget,
there's nothing to remember. So can you use passkeys in
addition to your password. Yes, so even if you use
a pass key, you can still log in with your
old password the old fashioned way. The thing that I've

(37:41):
noticed that makes this a little bit tricky is two
factor authentication. So on my major websites, of course, I
have two factor authentication turned on. So passkeys are supposed
to be super smooth and seamless. Where let's say you
go to that home Depot website, you log in, it

(38:01):
says pass key, you tap pass key, it pings your
password manager, your password manager asks you for your face ID,
You do your face ID, and it sends that pass
key to home depot and you get logged in. That's
the way it should work, really fast and easily, but
if you have two factor authentication set up, it's probably
still going to text you that code for two factor authentication,

(38:23):
so it's still a little extra step to log into
those websites. So for me personally, as much as I
want to recommend passkeys and I think you should try them,
and I do think they're easy when they work, I'm
not completely convinced just yet in the ease of use
for the average person because it is a little confusing
because literally, when I go to certain websites, I'm not kidding.

(38:45):
On my desktop computer, my MacBook, I have my password
manager pops up to offer up the to save the
past key, then my Chrome pops up to ask to
save the pass key, and then my MacBook offers to
save the pass key or to push the pass key through.
So it's like all these things kind of competing, and

(39:05):
I think you'd have to probably go into settings and
make sure that you turn off all these other ways
of saving things. But it's a little complicated. So I
guess the long answer, Jim is that try them, see
how they work out for you. Try them on some
low stakes websites. But I do have them set up
for a bunch of my websites that I regularly log into,

(39:26):
and when it works, it's amazing because it's so fast
and it's so easy. But I just and I guess
I don't want to wish the two factor authentication away,
But at the same time, it is that extra layer
of well, why is this easier than just my password
being entered? But I think at the end of the day,
the ease comes from the fact that it's not easily phished.

(39:48):
Nobody can say, hey, can you tell me your pass key?
It's just not possible. You can't verbally speak a pass
key like you can a password. And I think at
that moment that's what makes it way more secure for
the average person is you can't be tricked into sharing
this pass key. So Windows supports passkeys, Apple supports passkeys,

(40:10):
Android supports passkeys, one password, dash Lane, Bitwarden. You can
do it all. If you want to set a pass
key up, go to your website that you want to
set it up for log in the old fashioned way
with your password. Go to your account settings, look for
pass key. It's somewhere in there. Tap create and make
sure you save that pass key in a place where
you can retrieve it. And it's not a big deal.

(40:32):
If you can't like retrieve that pass key later, you
can still use your password to log in. I think
there's a little confusion there. And there is a website,
this Fido Alliance, which tells you all the different websites
that support passkeys, and it's a lot. I mean, I'm
looking through Adobe, Amazon, Bank of America, best Buy, Bitwarden, BMW,

(40:55):
City Bank, CVS, Coinbase. I mean, these are just the
c's eBay. So if you want to try it on
one of these websites, go to this. I'll put this
in the show notes, this Fido Alliance pass keys directory.
So again, try it on a low stakes website. So
go to something like I said, like a home depot
or an eBay or a kayak and just set up

(41:16):
a pass key and see what the process is like
and then log out and log back in and see
if it makes life a little bit easier for you.
So according to this, let's see, there's one hundred and
fifty nine websites that support this right now in their directory.
There may be more, but big companies like Verizon and
Walmart are all list to hear Yahoo, So again, try

(41:38):
it out, see what it's like, good question, Jim, and yes,
you can use them across devices. My recommendation is to
use them in your password manager. Whatever you're using for
your password manager, that's where you want to set up
and save your pass keys. The one thing I do
not recommend do not use your pass word manager for
your two factor authentication codes. A lot of the password

(42:01):
managers let you also save two factor authentication codes for
your websites. Do not do that. I don't recommend it
because if someone was ever to get in to your
password manager, now they not only have your passwords, but
they also have your two factor authentication codes. So for
that reason, I recommend a third party two factor authentication

(42:21):
code manager, and the one I love is called Proton Authenticator.
It has every single feature that I want in a
two factor authentication app, which namely is if you want
to use it locally on your devices, you can, but
if you want to use it across all your devices,
you can. If you want to import keys from another app,

(42:42):
you can do that. If you want to export all
of your codes to another app you want to move
you find something better that comes along, you can do that.
So Proton has really made a slick authentication app that
is completely free and it does everything you need. Why
is it free, Rich, Well, because they want you to
discover how amazing this app is for free. And then
you say, let me check out what Proton's all about.

(43:04):
I like what they're doing here. I like the design.
It's clean, it's slick, it's really really well done. So
let me see what else they offer. And yes, they
offer a whole bunch of other stuff. They offer proton
pass which is their password manager, their VPN mail which
is super secure drive calendar. So they've got a whole
bunch of stuff that they offer. And it's that halo effect.

(43:24):
You go into Proton Authenticator and next thing you know,
use in Proton mail using Proton vpn. That's the name
of the game there. And I believe Proton vpn actually
has a free level too. I think it's one of
the few VPNs with a free level of service. Proton Yeah,
free VPN, one device, no ads, no logs, unlimited and
free forever. So if you're looking for a free VPN,

(43:47):
protonvpn dot com check it out. All right, I'll link
this all up on the website. Rich on tech dot
TV eight at eight seven four to two four one
zero one, the website, rich on tech dot TV, more
of your calls and the new robotaxi option in Las
Vegas coming up right after this. Welcome back to rich

(44:11):
on tech richon tech dot TV eight eight eight rich
one O one eight eight eight seven four to two
four one zero one. Let's go to Lisa in Long Beach.
You're on with Rich.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Hi.

Speaker 8 (44:26):
Rich, I too had a car accident this year and
we're lucky to be alive. I'm glad I'm talking to you.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
Well, I'm glad you're talking to me as well. Thank
you for that. What can what can I help you with?

Speaker 8 (44:37):
Okay, so a simple question. I have a Pixel nine Pro.
I got it like in January. Ever since I've had it,
I've never seen it download an update because it always
stops in the middle and says you have to start
all over again connecting your wireless. And when I look
at my wireless connector, it always says saved, check password

(45:02):
and try again.

Speaker 5 (45:03):
Oh okay, And I have otherwise.

Speaker 4 (45:06):
I have.

Speaker 8 (45:08):
Unlimited wireless with AT and T, so I'm totally confused
of what is being downloaded. And I'm at sixteen at
Android sixteen isn't that where.

Speaker 9 (45:18):
You're supposed to be?

Speaker 1 (45:19):
Yeah, that's Android sixteen. You're you're good there. Okay, So
a couple things here. Number one, it doesn't typically like
to download the software updates over cellular. It will in
a pinch, I believe, but it mostly wants Wi Fi
because they're usually pretty sizable. So it sounds like your
WiFi is not properly connected on this device. So saved

(45:42):
check password means that it's trying to use the password
and it's not working, and so it's actually not connected
to that Wi Fi network. And so what you want
to do is go into your settings. Okay, do you
want to follow alonger you on your phone?

Speaker 8 (45:56):
Well, I'm on my thirder. I've done this like ten times.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
Okay, oh okay, well let me let me walk you
through it.

Speaker 8 (46:04):
I try again, just to see what's going on.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
Okay, Well, let me walk you through what I think
you should do, and then I'll give you a couple
of solutions that will probably fix this forever. But and
it doesn't require throwing your phone out the window, all right.
So you go into your settings, you go to network
and Internet and then it says internet wireless. You tap
there and where you have your wireless connection, you want
to connect, tap the little it looks like a little

(46:29):
gear icon, and you want to forget the network completely,
and that way you are starting fresh with this network.
And then I would restart your phone and go back
in and connect to that network using that password. And
if it says you know, connected, then your password worked.
If it says problem, then that password is not working.
That's number one. And in the upper right hand corner

(46:51):
of your phone, you should see the five G or
four G replace with a little Wi Fi indicator, so
that means that everything is working now. If that's not working,
the next level of what I would do is go
down into your let's see system. I gotta find where
this is okay system under settings and then there's something
called reset options, and there's an option called reset Bluetooth

(47:15):
and Wi Fi, and so I would do that, and
that's going to wipe all of your Wi Fi settings clean.
It's going to wipe all of your Bluetooth connections clean,
and you're gonna have to re log in to your
Wi Fi networks no matter where you are work, home,
and you're also going to have to reconnect your Bluetooth
and if that doesn't work, which, by the way, that

(47:35):
should fix like ninety nine point nine percent of problems
that people have, you can do what's called a factory reset. Now,
with pixel phones, pretty much everything's backed up to the clouds.
You're not going to lose much data, if any at all.
You shouldn't. But what you can do is that factory
reset will reset this phone back to the factory conditions.

(47:56):
Any little bugs, any little issues that are lingering, will
all be clear and fixed. And in that way you
can then reset your phone up. You're gonna have to
log in, you're gonna have to download all your stuff again,
but your phone should work. The other thing I would
say to do is there's something that people don't do
on the Android side of things, and there is a

(48:17):
let's see where is it here? Okay, I gotta find it.
They moved it a system and updates. Here it is.
So there's not only a security update a system update
on the Androids, but there's also a Google Play system update,
and so check for that one. That one adds new
features to your phone. I just checked it online. I
got a ninety three megabyte download. So a lot of

(48:37):
people think that there's just the software update, but there's
also what's called a Google Play System update available on
your Android. So if you're listening, you got an Android,
go into your settings right now and check for this.
This is where Google pushes out a lot of their
new features. So go into Settings and then you'll see
where it says let's see here system Nope, sorry, Security

(48:59):
and Privacy, and then it says system and updates, and
then you say Google Play System Update. Check for system
update there, download and install. It'll restart your phone and
that adds new features to your Android phone without a
full system software update. So on the Android phones, you've
got three places to look for software updates. Number one
the operating system that's called your system update. Number two,

(49:22):
new Google features that's called the Google Play System update.
Number three App updates that's inside the Play Store. So
three places. If you're having any issues with your phone whatsoever,
you always want to download all those software updates, restart
your phone, and see if your phone works properly. Again, Lisa,
it sounds like the connection issue is just a mistaken

(49:43):
password in this instance, but it could also be that
it's something's just lingering from that Wi Fi connection and
you need to clean up that Wi Fi connection and
it should work better. Good question. Thanks for the call today.
I love the Pixel phones. They last seven years, seven
years of software updates. So don't think that because it's
not working, it's it's ruined forever. Believe me, you can

(50:04):
just reformat that phone. It'll work great. I know that's
the last ditch resort. You don't want to do that.
You know, first Champ, you don't want to do that
as the first step. Thanks for the call, Lisa. Eighty
to eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven
four to two four one zero one. If you're going
to Las Vegas, you have a new option for a robotaxi.
Amazon's Zekes self driving cars are now roaming the streets.

(50:28):
Rides are free because guess what, you are the beta tester,
so you can download the Zokes app on iOS and Android.
The vehicles have no steering wheel, no pedals, no driver's
seat inside. It's face to face to the other riders.
So again, these are now in Las Vegas. Zekes zo
x look it up eight eight eight rich one O

(50:51):
one eight eight eight seven four to two four to
one zero one. Rich on tech back after this, Welcome
back to rich on tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out
with you, talking technology at Triple eight Rich one O
one eight eight eight seven four to two four one

(51:13):
zero one. We will get back to the phone lines
in just a moment. But first, while I was up
at Apple, I had the opportunity to interview Kayenne Rantz.
She is Apple's vice president of worldwide iPhone product Marketing.
She's talking all about the big iPhone seventeen announcements, including
Apple's thinnest iPhone yet. Let's talk about the iPhone error.

(51:36):
Rich this is the headline stealing phone, thinnest phone yet
from Apple. Didn't think it could get any thinner. So
how much work went into making this phone?

Speaker 10 (51:46):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 11 (51:46):
Well, as you saw, we had to make a whole
bunch of rethinking as to how we were going to
do this design. And it is the thinnest iPhone ever,
but it's got that pro performance inside and it's unbelievably
thin and light.

Speaker 10 (51:58):
You got to pick it up to feel it. Yet
it's really durable. Right.

Speaker 11 (52:01):
We talked about how it's more durable than any previous iPhone,
and that includes our choice and materials like titanium, some
great engineering into being able to put all the components
in that top camera plateau area to save even more
room for battery life. So'all came together, I think.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
Explain that term camera plateau is the first time I
heard it. Yes, makes sense, like a little mountain on
the phone.

Speaker 11 (52:23):
It's that top correctly where the camera lives, right, and
so for the first time, we've precision milled that out
and we're putting even more advanced technologies. In fact, the
A nineteen prochip lives in that top area for the
first time, and that's one of the reasons why we're
able to manage the great performance of the phone and
still retain a lot of great space for battery life

(52:43):
and everything else. One thing that if I didn't mention yet,
the pro motion display being across the lineup.

Speaker 10 (52:49):
That's a great everyday benefit.

Speaker 1 (52:50):
Can you explain that in like an average consumer term,
because it's like it's it's kind of a tough thing
to understand. What does that mean exactly that the promotion
display has come to the base model.

Speaker 11 (52:59):
Yeah, we've only typically had pro motion on our pro models,
so this year the first time it's going.

Speaker 10 (53:05):
To be on iPhone seventeen. And so what that is
is as.

Speaker 11 (53:08):
You're scrolling through content, like you're looking in Safari on
a website, you're reading something, it's going to give you
this really adaptively smooth refresh rate even to follow how
fast you're scrolling. And when you're watching movies, it's going
to match the frame rate needed and so in some
cases it can save battery life also, but it looks great,
so as you're scrolling, it looks great on the eyes.

(53:29):
And the other great thing in addition to pro motion
is all our displays are brighter, so you can get
even brighter content when you're outdoors, and we've added an
anti reflective coating to reduce that glare when you're outside
and your.

Speaker 10 (53:40):
iPhone goes with you everywhere.

Speaker 11 (53:42):
And it's also three times better resistance to scratching, which
is a great everyday benefit.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
As you can imagine, how does the average consumer decide
between the Air and another model of the iPhone at
this point?

Speaker 11 (53:54):
Sure, well, I think one of the easiest things to
think about is, like I said, that the iPhone Air
has that pro performed but in this thin and light design,
and so if you go in and you pick that up,
and that really makes sense to you as the phone
you want, that's great. It still has an advanced camera
system on the back, and all the models this year
have that new center stage front camera selfie experience.

Speaker 10 (54:14):
So that's the same across the board.

Speaker 11 (54:15):
It still has great battery life, and like I said,
it's really durable. Now, if you're someone who wants the
very best iPhone in the world, that would be the
iPhone seventeen Pro or the larger iPhone seventeen promacs. We're
pushing performance, camera capabilities, battery life, everything to that very
top level. And if that's something that's important to you,
like you just want to capture every single possible photo,

(54:38):
every single focal length or zoom length, then the iPhone
seventeen Pro might be the one for you.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
Let's talk about that new selfie camera experience. Sure, it's
going to be a pretty big departure for many people
because you don't have to rotate your phone anymore. Yeah,
how do you explain the innovation there?

Speaker 10 (54:54):
Sure?

Speaker 11 (54:54):
Well, basically, for a user, it just means you can
hold your phone really naturally in that portrait orientation, and
whether it's just you in the frame or suddenly you've
got three other people or more people in the frame,
the phone can automatically detect the faces using AI and
it will do like.

Speaker 10 (55:10):
A virtual rotation of the phone.

Speaker 11 (55:12):
For you using that innovative new square sensor, and so
that you can get actually four different composition styles all
by holding your phone in the same way. So you
just got a smile, You got a smile, and your
eyes will be right in the frame.

Speaker 10 (55:24):
And it's just super easy to use.

Speaker 1 (55:26):
Is there any sacrifice in terms of quality with the
photos because it's you know, different sort orientations.

Speaker 11 (55:32):
Well, it is up to an eighteen megapixel output, so
it's it's got even higher resolution than before as the
max resolution output. And the quality is fantastic because with
our photonic engine, with our computation photography, all the software
that we do, it's absolutely great quality.

Speaker 10 (55:47):
And like I said, your videos get better.

Speaker 11 (55:48):
So if you're doing FaceTime, you're going to stay stable
in the frame and you've got like action mode type
stabilization when you're recording on the front video too.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
I test a lot of phones, a lot of different cameras.
The video on the iPhone is really incredible. The camera
is always something that delivers. So have there been improvements
this year in the camera and video quality that consumers
will notice, sure will.

Speaker 11 (56:10):
All the cameras have our latest camera systems with the
A nineteen or the A nineteen pro chip, and we're
always making improvements across the board, whether it's color or
tuning or things that we do just every year to
make things even better. And of course we have a
new ultra wide camera that's also high resolution on iPhone
seventeen this year, so your zero point five shots and
those wide fun perspectives, your macro photography is going to

(56:33):
get even.

Speaker 10 (56:34):
Better detail and quality.

Speaker 11 (56:36):
And then on the pros we also have this new
telephoto right it gets you the four X zoom and
all the way to eight X zoom, and now your
digital zoom goes up to forty X, so you're going
to get closer to the action than ever before. And
we talked about having eight pro lens equivalents in your
pocket with all the different framing options. So there's a
lot of great things, but at the end of the day,

(56:57):
you just have to take a great photo because iPhone
will help you you that and you don't have to
think too much about it.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
And when it comes to storing those photos, two hundred
and fifty six across the board. Now, that's right, that's
a that's a sizable increase. And I think for consumers
who are consumer, you know, taking so many photos and videos,
that's a pretty good thing.

Speaker 10 (57:14):
Yeah, it's great.

Speaker 11 (57:15):
And for iPhone seventeen it's two fifty six, which is
double last year's storage capacity. But we kept the same
seven ninety nine starting price, So that's a great value.
And now with all the photos and videos you're taking,
as you said, you have more space to store them
on your phone.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
You mentioned pricing, How important was it to keep pricing
similar and not, you know, have these wild swings with pricing.
Did you put a lot of thought into that this year?

Speaker 11 (57:37):
We put a lot of thought into everything, and we're
really happy where we landed with the pricing where it is.
And the other great thing is in the US there's
a lot of great carrier offers and Apple offers.

Speaker 10 (57:46):
So Apple can offer.

Speaker 11 (57:47):
Up to seven hundred dollars now and being able to
go into trade in an iPhone thirteen or newer, and
our carrier partners they actually have up to eleven hundred
dollars off in credit when you trade in an iPhone
thirteen or newer in any condition and you can go
into an Apple retail store or Apple online to take
advantage of that too.

Speaker 1 (58:05):
When it comes to that upgrade cycle, who do you
think is I know you want everyone's upgrade obviously, but
who do you think is ripe for an upgrade at
this point? If you're rocking an iPhone thirteen fourteen, where
do you think that sweet spot is?

Speaker 10 (58:17):
Well, it depends on you, of course, right. We have
people who.

Speaker 11 (58:20):
Upgrade every year just because they're so excited to get
the latest. We know that, you know, all the previous
phones were fantastic and have great durability, so we love
that people are able to continue using them. But if
there's something that speaks to you, whether it's the center stage,
front camera, whether it's battery life, whether there's these stunning
new designs, it's a great time with all these grade
offers to come over and over and upgrade.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
Now iOS twenty six is also going to launch, and
that's going to be a big upgrade for a lot
of people. What can they expect to see out of
that on their phone that they already have.

Speaker 11 (58:51):
Sure, well, you have the same kinds of things that
you have. You know, some of the things have.

Speaker 10 (58:56):
A beautiful new look.

Speaker 11 (58:57):
We have new wallpapers, We have the space photos that
you can put on the wallpapers and your lock screens
for this.

Speaker 10 (59:03):
Just this beautiful look.

Speaker 11 (59:05):
You have this new looks with liquid glass where everything
looks just so seamless, and it goes great with our
all of our hardware capabilities as well. And of course
we have some updates coming for Apple Intelligence. People have
been already using the writing tools and clean up, but
now there's live translation, so you can do that in messages,
phone and FaceTime.

Speaker 10 (59:22):
There's enhancements of visual intelligence, so.

Speaker 11 (59:24):
Now you can do more like searching for the world
around you, learning about places or objects, or adding a
poster to an event in your calendar, or using your
iPhone screen to search things up on Google or on
Etsy or other apps. So there's a lot of great
stuff in there, and we think people are going to
love that upgrade, and of course they all that all
comes with the new phones as well.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
Any update on AI, some people say that Apple is
behind in this, they promise some things. Can you give
an update on when we're going to see that next
burst of AI features.

Speaker 11 (59:52):
On the iPhone well with iOS twenty six coming next
week with some of the new ones that I mentioned,
like the visual intelligence updates, live translation. They'll be some
more updates as we go And you know we talked
about we're working hard to bring even more updates as
we go on. And our strategy has always been to
create something that's advanced but accessible and easy to use
for everyone. So we continue to embed it across our

(01:00:13):
technologies to make it personal, private, and easy to use
and to meet you in your everyday life, just in
the app that you need.

Speaker 1 (01:00:20):
And finally, I was looking at that iPhone Air. I
feel like if you put two of them together, it
can almost be a foldable phone. So is this the
precursor to something that Apple might be working on the future.

Speaker 11 (01:00:30):
Well, I can't comment on the future, but I love
your imagination.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
All right. That was Cayenne Drants from Apple with more
on the new iPhone seventeen lineup. Eighty to eight Rich
one oh one eighty eight seven four to two, four
one zero one your calls next, Jay, I see you've
been waiting for over an hour. You're on with Rich.

Speaker 6 (01:00:56):
Hey, Yeah, I'm glad you're okay from your car accident.

Speaker 1 (01:00:59):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:01:00):
So my question is, so I.

Speaker 6 (01:01:03):
Recently went from a fourteen Promax to I'm sorry fifteen promacs.
The battery was I was using it so much that
I was going to just replace the battery, but my
carrier basically it was only an extra one hundred bucks
to go to the sixteen Promax. This was just a
couple of months ago. I really liked the phone, obviously,

(01:01:24):
it's great, battery life's great. Now I'm seeing all these
great things about the seventeen. I've got the you know,
literally the last version, And like the previous interviewer you
were saying, was, you know, they give a lot of
money for these trade backs, so it's really not that expensive.
You know, I pay for my phones outright, So I'm wondering,

(01:01:47):
in your opinion, would it be worth it to just
go ahead and trade this thing in. And you know,
with all this new tech with the seventeen, to pull
the trigger on that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
Well, let's take a look at what you're getting. So,
first off, you're getting a faster process, which of course
is always nice, but the sixteen is already fast. The
big change here is this new vapor chamber that makes
the phone stay cooler longer. So that's a nice thing,
especially if you're using your phone under any sort of
heavy video editing or gaming stuff like that. You've got
the brand new design, so if you like the new

(01:02:18):
design of the phone, it's got better scratch resistance on
the front and the back, which is nice. Let's see,
display is brighter, so you're gonna get a brighter display
for that money. Longer battery life. So I don't know
about your sixteen Promax, but mine the battery life has
kind of taken a little hit in recent months. So
I'm really hoping that the seventeen Promac is going to

(01:02:39):
be better. I don't know if you notice that or not.

Speaker 6 (01:02:41):
Yeah, I had the battery, Like I said, I only
got it a couple months ago. The good thing I
do like about it is it charges really fast.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
Yes, and you still get that yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:02:53):
I mean look, yeah, the battery is huge to me.

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
Yeah. Well, the battery is supposed to be the best
yet ever on the iPhone. It's it also has a
faster charging because now you can use a forty WAT adapter,
which is something that you know, many people may not
care about, but yeah, if you're trying to get a
faster charge, it does charge faster with a forty WAT adapter,
but you will need a new adapter before. I think
you need a thirty WAT now forty WAT for the fastest.

(01:03:17):
You get the new camera system, which, of course Apple
is always pushing the envelope when it comes to the camera,
So you're going to get the eight times total optical
quote quality zoom, and of course it takes in more
light because it's got a bigger sensor, so that's nice.
The front facing camera is going to be eighteen megapixels
versus twelve. You're also going to get to take it,
you know, vertical or horizontal. Let's see what else. The

(01:03:41):
base storage is now two fifty six. I'm not sure
what you've got on yours right now, but two fifty
six is the new base and it's got the new
and one chip inside which has Wi Fi seven, the
latest Bluetooth, and thread so you've got all that going on.
So I would say for one hundred bucks, Jay, I mean,
I think it's worse fit personally because it sounds like

(01:04:02):
you're someone that's interested in the latest, greatest, and one
hundred dollars is really kind of a no brainer to
me for having the latest technology.

Speaker 6 (01:04:10):
Yeah, I think you're right. I think I'm gonna pull
the trigger on it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
Awesome. What color are you gonna go with?

Speaker 6 (01:04:15):
Uh think I'm gonna go with the orange.

Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
I'm from Tennessee's Oh nice. I heard they're gonna they're
gonna sell a lot of these in Austin and I
guess Tennessee.

Speaker 6 (01:04:24):
There you go, Tennessee, Texas.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
Yeah yeah, Texas. Okay, very cool. Well, enjoy. Pre orders
are open, so you have that. And how much are
they gonna give you for old phones?

Speaker 6 (01:04:32):
You know, well, they gave me for the fifteen promacs,
they gave me a grand so oh my god, I'm
assuming it's gonna be uh roughly the same, so that
basically I paid one hundred bucks. Then pluck, they make
you pay for the tax on the phone, which is,
you know, another another seventy bucks. It's to me, that's
not like it was a no brainer for me because
the battery itself was going to be you know, seventy

(01:04:54):
eighty dollars to replace it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
So oh yeah, no, I think this is no brainer.
I think easy, easy choice in your life right now.
That's that's the easiest choice you'll make all year? All right, Jay, Well,
thanks so much, Enjoy the new phone.

Speaker 5 (01:05:08):
Thank you, Dicker.

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
All right, have a great day. Eighty eight rich one
oh one eighty eight seven four two four one zero one.
Let's see what Rebecca in Los Angeles has going on. Rebecca,
you're on with Rich.

Speaker 7 (01:05:21):
I'm Rich.

Speaker 9 (01:05:22):
I enjoy watching you. I KTLA and I love your show.

Speaker 7 (01:05:26):
Thank you.

Speaker 9 (01:05:27):
I'm calling because my friend lost his phone. It's been
missing since Thursday, and we don't know if he had
it on Wednesday, but for sure by Thursday was gone.
And I've tried to help him find it, going the
usual route using the Google Find My Phone or I
called the carrier of Verizon to see if they could help,
and it was a Motorola Moto let's the Moto G

(01:05:52):
play from twenty twenty three. So I called Motorola and
they weren't able to help to track it, and I
called well, I sort of went online and to see
if I could find like some companies or something that
might be able to help the track it. There was
one that I kind of put in the phone number

(01:06:14):
and it said it it found it, but they were
asking for a service and I wasn't sure, you know
how legitimate.

Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
No, don't do that. That's no. The only way that
I know to find a lost Android is go to
Android dot com slash find. He sounds like you already
did that, right, I think I did? Yeah, okay, so.

Speaker 9 (01:06:37):
But I can try because I know I went to
the the Google one to find my phone one. So
but you're saying Android, what was it?

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
Androids Android dot com slash find, And okay, you have
to log in with you know, his account and his
Google account, and if his phone was linked to his
Google account, which it's an Android, it should be, you
can tap on that phone and you will find the location.
I just did it for my Android, and it shows

(01:07:06):
exactly where it is right now. It shows that it
has wireless service, the batteries at eighty two percent. You
can play a sound, you can secure the device, you
can factory reset it. But what do you are you
do you think this phone was stolen? So if the.

Speaker 9 (01:07:20):
Battery was dead, do you think it would still be
able to track it?

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
It might give you the last known location.

Speaker 12 (01:07:27):
So these things what we're looking for.

Speaker 9 (01:07:29):
That's what we want to know is where was the
last nine Let.

Speaker 1 (01:07:32):
Me let me look at a phone that I haven't
used in a long time.

Speaker 3 (01:07:35):
Let's see here.

Speaker 1 (01:07:37):
Let's see if it gives me this one. So I'm
checking the old Google Pixel nine that I had, and
it says contacting device. So I'm not sure if it's
going to show me that last location, so that it
just sort of depends. I guess if the phone is
still alive, let's see, can you get the last Yeah,
I don't know if you can see it's saying contacting

(01:07:57):
device and it's taken a while. Well, I know it's
not going to find it because that phone is nowhere
to be found at this point. But yeah, it would
be ideal if they showed you the last location, but
it may not. The other thing you can think about
is if you had like a tile device on there
or anither. I'm trying to think of. Yeah, see, it
can't reach the device, so it sounds like it may

(01:08:18):
not show the last known location on these things. It's
just kind of doesn't look like it's able to do that.
So if it's alive and battery, you might be able
to find it. But where does he think he left
us Somewhere?

Speaker 9 (01:08:31):
Yeah, he thinks maybe he lost it at work because
we've tried calling the phone, you know, the usual call
of the phone, and we were listening around through the
whole house and in the car and in the garage,
I mean everywhere on the property. We were listening for
that phone and it didn't ring, and so you know,
he thinks it might have fallen out at work, and

(01:08:51):
so we've been calling it over there. But you know,
at this point, we don't know if the battery was
dead or if it's an a location where they can't
hear it.

Speaker 6 (01:08:59):
Bringing.

Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
Yeah, did he did he have a tile or anything
like that attached to that phone?

Speaker 9 (01:09:04):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:09:04):
Okay, because say that could be another way or life
three sixty or some of these things. Yeah, I mean,
that's that's a tough one. If you can't find it,
it might be a total loss. But that's the best
way to do it. That Android dot com slash fine day.
I think you know, note to Google last location. Let's
include that right, that would help people if the battery
goes dead, like you can still find your phone. Eighty

(01:09:25):
eight Rich one O one eighty eight seven four to
two four one zero one. Let's see who has been
holding the longest. Let's go to Let's go to Don
in provo. Let's see what line is that that's Don

(01:09:46):

Speaker 12 (01:09:48):
Rich, You're amazing, you're handsome.

Speaker 1 (01:09:51):
Well, thank you. I mean I'm on the radio. You
can tell.

Speaker 12 (01:09:57):
I called you a long time ago about Zelta dot com,
d e l DT dot com and you, and then
the last couple weeks ago you said you like original ideas.

Speaker 1 (01:10:05):
Right, I love original ideas.

Speaker 12 (01:10:08):
That sparked me. I have like four thousand pages of text,
you know, okay, prolific and prolific in problem and yeah,
every day there's a new uh something, new original idea
pretty much every single day, maybe even more.

Speaker 1 (01:10:27):
What's what can I help you with?

Speaker 12 (01:10:29):
Oh, I'm just going to ask a question. I'm trying
to find the best free AI for my one and
a half hours of video musical that I was in
once funt of Mattress, to clean up the scenery, to
set the costumes, the music, the scening etcentera from the
Musical Wants Fund of Mattress nineteen eighty five with an
old has an old video camera video tape file is

(01:10:51):
the file is vo b.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
Oh vo b. That's a. That's a that's a tricky one. Well,
so you're trying, okay, you want to you want to
run this through and get this cleaned up. So here's
the deal. I am sure there are ways of doing this.
At this point, I don't think there is a popular
way to do it, nor do I think there's a
consumer version of this. So we are just at the

(01:11:15):
point right now where AI is doing a lot of
stuff with photos. Obviously Google's Nano Banana and Gemini is
like probably the best at that. So I think we're
getting there. But I think when it comes to just
taking this VOB file, which by the way, are very tricky.
Those are typically from DVD, so you'd have to convert
that into a file that's you know, a regular you know,

(01:11:38):
like an MP four or something. You could do that
with what's that program handbreke, So you can take handbreak
that's an easy conversion program, open source, put it in there,
get it into a better format. But I don't think
at this point, as far as I know, there's not
a website I can just recommend and say, oh yeah,
take this video and throw it in there and it

(01:11:59):
will clean up up everything on that video. Like, there's
just not a place that I know that will do that.
Photos no problem. We can restore photos very easily on Gemini.
If you take an old picture and you pop it
into Gemini and say restore this photo. It will do it.
It's just incredible the results. So I think we're getting there,

(01:12:19):
Don with the other stuff, but I don't think we're
there just yet. Yes, is someone listening and they're saying,
Rich there's a program that will do this? Like there
probably is. I don't think there's a consumer version right
now that's that's very good at doing an entire video
and ai ing it. I mean, if you look at
Wizard of Oz, they did that at the sphere. It
cost them one hundred million bucks to do that. So

(01:12:40):
it's not like you can just take that video and
just throw it into some program some website that you're
gonna find and it's gonna do it for free and
clean up every frame. It's just not possible right now.
So I would I would think in the next I
would say a couple of years, and I'd say a
couple of years probably gonna be quicker than that. But
I think we're gonna see some of these apps that
can probably do that. Thanks for the call, Don appreciate it.

(01:13:01):
Let's go to Richard in Costa Mesa.

Speaker 13 (01:13:06):
You're on with rich Back in the day, I upgraded
my Windows seven laptop to Windows ten, have been putting
all the updates all the way up till today. My
question is, is there an advantage to downloading and installing
a current Windows ten file to my laptop verse over

(01:13:31):
you know what I have right now, which is an
old Window ten file.

Speaker 1 (01:13:34):
Yeah, I'll tell you what's happening. So basically, if you
use the one that's already on your computer, it's probably
like are you talking, it's like stored on your computer
like an a partition or something. Yes, like it's just
already there versus downloading it. So basically the version that's
on your computer is as old as that computer. So
it's it's you're talking, it's you know, how old is

(01:13:55):
this computer?

Speaker 13 (01:13:56):
But I heard that it's eight year years ago that
Windows ten was available to upgrade from Windows seven.

Speaker 1 (01:14:03):
Okay, so it's you're talking eight years old. The bottom
line is that, yes, you can install it from there,
you're going to be spending the next you know, a
couple hours doing the updates on that program. So it
either way will get you to the same ending place,
which is you know you'll have you'll finally be updated
after a while.

Speaker 13 (01:14:21):
If you'll do no advantage I.

Speaker 1 (01:14:22):
Don't think there's an advantage. I think it's easier because
you don't have to you don't have to worry about
downloading it. And how are you downloading it and installing it?
Like you know how to do that?

Speaker 5 (01:14:30):
Well?

Speaker 13 (01:14:31):
Yeah, you go to the Microsoft website, download the i
ISO file to your laptop, and then install it from there.

Speaker 1 (01:14:38):
Uh. Usually it's not that easy. Usually you need to
put that that file onto like a flash drive and
then make it bootable. There's a player. Yeah, yeah, Okay,
it sounds like you know what you're doing. So I
would just do that personally, because that way you're getting
a fresh, nice clean install and you're getting something that
is uh, you know, up to date. So you're gonna
have you still have to probably do some updates on it,
but I think it's going to be less than you'd

(01:14:58):
have to do if you were too install this from
your whatever's residing on your laptop. But Richard, it sounds
like you know your way around. If you're talking rufus
and i ISO files, you know what you're doing. I
would say do it that way, and I think that's
a much cleaner method than using the old program, which
is fine, but it's it's going to be you know, dated,

(01:15:19):
and you have to update it immediately. It's going to
take a while to do that. So thanks for the call.
Appreciate it. Eighty to eight Rich one oh one. The
reviews are in for Google's Pixel ten Pro fold I
did not test this phone. I saw, I went hands
on with it, but I did not test it. So
I will rely on the folks that did from all
these other websites that I rounded up some of their reviews.

(01:15:39):
But you know, I'll be honest, I didn't really want
to review it because it's not something that people are
really demanding. They're just not like a lot of people
are not asking me about foldables. This thing is eighteen
hundred dollars. And also I think that the you know,
and I'll tell you what the end result is of
all this, but let me just go through the reviews here.
So here's the improvements. You've got a new hinge, you've

(01:16:02):
got dust and water resistance, You've got G two built
in on it, which is nice, the magnetic charging, it's
got a bigger battery, so there are some improvements. The
reviewers say that it is the most durable foldable yet
from Google. So that's nice. The Verge buried it in
sand and it did survive. Google did not make this

(01:16:22):
thing any slimmer, still heavy, it's still bulky, and when
you compare it to something like Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold seven,
which is just a marvel of engineering, it's like, hold on,
there's two Like what's at Google? You just took two
phones and you literally slapped them together, whereas Samsung went
back to the drawing board and engineered that Fold seven
to be such an amazing device and super thin, you

(01:16:44):
won't even believe it. The cameras are not necessarily pro level.
They're good. It's a pixel camera, so it's going to
be good. But the reviewers say it's the same sensors
as the base Pixel ten, not the higher end Pixel
ten Pro series. Gizmoto even called them regressed compared to
last year. Battery life and build quality was good, but

(01:17:05):
some of the AI features I disagree with that. Some
of the AI folks. As folks said that the AI
features like magic q are gimmicky. I don't think that's true.
Magic Q is this thing where let's say someone texts
you and says, he, what's that restaurant? Reading out on
Friday night. Google using AI will look through all of
your emails and your texts and your whatever stored on

(01:17:25):
your phone, and it will figure out that information and
present it to you, and then in one click, you
can just send it to your friend. So I think
that's great. I've liked that on the Pixel ten series.
But the ad me feature, which is the ability to
take a picture and then add yourself to that picture,
is very gimmicky and it's actually very tough to use.

(01:17:45):
I don't even understand why that's still on these phones,
because it's just I don't think anyone's using that. Zd
net says the Pixel is better for dusty environments, but
Samsung wins on basically every other thing performance than this multitasking.
So the verdict across the board, it's great for durability
and battery life, but the z Fold seven is still
the foldable to beat. And I could have told you

(01:18:07):
that without reviewing this phone, because I played with it
a bit at the Google event, And while it's nice,
it's not really an upgrade in a big way from
the last Fold from Google. And this is the third generation.
They didn't really change too much. I mean, yes, they
made the dust resistance. They've added the Chi charging, the
wireless charging, and the battery but in the hinges better.

(01:18:29):
But it's really the z Fold seven. They just improved
every aspect of that device. But my biggest downside is
that it does not have the magnetic ring on the back,
which is really annoying in this day and age because
you're paying so much for that phone. To not get
that feature as kind of a bummer. So anyway, Pixel
fold ten, you know, probably want to skip. I think

(01:18:50):
unless you love the pixel lineup and you love a foldable,
it's probably not the best foldable out there. But I
do love the Pixel ten. I will tell you that
I do love that phone. I think there's still some
issues with it. There's still it's not as the performance
is not as great as the iPhone, and the software
is incredible. It's really a smartphone, but it's still just
like not as polished. Like it's crazy to me that

(01:19:11):
like this phone is still just not as polished as
the iPhone, even though I think the software on the
Pixel is better. But you can do more on the
on the iPhone because so many more developers have tapped
into what Apple is built, and that's really to me,
the defining the differentiating factor between these two devices is
that on the Google Phone, it does a lot of things.
It's super smart, it's got all the googlely stuff, but

(01:19:34):
that's sort of where it ends, whereas on the iPhone
it's like, okay, so Apple doesn't have everything you need
necessarily built in, but there's anything you can think of
that you want to do. A developer has thought of
it and has worked it into Apple's ecosystem. So still
both great phones this year, no matter what you go with,
whether it's the standard Pixel ten series or the iPhone

(01:19:54):
seventeen series, really really the best phones there. Eighty eight
Rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four two
four one zero one. Coming up this hour, we are
going to talk e sports and let's see what else
do I have? Oh, I promise we'll talk about the
Tesla cheaper model. Tesla's coming up as well. This is
Rich on Tech. Let's go to Steve in Orange County. Steve,

(01:20:28):

Speaker 7 (01:20:31):
Oh Hi, Rich, thanks for taking my call.

Speaker 1 (01:20:34):
Absolutely, what's up?

Speaker 7 (01:20:36):
I have a two part question here. My I have
a Windows laptop and it's automatically installed co Pilot onto it.

Speaker 1 (01:20:52):
You don't want that.

Speaker 7 (01:20:54):
Yeah, and my understanding is that it's uh screenshots periodically
like quite often.

Speaker 1 (01:21:05):
Whatever you're yes, that's that's a feature called recall.

Speaker 7 (01:21:11):
Recall. Yeah, no, you don't want so I was running
under the first of all, why they just put it
on there without my knowledge? And then second law, how
do I get rid of it?

Speaker 1 (01:21:28):
Okay?

Speaker 6 (01:21:29):
So with re.

Speaker 7 (01:21:31):
Well on everything, I am yeah, yeah, exactly, an email
and everything, and you have proton mail on this like workless.

Speaker 1 (01:21:39):
Well, so recall when it first came out was it
was promoted heavily by by Microsoft, and they thought it
was going to be great because what it does is
it takes a screenshot of your system every couple of
seconds to remember everything that you've done on your computer. Now,
it doesn't take a genius to figure out why that

(01:22:00):
may not be the best idea in the world for
a lot of reasons, right, even if you're not necessarily
doing anything bad on your computer. Right, let's just say
you're checking your email. Well, think about the emails you check,
Hey Rich confirming this is your social Hey Rich, here's
your bank account number, Hey Rich, here's this. Now that's
all fine. What if now all that data stored on
my computer, all those screenshots with all that private information.

(01:22:23):
What happens if a hacker gets access to that repository
of all that stuff, you know, now they can go
through it and see everything. That's just one scenario. Other
scenarios what if someone gets access to your computer and
they search They just go and search through your recall
and find all kinds of stuff that you were looking
at and find the you know, either private information, embarrassing information, whatever.

(01:22:46):
So that's number two. So as soon as Microsoft launched this,
there was no fanfare. It was like it was like
a screech of a record. It was like, this is
not a good thing, and so they went back to
the drawing board. They ended up delaying the installation of Recall.
They went back to the drawing board, figured out some

(01:23:07):
more privacy situations, figured out some more privacy protections, and
now it's back. And now it is I just checked
it is. You're right it is pre installed because I
just found it on my machine and I'm assuming when
you first set it up they ask you if you
want it or not. But you can turn this feature off.
So if you go into your settings on Windows Privacy

(01:23:32):
and Security, it's under recall and snapshots, and the main
feature you want to look for is take snapshots that
has turned on. I honestly did not even realize this
was turned on on my computer. So I'm actually now
I'm not going to turn it off because I want
to go through some of these screenshots. I just want
to see what's in here that's pretty wild. So okay,
I've got one hundred and fifty gigs dedicated to my

(01:23:53):
screen shots and ninety days worth of stuff that this
is wild to me. So you can go through and
you can turn off safe snapshots, and you can delete snapshots.
You can delete all the snapshots, so you can delete all,
or you can delete from They give you some nice
options past hour, past twenty four hours, past seven days,

(01:24:15):
past thirty days, so if you just need to delete some.
And then they've got filter sensitive information snapshots were potentially
sensitive infos detected like passwords, credit cards and more will
not be saved. You can filter apps, you can filter websites,
and so they have thought about a lot of these things,
but the reality is for the average person, I know,

(01:24:36):
the idea is that you were surfing a website, you
were looking at genes or whatever, and you can't remember
what that website was, and so you type in genes,
or you type in a color, or you type in
whatever description and it would be able to find that
it's cool in theory, and I actually think it's kind
of fun, but I get it. There's a lot of
privacy aspects of this. So that's how you turn it
off again. Go into your settings Privacy and security and

(01:24:58):
it's under save snap you can turn that off. Why
did they install it on their on your computer? You know,
a tech company just like to do that. There is
another app if you are this is for my advanced listeners.
If you are advanced advanced advanced okay, there's an app
called winn Arrow Tweaker w I n A E r O.

(01:25:20):
And this is an app that if you really want
to decide how your computer works, you can do this
with this app. So it is let's see is it freeware?
Looks like it's yeah, free app. So you can just
tweak all the hidden secret settings that Microsoft doesn't necessarily
let you adjust easily. So if you want to disable things,

(01:25:41):
you want to disable copilot completely, you want to you know,
whatever you want to do, this will let you do it.
It really has like I mean, every feature you can imagine.
It's kind of like you're in control of your system again.
So but again you have to be an advanced user
for this. But I mean you could do so many things.
Look at this. I mean, it's just if you look

(01:26:02):
at the list of things that this lets you do,
it's just a laundry list. I'll link this up on
my website rich on Tech dot tv. Again the name
of the app is win Arrow Tweaker, and also put
the instructions on how to disable recall if you so choose.
A great question, Steve. Coming up next, we're going to
talk e sports right here on rich on Tech. So

(01:26:35):
many things to talk about. I never get to everything
I want to talk about in the show ever, it
never happens. I literally have a laundry list of things
I want to get to and I just can't get
to mall. So maybe I need to plan less for
the show, like I just maybe I need to come
in unprepared one day. But I don't think this show
would be as good if I did that. But that's
all debatable. So let's bring on Steve Arnseet. He is

(01:26:56):
the co CEO of Team Liquid esports organization, and we
met at this UCLA. They opened up this gaming lounge
at UCLA. That's where we met, and I just was
fascinated by this world of like esports and e athletes
and they call them e athletes. Maybe, Steve, welcome to
the show.

Speaker 3 (01:27:17):
It's great to be here, Rich.

Speaker 1 (01:27:19):
So what is Team Liquid? Explain what that's all about.

Speaker 14 (01:27:22):
So Team Liquid we're an e sports team, just like
any other kind of sports team, think forty nine Ers
or Golden State Warriors, but instead of throwing around a
football or dribbling a basketball, we're playing video games. So
we have a bunch of gamers that compete underneath the
team Team Liquid, and they play in games like League

(01:27:43):
of Legends, Valerie, StarCraft, and then tons of people watch
them compete and play against other gamers.

Speaker 3 (01:27:49):
And that's esports.

Speaker 1 (01:27:51):
Wow. Interesting, And how many like your Team Liquid? How
many other organizations are there out there in the world?
And are they part of like a lee like are
you part of like one conference like versus another?

Speaker 14 (01:28:04):
Yeah, So there's probably about three hundred esports teams globally
around the world, and each team competes in a number
of different titles or games. So instead of us just
playing football or just playing soccer. We're actually competing in
a lot of different types of games, and we're each
of those games has their own respective league, like the

(01:28:26):
NFL or NBA, and then our business is run by
our commercialization within each of those respective leagues. And that's
why we have one hundred and sixty or so players
that compete underneath Team Liquid all around the world.

Speaker 1 (01:28:43):
Now you compared yourself to sort of like these big
teams out there, you've got athletes. What makes esports similar
or different from like, you know, the NFL or the NBA, yep.

Speaker 14 (01:28:55):
I mean, one thing that is similar is that we
are all about the fans. We have a global fan base.
This is something that is a little bit different than
other traditional sports is that there are a lot of
gamers out there and they're all around the world, and
so that is pretty much the same. Some things that
are different is that we are more digitally native, which

(01:29:17):
means that our demographics skew younger. Someone once told me,
for every baseball fan that dies, basically too esports fans
are born. So there's a lot of gamers and there's
only more gamers going into the future. As you know,
computers and tablets and stuff are more ubiquitous with day

(01:29:38):
to day kind of activities.

Speaker 1 (01:29:40):
Yeah, and I want to talk about that in a moment,
But first, I mean this whole esports industry, Like I remember,
you know, I would get pitched on it pretty hard
to like cover these stories and these tournaments and all
this stuff. And it was like it was big, and
I still think it's big, but it's definitely gone through
some changes. So was there a bubble that burst or
something like? What happened?

Speaker 5 (01:30:00):
Like? What?

Speaker 1 (01:30:01):
Why do people some people have the reception that esports
isn't as big as it might have been five years
ago or something.

Speaker 5 (01:30:07):
Yep.

Speaker 14 (01:30:09):
So esports, just to put it in context, is the
third most watched sport in the world after cricket and soccer,
so a lot of people watch it. So what happened
in two thousand, Yeah, they're just wild, it's mind blowing.
But in twenty fourteen there was pretty much like this
gold rush into esports. And that was when a lot

(01:30:29):
of professional sports team owners and investors all came in
and put money into teams and agencies and players and
developers and the whole ecosystem. Just like what would happen
in like the crypto bubble or what may happen in
the AI bubble, right, a lot of capital gets deployed,
and those expectations were set pretty high, and if you're

(01:30:52):
familiar with the Gartner HiPE cycle, inflated expectations not able
to deliver in the timeframe that was needed by a
lot of these investors, and the bubble burst.

Speaker 3 (01:31:01):
And so that happened about two.

Speaker 14 (01:31:02):
Years ago, and I think that caused a little bit
of this kind of what's happening in esports?

Speaker 1 (01:31:10):
Is it real?

Speaker 14 (01:31:12):
But the thing is is that there's still more people
watching esports events every year prior.

Speaker 1 (01:31:17):
So we just beat last year's records.

Speaker 14 (01:31:20):
And that just shows that the demographics are still on
our side. That you know, they're just the aging of
the population, more people on the internet, more people gaming.
And so what has happened over the last two years
is it just a lot of consolidation. There's been a
number of teams that have went bankrupt or ceased to exist,
you know, either their investors didn't have the right horizon

(01:31:41):
on the investment or poor management. But then there's the
haves and the have nots, and so a lot of
the organizations that are the top of the field, are
in pole position, have used this time to consolidate and
buy other esports teams and basically become bigger. And so
you saw that three hundred number that I'm talking I
spoke about that's been consolidated down to probably one hundred.

Speaker 1 (01:32:04):
Oh wow. Okay, So we're talking about all these esports
and like, it's great if these these athletes are you know,
they're they're good at these games. What games are they playing?
By the like, what's the most popular esports games?

Speaker 14 (01:32:15):
Yeah, the two most played esports games. Number one, League
of Legends. It's made by Riot Games. They actually have
their headquarters in Santa Monica in Los Angeles, California. And
the second, which surprises a lot of people, is Mobile
Legends Bang Bang, which is a mobile game that's predominantly
played out of the Philippines and Indonesia.

Speaker 1 (01:32:36):
Wow. Okay, So now parents listening, parents sitting there going
hold on. You know, you're talking about all these things
that these kids can do. And I assume these you know,
these esports personalities make a decent living doing this as well,
because at the top of their game. But like parents
are already struggling with screen time, right, they're sitting there,
they're trying to get their kids off Roadblocks or off

(01:32:57):
Fortnite or off Minecraft, and so so it's like they're like,
hold on, what if every parent got their kid off
these screens, know, would ever make it to this level?
So what how do you kind of ride that line? Like,
how do you know when like your kid is healthy
doing stuff on you know, esports or not.

Speaker 14 (01:33:13):
Yeah, Well, here's my take. You know, I think gaming
is one of the best vessels for education and retaining information. Like,
for example, you know, my geography is actually really good,
and I in part say because I played a lot
of Where in the world is Carmen San Diego by

(01:33:34):
US history?

Speaker 1 (01:33:35):
You know that's bringing it way back Steve, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:33:37):
No, way back right.

Speaker 3 (01:33:38):
And the same thing with like Orged Trail.

Speaker 14 (01:33:40):
There's a lot of parents that probably played that in
their computer labs at school, right, And that's how you
learn a lot about US history. There's something about gaming
that just makes it where you can retain the information
and learn the information really well. Here's the other side
is that it's highly addictive, and there's a lot of
different types of games out there, and most of them
are not good and they aren't providing the kind of

(01:34:04):
development and skill that is possible. So, for example, in
a lot of these games that are like strategy games,
you're thinking about critical placement and team based games, you're
communicating with other gamers, usually with a headphone, so you're
learning communication, resolving, conflict, leadership ability, and team based games.
And in a lot of these games, you're also piecing

(01:34:27):
things together, and they're very complex, and so it's just
about finding the right kinds of games, which is really hard,
and it's making sure that you do it in moderation.
And I think those two kind of key factors come
into play.

Speaker 3 (01:34:41):
And the last thing that.

Speaker 14 (01:34:42):
I'd say is that like, if you've got a kid,
Let's say your kid was really interested in you.

Speaker 1 (01:34:47):
Know, football or baseball, you probably.

Speaker 14 (01:34:49):
Go in the backyard, grab a glove, throw the ball around, right, Why.

Speaker 3 (01:34:54):
Aren't you doing that with your kid? If they're playing Fortnite, like.

Speaker 14 (01:34:57):
Grab a controller, sit down with them and be interested
and curious, like how do I play this?

Speaker 3 (01:35:04):
And I know you're thinking, oh my god, I won't
know what I'm doing. I'm gonna mess it up.

Speaker 14 (01:35:07):
That's okay, that's actually better because your kid is going
to teach you this game and there's a whole learning
and bonding process that happens with that. So I always
encourage parents to just sit down and play.

Speaker 1 (01:35:18):
What is it realistic for your kid to become an
e sports? Do you call them? You said athletes?

Speaker 5 (01:35:24):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:35:24):
Do you call them? Yeah? You sport? So do you
Is it realistic for a kid to become that? Is
that becoming like a pro athlete, you know in the
NBA or whatever?

Speaker 5 (01:35:31):
Like?

Speaker 1 (01:35:31):
Is it that or is it more realistic? And also
there are other kind of like opportunities in this world.
If your kid is into video games.

Speaker 14 (01:35:38):
Right, I mean, I think the probability of an average
kid making it to a pro team is minuscule. It's
very very small. There's just a lot of gamers out
there and think it's it's the same thing in.

Speaker 1 (01:35:53):
Like football or baseball.

Speaker 14 (01:35:54):
Right, You do these things because you're learning what it's
like to be in a team sport, You are being coached,
you are taking those skills, but you don't really have
the goal of going pro.

Speaker 3 (01:36:05):
Now, maybe if your kid is.

Speaker 14 (01:36:08):
Playing a particular game and reaches like the top twenty
of the respective in game leader board, of that respective game.
Your kid may actually be a pro gamer, but for
most they're not going to make it that far, which
means that you just use this like any other kind
of intramural sport that you can learn life skills and

(01:36:29):
collaborating with other players. And so what we're finding more
and more, just like you mentioned at the UCLA campus,
is at universities, colleges, high schools, even elementary schools are
now investing into like building out these labs, these gaming
centers where kids can learn play the right games, develop

(01:36:50):
those skills. And I mean I compare that to when
I was a kid, Like we didn't have access to
those things. So I think it's just so cool.

Speaker 1 (01:36:59):
Yeah, he's really. I mean it's it's a different world
for sure. I mean, I you know, I played video games.
I think a lot of people, you know my age
have played video games, but this this is like next
level stuff. Like when I've seen some of these pro gamers,
especially like the way that they're doing things, I'm just like,
how how are you doing that so fast? So what's
next for you guys? What's next for Team Liquid? We
got about a minute left.

Speaker 14 (01:37:19):
Yeah, you know, Team Liquid, we are the largest d
sports team in the world. We've won more prize money
than another team. We have the most championships of any team.
We feel the most teams and players. I want Team
Liquid to be a household name around the world and
it's our ball to drop or our misclick to happen.

(01:37:40):
So I want to continue expanding our brand into important
regions of the world where we don't have a base
yet and continue to just field the best players and
teams across across the globe.

Speaker 3 (01:37:56):
That that's the goal for to all.

Speaker 1 (01:37:58):
Right, Team Liquid, it's team liquid dot com. Steve aaron Set,
thanks so much for joining me today.

Speaker 14 (01:38:04):
Thanks for having me rich, I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:38:06):
All right, coming up, we are going to open up
the feedbag. It is overflowing this week. We're gonna hear
what you had to say in my email this week.
Coming up right here on rich on Tech. Apple Vision

(01:38:30):
Pro users are getting something special this basketball season, Lakers
games in Apple Immersive. I guess Apple's working with Spectrum
to stream these live games to Spectrum Sportsnet customers, but
so cool. Maybe I'm assuming you can get them otherwise
even if you're not a Spectrum customer. But anyway, the

(01:38:54):
cool thing is this is something that Apple promoted back
in the day when they came out the Vision Pro.
They showed us like a little clip and it was like,
you're gonna be sitting courtside at your favorite games, and
now that's gonna be a reality. It's really cool. The
problem is nobody has one of these Apple Vision pros
to be able to use this to try it out.
I mean, I'll be able to try it out, but
I mean it never became like a big time thing.

(01:39:16):
So maybe this is the killer application. I mean, if
you can sit at home and watch a game like
court side, that's pretty cool, so watch for that. This season,
Tesla launched cheaper Model hy and cheaper cheaper model threes,
but they kind of cut out a lot of stuff.
So the pricing is under forty thousand for both of these,

(01:39:37):
and they've got pretty solid range, but a lot less
of the features, So like no autopilot, no AMFM radio,
no leather seats. I don't think they had leather seats
to begin with, no rear screen, no panoramic roof. It's
just a lot of Like you, they cut like a
lot of the things that make a Tesla nice. You're
not getting those, But if you just want an electric car,

(01:39:59):
then these new cheaper models might fit the bill. And
speaking of EV's Chevy Bolt is back. They're bringing back
this EV next year, reviving the Chevy Bolt because I
guess customers wanted it. They canceled it back in twenty
twenty three. Now it's going to be under thirty two
hundred and fifty five miles of charge, and it's got
an NACS charging port, which will be nice because then

(01:40:22):
you can use Tesla superchargers. It's got Google built in,
but no car Play. That's a bummer. I will tell
you as I drive a car. I have my rental
car head car Play, my regular card does not. I
could not believe how much I loved CarPlay. I loved
having that and Android Auto they're just so great. And
then the CrOx I'm wearing what a croc? I'm wearing

(01:40:44):
crocs right now. They are Windows XP themed crocs. You
gotta go to my Instagram stories if you want to
see the picture. At rich On Tech, they're celebrating their
fiftieth anniversary with these Windows XP themed crocs. They've got
the Bliss green and Blue Sky, the wallpaper from Windows
XP and they've got six Microsoft gibbits, Charms, Clippy, the

(01:41:05):
MSN Butterfly, Internet Explorer, and the Recycle Bin, and you
can now buy these. They were originally just going to
be a giveaway that but that so many people wanted them.
Now they're selling them for eighty bucks a pop. So
if you want Crocs and you want Microsoft, go ahead.
All right, Now for the feedback. Karen from California. My
husband and I enjoy watching your TV segments listening to
you on the radio. Now your podcast keeps me company

(01:41:27):
on my commute. Sorry to hear about your accident. Hope
your recovery is doing well. In a recent episode, you
said you preferred Google Docs. I yelled at my car radio.
Microsoft Office even the free version has features Google doesn't
just go to Office dot com to sign in. This
includes immersive reader for read aloud and translation and dictation
that even auto punctuates. All right, Karen, I'll give it

(01:41:50):
another try, but I'm kind of in on the Google stuff,
but I like it. It's good to have options Office
dot Com sign in for the free web version. Sean
writes in tvo comment, I've got two tvOS with time service.
I'll have to pry them for my cold dead hands.
I still use one every day to record over the
air TV Sean. I stayed home from work. I could
probably tell the story now because it's been many, many years,

(01:42:11):
twenty years. Probably. I stayed home from work to wait
for my first TVO to be delivered. I set it up.
It took forever because it was over phone lines back then,
and I'll never forget invited all my friends over for
my work, had a little party, and then the middle
of Survivor, I just paused the TV, paused live television.
Everyone went nuts, like wait what? And I thought it
was the coolest thing ever. I was a fan of

(01:42:33):
TVO for so many years. Kim writes in from Tennessee,
she recently ran into a messaging mystery with her Samsung
S twenty five Vulture. Using Google Messages, one of her
friends wasn't getting photos. She switched to MMS SMS and
then couldn't get RCS back for that contact. Well, it
turns out the issue was not her phone. After some
detective work, she discovered her friends was using Samsung Messages,

(01:42:56):
which does not support RCS. Ah good to figure that out. So, yeah,
if your friend's not getting your rcs. You're doing that stuff.
Check to see if they're using Google messages. Let's see, John,
I should have listened to you, Rich. I bought an
iPad eleven for three nineteen. Just days later it dropped
at two seventy nine. I called Amazon. They said the
only way to get the lower price was to return

(01:43:18):
it and reorder. After hours setting up and charging it
and decided it was not worth the hassle. Still cheaper
than the Apple Store. But next time I'll follow your
advice and wait for those Prime Day deals to kick in.
Joey says, you made my week with the shortcut to
auto reply to texts. I've needed this for two years.
Thanks Rich. Credit goes to Steven Roblez. He was my

(01:43:38):
guest beer dot Fm. I set up a whole bunch
of shortcuts after last week's show because I was so
excited about him. Let's see here, we've got Victor in California. Hey, Rich,
your newsletter has golden info. I was looking through it
for Windows ten fixed options, and behold found the answer.
I went to admin settings, checked for updates. A few
minutes laters few a few minutes later it appeared. Now

(01:44:01):
I've got another year to save up for a new computer.
I'm a happy listener and subscriber, Neil and Anaheim Rich
I love all your tech shows. You're an amazing guy
helping us navigate the challenging world of home technology. I
could say more, but that's really it. Seriously, just grateful
you're out there helping the masses, or maybe the messes
of people. Thanks rich Day in Los Angeles. Love your work.
Thank you, rich And Janine writes in thank you for

(01:44:25):
all your great info and another terrific show. I just
don't know how you keep up the energy. Well, thank you, Janine,
I really appreciate that. All right, if you can believe it,
that's going to do it. For this episode of the show.
You can find links to everything I mentioned on my website.
Go to rich on tech dot TV. Find me on
social media. I am at rich on Tech. Next week
we've got a former FBI operative. He's going to tell
you how to stay safe from the biggest online threats.

(01:44:48):
Thank you so much for listening. There are so many
ways you can spend your time. I really do appreciate
you spending it right here with me. One reminder before
I go, do not drive distracted If you're texting, driving,
all that stuff. It can wait. Please for the safety
of everyone, including you, Thanks everyone who makes this show possible.
Bobo on the boards this week, Kim on the phones,
me on the mic. My name is rich Demiro. I

(01:45:09):
will talk to you real soon

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AI-enhanced wizardry, iPhone storage fixes & esports insights - Best of (154, December 27, 2025)

Episode Transcript

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Rich DeMuro

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}AI-enhanced wizardry, iPhone storage fixes & esports insights - Best of (154, December 27, 2025)