Amazon’s evolution, best big-screen TVs & better home internet (159, January 31, 2026)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Amazon cuts sixteen thousand jobs and closes all of its
Amazon Fresh grocery stores. Samsung's next phone will have a
privacy feature built right into the screen. Apple launches a
new air tag. I'll tell you what's new, plus your
tech questions answered. What's going on. I'm Rich Damiro and

(00:20):
this is rich on Tech. This is the show where
I talk about the tech stuff I think you should
know about. It's also the place where I answer your
questions about technology. I believe that tech should be interesting, useful,
and fun. Let's go ahead and open up those phone lines.
You're ready, triple a rich one oh one. That's eight
eight eight seven four to two four one zero one

(00:43):
eight eight eight rich one oh one. Give me a call.
If you have a question about technology. Email is also open.
Just go to the website richon Tech dot tv and
hit contact guests this week. Okay, we had a little
up last week with our guest Caleb Dennison, but he

(01:03):
is back. He is going to explain what to look
for in a good TV for the Super Bowl, and
we've got business insiders Julia Pugachevski. She's gonna explain why
bricking your phone is the new dry January. What does
that mean? We will find out. Well, I hope you're

(01:23):
having a fantastic day. We got some big news from
Amazon this week. Amazon is making some big changes. The
company is cutting sixteen thousand corporate jobs and shutting down
all of their Amazon Fresh grocery stores and all of
their Amazon Go convenience stores. They only had a handful
of those, but the Amazon Fresh grocery stores, I think

(01:45):
they had several dozen of those. They closed them all
over in Europe a couple months ago, and the writing
was on the wall. Let's start with the job cuts.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
You might be thinking, Rich, this has got to be AI.
It's always AI right now. Amazon didn't say that directly
in its letter to employees, but you know, they said
things like the company needs to strengthen the organization by
reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy. Now that happens
over time. Amazon. Don't forget many years ago at this

(02:16):
point was a startup, very nimble. They move fast. Now
they are a huge company. And remember they cut about
fourteen thousand jobs last October. Context, of course matters here.
Amazon employees about one point five million people worldwide. Now,
not all of those people are full time. Obviously, that
reaches into the you know, the daily hires and things

(02:38):
like that, but even a cut this big amounts to
about two percent of its total workforce. Now here's a
line from the employee letter that stood out to me.
Every team will continue to evaluate ownership, speed, and capacity
to invent for customers in a world that's changing faster
than ever. Now there's your allusion to AI, for sure,
but that's Amazon in a nutshell. This is a company

(03:00):
that for years has not been afraid to invent and
reinvent themselves, and importantly, they're not afraid to move on
when something does not work. Now, I've been covering Amazon
and been a customer of Amazon since day one. I
could remember the early things I ordered from them, and
I was just in awe of how, you know, I
grew up with things that you would get delivered. But

(03:21):
remember it was six to eight weeks. You would literally
mail in a form with your payment information, and six
to eight weeks later, after you forgot about ordering that item,
it would show up on your doorstep. Now, yes, there
were things where you can call in and you know,
get to an operator in this and that, But when
Amazon came out. Not only did they have the website
with books, but they also had pretty fast delivery. I

(03:42):
remember joining Amazon Prime back in two thousand and five.
I was a TV news reporter in Shreveport, Louisiana, and
the pitch was pretty simple, unlimited two day shipping. I
didn't think that could ever work, and I told my wife,
has said a girlfriend back then, I said, you know what,
I'm going to sign up for this thing. I think
it was about eighty dollars a year. They're gonna give
us unlimited two day shipping. And by the way, back

(04:05):
in the day, you had to pay for shipping, and
this was all completely free and included. Now I've been
a member ever since. The price has gone up since then, obviously,
but they've gotten really good at shipping. Just this week,
my kid saw a yo yo that his friend had
at school. He wanted it, and he ordered it on
Amazon and it was delivered before he woke up in
the morning. How wild is that now? I think, on

(04:28):
the flip side, instant gratification for kids these days, you know,
that's a little that's a whole another topic. But other
things that Amazon has done has been kind of complicated.
I was at the launch of the Amazon Fresh stores
in Los Angeles back in twenty twenty and later the
Amazon Ghost stores, and I will be honest, from the
moment I walked into both, I said to myself, I
don't think this will last. Not because the idea was bad,

(04:49):
but because grocery is a brutal business, cutthroat, especially in
Los Angeles, where we saw several companies come in and
go fresh and easy haggins. I think that's how you
say it. They were from like the Pacific Northwest. They
were all hype. They literally were in town for maybe
six months. So Amazon stores tried something new. They had
a complex system called just Walk Out with these cameras

(05:11):
in the ceiling. They had sensors everywhere, automatic receipts when
you walked out. When it worked, it felt pretty cool,
but the receipts were slow. People had all kinds of
issues with things they didn't purchase. They had to get
a refund. Amazon eventually ditched that tech in its own stores,
but you can still find it in places like airports
and stadiums. Then there was the dash cart. This was

(05:32):
a smart shopping cart that tracked items and wager produce automatically,
but it turned out most people just wanted a cashier,
and Amazon caved and eventually added self checkout too. So
now these stores are closing quickly. If you have one
in your neighborhood, it might be gone by the end
of the weekend, except in California, where we have stricter
labor laws, and the stores will close in mid March.

(05:53):
Now some locations, if you're lucky, are going to become
a Whole Foods, which Amazon bought, remember, and they're doubling
down on that brand. That's a tried and true product.
And if you use Amazon Fresh for delivery, that's not
going anywhere. But all these closures got me to thinking
about how many Amazon products I've covered over the years
that were eventually canceled. The firefhone. This had a three

(06:14):
D screen but no Google apps. It was dead on arrival.
I think it lasted maybe six months. The dash wand
this was a barcode scanner for your house. You would
scan items that you need to replaced and they would
order them. That was replaced by the echo speakers. They
had these things called dash buttons. These you would put
by your items like detergent or dog food. You would
press them when you're low and it would reorder that item.

(06:36):
Those are gone Amazon Style. This was a high tech
clothing store I went to in Glendale, California. They had
a Magic closet. It was basically a high tech fitting room.
You choose things on a screen that you wanted, and
an associate would slip them into this back door of
the fitting room, and then you'd open the front door
and there was the clothes. Voila. That didn't last. Amazon Books,

(06:57):
Amazon four star, Amazon Echo Glow. That was a toy
for kids that didn't last. Amazon Halo. This was a
wristband that tracked your emotions. That didn't last, and now
Amazon won. This is their Palm scanner that's also being
phased out due to low use. This isn't a way
that you can pay using your palm, But let's be honest,
who wants to hand over your Palm biometrics when Tap

(07:20):
to pay is already in your pocket. The list goes on,
but here's the bottom line. Amazon is willing to try
big ideas, and they're just as willing to walk away
from them. Now, let's talk about this stuff that's worked
with Amazon, The Kindle, Blockbuster, Echo Alexa, fire TV, self publishing,
shipping that keeps getting faster, and now they're doing what's next, robotics, healthcare,

(07:45):
satellite internet, AI, drone delivery. Remember, some of the biggest
retail giants in history refuse to adapt. They stuck with
what they thought worked until it didn't. And now they're
gone Sears, Circuit City, Toys, r US Radio, Shack, Borders, Blockbuster, BlackBerry.
They all ignored what was going to happen in the future,

(08:07):
and they're all gone Amazon, for better or worse. And
throughout all these job cuts, they keep evolving. Now, if
you excuse me, I need to go place in order,
all right, eight to dight rich one on one eight
eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.
We got a lot on the show. We're going to
talk Super Bowl TVs. I can't wait to hear what

(08:27):
the latest is. We're also going to talk about that
Sony and TCL deal. We're gonna talk about bricking your smartphone. Yes,
people are putting down their smartphones to do less on
social media. We're also going to talk about AI in
the workplace. We've got your calls at eight eight eight
rich one oh one. Of course, the feedbag. Those are
coming in hot and heavy on the website richon tech

(08:49):
dot TV. And on top of all that, who do
I have in studio Bobo on the board and my
kids Parker and Tanner are here? Can you say hi?
Oh there you are? What?

Speaker 3 (09:02):
Hello?

Speaker 4 (09:03):
Rich On Tech fans?

Speaker 1 (09:05):
All right, the show is already going is going south quickly?
All right? Eighty eight rich one on one eighty eight
seven four to two four one zero one. If you
want to get on the phone lines, give me a call.
We'll take some of your questions right after this. Welcome

(09:27):
back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out
with you, talking technology, Triple eight rich one on one
eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one,
the website rich on tech dot TV. Let's go to
uh Midge in Atlanta, Georgia. Midge Jerome with Rich rich.

Speaker 5 (09:44):
It's good to talk to you because I've emailed you
a bunch of times.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Oh okay, well, I feel like I recognize the name.

Speaker 5 (09:50):
Oh yeah, I want to change my Apple email address.
It's hotmail right now. But when I try to and
something in my a document, you know, in my notes
or that new preview thing, sure and try to send it.
It wants to send to Hotmail, but my main the

(10:12):
one I don't want to use that anymore because I
don't use that hotmail anymore. So the one I want
to change it to is Gmail. I'll try to change it,
and it says, well, this Gmail accounts already in use. Well, yeah,
because it's mine, but it won't send to Gmail. You
know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
I'm trying to figure it out. Okay, So you you
have an Apple account and your Apple So when you
go on your settings on your iPhone, yeah, and you
tap at the top where it says your name, Apple
account and then it says personal information or actually just
right on that screen it says Apple account and it
says your name, and then does it say at hotmail
dot com at the top?

Speaker 5 (10:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (10:53):
Okay, So and then you went to the website to
try to change that. Where did you go to change this?

Speaker 5 (10:59):
Oh? Under, so you can go to where on that page?

Speaker 1 (11:03):
Okay, So you can go to account dot Apple dot
com on the website. Maybe try it on the website. Now,
do you think you ever signed up for an Apple
account using this Gmail? You might have done that.

Speaker 5 (11:17):
Where would I've done that?

Speaker 1 (11:19):
Well, I don't know. I'm just saying over the years,
because like you know, I've got a couple of Apple
accounts over the years.

Speaker 5 (11:23):
But I don't think so okay, the phone forever and
the same thing forever.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Okay. So if you haven't and it's saying in use,
I would try changing it on the website. Go to
account dot Apple dot com, and you sign in, and
you go to sign in and security. Okay. I'm doing
this on my phone on the web as I look, okay,
here sign in security, and then it says to go
to email and phone numbers. Okay, uh email, Okay, why

(11:51):
don't you just do this? Why don't you just add
the email address?

Speaker 3 (11:57):
That's what I did.

Speaker 5 (11:57):
I tried to add it. Oh my phone, you know
where it so sign and security. I went there, yep,
and down at the bottom that says add email and
phone number.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (12:06):
And I tried to add that email and it won't.
It's already in use.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
Okay, it's saying it's already in use. Okay, So that
email address must be somehow associated with a with an
Apple account, So I would I I think you're gonna
have to get in touch with Apple. And and there's
two things you could do here. First off, you can
go to the sign in page on you can go
to the Apple sign in page. Okay, so let's just
go to iCloud dot com and then you can go

(12:33):
let's see here sign in and I do this from
a web browser, and then type in that Gmail address
and then uh, after you do that, say forgot password.
So actually, let's go to a Let's go to Apple
forgot password. Let me see what that website is. So
there you go. You go to okay, it's I forgot
dot Apple dot com. I forgot dot Apple dot com.

(12:56):
What a great website. And then you tap you sign
in with that email address and tap reset password. And
then once you do that, I think you're going to
get an email to that Gmail account and it will
give you the information on how to reset. That's that's
my guess. Now it could be that someone else is
using that Gmail account, but I don't think so because
they don't have access to it. So those are the

(13:18):
things that I would do to try to regain access
to that. And then once you have if you have
two email addresses and two different accounts, there is a
way to merge your Apple accounts and I will link
this up on the website, all these things that I'm
telling you, there is a way to Apple just introduce
this merge Apple accounts. They have a special page where
you can basically migrate your old account to your new account,

(13:42):
and so once you have control over both of these accounts,
you can then do the merging. But that's the only
I mean, the only thing I can think of is
if it's given you that that message that says, hey,
this is already in use, then you know, somehow you
may have signed up for this over the years without
realizing it, and that's what's happening now. The other thing
you could do, you said you were scanning stuff in

(14:04):
the scanning app in preview, and you're sharing it, you know,
to yourself. You could just I'm just testing this right now.
If you scan something in the app and you want
to share it out to a different email address, just
go ahead and tap the document, tap the share, and
then go ahead and send it via your email And
you can put in any email address you want in there.

(14:26):
So that's another way of just if you want to
send stuff to yourself. But I think Midge, you got
to you gotta get some of these things kind of
cleaned up and figure out why this is saying that.
So I'll link up all those pages that I mentioned
on the website. Rich on tech dot TV, thanks for
the call and thanks for the emails over the years.
Let's go to al in Inglewood. Al You're on with Rich.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
Hey, Rich, how are you doing? So?

Speaker 1 (14:49):
I'm doing great? What's going on?

Speaker 2 (14:52):
All right?

Speaker 3 (14:53):
I have an Apple phone, it's a tweil okay, and
h and I keep getting some messages that say, do
I want to my my account or my thing is full?

Speaker 1 (15:11):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (15:12):
And I've clicked on it and they've that they want
to send me to another thing to say clear your
email or clear your all the things you saved. And
I do have an Apple account in the in the.

Speaker 6 (15:29):
Cloud okay that I tell you five nine a month
for okay?

Speaker 3 (15:35):
And so I just want to know if I click
on that, will that erase everything? Will to send it
to the cloud?

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Okay. Well, a couple of things. Number one, you need
to make sure that these messages you're getting are legitimate.
That's number one. So if they're if they're popping up
when you are on Safari and or on Chrome, uh,
those are usually not legitimate. And so I would be
very careful, and it sounds like what you want to
do is delete your history, your cash, and your cookies

(16:05):
on Safari and that will get rid of any lingering
websites that are sending you these notifications or pop ups.
So that's number one, and I'll put the instructions on
how to do that. Yeah, So you go into your
Safari settings. Then you go into apps. So you go
into Settings and then apps and then Safari and you
scroll all the way downwards. Says clear history and website data.
I would do that first and see if these clear up,

(16:27):
because these sound like they're a scam if you ask.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
Me, that's what I'm thinking too.

Speaker 1 (16:32):
Yeah. Here, now that's number one. So and then i'd
restart your phone. I would also delete any apps you
no longer need or use and make sure all your
apps are updated. After that, I'd go into your iCloud.
This is under settings, and you go into you tap
iCloud up at the top, and then there's a thing
an option that says storage. And right now I can
tell you I've got one point four of two terabytes used,

(16:53):
and then it'll tell you how much you're actually using
of your legitimate storage Now, if you're truly almost towards
the end of your storage, you can tap into your
storage and it will give you some options on how
to clear it out and clean it up. But I'm
telling you, al, I think that what you're seeing are
bogus and I've seen them go around they kind of scan.

(17:14):
Is it animated when you see this message as it
say like hey, checking your cloud all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
No, it's not animated.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
Okay, Well I would I would clear the history and
the cash first, and then i'd look into your storage
and actually see if you're running up close. If you are,
I would turn on the feature to optimize your photos
in the cloud. That's the number one thing to do.
Or maybe delete a few big videos. This is rich
on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro

(17:43):
here hanging out with you, talking technology at Triple eight
Rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to
two four one zero one.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
Super Bowl is coming up, I know, very exciting for
a lot of people. TVs that is the time when
people love to upgrade. The sales are a plenty. And
here to talk about all of that is Caleb Dennison.
He reviews TVs at his website on YouTube, Caleb rated Caleb,
thanks so much for joining me, thanks for having me.

(18:12):
So let's get right into it because I know people
love this information that you share. You've been reviewing this
stuff for a long time. But first off, before we
get into your picks, I want to know what your
take is on this Sony TCL thing. I mean, that's
a huge shift in the industry.

Speaker 7 (18:29):
It certainly feels like that. Right.

Speaker 8 (18:31):
Let's first of all clarify that it hasn't happened yet, right.
What's happened is called a memorandum of understanding, which, in
business speak MoU means that there is an intention to
make this thing happen.

Speaker 7 (18:44):
But for anybody who hasn't heard.

Speaker 8 (18:46):
It looks like TCL would get about fifty one percent
so controlling interest in a partnership between TCL and Sony,
wherein basically TCL would make the Sony TVs. Now you
have to understand, Sony already has other manufacturers actually putting
its TVs together, right. It designs them, It spects them out,

(19:08):
It says we want such and such chip in it,
and so and forth and this panel and whatever, and
somebody else puts it together for them.

Speaker 7 (19:15):
Now it would be TCL.

Speaker 8 (19:17):
I'm sure that Sony would use a lot of tcl's
parts that they supplied, because TCL makes everything that goes
into their TVs. And you know what, I'll be honest
with you, it makes a whole lot of sense. The
Japanese TV makers have been struggling to sell in the
United States for several years now. Ever since the tsunami
and the economic crash, it's been tough over here. Panasonic disappeared,

(19:41):
recently came back. Sony has, you know, been struggling as well.
They make great TVs, they're just not selling enough of them.
And I think a partnership with TCL could make things
a lot better for.

Speaker 7 (19:50):
Both of them.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
Okay, and TCL has been on the flip side. They've
been killing it, and so is High Sense. I mean,
these other brands that have come into the US. People
look at them and they say, why wouldn't I get this?
I mean, the price is right, features are there, and
so to have that Sony Bravia name, and you know,
they're bringing some of their ip to the table of
how they you know, their secret sauce of the screen
and all that stuff. I think, you know, people will

(20:13):
probably be impressed with what they're getting for the price
at this point.

Speaker 8 (20:16):
Yeah, I think TCL is going to help Sony make
their TVs less expensive and get them distributed less expensive.
And I think that TCL is going to benefit by
getting a little bit of the access to Sony's secret sauce,
like you said, the processing that makes their TVs what
they are.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
So let's talk CES real quick. What impressed you at
CS in Las Vegas? Any any big trend you saw
with TVs.

Speaker 8 (20:43):
Everybody's talking about RGB mini led back lighting. We also
heard about a super quantum dot or super QD or
super q let if you want. Basically really ramping up
the color and the brightness across all of these televisions.
That was the big improvement. Note that came out as

(21:03):
cees for me off of the outside of the SPECS
off paper. Just looking at these TVs, they look so
so good. And again we're gonna bring up TCL a
lot today, so just get used to it. They have
this new SQD or super quantum dot TV that is
legitimately just flabbergasting to look at. I've got one here

(21:24):
right now, so I've been able to check it out
in my own space and mess with the settings myself.
It's not a controlled demo, and it's still amazing and
and I mean that's some of the highest praise I
can give it.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
It's not an ol D, but when I saw it
side by side an OLED, it seemed almost brighter. And
just as you know, the whole thing with OLED is
that the black can be black right like it's like
completely like the light is like off. I'm not a
TV expert, but that's like kind of what I understand.
And that's why people like OLED is always like, oh
my gosh, OLED is the best, whereas like a standard panel,

(21:56):
there's always light in the back of it, right.

Speaker 8 (21:59):
Yeah, exactly. Contrast is the easiest thing for us to
get into. Like our eyes love contrast, and OLED has
the best contrast there is. The thing is OLED's they
get very bright, but they don't get as bright as
these q LED TVs. And and that's the great thing
about this, this new one from TCL and more TVs

(22:19):
that we'll see from them down the road. They're getting
closer and closer to old in terms of the blacks
and the contrast, to the point where most people are
gonna want to save money and get a bigger screen
and still get that amazing black level in contrast.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
Okay, so what features should people be looking for in
a good set in twenty twenty six?

Speaker 8 (22:38):
Honestly, right now, I think searching for a TV that
says many led on it is a great indicator of
good quality. Right It's like the cheat code used to
be you wanted to find one hundred and twenty hertz TV.
Well now those are easy to find, and even some
sixty hurts TVs are pretty decent.

Speaker 7 (22:56):
Now. The real magic is.

Speaker 8 (22:58):
In the backlighting, and if it has mini led backlighting,
there's a good chance that it's going to be doing
a whole bunch of stuff.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
Well, okay, what about I mean people always put all
the stock on like brightness? Is that still like don't they?
Does it go? I know, do they still do that?

Speaker 9 (23:13):
Like?

Speaker 1 (23:14):
Does people still shop by brightness?

Speaker 7 (23:15):
Or no? Less than they used to?

Speaker 8 (23:19):
Less than they used to. TVs across the board have
gotten so bright that glare and reflections are less and
less an issue. Now I would say that brightness is
still important where HDR is concerned. In order to get
really good quality HDR, I feel like you need to
have a TV that's doing at least seven hundred or

(23:40):
eight hundred nits, And if you can find a TV
manufacturer that claims how much brightness their TV has, you
could use that number.

Speaker 7 (23:46):
Seven or eight hundred is a great guy to at
least that.

Speaker 8 (23:49):
Otherwise, HDR doesn't really look like a HDR and that
means something now because there's so much HDR programming out there.
The super Bowl is going to be in HDR whether
you get it you know, via cable or satellite or
over the air with an antenna. But then of course
you've got Netflix and Amazon and HBO and Disney, all
of them have tons and tons of HDR content. So yeah,

(24:13):
brightness is important, but more for getting the best picture quality,
not for just you know, blasting you out of your
seat and your home.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
Oh wow, so that's interesting. This is going to be
the first time the Super Bowl is in four K
eighth Wait, that's not it is.

Speaker 7 (24:26):
It'll be the first time it's in four K or HDR.

Speaker 8 (24:29):
It was done in Adobe Vision as a matter of
fact last year, but that it's going to be deployed
to so many different depending on how you get it right,
whether you're watching it on Peacock or you're I think
is it on NBC this year?

Speaker 1 (24:45):
I'm confused? Hold on, I thought the Super Bowl is
on Fox last year because they made a big deal
with two B and now this year it's on NBC
with Peacock.

Speaker 8 (24:53):
Did I skip a year? I thought it was on
Peacock last year.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
Okay, may I think it was on to me last
year because I was I was like so impressed that
they put it on free. But maybe I could be wrong.
But yeah, so it's on NBC this year on Peacock
as well. Yeah, and wow, four K HDR that's wild.

Speaker 7 (25:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (25:11):
YouTube TV will have it in HDR. Now understand, they
take it. They recorded at ten ADP and they professionally
upscale it to four K. But your TV is still
getting a great four K signal. And I'm telling you,
the Super Bowl in HDR is just next level. When
you see the lights gleaming off of their helmets and
the depth of the green on the field, it's just undeniable.

Speaker 7 (25:32):
It looks so good.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
Okay, Well now I'm excited. Okay, so let's get to
some of your top picks. I always love getting like
actual models that you would recommend. What's your let's start
with the budget pick under five hundred bucks.

Speaker 7 (25:45):
Under five hundred bucks.

Speaker 8 (25:46):
Okay, Look, I think everybody wants to get at least
a sixty five inch TV now or bigger.

Speaker 7 (25:50):
That's what the numbers say.

Speaker 8 (25:51):
So I'm gonna say, if you're getting a sixty five
or larger under five hundred dollars, the TV to get
is the TCLQM five A. There's nothing else I would
recommend for a sixty five inch at that price level. Now,
if you were going to get something smaller, like at
fifty five, you could step up to the QM six
K maybe, but QM five K is your model for

(26:13):
a sixty five inch TV at Okay.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
What about the mid range one thousand dollars price point?
That seems pretty reasonable for a good TV.

Speaker 8 (26:22):
Right, So I would say, well, if you wanted to
get an eighty five inch at one thousand dollars, that's
a great blend of size and.

Speaker 7 (26:34):
Price.

Speaker 8 (26:35):
Is the TCL QM six K is right there now
at one thousand dollars. You could get higher quality TV
at sixty five inches for one thousand dollars, But if
you want that blend of price and size, the QM
six K again from TCL, is a really good one. Also,
look at the High Sense U six. Both of those
are going to be great. About one thousand dollars for

(26:55):
an eighty five incher, which I think satisfies the need
for the big TV at the Super Bowl, and great
HDR picture.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
I think two years or three years ago and you
were on you mentioned High Sense for the first time,
and I was like, all right, and I looked at
it and I bought it, and everyone who comes to
my house loves it. They're like, what what are you
doing with your TV? I'm like, nothing, It just looks
as good right out of the box.

Speaker 7 (27:13):
You know.

Speaker 8 (27:13):
I mean, this is a full circle to back to
what we were talking about earlier. There was a time
when Samsung and LG were the new kids on the
block and we're like, who are these guys?

Speaker 7 (27:21):
Right? And now they're dominant in the TV space.

Speaker 8 (27:24):
Well, DCL and High Sense have been up in comers
for a few years now, and I feel like they've arrived.

Speaker 7 (27:29):
They're here, they're putting out tier one stuff.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
Okay, let's do the splurge.

Speaker 7 (27:35):
I mean splurge.

Speaker 8 (27:36):
Like, I'll just tell you my favorite TV is the
Sony Bravia eight Mark two. I know it's an annoying name,
Bravia eight Mark two, but that is Sony's very best
o led TV. It only goes up to seventy seven inches,
which is still a big TV. But the picture is
absolutely glorious and there's just nothing better on the market
right now in my opinion.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
And Okay, you said splurge. I mean I'm looking at
the price. It's still only two thousand dollars. I mean
only I get it. That's a lot. But I was
thinking like eight thousand dollars for this TVR Oh.

Speaker 8 (28:05):
Well, sure, like, I mean, if you wanted to spend
that kind of money. The eighty five inch tcl X
eleven L that's the super quantum dot ridiculous TV that
I right behind me that we were talking about earlier.
That's ten thousand dollars for a ninety eight inch or
you can get it for eight thousand dollars at the

(28:25):
eighty five inch level. That is a huge splurge. It
will absolutely knock your freaking socks off.

Speaker 7 (28:31):
Man.

Speaker 8 (28:31):
Really, it's brand new technology. It just came out. We've
never seen a new TV come out in January before.
DCL is kind of the first to do that, so
that that is another splurge option. But I mean my
personal favorite TV on the market right now still is
the Sony Broby eight Mark two old.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
All right, awesome, We're gonna leave it there, Caleb Dennison,
Can you tell folks how to find you online? What
should they do?

Speaker 7 (28:55):
Yep?

Speaker 8 (28:55):
Just sir, search klibrated on YouTube c A L E
b r at E.

Speaker 7 (29:00):
Do you just like it sounds? And you can also
find me on substack.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
All right? Oh Substack, I love it. I love Substack.
You know I got my newsletter there. Uh now I
just subscribe to yours.

Speaker 7 (29:09):
All right, I'm subscribed to yours, man.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
Thank you, Caleb eighty to eight rich one on one
eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.
Coming up, we'll do more calls and Samsung's Trifold phone
is officially on sale. Tell you how much? Coming up next,
Welcome back to rich on Tech rich DeMuro here hanging
out with you, talking technology Triple eight rich one O

(29:33):
one eight eight eight seven four to two four one
zero one the website. Rich on tech dot TV took
the break to uh write down everything that Caleb just
told us. So if you're looking for those TV picks,
they are all on the website. Rich on tech dot TV.
This is episode one fifty nine. That's right, this is
your number four of this show. If you can believe it,

(29:53):
I can't.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
Samsung's Galaxy Z trifold is officially on sale. This is
the phone that folds twice. It opens up into a
massive ten inch screen, the largest display ever on a
Galaxy phone. And it's got a two hundred megapixel camera,
custom Snapdragon chip and the biggest battery Samsung is put
into its foldable. It's available now at Samsung Experience stores

(30:18):
and online. You're ready for the price tag if you're
doing anything that requires like your brain, just stop. Twenty
nine hundred dollars for a smartphone with a five hundred
and twelve gigs of storage, one color, and apparently it's
already sold out, like apparently people already. I don't know
how many they made of this phone. But now remember

(30:41):
if you're into Samsung devices, the new one is coming
out next month, So in February at least, it's gonna
be unveiled next month. That's the rumor. We don't know
for sure. Samsung has not said specifically. I think they're
getting through the publicity on the trifold. Once that WANs
then they'll go to the new phone. But there it is.
All right, Let's go to David in Claremont, California. David,

(31:04):
you're on with Rich Rich Good afternoon.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
Hi.

Speaker 10 (31:09):
I have a question that I'm just struggling with. Tell
them how to fix it, and I figured if anyone
knows how to do it.

Speaker 6 (31:13):
It's going to be you.

Speaker 1 (31:14):
Okay, well we'll say so.

Speaker 10 (31:16):
I have this email had for a long time and
it says that it's full, and a lot of it
was my pictures. I think it asked me to do
a takeout through Gmail, and I did, but it still
shows that it's completely full. I deleted everything from my
trash to my spams. I mean, everything's gone. I have

(31:36):
nothing in that Gmail account, but it still reflects as
it's ninety seven percent full.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
Okay. I think what's happening is that you might not
have stuff in Gmail, but you might have stuff in
other areas of Google. So have you been to the
website one dot Google dot com.

Speaker 10 (31:55):
I'm not sure I have.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
Okay, Well, you know if you went there, because I
visited frequently to keep tabs on my storage. But this
is the best way to see what's going on with
this account. So go ahead and go to one dot
Google dot com and you'll see right on the home
screen if you're paying for Google Storage, it'll tell you, like,
right now, I can see I've got seventy six percent
used of my storage, and then I've got it says

(32:19):
how many devices I've got on there, and then it
says clean up space. I've got seven hundred and nineteen
gigabytes that I can clean up. So that's the number
one place you want to go, because I have a
feeling that you may have your storage cleaned up on Gmail.
But if you click into the area where it says storage,
you will see it breaks it down by service. So

(32:40):
I'm using four terabytes of five terabytes, and in Google Drive,
I've got about three hundred gigabytes. In Gmail, I've got
forty five gigabytes. How do I have forty five gigabytes
of emails?

Speaker 6 (32:51):
Like?

Speaker 1 (32:52):
Literally, what is an email? Is like one killobyte? Like,
how do I have forty five gigabytes? It's the attachments? Yeah,
And I go through the attachments and it's like there's
still not that many. You can only send a twenty
five megabyte attachment. I think this is just twenty years
of email that's just like somehow built up.

Speaker 7 (33:11):
Yeah, pretty much.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
I don't want to delete any of it though. Google Photos,
I've got three terabytes, so that's where a lot of
it is. Family storage. My kids are using up three
hundred and fifty gigabytes. So David, that's your homework assignment.
You got to go in there and see. Because storage.
If you're using Gmail, your storage is actually shared across
all these different Google properties, Google Photos, Google Drive, Recorder, Gmail,

(33:36):
and so anything that you have stored in Google Photos,
even if you did a takeout, it's still in there.
A Google takeout does not get rid of the files.
It just gives you a copy of them to download.
So what you'd have to do is, if you want
to really clear this up, you'd probably be best to
either tap one of these things. It'll just say clean
up space, and it gives you suggested ways to do that.

(33:59):
Large photos and vide large drive files. Emails with large attachments,
so bobo to your question or your comment. I've got
seven gigabytes of emails with large attachments, which is not
that much I mean over twenty years, and then I've
got files in trash two and forty nine megabytes, So
I guess that's another big question of is does the

(34:19):
files in your trash take up the space on Google?
And it looks like I'm guessing the answer might be yes,
because why would it say cleanup suggested items and show
me my trash if that wasn't actively taking up storage.
So I can try emptying my trash, but I don't
want to do that right now because I want to
see But those are the places to look, so go

(34:42):
into again. It's one. If you've got Google storage and
you're struggling with your phone saying you're out of storage,
go to one dot Google dot com and just explore
that page. They don't really advertise it that much because
think about it, why would they want to. The more
you've got in this storage and the more you don't
understand it, the more you're paying Google. And what's the

(35:02):
fastest growth area of Google, Amazon and Apple right now?
It's called services, and that's cloud storage. That's where they're
making their money. So I know, for me, I'm paying
you know already I think twenty five dollars a month.
But Yeah, before we go to break here, Yahoo is back.
They've got a new AI search tool. It's called Yahoo Scout.

(35:27):
You can go to scout dot Yahoo dot com. It's
an AI answer engine, so instead of just like a
bunch of those blue links, it's going to give you
direct answers, kind of like you know, all these other
AI services we're seeing out there. Yahoo says they are
bringing thirty years of experience with search plus stuff they
know about you, plus information from across the web, and

(35:47):
they're going to roll this out to all of their products.
So you're gonna start seeing Yahoo Scout in Yahoo Mail,
Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo's Sports, Yahoo's shopping. I know,
we discount Yahoo because that's a brand that's kind of
gone away, but they still run some pretty popular properties
on the web. So be on the lookout for Yahoo
Scout or go to the website and you can check
it out yourself. Rich on Tech dot TV eight eight

(36:10):
eight seven four to two four one zero one. This
is rich on Tech. 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 zero one. Phone lines are open,

(36:33):
you've got the feedback, We've got the website. This is
episode one five nine, so if you're looking for something
that I mentioned, it's all on the website. There, don't forget.
If you like listening to the show, subscribe to the podcast.
It is free. We're on all the main podcast services,
so you can listen to whatever you might not catch
catch the first time around. There's a new air tag

(36:55):
this week. Apple launched it without a lot of fanfare,
but you know, you know, how do you improve on
a device that's already being used by millions of people
around the world. It's the best selling item finder. Apple
announce that, and now there's a new version. It's got
better range and louder sound. So it's got a new
ultra wide bandschip, letting you use that precision finding from

(37:17):
up to fifty percent further away. Now this is a
little confusing for people because there's two ways you can
use an AirTag. You can just see the location on
your phone at any time, no matter where it is
in the world. But you can also use your phone
if you have a recent model iPhone, to lead you
right to the air tag. So if it's in your house,
you lost your keys. You can turn on this precision

(37:40):
finding mode and your phone will literally direct you left,
right forward backwards to the device. Now that range is longer.
In my testing, I was able to find the old
one up to a range of about fifty feet away.
With the new one, I was able to go about
one hundred and fifty feet. But I imagine there's lots of
different reasons why that might be longer, depending what else.

(38:02):
The speaker is about fifty percent louder, so it makes
it easier to hear when something's lost nearby, or if
it's like under a couch cushion. And for the first time,
you can use precision finding on newer Apple Watches to
locate the air tag right from your wrist. So if
you've got your air tag on your keys, you can
use your Apple Watch to find where your keys are.

(38:22):
And by the way, I didn't even know this I
was setting up the new air tag. You know, you
can edit that like little pop up screen on the
Apple Watch when you press the flat button. There's like
the airplane mode, the Wi Fi, the battery percentage. You
can edit those tiles if you scroll all the way down.
And now I've set one as the air tag that
I'm about to let you hear. Okay, so here's the

(38:44):
audio on the old air tag. The new one sounds
slightly different. You're ready, So here's the old one. I'm
gonna press up play sound. Okay, so you're pretty familiar
with that sound if you've ever used an air tag.
That's the old one. Now the new one I'm putting
in this same length away from the mic. Let's hear
what that one sounds like. Ready, there we go. So

(39:10):
it's a higher pitch sound, right, and it's also a
louder sound as well, so you're gonna be able to
find things easier. Hopefully, design is the same. They didn't
change that, which thank you Apple for doing that. They
could have changed it and made accessory makers a whole
bunch of new money because you would have to buy
everything new. No old accessory. Existing accessories will still work

(39:31):
and you don't need to run out and upgrade your
air attacks. They still work. You can replace the battery
when they go dead. You just this is moving forward.
If you want something that's louder, you want something with
more range, you want to use your Apple Watch on it,
now you can with the new one. Same price twenty
nine dollars for the one pack, ninety nine dollars for
the four pack, same as before. How do you tell
the difference? There is one way to tell the difference

(39:51):
on these. My kids are in studio. Can you tell
the difference on the back? What's the difference I'm showing Parker,
Can you tell what's the difference? At first glance, I
will reveal the letters on the old air tag are
upper lower case. The letters on the new air tag
are all in upper case. So there's no visible way
to tell except for that. So now you know, all right,

(40:14):
Let's go to Beth in Cyprus, California. Beth on line
four you're on with.

Speaker 9 (40:20):
Rich Her there. I have a credit freeze with experience,
and I want to temporarily lift it, and so I
want to know what your thoughts are the safest method
to lift it because you can't call and do it anymore,
just online as I understand it, or the mail. And
I've had numerous data breaches, so I'm really cautious because

(40:43):
you have to give a lot of precise information.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
How did you do the freeze?

Speaker 9 (40:49):
I did it? Let's see, I'm kind to think I
did it by calling.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Okay, so you called them up. Okay. Interesting. So you
don't have an Experience online account? No, okay, well that
is the easiest way to do it. I have one.
I have my credit frozen on there. Actually, let me
make sure, because I did unfreeze it recently to get something.
Let's see. So if I go, now, here's the thing.

(41:14):
They actually kind of trick you a little bit because
they try to get you to sign up for this,
like they're yeah, exactly, and then you have to kind
of look behind that. Okay, so here it is applying
for credit unfreeze your credit file. So mine actually is
frozen right now. So yeah, so if you go online, Beth,
and I know you're a little concerned about the online stuff,

(41:35):
they won't. Did you call in now? Yeah, here's the
reason why I think they won't let you do it
by calling in, because think about it, there's not too
much identifying information anymore these days, and someone could easily
call in and just say I'm Beth, and here's all
my info. Let's say your data was out there in
a breach, and then they can unfreeze and then get
more stuff. That's probably why they're doing it. I would say,

(41:56):
it's relatively safe to do. To sign up on Experience
dot com, the number one thing you need to do
is make sure you're on the right website. Their website
is Experience dot com. Number one. Don't don't go to
like a you know, imitation website.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (42:10):
They are going to ask for your social when you join.
I mean obviously they need that because you're signing up,
and so I would make sure that you're on a
web browser that is current. I would make sure that
you're on Wi Fi that you trust, or you can
do this from your smartphone on a cellular connection if
you really want to be private. But those are the things.
Then sign up obviously with a strong password, unique password,

(42:34):
and then I would lock down this account if you can.
I don't know if they do two factor authentication. Let
me see here. Yeah they do, okay, so I would
lock lock down with two factor and I just looked
at my account. I need to do that actually. So
those are the things to do. And then once you're
in there, you can do the freeze right from there
and it should show that you're frozen. Now here's the
here's the rub here. I I don't know if they're

(42:57):
gonna let you sign in because your account is froz
you know what I mean, Like you may not be
able to sign up fresh because your account's frozen, so
that you may run into a scenario where you try
to log in and they say, sorry, your account was frozen.
We're not gonna let you log in. But I'm not
sure that's the case, because you could do other things
on this website than just unfreeze your account.

Speaker 9 (43:16):
I see, Yeah, because I just want to do it
temporarily because I because I want to apply for a
credit card that's has zero interests. Okay, So that's why
I wanted to do it temporarily. You know, I definitely
want to put it back on. But the other two
credit bureaus, I mean I had it with them and
that you could just call and they took care of it.

Speaker 11 (43:36):
You know.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
I was going to say, do you know that the
credit card you're applying for is using Experience as their credit?
You know that's the credit they check.

Speaker 9 (43:44):
I know they do, because I totally forgot that I
had that on when I when I applied for that
at my bank. Yeah, me too, And they said we
can't get the information because your credits frozen. Oh my gosh,
I forgot that I had that on because I had
that on for I.

Speaker 1 (44:01):
Did the same thing. I applied for the Amazon credit
card during the holidays when it was they were giving
like two hundred and fifty dollars cash back or something.
I was like, all right, fine, I'll do that and
I'll cancel it right away. And sure enough, as soon
as I submitted my information, it was like, sorry, you're frozen.
You can't do anything. I was like, oh, And then
I never got it because I was like, you know what, Okay,

(44:21):
this was a sign from the gods. I'll just not
get this card. But yeah, So the main thing to
do when you go on there after you sign up,
if you want to unfreeze it, remember to freeze it again.
You can. Oh, interesting, it says you can schedule a thaw.
Let's see what that does. Okay, schedule a thaw before
you apply. So if you do a thaw, which will

(44:42):
allow access to your experience credit file, and I guess
maybe they freeze it again. So in case you forget
that's interesting. Oh yeah, set a date range. Okay. That's
so you can set a range if you're applying, like
you go on a bender and just like apply for
like ten cards at once. You're not gonna do that,
right best, No.

Speaker 9 (45:01):
No, I'm just doing the one thing I don't need anymore. Now.
This is just for to the bank and you know,
for a major project that.

Speaker 12 (45:09):
I want to do.

Speaker 9 (45:10):
Okay, for payments, that's easier.

Speaker 1 (45:12):
Okay. Well, just just know that if you're good, if
you go to the if you go on there, just
and this is for everyone you know that's listening, that's uh,
you know, may do this. Just remember that they have
like two products. One is like a paid freeze product
to the other is the actual free security freeze. And
if you go to the bottom of their website, that's
where you can see where it actually says security freeze

(45:35):
and that's the free one.

Speaker 9 (45:37):
So okay, security freeze. Okay, great, Oh.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
Thank you all right, good luck, Beth, Thank you so much.
All right, thanks for calling. In eighty eight rich one
O one eight eight eight seven four to two four
one zero one, Richard writes in from Connecticut, I keep
seeing ads for a device called blank Player. I'm not
even gonna give the name of these things that promises
unlimited entertainment With those subscriptions are monthly fees have you

(46:02):
heard of it? And is it actually legit? Yes, it's
called YouTube. No, I know what you're talking about. You're
talking about a black box.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
There's tons of them on the market. Many of them
operate in a gray area at best, illegal at worst.
I cannot recommend these. I know a lot of people
have them. I cannot vouch for them. I can't say
that you should get one because A I work in media,
and uh, you know, I respect people that are making
a living selling their movies and music and things like that.

(46:32):
So you also have to be aware of malware. You
may not be able to update this thing. Anything could
break along the lines, So please stick to fire TV,
Apple TV, Google TV, Roku, and you're gonna have to
pay for those subscriptions like everyone else. Richard eighty eight
rich one o one eight eight eight seven four to
two four one zero one More rich on Tech right

(46:52):
after this, Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro
here hanging out with you talking technology at Triple eight
rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to
two four one zero one. I always have like a
bunch of announcements for the show, and I always forget
to do them. No, nothing like nothing's changing, but I'm

(47:16):
just saying I have like all these things. Like, uh,
let's see, I'm at rich on Tech on Instagram. There
I post the latest scams to be aware of, plus
tech tips and a little glimpse into my life as
a tech reporter, traveler and dad. This is why I
don't read these. Be sure to subscribe to my free newsletter.
It's packed with helpful tips, tricks, and the latest tech

(47:37):
news I think you should know about, and much more.
Just go to rich on tech dot tv and hit
sign up. Did you also know I'm a tech reporter
on TV? You can watch all of my segments at
richon tech dot tv. You're such a dad. The feedback
is where I read the questions, comments, and whatever else
you send me throughout the week. To submit yours, just

(47:59):
go to on tech dot tv and hit contact. Okay, actually,
this one I like. If you want to watch the
monologue of this show that's like the first ten minutes,
you can just download the free KTLA plus app on
your Fire TV, Roku or Apple TV and look for
rich on Tech Weekly. It has the first ten minutes
of this radio show, plus more in depth versions of

(48:21):
my TV segments. I'm actually very proud of that show.
I was watching all the pieces yesterday for next week's
and my editor Luis does such a great job. He
takes so much pride in editing those pieces, and I
watch them. It's a shame it's only on streaming. It's
only made it to like KTLA over the air like twice,

(48:42):
and people write me they're like, oh my gosh, Rich, congratulations,
Like no, we do this every week for like years now,
but it's on streaming, so not everyone sees it. But
I keep asking KTLA. I'm like, hey, can you put
this over the air? Can you put it over the air? Okay,
let's go to Bob in North Hollywood, Line one. Bob,
you're on with Rich.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
Hi.

Speaker 6 (49:01):
Hi, I like to show a lot and your website.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
Oh thank you Rich on tech dot TV.

Speaker 7 (49:08):
That's it.

Speaker 6 (49:09):
Got a question for you. I have Facebook. Been on
Facebook a long time, and about a week ago I
kept getting notices You're going to be on professional mode
on the twenty ninth of the month, which was two
days ago. And two days ago it says you're now
in professional mode. To keep your public followers, Facebook is
simplifying settings. Your main profile can no longer have public followers.

(49:32):
We've turned on professional mode for your profile so you
can keep followers.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
I have no idea.

Speaker 6 (49:38):
I tried to find information as what it meant. You
can click here, but it went on and on and
I could make no sense of it.

Speaker 1 (49:45):
Okay, yeah, it's very confusing. So do you have a
large following.

Speaker 6 (49:50):
I have no idea what that means. I'm looking at
what it rode up because it says now you're on
professional and it says now I'm a digital creator.

Speaker 1 (49:59):
Oh wow, are you creating?

Speaker 2 (50:01):
All I do is.

Speaker 6 (50:01):
I post things, you know, like a joke or a
photograph that I may have taken on you know, comment,
you know, on entering. That's what I do for a day,
so you know, my photographs or you know, joke's that
sort of thing.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
So just typical Facebook creator. No, okay, this.

Speaker 6 (50:22):
Is it said you can turn it off, but I
don't know what it even means. Although if I look
at the top of the screen on Facebook, yeah, you know,
you have the three lines and then you'd have the
house home page this cefter. But now there's an entry
on the far right of my photograph which i'd had

(50:44):
in a circle. And when I click on the circle.
That's what it says. Polls up for six hundred and
sixty eight followers, two hundred and thirty seven following a
digital creator and it goes from there. And I have
no idea what that means.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
Well, I'm not sure why they turned professional mode. The
only thing I can think of is because you have
a combination of friends and followers, they kind of merged
them all into one place. And I think that's what's happening.
Is professional mode means that I think that you Okay,
so I'm looking up online because my mindsets professional mode

(51:20):
as well. Now you must have this professional dashboard, which
gives you. The main thing that this gives you is
a whole bunch of insights into your account, so you
can see when people are looking at your stuff, how
your content did. You might be eligible for like monetization
things like that. It's odd because it's not like you

(51:41):
have a huge following. Like this typically happens with people
that may have reached a limit of like five thousand
friends on Facebook back in the day, and they would say, oh,
clearly you're doing something that's more of a public facing account,
so let's switch this on for various reasons because you
probably want to see but for you, was there an
option to turn this off?

Speaker 6 (52:01):
It says yes, but I don't know what. I don't
know what professional is and it sounded like it would
delete people from seeing me if I kept it in
professional mode friends and family.

Speaker 2 (52:11):
That's sort of okay.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
The main thing, I think The main thing that that
when you have professional mode on that I'm looking for
that I'm looking at here is says who can follow
me will be set to public. That means that basically
anyone can follow you on the on Facebook versus you
accepting a friend. That's what that's I think the biggest

(52:33):
difference here.

Speaker 6 (52:33):
That's what professional mode is. Is that what the standard mode is.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
Correct, that's professional mode. So if you're okay with that,
then I would just leave this on if you you know,
if you're if you want that feature, but if you don't,
then you can turn it off. And that means you
can now say who can follow you is just friends.
You're not going to lose any followers who are not
your friends, but you can allow public followers again once

(52:57):
you turn on professional mode. This all sounds very confusing.

Speaker 6 (53:01):
What's that turn on or turn off professional.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
If you turn it on again, you would have those
public followers. Basically at this point, anyone can follow you.
That's that's on Facebook versus you kind of accepting them
as a friend. That's what it sounds like to me.

Speaker 6 (53:13):
That's a professional mode, is.

Speaker 1 (53:14):
Correct, and you get all those insights.

Speaker 6 (53:18):
Okay, it's just digital creator. I would you know.

Speaker 1 (53:21):
I mean, it sounds like, are you ready to take
on a new career as a digital creator?

Speaker 6 (53:25):
But I never knew what. I couldn't find the definition
for digital creator. I just post photographs that I came.
For instance, I posted, uh, I joke orange you glad.
I live in South California and I have family in
the Midwest, and so on the nineteenth or sixteenth, it
was eighty.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
Three degrees in yes, and it was freezing.

Speaker 6 (53:48):
And then I had pictures of orange, an orange globe tree.
So get it altering you, glad.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
I see why you're content creator, Bob. I got a run.
They're playing me off. Thanks for the call today, rich
one On one eighty eight seven four to two four
one zero one. Welcome back to rich On Tech. Rich
DeMuro here hang out with you talking technology at Triple
eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four

(54:15):
to two four one zero one phone lines are open.
Kim is standing by, uh ready to get you on
the air here, and we'll get back to those lines
in just a moment. Kim did mention that the air
tags are on sale on Amazon for seventy bucks for
a four pack. And then here's the thing that you
need to know, because I mentioned that they have new
air tags, so you're gonna see a delineation first generation

(54:39):
versus second generation. So the second generation are also at Costco,
but they're selling for one hundred dollars for a four pack,
so you're probably gonna see I would say even more
discounts on the first generation air tags as retailers sort
of clear them out whatever stock they have. The big
thing is do you need to get the old or
the new. If you're interested in that precision feature, like

(55:00):
if you need that longer range or if you need
the louder speaker, go with the new ones. But if
you don't, the old ones are going to be just fine.
Everything else is like completely the same, all right. Sharon
guys on the line. She is an AI expert and
former Ali Baba strategist and author of the upcoming book,
How to Do More with Less future Proofing yourself in
an AI driven economy. That is a hot topic these days. Sharon,

(55:24):
thanks for joining me.

Speaker 13 (55:26):
Hey, Rich, how's it going.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
Everything's good. So this is a very hot topic that
people are always wondering about. They hear AI, they feel scared,
they're overwhelmed. So what do you make of the current
situation with AI and work right now?

Speaker 13 (55:44):
Yeah, I totally echo the fear and anxiety with it.

Speaker 11 (55:47):
The biggest thing is, I think it's really unevenly distributed
when it comes to the US in.

Speaker 13 (55:53):
General, but just around the world.

Speaker 11 (55:56):
You know, you have founders in San Francisco, for instance.
You pick anybody off the street if you visit that city,
they're probably building multi agent systems automating a lot of
parts of their life. And then you go to another
city somewhere else. The other day, was on a flight
and this woman next to me was on a business trip,
and you know, I was talking about what I do

(56:19):
in terms of keynoting and talking about AI.

Speaker 13 (56:22):
And she said, oh, chat shipt, I've heard of that.

Speaker 11 (56:26):
So it's just it just runs such the gamut, and
I think.

Speaker 13 (56:31):
For those who are sort of in that AI bubble.

Speaker 11 (56:34):
You know, the algorithm is constantly serving you up things
that could cause fear and anxiety.

Speaker 13 (56:40):
And then there's so many of us who's just barely
tried it yet.

Speaker 11 (56:45):
And so hopefully that the new book that I've written
is it levels the playing field for everyone so that
it brings everyone in the same conversation at least.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
It is wild because they're like when I go home
to like, you know, my family, and I say, oh
at chat Ebt, this Ai, this, Gemini, this Claude that,
and they're like, wait, hold on, what, Like how do
I even go to these websites? Right? And so it's
like there are people that are using this on a
daily basis and really getting familiar with it, and there
are people who have not even begun to scratch the
surface with it. Do you think people should be using

(57:18):
this to see what it's all about?

Speaker 13 (57:21):
Absolutely?

Speaker 5 (57:23):
You can.

Speaker 11 (57:24):
You know in the future that I predict there's probably
going to be a decent group of people who's opposed
to everything.

Speaker 13 (57:31):
That's that's happening in the ANI space.

Speaker 11 (57:33):
Because it will come so fast and it's gonna change
so many things. So there's going to be a group
of people that's you know anti AI, there's you're already
hearing the protests and whatnot that's starting to happen with
A taking away their jobs and agency. So there will
be that growing number of people. But at least try

(57:55):
it to see how and just a nalidate for yourself
whether it's right for your life. Personally, I think it's
it's made a huge shift and the way that I work,
the way that I think about things, the way that
I live my life. You know, the Internet get paved
way for this burst of information to just be at
our fingertips, and I think AI just makes it even

(58:18):
faster that that information is not just exploded, it's hyper
exploded in front of us.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
I know people worry that this is going to take
their jobs. Has that started to happen yet? And do
you think there are some jobs that are safe from
AI in the future or is everyone going to be
affected in some way?

Speaker 13 (58:37):
Everyone is going to be infected. And so I think
the way that.

Speaker 14 (58:42):
I that I metaphor it is it's similar to you know,
when the electric motor was created in eighteen nineties and
when we just when we designed our factories back in
the day, it was a very vertical design.

Speaker 11 (58:58):
With the steam power in all factories, and then the
electric motor was created, and then all we did in
our factories was changed the steam to electric motors without
ever redesigning the entire factory, so not really designing our
entire workflow around it. And I think that's what's happening

(59:18):
with AI. You know, if you've seen the reports of
MIT says there's an MIT study that says ninety five
percent of AI projects have failed so far, and so
we're in that reckoning where there's a lot of things
that's not working in the ANI space, but that's just
a temporary hold before things start before product to before

(59:42):
productivity actually has that uptick. So for the in terms
of jobs, you see a lot of entry level work
being displaced right now. So if you are you know,
maybe twenty two just graduated, the things that you know
is not really based on experience because you don't have
experience yet, and so if your job is quite junior,

(01:00:06):
that's the exact layer of roles that we're seeing being affected.

Speaker 13 (01:00:10):
There's a lot of text CEOs that.

Speaker 11 (01:00:11):
Overblow it a bit, I think, where you know, they're
saying that unemployment is going to rise to twenty thirty percent.

Speaker 13 (01:00:19):
I actually don't.

Speaker 11 (01:00:19):
Think that will happen because I have a lot more
faith in people in that. You know, because if you
are displaced from a job, that you're agile enough to
learn some sort of new skill that that has openings
and has jobs, and you reorient yourself that way. I
think there's I think we don't give ourselves enough credit. Also,

(01:00:42):
we underestimate our ability to adapt to change. In previous
times of you know, when the Internet age or when internet,
when the Internet emerged, jobs were displaced too. We used
to have a lot of people that were type this,
and that was their job is to be a type
this or a secretary of some sort, or like travel

(01:01:03):
agent of some sort, where your job was to book tickets,
book plane tickets for people. And then Expedia I came
and then we didn't really need those people anymore. So
I think change is just part of life, and I
think we don't give ourselves enough credit sometimes with our
humans natural ability to adapt to change.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
Well, And you mentioned travel. Whenever I travel, I always
joke with my wife about how many jobs I do
as I travel, so like it's like you park your
own car at the parking lot. I mean obviously that's
pretty standard. But you get there. You like, like at
one point, I'm like tagging my own baggage. Now, like
you can literally print out your own tags. You're like
sticking them to your luggage. You get on the plane,

(01:01:43):
you're like literally cleaning You're a little area on the
plane with that little wipe they give you. So I'm
like cleaning the plane now I'm not flying the plane. Obviously,
checking into the hotel. You're doing that from your phone.
I mean, there's just so many things that we've taken
on the duties for. Like you said, there's people that
used to do these jobs, but you know, it's not
as if you go to these places there's no one there,
there's less people, but there's definitely you know, people have

(01:02:05):
been displaced in various ways and they find new things
to do. I think this analogy you give in the
book about this this busy bees. If you're drowning in
meetings notes and repetitive data entry that leaves you burnt
out by five pm, what's your advice there? That's kind
of interesting.

Speaker 11 (01:02:23):
Yeah, So on the book cover, it's a bee, and
if you know anything about this animal, it's a very
interesting little bug and so bees, you know, are very
narrow in the way that they operate, but when they
come together as a whole hive, they can find the

(01:02:46):
next flower to pollinate, they can adjust temperature, they build
structures that protect themselves.

Speaker 13 (01:02:52):
And so the whole promise.

Speaker 11 (01:02:53):
Of the book is it's just like us where you know,
I went through a traditional four year college and I
entered the corporate world, climb the corporate ladder, hope for
a time to fifteen percent salary increase every single.

Speaker 13 (01:03:06):
Year, and my getting I felt like.

Speaker 1 (01:03:10):
Which part I never I don't think I've ever seen
that in my job career.

Speaker 2 (01:03:16):
I was.

Speaker 13 (01:03:16):
I was aiming, okay.

Speaker 1 (01:03:18):
Because every company I've ever worked for they say the
same thing. They make billions of dollars, and when it
comes time to do any kind of contract, like we
have no money, where does all the money go? Anyway?

Speaker 11 (01:03:29):
I think yeah, and I think I think you know
a lot of people went that very traditional path and
started checking those boxes.

Speaker 13 (01:03:37):
And then one day I just realized that that box
checking idea.

Speaker 11 (01:03:41):
Doesn't really farewell, and it doesn't farewell, especially in this
current age.

Speaker 13 (01:03:46):
So I felt like a busy bee when I.

Speaker 11 (01:03:48):
Was working in those roles where my to do lists
were endless, and it was meeting after meeting, and there
were so many things. And for anyone that kind of
works in a corporate space, maybe that you know, like
are you we needed on this call? Like this whole
thing is going to take an hour long and you
want me to spend.

Speaker 13 (01:04:06):
My entire human hour here with you doing whatever? You're tire?

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
You know?

Speaker 11 (01:04:11):
So I think a lot of us feel that way,
and that's what leads to the burnout. That's what leads
to When it's Sunday, why is it that it's Sunday evening?

Speaker 13 (01:04:19):
We grow because we know that work is going to
start on Monday. But when it's Friday afternoon, we're so
happy that the weekends about Like I think.

Speaker 11 (01:04:28):
That grown and that expression of happiness shouldn't happen in
those times, Like we should be happy, hopefully throughout the
whole seven days, and so work shouldn't be something where
it feels like it's a waste of our time. And
so that's the whole premise of the book is how
do you use AI, especially for those who maybe you

(01:04:49):
haven't tried it yet or haven't tapped into its potential.
How do we remove some of that drudgery from our
work so that we don't have to grown on the
Sunday evening going into work.

Speaker 13 (01:05:01):
And so that's why there's a bet on the cover.

Speaker 11 (01:05:04):
It's the hope is that you can transform yourself from
a busy beat to it ultimately a bee keeper, so
a keeper of those AI agents that will work for you,
that will take some away some of those tasks that
was meant.

Speaker 13 (01:05:20):
For a machine to do. Anyway.

Speaker 11 (01:05:23):
So there's a quote in the book which is spending
human hours on human necessary tasks because human hours is
very precious, and so I think too many of us
spend much time spending our human hours on not human
necessary things. And that's part of again going back to

(01:05:46):
that the factory metaphor, that's redesigning our factory. Because the
way that we were looked at work previously, it was
going through a lot of checkboxes. It wasn't thinking more
strategically about where should I better spend my time on.
And I think once we start to do that too,
we start to excavate our own human potential. We can

(01:06:08):
realize there's more creative things that actually need our time
and attention that we can actually make an impact towards
versus spending our time in something that's not worth.

Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
All right, good advice. The book is how to do
More with Less, future proofing yourself and an AI driven economy.
Sharon Guy, thanks so much for joining me today.

Speaker 13 (01:06:31):
Thanks so much.

Speaker 11 (01:06:32):
Rich.

Speaker 1 (01:06:32):
All right, coming up more of your calls at Triple
eight Rich one on one eight eight eight seven four
two four one zero one, and I'll tell you what's
changed with Chrome. Coming up next. Welcome back to Rich
on tech Rich DeMuro. Here, let's go to line three.

(01:06:54):
Line three is Bob and Woodland Hills. You're on with Rich.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
Oh well, Rich, thank you so much for taking my call.
I do enjoy you on Channel five as I watch
you guys every morning.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
Oh thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
I enjoy being there for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:07:08):
Now you guys do a great job, and I like
the anchors as well. Sure, I'll try to make this
a sinct. Here's what my issue is. I at home,
I have Internet with DSL extremes. So exactly one week ago,
last Suday night, it goes down on me, and so
I do all the fixes that we know to do. Right,

(01:07:29):
instead of getting the green light, I'm getting a blinking yellow.
So we disconnect and connect. Wait a couple of minutes,
you know, do all the obvious things that sure fix it.
DSL Extreme is not open on the weekend, so I'm
not happy. I'm watching TV on a out of rabbit
ears last weekend. But anyway, come Monday morning, I called them.

(01:07:52):
They I'm on the phone with them. They tell me
that everything appears to be fine, the signals coming out.
I'm but they say they have to contact AT and T. Well,
fast forward the story. On Wednesday, I get I talked
to DSL and they tell me that AT and T
says there's a serious wiring issue at my building and

(01:08:13):
it may not be fixed until wait for it, February
twenty fourth. I'm about I'm going about insane right now.

Speaker 1 (01:08:21):
Yeah, even a minute without internet, I go insane.

Speaker 2 (01:08:24):
Correct. So now it's been a week. I mean, I'm
you know, I'm watching TV on rabbit ears. I'm watching
the Internet on my phone. I mean, it's just you know,
through cellular data. It's just not it's horrible.

Speaker 1 (01:08:34):
Okay, Well, the question, okay, what do.

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
You think, my what do you given that answer that
there's a wiring issue at my building that AT and
T has to come out and fix and may take
till February twenty four. Do I have other options that
I can I don't understand this stuff very well.

Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
Okay, I'll tell you what's going on here. So, so
DSL Extreme does not operate their own infrastructure, So they
don't That's that's what was revealed to you when they said, hey,
we got to call AT and T. It's actually a
problem with their lines. They just ride on top of
other providers that are in your area, and they service
a bunch of different areas. So they have partnerships with

(01:09:11):
like you know, an AT and T, a Verizon wherever
they can, wherever they have their service. Their whole deal
proposition is that I'm guessing you're either getting a better
price or a better service by using this company. How
much you paying them a month for your Internet?

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
I think it's like sixty.

Speaker 1 (01:09:29):
Okay, sixty bucks and you're getting them Guessing what speed
are you getting?

Speaker 2 (01:09:34):
I don't know the answer to that to give you.

Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
Okay, So a couple options. Number one, how much do
you love DSL Extreme, Like, are you willing to switch?

Speaker 2 (01:09:44):
And I am I'm ready to switch.

Speaker 1 (01:09:48):
Okay, So a couple of things you can do. I mean,
I'm looking at providers in your area. So AT and
T fiber is in your area, that's the network. I'm
guessing that they're riding on top. Okay, that's the one
that's having the problem. That's a fantastic network. But it's
you know, if there's some issue in you're building, maybe
a rat chewed through a cable or something, they need

(01:10:09):
to figure out. Do you have neighbors that have a
problem too.

Speaker 2 (01:10:12):
It's funny, I have an ass, but I was wondering that. Yeah,
I said, wow, I wonder if my neighbors have an
issue too. I have an ass, but I will ask.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
I would do that because otherwise, you know, you want
to figure out like how you know, I had a
problem with AT and T and they came out and
really did a number on my place, and they did
a great job and they fixed it. I was not
sure they were going to be able to fix it
because it's one of these problems that like, we don't
know what's going on here and so, but they came
out and they they worked on it, and they figured
it out, and people had to go up on the

(01:10:40):
poll and all this stuff that like I never wanted
to do. It did not take a month. I will
tell you that it is actually way faster than I
thought because I was almost in the same place where
my internet was going in and out, and so I
was like kind of going nutty because I was like, Okay,
this is crazy. Every day at three pm my internet
goes out. How's that happen? They ended up figuring out
what the problem was, and it's a whole long story,

(01:11:01):
but anyway, you also have Spectrum in your area. Those
are the two wired services that you have. Okay, Spectrum
can usually come out like pretty quickly, like almost the
next day or the same day to get you installed
at and T as well. So I would if I
were you personally, unless you're in love with this company
that you're working with, I would I would call up

(01:11:23):
Spectrum or go online and see how quick they can
come to install internet. That's number one. Then you've got
these wireless providers. So if you want to save a
ton of money and you have a good signal at
your place, like from T Mobile or Mint Mobile or Verizon,
you can switch to home internet and it's significantly cheaper

(01:11:44):
than usually the wired internet, and it's you know, depending
on what you're doing like if you're just doing basic
stuff like watching TV and surfing the web, you're gonna
be just fine and you're gonna save a lot of money.
Who's your cell phone provider?

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
My cell phone provider? Mobile?

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
Okay, so they have TEA Mobile five. If do you
get a good signal in your house with T Mobile?

Speaker 2 (01:12:06):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:12:07):
Okay, so that might be an option because they're they
they have pretty good, like aggressive plans right now, and
they and this is like self installed, so it's like
fifty dollars a month for your internet. Oh wow, they've
raised price a little bit. But yeah, basically you get
unlimited data and you'd get a discount with your plan,
so that you know, that'll bring the price down a

(01:12:27):
little bit more. But I would look into those two
things and see, you know, if you want to stick
with see if you sorry, see if you want to
stick with this provider, or if you're willing to switch.
If you're willing to switch, I would just cut ties
and say I don't want to wait until, you know,
three more weeks for this, and you can get internet
installed at your house, you know, as quick as tomorrow.

(01:12:48):
Good question, Bob. In the In the meantime, try your
hot spot on your phone if you have it for
connecting your devices, that'll at least keep you connected in
the meantime. Eighty eight rich one oh one back after this,
Welcome back to Rich on tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging
out with you, talking technology, triple eight rich one on

(01:13:09):
one eight eight eight rich one on one. If you're
one of these Strava users. They have added a new feature,
turn by turn navigation to the Apple Watch, so directly
on the Apple Watch, starting in beta, you can now
follow pre loaded routes, see your elevation, and get directions
right on your wrist. That means you no longer need

(01:13:29):
your iPhone if you're out running, biking, or hiking. Runners
and cyclists are saying this is a big upgrade they've
been waiting for. Some people say both free and paid
users have access at least during the beta. But this
does make the Apple Watch much better if you use Strava.
So if you Usetrava, if you use the Apple Watch app,

(01:13:50):
check it out if you haven't looked at it in
a while, because apparently they got some new features that
are quite helpful. And if you like candy Crush, I
told you that I love that new ca Andy Crush
Solitaire game. It's just fun, Like Candy Crush has a
cool thing going on. They have a new game called
Crushable and this is kind of a quick once a
day game instead of like a long ongoing game. And

(01:14:13):
it's exclusively on Yahoo Games in the US. One new
puzzle every day, and the goal is kind of like
to replace sort of supplement. They notice a lot of
people are doing like wordle in the morning or a
quick crossword puzzle or Sodoku. This is kind of along
those lines where you just you kind of knock it
out in the morning with your coffee or with your breakfast.

(01:14:35):
And it's again at Yahoo Games. It's called Candy Crush Crushable.
Let's go to Brian and West Hollywood line too. Brian said,
he sounds like something going on with DSL Extreme as well.

Speaker 12 (01:14:49):
Brian, I was listening to one of your callers just
a few minutes ago, and I happen to be a subscriber.
I was experiencing very similar issues with down load speed
lower than they supposed to support. So AT and T
reviewed it and they indicated that the line where I

(01:15:10):
am is too far away from their central tower and
therefore it's not fixable.

Speaker 1 (01:15:17):
Oh interesting.

Speaker 12 (01:15:18):
Yeah, they told me that that is an issue, and
I talked to Dazel Extreme. They offered me an option
to terminate if I wish to, So that was a
good choice if I want to. I didn't. As of now,
I had an opportunity to speak with Spectrum. They have

(01:15:41):
a very good program from what I read about them
on the internet. Whereas a homeowner or apartment renter does
not have to have a fiber cable, they don't. It's
not required in order to use Spectrum.

Speaker 1 (01:15:57):
Well they they they well they have their lines. I
mean it depends on the type of network you're talking about,
And there's wireless, there's fiber, and then there's like there's coax.
Yeah from like which which is what Spectrum uses use.

Speaker 12 (01:16:10):
I use a wired Ethernet case okay, all right, and
and Spectrum orfers fiber powered instead of one hundred right.

Speaker 1 (01:16:19):
So yeah, so they do basically their network is fiber,
but the end line to your house is the standard
kind of like you know, coax cable that they use
for that, which is fine. I mean, look, I mean Spectrum,
they you know, they're local, so they have like a
great presence in southern California. They run their own network,
they're easy to get a hold of. I mean, obviously

(01:16:41):
there's some benefits there, and they're you know, that's their
main business too, so obviously that's that's a good thing there.
The only difference is is the speeds when it comes
to fiber versus standard cable like cable internet from someone
like Spectrum. Is that with fiber, you're upload and download
speed the same. So if you have a five hundred

(01:17:04):
megabitz connection with AT and T, that's five hundred up
and down. I think they're slowest is actually one gigabit,
so that'd be one up and down, Whereas on Spectrum
these speeds that they advertise, let's say it's five hundred,
three hundred down, whatever it is, your upload speed is
usually capped to like thirty five, so your upload is
significantly slower. Now for ninety nine point nine percent of people,

(01:17:27):
that is not an issue. Most people are downloading stuff
from the Internet instead of uploading stuff to the Internet,
unless you're in a creator job like myself where I'm
always exchanging large files and things like that. And in California,
especially Southern California, a lot of people in the entertainment industry.
They are uploading, you know, things that they're editing from
their homes and stuff like that, so fiber would be
a better choice. And then of course you have wireless internet,

(01:17:50):
which is delivered over cellular lines, and that also has
its advantage that it's easy and it's inexpensive and there's
no wires. I mean there's a wire from I mean
really there are no wires because you would just it's
just a cellular receptor and then it's just beams out
the signal the Wi Fi in your home. So really
there's just a plug to plug it in. Thanks for

(01:18:10):
the call, Brian. For what it's worth, DSL Extreme does
have a status page that you can check secure dot
DSL extreme dot com, Slash support Slash network status and
they're saying all their services are normal right now, and
so that must mean that anything that is happening or
that you're experiencing in the area is due to the

(01:18:32):
lines in your local kind of place. And by the way,
if you want to see the providers, the internet service
providers in your area, you may not realize that there
are probably several providers that you can choose from speed
test runs a great site. If you go to speed

(01:18:52):
test dot net, I'm trying to see the direct okay,
speed test dot net slash performance, speed dot net slash performance.
You type in your zip code. I'm gonna put in
a West La zip code. It will tell you all
of the providers at that zip code, and you may
realize there are more than you think. So for instance,

(01:19:13):
this zip code in West La, I just put in
You've got Spectrum, You've got Frontier which is soon to
be Verizon again, Earthlink Fiber, who knew, Storry that's another
wireless internet that's in certain places, T Mobile Wireless Internet,
Mint Mobile Wireless Internet, Starlink Satellite Internet at and T
Internet Air Wireless Internet, Verizon via sat and Husenet. Now

(01:19:38):
I wouldn't go with the last two unless you're desperate
because those are you know, old school kind of satellite technologies.
But that's a lot of providers, So shop around if
you and it'll tell you the actual speed of your area.
This is a great website, so it tells you all
these different providers and what the actual speeds are that
people are getting from those providers. So that is a

(01:20:01):
really good resource. Speed test dot net slash Performance and
type in your zip code and you'll see and it'll
tell you explains everything. The speeds that you're getting historical,
It's unbelievable. I've lived in the LA area for a
long time and the Internet has changed so much. I
remember getting my first cable internet line and thinking it

(01:20:24):
was the coolest thing ever compared to just standard dial up.
And I remember bringing my friend into the room and
I said, check this out. Look at this. This is
the future of Internet. And I was playing a video.
It was a music video and I'm not kidding. It
was the size of a postage stamp on my screen,
and he was laughing so hard. He's like, that's the future.

(01:20:45):
I mean, now we just take for granted you're getting
all your stuff through the Internet. I mean, it's just wild.
Samsung is coming out with their new Galaxy S twenty
six lineup. I mentioned this earlier in the show Coming Out.
The rumor is the end of February is when they're
gonna have their event. They usually call them Galaxy Unpacked,

(01:21:05):
and they've always done them in like different places around
the world, so we'll see where that's gonna be. But
they have a new feature they are promoting they haven't
revealed exactly how it works or specifics, but it is
a privacy feature, so it looks like in the videos
that they've shown off that don't exactly show it on
the screen. It's almost like one of those privacy screens

(01:21:26):
on your phone, but built into the hardware of the phone.
And not only does it kind of blur out certain
parts of the screen, but it's like if you get
a notification, you could say, any notification from telegram. I
don't want people to be able to see it from
off angles, and when someone's looking at your phone from
like the sides, you can't see it. I mean, it's

(01:21:47):
really interesting. So I'm not sure how this works. But
Samsung does say it is a hardware feature. It's not
just software, so it's built into the display itself. And
the way to think about it is that people on
the sides of your phone can't see what you see
on the screen, and you'll be able to literally customize
this to your choosing. So if you say, anytime I

(01:22:09):
open up YouTube, I don't want people to be able
to see it. Only you'll be able to see it. Now, again,
I don't know how this works in real life. We're
gonna have to see this in person, which I will
be there. But I'm very curious because cell phones have
become so standardized over the years. They all have the
same features at this point, so we need something besides
a foldable that sets them apart. And if Samsung says, hey,

(01:22:31):
when you're on your phone in public, on a train
or at this sports event or whatever, nobody could see
what you're looking at on your screen without a privacy
screen protector, that's a pretty cool thing. Let's see here,
We've got a new voice to text app for Windows.
Willow Voice is now available on Windows. So you know

(01:22:53):
my favorite whisper Flow. I've also talked about type lists.
Willow Voice now has an app for Windows. So all
you have to do is speak where you'd normally type,
and it will turn your voice into clean formatted text.
It removes filler words, fixes grammar, learns how you write
over the time. There is a free plan, so no
credit card required. You get about two thousand free words

(01:23:15):
per week to try it out. Then it's about twelve
dollars a month. But if you have been wanting to
try this out, I've been talking about this on my
show for so long. I love it. The only way
I type now on my computer is with my voice.
And it's not just voice dictation. It's not the same
thing that we used to have back in the day
where it's just transcribing word for word. This is understanding
what you're saying. So the website is willow Voice dot com.

(01:23:41):
Willow Voice dot com. This is Once you try this,
you will never go back. I'm not kidding. It's so
much better. W I l l Ow Willow Voice dot com.
Rich on Tech dot tv is a website. I'll put
a link there. Mortgage on Tech come in your way
right after this. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich

(01:24:05):
DeMuro here hanging out with you talking technology triple eight
rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to
two four one zero one. The website for the show
is rich on tech dot tv. All the stuff that
I mentioned is on the show notes. People often ask
me on a weekly basis, like, hey, how do I
find what you mentioned on the show. It's all on
the website rich on Tech dot tv. If you tap radio,

(01:24:28):
it will bring you to the show notes for not
only this show, but every show I've ever done here
and there's even a little search icon so you can
search for a keyword something you remember. So I just
mentioned that really handy website from speed test that's on there.
The new voice to tech stapp is on there, which

(01:24:48):
is Willow. My kid Parker has downloaded it and he's
testing it as we speak. How's how's it so far?
So far? So good?

Speaker 4 (01:24:59):
Well, download process right now is pretty good, smooth UI
which is like the look of the website. You like that,
and just how it works right now. Haven't fully tested it,
but I will report back in a couple of minutes.

Speaker 1 (01:25:12):
Okay. See speaking of voice to text, to doist has
a this is that to do app that a lot
of people like. They added a feature called Ramble, which
is actually pretty smart. It's a voice powered kind of
brain dump for your to do list. So all you
have to do is like ramble to this thing and say, Hey,
coming up today, I need to do this, I need
to take out the trash, I need to remember to

(01:25:33):
call my mom. I need to also send that TPS
report whatever it is, and then it will put it
all into your tasks in an organized way. So that's
pretty smart. Again, this is called to doist Ramble. To
doist Ramble it's really tough to type and talk, by
the way. And I'm looking at this and yeah, it's
a new feature that you know AI is I am

(01:25:55):
obviously I'm guessing it's AI featured, but I you know,
this week, and I talk about this in my newsletter,
I found a new I'm on a quest for the
perfect note taking app, and so I'm always testing a
new one upsidy and it's kind of like my go to,
but I'll be honest, this one I found this week
is called Craft is actually pretty good and it's got
this beautiful design. And it's funny because I've downloaded so

(01:26:18):
many of these apps over the years. This one, when
I went to log in, it was like, oh, that
emails already in use. I'm like, oh, okay, I must
have logged in and tested this app, and I remembered
what I didn't like about it. It was because it
was only on Mac back in the day. But now
they came out with an Android app as well, so
it was on Mac and iOS, but it wasn't on Android.
Now it's on all of them, so now I can

(01:26:39):
look at it because, if you know me, a couple
of things I want out of my note taking app
has to be cross platform, got to have the ability
to take nice notes, got to have folders, I got
to have the ability to print. I want the ability
to export, and it has to work on all my platforms.
So this one is pretty good. And what I like
about it is it integrates not only the calendar but

(01:27:03):
also your tasks. And something I also liked about another
note taping taking app, it actually lets you put notes
in your days. So let's say, for today, I just
wanted to take a note and remember something, almost like
a journal. You can just put that in there and
it's linked to that day and you can just keep
flipping between your days, so if you want. I mean,
it's just really well done. So they have a free level,

(01:27:26):
the paid levels one hundred dollars, which I always look
at because I know I'm gonna be paying that in
the future. So one hundred bucks a year is a
lot for your notes, but you know, if you're getting
value out of it. For me, I'm always planning my
radio show, my TV segments, and my newsletter in this app,
and this one does a lot, so I'm actually I'm
kind of sold, but not yet. You know, it takes

(01:27:47):
me a while to figure this stuff out to see
if I actually like it. Vincent in Linnwood writes in
I'm a big fan of chromebooks because they're easy to
use and usually pretty affordable. I'm seeing some newer models
advertise for under two hundred dollars, and I'm wondering which
of the current chromebooks are actually the best bargains right now.
So Vincent, I would say, yes, two hundred dollars chromebooks exist,

(01:28:11):
but I'd say they're best for very light use, so
we're talking basic web browsing email. I would say, if
you want to get a chromebook, I would probably look
at the Chromebook plus models. They're going to cost a
little bit more, but you're going to get the best performance,
more memory, bigger screens, or better screens. I should say,
which I do think makes the difference. The place I

(01:28:32):
would say to look is slick Deals. They have a
laptop section, and if you go in there and you
type in chromebook, you'll see the different chromebooks that people
have voted up. So right now, there's a refurbished a
SUS for one hundred and twenty five dollars typically four
hundred on eBay. There's another a sous flip ninety dollars

(01:28:54):
on eBay. Those are the two that are coming up
right now. But you can also type in chromebook and
see But I would go the Chromebook plus. Oh yeah,
Parker found one HP fifteen inch Chromebook for eight gigs
of memory sixty four gigs, one hundred and seventy nine dollars.
But now see that one doesn't have as many thumbs up.
I'm looking for stuff that has a lot of thumbs

(01:29:15):
up because that means that people on the web have,
you know, said it's good. Yeah, there's bobo the thumbs up. Oh,
Tanner wants to read a message. Okay, go ahead, Tanner,
you can read the one for car message storage. Go ahead, Dennis.

Speaker 15 (01:29:31):
I keep a two hundred and fifty six gig thumb
drive plugged into my car to listen to music. But
I've got more than two terror bytes of music saved
on my main PC. I want to copy that music
to a larger external drive, something like one or two terrbytes,
and plug it into my car's USB port. I tried
using a WD passport drive, but it didn't work. Is

(01:29:53):
there a portable drive that will work reliably in a vehicle?

Speaker 1 (01:29:57):
Good? Question, Dennis. I think the the reality here is
that it's not the drive that's not working. It's probably
not formatted properly for your car. So you need to
figure out what format your car's USB system supports and
then format the drive with that with that system. So
a lot of them are either what's called FAT thirty
two or x FAT, and also a lot of the

(01:30:19):
vehicles are Some vehicles may have a limit to the
drive size, so if it's like a two terabyte drive,
your car may not support two terabytes. So what I
would recommend is going on your manufacturer's website and checking
to see what the specs are for your car's US
be poor. So if your drive isn't formatted properly, it's
not gonna work, or if it's too big, it's not

(01:30:39):
gonna work. So those are the two things I would check.
Great question. All right, Coming up, we're gonna talk about
why people are not just ditching their phones in the
new year, but trying to actively use them less, even
with a piece of hardware that keeps you from physically
using your phone. We'll explain coming up next right here
on rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech.

(01:31:03):
Rich Demiro here hanging out with you talking technology. You know,
I love technology, but also you got to take a
break from this stuff at some point. I'm not kidding.
One of my favorite pastimes is just watching how people
interact with their devices. And I am telling you America
is addicted. They are. People cannot get enough of their

(01:31:24):
screens and it's been an amazing thing. Right, Like this
little phone can do so many things. You can travel
around the world with just your smartphone. Well, let me
think about that. You might need a passport in some
place anyway, but you get my idea. You could almost
go anywhere with just your phone and that's it, and
you'll be fine, like survivor like you'll survive. But the

(01:31:46):
problem is it's a flip side of These things also
keep us scrolling. People are unhappy. It's a whole thing.
Here to talk about. This is Julia Pugachevski. She is
the senior health reporter at Business Insider, and recently she
did a little experiment. She used this device called brick
to brick her phone. Julia, is that is that what

(01:32:08):
it's called? Is it called brick? Yeah? Okay, so welcome
to the show.

Speaker 13 (01:32:13):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 16 (01:32:13):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:32:15):
Yeah, thanks for being on. So give me. Let's set
this up first. Like I just kind of gave my
soliloquy about all what's happening with our phones? Do you
agree with all that? Do you think that phones are
good and bad?

Speaker 2 (01:32:26):
Yes?

Speaker 13 (01:32:26):
Absolutely?

Speaker 1 (01:32:28):
What aspect I mean, you know, like I you know,
it's like it's tough because I want to take a
break at some point. But there are times when I'm like, okay,
well I need my phone for just about everything.

Speaker 7 (01:32:38):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:32:38):
Like let's say you're cooking in your kitchen and you're like, okay,
I'm gonna be off my phone. I'm doing something that's physical,
not you know, virtual, It's like, oh, hold on, I
gotta ask Google this question. I gotta do that. It's
like they're so intertwined in our lives now.

Speaker 2 (01:32:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 13 (01:32:50):
Absolutely.

Speaker 16 (01:32:51):
I think that's been a big reason that I got
the brick device, because I you know, some people get
flip phones or they call them phones or phones without
internet or apps as a way to really set boundaries
with with being online. But the problem is for depending
on your profession or your lifestyle, that's a very that

(01:33:13):
could be a.

Speaker 13 (01:33:14):
Very hard change. Because smartphones have maps, or they have.

Speaker 16 (01:33:18):
You know, you need to two factor authentication like all
these pieces, you know, ride share apps that you really
it's hard to live. It's not impossible, but it's quite
challenging to live life without a smartphone. So but a
break I found was a very nice in between for that.

Speaker 1 (01:33:36):
Now, did you do this on your own accord or
for research or kind of both or what?

Speaker 16 (01:33:41):
On my own accord? But it was inspired by research.
I wrote a story about this growing appstinence movement, particularly
among Gen Zers.

Speaker 13 (01:33:51):
And some millennials as well.

Speaker 16 (01:33:53):
And after writing it and speaking to a lot of
these young people who are really considering stronger boundaries with
their smartphones with social media, I was looking into waste
to curb my own social media use. And forget exactly
how my husband and I both were looking. Actually, I
think he found brick first and then I immediately bought it,

(01:34:15):
So I guess I was kind of an earlier adopter.
I bought it last year, and yeah, I've been using
it since and it's been the most effective thing I've
done for myself personally.

Speaker 1 (01:34:26):
Oh wow, So you wrote an article called Bricking your
Phone is a New Dry January. Explain what the brick
is because this is a physical device, Like, how does
it work?

Speaker 16 (01:34:35):
Yes, I have it with me. I promise they don't
pay me. I'm just a big fan. So it's just
you can stick it on your fridge. It's a little magnet.
And then there is a separate Brick app that you
just download on your phone. It's free once you buy
the Brick device, and you can choose different modes. So
essentially you can choose which apps you want to block.

(01:34:57):
You can set like you have one for walking the
dog for example, versus one where you're trying to unwind.
If you want some variety in which apps you're blocking.
But you know, I block the Internet and email for example,
And you just take your phone and then you want
to tap it to the Brick device and then until
you untap it, all your apps are blocked.

Speaker 13 (01:35:19):
And there's nothing you can do. It's quite effective.

Speaker 1 (01:35:24):
Yeah, So people might be listening and saying, well, rich,
can't you just do that with screen time? What's the
difference here?

Speaker 16 (01:35:31):
As someone has used screen time and I've tried, I
forget which apps before.

Speaker 1 (01:35:35):
There's opal, there's there's be present, there's freedom. I mean,
there's so many like of these apps that like help
you take control of your phone. But it's very complicated actually,
like that, you know, setting up these apps, and then
sometimes you need a you need to use your phone,
You're like, oh, hold on, I gotta get through this app.
But yeah, this is a physical kind of solution versus
the app solution.

Speaker 16 (01:35:56):
Yeah, I think with apps again, I don't I don't
even remember which ones I've tried, and I know the
founders had also mentioned this. It's just that it's kind
of easy to passively bypass those apps. You can quickly.
Usually they'll have some sort of option, I know, the
screen time option, you know, that's almost like a reminder,
but you can easily toggle that off if in the

(01:36:16):
split second you decide you want to access TikTok again.
So it's it's quite easy to not really use it
then versus the brick.

Speaker 13 (01:36:26):
I don't know.

Speaker 16 (01:36:27):
I find it personally humiliating to have to go get
up tap my phone just because I want to check,
like I want to google an actor's name, you know.
So for me, that's that's been like a big factor.
Like there's something about having to physically get up tap
your phone, both when you're tapping it and untapping it

(01:36:47):
that kind of almost snaps you out of that spell
that you're in when you're on your phone.

Speaker 1 (01:36:52):
I think, so the brick is a device, and I
think it's what about sixty dollars something like that. Yeah,
so it's a physic device, and you set up on
your phone. You know this, you know all the comes
with software. You set up on the phone, and then
basically you tap the brick to your phone and that
locks out all your apps that you've predecided I don't

(01:37:13):
want to deal with, and then to get back to it,
you have to tap again or I guess there's a
timer that runs out or something. I'm not sure how
that works. But I was out at an event and
this person I was talking with said, oh, I can't
use my phone right now because it's bricked. And I
said what, and she said, oh yeah, and I can't
on brick it unless I tap this device. And I've

(01:37:35):
left it at my house, so you can leave. People
leave this device in other places so they physically can't
unbrick their phone.

Speaker 3 (01:37:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 13 (01:37:43):
Yeah, it's then there's no timer.

Speaker 16 (01:37:45):
Also, it's for however long I've I've bricked my phone
kind of unknowingly because you get used to it for
two three days before and it just continues working until
you tap it again.

Speaker 1 (01:37:56):
Yeah, So what do you think your advice for folks
listening thinking I'm using my phone too much? Maybe they're
not a gen z or maybe they're like, well, I'm not,
I'm not you know a young kid that's on TikTok
too much? Why should I do this? Do you think
that this applies to everyone or just people that feel
like they have an issue?

Speaker 3 (01:38:14):
I don't know.

Speaker 13 (01:38:14):
It's tough to say.

Speaker 16 (01:38:15):
I think for me personally, I know people of all
ages who struggle with using their phones too much might
just be different apps, right, Like if you're older, it
might be YouTube instead of TikTok, for example, or Facebook
instead of Instagram. But there's similar things they're they're designed
in similar ways, and it's for you to keep going
back and to, you know, at the expense of your

(01:38:36):
real life relationships and you know, anything else that you
could be doing with your time. That for me, I
found it very helpful to Like, I tap my brick
at night and then I tap it again in the morning,
so you know, I go to bed without scrolling my phone.
I read a lot more, I'm more present with my
husband or with if I'm hanging out with my friends.

(01:38:57):
And then in the morning, I I go to the
gym on time. I used to get to the gym's
like two seconds to fair if that, or even late.
And I've never been late because I there's nothing keeping
me and I'm just up and I'm ready to go.
And it's just I think it's very hard to realize
when you're in it how much time social media and

(01:39:20):
the Internet and news and everything takes up in your life.

Speaker 1 (01:39:24):
Like it really is.

Speaker 16 (01:39:26):
Kind of this perpetual time suck that I think we're
not always conscious of.

Speaker 1 (01:39:32):
I was just reading an article about car scrolling. Have
you heard of this new term?

Speaker 6 (01:39:36):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:39:37):
Yes, yeah, And I realize that I am so guilty
of this. I come home and I sit in my
car for like a minute or two, and I have
my you know, my phone is on do not disturb
when I drive like automatically, so when I you know,
to be fair. When I get to my driveway and
I turn off my car, there are a lot of
notifications that come through and I see them, but I
sit there and I scroll. But it's it is like

(01:39:59):
kind of a spreeing moment because I've got two kids,
my wife, they're all inside like waiting for me. But
it's like you feel a little guilty, but you're also like,
this is me time, Like, but I'm not the only one.
I just read this article where apparently people do this
and they sit and they you know, get home from
work and they scroll on their phone for a little bit.

Speaker 13 (01:40:17):
Yeah, I think I used to do that.

Speaker 16 (01:40:19):
I don't drive, but I would come home and my
friends actually used to make fun of me for this.
They called it my bench. So I would get home,
I would just like and have like a little bench
in the doorway, and I would just sit on this
bench looking at Instagram and get lost in it for
twenty minutes. It was just like a known thing. And yeah,
I'm needless to say, I don't do that anymore. But
it's funny that I think it's almost like you're transitioning

(01:40:42):
from one task to another, and maybe you're resisting it,
or you know, you come home, you have all these
other things you have to do, so then it's this
like a cigarette break.

Speaker 1 (01:40:51):
I don't know that's exactly what it is. Julia Puchevski,
We are going to leave it there. Thanks so much,
for joining me today. Business Inside check her out. She
writes all about health at Business Insider. By the way,
I love Business Insider. You guys do a great job.
So thank you, thank you, thanks for joining uh brick.
The website is get brick dot app. If you're curious

(01:41:15):
about it, get brick dot app. I'll put a link
on my website. Rich on Tech dot tv coming up.
It is that time the feedback We're about to open
it coming up next right here on rich on Tech.
Welcome back to rich on Tech. I remember exactly where
I was when I heard this song. I was applying

(01:41:38):
for a job at Bob's Bob's clothing store. It was
a it was a chain back on the East Coast,
and I was applying for a job and the store
wasn't even built yet, so I was in like some
you know, temporary place. But this song played on the radio.
I thought it was so cool. You should tell the
people what song it is on a podcast roll to me.

(01:41:58):
It's by Delemitrie and it was one hit. Wonder I believe.
I don't think they had another. You know, back in
the day, you know, you'd buy a whole you'd hear
a song on the radio. You'd buy the whole CD
and you'd be like, wait, that's the only good song?
What I just spent eighteen dollars for this? All right,
let's get to the feedback. These are the comments, the questions,
the emails that you send me, and yes, you like

(01:42:20):
to send me a lot of them. I try to
reply to a lot of them. I can't get to
all of them, but sometimes it makes it to the feedback.
Sometimes it makes it to the show, the newsletter without
further ado, let's just get right into it. I got
my two kids here, they each have one to read.
So you want me to start or Tanner? Tanner wants
to start, Yeah, you can start, I can start, Okay.
Ed Ed, listening on WHCU and Ithaca New York, says

(01:42:45):
Rich you talked about the privacy risks of TikTok and
its ties to China, which I agree with, But then
I heard you recommending TCL TVs, and that made me
pause since TCL is also a Chinese company. Most smart
TVs are connected to home networks all the time, so
I worry about data collection. I personally still with LG
or Samsung. I know they collect data too, but I'm
just more comfortable with those brands. Just some food for thought.

(01:43:06):
You are right ed. TCL is a Chinese company. I
am aware of that. You know, the big difference is
twofold number one. I mean, unless your TV has a
mic or a camera, which a lot of them do
you know, those are concerns. But I think for the
information that TVs are collecting, it's not like your real
time location per se. But you can also just easy fix.

(01:43:26):
By the way, just don't connect it to Wi Fi.
I know most of them are smart TVs, but just
if you're worried, like for mine, I just don't have
my connected to Wi Fi. Tanner, You're up, Kathy.

Speaker 15 (01:43:38):
I thought I could get AM in my radio.

Speaker 1 (01:43:40):
I think it's Kathy. Oh, Kathy.

Speaker 15 (01:43:42):
I thought I couldn't get AM radio in my Tesla,
including KFI, but I found a workaround. If you tuned
to Coast H two HD two, it carries the same
talk programming as KFI. I tried it in my Tesla
and it works, so I'm still still able to listen
even with how AM.

Speaker 1 (01:44:00):
Yes, good job, Kathy. That is a digital radio subchannel.
So if you have like HD radio in your car,
A lot of times there's like subchannels and Yes Coast
in Los Angeles one of three point five they simulcast
KFI and you actually hear it in HD as well.
So I'm glad you found that it's a good workaround
for Tesla not having AM radio. Shame on you, Tesla.

(01:44:23):
All right, Parker, you're up.

Speaker 4 (01:44:28):
Tom from Los Angeles, a KFI AM six forty listener
writes in, Hey, Rich, I heard you on bill Handle
talking about how a lot of us are leaving money
on the table by not comparing Uber and Lyft before
booking a ride. I tried it and saved over twenty
dollars by choosing Lyft instead. That meant more money in

(01:44:49):
my pocket and more for the driver's tip. Thanks for
the advice, it really worked.

Speaker 1 (01:44:54):
Yes, I love it. What was his name again?

Speaker 4 (01:44:56):
His name was Tom to Los Angeles.

Speaker 1 (01:44:59):
Tom, Great A great point. Yes, I mentioned that if
you open up Uber and Lyft, you should be checking
their prices because a lot of times they are different.
I did this on my trip to Seattle this week,
and I'm not kidding. It was amazing. It saved me,
like I think at least twenty or thirty dollars on
each way and I opened up Uber first, and then
I opened up Lift and I just said, okay, which

(01:45:20):
one's cheaper for the same type of ride, And sure
enough it was Lift both ways and it was a
significant difference. So definitely open up both apps. If you
are taking ride Shairs, go ahead, Tanner, Okay, Leo, oh wait,
I think it's my turn. Alan in New Jersey. If
you are someone in your house has trouble hearing the TV,
I've got a solution that finally worked for me. These

(01:45:43):
are the Insignia RF wireless headphones from Best Buy. I
tried everything before this, including Bluetooth. Most options were clunky
or had annoying lag. These just work. I now own
four pairs. They're plug and play, easy to set up.
You control the volume right on the headphones so everyone
else can keep the TV at a normal level. And
because they use RF instead of Bluetooth, there's zero audio delay.

(01:46:04):
The sound stays in sync perfectly. They're usually around ninety dollars.
I've seen them drop as low as fifty dollars. They've
got four point four stars and thousands of reviews. Rock solid,
and yes, right now they're ninety nine dollars. The Insignia
RF wireless over the ear headphones. I'll link them up
on the website. But watch those price drops. Like Allan said, great,

(01:46:24):
great tip, Allen's a lot of people are asking about that.
All right, Tanner, now your turn, All right.

Speaker 15 (01:46:29):
Now it's my turn.

Speaker 5 (01:46:30):
Leo.

Speaker 15 (01:46:31):
I wanted to add a few notes to your last show,
especially about watching TV when one person here is hearing impaired. First,
on TV audio, most TVs only let you use one
audio output at a time. On my TCLTV, you have
to choose between the internal speakers HDMI, optical or Bluetooth.
You usually cannot choose, usually cannot use Bluetooth and TV

(01:46:55):
speakers at the same time.

Speaker 1 (01:46:56):
Yeah, that's a problem. A lot of people say yeah.

Speaker 15 (01:46:59):
Because of that, one of the one of the best
solutions is using a Bluetooth transmitter like the a van
try you mentioned, plugging it, plugging it into the optical output.
Thatt's one or two people listen on Bluetooth headphones while
someone else can still listen through the TV speakers or
a soundbar. I've also found that unless someone.

Speaker 1 (01:47:19):
Writing a book here, yeah, keep going, No, we love you, Leo.

Speaker 15 (01:47:24):
I've also found that unless someone has very severe hearing loss.
Earbuds can work just as well as hearing aids for
TV watching. The key is independent volume control. The hearing
impaired person can turn their earbuds way up while their
partner listens at a normal volume through the TV bottom line.
Earbuds or Bluetooth headphones paired through a transmitter are often

(01:47:45):
the most simple and flexible solution.

Speaker 1 (01:47:48):
Okay, there you go. Leo listens to every show and
he writes me notes to tell me like what I
got right, when I got wrong. Not not the Leo
you're thinking of. It's another it's another Leo, unrelated to
the previous Leo. Tim writes in I heard you talking
about power adages. Wanted to share tip for our listeners.
It really helps have at least one ups battery backup

(01:48:08):
plugged in around the house. Even a small one can
keep phones and other portable devices charged when the power
goes out. I might be a little over the top,
but I've got ten of them around my house. If
the power goes out overnight, I've got lights to turn on,
and it lets me shut down my computers properly. I'm
a big fan of APC ups units. About every three years.

(01:48:28):
I take them to Batteries Plus to replace the batteries
instead of buying new ones with my account. It costs
around twenty two dollars each, which is way cheaper than
replacing the whole ups. Good, good idea ups. But also
one of these power banks, these giant power banks. All right,
park weet less than a minute, so you gotta be
very quick.

Speaker 4 (01:48:45):
Janis writes in about laptop letters fix, responding to the
caller whose HP laptop letters disappeared almost immediately. Same thing
happened to me. I bought stick on letters from Amazon
and they've been on for months. It's been an awesome
solution in works.

Speaker 1 (01:49:00):
All right, there you have it. I'll do one final
one Joe and Palms, California. I love your newsletters, but
those early alerts are a little rough. Five in the
morning is a bit early for me. I'd be happy
to read it when I actually wake up. Joe, turn
off your notifications for random emails like mine. Come on,
everybody has something to read with me. I feel lift out.
Oh Bobo, we'll give you one next week. I yeah,

(01:49:22):
we got to have the whole family do it. Uh,
that's gonna do it. For this episode of the show.
You can find links everything I mentioned on the website
rich on Tech dot tv. I'm on social media at
rich on Tech. Next week fun guests the Computer Exorcist
will join us. Thanks so much for listening. There are
so many ways you can spend your time. I appreciate
you spending it right here with me. Thanks to everyone
who makes the show possible. Bobo Parker Tanner say hi ye,

(01:49:43):
thank you. By My name is Richdmiro. I will talk
to you real soon

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