October 17, 2019 • 45 mins
Hands on with Google's latest gadgets including Pixel 4, Nest Mini and Pixelbook Go; Samsung readies a software patch to fix an issue where a random fingerprint can unlock the Galaxy S10; Amazon charges big bucks to be on its holiday toy list. Listeners ask about a Mac Mini vs an iMac, Fire Stick vs Apple TV, fingerprints vs face unlock, Spectrum's "free" speed increase and Infiniti Kloud storage.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hands off with the Google Pixel four. Google smart speakers
get a handy new feature. Samsung has a fingerprint issue
on its hands. See what I did there and your
tech questions answered? What's going on? I'm Rich Demiro. This
is Rich on Tech, the podcast where I talk about
the tech stuff I think you should know about. Plus
I answer all the questions that you just send me.
(00:26):
Here them right there, that's them questions. We print them out.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, we do.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Welcome producer Megan. What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hey?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Hey, is that your new thing? Did you think about that?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Did you have that swear that just came out? And
then I and then you literally like read my mind
and I, yeah, I don't know where that came from. Okay,
so maybe that's my thing.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Maybe, well okay, so this is, hey, hey, kind of funny.
But so you know, I fill in for Leo Laporte. Yeah,
on occasion. Actually I'm gonna be doing it in two weeks.
But so I didn't realized that he had a way
of like introducing the show every time. And so it's
really like when you're doing a syndicated radio show, like
it's really nerve wracking. I think like literally you're on
(01:08):
like the producers. You're in your ear and it's like
you're hot, you know, and all of a sudden you're
like lived all these people around the nation, and I
didn't know what to say, like how do you say,
you know, like good morning, but it wasn't morning in
some places, you know. So anyway, so I noticed that
Leo always he always does something like well, hey, hey, hey,
how are you doing today or something like that, and
so it kind of like reminded me of what you
(01:29):
just did. But I have not come up with a thing, yeah,
like of what I say.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
But there's another podcast I listened to and they go hello.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Hello, Hello, Right, so everyone has their thing of how
they intro and if you watch or listen to this show,
I should say listen because there is no watching. You
realize that there is nothing. There's no givens, there's everything.
Every week is like one hundred percent different. So but anyway,
we did just have a meeting with our big boss
here at our new company. You know, we were purchased
(01:56):
KTLA as part of Tribune was purchased by another a
new company called Nextstar. And so that's our new company
that we work for, which I used to work for
back in the day we had our big meeting. How
nervous were you scale of one to ten for this meeting.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
I was. I mean ten is really extreme. I would
say maybe a seven.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Did you sleep last night?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, I slept. I actually did sleep.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
I supped really well.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Okay, you were not obviously nervous at all.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
No, Well, I was also jet lagged.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I feel like, as a reporter, like you just can't
really get nervous.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
No, you don't.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I feel like you're used to just always being on.
But for me, I'm like, I feel like I just
trip over all my words. That's how I feel.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
But I think we did well. The meeting was very short.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I had nothing, I you were great.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
We just ended up. We ended up just talking about
like how much we love doing social media. So who
knows if it was good or not. But yeah, let's
get to the big news of the week. The Pixel
four smartphone is unveiled for real. I was in New
York for the big Made by Google event and I
have a Pixel four right here, which, according to my
(03:00):
i NDA, they call it or embargo, whatever you want
to call it. There are certain rules and apparently I
was reading it and it said you can only tweet
pictures from the main camera, which I think by saying that,
I'm breaking the rules of saying what the rules are.
Oh wow, Which so I was gonna tweet like a
selfie and then I was like, oh my gosh, I
can't even like tweet a selfie because it says you can't.
But anyway, so all the tech companies, when they give
(03:20):
you stuff to review, there's a certain time that they want.
We've talked about this before, when you can reveal your thoughts.
There's a thing called first impressions. So if you're ever
watching YouTube videos, when you see first impressions, that means
that it is not a review or hands on not
a review. Only when you see that magic word review,
that means that the embargo has been lifted and you
(03:41):
are free to give all of your thoughts on this device.
And so there's a lot of stuff I've noticed about
this device. I can't necessarily say it because they want
to have a certain window where people can collect their
thoughts and then publish them. It's kind of annoying, but
that's just the way they play.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
It makes sense.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
So Pixel four is the new smartphone from Google, and
if you've listened to me at all. You know, I
love the pixel lineup. It is pure Google. Pixel four
fixes a lot of the problems that we've seen on
previous devices. The number one thing is there is no
ultra wide camera lens, which every other smartphone maker in
the world is doing. Google decided not to. They did
put a secondary lens, but it's more for zoom and
(04:17):
they say that they think that zoom is more important
to users, which I kind of agree with because I
was debating this with my wife last night. I was like,
how many people actually take ultra wide pictures? Like what
are the use cases? Not many, but how many people
are at their kids recital or out? And about how
many times you see people pinching in on the screen
to zoom in all the time. Yeah, and when you
do that you lose a lot of quality. Google, you
(04:40):
don't really lose a lot of quality, So that's amazing.
It also has this motion sense, which means there's a
little radar inside which you can control it with your
hand just by waving it. That is very hit or miss,
but it's there and it works. The face on lock
is super fast. It's amazing. It's actually too fast because
every time I look at my phone. It's unlocked already.
Really yeah, so's kind of crazy, but it's great. You
(05:03):
can snooze alarms by waving your hand over them. You
can silence phone calls, you can skip to the next song.
That's kind of cool. The camera has been improved, but
the pixels pretty darn good, so it's kind of tough
to improve that camera. But you can now take pictures
of stars, which I've not tried. I will do that
this weekend in my backyard. I can't wait. Just you
can take a picture for as long as four minutes.
Oh wow, So I can't wait to see what that
(05:25):
looks like. You have to put it on a tripod
if you're going to do that, okay, because you can't
just hold it for.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
So I was going to say, you should go on
the parking lot and take a picture of the sky
with the grip at the observatory at like three am.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I was going to do that. I actually thought of
that this morning. Yeah, but I don't I need to
get a little stand for the phone.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
It actually gave me a case that has a built
in tripod, but it's too bulky for me to like
carry around every day. So Let's see, so you can
take pictures that way. Let's see. The screen is ninety
hurts capable, which means when you're scrolling through Twitter and
Facebook and all that stuff, it looks smoother than normal.
But that's not really a big thing for most people.
Battery life, they say, it's all day. It has wireless charging,
(06:04):
all that good stuff. The things that does not have
no fingerprint reader, no wide angle lens, and no original
picture storage at ar sorry, no unlimited picture storage at
original quality, which is one of the big things that
the three previous Pixels had, which means you can store
all your photos and four K videos at the best
resolution and never worry about paying for that. Now that's
(06:26):
not a thing anymore. Why it probably got too expensive
for Google and they probably just don't need it anymore,
like they I don't know, they just decided that's not important.
So I never thought it was important because I pay
for Google storage anyway, but and I don't think it's Look,
these tech companies have a lot of research, and they
understand how people are using their devices in ways that
we don't even understand. Because your phone is reporting back
(06:48):
all the time what you're doing with it, and so
they understand. They know if people are using the pinch
to zoom, they know if people are using this app
or that app, so we can kind of speculate on
the top features. Google actually an Apple and all these
companies they know what the top features are, so they
know what they can ditch. And yeah, they're going to
get some stuff in the media about it, but they
know it's not going to be a big deal at
the end of the day. The other app that's kind
(07:08):
of cool is the recorder app, and it transcribes everything
in real time in addition to recording your voice, so
it's kind of like a notes app that's much more
useful because you can look at the transcript. Cool if
you're in meetings all the time and you know that
kind of stuff. Again, I've been using the Pixel Xcel version.
It's big. I think for most people to probably want
the smaller one, but I like the big screen and
(07:30):
so far, so good. I mean, I can only give
you my impressions of it. I cannot give you my
review of it. Yeah, but I will tell you that
I will probably be buying the one twenty eight gigabyte
Pixel for Xcel.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
So how would you rate it? On a scale of
one to ten as an impression.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I just love the Pixel. I think it's like the
perfect smartphone for I think for creator it's a little
bit tougher because it's not like as good as the
iPhone when it comes to like creating content, and the
apps aren't as good. But I think that as a
smart phone, it is really smart, like it just anticipates
everything that you want to do and kind of like
is ready for that. And I think that's the difference
between iPhone and Pixel. iPhone has all the apps, it's perfect,
(08:11):
it's polished, it just does everything you need it to do.
But it's more of I call a hunt and peck
mentality versus on this phone. The Pixel uses AI to
kind of surface things that it thinks you want to
do next. And I think that's the biggest difference between
the two devices. Right, So hopefully that made sense.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yeah, that makes and with that ten, I think that's
a ten.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Let's go to Megan with the first question of the day.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
All right, So this first question comes from Evelyn and
she writes in on rich on tech Dot TV. All
you have to do is you can send a question
to Rich through rich on tech dot TV, go to
the contact page and you can submit your question. Evelyn asks,
what have you heard about this product? It's called Infinity Cloud.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
This is not the first question I'm getting about this thing.
And it's spelled in a weird way, like it's spelled
Is it spelled infinity kloed? Is that how she spelled it? Yes? Okay,
So I've gotten at least I would say, four or
five emails about this, so clearly they are advertising somewhere
that I am not a part of, Like whether it's
Instagram or Facebook or Late Night TV, I don't know,
but I've gotten a lot of emails. I'm trying to
(09:18):
figure out. There's not like a main website that I found,
But I did find on Amazon they have something called
the Infinity Cloud USB drive and it's spelled that same way,
and it's one hundred and twenty eight gigabyte drive and
it includes Infinity Cloud super Fast one click backup software
for Mac and PC. I'm guessing this is what she's
(09:40):
talking about. It's a ninety dollars device and it's kind
of from what I can tell, it's a flash drive
that backs up things on your computer. Okay, and I
don't like the name Infinity Cloud because it sounds like
you're getting as much backup storage as you need and
this is a hundred yeah, and this is one hundred
(10:00):
and twenty eight gigs.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
So yeah, that's weird.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Here's my advice on this. I think it has a
fancy name. I think they're advertising and they're you know,
they're getting people to buy this thing, but don't. I
would say, if you're going to back up stuff. Number one,
if you have a Windows computer or a Mac computer,
buy a hard drive Western Digital. Seventy bucks will get
you a two terabyte hard drive. You plug it into
your computer, your Mac or your Windows computer will automatically
back up all your files there. That's number one. Number
(10:26):
two when it comes to the cloud, use iCloud, use
Google Photos for your photos, use Microsoft one Drive for
your documents if you want, you know, depending on the
platform you're on, and all again, you can get some
free storage with those, but you can also pay to
get more storage. And finally, if you want to use
something like back Blaze or Carbonite, if you want sort
(10:47):
of the entire computer backed up to one So what
would happen with that with back Blaze or Carbonite is
it's off site, so it's very similar to time Machine
or Windows backup, but it's off site, so god forbid
you're you know hard drive ever you know crashes, plus
the secondary backup you have gets lost or burned or ruined.
You can go to back blaze and say, hey, can
(11:08):
you get all my data back? And it gets back
to the way you were and they may charge you
like a fee if you want like a drive sent
to your house with all of your stuff on it,
or you can just download it from the computer as well.
So those are the things that I would recommend back
Blaze or Carbonite. And the first backup, by the way,
is going to take a long time because you're backing
(11:29):
up your whole computer. Yeah, after that, it's incremental and
it's just done. Like I had. I had Carbonite for
a while and it was great because like you just
knew your whole computer was backed up without even thinking.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
I kind of like that.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, And I'm just seeing how much it is. So
back blaze is sixty bucks for a year or six
dollars a month, okay, And I always go back to
the beer mentality. If you purchase a beer or a
drink for five bucks, ten dollars one time that month,
you can have back blaze for six dollars. Yeah. I'm
not saying you need to do that, but I'm just saying,
you know, you spend money on things like you go
(12:00):
to Chipotle, it's nine bucks. You could add your computer
backed up for the whole month. Yeah, and he could
add a bowl cereal at home, or a beer or
a beer. Samsung says they will soon patch a fingerprint
recognition problem on the Galaxy S ten. Samsung said that
there is a software patch ready to go for a
(12:21):
fingerprint recognition failure on the S ten smartphone. Apparently there's
a bug in the Galaxy S ten that allows people
to unlock the phone using their fingerprint, even if their
fingerprint is not the one registered to unlock the phone.
That sounds really bad.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Aka anyone can open the phone.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Pretty much so. A British user told The Sun newspaper,
which is a tabloid I believe over in Europe, that
she had a third party screen protector on her phone
and her husband was able to unlock it using his
fingerprint without register.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
The only example, apparently.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
But it's big enough where Reuter's did a story on it.
Everyone else has picked it up, and Samsung did tell
Reuters and Gizmoto that they do have a software fix
that they're going to put out for this. And here's
the thing they said, Apparently some of the issues with
your fingerprint recognition happen with some third party screen protectors
that are silicone, silic can silicon based and plastic based.
(13:23):
And so it's I guess, if you have a glass
screen protector, which I would normally recommend, it's probably not
that big of an issue, but with these cheaper ones
it is. So again, I've you know, I haven't used
a plastic screen protector in a long time. I always
use one that's glass from tech Armor, and so I
haven't seen this issue. I guess I can try to
(13:44):
recreate it on the Samsung Galaxy S ten, but I don't.
I don't think So that's that's a that's a weird one.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah, you should try to recreate it, but.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
It wouldn't workcuse I don't have a scream protector, so
I'd need like a cheap I guess I can go
to like one of those cheap malt kiosks, and you know, yeah, anyway,
so again my advice you if you have a Samsung
Galaxy S ten, is this gonna happen? I don't know.
Try if you have a cheap plastic screen protector on
there A, you probably want to upgrade that. B. Have
a friend try their fingerprint and see if it works
and let me know.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, and then maybe change to a pass cut.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah. I would definitely change for the time being. Yeah,
until you see that softwareupdate.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Okay, cool. Next question comes from Kathy and she she asks,
I need to get a new streaming stick. I had Firestick,
I now have an iPhone. So between firestick and Apple TV,
which would you recommend? And then she said my TV
is ten eighty but may soon get an HD, So
I assume I should get an HD streaming stick.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
They're all I mean, they're all the st at this point.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I don't think they sell a stick that's not Roku
might in their bottom like their lowest one. They might.
But yeah, and also, your TV is ten eighty. That's
that's HD already, so you're already there. Yeah, you're already there.
What Let's see? So she has Apple TV, No, No,
she has an iPhone?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
She she has she had firestick. She oh. She also
says she has Roku in some rooms and she hates it.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Okay, so she had Firestick and then she hates the Roku.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I mean, I don't so between Firestick and Apple TV,
which would you recommend?
Speaker 1 (15:17):
So okay, So Firestick I think that's one I use.
It's it's super cheap, it works really well, it pushes
all Amazon stuff, And I find that the organization of
the Firestick is atrocious because like if I just want
to see what the top movies are for like rental
or purchase, it's like takes like twenty five menus to
find that, whereas an Apple TV just go to iTunes
as like top movies boom. But again, and Apple TV
(15:39):
is way more expensive, And I think that's the delineation here.
How much do you want to spend Apple TV you're
looking at closer to two hundred dollars versus Firestick. You
can get it for like twenty five bucks or maybe
I think the fifty as the most expensive one as
a stick, So it depends how many you're buying. And
with Apple TV you get the integration to your iPhone.
(16:00):
Do you want to airplay stuff from your iPhone through the.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Screen, something she probably wants and photos.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
You can also, so if you have a firestick like
I do, to get your photos from your iPhone onto
the TV, you can do it. You can download the
Amazon Photos app, you can upload them one by one
and do that. Or if you have an iPhone, obviously
it's just kind of like you can just do a
photo stream or you can do your recent pictures or whatever. Yeah,
So I mean, I think personally, I would probably lean
(16:25):
towards the Apple TV. If you have an iPhone and
you're saying you hated Roku, which I don't know why
you hate Roco. It's pretty good, and you.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Had fire stuff Roku.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah, So Roku just sent me a Ultra to test
ok and so I set it up and I know,
went through the whole thing, and I haven't used a
Roku in forever, and I got to say, I was
actually quite impressed. It's just clean and straightforward, except there
are a lot of ads on the screen. I don't
like the ads, and the interface looks like it's out
of the eighties because it kind of like when you
start streaming, really does that bar that comes up is like,
(16:55):
come on, could you just redo that a little bit?
Apple TV is probably the most it is the most
polished out of all of them, and you're also and
you're also spending the most. Where is this Roku is
half the price and it does all the same things
and if not more because the remote it came with
is really nice. It can plug You can plug a
headphone jack into it or headphones into the remote, which
(17:16):
is really cool. It controls the volume on your TV
and the power on off. And it has two buttons
that you can assign to anything. So if you love
to come home and stream something over and over, like
I mean, Netflix is a bad example because I feel
like the remote has that button. Yeah it may not,
So whatever you want to do, you know, you can
assign that button. Or maybe you want to listen to
(17:37):
a podcast or music. So I I personally think that, uh,
the Apple TV might be the way to go for you, Kathleen,
But you know, it depends. It all depends on how
much you want to spend. I think that's the main thing. Oh,
speaking of Amazon, Amazon's Holiday Toy Guide seems like a
great place to reference all of your holiday shopping because
Amazon is a place where we all shop nowadays. Well,
(17:59):
guess what a spot on that guide could cost? You
two million dollars.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
According to Bloomberg, Amazon has companies pay to be included
in this Holiday toy guide. Now, they don't pay for
outright inclusion. They pay for the ability to be featured
or considered in this list. So Amazon sells Holiday Toy
(18:24):
List sponsorships for as much as two million dollars, according
to documents reviewed by Bloomberg. The more sponsors pay, the
more products they can nominate to be on the list,
and the more prominently their own products will be featured
on the website. Amazon aimed to sell at least twenty
million dollars in sponsorships for this year's show, according to
documents from Bloomberg. And this is all through Fortune magazine,
(18:45):
who's reporting on what Bloomberg reported, And then I'm reporting it.
But it makes sense. But here's an I get it.
If you go to Walmart and Walmart Circular is telling
you the top holiday gifts that is not a third
party thing like Walmart says like, oh, we make a
pretty good margin on this Elmo doll, so let's put
that on the list. Or we have a pretty good
relationship with Hasbro and they have this new doll. Let's
(19:07):
put that on the list. I get it. It's not
third party, it's not independent. You're not expecting when you
go into a store and you look at what's on
the end of the aisle, they call those the end caps.
Those are all highly coveted positions that companies jockey for
and they try to get their stuff there, and sometimes
it costs money to get there. When you look at
the stuff on the aisles, when you look at the
peanut butter that's right at eye level. Yeah, Jeff has
(19:29):
paid for that placement or somehow it may not be
a direct payment, but they work with Walmart to figure
out how to get their stuff there. Hey, we'll give
you five cents off every can because we know you
give us a very good spot on the shelf every year.
You're not down at the bottom. They put the cheap
stuff at the bottom. Yeah, because that's not paying.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Yeah, that's why I always go for the cheap stuff. Always.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Always. You got a shop by the unit price, and
so this is not a surprise. But I think and
I looked at the Amazon toy list on their website,
I co only find t twenty eighteens right now, But
it doesn't say anywhere that like it says. Okay, So
here's what Amazon says for their part. Every product on
our annual holiday Toy List, which features family gift ideas,
(20:11):
is independently curated by a team of in house experts
based on a high bar for quality, design, innovation, and
play experience. We source product ideas from many places, including
our selling partners, who have an opportunity to nominate their
best toys for the season and increase visibility of those toys.
So Amazon saying like, yeah, this is what we do. Yeah,
And it's kind of like, I mean, I hate to
say this, but it's like awards, like you know when
(20:32):
people get like Emmys and stuff, like you don't pay
for that, but you pay to nominate yourself.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Oh yeah, I mean they also pay a lot in
like promoting the show or the movie, Like the Oscars
is all I don't want to say rigged, but like
they put millions into just getting you know, like.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
If there's a core Great, you only know about the
Great documentary because it's advertised fifty different ways too.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Yeah, and Netflix probably spent fifteen million on whatever pr
just to like make happen, so it's happening. Shocking. It's
like but I think people also like to, you know,
kind of make it a bigger deal than it is.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Well, I think it is a big deal because people
need to know that this is happening. When you hear
from someone like myself, it's independent. I'm not I don't
get paid by a company to say I love their stuff.
And so I think that's the big delineation is that
with all these YouTubers and stuff, and I'm not hating
on them, I love them. But the reality is when
you see that sponsored or that ad, the company is
using them as a conduit to get their product in
(21:30):
front of your face. Yes, and that's fine, but you
just you know that because you see sponsored or add a.
But on Amazon, like if it says paid placement, you
understand that, like this is sponsored. There's just a delineation.
When you know something sponsored, you just say in your
mind like, Okay, that's fine, it doesn't ruin it as
a product, but it's you understand that. And I think
that relationship has to be clear.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, but in stores they don't No, they.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Don't say that, but you understand you're in store. So anyway,
long story short, I think you know, listen to as
many void as you can, especially independent voices. And you
know there's a lot of websites that do reviews now,
so you know you can just cross reference to reviews
and you'll see like the trends among all of them.
Oh no, it's my turn. You already did a question? Yeah?
Or did I know?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
You just did Amazon?
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I just did Amazon. Okay, see, I trusted my judgment.
It's your turn.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Go ahead, all right. We got a fun message from
Steven who said, I really like your show, always tons
of information. I heard you on Brian Tong's podcast. I
listened weekly and now enjoy it a lot.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Oh, it's so good. I just saw Brian Tongue at
the Pixel events and it's great. You know, he's a
great friend. He's been you know, we've known each other
since we worked at sne together that and so he
left seen it and did his own thing. So now
he's part of this YouTube crew, which, by the way,
they rolled deep, like nineteen of them. They're all like,
they all collab and this and that. It's pretty cool
(22:57):
to say, Yeah, so I'm not part of that group,
but I know them.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
You could be.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
I say hi to them and I know them, but
I'm not part of them, but they're doing great anyway.
So do you have a question as well?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yes, I do. This question comes from Dan hey Rich
any thoughts on a Mac Mini versus iMac looking for
something to have at home Internet browsing, email, video conferencing
for work.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
I would definitely go iMac. I think the Mac Mini
sounds great, But what's the point. I mean, unless you
already have your monitor that you love and the keyboard
that you love and all these accessories that you have
to bring to the table. I go with an Imacy.
My dream is to have an iMac. I have want
I've never owned iMac, never owned an iMac. It has
literally been my dream to have an iMac on my
(23:41):
desktop for the past decade.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
You need to have a little writer writer room, right,
You'll have your iMac and like he's just right there.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
I just want that. But then here's my problem. I
can't justify purchasing an iMac when I have my computer
that I use everywhere in my laptop that I just
put on my desk. Yeah, and then also I imagine, like, okay,
so I have to go between like both things, and
like whatever I put on the desktop, there is not
on that desktop and then sink it up. I don't
think so, there probably is. But my advice what was
(24:09):
this person's name again? Uh?
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Dan Stan Dan Dan Dan Dan?
Speaker 1 (24:14):
My advice is do not, I repeat, do not go
with the base model iMac because it's one thousand ninety
nine dollars. That's the sucker's bat. You do not get
the best things on that computer, namely the best screen.
You get an old non retina screen. Now do you
(24:34):
remember when you had your MacBook Air versus the computer
they gave you here? Yeah, you know one has the
retina screen, one doesn't. Can you tell the difference? Yes,
night and day.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
It's insane, like it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
So imagine imagine spending one thousand ninety nine on an
iMac to get a non retina display. When you can,
you've already gone the thousand ninety nine right, go the
two hundred dollars further, don't eat now, start and get
the retina.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Yeah, do your eyes a favor.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Everything with me is eating out or drinking we w Well,
I'm just saying because I always see money as like
all these little decisions we make in our lives. Yes,
where you go out like I went out the other
night I bought a round of drinks from my family.
It was like sixty bucks, I know, very nice. No, yes,
those those milkshakes up. Yeah, And I'm telling you it
(25:24):
was sixty dollars. And so that is six months of
Spotify in my head right there. Yeah, and everyone it's
not just me that's doing this, see, And it's all
these little things like if you buy coffee at Starbucks,
you know, it's four forty five for like a latte now, yeah,
and that is half a month of some cloud service
that you've been hemming and hauling over. And so we
(25:46):
make these little decisions so easily in real life. Then
when it comes to buying a Mac you say, well,
I'll just save the two hundred bucks and go with
the base model. Spend the extra two hundred and get
the model that has the retina display and it's a
four K display as well, and you also get some
other improved graphics, you know, bigger, not a bigger hard drive,
but just better. A couple other specs are better too,
(26:07):
so good question. Yeah, and the Mac Mini, don't get
me wrong, I think that's awesome. Back in the day
when when the home theater PC was a big deal,
that Mac Mini was kind of cool because you can
hook it up your TV, and I don't see the
point of that anymore. It's getting Apple TV. Nest Mini
is getting a makeover, available October twenty second. Is the
(26:28):
new Yeah. This used to be called the Google Home Mini.
Now it's the Nest Mini, probably Google's most popular smart speaker.
I've got a bunch of them around my house. Do
you have any of these around your place? Nest many
like these little things.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Yeah, my sister has one.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Okay, do you need one? I mean I have one.
I can give you Okay, okay, I will give you one.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Oh okay, the new one.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, no, not the new one, the old one. For
a while I was getting these things, is like in
like gift bags, like randomly you go to like an event,
you get like a Google Home Mini, and I was
giving them out. I've reached a point of like saturation
where everyone I know like does want him anymore?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Like I'm good.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yeah. So the Google Home Mini was launched in twenty seventeen.
The new version. There's not too much to know about it.
It's fifty dollars, same price that used to be. These
things usually go on sale as a loss Leader. During
the holidays, you can pick them up for twenty nine
thirty nine dollars. You know, at least ten dollars off
during the holidays. I'd say, if not, probably twenty nine
is a more viable price point. So don't buy this
(27:23):
thing at forty nine dollars. I hate to say this
with all Google stuff, but they price it in a
way that they know. Some of these things, like these
Nest Minis, they're just going to go on sale. Yeah,
Target's going to put them on sale, Walmart, best Buy.
So the thing to know about it now is it
kind of looks the same, but it's made from one
hundred percent recycled plastic bottles. So all those bottles that
you're thrown out from your water, your your Fiji water drink,
(27:47):
that's true. You have a flask.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
And when he says flask, he means to say hydrophile.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Oh I forgot the first part of that word.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah, that's not that's rich that has the flask.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
So the Nest Mini is made from your cycled plastic bottles,
which is really cool. One hundred percent, which I love.
It also has forty percent more bass than the original model.
Every time I see the word bass. Yeah, I see bass.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah, I see. Why do I see bass?
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Because it's spelled bass. He says bass. Yeah, it's spelled bass.
I see bass. It's like when I go fishing, do
I go bass fishing? No, I go bass fishing. But
it's spelled the same. I used to do that, by
the way. Not it's been a long time fishing. I
used to all the time. Oh yeah, you growing up.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
That's shocking.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, let's see. You can group the speakers together we
talked about in the last podcast. So they don't sound
as good the old ones don't. At least maybe the
new ones sound better. The voice assists the Google Assistant
now adjusts depending on the background noise, which is really
neat because if you have the dishwasher going and you
ask Google something, it might be tough to hear in
(28:49):
the past and you have to go and turn the
volume up. Now it dynamically uses its microphones to hear
what the ambient sound is, and it'll bump up the
volume a little bit.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
What about if you're watching a TV show and you
say like, hey, Google, and then like the TV shows
in the background, and it's like picking up the show,
but you're.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Like you, that's a whole problem. Yeah, I don't know.
I mean that's a show off. Well that's like a
whole issue with this whole ah Google thing. It's like
so many things turn you know, trigger it, and they
get false triggers and it starts listening to other stuff.
But it's pretty good about the ambient sound, Like from
what I've seen when I'm in like a loud room
and I trigger it, it's it's pretty darn good. There's
also a new intercom feature, and I got to test
(29:26):
this out at the Google offices and it was really neat.
This turns your nests into an intercom system. I love that.
Have you ever used an intercom like in your house? Yeah, okay,
so we used to have one, like back in the day. Okay,
you have one. Yeah, so it's like we don't use it,
No one does. It's kind of like one of those
things from like the eighties or seventies, you know. It's
like an old school thing. Yeah, And it's like we
(29:46):
had it in my house growing up, and I thought
it was so cool as a nerd. So I'd always
be like, on the thing, I'm making everyone please come
down to dinner, you know, and like.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Everyone, you're going to do this with your kids if
you get this.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Well, so there's a feature. There's two features on the
Nest Mini now. One is called broadcast, which you can
do from any So you could do that from your phone.
So if you pick up your phone and say, h,
Google broadcast, I'm headed home, it will take your voice
and it will play on all your speakers at the
same time. That's one feature and you can try that
right now. The other feature that they're enabling, which is new,
(30:17):
is called intercom. I can say, h Google, call the
living room, Google Mini, whatever you've named it, and it
will make a call to it. It'll ring. The other
person on the other end taps the top and they
go hello, and you're like, hey, what's up. I'm right
over here, I'm across the room, you know, I'm across
the house.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Pretty cool. Yeah, I mean you have to figure out
the use case. But if you have a big house,
you know, like I always imagine like one of these
days I'd have a house that like, you know, when
you have that dinner table that's like a mile long.
To Lindsay and I have done that before, We've eaten dinner,
like at the opposite end of the Our dinner table
is not that long, but its no no, but we
have like a decently it's a pretty it's a more
(30:59):
long than normal tape. Yeah, and so I always think
it's funny, like when we first got it to sit
on the opposite ends and it's just so funny put
candles in the middle, and like you just have like
your Friday night dinner, like.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Can you please bring in the dijon mustard very down
to nabbey.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
That's lost on me, no idea, Okay, it's like fancy.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Fancy, Yeah, the fancy.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
So that's the next Mini. And the other thing to
know about the next Mini is that it is faster
at processing your commands because they've built some machine learning
onto the device, so it kind of understands like you
always ask every day at two pm to turn the
lights up or whatever. I always ask every day when
I get in to like turn on the kitchen lights,
and so it will learn that and it will figure
(31:41):
that out and process faster now somehow.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
And it's like it plays Lizzo because you always walk
every day.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Walk in and play my normal and it's like whatever
she sayings, I don't know that song close something like that.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Okay. The next question comes from Paula and and she says,
facial recognition on phones, I prefer the fingerprint way with
face wreck. Someone could grab your phone and point it
at you and run away, then they'd have your phone unlocked.
Am I right or wrong?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Uh? So true? Yeah, I think face face unlock is
a double edged sword.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
I always do that when you want to want me
to record something, I'll like take your phone and I'll
pin your.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Face works right, Yeah. And it's the same thing with
a pixel. I mean it. You know, my brother when
he was you know, when we were out that night
in New York City, he just like held the phone
up to my face and unlocked. You know, you just
do that and it's like boom.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
And so I do think there is something to that.
And I think that I don't know, maybe they'll figure
out a way around that. I don't know what.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Yeah, maybe like a palm reader.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Yeah, like well, or it shose your hand. Yeah, I
notices how you hold the phone. Maybe, I don't know.
I mean that could be. I don't know. We're just
we're just spitballing here because we don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Yeah, I mean like I do. Do you hear stories
about this happen.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
I don't hear stories about it happening. I've thought about, like, yeah,
someone someone finds you and they're just like, you know,
they hold you down, they put the phone in front
of your face, and you're just like, oh, well, there
goes my whole phone.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
I feel like people don't care that much.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Well, I don't know. Yeah, I mean I don't want
to find out. Do you want to find out?
Speaker 2 (33:12):
No? But I also have an eight plus, So I'm
like the.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Past, and so I to answer this person's question, I
would say I'm on the same wavelength. I get it, like,
there are things that face unlocked. It is pretty cool
to have it. But I also see the other side
of when you're this is the way I see it.
When you're using a fingerprint scanner, you're in control because
it's your finger and someone can't. Yeah, they can hold
you down and force you to put your fingerprint on there,
(33:36):
but it's a little bit different, you know, it takes
like more physical coercion, whereas for face, like you said,
you can just hold it up and be like boom,
and next thing you know, it's unlocked.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Yeah, So I want to try it?
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Go ahead, Yeah, let's see. So I won't look okay,
so I'm not going to look okay, and it's not unlocking.
But if I'm just like right here and I look
at it, is it unlocking? It's not. See it knows
that you're Yeah, okay, that's the pixel. Now try it.
You want to try it with the iPhone? Yeah, okay,
So we just tried it with pixel, so now try
it with the iPhone. So I'm gonna I'm gonna look away, Okay.
(34:11):
Now I'm looking at it, and uh no, it says
swipe to unlock, swipe up to unlock, So swipe up
and then turn it to me really quick and see
if it works. See. Yeah, see, I think I think
they're on to us, Megan, I mean that that's I mean.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Wait, look at it.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Okay. Oh yeah, so I don't know. I think, uh so,
maybe maybe they have figured it out.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Don't worry about it, Paula.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah, it's all good. We just tested it in our
very uh non scientific testing. We found that you do
not have to worry about this.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Yes, you will be fine.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
But it seems to I mean, I don't know that
seems to work Okay, let's move on. Pixel Book Go
is another product that Google unveiled at their event. I
got to play with this for a little bit, and
I will be honest, I one fell in love with
this device. It is their Chromebook. It's a high performance
Chromebook and and it's kind of like, well, I guess
it's not as high performance as the standard pixel book,
(35:06):
but it's still it's a lightweight kind of device for
the average person that just needs to do basic things
on their computer. But the best part is it's barely
two pounds. It's super thin. It's prices six hundred and
forty nine dollars, which is a kind of a sweet spot.
I would have liked it to be four ninety nine.
I think that is a super sweet spot. When it
comes to a laptop, four ninety nine is like, that
(35:28):
is no brainer. You get a really nice computer for
four ninety nine. Six forty nine is a little bit
more expensive. But again it goes back to what I'm
saying about. I think Google prices some of these things
knowing they might be discounted at during the holidays, right,
But I don't know what this one depends. We'll have
to see because I don't know how much it would
be discounted. But it's got quiet backlit keys, and I'll
(35:49):
be one hundred percent honest, like I was ready to
purchase this thing. Really Yeah, I liked it that much.
It's like everything I want in a computer, super easy.
You don't have to worry about viruses, It turns on automatic,
the battery lasts a long time, it runs Chrome. What
more do you need? The only problem is I like
to edit video on my computer and I also use Final.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Cut, and so what can't you use Adobe?
Speaker 1 (36:10):
No, not on this one, because you can't install any
programs on it except like the way I look at
it is, I think you can ins sol Android apps
on it at this point. Oh so maybe I could
if it's an Android app. You know what. I gotta
try that out because it's been I've never used a Chromebook.
It's been a long time.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Does Google have their own video editing software?
Speaker 1 (36:30):
I do not.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
I share, but they don't.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
I don't think they position their stuff as like content
creation devices like the pixel book Go to me is
for someone who is a mobile worker who does spreadsheets
or email or word processing, is writing a book. They're
not editing video they're not editing music, they're not creating content.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
It's a different space exactly.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Even I would argue maybe if you're like a web blogger,
you probably I mean, I guess nowadays you could do
ninety nine percent of blogging with just your Chrome because
I use what's the uh, this is fantastic. By the way,
if you ever need it, I use, so you can.
I'm not ever doing anything in Photoshop. And I think
even Photoshop probably runs on this thing, because they probably
(37:13):
have a version of it for this. If you could
run Android apps on it, that kind of changes the game. Yeah,
I should probably, I should probably know this, Megan. I
think that you talk while I figure out can the
pixel book go run Android apps? And I mean because
if it does, yeah, install Android apps on your pixel
Book technically, so I should try this. If it can
(37:33):
run Adobe.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yeah, you're never getting that asap.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
By the way, No, I'm never getting the iMac. I'm
never getting a new Mac. You know how many things
I've told you how many things are on my list
of purchases.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yeah, yeah, Well.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
Everything just keeps coming out new, and I'm like, yeah,
but I kind of want the pixel Book. And by
the way, I would not get the six forty nine
personally because I want higher specs. It goes all the
way up to I think it like thirteen ninety nine,
which is still pretty cheap. I think so because that
has like sixteen gigs a RAM, and like I think
two fifty six.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Wow, that would be really crazy if you just switched
to just using a chromebook.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
If I can install Adobe Rush, the only thing I
would not be able to do is final cut, which
and I message from your message that's true, that would
be it's.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
See that's a bummer.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
That is a bummer. And yeah, but anyway, the app
I was talking about that I used to resize images
is called Promo dot Com Slash Tools slash Image dash Resizer.
It you pop, you drag and drop an image into
there and it resizes it to every single perfect size
for every platform. Yeah, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, thumbnails, Pinterest, LinkedIn, snapchat,
(38:43):
email and blog, Google Display Network whatever that is. I
guess that's for ads. So cool.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Yeah, yeah, you need that.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
So pixel book go. It also has this weird grippable
design which is kind of cool. On the bottom, it's
like it's like ribbed almost, which is kind of weird,
but it helps you grip it so you don't drop it,
and it's it makes sense, so it's not like smooth
on the bottom. Kind of cool. Let's see what else
twelve hours of battery life wo two hours. Twenty minutes
of charging gives you two hours of battery. It's kind
(39:12):
of cool. If you're getting on the plane, you just
want to top it off a little bit. Got that. Uh,
the keyboard. They really made a big deal out of
this because I don't know, if you typing on mine.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
They say it's called hush hush.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
They call it hush keys, and so it's really quiet.
I honestly, like I said, I fell in love with
this thing. Like I sat there and I I was
I was, I was playing with it, and I was
literally saying I could see myself using this, And I've
always wanted to kind of break free of like my
standard I've had the same kind of MacBook Pro for
like a decade now, and it just be kind of
(39:45):
fun to be like that guy with the pixel book.
People are looking at You're like, what is that? It's
that weird grippy thing on the bottom of your laptop.
What's that weird? You know, you don't have to sit
there and do a Windows update for two hours every
day because you know, they come out this giant update
that takes forever. So, oh, you don't have to. You
don't have these loud keys like I have my MacBook.
I don't know. I think I'm gonna get one.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Yeah, I think you should.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
We'll say see how I deal.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
All right, So this question comes from Rainah. The subject
is Spectrum's latest four dollars rate increase with no speed increase.
So she says that on October eleventh, she got an
email from Spectrum announcing that she can get speeds up
to two hundred megabytes megabytes per second with no rate increase.
(40:31):
And then she said, my September bill said that there
will be a general four dollars a month rate increase
on my October bill.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
What's her name, Raina, Raina, And then she.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Said, I can't seem to hold those two thoughts in
my head. My current.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
Now you don't have to read all the rest part.
She goes on and on. Okay, okay, but I think
the first part is really the interesting part about it.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
There was a there was an increase before this.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Yeah, okay, so here's the story and I and I've
I've done this on Twitter enough so I don't really
want to beat a dead horse here. But the reality is,
can we still say that? I don't even know. I
don't even know what you could say anymore. I feel
like that's like such an old saying.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
That, Like what a visual? I like really thought about that.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Have you heard that before?
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Never beat a dead horse?
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Have you heard that term?
Speaker 2 (41:16):
I mean, I've heard it. I don't really understand.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Yeah, I'm gonna stop saying that. I don't why would
I wouldn't beat anything? Like, why would it beat a
dead horse?
Speaker 2 (41:24):
I'm a horse lover.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
No, I can't wait to get on a horse again.
Now I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Yeah, you're a big a questrian.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Yeah okay. So here's what happened. Spectrum came out about
two months ago, and we talked about this in the podcast,
and everyone responded saying, oh my gosh, they doubled the
speeds in Los Angeles and across the nation to like
two hundred what everyone was paying for one hundred, So
now you got the same like price, but like, oh
my gosh, it's way faster. This happened at my house.
Then all of a sudden. I get my bill last
week and in tiny little writing, it's like, effective next bill,
(41:53):
there will be a four dollars increase on your bill.
They didn't say it was for speed. They just said
four dollars monthly whatever. And so then a week later
I get an email or two days later, I get
an email from Spectrum saying We've increased your speed at
no cost to you. I'm like, what, No, what is
it like? Just don't send an email like that after
you just raise my bill by four dollars. So now
I'm paying next bill would be sixty nine to ninety
(42:14):
nine a month for internet, And I think it's kind
of ridiculous that they did that.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
They should have just said, like, we're going to charge
you four dollars more because the speed is increasing.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Hey, we improve your speed by the way, we have
costs that go up to and at the end of
the day, they know that people rely on their internets
and they can charge one hundred dollars a month and
people will still not switch because a they have kind
of a monopoly on it totally. There's only like two
providers in every area. Usually one's not very good.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
What's the other provider here?
Speaker 1 (42:42):
It just depends where you live. Like it could be
AT and T and some there's it just depends. It
all depends where you live. So if you want to check,
I always try to give you a little knowledge with
my rants, but high speed Internet dot com can you
can pop in your zip code and kind of see
what the provider is in your area. Did she say
where she lives? No, I'll just do West La as
(43:07):
an example, And in West LA you can get Frontier
Spectrum via SAT and hues net and cybernet. So obviously
the only two that are wired are really Spectrum and Frontier.
But here's the thing. This is what I will leave
with you. The good news is that we are on
the verge of these five G networks being in big
cities in a big way, and when those take off,
(43:30):
you'll be able to have a third option in many
cases overnight. Yeah, because you can now get a signal
from the sky or I should say from the air
that is just as good that can rival these wired connections.
So hopefully that should switch up prices a little bit.
The problem is a lot of these five G connections
are from the same companies that own the wired connections,
(43:50):
and so competition will be there at the beginning, but
like anything else, at the end of the day, they're
gonna level out the prices. Anyway, Well, that's gonna do
it for the podcast. Thanks so much for listening, Megan.
Did you enjoy the show?
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Yeah, I learned a lot too.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
I feel like this was a really good show. I
feel like we both learned a lot here in this journey.
My book is called one and one iPhone Tips and
Tricks Is It is available right now for both the iPhone,
sorry for in Kindle form like ebook form, and also
paperback form. So it is available on Amazon check it out.
You can read it for free through Kindle Unlimited, or
(44:25):
you can purchase it and keep it either as paperback
or as ebook. Megan, how can people get in touch
with you?
Speaker 2 (44:32):
I am on Twitter, I'm at producer Megan, and I've
been getting some questions this past week from people.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Okay, did you bring any of them to the show?
I know, okay for next show. So if you have
a question, you can tweet producer Megan as well. Well,
you tweet me and you know we'll get it on
the show. And for me, you can find me on
social media at rich On tech on Instagram, Facebook dot com,
slash rich on tech. That's going to do it for
our show. Please, if you're listening for the first time,
subscribe to us in your favorite audio app and listen
(45:01):
every week. Thanks so much for listening. We'll see you
real soon. Bye bye.
Hands off with the Google Pixel four. Google smart speakers
get a handy new feature. Samsung has a fingerprint issue
on its hands. See what I did there and your
tech questions answered? What's going on? I'm Rich Demiro. This
is Rich on Tech, the podcast where I talk about
the tech stuff I think you should know about. Plus
I answer all the questions that you just send me.
(00:26):
Here them right there, that's them questions. We print them out.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, we do.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Welcome producer Megan. What's going on?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hey?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Hey, is that your new thing? Did you think about that?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Did you have that swear that just came out? And
then I and then you literally like read my mind
and I, yeah, I don't know where that came from. Okay,
so maybe that's my thing.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Maybe, well okay, so this is, hey, hey, kind of funny.
But so you know, I fill in for Leo Laporte. Yeah,
on occasion. Actually I'm gonna be doing it in two weeks.
But so I didn't realized that he had a way
of like introducing the show every time. And so it's
really like when you're doing a syndicated radio show, like
it's really nerve wracking. I think like literally you're on
(01:08):
like the producers. You're in your ear and it's like
you're hot, you know, and all of a sudden you're
like lived all these people around the nation, and I
didn't know what to say, like how do you say,
you know, like good morning, but it wasn't morning in
some places, you know. So anyway, so I noticed that
Leo always he always does something like well, hey, hey, hey,
how are you doing today or something like that, and
so it kind of like reminded me of what you
(01:29):
just did. But I have not come up with a thing, yeah,
like of what I say.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
But there's another podcast I listened to and they go hello.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Hello, Hello, Right, so everyone has their thing of how
they intro and if you watch or listen to this show,
I should say listen because there is no watching. You
realize that there is nothing. There's no givens, there's everything.
Every week is like one hundred percent different. So but anyway,
we did just have a meeting with our big boss
here at our new company. You know, we were purchased
(01:56):
KTLA as part of Tribune was purchased by another a
new company called Nextstar. And so that's our new company
that we work for, which I used to work for
back in the day we had our big meeting. How
nervous were you scale of one to ten for this meeting.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
I was. I mean ten is really extreme. I would
say maybe a seven.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Did you sleep last night?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, I slept. I actually did sleep.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
I supped really well.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Okay, you were not obviously nervous at all.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
No, Well, I was also jet lagged.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I feel like, as a reporter, like you just can't
really get nervous.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
No, you don't.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I feel like you're used to just always being on.
But for me, I'm like, I feel like I just
trip over all my words. That's how I feel.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
But I think we did well. The meeting was very short.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I had nothing, I you were great.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
We just ended up. We ended up just talking about
like how much we love doing social media. So who
knows if it was good or not. But yeah, let's
get to the big news of the week. The Pixel
four smartphone is unveiled for real. I was in New
York for the big Made by Google event and I
have a Pixel four right here, which, according to my
(03:00):
i NDA, they call it or embargo, whatever you want
to call it. There are certain rules and apparently I
was reading it and it said you can only tweet
pictures from the main camera, which I think by saying that,
I'm breaking the rules of saying what the rules are.
Oh wow, Which so I was gonna tweet like a
selfie and then I was like, oh my gosh, I
can't even like tweet a selfie because it says you can't.
But anyway, so all the tech companies, when they give
(03:20):
you stuff to review, there's a certain time that they want.
We've talked about this before, when you can reveal your thoughts.
There's a thing called first impressions. So if you're ever
watching YouTube videos, when you see first impressions, that means
that it is not a review or hands on not
a review. Only when you see that magic word review,
that means that the embargo has been lifted and you
(03:41):
are free to give all of your thoughts on this device.
And so there's a lot of stuff I've noticed about
this device. I can't necessarily say it because they want
to have a certain window where people can collect their
thoughts and then publish them. It's kind of annoying, but
that's just the way they play.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
It makes sense.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
So Pixel four is the new smartphone from Google, and
if you've listened to me at all. You know, I
love the pixel lineup. It is pure Google. Pixel four
fixes a lot of the problems that we've seen on
previous devices. The number one thing is there is no
ultra wide camera lens, which every other smartphone maker in
the world is doing. Google decided not to. They did
put a secondary lens, but it's more for zoom and
(04:17):
they say that they think that zoom is more important
to users, which I kind of agree with because I
was debating this with my wife last night. I was like,
how many people actually take ultra wide pictures? Like what
are the use cases? Not many, but how many people
are at their kids recital or out? And about how
many times you see people pinching in on the screen
to zoom in all the time. Yeah, and when you
do that you lose a lot of quality. Google, you
(04:40):
don't really lose a lot of quality, So that's amazing.
It also has this motion sense, which means there's a
little radar inside which you can control it with your
hand just by waving it. That is very hit or miss,
but it's there and it works. The face on lock
is super fast. It's amazing. It's actually too fast because
every time I look at my phone. It's unlocked already.
Really yeah, so's kind of crazy, but it's great. You
(05:03):
can snooze alarms by waving your hand over them. You
can silence phone calls, you can skip to the next song.
That's kind of cool. The camera has been improved, but
the pixels pretty darn good, so it's kind of tough
to improve that camera. But you can now take pictures
of stars, which I've not tried. I will do that
this weekend in my backyard. I can't wait. Just you
can take a picture for as long as four minutes.
Oh wow, So I can't wait to see what that
(05:25):
looks like. You have to put it on a tripod
if you're going to do that, okay, because you can't
just hold it for.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
So I was going to say, you should go on
the parking lot and take a picture of the sky
with the grip at the observatory at like three am.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I was going to do that. I actually thought of
that this morning. Yeah, but I don't I need to
get a little stand for the phone.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
It actually gave me a case that has a built
in tripod, but it's too bulky for me to like
carry around every day. So Let's see, so you can
take pictures that way. Let's see. The screen is ninety
hurts capable, which means when you're scrolling through Twitter and
Facebook and all that stuff, it looks smoother than normal.
But that's not really a big thing for most people.
Battery life, they say, it's all day. It has wireless charging,
(06:04):
all that good stuff. The things that does not have
no fingerprint reader, no wide angle lens, and no original
picture storage at ar sorry, no unlimited picture storage at
original quality, which is one of the big things that
the three previous Pixels had, which means you can store
all your photos and four K videos at the best
resolution and never worry about paying for that. Now that's
(06:26):
not a thing anymore. Why it probably got too expensive
for Google and they probably just don't need it anymore,
like they I don't know, they just decided that's not important.
So I never thought it was important because I pay
for Google storage anyway, but and I don't think it's Look,
these tech companies have a lot of research, and they
understand how people are using their devices in ways that
we don't even understand. Because your phone is reporting back
(06:48):
all the time what you're doing with it, and so
they understand. They know if people are using the pinch
to zoom, they know if people are using this app
or that app, so we can kind of speculate on
the top features. Google actually an Apple and all these
companies they know what the top features are, so they
know what they can ditch. And yeah, they're going to
get some stuff in the media about it, but they
know it's not going to be a big deal at
the end of the day. The other app that's kind
(07:08):
of cool is the recorder app, and it transcribes everything
in real time in addition to recording your voice, so
it's kind of like a notes app that's much more
useful because you can look at the transcript. Cool if
you're in meetings all the time and you know that
kind of stuff. Again, I've been using the Pixel Xcel version.
It's big. I think for most people to probably want
the smaller one, but I like the big screen and
(07:30):
so far, so good. I mean, I can only give
you my impressions of it. I cannot give you my
review of it. Yeah, but I will tell you that
I will probably be buying the one twenty eight gigabyte
Pixel for Xcel.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
So how would you rate it? On a scale of
one to ten as an impression.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I just love the Pixel. I think it's like the
perfect smartphone for I think for creator it's a little
bit tougher because it's not like as good as the
iPhone when it comes to like creating content, and the
apps aren't as good. But I think that as a
smart phone, it is really smart, like it just anticipates
everything that you want to do and kind of like
is ready for that. And I think that's the difference
between iPhone and Pixel. iPhone has all the apps, it's perfect,
(08:11):
it's polished, it just does everything you need it to do.
But it's more of I call a hunt and peck
mentality versus on this phone. The Pixel uses AI to
kind of surface things that it thinks you want to
do next. And I think that's the biggest difference between
the two devices. Right, So hopefully that made sense.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yeah, that makes and with that ten, I think that's
a ten.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Let's go to Megan with the first question of the day.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
All right, So this first question comes from Evelyn and
she writes in on rich on tech Dot TV. All
you have to do is you can send a question
to Rich through rich on tech dot TV, go to
the contact page and you can submit your question. Evelyn asks,
what have you heard about this product? It's called Infinity Cloud.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
This is not the first question I'm getting about this thing.
And it's spelled in a weird way, like it's spelled
Is it spelled infinity kloed? Is that how she spelled it? Yes? Okay,
So I've gotten at least I would say, four or
five emails about this, so clearly they are advertising somewhere
that I am not a part of, Like whether it's
Instagram or Facebook or Late Night TV, I don't know,
but I've gotten a lot of emails. I'm trying to
(09:18):
figure out. There's not like a main website that I found,
But I did find on Amazon they have something called
the Infinity Cloud USB drive and it's spelled that same way,
and it's one hundred and twenty eight gigabyte drive and
it includes Infinity Cloud super Fast one click backup software
for Mac and PC. I'm guessing this is what she's
(09:40):
talking about. It's a ninety dollars device and it's kind
of from what I can tell, it's a flash drive
that backs up things on your computer. Okay, and I
don't like the name Infinity Cloud because it sounds like
you're getting as much backup storage as you need and
this is a hundred yeah, and this is one hundred
(10:00):
and twenty eight gigs.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
So yeah, that's weird.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Here's my advice on this. I think it has a
fancy name. I think they're advertising and they're you know,
they're getting people to buy this thing, but don't. I
would say, if you're going to back up stuff. Number one,
if you have a Windows computer or a Mac computer,
buy a hard drive Western Digital. Seventy bucks will get
you a two terabyte hard drive. You plug it into
your computer, your Mac or your Windows computer will automatically
back up all your files there. That's number one. Number
(10:26):
two when it comes to the cloud, use iCloud, use
Google Photos for your photos, use Microsoft one Drive for
your documents if you want, you know, depending on the
platform you're on, and all again, you can get some
free storage with those, but you can also pay to
get more storage. And finally, if you want to use
something like back Blaze or Carbonite, if you want sort
(10:47):
of the entire computer backed up to one So what
would happen with that with back Blaze or Carbonite is
it's off site, so it's very similar to time Machine
or Windows backup, but it's off site, so god forbid
you're you know hard drive ever you know crashes, plus
the secondary backup you have gets lost or burned or ruined.
You can go to back blaze and say, hey, can
(11:08):
you get all my data back? And it gets back
to the way you were and they may charge you
like a fee if you want like a drive sent
to your house with all of your stuff on it,
or you can just download it from the computer as well.
So those are the things that I would recommend back
Blaze or Carbonite. And the first backup, by the way,
is going to take a long time because you're backing
(11:29):
up your whole computer. Yeah, after that, it's incremental and
it's just done. Like I had. I had Carbonite for
a while and it was great because like you just
knew your whole computer was backed up without even thinking.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
I kind of like that.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, And I'm just seeing how much it is. So
back blaze is sixty bucks for a year or six
dollars a month, okay, And I always go back to
the beer mentality. If you purchase a beer or a
drink for five bucks, ten dollars one time that month,
you can have back blaze for six dollars. Yeah. I'm
not saying you need to do that, but I'm just saying,
you know, you spend money on things like you go
(12:00):
to Chipotle, it's nine bucks. You could add your computer
backed up for the whole month. Yeah, and he could
add a bowl cereal at home, or a beer or
a beer. Samsung says they will soon patch a fingerprint
recognition problem on the Galaxy S ten. Samsung said that
there is a software patch ready to go for a
(12:21):
fingerprint recognition failure on the S ten smartphone. Apparently there's
a bug in the Galaxy S ten that allows people
to unlock the phone using their fingerprint, even if their
fingerprint is not the one registered to unlock the phone.
That sounds really bad.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Aka anyone can open the phone.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Pretty much so. A British user told The Sun newspaper,
which is a tabloid I believe over in Europe, that
she had a third party screen protector on her phone
and her husband was able to unlock it using his
fingerprint without register.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
The only example, apparently.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
But it's big enough where Reuter's did a story on it.
Everyone else has picked it up, and Samsung did tell
Reuters and Gizmoto that they do have a software fix
that they're going to put out for this. And here's
the thing they said, Apparently some of the issues with
your fingerprint recognition happen with some third party screen protectors
that are silicone, silic can silicon based and plastic based.
(13:23):
And so it's I guess, if you have a glass
screen protector, which I would normally recommend, it's probably not
that big of an issue, but with these cheaper ones
it is. So again, I've you know, I haven't used
a plastic screen protector in a long time. I always
use one that's glass from tech Armor, and so I
haven't seen this issue. I guess I can try to
(13:44):
recreate it on the Samsung Galaxy S ten, but I don't.
I don't think So that's that's a that's a weird one.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah, you should try to recreate it, but.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
It wouldn't workcuse I don't have a scream protector, so
I'd need like a cheap I guess I can go
to like one of those cheap malt kiosks, and you know, yeah, anyway,
so again my advice you if you have a Samsung
Galaxy S ten, is this gonna happen? I don't know.
Try if you have a cheap plastic screen protector on
there A, you probably want to upgrade that. B. Have
a friend try their fingerprint and see if it works
and let me know.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, and then maybe change to a pass cut.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah. I would definitely change for the time being. Yeah,
until you see that softwareupdate.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Okay, cool. Next question comes from Kathy and she she asks,
I need to get a new streaming stick. I had Firestick,
I now have an iPhone. So between firestick and Apple TV,
which would you recommend? And then she said my TV
is ten eighty but may soon get an HD, So
I assume I should get an HD streaming stick.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
They're all I mean, they're all the st at this point.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
I don't think they sell a stick that's not Roku
might in their bottom like their lowest one. They might.
But yeah, and also, your TV is ten eighty. That's
that's HD already, so you're already there. Yeah, you're already there.
What Let's see? So she has Apple TV, No, No,
she has an iPhone?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
She she has she had firestick. She oh. She also
says she has Roku in some rooms and she hates it.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Okay, so she had Firestick and then she hates the Roku.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I mean, I don't so between Firestick and Apple TV,
which would you recommend?
Speaker 1 (15:17):
So okay, So Firestick I think that's one I use.
It's it's super cheap, it works really well, it pushes
all Amazon stuff, And I find that the organization of
the Firestick is atrocious because like if I just want
to see what the top movies are for like rental
or purchase, it's like takes like twenty five menus to
find that, whereas an Apple TV just go to iTunes
as like top movies boom. But again, and Apple TV
(15:39):
is way more expensive, And I think that's the delineation here.
How much do you want to spend Apple TV you're
looking at closer to two hundred dollars versus Firestick. You
can get it for like twenty five bucks or maybe
I think the fifty as the most expensive one as
a stick, So it depends how many you're buying. And
with Apple TV you get the integration to your iPhone.
(16:00):
Do you want to airplay stuff from your iPhone through the.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Screen, something she probably wants and photos.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
You can also, so if you have a firestick like
I do, to get your photos from your iPhone onto
the TV, you can do it. You can download the
Amazon Photos app, you can upload them one by one
and do that. Or if you have an iPhone, obviously
it's just kind of like you can just do a
photo stream or you can do your recent pictures or whatever. Yeah,
So I mean, I think personally, I would probably lean
(16:25):
towards the Apple TV. If you have an iPhone and
you're saying you hated Roku, which I don't know why
you hate Roco. It's pretty good, and you.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Had fire stuff Roku.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah, So Roku just sent me a Ultra to test
ok and so I set it up and I know,
went through the whole thing, and I haven't used a
Roku in forever, and I got to say, I was
actually quite impressed. It's just clean and straightforward, except there
are a lot of ads on the screen. I don't
like the ads, and the interface looks like it's out
of the eighties because it kind of like when you
start streaming, really does that bar that comes up is like,
(16:55):
come on, could you just redo that a little bit?
Apple TV is probably the most it is the most
polished out of all of them, and you're also and
you're also spending the most. Where is this Roku is
half the price and it does all the same things
and if not more because the remote it came with
is really nice. It can plug You can plug a
headphone jack into it or headphones into the remote, which
(17:16):
is really cool. It controls the volume on your TV
and the power on off. And it has two buttons
that you can assign to anything. So if you love
to come home and stream something over and over, like
I mean, Netflix is a bad example because I feel
like the remote has that button. Yeah it may not,
So whatever you want to do, you know, you can
assign that button. Or maybe you want to listen to
(17:37):
a podcast or music. So I I personally think that, uh,
the Apple TV might be the way to go for you, Kathleen,
But you know, it depends. It all depends on how
much you want to spend. I think that's the main thing. Oh,
speaking of Amazon, Amazon's Holiday Toy Guide seems like a
great place to reference all of your holiday shopping because
Amazon is a place where we all shop nowadays. Well,
(17:59):
guess what a spot on that guide could cost? You
two million dollars.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
According to Bloomberg, Amazon has companies pay to be included
in this Holiday toy guide. Now, they don't pay for
outright inclusion. They pay for the ability to be featured
or considered in this list. So Amazon sells Holiday Toy
(18:24):
List sponsorships for as much as two million dollars, according
to documents reviewed by Bloomberg. The more sponsors pay, the
more products they can nominate to be on the list,
and the more prominently their own products will be featured
on the website. Amazon aimed to sell at least twenty
million dollars in sponsorships for this year's show, according to
documents from Bloomberg. And this is all through Fortune magazine,
(18:45):
who's reporting on what Bloomberg reported, And then I'm reporting it.
But it makes sense. But here's an I get it.
If you go to Walmart and Walmart Circular is telling
you the top holiday gifts that is not a third
party thing like Walmart says like, oh, we make a
pretty good margin on this Elmo doll, so let's put
that on the list. Or we have a pretty good
relationship with Hasbro and they have this new doll. Let's
(19:07):
put that on the list. I get it. It's not
third party, it's not independent. You're not expecting when you
go into a store and you look at what's on
the end of the aisle, they call those the end caps.
Those are all highly coveted positions that companies jockey for
and they try to get their stuff there, and sometimes
it costs money to get there. When you look at
the stuff on the aisles, when you look at the
peanut butter that's right at eye level. Yeah, Jeff has
(19:29):
paid for that placement or somehow it may not be
a direct payment, but they work with Walmart to figure
out how to get their stuff there. Hey, we'll give
you five cents off every can because we know you
give us a very good spot on the shelf every year.
You're not down at the bottom. They put the cheap
stuff at the bottom. Yeah, because that's not paying.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Yeah, that's why I always go for the cheap stuff. Always.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Always. You got a shop by the unit price, and
so this is not a surprise. But I think and
I looked at the Amazon toy list on their website,
I co only find t twenty eighteens right now, But
it doesn't say anywhere that like it says. Okay, So
here's what Amazon says for their part. Every product on
our annual holiday Toy List, which features family gift ideas,
(20:11):
is independently curated by a team of in house experts
based on a high bar for quality, design, innovation, and
play experience. We source product ideas from many places, including
our selling partners, who have an opportunity to nominate their
best toys for the season and increase visibility of those toys.
So Amazon saying like, yeah, this is what we do. Yeah,
And it's kind of like, I mean, I hate to
say this, but it's like awards, like you know when
(20:32):
people get like Emmys and stuff, like you don't pay
for that, but you pay to nominate yourself.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Oh yeah, I mean they also pay a lot in
like promoting the show or the movie, Like the Oscars
is all I don't want to say rigged, but like
they put millions into just getting you know, like.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
If there's a core Great, you only know about the
Great documentary because it's advertised fifty different ways too.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Yeah, and Netflix probably spent fifteen million on whatever pr
just to like make happen, so it's happening. Shocking. It's
like but I think people also like to, you know,
kind of make it a bigger deal than it is.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Well, I think it is a big deal because people
need to know that this is happening. When you hear
from someone like myself, it's independent. I'm not I don't
get paid by a company to say I love their stuff.
And so I think that's the big delineation is that
with all these YouTubers and stuff, and I'm not hating
on them, I love them. But the reality is when
you see that sponsored or that ad, the company is
using them as a conduit to get their product in
(21:30):
front of your face. Yes, and that's fine, but you
just you know that because you see sponsored or add a.
But on Amazon, like if it says paid placement, you
understand that, like this is sponsored. There's just a delineation.
When you know something sponsored, you just say in your
mind like, Okay, that's fine, it doesn't ruin it as
a product, but it's you understand that. And I think
that relationship has to be clear.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, but in stores they don't No, they.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Don't say that, but you understand you're in store. So anyway,
long story short, I think you know, listen to as
many void as you can, especially independent voices. And you
know there's a lot of websites that do reviews now,
so you know you can just cross reference to reviews
and you'll see like the trends among all of them.
Oh no, it's my turn. You already did a question? Yeah?
Or did I know?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
You just did Amazon?
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I just did Amazon. Okay, see, I trusted my judgment.
It's your turn.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Go ahead, all right. We got a fun message from
Steven who said, I really like your show, always tons
of information. I heard you on Brian Tong's podcast. I
listened weekly and now enjoy it a lot.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Oh, it's so good. I just saw Brian Tongue at
the Pixel events and it's great. You know, he's a
great friend. He's been you know, we've known each other
since we worked at sne together that and so he
left seen it and did his own thing. So now
he's part of this YouTube crew, which, by the way,
they rolled deep, like nineteen of them. They're all like,
they all collab and this and that. It's pretty cool
(22:57):
to say, Yeah, so I'm not part of that group,
but I know them.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
You could be.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
I say hi to them and I know them, but
I'm not part of them, but they're doing great anyway.
So do you have a question as well?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yes, I do. This question comes from Dan hey Rich
any thoughts on a Mac Mini versus iMac looking for
something to have at home Internet browsing, email, video conferencing
for work.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
I would definitely go iMac. I think the Mac Mini
sounds great, But what's the point. I mean, unless you
already have your monitor that you love and the keyboard
that you love and all these accessories that you have
to bring to the table. I go with an Imacy.
My dream is to have an iMac. I have want
I've never owned iMac, never owned an iMac. It has
literally been my dream to have an iMac on my
(23:41):
desktop for the past decade.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
You need to have a little writer writer room, right,
You'll have your iMac and like he's just right there.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
I just want that. But then here's my problem. I
can't justify purchasing an iMac when I have my computer
that I use everywhere in my laptop that I just
put on my desk. Yeah, and then also I imagine, like, okay,
so I have to go between like both things, and
like whatever I put on the desktop, there is not
on that desktop and then sink it up. I don't
think so, there probably is. But my advice what was
(24:09):
this person's name again? Uh?
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Dan Stan Dan Dan Dan Dan?
Speaker 1 (24:14):
My advice is do not, I repeat, do not go
with the base model iMac because it's one thousand ninety
nine dollars. That's the sucker's bat. You do not get
the best things on that computer, namely the best screen.
You get an old non retina screen. Now do you
(24:34):
remember when you had your MacBook Air versus the computer
they gave you here? Yeah, you know one has the
retina screen, one doesn't. Can you tell the difference? Yes,
night and day.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
It's insane, like it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
So imagine imagine spending one thousand ninety nine on an
iMac to get a non retina display. When you can,
you've already gone the thousand ninety nine right, go the
two hundred dollars further, don't eat now, start and get
the retina.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Yeah, do your eyes a favor.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Everything with me is eating out or drinking we w Well,
I'm just saying because I always see money as like
all these little decisions we make in our lives. Yes,
where you go out like I went out the other
night I bought a round of drinks from my family.
It was like sixty bucks, I know, very nice. No, yes,
those those milkshakes up. Yeah, And I'm telling you it
(25:24):
was sixty dollars. And so that is six months of
Spotify in my head right there. Yeah, and everyone it's
not just me that's doing this, see, And it's all
these little things like if you buy coffee at Starbucks,
you know, it's four forty five for like a latte now, yeah,
and that is half a month of some cloud service
that you've been hemming and hauling over. And so we
(25:46):
make these little decisions so easily in real life. Then
when it comes to buying a Mac you say, well,
I'll just save the two hundred bucks and go with
the base model. Spend the extra two hundred and get
the model that has the retina display and it's a
four K display as well, and you also get some
other improved graphics, you know, bigger, not a bigger hard drive,
but just better. A couple other specs are better too,
(26:07):
so good question. Yeah, and the Mac Mini, don't get
me wrong, I think that's awesome. Back in the day
when when the home theater PC was a big deal,
that Mac Mini was kind of cool because you can
hook it up your TV, and I don't see the
point of that anymore. It's getting Apple TV. Nest Mini
is getting a makeover, available October twenty second. Is the
(26:28):
new Yeah. This used to be called the Google Home Mini.
Now it's the Nest Mini, probably Google's most popular smart speaker.
I've got a bunch of them around my house. Do
you have any of these around your place? Nest many
like these little things.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Yeah, my sister has one.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Okay, do you need one? I mean I have one.
I can give you Okay, okay, I will give you one.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Oh okay, the new one.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, no, not the new one, the old one. For
a while I was getting these things, is like in
like gift bags, like randomly you go to like an event,
you get like a Google Home Mini, and I was
giving them out. I've reached a point of like saturation
where everyone I know like does want him anymore?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Like I'm good.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yeah. So the Google Home Mini was launched in twenty seventeen.
The new version. There's not too much to know about it.
It's fifty dollars, same price that used to be. These
things usually go on sale as a loss Leader. During
the holidays, you can pick them up for twenty nine
thirty nine dollars. You know, at least ten dollars off
during the holidays. I'd say, if not, probably twenty nine
is a more viable price point. So don't buy this
(27:23):
thing at forty nine dollars. I hate to say this
with all Google stuff, but they price it in a
way that they know. Some of these things, like these
Nest Minis, they're just going to go on sale. Yeah,
Target's going to put them on sale, Walmart, best Buy.
So the thing to know about it now is it
kind of looks the same, but it's made from one
hundred percent recycled plastic bottles. So all those bottles that
you're thrown out from your water, your your Fiji water drink,
(27:47):
that's true. You have a flask.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
And when he says flask, he means to say hydrophile.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Oh I forgot the first part of that word.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah, that's not that's rich that has the flask.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
So the Nest Mini is made from your cycled plastic bottles,
which is really cool. One hundred percent, which I love.
It also has forty percent more bass than the original model.
Every time I see the word bass. Yeah, I see bass.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah, I see. Why do I see bass?
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Because it's spelled bass. He says bass. Yeah, it's spelled bass.
I see bass. It's like when I go fishing, do
I go bass fishing? No, I go bass fishing. But
it's spelled the same. I used to do that, by
the way. Not it's been a long time fishing. I
used to all the time. Oh yeah, you growing up.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
That's shocking.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, let's see. You can group the speakers together we
talked about in the last podcast. So they don't sound
as good the old ones don't. At least maybe the
new ones sound better. The voice assists the Google Assistant
now adjusts depending on the background noise, which is really
neat because if you have the dishwasher going and you
ask Google something, it might be tough to hear in
(28:49):
the past and you have to go and turn the
volume up. Now it dynamically uses its microphones to hear
what the ambient sound is, and it'll bump up the
volume a little bit.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
What about if you're watching a TV show and you
say like, hey, Google, and then like the TV shows
in the background, and it's like picking up the show,
but you're.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
Like you, that's a whole problem. Yeah, I don't know.
I mean that's a show off. Well that's like a
whole issue with this whole ah Google thing. It's like
so many things turn you know, trigger it, and they
get false triggers and it starts listening to other stuff.
But it's pretty good about the ambient sound, Like from
what I've seen when I'm in like a loud room
and I trigger it, it's it's pretty darn good. There's
also a new intercom feature, and I got to test
(29:26):
this out at the Google offices and it was really neat.
This turns your nests into an intercom system. I love that.
Have you ever used an intercom like in your house? Yeah, okay,
so we used to have one, like back in the day. Okay,
you have one. Yeah, so it's like we don't use it,
No one does. It's kind of like one of those
things from like the eighties or seventies, you know. It's
like an old school thing. Yeah, And it's like we
(29:46):
had it in my house growing up, and I thought
it was so cool as a nerd. So I'd always
be like, on the thing, I'm making everyone please come
down to dinner, you know, and like.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Everyone, you're going to do this with your kids if
you get this.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Well, so there's a feature. There's two features on the
Nest Mini now. One is called broadcast, which you can
do from any So you could do that from your phone.
So if you pick up your phone and say, h,
Google broadcast, I'm headed home, it will take your voice
and it will play on all your speakers at the
same time. That's one feature and you can try that
right now. The other feature that they're enabling, which is new,
(30:17):
is called intercom. I can say, h Google, call the
living room, Google Mini, whatever you've named it, and it
will make a call to it. It'll ring. The other
person on the other end taps the top and they
go hello, and you're like, hey, what's up. I'm right
over here, I'm across the room, you know, I'm across
the house.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Pretty cool. Yeah, I mean you have to figure out
the use case. But if you have a big house,
you know, like I always imagine like one of these
days I'd have a house that like, you know, when
you have that dinner table that's like a mile long.
To Lindsay and I have done that before, We've eaten dinner,
like at the opposite end of the Our dinner table
is not that long, but its no no, but we
have like a decently it's a pretty it's a more
(30:59):
long than normal tape. Yeah, and so I always think
it's funny, like when we first got it to sit
on the opposite ends and it's just so funny put
candles in the middle, and like you just have like
your Friday night dinner, like.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Can you please bring in the dijon mustard very down
to nabbey.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
That's lost on me, no idea, Okay, it's like fancy.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Fancy, Yeah, the fancy.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
So that's the next Mini. And the other thing to
know about the next Mini is that it is faster
at processing your commands because they've built some machine learning
onto the device, so it kind of understands like you
always ask every day at two pm to turn the
lights up or whatever. I always ask every day when
I get in to like turn on the kitchen lights,
and so it will learn that and it will figure
(31:41):
that out and process faster now somehow.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
And it's like it plays Lizzo because you always walk
every day.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Walk in and play my normal and it's like whatever
she sayings, I don't know that song close something like that.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Okay. The next question comes from Paula and and she says,
facial recognition on phones, I prefer the fingerprint way with
face wreck. Someone could grab your phone and point it
at you and run away, then they'd have your phone unlocked.
Am I right or wrong?
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Uh? So true? Yeah, I think face face unlock is
a double edged sword.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
I always do that when you want to want me
to record something, I'll like take your phone and I'll
pin your.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Face works right, Yeah. And it's the same thing with
a pixel. I mean it. You know, my brother when
he was you know, when we were out that night
in New York City, he just like held the phone
up to my face and unlocked. You know, you just
do that and it's like boom.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
And so I do think there is something to that.
And I think that I don't know, maybe they'll figure
out a way around that. I don't know what.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Yeah, maybe like a palm reader.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Yeah, like well, or it shose your hand. Yeah, I
notices how you hold the phone. Maybe, I don't know.
I mean that could be. I don't know. We're just
we're just spitballing here because we don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Yeah, I mean like I do. Do you hear stories
about this happen.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
I don't hear stories about it happening. I've thought about, like, yeah,
someone someone finds you and they're just like, you know,
they hold you down, they put the phone in front
of your face, and you're just like, oh, well, there
goes my whole phone.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
I feel like people don't care that much.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Well, I don't know. Yeah, I mean I don't want
to find out. Do you want to find out?
Speaker 2 (33:12):
No? But I also have an eight plus, So I'm
like the.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Past, and so I to answer this person's question, I
would say I'm on the same wavelength. I get it, like,
there are things that face unlocked. It is pretty cool
to have it. But I also see the other side
of when you're this is the way I see it.
When you're using a fingerprint scanner, you're in control because
it's your finger and someone can't. Yeah, they can hold
you down and force you to put your fingerprint on there,
(33:36):
but it's a little bit different, you know, it takes
like more physical coercion, whereas for face, like you said,
you can just hold it up and be like boom,
and next thing you know, it's unlocked.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Yeah, So I want to try it?
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Go ahead, Yeah, let's see. So I won't look okay,
so I'm not going to look okay, and it's not unlocking.
But if I'm just like right here and I look
at it, is it unlocking? It's not. See it knows
that you're Yeah, okay, that's the pixel. Now try it.
You want to try it with the iPhone? Yeah, okay,
So we just tried it with pixel, so now try
it with the iPhone. So I'm gonna I'm gonna look away, Okay.
(34:11):
Now I'm looking at it, and uh no, it says
swipe to unlock, swipe up to unlock, So swipe up
and then turn it to me really quick and see
if it works. See. Yeah, see, I think I think
they're on to us, Megan, I mean that that's I mean.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Wait, look at it.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Okay. Oh yeah, so I don't know. I think, uh so,
maybe maybe they have figured it out.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Don't worry about it, Paula.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yeah, it's all good. We just tested it in our
very uh non scientific testing. We found that you do
not have to worry about this.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Yes, you will be fine.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
But it seems to I mean, I don't know that
seems to work Okay, let's move on. Pixel Book Go
is another product that Google unveiled at their event. I
got to play with this for a little bit, and
I will be honest, I one fell in love with
this device. It is their Chromebook. It's a high performance
Chromebook and and it's kind of like, well, I guess
it's not as high performance as the standard pixel book,
(35:06):
but it's still it's a lightweight kind of device for
the average person that just needs to do basic things
on their computer. But the best part is it's barely
two pounds. It's super thin. It's prices six hundred and
forty nine dollars, which is a kind of a sweet spot.
I would have liked it to be four ninety nine.
I think that is a super sweet spot. When it
comes to a laptop, four ninety nine is like, that
(35:28):
is no brainer. You get a really nice computer for
four ninety nine. Six forty nine is a little bit
more expensive. But again it goes back to what I'm
saying about. I think Google prices some of these things
knowing they might be discounted at during the holidays, right,
But I don't know what this one depends. We'll have
to see because I don't know how much it would
be discounted. But it's got quiet backlit keys, and I'll
(35:49):
be one hundred percent honest, like I was ready to
purchase this thing. Really Yeah, I liked it that much.
It's like everything I want in a computer, super easy.
You don't have to worry about viruses, It turns on automatic,
the battery lasts a long time, it runs Chrome. What
more do you need? The only problem is I like
to edit video on my computer and I also use Final.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Cut, and so what can't you use Adobe?
Speaker 1 (36:10):
No, not on this one, because you can't install any
programs on it except like the way I look at
it is, I think you can ins sol Android apps
on it at this point. Oh so maybe I could
if it's an Android app. You know what. I gotta
try that out because it's been I've never used a Chromebook.
It's been a long time.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Does Google have their own video editing software?
Speaker 1 (36:30):
I do not.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
I share, but they don't.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
I don't think they position their stuff as like content
creation devices like the pixel book Go to me is
for someone who is a mobile worker who does spreadsheets
or email or word processing, is writing a book. They're
not editing video they're not editing music, they're not creating content.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
It's a different space exactly.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Even I would argue maybe if you're like a web blogger,
you probably I mean, I guess nowadays you could do
ninety nine percent of blogging with just your Chrome because
I use what's the uh, this is fantastic. By the way,
if you ever need it, I use, so you can.
I'm not ever doing anything in Photoshop. And I think
even Photoshop probably runs on this thing, because they probably
(37:13):
have a version of it for this. If you could
run Android apps on it, that kind of changes the game. Yeah,
I should probably, I should probably know this, Megan. I
think that you talk while I figure out can the
pixel book go run Android apps? And I mean because
if it does, yeah, install Android apps on your pixel
Book technically, so I should try this. If it can
(37:33):
run Adobe.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yeah, you're never getting that asap.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
By the way, No, I'm never getting the iMac. I'm
never getting a new Mac. You know how many things
I've told you how many things are on my list
of purchases.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Yeah, yeah, Well.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
Everything just keeps coming out new, and I'm like, yeah,
but I kind of want the pixel Book. And by
the way, I would not get the six forty nine
personally because I want higher specs. It goes all the
way up to I think it like thirteen ninety nine,
which is still pretty cheap. I think so because that
has like sixteen gigs a RAM, and like I think
two fifty six.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Wow, that would be really crazy if you just switched
to just using a chromebook.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
If I can install Adobe Rush, the only thing I
would not be able to do is final cut, which
and I message from your message that's true, that would
be it's.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
See that's a bummer.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
That is a bummer. And yeah, but anyway, the app
I was talking about that I used to resize images
is called Promo dot Com Slash Tools slash Image dash Resizer.
It you pop, you drag and drop an image into
there and it resizes it to every single perfect size
for every platform. Yeah, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, thumbnails, Pinterest, LinkedIn, snapchat,
(38:43):
email and blog, Google Display Network whatever that is. I
guess that's for ads. So cool.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Yeah, yeah, you need that.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
So pixel book go. It also has this weird grippable
design which is kind of cool. On the bottom, it's
like it's like ribbed almost, which is kind of weird,
but it helps you grip it so you don't drop it,
and it's it makes sense, so it's not like smooth
on the bottom. Kind of cool. Let's see what else
twelve hours of battery life wo two hours. Twenty minutes
of charging gives you two hours of battery. It's kind
(39:12):
of cool. If you're getting on the plane, you just
want to top it off a little bit. Got that. Uh,
the keyboard. They really made a big deal out of
this because I don't know, if you typing on mine.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
They say it's called hush hush.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
They call it hush keys, and so it's really quiet.
I honestly, like I said, I fell in love with
this thing. Like I sat there and I I was
I was, I was playing with it, and I was
literally saying I could see myself using this, And I've
always wanted to kind of break free of like my
standard I've had the same kind of MacBook Pro for
like a decade now, and it just be kind of
(39:45):
fun to be like that guy with the pixel book.
People are looking at You're like, what is that? It's
that weird grippy thing on the bottom of your laptop.
What's that weird? You know, you don't have to sit
there and do a Windows update for two hours every
day because you know, they come out this giant update
that takes forever. So, oh, you don't have to. You
don't have these loud keys like I have my MacBook.
I don't know. I think I'm gonna get one.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Yeah, I think you should.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
We'll say see how I deal.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
All right, So this question comes from Rainah. The subject
is Spectrum's latest four dollars rate increase with no speed increase.
So she says that on October eleventh, she got an
email from Spectrum announcing that she can get speeds up
to two hundred megabytes megabytes per second with no rate increase.
(40:31):
And then she said, my September bill said that there
will be a general four dollars a month rate increase
on my October bill.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
What's her name, Raina, Raina, And then she.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Said, I can't seem to hold those two thoughts in
my head. My current.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
Now you don't have to read all the rest part.
She goes on and on. Okay, okay, but I think
the first part is really the interesting part about it.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
There was a there was an increase before this.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Yeah, okay, so here's the story and I and I've
I've done this on Twitter enough so I don't really
want to beat a dead horse here. But the reality is,
can we still say that? I don't even know. I
don't even know what you could say anymore. I feel
like that's like such an old saying.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
That, Like what a visual? I like really thought about that.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Have you heard that before?
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Never beat a dead horse?
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Have you heard that term?
Speaker 2 (41:16):
I mean, I've heard it. I don't really understand.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Yeah, I'm gonna stop saying that. I don't why would
I wouldn't beat anything? Like, why would it beat a
dead horse?
Speaker 2 (41:24):
I'm a horse lover.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
No, I can't wait to get on a horse again.
Now I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Yeah, you're a big a questrian.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Yeah okay. So here's what happened. Spectrum came out about
two months ago, and we talked about this in the podcast,
and everyone responded saying, oh my gosh, they doubled the
speeds in Los Angeles and across the nation to like
two hundred what everyone was paying for one hundred, So
now you got the same like price, but like, oh
my gosh, it's way faster. This happened at my house.
Then all of a sudden. I get my bill last
week and in tiny little writing, it's like, effective next bill,
(41:53):
there will be a four dollars increase on your bill.
They didn't say it was for speed. They just said
four dollars monthly whatever. And so then a week later
I get an email or two days later, I get
an email from Spectrum saying We've increased your speed at
no cost to you. I'm like, what, No, what is
it like? Just don't send an email like that after
you just raise my bill by four dollars. So now
I'm paying next bill would be sixty nine to ninety
(42:14):
nine a month for internet, And I think it's kind
of ridiculous that they did that.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
They should have just said, like, we're going to charge
you four dollars more because the speed is increasing.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Hey, we improve your speed by the way, we have
costs that go up to and at the end of
the day, they know that people rely on their internets
and they can charge one hundred dollars a month and
people will still not switch because a they have kind
of a monopoly on it totally. There's only like two
providers in every area. Usually one's not very good.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
What's the other provider here?
Speaker 1 (42:42):
It just depends where you live. Like it could be
AT and T and some there's it just depends. It
all depends where you live. So if you want to check,
I always try to give you a little knowledge with
my rants, but high speed Internet dot com can you
can pop in your zip code and kind of see
what the provider is in your area. Did she say
where she lives? No, I'll just do West La as
(43:07):
an example, And in West LA you can get Frontier
Spectrum via SAT and hues net and cybernet. So obviously
the only two that are wired are really Spectrum and Frontier.
But here's the thing. This is what I will leave
with you. The good news is that we are on
the verge of these five G networks being in big
cities in a big way, and when those take off,
(43:30):
you'll be able to have a third option in many
cases overnight. Yeah, because you can now get a signal
from the sky or I should say from the air
that is just as good that can rival these wired connections.
So hopefully that should switch up prices a little bit.
The problem is a lot of these five G connections
are from the same companies that own the wired connections,
(43:50):
and so competition will be there at the beginning, but
like anything else, at the end of the day, they're
gonna level out the prices. Anyway, Well, that's gonna do
it for the podcast. Thanks so much for listening, Megan.
Did you enjoy the show?
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Yeah, I learned a lot too.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
I feel like this was a really good show. I
feel like we both learned a lot here in this journey.
My book is called one and one iPhone Tips and
Tricks Is It is available right now for both the iPhone,
sorry for in Kindle form like ebook form, and also
paperback form. So it is available on Amazon check it out.
You can read it for free through Kindle Unlimited, or
(44:25):
you can purchase it and keep it either as paperback
or as ebook. Megan, how can people get in touch
with you?
Speaker 2 (44:32):
I am on Twitter, I'm at producer Megan, and I've
been getting some questions this past week from people.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Okay, did you bring any of them to the show?
I know, okay for next show. So if you have
a question, you can tweet producer Megan as well. Well,
you tweet me and you know we'll get it on
the show. And for me, you can find me on
social media at rich On tech on Instagram, Facebook dot com,
slash rich on tech. That's going to do it for
our show. Please, if you're listening for the first time,
subscribe to us in your favorite audio app and listen
(45:01):
every week. Thanks so much for listening. We'll see you
real soon. Bye bye.
Host
Rich DeMuro
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