Google Pixel 8a Review & Unique Motion Sensor

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Microsoft changes course on its total recall for PCs, How
to spot a phishing scam, the Apple TV models that
will no longer work with Netflix, plus your tech questions answered.
What's going on. I'm Rich Demiro and this is Rich
on Tech. This is the show where I talk about

(00:21):
the tech stuff I think you should know about. It's
also the place where I answer your questions about technology.
I believe the tech should be interesting, useful, and fun.
Let's open up those phone lines at triple eight rich
one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to
two four one zero one. Give me a call if

(00:44):
you have a question about technology. Email is also open.
Just go to Rich on tech dot TV and hit
contact once again, Rich on tech dot TV Hit Contact.
Guests coming up on this week's show include Drew Binski.

(01:05):
He is a travel YouTuber who has visited every country
in the world. He's got a new book out he's
going to talk about that, plus his favorite tech tools,
and we've got the co creators of the Kinny. This
is a really interesting little gadget. It's a wireless motion sensor.
And before you think, okay, I've got that from my

(01:28):
smart home, this is a little bit different and it's
very unique and there are some really interesting use cases.
So we will have the creators of the Kinnion a
little bit later in the show. So many things happening.
This week's theme is summertime. I know my kids are
out for the summer. Lots of kids getting out for

(01:48):
the summer, so it is in full motion. Summer is
in full swing here. Lots of things happening. Apple's WWDC
Worldwide Developers Conference will happen this week, so it kicks
off on Monday with a keynote. And the big rumor
right now is that Apple is linking up with Open Ai,

(02:14):
the makers of Chat GPT, to somehow make Siri smarter.
Now we are not sure how that's gonna happen exactly,
but that is the big rumor. Whether it's going to
be just Chat GBT built into the iPhone or the
AI smarts. But I think people are ready for this.
This is what Steve Jobs imagined when he came up

(02:36):
with Siri, a smart assistant that can help you do
anything on your phone. And over the years we've seen
many of them. We've seen Quartana from Microsoft, we have
seen Bixby from Samsung, we have seen the Google Assistant,
which has now evolved into Gemini and Siri can do

(02:57):
a lot of things and it's gotten smarter over the years,
but it hasn't really reached that sort of personal assistant level.
So we will see if Apple really makes a big
change with the iPhone. Spoiler alert, I don't want to
say that this stuff isn't gonna happen soon, but even
if they announce something next week, we're not going to

(03:19):
see any changes until at least September, and potentially some
of the rumors are saying twenty twenty five. So we
will see. I know the iPhone nothing changes quickly with that,
but I'm excited to see what's going to happen there.
Just sent out the newsletter on the website rich on
tech dot tv. Two travel sites I mentioned in the

(03:41):
newsletter this week. I'll mention them here because if you
haven't signed up for the newsletter, go to rich on
tech dot tv, hit the sign up button and it
will arrive in your inbox. But two sites I mentioned
this week. The first one is called Points. Yeah, so
there is a website if you've got points, you know
from your credit card or your frequent flyer programs or

(04:03):
your hotel programs. You may be figuring out how to
use those and how to make the most of them.
So there's a lot of times where let's say you
have points on Delta, they may transfer to another program
and that program may have a cheaper redemption rate than
what Delta has. So real frequent flyers know that they
don't just check the airline or the program that they

(04:26):
have points with. They check all the different programs so
that they can see which ones might be the cheapest
use of their points or the maximum value of their points.
And so I've told you this before. I don't play
the points game in a big way, but yes I
do have points, and of course I want to use them.
I end up not using them because I'm always worried
about not getting the best value out of them, and

(04:47):
so when I do use them, I try to make
the most out of them. And so this website points Yeah,
is completely free and it lets you search through all
these different programs. They have a whole bunch of them
on there, all of the credit card programs, all of
the airline programs, or a lot of the majority of
the big airline programs, a lot of the hotel programs,

(05:10):
and what's different about this site than some of the
other ones is that the results are quick, so they'll
be delivered to your screen at about twenty seconds. The
other one I like is called point me. The search
can take a couple of minutes to complete, so that's
what's really neat about this one. You can search across
four days. So let's say you wanted to travel on Wednesday.
You can search a couple of days on either side

(05:32):
of that for free to see if maybe you left
on Thursday. It's half the points. And if you upgrade
to a paid membership, which you don't have to, but
if you do, you can search I think for eight
days on either side, so total of like sixteen days going.
And you know by the time anyway, there's a lot
of search on this website. It's very cool. It's just
something to bookmark when you're looking for your hotels or

(05:56):
flights this summer points Yeah Dot And you know, if
you listen to the show that everything I mentioned on
the show I link up on the website rich on
tech dot TV. Hit the light bulb icon on the
website at the top, and that will bring you to
real time links to everything I mentioned. All right now.
The next one is if you don't like, if you're

(06:20):
not the best flyer right, if you're kind of a
person who's a little scared of the turbulence, and we've
seen a lot more. I don't know, it seems like
we've seen a lot more turbulence, at least in the news.
But this is a website called turbly t r bli
dot com got this through the Point Sky and they
mentioned this website that lets you check the turbulence forecast

(06:43):
for your flight. So if you type in a flight,
so let's say I type in from LAX to EWR,
which is a common flight that I take, gives you
a listing of all the different flights United Jet Blue Alaska.
You tap on your flight and then it will tell
you what the turbulence forecast is. And not just the
turbulence forecast, but there's all kinds of other stuff. Tells

(07:04):
you the route, tells you if it's going to be bumpy,
tells you if the tailwind is going to be strong
so that means you might arrive earlier. Tells you if
there's thunderstorms along the way, and if the takeoff and
landing is going to be smooth because it tells you
how much wind is on the landing. I was in
a landing I think it was in either Japan or China,

(07:26):
and it was so windy. I mean, we were just
bouncing all around on the landing like I was like,
are we gonna land this thing or what? But I
do put a lot of faith in these amazing pilots
that fly these planes. They know what they're doing. We
do not. And I know that whenever there's turbulence, what
do you do? The best is when you're sitting next
to like a pilot that is off. You know, they're

(07:47):
just like in the seat next to you or something,
and when you see that turbulence, you just kind of
look over at them and they're just like it doesn't
even phase them. You're like, all right, everything's good. Also,
I'm sure you look at the flight attendants to see
like if they're having a reaction. That's always kind of
like the main thing. Bobo's getting his mic ready? Do
you have you have thoughts on this? Do you do?

Speaker 2 (08:06):
You?

Speaker 1 (08:06):
Are you the kind that looks at the flight attendant?
I was gonna say those sound like first class problems
because I've never sit next to another pilot. No, that
that's the thing. They don't get to sit in first class.
Oh no, they get if you watch the pilots, like
the the off duty pilots and flight attendants. They literally
get the last seat on the plane, so they're on standby.

(08:27):
Literally they have to board last. After every single revenue
seat gets on. They get on. So it doesn't happen often,
but I've seen it, and they're never I mean they're
never in first. You would think they would give that first,
you know, Row one C A and uh yeah. By
the way, it is my dream to fly first. I
don't fly first most of the time. You don't know
I fly. I am. I am like Rick Steve. I'm

(08:50):
Rick Steve's I'm just fine with an aisle seat. Yes,
I like the economy plus if I can get it
with the little extra leg room that part. But I'm fine.
I'm totally I can go anywhere. I can go anywhere
and first obviously live flat is amazing. But no, I'm
a I'm a you know, I'm an easy flyer. I
really like. My thing is like save the money so
that you can spend it when you get there, because

(09:11):
if you're spending all that money on, you know, an
upgraded seat. Then you know it's just less money to
spend when you get they're only in the plane for
a couple hours. I mean, it's funny. You're the second
person to ask me that in two days. So I
guess I give off that first class flying vibe. But
you're rich, Demiro, why wouldn't you be first class? It's expensive.
It's too expensive even I don't care. It's just unless

(09:34):
your company is paying for it. Yes, the only times
i've I've flown it is when I'm either taking some
sort of upgrade or I have like a corporate, you
know company that's paying for it. But otherwise you'll just
see me and coach. All right, let me give you
a review of some earbuds that I really like. These
are the nothing earbuds. So I test a lot of

(09:56):
ear buds, especially on the plane. That's that's my main
place to test these things, to see how the noise
cancelation works. And ninety nine percent of the time I
put the earbuds in my ears and I take them
out after twenty minutes. Don't even like them. They go
on the shelf and they're done. I'm not gonna recommend them,
but the nothing earbuds are excellent. They make two versions,
the nothing Ear and the nothing Ear A. The EARA

(10:18):
are the budget models. They start at ninety nine dollars.
The nothing Ear is one hundred and fifty dollars. Both
of these models have a great fit, they're comfortable, the
audio is excellent. They have a unique design. They've got
active noise cancelation and transparency mode, and even a fun
little audio I don't know chime when you switch between

(10:40):
the different modes, whether it's transparency or noise cancelation. They've
got fast charging. Ten minutes of plugging in will give
you ten hours of playback. If you've got the case,
you get almost forty hours of playback because the case
also charges them. It's got all of the premium stuff,
so the pinch controls on the stems, the sensors that
pause and play music when you insert them or remove

(11:01):
them from your ears. They've got good water and dust resistance.
They're just really great earbuds. So if you're looking for
a pair of earbuds for an Android phone, I highly
recommend these earbuds. Now, why do you go with the
premium ones? They offer a wireless charging case and a
customized sound profile. So if you want the absolute best

(11:23):
sound from Nothing, pay the extra fifty bucks go with
the Nothing ear But otherwise the Nothing ear a are excellent,
and they've got this great yellow color that they come in.
They also come in black and white if you're not
that adventurous, but I love the yellow color. It looks
like something that would float if you threw it in
the water. It's a great, great set of earbuds. If

(11:43):
you've got a Nothing phone, which I don't think you have,
but if you did, you'd be able to set chat
GPT as your default voice assistant when you use these earbuds,
which is also really cool. Now you might be saying, Rich,
what about iPhones? Should I buy these if I have
an iPhone? Yes, you can buy them and they will
will absolutely work if you have an iPhone. But here
is the thing, why would you not get what works

(12:05):
with Apple's ecosystem, which are their own AirPods. That way
you get access to Siri. That's why I like the
Nothing buds for the Android phones the most. All right,
coming up, I also have my review of the Google
Pixel eight, a budget smartphone eight A eight rich one
O one eight eight eight seven four to two four
one zero one. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich

(12:29):
DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology at Triple
eight Rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven
four to two four one zero one website for the
show richon Tech dot TV. If you want a link
to something I mentioned, hit the lightbulb icon. I just

(12:49):
mentioned some handy travel sites. If you want to email me,
just hit the contact link up at the top. Like
I said, we're playing all summer songs today. It is
a summer travel season. I've got no less than two
people today, friends that texted or emailed me asking for
recommendations on a good portable battery charger for their phone, right,

(13:14):
like a portable battery that you can bring along with
you on your trip. So I've got these linked up
on my website rich on Tech dot tv. There is
a link on the side if you scroll down, it
says shop and that'll bring you to my Amazon page.
And the ones that I recommend the most are Anchor
a n K er. They make them in a couple
of different ways. You can get like a mag safe

(13:36):
one that will actually just magnetically attached to the back
of your phone. That's great, but it's going to charge
your phone slower than one that you plug in, and
it's also going to be a little bit more expensive.
So if you want something that you plug in which
anyone can use, they've got a great one. It's about
thirty dollars for that. The thing to look for, there's

(13:57):
a couple of different things. There's also one that plugs
into the bottom of your phone that's cheaper, but it's
going to have less of a charge. And then they've
got one that is it's got like a little display
on it so it can tell you how much of
a charge it has, because most of these just typically
have a couple of lights on them that lets you
know how much of a charge you get, roughly like
twenty five, fifty, seventy five or one hundred percent when

(14:18):
that thing's charge. The main things to look for the
millionamp hours, So the higher the number, the more charges
you're going to get. So let's say a typical smartphone
has about a battery that's almost let's say four to
five thousand millionp hours, So if you get one of
these chargers, that's ten thousand MILLIONMP hours that's going to
recharge your phone twice. If you get one that's twenty

(14:38):
thousand million AMP hours, that's probably going to charge your
phone about four times. So again, let's just say five
thousand millionp hours one charge on your phone, So every
five thousand you're going to get an extra charge. Most people,
you probably don't need the twenty thousand. I'd say for
an average day, you might want the ten thousand. Five
thousand's going to give you, you know, maybe one and
a half charges. The other thing to look for is

(15:00):
USBC in and out. So a lot of these the
cheaper ones have sort of the older style USB A
that lets you plug in your cable that's going to
charge your phone a lot slower, and when you're on
the go and you're out and about, you want to
charge your phone as fast as possible because you want
to take this thing off your phone and use your

(15:22):
phone again. So I would look for one that has
USBC in and out. So read the descriptions very closely.
If you're buying one of these things on any website,
make sure that you can charge it with USBC and
you can charge your phone with USBC from it. Those
are the main things to look for. But yeah, get

(15:42):
a portable charger for your summer vacations. Let's go to
Keith in andover Kansas. Keith, you're on with Rich.

Speaker 3 (15:52):
Very much. It's very nice to visit with you. I
just wanted to say you have a real nice rapport
with people, and I really appreciate all the help that
you have provided.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
Oh, thank you.

Speaker 4 (16:06):
Well.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
I worked in the healthcare feel for forty years and
it's nice to speak to people that are genuine and humble,
So thank you.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Appreciate that. What can I help you with?

Speaker 3 (16:17):
I've used the free versions of the chat GPTs and
claud and so forth, Gemini one point five. And the
two questions I have is is it we're spending twenty
dollars a month for one of these? And since I
don't want to pay twenty dollars a month for each,
which one of these would you recommend?

Speaker 1 (16:40):
Okay, we're going to come up to the break here,
so I want to know from you what are you
using these for? What's your main goal with these ais?

Speaker 3 (16:48):
Okay, research, Bible study, medical questions, and general information about history.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
Okay, all right, so you got a couple of good
use cases there. The main thing is that you don't
really need to pay for these, because at least for
Chat GPT, they are giving away their latest model, which
is Chat GPT four to oh for free. But what's
gonna happen is you are gonna run up against a limit,

(17:17):
and that is the biggest thing you're up against. So
when you're paying that twenty dollars a month, you will
get much more use out of these on a daily
basis than you would if you were not paying that
twenty dollars a month. We're gonna come back. I'll talk
more about these AI systems, So hang on the line there,
Keith eighty to eight rich one oh one eight eight
eight seven four to two four one zero one. I'll

(17:39):
tell you my picks for the best AI coming up
after the break. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich
DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology at triple
eight rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven
four to two, four one zero one. If you have
a question or comment for the show, you can go

(18:01):
to the website rich on Tech dot tv hit the
link that says contact. If you want to link to
something I mentioned, just go to the website and hit
the light bulb icon before the break we had Keith
and Kansas ask about the best use of these AI systems.
He wants to do research, he wants to look up

(18:23):
medical questions, I believe he said, Bible study, and a
couple of other things. So he was wondering should he
pay the twenty dollars a month and which one is
best for him. So you've got a couple of different
choices out there. You've got Gemini, which is Google's AI.
Then you've got chat GPT, which obviously has become like
Kleenex that's like a brand name for AI at this point.

(18:46):
Then you've got Claude, which is another AI that's really good.
And you've got Mistroll, which is out of Europe, which
is actually surprisingly great, Like I thought it was going
to be much more like European Focus, but it's actually
really good. And you've got one called Perplexity, and you've
got Copilot, which is from Microsoft. So you've got a

(19:09):
lot of choices out there. Let me break them down
for you. So number one, Gemini from Google, I think
is a great AI because it is loaded with the
information that Google has, and that's real time information. So
if you're doing research, if you're looking for historical information,
something that is factual. Gemini is really good because not

(19:32):
only does Google have in place very strict standards for
what they write into this chatbot, they have all the information,
They've got the Knowledge Panel, they have all the stuff
that they've been doing for many years, just now they
kind of translated that into a chatbot. So Gemini, I think,
is a great, great choice if you're looking for real
time information and factual information. Chat GBT is great kind

(19:56):
of all around. So if you are just looking to
chat with someone or something, or you just want to
talk back and forth, or you just want some general information,
chatchbt is great. The problem is it is not completely
up to date in many aspects, so unless you're paying
it may not surf the web and find those answers.
Sometimes it will, but chatchbt is kind of a generalist, right,

(20:18):
It's going to have just a lot of general knowledge,
and if you want to kind of use that, it's
a great It's very polished, it's very smart, it's witty,
it's silly. I mean, there's so many uses of it
because that's probably the one that people are using the most,
so it is evolving the fastest. Then you've got Claude,
Claude dot ai. This is one of my favorites, but

(20:40):
Claude is. Oh and by the way, I should mention
that chatchibt can also do a lot of things with
images as well. If you're paying for it, it can
create images. Now actually, I think even if you're not
paying for it, you can create images for that as well,
So it can be used to generate images. Oh, I
forgot Meta has got theirs now too. Meta Ai. Claude

(21:03):
is great if you're working with any sort of text,
so you can throw a PDF in there, you can
throw a long document into there, and Claude is really
good at handling those long documents. So if you're looking
to summarize something, or you have a bunch of information
you want to organize it, Claude dot ai is really
good for that. You know, it doesn't have access to

(21:25):
the Internet, so you can't really ask it to look
up things. Of course, it has a basic amount of
knowledge just like all these other ones, but it doesn't
have that live access to the Internet. But Claude is.
I find it to be really really good if you're
doing anything with writing, if you're doing anything with your resume,
if you're doing anything that requires rewriting or summarizing. It

(21:45):
is really great at that. Let's see perplexity AI. I
one hundred percent love this app, and I love it
for one reason. It's got this great feature that kind
of gives you a book report on anything you ask
it about. So if you ask a sample question like
how do earthquakes occur, it shows you the sources that

(22:08):
it uses to actually come up with its answer, and
it comes up with a very nice, what I call
book report answer. So if you want quote unquote a
book report answer on a topic or anything, perplexity ai
is excellent. I've got it on my home screen on
my phone, and I specifically love what they do called discover,

(22:28):
So every day they have the hottest topics kind of
trending out there in the world, and it gives you
a little book report about those topics. And if you're
looking to learn something, let's say you want to learn
about a team or the history of something. It's such
a great way to learn the history of something because
it gives you these great little reports. And again, all

(22:51):
of these services that I'm talking about, they all offer
a free level of service, but then you can pay
that usually is about twenty bucks a month for that
elevated service which is going to give you unlimited answers,
unlimited access, and maybe some extras. And so I do
pay for Chat GBT. I have paid for Claude in
the past. I kind of bop back and forth between

(23:14):
those two for paying because claud is really great for
all the research and work that I need to do
with with documents. But Chat GBT I just got it
because of the new voice system that they are going
to be implementing soon, which lets you talk back and
forth almost like a real human. Now, when it comes
to a good overall system, Microsoft's Copilot is really good.

(23:37):
When it comes to surfing the web. The thing that
you need to know is that they're using BING search results,
which you know may be good, maybe bad, it depends.
Bing is still out there, it's still a contender. Just
a lot of people don't necessarily use it. But that's
where Copilot from Microsoft gets a lot of their information,
and it does have access to that real time information
from being So that's an option, and it's built into

(23:59):
a lot of the Windows. A lot of the new
ones have or all of the new ones have the
Copilot key on there, so you can just tap that
on your keyboard. It's right next to the space bar
and that will bring up copilot. And that's really good.
And then the new one on the block that I
get a lot of angry emails about is meta AI.
So Meta AI is built into Instagram, it's built into WhatsApp,

(24:22):
it's built into Facebook. A lot of people are asking
me if you can turn that off, and the answer
is no. It is at the top of your screen.
And again this it's actually not that bad. Like I
know people are hating on it, but let's think about it.
Facebook has used all of the posts that we have
made on Facebook and Instagram for the past I don't know,

(24:43):
twenty years or so to program their AI. So they
know how people talk, they know how people comment, they
know how people discuss topics, they know what's interesting to people,
and so their AI is actually quite good. And it
does give you sources and it uses Google for a
lot of its search. So I just did a search

(25:05):
for or a recent search I did was I was
looking for a great burger place in Redmond where I
was staying up for the Microsoft event, and it gave
me one, two, three, four, five places that was good
for a burger, and it tells me where it got
that information. Now, some of this information is, you know,
a trip Advisor, an apartment complex up there, and then

(25:30):
Uber eats. So I don't know if that that's that great,
but it also helps you search Google for that information
as well. So those are my kind of main kind
of talking points about each one of them. The Wall
Street Journal also did sort of an independent review of
each one of these. They came up with best Overall.

(25:50):
Chat gibt Oh they sorry, they said, did not lead
an overall performance despite its update. Oh that's the other
thing I like about chat GBT remembers your preferences. I
was just telling my wife this, you can teach it things.
So what I do is with chat GBT, I teach
it and it remembers that. So if you say, hey,
remember when I say this that I want you to

(26:10):
do that, it will remember. So that's also a plus
of chat GBT. Claude there, Yeah, Claude. They say strength
designed to be inoffensive, which, yes, Claude is supposed to
be a little bit friendlier than a lot of these.
Copilot good at creative writing. Let's see Gemini from Google

(26:31):
Access to real time data. That's what I just said, perplexity,
research Focus cites it sources. Wow. Wall Street Journal just
said exactly pretty much what I said. Okay, so they
say summary, health advice, best chat, GBT, that's scary, finance, Gemini,
cooking chat GBT, work, perplexity, creative writing, copilot, summarization, perplexity,

(26:54):
current events, perplexity, coding perplexity, that's interesting, speed CHATCHYBT. So again,
I think the main thing to know about paying for
these is try them out, see what you like, see
what the limitations are, because if you're not using it
in a big way, you don't necessarily need to pay
for these things, because now the name of the game
is they're giving a lot of this away for free

(27:15):
in hopes of getting that user base, and then eventually
they figure more paid features will come. Well, Keith, I
think you get the award for the longest answer ever
to a question on this show. So thanks for that question.
Hopefully you've got some some clarity now on what to
use there eight eight eight rich one oh one eight

(27:35):
eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.
My name is rich Dedmuro. You are listening to rich
on Tech Welcome back to Rich on tech. Rich DeMuro
here hanging out with you talking technology at triple eight
Rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to
two four one zero one. Let's go to Rockston in Ventura, Roxton.

(28:02):
You're on with Wretch.

Speaker 5 (28:04):
Thanks for taking my call, Rich. That's calling about it
a Motorola phone that's been acting up. It's a new
phone that I got from Pure Talk Mobile and it
took him three months to pour it over from the
AT and T landline. The landlines are going away, is
why I got the phone. I was also told that
it had a mobile hotspot and I could use it
to hook up the iPad and do my video conferences

(28:28):
with my doctors at the West la VA. And the
problem with the phone, the first problem is it doesn't
let me answer incoming calls. You know, I'm supposed to
sweep up to answer and sweep down to decline, and
it won't do that, and also won't take a fingerprint
for ID for lockedout. And it shuts off the sound

(28:48):
occasionally and right in the middle of talking, in the
middle of a conversation.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
What type of phone is this?

Speaker 5 (28:55):
This is a Motorola, a Moto G.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
It's a G five okay, Motorola G five, and so
did this start when you got it?

Speaker 4 (29:08):
Yes?

Speaker 5 (29:08):
Yes, I got it, and it has never worked right
since I got it, and I have been having difficulty
getting any helpful information from the Pure Talk mobile people.
They had a two week policy on returns, and I
had it for three months. It wasn't ported over for
three months from AT and T and I don't know why.

(29:31):
I guess somebody on one end or the other dropped
the ball there.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
Has it worked properly ever?

Speaker 3 (29:37):
No?

Speaker 1 (29:38):
Okay, so from day one it has not worked properly.
It's right, okay. Well, the only thing I could say
to do is, well two things. I think the main
thing you need to do is to factory reset this
phone and try again. So it sounds like, you know,
the swiping and all that like, none of this stuff.

(29:58):
I don't think any of it is a unless it's
a hardware defect, which you're mentioning too many things that
seem like they're all kind of unrelated. I mean, the screen.
There could be a problem with the screen if it's
not swiping and the fingerprint readers not working, but that
wouldn't really explain the sound not going on sometimes so

(30:21):
you know, and it could be that the sound is
being manipulated by the volume rocker. You know, sometimes you're
adjusting volume. It could be adjusting the volume of the sound.
But what I would do is personally, I know this
a little complicated, but I would go into the settings
and I would format this phone, like so there's a
setting that says factory reset, and so that's what I

(30:43):
would do. And you would have to set this thing
up from the beginning. And so that means signing into
your Google account, your phone number and everything will still
stay there, but it would mean signing into your Google
account and then starting over signing in and then setting
up this phone fresh. Now, if you still have problems
after you are able to do that, and you may
need to enlist the help of someone that knows what

(31:04):
they're doing to help you along with this. But once
you do that, if the phone is still having the
same exact issues, then you got to push on Motorola
to get a replacement or Pure Talk to get a replacement,
to just you know, tell them, hey, look, this hasn't
worked since day one, and just what can you do?
You know, I know they're gonna have to make an
exception to the rule of two weeks. But you know,

(31:27):
I don't know how much you spent on this phone,
but it might just be the easiest thing to do
is just to convince them to give you a new one.
You're staying as a customer. They're really just swapping out
a device. They're going to see what's wrong with it
and just give you another one. It's not that big
of a deal. I don't know how expensive this phone
is because I can't get a price on it on
the website, but I think that that will probably be

(31:48):
just fine. But that's what I would do. Format it
and start over and see if it still gives you
those issues. And if it does, then you got to
convince someone to get you new one oh one time payment.
So it's about a two hundred and fifty dollars phone.
This is not that expensive of a phone. So someone
whether it's Motorola, they've probably got a one year warranty
on this. You could probably at least get a refurbished

(32:12):
model from them if you swap it out. UH, keep
me posted, go on the website, give me an update.
Roxton appreciate the call today eight eight eight Rich one
oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four
one zero one. Well, if you're using Instagram, you might
see something new as you're scrolling, something that might be

(32:32):
a little frustrating, something that actually stops you from using
the app. It's an AD break. Yes, Instagram is testing
what's called an AD break. This will actually stop you
from scrolling until you view an AD. A lot of
people on x have been posting screenshots of this, also
on Reddit, and Instagram spokesperson did confirm that they are

(32:55):
testing this and uh, they don't know if they're gonna
use this going far, but they probably will. So if
you see this. The AD break includes a countdown timer
indicating how long you have to sit there and wait
before you can continue browsing. And apparently this is not
just on the reels you know a video. This is

(33:16):
on when you're just scrolling through your your feed. And
so you're just scrolling your feed and all of a sudden,
your thumb goes up. But then the nothing on the
on the screen moves because it is frozen in time,
and you'll see that little countdown it says five four
three two one. Un skippable ads are a part of
the landscape now when it comes to a lot of

(33:37):
other services, whether it is TikTok, whether it is YouTube.
So sometimes you can skip them, sometimes you can't, or
sometimes you have to watch a little portion of it
before you can actually skip it. So we were watching
a movie last night. I think it was on Amazon
Prime or no, it was on Peacock. And even though
I pay for Peacock, you still have to watch some ads. Now,

(34:00):
this ad was a long time. It was like one
hundred and eighty seconds, but after that the movie was
free of ads. So it was like one big ad
and then you get to watch the movie. But yeah,
there's no skipping through that ad. And this is why
these streaming services like on demand versus the DVR, which
I've mentioned before, the DVR was all the rage. Why

(34:23):
did all the streaming services and everyone move away from
the dvr because that includes you recording something and then
skipping through the ads. When you're watching on demand, there's
no skipping through those ads because they control the experience.
And in fact, on Peacock, when you pause, there's also
an ad. So when you sit and pause, you know,

(34:43):
and your wife asks you something, you pause the screen.
Next thing you know, on the on the TV. There's
an ad and there's a big QR code and it's like,
you know, make the most of your break or something.
They you know, they're actually quite fun the ads that
they have. But yeah, so Instagram be prepared those unskippable ads.
And if you have an older Apple TV, speaking of

(35:05):
streaming services, that you're running Netflix on, Netflix is ending
support for second and third generation Apple TVs. This is
gonna happen on July thirty first, twenty twenty four. Don't
don't get all out of shape here, because it's these
are very old Apple TVs. These were released in twenty
ten and twenty twelve, so you're talking over a decade old.

(35:28):
So if you have one of these and you're still
running Netflix on it, you will not be able to
run Netflix on it after July thirty first, twenty twenty four.
The latest Apple TV was released in November twenty twenty two.
It's the seventh generation Apple TV. Again, these are the
second and third generation Apple TV, so you're going back
a long time.

Speaker 3 (35:49):
Now.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Why do I think Netflix is ending support? Well, I
think because the ads supported Netflix. I don't think runs
on these, so I think that that's probably why they
want to get rid of these, because that's where all
the growth is is at supporting. Plus it's been a
long time and they're like, all right, enough is enough.
Eight to eight rich one O one eight eight eight
seven four to two four one zero one. Coming up,

(36:10):
I'll give you my review of the Pixel eight, a
budget smartphone. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro
here hanging out with you, talking technology at Triple eight
Rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to
two four one zero one. Give me a call if

(36:31):
you have a question about technology. Something is bugging you,
something is not working, you need a recommendation for something,
or maybe you just want to say hi. Do we
let those calls through? I don't know. Maybe we will today,
depends on how Kim is feeling. And Bobo and Me
website for the show eight eighty US rich on tech

(36:54):
dot tv rich on tech dot TV. There you can
get links to anything I mentioned by hitting the light bulb.
You can learn more about how to listen to this
show as a podcast. If you'd like to listen again,
you can watch my TV segments. You can get in
touch by sending an email by hitting contact, and you
can learn more about me all on the website Richontech

(37:17):
dot tv and if you want to follow me on
social media at rich on Tech. Jay from Woodland Hills
wrote in on the website, I have a Samsung S ten.
I want to put an air tag equivalent in my car.
Please advise which one I should use? Thanks? Great question, Jay,
And you're just in time because Android just activated what's

(37:40):
called the Find My Device Network. This is brand new
from Google. So in fact, on your Android phone you
may get a message that says, hey, do you want
to be a part of this find my Device network?
And it uses all of the Android devices out there
to help you find your stuff. Yes, this is what
Apple did with the iPhone and all the Apple devices

(38:02):
a couple of years ago with the Find My network.
But those air tags are just going to work with
the iPhone. Now, if you have an Android, you can
finally get devices that will work with Googles Find my
Device network. So which one do I recommend for you?
There are two that are very popular, pebbleb and Chipolo

(38:26):
c Hipolo and pebble b. Now there's going to be
many more where this came from, but these are two
of the kind of out of the gate, right and
so Chapolo makes one called the Chipolo one Point. It's
twenty eight dollars for a one pack and it's basically
identical to an air tag. The main thing you need

(38:48):
to know is that the battery lasts about a year
and the battery is a replaceable battery, so it's kind
of like the battery. Let's see what kind of battery
it is. I'm guessing it's that that standard like two
oh yep, there it is the CR two oh three
to two, so that is the standard battery that it uses.

(39:12):
It's twenty eight dollars. A four pack is seventy nine dollars,
and that is basically the equivalent of an air tag.
So that's uh. I actually have one of these at home.
I'll be honest. I've had it for a week and
I have not activated to test it yet, so I
wish I would have done it anticipating your question. But
that is that's probably the one that you want to
go with. Chippolo is great. They are a company that's
been making these for a long time and now they've

(39:35):
got these new ones. Now again, the only issue is
these are not They're tough to get. That's the problem.
All these companies are offering them, but they're not really
shipping them just yet. So reviewers like myself have gotten
some of them, and some of the early early pre
orders have gotten them, but right now this says this
is shipping in mid July.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
Now.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
Looking at pebbleb they make a tracker either called the tag,
the card, or the clip. I would think for the
I would think for the car, you'd probably just want
the clip, and the clip is going to last for
twelve months on a charge. So this has a rechargeable battery,
which is kind of nice, so if you don't want
to be replacing that battery, or you might just leave

(40:18):
this plugged in in your car. If it's USBC, just
plug it in and it'll just be charging all the time.
So again the main thing to know about these find
my tags and trackers, whether it's from Android or whether
it's from iOS. These do not give real time location.

(40:38):
They are based on the last known location, which is
at the mercy of a device that has seen this.
So these do not have GPS on them. They do
not have a cellular connection on them, so they're only
as good as the device is around them. So if
you park your car in the middle of a field
and you walk away and your phone will that that

(41:00):
tag will not be updated unless someone else kind of
walks by that car. That is part of the network,
So you have to keep that in mind. So it's
only as good as you know the network that it's
on and the amount of phones and things that it
can pain. So if you're in a very dense location
with a lot of smartphones nearby, then these things are

(41:20):
going to be getting a location a lot and a
very accurate location. But if you're kind of in the
in a rural area or in the middle of nowhere,
these things don't get updated by themselves. They rely on
another device sort of seeing that and relaying that location
information back up to the server and then when you
look for it, you can see where that is, so

(41:42):
that you know. That's the main thing is just keeping
that in mind. With a car, it's a good thing
to have in there. Why not, It's better than not
having it, I would say so. Again, Chippolo and Pebbleby
go on the website. Pebbleby is shipping expected in two
to four weeks, so again a lot of these are
not shipping just yet, but we're going to see a
whole bunch of them come on the market very soon.

(42:05):
Let's go to Let's go to Sean in La Costa, California. Sean,
you're on with Rich Yay.

Speaker 6 (42:14):
Yeah, I foolishly accepted a gift of a iPhone fifteen promac.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
What were you thinking?

Speaker 6 (42:22):
Oh boy, Well, I I'm just like to have a
good vocabulary and I use scientific symbols on occasion. And
I've just been really frustrated with the iPhone language interface,
the voice recognition, it's all. It's kind of like the
vapid but beautiful little sister to Android. And I'm just

(42:46):
I'm going back to Android.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
Yeah, I hear you. You're talking. Look you've seen. Look,
the iPhone is the popular device. It's amazing, it's incredible,
but it's very basic and it's very simple, and so
it sounds like you want something that's a bit more
your speed, which you know, you want something that's a
little bit better than that.

Speaker 6 (43:06):
Absolutely, And Apple is great for consuming media. You can
watch a movie with great sound, but if you make
stop a little different, so well.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
I would argue that I actually think the iPhone is
incredible for making media as well. But you know, and
I think actually the Samsung Galaxy S twenty four I
think is the Ultra is the absolute best phone for
consuming a movie because that HDR screen is just incredible.

Speaker 6 (43:37):
But I would would agree. I actually had an S
twenty four or Ultra for a couple of weeks. I
didn't like the interface language interface because it's not pure Android.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
Yeah, I know that kills me. That really kills me.

Speaker 6 (43:51):
But anyway, I am limiting myself though, I am going
to go pure Android to be Pixel or Motorola.

Speaker 1 (43:58):
Yeah, I'd go Pixel, and yeah, I'm looking at it.

Speaker 6 (44:02):
Some prices have dropped recently. But my problem is this.
When I moved over to the iPhone, I had to
keep my old Android because there were a ton of
things that I had subscribed to, things that wouldn't transfer over.
So I have the old Android and then I have
the iPhone. I want to transfer both memories over to

(44:26):
this new probably Pixel, and I'm concerned that I'm going
to overwrite stuff. I want to keep texts. I have
lots of dead friends whose final texts are still on
my old Android. And then I've got stuff about important
things on the iPhone. So is there something a concise

(44:47):
way to do this? Is there software that you could recommend?

Speaker 1 (44:51):
Ooh, so okay, so number one both the iPhone and Android.
So when you get that pixel, there will be a
screen says are you switching from another phone? And you
can select the phone. And these systems have gotten so
good at transferring everything over. They will transfer over pretty
much anything that you need. And in my experience, I

(45:13):
like to set up my phones clean and so I
don't like to transfer things over, but in my testing
I have tried and it does a pretty good job.
I think the text messages are the trickiest when it
comes to the iPhone because everything's locked up in that
I message. So there is a program that you can
download that will help you extract all that information off

(45:36):
of your off of the iPhone, and it's called i'mazing
I M A Z I G. And then there's also
another program that is from soft a Reno called alt
tunes A L T T U N E S And
both of those will help you get the stuff off
of your iPhone and onto your computer. And then if

(45:57):
you want to transfer it to the to the Android later,
you can do that. But the Android is much more
forgiving because everything is sort of open and whereas the
iPhone everything is closed, so it's not the easiest to
sort of get that stuff out of there unless you're
using that flow screen. Now, the reason I mentioned that
screen set up on the pixel is because you're gonna

(46:18):
have a choice to make. You have to decide do
you want to bring that information from the old Android
over or do you want to bring the information from
the iPhone. My advice is to bring the information from
the Android from the iPhone over to the Android using
the pixel switch screen, and then when it comes to Android,
everything is easily moveable. With the text messages, there is

(46:40):
a great program called SMS Backup and Restore. You can
just load that onto the old Android phone. You can
upload all of your messages into this app. It is free,
and then install that on the new pixel and say
restore and it will bring those messages to that new pixel,
or you'll just have them backed up in the loud

(47:00):
on your Google Drive. So again I think you go
with the iPhone as the restore point to the new Android.
If you could avoid that all together, personally, I would
just set the phone up fresh and then just bring
over things one at a time as you need them
and download all the apps that you want and stuff,
because I feel like when these things do it on
their own, yeah, they do a good job, but you know,

(47:22):
you get a lot of junk and stuff that maybe
you tried out and downloaded that you don't necessarily need.
So that's my advice. Yeah, Sean, I like that you're
going back. Nothing against iPhone, but it's just you know,
you tried it and it wasn't for you. I think
the Pixel is an incredible device. I'll give you my
review of the Pixel eight a coming up after the break.

(47:43):
Eight to eight rich one O one eight eight eight
seven four to two four one zero one. This is
rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich
DeMuro here hanging out with you at Triple eight rich
one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to
two four one zero one. You can find me online
at Richontech dot tv. That's the website and social media

(48:07):
at rich on Tech. Apple has revealed its minimum software
support time frame for the iPhone, which apparently falls a
little short compared to Samsung and Google. So Apple says
they will provide security updates for a minimum of five
years for iPhones. This starts with the iPhone fifteen series,

(48:29):
and this is the first time that Apple has actually
committed to a minimum length of software support for its iPhones. Typically,
they've been really good about this, they just haven't really
published a timeframe. Now, if you look at the current
phone that is supported by iOS seventeen, you're talking you're
going back all the way to like I had it

(48:49):
up on my computer here, Oh, the iPhone ten R,
which was that launched in twenty eighteen, so you're talking
six years. So Apple has been really good, good about
keeping its phones up to date for a very long time.
But because the UK has this rule that you have
to publish how long you're going to provide security and

(49:13):
software updates, they had to come out with a number.
And so that's why they came out with that five
year minimum because it kind of covers their bases where
you know, five years, even though they know they're going
to do a little bit more, but five years is
a safe bet. So that means if you have the
iPhone fifteen Pro Max that came out in September twenty
twenty three, you'll get guaranteed updates until September twenty twenty eight.

(49:36):
Now Samsung and app and Google have been on this
March towards seven years, and so you know that's typically
a little bit longer than what Apple has been doing.
But this is a new thing. This just started in
October with Google, and then Samsung got on board and
they said they're going to do the same thing. So

(49:56):
with all that said, let me give you my review
of the Pixel eight to A. This is Google's budget smartphone.
It sells for five hundred dollars. I have it in
my hand and I'm telling you it is the perfect
size phone. It is also the perfect price. So if
you're looking for a phone that does what you need,

(50:18):
has an excellent camera, has clean software, look no further
than this device. It is so good. Now, I'm not
going to say it's my absolute favorite Android phone for
this year. That is definitely the Samsung Galaxy S twenty
four Ultra, but that is also twice the size of
this phone and also almost three times the price of

(50:38):
this phone. So if you want something that is simple
and just works, but also has all the AI features
and by the way, is going to be supported for
seven years, this is the phone to get. So let
me talk about the camera. That's the main thing that
people like on these pixel phones. The camera is great.
It's gonna take really nice pictures. It also has all

(50:59):
the AI features that Google gives you, including Best Take,
which means if you take like five pictures of a
group of you and your friends, it's gonna literally chop
the heads off of you and paste them on with
the smiles. So it's such a funny little feature. I'll
be honest, I don't use it as much as I
thought I would, but it's there if you need it.

(51:20):
Probably during the holidays when you're trying to get that
perfect holiday picture or birthday parties with your kids, whatever,
the Best Take will be pretty nice. It's got the
Magic Editor, so it will do all kinds of AI
powered photo editing things on your photos. It's got the
Magic Eraser, which can erase things out of your pictures,
people and also unwanted objects. It's got the photo Unblur,

(51:43):
which I talked about a couple of weeks ago on
the show, which is just incredible. It takes an old
picture and just makes it if it's blurry. I did
a couple of pictures that way and it just was
incredible the results. It's got a six point one inch screen,
so not the biggest screen in the world. But it's
a nice size and it fits in your hands so well.
Like I love this phone, I want to carry it

(52:03):
just because it's such a perfect size. The Samsung Ultra,
as much as I love it, it is huge, and
you put a case on that thing, it's even bigger.
It also has one hundred and twenty Hurts display. And
the main thing to know about that if you get
this phone, because it was really bugging me because the
phone was looking pretty choppy, you have to go into
display and turn on what's called smooth display, or else

(52:24):
your phone is going to look like something out of
the eighties. People give it a problem because it's got
a big bezel that means there's like a big border
around the edge of the screen. It's fine. It's not
the best, but it's fine. It's powered by Google's latest
and greatest chip called Google Tensor G three. Again, not
the best chip out there compared to the Snap Dragons
of the world for mobile phones, but it's still really good.

(52:47):
Memory eight gigabytes a RAM one hundred and twenty eight
or two hundred and fifty six gigabyte options that charging
on this phone is not that fast. Whether it's wired
or wireless, not that fast. But again, great little device.
It is pocket sized, it's five hundred dollars, and it
might be cheaper. So I would say, do not buy
this phone for five hundred dollars. Wait for it to

(53:08):
go on sale. My price that I'm aiming for is
for three hundred and fifty to four hundred and fifty dollars.
I do believe this phone will be sold for those prices,
So watch the price, keep track of it, and get
it when it is on sale. Because the Pixel eight,
which is a little bit of a step above right now,
is selling for five hundred and fifty dollars, that would

(53:28):
be the better phone to get, but I think this
phone will sell for even less on the other end,
So three fifty to four hundred that's the Pixel eight.
A more on the website Richontech dot TV. Coming up
Drew Binski, a travel YouTuber who has gone to every
country in the world. This is rich on Tech. Welcome

(53:49):
back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out
with you talking technology. Cool story. So I first met
our next guest in twenty six He had been to
seventy four countries. His name is Drew Binski. He was
making a living basically sharing his travels on Snapchat and

(54:11):
his goal was to visit every country in the world.
So I did a segment with him, interviewed him, and
he eventually switched to YouTube as his main platform. But
now he has reached his goal of visiting every country
in the world. He's a young guy, probably in his
either late twenties or early thirties, and now he's written
a book about it. It's called Just Go. So here's

(54:34):
my conversation with Drew Binski. So what inspired you to
visit every country in the world.

Speaker 7 (54:40):
I traveled a lot as a kid growing up domestically,
and I always had a dream to go to Maine,
which is the farthest stayed away. And once I went
to May and I was like, I want to go
to more countries. So I studied a brought in Prague
Todd English in Korea and just kept going from there.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
You visited one hundred and ninety seven countries. One hundred
and ninety seven every country in the world. Yes, So
my kids were watching YouTube video. By the way, unbknownst
to me like they didn't know that I knew who
you were. Yeah, well, but so what did you learn
in your one hundred and ninety seven country visit.

Speaker 7 (55:07):
I learned that all people are the same, you know,
and the world is safer than you think. Everyone's scared
to visit places because of what they hear, but when
you go and meet people face to face, you realize
that they're just super friendly and kind, and that's that's
the biggest takeaway.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
This is all about technology. You've traveled a lot of
different places. You probably have to travel light. What tech
tools or tips can you offer?

Speaker 7 (55:27):
I basically just travel with my MacBook because I edit
and I work on my computer, and then my iPhone,
so there's a couple apps that I use. One really
good tip is Google Maps works offline, so even if
your phone is on airplane mode, you can pre download
the destination you're going to. So if you're going to Lisbon,
you could download everything in Lisbon and it'll work offline
and the little blue tracker will follow you around the city.

(55:48):
So if you want to make sure you're not getting
in the wrong taxi or something, you can check where
you're going. And then for an eSIM card, I use
air Low, which is basically a company that lets you
have phone access in two hundred countries and territories and
so you just arrived and you just press you know,
I'm in Ethiopia and the phone works. So it's really helpful.
You don't have to get those SIM cards to put
in your phone anymore.

Speaker 1 (56:07):
Do you think technology has made travel easier?

Speaker 7 (56:10):
Absolutely? Yeah, I wouldn't. It would be a lot more
difficult to do what I do without having all these tools.
And also it's nice that I can just like FaceTime,
you know, my friends and family and my parents, and
it's just easier to communicate with them. And like three
G and four G is like pretty worldwide now, whereas
when we met last time in twenty sixteen, it was
a lot harder to communicate with people.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
So and Wi Fi is everywhere now. Yeah, what about AI?
In the past year, we've seen an explosion of AI.
Is that impacting your travel in any way?

Speaker 5 (56:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (56:39):
It helped me in my work profession because I like
to get some scripts written and I like to check things.
And sometimes even if I like am in a pinch,
it's like, hey, give me ten things to do in
Uganda and it'll just like, you know, tell you what
to do. So it's a good reference point. But I
think everyone should be utilizing AI in whatever field they do,
because if they if you don't use it, you're just
going to fall behind the people that are using it,
and of people I reluctant to AI, but I still

(57:01):
think it's you just have to accept it because it's
everywhere and it's going to continue helping our lives if
you use it the right way.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
I think this is interesting. You've built a pretty big
following online. Tell me how many followers you had the
last time we talked, and how many.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
You have now.

Speaker 7 (57:14):
Last time we talked, I had maybe one or two million,
and now it's like fourteen millions across platforms.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
Fourteen million people following your travels. Yeah, is that nerve racking?
Because you want to be authentic, but also you want
to show them a good time.

Speaker 7 (57:26):
There's a little pressure that I have to like deliver
a certain standard of content and I do. I have
a team now. Last time I saw you didn't have
a team. Now I have a team. So yeah, we're
constantly putting out long form documentaries and it's a lot
of fun. I like interacting with people. I really like
to connect with people one on one when I hear
fourteen million. That's like so obscure to me, you know,
like I can't imagine that. But like even just meeting

(57:47):
face to face with people, that's what it's all about.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
You've got a new book. Tell me about the book.
What made you write it and what did you hope
to instill into the readers.

Speaker 7 (57:55):
Yeah, the book is called Just Go. It's basically another
way that I can tell stories that's not through videos,
and some people prefer reading books. And it's also a
tangible thing that you can take on an airplane or
you can read it in your bed, And that was
kind of my main motive. I wanted to have like
a book that people could read. And so basically it's
untold stories from visiting every country, a lot of focus
on the Middle East, Yemen, Afghanistan, Siria, Somalia, some of

(58:17):
those countries where people might be too scared to visit.
I tell really positive and uplifting stories in them, and
then a lot of practical travel tips and advice and
secrets that I've learned along the way. So it's an
easy read, three hundred pages. Can read it in a
few hours, and there's some photos in there too. It's fun.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
Speaking of forbidding countries, did you go to North Korea?

Speaker 7 (58:34):
I did go to North Korea. Yeah, in twenty seventeen
after we met, I spent three days in Pyeongang, and
it was I'm one of the last Americans to go
there because as soon as I got back, Americans were banned.
Until now Americans cannot visit North Korea. So I did visit, yes,
and I think it's interesting. I can speak a bit
of Korean from living in South Korea, and I just
I'm obsessed with like the culture and the isolation of

(58:58):
that country specifically, and you know, the situation there, So
I'm fascinated by North Korea.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
How do you think you've changed as a person since
we last talked.

Speaker 7 (59:07):
I think I've become wiser just learning about different cultures,
being forced into different communities, learning about religion, culture and
how the world works. I'm still the same person. I
like to play golf a lot and hang out with
my dog, but it's rewarding to have a big knowledge
about the world. And when I watch movies and when
I listen to songs that there's a lot of references
that I pick up now because I've been to those countries.

Speaker 1 (59:30):
That is so true. That is so true. The perspective
it gives you is really what I think is the
biggest takeaway. You achieved your goal of visiting every country.
What's next?

Speaker 6 (59:40):
The moon.

Speaker 7 (59:42):
Space of the moon would be a really cool trip.
I just got back from the South Pole, the actual
geographic South Pole, which only three thousand people have visited
in history. That was like a pinnacle moment for me.
So I'm looking for like those next level trips. But
i also want to revisit countries that I didn't get
to see enough of, For example, China. I'm heading back
in two weeks and I'll be visiting central and western China.
So there's many regions within countries that I still, you know,

(01:00:04):
would love to visit. And the world is a big place,
so there's a lot of even within California, Like I
haven't been to northeastern California, central California. There's a lot
of stories to be told there.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
And when people are traveling kind of what should they
keep in mind, Like I mean, not everyone's as adventurous
as you, especially when it comes to what you eat. Yeah,
I certainly am not. So how do you think people
make the most of their Most of the time people
are vacationing.

Speaker 7 (01:00:28):
Sure, it's helpful to make a local friend anywhere because
they know their country just like you know your country
or city, and they can introduce you to the culture.
If there's a language barrier, they can help with that.
They can help keep you safe. So you could hire
a local tour guide. Get your Guide dot com has
tour guides. There's also tours by Locals dot com, so
you can just hire, like pay eighty bucks and you'll
have someone, or just use social media Instagram connect with people,

(01:00:52):
friends of friends. You should always try to find a
local person because they know like the hidden gems of
the place and you'll just have fun. It's a cultural
exchange if you hang out with a local person. So
that's what I recommend.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
And speaking of social media, everyone sees what you do.
It doesn't look easy, but people feel like they can
do something similar. Do you feel like the travel social
media globetrotter is something that is already established or do
you think people can still do that.

Speaker 7 (01:01:18):
I think it's a wide open playground, but you need
to be really focused from the beginning. It's not a
job that you can just put in an hour a day.
You have to really focus and if you be yourself
and you're authentic, I think anybody could do it. But
it does take a lot of hard work. I mean
I've been doing this for eight years now, like NonStop,
and my team is now about fifteen people and we're
still like have a long way to go. So it

(01:01:38):
just you got to post consistently often and just make
content that you feel proud of, that you want to
post about, and then you'll grow following. So the answer
is yes. You also have to be willing to be
on camera all the time like you are, like I am,
but it's not for everyone. Some people might not want
to be showing their face a lot, so yes, but
it's definitely possible. And did you pick a favorite country
or place? I have a few face rich The Philippines

(01:02:00):
is one of them. I really like Iran and Afghanistan
and just the culture is so rich there, and in Africa,
I like Ethiopia the best. I always like connecting with people,
so if they just reach out to me at Drew
Binski on any social I'm happy to respond. And yeah,
I recommend people to visit places that they might not
think about visiting. The first time. You know, Mexico is great.
It's actually one of my favorite countries in the world.

(01:02:22):
But if you go a little farther south, you're in Guatemala,
El Salvador, Honduras, and those countries are also really cool.
So just stepping out of your comfort zone a little
bit more is something I think is really rewarding.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
Once again, that is Drew Binski, travel YouTuber who has
visited every country in the world. He mentioned a couple
of tech tools. Have got them all linked up on
the website rich on tech dot TV. His book is
called Just Go eighty eight rich one O one eight
eight eight seven four to two four one zero one
more rich on Tech come in your way right after this.

(01:02:54):
Welcome back to rich on Tech eight to eight rich
one O one eight eight eight seven four or two
four to one zero one. It's got a Carol in
Los Angeles. Carol, you're on with rich.

Speaker 8 (01:03:09):
Oh hey, Rich With all these data breaches going on,
do you recommend you know how each of those companies
that you've been breached on they offer free credit reporting services, yes,
but before I sign it with them, would you recommend
getting individual reports for like Equifax, Transnient or experience or
someone suggested like a main report with Lexus Naxus, and

(01:03:33):
then after you get those reports, then I guess use
uh like the data breach companies reporting free reporting.

Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
Well, yeah, I mean my problem with these these companies
that do the monitoring is that you have to give
them all of your information. And so that's every time
when I go to sign up, I stop because I'm like,
welllit a second, do I really want to give all
this information to this third party company? So exactly that's
what keeps me from doing it. With that said, I

(01:04:05):
do have a couple of ways that I keep tabs
on things. I use something called uh, oh, gosh, I'm
trying to remember what is called wallet gosh nerd wallet. No,
it's not nerd wallet. I'm trying to remember. I'll think
of it in a second, but uh it.

Speaker 3 (01:04:21):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
So I've got a couple of things like Google has
a dark web monitoring. Right with the credit report stuff,
I would probably download the annual creditreport dot com. That's
where you can get your free credit reports. So you
can get those from you know, from the government. They
basically give you like one once a year, right, like

(01:04:42):
you can get those I think it's once a year,
but have you done that?

Speaker 8 (01:04:48):
No, That's why I wanted to ask you because I
had the same thing. I don't want to use these
third parties from like say, if I was att because
I don't know who they are, you know, I've never
heard of them. So I was actually on with another
major company explaining about these data breaches because they needed INPLO.
And she goes, why are you applying for ECOFAX Transunior

(01:05:08):
Experience or the free credit report. She goes, you should
go to Lexus and Nexus because they have information for everything.

Speaker 3 (01:05:16):
Well, I know, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:05:17):
I have not used like I know Lexus Nexus is
like a clearinghouse for everything, Like I know a lot
of uh you know, legal and journalists. They use it.
Like it's just they have a lot of information. I
don't know if they have something for consumers. Have you
checked their website for consumers?

Speaker 8 (01:05:34):
They actually do, because we went on it at the
same time and it looks like you get one report
and then has everything. Yeah, but one lady said it.
She she downloaded it and it was like four hundred pages.

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
Yes, okay, so this is right, Okay, So this is
what's called the consumer disclosure report. Okay, so this this
is basically every all the information they have on you.
You can request that. I think that'd be fun. I mean,
if it's free, why not. I mean it's you know, uh,
let's see what do you have to give them to
do this? Name address request a description procedure? Okay, so

(01:06:16):
that's it, it's just your name and address. I would
do that. Why not just to see what they have
on you?

Speaker 4 (01:06:21):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:06:21):
Depending oh, depending on the type of request, you may
be required to put in your social Security number or
your driver's license number. In state, this will only be used.
So I think if they can't verify you like in
their systems, they like, if let's say you put in
an address that they don't have in their system, they
may say, oh, well, we need to verify you with
a social or your driver's license with driver's license. I'm

(01:06:43):
fine with social Security number, you know. I would be
a little bit hesitant for that one, but that's I
would do that. The other thing people do is they
freeze their credit reports. I have not done that, but
you know, I feel like a lot of people. I
was just talking to someone who had their credit hacked
and they said, absolute, you got to freeze your credit reports,
like immediately, because if it happens to you, it is

(01:07:04):
a pain to get all that stuff right.

Speaker 8 (01:07:06):
But I was told before you freeze it that you
should probably get the free credit report from each of them.

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
Oh yeah, I would, yeah for sure.

Speaker 8 (01:07:15):
But so my question is is there free credit report
for all three or should I apply individually and call
each one of them up this one?

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
If you go to that annual credit report dot com.
You can get one from Equifax, Experience and TransUnion. Oh okay,
you can get one from each of them. The service
that I use to monitor my any alerts that I get,
like if there's any changes to my credit report, it
will it will send me an alert, and that's wallet
hub dot com. And I don't pay anything for that,

(01:07:45):
but I do. I've I've had that forever, and now
I will tell you some of the alerts are a
little bogus. It'll tell you it'll say, oh, there's been
a change to your credit report, and you go on
it says your credit card was paid off for that month.
So it's not like you know, they want to get
you on the website. But again, it's a free service.

Speaker 8 (01:08:02):
So that's what they're going to do, so okay, so
you would use them than like LifeLock, which is kind
of ironic since I'm getting all these fan email saying, oh,
you need to renew your LifeLock account, and I was like,
I don't have one too.

Speaker 1 (01:08:17):
Yeah, well, Lifelock's a brand name, so any brand name
these phishing attempts are going to be are going to
be triggered. Look, I think it really depends on your situation.
You know that a lot of people they like to
have the security of a LifeLock or a Norton whatever,
you know, they offer similar So I can't fault people
for that. And having identity theft insurance like that makes

(01:08:37):
people feel better because it does take a lot of
time to get your your identity back if something were
to ever happen to you, and it's happening a lot
like this is happening in large numbers on a daily basis.
So I'm not going to fault anyone for taking the
measures that they want to take to protect their name
and their credit report and their information and their identity.

(01:08:58):
But I really feel like it comes down to you know,
what you feel is responsible for yourself. So if you're
if you think your social Security numbers out there and
your personal information hasn't been involved in too many hacks
and breaches, then go ahead and sign up for one
of these things. If you feel like you can kind
of get your credit report once in a while, take
a look, make sure everything's okay and nothing seems fishy.

(01:09:19):
Then you know, go with something like a wallet hub
or just you know, dark web monitoring.

Speaker 8 (01:09:23):
Would you also recommend going like on Social Security Administration
and setting up your own account because I heard you
could lock your account on that too.

Speaker 1 (01:09:34):
I have not done that, but you might.

Speaker 6 (01:09:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
I think it is a good idea because I remember
they used to send out paperwork, you know, with like
estimates of your social security and they don't do that
anymore as far as I know, So they do they still.

Speaker 8 (01:09:47):
Yeah, because actually that was kind of one of the
other issues that had an issue where a wage wasn't
reported correctly.

Speaker 4 (01:09:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:09:53):
I had to wait till after the pandemic and go
in the office to get it corrected. And then I go,
what happens next to go, Well, they'll send you a
letter in the mail to look at your case history
and as all the information you provided as correct will
reports the correct wages, Like for example, it was supposed
to be fifty thousand, they followed a W two and
then they were changing some other information for everybody else

(01:10:16):
in the company, and then they re reported it as
zero on the corrected wages. So how to go through
this whole rigamoro? The ironic thing is I did get
a response from them, like in two months later saying
they had six everything, and they sent a letter with
my social security full social security number. Yeah, and it

(01:10:36):
came in an envelope. Nobody opened it. I guess it
went through an automated system, you know, storting system. It
was never stealed, so oh yeah, I've gotten that before.

Speaker 6 (01:10:50):
I was like, oh my god, I know.

Speaker 1 (01:10:52):
And here's the thing. There was a great article I
was just reading about how the social Security number has
become the de facto identity for Americans and it was
never intended to be this thing which it has become.
Like there's pretty much that is it, Like that's the
only that is the only thing between you and someone,

(01:11:14):
you know, taking out a credit line or a credit
card or opening up something in your name. Uh, there's
not much to identify us because so much of this
stuff has been leaked. So now these companies are getting
a little smarter. When you open up a credit card,
it may it may ask you questions about people you
know or places you lived, and it's been doing that
for years, but now they're getting a little bit smarter

(01:11:35):
about how they do it. So, uh, my advice don't
give out your number as much as possible, protect your
information and keep an eye on your credit keep an
eye on the information that's out there on the dark
web especially, and just do the best you can to
protect that stuff. Eighty' eight rich one oh one eight
eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.

(01:11:55):
More rich on Tech right after this, Welcome back to
rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you
talking technology at triple eight rich one oh one. That's
eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.
The website for the show rich on Tech dot TV.

(01:12:17):
You can follow me on social media. I am at
rich on Tech on Instagram, Facebook, and x And we
got a little feedback here on the credit report conversation.
H Jen in Los Angeles wrote in to say, I
think you can get your credit reports every week and
you don't need to call them. You can do it

(01:12:37):
all online and you can freeze and on freeze for
an unlimited time for free right now. So I looked
at the websites again. The Annualcreditreport dot com it does
say free weekly online credit reports are available from all
three of these providers, so I guess they change from

(01:12:58):
annual to weekly. Maybe that was during the penn I'm
not sure. And then if you look at USA dot
gov slash credit freeze, it says you can place or
lift a credit freeze by contacting each of the three
major credit reporting agencies. You can submit your request online,
by phone or mail. How long does it take online
or by phone? They must freeze within one business day,

(01:13:21):
and then unfreeze requests they must lift the freeze within
one hour. So it looks like if you're not sort
of applying for anything that requires your credit report, it
might be a good idea just to freeze it in
the meantime. I don't know what the ramifications are of
that in in the bigger scheme of things, but if
you can unfreeze it in an hour, that's a that's

(01:13:41):
a pretty quick timeframe there to uh to get that unfrozen.
All right, coming up this hour, we're going to talk
to the creators of a device called Kinney. This is
a wireless motion sensor. I've been testing it out. It's
really cool, it's very it's really different. It's got privacy
in mind. And I will tell you the fact or
the founders will explain why they came up with this

(01:14:02):
device and what it could be used for. Again, that's
coming up later in the show. Let's go to Mark
Mark Mark, You're on with rich Oh.

Speaker 4 (01:14:12):
I have the preface by saying, I'm so jealous. I've
only been the fifty three of the countries, and I
wish Americans could go overseas and see how America is
Disneyland and compared to the rest of the world.

Speaker 1 (01:14:23):
It is.

Speaker 2 (01:14:23):
It is.

Speaker 1 (01:14:24):
It is nice. It gives you some perspective to travel,
that's for sure. What does What can I help you?

Speaker 4 (01:14:28):
I have a couple of quickies here. I'm going crazy
with YouTube. They keep telling me I have AD blocker
on Firefox.

Speaker 6 (01:14:34):
Et cetera.

Speaker 4 (01:14:35):
I don't, and they just, you know, keep recycling ad
nauseum so you can't watch the videos. I wish it
was a fix for that, but I just I don't
even have ad blocker, but I would like to say something.
I wish I could find an American made phone with
no back doors, because my favorite phone ever was the
Yoda phone Yoda three with the dual screens. It had

(01:14:57):
the black and white e inc.

Speaker 5 (01:15:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:15:00):
Some phones out now that have color e ink. Yeah,
they use almost no power whatsoever. And I'm a long
distance cyclist, so I go five to three to five
hours a day and it just sucks my joe dry
using you know the speedometer odometer thingy Well, you have
any questions on either, sir, uh?

Speaker 1 (01:15:20):
Well with so, yeah, anytime you're using any sort of
like GPS on your phone, it's going to use the
battery up a lot. And that's just kind of like
the reality of it. I don't know of a phone
that has that that e ink display that's that's in
large scale production. I mean there is one called the
uh the light phone, but they don't have any sort
of tracking capabilities on there that you're talking about for

(01:15:42):
like bike cycling. Best I can say is what'sapp?

Speaker 4 (01:15:46):
That's just a biking app. You know, you you click
it and it tells you how fast you're going, you know,
the GPS, yes, but when you flip it over to
the e inc. It uses substantially lift oh yeah, because
it's not refreshing the screen.

Speaker 1 (01:15:59):
But if if it's still using the GPS it's going
to have it's gonna be drawing the battery. But I
don't know of a you know, I think that phones
have gotten really good with the battery. But anytime you're
actively using any sort of service on a phone, like
whether the screen is on, whether the GPS is running,
it's going to use a substantial amount of that battery.
And that's just the kind of the way these things are,

(01:16:22):
you know. The only thing I could suggest is maybe
getting a battery pack that kind of attaches to the
back of your phone. They used to have these battery
cases for Mophi that you can actually snap your phone
in and it would give you more battery, but I
don't even see those anymore.

Speaker 4 (01:16:35):
Well, the problem is that they also don't want removable
batteries anymore, because they want to be able to tap
into you even if your phone is off, you know,
and now you can't take your battery out and just
really turn off the phone.

Speaker 1 (01:16:47):
Yeah, and in fact, I mean, I know that gets
into a little bit of you know, conspiracy stuff, but
but it is interesting that you say that, because both
the iPhone and the Pixel phones at this point, even
when they are actively turned off, like when they're off,
they are still able to be found using both the
find my network and the Android Find my Device network.

(01:17:10):
So when you turn off the Pixel after a recent
software update, there's a little message on it that says
this is still findable and that's what the phone powered off.
I mean, I think many people would be surprised that
that is happening. And on the iPhone it's the same thing. Now, look,
if you need to find your phone, that's a good thing.
But on the flip side, these phones are still sort
of alive even when they're not. Now, to answer your

(01:17:32):
first question mark about the ad blocker, there are some
web browsers that do have built in AD blocking capabilities,
like the Brave web browser. I know Firefox Focus has
a built in AD blocker, and that could be what's
messing with it. There's a couple other things that could
be messing with it on the back end. If your

(01:17:53):
router has an AD blocking system or service on the
entire network, that could be doing it. I know on
Eero on Mine I do have that system wide AD blocking,
and so it does mess with some websites. Sometimes even
though I'm not actively running an ad blocker, it will
say sorry, you're running an ad blocker. And that's on
the network level, so I really can't get around that.

(01:18:15):
The other thing is maybe you have an extension that
you install that's also maybe it's a privacy extension that's
also an AD blocker. Sometimes it can misinterpret a VPN
that's also filtering things out. That could be it JavaScript
could be disabled by your web browser by to fault,
and that could be causing it. Those are the main things.

(01:18:36):
The other thing is that a lot of times on
the Apple side of things, or on the Pixel side
of things, they have what's called IP address privacy, and
so Apple calls it what do they call it private relay.
So sometimes if private relay is enabled, that will also
mess with these websites. So it's kind of gotten interesting

(01:18:58):
when something when a website gives me an issue, I
have come to the conclusion that it is not the
website that is having trouble. It's something that I have
running on my computer that is messing with that website,
whether it is grammarly, whether it is an AD blocker,
whether it is a JavaScript blocker, so you have to
go through. And what I do is I will go

(01:19:19):
into a web browser that I don't use typically and
test the website there. So if you're having trouble, maybe
open up a browser that you don't use, like a Safari.
On my computer, I don't have anything installed on there,
so when I open up Safari, I can go in
there and it's basically what's called. You know, it's clean
and so the website acts as intended. And so that's

(01:19:40):
the best indication of whether something is wrong with a
website or it's just something on my computer that's messing
with that website. And that happens a lot, a lot
a lot. Thanks for the call mark in Weinetka appreciate it.
Two kind of issues this week that where we saw
big companies respond to the the buzz online. Microsoft remember

(01:20:03):
this recall feature that they're enabling on their aipcs. This
is the feature that remembers everything you do on your computer.
I talked about it at length on this show and
talked about the privacy implications. If someone gets access to
your computer, they can go through and search anything that
you've seen on your screen. There were some limitations like

(01:20:23):
private browsing and things like that, and you can exclude
certain apps. But clearly consumers were not happy with this,
and Microsoft listened and early or at the end of
the week, Microsoft put out a blog post and said,
you know what, we are going to change the way
that we launch recall on Windows computers. So number one,
you are going to have to opt in. So no

(01:20:46):
longer is this going to be turned on by default.
When you set up that new computer, they're gonna say, hey,
here's the recall feature. Do you want to turn it on?
And you have to say yes if you want to
turn it on. It also requires Windows Hello enrollment, and
that means you have to scan your face to enter
your computer. And that means that theoretically it should only

(01:21:06):
be you getting into your computer, because if you have
a pin or a password, anyone can know that or
someone that someone could figure that out. But with Windows Hello,
it has to be you. And they're going to require
proof of presence, which means if you're recalled data is
being accessed, they have to see you sitting at your
computer to access it, which means remote access would be denied.

(01:21:30):
Let's see what else they're also implementing just in time decryption,
which means that they're going to only decrypt a database
right at the moment you're accessing something, which should make
it safer and more private. Now, this was a good
move by Microsoft. I think it shows that they are
listening to their customers. They are listening to people and
is this is a new feature. It's a brave new

(01:21:52):
world we are entering by having everything on your screen
screenshotted moment by moments that you can access it later.
But I think Microsoft has put in some pretty good
controls here to help at least give people a sense
of control and a little bit more security for Windows
recall eight eight eight rich one oh one eight eight
eight seven four to two four one zero one. We

(01:22:14):
still got a lot more coming up on the show,
including some of your emails that you have asked me
questions via the website. I will answer some of those.
I'll tell you what Adobe did. They had some controversial
terms going around online. They said, hey, we're going to
clear this up. This is a little confusing. It's all
right here on rich On Tech. Welcome back to rich

(01:22:37):
On Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you, talking
technology at triple eight Rich one O one eight eight
eight seven four to two four one zero one. We
got Bobo Danton to this song happy. If you're listening
on the podcast, you don't get to hear it. I

(01:22:57):
did something kind of different yesterday. I bought my first
hardcover book in a long time. So I was debating
whether I wanted to purchase a hardcover book or just
download this book to my kindle. The book is called Eruption.
I don't know if you've heard of it, but it
is by It is by Michael Crichton. Now you might

(01:23:19):
be saying, wait a second, Rich, Michael Crichton has passed away.
Yes he did. I passed away in two thousand and eight,
and this book is coming out in twenty twenty four.
How well, his wife found pieces of this novel on
his computer and she said, I want to get this written,

(01:23:40):
and so she somehow linked up with James Patterson, you know,
the guy who has written so many great books. He
took a look at what Michael Crichton had done and
he finished the book. And so if you look at
this book Eruption on the cover, it's Michael Crichton and
James Patterson. Who would have ever thought you'd see those
two names together. And I've read pretty much, I think,

(01:24:02):
every single book that Michael Crichton has written, and I
love them all. Obviously, he is the author of Jurassic
Park and so he did a lot of great sci
fi books. I think, Yeah, I think I've read almost
every single one of them. There's a couple that were
just like okay, but yeah, he's written a lot. So actually,
now that I look at this, I didn't read all

(01:24:23):
of them. I read a lot, but not all of them. Wow,
there's a lot anyway, So I was debating whether I
should get this as a paper as a hardcover or
wait for the paperback. My favorite format is obviously the
little paperback when it's a if it's a physical book,
but I just love the kindle because it's so easy
and you can adjust the size of the text. You
can you know, you have that backlighting so you can

(01:24:45):
read it in any light. But I was at Costco
and I heard that Costco is doing away with books.
By the way, I don't know if you heard this,
but Costco is getting rid of physical books by the
by Christmas, I guess they're gonna that's it. That's that's
the end of the line for those. Just like best Buy,
I got rid of physical media, the DVDs and the CDs.
If you go into best Buy one of these remodeled stores,
it looks you're like, wait, what's missing. Oh, it's all

(01:25:07):
of the physical media. It's all gone. And so that's
what's happening with Costco, I guess and books. But I
don't know about you. Every as much as a tech
guy as I am, I still have this nostalgia for
like old school things like a book. So anyway, I
don't know why I'm telling you all this, except for
the fact that I am embarking on a new experience

(01:25:28):
of reading a physical hardcover book, and I was trying
to figure out last night what to do with the cover.
You know this cover I dount if you've read a
physical book lately, but you've got this like slippery cover
on it, Like, do you take it off and put
it on your bookshelf until you're done? Some people were
saying that you use the inside of the book cover
to hold your pages, almost like a bookmark, but or

(01:25:50):
do you throw it out? Like sometimes I'll just throw
them out, And I'm like, well, that seems wasteful, But
that's where I'm at. So I am reading this book Eruption,
and I'm looking forward to to devouring it like the
dinos devoured people in Jurassic Park. That's me with this book.
Adobe this week also came under fire. If you were

(01:26:11):
online at all, you saw all of these people getting
up in arms over Adobe's updated terms of service. It
caused confusion and anger among creative cloud users who were
worried that Adobe claimed rights over all of their work.
That's what it looked like, it said. According to all
of the screenshots that I saw, users had to agree

(01:26:32):
to these new terms to continue using their apps. People
are all worried about forced consent without really understanding what
Adobe meant by the terms of service. And Adobe initially
kind of defended themselves. Their first response was very dismissive, stating, hey,
we've had these terms forever. We only recently clarified them,
so come on. And then Adobe kind of, you know,

(01:26:55):
they took a step back, and they realized, Okay, hold on,
we're at a moment here where a lot of our
users are unhappy. What should we do. They looked at
the situation and they said, look, and then they issued
a blog post that said, we are trying to be
transparent about how we check this AI content to moderate it.
And most of this involves moderation of AI content because

(01:27:16):
people are starting to use all of these AI tools
to generate stuff, and we've heard stories about how they're
generating things like deep fakes and all kinds of stuff
that is not good. And so Adobe wants to be
able to check and make sure that people are using
these in a responsible manner, and so they want to

(01:27:36):
make sure that they can knock people off of these
systems if they're violating any terms of use. So Adobe
has confirmed that they do not train their generative AI
models on your customer content and they do not claim
ownership of customers work. So if you generate something on Adobe,
as a lot of people are screenshotting saying Adobe owns

(01:27:59):
everything I do, that is not true. Adobe made that
clear that they do not say that they own everything
that you do, So there you go. Also this week,
the Apple Watch now pairs directly with the dex Comm
G seven. This is a first, so if you have
a dex Comm G seven glucose monitoring device, it can

(01:28:20):
now pair directly with the Apple Watch. Eliminating the need
for users to keep their iPhone nearby for glucose readings.
This is a first. These cgms provide glucose readings every
five minutes, and it uses Bluetooth to connect directly to
the Apple Watch. This is a huge win if you
are a person with diabetes because this means that you

(01:28:42):
can now go out with just your Apple Watch and
this reader on your arm or wherever you keep it,
and you can still get those real time readings without
going through the iPhone and Dexcom says that they are
looking into doing similar functionality with both the Samsung watches
and also the Android watches, but it takes a lot
to do this, and so they started with the Apple Watch.

(01:29:04):
But that's a huge win. I know these things are expensive,
but if if you want those real time readings, like
if you're working out or doing something without your phone,
this is a huge, huge benefit. All right, coming up,
we're gonna talk to the creators of the Kinney wireless
motion sensor and how you can use it in your
everyday life. This is rich on Tech. Welcome back to

(01:29:26):
rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you,
talking technology. The website for the show Rich on tech
Dot TV. Well, I do test out a lot of gadgets,
and it takes it takes something really unique for me
to be interested in featuring it or talking about it,

(01:29:49):
or you know, really recommending it. But I found one
that's that it's kind of tough to explain, but it's
really cool and it's very different. Joining me now, Maboud
and Nikki Zabettian. They are the creators of a device
called the Kinny. It's a wireless motion sensor and they're
going to explain why they came up with this and
what it could be used for. Welcome to the show,

(01:30:11):
Thank you, thank you to be here. Yeah, so, so
tell me what the Kinni is like. What is this
device exactly?

Speaker 9 (01:30:21):
Well, I can tell you that they it was inspired
by a family time during COVID. We had a lot
of together time with our three kids who are now
young adults, and we wrapped dinner. We were discussing the
news there had been another story of a young child
bringing a gun to school, and our youngest daughter told
us a story that happened years ago at a party.

(01:30:45):
She was there and the kid who was hosting the
party had shown everyone their dad's done, and she said
that many of the kids had held it, and we
were pretty shocked.

Speaker 10 (01:30:56):
And that got us just.

Speaker 9 (01:30:57):
Wondering if the parent, who even knew as child's had
access to the gun and permission to handle it. You know,
responsible gun owners know how important it is to store
their firearms safely on but their faced with this challenge.
How do they actually know that someone has attempted or
gained access to it?

Speaker 11 (01:31:19):
Like even biometric stapes have been known to fail, allowing.

Speaker 9 (01:31:22):
Any fingerprint to open them. There was a big recall
on Amazon recently. And all gun STAPs come with backup
keys or combinations to the locks. They have to be
stored somewhere, So how do you know if your child
has discovered those?

Speaker 11 (01:31:37):
And that's where our innovative device.

Speaker 10 (01:31:39):
Kini comes in. So yeah, and we thought about it,
and we decided that we could draw from our experience
in the tech industry and developed device that could address
these vuln their abilities and help parents keep their family safe.

Speaker 1 (01:31:54):
So it's a small it's a small device that basically
you can you can and put, you can place somewhere.
So it's got some sort of motion sensor inside and
when you place it wherever you place it, if it moves,
it will send you a text or an email that
movement has been detected. And this is a little bit

(01:32:15):
different than you know, you might get a motion sensor
motion detector as part of your smart home system, or
maybe even you know, something that tells you if a
drawer was opened. But this is really unique because it's
movement based.

Speaker 9 (01:32:27):
And so.

Speaker 1 (01:32:28):
Explain why you went with the movement based.

Speaker 2 (01:32:32):
Well, you know, we didn't want anything that required you
to wire your house or wire your drawers or.

Speaker 10 (01:32:38):
You know, like get a large company involved. We wanted
to need to just toss into a.

Speaker 2 (01:32:42):
Drawer or put it right on top of something, and
you know, have it detect the slightest movement, and you
know that would start.

Speaker 12 (01:32:51):
The whole whole process of you know, sending a message
to our cloud servers and then our cloud service will
send you a message and.

Speaker 2 (01:32:57):
It all takes under about I had ten seconds typically,
and it's it really is just a great standalone thing.
You don't have to have a fugere alarm system, you
don't have to have a contract with some alarm company.

Speaker 10 (01:33:11):
And it's it's the messages between you and the device.

Speaker 13 (01:33:14):
You know, you don't have an alarm company showing up
at your door to say, you know, you had an
alarm when we have to see what's going on.

Speaker 10 (01:33:21):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 9 (01:33:21):
Our goal was to really make a device that was
like effective, affordable and accessible. So all you need is
an SMS enabled device, which is smartphone, flip phone, even
a burner phone would work, and your existing Wi Fi.
And since there is no we didn't want a subscription
or an app required. You wanted to make it like

(01:33:41):
really simple, so you pay once and you're done.

Speaker 1 (01:33:44):
There are no hidden and how much is it? And
by the way, I know there's two of you, so
you're trying to split the microphone. If you can be
as close to your mic as possible, I want I
want to be able to hear you as best as possible.
How much is the kidney device.

Speaker 10 (01:33:57):
Hiding is sixty five MSRP.

Speaker 12 (01:34:00):
You can probably find yourself a discount on Amazon or
on our website if you're first time on buyer, but
the price blows down if you buy our multipacks, you know,
or we have three packs that we have flight packs
for people who have a lot of things that they
want to monitor.

Speaker 1 (01:34:15):
So I've been testing this at home. You know, I
placed it in like basically a drawer that you know,
every time you open the drawer, I get a message.
And so it's interesting because you think about the power
of this. So you can monitor all kinds of things,
and so you would know, let's say someone's snooping in

(01:34:35):
your home, right he would Let's say you have a babysitter.
I don't know you would know traditionally unless you had
a camera fixed on that or some sort of alarm
sensor on that, which is probably quite visible. What are
the implications of this, like, how are people using this?

Speaker 9 (01:34:53):
Well, you know, obviously the parents are our target audience
because there are main responsibilities to keep or children their
families safe, you know, putting it on a liquor cabinet,
a medicine cabinet. But even more so, like I know
of parents that have kids who are at that age
where they're addicted to their phones or video games. So
you could put a Kenny on top of the game controller,

(01:35:14):
or you can stash those phones in a drawer overnight,
and you can put Kenny in that drawer and you're
just telling your kids about it, and that's going to
deter them from even attempting to use either of those.
But really, aside from parents, you know, Kenny can be
used by anyone who has something they want to keep private.
I mean, people can use it to monitor their work

(01:35:37):
related documents. I know, people use it for their confidential
paperwork and their passports. Teachers have used it on their
supply closets and their desks. On Airbnb, owners use it
on the closet and their rental property that has their
personal belongings in it.

Speaker 11 (01:35:56):
And you can use it when you have saying large
events at your home or house guests.

Speaker 9 (01:36:01):
I mean, you know, you never know if the housekeeper
or a contractor is just going in a place that
they don't really need to be and you can't supervise
them every minute. You know, you're allowing them in your house,
but you're not following them around, so's there's just I mean.

Speaker 11 (01:36:17):
Really, the list goes on and on and on.

Speaker 1 (01:36:20):
And how long's the battery last? I know it's rechargeable.
How longs the battery last?

Speaker 10 (01:36:25):
This is something we're really proud of.

Speaker 14 (01:36:26):
The battery actually lasts over a year, close to do
two years with normal use. Normal use being you know,
half a dozen alerts today and once every.

Speaker 10 (01:36:39):
Two hours of checking.

Speaker 14 (01:36:41):
What the check in is is to tell the cloud
servers that the pikinna is still alive, the Wi Fi
network's still working, and you know the kid or whoever
you're monitoring hasn't like taken the thing and flushed it
down the toilet.

Speaker 1 (01:36:52):
I was going to say, isn't there like a new
mode that you're introducing to like let you know that
it's still working even if it hasn't seen movement in
a while.

Speaker 13 (01:37:00):
Well, so the thing that make sure it's still working
is built in through all the modes, and the two
modes that we have. A new mode is called stasis mode,
and it actually alerts you if it doesn't detect motion.
It isn't alerting you that the O pinny is unresponsible.

(01:37:20):
It's alerting me that the Kini is responsive and it
hasn't detected motions. So there's a little bit of nuance there.

Speaker 1 (01:37:26):
Okay, we already tell you that, you know, if something.

Speaker 10 (01:37:30):
Goes wrong and we haven't heard from the Kinnie, we
already notify you. But the statis mode is.

Speaker 2 (01:37:36):
Mostly for people who care about things that are supposed
to happen that aren't happening.

Speaker 11 (01:37:42):
Yeah, like, for example, on what if you have an
elderly parent that is maybe living with you or living alone, and.

Speaker 9 (01:37:50):
You want to make sure that they're taking their medicines,
that are opening their medicine cabinet every day, or maybe
you want to ensure that you're paid exitter it's actually
coming into by a day to feed and.

Speaker 10 (01:38:03):
Walk your dog.

Speaker 9 (01:38:04):
Or you can even use it to motivate you to exercise,
Like you could put it on your peloton or your
treadmill and it will alert you if you haven't touched
that thing.

Speaker 1 (01:38:13):
Oh my gosh, what if you use it to store
your clothes to hang them dry? Then I don't know,
that's a whole other use case. Okay, we've got to run.
But has this been fun? This experience of creating a
product and getting it out there. I mean, it's a
it's a unique product that you know, you have to
really kind of think about the use case scenario for
this thing. But it is very interesting and useful. Has

(01:38:35):
been a fun experience.

Speaker 10 (01:38:37):
Absolutely.

Speaker 12 (01:38:37):
We love waking up every day and and you know, handling,
you know, whether whether it's creating new features or talking
with our customers or doing marketing.

Speaker 10 (01:38:46):
You know, it's it's all a fun, fun little uh yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:38:50):
I mean the fact that it's like brand new and
people don't know, you know, they're not googling and looking
on Amazon for a wireless most in sensor. To do
the things that we're doing, we really rely on, like
you know, educating the public and getting the word out,
and so we really appreciate you having us on so
we can, you know, educate people and let them know
that Kinny is.

Speaker 10 (01:39:11):
Something that they need.

Speaker 1 (01:39:14):
Nikki and Maboud Zabedian, creators of the Kinni wireless motion Sensor,
thanks so much for coming on the show today. Appreciate it.

Speaker 11 (01:39:22):
Thank you so much much.

Speaker 1 (01:39:23):
All Right, the website, I will link it up online.
Go to rich on Tech dot tv. Hit the light
bulb you can get a link to the Kinny wireless
motion sensor. Coming up, we're going to open up the feedback.
You are listening to rich on Tech. Welcome back to
rich On Tech. Closing out the show, Let's let's get

(01:39:45):
through a couple of quick items before we get to
the feedbag. First off, eBay will stop accepting American Express
starting on August seventeenth. The decision was driven by the
high fees charged by American Express y US for processing
credit card transaction. Sounds like a little spat between these
two companies, but if you rely on American Express to

(01:40:07):
pay for your eBay stuff, you will no longer be
able to do that. As of August seventeenth, Max is
raising their prices. Max's ad free monthly subscription is now
seventeen dollars, the ultimate ad free is now twenty one dollars.
The annual plans are also going up. A lot of
people are now picking and choosing which service that they

(01:40:29):
subscribe to and dropping them based on the shows they're watching.
These prices just keep going up. Spotify also raising prices.
US subscribers will receive an email over the next month
explaining the changes. Individual plan basically is going up a
dollar now it is eleven twelve dollars up from eleven.
The duo plan is going to seventeen, up from fifteen,

(01:40:52):
the Family plan twenty dollars a month, up from seventeen,
and the student plan still remains the best deal in
town six dollars a month unchanged. This is the second
price increase within a year for Spotify, and the Better
Business Bureau says they have recorded a significant increase in
phishing reports, with over twenty three thousand reports since twenty

(01:41:15):
twenty one, in more than nine thousand last year alone.
Keep in mind these are just people reporting these phishing methods,
which include emails, texts, calls, voicemails, and even legitimate search
engine tricks. This is when you search something on a
webs on the on Google or any search engine, and
it tricks you into calling a phone number that's actually

(01:41:37):
leading to a scammer, or going to a website that
leads to a scammer. How to avoid phishing scams. Be
very cautious of unsolicited communications claiming suspicious activity on your
accounts or account problems. Look at the sender's email address,
check for any typos, generic language, or if it seems
like an odd website that could be strained that could

(01:41:59):
be a telltale sign. Avoid clicking on links or providing
financial information and response to unsolicited messages, and you can
report suspected fraud to the relevant authorities. Let's get to
the feedbag. I saved a message I actually got from
my credit card when I did a transaction on it.
It said, is this fraud? And I'm telling you the

(01:42:21):
email I got from my credit card looked very similar
to a fraud email you might get from an actual
scam artist and the text message they sent me. So
this is the thing that the fraud stirs do. They
send you an alert that looks very similar to what
you actually might get. All they do is take the
alert from Bank of America or Chase or any of

(01:42:43):
these other banks or American Express and they just engineer
it to look exactly the same. But it's leading to
their website. So to be very very careful anytime you
click a link on a text message or a website, anytime,
you just have to really really take very close look.
Now time for the feedbag segment. Feedback plus the mail

(01:43:06):
bag equals feedbag. These are the emails, the comments, and
the questions I've gotten from you. If you want to
submit yours, just go to Rich on tech dot tv
and hit contact. Haas from San Clemente writes in I
have a Google Voice number, but when I use it
on some sites, for example offer Up, they don't accept
the number and they will not send the verification code.
Thank you for your program educating us. Yes, a lot

(01:43:28):
of the services will not accept a Google Voice number
because it's voipe voiceover IP and these could be generated
in seconds and they could be used for fraud, especially banks.
They will not My bank will not text my Google
voice number. It will not do that. So the solution
is to use your real cell phone number, and that's
what they're trying to do on offer up. They're trying

(01:43:50):
to make sure you are an actual human and not
just someone trying to scam other people, so they want
to use a real phone number. You can also sign
up for a specific phone number, like from an app
called Burner, which can give you a phone number that
could accept these one time codes. Yeah, they're doing it
on purpose because they don't want you to be a
fraud star. Eleanor from Los Angeles writes in I have

(01:44:12):
a bunch of random old devices cell phones, tablets, Android
and Apple. What's the easiest way to dispose of them?
Do I need to wipe them clean?

Speaker 5 (01:44:20):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:44:20):
You should wipe them clean, although a lot of these
services will promise to wipe them safely for you, but
I would feel better doing it myself. Go into the
settings and do a factory reset, factory restore, factory reset.
Just google the name of the device plus factory reset
and you should get the instructions. You can take them
to best Buy. They do have limits on how many

(01:44:42):
you can take. Staples is a great place to take them.
Those are two very easy places to drop them off
and they will accept them. Gizmo Go is another website
you can go to and check and see if there's
any value to these devices. Gizmogo dot com. Best Way
also has a used electronics box. You buy the box

(01:45:04):
for like twenty twenty five or thirty dollars. I think
something like that. They ship this box to your house.
You dump all the old cables and cell phones and
tablets and stuff into this box. You ship it off.
Postage is paid and they will properly recycle that tech
Marian Tapanga rights in Hey Rich. Many times during Google searches,

(01:45:25):
I want to go back and look at previous information
I've found. How do you go back on a Google
Pixel phone? I find that you have to initiate the
search all over again. Go into Chrome on your phone,
hit the three dots in the upper right hand corner,
and you're gonna tap history. Once you tap history, you
can search through your history if you remember a keyword
on that website. You can also go to myactivity dot

(01:45:48):
Google dot com and search through your web history.

Speaker 3 (01:45:52):
There.

Speaker 1 (01:45:54):
Let's see Franklin from Butler, Pennsylvania rites in, thank you
so much for all the great info. Rich Well, thanks
for listening in Pennsylvania. And Pete writes in ghost Rees amazing,
Rich thank you for mentioning it. Pete. Yes, we mentioned
ghost Ree on the last We had an interview on
the last show. I actually downloaded it after the interview.

(01:46:14):
I've been using it ever since. It's great. It blocks ads,
it blocks trackers, does a lot of great stuff all
at once, and I haven't noticed many issues with it
on my computer. But again, if you're using any sort
of blocker or tracker blocker on your computer, if you
have a problem with the website, there is an option
to disable the blocker for that website so that you

(01:46:35):
can use it properly. All right, if you can believe it,
that's gonna do it. For this episode of the show.
You can find links to anything I mentioned on my website.
Just go to rich on tech dot tv. If you're
listening in real time, hit that light bulb. If you're
listening later or to the podcast, just scroll down to
where it said podcast and you will get links to
everything I mentioned on the show. You can also listen

(01:46:56):
to the show again. You can find me on social media.
I am at Rich on Tech and next week I
will give you the update of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference.
This is where they are going to reveal all the
new features coming to the iPhone, the iPad, the Apple Watch,
the maccomputers, the Apple Vision Pro, all of the Apple products.
You will find out what is coming soon to those

(01:47:19):
products via a free software update. Thank you so much
for listening. I know there are so many ways to
spend your time. I really do appreciate you spending it
right here with me. I look forward to nothing more
each week than well hanging out with my kids and
my family, but also being right here in this studio
talking to you about technology. Thanks to everyone who makes

(01:47:40):
this show possible. My name is Richdmiro. I will talk
to you real soon

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