LA Wildfires, CES 2025 Highlights & Top Landline Alternatives

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
A personal update on the wildfires in Los Angeles. Meta
makes a one eighty when it comes to moderating posts.
Coverage from CS twenty twenty five in Las Vegas, plus
your tech questions.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
What's going on?

Speaker 1 (00:14):
My name is Rich Damiro and this is Rich on Tech.
This is the show where I talk about the tech
stuff I think you should know about. It's also the
place where I answer your questions about technology. Now. I
believe that tech should be interesting, useful and fun. This week,
of course, in Los Angeles, tech took on an entirely
new meeting with the wildfires.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Here.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Not only did it help people stay connected and it
continues to do so, but there were vital apps and
services people relied on to not only keep tabs on
the fires, but also their homes and their lives. We're
going to open up the phone lines at triple eight
Rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to
two four one zero one because this is such a

(00:57):
special show today. I will pretty much take or entertain
any call. So if you want to give me an
update on your situation in Los Angeles, you have a
tech question, Kim will take your calls and we'll get
you on the air here, give me a call eight
eight eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven
four to two four one zero one. Email also open.

(01:19):
Just go to Rich on tech dot tv hit contact
you can contact me that way. Very excited for one
of my guests coming up this hour, Nick Russell. He
is the VP of operations at watch Duty. This is
the app that has been helping people stay informed during
the fires here in the LA area. This app has

(01:42):
seen a surge in downloads and so many people. This
is probably I think it became like the top app
in the app store because of this, and it just
it really has some incredibly helpful information. We'll have Nick
Russell join us here and talk about that app. Later
on in the show, a couple of folks from CS

(02:03):
twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Matt Swider of the shortcut dot com.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Will join me to talk about some of the stuff
he saw there, and lance Yulanoff, editor at large for
tech Radar, He will talk CS twenty twenty five as well. Now,
as you know, I am based in Los Angeles. This
was a really interesting week for me because I'm here
in Los Angeles now, but I had to come back
early from Las Vegas. So CS twenty twenty five happened

(02:30):
in Las Vegas this week. It's pretty much the largest
tech event of the year, with the exception of the
iPhone launch in September. This is where over one hundred
thousand people descend upon Las Vegas to see the latest
and greatest from all the tech companies. Well, let me
give you a timeline of exactly what happened, because, as
you know, I'm also a reporter at KTLA Television here

(02:53):
in Los Angeles, which has been wall to wall with
these fires that broke out here since basically two Tuesday,
I believe. So let me explain the timeline. So I'm
in CS in Las Vegas. You get out there early,
so last Sunday I was on my way there and
Monday morning, so Sunday already the CS stuff starts. Monday,
it all goes on, and around eleven am on Monday,

(03:16):
I'm just scrolling through first thing in the morning on my.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
X and what do I see.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
I see a post from the National Weather Service Los
Angeles and this post is like I'm rubbing my eyes
because I'm like, wait, what life threatening and destructive windstorm
coming to the LA area. And I said, there's no way,
this must be a mistake, you know, And when you're
scrolling through X sometimes things are parody accounts or fake
or you know, nonsense, and so I'm just double checking.

(03:42):
I'm like, where what I mean? This is National Weather Service?
Like this can't be fake. And I texted to my wife.
She's like, I haven't heard anything about this. I look
around online, no mention whatsoever. So I repost it on
my Instagram and just say, hey, you know, be aware
of this, but I'm in CS and we continue our coverage. Well,
then all of a sudden, the fire start the next

(04:03):
day around ten thirty am, and we're already about by
this time, this is Tuesday, We're already three days into
our CS coverage. So we had one story that aired
on KTLA, we had a lot of coverage already going
on that we've edited, and next thing you know, it's like, no,
we're going.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Wall to wall.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
So my photographer and I, who you know, we both
live in Los Angeles, made the decision to stay in
Las Vegas.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
It was safer there at that point.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Checked on our families, they were both okay, not in
harm's way, and we just continue to do our work
while we kind of monitor the situation, and I'm not kidding.
Words spread through CS very quickly about what was happening
because all the TVs and things were tuned to what
was happening in LA. And every single person that came
up to me if they saw KTLA am my badge,

(04:49):
or saw Los Angeles rich, how you doing, how's your
family doing?

Speaker 2 (04:53):
How is you know?

Speaker 1 (04:53):
How's everyone in Los Angeles? And the answer was I
don't really know. So my wife happens to be from
the West side of Los Angeles, went to school in
the Pacific Palisades, and so many people. I mean our wedding,
one of our wedding showers, was held at a home
in the Pacific Palisades. I mean this is an area

(05:14):
that from before this happened, nobody even heard of the Palisades.
I mean, you've heard of Beverly Hills. That is a
really upscale neighborhood that the entire world has heard of. Well,
Pacific Palisades is very similar, except nobody's heard of it
until now, and of course for the wrong reasons. But
this is an enclave, a very wealthy area of Los Angeles,

(05:36):
you know, on the side of a mountain, and it
is you know, ocean views from many of the homes.
There a lot of generational wealth, a lot of people
that have made been very successful in their lives, and
this is where they chose to live.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
And it was an amazing place.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
And to see the stories and to hear the stories
of destruction there was just heartbreaking. And it still is
and we're still learning now. Some friends we have, their
homes are fine. Some people we know their homes are
completely lost. And imagine, by the way, a lot of
these people had almost no no time to get out
of there, like we're talking. They just left with the

(06:15):
clothes on their back, and that's it. Imagine being in
that situation.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
What do you do?

Speaker 1 (06:20):
What do you take out of your house in that time?
You're not even thinking clearly, You're literally going to pick
up your kids at school and getting out of dodge
and you come back a week later, three days later,
to even if you can see your home, if you're
able to get back to.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
It just gone.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Or your neighborhood completely gone, or every house around you
is gone and your house is standing. Now, how do
you feel with that? So these are the stories that
I'm getting now. My wife also works at a school
where a lot of the students live in the Palisades,
and so she just all day. She was crying for
three days straight, getting the emails from her students about
their homes and their situation. And you know, think about this.

(07:01):
These are people who go from the absolute upper echelon
of life, right they have everything they need, they have
everything they want, They've got a beautiful family and home
and place to live, to absolutely the worst possible situation.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
You can imagine. Imagine that just for a second.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
Now for me, I continue to cover CS and we
went on and this this goes to the dichotomy of
Los Angeles as well. So in La, you know, the
tech started coming in for me, you know, like, hey,
rich are you okay? Is your family okay? How are
things going? And La is a big place and at
the beginning we were fine. You know, our home was

(07:41):
not in any danger. Where we live was very safe.
That did change yesterday. But you know, we're getting texts
and emails from friends everywhere, you know, just asking. And
here's the interesting thing about La. La is a very
big place. And I was I was worried about, you know,
driving back to LA from Las Vegas because I wasn't sure,
you know, Or the freeway is going to be shut down?

(08:03):
Are the roads going to be impacted? Am I gonna
be stuck in my electric car for hours on end
on a freeway that I can't move on and my
battery goes dead? I mean, these are considerations. We got
a lot of electric cars here in La too, or California,
and so this is the the idea of Los Angeles.
There's so many places, right, so you may live in
Los Angeles and not be affected by this at all.

(08:26):
I mean emotionally, of course, physically with smoke. Visually, I
mean you could see the smoke from these fires from
our home and from many homes across Los Angeles.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
That's how big they are.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
But you know, you may still go to work, you
may still My wife, you know, when she finally left
the house, she drove past the CPK, So I can't
believe I was just seen all these people eating dinner
in there. You know, life is normal. I mean, it's
it's weird to think about that, but life goes on
in different places, in different pockets. My mom watching at home,
you know, twenty four to seven, said she watched the

(09:00):
news from five pm to one am couldn't take her
eyes off the TV screen.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
I understand it.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
These are images that we you see in movies, and
here they are happening in real life to real people
and really affecting their lives in a way that nobody
ever wants to experience. Driving into the studio today, you know,
last night we were uncertain if we were even going

(09:25):
to be able to do this show from the studio.
Originally I planned on doing the show from Las Vegas,
and you know that was of course derailed and came
back here, and then all of a sudden it was
a question of are we doing the show from here
because can we get into the studio. And then my producer,
you know, Bobo, you know, he was not able to
get here in an easy way. He had to go

(09:46):
around in circles because he couldn't get through all the roadblocks.
And driving to work, I mean it looked like one
of those apocalyptic movies with the National Guard and the
police blocking almost every road to the mountain. I mean big,
big equipment. We're talking army equipment, military equipment. This is
the kind of stuff that you know, people with large guns.

(10:08):
You're just sitting there going, wait, what world. Is this
what is happening right now? And by the way, in
these moments, you realize how much control the government has
over you because here's your home in your neighborhood and
you are not allowed to go there. Think about that
for a second. There's your home, you have no idea
if it's standing or not, and you are not allowed

(10:29):
to go in. And I understand it's for the safety
of everyone, it's for the looters that we've seen, it's
for a million and one reasons. But think about that,
your home you cannot check on. Imagine what that feels
like for a second. So it's been interesting in Los Angeles,
let's put it that way. On this show, we're obviously

(10:50):
going to do a mix of things, right so this
is a show about technology. I'm going to give you
as many tech updates as I can. We're going to
talk about the wildfires because that is what people are
talking about right now. This is what people This is
top of mind and there's a lot to go through.
We were packing our go bags last night. Where do
you start? Is everything scanned? Where's our wedding album? Where's

(11:11):
our driver's license, where's our passport? What do we need
to bring if we can never come back here eight
eight eight rich one oh one eight eight seven four
to two four one zero one. My name is rich Dumuro.
This is rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech.
Rich DeMuro here talking technology of course, uh talking wildfires

(11:33):
as well. City of Los Angeles in an interesting place
right now. But what I will tell you is people
come together in situations like this, and it really gives
me a lot of hope for humanity because not only
do the big companies you know, try to do what
they can, but I think just individual people.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
I mean my.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Wife, you know, her school started, you know, donation center,
and I saw this over and over on Instagram. Various
places started donation drives, and just the amount of things
that people brought to donate is just incredible. People want
to help. My friend Jefferson Graham he mentioned today in

(12:15):
his newsletter. You know, he talks about all the stuff
with taking pictures and backing up your photos. You talked
about all that, but at the end of his newsletter
he mentioned, you know, a quick note about the supposed
death of traditional TV right because everyone's streaming. But think
about this, what did you tune into to learn about
the fires. Did you go to Netflix, did you go

(12:37):
to Amazon Prime? No, you probably went to KTLA, or
you probably went to your local radio station, or you
probably went to one of the other broadcast stations. So
I've been working in TV now for twenty years. Yeah,
it's a long time, and I'm not kidding.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
I remember.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
I remember this like it was yesterday, my first day
up in Yakima, Washington, and TVO was just sort of
coming on the horizon and everyone said, that's it. TV
is over, TVO done, And they said, now you know what,
local news probably be okay because people like to watch
it live.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
And that's true.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
How many times have you recorded the news to watch
it later? Probably not very much. Let's go to Raoul
in Arcadia. Raoul, you're on with Rich.

Speaker 4 (13:19):
Hi, Rich, thanks for taking my call.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Absolutely, what's happening.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
We're in the middle of it there in Arcadia, and
a lot of our workmates all live in the fire
area and have no power. What I noticed as an
amateur prepper, I carry lots of portable power banks, solar
powered nonsolar powered. I have some in my car and
many at home. But I noticed surgeons that couldn't go

(13:43):
to their homes sitting at the hospital because they're on
ten percent power and they have to charge before they
go home because they have nowhere no way of charging
their phones at home, and they're woefully unprepared for having
no power at home. Nobody seems to have poor power banks.
So now everybody's scrambling asking me for information or advice

(14:05):
what to get and all that. And I was wondering,
if you have any suggestions.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Yeah, great, great question.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
This was something that in our house we were I
was like told my wife isid, Hey, you got to
charge up the uh the portable backup you know device
to weve got like one of those big ones. So
just being at CS this, you gotta be prepared. I mean,
I'm not kidding. When I go out to a trade
show or a football game, I make sure that my
phone is at one hundred percent no matter what, and

(14:32):
I put it on low power immediately. So if you're
in a situation like this, like anything that could happen,
you need to be prepared. You have to have a
backup battery. Now there are many of them, there's mint,
there's whole house backups. Now at this point, the company
that really made these popular Jackerie. They were all over

(14:54):
cs and these things are giant, giant battery So imagine
the batter the portable battery pack you have for your smartphone,
but just a lot bigger. It's got every plug imaginable.
And the new ones come with solar panels, so you
can set up those solar panels and have this thing recharged.
And I will tell you solar does not charge things

(15:15):
very quickly, so this is not something that you're gonna
just like say, oh, it's gonna be at zero percent,
let me put those panels out. No, you want to
have this thing charged up first off. So Jackerie, they
were telling me, you know, one of their best sellers,
they've got portable power stations and those start at let's
see what price. I think they were telling me that
some of their most populars are like five, six, seven,

(15:36):
eight hundred dollars. So yeah, I mean they go up
to thirty five hundred dollars for the giant rolling ones.
They've got the portable ones that are two thousand dollars.
Then they've got smaller just keeps going down. The cheapest
one they've got is one hundred and twenty nine dollars,
so again, get one of these things and talk to
your power company. Look on their website. They may have
a rebate that lets you purchase these for free, depending

(15:57):
on where you live. So Jackerie is a big goal
zero goalzero dot com. They make a lot of the
portable power stations with solar. They were an early early
adopter of solar power and solar generators and power banks.
A lot of people that can't know about this company,
but Goal zero is another big one. Eco Flow. I

(16:19):
actually have this hat right here. Let me grab this hat.
So I've got this hat right here from Ecoflow and
this hat I picked up at CES. It's a solar
powered hat. So I'm putting it on and you see
this thing. Bobo's laughing, but it's it's I mean, I'm
not kidding you.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Put this thing on.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
It looks like a you know, kind of a big
floppy hat. It's got solar panels all around it. You
plug your phone in, you walk around, two hours, will
charge up your phone.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
I look like a witch, like a witch. That is
a witch hat.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
But hey, you should post that on social media. So
I will post it on social media. So look at
rich on Tech. I'll post it I'll take a picture
during the break. But I'm not kidding. You have this
thing and you don't have to worry about charging your phone.
I mean it's a solar powered hat. This thing is
about one hundred bucks. That's from Ecoflow. So check out
those brands and please anchors another one. Just get a

(17:12):
portable battery for your smartphone. Make sure it has USBC
charge them up. Make sure they are fully charged. These
things lose about five percent a year in charge, so
charge it up.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
It should stay charged up. Coming up, we're going to talk.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
To uh the watch duty app, which has been a
lifeline in this situation. Welcome back to rich on tech
rich Demiro here talking technology. Eight e' eight rich one
oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
One zero one.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
I know the lines are jammed today. I can see
that a lot of folks calling in. So if you
want to send an email, just go to the website
rich on tech dot TV. Hit contact. You can send
an email there. I will read it, and you can
also go to the website for show notes. So I
just meant a bunch of the portable battery and chargers.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
You can go there.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
Rich on tech dot TV hit the light bulb icon
to get more information about that.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
Let's see.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
My next guest is someone I'm really excited to bring on.
Nick Russell is VP of operations at watch Duty. This
is an app that has just been just invaluable for
people keeping up with the fires and learning about them.
And this app really really has just had so many
downloads in the past week or so. Now, I don't

(18:32):
want to toot my own horn, but I did go
back in my notes and I looked at the first
time I mentioned this app to my followers, and that
was on December twentieth, So thankfully you had the heads up,
but I know a lot of people are just discovering it.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
Now.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Let's bring on Nick Russell, VP of Operations at watch Duty. Nick,
thanks so much for joining me today.

Speaker 5 (18:53):
Yeah, thanks for having me rich and appreciate your ongoing
support as well.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
Yeah, I mean, it's just incredible what this app has done. First,
just explain what watch Duty is.

Speaker 5 (19:04):
Yeah, So, watch Duty is a free emergency learning service
that's available through the app Store for free, as well
as online at app dot watch duty dot org, and
our primary goal is to give you actionable information on
disasters occurring around you when seconds count, and right now
that's specifically wildfire, but in the future we want to

(19:24):
expand that.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
So tell me about the last week. What's been going
on with the Los Angeles downloads. I mean, obviously, you
know you probably saw hundreds of thousands of new downloads.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
What have you been holding up?

Speaker 6 (19:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (19:38):
No, I mean it's like where do I start. This
week has been just monumental, but it's so hard to
focus on how well Watch Duty has been doing and
serving when I think about the devastation in southern California.
But since the beginning of the Palisades fire, we have
had just short of two million new downloads of the app,

(20:01):
bringing our total downloads to five million, and our active
user as well over ten million.

Speaker 7 (20:07):
And so this.

Speaker 5 (20:09):
Week we're probably say that we've successfully sent out two
hundred and twenty million push notifications to the southern California area.
Just trying to keep everybody informed as this is a
very dynamic and fluid.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Situation that is wild Oh my gosh. Okay, So, and
I'm looking at the app store right now on the iPhone.
At least you guys are featured right on the homepage.
And I don't know if I can see the top
downloads at this point, but I'm assuming you are probably
up there in the top downloads.

Speaker 5 (20:40):
Yeah, actually it's it's unimaginable. But we spent most of
the week ahead of CHATVPT as the number one free
app in the app store, which is just mind boggling
to think of being ahead of chat GPT.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
That is wild. That is really well.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
It goes to show that when people need, you know, trusted,
actionable information, you know, this is where they turn. Okay,
so explain how the app is updated, because this is
like a volunteer effort, or explain that whole situation, like
how is this app getting its information?

Speaker 5 (21:12):
Yeah, this is a bit long winded, but it's certainly
worth it. So the way that we operate is we
have a team of active retired firefighters, dispatchers, first responders,
and radio enthusiasts that are operating twenty four to seven
behind the scenes in Slack. That's our internal communications system,
and so within Slack, we have signals coming from a

(21:33):
plethora of sources of potential new wildfire ignitions. Once we
identify that there is in fact a wildfire that has begun,
either through radio traffic or our other partnerships that we have.
We begin posting that in the Watch Duty app and
we start telling a story from the start of ignition
until the threat passes or the last engine leaves. And

(21:53):
we do this much like sports reporting, so that people
get those granular details like the fires five eight, and
it has a rapid rate of spread. Structures are immediately
threatened on Corona Drive, for instance, and so then people
can take that information and start acting on their own emergency.
And then we continue that story as the fire evolves

(22:14):
and escalates, and usually de escalation comes sooner rather than later.
But fortunately with these wind events, that's not something that
we've seen happen a lot.

Speaker 6 (22:23):
Yet.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
How many states are you operating in currently?

Speaker 5 (22:27):
We operate in twenty two states.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
And so that's just and that's all just people that
are kind of what you just said, monitoring things and
updating this stuff.

Speaker 5 (22:36):
Yeah, so the way the process generally happens is folks
right into us, maybe they're retiring from the fire service,
or they have some time in their off days. Same
rings true with dispatchers as well as a radio enthusiast.
And then what we do is we do a panel interview,
a full background check, and then we bring them onto
the team. And these are all a bunch of like
minded people, people helping people. They just want to get

(22:58):
this information out. Many of us, including myself, live in
the wildland, so we know what it's like to be evacuated,
and we know the information we're looking for and we've
identified those challenges and so that's the stuff that we're
looking to get to communities is just basic information that's
clear and easy to understand, accurate and timely.

Speaker 1 (23:19):
Now, speaking of that, what do you guys qualify as
sort of the critical alert?

Speaker 2 (23:24):
You know?

Speaker 1 (23:24):
How on the iPhone there's like a feature where alerts
can break through if they are deemed like from a
critical nature?

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Are you is?

Speaker 1 (23:31):
Are your notifications classified as that? Like if I went
to sleep? You know, here, here's the big question we
had last night. You know, we were in the area
where you might have to evacuate, and so we're like, well,
wait a second, how do you go to sleep? Like,
what do you when do you wake up? What do
you how do you know when it's time to go?

Speaker 5 (23:47):
Yeah, no, that's a great question and it's certainly a challenge.
And so we are approved to deliver critical alerts that
being said that it's not something that we have yet done,
not because we don't want to. We just want to
find an explainable balance of when we send a critical
alert versus when we don't. So that's something I anticipate

(24:09):
coming out this I want to say this upcoming fire season,
but this one hasn't ended yet, but we anticipate this
into Q two of twenty twenty five, hopefully at the
start of the next fire season.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
What inspired the creation of this app?

Speaker 5 (24:25):
So, our co founder and CEO, John Clark Mills, had
a rich history in tech. He's developed many software companies
and sold those and so he moved to a rural
area in northern Sonoma County here in the North Bay,
and about six months after he moved in, he experienced
several events where helicopters are flying over dropping water, he's

(24:47):
seeing smoke, and he's going all over the place trying
to find information, and at times he finds bits and pieces,
but it's really difficult. And then finally, really the genesis
of WATCHD came when he was evacuated to the Wallbridge
fire and when he left, he started looking back trying
to find out where the fire had started, where it
was going evacuation resources, and after the fourth website and

(25:09):
social media platform that he visited and finally got a
piece of the story together, he said to himself, man,
there's kind of be a better way to do this,
And so he learned more about wild land suppression and
response and then set out to build Watch Duty, and
just one year later it was born with the original
three counties. And so this has really become a labor

(25:29):
of love for all of us. We all started as
volunteers in the wildland, experiencing these things and then taking
our experiences and building.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Off of them to help other people.

Speaker 5 (25:39):
And you know that's obviously grown tremendously since August and
twenty one to today, but it's always been a passion
of all of ours to help folks.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
Are you seeing a lot of donations or new memberships
because you know this is all free for the most part.
Are people stepping up to sort of support your mission here?

Speaker 8 (26:00):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (26:00):
I know people have stepped up fantastically. The memberships are
always the baseline, easiest way to support ensuring the app
stays free forever and it will never have ads in
it regardless, but those membership levels help with that.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
And then you know, if folks can visit.

Speaker 5 (26:15):
Watch duty dot org forward slash donate, those donations are tremendous.
You know, we're one hundred percent nonprofit and we rely
on that stuff to remain in operation. We're certainly not
going anywhere anytime soon, but donations are certainly welcome to
the suburb.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
Any advice you want to give to users that are
using this app during these emergency situations.

Speaker 5 (26:37):
I want to take it a little bit broader. Watch
Studio is a great resource and I highly encourage everyone
to utilize it, download it, live by it, share it
with your friends. We will we will be here twenty
four to seven to help you. But this fire is
a wake up call because stopping devastating wind driven wildfires
is no easy task and it's not something that we're

(26:59):
going to overnight. And so having a plan and making
preparations and advance of these events well in advanced seasons
and advance is extremely important. And developing plans with your
family for how you will act when these fires begin,
whether it's in the middle of the day, the middle
of the night, having a meeting location so that you're
not searching for loved ones. I think that's super important

(27:22):
and everybody taking this as a learning point and taking
those steps I think is a really good idea.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
Yeah, great advice.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
As last night we were scrambling to find you know,
the locks to our safes and kind of like the
passports and where everything was and where our wedding album was.
I mean, you don't want to be doing that at
the last minute. So I know, growing up in my family,
my dad is a roofer. He always had a plan
for us to escape the house if there's ever a fire,

(27:50):
and so we had this like ladder that would like
roll down the side of the house. And of course
we were scared, very scared. When he rolled that thing
out and said this is how you get out of
the house, We're like, yeah, for you to say, mister ruffer,
but for us, you know, we're not walking down this
ladder that was gonna you know, all right. The website
is once again, tell me the website watchduty dot org.

Speaker 5 (28:11):
Yep, Watchdudy dot org.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
It's available on iOS and Android. Uh. It's also available
through the web browser, so download the app, turn on
those updates. Nick Russell, VP of operations at Watch Judy,
thanks so much for.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
Joining me today.

Speaker 5 (28:26):
Thank you Rich take care.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
Thanks for everything you guys have done eight eight eight
rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to
two four one zero one. More of your calls rich
on tech dot TV. Welcome back to rich on Tech
Rich DeMuro here talking technology at eighty eight rich one
O one eight eight eight seven four to two four

(28:47):
one zero one. The website for the show rich on
Tech dot TV. We've been talking a lot about the wildfires,
a lot about technology and its role in all of this.
Nothing will replace your home, nothing will replace the memories lost.
And I am thinking of everyone that has been impacted

(29:09):
by this. I mean really really just everyone knows someone
right that is impacted by this. And so no matter what,
even if your home is still safe and sound, you're
thinking about how you can donate, how you can support
your friends, their families, anyone. And I do love that
aspect of our world that people do come together during

(29:30):
these times. Now, don't get me wrong, there's a lot
of finger pointing, there's a lot of complaining, there's a
lot of blaming, and that's always going to be there.
But at the end of the day, what I see
is the good in all of this, and people really
do want to help each other. Let's go to Susan
in Santa Monica. Susan, you're on with Rich.

Speaker 9 (29:50):
Hey, Rich, thank you so much for a great show,
and thank you for the question the gentleman posed about
backup power and your great answer.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
Thank you.

Speaker 9 (29:58):
So I'm in Santa Monica. I've never felt the need
until now to get a smartphone. It was not a
good feeling the other night when I thought I may
have to get out of here, and knowing I do
not have connection to the internet. What is the simplest, easiest,
basic phone that I might get. It could be a

(30:20):
flip could I don't what do you think the basic, simplest,
easiest phone. So if I had to go, and it'll
be for emergencies only, I do not need to use it.

Speaker 3 (30:29):
All the time.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
Do you want a smartphone or a flip phone? I don't.

Speaker 9 (30:33):
You know what, just as long as I can get
to the Internet when I leave, okay.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
Then you want a smartphone. Flip phone is going to
be really tricky with the internet. So I would say
a smartphone, okay, and I'd go with the simple smartphone.
And what I do is I would go something like
I mean, you could go you can go with an iPhone.
Obviously that's going to be, you know, the gold standard
of phones. But those are also going to be expensive.
So if you're talking you're only going to use this

(30:58):
thing once in a while, you may not need to
do that. But if I was going to recommend an iPhone,
I'd probably say just get a refurbished iPhone, something that's inexpensive.
You can go on Amazon renewed and look up the
iPhones that they sell there. They sell refurbished iPhones and
they're a little bit older, so they're a little bit
less expensive. And so that's that's one aspect. Let me

(31:20):
just see what they're apple, what their iPhones are going for.
So you can get an iPhone twelve for two hundred
and fifty bucks, you get an iPhone eleven. I may
not go iPhone eleven. That might be a little bit
too old. I go, you know, they've got an iPhone
fourteen for four hundred dollars. So they've got an se
second generation for one hundred and thirty eight dollars, So

(31:41):
you can get a cheap iPhone. Contrary to popular belief,
Yes you can buy a cheap iPhone. We're talking under
four hundred dollars under three hundred, under two hundred.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
So that's if you want an iPhone.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
The reason I'd say iPhone is just because it's you
got the accessories, it's gonna work, it's going to be simple.
People know how to use it if you need to
ask for help. So that's number one. And then what
I would do is just buy a prepaid plan, so
I would just pay for the year in advance, So
something like a Mint Mobile, you want to pay for

(32:12):
the entire year all at once, and that way you
don't have to think about paying for the plan, you know,
month to month, just pay for the whole year at once.
And they've got plans that start at let's see, five
gigabytes fifteen dollars a month. So if you buy twelve
months twelve times fifteen, one hundred and eighty dollars up front,

(32:35):
so you can do that. Wow, Okay, you can get
unlimited right now if you pay for the Wow. That's
an incredible deal. Unlimited right now on Mint mobiles fifteen
dollars a month for twelve months. If you pay for
that one hundred and eighty dollars, you have unlimited data
for twelve months. That's a great deal. That's just a
limited time offer. Right now, I'm just looking at their website.
That's news to me, so I would do that. You

(32:57):
can also, if you want, you can go to a
retailer like a Walmart and buy like a SIM there.
But the thing is most of these phones have eSIMs
and you can just activate them right there. The other
one that might work is Mobile X because they have
a plan that's really cheap. They've got a plan that
starts at like four dollars a month, and so you

(33:18):
can get that plan and you only pay for the
data that you use, and so that may be a
cheap way to sort of just have this phone running
without paying a lot. But I personally like the idea
of just paying in advance for the whole year. So
that's what I would do. And again, if you want
to look at an Android side of things, I would

(33:40):
say the Pixel. So I know I talk about Pixel
all the time, but I just think it's a very
simple phone. It works, and they've got a couple different models.
And actually Google just started selling Pixel renewed so refurbished,
so let me look at what their prices are. So
they just opened up a certified refurbished Pixel store on
the Google Store. So you've got the Pixel seven Pro,

(34:05):
which is pretty new. That's that's starting at six twenty nine.
So that's too expensive for what you're talking about. But
you can go with the refurbished Pixel six A for
two hundred and fifty dollars and that's again that is outright.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
You don't have to pay monthly.

Speaker 1 (34:19):
You don't have to think about, you know, how much
you're paying for this phone every month, because the idea
for you, Susan, is that you want to have this
phone and service ready to go. So all you have
to do is charge this thing up, keep it charged up,
and that's that's what you need. And you mentioned the battery.
Get a portable battery pack. Make sure that you have
that charged up as well, so that way you always
have this phone at the ready. And I will say

(34:41):
throughout this time, the service providers have been doing a
pretty good job of the connectivity in the areas. I mean, obviously,
if you're in the real burn areas, that area has
been trickier than others. But you know, surrounding La, the
networks have withstood a lot and they've these companies are
brought in a lot of additional kind of what do

(35:03):
they call them, cows sells on wheels, and now that
you even have satellite connectivity as well, that is one
aspect I will talk about after the break, is the
satellite connectivity that we are now getting into and it's
making staying connected a whole lot easier in situations like this.
T Mobile has it, Apple has it, Pixel has it,

(35:26):
Amazon starting it. I'll tell you all about that coming
up right here on rich On Tech. Welcome back to
rich On Tech. Richdmuro here hanging out with you, talking technology,
obviously giving you lots of updates on tech's role in
helping folks out with these wildfires, getting them information, getting

(35:47):
them updates, getting them to safety, keeping them connected. There's
just a whole lot to talk about here today on
the show. But I was at and I am going
to get to the satellite connectivity and how Ate and
T Verizon Mobile, Uber Lift, all these different companies have
responded in the wake of these wildfires here in Los Angeles.
But I do want to talk about CS for a

(36:09):
bit because that's where I was this week and everyone
there very very well aware of what was happening in
Los Angeles.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
But there was a lot to see.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
You know, this is the one of the largest tech
events of the year, certainly one of the largest tech
trade shows. I think the only one that may be
bigger by people is IFA in Berlin. But that show
you're allowed to bring friends and family. This show in
Las Vegas is not open to the public. So they
get over one hundred and thirty thousand people to Las
Vegas that are all in the industry. They're all tech

(36:40):
folks either working as media in you know, salespeople, marketing people, startups,
just everyone that's buyers.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
I mean, there's so many.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
And every single person that came up to me was
asking about how Los Angeles was faring, how I personally
was faring, and so, like I said, my post La
has always been ready for its close up. We just
really never expected it to look like this. I mean,
what a way to put a city on the map, right.
But here are some of the things I saw at

(37:10):
CS twenty twenty five that I thought were interesting. First up,
AI powered robots. So Samsung they have this thing called Bali.
It looks like a ball, It's a robot. It rolls
around your house. Set for release in twenty twenty five,
it can interact with your smart home devices, it can
perform household tasks. It can even project video and images

(37:32):
onto surfaces. So it's all controlled via voice. And we
didn't know if this was actually gonna come out or not,
but it is now. This was really interesting. If you
have a robot vacuum in your house, you know how
it gets stuck on like a sock or something that's
just like standing in front of it or sitting on
the ground. So this robo Rock vacuum, the Z seventy,
has a robot arm. So this arm pops out of

(37:56):
the top of the vacuum and picks up the item
and deposits it somewhere else. I mean, it looks like
something out of a sci fi movie. But this apparently
is coming out and robo Rock is a popular brand
of vacuums other than Rumba, and so I saw this
thing in action and it was wild. They just kept
going up and down and up and down, and.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
It turns around.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
I mean, it really has a whole articulating little robot arm.
There AI companion robots. I think these are kind of silly,
at least at the offset, because they it's just like, okay,
it's like a Teddy Rockspin but with AI. So this
one Maroumi. This one was a there's no point to
this robot except to spark conversation. So it looks like

(38:39):
a little sloth that grips onto your purse and it
just sits there and it's not really it doesn't do
anything except just move its head left and right, up
and down. It looks very like lifelike, like it's very emotional,
but it's just there to spark conversation. So they say that,
you know, people are in their own world nowadays, and
someone sees this on your purse, what is that? And

(39:00):
then you might talk with that person. Then another one
is called roe Pet, and this one had led eyes,
like little screens for eyes led displays, and you know,
this has CHATCHYBT built in so you can pet it
and it'll make little noises and react to your warmth
and just kind of be a companion robot for you.
Cold Snap is an instant ice cream machine, so think

(39:22):
ca cup machine, but for frozen desserts. So you can
make smoothies, you can make ice cream, you can make
frozen yogurt, protein shakes, whatever you want.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
You put the pod in takes two minutes.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
It cools it down, instantly, freezes it spits out the
tree under two minutes. Now, this is a very expensive
system three thousand dollars, but they are working on a
system for the home right now. To imagine this would
be for like a car dealership. And I tried the
vanilla ice cream. It was delicious, and the inventor told
me he got the idea from a six year old
when she or his daughter. I afrigat how she was,

(39:53):
but she's like, how come we can't do this for
ice cream? I'm watching him make the cake cup. He said,
let me try it a mini hologram box. So you
stand in front of a screen and next thing you know,
you're in this little box in three D as a hologram.
This is from Hollow Connects and it's a mini hologram box.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
Again.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
I think it was about three thousand dollars. But the
idea is that you would go somewhere and this would
either be a conversation spark, you know, or a customer
service person could be in there, and you know, it's
just one more way to kind of communicate versus the
flat FaceTime view. This is now three D so you
don't need special glasses or anything. A sus showed off
the zen Book A fourteen. This was a super lightweight laptop,

(40:34):
less than two and a half pounds. I picked this
thing up. I thought it was one of those fake
laptops you would see at like an open house, like
that they have on the desk, and it's like one
of those props. That's how light it fell, and that
has all the new AI features. So that's really cool.
This I absolutely want. It's called the Plantiform. It's a
high tech planter. So this thing looks like an alien
space capsule crashed down into your home and is growing plants.

(40:58):
So it uses fog ponics, not water. It uses a
mist of fog to grow the plants. And it just
looks really cool. So you put again everyone's running with
this idea of the cakeup pod. So you put a
little pod in the machine that has plants and soil
and nutrients, or maybe not soil because I think it's
all hydroponics. But you put it in there and it

(41:19):
grows the plant, and it's supposed to be easier than
any of the other hydroponic plant growers out there.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
And I want this thing.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
I think it was a little expensive though, maybe six
hundred dollars, but definitely a conversation starter because you see
all this fog coming out of it and it just
looks cool. If you love your pet, you got to
get them the pet Cube UV filtration water fountain. So
they've had water fountains for pets for a long time.
This one has a UV filter, so it actually cleans
the water, kills all the bacteria inside, letting your cat

(41:50):
or dog drink super pure water. I mean, when I
was a kid, I used to drink out of the hose,
but you know, we can't do that anymore, even with
our pets pawport. This is a smart pet door. So
I didn't realize, but if you live in somewhere like
Arizona or something, you might have little unwanted critters that
come into your house through the pet door.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
So this is a smart pet door.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
You put a little bluetooth beacon on your pets collar
and only they can come in or out, and you
can also set curfews. You can say you can only
go in or out during these times, and only that
animal can open up the pet door. And it's all
high tech and smart and you get the reports and things.
That's the Pawport smart pet door, and it fits over

(42:32):
your standard pet door, so it's like a retrofit kind
of thing. Now, these were really cool. The x Real
augmented reality glasses. I've heard about these for years. I've
never really tried them. They have a new version, but
think it's like the easiest augmented reality glasses I've ever tried.
You put the glasses on, They've got little screens inside.
You plug them into your smartphone or your computer using

(42:53):
a standard USBC connection, and next thing you know, your
phone screen is projected in front of you. It's hovering
in a giant screen. I want these, I want these.
I want these. These I will use on the plane,
I will use these on the couch. I will just
sit there. It's like having your phone with all of
your apps and everything you already know, just on a
bigger screen, so you can actually control your phone and

(43:15):
see what's happening on this big giant screen projected. Really
really cool. I think they start around maybe three to
five hundred dollars, but just the technology, the price is
just going to continue to come down. But really really cool.
X Reel Let's see Samsung was showing off their latest
Frame TV, so is Amazon. They were showing off both
of these smart TVs double as artwork when they're not

(43:37):
in use. So that's kind of like the new thing
about TVs. You never have to turn them off. They
will just show like a screen saver when you're not
using them. I'll be honest, Samsung has this technology down.
When you look at this screen, it looks like a
printed piece of art. The new ones are the pros.
They look even better. I mean, this is really really
neat stuff. The Amazon Fire TV will do the same thing.

(43:57):
It's a lot cheaper. It just doesn't look as good.
Screens are a little bit more reflective the art. You
can tell it's a screen. But with the Samsung Frame TV,
it's really really convincing.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
Looks like a piece of art.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
The other thing Amazon showed off was their Project Kuyper.
This is their answer to SpaceX's Starlink and so this
is a constellation of satellites that Amazon is going to
launch into outer space to provide broadband around the world.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
What does that mean?

Speaker 1 (44:24):
According to the rep I was talking to, it's going
to be cheaper and it's going to be faster than
what Starlink is doing. Competition is a good thing. So
now we have two viable satellite broadband operators operating by
the end of this year. And what is that going
to do is going to drive down prices, hopefully for
all internet because now you've got options. When you live
in your home, you may not want to get the

(44:46):
traditional providers. You may want to just go satellite because
it's so feasible and the prices they didn't talk price,
but they said it'll be cheaper than starlink and the
speeds will be faster. So the basic one was four
hundred up and down. It's four hundred megabits per second
up and down. They've got a smaller one for like
camping that's one hundred up and down. And they've got

(45:08):
a bigger antenna that's for companies and enterprise that's a
thousand up and down. So Amazon's gonna start launching its
satellites this year. They've got eighty three launches planned. Keep
an eye on that one. Scout ev this is a
rugged electric vehicle. It kind of looks like a Rivian.
Can't wait for this one, and they were very hip

(45:28):
on This is a brand that's old, that they're bringing back.
It's got a hybrid system too, so they've got a
gas engine. You can add on to this thing like
a small gas engine, so you can have rain, no
range anxiety. So that's really cool. This was a little controversial.
The pink Cam paintball security camera. So imagine a security
camera that recognizes an intruder on your property and spits

(45:50):
out a paintball at them.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
And that paintball can have like a.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
Special I don't know, a substance in it that you know,
they can only see under a black light or something,
so you kind of mark the person. It also works
with unwanted animals as well. This was interesting. The Rome
Rome functionality. This is a portable device that combines a
soda stream and a hydroflask. So imagine you put your

(46:15):
water into this, you know, just a water bottle. You
put the cap on and you press the button and
it turns it into sparkling water. Fifty bucks. It's called Rome.
And then finally, optic Wash. My kids saw this one
on my photo album on my phone. He said, I
want that, and I said, well, it's three thousand dollars.
This is a mini car wash for your glasses. You

(46:37):
might have seen these things in the airport. The optic
washing machines. They're big. Now they made a small version
for your home and it just uses water. Sprays of water.
You put the glasses in, it sprays them, cleans them
UV Santa's sanitizing, and then it blows them off with
a little bit of air and your glasses come out
really clean, as opposed to sort of rubbing them with
a cloth. That's the optic wash. When I ask the price,

(47:01):
take a deep breath. Three thousand bucks. I said, who
can afford a three thousand dollars glasses cleaning machine? And
the representative said, well, I should have a yacht. It
worked pretty nicely there. I said, yeah, that sounds about right.
All these linked up on the website rich On Tech
dot TV eight eight eight seven four to two four
one zero one eight eight eight rich one oh one

(47:22):
Back after this, I'll tell you how the big tech
companies are responding to the wildfire relief. Welcome back to
rich On Tech. Let's go right to Jerry in thousand Oaks.
I know he's been holding for a while.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
Jerry, you're on.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
With rich Okay, thank you. I'm glad you're get in
touch with you.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
Yeah, absolutely, I watched your question.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
Install a landline that doesn't use uh not Wi Fi,
but it doesn't use the Internet but uses the modem instead.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
Okay, yeah, so you want it.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
Well, what do you mean by modem because uh, you
know most of the land lines now.

Speaker 3 (48:01):
It is uh it's a move box you plug into
your wall outlet. Yes, then you plug your phone directly
into that. Yes, in the one company I did find,
what's forty dollars per month?

Speaker 2 (48:14):
Okay, well the company, I'll tell you the ones that
I recommend. Uma.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
Oom ah, that's the one I recommend because you can
get started very inexpensively. And this is now this will
accommodate a classic landline phone, but it's not actually a landline.
So what you're talking about the landline traditional traditionally refers
to pots pots, which is plane old television or plane

(48:42):
old television plane old telephone service. Now almost no company
is really doing that unless they have to in an
area where they offer what's you know, a copper phone line. Right,
So most of the companies have switched to offering what's
called vope service voiceover IP that is your voice going
over the internet. But you can get these little boxes

(49:03):
that pretty much function as a conduit for your traditional phone.
So if you want to buy a cordless phone, a
corded phone, you know the old school phones that used
to have you plug them into this box, and this
box plugs into your Internet.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
So the one I like is Uma.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
You can get the UMA box for looks like one
hundred dollars on the website.

Speaker 4 (49:25):
I know.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
Walmart also has an UMA deal as well, so you
can go there and check it out. But UMA service
is zero dollars a month, so all you have to
do is pay for the taxes and fees each month.
And so I'm looking up my zip code here for
my zip code, that's about eight dollars a month. So
that's what I would do. There are some other companies
that offer similar service. There's Vontage. I don't know if

(49:49):
Vantage is doing. I don't know if they're doing the
residential Oh they still are, Okay, So residential Vantage is
ten dollars a month, and I think you have to
get yeah, okay, So Vantage is another one, and then
the other one is magic Jack. Now I covered magic
Jack back in the day. It was actually just so
mysterious to people that you could get a phone jack.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
It looked like your regular.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
Phone jack, but it's transferred to your calls over the internet,
and that is uh let's see how much that is.
That is fifty dollars. It plugs into your computer, So
that one. I think that one's a little bit different
because you do need a computer for that one. So
I would I would recommend going with the UMA because
you don't need anything special and it just kind of works.
It just sits there and works forever. So Jerry, that's

(50:35):
what I would recommend, and I think that's gonna be
probably your best bet.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
Thanks for the call.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
Eight eight eight rich one oh one eight eight eight
seven four to two four one zero one. So speaking
of these phone companies, let me just go through what
the various phone providers are doing to, uh, you know,
help relieve folks in California with their either service or
Wi Fi charging their phone. So AT and T let's

(51:02):
start with them. So they're waiving overage charges to provide
unlimited talk, text and data for customers through February fifteenth,
twenty twenty five. Now that may change depending on, you know,
the extent of the loss. They also contribute one hundred
thousand dollars to Red Cross. They set their system. Their
network in southern California is holding strong. They're restoring service

(51:24):
and areas experienced disruptions. And they have two public charging stations,
Westwood Recreation Center and the Pasadena Convention Center, and then
they've got public Wi Fi access at Arcadia Community Center.
They also operate First Net, so this is kind of
like a separate band on their spectrum that is for
public safety people, and so a lot of people subscribe

(51:45):
to that as well. If you're on a post paid
or prepaid you are also getting unlimited talk, texts, and
data through February fifteenth. And if you have an iPhone
with the satellite communications, so that's iPhone fourteen or newer,
this doesn't matter. You know, any of the service providers
that you have. You've got satellite connectivity. And I got
my first satellite message today from someone with the fires

(52:09):
and it was pretty cool. It said this message was
sent over satellite. Google Pixel nine also has that. Let's
see Verizon. Let's see Verizon's waving domestic call text data
usage through January nineteenth through January eighteenth in Los Angeles,
Orange Riverside, San Bernard. You know San Diego and Ventura
also for the same. They're doing the same for Straight Talk,

(52:31):
Track Phone, Total Wireless, Simple Mobile, Walmart, Family Mobile, Net,
ten Go Smart, and Page Plus.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
So you realize how.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
Many companies these major companies own or operate. Let's see
what is T Mobile doing unlimited talk, text and data
to T Mobile, Metro by T Mobile and Assurance wireless
customers in impacted areas. They've also increased data for Mint
and Ultramobile. They also activated starlink so you get direct
to Cellular. If you don't have an iPhone and you

(53:00):
have a T Mobile phone, you can dial nine one
one if you see the starlink icon in your phone.
So they've activated that. It's not been approved fully, but
they got conditional approval. Eighty eight Rich one O one
eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.
Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging

(53:20):
out with you talking technology. Eighty eight Rich one O
one eight eight eight seven four to two four one
zero one. Uh. Phone lines are open pretty much kind
of taking a lot of different calls today. So if
you have something about the fires, you want to share
your story, I'm opening to that. Or tech questions, whatever
you want, maybe just want to say HI, maybe just

(53:42):
need someone to talk to throughout this whole thing. I'm
here for you. Eight A eight rich one O one
eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.
Before the break, I was talking about how all the
different tech companies are sort of providing and helping with relief.
During this time, I thought this was interesting that t
mobiles network uses is AI. So it's something called cognitive

(54:03):
self organizing network. And so I guess the new antennas
on their cell towers they move and I've seen this
technology before with Wi Fi, but I didn't realize they
were doing it with cell phone towers. But the antennas
automatically tilt to give the best signal strength where it's needed,
so they kind of move around a little bit. That

(54:23):
helps them expand coverage and prevent congestion. So I was
not aware of that, but that is a very smart
idea and it makes a lot of sense. So again
AI even helping keep us connected. And then Spectrum, this
is a large provider in the Los Angeles area. They
have over two hundred and fifty thousand Spectrum Wi Fi

(54:44):
access points nationwide, but they've opened up thirty five thousand
of them in the LA area to everyone. And I
tested this out yesterday. It works flawlessly. Just open up
your phone and look for the Spectrum free trial Wi
Fi access point and just connect to it and it's
just one click. You don't have to give him your

(55:05):
phone number, you don't have to have an account. It's
all free and I got great speeds, So this is
a really nice help. If you need to, you can
locate one of these. Usually you can go to like
a local park or some it's outside. It's not in
your house. You're not accessing your neighbors internet, it is.
These are hotspots that they've set up around the city
on like telephone poles, so be sure to look for that.

(55:26):
And then Uber and lyft. Lyft is doing discounted rides.
CalFire Relief twenty five will get you two free rides
if you're going to a shelter getting a resource, and
then you can also round up and donate, and then
Uber has a forty dollars ride credit if you use
Wildfire twenty five to take a trip to an evacuation shelter.

(55:48):
All right, with all that said, one of my favorites,
Lance Ulanov one of the hardest working guys in technology.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
I'm not kidding.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
You can't catch this guy at CES because he's doing
so much. He's the editor at large for tech Radar.
He is back home the Lance did you did you
catch the CS bug?

Speaker 10 (56:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 11 (56:08):
I may if.

Speaker 10 (56:09):
I apologize for the sound of my voice, but yep,
every year.

Speaker 1 (56:14):
Like clockwork, Yeah, it happens. I take these pills. I
call them horse pills because that's how big they are.
They are literally like good luck trying to swallow these things,
and they taste horrible. It tastes like garlic and all
kinds of nastiness.

Speaker 11 (56:29):
That boy, that really sounds great.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
Love Hey, but it kept me healthy. I'm not kidding.
I swear by these things. I mean it's so gross,
but I took one in the morning, one at night,
and I you know, a lot of hydration. But CS
is not easy to stay healthy at because it's so
dry there. There's so many people, everyone's coughing, everyone's touching
gadgets and anyway. So hopefully feel better. But Lance, first off,

(56:54):
as someone who is not in California, what is your
sort of perspective on these wildfires? Like, are people following
them where you are, or people glued to their teas.

Speaker 10 (57:03):
Yeah, I mean, I think we're all following it. We're
all seeing on our social media feeds. The really weird
thing about this tragedy is, I guess because of where
it's located, there.

Speaker 11 (57:16):
Are people I know, you know, people from the.

Speaker 10 (57:18):
Industry whose houses have been affected, their childhood homes. Like
it's weird the number of people I actually know that
have been impacted, which is, you know a lot of
times when things happen in the country or in the world,
you're involved and engaged, but you're not touched directly. So
I'm a little bit surprised about that. I've been somewhat
obsessively going through it, and I think a lot of

(57:40):
people have so many questions about it. It's so scary,
and you know, clearly obviously my heart goes out to
everyone there, you know, and I know that there's been
all sorts of stuff shared about how people can help,
and hopefully everyone's looking at that.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
Yeah, And I think that the reason for the connection
is that, like I said earlier in the show, this
is a part of la that you never hear about.
It's a beautiful place that very successful people live, but
it's not in the news because there's nothing that happens
there except people just raise families and they're you know,
it's people that have made it most of the time,
and to have this happen to them is just such uh,

(58:17):
you know, it's just it's really like the worst possible
nightmare for someone who thinks they live in a community
that's just so beautiful and amazing and overlooks the ocean.

Speaker 11 (58:25):
And it honestly just reminds you of our common humanity. Right.

Speaker 10 (58:30):
You may look at somebody and say they're extremely successful,
their celebrity, they're wealthy, they're hot, high level at their
their industry, and you see this and you see the
loss of you know, their everything they've ever had, you know,
every memory, all of their important stuff, and you and
you can it's incredibly relatable to anyone. And so that's

(58:50):
you know, obviously, that's just what's been going through my mind.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
Yeah, absolutely, thanks for that. Okay, So let's talk ces
you're there, What what stands out this year? What do
you think about the first off, the attendance. I know
it was impacted by people with la like some people
had to go back early.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
Some people didn't come at all. What do you think
about the attendants?

Speaker 10 (59:10):
I generally so, at least the first couple of days,
I was like, this is more crowded, there's more people here.
By day day three it seemed to calm down a bit,
but I still think the tend's pretty high. Here's the thing,
It's a little hard to tell because if you're you know,
if you haven't gone there, and you haven't been going
for years, you won't know that.

Speaker 11 (59:27):
This year they were going through a big change with construction.

Speaker 10 (59:30):
Servery's funneled in different ways, which actually changed the flow
and changed the perspective on how many people were there.
But you know, I went to what's called Eureka Park
or all the startups are. I was in Central Halls
and North Hollows and West Hall, and sometimes I was
pushing through crowds.

Speaker 1 (59:45):
Yeah, and and talk about the you know, like I
really kind of it was so clear to me why
we go to these things, And it really is partly
to see people as well, Like you really do, see
all the people that you email with throughout the year,
all the people you know, like you and I we
live on separate coasts. We didn't actually get to say
hi this time around, which is and we saw each other,
but you know so quick, you're you're always working. But

(01:00:09):
you know that's another aspect of this, that in person
sort of connection.

Speaker 7 (01:00:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:00:14):
Yeah, And you know, so there was a company called
ro Kid that had been trying to reach me apparently
since November, and I finally kind of the last day
that I was there, I wandered over and the woman
to see me face to face. She got much more
excited than she should have because she's like, I've been
emailing you for demons here.

Speaker 11 (01:00:33):
Yeah, And so it's that, you know, that personal connection.

Speaker 10 (01:00:36):
And then of course, you know, touching and experiencing the
products because you know, I'll get a ton of press releases,
I'll sit on zoom calls, people show me something. But
being there and I experienced a lot of technology. I
tried so many different things. I met so many different robots,
you know, I wore so many different pairs of glasses.
You know, I touched laptops and you know, all the

(01:00:57):
stuff that's right there. Making a tangible like that makes it,
you know, much more reliable into it's a direct connection
to people and how these technologies might impact their.

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
Lives anything that stands out to you, anything that you
really were wowed by.

Speaker 10 (01:01:11):
You know, I felt like the show got off to
a really good start for me because one of the
first things I saw was that Lenovo desktop, a laptop,
I should say, I think it's the Think Gen six,
and it's a laptop that literally starts as a fourteen
inch clamshell style, you know, you open it up, the
screen extends vertically, it rolls. It's an old screen that
rolls out of a very you know, small hinge, you know,

(01:01:34):
the regular sized hinge, and just goes up to sixteen
point seven inches. I've seen rollable screen technology before, but
I was impressed because this is a real product.

Speaker 11 (01:01:45):
Business people in particular, I think are really going to
like it.

Speaker 10 (01:01:47):
So, you know, I thought that was great and I
liked it, and obviously we gave it an award. There's
a lot of television technology, but I think the thing
that stood out for me is what High Sense is
doing with their just where they're taking Mini LED RGB technology.
So typically in a Mini LED you get just one

(01:02:07):
the blue light, but now they're giving the three colors.
And if you give the three colors, you transform the image,
you make it that much better, and you make the
colors better, but you also make the blacks better because
you can you don't have to just turn on the light.
You can dim it down for when you're trying to
make a specific color.

Speaker 11 (01:02:23):
So that to me was impressive.

Speaker 10 (01:02:25):
And what's funny is that that came in one hundred
and sixteen inch size. But everybody's talking about, oh my gosh,
High Sense made one hundred and thirty six inch. I
think it was not mini LED but the other kind
of LED. But basically, oh I got a really big TV.
But it was not new technology. So for me, I'm
always focused on what is the innovation? What have they

(01:02:45):
done that's brand new?

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
I think High Sense is killing it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
I really do like I think that there it's interesting
to watch the rise of some booths. Someone needs to
do a visualization of CS, like some booths get really
big while others get smaller.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
Some people aren't there.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
Yeah or disappear. I mean, what who do we like?
Google this year had no major presence that I saw Microsoft.

Speaker 10 (01:03:08):
Microsoft Intel used to own this corner Central Hall. Microsoft
used to own a similar space. Google has Google used
to be really big in the parking lot.

Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
I know that sounds silly, but the parking lot is
a viable area.

Speaker 10 (01:03:23):
It's like a it's called I'm sorry, it's called the
silver lot, and just you know, it's a very important space.
BMW did the big rollout of their i think it's called.

Speaker 11 (01:03:33):
The Panoramic Eye Drive, which.

Speaker 10 (01:03:35):
Is really their introduction of AI to the dashboard, and
they did not spare expense here. They brought in, you know,
a couple of Ken Young and I'm forgetting the other.

Speaker 11 (01:03:46):
Couple of celebrities.

Speaker 10 (01:03:48):
Basically they brought in to announce it and it was
very splashy, and they made gigantic dashboards and the steering
wheel and it was just it was it was wild
and for me, you know, it was a youth. It
was a really big theme of the entire show that
AI was everywhere. Oh yeah, and more so than just
you know, last year, AI was kind of like the

(01:04:09):
coming out party. Everybody's got a everybody's product had it,
but we didn't really understand how we were going to
use it. This year, people were showing us how it's
going to impact our lives, like and they weren't saying
in the distant future. They were saying this year, you know,
it's coming this year. Delta their one hundredth anniversary at
the Sphere, which was another big keynote, and you know

(01:04:31):
they're doing they're doing your concierge AI that's going to
be introduced throughout the year. They're updating all of the
in flight entertainment. They're working with Tom Brady who was there.
But you know, again, you felt like, these are real
things that we're going to be doing with AI in
the very short term.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:50):
It used to be at CS you would talk to
someone for like twenty minutes about a product and all
of a sudden they'd be like and you know, we'll
think about doing something with this, and you're like, no,
like what. This year, I did feel like there was
much more of like, no, this is come. Like even
with the BMW with the panoramic eye drive stuff, I
was like, when's this happening? They said new models like
at the end of twenty twenty five or whatever, like what.

Speaker 10 (01:05:08):
Yeah, that was a big surprise, and it was exciting
because it looked really cool and fun.

Speaker 11 (01:05:13):
I mean, obviously it'll be normal sized, not giant size.
If you see the pictures, she'll be like, oh, oh, come.

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
On, everyone's gonna hate it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
You know, no, no car maker can make any meaningful
change without people hating on it, right, Like, no matter what,
there will be haters. I thought it looked pretty clean
and slick inside. I thought it was pretty cool.

Speaker 10 (01:05:29):
Yeah, yeah, I think so. You know, it's not just
one giant screen. It's a series of screens, and it's
integrated into steering wheel and I'm i'm one of my
favorite things on these newer cars are the three D
heads up displays because for a driver, they don't really
want to be glancing at screens left and right. What
they want to be doing is seeing the information right
in their field of view, but not in a way
that obscures it. And that's what these heads up displays do.

(01:05:51):
And so that's part of the whole experience here. So
I thought, you know, I remember when BMW first introduced
the eye drive, and it was primarily.

Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
A knob yeah that people like that.

Speaker 10 (01:06:03):
That you would move and hold into, and that was
really it, and we thought that was exciting. This is
so many generations. This is the full sort of the
full realization of the concept.

Speaker 1 (01:06:15):
All right, Lance we're speaking with lance Yulanoff and he's
with Tech Radar.

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
Where can we go for your coverage?

Speaker 11 (01:06:22):
Oh yeah, tech radar dot com.

Speaker 10 (01:06:24):
And also please do check out our TikTok with we've
shot I think well, I shot over forty videos, but
in total we must.

Speaker 11 (01:06:32):
Have shot about sixty sixty five and we're touching.

Speaker 10 (01:06:35):
If you want to see what it's like to play
with and touch any of these devices and these new technologies,
check it out.

Speaker 1 (01:06:45):
Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging
out with you talking technology. The phone line if you
want to get on in is eight eight eight rich
one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two
four one zero one. The website rich on Tech dot tv.
Do me a favorite sign up for my newsletter. Like

(01:07:05):
I mentioned earlier, if you were on my newsletter, I
mentioned the watch Duty app back in the December twentieth edition.
December twentieth. People are just hearing about this app for
the first time this week. I've been using it for months,
and so that is the kind of insight that you
get when you sign up. You are ahead of the curve.

(01:07:27):
That is really what it comes down to. And people
email me every single day, every single day. I get emails,
I get text messages, I get dms, I get tweets,
and a lot of it is questions that I've answered
on this radio show or in my newsletter. And I'm

(01:07:48):
not saying that you should hear and listen to every
single thing I do. But I'm just saying the newsletter
is a really good way of sort of these are
the things. And I say this on this radio show
every single time. This is the tech stuff I think
you should know about. It's not everything, it's not every
single item in the news. It is this stuff that
I think you, as the modern tech consumer, should know

(01:08:11):
about and be informed of. It's the cool stuff. It's
the stuff that helps you. It's the stuff that gives
you an edge. It's the stuff that keeps you ahead.
That's really what it's all about. So go to Rich
on tech dot tv. Sign up for the newsletter. It
is completely free and just you know, you'll be one
step ahead of the curve. Let's go to Jerry in Hatfield, Pennsylvania.

Speaker 2 (01:08:33):
Jerry, you're on with Rich.

Speaker 6 (01:08:35):
Hi Rich. For about four or five months now, I've
been having problems with my audio. I receive programming over
my dish, and I also have an antenna so I
can get direct at local stations and what happens. It
seems like when I listen to the cable news people

(01:08:58):
when they have a pal of people talking and they talk,
and the women's voices they shot up for being clipped
and very hard. Not a problem with the men, only
the women. And I don't have a problem with the
YouTube on the computer or anything on myself. On this
only through the the satellite and the news programs. And

(01:09:23):
I was wondering, have you heard anything about this?

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
No? But what so it's only happening when you watch.

Speaker 6 (01:09:30):
TV that that's that's correct. Yeah. And on the TV
I have the druggy equalizers and I just as all
I can. That's it still come through.

Speaker 2 (01:09:41):
That's that's what I was going to say.

Speaker 1 (01:09:43):
It has something to do I'm assuming with your equalizer
settings changed them and you've changed okay, And so so
I'm guessing now you said you watch YouTube and it
doesn't happen.

Speaker 2 (01:09:53):
Is this YouTube on the same sound system?

Speaker 6 (01:09:56):
No, I don't watch YouTube on a laptop. I listened
to KFI on my cell phone. Yeah, so I got
several TVs, so that happens. All So it's gonna be
either the Dish network or the cable programming or or
somehow they're clipping the audio.

Speaker 1 (01:10:18):
Yeah, it definitely sounds like it's something related to either
the box, a setting on the box, or the programming itself.
I mean this, I don't I don't know if there's
a widespread issue. Now that we brought it up on
this show, perhaps other people will, you know, email me
and say, hey, Rich, I have the same problem. But
having worked in TV news for many years, it's not
something that we're doing. It's not something that we're actively modifying.

(01:10:43):
But with that said, there's a lot of audio settings,
and I think if you're playing with the equalizer that
could be part of the issue. So the you know,
if it's a high pitched voice thing, maybe it's the
high frequency that's you know, messing with that. So maybe
just adjust the settings to balance the high frequency. I

(01:11:05):
don't know, it's weird that it's happening on all three
of your TVs. I would also try to see if
you have some sort of like dialogue enhancer. I know
a lot of these systems now have a clear audio
kind of enhancement product, and so that might be something
to look into. That's a tricky one, Jerry, I'm not sure.
All I know is that we watch with the subtitles

(01:11:25):
on in our house because it's much easier to follow along,
even though it live news.

Speaker 2 (01:11:29):
Sometimes those could be challenging as well, because they're not
always one hundred percent right.

Speaker 1 (01:11:33):
Eighty eight rich one on 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 talking technology with you at eight eight eight rich
one o one eight eight eight seven four to two,
four to one zero one. How did you find the

(01:11:54):
saddest Taylor Swift song? I mean, some of them are
really sad. This one don't know. She well, she's kind
of angry in the latest stuff getting back at folks.

Speaker 12 (01:12:05):
It is it bad that I haven't listened to her
latest album?

Speaker 2 (01:12:07):
No, I mean I don't. I'm not a big of
a swifty as I know. You call me a swifty.

Speaker 1 (01:12:12):
Every single time will play a song I like Taylor Swift.
You know why, I'll tell you why. I've told you
this before. It's a connection to my wife. I get
it because she likes Taylor Swift and I never really cared,
you know, too much about her. And then the fact
that she likes her so much. It's just I don't
know it brings me joy. Yeah, it's weird, that's.

Speaker 12 (01:12:29):
Not I get it. I just always figured like she'd
get into relationship break up and have a number one album.

Speaker 2 (01:12:35):
Yeah and rinse and repeat.

Speaker 6 (01:12:38):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (01:12:39):
All right, before we get to Howard and Palm Desert,
We're gonna get to you in a second. Biff writes
in with a bone to pick. He says, Rich vonage
for home is not ten dollars, it's eleven ninety nine
plus twelve dollars in taxes twenty two to eighteen total.
Come on, dude, you are way off well.

Speaker 2 (01:12:58):
Biff, double check my sources.

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
And so I went to the Vantage website. I put
in my entire shipping address and information because they do
hide the taxes and fees a little bit. And indeed, uh,
let's see, yeah, indeed, nine ninety nine a month.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
It is nine ninety nine a month.

Speaker 1 (01:13:21):
Taxes and fees add up to let's see two dollars
federal tax, two dollars emergency, two dollars state tax, and
like under two dollars county tax. Total seventeen oh six
do today recurring charges sixteen dollars thirty seven cents, so
bif I'm not way off, I wasn't even off, said

(01:13:44):
ten dollars a month. That's how much it is. So
unless I'm proven otherwise, that seems to be right anyway,
Thanks for the email. Eighty eight rich one oh one
eight eight eight seven four to two four.

Speaker 2 (01:13:57):
One zero one. Howard impalmdsert what's up.

Speaker 4 (01:14:01):
Well, I'm finding a trip to trance in the very
near future and I want more information about the translation
real time earphones.

Speaker 6 (01:14:10):
What your take is on.

Speaker 1 (01:14:11):
So I had a lot of conversations about these at ces.
There's a startup named Time Kettle t I M E
K E T T l E dot co. They are
sort of the leader in these earbuds that translate in
real time, and they have them for as cheap as
it looks like one hundred and fifty dollars. So the

(01:14:33):
main thing about the earbuds this is the difference with
the pricing. So the more expensive they are, the more
they can do at the same time. So if you
think about the cheap version or the I guess the
inexpensive entry level, it's more like a walkie talkie. Someone
speaks in their language, it waits it processes and then

(01:14:53):
it comes through in their language in your ears. Now
with the more expensive translate earbuds, this is more of
a real time experience, so they can be interrupted. It's
back and forth. But pretty much everyone I talked to,
Time Kettle is the best of the interpreter earbuds. But Howard,
having been to Paris this year, I would say it

(01:15:18):
depends if I would rethink if you actually need these,
it may be unnecessarily complicated. You can download on your
iPhone the Google Translate app. You can download the or
it's already built into the iPhone the Apple Translate app.
Both are pretty good, and I think that that might

(01:15:38):
be all you need to get through a trip, as
long as it's just a you know, tourist trip to
the uh, you know, to that area. So that's what
I would recommend. I mean, I think that there's so
many ways to keep in touch nowadays with headphones, h
or with just in general these translating Sorry, my phone's
responding to me now because I said Google. But if

(01:16:00):
you want to look at the time Kettle, do that.
I think that this is also getting built into a
lot of other products. So the Meta ray band, Smart
glasses have this technology built in where they can translate
the audio in a couple different languages right now. I
think French is one of them. I have not tested
that on my headphones. I do need to try that out.
But that's what I would say is try to get

(01:16:22):
around without spending more money on these earbuds. But a
lot of them are doing this, I mean, especially with CHATCHYBT.
I mean, it's just gotten so much easier to get
around these cities without knowing the language. And by the way,
I'm it's interesting. You know they've got this the big
the big program that does the translation is Babel b

(01:16:45):
A B B E L and that Well, okay, so
you say Babel, you say Babel. I say Babel because
they do, all right? Why do they have ads on
the yeah, okay, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:16:57):
Well I'm wondering if it's related.

Speaker 1 (01:16:59):
I'm reading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and they have
what's a translating fish called the Babelfish, and I'm wondering
if Babbel got their inspiration from babel fish in this book.
So many things that we have in our society, like
these names and things like you don't realize they're all

(01:17:20):
inspired by something. Now you're reading the book or you
have it on a tablet, I'm actually listening.

Speaker 2 (01:17:26):
So you're not reading. Well, I don't know. Is that
not reading?

Speaker 1 (01:17:29):
Yes, it still takes your brain power. So I typically,
I typically don't challenge me on this. I typically listen
to nonfiction and I read fiction. And I'll be quite honest,
I'll tell you why, because nonfiction books are harder.

Speaker 2 (01:17:48):
They are.

Speaker 1 (01:17:48):
There's like, you know, a book like Hitchhiker's Guide to
the Galaxy. There's so many terms in there that are
not like typical English, right, like these weird names and
things like that.

Speaker 12 (01:17:57):
It was it a movie? Yeah, it was a movie
a while ago. Most define was in it.

Speaker 2 (01:18:02):
Oh there you go. Are we talking about the same thing?
To the Galaxy? What happened in it?

Speaker 12 (01:18:07):
It's been so long since I've seen it.

Speaker 1 (01:18:09):
Uh, well, anyway, good good movie.

Speaker 2 (01:18:13):
You should read the movie, read the script and maybe
I'll remember it. I'll read the script. I'll listen to
the script anyway. It's so, it's so many things.

Speaker 1 (01:18:23):
When you read books and you like learn or you
listen to them, whatever your preferences, you really you realize
just how much is inspired by these classic things. Anyway,
I do want to get to some news that happened
this week, and of course now you know now I've
got the no more time here on the segment. But Meta, big, big,

(01:18:43):
big one to eighty out of Meta this week revamping
all of their content policies for quote free expression, so
major changes to basically their content moderation. Ending its third
party fact checking program in the US. They're going to
re place it with a community note system, which is
inspired by X So basically, instead of having fact checkers

(01:19:07):
look at posts, they're just gonna have random people or
I guess people that are I don't know signed up
to do this that can say, hey, this is not
true or this is true. So they're going to have
various contributors. They're going to scale back their automated content
moderation systems. Some people will like this because I know
a lot of people have been flagged for things that
are kind of weird.

Speaker 2 (01:19:27):
But it's going to.

Speaker 1 (01:19:28):
Cause a lot of problems in the beginning.

Speaker 2 (01:19:30):
Of course, while people get used to these new lesser restrictions.

Speaker 1 (01:19:34):
I guess they're going to use those automated content moderation
systems for high severity violations like terrorism and fraud less
severe policy violations will need someone to report it before
it's enforced. So basically, if you post something on Facebook,
nobody sees it, but it's horrible.

Speaker 2 (01:19:53):
It'll stay there.

Speaker 1 (01:19:54):
Now if someone reports it, then maybe someone will take
a look at it. So they're basically trying to open
up the pathway for more expression and saying, look, if
nobody's seeing this or nobody cares, then fine, leave it
on there.

Speaker 2 (01:20:07):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:20:08):
I'm not saying I agree with any of this. I'm
just saying what is happening. There's two sides to all this.
Political content will be back into feeds and if you
engage with it, you're going to see more of it.
So a lot of people love their political content on Facebook,
and they've noticed that it changed when they said, ah,
we're getting out of politics. In fact, they were starting
to demote news in general on Facebook. And so that's

(01:20:31):
all coming back. Account recovery process and appeals is going
to be simpler. They're going to use more AI and
more reviewers to make sure that you can get your
account back if you are flagged or something like that.
Restrictions on topics like immigration and gender identity will be eased.
A lot of people talking about that because you know,
these are hot topic, you know, powder keg topics on

(01:20:55):
social media.

Speaker 2 (01:20:56):
People just love to say what they want and next thing, you.

Speaker 1 (01:20:58):
Know, it starts a whole sparks of conversation, not always
the best conversation. And so they're gonna say, we'll see
what happens with all this. And the trust and safety
teams are relocating from California to Texas and that's where
they're going. So again, Meta, it's going to be a
free for all for a while at least and until
these programs sort of they figure out what's working and

(01:21:22):
what's not. But you know, some people are very excited
about this. Gonna be more like X, you know X
free speech, free speech, free speech. You know, some people
are gonna leave Meta because of this. But at the
end of the day, this is a major major shift.
Mark Zuckerberg, you know the video he put out, My
jaw just dropped. It's a total complete departure from what

(01:21:45):
he has been saying for the past couple of years.
And you know, this is the company, the social media
platform that banned President Trump back in the day, and
now not only are they welcoming him back, but they're
embracing sort of what he stands for on these platforms
with respect to free speech and what Elon Musk is

(01:22:06):
saying over at X Complete Complete Change. Not everyone likes this,
some people on one side, some people on the other.
As always eighty eight rich one on one eight eight
eight seven four to two, four to one zero one.
Coming up, I'll tell you what Apple is saying about
Siri and privacy. They came out with a post on
that and the new AI app for iPhone.

Speaker 2 (01:22:29):
Welcome back to rich on Tech.

Speaker 1 (01:22:30):
Rich Demiro here hanging out with you, talking technology at
eight eight eight rich one O one eighty eight seven
four to two, four to one zero one. We've been
talking a lot about the fires in Los Angeles. Uh wow,
I just got an alert from Google about the fires,

(01:22:51):
which is interesting. I know they said they were going
to send out information, but you know, technology has really
been instrumental in helping people keep up with all of this,
and it's quite been quite incredible. We had the rep
from the app watch duty on, I mean the text messages.
I don't know if you heard about this little issue

(01:23:11):
they had in Los Angeles, but they were sending out
these alert texts, and I guess I don't know if
the machine went haywire or what, but all of a sudden,
people were getting these evacuation texts and they were not
in the area of evacuation. And I knew something was
a little suspicious because I'm on the phone my wife
and she said, we just got an evacuation and I said,

(01:23:31):
no way, they were not in the evacuation area. And
I said, send me the text. And I look at
the text, and sure enough, it's just a generic text
that just says evacuate now. And it came out a
couple minutes later that it was a mistake. Now they
didn't say it was a human mistake, or they didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:23:48):
I can't.

Speaker 1 (01:23:48):
I couldn't really understand what the mistake was, like how
that happened. But then it happened a couple more times.
So it does make you wonder, like you have to
double check all of this stuff, you know, no matter what.
But you know, for people already on on Edge, that
was not a good not a good thing that happened
here in la website. Rich on tech dot TV, if

(01:24:11):
you want to email me, you can go there. Remember
last week I talked about Apple. We heard this whole
settlement with Siri, how it was spying on people, eavesdropping,
selling your your what you talk about with Siri to advertisers. Well,
Apple came out with a post saying none of that's true.
We do not spy with Siri. And so here's what

(01:24:34):
they kind of outlined in their post. Because you know,
when these class action suits get settled, the company doesn't
really have a say at the end of the day.
They just can tell you what they want because there's
nothing in court that's sort of sworn to. So it
just becomes like, hey, let's just give our side of
the story. So Apple said number one, Siri processes as
much data as possible directly on serve on devices, reducing

(01:24:59):
you know, server cloud servers, So that protects your privacy
because the device is doing it. Requests that you make
to Siri are not tied to your Apple account. Instead,
you get a random identifier that ensures your anonymous nature.
Audio recordings are not stored unless you opt in to
improve Siri. You can opt out at any time. That

(01:25:22):
used to be the opposite. I think they change that.
The first time. There was a little issue with Siri,
and then they have this idea of the private cloud compute.
So this is what they're doing to tackle AI because
AI questions are so personal in nature, and so what
they're doing is they have these servers they've set up
that when your iPhone is not powerful enough to handle

(01:25:42):
the AI processing, they send it to these private cloud
compute servers that they've set up that are literally I
mean I went through a whole seminar with Apple on this.
I mean, the way they set these things up, it's
like so anonymous and so like it deletes the information
immediately asked. If it comes up with the answer, it
wipes all the data clear off of the system. So

(01:26:04):
it's almost like a memory where it's it's not remembering
that stuff, it's just processing it and then deleting it.
So and Apple, by the way, said in this post
as well, they do not use Siri data for advertising, marketing,
or sales.

Speaker 2 (01:26:20):
To third parties. So all those.

Speaker 1 (01:26:22):
Sexy headlines you saw that said, oh Apple Siris spying
on you. It's eavesdropping, it's listening to your conversation so
it can sell you nikes. No I knew it wasn't
doing that. Uh Grock this is the X has this feature.
It's called grock AI. So this is elon Musk's AI. Basically,

(01:26:44):
you've got chat GBT, you've got Claude, you've got Mistral,
you've got bing AI, I guess they use I guess
copilot without uses Chat GBT. A lot of different flavors
of AI out there, but this one is from X
and it's called XAI. So it is now a standalone

(01:27:05):
app for the iPhone and iPad. So if you want
to try something a little different, grock is a little
bit how do we say, unhinged unhinged AI, A little
less rules apply. It's got conversational and humorous tones to
differentiate itself from CHATCHBT and Claude. It can make images,
it can summarize texts, it's got real time data from

(01:27:28):
X in the web. Now, I will tell you just going,
you know, kind of not getting into the politics of
all this stuff. They've actually built a pretty good AI
tool that does have a lot of information And if
you are still on X you can try it out
on any post. There is a little XAI icon in

(01:27:50):
the upper right hand corner. So if you're looking at
a post on Twitter and I thought This was actually
pretty smart. You can tap that XAI in the upper
right hand corner and it will analyze the post and
it will search all the information in that post and
then give you perspective on that post an AI answer
about that post. So, for instance, I tweeted the other day,

(01:28:13):
day four and eighty seven of CES, and I tapped
a little XAI to see if you can understand what
I meant, like if it was understanding my humor, And
sure enough it got it. It understood it said Rich
as being humorous about CES because it's so long, and
some people joke that it takes so long and it's
a long week. And so anyway, you can download that

(01:28:36):
right now. It's grock gr ok for the iPhone. Coming up,
we're gonna talk more CS. Welcome back to Rich on Tech.
Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology, talking
about the wildfires, very fluid situation here in Los Angeles
where we broadcast the show. The images and videos coming

(01:28:56):
out of this city over the past week have been
really horrific and just impactful. I mean, so many people
affected by what's going on in these natural disasters. And
it's not over. That's it's still happening. It's still very
very active. So thinking about everyone that is affected by this,

(01:29:17):
and that ranges from people who have experienced the worst
a loss of home, people have lost their lives and
their livelihoods, and also all the people that just know
people associated in that area. It is a wide swath
of Los Angeles that is with breaking hearts right now.

(01:29:38):
Eighty eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven
four to two four to one zero one the website
for the show rich on tech dot tv U. Matt
Swider is uh, he's with the shortcut dot com. He
was at CS twenty twenty five with me. He's joining
me now, Matt, I know you used to live in
the LA area. What are your thoughts on this whole
wild wildfire situation.

Speaker 8 (01:30:00):
It's certainly devastating, you know, It's it's like watching a
horror movie. And you know, we all know people who
live there and are you know, on the front lines
of this. And so as we were at CEES, we
kind of felt very helpless, uh, you know, playing with
all the tech, but you know, watching our friends and

(01:30:20):
loved ones kind of go through the worst.

Speaker 1 (01:30:23):
Yeah, I mean that that was tough. I mean I
wrote about this in my newsletter today. It's like we
were there, and it's it's it's a really tough position
to be in because here it is you're at one
of the biggest tech events of the world. Your family
is safe, in my case, my photographer's family is safe,
and it's like, what do you do? And by the way,
coming back at some point, like you know, I was

(01:30:44):
on my on the phone my wife every the whole day.
It's like, well, is it safer to come back right now?
I mean, we were really moving towards her and the
kids coming out to Vegas for the week just to
get out of the way. And so it was a
really really interesting position to be in. I guess as
a reporter you have some thoughts on on helping out

(01:31:04):
with the wildfire release relief.

Speaker 7 (01:31:07):
Absolutely absolutely so.

Speaker 8 (01:31:09):
Uh, my friend Tommy and his wife lost their home
and I have a techie angle for you, as I
always do, in making a donation to them, I found
out how to maximize that donation mostly through you know,
go fund me, very popular payment platform. And if you
have you know, if you want to donate to Tommy

(01:31:31):
or a loved one on the shortcut dot com, I
have a post out there for it. There's a way
to do it that will maximize your donation. You can
pay with a credit card, so don't pay with a
debit card where you don't get any points back. But
I found out Apple Pay. By paying with an Apple card.
Through Apple Pay, you'll get two percent cash back or

(01:31:52):
two percent back, right, and then you can donate or
put that into a savings account or just deposit it
into your.

Speaker 7 (01:32:00):
You know bank account eventually.

Speaker 8 (01:32:03):
So by I donated five thousand dollars my friend and
I got one hundred dollars back. Normally, with a regular
credit card, I would have gotten you know, you know,
fifty bucks back, or with a you know, bank transaction,
got zero dollars back. So I can reuse that money
to go visit them, and you know, why not get double?

Speaker 7 (01:32:22):
Is my thinking.

Speaker 8 (01:32:23):
The other thing is, and this is something you could
fall for and I I kind of almost f fell
for it. Go fund me will send a set you
up with a fourteen percent tip for themselves.

Speaker 1 (01:32:35):
Okay, I've wondered about this. I've wondered about this. I
feel guilty when I see this, you know, I'm like,
do I support them?

Speaker 2 (01:32:41):
Do I not?

Speaker 1 (01:32:42):
So tell me what your thoughts are so Basically, when
you do a transaction on the GoFundMe platform and a
lot of these platforms that take donations, they ask for
a small cut to sort of quote help them run
the platform.

Speaker 7 (01:32:54):
Absolutely, and you know what, don't feel bad.

Speaker 8 (01:32:57):
They're already profitable enough on their own through you know,
transaction fees and so forth, so you know on the
back end they'll they'll take a little bit of a
cut already, but so they don't need this like self
appointed fourteen percent tip that was seven hundred dollars. In
my case, I put it down to one cent, which
I did feel bad about.

Speaker 7 (01:33:18):
You can actually put it down to zero.

Speaker 8 (01:33:20):
I fell for the fact that even at when you
put in exactly zero dollars, they will have a nagging
message up there looking like it doesn't work. It can
be zero dollars. You can proceed to just give the
whole amount that you want to your friends, which is
something I did. So I have that post on the
shortcut dot com if you want to go over those directions.

(01:33:42):
But those two tips get money back based on points.
You know, double with Apple, pay with an Apple card,
and don't leave that tip to a plant pin platform
that's already you know, fully funded.

Speaker 1 (01:33:55):
Okay, so this is interesting because I actually this clarifies
a lot and a lot of people are going to
be using gofund me in the next couple weeks. I mean,
it's very popular in general. But okay, So if let's
say I set up a GoFundMe and I get I've
raised one hundred dollars, I actually don't see one hundred dollars, right, Yeah,
I see less than that.

Speaker 8 (01:34:14):
I've been looking into that, and it's it's two point
nine percent plus thirty cents per donation from what I've read.

Speaker 1 (01:34:24):
Right, Yeah, So they're making money no matter what it's not,
So you shouldn't feel bad. You're saying, when they ask
for this extra tip, you're just giving them more money,
which I get it. If you have the money and
you feel like it and you want to just be generous,
go ahead. But you're saying, don't feel guilty about not
doing it because they're still out of that one hundred dollars.
I'm only going to see ninety seven. As the person
who's getting those donations. Let's say I was the recipient.

Speaker 8 (01:34:46):
Correct everything I've read, they're getting money regardless, So they
don't need and an egregious amount of fourteen percent. That's
that's a lot to take from the donator who could
just donate even more money or you know, spend that
money elsewhere, So no need to do that. The tiny
text of enter custom tip is so easy to mess

(01:35:08):
I know a lot of your listeners will probably not
even say that. I didn't even see it at first
until I saw seven hundred dollars extra on there in
the final bill, and as I wait a minute, so
I went back clicked on that tiny text and then
changed that too. You can change it to the zero dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:35:23):
Yeah, and we're not We're not dunking on GoFundMe. I
think that this has been an incredible way for anyone
to raise money for any cause, but it is not
a nonprofit. They have a nonprofit arm. And I will say,
having used GoFundMe in the past for both my sister
and my father, who both went through cancer, I got
a donation. I don't know, maybe for my dad or

(01:35:45):
my sister or both, but they actually donated to my cause,
like I think at one point, I think they gave
seven hundred and fifty dollars. They said, hey, we just
want to be generous in your in your cause.

Speaker 2 (01:35:55):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:35:55):
Is that because I'm rich to Miro and I tweeted
about it. Maybe I don't know if they do that
for everyone, you know, but I think they do that
for people. But I think obviously since they could see anyway.
My point is it's a nice company. They're doing good things.
Just you know, you don't have to tip if you
don't want to. All right, let's talk about ce s
Matt what what what are your What's your main takeaway
this year?

Speaker 8 (01:36:16):
Main takeaway is there's a lot of conceptual gadgets out
there that are finally becoming products and look really cool.
I don't know if you saw what we gave on
the shortcut, the Best in Show award winner, but it's
the robo rock with It's a vacuum that has an arm.
It looks like it's from a like a movie, horror movie.

(01:36:37):
It has an arm that comes out of the robot
vacuum and picks up socks, trash, and other items underwear
that kind of get in the way.

Speaker 1 (01:36:44):
You know, if you've got a lot of underwear on
your floor, I don't know what's happening in that apartment.

Speaker 8 (01:36:49):
It's you get some lazy sometimes and like you know,
clothes and laundry is strewn about.

Speaker 7 (01:36:55):
So I get it. I've been there.

Speaker 8 (01:36:57):
So this is kind of a they say it's coming out.
It feels a little more conceptual, but anything under three
hundred grams it'll be able to pick up with a
robot arm. But it looks like a regular robot vacuum
other than this really cool feature. So we gave that
the Best and Show at CES award because it just
really felt like almost the segue to a Jetson style robot.

Speaker 7 (01:37:21):
Remember Rosie the robot. We're getting there.

Speaker 2 (01:37:24):
Yeah, what else did you give awards to?

Speaker 8 (01:37:27):
We gave an award to the best Laptop issues zen
Book A fourteen was really cool. The LGG four was
our top TV. You know, the Samsung Frame Pro TV
came really close. That was really cool. And we gave
an award to two shares two gaming chairs. You know,
that's very rare for us to choose too, but one

(01:37:48):
was conceptual. They were both from a company, a gaming
company called Razor. Razor makes excellent gaming chairs. I'm actually
sitting in one of those right now. But they came
out with a new one and The reason I like
that is it's the Razor Iscor V two X, and
it's more than half the price of the one I'm
sitting in, and it has a lot of the core features.

(01:38:08):
It's three hundred dollars, it has, you know, a lot
of the erogronomics, and it's it backs off some of
the over the top lumbar support that you know, not
everybody needs, but it opens it up to a lot
more gamers. The one piece of advice I give people
when they buy gaming chairs, don't buy that one for
ninety nine dollars. If you can help it. That's on Amazon.

(01:38:29):
Those tend to, you know, fall apart very quickly and
not be perfect. The Iscor Razor line of chairs is
pretty amazing, So you get what you pay for. If
you're you're springing, you know, and spending three hundred dollars
for a gaming chair, that one.

Speaker 7 (01:38:45):
That the one I'm sitting is over six hundred dollars.

Speaker 8 (01:38:48):
I realized that when I read it for last year,
it's not for everybody. This one, the price point is
right the other gaming chair. This one's conceptual as well.
I talked about c Yes being conceptual. It is a uh,
it's it's a project r lysle right, and it is
a hot and cold gaming chair. You can you know,
it has this blateless fan system that either makes it

(01:39:11):
cool or heats the chair up.

Speaker 2 (01:39:14):
W Yeah, why would you want to be heated up?

Speaker 1 (01:39:17):
I feel like you're you're getting sweaty playing games anyway,
But I get the cool.

Speaker 8 (01:39:22):
New York City is a little bit frigid right now. Okay,
I feel like a lot of times I spring for
the you know, the heating system and I have to
like pause my gaming session and get up and turn
it on. If I had that in the chair, it's
kind of like heated seats. Why is that limited to
a luxury car? So I'm surprised no other tech company

(01:39:42):
has done this before. But yeah, it seems like something
they're actually gonna make. I'm I'm totally uh in love
with this idea. It turns orange for hot, blue for cool,
and also green because that's Razors color.

Speaker 7 (01:40:00):
So definitely one to look forward to if they come
out with that.

Speaker 1 (01:40:03):
I've been playing with the Razor mechanical keyboard like they're
a really nice one and it's you know, the people
love Razor stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:40:11):
It's really slick.

Speaker 1 (01:40:12):
It's got all the lights, the RGB and you know,
it's just got all the features you need.

Speaker 2 (01:40:15):
It's a little price.

Speaker 1 (01:40:16):
You know, this stuff could be expensive, but I think,
like anything else, if you you know, and this is
what always happens, you recommend something. I recommend something. You know,
maybe it's a little bit more than people want to spend.
They go to Amazon, they type it in and of
course you know these other companies they hijack the search
by putting in like something that's half the price. You're like,
all right, I'll just go with that, and you do

(01:40:37):
get what you pay for. And you have to remember
big companies like a Razor, they have R and D,
and they have quality control, and they use parts and
they do things in a way that is like, you know,
not gonna explode or not gonna like catch on fire
or something. So you have to keep this in mind
when you go with that really cheap thing on Amazon.

Speaker 2 (01:40:54):
Just remember that absolutely.

Speaker 8 (01:40:56):
I've done that with lights before they were on sale
for Amazon, and I didn't know what the company was.
I got them, and then I spent probably two months
trying to track down a cricket in my kitchen, and
every time I went into the kitchen. I couldn't find
the cricket because it would just you know, they would
go silent. I realized it was the very cheap lights

(01:41:16):
I got and they were just humming.

Speaker 7 (01:41:18):
So I realized that was it. So you get what
you pay.

Speaker 1 (01:41:22):
For, all right, Matt Swider of the shortcut dot Com,
thanks so much for joining me today.

Speaker 7 (01:41:28):
Thanks Rich.

Speaker 1 (01:41:29):
All right, coming up, we are going to open up
the feedbag. We're gonna see what you've been emailing me
all week, and uh we'll do that right after this.
Welcome back to Rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging
out with you, talking technology. A couple of headlines to
get through before we get to the feedbag. Tvo make
it a comeback. They're going to debut a new TVO

(01:41:51):
Sharp TV in February, taking on Roku and fire TV.

Speaker 2 (01:41:56):
We'll see.

Speaker 1 (01:41:57):
I love Tvo, I loved it in the past. We'll
see if it can still hang with the big boys.
Disney and Fubo are merging their live TV services. Disney
is partnering with Fubo to combine Hulu Plus Live Tv,
with Fubo creating a joint venture. They're gonna have six
million subscribers. Let's see do they say the name of
the new service. I don't know the name. I'm assuming

(01:42:19):
it's gonna be Fubo. Maybe it's because of a lawsuit.

Speaker 2 (01:42:22):
And then Dell.

Speaker 1 (01:42:23):
They are copying the iPhone naming convention, So no more
xps and INSPI on now. It's going to be the Dell,
Dell Pro and Dell Promax, which I actually think is
a smart idea, very very smart idea. I know people
are giving them a lot of grief for that, but
I think it's very smart because you know that the
Pro Max is better than the Dell, and you know

(01:42:43):
the Dell Pro is better than the Dell, and you
know that the Pro Max is better than the del Pro.
And the Sony Honda Aphila one electric car now has
reservations open for eighty reservations opening California. With a two
hundred dollars deposit, you can get this new car, which
is sort of like a PlayStation on wheels. It's been

(01:43:07):
on display at CS for the last couple of years.
Sony and Honda joint developed it. I don't know why
you'd pay ninety thousand dollars for it, but hey.

Speaker 2 (01:43:16):
You can have it. It's available. Let's get to the feedbag.

Speaker 1 (01:43:21):
Chuck writs in I use the Burner app as a
second phone number for my customer contact in my job. Recently,
they deactivated my account without warning, making my social media
and marketing materials with that number useless. They won't explain why,
only saying they have the right to do this. It
was a great app for years, but I wanted to
warn others if their work is tied to the app,
it could vanish instantly. Be careful, yes, Chuck, that is

(01:43:42):
always a consideration when you use one of those phone numbers,
one of those apps. They can always just get rid
of it at any time, and you may not have recourse.
Laurel rights in I'm eighty three, I'm so glad. I
grew up in the nineteen forties and fifties. We didn't
have TVs, the internet, or smartphones for entertainment. We played outside,
rode bikes, climb trees, jump rope, read books.

Speaker 2 (01:44:02):
My mom read me a story every night.

Speaker 1 (01:44:05):
I avoid social media and find those platforms for meeting
people online dangerous. A friend of mine worries about his
granddaughter meeting the wrong people online. But how can parents
keep their kids away from devices when it seems like
everyone has one. It's sad that parents don't spend Many
parents don't spend quality time with their kids because they're
glued to their own screens.

Speaker 2 (01:44:25):
Very true.

Speaker 1 (01:44:27):
Mark from Santa Barbara wrights in I listened to your
program about surge suppressors. He recommended at least two thousand
jewels and mentioned they don't last forever. I recently upgraded
two older power strips near my TV, including my rebuilt
nineteen seventy three duel turntable, and replaced three in my
home office. I even added USB charging porch from my

(01:44:47):
iPhone and iPad. Thanks for the tip. Appreciate the guidance.
Gale from San Diego. Rights in Rich. Thanks for your
advice on photo scanning. Last March, my sister and I
started organizing over a thousand of our parents photos. Instead
of paying for scanning, we found a youth scanner at
an estate sale for twelve dollars and did it ourselves.
Every Sunday we spent hours organizing and scanning old black

(01:45:10):
and white photos, keepsakes, and letters from my dad's World
War II service. It felt like a family reunion.

Speaker 2 (01:45:15):
Every week.

Speaker 1 (01:45:16):
We saved everything to flash drives and gifted them to
family members for Christmas. It was one of the best
experiences of our lives. All of this was inspired by
your program. Thank you for what you do and Happy
New Year, Gail. You get the silver star or the
gold star for making my day. Randy from Florida writes
in Rich. I was listening as you guided someone through
finding a specific setting on their phone. May I suggest

(01:45:38):
using the search function in the settings menu instead of scrolling.
It's a faster way to locate the exact option and
make the adjustment.

Speaker 2 (01:45:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:45:46):
I do like to give people the basis of where
things are, but I agree that could be a.

Speaker 2 (01:45:49):
Good way to do it as well. Let's see what else.
Oh my gosh, so many emails.

Speaker 1 (01:45:57):
I was listening to your show on tape delay and
discussion of the NordVPN guest about two factor authentication. It's
a great security feature, but I've noticed a problem with
how Amazon handles it. If you do it too many times,
Amazon's inform me I can't get a link until later.
Even when I waited until the next day. The delay
was frustrated. Frustrating. I wanted to share this in case

(01:46:17):
others have experienced similar issues, or you weren't aware. Thanks
for discussing these important tech topics. Yes, they could lock
you out if you try to access too many times,
so be aware of that and remember those recovery codes.
All right, that's going to do it for this episode
of the show. Links to everything I mentioned on the
website rich on tech dot tv. I'm on social media
at rich on tech. Next week i'll give you my

(01:46:40):
thoughts on the one plus thirteen plus we'll talk to
the guy who's efforting the real life Jurassic Park. Yeah,
that's going to be an interesting one. Thank you so
much for listening. I know there are so many ways
you can spend your time I really do appreciate you
spending it right here with me. My thoughts to everyone
impacted by the wildfires in Los Angeles. The world is
with you right now. Thanks to everyone who makes this

(01:47:01):
show possible, including Bobo, who had to break through barriers
to get here. My name is not really My name
is rich Dumuro. He didn't break any rules. I'll talk
to you real soon.

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