Major AT&T Data Breach Details & Gmail Turns 20

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
How Apple users are being targeted with MFA bombing. I'll
tell you what you need to know and how to
protect yourself. Why Instagram is now limiting political content by default.
Google Maps has a great new feature just in time
for Spring break travel plus your tech questions answered. What's

(00:20):
going on? I'm Rich Dmiro and this is Rich on
Tech broadcasting live from Los Angeles, coast to coast. This
is the show where I talk about the tech stuff
I think you should know about. It's also the place
where I answer your questions about technology. I believe that
tech should be interesting, useful, and fun. Let's open up

(00:40):
those phone lines triple eight Rich one oh one. That
is eight eight eight seven four to two four one
zero one. Give me a call. If you have a
question about technology. Email is also open. Just go to
the website rich on Tech dot tv up at the
time you'll see a link that says email Rich. Just

(01:03):
tap that and it will go right to my inbox.
We've got some great guests this week. Oh Mead Abari,
Assistant Professor of Computer Science at UCLA, will explain Wi
Fi jamming. We've heard about so many homes being broken
into with this Wi Fi jammers and he's going to
explain what that's all about and how to best protect

(01:23):
your home security cameras. Plus Amazon's chief medical Officer, doctor
Vin Gupta, we'll discuss Amazon Pharmacy's new same day delivery
in New York and LA and how AI is helping
them deliver medications faster. And friend of the show, Jefferson
Graham will join us. He runs photo Walks TV. He

(01:44):
is going to offer tips on how to best capture
the total solar eclipse with a smartphone. I don't know
about you, but I am very obsessed with the eclipse
at this point, trying to figure out where I can
go to see this thing, because in Los Angeles it's
going to be a partial and that's not good. I
need the total. Well this week, if you can believe it, Gmail,

(02:10):
the email service so many people know and love, turns
twenty years old. Now how does that make you feel?
Twenty years Some of you may have gone now through
two cycles of email. The first AOL or something before that, Prodigy, CompuServe, whatever,

(02:33):
and then Gmail. What's next? I don't know, but Gmail
twenty years old. I remember the day they launched it.
I was a reporter in Shreveport, Louisiana. I was covering
consumer news at the time, not consumer technology, just consumer news.
I hadn't made the switch just yet, although I covered
a lot of technology in my consumer news. And it

(02:53):
was April first, two thousand and four, April Fool's Day
and Gmail, Google decides to launch Gmail. Now. Back in
the day, tech companies on April first, on Fools Day,
April Fool's Day, they would do a lot of jokes.
They would always come out with some sort of product
that was fake, that was, you know, unbelievable, unreasonable, whatever

(03:13):
it was, and people would say no, and inevitably there
would be tech journalists that were thrown back, taken aback
and surprised and tricked. And so nobody wanted to be tricked.
When Google came out and said we're introducing Gmail, a
new email service that gives you one thousand megabytes of storage,
one whole gigabyte of storage. At the time, if you remember,

(03:38):
your options were hot Mail, which gave you I think
it was ten megabytes, and Yahoo, which I think gave
you twenty five megabytes. So this was a lot lot
more and it was at the time unbelievably more storage capacity.
And not only that, it was clutter free. The interface

(03:59):
had just one small strip of ads running along the
top of your inbox. At the time, if you had
Hotmail or Yahoo, your inbox was littered with advertising. Still
is today in many ways, but this was so different.
People didn't want to believe it. And I was so
excited about this because people loved Google at the time.

(04:20):
It was such a revolutionary way to search. It was
the best service at the time. It still is for search.
But everyone wanted this, or a lot of people wanted it,
and nobody believed that it was real. So I emailed
Google and I said, hey, I need to get this.
I need a press account, I need a test account.
Please set me up. And I did get my account.
It took until I don't know when I got it,

(04:42):
but it took a couple of weeks. But it was
invite only, so you couldn't just go and sign up.
You had to go and put your email address in
and they would send you an invite. And then once
you had an invite, I think you could invite friends.
And the other thing that was really cool about this
is that when you're on the home screen of Gmail,
there'd be this little ever running ticker of how much
extra space they were giving you, So every second of

(05:04):
the day they were giving you even more space. Now
that has stopped, but for a while there, it was
pretty cool. You just saw like, oh, I'm getting more
and more space. The other thing that was really different
about this is that you didn't delete emails. I'm not
even sure when they first introduced Gmail that there was
a delete button at all. I think it took a
while for them to add that you would just archive things.

(05:24):
And the way that Gmail was set up, everything was
sort of in a long list, so your inbox was
not organized by folders, it was organized by labels. So
when you archived something, really all you were doing was
taking the inbox label off of it and adding an
archive label and that was it. Now I think Gmail
has evolved quite nicely over the years. They you know,

(05:46):
they've done small incremental changes to bring it up to
modern kind of times, but the basic functionality is there.
And at this point, by the way I checked yesterday,
I have thirty eight gigabytes of storage filled up inside Gmail,
way more than that original one gig. I never knew
how I'd fill up. Now, if you want to check
to see how much you have in your Gmail. Scroll

(06:06):
all the way down to the bottom of your inbox
and you'll see a little little notification that says how
many gigabytes you've used out of your total Google storage.
And by the way, if you want to clean out
your Google storage, tap that one more time and you
can go through and kind of clean out your Gmail
looking for large attachments and things like that. I do

(06:26):
that every once in a while. Very smart to do that,
because you don't realize how much pictures take up. When
people send you like a big attachment, you don't realize
how much that takes up of your storage. So Gmail
today still using it. In twenty seventeen, Google announced they
would no longer scan. By the way, those ads that
they showed were based on a scan of what you

(06:47):
were writing in your email. Nobody would go for that today,
like now I don't read my email. But they explained
to the time, we are not having humans read your email.
We're having computers read it and it'll pick out keywords,
like if you said you were going to Maui, it
might give you a hotel advertisement for a Maui hotel.
Now they don't do that anymore, and Why why they
don't need to do that is because Gmail and Google

(07:08):
know so much about us from other products that we use,
all the searches we've done over the years, and all
the little tracking pixels they have around the web, so
they don't need to do that anymore. But pretty wild
how Gmail is twenty years old. I wrote about this
in my newsletter today. If you want to read it,
it's on the website. Rich on tech dot TV. I
guess it's just sort of a nostalgic weekend because also

(07:30):
last night my mom's in town, so I had the
in laws over last night and my father in law
brings over this old school laptop and IBM think pad
three ten.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
Ed.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
This was a giant laptop from nineteen ninety seven, and
he had everything with it. He had the mouse, he
had the floppy drive, It had a CD drive built in,
it had a modem card. The modem was fifty six K,
which is just so slow at this point in time.

(08:03):
But he brings this giant laptop over. We didn't really
know whose it was. He thought maybe it was his father's.
It turned out and we turned it on it was
his brother in laws, and we turned it on and
it still booted up just fine and made that nice
worrying sound of the hard drive, the old school hard drive. Again.
This was a computer that was over twenty five years old.

(08:26):
This is from nineteen ninety seven, and when it came
up you saw that nice doss screen. It We had
to bypass a couple of error messages, but when it
came on it was running Windows ninety eight. And then
all of a sudden, we had a password. Wait, how
do we figure out this password? So we called the
person whose computer this was and we said, Dave, hey,
do you remember your password from nineteen ninety seven? And

(08:47):
he's like, no, of course not. Well, we started typing
in a couple of passwords that we thought it might be,
and lo and behold, it just logged in. We don't
even know what we typed, but somehow this thing just
logged in. And now we have the wind screen and
we're looking at the apps, and my kids by this
point had come by because they were amazed. The display
is so bad. You take for granted how good a

(09:09):
display was. It's so bad you could barely see what's
on that screen. But it still had all the old
school apps on it, like Real Player, and you know Microsoft.
I think it was Outlook Express. I mean it still
holds up. Let's see what was on there, my briefcase,
my documents, recycle bin, Lotus PC anywhere, real jukebox, Palm, desktop,

(09:31):
set up, Microsoft Network, Excel word Hey, something still stand
the test of time? Right, Internet Explorer picture easy. I mean,
it's just it's a it's a snapshot in time. The
hard drive option on this thing anywhere from one gig
to three gigs. The floppy drive that it had one
point four to four megabytes. How do you even run

(09:54):
a program with one point four to four megabytes? You
download an app from Google Play, it's going to be
twenty five to one hundred megabytes. Battery life two and
a half to three hours using old nickel metal hydride.
He I don't even know how to say that. NIMH
nickel metal hydride. Yeah, I think that's it. But the
best bar it was when we opened up word what

(10:15):
popped up Clippy and I said, it looks like you're
writing a letter? Can I help? And I said, this
is early AI. See everything old is new again? Kind
of fun. It's so wild that we can remember this
stuff so clearly. But we forget about it until you
actually put your hands on this stuff one more time,
you kind of forget just how different it was. Anyway,

(10:37):
find that retro tech in your house fired up and
have some fun with it. Your call is coming up
next at Triple eight Rich one oh one eight eight
eight seven four to two four one zero one. Give
me a call if you have a question about technology.
My name is Rich DeMuro and you are listening to
Rich on Tech. Welcome back to Rich on Tech. Rich

(10:59):
DeMuro here hanging out with you talking technology at Triple
eight Rich one oh one. That is one eight eight
eight seven four to two four one zero one. Give
me a call if you have a question about technology.
The website for the show rich on Tech dot TV.
There you can also email me. Let's go to John

(11:22):
and Moore Park. John, you're on with Rich. What's up?

Speaker 3 (11:26):
Thank you? Thank you Rich for taking the call.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah, what can I help you?

Speaker 3 (11:31):
I have a in charge of the computer room on
Friday's at the Seami Valley Senior Center and one of
our customers wanted to advice on if you need a
new PC. He doesn't like the chrome and uh so
I thought I'd ask you just a standard retired person.
He doesn't do any major stuff, but he needs a laptop.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
Okay, well, I think the the best deal in laptop
right now is the MacBook Era at Walmart. And it's uh,
it's six hundred and ninety nine dollars. Is that above
the budget?

Speaker 3 (12:05):
I'm sorry, you don't have to be a PC.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
Oh he wants a PC? Okay? Uh, didn't catch that
part of the call.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
So I didn't say that.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
I'm sorry, Okay, no worries. H Well, so here's the thing.
I mean. I think that most people when they're looking
for just a basic computer, they want to spend around
five hundred bucks. Does that sound about right?

Speaker 3 (12:21):
I would assume so.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
Okay, And the Chromebooks, I do think chromebooks are great.
But you did say he didn't they don't want a chromebook, right,
That is correct? Okay, So we're looking at a Windows computer.
So with Windows, you know a couple of big brands
out there. You've got the HP's of the world, the
Asus of the world, the Lenovo's of the world. But
checking around some of the latest ratings of you know,

(12:44):
obviously things under five hundred, there is a computer that
keeps coming up over and over and this is the
Lenovo Idea Pad three and this is a fifteen inch screen,
which I like. So you want, you know, bigger is better,
you don't, you don't want to go with a thirteen
or fourteen in you want the bigger screen because you're
gonna get more real estate for your apps, right.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
Yeah, he doesn't need a lot. I was thinking maybe
just sending him off to Costco, And.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Well, yeah, I do, I do. Okay, if they have
a Costco membership, that is always my first stop because
here's what Costco does really well. They they and I've
noticed they actually have more and more laptops than they
ever did, so it can be a little bit confusing,
but every single system that I've ever seen there is
a great value and the price is right. And even

(13:34):
if you pay let's say you find a computer there
for you know, five hundred dollars at best Buy or
another store, it may be the same price, but you're
getting slightly better specs at Costco.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
Yeah, I'm gonna. I'm gonna when I see him on Friday,
I'm gonna tell him what you say, I recommend it.
By the way, I did recommend Lenovo.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah, I think they're great. They have really nice keyboards too.
The other thing is do they need a laptop because
they're going to be paying more, Like an all in
one will be a much better system for the price.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
I'll mention that I don't know, I think he wants
a laptop, but I'll tell them that.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
I think people just default to laptop because they're like, oh,
it's a laptop. Everyone gets a laptop, but you're paying
a premium for that. The you know the fact that
it's much smaller parts in a much smaller frame. So
you I agree, you'll get better hard drive, you'll get
a larger hard drive, more ram uh you know, better
process or everything will be better on it on an
all in one, bigger.

Speaker 3 (14:30):
Screen like the Lenovo keyboard. Is that is that one
of the criteria you you would emphasize.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
Yeah, I think so. I think they probably have one
of the best keyboards out there, so I think they're
they're really good with that. The thing that I would
watch out for, and this is like the main problem
with all these Windows laptops is really the bloatwear. So
you know, if money was no object, the some of
the uh, you know, the nice surface computers from Microsoft
are really incredible, but they are they are pretty expensive.

(14:59):
I saw Drop recently on that, but you know, those
are a little bit more high end. So I'm not
really sure, but I think the Lenovo is good. But
i'd go to Costco see what they have there, and
you know, I'm sure they can call you and you
can help them decide between the two that they like
the best. But yeah, put your hands on the keyboard,
see what it feels like, look at the screen, and

(15:20):
I would recommend at this point at least eight gigabytes
of RAM sixteen is much better. And the hard drive
i'd probably say, you know, like a five twelve if
they're not doing anything, two fifty six will be fine.
But I think that, you know, the more you can get,
the better because it's going to last longer. Yes, all right, John,
thanks for the call today. Thank you all right, and

(15:42):
thanks thanks for helping people there at the Senior Center.
That's really that's you know, that's an incredible thing that
you're doing because people, you know, I see myself as
helping people with this show. That's my giving back. But
I love when people give back in ways, you know,
whatever that is for you. It's just always try to
give back in this world because people need it. Thanks
for the call today eighty to eight rich one on

(16:04):
one eighty eight seven four to two four one zero one.
So if you're an Apple user, you need to be
aware of this new thing. It's called MFA bombing. This
is a phishing attack. So scammers are exploiting a bug
in Apple's password reset system, which basically sends a bunch
of notifications to your phone that is saying, hey, do

(16:25):
you want to reset your password? And you might trip
up and actually say allow because you get so sick
of saying don't allow, and you might not even know
what's going on. So if you're on your iPhone and
you see a whole bunch of things that say do
you want to reset your password, definitely say don't allow
to every single one of those. But then the other
step is they call you during this attack and they say, hey,

(16:47):
we're Apple. We noticed there's an issue with your phone.
Can you tell us that one time code we just
texted you so we can help you out. And that's
the actual attack. Once they have that code, they can
take over your entire account. So there's not a fix
for this just yet until Apple changes their back end system,
but be aware of it. If you get a whole
bunch of notifications about changing your password, do not say allow,

(17:08):
and never ever give someone that one time code, especially
if they're calling you. You are listening to rich on Tech.
Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging
out with you, talking technology at triple eight Rich one
oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four two four

(17:28):
one zero one. If you have a question about technology,
give me a call. Get those questions in now. We've
been hearing a lot of news reports about home robberies
involving Wi Fi jammers. So the bad guys will get
a Wi Fi jammer, they will jam the signals of
the home security cameras, rendering them useless. During the robbery,

(17:49):
they take the stuff, they're in, they're out, and there's
no record of it. So I was a little confused
about how these jammers work, the legality of all of this,
and what we can do to protect ourselves. So to
answer for those questions, I rang up oh Met Abari,
Assistant professor in computer science and electrical Engineering at UCLA.
And since this all sounds like it's out of some

(18:09):
sort of dystopian sci fi movie, my first question is
can this really happen?

Speaker 4 (18:15):
Unfortunately, yes, So the way whireless network is working, if
you have two devices and they want to communicate to
each other, there is you know, a spectrum which is
shared between everyone. So the one device sends the packet
or sends a message to another device.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
Now, if a.

Speaker 4 (18:34):
Tired person, let's say, attack it exactly with the same frequency,
generates a signal, it's gonna create interference for that communication.
It's exactly how we speak and we communicate like as
I'm speaking with you. You know, we can communicate to
each other. But if someone comes to very close to
us and creates a huge, you know, noise, a loud sound,

(18:57):
then we will not be able to communicate.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
So it's gonna break or communication.

Speaker 4 (19:01):
So it's exactly the same you know principal also in
wireless communication.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
And are these easy to get a hold of? Can
the average consumer purchase one of these? And what's the
range on something like that? Yes?

Speaker 4 (19:15):
So again unfortunately, yes, it's very easy to buy these devices.
In fact, even if they know a little bit technical stuff,
they can buy some devices which are called software defined
radios and they can program it themselves, so they can
transmit at any frequency anytime they want.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
So what is the range?

Speaker 4 (19:36):
There is no really you know limit on the range
because the higher the power they transmit, the limit of the.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Range is going to be long.

Speaker 4 (19:46):
But for a typical device that these jammers work for
a typical one, it's just a matter of tens of meters.
But of course, again I want to say that these
tens of meters can be you know, extended to hundreds
of metairs if they use bigger antenna. The jummer basically
use bigger antenna, or if they transmit higher power, it

(20:10):
can extend that tens of meters two hundreds of meteris now.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Wireless security cameras and wireless security systems are very common
in households these days. Are those disruptible with something that
some person.

Speaker 4 (20:24):
Could have, Yes, they are, but some of them are
smarter that they can detect it. So yes, So if
they have a security camera or a sensor which is
working on based on Wi Fi, of course you know,
the attacker if it gets closed, they can generate a
jammer signal and as a result, the security camera would

(20:46):
not be able to communicate to their base, say station
or a Wi Fi router, so it just disconnects the communication.
Some of the security cameras today's are smarter, so whenever
they detect you know, unexpected behaviors such as the jamming,
et cetera, then they might notify the user you know,
the connection has lost, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
But not all security cameras.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
And what are some of the ways that people might
be able to detect that this happened to them? Is
your is your security camera footage just gibberish or your
security camera doesn't work? And is there any way to
protect yourself?

Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (21:21):
I think to answer your fair question, yes, So if
you check your security camera and you see there is
no connection, sometimes it can be for a few seconds,
you know, the network connection is lost.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
That's normal.

Speaker 4 (21:34):
But if you look at your security camera and it's
more than you know, tens of seconds or a minute,
and you don't see the camera working, there is a
possibility that the connection got lost because of the gamer
et cetera. So I would say just monitoring is the
best way, and that's exactly what some of the more
modern you know, wireless Wi Fi based camera does it.

(21:55):
So they monitor the connectivity and if they see very
unexpected behavior, they let the user know and they notify that.
Now to answer your second question, what's the best way
to avoid these type of things, I think as much
as possible, rely on the wired camera.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
And when I say wire it in terms of two aspects.

Speaker 4 (22:16):
You know, when you use these wireless cameras, they use
Wi Fi for connectivity and some of them they are
battery powered. So both of these are not ideal, and
I will explain why not ideal. So ideally you want
the security camera that use wire for the data and
also it's used wire for powering. God, if that's not

(22:37):
the option, then maybe rely on the battery or rely
on the Wi Fi. And why I'm saying even relying
on the battery is not ideal because some of the
recent research, including my group, has shown that the attack
here can send some you know, fake package to Wi
Fi based camera, and these Wi Fi based camera start

(23:00):
consuming their power or they are start consuming the battery
much faster than the issue. So we have shown that
for example, the attack here from hundred meters far from
your home, it can kill the security camera, which its
battery is supposed to be six months all the way
to a few hours. So imagine you charge the battery

(23:22):
of your security camera for six months and you go
on a trip for two weeks or three weeks, and
the attacker can get close to your house and kill
the battery in a few hours.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
So this is just a disaster, but unfortunately possible.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
So that's why I'm saying, ideally you want to avoid battery.
Ideally you want to avoid wireless and rely on the
wire but if it's not possible, then try to buy
those wireless cameras that they have more security features so
they can detect unexpected behavior et sech.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Why do you think all of a sudden we're starting
to see this this gammer or situation or has this
always been going on?

Speaker 2 (23:59):
I think it has.

Speaker 4 (24:00):
Always been going on, But the problem is that we
are relying more and more on the technology in today's life.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
Or if you look at towday's when.

Speaker 4 (24:08):
I walk in my neighborhood, there are so many cameras
right almost every house they have multiple cameras. Ten years ago,
fifteen years ago, we didn't have this technology is such
a low cost. On one hand, it's amazing because we
have this technology, you know, in such a low cost,
so everyone can afford it. But on the other hand,
you know, whenever we get a technology and we're all excited,

(24:30):
you know there are also a problem with it that
we need to fix it, such as security, privacy, etceter.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
Is it illegal to have a jammer or to use
a jammer.

Speaker 4 (24:40):
So I'm not sure about the owning it, but definitely
created jamming signal is not legal. So it's illegal to
create a jammer signal, but at owning it. As I said,
you know, you can just buy a software defined radio.
It's legal to buy a software defined radio. Of course
many use it for good applications, but of course you

(25:03):
know if someone uses for jammer, the jamming itself is
the illegal. The technology is you know, wireless technology. We
rely more and more every day on it. So the
concept of Internet of things, everything is going to be
connected together right to the Internet, and of course this
is security camera, all the sensors in our.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
Free each TV, et cetera. So which is very exciting.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
All of these applications are very exciting and the price
is getting lower and lower so we all can afford it.
But unfortunately this is coming at the cost, so we
need to be more careful as a user when we
are using this technology and also pay more attention when
we buy them, of course, not just look at just
the price. As I said, look at the feature of that.

(25:48):
You know, the technology that you buying. Are they enabling
some privacy and security et cetera behind because of course,
you know, to reduce the costs some of them actually
and may cut this security or privacy of those devices.
And we might just be so excited that we don't
look at those features. But I think it's very important

(26:09):
to pay attention to those features, not just the technology itself,
that the application that it's enable.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
Once again, my thanks to Ohmed Abari, Assistant Professor in
Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at UCLA. My name is
rich Damuro, and you are listening to rich on Tech.
Get those calls in now triple eight rich one oh
one eight eight eight seven four to two.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
Four one zero one.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
Coming up next we'll hear from you. Welcome back to
rich on Tech. Rich de Muro here at triple A
rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four
to two four one zero one. Let's go to Pat
in Laguna Hills, California. Pat, you're on with Rich.

Speaker 5 (26:57):
Hi. I have a question. You said there was a
storage for a Gmail much more than what I have.
I went down to the bottom of my Gmail and
I have fifteen milligrams yeah, right, gigabytes?

Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yeah, fifteen gigabytes. Yeah, that's so they've increased the storage
from one gigabyte to fifteen at this point, So that
is the standard that you get.

Speaker 5 (27:22):
Oh you said one gigabyte. Oh, I confuse. All right,
Well I have another question anyway? Could I ask you
how I can get out of I signed up a
Facebook years ago and I under a full identity, but.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
I had are you hiding it? The law?

Speaker 5 (27:44):
I was scared? But now I can get in at
myself because I used the Gmail account I have.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
Oh I see, so it's linked to that other the
false idea.

Speaker 5 (27:57):
Yeah, and they won't let me out.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
M okay, well there's a website that might be So
it sounds like, well two things have you tried getting
in touch with like Facebook? Uh, you know, support and
asking them if you can switch? You want to switch
all of your identity on there, like your name and everything. Yeah,
that might be tough. I think the best the best

(28:20):
way to do it is to try to delete the
account completely.

Speaker 5 (28:24):
Oh I tried, I tried everything.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
Yeah, and what so what happens when you try to do.

Speaker 5 (28:29):
I've been working on this on and off for years.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
For years.

Speaker 5 (28:34):
Yeah, nobody seems to know how well.

Speaker 6 (28:37):
I mean, I just figured idea.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
What you mean, you've been working so what you're spending
like eight hours a day just like trying to figure
this out.

Speaker 5 (28:43):
Well no, no, no, when I when I think of it,
just like I think of it, you know, well when
when I think of it. Yeah, okay, Well then comes
up and you keep going.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
If you go to the website, just delete me dot
x y z and you type in Facebook.

Speaker 5 (29:00):
Okay, delete me xyz xyz.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
Okay. This is a directory of direct links to delete
your account from various services and Facebook. You search for
that and then you click the link, and if you're
logged into this fake Facebook account, it will say permanently
delete your Facebook account, and so you can you can
go through and do that. And now here's the thing.

(29:25):
I don't know if Facebook will kind of keep the
email address like where I don't know if if it
dumps it out of the system immediately, or if it's
going to keep the email address kind of where you
can't re sign up.

Speaker 5 (29:40):
That's the problem. That's why I won't do it. You know,
I'm well because if I can't keep the same email address,
I'm in trouble.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
You know. Well, I think you delete it and see
what happens, and then once okay, so after thirty days,
all your information will be permanently deleted. It may take
ninety days for a full deletion. But I think once
your email is once you're deleted, you hopefully should be
able to sign up with that same email. And the
thing is, if you're using this account, I mean, are

(30:13):
you using this account or are you not?

Speaker 5 (30:16):
Well, I try and get in to see other people,
and I would like to really really use it on
a specific site. Now, well, I mean connect with these people.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
And you don't have a secondary email address you can
use to sign up.

Speaker 5 (30:30):
No, I use my Cox email address, the service provider,
the Internet service provider email. I never set up another one. Well,
when you set up a second email, it refers to you.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
It's not I thought you at Gmail.

Speaker 5 (30:49):
Gmail. Yeah, if I used a different address, it will
come back to me anyway.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
Right, No, So I think you just sign up, Okay,
So go into the Facebook account whatever the account is
that you know, the fake one, whatever email address that's
from just delete it and now use your other It
sounds like you have a Gmail address and a Cox
email address, so I would use one of those is
linked to your Facebook. The other one is open, So

(31:15):
whatever one's not on your fake account, use the other
one to do it. But I think you delete that
fake account, get rid of it. You might have to
wait the thirty days and then you can actually go
in and sign up for a new account. But I
have a feeling Facebook's computers are pretty savvy and they're
probably gonna take a closer look when you're trying to
sign in with the same email address, because I have
a feeling they don't really get that out of their

(31:37):
system completely. But Pat, thanks for the question today from
Laguna Hills, California. Let's go to Brian in Upland. Brian,
you're on with Rich. Hello, Brian are you there?

Speaker 5 (31:53):
Yes?

Speaker 7 (31:53):
Yes, Hi, Rich, Hey question. Oh yeah, I got a
clicking in a burg. It just popped up and it's
you know, the recording say you've been they've taken over
your computer. So I just turned it off. I set
it out, and then I called Norton and they said, okay,
turn it on, and they wanted to take over my computer.

(32:16):
They gave me, set me a password so I can
let them get in there and take over. I just
I was I'm a little skeptical because it happened before,
like a couple of years ago in and they just said,
go in and chear up, hit the gear up the history,
and you should be.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
Okay, Yeah, I think here's what happened. How did you
find the phone number to call for Norton? Well, I
got on a different computer and you searched. Yeah, and
that's that's the actual scam right there. So do not
let someone take over your computer. That is the actual scam.
That's what I Yeah, you're you're good for thinking that, Brian,

(32:52):
because you came really close to the edge there, and
it's I'm glad that you're you're good. Sense got a
hold of you because that could have been really bad.
So here's the thing you This is a classic tech
support scam. The tech support scam happens like this. You
are just on your computer, you are on the web,

(33:13):
and next thing you know, your computer says, hey, we
notice some suspicious activity, or your identity is being used
in a different place, or the FBI is watching a
million there's a million ways that this can happen. A
lot of times it actually comes through malvertizing. So they
will buy advertising, and they will do this so quickly
that they are able to get that message on your

(33:34):
computer before the Google or the whatever advertising system they're
using picks up on what they're doing. So this will
blast a computer. People get scared. It says do not
do anything. It takes over your screen. So a lot
of people don't really understand how to get out of that.
They don't know how to like close out that app
or you know, close out their browser. Their computer might
even make a loud sound and it might say hey

(33:56):
in five four three two one, you know whatever, and
people get really really scared. And so what they do
is exactly what you did. They either call the phone
number on the screen, which you had the good sense
not to do, but then they say, oh, I'm gonna
be smarter. I'm actually going to Google for a phone
number for you know, Microsoft support or for Norton support,
and you google, and next thing you know, you're calling
a number that these scam artists have purchased on the

(34:19):
lot on the web, and that's a scam. And when
you call them, they say, hey, Uh, here, we're gonna
we're gonna help you out. Tell me what the message
code is, tell me what the number is on your screen,
and uh, download this software. Go to this website, download
this software, install it on your computer, and it's remote
remote access software, and we're gonna take over your computer
to help you out. Do not let anyone do that

(34:42):
unless it's a trusted friend that you know. Do not
let a random tech support person take over your computer
that you're calling. And so the thing to know about
this is that it happens a lot. It happens a lot.
And the thing that you need to do, like you said,
is just just if if you can't figure out how
to close out the app on your computer or on

(35:03):
your phone, just go ahead and restart your device so
you can pull the plug out of the wall, you
can press the power button, whatever you need to do.
But just get your computer in a place where it
gets away from that screen. And then when you open
up your web browser again, because you might still be
on that page because it's going to try to load
those tabs again, when your web browser says, hey, we

(35:23):
recovered from a you know, a bad shutdown. Would you
like us to reopen these tabs, say no, and then
go into your browsing settings and clear browsing data, and
that will help get rid of any of this stuff
that they might have put on your system in the
history that may causes to pop up again. It's called
the tech support scam. It is a classic, classic scam

(35:46):
and still people fall for it every single day of
the week. Thanks for the call. Eighty to eight rich
one O one eight seven four to two four one
zero one. More rich on Tech, come in your way, hey,
right after this. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich
DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology at Triple

(36:09):
eight rich one on one eight eight eight seven four
to two four one zero one. Coming up on the show,
we're going to talk about how Instagram is limiting political
content by default and how you can change that if
you want to UH Florida Social Media band for minors
under fourteen. We'll talk about that Google Maps has a

(36:31):
new feature to UH just in time for summer travel,
and I already showed up on my phone. It's really cool.
I'll tell you about that in a moment. Plus this hour,
we've got Amazon's chief medical officer, doctor Vin Gupta. He
is going to discuss Amazon pharmacies new same day delivery
in New York and LA and how AI is helping
them deliver medications faster. So we got a full show

(36:53):
plus you at eighty to eight Rich One on one
website for the show is rich on tech dot TV.
Once you're there, you can find the email link to
send me a message if you want to get in
the feedback segment, which is at the end of the show.
My kid asked me, He said, Dad, what's feedback? And
I said, well, it's a combination of feedback and the

(37:13):
mail bag. And of course he doesn't even know what
a mail bag is, because you know, we don't have
them anymore. I mean, I guess they still do. Let's
go to Jeff in Muriata, California. Jeff, you're on with Rich. Hey.

Speaker 8 (37:27):
Rich, So I have a problem and it's two bold
and it's with Carbonite. I got disappointed with Carbonite originally
because it seems like they copy things over and over
in their system, where you have the same files over

(37:48):
and over again. When you have backup, I can't and
I can't like filter it so that I can get
rid of the duplicate files, so that was the first problem.
And then the second problem is they charge so much money.
My wife is saying an incredible amount to save all

(38:09):
of this extra information, which is much of it duplicated,
and it's so hard to find the duplication to delete them.
And now we're paying hundreds of dollars a year to
carbonite and it's so incredibly slow, and I was wondering,
is there anything else besides carbonite that's worth saving all
of your backup information on? And I'll shut up.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
And let you talk now, Okay, Well, yeah, carbonite. It's
it's been around for a while, and I don't really
hear about carbonite much anymore. So I think that there's
a couple alternatives that are much more straightforward with their pricing,
especially and so are you paying for two users? No?

Speaker 8 (38:52):
Just one?

Speaker 1 (38:53):
Okay? Just one user? Okay. So I mean I think
a popular one that a lot of people like is backblaze. Now,
just just to let you know what I do, I
used to use one of these services for my whole computer,
and I think a lot of people like it because
it gives them peace of mind that their entire computer
is always backed up right if there's ever a problem.
You've got it. Especially with things like ransomware attacks and
stuff like that. It's really nice if if you ever

(39:16):
had came up against something like that, you could just
go back into the cloud and roll back your system
to a backup that you always have happening. I don't
know what's happening with your backup with this carbonite situation.
It seems odd that they would be duplicating files, because
that is definitely not what you want to happen it would.
I think that these systems should work more like a snapshot,

(39:38):
where it's kind of taking a snapshot of your system
every once in a while or on a regular obviously schedule,
and then you could roll back to that when you
need to. But with that said, I think a couple
of alternatives that you should look into. I think the
first one is really Backblaze, And what I like about
this is the pricing. So it's very simple. Nine dollars

(39:58):
a month or ninety nine dollars a year, or you
can go one hundred and eighty nine bucks for two years,
so that's it. That includes everything, and you can start
for free and it just backup, backs up everything by default.
It's very simple and you can even get a drive,
it says with your data. So if you you know,
like I said that the whole situation where you had

(40:19):
some ransomware, like let's say that happened, you could just
format your computer and just order a drive from them.
It will have all of your files on it and
then you can put that back on your computer and
then send them back the drive. So that's kind of
a cool situation there. And by the way, they they
kind of have a great little comparison of the different
other plans on there from different providers, So let's see, Yeah,

(40:43):
external backup. A lot of them do that, so that's
kind of nice. Wow, Okay. And then the other one
is a smaller company but based locally in southern California,
is I Drive, and I've actually met with them, so
whenever I meet with a company and interview them, I
always like them more because I've seen the faces behind
the actual company and they've been around for a while

(41:04):
and they will do that as well. Pricing for theirs
is based on storage, so personal is up to five terabytes.
One hundred gigabytes is three dollars three dollars a year
for one hundred gigabytes. That's for a small that's if
you have really not much to back up, but probably

(41:25):
the personal with five terabytes is going to be better.
That's seventy dollars for the first year, than after that
it's one hundred bucks a year, so that will give
you up to five terabytes, and then of course they
have higher levels above that. Let's see. The other one
is crash Plan. So crash plan is another popular provider,
very similar pricing they are. They have an essential one

(41:48):
up to two hundred gigabytes for three dollars a month,
that's thirty six bucks a year, or you can do
the most popular, which is the professional, which is one
hundred bucks for the year, and that will give you
unlimited backup capacity. So the good news about these these
backup plans is that you know, if you want to switch,
it's pretty easy because you just as long as your

(42:09):
computer is in good working condition, you've got all your files,
you can just easily switch to the new provider. There's
nothing you need to do on the back end except
just delete your old account at what was a company
you said you had delete your account at Carbonite and
just sign up at one of these other ones and
do a backup and yeah, the duplicate files. Don't deal
with that. That sounds like nonsense. That's a lot, Jeff,

(42:30):
thanks for the call today from Murieta, California, eighty eight
rich one on one eight eight eight seven four to
two four one zero one is Michelle and on vacation
in Honolulu or you live in Honolulu. Michelle, you're on
with rich Oh.

Speaker 6 (42:46):
Hi, I'm going to vacation and Hi.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
Okay, so you're going on vaca. So you're not in
Honolulu actively? No, okay, what's up, Michelle?

Speaker 9 (43:00):
I was wondering should I get the new Samsung phone?

Speaker 1 (43:04):
Oh, the new Samsung phone? Good question. Well, the new
Samsung phone is the S twenty four series, so it
depends which one you have. I think that the S
twenty four is probably the best Android phone out there
at this point overall. And it's funny because, hold, let

(43:25):
me get my notes here. I was actually gonna talk
about this because if you have the Samsung Galaxy S
twenty three, you're actually getting all of the AI features
that they introduced on the S twenty four. Bubbo, you've
got the S twenty three, right, did you get this update?
Did you get this software update? He's got the S
twenty three. And so if you go to your software,

(43:47):
your settings on the Samsung and you go to the
software update, you should get this new update. They just
started rolling it out. It's one UI six point one
and that will give you all of these A features,
Chat assist, Live translate, circle to search with Google notes,

(44:07):
note summaries using AI, all the generative editing for the photos.
So if you have the S twenty three, I say,
you probably don't need to update to the S twenty
four right away. And this is why Samsung didn't want
to give this right away, because people like me would say,
why update if you're getting you know, why upgrade if
you're getting the update with all these cool features? Bobo,

(44:29):
did you get this week? Okay? So if you go
into your software update, you know how to let's see,
let's do this live. You got your phone, so go
to settings. You know how to get to settings of course, okay,
and then go scroll all the way down where it
says software update. Do you see offerers at the very
bottom bottom and this is download and install and that's

(44:50):
not what mine says, says check for updates. So that yeah,
that's interesting. Boom huh okay, well, check for updates, updates,
see if you got one that software update process when
not to beat any person of doubt on your device,
check for new updates. I am checking. Let's see, because
this is rolling out, so it doesn't mean everyone gets
it all at once. I haven't got it yet. Interesting,

(45:11):
no update is available for your device at this time.
Please try again in twenty four hours. And what does
it say? One UI version? What does it say? Uh
that I don't see. You don't see that?

Speaker 6 (45:20):
No?

Speaker 1 (45:20):
Interesting? Okay, and then we'll see about phone. That's interesting
because it should be if you get the update, it'll
be one UI six point one. I have one UI
version five point one five point Wait, do you have
the S twenty two or S twenty three three? Huh? Yeah,
you you should have an update at least to the
UH six point six point zero. That's interesting. Okay, my

(45:43):
moone sucks. Well, well, now you know you got your
work cut out for you for the rest of the show.
Try to figure that out. Yeah, I am. But here's
the thing. I do think that the S twenty four
Ultra is an incredible device. I really I find myself
using it every day, and I really think that that
Samsung has done an incredible job with the device this year,

(46:03):
not just with the hardware, but also the software I
think is getting really good. I'm waiting for one more feature,
and that is the vertical app drawer, so when you
swipe to your apps, instead of being horizontal where you
swipe around, you go up and you can see all
your apps in line. But just the screen on this
phone is so good that you watch a movie on

(46:25):
that screen and it rivals any TV except for the
size obviously. But the other thing they added this year
is this anti reflective screen, and so you don't realize
when I compare this phone against other devices that I test,
they're all super reflective, and the Samsung screen some whatever
they did to it, it like absorbs the light and

(46:45):
it doesn't reflect it. So it's like it's just another
level of like niceness. So I guess for the hardware,
it's really nice. But the software is really very similar
to what you get on the S twenty three and
the S twenty four. And if you're wondering if you
have an S twenty two, are you going to get
this update to the AI features, Samsung has not announced
that part of it just yet they don't want to completely,

(47:07):
you know, cannibalize all of their sales. Right, all right,
Coming up next, we'll talk about the social media ban
in Florida and Instagram. You're listening to rich on Tech.
Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here talking
technology with you at triple eight Rich one oh one.

(47:27):
That's eight eight eight seven four to two four one
zero one. If you want to email the web, the
website rich on Tech dot TV, let's see. Florida this
week enacts a strict social media ban for minors under fourteen.
New law prohibits social media accounts for children under fourteen,

(47:49):
and it requires printal consent for teenagers fourteen and fifteen.
Of course, this has sparked many debates about online safety
and free speech. Uh, that's pretty much it. So these
companies have to delete any social media accounts believed to
be used by miners under fourteen. So if these kids

(48:09):
already have one, I guess the onus is on you know,
Instagram and Facebook. Well they're probably not on Facebook, but
you know Instagram and snapchat, TikTok, they got to delete
those accounts. Now, we've talked about this in the past.
These companies know when even when you know, cause these
kids sign up for these accounts using a fake birth date.
And of course these services know that they know what

(48:31):
they're looking at. They can tell. I mean, they're not
being fooled, they're just allowing it. It's kind of like
when you, you know, got into a bar underage. They
know you're not fooling anyone, like I can tell when
you're under twenty one. Come on, anyone can do that anyway.
So the idea here is to protect these teens because

(48:53):
there's so many mental health issues and bullying and all
that stuff. Predators and you know, of course the people
on the other side don't like it because of First
Amendment rights. And you know, now, how we're going to
verify these teenagers, most of them. If you're fourteen or fifteen,
how do you have a you know what, don't you
don't even have a driver's license? How do you verify

(49:13):
you are who you say you are? So pe this
is just so wild. Now I will tell you all
of this. I am actually four less social media for teenagers,
I really am, because this stuff is a nightmare. Even
for adults. We are not equipped for what this stuff
does to us. It's a It's a mini casino in

(49:35):
your pocket, That's what it is. We love the notifications,
we love the acceptance, we love the comments that we get.
It's just it's it's all the same thing as a casino.
It triggers the same neurons in our brains. So do
kids need to be exposed to this? When I was
a kid, here we go, where's my I walked to

(49:56):
school in the rain up the both ways. When I
was a kid, we played outside, That's what we did. Yeah,
we were not on social media. There was no such
thing as social media when I was a kid. And
guess what, I had a great childhood. These kids are
worried about what people think of them. Can you imagine

(50:17):
being a teenager now? When I was a kid, if
you didn't get invited to a party on a Friday night,
you didn't even know about the party until Monday morning,
right when kids were talking about it, and then you'd
be sad right that you weren't part of that. Now,
in real time, you see when you're at home on
a Friday night and you thought you were having a
fun night watching a movie with your parents. Now, all
of a sudden, you see all these kids out at

(50:38):
a party that you're not invited to. How do you
think that makes you feel? It sucks? And now imagine
that times a hundred different things that these kids have
to deal with on social media. Not to mention the
stuff they're exposed to, not to mention the comments, not
to mention the dms, not to mention just the idea
that they are looking at their screen twenty four to seven. Now,

(50:58):
do we need legislation this, Do we need parents for this?
Do we need senators for this? I don't know. I
don't know what the answer is. But it's all not good. Now.
Has social media done a lot of good things. Absolutely,
it's been an incredible thing. It's built businesses for people,
it's made money for people. It is made superstars out
of people. It's made justin Bieber. It's done a lot

(51:22):
of things. But it's good and it's bad. And so
at the end of the day, I think that this
law is going to be fought in many ways. I
think it's gonna be tough to enable and to of
course enforce. But it doesn't take effect until January first,
so there's gonna be a lot of debate until then.
But I think we're gonna see more around this kind

(51:44):
of protection for young people in the US. The tech
companies don't want it. Obviously, they hate this kind of stuff.
Why do they want. They want They want a baby
out of the womb, to have Instagram set up that account,
get them fingerprinted, right, put them on social media. That's
what people do. Actually, the parents, what is the first
thing they do? They post a picture of their baby.

(52:06):
And what do you think Instagram and Facebook is doing.
They're scanning that picture. They say, ooh, we got another one.
We got another human that we can identify in our
facial scanning network. And by the way, Instagram, this is
interesting limiting by default political content ahead of elections. So
people didn't realize. But Instagram said, hey, we're gonna give

(52:26):
you the option to limit political content on your feed.
But what they didn't tell people is that they were
doing it by default. So if you go into Instagram,
there is a setting that you can see that limits
your content. If you want to see political content, you
have to change it. So if you go into your account,

(52:48):
open up Instagram, tap your little profile picture, tap the
menu bar, which is the three little the hamburger menu
which is a three line stacked up. Scroll down and
you will see content preferences, and then you'll see all
these different things interested not interested. One of them is
political content. Tap there and you'll see by default, your

(53:09):
phone says limit political content from people you don't follow.
You'll see less political or social topics in your suggested content.
You have the option to change that if you don't
want to limit what you see. We just want to
be angrier. Turn that setting off. You're listening to Rich
on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro

(53:32):
here hanging out with you, talking technology eighty eight Rich
one O one eight eight eight seven four to two
four one zero one. Joining me now is Amazon's chief
Medical Officer, doctor Vin Gupta, to discuss Amazon pharmacy. They
have some new announcements this week and they're using AI

(53:52):
to help them deliver medications faster. Doctor. Welcome to the show, Rich,
Thanks for having me. Great to be here, Thank you.
So let's talk about Amazon pharmacy in general. Explain is
this relatively new, like what does Amazon pharmacy do? Exactly?

Speaker 10 (54:10):
Yeah, absolutely so. I'm a pulmonologist, still practice to the bedside,
and I'm thrilled to be able to have my role
at Amazon specifically helping to lead Amazon Pharmacy because you rich,
as you know, as your listeners know, the world does
not need another pharmacy and needs a pharmacy that works
for them, that's available around the clock, that makes what

(54:32):
should be as simple as simple as possible. And so
I've had the pleasure of being part of Amazon and
Amazon's health initiatives for the last four plus years, pharmacy
for a little over a year, and what we're trying
to do is make an experience that is incredibly frustrating
for providers and for patients as streamlined as possible. We're

(54:53):
fifty states digital first, direct to your doorstep, as you
would expect with Amazon on the retail side, and we've
existed for about four years now, and I think when
my provider colleagues hear about it in the clinical community,
you know they're surprised and that you can get your medications.
All your listeners can get their medications direct to their

(55:14):
doorstep for chronic needs like high blood pressure or if
they say, have the flu, direct to their doorstep, very
easy check out, and bottom low prices too. If there's
going to be a low price for medication like insulin
or TAMA flu. If you come down with the flu,
you're gonna find it an Amazon pharmacy. But again, the
awareness piece to your question is something we're trying to build.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
Yeah, well, okay, so, but here's my question, because most
of the time it works like this. You know, I've
got two kids. You go to the doctor and they say, okay,
they need this, and you drive to your pharmacy that's
whatever down the street and you wait there. You know,
they send the script electronically. Is this for stuff that
you need like immediately or is it only for like
chronic conditions? Like how would that work? And I guess

(55:57):
maybe the news that you guys announced the same day delivery.
I guess maybe that's part of that.

Speaker 10 (56:02):
Well, for many of your listeners in the in the
Los Angeles area, it's exactly that that if you if
you have an acute need, let's say you woke up
and you're feeling unwell, it got diagnosed with infection like
a sonio sitis or a pneumonia, and you need an
antibiotic or an antiviral. Now we know, especially rich four

(56:22):
years of the pandemic, the time to treatment really matters,
especially for those acute indications, not just for your chronic needs.
We can do that in Riverside, Tamperdandino and Anaheim.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
If you if you.

Speaker 10 (56:33):
Get that script in, if your dog gets that script
into us digitally, if they just press uh, send it
to Amazon Pharmacy instead of sending it to your usual pharmacy,
and they get it into us before four pm, you're
going to have it at your doorstep before the end
of the night. And so we're gonna we're going to
promise rap it at home, same day delivery. We're going
to continue to expand west to serve a larger number

(56:54):
of patients and the La Metro area by April, so
so it's really once if you have diabetes, high blood pressure,
or other chronic conditions, we fill all of those medications.
We have since our origin in pill Pack towards the
end of the twenty tens, where we really try to
key in making it simple to stay on chronic medications.

(57:16):
Now we're saying in places like Los Angeles and New York, Seattle, Austin, Miami,
places where we can do rapid delivery, directed worstep, we
can be there for your acute needs too.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
Okay, got it? It's so you can anywhere you live,
you can get delivery of let's say you're on a
recurring medication, that's fine, but if you need that same day.
You're starting to roll that out in a lot of
cities across the US. Okay, that makes much more sense.
Do the doctors understand how to send the prescription directly
to Amazon? Like you said, you know, have him send
it to Amazon? Like, is that some sort of electronics

(57:50):
system that they have that just works?

Speaker 5 (57:53):
You know?

Speaker 10 (57:54):
I think this is the thing. I'm a pomonologist, and
what I've noticed is when I'm with my patient. To
answer your question, I don't want to take the fifteen
seconds to change the pharmacy on file unless there's a
reason to do it or my patient asked me to
do it. We've become so habituated as a country to
get our scripts from the same exact pharmacies, because that's
what that's just our habit that's the reflex, and it's

(58:16):
the reflex on the part of the provider. And to
answer your question, it's really easy. Ninety four percent of
prescriptions originate in the electronic medical record. They get electronically
sent to say a retail pharmacy. Many of us know
this retail pharmacies. It's as simple as typing an Amazon
pharmacy right into that e scribe if you're the doc,

(58:36):
if you're the provider, instead of typing in say a
retail pharmacy is type in Amazon pharmacy, you can send
it to us digitally, just like you would send it
to any pharmacy on the If you're listening to this
and you're wondering, gosh, I would like the convenience and
I would like to experience something different, regardless of your
medical needs may be. All you have to do is
go to pharmacy dot Amazon dot com. Under thirty seconds,

(58:59):
build a profile. We can actually transfer your prescriptions for
you very easily. You just tell us where you're filling them.
It's a very easy process for us to actually go
get those prescriptions. So you don't have to wait for
better healthcare for a better pharmacy experience. We make that
process of transferring very easy, or if you're on a
new medication to your point really easy for the doctor

(59:20):
just to send it directly through the electronic medical record
like they would otherwise.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
And how does this get to my house? You know,
with the same day. Is it some sort of like
delivery partner in the area or what.

Speaker 10 (59:32):
In some cases there's our delivery service providers. We work
with third party companies as we as we do on
the retail side, and sometimes they are our own drivers
employed directly by Amazon. And what we're doing is really
key into sustainability. In the Los Angeles area, as in
other cities, Rivian all Electric vans and other commercial vehicles

(59:52):
are likely going to be meeting the patient at the
front door with their medication. So we're trying to as
we're getting more into the last smile healthcare space, also
important to lean into sustainability. What's good for the environment,
what's good for the climate. So in places like La
expect that Rivian all Electric van to meet you outside
at the doorstep. In places like New York City, we're

(01:00:14):
leaning into e bikes just an easier and more nimble
way to navigate the streets in Manhattan.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
What about the drone? When's that going to drop off
the prescription on my roof?

Speaker 10 (01:00:24):
It already is in places like Conversation, we already have
it live. It's been live for about six months. People
love it actually, you know, some pretty incredible for somebody
that deals and cares for patients for whom they've had
a delayed diagnosis, rich or an inability to get a
script on time, say a few days after the onset

(01:00:44):
of infection. You know, we saw the countless times in
the case of COVID, delayed diagnosis, delayed treatment.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
That's a big deal.

Speaker 10 (01:00:52):
That puts somebody at risk of ending up in the
hospital and in my ICU. In the case of drones,
answer your question, we saw a should get sent to
us in college station, get ingested, processed, and that that
med actually make their way via drone to somebody's home
in under twenty eight minutes. Imagine that script ingested processed.

(01:01:13):
It's spent from under twenty eight minutes. You can't drive
that fast.

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
That's wild. Just got about a minute here. So explain
to me the AI side of all this. What do
you how how is Amazon Pharmacy using AI?

Speaker 10 (01:01:25):
Well, number one, most most of your listeners may not
realize this, I mean most most of my colleagues don't
realize this as well, that there's a lot of delays
in just processing prescriptions. On the pharmacy side, doc prescribes
the prescription takes hours sometimes for pharmacists actually to look
at the instructions to process it to make sure that
everything looks good, there's no drug drug interactions or allergies.

(01:01:48):
We're using general of AI and to to streamline that
process to a matter of minutes and so from that's
why we can ingest these prescriptions so quickly and get
immediately to dispense. That's number one. Number two, it's the
probably medications of the big deal. And we know that
there's been shortages of medications like pakslovid during the height
of covid in some cases, the weight loss drugs. We
are using generator AI and machine learning algorithms to make

(01:02:10):
sure that places like Los Angeles have the right formulary
and supply of medications that Angelino's need. And we're seeing
our wanting to get filled through US, so we make
sure we have supply on the ready for the mets
that are commonly filled in Los Angeles, and we're also
making sure that we can ingest that prescription as quickly
as possible.

Speaker 1 (01:02:29):
Ah, that's interesting kind of moving the stock around where
it needs to be before the people need it. Doctor
Vin Gupta, Amazon's chief medical officer. Can you go to
a party without someone saying, hey, doc, can you can
you answer me this question? Because I know when I
go to anywhere it's like, hey, I have a tech question.
Can I show you my phone? Is that the same
thing with you? A little bit?

Speaker 10 (01:02:48):
A little bit, I have to have to choose my
friends wisely.

Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
All right, thanks so much for joining me, doctor Vin Gupta,
and tell me the website again. So is it just
pharmacy dot Amazon dot com.

Speaker 10 (01:02:59):
Pharmacy dot Amazon dot You don't have to wait for
a better pharmacy experience. We can have it today.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
All right, Thanks so much for joining me on the show.
Appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (01:03:06):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:03:07):
Coming up next more of your calls. Triple eight rich
one O one eight eight eight seven four to two
four one zero one. You are listening to Rich on Tech.
Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging
out with you at Triple eight rich one O one
eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.

(01:03:30):
Give me a call if you have a question about technology.
No question is too big or too small. I think
if I ran a small like plumbing business, you know
it's basically you know what's the difference. Great conversation with
Amazon Pharmacy That was really interesting to me because I'm
always like, I think that people are so scared to
try a different pharmacy. Like literally, growing up, we had

(01:03:53):
the same bank. We you know, we had the same pharmacy. Like,
we never changed anything. And it was only when I
came out to California that I was like, wait, do
I still have to get like a prescription at my
hometown pharmacy back in New Jersey or can I go
to Like Actually, one of the things I thought was
wild is we were on vacation and we were able
to pick up a prescription at a different like CVS.

(01:04:14):
I was like, this is game changing, and it's like, well,
it's not that big of a deal. We're all linked up. Anyway,
I thought that was interesting. Website for the show Richontech
dot TV. If you want to follow me on social media,
you can find me guess where at rich on Tech.
Let's go to David in Brea, California. David, You're on

(01:04:34):
with Rich.

Speaker 11 (01:04:35):
Hi, Good afternoon, Rich Great. Earlier this afternoon you had
a lady call about her Facebook account. My problem is
she said her Facebook was hacked. My problem is my
account has been taken over. Facebook has no support whatsoever.
The only thing I tell you to do is log
into your account.

Speaker 4 (01:04:53):
First.

Speaker 11 (01:04:54):
Well, I can't log into my account. When I go
to log into my account, so they can send me
the code. Another email address shows above my email address,
and it's some of the letters are blocked out, so
any any code will be sent to them. Yep, so
I can't get into code. What's whoever? And the weird
part was when this first started, I got an email

(01:05:14):
and I answered it and it directed me to my
to that to my Facebook account, but it was all
in Korean or Japanese, and you know, I could see
all my posts, but they all the language had been
changed to Korean or Japanese an Asian language. Yeah, I
found them. I found the menu hamburger. I scrolled on that,
but I couldn't tell what I was, you know, I
couldn't understand what I was doing. And uh, that's it.

(01:05:37):
Facebook has no help whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (01:05:39):
The aunts, No, they do not. But here's the thing.
So I've talked to a lot of people, and I've
done a lot of stories with Facebook, and you have
to number one, you have to understand what they're up
against there. They've got three billion people with these accounts,
people open up accounts, bots open up accounts, people switch accounts.
You know, we got the woman before who you know,
she set up a fake account. So, I mean, there's

(01:05:59):
so much, many things that they're up against, and you know,
their primary business is of course getting people on here,
but you know, it's it's tough for them to service
every one of these accounts, and there's no phone number
you can call. There's no Facebook phone number. So the
main thing that I have recommended over the years, and
the pretty much the only place you can go to
do this is Facebook dot com slash hacked. Now, David,

(01:06:23):
I know you said that when you go there, it's
someone else's information. So what I would do is actually
log out of that account if you can, and then
go to this, or even don't even log out, just
use like a private browser window and go to Facebook
dot com slash hacked. And when I go there, it
says report compromised account. If you believe your account has
been compromised by another person or virus, please click my

(01:06:46):
account is compromise button. We will help you log back in. Now,
you're gonna be up against a bunch of issues because
anything that you're trying to log in with that email
address is changed. So of course Facebook has all the
old email addresses on record. And what this will do
is this will start the process of their system trying
to figure out, Okay, we see that this is a

(01:07:09):
little bit not on the up and up. We saw
the IP address that change it to this email address
that is not his, and so it may take a while,
it may take a lot of time, it may take
a lot of effort, but you could eventually get this
account back if you literally make it your job to
work to get this account back. You may have to
upload your ID. You may have to upload I'm not kidding.

(01:07:31):
They have asked people to upload a picture of themselves
holding up a newspaper with that date on it. It's like,
you know a movie, like a spy thriller where someone's
kidnapped and they're like, hey, you got to prove that
they're still alive. Like, that's what they will do. This
is what you have to do to get your Facebook
account back. Or you could just you know, sign up
with the new account. But I understand people don't want

(01:07:53):
to do that because they've got all their pictures and
their memories and their posts on this other account. But
every single person I've ever done a story with that
it's their Facebook account hacked. It always comes down to
staying on top of this almost on a daily basis,
and trying and trying and trying again. That is the
best advice I can give you now for the rest
of you, if you have not gotten hacked on Facebook,

(01:08:13):
the main thing you need to do is turn on
two factor authentication, and that will make it so that
you will not get hacked because they will need both
your password and secondary code that has texted your phone
or an authentication app. That is the best way to
protect your account. It's not fool proof because what these
hackers do is they get around that by tricking you

(01:08:37):
into sharing that one time code. But if it just
comes down to sort of logging in, that's the main
thing I can offer David. I know it's such a pain,
it really is. Thanks for the call. Today, Google Maps
has a couple of new features for summer travel twenty
twenty four, and already I saw one of them. It
showed up on my Google Maps. This is pretty cool.
So the main feature I think is probably the best

(01:08:59):
thing they're doing is adding these recommendation lists and it's
twofold number one. They're adding recommendations from top websites, so
sources like the Infatuation, which, by the way, a little
bit of trivia for the Infatuation, it's actually owned by Chase.
They bought that company. So Infatuation does a lot of
restaurant reviews. Chase has a lot of credit cards, a

(01:09:20):
lot of points that do restaurants, you know, bonus points.
It's in their best interest to get you to go
to these restaurants. So anyway, I just thought that was
interesting when I learned that A Lonely Planet, New York
Times and Open Table. So when you go on and
you search like Los Angeles, you might see a list, Hey, Infatuation,
top five restaurants here, whatever. That's kind of cool. The

(01:09:41):
other thing they're doing is they're introducing their own restaurant lists,
and so they have three different types. They've got trending
places and this is updated weekly with the trending places
that are in that area. Top Community Favorites, so that'll
be another list of different community favorites, and then hidden
gems and that will work in over forty cities. You
type in New York, New York on Google Maps. And

(01:10:05):
you scroll up once you tap New York first. Okay,
I don't see it for New York yet. I saw
it for Los Angeles yesterday. Let's type in Los Angeles. Okay,
Los Angeles, and so now I scroll up and what
do I see? Okay, well I'm not seeing it there either. Okay,
well I saw it yesterday. I swear. I guess it's
still rolling out. But I did see it yesterday, and
I was so excited because I thought that was pretty cool. Ah,

(01:10:27):
that's so funny that I lost it. Let's try one
more city. Let's try Honolulu. And that's okay. Well it's
not there either. Okay, well it was on my phone
for a minute. But anyway, this is what happens when
things are rolling out. It means they put it out
on a couple of phones and they make sure everything works,
and they put out in some more. But it's really

(01:10:47):
neat because it's just one more way of finding like
good places to go. And what I thought was really
cool is you can sort by nearby. So from now on,
whenever whenever I'm in a city that I don't know
where to eat, I'm just gonna go to these lists.
Either the Hidden gems, probably the hidden gems and just
sort by nearby, and that's how I'm gonna pick my
place to go or the trending place. And sometimes the
trending places though could be a little hit or miss,

(01:11:09):
because you know, it's a lot of like Instagram, you know,
influencer type places, and sometimes you know they're not the
best food. It's more of like the best pictures of food,
so you got to be careful about some of those
things you have. In fact Instagram, this is a very
hidden feature on Instagram. But they actually have their own
way of finding secret lists on Instagram, so nobody knows

(01:11:31):
about this. But if you go to Instagram, you search
for a city, like search for Los Angeles, this is
like so weird, and then you tap places and then
you go into Los Angeles, California, and then you hit
the X. It'll show you all the popular places nearby
and you can sort by restaurants, cafes, sites, and hotels.
So it's like the most instagrammed places in a city.

(01:11:53):
But they really hide this feature. I'm not sure why,
but now you know because you're listening to Rich on Tech.
More of your calls coming up right after this welcome
back to Rich on Tech Rich Demiro here hanging out
with you, talking technology and some breaking news. Actually this

(01:12:13):
is big. AT and T has announced that, Wow, this
is just wild. So many customer records available on the
dark web. So this was a data set that was
released on the dark web about two weeks ago, and
AT and T hasn't really said much about it. But
now they came out and said, yes, this is actually

(01:12:34):
our data. It includes personal information on let's see here,
seven point six million current AT and T account holders
and approximately are you ready for this, sixty five point
four million former account holders. So basically, if you had

(01:12:55):
AT and T from twenty nineteen or earlier, this probably
contains your information. And again the personal information includes such
information as social security numbers. This is wild. That is
a huge, huge data leak. Now we talked about this

(01:13:19):
that everyone thought that this was AT and T data,
but AT and T never came out and said it
was theirs. But tech Crunch has said that AT and
T has now reset millions of customer account passcodes because
tech Crunch told them, hey, these passcodes were easily figured out.

(01:13:42):
And so I'm not sure what the passcode is. I'm
guessing it's some sort of like I think every wireless
account has like a four digit code that is used
to like protect the account, but it sounds like that's
what they reset. This is a huge data dump. I
mean it really really is. Now the way that you

(01:14:03):
can check to see if your information is in here,
there is a website. Now this is not the official website.
I assume that there's going to be an official website,
but this is a website that you can check in
general if your data has been involved in a data breach.
And I'm trying to get the actual person who runs
this website on the show. I've got to email them

(01:14:24):
because it's a great website. It's called have I Been Poned?
Have I Been? And you got to spell this properly
pwned dot com? Have I Been Poned? It's almost like
have I Been Pawned? But without the A. And you
type in your email address and it will tell you

(01:14:44):
if your information has showed up in one of these breaches,
and lo and behold, sure enough, my email address is
part of this AT and T data breach. So what
can you do? The only thing you could really do
is if you see, so my my information is involved
in one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty,

(01:15:11):
oh Wow, twenty one, twenty two, twenty three, twenty four,
twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven, twenty eight data breaches. So, uh, yeah,
it's you're up against a very tough world out there.
But the main thing to know is that if you
scroll through this list of data breaches and your information
is in one of them, uh, if you are using

(01:15:31):
that password in a different account, that could be a
major problem because basically they get the password from this
data breach, the email address from the data breach, and
then they use it on different websites. So if you
go through this list and you weren't using a strong
unique password, then you are in trouble. If you were
using a strong unique password, they're not really going to

(01:15:52):
be able to do much with that information except when
it includes things like your data, birth, your social security number,
your address, and then when it gets into all that,
which a lot of it does, they piece this all
together and they could use it to open up accounts
in your name and different things like that steal your identity.
So You really do have to be on top of
this stuff. There are a lot of dark web monitoring services.

(01:16:13):
I got an alert from Google about this whole AT
and T thing, but again it wasn't confirmed that it
was AT and T until just now. So AT and
T now on their website as of March thirtieth. As
I read this, they said that yes, AT and T
has determined that AT and T data specific fields were
contained in a data set released on the dark web.
Source is still being assessed, so they don't know if

(01:16:38):
this was someone getting access to their system or it
was getting access to a third party system that has
access to their systems. So and we encourage former and
current customers with questions to visit AT and T dot
com slash account safety and it will tell you what

(01:17:00):
to do. Oh okay, here it is explains the passcode.
A passcode is like a numerical pan It's usually four digits.
It's different from the password, and it's one of the
security measures for AT and T customers. How do I
update my passcode? We've already reset your passcode. If you
haven't changed it in the past year, we suggest you
change yours as a precaution. You can sign into your

(01:17:21):
account and edit. Yeah, you can do it from there.
So again, I will link all of this up on
my website. Rich on tech dot tv. But this is yeah,
it's wild. It's just the problem is these companies are
getting bigger, which means when they have a breach like this,
it's getting worse and it's getting scarier and scarier because

(01:17:44):
it's like you almost don't want to give out your
information to anyone because it's just it's bound to be
out there on the web. Let's see here, let's go
to Renee in Westminster, California. Right, Renee, you're on with Rich.

Speaker 6 (01:18:01):
Hello Rich, I'm that's surprising and that makes me one route.
What happened to my phone or this phone? I'm using
a temporary phone because.

Speaker 3 (01:18:11):
My mine was stolen or lost about three.

Speaker 6 (01:18:14):
Weeks ago, and I've been on the phone with that support.
This is a phone if it phones through two connect.
I qualified for the free service because my ankle is
injured and my time and I go, oh sure, I
need to use the phone anyways, and I want to
go buy another dree hundred dollar four hundred dollar bonus

(01:18:38):
spectrum because I've got insurance on it, and they can
renew the interance because I can't get to the account
where I have the money on the insurance for so
I tried to use this. When you get to my account,
I won't use the name my bank account the an
online bank and use a virtual card. But you can
access to anywhere else but the tie that verification. It

(01:19:01):
cannot THEND for anything else. I mean it can't can't
get it because except for the on the.

Speaker 1 (01:19:11):
The other phone that's been compromised.

Speaker 6 (01:19:13):
How was that you never had this happen before. I
have changed everything. But I can get into my account, So.

Speaker 1 (01:19:20):
You can't get into your bank account because they can't verify.

Speaker 6 (01:19:22):
It can get into my bank account, not the the
to They won't grant me a virtual card, and I've
been even the tech department is the bank they transmitting
to the like upper tech department. And then and then
texts will come through that they personally try to test
to me. Me knows we'll go through, but just not

(01:19:43):
be often.

Speaker 1 (01:19:45):
Then the one time code won't go through, right right.

Speaker 6 (01:19:49):
So there's like they thought there was a glims. I mean,
I'm called several times. I'm trying to figure out myself
all the permissions on. It's some kind of it's called
true can of the clouds seven. Yeah, even sim.

Speaker 1 (01:20:06):
Card for my So how can I help?

Speaker 11 (01:20:09):
What?

Speaker 12 (01:20:09):
Do?

Speaker 13 (01:20:09):
What?

Speaker 12 (01:20:09):
Do?

Speaker 1 (01:20:09):
What? What?

Speaker 3 (01:20:10):
Type of question?

Speaker 6 (01:20:11):
The last question, I'm wonder if they're running to a
T and D, why can't I get to that in
the bank?

Speaker 1 (01:20:19):
Why can't you get that code through? Connect? Is filtering
out that address? So I think that's the problem, is
that you have to get in touch with them to
say hey, and what did they say to each other? Yeah,
they blame it on each other. Huh. I mean I
know that there are there are certain phone numbers that
cannot handle the two factor authentication code. So here's my question.

(01:20:44):
Can you go to your bank and can you set
up can you set up like a Google Voice number,
put that into your bank account as a trusted number,
and then get the code and then get the code
sent there. That's what I would do now. In Well,
the problem is that if you know, if you can

(01:21:05):
log into your bank account, Look, if you can log
into your bank account and add a phone number, what
I would do is it takes I mean, it's this
is obviously a very roundabout way of going about this.
But if you're trying. If your phone that you've got
from True Connect is not getting you this one time code,
then I would just set up another phone number that
you can get that one time code on. So you
can set up that phone number through Google Voice for free,

(01:21:27):
and once you link that to your bank account, confirm it,
and then you know, then you can actually get that
one time code there. But if you can't get into
your bank account to log in because you need the
one time code, you're kind of in a circle here,
and that's that's definitely an issue. But this I do have.
I've seen where sometimes the one time codes just don't

(01:21:50):
don't come through with certain providers. They just don't. So
the thing that I number one, you got to you
got to get this account back from Spectrum or whoever
has your account, if they're making you buy a phone
or whatever. You got to figure out how to get
that back from them, because that's your original account and
that's probably going to have more codes than you for

(01:22:11):
different accounts that you have, So you've got to really
figure out what's going on there, why you're getting that back,
or how to get that back. And then the True Connect,
you know, I actually did a story with True connect
once and I met them and they're I think they're
in Los Angeles, aren't they? But I would I would

(01:22:33):
get on the phone with them and really figure out,
say like, hey, I'm not getting this code that I need,
and there's got to be a reason why I'm not
getting this code. Yeah it isn't LA, Yeah it was
a company. But do me a favor, Renee. Go to
my website, email me with your information, and I will
try to get in touch with the True connect as
well and see if we can get to the bottom

(01:22:54):
of this. Because you know, the reason why I say
that is because I want to know why this is happening,
because if it's happening to you, it's probably happening to
other people. And it may be that True Connects is
just blocking a swath of confirmation codes for protection or
something like that. So there are reasons for this stuff,
but you got to you got to figure out how
to work through them, because you need access to your

(01:23:15):
bank account, don't you. Eight to eight rich one O
one eight eight eight seven four two four one zero one.
Coming up this hour, we're going to talk to Jefferson
Graham about taking the best pictures you can of the
total solar eclipse. This is rich on Tech. Welcome back
to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you,

(01:23:36):
talking technology. A couple things of note this week, Apple
announced WWDC going to be held June tenth. June tenth
is the date when we will now learn about the
new features of the next software for iOS. So iOS
eighteen will also see the new features for the iPad,

(01:23:59):
the max Watch OS, tvOS, and Vision Os. This will
be interesting because we're gonna get some We're gonna get
basically our first update on Apple Vision Pro. We have
not heard anything. Apple's been sort of radio silent about
vision Pro since its launch. I think it's definitely been
less what's the term. It probably has not been as

(01:24:23):
fruitful as they have Maybe they didn't think it would be.
I don't know, because it's just it's a very expensive product,
so that's that's kind of tricky. But anyway, we will
hear more about that on June tenth. I think for
most people, the features of iOS eighteen will probably be
most notable. Now. One feature that is already being rumored
is This is from Mark German at Bloomberg. He says

(01:24:45):
that the next version of iOS eighteen will bring a
major change to the home screen. You will be able
to move your apps anywhere you want. You can place
them freely on the grid instead of having them lined up,
something that it's been an Android feature since day one. Now.
The other rumor is that Google Ai may be integrated

(01:25:07):
into the next version of IOSA teen. So that'll be
interesting because you know, we know those are frenemies. Let's
see midge rights in Hey, Rich, I'm going out of town.
I'm taking an iPad that only works on Wi Fi
since I don't pay for cellular data. Of course I'm
taking my iPhone. Do I need to use the VPN
on my iPad on the hotel Wi Fi if I

(01:25:27):
only use it to play games and downloaded movies? Do
I need to use the VPN on my phone if
I only use it to check email, Facebook and one game?
I also may have to get on my banking app
while I'm away. Or should I just connect to the
hotel Wi Fi and use the VPN on my phone.
I don't really like paying ninety nine dollars a year
for my VPN if I only use it once or
twice when I go out of town. Happy Easter, Midge. Well,

(01:25:50):
Happy Easter Midge to you as well. Here's the thing,
here's my rule of thumb with VPNs. I think number
one my rule of thumb is that I almost never
connect to one I find unless I have to. So
on my phone, I have an unlimited data plan. I
will use that as much as possible, because why am
I trying to save my telephone company from the data?

(01:26:10):
Like I want to use as much as possible because
I'm paying a lot for that. So if I have
a good if I have a good cellular signal in
my hotel room, I just stay on cellular. Now, with
the iPad, of course, you will have to connect to
the hotel Wi Fi. So I get that. Do you
need to use your VPN in any of these situations?
I would say, uh, if I think you never need

(01:26:30):
to use a VPN on your phone if you're on cellular,
because your cellular connection is very private and it's really
a one to one connection with the phone company. Yeah,
they can see everything you do, but that's okay if
you don't care about that. Now, if you're trying to
access like a you know, something specific, or you really
want to cover your tracks, then yeah you can use
a VPN. But when it comes to using a VPN

(01:26:53):
on the UH you said to play games and downloaded movies.
There's no reason for a VPN, And you know it's
not as if hotel wi fi. Isn't it the setup
of the Wi fi When you're going to these websites,
most of them nowadays are secure anyway, so people aren't
gonna be able to see what you're typing into Google
or your email. But if you want that extra layer
of anonymity, then yes, that is a good thing to

(01:27:16):
use a VPN. Also, sometimes you just need to use
a VPN if you're like in a different country and
you want to access something that's not available there. So
that's another reason. But with the only reason I would
say to use a VPN is in this case, if
you are on the hotel WiFi and you need to
check your banking apps. So anything that's like sensitive private

(01:27:36):
data like that, that's when I would say to do that.
That's my recommendation, Madge. Thanks for the email. Barbara Wrights, Hey, Rich,
I moved to Texas two years ago. I continue to
listen to KFI. I can't find anything nearly as good here.
I have a question I've recently gone to work for
a licensed clinical social worker. We deal with veterans and

(01:27:58):
send a ton of personal and clinical infos. She has
asked me to figure out how to send secure or
encrypted emails through Gmail. I've seen the confidential mode button,
but I'm not sure if that's what we're looking for.
We don't want to have to pay for a service
which you have any suggestions, Love your show, Barbara, Yes,
I do have a suggestion. I would use proton Mail.
So proton Mail is free for a basic account. It

(01:28:22):
is secure, it's private, and it will be separate from
your personal Gmail. So I think that's important if you're
working for a company and you want to keep things
kind of separate. But proton Mail is encrypted by default.
It is very very safe, it is very very private,
and I think that is probably the best way to
do this and pricing. It is free for one gig

(01:28:45):
of storage, one user, and one email address, so you
can set up a special email just for your practice,
and it will be encrypted by default, it will be
separate from your Gmail, and I think this will be
a great way to go about it. So there is
an encrypted There is like a confidential mode on Google

(01:29:09):
but I don't really know what the deal is. Okay, No,
confidential mode is different. Recipients won't have the option to forward, copy, print,
or download this email, and you can require a passcode
as well for that email. But I think that's more
of a confidential mode. I don't think that's an encrypted,
kind of very secure mode. So go with ProtonMail proton
dot me and I've been using it. It's really great.

(01:29:33):
Get it for free. You can upgrade, of course, you
know everything's an upgrade. Coming up next, we are going
to talk to Jefferson Graham of photo Walks TV about
how to capture that amazing total solar eclipse on your smartphone.
You're listening to rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich
On Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you, talking
technology and joining me now is Jefferson Graham, formerly of

(01:29:57):
USA Today. Now he runs a website and YouTube page
called photo Walks TV, where he travels the world looking
for the perfect picture. Jefferson, thanks so much for joining
me today.

Speaker 12 (01:30:08):
Thanks for having me again.

Speaker 1 (01:30:09):
Explain what photo Walks TV is all about.

Speaker 12 (01:30:13):
Photo walks TV as I travel around looking for the Actually,
I like your description.

Speaker 1 (01:30:18):
I think it's pretty cool.

Speaker 12 (01:30:19):
But it's a show where I go to great places
and bring people along on a virtual photo walk and
show them while we're there where to get the best
shots and how to get cool photos on their smartphone
using all the smartphone features that many people should know
about but don't. So, for instance, we're upcoming next time,

(01:30:39):
we're going to Carlsbad, California. I went to the flower
fields and which are only open for two months, and
I explored the flower fields and show them how to
get great macro shots, great wide angle shots, and actually
the best angle of all to get best pictures of flowers,
which you wouldn't believe. But it's lying down on the
ground and looking up at them.

Speaker 1 (01:31:00):
There you go. See, that's the kind of insights that
you get. So today we're talking about the total solar eclipse.
You went to the last one in twenty seventeen, where
I'm not sure why, but I covered it for KTLA
and I still had no idea why I wasn't interested
in going to this thing. But this year I'm totally
into it and I can't see it from Los Angeles.
What makes witnessing a total solar eclipse such a unique

(01:31:24):
experience it's an average day.

Speaker 12 (01:31:27):
The morning is out, the birds are chirping, the clouds
are moving along, and all of a sudden it starts
to get dim and dim and dim and dimmer, until
within a vendit or so it's pitch black for a
little bit, and then it's not, and then it brightens back.

Speaker 2 (01:31:43):
Up, and it all happens so fast.

Speaker 12 (01:31:45):
It's just a really exciting thing. It's like, imagine you're
going too the greatest rock concert in the world and
everybody is ooing and eyeing, and it's all communal experience.
No matter where you go, whether that's in San Antonio, Austin, Texas, St. Lewis, Columbus, Ohio, Indianapolis, Buffalo,
New York, Niagara Falls, you will be surrounded by a

(01:32:06):
lot of people with similar and you know, no politics,
no red blue, nothing, just people marveling at being alive
and experience this thing together.

Speaker 1 (01:32:16):
Wow. This truly is a rarity. So for the average
person that wants to capture this, their smartphone is going
to be their camera. Yes, you have the professional photographers
that know what they're doing, but for the rest of us,
what do you think is the best way of going
about taking a picture? Of the sun. Do you recommend
doing that?

Speaker 12 (01:32:34):
Well, first of all, you're going to need a solar
filter to put over your lens on the phone, and
you need solar glasses, so we didn't mention that, but
it's very important. You did not want to be looking
at the sun without protection, So we start there. Can
you get a good picture of the sun if you
have a late model iPhone or Galaxy which have either

(01:32:54):
a five x actually the pixel does as well five
X or ten X lenses, you can get a decent shot,
not a great shot. If you don't have the iPhone
fifteen Pro, if you don't have the Samsung S twenty one,
S twenty two or S twenty three, or the Google
Pixel eight Pro, you're gonna if you're not going to
be your shot will just not be very good because

(01:33:16):
it's going to be a lot smaller. I would focus
on the action. I would focus on the scene. I
would focus on the people wearing glasses, all looking up
and ooing an eye, looking at the crazy clothes they're wearing,
and how they're responding and how they're acting, and just
you know, you're part of a scene. Document the scene,
and that's what you're going to see. Even if you
go to NASA dot gov, the first picture you're going

(01:33:38):
to see is if a kid wearing glasses looking up.

Speaker 1 (01:33:41):
So what are the best features on the phone to
make use of?

Speaker 12 (01:33:44):
Okay, So the iPhone and the Galaxy both have a
feature called burst Mode that lets you stop action and
take dozens and dozens of shots at once, and it's
really good and most people don't know about it. They
don't use it. On the iPhone, in the photo app,
you swipe the shutter button to the left and start

(01:34:06):
taking pictures that way, or you use the top volume
left button and that will let you do burst. On
the Galaxy, you take the shutter button and you make
it go down.

Speaker 1 (01:34:15):
Okay, so hold on if you're holding your phone horizontally,
which is the way that I typically hold it, but
I know a lot of people will be taking them vertical.
So I tested this out. On the iPhone, you drag
the shutter button down. On the Samsung, you drag the
shutter button to the right. That is, if you are
holding the phone in a horizontal position. So, and I

(01:34:36):
will be honest, I forgot about burst mode because I
rarely use it anymore. But yeah, it takes up to
like one hundred pictures in quick succession, and then you
can just go through and figure out the best picture later.
Instead of trying to get the best picture at that
very moment, you're just taking a whole bunch of them now.

Speaker 12 (01:34:53):
The other thing is that you can shoot video and
take photos at the same time. Most people don't realize this,
but when you start recording video on any of these phones,
a white button will come up next to the red button,
so you can be shooting video of the eclipse and
taking photos at the same time. That's what I would do, okay,
because I actually think that the video is worth more

(01:35:15):
than the picture.

Speaker 1 (01:35:15):
What about a time lapse? Do you recommend a time lapse?
Is that too tricky to try to do in this situation?

Speaker 12 (01:35:21):
It's not tricky at all. It's one of the easiest
things to do on a smartphone. Your phone has to
be on a tripod. But when you're doing it, you
open up the camera app on the iPhone, you swipe
all the way to the left and the first choice
is time lapse. You compose your image, you press record
and just let it go. And on the Galaxy they
call it hyper laps and it's in the more section.

Speaker 1 (01:35:43):
Ah, so they don't call it time laps on the galaxy,
it's called hyper laps. That's good to know. So any
other tips. You mentioned the filter, the solar filter that
should be over your lenses. What's kind of the official
stance on whether you can just aim your phone at
the sun. Will it ruin the lenses forever? I know
we can't look at them with our eyes, but can

(01:36:04):
our phones look at them?

Speaker 12 (01:36:05):
You can go wide angle without the filter. If you
do telephoto and you zoom in on the sun, it
will ruin the telephoto lens. And for the five to
ten dollars it'll cost you to buy the solar filter.
There's still time camera stores sell them. Amazon has them.
You had nothing to lose by taping that filter over

(01:36:25):
the lenses.

Speaker 1 (01:36:27):
Okay, so you need a small tripod. You can get
a lightweight tripod. You need a mount for your phone
on that tripod because it's not going to connect all
by itself unless you get a tripod that is specifically
for that. And I'll link some of these up on
my website rich on tech dot TV slash shop. You've
traveled around taking these pictures on the smartphone. Do you

(01:36:47):
find a need for a regular camera anymore. Do you
think that people still need a regular camera for everyday travel.

Speaker 12 (01:36:55):
For travel photography, you did not need a big camera.
I have gone to Paris, I've gone to Japan, I've
gone to a British Columbia, I've gone to Nova, Scotia,
taking nothing but an iPhone. I do the entire Photo
Walk series on a phone, figuring that this is the phone,
this is the camera that everybody will be using, so
that's why I'm using it. I've never had an issue

(01:37:16):
where I couldn't get a great wide shot. I couldn't
do street photography. It's all there. I have an ultra wide,
a wide angle, and a telephoto lens. The only thing
you can't do is shoot sports. If you wanted to
do get a close up of a football player at
the Super Bowl, forget about it. If you want to
do a school play and it's very dark in there,

(01:37:37):
it's not going to be great. But those are the
two instances where it's not great. Everywhere else I do
really good.

Speaker 1 (01:37:44):
And I know that you carry around a Samsung Galaxy
and also an iPhone. Have you noticed a major difference
between those two devices at this point in time.

Speaker 12 (01:37:55):
The major difference with the Galaxy is that they've got
a zoom lens, a telephoto that's twice as big as
the iPhone, So it's TENX versus the iPhone's five X
that's on the old Galaxy. Because I got last year's model,
the S twenty three. On the S twenty four, they dumbly,
stupidly decided we don't need ten X anymore, We'll just
do five X because nobody's using tenx, to which I say,

(01:38:18):
how do you know? Because I use it all the time.
What about the quality of the pictures? Are you noticing
a major difference. I think the iPhone pictures are better,
and I think the iPhone videos are definitely better, but
I just have it for the telephoto.

Speaker 1 (01:38:32):
Two websites I wanted to mention that I think are
really cool. Number one eclipsetracks dot org. So this is
an interactive solar eclipse website that gives you a big
kind of three D look at the world and it
shows you the path of the eclipse. The other app
that I think is really cool is called the Eclipse

(01:38:52):
App the Eclipse Dot Company, and it's got this great
app that lets you find different places to go to
to actually experience the eclipse, but also it will give
you a countdown to totality. Jefferson Graham, where can folks
find you online?

Speaker 12 (01:39:10):
Photo walkstv dot com, Jefferson Graham dot net and on
YouTube at YouTube dot com slash photo Walks TV.

Speaker 1 (01:39:18):
Thanks so much for joining me today. Thanks for having me,
Jefferson Graham of Photo Walks TV. You are listening to
rich on Tech. Coming up, We're gonna open up the
feedback back after this. Welcome back to rich On Tech.
Rich DeMuro here with the most people I've ever had
in the studio. Can you guys make some noise? I

(01:39:41):
think this is like the rich Morning Zoo at this point.
I've got my mom here, my kid Parker Tanner, my
wife Lindsey. It's a family affair here. Welcome back to
the show. So my mom is in from New Jersey
and I put the Apple Vision Pro on you today.

(01:40:03):
This is Apple's VR headset. What was your impression of that.
You got to get right on the mic.

Speaker 9 (01:40:07):
Oh okay, at first, it was a little scary having
that on your head and having to click, like click
your fingers and try to maneuver all of that was
a little scary.

Speaker 1 (01:40:24):
Okay, you said it was claustrophobic.

Speaker 9 (01:40:26):
Yeah, well I'm a little claustrophobic.

Speaker 1 (01:40:28):
So but what do you think of the experience? I
mean the fact that is that the first time you
ever tried VR? Yes, and what do you think?

Speaker 9 (01:40:34):
I mean, it's pretty I mean it was pretty amazing.
I mean seeing dinosaurs moving towards you. That was really cool.
Looking around like you're on mountains and over water. It
reminded me of a Disney ride, like the virtual rides.

Speaker 6 (01:40:53):
That kind of.

Speaker 1 (01:40:54):
Reminded me of You tried being on the moon?

Speaker 9 (01:40:56):
Yes, I was on the moon. Hello twenty four.

Speaker 1 (01:41:03):
You also were on the top of a mountain. Let's see,
let's see if the.

Speaker 9 (01:41:08):
Top of the mountain was pretty scary.

Speaker 1 (01:41:10):
Let's see if we can hear this. Let's see this
was you. Isn't that where? Doesn't it feel like you're
up there? That's a why?

Speaker 5 (01:41:15):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:41:16):
And you can look up down?

Speaker 9 (01:41:18):
Oh my god, this is really crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:41:22):
That was you. I think they need to have, like
I'm sure they do on TikTok, they should have like
accounts of people just trying VR for the first time,
because it is it tricks your brain. It really feels
like you're immersed in this different world. Yeah, you feel
like you're there. I mean it is a really I
would say it's surreal. Yeah, it's different. But Tanner wants
the floor. What are you trying to say? You don't

(01:41:44):
have a microphone. You got to go over to this microphone.
This is like the again, I don't know what my
kid is going to say here, So I don't know
if I should give him bobo be ready with the
dump button here? What are you going to say? Tanner?

Speaker 14 (01:41:58):
Okay, the Apple Vision proh is interesting. Apple Their name
is just interesting. I like it because like their logo
has like a little bite, but the Apple Vision pro
just has like a whole new name sound Vision Pro.
Like it sounds like you're like a billionaire who like

(01:42:19):
literally bought like a yacht and like you can do
anything on there. Like it's it just like ruins my brain.
I'm like, what, like how does that work?

Speaker 1 (01:42:31):
Like, yeah, you've tried it on, You've tried it.

Speaker 14 (01:42:34):
I really don't get it because like it just doesn't
make sense. How does it look so real?

Speaker 1 (01:42:40):
I don't I don't know. It's a mystery. It's a mystery.
Of life. Well, we're gonna continue to figure that out.
I think the Apple Vision Pro is an incredible device.
It's just one of these things that it's so expensive
that you know, it's tough for the average person to
try it, and you can go to the Apple store
and check it out. But again, and it's just it is.

(01:43:01):
It's quite incredible. And I will say for my mom,
you know, you figured out the kind of the eye
tracking and the finger movement. It took a little bit,
but you did figure.

Speaker 9 (01:43:09):
Out at times.

Speaker 1 (01:43:10):
I had yeah, practice all right, before we get to
the feedback, let me let me get through a couple
things here. Number one, Uber has introduced a car seat option.
So Uber car Seat is now available in New York City,
Los Angeles, Orlando, and Washington, d C. Lindsey, this is
my wife. How many times have we needed to bring

(01:43:31):
a what do we call it a bubble bum?

Speaker 9 (01:43:34):
I think it was called that, but it's been a
few years since we had to use that.

Speaker 1 (01:43:37):
But it was like a blow up booster seat that
you could use in ubers. Yeah, yeah, we did. I mean, look,
some parents, when you're going to the airport, you gotta
you know, you don't want to bring like a real sea.
So now in New York and LA the service includes
a special type of convertible seat for kids between five
and sixty five pounds. It is a ten dollars surcharge. Now,

(01:43:58):
the problem is if you're not bringing the bubble bum
when you land wherever you're going. You know, if you're
taking this to the airport, you don't have a way
to get your kid from the airport to your hotel.
But we did that many many times. Oh my gosh.
If you have Disney Plus, they have now integrated Hulu
into the app. If you notice the app has changed, Parker,
you can chime in on this one. What color is

(01:44:20):
the new logo?

Speaker 13 (01:44:21):
The new logo is like a blue black, And I
think it's very interesting because the last one was just
like plain old blue.

Speaker 1 (01:44:29):
It's a much different kind of look.

Speaker 13 (01:44:31):
It brings it out. And immediately when I saw it,
I said, is a TV something like it's like the
color on the TV.

Speaker 10 (01:44:36):
Wrong.

Speaker 13 (01:44:37):
I really didn't know, and then I had to ask
my dad and he said, the logo change.

Speaker 1 (01:44:41):
They merged Hulu green with Disney Blue, so it's like
a mix of those two colors.

Speaker 13 (01:44:46):
It's very interesting. But I do like it. I think
it's much different. I think it's a good change.

Speaker 1 (01:44:50):
All right, here's the thing to know about this, So
if you have Disney Plus, you'll see the Hulu shows
on your screen, and when you search, you just don't
have access to them unless you actually to Hulu. So
I think this is good for people that have Disney
Plus because if you search for a show that you
heard of and it happens to be on Hulu, you'd
be able to watch that, but they would still push
you to subscribe. So it's kind of at the end

(01:45:11):
of the day, this is very smart marketing because if
you know, if you're searching for a show and it's
on Hulu and you're on Disney Plus, and you would
never know that it's available if you didn't find it
on there. As you know, I'm obsessed with these solar eclipse.
There is a great website called x Karta Solar Eclipse Tracker,
and this show's cloud cover and you use AI to

(01:45:33):
figure out the cloud cover where you're going to go.
So if you're going on a trip to see the
solar eclipse, I'm going to have to put the link
on the website. But it's Xkarta dot io x e
x c A r t A dot io and it's
really great. They show you the AI cloud cover estimate
three point seven million people expected to travel to the eclipse.

(01:45:53):
I emailed my friend in Cleveland because I said, hey,
I might come to Cleveland, and he said, oh, it's
a circus here. We're doing three stories a day on
the eclipse and they're expecting almost five hundred thousand people there,
one hundred to five hundred thousand. And finally, Visio eighty
six inch four KTV for nine hundred and ninety nine dollars.
I think Visio was the strong early contender with all

(01:46:15):
these TVs, and they are now trying to get back
in the game with a nine hundred and ninety nine
dollars eighty six inch TV. Let's get to some feedback
before we have to go here, Chuckfish. Chuck says, hey,
rich Amazon, they're providing no additional services or just another pharmacy.
Their focus is on Mars and not people on Earth.

(01:46:35):
The last thing we need is to turn more of
our life over to one man. I think the website
should be cult dot Amazon dot com. Whoo. I guess
Chuck will not be using Amazon pharmacy. Denise says, Hey, Rich,
I love your newsletter, your tech reports. I'm not a
podcast person, but I'm sure someday I'll tune in. At
nearly seventy next month, I am still happy with AOL. Yes,
note my email address. I have a Gmail, but I

(01:46:57):
don't care for it. As a manager for USPS, we
use to use Outlook. That was okay, but a weall's
my main thing. Oh in my landline, I can't believe
I may be losing that. Yes, I'm showing my age.
Happy Easter to you and your family. Denise, Mom, what
do you have? What do you love? AOL? Yep, Larry says,
just to shout out and a big thank you to
Rich Demiro. Love listening to your podcast and always learning.

(01:47:18):
I think your style of simple communication makes everything you
broadcast very user friendly. Much obliged, sir, Thanks again, best
wishes for continued success. I'm still waiting for that success, Larry, No,
thank you. If you can believe it, that's going to
do it. For this episode of the show, you can
find links to everything I mentioned on my website. Just

(01:47:38):
go to Rich on tech dot tv For the show notes.
You can find me on social media at rich On Tech.
Thanks so much for listening. There are so many ways
you can spend your time. I do appreciate you spending
it right here with me. Thanks to everyone who makes
this show possible, and to everyone in the studio my mom, Tanner, Parker, Lindsey, Bobo,
Kim on the phones, we got Bill. So many people

(01:48:00):
make this show possible. Thank you so much. You guys
can say goodbye, go ahead. My name is Richard Meire.
I'll talk to you real soon. Say goodbye, go ahead.

Speaker 9 (01:48:06):
I happy ser

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