Sony hands off TVs to TCL, TikTok stays & keeping Android safe from malware (158, January 24, 2026)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If your Windows computer is giving you issues, you are
not alone. Why you might be overpaying for your ride
shares and ads are coming to chat GPT plus your
tech questions answered. What's going on? I'm Rich Tamiro and
this is rich on Tech. This is the show where
I talk about the tech stuff I think you should

(00:21):
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 those phone lines at
triple eight rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight
seven four to two four one zero one eight eight
eight rich one O one. Give me a call if you
have a question about technology, you need some help with something,

(00:43):
you need a recommendation, you're trying to figure something out.
Sometimes the answers are quite simple. Believe me, I answer
them all week long via email. That's also open. Just
go to rich on tech dot tv and hit contact guests.
This week, we've got Amanda. She is a founder of
the app Accelerator. She's going to talk about how you

(01:05):
can turn an app idea into a real product without
being technical. And we've experienced this firsthand in my house.
This week, I'll explain and one of our favorites, Caleb
Dennison is going to break down what actually matters for
buying a TV for the Super Bowl. Yes, and we
have a big story this week that he's going to

(01:26):
comment on as well that I'm going to talk about
right now because I just cannot believe this. This is
a major shift in the TV world. Sony is basically
handing its TV business over to TCL.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
I don't know about you, but I grew up with
Sony TVs. That was the gold standard of TVs.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
If you had a Treni Tron, that big old Honkin
TV set in your living room, you were living large, right.
I mean, yes, there is the people with the Projector
TVs that was a whole other level. But if you
had a Sony TV, you had the best of the best,
and they ruled for many, many years, and they still do.
I think when it comes to picture quality, every expert
I've talked to, Sony is still tops. But here's the deal.

(02:13):
They're feeling pressure from China and all these other upstarts,
not just China but also South Korea with Samsung TCL
high sense. But if you can't beat them, join them.
So TCL and Sony are teaming up for TVs and
home audio. TCL is going to own fifty one percent
of the new company, which means they have the commanding

(02:34):
lead here. Sony will keep forty nine percent. But TCL
is going to bring all of the smarts when it
comes to manufacturing, design, manufacturing, sales, shipping, customer support. Make
no mistake, TCL is in charge here now, even though
they're running the operation TVs and this is smart, this

(02:55):
is very smart. TVs are going to carry the Sony
and Bravia name. So the next time in a couple
of years, when you buy a Sony Bravia TV, look
closely at the back, it will say manufactured by TCL.
How wild is that? So? Sony obviously is bringing all
of their picture processing, their audio technology, everything that they

(03:16):
know about making those that picture on that screen look amazing.
But TCL is bringing everything it knows about manufacturing, and
they do everything top down, so they've got their own
display panels. They know how to keep costs down but
make the quality high. And I think that that's really
what put TCL on the map. You'd sit there, you'd
go to costco. Do they sell tcls at Costco. I'm

(03:38):
sure they do wherever they sell them. But you'd go
into the store best Buy and you say, hold on,
I could get this TV that's sixty five inches from
Sony for a couple thousand dollars, or I can get
this TV from TCL for a couple hundred dollars. I
think I'm going with the TCL. And that's what happened
over and over and over. So the goal here is

(03:59):
obviously to compete with the other giants out there that
are still going to be competing in a big way,
like Samsung in high sense, but this could be big.
I think that this will really help the Sony Bravia
name get into more households. And Sony, as we know,
has been kind of, you know, not focusing so much
on TVs. They're looking more at their gaming, their movies,

(04:21):
all the stuff that they still do in that aspect
is a huge part of Sony's business. They've got the
car where they teamed up with Honda, the Sony Afila.
So we'll see what happens. It's not going to be overnight.
This deal still needs approval, but the new venture could
launch in twenty twenty seven. I just thought that was wild.

(04:42):
Now our other top story of the week also has
to do with China. See the trend here. After years
of drama, we finally have a deal to keep TikTok
in the US.

Speaker 4 (04:55):
Now.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
I don't know if that's a good thing or a
bad thing to some of you. You're thinking, ugh, that's annoying.
Bobo's clapping. I'm sure for all the creators out there
that were worried about losing their livelihood, this is a
good thing for them. But the app has struck a
deal to create a new American version of TikTok. You're

(05:16):
not really going to notice the difference. The app is
still on your phone, it's still the same. But this
ends a six year legal and political battle over national
security concerns. I can't believe it was twenty eighteen. I believe, no,
twenty eighteen, I'd be six seven eight years. I remember
going out and doing this story on TikTok. I don't
remember what year it was, but it was the first

(05:36):
time we heard of this, like, hold on, this might
be banned, And I went and I talked with some
TikTokers and now here we are. We finally have a resolution.
So a group of non Chinese investors are going to
own more than eighty percent of US TikTok they're calling it,
including Oracle, silver Lake, and an investment firm tied to
Michael Dell of Dell Computers. Byte Edance will keep just

(05:56):
under a twenty percent stake. And that's where because they
cannot have this controlled by China or else it would
be banned in the US. So TikTok says this will
keep the app alive for more than two hundred million
US users. It avoids the shutdown. Remember there was that
little shutdown last year. People went nuts like, wait that

(06:17):
get they could actually do this. They could actually do this.
They could take this thing down if you had it
on your phone. I think it still worked.

Speaker 5 (06:23):
Though.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
The new TikTok us will be run by Adam Presler.
He is a longtime TikTok executive. The board is going
to be based or mostly US majority. But here's the
thing that's a little bit weird. Byte Edance did not
hand over the algorithm. Remember everyone said this app is
all about the algorithm. They actually did not end up
handing over the algorithm. They're going to keep control over

(06:47):
TikTok's algorithm. And license it to the US company, which
is a little strange. But if you use TikTok, nothing's
gonna change at this point, same app, same endless scrolling.
You can still scroll to your eye fall out of
your head. Now, here's what I thought was interesting, the
updated terms of service and privacy policy. This is what's
going viral right now. And I even posted on my

(07:08):
Instagram at rich on Tech kind of went through this
thing because people are questioning me, Hey, why do we
have to accept these new terms. Number one, content rights.
Anything you upload to TikTok they get to keep forever,
even if you delete it, and they can use that
content to train AI models, which is a huge side business.
Everyone needs a content to train models. TikTok's going to

(07:30):
get a flow of it every day. Even if you
delete a video, those rights do not disappear. I thought
this was crazy. Drafts. Even if you just put something
into the TikTok app, it is now theirs. They can
analyze it as much as they want. That includes videos, audios, captions,
anything that you do inside that app they can analyze.
So remember that if you want to think about uploading

(07:52):
something biometric data, they can collect face prints, voice prints
from your video and audio. We're allowed by law estroke
patterns on your phone. Sensitive personal information they can collect
or infer, including your health and mental health data, sexual orientation,
immigration status, financial info, and your precise location. Now I'm

(08:15):
not saying other apps don't do this, but for TikTok
to spell this all out, they are going for the gold.
They want it all, and guess what they're gonna get
it all. There are millions of users of this app.
People like it, They use it on a daily basis.
It's a treasure trove of information. It is a data play,
just like every other app that you're getting for free.

(08:37):
Remember that none of this is illegal. Lots of other
big platforms do the same thing, but they are very
specific about what they're collecting on us users, even though
this is a new TikTok. So I thought that was interesting. Now,
I personally do have a TikTok account. I don't know
if I'm gonna continue. I'll be honest, I've got that

(08:57):
I've stopped on that screen where it says you got
to accept this new privacy policy. You got to accept
these new terms and conditions. So I stopped right there
and I said you know what, let me give some
pause here. I don't actively upload stuff to TikTok, and
I think that overall, TikTok has enabled creators to create

(09:18):
an entirely new business for themselves, and I love that.
I think that's amazing. I think that they are paying
people right now, just like Instagram was a couple of
years ago. Instagram would pay people for posting. They don't
really do that in a big way anymore, but TikTok
still is, and so that's what keeps the fire under
under this thing, keeping it going. But I think for

(09:38):
a lot of people that did make their livelihood on
this app, it does let them breathe a sigh of
relief that they know this app is going to be around,
they know it's going to be here. I don't think
everyone's happy with the privacy policy and the new terms
and conditions, but it's not outside the scope of what
a lot of these other apps do. So there you
have it, TikTok staying in the US, all right? Eighty

(09:59):
to eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven
four to two four one zero one. We got a
lot on the show today. We've got great guests. We're
gonna talk about Super Bowl TVs. I know we've got
a major winter storm either approaching in the East Coast
or happening in the East Coast, depending on when you're
listening to this show. If you're not listening live, we'll
talk about what you can do to stay protected from

(10:19):
that with your tech. And we got the feedback plus
the website rich on tech dot TV. My name is
rich Dmiro more rich on Tech coming your way right
after this to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging
out with you talking technology at Triple eight Rich one

(10:39):
oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to two,
four to one zero one. I know we got a
big storm on the East Coast. I know my family's there.
Everyone is bracing for a lot of snow. Now, depending
on when you listen to this, the storm may have
already happened. But we're here live, and so I'm just
gonna give you some these tips because it's funny. We

(11:01):
had a power outage at the house last night, only
for a little bit, and I'm telling you, when the
power goes out at the house, you realize just how
dark it gets and just how much you rely on everything. Now,
my kids don't really understand this, and so they're like,
hold on, do we have internet? Do we have this? Like,
what's happening? What's going on? You know, So if it's

(11:23):
the first time that's happening to you, you're like, wait
a second, what's the deal? What works? What doesn't work?
So Verizon sent some tips over keep your phone working.
That's the thing. You need to keep your phone working
because a lot of times, even if the power goes
out at your house, you may still have access to
your phone. I think satellite has made things a lot
better as well. So number one, charge everything now, have

(11:47):
things charged up. My wife as soon as the power
went out, she goes, oh my gosh, my phone is
at like ten percent. I should have charged it. So
even if you're in your house, I always recommend just
charging your phone, keep it charged while you're in there,
because you don't want to be caught with the with
an uncharged phone or a tablet or a smart watch.
And even your portable battery packs, make sure you're charging
all them up. We have one of those giant things

(12:08):
from ecoflow portable power station, and you know it takes
a while to charge it up. Once you charge it up,
it should stay charged for a while. You know, they
only lose a tiny percentage of the charge, so check
it every six months and make sure that your portable
batteries are charged. Cold weather can drain batteries fast, so
keep your device warm. If you're outside, keep your phone

(12:30):
close to your body and dry. I did not realize
that colder weather drains batteries fast. I guess that makes
sense because when you go to charge a Tesla, they
want you to warm up the battery so it's easier.
I don't know if that's related, but it seems like
it would be. If cell service is spotty, wi Fi
calling can be a lifesaver, so calls go over your
home internet instead of the cell network. So if the
cell network goes down, you might be able to have

(12:51):
Wi Fi calling, and vice versa. If your home internet
goes down, you might be able to use a cell network.
And also keep in mind a lot of phones now
support satellite text so I would go and check to
see your phone and your plan and see if satellite
texting is a thing. With the iPhone, it's iPhone fourteen
and up. With the Samsung, I believe it's the Samsung
S twenty five and up, and with the Pixel, it's

(13:13):
the Pixel ten and up, I believe. So if you
have one of those phone models, you have satellite texting.
It might be through your phone itself in the case
of the Pixel and the iPhone, or it might be
through your carrier in the case of Samsung. So do
a little research online and see if your device supports
satellite messaging and get familiar with it before you actually

(13:34):
need it. And then if you're in a situation where
your phone you know you need it and everything else
is out, turn on low power mode. Get familiar with that.
You might have tried that on your iPhone, but all
of the phones have that, and some of them even
have like an ultra low power mode that can do
just the basics on your phone, like calls and simple
things like displaying the time, and that can really extend

(13:55):
your phone for a long time. Also dim your screen.
Those two steps alone could add hours of time. Download
apps ahead of time if you need to download the
app for your carrier or your local emergency alerts, make
sure you're signed up for those and you're getting notifications.
Also set up your emergency contacts. That's a good thing
to do. Make sure I had a friend at work say, hey, rich,

(14:15):
let me make sure my phone rings when someone calls
me twice. Get familiar with these emergency contact features because
you never know when you'll need them, and you want
to make sure all your contacts are easy to find,
easy to dial. You don't want to have to be
looking for this stuff when you need it. You want
to have all this stuff in place before. Very very important.

(14:36):
Let's see what else. Oh, I thought this was wild.
This just came out, this Microsoft story about encryption. Bottom line,
if you have a Windows laptop, it might not be
as private as you think. Microsoft confirmed just recently that
they will give the government the encryption keys to your

(14:57):
laptop if they get a valid warrant. Now, they didn't
get a ton of these last year. They got about twenty,
it says according to this Forbes report. But if you
have BitLocker encryption turned on on your laptop, which a
lot of people do, if you store that encryption key
in the cloud, Microsoft can give that encryption key to
the FBI if they ask for it and they have

(15:18):
a valid warrant for it. So that means it's kind
of handing over the keys to the Kingdom. Even though
your computer is encrypted. If you store that encryption key
on the cloud with Microsoft, they can go in and
grab that key and give it to the FBI. Keep
in mind bitlockers turned on by defall on many Windows computers,
and Microsoft encourages users to back up the key to

(15:41):
their account. It's convenient to back it up to the cloud.
If you lose your password to your computer, you'd be
able to still access this, but it's very risky for privacy. Now.
Other companies like Apple famously design their systems so they
say we are hands off no matter what. If you
encrypt your iPhone, we cannot unlock it for you. Period.

(16:03):
And we saw this play out a couple of years
ago with that San Bernardino situation. This was an iPhone
for when was this? This was in twenty sixteen. They went,
you know that, gosh, I'm trying to remember. It was
like a I want to say, a kid. It was
a young man that you know. It was a terrorism

(16:24):
attack in Santa Bernardino and I shot and killed fourteen
people and the FBI wanted to get Apple to help
open the phone, and they said, no, we're not doing this,
And ultimately the FBI found a contractor to hack into
the iPhone. But you know, it gives people that have
an iPhone the knowledge that, hey, things on this phone

(16:45):
are private no matter what. And I'm not saying it's
it's good or bad. Right in that situation, you probably
wanted the FBI to have access to that phone. So
we can understand why this was done and how it
was done. But in a lot of ways, you know
these things. You know, any judge can ask for this
and theoretically get it from Microsoft. So if if you

(17:06):
have a Windows laptop and you want that recovery key,
store it on a USB drive, store it locally. Do
not put it in the cloud if you are concerned
about privacy in any way, shape or form. That's the
bottom line there eight eight eight rich one o one
eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.
The website for the show rich on Tech dot tv.

(17:26):
Coming up, Oh, you might be overpaying for your ride shares.
I'll explain why you might be leaving money on the table.
Coming up right here on rich on Tech. Welcome back
to rich on Tech. Eight eight eight rich one on
one eight eight eight seven four to two four one

(17:47):
zero one. The website rich on Tech dot TV. Looks
like we got to follow up from last week. Kathy
and Los Angeles. What's up, Hi?

Speaker 6 (17:58):
How are you?

Speaker 1 (17:59):
I'm doing well? What happened? You tried the Tesla? You're
trying to get a CD player for your Tesla?

Speaker 7 (18:04):
Yes, unfortunately, so listen. Thank you for the link. I
went in the car. It wouldn't even pair with my
iPhone fourteen.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
The bluetooth you guys, Okay, so explain what you did.
You went, You bought a CD player.

Speaker 7 (18:21):
I bought the note, the Go Go, NAD, Go Go
whatever you told me about.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
Okay. The klim Kl i Am Nomad twenty twenty three
portable CD player with headphones, radio FM compatible Bluetooth ideal
for cars, sixty dollars on Amazon. You bought this and
what it doesn't pair with anything?

Speaker 7 (18:42):
It didn't pair with anything. So I left the car
and I just tried to pair it with my iPhone
and it wasn't even pairing with the iPhone at all.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
So it sounds like it's a problem with this thing.
And this is the problem with these little off brands
on Amazon. It's like you never know if they're going
to work or not. This has this has thirty five
hundred reviews. It gets a four point four. So it
seems to work. Are you sure you've got it in
the bluetooth mode? Yes, and it's just okay. The fact
that it won't pair with your car, is with your

(19:15):
phone is a little you know. That's what's concerning to me.

Speaker 7 (19:19):
Is it because the phone is old?

Speaker 1 (19:20):
No, Bluetooth is universal. It should work. So when you okay,
so when you turn this this little CD player on
the bluetooth mode, your phone does not see the CD player?

Speaker 5 (19:31):
No?

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Interesting?

Speaker 7 (19:32):
Well nope, well I have not does play by itself
because I put the earphones on and it works, okay,
just not pairing with my iPhone.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
You plugged in earbuds? Yes, okay, so you didn't try. Okay,
I wonder if you could try pairing it to some earbuds. Wait,
now that I think about it, hold on, why would
it pair to your phone?

Speaker 7 (19:57):
I don't think it was I have to use the phone.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
Well no, you would pair this directly to your Tesla, but.

Speaker 7 (20:08):
It wasn't recognizing it either the Tesla yep.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
Okay, So you tried pairing it with your Tesla?

Speaker 5 (20:15):
Yeah, okay, exactly.

Speaker 1 (20:16):
Okay, Well the phone would not recognize it, because there's
no reason a device does not play audio to an iPhone,
you know what I mean, Like the iPhone is not
a is not a receiver for that, it would be
a pair of Bluetooth headphones. So what I can say
is in a couple of things here. Number one, at
this point, I'm going to order this and see, you know,
if it works with my car. Number two, I would

(20:37):
make sure that your CD player is in the Bluetooth
mode and then pair a pair of headphones that are Bluetooth.
Do you have a pair of Bluetooth headphones or no?

Speaker 7 (20:45):
You mean not the ones that came with.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
No, because those are wired, I'm guessing. So you're gonna
have to find a pair of yeah, oh.

Speaker 7 (20:55):
Oh, oh, I don't have a pair of wireless all right,
I see what you're saying.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
Yeah, So I would test it to make sure that
you know the actual Bluetooth is working and transmitting and
that it's working. But your car should see it, your
tesla should see the Bluetooth when you toggle it into
the Bluetooth and you have to go into that screen
where you would connect something like a phone, and it
would it would go that way.

Speaker 7 (21:18):
But should I connect the phone.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
No, I wouldn't do that, because you can, you can
connect multiple things. It may just be that the protocol
that this is using the cars like, we don't really
understand what you're trying to do here. So that's why
i'd have to look and see what the tesla to
anyone say in the comments that it was working with
a Tesla No, nobody, Ah, okay, that's probably like.

Speaker 7 (21:42):
Who the hell is asking this stupid question?

Speaker 1 (21:45):
I know you're getting. I actually got a lot of
feedback on I'm going to read some of that, but
I'm going to read some of the feedback I got
on this. Kathy. Let's see here. Ryan said, Hey, I
saw you talking about adding a CD player to a Tesla.
I was thinking, why not just grab a sixty dollar
USB one from Amazon, or even a portable CD player
with Bluetooth. The battery powered sixty dollars is not that much.

(22:06):
It might be worth a try. That's what we tried
to do, and it didn't seem to work. Let's see.
Uh okay, and I got two links. It looks like
people sent two links. One of them was the clem
Let's see the other one here. The other one is
the Oh, okay, this is a USB external universal CD

(22:26):
player for car. This plugs into the USB port. I
don't know if that's gonna work either. Let's see. I'm
gonna search Tesla real quick.

Speaker 6 (22:33):
No in the.

Speaker 7 (22:33):
Comments part, because I have a I saw something in
the glove compartment.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
Yeah, that's for the USB drive. I don't know if
it would connect to a USB, you know, CD player
and then the USB. Uh, it's in the center console.
Usually it's like there's some in the back. My old car,
it was in the back, and I think, okay, it
was just in the back.

Speaker 7 (22:55):
But that's not a USB.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
Though it's a small USB, it's USB. It's called oh Matthew.
Matthew wrote in with another hack. He said, for the
Tesla's CD player problem, there's an old school solution that
still works. Use a portable CD player with an FM transmitter,
which yours has. The transmitter creates a tiny FM station

(23:18):
for the CD player's headphone jack. Then you tune the
Tesla's FM radio to that frequency. I did this back
in the nineties when my car didn't have a cassette deck.
It works the same way today. So I think this
device that you bought, yes, this clim it does have
Let's see, is it FM transmitter FM? Does it have
an FM transmitter? Though, that's the question. I'd have to

(23:41):
check that too. FM transmitter. Let's see what it says
here FM. I don't see if it has it doesn't
look like it has an FM transmitter. But you can
buy one of those. But I'll be honest, in my experience,
FM transmitters do not work very well. Maybe if it's
wired into your system like back in the day I
had that, but I don't think it's going to really
worked that well. But I think that, uh, this is

(24:03):
this is a tricky one. I am uh. I'm actually
going to Tesla this week. I will ask them. I'm
gonna ask them specifically and see what they say. But
thanks for the call, Kathy. We're gonna we're gonna get
to the We're gonna get to the bottom of this.

Speaker 6 (24:16):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
Until then, you're stuck with you know, you're stuck with
me on the radio here, so enjoy.

Speaker 7 (24:20):
Well, what should I hold on to it before returning
it to Amazon?

Speaker 1 (24:25):
I would try I would try pairing it one more
time to see if yeah, with the with the FM
or the bluetooth, and see if it works, but keep
us posted and we'll we'll see if anyone else some solution.
Thanks a lot, Kathy, Quite the quite the interesting issue,
you know, trying to get a CD player to work
with the Tesla. You've got the most high tech car
in the world. You've got a phone which obviously can

(24:45):
play music, You've got radio, you've got streaming services. But
like Kathy explained last week, she wants what she has,
which is her CDs, and she understands them and she
likes them. So I get that, Uh, you might be
overpaying eighty to eight rich one on one eighty eight
seven four to two four one zero one. You might
be overpaying for ride shares. This is from the National

(25:08):
Bureau of Economic Research. They did a study that the
same exact ride often costs different prices on Uber and Lyft.
The average difference is about three dollars and fifty cents.
I know, not a ton of money, but if you're
taking these a lot, that could add up to a
lot of money over the years, over the whole over
the course of a year. So that's about fourteen percent

(25:30):
of the fare. So depending on the fares that you have,
that could be a substantial amount Now you would think
most people check both apps, but only about sixteen percent
actually do in this study, and that lack of comparison
adds up to more than three hundred million dollars a
year in extra spending. And that was just in New
York City alone. So the researchers say, the friction is

(25:50):
pretty small. All you have to do is open up
the other app and compare the price. But that tiny
little friction lets prices stay higher and helps the platforms
make more money. Now Uber does not allow third party
price comparison tools, so that makes it tougher. They used
to have. When these things first came out, there was
a whole bunch of there's a cottage industry of apps
that would let you see the prices on both at

(26:11):
the same time. That's really no longer the case. I
will tell you, in my experience, prices vary widely. Sometimes
I will open up Uber, which is kind of my default,
and I will say, oh, that's really expensive. Let me
check Lift, and Lift for the same exact ride could
be half the price sometimes or substantially lower, and then
I wonder, well, wait, why, it just has to do

(26:34):
with the algorithm. Sometimes it's more. Sometimes it's less. So
the bottom line from this research paper is have both apps.
If you take ride shares, install Uber, install Lift, have
them both on your phone. And if you're taking these things,
try them both. That's what you have to do. Windows eleven.
If you're having a whole bunch of problems, you're not

(26:55):
the only one. Windows. Microsoft put out their first major
update of twenty twenty SI and big issues for a
lot of people. Some PCs are not shutting down properly,
they just restart. Remote desktop issues, so if you're trying
to use remote desktop or VPN, that could be an issue. Outlook.
If you're using the classic version of Outlook, it's crashing

(27:17):
or hanging or hanging in the background. Some apps just
don't open and they're thrown out error codes, including the
dreaded zero x eighth three F eight thousand and one.
Watch out for that one cloud storage freezing or opening
files when you're looking at one driver, dropbox, all kinds

(27:38):
of issues during startup, black screens, wallpapers, resetting to black,
sleep mode issues. So Microsoft has pushed out emergency fixes.
But the bottom line is here. If you are on Windows,
you did a major update and your PC's acting kind
of weird. It is not you, as they say, it's
not you, it's them. Is that what they say? Something

(27:58):
like that? So, but do the updates. If you see
more updates, do them. If you have these issues, If
you didn't do the update, I'd hold off unless it's
forced on you, which sometimes they do, but I would, uh,
I would hold off if you haven't done the update.
Let them fix some of this stuff. That's always frustrating.
That's why I like a show like this where you
hear it, you see it, or even social media, we're like, oh, okay,

(28:20):
that's what's happening. I'm not the only one, okay. Eighty
eight rich one on one eighty eight seven four to
two four one zero one. The website for the show
rich on Tech dot TV. We'll get to some of
your calls after this, and also what else I gotta
tell you. Oh this is this is interesting. Verizon just
bought back the network it sold to Frontier a couple

(28:43):
of years ago. I'll explain with what that's all about.
Coming up right here on rich on Tech. Welcome back
to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you,
talking technology, Triple eight rich one oh one eight eight
eight seven four two four one zero one? Uh, Seafur?

(29:06):
Is that how I'm saying it right? Seafur in San Diego?
You're on with Ritchie there, Yes, sir, how do you
say your name? Did I say it right?

Speaker 6 (29:15):
Ye? Actually? Caesar?

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Oh Caesar, yes, sir. Now I got Seafur on my
screen here.

Speaker 6 (29:21):
No, let's say it's actually says that for Spanish. But okay,
friends call me Caesar.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
Okay, Caesar, I can say that. That's easy. Okay, Caesar,
what's up?

Speaker 6 (29:30):
Thank you? Thank you for taking my call and joy
your show.

Speaker 5 (29:33):
Thank you week, Thank you.

Speaker 6 (29:35):
I'm calling because I would like your recommendation or opinion
on regarding I have my main TV. It's I have
a fifty five inch I believe it is?

Speaker 8 (29:48):
Oh that small?

Speaker 1 (29:49):
Why? Why so small? I'm kidding?

Speaker 6 (29:52):
My daughter was My daughter was two years old when
I bought it, and she's turn eighteen a few months ago.
So hey, yeah it I just want to do it is.
I'm nothing wrong with it, but I just want something more,
you know, bigger, bigger screen. And I went to, uh,
it's amazing how the prices have come down quite a bit.
I noticed on on the on TVs. But then my

(30:16):
question also is I would look for you know, I
was looking for another l GV because they've been good
to me. Yeah, and I noticed that they have UHD,
then they have an q L ED TV, and then
of course the the ol legs. But I want to
I found a t C L E L E D,

(30:37):
and I wanted your opinion on those. I was inclined
on one of those because it seems that you get up,
you get better better, you know, better specs on the
TV for the money.

Speaker 1 (30:48):
Oh yeah, yeah, Well this is what we were talking
about at the beginning, and this is why Sony is
having such a tough time because these TCL prices. I'm
looking at them right now. So I'm on slick deals,
looking at some of the latest. You know, right now
is the time to buy because the Super bowls coming up, right,
So all these TVs are on great deals. So I'm
looking at a fifty five inch O lead from Samsung

(31:10):
for one thousand bucks. I'm looking at a sixty five
inch O lead from lg for eight hundred and nine dollars,
a sixty five inch TCL QM eight K, which is
their flagship, that's nine to ninety seven and that's their
flagship device right now, what what are you looking to spend?

(31:31):
Are you looking to spend like under five hundred, under
one thousand, under two thousand?

Speaker 6 (31:35):
I mean to be honest, and I don't know if
it was fifteen hundred, I was, you know, even even
two thousand if I had to. But then when I
noticed prices are low, and it's just I'm not sure
where to go.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
Okay, but.

Speaker 6 (31:50):
Whatever you were thinking.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
I think this this TCL QM eight K, which is
a QD Mini led, I think that for one thousand
bucks is a fantastic deal. Sixty five inch TV tcls
are super highly rated. This is actually one of the
one of the highest rated TVs from our expert that

(32:13):
we have on Let's see, Yeah the.

Speaker 6 (32:16):
Cue and then yeah, I'm looking at I'm hoping that
at least to get at least of seventy five.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
Oh, at least a seventy five Okay, so they see,
let's see, okay, seventy five inch, let's see if they
have one here seventy five. I think they make that
same one. Okay, So here's the here's these Okay, this
is the one you want right here? Best Buy seventy
five inch TCL QM seven K sent one fifty bucks.
That's it, Caesar, you got it. Just go to best
Buy right now. That's that's a that's a deal.

Speaker 6 (32:43):
Oh. I truly appreciate it. I truly appreciate it. I mean,
it's just like there's so many different options and I
don't know where to go. But I did I did
hear that tcls are becoming very much much better for
the money. And also I don't I really don't. I
really don't not focused on apps because on the TV,
I don't care for the smart portion of it. Okay,

(33:05):
I use I use external devices. I use an Nvidia
Shield Pro.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
Nice. People love us.

Speaker 6 (33:10):
I love that thing. And I use the fire sticks
from my bedroom.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
So nice. Okay, Well this I think this is the
deal you want. It's the uh now, it's gonna come
with Google TV. But it's the TCL seventy five inch
QM seven K four k UHD HDR QD Mini LED.
It's nine to ninety nine at best Buy. I'll be honest.
I bought my TV from best Buy a couple years ago,
maybe two years ago. I ordered it in the morning.

(33:37):
I was watching it by the afternoon. I could not
believe the delivery, the service, everything. I was so impressed.

Speaker 6 (33:43):
So it looks like I found my TV. I appreciate
your time.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
All right, Caesar, thank you, thanks for listening. Sounds like
the super Bowl party is at Caesar's house this year.
Whenever you get the new TV, you got to have
the super Bowl party. That's what I did a couple
of years ago. When I had my brand new TV.
I was like, all right, we'll do this because I
upgraded from a fifty five inch TV that I had forever.

(34:08):
I think it was a Visio maybe, and it was great,
but I went with the high sense. Let's see, I
think it was the I think it was a U
eight and I love it. I mean it's great. It's
everyone that comes to my house is rich. This TV
looks so good. I said, it's not even that expensive.
It was like under a thousand bucks. I think everything
all included.

Speaker 5 (34:26):
Now.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
The only thing I did wrong was I went with
sixty five inch instead of seventy five. Everyone now is
going with seventy five. So if you have the space,
go with that. But yeah, and we will, by the way,
have an expert on a little bit later. On Caleb Dennison,
he is the TV guy. He will be talking about
all these TVs later in the show, and he'll talk

(34:48):
about some of the newest deals out there. Verizon and
Frontier are back together again. Verizon just basically purchased these
areas from Frontier that they sold to him a couple
years ago, so these fiber networks. So basically, if you
here's here's the thesis of this. If you are in
an area that used to be Frontier or sorry, that

(35:11):
used to be Verizon then became Frontier and now it's
back to Verizon, you should call them up and see
what kind of deal you can get, because they're doing
really good deals. If you get your mobile phone through Verizon,
or if you're a Verizon customer, you can get six
months of Frontier fiber Internet for free. If you bundle
so you can get free phones or giving away free

(35:31):
iPhone Seventeen's so long story short. If you live in
an area that either had Frontier or used to have
Verizon and became Frontier and now it's back to Verizon,
call them up. Call up Verizon and see what kind
of deal they can give you, because right now they're
rolling out some pretty aggressive deals to get people into
these bundles. Eighty eight Rich one oh one eighty eight

(35:51):
seven four to two four one zero one more rich
on Tech, come in your way right after this. Welcome
back to rich On Tech. Rich to Mire here hanging
out with you talking technology at triple eight Rich one
oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to two
four one zero one. We were talking Windows issues. A
lot of people did these updates. They had some issues.

(36:14):
But Josh and Lansing, Michigan says he has a solution.
If you're having some issues with your Windows computer. What's
your solution?

Speaker 9 (36:21):
Josh, yeah, Hi, so I had the same issues everybody
else had. The solution is, even when you check your
computer to update its drivers, it says you're up to date,
you're not. You have to locate your graphics card manufacturer
and go to the manufacturer's website and update your graphics

(36:42):
card from there. My update took about two two and
a half hours, and every sense I'm.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
Back, Oh nice, Okay, So you were having some flickering
issues and all that kind of stuff, and Windows was saying, oh,
you're fine, you're up to date. But then you went
to like what in video's website or Intel's or something,
and it was like, Oh, there's a firmware update for
your or driver update.

Speaker 9 (37:03):
It was it was it was Intel for me, it's
gonna work for everybody. I suspect because Windows isn't communicating
with those chip manufacturers and that's why they can't find
the issue interesting.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
Okay, all right, so good, so good tip. If you're
having issues, something flickering, something's giving you. It could be anything, right,
like your your your scanner, whatever you've got, that's.

Speaker 9 (37:22):
Videos, my videos. I use the same streaming services and
watch the same videos routinely, and they would just stop
and two seconds later start and then five seconds later stop.
That was consistent, and that was a huge issue too.
And that solves.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
Okay, so everything was off. Even though Windows was saying
you're up to date, you really weren't.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
Basically exactly, I.

Speaker 9 (37:42):
Did all the up to dates on Windows. I even
said from other manufacturers, some new products, and there's nothing there.
I was fully up to date. I even went to
my internal computer check to run diagnostics, and it's that
I was up to date. Wow, that's what I That's
what really throws people off that are looking into this
It's so frustrating because usually that's correct. But after another day,
I was forget this, and I went right to the
manufacturer and it scanned my computer. I just clicked support

(38:05):
at the Intel site and it scanned my computer instead.
That was what I suspected was there and update now
and I did it.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
Wow. Good, okay, all right, good to know, Josh, thanks
for the call. Appreciate it. So yeah, if your computer's
saying it's working and it's up to date, it may
not be. So just remember that eighty eight rich one
oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four
one zero one.

Speaker 6 (38:28):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
Scott writes in I keep getting letters saying my personal
information may have been exposed in data breaches. Kaiser, Permanente,
and AutoNation are the latest. Each time they give me
free credit monitoring through companies like LifeLock, Equifax, or cyber Scout.
Right now, I already have one more year free of LifeLock,
two years of experience. I'm wondering if I should sign

(38:49):
up for every service that's offered or just stick with
one or two. It feels like these breaches are inevitable,
but paying for multiple monitoring services can get expensive fast. Well,
it's inches, so you're not well. I think you wouldn't
be paying for them because you're getting them free. But
here's the deal. I think that you know LifeLock and Experience,
they're reputable. I think that those two are enough for now.

(39:12):
I don't think you need to sign up for every
free monitoring offer that comes along. I get these things
in the mail all the time, and I've yet to
sign up for one of them. And I'll tell you
why in a second. Number one. Every time you sign up,
you have to hand over all of your information of
that company, and so you're giving them everything that you've
got so that they can go out and monitor for you.

(39:33):
So if you really feel like you need that done,
sure sign up for one of them. Get that free year,
see what happens. But I think the easiest way to
do this and to deal with this situation is to
freeze your credit. And you could do that for free.
You can go on to Experience, Equifax and TransUnion. You
go to their websites, you sign up. Now. The thing

(39:55):
to be careful about every one of these websites will
try to fake it, and they will they will put
up some offer because they know people are going here
to do this. Right when you log in, it'll be like, oh,
do you want to pay for credit plus freezing? And
you're like, oh, yeah, that's what I came here to do.
Uh ah, that's a paid service. You do not want

(40:15):
to do that. You want to go to the bottom
of the screen. There's a tiny little text that says,
freeze my credit and it's free, completely free, and I've
done this. It is very easy to unfreeze your credit
if you need to go in, you know, you want
to apply for a card, to loan whatever. I'm not
a financial person, but that's what I do, and it's
I've done it, I've unlocked it, I've locked it. It's

(40:37):
pretty easy to do, so take the time to do that,
and you don't have to deal with a lot of
this other stuff. But if you're getting the year free
and it makes you feel better, absolutely sign up. But
you don't need to sign up for one hundred of these.
Connie writes in Hey rich, my husband just got hearing
aids now. The TV volume that works for me is
too loud for him. Someone suggested headphones so I can

(40:57):
listen louder without bothering him. There's so many ops online.
I'm not sure what's easiest for us older folks. Any suggestions, So, Connie,
the easiest thing would be wireless headphones that connect directly
to the TV. So a lot of TV support Bluetooth.
If yours doesn't, you might be able to add like
a little Bluetooth transmitter to the headphone jack or the
optical audio port. But the key thing here is that

(41:21):
your TV has to support headphones and speakers at the
same time. Not all of them do. So if you
want to confirm that, I would just get any pair
of Bluetooth earbuds you have around your house and connect
them to the TV. See if you can listen on
those earbuds and listen through the speaker, so your husband
be able to listen and then you'd be able to

(41:42):
listen at the same time. If that doesn't work, there's
a whole bunch of products from this company called a
van Tree A v A N t r e E.
They've got a whole bunch of products specifically for these solutions.
A v A N t r e e dot Com.
Check them out. Clearly someone there was like, oh, yeah,
people need these solutions, that's why they have them. Mary

(42:06):
writes in Hey, Rich, Happy New Year. I'm eighty seven
years old. I'm not very tech savvy. I have a
Samsung Android phone, and I'm worried about viruses and staying protected.
I'm on to fixed in some income, so i can't
afford fancy expensive security services. Can you recommend something that
will keep my phone safe? Mary, Happy New Year to you.

(42:27):
You don't need to be tech savvy. Anyone should be
able to do this. If you have a Samsung phone,
it already has built in protections. So the thing you
want to do is visit a section of your phone
under the settings. Hopefully you can get there settings Security
and Privacy, and there's a whole bunch of stuff. It
will immediately start scanning your phone for threats. Up at

(42:49):
the top should have a green banner that says looks good.
Make sure you have your lock screen set. Make sure
you have no recommendations under account security, loss, device protection,
app security, I'll say no threats found updates. You can
look there. Now the things you want to do. Make
sure your auto blocker is on, so tap that on.

(43:10):
This will block apps from unauthorized sources, like if you
try to download something outside of Google Player. The Galaxy Store.
It'll prevent that from being installed. It'll block malware, images
and messaging apps, non official software, updates, commands by USB cable.
It'll do a lot, make sure auto blocker is turned on.

(43:32):
What else The other thing you want to do is
use Chrome. Chrome will protect you with what's called what
do they call it. They've got two levels. They've got
Safe Browsing and then they've got Enhanced Chrome Safe Browsing.
Safe browsing is the basic that means that basically every

(43:54):
URL you enter into Chrome, it is checking to make
sure that it's legitimate and it's not going to try
to steal your info. Doesn't always work, but it works
pretty well. Now, if you want a little bit more,
you can turn on what's called Google Enhanced Safe Browsing.
And if you turn that on, it's actually going to
use a little bit more AI to give you extra support.
So these are websites that it may never have encountered,

(44:16):
and it still looks at them and says, eh, we
don't think this is safe. We're gonna put up a
big red screen to make you not use it. So
you can turn those on in your Chrome settings. Let's
see if I can find it here let's see if
it's on here. See if I can't find this stuff quickly,
how do I expect you to find this stuff quickly? Right?

(44:37):
So I'm looking about Chrome downloads, languages. Okay, where are
you a Chrome? Come on basics? Oh, privacy and security
there it is, duh, privacy insecurity, safe browsing. Enhanced protection
is turned on. I would go into your Chrome on
your Android settings and then look under privacy and security

(45:01):
and delete. Sorry, where'd it go? Safe browsing? Make sure
enhanced protection is turned on. That'll do a lot to
keep you protected. No matter what link you click, it
will scan that and make sure it's safe. Not gonna
work every single time. Yes, there are things that can
still slip through the cracks, but it's gonna be pretty good.
The other thing is this app I like called Sofos

(45:23):
Intercept X Sofos Intercept X for mobile. It's free and
I have it on my phone, and it does a
pretty good job. It's scanning, it's basically doing a lot
of the stuff that the Samsung is doing. So if
you're okay with all that stuff and the Chrome stuff,
you don't need this. But if you want a little
extra level, then I would say, try this Sofos Intercept

(45:46):
X and it's mobile. It's available on Google Play. Let
me see what is exactly the name is. Of course,
don't have a link. That's weird. Okay, here's the link.
Sofos Intercept X for Mobile by Sofos Limited. The problem
is when you search for these apps, there's other apps
that kind of masquerade under the same more similar name.

(46:06):
So be very careful when you download stuff that I
mentioned on the radio that you're getting the right app.
And I link this stuff up on my website. So
go to rich on tech dot TV. This is episode
one five eight. You can go there get the links
to everything I just mentioned. I'll put it all there.
Eighty eight rich one on one eight eight eight seven
four to two four one zero one. Rich on tech

(46:28):
dot TV. My name is rich Demiro more rich on Tech.
Coming your way right after this. Welcome back to rich
on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology,
triple eight rich one On one eight eight eight seven

(46:48):
four two four one zero one. H. Jim is in
San Diego. Jim, what's going on?

Speaker 5 (46:55):
Hi? I got a Shwlett Packard laptop a few months
ago and within a few weeks, the letters on the
keys started fading on the most common you know, on
the ert and the I can barely discern the what
the keys are anymore, and I don't know how to type.
I still hunt and pet and I went back to
the store I bought it, and they said I would

(47:17):
have to send it back to Hewlett Packard, and I
guess they would take it and do something with it,
and I'd have no laptop for a while, and I'd
have to pay to get everything transferred over to a
new laptop. So what can I do to make my
keyboard more visible to me?

Speaker 1 (47:32):
Well?

Speaker 2 (47:33):
What?

Speaker 1 (47:33):
Okay? So how long have you had this thing?

Speaker 5 (47:36):
Well, now, it's probably been three months.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
Okay, it's been three months. You probably have a year
warranty on it. I'm guessing.

Speaker 5 (47:42):
I don't recall that I paid anything extra, so I
don't know what I got with it.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
Okay, but you have whatever comes with HP laptops, yes, okay,
let me see. I'm looking up what the warranty is.
I'm guessing itself. Okay, So you can go on Okay
says it's usually a standard one year. But you can
go on their website and check the warranty by putting
in your serial number, so you can see if you
have a year warranty, which I'm sure you do, if
you didn't pay anything extra. Now did you buy you

(48:06):
Did you use a credit card to buy this?

Speaker 5 (48:09):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (48:10):
Okay, so you may have Depending on your card, you
may have some protections through them, and they may be
able to help you with this. But that's you know,
that's another way where if everything else doesn't work, you can,
you know, maybe call the credit card company and just
see some of them offer, you know, sixty days extra,
one hundred and twenty days. That might be another avenue.
Just keep that in the back of your head. There,

(48:32):
So I have a feeling. So there's a couple of
things going on here. Number one, HP does not know
how you handle this computer. Right. You might have taken
this computer and rubbed alcohol on the keyboard the first
day you got it. You got rid of all the keys,
and they don't really know if you did that or not, right, So,
cosmetic issues like this could be that this thing is defective,
or it could be that you did something and scratched

(48:54):
them all off. They don't really know the difference, right,
So in some aspect, you're at their mercy here because
they don't necessarily have to do anything. But if you said, hey,
I want this under warranty, my my keyboard is is
you know, seem like it wasn't very good from the beginning.
Replace my keyboard. Like you said, you're gonna have to
send this thing in. You either wipe the information or

(49:16):
it's going to be you're not going to see it again,
depending on what they do to this thing there, it's
going to be out of your hands for a while.
And it doesn't seem like a very good solution. I mean,
you are you ready to not have this thing for
a couple of weeks?

Speaker 5 (49:28):
Well, I could use my old one. I guess it
would be kind of a hassle because I try to
work off one main laptop instead of having data on both. Right.
The other concern I have is to retransfer everything back
onto it.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
Yeah, it's a pain.

Speaker 5 (49:42):
We have to do what I did last time. We
take it in somewhere and have them, you know, transfer
everything over and yes.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
Total war money. Yeah, total pain. And it's not something
And usually when you bring your laptop in they say, look,
you know, we we can't anything that's on this drive
could be a race because because HP, they could get
it and say, you know what, we're just gonna give
you a refurb We're gonna give you a new one. Whatever.
You know, they can. They reserve their right to do
a lot of different things. So where do we stand.
Are you okay with just putting stickers on these keys?
What if you just order some new stickers from Amazon

(50:10):
and put them on the keys?

Speaker 5 (50:12):
That would work? I didn't know there was such a thing. Yeah,
I could work with that.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
Let me I'm looking up keyboard decals. Uh, let me
see here. Okay, so they have a whole Actually this
might be even better if you you know you've got
they've got all kinds of different ones. Now individual Okay,
here's one hundred and ninety four piece set luminescent extra
large three years, will not wear fade eight ninety nine,

(50:37):
so nine bucks.

Speaker 5 (50:40):
I mean it looks like a pretty good illuminus. That
means it retains some light.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
Yeah, it looks like these are these are specifically like
large print, so like they're easier to see. But you know,
I'm looking on Amazon. They have they have a thousand
different types of these things, so that might be your
best bet if you just want something simple and easy
and you don't want to deal with bringing this thing back.
I'm I'm annoyed that this thing the keys faded so quickly.

(51:04):
I mean, you said it's only a couple of months.
I've got my computers for years, and yes, some of
the keys I use more definitely have a look to them,
but they're not wiped off, you know, like if this
was a stick.

Speaker 5 (51:13):
To my history as well, historically I go years and
then you could see a little bit and this actually
started happening within a few weeks. I just haven't done
anything about it yet.

Speaker 1 (51:21):
Yeah, that's weird. I mean, I think it might be
in your best interest to call HP and to really
tell them, like, look, I think I'm deserving of a
new keyboard, here a new computer, and here's why I
think that this was defective. And I think that you
should take a look at it and see what happened,
because there might be other people if this happened to
and you frame it in that way where you're kind
of helping them, and then you say, and by the way,

(51:43):
I want you to send me the new laptop in advance,
and I will ship back the old one when you
get when I get it. The only issue there is
they probably might require a credit card or something, and
if they don't get the old one, then you're on
the hook. So there's a lot of nuances here with
how this works. If HP had a place where you
could just bring it in and it was easy, that
would be the best case scenario. Do they have any
service centers that you can just bring this thing into,

(52:05):
Like physically.

Speaker 5 (52:07):
I'm but there's a place I go, but it's not
an HP place and they weren't able to help me.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
Yeah, these are okay. The Best Buy isn't authorized. They
do have authorized locations, so you're in San Diego. You
might be able to bring it to an authorized place
where they can do it, but I don't. That doesn't
necessarily mean it's free or under warranty, you know. It
just means that they can work on it.

Speaker 5 (52:30):
But you're starting to think for nine or ten dollars,
I may be better off just getting the getting the
endms you mentioned to stick on to the keys and
be done with it.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
I would I would think that's the easiest. What I
would do is, you know, Jim, before you put the
stickers on, you want to clean the keys well so
that they say the stickers actually stay on there. There
may be some instructions that come with these little keyboard stickers.
I would recommend an alcohol wipe or even you might
even try like a lyceole wipe. And before you do
this in your computer, be careful ring it out. Do

(53:02):
not make the mistake I made one time of using
a liceol wipe on my keyboard without ringing it out.
I'm not kidding. It ruined my whole computer for about
six months. It finally came back to life. It did
come back to life, but it took about six months
to dry out. Do not do that nowadays. Ring ring
it out, ring it out till is just just just
a little tiny bit moist. And if you're even worried

(53:24):
about that, you can just use a microfiber with a
little bit of a tiny bit of spray on it,
a little bit of water spray ring that out. Make
sure it's just damn not even not even wet at all.
Do not come complaining to me that you ruin your keyboard. Please.
Eighty and eight rich one on one, we're gonna talk
about how to use AI to make apps. Coming up next,
Welcome back to rich on Tech Rich DeMuro here hanging

(53:46):
out with you talking technology at Triple eight Rich one
O one eight eight eight seven four to two four
one zero one. You got a call about you got
a question about technology? Give me a call. Email is
also an option rich on Tech TV. This is episode
one fifty eight. So if you need a link to
something I mentioned, you could just go to the website

(54:07):
and find the link there. My kid and I had
a lot of fun this week. He discovered that you
can use Gemini to make apps, and so I'm not kidding.
He just sat there all week and just started coding
these apps or I guess using AI to code them.
And it really is just amazing that, Like, if you
have an idea for something, most people don't know how

(54:28):
to make that into either a website or an app.
Amanda Span is an app educator and founder of the
app Accelerator. She's here to talk to us about how
professionals can turn their app idea into a real product
without being technical. Amanda, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate
being here.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
So thanks for being here. What is the app Accelerator? Explain? Like,
why you came up with this right.

Speaker 4 (54:53):
The app Accelerator is a fifteen week training program that
teaches working professionals how to build an app incrementally, step
by step, without ever learning how to code. And the
program is based off a book that I wrote and
is going to be up for release on March tenth,
call I Have an App Idea. The book was written

(55:14):
as a result of my own experiences being a non
technical founder and having to learn so many things the
hard way.

Speaker 2 (55:21):
I lost forty thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 (55:23):
And paying someone to like, yeah, yeah, just not knowing
what I didn't know, right, And that's actually less than
the most non technical founders lose on their first app,
but the average amount is around fifty thousand dollars in
time and inefficiencies.

Speaker 4 (55:39):
Then non technical founders lose and they waste about two
years of time just trying to get a product off
to the ground because they don't know what steps come next,
They don't understand the terminology, and it feels overwhelming, it
feels intimidating, and so I didn't want anyone else to
have to go through that process. After, you know, I
started building apps and got a lot better at it.
I built a framework out that was repeatable no matter

(56:02):
what type of app you're building, and it provides people
with a step by step framework and step by step
infrastructure for understanding product development, so you know how to
engage with developers and no matter what development path you take.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
Like similar to you and.

Speaker 4 (56:15):
Your son this weekend, who were doing what we like
to call vibe coding, the product of using you know,
a chat, GPT, a cloud or LOLM to build an app,
or him and I to build an app. And you know,
whether you're using that path or whether you are working
traditionally with a developer, you have all the steps, tools, resources, education,

(56:37):
and that foundational knowledge you need to know to build
a revenue ready app.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
So what you're talking about, Okay, so you say, like
a non technical professional, so this, let's say I'm a
little league coach and I'm doing this and every day,
you know, every weekend, I'm like, wait, it'd be really
good if they had an app for this, right? Is
that what you're saying, Like a professional, it's in some
sort of job that they are like, Oh, I see
a need for this, but I have no idea how
to do that. That's what your book targets. That's what

(57:03):
you're talking about.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
That's absolutely what I target.

Speaker 4 (57:06):
I am a firm believer that people who are closest
in proximity to the problem are best positioned to solve it.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
Right.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
So, if you're a little league coach and you're.

Speaker 4 (57:15):
Seeing you know, their organizational inefficiencies with how they're running
the league, right, and it could be solved with an app,
there is no way that you're not going to know
how the best solve that problem, as opposed to you know,
some nineteen year old kid in Silicon Valley who's like,
you know, starting their second semester at Stamford, Like no
shades to Stanford, but right, they're not going to know

(57:37):
what's right about managing little league as a coach who's
been doing this for twenty something years, right, And so
what I want to do is position people like that
little league coach, like that doctor, like that lawyer, like
that social worker, like that operations manager to understand product
development so that they can work with developers or you

(58:00):
know op for you know, using AI or vibe coding
to position themselves to build the products of the future.
Because there are billion dollar opportunities in industries that we're
just ignoring. Right now, because you know, there's a lot
of people who don't know how to turn their skills
into software.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
Okay, so what is the first thing someone should do
to see if their app idea is worth pursuing.

Speaker 4 (58:21):
They should definitely validate it. So a big part of
determining whether you should build an app idea is diving
deep into the problem, right. And so you want a
problem that is big enough for people to pay for, right,
because there's lots of problems out there.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
But there's a difference between a.

Speaker 4 (58:40):
Vitamin level problem and an oxygen level problem.

Speaker 5 (58:43):
Right.

Speaker 4 (58:44):
I don't know if you know you or your listeners
have heard that analogy before, but a vitamin level problem,
you know, we can take vitamins every day, but if
we skip a day, it's not the end of the world.

Speaker 3 (58:53):
Right.

Speaker 4 (58:53):
Then there's painkiller level problems where you know, you take
painkillers when you're in pain, but as soon as that
pain subside, you stopped taking the painkiller. But oxygen, right,
there's not much we can compare to oxygen. We all
need oxygen. So you want to tackle problems when you
are building a business around building a business around a
problem that are so big that people can't even think

(59:15):
about how this problem was solved before then. And a
good example of this is like ride share. Right, I'm
just gonna say, I can't remember how I got to
the airport.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
You know, Oh, you begged a friend. Come on, I
gave people rights to the airport. The worst thing ever.
But you know you actually have to talk to your
friends and you know around them up.

Speaker 4 (59:36):
Now you have the luxury of doing right area, But
they're solved. They solved a multimillion dollar problem.

Speaker 2 (59:41):
And now every.

Speaker 4 (59:42):
App idea doesn't have to solve a billion dollar problem,
but it does if you were planning on making money
with this app, right, which I look at apps as
the business and the perspective I teach from in the
book and in the program the App Accelerator. I teach
people that apps are a business, right, and that you
should be thinking about the problem in that way. And
so you want us try to identify a problem that

(01:00:04):
people are willing to pay money to solve. Right, The
next thing you want to do is validate that idea,
because sometimes we think in ideas really good, but until
we actually you know, go out and prove to the
world that someone is willing to pay for this we're
not exactly sure, and you want to do that before
you invest lots of time and money. And there's lots
of different ways you can validate an idea. You can

(01:00:26):
do surveys, you can do a concierge test, just essentially
running that running what you're going to do in the
app in like a white glove service.

Speaker 2 (01:00:37):
An example of this is like meal prepping.

Speaker 4 (01:00:39):
Like maybe you believe that you know, tens of thousand
people will pay for like a meal prep service, right,
that's automated through an app. Right, but you may want
to run that service manually first in your community and
test out that people are willing to pay for it
before you invest the money or the time into building
an app and an automation around it. Because whether you
you know, decide you want to go to develop, or

(01:01:00):
whether you want to you know, vibe code it, build
it yourself, it's still an investment of time or money,
and time is money.

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
Okay. The keyword these days is AI. So I talked
about how my kid and I we kind of, like
you said, vibe coding. You know, you're just using Gemini
or one of these various ais that can handle that
to make these things it's not perfect, obviously, But what
do you think about AI and how has that changed
the process of building an app compared to just a
few years ago.

Speaker 4 (01:01:29):
Well, AI, from my perspective, it should be used as
a tool to improve quality of life, and I mean
that across tech and as many other verticals as well.
But AI is a great equalizer in the sense that
you know, while I think coding is still relevant and
I think the role of developer is still very pertinent,

(01:01:50):
it has made you know, being able to build software
and build products a lot easier. So the difference is,
if all things are equal now and if any one
even you know, your your son can build an app
by just using you know, AI, the difference is, and
the distinction will be moving forward, is domain expertise. So

(01:02:11):
I believe that domain expertise is a new technical edge.
So if you pair a degree of AI or a
baseline knowledge of AI with your domain expertise, you're unstoppable.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
Okay, let's dig into that a little bit more. Because
everyone's always worried about jobs, and you know where the
future is going, you seem optimistic. Do you think that
we are gonna lose jobs because of this? Do you
think that you know, if someone is wanting to become
a coder, like there will there always be a place
for them. I mean you said domain expertise. I think
that's really interesting that, yes, you have to be you

(01:02:43):
still need to know this stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:02:46):
So I think I feel like some jobs are going
to be replaced, but I think that is the nature
of innovation.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
That's the way of our world.

Speaker 3 (01:02:53):
Right.

Speaker 4 (01:02:53):
You know, we don't have as many coal mining jobs
as we used to. Right, the world innovates, and you know,
some jobs are phased out, right, but I think coding
and computer science jobs will evolve, right, and so you
will see a lot more developers themselves using AI in
the role, and so the way that they work will

(01:03:15):
be different.

Speaker 2 (01:03:16):
And what I think you'll see on the computer.

Speaker 4 (01:03:18):
Science side and in that vertical is a lot of
more productized services. And what I mean by that is
instead of a developer. And I don't know if you
know your audience or you are privy to the way
developers traditionally work, but they might say, Okay, I have
this project, and I believe this project is going to
take me one hundred hours. I'm going to build fifty

(01:03:38):
dollars an hour for this project, right, And so they're
building that out over the next six months for you.
But now that they can use AI to build a
lot faster, they're probably going to take on a lot
more clients. And that project that used to take you know,
six months can now take you know, you know, three weeks. Right,
So they'll probably be able to take on ten clients

(01:04:00):
at one time, right, And they'll have shorter timelines, and.

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
They'll package up those services.

Speaker 4 (01:04:06):
So instead of saying, Okay, well I'm gonna build this
dating app for you from scratch, I might have a
dating app package where I can rent and repeat the
way I build dating apps, and I can produce them
really really quickly, and they'll be a flat rate of
maybe three thousand dollars where I used to charge you know,
thirty thousand for this, but now I can charge ten

(01:04:27):
people three thousand dollars a piece versus thirty thousand to
one client.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
Really does change things, all right, I got to less
than a minute here. The book is called I Have
an App Idea Amanda Span coming out on March tenth,
and what will people who's this for?

Speaker 4 (01:04:44):
This is for everyday innovators, It's for working professionals who've
been sitting on an app idea. It's for people who
have bottlenecks and the way that they work. It's for
people who believe they have a million dollar ideas. It's
for people who they believe they have thousand dollar ideas
and billion dollar ideas. It's for people who who have
always wanted to create an app, but just didn't know
where to start. The book teaches you how to build

(01:05:05):
a business around your app idea, how to design it
for your target audience, how to identify the best development
path for you, whether that be working with a traditional
developer or using AI to build with, and then how
to deploy that app out to the world and make
sure that you maintain and manage that investment. It is
that step by step guide you wish you had when
you had that business idea ten years ago, and so

(01:05:27):
I really hope people enjoy it dive into. It is
a very light and easy read, but it will change
the way you fundamentally think about products and how you
build digital based businesses moving forward.

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
All right, thanks so much Amanda for joining us. Say
really appreciate it. I'll put a link to your book
on the website. Rich on tech dot TV once again.
It's called I have an app idea Amanda Span all right,
coming up, Yeah, thank you eighty eight rich one on
one eighty eight seven four to two four one zero one,
coming up my AI voice to text keyboard of the week.

(01:05:57):
You got to try this out. Welcome back to rich
on tech rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology.
Well as I say, over and over, the free ride
is over. Ads are coming to chat GPT, especially if

(01:06:18):
you're on the free version. Open ai says it's going
to start testing ads inside chatchybt in the US in
the next few weeks. They'll appear for logged in adults
using the free tier, or they came out with this
new cheaper plan called chatchybt Go, which is eight dollars
a month. They will still have ads on that plan.
They're going to show up at the bottom of your

(01:06:38):
answers and be labeled as sponsored, and open ai says
the ads will not influence the answers that chatchybt gives,
and responses will not be optimized for advertisers. That's it.
You will. Let's see. You can turn off ad personalization
or clear the data used for ads. At any time.
But as you can imagine, the investors of chat cybt

(01:07:02):
cannot wait for this company to toggle these ads on.
It is going to be a it's just going to
be a wild amount of money that they will generate instantly.
Why because chatchbt has the public right now. People are
on there every day, They're searching all kinds of stuff.

(01:07:24):
They're asking very intricate questions, and that is very valuable
to advertisers who know exactly what these people are looking
for and what they want. Now, they might not be
perfect at the beginning. You know, remember when when all
these pay per click ads first came out in Yahoo
and Google, they were pretty general and it took time

(01:07:45):
for them to get very specific. And now it's almost
as if you know, the first couple of results at
Google is it almost looks like that's personalized for what
you're searching for. And that will eventually be the case
for chatchbt. But don't be surprised if you start seeing
ads in your chatchybt window. Like I say, the free
ride is over, melody is in Carl's Bad Melody. You're

(01:08:08):
on with Rich?

Speaker 10 (01:08:10):
Hey, Rich, I have two things. I have a comment
in a question oh, okay. Comment is earlier you had
a caller who was asking about for TV volume because
for her husband, because now she has hearing aids. Yes,
she needs to contact for hearing aid provider because there

(01:08:32):
is a device that she can use to have the
volume adjusted in her hearing aid where she wants it,
and it leaves the volume on the TV where her
husband needs it. So she needs to check with them
on that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:49):
So you're saying there's a they can adjust it or
there's a device.

Speaker 10 (01:08:55):
No, it's a she can adjust it on her.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
On her hearing aid app.

Speaker 1 (01:09:02):
Okay, on the app, got it okay to kind of
level to keep the levels the same basically just her her.

Speaker 10 (01:09:07):
Volume on her app, right and the TV can be
wherever her husband wants it to be.

Speaker 9 (01:09:13):
Okay, I believe because.

Speaker 10 (01:09:15):
Right now I'm talking to you through my hearing aid,
not through the phone. So it's the same same concept,
but a different advice she would have to purchase. I
believe there's a device she does need to purchase to
hook to the TV, much like if she had if

(01:09:35):
if her husband had headphones.

Speaker 1 (01:09:38):
Got it okay? So if if that, yeah, okay, so
she should look into that. And I think it was
actually the opposite. I think the husband got that got
the hearing aids. She was the one that was saying,
oh the TV's her husband either way, but we got it. Okay, perfect, good,
good call.

Speaker 10 (01:09:53):
Okay, that's my time. My question is this about two
nights ago. Uh, there was a power outage in the
evening and since then my printer hasn't worked and I
don't know how to get it.

Speaker 5 (01:10:09):
What happened?

Speaker 3 (01:10:10):
You know?

Speaker 10 (01:10:10):
I went on to my system settings to make sure
that everything was still set, and it shows my my
printer on there and everything. But my printer does not
have any power.

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
Okay, well it doesn't have any it doesn't have any power.

Speaker 10 (01:10:29):
Well, when I put the power but non nothing happens.
Oh okay you when I tried to print, nothing happens.
It says it's offline.

Speaker 1 (01:10:37):
Okay. So a couple of things. Do you know that
the the plug that you're plugging this into, do you
know that it works?

Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
Like?

Speaker 1 (01:10:45):
Is it?

Speaker 6 (01:10:46):
Like?

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
Can you plug something else in and confirm that it
where you got to start at, like the beginning? So
is it does a plug work?

Speaker 10 (01:10:52):
Power strip and other things on the Okay, were working.

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
That's good. So have you tried pulling this, uh this
power plug out and leaving it out for like a
minute or two.

Speaker 10 (01:11:03):
You mean I'm plugging the printer?

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
Correct?

Speaker 2 (01:11:06):
Correct, I haven't done that plug is so hard.

Speaker 8 (01:11:09):
To get to.

Speaker 1 (01:11:10):
Well, do it do on the back side of the printer.
It usually connects both to the plug and the backside
of the printer.

Speaker 10 (01:11:18):
Okay, well that's what what's hard to get to. I
can get up on a step ladder to do that,
so I haven't, but that might be a fix.

Speaker 1 (01:11:27):
Yeah, that that's the first thing I would do. It
sounds like maybe this thing just did not come back on,
So plug it back in or unplug it for you know,
a couple of minutes, leave it out, you know, I
would say two, three, five minutes whatever, plug it back in,
and then turn the prow and then press the power
button back on. And it may just come on when
you plug it in. It may you may have to
press that power button. But see, those are the first

(01:11:48):
things I would do when I my FI exactly. Yeah. Okay,
it's funny though. Week we had a power outage last
night and my printer. I'm trying to I think if
I had any issues, if I had to press any buttons.
I don't think so. It came back to life. It's
an HP, but that's what I would try, Melody. Thanks
for the call today. I appreciate it on both counts.

(01:12:10):
There eighty eight rich one on one eighty eight seven
four to two four one zero one. Still so much
to tell you. In fact, we're gonna talk about the
most AI resistant jobs coming up right here on rich
on Tech. Welcome back to rich On Tech. Rich DeMuro
here hanging out with you, talking technology at Triple eight

(01:12:30):
rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to
two four one zero one. You are in for a
treat this hour. We have one of my favorite guests,
Caleb Dennison. He is going to break down all the
latest in the TV world. I know you're looking at
TVs for the Super Bowl. We're gonna see what his
recommendations are. Also, get his take on this whole Sony

(01:12:51):
TCL deal and anything he saw at CES that was
interesting to him. We got a lot so that will
be in this hour. Can't wait to do that AI.
We've heard so much about it. You're probably wondering, well,
what jobs are going to be the most AI resistant?
First I'll give you the big jobs, and then we'll

(01:13:13):
go into the entry level stuff. But this is from
resume now. They analyze labor department and pay scale data
to rank jobs least likely to be replaced by AI
and the common thread. They found jobs that demand calm,
under pressure, adaptability, and human judgment. Well, that makes a

(01:13:33):
lot of sense. Human judgment. AI can't really replace that,
not yet, I guess. At the top of the list
are a lot of healthcare roles nurse anesthetists, emergency physicians, surgeons,
and physician assistants. Aviation also high on the list commercial pilots,
flight engineers, air traffic controllers, all places where mistakes are

(01:13:58):
not an option. Commercial pilot, Bobo, Would you get on
a plane driven by an AI pilot? You get on,
you walk on, You're flying a you know. Wherever they
get on they say, hey, we got we got AI
Jim in the cockpit today. He's a complete robot.

Speaker 6 (01:14:16):
YEA.

Speaker 1 (01:14:16):
I will not get on a plane. You will knock
get on the bill. Why not not trusting all AI
to fly me nowhere? I don't trust a AI in
my car. When was the last time you met the
pilot of your plane? Last time I was on a flight. Okay,
you introduced yourself. Yeah, he was standing right there. I said, hey,
how you doing. He said, hey, I'm Bob. I was like,
you need to say that. I'm just saying but I
did see him, okay. And you feel more comfortable when

(01:14:37):
you put it like a face to the person flying you.

Speaker 11 (01:14:40):
Yes, I do, Okay, makes me a little more comfortable.
I don't know, it just feels better.

Speaker 1 (01:14:44):
Yeah. But no AI. So if they said, hey, we're
gonna this thing is taken off and landed, no problem
one hundred thousand times, like a way moo weaimo for flight,
you wouldn't haven't done a weimo yet, Okay, because you're
you don't want that either.

Speaker 11 (01:14:56):
Well, because I saw it stuck in an intersection on
the west side and I was like, yeah, no, I'm
not doing that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:02):
I got a video of it. I'll show you. It
was funny. I was shooting a video of the Zookes,
which is Amazon's kind of weymo, in Vegas and it
made the turn, but then I got stuck behind a truck.
It just like stopped and it couldn't go around it.
All these people started honking. I was like cracking up, like, oh,
not the right time taking video. Okay, so that's out
for BOBO leadership and accountability judges, CEOs, cybersecurity leaders, and

(01:15:26):
financial managers also make the list. So there you go.
That's the high end stuff. Right now, we're talking about
the entry level AI proof jobs, or I can't say
AI proof, let's say AI resistant people focused once again.
See it's got to be. There's the human aspect of

(01:15:46):
jobs is very much kind of underlining all of these.
Dental high genis number one. I just went to the
dentist and had the dental hygienis and I was like,
could a robot replace this? I don't know if I'd
want it. I mean yeah, And they're all kind of different,
by the way dental hygienis. Some use that thing where
they spray the water to like clean your teeth. Some
do like the actual that scraper thing. And sometimes I

(01:16:08):
feel like they're literally out of like medieval times, like
I'm just torturing you right now, like I'm just gonna
I told you to floss rich and I'm gonna make
this as painful as possible for you because you didn't.
Sometimes I literally think they're doing that in their head,
but I don't know. Uh, diagnostic medical scenographers they pay
close to ninety thousand dollars with an associate's degree. Respiratory therapists,

(01:16:33):
radiological texts, occupational therapy assistants, all in high demand and
hard to automate. And then of course skilled trades electricians, HVAC,
wind turbine technicians, electricians in HVAC, those guys. Here's the thing.
There's a level of people that come to your house

(01:16:53):
and they say, here's what we need to do, here's
how much it's gonna cost you, And you're just like,
what am I gonna do? You know what you're doing.
I don't go ahead, fix the thing whatever it's gonna cost.
I need my toilet. Emergency roles like EMTs and paramedics,
and yeah, physical skills, real time problem solving, and human interaction,

(01:17:14):
all areas where AI still struggles question. Yeah, are you
going to go see the movie Mercy? I have not
heard of it yet.

Speaker 11 (01:17:22):
The movie with Chris What was it Chris Pratt?

Speaker 1 (01:17:24):
Okay, oh yeah I did. He's flying around in that
little automated chair thing.

Speaker 11 (01:17:29):
Yeah, but it's the AI found him guilty. I think
of killing his wife or something like that. And he
has to prove to the AI that he didn't do it.

Speaker 1 (01:17:37):
Oh wow, yeah, interesting ninety minutes to prove your innocence
or face execution. Yep. Okay, is this in the movie
theater or it's coming out?

Speaker 11 (01:17:45):
If it's not out, I think it came out yesterday.

Speaker 1 (01:17:48):
Yeah. Release date is this week, so it's Amazon MGM,
which means it'll be on Amazon Prime weeks. I've seen
the ads during the Super Old in the NFL. You know,
Prime now has so many things on Prime, like all
the spoil. They had the basketball game on Prime the
other day, which I didn't realize. I thought it was
like I thought Prime just did football. No, they do

(01:18:09):
all kinds of stuff now, basketball, baseball, football, Yeah, it's wild.
The only thing they don't have is soccer. Okay, well
Apple has a lock on that now they really Okay,
So this is uh Mercy Chris Pratt sci fi thriller. Okay,
So now this ticket is is something I gotta do
because it's a I did not realize. I saw that.
I saw the trailer one hundred times. I still didn't

(01:18:31):
understand what the movie was about. So maybe they need
to have better markets. Okay, let's go, let's do it. Okay,
does this show? Is this AI to run the show?
It just goes right and I'll turn on AI Rich.
We'll go a rich all right?

Speaker 5 (01:18:46):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:18:46):
Speaking of AI more AI. Uh, there's a voice keyboard
for Android this week. Okay. So you know, if you
if you listen to me at all, you know I
love my whisper Flow, which is my voice to text
on the iPhone.

Speaker 6 (01:18:58):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:18:59):
And I was waiting for them to come out with
Android and they've I don't know, I don't want to
say they've been dragging their feet. Maybe it's trickier to
do than they thought. But it's been a while and
they I think last year they said by the end
of the year. Now it's like, okay, let's hear what's happening, guys.
But another company came out with an AI voice keyboard
for Android. It is called Typeless Typeless dot com. I

(01:19:22):
guess it's type less. Okay, So this is for Android.
They also have it for iPhone. They also have it
for Mac. They also have it for Windows, but they
just came out with Android. So if you have an
Android phone and you want better voice to text, try
this out. Here's what the deal is it understands intent.
And that is the big thing here that you might say, rich,

(01:19:44):
I already have voice to text on my phone, It's
not the same because what this is doing is it's
using AI to understand what you're saying and then polish it.
So not only can it do things like if you
say let's go to the movies, I mean the beach,
it won't all that stuff in there. I'll just say
let's go to the beach because it knew your intent
of you corrected yourself. It works everywhere, so you can

(01:20:07):
use it in all the apps that you like. They
have a whisper mode so you can talk really quietly.
Works in a hundred languages and mix and match. How
wild is that You can start talking in English, switch
to Spanish, go back to English, and it will still
figure it all out. That is incredible. And they say
it's private. They don't keep your data, they don't train

(01:20:28):
on your data. All your history stays on your device.
So again, this is called Typeless. Make sure you get
the right one if you look it up in Android,
it's Typeless. Typeless AI voice keyboard made by a company
called Typeless, and it I try this, here's my problem
with it. I love it. I think it's really great.

(01:20:49):
You could do up to I think I think it's
up to four thousand words a week for free. The
problem is it's in the entire keyboard is taken up
by just a microphone button. And that's great because yeah,
that's the main functionality, but it's also kind of annoying
if it gets something wrong or you just want to
change something very quickly. I wish they would give you

(01:21:10):
the keyboard still and just put the little put the
little uh microphone in the corner. That would be better
to me. But yeah, that's the that's the main thing.

Speaker 9 (01:21:21):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:21:22):
Let's see here. Uh we've got Michael. Could we go?
I don't know if I you know, I'm gonna have
to save him for the next break here, because you know,
we get these, we get close to the break here,
and it's you know, if the questions are longer, I'll
do it. I'll do an email because I can do
that quickly. Mario writes in I was wondering if you've
ever reviewed apps that let you change your ad a

(01:21:43):
phone number. I want a separate number for contest coupons
and sign ups because I already get enough spam calls.
I've had the same cell numbers since nineteen ninety seven.
I don't want to change it. Any tips would be appreciated. Also,
I loved watching your KTLA TV segments when I lived
in SoCal. Thanks Mario number one. I think Google Voice
is probably the easiest. It's free, it's uh, you know,
you sign up, and that's probably that's what I use.

(01:22:06):
I've got. I've had my Google Voice since day one.
Used to be called Grand Central. Google bought them. I've
had it since day one. I love it and it's
great Google Voice. If you want something like a virtual
second line, you can actually call your carrier and a
lot of them will give you a second line for
ten dollars a month. Now, I don't know if it's
worth ten dollars a month for entering contests. I don't

(01:22:28):
think it is, But if you're willing to pay that,
that's an easy way to do it. And you can
use that as a second line through your carrier. And
then they have services. So there's services like sly number
that I think Bobo is a big fan of that one.
And then what I thought, I saw that app on

(01:22:49):
your phone for Sly number No. I was just kidding.
I don't want to get you in trouble. The other
one is text free. Now you have to understand what
some of the these free ones they may not allow
you to to It may not have the full functionality
of a regular phone number. So you can try it.
Some of these, some of these like automated texts to enter,

(01:23:12):
may not allow you to use what they call a
voipeline voice over ip number. But a lot of them,
like I mean, it looks like text free, just try it.
It's it'll probably work. SLI number, how much it looks
like slide number you have to pay for. Yeah, but
text free or text free is free. Google Voice is free.
Eighty eight Rich one on one eighty eight seven four

(01:23:33):
to two four one zero one more rich On Tech
coming your way right after this. Welcome back to rich
On Tech. We've got Michael in rialto Michael. You're on
with rich.

Speaker 8 (01:23:50):
Good afternoon, Rich.

Speaker 9 (01:23:51):
Hi, Hey, Wes City.

Speaker 8 (01:23:53):
Is tavy the electronic recycling event going on today. Matter
of fact, we've got about forty minutes to get there.

Speaker 1 (01:24:01):
I'll make it quick, Okay.

Speaker 10 (01:24:04):
I have a.

Speaker 8 (01:24:05):
Windows eight computer. I was wondering. I was a little
skeptical about bringing it down there or not. Do you
think there would be an issue, you know, with the
information that still might be on the hard drive?

Speaker 1 (01:24:18):
Did you wipe it? Did you recycle or sorry? Did
you like wipe the hard drive?

Speaker 8 (01:24:25):
I think I did. I am not percenture. I'm not there.

Speaker 1 (01:24:28):
Okay, bavvy. When you start up, does the computer still
start up?

Speaker 8 (01:24:34):
I think that, well, I have it disconnected because I
ended up buying a whole new computer when the everything
switched over to Windows eleven.

Speaker 1 (01:24:41):
Right, okay, So Windows has a built in setting that
it says, remove everything and reinstall Windows. Do you remember
doing that?

Speaker 3 (01:24:52):
No?

Speaker 8 (01:24:52):
I did not. I'm a hold on to it.

Speaker 1 (01:24:54):
Okay, that's what That's what I would do. So, I mean,
you know, it's nice to donate. So I think you
said a school is doing the donation.

Speaker 8 (01:25:03):
The city?

Speaker 1 (01:25:04):
Oh, the city? Okay. So typically here's the deal, Like
anyone that's taking these computers, any reputable company is going
to wipe them clean of the data. They're gonna they're
gonna pledge to do that. They're gonna make sure they
do that. But I would say, in general, for my
own privacy, I would not want to bring a computer
that still has my personal information on it. Can you

(01:25:25):
do it? Yes? You know, is it gonna be okay?
A majority of the time, probably, But I can't in
good faith, as a person that works with electronics all
the time, say yeah, it's fine, just bring your computer
with all your personal data on there. There's just too
much data out there, and you never know. The company
might have good intentions, but someone might break into the
company and steal all these computers, you know, before they

(01:25:47):
get recycled. So ok, So what I would do, Michael,
for sure, is go into Windows Settings and there's a
a I mean basically, I'll put these instructions on the websit.
I be going to settings, Change PC Settings, Update and
recovery recovery, and then there is a get started button

(01:26:08):
and you basically just say remove everything and reinstall Windows.
There's a section that says that, and that's it. Basically. Yeah,
just basically search recovery in your Windows and look for
the remove everything in reinstall Windows and that should get
you to a place where the computer has your stuff

(01:26:28):
off of it if you want to. If you want,
there are some third party there are some third party
products out there that people use just to make sure
and I know I'll get the emails if I don't
mention them. So a couple of them are kill disc
k I l L D I s K. So obviously
that does what it sounds like. It kills the disc.
They've got it for Windows, they've got it for Linux,

(01:26:49):
they've got it for mac os. And then disc wipe
as well. They've got that one. Let's see is this one. Yeah,
it looks like it's free as well. So free software.
Support others by telling people about it, or support us
by telling people about it. That's what I just did.
So again, kill disc disc wipe. Now, if you have
a newer computer, like I said, with Windows, Windows ten,

(01:27:13):
Windows eleven, the newer max, they all have a system
built in to wipe the drive clean and get it
back to factory. That's gonna be good for ninety nine
point nine percent of recycling or giving away the computer.
But if you really want all of your information super
super scrubbed from the hard drive, you might want to
look into one of these programs like kill disc or

(01:27:35):
wipe disc wipe, because what they can do is they
can rewrite over the data once and so that way
it makes sure that nothing is retrievable. Even if someone
was a little tech savvy and got into that disc
and was able to do that. So those are the recommendations. Michael,
thanks so much for that. Let's see if we can
get David and Covina real quick. David, you're on with

(01:27:58):
Rich Hi, Rich Hi, thank you absolutely. What's up?

Speaker 9 (01:28:05):
Yes, Google, I why don't it switch to Yahoo?

Speaker 5 (01:28:12):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:28:13):
Your your browser switched to Yahoo? Okay? Uh, that sounds
like you've got malware on your system, or you installed
something on your system, either a browser we call it
a browser redirect, so a hijack extension, or you just
did you installed something from Yahoo and they said, hey,
do you want to switch to Yahoo and you said yes.
So you can go into Chrome. You can go into

(01:28:35):
settings and there's a way to go about Chrome and
let's see there's a way to read. Oh, here it is.
So you go into your settings on Chrome and it
says reset settings. You tap reset settings to their original defaults,
and that will clear everything that you've changed in the settings,
including that Yahoo search default, and it will bring it

(01:28:56):
back to Google. So again, open up Chrome setting. That's
you go to menu, then Settings and then look on
the left hand side. It says reset settings, and it
says restore settings to their original defaults. You tap that
and it should bring back David, your yeah or your Google. Yeah.
This happens. It's it's very it's very common. In fact,

(01:29:20):
you know, people install stuff and next thing you know,
their computer, their browser is doing something a little differently.
So look at your extensions. The extensions are the software
that you install into your browser. It's not a bookmark,
it's not an application outside your browser. It's in your browser.
And so just make sure you go through your extensions
regularly and get rid of the ones that you do

(01:29:42):
not need or don't recognize. Eighty eight rich one on one.
Coming up, we're going to talk TVs with Caleb Dennison.
What's the best TV to buy right now? He will
reveal all. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro
here hanging out with you talking technology at Triple eight

(01:30:04):
rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to
two four one zero one. Let's see we got a
couple of things. Oh oh, if you've been wanting to
get your hands on that Samsung trifold, it is in
some stores, specifically Samsung Experience stores. This is that fold
that the foldable phone that opens up to that ten

(01:30:26):
inch display. I checked it out at CS. It basically
looks like a tablet in your pocket. But keep in
mind this is hands on. It's not uh, it's not
you can't buy it just yet. Samsung says they're going
to release this in the US, but they have not
given US pricing or a release date. It is available
in South Korea and uh it is uh, we don't

(01:30:48):
have a price just yet. So okay, okay, I just
I just heard from our guest, uh Caleb, Oh, we're
not going to get the TVs FAM emergency So yeah, bummer. Anyway,
so you've got you've got the Samsung Experience stores in California, Minneapolis,

(01:31:11):
and let's see Queen's Center, and a couple other places
across the US. So I'll put a link on the website.
But if you've been wanting to see this thing in person,
you now finally can. There you go. In other news, Spectrum,
if you have Spectrum Internet and you've got dead spots
in your house, you can now fix those for about
five dollars a month. Spectrum is launching new Wi Fi

(01:31:33):
seven extenders. So this is kind of like what I
talk about in the in the house. If you have
an euro system, this is basically their version of that,
so you can buy this extender. Each extender covers about
two thousand square feet of coverage, so basically, if you're
having issues you've got a bigger house, or even if
you're having any kind of issues with Spectrum, you can

(01:31:55):
rent one of these. It's five dollars a month per extender.
It only works with Wi Fi seven if you have
the Spectrum Wi Fi seven routers, so keep in mind.
They may have extenders for their older routers like the
Wi Fi six, but check with them. But it's probably
easier to do that if you're already renting your router
from Spectrum you're having issues. Instead of buying a whole

(01:32:15):
new Eurosystem, you can just rent this for five dollars
a month from them, and that'll be a lot easier
than doing that. And then remember we talked about this
the startup Telly, remember that startup that gives out the
free TVs with all the ads on them. We even
had the founder on here and we've talked about them
at length. They wanted to give out a whole bunch

(01:32:37):
of TVs. But this newsletter low Pass from Yenko Rogers.
He says that Telly has only given out thirty five
thousand TVs as of fall twenty twenty five, and that's
a long way from the company's early promises to ship
five hundred thousand TVs in twenty twenty three million more

(01:33:00):
after that. So you might remember, these TVs are free
in exchange for ads. So they have a main screen
which is fifty five inches, and then underneath there's a
secondary screen that's built into the set, so it's got
like widgets on there, like sports scores and news and
the report which, by the way, Telly is not telling
us this. They don't want us to know this, but

(01:33:22):
this is a report that this newsletter got a hold of.
Logistics have been a major problem. About ten percent of
the TV's ship via FedEx arrive broken. Now, these are huge,
heavy TVs and a lot of people have gotten them,
but not enough. I mean, thirty five thousand is a
good start, but it's not the scale they want to

(01:33:42):
be able to deliver ads to make money. Now here's
the user base. Telly made about twenty two million in revenue,
which is about fifty dollars per TV per month. I mean,
that's fine. It's not great. But oh he actually says,
oh wow, Okay, that actually beats Roku's last reported average

(01:34:04):
revenue per user. So the model can work. That's good news.
I mean, the good news is the model can work.
The problem is they've got to get more TVs into
people's hands to make this work. And so if you've
been waiting for a TV, you're not alone. A lot
of people. Every time I mentioned Telly, people sign up
for it and they're like, Rich, where's my TV? I
don't have your TV instantly. Let's see should we do

(01:34:28):
a let's do an email question here. Gary in Scottsdale says,
I heard you warn about the risks of storing authenticator
codes and a password manager. I don't even realized that
was a thing. All the authenticator apps I use just
show a constantly changing number, So I'm confused. Why would
anyone want to save or store those codes in the
first place? Okay, that is confusion, Gary. When I say stored,

(01:34:53):
I mean using the password manager to generate those one
time codes for you. So it's all about convenience, right.
You have the code, and your password manager has both
the password and the one time code all in the
same place. But the downside, I think is the risk
of having those two things in the same place. If
someone was able to get into your password manager, they

(01:35:15):
also have your two factor authentication code. So my preference
is to use separate apps for both your passwords and
your two factor authentication. And the one I like. You
know what I'm going to say. If you've been listening
to me, The one I like is you're ready. It's
Proton Authenticator. Proton Authenticator, and this thing has been amazing.

(01:35:38):
What I love about it is that it's open source,
which you know I love. It's available on every device,
which you know I love. And it's free. What's better
than free? Now you might be saying, rich, Oh, if
it's free, it can't be that good. I really like
what Proton's doing. And what they're doing is they offer
a free level of their products, knowing that people are

(01:35:59):
going to get in there and say, oh, what's this. Uh,
end to end end to end encryption? What is that?

Speaker 2 (01:36:04):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:36:04):
Let me, Oh they have that that's really private? Cool?
I like that. Oh what's this authenticator?

Speaker 5 (01:36:09):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:36:10):
I like this? It works exactly the way I want.
No ads, no tracking, encrypted sync, open source, available on Android,
available on iOS, available on Windows, Mac and Linux. And oh,
by the way, you can export your codes when you
want to switch to something better, if that ever comes along,
which really burned me with Authie, which is where I
had them before, and then I realized, oh wait, I

(01:36:32):
can't export my codes. So now I had to go
through and reset up every single authentication uh service that
I had my two factor. I had to go through
every single app and reset it up. But it really
works well. So Proton Authenticator and they make Proton I'm sorry.
They make a lot of great stuff. They really do.
I mean, if you want to they have mail, calendar, drive, VPN,

(01:36:57):
all these things. If you want a VPN for free,
Proton they've got a free level of VPN and why not.
So it gives you for free one device at a time,
medium speed, so it's not gonna be the best speed,
but you can connect it servers in ten countries which
are randomly selected. But that's pretty good for free, no ads,

(01:37:22):
So if you're looking for a free VPN, that's not
bad at all. So check out Proton for all these things.
I mean, I really like what they're doing there. All right,
so we got that question answered. Let's see here. Patty says,
I love your podcast, newsletters and TV spots. You're helpful
and patient with such a wide range of listeners. I

(01:37:42):
want to use apples Hide my Email feature more often,
but I mainly use Chrome even though all my devices
are Apple. Is it worth switching back to Safari or
is there a good extension or app that lets me
use Hide my Email and Chrome? This is why Patty,
this goes exactly into what I was saying about open
source and independent third party products. Apple. I love them,

(01:38:05):
love Apple. They do amazing stuff, and I think Hide
my Email is great. The problem is everything with Apple
leads you to more Apple. That's their entire game.

Speaker 7 (01:38:16):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:38:17):
They do great stuff, but they don't care about anything else.
They don't care that you're using Chrome. They don't want
you to use Chrome. They want you to use Safari.
Why do you think they make their stuff work so
well with Safari? Why do you think it works so
well with Apple Mail? Why do you think it works
so well with the passwords app that they make, and
of course the iPhone. So if you want to use
Hide my Mail and you're a paying subscriber Ofiicloud, you

(01:38:42):
have to go to Safari. That's going to be the
best way to do it. Hide my Mail. Hide my
Email really works best in Apple's own apps like Safari,
Apple Mail and the iPhone, And if you want to
use hide my Email, you've got to switch back to Safari.
Is Safari bad?

Speaker 3 (01:38:59):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:39:00):
I don't think so far. He's bad at all. But
there are other third party products that you can use
that give you a similar protection. Number one is Duck
Duck Go. They have something called Email Protection, which is
free and that'll work. And then you've got Yahoo, but
you have to pay for plus on there, so if
you're not doing that, you got to pay for Yahoo Plus.
Let's see what else you got. Gmail they have something

(01:39:22):
called aliases. So basically, if you have a Gmail address,
Let's say your Gmail address is rich on Tech at
gmail dot com, you can create an email address on
the fly that's rich on Tech plus Time magazine. Let's
say you're subscribing to that at gmail dot com, and
that email address will still go to Gmail. But the
cool thing is you can filter out that email address

(01:39:43):
to the trash when you don't want to use it anymore.
Firefox has something called Firefox Relay. Oh, and look at
This is this Proton simple login. They've got email aliases
for free. How many can you do? See pricing? You
can do ten of them for free. So there you

(01:40:04):
have it. Proton's got a solution there too. Eight to
eight rich one O one rich on tech dot tv
is the website for want links to anything I just mentioned.
I know, I just gave you a lot. I'll put
it all on the website rich on tech dot tv.
Coming up, we're opening up the feedbag right here on
rich on tech. Thank you. Welcome back to rich on Tech.

(01:40:27):
Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology. The
website for the show is rich on tech dot tv.
This is episode one five eight. So if I mentioned
anything that you liked, you can go there and find
exactly all the things I mentioned, but also the links
to everything I mentioned. I gave you a lot this week.

(01:40:49):
While you're there, be sure to subscribe to my free newsletter.
It's packed with helpful tips, tricks, and the latest tech news.
I think you should know. It's all right there rich
on Tech TV, and of course follow me on social media.
I am at rich on tech on Instagram. It's all
right there. Let's open up. Actually, let's do one story

(01:41:10):
before we open up the feedback. I thought this was interesting.
The American Academy of Pediatrics released updated guidance on screen time,
and they said, it's a little bit more complicated than
it was before. So you've got apps, you've got social media,
you've got video games, you've got algorithms, you've got AI.
All of them are designed to hook kids in. That

(01:41:31):
is number one. We already know that, but it's getting
even worse. The platforms are built to keep kids scrolling,
watching and tapping longer than is healthy. So this is
what I thought was interesting. They're not saying that all
screen time is bad. They're saying, in fact, that some
screen time is good. You know, it's educational, it's social,

(01:41:52):
it's interesting, it's fun. It's like when we used to
watch a movie when we were a kid. The problem
is the platforms themselves are designed to keep kids in,
and that heavier screen time is linked with less sleep,
less physical activity, less attention, more emotional regulation challenges. If
you're a parent, you know what I just said is
all true. So what can you do? Stop blaming parents

(01:42:16):
and kids alone? And they're saying that tech companies should
be held accountable for these designs. Right, they're designing apps
that keep kids linked and keep kids on the screen,
so they want safer defaults for kids, less targeted advertising,
less auto play, features, stronger privacy protections, and for families,
focus on quality content co viewing as much as possible.

(01:42:40):
I know the kids are gonna be on their screens
by themselves, screen free meal times like meals in bedtime,
and then open conversations about what kids see online. I
think that's all great advice. Let's open up the feedback.
Karen writes in I thought you'd get a kick out
of this. I was making dessert for a family gathering
and using Alexa for reminders. I said, Alexa, remind me

(01:43:02):
to put the Bobka on the racks in ten minutes.
Ten minutes later, Alexa announces Karen put the vodka on
the rats. Apparently I need to enunciate better looks better
than it sounds. Oh, she sent a picture and no
animals were harmed in the making of this recipe. That
is funny. Karen Steve writes in, My wife and I

(01:43:24):
started using the Zoe app you mentioned, and we've been
really enjoying it. We're starting to make better meal choices
and even earning those beans along the way. Just wanted
to say thanks. We're sticking with it absolutely, Steve. I
love this app Zoe Health. In fact, it made me
put beans in my dinner last night and my breakfast

(01:43:44):
because they are all about increasing your fiber and stuff
that's good for your gut. So check it out Zoe
dot com, Ze dot com. They've got an app for
both the iPhone and Android. You scan your food, it
tells you how good it is for you. My wife
and I love this. It's like we sit there and
we try to guess what's going what's bad, not actually
not good and bad. It's more like what's healthier for you?

(01:44:06):
Sienna in California, I just want to say thank you.
I love reading your newsletter every week. I'm a librarian
in California. I teach a free class for seniors called
tech Help. I really enjoy your tech questions from readers section.
I often use the things you share on substach and
your podcast as inspiration or as a reference for my students.
It really makes tech feel more approachable for them. Keep

(01:44:27):
doing what you're doing. Thank you, Sienna. Kendra and Kansas
City writes in I heard you on the Woody Show.
I'm so glad I found your newsletter after hearing you
on the Woody Show. When I was in high school,
in college, tech felt easy. Now, at forty three, I
feel ancient and behind, especially when my teenage niece is
teaching me how things work. On top of that, my
parents always need tech help. I used to be their

(01:44:48):
go to person. Now I struggle to keep up myself.
There's so much new technology it can feel overwhelming, but
your newsletter makes it feel less daunting and way less stressful.
Thank you well, Thank you Kendra for finding me on
the Woody Show. So Tony, Hey Rich. I usually get
the fastest help with airlines by reaching out on Twitter
or x especially when things like TSA PreCheck don't show up.

(01:45:08):
That's worked well for me in the past, but last year,
when I tried to change a booking with west Jet,
I replied to an account that looked legit. It had
west Jet in the handle and the logo. They tried
to DM me, then pushed me to WhatsApp that raised
a red flag. I later realized it was an imposter account.
Thankful I didn't share any info. I think we said
this one on air last week. Yeah, be careful. Anytime

(01:45:29):
you're calling for tech support, do not just call the
number that comes up in search. Look at the website
itself for the specific number. Nancy, I just want to
say thank you. I always look forward to your newsletter.
It's one of the few emails I actually read all
the way through. I'm in Canada, so not everything applies,
but most of it does, and I always learned something new.
I'm not very tech savvy, but your explanations really make sense.

(01:45:52):
Thank you. Nancy. Sean listening to the podcast says, I
wanted to add that, Oh, this is from a question
we had last week about location sharing. I said Life
three sixty was a good way of doing it. I
just want to add that Google Maps another option for
live location sharing. When my mom drove to Alabama to
visit my sister, she shared her location in Google meet
Maps and I could see her driving the entire way.

(01:46:15):
She turned it off while she was visiting, then turn
it back on for the drive. I'm assuming this works
the same way on the iPhone. Let me check. I
believe if you tap that blue dot, yes, So if
you're in Google Maps, you tap the blue dot on
your screen it says share location, and then you can
now share your real time location for an hour or until,
or you can just set amount of time or until

(01:46:36):
you turn it off. Sean, that's a great, great tip.
I should have mentioned that last week. That is excellent.
A lot of people are already using Google Maps. Again.
If you want to share your location for like an
hour or a certain amount of time or ongoing, you
can do it by tapping the blue dot and Google
Maps and it says share my location. Great great tip, Steve.

(01:46:59):
Watching that woman struggle with music in or Tesla made
me think there's a super duper solution. Oh, I think
we already got that. She should grab a portable CD
player and pair it with a cheap bluetooth audio transmitter.
Sometimes we get similar oh, John writes in one thing
I wanted to add from your printer discussion on my Mac,
there's a simple option in the print setup to switch

(01:47:20):
from color to black and white. Just flipping that toggle
can save a lot of color ink. And I did
not hear that mentioned. All Right, I love it. All right,
that's going to do it for this episode of the show.
Thanks so much for listening. You can find links everything
I mentioned on the website. Just go to rich on
tech dot TV. Once again, I'm on social media at
rich on tech Next week, let me take a look
at the guests we've got. We've got Sharon Guy. She

(01:47:42):
is going to talk about, oh, ways to use AI
to stay relevant. We've also got oh, We've got Julia
Pugachevski to talk about why bricking your phone is the
new dry January. Oh, I've seen a lot about that
on social media. Thanks so much for listening. There are
so many ways you can spend your time. I really
do appreciate you spending it right here with me. One
reminder before I go, please do not drive distracted. Those

(01:48:05):
texts can wait. Thanks everyone who makes this show possible.
My name is rich Demiro. I'll talk to you real soon.

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