Tech clues in the Guthrie case, wireless satisfaction rankings & AI dog scam (160, February 7, 2026)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's going on. I'm Rich Demiro and this is Rich
on Tech. This is the show where I talk about
the tech stuff I think you should know about. It's
also the place where I answer your questions about technology.
I believe that tech should be interesting, useful, and fun.
Let's open up those phone lines at triple eight Rich
one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two

(00:22):
four one zero one, give me call if you have
a question about technology. Email is also open. Just go
to Rich on tech dot TV and hit contact. That's
Rich on tech dot TV and hit contact. Guests this week,
we've got Dan Ackerman, friend of the show. He's going
to talk about some of the coolest computers he saw

(00:45):
at CS twenty twenty six and uh later in the show.
Always a fun guest, Mark Anthony Arena, the Computer Exorcist.
He is a cybersecurity expert and author of the an
upcoming book on major tech tech security failures. He's been
talking to me about it. It is good. He is
a great guy. We're gonna have a lot of fun

(01:06):
on today's show. Coming to you live by the way
from New Jersey. And let me tell you how cold
it is here right now. It is really cold. Four
degrees outside. I don't think I've ever been in four
degree weather. Now, I will tell you it's fine when
you're going outside to get something quickly, but if you

(01:29):
are staying in that kind of temperature, it can get
dangerous very fast. And yes, there's lots of snow, and
it's wild because in Los Angeles we came from beautiful
eighty degrees seventy five degrees and then the contrast between
the two coasts right now could not be more real. Anyway,
I'm here for my father's birthday. It's a milestone birthday,

(01:51):
so we are celebrating and I had to be here
for that. So we are having a good time doing
that with him. And in fact, all the music you
hear on the show today he chose. So you're gonna
hear a lot of things like let's see here, what
has he got Alice Cooper, Rick Nelson, Deep Purple, Rod Stewart,
a lot of songs that I've vaguely familiar with, but

(02:13):
he's got some deep cuts in there.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
All right.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Well, the big story of the week, and this has
sort of captivated the entire nation. I'm not one of
these true crime people, but this has really gotten me
as well. This Nancy Guthrie story eighty four, last scene
about a week ago after her family dropped her off
at home near Tucson. Obviously, this is Savannah Guthrie, the
anchor of the Today Show's Mom. She has stepped away

(02:36):
from The Today Show while she deals with this situation,
which the entire nation is talking about. There is not
a person that is not thinking about this case right now.
We were out to dinner last night. The people at
the table behind us, I heard them talking about this.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Is that?

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Are you talking about the Nancy Guthrie case? Because it's
so interesting. Now I'm most interested in the tech aspects
of this case. Obviously I want this woman to be
returned safely to her family. But the tech angle is
so interesting to me because we have a couple of
key tech events. The first one happened at one forty

(03:11):
seven am. Her doorbell camera was disconnected or disabled, so
that means they knew they were trying to get rid
of some video evidence of whatever happened at this home. Now,
about twenty five minutes later, at twelve am, the home
security software detected some sort of motion or a person.
But here's the thing that smiled to me, there was

(03:31):
no saved video because they did not have an active
Cloud subscription. So that's our first tech lesson here. Without
a subscription, you might not have the video to review
from your cameras. I know we're connected twenty four to
seven and we use these mostly for things like seeing
when the mail gets delivered and someone comes up to
our home. But if you ever needed a critical aspect

(03:53):
of this video that your doorbell's collecting or your security camera,
you may not be able to access it if you
don't have a subscription. So please understand what your cameras
offer and what they don't. That is my first lesson here.
Then we have another timestamp at two twenty eight am.
She had a pacemaker and at that time the app
connected to her pacemaker stopped syncing with her phone, and

(04:15):
investigators believe this is because she moved out of Bluetooth range.
So she did have an Apple Watch as well, and
so there are ways of tracking people again through these devices,
but not if they're not on the person. So that
was another thing that really occurred to me, is that
even if you had an Apple Watch you were taking
care of a loved one, usually track them on this thing.
If they have that thing off, you're not able to

(04:37):
track them. And then the bluetooth range for the pacemaker
that usually works in a limited range just from the
pacemaker device to the bluetooth device, So as soon as
those get out of range of each other, that's it.
There's no more readings there. Then we have these ransom
messages demanding bitcoin, which was sent to media outlets. They've
got a bunch of these, and people obviously are clinging

(05:00):
on to this whole thing and sending ones. I'm sure
the FBI is getting so many incoming calls and texts
and messages. A lot of them turn out to be bogus,
but some of them they have traced back, like this
California man that was arrested after allegedly sending one of
these fake random texts to the family. He said, I
was just trying to figure out if I can get
some money out of them. Apparently what Then we have

(05:22):
these the voipe texting app that's apparently what one of
these people used, and that linked it. This is how
they found the person. So VoIP is voiceover ip. This
is when you go online just get a random burner number.
A lot of people can do it. A lot of
people think that's not very safe because used to be
back in the day, everything was linked up to an account.
Right if you had a phone number at and T Verizon,

(05:43):
they all knew MCI remember that name. Back in the day,
they all knew exactly who owned that phone number. Nowadays,
it's much tougher when anyone can set up a number
in seconds through their phone on these various apps. But
they're not always that anonymous because the providers of the
these numbers can hand over information if the investigators have

(06:04):
a search warrant and ask for that. So they did
find this person basically linking it back to his email
account and IP address based on information they got. What
else I thought? So I just want to deep dive
into these cameras for just a moment, because so many
people have these video doorbells and security cameras, and there's
basically two camps of cameras out there. So there's cloud

(06:24):
first brands that charge you every month, and then there's
local first brands that let you keep your video for free.
So the big names like ring R, Low Blink mostly
lock your video history behind a subscription, so if you
don't pay, you might get emotion alert. You might get
a snapshot, you might get a live view if you
tap it, but you're not going to get the clips

(06:45):
to review later all the time. Now, Ring and Arlow
lets you record, give you actually they give you nothing
without a plan, which is just wild. So if you
have a Ring camera, and this is important because Ring
is the market leader, if you get one of their
doorbells and stall it on your uh on the front
of your house, by your front door, and you don't
sign up for a subscription plan, yes you're gonna get

(07:07):
those alerts on your phone, and you might get those
little video previews, but that's it. If you ever need
an actual video and you're not paying, you're not getting it.
It's a live streaming camera. Now, Blink is interesting because
you can actually get and I think this is this
might be the best one out there. You can actually
get a Sink module and that means you can put
an SD card in your house and have the video

(07:31):
recorded from this device, this Blink camera locally on this
module and that's really important if you ask me. And
so I've been testing the Blink camera. I have one
set up in my garage and I think it's really good.
Because of that feature. So if you're thinking about the
idea of getting your video locally, that's a good way

(07:52):
to do it. Now here's the caveat to that. Let's
say someone steals your Blink cam or they steal that
Sink module. You're not gonna have those clips. So that's
why the cloud, I think is always the best because
if you got that cloud subscription, your video is always
going to go backed up to that cloud. But the
other thing that people do is they get these it's
kind of like a lock box in your home, and

(08:13):
so you kind of drill that into the floor so
it's solid and it's secure and it's locked up and
you can put the Blink module in there or the
sink module or whatever. You have your DVR for your
cameras in your house, So just think about this stuff. Now,
Google Nest is really interesting. If you buy a Google
Nest camera, you actually and I think this is great too,
you get a few free hours of event history even

(08:35):
if you don't pay, and they recently change that, which
I really like. So that means if you have one
of these Blink sorry the Nest cameras, a doorbell, or
you have one of their security cameras. Even if you're
not paying for a subscription through Google, you will get
to access a few free hours of those events on
your phone. And so keep in mind it's only three

(08:56):
to six hours, so you really need to know when
you have to access this stuff of me mediately versus
waiting for twelve fourteen hours later, that video is not
going to be there. And then of course you have
brands that are subscription free, like you Fee. A lot
of people love those cameras because they are subscription free,
Real Link, tpe Link, and even WHI Whise I was
looking at my camera. I test all these things, so

(09:17):
I've got a bunch of them set up around the house.
Whise you can store video locally or on a home
hub so you can review clips without a monthly fee.
But they're all pushing you. The bottom line is all
these companies want to push you to cloud storage, which
I think in this case, if they had that cloud subscription,
it would have made a huge difference. In this case

(09:39):
right now, there'd be so much more information to go
on probably faces probably just so much more. So my
thesis here today, Please, if you have cameras around your house,
you have a video doorbell, understand what you're getting for free,
and what the limitations are if you're not paying. And
understand what you get if you have that cloud subscription,

(10:00):
because it could make a huge difference when you actually
need the footage off of these cameras in a critical
situation like this or anything, if you had a break
in or something like that. All right, eighty to eight
rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to
two four one zero one. All the information I mentioned
is linked up on the website rich on Tech dot TV.
You got a question, give me a call. We got

(10:20):
tons to talk about on the show this week. I'm
gonna tell you coming up the super Bowl. I know
a lot of people are excited about that this weekend,
which TV is the most returned after people watch the
super Bowl. We'll talk about that coming up right here
on rich on Tech. It is Super Bowl weekend. And

(10:44):
I know a lot of you listen to the show
live obviously some of you listen later and on the podcast.
But I'm not going to give away the super Bowl
just kidding. I can't. I mean, how would I do
that unless I was like a time traveler. But it
is being shown this year in four k eighth, which
is pretty cool. It's also being streamed on Peacock. But
Peacock not so nice compared to two B last year.

(11:07):
Two b Z owned by Fox. Peacock is owned by NBC.
To B gave it out for free last year, so Fox,
I think they were just trying to get people to
download the two B app, which you know, it's all
ADS supported and free, so it's in their best interest
to have a bunch of people get that app on
their TV. Peacock now so much because Peacock is mostly

(11:28):
an AD support. It's mostly a paid app, so you
have to have a subscription to watch a majority, I think,
if not everything on the Peacock app. So they are
putting a paywall in front of the Super Bowl, which
not so nice, you know, because some people are gonna
realize this when they set up their TV and they
have all the people over and then they start trying
to stream it on Peacock and say, oh no, you

(11:48):
gotta sign up eleven bucks a month.

Speaker 4 (11:50):
Now.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
I do know they're putting it in four k hdr,
so that's gonna be really cool. If your TV can
handle that, that's gonna look amazing. But I think a
lot of people are gonna be surprised that it is Paywalt,
so watch out for that. I just watched for the
commercials most of the time. Anyway, that's the most fun
to me. Did you know there's a retail term for
when someone buys a new thing and then returns it

(12:13):
after they use it. This is called wardrobing. I did
not know that, but it happens around the Super Bowl
in a big way, big screen TVs. People will buy
these things, use them for their party, and then return them.
So there's this company returns management company b Stock, and
I looked them up. This is wild. What this company does?
They actually sell and I've seen like scams of this

(12:34):
on Facebook, like during Facebook ads. But this company is
actually legit. They sell palettes of merchandise, like returned merchandise,
so you can buy let me see B side or sorry,
b stock, so you can buy a whole palette of stuff.
So let's see a this is crazy. Let's see here

(12:54):
all inventory so we can go to Target, so you
can buy a twenty six palletts a truckload of pallettes
of betting and soft decore that people have returned. I
guess to Target for six and thirty five dollars. The
MSRP on this stuff is ninety three thousand dollars worth
of stuff. So I guess you bid on it. I mean,

(13:16):
how why I'd even know this was real? Like au
people always say, like rich, is it is it true
that I can buy a palette of stuff? I said, no,
come on, yeah, you can. Walmart five pallette spaces of toys,
household essentials, and more seven hundred and fifty dollars. MSRP
of six thousand dollars you have to sign in to
bid tells you there's thirteen percent toys in here, ten

(13:38):
percent household essentials. I mean, I wonder if you could
build an entire business and maybe people do where you
buy these pallettes and then you just resell it on eBay.
That's pretty wild anyway. So they said that TV return
rates actually double in February and March compared to the
rest of the year as people bring back sets after
the Big Game. One hundred and ten percent jump and

(13:59):
return TV from the holiday quarter into the first quarter.
The most returned brand is Visio. There you have it.
Brian in Watsonville, California, rites in my twenty year old
son is in college and uses an iPhone like the
rest of our family. His Apple Cash account was suddenly locked.

(14:19):
Apple sent us to Green Dot Bank, which runs Apple Cash,
and they told us the account was permanently locked for
suspected fraud with no appeal. What was Brian doing. I've
heard this happening to others. While we try to figure
that out, I'm looking for easy ways to send him
money from my phone so we can use it day
to day and split bills with friends. Debit card tied

(14:40):
to a bank account is one idea. But are there
any apps that work like Apple Cash on an iPhone?
And is it realistic to get Apple Cash turned back on.
I don't know why Apple Cash flagged his account as fraudulent,
but you're gonna have to take that up with them
and see what they say, because most of these things
are kind of like Apple is not run apple Cash,

(15:00):
Green Dot is running it. They're the bank that's running it.
So but the good news is Brian, and this is
you know, this is my whole thing about first party
you know, versus third party independent stuff. I always favor
third party independent products, right like Apple builds everything you
need into the iPhone, even if you got an iPhone,
you might not need to download an app to use

(15:21):
that to use all the features in that phone, because
they have so many things that Apple as are hand in.
I personally like to go straight to a company that's
running the product themselves. So what do we have. Cash
app is excellent. You can get that. It works great
on the iPhone. You can get a cash app debit card.
You can deposit money. Cash app has a routing number,
or you can just send him money from your cash app.

(15:42):
It'll go into his account and he's got that debit card.
He can use it that way. Venmo super easy replacement.
Everyone uses Venmo. He probably already has a Venmo account.
Maybe you do. You can send money from your Venmo
account to his Venmo account and he can sign up
for the Venmo debit card and then add that to
Apple Wallet in a tap and there you go. Now
he can use tap to pay, or you can get

(16:03):
a physical card as well. So there's so many ways
of doing these things. I personally, I have the cash
app and I've got the cash app card. I love
the cash app card because you can customize it, you
can put your signature on it. It's like a really
cool My kid has one he customizes with a whole
bunch of pizza emoji on it. So cash app is excellent,
and I use that with my kid to kind of

(16:25):
like pay him back for things if he buys lunch
and I'm treating him or something like that. So there's
a lot of ways you can do that, but I
think cash app or Venmo are gonna give you the
nearly the same experience as Apple Cash in some aspects
may be even easier. So there you go, Brian, thanks
for the email. If you want to email me, it
is rich on tech dot TV. If you want notes

(16:46):
for today's show, this is episode one sixty, just go
to the website rich on tech dot TV. And if
you want to call in eight to eight rich one
oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four
one zero one. When we come back, we're gonna talk
the latest computers at Yes, Kim brought up a good

(17:09):
point call screener Kim. She said, hold on, don't those
cameras like keep the footage in the cloud for a
month or whatever, even if you're not paying for it. Now,
I was wondering about that because you would think they would.
But here's why they may not. Number one, that gets
them into a lot of legal issues with subpoenas and

(17:31):
things like that, and cameras recording when they're not supposed
to be or capturing footage when they're not supposed to.
So I think by not having them save things to
the cloud twenty four to seven or all these events,
it might be just easier for them to avoid a
lot of legal headaches in the future. I'm not a lawyer,
so I don't know, but if I was running a company,
that's probably what I would do, because the less you have,

(17:53):
the less you're saving, the less you're setting yourself up
for all these legal issues in the future. With that said,
it would also be a technical challenge because everyone that
bought a camera, you'd still be recording and saving all
that video and clips no matter what twenty four to seven,
which would cost you more money. So it's actually a
financial decision as well. So I'm not sure. I don't

(18:16):
I would not think that Ring, and I think the
doorbell brand at first was not being reported, but it
seems like it was ring in later reports. I don't
think that they would be capturing that video if you're
not paying for the cloud for a lot of those
reasons that I just mentioned. So good question, Kim, and
uh yeah, all right, let's uh let's go to Tim

(18:38):
in Huntington Beach Line too. Tim, you're on with Rich.

Speaker 5 (18:44):
Rich Rich.

Speaker 6 (18:45):
Yeah, Hi, Hi, this is Tim.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
Yes, welcome to the show.

Speaker 6 (18:51):
Well, thank you and I really enjoy it. It's a
great show. Thank you, Thanks, thanks for being here. Listen,
I'm an old time user and still use Windows and
I just reached us to give it up. And this
will take you back ways back in the day when
Windows ten came out, we used for protection at that
time what lack of a better term, We were overlays,

(19:13):
which are written by entrepreneurs. In this case, it is
the one I use, is.

Speaker 7 (19:21):
What is it?

Speaker 6 (19:24):
No, mine's the terrible things and waste. But I'm still
using Firefox is what I use. So when I go
to my Windows, of course Firefox comes up and I
go I access everything through Firefox and for the last
humpteen years, I have never had an issue. Do you
think that still is providing protection?

Speaker 8 (19:46):
Now?

Speaker 1 (19:46):
When you say Firefox overlay, do you mean the browser
or is there specific software that they're writing to somehow
protect your computer?

Speaker 6 (19:55):
Well, it was it wasn't. Actually, I don't go. I
don't when I go to Windows, I.

Speaker 5 (20:04):
Go to Firefox.

Speaker 6 (20:05):
Firefox then brings me to Windows, and then I do
all my work through Firefox.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
Okay, so you're almost like on a remote like desktop
kind of thing.

Speaker 5 (20:15):
Yeah, exactly, Okay, I mean.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
Look here, here's the bottom line. I think that in general,
the biggest the biggest threats to people right now are fishing.
Number one. So anytime you click a link and it's
it's trying to get your you know, that's that's the
most common vector we're seeing, is a fishing link where
people are trying to actively capture your information. The other thing,
if it happens, is malware or a virus. And in

(20:41):
that case, if you're running something in a protected browser window,
that's probably not possible. And so if I'm understanding what
you're talking about, uh, and and that's what it sounds
like it is, it doesn't seem like they would be
able to infect your actual computer because you're running through
another program, in this case the Firefox. So and by
by the way, Firefox, if they're still updating their program

(21:03):
for Windows ten, which they may be, they also offer
some protections against this stuff as well, because the software
is still being updated. It's just that the desktop software
is not actively getting security updates for Microsoft. But here's
the other thing. Have you done the Extended Security update
for Microsoft?

Speaker 7 (21:20):
No?

Speaker 1 (21:21):
Okay, Well, you can go into your settings and do
the Extended Update program for Windows ten. Check it out.
It's called Extended Security Updates ESU, and they're offering it
for one year basically for free, so you can protect
this computer from the worst things, the worst exploits, for
an entire year till October thirteenth, twenty twenty six. So, Tim,

(21:42):
I'd recommend that you do that just as a failsafe.
And if you're not giving it up, I mean, that's
a decision that you're making. But you just have to
understand that there could be something that comes along down
the line that hackers exploit because this operating system is
not being updated. Now, is that going to happen to you?
We don't know. Is it possible, yes, is it probable?

(22:02):
Probably not. But at the same time, you know, it's
been a long time with this program. It's been out
there for a long time. I know there's people that
are diehards, like you mentioned yourself. Is yourself is like
you are, and so I understand why you want to
cling onto it. I would just do I would be
very aware of what you're doing on this machine and
how you're using it, and that way you're not putting

(22:23):
yourself at risk. If you're doing a lot of financial stuff,
you have a lot of documents on there that might
be sensitive. You just have to be careful because there
are you know, there are risks running software and using
software that's no longer updated and patched with security updates.
So you just have to be careful. That doesn't mean
you're instantly at risk just because you're doing that. So
hope that helps you sound like a smart guy. So

(22:45):
I think you know what you're doing, and I think
you'll be okay if you take those proper precautions. But
for the general public, my recommendation is, if you are
running Windows ten, be sure to sign up for that
extended security updates. This will give you until like I
said October thirteenth, twenty twenty six, to get patches for
your Windows computer and protect you from the worst exploits

(23:09):
that hackers or scam artists may find in that software
because it's not actively being developed or supported by Microsoft anymore.
They're just gonna do the biggest patches. If something comes
along and they find a big hole that a hacker
wants to exploit, you know, something in the code that's
you know, a hacker goes, oh, that's interesting, I can
get into people's computers that way. Microsoft will put out

(23:29):
a patch to fix that, but only if you're in
that Extended Security Updates program speaking of scams and hacks
and things like that. So these Siiri settlement checks are
going out. Remember we talked about this. Apple didn't admit
any wrongdoing, but this all stems from claims that Siri
was listening in on private conversations and some of those

(23:51):
recordings were reviewed by outside contractors. And we've all had
this happen where you're sitting there, your phone is near
your side, you say something that it interprets as hey,
I just probably did that on your phone, and it
comes to life and it starts, you know, listening in
and then all of a sudden, Siri responds and you're like, wait,
I wasn't even talking to you. Well, that happened for
many years, and I think it's gotten better at this point.

(24:13):
But you know, people got upset. This was I think
it was Apple versus Lopez or something like that was
the settlement name. But Apple paid ninety five million dollars,
which is now going out to folks who owned iPhones.
So I got it. I got a grand told of
about forty dollars and ten cents. That's what all the
people that have emailed me. That seems to be the
typical amount people are getting. But here's the thing. You

(24:35):
have to put in your bank account information for direct
deposit of this forty dollars. And if you're like me,
you're critical of everything, and you're like, I don't want
to give out my bank account to this random settlement.
So here's the workaround. And we just mentioned this earlier.
With cash App, Venmo, and PayPal, you might have never
noticed this. I didn't until one of the listeners of
this show email me and said, hey, Rich, check this out.

(24:57):
You can use ach routing and account numbers right from
these apps. So if you go into cash app, you
go into Venmo, you go into PayPal, they all have
a place where they show you what's in effect direct
deposit routing and account numbers for almost like a little
mini virtual bank account. And so you can use those
to deposit this forty dollars so that it goes into

(25:19):
your cash, your venmo, or your PayPal, and then you
can either spend it through there or you can transfer
it into your real bank account. But it puts a
little buffer between you and this settlement because for me,
and I think that everyone should think this way. You
want to give out your bank account numbers to as
few people and places as possible. And it's quite crazy

(25:40):
to me that when you look at a paper check,
which I don't write very often, that we just hand
our account numbers to anyone for many many years back
in the day with the account numbers printed on the
bottom of the check. Now you want to protect those
as much as possible. Not because you know accounts have
gotten less secure, but it's just the world is a
different place. People are exchanging numbers online in the dark

(26:03):
Web and all kinds of stuff faster than ever before.
So while you used to write a million checks and
give them out to anyone, now I would be very
careful about that. And banks do have some systems in
place to detect fraud, but you always want to be
careful whenever you're giving those numbers out so that's the
way to do it. I'll link this up in the
website today rich on tech dot TV. This is episode

(26:25):
one sixties. You can find the link there. I talked
about that in my newsletter today eighty eight rich one
O one eighty eight seven four to two four one
zero one. Coming up next, we will talk about computers
with Dan Ackerman. If you have bitcoin, uh, please do

(26:47):
not check your bitcoin right now. It is not the
time to look. I've just been watching it because it
is wild. It's fallen into the sixty thousand dollars range,
which you know, if if you follow this stuff at all,
that is really really low. I mean, this thing was
at like I think one twenty five late last year,

(27:08):
and it seems like there was a broad broad sell
off which kind of crashed this crypto. We'll see what happens.
I got one note here that says from tech Gauge
that this correction cost forty nine bitcoin millionaires their status.
So there are now over eleven thousand less bitcoin millionaires

(27:29):
out there because of this. Now, could it go back up?
I don't know. I'm not a financial guy, but it's
I'm still waiting for like something in the world to
really use bitcoin like an Amazon or a Target or
some real legitimate retailer, because I feel like that would
give it the push it needs to be more than
just a hobbyist kind of or an enthusiast cryptocurrency. But

(27:51):
we'll see, all right, joining me on the show. Always
fun to have him, Dan Ackerman. He is with Microcenter
News all their news there. He was at CS. We
did not see each other, which is wild, but I
know you're checking out a lot of the PCs there.
So Dan, welcome to the show. First off, Dan, just
tell me kind of big picture, what was the theme

(28:13):
at this year's CES when it came to computers.

Speaker 8 (28:16):
I think for computers this year the theme was new chips.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
That's basically in town Andy and also Qualcomm saying hey,
we've got a new generation of kind of the brains
of these computers that's going to subtly change how they
work going forward.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah. I mean I so we've been testing some of
these Qualcomm chips and the battery life is just incredible
because they made their name on the mobile chips and
now they're sort of applying that to computers.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
I think that's exactly right, because you know, we've gotten
computers have gotten so good they do what we want
them to do, So really the battle now is for
battery life. Is it going to last all day? Do
you have to plug it in halfway through the day
or even overnight? Can you get twenty four hours out
of a computer? And those qualcumb chips actually get to
pretty close to that.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
So I know, we keep seeing these like rollable screens,
these expandable screens, means is that really happening or is
that kind of a gimmick for most people. I'm sitting
here doing the radio show remote, I have like one, two, three,
four four screens in front of me. You always need
a lot of screen real estate when you're working, So
I do think it serves a purpose. But will this

(29:17):
be realistic for a lot of people.

Speaker 3 (29:20):
I think it's becoming more realistic than I initially expected.
You know, Lenovo had a couple of prototypes, including that
one gaming laptop with the screen expands out from the sides,
and I thought that was everybody thought that was the
coolest single computer thing at the show. But Lenovo already
has a rollable screen laptop you can buy right now.
That screen starts regular size and gets taller and that's

(29:41):
actually really interesting, and they've actually managed to get that
into some stores. So I think that you are going
to see these devices that change size and shape and
that's going to be a really interesting development.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
And we've also heard a lot about this idea of
an AIPC. Can you kind of get into that, what
does that mean? Do people need that? And I know
at least one company I heard they kind of pulled
back from that branding because I guess it didn't really
resonate explain this whole AI PC thing.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Yeah, it can get confusing for people because you think
of AI, you think of chat, GPT, you think of Gemini.
Things that are cloud based you get to through your browser.
You don't really need any special hardware for them.

Speaker 6 (30:20):
So what an.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
AIPC does is it adds in NPU or some other
hardware that does AI processing locally.

Speaker 8 (30:27):
And that's right now a lot for it.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
If you're doing a video conference and you want like
the cool background effects, or you want the transcription to
be super accurate, or to remove a lot of noise
from your audio, all that processing happens.

Speaker 8 (30:38):
Locally through AI.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
And that's where having an AIPC really kicks in and Eventually,
I think we're going to be doing more AI on
our computers versus in the cloud for privacy, for control,
and eventually you're.

Speaker 8 (30:51):
Going to have to have those NPU cycles on your computer.

Speaker 6 (30:55):
All right.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
So I'm looking at your website, Microcenter News, and you've
did this post the coolest things you saw at CS
twenty twenty six. What is this Razor Project EVA thing?

Speaker 8 (31:08):
Oh, that's really interesting.

Speaker 3 (31:09):
That's one of the things that they show that really
people either really loved or they really didn't like. And
it is a it's a little it's a little AI
character that lives in a jar on your desk, and
it has a little camera built in and you can.

Speaker 8 (31:24):
Talk to it just like you talked to a regular AI.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
But it's got some personality to it, and it's got
gaming hooks, and it's one of those things that on
paper sounds ridiculous, but I have to admit, even as
cynical and jaded as I am in person, it was
actually a little bit cool.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
You're really cynical and jaded, I don't think so. Tell
me about the Dell situation, because didn't they bring back
the XPS name.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
Yeah, Sometimes it's all on a name it. Dell has
already has always made really great laptops. That XPS line
was kind of their version almost of a MacBook, just
a really universally useful laptop, and everybody loved it. And
they were still making kind of that product, but they
just got rid of the XS name because they wanted.

Speaker 8 (32:01):
To simplify everything. I think they went too simple.

Speaker 3 (32:03):
So now they're going and bringing that name back because
people really understood what it meant. And frankly, the new
XPS systems, the fourteen inch and the sixteen inch that
should be coming out within the next month or two,
you know, they look really good for general purpose, all
around MacBook style computers.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
Now this next one, I was actually bummed because I
went to the HP display and I saw this, but
I didn't think anything of it because I thought it
was a keyboard. And this is actually an entire computer
built into what looks like a standard keyboard. Explain that
it's called the HP Elite Board. G one A.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
It's a clever concept if you need to set up
a bunch of computers for people in your office instead
of giving them like a desktop or mini desktop or
a laptop.

Speaker 8 (32:47):
And all these.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
Successeses just give then this keyboard, and inside the keyboard
there's a CPU and the memory and the storage, and
you just plug a monitor into it, plug it into
the wall, and you're good to go. It's not reinventing
the wheel. People made small computers that fit INT like
USB sticks and stuff like that, so it's very similar
to that. But credit to HP for saying, hey, we
haven't seen someone do it in a keyboard base before.

Speaker 8 (33:09):
Let's do that. And I think it's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
All right, I got about just over a minute, but
I want to hear, like, what are your recommendations for
the average person listening if they're buying a computer, what
do you recommend today? What kind of specks do they need?

Speaker 3 (33:25):
You know, with these new chips coming out from Intel
and AMD, make sure you get a modern CPU in
your system, like that Intel new Series three. Also, if
you're going to buy a laptop or a desktop or
build one, I would do it now, sooner rather than later.
I think with the shortages of RAM and other components
out there, prices are going to continue to go up.

(33:46):
So if you're shopping now is probably the best time
to pull the trick.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, I mean, all these prices have gone up recently
on like SSDs and memory. Do we expect those to
go down anytime soon?

Speaker 3 (33:59):
I don't see it anytime soon, as in within the
next twelve months or so. But there's a lot of
stock in the market right now that still has those
pre scarcity prices. Uh So you can go out and
buy a laptop for the same price now as basically
you did, you know, six months or a year ago.

Speaker 8 (34:14):
Come back in another six months.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
I'm not quite so sure, all right, Dan Ackerman, microcenternews
dot com. You can access all of his posts and
of course your team of people. What's fun about doing this?
You know, used to work a c neet, Now you're
doing this at microcenter. You're having a good time. I
love it.

Speaker 3 (34:33):
I love deep diving into building crazy gaming pieces. That's
something I get to do now that I did not
get to do.

Speaker 8 (34:38):
As much of before, and it's so much fun.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
I love it, all right, Dan Ackerman, thanks so much,
microcenternews dot com. Uh eighty eight rich one O one
eighty eight seven four two four one zero one more
rich on Tech coming your way right after this. It
is Super Bowl weekend. If you're watching it, it's very exciting.

(35:02):
For some people. Some people it's not very exciting. They
just watch for the commercials. No matter what it's it's
a big weekend in America because the football is America's game.
Or is that baseball? I don't know. Some people don't
like it. Kim just said, Am I revealing too much
about Kim? She does not like the super Oh wow?

Speaker 8 (35:21):
What?

Speaker 5 (35:21):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (35:21):
She only you only don't like it. I know why
Kim doesn't like it, because her forty nine ers aren't ina.
I know that's she likes football a lot. But I
don't know. If you've heard about these apps that everyone's
using to bet on just about everything nowadays. There's two
main ones. They're called Calshi and Polymarket, And even in

(35:43):
states where sports betting is illegal, people are still using
them now. Just to give you an idea of how
mainstream these apps have become. Number One, everyone I know
is talking about them. Number two. I was at Lax
Airport and what did I see? A giant ad on
one of the digital screens for Calshie. And if you
go to Calshie right now, they call them by the way. Okay,

(36:05):
so let me explain what this is. It's not betting Okay,
this is they don't use betting at all. You're buying
and selling event contracts. Yeah, okay. These people are very
smart about how they get around laws and rules. And
this is another example of how technology is ahead of laws, right,
like technology is ahead of what we have figured out

(36:26):
that the laws are. So, yeah, gambling is illegal, but
buying and selling event contracts that's not illegal apparently. So
a winning contract pays out a dollar. So if you
buy in for twenty cents and you win, you make
about eighty cents minus fees. Now, if you go on
the website or the apps, it looks and feels like
a sports book, which is why people are saying it's
just gambling with a new label. But supporters say it's

(36:48):
different because people are trading against each other, not the house.
And then of course some of them even say, like
Calshie I believe, says that like there's federal oversight, like
this is like regularly on the federal level and a
whole different market securities kind of thing. But here's the thing.
If you go on the website, they don't really use

(37:09):
the names of the teams I've noticed, but you can
bet on more than just sports I mean, it's everything.
It's politics, it's culture, it's crypto, it's climate economics, mentions.
If someone mentions something in a speech, you can bet
on that, oh sorry, a trade on that companies, financials, tech,
and sign so that the trending topics right now, who

(37:30):
will Trump nominate as FED chair? And this is the
other side of this. It actually gives you insights into
what people that are betting on these are trading on
these things think is going to happen. So if you
want to know who the majority of people are going
to win this think are going to win the Super Bowl,
it's Seattle because the odds are sixty eight percent compared

(37:51):
to Seattle thirty three percent. Now, I don't understand sports
gambling in any way, shape or form. I can count
on my hands the amount of times I've done it
in Vegas exactly twice, and so I don't understand the
negative numbers that positive. I know people are yelling at
their at their speakers right now saying okay, yes, like
Adam he' said the point spread. I don't even understand

(38:12):
what the point spread means. But my point is this
is like opening up gambling to a whole new level
and an audience in a way we've never seen it before,
for better or for worse. So don't yell at me
for telling you about this stuff. I'm just saying what's
out there and what's happening. And we've seen where people
are just betting small bets, big bets on all kinds

(38:33):
of stuff, and it's really really kind of gotten into
a lot of the culture of young people, sports people.
I mean, it's just really wild what's happening. So if
you're not aware of these things before, you are. Now
let's go to line three. Jimmy is in Michigan. He's
got a thought about this whole Nancy Guthrie case. Jimmy,

(38:55):
welcome to the show.

Speaker 5 (38:57):
Thank you for taking my call. Yeah, yeah, it's technology related,
I guess, so I don't really hear anybody talking.

Speaker 9 (39:06):
About It's just my own thoughts.

Speaker 5 (39:08):
Is this case gonna be like a huge defining moment
of where people who may be against it are willing
to put a chip in themselves or their children or
the elderly. Because I'm thinking myself right now, it would
be a good idea if somebody had wanted to find
her mind, like you know, like they find pets.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Jimmy, it is wild that you're calling in with this,
because as I was thinking about the beginning of the
show and what I was going to talk about, it
occurred to me because this woman did wear an Apple Watch,
but obviously she doesn't have it on. I'm sure whoever,
whatever happened, whatever the situation is, I you know, her
phone was left behind. I'm not sure I heard where
the Apple watch is if that was left behind, but

(39:52):
that's clearly not something that they're able to trace her on.
But it made me think about this idea of who
on should we have if you have an elderly person
in your family, or I mean, people are already doing
with this, doing this with their kids. They put an
air tag on their backpack, or they actually have sneakers
that there's a hidden air tag compartment in. Uh, Sketchers

(40:15):
makes them. Let's see Sketchers air tag shoes. They have
these for kids. Let's see if they have a name
for them. Let's see, where's my Sketcher's collection. They've got
a secure hidden pocket under the insul that fits an
air tag. So and look, it's interesting. So you can
always know where your favorite shoes are. So they're not

(40:36):
presenting this because Apple has said air tags are not
for tracking people. We know they have stalking issues with
that or any of these trackers, not just the air tag,
but the air tags are ubiquitous because they're so popular.
But you think about this, They say that air tags
are not for people or pets, but everyone's putting them
on their pets. Collar be careful because a pet could
eat it. And everyone's putting them on their kids because

(40:58):
why not. But the thing that I thought about, Jimmy,
is that you would almost have to have this implanted
in the body because if you are adopting abducting someone
taking someone, you're not gonna let them have their Apple Watch.
You're not gonna let them have their sneakers because of this.
I mean, maybe the sneaker is a good place to
have it because it's kind of hidden, But you'd have

(41:20):
to think of a hidden way to have this on people.
How would you do that? It's got to be under
the skin. Now. The other part of this is that
if you think about a microchip for a pet, that
is not something that is powered. When you find that pet,
someone has to think to want that pet and understand
that they have a microchip and get that information from it.

(41:40):
So it's not a locator for the pet. It's just
a way to understand the story behind that pet and
the information about that pet. But it's not to say
that we can't do this, and it's not to say
that there may not be technology in the future that's
small enough to be implantable that would last for a
long time. I do know that there are some implantable

(42:01):
devices people have where they are battery operated and so,
and that battery has to be replaced every once in
a while and it's like kind of an outpatient procedure.
Now we're getting into the weeds here on this stuff,
but it's a really interesting thought that in the future,
do people want to be tracked number one. I mean,
we're already tracked in so many ways with the technology
we carry. But this, this does kind of have a

(42:24):
It makes you think we don't know the full story
yet here. We don't know if this was a random case.
We don't know if it was an inside job yet,
we don't know these answers. But I think this is
making people kind of consider this and could it be
a turning point? If it is completely random, you might
think that yeah, this would be a good idea. So yes,
I have thought about this, Jimmy. I think it's a

(42:45):
really interesting question and something to ponder. But it does
bring up a lot a lot of concerns for privacy
for people. You know, how much of our private how
much of our privacy are we willing to give up
for something like this for our safety, for our parents safety,
for our kids safety. I think having an air tag

(43:05):
on someone, you have to understand the limitations of an
air tag. An air tag itself is not a GPS tracker.
Now they make GPS trackers that are small, but an AirTag,
the way it works is it is pinging off other
Apple devices nearby to share the location of that device.
No Apple devices nearby, you're not gonna get an update.
Someone throws an air tag into the middle of the woods.

(43:27):
If nobody walks by that air tag, you're not gonna
be able to locate it on a map. Someone has
to walk by, and that air tag emits a little
signal that the phone picks up, or vice versa, and
that's how it gets its location. So there are limitations
to these things. But at the same time, with a
billion Apple devices out there, and that finding network. Chances are,

(43:48):
unless it's dropped in the middle of nowhere in the woods,
someone's gonna walk past it. Some sort of Apple device
is gonna ping that great question Jimmy eight to eight
Rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to
two four one zero one. The website for the show
richon Tech dot TV. This is episode one sixty. We're
gonna take some more of your calls coming up after this.

(44:09):
Plus I'm gonna tell you this is wild. Amazon says
Prime delivery is faster than ever, and I'm gonna tell
you how they do it. They have revealed their special
sauce and I thought it was pretty interesting. I'll tell
you that coming up next. Right here, I'm rich on Tech.

(44:29):
Amazon says prime delivery is faster than ever. And I
know this to be true because I order a lot
from Amazon and I am constantly impressed with how fast
it is. And by the way, it used to be
just in the major metropolitan areas. Now it is everywhere.
I mean it is. They have expanded this fast delivery

(44:51):
into so many places across America, rural areas included. It's
just unbelievable, Like nobody can catch up to them at
this point. In fact, I saw a Prime van on
the highway over here in New Jersey and it said
Prime Fast one day shipping. Now, when you remember Prime started,
it was two day shipping. Now they're saying, now there's

(45:13):
advertising one day. That's wild. Amazon says it delivered more
than thirteen billion items same day or next day worldwide
and twenty twenty five, with eight billion in the US,
up more than thirty percent from the year before. Half
of the deliveries fast deliveries were groceries and everyday essentials,
not necessarily gadgets, which means people are using Prime more

(45:33):
like a convenience store, which I would say is true
the first place I search. Amazon says the average Prime
member saved about five hundred and fifty dollars in shipping
last year, which they say is about four times the
cost of an annual membership, which is also interesting. I've
noticed on Amazon when you place an order, especially for
one item, they single out the delivery charge. They'll say

(45:54):
like oh, nine to ninety nine. They'll exit out like
you're saving it because you're a Prime member, which I mean,
I'll be true, these things do cost money, but I
will tell you if you really price check stuff on Amazon,
the shipping fees are sometimes mixed into the price of
the product. So, for instance, I bought a cureg machine,
you know, one of those cacup coffee machines that makes

(46:15):
your coffee taste like nothing. I bought one of a
new one of those the other day and on Amazon
it was two hundred dollars, and if I bought it
directly from Cureg, it was one thirty, so seventy dollars.
There's Now that's a rare example of Amazon being more
expensive than another website. And I don't know why. Maybe
because Curig tries to like sell you on pods if

(46:35):
you buy them and you bundle them whatever. But no,
and they gave me free shipping too, So that was
a rare miss by Amazon. They say they're expanding same
day and next day delivery into four thousand here we
go smaller cities in rural area after investing four billion dollars.
And now they're also pushing for ultra fast service that
can bring every day items in thirty minutes. Now here's

(46:56):
the thing that I thought was really interesting. How are
they so fast? They said this speed comes from AI
predicting what people will buy and pre positioning those items
closer to customers before they even order them. What does
that mean in English? It means that they know people
in a certain city order more of these types of

(47:18):
razor blades than any other city in America. So they
put those razor ups, they stock them more in that area.
So when you order them, they don't have to ship
them from Let's say you're in Minnesota. They don't have
to bring them from New Jersey. They bring them right
from the warehouse in Minnesota. Let's say you live in Florida.
They know people order more sunscreen down there. They place
it and that's an easy one. We know that, but

(47:41):
it could be anything. Because they've got the long tail
of products. They know exactly what people are ordering. Because
think about it, you live in a city, you might
have a local influencer, you might have a local advertisement.
They might be marketing something more to that city. They
see an uptick in people ordering that item. Boom, Hey,
let's get a whole bunch of these items in our
districtribution centers in that area so that we can get

(48:02):
these to customers fast. So again, AI predicting what people
will buy and pre positioning those items closer to customers
before they even order. Brilliant. All right, let's go to
line four. Uh one L Michelle? Uh mis this This
person has emailed me many times, so I'm familiar with you,

(48:23):
but I we've never spoken. So welcome to the show.

Speaker 9 (48:26):
Thank you, rich and happy birthday two year father. And
I you ask me to pick a barber striis and son.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
Oh okay, I gotta ask him about that. I don't
I don't know if he's into stris In, but we'll see.
So what's up one L. Let's first off, explain your
name real quick before. What's the one L? Michelle?

Speaker 6 (48:47):
Mean?

Speaker 9 (48:48):
Well, you know, since my first day of my first
of the first grade, I got Michaels. In the first
day of the second grade, I got Mitchell and it's
still going on. I either get two l's or they
call me Michael, Mitchell, Mkelly or Mochell. So I got
it one L Michelle got it?

Speaker 1 (49:07):
Okay, But you have two? Do you have two? Do
you have two l's in your last name or your name?

Speaker 9 (49:12):
No, my god, it tingle. My first name jingle is
one L.

Speaker 5 (49:18):
No.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
Hell, Okay, it's funny because Kim wrote your name on
the call screener list as two l Sokim, you didn't
understand the name either, so I'm not alone. Okay, I
don't feel so stupid, all right, So tell me what
what's going on? You emailed me about this, but I
told you to call in. What's what's the question?

Speaker 5 (49:36):
Okay?

Speaker 9 (49:36):
A lot of people, especially myself, have questions regarding wireless
carriers and things keep changing. And there was a bunch
of parents Black Friday, tybermind or Holidays, Fusciles, And in
your email you explained about us Elior, US Mobile Visible
and I believe last week, and you talked about another carrier,
and then someone at Verizon told me, oh, they're prepaid,

(49:59):
and I'm thinking, I don't know if they're prepaid, I
don't know what that means. So here's my question, to
benefit everyone who's listening, can you please explain this and
please break it down into these different carriers like you
did in this wonderful email that I print it out
and I'm going to keep it with me so I
can make a decision on what to do leaving Garazon tonight.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
Okay, all right, here's the deal. Okay, here's the deal.
Number one. There are only three networks in the US,
four if you count the one that Dish Network is
building or has built. I'm not really sure. I haven't
tested it. AT and T, T Mobile, Verizon, every other
carrier that you hear about, whether it's US Mobile, Visible, Cricket,
US Mobile, they all run on one of these other networks.

(50:42):
This is called an mvn O, a mobile virtual network operator.
That means it's mostly a marketing company. They're not making
the line. So what they do is they compete on price,
features and service. So there are a whole bunch of
them out there. Some are better rated than others. But
the reality is what do you get if you get

(51:04):
Visible that is run by Verizon's network. It's actually owned
by Verizon, which is it makes this It makes this
topic a little complicated because a lot of the main
carriers now run their own mv and os. So T
Mobile runs Mint Mobile, AT and T runs Cricket, Verizon
runs Visible. But the whole thing, the delineation between pre
paid and post paid, at this point, I don't think

(51:26):
it means anything because here's the thing. Yes, these mv
and O is a majority of them you pay in advance,
but what's the difference. All of the main carriers now
want your account number, and they want your bank account number,
by the way, not your credit card, to charge you
monthly without you paying the bill like you have to
be on these auto pay plans to get the best prices.

(51:46):
So I don't think it matters. But I will come
back after break and give you the ratings. JD Power
just did the ratings on these all the wireless carriers.
I'll tell you which ones are tops coming up next.
But yes, if you can save money, apps absolutely switched
to an mv and O. It is a bit more
work because you know it's more DIY, but you can
do it. We were talking about mv and o's earlier

(52:14):
and I said, if you save money and you can
do it, definitely go for it. I mean you're not
you know, AT and T, Verizon, T Mobile, they're not
going to cry if you switch. They own these networks.
They're still getting paid by the mv and o's no
matter what those are, the mobile virtual network operators. JD
Power just came out with their wireless carrier satisfaction study
and they rated all these things. The biggest driver of

(52:35):
satisfaction with your wireless company is not just price or coverage.
It's actually how easy it is to deal with your
carrier when something goes wrong. And I would agree with
that because if something goes wrong, you don't want to
go into a store. You want to be able to
fix things. And they said fixing things in under ten
minutes using the app or website, that's what counts. T
Mobile took the top spot in the postpaid carrier. They

(52:58):
also took the top spot in the prepaid carrier category.
Now among smaller providers using the big networks, consumer Cellular
ranked number one for post paid, Google five was in second,
and then the prepaid MV and O's this is what
we were just talking about. Mint Mobile took the top spot.
Love mint Mobile. I think they do a great job,
followed by Visible by Verizon, which I also love. I

(53:19):
think they do great, and then Cricket and straight Talk
tied for third. So you've got a lot of options.
The other one I really like is US Mobile, and
I love them because I'm a nerd, and I love
their website because it is so easy to use and
you control every aspect of your wireless experience on their
website and it's just done in such a great way
that if I'm a nerd and I love to do that,

(53:41):
it just appeals to that control freaking me. Right, you
can tweak every aspect. I activated an Apple Watch for
my kid the other day and it was done in minutes.
I didn't have to go into a store, it didn't
have to do anything. I did it, and I paid
for the whole year in advance. I think it was
eighty dollars for a year worth of Apple Watch cellular amazing.
All right, we've got this new trial starting. This is

(54:04):
a trial on social media. It could really reshape how
big tech designs their platforms that are used by kids.
And so here to talk about it is trial attorney
James Rubinowitz. James, welcome to the show. You're rich. So
let's talk about in kind of plain English, what are

(54:26):
these lawsuits about and why do they matter to parents?
Right now?

Speaker 4 (54:31):
So, these lawsards are about one fundamental question. Did social
media companies deliberately engineer their platforms to be addictive to
children in order to sell advertising space? And even more
so than that, did these social media companies know that
they were causing anxiety, depression, sleep deprivation and self image

(54:54):
problems in kids and parents really do care right now
in a huge way, and I'm getting so many calls
about it recently, ever since we started hearing about this happening.
The lead plaintiff trial attorney right now, his name is
Mark Lanier. He has been involved in almost every major
mass twort case that's gone on since the nineties, since

(55:16):
ViOS many many years ago. And the way he described
it to me is this, parents right now are at
a pivotal moment. They can either see what happens. They
could watch these cases and make sure their kids are
okay by encouraging the jurors to rule in their favor,
or these kids could be permanently injured for life.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
It sounds like a cigarette case. I mean, you mentioned
viox but I mean we weren't. It sounds like a
cigarette case before that.

Speaker 4 (55:48):
You know, it's interesting cigarette cases are the ones that
are being brought up the most. I actually look at
this more of like the opioid cases. And the reason
why is because there were two components of the opioid cases.
There was the personal injury portion, where of course individuals
were able to sue pharmaceutical companies over their addiction and
mental health problems from opioids. But there was also this

(56:12):
societal element where school districts, where counties and states also
sued on behalf of their populace to hold these pharmaceutical
companies responsible. And that's exactly what's happening here with the
social media companies. Families, individual children are able to bring
claims against the social media companies for this anxiety, this depression,

(56:36):
these major mental health harms that they're causing. But we're
also seeing school districts suing the social media companies to
recover for the mental health costs that they've had to
pay to counselors for teachers. And it's really an interesting thing.
So not only do we get it from the personal
injury angle like we did for the cigarette cases, we're

(56:57):
also getting it from this societal level from school districts,
from states and counties.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
And you said, kind of the heart of this matter
is did these companies design their products to be addictive?
And having covered tech for a long time, I mean, look,
I'm an adult and it's it's tough for me to
manage my time on these apps. I log onto Instagram
and the way the little comments and hearts and likes

(57:22):
light up in the upper right hand corner. It feels
like a slot machine. I get that little dopamine hit
and it makes me feel good. And what do I
want to do? I want to be on there more.
I want to open the app more. Now, when you're
a kid whose brain is still being developed, it seems
to me like it's pretty cut and dry that they
did design them to be maybe not addictive, but certainly

(57:43):
you want to be on them. How do you prove this,
How do you prove that they Is it an email
that they wrote they said, hey, make this more addictive.
I mean, they probably didn't say that in an email,
did they.

Speaker 4 (57:53):
So that's something we're keeping an eye on during the trial.
And I actually would take it one step further. I
certainly would think that these apps were designed.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
To be addictive.

Speaker 4 (58:02):
And I think that is exactly, of course, what the
plaintiffs are going to say. But to use your analogy
about the slot machines, I think that is certainly going
to be a common theme throughout the trial. But in reality,
what is a slot machine. It is a device that
is a variable reward system. It's a device that's created
essentially to be addictive. And not only that, social media

(58:26):
companies actually go one step further because it's not gambling
in a casino. It is a reward system that highlights
the most potent variable for a child, and that is
social acceptance. So yes, of course, is a casino slot machine,
but it goes that one step further and really plays
with children's heart shrinks by making it so you can

(58:50):
either be embraced by your peers or rejected entirely, And
that in and of itself is just despicable of these
social media companies because it's the reality is they did
do social engineering. If you look at infinite scroll, we
sometimes hear it called doom scrolling. Kids don't want to
stop the same thing with auto play feature where the

(59:11):
video was already loaded, and we know just from cognitive
psychology that it's easier to continue in action.

Speaker 1 (59:18):
Than it is to stop in action.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
So it's an interesting thing. We're going to.

Speaker 4 (59:22):
See this throughout the trial where we keep on hearing
addiction terms used. But the reality is, you're one hundred
percent right, it is a casino slot machine, but it
goes that one step further and makes it so these
kids constantly want to get back on.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
How do you think this is going to play out?
And what would be the resolution? I mean, do we
take these apps away from kids? Do we have to
change the actual the way the apps are made? I mean,
what do you think is going to happen here?

Speaker 4 (59:51):
So I think it speaks volumes that we already had
two parties in this case settle out. So we had
tick knocked and snap all settle with the plaintiffs. And
who's left but Google and Meta so Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp.
Then we also have YouTube because those two parties settled out.

(01:00:12):
I think that really emphasizes that this evidence is going
to weigh heavily in favor of the plaintiff. But what
do we think is going to happen? I think certainly,
no matter what, these social media companies are going to
change their actions. They're going to implement ends to this
doom scrolling behavior where hopefully there will be a natural end.

(01:00:33):
Hopefully we also see something like what Roadblocks implemented. I'm
not sure if you're familiar with this. Roadblocks, of course,
is a computer gaming company. It does have kids on
the platform, but it also has adults. So what did
Roadblocks do? They created this software where on your mobile
phone it'll take a picture of you. It won't keep

(01:00:53):
the picture, of course, because miners will be using it,
but it's able to determine whether or not a kid
is using this platform. Ordentaltis if you say that you're
fifty years old, but you take a picture and you
are very clearly twelve, that app isn't going to let
you operate the same way as an adulthood. And really,
what I hope happens is that there is a huge

(01:01:15):
judgment in the plaintiff's favor, because if there is a
huge judgment, it will impact the pocketbook of these social
media companies, and that's the only way we're going to
see change.

Speaker 1 (01:01:28):
All Right, We're gonna leave it there. Trial attorney James
Rubinowitz Rubinowitz dot com, thanks so much for joining me today.
Really interesting insights into this trial that as it gets started,
I think we're going to just see a lot about
this because it is it has the potential to change
a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:01:45):
Absolutely, Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
Rich all right, I'll put a link to James on
the website. Rich on tech dot tv. All right, coming
up eighty to eight rich one on one eighty eight
seven four to two, four to one zero one got
more of your calls in question and emails. Plus, have
you heard of this Wuffy AI robot dog. There's a
lot of complaints about it. I'll explain why people are complaining.

(01:02:09):
It's not as advertised. Coming up right here on rich
On Tech, let's go to Peggy, Line three in Rosemead, California. Peggy,
what's your question about?

Speaker 7 (01:02:26):
Good day? Thank you for taking me to call and
I enjoy your show. My questions? What do you think
about geek Squad as far as support or would you
recommend another provider?

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
So you're saying, yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 7 (01:02:40):
About ten years now, you've had.

Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
Geek Squad for ten years and you pay what you
pay a yearly fee to them. Correct, and they will
and you can call them up and they'll help you
with your computer over the phone. That is correct, Okay,
I mean I don't Is it working for you? Do
you think that they're doing a good job?

Speaker 7 (01:03:00):
I do, But I was wondering if you have another
provider or if you recommend them.

Speaker 1 (01:03:07):
Well, I mean, I don't recommend any particular company. I
think that it really depends on the service that you get. Obviously,
geek Squad is very big. They have a big footprint.
They're owned by best Buy, so it's going to be
what you get out of them. I think it could
be different for various people, right, Like some people may say, no, no,

(01:03:27):
this doesn't work for me, Like I need something that's
more hands on, I need something that's better, higher quality.
But there are companies that do similar things, and I
guess I can run through a couple of those, and
it really depends. Like if you're getting the tech support
via the phone, that's one thing. If you're getting someone
to come to your home or you're bringing your computer,
there's another thing. And I have some thoughts on all
this stuff. I mean, I think it's nice that geek

(01:03:49):
Squad has that yearly fee that you can pay and
you know you can call them, you know, you can
rely on them. And a lot of the people that
get jobs at places like that are just nerds like
myself that know a lot of out this stuff and
they want good benefits and they want to share their
knowledge and they like what they do. Now, are there
going to be some bad apples or people that don't
really know their stuff as well? Sure of course that's

(01:04:10):
gonna happen with any company. So I guess my main
advice is if it's working for you, sure. There are
some other companies that offer similar kind of all in
one tech support plans. One of them is called a
Shurian a s u r io n Asurian dot com.
They're the same folks they bought that company called you
Break Eye Fix, so they own that as well. So

(01:04:32):
you kind of get a one two puncher. You get
a place where you can bring in your gadgets, but
they can also give you tech support over the phone
as well, So that's one way. There's number another company
called Hello Tech. And this started as just you know,
a tech support on your phone, and I don't believe
you can bring stuff in, But now they're opened by

(01:04:53):
they're owned by Door, which has been buying a lot
of stuff, and so I believe that they can you know,
come to you as well and like do things like
mount your TV and stuff like that. But it also
looks like you can call them for tech support. So yeah,
unlimited online support is one hundred and ninety nine dollars
for the year. Oh interesting, okay, So it's actually fifty

(01:05:16):
interesting Okay, So they're doing fifty dollars a year for
just online tech support, which I have a feeling is
cheaper than what geek Squad charges. But then if you
want the ability to have them come to your house
for in home services, technology checkups, anti virus, password manager,
that's all included for two hundred dollars a year. So
I think we're gonna probably see more of this, you know,

(01:05:38):
this membership for everything. And then there's another There's another
option that I think is actually a really good option
is a local person. So if you if you're a local,
like a nerd in a city, and you love doing
this stuff, you may just want to do your own place,
you know, open up your own computer support store. Now,
I don't know if the tech support or over the

(01:06:00):
phone is going to be as good with a solution
like this. I don't know it may be, but you know,
most companies do partner with a local IT firm to
service their computers and to fix things when they break.
As for the average home person, I'm not sure. I mean,
there are definitely places that will do this, but what
I would recommend is, if you're going to go that

(01:06:21):
route you want to stay local, is just go to
Yelp and search something like computer help and in your city,
and what I like to do is call the two
companies that are the first two and talk to someone
and you will get an idea for how this company is.

(01:06:41):
So if you want an idea of how they're going
to treat you as a customer, call them up before
you're a customer and just see how they answer the phone.
And if they answer the phone and they're gruff. And
this happened to me the other day. I was trying
to find, Like I said, I'm here in New Jersey
to celebrate my dad's milestone birthday and and so I figured,
let me call a couple of restaurants. And I'm not kidding.

(01:07:03):
I called this one restaurant that fit everything I wanted online.
They had the private room. It was a nice place
that had a great view. I called the place and
the owner whoever picked up was not very nice. And
guess what I said, with my with my walle I said, nope,
I'm not going there. I don't care how much how
great it was. The person who picked up the phone
was not very nice. So they lost my business just

(01:07:24):
based on that. Now, if you call another place and
they're very nice to you and they give you kind
of the service that you would expect, and they're so
nice on the phone and they're answering your questions. That's
who you want to give your business to. And so
with my pro tip with Yelp is always to do that.
And this is when I get people from my house
to fix the fridge or the stove or the you know,

(01:07:46):
do the outside whatever I need done, I just call
a couple places and the people who answer the phone
and they spend the time on the phone with you.
That's what you want because they're sitting there and they
truly love what they're doing and they want to share
that experience with you, and they have that customer service.
They just have that bug in them that they can
do that well. And some people just do not get it.

(01:08:07):
They don't get that when they're gruff on you on
the phone, they're losing half their customers because of that,
people are just not gonna come back. Or you may
use them once and never use them again because of that.
So the other the other pro tip I have is
when you go on Yelp, they want to they want
to sort by the what's called Yelp recommended right, and

(01:08:29):
that's their secret sauce of reviews and clicks and things
like that. I like to go to sort by highest rated,
and that way you can see the highest rated people
in your area and then you can call the top few. Now,
also the other thing you want to look for on Yelp,
at least on the mobile website. And I gotta let me,
I gotta check this before I tell you this. Let

(01:08:51):
me go to Yelp on my phone and if you
type in computer, I'm gonna allow my location computer help. Okay,
let's do computer repair. Yelp is really tricky because a
lot of the results at the top are sponsored, so
you kind of want to go past those. So I'm
gonna do sort by rating, right, and then I'm gonna

(01:09:11):
scroll up until I start seeing the numbered list. And
this is a pro tip for Yelp, because their sponsored
results are kind of blended in very very slyly on Yelp,
so you'll see at the top it says sponsored. You
go past some categories, the sponsored is longer than the
actual list of results, but you want to scroll too.

(01:09:31):
You start seeing the numbers, and when you see all
results number one, number two, number three, those are what's
called organic search results on Yelp. As organic as you
can get. So just remember all these websites are trying
to push kind of a secret sauce of recommendations. It's
because they're being paid by a lot of those companies
to push their results. So if you scroll down you

(01:09:52):
look for those numbered results on Yelp, you'll get a
lot further great question eighty eight rich one one eight
eight eight seven four to two one zero one the
robot dog. That's a little less than advertised. I'll tell
you about that coming up next. Got an email from
Kevin who said, Hey, I listened to your show weekly.
I'd like to say it's wonderful you're spending a milestone

(01:10:13):
birthday with your dad. My older sons are planning things
and asked me what I was planning for my sixtieth
although it's a year and a half away. I'm not
sure what milestone your father had or how old you are,
but I will say they suggested we go out and
do quote day drinking. I'm a big supporter of what
you do of do what you can when you can,

(01:10:33):
and spending time with our parents should never be passed by.
Have a great time with your old man, Kevin, one
hundred percent, and I'll tell you this. My dad is
a cancer survivor number one. He's always been very positive,
very healthy. Guy got leukemia many years ago, went through
a whole I mean it was it was rough. I
mean it really was rough for many years. And he

(01:10:55):
ended up getting some sort of stem cell transplant where
basically it was you know, you just don't know if
you're gonna survive that kind of thing. But he did,
and he always had a smile and he was always laughing.
In fact, the shirt he wore the day that he
went into the hospital was a joke. It was like
filled with blood splatters. I mean, that's the kind of

(01:11:16):
like humor this guy has. But he made it through
ten years cancer free, which is amazing. But yes, I
do believe that, you know, I want to be with
my parents on these kind of milestone things and with
my family in general. And it was a lot. It
was a hall believe me. You know, I worked two
jobs newsletter and getting out here to be here for
a dinner with my dad was no easy feat. And

(01:11:38):
so I'm here for basically twenty four hours, and it
was it was a quick one. But it's all worth it,
no matter what, you know, all the travel all the
you know, moving things around, doing the show remote. It's
all worth it when you're there in that moment with
your friends, your family, and I one hundred percent believe that,
and you know, it's just one of those things you
gotta do. And believe me, you never regret doing something

(01:12:01):
like this, So I agree. We'll get to the calls
in just a second. Here, let me just tell you
about this robot dog. It's called Wuffy. I got an
email about this. This person bought it and they said, Rich,
I wish I would have known. I wish I would
have researched. I bought this thing for the kids, and
it's a complete scam. So it's an AI robot dog.
People are seeing slick ads on YouTube, Facebook showing what

(01:12:24):
looks like a lifelike, intelligent puppy that responds to commands. Well,
if you check the Better Business Bureau Scam Tracker, which
by the way, it's great website. If you ever think
you're being scam, just put a keyword into this thing
BBB dot org slash. I think it's BBB dot org
slash scam tracker, scam tracker. Let's see, Yep, that's it.

(01:12:46):
You put a you put a keyword into there. You
will not believe you're you're ready to buy a puppy
from a Facebook marketplace. You're ready to buy something you've
seen advertised. Put the keyword in there. People report these
things all the time, and it's different than the standard.
Better is a bureau website. These are just people reporting scamps.
And believe me, this one had a ton dozens of

(01:13:06):
reports that people say. What arrives is a tiny, cheap
battery powered toy, kind of one of those little dogs
you saw at the mall that would be like and
like flip over, like that something you might see from
a dollar store. Nothing like the AI powered dog you
would see in the ad, smaller than expected, doesn't respond
to commands. It's just a basic toy. And my kids,

(01:13:28):
when I show them the website, they said, Dad, that's
all AI generated, every bit of it. And I know,
but not everyone's looking at these things that closely. And then,
of course, if you want to try to return it,
you might only get twenty five percent back instead of
a full return. The other thing to be always look
at the return information on a website before you buy something,
especially if you're not buying on Amazon and even if

(01:13:49):
you're buying on Amazon, because I've noticed on Amazon some
products do have different return policies depending on who the
seller is. So be very careful. And sometimes, you know,
because I've learned this from this show, someone bought something
and I talked about on the show and they said, sure, yeah,
free returns. You had to mail it yourself to another country.
Guess how much that costs half the price of the product.

(01:14:11):
So always check the contact information on a website and
the returns information on a website before you buy something.
If it's tough to find or there's only an email
that's kind of rudimentary, I would be very cautious because
things can be very tough to return if you're not
buying them from a prominent website. And I did. My
kid wanted this yoyo that he saw advertised on YouTube,

(01:14:34):
and I bought it for him seventy five dollars for yoyo,
which I know is not it's just whatever. You know,
this is what happens as a parent. Sometimes. My kid
did give me the money for it, so I said, okay,
it's your money, and I checked all the return policies
everything for this and basically, once you get this thing.
You're not returning it. You're stuck with seventy five dollars

(01:14:54):
out of your pocket if you don't like this thing.
But again, he wanted it, one of his friends had it.
It was fine. You have to make these decisions based
on what you know and by doing a little research.
All right, let's go to uh let's see is it.
I want to make sure I get your name right.
I did ask you me up uh Cella in uh
Redondo Beach line one am I saying that right?

Speaker 10 (01:15:15):
Hi, Yes it Isella Cochell with one else.

Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
Yes. I was gonna say, just like Coachella. Okay, cool name.
What's up?

Speaker 5 (01:15:24):
Well?

Speaker 10 (01:15:24):
I'm coming with a remark on one of the conversations
that you had about social media and children, and I
think that we're going down the wrong path on this.
I have noticed recently that there's so many.

Speaker 11 (01:15:39):
Commercials on TV about games like Candy Crush and this
and that, and they're trying to get kids basically to
sign on and play these games online. And I think
what we're.

Speaker 10 (01:15:51):
Doing is that we're training future gamblers, you know.

Speaker 12 (01:15:54):
I just think that that's a dangerous thing. If kids
just starting online games like that and getting, you know,
a gratification instantly when they score big or this, or
that they're gonna go on to gambling later. And there's
so much online gambling.

Speaker 9 (01:16:12):
I just think it's it's the wrong thing. And I'm
calling to ask you, you know, what does your take
on this?

Speaker 5 (01:16:17):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:16:17):
My take is You're one hundred percent right. And this
is the thing our our entire society is shifting at
this point. Things that used to be unavailable to the
average person are now in their pocket, on their phone.
And this is a wide swath of things. And immediate
gratification is not just something that is a buzzword. It
is a way of life now. Like I said with

(01:16:39):
my kid with that yo yo, When I was a kid,
if I wanted something, I had to wait for a
special day to get that. Those special days were few
and far between. It was my birthday, it was Christmas.
It was basically that's it. Those were the two days
that my parents would give me a gift. There was
not ap Oh you got a hundred on a report card.

(01:17:02):
Oh my gosh, let me buy you something. No, did
not happen in the DeMuro household. You can ask my
parents about this. We had to wait and by the way,
it was rough as a kid because you always had
the rich friends that got whatever they wanted whenever they wanted,
and you were jealous of them. And I realize now
as a parent that does spoil my kids sometimes that

(01:17:23):
that is not the best way to do it. You
are raising basically a brat that gets whatever they want
whenever they want it, and that is not necessarily a
good thing. Now, same thing with adults. We are in
this world of immediate gratification where you can bet on
a game if you want. Used to had to fly somewhere,
you'd have to fly to Las Vegas if you wanted

(01:17:43):
to place a bet or play a slot machine. Now
you can do that in so many different places. Same
thing with you know, all this stuff that you can
do on your phone quickly that you couldn't do now
in some ways that's amazing. Like I sit there and
I say, this phone is a magic wand I can
get my toilet repaired in ten minutes because I can call,
you know, set an online appointment, or get a TV

(01:18:05):
delivered to my house that same afternoon. So this is
my thought on this number one. I do not have
an addictive personality. Okay, I think I've proven that my
entire life. I'm an adult. I've functioned pretty well. I
work two jobs, I wake up early, I have two kids.
I do things on time and when I want. I

(01:18:26):
don't think that's everyone. And I think that there are
some people that are predisposed to they can't handle themselves
as kids or adults, and there's some that can. And
I think that all these systems that we're putting in place,
with the online gambling, with the sports betting, with the
slot machines, with the games, with the bet with all
the money that you can spend on anything, you know,

(01:18:46):
some people have a shopping problem. It's I think it
comes down to people that are predisposed. But we're also
seeing this new layer of maybe you weren't predisposed, but
because it's so apparent and so easily attainable, now you are.
I mean, there are people and I'm not a psychologist,
but I'm sure there are arguments of if there's a
if there's a bar in your neighborhood walking distance from

(01:19:07):
your house, does that make you drink more? I don't know.
I'm sure people have done studies of that. So this is, yes,
you got the bell there. I mean, but does it
does every single person that live in that neighborhood drink more? Maybe?

Speaker 8 (01:19:20):
Not?

Speaker 1 (01:19:21):
So Again, I think that no matter what technology, this,
this fast delivery system that we have built for just
about everything in our world, it is changing the fabric
of our society. Is it bad and always?

Speaker 8 (01:19:33):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:19:34):
Are people always going to adapt?

Speaker 5 (01:19:36):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:19:37):
Are some people really going to be hit hard by
it and really impacted by their lives? Absolutely? Is that everyone?

Speaker 5 (01:19:43):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:19:44):
So I think Cella, I think your your thought is
good and kind natured. But at the end of the day,
you know, kids can't fend for themselves. They really can't,
and that's why we have these trials and that's why
we do have to protect them. Adults can and not
every adult can. And we know this because we all
have friends, we all all family members that you know,
they're not functioning as well as they should be. And

(01:20:04):
that's sad and it's really tough and it's a struggle
for them. And so, I believe me, I think about
this stuff all the time. Can we change it? Can
we stop? Can we stop this forward momentum? Probably not,
And so we're gonna have to learn to live with it.
We're gonna have to learn to adapt to it. And
by the way, you got to help out the people
that you can in your lives that you do see
that are affected by this stuff to get them on
the right path. Eighty eight rich one on one eight

(01:20:27):
eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.
The website for the show rich on tech dot TV.
If you want to link to anything I mentioned here,
it's all there. This is episode I believe one sixty.
Yes it is. Check it out. All the links are
on the website. Rich on tech dot TV. More your calls,
more of your questions, comments and guests. Right after this,

(01:20:55):
let's go to Alex in Northridge Line too. Let's let's
see what Alex is saying. Alex, what's up? How are you.

Speaker 7 (01:21:02):
So?

Speaker 5 (01:21:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 13 (01:21:02):
The question was is there a mechanism or is there
a way that someone has an embedded idea for iOS
and AirPods with Apple? So it's not an application that
has to be kind of embedded in the actual system
of the polle in the AirPod, you know, the way
to contact Apple? Is there a mechanisms where they allow

(01:21:25):
ideas to come in from external sources?

Speaker 1 (01:21:29):
Uh, well, I'm looking at the I just brought this
up on the website. They have an Unsolicited Idea Submission policy,
and it says Apple and its employees and contractors do
not accept, review, or consider any unsolicited ideas, works, materials, proposals, suggestions, artwork, content, advertising, promotions,
products technologies, product enhancements, processes, marketing strategies, product names, content.

(01:21:52):
I mean, a lawyer wrote this for sure. Please do
not send or provide any submissions in any form to
Apple or any of its employees or contractors. So, Alex,
I think we have your answer right there. So you're
gonna have to make these AirPod this AirPod feature yourself.
Now when it comes to apps like you mentioned, because
you clearly delineated that yes you can. You can make

(01:22:13):
an idea for an app, no problem and develop that
for the iPhone on the platform. But they do not
want you submitting this. Can you do it? Sure? And
if you do, here's what it says. Terms of idea submission.
You agree that one your submissions and their contents, along
with related intellectual property lives, will automatically become the property
of Apple without any compensation to you. So I would

(01:22:37):
not submit this to Apple. It doesn't sound like you
should Now. However, Apple does welcome your feedback regarding many
areas of their existing business. If you want to send
us feedback, use the form located at apple dot com
slash feedback. So, Alex, no, you probably can't submit this
to Apple, and I understand. Look, these companies are I

(01:22:58):
don't want to knock lawyers, but once lawyers get involved
in things, everything becomes complicated. You can write one sentence
and you could have a lawyer review that sentence, and
that one sentence becomes ten paragraphs. And I know, if
you're a lawyer listening, you're laughing, but it's true. I've
done so many contracts in my life. As soon as
you get a lawyer involved, it becomes the most complicated

(01:23:20):
thing in the world. And I'm like, yes, okay, I
get it. You're protecting the nuance of my fluffy gloves
that I want to wear to work when it's cold outside.
But does that really need to be in there? Probably not,
but yes, these things get very complicated. And I you know,
when I was a kid, I was really into like
ideas and stuff Like I always had ideas for TV

(01:23:42):
shows and things like that, and I would send them
to like these companies like Fox and like you know,
all these like cable stations and stuff. They would literally
send me my submission back in an envelope that was unopened,
and they were clearly like made sure that it was unopened.
It would have a lawyer from a letter from legal
that said, we did not review submission and we are
sending it back to you without opening it because we

(01:24:03):
do not accept unsolicited submissions. So this stuff has been
going on forever. So how do you get an idea
into a company like Apple? I guess it's time to
go work at Apple and get your idea up through
the ranks like that. Thanks for the call, Alex, really
appreciate it. Sorry to us stomp on your you know,
your great idea for the AirPods. You know you're gonna
have to find out some other way of doing that,

(01:24:26):
you know. I get a lot of emails from me
every week. I think some of them are worth reading
on the air. I do the feedback segment at the end,
but I'm gonna you know, I got three scams this week.
Them I tell you about so Ruth and California says.
I've been building websites and coding for decades. I think
I might run I think I may have run into
one of the most sophisticated scams I've ever seen. I
got a notification on my phone that looked like it

(01:24:47):
was from T Mobile with the exact billing amount on
my account that's interesting and a button to redeem expiring rewards.
I clicked on it, landed on what looked like T
mobile dot com, and got excited about spending my eleven
thousand points before they expired. The offer didn't seem totally crazy.
I've been a T Mobile customer for years. It showed
Sony headphones with just ninety nine cents shipping. I entered

(01:25:08):
my American Express card, got an error saying that card
type wasn't supported. Then I tried to visa same error.
Then it clicked that something was wrong. I immediately canceled
both cards, contacted T Mobile. They were helpful, But this
scam felt different because it wasn't a text or an email.
It was a notification that felt very real and very urgent.
I just wanted to share this so others don't fall
for the same thing. Yes, urgency is a classic red flag.

(01:25:33):
I don't know how they knew the details, like your
exact billing them out. Maybe they just guessed that, but
always check the full URL, because Ruth did include a
screenshot and the URL was the dead giveaway. It was
completely bogus. Mark in souther I think it is in
Reno says. I'm an IT professional who works with home users.
I wanted to just flag a scary email scam. I'm
seeing more and more these emails look legit. They try

(01:25:56):
to get people to download an invitation, a document, a
celebration of life, or even a fake social security statement.
When someone clicks the link and open as the file,
it secretly installs remote access software like screen connect or
remote PC. Now these tools are typically used by IT departments,
but scammers abuse them to take over their computers, log

(01:26:16):
into accounts, steal passwords, and even move money. The really
tricky part is that antivirus software doesn't always flag this
because these tools aren't technically viruses. I've seen this fool
a lot of people. I wanted to make sure you
warn your readers and listeners and yeah, this is computer
tech Reno dot com slash blog. You can read what

(01:26:37):
he does. And I love when people like that are
on the ground, email me because they're seeing a lot
of stuff like I am too, but it's like kind
of the same thing. April and California says I got
two texts within minutes saying someone was trying to access
a health safe ID. I had no idea what that was.
I googled it. I saw something mentioned optim RX. I

(01:26:57):
called a number I found online that sent me down
a rabbit hole. One person says it was tied to
United Healthcare. Another sent me to Medicare. Basically I ended
up with a fraud department. But here's the thing, this
was all scam. Do not call numbers that you google
because they could lead to scam artists. Do not call
numbers you get in a text message. They will lead
to scam artists. Basically, if you're gonna call phone number

(01:27:18):
for help, always go to the direct website or one
of your documents from that company, or the back of
your card. That's the only way you can avoid a scam.
Eight eight eight rich one on one back after this
joining me now. Another useful guy, Mark Anthony Arena, uh

(01:27:40):
calls himself the computer Exorcist and uh he's been on
the show before a lot of fun. Mark, thanks for
joining me today.

Speaker 2 (01:27:48):
Hey, thanks so much. For having me.

Speaker 1 (01:27:50):
So tell me why you're different than all the other
people out there that help people with their computers. What's
your You got kind of a little different thing going on.

Speaker 2 (01:27:59):
So you put it the right way you said, I
swim upstream. I do the opposite of what most normal
computer guys do because I don't want to milk people
for recurring fees. I want to fix something once and
for all and stop changing things for people, give them consistency.
And it turns out people are willing to pay.

Speaker 1 (01:28:16):
More for that. So I mean, yeah, some of the
things that you've talked about over the years is you know,
you're writing a book right now, so tell me. I mean, well,
let's before you talk about some of these things, to
tell me what the book is about, Like, what are
you trying to tell people in this book?

Speaker 2 (01:28:31):
So my second book is a sequel to the first.
It's going to be called the first one is how
to Protect Yourself from your Computer. The second one will
probably be called Don't be Taken by Silicon Valley, And
in it, I explain the concepts, scams and scandals of
the tech industry, all in plain English. Most of my
clients are intelligent, successful retirees and they call me up, Hey, Mark,

(01:28:55):
I feel stupid. My computer guy called me stupid. I said, look,
you're an intelligences person. Mod of my clients arezillionaires and whatever,
and they're all intelligent people. And I say, look, don't
feel stupid. You have been thrust into an industry that
changes itself exponentially and moves the goalpost every two weeks.

Speaker 13 (01:29:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:29:16):
I mean that's that. We hear that over and over
from people, you know, with like especially I saw with
like this whole Windows transformation, right like Windows eleven, with
all the AI stuff. You know, people there's like a
new feature every week and everything's changing, and people who
kind of get to know their computer, they're very frustrated
because it's like, like you said, the goalpost has moved.
They just get used to a certain feature and next thing,

(01:29:38):
you know, it's different. And most of the time these
features and you can correct me if I'm wrong, But
it used to be I felt like the tech industry
was filled with people who were kind of nerdy like myself,
and had the best interest of the consumer, the end
user in mind. And then there was this shift, and
I've seen it in the products that I use where
now the benefit is too the company, the corporation, they're

(01:30:01):
adding features to benefit them. Do you think that's a
fair assessment.

Speaker 2 (01:30:06):
Oh, it's perfect. What happened was if you notice, I
always tell my seniors and my audience, if you notice,
things were getting easier up until around twenty twelve when
Microsoft unleashed Windows eight on Humanity, and all of a
sudden things got a little weird. It's you know the
concept of oversaturation, right, One pizza is good, two pizzas

(01:30:27):
are great, Three pizzas will make you sick.

Speaker 11 (01:30:29):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:30:29):
There is such thing as too much. So the industry
doesn't understand that, right, they've never heard of too much.
They just keep going and going and going, and they've
never heard of consequences or anything like that, and they
just think more it must equal better. So you get
to a point where there's something called anti features. Have
you heard of that concept?

Speaker 1 (01:30:50):
No? Not really?

Speaker 2 (01:30:51):
Oh yeah, look it up. It's a big concept that
I learned it years ago, and I write about it
in my next book definitely where yeah it's a feature,
but nobody he wanted it, and it's harmful and it's
massively annoying. So you know, you know, when when you
get an update right, and they dangle the word update
in front of you, and they dangle the fear in
front of you, And if you don't do this update,

(01:31:12):
then some guy in Siberia on a Wednesday at one
point thirty, in a high tide and a new moon,
wearing a green hoodie might get into your phone. So
they use that astronomically unlikely fear, and then they do
what I call pork barrel spending right where they'll they'll
bundle in a whole slew of anti features, like oh,
wait a minute, now, there's this co pilot thing that

(01:31:34):
takes screenshots of what I'm doing without my knowledge.

Speaker 1 (01:31:38):
Yeah, I mean it's it's and I want I want
to call out one particular product that I use that
I've seen kind of go down the drain that really
really bugs me. But it's a it's a photo backup
solution that I use online. And it used to be
and this this just bugs me so much. It used
to be that you could like use an API to

(01:32:01):
access those photos and like you know, there'd be ways
to down long story short, there's no easy way to
back up my photos that are backed up online, like
I believe that this company that does this should just
you know, have the ability to have a Wi Fi
drive that you plug in. It's just always backing up
your photos. But that's not in their best interest because,
by the way, then you can say, you know what,
never mind, let me just leave that service and this

(01:32:24):
drive has all my photos on it. That's just one example.
But I digress.

Speaker 2 (01:32:28):
I love your thoughts.

Speaker 1 (01:32:30):
Yeah, exactly, it would make too much sense. And yeah,
I love your thoughts on antivirus because I know you
have some strong thoughts on do people need it? What's
the deal with antivirus is it's a billion dollar industry.

Speaker 2 (01:32:44):
Yeah, it's the first threat that I remove when I
clean a new client's computer.

Speaker 8 (01:32:48):
Real threat.

Speaker 1 (01:32:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:32:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:32:52):
Four hundred thousand years ago, Norton and McAfee and all
the antivirus were the good guys, and then bad guys
stayed home and road viruses. I haven't seen a traditional
virus on a computer since twenty thirteen. Bad guys are
ten twenty years ahead of that. They're out there doing
toolbars which spy on you legally. They're doing fake cleaners, right,
those fake optimizers that do a smoke and mirror scan

(01:33:14):
and then beg you for thirty nine ninety nine. They're
doing all sorts of things that are either legal or
totally unstoppable. They walk right through antivirus like a hot
knife through butter. So when somebody doubts me, I say, hey,
take a look at this. All right, while your antivirus
was twiddling its thumbs and slowing your computer down by
ninety percent and wasting seventy bucks a year, here's all

(01:33:34):
the threats that I've just unearthed that your prior computer
guys were completely oblivious to.

Speaker 1 (01:33:40):
That's wild. I mean, I always say, I mean right now,
it's like phishing and all this stuff. I mean, all
these links that people click to, like you know, steal
their information. And in fact, I saw the other day
a reputable company sending out spam emails that basically scans
your cloud storage and tells you you're out and then
tries to get you to sign up for their cloud storage.
And this is a reputable company that like actually does business,

(01:34:04):
And it's just mind boggling to me that that's the
way that they're selling people on their cloud storage, which,
by the way, I couldn't even find how much storage
you got from signing up for it. Give me your
thoughts on this whole idea that all these computers are.
You know, everything is integrated at this point. It used
to be. When I was younger, I could, you know,
swap out a processor put more memory in. You can't

(01:34:26):
really do that with laptops at all anymore, and desktops
it's probably less and less.

Speaker 2 (01:34:31):
Yeah, shame on anyone in any of these organizations who
claims to be an environmentalist. So when when Apple, Apple
apparently apparently had a meeting and said, let's get rid
of all of our ethics. Right in twenty nineteen, their
computers became one circuit board. And that's fine, and I
can clamor about them being greedy, and we can. We

(01:34:52):
can grumble about that and grumble about how their computers
used to last a long time and used to be
upgradeable and used to be wonderful. That's one thing. We
can talk about, the greed and the unrepair ability and
the T two scandal and all of that. But what
they apparently didn't understand is they didn't understand that people
keep crucial data on their hard drives. I guess they

(01:35:15):
don't get that because their hard drives are now integrated
into the motherboard. All right, it's one thing if you
if your computer breaks and oh well, you gotta spend
money on a new one. That's bad enough, right, that's
bad enough. And we can spend a lot of time
talking about that. But what blows my mind is Apple
didn't understand that. Hey guess what, ninety nine percent of

(01:35:38):
people have no backup. Right, So when people called me
up throughout my career over the past fifteen or more years, people, hey, Mark,
you know what. I just had a disaster. I decided
to call you after a disaster, my heart drive, my
computer died, and can you can you help me? And
I say, look, I just go in, I pluck the
hard drive out, I rescue your data. No big deal,
except can't do that anymore with one of these apples.

(01:36:01):
It's sorry, too bad, you've lost all your information. And
I predicted this years ago in my last book. I said,
you know, people are gonna get mad about this in
a few years when they're twenty nineteen. Mac breaks and
they don't know where to go. There's only one person
in this world who can rescue your data. If you
have a Mac that integrated hard drive and it died,

(01:36:21):
and that's Lewis Rossman, and even he says, hey, folks,
if anyone stands to profit from this, it's me. But
it's wrong and evil and they need to stop doing this. Right.
We expect more on of Apple, like Apples should know better.
It's not like we're talking about a cheapy machine here.
We're talking about something with a premium price that has
subpar design.

Speaker 1 (01:36:41):
It's just wild. We're gonna have to leave it there.
Always in interesting conversation Mark Anthony Arena Thecomputer Exorcist dot com.
Go to his website sign up for his snarky quarterly
spam aka newsletter. That's the You know, when you hear that,
you kind of understand what you're getting your into here.
This is not your typical, you know, tech guy. This

(01:37:02):
is you know, Mark is going to tell you how
things are. So I love that you got the new
book coming out. I imagine you'll tell people about that
in the newsletter when it's ready.

Speaker 2 (01:37:10):
Yes, certainly. And you can get a preview edition on
my website if you look at the page about the book.

Speaker 1 (01:37:15):
Okay, there you have it, all right, Thecomputer Exorcist dot com. Mark,
thanks for joining me today.

Speaker 2 (01:37:20):
Thanks so much, rich All right, coming.

Speaker 1 (01:37:23):
Up, we are, and I'll put a link to that,
by the way, on the website rich on tech dot tv.
Coming up, we are going to open up the feedbag.
It is overflowing, so I will get through as many
of your emails as I can right here. Coming up
next on rich on tech. Oh my gosh. We've had

(01:37:47):
so much fun on this show and it's been a
good one, got a lot of good information, and it's
just going to continue right now. This is the feedbag.
This is the part of the show where I read
the emails that you send me. And there's two types
of emails. There are sort of the questions that I
get from people, which I'll answer throughout the show, and
then there's the ones that are more comment based, right
whether they're saying something nice about the show, saying something

(01:38:10):
mean about the show, which doesn't happen all that often,
but it does, or they're just kind of commenting on
something that we've brought up during the show. So that's
what the feedbag is. It's a combination of the feedback
and the mail bag. But since we don't have a
standard mail bag anymore, I call it the feedback. So
here we go. Let's start with us. Steve in Beaumont

(01:38:30):
listening on the podcast. I've really been enjoying the podcast.
After forty years as a custom electronics installer, I still
can't believe how good tcltvs have gotten. And by the way,
I learned this week that I think TCL stands for
that creative life. That creative life TCL, I think that's
what it stands for. Let me say, or is it

(01:38:51):
the creative life? The creative life the current brand motto?
So maybe it didn't stand for that. Oh, the company
originally used the abbreviation for Telephone Communication Limited. Okay, there
we go, So they changed it because you know, it's
not just telephones anymore. Anyway, I digress on CHATTYBT health.
I actually use chattybt for medical advice pretty often. I

(01:39:11):
like that it nudges me to talk to a doctor
when things get serious. That part, the part that feels
overwhelming is set up. Uploading my medical history would take hours.
I've got years of lab results and just sharing the
latest results wouldn't tell the full story. What would make
this useful is if it could connect directly to my
medical provider. In a perfect world, I just say CHATTYBT.
Here's my Kaiser number. Go for it. Yeah, a lot

(01:39:33):
of thoughts about you know, CHATCHYBT and health for sure
because it's gonna happen. Mark and Reno says Rich quick
heads up. Spectrum is now offering symmetrical download and upload
speeds in parts of southern California and other markets they serve.
My area here in Reno is one of the first
to get the upgrade. It's a big change, especially for
people who rely on fast uploads for work backups or

(01:39:56):
cloud services. I've got AT and T fiber available to which,
as you know, is still the gold standard for Internet
delivery compared to hybrid coax fiber. And yet on that note,
we also had someone right in. I mentioned this last
week about looking up your broadband on the speed Test website,

(01:40:16):
but Joe and Indiana said, hey, quick follow up on
your point about using zip codes to check for home
internet prices. The FCC's National Broadband Map is a better
tool if you want accurate address level info. Instead of
showing a whole area, it lets you plug in a
specific address. The data is still self reported, so it's
not a guarantee, but it's very precise. You can see

(01:40:37):
all the providers that say they serve that home, whether
it's fiber, cable, DSL, and the maximum speeds they claim
they can offer at that exact location. The map is
at broadband dot FCC dot gov. And I gotta tell
you I knew about this, but I forgot to mention it.
But it is really good. So if you put in
an address, you can see the exact providers at that place,

(01:41:02):
both broadband and wireless. And it's and I'm talking cell phones,
so you can see the up and down speeds. And
for instance, this location I just put in Spectrum offers
one thousand down but thirty five up. If you're talking symmetrical,
it would be the same like AT and T does,
which is fiber. They're doing a thousand down thousand ups.

(01:41:22):
So broadband dot broadbandmap dot FCC dot gov. I will
link that up on the website. That is a great one, Thanks, Joe.
Let's see here. PJ says, I was thinking about Star
Trek and the idea of the universal translator. Back then
it felt like pure science fiction, but now we've got
real translators that work with text and voice. I just
picked up a pair of translation earbuds and while they're impressive,

(01:41:45):
they still have quirks. If the other person talks too long,
the translation starts going early and the voices overlap, which
gets confusing. Still, it's clear this stuff is only going
to get better. I heard you talking about voice to
text on the show. That's another other things Star Trek
nailed early on, along with talking directly to the computer.
Funny how much of the future is already here? That

(01:42:07):
is true. Jack and Illinois says, I've got a quick
psa about Google Maps versus Apple Maps. My city, Moleine
just replaced two busy traffic light intersections with modern traffic circles.
Google Maps updated the change within a day or two,
but four months later, Apple Maps is still telling drivers

(01:42:28):
to stop at lights and stop signs that no longer exists.
That's not just outdated, it feels unsafe. Jack. Yes, I
do think Google Maps is probably updated faster than Apple Maps,
which you know has hit or miss, But you should
use the reporting tool inside the map to fix it
and see how long it takes for them to fix that.
I did that for a one way street that I

(01:42:48):
turned down one time because it wasn't marked on Google Maps,
and they did actually come out and fix it. It
took a while, but they did. Glenda in North Carolina, Hey, Rich,
I enjoy reading your newsletter every week. I've been in
research and consulting for radio and TV and now all
things media for more than thirty years. It's great to
see someone who's successful across both new and old media.

(01:43:09):
One of the toughest parts of our job has always
been convincing clients that audiences don't see media in silos.
To them, it's all just entertainment and information wherever it
shows up. Cheers, Glinda, Glinda, I'm gonna give you an
everyone else the secret to my quote unquote success. There's
no success. It's no secret. All I do, whether it's
on TV, radio, or the newsletter or social media, all

(01:43:33):
different mediums. All I do is think about what is
best for the person that is reading, listening, watching. That's it.
There's no secret. Go ahead, do exactly what I do.
That's my number one drive. Just do what's best for
AKA the customer, right, the person listening. That's it. There's

(01:43:53):
no real secret. I mean, you could do it tomorrow.
The problem is nobody wants to do it. They do
what's best for themselves. Twenty nine percent of people that
you see on TV.

Speaker 5 (01:44:02):
You.

Speaker 1 (01:44:02):
I don't want to knock other radio folks, but like
that's what they're doing. They're doing people humans. They do
it's best for themselves bottom line. I don't. I'm doing
what's best for you, and that's why I feel like
some of what I've done has resonated. Let's see Rick
Rocky in Los Angeles. I've been around a long time
as a film and television producer, so I don't say

(01:44:23):
this lightly. My wife and I love your pieces, and
we honestly think your early show Always Talking About TV
is one of the most entertaining shows on TV. It's
almost worth getting up at four am just to watch it.
Almost Keep up the outstanding work and best luck to
you and yours. Thank you, Rocky. One more, Let's do
one more nice one, Gene says, I'm a new subscriber.

(01:44:45):
I just want to say I enjoy your weekly newsletter.
I listen to your podcast. It's educational, informative, and easy
to follow. Thanks so much for what you do. Thank you,
Gene for finding me that's gonna do it for this
episode of the show. You can find links to everything
on the website. Rich on tech dot tv. Follow me
on social media. I'm at rich on tech. Find my
newsletter at richontech dot tv. Sign up for it next week.

(01:45:05):
Another guy who does what's best for the customer, the
end user you, tech journalist Jared Newman. He's going to
talk about some of his latest tips and tricks from
his newsletter newsletter called Advisorator. Thanks so much for listening.
There are so many ways you can spend your time.
I do appreciate you spending it right here with me.
Before I go, Please don't drive distracted. Those texts can wait.

(01:45:26):
Don't text and drive. Thanks to everyone who makes this
show possible. My name is rich Drmiro, coming to you
from a frigid New Jersey. Have a fantastic weekend. I
will talk to you real soon

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Tech clues in the Guthrie case, wireless satisfaction rankings & AI dog scam (160, February 7, 2026)