September 11, 2020 • 47 mins
Apple sets a date to reveal new products at a virtual event, pricing and availability for the new Xbox models, two factor authentication on Zoom, location tracking in Citizen SafePass app, Apple TV app on VIZIO TV's and Peloton's new bike.Listeners ask about the best apps to monitor kids on social media, Samsung Galaxy Watch 3, replacing cable with a Roku and screen protectors for a Samsung phone.
Follow Rich:https://twitter.com/richontechApple Eventhttps://www.apple.com/apple-events/Xbox modelshttps://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/09/09/xbox-series-x-and-xbox-series-s-launching-november-10/Zoom two factorhttps://blog.zoom.us/secure-your-zoom-account-with-two-factor-authentication/Citizen SafePasshttps://twitter.com/richontech/status/1304446931939147777Apple TV on VIZIOhttps://www.vizio.com/en/appleofferPeloton Bike+https://blog.onepeloton.com/new-peloton-bike-tread/Social media monitoring for kidshttp://bark.us/Roku cablehttp://untangle.tv/homeScreen protectorsTech Armorhttps://amzn.to/3hn5JM2Invisible Shieldhttps://www.zagg.com/en_us/invisibleshield
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Follow Rich:https://twitter.com/richontechApple Eventhttps://www.apple.com/apple-events/Xbox modelshttps://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/09/09/xbox-series-x-and-xbox-series-s-launching-november-10/Zoom two factorhttps://blog.zoom.us/secure-your-zoom-account-with-two-factor-authentication/Citizen SafePasshttps://twitter.com/richontech/status/1304446931939147777Apple TV on VIZIOhttps://www.vizio.com/en/appleofferPeloton Bike+https://blog.onepeloton.com/new-peloton-bike-tread/Social media monitoring for kidshttp://bark.us/Roku cablehttp://untangle.tv/homeScreen protectorsTech Armorhttps://amzn.to/3hn5JM2Invisible Shieldhttps://www.zagg.com/en_us/invisibleshield
Submit a question!richontech.tvSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Apple sets a time and date for its next big event,
The new way to secure your Zoom account, fake Amazon reviews,
plus your tech questions answered.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
What's going on?
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I'm Rich Dmiro and this is Rich on Tech, the
podcast where I talk about the tech stuff I think
you should know about. It's also the place right answer
the questions that you send me What's going on? My
name is Rich Demiro, tech reporter at KTLA Channel five
in Los Angeles. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. How's it going working
(00:45):
and schooling from home? I have been working from home.
I can't believe that it is now September? Can you September?
Where did the time go? I remember going out for
Memorial Day weekend, like thinking that was the first kind
of kickoff to the summer. And here we are past
(01:05):
Labor Day, Summer's over, and we are into the thick
of school, into work, into just everything, and we've gotten
used to working from home. I kind of enjoy it
at this point, and I think that there are some
advantages to it.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
There's some disadvantages.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
But everyone's sleeping longer except me since I still wake
up pretty early for the news. But my wife and
kids are sleeping longer. Because they don't have a commute anymore.
There's no rush to get in the shower and get
dressed and get on the commute to work in school.
So now everyone just kind of rolls out of bed,
they have some breakfast, they watch some TV, and then
(01:46):
it's the reality of work. And here in Los Angeles,
last week, man, it was hot. Whoa, it was really
really hot last week. And now we've got some fires
going on in California. I think that's an understatement. So
these are some interesting times for me. It is getting
(02:07):
into the thick of gadget season. We've got so many
new gadgets coming out in the next couple of months.
We just got through all of Samsung's stuff, and now
we are going to get into all of Apple stuff
and maybe even some of Google stuff and Microsoft stuff
and Sony stuff. So it is a time for gadgets.
(02:28):
Right before the holidays, this is when everything is announced.
And sadly, I am sending back my Note twenty Ultra
today along with a Z flip but I or Z
fold but I didn't really think I would use that phone.
But no, twenty Ultra, I have to say, still one
of my favorite phones.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So if you are.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Thinking of making the switch to a Samsung device or
the Note device. The Note twenty Ultra was one of
my favorite phones I have tested in the past five years,
i'd say. And so with that said, the biggest problem
I had with the Note twenty Ultra was the size,
and the thing that I wanted was a smaller version,
(03:09):
and I kind of contemplated. In fact, let me see,
it was actually on sale on Amazon for uh. I
had it in my let's see my browsing history. I
had the Note twenty, the regular version, in my browsing
in my Amazon cart for a moment. Ah, the price
went back up again.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Darn it.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Oh wait, wait wait, maybe it didn't hold on. Nope,
it's still two hundred dollars off the Note twenty, not
the big one, not the Ultra, but the regular Note
twenty is eight hundred bucks, which is still expensive. But
you just don't get a couple of things that I
want on there. But anyway, I will be happy my
iPhone is right here. It's not as exciting as some
(03:51):
of the Samsung devices that I've been testing, but it
still works and for social media. You know, I've talked
about this, It's still better let's get into the first
big story of the podcast. Apple officially announces it's September
fifteenth event. This was really funny because, so here's what happened.
(04:11):
Everyone was waiting because there's a big rumor that they
would announce this event on Tuesday, September eighth.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I think it was Yes, that is correct, And so.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
All the people are just sitting there refreshing Apple's website refresh, refresh, refresh,
looking at their email refresh, refreshed, waiting for this invite.
As journalists that we get well. Apple did something kind
of funny this year. They put the information on their
website first, and then they waited a little bit, and
then they sent out the invitation.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So we got two different stories.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
At first, all the people that saw the information on
the website said, yes, we have our big iPhone event
happening September fifteenth, ten am Pacific. And then after everyone
tweeted that and screenshoted that, they sent out the invitation
to journalists including myself that had won two extra words
on it that the website did not, and it said
(05:01):
time flies, which immediately everyone realized that, oh, this is
about the Apple Watch and not necessarily the iPhone because
we know that the iPhone supposedly is delayed this year.
So as it stands September fifteenth, ten am Pacific, you
can watch the live stream of Apple's next big event,
(05:22):
and we are expected to see new Apple Watches and
a new iPad Air.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
That's according to Bloomberg.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
They say that the iPhone twelve will launch later in October,
and that makes sense because we've heard with the pandemic
that things are a little bit delayed.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So am I.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Excited for new Apple Watch and new iPad Air? Yes,
the new iPads. I am excited because I'd like to
buy my kids new iPads. It's been a while, it's
been I think four years now, and they need a
new iPad, both of them.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
So I am excited for that.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
My one kid's iPad is all cracked and it just
needs to get a new one. And they're just small,
and ideally like to get them iPad Mini. I'm not
sure if they're refreshing that, but whatever it is, I
just need to buy new iPads. So I will be
very excited for the iPad situation and Apple Watch. I mean,
I can't imagine what they're gonna add to the Apple Watch.
(06:12):
That would make me more excited about it. I think
the current Apple Watch is near perfect except for battery life,
but I've gotten so used to charging it every night anyway.
The other thing is that the well, we'll just say,
we'll see. So that's that, And I don't know what
more to say about the Apple event. It's gonna be exciting,
it's virtual. I'm not going up there, so that saves me,
(06:34):
you know, the time and effort of going up to Coopertino.
It's always fun to go up there, but it's just
not happening that way right now. So we will see
what happens with Apple. Maybe they'll throw us some surprises,
throw us some loops, But right now, as it stands,
we're looking forward to new Apple Watches and new iPads.
Perhaps maybe some smaller gadgets like an air tag, but
(06:54):
I think that's coming with the iPhone, and even with
the iPhone, I mean, what more do you want with that?
I mean except for people that are just waiting to upgrade,
and five G is cool, but we know that five
G is not necessarily all there just yet. So let's
get to our first question. This comes from let's see,
(07:18):
Lisa says, good morning, Good morning. I have a tech
question for you. I recently purchased a Roku to save
money and lose our cable during this difficult time. Would
like to still have some basic channels and some sports.
Do you recommend any particular app for this? Thank you
for your time and input. Love the Channel five News. Well,
thank you, Lisa. So you ditched cable, which was a
(07:43):
smart move to get you save some money here, and
you have a Roku. So the good news is Roku
has pretty much everything you need, with the exception right
now of HBO Max and also what is it HBO
Max And what's the other one that's not on there
right now? HBO Max blanking right now, there's two? What
(08:06):
was the one that just came out? Anyway, So Hulu
has a lot of what you need. The problem is
you're looking for sports, which is kind of tricky. I
will tell you one app that I think is pretty
cool that I think is kind of like having cable
but for free.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
And it's called Pluto TV.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
And this is I kind of tell these stories, but
I've been wrong about a couple of things several times
in my tech career, and I'm human, I get it.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
It happens.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
But I'll never forget sitting there with this guy at
lunch who told me that he started this new app
called Pluto TV, and I didn't get it. I literally
sat there and told this guy. He's like, you know,
maybe you should do a story on it. I'm like, why,
come on, dude, there's so many streaming apps out there.
(08:52):
This was many years ago, and I'm not kidding. I
sat there at lunch as he told me all about
Pluto and how it was going to be like cable
but for free, and I just didn't get it. It
did not register in rich Demuro's mind that this was
a three hundred million dollar idea, because a couple of
years later, that's how much Viacom paid him for Pluto TV.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
So, needless to say, I was wrong, he was right.
And sometimes I will be honest.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Sometimes I am told stuff so early in the game
that my little brain cannot process just how big of
an idea this is. Now, I'm not saying that's all
the time. When I remember the Microsoft came in and
told me about the surface, I got it immediately.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
And while no one else can.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Understand how a tablet could be a PC and how
PC could be a tablet and touchscreen and pen and
all this stuff. I got that, and it took a
while for the rest of the world to catch on
to that idea. But with the Pluto TV situation, I
just didn't really get it. I said, why would you
want this? I downloaded it when I got home. I
watched it for about five minutes. It seemed to me
(10:03):
that it was YouTube but strung together, you know, one
one video after another, which I kind of like, but
I'd rather just watch what I want to watch by
keying and keywords.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Well, now I get it.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Pluto has really done a good job of expanding and
when you download the app, it's fast.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
The channels changed like cable channels. There's a whole bunch.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Of stuff to watch for free, and I'm very impressed.
And someone at Viacom, which is much smarter than me,
because they capitalized on it and bought it from this guy.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
And now the rest, as they say, is history.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
So Lisa, to answer your question, I would start with
something like a I would just go through Roku and
look at the top channels. Everything is represented there. So
if you want, you know, entertainment, sports, whatever, you're gonna
get it. The problem is what it's going to be
tough to do is local news in certain aspects, and
(10:58):
sports are really tricky too because you usually have to
pay for those.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
The other website I'd.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Recommend is Untangled dot tv, so if you want to
pay for a little bit of something, you might.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Want to look at that.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
The other service that gives you a lot of channels
for a little bit is Filo Philo. Filo is a
cable kind of streaming service that's twenty bucks a month
for a whole bunch of channels, fifty channels plus a DVR,
and what you'll find is there's no sports on there.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
That's how they save money.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
But they've got all the cable channels, like or a
lot of them, AMC, Animal Planet, DIY, Food Network, FI,
Game Show Network, MTV, Lifetime, No Oxygen, No Oxygen, Nicktoons,
Nick Junior. So they have a lot of stuff on there.
But again, go to Untangled dot tv and pop in
the things that you want to watch, the things that
you like, and just see if that gets what you need.
(11:52):
But if you canceled cable to save money, personally, I
would just not subscribe to anything and just see what
you can get.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
At for free through these streaming services.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
On the live stream, folks are recommending Peacock's a bunch
of stuff there. You can get a bunch for free streaming.
Just go ahead and like I said, look at the
top channels on Roku and just see what what interests you.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Oh whoops, sorry, wrong sound effect. I'm going to a
story right now.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Microsoft unveiled details on the Xbox Series S and the
Xbox Series X S and x S and x S
and x S and x say that ten times fast.
And here is an interesting part. I believe they've had
(12:49):
this before, but you can now basically rent to own
an Xbox. So it starts at twenty five bucks a month. Here,
let me give you details. November tenth, that is when
the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Will be available.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Pre orders are already or no, they're starting on September
twenty second. So let's talk about the Xbox Series S.
This is the I guess, the inexpensive model. This is
the cheaper one, all digital, and that means it's still
fast still.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
You know, has what you need. But it's a small,
sleek Xbox.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
That I believe does not have any sort of CD drive,
disk drive, whatever.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
It's all Ye, it's all digital.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
So that's kind of the entry level model that I
think a lot of people will like. But if you're
a true gamer, you're probably going to be more interested
in the Xbox Series X. The Xbox Series S, by
the way, is three hundred bucks. Then you've got the
x which is the you know, the the big boy.
It's the real deal everything that you need five hundred
(13:56):
dollars for that one. And again these are both you know,
big new gaming platforms, gaming consoles, I should say, And that's.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
What you need to know. So pricing, let's talk about
the prices.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
They are doing this Xbox All Access and so for
twenty four months, you pay and you get this console
your choice.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
So here's what you get. You get the console of
your choice.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Then you get one hundred high quality games to play
on that console, including next gen optimized games. Then you
get one hundred high quality games to play on your PC.
Then you get an EA Play membership, so you can
play sixty of EA's biggest games and one hundred games
to play from the cloud. So a whole bunch of games.
Now it sounds great. I'm counting this up one hundred,
(14:46):
two hundred two sixty three hundred and sixty games to play.
How many of these games are you actually going to play?
Probably not many. The games that you actually want to
play are probably still going to cost you the sixty
bucks or whatever they cost for a new game.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Now.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
I am not a huge gamer, so I can't really
comment on how many games are in this Xbox Game
Pass Ultimate, but I'm sure there's some. It's kind of
like the Nintendo Switch or Apple Arcade. You're gonna find
stuff to play, But is it gonna be the latest, greatest,
best games that you want to play? Probably not in
every circumstance.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
How much does this cost?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Twenty five dollars for twenty four months for the Xbox
series S. If you want the x which is the
bigger batter machine, that's gonna be thirty five dollars a
month for twenty four months. I'll do the math for you,
save you the math, and that is six hundred dollars
or eight hundred forty dollars. So how much are you
paying extra? You're paying an extra three hundred dollars on
top of the small one, three hundred and forty on
(15:47):
top of the big one, so you have to decide
in two years is three hundred or three hundred forty
dollars worth all those games you get? And also the
I guess the pricing plan. So if you like to
pay monthly, it might seem like a better deal because.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
It's only twenty five bucks a month. It's only thirty
five bucks a month, no big deal.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
But you're actually paying three hundred dollars in interest or
three hundred and forty dollars in interest in the form
of games. So I'm not gonna tell you whether that's
good or bad. You can decide on your own. But
I will tell you that both of these Xbox consoles
are backwards compatible with thousands of generations or games from
four generations of Xboxes. So that's kind of cool because
(16:28):
that's always a big question, will these play old games?
And I think that, you know, I think that my
kid wants the Xbox. It's gonna be Xbox versus PlayStation.
I think he wants the Xbox because he wants to
do Minecraft and Minecraft on a console. He's been asking
for it for a while, so that will probably be the.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Direction we go in the DeMuro household.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
But again, now you know, next question from Kristen or Kirsten.
I never know if it's Ki. I guess that's Kirsten, right,
Kirsten says, Hi, Rich, have you done a review on
the new Samsung Galaxy Watch three. I have not, and
I'll tell you why. I wore the Samsung Galaxy Watch
(17:12):
three for about twenty four hours and that was it.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
That was about all I could take of it. So
I don't want to knock it.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
I'm sure that if you have an Android and you
know Samsung device, it's great. I just could not get
into it, and especially at the price four hundred bucks,
it just did not seem like something that was what
I wanted, and it just it's the Samsung Galaxy Watch three.
It has a leather band number one, which I immediately
(17:42):
don't like because I feel like I'm not trying to
get a watch for looks.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I'm trying to get a watch for.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Fitness situations, and I just I don't know. So, Kirsten,
I did not do a formal review because I just
did not see the mainstream appeal of that device at
that price. And so maybe I'll change my mind to
do it, but I just have not gotten a lot
of interest from it either. And also, I be totally honest,
I think that the Fitbit Sense, the new Fippit coming out,
(18:09):
is a way better fit for an Android user and
a lot of iPhone users out there now. I think
iPhone the Apple Watch is always going to be best,
but I think when it comes to in general for Android,
I just feel like the Fippit is a better device.
It just has more features, it has a better price point.
It's already down to three hundred bucks on Amazon, down
(18:31):
from three to thirty, and.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I just think it just I don't know, it just
seems better to me.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
I've not tested it yet, so I don't know for sure,
but that's my feeling. So I just didn't really see
the big appeal of the Samsung Galaxy Watch three.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
And I could be wrong.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Maybe I'm wrong, like I was about about the other thing,
the Pluto TV. But at the same time, that's why
I didn't cover it. I played with it for a
little bit and it's just there's literally no apps available.
There's just not much on that. It's like the same
thing that I opened up a couple years ago when
I checked out the Galaxy Watch.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
The last time.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
There has been no movement on that device whatsoever. There's
no there's no music apps, there's no no I mean,
if I look at my Apple Watch, every app I
install on my iPhone, there's a there's a companion app
that goes onto the Apple Watch. Google Maps just came
to the Apple Watch after many years of not being there.
There's just a lot of pro there's just a lot
(19:29):
of progress with the Apple Watch, and I just have
not seen that same progress with the adoption of Samsung's watch.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
And when it comes to something.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Like Fitbit, I feel like they have progressively gotten better
and better and better and kind of honed things.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
But at the same time, I just.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Think that's a better choice for most people. So I
will be reviewing the Fitbit. I don't think they're sending
it to me, so I will be purchasing that myself
and definitely getting that on a review because I feel
like people need to know about that watch.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
A sense.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Just seems like they put everything we need in a
smart watch for the Android side, from sleep to temperature
scanning to all kinds of stuff, and it has a
six day battery life. So to me, that's where my
money is, and I think that that's where your money
should be. If you're looking for a watch for the
Android side of things, if you're looking for.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
iPhone side of things.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
I still think you gotta go Apple Watch because it
just integrates so well with their iPhone that I can't
imagine going with something else. Unless sleep is your primary
sleep and battery life are your primary motivations for a watch,
then I think the Sense would be good for you
for that.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
But again I haven't tested it yet, so that's you know.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
And again this is this podcast is called rich on Tech.
It's it's my opinion, it's what I see in the world.
So if you listen to an Android podcast or a
Samsung podcast, they may say that the Samsung Galaxy Watch
three is the best thing ever invented.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
I don't know if that's the case.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I am very quick to judge things when it comes
to some of this tech, and to me, when I
put that watch on.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
It just felt like a step backwards. And so I
feel like you have to just go with your gut.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Sometimes on these things, even though yes I'm wrong sometimes,
But at the same time, you know, I tried it.
I did a couple I did a run with it,
I did a bike thing, with it. It just didn't
give me the satisfaction that I get from the Apple
Watch or even from when I wore the Fippit. I
wore the Versa for a long long time over the
Apple Watch, and I think the Fipbit Versa three looks
(21:38):
very promising. I think the inspired, I think what fipbit
is doing is very good. When it comes to just
every day general fitness and tracking, that's what you want
to go with, all right. So in Los Angeles, you know,
everyone's talking about COVID nineteen and I hope you're safe
(21:58):
from that, and I hope you're doing well with that.
But this whole idea of contact tracing, So if you know,
if you're familiar with that idea of contact tracing, it
means that it you know, if you come down with COVID,
someone out there in the health department wants to know, well,
who did you come into contact with because we need
to call them and they need to be aware of
(22:19):
this and potentially get tested. And so the tech companies
Apple and Google, they came up with a system that's
built into all the iPhones and all the androids, and
it's a really good system that uses Bluetooth to track
you where you go, but not location, just track who
you come into contact with. And if you come into
contact with someone that gets COVID nineteen and they report
(22:41):
it to their phone, then it will be reported to
you all anonymously. Well, it's getting some pick up, but
not a lot. Well, Los Angeles County decided to go
with Citizen and an app that they have called safe Pass,
and it's the same idea. You go into this app
every day and you report whether you have COVID or
symptom or testing or whatever, and it will tell the
(23:03):
folks that you've come into contact with if they should
get tested because well, you came down with COVID.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Well, the big difference.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Here is that when I downloaded the safe Pass app,
which is being promoted all over the place because city
County of Los Angeles decided to go with it, all
of a sudden I noticed that there was no log in,
there was no whatever, But it was somehow linked to
my Citizen app, which I love.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Citizen.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
By the way, if you don't have the Citizen app
on your phone, get it.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
It tells you all the insane crime happening around your house,
and it's scary, And it's scary in a good way
because you feel very informed, but you don't know what
to do about it. But you know what's going on
in your neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Well what safe Pass?
Speaker 1 (23:45):
I was a little bit perturbed because before I downloaded it,
I looked all over the permissions on iPhone and Android
and all.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
I saw was Bluetooth, Bluetooth, Bluetooth, nothing about GPS.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
And so when I downloaded it, it said, oh, here
are the people in your neighborhood, and it gave my
neighborhood name and said here's how many people are using it.
I said, well, that's odd because I never gave you
access to my location. So what's going on here?
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Well?
Speaker 1 (24:08):
I figured since I had Citizen downloaded on my phone,
which needs location to work, that somehow safe pass was
sort of piggybacking on their data. And my hunch was
correct because I emailed Citizen and I got a response,
and let me read you their response. I said, does
(24:30):
it use location? And they said if a safe pass
user already has Citizen downloaded and location enabled, safe pass
will use this information to provide you with the location,
as well as the time, date, duration, and around a
potential COVID nineteen exposure, so the user can decide all
location data is deleted after thirty days. Okay, fine, but
(24:50):
here's my problem with that. You need to tell me
that you are using my location, especially with something that
is purportedly tracking me twenty four to seven every single
place I go. Now, I know that the Citizen app
has been doing this, and I like that because in return,
I get a really good product for free, which is
crime alerts around where I am. But I know that
(25:14):
that's doing that, and safe pass never told me it
was doing that. Now I took it a step further,
specifically saying, I see that it only asks for Bluetooth
in permissions, but is it piggybacking on location data from
the Citizen app or otherwise sourcing it?
Speaker 2 (25:28):
I see?
Speaker 1 (25:29):
I ask because I see that when I activated safe
Pass is said where I was located and how many
other people in my city were using the app.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Here's what their response was.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Safe Pass depends on Citizen for GPS data for now,
and eventually all users will benefit from the GPS enabled features.
If you're logged into Citizen with location permissions enabled and
then download safe Pass, the accounts link so that the
user's Citizen app will provide GPS data to the users
safe pass app.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
What hold on? You need to tell us this?
Speaker 1 (26:02):
This was not revealed in any way, shape or form
to the citizens of Los Angeles downloading this app. Now
they say, users who have both Citizen and safe Pass
are informed of GPS data location via our privacy policies. Okay,
when was the last time you read a privacy policy
(26:22):
while you downloaded an app?
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Exactly? Never?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
So I don't like this further for now, if you
don't have Citizen downloaded and location enabled, if you download
safe Pass, safe Pass will not use GPS location. So
what I get from this If you want to protect
your privacy and you don't want safe Pass to keep
a location of where you are at all times with GPS,
you can download the app by first deleting your Citizen
(26:47):
app off your phone, but then you don't get the
benefit of Citizen.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Now.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
I am not saying that it's bad that it's using
location to do this COVID tracing. I think that there
is definitely a level of privacy that you're giving up
if you decide to go that route, and the route
that this app is going is specifically the route that
Apple and Google wanted to avoid because they specifically do
not use your GPS location for their COVID nineteen exposure notifications.
(27:16):
They use only Bluetooth, and that is the most private way.
And I'm not saying that it's a big deal. If
you don't care, if you're not doing anything wrong, you
don't really care about your location, then it's not that
big of a deal. Where I take issue with this
is the fact that nowhere, nowhere, nowhere, except in the
privacy policy, did they tell us that this is happening.
(27:37):
And I don't like that. I feel like that's not
very nice to do to people. And so for an
app that the County of Los Angeles is using and endorsing,
I feel like people should know they throw ound Bluetooth, Bluetooth, Bluetooth,
but realistically they're.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Using location, location location, so they really need to make
that clearer.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
And I suspect as more people kind of realize this,
I suspect that the Citizen website will change, and in fact,
I'm taking a screenshot of it right now because right
now it says with save pass, you can track your symptoms,
find testing sites, and enable Bluetooth contact tracing to get alerted.
(28:19):
I have a feeling they are going to change that
wording because when people realize that it's more than just bluetooth, yeah,
that will change. Speaking of privacy, am I am?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
I getting fired up yet?
Speaker 1 (28:36):
I love getting fired up in this podcast because it's
it's my place to get fired up. But here's something
that you need to do today on your Zoom account.
And it's called two factor authentication. And if you've heard
me blab on on this podcast over and over and
over and over and over, you've heard me talk about
two factor authentication. Two factor authentication is the probably the
(28:59):
best way to secure your accounts. What it means is
that if you're using the same password over and over
or a variation of your password over and over for
all your accounts, which I know you are. I know
you're out there, I know a couple of you are.
If you're doing that, which I highly recommend not doing,
you need to enable two factor authentication, which makes things
(29:20):
a little bit more secure.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
So what two factor.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Authentication does is when someone gets a hold of that
tired old password that you're using everywhere and they enter
it to log into your accounts, it will say oh okay, well, hey,
we also need to get a text message that we
just texted to your phone and the hacker goes, oh
darn it, I don't have that person's phone, so in
(29:45):
that aspect, they can't log in. So it basically stops
these logins from happening when people get your password because
you use a really weak password.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
So it's protecting you from yourself. And so.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Zoom recently enabled this for everyone, and I highly highly
recommend that you enable it. It works with both a
SMS which is a text to your phone, or a
password authentication app, which there are many of them. Google Authenticator,
Microsoft Authenticator or authy is another one, and just pick
one of those. It takes a little bit to set
(30:20):
it up. Don't lose your password to that account. But
those are the things that are a little bit more
secure than using your phone to do this, but at
the minimum, use your phone for SMS. Here's how you
do it. Go to zoom dot us slash profile. You're
gonna have to log in and then scroll to where
it says two factor authentication. You're gonna have to log
in again when you say turn on, and you turn
(30:40):
it on, follow the steps.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
It will be turned on and your life.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Will be better for it, especially if you're a teacher.
You do not want someone hacking into your Zoom account.
I don't know if a lot of people are hacking
into Zoom accounts. I know that, like zoom bombing is
a big thing. This doesn't really help with that, but
it will help from someone getting access to your account.
You just don't want people to have access to your account.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
All right, let's see here, let's see Amanda.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Amanda says, good morning. I guess a lot of people
write me emails in the morning, can I get I
guess you know what. It's probably because they see me
on TV and then it's like boom. They want to
they want to email me because like, oh yeah, I
gotta email that guy that's always on my TV talking
about tech.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Good morning.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Can I get your suggestions on the best apps to
monitor your teenage kid on social media and personal texts?
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Thank you, Amanda, Amanda.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
I recommend the same thing to everyone, and it is
called bark bark dot us. And the reason why I
like bark is because while I have not used this
with my children, I feel like they are the most
I don't know, it just seems like they do it right.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
They can do a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
They can monitor thirty of the most popular apps and
social media platforms, including text messaging and email, and they
use artificial intelligence.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
So what I like is that they actually don't there's
some services.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
That just give you a list of all of your
kids stuff and you have to like go through it
and look at it. What Bark does is it kind
of like monitors using AI, so it will kind of
tell you when it notices something that's a little bit off. Now,
it's not always going to be right, but I kind
of like that approach better than you having to read
every one.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Of your kids text messages. To me, that seems better.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
And this works with a lot of stuff iPhone, Android, Chrome, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, Gmail, WhatsApp,
kick disc, TikTok, Skype. It works with a lot of stuff,
and I think that that's pretty good. It looks for
(32:58):
signs of harmful interaction and content, and so it will
give you a little alerts that tell you when you
need to kind of give something a human eye, and
so I really like that. I don't know, I just
think it looks really good and I, you know, I
hate the fact that we have to do this, but
the reality is we do.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
And how much is it.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
It is five dollars a month or fifty dollars a
year for Bark Junior, and that is something that you
don't really that's just managing screen time and filtering websites.
So realistically, if you want to get the most out
of Bark with all the monitoring the apps, it's fifteen
bucks a month or one hundred dollars for the year,
which it sounds like a lot, but that's a small
(33:40):
price to pay for peace of mind with your kid.
I am dealing with this with my kids with Minecraft
and Roadblocks. They want to be able to Minecraft. I
figured it out where they can chat with just their friends.
With Roadblocks, it's a whole different story.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
You know.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
I'm not a fan of Roadblocks. If it was up
to me, it'd be banned in my home, but I
know all the kids play it. So my kids do
get to play it, but they are highly restricted. And
the problem with Roadblocks is that there's a lot of
stuff going on in there that I don't like, a
lot of chat. It's very sticky. The kids love it,
gets them playing all day long. They can chat with
their friends, but there's you know, there's just a lot
(34:15):
of stuff going on in there. So I don't like
that they are not allowed to chat and they're always
asking me. And the games are restricted, and my kid
is like, oh, can I just unrestrict my games? And
then you can go through every week and kind of
see the games I've played. I don't want to do that.
I don't want to just sit there and go through
every game you've played and see if it's a bad.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Game or not. So I just restrict them, and it
does limit what they can do.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
And so anyway, I digress' that's what I'm dealing with.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
All right.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
If you have a Visio TV, you can get the
Apple TV app on your Visio TV. Now this was
a holdout for a while, but if you have a
Visio smart Cast TV, you can now get the Apple
TV app.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
What does that mean?
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Well, that means that you can watch all of your
app TV content and any movie that you've purchased on
Apple TV you can watch that on your Video now
and also Apple TV Plus.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Which I know you've been wanting to watch.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
I mean, there are a couple things on there that
are pretty good The Morning Show is the only thing
I've watched on there. I do want to watch the
Boys State documentary because I did Boy State when I
was a kid.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
I loved Boy State. But I watched a trailer and
it didn't really appeal to me.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
It was like it looked good, but like it didn't
look like something I need to watch like that day.
For a limited time, Visio Smartcast customers in the US
can sign up for Apple TV Plus and get three
months free.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Three months free is always nice, and Apple TV Plus
if you've purchased an Apple product, you get a year
free of that. I wonder if you can stack those
Probably not, So what can you do on Apple TV?
You can subscribe to Apple TV channels like Showtime, CBS,
All Access, and Stars, and of course.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Get the Apple TV Plus content.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
You can also rent and buy one hundred thousand movies,
which you can already already do in other ways. And
you have Airplay two and Home Kit so this will
work on Visio TVs with Smartcast twenty sixteen and later.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
So if you have a Visio TV, there you go.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
By the way, the three free months expires October sixteenth,
so you have until then to sign up for it.
You can go to visio dot com slash Apple Offer
for more information on that. So grab your three months
free of Apple TV Plus and at least watch the
Morning Show.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
That was pretty good. There might be some other stuff on.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
There that you might like, but that's that's the only
thing I found that I liked. There's a movie with
Tom Hanks called Greyhound on there, and so that looks
good as well.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Uh, let's see what else.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
I think.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Well, that's it for that. I'm not the podcast not over.
Don't get me wrong, We're still going. We still got time,
we still got another question. Let's get to the next question. Uh,
let's see. Good morning, Rich another good morning. I currently
have the Samsung Galaxy S nine plus. I'm looking for
a screen protector. Do you recommend any particular brand that
(37:07):
is case friendly. Thank you for your time and I
look forward to hearing from you.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Jose B.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Well, I will tell you the brands that I have
used in the past that I've had good luck with
and like, and number one on the list is tech Armor.
I love tech Armor because they are cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap,
but they're also good. So the guy from tech Armor.
I forget where he came from, but he had a
lot of experience with tech and I forget what his
(37:37):
background was. But now he came to me with tech Armor,
and immediately I understood it because I said, dude, everyone
else is charging fifty bucks for a screen protector. You're
charging ten. Like, what's the catch? He said, nothing, We're
just not doing it at mal Kiosks. So we can
charge a lot less because we're going straight to Amazon.
And on Amazon you can find a lot of stuff
out there, but you want to go with brands that
(37:59):
you know. So I'm looking on here and do they
have the Samsung Galaxy S nine?
Speaker 2 (38:04):
And yes they do.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
And this is a little bit of a curved screen,
so I think that's why you're saying, is it case friendly?
But they've got it tech Armor three D curved HD
clear ballistic glass and it is twelve dollars ninety five
cents for.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Is it coming to three pack?
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Sometimes they come in like a two pack, oh, one pack, okay,
so it's twelve ninety five for one. So that's the
one that I'd recommend go with that, and that's the
first choice. The other choices are zag Zag is great.
I really like their screen protectors. They do charge if
you you know, they do charge a little bit more.
So if you go into the mall, you are gonna get.
(38:45):
You're gonna get, you know a well. I think Invisible
Shield is the brand name from Zag. But you're gonna
pay a little bit more, but you know what, it's
gonna be high quality. Now let's see do they have
the S nine and and they do S nine? Did
you have an S nine plus or an S nine?
(39:06):
You have an S nine plus? So S nine plus.
Let me see how much it is for Zag. Zag
is twenty nine ninety nine used to be fifty. So
you're gonna pay a little bit more for Zag. Sorry
I keep calling it Zag. But invisible Shield I think
does Zag also do no?
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Yeah, Zag, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
But anyway, it's Invisible Shield is the ZAG brand, but
they also so anyway, those are the two that i'd recommend.
I would look into those. You know, it depends do
you want to pay thirty bucks or do you want
to pay thirteen dollars? Maybe start with the thirteen and
if you don't like it, go to the thirty. But
I always I those are the screen protectors I put
on my phones and I like them. Now I will
(39:46):
tell you I did put a screen protector on my
iPhone this week.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
And that's what I love about scream protectors.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
When they break or they crack, you just peel it
off and you put on a new one and it's
like you have a new phone. And I'll be honest
with the note twenty, I did not have a screen
p protector on there because I did not get them
in time for my testing and I dropped the phone.
It survived for the most part, but there is a
little tiny scratch on the screen and that's just annoying
when you do that.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
And so it's just one of.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Those things that when you have a scratch on your screen,
it's really really annoying.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
And so that's that.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
By the way, if you're asking questions on Facebook Live,
I will get to those, but at the end of
the podcast, I always do the Facebook Live questions at
the end, So stick around till the end and I
will get to some of those questions. But that's you know,
you got to have a screen protector. And okay, so
my story was that I put on a screen protector
that was a Matt finish, and I don't remember putting
(40:46):
a Matt Finish on there. I don't. I like the
privacy ones, but I can't really use them because I
record a lot on my screen when I do little
tips and tricks for you, So I can't really have
a privacy one because if you're at just the wrong angle,
it's gonna look weird. It just doesn't look as good
on camera. But I like the privacy ones. Those are
kind of cool because you know everyone's creeping on your phone.
They're trying to see what you're looking at, especially if
you're commuting or something.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Or at work.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
You don't want all those eyes on your phone. They
don't need to see that you're on Instagram the whole day,
that's what you're doing. But I don't like Matt screen protectors.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
It's it's really off putting.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
For some reason, I am so used to a shiny
phone screen that I put this Matt screen protector on
my iPhone and it just it looks so weird. It's
just like it feels like my phone is messed up,
and it always looks grimy too, which I don't like.
So that's my story and I'm sticking to it all
right Peloton, which has been the bell of the ball
(41:40):
during the pandemic. They have a couple of new devices,
a new bike and a new treadmill. I'm not going
to go over the new treadmill because you can just
look that up. But the new bike is called the
Bike Plus, and if you can believe it, it's actually
more expensive than the last Peloton bike. This one is
twenty five hundred dollars, and so the old one was
(42:01):
like twenty two hundred, I think or something like that.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
So what did they do new?
Speaker 1 (42:06):
It's got a new twenty three point eight inch rotating
HD touchscreen. So the old one was a little bit smaller.
It was like two inches smaller, and it did not
rotate left and right. So what happens is when you're
done with a Peloton this is spin bike, by the way,
when you're done with a workout, you want to be
able to spin your screen left or right so that
(42:26):
you can do kind of the stretching or the strength
exercises they have, and you couldn't do that before, and
so now you can rotate it one hundred and eighty
degrees left and right. They've got a new better speaker system.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
But to me.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
I think that's pointless because who listens to the speaker
on their peloton? Don't you just have headphones in. And
then this is really cool. You can now tap to
pair your Apple Watch and my gym.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
My old gym.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Before I canceled my membership because of the pandemic, had
this on some of their treadmills where you would just
tap your Apple Watch to the treadmill and it would
sync up the results, which was really cool. So because
you're on a treadmill inside, you might not get the
proper results from your Apple Watch. So of course the
treadmill knows exactly how far you've gone, so it would anyway,
(43:11):
so syncs that up. That's really cool. That's a that's
a great feature. And then they have this new auto
follow digital resistance. So if you put your metrics in,
like what your target metrics are when the teacher calls out, okay,
you got to be at thirty resistance right now, the
bike will automatically adjust to that resistance, which is really cool.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
It's kind of like autopilot again.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
It's twenty five hundred bucks for the new bike, plus
it's available September ninth, which has already passed, so you're
good there. And the original Peloton bike is going down
to nineteen hundred dollars, which is kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
Don't forget.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
On top of all these prices, you still have to
pay forty dollars a month for their service, for their membership,
and if you have an original Peloton bike in the
US in working condition, you can trade it in for
seven hundred dollars towards the new one, which I thought
was really cool.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
They don't have to do that.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
They'll even pick it up from your house, and if
you bought a bike in the past thirty days, they
will refund you the three hundred and fifty dollars price difference,
which is how much the price of the bike dropped
the original one. So I think Peloton has done a
solid here, and that's it. I mean, Peloton's fantastic. I
don't have one. I have a imitation bike that I
(44:19):
use the Peloton app with and it's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
It's the Bowflex C six if you're interested.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
I know when I mentioned that on my Instagram, everyone
was like, well bike you have.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
If I was going to buy another one, i'd probably
buy the Peloton. I just could not get over the
forty dollars a month membership fee for the app I pay.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
I think it's thirteen dollars a month, which is a
lot cheaper.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
And so if you're fine with all those fees, by
the time you most people are buying the Peloton on payments.
So by the time you add up the payment with
the monthly payment for the app, I mean, I think
you're talking what is that eighty and eighty that's a
forty and Eightyes, yet I don't know. Oh yeah, fifty
dollars a month plus forty that's ninety dollar a month
(45:00):
for the bike. So now that seemed like a lot
to me when I was paying for a gym membership.
Now that I'm not paying for gym membership, it doesn't
seem as high.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
So I understand where Peloton's coming from.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
I don't like to do monthly payments on things, So
for me, I would want to pay the whole thing
in advance and twenty five hundred bucks out the door.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
It's a lot, but I'd save up for it. That's
the way i'd do it.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
But I think most people, many people like you know,
the idea of forty bucks a month fifty bucks a month.
Though it's just monthly, I'll have a job forever, but
you never know. Clearly, as we saw during this pandemic,
a lot of people were affected. And so that's why
I don't like to do the monthly payments because you
never know, never know, and you know what you're getting
monthly is not coming in anymore. I know it's a
(45:45):
negative way of looking at it, but it's just better
you have more of your money. Anyway, I'm not going
to get it. This is not a financial podcast, but
so anyway, I am now doing Orange theory when that restarts,
so I feel like, you know, paying for that and
then pay for the bike whatever. You don't need to
know how I'm staying in shape. But I'm just saying
ninety dollars a month if you're just using that bike
(46:07):
to work out at home along with you know, YouTube
and all that other stuff or the app, it's fine,
you're gonna that's a pretty decent price to pay.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
One hundred bucks a month. It's not that big of
a deal.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
A lot of gyms are, you know, fifty sixty seventy
one hundred bucks a month if you go to a
fancy gym, it's gonna be two hundred a month.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
I don't know anything about that because I never belong
to one of those so expensive.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
I think that's gonna do it for the end of
the show. I think I'm done. I think I'm done
preaching about all kinds of stuff. That is gonna do
it for this episode of the show. Oh wow, music's
coming up so fast. If you'd like to submit a
question for me to answer, just go to richon Tech
dot tv hit the email button at the bottom of.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
The page that will direct you to me.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
And I would also love it if you would rate
and review this podcast to help other people discover it.
Just go to rate this podcast dot com slash rich
on tech and thank you for your ratings and reviews.
You can find me at rich on Tech. I'm on
all social media platforms right there. If you're watching on Facebook,
stick around to the end and I will answer some
(47:13):
of your questions. Thank you so much for listening. Stay safe,
we'll talk to you real soon.
Apple sets a time and date for its next big event,
The new way to secure your Zoom account, fake Amazon reviews,
plus your tech questions answered.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
What's going on?
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I'm Rich Dmiro and this is Rich on Tech, the
podcast where I talk about the tech stuff I think
you should know about. It's also the place right answer
the questions that you send me What's going on? My
name is Rich Demiro, tech reporter at KTLA Channel five
in Los Angeles. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. How's it going working
(00:45):
and schooling from home? I have been working from home.
I can't believe that it is now September? Can you September?
Where did the time go? I remember going out for
Memorial Day weekend, like thinking that was the first kind
of kickoff to the summer. And here we are past
(01:05):
Labor Day, Summer's over, and we are into the thick
of school, into work, into just everything, and we've gotten
used to working from home. I kind of enjoy it
at this point, and I think that there are some
advantages to it.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
There's some disadvantages.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
But everyone's sleeping longer except me since I still wake
up pretty early for the news. But my wife and
kids are sleeping longer. Because they don't have a commute anymore.
There's no rush to get in the shower and get
dressed and get on the commute to work in school.
So now everyone just kind of rolls out of bed,
they have some breakfast, they watch some TV, and then
(01:46):
it's the reality of work. And here in Los Angeles,
last week, man, it was hot. Whoa, it was really
really hot last week. And now we've got some fires
going on in California. I think that's an understatement. So
these are some interesting times for me. It is getting
(02:07):
into the thick of gadget season. We've got so many
new gadgets coming out in the next couple of months.
We just got through all of Samsung's stuff, and now
we are going to get into all of Apple stuff
and maybe even some of Google stuff and Microsoft stuff
and Sony stuff. So it is a time for gadgets.
(02:28):
Right before the holidays, this is when everything is announced.
And sadly, I am sending back my Note twenty Ultra
today along with a Z flip but I or Z
fold but I didn't really think I would use that phone.
But no, twenty Ultra, I have to say, still one
of my favorite phones.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So if you are.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Thinking of making the switch to a Samsung device or
the Note device. The Note twenty Ultra was one of
my favorite phones I have tested in the past five years,
i'd say. And so with that said, the biggest problem
I had with the Note twenty Ultra was the size,
and the thing that I wanted was a smaller version,
(03:09):
and I kind of contemplated. In fact, let me see,
it was actually on sale on Amazon for uh. I
had it in my let's see my browsing history. I
had the Note twenty, the regular version, in my browsing
in my Amazon cart for a moment. Ah, the price
went back up again.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Darn it.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Oh wait, wait wait, maybe it didn't hold on. Nope,
it's still two hundred dollars off the Note twenty, not
the big one, not the Ultra, but the regular Note
twenty is eight hundred bucks, which is still expensive. But
you just don't get a couple of things that I
want on there. But anyway, I will be happy my
iPhone is right here. It's not as exciting as some
(03:51):
of the Samsung devices that I've been testing, but it
still works and for social media. You know, I've talked
about this, It's still better let's get into the first
big story of the podcast. Apple officially announces it's September
fifteenth event. This was really funny because, so here's what happened.
(04:11):
Everyone was waiting because there's a big rumor that they
would announce this event on Tuesday, September eighth.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I think it was Yes, that is correct, And so.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
All the people are just sitting there refreshing Apple's website refresh, refresh, refresh,
looking at their email refresh, refreshed, waiting for this invite.
As journalists that we get well. Apple did something kind
of funny this year. They put the information on their
website first, and then they waited a little bit, and
then they sent out the invitation.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So we got two different stories.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
At first, all the people that saw the information on
the website said, yes, we have our big iPhone event
happening September fifteenth, ten am Pacific. And then after everyone
tweeted that and screenshoted that, they sent out the invitation
to journalists including myself that had won two extra words
on it that the website did not, and it said
(05:01):
time flies, which immediately everyone realized that, oh, this is
about the Apple Watch and not necessarily the iPhone because
we know that the iPhone supposedly is delayed this year.
So as it stands September fifteenth, ten am Pacific, you
can watch the live stream of Apple's next big event,
(05:22):
and we are expected to see new Apple Watches and
a new iPad Air.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
That's according to Bloomberg.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
They say that the iPhone twelve will launch later in October,
and that makes sense because we've heard with the pandemic
that things are a little bit delayed.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
So am I.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Excited for new Apple Watch and new iPad Air? Yes,
the new iPads. I am excited because I'd like to
buy my kids new iPads. It's been a while, it's
been I think four years now, and they need a
new iPad, both of them.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
So I am excited for that.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
My one kid's iPad is all cracked and it just
needs to get a new one. And they're just small,
and ideally like to get them iPad Mini. I'm not
sure if they're refreshing that, but whatever it is, I
just need to buy new iPads. So I will be
very excited for the iPad situation and Apple Watch. I mean,
I can't imagine what they're gonna add to the Apple Watch.
(06:12):
That would make me more excited about it. I think
the current Apple Watch is near perfect except for battery life,
but I've gotten so used to charging it every night anyway.
The other thing is that the well, we'll just say,
we'll see. So that's that, And I don't know what
more to say about the Apple event. It's gonna be exciting,
it's virtual. I'm not going up there, so that saves me,
(06:34):
you know, the time and effort of going up to Coopertino.
It's always fun to go up there, but it's just
not happening that way right now. So we will see
what happens with Apple. Maybe they'll throw us some surprises,
throw us some loops, But right now, as it stands,
we're looking forward to new Apple Watches and new iPads.
Perhaps maybe some smaller gadgets like an air tag, but
(06:54):
I think that's coming with the iPhone, and even with
the iPhone, I mean, what more do you want with that?
I mean except for people that are just waiting to upgrade,
and five G is cool, but we know that five
G is not necessarily all there just yet. So let's
get to our first question. This comes from let's see,
(07:18):
Lisa says, good morning, Good morning. I have a tech
question for you. I recently purchased a Roku to save
money and lose our cable during this difficult time. Would
like to still have some basic channels and some sports.
Do you recommend any particular app for this? Thank you
for your time and input. Love the Channel five News. Well,
thank you, Lisa. So you ditched cable, which was a
(07:43):
smart move to get you save some money here, and
you have a Roku. So the good news is Roku
has pretty much everything you need, with the exception right
now of HBO Max and also what is it HBO
Max And what's the other one that's not on there
right now? HBO Max blanking right now, there's two? What
(08:06):
was the one that just came out? Anyway, So Hulu
has a lot of what you need. The problem is
you're looking for sports, which is kind of tricky. I
will tell you one app that I think is pretty
cool that I think is kind of like having cable
but for free.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
And it's called Pluto TV.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
And this is I kind of tell these stories, but
I've been wrong about a couple of things several times
in my tech career, and I'm human, I get it.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
It happens.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
But I'll never forget sitting there with this guy at
lunch who told me that he started this new app
called Pluto TV, and I didn't get it. I literally
sat there and told this guy. He's like, you know,
maybe you should do a story on it. I'm like, why,
come on, dude, there's so many streaming apps out there.
(08:52):
This was many years ago, and I'm not kidding. I
sat there at lunch as he told me all about
Pluto and how it was going to be like cable
but for free, and I just didn't get it. It
did not register in rich Demuro's mind that this was
a three hundred million dollar idea, because a couple of
years later, that's how much Viacom paid him for Pluto TV.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
So, needless to say, I was wrong, he was right.
And sometimes I will be honest.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Sometimes I am told stuff so early in the game
that my little brain cannot process just how big of
an idea this is. Now, I'm not saying that's all
the time. When I remember the Microsoft came in and
told me about the surface, I got it immediately.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
And while no one else can.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Understand how a tablet could be a PC and how
PC could be a tablet and touchscreen and pen and
all this stuff. I got that, and it took a
while for the rest of the world to catch on
to that idea. But with the Pluto TV situation, I
just didn't really get it. I said, why would you
want this? I downloaded it when I got home. I
watched it for about five minutes. It seemed to me
(10:03):
that it was YouTube but strung together, you know, one
one video after another, which I kind of like, but
I'd rather just watch what I want to watch by
keying and keywords.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Well, now I get it.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Pluto has really done a good job of expanding and
when you download the app, it's fast.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
The channels changed like cable channels. There's a whole bunch.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Of stuff to watch for free, and I'm very impressed.
And someone at Viacom, which is much smarter than me,
because they capitalized on it and bought it from this guy.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
And now the rest, as they say, is history.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
So Lisa, to answer your question, I would start with
something like a I would just go through Roku and
look at the top channels. Everything is represented there. So
if you want, you know, entertainment, sports, whatever, you're gonna
get it. The problem is what it's going to be
tough to do is local news in certain aspects, and
(10:58):
sports are really tricky too because you usually have to
pay for those.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
The other website I'd.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Recommend is Untangled dot tv, so if you want to
pay for a little bit of something, you might.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Want to look at that.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
The other service that gives you a lot of channels
for a little bit is Filo Philo. Filo is a
cable kind of streaming service that's twenty bucks a month
for a whole bunch of channels, fifty channels plus a DVR,
and what you'll find is there's no sports on there.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
That's how they save money.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
But they've got all the cable channels, like or a
lot of them, AMC, Animal Planet, DIY, Food Network, FI,
Game Show Network, MTV, Lifetime, No Oxygen, No Oxygen, Nicktoons,
Nick Junior. So they have a lot of stuff on there.
But again, go to Untangled dot tv and pop in
the things that you want to watch, the things that
you like, and just see if that gets what you need.
(11:52):
But if you canceled cable to save money, personally, I
would just not subscribe to anything and just see what
you can get.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
At for free through these streaming services.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
On the live stream, folks are recommending Peacock's a bunch
of stuff there. You can get a bunch for free streaming.
Just go ahead and like I said, look at the
top channels on Roku and just see what what interests you.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Oh whoops, sorry, wrong sound effect. I'm going to a
story right now.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Microsoft unveiled details on the Xbox Series S and the
Xbox Series X S and x S and x S
and x S and x say that ten times fast.
And here is an interesting part. I believe they've had
(12:49):
this before, but you can now basically rent to own
an Xbox. So it starts at twenty five bucks a month. Here,
let me give you details. November tenth, that is when
the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Will be available.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Pre orders are already or no, they're starting on September
twenty second. So let's talk about the Xbox Series S.
This is the I guess, the inexpensive model. This is
the cheaper one, all digital, and that means it's still
fast still.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
You know, has what you need. But it's a small,
sleek Xbox.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
That I believe does not have any sort of CD drive,
disk drive, whatever.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
It's all Ye, it's all digital.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
So that's kind of the entry level model that I
think a lot of people will like. But if you're
a true gamer, you're probably going to be more interested
in the Xbox Series X. The Xbox Series S, by
the way, is three hundred bucks. Then you've got the
x which is the you know, the the big boy.
It's the real deal everything that you need five hundred
(13:56):
dollars for that one. And again these are both you know,
big new gaming platforms, gaming consoles, I should say, And that's.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
What you need to know. So pricing, let's talk about
the prices.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
They are doing this Xbox All Access and so for
twenty four months, you pay and you get this console
your choice.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
So here's what you get. You get the console of
your choice.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Then you get one hundred high quality games to play
on that console, including next gen optimized games. Then you
get one hundred high quality games to play on your PC.
Then you get an EA Play membership, so you can
play sixty of EA's biggest games and one hundred games
to play from the cloud. So a whole bunch of games.
Now it sounds great. I'm counting this up one hundred,
(14:46):
two hundred two sixty three hundred and sixty games to play.
How many of these games are you actually going to play?
Probably not many. The games that you actually want to
play are probably still going to cost you the sixty
bucks or whatever they cost for a new game.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Now.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
I am not a huge gamer, so I can't really
comment on how many games are in this Xbox Game
Pass Ultimate, but I'm sure there's some. It's kind of
like the Nintendo Switch or Apple Arcade. You're gonna find
stuff to play, But is it gonna be the latest, greatest,
best games that you want to play? Probably not in
every circumstance.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
How much does this cost?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Twenty five dollars for twenty four months for the Xbox
series S. If you want the x which is the
bigger batter machine, that's gonna be thirty five dollars a
month for twenty four months. I'll do the math for you,
save you the math, and that is six hundred dollars
or eight hundred forty dollars. So how much are you
paying extra? You're paying an extra three hundred dollars on
top of the small one, three hundred and forty on
(15:47):
top of the big one, so you have to decide
in two years is three hundred or three hundred forty
dollars worth all those games you get? And also the
I guess the pricing plan. So if you like to
pay monthly, it might seem like a better deal because.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
It's only twenty five bucks a month. It's only thirty
five bucks a month, no big deal.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
But you're actually paying three hundred dollars in interest or
three hundred and forty dollars in interest in the form
of games. So I'm not gonna tell you whether that's
good or bad. You can decide on your own. But
I will tell you that both of these Xbox consoles
are backwards compatible with thousands of generations or games from
four generations of Xboxes. So that's kind of cool because
(16:28):
that's always a big question, will these play old games?
And I think that, you know, I think that my
kid wants the Xbox. It's gonna be Xbox versus PlayStation.
I think he wants the Xbox because he wants to
do Minecraft and Minecraft on a console. He's been asking
for it for a while, so that will probably be the.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Direction we go in the DeMuro household.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
But again, now you know, next question from Kristen or Kirsten.
I never know if it's Ki. I guess that's Kirsten, right,
Kirsten says, Hi, Rich, have you done a review on
the new Samsung Galaxy Watch three. I have not, and
I'll tell you why. I wore the Samsung Galaxy Watch
(17:12):
three for about twenty four hours and that was it.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
That was about all I could take of it. So
I don't want to knock it.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
I'm sure that if you have an Android and you
know Samsung device, it's great. I just could not get
into it, and especially at the price four hundred bucks,
it just did not seem like something that was what
I wanted, and it just it's the Samsung Galaxy Watch three.
It has a leather band number one, which I immediately
(17:42):
don't like because I feel like I'm not trying to
get a watch for looks.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I'm trying to get a watch for.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Fitness situations, and I just I don't know. So, Kirsten,
I did not do a formal review because I just
did not see the mainstream appeal of that device at
that price. And so maybe I'll change my mind to
do it, but I just have not gotten a lot
of interest from it either. And also, I be totally honest,
I think that the Fitbit Sense, the new Fippit coming out,
(18:09):
is a way better fit for an Android user and
a lot of iPhone users out there now. I think
iPhone the Apple Watch is always going to be best,
but I think when it comes to in general for Android,
I just feel like the Fippit is a better device.
It just has more features, it has a better price point.
It's already down to three hundred bucks on Amazon, down
(18:31):
from three to thirty, and.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I just think it just I don't know, it just
seems better to me.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
I've not tested it yet, so I don't know for sure,
but that's my feeling. So I just didn't really see
the big appeal of the Samsung Galaxy Watch three.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
And I could be wrong.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Maybe I'm wrong, like I was about about the other thing,
the Pluto TV. But at the same time, that's why
I didn't cover it. I played with it for a
little bit and it's just there's literally no apps available.
There's just not much on that. It's like the same
thing that I opened up a couple years ago when
I checked out the Galaxy Watch.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
The last time.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
There has been no movement on that device whatsoever. There's
no there's no music apps, there's no no I mean,
if I look at my Apple Watch, every app I
install on my iPhone, there's a there's a companion app
that goes onto the Apple Watch. Google Maps just came
to the Apple Watch after many years of not being there.
There's just a lot of pro there's just a lot
(19:29):
of progress with the Apple Watch, and I just have
not seen that same progress with the adoption of Samsung's watch.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
And when it comes to something.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Like Fitbit, I feel like they have progressively gotten better
and better and better and kind of honed things.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
But at the same time, I just.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Think that's a better choice for most people. So I
will be reviewing the Fitbit. I don't think they're sending
it to me, so I will be purchasing that myself
and definitely getting that on a review because I feel
like people need to know about that watch.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
A sense.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Just seems like they put everything we need in a
smart watch for the Android side, from sleep to temperature
scanning to all kinds of stuff, and it has a
six day battery life. So to me, that's where my
money is, and I think that that's where your money
should be. If you're looking for a watch for the
Android side of things, if you're looking for.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
iPhone side of things.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
I still think you gotta go Apple Watch because it
just integrates so well with their iPhone that I can't
imagine going with something else. Unless sleep is your primary
sleep and battery life are your primary motivations for a watch,
then I think the Sense would be good for you
for that.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
But again I haven't tested it yet, so that's you know.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
And again this is this podcast is called rich on Tech.
It's it's my opinion, it's what I see in the world.
So if you listen to an Android podcast or a
Samsung podcast, they may say that the Samsung Galaxy Watch
three is the best thing ever invented.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
I don't know if that's the case.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I am very quick to judge things when it comes
to some of this tech, and to me, when I
put that watch on.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
It just felt like a step backwards. And so I
feel like you have to just go with your gut.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Sometimes on these things, even though yes I'm wrong sometimes,
But at the same time, you know, I tried it.
I did a couple I did a run with it,
I did a bike thing, with it. It just didn't
give me the satisfaction that I get from the Apple
Watch or even from when I wore the Fippit. I
wore the Versa for a long long time over the
Apple Watch, and I think the Fipbit Versa three looks
(21:38):
very promising. I think the inspired, I think what fipbit
is doing is very good. When it comes to just
every day general fitness and tracking, that's what you want
to go with, all right. So in Los Angeles, you know,
everyone's talking about COVID nineteen and I hope you're safe
(21:58):
from that, and I hope you're doing well with that.
But this whole idea of contact tracing, So if you know,
if you're familiar with that idea of contact tracing, it
means that it you know, if you come down with COVID,
someone out there in the health department wants to know, well,
who did you come into contact with because we need
to call them and they need to be aware of
(22:19):
this and potentially get tested. And so the tech companies
Apple and Google, they came up with a system that's
built into all the iPhones and all the androids, and
it's a really good system that uses Bluetooth to track
you where you go, but not location, just track who
you come into contact with. And if you come into
contact with someone that gets COVID nineteen and they report
(22:41):
it to their phone, then it will be reported to
you all anonymously. Well, it's getting some pick up, but
not a lot. Well, Los Angeles County decided to go
with Citizen and an app that they have called safe Pass,
and it's the same idea. You go into this app
every day and you report whether you have COVID or
symptom or testing or whatever, and it will tell the
(23:03):
folks that you've come into contact with if they should
get tested because well, you came down with COVID.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Well, the big difference.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Here is that when I downloaded the safe Pass app,
which is being promoted all over the place because city
County of Los Angeles decided to go with it, all
of a sudden I noticed that there was no log in,
there was no whatever, But it was somehow linked to
my Citizen app, which I love.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Citizen.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
By the way, if you don't have the Citizen app
on your phone, get it.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
It's awesome.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
It tells you all the insane crime happening around your house,
and it's scary, And it's scary in a good way
because you feel very informed, but you don't know what
to do about it. But you know what's going on
in your neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Well what safe Pass?
Speaker 1 (23:45):
I was a little bit perturbed because before I downloaded it,
I looked all over the permissions on iPhone and Android
and all.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
I saw was Bluetooth, Bluetooth, Bluetooth, nothing about GPS.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
And so when I downloaded it, it said, oh, here
are the people in your neighborhood, and it gave my
neighborhood name and said here's how many people are using it.
I said, well, that's odd because I never gave you
access to my location. So what's going on here?
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Well?
Speaker 1 (24:08):
I figured since I had Citizen downloaded on my phone,
which needs location to work, that somehow safe pass was
sort of piggybacking on their data. And my hunch was
correct because I emailed Citizen and I got a response,
and let me read you their response. I said, does
(24:30):
it use location? And they said if a safe pass
user already has Citizen downloaded and location enabled, safe pass
will use this information to provide you with the location,
as well as the time, date, duration, and around a
potential COVID nineteen exposure, so the user can decide all
location data is deleted after thirty days. Okay, fine, but
(24:50):
here's my problem with that. You need to tell me
that you are using my location, especially with something that
is purportedly tracking me twenty four to seven every single
place I go. Now, I know that the Citizen app
has been doing this, and I like that because in return,
I get a really good product for free, which is
crime alerts around where I am. But I know that
(25:14):
that's doing that, and safe pass never told me it
was doing that. Now I took it a step further,
specifically saying, I see that it only asks for Bluetooth
in permissions, but is it piggybacking on location data from
the Citizen app or otherwise sourcing it?
Speaker 2 (25:28):
I see?
Speaker 1 (25:29):
I ask because I see that when I activated safe
Pass is said where I was located and how many
other people in my city were using the app.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Here's what their response was.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Safe Pass depends on Citizen for GPS data for now,
and eventually all users will benefit from the GPS enabled features.
If you're logged into Citizen with location permissions enabled and
then download safe Pass, the accounts link so that the
user's Citizen app will provide GPS data to the users
safe pass app.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
What hold on? You need to tell us this?
Speaker 1 (26:02):
This was not revealed in any way, shape or form
to the citizens of Los Angeles downloading this app. Now
they say, users who have both Citizen and safe Pass
are informed of GPS data location via our privacy policies. Okay,
when was the last time you read a privacy policy
(26:22):
while you downloaded an app?
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Exactly? Never?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
So I don't like this further for now, if you
don't have Citizen downloaded and location enabled, if you download
safe Pass, safe Pass will not use GPS location. So
what I get from this If you want to protect
your privacy and you don't want safe Pass to keep
a location of where you are at all times with GPS,
you can download the app by first deleting your Citizen
(26:47):
app off your phone, but then you don't get the
benefit of Citizen.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Now.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
I am not saying that it's bad that it's using
location to do this COVID tracing. I think that there
is definitely a level of privacy that you're giving up
if you decide to go that route, and the route
that this app is going is specifically the route that
Apple and Google wanted to avoid because they specifically do
not use your GPS location for their COVID nineteen exposure notifications.
(27:16):
They use only Bluetooth, and that is the most private way.
And I'm not saying that it's a big deal. If
you don't care, if you're not doing anything wrong, you
don't really care about your location, then it's not that
big of a deal. Where I take issue with this
is the fact that nowhere, nowhere, nowhere, except in the
privacy policy, did they tell us that this is happening.
(27:37):
And I don't like that. I feel like that's not
very nice to do to people. And so for an
app that the County of Los Angeles is using and endorsing,
I feel like people should know they throw ound Bluetooth, Bluetooth, Bluetooth,
but realistically they're.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Using location, location location, so they really need to make
that clearer.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
And I suspect as more people kind of realize this,
I suspect that the Citizen website will change, and in fact,
I'm taking a screenshot of it right now because right
now it says with save pass, you can track your symptoms,
find testing sites, and enable Bluetooth contact tracing to get alerted.
(28:19):
I have a feeling they are going to change that
wording because when people realize that it's more than just bluetooth, yeah,
that will change. Speaking of privacy, am I am?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
I getting fired up yet?
Speaker 1 (28:36):
I love getting fired up in this podcast because it's
it's my place to get fired up. But here's something
that you need to do today on your Zoom account.
And it's called two factor authentication. And if you've heard
me blab on on this podcast over and over and
over and over and over, you've heard me talk about
two factor authentication. Two factor authentication is the probably the
(28:59):
best way to secure your accounts. What it means is
that if you're using the same password over and over
or a variation of your password over and over for
all your accounts, which I know you are. I know
you're out there, I know a couple of you are.
If you're doing that, which I highly recommend not doing,
you need to enable two factor authentication, which makes things
(29:20):
a little bit more secure.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
So what two factor.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
Authentication does is when someone gets a hold of that
tired old password that you're using everywhere and they enter
it to log into your accounts, it will say oh okay, well, hey,
we also need to get a text message that we
just texted to your phone and the hacker goes, oh
darn it, I don't have that person's phone, so in
(29:45):
that aspect, they can't log in. So it basically stops
these logins from happening when people get your password because
you use a really weak password.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
So it's protecting you from yourself. And so.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Zoom recently enabled this for everyone, and I highly highly
recommend that you enable it. It works with both a
SMS which is a text to your phone, or a
password authentication app, which there are many of them. Google Authenticator,
Microsoft Authenticator or authy is another one, and just pick
one of those. It takes a little bit to set
(30:20):
it up. Don't lose your password to that account. But
those are the things that are a little bit more
secure than using your phone to do this, but at
the minimum, use your phone for SMS. Here's how you
do it. Go to zoom dot us slash profile. You're
gonna have to log in and then scroll to where
it says two factor authentication. You're gonna have to log
in again when you say turn on, and you turn
(30:40):
it on, follow the steps.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
It will be turned on and your life.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Will be better for it, especially if you're a teacher.
You do not want someone hacking into your Zoom account.
I don't know if a lot of people are hacking
into Zoom accounts. I know that, like zoom bombing is
a big thing. This doesn't really help with that, but
it will help from someone getting access to your account.
You just don't want people to have access to your account.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
All right, let's see here, let's see Amanda.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Amanda says, good morning. I guess a lot of people
write me emails in the morning, can I get I
guess you know what. It's probably because they see me
on TV and then it's like boom. They want to
they want to email me because like, oh yeah, I
gotta email that guy that's always on my TV talking
about tech.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Good morning.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Can I get your suggestions on the best apps to
monitor your teenage kid on social media and personal texts?
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Thank you, Amanda, Amanda.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
I recommend the same thing to everyone, and it is
called bark bark dot us. And the reason why I
like bark is because while I have not used this
with my children, I feel like they are the most
I don't know, it just seems like they do it right.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
They can do a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
They can monitor thirty of the most popular apps and
social media platforms, including text messaging and email, and they
use artificial intelligence.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
So what I like is that they actually don't there's
some services.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
That just give you a list of all of your
kids stuff and you have to like go through it
and look at it. What Bark does is it kind
of like monitors using AI, so it will kind of
tell you when it notices something that's a little bit off. Now,
it's not always going to be right, but I kind
of like that approach better than you having to read
every one.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Of your kids text messages. To me, that seems better.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
And this works with a lot of stuff iPhone, Android, Chrome, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, Gmail, WhatsApp,
kick disc, TikTok, Skype. It works with a lot of stuff,
and I think that that's pretty good. It looks for
(32:58):
signs of harmful interaction and content, and so it will
give you a little alerts that tell you when you
need to kind of give something a human eye, and
so I really like that. I don't know, I just
think it looks really good and I, you know, I
hate the fact that we have to do this, but
the reality is we do.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
And how much is it.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
It is five dollars a month or fifty dollars a
year for Bark Junior, and that is something that you
don't really that's just managing screen time and filtering websites.
So realistically, if you want to get the most out
of Bark with all the monitoring the apps, it's fifteen
bucks a month or one hundred dollars for the year,
which it sounds like a lot, but that's a small
(33:40):
price to pay for peace of mind with your kid.
I am dealing with this with my kids with Minecraft
and Roadblocks. They want to be able to Minecraft. I
figured it out where they can chat with just their friends.
With Roadblocks, it's a whole different story.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
You know.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
I'm not a fan of Roadblocks. If it was up
to me, it'd be banned in my home, but I
know all the kids play it. So my kids do
get to play it, but they are highly restricted. And
the problem with Roadblocks is that there's a lot of
stuff going on in there that I don't like, a
lot of chat. It's very sticky. The kids love it,
gets them playing all day long. They can chat with
their friends, but there's you know, there's just a lot
(34:15):
of stuff going on in there. So I don't like
that they are not allowed to chat and they're always
asking me. And the games are restricted, and my kid
is like, oh, can I just unrestrict my games? And
then you can go through every week and kind of
see the games I've played. I don't want to do that.
I don't want to just sit there and go through
every game you've played and see if it's a bad.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Game or not. So I just restrict them, and it
does limit what they can do.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
And so anyway, I digress' that's what I'm dealing with.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
All right.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
If you have a Visio TV, you can get the
Apple TV app on your Visio TV. Now this was
a holdout for a while, but if you have a
Visio smart Cast TV, you can now get the Apple
TV app.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
What does that mean?
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Well, that means that you can watch all of your
app TV content and any movie that you've purchased on
Apple TV you can watch that on your Video now
and also Apple TV Plus.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Which I know you've been wanting to watch.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
I mean, there are a couple things on there that
are pretty good The Morning Show is the only thing
I've watched on there. I do want to watch the
Boys State documentary because I did Boy State when I
was a kid.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
I loved Boy State. But I watched a trailer and
it didn't really appeal to me.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
It was like it looked good, but like it didn't
look like something I need to watch like that day.
For a limited time, Visio Smartcast customers in the US
can sign up for Apple TV Plus and get three
months free.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Three months free is always nice, and Apple TV Plus
if you've purchased an Apple product, you get a year
free of that. I wonder if you can stack those
Probably not, So what can you do on Apple TV?
You can subscribe to Apple TV channels like Showtime, CBS,
All Access, and Stars, and of course.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Get the Apple TV Plus content.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
You can also rent and buy one hundred thousand movies,
which you can already already do in other ways. And
you have Airplay two and Home Kit so this will
work on Visio TVs with Smartcast twenty sixteen and later.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
So if you have a Visio TV, there you go.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
By the way, the three free months expires October sixteenth,
so you have until then to sign up for it.
You can go to visio dot com slash Apple Offer
for more information on that. So grab your three months
free of Apple TV Plus and at least watch the
Morning Show.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
That was pretty good. There might be some other stuff on.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
There that you might like, but that's that's the only
thing I found that I liked. There's a movie with
Tom Hanks called Greyhound on there, and so that looks
good as well.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Uh, let's see what else.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
I think.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Well, that's it for that. I'm not the podcast not over.
Don't get me wrong, We're still going. We still got time,
we still got another question. Let's get to the next question. Uh,
let's see. Good morning, Rich another good morning. I currently
have the Samsung Galaxy S nine plus. I'm looking for
a screen protector. Do you recommend any particular brand that
(37:07):
is case friendly. Thank you for your time and I
look forward to hearing from you.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Jose B.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Well, I will tell you the brands that I have
used in the past that I've had good luck with
and like, and number one on the list is tech Armor.
I love tech Armor because they are cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap,
but they're also good. So the guy from tech Armor.
I forget where he came from, but he had a
lot of experience with tech and I forget what his
(37:37):
background was. But now he came to me with tech Armor,
and immediately I understood it because I said, dude, everyone
else is charging fifty bucks for a screen protector. You're
charging ten. Like, what's the catch? He said, nothing, We're
just not doing it at mal Kiosks. So we can
charge a lot less because we're going straight to Amazon.
And on Amazon you can find a lot of stuff
out there, but you want to go with brands that
(37:59):
you know. So I'm looking on here and do they
have the Samsung Galaxy S nine?
Speaker 2 (38:04):
And yes they do.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
And this is a little bit of a curved screen,
so I think that's why you're saying, is it case friendly?
But they've got it tech Armor three D curved HD
clear ballistic glass and it is twelve dollars ninety five
cents for.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Is it coming to three pack?
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Sometimes they come in like a two pack, oh, one pack, okay,
so it's twelve ninety five for one. So that's the
one that I'd recommend go with that, and that's the
first choice. The other choices are zag Zag is great.
I really like their screen protectors. They do charge if
you you know, they do charge a little bit more.
So if you go into the mall, you are gonna get.
(38:45):
You're gonna get, you know a well. I think Invisible
Shield is the brand name from Zag. But you're gonna
pay a little bit more, but you know what, it's
gonna be high quality. Now let's see do they have
the S nine and and they do S nine? Did
you have an S nine plus or an S nine?
(39:06):
You have an S nine plus? So S nine plus.
Let me see how much it is for Zag. Zag
is twenty nine ninety nine used to be fifty. So
you're gonna pay a little bit more for Zag. Sorry
I keep calling it Zag. But invisible Shield I think
does Zag also do no?
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Yeah, Zag, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
But anyway, it's Invisible Shield is the ZAG brand, but
they also so anyway, those are the two that i'd recommend.
I would look into those. You know, it depends do
you want to pay thirty bucks or do you want
to pay thirteen dollars? Maybe start with the thirteen and
if you don't like it, go to the thirty. But
I always I those are the screen protectors I put
on my phones and I like them. Now I will
(39:46):
tell you I did put a screen protector on my
iPhone this week.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
And that's what I love about scream protectors.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
When they break or they crack, you just peel it
off and you put on a new one and it's
like you have a new phone. And I'll be honest
with the note twenty, I did not have a screen
p protector on there because I did not get them
in time for my testing and I dropped the phone.
It survived for the most part, but there is a
little tiny scratch on the screen and that's just annoying
when you do that.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
And so it's just one of.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Those things that when you have a scratch on your screen,
it's really really annoying.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
And so that's that.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
By the way, if you're asking questions on Facebook Live,
I will get to those, but at the end of
the podcast, I always do the Facebook Live questions at
the end, So stick around till the end and I
will get to some of those questions. But that's you know,
you got to have a screen protector. And okay, so
my story was that I put on a screen protector
that was a Matt finish, and I don't remember putting
(40:46):
a Matt Finish on there. I don't. I like the
privacy ones, but I can't really use them because I
record a lot on my screen when I do little
tips and tricks for you, So I can't really have
a privacy one because if you're at just the wrong angle,
it's gonna look weird. It just doesn't look as good
on camera. But I like the privacy ones. Those are
kind of cool because you know everyone's creeping on your phone.
They're trying to see what you're looking at, especially if
you're commuting or something.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Or at work.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
You don't want all those eyes on your phone. They
don't need to see that you're on Instagram the whole day,
that's what you're doing. But I don't like Matt screen protectors.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
It's it's really off putting.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
For some reason, I am so used to a shiny
phone screen that I put this Matt screen protector on
my iPhone and it just it looks so weird. It's
just like it feels like my phone is messed up,
and it always looks grimy too, which I don't like.
So that's my story and I'm sticking to it all
right Peloton, which has been the bell of the ball
(41:40):
during the pandemic. They have a couple of new devices,
a new bike and a new treadmill. I'm not going
to go over the new treadmill because you can just
look that up. But the new bike is called the
Bike Plus, and if you can believe it, it's actually
more expensive than the last Peloton bike. This one is
twenty five hundred dollars, and so the old one was
(42:01):
like twenty two hundred, I think or something like that.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
So what did they do new?
Speaker 1 (42:06):
It's got a new twenty three point eight inch rotating
HD touchscreen. So the old one was a little bit smaller.
It was like two inches smaller, and it did not
rotate left and right. So what happens is when you're
done with a Peloton this is spin bike, by the way,
when you're done with a workout, you want to be
able to spin your screen left or right so that
(42:26):
you can do kind of the stretching or the strength
exercises they have, and you couldn't do that before, and
so now you can rotate it one hundred and eighty
degrees left and right. They've got a new better speaker system.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
But to me.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
I think that's pointless because who listens to the speaker
on their peloton? Don't you just have headphones in. And
then this is really cool. You can now tap to
pair your Apple Watch and my gym.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
My old gym.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Before I canceled my membership because of the pandemic, had
this on some of their treadmills where you would just
tap your Apple Watch to the treadmill and it would
sync up the results, which was really cool. So because
you're on a treadmill inside, you might not get the
proper results from your Apple Watch. So of course the
treadmill knows exactly how far you've gone, so it would anyway,
(43:11):
so syncs that up. That's really cool. That's a that's
a great feature. And then they have this new auto
follow digital resistance. So if you put your metrics in,
like what your target metrics are when the teacher calls out, okay,
you got to be at thirty resistance right now, the
bike will automatically adjust to that resistance, which is really cool.
Speaker 2 (43:29):
It's kind of like autopilot again.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
It's twenty five hundred bucks for the new bike, plus
it's available September ninth, which has already passed, so you're
good there. And the original Peloton bike is going down
to nineteen hundred dollars, which is kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
Don't forget.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
On top of all these prices, you still have to
pay forty dollars a month for their service, for their membership,
and if you have an original Peloton bike in the
US in working condition, you can trade it in for
seven hundred dollars towards the new one, which I thought
was really cool.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
They don't have to do that.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
They'll even pick it up from your house, and if
you bought a bike in the past thirty days, they
will refund you the three hundred and fifty dollars price difference,
which is how much the price of the bike dropped
the original one. So I think Peloton has done a
solid here, and that's it. I mean, Peloton's fantastic. I
don't have one. I have a imitation bike that I
(44:19):
use the Peloton app with and it's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
It's the Bowflex C six if you're interested.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
I know when I mentioned that on my Instagram, everyone
was like, well bike you have.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
If I was going to buy another one, i'd probably
buy the Peloton. I just could not get over the
forty dollars a month membership fee for the app I pay.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
I think it's thirteen dollars a month, which is a
lot cheaper.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
And so if you're fine with all those fees, by
the time you most people are buying the Peloton on payments.
So by the time you add up the payment with
the monthly payment for the app, I mean, I think
you're talking what is that eighty and eighty that's a
forty and Eightyes, yet I don't know. Oh yeah, fifty
dollars a month plus forty that's ninety dollar a month
(45:00):
for the bike. So now that seemed like a lot
to me when I was paying for a gym membership.
Now that I'm not paying for gym membership, it doesn't
seem as high.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
So I understand where Peloton's coming from.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
I don't like to do monthly payments on things, So
for me, I would want to pay the whole thing
in advance and twenty five hundred bucks out the door.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
It's a lot, but I'd save up for it. That's
the way i'd do it.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
But I think most people, many people like you know,
the idea of forty bucks a month fifty bucks a month.
Though it's just monthly, I'll have a job forever, but
you never know. Clearly, as we saw during this pandemic,
a lot of people were affected. And so that's why
I don't like to do the monthly payments because you
never know, never know, and you know what you're getting
monthly is not coming in anymore. I know it's a
(45:45):
negative way of looking at it, but it's just better
you have more of your money. Anyway, I'm not going
to get it. This is not a financial podcast, but
so anyway, I am now doing Orange theory when that restarts,
so I feel like, you know, paying for that and
then pay for the bike whatever. You don't need to
know how I'm staying in shape. But I'm just saying
ninety dollars a month if you're just using that bike
(46:07):
to work out at home along with you know, YouTube
and all that other stuff or the app, it's fine,
you're gonna that's a pretty decent price to pay.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
One hundred bucks a month. It's not that big of
a deal.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
A lot of gyms are, you know, fifty sixty seventy
one hundred bucks a month if you go to a
fancy gym, it's gonna be two hundred a month.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
I don't know anything about that because I never belong
to one of those so expensive.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
I think that's gonna do it for the end of
the show. I think I'm done. I think I'm done
preaching about all kinds of stuff. That is gonna do
it for this episode of the show. Oh wow, music's
coming up so fast. If you'd like to submit a
question for me to answer, just go to richon Tech
dot tv hit the email button at the bottom of.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
The page that will direct you to me.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
And I would also love it if you would rate
and review this podcast to help other people discover it.
Just go to rate this podcast dot com slash rich
on tech and thank you for your ratings and reviews.
You can find me at rich on Tech. I'm on
all social media platforms right there. If you're watching on Facebook,
stick around to the end and I will answer some
(47:13):
of your questions. Thank you so much for listening. Stay safe,
we'll talk to you real soon.
Host
Rich DeMuro
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