December 17, 2024 • 19 mins
KFI's own Tech Reporter Rich DeMuro joins The Bill Handel Show for 'Tech Tuesday'! Rich talks about Apple working on foldable phone and tables, OpenAI takes on Google with real time search for everyone, and META smartglasses. What killed a $20BIL grocery deal? Albertsons says Kroger did. California got millions to train workers in disaster relief, but it’s leaving money on the table.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're list Saints KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
The bill handles show on demand on the iHeartRadio app
KFI AM.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Six forty bill handle here.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
It is a December seventeenth.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Boy, we're moving in that direction already. A Tuesday. A
couple of stories. We're looking at.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
A top Russian general accused of using chemical weapons has
been blown up by an e bike. Well, explosives in
an e bike. That is kind of a neat story.
And then Donald Trump, the president to be President elect,
Donald Trump lost his bid to overturn his criminal conviction
(00:41):
in that hush money case. Now, this was a state
decision in light of the US Supreme Court July ruling
recognizing immunity from prosecution if it was a national act
that he did. And the judge said no, there's nothing
national about paying money to a porn star. That has
(01:01):
nothing to do with a presidential action. Okay, it is time,
since it is a Tuesday, it is time for Tech
Tuesday with Rich Tomorrow, a host of rich on Tech
Saturdays from eleven am to two pm right here on KFI.
He's a KTLA also does tech on KTLA and you
can follow him on Instagram at rich on tech website.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Rich on tech Dot TV.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Morning Rich, Good morning too, Bill.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Ah. We had a lot of stuff going on now,
just because I like those those smart glasses. I have
a friend of mine who has a smart glass or glasses,
and what he does, he'll look right at you and
you look like and you're talking to him, and he's
completely ignoring you and looking at everything else and he's nodding.
(01:52):
So the smart glass, I assume we're talking about the
same the same product.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Right, Well, there's a bunch of them. I think twenty
twenty five going to be the year of the smart glasses.
So I'm not sure which ones your friends have, but
the popular ones right now are the meta ray bands.
And these are like they kind of look like sunglasses.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, they don't have a screen.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
In the lens though, that's the big difference. It's mostly
just like audio.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, I think that's the one. And does it takes pictures,
doesn't it?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yes, it takes pictures, that's the one. Yeah. You can
listen to music, you can make phone calls on it.
These are actually I'm calling them like the sleeper gadget
of the year because and I think this happened to
a lot of the reviewers like myself. We had the
first version, which were fine, but they were bulky, the
battery didn't last very long, they were heavy, the picture
quality was not very good, the video quality wasn't very good,
(02:43):
and they didn't have a lot of features that were usable.
And so we all sort of saw the second version
come out and kind of dismissed them a little bit,
and then metas like, oh, we're adding AI to these, Like, okay,
give me a break. Everything has AI. But once you
put these things on your face, you realize how incredible
they are. And so we're talking three hundred dollars to
these smart glasses. It's a collaboration between ray Ban and Meta,
(03:07):
you know, owners of Facebook, and it gives you all
kinds of possibilities. Not only are the pictures and videos better,
but to have the ability to ask AI at any time,
what you're looking at, what a question that you have
in your head, calculation, anything that AI can answer is
quite incredible.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
All right.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
A couple of questions about that, and that is sound quality. Now,
I take a walk every day and I have a
pair of beats.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
That are ridiculously overpriced.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
I don't need them at all because I listen to
I make phone calls and I listen to books on tape,
all right, and they're insanely expensive relative to what I
actually need.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
But the quality of the sound is incredible. Let's compare
it to these smart glasses.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Well, I think the quality of what you're talking about
is very different because those are closed earbuds that I'm
assuming you have the earbuds. You have over the ear,
I have over the ear, Okay, so you have over
the aar. So you're talking, you know, your ear is
completely filled with sound from those speakers on your ear.
This is very different because the speakers are in the
(04:17):
arm of the lens or I guess the arm of
the glasses in the frames, and so the audio is
sort of directed towards your ears. It's still very audible,
and I think some people might actually like this better
for things like walking and just kind of day to
day because you're not completely shut out from the world.
When I put on earbuds, when I take a walk
(04:39):
around the neighborhood, it's very like encapsulating, like you can't
hear anything that's happening around you whatsoever, Like and all
of a sudden, you see, like you feel like someone
coming up on the left side of you and you're like,
wait what and you got to like jump because you're
so in your own world. I think this is a
different version of audio that I think some people would appreciate. Okay, uh,
(05:00):
and let me tell yours built. Let me tell you
can I tell you you're going to really cool. So
three things that they added to these things overnight. First off,
live AI, so now whatever you're looking at, it streams
that video to AI and you can have a conversation
with AI about it. So you can literally be looking
at a building in France and not just taking a picture,
(05:21):
but you can be glancing at that building and say, hey,
describe what this is. Okay, and you look over to
your right. Okay, now I see that person with that
food in their hand. What are they eating? Look to
your left whatever. Then it can do live translation, so
if someone's speaking to you in a different language Spanish, French,
or Italian, it will translate that in your ears in
real time in English. And then finally, the simple one
(05:41):
is just just zam so you can say, hey, Meta,
what's this song playing? And it will identify the song
that it's that you're listening to.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Boy, that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Does it have a sound canceling, by the way, noise canceling?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
It does not. It does not have noise cancelation because
it's not. It's just you know, it's it's kind of
like this. It's not even bone conducting. It's just directed speakers,
and you know, the effect is fine. Believe me, it's
it's a lighter kind of audio, but it's just fine
for every day And it's about three hundred. I mean, look,
you can get prescriptions, you can get transitions. There's a
(06:13):
whole bunch of different levels of these things, but at
the base, especially over the holidays, they've been on sale
for like less than three hundred dollars.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Wow, And which one is this?
Speaker 3 (06:21):
This is the Meta Yeah, it's called Meta ray Ban
smart glasses.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
I'm writing this down because I know someone who's gonna
buy this.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, I mean, I'm not kidding. Every person I've showed
these glasses to, they're like immediately impressed with what especially
when you put them on, like looking at them whatever.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
But right makes sense?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
All right?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Rich T Mobile customers that's me now can sign up
to test out satellite connectivity.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
What is that about?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
We're seeing a trend with all of the phone companies
and also the phones themselves connecting to satellite. So we
know Starlink has launched over three hundred satellites into space.
There are other companies that also have similar programs. Not
all of them are out of space. Some of them
are land based on the land. But this is all
(07:12):
about being able to text message and also make phone
calls from anywhere in the US. There's apparently five hundred
thousand miles five hundred thousand square miles of land in
the US where traditional cell phone towers do not work,
and if you've ever been to a national park, a
lot of them fall into that category where this cell
service is very spotty, and so they're trying to bridge
(07:35):
that gap. And so t Mobile has linked up with Starlink.
They are going to be the first to test this
satellite to sell program. And if you're a Tea Mobile customer,
you can go on their website right now and say, yeah,
I want to try this, I want to try texting
no matter what. And Bill, if you remember they during
the hurricanes over in North Carolina and Florida, they had
activated this on a temporary basis. The SCC gave them
(07:58):
like the ability to that. So they've already tried it.
Many people have used it, but now this is the
formal testing before people can actually have this service.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
As you said, there are places that have spotty coverage.
Matter of fact, my house, my old house, really crappy coverage.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
It would go in and out.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
It was easier to text, but still phone calls were
very spotty.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
And right now I know people that are in weird,
like someone I know that lives in Calabasas.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Very spotty, and so this is perfect for them.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
And there are enough I'm assuming there are enough telecommunication
satellites up there, especially the ones that Elon Musk are
launching the size of a pack of cars or whatever
the hell they are, or a shoe box that are.
You know, is this the way of the future where
cell phone towers are going to disappear?
Speaker 3 (08:52):
You know, I'm curious about that because I think right
now we don't have the bandwidth with the satellite, you know,
with the satellite, but it's getting better. So if you've
used Starlink their Wi Fi, i mean it's it's miles ahead.
I mean, it's so much faster than Remember they used
to have like the rural internet like Viasat or hues
neet or something like.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah, those were super expensive and super slow, but if
you lived out in the middle of nowhere, at least
you had some sort of level of connectivity. Now, of course,
starlink has thrown all that to the wind, because now
you can get you know, two hundred megabits down, which
is very very fast service pretty much anywhere you are
in the US that has a look at the sky.
(09:34):
And so I think that's the future of cell phones.
You know, back in the day when I was starting
out as a reporter, we would bring a satellite phone.
I'm sure you remember these things. They were huge, you know,
and you had to it had this giant antenna that
you would pull up and it was like, you know,
a couple dollars a minute to use that thing. Now
we're just getting used to the idea of we are
(09:54):
always going to have service no matter where we go,
at least in the US. And then it's also creeping
into the world when we travel. It used to be
very expensive to travel and have Internet. Now that's all
a thing of a past or becoming a thing of
the past, and now of course, cruise ships. I think
the last the last remaining place where we need to
get reliable service that's not super duper expensive.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Going under tunnels, you know, you're in your car and
you're connecting to a cell phone with Bluetooth, and all
of a sudden you're in a three mile tunnel.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
What happens?
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yes, so the satellite. The biggest limitation of the satellite
and why I don't know if it'll completely replace the
land towers, is that if you are if you don't
have a very very clear line of sight to the sky,
it's not going to work. And by the way, it's
very slow still, so we are this is very early
stages of mobile texting. So from everything I've seen with
(10:49):
the iPhone and the Pixel, it takes a while for
these things to get a lock. These satellites move very fast,
but with Starlink it's a little bit of a different
setup because they have so many satellites. I haven't tested
the texting through Starlink, but I did test the Wi
Fi and it does work really well, So I have
no doubt that the messaging is probably even better than
(11:10):
what we've seen before from the Pixel or the iPhone.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
All right, Apple foldable tablet and phone. Now, this is
not the flip phone, which I loved, by the way,
that was the easiest thing to use my Apple. And
I got this super duper big Blasto five thousand and one,
the Ultra, and it's you know, heavy, well relatively heavy,
and I don't like using it. That's why I use
a speaker. How easy is this going to be or
(11:36):
is this a whole different animal?
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Uh No, I think what you're talking about is what
they're going to come out with. So look, we've we've
heard rumors of Apple coming out with a foldable phone
now for years. Every couple of months they resurfaced with
like a little bit more detail, which tells me that
Apple continues to work on this technology, but they're really
trying to perfect it. If history is our guide, Apple
always does what everyone else does a little bit later,
(12:02):
but they do it in their own apply way that
is typically refined. And so we've had foldable phones now
for five years. From the likes of Samsung, Huawei, Google,
they've all come out with foldable phones to some level
of success. I think what Apple wants to do. And
according to the latest report from Mark German over at Bloomberg.
He's saying that they're really trying to eliminate decrease in
(12:24):
the middle of the phone, which is where you see
when you fold the phone there's a crease. So two
things Apple's working on, the clamshell flip style phone, like
you said, the Motorola, like the old flip phone of
the day. That would be an iPhone that's anticipated around
twenty twenty six, so we've still got a ways out.
And then a foldable iPad, which will be basically two
(12:45):
iPads kind of side by side, but foldable, you know,
with the screen continuing across both of them. That would
be projected for twenty twenty eight. But again, Apple has
to do this because everyone else done everyone else has
done it. I think Apple wants to do it in
a little bit of a different, more refined way.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah, that's one of the things I love about technology
is every time you come out with where the companies
come out with something new, they have.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
To immediately start working on the next version. Oh yeah,
so there's never resting.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
No. And then my favorite part of every Apple and
every event that I go to, whether it's Apple, Google, Samsung, whoever,
what they do is they trash the old model and
they tell you everything that was wrong with it, Right,
So they say, we have the new model that does this,
and this is why it's better, because the old model
only had this much brightness and this much speed and
this much So everything you thought was good for the
(13:36):
past year is now suddenly bad compared to the new one.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
It's like when we sign our contracts on broadcam mine's
worse every year.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
And it's your wonderful three hundred and sixty four days
a year, how terrific you are, how much you help
the organization, and then the one day that you're actually
negotiating money, you're completely replaceable and not that strong.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
So true, it's like they, yes, you are one hundred
percent correct. Anyone who's negotiated contract you know that. It's
just like, well, everything's a question mark. You know, we
loved you for all those other days, but today we're
just not sure of your value.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yeah, exactly, all right.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Rich de Murrow KTLA, host of that is there a
segment rich on tech on KTLA.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Yeah, they renamed it Bill because of the success of
the radio show.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
That's cool. I love it. Yeah all right. So that's
every day on KTLA.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Saturday's right here on KFI eleven to two pm on Instagram,
at rich on Tech website, rich on Tech dot TV.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
We'll catch you next week and this weekend.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Yes, I have a holiday bill, Yeah you too.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
All Right, the Albertson's Kroger deal, as you know, fell apart.
It was gonna be the biggest merger in I don't know,
certainly in supermarket history. Okay, it's a twenty billion dollar
deal and it fell apart.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Now I have a question.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
The CEOs of these companies make I don't know, twenty
twenty five to thirty million dollars a year, so they
have to be really smart. Yeah, it's surprising how especially
in this case, it wasn't so smart. I mean, it
fell apart. Albertson says, Kroger screwed up. Kroger said Albertson
screwed up, and the deal sank a federal judge twice
(15:24):
at uh uh.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
And so see here is the argument.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
The Feds were really going to look at this because
not only the size of the company, the new company,
but how upset we are about food.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Prices are going through the roof.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
And here's What Albertson says about what Kroger's did is
that it didn't pay attention to the realities of what
was going on. The FTC said, here's what we want
you to do. The analyst said, here's what we want
you to do, and that has to do with unloading
certain of their stores to make it more competitive, to
(16:05):
bring in competition. Because you put those two together, though
we argue, oh yeah, it's gonna be huge and we're
gonna it's gonna be more comp with competition, is gonna
be more efficient CROC. You know, when you control more
and more the market, you control more and more the pricing. So, uh,
here's what happened is alberts said.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Here.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Albertson says, uh, Kroger simply lost interest in the deal.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Their screw up says, well, we lost interest it spuires remorse.
It's that simple pandemic price at pro at post pandemic prices,
which we're insane, have now fallen.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Inflation has now gone down.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Prices Uh, if not, they haven't fallen, but they haven't
gone up. Margins have dropped, and so they're suing each other.
Alberts ensues, Kroger and says that they violated, not so
much violated, but ignored good advice from experts. They kept
(17:06):
on saying, here are the stores were going to divest, divest,
and it was never enough because they were arguing three
hundred stores, right. Well, Albertson says nope, or Kroger said, nope,
we're only going to divest three hundred instead of five hundred.
(17:28):
And the FEDS came down and the FTC said, you know,
we really want to see five.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Hundred, and they ignored it.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
They ignored it kept on going up incrementally, and finally
the FEDS went ahead, took the deal to court and
quashed it. And what we're hearing is it could have
gone through theoretically if enough stores were divested, and how
it was handled and the two were suing each other,
(17:54):
and the argument is Albertson's want six billion dollars in damages.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Okay, there you go. Six billion dollars in damages.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Now, usually that's kind of interesting because damages, they say,
that's how much money we lost with this deal. Usually
it's a set figure. If either side bails out of
these major deals, there is a penalty for bailing it's
something called liquidated damages. We can't really figure out what
the damages is going to be. I mean, they're claiming
six billion of lost profit. Who they hell knows what
(18:30):
that is about. Because the vagaries of the market are
very different. So you have a here's the figure that
the penalty.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
I don't think it happened here. This is such a
weird one. Anyway, federal judge knicks the whole deal.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
These brilliant CEOs that wanted to merge didn't happen. Just
a very strange case, and it doesn't happen very often.
Now you're going to see, by the way, with a
new Trump administration, you're going to see these companies merge
like crazy because it's the FTC that stops.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Some federal judges stop them also. But the only way
they can be stopped is.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
The FTC has to file a lawsuit to stop the merger.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
And if you have an administrator says no, we're not interested,
mergers go through. All right. You've been listening to the
Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're list Saints KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
The bill handles show on demand on the iHeartRadio app
KFI AM.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Six forty bill handle here.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
It is a December seventeenth.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Boy, we're moving in that direction already. A Tuesday. A
couple of stories. We're looking at.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
A top Russian general accused of using chemical weapons has
been blown up by an e bike. Well, explosives in
an e bike. That is kind of a neat story.
And then Donald Trump, the president to be President elect,
Donald Trump lost his bid to overturn his criminal conviction
(00:41):
in that hush money case. Now, this was a state
decision in light of the US Supreme Court July ruling
recognizing immunity from prosecution if it was a national act
that he did. And the judge said no, there's nothing
national about paying money to a porn star. That has
(01:01):
nothing to do with a presidential action. Okay, it is time,
since it is a Tuesday, it is time for Tech
Tuesday with Rich Tomorrow, a host of rich on Tech
Saturdays from eleven am to two pm right here on KFI.
He's a KTLA also does tech on KTLA and you
can follow him on Instagram at rich on tech website.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Rich on tech Dot TV.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Morning Rich, Good morning too, Bill.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Ah. We had a lot of stuff going on now,
just because I like those those smart glasses. I have
a friend of mine who has a smart glass or glasses,
and what he does, he'll look right at you and
you look like and you're talking to him, and he's
completely ignoring you and looking at everything else and he's nodding.
(01:52):
So the smart glass, I assume we're talking about the
same the same product.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Right, Well, there's a bunch of them. I think twenty
twenty five going to be the year of the smart glasses.
So I'm not sure which ones your friends have, but
the popular ones right now are the meta ray bands.
And these are like they kind of look like sunglasses.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, they don't have a screen.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
In the lens though, that's the big difference. It's mostly
just like audio.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, I think that's the one. And does it takes pictures,
doesn't it?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yes, it takes pictures, that's the one. Yeah. You can
listen to music, you can make phone calls on it.
These are actually I'm calling them like the sleeper gadget
of the year because and I think this happened to
a lot of the reviewers like myself. We had the
first version, which were fine, but they were bulky, the
battery didn't last very long, they were heavy, the picture
quality was not very good, the video quality wasn't very good,
(02:43):
and they didn't have a lot of features that were usable.
And so we all sort of saw the second version
come out and kind of dismissed them a little bit,
and then metas like, oh, we're adding AI to these, Like, okay,
give me a break. Everything has AI. But once you
put these things on your face, you realize how incredible
they are. And so we're talking three hundred dollars to
these smart glasses. It's a collaboration between ray Ban and Meta,
(03:07):
you know, owners of Facebook, and it gives you all
kinds of possibilities. Not only are the pictures and videos better,
but to have the ability to ask AI at any time,
what you're looking at, what a question that you have
in your head, calculation, anything that AI can answer is
quite incredible.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
All right.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
A couple of questions about that, and that is sound quality. Now,
I take a walk every day and I have a
pair of beats.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
That are ridiculously overpriced.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
I don't need them at all because I listen to
I make phone calls and I listen to books on tape,
all right, and they're insanely expensive relative to what I
actually need.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
But the quality of the sound is incredible. Let's compare
it to these smart glasses.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Well, I think the quality of what you're talking about
is very different because those are closed earbuds that I'm
assuming you have the earbuds. You have over the ear,
I have over the ear, Okay, so you have over
the aar. So you're talking, you know, your ear is
completely filled with sound from those speakers on your ear.
This is very different because the speakers are in the
(04:17):
arm of the lens or I guess the arm of
the glasses in the frames, and so the audio is
sort of directed towards your ears. It's still very audible,
and I think some people might actually like this better
for things like walking and just kind of day to
day because you're not completely shut out from the world.
When I put on earbuds, when I take a walk
(04:39):
around the neighborhood, it's very like encapsulating, like you can't
hear anything that's happening around you whatsoever, Like and all
of a sudden, you see, like you feel like someone
coming up on the left side of you and you're like,
wait what and you got to like jump because you're
so in your own world. I think this is a
different version of audio that I think some people would appreciate. Okay, uh,
(05:00):
and let me tell yours built. Let me tell you
can I tell you you're going to really cool. So
three things that they added to these things overnight. First off,
live AI, so now whatever you're looking at, it streams
that video to AI and you can have a conversation
with AI about it. So you can literally be looking
at a building in France and not just taking a picture,
(05:21):
but you can be glancing at that building and say, hey,
describe what this is. Okay, and you look over to
your right. Okay, now I see that person with that
food in their hand. What are they eating? Look to
your left whatever. Then it can do live translation, so
if someone's speaking to you in a different language Spanish, French,
or Italian, it will translate that in your ears in
real time in English. And then finally, the simple one
(05:41):
is just just zam so you can say, hey, Meta,
what's this song playing? And it will identify the song
that it's that you're listening to.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Boy, that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Does it have a sound canceling, by the way, noise canceling?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
It does not. It does not have noise cancelation because
it's not. It's just you know, it's it's kind of
like this. It's not even bone conducting. It's just directed speakers,
and you know, the effect is fine. Believe me, it's
it's a lighter kind of audio, but it's just fine
for every day And it's about three hundred. I mean, look,
you can get prescriptions, you can get transitions. There's a
(06:13):
whole bunch of different levels of these things, but at
the base, especially over the holidays, they've been on sale
for like less than three hundred dollars.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Wow, And which one is this?
Speaker 3 (06:21):
This is the Meta Yeah, it's called Meta ray Ban
smart glasses.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
I'm writing this down because I know someone who's gonna
buy this.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, I mean, I'm not kidding. Every person I've showed
these glasses to, they're like immediately impressed with what especially
when you put them on, like looking at them whatever.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
But right makes sense?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
All right?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Rich T Mobile customers that's me now can sign up
to test out satellite connectivity.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
What is that about?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
We're seeing a trend with all of the phone companies
and also the phones themselves connecting to satellite. So we
know Starlink has launched over three hundred satellites into space.
There are other companies that also have similar programs. Not
all of them are out of space. Some of them
are land based on the land. But this is all
(07:12):
about being able to text message and also make phone
calls from anywhere in the US. There's apparently five hundred
thousand miles five hundred thousand square miles of land in
the US where traditional cell phone towers do not work,
and if you've ever been to a national park, a
lot of them fall into that category where this cell
service is very spotty, and so they're trying to bridge
(07:35):
that gap. And so t Mobile has linked up with Starlink.
They are going to be the first to test this
satellite to sell program. And if you're a Tea Mobile customer,
you can go on their website right now and say, yeah,
I want to try this, I want to try texting
no matter what. And Bill, if you remember they during
the hurricanes over in North Carolina and Florida, they had
activated this on a temporary basis. The SCC gave them
(07:58):
like the ability to that. So they've already tried it.
Many people have used it, but now this is the
formal testing before people can actually have this service.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
As you said, there are places that have spotty coverage.
Matter of fact, my house, my old house, really crappy coverage.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
It would go in and out.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
It was easier to text, but still phone calls were
very spotty.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
And right now I know people that are in weird,
like someone I know that lives in Calabasas.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Very spotty, and so this is perfect for them.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
And there are enough I'm assuming there are enough telecommunication
satellites up there, especially the ones that Elon Musk are
launching the size of a pack of cars or whatever
the hell they are, or a shoe box that are.
You know, is this the way of the future where
cell phone towers are going to disappear?
Speaker 3 (08:52):
You know, I'm curious about that because I think right
now we don't have the bandwidth with the satellite, you know,
with the satellite, but it's getting better. So if you've
used Starlink their Wi Fi, i mean it's it's miles ahead.
I mean, it's so much faster than Remember they used
to have like the rural internet like Viasat or hues
neet or something like.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah, those were super expensive and super slow, but if
you lived out in the middle of nowhere, at least
you had some sort of level of connectivity. Now, of course,
starlink has thrown all that to the wind, because now
you can get you know, two hundred megabits down, which
is very very fast service pretty much anywhere you are
in the US that has a look at the sky.
(09:34):
And so I think that's the future of cell phones.
You know, back in the day when I was starting
out as a reporter, we would bring a satellite phone.
I'm sure you remember these things. They were huge, you know,
and you had to it had this giant antenna that
you would pull up and it was like, you know,
a couple dollars a minute to use that thing. Now
we're just getting used to the idea of we are
(09:54):
always going to have service no matter where we go,
at least in the US. And then it's also creeping
into the world when we travel. It used to be
very expensive to travel and have Internet. Now that's all
a thing of a past or becoming a thing of
the past, and now of course, cruise ships. I think
the last the last remaining place where we need to
get reliable service that's not super duper expensive.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Going under tunnels, you know, you're in your car and
you're connecting to a cell phone with Bluetooth, and all
of a sudden you're in a three mile tunnel.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
What happens?
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yes, so the satellite. The biggest limitation of the satellite
and why I don't know if it'll completely replace the
land towers, is that if you are if you don't
have a very very clear line of sight to the sky,
it's not going to work. And by the way, it's
very slow still, so we are this is very early
stages of mobile texting. So from everything I've seen with
(10:49):
the iPhone and the Pixel, it takes a while for
these things to get a lock. These satellites move very fast,
but with Starlink it's a little bit of a different
setup because they have so many satellites. I haven't tested
the texting through Starlink, but I did test the Wi
Fi and it does work really well, So I have
no doubt that the messaging is probably even better than
(11:10):
what we've seen before from the Pixel or the iPhone.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
All right, Apple foldable tablet and phone. Now, this is
not the flip phone, which I loved, by the way,
that was the easiest thing to use my Apple. And
I got this super duper big Blasto five thousand and one,
the Ultra, and it's you know, heavy, well relatively heavy,
and I don't like using it. That's why I use
a speaker. How easy is this going to be or
(11:36):
is this a whole different animal?
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Uh No, I think what you're talking about is what
they're going to come out with. So look, we've we've
heard rumors of Apple coming out with a foldable phone
now for years. Every couple of months they resurfaced with
like a little bit more detail, which tells me that
Apple continues to work on this technology, but they're really
trying to perfect it. If history is our guide, Apple
always does what everyone else does a little bit later,
(12:02):
but they do it in their own apply way that
is typically refined. And so we've had foldable phones now
for five years. From the likes of Samsung, Huawei, Google,
they've all come out with foldable phones to some level
of success. I think what Apple wants to do. And
according to the latest report from Mark German over at Bloomberg.
He's saying that they're really trying to eliminate decrease in
(12:24):
the middle of the phone, which is where you see
when you fold the phone there's a crease. So two
things Apple's working on, the clamshell flip style phone, like
you said, the Motorola, like the old flip phone of
the day. That would be an iPhone that's anticipated around
twenty twenty six, so we've still got a ways out.
And then a foldable iPad, which will be basically two
(12:45):
iPads kind of side by side, but foldable, you know,
with the screen continuing across both of them. That would
be projected for twenty twenty eight. But again, Apple has
to do this because everyone else done everyone else has
done it. I think Apple wants to do it in
a little bit of a different, more refined way.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah, that's one of the things I love about technology
is every time you come out with where the companies
come out with something new, they have.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
To immediately start working on the next version. Oh yeah,
so there's never resting.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
No. And then my favorite part of every Apple and
every event that I go to, whether it's Apple, Google, Samsung, whoever,
what they do is they trash the old model and
they tell you everything that was wrong with it, Right,
So they say, we have the new model that does this,
and this is why it's better, because the old model
only had this much brightness and this much speed and
this much So everything you thought was good for the
(13:36):
past year is now suddenly bad compared to the new one.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
It's like when we sign our contracts on broadcam mine's
worse every year.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, I know.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
And it's your wonderful three hundred and sixty four days
a year, how terrific you are, how much you help
the organization, and then the one day that you're actually
negotiating money, you're completely replaceable and not that strong.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
So true, it's like they, yes, you are one hundred
percent correct. Anyone who's negotiated contract you know that. It's
just like, well, everything's a question mark. You know, we
loved you for all those other days, but today we're
just not sure of your value.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yeah, exactly, all right.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Rich de Murrow KTLA, host of that is there a
segment rich on tech on KTLA.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Yeah, they renamed it Bill because of the success of
the radio show.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
That's cool. I love it. Yeah all right. So that's
every day on KTLA.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Saturday's right here on KFI eleven to two pm on Instagram,
at rich on Tech website, rich on Tech dot TV.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
We'll catch you next week and this weekend.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Yes, I have a holiday bill, Yeah you too.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
All Right, the Albertson's Kroger deal, as you know, fell apart.
It was gonna be the biggest merger in I don't know,
certainly in supermarket history. Okay, it's a twenty billion dollar
deal and it fell apart.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Now I have a question.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
The CEOs of these companies make I don't know, twenty
twenty five to thirty million dollars a year, so they
have to be really smart. Yeah, it's surprising how especially
in this case, it wasn't so smart. I mean, it
fell apart. Albertson says, Kroger screwed up. Kroger said Albertson
screwed up, and the deal sank a federal judge twice
(15:24):
at uh uh.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
And so see here is the argument.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
The Feds were really going to look at this because
not only the size of the company, the new company,
but how upset we are about food.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Prices are going through the roof.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
And here's What Albertson says about what Kroger's did is
that it didn't pay attention to the realities of what
was going on. The FTC said, here's what we want
you to do. The analyst said, here's what we want
you to do, and that has to do with unloading
certain of their stores to make it more competitive, to
(16:05):
bring in competition. Because you put those two together, though
we argue, oh yeah, it's gonna be huge and we're
gonna it's gonna be more comp with competition, is gonna
be more efficient CROC. You know, when you control more
and more the market, you control more and more the pricing. So, uh,
here's what happened is alberts said.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Here.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Albertson says, uh, Kroger simply lost interest in the deal.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Their screw up says, well, we lost interest it spuires remorse.
It's that simple pandemic price at pro at post pandemic prices,
which we're insane, have now fallen.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Inflation has now gone down.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Prices Uh, if not, they haven't fallen, but they haven't
gone up. Margins have dropped, and so they're suing each other.
Alberts ensues, Kroger and says that they violated, not so
much violated, but ignored good advice from experts. They kept
(17:06):
on saying, here are the stores were going to divest, divest,
and it was never enough because they were arguing three
hundred stores, right. Well, Albertson says nope, or Kroger said, nope,
we're only going to divest three hundred instead of five hundred.
(17:28):
And the FEDS came down and the FTC said, you know,
we really want to see five.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Hundred, and they ignored it.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
They ignored it kept on going up incrementally, and finally
the FEDS went ahead, took the deal to court and
quashed it. And what we're hearing is it could have
gone through theoretically if enough stores were divested, and how
it was handled and the two were suing each other,
(17:54):
and the argument is Albertson's want six billion dollars in damages.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Okay, there you go. Six billion dollars in damages.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Now, usually that's kind of interesting because damages, they say,
that's how much money we lost with this deal. Usually
it's a set figure. If either side bails out of
these major deals, there is a penalty for bailing it's
something called liquidated damages. We can't really figure out what
the damages is going to be. I mean, they're claiming
six billion of lost profit. Who they hell knows what
(18:30):
that is about. Because the vagaries of the market are
very different. So you have a here's the figure that
the penalty.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
I don't think it happened here. This is such a
weird one. Anyway, federal judge knicks the whole deal.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
These brilliant CEOs that wanted to merge didn't happen. Just
a very strange case, and it doesn't happen very often.
Now you're going to see, by the way, with a
new Trump administration, you're going to see these companies merge
like crazy because it's the FTC that stops.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Some federal judges stop them also. But the only way
they can be stopped is.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
The FTC has to file a lawsuit to stop the merger.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
And if you have an administrator says no, we're not interested,
mergers go through. All right. You've been listening to the
Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
The Bill Handel Show News
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