008 Rich on Tech Radio Show - February 25, 2023 - Rich On Tech

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Google is bringing one of its best pixel features to
many more phones, including the iPhone. How young consumers are
driving Apple sales, The smartest new way to search Reddit,
plus your tech questions answered. What is going on? I'm
Rich Demiro and this is Rich on Tech, the show

(00:21):
where I talk about the tech stuff I think you
should know about. It's also the place where I answer
your questions about technology. I'm the tech reporter at KTLA
Channel five in Los Angeles. Still drying off from getting
into the studio, Welcome to the show. Phone lines are
open at one eight eight eight Rich one oh one.

(00:44):
That's triple eight seven four to two four one zero one.
Give me a call if you have a question about technology.
We'll take your calls, answer your questions, and just be
here for you. As you know, I'm broadcasting live from
Los Angeles, typically known for its sun and fun, but
the last couple of days it has been all about rain.

(01:06):
It has been snowing. There's been sleet, something called I
think it's groppol. I don't know who calls it that.
No one I know we has called it sleet. It
has been non stop. It was so rainy over the
past couple of days. You would not believe you're in
Los Angeles. It's so rainy and wet in Los Angeles,

(01:27):
the plants are like, okay, we'll never complain about being
thirsty again. It's so rainy and wet in Los Angeles.
At this point, the ocean is jealous of the land.
It is so rainy and wet. In Los Angeles. The
four or five at this point is just one big
slip in slide. It is so rainy and wet. In

(01:48):
Los Angeles. Umbrellas, yes, umbrellas are refusing to go outside.
It is so rainy in Los Angeles. The Hollywood Sign
is now surrounded by a moat. It's so rainy. In
Los Angeles, studios just greenlit Noah's Ark two and this
one I got. It's so rainy in Los Angeles. California

(02:12):
Pizza Kitchen is now the Rainforest Cafe, still serving the
same thing though it's so rainy. In Los Angeles, Apple
rushed out a software update to enable underwater mode. Yeah,
you'll find it right next to airplane mode. It's so
rainy in Los Angeles. Weather apps just gave up. And
it's so rainy in Los Angeles. I had to take

(02:33):
Uber canoe to the studio today. All right, I don't know.
You know, look, the rain gets you a little, you know,
cooped up, Like I was inside all night last night.
I was wondering if, like the roof is gonna fly
off with the wind. So I hope you enjoyed my
dad jokes. I don't know, maybe let me know what
you think. But in all seriousness, this rain is a

(02:54):
very serious thing in California, in Los Angeles because we're
just not used to it. So of course I'm a
little introspective and thinking about weather apps. So I posted
to my Instagram today at richon Tech a bunch of
useful weather apps. Now here's the thing. Bill, one of
the folks behind this show, actually talked about this very

(03:14):
idea for one of the first shows. He said, rich
you should talk about how dark sky is no longer
a thing and Apple bought them and you know, some
alternative weather apps. And I was like, Bill, do people
really care? Let's be honest, there's there are two types
of people in this world. People that care about the
weather forecast and people that do not care about the
weather forecast. My wife is a weather forecast fanatic. She

(03:37):
checks her apps every minute of the day. It drives
everything she does, from what she wears to work in
the morning to what she plans for the afternoon to
her drive. So let me give you a little background
about dark Sky. So this was an app and a
company that was very, very popular, and the reason they
were popular is they had this really spot on notification

(03:58):
technology that if it was going to start raining, they
would send you a notification saying, hey, we're predicting rain
in your area in the next seventeen minutes. You'd be like, what,
how do they know? How do they do this? I
don't know how they do it? But it was so
good and it was pretty much the favored weather app
for both Android users and some iOS users until Apple decided,

(04:21):
you know what, this is pretty good technology, let's purchase it.
So they purchased this technology. I think it was like
back in a couple of years ago, and then immediately
they shut down the Android app. So all the Android
users were like, nap, sorry, no more, no more Dark
Sky for you. And then they took the technology and
they mixed it into their own weather app. So if
you have an iPhone, you've probably seen those little notifications

(04:44):
that say, hey, it's going to start raining your location
in the next you know, eight minutes. That's all because
of dark Sky. And then they're going ahead and they're
going to shut down these other what's called an API,
So other weather apps were able to tap into dark
Sky and use that information to make their apps better.
That's called an API. Well, now Apple is going to

(05:06):
shut that off as of according to the website March
thirty first, twenty twenty three. But I think they actually
extended that. I think that was supposed to happen last year,
but I think because of the pandemic and all that stuff,
they said, Okay, we'll throw you a bone. We'll let
it stay for a little bit longer. So all these
apps that rely on dark Sky for this really cool
technology are now suddenly like, okay, now what do we do?
So I went through and I looked at some of

(05:28):
my favorite apps and some of the useful apps out there,
and I kind of did a little Instagram post. So
if you want to check it out, go to go
to my Instagram at rich on Tech and I'll go
through some of these apps and some of them were
suggested by users as well. But the first one is
called Windy. This app is really great if you love
full screen visualization. So if you just like seeing what

(05:48):
it looks like around you outside from space, this is
just a fantastic app for that because it lets you
scroll through all different kinds of visualizations, whether it's precipitation,
whether it's wind, whether it's lightning, and it's just a
nice big map to see that and that big map
animation sort of like what you see on the news. Right.
So Windy is the app for you. If you like that.

(06:10):
Then there's an app called Overdrop, and this is one
of my favorites. This is a very minimalistic app. It's
very beautiful. Some people are calling it the Dark Sky
two point zero because it's easy to understand, it looks
really good, it functions very good. All of the basics
are on one page, so they've got these nice, beautiful animations.
At the top. You could see exactly what you need

(06:32):
to know, like the current conditions, the hourly forecast, and
then you can scroll down and see the rest of
what you need. Plus they do precipitation notifications and so
if you like those notifications that used to get especially
on Android from Dark Sky, Overdrop can maybe fill that
void now Overdrop is still powered by dark Sky, but

(06:53):
I was reading on their website and they said, no, no,
we've got some tricks up our sleeve. We're gonna switch
to some other providers once dark Guy goes away, but
right now they're still able to use that one. Now,
another app that's really bright and kind of fun, and
this is a very good app. I recommended it to
my mom and she used it for many many years
is called Hello Weather, and again very much like Overdrop,

(07:16):
but it's minimalistic. It's got nice, big kind of graphics.
It's got big bar charts that just tell you what
you need to know, so you get this nice, rich
visualization of the week ahead. So I can see today
we've got one hundred percent rain the forecast, Tomorrow it's
fifty five percent. Monday it's back to one hundred percent,
then Tuesday ninety five percent, Wednesday ninety percent. Oh my gosh,

(07:38):
what is happening here in California? And then Thursday it'll
be sunny. But I can see that really easily on
this app. So that one is very nice and simple
to use. Now this next app, you're gonna love her hate.
It's called Carrot Weather, and I actually interviewed the founder
of this app a couple of years ago, and it's
so funny. Nice guy, but you go on this app

(07:59):
and it is sooner for snarky and people love that
about this app. So, if you want your weather with personality,
Carrot Weather is where you got to go. So you
can choose from You've got this slider and you can
choose from whatever you want your weather to be. Like, okay,
so you've got personality from just fun, sorry, just regular,

(08:21):
Then you've got friendly, then you've got snarky, then you've
got homicidal, and then you've got overkill, which may have
the creative use of profanity in the forecasts. So if
you like your forecast with profanity, Carrot Weather is the
one you want. Now there's also a political slant to

(08:43):
this one, so you can have a slider for how
do you like your weather delivered? You can have a
political centrist, liberal, conservative, libertarian, communist, or anarchist. I don't
know what that means when it comes to weather, but
you can try it out weather and people like it
because it's also very simple. Then you've got an app

(09:03):
called Underground. And the thing about Underground, it's actually I
think it's like Weather Underground, but it's from the same
folks that do the Weather Channel, which is now owned
by IBM, which is not the same as the Weather
Channel on your TV by the way, so they're different
as far as I know. So the Weather Channel or
Weather Underground Underground uses data from two hundred and fifty

(09:26):
thousand personal weather stations, so they boast these hyper local
weather forecasts. It also collects some information from your phone sensors,
and I know that the Weather Channel kind of got
in trouble for that when people realized that they were
using that information, so just be aware of that. But
this one is really very simple. It's kind of basic,
but it has all the information you need if you

(09:46):
want to take that deep dive again, same company as
the Weather Channel. And then finally we've got this app
called climb Clime. This has a great radar imagery plus
all the vitals. So if you just want to scroll
through and see the wind, the visibility, the AQI, the humidity,
and the moon phase all in one place, you got

(10:08):
it on this app, plus the big radar screen. It
also has notifications for precipitation, so if you like that
it has it. It also has notifications for major changes
like lightning or other things that are happening with the weather.
Now those require payment. Like a lot of these apps
are kind of the freemium model, which means the basics
are free, but you're gonna pay for the rest. And

(10:29):
this one out of all the apps, I mean, they
all push kind of a paid product, but this one
really pushes their paid product. I was getting a notification
or a pop up screen to switch to the paid
stuff like very very often on this one. So that's
called climb anyway, let me know in the comments. Go
to my Instagram at richon Tech, tell me which weather
app is your favorite. Of course, if you have a
local TV station in your area, like I work for KTLA,

(10:52):
they have their own weather apps as well, so you
can check those out because people like those because there's
a real human behind them in their neighborhood is helping
to program that information. But again, weather apps, uh, if
you use one, let me know. I know. My wife
has her favorite. She's checking it all the time and
it's just the Weather Channel. After I posted this today,
she goes, I'm just pretty basic. I used the Weather Channel.

(11:13):
I said, that's fine. Whatever works for you. All right,
phone lines are open at triple eight rich one O one.
That's eight eight eight seven four to two four one
zero one. Got a lot coming up on this show,
Great guests. This week, we're going to talk to the
director of the Worldwide Day of Unplugging. We're going to
talk about an app that's like Uber, but you can
make money doing other people's dirty laundry. Plus, we're going

(11:36):
to talk about how young people continue to drive Apple sales.
Plus your calls up next at triple eight rich one
O one. You are listening to Rich on Tech. Welcome
back to rich on Tech. I'm Rich Demiro. This is
the show where we talk about technology and answer the
questions you have about technology. You can find me online

(11:56):
at richontech dot TV. Alex is in Northridge kicking off
this hour, Alex. Welcome to the show. How can I help? Hello, Alex,
am I doing something wrong? Okay? Do I hear you? Alex?

Speaker 2 (12:14):
No?

Speaker 1 (12:14):
Okay, Let's try this once again, Alex. Are you there? Nope? Okay,
I guess Alex. Give me a call back, Alex. That's
what we can do there. All right, let's talk about
this while we wait for Alex to get back on
here Magic Eraser. This is a feature that is sort
of the big feature from the Pixel phones. It is

(12:34):
coming to more phones. This is a very big deal
because I don't know if you watched the Super Bowl,
but Magic Eraser was one of the biggest features that
they advertised, and this commercial really landed with people. It
was Google. They showed a whole bunch of pictures, whether
it was including you know, some random person in the
background or an x and they said, look, if you

(12:56):
want to clean up your pictures and fix them up
and get them right, try Magic Eraser. And this is
a feature that's really been kind of the selling point
of Pixel phones for many years now. It was launched
I don't know if it was launched with a Pixel
six perhaps, but it was exclusive to that phone, and
then it came to the Pixel seven. And you know,
Google's gotten a lot of mileage out of this because

(13:17):
it allows you to just highlight something in a picture,
whether that's a person or an object, tap a button
and it disappears. And of course Google using artificial intelligence
and all their machine learning to figure out how to
do this and make the picture look pretty good. And
so if you wanted this feature, you had to go
to a Pixel and Samsung has a similar feature on

(13:39):
their phones in Samsung Labs called Eraser, and it works
pretty well. But again, Google kind of has the lock
on this. Well now, they said in a blog post
that Google Photos features are coming to not only more
pixel phones, but anyone who pays for storage on Google

(14:00):
that has an Android or an iOS phone. So if
you want to access Magic Eraser, all you have to
do is download Google Photos and be a paying member
of Google one. So this means that you're paying for
storage above and beyond the fifteen gigs that Google typically
gives you included. So the plans are one hundred gigs
starts at two dollars a month, two hundred gigs of

(14:20):
storage starts at three dollars a month, two terabytes starts
at ten dollars a month. And if you pay for
any of those plans, you now have access to Magic Eraser,
which is really cool on both Android and iOS. The
other thing you're going to get is this new HDR
video effect, So if you want to make your videos
look better with HDR, you can now export them with
this new effect, so it will balance dark foregrounds and

(14:43):
bright backgrounds or vice. Versa and again machine learning, artificial intelligence.
This is a huge deal that Google is now allowing
this feature to work on so many more phones. It's
rolling out now. So if you don't have it in
your Google Photos just yet, you know, keep checking and
make sure you have those updates. All right, I'm told
Alex is back. Alex is in north Ridge unless I'm

(15:03):
doing something wrong with the phones? Can you hear me, Alex, Yes, sir,
I can. How are you welcome to the show? What
can I help you with?

Speaker 3 (15:10):
First question? I found a mouse that has a Bluetooth
adapters that I can plug into one computer and at
the same time it tears via Bluetooth to a second computer,
and there's a switch on it that I can switch
between the two computers to use one mouse. The question is,
do you know of a mouse that can control three
computers at the same time? Not at the same time,

(15:32):
you know, with a switch on it, I can flip
to basically control each of those three computers.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
What are you running over here? What you got trading stocks?
Or what's happening here?

Speaker 3 (15:43):
Not even close? No, it's f music applications.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
Music applications. Okay, so you've got a couple of different computers.
You want to use one keyboard three computers, okay, and
right now your mouse that you have can control two.

Speaker 4 (15:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:56):
I found a mouse I forgot who the maker is,
has a kind of a switch on amb okay, and
the one way it connects via the built in kind
of wireless to one computer and it comes one of
those dongles that you can put into the second computer
and it pairs via bluetooth to that dongle.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
Okay, So I think what you're going to have to do.
There may be a mouse that does this, but I
think from everything I'm seeing, it's pretty much going to
be either a hardware solution, something called a KVM switch,
which you know, I think we're popular back in the day,
or if you run a large amount of computers, that
could be something that you want to look into KVM switch.

(16:34):
But I think software might work. So a couple of
things just doing a quick little search here that I'm
finding that may work. There is a Microsoft app called
Mouse Without Borders and this says it can control up
to four computers with a single mouse and keyboard. This
is a product that has been out for a while.
Says it was released in September twenty eleven, and so

(16:58):
you know, that's something you can try, and it may
work with the mouse that you have already. That's probably
the easiest way. Now, that's given that these are all
Microsoft computers, right are Windows computers? I should say if
it's a combination of computers, then you might want to
look at an app called Synergy. Synergy and Synergy lets

(17:18):
you work up to three computers, and it does look
like it works across Windows, Mac Os, Linux, and Raspberry
Pie if you are running those Now you mentioned you're
running a music program a lot of times if you're
doing content creation, folks are working on a Mac computer.
So I think that would be probably your best solution
is either the switch or the Synergy. Alex. Sorry, I

(17:39):
don't have time for your second questions. I got to
run to break here, but thank you so much, and
let me know if that works all right? Coming up,
we are gonna do a great interview. This is something
that a lot of people have debated. The blue versus
the Green bubble article went viral this week that says
gen Z users are so loyal to the iPhone and
those blue bubbles that they sell a lot of Apple

(18:01):
products plus your phone calls at Triple eight Rich one
on one eighty eight seven four to two, four to
one zero one. You're listening to Rich on Tech. Welcome
back to rich on Tech. My name is Rich Demiro,
tech reporter at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles. This
is the show where we talk about technology and answer

(18:22):
your questions. And one of the age old debates in
technology is iPhone versus androids, specifically the green bubble versus
the blue bubble or vice versa, depending on which side
you're sitting on. And this was an article this week
that went viral. It's in the Financial Times how Apple

(18:44):
captured gen Z in the US and change their social circles.
Patrick McGee is the author. He's joining me now, Patrick,
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 5 (18:54):
Hey, Rich, glad to be here.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
So this article, I guess my first question is what
was the thesis behind it? Like, why did you decide
to write this? Because it really hit a nerve with
a lot of folks.

Speaker 5 (19:06):
Yeah, I think it's just underappreciated by investors. Just how
like what kind of good trajectory Apple is on over
the next decade. So if you think about other big
tech giants, right, gen Z doesn't particularly love Amazon. They
use it, but they feel guilty. They think Facebook is
for old people, and I don't know how many of
them are really getting into the metaverse. Google is sort

(19:29):
of being taken over by obviously chat GBT in the
last few months, but even before that, you know TikTok
where people are doing you know, sort of like video
mapping as a way to sort of find a restaurant,
right preferences are selected by people that they know or
other TikTokers rather than a sort of Yelp type review
that you might find through Google. So it just seems like,
you know, big tech is obviously massive, but it doesn't

(19:51):
necessarily have the next generation until you look at Apple,
where not only is it sort of continuing to have
a hold on the next generation, it's got a massive
stay change where you've got upwards of ninety percent of
American teenagers already have an iPhone and continue to want
an iPhone for the next hand set.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
And the way that that kind of plays out is
the fact that when Apple sells iPhones, they sell other
things as well, like an iPad or an Apple Watch
or AirPods. And you're you're saying that this is good
for business in the future, basically because this generation is
going to grow up really a meshed in this stuff.

Speaker 5 (20:26):
Yes, I mean, the Apple ecosystem is so sticky that
if you are going off to college after having an
iPhone in the past decade, you're not really thinking, hmm,
I wonder what sort of laptop I should buy. You're
really thinking what type of MacBooks should I buy? And
I could say the same thing for headphones, certainly for
smart watches. You know how many iPhone users have a
non Apple smartwatch? Like it's just like anecdotally, I don't

(20:49):
know anybody, are.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
There any I don't even know if there is one.
I mean, what would you use like a garment. I
had a guy at my work that, you know, he
got a garment because he didn't want an Apple watch.
He said it maybe wasn't as specific as he wanted
for his workouts. And of course a week later he
comes back, nag, I got the Apple Watch. And its
just that's sort of what happens.

Speaker 5 (21:05):
Yes, And actually that's a that's a fair exception actually
that even though in this anecdote it didn't work out.
You know, garmin like the athletics scene would be a
little bit different, But I was thinking more of like,
who's buying like a Samsung or an Android watch? You know,
picks a watch that that can work with Apple, but
I don't think most people sort of care that it does.
They would rather have an Apple Watch. But yeah, the
Apple Watch Ultra is basically eating into the dominance that

(21:26):
Garment has in watches for Ultra marath outons and the
leg Now one.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
Of the big kind of delineations between the iOS and
and Apple and of course Android is this whole idea
of the blue bubble versus the green bubble, a problem
that was sort of manufactured by Apple. But this was
a really smart sort of business decision they made to
withhold I message from Android.

Speaker 5 (21:52):
So yes and no, I think it was somewhat inadvertent.
So when when I message was created, SMS was the default.
Now in the year's sense, something called RCS Rich Communication
Services has sort of become the norm on Google, I'm sorry,
on Android, And why that matters is RCS is far
superior to SMS when it comes to sharing rich media,

(22:13):
so you know, high definition videos or pictures and you know,
even things like emoticons and things like that. But Apple's
sort of similar you know tool is I Message. So
in a sense, Apple was actually just sort of like
creating its own technology and releasing it to the iPhone
at a time when I Message was superior to SMS,
and so that was clever on their part. But what

(22:34):
happened is, you know, I sort of like a sort
of well, you know, so if you're messaging on I Message,
all the messages are blue, just to show you, you know,
it's not sort of trying to build a community. It's
just telling you that everything's operating through IM message, right,
But if you are either sort of on Wi Fi
or operating on an Android, it will just show that

(22:55):
it's a green that it will show its green purely
to indicate that it's a different messaging like default system.
Then it's sort of how you and I and teenagers
sort of began to feel about that, right. And so
what happens is it's not just this aesthetic thing between
blue and green bubbles, and I think a lot of
people wrongly think that it is. It's that if you

(23:17):
have a group of iPhone users and accept into the
group chat a single Android user, everybody's message goes green, right,
Which is to say that instead of the rich media
service I Message, you have SMS, which means that even
if you're an iPhone user sending a message to another
iPhone user, you're going to have glitchy system where the
definition of the video and the pictures that you take

(23:38):
and are not as good as they would be with
I Message. So I just want to make that clear.
It's not an aesthetic thing. And it was so sort
of inadvertent on the part of Apple's part, But over
the last decade, Apple has begun to understand that this
is quite a selling point and that the sort of
community elements that they inadvertently built has actually really paid
off with them.

Speaker 1 (23:58):
Now, Google did a big or they tried to do
sort of a big campaign last year that was all
about kind of shaming Apple into saying, Apple, we've got
this RCS, this Rich Communications service, which now you know,
you've got I Message, but there's something that works across
all phones called RCS, and you're still defaulting to SMS.

(24:19):
So Apple, why are you holding your users back and
the cross platform exchange back by not enabling this on
your smartphones? And basically Apple just ignored this whole campaign,
and I think it sort of fell flat with consumers
that didn't really resonate. Do you think Apple's to blame
here for not including rcs and their phones at this point?

Speaker 5 (24:42):
I mean, I don't believe there's any technical reason why
Apple couldn't adopt OURCS. And the nice thing about this question,
act is I think we pretty well know the answer
because Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, was directly asked
at an event held in Beverly Hills last autumn. And
so somebody said, you know, my mom is in we're
in South America, and you know, we can't exchange tech

(25:02):
messages back and forth and videos back and forth without
there being glitchous here and there because I have an iPhone,
she is an Android. And Tipcok's answer, with a big laugh,
was by your mom and iPhone.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
Which I don't like that answer. I mean, that's you know,
come on, it's like, let's I don't know, I really
find an issue with this. Now. I understand that I
do like the whole IE message platform, and I do
feel a certain way when I'm messaging people on I
Message versus Android, because you just feel like you can
exchange you know, a video or you know, a picture
and it's going to come through at full resolution, and

(25:34):
there's been problems like let's say you're at your kids
baseball game and you know, you take a video of
another kid and he gets a good you know, a
good hit or something, and the parents like, oh, you
share that with me, and you're like, cool, I'll just
air drop it, and you're like, oh, you've got Android.
I can't do that. It's a it's a real thing,
not just for gen Z. By the way, we're talking
to Patrick McGee. He is a tech reporter for the
Financial Times, and we're talking about his article about how

(25:57):
Apple Basically he believe that sales of Apple products are
just going to increase because of gen Z's loyalty to
these products. And one of the stats you put in
your piece is that globally, for every one hundred iPhones shipped,
Apple sells twenty six iPads, seventeen Apple watches, and thirty
five AirPods. When it comes to Samsung, for every one

(26:19):
hundred smartphones they ship, that leads to fewer than eleven tablets,
six smart smart watches, and six wireless earbuds. That's probably
because there's much more choice on the other side. I
guess right, Oh.

Speaker 5 (26:33):
I don't know about that. I mean, that's actually that's
interesting to ask. I mean, perhaps that's true. Yeah, it's
definitely true that if you have any sort of Android device,
most of the other adjacent Android products will work for
your phone, which is to say, if you have a
Pixel phone, you can get you know, Sampung buds and
they will be totally fine. So yes, that's true. But

(26:54):
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that
when you're entrenched in the Apple ecosystem, very likely to
buy more Apple products. That is very true true if
you're in any of the Android universes.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
I mean, I think that Samsung has worked, and I
think the last two I would say, the last two
events I went to from Samsung, they're really trying to
bring that ecosystem closer. And in fact, I would almost argue,
I mean, look, when you're using an iPhone, it's it's
so seamless to work between a MacBook, an iPad, the
air pods, it all works together really well. Apple TV.

(27:28):
I went to purchase an app on my Apple TV
last night and it said, hey, just authorize this on
the iPhone, and I thought, oh, that was really cool.
You just kind of click and use your face ID.
But Samsung is really doing a lot of this now
with sort of Windows and the other side of things,
Like they're going more towards like okay, well you've got
the Apple stuff, we'll do the Windows stuff. And so
I think that that Samsung is making progress in that

(27:50):
area too.

Speaker 5 (27:50):
So they absolutely are. But this is what I would say,
They're never going to be able to do as good
a job as Apple. And the clear reason why is
you're mentioning Windows. Who on Windows it's not Samsung, right, right,
So from the ground up, like literally from the chip
level and software level, you know, on up, Apple designs
its phones and systems in such a way that working

(28:11):
together is not some sort of afterthought that's recrofitted into
the system, right, It's just from the ground level. Samsung
just not gonna be able to do that if they're
still working on Android, which is the well, actually, you know,
I'll come back to that in a second. They're not
going to be able to do that if they're working
with with you know, Windows on computers. But the point
I was just about to make that I sort of
corrected myself on is when it comes to owning the ecosystem,

(28:36):
just on Android. The problem isn't that they can't make
things work together. The problem is it doesn't have any
walls in the garden, right, which is to say, things
can work pretty well between Samsung devices, but any other
Android maker can basically make that make the same push. Right.
So with Apple, you're sort of locked in as a consumer, right.

(28:57):
I know other computers that's going to run iOS. That's
just not true, which.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
Is why with Andrew right, which is why Apple loves
the walled garden of I message, which is very popular
here in the US, But you talk to other folks
outside the US, they're not as enthralled. Patrick, I'm gonna
have to leave it there. Thank you so much. I'll
put a link to you on your Twitter on my website.
Rich on tech dot TV. Patrick McGee with Financial Times,
thanks for joining me today.

Speaker 5 (29:21):
Cheers, Rich, that was great.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
Thanks all right. Coming up in the show, more of
your calls at Triple eight Rich one oh one. That's
eight eight eight seven four to two, four to one
zero one. We're gonna talk about the startup that lets
you make money doing other people's dirty laundry, and later
in the show, I've got the new Best way to
Search Reddit. You're listening to rich on Tech. Welcome back

(29:43):
to rich on Tech. My name is rich Jimuro hanging
out with you here talking technology. Got a couple of
direct messages on my Instagram at rich on Tech. Linda said,
liked your dad jokes. Is dad joke a compliment or not?
I don't know, but you know, kind of up there
with the bot. I guess. I don't know. Is that
a good thing or a bad thing? Love your jokes,

(30:05):
Christina wrote in Christina, thank you. I appreciate it. Those
jokes came to me when I woke up this morning
because I listened. I think it was because I listened
to the rain all night and I was just like,
you know what, I just just was, So it was
just comical, like we don't get this much rain where
I live, and so you know, you got a joke
about it. Let's tell you about PlayStation VR two. So

(30:28):
you're probably familiar with the idea of virtual reality. You've
got the Oculus well Sony has had another headset called
the PlayStation VR and they're on their second generation of it.
So the PlayStation VR two launched this week and it
has some new features and unique features compared to some
of the other VR headsets out there. Now, I saw

(30:49):
this at CS, I did not try it out at CS,
so I can't give you my personal opinion of this
other than I think all of these products are very
early stage. Unless you are an early adopter and you
just love this stuff, I don't know if they're one
hundred percent ready for prime time just yet, especially due
to the price tags. These things are very expensive. This

(31:11):
headset is five hundred and fifty dollars and that does
not include the PlayStation five that you need to use
this headset. But with all that said, it's got controllers
with haptic feedback, so you can feel what's happening in
the game, like Sony gave the example of whether you're
pulling a bow string or you know, the vibration effects
during an epic boss battle. It also knows where your

(31:33):
fingers are on the on the the actual device itself.
Then the headset itself has feedback. They're not calling it
haptic feedback, but there's some vibrations that add an element
of tactileness, so you can feel things like, you know,
if something passes by your head, you can feel that,
or if a you know, car whizz is by. You

(31:55):
can feel that as well. Three D audio is also
built in. Three D audio is a really cool feature
which lets you hear audio all around you from coming
from different angles. Kind of like when you're in the
movie theater and they play that opening thing and it says,
you know, the audios all around you. That's kind of
like what's happening with earbuds right now, the high end earbuds.
And speaking of audio, there's no audio built into this headset.

(32:16):
You do need to use earbuds with this headset that
are you know, built in as well, but it's not
a speaker like many of the VR headsets. There's also
eye tracking, so the headset knows where you're looking. It
offers a display up to four k HDR, so pretty
high resolution. That's one of the problems I have with
the Oculus is the current Oculus. The resolution is not

(32:37):
that great. You can definitely see the pixels for sure.
Some of the games that launch include Horizon, Call of
the Mountain, Grand Turismo, Star Wars, Resident Evil Village, and
one I can't wait for Tetris Effect. I would play this,
that's for sure. Again, you do need a PS five
for the PlayStation VR two headset, and the reviews I'm

(32:58):
reading are sort of mixed on whether this thing is
comfortable or not so, but most everyone agrees it is
a big upgrade from the first model. All right, now,
let's go to Suzanne. Suzanne, you're on with Rich Are
you there?

Speaker 6 (33:09):
I'm doing great?

Speaker 1 (33:10):
How are you? I'm doing great? Okay, I don't know
what happened there, but welcome to the show.

Speaker 3 (33:13):
How can I that's all right?

Speaker 2 (33:14):
Good morning or afternoon.

Speaker 7 (33:15):
I need a new internet company. I love, love, love
my current internet company, and I will give them a
shout out if you want. They're phenomenal their service and
that knowledge is great. However, my phone lines, which are
owned by AG and T, are abysmal and will not
be upgraded, so I have unreliable internet. The company that

(33:37):
I pay is so great at responding, but if I
can't rely on it, then it's you know, even it's
just frustrating.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
I can't use cable.

Speaker 7 (33:47):
I wouldn't use my local cable company if they're the
last thing in the world. I'd rather have nothing than that.
Oh wow, I do need I do need an internet,
and I do need landline. So I'm wondering what.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
I'm in Orange County, California.

Speaker 7 (33:59):
I have access to a lot of things. So I'm
wondering what my options are at this point in the
technology world.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
Well, I mean, okay, if you don't why why do
you not like the local and I have a feeling
I know which local company you're talking about? Does it
start with an F that's.

Speaker 7 (34:16):
An as, like Suze my first name.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Oh it starts with an AS. Oh wow? Okay, Well,
I guess I could have guessed anything. Because people hate
all the all the cable companies for some reason. I
don't know why. I mean, I guess it's one of
these things that you set up once and you know,
you just kind of go with it. So if you're
not willing to go with them, there's a couple of
things you can do. I don't I thought you were
in the middle of nowhere and you needed like a
satellite provider. You know, that's very slow and not very expensive,

(34:40):
and that's probably not your best bet, although you know,
you could look into Starlink if you have a backyard.
That's Elon Musk's you know, satellite internet, which I think
is overkill. You live in a you know, a populated area,
So the website that I would check out is allconnect
dot com a L l C O n n ECT

(35:00):
all connect dot com, and that is a website that
sort of helps you figure out which providers are in
your area, and so if you know if there's a
provider that may you know. Sometimes these providers provide Internet
in an area that are a smaller company, but they
maybe use the lines of a different company. So you're

(35:22):
still getting the nice, unique service that you want, and
it sounds like you want that kind of hands on service,
but it's being delivered through a line that maybe AT
and T operates or Frontier Spectrum or who knows. But
that's probably the best place to look is all connect
dot com. If that doesn't work, I would maybe talk
to some neighbors and see what they have, see if

(35:43):
there's some local companies. Sometimes there's some companies that are
just small businesses that serve There's one more company called
Starry Internet. I don't know if they're by you, and
I think they're having some trouble as well, but Storry
Internet delivers internet wirelessly. You can check to see if
they're available in your neighborhood. That's story dot com. But

(36:04):
those are the best places to go. You know, I
think starlink is overkill for you, But if you refuse
to use your local provider, there's not many There's just
not many options right now. Until we get more satellite
internet options, Susanne, it's just not gonna be a thing.
Coming up on the show, we're gonna talk about the
startup that helps you make money doing other people's dirty laundry.

(36:25):
Plus i'm gonna tell you about the new Chrome features
that will save your battery and maybe even make Chrome
run faster. Plus your calls at triple eight Rich one
oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to two
four one zero one. You're listening to Rich on tech Michael.
You are on with uh, I'm gonna call myself technical
difficulties Rich today. How you doing pretty good?

Speaker 4 (36:47):
Thanks for taking my call. I'm an Android user, so
I have the Amazon Prime app on my tablet in
my phone for watching video for watching my movies. When
I purchase a movie now on the app, it doesn't
allow me to do that. It tells me I have
to go to the the you know, go to their

(37:10):
website to purchase the movie now. So I'm no longer
able to purchase the movie through the app.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
I'm my Android, and you used to be able to exactly.

Speaker 4 (37:21):
Yeah, I like the app, it's more convenient, but now
I have to go to www dot Amazon, Prime Video
dot com to purchase an app. Now, if it's a
free if it's a free movie, it starts up no
problem on the app, right.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
But if it's something like that, like a movie that
you have to pay to rent or to purchase, you
can't do it through the app anymore.

Speaker 4 (37:42):
Right, exactly. And I'm gonnaccount with them, So I'm not
sure why that changed, or a contract that.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
Was canceled or Yeah, it's frustrating. And I'll explain what's
going on here. And this is this is a change
that we're seeing across the internet. And the big, the
big thing that's happening here is that Amazon does not
want to pay tax to Google. So both Google and
Apple they charge companies that process any sort of digital

(38:09):
transaction through their platform. They charge them a percentage of that. Now,
there are different things, like if you're ordering DoorDash, usually
they don't get a cut of that. But when it
comes to digital goods, whether you are buying, you know,
a subscription to a music service or a movie or
pretty much anything an app for ninety nine cents. They

(38:30):
are taking a cut of that. Whether it's you know, depends.
Typically it's about thirty percent, sometimes could be fifteen, depending
on that. So this comes into play. This is horrible
for consumers, by the way, because I experienced this when
I wrote my book and I sold it as an
ebook and people were telling me, hey, Rich, I can't
buy it through the Amazon app, And I said, wait, why,

(38:51):
what do you mean you can't buy it on iPhone.
Now this back when I did my book a couple
of years ago, it was different. On Android, you could
buy the book through the Amazon app, but on iPhone
you couldn't. But because the book was called one hundred
and one Handy Tech Tips for the iPhone, people are
buying it for the iPhone, so they wanted to buy
it through the iPhone. Well, when you went to the
Amazon app on iPhone, what it's say this this book

(39:13):
is not available for purchase through the Amazon app, and
people will be like, wait, why not? But it didn't
give any explanation as to how you can purchase it.
Same thing with this Android. Now you're saying that it's
telling you to go to the website to actually purchase
the movie, which is a good thing because it's saying like,
here's what you have to do. But on Apple's rules,
a lot of the times you can't tell the customer

(39:36):
that they need to go somewhere else. So let's say
you want to subscribe to something inside an app, and
that app maker doesn't want to pay the thirty percent
to Apple. All they can say is, we're sorry, you
can't subscribe through this app. That's it. They can't say, hey,
please go to www dot whatever dot com to subscribe.
They can't say that because that's against Apple's rules. So

(39:57):
this really comes into play with movies, with ebooks, with
anything that is sort of a digital good that you're
buying on your phone that's not happening through a web browser.
If you're going through a web browser, it's fine, but
most of the time people are buying things through apps,
and that's what you're experiencing. So, Michael, what's changed here
is that Amazon has said, you know what, we don't

(40:19):
really feel like paying this tax anymore, so we're not
going to let you you know, we're not going to
let you buy these things through this app. We're going
to make you go to the Apple or the Amazon
website and I'm trying to look here on you know,
Let's say, if I want to that movie Megan, which
I know is available for rent or for purchase here. Okay,

(40:40):
So if I go to Megan on the app here,
the Prime app says available to buy, how do I
watch this? And I click that it says how do
I watch this rent or buy at Amazon dot com
to watch in the Prime Video app? Now, if I
go to the let's see, do I have the Prime
Video app on my iPhone? I don't, so I have
to download that to see what it says on there.

(41:02):
But the reality is I just encountered this the other
day with Spotify, and I actually took a screenshot because
I was so I couldn't believe how this stuff happens
and how it's so bad for consumers that just don't
know any better, Like they just go, wait, I can't
subscribe to Spotify through the iPhone. So if you go
on the iPhone and try to subscribe to Spotify, it

(41:23):
says missing premium, you're in luck, and it tells you
what you can do, and it says you can't upgrade
to premium in the app. We know it's not ideal,
and that's it. Spotify cannot say anything else about how
you can actually go to subscribe, which is just really
really poor. If you go over to the Android side

(41:44):
of things, it's a little bit better. You can subscribe
inside the app and it says how do you want
to pay? You can pay for premium directly through Spotify
or using your Google Play account. Now, sometimes this is
another thing that happens, and actually it's this is such
a great question, Michael. If you are subscribing to a
service through the app on iOS, oftentimes you will pay

(42:07):
more for that service just because you're subscribing through the app. So,
for instance, I'm trying to think of a good example,
if you subscribe through Hulu through the iOS app, right,
it will sometimes charge you a little bit more than
you would pay if you just subscribe to Hulu through

(42:28):
Hulu dot Com. You might pay a dollar, two dollars,
three dollars more for that. So I don't even know
if you can subscribe to Hulu anymore through iOS if
you want. But the reality is this is a real,
real problem, and I understand. Look, Apple came up with
this incredible platform right, and Android has this incredible platform
with so many customers that come through these doors because

(42:52):
they're on Android or they're on the iPhone. So I
understand why these companies believe that they deserve a cut
of that money. At the same time, it does make
it very tricky for consumers to not even understand what's
happening here. Why can't I subscribe on my phone? Why
can't I buy this ebook on my phone? Why can't
I rent this movie on my phone unless it's through

(43:13):
Apple or unless it's through Google Play, you can, you know,
shop till you drop on those things. Another good example
is on if you have YouTube TV, you know, if
you're on Android, you can upgrade right through the app.
If you're on iOS you can't. So there's a lot
of different ways that this comes into play, and you
just have to realize that these are big companies. There's

(43:36):
a lot of money at stake. Thirty percent of a
dollar times millions upon millions of people really adds up
to a lot. And I feel like there's going to
be some sort of change because it's really tough to
think that. I mean, Fortnite is one of the biggest
fighting this whole thing. But it's just really tough to
think that. You know, consumers are really losing here in

(43:58):
the fact that things are just not easy for them
to do that you think would be simple. You know,
if you want to purchase through your phone or you
want to purchase through your computer, it should be the
same thing. But it's just not. And it all really
comes down to these rules. All right. Coming up on
the show, we are going to talk to the startup
that lets you make money doing other people's dirty laundry.
Later in the show, podcasts are coming to another place,

(44:23):
So I'll tell you the app that will soon have
podcasts making it easier to listen to your favorite shows
like this plus more of your questions At triple eight
Rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four
to two four one zero one. You are listening to
rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here, Welcome back to Rich
on Tech. There are a lot of ways to work

(44:43):
from home, but this gig is pretty unique. It's called
Sudshare and it's the uber of laundry. Basically, you're picking
up other people's laundry. You wash it at your house,
then fold it and return it within twenty four hours.
Then you get paid. Recently, I spoke with Sudshare CEO
Mort Fertel about the company. My first question, how do

(45:05):
you come up with the idea?

Speaker 8 (45:06):
Actually, my wife, they came up with it. One comment
she made in twenty seventeen started the whole thing. She
was home with our five kids, buried in laundry, and
she's like, this is crazy. I can tap an app
and get to the airport FaceTime some on the other
side of the world, but I'm still doing laundry like
my grandmother. And as always she was right. Technologies made

(45:27):
everything so fast and easy, except for this chore that
takes the longest that we hate the most, laundry. It's
actually shocking if you think about it, that there's been
We're in the midst of this technological revolution, and yet
there's been no innovation in this space since the washer
and dryer almost a century ago. And as a result,
in America, we're spending thirteen billion hours and seventy five

(45:49):
billion dollars a year doing something that literally no one
wants to spend any time and money doing. There just
hasn't been a good alternative. We like to say that
there are three things certain in life, death, taxes and laundry.
So sud share solves laundry. It's incredibly simple. You just
tap the app and it's done, wash, dry, fold, pick

(46:10):
up and delivery. We call it Life Without Laundry, and
it's powered by this nationwide network of over two hundred
thousand professional launderers.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
Next, I wanted to know how does sueddshare work. Exactly.

Speaker 8 (46:23):
Yeah, it's very simple. So as a customer, you simply
create an account on the app, you tap do my laundry.
You take your laundry, you put it at your designated
pickup location, for example your back door or your front porch,
and you're done. You go on with your day. You
enjoy your life, You go out on a date, you
go exercise and spend time with your kids. You do
what you really want to do, which is not laundry.

(46:45):
Somebody comes, when of our launderers comes, they pick it up,
they wash it, dry it, fold it and return it
to you the next day.

Speaker 1 (46:53):
So who are these people that are doing my laundry?

Speaker 8 (46:56):
Such share is offering the first ever man annual labor
work from home gig in the world. There's a lot
of people that want to work from home, but they
don't want to do it being tied to a desk.
They want to be more active, or maybe they don't
have the skills to sit behind a desk and work
from home, but they want to work from home nonetheless.

(47:16):
So this is the first ever manual labor work from
home gig in the world where people take their laundry
room and basically turn it into a work from home gig.
We have a lot of for example, a lot of
stay at home moms that need to keep an eye
on their kids and they want a little they want
to earn some extra income while they're doing it.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
This is the interesting part. Apparently you can make some
decent money doing other people's dirty laundry.

Speaker 8 (47:42):
Our top ten sudsters are earning over five thousand dollars
a month, the top one hundred launderers are earning over
twenty one hundred dollars a month. And then we have
thousands of sudstters that are doing it part time just
to pay a bill or earn a little extra money.
It's totally flexible. It's gigwork. You can work when you want,

(48:03):
as much as you want, to make as much as
you want.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
Once again, we're hearing from more Furtel CEO of a
company called sud Share. They call themselves the Uber of Laundry.
I wanted to know more about the people doing my laundry.
Are they trained or vetted in any way?

Speaker 8 (48:18):
Yes, so they are vetted very carefully. They go through
an ID check, they go through a background check, They
also go through They also go through a series of
articles and videos that explains best practices and explains also
what customer expectations are, so they know exactly how to
do the laundry, when is pick up, when is delivery,

(48:40):
how you're supposed to fold it, how you're supposed to
deliver it, how you're supposed to communicate with customers. And
then we have also an algorithm that is rating the
performance of the launderers on dozens of different factors, and
the highest rated launderers get ranked the highest and get
access to most of the orders. So we actually have

(49:00):
about twenty percent of the launderers doing eighty percent of
the of the orders, So the vast majority of our
customers are serviced by the most experienced in best launderers.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
Fluff and folds have been around forever, so I was
curious how sudshare compares themselves, So.

Speaker 8 (49:17):
Sudshare, you really can't compare it to a local laundry service.
I'man a local laundry service. First of all, many of
them don't pick up and deliver. You actually have to
take it there. And you know, the whole point of
this is for it to be convenient. So the beautiful
thing about sudshare is you just tap the app, put
the laundry at your pickup location, like your front door,
and you're done. Everything is included, pick up delivery, wash,

(49:41):
drive fold. All you have to do is get dressed,
whereas with a local wash and fold, generally speaking, pick
up and delivery is not included. And even if it is.
We're a tech company, and so it's this seamless, frictionless
experience on the app that makes everything so simple. And
certainly your local fluff and fold company is not doesn't

(50:04):
have that. You know that that tech experience. Next is
such share conserviace sheeting no matter where you are, so
it's not just when you're home, but it's when you
go on vacation, when you travel for business. We're in
five hundred markets nationwide, So as long as you've got
your phone with you and you've got the app on
your phone. You've got a such Share account and you

(50:26):
can and you can place the laundry service order. So
we have lots of people now that are traveling for
business that are packing much lighter than they ever packed
before because they're just using a laundry service while they're gone.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
And along those lines, I wanted to know what can
I get laundered? This is not a dry cleaning service.

Speaker 8 (50:44):
We don't do dry clean but we launder everything. We
don't do ironing, So if you have shirts that need
to be ironed, you know, we can wash them and
dry them and fold them, but we don't iron them.
But beside besides that, you can get anything that you
would normally put in your washer and dryer. You save

(51:05):
yourself the time and aggravation and give it the suid Share.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
And if there's a problem like a rip or a
stain that wasn't there before, what happens then yeah.

Speaker 8 (51:13):
So it's a dollar propound that includes pick up and delivery,
and it also includes our famous garment protection plan, so
if anything is lost or damaged, you're covered. And that's
the other thing. Another nice thing about dealing with a
national brand like Sudshare as opposed to your local mom
and pop fluffing fold as if something happens, we've got

(51:36):
you covered.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
And of course, one of the most important questions what
about scent preferences. I know a lot of people are
fanatical about how their closed smell or they don't want
any smell at all, And of course the type of
detergent that's used.

Speaker 8 (51:49):
When you place an order, you can enter any special
instructions you might have and we will follow them. In
terms of laundry detergent preferences, you can choose premium, scented, hypoergenic.
That's for people that have sensitive skin and allergies and
stuff like that. And then there's a third option also,
which is provide your own. So if you're really really

(52:11):
specific about the detergent you want us to use, simply
include it with your laundry and we'll use it.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
Finally, I wanted to know what sudshare has learned in
the several years it's been operating.

Speaker 8 (52:22):
The most common refrain we hear from people is, oh
my god, I am never doing laundry again. It's like
when they think about doing this, there's always some hesitation
because they've never done it before, and it's a new
way to deal with laundry and what happens if something

(52:43):
gets lost, their damage and who's going to be doing
and it's like all these questions, which of course we
try to answer, but after people have their first experience,
there's no more questions. It's just like, oh my gosh,
this was unbelievable. All I have to do is get
dressed and I just freed up like two to three

(53:03):
hours of my week. It's just this magical experience. And
so what I've learned is just to answer your question,
what I've learned is that this is a real pain
point for people, and the relief they experience when they
realize that all they have to do is tap an
app and it's done is magical.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
I also interviewed a sudster as they're called, and he
told me he's making about two hundred dollars a week
through the app and he's just doing it part time.
At first, his friends and family couldn't believe it, but
at this point he's actually gotten a few of them
to sign up for the gig as well. Once again,
the app is called Sudshare if you're looking to make
some extra cash or he just wants someone else to
do your laundry. Check it out. I've got my KTLA

(53:48):
TV segment linked up on my website. Just go to
rich on tech dot tv. More of your phone calls
at Triple eight Rich one oh one and more rich
on Tech show coming up after this. Welcome back to
rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you
with your calls at Triple eight Rich one O one

(54:09):
eight eight eight seven four two four to one zero one.
Sophia is in Temecula, Sophia, you're on with Rich. How
can I help? Y?

Speaker 5 (54:20):
Rich?

Speaker 9 (54:22):
I am wondering if there's any way I can uh
get internet with that paying sixty two dollars a month
to my internet provider. I know there's hot spot and
some other ways you can get it, and I don't

(54:43):
work from home. I you know, it's just one person
in my household, and I really don't need too much
internet access, but I need your opinion.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
Do you have a smartphone?

Speaker 4 (55:00):
I do?

Speaker 1 (55:00):
And do you have Have you ever tried the hotspot
feature on there?

Speaker 3 (55:05):
No?

Speaker 8 (55:05):
I have.

Speaker 9 (55:06):
I haven't because I don't know how it works at.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
Who's your internet through on your phone? Who's your cellular provider? Mobile. Okay,
I would contact T Mobile if you do. You have
an iPhone or Android iPhone? Okay, So iPhone has a
system called, uh, you know, a personal hotspot, and if
you want, you can activate that and it will give

(55:32):
you internet, you know, when you need it through your
cellular plan. Now you have to see if that's included
on your plan. It may or may not be. And
also the amount you get maybe limited. But if you're
saying you don't need much, this could work. So uh,
you know, it has its limitations. You would have to
basically reconnect every time. It's not super convenient. And if

(55:52):
you're trying to do something like stream TV or something
like that through another device, you would have to connect
that pretty much every time before you want to use it.
The pairing process is once, but actually just making sure
that it's connected would would probably take a little bit
every time, unlike a typical you know, Wi Fi connection
that would just always be there. So this one, this

(56:13):
one kind of goes in and out.

Speaker 9 (56:15):
I don't watch TV.

Speaker 10 (56:17):
I don't like I said, it's very limited the time
I spend on internet, you know. But yeah, so you
you said to our call T Mobile.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
Yeah, call T Mobile. See just ask them, say hey,
do I have do I have hot Spot on my
cellular plan? And if they say yes, say how much
do I get? Like what's my monthly allowance? If they say,
you know, ten gigs or twenty gigs or fifty gigs,
that's probably enough for what you're talking about. The Other
thing you can inquire about if you want something that's
cheaper than sixty two dollars a month. There's two things

(56:54):
I'd recommend first, and we were talking about this a
little bit earlier. T Mobile has something called T Mobile
Home Internet and they are advertising pretty inexpensive plans, So
that is going to be I believe it starts at
fifty dollars a month, so that's going to be a
little bit less than what you're paying. So that's twelve
dollars right there. Verizon is advertising their home Internet I

(57:20):
believe as low as twenty five dollars a month. So
I think that's for customers only. It depends, like if
you're a Verizon customer, but that may be something to
look into. The Other thing you can do. I don't
know what your income is, but there is a program
through the FCC called the Affordable Connectivity Program so depending

(57:40):
on your household income or also your eligibility for other programs.
For instance, if you are on Medicaid or SNAP or SSI,
or you get Federal Housing Assistants, or you have a
Lifeline phone line, you can apply for this program which
gives you a disc count of up to thirty dollars

(58:01):
a month off of your internet service. And again this
program is called the Affordable Connectivity Program. It's through the FCC,
it's relatively new, and it works for your internet service.
So if you're paying sixty two dollars a month and
you qualify for this program, you can now pay thirty
dollars less a month because you'll work with with your

(58:23):
internet provider to give you that credit. So again that's
called the FCC Affordable Connectivity Program. If you are eligible
for there's a lot. There's a long list of eligibility,
but the main ones are if you're on SNAP or
Medicaid or WICK you do qualify for this program as well,
so that's something that's a little bit new. You can

(58:44):
go to Affordableconnectivity dot gov to do your application there,
but Sophie, I think the hot spot will work. You
can also get a mobile hotspot from T Mobile and
even get a pay as you go one. But the
problem is with that, it's just it's just a little
bit like I feel like you don't really need that
because you've already have it on your phone, So I

(59:05):
don't really think that you need the separate hotspot, especially
with how little you are using the internet according to
what you're telling me here. So good question, check it
out and hopefully one of those solutions works for you.
All right, let's go to Mic in Los Angeles. Mike,
you're on with Rich.

Speaker 11 (59:22):
Hello, Rich, thank you for taking my call. Go Daddy
is my web host service provider, my web hooster from
my business website. It's very simple. They want to charge
me for Microsoft three sixty five Essentials. Apparently I got
that first year for free. I already paid for a

(59:43):
Microsoft Office separately. Do I need that?

Speaker 1 (59:48):
I don't think. So this is well, do you have
an email with them?

Speaker 9 (59:52):
No?

Speaker 11 (59:53):
I have a separate email that I've been using for years. Okay,
you click on my website and you get to me,
but it's not the Microsoft.

Speaker 4 (01:00:00):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
So this three sixty five. I know you're calling it essentials.
It looks like they call it business Basic Online. It
gives you like a fifty gigabyte mailbox with a custom
email domain, use three sixty five apps for the web,
including Outlook, Word Excel, PowerPoint. In one note, you're telling
me you already have that, so you really don't need that.
Share files with one terabyte of one drive. You don't

(01:00:22):
need that because you already subscribe. How much are you
paying for the Microsoft subscription you have? I think, okay,
so you're paying how much did you say a year?
I lost you?

Speaker 4 (01:00:35):
There?

Speaker 11 (01:00:36):
A ninety nine dollars a year for the Microsoft Office
got it?

Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
Okay? And so that that really includes a lot of
the same things here. I don't think you need this.
I think that you know, did you use any of
the features through GoDaddy at all? Like that they gave
you for this? Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:00:52):
Okay, not that I know of.

Speaker 11 (01:00:53):
I'm an idiot when it comes to this stuff. But no,
I don't think I use any of them.

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
Yeah, I would just get rid of it. I mean,
if you're just using the website hosted by GoDaddy, it
sounds like this is very separate and this is just
an add on that they're trying to get you to
pay the You know, how much are they charging you
a month for this.

Speaker 11 (01:01:08):
How much do they want They wanted like seventy something
dollars for the year.

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
Yeah, I mean, the only thing you can consider is
you can I would do a comparison to see what
you're paying separately and then seeing what this offers and
how much this costs. If it's cheaper for the same product,
then maybe it might be worth switching over. But that
would be a little bit complicated because all of your
email and everything that you're using is connected to this

(01:01:34):
other account, so that could be a little bit tricky
to kind of switch over. So I would say just
dump it, and you don't really have to think twice
because you're only using GoDaddy for the domain. I mean,
I think that's the problem here is that you know,
someone signs up for the domain, it costs them, you know,
twenty thirty bucks for the year. The name of the
game is to then upsell those customers to as many
other things as possible, and by giving them these free trials,

(01:01:57):
you know, you forget about it, and before you know it,
your credit card is charge for the seventy bucks. You're like, now,
what's that ah, and you don't feel like calling in,
and then they get the money and you'll call next year,
and it's a whole you know, it's a whole big thing.
This happens all the time.

Speaker 12 (01:02:10):
Okay.

Speaker 11 (01:02:10):
I was afraid if I didn't renew, people would go
to my website and not be able to access a
page or something. I didn't how that worked.

Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
As long as this is yeah, as long as this
is a separate add on, it should not affect your
hosting through GoDaddy. I would confirm to see what you
pay for your hosting and if it says, you know,
go Daddy hosting. Plus the domain, this sounds like it
is a separate product that is not related to your
actual website. This is an add on, especially with the

(01:02:38):
with the email and the custom domain for the email address,
which you know it sounds like you already have through
other your other services.

Speaker 11 (01:02:44):
Anyway, Yes, great, all right, thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
Appreciate it. All right, Mike, good luck with the website.
Appreciate you calling in today. All right. Uh, podcasts coming
to YouTube music. This was kind of a thing that
was missing from YouTube music. According to the Hot Pod Summit,
which was the on air fest in Brooklyn, New York,
they have confirmed that podcasts are coming to YouTube Music. Now,

(01:03:11):
YouTube Music was my preferred music app for so many years.
I loved it because they bought a company, oh gosh,
I can't even remember the name of it, but they
had this one playlist that I loved. It was called
the Blogged fifty and it was like the fifty hottest
songs according to bloggers, and that was the reason why
I loved YouTube Music. Now I still have a subscription,

(01:03:32):
I don't use it as regularly, but it's one of
those things that almost all of the other music apps
have podcasts built in, except for YouTube Music. And so
now the fact that YouTube Music will be getting podcasts
I think is a good thing. It'll help more people
discover them, it'll help people have them all in one place.
They didn't really say when this is going to happen,
but the big question is will you be able to

(01:03:54):
listen to the podcast even when your screen is locked,
And according to what they mentioned at this on AirFest
in Brooklyn, it sounds like you'll be able to. With YouTube.
The problem is if you're not a subscriber to YouTube
and you're listening to a podcast that is uploaded to YouTube,
if you lock your screen, you're not going to hear it,
the audio stops. It doesn't continue in the background unless

(01:04:15):
you're a premium subscriber. And so apparently with YouTube Music,
you will get to be able to listen to the
podcast even with your screen locked, and this is coming
very soon in the US only. At this point, YouTube
has been kind of tinkering with the idea of podcasts.
A lot of people upload shows like this to YouTube,
even if there's no video. They'll just upload the audio

(01:04:36):
and have kind of a waveform or something on there.
I've even experimented with this because YouTube is just sort
of a place where people listen and watch a lot
of stuff, and so why not put your podcast up
there even though it doesn't have video. So YouTube is
kind of warming up to that idea and helping creators
have more tools to be able to do that in
a more native way than right now, which you have

(01:04:57):
to use a third party tool to kind of create
we ate that video file that then uploads to YouTube,
because you can't just upload the audio file. It doesn't
accept that all right, Coming up on the show, We've
got more of your calls at Triple eight rich one
oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to two,
four to one zero one uh. Later in the show,
we're going to talk to the founder of the Day

(01:05:19):
of Unplugging. This is a day that's coming up next
weekend that wants you to give up your smartphone for
a single day, twenty four hours. Could you do it?
I did it one year. I'll tell you about my thoughts.
Plus how supermarkets. Yes, the supermarket loves your data. They
might be worse than Google when it comes to slurping
up all of your data. You're listening to Rich on Tech.

(01:05:42):
More of your calls and tech news after this. Welcome
back to Rich on Tech. My name is Rich DeMuro,
tech reporter at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles, hanging
out here talking technology, answering your questions at triple eight
Rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four

(01:06:03):
four to one zero one. Typically in the show, I
tell you what I posted to Instagram that week, but
let's see this week, not much. I didn't really post
anything this week, so I will tell you. I'm Matt
rich on Tech, but most of the time I'm posting stories,
so sometimes I'll post actual posts. Vicky is in San Diego. Vicky,

(01:06:23):
You're on with Rich. Hello, Vicky, Hi, Rich Hi, Hi.

Speaker 6 (01:06:32):
I wanted to ask you a question. I have a
place that's in a remote rural area that I use
as a seasonal place to go to, and I very
very rarely go there in the winter time, and I
was wondering if there's some kind of camera I could
get because I have animal tracks, and like, I went

(01:06:53):
up there last week and then the RV cover blew
over and I just wanted to record auditor. So when
I go out there, I kind of have an idea
about what happened. But I don't have any Internet service
out there.

Speaker 1 (01:07:07):
So you want a camera that operates without internet like
a So most of the security cameras want internet. Do
you want to be able to monitor this at all?

Speaker 6 (01:07:19):
Well, I don't need to have it live like a
live seat or anything like that. It just for my
own comfort level to kind of get an idea about
what happened, or if there's some you know, traffic around
there that shouldn't be there.

Speaker 1 (01:07:34):
Okay, I'm trying to think. I know that there's I
mean most of the cameras. Do you have internet at
all to set up the camera?

Speaker 6 (01:07:44):
I do? I mean I have a phone I could
like to try.

Speaker 1 (01:07:48):
Yeah, I mean I'm thinking most of the cameras, like
I'm thinking of the wisecams, the r Low I mean,
have you looked at all these to see if they
would work with this situation? Have you looked at these brands?

Speaker 6 (01:07:58):
No? No, no again?

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
So why's w y ze? Wisecam is the one that
first comes to mind?

Speaker 12 (01:08:05):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:08:05):
I know the wysecam has an SD card that can
record continuously twenty four to seven. But to set up
this camera, you typically need internet. Now, there could be
there could be a scenario where you might be able
to set it up at your home and your WiFi
and then bring it over there and set and you know,

(01:08:25):
set it down there. But that's I can't guarantee that
camera is going to continue working when it's not connected
to Wi Fi. It may, it may for a certain
amount of time, but I don't know if it would
r Low. I know Arlow has at least one model.
I'm looking at this. Uh, it's got an LTE model.
Would you want a camera that had built in cellular

(01:08:47):
like would that work? Or is there no internet connection?
Like no cellular connection in that area?

Speaker 6 (01:08:52):
I have absolutely even like starlink or whatever that's called,
that's not even out there.

Speaker 1 (01:08:57):
Okay, so it's really remote, so you're just yes, okay,
So I think, honestly, I think the best the best
thing to do in this case is probably just go
on Amazon and just find have you looked on Amazon
for one of these little kind of security cameras that
has an SD card?

Speaker 4 (01:09:12):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
No, okay, So I would I would just search on
their security camera SD card and see what comes up.
You're basically going to just have a camera that's mounted
that is just continuously recording, and that's it. And how
many days are you going in between visiting these places?

Speaker 6 (01:09:30):
It depends maybe once every three weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:09:33):
Okay, three weeks.

Speaker 6 (01:09:34):
I mean you're gonna have to so during the winter time.
In the summer, I go there, you know, once a week.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
Okay. So most of these cameras that are doing the
continuous recording, if it's just as a small cheap camera,
many of them use like a thirty two gigabyte card,
which is really only going to record several hours of video.
So I'm not sure that you can get you know,
three weeks worth of video on one of these little cameras.

Speaker 6 (01:09:58):
Oh do you know if they if they have some
that are like sensor activated.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
Well again, I mean you're getting into you know, these
cameras that are a little bit smarter if you're going
to start doing sensor because then it needs Now do
you have a power situation here, like do you have
power to this camera or is this on battery as well?

Speaker 6 (01:10:16):
Oh I can, I can get power to it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:18):
Okay. So I think the bottom line here is you're
going to need some sort of camera that is not
one of these main brands that like the Why's or
the r Low. I think it's just going to be
sort of a small off brand camera. The other thing,
I mean, you could set up a GoPro and just
put that on and just let that record. But again,
I don't know how long that's going to record, because
you also need something that's probably weather proof I'm guessing.

Speaker 6 (01:10:40):
Right probably Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:10:42):
Yeah, I don't have a camera off the top of
my head that's going to fit this solution because it
seems like it's a very unique thing. But the things
that I would look at is I would check Wise,
I would check Rlow, Arlo, and then I would also
there used to be a brand called Canary. I don't
know if they're still around anymore. Oh, yeah they are,

(01:11:04):
but they're okay. But that's going to be a cellular camera,
but you may be able to it may work without cellular.
If you look up that that's canary c A n
A R Y do I S. And there's also there's
also another one. There's so many. It's so funny when
I go to like c S, I see all these things.

(01:11:25):
There's another one called it's it's not kangaroo, it's can
garu k A n g A r o O. And
that one. What's unique about that is it may not
capture video per se, but it could capture like little
clips and things. And they've got a whole bunch of products.
They have an indoor outdoor camera as well. That might

(01:11:46):
work for you. So I gave you a lot of options.
It just really depends on kind of this a very
unique situation. So I think that it's just going to
be a matter of which one sort of you look
at the features, you say, oh that's gonna work. That's
gonna work for my situation here.

Speaker 6 (01:12:01):
All right, Well, you gave me a lot of good information.
I appreciate it and appreciate your time.

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
Yeah, this one may this kangaroo may work. It looks
like you know, it may work for you, and it's
only sixty bucks, so definitely check that one out. All right,
thanks so much for the question, Vicky and San Diego.
You're listening to rich on Tech. Coming up, we're gonna
talk about the day of unplugging. Could you give up
your smartphone for twenty four hours? I don't know, rich

(01:12:26):
on Tech coming back at you after this. Welcome back
to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here talking technology and
taking your calls at Triple eight. Rich one on one.
Weird Science one of my favorite movies as a kid.
You know, when I was a kid, they played the
same movies over and over. It's not like today, like
last night, where I'm looking through one hundred and fifty

(01:12:46):
streaming options to find something to watch. You just watched
whatever was on TV at the time. And Weird Science.
All these movies were just like on HBO and like
the cable channels, over and over and over, so you
really got to know them too much choice nowadays, that's
for sure. All right. Joining me now is Kim Annimberg Cavallo,

(01:13:07):
the executive director of the Unplugged Collaborative, and this year,
instead of the National Day of Unplugging. It is now
the Global Day of Unplugging, a day when you are
asked to go without your phone for a full twenty
four hours. It is happening from sundown Friday, March third
to sundown Saturday, March fourth. Kim, thanks so much for

(01:13:31):
joining me today.

Speaker 2 (01:13:32):
Oh, thank you so much, Rich for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:13:35):
Now, we've done stories on KTLA about this, and I
believe it was the day the year before last year
when I did this challenge and I gave up my phone.
I put it in a little bag and I did
not use it for a full twenty four hours. It
was tough. Do you hear that from folks?

Speaker 6 (01:13:51):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:13:51):
Yeah, definitely. And the thing about Global Day of Unplugging
formerly National Day of Unplugging, is that it's really not
about doing a full twenty four our digital detoks. Some
people do that, but a lot of people will just
take the day to learn about their own habits, to
reflect on them, to do maybe a one hour, you know,

(01:14:14):
meal with friends without devices, walk their dog without their
phone for the first time. It's really almost like New
Year's Eve, where you know, we reflect on kind of
the year before, what were our tech habits and how
do we want to change them and improve them.

Speaker 1 (01:14:29):
It's also kind of observing your own kind of reaction
to this situation, Like we just take for granted when
you leave your house, they say you only go back
for a couple of things your keys, your wallet, and
your phone. So it's this kind of habit that we've
formed where it's an important one, like you do need
to stay connected and if something ever happened, that's kind

(01:14:49):
of the argument. You got to have your phone. You
want to take a picture, you got to have your phone.
You want to pay for something, got to have your phone.
So tell me the benefits of unplugging from tech anology
for a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:15:02):
Well, first of all, I mean, if we just get
to the basics of your physical well being. You know,
when we're sitting at our computers or hunching over our
phones many hours in the day, that really takes a
toll on your spine, your neck, your eyes. So there's that,
and then there's the mental well being, the sense of

(01:15:24):
you know, just being isolated, which seems interesting to most
of us because technology has given us this great gift
of being connected twenty four to seven. But if you're
scrolling on social media or you're incessantly answering texts or emails,
you can get a sense of being isolated and lonely.
And so what we encourage with Global dat I'm plugging

(01:15:46):
is really to you know, our mission is to elevate
human connection over digital engagement, and we want people to
come together to really embrace the people around them in person.

Speaker 1 (01:15:57):
So what do you do? So tell me some of
the things. I know in years past you've had activities planned.
What can I do? I mean, do I go out
to dinner with friends? I mean these are things I
do typically, But do I leave my phone in the car? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:16:10):
I mean that's always great if you're going to have
dinner with friends. One of the fun games that I
think has been going on for a decade now is
people put their phones in the middle of the table
and anyone who touches it first pays for dinner. Oh
that's always a fun, fun game to play. And you know,
there's a lot of ways, and we actually have the

(01:16:30):
idea that it's gone from national and glo to global.
We have a lot of people in different countries now
that are taking this campaign and leading it in their country.
So different parts of the world are doing different things,
and we have an Unplugged Map, so people are putting
their events on the map, so you can check out
things that are happening in your city. And if you
don't see something in your city and you want to

(01:16:52):
put something on there, maybe you do a meetup in
the park and you encourage people to come and take
a hike, or there's a lot of really fun things.
We have about two hundred plus ideas of things to
do on Global Day of Unplugging or any day of
the year that you'd like to unplug, and so there's
a lot of really fun ideas.

Speaker 1 (01:17:09):
All Right, we're talking to kim Annaberg Cavallo. She is
the Unplugged Collaboratives executive director. We're speaking about the Global
Day of Unplugging, which is happening next weekend Friday March
third through Saturday March fourth. They're asking you to give
up your phone technology for a day or even a
couple hours for the day. I'd say go for the

(01:17:31):
whole day. That's what I did, and it was it
was a big challenge, but I really felt good afterwards.
The website is Unplugcollaborative dot org. So you're you know,
you're a tech entrepreneur. I mean, you know, in charge
of this nonprofit. I assume you have to use your
phone a lot. So how do you monitor and kind
of you know, balance your own tech habits when you're

(01:17:53):
dealing with all of this stuff. I'm sure people are
emailing you and texting you all day about this.

Speaker 2 (01:17:57):
Oh yeah, that's the ironic part about this time year.
The first quarter of every year is really challenging, extra
challenging for me because there is a lot of in
bround inquiries and a lot of conversations going on online.
I just have to be really laser focused on my
digital wellbeing and you know, keep up the habits of

(01:18:18):
For me, it's really important to sleep with my phone
outside of the bedroom. That doesn't necessarily bother everyone, but
for me it really does because it's not so much
about falling asleep, but it's the morning that gets me,
because the alarm clock if I use it from my
phone and then I pick it up and then for
some reason, you know, an hour later, I've gone all
the way through Instagram, I've made deposits and bank accounts.

(01:18:39):
I'm you know, it's just like searching for things to
do on the phone, and I don't move as quickly
and don't do all the things that my morning routine,
which is meditate, do yoga, do the things that'll really
set me up for a better day. So that's something
that I had to just be extra cautious about during
this time of the year. Yeah, I think that's that's

(01:19:00):
what I think is the hardest part about it. And
when you say, you know, oh, people take you know,
the twenty four hours, I think the other thing that
we really are careful about is not shaming people because
if you do take it and it's hard, that is
a challenge and it would be illuminating to learn from that.
But if for some reason it doesn't work out for
the full twenty four hours, that's informative too, and it's

(01:19:21):
something to talk about. And you know, it's global day
of I'm Plugging is one day a year because we
do put a lot of effort into this, but it
can be any day of the year, and we hope
that people bring this habit into their daily lives as well.

Speaker 1 (01:19:34):
And I think learning from your habits is really the
most important aspect of this is that, like you said,
and everyone can identify with this. You know, you search
for something to do on your phone. Sometimes I pick
up my phone and I kind of forget what I
even picked it up for. And I think notifications are
a big part of that. You get one notification and
it starts you down this path of Oh, let me
check my Instagram now, let me check my Twitter now,

(01:19:56):
let me check my email now. And these are things
that don't necessarily need to be checked incessantly all day long. Now.
I remember when I posted about the National Day of
Unplugging when it was still national instead of global. You know,
some people were negative about it. They said, Rich, why
why bother? My phone is my life, My phone is everything.
I don't have a problem. I don't need to do this.
What do you say to that?

Speaker 2 (01:20:18):
Well, you know, the idea that we think of a
kind of like Earth Day, you know, I mean, we
should all be, you know, thinking about the planet and
conservation every day of the year. But the idea that
we come together one time of year and really put
our energy and our collective energy, and we get to
bring our communities together around that idea is really powerful.

(01:20:42):
And it's the same for Global Day of Unplugging. It's
an opportunity to bring people together around an idea that
you know, yes, we want to have these habits on
the daily and even if you don't want to have
those habits, that's habits, that's okay too. But to elevate
human connection, I don't know how anybody can argue about
against that, and we should, you know, think about just ways.

(01:21:04):
I mean, we have people for the last fourteen years, schools,
religious institutions, companies, other organizations, nonprofit organizations. They really take
this opportunity every year to come together in person and
do something screen free that will bring a deeper connection
to each other and have fun.

Speaker 1 (01:21:25):
Yeah, it really is important. Kim Annabercavallo, executive director of
the Unplugged Collaborative, Thanks so much for joining me today.

Speaker 2 (01:21:33):
Thanks so much. Rich You're really, you know, help having
people learn about technology and embrace technology and learn balance.
You do such a great job and we so appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:42):
Thank you so much. And I'll be honest, I'm you know,
I'm trying to learn the balance in my life as well.
There are times when I feel like I am definitely
overdoing it with the screens. It's part of my job.
But at the same time, I like to disconnect as well,
So if you want to do that. Global Day of
Unplugging twenty twenty three is happening March third through fourth.
I'll put a link to the website on mind. Just

(01:22:04):
go to rich on tech dot tv if you want
to participate and just do it. Just try it, Just
try even even half the day. Believe me, it is
a challenge. You will feel so good and you'll definitely
your hands will feel like you're like, what's going on.
I don't know what to do with my hands because
you're so used to just picking up your phone. All right,

(01:22:24):
more of your phone calls. We're going to close out
the show after this triple eight Rich one O one
eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.
I'm going to tell you how supermarkets, Yes, supermarkets are
spying on you. You are listening to Rich on Tech.
Welcome back to rich on Tech. Doug is in Torrents. Doug.
You're on with Rich Hey.

Speaker 12 (01:22:45):
Rich Hi is Doug. Yes, I live in a guest
house on my landlord has given me free direct TV
for over fifteen years, and I do have a smart TV,
but I'm looking for a way that I can have
like a box or something where I can be able
to stream things and watch like network television, because I

(01:23:08):
DVR different shows and things and I'm just kind of
loss of which thing to go to next.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
Will you have internet even though you're not gonna have
the Direct TV?

Speaker 12 (01:23:18):
Yeah, I already have internet with AT and T because
I have a landline with my internet.

Speaker 1 (01:23:23):
Okay, Well, the good news is there are many many
ways to get free streaming. Now you're gonna have to
put up with ads if you don't want to pay,
and this is just a star so you can start
with this and then decide what you want to pay
for later on. It's been nice to have that Direct TV,
but at this point, if you're not having that, you
can still watch a lot of stuff, in fact, almost

(01:23:47):
everything except you know, maybe some of the newest movies
and things. But the difference is you're gonna have to
put up with ads, and you're not gonna be able
to DVR stuff unless you're paying. As far as I know,
there's not really an online DVR that is free. But
with that said, I mean the first place to start
is a site like or an app called Pluto TV.

(01:24:09):
So I'd recommend that you have a whole bunch of
channels it's owned by Viacoms. You're gonna get a whole
bunch of CBS stuff as well. The thing is, you
need to get a streaming stick first. You said you
have a smart TV, but I don't. I'd I'd rather
you have a streaming stick. I think that either Roku
or fire TV stick is going to be the best.
You can get one for very inexpensive, you know, the
fire TV stick maybe thirty five dollars, and then you

(01:24:30):
can start to download these things. Pluto TV's my first stop.
I'd install YouTube. YouTube has a ton of stuff. They
have a ton of free streaming stuff. Live streams is
on there, so you can watch a lot of live
streaming news through there. To Be to Be, I believe
is owned by Fox and so to Be you're gonna

(01:24:52):
get a lot of the Fox programming and they're gonna
have a whole bunch of stuff to watch for free
as well. Then Amazon has something called free V f
R E E V E E Amazon Free V and
so you're gonna get a whole bunch of the Amazon
stuff streaming free through there. You see where I'm going here,
there's a lot of stuff that you can get. Now

(01:25:12):
there's another site or another app called Crackle, and so
Crackle will have a lot of Hollywood movies, so you
can get a whole bunch of stuff there. Sometimes you're
gonna have to deal with ads on there as well.
And Crackle at one point was I guess it's still
owned by Sony. Sony, so Crackle is Sony, so you'll
probably get a lot of Sony things there as well.

(01:25:35):
A new one that I talked about on the show
last week is called Sling Free Stream. So this is
Sling TV. They have something called free Stream, which is
their free streaming service, and you can just download the app.
It's the Sling app and you can watch that for
free as well. And finally there's one called Zoomo x

(01:25:56):
U m O. This is owned by Comcast, and you
can get that and they have a bunch of news
programming on there. Now, if you're in the Los Angeles area,
you might figure out, well, how do I watch like
my over the air channels? Many of the over the
air channels will be included in some sort of app.
But if you want something like KTLA, the channel that

(01:26:17):
I'm on, we have our own app. It's called KTLA Plus,
and so you can stream the news on there, and
I was doing this yesterday and it works just fine,
and you can download it. It's totally free. And again,
this is a lot of stuff that I'm giving you.
You don't necessarily need to download all of these, but
this is giving you a wide range of options. Now,
if you're telling me you want to stream sports, like

(01:26:39):
if you're really into following a certain sport, you may
have to subscribe to that sports streaming package, and a
lot of the major league sports have them. The challenges
if you're in a local market, many times the games
that are played locally you can't watch. So if it's
a game that's happening here in Los Angeles, you probably

(01:26:59):
won't be able to watch that. Most of the time,
you can watch the out of town games, so that
gets a little bit tricky. Sports definitely gets a little
tricky when you want free, but any other programming, there's
really a lot of it. And I mentioned earlier when
it comes to things like new movies, you may not
be able to access those per se, but I can't
even access them unless I pay. So you also mentioned

(01:27:20):
some sort of box to get everything for free. I
know those are out there. I do not recommend them.
People call them the black boxes or whatever, but it
gets you know, all IPTV boxes. I don't recommend those.
They're operating in a gray area. They may work, they
may not. It's not going to be fun. The other
thing I like about the Amazon Fire TV stick is
that includes a web browser. So anything that you may

(01:27:42):
not be able to access through an app, you can
just bring up on the web browser and so you
can stream pretty much anything that's online, you'll be able
to view it through there. So, Doug, that's a great question.
I'm sorry you have to give up your free direct
TV after so many years. Ugh. Free is always the best,
isn't it. But hopefully I get you some apps that
you can get started on your streaming journey. All right,

(01:28:04):
before we go, let me tell you about the supermarket.
Can you believe that your supermarket is spying on you? Yes,
it is big supermarket companies. They you know that little
club card that you scan when you check out, That
is not to give you coupons and to give you discounts. Yes,
that's what it's doing on the surface, But what it's
really doing is building a very big picture of who

(01:28:27):
you are and what you shop for. And what you purchased.
And that's the reason why these companies want you to
sign up. Almost every grocery store at this point, almost
every store at this point, you go in there and
they say, hey, we'll give you, you know, five percent
off or ten percent off or you know, a coupon
for signing up for our club card. And it used
to be fun when these things first came out. It

(01:28:47):
was great, but you had a whole keychain of remember
your keychain was just filled with like one hundred and
fifty different club cards. They were all those tiny little
things and they defined who you were, you know, whether
you had your you know, whatever company that you like
to shop at, well these cards. This is a great article.
It's from the markup dot org and it says, forget
milk and egg. Supermarkets are having a fire sale on

(01:29:09):
data about you. Now. They focus on Kroger because it's
one of the biggest grocery companies. But what they say
is that when you walk into that store, and this
happens with a lot of stores, there are things called
bluetooth beacons which record your presence. They ping your phone
and that will help you get personalized offers. Your location
in the store is tracked. Maybe even your facial recognition

(01:29:29):
data is tracked. Once you use that membership card, all
that information gets siphoned off into this big data set
and they know exactly what you purchased, and they can
help mix that with other data. So they may take
data that they know about you from other sources, whether
it's your credit report or whether it's your marketing databases

(01:29:50):
that they've purchased from other companies, and they will mix
all that stuff together to know that you just had
a kid, you need diapers and baby formula, and they're
going to send you more ads for that and or
coupons for that stuff. If you look closely at a
majority of these postcards you get in the mail from
big companies, they are printed uniquely for you. I got
one the other day from a company, and it was

(01:30:11):
filled with just the products that I had purchased from
that retailer. And it looked like the same thing they
send to everyone, but no, it was specifically just for me.
The Markup says on a website promoting Kroger's data business,
they have thirty five plus petabytes of customer data and
this is data that they say is sixty six percent

(01:30:34):
larger than the US Library of Congress's digital collection, which
clocked in at twenty one petabytes in twenty twenty two.
So a grocery company knows more about Americans than the
Library of Congress information. Yeah, these companies have a thing
or two. They know what they're doing. They employ very
smart data scientists to get us to spend our hard
earned cash. If you don't think it's happening to you,

(01:30:56):
it absolutely is. Don't be fooled. All right, thanks so
much for listening this week. That is Gonna do It.
I know we had a couple of technical difficulties this show,
but thanks for holding on and hanging on and listening
to my dad jokes at the beginning of the show
That's gonna do it for this week. You can find
me on social media. I am at rich on Tech.

(01:31:16):
I put everything we talked about today on my website,
rich on tech dot TV. Don't forget to check out
my KTLA TV segments. My name is rich Demiro. Thanks
so much for listening. There are so many ways you
can spend a rainy day and your time. I do
appreciate you spending it right here with me. I'll talk
to you real soon.

All Episodes

008 Rich on Tech Radio Show - February 25, 2023

Episode Transcript

Host

Rich DeMuro

Popular Podcasts

24/7 News: The Latest

Therapy Gecko

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}008 Rich on Tech Radio Show - February 25, 2023