October 13, 2017 • 44 mins
A look at Google's new gadgets including the Pixel 2, Pixelbook, Home Mini and Max and Pixel Buds. I review the new Movies Anywhere app that syncs your digital movie collections from iTunes, Amazon and more. Callers asked about iPhone 8 vs X, Pixel vs Note 8, buying phones at Costco and Roku vs Fire TV.Show notes: http://richontech.tv/2017/10/rich-on-tech-live/rich-tech-live-podcast-201-googles-new-gadgets-movies-anywhere/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
What is going on? Rich Jamiro here rich on Tech.
You are listening to rich on Tech Live. This is
the show where I talk tech and help you get
the most out of your gadgets. Also, I'm gonna take
your phone calls. Rich Damiro tech reporter at KTLA TV
Channel five in Los Angeles. Some of you might know
me from there. You can learn more about me at
richontech dot TV. Phone lines are open. You can call
(00:32):
in with your tech questions at three one zero five
nine four three zero zero three three one zero five
nine four three zero zero three. So much going on
in the tech world lately. It really gets me excited
because I you know, I just by the way, I
do want to say hi. We are also broadcasting live
on Facebook. So if you're watching this live and not
(00:54):
listening to it as a podcast, to load to everyone
that's watching live. So there's two ways to kind of
consume this live on fook behind the scenes, but also
as the podcast that you might be listening to. So,
you know, there's just so much going on in the
tech world and it does get me excited, and you know,
I'm basically my job is to kind of play with
these gadgets. See what's cool, see what's good, see what's bad.
(01:16):
And the neat part is that I feel like a
lot of good things are happening, especially for consumers lately.
And Google, Man, they had this event last week. Now
I was in Japan during the actual event, and so
I couldn't be there, unfortunately, because this is always one
of my favorite things is to go to any of
these events. But Google especially and Apple of course in Samsung,
I mean, there's so many good ones now, but they
(01:39):
launched so many new products. Let me count these up.
You got one, you got the Google Pixel two two
of those, because there's an xcel and a regular. You've
got a Google Home Mini speaker. Then you've got a
Google Home Max. Then you've got a Google Pixel book
and pen. Then you've got Google Clips. Man, that's a
lot of stuff. Oh and Google Pixel Buds. I didn't
even count those. But that's a lot of products. And
(02:02):
the crazy thing is is that it's becoming really competitive
for these companies. I mean, you've got Apple who sort
of led the way in creating the products from start
to finish. They create the product and the software that
runs on it, and a lot of people like that
because it works really nicely. If you've ever used an
iPhone or a MacBook computer or any of these things,
(02:22):
I mean, they really do work nicely. And that's because
Apple is kind of controlling it from start to finish,
and so other tech companies have kind of taken a
page from that. Microsoft did that with the Surface and
they decided, you know what, we're going to make our
own computer. And then of course Samsung they don't really
They've done some stuff with software because they do actually
make a software called Ties in which they use to
(02:42):
run on their some of their mobile devices, but on
their phones they do use Android, but it's a heavily
customized version of Android that you'll only find on a
Samsung phone, and so they've really tightly integrated the hardware
and the software as well. And of course Google too.
So we saw the Google Pixel lilast year. That was
absolutely one of my favorite phones of last year. Such
(03:04):
a great device, and what I loved about it is
that it was simple, it was pure Android, and the
camera on that thing was just amazing. And the funny
thing is about the camera is that it's not even
really the camera that's so good. It's the processing power
that Google puts behind it with artificial intelligence. So let's
just go over some of the things they announced. They're
Google Pixel two, that's the first thing, and basically this
(03:25):
looks like the Pixel except a little bit longer. They
kind of kept that same weird back that they had before,
with the kind of metal on the bottom and the
glass on the top. I was never really a huge
fan of the design of the original Pixel, but I
did carry it around for many months because I love
the camera so much and the software. They have a
five inch version or a six inch version, and they
(03:48):
have these funny names too. They've got them in clearly white,
kind of blue, just black, and then the bigger one
comes in black and white and just black. So the
great thing about the these devices are well, they're not
really I mean, Google would love them to be mass
market devices, but they're just not. They do have the
best camera I've ever seen on a smartphone, but people
(04:10):
just you know, they're tough to get. They're only sold
at Verizon and then you have to get them, you know,
unlocked from the Google Store. And I think maybe they'll
be in more places this year. But they weren't even
tough to they were tough to get just by buying them.
I mean you couldn't even get them online. It was
like they were sold out for half the year. Anyway,
this year's Google Pixel two has the world's highest rated
(04:31):
smartphone camera, so it gets a score of ninety eight
by the DxO Mark, which is you know, there's a
lot of websites that rate things, but DxO mark is
kind of this big mobile rating website for cameras and
regular cameras and of course smartphone cameras, and they have
become smitten with the Google Pixel because it's just so good.
So I just think the cameras on the picture on
(04:55):
this thing was just amazing last year. Now they've added
some new things, which you have this new portrait mode.
All the cameras are adding this thing, the portrait mode,
which gives you that nice blurry background, and Android devices
have had this for a while, but now Google is
doing it in a much better way. And the neat
thing about theirs is that it works with selfies as well,
so not just on the back camera but also on
(05:16):
the front facing camera, so you can have a lot
of fuhne with that. The videos are stabilized. You get
unlimited storage which to me nowadays, I mean, it's cool,
but it's not that big of a deal because everyone
gets unlimited storage with Google Photos. Anyway, this you just
get the full resolution. So you can charge this thing
fifteen minutes, you get up to seven hours. They have
this new feature in it called Google Lens, and this
(05:38):
kind of reminds me of back in the day they
had something called Google Goggles, and it was basically where
you can aim your phone at something and it identifies it.
And we all know Google knows everything about everything, So
you can have some phone with that. Point it at
the Eiffel Tower, it's going to tell you all information
about the Eiffel Tower. Point it at a book, it's
going to tell you where you can buy that book,
or more information about the book. And of course you
(05:58):
can do QR codes as well and phone numbers. One
of the cool things is you can scan a business
card and just tap on the phone number and call
that person or email them. There you have it. So
Google Pixel two, that's going to be coming out very soon.
And the pricing on the Google Pixel too. Let's look
up the pricing on the Google Pixel two. So let's
(06:21):
see six hundred and fifty dollars for the original for
the regular size, I guess I should say, and that
is going to be for sixty four gigs of storage.
So if you want sixty four gigs of storage that's unlocked,
that's going to cost you six hundred and fifty bucks.
If you want one hundred and twenty eight gigs of storage,
you got to pay an extra hundred bucks. So you're
(06:42):
talking now seven hundred and fifty dollars for that phone. Now,
if you want to go with the bigger pixel, the
six inch pixel XL, which is always my choice, I
always go with the bigger phone because I like the
larger screen size and the bigger battery, I say, why not.
You're already spending that much money, you might as well
spend a little bit more. And then you've got, let's see,
so the bigger phone sixty four gigs, So that is
(07:04):
let's sell me what our total amount eighth and fifty dollars. So,
and of course the just black is there, but the
black and white is sold out already on the website
as I'm looking at it. Then there's this thing called
the Google Home Mini. This is a speaker basically like
the one that came out last year Google Home. This
is a tiny one. This is a fifty dollars speaker,
(07:26):
voice activated. You can ask it questions, all kinds of stuff.
I have one set up here in my office and
I really like it. It's a great size. And the
cool thing about this device is that you can, basically,
at this price, put one in every single room. So
you put one of these in every room. You can
go into any room you want, ask questions, you know,
get answers, change your lights. I've got my lights behind
(07:46):
me here. You see those lights if you're watching on
the live stream, I've got those hooked up and I
can control all the lights in this room by just
doing a Google command, which is really neat. You could
change the color, turn them on, turn them off, dim them,
you can play music. There's so how much you can do.
I have a son No speaker in every room and
I love Sonos, but it's really wearing thin on me
at this point because I'm kind of digging the fifty
(08:09):
dollars Google Home Mini. And the sound is really good
on it, so, I mean it's not gonna be as
good as sons obviously, but it's pretty good. I mean,
how good do you need your sound to sound. I
don't know. For me, I don't need it that good.
I just want to hear some music while I'm cooking,
And if I can easily call out, you know, an
album or a genre of music and have it play,
that's pretty convenient. And also my kids they love asking
questions to Google. I do too, and it's just fun
(08:31):
to always have someone around that knows everything. Other than
my wife, she would say, I'm a note all. Probably.
It can also recognize up to five five other voices,
so six voices total on the Google Home Mini, and
that is going to be fifty dollars when it comes
out very soon as well Google Home Max this is
(08:52):
four hundred bucks.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Whoo.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
That one's expensive. So this is kind of to me,
seems like the most similar to what Sonos is doing.
If you want a really high powered, quality speaker, and
so this is it. This is the high quality speaker.
And this is obviously a bigger speaker. It's twenty times
more powerful than the original Google Home. I have not
tried this one out myself, but this one has something
(09:15):
called smart Sound, and Sonos has something very similar built in. Basically,
the speaker adapts itself dynamically to the room that it's in,
so your stuff always sounds great. The problem is when
I tried to set this up with my sons, it
never worked, so I don't even have this thing. I
don't have my sons tuned in a good way. But
the smart sound on the Google Home Max, you don't
(09:35):
have to do anything. It automatically uses Google's artificial intelligence
to adapt to your environment, your context, and your preferences.
It automatically tunes itself. That's really cool. So I would
like to see that happen. And again I'm not an audiophile,
so I don't really don't care, but it's really cool
that you can do this stuff. And the neat thing
about the Google Home Max. When you get that, you
(09:56):
get twelve months of YouTube music ad free on Google.
So twelve months times ten bucks, that's one hundred and
twenty dollars. So you do the math four hundred minus
one twenty you're talking what two hundred eighty dollars two
three four, Yeah, So you know, if you do your
math like that Google Pixel book, this one is a
(10:17):
head scratcher for me. I just don't see spending one
thousand dollars on a device that does not run apps
that I need it to run, so I get it.
I have a MacBook. I just got a new MacBook
Pro and I love it. It's thin, it's light, but it
runs everything I need. And now most of the stuff
I do do in Chrome. But there's a lot of
little apps I have on my you know doc here
(10:39):
that are not Chrome apps. They're not web apps, they're
actually apps. So this only runs Android apps, and of
course anything that runs on the web, so Google Docs,
Google Photos, Gmail YouTube. But the cool thing about this
is that it's a four and one suit. It's a laptop,
and then you can flip it back it's a tablet.
Then you can also flip it kind of tent style,
(11:01):
so you can, you know, watch things on the plane
like that. But I just don't see the I mean,
I see the appeal of this thing at one hundred
bucks or two hundred dollars, but not at a thousand.
So to me, the Google Pixel Book is a very
very small targeted amount of people that would want to
get that device. It's definitely not for me, definitely not
for the creator. Moving on, Google Clips, this is a
(11:23):
camera that's also a head scratcher. It's kind of like
a GoPro without a screen and with a brain, so
it automatically captures moments in your life without audio either.
So this is kind of a weird little thing. I
think it's about two hundred and fifty dollars, Yeah, coming
out two hundred and fifty bucks. Works with iPhone, works
with Samsung, and works with a pixel. But it's just
(11:45):
a weird thing. You set it and you forget it.
And this thing is going to recognize your family and
your pets and automatically take pictures or videos of them
as it sees fit. It's kind of a weird thing.
I don't really see this becoming very appealing because the
reality is, if you want to take a picture of
your kids, you want to take a picture of your
kids now, I get it. There are some moments that
(12:05):
are really cool, like if you're teaching your kid how
to walk and you can set this thing up on
the side and capture your kid taking its first steps.
I get that. Or your dog leave it in your
house and you can see your dog all day long,
kind of some of the funny things your dog does.
But the reality is, I don't know, that's kind of
a weird one. So I'm gonna skip that. But maybe
some people will buy it. I don't think so. Two
(12:26):
hundred and fifty bucks, no way. That's a big purchase
for no sound and kind of a weird, hands off
kind of approach. Now, if they put it out for
fifty bucks, yeah, I could see that thing being popular.
And finally, Google Pixel Buds. These are earbuds that you know.
They basically are wireless headphones for your Pixel or any
Android phone. I have not tried these, but I don't
(12:48):
like the look of them. They look kind of weird
and they go in your ears, and I'm not a
fan of any earbuds that go in your ears except
for my Apple AirPods, and those work fantastic. I can't
imagine a better pair of headphones at this point for
everyday use. Those are one hundred and sixty bucks. These
are I think, let's see Google Pixel buds. I believe
(13:10):
these are yeah, one hundred and sixty dollars, so same
price so to me, unless you want the Google Assistant,
which is built into these things as well, I don't
really see these as very appealing to me. Or of course,
you have to have all Google products because you're a
Google fanboy, but I don't know. Premium audio. They don't
get tangled because there's like a small cord that just
goes around the back of your neck wireless of course,
(13:31):
built in microphone. They fit your ears. The neat thing
they showed off at the Google event is how they
can translate things, so real time translation, which you can
speak into your speak into them in a different language,
and then it'll translate into another language, but all through
your phone. So you can already do this on your
Android phone anyway, So I don't really see the point
of that either. So anyway, but I guess my point
(13:53):
out of all these Google products is that I like
I like what they're doing with a pixel, I like
what they're doing with the speakers, but the rest of
the stuff I can kind of pass on. So there
you have it, all right. Taking more of your phone
calls after this, The phone number to call in is
three one zero five nine four three zero zero three.
You are listening to Rich on tech Live. I'm Rich Demiro,
(14:15):
tech reporter at KTLA five News in Los Angeles. I
will take more of your phone calls at three one
zero or I guess I'll take my first phone call
three one zero five nine four three zero zero three
right after this. Thanks for listening to Rich on tech Live.
You can subscribe to this podcast by searching rich on
(14:36):
tech in your favorite podcasting app. That way, you can
listen anywhere. Welcome back to rich on tech Live. I'm
Rich Demiro, tech reporter for KTLA five News in Los Angeles,
taking your calls, answering your questions, and just having a
good old time with you. Thanks for tuning in. This
(14:57):
is a new for me, so it kind of fun
that we're doing in this little podcast here. You could
be watching on Facebook Live or you could be listening
in your car or wherever. So thank you so much
for doing that. I do appreciate it. So let's take
our first call. We have someone calling from the five
six to two area code five six two. You're on
with Rich. Who am I speaking with?
Speaker 3 (15:17):
All Right, this is a logan. I'm just calling them.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Maybe you've gone over the topic or not, but.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
I'm thinking about switching phones right now. I have an Android,
I mean the Galaxy Note five, and I just want
to see what are your thoughts on the next phones
that are coming out in regards to the new Note,
the iPhone eight, Plus or the iPhone X or the
Google Pixel.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Oh my gosh, I know, aren't there so many great
phones to choose from? Right now? Logan, I am like
I'm in heaven right now with all these phones.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
So yeah, there's so many good options to choose some
but it's like you know which one is the best one?
You know, like like which one? And I YouTube the
different reviews and you know the now so they don't
have that many reviews on it. But but yeah, you know,
I'm just like, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Well, okay, so let's go through something. Well, first off,
what what do you want to do on your phone?
Are you doing social media? Are you doing pictures? Like
what's most important to you?
Speaker 4 (16:13):
I'm a relator, so I would say pictures, you know,
and kind of having everything synced up I have.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
I have a HP laptop and then I have the iPad,
so I'm kind of all over the place, but I
don't really have preference.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Yeah, so realtor, so I would definitely say pictures are
going to be important to you for sure, That's number one.
So I mean that to me is kind of Google Pixel,
the or the Note eight. So the thing about the
Note eight, I think would be good for you is
that you would use the stylus I think to either
markup documents. You probably send contracts to people, so that
(16:51):
would be really handy. The only thing I don't like
about the Note eight is some of the bloat software
on it. But otherwise I've been carrying around for a while.
I really like Get. I think it's one of the
better Android phones out there, and it's a well rounded phone.
So the pixel is amazing, but it's kind of like
one sided. It doesn't have a lot of the features,
a lot of the neat features that you get, like
(17:11):
wireless charging that you get on a Samsung device. So
when it comes to iPhone, I mean, look, here's the
deal with the iPhone. iPhone is amazing, and as a realator,
you know, you might find some use in certain features
on the iPhone. Just having a phone that a lot
of people have. You can easily air drop photos. You can,
but you're telling me you use an HP laptop, which
leads me to believe you won't be using air drop
(17:32):
or I message on your laptop. So I think for you,
it really comes down to you've had a Galaxy you
might want to look at. I'd say, maybe the No.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Eight.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
I think that's probably gonna be the best bet for
you as a realator logan because you're gonna get a
lot of use out of that, out of that stylus.
So thanks so much. Yeah. I mean, these these phones
nowadays are so good and there's so many of them
that it's really tough to make a decision. The iPhone ten.
I'm not discounting that phone. I'm just saying, you know,
(18:05):
the iPhone ten. The problem with that one is that
it's kind of new technology, so you may not want
to jump on board right away. You're gonna pay a
thousand bucks for something that's a little bit unproven. Six
one nine area code. You're on with Rich six one nine.
Who am I speaking with?
Speaker 5 (18:19):
Hey? This is John John.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
How you doing. Are you calling from San Diego?
Speaker 5 (18:23):
I am calling from San Diego. I'm using two of
the products that you recommended.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Uh, oh, well, I hope you're happy with them.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
One is the original Pixel right, love it, and the
other one is my epic Epic two wireless headphone.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Look at that. You're my best fan because you're using
two things that I've recommended in the past and you
like them.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
Both, right, I do they work fantastic, They pare easy
and everything. Yeah, I have a question with the Pixel two.
The greatest thing I think about initially getting the Pixel
was it had fantastic support that you could get their
text their phone, and I'm wondering if they're continuing with
(19:03):
that tech support. That's my first question. The second one
is why don't they ever build phone that have a
great case in them on them? We don't build it
with the case. I don't understand why they don't think
of that. Because we get pases and we have to
go out and buy one. Why don't they build a
phone with a great case on it.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Well, okay, so to kind of break down your question, John, Okay,
so Pixel two. Yeah, A big part of the first
Pixel was that they had sort of instant support on it,
so you had like basically you could chat with someone.
You know. They didn't mention that about the second one.
I know you can call someone with a Pixel two.
I don't know if they have the chat support or
the instant support like they had with the first one.
(19:42):
So that's a really good question. I'm not sure. I
don't see it in any of the paperwork that I
had on the Pixel two, which is interesting because they
really hyped that up for the first pixel. Maybe they
realized that a lot of people buying the pixel were
sort of, I don't know, a little bit tech savvy,
so maybe they just decided they didn't really need that.
Let me see if it if they mentioned that here
in my paperwork. So let's see, we've got unlimited storage,
(20:05):
big entertainment, your personal Google search, what you want better together?
You know, it's interesting. Maybe I don't know. I don't
think they discontinue that feature, but I don't see it
as highlighted. But that's a really interesting question. And basically,
if you had a pixel, which I carried around for
a long time last year, you would be able to
kind of get instant support from someone at Google. And
(20:27):
I just actually used this yesterday for something else unrelated,
and I was chatting on their website with someone and
they knew who I was because I was logged in.
So it was a really cool little feature. So I
don't know about that part. The second part about the case,
So that's you know, I think part of this john
is that people like to customize their phones. So if
you have a case that's built in to the company
(20:48):
that might seem like, oh, well, people aren't really going
to like this device because they can't customize it, So
that might be part of it. But there are some
phones that have sort of a rugged exterior, and that
is the the Samsung Galaxy Active series and also some
of the there's some other phones from Verizon. They're sort
of like rough and tough, and they do they come
(21:10):
they don't come with a case on them, but they
basically have a case. So I think that that's kind
of what you're talking about. But the reality is, I
think number one, the case industry is a multi billion
dollar industry, So I think the case manufacturers would be
very unhappy if if all these phones came with a
case and they no one got to buy a case
for them. But I think personally, it just depends on
(21:32):
the person. You know. I like these cases from a
company called Peel and Getpeel dot com, and they're super
thin cases, like literally so thin, it's just unbelievable. But
sometimes I like cases that are a little bit thicker.
If I'm traveling, I definitely put a bigger, thicker case
on my phone because the chances is when I'm traveling
of me dropping my phone is much higher. So that's
(21:53):
why I like to have a case when I travel,
but for every day, I really take risks with a lot.
With a lot of my phones, I kind of don't
keep a case on them, and that could be a
problem because I do drop them and that's not fun,
all right. Phone number is three one zero five nine
four three zero zero three three one zero five to
nine four three zero zero three. John A great question,
(22:16):
And realistically, people love to customize their phones. I mean,
to me, the part of the beauty of a phone
is that there's so many choices when it comes to cases,
and I think that's part of the appeal of the
iPhone too to a lot of people, is that there
are so many options when it comes to cases and
when it comes to accessories. And so I've noticed with
(22:36):
the Samsung line of phones, there's a lot more You're
seeing a lot more cases, You're seeing a lot more
accessories that are made for Samsung because they are kind
of neck and neck with iPhone when it comes to
how many people have them and how many people know
about them. When it comes to a phone like the Pixel,
I mean, I don't really see as many accessories for
the Pixel because yeah, that's just the way it is
(22:56):
with the pixel. All right, next question we've got from
the area code three one. Oh you are on with Rich?
Who am I speaking with?
Speaker 6 (23:04):
Hi? This is June Rich.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
How are you, June? I'm doing great. Where are you
calling from today?
Speaker 6 (23:09):
Again? It's the same old VA nurse?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Oh? Okay, how you doing?
Speaker 6 (23:14):
I'm okay. I want to know why T Mobile is
going to this new program with their new phones where
they're not financing anymore, and they were saying that more
of the other companies are going to go the same trend.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
So what do you mean, what like what they're not
financing in what way?
Speaker 6 (23:33):
You know, how you would go and buy a phone
and then you would just pay your the phone off
within two years within your bill every month.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Yeah, so they're not doing that. They're not offering that
to you anymore, well.
Speaker 6 (23:44):
At least not at Costco. I usually do that at
Costco where it kind of gives me a gift card
and it meets both to both ends for me, and
Costco is not doing it. I think they're just trying
to really phase out T Mobile and they're really marked
getting at and T is verising more.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Oh interesting that could be, you know, it could be
on the back end of Tea Mobile. Maybe they're just
not giving Costco the deal anymore. But I mean, I
think for the most part, from what I've seen, is
that almost the only way you can buy a phone
these days is the monthly payments. I mean, obviously you
can pay full price for it, but I think that
the majority of people are financing it, and that's what
(24:24):
I see, and I still see it on T Mobile's website.
So maybe you just have to go direct to Tea Mobile.
I know, Costco Wireless. I mean Costco in general always
has a better deal on just about everything, as you know, June,
because I love shopping there as well, and they always
have sort of a slightly better deal than anything else
anywhere else you'd get a phone or anything. So if
(24:45):
you get a bag of popcorn at Costco, it's going
to be a little bit bigger than the bag of
popcorn you get somewhere else for the same price. If
you buy, you know, an electronics device, which I love
every time. I mean, you know, when I go into Costco,
I have to look through the electronics section. That's that's
my thing. That's just what I do. My wife. Every
single time we go into Costco. She starts going into
the store and I say, honey, you know I got
(25:06):
to go look at the electronics. She goes, why you
just looked last week. I said, well, I have to
see what's in here, what's new, what's different. And I
love looking at the prices because let's say you buy
something like a hard drive at Costco, So your hard
drive is going to be maybe the same price as
that hard drive somewhere else, but you're gonna get like
maybe a free something with that hard drive, like a
free USB flash drive or something like that. So realistically,
(25:29):
Costco always has a great deal. Let's say you buy
a printer there, Well you're going to get a printer,
but you're also gonna get like a year's worth of
ink cartridges, whereas you may get two ink cartridges at
best Buy. So they always have a little value add on,
which I love. So if you're shopping for electronics, definitely
check out Costco first because they always have fantastic deals.
So June, thanks so much for your question, and I
(25:51):
will take more questions at three one zero five nine
four three zero zero three after this three one zero
five to nine four three zero zero three. You are
listening to rich on tech Live. I'm Rich Demurro. Rich
on tech dot Tv. Is the website where you can
find me. I'll be back in just a moment. Thanks
(26:12):
for listening to rich on tech Live. You can find
me on Facebook at facebook dot com slash rich on tech.
There I'll share fun, tech tips, photos, and pretty much
anything else I find interesting. See you there. Welcome back
to rich on tech Live. I'm Rich Demiro rich on
tech dot tv, and I'm taking your calls, answering your
(26:32):
tech questions and just having a lot of fun with you. Guys.
We've got some folks behind the scenes on Facebook Live.
Thanks so much for them for watching and listening and
joining in, and of course you listening to the podcast.
Thanks so much for that. It's a lot of fun
to have this all going on. So let's talk about
movies anywhere. This is a really new, interesting thing that
just launched, and it is phenomenal. I am very impressed
(26:57):
that Hollywood is doing something and I'm not trying to
be negative here, but I'm just kind of impressed that
Hollywood's doing something that's good for the consumer. Because this
is something that I've wanted for a really long time,
something that I've thought about for a long time, and
it's actually happening. And so it's called Movies Anywhere. It's
a new app, it's basically a new service, not just
an app. So you sign up, You go to Movies
(27:19):
Anywhere dot Com. You sign up, and what happens is,
you know how you've bought all these movies all over
the place, like you know, on iTunes, on Amazon, on Voodoo, Disney, wherever.
Google maybe have a movie or two on there. The
reality is it's been a pain in the neck to
(27:39):
manage all these digital movies because the problem is they
don't play everywhere. So if you buy a movie on iTunes,
it may not play on Amazon. And if you buy
a movie on Amazon, it doesn't play on your Apple
TV as of right now, as I say this, because
I know that the Amazon Video app is coming out
for Apple TV. So eventually it happened. But the reality
(28:01):
is this is all new and this is amazing. So
what you do is you sign up for this account,
Movies Anywhere, and then you go in and you link
all of your other accounts, So you link your Amazon
Video account, you link your Google Play account, you link
your iTunes account and you link your Voodoo account and
your Disney Anywhere account. Next thing, you know, all of
(28:22):
your video libraries are the same everywhere. How amazing is that?
So all of your videos are synced across every library.
So let's say you buy a movie on Amazon, Boom,
it shows up on your iPad in your iTunes account.
Let's say you buy a movie on Voodoo, Bam, it
shows up on your Google Play library on your phone.
(28:44):
Pretty amazing, and it works with all the movies that
you have, or most of them. So they've got a
bunch of studios on board. They've got five studios on board,
which is a majority of them. So they've got Sony
Pictures Entertainment, Walt Disney Company, which is Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm,
Just Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar Kids, Twentieth Century Fox which
(29:06):
is all those movies, Universal, and Warner Brothers. So who's
missing missing is Lionsgate and also Paramount. So those are
the two holdouts. And if I was Lionsgate in Paramount,
I would get on board with this right now because
guess what this is how people are gonna You're not
(29:26):
gonna I mean, you're gonna be less apt to buy
a movie from Lionsgate or Paramount digitally because you know
that it's not gonna work everywhere and all the rest
are So they got to get on board. The other thing,
the other place or thing or whatever you want to
call it that's not on board is Microsoft. Now. Microsoft
in the past has been very stubborn with stuff like this.
I don't think they're gonna stubborn anymore. I think it's
just a matter of time before they get on board.
(29:48):
But basically, any movies that you purchased on Windows right
now don't work with this, and vice versa. So there's
a bunch of movies, not every movie, but a bunch.
If you sign up for this, they're gonna give you
up to five movies for First, if you activate your account,
they're gonna give you two movies, basically Ghostbusters and Ice Age.
And then if you connect a bunch of your accounts,
(30:08):
so in one more account, you're gonna get three more
movies for free, Big Hero six, Jason Bourne, and the
Lego movie, which my kid loves, so we already have that.
So actually, out of all these movies, let's see, I
already had Ice Age. I already had Lego Movie, and
I already had Big Hero six. Oh no, that was
on Netflix. I didn't own that, So I got four
movies for free, which is kind of cool. Does it
(30:32):
support four K? No, the app doesn't right now, but
it will support four K movies, so when you watch
them on your screen, like through your native four K
like an Amazon or an Apple TV, it will work
in four K. But basically you can now watch your
movies anywhere on any device, Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Chrome, Cast, iPhone, iPad, iPad, Touch, Roku,
(30:55):
web browsers. I mean, it's really amazing that they've pretty
much gotten everything, which is just unbelievable. This is so
unprecedented and it's so weird because usually, uh, these companies
are kind of out to get us in a different way.
And this basically makes me want to buy movies digitally
now because I'm like, all right, good, I can watch
them on all my devices. And the neat thing is
you don't have to change the way you do things.
(31:17):
That's what's really cool about this. Once you sign up,
you really don't have to go back to movies anywhere. Now.
You can just keep using iTunes the way you normally do,
and if you ever want to switch over to Android
or Amazon, you can and it just works. So there
you have it all right, Let's take a phone call
three one zero five nine four three zero zero three
three one zero five to nine four three zero zero
(31:38):
three six six one. You are on with Rich? Who's this?
Speaker 6 (31:42):
Hey?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Rich Squigg from Antelope Valley?
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Greg, how's it going? Is my picture all gone? Or
what is still working? I don't know what happened when
I took the live call or when I took the
live person Uh, it really everything took a nose dive
with the with the video quality. I don't know what happened.
But anyway, Greg, what's going on?
Speaker 2 (32:03):
I was quandering, are there any issues with the iPhone
as as far as the because I've noticed a brill
kind of drop off in when I'm talking on the
phone and I can barely hear the collar.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Oh interesting my hearing. No, here's what I think happened.
I think that the ear piece is clogged, because think
about it, it's against your ear and it can pick
up some debris. So what I would do is I
would actually get a canned air. I have mine. Oh yeah, right,
here canned air, and I would just go ahead and
(32:39):
give that thing a little blast. Now, be careful because
you don't want to just you don't want to ruin
your phone. But I would go in there maybe with
a Q tip. You can put a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny,
tiny bit of rubbing alcohol in there if you want
to kind of clean things. But this is actually a
great question in general with iPhone because a lot of
times people will say, my phone's not charging or the
audio is not work work, And what happens is the
(33:01):
little connector on the bottom of the iPhone gets some
lint in it from your pocket, or you know, the
ear piece collects lint from your pocket and it gets
stuck in that little grill there. So that's what I
think is happening with your phone. I would give it
a little clean out and see if that helps. But
in general, you don't want to use too many liquids
on your phone. But a tiny bit of rubbing alcohol,
(33:22):
just literally just a tiny dap might just help to
get that cleaned out and just kind of give that
a nice cleaning and see what happens. If that doesn't work,
I would do a reset on your phone. See if
that helps. Do your software update, obviously, and if none
of that happened, if none of that helps, and I
would bring it into the Apple Store and see what
they have to say about that. But generally, I think
(33:45):
you're gonna I guarant you know. It's funny. We have
these little earpieces at work, like these little headphones microphones
that we use, and sometimes all of a sudden they
stop working and it's like, well they're clogged, they're no longer,
They've just collected a lot of debris. You put them
in your pocket, you put them in your ear. So
it happens, and you just have to be aware of it.
So good question, Greg, Thanks so much for asking. All Right,
I'm gonna take more of your calls and end the
(34:06):
show right after this so and I will be right
back with you guys. Thanks for listening to rich on
Tech Live. You can find me on Instagram with the
username rich on tech. There I'll share random photos, including
stuff I eat, my family, and where I'm traveling. Welcome
(34:33):
back to a rich on Tech Live. I'm rich Demiro,
tech reporter for KTLA five News in Los Angeles and
other assorted TV stations nationwide. Thanks so much for watching
on TV and listening to this podcast. It's been a
fun show. It's been a great first rebirth of the show.
So hopefully I did everything right and it all worked out.
Let's call, let's take one more question before we go here.
(34:57):
Three one? Oho? Oh hang on, let me stop that. Okay?
Speaker 5 (35:00):
Three?
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Oh you are on with Rich? Who am I speaking with?
Speaker 7 (35:04):
Hey? Rich is Darlene. I'm sorry I messed you up?
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Oh, hey, Darlene, what's going on?
Speaker 7 (35:09):
Oh? Not much. I wanted to ask you. I updated
my iPhone to the IOF eleven. Okay, and now my
songs don't play when someone calls me.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Ooh, your songs don't play? Okay, it sounds like something.
Are there are the songs still on the phone.
Speaker 7 (35:26):
Yes, and there's still a sign to my specific people.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Oh, they're still a sign.
Speaker 7 (35:30):
Oh play. It's just just a generic ring tone thing.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Interesting. I have not encountered that problem because I don't
actually have special ring tones for people, So I'm not
sure why that's happening. So, so, you you had everything
set up, it worked, and then you updated to iOS
eleven and it just stopped working. Right, But you're saying that.
Speaker 7 (35:51):
I've checked and other people have had this problem too.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Okay, so other people, Okay, now, are you updated to iOS?
They came out with a new one like yesterday or
the day before. It was likeo point three. I think
have you updated to that one? So I believe so well,
it sounds like they have an issue. This sounds like
a bug. And I will email my friends at Apple
and tell them about it, because I'm sure they know.
I'm sure they have a million and one bugs. I'm
(36:15):
sure they're more concerned about the launch of iPhone ten
in like two weeks, so I'm sure they're like, uh,
we need to fix that before we fix the ringtone issue.
But it's it's definitely that's an odd issue. And I'm
trying to think if they changed anything with audio. No,
they didn't change anything with audio. Yeah, that's a that's
a weird one. And so the weird part to me
is that you're selecting the song and it's a signed
(36:37):
to a person, but when it rings, it doesn't actually play.
It plays something else.
Speaker 7 (36:41):
Okay, yeah, right, they're generic, like you know, ring tone.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
That definitely sounds like a bug. So I'm gonna I
will email my friends and uh, now you know, believe me,
they're gonna They're not gonna like respond immediately. They're probably
gonna be like, yeah, we know about this, Rich so
but for sure, but for sure, that's definitely frustrating. So
thanks all. I got to talk to you twice today.
Thanks so much. And I don't know what happened with you.
(37:07):
We tried to bring you on live earlier and it
was just kind of it garbled my screen. So maybe
I don't have enough bandwidth for other live video on.
Let's see email through my Facebook page, Facebook dot com
slash rich on tech Jill wrote me and she said,
Roku or Firestick. I would like to ask you which
one is better, Roku or Firestick. Well, that's a tough one.
(37:30):
You know. I like Firestick slightly better. I like Amazon
fireTV in general, just because I like the interface a
little bit better. What I like about Roku is that
you have a universal search that's really good, and it's
also sort of platform agnostic. And what do I mean
by that is that they don't Roku just wants to
(37:50):
have everything all at once. They don't really care. They
don't really like if you go on an Amazon fireTV.
It's very much, very much slanted towards Amazon content, which
kind of gets annoying sometimes, whereas Roku they just kind
of feature stuff from all from all over the place.
So I think the Roku interface is just a little
bit outdated, but they have updated it recently, so maybe
(38:12):
that'll be better. Fire TV, I feel like they do
a lot of work in kind of keeping that up
to date, and I love the interface. It just looks nice.
When it comes to apps, I think right now what
you see happening with the apps is that a lot
of them come out on Apple TV and fire first
and then Roku or Roku kind of at the same time.
But I think you'll be happy with either, I really do.
I think it really comes down to are you a
(38:34):
big Amazon Prime person? And if you are, then I
think go with the fire Stick. If not, you can
still get Prime content on the other one. But if
you watch a lot of Amazon Prime stuff, you know,
go with the fire Stick. If not, just go with
the Roku, and I think you'll be pretty happy with that.
They just came out with a ton of new Roku devices,
including one called Express Classic, which is really crazy because
(38:56):
or I said, called Express Classic. Let's see Roku Express.
I think it's Express Plus rather it connects to classic TV,
so it's exclusively at Walmart and it's forty bucks, and
it has the old school connectors, so you can actually
connect this, this smart streaming device to a stupid TV,
like an old school TV, a tube TV, because it
(39:16):
uses the composite connectors, which are you know, the old
school you remember these they're red, white and yellow, not HDMI,
so it works with HDMI too, but it's you know,
if you have an old TV and you just want
to use it with a Roku. It's kind of funny.
Actually would probably freak out your friends if you actually
bought one of those. All right, rapid fire segment. We're
gonna take questions from the chat room. So if you
(39:36):
guys have a question for me, you can go ahead
and write it in the chat on Facebook Live and
I will answer those in a rapid fire method. So
I know it's a little delayed from when I talk
here to when you guys actually see it, so it
will take a moment for this to happen, so in
the meantime, I will tell you this. You can find
me on Facebook, Facebook, dot com, slash rich on Tech,
(39:57):
Twitter at rich Demiro, and Instagram at rich on tech Instagram.
I have a lot of fun with because I do
a lot of stupid stuff on there, Like on my
Instagram stories, they can disappear, and they disappear in twenty
four hours, so I really don't care. So you'll see me.
Like last night I shared what was I what I
was making for dinner, some pasta dish, and you know,
I'm not a food person, Like I'm not a foodie.
I mean, I'm definitely not a foodie. But anyway, all right,
(40:20):
Linda in the comments says, what about iPhone eight? iPhone
eight is fantastic, so there's nothing wrong with it. In fact,
I at this point am recommending iPhone eight over the
iPhone ten. I think it's a better value for more
most people. iPhone ten the advantages that you basically get
a big screen that takes up the entire front of
the phone the disadvantage, and you get a better camera,
(40:42):
slightly better camera but not much, just slightly. And the
second thing that you get is no home button, which
I don't like. So yeah, I recommend the iPhone eight.
I think that's good. Lisa says, love my Roku. I
had a fire stick. They don't have CBS All Access
on there. I love my soaps and CBS. I thought
Fires does have CBS all Access? Uh does Amazon? Uh
(41:05):
CBS all Access? I thought they did. Maybe maybe that
was back in the day. Yeah, okay, yeah it's on there,
so I don't know. Uh, yeah it's on there now.
So best app for iPhone? Best app for iPhone? Man?
What what's my favorite? My iPhone's in use right now,
(41:25):
so I'm trying to look at think of my home screen. Man,
what's the best. There's so many good apps. There's so
many good apps for iPhone, all of them. I mean, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Uh.
Just got a new seventeen inch MacBook Pro. How should
I care for the battery? I heard you shouldn't rain
it all the way too often. I think you'll be okay,
you know, I just do whatever I want with my batteries.
(41:46):
My last MacBook lasted me four years. I did not
put a second thought into the battery and so h
and it still works great. I actually gifted it to
my dad when I got my new one, and now
he's gonna enjoy it. And the battery lasts just fine.
So there you go. Marabell says, what's a good time
to buy an iPhone. I still own an iPhone five C.
I want a bargain. Okay, you want to bargain on
(42:07):
your iPhone, Well, the best time to buy is really
when the new ones come out because they drop the
price of the old ones by one hundred bucks. But
the reality is what you really want to do is
look for those deals from the carriers. So the carriers
often have deals on iPhones where they will give you.
What you want to look for is when you can
trade in your phone and get more than that phone
(42:27):
is worth. That's the best way to do it. Jim says,
what do you think of ways traffic reports? You know,
it's funny. I'm actually not a fan of ways. I
don't use ways. I don't like being bopped around. I'm
just the kind of I will just set it and
forget it, so I will just take the road. I
will take the freeway. I'm a very easy driver, and
(42:48):
I just I don't really need to be taking left
turns randomly through neighborhoods. So I don't really use ways.
I've tried it. I took it on a you know,
I want to do my due diligence. When it came
to Android auto I tested it out. I was driving
up to Santa Barbara and it was just crazy. It
was like every five minutes it was like something's happening
in the middle of the road. There's debris police on
the right side camera there, and I'm like, oh, I mean, uh,
(43:11):
I didn't realize there was so much going on. I'm
just driving, let me drive. So I ended up switching
back to my Google Maps. I actually, I don't even
want to admit this, but these days I've actually been
really digging Apple Maps. I know it's only when I
use my iPhone, but I actually think at this point
Apple Maps is cleaner looking and feeling than Google Maps,
and it's actually quite good. I know for a while
(43:32):
Apple Maps was terrible, but it's not that way anymore.
So it's I would give it another chance. If you
haven't used it in a while, try it out. But
I've been very impressed. In fact, now when I go
back to Google Maps, I'm like, oh, I kind of
like the look of Apple Maps, and they do have
some really nice features on there too. All right, thanks
so much for listening. This has been great. You guys
have been a ton of fun. That's gonna do it
(43:55):
for the show. This has been Rich on Tech Live.
You can find me on the CAPS Morning News. Usually
I'm on around five fifteen, seven fifty and nine thirty,
I know, crazy hours. You can download this show wherever
you get your podcasts. Just search Rich on tech and
please tell your friends I'm Rich Demiel. I'll see you
next time. Bye bye
What is going on? Rich Jamiro here rich on Tech.
You are listening to rich on Tech Live. This is
the show where I talk tech and help you get
the most out of your gadgets. Also, I'm gonna take
your phone calls. Rich Damiro tech reporter at KTLA TV
Channel five in Los Angeles. Some of you might know
me from there. You can learn more about me at
richontech dot TV. Phone lines are open. You can call
(00:32):
in with your tech questions at three one zero five
nine four three zero zero three three one zero five
nine four three zero zero three. So much going on
in the tech world lately. It really gets me excited
because I you know, I just by the way, I
do want to say hi. We are also broadcasting live
on Facebook. So if you're watching this live and not
(00:54):
listening to it as a podcast, to load to everyone
that's watching live. So there's two ways to kind of
consume this live on fook behind the scenes, but also
as the podcast that you might be listening to. So,
you know, there's just so much going on in the
tech world and it does get me excited, and you know,
I'm basically my job is to kind of play with
these gadgets. See what's cool, see what's good, see what's bad.
(01:16):
And the neat part is that I feel like a
lot of good things are happening, especially for consumers lately.
And Google, Man, they had this event last week. Now
I was in Japan during the actual event, and so
I couldn't be there, unfortunately, because this is always one
of my favorite things is to go to any of
these events. But Google especially and Apple of course in Samsung,
I mean, there's so many good ones now, but they
(01:39):
launched so many new products. Let me count these up.
You got one, you got the Google Pixel two two
of those, because there's an xcel and a regular. You've
got a Google Home Mini speaker. Then you've got a
Google Home Max. Then you've got a Google Pixel book
and pen. Then you've got Google Clips. Man, that's a
lot of stuff. Oh and Google Pixel Buds. I didn't
even count those. But that's a lot of products. And
(02:02):
the crazy thing is is that it's becoming really competitive
for these companies. I mean, you've got Apple who sort
of led the way in creating the products from start
to finish. They create the product and the software that
runs on it, and a lot of people like that
because it works really nicely. If you've ever used an
iPhone or a MacBook computer or any of these things,
(02:22):
I mean, they really do work nicely. And that's because
Apple is kind of controlling it from start to finish,
and so other tech companies have kind of taken a
page from that. Microsoft did that with the Surface and
they decided, you know what, we're going to make our
own computer. And then of course Samsung they don't really
They've done some stuff with software because they do actually
make a software called Ties in which they use to
(02:42):
run on their some of their mobile devices, but on
their phones they do use Android, but it's a heavily
customized version of Android that you'll only find on a
Samsung phone, and so they've really tightly integrated the hardware
and the software as well. And of course Google too.
So we saw the Google Pixel lilast year. That was
absolutely one of my favorite phones of last year. Such
(03:04):
a great device, and what I loved about it is
that it was simple, it was pure Android, and the
camera on that thing was just amazing. And the funny
thing is about the camera is that it's not even
really the camera that's so good. It's the processing power
that Google puts behind it with artificial intelligence. So let's
just go over some of the things they announced. They're
Google Pixel two, that's the first thing, and basically this
(03:25):
looks like the Pixel except a little bit longer. They
kind of kept that same weird back that they had before,
with the kind of metal on the bottom and the
glass on the top. I was never really a huge
fan of the design of the original Pixel, but I
did carry it around for many months because I love
the camera so much and the software. They have a
five inch version or a six inch version, and they
(03:48):
have these funny names too. They've got them in clearly white,
kind of blue, just black, and then the bigger one
comes in black and white and just black. So the
great thing about the these devices are well, they're not
really I mean, Google would love them to be mass
market devices, but they're just not. They do have the
best camera I've ever seen on a smartphone, but people
(04:10):
just you know, they're tough to get. They're only sold
at Verizon and then you have to get them, you know,
unlocked from the Google Store. And I think maybe they'll
be in more places this year. But they weren't even
tough to they were tough to get just by buying them.
I mean you couldn't even get them online. It was
like they were sold out for half the year. Anyway,
this year's Google Pixel two has the world's highest rated
(04:31):
smartphone camera, so it gets a score of ninety eight
by the DxO Mark, which is you know, there's a
lot of websites that rate things, but DxO mark is
kind of this big mobile rating website for cameras and
regular cameras and of course smartphone cameras, and they have
become smitten with the Google Pixel because it's just so good.
So I just think the cameras on the picture on
(04:55):
this thing was just amazing last year. Now they've added
some new things, which you have this new portrait mode.
All the cameras are adding this thing, the portrait mode,
which gives you that nice blurry background, and Android devices
have had this for a while, but now Google is
doing it in a much better way. And the neat
thing about theirs is that it works with selfies as well,
so not just on the back camera but also on
(05:16):
the front facing camera, so you can have a lot
of fuhne with that. The videos are stabilized. You get
unlimited storage which to me nowadays, I mean, it's cool,
but it's not that big of a deal because everyone
gets unlimited storage with Google Photos. Anyway, this you just
get the full resolution. So you can charge this thing
fifteen minutes, you get up to seven hours. They have
this new feature in it called Google Lens, and this
(05:38):
kind of reminds me of back in the day they
had something called Google Goggles, and it was basically where
you can aim your phone at something and it identifies it.
And we all know Google knows everything about everything, So
you can have some phone with that. Point it at
the Eiffel Tower, it's going to tell you all information
about the Eiffel Tower. Point it at a book, it's
going to tell you where you can buy that book,
or more information about the book. And of course you
(05:58):
can do QR codes as well and phone numbers. One
of the cool things is you can scan a business
card and just tap on the phone number and call
that person or email them. There you have it. So
Google Pixel two, that's going to be coming out very soon.
And the pricing on the Google Pixel too. Let's look
up the pricing on the Google Pixel two. So let's
(06:21):
see six hundred and fifty dollars for the original for
the regular size, I guess I should say, and that
is going to be for sixty four gigs of storage.
So if you want sixty four gigs of storage that's unlocked,
that's going to cost you six hundred and fifty bucks.
If you want one hundred and twenty eight gigs of storage,
you got to pay an extra hundred bucks. So you're
(06:42):
talking now seven hundred and fifty dollars for that phone. Now,
if you want to go with the bigger pixel, the
six inch pixel XL, which is always my choice, I
always go with the bigger phone because I like the
larger screen size and the bigger battery, I say, why not.
You're already spending that much money, you might as well
spend a little bit more. And then you've got, let's see,
so the bigger phone sixty four gigs, So that is
(07:04):
let's sell me what our total amount eighth and fifty dollars. So,
and of course the just black is there, but the
black and white is sold out already on the website
as I'm looking at it. Then there's this thing called
the Google Home Mini. This is a speaker basically like
the one that came out last year Google Home. This
is a tiny one. This is a fifty dollars speaker,
(07:26):
voice activated. You can ask it questions, all kinds of stuff.
I have one set up here in my office and
I really like it. It's a great size. And the
cool thing about this device is that you can, basically,
at this price, put one in every single room. So
you put one of these in every room. You can
go into any room you want, ask questions, you know,
get answers, change your lights. I've got my lights behind
(07:46):
me here. You see those lights if you're watching on
the live stream, I've got those hooked up and I
can control all the lights in this room by just
doing a Google command, which is really neat. You could
change the color, turn them on, turn them off, dim them,
you can play music. There's so how much you can do.
I have a son No speaker in every room and
I love Sonos, but it's really wearing thin on me
at this point because I'm kind of digging the fifty
(08:09):
dollars Google Home Mini. And the sound is really good
on it, so, I mean it's not gonna be as
good as sons obviously, but it's pretty good. I mean,
how good do you need your sound to sound. I
don't know. For me, I don't need it that good.
I just want to hear some music while I'm cooking,
And if I can easily call out, you know, an
album or a genre of music and have it play,
that's pretty convenient. And also my kids they love asking
questions to Google. I do too, and it's just fun
(08:31):
to always have someone around that knows everything. Other than
my wife, she would say, I'm a note all. Probably.
It can also recognize up to five five other voices,
so six voices total on the Google Home Mini, and
that is going to be fifty dollars when it comes
out very soon as well Google Home Max this is
(08:52):
four hundred bucks.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Whoo.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
That one's expensive. So this is kind of to me,
seems like the most similar to what Sonos is doing.
If you want a really high powered, quality speaker, and
so this is it. This is the high quality speaker.
And this is obviously a bigger speaker. It's twenty times
more powerful than the original Google Home. I have not
tried this one out myself, but this one has something
(09:15):
called smart Sound, and Sonos has something very similar built in. Basically,
the speaker adapts itself dynamically to the room that it's in,
so your stuff always sounds great. The problem is when
I tried to set this up with my sons, it
never worked, so I don't even have this thing. I
don't have my sons tuned in a good way. But
the smart sound on the Google Home Max, you don't
(09:35):
have to do anything. It automatically uses Google's artificial intelligence
to adapt to your environment, your context, and your preferences.
It automatically tunes itself. That's really cool. So I would
like to see that happen. And again I'm not an audiophile,
so I don't really don't care, but it's really cool
that you can do this stuff. And the neat thing
about the Google Home Max. When you get that, you
(09:56):
get twelve months of YouTube music ad free on Google.
So twelve months times ten bucks, that's one hundred and
twenty dollars. So you do the math four hundred minus
one twenty you're talking what two hundred eighty dollars two
three four, Yeah, So you know, if you do your
math like that Google Pixel book, this one is a
(10:17):
head scratcher for me. I just don't see spending one
thousand dollars on a device that does not run apps
that I need it to run, so I get it.
I have a MacBook. I just got a new MacBook
Pro and I love it. It's thin, it's light, but it
runs everything I need. And now most of the stuff
I do do in Chrome. But there's a lot of
little apps I have on my you know doc here
(10:39):
that are not Chrome apps. They're not web apps, they're
actually apps. So this only runs Android apps, and of
course anything that runs on the web, so Google Docs,
Google Photos, Gmail YouTube. But the cool thing about this
is that it's a four and one suit. It's a laptop,
and then you can flip it back it's a tablet.
Then you can also flip it kind of tent style,
(11:01):
so you can, you know, watch things on the plane
like that. But I just don't see the I mean,
I see the appeal of this thing at one hundred
bucks or two hundred dollars, but not at a thousand.
So to me, the Google Pixel Book is a very
very small targeted amount of people that would want to
get that device. It's definitely not for me, definitely not
for the creator. Moving on, Google Clips, this is a
(11:23):
camera that's also a head scratcher. It's kind of like
a GoPro without a screen and with a brain, so
it automatically captures moments in your life without audio either.
So this is kind of a weird little thing. I
think it's about two hundred and fifty dollars, Yeah, coming
out two hundred and fifty bucks. Works with iPhone, works
with Samsung, and works with a pixel. But it's just
(11:45):
a weird thing. You set it and you forget it.
And this thing is going to recognize your family and
your pets and automatically take pictures or videos of them
as it sees fit. It's kind of a weird thing.
I don't really see this becoming very appealing because the
reality is, if you want to take a picture of
your kids, you want to take a picture of your
kids now, I get it. There are some moments that
(12:05):
are really cool, like if you're teaching your kid how
to walk and you can set this thing up on
the side and capture your kid taking its first steps.
I get that. Or your dog leave it in your
house and you can see your dog all day long,
kind of some of the funny things your dog does.
But the reality is, I don't know, that's kind of
a weird one. So I'm gonna skip that. But maybe
some people will buy it. I don't think so. Two
(12:26):
hundred and fifty bucks, no way. That's a big purchase
for no sound and kind of a weird, hands off
kind of approach. Now, if they put it out for
fifty bucks, yeah, I could see that thing being popular.
And finally, Google Pixel Buds. These are earbuds that you know.
They basically are wireless headphones for your Pixel or any
Android phone. I have not tried these, but I don't
(12:48):
like the look of them. They look kind of weird
and they go in your ears, and I'm not a
fan of any earbuds that go in your ears except
for my Apple AirPods, and those work fantastic. I can't
imagine a better pair of headphones at this point for
everyday use. Those are one hundred and sixty bucks. These
are I think, let's see Google Pixel buds. I believe
(13:10):
these are yeah, one hundred and sixty dollars, so same
price so to me, unless you want the Google Assistant,
which is built into these things as well, I don't
really see these as very appealing to me. Or of course,
you have to have all Google products because you're a
Google fanboy, but I don't know. Premium audio. They don't
get tangled because there's like a small cord that just
goes around the back of your neck wireless of course,
(13:31):
built in microphone. They fit your ears. The neat thing
they showed off at the Google event is how they
can translate things, so real time translation, which you can
speak into your speak into them in a different language,
and then it'll translate into another language, but all through
your phone. So you can already do this on your
Android phone anyway, So I don't really see the point
of that either. So anyway, but I guess my point
(13:53):
out of all these Google products is that I like
I like what they're doing with a pixel, I like
what they're doing with the speakers, but the rest of
the stuff I can kind of pass on. So there
you have it, all right. Taking more of your phone
calls after this, The phone number to call in is
three one zero five nine four three zero zero three.
You are listening to Rich on tech Live. I'm Rich Demiro,
(14:15):
tech reporter at KTLA five News in Los Angeles. I
will take more of your phone calls at three one
zero or I guess I'll take my first phone call
three one zero five nine four three zero zero three
right after this. Thanks for listening to Rich on tech Live.
You can subscribe to this podcast by searching rich on
(14:36):
tech in your favorite podcasting app. That way, you can
listen anywhere. Welcome back to rich on tech Live. I'm
Rich Demiro, tech reporter for KTLA five News in Los Angeles,
taking your calls, answering your questions, and just having a
good old time with you. Thanks for tuning in. This
(14:57):
is a new for me, so it kind of fun
that we're doing in this little podcast here. You could
be watching on Facebook Live or you could be listening
in your car or wherever. So thank you so much
for doing that. I do appreciate it. So let's take
our first call. We have someone calling from the five
six to two area code five six two. You're on
with Rich. Who am I speaking with?
Speaker 3 (15:17):
All Right, this is a logan. I'm just calling them.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Maybe you've gone over the topic or not, but.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
I'm thinking about switching phones right now. I have an Android,
I mean the Galaxy Note five, and I just want
to see what are your thoughts on the next phones
that are coming out in regards to the new Note,
the iPhone eight, Plus or the iPhone X or the
Google Pixel.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Oh my gosh, I know, aren't there so many great
phones to choose from? Right now? Logan, I am like
I'm in heaven right now with all these phones.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
So yeah, there's so many good options to choose some
but it's like you know which one is the best one?
You know, like like which one? And I YouTube the
different reviews and you know the now so they don't
have that many reviews on it. But but yeah, you know,
I'm just like, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Well, okay, so let's go through something. Well, first off,
what what do you want to do on your phone?
Are you doing social media? Are you doing pictures? Like
what's most important to you?
Speaker 4 (16:13):
I'm a relator, so I would say pictures, you know,
and kind of having everything synced up I have.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
I have a HP laptop and then I have the iPad,
so I'm kind of all over the place, but I
don't really have preference.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Yeah, so realtor, so I would definitely say pictures are
going to be important to you for sure, That's number one.
So I mean that to me is kind of Google Pixel,
the or the Note eight. So the thing about the
Note eight, I think would be good for you is
that you would use the stylus I think to either
markup documents. You probably send contracts to people, so that
(16:51):
would be really handy. The only thing I don't like
about the Note eight is some of the bloat software
on it. But otherwise I've been carrying around for a while.
I really like Get. I think it's one of the
better Android phones out there, and it's a well rounded phone.
So the pixel is amazing, but it's kind of like
one sided. It doesn't have a lot of the features,
a lot of the neat features that you get, like
(17:11):
wireless charging that you get on a Samsung device. So
when it comes to iPhone, I mean, look, here's the
deal with the iPhone. iPhone is amazing, and as a realator,
you know, you might find some use in certain features
on the iPhone. Just having a phone that a lot
of people have. You can easily air drop photos. You can,
but you're telling me you use an HP laptop, which
leads me to believe you won't be using air drop
(17:32):
or I message on your laptop. So I think for you,
it really comes down to you've had a Galaxy you
might want to look at. I'd say, maybe the No.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Eight.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
I think that's probably gonna be the best bet for
you as a realator logan because you're gonna get a
lot of use out of that, out of that stylus.
So thanks so much. Yeah. I mean, these these phones
nowadays are so good and there's so many of them
that it's really tough to make a decision. The iPhone ten.
I'm not discounting that phone. I'm just saying, you know,
(18:05):
the iPhone ten. The problem with that one is that
it's kind of new technology, so you may not want
to jump on board right away. You're gonna pay a
thousand bucks for something that's a little bit unproven. Six
one nine area code. You're on with Rich six one nine.
Who am I speaking with?
Speaker 5 (18:19):
Hey? This is John John.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
How you doing. Are you calling from San Diego?
Speaker 5 (18:23):
I am calling from San Diego. I'm using two of
the products that you recommended.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Uh, oh, well, I hope you're happy with them.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
One is the original Pixel right, love it, and the
other one is my epic Epic two wireless headphone.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Look at that. You're my best fan because you're using
two things that I've recommended in the past and you
like them.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
Both, right, I do they work fantastic, They pare easy
and everything. Yeah, I have a question with the Pixel two.
The greatest thing I think about initially getting the Pixel
was it had fantastic support that you could get their
text their phone, and I'm wondering if they're continuing with
(19:03):
that tech support. That's my first question. The second one
is why don't they ever build phone that have a
great case in them on them? We don't build it
with the case. I don't understand why they don't think
of that. Because we get pases and we have to
go out and buy one. Why don't they build a
phone with a great case on it.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Well, okay, so to kind of break down your question, John, Okay,
so Pixel two. Yeah, A big part of the first
Pixel was that they had sort of instant support on it,
so you had like basically you could chat with someone.
You know. They didn't mention that about the second one.
I know you can call someone with a Pixel two.
I don't know if they have the chat support or
the instant support like they had with the first one.
(19:42):
So that's a really good question. I'm not sure. I
don't see it in any of the paperwork that I
had on the Pixel two, which is interesting because they
really hyped that up for the first pixel. Maybe they
realized that a lot of people buying the pixel were
sort of, I don't know, a little bit tech savvy,
so maybe they just decided they didn't really need that.
Let me see if it if they mentioned that here
in my paperwork. So let's see, we've got unlimited storage,
(20:05):
big entertainment, your personal Google search, what you want better together?
You know, it's interesting. Maybe I don't know. I don't
think they discontinue that feature, but I don't see it
as highlighted. But that's a really interesting question. And basically,
if you had a pixel, which I carried around for
a long time last year, you would be able to
kind of get instant support from someone at Google. And
(20:27):
I just actually used this yesterday for something else unrelated,
and I was chatting on their website with someone and
they knew who I was because I was logged in.
So it was a really cool little feature. So I
don't know about that part. The second part about the case,
So that's you know, I think part of this john
is that people like to customize their phones. So if
you have a case that's built in to the company
(20:48):
that might seem like, oh, well, people aren't really going
to like this device because they can't customize it, So
that might be part of it. But there are some
phones that have sort of a rugged exterior, and that
is the the Samsung Galaxy Active series and also some
of the there's some other phones from Verizon. They're sort
of like rough and tough, and they do they come
(21:10):
they don't come with a case on them, but they
basically have a case. So I think that that's kind
of what you're talking about. But the reality is, I
think number one, the case industry is a multi billion
dollar industry, So I think the case manufacturers would be
very unhappy if if all these phones came with a
case and they no one got to buy a case
for them. But I think personally, it just depends on
(21:32):
the person. You know. I like these cases from a
company called Peel and Getpeel dot com, and they're super
thin cases, like literally so thin, it's just unbelievable. But
sometimes I like cases that are a little bit thicker.
If I'm traveling, I definitely put a bigger, thicker case
on my phone because the chances is when I'm traveling
of me dropping my phone is much higher. So that's
(21:53):
why I like to have a case when I travel,
but for every day, I really take risks with a lot.
With a lot of my phones, I kind of don't
keep a case on them, and that could be a
problem because I do drop them and that's not fun,
all right. Phone number is three one zero five nine
four three zero zero three three one zero five to
nine four three zero zero three. John A great question,
(22:16):
And realistically, people love to customize their phones. I mean,
to me, the part of the beauty of a phone
is that there's so many choices when it comes to cases,
and I think that's part of the appeal of the
iPhone too to a lot of people, is that there
are so many options when it comes to cases and
when it comes to accessories. And so I've noticed with
(22:36):
the Samsung line of phones, there's a lot more You're
seeing a lot more cases, You're seeing a lot more
accessories that are made for Samsung because they are kind
of neck and neck with iPhone when it comes to
how many people have them and how many people know
about them. When it comes to a phone like the Pixel,
I mean, I don't really see as many accessories for
the Pixel because yeah, that's just the way it is
(22:56):
with the pixel. All right, next question we've got from
the area code three one. Oh you are on with Rich?
Who am I speaking with?
Speaker 6 (23:04):
Hi? This is June Rich.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
How are you, June? I'm doing great. Where are you
calling from today?
Speaker 6 (23:09):
Again? It's the same old VA nurse?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Oh? Okay, how you doing?
Speaker 6 (23:14):
I'm okay. I want to know why T Mobile is
going to this new program with their new phones where
they're not financing anymore, and they were saying that more
of the other companies are going to go the same trend.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
So what do you mean, what like what they're not
financing in what way?
Speaker 6 (23:33):
You know, how you would go and buy a phone
and then you would just pay your the phone off
within two years within your bill every month.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Yeah, so they're not doing that. They're not offering that
to you anymore, well.
Speaker 6 (23:44):
At least not at Costco. I usually do that at
Costco where it kind of gives me a gift card
and it meets both to both ends for me, and
Costco is not doing it. I think they're just trying
to really phase out T Mobile and they're really marked
getting at and T is verising more.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Oh interesting that could be, you know, it could be
on the back end of Tea Mobile. Maybe they're just
not giving Costco the deal anymore. But I mean, I
think for the most part, from what I've seen, is
that almost the only way you can buy a phone
these days is the monthly payments. I mean, obviously you
can pay full price for it, but I think that
the majority of people are financing it, and that's what
(24:24):
I see, and I still see it on T Mobile's website.
So maybe you just have to go direct to Tea Mobile.
I know, Costco Wireless. I mean Costco in general always
has a better deal on just about everything, as you know, June,
because I love shopping there as well, and they always
have sort of a slightly better deal than anything else
anywhere else you'd get a phone or anything. So if
(24:45):
you get a bag of popcorn at Costco, it's going
to be a little bit bigger than the bag of
popcorn you get somewhere else for the same price. If
you buy, you know, an electronics device, which I love
every time. I mean, you know, when I go into Costco,
I have to look through the electronics section. That's that's
my thing. That's just what I do. My wife. Every
single time we go into Costco. She starts going into
the store and I say, honey, you know I got
(25:06):
to go look at the electronics. She goes, why you
just looked last week. I said, well, I have to
see what's in here, what's new, what's different. And I
love looking at the prices because let's say you buy
something like a hard drive at Costco, So your hard
drive is going to be maybe the same price as
that hard drive somewhere else, but you're gonna get like
maybe a free something with that hard drive, like a
free USB flash drive or something like that. So realistically,
(25:29):
Costco always has a great deal. Let's say you buy
a printer there, Well you're going to get a printer,
but you're also gonna get like a year's worth of
ink cartridges, whereas you may get two ink cartridges at
best Buy. So they always have a little value add on,
which I love. So if you're shopping for electronics, definitely
check out Costco first because they always have fantastic deals.
So June, thanks so much for your question, and I
(25:51):
will take more questions at three one zero five nine
four three zero zero three after this three one zero
five to nine four three zero zero three. You are
listening to rich on tech Live. I'm Rich Demurro. Rich
on tech dot Tv. Is the website where you can
find me. I'll be back in just a moment. Thanks
(26:12):
for listening to rich on tech Live. You can find
me on Facebook at facebook dot com slash rich on tech.
There I'll share fun, tech tips, photos, and pretty much
anything else I find interesting. See you there. Welcome back
to rich on tech Live. I'm Rich Demiro rich on
tech dot tv, and I'm taking your calls, answering your
(26:32):
tech questions and just having a lot of fun with you. Guys.
We've got some folks behind the scenes on Facebook Live.
Thanks so much for them for watching and listening and
joining in, and of course you listening to the podcast.
Thanks so much for that. It's a lot of fun
to have this all going on. So let's talk about
movies anywhere. This is a really new, interesting thing that
just launched, and it is phenomenal. I am very impressed
(26:57):
that Hollywood is doing something and I'm not trying to
be negative here, but I'm just kind of impressed that
Hollywood's doing something that's good for the consumer. Because this
is something that I've wanted for a really long time,
something that I've thought about for a long time, and
it's actually happening. And so it's called Movies Anywhere. It's
a new app, it's basically a new service, not just
an app. So you sign up, You go to Movies
(27:19):
Anywhere dot Com. You sign up, and what happens is,
you know how you've bought all these movies all over
the place, like you know, on iTunes, on Amazon, on Voodoo, Disney, wherever.
Google maybe have a movie or two on there. The
reality is it's been a pain in the neck to
(27:39):
manage all these digital movies because the problem is they
don't play everywhere. So if you buy a movie on iTunes,
it may not play on Amazon. And if you buy
a movie on Amazon, it doesn't play on your Apple
TV as of right now, as I say this, because
I know that the Amazon Video app is coming out
for Apple TV. So eventually it happened. But the reality
(28:01):
is this is all new and this is amazing. So
what you do is you sign up for this account,
Movies Anywhere, and then you go in and you link
all of your other accounts, So you link your Amazon
Video account, you link your Google Play account, you link
your iTunes account and you link your Voodoo account and
your Disney Anywhere account. Next thing, you know, all of
(28:22):
your video libraries are the same everywhere. How amazing is that?
So all of your videos are synced across every library.
So let's say you buy a movie on Amazon, Boom,
it shows up on your iPad in your iTunes account.
Let's say you buy a movie on Voodoo, Bam, it
shows up on your Google Play library on your phone.
(28:44):
Pretty amazing, and it works with all the movies that
you have, or most of them. So they've got a
bunch of studios on board. They've got five studios on board,
which is a majority of them. So they've got Sony
Pictures Entertainment, Walt Disney Company, which is Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm,
Just Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar Kids, Twentieth Century Fox which
(29:06):
is all those movies, Universal, and Warner Brothers. So who's
missing missing is Lionsgate and also Paramount. So those are
the two holdouts. And if I was Lionsgate in Paramount,
I would get on board with this right now because
guess what this is how people are gonna You're not
(29:26):
gonna I mean, you're gonna be less apt to buy
a movie from Lionsgate or Paramount digitally because you know
that it's not gonna work everywhere and all the rest
are So they got to get on board. The other thing,
the other place or thing or whatever you want to
call it that's not on board is Microsoft. Now. Microsoft
in the past has been very stubborn with stuff like this.
I don't think they're gonna stubborn anymore. I think it's
just a matter of time before they get on board.
(29:48):
But basically, any movies that you purchased on Windows right
now don't work with this, and vice versa. So there's
a bunch of movies, not every movie, but a bunch.
If you sign up for this, they're gonna give you
up to five movies for First, if you activate your account,
they're gonna give you two movies, basically Ghostbusters and Ice Age.
And then if you connect a bunch of your accounts,
(30:08):
so in one more account, you're gonna get three more
movies for free, Big Hero six, Jason Bourne, and the
Lego movie, which my kid loves, so we already have that.
So actually, out of all these movies, let's see, I
already had Ice Age. I already had Lego Movie, and
I already had Big Hero six. Oh no, that was
on Netflix. I didn't own that, So I got four
movies for free, which is kind of cool. Does it
(30:32):
support four K? No, the app doesn't right now, but
it will support four K movies, so when you watch
them on your screen, like through your native four K
like an Amazon or an Apple TV, it will work
in four K. But basically you can now watch your
movies anywhere on any device, Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Chrome, Cast, iPhone, iPad, iPad, Touch, Roku,
(30:55):
web browsers. I mean, it's really amazing that they've pretty
much gotten everything, which is just unbelievable. This is so
unprecedented and it's so weird because usually, uh, these companies
are kind of out to get us in a different way.
And this basically makes me want to buy movies digitally
now because I'm like, all right, good, I can watch
them on all my devices. And the neat thing is
you don't have to change the way you do things.
(31:17):
That's what's really cool about this. Once you sign up,
you really don't have to go back to movies anywhere. Now.
You can just keep using iTunes the way you normally do,
and if you ever want to switch over to Android
or Amazon, you can and it just works. So there
you have it all right, Let's take a phone call
three one zero five nine four three zero zero three
three one zero five to nine four three zero zero
(31:38):
three six six one. You are on with Rich? Who's this?
Speaker 6 (31:42):
Hey?
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Rich Squigg from Antelope Valley?
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Greg, how's it going? Is my picture all gone? Or
what is still working? I don't know what happened when
I took the live call or when I took the
live person Uh, it really everything took a nose dive
with the with the video quality. I don't know what happened.
But anyway, Greg, what's going on?
Speaker 2 (32:03):
I was quandering, are there any issues with the iPhone
as as far as the because I've noticed a brill
kind of drop off in when I'm talking on the
phone and I can barely hear the collar.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Oh interesting my hearing. No, here's what I think happened.
I think that the ear piece is clogged, because think
about it, it's against your ear and it can pick
up some debris. So what I would do is I
would actually get a canned air. I have mine. Oh yeah, right,
here canned air, and I would just go ahead and
(32:39):
give that thing a little blast. Now, be careful because
you don't want to just you don't want to ruin
your phone. But I would go in there maybe with
a Q tip. You can put a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny,
tiny bit of rubbing alcohol in there if you want
to kind of clean things. But this is actually a
great question in general with iPhone because a lot of
times people will say, my phone's not charging or the
audio is not work work, And what happens is the
(33:01):
little connector on the bottom of the iPhone gets some
lint in it from your pocket, or you know, the
ear piece collects lint from your pocket and it gets
stuck in that little grill there. So that's what I
think is happening with your phone. I would give it
a little clean out and see if that helps. But
in general, you don't want to use too many liquids
on your phone. But a tiny bit of rubbing alcohol,
(33:22):
just literally just a tiny dap might just help to
get that cleaned out and just kind of give that
a nice cleaning and see what happens. If that doesn't work,
I would do a reset on your phone. See if
that helps. Do your software update, obviously, and if none
of that happened, if none of that helps, and I
would bring it into the Apple Store and see what
they have to say about that. But generally, I think
(33:45):
you're gonna I guarant you know. It's funny. We have
these little earpieces at work, like these little headphones microphones
that we use, and sometimes all of a sudden they
stop working and it's like, well they're clogged, they're no longer,
They've just collected a lot of debris. You put them
in your pocket, you put them in your ear. So
it happens, and you just have to be aware of it.
So good question, Greg, Thanks so much for asking. All Right,
I'm gonna take more of your calls and end the
(34:06):
show right after this so and I will be right
back with you guys. Thanks for listening to rich on
Tech Live. You can find me on Instagram with the
username rich on tech. There I'll share random photos, including
stuff I eat, my family, and where I'm traveling. Welcome
(34:33):
back to a rich on Tech Live. I'm rich Demiro,
tech reporter for KTLA five News in Los Angeles and
other assorted TV stations nationwide. Thanks so much for watching
on TV and listening to this podcast. It's been a
fun show. It's been a great first rebirth of the show.
So hopefully I did everything right and it all worked out.
Let's call, let's take one more question before we go here.
(34:57):
Three one? Oho? Oh hang on, let me stop that. Okay?
Speaker 5 (35:00):
Three?
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Oh you are on with Rich? Who am I speaking with?
Speaker 7 (35:04):
Hey? Rich is Darlene. I'm sorry I messed you up?
Speaker 1 (35:06):
Oh, hey, Darlene, what's going on?
Speaker 7 (35:09):
Oh? Not much. I wanted to ask you. I updated
my iPhone to the IOF eleven. Okay, and now my
songs don't play when someone calls me.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Ooh, your songs don't play? Okay, it sounds like something.
Are there are the songs still on the phone.
Speaker 7 (35:26):
Yes, and there's still a sign to my specific people.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Oh, they're still a sign.
Speaker 7 (35:30):
Oh play. It's just just a generic ring tone thing.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Interesting. I have not encountered that problem because I don't
actually have special ring tones for people, So I'm not
sure why that's happening. So, so, you you had everything
set up, it worked, and then you updated to iOS
eleven and it just stopped working. Right, But you're saying that.
Speaker 7 (35:51):
I've checked and other people have had this problem too.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Okay, so other people, Okay, now, are you updated to iOS?
They came out with a new one like yesterday or
the day before. It was likeo point three. I think
have you updated to that one? So I believe so well,
it sounds like they have an issue. This sounds like
a bug. And I will email my friends at Apple
and tell them about it, because I'm sure they know.
I'm sure they have a million and one bugs. I'm
(36:15):
sure they're more concerned about the launch of iPhone ten
in like two weeks, so I'm sure they're like, uh,
we need to fix that before we fix the ringtone issue.
But it's it's definitely that's an odd issue. And I'm
trying to think if they changed anything with audio. No,
they didn't change anything with audio. Yeah, that's a that's
a weird one. And so the weird part to me
is that you're selecting the song and it's a signed
(36:37):
to a person, but when it rings, it doesn't actually play.
It plays something else.
Speaker 7 (36:41):
Okay, yeah, right, they're generic, like you know, ring tone.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
That definitely sounds like a bug. So I'm gonna I
will email my friends and uh, now you know, believe me,
they're gonna They're not gonna like respond immediately. They're probably
gonna be like, yeah, we know about this, Rich so
but for sure, but for sure, that's definitely frustrating. So
thanks all. I got to talk to you twice today.
Thanks so much. And I don't know what happened with you.
(37:07):
We tried to bring you on live earlier and it
was just kind of it garbled my screen. So maybe
I don't have enough bandwidth for other live video on.
Let's see email through my Facebook page, Facebook dot com
slash rich on tech Jill wrote me and she said,
Roku or Firestick. I would like to ask you which
one is better, Roku or Firestick. Well, that's a tough one.
(37:30):
You know. I like Firestick slightly better. I like Amazon
fireTV in general, just because I like the interface a
little bit better. What I like about Roku is that
you have a universal search that's really good, and it's
also sort of platform agnostic. And what do I mean
by that is that they don't Roku just wants to
(37:50):
have everything all at once. They don't really care. They
don't really like if you go on an Amazon fireTV.
It's very much, very much slanted towards Amazon content, which
kind of gets annoying sometimes, whereas Roku they just kind
of feature stuff from all from all over the place.
So I think the Roku interface is just a little
bit outdated, but they have updated it recently, so maybe
(38:12):
that'll be better. Fire TV, I feel like they do
a lot of work in kind of keeping that up
to date, and I love the interface. It just looks nice.
When it comes to apps, I think right now what
you see happening with the apps is that a lot
of them come out on Apple TV and fire first
and then Roku or Roku kind of at the same time.
But I think you'll be happy with either, I really do.
I think it really comes down to are you a
(38:34):
big Amazon Prime person? And if you are, then I
think go with the fire Stick. If not, you can
still get Prime content on the other one. But if
you watch a lot of Amazon Prime stuff, you know,
go with the fire Stick. If not, just go with
the Roku, and I think you'll be pretty happy with that.
They just came out with a ton of new Roku devices,
including one called Express Classic, which is really crazy because
(38:56):
or I said, called Express Classic. Let's see Roku Express.
I think it's Express Plus rather it connects to classic TV,
so it's exclusively at Walmart and it's forty bucks, and
it has the old school connectors, so you can actually
connect this, this smart streaming device to a stupid TV,
like an old school TV, a tube TV, because it
(39:16):
uses the composite connectors, which are you know, the old
school you remember these they're red, white and yellow, not HDMI,
so it works with HDMI too, but it's you know,
if you have an old TV and you just want
to use it with a Roku. It's kind of funny.
Actually would probably freak out your friends if you actually
bought one of those. All right, rapid fire segment. We're
gonna take questions from the chat room. So if you
(39:36):
guys have a question for me, you can go ahead
and write it in the chat on Facebook Live and
I will answer those in a rapid fire method. So
I know it's a little delayed from when I talk
here to when you guys actually see it, so it
will take a moment for this to happen, so in
the meantime, I will tell you this. You can find
me on Facebook, Facebook, dot com, slash rich on Tech,
(39:57):
Twitter at rich Demiro, and Instagram at rich on tech Instagram.
I have a lot of fun with because I do
a lot of stupid stuff on there, Like on my
Instagram stories, they can disappear, and they disappear in twenty
four hours, so I really don't care. So you'll see me.
Like last night I shared what was I what I
was making for dinner, some pasta dish, and you know,
I'm not a food person, Like I'm not a foodie.
I mean, I'm definitely not a foodie. But anyway, all right,
(40:20):
Linda in the comments says, what about iPhone eight? iPhone
eight is fantastic, so there's nothing wrong with it. In fact,
I at this point am recommending iPhone eight over the
iPhone ten. I think it's a better value for more
most people. iPhone ten the advantages that you basically get
a big screen that takes up the entire front of
the phone the disadvantage, and you get a better camera,
(40:42):
slightly better camera but not much, just slightly. And the
second thing that you get is no home button, which
I don't like. So yeah, I recommend the iPhone eight.
I think that's good. Lisa says, love my Roku. I
had a fire stick. They don't have CBS All Access
on there. I love my soaps and CBS. I thought
Fires does have CBS all Access? Uh does Amazon? Uh
(41:05):
CBS all Access? I thought they did. Maybe maybe that
was back in the day. Yeah, okay, yeah it's on there,
so I don't know. Uh, yeah it's on there now.
So best app for iPhone? Best app for iPhone? Man?
What what's my favorite? My iPhone's in use right now,
(41:25):
so I'm trying to look at think of my home screen. Man,
what's the best. There's so many good apps. There's so
many good apps for iPhone, all of them. I mean, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Uh.
Just got a new seventeen inch MacBook Pro. How should
I care for the battery? I heard you shouldn't rain
it all the way too often. I think you'll be okay,
you know, I just do whatever I want with my batteries.
(41:46):
My last MacBook lasted me four years. I did not
put a second thought into the battery and so h
and it still works great. I actually gifted it to
my dad when I got my new one, and now
he's gonna enjoy it. And the battery lasts just fine.
So there you go. Marabell says, what's a good time
to buy an iPhone. I still own an iPhone five C.
I want a bargain. Okay, you want to bargain on
(42:07):
your iPhone, Well, the best time to buy is really
when the new ones come out because they drop the
price of the old ones by one hundred bucks. But
the reality is what you really want to do is
look for those deals from the carriers. So the carriers
often have deals on iPhones where they will give you.
What you want to look for is when you can
trade in your phone and get more than that phone
(42:27):
is worth. That's the best way to do it. Jim says,
what do you think of ways traffic reports? You know,
it's funny. I'm actually not a fan of ways. I
don't use ways. I don't like being bopped around. I'm
just the kind of I will just set it and
forget it, so I will just take the road. I
will take the freeway. I'm a very easy driver, and
(42:48):
I just I don't really need to be taking left
turns randomly through neighborhoods. So I don't really use ways.
I've tried it. I took it on a you know,
I want to do my due diligence. When it came
to Android auto I tested it out. I was driving
up to Santa Barbara and it was just crazy. It
was like every five minutes it was like something's happening
in the middle of the road. There's debris police on
the right side camera there, and I'm like, oh, I mean, uh,
(43:11):
I didn't realize there was so much going on. I'm
just driving, let me drive. So I ended up switching
back to my Google Maps. I actually, I don't even
want to admit this, but these days I've actually been
really digging Apple Maps. I know it's only when I
use my iPhone, but I actually think at this point
Apple Maps is cleaner looking and feeling than Google Maps,
and it's actually quite good. I know for a while
(43:32):
Apple Maps was terrible, but it's not that way anymore.
So it's I would give it another chance. If you
haven't used it in a while, try it out. But
I've been very impressed. In fact, now when I go
back to Google Maps, I'm like, oh, I kind of
like the look of Apple Maps, and they do have
some really nice features on there too. All right, thanks
so much for listening. This has been great. You guys
have been a ton of fun. That's gonna do it
(43:55):
for the show. This has been Rich on Tech Live.
You can find me on the CAPS Morning News. Usually
I'm on around five fifteen, seven fifty and nine thirty,
I know, crazy hours. You can download this show wherever
you get your podcasts. Just search Rich on tech and
please tell your friends I'm Rich Demiel. I'll see you
next time. Bye bye
Host
Rich DeMuro
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