May 31, 2019 • 44 mins
Amazon unveils the Echo Show 5 with new privacy features; the new iPod touch; Whether you should stay away from Airport USB charging ports; iPhone trackers; what parents need to know about the YOLO app; VIZIO adds AirPlay 2 to existing TV sets; Apps to help you focus; Google Maps lets you see popular restaurant dishes; listeners ask questions about Apple Watch, best iPhone model for pictures, adding Bluetooth to a Samsung TV, WhatsApp and more.Follow Rich: https://twitter.com/richdemuro Follow Producer Meghan: https://twitter.com/producermeghan Rich's Book: 101 Handy Tech Tips for the iPhone https://www.amazon.com/101-Handy-Tech-Tips-iPhone/dp/1731457944See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Amazon has a new Echo and an even better new
privacy feature. Airport USB ports are they safe? iPhone trackers?
The Yolo app, How to focus without your phone? Plus
your pressing tech questions.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
What's going on? I'm Rich Dmiro.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
This is Rich on Tech, the podcast where I talk
about this stuff I think you should know about happening
in the tech world. Plus I answer your tech questions
with the help of producer Megan.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
What's up? Producer Megan?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
You know, just it's Friday.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It is Friday, Happy Friday.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Normally we record this on Thursdays, but this week I
was on death's door.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Is that what you call it? Or deathbed?
Speaker 4 (00:42):
What do you call it when you're basically knocking on
my door?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah? Death was knocking it still is. You can tell.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
And I thought you said you aren't sick.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Well I'm you feel it's your mentally.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I feel great. Physically, I am like a bag of ashes.
Basically I'm about one step away from being dead. But
you could probably hear it my voice. I feel like
my mind is just as good as it always is,
even on all these day quill meds. So yes, I
am a little under the weather, but I think it's
the end of it, because we are going to China
(01:14):
next week and I really do not want to be
sick for China. So I'm getting over that. So bear
with me as we get through the podcast. It's going
to be just as good of a show as if
I'm not sick. The other thing is, uh, maybe you've noticed,
but we do have kind of it's kind of a.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
New show this week.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, because if you look at the artwork, we now
are officially under the KTLA banner.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
So so exciting. Oh wait, whoops, that's not it isn't
there clapping? No? Okay? I yeah, as you can see,
the show is just as good as ever. Don't we
have clapping? I No? Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Anyway, So if you notice, the show is now part
of KTLA. So this is kind of a big deal
for me here at KTLA because I've been doing this
podcast on my own for a while and KTLA's had
their eye on it for a while. It's been kind
of a separate thing. Now it's part of KATLA. So
there's no more swearing, Megan, no more potty mouth. Yeah
you got it, no more swearing. A couple of things,
(02:12):
A couple listeners we have to say goodbye to No.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I'm just kidding. It's all good.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
So basically nothing changes for you at the home audience,
but for us it just means that it's like just
a little.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Bit more official.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
We have a new host as well, new podcast host,
not like me, but like I thought you.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Were actually firing me podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
No, no, no, I just wanted to tell you, Megan.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
She starts on Monday.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, no, no, we have like a new like Art
nineteen is our new host. So basically now there's like
all these new analytics, like they're gonna be like like before,
I didn't care how many people listen right now of
course Katla is like how many listeners did you have?
How many downloads? But again, none of this changes for
me or you. It just changes for like the corporate
big wigs right like they only care. We don't care.
We're doing the same thing here. Before we get into
(02:56):
the questions, Megan, I we've talked about Economy Basic before
in the show, and I do know you were surprised
because you're on a flight San Francisco and you booked
Economy Basic by accident or you thought you were saving
some money.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
How was it?
Speaker 5 (03:09):
Uh, well, I basically booked this flight thinking like, oh,
I'm saving money, like it's one hundred and fifty dollars
like round trip, and then the night.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Before versus one sixty for regular economy.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
And then and I was going to carry on a suitcase.
And so then when I went to check in, they
were like, well, you can't check in.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
First of all, check in.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
At the airport.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
So I was like, okay, and then I get to
the next page and it says and you can't bring
a carry on suitcase.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
And I was like, uh rich literally just had this happen.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
And so I immediately like told you. I was like,
I messed up.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
So how was it? I mean, you get out the board,
you get were you in the middle.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
I end up being like so much more money because
I had to check my luggage so.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
You had to check like a standard bag could have carried.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Dollars, and then on top of another thirty dollars, So
then the ticket ended up being too hundred and ten dollars.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
So I should have just, you know, I should have
just booked the.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Regular So our word to you on this podcast, if
you get nothing else, is just beware of basic economy.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
It is not good.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
You don't get your seat in advance, you can't use
the overhead, you can't. You know, it's basically were you
in the middle though you got you didn't get a middle.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Digit did not get So that's good.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Was it a full flight? Uh?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Pretty full? Yeah? Pretty much?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
All right?
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Still yeah, still not good. Let's get into the first
story of the podcast. This is Amazon launching a new
Echo Show. And I've not bought one of these Echo shows,
but they're very popular because a lot of people like Amazon,
they like the Echo They're in the Alexa world. I
hate that I just said that because I just activated
a bunch of them. But the Echo Show five is
now basically Amazon's answer to the Google Home Hub, the
(04:48):
small one, not the big one. And so this has
a compact design five point five inch screen HD camera
and a built in camera shutter. So the reason that
shutter is important is because because now this can be
something that is good for the bedside, right, don't necessarily
want to have a camera next to your bed. A
lot of people think that's kind of weird. So this
has a camera shutter where you can physically see that
(05:10):
the camera is blocked and it's interesting because in the notes,
Amazon says, this is kind of a big thing with
all this privacy. The Echo Show five has a microphone
camera off button that electronically disconnects both the camera and microphone.
Now that's electronically, which means it can still be hacked
into staying on right, whereas a lot of the new
(05:31):
devices we're seeing have a physical disabler, like the MacBook Pro.
When you close the cover, it physically disconnects the microphone,
which means if the cover is in that closed position,
no hacker can go in with software and reconnect the
microphone because it's like almost like this and you're breaking
that connection, right.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
And same thing on.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
The new Google Home Hub, Nest Max whatever they call it,
that has a physical disconnection. So if you turn off
that slider switch, it's physically disconnecting the camera and microphone.
I don't think it's going to be a huge problem
with this, But the Echo Show five is ninety dollars.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It goes on sale.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
It's on sale right now pre order, but it will
come out in late June, I think it said June
twenty sixth. But here's the other thing that's really interesting
about this, and this will come to all Alexa devices.
But you can now say a delete everything I said today,
and she will delete all the stuff that you said.
And coming soon you'll be able to say, ay, delete
(06:27):
what I just said.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So if you're like, hey, you know, hey, what's this
rash on my leg?
Speaker 1 (06:32):
It looks like I'm about to die? And you're like, oh,
I don't really want my friends or wife to see
this in my account, you can just say, hey, delete
what I just said. I always try to think of
the scenarios when you need this, right, Like, what are
you asking Alexa?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
That's so bad that like you need to delete? Delete
everything I said? Forget we ever spoke today.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
That's what I'm like, what like we'll say.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
They probably say a lot of weird stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
But here's the other thing, Like if you were law enforcement,
wouldn't you be thinking like, hey, can you give me
a red flag on anyone who said delete everything I've
seen said today? Like give me give me all those
accounts please, because.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
We're just curious.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
You don't want to.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
See Maybe you don't want to say that. Yeah, all right,
producer Megan, Yes, I do you have a question for me?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (07:12):
So I'm actually going to start off with two similar
questions that you received this week. The first one is
from Kelly Burns and then the second one is from
Donna Monig, and they both have an iPhone six and
they're looking to upgrade. Kelly asks, I was wondering if
the iPhone eight or the iPhone XS was better. And
(07:35):
then Donna she said she can't decide between the iPhone
X or the XR.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
And she says, I take a lot of pictures. I
do Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat. I'm a sixty seven year old Nana.
You're number one fan.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Wow, thank you, Nana.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Well, okay, so the questions are very similar. They basically
want to know which iPhone to get, right.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
They both have an iPhone six and they want to know, like,
you know.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
I think I don't think they need to go with
the ten S like I think there or the ten
S max or whatever or the ten whatever. I think
they go with the ten R. I think the ten
R is a From what I've seen in the evolution
of the iPhone, the cameras did not really get much
better from the six, seven and eight.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Even though Apple kind of made it seem like they did.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
I really didn't see the leap until the ten and
then to be honest, from the ten to the ten R,
and the ten S a big improvement, like super big improvement.
So if you're looking at the iPhone you're thinking about
getting last year's model, like the ten, just go with
the ten R because you're getting a better camera with
the ten R than you are with a ten Which
is crazy because when I thought when the ten came
(08:40):
out that had a really nice camera, and then I
used the ten R and the ten S, I was like,
oh no, this camera is way better. So don't go
with the eight, don't go with the seven, go definitely
go with the ten R. And it's a good price
point too, So I think that that's probably your best
bet for most people. I think that the iPhone ten
R is your best solution. That's one my wife uses.
She's very happy with that. She's a very standard iPhone user.
(09:01):
Takes a couple of pictures a day, you know, not
like a you know, but this grandma is saying that
she likes you know, Instagram and all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Snapchat.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, she on Snapchat. She says, she said she did
really I know, wow, Okay, snapshot.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Is with it.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, she knows what's up.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
So I think the ten R is your best bet
for the average person and trade in your old phone
and Apple will give you some money towards your new
one if you don't need it. iPhones are great because
you can always resell them on the secondary market eBay.
Obviously you're going to get the most for your old phone.
But if you just want something that's easy, just bringing
it to the Apple store and they'll give you like
a couple hundred bucks for it, probably like one hundred
dollars for that one, maybe one twenty five. Speaking of Apple,
(09:38):
they did introduce a new iPod Touch. This is kind
of a head scratcher because who needs an iPod Touch
these days? Right, And it's one hundred ninety nine dollars
for starting price. The real difference here, there's two things
that they've changed. Number One, they added a new chip,
the A ten fusion chip, which means that this device
is faster, and because it's faster, it can now handle
(09:59):
group FaceTime and augmented reality, so if you want to
do that on your iPod Touch, you can do that now.
The other thing is it has a new capacity two
hundred and fifty six gigabytes, which again, this is a
tiny screen, Like, what are you doing on this thing
that you need two hundred and fifty six gigs. They
don't even say the screen size on the press release
because it's so embarrassingly small. But again, and by the way,
(10:22):
that two hundred and fifty six gig model is three
hundred and ninety nine dollars. You're talking, you're getting up
into like iPad territory. So unless I can't imagine a
reason for an iPod Touch, but they do have one,
I guess even with a kid, I'd rather get them
like an iPod iPad mini.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Right, yeah, like go with the iPad Mini. I don't know,
all right, Producer Megan.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
Okay, so let's segue into an Apple question, another Apple question,
and this is about the Apple Watch. Mike Larsen asks, question, Rich,
is there a smart watch that is every bit as
functional the Apple Watch with an iPhone but has a
round face?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Ooh, interesting, that's a good question. I don't think so. There.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
The Apple Watch, when it comes to like smartphone watches,
really is the best. I mean, it does such a
great job. And believe me, I'm not you know, mister
Apple fanboy over here, like you no I'm trying to
be fair about things, but I when I come across
something that's.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Really good, like the Apple Watch is really good.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Like I have a Fitbit Versa on right now, and
this thing just depresses me, Like it's so it's so
sad compared to the Apple Watch, Like I love this thing,
but it's just not the Apple Watch.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Like the Apple Watch.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Has a lot of great functionality on it. Not to
knock the Fitbit Versa if you know, I did a
great review on it, because it's a great it's a
great alternative to the Apple Watch. But he's asking for
a device that does everything that the Apple Watch does,
which is really tough because there's a lot of apps
for it. You can control so many things on it.
The only thing I'd say is similar in like a
(11:57):
very roundabout way is the Samsung Galaxy Watch, which is
their latest watch. Actually sorry, that's not their latest one.
The uh it's always get I always mess up the
name on this thing. This is what happens when companies
don't send me stuff to try out because I forget,
Like if I just see it at like an event
and I never get to play with it at home,
I kind of forget about it. But it's the Galaxy
(12:18):
Watch Active. And okay, sorry to Samsung. They actually did
offer to send me one and I said don't because
I'm not I don't have time to review it right now.
But it's called the Galaxy so I take that back.
But this is the Galaxy Watch Active, and it is
a beautiful device as a really nice round face. We
saw this at the Samsung event and again, it will
work with iOS. It just won't be pretty, you know,
(12:39):
it'll it'll do your basic functionality. But if you really want,
like the way that the iOS operating system is, if
you want things to work properly, you have to use
Apple products and that's kind of the reality here. It'll work,
but it's just not going to be that good. So
it does do everything you need. It keeps track of
all your stuff. Let me just make sure that it
still works with iOS, because yeah, it does. iPhone five
(13:01):
and above iOS nine. I mean, that's that's basically your
best next bet is the Galaxy Watch Active. It's two
hundred dollars, really nice design. It looks like a real watch,
but again it's not an Apple watch, and it doesn't
have a lot of the functionality that the Apple Watch
is gonna have, especially when you're syncing it with an iPhone.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Okay, So there's this big article. My old producer, actually,
Vanessa sent this to me. She actually tweeted me and said, hey, Rich,
I saw this on Forbes.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Is this true?
Speaker 1 (13:30):
And she was way ahead of the curve because a
lot of other people sent this article to me as well,
and I talked about on the radio this week and
the article headline is why you should never use airport
USB charging stations.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Now have you heard of Forbes?
Speaker 3 (13:45):
You mean, like the news?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Yeah, okay, So they have historically been a very nice,
like kind of historic like old school media site, right,
like old school magazine fair right, this their website. Throw
all that out the window, Like they just go for
clickbait one hundred percent. Like they just let everyone contribute
to their website. Anyone can write anything. And man, I
(14:07):
think this medicine is really just bringing out the honesty and.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Tell it how it is.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
But the reality is, like I look at every Forbes
article and I'm like, this is bs because it's just
clickbait like ninety nine percent of the time. And you
can always tell when an article is clickbait by the
way they write the headline, and so instead of giving
you good detailed information in the headline, they just try
to get you to click to find the information in
the article.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
So this article is why you should never use airport
USB charging stations, and it's like, oh, that's interesting, I
want to know, right, Like ry, so I click the article.
I read it. It's an interview with a security person
at IBM Security. So already they're trying to sell you
know security, right. Their their job is to make you scared. Right,
So let's put it this way. I've been in airports
(14:52):
around the world and never once have I been like,
I shouldn't plug my phone in there because it's going
to sap all of my data off my phone, right, Like,
give me a break in the airport.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
It's you're gonna be fine.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
But the reality is she does bring up some good
things and the bigger point, and I'm not just knocking
Forbes or knocking this article or this writer, but I
am just saying like, you should always be hyper aware
of any sort of security breach or potential security breach
in anything that you do with technology. So if you're
hopping on a Wi Fi network, or if you're plugging
something in, or god forbid, you're using the computer in
(15:27):
the lobby at the air at the hotel, which I
would never do that in a million years, don't ever
do that.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
So those places, yes, you have to think.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
About this stuff, But the reality is nine times out
of ten, if you plug your phone into a USB
port at the airport, you're probably gonna be just fine.
But they're saying that this is a major security issue
because when you plug your phone in, there's there could
be malware on that port that someone popped in there,
somehow loaded it on there, and it's putting it on
(15:54):
your phone, and then it's basically sending all your data
of your phone to like a malicious third part.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
The chance of that happening very slim. Right.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
There may be some countries where this kind of stuff happens,
especially if you're in like the CIA or something, but
for the average person plugging at lax like at the armrest,
probably not gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Now.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
The other reason I say that this is not that
big of a deal is because on the iPhone, when
you plug your iPhone into a new device, you've probably
seen this screen before. It says, do you want to
trust this device? Have you ever seen that where it's like,
do you want to trust this computer?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (16:24):
That was added recently to iOS, and again it's like
an extra security precaution because it's saying, hey, we might
be exchanging some data here, like are you aware of that?
Like you trust this computer? And that was put in
for circumstances like this where you might plug your phone
into something and on the back end they just go, oh,
we're gonna get all her pictures right now. So Apple
is smart and they did that, and you know, they
(16:45):
basically made that little note that you have to say, yes,
I trust this now. The other thing they do recommend
if you're really worried about this is a ten dollars
device called a juice Jack Defender, And this is a
little tiny dongle that goes beatred between your cord and
the port and it basically makes it so that no
data can pass through, only power passes through, and so
(17:07):
to charge your phone. But if there's like malware on
the other end, it's not going to affect your phone.
So long story short, always be hyper sensitive to the
security issues around you, but use common sense.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Let's get some level headedness in here, Megan, why don't
you give me another pot?
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Okay, So our next question is from Facebook. It's from
Joe Sett McGlynn and she asks, my kids are going
to Italy and they were told to use WhatsApp.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Is that a problem? No, WhatsApp is.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
WhatsApp is a very standard app that is used for
communication around the world. And WhatsApp is actually owned by Facebook.
So Facebook runs Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram. Did I miss
anything Facebook? So no, WhatsApp is very standard in other countries.
If you're in Europe, WhatsApp is all the rage, if
(18:06):
you're in the US, it's all I Message, and if
you're in Asia, it's all WhatsApp. So, like I said,
we're going to China next week, we are going to
be using we Chat the whole time basically, and there's
different things I like about them. So Facebook Messenger, what
I don't like is that it's linked to your Facebook.
It doesn't have to be, but you know, it's weird,
Like when I message you, it comes up as like
my full formal Facebook name on Facebook Messenger, which is
(18:29):
kind of weird. Yeah, and then with we Chat, what
I really like about it is that it's just a
QR code. So if you want to link up with
someone anywhere, you don't need to figure out their.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Phone number or their username.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
You literally just hold your phone over their screen with
your QR code and it links you up and you
can now chat. And so that makes it really easy,
especially when you're in Asia, different language barriers and stuff
like that, where you can chat with someone you know
simply and link up with them. And you might be thinking, well, rich,
if we have a language barrier, how would we be
talking to each other. Well, sometimes you just might meet
up your person and be like, Okay, when's the party
(19:02):
tonight or whatever, and like they'll just text you like
some information, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Oh okay, got it?
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Like you don't always need to have like a full
fledged conversation, you know, yeah, or they might send you
more information or a.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Picture they just translated themselves.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Depends, Yeah, I mean, and you could you know, you
can always copy and paste. Or they might speak a
little bit of English sometimes you know, and they can
you know, or you might speak a little bit of
probably not Chinese.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
I didn't tell you I speak Chinese.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, I was wondering you've been you've been working on that.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Yeah, language, so WhatsApp is just fine. I wish this
is my wish for all of the world. I just
wish there was a standard. And I know people say like, oh,
can't I message just be everywhere? No, my message should
not be everywhere, like I would like a I would
like a set of standards for messaging so that these
apps can interact with each other, because my message is fantastic.
(19:50):
If the other person's using an iPhone, and you know, megan,
as soon as I switched to an Android, all hell
breaks loose, right, and it's just like we were chatting
on three different screens the other day because it.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Was so insane.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
So I wish there were some standards that people and
text messaging is a standard, and so is RCS, which
is the next standard for texting.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
But nobody has adopted it yet.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
And so until that's adopted in a big way, and
Apple is kind of like the holdout there, it's just
not gonna happen because people on iPhone don't even know
there's a problem with messaging, right.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:20):
It's funny too because I have a friend who lives
in London and she's the only reason why why I
have a What's Up account, and so like I'll text
her on I Message and she won't respond to me
for weeks, and then I'll go on WhatsApp and I'll
be like, did you get any of my I messages?
And she's like, I don't check I message. So it's
just hard to like even think that way.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah, It's just it was funny because I was going
through my wife's phone like I normally do, not just
kidding me, but I see on my wife's phone that
she had WhatsApp, and I'm like, wait, you have WhatsApp?
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Like here. It is like all the.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Time I've like try to figure out how to like
message my wife because she knows I'm always using like
a different test her phone, and I, you know, I
see WhatsApp on there. I'm like, oh my gosh, you
have WhatsApps to go. Oh yeah, my friend in Rome
asked me to sign up, so I did. I'm like,
you sign up for Like I have not asked her
to do that because I thought it was like so
complicated to like say.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Hey, can you get this third party messaging app?
Speaker 1 (21:07):
So when people communication will find a way making exactly.
So there's an article in the Washington Post this week
that kind of tells us stuff that we already knew,
but when you see it written out, it's kind of scary.
But the writer there, Jeff Fowler I believe, wrote about this.
He basically hooked up his iPhone to a little monitoring
(21:28):
app to kind of see how much is being how
much data is being sent on his phone without him knowing, you,
like all these trackers and stuff, And he found that
fifty four hundred app trackers were on his phone.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
So he used.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
He just basically plugged his phone in at night. And
what happens is when your iPhone is plugged in all
your apps, it's like a free for all.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
They're like, oh my gosh, we've got power.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
So the operating system on iOS lets them kind of
do whatever they want when there's power, with limit limitations.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
But because you have power, your phone saying okay, you guys,
if you need to go talk to your servers or whatever,
go ahead, like Facebook, go talk to your server, WhatsApp,
talk to your server Google Photos.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
You can kind of refresh your photos whatever you want
to do.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Because it knows it has a power source, right, it
doesn't want to use your whole battery up by letting
these things what's called background refresh. When your phone is
on just a cellular plan, So when it gets on
Wi Fi and it gets plugged in, does that make sense.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Everything just goes to down.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
It's really funny though, the way you describe it and
makes it sound like it's like a little cartoon.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
It's like a little party.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
They go do what you need to do.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
It's like they're all like, yeah, we got like six.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Hours, yes exactly, that's they all run and they're like, okay,
let me report back everything I can in these six hours.
So he found fifty four hundred trackers, mostly in apps Yelp,
all these all these different trackers sending back data like
his phone number, email, exact location, digital fingerprint of his phone,
all these different things. And it sounds really scary, but
(22:55):
the reality is this is what happens on your phone.
These are how apps are free. A lot of this
stuff is just nonchalant. It's like, you know, Facebook wants
to know where you are because they can serve ads
in your area, or Yelp wants to know where you
are so they can say, hey, we found a great
you know Vegan restaurant near you, and.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
We notice you like Vegan. So a lot of these
things are like that.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
A lot of it is just tallying the data from
the day, like Google Maps track your location the whole day.
Now it's sending it all back to Google so that
it can put it in your timeline. But it's kind
of scary when you see it all laid out there, right,
And so there's no real solution offered up in his article.
I mean, you could turn off background refresh on your iPhone,
but you would really severely limit what your apps do,
(23:32):
so I don't really recommend that.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
But it's just a.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Great article to read. And again we've said this before
in the podcast. When you're getting something for free, you
are the product, right like your data, your stuff, and
you know, there's little ways you can limit this stuff,
but not really like you can't limit the trackers. And
if you go to like a major website, even like
ktla dot com, there's a million trackers that are looking
(23:54):
to do different things to serve up ads, to see
who you are, to you know, track how long you
spend on the way website, And a lot of this
stuff is actually useful data because like for me, let's
say you go to rich on tech dot tv. I
can see kind of the things that you looked at,
so that I know, like one of the most popular
stories on the website, how far down did you scroll
on this story? I don't really look at that, but
that's something you could do if you're really smart. I'm
(24:15):
not that good, but again, these are things you can do.
How many links did you click on in that story?
So you understand your user. So the better an app
is at this, the better they can use that information
to make the app better, but also make the experience
better as well.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Cool, that's your Cueh's right, I know there's no audio
this time. Let me try to keep you on your toes.
Speaker 5 (24:35):
Okay, So this next question is from Shana and Bob Hi.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Rich.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
You gave me a great recommendation for a laptop for
my oldest daughter four years ago. I need one for
my other daughter.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
She is starting college but is also an artist, drawing
and painting. She isn't sure what she wants to do yet,
but I wanted to get her a laptop that would
accommodate both educational and artistic qualities. Any recommendations mid price
range if.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Possible, Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Well, as soon as she said art and computer, what
do you think came to mind?
Speaker 4 (25:11):
All right, Well, the surface I was gonna say.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Like a Microsoft.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
I mean, like like Apple is good for creative stuff.
But like if you're thinking of like art, which I
think of like drawing on the screen, like you can
do an iPad pro, I guess you could do that,
but that's really expensive. So is the surface surface not cheap?
But I would recommend probably a surface there's so many
of them now, the surface I would recommend the Surface
(25:37):
Studio too. It's like it's like three thousand dollars, but
it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
It's like a giant screen. It's really nice.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
What about just a MacBook?
Speaker 1 (25:46):
No, because the MacBook you're not gonna be able to
do any art on, Like you can't draw on the screen,
there's not really any touch functionality.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
So I don't I don't think that would be very good.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
I really think that a surface pro would probably be
your best bet. The problem is the surface pro is
not cheap. It's I think, let's see how much does
it start at? Surface Pro six starts at eight hundred dollars,
So I mean, but if you do it over time.
If you think about if you're using this thing for
four years, like you said, our last computer recommended was
(26:13):
four years. You know, it's two hundred bucks a year.
So if you think about how much you're gonna be
using this computer. And here's the other thing. If you
sell yourself short and you get something that's a little
bit cheaper, like a chromebook or something, you're not gonna
be able to tap into that creativity that you're talking about.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
If you want to be an artist, you want to
be able to draw on that screen and to be
able to sketch things, and to be able to, you know,
flex your creativity. And I just don't think that another
computer is going to enable you to do that without
a touch screen. So my advice, I would say look
into two things. I look at the surface pro six.
You can look at the surface Go, which is a
much cheaper version. It starts at four hundred dollars, but
(26:50):
it's just not gonna be as fast, but you do
get a lot of the same functionality. So that's four
hundred bucks. Maybe try that, you know, And I'd also
look at the surf the UH. I'd go for either
an IP had Pro or maybe just an iPad because
now they have pencil support on those as well. Yeah,
but with both of these things, you're going to be
buying the device, which is basically a tablet, and then
you have to buy all the accessories.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Which is the pen which is the keyboard case.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
You know, So you're looking at a couple hundred dollars
over the price tag. It adds up, It adds up,
It adds up quickly. Story we did this week on
KTLA is about the Yolo app and Megan, you were
very instrumental in helping us set this up because you
helped us find the teens to talk to. So I
saw an article about this app, which is an app
that sits on top of Snapchat, and Snapchat is kind
(27:36):
of all but dead for a lot of people, but
people still use it.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
They still have I think like three hundred million or
four hundred million users. You still use it on a
daily basis.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
Yeah, kind of, but not as much as Instagram.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah, Instagram Stories really kind of took over, but there
are some hardcorees that are still on Yolo or on
a Snapchat that are still checking on a daily basis
just to see what their friends are doing or whatever,
or you don't want to miss that streak.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Do you have a streak with anyone right now?
Speaker 3 (27:59):
I have streaks my friends.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Yeah, yeah, got to keep up the streak.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
So Yolo is an app that sits on top of
uh Snapchat, and what it does is it's basically an
anonymous Q and A app. So we did the story
about what parents kind of need to know about this.
The reality is these Q and A apps are very
quick to come to market, and they're very quick to
crash and burn. So they come out and they're popular
for six months and you never hear about them again.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
There's been so many in the past.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
So I remember doing a story here at Katla where
they came to my house to interview me like five
years ago about that one. It was called like I
think it was yik yak or something or oh yeah
it yak that sounds It was like, I mean, there's
been so many of them.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
What was yak like the same thing? You just go
on It was just an app and you go on.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
Wait, was that related to like colleges?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Yes, I had that.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Oh my gosh, yes, I remember that so well.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
We used to use that all the time.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Totally.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
We used to write the Weirdest Yes, so this was
back in twenty thirteen, and you could call yes and
you can comment, and of course it was all anonymous.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Anyway, what happens with anonymous messaging apps.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
You think it's gonna be great, right, You find you
know the person you have a crush on and.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
They tell you, yes, it's me.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Or you figure out you know something that you wanted
to know that you you know, people think you're beautiful
and they tell you that in this app. But guess
what people get really mean when it's anonymous and they
feel like they can say anything. And of course that's
what's gonna happen with teenagers who are already anxious, who
already you.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Know, not hormonal.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Yeah, exactly, there's a lot going on there. There's a
lot going on.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
So yolo, what you need to know if your parent
is basically that this will go away. But if your
kids are using it, it's probably not healthy for them
because sure they'll get some nice things like I like
your hair, but the rest of it is nonsense and
there might be some mean stuff bullying going on in there.
And again we talked to expert Josh Oakes over at
smartsocial dot com and he told us that, you know,
(29:54):
don't let your kids be on platforms or you can't
be friends with them, which is kind of like that's
like a very dream way to look at it. I
think I think that that's tough for most parents because
kids are just inherently more forward thinking and they're just
a little bit more ahead of their parents. So and
they're going to be on some things that their parents
just aren't on or aren't interested in being on. But
you can still have an awareness of this stuff so
(30:15):
that you can maybe have a conversation with your kids
be like, hey, I know, I know a lot of
you kids are using yolo these days. Is anyone saying
anything mean to you?
Speaker 2 (30:22):
You know?
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, just like that, just like that, like you know,
old Grandpa rich Yeah, Grandpa rich on.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Text, Hey, kids, what about this Yolo thing? Yolo on it?
You only live once. The teens that we talked to,
what was your thoughts on them?
Speaker 3 (30:38):
They were awesome.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
They well, they were very smart.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
They were very smart and like wise and they you know,
they both thought that the app or the ad on
was you know, fun, But at the same time, like
you do expose yourself to like potential bullies. And I
think one girl actually had gotten bullied on like a
previous app.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
So was sensitive to it.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
And so I think, you know it's you don't think
you're gonna get mean messages, but you never know.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
It's so easy and.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Like I'm gonna start that app? What why?
Speaker 1 (31:12):
And Okay, you never know. You never know, might be good,
might be bad. You never know when you open this.
Speaker 4 (31:18):
If they could actually program one of these anonymous.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
Apps to just like never be mean, like if if
someone was trying to say no Instagram.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Instagram does that. So on Instagram, yes, they have filters,
Yes they have secret I called the Taylor Swift's uh,
the Taylor Swift filter because she complained to Instagram many
years ago. And they basically built AI that kind of
senses when you're saying something mean and it will kind
of filter it out without even you knowing it. Like
basically the person that did that post won't even see it.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Now. On Facebook, I they don't.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Use that because I get even on my my page,
which my face rich on Facebook dot Com, slush rich
on Tech. People are generally nice, but there are some
negative comments.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
And it's funny.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Because if write a swear word, generally Facebook will will
grade out, so I can still see the comment, but
other people can't.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
But if they write.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Something mean, a lot of times when you're being mean,
it's kind of how you interpret it, right, Like it
may not be mean words, but when you're saying it
for the context, and that's really tough for AI to
figure out, right, So sometimes let's just say, like, it's
really tough, like if you're like, let's say you ran
like uglyproduce dot com.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Have you ever seen that.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
It's like they they sell like the produce that's like
a little bit uglier, so like you know, it's cheap
or whatever.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
So let's say you ran that Instagram page.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
And you're like, these tomatoes are so ugly but tasty,
you know, and like, how does AI figure out that?
Like you're not saying anything mean about these tomatoes, but
it's just you know, it's like these weird things that
we have to think about in the tech world. So anyway,
on Instagram, if you've noticed, most of the comments are
generally pretty positive because there is some level of AI
going on filtering there. In fact, I believe, and don't
(32:56):
quote me on this, but I believe that they're even
filtering out things like if you write like suicide related
or bullying related, they will help you get some help,
like with even if your comment doesn't like get posted,
they'd be like, hey, do you need help like or
something like if you write something like a suicide thing,
you know, I think that's happening, don't quote me on it.
But if it's not, Instagram get there.
Speaker 5 (33:16):
And even for celebrities, like the comments the you know,
if you want to read the comments, it's always done
like kind of people with the most liked their comments
are the top, so it's hard to find the mean
comments that are they get blended out.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
Yeah, they don't get liked, so which is also that's smart.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Yeah yeah, all right, you're up.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
I'm up.
Speaker 5 (33:38):
Okay, So this next question is from Larry hi Rich.
I love all your shows, watch them all the time.
My Samsung smart TV has no Bluetooth and no audio
such as a headphone jack, but I would like to
use my Bluetooth headphones and speakers with it.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
How can this be done? Thank you?
Speaker 1 (33:58):
So he's got a smart Samsung TV, no Bluetooth and
no audio out except like the standard stuff.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Yeah okay, So he wants to plug in headphones, is
that what he's saying, or he wants to.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Use he wants to use his Bluetooth.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
So a couple things.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Number One, if you connect something like Amazon fireTV or
a Roku or an Apple TV, and I think we've
talked about this on the podcast, a lot of those
will give you the Bluetooth functionality, but obviously only for
stuff that's running through that device. Right, So if you're
watching like you know, Netflix or something like that, like, yes,
you'll get the Bluetooth and you can just hook those
up to your Fire TV. If you're talking about everything
(34:33):
else that's running through this TV, that gets a little
bit more complicated. But I do think that you probably
need something like a little Bluetooth transmitter that you would hook.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Up to the back of the TV.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Now he said that there are no external like there's
no headphone jack, there's no RCA out whatever, which.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
There probably is.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
But I think that most TVs, including mine, which my
TV is a twenty fifteen, it has an optical out
and so a lot of times you don't even notice
this on your but it's like this little weird fiber
optic kind of out that will work and it serves
as an out. And I looked up on Amazon they
do have a Bluetooth transmitter with a optical input, so
(35:12):
it's thirty five dollars and all you do is connect
that optical input from your TV to this Bluetooth transmitter.
Then you connect your Bluetooth headphones to the transmitter. And
this one that I just looked up on Amazon is
called the Home Spot Bluetooth Transmitter thirty five ninety nine
and it will basically take the output from your TV,
pipe it into the Bluetooth pipe it into your headphones.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Now, if you don't have the optical I would check
and see if you have some RCA outs. Maybe you do,
but I don't know what model this TV is, but
I've found that a lot of the older TVs have
the optical so it's not that big of a deal.
So again that's why.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
I use mine.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
I've got mine hooked up to a so nose and
so the optical cable is how it gets all the
audio from the TV, no matter what's playing on there.
So it's kind of like a catch all for the
TV audio.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
So there you go.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
That's really cool.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
This was a great segue to my next story, Megan,
because Visio has some new features rolling out to their
smart TVs. And again, I have a video. My main
TV is a Visio back in twenty fifteen. I bought it,
I think. So this does not apply to me, sadly,
but it does apply to twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
And above TVs.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
But they're upgrading what they call their smart cast, which
is they're you know, all TVs. Do we talk about
this in the last week's podcast. I hope we didn't,
because I think I might have. I'm gonna look real quick,
because if we did, I'm just gonna skip to the
next story.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
We did because we did the story on Friday.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
You're right, okay, I'm looking. We did not stay up.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
You're right, okay. So smart Cast three point zero is
the newest version. All the TVs now have smart software
on them, right, And so this is they call their
smart cast, and smart cast is kind of like that
home screen that you see if you press the Visio
button on your TV, right. And so what they're doing
is a couple of new things. Number One, they're revamping
the screen so that there's more access to kind of
the content that you want. So they're adding all the
(37:00):
apps and things like that. They're also adding watch free,
which there is a big trend in the US right now,
a free content for streaming because a lot of people
are cutting the cord and they're like, now that I
cut the cord, I just want to watch free stuff.
Like I don't really care if it has ads or not,
but I just want free stuff. And so all these
companies are coming out with like free stuff to watch
that doesn't require a subscription, like to Be and yeah,
(37:23):
all these weird like I call them weird, but like
I personally it's not for me.
Speaker 4 (37:27):
But they can add ads to it.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Yeah, they there's totally ads. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Now I don't want to see ads, so I'm not
gonna watch any of this stuff.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
But people love it.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Like when I was at Roku, they were talking about
how their most popular feature is like this Roku channel
that they have that's like all free stuff to watch.
I need to try the Roku channel, but it's all
I mean, you might like it so for fun. Yeah,
I personally love the premium feel of Netflix that doesn't
have ads, Like really, I just love that. Like I'm like,
there's no ads like Hulu. I remember for a time
they would have all these ads and I just hated it.
(37:56):
I hated that I was paying like five ninety nine
a month whatever it was, and I was still seeing ads. Now,
I know they have that premium premium which you can
pay for no ads.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
This was before kind of like how you like to
use your iPhone without.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
A case, right, you know, I'm elitist like that.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
I had to call you out.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I'm so elitist that I just anyway, So watch free
has a whole bunch of channels, so you can watch
literally CNN, Paramount Movie Channel, MTV channels, Comedy Central, Spike,
all these channels like are just literally streaming on your
TV for free.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
So that's Visio. Now.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
The other big feature that I think most people are
going to be interested in is Airplay. So you are
now getting Airplay two on your TV with this software update,
and so that means you can stream anything from your
phone that's Airplay enabled, which is a lot of apps.
But the other thing you can do is show your
pictures off from your iPhone to your TV screen, which
is always really tough unless you had an Apple TV,
(38:52):
and Apple TV is one hundred and eighty bucks.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
This is free.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
So bottom line, if you have a Visio TV that
was made twenty sixteen or late, or go into the
software updates and check for this update, and if you
have it, you'll get airplay too, which is really cool
with your iPhone, and you also get some new Alexa functionality,
some new Google Assistant functionality.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Visio is trying.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
To take on the world with just having everything work
with their TVs, which is really smart. And it's kind
of weird because we've seen this progression from everyone was
getting a smart TV with this proprietary software to now
all these smart TVs are sort of working with the
software that everyone has, like Chrome Cast and Airplay and
all these apps and things. So I think that's pretty smart. Yeah,
(39:36):
that they're doing that. All right, I've got one minute
for a question, so it's a quick.
Speaker 5 (39:41):
One, not a question of The last remark is from
Raymond and I don't know if you want to read this,
but it go Donut. Finally, here Go Donut, world's most
portable and universal stand for tabs and smartphones, and they're
now available at Walmart nationwide, and he just says, please
(40:02):
help us spread the great news to your community.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Okay, go Donut yes, this is a little tiny device.
This guy sent me some a couple of years ago
and he said it's available at like Facebook and all
this stuff, and it was too tough to buy, so
I never really featured it.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
But it's a I have him at home. I've got
a couple of them.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
It's kind of like it looks like a little ashtray
that has like little cutouts for your iPad or your phone.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
I think I have one of these two that you
gave me.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
I give you one of these.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Yeah, So it's it's a great it's a great little
stand and it's at Walmart. So if you see it,
support a local business. Go Donut is the name of it.
And I think it's like fifteen bucks or so. But
it's a it's a cute little device that I was
waiting to kind of tell people about.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Until you could get them easily. So now that they're.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
At Walmart, my gosh, good job, by the way, you
did a great job of getting this thing in Walmart,
because now I mean, if you're in Walmart's cross the nation,
that's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
So again, it's.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Called Godonut dot com if you want to check it out.
But again, we have a couple of them laying around
my house, which I used just to like set up
the tablet or like store my phone on my desk
so you can see it.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
It just kind of props up your device.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
So all right, we're running out of time, but I
just want to mention a couple of things. Ktla dot
com story on focusing. We did this today on KTLA.
It's a great story. This was inspired by me at
my kids basketball game. My wife kind of shamed me
into saying, why you're on your phone and your kid
is playing? Shamed and I said, okay, And so I realized,
great little feature on your phone, just turn your phone
(41:25):
off for twenty minutes at a time and like focus
on whatever you're doing. I was in the uber the
other night and I kept checking my phone incessantly. I said,
you know what, I'm just gonna look out the window,
turned on the downtime and twenty minutes, didn't look at
my phone and it was great, felt like really nice,
and didn't talk to the driver, but I just kind
of looked out the window.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
I like how you had to say that.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
And another cool little feature Google Maps. Now if you're
on Android, this is kind of cool. Search for a
restaurant and Google Maps and then tap menu and it
shows you the popular dishes at that restaurant. I like that,
So that's kind of fun. It's not on iPhone just yet,
but it is on Android. So if you have an Android,
Google Maps, search restaurant, and tap menu and it will
show you the popular dishes at that restaurant. Do you
(42:05):
like to order the popular thing or do you not?
Like when you go to a restaurant, do you research
the restaurant menu before you go?
Speaker 4 (42:09):
I do it while I'm there?
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Is that bad? So you look up?
Speaker 5 (42:13):
Like let's say, let's say we go to like an
Italian restaurant. I'll like at the restaurant, I'll go on
Yelp and I'll just like go through pictures and like
see what looks good.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
I want to like know what it looks like.
Speaker 5 (42:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
See, I'm just the opposite. I guess my wife does
all the research. She wants to know exactly what it
looks like inside this and that. I do want to
know what it looks like inside, but I don't want
to know the menu. I don't want to see what's
on there. I don't want to see the pictures by
the way, can we just say that food pictures always
look disgusting, like when they're on Yelp, Like unless you're.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Like a true helper.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
That's so true.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Average Joe takes a picture of like something at his table.
It looks terrible, like I don't want to eat that.
So I like to be a mystery. I will ask
the waiter what's popular. But I also don't necessarily I'm
not necessarily swayed by that because what's popular isn't always
what's the best for you.
Speaker 5 (43:00):
But see, sometimes I don't know what like a term
is for like a type of like pasta, and so
then I'm like, is this the this kind of pasta?
And so like the pictures help you know, right, Okay,
So that's just like I just need to.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
Be more educated than the food department.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
I hear you. That's going to do it for today's show.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Thanks so much for listening, and please subscribe if you
haven't done so already. Just search Rich on Tech in
your favorite podcasting app. That could be Apple podcasts, that
could be pocket casts that can be overcast if you
were listening on Google podcasts.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
I did figure out that.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
We were not getting our feed to Google podcasts for
the past couple of weeks, like maybe a month. So
that is fixed and everything we should be firing on
all cylinders. My book is one hundred and one Handy
Tech Tips for the iPhone. It is available right now
on Amazon and paperback. Get it before iOS thirteen comes
out and I have to revise the whole thing and
write all the tips over again because who knows what
(43:53):
Apple's going to change coming up this week at WWDC.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
Also, don't forget about my newsletter.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
You can find that at rich on tech Dot TV
producer Megan Where can people find you?
Speaker 5 (44:03):
I'm on Twitter at producer Megan within h and.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
By the way, you have surpassed your oh followers.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
This was a big deal.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
Yeah yeah, I said when you changed your username you
would have more followers than the people you're following. You
now have four one hundred and seventy two followers. You're
following four fifty nine.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
I know I was right, So thanks.
Speaker 4 (44:24):
Thanks for all the new follows.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
All right, I'm Rich Dimiro. Have a great day. We
will talk to you real soon.
Amazon has a new Echo and an even better new
privacy feature. Airport USB ports are they safe? iPhone trackers?
The Yolo app, How to focus without your phone? Plus
your pressing tech questions.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
What's going on? I'm Rich Dmiro.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
This is Rich on Tech, the podcast where I talk
about this stuff I think you should know about happening
in the tech world. Plus I answer your tech questions
with the help of producer Megan.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
What's up? Producer Megan?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
You know, just it's Friday.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It is Friday, Happy Friday.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Normally we record this on Thursdays, but this week I
was on death's door.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Is that what you call it? Or deathbed?
Speaker 4 (00:42):
What do you call it when you're basically knocking on
my door?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah? Death was knocking it still is. You can tell.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
And I thought you said you aren't sick.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Well I'm you feel it's your mentally.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I feel great. Physically, I am like a bag of ashes.
Basically I'm about one step away from being dead. But
you could probably hear it my voice. I feel like
my mind is just as good as it always is,
even on all these day quill meds. So yes, I
am a little under the weather, but I think it's
the end of it, because we are going to China
(01:14):
next week and I really do not want to be
sick for China. So I'm getting over that. So bear
with me as we get through the podcast. It's going
to be just as good of a show as if
I'm not sick. The other thing is, uh, maybe you've noticed,
but we do have kind of it's kind of a.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
New show this week.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Yeah, because if you look at the artwork, we now
are officially under the KTLA banner.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
So so exciting. Oh wait, whoops, that's not it isn't
there clapping? No? Okay? I yeah, as you can see,
the show is just as good as ever. Don't we
have clapping? I No? Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Anyway, So if you notice, the show is now part
of KTLA. So this is kind of a big deal
for me here at KTLA because I've been doing this
podcast on my own for a while and KTLA's had
their eye on it for a while. It's been kind
of a separate thing. Now it's part of KATLA. So
there's no more swearing, Megan, no more potty mouth. Yeah
you got it, no more swearing. A couple of things,
(02:12):
A couple listeners we have to say goodbye to No.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I'm just kidding. It's all good.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
So basically nothing changes for you at the home audience,
but for us it just means that it's like just
a little.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Bit more official.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
We have a new host as well, new podcast host,
not like me, but like I thought you.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Were actually firing me podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
No, no, no, I just wanted to tell you, Megan.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
She starts on Monday.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, no, no, we have like a new like Art
nineteen is our new host. So basically now there's like
all these new analytics, like they're gonna be like like before,
I didn't care how many people listen right now of
course Katla is like how many listeners did you have?
How many downloads? But again, none of this changes for
me or you. It just changes for like the corporate
big wigs right like they only care. We don't care.
We're doing the same thing here. Before we get into
(02:56):
the questions, Megan, I we've talked about Economy Basic before
in the show, and I do know you were surprised
because you're on a flight San Francisco and you booked
Economy Basic by accident or you thought you were saving
some money.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
How was it?
Speaker 5 (03:09):
Uh, well, I basically booked this flight thinking like, oh,
I'm saving money, like it's one hundred and fifty dollars
like round trip, and then the night.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Before versus one sixty for regular economy.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
And then and I was going to carry on a suitcase.
And so then when I went to check in, they
were like, well, you can't check in.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
First of all, check in.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
At the airport.
Speaker 5 (03:32):
So I was like, okay, and then I get to
the next page and it says and you can't bring
a carry on suitcase.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
And I was like, uh rich literally just had this happen.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
And so I immediately like told you. I was like,
I messed up.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
So how was it? I mean, you get out the board,
you get were you in the middle.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
I end up being like so much more money because
I had to check my luggage so.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
You had to check like a standard bag could have carried.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Dollars, and then on top of another thirty dollars, So
then the ticket ended up being too hundred and ten dollars.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
So I should have just, you know, I should have
just booked the.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Regular So our word to you on this podcast, if
you get nothing else, is just beware of basic economy.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
It is not good.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
You don't get your seat in advance, you can't use
the overhead, you can't. You know, it's basically were you
in the middle though you got you didn't get a middle.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Digit did not get So that's good.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Was it a full flight? Uh?
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Pretty full? Yeah? Pretty much?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
All right?
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Still yeah, still not good. Let's get into the first
story of the podcast. This is Amazon launching a new
Echo Show. And I've not bought one of these Echo shows,
but they're very popular because a lot of people like Amazon,
they like the Echo They're in the Alexa world. I
hate that I just said that because I just activated
a bunch of them. But the Echo Show five is
now basically Amazon's answer to the Google Home Hub, the
(04:48):
small one, not the big one. And so this has
a compact design five point five inch screen HD camera
and a built in camera shutter. So the reason that
shutter is important is because because now this can be
something that is good for the bedside, right, don't necessarily
want to have a camera next to your bed. A
lot of people think that's kind of weird. So this
has a camera shutter where you can physically see that
(05:10):
the camera is blocked and it's interesting because in the notes,
Amazon says, this is kind of a big thing with
all this privacy. The Echo Show five has a microphone
camera off button that electronically disconnects both the camera and microphone.
Now that's electronically, which means it can still be hacked
into staying on right, whereas a lot of the new
(05:31):
devices we're seeing have a physical disabler, like the MacBook Pro.
When you close the cover, it physically disconnects the microphone,
which means if the cover is in that closed position,
no hacker can go in with software and reconnect the
microphone because it's like almost like this and you're breaking
that connection, right.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
And same thing on.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
The new Google Home Hub, Nest Max whatever they call it,
that has a physical disconnection. So if you turn off
that slider switch, it's physically disconnecting the camera and microphone.
I don't think it's going to be a huge problem
with this, But the Echo Show five is ninety dollars.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It goes on sale.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
It's on sale right now pre order, but it will
come out in late June, I think it said June
twenty sixth. But here's the other thing that's really interesting
about this, and this will come to all Alexa devices.
But you can now say a delete everything I said today,
and she will delete all the stuff that you said.
And coming soon you'll be able to say, ay, delete
(06:27):
what I just said.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So if you're like, hey, you know, hey, what's this
rash on my leg?
Speaker 1 (06:32):
It looks like I'm about to die? And you're like, oh,
I don't really want my friends or wife to see
this in my account, you can just say, hey, delete
what I just said. I always try to think of
the scenarios when you need this, right, Like, what are
you asking Alexa?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
That's so bad that like you need to delete? Delete
everything I said? Forget we ever spoke today.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
That's what I'm like, what like we'll say.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
They probably say a lot of weird stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
But here's the other thing, Like if you were law enforcement,
wouldn't you be thinking like, hey, can you give me
a red flag on anyone who said delete everything I've
seen said today? Like give me give me all those
accounts please, because.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
We're just curious.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
You don't want to.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
See Maybe you don't want to say that. Yeah, all right,
producer Megan, Yes, I do you have a question for me?
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (07:12):
So I'm actually going to start off with two similar
questions that you received this week. The first one is
from Kelly Burns and then the second one is from
Donna Monig, and they both have an iPhone six and
they're looking to upgrade. Kelly asks, I was wondering if
the iPhone eight or the iPhone XS was better. And
(07:35):
then Donna she said she can't decide between the iPhone
X or the XR.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
And she says, I take a lot of pictures. I
do Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat. I'm a sixty seven year old Nana.
You're number one fan.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Wow, thank you, Nana.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Well, okay, so the questions are very similar. They basically
want to know which iPhone to get, right.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
They both have an iPhone six and they want to know, like,
you know.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
I think I don't think they need to go with
the ten S like I think there or the ten
S max or whatever or the ten whatever. I think
they go with the ten R. I think the ten
R is a From what I've seen in the evolution
of the iPhone, the cameras did not really get much
better from the six, seven and eight.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Even though Apple kind of made it seem like they did.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
I really didn't see the leap until the ten and
then to be honest, from the ten to the ten R,
and the ten S a big improvement, like super big improvement.
So if you're looking at the iPhone you're thinking about
getting last year's model, like the ten, just go with
the ten R because you're getting a better camera with
the ten R than you are with a ten Which
is crazy because when I thought when the ten came
(08:40):
out that had a really nice camera, and then I
used the ten R and the ten S, I was like,
oh no, this camera is way better. So don't go
with the eight, don't go with the seven, go definitely
go with the ten R. And it's a good price
point too, So I think that that's probably your best
bet for most people. I think that the iPhone ten
R is your best solution. That's one my wife uses.
She's very happy with that. She's a very standard iPhone user.
(09:01):
Takes a couple of pictures a day, you know, not
like a you know, but this grandma is saying that
she likes you know, Instagram and all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Snapchat.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, she on Snapchat. She says, she said she did
really I know, wow, Okay, snapshot.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Is with it.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, she knows what's up.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
So I think the ten R is your best bet
for the average person and trade in your old phone
and Apple will give you some money towards your new
one if you don't need it. iPhones are great because
you can always resell them on the secondary market eBay.
Obviously you're going to get the most for your old phone.
But if you just want something that's easy, just bringing
it to the Apple store and they'll give you like
a couple hundred bucks for it, probably like one hundred
dollars for that one, maybe one twenty five. Speaking of Apple,
(09:38):
they did introduce a new iPod Touch. This is kind
of a head scratcher because who needs an iPod Touch
these days? Right, And it's one hundred ninety nine dollars
for starting price. The real difference here, there's two things
that they've changed. Number One, they added a new chip,
the A ten fusion chip, which means that this device
is faster, and because it's faster, it can now handle
(09:59):
group FaceTime and augmented reality, so if you want to
do that on your iPod Touch, you can do that now.
The other thing is it has a new capacity two
hundred and fifty six gigabytes, which again, this is a
tiny screen, Like, what are you doing on this thing
that you need two hundred and fifty six gigs. They
don't even say the screen size on the press release
because it's so embarrassingly small. But again, and by the way,
(10:22):
that two hundred and fifty six gig model is three
hundred and ninety nine dollars. You're talking, you're getting up
into like iPad territory. So unless I can't imagine a
reason for an iPod Touch, but they do have one,
I guess even with a kid, I'd rather get them
like an iPod iPad mini.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Right, yeah, like go with the iPad Mini. I don't know,
all right, Producer Megan.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
Okay, so let's segue into an Apple question, another Apple question,
and this is about the Apple Watch. Mike Larsen asks, question, Rich,
is there a smart watch that is every bit as
functional the Apple Watch with an iPhone but has a
round face?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Ooh, interesting, that's a good question. I don't think so. There.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
The Apple Watch, when it comes to like smartphone watches,
really is the best. I mean, it does such a
great job. And believe me, I'm not you know, mister
Apple fanboy over here, like you no I'm trying to
be fair about things, but I when I come across
something that's.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Really good, like the Apple Watch is really good.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Like I have a Fitbit Versa on right now, and
this thing just depresses me, Like it's so it's so
sad compared to the Apple Watch, Like I love this thing,
but it's just not the Apple Watch.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Like the Apple Watch.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Has a lot of great functionality on it. Not to
knock the Fitbit Versa if you know, I did a
great review on it, because it's a great it's a
great alternative to the Apple Watch. But he's asking for
a device that does everything that the Apple Watch does,
which is really tough because there's a lot of apps
for it. You can control so many things on it.
The only thing I'd say is similar in like a
(11:57):
very roundabout way is the Samsung Galaxy Watch, which is
their latest watch. Actually sorry, that's not their latest one.
The uh it's always get I always mess up the
name on this thing. This is what happens when companies
don't send me stuff to try out because I forget,
Like if I just see it at like an event
and I never get to play with it at home,
I kind of forget about it. But it's the Galaxy
(12:18):
Watch Active. And okay, sorry to Samsung. They actually did
offer to send me one and I said don't because
I'm not I don't have time to review it right now.
But it's called the Galaxy so I take that back.
But this is the Galaxy Watch Active, and it is
a beautiful device as a really nice round face. We
saw this at the Samsung event and again, it will
work with iOS. It just won't be pretty, you know,
(12:39):
it'll it'll do your basic functionality. But if you really want,
like the way that the iOS operating system is, if
you want things to work properly, you have to use
Apple products and that's kind of the reality here. It'll work,
but it's just not going to be that good. So
it does do everything you need. It keeps track of
all your stuff. Let me just make sure that it
still works with iOS, because yeah, it does. iPhone five
(13:01):
and above iOS nine. I mean, that's that's basically your
best next bet is the Galaxy Watch Active. It's two
hundred dollars, really nice design. It looks like a real watch,
but again it's not an Apple watch, and it doesn't
have a lot of the functionality that the Apple Watch
is gonna have, especially when you're syncing it with an iPhone.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Okay, So there's this big article. My old producer, actually,
Vanessa sent this to me. She actually tweeted me and said, hey, Rich,
I saw this on Forbes.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Is this true?
Speaker 1 (13:30):
And she was way ahead of the curve because a
lot of other people sent this article to me as well,
and I talked about on the radio this week and
the article headline is why you should never use airport
USB charging stations.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Now have you heard of Forbes?
Speaker 3 (13:45):
You mean, like the news?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Yeah, okay, So they have historically been a very nice,
like kind of historic like old school media site, right,
like old school magazine fair right, this their website. Throw
all that out the window, Like they just go for
clickbait one hundred percent. Like they just let everyone contribute
to their website. Anyone can write anything. And man, I
(14:07):
think this medicine is really just bringing out the honesty and.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Tell it how it is.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
But the reality is, like I look at every Forbes
article and I'm like, this is bs because it's just
clickbait like ninety nine percent of the time. And you
can always tell when an article is clickbait by the
way they write the headline, and so instead of giving
you good detailed information in the headline, they just try
to get you to click to find the information in
the article.
Speaker 5 (14:31):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
So this article is why you should never use airport
USB charging stations, and it's like, oh, that's interesting, I
want to know, right, Like ry, so I click the article.
I read it. It's an interview with a security person
at IBM Security. So already they're trying to sell you
know security, right. Their their job is to make you scared. Right,
So let's put it this way. I've been in airports
(14:52):
around the world and never once have I been like,
I shouldn't plug my phone in there because it's going
to sap all of my data off my phone, right, Like,
give me a break in the airport.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
It's you're gonna be fine.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
But the reality is she does bring up some good
things and the bigger point, and I'm not just knocking
Forbes or knocking this article or this writer, but I
am just saying like, you should always be hyper aware
of any sort of security breach or potential security breach
in anything that you do with technology. So if you're
hopping on a Wi Fi network, or if you're plugging
something in, or god forbid, you're using the computer in
(15:27):
the lobby at the air at the hotel, which I
would never do that in a million years, don't ever
do that.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
So those places, yes, you have to think.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
About this stuff, But the reality is nine times out
of ten, if you plug your phone into a USB
port at the airport, you're probably gonna be just fine.
But they're saying that this is a major security issue
because when you plug your phone in, there's there could
be malware on that port that someone popped in there,
somehow loaded it on there, and it's putting it on
(15:54):
your phone, and then it's basically sending all your data
of your phone to like a malicious third part.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
The chance of that happening very slim. Right.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
There may be some countries where this kind of stuff happens,
especially if you're in like the CIA or something, but
for the average person plugging at lax like at the armrest,
probably not gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Now.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
The other reason I say that this is not that
big of a deal is because on the iPhone, when
you plug your iPhone into a new device, you've probably
seen this screen before. It says, do you want to
trust this device? Have you ever seen that where it's like,
do you want to trust this computer?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (16:24):
That was added recently to iOS, and again it's like
an extra security precaution because it's saying, hey, we might
be exchanging some data here, like are you aware of that?
Like you trust this computer? And that was put in
for circumstances like this where you might plug your phone
into something and on the back end they just go, oh,
we're gonna get all her pictures right now. So Apple
is smart and they did that, and you know, they
(16:45):
basically made that little note that you have to say, yes,
I trust this now. The other thing they do recommend
if you're really worried about this is a ten dollars
device called a juice Jack Defender, And this is a
little tiny dongle that goes beatred between your cord and
the port and it basically makes it so that no
data can pass through, only power passes through, and so
(17:07):
to charge your phone. But if there's like malware on
the other end, it's not going to affect your phone.
So long story short, always be hyper sensitive to the
security issues around you, but use common sense.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Let's get some level headedness in here, Megan, why don't
you give me another pot?
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Okay, So our next question is from Facebook. It's from
Joe Sett McGlynn and she asks, my kids are going
to Italy and they were told to use WhatsApp.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Is that a problem? No, WhatsApp is.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
WhatsApp is a very standard app that is used for
communication around the world. And WhatsApp is actually owned by Facebook.
So Facebook runs Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram. Did I miss
anything Facebook? So no, WhatsApp is very standard in other countries.
If you're in Europe, WhatsApp is all the rage, if
(18:06):
you're in the US, it's all I Message, and if
you're in Asia, it's all WhatsApp. So, like I said,
we're going to China next week, we are going to
be using we Chat the whole time basically, and there's
different things I like about them. So Facebook Messenger, what
I don't like is that it's linked to your Facebook.
It doesn't have to be, but you know, it's weird,
Like when I message you, it comes up as like
my full formal Facebook name on Facebook Messenger, which is
(18:29):
kind of weird. Yeah, and then with we Chat, what
I really like about it is that it's just a
QR code. So if you want to link up with
someone anywhere, you don't need to figure out their.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Phone number or their username.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
You literally just hold your phone over their screen with
your QR code and it links you up and you
can now chat. And so that makes it really easy,
especially when you're in Asia, different language barriers and stuff
like that, where you can chat with someone you know
simply and link up with them. And you might be thinking, well, rich,
if we have a language barrier, how would we be
talking to each other. Well, sometimes you just might meet
up your person and be like, Okay, when's the party
(19:02):
tonight or whatever, and like they'll just text you like
some information, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Oh okay, got it?
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Like you don't always need to have like a full
fledged conversation, you know, yeah, or they might send you
more information or a.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
Picture they just translated themselves.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Depends, Yeah, I mean, and you could you know, you
can always copy and paste. Or they might speak a
little bit of English sometimes you know, and they can
you know, or you might speak a little bit of
probably not Chinese.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
I didn't tell you I speak Chinese.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, I was wondering you've been you've been working on that.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Yeah, language, so WhatsApp is just fine. I wish this
is my wish for all of the world. I just
wish there was a standard. And I know people say like, oh,
can't I message just be everywhere? No, my message should
not be everywhere, like I would like a I would
like a set of standards for messaging so that these
apps can interact with each other, because my message is fantastic.
(19:50):
If the other person's using an iPhone, and you know, megan,
as soon as I switched to an Android, all hell
breaks loose, right, and it's just like we were chatting
on three different screens the other day because it.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Was so insane.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
So I wish there were some standards that people and
text messaging is a standard, and so is RCS, which
is the next standard for texting.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
But nobody has adopted it yet.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
And so until that's adopted in a big way, and
Apple is kind of like the holdout there, it's just
not gonna happen because people on iPhone don't even know
there's a problem with messaging, right.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (20:20):
It's funny too because I have a friend who lives
in London and she's the only reason why why I
have a What's Up account, and so like I'll text
her on I Message and she won't respond to me
for weeks, and then I'll go on WhatsApp and I'll
be like, did you get any of my I messages?
And she's like, I don't check I message. So it's
just hard to like even think that way.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah, It's just it was funny because I was going
through my wife's phone like I normally do, not just
kidding me, but I see on my wife's phone that
she had WhatsApp, and I'm like, wait, you have WhatsApp?
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Like here. It is like all the.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Time I've like try to figure out how to like
message my wife because she knows I'm always using like
a different test her phone, and I, you know, I
see WhatsApp on there. I'm like, oh my gosh, you
have WhatsApps to go. Oh yeah, my friend in Rome
asked me to sign up, so I did. I'm like,
you sign up for Like I have not asked her
to do that because I thought it was like so
complicated to like say.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Hey, can you get this third party messaging app?
Speaker 1 (21:07):
So when people communication will find a way making exactly.
So there's an article in the Washington Post this week
that kind of tells us stuff that we already knew,
but when you see it written out, it's kind of scary.
But the writer there, Jeff Fowler I believe, wrote about this.
He basically hooked up his iPhone to a little monitoring
(21:28):
app to kind of see how much is being how
much data is being sent on his phone without him knowing, you,
like all these trackers and stuff, And he found that
fifty four hundred app trackers were on his phone.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
So he used.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
He just basically plugged his phone in at night. And
what happens is when your iPhone is plugged in all
your apps, it's like a free for all.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
They're like, oh my gosh, we've got power.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
So the operating system on iOS lets them kind of
do whatever they want when there's power, with limit limitations.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
But because you have power, your phone saying okay, you guys,
if you need to go talk to your servers or whatever,
go ahead, like Facebook, go talk to your server, WhatsApp,
talk to your server Google Photos.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
You can kind of refresh your photos whatever you want
to do.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Because it knows it has a power source, right, it
doesn't want to use your whole battery up by letting
these things what's called background refresh. When your phone is
on just a cellular plan, So when it gets on
Wi Fi and it gets plugged in, does that make sense.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Everything just goes to down.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
It's really funny though, the way you describe it and
makes it sound like it's like a little cartoon.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
It's like a little party.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
They go do what you need to do.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
It's like they're all like, yeah, we got like six.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Hours, yes exactly, that's they all run and they're like, okay,
let me report back everything I can in these six hours.
So he found fifty four hundred trackers, mostly in apps Yelp,
all these all these different trackers sending back data like
his phone number, email, exact location, digital fingerprint of his phone,
all these different things. And it sounds really scary, but
(22:55):
the reality is this is what happens on your phone.
These are how apps are free. A lot of this
stuff is just nonchalant. It's like, you know, Facebook wants
to know where you are because they can serve ads
in your area, or Yelp wants to know where you
are so they can say, hey, we found a great
you know Vegan restaurant near you, and.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
We notice you like Vegan. So a lot of these
things are like that.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
A lot of it is just tallying the data from
the day, like Google Maps track your location the whole day.
Now it's sending it all back to Google so that
it can put it in your timeline. But it's kind
of scary when you see it all laid out there, right,
And so there's no real solution offered up in his article.
I mean, you could turn off background refresh on your iPhone,
but you would really severely limit what your apps do,
(23:32):
so I don't really recommend that.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
But it's just a.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Great article to read. And again we've said this before
in the podcast. When you're getting something for free, you
are the product, right like your data, your stuff, and
you know, there's little ways you can limit this stuff,
but not really like you can't limit the trackers. And
if you go to like a major website, even like
ktla dot com, there's a million trackers that are looking
(23:54):
to do different things to serve up ads, to see
who you are, to you know, track how long you
spend on the way website, And a lot of this
stuff is actually useful data because like for me, let's
say you go to rich on tech dot tv. I
can see kind of the things that you looked at,
so that I know, like one of the most popular
stories on the website, how far down did you scroll
on this story? I don't really look at that, but
that's something you could do if you're really smart. I'm
(24:15):
not that good, but again, these are things you can do.
How many links did you click on in that story?
So you understand your user. So the better an app
is at this, the better they can use that information
to make the app better, but also make the experience
better as well.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Cool, that's your Cueh's right, I know there's no audio
this time. Let me try to keep you on your toes.
Speaker 5 (24:35):
Okay, So this next question is from Shana and Bob Hi.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Rich.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
You gave me a great recommendation for a laptop for
my oldest daughter four years ago. I need one for
my other daughter.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
She is starting college but is also an artist, drawing
and painting. She isn't sure what she wants to do yet,
but I wanted to get her a laptop that would
accommodate both educational and artistic qualities. Any recommendations mid price
range if.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Possible, Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Well, as soon as she said art and computer, what
do you think came to mind?
Speaker 4 (25:11):
All right, Well, the surface I was gonna say.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Like a Microsoft.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
I mean, like like Apple is good for creative stuff.
But like if you're thinking of like art, which I
think of like drawing on the screen, like you can
do an iPad pro, I guess you could do that,
but that's really expensive. So is the surface surface not cheap?
But I would recommend probably a surface there's so many
of them now, the surface I would recommend the Surface
(25:37):
Studio too. It's like it's like three thousand dollars, but
it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
It's like a giant screen. It's really nice.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
What about just a MacBook?
Speaker 1 (25:46):
No, because the MacBook you're not gonna be able to
do any art on, Like you can't draw on the screen,
there's not really any touch functionality.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
So I don't I don't think that would be very good.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
I really think that a surface pro would probably be
your best bet. The problem is the surface pro is
not cheap. It's I think, let's see how much does
it start at? Surface Pro six starts at eight hundred dollars,
So I mean, but if you do it over time.
If you think about if you're using this thing for
four years, like you said, our last computer recommended was
(26:13):
four years. You know, it's two hundred bucks a year.
So if you think about how much you're gonna be
using this computer. And here's the other thing. If you
sell yourself short and you get something that's a little
bit cheaper, like a chromebook or something, you're not gonna
be able to tap into that creativity that you're talking about.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
If you want to be an artist, you want to
be able to draw on that screen and to be
able to sketch things, and to be able to, you know,
flex your creativity. And I just don't think that another
computer is going to enable you to do that without
a touch screen. So my advice, I would say look
into two things. I look at the surface pro six.
You can look at the surface Go, which is a
much cheaper version. It starts at four hundred dollars, but
(26:50):
it's just not gonna be as fast, but you do
get a lot of the same functionality. So that's four
hundred bucks. Maybe try that, you know, And I'd also
look at the surf the UH. I'd go for either
an IP had Pro or maybe just an iPad because
now they have pencil support on those as well. Yeah,
but with both of these things, you're going to be
buying the device, which is basically a tablet, and then
you have to buy all the accessories.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Which is the pen which is the keyboard case.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
You know, So you're looking at a couple hundred dollars
over the price tag. It adds up, It adds up,
It adds up quickly. Story we did this week on
KTLA is about the Yolo app and Megan, you were
very instrumental in helping us set this up because you
helped us find the teens to talk to. So I
saw an article about this app, which is an app
that sits on top of Snapchat, and Snapchat is kind
(27:36):
of all but dead for a lot of people, but
people still use it.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
They still have I think like three hundred million or
four hundred million users. You still use it on a
daily basis.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
Yeah, kind of, but not as much as Instagram.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah, Instagram Stories really kind of took over, but there
are some hardcorees that are still on Yolo or on
a Snapchat that are still checking on a daily basis
just to see what their friends are doing or whatever,
or you don't want to miss that streak.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Do you have a streak with anyone right now?
Speaker 3 (27:59):
I have streaks my friends.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Yeah, yeah, got to keep up the streak.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
So Yolo is an app that sits on top of
uh Snapchat, and what it does is it's basically an
anonymous Q and A app. So we did the story
about what parents kind of need to know about this.
The reality is these Q and A apps are very
quick to come to market, and they're very quick to
crash and burn. So they come out and they're popular
for six months and you never hear about them again.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
There's been so many in the past.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
So I remember doing a story here at Katla where
they came to my house to interview me like five
years ago about that one. It was called like I
think it was yik yak or something or oh yeah
it yak that sounds It was like, I mean, there's
been so many of them.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
What was yak like the same thing? You just go
on It was just an app and you go on.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
Wait, was that related to like colleges?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Yes, I had that.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Oh my gosh, yes, I remember that so well.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
We used to use that all the time.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Totally.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
We used to write the Weirdest Yes, so this was
back in twenty thirteen, and you could call yes and
you can comment, and of course it was all anonymous.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Anyway, what happens with anonymous messaging apps.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
You think it's gonna be great, right, You find you
know the person you have a crush on and.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
They tell you, yes, it's me.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Or you figure out you know something that you wanted
to know that you you know, people think you're beautiful
and they tell you that in this app. But guess
what people get really mean when it's anonymous and they
feel like they can say anything. And of course that's
what's gonna happen with teenagers who are already anxious, who
already you.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Know, not hormonal.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Yeah, exactly, there's a lot going on there. There's a
lot going on.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
So yolo, what you need to know if your parent
is basically that this will go away. But if your
kids are using it, it's probably not healthy for them
because sure they'll get some nice things like I like
your hair, but the rest of it is nonsense and
there might be some mean stuff bullying going on in there.
And again we talked to expert Josh Oakes over at
smartsocial dot com and he told us that, you know,
(29:54):
don't let your kids be on platforms or you can't
be friends with them, which is kind of like that's
like a very dream way to look at it. I
think I think that that's tough for most parents because
kids are just inherently more forward thinking and they're just
a little bit more ahead of their parents. So and
they're going to be on some things that their parents
just aren't on or aren't interested in being on. But
you can still have an awareness of this stuff so
(30:15):
that you can maybe have a conversation with your kids
be like, hey, I know, I know a lot of
you kids are using yolo these days. Is anyone saying
anything mean to you?
Speaker 2 (30:22):
You know?
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, just like that, just like that, like you know,
old Grandpa rich Yeah, Grandpa rich on.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Text, Hey, kids, what about this Yolo thing? Yolo on it?
You only live once. The teens that we talked to,
what was your thoughts on them?
Speaker 3 (30:38):
They were awesome.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
They well, they were very smart.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
They were very smart and like wise and they you know,
they both thought that the app or the ad on
was you know, fun, But at the same time, like
you do expose yourself to like potential bullies. And I
think one girl actually had gotten bullied on like a
previous app.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
So was sensitive to it.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
And so I think, you know it's you don't think
you're gonna get mean messages, but you never know.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
It's so easy and.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Like I'm gonna start that app? What why?
Speaker 1 (31:12):
And Okay, you never know. You never know, might be good,
might be bad. You never know when you open this.
Speaker 4 (31:18):
If they could actually program one of these anonymous.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
Apps to just like never be mean, like if if
someone was trying to say no Instagram.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Instagram does that. So on Instagram, yes, they have filters,
Yes they have secret I called the Taylor Swift's uh,
the Taylor Swift filter because she complained to Instagram many
years ago. And they basically built AI that kind of
senses when you're saying something mean and it will kind
of filter it out without even you knowing it. Like
basically the person that did that post won't even see it.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Now. On Facebook, I they don't.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Use that because I get even on my my page,
which my face rich on Facebook dot Com, slush rich
on Tech. People are generally nice, but there are some
negative comments.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
And it's funny.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
Because if write a swear word, generally Facebook will will
grade out, so I can still see the comment, but
other people can't.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
But if they write.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Something mean, a lot of times when you're being mean,
it's kind of how you interpret it, right, Like it
may not be mean words, but when you're saying it
for the context, and that's really tough for AI to
figure out, right, So sometimes let's just say, like, it's
really tough, like if you're like, let's say you ran
like uglyproduce dot com.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Have you ever seen that.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
It's like they they sell like the produce that's like
a little bit uglier, so like you know, it's cheap
or whatever.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
So let's say you ran that Instagram page.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
And you're like, these tomatoes are so ugly but tasty,
you know, and like, how does AI figure out that?
Like you're not saying anything mean about these tomatoes, but
it's just you know, it's like these weird things that
we have to think about in the tech world. So anyway,
on Instagram, if you've noticed, most of the comments are
generally pretty positive because there is some level of AI
going on filtering there. In fact, I believe, and don't
(32:56):
quote me on this, but I believe that they're even
filtering out things like if you write like suicide related
or bullying related, they will help you get some help,
like with even if your comment doesn't like get posted,
they'd be like, hey, do you need help like or
something like if you write something like a suicide thing,
you know, I think that's happening, don't quote me on it.
But if it's not, Instagram get there.
Speaker 5 (33:16):
And even for celebrities, like the comments the you know,
if you want to read the comments, it's always done
like kind of people with the most liked their comments
are the top, so it's hard to find the mean
comments that are they get blended out.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
Yeah, they don't get liked, so which is also that's smart.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Yeah yeah, all right, you're up.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
I'm up.
Speaker 5 (33:38):
Okay, So this next question is from Larry hi Rich.
I love all your shows, watch them all the time.
My Samsung smart TV has no Bluetooth and no audio
such as a headphone jack, but I would like to
use my Bluetooth headphones and speakers with it.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
How can this be done? Thank you?
Speaker 1 (33:58):
So he's got a smart Samsung TV, no Bluetooth and
no audio out except like the standard stuff.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Yeah okay, So he wants to plug in headphones, is
that what he's saying, or he wants to.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Use he wants to use his Bluetooth.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
So a couple things.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Number One, if you connect something like Amazon fireTV or
a Roku or an Apple TV, and I think we've
talked about this on the podcast, a lot of those
will give you the Bluetooth functionality, but obviously only for
stuff that's running through that device. Right, So if you're
watching like you know, Netflix or something like that, like, yes,
you'll get the Bluetooth and you can just hook those
up to your Fire TV. If you're talking about everything
(34:33):
else that's running through this TV, that gets a little
bit more complicated. But I do think that you probably
need something like a little Bluetooth transmitter that you would hook.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Up to the back of the TV.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Now he said that there are no external like there's
no headphone jack, there's no RCA out whatever, which.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
There probably is.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
But I think that most TVs, including mine, which my
TV is a twenty fifteen, it has an optical out
and so a lot of times you don't even notice
this on your but it's like this little weird fiber
optic kind of out that will work and it serves
as an out. And I looked up on Amazon they
do have a Bluetooth transmitter with a optical input, so
(35:12):
it's thirty five dollars and all you do is connect
that optical input from your TV to this Bluetooth transmitter.
Then you connect your Bluetooth headphones to the transmitter. And
this one that I just looked up on Amazon is
called the Home Spot Bluetooth Transmitter thirty five ninety nine
and it will basically take the output from your TV,
pipe it into the Bluetooth pipe it into your headphones.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Now, if you don't have the optical I would check
and see if you have some RCA outs. Maybe you do,
but I don't know what model this TV is, but
I've found that a lot of the older TVs have
the optical so it's not that big of a deal.
So again that's why.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
I use mine.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
I've got mine hooked up to a so nose and
so the optical cable is how it gets all the
audio from the TV, no matter what's playing on there.
So it's kind of like a catch all for the
TV audio.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
So there you go.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
That's really cool.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
This was a great segue to my next story, Megan,
because Visio has some new features rolling out to their
smart TVs. And again, I have a video. My main
TV is a Visio back in twenty fifteen. I bought it,
I think. So this does not apply to me, sadly,
but it does apply to twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
And above TVs.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
But they're upgrading what they call their smart cast, which
is they're you know, all TVs. Do we talk about
this in the last week's podcast. I hope we didn't,
because I think I might have. I'm gonna look real quick,
because if we did, I'm just gonna skip to the
next story.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
We did because we did the story on Friday.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
You're right, okay, I'm looking. We did not stay up.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
You're right, okay. So smart Cast three point zero is
the newest version. All the TVs now have smart software
on them, right, And so this is they call their
smart cast, and smart cast is kind of like that
home screen that you see if you press the Visio
button on your TV, right. And so what they're doing
is a couple of new things. Number One, they're revamping
the screen so that there's more access to kind of
the content that you want. So they're adding all the
(37:00):
apps and things like that. They're also adding watch free,
which there is a big trend in the US right now,
a free content for streaming because a lot of people
are cutting the cord and they're like, now that I
cut the cord, I just want to watch free stuff.
Like I don't really care if it has ads or not,
but I just want free stuff. And so all these
companies are coming out with like free stuff to watch
that doesn't require a subscription, like to Be and yeah,
(37:23):
all these weird like I call them weird, but like
I personally it's not for me.
Speaker 4 (37:27):
But they can add ads to it.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Yeah, they there's totally ads. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Now I don't want to see ads, so I'm not
gonna watch any of this stuff.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
But people love it.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Like when I was at Roku, they were talking about
how their most popular feature is like this Roku channel
that they have that's like all free stuff to watch.
I need to try the Roku channel, but it's all
I mean, you might like it so for fun. Yeah,
I personally love the premium feel of Netflix that doesn't
have ads, Like really, I just love that. Like I'm like,
there's no ads like Hulu. I remember for a time
they would have all these ads and I just hated it.
(37:56):
I hated that I was paying like five ninety nine
a month whatever it was, and I was still seeing ads. Now,
I know they have that premium premium which you can
pay for no ads.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
This was before kind of like how you like to
use your iPhone without.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
A case, right, you know, I'm elitist like that.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
I had to call you out.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I'm so elitist that I just anyway, So watch free
has a whole bunch of channels, so you can watch
literally CNN, Paramount Movie Channel, MTV channels, Comedy Central, Spike,
all these channels like are just literally streaming on your
TV for free.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
So that's Visio. Now.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
The other big feature that I think most people are
going to be interested in is Airplay. So you are
now getting Airplay two on your TV with this software update,
and so that means you can stream anything from your
phone that's Airplay enabled, which is a lot of apps.
But the other thing you can do is show your
pictures off from your iPhone to your TV screen, which
is always really tough unless you had an Apple TV,
(38:52):
and Apple TV is one hundred and eighty bucks.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
This is free.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
So bottom line, if you have a Visio TV that
was made twenty sixteen or late, or go into the
software updates and check for this update, and if you
have it, you'll get airplay too, which is really cool
with your iPhone, and you also get some new Alexa functionality,
some new Google Assistant functionality.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Visio is trying.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
To take on the world with just having everything work
with their TVs, which is really smart. And it's kind
of weird because we've seen this progression from everyone was
getting a smart TV with this proprietary software to now
all these smart TVs are sort of working with the
software that everyone has, like Chrome Cast and Airplay and
all these apps and things. So I think that's pretty smart. Yeah,
(39:36):
that they're doing that. All right, I've got one minute
for a question, so it's a quick.
Speaker 5 (39:41):
One, not a question of The last remark is from
Raymond and I don't know if you want to read this,
but it go Donut. Finally, here Go Donut, world's most
portable and universal stand for tabs and smartphones, and they're
now available at Walmart nationwide, and he just says, please
(40:02):
help us spread the great news to your community.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Okay, go Donut yes, this is a little tiny device.
This guy sent me some a couple of years ago
and he said it's available at like Facebook and all
this stuff, and it was too tough to buy, so
I never really featured it.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
But it's a I have him at home. I've got
a couple of them.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
It's kind of like it looks like a little ashtray
that has like little cutouts for your iPad or your phone.
Speaker 4 (40:23):
I think I have one of these two that you
gave me.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
I give you one of these.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Yeah, So it's it's a great it's a great little
stand and it's at Walmart. So if you see it,
support a local business. Go Donut is the name of it.
And I think it's like fifteen bucks or so. But
it's a it's a cute little device that I was
waiting to kind of tell people about.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Until you could get them easily. So now that they're.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
At Walmart, my gosh, good job, by the way, you
did a great job of getting this thing in Walmart,
because now I mean, if you're in Walmart's cross the nation,
that's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
So again, it's.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Called Godonut dot com if you want to check it out.
But again, we have a couple of them laying around
my house, which I used just to like set up
the tablet or like store my phone on my desk
so you can see it.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
It just kind of props up your device.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
So all right, we're running out of time, but I
just want to mention a couple of things. Ktla dot
com story on focusing. We did this today on KTLA.
It's a great story. This was inspired by me at
my kids basketball game. My wife kind of shamed me
into saying, why you're on your phone and your kid
is playing? Shamed and I said, okay, And so I realized,
great little feature on your phone, just turn your phone
(41:25):
off for twenty minutes at a time and like focus
on whatever you're doing. I was in the uber the
other night and I kept checking my phone incessantly. I said,
you know what, I'm just gonna look out the window,
turned on the downtime and twenty minutes, didn't look at
my phone and it was great, felt like really nice,
and didn't talk to the driver, but I just kind
of looked out the window.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
I like how you had to say that.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
And another cool little feature Google Maps. Now if you're
on Android, this is kind of cool. Search for a
restaurant and Google Maps and then tap menu and it
shows you the popular dishes at that restaurant. I like that,
So that's kind of fun. It's not on iPhone just yet,
but it is on Android. So if you have an Android,
Google Maps, search restaurant, and tap menu and it will
show you the popular dishes at that restaurant. Do you
(42:05):
like to order the popular thing or do you not?
Like when you go to a restaurant, do you research
the restaurant menu before you go?
Speaker 4 (42:09):
I do it while I'm there?
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Is that bad? So you look up?
Speaker 5 (42:13):
Like let's say, let's say we go to like an
Italian restaurant. I'll like at the restaurant, I'll go on
Yelp and I'll just like go through pictures and like
see what looks good.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
I want to like know what it looks like.
Speaker 5 (42:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
See, I'm just the opposite. I guess my wife does
all the research. She wants to know exactly what it
looks like inside this and that. I do want to
know what it looks like inside, but I don't want
to know the menu. I don't want to see what's
on there. I don't want to see the pictures by
the way, can we just say that food pictures always
look disgusting, like when they're on Yelp, Like unless you're.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
Like a true helper.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
That's so true.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Average Joe takes a picture of like something at his table.
It looks terrible, like I don't want to eat that.
So I like to be a mystery. I will ask
the waiter what's popular. But I also don't necessarily I'm
not necessarily swayed by that because what's popular isn't always
what's the best for you.
Speaker 5 (43:00):
But see, sometimes I don't know what like a term
is for like a type of like pasta, and so
then I'm like, is this the this kind of pasta?
And so like the pictures help you know, right, Okay,
So that's just like I just need to.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
Be more educated than the food department.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
I hear you. That's going to do it for today's show.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Thanks so much for listening, and please subscribe if you
haven't done so already. Just search Rich on Tech in
your favorite podcasting app. That could be Apple podcasts, that
could be pocket casts that can be overcast if you
were listening on Google podcasts.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
I did figure out that.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
We were not getting our feed to Google podcasts for
the past couple of weeks, like maybe a month. So
that is fixed and everything we should be firing on
all cylinders. My book is one hundred and one Handy
Tech Tips for the iPhone. It is available right now
on Amazon and paperback. Get it before iOS thirteen comes
out and I have to revise the whole thing and
write all the tips over again because who knows what
(43:53):
Apple's going to change coming up this week at WWDC.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
Also, don't forget about my newsletter.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
You can find that at rich on tech Dot TV
producer Megan Where can people find you?
Speaker 5 (44:03):
I'm on Twitter at producer Megan within h and.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
By the way, you have surpassed your oh followers.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
This was a big deal.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
Yeah yeah, I said when you changed your username you
would have more followers than the people you're following. You
now have four one hundred and seventy two followers. You're
following four fifty nine.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
I know I was right, So thanks.
Speaker 4 (44:24):
Thanks for all the new follows.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
All right, I'm Rich Dimiro. Have a great day. We
will talk to you real soon.
Host
Rich DeMuro
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