December 19, 2019 • 46 mins
Visa warns about gas station card fraud; a new way to stream local OTA channels; best gadgets of the past 10 years; Instagram fights online bullying.Listeners ask about the differences between a Chromebook and laptop; Android or iPhone and how to block annoying ads on an Android phone.Follow Rich:https://www.instagram.com/richontech/Follow Meghan:https://twitter.com/producermeghanSee 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 (00:11):
Why gas station is a dangerous place to use your
credit card. Instagram combats bullying in a unique way. Ten
best gadgets of the last ten years, and your tech
questions Answered. What's going on? I'm Rich Dmiro. This is
Rich on Tech, the show where I talk about the
tech stuff that I think you should know about. Plus
(00:31):
I answer all the questions that you send me. But
I will say, for the first time in several weeks,
your questions are actually less than the CES emails I'm getting,
which is just insane all time high. Welcome producer Megan
to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
What's Up? What's going on?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
The holidays? That's what's going on? Like our little holiday music. Yeah,
all right, we'll get that out of there. Lots to
talk about in this show. I will start by talking
about upgrading my mom's setup because I was in New
Jersey and whenever I go home to New Jersey, I
(01:09):
basically spend a day with my dad and a day
with my mom upgrading all their stuff. Because it's kind
of what tech nerds do when they go home. It's
a very common thing. And so for my mom, she's
going to go over all the things I did because
it was crazy. It was one day, but everything changed
for her. And this is the thing. You know my mom,
she rolls with this stuff. And this is the beauty
(01:31):
of technology is that it doesn't have to be super complicated.
Everything that I do when I set up my friends
and family with tech is I want to make it
not so complicated so that they can enjoy it and
understand it and just love it and not have to
be figuring out fifteen different remotes and this, how do
I switch to this input in this and that. So
first thing I did, I basically upgraded my mom's fire
(01:53):
TV stick. She had an old Amazon Fire TV stick,
not the four K version, and so I actually had
given her a four K Fire TV stick, like I
think it was over the summer for like her birthday,
and I was like, oh, here, you need an upgrade.
And she never set it up. Of course she didn't
because she doesn't set things up herself. So I get home,
I see this thing on the table and I'm like, Mom,
can we set this up? So we set that up
(02:15):
and I'm using her old firestick and wow, it was
so slow. She's like, well, this thing always has problems.
I'm like, yeah, I can see why, because it's so slow.
It was ridiculous. So I got the four K one
worked so much better, logged her into different apps. Then
I'm looking at her at and T TV. I'm like, hey,
let me see your bill, your credit card bill for
this at and T direct TV now whatever it used
(02:36):
to be called. And she shows me your bill. It's
sixty five bucks a month. I'm like, sixty five bucks
a month. How many channels are you watching? She only
watches one out there in New York, it's like ABC seven.
And so I'm like, well, you know you're paying like
sixty five dollars a month for all these different channels
that you don't watch. It's like, well, sometimes watch Food Network.
I'm like, can you do without it? Because we can
save you sixty bucks a month. So it's like yeah,
(02:56):
I'm all right. So we cancel that, and so DirecTV
eighten T now whatever's gone. But now she doesn't have
a local channel. So I look up low Cast. I
remember we talked about this, This is the app that
lets you get your local channels. Oh OK, A lot
of people have written in with mixed reactions to how
good it is. But anyway, so I set her up
with that low cast dot org is the website. Plus
they have an app that lets you get your local channels.
(03:18):
Even in LA. You can get KTLA on there. I
don't know how long it's gonna last, and it's not illegal,
but they're operating as some sort of a gray zone
that the broadcasters are kind of fighting it, so who knows,
but it works for now. And I set her up
with that and to get rid of all the kind
of clutter on the screen, like they kind of bombarred
you every fifteen minutes with like an AD or something.
(03:39):
You pay five bucks a month. So I was like,
all right, for five bucks a month, are you willing
to pay that? She's like sure, So we did that.
Then we were on a roll. I said, well, now
you've got a four K fire stick, do you want
to upgrade your TV? And she's like sure. I said,
four KTVs are so cheap. So we found one of
Best Buy TCL five series. It was three hundred and
twenty nine dollars and I was like, for three hundred
(04:00):
twenty nine dollars for four KTV. By the way, way
bigger fifty yes, she had a forty two, so fifty
five and by the way, forty two with like these
giant bezels, you know, the black bar around the screen.
So we go to best Buy. We order it online,
pick up in store. I gave her my five dollars
best Buy rewards card five dollars off. So we do that.
We come home, we set it all up, the TV
(04:21):
so light. I can carry it by myself up the
stairs into our place and you know, set it all ye,
So we do that. Her TV looks fantastic. So all
that's done. Then I upgrade her computer. I bought her
computer a couple of years ago, and so I upgraded
that to another computer that I had given her, like
one of my old ones. Yeah, and she never really
set it up again. So I got that all set up.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
This is fun for you. This is fun for you.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Love doing this, Like this is like if I could
do this every day. Yeah, well it'll probably be a job,
so probably not, but I do it is fun because
it's like things could be interesting and different. So we
do the computer and then with the old computer. She
had two of her old computers sitting there from the
last two times I upgraded over the past decade because
I was like, mom, we'll figure this out. So I'm like,
all right, you know what, we're getting rid of these
right now? So I research online. It turns out that
(05:07):
at best Buy they charge you to like recycle a monitor,
it's like twenty five bucks. But at Staples they'll take
anything with no fee. So we drove her to Staples,
brought the computer to the old computer and the old monitor,
and we recycled there and that was good. I also
gave her a Google Home Hub. This was one of
her Christmas gifts, so I got her like the little one.
I want to get her the big one, but I
(05:29):
was like, she really got a video chat? Probably not,
so got her the little one. And the thing that
she loves about this is the pictures. So it's basically
a picture frame. It's now called the Google Nest Hub,
but it shows your pictures when you're not using it,
and she loves her pictures blah blah blah. So we
did that and now she's got her pictures on this
little thing. And finally I gave her my old pixel
(05:49):
because I upgraded to the iPhone, so I gave her
my old Pixel three Excel that I bought, and she
still wanted to stick with a pixel. She's had a
pixel now for I think two years three, okay, and
she really likes it and she loves her pictures from it.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
She was a new woman.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah, so she got a new phone. And by the way,
the phone is bigger because it's the Excel. She used
to have the regular one.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
So anyway, my point is she is hooked up. Oh
and it's basically all hand me downs for me. But
still it's new to her for the most part.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
You treat your tech nicely too, It's not like it's
all dinged up. It's exactly pretty much brand new.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yes. So anyway, so she is loving all her new
stuff and transferring everything and setting it all up was
not that tough and it was really fun. And the
reason I tell this story is because if my mom
can deal with all this new technology and one day
it's basically a tech makeover, you can deal with it too.
You can figure it out. This stuff is not complicated.
It gets easier and easier every year. Next time I
(06:44):
go home, I'm gonna set her up with some smart
plugs because I think that she'd really like the idea
of turning on and off lights around ther house with
just her voice. Oh yeah, and also setting some of
those on timers, because right now she's like walking through
the house turning things on and off, and I feel
like she'd probably really enjoy having some of these on timers.
I also think she'd really enjoy a chrome Cast that
would show her pictures on the big screen when she's
(07:06):
not using her TV. Also, so I've been doing that
at my house. I come home and I now say, h, Google,
turn on the living room chrome cast and if you
just do that, it'll turn on your TV, switch to
the chrome Cast input and just display your pictures as
a screen saver, which is really nice because your TV,
if it's sitting there with a dark screen, it's kind
(07:26):
of useless. So I've been doing that. The only problem
is when I want to switch back to fire TV,
I have to like use the input button on the remote,
which is kind of annoying. So I'm trying to figure that.
I don't know if you can add your own pictures
to Roku. Last I checked, I don't think you can. Natively,
there might be a third party app that lets you
do it, and you know, Google or Sorry, the Amazon
(07:48):
fire Stick lets you do it, but you have to
upload your pictures to Amazon and so that means curating them,
whereas Google just does it for you, and then Apple
same thing. You can do it, but you have to
curate your pictures and it's kind of a anyway. All right,
So now you heard my story. Let's get one of
the questions.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Okayat Megan, So this first question comes from and Alon.
She says, I need your advice. Can you please let
me know the difference between a chromebook and laptop. I'm
planning on buying these for my daughters, ages twelve and
nine years old. I'm not looking for any fancy stuff,
basically for homework and for them to log into their
(08:25):
applications from school for extra reading and mathwork. And then
she asks which device should I buy for each girl
for depending on their ages. My twelve year old is
a seventh grader and my nine year old is a
fourth grader.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Okay, so first question, the difference between a Chromebook and Windows.
The main difference between a Chromebook and Windows is that
Chrome runs the Chrome operating system, which if you've ever
used the Chrome web browser online, it's basically that, but
as an entire operating system. So it does have a
desktop and things like that, but primarily When you think
(09:01):
of a chromebook, think of it as you are on
the web doing work. Now I can get ninety nine
point nine percent of my work done on the web,
which includes resizing photos, checking my email, watching YouTube, uploading pictures,
uploading videos. What else did I miss surfing the web?
The things I can't do mail, email, spreadsheets, making documents,
(09:25):
google docs, typing up documents. The thing I can't do
is basically edit video. And that's it. So if your
daughters are they both daughters? Did she say yes? So
if your daughters are only doing things primarily, I think
the delineation is this, do your daughters need to download
any sort of specialty apps for their use? So if
(09:48):
there's a special let's say they're a scientist and they
need a special science app that you need to download
to a computer and run it, the chromebook will not
run that app because it's generally a Windows app. Okay,
So that's the main thing to keep in mind. But
otherwise I would say, talk to your kids and see
if they use like, ask them, hey, what apps do
you use? Like what? Don't use the word apps? Use
programs because apps think you think of phone, So program
(10:11):
is like on my computer right now, I have like
ever note is a program. Now you can run that
in totally in the web, but it works better as
a native app. I've got my Reminders that's a MacApp,
so I use that, you know, on the computer, But
ninety nine percent of what you want to do for
the average person is available on a chromebook, so I'd
recommend going with those. The benefits of a Chromebook are security,
(10:32):
so there's really no viruses for them. Software updates are automatic,
and they're really fast, and they're kind of invisible. It
happens when you kind of restart the computer and that's it.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
What about like a MacBook Air.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
The problem is if she's deciding between a Chromebook, it's
usually a MacBook Air starts at about one thousand bucks.
So I thought, like the.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Really small one was cheaper, but maybe it might be
it maybe six ninety nine.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yeah, but I don't think so, I think that it
let me let me go one that's.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Like twelve inch screen, I think, or even smaller.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
There's well, let's say MacBook Air. So you've got a
MacBook Air and the cheapest MacBook Air that I see
on the website is one ninety nine. Yeah, So when
you're talking ninety nine percent of the people that email
me about a computer, Mac is not even in the
picture because you're only looking at a Mac if you
need to do something specific when it comes to audio video,
(11:27):
or you love your iPhone so much you just feel
like a Mac would be the perfect compliment. Otherwise, most
people that I'm talking to are not going with a Mac,
and they're going like, I'm talking average person who's just
doing web surfing stuff. And in fact, I love the Mac.
I think that the Mac is amazing. Do I recommend
it for everyone? Because no, you probably don't need it.
If you can save money, like just surfing the web
(11:48):
on a chromebook, go ahead and get the Chromebook. And
it also has a lot of advantages for software. You
don't have to think about updates, you to think about
apps and things like that. So for most people, I
would say a Chromebook is the way to go. And
when people are looking at laptops and chromebooks, I always
recommend Costco because they generally only have one to two selections,
so it's very easy and they're always better than what
(12:09):
you find anywhere else. So let's say they had the
same exact chromebook at Costco that they do at Best Buy.
The one at Costco will be a little bit cheaper
and the specs will be a little bit better. It's
always like that. It's the way Costco cuts their deals
with these retailers or these manufacturers.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I should say love Costco?
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Yes, so do I love that place. Gas stations are
the most dangerous place to use your credit card, and
not just credit card, but debit card, anything that has
the Visa or MasterCard logo on it, or American Express whatever.
And according to Visa, they have said that hackers are
not even using skimmers anymore. We've always heard about skimmers,
(12:45):
which is a physical device that hackers install over the
card reader and steal your number. They don't bother with
that anymore because people are kind hiped to that if
you see some big old thing on the scanner, you're
gonna be like, I'm not using that. What they do
is they hack the gas station software and once inside,
all they have to do is scrape all the card
numbers that are flown through that software when you scan
(13:05):
your card at the pump. And the reason why Visa's
warning about this is because it's basically in their best
interest to have these gas stations upgrade to the chip
and pin And if you've noticed, every retailer now pretty
much has chip and pin so which chip Most of
the time they're chip so, which means you pop your
you insert your credit card in, you don't swipe it anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
My favorite is the tap.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Tap is the best.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Tap is the best.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
And a lot of retailers have tap as well. And
I would say the last holdout that I go to,
I think is Ralph's that does not have LAP. They're
trying to use their own, like Kroger. Kroger's so big
that they can use their own like Walmart. Actually, Walmart
and Kroger are the last two holdouts.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
They have their own version.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Yeah, they have their own thing. It's like a QR
code you scan because think about it, when you tap
your credit card on that device, they have to pay
a little percentage to that credit card company for that
ability to take that card. So the reason they don't
want to do that is because with their system, if
they use like you know, Walmart Pay or whatever, yeah,
it doesn't cost them as much. So if you think
(14:08):
about a billion transactions in a year or however many
they do, even a penny per transaction is a lot
of money.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
But do you think people will decide to not go there?
Speaker 1 (14:18):
No. No, Every time I go to Ralph's, I'm like,
when are you going to take it? Was a while
they wouldn't even take the chip. So, but the tap
is so I've gotten so used to the tap and
in fact, so okay, let me just go through a
little bit more of this story. So the hackers are
getting these numbers because they're they're exposed when you swipe
your card, your actual card number that's printed on the
(14:39):
front of the card is being transmitted over the internets
when you dip your card, when you pop it into
that slot. As a chip, it's creating a one time
number that is transmitted. So if someone, let's say, you
got my number, you can't do anything with it because
that number only lasted. It's a one time number. It's
disposable for all intents and purposes. So this is why
(14:59):
we switch over to the chip because it's much more secure.
And Visa saying that gas stations the reason why they're
so dangerous is because they are the last place that
does not have chip. Everyone else has chip now and
I'm not talking mobile payment chip. Chip is still chip
and dip. It sounds like something you would have it
you're a fourth at your your super Bowl part. So
(15:20):
my recommendation on this with a gas station, and I've
found this to be true with myself, find a gas
station that uses tap and it's very tough to find.
I find in the Los Angeles area. Arco is really
good at having tap to pay, so is Chevron. That's it.
The rest of the gas stations they don't. They all
have this still the swipe where it's actually insert, but
(15:43):
it's not really a chip. It's still it's a swipe
insert kind of thing, you know what I mean. I
think it's not a true chip anyway. So that's my
advice because when you use tap to pay or use
your chip, or if you even tap your credit card,
A lot of these credit cards, if you look on
the back, they have a little wireless symbol. Your credit
card is actually taped to pay enabled, so you can
actually physically a lot of the Chase cards you can
(16:04):
tap to pay. Yeah. Yeah, and so that's the cards
that I got.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Works.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Yeah, So my advice, use the tap to pay your
gas station. It's I would say, I was trying to
find a good app to recommend that you can look
at to see where a tap to pay gas station
is near you and I the only app I found.
I didn't really it wasn't very good. It was kind
of like, let's see so I had deleted off my phone.
I think I did. Yeah, I did. It was so
(16:28):
bad I didn't even keep it on here Gas Buddy, No,
I don't think gas Buddy shows it may but I don't.
I don't. I have to look at that. In the meantime,
while I look that up, you go through your next question.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Okay, so our next question comes from Diane. The subject
is new phone phobia. My husband and I need to
upgrade our cell phones. We're not tech savvy, So which
do you recommend? The iPhone or an Android phone. We
like to talk, text, take pictures and share stuff with family.
Did I mention we're over fifty eight years of age?
(17:00):
Technology challenged? I thought that was a sweet.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Okay, I like that. That's nice. I would recommend probably.
I know. I know everyone that's listening is gonna say, oh,
Rich is gonna say the iPhone right.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Here's why I don't know what you're gonna say.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Here's why I say the iPhone. Okay, because number one,
she said she wants to text with friends and family, right, yes, okay,
I'm guessing if she's like a lot of Americans, her
family and friends have iPhones. Okay, So that means that
you have I Message and you probably want to be
able to send things easily, quickly, share photos, videos, all
that good stuff. That's why I would recommend the iPhone.
(17:40):
It's also easier because when you run into a problem,
you can ask a friend versus an Android, where a
lot of people put their shoulders up and they're like,
I don't know. So that's another reason for the iPhone.
You've got the Apple Store, so if you really have,
you know, you want to really take it to the
next level, you can take some classes there about how
to use your phone. There's also this book, what's the
book book? Did someone write an iPhone book?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
There's an iPhone book? Oh my gosh, what is it called?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
One iPhone? That one? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (18:07):
That one?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yea. Who's the author on that? So you've got that?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
It seems like Tom Demiro, it's very similar, yeah, Tom, Tom.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So so you've got the book. You can get one
hundred and one iPhone Tips and Tricks I just feel like,
and I love Android, don't get me wrong, you know,
I love it. Yeah, yeah, I don't. I always want
to switch to Android.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
You're no, you there's like a good six months of
the year where you're on Android, and you're like, I
don't want to go back to the iPhone and buy
the next iPhone? Yes, well yeah you should.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
So, and it is great and it's you know, it's
one of these things. Plus you have a lot of
selections of phones you can go in. You've got a
lot of choice. Yeah, And I just feel like, if
you want to phone your you're fifty eight, if you
want a phone that lasts, you know, a good three years,
I would say, just go go with an iPhone. Go
with the iPhone eleven. Yeah, go with the ten R
if you're if they don't even sell that anymore, I
don't think, but iPhone, Go with the iPhone eleven and
(18:57):
just that'll last you three years. You'll be great, you know,
three years, if not more.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
I feel like forever.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah, it could last you four years. Yeah, yeah, my
dad is still on the Uh what did he have,
like the success? Maybe my dad.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Had the five for like up until a month ago.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
You can keep these things for a long time. Yeah,
let's put it this way. The latest version of iOS
is iOS thirteen. It still works on the iPhone six s,
which I remember the iPhone's success when that came out,
and that had to be Let's see how many years
ago was that. That was twenty fifteen. You're talking four years.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Okay, all has a success. Plus, that's pretty good time
for HERD update.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Okay, let's talk about Instagram. They're doing something interesting to
try to combat bullying. When you type a caption on
your photo and it's considered offensive by their AI, they
are going to say, excuse me, do you really want
to say that? And we've talked about this before. They've
done this with comments in the past. I call it
(19:57):
the Taylor Swift filter because she basically was the one
who asked to do this. Apparently, Oh did she?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah? Because I guess show doesn't have like she turns
all of that.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
I know that's why, because she didn't like the mean comments. Yeah, so,
and I get it. It's it's the Internet is a
is a rough place. You don't you know, you put
yourself out there when you put a Now, if you're
just posting stuff with friends, and family generally, you're not
gonna I mean, are your friends really gonna be that? Like,
al yeah, I hope they're not. I mean, but if
you're in the public, if you're in the public, and
(20:25):
a lot of people do bully public figures because they figure,
I don't know this person, like I could just say
whatever I want, you know, model Supermodel posts like a
picture and they're like, oh, you're too fat, like yeah,
and people do it right, and they do it just
to be like mean yeah, and you know, it's it's
really bad on YouTube. YouTube meets to license this technology
from Instagram. I I always call Instagram like Disneyland. It's
(20:46):
like the Disneyland of the Internet because it really is
like happy. They block all the hashtags that are bad.
You know, you try to type in a bad hashtag
on Instagram, I don't try it, Okay, well do you try.
I've tried, yeah, and there and it comes up nothing.
They say that this hashtag that was a couple of
years ago where they started doing that, And they even
do it where they find trending because people get around it.
(21:06):
So people pick a hashtag to do something dirty with
or something bad with, and Instagram will pick up on
it and they'll block it. They'll say like these tags
have been registered as offensive or something. So anyway, my
point is, ye, and I remember this whole thing happened.
This actually happened a couple of years ago by a
viewer unbeknownst to me. She said, my son is finding
these really inappropriate pictures on Instagram. And I was like,
(21:28):
there's no inappropriate pictures on Instagram. Sure enough, I did
a main main hashtag that she sent me. It was
like I don't know, ice cream or something, yeah, whatever
it was, it was something very like simple, and sure enough,
the pictures that came up were filled with terrible stuff.
And so I was like, wow, I had no idea.
And so this is when I kind of realized that
(21:49):
Instagram is doing that. And then they after that was
like probably six months later that they said, oh, we're
going to start filtering hashit. Anyway, so now they're doing comments.
So when you type a comment, it will say can
you please reconsider this because it might be mean, And
it's AI that's figuring out if it's mean or not.
So you say eat a burger to who's adi? So
(22:09):
if you say eat a burger to her and maybe
like Megan, do you really want to say that?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
But it would I feel like eat a burger that's
not right, as like an AI wouldn't pick that up
as oh.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
You don't know it may or like you need a burger,
Yeah you need a burger. That could be mean.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
That could be mean.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Or how about like I bet you put your mayo
on the side.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah, I bet you take the bun off and just
eat the meat.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I bet you eat that protein style.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yeah, those are good.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
That lettus wrap, Yeah, I would do that just.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Just for a healthy lunch in and out.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
It's it's much lighter. Yeah, you can well done? Yeah, exactly,
have well done. Okay, so that's what Instagram is doing.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Okay. This next question comes from your Facebook, which is
Facebook dot com. Slash rich On Chris asks, Hey, rich
is there a digital picture frame that can be linked
to your iPhone? I feel like we've answered this a
couple times, but I.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Feel like it too, but I think I'll just go
over the too. It is. Okay, So everyone, this is
really funny because this holiday season, for some reason, I'm
getting more of the digital picture frame question than ever before.
I don't know if that's a I don't know if
someone's a lot of times these companies are advertising on
Instagram and Facebook, and that's why people email me because
they're seeing this ad over and over. So I'll just
(23:31):
throw out two recommendations. The first is nix Play and
I X P L A Y. They make some of
the best frames out there. I've tested these in the past.
They work really well, they do what you want, and
you know, they're pretty simple. It's a picture frame that's digital.
You can send stuff from your your phone to the frame.
You can send stuff to your loved ones frames if
they have it set up that way. It works, and
(23:53):
it's you know, they have cloud frames. They have ones
that you can plug the USB into the back. However
you want to do it, they'll Nixplay will do that.
The thing that I personally like better is, well, there's
another way you can do it. Well, there's a third
way I'll tell you in a second. But the other
way you can do it is I really like the
Google Nest Hub and the Google Nest Hub. I get it.
It's a smart speaker. It's listening. It's evil because it's
(24:14):
Google listening in your house with a microphone and potentially
a camera. If you get the big version. But let's
be honest, we all have those things in our home.
So it's like, come on, what are you gonna do.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
But the best part about that is if you're using
Google Photos already, it curates the best photos. Not it
doesn't always do the best job. Sometimes, Like my mom
she sells stuff on like Facebook, Marketplace, and like a
couple of like her old pairs of shoes showed up.
She's like, I thought you said these were curated. I
was like, well, it's not always right.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
It's like all selfies.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Clearly you took a good picture of those shoes, because
Google's ai wreck, you know, identified it as a good picture.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
And so you can also do things like so when
my kid, when it was my kid's birthday, you can
say I only want to show pictures of a certain face.
So on one of my albums, I have just like
the family, so I say like Lindsay rich Tanner Parker,
and it can automatically just show pictures that involve those faces.
So you can do a lot of stuff. Or you
can say I just want sunsets, so all my sunset pictures,
(25:08):
or you can say just pictures in Hawaii or you
can do a combination of whatever you want. And that's
why I think the Google nest Hub is the best
way to go because it's so flexible and you can
change your pictures at a moment's notice. Yeah, like I said,
when we had the birthday party at my house, I
changed all the digital displays to show just Tanner first
Birthday's amazing. Nobody noticed, but I was hoping one person
(25:30):
might be like, oh, he's yeah anyway, But to me,
I smiled, They probably thought.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
You spent hours putting it together. I'm like, oh, poor guy.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, what a loser. The only other thing I would
recommend is if you have like an old iPad around,
you could probably work that into a frame and you
could probably just put some pictures on there and set
it as a slide show or whatever. And I'm sure
there's apps out there that you can use as well.
So cool, cool question. Let's talk about the ten best
gadgets of the twenty tens. You know, we're rounding on
(25:59):
a decade here, Megan, it's almost twenty twenty, So top
ten gadgets to the twenty tens. I'm not going to
talk about this too much because I actually talked about
this at length in another podcast, my friend Brian Tong's podcast,
the Apple Bits XL. So if you want to hear
us discuss all these gadgets of the last decade, check
out Apple Bits XL with Brian Tongue. He's my pal
(26:22):
from when I worked at c net and we talked
about this. Your helm, yeah, actually lives close by to me.
We never see each other. We're always like, oh, we
got to hang out, and we only see each other
like out and about at events. We're like, we got
to hang out. We never do. So one of these days,
one of these days we will. Apple iPad that was
one of the top ten Tesla model s that was
a big game changer. Raspberry Pie do you know that one?
Speaker 2 (26:45):
You meanke food?
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Now, this is a little tiny computer that you can
like make into anything you want. So it's good for
like tinkers and you know nerds. Yeah, you can do
a lot with it. So it's only like twenty five bucks,
So that's really cool. Google Chrome Cast twenty thirteen. I
can't believe it's been six years since that came out.
That was life changing, like to me when I saw this,
because streaming devices were really expensive before Chrome cast, and
(27:09):
when the first one came out, I think it was
like thirty five or fifty bucks. It was like, well, wait,
what what is it now? I think it's thirty five maybe,
but don't forget. Now you have the Roku sticks and
you've got the Amazon sticks that are so cheap that
like everyone assumed streaming can be cheap, but back then
it wasn't. No, you had like Apple TV, Apple TV yeah,
and that was like two hundred bucks. Yea. I think
now it's like now it's still two hundred.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
It's still still the same.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Dji Phantom, this is the drone. Yeah, okay, Amazon Echo
and twenty fourteen that was life. That was game changing.
I've never been a big Echo user, but it was
a lot of people like it.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
I feel like she doesn't hear me, right.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
She does better than Siri, that's for sure. Yeah. Google's
good though, Yes, Google's amazing. Apple Watch twenty fifteen, that
was game changing. You're still wanting one, I know.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Noticing trend.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
There's only three Apple products? Oh but still air Pods
twenty sixteen. Nintendo Switch in twenty seventeen, which I know
you're not a gamer, but that was a big one because.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
This might be the decade, though twenty twenty might be
my gaming might be.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Your gaming years. And then the Xbox Adaptive Controller in
twenty eighteen. This is for gamers with physical limitations disabilities,
and it lets them play Xbox as well, which is
really cool. So cool again, if you want to hear
me discuss all the top ten gadgets of the twenty tens.
Oh those are according to Time dot Com. By the way,
those were not my list. Okay, Apple bits XL check
(28:34):
out the podcast by Brian Tong. I have a.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Question, my own question, what was your favorite product from
the twenty ten I'll be.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Honest, I think it's the Pixel. I'm surprised. I'm surprised
that was not on there. I would say either the
Pixel or Google Assistant.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
People just overlook Google.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Well, I think so there was one. There was Chrome Cast,
but I think that or you know, Google Photos, those
were not products but I and Google Assistant. But favorite
I think the Pixel was. I mean, for for when
it came out, it was the best photos I had
ever seen on a smartphone with such a simple camera.
And I think this year, you know, I carry the
(29:15):
iPhone eleven Pro Max and I really truly think that
that's a great overall device. If I had my way,
i'd probably carry the Pixel if I wasn't if I
was not creating well, if I was not creating content
for social media, Yeah, because the iPhone and also the apps,
(29:36):
because Android just doesn't have the apps that the iPhone does.
But I love the smarts of the Android platform and
especially Google and especially the Pixel. So that's uh, you know,
that's that's the difference.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Yeah, so cool. All right. This next question comes from Kristen.
She wrote on your Facebook, Hi, Rich, I just got
my first iPad. It's the iPad Pro and I'm terrified
of one of my cats breaking it. What is the
best protective case for it and how? And does the
(30:10):
protective paper like film actually protect as well as the
glass does thinks you know, I.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Fell in love with a cat when I was home.
I'm not a big cat person, but my brother gave
my mom a cat, little tiny kitten, and I will
say I was like, Okay, I might get one of
these if it stayed that small.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
If you're not allergic, you should I'm not allergic. I
wish I could have.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
It was really cute. It like crawl up on you
while you're watching like TV, and just like ball up
on your lap. And I'm not used to that because
I don't have like any animals. Yeah, so it was
I do have kids.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Are your kids allergic to cats? Uh?
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Probably because one of them has like some allergy kind
of stuff, so probably, but evenly wants a dog. But anyway,
so I understand the cat thing because basically, these cats
are tiny tyrants around the house. They play with everything,
they get into everything, they knock things over, they scratch things.
And if you have an iPad sitting there, she says,
her first iPad on the edge of the table, and
(31:06):
you just leave it there, Boom, it's dead. It's gonna
fall off because this cat's gonna claw it, and you
know it's gonna go off the side. I would recommend,
and this is what I've had on my kid's iPads
for four years now, the otter Box. And they make
an iPad case that is one hundred percent inclusive of
the iPad, so it goes on the back and then
(31:26):
it also has a thing a cover for the screen,
and they make several cases, but I would go with one.
It depends what was her name again? Diane. Her name
was shoot Kristin, So I would say Kristin that if
you think you're gonna be responsible enough, you can get
(31:46):
a case that doesn't necessarily cover the front like the screen.
But she specifically mentioned the screen, so I would probably
get an otter Box case that covers the screen and
it encloses your entire your entire iPad. Now with that said,
your iPad, it's going to be a lot bigger than normal.
It's gonna be a little bit heavier, but it's for
most people that's fine. And outer Box has a lot
(32:07):
of different cases, so you can see, like maybe you
want one Defender is kind of like the main one
that's the biggest one, that's going to be pretty thick,
but you can get other ones like a symmetry case.
Let's see what else do they have in Alpha that's
a screen chector. But I would say just look what
they have. But that's the company i'd recommend is autter Box.
So good question. That's protected my kids iPad for many
(32:30):
years until my kids threw up on his iPad the
case and so I had to take it off. So
my kid's actually gone caseless for about three months. Now,
I need to buy. In fact, I need to buy
a new case for him. It's been in my Amazon
shopping cuts. But it was gross because it was like
the throw up got like, you know, in like under
the screen and I had to like clean the whole thing,
and like it was so gross. I just wanted to
trash it.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Why did he aim onto the iPad?
Speaker 1 (32:51):
I know, right, all I wanted to do was throughout
the iPad. I was like, I just want to toss
this thing in the trash because it's got you know,
barf on it. But I did not. I saved itw
AIRTV two is now available. This is AIRTV is kind
of an offshoot of Sling TV, and they say it's
a cord cutting brand dedicated to meeting the growing consumer
(33:14):
demand for over the air products and services. AIRTV two
is a new Wi Fi enabled network tuner. A lot
of times what happens is you get these streaming services
and you have to somehow figure out how to get
all your channels. Like, for instance, the TV station I
work for KTLA is not currently on any of the
streaming services. So when you get something like YouTube TV
(33:35):
or Sling TV, all of a sudden, you're like wait,
where's my local channel five? You don't have it, then
you have to go and get an antenna. And you
can get an antenna, and now you have to figure
out how to integrate that into your streaming setup, which
means do you put it on a separate input on
your TV? Do you get a box that integrates it?
Like for me, I have something called Amazon fireTV Recast
(33:55):
which integrates into my fireTV okay, which means I don't
have to switch in puts to go to my antenna.
So if I want something on regular TV, I just
go to my grid on my fire TV. But there
it gets complicated because if you're just hooking up an
antenna to your TV, now you have to switch to
that antenna input to watch anything on there, which most people,
(34:16):
if you're cord cutting, you're streaming everything else, And then
I get switch inputs. It's a big pain in the
you know what. So you don't want to do that.
So this new AIRTV too is a Wi Fi enabled
network tuner. And the beauty of this thing, it's kind
of like my fireTV recast. You put it in the
spot in your house that has the best reception, so
that may not be near your TV, which in the
(34:37):
case of my mom's house, I did try an antenna there,
she didn't get reception near her TV. I didn't have
time to relocate and do this whole setup with her,
you know antenna. So you put this little box where
you get a signal and then the box uses Wi
Fi to connect that to your TV. And in the
case of this device, it actually it actually streams your
(34:58):
local channels right into the TV app, and the Sling
TV app pretty much works with most of the fire
sticks and the Roku devices. So I know it sounds
overly complicated, but the bottom line is you connect an
antenna to this device, the device connects your Wi Fi network.
You can now watch your local channels on the same
screen that you get all your other streaming content on.
(35:20):
So you can watch Netflix and then you can say, oh,
I want to go to my channel five. You just
bring up the Sling TV app and Channel five will
be in there. So and it's free, by the way,
once you pay there's you know, once you pay the
ninety nine bucks to buy this thing, there's no subscription. Yeah,
people forget that Free TV has a lot of stuff.
This also has a DVR. If you connect a hard
(35:42):
drive to it. And let's see what else is there
that's about it. I mean you can watch things out
of your house. You can watch on Roku, Amazon, Fire,
tv iOS, and Android devices. That's a lot. That is
a lot, and it's available for ninety nine ninety nine
And yeah, I mean that's all you need to know
about that. It's pretty cool. So sling dot com slash
(36:03):
AIRTV offer, or you can just go to airtv dot net.
If you purchase an AIRTV two on airtv dot net,
you'll get a twenty five dollars Sling TV credit. You
do not need a Sling TV subscription, by the way,
to use that AIRTV So if you just want to
start out with your your local channels, you can do that.
Then you can always add a subscription later. All right,
I've spoken enough Megan.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Okay, So this next question comes from Lyle.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Wait, uh oh what happened to Lyle? Oh?
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Sorry? Sorry, sorry, I'm just I'm going through my email.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
I was a private text.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
No no, no, no, I just I have your response
to Lyle. Okay, okay, So the next question comes from Lyle.
What can you recommend to block all these intrusive advertising advertisements?
On Android phones.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Oh I love this, love this question. You're gonna get
some real insider info right here we go, because this
is something that I have not really spoken about in
a big way because I feel like it's a little
bit complicated for most people. But if you have Okay,
So there's a couple of ways to block ads. I
asked this person if they were on Android ten because
(37:12):
that makes a difference on Android how easy it is
to block It is so easy to block ads on Android.
I almost feel bad giving out this trick because it's
so easy. It's scary. Do I give it out? Okay?
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Kidding?
Speaker 1 (37:25):
So on iOS, you know that you can add these
things called content blockers to Safari. Do you have one
of these installed? So if you add a content blocker there, well,
I don't really use Safari, but still right, and that's
the problem if you use what you use Chrome? Yeah, yes,
so do I So I don't use, you know, a
content blocker on Chrome on the Android. On the iOS side, anyway,
(37:46):
if you're on iOS, you can download something called a
content blocker, and what that does is it integrates into
Safari and blocks all your ads as you're surfing. It
only works on Safari doesn't work on other apps and
other things, but that's an easy way to block ads
just when you're surfing the web on Safari. On Android,
the easiest way that I know of is in Android ten.
All you have to do is change one setting. Okay,
(38:07):
so I'll tell you where to go. You go into
settings on your phone, you go into network and Internet,
you go to Advanced, and then you go to something
called private DNS. And DNS is how the internet or
your phone looks up things on the Internet. So when
you search for something, it goes to a DNS and
it kind of sees like, okay, everything has an address
on the world on the internet.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Basically we are you going to say worldwide.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
So everything has an address there, and so the DNS
helps you what's called resolve that address. So when you
type in Yahoo dot com, it actually has a little
number associated with it in the background, and that DNS
server helps resolve that find it. So what this does, Okay,
Then when you go to private DNS, what you're saying
is you're saying, use this DNS host to figure out
(38:52):
the addresses, and once you go through that, it will
block all the ADS that comes through that connection. So
what you want to do is change private DNS two
dns dot adguard dot com and ad Guard is a
big company that does all these ad blocking services. And now,
when I talk about ads, obviously a lot of people
make money off of that. So if you're thinking about
(39:13):
blocking ads, you always want to take a step back
and think, am I hurting people's ability to feed their children?
So just keep that in mind and you're fine with that,
and WHOA A lot of times these are what I
call nuisance ads. So this will actually help in a
lot of these things. And this is why I have
no problem recommending this. A lot of times you go
to a website and you get blocked in by some
(39:36):
sort of really obnoxious AD that is popping up on
your screen a thousand times saying you want a gift card,
or you want an Amazon prize or you're the tenth
winner and you can't get out of it. And that's
why I say, sure, go ahead and use this, because
you're blocking malicious stuff as well, and that's what a
lot of people run up against anyway. So you type
in DNS dot adguard dot com into this little box
(39:58):
under private DNA and boom, it's all your ads on
your phone are blocked. Now, not every AD is going
to be blocked. A lot of times it's a cat
and mouse game between the big ad companies and services
like this. So sometimes you might be like, hey, Rich,
I'm still seeing ads. Can't get rid of them all. Like,
if you're browsing, you know, Twitter, you'll probably still see
(40:19):
Twitter ads. A lot of times. You can't get around
some of the ads, but especially the nuisance ads, like
the really annoying ones, you'll get rid of. And that's
the easiest way to do it. Now, if you ever
lyle have a problem where you can't load a website
or you can't connect to a Wi Fi network, you
can just go ahead and turn this off and when
you're done with that network or you're done with that website,
(40:40):
you can turn it back on. But that's kind of
like the deal. And you know, that's some real insider info.
But like I said, a lot of people that I
see browsing the web, they're coming up against some pretty
bad stuff that they can't really figure out how to
exit the browser. It's scare tactics. You know, you've got
these things that say you won hundred dollar Amazon gift card.
(41:01):
You fill out these forms, it's all garbage, and so
you know, if this can help protect one person from
getting scammed into something, then hey, it's worth it. There
you go. Okay, finally, let me close the show with this.
We did a fun story for KTLA on some of
the cool ways you can interact with Santa this time
of the year. And I'll just start with the smart speaker.
So if you're on a Google Smart speaker, you can say,
(41:21):
h Google, Call Santa and you'll get connected to the
North Pole and they play this fun little game with
Santa where you kind of pick some things. It's like
a choose your own adventure almost. That's kind of fun.
On Amazon Echo, if you want to directly call Santa
using you know what rhymes with abexa, you actually have
(41:42):
to go into the Alexa app first and enable the
call Santa skill. And there's a bunch of them, but
look for the one that says Amazon dot Com above it.
There's a whole bunch of call Santa skills. You probably
want the official one from Amazon. Enable that in the
app first. Then you can go to your Alexa or
your ex device and say, hey, call Sanna. So that's
(42:03):
one on Siri on the iPhone. Don't even bother. She
just gives you some like she really just plays some
games with you, Like she's like, oh, flap your hands
five times and say ho ho not come on, come on,
Apple's Apple. Let's make something fun. Other things to do
check out Santa Tracker dot Google dot com. This is
where you can see a countdown to Christmas along with
(42:24):
fun games and there's some cool apps as well. So
on the iPhone, there's an app called Catch Santa ar.
This uses the augmented reality feature of the iPhone where
you can aim your video camera at your Christmas tree
and catch Santa sneaking by present. It's really cool and
you can record it and you can send it to friends,
(42:44):
put on Instagram, be like, hey, we caught Santa in
the act.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
Your kids look.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Caught Santa and that was really cool. The other app
is called Capture the Magic, and Capture the Magic is
an app for iPhone and Android and they let you
superimpose Santa, Snowman and all kinds of stuff on any
scene so you can have some real fun with that.
You can put Santa in your pictures and we did
this at a holiday party a couple of years ago.
(43:09):
I can't remember the name of the app, but it
was very similar. But we had so much fun, like
taking pictures in front of the tree like with Sanna,
and all the people at the party were like cracking up,
so it was really cool. We put them on Instagram
party trick and again that one's called Capture the Magic.
And of course you know about Norrad where you can
track Sanna on Christmas Eve. Yeah, so again a lot
of fun you can have with the kids during this
(43:29):
time of the year. I was looking for something with
Elf on the shelf. Are you familiar with that? Yeah,
so that's like the new thing, right And do they
have a tech? I'm sure they do, but I didn't
really look it up. So anyway, those are kind of
some fun things you can do with Santa this time
of the year. So there you have it. It's always fun,
have a great holiday. We are this is the last
(43:50):
show of the year of twenty nineteen. We are going
to start the year off. I think there's one show
before we go to Seat. Yes, so we'll do one
show at the beginning of the year and then we
go to CS and at CS have a fun thing
planned for the show, so we're gonna be recording it
on the scene, but in kind of a fun location.
So I've got that going on. Follow me on Instagram.
(44:11):
I am at rich on Tech. That's where I'm doing
almost all of my posts these days. So at rich
on Tech. If you see my stuff, you know it
takes me a bit to do these things. So if
you see it, the least you could do is like it,
oh yeah, or share it or comment or comment. I mean,
just just throw me a bone. Follow, follow, share with
(44:32):
your friends. I really I'm getting into this thing. I
really like sending posts to friends that It's great.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
The only problem is when people send me posts and
their private and I'm like, I can't look at that.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Yeah private, follow it.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
But I think that's a growth hacked tacktic is right, Yeah,
and then I have to go there and follow that.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
I never do. I say, can you screenshot this and
send it to me?
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Oh? My friends are like, no, you have to follow
that account?
Speaker 1 (44:55):
Interesting? Okay, Megan's funny. How can people find you.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
A I'm on Twitter at producer Megan?
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Okay, okay, what nothing? That's it. My book is one
hundred and one iPhone tips and tricks. By the time
you listen to this, it's probably too late to get
it in time for the holidays. But if you got
an Amazon gift card for Christmas or Hankah or Kwanza
or what else is there? Remember the OC it was
(45:25):
Christmas Quantica.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
Oh no, I never watched that episode.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
Or Christmas. No Christmas, ch Christma Christmas. I think it
was Christmas. Cop Yeah, that was pretty funny. I'm dating
myself now, Seth Cohen. Yes, So if you got a
gift card, you can buy the book now. It's a
great gift and or I guess, gift to yourself, I
should say, and that's going to do it. I think
that's it for the show. We had a great time
(45:49):
talking all things.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Tech tech twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Are you have any Are you going to start in
your resolutions for twenty twenty Megan.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Oh no, I need to make some though.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
I need to make them too. I'm gonna be off
my phone more. I'm gonna be more present. That's my
oh quick story, mindful. The problem with being present. I
tried doing this when I went home to New Jersey.
No one else is doing everyone's present, so everyone else
is not present, but you should just.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
Be that person that's like, you're not present. You're not Yeah,
gotta start the trend.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Be present. Just be present with your family and friends
this holiday season. Take the Instagram pictures, then put down
the phone. Yes, all right, Yes, have a great day.
Rich on tech dot TV, thanks so much for listening
to the podcast. We will see you next year. Bye.
Why gas station is a dangerous place to use your
credit card. Instagram combats bullying in a unique way. Ten
best gadgets of the last ten years, and your tech
questions Answered. What's going on? I'm Rich Dmiro. This is
Rich on Tech, the show where I talk about the
tech stuff that I think you should know about. Plus
(00:31):
I answer all the questions that you send me. But
I will say, for the first time in several weeks,
your questions are actually less than the CES emails I'm getting,
which is just insane all time high. Welcome producer Megan
to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
What's Up? What's going on?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
The holidays? That's what's going on? Like our little holiday music. Yeah,
all right, we'll get that out of there. Lots to
talk about in this show. I will start by talking
about upgrading my mom's setup because I was in New
Jersey and whenever I go home to New Jersey, I
(01:09):
basically spend a day with my dad and a day
with my mom upgrading all their stuff. Because it's kind
of what tech nerds do when they go home. It's
a very common thing. And so for my mom, she's
going to go over all the things I did because
it was crazy. It was one day, but everything changed
for her. And this is the thing. You know my mom,
she rolls with this stuff. And this is the beauty
(01:31):
of technology is that it doesn't have to be super complicated.
Everything that I do when I set up my friends
and family with tech is I want to make it
not so complicated so that they can enjoy it and
understand it and just love it and not have to
be figuring out fifteen different remotes and this, how do
I switch to this input in this and that. So
first thing I did, I basically upgraded my mom's fire
(01:53):
TV stick. She had an old Amazon Fire TV stick,
not the four K version, and so I actually had
given her a four K Fire TV stick, like I
think it was over the summer for like her birthday,
and I was like, oh, here, you need an upgrade.
And she never set it up. Of course she didn't
because she doesn't set things up herself. So I get home,
I see this thing on the table and I'm like, Mom,
can we set this up? So we set that up
(02:15):
and I'm using her old firestick and wow, it was
so slow. She's like, well, this thing always has problems.
I'm like, yeah, I can see why, because it's so slow.
It was ridiculous. So I got the four K one
worked so much better, logged her into different apps. Then
I'm looking at her at and T TV. I'm like, hey,
let me see your bill, your credit card bill for
this at and T direct TV now whatever it used
(02:36):
to be called. And she shows me your bill. It's
sixty five bucks a month. I'm like, sixty five bucks
a month. How many channels are you watching? She only
watches one out there in New York, it's like ABC seven.
And so I'm like, well, you know you're paying like
sixty five dollars a month for all these different channels
that you don't watch. It's like, well, sometimes watch Food Network.
I'm like, can you do without it? Because we can
save you sixty bucks a month. So it's like yeah,
(02:56):
I'm all right. So we cancel that, and so DirecTV
eighten T now whatever's gone. But now she doesn't have
a local channel. So I look up low Cast. I
remember we talked about this, This is the app that
lets you get your local channels. Oh OK, A lot
of people have written in with mixed reactions to how
good it is. But anyway, so I set her up
with that low cast dot org is the website. Plus
they have an app that lets you get your local channels.
(03:18):
Even in LA. You can get KTLA on there. I
don't know how long it's gonna last, and it's not illegal,
but they're operating as some sort of a gray zone
that the broadcasters are kind of fighting it, so who knows,
but it works for now. And I set her up
with that and to get rid of all the kind
of clutter on the screen, like they kind of bombarred
you every fifteen minutes with like an AD or something.
(03:39):
You pay five bucks a month. So I was like,
all right, for five bucks a month, are you willing
to pay that? She's like sure, So we did that.
Then we were on a roll. I said, well, now
you've got a four K fire stick, do you want
to upgrade your TV? And she's like sure. I said,
four KTVs are so cheap. So we found one of
Best Buy TCL five series. It was three hundred and
twenty nine dollars and I was like, for three hundred
(04:00):
twenty nine dollars for four KTV. By the way, way
bigger fifty yes, she had a forty two, so fifty
five and by the way, forty two with like these
giant bezels, you know, the black bar around the screen.
So we go to best Buy. We order it online,
pick up in store. I gave her my five dollars
best Buy rewards card five dollars off. So we do that.
We come home, we set it all up, the TV
(04:21):
so light. I can carry it by myself up the
stairs into our place and you know, set it all ye,
So we do that. Her TV looks fantastic. So all
that's done. Then I upgrade her computer. I bought her
computer a couple of years ago, and so I upgraded
that to another computer that I had given her, like
one of my old ones. Yeah, and she never really
set it up again. So I got that all set up.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
This is fun for you. This is fun for you.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Love doing this, Like this is like if I could
do this every day. Yeah, well it'll probably be a job,
so probably not, but I do it is fun because
it's like things could be interesting and different. So we
do the computer and then with the old computer. She
had two of her old computers sitting there from the
last two times I upgraded over the past decade because
I was like, mom, we'll figure this out. So I'm like,
all right, you know what, we're getting rid of these
right now? So I research online. It turns out that
(05:07):
at best Buy they charge you to like recycle a monitor,
it's like twenty five bucks. But at Staples they'll take
anything with no fee. So we drove her to Staples,
brought the computer to the old computer and the old monitor,
and we recycled there and that was good. I also
gave her a Google Home Hub. This was one of
her Christmas gifts, so I got her like the little one.
I want to get her the big one, but I
(05:29):
was like, she really got a video chat? Probably not,
so got her the little one. And the thing that
she loves about this is the pictures. So it's basically
a picture frame. It's now called the Google Nest Hub,
but it shows your pictures when you're not using it,
and she loves her pictures blah blah blah. So we
did that and now she's got her pictures on this
little thing. And finally I gave her my old pixel
(05:49):
because I upgraded to the iPhone, so I gave her
my old Pixel three Excel that I bought, and she
still wanted to stick with a pixel. She's had a
pixel now for I think two years three, okay, and
she really likes it and she loves her pictures from it.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
She was a new woman.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Yeah, so she got a new phone. And by the way,
the phone is bigger because it's the Excel. She used
to have the regular one.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
So anyway, my point is she is hooked up. Oh
and it's basically all hand me downs for me. But
still it's new to her for the most part.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
You treat your tech nicely too, It's not like it's
all dinged up. It's exactly pretty much brand new.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yes. So anyway, so she is loving all her new
stuff and transferring everything and setting it all up was
not that tough and it was really fun. And the
reason I tell this story is because if my mom
can deal with all this new technology and one day
it's basically a tech makeover, you can deal with it too.
You can figure it out. This stuff is not complicated.
It gets easier and easier every year. Next time I
(06:44):
go home, I'm gonna set her up with some smart
plugs because I think that she'd really like the idea
of turning on and off lights around ther house with
just her voice. Oh yeah, and also setting some of
those on timers, because right now she's like walking through
the house turning things on and off, and I feel
like she'd probably really enjoy having some of these on timers.
I also think she'd really enjoy a chrome Cast that
would show her pictures on the big screen when she's
(07:06):
not using her TV. Also, so I've been doing that
at my house. I come home and I now say, h, Google,
turn on the living room chrome cast and if you
just do that, it'll turn on your TV, switch to
the chrome Cast input and just display your pictures as
a screen saver, which is really nice because your TV,
if it's sitting there with a dark screen, it's kind
(07:26):
of useless. So I've been doing that. The only problem
is when I want to switch back to fire TV,
I have to like use the input button on the remote,
which is kind of annoying. So I'm trying to figure that.
I don't know if you can add your own pictures
to Roku. Last I checked, I don't think you can. Natively,
there might be a third party app that lets you
do it, and you know, Google or Sorry, the Amazon
(07:48):
fire Stick lets you do it, but you have to
upload your pictures to Amazon and so that means curating them,
whereas Google just does it for you, and then Apple
same thing. You can do it, but you have to
curate your pictures and it's kind of a anyway. All right,
So now you heard my story. Let's get one of
the questions.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Okayat Megan, So this first question comes from and Alon.
She says, I need your advice. Can you please let
me know the difference between a chromebook and laptop. I'm
planning on buying these for my daughters, ages twelve and
nine years old. I'm not looking for any fancy stuff,
basically for homework and for them to log into their
(08:25):
applications from school for extra reading and mathwork. And then
she asks which device should I buy for each girl
for depending on their ages. My twelve year old is
a seventh grader and my nine year old is a
fourth grader.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Okay, so first question, the difference between a Chromebook and Windows.
The main difference between a Chromebook and Windows is that
Chrome runs the Chrome operating system, which if you've ever
used the Chrome web browser online, it's basically that, but
as an entire operating system. So it does have a
desktop and things like that, but primarily When you think
(09:01):
of a chromebook, think of it as you are on
the web doing work. Now I can get ninety nine
point nine percent of my work done on the web,
which includes resizing photos, checking my email, watching YouTube, uploading pictures,
uploading videos. What else did I miss surfing the web?
The things I can't do mail, email, spreadsheets, making documents,
(09:25):
google docs, typing up documents. The thing I can't do
is basically edit video. And that's it. So if your
daughters are they both daughters? Did she say yes? So
if your daughters are only doing things primarily, I think
the delineation is this, do your daughters need to download
any sort of specialty apps for their use? So if
(09:48):
there's a special let's say they're a scientist and they
need a special science app that you need to download
to a computer and run it, the chromebook will not
run that app because it's generally a Windows app. Okay,
So that's the main thing to keep in mind. But
otherwise I would say, talk to your kids and see
if they use like, ask them, hey, what apps do
you use? Like what? Don't use the word apps? Use
programs because apps think you think of phone, So program
(10:11):
is like on my computer right now, I have like
ever note is a program. Now you can run that
in totally in the web, but it works better as
a native app. I've got my Reminders that's a MacApp,
so I use that, you know, on the computer, But
ninety nine percent of what you want to do for
the average person is available on a chromebook, so I'd
recommend going with those. The benefits of a Chromebook are security,
(10:32):
so there's really no viruses for them. Software updates are automatic,
and they're really fast, and they're kind of invisible. It
happens when you kind of restart the computer and that's it.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
What about like a MacBook Air.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
The problem is if she's deciding between a Chromebook, it's
usually a MacBook Air starts at about one thousand bucks.
So I thought, like the.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Really small one was cheaper, but maybe it might be
it maybe six ninety nine.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Yeah, but I don't think so, I think that it
let me let me go one that's.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Like twelve inch screen, I think, or even smaller.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
There's well, let's say MacBook Air. So you've got a
MacBook Air and the cheapest MacBook Air that I see
on the website is one ninety nine. Yeah, So when
you're talking ninety nine percent of the people that email
me about a computer, Mac is not even in the
picture because you're only looking at a Mac if you
need to do something specific when it comes to audio video,
(11:27):
or you love your iPhone so much you just feel
like a Mac would be the perfect compliment. Otherwise, most
people that I'm talking to are not going with a Mac,
and they're going like, I'm talking average person who's just
doing web surfing stuff. And in fact, I love the Mac.
I think that the Mac is amazing. Do I recommend
it for everyone? Because no, you probably don't need it.
If you can save money, like just surfing the web
(11:48):
on a chromebook, go ahead and get the Chromebook. And
it also has a lot of advantages for software. You
don't have to think about updates, you to think about
apps and things like that. So for most people, I
would say a Chromebook is the way to go. And
when people are looking at laptops and chromebooks, I always
recommend Costco because they generally only have one to two selections,
so it's very easy and they're always better than what
(12:09):
you find anywhere else. So let's say they had the
same exact chromebook at Costco that they do at Best Buy.
The one at Costco will be a little bit cheaper
and the specs will be a little bit better. It's
always like that. It's the way Costco cuts their deals
with these retailers or these manufacturers.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I should say love Costco?
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Yes, so do I love that place. Gas stations are
the most dangerous place to use your credit card, and
not just credit card, but debit card, anything that has
the Visa or MasterCard logo on it, or American Express whatever.
And according to Visa, they have said that hackers are
not even using skimmers anymore. We've always heard about skimmers,
(12:45):
which is a physical device that hackers install over the
card reader and steal your number. They don't bother with
that anymore because people are kind hiped to that if
you see some big old thing on the scanner, you're
gonna be like, I'm not using that. What they do
is they hack the gas station software and once inside,
all they have to do is scrape all the card
numbers that are flown through that software when you scan
(13:05):
your card at the pump. And the reason why Visa's
warning about this is because it's basically in their best
interest to have these gas stations upgrade to the chip
and pin And if you've noticed, every retailer now pretty
much has chip and pin so which chip Most of
the time they're chip so, which means you pop your
you insert your credit card in, you don't swipe it anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
My favorite is the tap.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Tap is the best.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Tap is the best.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
And a lot of retailers have tap as well. And
I would say the last holdout that I go to,
I think is Ralph's that does not have LAP. They're
trying to use their own, like Kroger. Kroger's so big
that they can use their own like Walmart. Actually, Walmart
and Kroger are the last two holdouts.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
They have their own version.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Yeah, they have their own thing. It's like a QR
code you scan because think about it, when you tap
your credit card on that device, they have to pay
a little percentage to that credit card company for that
ability to take that card. So the reason they don't
want to do that is because with their system, if
they use like you know, Walmart Pay or whatever, yeah,
it doesn't cost them as much. So if you think
(14:08):
about a billion transactions in a year or however many
they do, even a penny per transaction is a lot
of money.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
But do you think people will decide to not go there?
Speaker 1 (14:18):
No. No, Every time I go to Ralph's, I'm like,
when are you going to take it? Was a while
they wouldn't even take the chip. So, but the tap
is so I've gotten so used to the tap and
in fact, so okay, let me just go through a
little bit more of this story. So the hackers are
getting these numbers because they're they're exposed when you swipe
your card, your actual card number that's printed on the
(14:39):
front of the card is being transmitted over the internets
when you dip your card, when you pop it into
that slot. As a chip, it's creating a one time
number that is transmitted. So if someone, let's say, you
got my number, you can't do anything with it because
that number only lasted. It's a one time number. It's
disposable for all intents and purposes. So this is why
(14:59):
we switch over to the chip because it's much more secure.
And Visa saying that gas stations the reason why they're
so dangerous is because they are the last place that
does not have chip. Everyone else has chip now and
I'm not talking mobile payment chip. Chip is still chip
and dip. It sounds like something you would have it
you're a fourth at your your super Bowl part. So
(15:20):
my recommendation on this with a gas station, and I've
found this to be true with myself, find a gas
station that uses tap and it's very tough to find.
I find in the Los Angeles area. Arco is really
good at having tap to pay, so is Chevron. That's it.
The rest of the gas stations they don't. They all
have this still the swipe where it's actually insert, but
(15:43):
it's not really a chip. It's still it's a swipe
insert kind of thing, you know what I mean. I
think it's not a true chip anyway. So that's my
advice because when you use tap to pay or use
your chip, or if you even tap your credit card,
A lot of these credit cards, if you look on
the back, they have a little wireless symbol. Your credit
card is actually taped to pay enabled, so you can
actually physically a lot of the Chase cards you can
(16:04):
tap to pay. Yeah. Yeah, and so that's the cards
that I got.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Works.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Yeah, So my advice, use the tap to pay your
gas station. It's I would say, I was trying to
find a good app to recommend that you can look
at to see where a tap to pay gas station
is near you and I the only app I found.
I didn't really it wasn't very good. It was kind
of like, let's see so I had deleted off my phone.
I think I did. Yeah, I did. It was so
(16:28):
bad I didn't even keep it on here Gas Buddy, No,
I don't think gas Buddy shows it may but I don't.
I don't. I have to look at that. In the meantime,
while I look that up, you go through your next question.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Okay, so our next question comes from Diane. The subject
is new phone phobia. My husband and I need to
upgrade our cell phones. We're not tech savvy, So which
do you recommend? The iPhone or an Android phone. We
like to talk, text, take pictures and share stuff with family.
Did I mention we're over fifty eight years of age?
(17:00):
Technology challenged? I thought that was a sweet.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Okay, I like that. That's nice. I would recommend probably.
I know. I know everyone that's listening is gonna say, oh,
Rich is gonna say the iPhone right.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Here's why I don't know what you're gonna say.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Here's why I say the iPhone. Okay, because number one,
she said she wants to text with friends and family, right, yes, okay,
I'm guessing if she's like a lot of Americans, her
family and friends have iPhones. Okay, So that means that
you have I Message and you probably want to be
able to send things easily, quickly, share photos, videos, all
that good stuff. That's why I would recommend the iPhone.
(17:40):
It's also easier because when you run into a problem,
you can ask a friend versus an Android, where a
lot of people put their shoulders up and they're like,
I don't know. So that's another reason for the iPhone.
You've got the Apple Store, so if you really have,
you know, you want to really take it to the
next level, you can take some classes there about how
to use your phone. There's also this book, what's the
book book? Did someone write an iPhone book?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
There's an iPhone book? Oh my gosh, what is it called?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
One iPhone? That one? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (18:07):
That one?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yea. Who's the author on that? So you've got that?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
It seems like Tom Demiro, it's very similar, yeah, Tom, Tom.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So so you've got the book. You can get one
hundred and one iPhone Tips and Tricks I just feel like,
and I love Android, don't get me wrong, you know,
I love it. Yeah, yeah, I don't. I always want
to switch to Android.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
You're no, you there's like a good six months of
the year where you're on Android, and you're like, I
don't want to go back to the iPhone and buy
the next iPhone? Yes, well yeah you should.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
So, and it is great and it's you know, it's
one of these things. Plus you have a lot of
selections of phones you can go in. You've got a
lot of choice. Yeah, And I just feel like, if
you want to phone your you're fifty eight, if you
want a phone that lasts, you know, a good three years,
I would say, just go go with an iPhone. Go
with the iPhone eleven. Yeah, go with the ten R
if you're if they don't even sell that anymore, I
don't think, but iPhone, Go with the iPhone eleven and
(18:57):
just that'll last you three years. You'll be great, you know,
three years, if not more.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
I feel like forever.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah, it could last you four years. Yeah, yeah, my
dad is still on the Uh what did he have,
like the success? Maybe my dad.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Had the five for like up until a month ago.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
You can keep these things for a long time. Yeah,
let's put it this way. The latest version of iOS
is iOS thirteen. It still works on the iPhone six s,
which I remember the iPhone's success when that came out,
and that had to be Let's see how many years
ago was that. That was twenty fifteen. You're talking four years.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Okay, all has a success. Plus, that's pretty good time
for HERD update.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Okay, let's talk about Instagram. They're doing something interesting to
try to combat bullying. When you type a caption on
your photo and it's considered offensive by their AI, they
are going to say, excuse me, do you really want
to say that? And we've talked about this before. They've
done this with comments in the past. I call it
(19:57):
the Taylor Swift filter because she basically was the one
who asked to do this. Apparently, Oh did she?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah? Because I guess show doesn't have like she turns
all of that.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
I know that's why, because she didn't like the mean comments. Yeah, so,
and I get it. It's it's the Internet is a
is a rough place. You don't you know, you put
yourself out there when you put a Now, if you're
just posting stuff with friends, and family generally, you're not
gonna I mean, are your friends really gonna be that? Like,
al yeah, I hope they're not. I mean, but if
you're in the public, if you're in the public, and
(20:25):
a lot of people do bully public figures because they figure,
I don't know this person, like I could just say
whatever I want, you know, model Supermodel posts like a
picture and they're like, oh, you're too fat, like yeah,
and people do it right, and they do it just
to be like mean yeah, and you know, it's it's
really bad on YouTube. YouTube meets to license this technology
from Instagram. I I always call Instagram like Disneyland. It's
(20:46):
like the Disneyland of the Internet because it really is
like happy. They block all the hashtags that are bad.
You know, you try to type in a bad hashtag
on Instagram, I don't try it, Okay, well do you try.
I've tried, yeah, and there and it comes up nothing.
They say that this hashtag that was a couple of
years ago where they started doing that, And they even
do it where they find trending because people get around it.
(21:06):
So people pick a hashtag to do something dirty with
or something bad with, and Instagram will pick up on
it and they'll block it. They'll say like these tags
have been registered as offensive or something. So anyway, my
point is, ye, and I remember this whole thing happened.
This actually happened a couple of years ago by a
viewer unbeknownst to me. She said, my son is finding
these really inappropriate pictures on Instagram. And I was like,
(21:28):
there's no inappropriate pictures on Instagram. Sure enough, I did
a main main hashtag that she sent me. It was
like I don't know, ice cream or something, yeah, whatever
it was, it was something very like simple, and sure enough,
the pictures that came up were filled with terrible stuff.
And so I was like, wow, I had no idea.
And so this is when I kind of realized that
(21:49):
Instagram is doing that. And then they after that was
like probably six months later that they said, oh, we're
going to start filtering hashit. Anyway, so now they're doing comments.
So when you type a comment, it will say can
you please reconsider this because it might be mean, And
it's AI that's figuring out if it's mean or not.
So you say eat a burger to who's adi? So
(22:09):
if you say eat a burger to her and maybe
like Megan, do you really want to say that?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
But it would I feel like eat a burger that's
not right, as like an AI wouldn't pick that up
as oh.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
You don't know it may or like you need a burger,
Yeah you need a burger. That could be mean.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
That could be mean.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Or how about like I bet you put your mayo
on the side.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah, I bet you take the bun off and just
eat the meat.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I bet you eat that protein style.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yeah, those are good.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
That lettus wrap, Yeah, I would do that just.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Just for a healthy lunch in and out.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
It's it's much lighter. Yeah, you can well done? Yeah, exactly,
have well done. Okay, so that's what Instagram is doing.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Okay. This next question comes from your Facebook, which is
Facebook dot com. Slash rich On Chris asks, Hey, rich
is there a digital picture frame that can be linked
to your iPhone? I feel like we've answered this a
couple times, but I.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Feel like it too, but I think I'll just go
over the too. It is. Okay, So everyone, this is
really funny because this holiday season, for some reason, I'm
getting more of the digital picture frame question than ever before.
I don't know if that's a I don't know if
someone's a lot of times these companies are advertising on
Instagram and Facebook, and that's why people email me because
they're seeing this ad over and over. So I'll just
(23:31):
throw out two recommendations. The first is nix Play and
I X P L A Y. They make some of
the best frames out there. I've tested these in the past.
They work really well, they do what you want, and
you know, they're pretty simple. It's a picture frame that's digital.
You can send stuff from your your phone to the frame.
You can send stuff to your loved ones frames if
they have it set up that way. It works, and
(23:53):
it's you know, they have cloud frames. They have ones
that you can plug the USB into the back. However
you want to do it, they'll Nixplay will do that.
The thing that I personally like better is, well, there's
another way you can do it. Well, there's a third
way I'll tell you in a second. But the other
way you can do it is I really like the
Google Nest Hub and the Google Nest Hub. I get it.
It's a smart speaker. It's listening. It's evil because it's
(24:14):
Google listening in your house with a microphone and potentially
a camera. If you get the big version. But let's
be honest, we all have those things in our home.
So it's like, come on, what are you gonna do.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
But the best part about that is if you're using
Google Photos already, it curates the best photos. Not it
doesn't always do the best job. Sometimes, Like my mom
she sells stuff on like Facebook, Marketplace, and like a
couple of like her old pairs of shoes showed up.
She's like, I thought you said these were curated. I
was like, well, it's not always right.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
It's like all selfies.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Clearly you took a good picture of those shoes, because
Google's ai wreck, you know, identified it as a good picture.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
And so you can also do things like so when
my kid, when it was my kid's birthday, you can
say I only want to show pictures of a certain face.
So on one of my albums, I have just like
the family, so I say like Lindsay rich Tanner Parker,
and it can automatically just show pictures that involve those faces.
So you can do a lot of stuff. Or you
can say I just want sunsets, so all my sunset pictures,
(25:08):
or you can say just pictures in Hawaii or you
can do a combination of whatever you want. And that's
why I think the Google nest Hub is the best
way to go because it's so flexible and you can
change your pictures at a moment's notice. Yeah, like I said,
when we had the birthday party at my house, I
changed all the digital displays to show just Tanner first
Birthday's amazing. Nobody noticed, but I was hoping one person
(25:30):
might be like, oh, he's yeah anyway, But to me,
I smiled, They probably thought.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
You spent hours putting it together. I'm like, oh, poor guy.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, what a loser. The only other thing I would
recommend is if you have like an old iPad around,
you could probably work that into a frame and you
could probably just put some pictures on there and set
it as a slide show or whatever. And I'm sure
there's apps out there that you can use as well.
So cool, cool question. Let's talk about the ten best
gadgets of the twenty tens. You know, we're rounding on
(25:59):
a decade here, Megan, it's almost twenty twenty, So top
ten gadgets to the twenty tens. I'm not going to
talk about this too much because I actually talked about
this at length in another podcast, my friend Brian Tong's podcast,
the Apple Bits XL. So if you want to hear
us discuss all these gadgets of the last decade, check
out Apple Bits XL with Brian Tongue. He's my pal
(26:22):
from when I worked at c net and we talked
about this. Your helm, yeah, actually lives close by to me.
We never see each other. We're always like, oh, we
got to hang out, and we only see each other
like out and about at events. We're like, we got
to hang out. We never do. So one of these days,
one of these days we will. Apple iPad that was
one of the top ten Tesla model s that was
a big game changer. Raspberry Pie do you know that one?
Speaker 2 (26:45):
You meanke food?
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Now, this is a little tiny computer that you can
like make into anything you want. So it's good for
like tinkers and you know nerds. Yeah, you can do
a lot with it. So it's only like twenty five bucks,
So that's really cool. Google Chrome Cast twenty thirteen. I
can't believe it's been six years since that came out.
That was life changing, like to me when I saw this,
because streaming devices were really expensive before Chrome cast, and
(27:09):
when the first one came out, I think it was
like thirty five or fifty bucks. It was like, well, wait,
what what is it now? I think it's thirty five maybe,
but don't forget. Now you have the Roku sticks and
you've got the Amazon sticks that are so cheap that
like everyone assumed streaming can be cheap, but back then
it wasn't. No, you had like Apple TV, Apple TV yeah,
and that was like two hundred bucks. Yea. I think
now it's like now it's still two hundred.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
It's still still the same.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Dji Phantom, this is the drone. Yeah, okay, Amazon Echo
and twenty fourteen that was life. That was game changing.
I've never been a big Echo user, but it was
a lot of people like it.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
I feel like she doesn't hear me, right.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
She does better than Siri, that's for sure. Yeah. Google's
good though, Yes, Google's amazing. Apple Watch twenty fifteen, that
was game changing. You're still wanting one, I know.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Noticing trend.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
There's only three Apple products? Oh but still air Pods
twenty sixteen. Nintendo Switch in twenty seventeen, which I know
you're not a gamer, but that was a big one because.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
This might be the decade, though twenty twenty might be
my gaming might be.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Your gaming years. And then the Xbox Adaptive Controller in
twenty eighteen. This is for gamers with physical limitations disabilities,
and it lets them play Xbox as well, which is
really cool. So cool again, if you want to hear
me discuss all the top ten gadgets of the twenty tens.
Oh those are according to Time dot Com. By the way,
those were not my list. Okay, Apple bits XL check
(28:34):
out the podcast by Brian Tong. I have a.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Question, my own question, what was your favorite product from
the twenty ten I'll be.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Honest, I think it's the Pixel. I'm surprised. I'm surprised
that was not on there. I would say either the
Pixel or Google Assistant.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
People just overlook Google.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Well, I think so there was one. There was Chrome Cast,
but I think that or you know, Google Photos, those
were not products but I and Google Assistant. But favorite
I think the Pixel was. I mean, for for when
it came out, it was the best photos I had
ever seen on a smartphone with such a simple camera.
And I think this year, you know, I carry the
(29:15):
iPhone eleven Pro Max and I really truly think that
that's a great overall device. If I had my way,
i'd probably carry the Pixel if I wasn't if I
was not creating well, if I was not creating content
for social media, Yeah, because the iPhone and also the apps,
(29:36):
because Android just doesn't have the apps that the iPhone does.
But I love the smarts of the Android platform and
especially Google and especially the Pixel. So that's uh, you know,
that's that's the difference.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Yeah, so cool. All right. This next question comes from Kristen.
She wrote on your Facebook, Hi, Rich, I just got
my first iPad. It's the iPad Pro and I'm terrified
of one of my cats breaking it. What is the
best protective case for it and how? And does the
(30:10):
protective paper like film actually protect as well as the
glass does thinks you know, I.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Fell in love with a cat when I was home.
I'm not a big cat person, but my brother gave
my mom a cat, little tiny kitten, and I will
say I was like, Okay, I might get one of
these if it stayed that small.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
If you're not allergic, you should I'm not allergic. I
wish I could have.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
It was really cute. It like crawl up on you
while you're watching like TV, and just like ball up
on your lap. And I'm not used to that because
I don't have like any animals. Yeah, so it was
I do have kids.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Are your kids allergic to cats? Uh?
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Probably because one of them has like some allergy kind
of stuff, so probably, but evenly wants a dog. But anyway,
so I understand the cat thing because basically, these cats
are tiny tyrants around the house. They play with everything,
they get into everything, they knock things over, they scratch things.
And if you have an iPad sitting there, she says,
her first iPad on the edge of the table, and
(31:06):
you just leave it there, Boom, it's dead. It's gonna
fall off because this cat's gonna claw it, and you
know it's gonna go off the side. I would recommend,
and this is what I've had on my kid's iPads
for four years now, the otter Box. And they make
an iPad case that is one hundred percent inclusive of
the iPad, so it goes on the back and then
(31:26):
it also has a thing a cover for the screen,
and they make several cases, but I would go with one.
It depends what was her name again? Diane. Her name
was shoot Kristin, So I would say Kristin that if
you think you're gonna be responsible enough, you can get
(31:46):
a case that doesn't necessarily cover the front like the screen.
But she specifically mentioned the screen, so I would probably
get an otter Box case that covers the screen and
it encloses your entire your entire iPad. Now with that said,
your iPad, it's going to be a lot bigger than normal.
It's gonna be a little bit heavier, but it's for
most people that's fine. And outer Box has a lot
(32:07):
of different cases, so you can see, like maybe you
want one Defender is kind of like the main one
that's the biggest one, that's going to be pretty thick,
but you can get other ones like a symmetry case.
Let's see what else do they have in Alpha that's
a screen chector. But I would say just look what
they have. But that's the company i'd recommend is autter Box.
So good question. That's protected my kids iPad for many
(32:30):
years until my kids threw up on his iPad the
case and so I had to take it off. So
my kid's actually gone caseless for about three months. Now,
I need to buy. In fact, I need to buy
a new case for him. It's been in my Amazon
shopping cuts. But it was gross because it was like
the throw up got like, you know, in like under
the screen and I had to like clean the whole thing,
and like it was so gross. I just wanted to
trash it.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Why did he aim onto the iPad?
Speaker 1 (32:51):
I know, right, all I wanted to do was throughout
the iPad. I was like, I just want to toss
this thing in the trash because it's got you know,
barf on it. But I did not. I saved itw
AIRTV two is now available. This is AIRTV is kind
of an offshoot of Sling TV, and they say it's
a cord cutting brand dedicated to meeting the growing consumer
(33:14):
demand for over the air products and services. AIRTV two
is a new Wi Fi enabled network tuner. A lot
of times what happens is you get these streaming services
and you have to somehow figure out how to get
all your channels. Like, for instance, the TV station I
work for KTLA is not currently on any of the
streaming services. So when you get something like YouTube TV
(33:35):
or Sling TV, all of a sudden, you're like wait,
where's my local channel five? You don't have it, then
you have to go and get an antenna. And you
can get an antenna, and now you have to figure
out how to integrate that into your streaming setup, which
means do you put it on a separate input on
your TV? Do you get a box that integrates it?
Like for me, I have something called Amazon fireTV Recast
(33:55):
which integrates into my fireTV okay, which means I don't
have to switch in puts to go to my antenna.
So if I want something on regular TV, I just
go to my grid on my fire TV. But there
it gets complicated because if you're just hooking up an
antenna to your TV, now you have to switch to
that antenna input to watch anything on there, which most people,
(34:16):
if you're cord cutting, you're streaming everything else, And then
I get switch inputs. It's a big pain in the
you know what. So you don't want to do that.
So this new AIRTV too is a Wi Fi enabled
network tuner. And the beauty of this thing, it's kind
of like my fireTV recast. You put it in the
spot in your house that has the best reception, so
that may not be near your TV, which in the
(34:37):
case of my mom's house, I did try an antenna there,
she didn't get reception near her TV. I didn't have
time to relocate and do this whole setup with her,
you know antenna. So you put this little box where
you get a signal and then the box uses Wi
Fi to connect that to your TV. And in the
case of this device, it actually it actually streams your
(34:58):
local channels right into the TV app, and the Sling
TV app pretty much works with most of the fire
sticks and the Roku devices. So I know it sounds
overly complicated, but the bottom line is you connect an
antenna to this device, the device connects your Wi Fi network.
You can now watch your local channels on the same
screen that you get all your other streaming content on.
(35:20):
So you can watch Netflix and then you can say, oh,
I want to go to my channel five. You just
bring up the Sling TV app and Channel five will
be in there. So and it's free, by the way,
once you pay there's you know, once you pay the
ninety nine bucks to buy this thing, there's no subscription. Yeah,
people forget that Free TV has a lot of stuff.
This also has a DVR. If you connect a hard
(35:42):
drive to it. And let's see what else is there
that's about it. I mean you can watch things out
of your house. You can watch on Roku, Amazon, Fire,
tv iOS, and Android devices. That's a lot. That is
a lot, and it's available for ninety nine ninety nine
And yeah, I mean that's all you need to know
about that. It's pretty cool. So sling dot com slash
(36:03):
AIRTV offer, or you can just go to airtv dot net.
If you purchase an AIRTV two on airtv dot net,
you'll get a twenty five dollars Sling TV credit. You
do not need a Sling TV subscription, by the way,
to use that AIRTV So if you just want to
start out with your your local channels, you can do that.
Then you can always add a subscription later. All right,
I've spoken enough Megan.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Okay, So this next question comes from Lyle.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Wait, uh oh what happened to Lyle? Oh?
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Sorry? Sorry, sorry, I'm just I'm going through my email.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
I was a private text.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
No no, no, no, I just I have your response
to Lyle. Okay, okay, So the next question comes from Lyle.
What can you recommend to block all these intrusive advertising advertisements?
On Android phones.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Oh I love this, love this question. You're gonna get
some real insider info right here we go, because this
is something that I have not really spoken about in
a big way because I feel like it's a little
bit complicated for most people. But if you have Okay,
So there's a couple of ways to block ads. I
asked this person if they were on Android ten because
(37:12):
that makes a difference on Android how easy it is
to block It is so easy to block ads on Android.
I almost feel bad giving out this trick because it's
so easy. It's scary. Do I give it out? Okay?
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Kidding?
Speaker 1 (37:25):
So on iOS, you know that you can add these
things called content blockers to Safari. Do you have one
of these installed? So if you add a content blocker there, well,
I don't really use Safari, but still right, and that's
the problem if you use what you use Chrome? Yeah, yes,
so do I So I don't use, you know, a
content blocker on Chrome on the Android. On the iOS side, anyway,
(37:46):
if you're on iOS, you can download something called a
content blocker, and what that does is it integrates into
Safari and blocks all your ads as you're surfing. It
only works on Safari doesn't work on other apps and
other things, but that's an easy way to block ads
just when you're surfing the web on Safari. On Android,
the easiest way that I know of is in Android ten.
All you have to do is change one setting. Okay,
(38:07):
so I'll tell you where to go. You go into
settings on your phone, you go into network and Internet,
you go to Advanced, and then you go to something
called private DNS. And DNS is how the internet or
your phone looks up things on the Internet. So when
you search for something, it goes to a DNS and
it kind of sees like, okay, everything has an address
on the world on the internet.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Basically we are you going to say worldwide.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
So everything has an address there, and so the DNS
helps you what's called resolve that address. So when you
type in Yahoo dot com, it actually has a little
number associated with it in the background, and that DNS
server helps resolve that find it. So what this does, Okay,
Then when you go to private DNS, what you're saying
is you're saying, use this DNS host to figure out
(38:52):
the addresses, and once you go through that, it will
block all the ADS that comes through that connection. So
what you want to do is change private DNS two
dns dot adguard dot com and ad Guard is a
big company that does all these ad blocking services. And now,
when I talk about ads, obviously a lot of people
make money off of that. So if you're thinking about
(39:13):
blocking ads, you always want to take a step back
and think, am I hurting people's ability to feed their children?
So just keep that in mind and you're fine with that,
and WHOA A lot of times these are what I
call nuisance ads. So this will actually help in a
lot of these things. And this is why I have
no problem recommending this. A lot of times you go
to a website and you get blocked in by some
(39:36):
sort of really obnoxious AD that is popping up on
your screen a thousand times saying you want a gift card,
or you want an Amazon prize or you're the tenth
winner and you can't get out of it. And that's
why I say, sure, go ahead and use this, because
you're blocking malicious stuff as well, and that's what a
lot of people run up against anyway. So you type
in DNS dot adguard dot com into this little box
(39:58):
under private DNA and boom, it's all your ads on
your phone are blocked. Now, not every AD is going
to be blocked. A lot of times it's a cat
and mouse game between the big ad companies and services
like this. So sometimes you might be like, hey, Rich,
I'm still seeing ads. Can't get rid of them all. Like,
if you're browsing, you know, Twitter, you'll probably still see
(40:19):
Twitter ads. A lot of times. You can't get around
some of the ads, but especially the nuisance ads, like
the really annoying ones, you'll get rid of. And that's
the easiest way to do it. Now, if you ever
lyle have a problem where you can't load a website
or you can't connect to a Wi Fi network, you
can just go ahead and turn this off and when
you're done with that network or you're done with that website,
(40:40):
you can turn it back on. But that's kind of
like the deal. And you know, that's some real insider info.
But like I said, a lot of people that I
see browsing the web, they're coming up against some pretty
bad stuff that they can't really figure out how to
exit the browser. It's scare tactics. You know, you've got
these things that say you won hundred dollar Amazon gift card.
(41:01):
You fill out these forms, it's all garbage, and so
you know, if this can help protect one person from
getting scammed into something, then hey, it's worth it. There
you go. Okay, finally, let me close the show with this.
We did a fun story for KTLA on some of
the cool ways you can interact with Santa this time
of the year. And I'll just start with the smart speaker.
So if you're on a Google Smart speaker, you can say,
(41:21):
h Google, Call Santa and you'll get connected to the
North Pole and they play this fun little game with
Santa where you kind of pick some things. It's like
a choose your own adventure almost. That's kind of fun.
On Amazon Echo, if you want to directly call Santa
using you know what rhymes with abexa, you actually have
(41:42):
to go into the Alexa app first and enable the
call Santa skill. And there's a bunch of them, but
look for the one that says Amazon dot Com above it.
There's a whole bunch of call Santa skills. You probably
want the official one from Amazon. Enable that in the
app first. Then you can go to your Alexa or
your ex device and say, hey, call Sanna. So that's
(42:03):
one on Siri on the iPhone. Don't even bother. She
just gives you some like she really just plays some
games with you, Like she's like, oh, flap your hands
five times and say ho ho not come on, come on,
Apple's Apple. Let's make something fun. Other things to do
check out Santa Tracker dot Google dot com. This is
where you can see a countdown to Christmas along with
(42:24):
fun games and there's some cool apps as well. So
on the iPhone, there's an app called Catch Santa ar.
This uses the augmented reality feature of the iPhone where
you can aim your video camera at your Christmas tree
and catch Santa sneaking by present. It's really cool and
you can record it and you can send it to friends,
(42:44):
put on Instagram, be like, hey, we caught Santa in
the act.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
Your kids look.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Caught Santa and that was really cool. The other app
is called Capture the Magic, and Capture the Magic is
an app for iPhone and Android and they let you
superimpose Santa, Snowman and all kinds of stuff on any
scene so you can have some real fun with that.
You can put Santa in your pictures and we did
this at a holiday party a couple of years ago.
(43:09):
I can't remember the name of the app, but it
was very similar. But we had so much fun, like
taking pictures in front of the tree like with Sanna,
and all the people at the party were like cracking up,
so it was really cool. We put them on Instagram
party trick and again that one's called Capture the Magic.
And of course you know about Norrad where you can
track Sanna on Christmas Eve. Yeah, so again a lot
of fun you can have with the kids during this
(43:29):
time of the year. I was looking for something with
Elf on the shelf. Are you familiar with that? Yeah,
so that's like the new thing, right And do they
have a tech? I'm sure they do, but I didn't
really look it up. So anyway, those are kind of
some fun things you can do with Santa this time
of the year. So there you have it. It's always fun,
have a great holiday. We are this is the last
(43:50):
show of the year of twenty nineteen. We are going
to start the year off. I think there's one show
before we go to Seat. Yes, so we'll do one
show at the beginning of the year and then we
go to CS and at CS have a fun thing
planned for the show, so we're gonna be recording it
on the scene, but in kind of a fun location.
So I've got that going on. Follow me on Instagram.
(44:11):
I am at rich on Tech. That's where I'm doing
almost all of my posts these days. So at rich
on Tech. If you see my stuff, you know it
takes me a bit to do these things. So if
you see it, the least you could do is like it,
oh yeah, or share it or comment or comment. I mean,
just just throw me a bone. Follow, follow, share with
(44:32):
your friends. I really I'm getting into this thing. I
really like sending posts to friends that It's great.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
The only problem is when people send me posts and
their private and I'm like, I can't look at that.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Yeah private, follow it.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
But I think that's a growth hacked tacktic is right, Yeah,
and then I have to go there and follow that.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
I never do. I say, can you screenshot this and
send it to me?
Speaker 2 (44:53):
Oh? My friends are like, no, you have to follow
that account?
Speaker 1 (44:55):
Interesting? Okay, Megan's funny. How can people find you.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
A I'm on Twitter at producer Megan?
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Okay, okay, what nothing? That's it. My book is one
hundred and one iPhone tips and tricks. By the time
you listen to this, it's probably too late to get
it in time for the holidays. But if you got
an Amazon gift card for Christmas or Hankah or Kwanza
or what else is there? Remember the OC it was
(45:25):
Christmas Quantica.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
Oh no, I never watched that episode.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
Or Christmas. No Christmas, ch Christma Christmas. I think it
was Christmas. Cop Yeah, that was pretty funny. I'm dating
myself now, Seth Cohen. Yes, So if you got a
gift card, you can buy the book now. It's a
great gift and or I guess, gift to yourself, I
should say, and that's going to do it. I think
that's it for the show. We had a great time
(45:49):
talking all things.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Tech tech twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Are you have any Are you going to start in
your resolutions for twenty twenty Megan.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Oh no, I need to make some though.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
I need to make them too. I'm gonna be off
my phone more. I'm gonna be more present. That's my
oh quick story, mindful. The problem with being present. I
tried doing this when I went home to New Jersey.
No one else is doing everyone's present, so everyone else
is not present, but you should just.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
Be that person that's like, you're not present. You're not Yeah,
gotta start the trend.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Be present. Just be present with your family and friends
this holiday season. Take the Instagram pictures, then put down
the phone. Yes, all right, Yes, have a great day.
Rich on tech dot TV, thanks so much for listening
to the podcast. We will see you next year. Bye.
Host
Rich DeMuro
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