Apple launch event is a Prime Day to see new iPhones

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Apple sets a date for the iPhone reveal. Amazon sets
a date for Prime Day. Instagram celebrates ten years plus.
Your tech questions answered? What's going on? My name is
Rich Dumiro and this is Rich on Tech, the podcast
where I talk about the tech stuff I think you
should know about. It's also the place where I answer

(00:30):
the questions that you send me. Once again, my name
is Rich Dumiro, tech reporter at KTLA Channel five in
Los Angeles. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the show. I can't
get over the tech season right now. There is so
much going on. Every company wants to send me stuff
to test out, and I just have to hold them

(00:52):
all back because I'm like, look, I gotta do just
the stuff that I think my audience is interested in
at this point, because there's just two watch, too many phones,
too many gadgets, too many things, And you know, it's
just one of these things where I am the editor,
I'm the filter, and I do try to filter things
down to just the stuff that I think is the

(01:13):
most interesting, the most compelling, and the most valuable. I'm
not always right, but you know, I have to do
my best because I only have so much time and
placements on TV and on you know, the radio and anyway.
So this week bunch of stuff arrived. But the Pixel
four A is in the house, and I have already

(01:35):
fallen in love with this device. It's a four hundred
and ninety nine dollars phone. It's got that amazing Google
camera on it. The other thing, so I'm playing with that.
I'm playing with the Pixel four A, comparing that against
some of the other phones out there. The other thing
that I've been playing with, the Google Chrome Cast TV
is just awesome. I am absolutely loving this thing. It

(01:56):
is so simple. And it occurred to me why this
is so brilliant, because Google has basically done for streaming
services what they've done for data on the Internet, so
web pages. So they have gone through and they've scanned
all the streaming services and they now have made this
major index on the back end. And so when you

(02:18):
want to watch a Halloween movie, you just asked the
Google assistant for Halloween movies and they will show you
a whole bunch of them. You can narrow down to
just kids movies, or just slasher movies or thriller movies,
or you know, whatever you're into, and it's the same
thing as searching on Google and it's like, okay, well
here it is, and this is the movie you want.
And by the way, it's on HBO Max. So brilliant,

(02:40):
so awesome. And it really just came to me this
week as I was using it because I have found
more to watch on Google chrome cast TV. I'm giving
it the wrong name, by the way, it's Chrome cast
with Google TV. I've found more to watch on that
device in the past week than I ever have across
any other device. Because the way most other streaming devices

(03:02):
work is that they're all about the apps, and so
it's like, oh, here's Hulu, here's to be TV, here's YouTube.
Google does not care about any of that. All they
care about is content, and so it's a really interesting
kind of flipping of the roles of these streaming devices
because it feels like the Internet now. So you just
search for what you want and boom, it's there, and

(03:24):
then you'll figure out if you can stream it for
free or not. But I thought that was really really neat.
So so that's the chrome Cast TV. Let's get into
the first story of the week, which is Apple finally
announced their iPhone event for October thirteenth, they sent out
an invitation to journalists, including myself called time. Sorry that's

(03:48):
the last one. This one said, Hi Comma Speed, Hi
Comma Speed. And what is that tagline? You know? Apple
always sends these things out in kind of a little
way of giving you a hint as to what's to come.
They're they're so cool over there, They're so creative, and
they are the best at what they do. Let's be honest,

(04:09):
But this one is all about high speed, which is
a nod to five G arriving on the iPhone for
the first time. And if you've listened to this podcast
for any length of time. If you haven't, welcome to
the show. If you have, sorry, sorry that you have
to deal with this show. But no, you'll love it,
and so do I, and I appreciate you. But the
five G networks are not all there yet, and so

(04:32):
does that mean you shouldn't get a five G phone? No?
Does that mean you shouldn't be excited for a five
G phone? No? In fact, I want to switch carriers
just to go to five G. I'm on Verizon right
now and I'm kind of looking at a move to
AT and T or T mo O. Well, just because
they have five G in a bigger way than Verizon.
Verizon also is gonna have five G sometime this year,

(04:53):
so I kind of holding out for what they have
because I know it's going to be good. But anyway,
I digress the what are we expecting from this event?
We're expecting apparently, according to nine to five Mac four
different iPhones and iPhone twelve Mini and iPhone twelve six inch,
iPhone Pro, iPhone Pro Max with the biggest screen, they're

(05:15):
all gonna have O LED displays, and of course they're
gonna be faster, they're gonna have better cameras, They're gonna
already have iOS fourteen on them. So I mean, if
you already have an iPhone with that, it's kind of
like you have the software. So I mean, you know,
it's one of these things where it's it's gonna be
exciting and no matter what, it's funny because whenever I

(05:35):
cover Apple, what happens. I get all the haters coming
out of the woodwork to you know, oh, well you
do is cover Apple? Why youse such an Apple fanboy?
And then I post something like the pixel four A
five G A little first look on my Facebook and
my Instagram and it is crickets. Nobody comments, nobody watches

(05:58):
the video, so I don't really understand it. Where are
all the Samsung lovers? Where all the Android lovers? When
I post something about Android, they're not there. They don't
say anything. So say something when I post the Android
stuff or the non Apple stuff. So I know that's
your care. But when I post the iPhone video on
next week, not that I have an iPhone, but if

(06:19):
I get one or whatever I do with the iPhone,
I know it's gonna be popular. So you know, give
me a break. I mean, I do. I cover whatever
is out there that I think most people should know about.
And I think that people should know about the Pixel
four A five G. When I had the Samsung the
Friends and Family Edition or whatever it's called, the Fan Edition,

(06:39):
I talked all about that and I got a lot
of you know, I got some feedback on it. But again,
if it's iPhone, it's oh, it just blows up and
everyone wants to know. So I get it. iPhone's very popular.
But I do try to cover a wide spance of stuff.
Is that a word spance spans? Let's see, no spans.

(07:02):
I don't I don't think spans. No, there's no way
spans is a word. No, I don't think so. Uh okay,
So anyway, the iPhone event is happening on October thirteenth,
ten am Pacific. You can watch it online, you can
watch it on all the different you know channels, you
know YouTube, all that good stuff, or you know, an
Apple device. But uh, the basic thing is going to

(07:23):
be new iPhones, and then of course there's the rumors
about everything else. You know, new AirPods over the earheadphones,
air tag trackers, which you know, we've heard about these
things for like three years now, a new Apple TV perhaps,
and of course maybe an update on the Apple Silicon
for you know, the new Mac computers maybe what else?

(07:47):
What are they saying? You know, It's one of these
things where you never know with Apple. I mean, obviously
the iPhone is the most popular thing that they've got,
but they use these opportunities to kind of give us
other other things as well. So I will be watching that,
I will be covering that, and I'm excited, to be honest,
to be one hundred percent honest, I am more excited

(08:07):
for the Pixel five than I am the iPhone twelve.
I'll be honest, I think the iPhone is an amazing
piece of machinery and I love, love, love it. But
I'm getting a little bored, and so I've already had
iPhone iOS fourteen on my phone. But when I look
at the pixel software, I feel like it just it's
doing more interesting things for me versus the iPhone, which

(08:30):
it kind of does what the iPhone has been doing.
It's amazing, it works. I love how it integrates with
the AirPods and the Apple Watch and the iPhone and
my messages on my computer. But at the same time,
I feel like I've been doing that for a while now,
So I don't know. I feel like maybe I'm ready
for a change. I don't know if I can handle it, though,
because every time I use an Android, I'm always like

(08:50):
I'm always feeling like sad about my iPhone. So I
don't know. Maybe these are just my problems. Maybe this
is just my internal monologue. Let's get some questions, let's
get some other people's problems, right opp Hugo says, I
need your help asap. I have an iPhone ten and
money wise, well, I don't want to do an upgrade

(09:11):
just yet. I've got at and T. I have insurance
on my phone. All of a sudden, it looks like
the battery or something got really big inside my phone
and it popped open. I'm afraid of charging it or
answering calls it might explode. I checked AT and T
insurance for replacement shows I have to pay two hundred
and fifty dollars. I understand if it's my fault or
I dropped it or I broke it. But do you

(09:32):
know if I can dispute this two fifty or something
else for something I didn't do. HUGO, do not pay
the two fifty. In fact, do not pass go. Do
not go to AT and T on this, go directly
to Apple. It's an iPhone ten, which has been you know,
a couple of years. But Apple is is pretty particular
about batteries. They kind of carve out special circumstances for

(09:53):
batteries on the phone, and so I do believe that
if you bring this into an Apple store, they will
replace the battery for you at a very re reasonable price.
And they may not even replace the battery. They may
just give you a new phone or a refurbished phone.
But that is the first thing that I would do
before you go through your insurance because unless you did
something to this phone to make this battery pop like this,

(10:14):
which I don't think you did. I think the battery
is just faulty, and they're going to know that, they're
gonna figure it out, and they're going to give you
a reasonable replacement, something in the under one hundred dollars.
I think the out of battery replacement is something like
eighty bucks. So I would go right to the Apple store,
make an appointment online with the genius, and again, you

(10:35):
are kind of onto something. I would not make calls
or use this phone right now, and definitely don't charge
it because when those batteries start to pop, there is
a chemical issue happening. It's a reaction that's happening inside
your phone. You do not want to further that or
be a part of that. So get it, get it
to a store as soon as possible, stop using it,
and do this today. That's my advice. But let me

(10:58):
know what happens, because I think that they are going
to be understanding of this issue, and yeah, everything will
be good, all right. Next story on the list here,
let's talk about Prime Day on Amazon, because Prime Day
is the most overhyped non holiday in the world, right,

(11:22):
I mean, what's up with Prime Day? I didn't even
shop on the last two Prime Days. I'll be honest,
this year I might because I've kind of been looking
at some of the I'm gonna go through some of
these things. But this year seems like Amazon maybe they're
taking mercy on us because they know that they are
kind of just ruling in our world, especially in the pandemic.
Maybe they know that people's budgets aren't as big these days,

(11:44):
and so they just start giving more deals. But it
seems like they're doing a good job this year. So
let's go over Prime Day Real quick starts Tuesday, October
thirteenth at midnight Pacific. It runs for forty eight hours,
so it'll run through Wednesday, October fourteenth. If you want
to get a credit right now, if you buy something
from a small business on Amazon, you can get a

(12:06):
ten dollars credit to spend on Prime Day. And the
way to find that is, let's see, you gotta go
to like Amazon dot com slash small business. Is that
what it is Amazon dot com? Or maybe it's shop
small Let's see. You know, you would think I would
do my you think i'd do my homework before I
come onto this podcast, but I don't. So let's see.

(12:28):
I know I've got it somewhere, and let's see where
is it. Oh my gosh, I have so many here
we go. I have so many different scripts. I write
for TV radio. You know how many things I'm doing
at this point, I'm doing TV. So with TV, I'm
doing KTLA, all the other stations we do. We just
added like things like Las Vegas, you know, and I
already went over this. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna
humble brag anymore. So anyway, we're on a lot of places.

(12:51):
Let's see where are we Amazon dot Com, Slash Support
Small So if you buy something from one of those
and says you'll get a ten dollars credit. The other
thing you can do is through October fourteenth, if you
spend ten dollars at an Amazon Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh,
Amazon Go or Amazon Grocery, Amazon Books, or an Amazon

(13:11):
pop up or an Amazon four Star store, you can
get up to fifty dollars in credit. Oh wow, so
you can do that a couple of times. Interesting, that's
why I've gotten that a couple times. I was wondering
why they kept emailing me ten bucks. I thought it
was like a problem. I was like, I'll keep taking it,
but I think you're mistaking. So I have Oh gosh,

(13:32):
I'm trying to figure out where my Amazon like credit
is because I have like a little let me see,
I'm gonna Amazon ten dollars. Let's see. So they gave
me like this reward for shopping at Whole Foods and
how do I see it? Come on, where is it? Man?

(13:52):
Oh man? They have like this little they have this
little like web page that you can actually see your
credits on there, and when I claimed it, I had
this little thing where it was like ten dollars. So anyway,
I've got twenty bucks to spend so far, which is
kind of cool. I don't know where that website is,
but I wish I did, because you know, the whole
point of this podcast is to give you news that

(14:14):
you can use. And when I'm sitting here telling you
something and I'm not saying where it is, well that's
a problem. So anyway, I don't know where it is,
and it seems like the whatever website they gave me
where I claim my credit, it's now redirecting somewhere that's
not really working anyway, So that's another way to do it.
Let's see shop with an Alexa on an Echo device

(14:39):
starting Sunday, October eleventh to get early access to deals,
and that is let's see what's the deals there. You
have to say, you know, a what are my Prime
Day deals? And that's where they reserve a lot of deals.
So let's talk about some of these deals. They've got
a lot. I'm just going to go through some of
the early Prime Day deals that Amazon already has announced.

(15:03):
Echo Dot third generation nineteen bucks, Fire TV Smart Edition TVs.
You can get a thirty two inch for one hundred
and nine dollars, a forty three inch for two oh
nine seventy five bucks off the euro Mesh Wi Fi system,
which I'm guessing is the old one, but that's one
hundred and seventy five bucks. Ring Video, Doorbell second gen

(15:23):
for seventy dollars. Do you see the trends here? All
the older stuff, like the last generation stuff, is on sale.
So I'm not saying that they're just trying to like
clear the warehouses, but you know, let's be honest, the
new stuff is not as much on sale as the
old stuff is. So it's just I mean, isn't that
how it works in general? Fifty dollars off a Kindle
paper white, that's eighty bucks. This is what I'm interested
in because my kids are all about their Nintendo Switch.

(15:46):
Save thirty six dollars on a twelve month Nintendo Switch
Online family membership plus a sand disc one twenty eight
gig memory card, So I'll definitely be picking up two
of those thirty three percent off Nintendo Switch titles. I
just realized when I bought my kid the Switch my
other kid, that you basically have to have two different

(16:06):
You have to buy two copies of the game if
your kids want to play at the same time. Yes,
there's some workarounds, I have not really figured them out
in an easy way, So that's what I'm sticking to.
Thirty three percent off of Room Buzz and Yeah, I
would definitely look into those. Those are awesome. Twenty percent
off Pumpkin Bakery Soy candles from Amazon, handmade maker Loren
lorenz In Candle Company. I'm loving I went to I went.

(16:30):
I dragged my wife to what's that place called Bath
and Body Works for some pumpkin candles, and they're really strong.
By the way we've got them. You can only burn
them for like a little bit because it like really
really fills up your house. But anyway, so I'm obsessed
with those thirty seven percent off Ninja kitchen products. We've
got one of those and I love it. Oh wait,
is it Ninja or the other one? I think it

(16:51):
is a Ninja. Yeah, it's really great. Thirty five percent
off water pick and I just bought one of those,
a water pick for flossing, and I love that. So
I'm just telling you this stuff that I like that
I've purchased recently that you should get on Prime Day.
Thirty percent off a fitbit versa two a versa light.
Those are a good deal. But again, last Year's and

(17:11):
then Amazon brands all kinds of percentages off on Amazon brands,
so things like Solomo, Happy Belly, Mama Bear, Belisi's skincare,
and Amazon gift cards. This is interesting. Prime members get
a ten dollars promotional credit when they purchase an Amazon
gift card or of forty dollars or more, which I'll
definitely be doing that. Why not reload your own card

(17:33):
balance of forty dollars or more. That is perfect one
per Amazon customer. Definitely doing that. So I mean, why
not you put forty bucks in your gift card account
and you get ten extra dollars. Why would you not
do that? So, I mean, you know you're gonna spend
money on Amazon, all right. So now some of the
things that I'll mention on KTLA that I think you
should be looking at when it comes to Prime Day.

(17:55):
I already mentioned Alexa Lightning deals obviously go on the
app make list now, So start shopping on Amazon now
and add stuff to your cart. And that way, number one,
you're buying the stuff that you actually want and not
just garbage that you're like, oh, this is a good deal.
This is ten percent off, like to you know, get
the stuff that you actually need, and if it doesn't
go on sale, just don't worry about buying it just yet.

(18:17):
You don't. Not everything goes on sale during Prime Day.
The other place is to look slick deals Wirecutter and
deal News. They always do a big deal on Prime
Day because guess what, they get a percentage. So what
they do is they look through all the deals, they
pick out the best stuff, they link it, they use
their affiliate link from Amazon, and when you shop there,
they get a little percentage of what you buy, and

(18:38):
you know a percentage of that sale, and so it
works out for everyone. They they do their job because
they're looking for the best stuff. You get the discount.
You don't have to look for all the stuff. They
get a little reward. Amazon Assistant on Chrome you can
try that. I've not used that, but apparently it compares prices.
Honey is another good one. I've got that installed on
my computer and that will compare prices and it will

(18:59):
tell you kind of the history of a price as well.
But if you really want the best price history is
the website Camel Camel Camel. That will show you the
price history chart for basically everything. All right, have fun
on Prime Day. I'll probably shop this year for sure.
Let's go to another question. Let's see, let's go to Hovic.

(19:26):
Hovic says, good morning, I have a question about converting
DVDs to thumb drive. What are the best options? Thank
you in advance, and thank you for all the technology
updates and ahead what Okay, maybe I don't know, maybe
I got Hovic's name wrong, but anyway, so uh oh gosh,
so if you're talking about regular DVDs, you know, like

(19:46):
the Hollywood Studio DVDs, there is not a simple way
to convert those to like thumb drive. Like there's not
like a simple like oh you know, there you go.
So there are our programs that will do it. But
in my experience, it is not an easy process. It's
not something that is you know, it's not even it's

(20:07):
actually like a gray process. But you can do it.
I mean, it's your stuff. I mean it's your house.
You can, you know, as long as you're not selling
this stuff. I think you can make a backup copy
of it. But the program that will do it is
handbreak h A N D B R A k E.
And once you download that, I think you need another
program called f f mp mpeg, which or sorry, that's

(20:33):
that's different. I think that's different. So never mind, don't
don't listen to me on that one. But I think
there's another little like plugin you need for handbreak once
you download it to like make it work, because what
it has to do is it actually has to like
decrypt the disc the DVD. If you're talking about commercial DVDs,
if you're talking about something that you've burned yourself. It's
super easy. Just put it in a handbreak it'll it'll

(20:53):
do it in seconds. It'll rip it to any format
you want. But I I don't know, I don't know
why you want to do this. I don't recommend doing
this because why. I mean, we're streaming. It's kind of
like music. For back in the day, I kept my
whole big music collection and then I said, you know what,
who cares? I pay ten bucks a month to whatever
and I get all the music I want. I don't
need to hold on to the past. And so with

(21:14):
the DVDs, they're not gonna be as clear. It's going
to be a pain to do this. I mean, unless
you have all the free time in the world. I
just don't see the point of this. I get it,
you paid for this stuff. Maybe you're building a collection whatever,
and if that's the case, fine, I mean, do whatever
you want. But I'm just saying to me, it's so
much easier. Then you got to figure out a way

(21:35):
to play these things on your TV, which you know,
you gotta get Plex or one of these other systems,
so you know, do what you want. It's fine, but
I'll just that's what I'm saying, it's not that easy.
There was another little tiny h gosh, what was it called.
It was like it was like tiny ripper or something,
and it was like a little tiny app for for

(21:57):
the Mac computers that would rip the DVDs. I can't
remember I had it part of it. I had it
back in the day. But again, it's all pain and
I just don't do it because it's just such a
pain to do. But if you want to do it,
I think the program to look at is handbrake, and
that should point you in the right direction. Let's get
to another story, and what do we want to talk

(22:18):
about next. Let's talk about Instagram. Talk about Instagram because
everyone uses it. A couple of new features on Instagram.
Instagram is turning ten. I can't believe it. I can't
believe that Instagram has been around for ten years. That's unbelievable.
But when I think about it, my kid is nine,

(22:38):
and I think that when he was born, we were
still using Facebook, but shortly after that we must have
switched to Instagram. So I can't tell you. I actually
can't go back to my Instagram account and say, like
when I opened it, because I deleted it at some
point and then, you know, I said I'm done with this,
no more Instagram, no more social media. And then I

(22:59):
came back, so well, there's definitely all the stuff that
I first had on my Instagram is gone. And then
I came back sometime and restarted my not I even
restart my account. I started a new account with a
rich on Tech because I think my old account used
to be rich to Miuro. So anyway, I you know,
so Instagram is great. I love it. It's gotten a lot

(23:19):
more blow over the years. It continues to be more like,
you know, Facebook is great, but they realize that Facebook
is not as hot and cool as it used to
be and Instagram is, so they're just trying to push
everything on Instagram. Anyway. A couple of features you're getting
is with your archives. I don't know if you realize this,
but when you post a story on Instagram, it does

(23:41):
stick around, even though it looks like it disappears after
twenty four hours. It goes into something called your archive.
And this is something only you can see and access,
but it's still there. So if you go into your
settings and look at archive, yes, it will be there,
so you can see all your old stories. Previously it
was just one big, massive scroll. Now they're bringing back
this app view, which you can you know, if you

(24:01):
went to Japan, you can see all the things you
posted in Japan. You can also see it as a
calendar of view as well, so if you want to
go back to your birthday last year, or the year
before and the year before and the year before and
the year before, you can see what you posted on
your birthday. So that's cool. The other thing they're doing
is with bullying. I guess there's a big problem with
comments that are rude. Surprise online. I never thought that

(24:24):
would happen, But they are now going to automatically hide
comments that they're AI deems bullying or rude or whatever.
And they're also going to expand the whole thing where
if you're like you're ugly, they will say, are you
sure you want to post that? Because it's not very nice?
Why would you say that? And if you look at
my Instagram today you'll see, you know, this whole idea

(24:47):
of the perfect picture on Instagram. I'm guilty of it.
Everyone is. But it's really tough to post like real,
honest portrayals of you and your life on Instagram, and
I'm guilty of not doing that sometimes. You know, you
post the best looking picture you post, you know, your
the favorite part of your day or your best vacation picture.
But you know, today, after I took a run, I

(25:07):
just posted like me, you know, sweaty and all, doing
a little review of the power bar I was eating.
So you can watch that, and yeah, you're gonna be like,
whoa rich, oh now looking so good? But you know what,
it's real and we all do that, right. You don't
go out to dinner on a Friday night, you know,
rolling out of bed and just you know, throwing on sweats.
You put on something nice, right, You're gonna be paying
someone to be your waiter and bring you food and

(25:29):
sit at a nice restaurant. And of course I'm talking
about pre COVID days, right, remember remember going to the restaurant.
I don't even care about going to the restaurants anymore.
I've gotten so used to just staying at home for
everything that I like it. I like the money savings.
And yeah we've gone out to eat a couple of
times throughout the pandemic, but it's just not as fun.

(25:50):
You know, you've got the person talking through the mask
and they've got the the face shield on. It's just
not fun. So and you're outside, which is fine in LA.
It's great when you're outside. I mean, that's that's that's
the only normal part. But it's like, you know, you
feel like every time, like, oh my gosh, every time
you touch something, you touch the menu, you gotta sanitize
your hands, go to the bathroom, you gotta like, you know,

(26:11):
wash your hands. Just kidding. I mean, I hope you,
I would hope you have done that before covid. Okay,
enough about that, but Instagram does have an Easter egg
as well, which if you follow me on any sort
of social media, you've probably already seen this. But you
can now change your icon on the app to a
retro icon or just any icon you want. It's kind
of like a different day, have like twelve to choose

(26:32):
from that are unique, and so if you want to
do that, just go tap your profile, go into settings
and then pull down on the settings page until you
reveal some emojis and then it'll go into like this
ole confetti burst and you'll get a hidden menu that
lets you change your icon on'm Android and iOS. So
pretty cool. Next question comes from Danielle. Hey Rich. I

(26:59):
purchased a Toshiba laptop a few years back and it
had Windows ten. I didn't like the format, so I
took it into Staples and spent a lot of money
to have them convert it to Windows seven. And let
me tell you, it was quite a challenge for them.
It took longer than I expected. I ended up spending
a couple hundred bucks. Yeah, I would imagine. So I've
had no problem. But now we're being advised to purchase

(27:19):
a new computer that has Windows ten and my Windows
seven is no longer supported. Should I give up and
purchase a new computer? Or do you think my Toshiba
still has the brain power and capability of being converted
back to Windows ten. I'm scared to do anything on
my laptop until this is resolved. Thank you, Danielle. I
wonder there must be it must be something work related.
If we're being advised to purchase it must be work related.

(27:40):
I'm guessing which is odd because they're making her buy it.
But whatever, Danielle, it's funny that you converted your Windows
ten computer to Windows seven because my father in law
I talk about him a lot on this show, I've realized.
But he's a funny tech guy. He's like very like
particular about his technology, and so he I remember when
Windows ten was kind of this big transformation, and he

(28:02):
searched high and low for a computer that's still like
a desktop that still came with Windows seven because he
hated Windows ten and Windows ten. Yes, was a rough
start at the beginning. So I understand that, but now
it's fine and it's actually quite good. So to answer
your question, I would say, since your computer already had
Windows ten at the beginning, and it sounds like you

(28:22):
said this a couple of years ago, and so I'm guessing,
you know, three years maybe I think your computer. Here's
what I would do. I would find the installation discs
for your Windows ten that came with your computer, and
I would format your computer with the Windows ten on
it and see how it does. It's not going to
cost you a dime, and so that would be my

(28:43):
first You know, whenever I'm looking at solutions to things,
I'm looking for the path of least resistance number one
and of course the lowest cost. So that's what I
would do. First off, get the disk, spend the afternoon formatting.
You know, of course, back up your computer, put everything
in the cloud, and then you know, format it, bring
it to Windows ten, and then see what happens. Now.

(29:03):
You can probably also just do an upgrade to Windows ten,
depending on how your computer is set up, But personally,
I would do a clean install just to kind of
set things fresh, and you know that would give you
your the most mileage out of this older computer going forward,
because if you just install it on top, things get
a little ichy and you know it might run slower

(29:24):
than you'd like or whatever. So I would personally do
a format a clean install and look that up and
you can see how to do that. But I would
do a clean install, install Windows ten, try it out
for a little bit, and if it totally is a
terrible experience, everything's laggy and slow and just annoying, then
I would go ahead and buy a new computer. But again,

(29:44):
go with the Windows ten. It came with a computer,
so clearly it can handle it. It's been a couple
of years, so maybe it's gotten slow, but just see
how it works and you know, go from there. So
first solution doesn't cost you anything, and then you've you've
exhausted that solution, then you can go and try out
the next So that's what I would do. All right,
let's go to the next question. I just realize I'm

(30:06):
trying today. If I'm a little bit slower today, it's
because I'm trying to be eco friendly. So I go
through this thing with you know, whatever I talk about
in the show, I kind of print out from the web, like,
you know, the articles that I want to talk about,
and when I do that, I once I do that,
I put them, I print them out and then I
highlight the stuff that I want to talk about in
those articles. Well it's a lot of paper. It's like

(30:28):
fifty pages every week, and you know, I hate that
because that's it. I just print it and it goes
into the trash or recycle whatever. So I'm trying this
week to use my iPad, and I've done this a
couple times. It's not as pretty, it's not as easy,
but it just takes me a little bit longer to
navigate the iPad because it's kind of like the same
but not really. I mean, printed page is always going

(30:49):
to be better. But I'm trying to use the iPad
for eco reasons. So bear with me if it takes
me a little bit longer because the stories are not
as easily. I can't just pull a piece of paper
and start looking at it and interpreting it. I have
to kind of like look through this list of things,
and you're getting the real inside baseball this week. I
hope you enjoy this podcast because you know, when I'm

(31:10):
on TV, I'm on KTLA for about blink and you
might miss it. So when I get here, I just
talk and I talk and I talk and I talk
and I talk, because I feel like if you've gone
through the trouble of finding me online, following me online,
giving me a chance to download my podcast, and listening
this far in thirty minutes, you might like what I

(31:31):
have to say, and so I feel like you deserve
to be rewarded for all of your effort. And I
will tell you really what's going on in my life
and really what's happening with everything. So that's why I
do all this. All right, let's move on to uh,
let's see T Mobile. This is interesting. So T Mobile

(31:52):
they are expanding their T Mobile ISP, which I think
is really cool. I just have yet to see a
place for this actually works. But I love that they're
doing this. So T Mobile is T Mobile is like
kind of like all excited because they finally have all
the spectrum with the purchase of sprints, So they just
have like a lot of like spectrum. And I think

(32:14):
what that means is that they have a lot of
bandwidth that they're kind of able to use in different
ways and you know whatever. And I get that their
network is still you know, they're still figuring things out
with how they're merging these two networks and with the
five G and stuff. But I like what they're doing.
I really do like T Mobile as a carrier. I
think that they are very customer centric, let's put it

(32:35):
that way. And so what they're doing is they are
opening up what's called T mobile ISP to more people
four hundred and fifty cities and towns. And what they're
doing is they're just using their their network that they have,
their wireless network. They give you what amounts to sort
of a little router that taps into their wireless network
at your house and then creates a Wi Fi signal.

(32:57):
So it's kind of like having a hot spot, but
a little bit more industrial. And also the plan is
a fifty dollars unlimited plan, and so I think this
is really cool because it kind of opens up Internet
without getting a wire to your house for a lot
of people nationwide. And so they say they're fifty fifty
dollars a month, no contract. Internet Home service is now

(33:21):
available in four hundred and fifties, four hundred fifty cities
in towns and that's it. So if you're one of these,
you can do this in fifty dollars with auto pay,
of course. But here's here's some of the details. It's
self installation, so no one comes to your house. They
just send you this little device. No hardware fees, so
zero hardware. Lease with service. So lease means they send

(33:44):
you the device to use. When you cancel service, you
have to send it back. Taxes and fees are included.
No contracts, no introductory price off offers, what you sign
up for is what you pay, and no data caps.
So they talk about cities in Alabama, Arkansas, California, including
Los Angeles, Florida, Georgia, Florida, Georgia, Line, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan,

(34:11):
miniapp Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania,
South Carolina, Tennessee. Is this just every state? Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin,
West Virginia. So anyway, I would check it out. T

(34:31):
mobile dot com slash isp is the place to go
to check it out. I put in my address. I
put in a couple other addresses. I know. None of
them are coming up as like service. Yes, service in
your place, which I know T mobile works at my house,
so I don't know what their criteria is, but and
maybe it's still kind of like propagating. But anyway, that's

(34:51):
the deal. And if you are in a rural area
or you just want a different alternative to what's available
at your place, pop your address in and see if
it's available. Because this is really cool. I wish all
the service providers did this. All right, let's get to
the next question. Let's go to Oh, this is a
good one. Richard in Hemmett says, good morning, rich Sorry,

(35:16):
I heard you mention. You get a lot of questions
referencing mornings. I usually listen to podcasts the first half
of the day and then news radio the second half.
My question is a sign in prompt. I see with
every new app sign up, a lot or a lot
of them have the option to sign in using my
Google credentials. I almost never use that option, but with
an email sign up, since I use a password app,

(35:36):
you recommend it a long time ago dash Lane, I
don't have a problem remembering passwords, although I have to
go through the steps to open dash Lane and had
the app info. Is there any danger in going with
Google to sign up sign in? Any advantages? Thank you
rich Richard In hemet a great question. I love this
question and it's a great opportunity for me to explain this.

(35:58):
So you see this a lot, and you see at
this point when you go to download a new app,
you see a sign in for you know, one click
sign in for Facebook. Sometimes it's Twitter, let's see Google
and now Apple is also up there, and it's super easy, right,
It's so tempting to just click that and boom, you know,

(36:19):
it's like there you go, You're in. But here's why
I do not recommend doing this. And I think you're
doing the right thing by creating an independent log in
through something like a password manager, because then that does
not link your account. Now you have to understand why
all these companies want you to, you know, sign in

(36:42):
with them. It's in their best interest because if you
have one hundred sign ins with Twitter, are you ever
gonna cancel your Twitter account? Absolutely not, You're gonna keep
that account forever. Same thing especially with Facebook. I mean,
this is what Facebook specialized in. It's that stickiness, right,
They just get you because they have you signed in.
You can't cancel your Facebook Now. I use that to
sign in on one hundred different websites. Apple. I like

(37:05):
Apple's approach a little bit more because they had the
whole privacy thing where it will create like an anonymous
login for you, which is great, and I will admit
I do use that sometimes when I'm testing apps because
it's so easy. But again it's the sticky factor. Apple
is doing that because the more you log in with
their stuff, the less you're gonna give up your iPhone
or any Apple product. So what I recommend is that

(37:27):
you continue to create these independent app sign ins. I
know it's a little bit more work and it takes
a little bit more time, and I know we're all
rushing through these app sign up processes, but believe me,
it's better. And there's a couple of reasons why it's better.
Number one, if the site has ever hacked, you know,
you've got an independent password on there. It's a unique
password and it's just on its own right, You're not

(37:49):
sharing that with anything else. The second thing is that
when you sign in using one of these you know credentials,
these shared credentials, they're always trying to get a little
bit more information from you then you like. And that's
why Apple did the anonymous login is because when you
sign in with Google, you know, you have to watch
out for what they're able to access on your Google account.
Sometimes it could be your entire Gmail, like, everything in

(38:12):
your Gmail, it could be everything in your Google Drive.
You don't want to do that with Facebook. It could
be your friend list, it could be your date of birth. Basically,
why should you give them any more information than they need.
And it's also linked to that account, so there could
be some cross talk on the back end there that
you may not know about. So again, go with the
independent logins. That's my advice, and it will keep it's

(38:35):
a little bit longer, a little bit more of a process,
but it keeps everything separate, and it keeps everything nice
and tidy. Now, I'm not saying I never sign in
with Google or some of these other third party providers.
I do sometimes when it's a trusted site and when
I know what's happening. So for something like you know

(38:55):
a certain website that I understand what's going on, I
will sign in with Google, and there are pup I
have with that, and it is easy, it is convenient.
But as a rule I always sign up with an
independent username and password, and that is the way to
do it. And you're doing it right if you're going
through something like dash Lane. All right, Richard, great question,
Thanks for submitting that and thanks for listening. All right,

(39:19):
something to know about this is pretty quick, but the
Roku channel. Roku has been really expanding the reach of
the Roku channel that came out. I think I talked
about it last week with an app that's on Android
and iOS, and now they have it on fire TV.
So if you like to watch free stuff, this is
another option. And I've noticed with these free services like

(39:40):
to b and Pluto that the free live streaming stuff
is really getting interesting. So a lot of them are
doing like live streaming of like news networks. So this
is where it's at. I mean, people love free It's
kind of like TV all over again. It's free TV,
but it's streaming, and I get it. I'm not everyone

(40:01):
minds the commercials. In fact, my kids we watched Shrek
or they watched Shrek on UH. I think it's called
is it IMDb TV whatever? What's uh? What's Amazon's free one?
Amazon free streaming they have like their own I forget
they I forget what it was called. Oh my gosh,
it was called IMDbTV, I think when it first came out,

(40:24):
and then they changed the name to something else. So
let's see if I can find that. Let's see im
D Yeah, I think it's IMDb TV, but it was
something else when it first came out. That was like
kind of confusing anyway, So my kids watched Shrek on
this and and it was so funny because my wife
is like, well, it's gonna have ads because it says

(40:45):
ads supported, and they're like, nah, it won't have ads,
And sure enough, it didn't have any ads. So it
was great. And by the way, Shrek looked like a
really funny movie. I'm gonna I'm gonna watch that. I'm
gonna go back to watch that because I was laughing,
just watching it sort of in the background. So let's
see see showtimes. See this is what I'm saying. Okay,
rent By, I'm so confused because what is this? I

(41:09):
did a story about it, and now it's not free anymore,
which is also odd. So what is Amazon's Oh my gosh,
I can't believe Amazon's. Maybe it was called Freeview when
it first came out. I can't remember what it was called,
and I talked about it, but oh my gosh, you

(41:31):
know what, this podcast is just worthless to you this
week because I'm talking about all this stuff that I
just don't even know what I'm talking about anymore. But
it's on Prime anyway. So again, Roku Channel is another
option that is totally free and you can watch it
and you don't need anything except a Roku account. The
only caveat here is that you can't subscribe to premium

(41:52):
channels through the Roku channel app, so if you want to,
you have to sign up for those directly through Rokuti.
And this is another weird thing that, like, it's so
funny that all these little streaming things is becoming like
a cable TV service. So if you have Roku Channel,
you can subscribe to Showtime, Stars, Epics or HBO through

(42:13):
the Roku channel, which is so weird, but you know,
Roku makes a little percentage on that, so that's why
they do it. But anyway, that's what it's all about.
And I still can't believe I can't remember what this
thing was called because I did the story on it.
It was like, I think it's just IMDbTV now, but
it was something. It was IMDb formerly known as let's

(42:36):
see I think it was. Oh that's what it was. Okay,
used to be called IMDb Free Dive. I knew it
had a different name. And now it's called IMDbTV. Yeah,
so there you go. Now, you know, I like to
give you the full story. Okay, So that's it. And
if you want just again, you can say, find the

(42:57):
Roku channel app to Alexa on Fire and you can
download that, and I would say, go for it. I mean,
if you don't mind setting up a Roku account, which
you know, I actually, you know what, when I did
that on my iPhone because I tested the Roku channel
on my iPhone when you can download it, they didn't
even ask me to set up an account. So maybe
that's the same way on Fire TV. I'm not sure

(43:19):
I have not downloaded it just yet, but yeah, so
check that out if you like free stuff. All right,
do I have time for another question? I think I do.
My timing on this podcast is all off because I
tried to do it again. Whenever I try to do
things differently, it never works out. So I try to
do the timer on my Apple Watch this time because
it kind of gives me, like a little to keep

(43:40):
the pacing of the show. I try to, you know,
I have like a little like buzzer that buzzes every
three minutes or so to keep me moving. And sure enough,
I did it on my Apple Watch this time, and
it my Apple Watch is set to silent, and nothing happened,
so the timer is over. I can't tell if it's
done or whatever happened, but I will just keep going
for another ten minutes. And if it's a long podcast,

(44:03):
too bad. All right, Raoul says, good morning, Rich. What's
the best way to protect your iPhone from viruses? Malware? Oh?
Was I supposed to do that? What's the best way
to protect your iPhone from viruses, malware and other cyber attacks?
Is there an app for this purpose? Any assistance will
be greatly appreciated. Thanks Raoul. Raoul, the answer is, you

(44:23):
do not need anything. There are a million and one
anti virus and malware apps on the App Store. I
don't even understand why Apple approves them because they don't
do anything you can't the iPhone. And I've said this before,
but the iPhone operating system is sandboxed, which means when
you are running an app, that app can only interact

(44:43):
with other parts of the operating system and other apps
in very specific ways that Apple outlines. It is not
like a Windows computer where when you get a virus
on there, it can take hold of that whole thing,
and you know. And again, this gets very complicated because
almost all all of the new platforms are set up
this way. Android a little bit more at risk, but

(45:05):
I still think that overall, on your smartphone, the chances
I guess on Android you could definitely download malware and
and apps outside of Google Play. Google Play is pretty safe,
but if you're sideloading apps, yes, you can definitely install
an app on there that can wreck havoc on your phone.

(45:25):
On iPhone, there's no real way to install a third
party app outside of the App Store. Unless you've jail
broken your phone. And if you've done that, that's way
above this podcast. This podcast is for the average consumer,
and if you're jail breaking your phone and doing things
like that, you're probably not listening to this. So I'm
not really even going into that because I would never

(45:46):
recommend jail breaking an iPhone. There's just no point to me.
Now an Android. What I like about Android is much
more open. You can do whatever you want an Android now. Again,
So to get to your question, Raoul, I don't think
you need anything on and they're the biggest The biggest
danger on an iPhone is really clicking links, and so

(46:07):
most of the exploits we've seen on iPhone have to
do with links that you might get through a text message.
And even when you get you know, your average text
message link that you might get with like spam on
the iPhone, and I've clicked all of them, believe me,
this is what I do to test stuff. It most
of the time is trying to either steal your personal
information through a phishing scheme, or it's trying to get

(46:30):
your personal information or you to sign up for some
sort of offer. So I don't recommend clicking those links,
And I would say if you're using an iPhone, just
be aware of the links that you're clicking more so
than apps that you're downloading. So if an app is
done through the app store, chances are it's not going
to be real malware. It might be annoying when you
open it, but it can't really once you close out

(46:51):
an app on the iPhone, it's not really doing anything
in the background, So it can't like, you know, nefariously,
like put a key logger on your phone. Now that's
not to say, hey, this stuff can't be done. Believe me.
I'm sure there are government organizations and you know others
out there that have devised things to do this stuff.
They're just not very prevalent in a main way on

(47:12):
your phone, Raoul, So I don't think you have to
worry too much about this stuff. But yeah, there's not
there's not an app I recommend to to protect your iPhone.
Let's put it that way. It's more of your personal
kind of just looking out for what you're doing on
the phone that is the most important. Let's see, this

(47:34):
is just a really small thing. But uh, you know,
since you're if you bought an iPhone last year, and
you did the free trial of Apple TV Plus, like
if you got the free year that is coming up
on November first, because on my phone it says that
I'll be billed on November first for Apple TV Plus.
And if you cancel it, you know you lose access.

(47:54):
So don't cancel it because according to nine to five Mac,
they're automatically extending all Apple TV Plus trials through February
twenty twenty one, which means you will get another couple
of months to get you through the pandemic of watching
Apple TV stuff Apple TV Plus stuff. So that's just
something to know. If you pay for a plan, you're

(48:14):
gonna get three free months of your plan. So I
have not played. Now here's the funny thing. Almost every
single subscription through the iTunes store, let's say you have
a free trial, you can cancel. This is a little
tip by the way. Let's say you sign up for
something that's a two week free trial, right, you can
go into the subscriptions and cancel that free trial immediately,

(48:37):
and nine times out of ten, you still have access
to that service until the free trial is over. At
that point it'll just end and your card won't be charged.
But Apple lovely Apple. The way they do it is
if so, I've done this many times because I go
in there, I'm like, oh, I'm gonna miss this this
November first deadline. I'm gonna get charged for a year

(48:59):
of Apple TV or a month whatever it is. And
so I keep going in there a couple times throughout
the year and I say cancel because I figure, oh,
it'll it'll last through November first. Oh no, it doesn't.
Apple says, if you cancel this, you lose your access immediately.
So it's kind of interesting that Apple does that with
most of their services that I've noticed, But yet every
other app developer is pretty nice and saying, yeah, we'll

(49:21):
give you the two weeks and you can cancel tomorrow,
but you'll still have access for those two weeks. So
I have not, even though nine to five Max says
that this is happening, it has not hit my personal
iPhone just yet. So if you're in kind of the
boat like I am, where you bought an iPhone around
launchtime last year, go into your subscriptions and kind of

(49:42):
monitor this, because if you have not canceled Apple TV
Plus just yet, check that date and see if it's extended.
To February twenty twenty one, and then you know you've
got a couple more months, but especially as you get
towards that November first date, depending on when you bought
your iPhone, this is coming up, so just be aware.
And I'm not really watching anything on Apple TV plus anymore,

(50:03):
especially now with Google Chrome Casts, I don't really have
access to it anymore. So you know, I don't particularly care,
and I do want to watch Greyhound, but I do.
I am looking forward to the second season of Morning
Show if that I know it's happening, but I'm not
sure when. All right, let's do one more question. Let's see,
let's do one more question from Keith. Keith says, I

(50:28):
want to be able to watch TV using earbuds and
the TV sound on mute. I currently have a chord
connected to an audio port on the TV, but the
chord is a hazard and I have no volume control.
Is there an easy solution? I would like to use
Apple AirPods if possible. So I don't know what type
of TV or setup you have, Keith, but the easiest way,
I think is just to get a Bluetooth transmitter. If

(50:48):
you're if I mean it sounds like whatever your TV
is has a three point five millimeter out because you're
plugging a chord in there to the audio port on
the TV. So if you're if you're doing that, then
it sounds like you're halfway there. So I look on
Amazon and I see you know, if you just search
three point five millimeter to Bluetooth transmitter, this one is

(51:11):
called Teotronics Bluetooth five point zero transmitter and for TV,
home sound system, car, Nintendo switch. Pretty simple. You plug
it into the three point five millimeter jack and this
has a Bluetooth transmitter on it. Then you connect your
AirPods to this device and boom. There's even a transmit
or receive toggle switch on here, so you'd want this

(51:31):
in transmit mode. Obviously, this is thirty dollars and that
would solve your problem and make it pretty simple. The
other thing you can do is if you're using one
of these streaming services like an Amazon fireTV stick or
an Apple TV or even a Roku, a lot of
them allow you to plug headphones. Sorry, a lot of

(51:53):
them allow you to bluetooth stream the audio from the
device to Bluetooth headphones. So check there and see what
type of device you're using. If you're using a Roku,
the higher end remotes have a plug, which I love.
I think this is a brilliant, brilliant solution. The higher
end remotes have a three point five millimeter jack right

(52:13):
on the remote, so you can plug your headphones into
the remote. That is amazing. Now, I do think that
almost all the Rokus allow you to use the Roku
app on your phone to then plug headphones into your
phone and listen that way as well. So if you
have a Roku, I think they've thought about this. But again,
I think it sounds like you're just listening to regular TV.

(52:35):
But you've got the Apple AirPods, which you know, leads
me to believe, you know, maybe you have a streaming
setup going on. But that's what I would do. You
got a couple options, and any of them, just pick
the one that works best for you. All right, let's
just end on this way. MOO is opening its driverless
cars to the general public in Phoenix. How cool is that?

(52:57):
So would you take a ride in one of these
driverless cars? I don't know. I think I would. They've
been around Phoenix for a while. Waimo. I don't know
if the rules over there are easier. The streets are easier,
but that's where they've been testing them a lot. But
beginning October eighth, they're opening up their fully driverless offering
to Waimo one riders. Members of the public can now

(53:18):
take rides, can now take friends and family along in
their rides and share their experience with the world. We'll
start with those who are part of Waimo one, and
over the next several weeks more people will be able
to book directly through the app, the Waimo App. One
hundred percent of our rides will be fully driverless. Pretty cool,
I mean, kind of neat, kind of scary to get

(53:40):
into a driverless car for the first time. I've been
in several of them, so I know what it's like.
It's a little nerve racking, thinking like this computer might
make a wrong decision and end my life. That is
I mean, I'm saying that, but it's I'm not joking.
I mean it's weird, right, this computer is in charge
of you, but you know who. Hopefully they have these

(54:01):
things to a point where they're pretty safe if they're
letting random people into them. So the other cool thing
is that there's no driver so COVID times. It's it's
kind of like you don't have to worry about someone
coughing in there or sneezing. Now you might have to
worry about the drive, the passenger before or after you,
But you know that gets into a whole nother conversation. Anyway,
kind of cool if you're in Phoenix. I would try

(54:22):
it out. In fact, I might make a drive to
Phoenix to do a story on this. Why wouldn't I write.
I've emailed Waymo to ask them if I can do
this with their help, you know, pr and they've said no.
So now if I just go there as a regular person,
they can't stop me. So I might be Yeah, I
might be in Phoenix very soon to try this out.
But it looks like it's rolling out, so it's probably

(54:43):
not going to be immediate, but I will. You know,
I'm gonna check the app and see if I can
book a drive or a ride. I should say, pretty cool.
I mean, I'm I'm I like the idea of driverless cars.
They do scare me in weird ways. That again, it
is a computer in charge of your life, so kind
of scary. I mean, you drop your iPhone and you

(55:05):
know it's gonna be just fine. You know, screen myke crack,
but you know, this car makes a wrong decision or
you know whatever, and it's a little different. Interesting. That's
gonna do it for this episode of the show. If
you'd like to submit a question for me to answer,
just go to rich on tech dot tv hit the
email button at the bottom of the page. You can

(55:25):
also email me a voice memo Hello at richon tech
dot TV. So far nobody's taken advantage of that, which
is fine. I get it. That's a lot of work,
so I wouldn't I wouldn't do that either, but you know,
if you want to, it's an option. Also, i'd love
it if you would rate and review this podcast to
help other people discover it. Just go to rate this
podcast dot com slash rich on tech got I think

(55:47):
two hundred and something reviews. We're doing really well. There
a lot of you actually review the show by giving
it stars, but you don't write anything. So if you
write something, I will read it on the show. But
so far, nobody's writing anything new. It takes a little
bit longer to get those, So write something and you'll
hear your name on the show. How exciting is that
you can find me all the time at rich on

(56:09):
Tech across all of the various social media platforms. My name,
once again, in case you don't know, is rich Demiro.
Thanks so much for listening. Stay safe, I'll talk to
you real soon

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Host

Rich DeMuro

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