@WakeUpCall – ‘Wired Wednesday’ with Rich DeMuro

KFI Tech Reporter Rich DeMuro joins Wake Up Call for ‘Wired Wednesday’! Rich talks about Apple’s new iPhone Pocket, Amazon’s auto-buy feature, and gadgets that protect.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's say good morning now to the host of Rich
on Tech on KFI. It's KTLA's tech reporter Rich DeMuro.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Morning, Rich, Good morning to you. Amy.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Okay, so just like Grandma used to make a knitted
iPhone cover, isn't that sweet?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yeah, but it didn't cost this much. So this is
called the iPhone pocket. It looks like a sock with
an opening in the middle. You can wear it over
your shoulder, you can tie it, you can sling it whatever.
It's stretchy. It's one hundred and fifty to two hundred
and thirty dollars for a sock that holds your iPhone.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
And it really I just I just brought it up it. Yeah,
it just looks like a sack.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
That's crazy. It actually reminds me of back in the day,
they used to have these little socks for your It's funny, okay,
two things. They used to have a sock for your
iPod or maybe it was your I think it was
the iPod back in the day, which I had. There
were these colorful little socks. They were great because you
could just stash your iPod in there. I still carry,
you know, I'm always carrying a bunch of phones that

(01:02):
I'm testing. I actually use socks to carry those phones
because if you put them next to each other, they
will scratch the camera will scratch the screen of the
other device if you stack them on top. So I've
long used socks. But guess what. The socks that I
use are like free. I get them from like companies
that just you know, they give out like socks, and
I'm like, oh cool, I can use this. So this

(01:22):
is one hundred and fifty dollars for the short strap,
two hundred thirty dollars for the long strap. They launch
on Friday at Apple stores, and Apple says it's a
beautiful new way to carry your iPhone, your AirPods, and
your everyday items. Perfect for the holiday gift season. You know, look,
this is America. We've run out of things to buy.
That's the bottom line here.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
I just would like to tell anybody who is buying
me a Christmas present, I would not.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Like this for Christmas.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
What I know, Will's bombed he was going to get
it from me.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah, it's interesting because, like I do think.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
That we need to figure out a way to carry
our iPhones that's practical.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Like when I travel to Europe every back pocket.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Well, but if you don't have pockets, if you're wearing
a skirt, you you're not wearing a skirt, but if
you're wearing a skirt or something like that. And in
Europe almost everybody had their phones on like strings or like.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
A la those already, yes, and you can get those already,
and they're much cheaper and an Apple has that too.
But here's the deal. So if you want, I mean,
maybe this is the perfect solution because people do need
a way to carry their phone. And you know yet,
you're right, I have a back pocket. I would also say,
when I'm traveling, the back pocket is tricky because someone
can easily take your phone out of your back pocket

(02:39):
versus something like this. But again, and by the way,
I wasn't going to try to pronounce that it's a
Miyaka Miyaki from the Japanese fashion house.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
Yeah, well, I think you did a lovely job. I mean,
they come in pretty colors.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
But yeah, that's a pretty big it's a pretty big.
It's it's designer, so that's why.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
And it's not like the cases that you have where
you can still use the phone. It's literally stuck down
in a sock. You have to pull it out. Yes,
it interesting, all right.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
I can't wait to see the first person having this
in real life.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Hey, you know we're going to see them. We are
in la.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Amazon's got a new auto by feature, So tell us
about this one, okay, which that's surface.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
It sounds dangerous.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
It is very dangerous, but also very cool because you're
basically naming your own price for items. So Amazon basically
quietly rolled this out. It's called auto Buy. It's for
Prime members. You have to use Rufus, which is their
AI assistant on the app. Apparently alexaplus will do the
same thing. I've only tested the app, but basically, when
you're on a product, you tap that little rufous icon

(03:49):
and you say buy this when the price drops below
one hundred dollars or when it's twenty percent off, and
literally Rufus the AI will watch the prices every half
an hour and check, and then it will just buy
it for you if the price drops to what you want.
So it's almost like Priceline back in the day, except
with anything on Amazon. And so I of course set
a whole bunch of things. I'm like, cool, if this
thing drops below twenty dollars. I'll buy it, but I

(04:11):
don't have to watch it anymore. So this is available
if you want to see my video on it. By
the way, I did it on Instagram at ridgeon Tech
because it's kind of tough to understand. But yes, Amazon
can just buy stuff for you. Now.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
That could be again, either very fun on Black Friday,
or you might get yourself a nice little five thousand
dollars credit card bill.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah, you might just forget about all the You know,
you could have two hundred active requests at any time,
and I've already forgotten did I set that up? Did not?
I know I've won for sure. I don't know if
I set up the other one. But yeah, you're gonna
just start getting stuff mailed to your house and you're like, oh,
forgot I ordered that, which happens anyway, right, I know I.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Already have that problem, like what did I order? Why
do I have a package sitting out front? Okay, and
before we let you go, gadgets to protect what you
care about?

Speaker 2 (04:57):
I love this, Yes, I got three. It's today featuring
on KTLA number one, a fingerprint padlock. This is a
guy who's on Shark Tank. It's called the Benji lock.
It's brilliant. It's just a padlock with a fingerprint, so
you just have you know, you use your fingerprint to
unlock it, so you can't forget your combination. It's a
little pricey eighty bucks, but it is pretty cool. Life

(05:18):
three sixty has a new pet GPS tracker which uses GPS, Cellular, Bluetooth,
and Wi Fi, which means you're gonna be able to
find your pet for up to two weeks with cellular
up to six months in lost pet mode. And it's
only fifty bucks, which is kind of cool. And then
I've got a security camera called the Ulticam Dot which
runs on four DOAA batteries and no subscription necessary. That's

(05:38):
going to be seventy dollars. Put it anywhere you want
to monitor something, okay, So like if.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
You wanted to take it with you to a hotel.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
You could.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, a lot of people they feel secure putting that
in their hotel so they know if anyone came in
their room or whatever.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
And then going back to the GPS pet tracker really quick,
is that a collar or is that hookup to the
microchip for how does that work?

Speaker 2 (06:01):
It goes on their caller. So, and it's by the way,
it's from Life three sixty, which they make tile. They're
like well known for tracking devices and their app is
really good for tracking family members. So they did a
really good job. This little thing is great. Like every
time I leave my house, it's like, you know, with
the trackers I've been testing it, it's like I name
my pet Bud. It's like budd has left your house.
I'm like, oh, okay.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
Okay, So you can get more information about all the
things we just talked about in a whole lot more
when you check out Rich's website, it's richon Tech dot TV.
You can follow him on Instagram at rich on tech
and you can see him do that Amazon by feature. Also,
you can listen to him live right here on KFI.
It's Rich on Tech every Saturday from eleven to two.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
Thank you, Rich, Thanks Amy.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
All Right, have a great week.