December 10, 2025 • 7 mins
KFI Tech Reporter Rich DeMuro joins Wake Up Call for ‘Wired Wednesday’! Rich talks about the Pebble Index Ring, Slates modular EV concept, and ways to connect with Santa.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's say good morning now to the host of Rich
on Tech on KFE 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 I have a quick question for you before
we dive into our topics today, and that is that
I got an email that appears to have been from Facebook,
and it basically says, hey, turn on advanced protections. Your
account requires security through advanced protection. And I don't know
if it's like things look so real now, I don't
(00:30):
know if it's real or not. But it did have
a click through, and so I didn't click through. But
is that a real thing?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Good call? It is real. It's called advanced protection, and basically, congratulations.
This is reserved for accounts that reach or have the
potential to reach a lot of people. And basically Facebook
is saying we are protecting you from you. So we're
going to put on some advanced protections, which basically involves
two factor authentication. They're automatically going to enable that, and
(00:59):
when anyone logs into your account, they're going to scrutinize
that log in a little more closely than any other
log in on their site. So it's a good thing.
And they're just basically trying to make sure that no
one uses your account, no one hacks it, no one
takes it over to spread misinformation. Okay, so that's good.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
But so if they're going to do that automatically, again,
things look so real now. And there was a way
to there's a click through it says turn on, you know,
advanced protection, and I was like, I can't click through
to that. So am I going to get that same
thing when I go to Facebook?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, you should get a notification when you go to Facebook.
But I agree, And this is what the hackers and
scammers do. They impersonate all the things that we know.
They make these very convincing emails that look like the
stuff that we actually get, like what you just said.
And so yes, in general, do not click any link
inside any email that comes to you that says, hey,
we need help with your account or you have to
(01:51):
do something, you have to make this change. Always go
to your account itself when in question directly there.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Okay, here's something else that I could certainly use, and
that is an external brain and it comes.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
This was so cool.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
It comes in the size of a ring.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yes, it's a it's a it's called the Pebble Index
O one and it's basically a tiny ring that records
your thoughts and it's super simple. It comes from the
guy who made the Pebble Watch. It's just a very
simple ring with a built in mic and a button.
And when you have an idea that hits your brain,
you just use your index finger your thumb to press
the button on your index finger ring and you record it.
(02:29):
It goes right to your phone, never get sent to
the internet, never gets sent to the cloud, and all
of your stuff is organized on your phone for easy
reference later. You can set reminders. The ring battery lasts
for about two years. It's seventy five dollars right now,
and when batteries up, you can send it back in
buy a new one, presumably. But kind of a cool
idea because it's it's less distracting than some other solutions
(02:52):
out there.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Well yeah, because I have brilliant ideas a lot rich
but you don't. We all but they're fleeting, you know,
and you go, what was I what was that idea?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Like?
Speaker 1 (03:02):
I have? So I think if you just had to
push the button and it's on your hand already and go,
hey da da, da da, and then you can remember
it later.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I already do this on my Apple Watch. I've got
an app called Whisper Memos that I love, Love Love,
Love love. And the thing that this does that's really
cool is not only does it record what you say,
but it transcribes it with like perfect accuracy. Like I'm
not kidding, it's it's insane. Like I went to a
session last night at Amazon Studios. I recorded the whole
thing an hour, got back every single thing perfectly in
(03:35):
my email in the morning, and then I can summarize
it and get the notes that I took, you know,
and all that kind of stuff. Anyway, but it emails
it to you. That's the trick. So it's in your
inbox when you get out of your car or wherever
you are when you come back to your computer.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Okay, And that one's the Whisper or that's the Pebble
Index ring.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
That's the Whisper Memos w H I S P E
R Memos dot com. And that's available for Apple Watch
and the iPhone. But I like it on the Apple Watch.
I just do one tap and boot, I'm recording.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
That sounds cool. Okay, So there's some new cars, and
they basically are like legos.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah, that's one way to describe them. This is called
the Slate ev it's from a startup that's going to
start selling these next year. And you know how back
in the day, when you buy a car, if you
got the base model, it was kind of junkie bare bones.
Well that's their entire business model. They're saying, look, we're
giving you bare bones. So this thing is really cheap.
The price keeps creeping up over the years. It started
at like under twenty now it's like mid twenties. But
(04:30):
the idea is that there's nothing in this car that
you don't need, including amy, no radio, what, no center console,
so you literally stick your phone in the middle. There's
not even bluetooth you have to These are all add ons,
Like if you don't want Bluetooth, you don't get it.
If you don't want speakers, you don't have them. I mean,
it's everything is an add on in this car. I
mean it's pretty wild. So you get the basics, you
(04:51):
get air conditioning and heat, you get rolled down windows,
and you get a little tiny dashboard that shows your
speed and things. But that's it. Everything else is an
add on.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Okay, I was going to ask about the Can you
imagine if we went back to roll down windows?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
You know what, how many times do you really put
down your windows? Think about it. I'm thinking about this
the other day. No, I don't want to hear them
the outside.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I want to be in my little cocoon.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Okay, I don't reality to creep in. I do not
blame you at all.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Rich Okay, but speaking of non reality, here's something. I
saw your picture that you posted on your Instagram of
you and Santa and we're going high tech for Christmas
this year, and it's not you and Santa.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
No, this is so wild. You got to check out
my instagram at rich On Tech. I posted a picture
of a retro mall Santa picture of me and Santa.
I sent it to my family. I said, oh, remember
this to my mom and dad and sisters and brothers.
And then a minute later I'm like, this is fake.
This never happened. And you basically take a picture of yourself,
you feed it into Google's Nano banana and you say,
(05:57):
and I'll give you the prompt. It's all my website
rich On Time TV. But you will not believe people
are sending me. Their pictures that they've created. They are
so realistic it's pretty wild craziness.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Okay, so that's your Ai Santa photo. And then there
is a live video chat service that you can have
the kids have a little chit chat with Santa.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, this is very realistic. It's kind of fun. It's
like almost like a FaceTime with Santa Santa dot Tavis
Tavus dot io. You basically log on and you can
chat with Santa. So I've got that on my website
as well, linked up that went viral last year. I
think they improved it this year, and so it's just
kind of a fun way for the kids to talk
with Santa. I also have a Santa telephone if you
(06:39):
want to spend some money on that. The kids can
connect with Santa using a telephone. That's all linked up
on the website as well. But you know, look, I'm
finding the techie ways to connect the old school days
of going to the mall. You know, who's got time
for that? Right?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Who wants to wait in that line? And the video
chat thing is that So that's an Ai Santa.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
It's an Ai Santa, but it is I mean, it's
Santa's helper. Let's be real. But it's it's quite good.
Dana can answer your questions, your members things about you.
It's it's pretty good.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Quandary, what do you tell your children? Is that real
Santa or is it memorys Santa? Remember memory?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
It depends you know how slick your kids are. I
think I you know, look, I think these are you know,
I've never met the real Santa, so I feel like
these are all Santa's helpers, you know what I mean? Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I like the way you're thinking. Okay, it's kfi's tech
guy and KTLA's tech guy too. Rich Demiro. You can
hear him live on rich on Tech every Saturday from
eleven to two. You can watch him on KTLA. You
can follow him on Instagram and see his Santa picture
at rich on Tech. Also his website with everything that
he talks about rich on Tech dot tv. And don't
(07:44):
forget to sign up for the newsletter.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Thank you Rich Demiro, Thank you Amy.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
All right, right, next week
Let's say good morning now to the host of Rich
on Tech on KFE 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 I have a quick question for you before
we dive into our topics today, and that is that
I got an email that appears to have been from Facebook,
and it basically says, hey, turn on advanced protections. Your
account requires security through advanced protection. And I don't know
if it's like things look so real now, I don't
(00:30):
know if it's real or not. But it did have
a click through, and so I didn't click through. But
is that a real thing?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Good call? It is real. It's called advanced protection, and basically, congratulations.
This is reserved for accounts that reach or have the
potential to reach a lot of people. And basically Facebook
is saying we are protecting you from you. So we're
going to put on some advanced protections, which basically involves
two factor authentication. They're automatically going to enable that, and
(00:59):
when anyone logs into your account, they're going to scrutinize
that log in a little more closely than any other
log in on their site. So it's a good thing.
And they're just basically trying to make sure that no
one uses your account, no one hacks it, no one
takes it over to spread misinformation. Okay, so that's good.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
But so if they're going to do that automatically, again,
things look so real now. And there was a way
to there's a click through it says turn on, you know,
advanced protection, and I was like, I can't click through
to that. So am I going to get that same
thing when I go to Facebook?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, you should get a notification when you go to Facebook.
But I agree, And this is what the hackers and
scammers do. They impersonate all the things that we know.
They make these very convincing emails that look like the
stuff that we actually get, like what you just said.
And so yes, in general, do not click any link
inside any email that comes to you that says, hey,
we need help with your account or you have to
(01:51):
do something, you have to make this change. Always go
to your account itself when in question directly there.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Okay, here's something else that I could certainly use, and
that is an external brain and it comes.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
This was so cool.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
It comes in the size of a ring.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yes, it's a it's a it's called the Pebble Index
O one and it's basically a tiny ring that records
your thoughts and it's super simple. It comes from the
guy who made the Pebble Watch. It's just a very
simple ring with a built in mic and a button.
And when you have an idea that hits your brain,
you just use your index finger your thumb to press
the button on your index finger ring and you record it.
(02:29):
It goes right to your phone, never get sent to
the internet, never gets sent to the cloud, and all
of your stuff is organized on your phone for easy
reference later. You can set reminders. The ring battery lasts
for about two years. It's seventy five dollars right now,
and when batteries up, you can send it back in
buy a new one, presumably. But kind of a cool
idea because it's it's less distracting than some other solutions
(02:52):
out there.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Well yeah, because I have brilliant ideas a lot rich
but you don't. We all but they're fleeting, you know,
and you go, what was I what was that idea?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Like?
Speaker 1 (03:02):
I have? So I think if you just had to
push the button and it's on your hand already and go,
hey da da, da da, and then you can remember
it later.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
I already do this on my Apple Watch. I've got
an app called Whisper Memos that I love, Love Love,
Love love. And the thing that this does that's really
cool is not only does it record what you say,
but it transcribes it with like perfect accuracy. Like I'm
not kidding, it's it's insane. Like I went to a
session last night at Amazon Studios. I recorded the whole
thing an hour, got back every single thing perfectly in
(03:35):
my email in the morning, and then I can summarize
it and get the notes that I took, you know,
and all that kind of stuff. Anyway, but it emails
it to you. That's the trick. So it's in your
inbox when you get out of your car or wherever
you are when you come back to your computer.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Okay, And that one's the Whisper or that's the Pebble
Index ring.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
That's the Whisper Memos w H I S P E
R Memos dot com. And that's available for Apple Watch
and the iPhone. But I like it on the Apple Watch.
I just do one tap and boot, I'm recording.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
That sounds cool. Okay, So there's some new cars, and
they basically are like legos.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah, that's one way to describe them. This is called
the Slate ev it's from a startup that's going to
start selling these next year. And you know how back
in the day, when you buy a car, if you
got the base model, it was kind of junkie bare bones.
Well that's their entire business model. They're saying, look, we're
giving you bare bones. So this thing is really cheap.
The price keeps creeping up over the years. It started
at like under twenty now it's like mid twenties. But
(04:30):
the idea is that there's nothing in this car that
you don't need, including amy, no radio, what, no center console,
so you literally stick your phone in the middle. There's
not even bluetooth you have to These are all add ons,
Like if you don't want Bluetooth, you don't get it.
If you don't want speakers, you don't have them. I mean,
it's everything is an add on in this car. I
mean it's pretty wild. So you get the basics, you
(04:51):
get air conditioning and heat, you get rolled down windows,
and you get a little tiny dashboard that shows your
speed and things. But that's it. Everything else is an
add on.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Okay, I was going to ask about the Can you
imagine if we went back to roll down windows?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
You know what, how many times do you really put
down your windows? Think about it. I'm thinking about this
the other day. No, I don't want to hear them
the outside.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I want to be in my little cocoon.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Okay, I don't reality to creep in. I do not
blame you at all.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Rich Okay, but speaking of non reality, here's something. I
saw your picture that you posted on your Instagram of
you and Santa and we're going high tech for Christmas
this year, and it's not you and Santa.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
No, this is so wild. You got to check out
my instagram at rich On Tech. I posted a picture
of a retro mall Santa picture of me and Santa.
I sent it to my family. I said, oh, remember
this to my mom and dad and sisters and brothers.
And then a minute later I'm like, this is fake.
This never happened. And you basically take a picture of yourself,
you feed it into Google's Nano banana and you say,
(05:57):
and I'll give you the prompt. It's all my website
rich On Time TV. But you will not believe people
are sending me. Their pictures that they've created. They are
so realistic it's pretty wild craziness.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Okay, so that's your Ai Santa photo. And then there
is a live video chat service that you can have
the kids have a little chit chat with Santa.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, this is very realistic. It's kind of fun. It's
like almost like a FaceTime with Santa Santa dot Tavis
Tavus dot io. You basically log on and you can
chat with Santa. So I've got that on my website
as well, linked up that went viral last year. I
think they improved it this year, and so it's just
kind of a fun way for the kids to talk
with Santa. I also have a Santa telephone if you
(06:39):
want to spend some money on that. The kids can
connect with Santa using a telephone. That's all linked up
on the website as well. But you know, look, I'm
finding the techie ways to connect the old school days
of going to the mall. You know, who's got time
for that? Right?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Who wants to wait in that line? And the video
chat thing is that So that's an Ai Santa.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
It's an Ai Santa, but it is I mean, it's
Santa's helper. Let's be real. But it's it's quite good.
Dana can answer your questions, your members things about you.
It's it's pretty good.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Quandary, what do you tell your children? Is that real
Santa or is it memorys Santa? Remember memory?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
It depends you know how slick your kids are. I
think I you know, look, I think these are you know,
I've never met the real Santa, so I feel like
these are all Santa's helpers, you know what I mean? Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
I like the way you're thinking. Okay, it's kfi's tech
guy and KTLA's tech guy too. Rich Demiro. You can
hear him live on rich on Tech every Saturday from
eleven to two. You can watch him on KTLA. You
can follow him on Instagram and see his Santa picture
at rich on Tech. Also his website with everything that
he talks about rich on Tech dot tv. And don't
(07:44):
forget to sign up for the newsletter.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Thank you Rich Demiro, Thank you Amy.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
All right, right, next week
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