July 15, 2025 • 23 mins
(July 15,2025)
KKTLA & KFI tech reporter Rich DeMuro joins the show for ‘Tech Tuesday.’ Today, Rich talks about Samsung’s new foldable phones, Google’s Gemini has a new video feature, and gone.com a new take on junk pick-up. Drones are the future of warfare, so why is the U.S. not making any? The death of the ‘click to cancel’ rule.
KKTLA & KFI tech reporter Rich DeMuro joins the show for ‘Tech Tuesday.’ Today, Rich talks about Samsung’s new foldable phones, Google’s Gemini has a new video feature, and gone.com a new take on junk pick-up. Drones are the future of warfare, so why is the U.S. not making any? The death of the ‘click to cancel’ rule.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
KFI AM six forty Taco Tuesday, July fifteenth. And I
wish this was television and you could see both Will
and Amy dancing in their chairs. And that's worth everything
to see that. Yes, I can, yes, all right, this
is why. Well I'm not gonna get into that. Just
(00:30):
you both dance very well in your chairs. You don't
look stupid at all. I just want to point that out.
All right, Rich to Morrow, who I'm assuming can dance too,
I have no idea KTLA's tech reporter, You can't.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I can't either.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Worth a damn host of Rich on Tech Saturdays here
at KFI eleven to two, his free newsletter rich on
Tech dot TV.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
All right, Rich, good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
To you, Good morning to Bill.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Okay, we have a few things to talk about Samsung,
which comes out with it seems like Samsung comes out
with new phones every three minutes. Where the where the
iPhone comes out what once a year with the new phone.
It seems like all we talk about Samsung with their
new phones, and.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
This is the new foldable phones.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I'm aware of the flip phone, but the foldable phone
I haven't seen it.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
It's like a book, right, it opens up like a book.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yep, yep, yes, correct.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
So yeah, so I'm a little confused. Is the screen
fill up the entire book?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Yeah? So you know you've got two of these. So
the Fold seven is the one that opens up like
a book, and yes, it's got the big screen on
the outside, and then it's got an even bigger screen
on the inside, so it opens up to become like
almost a squared looking tablet and they've made that really nice.
And then you've got the Flip seven. That's the one
that is like our old school flip phones, like the
(02:00):
Motorola Razor back in the day, and both of these phones.
So it was in New York for the event. You know,
Samsung did a big event in Brooklyn at some place
like call like the fish fish hatchery or something. It
was like they where they you know, bring all the
fish in and like ship it out to the restaurants
and stuff in the city. Anyway, they they really improve
these phones this time, like, like incredibly so. So the
(02:23):
screens on them are wider and much more usable. The
screens are bigger, they extend to like the entire edges
of these devices. So all the issues that the reviewers
had in the past six years of these devices have
pretty much gone away. Now. Of course, everyone's focusing on
battery life. That's like the main downside on the big
(02:43):
fold because they didn't really improve that. But for everyday use,
it's now to a place where people are going to
start recommending these And you mentioned the a word Apple.
They're expected to make a foldable next year, and you
know when that happens, I imagine that they're going to
get a lot of publicity for that because it's Apple
(03:03):
and people like their iPhone, they like their iOS operating system,
and so even though Samsung has been doing this for
six years and they've been doing it really good, of
course Apple is really going to command the headlines when
that happens next year.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
You forgive my ignorance, whereas you know, I'm not a
tech maven at all. You open up the phone and
it's the big screen filling up both sides as in
a book. I'm assuming that down the middle you've got
obviously a line or separation.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
How do they deal with that or that just happens
like a book?
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, you do see, Well, the screen does take up
the entire So just imagine on the outside there is
a screen, and it's a pretty big screen. It's like
now the standard size of a smartphone on the outside.
So you can just use the outside screen all day long,
things like checking your email, doing tech stuff like that.
But then when you open up the screen, that's when
you get that big screen inside, and you can use
(04:01):
that to watch videos, look at your emails on a
bigger screen, do multitasking, all that kind of stuff. The
crease in the middle is definitely there because it is
one big screen that folds in half, but you really
do not notice it because you're looking at the stuff
going on on the screen. You're not focusing on that crease. Now,
if you look for it, Bill, you'll definitely see it.
(04:23):
But and that's the thing that Apple has said, of
course not publicly, but the reports about Apple is that
they really wanted to come out with their foldable saying
there's no crease. You don't even see the crease, and
that's really what they've been trying to do. I don't
think it's a big deal with the crease. It's just
not even something your brain notices when you're using this
phone day to day.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Okay, fair enough. And how big is the phone?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Is that you said it's as big as the Ultra
I have the big Apple phone, and it's big. It's not,
you know, and it's hard putting in my it's hard
putting into my pocket, and it's not all that comfortable
talking into it, holding it up to your ear and talking.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Well.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
The way they made this the Fold seven, which is
the bigger one, it's pretty much the outside screen is
about the size of an iPhone screen, just a little
bit smaller than when you open it up, it's got
an eight inch screen inside. They also added their top
tier camera, so now has a better camera than ever before.
That was one of the big drawbacks of this device,
that there was not a good camera on it. It
(05:27):
also has a higher price tag, so they did raise
the price.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
By one hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
So two thousand dollars this for this phone come on, so.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
And people line up to buy it.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
At some point? Is there a price limit? I mean,
where do people stop buying phones? Three thousand dollars, eight
thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Here's a deal.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Most people do not walk into the store and take
cash out of their pocket and pay two thousand dollars.
They take that two thousand dollars number one, they have
a trade in. So, for instance, I was at my
kids karate the other day. The guy sitting next to
me has the old model of the Fold. Of course
I'm a nerd, so I go, hey, have you seen
the new one. I've got it right here, and he's like, no,
I just ordered it online and I've been waiting to
(06:06):
see it, you know, because these don't come out for
another ten days. And so we you know, showing him
the phone, we are talking about it, and you know,
he'll trade in that old phone. He'll get probably five
six hundred dollars for that old phone. That knocks the
price down to fifteen hundred bucks. Then, by the way,
you're dividing up the price of that phone over the
next thirty six months, which is what most people do
in America.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
To buy their phone.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
So now you're down to you know, another fifty bucks
a month, whatever it is. That's how people buy their phones.
They don't set two thousand dollars here, here are the bills.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
So you don't really get hit, or you don't feel
it very much.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
All right, A couple of things I'm going to talk
about Gone dot Com, a new take on junk pickup.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Explain that please, Yeah, I thought this was a pretty
interesting startup. You know, I'm always checking out the latest
startups seeing what they're doing, and not all of them
make it, but this one I thought was pretty interesting
because we've all heard of like one a hundred Got Junk,
all these junk places that come to your house and
it costs a lot of money to get your stuff
picked up. So this gone dot com is putting a
(07:08):
twist on that, and they've got some investors from one
eight hundred Junk and offer up. But what you do
is you schedule a free pickup. They come with their
trucks and they take away your items that could be furniture,
smart devices, appliances. But basically this stuff has to be reusable, right,
It can't just be trash. And so what they do
is they will pick this stuff up for free, but
(07:30):
then they will resell it on their own, so that's
where they make their money. So I thought that was
a pretty smart idea.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
It started.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
It's in Seattle right now, and they want to expand
to other cities. Right now, they're averaging twenty to twenty
five pickups a week. So people clearly like the idea
of getting rid of their stuff, which bill, you know,
you live in La. It's like people just put stuff
on their curb and it's like hopefully someone just picks
it up. This is like cutting out the middleman.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, but here's the question. Who determines if it's reused
bull or not? And if I'm leaving let's say some
piece of electronic out there, how do they know whether
it works or not?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Well, it cites AI, so they're using AI to scan
the items and see which ones have some value to
them on the spot. So I'm guessing they leave behind
the stuff that they think is complete garbage and they
don't want to be, you know, tasked with getting rid
of that. I'm sure some stuff gets caught in the middle.
You know, they may take something and then later on
find out nobody wants it. But again, it's kind of
(08:32):
a smart idea for you know, instead of there's leaving
stuff out there for someone to find or going through
the process of selling it yourself. You know, a lot
of times I'll have something that it's completely good and
I just want to get rid of it, but I
don't really want to deal with the whole offer up thing.
You put something on there. Next thing, you know, you're
getting a million messages from a million different people, Hey
can I come by? Can I come by? Can I
(08:53):
come by? And half of it works out, half of
it doesn't. So the idea that I can take an
old couch, give it to this company and they can
figure out what to do with it, to me, makes
a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Does anybody ask what you've done on the couch?
Speaker 3 (09:08):
I'd put a list?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Okay, disclaimer, Yeah, okay, fair enough. That's I find that
really interesting in terms of it is so subjective.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
But if it works, I guess it works. Yeah, so
we don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
We will not know if it works until next year,
if we're still talking about it, right, But you know,
it seems like a decent idea. I mean, money Hunter
got junk and all these other companies they do a
pretty good job.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
So yeah, yeah, they.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Pick up but they'll pick up anything. I mean, they
pick up everything is junk to them. And I'm assuming
you pay for it. And I don't even know what
they charge for picking up jobs.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
It's a lot. It's a lot. It's you know, it's
more than you think. Let's put it that way. So
a lot of these junk companies, they come to your
place and it's it's always more than you think it is,
especially for like the franchises, because you know you've got
the franchise fees to pay. But with that said, when
you're done with this stuff, it does feel really nice
that it's just out of your you know vision.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, and I yeah, well, I think if you put
your stuff out there, you can call the city for
couches and stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
And I, you know, I don't know the answer to that.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
No, no, I do. I do know the answer on that,
and it's incredible. It's called La three one one. If
you live in the city of Los Angeles. I don't
think a lot of people realize this. You download the app,
you take a picture, and you can schedule it for free.
They will take your bulky items and they do it
really well, like they tell you the exact day and
time they're coming, and it's usually either your garbage day
(10:37):
or the day after. And I've used that for a
lot of stuff and they will definitely take it, believe me.
So La it's called my LA three one one. Download
the app and it's also great for getting your garbage
cans replaced, Like if you have a you know, cracked
can or something, they will come and repair it or
replace it for free.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Oh it's I thought it's Oh, I guess that's where
you go because I thought it was just.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
The authority that handles your trash and unless you have
a private trash pickup and depends if you're leaving in
one of those communities or not.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
And I don't know. I don't do trash.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Yeah, this is this is for La City folks, you
know what I mean, like people that live and I'm
sure there's Orange County, there's you know, it depends on
your jurisdiction. I know kfive reaches a large swath of
La County, so or you know, southern California. So this
is just for LA folks.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
By the way, I do trash. Unfortunately, I'm I was
just wishful thinking I never did because I always had
family members to do it. Now I'm stuck with it
and it is no fun. It is absolutely no what
taking the trash?
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Yeah, Bill, are you really complaining about bringing out the
trash cans?
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yes? All right? Rich?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Thank yeah, yeah, Okay, what can I tell you? Rich?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
We'll catch you next week and this Saturday, eleven to
two right here on KFI.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Rich you have a good day.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Thank you, Bell.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Take care.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
He was shocked and I'm complaining about taking out the
trash cans. Now you know I'm joking, don't you No? Okay,
Neil's shaking his head. Okay, now getting a little bit serious.
The US is at the forefront of military technology.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
I mean we are there.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
We've got the B two bomber, the F one fighter,
the F or, the F eleven, the F thirty five,
the Raptor. We've got artillery that can't be touched, you
know where we can be touched.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Where we're far, far far behind. Drones, We're not even close.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
China is eighty percent of the drone market in the world,
and not only commercial but also military. Well, it's almost
no difference between commercial and military.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
You go to Ukraine and they.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Just got the Patriot missiles, the missile system, the anti drone,
anti missile system, and what happens is it reads a
missile coming in much like the Iron Dome in Israel,
and up launches a missile million dollars per missile, and
it probably catches ninety percent. You can buy a drone
(13:25):
off the shelf for three hundred dollars and load it
with explosives.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Or you can get a very sophisticated big.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Drone for three thousand dollars and load it with explosives,
and you can send thousands of these.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
What was it a few days ago?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Russia sent up over three thousand drones and all you
need is five percent to get in, three percent to
get in and look at the damage it can do.
And drones are dirt cheap, so we're way behind.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Just happened in Alaska.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
The Army had this tests from prospective drone manufacturers, and
one of them, long range OME drone from a startup,
shoots in the sky, scans the ground for a target
it had been programmed to recognize, and then dived and
if it had an explosive, of course it would have
(14:25):
blown up. The problem is it missed completely. Then you
have another drone nose diving at launch. And these were
launched by well, they were asked to launch by the
Department of Defense because the Department of Defense realizes we
are so far far back behind drones and we just
(14:49):
need to.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Do it, and we're not very good at it at all.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
And Trent Emmicker, a project manager at Military Defense Innovation
unit of this company, says, we're not getting the American
warfighter what they need to survive warfare.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Today.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
They have these hand held drones, these miniature drones. Now
the United States has a fairer number of those, but
those are reconnaissance drones, you know, little ones in suitcases
that kind of they throw in the air or they
fly off by themselves. We're not talking about military grade
drones that can be modified, I mean.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Literally off the shelf.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Pete Hexas said, we're falling way behind while our adversaries
have produced millions of cheap drones. Were mired and bureaucratic
red tape, and so the President signed an order last
month and it's called unleashing American Drone Dominance.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Because we try, we have to get ahead.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
The problem is China, which then sells drones around the world,
and Russia has drones that we can't touch. The bottom line,
according to the Department of Defense, if we don't move
ahead on this one, all the wonderful technology that we
have is not going to touch the battlefield, especially when
you can send up three thousand, four thousand, five thousand
(16:18):
at a time, and a company that is part of
Russia walks into a Walmart and picks up all the
drones off the shel takes them back to the factory
and puts explosives on them.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
We're way behind now. Have you ever been not canceled?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
When you want to cancel for a subscription of some kind?
Some companies require cancelations if you want out to be
done by phone, even in person, rarely even finding a
cancelation option on a website that you bought the serve.
This cancelation can require multiple steps, or you got to
(17:05):
do it by phone and you're on hold for minutes
or hours. And then you've ever been on hold where
all of a sudden it hangs up on you and
you start all over again.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
You want to blow your brains out or blow their
brains out. So what happens?
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Millions of consumers, including me, probably you have ended up
paying for services or goods no longer needed or wanted,
and sometimes for years.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
So last year, the FTC finalized a.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Click to cancel rule requiring it has to be as
easy to cancel as it is to sign up. If
it's one click to sign up, it's one click to
unsign up to bail out. Well, of course, immediately there
was a lawsuit by the US Chamber of Commerce and
other business lobbies to fight that, and a three judge
(17:59):
appel court in Saint Louis, two judges appointed by Trump
won by George hw throughout the rule and that happened
a week before is to take effect. And this was
five years of regulatory work and it was thrown out
on illegal technicality. Now does the rule get resurrected resurrected.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
We don't know. The FTC is still considering options.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
The two top GOP commissioners, including Andrew Ferguson, who was
became chair under Donald Trump, in a three to two
vote that they lost, dissented. They dissented and said we
don't want to make the rule final. And the Commission
has sued. Now keep in mind the FTC was a
(18:53):
lot of them, Winner Biden, Donald Trump has put two
on the FTC one chair, and they descended, but they
haven't won.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
We'll see what happens.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
The Commission sued several companies over their automatic renewing subscription
services Amazon, Adobe, Uber. Those cases are pending, and in
announcing the Uber lawsuit, Ferguson then had to say, Americans
are tired of getting signed up for unwanted subscriptions that
seem impossible to cancel, and the Commission is fighting back
(19:28):
on the American people. All right, Now, here's a little
bit of a background on this. The target of this
rule was negative option programs. Businesses assume that customers have
consented for automatic retools renewals. In other words, you click on,
you don't want to ever cancel your subscription ever, unless
(19:51):
you want to cancel, and then we're going to make
it very difficult for you to cancel.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
But the initial thought is you want to stay on.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Well, you can imagine companies are making a mint from
these things, just a mint. While can you imagine what
an opinion poll say. You think that opinion polls would
tell us that people don't like it, Well, guess what
people don't like it? So I love this one. This
(20:20):
is one of those great, great comments. This is like
a big Pharma saying smoking is good for you. It's
like the no Big Tobacco is saying smoking is good
for you, it's healthy, Big Pharma saying lower prices hurt seniors.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
And this is a yes. The companies being sued.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I think it was Amazon say the facts the FTC
are saying factually unsupported, legally unprecedented, and wholly antithetical to
the FTC's made Yep, auto renewal terms are frankly appreciated
(21:08):
by the consumer. Why because that's one thing more they
have they can take off their plate, because their lives
are so busy that we're helping the consumer in making
it impossible to cancel. Because that's complicated stuff. We want
to take that off your plate so you don't have
(21:28):
to worry about it. How do you not worry about it?
You stay in a subscription mode for the rest of
your life.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
I love business when they say stuff.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Like this, tobacco is good for you, Paying higher prices
is for drugs good for you?
Speaker 1 (21:49):
I mean completely. I'm sorry. What does that have to
do with easy opt out? Well, it's even opting out
take people. Here's what they said.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Okay, automatic renewals people appreciate because they take one thing
off their plate. This is a quote given busy workdays,
hectic family schedules, other demanding circumstances.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
So we're helping you by taking this off your plate.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
But if I don't want it anymore, shouldn't it be
simple for me to do.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Well, let's just no.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
No, we're helping you by basically keeping auto renewals. This
is this is Tobacco is good for you. Lower prices
on drugs is good for you.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
That's what this is.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
I mean the hootspa that these companies have or beyond
just beyond belief.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
All right, we're done, guys.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
I am taking phone calls for Handle on the law
off the air eight seven seven five to two zero
eleven fifty eight seven seven five to zero eleven fifty
starting in just a moment. No commercials, no breaks, no news,
no weather, and no patience. So I go through these
calls pretty quickly. Eight seven seven five to zero eleven fifty.
(23:03):
Tomorrow morning once again, wake up call starts at five
am with Amy and Will Neil and I come aboard.
I think Michelle is not here tomorrow and comes back
and so the whole team is here, even Kono, hey.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Your favorite person on the show.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Absolutely absolutely, eh, okay, I'll catch it tomorrow. This is
KFI AM six forty. You've been listening to the Bill
Handle show. Catch my show Monday through Friday six am
to nine am and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app,
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
KFI AM six forty Taco Tuesday, July fifteenth. And I
wish this was television and you could see both Will
and Amy dancing in their chairs. And that's worth everything
to see that. Yes, I can, yes, all right, this
is why. Well I'm not gonna get into that. Just
(00:30):
you both dance very well in your chairs. You don't
look stupid at all. I just want to point that out.
All right, Rich to Morrow, who I'm assuming can dance too,
I have no idea KTLA's tech reporter, You can't.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I can't either.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Worth a damn host of Rich on Tech Saturdays here
at KFI eleven to two, his free newsletter rich on
Tech dot TV.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
All right, Rich, good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
To you, Good morning to Bill.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Okay, we have a few things to talk about Samsung,
which comes out with it seems like Samsung comes out
with new phones every three minutes. Where the where the
iPhone comes out what once a year with the new phone.
It seems like all we talk about Samsung with their
new phones, and.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
This is the new foldable phones.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I'm aware of the flip phone, but the foldable phone
I haven't seen it.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
It's like a book, right, it opens up like a book.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yep, yep, yes, correct.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
So yeah, so I'm a little confused. Is the screen
fill up the entire book?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Yeah? So you know you've got two of these. So
the Fold seven is the one that opens up like
a book, and yes, it's got the big screen on
the outside, and then it's got an even bigger screen
on the inside, so it opens up to become like
almost a squared looking tablet and they've made that really nice.
And then you've got the Flip seven. That's the one
that is like our old school flip phones, like the
(02:00):
Motorola Razor back in the day, and both of these phones.
So it was in New York for the event. You know,
Samsung did a big event in Brooklyn at some place
like call like the fish fish hatchery or something. It
was like they where they you know, bring all the
fish in and like ship it out to the restaurants
and stuff in the city. Anyway, they they really improve
these phones this time, like, like incredibly so. So the
(02:23):
screens on them are wider and much more usable. The
screens are bigger, they extend to like the entire edges
of these devices. So all the issues that the reviewers
had in the past six years of these devices have
pretty much gone away. Now. Of course, everyone's focusing on
battery life. That's like the main downside on the big
(02:43):
fold because they didn't really improve that. But for everyday use,
it's now to a place where people are going to
start recommending these And you mentioned the a word Apple.
They're expected to make a foldable next year, and you
know when that happens, I imagine that they're going to
get a lot of publicity for that because it's Apple
(03:03):
and people like their iPhone, they like their iOS operating system,
and so even though Samsung has been doing this for
six years and they've been doing it really good, of
course Apple is really going to command the headlines when
that happens next year.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
You forgive my ignorance, whereas you know, I'm not a
tech maven at all. You open up the phone and
it's the big screen filling up both sides as in
a book. I'm assuming that down the middle you've got
obviously a line or separation.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
How do they deal with that or that just happens
like a book?
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, you do see, Well, the screen does take up
the entire So just imagine on the outside there is
a screen, and it's a pretty big screen. It's like
now the standard size of a smartphone on the outside.
So you can just use the outside screen all day long,
things like checking your email, doing tech stuff like that.
But then when you open up the screen, that's when
you get that big screen inside, and you can use
(04:01):
that to watch videos, look at your emails on a
bigger screen, do multitasking, all that kind of stuff. The
crease in the middle is definitely there because it is
one big screen that folds in half, but you really
do not notice it because you're looking at the stuff
going on on the screen. You're not focusing on that crease. Now,
if you look for it, Bill, you'll definitely see it.
(04:23):
But and that's the thing that Apple has said, of
course not publicly, but the reports about Apple is that
they really wanted to come out with their foldable saying
there's no crease. You don't even see the crease, and
that's really what they've been trying to do. I don't
think it's a big deal with the crease. It's just
not even something your brain notices when you're using this
phone day to day.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Okay, fair enough. And how big is the phone?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Is that you said it's as big as the Ultra
I have the big Apple phone, and it's big. It's not,
you know, and it's hard putting in my it's hard
putting into my pocket, and it's not all that comfortable
talking into it, holding it up to your ear and talking.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Well.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
The way they made this the Fold seven, which is
the bigger one, it's pretty much the outside screen is
about the size of an iPhone screen, just a little
bit smaller than when you open it up, it's got
an eight inch screen inside. They also added their top
tier camera, so now has a better camera than ever before.
That was one of the big drawbacks of this device,
that there was not a good camera on it. It
(05:27):
also has a higher price tag, so they did raise
the price.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
By one hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
So two thousand dollars this for this phone come on, so.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
And people line up to buy it.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
At some point? Is there a price limit? I mean,
where do people stop buying phones? Three thousand dollars, eight
thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Here's a deal.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Most people do not walk into the store and take
cash out of their pocket and pay two thousand dollars.
They take that two thousand dollars number one, they have
a trade in. So, for instance, I was at my
kids karate the other day. The guy sitting next to
me has the old model of the Fold. Of course
I'm a nerd, so I go, hey, have you seen
the new one. I've got it right here, and he's like, no,
I just ordered it online and I've been waiting to
(06:06):
see it, you know, because these don't come out for
another ten days. And so we you know, showing him
the phone, we are talking about it, and you know,
he'll trade in that old phone. He'll get probably five
six hundred dollars for that old phone. That knocks the
price down to fifteen hundred bucks. Then, by the way,
you're dividing up the price of that phone over the
next thirty six months, which is what most people do
in America.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
To buy their phone.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
So now you're down to you know, another fifty bucks
a month, whatever it is. That's how people buy their phones.
They don't set two thousand dollars here, here are the bills.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
So you don't really get hit, or you don't feel
it very much.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
All right, A couple of things I'm going to talk
about Gone dot Com, a new take on junk pickup.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Explain that please, Yeah, I thought this was a pretty
interesting startup. You know, I'm always checking out the latest
startups seeing what they're doing, and not all of them
make it, but this one I thought was pretty interesting
because we've all heard of like one a hundred Got Junk,
all these junk places that come to your house and
it costs a lot of money to get your stuff
picked up. So this gone dot com is putting a
(07:08):
twist on that, and they've got some investors from one
eight hundred Junk and offer up. But what you do
is you schedule a free pickup. They come with their
trucks and they take away your items that could be furniture,
smart devices, appliances. But basically this stuff has to be reusable, right,
It can't just be trash. And so what they do
is they will pick this stuff up for free, but
(07:30):
then they will resell it on their own, so that's
where they make their money. So I thought that was
a pretty smart idea.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
It started.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
It's in Seattle right now, and they want to expand
to other cities. Right now, they're averaging twenty to twenty
five pickups a week. So people clearly like the idea
of getting rid of their stuff, which bill, you know,
you live in La. It's like people just put stuff
on their curb and it's like hopefully someone just picks
it up. This is like cutting out the middleman.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, but here's the question. Who determines if it's reused
bull or not? And if I'm leaving let's say some
piece of electronic out there, how do they know whether
it works or not?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Well, it cites AI, so they're using AI to scan
the items and see which ones have some value to
them on the spot. So I'm guessing they leave behind
the stuff that they think is complete garbage and they
don't want to be, you know, tasked with getting rid
of that. I'm sure some stuff gets caught in the middle.
You know, they may take something and then later on
find out nobody wants it. But again, it's kind of
(08:32):
a smart idea for you know, instead of there's leaving
stuff out there for someone to find or going through
the process of selling it yourself. You know, a lot
of times I'll have something that it's completely good and
I just want to get rid of it, but I
don't really want to deal with the whole offer up thing.
You put something on there. Next thing, you know, you're
getting a million messages from a million different people, Hey
can I come by? Can I come by? Can I
(08:53):
come by? And half of it works out, half of
it doesn't. So the idea that I can take an
old couch, give it to this company and they can
figure out what to do with it, to me, makes
a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Does anybody ask what you've done on the couch?
Speaker 3 (09:08):
I'd put a list?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Okay, disclaimer, Yeah, okay, fair enough. That's I find that
really interesting in terms of it is so subjective.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
But if it works, I guess it works. Yeah, so
we don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
We will not know if it works until next year,
if we're still talking about it, right, But you know,
it seems like a decent idea. I mean, money Hunter
got junk and all these other companies they do a
pretty good job.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
So yeah, yeah, they.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Pick up but they'll pick up anything. I mean, they
pick up everything is junk to them. And I'm assuming
you pay for it. And I don't even know what
they charge for picking up jobs.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
It's a lot. It's a lot. It's you know, it's
more than you think. Let's put it that way. So
a lot of these junk companies, they come to your
place and it's it's always more than you think it is,
especially for like the franchises, because you know you've got
the franchise fees to pay. But with that said, when
you're done with this stuff, it does feel really nice
that it's just out of your you know vision.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, and I yeah, well, I think if you put
your stuff out there, you can call the city for
couches and stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
And I, you know, I don't know the answer to that.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
No, no, I do. I do know the answer on that,
and it's incredible. It's called La three one one. If
you live in the city of Los Angeles. I don't
think a lot of people realize this. You download the app,
you take a picture, and you can schedule it for free.
They will take your bulky items and they do it
really well, like they tell you the exact day and
time they're coming, and it's usually either your garbage day
(10:37):
or the day after. And I've used that for a
lot of stuff and they will definitely take it, believe me.
So La it's called my LA three one one. Download
the app and it's also great for getting your garbage
cans replaced, Like if you have a you know, cracked
can or something, they will come and repair it or
replace it for free.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Oh it's I thought it's Oh, I guess that's where
you go because I thought it was just.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
The authority that handles your trash and unless you have
a private trash pickup and depends if you're leaving in
one of those communities or not.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
And I don't know. I don't do trash.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Yeah, this is this is for La City folks, you
know what I mean, like people that live and I'm
sure there's Orange County, there's you know, it depends on
your jurisdiction. I know kfive reaches a large swath of
La County, so or you know, southern California. So this
is just for LA folks.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
By the way, I do trash. Unfortunately, I'm I was
just wishful thinking I never did because I always had
family members to do it. Now I'm stuck with it
and it is no fun. It is absolutely no what
taking the trash?
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Yeah, Bill, are you really complaining about bringing out the
trash cans?
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yes? All right? Rich?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Thank yeah, yeah, Okay, what can I tell you? Rich?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
We'll catch you next week and this Saturday, eleven to
two right here on KFI.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Rich you have a good day.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Thank you, Bell.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Take care.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
He was shocked and I'm complaining about taking out the
trash cans. Now you know I'm joking, don't you No? Okay,
Neil's shaking his head. Okay, now getting a little bit serious.
The US is at the forefront of military technology.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
I mean we are there.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
We've got the B two bomber, the F one fighter,
the F or, the F eleven, the F thirty five,
the Raptor. We've got artillery that can't be touched, you
know where we can be touched.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Where we're far, far far behind. Drones, We're not even close.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
China is eighty percent of the drone market in the world,
and not only commercial but also military. Well, it's almost
no difference between commercial and military.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
You go to Ukraine and they.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Just got the Patriot missiles, the missile system, the anti drone,
anti missile system, and what happens is it reads a
missile coming in much like the Iron Dome in Israel,
and up launches a missile million dollars per missile, and
it probably catches ninety percent. You can buy a drone
(13:25):
off the shelf for three hundred dollars and load it
with explosives.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Or you can get a very sophisticated big.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Drone for three thousand dollars and load it with explosives,
and you can send thousands of these.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
What was it a few days ago?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Russia sent up over three thousand drones and all you
need is five percent to get in, three percent to
get in and look at the damage it can do.
And drones are dirt cheap, so we're way behind.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Just happened in Alaska.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
The Army had this tests from prospective drone manufacturers, and
one of them, long range OME drone from a startup,
shoots in the sky, scans the ground for a target
it had been programmed to recognize, and then dived and
if it had an explosive, of course it would have
(14:25):
blown up. The problem is it missed completely. Then you
have another drone nose diving at launch. And these were
launched by well, they were asked to launch by the
Department of Defense because the Department of Defense realizes we
are so far far back behind drones and we just
(14:49):
need to.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Do it, and we're not very good at it at all.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
And Trent Emmicker, a project manager at Military Defense Innovation
unit of this company, says, we're not getting the American
warfighter what they need to survive warfare.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Today.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
They have these hand held drones, these miniature drones. Now
the United States has a fairer number of those, but
those are reconnaissance drones, you know, little ones in suitcases
that kind of they throw in the air or they
fly off by themselves. We're not talking about military grade
drones that can be modified, I mean.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Literally off the shelf.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Pete Hexas said, we're falling way behind while our adversaries
have produced millions of cheap drones. Were mired and bureaucratic
red tape, and so the President signed an order last
month and it's called unleashing American Drone Dominance.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Because we try, we have to get ahead.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
The problem is China, which then sells drones around the world,
and Russia has drones that we can't touch. The bottom line,
according to the Department of Defense, if we don't move
ahead on this one, all the wonderful technology that we
have is not going to touch the battlefield, especially when
you can send up three thousand, four thousand, five thousand
(16:18):
at a time, and a company that is part of
Russia walks into a Walmart and picks up all the
drones off the shel takes them back to the factory
and puts explosives on them.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
We're way behind now. Have you ever been not canceled?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
When you want to cancel for a subscription of some kind?
Some companies require cancelations if you want out to be
done by phone, even in person, rarely even finding a
cancelation option on a website that you bought the serve.
This cancelation can require multiple steps, or you got to
(17:05):
do it by phone and you're on hold for minutes
or hours. And then you've ever been on hold where
all of a sudden it hangs up on you and
you start all over again.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
You want to blow your brains out or blow their
brains out. So what happens?
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Millions of consumers, including me, probably you have ended up
paying for services or goods no longer needed or wanted,
and sometimes for years.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
So last year, the FTC finalized a.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Click to cancel rule requiring it has to be as
easy to cancel as it is to sign up. If
it's one click to sign up, it's one click to
unsign up to bail out. Well, of course, immediately there
was a lawsuit by the US Chamber of Commerce and
other business lobbies to fight that, and a three judge
(17:59):
appel court in Saint Louis, two judges appointed by Trump
won by George hw throughout the rule and that happened
a week before is to take effect. And this was
five years of regulatory work and it was thrown out
on illegal technicality. Now does the rule get resurrected resurrected.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
We don't know. The FTC is still considering options.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
The two top GOP commissioners, including Andrew Ferguson, who was
became chair under Donald Trump, in a three to two
vote that they lost, dissented. They dissented and said we
don't want to make the rule final. And the Commission
has sued. Now keep in mind the FTC was a
(18:53):
lot of them, Winner Biden, Donald Trump has put two
on the FTC one chair, and they descended, but they
haven't won.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
We'll see what happens.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
The Commission sued several companies over their automatic renewing subscription
services Amazon, Adobe, Uber. Those cases are pending, and in
announcing the Uber lawsuit, Ferguson then had to say, Americans
are tired of getting signed up for unwanted subscriptions that
seem impossible to cancel, and the Commission is fighting back
(19:28):
on the American people. All right, Now, here's a little
bit of a background on this. The target of this
rule was negative option programs. Businesses assume that customers have
consented for automatic retools renewals. In other words, you click on,
you don't want to ever cancel your subscription ever, unless
(19:51):
you want to cancel, and then we're going to make
it very difficult for you to cancel.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
But the initial thought is you want to stay on.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Well, you can imagine companies are making a mint from
these things, just a mint. While can you imagine what
an opinion poll say. You think that opinion polls would
tell us that people don't like it, Well, guess what
people don't like it? So I love this one. This
(20:20):
is one of those great, great comments. This is like
a big Pharma saying smoking is good for you. It's
like the no Big Tobacco is saying smoking is good
for you, it's healthy, Big Pharma saying lower prices hurt seniors.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
And this is a yes. The companies being sued.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
I think it was Amazon say the facts the FTC
are saying factually unsupported, legally unprecedented, and wholly antithetical to
the FTC's made Yep, auto renewal terms are frankly appreciated
(21:08):
by the consumer. Why because that's one thing more they
have they can take off their plate, because their lives
are so busy that we're helping the consumer in making
it impossible to cancel. Because that's complicated stuff. We want
to take that off your plate so you don't have
(21:28):
to worry about it. How do you not worry about it?
You stay in a subscription mode for the rest of
your life.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
I love business when they say stuff.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Like this, tobacco is good for you, Paying higher prices
is for drugs good for you?
Speaker 1 (21:49):
I mean completely. I'm sorry. What does that have to
do with easy opt out? Well, it's even opting out
take people. Here's what they said.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Okay, automatic renewals people appreciate because they take one thing
off their plate. This is a quote given busy workdays,
hectic family schedules, other demanding circumstances.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
So we're helping you by taking this off your plate.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
But if I don't want it anymore, shouldn't it be
simple for me to do.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Well, let's just no.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
No, we're helping you by basically keeping auto renewals. This
is this is Tobacco is good for you. Lower prices
on drugs is good for you.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
That's what this is.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
I mean the hootspa that these companies have or beyond
just beyond belief.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
All right, we're done, guys.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
I am taking phone calls for Handle on the law
off the air eight seven seven five to two zero
eleven fifty eight seven seven five to zero eleven fifty
starting in just a moment. No commercials, no breaks, no news,
no weather, and no patience. So I go through these
calls pretty quickly. Eight seven seven five to zero eleven fifty.
(23:03):
Tomorrow morning once again, wake up call starts at five
am with Amy and Will Neil and I come aboard.
I think Michelle is not here tomorrow and comes back
and so the whole team is here, even Kono, hey.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Your favorite person on the show.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Absolutely absolutely, eh, okay, I'll catch it tomorrow. This is
KFI AM six forty. You've been listening to the Bill
Handle show. Catch my show Monday through Friday six am
to nine am and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app,
The Bill Handel Show News
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