August 11, 2026 • 25 mins
(August 11, 2026)
KTLA & KFI tech reporter Rich DeMuro joins the show for ‘Tech Tuesday.’ Today, Rich talks about California deleting your information for free, families needing a secret code word again, and Claude is adding an invisible watermark to AI content. LAUSD budget crisis remains severe, fiscal experts say, as district works to calm fears. The rise of the unstoppable American tourist.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're list Saints k I AM six forty. The bill
handles show on demand on the IHEARTRADIOPKFI AM six forty
bill handle Here it is a Tuesday Morning Taco Tuesday,
August eleventh. Big stories we're looking at in Columbia. That
seven point four magnitude earthquake hit big time in a
(00:22):
couple of cities, particularly, Thousands of people are missing and
it was brutal, entire neighborhoods collapsing. And well, you may
want to buy a ticket tomorrow for the jackpot, the
powerball jackpot. The grand prize estimated to be nine hundred
(00:43):
and seventy five million dollars yep. And by the way,
of course, you don't have a chance of winning, but
you do have a chance one in about three hundred
and seventy million. So and the argument is somebody's gotta in.
It's only one in two hundred and ninety two. Bill Okay, Sunday, Okay,
someone has to win. The caveat is it's not you.
(01:05):
I just wanted to point that out. Have a good day, Okay,
It's time for a tech segment. Rich Demurrow with us.
Rich has heard Saturday's eleven Am to two pm or
right here on KFI every day on KTLA, his website,
rich on tech dot TV, lots of great information, Instagram,
rich at rich on tech rich good morning.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Good morning to you, Bill.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Okay, Oh, a couple of stories. I want to ask
one of them is the last story, but I want
to make it the first story, and that has to
time travel. Is happening on LinkedIn. Keep in mind, rich
sends me these topics, so I don't have to think
anything through because I am the laziest human being that
you have ever met. Time travel. You know what I
(01:51):
think of, you know what we think of, So explain
that and LinkedIn.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well, number one, I love time travel. I'm a big
fan of back to the few, so of course this
was this story was a natural for me. But it
really has nothing to do with time traveling. Basically, it
is folks on LinkedIn rewriting their old job descriptions, jobs
that they left years ago, and researchers found that they
(02:16):
do it right before they start looking for a new job,
so they're calling it LinkedIn time travel. And basically this
means you're going back and changing the title or description
of an old job after you already left one in
five users did this. At least one in five users
did this at least once between twenty twenty and twenty
twenty six, and the median edit happens four years after
(02:40):
you leave a job, So basically, four years after you
leave a job, you're saying, hmm, this might sound better
saying I did this there, Especially when it comes to AI,
people are adding in AI kind of aspects to their
old jobs.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Now, couldn't they do this?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
There's the kicker bill. Okay, well people already do this,
But here's the kicker. They figured out. They did math,
and they figured out that once you do this, you
are sixty six percent more likely to change employers. So
they're saying that this happens about six months before someone
changes jobs. So if you see your coworkers changing their
LinkedIn to all this new fancy schmancy AI talk, you
(03:17):
know that they're probably looking for a job.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
How about just going on LinkedIn? Doesn't that tell you something?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well? I think, I mean see, that's the that's the
smart part about LinkedIn that they did this a long
time ago. They turned it into a social media network,
so you know, you can kind of masquerade under Oh
I'm just looking at different people's posts and learning things
about my industry, which is all very true, but it
keeps you on there every day. And by the way,
every after you scroll through about four posts, it's like, hey,
(03:47):
we found a job that might be great for you,
and you go, huh, let me see. Oh, okay, cool,
let me check that out.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Yeah, as in as if employers aren't going to immediately
know what you're actually doing. Heye, words, families need them again,
And when I think of secret code words, For example,
Neil and I are going to be at this dinner
at the Anaheim White House this Sunday night, and people
(04:14):
are invited to go, you know, pay and sit at
our table. But you need a secret code word. You
need a secret code word to get to there, and
in our case, it happens to be Neil is a dick,
and therefore, yeah, no, it's a super secret code word.
But I don't think you mean that. I just had
to say that because I thought it was hilarious.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
It is hilarious, but I thought you were gonna say
you two had a secret code work to like stop
having to talk to your fans, you know, like if
they just talk your ear off.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, I don't talk to anybody, so I don't have
to worry about that.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Oh well, that'll make for an awkward table. But anyway,
here's what I thought was interesting about this story. So,
you know, back in the day with kids and family,
you know, back in the stranger danger era, which you know,
if you still have kids, it's obviously a consideration you
might have had a secret code word with your family, like, Hey,
if someone tries to pick you up from the why
today and tells you mom and dad are in an accident,
(05:12):
ask them for the code word so that they are
not just stealing you or kidnapping you. And it's interesting
because that worked pretty well for many families in the eighties, nineties, whatever.
But now tech experts are arguing that you would actually
need this again because of AI scams. So Bill, I'm
I'm sure we've talked about it here all the AI
(05:32):
voice cloning scams that are out there where basically grandma
gets a call from grandson saying, hell, I've been in
an accident. I need help. I need you to send
me money, and the grandma may send money immediately, or hey,
your family member, we've kidnapped them. They blah blah, blah
all this. I mean because of AI voice scams, this
stuff is happening a lot. But here's the deal. If
(05:55):
you have a secret code word with your family members,
you can just ask that person on the other end, Okay,
I hear you, Charlie, what's the secret code word? And
if they don't know, guess what they are a scam artist.
You can hang up on them. The problem is these
people want to keep you on the phone. They want
us to create a sense of urgency, and they want
you to act before you tell anyone else in the world.
(06:16):
And they usually tell you not to do that.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Okay, So AI cannot somehow effectuate that. AI cannot help
the bad guys or the good guys know what that
word is, right, that's sort.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Of because a secret it's between you and your family.
You don't put that, you don't write that understanding, or
you don't post it online.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah. I'm just curious how far AI can go. By
the way, I once was quote not a victim, but
I once was the recipient of one of those. My
kid was traveling and of course I got the phone
call saying that your child's been arrested and we have
to make bail. And they won't let go. They won't
let them out until you make bail. And I remember bonding.
(07:01):
Just keep the kid. Okay, by the way, that's not
far from the truth, okay, Rich Regarding the Samsung new phones,
the foldables, and I want to make a point and
ask you a question. The technology involving phones is now
incrementally going up from phone to phone. You're not looking
(07:24):
at any massive new technology. So it's little bits and pieces,
a better camera, a little bit, better battery life a
little bit. So I'm assuming they have to move, well,
they have to move backwards. They have to you know,
retro is the big thing. So retro. Yeah, two thousand
(07:46):
and six is the new two thousand and five. So
let's talk about the new foldables from SAMs Samsung, and
they are a surprising hit. Did you expect them to
be this popular?
Speaker 2 (07:58):
You know? That's a good question. No, I did not,
and especially the one that is turning out to be
the most popular one. So there's two We've talked about
these before. There is the standard kind of tall and
skinny Galaxy Z fold A Ultra, and then there's this short,
sort of short and wide, looks like a passport Galaxy
(08:19):
Z fold eight and the smaller one is much lighter.
It's it's a little weird because you're scrolling a lot
because the screen is so short compared to a regular smartphone.
But when you open it up, these are foldables. When
you open it up, it's got this nice big screen
that lets you watch movies, watch YouTube, also read books,
(08:41):
read articles, and it's really good for all that because
it's so lightweight and simple and easy to hold that
people just are finding that they love it for this,
and it's a content consumption device, kind of like a
tablet in your pocket, which you know, I take a
little issue with because my entire career is building content, right,
like creating content, So for me to adopt a phone
(09:02):
that's more for consuming something is a little weird. But
for the average person that's you know, mostly scrolling through
Instagram and reading things on their phone and watching videos,
it's great anyway. Samsung, I think they were a little
surprised by this too. They are reportedly increasing production into
the millions of units. They didn't think they were going
to sell that many. And then we have Apple coming
(09:24):
out with a theoretically a very similar phone in just
a couple of weeks here, and I think that's going
to do even more to sell more for Samsung.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Yeah. Look, one of the things about phones, my favorite
was that razor, the Motorola razor that had the flip
and all you did was talk into it. That was
my favorite and easy to hold, and as far as
I'm concerned, the easiest to you. So now I have
the big iPhone, the Blasto five thousand, whatever the latest
iPhone is, and it's big, and it fills up the
(09:56):
palm of my hand and I hate holding it up
to my ear, so I usually use speaker, and I
see people talking into the speaker where they hold it
horizontal and talking to the end, and no one seems
very comfortable with that, And so it almost seems like
a contradiction in terms of conflict, where you have to
(10:21):
do this to get all of the information and doing
content if you will, or give up all of that
if you're going to have a phone that's comfortable. Is
that fair?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah? No, everything you said I agree with. And I
test a lot of phones, and I would say majority
are tiring to hold up to your ear at this point,
and you don't want to. And that's why you're right
like people, they either avoid calls and they text, or
you know, they hold their phone up. I see a
lot of drivers, which by the way, they shouldn't be.
(10:51):
It really incenses me when I see this, but they're
sitting there in their car, you know, holding the phone
up like you mentioned, vertically or horizontally and talking into
it as a drive and swerve all over the place.
But I will say, and I think that's why people
are liking this foldable from Samsung, is that it actually
is very comfortable in your hand. You're not doing a
lot of finger gymnastics to reach the different parts of
(11:13):
the screen. All the buttons are in the right place.
You can swipe her on the screen with one hand.
It's very lightweight, and so I think it's almost like
we've been giving people more and more and more and
more and more over the years, and this one, in
a way, it's more, yes, because it's a foldable phone
and it opens, but it's also less. It has less
camera lenses, it's lighter, it's a little shorter than your
(11:33):
typical phone, and so it almost feels like something that's
completely different than what we've had for the past ten
years that people are like, Ah, that's refreshing. Now, the
Apple one and this one both costs so much money
that it's prohibitively expensive for a lot of people. But
like we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, now these
companies are leasing phones, they're spicing the payments out over
you know, seventy two months. It's like, you know, you
(11:54):
get your mortgage, you mix your phone payment into the mortgage.
So it's much easier to get nowadays, apparently, And who.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Is going to switch from, for example, Apple to an
Android the Samsung. I mean, the thought of learning a
new system for me. I mean they've got me. I
use Apple, and there is no chance I'm going to
relearn any kind of way to use a phone. What's
that kind of thinking or you're kind of thinking on that, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Great question. No, I don't even I don't even try
to persuade my first like ten years of my career,
I was always trying to persuade people to switch one
way or the other, right, Like, here's what's good about Apple,
here's what's good about Samsung. Here's why you should choose this,
here's why you should choose that. Now it's there's no
way people are switching at this point because you are
so ingrained in your ways. Number one, you don't want
(12:44):
to learn something new. And number two, you know, Apple
specifically has done a very good job of getting all
of your data into their servers. And yes, you could
get it out, of course, you could switch, you could
try other things, but the average miror mortal does not
want to do that. And Samsung made a bit big
deal and Google about how easy they've made it to
switch from iPhone to Android at this point with all
(13:05):
their new tools, you know, brings over your stuff, But
I still don't see a lot of people doing that,
which is why I think when Apple comes out with
their foldable, it's going to do pretty good numbers because
we're seeing so much interest in Samsung's side of things,
and we know people aren't switching from iPhone to a
Samsung right now.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
So you're only selling to the choir. That's basically it.
It's the same system. Well Apple doesn't. There is no
I don't see any company that Apple is actually giving
any issue to or cannibalizing Apple, Is that right? Your
iPhones an iPhone is an.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
iPhone, Yeah, yeah, and it's just it's its own thing.
It's become the premium phone to have in the world. Now,
by the way, when you talk about phones on a
global scale, you know, the Chinese manufacturers are really doing
some interesting things. You go to different countries, there's a
much wider variety of phones out there that not just
that people are using, but also for sale. So in
(14:04):
the US, you know, we're hamstrung. We've got Samsung, We've
got Apple, and then to a lesser extent, Google Pixel.
That's basically it.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Yeah, and I look at Chinese phones that I can't
tell the difference. They all look the same to me.
All right, Uh, thank you sir. We will catch you
again this Saturday, eleven to two o'clock right here on KFI.
Rich have a good win.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Thank you, Bill.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
You are right, Neil. You want to tell us about
what's going on with the Dodgers. Boy do I Bill?
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Your official home for Dodgers Baseball is AM five seventy
LAS Sports. Tonight, you're back to back world champion Dodgers
take on the Royals with first pitch at seven. Listen
on AM five to seventy LA Sports and stream on
the iHeartRadio app brought to you by Sapporo. Great Moments
start with sapporo beer, good with sushi, great with baseball.
(14:54):
Back to you, Bill.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Yeah, it used to be just hot dogs and peanuts
and no, now it's gourmet food, extraordinary. Yeah, and sports
events are more expensive in the food, although infinitely better,
is just a little touch more expensive, as are hot dogs,
(15:17):
by the way, and the foot long hot dogs. I
think they're gonna try two feet long hot dogs because well,
never mind, Okay, jealousy abounds, yes it does, fair enough,
All right, let me start. It's a story about La
Unified school district. This is where I went to school,
(15:38):
and I spent all the way from kindergarten right through
high school. So I am a product of LA Unified.
And I know it doesn't seem like I am literate,
but I am. And that's because I went to La
Unified and it was it was a good school district,
so second largest in the country. It is now have
(16:00):
problems and why well, because La Unified is basically ungovernable.
It has become such a challenge because there is such
an influx, mainly Hispanic students coming in, a lot of
them illegal, and a lot of them don't speak English,
and that makes it very difficult to teach because the
(16:20):
argument is they're teaching at the lowest common and I'm
a denominator because regular school, at the level that students
go from kindergarten to first to fifth to junior high
high school has to be well held back a bit
a lot. So that's a starter with LA Unified. Also,
it's top heavy with management and that's a problem. Now
(16:45):
let's talk about the BUDGETLA LA Unified School District. As
schools reopen and many are reopening next Monday, the district
leaders are trying to calm fears over this looming budget
crisis and thousands of job cuts, and county and state
(17:06):
officials have backed off immediate intervention because well, they came
up with a forty five day letter telling LA Unified
you have better balance your budget. If you don't, we
are going to take over the school. It's going to
be us. Or the other possibility is LA Unified because
(17:30):
it can't meet its responsibilities, could just go bankrupt. You know,
school district can go bankrupt, bankrupt utilities could go bankrupt.
Counties can go bankrupt. You know, Orange County went bankrupt
a few years ago. An entire county just went bankrupt.
Nothing stops a school district from going bankrupt. So in
(17:51):
order to stop that, the state and the county has said,
you don't get this stuff straightened out, we are going
to take over and the school board will have nothing
to say about it. Well, it turns out that LAUSD
has become compliant with this budget deadline. And how have
(18:12):
they done it? Well? Taking the can and cooking and
kicking it down the road in a major, major way.
District leaders are downplaying fears that this budget crisis number
one could lead to the county takeover, which is going
to mandate to move forward with plans to cut thousands
(18:34):
of jobs. If La County takes over the school board,
thousands of jobs are going to immediately be cut. Maybe
employees are going to accept unpaid furlough days as part
of it, closing an unspecified number of schools, either buildings
or entire campuses. But they met the requirements. They meet
(19:00):
the requirements. They backloaded because the vast majority don't take
effect this year. So they made it this year and
it all starts next year and basically in a couple
of years, it's going to be so overwhelming. What's going
to happen? Well, if thousands of people are not let
go administrators, teachers, if schools do not close down because
(19:26):
fewer and fewer students go and the buildings are still there,
if employees are no longer being paid relatively astronomical funds
of money, and I know that teachers deserve a lot more.
And that's a whole different topic, because teachers will never
get paid enough as far as I'm concerned. One of
the big reasons is according to the county, and this
(19:49):
is both county and state officials say that the reason,
one of the big reasons is that LA Unified negotiated
this contract with employees that they simply couldn't afford. They
just couldn't afford it. And the employees won out, the
union one out. And so what's going to happen, Well,
(20:13):
I don't know, but it's certainly different. It's certainly different
than when I went to school. But again, ungovernable, I think,
so LA Unified is very very different animal. It really is.
You know, they used to give us crayons when we
were kids to eat. Yes, we ate crayons, that's correct.
(20:35):
And during recess, for example, in junior high, the food
was cheap and it was good and my favorite with
those cheese sandwiches, which were normally fifteen cents until unless
the government gave free cheese to the schools surplus cheese,
government cheese, that's gov m e nt government cheese. And
(20:57):
then we paid ten cents for those great grill cheese sandwiches. Okay,
a story about traveling. You go back to the fifties
and sixties air travel, and it was a big deal.
First of all, is expensive and you're ready for this.
People used to dress up. Men would be in coat
and ties, women we in dresses. I mean it was
(21:19):
just a huge deal where it was just you know,
it was a special event. Today, you know, big deal. Well,
how about this. Americans took a record twenty four million
trips to Europe in twenty twenty five. Wow, more than
fifty percent of Americans now hold passports. In nineteen ninety
(21:40):
it was five percent. And it used to be that
European countries loved tourists. I mean hated Americans, the ugly Americans,
but they loved the tourists. Why because tourists brought in money,
big money, particularly Americans. Americans spend a lot of money.
They tip because we're a tipping society. Things have changed.
(22:03):
Why is that, Well, because there's too many, and that
means that, for example, airbnbs are now all over Europe,
and property has gone up in value and people can't
afford it anymore, and things are too expensive, and things
are too and the cities themselves are too crowded. I
remember a couple of years ago going to Venice in
(22:24):
the middle of the summer. It was literally a bumper
to bumper going over the bridges. You'd have people on
the right which'd be going in one direction, people on
the left going in the other direction, and it was
basically you're crammed together. I mean it was like sardines
and you go, come on, And it's much that way.
(22:47):
For example, Portugal received nearly five times as many US
visitors as it did a decade earlier. Greece took in
four times as many. And so it is why, Well,
first of all, we have a supercharge US economy, so
we have a larger and wealthier class of Americans. Travel
(23:09):
is now essential rather than a luxury. Older Americans hold
one hundred and ten trillion dollars in wealth, and they're
living longer, and they want to make the most out
of those ears and travel is kind of meat. So
what's going on with this? Well, Europe is being overrun
(23:32):
not only by other tourists from other parts of the world,
but as far as Americans are concerned, it's going back
to the ugly Americans. And by the way, we aren't ugly.
It used to be where there were ugly Americans. Not
so much anymore, not even close. And then that old
saw about the French being rude and crude, You know what,
(23:53):
The French are actually very nice. The first time I
went to France, I had a French Canadian girlfriend and
I was expecting waiters to be rude to me, and
so I had her teach me some French phrases like
your mother was a collaborator during World War two, wasn't she?
That didn't go over very well. Or your parents were
(24:15):
here in the Shampstalyse with Nazi flags as Hitler marched
down the Champs Dealyse. Didn't go over very well. Rude,
rude frenchmen and women. Okay, we're done, just And by
the way, if you're going to go to Europe, first
of all, airfare is very inexpensive relative to what it was,
(24:38):
and you are going to see crowds like you cannot
believe you're better off going to Disneyland on the hottest,
most crowded day of the season. It's going to be
less crowded than what you're going to see at the
major sites in Europe. Okay, we're done, guys. We come
back tomorrow morning five to six wake up call with
(24:59):
Amy and Will, Neil and I jump aboard at six
right till about now, and then you have Kono and
Ann and a quick word about the ratings just came
out and we have exploded in ratings. And that's in
spite of the rest of the morning crew. It's all
about me. It's that simple. Okay, We're done. Gary and
(25:21):
Shanner up next. KFI Am six. 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 list Saints k I AM six forty. The bill
handles show on demand on the IHEARTRADIOPKFI AM six forty
bill handle Here it is a Tuesday Morning Taco Tuesday,
August eleventh. Big stories we're looking at in Columbia. That
seven point four magnitude earthquake hit big time in a
(00:22):
couple of cities, particularly, Thousands of people are missing and
it was brutal, entire neighborhoods collapsing. And well, you may
want to buy a ticket tomorrow for the jackpot, the
powerball jackpot. The grand prize estimated to be nine hundred
(00:43):
and seventy five million dollars yep. And by the way,
of course, you don't have a chance of winning, but
you do have a chance one in about three hundred
and seventy million. So and the argument is somebody's gotta in.
It's only one in two hundred and ninety two. Bill Okay, Sunday, Okay,
someone has to win. The caveat is it's not you.
(01:05):
I just wanted to point that out. Have a good day, Okay,
It's time for a tech segment. Rich Demurrow with us.
Rich has heard Saturday's eleven Am to two pm or
right here on KFI every day on KTLA, his website,
rich on tech dot TV, lots of great information, Instagram,
rich at rich on tech rich good morning.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Good morning to you, Bill.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Okay, Oh, a couple of stories. I want to ask
one of them is the last story, but I want
to make it the first story, and that has to
time travel. Is happening on LinkedIn. Keep in mind, rich
sends me these topics, so I don't have to think
anything through because I am the laziest human being that
you have ever met. Time travel. You know what I
(01:51):
think of, you know what we think of, So explain
that and LinkedIn.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well, number one, I love time travel. I'm a big
fan of back to the few, so of course this
was this story was a natural for me. But it
really has nothing to do with time traveling. Basically, it
is folks on LinkedIn rewriting their old job descriptions, jobs
that they left years ago, and researchers found that they
(02:16):
do it right before they start looking for a new job,
so they're calling it LinkedIn time travel. And basically this
means you're going back and changing the title or description
of an old job after you already left one in
five users did this. At least one in five users
did this at least once between twenty twenty and twenty
twenty six, and the median edit happens four years after
(02:40):
you leave a job, So basically, four years after you
leave a job, you're saying, hmm, this might sound better
saying I did this there, Especially when it comes to AI,
people are adding in AI kind of aspects to their
old jobs.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Now, couldn't they do this?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
There's the kicker bill. Okay, well people already do this,
But here's the kicker. They figured out. They did math,
and they figured out that once you do this, you
are sixty six percent more likely to change employers. So
they're saying that this happens about six months before someone
changes jobs. So if you see your coworkers changing their
LinkedIn to all this new fancy schmancy AI talk, you
(03:17):
know that they're probably looking for a job.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
How about just going on LinkedIn? Doesn't that tell you something?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well? I think, I mean see, that's the that's the
smart part about LinkedIn that they did this a long
time ago. They turned it into a social media network,
so you know, you can kind of masquerade under Oh
I'm just looking at different people's posts and learning things
about my industry, which is all very true, but it
keeps you on there every day. And by the way,
every after you scroll through about four posts, it's like, hey,
(03:47):
we found a job that might be great for you,
and you go, huh, let me see. Oh, okay, cool,
let me check that out.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Yeah, as in as if employers aren't going to immediately
know what you're actually doing. Heye, words, families need them again,
And when I think of secret code words, For example,
Neil and I are going to be at this dinner
at the Anaheim White House this Sunday night, and people
(04:14):
are invited to go, you know, pay and sit at
our table. But you need a secret code word. You
need a secret code word to get to there, and
in our case, it happens to be Neil is a dick,
and therefore, yeah, no, it's a super secret code word.
But I don't think you mean that. I just had
to say that because I thought it was hilarious.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
It is hilarious, but I thought you were gonna say
you two had a secret code work to like stop
having to talk to your fans, you know, like if
they just talk your ear off.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Yeah, I don't talk to anybody, so I don't have
to worry about that.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Oh well, that'll make for an awkward table. But anyway,
here's what I thought was interesting about this story. So,
you know, back in the day with kids and family,
you know, back in the stranger danger era, which you know,
if you still have kids, it's obviously a consideration you
might have had a secret code word with your family, like, Hey,
if someone tries to pick you up from the why
today and tells you mom and dad are in an accident,
(05:12):
ask them for the code word so that they are
not just stealing you or kidnapping you. And it's interesting
because that worked pretty well for many families in the eighties, nineties, whatever.
But now tech experts are arguing that you would actually
need this again because of AI scams. So Bill, I'm
I'm sure we've talked about it here all the AI
(05:32):
voice cloning scams that are out there where basically grandma
gets a call from grandson saying, hell, I've been in
an accident. I need help. I need you to send
me money, and the grandma may send money immediately, or hey,
your family member, we've kidnapped them. They blah blah, blah
all this. I mean because of AI voice scams, this
stuff is happening a lot. But here's the deal. If
(05:55):
you have a secret code word with your family members,
you can just ask that person on the other end, Okay,
I hear you, Charlie, what's the secret code word? And
if they don't know, guess what they are a scam artist.
You can hang up on them. The problem is these
people want to keep you on the phone. They want
us to create a sense of urgency, and they want
you to act before you tell anyone else in the world.
(06:16):
And they usually tell you not to do that.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Okay, So AI cannot somehow effectuate that. AI cannot help
the bad guys or the good guys know what that
word is, right, that's sort.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Of because a secret it's between you and your family.
You don't put that, you don't write that understanding, or
you don't post it online.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah. I'm just curious how far AI can go. By
the way, I once was quote not a victim, but
I once was the recipient of one of those. My
kid was traveling and of course I got the phone
call saying that your child's been arrested and we have
to make bail. And they won't let go. They won't
let them out until you make bail. And I remember bonding.
(07:01):
Just keep the kid. Okay, by the way, that's not
far from the truth, okay, Rich Regarding the Samsung new phones,
the foldables, and I want to make a point and
ask you a question. The technology involving phones is now
incrementally going up from phone to phone. You're not looking
(07:24):
at any massive new technology. So it's little bits and pieces,
a better camera, a little bit, better battery life a
little bit. So I'm assuming they have to move, well,
they have to move backwards. They have to you know,
retro is the big thing. So retro. Yeah, two thousand
(07:46):
and six is the new two thousand and five. So
let's talk about the new foldables from SAMs Samsung, and
they are a surprising hit. Did you expect them to
be this popular?
Speaker 2 (07:58):
You know? That's a good question. No, I did not,
and especially the one that is turning out to be
the most popular one. So there's two We've talked about
these before. There is the standard kind of tall and
skinny Galaxy Z fold A Ultra, and then there's this short,
sort of short and wide, looks like a passport Galaxy
(08:19):
Z fold eight and the smaller one is much lighter.
It's it's a little weird because you're scrolling a lot
because the screen is so short compared to a regular smartphone.
But when you open it up, these are foldables. When
you open it up, it's got this nice big screen
that lets you watch movies, watch YouTube, also read books,
(08:41):
read articles, and it's really good for all that because
it's so lightweight and simple and easy to hold that
people just are finding that they love it for this,
and it's a content consumption device, kind of like a
tablet in your pocket, which you know, I take a
little issue with because my entire career is building content, right,
like creating content, So for me to adopt a phone
(09:02):
that's more for consuming something is a little weird. But
for the average person that's you know, mostly scrolling through
Instagram and reading things on their phone and watching videos,
it's great anyway. Samsung, I think they were a little
surprised by this too. They are reportedly increasing production into
the millions of units. They didn't think they were going
to sell that many. And then we have Apple coming
(09:24):
out with a theoretically a very similar phone in just
a couple of weeks here, and I think that's going
to do even more to sell more for Samsung.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Yeah. Look, one of the things about phones, my favorite
was that razor, the Motorola razor that had the flip
and all you did was talk into it. That was
my favorite and easy to hold, and as far as
I'm concerned, the easiest to you. So now I have
the big iPhone, the Blasto five thousand, whatever the latest
iPhone is, and it's big, and it fills up the
(09:56):
palm of my hand and I hate holding it up
to my ear, so I usually use speaker, and I
see people talking into the speaker where they hold it
horizontal and talking to the end, and no one seems
very comfortable with that, And so it almost seems like
a contradiction in terms of conflict, where you have to
(10:21):
do this to get all of the information and doing
content if you will, or give up all of that
if you're going to have a phone that's comfortable. Is
that fair?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah? No, everything you said I agree with. And I
test a lot of phones, and I would say majority
are tiring to hold up to your ear at this point,
and you don't want to. And that's why you're right
like people, they either avoid calls and they text, or
you know, they hold their phone up. I see a
lot of drivers, which by the way, they shouldn't be.
(10:51):
It really incenses me when I see this, but they're
sitting there in their car, you know, holding the phone
up like you mentioned, vertically or horizontally and talking into
it as a drive and swerve all over the place.
But I will say, and I think that's why people
are liking this foldable from Samsung, is that it actually
is very comfortable in your hand. You're not doing a
lot of finger gymnastics to reach the different parts of
(11:13):
the screen. All the buttons are in the right place.
You can swipe her on the screen with one hand.
It's very lightweight, and so I think it's almost like
we've been giving people more and more and more and
more and more over the years, and this one, in
a way, it's more, yes, because it's a foldable phone
and it opens, but it's also less. It has less
camera lenses, it's lighter, it's a little shorter than your
(11:33):
typical phone, and so it almost feels like something that's
completely different than what we've had for the past ten
years that people are like, Ah, that's refreshing. Now, the
Apple one and this one both costs so much money
that it's prohibitively expensive for a lot of people. But
like we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, now these
companies are leasing phones, they're spicing the payments out over
you know, seventy two months. It's like, you know, you
(11:54):
get your mortgage, you mix your phone payment into the mortgage.
So it's much easier to get nowadays, apparently, And who.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Is going to switch from, for example, Apple to an
Android the Samsung. I mean, the thought of learning a
new system for me. I mean they've got me. I
use Apple, and there is no chance I'm going to
relearn any kind of way to use a phone. What's
that kind of thinking or you're kind of thinking on that, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Great question. No, I don't even I don't even try
to persuade my first like ten years of my career,
I was always trying to persuade people to switch one
way or the other, right, Like, here's what's good about Apple,
here's what's good about Samsung. Here's why you should choose this,
here's why you should choose that. Now it's there's no
way people are switching at this point because you are
so ingrained in your ways. Number one, you don't want
(12:44):
to learn something new. And number two, you know, Apple
specifically has done a very good job of getting all
of your data into their servers. And yes, you could
get it out, of course, you could switch, you could
try other things, but the average miror mortal does not
want to do that. And Samsung made a bit big
deal and Google about how easy they've made it to
switch from iPhone to Android at this point with all
(13:05):
their new tools, you know, brings over your stuff, But
I still don't see a lot of people doing that,
which is why I think when Apple comes out with
their foldable, it's going to do pretty good numbers because
we're seeing so much interest in Samsung's side of things,
and we know people aren't switching from iPhone to a
Samsung right now.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
So you're only selling to the choir. That's basically it.
It's the same system. Well Apple doesn't. There is no
I don't see any company that Apple is actually giving
any issue to or cannibalizing Apple, Is that right? Your
iPhones an iPhone is an.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
iPhone, Yeah, yeah, and it's just it's its own thing.
It's become the premium phone to have in the world. Now,
by the way, when you talk about phones on a
global scale, you know, the Chinese manufacturers are really doing
some interesting things. You go to different countries, there's a
much wider variety of phones out there that not just
that people are using, but also for sale. So in
(14:04):
the US, you know, we're hamstrung. We've got Samsung, We've
got Apple, and then to a lesser extent, Google Pixel.
That's basically it.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Yeah, and I look at Chinese phones that I can't
tell the difference. They all look the same to me.
All right, Uh, thank you sir. We will catch you
again this Saturday, eleven to two o'clock right here on KFI.
Rich have a good win.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Thank you, Bill.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
You are right, Neil. You want to tell us about
what's going on with the Dodgers. Boy do I Bill?
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Your official home for Dodgers Baseball is AM five seventy
LAS Sports. Tonight, you're back to back world champion Dodgers
take on the Royals with first pitch at seven. Listen
on AM five to seventy LA Sports and stream on
the iHeartRadio app brought to you by Sapporo. Great Moments
start with sapporo beer, good with sushi, great with baseball.
(14:54):
Back to you, Bill.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Yeah, it used to be just hot dogs and peanuts
and no, now it's gourmet food, extraordinary. Yeah, and sports
events are more expensive in the food, although infinitely better,
is just a little touch more expensive, as are hot dogs,
(15:17):
by the way, and the foot long hot dogs. I
think they're gonna try two feet long hot dogs because well,
never mind, Okay, jealousy abounds, yes it does, fair enough,
All right, let me start. It's a story about La
Unified school district. This is where I went to school,
(15:38):
and I spent all the way from kindergarten right through
high school. So I am a product of LA Unified.
And I know it doesn't seem like I am literate,
but I am. And that's because I went to La
Unified and it was it was a good school district,
so second largest in the country. It is now have
(16:00):
problems and why well, because La Unified is basically ungovernable.
It has become such a challenge because there is such
an influx, mainly Hispanic students coming in, a lot of
them illegal, and a lot of them don't speak English,
and that makes it very difficult to teach because the
(16:20):
argument is they're teaching at the lowest common and I'm
a denominator because regular school, at the level that students
go from kindergarten to first to fifth to junior high
high school has to be well held back a bit
a lot. So that's a starter with LA Unified. Also,
it's top heavy with management and that's a problem. Now
(16:45):
let's talk about the BUDGETLA LA Unified School District. As
schools reopen and many are reopening next Monday, the district
leaders are trying to calm fears over this looming budget
crisis and thousands of job cuts, and county and state
(17:06):
officials have backed off immediate intervention because well, they came
up with a forty five day letter telling LA Unified
you have better balance your budget. If you don't, we
are going to take over the school. It's going to
be us. Or the other possibility is LA Unified because
(17:30):
it can't meet its responsibilities, could just go bankrupt. You know,
school district can go bankrupt, bankrupt utilities could go bankrupt.
Counties can go bankrupt. You know, Orange County went bankrupt
a few years ago. An entire county just went bankrupt.
Nothing stops a school district from going bankrupt. So in
(17:51):
order to stop that, the state and the county has said,
you don't get this stuff straightened out, we are going
to take over and the school board will have nothing
to say about it. Well, it turns out that LAUSD
has become compliant with this budget deadline. And how have
(18:12):
they done it? Well? Taking the can and cooking and
kicking it down the road in a major, major way.
District leaders are downplaying fears that this budget crisis number
one could lead to the county takeover, which is going
to mandate to move forward with plans to cut thousands
(18:34):
of jobs. If La County takes over the school board,
thousands of jobs are going to immediately be cut. Maybe
employees are going to accept unpaid furlough days as part
of it, closing an unspecified number of schools, either buildings
or entire campuses. But they met the requirements. They meet
(19:00):
the requirements. They backloaded because the vast majority don't take
effect this year. So they made it this year and
it all starts next year and basically in a couple
of years, it's going to be so overwhelming. What's going
to happen? Well, if thousands of people are not let
go administrators, teachers, if schools do not close down because
(19:26):
fewer and fewer students go and the buildings are still there,
if employees are no longer being paid relatively astronomical funds
of money, and I know that teachers deserve a lot more.
And that's a whole different topic, because teachers will never
get paid enough as far as I'm concerned. One of
the big reasons is according to the county, and this
(19:49):
is both county and state officials say that the reason,
one of the big reasons is that LA Unified negotiated
this contract with employees that they simply couldn't afford. They
just couldn't afford it. And the employees won out, the
union one out. And so what's going to happen, Well,
(20:13):
I don't know, but it's certainly different. It's certainly different
than when I went to school. But again, ungovernable, I think,
so LA Unified is very very different animal. It really is.
You know, they used to give us crayons when we
were kids to eat. Yes, we ate crayons, that's correct.
(20:35):
And during recess, for example, in junior high, the food
was cheap and it was good and my favorite with
those cheese sandwiches, which were normally fifteen cents until unless
the government gave free cheese to the schools surplus cheese,
government cheese, that's gov m e nt government cheese. And
(20:57):
then we paid ten cents for those great grill cheese sandwiches. Okay,
a story about traveling. You go back to the fifties
and sixties air travel, and it was a big deal.
First of all, is expensive and you're ready for this.
People used to dress up. Men would be in coat
and ties, women we in dresses. I mean it was
(21:19):
just a huge deal where it was just you know,
it was a special event. Today, you know, big deal. Well,
how about this. Americans took a record twenty four million
trips to Europe in twenty twenty five. Wow, more than
fifty percent of Americans now hold passports. In nineteen ninety
(21:40):
it was five percent. And it used to be that
European countries loved tourists. I mean hated Americans, the ugly Americans,
but they loved the tourists. Why because tourists brought in money,
big money, particularly Americans. Americans spend a lot of money.
They tip because we're a tipping society. Things have changed.
(22:03):
Why is that, Well, because there's too many, and that
means that, for example, airbnbs are now all over Europe,
and property has gone up in value and people can't
afford it anymore, and things are too expensive, and things
are too and the cities themselves are too crowded. I
remember a couple of years ago going to Venice in
(22:24):
the middle of the summer. It was literally a bumper
to bumper going over the bridges. You'd have people on
the right which'd be going in one direction, people on
the left going in the other direction, and it was
basically you're crammed together. I mean it was like sardines
and you go, come on, And it's much that way.
(22:47):
For example, Portugal received nearly five times as many US
visitors as it did a decade earlier. Greece took in
four times as many. And so it is why, Well,
first of all, we have a supercharge US economy, so
we have a larger and wealthier class of Americans. Travel
(23:09):
is now essential rather than a luxury. Older Americans hold
one hundred and ten trillion dollars in wealth, and they're
living longer, and they want to make the most out
of those ears and travel is kind of meat. So
what's going on with this? Well, Europe is being overrun
(23:32):
not only by other tourists from other parts of the world,
but as far as Americans are concerned, it's going back
to the ugly Americans. And by the way, we aren't ugly.
It used to be where there were ugly Americans. Not
so much anymore, not even close. And then that old
saw about the French being rude and crude, You know what,
(23:53):
The French are actually very nice. The first time I
went to France, I had a French Canadian girlfriend and
I was expecting waiters to be rude to me, and
so I had her teach me some French phrases like
your mother was a collaborator during World War two, wasn't she?
That didn't go over very well. Or your parents were
(24:15):
here in the Shampstalyse with Nazi flags as Hitler marched
down the Champs Dealyse. Didn't go over very well. Rude,
rude frenchmen and women. Okay, we're done, just And by
the way, if you're going to go to Europe, first
of all, airfare is very inexpensive relative to what it was,
(24:38):
and you are going to see crowds like you cannot
believe you're better off going to Disneyland on the hottest,
most crowded day of the season. It's going to be
less crowded than what you're going to see at the
major sites in Europe. Okay, we're done, guys. We come
back tomorrow morning five to six wake up call with
(24:59):
Amy and Will, Neil and I jump aboard at six
right till about now, and then you have Kono and
Ann and a quick word about the ratings just came
out and we have exploded in ratings. And that's in
spite of the rest of the morning crew. It's all
about me. It's that simple. Okay, We're done. Gary and
(25:21):
Shanner up next. KFI Am six. 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.
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