- Traveling soon? Save money with an eSIM on your smartphone. I catch up with Saily CEO Vykintas Maknickas, who also talks about NordVPN for added privacy and protection
- Speaking of saving money while traveling, learn all about the Wise app and how to avoid steep ATM fees while overseas. Joining me for the chat is Ankita D’Mello, Principal Product Manager at Wise
- Also on the show, T-Satellite is live, which lets you stay connected virtually anywhere – and even if you’re not a T-Mobile customer. We get the 4-1-1 from Alice Williams, Vice President of Product Marketing at T-Mobile
- It’s almost back-to-school time, and so we hear what’s new and newsworthy from tech lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong
- Thank you to Visa and SanDisk for your support!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the ever changing world
of technology? Check it Out can help make some sense
of it all. Breaking down geeksbeak into street speak. Technology columnist, author,
and TV personality Mark Saltzman covers consumer technology each week
for every listener. Mark tackles the latest news, reviews, and
how toos to help you understand what's hot, what's not
(00:22):
and why.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hey, everyone, welcome to check it Out episode four oh five.
Hope you're all having a stellar day so far. And hey,
it's a really busy show for you today with four
great guests, And so I'm going to cut to the chase,
no small talk huff the top of the show. This time,
I'm going to tell you what's on tap. This hour,
we start with saving money while traveling with an eSIM.
(00:47):
Saley will join us to explain what an eSIM is
and speaking of travel and saving money, will also be
joined this hour by whys on how to avoid high
withdrawal fees from an ATM when you're in another country.
Also on tech it Out, gadget guy Mario Armstrong joins
us with some back to school suggestions.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yep, we're almost at that time, folks.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
And finally, T Mobile has unlocked its satellite service so
you can always remain connected, and it works with many
different kinds of phones, and even if you're not a
T Mobile customer, it's now live across the country. All
of this and more on a brand new tech it
out powered by Visa, which I'll tell you more about shortly,
but without further ado, let's officially kick off the show
(01:32):
with our first interview. Well, summer is in full swing,
a popular time of year for travel, of course, and
if you're looking to save money while staying connected, I've
been recommending for a while now to buy an eSIM
for your smartphone rather than roam on your existing carrier's plan,
which might result in an unfortunate surprise on your mobile
(01:52):
phone bill when you come home. Well, joining us to
tell us all about sale a very popular eSIM provider,
and also ways to remain so i we're saved while traveling.
We're joined by Saley CEO Vikintis Macniquus. Thanks for your time,
Vicin Tis.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
How are you? Thanks for having me?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
I'm very good, great, excellent, Well, I'm looking forward to
this chat. Before we talk travel tips, please tell us
a bit about Saley. I do see ads for them everywhere.
That's that yellow and black logo, right exactly.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
So sale is an eastem for travel.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Back in the day, the majority of the phones had
only one SIM slot. What it did, basically, you needed
this plastic thing, you know, in order to get connectivity
and get text messages and get calls and everything was
embedded in that single SIM card. Now the SIM card
(02:44):
is in some of the countries for iPhones, for example,
it doesn't exist anymore. In some countries it still exists.
But besides that, there's another option to get connectivity and
to get all the additional services from telecommunications either and
that's an it's basically the same SIM card accept is downloaded.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Over the internet, right.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
And what that means, you know, is you don't need
to go to the retail shop, you know, in order
to buy connectivity.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
That's one thing.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Another thing is you can have different eSIM cards, one
of which providing connectivity for you, another one providing your
other services like phone number and text messages.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
All right, so thanks for that.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
So phones used to take a little plastic card called
a SIM card that would have your phone number and
other information on it, and then travelers when they landed
in a new country, often overseas, they would rent another
piece of plastic that you had to go get physically
inserted in your phone, which isn't always the easiest for everyone,
and then take it back out again. So an eSIM
(03:50):
is like a virtual sim. So it's the same idea
where you get connectivity with another carrier without having to
put in that SIM card. And that's why I think
there's been this explosion and popularity of eSIMs. It just
makes sense. And I think cost, aside from convenience, cost
is probably the biggest motivator because if you roam, and
this is what I hinted at off the top of
(04:10):
our interview, the kin tis when you get home, it's
probably going to be a really big bill and that's
going to give you a sour taste to the end
of your vacation. So it is true that an eSIM
is more affordable. Could you walk us through how it
works with Saley.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
So the thing is beforem revolution of sorts, you know,
a majority of the telecommunications providers also provided roaming and
still provide roaming, except their prices are based on the
fact that users are not going to switch to other providers.
Because it's so inconvenient. That's why convenience is important here.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
I believe you know for sure, and then I guess.
The one catch unless you do have multiple sims, as
you mentioned, one with your phone number and another one
to get online. For most people who buy an eSIM
when they are traveling from say New York to Italy
for a week or from Montreal to Taiwan for two weeks,
is that you may not have your local number handy.
(05:08):
There's some workarounds where you can have your number forwarded
and all that, but for the most part, people just
get a data SIM.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Is that fair?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So you can access the internet, your email and then
use services like WhatsApp or FaceTime or something to stay connected.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Yes, most of the time that's the case. A majority
of people traveling they only use data either way. The
popularity of messaging platforms and so on.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
So okay, so can you walk us through how it works.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
You go to sale dot com which is sai l
y dot com or do you suggest to download the
app instead? And I guess you create an account and
then you just select the country you're going to.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Is that basically how it works? Yes?
Speaker 4 (05:48):
You can you can go either you know, to the
website or download the app directly. Then you can choose
between either a country plan or a region plan or
global plan. So if you're traveling to several countries, you
can pick europ Plan, for example, if you're traveling from
for example, US to Italy and friends for a week.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
So right, thanks for that clarification. You can often choose
by region, not just by country if you are planning
on traveling once you do land across the pond.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
That's a good point.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I'm going to ask you in a moment, Vicintis, why
Sale when there are so many other eSIM providers? And
also I want our listeners to know that Nord Security,
the company that owns Sale, also owns Nord VPN, which
is a powerhouse today in protecting customers from cyber threats
and privacy concerns with a virtual private network solution or VPN.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
So we're going to get to that in a moment.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
We are chatting with Sale's CEO, Vicintis Machniquus. This is
a company that provides an eSIM that's eSIM that you
can unlock for your mobile device. When you want to
use data with this eSIM, you just have to unlock roaming,
you have to select that on your iPhone or Android
device when you land in that new country. I guess
that's a question you often get, right, we can. Just
(07:08):
for those who aren't so tech savvy, they may think
it's just going to work when they land. That's just
that one thing they need to do if their phone
doesn't do it for them already.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Yes, they need to switch to a different ESM for
their data services specifically, so we usually recommend you tried
it before the fly. You know, once you land, you
get connectivity.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Instant, right, but you have to enable data roaming also.
First step is to select the eSIM that you've purchased
in advance, so you spend I don't know, five bucks
on one gig for grease for example or whatever, and
then once you land in that country, you do that
in advance, and then once you land you have to
select that eSIM from your options from your settings, but
(07:47):
also enable data roaming as the only tip I was
trying to suggest.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Yes, that's accurate.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Some countries doesn't require this touggle on, but we still
recommend abit on either way.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Thank you for that. So why sale?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
They seem to be one of the biggest if the
number of ads I see for them is any indication,
But there are a lot of m providers. What would
you say if someone asked you, why should I go
with a salely service?
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (08:10):
So you briefly mentioned that Saley is part of Nord Security,
the creators of NordVPN. So from the very beginning while
building the product, we wanted to have an answer why Sally,
and we already have it. We integrated NordVPN security features
into the Sale network connectivity. What that means is basically,
(08:32):
once you land in the destination and start using Sale,
you can pick a country where you would drought your traffic.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Through nord VPN servers.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
We call it virtual location, So while you're traveling in Italy,
you can pick US or Canada as your virtual location
and you would appear as being in these countries for
Internet website.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
So that means you just can't be tracked, right, that's
the idea. So you can remain anonymous while you're on.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yes, that means you cannot be checked as well. As
We have two additional features which are Web protection and
at Block. At Block basically prevents you from downloading ads
and this way we not just block all the checkers,
ads and so on on the internet while you're browsing.
We also save you some data because according to our calculations,
(09:23):
by not downloading all those things, you can save up
to twenty thirty percent.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Oh wow, that's something I never even thought of.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
All the data that's used for advertisements when you're roaming,
because when you do commit to a certain amount of gigabytes,
like you know, three gigabytes over one week, you want
to keep an eye on that number or.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Else you have to top it up. And so by
having ads.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
It's going to eat away some of that data that
you want for other purposes. That's a great point. And
before I let you go, vcan tests. Not only are
you the CEO of Saley, but from what I understand,
you're the former chief of Product Strategy at NordVPN. So
it would be remiss not to ask you about ways
to stay safe financially while traveling. Travelers are more at
(10:04):
risk of cybersecurity threats. You already mentioned a couple of
things that can happen, So what can we do to
stay safe, like maybe with NordVPN as part of the solution.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Yes, of course, So one thing to note is while traveling,
people usually visit websites they don't visit often. So for example,
if you land in some country and you need some
museum tickets, you know, you might need to visit a
local website that's you are unfamiliar with and so on,
and this increases the risk being jammed.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
For example, people will hop on the free airport Wi
Fi when they land, right and that's a public network
which is not safe exactly.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
So we designed stately, you know, so you wouldn't need
to connect to a Wi Fi network at all, but
if you're willing to do so, we highly recommend to
add nord web and to your security suits as well,
so you're connection would be and encrypt it as well
as Pride while you're.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Browsing vigintis great to chat with you. Thank you so
much for your time. Hope you have a wonderful rest
of your summer. Thanks again, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Trying Saley when I go to Germany in ten days.
When we return on tech it Out, gadget guy Mario
Armstrong joins us with cool tools for school.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
We'll be right back to stay with us.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Listen to check it Out whenever you want to find
the check it Out podcast, Did I Do? Or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Welcome back to check it Out. We cover cybersecurity a
lot on this program and how you can best protect
yourself in the digital age, even if you're not super
tech savvy. One part of the solution is securely shopping
online and so I'm thrilled about my partnership with Visa
on tech it Out as they've made some significant investments
in fraud prevention over the past five years, as much
(12:02):
as ten billion dollars Yes that's billion with a B,
to support Visa's brand promise to protect the financial information
of individuals and businesses. Zero liability means peace of mind
when you shop online using your Visa card. There can
be no half measures when it comes to cybersecurity, which
is why the company takes an aggressive and multi layered
approach to combating the rising threat of malicious software and
(12:26):
other threats by well funded and global criminal enterprises. Read
more about Visa and how securing the world's payments is
priority one at Visa dot Com slash Security. That's Visa
dot Com slash Security.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Believe it or not.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
A new school season is already upon us Q THEI
rolling students. But at the very least there's some top
tech to help ease you back into the classroom. If
you're wondering what's cool for school this year, Lucky for you,
we have digital lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong with us to
share a backpackfull of A plus ideas.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Hey Mario, I love that backpack full. I love it.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
Hey Mark, good to chat with you man as well.
And you're right, I have backpacked notepads, crayons, tablets, printers.
I have it all on set with me and partner
up with some great brands for this back to school season.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
I said they were a plus ideas and a pluses
and something I saw much in my days as a student.
But tell me how today's students can rocket in the classroom.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
What do you got for us?
Speaker 5 (13:25):
First off, we have tech in common, but we also
have the fact that we both didn't get a lot
of a pluses.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
So that's really good to know.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
I thought I was the only one.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Oh not at all. We turned out okay, Mom and Dad.
So my first one is HP. So HP has two.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
Things that I'm really excited about for back to school.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
One is their new byte size lessons. So what these are.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
These are free principles and they're designed for parents. They're
like these principal documents that you can print out. They're
great for creative, fun, educational moments. They're created if you
ever remember these magazines, the magazines Highlights for children mm hm.
So that's created by them in conjunction in partnership with
a Harvard Professor of Learning scientist, doctor Bonowitz. So they're
perfect for ages five to ten. They spark curiosity, they're
(14:06):
going to engage them in learning, build up some of
that confidence, and it's really great because it's one of
those things where they get all the answers, they're not
having to ask you for all the answers all the time.
And then of course you're going to want to print
these things and all of that fun stuff too.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
So you've got to use the HP.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
Smart Tank fifty one oh one, which makes printing easy
and it comes with up to two years of ink concluded,
which is perfect for when you know that moment's going
to happen, when the book reports do when you run
out of ink, not with this, because you'll have it
for two years.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Great suggestion, Mario and you talked about inspiring creativity.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I know you probably want to expand on that.
Speaker 5 (14:39):
Yeah, I do, because there's Epic Kids, and I don't
know if you know about Epic Kids, but they are
the number one digital library for kids. They have so
it's digital, folks, so it's on your devices. But they
have over forty thousand top quality books from over two
hundred and fifty publishers, So that's a lot of books
and a lot of publishers. You can do a lot
of fun things like from read to me stories, fun quizzes,
(15:01):
badges you can earn and you'll really learn what like
what your kid likes to read, which is really great,
and start them now so that they ease into school
when it kicks in.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I remember writing about Epic the app, which I reviewed
on an iPad for USA today back in I want
to say, twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Oh wow, it's been around for a while. I think
it just came out at that point.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
And it's a fantastic ebook platform with tons of content
and I can't believe they're up to that many books now.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
Amazing, since it's astounding, it's something for everyone for sure.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I know we're not talking pricing today, Mario, So our
listeners should head on over to Indnews dot tv to
see these products in action, but also to grab links
and see prices and all that. Correct, we are chatting
with digital lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong who's donning his backpack
full of some great tech ideas for back to school season.
Why don't we end off with two must have tips
(15:51):
that you like for back to school season?
Speaker 5 (15:53):
Okay, so I'm going to jump in with like Crayola.
You can't talk back to school without Crayola, Like it's synonymous.
Every student needs to smart that creativity. I love that
they have several different items available. They're twenty four count crayons,
they got the ten count markers, twelve count colored pencils.
They're all perfect for young artists that are wanting to
explore their imagination and self expression, of course, and they're
(16:14):
at the great prices that we're always used to. One
new thing that's really fun is that they have their
limited edition retired colors, so they have actually retired colors.
They're available in eight count crayons, colored pencils, and markers,
so you might want to get them before they head
back into retirement, which is cool. Also Staples. If you
are shopping and you're like, where are the deals? Mario
Staples has all your essentials you named it earlier, backpacks,
(16:38):
lunch boxes, water bottles, all the fun stuff kids love.
But then the things that are like folders, notebooks, pencils,
and those things are starting as low as twenty five cents.
And some of these are featuring their favorite characters, like
they got Stitch and Minecraft, trendy designs like sprinkles, doughnuts
and gummy bears.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
So they got all the cold stuff.
Speaker 5 (16:55):
And verified teachers get twenty percent off, and if you
do shop with them, you give one of the out
for their weekly freebies because as you're shopping, they're going
to be doing that through August sixteenth, So.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
That's something to take advantage of.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
And then I would say the last one Mark is
really making back the school easier in the morning. Starts
with how they get dressed and how they get together.
So we have the super Mouth Kavatar Caddy. This is
an all in one organizer. It's got a toothbrusholder, an
automatic toothpaste dispenser, playful ice cream cone, rinse cup for
mouth wash. It plays four songs. They're each timed to
(17:28):
two minutes, which is the recommended brushing time, so kids
will now brush longer up to seventy three percent longer
when they are listening to music. It's got dancing headlights.
I mean, the kids are going to want to brush
their teeth.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Indnews dot tv to learn more from Mario Armstrong as
well as following him on all his socials at Mario Armstrong.
As for retired Crayola colors, by the way, Dandy Lion
is on that list. I used to color with that,
as well as Blizzard Blue. If you saw these, you'd
be like, oh, yeah, that's my childhood right there in
one color.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Blizzard Blue is one yeah, or Magic Mint. Love it. Mario.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Always great to chat with you. Thanks so much for
these amazing ideas for back to school time.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
Hey, I wish everyone a great start to the school season.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Be well, and thanks for having me on Mark.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
We'll be right back with more. Check it out.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
I want to follow Mark Google, Mark with a C
and Saltzman with a Z breaking down geeks peak into
street speak.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
This is check it out to check it out with.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Technology columnist, author, and TV personality Mark.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Saltzman welcome back to check it out. As travelers pack.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Their bags this summer, new data from Wise, the global
money app reveals that ATM fees in some of the
most popular travel destinations have surged to unprecedented levels. To
tell us about Wise and how it can save you
time and money while traveling, we're joined by Nketa Demelo,
Principal product manager at Wise. Welcome to the show, and
Kida good to chat with you.
Speaker 6 (19:04):
Get to chat with you too.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Thanks for having me and I hope you're having a
good summer as well. I am, thank you excellent.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Let's first identify the problem, which I've already hinted at
off the top. What's wrong with the old way of
withdrawing money when you're traveling from a machine or something.
I also know that the Wise app lets you do
is sending money overseas to family. What's wrong with the
old way of both of these?
Speaker 6 (19:26):
Yeah, So, to be honest with you, the old way,
I think the biggest problem that we still see is
unfortunately just unexpected fees and this is far too common,
even though there is more knowledge and transparency around it today.
What we see is when you withdraw from an ATM,
it might be your home bank, it might be the
(19:47):
local at ATM that you're withdrawing from, or it might
just be the exchange rate that you're given. But inevitably,
what people don't actually realize is that you can be
charged up to twenty seven percent a per transaction that
you actually withdraw from an ATM.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
So, yeah, that's that's a lot.
Speaker 6 (20:06):
And I think typically, you know, what we're seeing is
ATM fee is about two point zero five percent. That's
not terrible. But what we are seeing in you know,
you mentioned as people are traveling for summer in certain
countries which are very popular destinations like Indonesia and Vietnam,
we are seeing ATM fees surging between one thousand, three
(20:28):
hundred to three thousand, five hundred percent, which is really
really steering.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Yeah, that's significant, it is.
Speaker 6 (20:35):
And these are countries when you're traveling from this side
of the world, you're thinking, okay, this is a long
way to go, but you know, hopefully in this in
this country, things are maybe relatively cheaper and you can
have a great holiday, but you might not realize what
you're actually spending as you drawing money from a local ATM.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
All right, regardless of which country you're in, you're withdrawing
let's say one hundred dollars in local currency, it's going
to be much more than that with all the fees
piled on.
Speaker 6 (21:02):
Yeah, exactly. And you know, I've been in this situation myself,
and I think one of the things that's all so
difficult while you're on holiday is you're in this mindset
of having fun. You're a little bit more care free.
You're also just not doing the math, like while you're
standing at this ATM you just want to get your
money and you know, go do something fun. And so
(21:23):
I think that's really where you know, tourists and just
you know, holiday goers get really trapped in these hidden fees.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Fair and Keita.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
With that in mind, why don't we chat about the
Wise app? How can it help at a high level?
What's it all about?
Speaker 7 (21:37):
Good question?
Speaker 4 (21:38):
So why is it?
Speaker 6 (21:39):
Fundamentally a global technology company? We are building the best
way to move and manage the world's money. So really,
what does that mean for you? I think I think
the best way I try to describe Whise is, no
matter where you go, it's the app that tries to
make you feel like a local. So we've all been
in that situation where you go to a country, you're
(22:01):
dealing with a foreign currency, you don't know what to do.
WHISE is your financial buddy. Effectively, that's going to make
you feel like a local, receiving money like a local.
So how does that actually help you if you're specifically
abroad and you're trying to withdraw money from an ATM
as well. One of the things about WHYSE is we
(22:22):
have a product called the Wise Account where you can
hold money and you can spend from that account as well.
So it's powered by a debit card. And so when
you actually use this debit card abroad, similar to how
the Wise account actually works is we're very transparent about
the fees that you're actually charged. So why is really
(22:42):
big on, you know, not having hidden fees, about being
really clear about what it is that we charge. And
on average, we charge about zero point five three percent
for a transfer, So as you can imagine the numbers
I've told you earlier, it's it's really really a lot
less than what some of these ATM fees can charge.
So the things that I've seen specifically when when you're
(23:05):
abroad and you use the Wise card, Number one gonna
you're gonna be able to step away from two big
hidden fee components, right. So one is as your home bank,
Wise offers you too free withdrawals when you use your
Wise card. And then the secondly, we always charge the
mid market rate. So even if you're holding money in
(23:26):
a different currency, so let's say you're holding five hundred
USD and you're withdrawing in you know, Indonesian re reupia
or Singapore dollars, whatever it might be, we're going to
show you the mid market rate and we're going to
charge your really transparent fees. So those are two big
things that you're automatically saving on. And then ATM fees
(23:46):
you know, unfortunately that can be something that is up
to a local ATM to actually charge. So that's something
I do encourage holiday goers to be mindful of.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
And I also know that you can use the Wise
app to pay with out needing local currency as well,
like digitally, there are some options there.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Too, right.
Speaker 6 (24:04):
So one of the things that we see in the
local markets today is we are as a society slightly
moving away from cash and so as you may go
on holiday, you might notice a bunch of QR codes
in order to be able to pay locally, and often
you might not have the particular mechanism to actually use
that QR code. So Wise is actually trying to help
(24:27):
our customers now by building that technology into the Wise app.
So for example, if you go to Singapore and you
want to pay using pay now, which is the local
way of paying, you can actually do that directly from
the Wise app, and you don't have to witdraw cash
and you don't have to download any other applications.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
The local way of payin all right, using the Wise
app has lower fees than other solutions. There's also more
transparency and you already gave some examples of countries in
I guess Southeast Asia where we've seen four digit percent
rise in fees. So is this tied to the recent
study that you commissioned.
Speaker 6 (25:04):
Yes, it is. So why is recently commissioned this study
where we actually looked at about ten million transactions between
February to July twenty twenty five, and this is where
we really noticed this staggering increase in ATM fees. So yeah,
it is very much tied to this study. What we
really want to highlight is again making sure that customers
(25:26):
are truly aware of how this may impact them.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
To eye opening for sure.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
We're going to continue chatting about the Wise app and
all the benefits it brings. In a moment, I wanted
to just give a shout out to sand Disc. They're
going to be my guest in a week from now
where they're going to share news about a very cool
new USBC device, a flash storage solution like a little
thumb drive, but works with your iPhone or Android to
(25:53):
back up important files. We all know that you can't
expand the storage on an iPhone, especially and usually that's
the case with Android as well, so you may run
out of room because photos and videos are getting much
bigger four K, eight K, all that kind of stuff.
Sand disc is a partner on tech it out for
full transparency. Sanddisk dot com has more when we return,
(26:15):
more with whys about saving money when you travel.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Stick with us.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
We'll be right back breaking down GeekSpeak into street speak.
Check it out. Closted by Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Welcome back everyone you're listening to check it out.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
We are chatting with Ankita Demelo, principal product manager at Wise,
the global money app. We are talking steep atm fees
and how to circumvent those by going with an app.
Like Wise, what do you think is the reason behind
these fees? I know that, like you said earlier in
our chat, it could be your local bank back at home,
(27:01):
it could be the store that has the ATMs adding
some fees so they can make some money on it.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Why do you think it got out of hand?
Speaker 6 (27:08):
It's a really good question. I think it's something that
Wise is also digging into a bit further. Some of
these things, you know, they are like geopolitical, and there
are things that you know, the market might not not
necessarily have control over. So things like home banks charging
the fees. I think those are things that typically we
have seen. But I think where things are becoming a
(27:31):
lot more interesting are with exchange rate volatility. Particularly in
today's climate. We've seen a lot of movement there, so
that's definitely a big one. And as different countries economies
also change, those local ATM fees are very volatile. So
I think those are the two big things that we're seeing,
(27:52):
and that's why we want to highlight this to customers
specifically to say, hey, watch out for this and make
sure you're you're using your money wisely.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Got it wisely?
Speaker 2 (28:03):
There you go, nicely played, and Wise makes its money
with the fees that you touched on. There's no subscription
fee or anything.
Speaker 7 (28:10):
No.
Speaker 6 (28:10):
Wise does not charge your subscription fee. It's free to
open up a Wise account. There's a small fee to
order a debit card, which is about nine dollars. We
specifically only make fees on our fee for transferring money
or converting money, which is point five to three percent
on average of the transfer, so there's no other hidden
fees or other markups.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Anywhere and in Kida before I let you go.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
As we mentioned earlier, Wise can also be used to
send money to family overseas. Can you talk for a
moment about the benefits of using whys for this?
Speaker 6 (28:42):
Absolutely, the benefits are very similar to what I've described
for withdrawing money as well. For ATMs. Predominantly, there are
three big things I would say. The first is it's
a lot cheaper than your bank as as I mentioned,
it's er point five to three percent of your transfer
amount as our fee. Sixty five percent of transfers at
(29:04):
whys are also instant, which means that your recipient, whether
that's your family or whether that's paying a vendor abroad,
are going to receive their money instantly, which is awesome.
And thirdly, it's also a convenient way to pay. So
you can download the wise app, or you can go
to wys dot com and create an account and once
(29:24):
you've done that, you're all set up to go. So
those are the real big benefits of using whyse compared
to let's say a traditional bank or potentially other players
out there.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
And then I guess the easiest way to get going
is just to download the wise app or do you
recommend going to the website for users.
Speaker 6 (29:42):
Who are on the go, We definitely recommend downloading the
Wise app on iOS or Android. For users who prefer
a laptop, just head to wys dot com.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
All right, whys dot com and Keida, great to chat
with you.
Speaker 6 (29:53):
Thanks so much, thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Mobile phone users know this all too well.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Despite seam ubiquitous cell phone service in twenty twenty five,
it's really not that uncommon to find yourself in a
dead zone. In fact, I was visiting my son at
his summer camp where he works last Sunday, and I
had maybe one bar on the phone, and I thought
to myself, while I really hope I don't need to
contact anyone in the event of an emergency, or what
if my aging parents need to reach me. Well, all
(30:20):
of this may be a thing of the past, as
T Mobile has officially launched its partnership with Starlink, extending
service coverage in the five hundred thousand square miles of
US territory where traditional towers can't reach. Joining us to
chat about it is Alice Williams, vice president of Product
Marketing at T Mobile. Thanks for your time, Alice, looking
forward to this chat.
Speaker 7 (30:40):
Him Mark, great to be here, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Dead zones continued to be an issue for cell phone users,
especially in remote areas. That's the problem. So let's talk
about the solution. Tell us about t satellite and how
this technology works.
Speaker 7 (30:53):
Yeah, so we embarked on this effort nearly three years
ago with our partner Starlink. We set out with a
fairly simple but turn that really ambitious mission, ending dead
zones and covering the five hundred thousand square miles of
American terrain that no cellular network can reach. This isn't
reachable by T Mobile organizing and ort none of us
can reach these places. So we knew it was a
fairly simple idea, but the whole conceit was what if
(31:16):
we could use direct to cellular technology to be able
to reach these people and create this extra level of
coverage and p satellite, which we launched last week to
customers following an extensive beta, is the first major milestone
in being able to realize that vision.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Congrats, that's great.
Speaker 7 (31:31):
Thanks, Yeah, we're really excited. It was the fruit of
a lot of labor and brain power and really the
invention of a new technology, and so that's sort of
as excited as we are to offer the service, we're
also always excited anytime we can be in the business
of pioneering something awesome.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
So look, I know some mobile phone manufacturers like Apple
or Samsung, they're offering these sort of emergency SOS satellite solutions,
but it's very limited. Alice, can you clarify how this
works on the back end without getting too much into
the geek speak, like how T Mobile was able to
make this happen.
Speaker 7 (32:02):
You can imagine a cell tower that sort of a
big poll with sort of radios mounted at the top.
We took those radios, modified them and patched them to satellites,
launched them into space. That's sort of a six hundred
and fifty plus count and set them into orbit. And
so what we ended up with is sort of a
cellular network in space that creates a blanket of coverage
across the US. It leverages T Mobile spectrums, so we
(32:23):
can kind of control the orchestration layer. What that means
for the user is sort of three things. What is
this notion of ubiquity that you mentioned is sort of realized, Like,
you are reachable effectively everywhere in the US. There are
a couple of minor examples that where we're precibited from broadcasting,
but you're effectively reachable anywhere via this technology. The second
is it works with the device in your pocket. You
don't need any special technology. It works on effectively every
(32:46):
modern smartphone produced in the last four years or so.
And then the third is it just connects. There is
seamless transition between the T Mobile terrestrial network and the
satellite networks. So those three things together, I think, really
set us apart from other services that are available and
set the stage I think for a future that envisions
advancing the capabilities in the years to come.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Yeah, I'm going to ask you about the future of
this in a moment, but that's good to hear that
you don't need a specific brand of phone.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Check it Out continues right after this.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Follow Mark Saltzman on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram. Listen
to check it out whenever you want.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Just a few minutes left with Alice Williams, VP of
Product Marketing at T Mobile to tell us all about
TE Satellite. That's T Satellite, a partnership with Starlink to
bring connectivity to virtually any modern smartphone. Before the break, Alice,
you were talking convenience, how it'll just switch to satellite
if you're off the grid, so to speak. Are you
(33:51):
hinting at the fact that you don't need to hold
the phone up in the air and point it around
and look for an on screen cueue even though I
haven't tried it myself, to be honest, but my iPhone
says that that's what you need to do.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
So that's not the case.
Speaker 7 (34:03):
That's not the case at all. In fact, three times
as many messages are received then sent on T Satellite,
and what that means is you're effectively getting messages when
you don't even know it. The phone can literally be
in your pocket or your backpack or your cupholder of
your car, So it really is. Often the user doesn't
even realize they've changed networks. That's a function of how
we design the technology.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Okay, so you just need a smartphone that's been around
for about three to four years, You need to be
a Tea Mobile customers or anything else that we need
to know and what does this mean for the future
of mobile service?
Speaker 7 (34:34):
Well, first, if you'll allow me, I might make one
small correction to your question, which is you don't need
to be a Team Mobile customer. Wow, you actually can
be ay, yeah, exactly. It's so cool. You can be
a Verizon or an AT and T customer and buy
T Satellite for ten dollars a month. We enable the
service be a secondary SIM card and so that's really
exciting and novel on its own. Now, of course, if
you're a Verizon or AT and T customer, we encourage
(34:56):
you to switch. It's better over here, as we like
to say, but it's not necessary to have T Satellite.
What we do have to do is sign up as
a customer of te Satellite, So you have to sort
of tell us you want the service. On our best
rate plans, it is included. But for those not on
our best rate plans to ten dollars a month introductory price.
But change your question about what we see as a
signal for future connectivity is at the same time as
(35:18):
this satellite capability is coming on board, our five G
network continues to get better and better and better. So
we don't see this as a world where satellite catches
up to the capabilities of our five G network and
takes it over. We see it as an augmentation of
our core network, and so you can imagine the sort
of compute use cases. The day to day use of
your smartphone and other connected devices will continue to be
(35:40):
powered by the T Mobile Trust Real network, but we
think that T satellite capabilities can continue to get sharper
around the edges to make sure that we deliver on
this seamless experience that ultimately realizes our vision one day
of putting an end to dead sense.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
And can you clarify, Alice, is this for calls for
tax for data? I mean we're not doing like video
call over satellite yet.
Speaker 7 (36:01):
Yeah, great point it is. Remember this is a brand
new technology and the signal has to go to space
and back, so it's a great point. Our commercial service
launched with text messaging, and then over the months ahead,
we are bringing on picture messaging, So we have some
of our compatible devices that are offering picture messaging currently,
and then later this year we're going to offer something
called satellite Data, where we have sort of a modified
(36:23):
data experience on a select number of apps. It's actually
not select. Any app developer can use our SDK to
develop Perte Satellite, but we will launch with a select
number of partners. And so we're focused first and foremost
on text messaging, video and picture messaging and data. But
ultimately we do believe there are versions of modified voice
experiences that we can work toward as well, and that's
certainly something we're looking at.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
And Alice, before I let you go, I touched on
my story about visiting my son up at a summer
camp in like a national park, and I was worried
about emergency services. Are you seeing that that's the primary
application for something.
Speaker 7 (36:55):
Like this, Well, it's certainly the most powerful. We see
it unfolding in two ways. One is, individuals who find
themselves stranded or in emergency situations are able to reach
out for help and get it in ways that they
previously couldn't. But secondly, in instances of mass weather events
or extreame weather events. We're able to turn on T
Satellite when terrestrial networks go down to enable connectivity and
(37:16):
messaging for entire communities. And so in this way through
our beta, we've covered a number of natural disasters and
enabled hundreds of thousands of people to send messages back
and forth to let people know they're okay or ask
for help. So that's sort of by and large, the
most impactful use case, but we see it in recreational
use cases. We see it for rugged professions where people
are off the grid, and we see it for people
(37:38):
like me and you who maybe just want to be
able to reach your kids when they're off the grid
or where you're off the grid. So it's this sort
of piece of mind element as well.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Awesome. And then finally, where can our listeners go for
more info?
Speaker 7 (37:48):
Yeah, there's a ton of great info on our website
at t dash mobile dot com, or you can stop
buy any T mobile store. We'd love to see there.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Okay, awesome, Alice again With T Satellite. T Mobile is
the first and only wireless provider with satellite to mobile
network in the US that automatically connects to most smartphones
made in the last four years. Very exciting. Alice Williams,
thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 7 (38:09):
Thanks Mark, great to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
I promised you a busy show with four guests, so
I hope I did not disappoint. Thank you for tuning
into tech it Out everyone. A big thank you to
Visa for being such an awesome partner on this program.
They'll be my guest in a week from now to
talk AI and how it's shaping fraudulent attacks on consumers
and businesses and what you can do to fight back.
(38:33):
Even if you're not tech savvy. If you're on social media,
let me know what you think of tech it Out,
if you have any tech questions for me, suggestions for
upcoming guests. My name is Mark Saltzman, Mark with the
C Saltsman with a Z, and you can find me
on all the major platforms. Also, let me know where
you're tuning into the show from. I always get a
kick out of that and how you're listening, whether it's
(38:53):
your favorite local talk radio station.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Or as a podcast.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
All the best, everyone, have a great rest of your day,
and I look forward to catching up with you next
week for another brand new episode of tack It Out,
but bye for now Chat
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the ever changing world
of technology? Check it Out can help make some sense
of it all. Breaking down geeksbeak into street speak. Technology columnist, author,
and TV personality Mark Saltzman covers consumer technology each week
for every listener. Mark tackles the latest news, reviews, and
how toos to help you understand what's hot, what's not
(00:22):
and why.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Hey, everyone, welcome to check it Out episode four oh five.
Hope you're all having a stellar day so far. And hey,
it's a really busy show for you today with four
great guests, And so I'm going to cut to the chase,
no small talk huff the top of the show. This time,
I'm going to tell you what's on tap. This hour,
we start with saving money while traveling with an eSIM.
(00:47):
Saley will join us to explain what an eSIM is
and speaking of travel and saving money, will also be
joined this hour by whys on how to avoid high
withdrawal fees from an ATM when you're in another country.
Also on tech it Out, gadget guy Mario Armstrong joins
us with some back to school suggestions.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Yep, we're almost at that time, folks.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
And finally, T Mobile has unlocked its satellite service so
you can always remain connected, and it works with many
different kinds of phones, and even if you're not a
T Mobile customer, it's now live across the country. All
of this and more on a brand new tech it
out powered by Visa, which I'll tell you more about shortly,
but without further ado, let's officially kick off the show
(01:32):
with our first interview. Well, summer is in full swing,
a popular time of year for travel, of course, and
if you're looking to save money while staying connected, I've
been recommending for a while now to buy an eSIM
for your smartphone rather than roam on your existing carrier's plan,
which might result in an unfortunate surprise on your mobile
(01:52):
phone bill when you come home. Well, joining us to
tell us all about sale a very popular eSIM provider,
and also ways to remain so i we're saved while traveling.
We're joined by Saley CEO Vikintis Macniquus. Thanks for your time,
Vicin Tis.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
How are you? Thanks for having me?
Speaker 2 (02:08):
I'm very good, great, excellent, Well, I'm looking forward to
this chat. Before we talk travel tips, please tell us
a bit about Saley. I do see ads for them everywhere.
That's that yellow and black logo, right exactly.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
So sale is an eastem for travel.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Back in the day, the majority of the phones had
only one SIM slot. What it did, basically, you needed
this plastic thing, you know, in order to get connectivity
and get text messages and get calls and everything was
embedded in that single SIM card. Now the SIM card
(02:44):
is in some of the countries for iPhones, for example,
it doesn't exist anymore. In some countries it still exists.
But besides that, there's another option to get connectivity and
to get all the additional services from telecommunications either and
that's an it's basically the same SIM card accept is downloaded.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Over the internet, right.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
And what that means, you know, is you don't need
to go to the retail shop, you know, in order
to buy connectivity.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
That's one thing.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Another thing is you can have different eSIM cards, one
of which providing connectivity for you, another one providing your
other services like phone number and text messages.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
All right, so thanks for that.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
So phones used to take a little plastic card called
a SIM card that would have your phone number and
other information on it, and then travelers when they landed
in a new country, often overseas, they would rent another
piece of plastic that you had to go get physically
inserted in your phone, which isn't always the easiest for everyone,
and then take it back out again. So an eSIM
(03:50):
is like a virtual sim. So it's the same idea
where you get connectivity with another carrier without having to
put in that SIM card. And that's why I think
there's been this explosion and popularity of eSIMs. It just
makes sense. And I think cost, aside from convenience, cost
is probably the biggest motivator because if you roam, and
this is what I hinted at off the top of
(04:10):
our interview, the kin tis when you get home, it's
probably going to be a really big bill and that's
going to give you a sour taste to the end
of your vacation. So it is true that an eSIM
is more affordable. Could you walk us through how it
works with Saley.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
So the thing is beforem revolution of sorts, you know,
a majority of the telecommunications providers also provided roaming and
still provide roaming, except their prices are based on the
fact that users are not going to switch to other providers.
Because it's so inconvenient. That's why convenience is important here.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
I believe you know for sure, and then I guess.
The one catch unless you do have multiple sims, as
you mentioned, one with your phone number and another one
to get online. For most people who buy an eSIM
when they are traveling from say New York to Italy
for a week or from Montreal to Taiwan for two weeks,
is that you may not have your local number handy.
(05:08):
There's some workarounds where you can have your number forwarded
and all that, but for the most part, people just
get a data SIM.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Is that fair?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So you can access the internet, your email and then
use services like WhatsApp or FaceTime or something to stay connected.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Yes, most of the time that's the case. A majority
of people traveling they only use data either way. The
popularity of messaging platforms and so on.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
So okay, so can you walk us through how it works.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
You go to sale dot com which is sai l
y dot com or do you suggest to download the
app instead? And I guess you create an account and
then you just select the country you're going to.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Is that basically how it works? Yes?
Speaker 4 (05:48):
You can you can go either you know, to the
website or download the app directly. Then you can choose
between either a country plan or a region plan or
global plan. So if you're traveling to several countries, you
can pick europ Plan, for example, if you're traveling from
for example, US to Italy and friends for a week.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
So right, thanks for that clarification. You can often choose
by region, not just by country if you are planning
on traveling once you do land across the pond.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
That's a good point.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I'm going to ask you in a moment, Vicintis, why
Sale when there are so many other eSIM providers? And
also I want our listeners to know that Nord Security,
the company that owns Sale, also owns Nord VPN, which
is a powerhouse today in protecting customers from cyber threats
and privacy concerns with a virtual private network solution or VPN.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
So we're going to get to that in a moment.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
We are chatting with Sale's CEO, Vicintis Machniquus. This is
a company that provides an eSIM that's eSIM that you
can unlock for your mobile device. When you want to
use data with this eSIM, you just have to unlock roaming,
you have to select that on your iPhone or Android
device when you land in that new country. I guess
that's a question you often get, right, we can. Just
(07:08):
for those who aren't so tech savvy, they may think
it's just going to work when they land. That's just
that one thing they need to do if their phone
doesn't do it for them already.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Yes, they need to switch to a different ESM for
their data services specifically, so we usually recommend you tried
it before the fly. You know, once you land, you
get connectivity.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Instant, right, but you have to enable data roaming also.
First step is to select the eSIM that you've purchased
in advance, so you spend I don't know, five bucks
on one gig for grease for example or whatever, and
then once you land in that country, you do that
in advance, and then once you land you have to
select that eSIM from your options from your settings, but
(07:47):
also enable data roaming as the only tip I was
trying to suggest.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Yes, that's accurate.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
Some countries doesn't require this touggle on, but we still
recommend abit on either way.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Thank you for that. So why sale?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
They seem to be one of the biggest if the
number of ads I see for them is any indication,
But there are a lot of m providers. What would
you say if someone asked you, why should I go
with a salely service?
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (08:10):
So you briefly mentioned that Saley is part of Nord Security,
the creators of NordVPN. So from the very beginning while
building the product, we wanted to have an answer why Sally,
and we already have it. We integrated NordVPN security features
into the Sale network connectivity. What that means is basically,
(08:32):
once you land in the destination and start using Sale,
you can pick a country where you would drought your traffic.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Through nord VPN servers.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
We call it virtual location, So while you're traveling in Italy,
you can pick US or Canada as your virtual location
and you would appear as being in these countries for
Internet website.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
So that means you just can't be tracked, right, that's
the idea. So you can remain anonymous while you're on.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yes, that means you cannot be checked as well. As
We have two additional features which are Web protection and
at Block. At Block basically prevents you from downloading ads
and this way we not just block all the checkers,
ads and so on on the internet while you're browsing.
We also save you some data because according to our calculations,
(09:23):
by not downloading all those things, you can save up
to twenty thirty percent.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Oh wow, that's something I never even thought of.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
All the data that's used for advertisements when you're roaming,
because when you do commit to a certain amount of gigabytes,
like you know, three gigabytes over one week, you want
to keep an eye on that number or.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Else you have to top it up. And so by
having ads.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
It's going to eat away some of that data that
you want for other purposes. That's a great point. And
before I let you go, vcan tests. Not only are
you the CEO of Saley, but from what I understand,
you're the former chief of Product Strategy at NordVPN. So
it would be remiss not to ask you about ways
to stay safe financially while traveling. Travelers are more at
(10:04):
risk of cybersecurity threats. You already mentioned a couple of
things that can happen, So what can we do to
stay safe, like maybe with NordVPN as part of the solution.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Yes, of course, So one thing to note is while traveling,
people usually visit websites they don't visit often. So for example,
if you land in some country and you need some
museum tickets, you know, you might need to visit a
local website that's you are unfamiliar with and so on,
and this increases the risk being jammed.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
For example, people will hop on the free airport Wi
Fi when they land, right and that's a public network
which is not safe exactly.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
So we designed stately, you know, so you wouldn't need
to connect to a Wi Fi network at all, but
if you're willing to do so, we highly recommend to
add nord web and to your security suits as well,
so you're connection would be and encrypt it as well
as Pride while you're.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Browsing vigintis great to chat with you. Thank you so
much for your time. Hope you have a wonderful rest
of your summer. Thanks again, thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Trying Saley when I go to Germany in ten days.
When we return on tech it Out, gadget guy Mario
Armstrong joins us with cool tools for school.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
We'll be right back to stay with us.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Listen to check it Out whenever you want to find
the check it Out podcast, Did I Do? Or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Welcome back to check it Out. We cover cybersecurity a
lot on this program and how you can best protect
yourself in the digital age, even if you're not super
tech savvy. One part of the solution is securely shopping
online and so I'm thrilled about my partnership with Visa
on tech it Out as they've made some significant investments
in fraud prevention over the past five years, as much
(12:02):
as ten billion dollars Yes that's billion with a B,
to support Visa's brand promise to protect the financial information
of individuals and businesses. Zero liability means peace of mind
when you shop online using your Visa card. There can
be no half measures when it comes to cybersecurity, which
is why the company takes an aggressive and multi layered
approach to combating the rising threat of malicious software and
(12:26):
other threats by well funded and global criminal enterprises. Read
more about Visa and how securing the world's payments is
priority one at Visa dot Com slash Security. That's Visa
dot Com slash Security.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Believe it or not.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
A new school season is already upon us Q THEI
rolling students. But at the very least there's some top
tech to help ease you back into the classroom. If
you're wondering what's cool for school this year, Lucky for you,
we have digital lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong with us to
share a backpackfull of A plus ideas.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Hey Mario, I love that backpack full. I love it.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
Hey Mark, good to chat with you man as well.
And you're right, I have backpacked notepads, crayons, tablets, printers.
I have it all on set with me and partner
up with some great brands for this back to school season.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
I said they were a plus ideas and a pluses
and something I saw much in my days as a student.
But tell me how today's students can rocket in the classroom.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
What do you got for us?
Speaker 5 (13:25):
First off, we have tech in common, but we also
have the fact that we both didn't get a lot
of a pluses.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
So that's really good to know.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
I thought I was the only one.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Oh not at all. We turned out okay, Mom and Dad.
So my first one is HP. So HP has two.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
Things that I'm really excited about for back to school.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
One is their new byte size lessons. So what these are.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
These are free principles and they're designed for parents. They're
like these principal documents that you can print out. They're
great for creative, fun, educational moments. They're created if you
ever remember these magazines, the magazines Highlights for children mm hm.
So that's created by them in conjunction in partnership with
a Harvard Professor of Learning scientist, doctor Bonowitz. So they're
perfect for ages five to ten. They spark curiosity, they're
(14:06):
going to engage them in learning, build up some of
that confidence, and it's really great because it's one of
those things where they get all the answers, they're not
having to ask you for all the answers all the time.
And then of course you're going to want to print
these things and all of that fun stuff too.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
So you've got to use the HP.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
Smart Tank fifty one oh one, which makes printing easy
and it comes with up to two years of ink concluded,
which is perfect for when you know that moment's going
to happen, when the book reports do when you run
out of ink, not with this, because you'll have it
for two years.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Great suggestion, Mario and you talked about inspiring creativity.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I know you probably want to expand on that.
Speaker 5 (14:39):
Yeah, I do, because there's Epic Kids, and I don't
know if you know about Epic Kids, but they are
the number one digital library for kids. They have so
it's digital, folks, so it's on your devices. But they
have over forty thousand top quality books from over two
hundred and fifty publishers, So that's a lot of books
and a lot of publishers. You can do a lot
of fun things like from read to me stories, fun quizzes,
(15:01):
badges you can earn and you'll really learn what like
what your kid likes to read, which is really great,
and start them now so that they ease into school
when it kicks in.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I remember writing about Epic the app, which I reviewed
on an iPad for USA today back in I want
to say, twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Oh wow, it's been around for a while. I think
it just came out at that point.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
And it's a fantastic ebook platform with tons of content
and I can't believe they're up to that many books now.
Speaker 5 (15:26):
Amazing, since it's astounding, it's something for everyone for sure.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I know we're not talking pricing today, Mario, So our
listeners should head on over to Indnews dot tv to
see these products in action, but also to grab links
and see prices and all that. Correct, we are chatting
with digital lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong who's donning his backpack
full of some great tech ideas for back to school season.
Why don't we end off with two must have tips
(15:51):
that you like for back to school season?
Speaker 5 (15:53):
Okay, so I'm going to jump in with like Crayola.
You can't talk back to school without Crayola, Like it's synonymous.
Every student needs to smart that creativity. I love that
they have several different items available. They're twenty four count crayons,
they got the ten count markers, twelve count colored pencils.
They're all perfect for young artists that are wanting to
explore their imagination and self expression, of course, and they're
(16:14):
at the great prices that we're always used to. One
new thing that's really fun is that they have their
limited edition retired colors, so they have actually retired colors.
They're available in eight count crayons, colored pencils, and markers,
so you might want to get them before they head
back into retirement, which is cool. Also Staples. If you
are shopping and you're like, where are the deals? Mario
Staples has all your essentials you named it earlier, backpacks,
(16:38):
lunch boxes, water bottles, all the fun stuff kids love.
But then the things that are like folders, notebooks, pencils,
and those things are starting as low as twenty five cents.
And some of these are featuring their favorite characters, like
they got Stitch and Minecraft, trendy designs like sprinkles, doughnuts
and gummy bears.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
So they got all the cold stuff.
Speaker 5 (16:55):
And verified teachers get twenty percent off, and if you
do shop with them, you give one of the out
for their weekly freebies because as you're shopping, they're going
to be doing that through August sixteenth, So.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
That's something to take advantage of.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
And then I would say the last one Mark is
really making back the school easier in the morning. Starts
with how they get dressed and how they get together.
So we have the super Mouth Kavatar Caddy. This is
an all in one organizer. It's got a toothbrusholder, an
automatic toothpaste dispenser, playful ice cream cone, rinse cup for
mouth wash. It plays four songs. They're each timed to
(17:28):
two minutes, which is the recommended brushing time, so kids
will now brush longer up to seventy three percent longer
when they are listening to music. It's got dancing headlights.
I mean, the kids are going to want to brush
their teeth.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Indnews dot tv to learn more from Mario Armstrong as
well as following him on all his socials at Mario Armstrong.
As for retired Crayola colors, by the way, Dandy Lion
is on that list. I used to color with that,
as well as Blizzard Blue. If you saw these, you'd
be like, oh, yeah, that's my childhood right there in
one color.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Blizzard Blue is one yeah, or Magic Mint. Love it. Mario.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Always great to chat with you. Thanks so much for
these amazing ideas for back to school time.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
Hey, I wish everyone a great start to the school season.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Be well, and thanks for having me on Mark.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
We'll be right back with more. Check it out.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
I want to follow Mark Google, Mark with a C
and Saltzman with a Z breaking down geeks peak into
street speak.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
This is check it out to check it out with.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Technology columnist, author, and TV personality Mark.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Saltzman welcome back to check it out. As travelers pack.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Their bags this summer, new data from Wise, the global
money app reveals that ATM fees in some of the
most popular travel destinations have surged to unprecedented levels. To
tell us about Wise and how it can save you
time and money while traveling, we're joined by Nketa Demelo,
Principal product manager at Wise. Welcome to the show, and
Kida good to chat with you.
Speaker 6 (19:04):
Get to chat with you too.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Thanks for having me and I hope you're having a
good summer as well. I am, thank you excellent.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Let's first identify the problem, which I've already hinted at
off the top. What's wrong with the old way of
withdrawing money when you're traveling from a machine or something.
I also know that the Wise app lets you do
is sending money overseas to family. What's wrong with the
old way of both of these?
Speaker 6 (19:26):
Yeah, So, to be honest with you, the old way,
I think the biggest problem that we still see is
unfortunately just unexpected fees and this is far too common,
even though there is more knowledge and transparency around it today.
What we see is when you withdraw from an ATM,
it might be your home bank, it might be the
(19:47):
local at ATM that you're withdrawing from, or it might
just be the exchange rate that you're given. But inevitably,
what people don't actually realize is that you can be
charged up to twenty seven percent a per transaction that
you actually withdraw from an ATM.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
So, yeah, that's that's a lot.
Speaker 6 (20:06):
And I think typically, you know, what we're seeing is
ATM fee is about two point zero five percent. That's
not terrible. But what we are seeing in you know,
you mentioned as people are traveling for summer in certain
countries which are very popular destinations like Indonesia and Vietnam,
we are seeing ATM fees surging between one thousand, three
(20:28):
hundred to three thousand, five hundred percent, which is really
really steering.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Yeah, that's significant, it is.
Speaker 6 (20:35):
And these are countries when you're traveling from this side
of the world, you're thinking, okay, this is a long
way to go, but you know, hopefully in this in
this country, things are maybe relatively cheaper and you can
have a great holiday, but you might not realize what
you're actually spending as you drawing money from a local ATM.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
All right, regardless of which country you're in, you're withdrawing
let's say one hundred dollars in local currency, it's going
to be much more than that with all the fees
piled on.
Speaker 6 (21:02):
Yeah, exactly. And you know, I've been in this situation myself,
and I think one of the things that's all so
difficult while you're on holiday is you're in this mindset
of having fun. You're a little bit more care free.
You're also just not doing the math, like while you're
standing at this ATM you just want to get your
money and you know, go do something fun. And so
(21:23):
I think that's really where you know, tourists and just
you know, holiday goers get really trapped in these hidden fees.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Fair and Keita.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
With that in mind, why don't we chat about the
Wise app? How can it help at a high level?
What's it all about?
Speaker 7 (21:37):
Good question?
Speaker 4 (21:38):
So why is it?
Speaker 6 (21:39):
Fundamentally a global technology company? We are building the best
way to move and manage the world's money. So really,
what does that mean for you? I think I think
the best way I try to describe Whise is, no
matter where you go, it's the app that tries to
make you feel like a local. So we've all been
in that situation where you go to a country, you're
(22:01):
dealing with a foreign currency, you don't know what to do.
WHISE is your financial buddy. Effectively, that's going to make
you feel like a local, receiving money like a local.
So how does that actually help you if you're specifically
abroad and you're trying to withdraw money from an ATM
as well. One of the things about WHYSE is we
(22:22):
have a product called the Wise Account where you can
hold money and you can spend from that account as well.
So it's powered by a debit card. And so when
you actually use this debit card abroad, similar to how
the Wise account actually works is we're very transparent about
the fees that you're actually charged. So why is really
(22:42):
big on, you know, not having hidden fees, about being
really clear about what it is that we charge. And
on average, we charge about zero point five three percent
for a transfer, So as you can imagine the numbers
I've told you earlier, it's it's really really a lot
less than what some of these ATM fees can charge.
So the things that I've seen specifically when when you're
(23:05):
abroad and you use the Wise card, Number one gonna
you're gonna be able to step away from two big
hidden fee components, right. So one is as your home bank,
Wise offers you too free withdrawals when you use your
Wise card. And then the secondly, we always charge the
mid market rate. So even if you're holding money in
(23:26):
a different currency, so let's say you're holding five hundred
USD and you're withdrawing in you know, Indonesian re reupia
or Singapore dollars, whatever it might be, we're going to
show you the mid market rate and we're going to
charge your really transparent fees. So those are two big
things that you're automatically saving on. And then ATM fees
(23:46):
you know, unfortunately that can be something that is up
to a local ATM to actually charge. So that's something
I do encourage holiday goers to be mindful of.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
And I also know that you can use the Wise
app to pay with out needing local currency as well,
like digitally, there are some options there.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Too, right.
Speaker 6 (24:04):
So one of the things that we see in the
local markets today is we are as a society slightly
moving away from cash and so as you may go
on holiday, you might notice a bunch of QR codes
in order to be able to pay locally, and often
you might not have the particular mechanism to actually use
that QR code. So Wise is actually trying to help
(24:27):
our customers now by building that technology into the Wise app.
So for example, if you go to Singapore and you
want to pay using pay now, which is the local
way of paying, you can actually do that directly from
the Wise app, and you don't have to witdraw cash
and you don't have to download any other applications.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
The local way of payin all right, using the Wise
app has lower fees than other solutions. There's also more
transparency and you already gave some examples of countries in
I guess Southeast Asia where we've seen four digit percent
rise in fees. So is this tied to the recent
study that you commissioned.
Speaker 6 (25:04):
Yes, it is. So why is recently commissioned this study
where we actually looked at about ten million transactions between
February to July twenty twenty five, and this is where
we really noticed this staggering increase in ATM fees. So yeah,
it is very much tied to this study. What we
really want to highlight is again making sure that customers
(25:26):
are truly aware of how this may impact them.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
To eye opening for sure.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
We're going to continue chatting about the Wise app and
all the benefits it brings. In a moment, I wanted
to just give a shout out to sand Disc. They're
going to be my guest in a week from now
where they're going to share news about a very cool
new USBC device, a flash storage solution like a little
thumb drive, but works with your iPhone or Android to
(25:53):
back up important files. We all know that you can't
expand the storage on an iPhone, especially and usually that's
the case with Android as well, so you may run
out of room because photos and videos are getting much
bigger four K, eight K, all that kind of stuff.
Sand disc is a partner on tech it out for
full transparency. Sanddisk dot com has more when we return,
(26:15):
more with whys about saving money when you travel.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Stick with us.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
We'll be right back breaking down GeekSpeak into street speak.
Check it out. Closted by Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Welcome back everyone you're listening to check it out.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
We are chatting with Ankita Demelo, principal product manager at Wise,
the global money app. We are talking steep atm fees
and how to circumvent those by going with an app.
Like Wise, what do you think is the reason behind
these fees? I know that, like you said earlier in
our chat, it could be your local bank back at home,
(27:01):
it could be the store that has the ATMs adding
some fees so they can make some money on it.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Why do you think it got out of hand?
Speaker 6 (27:08):
It's a really good question. I think it's something that
Wise is also digging into a bit further. Some of
these things, you know, they are like geopolitical, and there
are things that you know, the market might not not
necessarily have control over. So things like home banks charging
the fees. I think those are things that typically we
have seen. But I think where things are becoming a
(27:31):
lot more interesting are with exchange rate volatility. Particularly in
today's climate. We've seen a lot of movement there, so
that's definitely a big one. And as different countries economies
also change, those local ATM fees are very volatile. So
I think those are the two big things that we're seeing,
(27:52):
and that's why we want to highlight this to customers
specifically to say, hey, watch out for this and make
sure you're you're using your money wisely.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Got it wisely?
Speaker 2 (28:03):
There you go, nicely played, and Wise makes its money
with the fees that you touched on. There's no subscription
fee or anything.
Speaker 7 (28:10):
No.
Speaker 6 (28:10):
Wise does not charge your subscription fee. It's free to
open up a Wise account. There's a small fee to
order a debit card, which is about nine dollars. We
specifically only make fees on our fee for transferring money
or converting money, which is point five to three percent
on average of the transfer, so there's no other hidden
fees or other markups.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Anywhere and in Kida before I let you go.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
As we mentioned earlier, Wise can also be used to
send money to family overseas. Can you talk for a
moment about the benefits of using whys for this?
Speaker 6 (28:42):
Absolutely, the benefits are very similar to what I've described
for withdrawing money as well. For ATMs. Predominantly, there are
three big things I would say. The first is it's
a lot cheaper than your bank as as I mentioned,
it's er point five to three percent of your transfer
amount as our fee. Sixty five percent of transfers at
(29:04):
whys are also instant, which means that your recipient, whether
that's your family or whether that's paying a vendor abroad,
are going to receive their money instantly, which is awesome.
And thirdly, it's also a convenient way to pay. So
you can download the wise app, or you can go
to wys dot com and create an account and once
(29:24):
you've done that, you're all set up to go. So
those are the real big benefits of using whyse compared
to let's say a traditional bank or potentially other players
out there.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
And then I guess the easiest way to get going
is just to download the wise app or do you
recommend going to the website for users.
Speaker 6 (29:42):
Who are on the go, We definitely recommend downloading the
Wise app on iOS or Android. For users who prefer
a laptop, just head to wys dot com.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
All right, whys dot com and Keida, great to chat
with you.
Speaker 6 (29:53):
Thanks so much, thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Mobile phone users know this all too well.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Despite seam ubiquitous cell phone service in twenty twenty five,
it's really not that uncommon to find yourself in a
dead zone. In fact, I was visiting my son at
his summer camp where he works last Sunday, and I
had maybe one bar on the phone, and I thought
to myself, while I really hope I don't need to
contact anyone in the event of an emergency, or what
if my aging parents need to reach me. Well, all
(30:20):
of this may be a thing of the past, as
T Mobile has officially launched its partnership with Starlink, extending
service coverage in the five hundred thousand square miles of
US territory where traditional towers can't reach. Joining us to
chat about it is Alice Williams, vice president of Product
Marketing at T Mobile. Thanks for your time, Alice, looking
forward to this chat.
Speaker 7 (30:40):
Him Mark, great to be here, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Dead zones continued to be an issue for cell phone users,
especially in remote areas. That's the problem. So let's talk
about the solution. Tell us about t satellite and how
this technology works.
Speaker 7 (30:53):
Yeah, so we embarked on this effort nearly three years
ago with our partner Starlink. We set out with a
fairly simple but turn that really ambitious mission, ending dead
zones and covering the five hundred thousand square miles of
American terrain that no cellular network can reach. This isn't
reachable by T Mobile organizing and ort none of us
can reach these places. So we knew it was a
fairly simple idea, but the whole conceit was what if
(31:16):
we could use direct to cellular technology to be able
to reach these people and create this extra level of
coverage and p satellite, which we launched last week to
customers following an extensive beta, is the first major milestone
in being able to realize that vision.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Congrats, that's great.
Speaker 7 (31:31):
Thanks, Yeah, we're really excited. It was the fruit of
a lot of labor and brain power and really the
invention of a new technology, and so that's sort of
as excited as we are to offer the service, we're
also always excited anytime we can be in the business
of pioneering something awesome.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
So look, I know some mobile phone manufacturers like Apple
or Samsung, they're offering these sort of emergency SOS satellite solutions,
but it's very limited. Alice, can you clarify how this
works on the back end without getting too much into
the geek speak, like how T Mobile was able to
make this happen.
Speaker 7 (32:02):
You can imagine a cell tower that sort of a
big poll with sort of radios mounted at the top.
We took those radios, modified them and patched them to satellites,
launched them into space. That's sort of a six hundred
and fifty plus count and set them into orbit. And
so what we ended up with is sort of a
cellular network in space that creates a blanket of coverage
across the US. It leverages T Mobile spectrums, so we
(32:23):
can kind of control the orchestration layer. What that means
for the user is sort of three things. What is
this notion of ubiquity that you mentioned is sort of realized, Like,
you are reachable effectively everywhere in the US. There are
a couple of minor examples that where we're precibited from broadcasting,
but you're effectively reachable anywhere via this technology. The second
is it works with the device in your pocket. You
don't need any special technology. It works on effectively every
(32:46):
modern smartphone produced in the last four years or so.
And then the third is it just connects. There is
seamless transition between the T Mobile terrestrial network and the
satellite networks. So those three things together, I think, really
set us apart from other services that are available and
set the stage I think for a future that envisions
advancing the capabilities in the years to come.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Yeah, I'm going to ask you about the future of
this in a moment, but that's good to hear that
you don't need a specific brand of phone.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Check it Out continues right after this.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
Follow Mark Saltzman on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram. Listen
to check it out whenever you want.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Just a few minutes left with Alice Williams, VP of
Product Marketing at T Mobile to tell us all about
TE Satellite. That's T Satellite, a partnership with Starlink to
bring connectivity to virtually any modern smartphone. Before the break, Alice,
you were talking convenience, how it'll just switch to satellite
if you're off the grid, so to speak. Are you
(33:51):
hinting at the fact that you don't need to hold
the phone up in the air and point it around
and look for an on screen cueue even though I
haven't tried it myself, to be honest, but my iPhone
says that that's what you need to do.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
So that's not the case.
Speaker 7 (34:03):
That's not the case at all. In fact, three times
as many messages are received then sent on T Satellite,
and what that means is you're effectively getting messages when
you don't even know it. The phone can literally be
in your pocket or your backpack or your cupholder of
your car, So it really is. Often the user doesn't
even realize they've changed networks. That's a function of how
we design the technology.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Okay, so you just need a smartphone that's been around
for about three to four years, You need to be
a Tea Mobile customers or anything else that we need
to know and what does this mean for the future
of mobile service?
Speaker 7 (34:34):
Well, first, if you'll allow me, I might make one
small correction to your question, which is you don't need
to be a Team Mobile customer. Wow, you actually can
be ay, yeah, exactly. It's so cool. You can be
a Verizon or an AT and T customer and buy
T Satellite for ten dollars a month. We enable the
service be a secondary SIM card and so that's really
exciting and novel on its own. Now, of course, if
you're a Verizon or AT and T customer, we encourage
(34:56):
you to switch. It's better over here, as we like
to say, but it's not necessary to have T Satellite.
What we do have to do is sign up as
a customer of te Satellite, So you have to sort
of tell us you want the service. On our best
rate plans, it is included. But for those not on
our best rate plans to ten dollars a month introductory price.
But change your question about what we see as a
signal for future connectivity is at the same time as
(35:18):
this satellite capability is coming on board, our five G
network continues to get better and better and better. So
we don't see this as a world where satellite catches
up to the capabilities of our five G network and
takes it over. We see it as an augmentation of
our core network, and so you can imagine the sort
of compute use cases. The day to day use of
your smartphone and other connected devices will continue to be
(35:40):
powered by the T Mobile Trust Real network, but we
think that T satellite capabilities can continue to get sharper
around the edges to make sure that we deliver on
this seamless experience that ultimately realizes our vision one day
of putting an end to dead sense.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
And can you clarify, Alice, is this for calls for
tax for data? I mean we're not doing like video
call over satellite yet.
Speaker 7 (36:01):
Yeah, great point it is. Remember this is a brand
new technology and the signal has to go to space
and back, so it's a great point. Our commercial service
launched with text messaging, and then over the months ahead,
we are bringing on picture messaging, So we have some
of our compatible devices that are offering picture messaging currently,
and then later this year we're going to offer something
called satellite Data, where we have sort of a modified
(36:23):
data experience on a select number of apps. It's actually
not select. Any app developer can use our SDK to
develop Perte Satellite, but we will launch with a select
number of partners. And so we're focused first and foremost
on text messaging, video and picture messaging and data. But
ultimately we do believe there are versions of modified voice
experiences that we can work toward as well, and that's
certainly something we're looking at.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
And Alice, before I let you go, I touched on
my story about visiting my son up at a summer
camp in like a national park, and I was worried
about emergency services. Are you seeing that that's the primary
application for something.
Speaker 7 (36:55):
Like this, Well, it's certainly the most powerful. We see
it unfolding in two ways. One is, individuals who find
themselves stranded or in emergency situations are able to reach
out for help and get it in ways that they
previously couldn't. But secondly, in instances of mass weather events
or extreame weather events. We're able to turn on T
Satellite when terrestrial networks go down to enable connectivity and
(37:16):
messaging for entire communities. And so in this way through
our beta, we've covered a number of natural disasters and
enabled hundreds of thousands of people to send messages back
and forth to let people know they're okay or ask
for help. So that's sort of by and large, the
most impactful use case, but we see it in recreational
use cases. We see it for rugged professions where people
are off the grid, and we see it for people
(37:38):
like me and you who maybe just want to be
able to reach your kids when they're off the grid
or where you're off the grid. So it's this sort
of piece of mind element as well.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Awesome. And then finally, where can our listeners go for
more info?
Speaker 7 (37:48):
Yeah, there's a ton of great info on our website
at t dash mobile dot com, or you can stop
buy any T mobile store. We'd love to see there.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Okay, awesome, Alice again With T Satellite. T Mobile is
the first and only wireless provider with satellite to mobile
network in the US that automatically connects to most smartphones
made in the last four years. Very exciting. Alice Williams,
thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 7 (38:09):
Thanks Mark, great to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
I promised you a busy show with four guests, so
I hope I did not disappoint. Thank you for tuning
into tech it Out everyone. A big thank you to
Visa for being such an awesome partner on this program.
They'll be my guest in a week from now to
talk AI and how it's shaping fraudulent attacks on consumers
and businesses and what you can do to fight back.
(38:33):
Even if you're not tech savvy. If you're on social media,
let me know what you think of tech it Out,
if you have any tech questions for me, suggestions for
upcoming guests. My name is Mark Saltzman, Mark with the
C Saltsman with a Z, and you can find me
on all the major platforms. Also, let me know where
you're tuning into the show from. I always get a
kick out of that and how you're listening, whether it's
(38:53):
your favorite local talk radio station.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Or as a podcast.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
All the best, everyone, have a great rest of your day,
and I look forward to catching up with you next
week for another brand new episode of tack It Out,
but bye for now Chat
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