- I share a half-dozen awesome back-to-school gear suggestions for students of all ages, plus money- and time-saving tips!
- What the heck is a Razzall? Learn how this crowd-purchasing platform works for bigger ticket items like concerts and consumer electronics – and how you can make money on it, too
- Renowned photographer Vanelli stops by to talk with us about AI-powered editing software to help enhance your photos and videos. We hear about Luminar Neo from Skylum
- A huge thank you to ASUS, my title sponsor on Tech It Out, as well as Western Digital and Visa
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by theever changing world of technology? Can check
it out? Can help make somesense of it all, breaking down geek
speak into street speak. Technology columnist, author, and TV personality Mark Saltzman
covers consumer technology each week for everylistener, Mark tackles the latest news,
reviews, and how twos to helpyou understand what's hot, what's not and
(00:22):
why. Hey everyone, welcome tocheck it out. This is episode three
zero nine. If you're keeping track. My thoughts are with those affected by
the wildfires this past week, especiallyin Maui. But did you know there
are twelve other states reporting fires rightnow and in Canada it's bad too,
(00:42):
especially in the West and in theNorth. Thinking about you and your safety.
Please take care out there. Ifyou want to google my name Mark
Saltzman, I'll spell it in amoment. I wrote an article with a
checklist on ways to reduce the oddsof a wildfire, a regular house fire,
and floods and hurricanes affecting your home, it's contents and most importantly your
(01:04):
family and how tech can play arole as well. So do a web
search for USA Today and my nameMark Saltzman, m R. C.
S. A L t z MNand a word like wildfire or flood,
and you'll see the article I wrote. I hope you find it helpful.
All Right, We're entering the thirdweek of August, which means back to
school time for most of the country, So I'm going to share some tech
(01:26):
ideas for students, from affordable smartphonesand laptops, to printers that don't require
expensive cartridges thank Goodness, to monitorsfor your dorm room, and much more
later on in the show. Bythe way, and speaking of school,
I'll share some tech tips for studentsto saving money, protecting your Internet access
with a VPN or virtual private network, and a lot more. Now,
(01:49):
in between these two school related segments, we have two guests. First,
we'll learn what a razzle is.It's a way to group purchase and item.
Don't call it a raffle, It'sa zzle, I think, is
their tagline. And also on thisshow, we'll catch up with renowned photographer
Vanelli about using AI to fix upyour photos and videos. All of this
and more on an all new techit out powered by Aces, which I'll
(02:14):
tell you more about in around sixtyseconds from now. So let's kick things
off all right, it's back toschool time and with that kids today will
no doubt need some technology. SoI've got about a half dozen suggestions ranging
in price, so depending on yourbudget, I think there's gonna be something
here for you. So if youwant to jot this down or hit me
(02:34):
up on my website Mark Saltzman dotcom. If you want a list again,
it's m R C. S Alt Zmaan dot com. All right,
let's start off with chromebooks. Theyoffer a lot of bang for the
buck, in fact, starting atonly two ninety nine, the Aces Chromebook
Flip fourteen doesn't just have a touchscreendisplay so you can use your fingertips instead
(02:58):
of a mouse and keyboard if youprefer, or a digital pen, but
that screen is on a three hundredand sixty degree hinge as well, so
you can flip it around and useit like a tablet if you prefer.
It also has a front facing camerafor video calling, lots of local storage,
a good processor and long battery lifeas well. Has a lean,
fast and secure Chrome operating system.It supports countless apps, including Google Classroom
(03:22):
and Code Academy. Those are populartools, no doubt, and for some
fun and even stem education, science, technology, engineering, and math.
Chromebooks can now play Minecraft, thebest selling game of all time, so
a little bit of fun perhaps afterschool as well. It's thin and light,
it's got multiple ports along the sideand other great features. Again for
that price is fantastic. So that'sChromebook as a platform. That's the Asus
(03:46):
Chromebook Flip fourteen at just two ninetynine. And a must have laptop accessory
for any computer is the My PassportDrive from WD. This is reliable external
storage to hold all your files,photos, videos, and more. Not
only are these external drives small endlight, less than the size of a
(04:06):
decade cards for sure, and theyget their power from the laptop itself,
so you don't need to plug itinto the wall, but they have capacity
up to five terabytes, which ishuge. That's a lot of files.
I think I've got twenty nine yearsworth of articles in my documents folder for
all the years that I've been ajournalist, and it's barely sixteen gigabytes.
(04:28):
So we're talking a thousand gigabytes forone terabyte, and this has up to
five times that you do not haveto pay a service fee like a subscription
cost for a cloud provider. Ifthe Internet is down, you still have
access to your data. There's somany benefits to local offline storage. My
passport drives from w d start atseventy nine dollars and there are back to
(04:50):
school sales all the time as well. Next up and affordable smartphone for students,
the Pixel seven A. It isthe most advanced A series phone from
Google. It does not skimp onfeatures at all, but it is about
half the price or a third ofthe price of some other premium smartphones in
the market. But again, it'spacked with power with a custom processor.
(05:13):
It's got an exceptional camera that takesamazing photos and videos even in low light
conditions. And there's AI from Googlefor advanced spam protection, car crash detection,
Heaven Forbid, and smart audio totext transcription. Guess there's a built
in app that doesn't just record thelecture from say a teacher or professor,
but will transcribe it into text beforeyour eyes. Awesome stuff. Again,
(05:36):
Pixel seven A is only four ninetynine and I've seen it for as low
as four forty four from BestBuy dotcom. An exceptional mid range smartphone that
has many premium features as added valueand of course access to the Google Play
Store with a couple of million downloadsfor some fun and games and productivity apps
(05:57):
as well. All right, let'skeep moving on with some record ended back
to school tech picks for students andtheir families. How about a pair of
printers. So the first is theEpson Eco Tank twenty eight fifty. This
is an essential tool for a student, I'd argue of any age and their
families. It's a wireless printer,scanner, and copier. But you're thinking,
so what right, there's so manyof those on the market today,
(06:18):
But the Eco Tank twenty eight fiftyis a cartridge free solution that includes up
to two years worth of ink outof the box. They're in bottles that
you'll see in the box, andyou can pick them up when the time
is right. I'll get to thatin a moment, but we're talking up
to five thousand pages in black orcolor, so you're not running out of
ink at the most inopportune times,which always used to happen to me.
(06:40):
Again, up to two years worthof ink now when it is time to
refill them. They're inexpensive and easyto use, bottles that snap onto the
ink tanks built into the Eco Tank. You just match the color twisted on,
fills it up, and then stopsautomatically. I've been using Eco Tank
for years where by it the ETtwenty eight fifty is normal forty nine,
but I've seen it on sale fortwo ninety nine now that it's back to
(07:03):
school season, so definitely take advantageof that. Another great printer or family
of printers for students would be theInstax family of photoprinters from Fujifilm. They
let you wirelessly and instantly print realfilm photos from your phone to decorate dorm
rooms, lockers and binders and more. In fact, there are three in
(07:24):
Stax film formats available. There's MiniLink too compatible with Minifilm, Square Link
with Square Film, and Link Widefor the largest format wide film. My
daughter Maya loves these things. Soyou can wirelessly print from your smartphone real
photos to decorate your dorm room orput them around your dresser mirror, hand
them out to friends again, putthem in your locker. And there are
(07:46):
free smartphone apps that let you getcreative with things like fun filters and frames
and virtual stickers and so much more. Prices started only seventy nine, and
the film is very affordable as well. So that's the Fujifilm in stacks smartphone
printers. Great for students of allages. All right, let's end off
on a couple of things. Greatfor gamers, you know, when they
want to blow off a little bitof steam after a bad to hit school
(08:09):
or after a tough exam. Forgamers on the go. The Asus rog
ally is a full Windows eleven PCin the palm of your hand. It's
a powerful gaming computer that's got comfortableand intuitive console like controls built in,
and it's at a fraction of theprice of a gaming laptop or desktop at
six ninety nine. It gives youaccess to popular gaming libraries like Steam,
(08:31):
gog and Epic Game Store. Plusyou can download other content as well,
and you can even connect this toa monitor or a TV for a big
screen fund kind of like you cando with the Nintendo Switch. But now
you've got the huge variety of computergaming and all those libraries out there.
I'm a big Steam fan myself.And even if you want to get work
done, because this is really acomputer in your pocket, you can add
(08:52):
a wireless mouse and keyboard, especiallywhen you connect it maybe to a monitor
in your dorm room. It isa full computer, so love that versatility
of this again, it's the rogRepublic of Gamers ally a double l Y
from Asus, a pocket size fullWindows eleven gaming PC. Love it.
And then, finally, speaking ofmonitors, there's the LG Ultra Gear twenty
(09:15):
seven inch o LAD gaming monitor.It is absolutely stunning. Not only does
it have an o LAD panel likemany of their TVs do from LG.
You know that's for incredible contrast andbrightness and color. But for gamers,
this monitor has a super smooth twohundred and forty hurts refresh rate and with
point zero three millisecond response time,so really fast to keep up with those
fast paced games, especially those whoplay online. Every millisecond counts. There's
(09:39):
a remote that you get with it. It's got great audio. I love
that it's an ergonomic monitor. Youcan angle it in many different ways to
suit how comfortable it is for youto look at, especially when you're probably
sitting in front of your monitor forextended periods of time, and you can
also pivot it from horizontal to verticalmode depending on what you're doing. So
by day you want a multi towerasking Marvel so you've got lots of windows
(10:01):
open, or if you're working ona spreadsheet or something, you can turn
sideways, but by night. It'sa great gaming monitor for PCR console gaming.
By the way, it's also theofficial monitor of the Raptors Uprising Gaming
Club for those esports fans out there. And it's also available in forty five
inches, which is as big assome TV's out there. All right.
The LG Ultra Gear twenty seven inchOLED gaming monitor is eight forty nine.
(10:22):
Well, there, you're having alook at some great gear just in time
for back to school season, dependingon your needs and budget, something for
everyone. If you want to askme any questions about these, you can
hit me up on my website,Mark Saltzman dot com, Mr C s
A L t z m an dotcom, or you can find me on
social media. I'm on Twitter orx threads, Blue Sky, Facebook,
(10:46):
Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and evenTikTok. It's Mark Saltzman again, Mark
with a C for full transparency.Asus is the title sponsor on tech it
Out. I know I included thererog Ally and Chromebook in that back to
school roundup, and I'm recording thisshow on an Asus zen Book laptop right
(11:07):
now, and I've been using thesame one, I think since the show
started back in twenty seventeen, whichshows reliability and longevity. When we return
on Check it Out, we're goingto chat with Razzle and learn how you
can group purchase an item and howthat all works. Stick with us,
We'll be right back with more checkit Out. Listen to check it Out
whenever you want find the Check itOut podcast at it Too, or wherever
(11:28):
you get your podcasts. Welcome backeveryone you're listening to Check it Out.
When it comes to buying expensive thingslike concert tickets or price the electronics,
there's an increasingly popular way to scorethem. They're called razzes. If you're
(11:50):
new to this space, we're goingto learn about razzes now and how they
work with a Toronto based company calledRazzle, where you have a chance to
get the things you want for fractionof the price. We're joined by Joe
Rabini, founder and president of Razzle. Thanks for a time, Joe.
Likewise, Mark, thanks for havingme appreciate it all right, Why don't
we start off at a high level, Joe, what are razz is all?
(12:11):
About and tell us about your company. Razzle. Sure, a razz
is essentially a crowd purchase. Now, what does a crowd purchase means?
It means you can come to ourwebsite and you can pick any items that
we might have listed, whether itbe concert tickets or any kind of event
ticket, or consumer goods like electronics, et cetera. Essentially, what we
have is we have the asking pricethat is listed on the item that is
(12:35):
broken up into shares are spots.So let's just say, as an example,
we have a pair of tickets thatmight be worth a thousand dollars.
Those tickets, we will break themup into one hundred spots by ten dollars.
People members who are belonged to Razzlewill come to our site and we'll
purchase as little or as many spotsas they want. They can buy one
spot, or they can buy tenspots. Once that asking price is satisfied,
(12:56):
in this case a thousand dollars,that list of participant is then randomized
through a third party that's based outin Europe. That third party then will
give us a what we call aselected purchaser. Essentially, one person will
get that item or what they've paidfor their spots. So if somebody buys
a ten dollars spot and they getselected, then essentially they've got that thousand
(13:18):
dollars item for ten dollars. Theother participants know that their money has now
gone to a like minded consumer whowanted to participate in this. It's a
new and exciting way for people toobtain items and for a much smaller cost,
potentially than what they would do ifthey tried to buy them out right.
We cater to the people who couldnot normally the ninety nine percent of
(13:41):
the population who can't afford items likeTaylor Swift tickets as an example. So
the idea I guess, then,Joe, is that is it kind of
like a raffle or a lottery becausethere's no guarantee that you're going to be
the selected winner, purchaser, purchaserof that product. Is that fair?
We'd like to say it's not araffle, it's a razzol Our back end
process actually creates this crowd purchasing.So essentially what happens is everybody owns a
(14:09):
share or a spot in a particularitem once that item's asking price is satisfied,
so all spots sell. Then thatlist of participants is randomizing. The
one person gets gets the item,all right, Because I was going to
ask this was not legal for afew years, but razzol made it legal.
And how so and what would yousay separates razzl from other companies that
offer razzes? So there essentially thereare no other companies that we know of
(14:31):
that offer razzes and a E marketplace. We are an e marketplace, so
we have members who are both buyersand sellers, to be quite honest,
similar to what you might get anymarketplaces with some of the big names like
an eBay, et cetera. Soessentially what ends up happening is everybody else
has helped that person buy that item. Collectively, they may not get anything
(14:52):
for it, but one person does. Today it might be you, the
more it might be someone else,depending on what it is that you're trying
to obtain through our site. Andit's not just tickets. We've been using
that as an example, but itcould be really anything. I guess,
Joe, Like, for example,if I was gifted a TV and I
already have a TV, then Ican offer that TV up. It's a
win win, I guess it's awin for the person who wants to get
(15:15):
paid what the TV is worth,and then it's a win for the person
who maybe is only one of onehundred people and that's not terrible odds.
Yeah, as an example, we'rein Toronto. Toronto May Belief Season tickets
will be listing some very soon forthis upcoming season, and last year and
the year before and the year beforethat. I believe we actually had someone
who got all forty one home gamesto Toronto May Beliefs once spent I believe
(15:37):
it was fifty six dollars Canadian onour site and ended up getting every pair
of tickets to every single game.So this is more luck than skill.
But you can't buy more spots toincrease your odds. You can buy as
many spots as you'd like. Thechances of you getting an item are clearly
stated on the site. Like Ihad mentioned, if there's one hundred spots
by ten, you know that youhave a one in one hundred opportunity to
(15:58):
be able to get that item.From a skilled perspective, we do also
have a buy it now feature.The buy it Now is for somebody who
feels that they don't want to participatein the raz and they see an item
that might be very well priced,because at the end of the day,
it is a market market pricing.So if there is an item there that
they really like, they have theopportunity to take control of the raz on
(16:19):
their own and click buy it.Now, everybody who participated in the raz
will get their money put back intotheir Razzle wallet because we use a wallet
system, and that one person getsthe item entirely. We are chatting with
Joe Rubini, he's founder and presidentof Razzle, kind of like Razzle Dazzle.
I assume this is a platform thatlets you pay for a spot or
(16:40):
more to go towards an event likea concert, as well as products.
I'm on the razzle dot com website, which will plug again in a moment.
Is it an app as well?There's an app as well. It's
both on the Google Play and AppleStore. All right, and then finally,
what would you say is the biggestmisconception about Razzle There is the misconception
with regards to it being a raft. We know it sounds like a raffle
(17:02):
using random dot org, it's trulythe best randomization platform anywhere. To make
sure that we're offering people an excellent, exciting experience and getting them the things
they want for fraction of the cost. And there's one other thing that some
people are unsure about is expiry dates. Sometimes razzles will expire prior to all
spots being sold, so people willsay, well, what happens with my
(17:23):
money? It's easy. All themoney gets put back into your Razzle wallet
where you can utilize it for otheritems that you might find on our website.
Or again, you can ask fora cash withdrawal or a wallet withdraw
All right, So razzle dot comr a double zalll dot com and you
can see the different areas for buyinga spot for experiences, event tickets,
memorabilia, fundraisers, electronics and more. And you just need to sign up
(17:48):
for a free account. You canalso download the Razzle app for free from
the Apple App Store for iPhone andiPad or Google Play for Android devices.
Correct. Awesome, thanks again,Joe, Thanks so much, Mark.
I appreciate it. And by theway, Razzle makes money. They make
ten percent of the sale, sothat's how they monetize it. Would we
return on teck it out? Wecatch up with Vanelli renowned photographer about using
(18:10):
AI to help you with your photos. We'll be right back with more teck
it out. I want to followMark go Willip Mark with Zi and Saltzman
with a Z breaking down geek speakinto street speak. This is check it
(18:33):
out to check it out with technologycolumnist, author, and TV personality Mark
Saltzman. Welcome back to check itout. Even if you're not a famous
photographer like Vanelli, I renowned sportsand portrait photographer, educator, and author
joining us right now. Smart softwaremay help out amateurs like yours truly,
and I'm sure many of our listenersas well, especially when that software employees
(18:56):
artificial intelligence like Luminaria, a toolwe're going to hear about right now with
Vanelli, Ivan Nelly. Great tochat with you. Oh, thank you
so much. Actually so cool thatwe're doing this. We just came back
from a shoot from Chicago and wejust enriched the lives of so many amateurs.
I hate the word to amateurs,Okay, our hobbyists, photo enthusiasts,
(19:19):
hobbyists. So yeah, And Iknow that education is very much part
of your m O, which isfantastic because you're not only amazing at what
you do and I encourage our listenersto google you if they haven't already.
Vanelli one word, But you wantto impart that knowledge onto others, which
I know you're gonna You're going todo in part over the next few minutes
with us as well. So withthat in mind, before we talk about
(19:40):
Luminar Neo, this software that canhelp photographers of all skill levels. Tell
us about you and your work here, here's what's funny. Photography for me
became a necessity. I was aformer martial arts champion. I get injured.
Over to my own karate school,I heard a photographer take photos for
our demonstration team. With what WaltDisney paid us for this performance, we
(20:00):
ended up giving the check to thephotographer. That's so much a cost.
So I was like, oh mygod. So I started to learn photoshop
and photography on my own and tryingto put it together, and then that's
so for my business. That's whyI got started into it, fell in
love with it as a photographer.Starting out, the problem was Photoshop is
massive, it's incredible. It's forgraphic artists. So trying to learn photoshop
(20:23):
at the same time trying to learnphotography, Oh my god. It was
it was a nightmare. Well thatwas twenty six, twenty seven years ago.
Then it grew, and then Istarted using my photography my karate students,
and I would make movie posters ofthem when they tested for their black
belts. And now here's a personlooking larger than life. That of course
(20:45):
I had a child. Now whathappens, Well, I Sun decided to
play lacrosse. Boom, I'm asports photographer. Again, he decides to
cross country. And the neat thingabout all this is I was able to,
over the years show my friends ornon photographers how to do the same
thing for their children, and soyears you know later the kids that's their
(21:07):
biggest memories. Hey look my dadtook this photo, or my mom book
this photo. So the power ofphotography is absolutely amazing. Now the trick
is how much of it do youwant to learn? Like I took a
cooking class as an example, Idon't want to open up my own restaurant.
I just want to learn to cookbetter. This guy tries selling in
the three thousand dollars worth of totsand bands. I don't cook three thousand
(21:32):
dollars. So that's where working withlike luminar Neio for example, working with
Skylo and the company, it wasa dream come true because now I can
remember what it was like going backwhen I first started, and anyone's struggling,
you know, with photography, theydon't have to struggle with learning how
to edit. So that I thinkis the breakthrough with all this. So
(21:53):
we're going to talk more about Skylamin a minute. The company behind Luminar
Neo decided to curiosity, what doyou like to shoot on? I think
buy your zoom photo. It's anikon so right, yes, I do,
Nike. Why that's all? That'sall the lenses I have. Yeah,
it's usually boils down to that.What lenses you already have? Right?
Yeah, you're cell phoned. Nowadaysany cameras and you can't manufacturer is
(22:18):
absolutely amazing. Now I will sayI did upgrade from a portrait camera DA
ten and I did go mirror less. Yeah, because, oh my god,
face tracking and eye recognition absolutely amazing. No longer, if I'm laying
on the ground do a shoot,I don't have to focus and then recompose
the shot to make it look good. It doesn't for you. These mirror
(22:41):
less cameras are pretty wild they're morecompact than a DSLR, a digital single
lens reflects model, and they supportmany of the same lenses, but there's
no mirror inside. So lighter andsmaller, which is awesome, and as
you said, some advanced features aswell. And people say, is a
cheating I don't care. I'm cleanbetter shots. Yeah, now that I've
ever had. I'm getting less blurryshots because it's using its intelligence. All
(23:07):
right, speaking of intelligence, nowlet's pivot and talk about Luminar Neo.
This is software for photographers from acompany called sky lum tell Us about Luminar
Neo. So. Luminar Neio isone of the first AI editing programs,
and it's designed towards photo enthusiasts andthose who just love taking photos. It
takes the mystery out of editing yourimages, because no matter what you do
(23:32):
when you photograph an image, ifyou're photographing it wrong, if you look
at the back of your camera,oh my god, it looks amazing,
you're bringing into any computer programing,it trips all that information for you and
you're like, wait a second,it doesn't look like bows on the back
of my camera. Yes, becauseit's in the raw. So with the
raw processing, what luminar neio isdone. It's taking people like my sister,
(24:00):
a school teacher. She could takephotos with her cell phone of our
kids in the class, run itthrough just a simple AI XS and AI
done, and I'm she wanting acreative It does more stuff to it,
but it no one it does.It replaces the old fashioned days where you
dropped from film off at a chaosand they process it for you and just
(24:22):
to bring everybody up to speed.Raw is the format, the uncompressed photo
format that many advanced cameras can shooton. Otherwise, most of us are
familiar with JPEGs, which are arecompressed. I believe it or not.
All your cell phones that raw inthem. Now, yeah they can shoot
raw. They do take up alot more space. How does it use
AI exactly? Like just maybe breakit down in plan englift. So imagine
(24:44):
imagine the engineers for years and watchprofessionals built through their editing workflow and then
in their genius that they started tonotice patterns and they go look into this
and they were just like this,they always do this, this and this.
So it trained AI to say,hey, this image comes in,
there's a sky, there's mountains,now there's water. Will use action AIS
(25:07):
an example. It automatically improves yourcolor, your detail, your tone,
and your death. So it allnically does that for you. What does
it mean for photo enthusiasts? Oneslider, I walk into a room,
I want to turn the light on. I hit the light switch, light
turns on. I don't care howthat electricity got to that light. I
just want to know that when Iwalk in that room, that light turns
(25:30):
on. That's what AI is doingfor you. It's going behind the scenes
and it's analyzing the image for you, and based on what all the pros
have done, it enhances it.And then of course it's fed. You
know, it's constantly self learning towhere you know, it starts to see,
oh yeah, I look at thishere there's a person in the scene.
(25:51):
Oh, let's make sure we enhancetheir faces, their eyes, their
lips, their nose, And itdoes all of that for you, and
you, as a creative person decide, okay, when is enough enough,
and then you have control over aquick cedit or pointing something into a masterpiece.
We're going to continue chatting with Vanelli, renowned photographer about luminar Neo and
(26:14):
some other tech tips to improving yourphotos and video. Stick with us,
We'll be right back with more.Check it out breaking down geek speak into
street speak. Check it out Postedby Mark Saltzman. Welcome back, everyone,
(26:37):
and you're listening to check it out. We are chatting with Vanelli,
renowned sports and portrait photographer, educator, and author, and he's joining us
to talk about this software powered byAI or artificial intelligence, called Luminar Neo.
It's from a company called sky Lamsky Lum. Not sure if this
is a dumb question. I canunderstand how software can brighten an image if
it's too dark, or enhance thecolors, But what about if your hands
(27:00):
are a bit shaky and the imageis a bit blurry. Oh, it
can fix that exactly now. Soone of our new extensions, super Sharpen,
it takes that into consideration. Wasit lens blur or was it camera
shake? So motion blur? Somotion blur could be Let's say, when
you're photographing and you hear the cameraclicks, while that means your shutter speed,
(27:22):
which determines the length of time youknow it's exposed, is so slow
that when you do any motion whatsoever, it's blurring. Typically that happens when
people photograph sports or the children runningaround the yard. You know, if
you take a picture, they couldcome out blurry or it's super sharpen AI
analyze the image and it figures out, hey, is this motion blur or
(27:44):
is a camera shake? Or youjust need to be universe and it gives
you that at light you're clicked onthe extension, it pops up and says,
based on what I see low andit tells you exactly which one it
feels it needs. But you're theartists. You could decide, oh,
yeah, it says this, butI want to do this instead. Can
you explain what an extension is forour listeners? Is that like a plug
(28:04):
in for other software? Oh?The perfect question, thank you. Imagine.
Luminar Neo is a based platform,so that's always going to be updated.
So think of that as you're thehost. So that program you need,
need extensions, need Luminar Neo orrun. So any any technique or
(28:25):
any simple photography techniques and tools areused in Luminar Neo, So that's always
going to get updated. So peopleshould be extremely excited about that. That
the product is going to be evergreenforever, all right. So it's stand
alone software, So extensions they're justadd ons. So for that niche photographer.
Let's say if you like high dynamicrange images and then you would buy
(28:49):
an extension that does that particular tool. So just leak of extensions as add
ons. Luminar Neo Okay, SoLuminar Neo is itself stand alone softwa where
it's not like a plug in forPhotoshopper other software. So the beauty of
it you could use it as aplug in for Photoshopper, for light room,
or you could use standalone. Andeven if you use it as a
(29:12):
plug in, you still can usethe extensions. That's part of Lebitarnia.
Tell us about this new panoramic stitchingfeature that's now available. This is absolutely
amazing. There's phenominal panoramic programs onthe market already. Skyland's philosophy is,
look, we don't want to duplicatewhat somebody's already done, so we want
to be innovative. What they didit was just so unique. Is not
(29:36):
only can you to do a panoramameaning take several images you know of this
photo. Let's see a landscape.You look to the left, take a
photo, move a little bit,take another one, another, one,
another one, and now you havethis beautiful panorama. They did it to
where you could do it with video. Now this is why I'm excited.
They have a photo of a videoof a young guy the top of a
(30:00):
mountain, top of a cliff.He's gonna jump into the water. They
take a video with him running,running, running, jump and splash into
the water. That's the video.Now you replay the video and say,
okay, I want this frame,this frame, he's running a little bit
further. Hope, now here heis he jumps off the rocks. Oh,
(30:22):
here he is almost hitting in thewater. Splash, he hit the
water. Now you have those sevenimages thick panorama and it removes everything else
and just has those images in itin one scene. That is the coolest
thing that's never been done before,being able to create a panorama image from
a video file and you can doit with your phone, you know.
(30:45):
So think think back of if youhave children, imagine you have them running
into a pool and you've done thisin the past. You could take those
old video footage, bring it intothe parama extension and just pick where do
you want to begin? Good?I want this next scene, next scene,
next scene, And now you havea beautiful panorama of your child running
(31:07):
and jumping into the pool, eachstep of the way awesome. And I
know because this is radio or podcast, our listeners can see this in action
at skylam dot com. It's skylum dot com. There's also a blog
post by the way called five Creativeways to use Panorama photography, which is
very cool. And then before wewrap up, Vanelli for Luminar Neo.
(31:29):
Does it require a Mac? Isit Windows based? Is it an app?
And so it's both back and Windowsbase and you could use it like
is that as a standalone or soplugging for light room Photoshop. If you're
on a map and you love photosfor Mac, you could use it as
an extension for or plugging for photosfor Mac or filous free. Isn't a
change If you already are doing theworkflow with your editing, we don't want
(31:52):
to change it. We just wantto enhance it and help you fill in
the blinks. If you never didany photo editing, this we'll really good
place to start. How much doesit cost? So there's subscription bottles and
lifetiming. So at Skyland they realizesome people don't want to rent their software,
others just want to buy it.So if you go on, there's
different deals each time, but theyhave different different sales. You could check
(32:15):
it personally. The subscription model iswhat I do with everything they have because
it gives you everything, all theextensions and the updates of course that come
with that. With Luminar Neil,because it's a platform you have, you
have access to all the updates.However, so it's either a que if
you want to buy a standalone orsubscription. Check out the website. Let's
(32:38):
see what the current prices are.Speaking of website, I'm looking at some
of your photos online and my jawshanging open here. Well, I know
you're on Instagram at Robert Vanelli,but what's your website? Yeah, Vanelli
and Friends, Vanelli and Friends.It's Vias and Victor A and like Norman
E. Double l I and Friendsdot com. Great chatting with you,
Hey, thank you. I sharesome back to school tech tips opposed to
(33:02):
gadgets, like earlier on in theshow, when we return on check it
out, so stick with us.One more block coming right up after this
follow Mark Saltzman on Facebook, onTwitter, on Instagram. Listen to check
it out whenever you want. Teckit out is brought to you in part
(33:29):
by Asus. For those in searchof incredible head on over to Asus dot
com, slash us Slash Radio totech out their laptops. That's Asus dot
com, Asus dot com. Well, the kids are back in school,
and so a few minutes ago Ishared a couple of gadgets, about a
half dozen pieces of tech like hardwarethat could help a student and their families
(33:51):
out as we head into the newback to school season. But now I
wanted to chat about some tech tips, some suggestions to help kids and their
families as a whole. So whydon't we start off with this. Students
have a lot weighing on their mindsalready, and so protecting their devices and
data should not have to be oneof them. Kaspersky VPN protects students and
(34:14):
everyone in the family. In fact, when connecting to the Internet from any
device and even over public Wi Fi, a VPN of course encrypts your connection
so that you can browse online withoutbeing watched. Kaspersky VPN lets you connect
to more than two thousand fast andvirtual servers from around the world. There's
over one hundred locations to choose from, in fact, so you can also
(34:34):
access content that might otherwise be limitedto you, like a student trying to
access their Netflix account while studying overseas. That's a really good secondary benefit to
a VPN. Not only are yougetting some protection because you can browse the
web anonymously, but you can alsoaccess content that's local to you in the
US, even when you're not here. Kaspersky. By the way, it
works on Windows, Mac, Android, and iPhone. And if you use
(34:59):
the code T the news at Kosperskydot com, you'll get a discount.
So there's no space, just tvnews. Type that at checkout at Kaspersky dot
com to get a discount. How'sthat? Next up, this is an
awesome solution for families in need ofInternet access. It's called Project ten million,
and it's part of T Mobile's ambitiousten point seven billion dollar education initiative
(35:22):
aimed at helping to bridge the digitaldivide. It offers free internet connectivity and
mobile hotspots two up to ten millioneligible student households across the US. T
Mobile has already connected more than fivepoint three million students, So what better
time than back to school season tohelp ensure internet access is not a barrier
to a child's education. To getstarted, head over to tmobile dot com
(35:45):
slash P ten M, which isshort for Project ten million, of course,
and you can read about eligibility forK through twelve students in nearly fifteen
hundred school districts. Again, that'scalled Project ten million from t Mobile.
A couple more tech tips that canhelp out families. Since money is on
the minds of so many Americans thesedays, know that you can often find
(36:07):
free digital textbooks. You can goto websites like archive dot org or download
the Libby app, which is ownedby Overdrive, to borrow ebooks and audiobooks
for free from local libraries instead ofbuying them. Another great tech tip is
to use free apps that will transcribethe teacher or professor's lecture for you,
(36:28):
converting the audio into text so youdon't have to waste time manually writing out
everything like I did back in theday when I was a student. There
are two really good examples, odordot ai and live Transcribe, both of
which you can find at your favoriteapp store. To transcribe a teacher or
professor's lecture into text for you.It's so convenient. Finally, be sure
(36:49):
to leverage AI. Many students didn'thave this going into school last year,
but apps like chat GPT, whichis baked into bing as well, can
really help you out. You know, if you're writing an essay, a
book report, run it through thatprogram, or ask chat gpt to help
you with a particular subject like historyor even coding. It'll help you out,
but just double check the work becauseit's not one hundred percent. But
(37:12):
it is a really great tool thata student could have in their arsenal without
costing you a dime. That's chatGPT. To find out everything I've covered
today, including links, head overto in Thenews dot tv or on Instagram
at in the News TV, orhit me up on my website Mark Saltzman
dot com, mr CSA lt Zmandot com. We are almost out of
(37:35):
runway here on Tech it Out,so for the remaining minute or so,
I wanted to thank Visa for theirsupport. On this weekly podcast and syndicated
radio show, we cover cybersecurity alot on Tech it Out and how you
can best protect yourself in the digitalage. Even if you're not supertech savvy.
One part of the solution is securelyshopping online and so I am thrilled
(37:55):
about my partnership with Visa on techit Out, as they made some significant
investments in fraud prevention over the pastfive years, as much as ten billion
dollars to support Visa's brand promise toprotect the financial information of individuals and businesses.
Zero liability means peace of mind whenyou shop online or at retail using
your Visa card. There could beno half measures when it comes to cybersecurity,
(38:20):
which is why the company takes anaggressive and multilayered approach to combating the
rising threat of malicious software and otherthreats by well funded and global criminal enterprises.
Read more about Visa and how securingthe world's payments is priority one at
visa dot com slash security. Hey, I hope you all enjoyed this new
tech it out show. Let meknow what you think on social media.
(38:42):
You can find me on Twitter orx as it's now called threads, Instagram,
Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, and so on and so forth.
It's Mark Saltzman, m R Cs A L t Z M.
AN have a great rest of yourday, a fantastic week ahead, and
I look forward to catching up atyou next weekend for another episode of Tack
It Out Take care of Everyone,but bye for now.
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by theever changing world of technology? Can check
it out? Can help make somesense of it all, breaking down geek
speak into street speak. Technology columnist, author, and TV personality Mark Saltzman
covers consumer technology each week for everylistener, Mark tackles the latest news,
reviews, and how twos to helpyou understand what's hot, what's not and
(00:22):
why. Hey everyone, welcome tocheck it out. This is episode three
zero nine. If you're keeping track. My thoughts are with those affected by
the wildfires this past week, especiallyin Maui. But did you know there
are twelve other states reporting fires rightnow and in Canada it's bad too,
(00:42):
especially in the West and in theNorth. Thinking about you and your safety.
Please take care out there. Ifyou want to google my name Mark
Saltzman, I'll spell it in amoment. I wrote an article with a
checklist on ways to reduce the oddsof a wildfire, a regular house fire,
and floods and hurricanes affecting your home, it's contents and most importantly your
(01:04):
family and how tech can play arole as well. So do a web
search for USA Today and my nameMark Saltzman, m R. C.
S. A L t z MNand a word like wildfire or flood,
and you'll see the article I wrote. I hope you find it helpful.
All Right, We're entering the thirdweek of August, which means back to
school time for most of the country, So I'm going to share some tech
(01:26):
ideas for students, from affordable smartphonesand laptops, to printers that don't require
expensive cartridges thank Goodness, to monitorsfor your dorm room, and much more
later on in the show. Bythe way, and speaking of school,
I'll share some tech tips for studentsto saving money, protecting your Internet access
with a VPN or virtual private network, and a lot more. Now,
(01:49):
in between these two school related segments, we have two guests. First,
we'll learn what a razzle is.It's a way to group purchase and item.
Don't call it a raffle, It'sa zzle, I think, is
their tagline. And also on thisshow, we'll catch up with renowned photographer
Vanelli about using AI to fix upyour photos and videos. All of this
and more on an all new techit out powered by Aces, which I'll
(02:14):
tell you more about in around sixtyseconds from now. So let's kick things
off all right, it's back toschool time and with that kids today will
no doubt need some technology. SoI've got about a half dozen suggestions ranging
in price, so depending on yourbudget, I think there's gonna be something
here for you. So if youwant to jot this down or hit me
(02:34):
up on my website Mark Saltzman dotcom. If you want a list again,
it's m R C. S Alt Zmaan dot com. All right,
let's start off with chromebooks. Theyoffer a lot of bang for the
buck, in fact, starting atonly two ninety nine, the Aces Chromebook
Flip fourteen doesn't just have a touchscreendisplay so you can use your fingertips instead
(02:58):
of a mouse and keyboard if youprefer, or a digital pen, but
that screen is on a three hundredand sixty degree hinge as well, so
you can flip it around and useit like a tablet if you prefer.
It also has a front facing camerafor video calling, lots of local storage,
a good processor and long battery lifeas well. Has a lean,
fast and secure Chrome operating system.It supports countless apps, including Google Classroom
(03:22):
and Code Academy. Those are populartools, no doubt, and for some
fun and even stem education, science, technology, engineering, and math.
Chromebooks can now play Minecraft, thebest selling game of all time, so
a little bit of fun perhaps afterschool as well. It's thin and light,
it's got multiple ports along the sideand other great features. Again for
that price is fantastic. So that'sChromebook as a platform. That's the Asus
(03:46):
Chromebook Flip fourteen at just two ninetynine. And a must have laptop accessory
for any computer is the My PassportDrive from WD. This is reliable external
storage to hold all your files,photos, videos, and more. Not
only are these external drives small endlight, less than the size of a
(04:06):
decade cards for sure, and theyget their power from the laptop itself,
so you don't need to plug itinto the wall, but they have capacity
up to five terabytes, which ishuge. That's a lot of files.
I think I've got twenty nine yearsworth of articles in my documents folder for
all the years that I've been ajournalist, and it's barely sixteen gigabytes.
(04:28):
So we're talking a thousand gigabytes forone terabyte, and this has up to
five times that you do not haveto pay a service fee like a subscription
cost for a cloud provider. Ifthe Internet is down, you still have
access to your data. There's somany benefits to local offline storage. My
passport drives from w d start atseventy nine dollars and there are back to
(04:50):
school sales all the time as well. Next up and affordable smartphone for students,
the Pixel seven A. It isthe most advanced A series phone from
Google. It does not skimp onfeatures at all, but it is about
half the price or a third ofthe price of some other premium smartphones in
the market. But again, it'spacked with power with a custom processor.
(05:13):
It's got an exceptional camera that takesamazing photos and videos even in low light
conditions. And there's AI from Googlefor advanced spam protection, car crash detection,
Heaven Forbid, and smart audio totext transcription. Guess there's a built
in app that doesn't just record thelecture from say a teacher or professor,
but will transcribe it into text beforeyour eyes. Awesome stuff. Again,
(05:36):
Pixel seven A is only four ninetynine and I've seen it for as low
as four forty four from BestBuy dotcom. An exceptional mid range smartphone that
has many premium features as added valueand of course access to the Google Play
Store with a couple of million downloadsfor some fun and games and productivity apps
(05:57):
as well. All right, let'skeep moving on with some record ended back
to school tech picks for students andtheir families. How about a pair of
printers. So the first is theEpson Eco Tank twenty eight fifty. This
is an essential tool for a student, I'd argue of any age and their
families. It's a wireless printer,scanner, and copier. But you're thinking,
so what right, there's so manyof those on the market today,
(06:18):
But the Eco Tank twenty eight fiftyis a cartridge free solution that includes up
to two years worth of ink outof the box. They're in bottles that
you'll see in the box, andyou can pick them up when the time
is right. I'll get to thatin a moment, but we're talking up
to five thousand pages in black orcolor, so you're not running out of
ink at the most inopportune times,which always used to happen to me.
(06:40):
Again, up to two years worthof ink now when it is time to
refill them. They're inexpensive and easyto use, bottles that snap onto the
ink tanks built into the Eco Tank. You just match the color twisted on,
fills it up, and then stopsautomatically. I've been using Eco Tank
for years where by it the ETtwenty eight fifty is normal forty nine,
but I've seen it on sale fortwo ninety nine now that it's back to
(07:03):
school season, so definitely take advantageof that. Another great printer or family
of printers for students would be theInstax family of photoprinters from Fujifilm. They
let you wirelessly and instantly print realfilm photos from your phone to decorate dorm
rooms, lockers and binders and more. In fact, there are three in
(07:24):
Stax film formats available. There's MiniLink too compatible with Minifilm, Square Link
with Square Film, and Link Widefor the largest format wide film. My
daughter Maya loves these things. Soyou can wirelessly print from your smartphone real
photos to decorate your dorm room orput them around your dresser mirror, hand
them out to friends again, putthem in your locker. And there are
(07:46):
free smartphone apps that let you getcreative with things like fun filters and frames
and virtual stickers and so much more. Prices started only seventy nine, and
the film is very affordable as well. So that's the Fujifilm in stacks smartphone
printers. Great for students of allages. All right, let's end off
on a couple of things. Greatfor gamers, you know, when they
want to blow off a little bitof steam after a bad to hit school
(08:09):
or after a tough exam. Forgamers on the go. The Asus rog
ally is a full Windows eleven PCin the palm of your hand. It's
a powerful gaming computer that's got comfortableand intuitive console like controls built in,
and it's at a fraction of theprice of a gaming laptop or desktop at
six ninety nine. It gives youaccess to popular gaming libraries like Steam,
(08:31):
gog and Epic Game Store. Plusyou can download other content as well,
and you can even connect this toa monitor or a TV for a big
screen fund kind of like you cando with the Nintendo Switch. But now
you've got the huge variety of computergaming and all those libraries out there.
I'm a big Steam fan myself.And even if you want to get work
done, because this is really acomputer in your pocket, you can add
(08:52):
a wireless mouse and keyboard, especiallywhen you connect it maybe to a monitor
in your dorm room. It isa full computer, so love that versatility
of this again, it's the rogRepublic of Gamers ally a double l Y
from Asus, a pocket size fullWindows eleven gaming PC. Love it.
And then, finally, speaking ofmonitors, there's the LG Ultra Gear twenty
(09:15):
seven inch o LAD gaming monitor.It is absolutely stunning. Not only does
it have an o LAD panel likemany of their TVs do from LG.
You know that's for incredible contrast andbrightness and color. But for gamers,
this monitor has a super smooth twohundred and forty hurts refresh rate and with
point zero three millisecond response time,so really fast to keep up with those
fast paced games, especially those whoplay online. Every millisecond counts. There's
(09:39):
a remote that you get with it. It's got great audio. I love
that it's an ergonomic monitor. Youcan angle it in many different ways to
suit how comfortable it is for youto look at, especially when you're probably
sitting in front of your monitor forextended periods of time, and you can
also pivot it from horizontal to verticalmode depending on what you're doing. So
by day you want a multi towerasking Marvel so you've got lots of windows
(10:01):
open, or if you're working ona spreadsheet or something, you can turn
sideways, but by night. It'sa great gaming monitor for PCR console gaming.
By the way, it's also theofficial monitor of the Raptors Uprising Gaming
Club for those esports fans out there. And it's also available in forty five
inches, which is as big assome TV's out there. All right.
The LG Ultra Gear twenty seven inchOLED gaming monitor is eight forty nine.
(10:22):
Well, there, you're having alook at some great gear just in time
for back to school season, dependingon your needs and budget, something for
everyone. If you want to askme any questions about these, you can
hit me up on my website,Mark Saltzman dot com, Mr C s
A L t z m an dotcom, or you can find me on
social media. I'm on Twitter orx threads, Blue Sky, Facebook,
(10:46):
Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and evenTikTok. It's Mark Saltzman again, Mark
with a C for full transparency.Asus is the title sponsor on tech it
Out. I know I included thererog Ally and Chromebook in that back to
school roundup, and I'm recording thisshow on an Asus zen Book laptop right
(11:07):
now, and I've been using thesame one, I think since the show
started back in twenty seventeen, whichshows reliability and longevity. When we return
on Check it Out, we're goingto chat with Razzle and learn how you
can group purchase an item and howthat all works. Stick with us,
We'll be right back with more checkit Out. Listen to check it Out
whenever you want find the Check itOut podcast at it Too, or wherever
(11:28):
you get your podcasts. Welcome backeveryone you're listening to Check it Out.
When it comes to buying expensive thingslike concert tickets or price the electronics,
there's an increasingly popular way to scorethem. They're called razzes. If you're
(11:50):
new to this space, we're goingto learn about razzes now and how they
work with a Toronto based company calledRazzle, where you have a chance to
get the things you want for fractionof the price. We're joined by Joe
Rabini, founder and president of Razzle. Thanks for a time, Joe.
Likewise, Mark, thanks for havingme appreciate it all right, Why don't
we start off at a high level, Joe, what are razz is all?
(12:11):
About and tell us about your company. Razzle. Sure, a razz
is essentially a crowd purchase. Now, what does a crowd purchase means?
It means you can come to ourwebsite and you can pick any items that
we might have listed, whether itbe concert tickets or any kind of event
ticket, or consumer goods like electronics, et cetera. Essentially, what we
have is we have the asking pricethat is listed on the item that is
(12:35):
broken up into shares are spots.So let's just say, as an example,
we have a pair of tickets thatmight be worth a thousand dollars.
Those tickets, we will break themup into one hundred spots by ten dollars.
People members who are belonged to Razzlewill come to our site and we'll
purchase as little or as many spotsas they want. They can buy one
spot, or they can buy tenspots. Once that asking price is satisfied,
(12:56):
in this case a thousand dollars,that list of participant is then randomized
through a third party that's based outin Europe. That third party then will
give us a what we call aselected purchaser. Essentially, one person will
get that item or what they've paidfor their spots. So if somebody buys
a ten dollars spot and they getselected, then essentially they've got that thousand
(13:18):
dollars item for ten dollars. Theother participants know that their money has now
gone to a like minded consumer whowanted to participate in this. It's a
new and exciting way for people toobtain items and for a much smaller cost,
potentially than what they would do ifthey tried to buy them out right.
We cater to the people who couldnot normally the ninety nine percent of
(13:41):
the population who can't afford items likeTaylor Swift tickets as an example. So
the idea I guess, then,Joe, is that is it kind of
like a raffle or a lottery becausethere's no guarantee that you're going to be
the selected winner, purchaser, purchaserof that product. Is that fair?
We'd like to say it's not araffle, it's a razzol Our back end
process actually creates this crowd purchasing.So essentially what happens is everybody owns a
(14:09):
share or a spot in a particularitem once that item's asking price is satisfied,
so all spots sell. Then thatlist of participants is randomizing. The
one person gets gets the item,all right, Because I was going to
ask this was not legal for afew years, but razzol made it legal.
And how so and what would yousay separates razzl from other companies that
offer razzes? So there essentially thereare no other companies that we know of
(14:31):
that offer razzes and a E marketplace. We are an e marketplace, so
we have members who are both buyersand sellers, to be quite honest,
similar to what you might get anymarketplaces with some of the big names like
an eBay, et cetera. Soessentially what ends up happening is everybody else
has helped that person buy that item. Collectively, they may not get anything
(14:52):
for it, but one person does. Today it might be you, the
more it might be someone else,depending on what it is that you're trying
to obtain through our site. Andit's not just tickets. We've been using
that as an example, but itcould be really anything. I guess,
Joe, Like, for example,if I was gifted a TV and I
already have a TV, then Ican offer that TV up. It's a
win win, I guess it's awin for the person who wants to get
(15:15):
paid what the TV is worth,and then it's a win for the person
who maybe is only one of onehundred people and that's not terrible odds.
Yeah, as an example, we'rein Toronto. Toronto May Belief Season tickets
will be listing some very soon forthis upcoming season, and last year and
the year before and the year beforethat. I believe we actually had someone
who got all forty one home gamesto Toronto May Beliefs once spent I believe
(15:37):
it was fifty six dollars Canadian onour site and ended up getting every pair
of tickets to every single game.So this is more luck than skill.
But you can't buy more spots toincrease your odds. You can buy as
many spots as you'd like. Thechances of you getting an item are clearly
stated on the site. Like Ihad mentioned, if there's one hundred spots
by ten, you know that youhave a one in one hundred opportunity to
(15:58):
be able to get that item.From a skilled perspective, we do also
have a buy it now feature.The buy it Now is for somebody who
feels that they don't want to participatein the raz and they see an item
that might be very well priced,because at the end of the day,
it is a market market pricing.So if there is an item there that
they really like, they have theopportunity to take control of the raz on
(16:19):
their own and click buy it.Now, everybody who participated in the raz
will get their money put back intotheir Razzle wallet because we use a wallet
system, and that one person getsthe item entirely. We are chatting with
Joe Rubini, he's founder and presidentof Razzle, kind of like Razzle Dazzle.
I assume this is a platform thatlets you pay for a spot or
(16:40):
more to go towards an event likea concert, as well as products.
I'm on the razzle dot com website, which will plug again in a moment.
Is it an app as well?There's an app as well. It's
both on the Google Play and AppleStore. All right, and then finally,
what would you say is the biggestmisconception about Razzle There is the misconception
with regards to it being a raft. We know it sounds like a raffle
(17:02):
using random dot org, it's trulythe best randomization platform anywhere. To make
sure that we're offering people an excellent, exciting experience and getting them the things
they want for fraction of the cost. And there's one other thing that some
people are unsure about is expiry dates. Sometimes razzles will expire prior to all
spots being sold, so people willsay, well, what happens with my
(17:23):
money? It's easy. All themoney gets put back into your Razzle wallet
where you can utilize it for otheritems that you might find on our website.
Or again, you can ask fora cash withdrawal or a wallet withdraw
All right, So razzle dot comr a double zalll dot com and you
can see the different areas for buyinga spot for experiences, event tickets,
memorabilia, fundraisers, electronics and more. And you just need to sign up
(17:48):
for a free account. You canalso download the Razzle app for free from
the Apple App Store for iPhone andiPad or Google Play for Android devices.
Correct. Awesome, thanks again,Joe, Thanks so much, Mark.
I appreciate it. And by theway, Razzle makes money. They make
ten percent of the sale, sothat's how they monetize it. Would we
return on teck it out? Wecatch up with Vanelli renowned photographer about using
(18:10):
AI to help you with your photos. We'll be right back with more teck
it out. I want to followMark go Willip Mark with Zi and Saltzman
with a Z breaking down geek speakinto street speak. This is check it
(18:33):
out to check it out with technologycolumnist, author, and TV personality Mark
Saltzman. Welcome back to check itout. Even if you're not a famous
photographer like Vanelli, I renowned sportsand portrait photographer, educator, and author
joining us right now. Smart softwaremay help out amateurs like yours truly,
and I'm sure many of our listenersas well, especially when that software employees
(18:56):
artificial intelligence like Luminaria, a toolwe're going to hear about right now with
Vanelli, Ivan Nelly. Great tochat with you. Oh, thank you
so much. Actually so cool thatwe're doing this. We just came back
from a shoot from Chicago and wejust enriched the lives of so many amateurs.
I hate the word to amateurs,Okay, our hobbyists, photo enthusiasts,
(19:19):
hobbyists. So yeah, And Iknow that education is very much part
of your m O, which isfantastic because you're not only amazing at what
you do and I encourage our listenersto google you if they haven't already.
Vanelli one word, But you wantto impart that knowledge onto others, which
I know you're gonna You're going todo in part over the next few minutes
with us as well. So withthat in mind, before we talk about
(19:40):
Luminar Neo, this software that canhelp photographers of all skill levels. Tell
us about you and your work here, here's what's funny. Photography for me
became a necessity. I was aformer martial arts champion. I get injured.
Over to my own karate school,I heard a photographer take photos for
our demonstration team. With what WaltDisney paid us for this performance, we
(20:00):
ended up giving the check to thephotographer. That's so much a cost.
So I was like, oh mygod. So I started to learn photoshop
and photography on my own and tryingto put it together, and then that's
so for my business. That's whyI got started into it, fell in
love with it as a photographer.Starting out, the problem was Photoshop is
massive, it's incredible. It's forgraphic artists. So trying to learn photoshop
(20:23):
at the same time trying to learnphotography, Oh my god. It was
it was a nightmare. Well thatwas twenty six, twenty seven years ago.
Then it grew, and then Istarted using my photography my karate students,
and I would make movie posters ofthem when they tested for their black
belts. And now here's a personlooking larger than life. That of course
(20:45):
I had a child. Now whathappens, Well, I Sun decided to
play lacrosse. Boom, I'm asports photographer. Again, he decides to
cross country. And the neat thingabout all this is I was able to,
over the years show my friends ornon photographers how to do the same
thing for their children, and soyears you know later the kids that's their
(21:07):
biggest memories. Hey look my dadtook this photo, or my mom book
this photo. So the power ofphotography is absolutely amazing. Now the trick
is how much of it do youwant to learn? Like I took a
cooking class as an example, Idon't want to open up my own restaurant.
I just want to learn to cookbetter. This guy tries selling in
the three thousand dollars worth of totsand bands. I don't cook three thousand
(21:32):
dollars. So that's where working withlike luminar Neio for example, working with
Skylo and the company, it wasa dream come true because now I can
remember what it was like going backwhen I first started, and anyone's struggling,
you know, with photography, theydon't have to struggle with learning how
to edit. So that I thinkis the breakthrough with all this. So
(21:53):
we're going to talk more about Skylamin a minute. The company behind Luminar
Neo decided to curiosity, what doyou like to shoot on? I think
buy your zoom photo. It's anikon so right, yes, I do,
Nike. Why that's all? That'sall the lenses I have. Yeah,
it's usually boils down to that.What lenses you already have? Right?
Yeah, you're cell phoned. Nowadaysany cameras and you can't manufacturer is
(22:18):
absolutely amazing. Now I will sayI did upgrade from a portrait camera DA
ten and I did go mirror less. Yeah, because, oh my god,
face tracking and eye recognition absolutely amazing. No longer, if I'm laying
on the ground do a shoot,I don't have to focus and then recompose
the shot to make it look good. It doesn't for you. These mirror
(22:41):
less cameras are pretty wild they're morecompact than a DSLR, a digital single
lens reflects model, and they supportmany of the same lenses, but there's
no mirror inside. So lighter andsmaller, which is awesome, and as
you said, some advanced features aswell. And people say, is a
cheating I don't care. I'm cleanbetter shots. Yeah, now that I've
ever had. I'm getting less blurryshots because it's using its intelligence. All
(23:07):
right, speaking of intelligence, nowlet's pivot and talk about Luminar Neo.
This is software for photographers from acompany called sky lum tell Us about Luminar
Neo. So. Luminar Neio isone of the first AI editing programs,
and it's designed towards photo enthusiasts andthose who just love taking photos. It
takes the mystery out of editing yourimages, because no matter what you do
(23:32):
when you photograph an image, ifyou're photographing it wrong, if you look
at the back of your camera,oh my god, it looks amazing,
you're bringing into any computer programing,it trips all that information for you and
you're like, wait a second,it doesn't look like bows on the back
of my camera. Yes, becauseit's in the raw. So with the
raw processing, what luminar neio isdone. It's taking people like my sister,
(24:00):
a school teacher. She could takephotos with her cell phone of our
kids in the class, run itthrough just a simple AI XS and AI
done, and I'm she wanting acreative It does more stuff to it,
but it no one it does.It replaces the old fashioned days where you
dropped from film off at a chaosand they process it for you and just
(24:22):
to bring everybody up to speed.Raw is the format, the uncompressed photo
format that many advanced cameras can shooton. Otherwise, most of us are
familiar with JPEGs, which are arecompressed. I believe it or not.
All your cell phones that raw inthem. Now, yeah they can shoot
raw. They do take up alot more space. How does it use
AI exactly? Like just maybe breakit down in plan englift. So imagine
(24:44):
imagine the engineers for years and watchprofessionals built through their editing workflow and then
in their genius that they started tonotice patterns and they go look into this
and they were just like this,they always do this, this and this.
So it trained AI to say,hey, this image comes in,
there's a sky, there's mountains,now there's water. Will use action AIS
(25:07):
an example. It automatically improves yourcolor, your detail, your tone,
and your death. So it allnically does that for you. What does
it mean for photo enthusiasts? Oneslider, I walk into a room,
I want to turn the light on. I hit the light switch, light
turns on. I don't care howthat electricity got to that light. I
just want to know that when Iwalk in that room, that light turns
(25:30):
on. That's what AI is doingfor you. It's going behind the scenes
and it's analyzing the image for you, and based on what all the pros
have done, it enhances it.And then of course it's fed. You
know, it's constantly self learning towhere you know, it starts to see,
oh yeah, I look at thishere there's a person in the scene.
(25:51):
Oh, let's make sure we enhancetheir faces, their eyes, their
lips, their nose, And itdoes all of that for you, and
you, as a creative person decide, okay, when is enough enough,
and then you have control over aquick cedit or pointing something into a masterpiece.
We're going to continue chatting with Vanelli, renowned photographer about luminar Neo and
(26:14):
some other tech tips to improving yourphotos and video. Stick with us,
We'll be right back with more.Check it out breaking down geek speak into
street speak. Check it out Postedby Mark Saltzman. Welcome back, everyone,
(26:37):
and you're listening to check it out. We are chatting with Vanelli,
renowned sports and portrait photographer, educator, and author, and he's joining us
to talk about this software powered byAI or artificial intelligence, called Luminar Neo.
It's from a company called sky Lamsky Lum. Not sure if this
is a dumb question. I canunderstand how software can brighten an image if
it's too dark, or enhance thecolors, But what about if your hands
(27:00):
are a bit shaky and the imageis a bit blurry. Oh, it
can fix that exactly now. Soone of our new extensions, super Sharpen,
it takes that into consideration. Wasit lens blur or was it camera
shake? So motion blur? Somotion blur could be Let's say, when
you're photographing and you hear the cameraclicks, while that means your shutter speed,
(27:22):
which determines the length of time youknow it's exposed, is so slow
that when you do any motion whatsoever, it's blurring. Typically that happens when
people photograph sports or the children runningaround the yard. You know, if
you take a picture, they couldcome out blurry or it's super sharpen AI
analyze the image and it figures out, hey, is this motion blur or
(27:44):
is a camera shake? Or youjust need to be universe and it gives
you that at light you're clicked onthe extension, it pops up and says,
based on what I see low andit tells you exactly which one it
feels it needs. But you're theartists. You could decide, oh,
yeah, it says this, butI want to do this instead. Can
you explain what an extension is forour listeners? Is that like a plug
(28:04):
in for other software? Oh?The perfect question, thank you. Imagine.
Luminar Neo is a based platform,so that's always going to be updated.
So think of that as you're thehost. So that program you need,
need extensions, need Luminar Neo orrun. So any any technique or
(28:25):
any simple photography techniques and tools areused in Luminar Neo, So that's always
going to get updated. So peopleshould be extremely excited about that. That
the product is going to be evergreenforever, all right. So it's stand
alone software, So extensions they're justadd ons. So for that niche photographer.
Let's say if you like high dynamicrange images and then you would buy
(28:49):
an extension that does that particular tool. So just leak of extensions as add
ons. Luminar Neo Okay, SoLuminar Neo is itself stand alone softwa where
it's not like a plug in forPhotoshopper other software. So the beauty of
it you could use it as aplug in for Photoshopper, for light room,
or you could use standalone. Andeven if you use it as a
(29:12):
plug in, you still can usethe extensions. That's part of Lebitarnia.
Tell us about this new panoramic stitchingfeature that's now available. This is absolutely
amazing. There's phenominal panoramic programs onthe market already. Skyland's philosophy is,
look, we don't want to duplicatewhat somebody's already done, so we want
to be innovative. What they didit was just so unique. Is not
(29:36):
only can you to do a panoramameaning take several images you know of this
photo. Let's see a landscape.You look to the left, take a
photo, move a little bit,take another one, another, one,
another one, and now you havethis beautiful panorama. They did it to
where you could do it with video. Now this is why I'm excited.
They have a photo of a videoof a young guy the top of a
(30:00):
mountain, top of a cliff.He's gonna jump into the water. They
take a video with him running,running, running, jump and splash into
the water. That's the video.Now you replay the video and say,
okay, I want this frame,this frame, he's running a little bit
further. Hope, now here heis he jumps off the rocks. Oh,
(30:22):
here he is almost hitting in thewater. Splash, he hit the
water. Now you have those sevenimages thick panorama and it removes everything else
and just has those images in itin one scene. That is the coolest
thing that's never been done before,being able to create a panorama image from
a video file and you can doit with your phone, you know.
(30:45):
So think think back of if youhave children, imagine you have them running
into a pool and you've done thisin the past. You could take those
old video footage, bring it intothe parama extension and just pick where do
you want to begin? Good?I want this next scene, next scene,
next scene, And now you havea beautiful panorama of your child running
(31:07):
and jumping into the pool, eachstep of the way awesome. And I
know because this is radio or podcast, our listeners can see this in action
at skylam dot com. It's skylum dot com. There's also a blog
post by the way called five Creativeways to use Panorama photography, which is
very cool. And then before wewrap up, Vanelli for Luminar Neo.
(31:29):
Does it require a Mac? Isit Windows based? Is it an app?
And so it's both back and Windowsbase and you could use it like
is that as a standalone or soplugging for light room Photoshop. If you're
on a map and you love photosfor Mac, you could use it as
an extension for or plugging for photosfor Mac or filous free. Isn't a
change If you already are doing theworkflow with your editing, we don't want
(31:52):
to change it. We just wantto enhance it and help you fill in
the blinks. If you never didany photo editing, this we'll really good
place to start. How much doesit cost? So there's subscription bottles and
lifetiming. So at Skyland they realizesome people don't want to rent their software,
others just want to buy it.So if you go on, there's
different deals each time, but theyhave different different sales. You could check
(32:15):
it personally. The subscription model iswhat I do with everything they have because
it gives you everything, all theextensions and the updates of course that come
with that. With Luminar Neil,because it's a platform you have, you
have access to all the updates.However, so it's either a que if
you want to buy a standalone orsubscription. Check out the website. Let's
(32:38):
see what the current prices are.Speaking of website, I'm looking at some
of your photos online and my jawshanging open here. Well, I know
you're on Instagram at Robert Vanelli,but what's your website? Yeah, Vanelli
and Friends, Vanelli and Friends.It's Vias and Victor A and like Norman
E. Double l I and Friendsdot com. Great chatting with you,
Hey, thank you. I sharesome back to school tech tips opposed to
(33:02):
gadgets, like earlier on in theshow, when we return on check it
out, so stick with us.One more block coming right up after this
follow Mark Saltzman on Facebook, onTwitter, on Instagram. Listen to check
it out whenever you want. Teckit out is brought to you in part
(33:29):
by Asus. For those in searchof incredible head on over to Asus dot
com, slash us Slash Radio totech out their laptops. That's Asus dot
com, Asus dot com. Well, the kids are back in school,
and so a few minutes ago Ishared a couple of gadgets, about a
half dozen pieces of tech like hardwarethat could help a student and their families
(33:51):
out as we head into the newback to school season. But now I
wanted to chat about some tech tips, some suggestions to help kids and their
families as a whole. So whydon't we start off with this. Students
have a lot weighing on their mindsalready, and so protecting their devices and
data should not have to be oneof them. Kaspersky VPN protects students and
(34:14):
everyone in the family. In fact, when connecting to the Internet from any
device and even over public Wi Fi, a VPN of course encrypts your connection
so that you can browse online withoutbeing watched. Kaspersky VPN lets you connect
to more than two thousand fast andvirtual servers from around the world. There's
over one hundred locations to choose from, in fact, so you can also
(34:34):
access content that might otherwise be limitedto you, like a student trying to
access their Netflix account while studying overseas. That's a really good secondary benefit to
a VPN. Not only are yougetting some protection because you can browse the
web anonymously, but you can alsoaccess content that's local to you in the
US, even when you're not here. Kaspersky. By the way, it
works on Windows, Mac, Android, and iPhone. And if you use
(34:59):
the code T the news at Kosperskydot com, you'll get a discount.
So there's no space, just tvnews. Type that at checkout at Kaspersky dot
com to get a discount. How'sthat? Next up, this is an
awesome solution for families in need ofInternet access. It's called Project ten million,
and it's part of T Mobile's ambitiousten point seven billion dollar education initiative
(35:22):
aimed at helping to bridge the digitaldivide. It offers free internet connectivity and
mobile hotspots two up to ten millioneligible student households across the US. T
Mobile has already connected more than fivepoint three million students, So what better
time than back to school season tohelp ensure internet access is not a barrier
to a child's education. To getstarted, head over to tmobile dot com
(35:45):
slash P ten M, which isshort for Project ten million, of course,
and you can read about eligibility forK through twelve students in nearly fifteen
hundred school districts. Again, that'scalled Project ten million from t Mobile.
A couple more tech tips that canhelp out families. Since money is on
the minds of so many Americans thesedays, know that you can often find
(36:07):
free digital textbooks. You can goto websites like archive dot org or download
the Libby app, which is ownedby Overdrive, to borrow ebooks and audiobooks
for free from local libraries instead ofbuying them. Another great tech tip is
to use free apps that will transcribethe teacher or professor's lecture for you,
(36:28):
converting the audio into text so youdon't have to waste time manually writing out
everything like I did back in theday when I was a student. There
are two really good examples, odordot ai and live Transcribe, both of
which you can find at your favoriteapp store. To transcribe a teacher or
professor's lecture into text for you.It's so convenient. Finally, be sure
(36:49):
to leverage AI. Many students didn'thave this going into school last year,
but apps like chat GPT, whichis baked into bing as well, can
really help you out. You know, if you're writing an essay, a
book report, run it through thatprogram, or ask chat gpt to help
you with a particular subject like historyor even coding. It'll help you out,
but just double check the work becauseit's not one hundred percent. But
(37:12):
it is a really great tool thata student could have in their arsenal without
costing you a dime. That's chatGPT. To find out everything I've covered
today, including links, head overto in Thenews dot tv or on Instagram
at in the News TV, orhit me up on my website Mark Saltzman
dot com, mr CSA lt Zmandot com. We are almost out of
(37:35):
runway here on Tech it Out,so for the remaining minute or so,
I wanted to thank Visa for theirsupport. On this weekly podcast and syndicated
radio show, we cover cybersecurity alot on Tech it Out and how you
can best protect yourself in the digitalage. Even if you're not supertech savvy.
One part of the solution is securelyshopping online and so I am thrilled
(37:55):
about my partnership with Visa on techit Out, as they made some significant
investments in fraud prevention over the pastfive years, as much as ten billion
dollars to support Visa's brand promise toprotect the financial information of individuals and businesses.
Zero liability means peace of mind whenyou shop online or at retail using
your Visa card. There could beno half measures when it comes to cybersecurity,
(38:20):
which is why the company takes anaggressive and multilayered approach to combating the
rising threat of malicious software and otherthreats by well funded and global criminal enterprises.
Read more about Visa and how securingthe world's payments is priority one at
visa dot com slash security. Hey, I hope you all enjoyed this new
tech it out show. Let meknow what you think on social media.
(38:42):
You can find me on Twitter orx as it's now called threads, Instagram,
Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, and so on and so forth.
It's Mark Saltzman, m R Cs A L t Z M.
AN have a great rest of yourday, a fantastic week ahead, and
I look forward to catching up atyou next weekend for another episode of Tack
It Out Take care of Everyone,but bye for now.
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