# Meta & Google antitrust, Apple recycling tips & AI-powered scams

An episode of [Rich On Tech](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1120941458), 19 Apr 2025, 1 h 47 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/e2dbcb5d-f67c-4a90-ac3c-b1b900f9b41b/3771b6e4-0fb9-4ab2-b79f-b2c401807f21/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=60b5debe-4c1e-4de5-9b9b-b1b900f9b445

Rich discusses major antitrust cases against Meta and Google—and what they could mean for the future of Big Tech. Richard in Bell, California asks why his PayPal transaction won’t go through on a website. Dennis in San Dimas is looking for a NAS drive that works with both Windows PCs and Macs. Rich mentioned brands like Synology or QNAP. Nintendo Switch pre-orders begin April 24—prices for the base console and bundle stay the same. Richard in Arcadia wants to digitize old photos. Rich suggests Epson FastFoto or Perfection scanners, or apps like PhotoMyne, and Google PhotoScan. For a professional service check out ScanMyPhotos.com. HP is settling a lawsuit over misleading discounts—if you bought something on their website, you could get between $10 and $100. Rich mentioned Bald Bryan’s Baldywood movie streaming newsletter as a great way to find what to watch next. Albert in Chatsworth says pop-up ads are taking over his Android phone. Rich recommends clearing your browser data, uninstalling any unfamiliar apps, and disabling push notifications from websites. Soumit wants to merge his contacts and remove duplicates. Rich suggests ContactsPlus.com, checking the built-in duplicates tool on iOS or Android, or using Google Contacts for a free, easy way to clean everything up. American Airlines will offer free in-flight Wi-Fi starting in 2026 for AAdvantage members. Google is giving students free access to Gemini Advanced and 2TB of storage through June 2026. Jeff in Clearwater, Florida, is curious about using real-time translation earbuds to listen to talk radio. Rich suggests checking out Timekettle for options. Lauren Braun, Apple’s Environmental Product Manager, will talk trade-in and recycling at Apple Stores – how you can turn in old devices the right way and what really happens to them. Johnny Jet says Hawaii is testing a digital version of its mandatory landing form, making it easier for travelers to complete before arrival. George in Laguna Hills is using his T-Mobile phone as a home router but says the experience isn’t great. Microsoft reports a surge in AI-powered scams, blocking $4 billion in fraud attempts over the past year. A new phishing scam is impersonating Google, using legitimate-looking emails to steal user credentials. The FBI is warning about a new scam where fraudsters impersonate the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) to target previous scam victims. Craig in Los Angeles is curious about how satellite messaging works on his iPhone. Robbert is looking for a free, HIPAA-compliant fax app. Rich suggests Fax.Plus, iFax, HP Smart Mobile Fax, and Dropbox Fax—with the right settings and agreements in place. Trish in Los Angeles runs a mobile home park and needs to send monthly text updates to residents. Rich suggests checking out SimpleTexting and Textedly. Menka Sanghvi, author of Your Best Digital Life: Use Your Mind to Tame Your Tech, will talk technology and how to take control of your screen time. AT&T is changing its AutoPay discount structure starting April 24, 2025. To receive the full $10 monthly discount, customers must use a bank account (ACH) for payments. Campspot has released its list of the top trending national parks for 2025, based on traveler interest and booking data. Leading the list is Yosemite National Park, celebrated for its iconic granite cliffs and waterfalls Rich On Tech Episode 117 - April 19, 2025 Rich DeMuro brings you the latest tech news, helpful tips, gadget reviews, and more—plus interviews with industry experts—all in this weekly show. Call 1-888-RICH-101 (1-888-742-4101) to join in! Email your question here. How to Listen: 🎙️ Live on KFI AM 640 – Los Angeles, Saturdays from 11 AM – 2 PM PT 🎙️ Rebroadcast on 710 WOR – New York City, Sundays from 8 PM – 11 PM ET 📻 Syndicated on 450+ affiliates nationwide Get the podcast to via RSS, iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Follow Rich on X, Instagram and Facebook. Download the MP3 here (choose…

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: American Airlines adding free Wi Fi to their planes with
[0:03] Speaker 1: a small catch. At and T customers, your auto pay
[0:07] Speaker 1: discounts are changing. You could lose half for all of
[0:10] Speaker 1: it depending on how you pay. And Microsoft says they've
[0:14] Speaker 1: blocked four billion dollars in fraud attempts in the last
[0:17] Speaker 1: year alone. And AI is making scams faster, smarter, and
[0:21] Speaker 1: harder to spot. Plus your tech questions answered.
[0:25] Speaker 2: What's going on?
[0:26] Speaker 1: I'm rich Demiro and this is rich on Tech. This
[0:29] Speaker 1: is the show where I talk about the tech stuff
[0:31] Speaker 1: I think you should know about. It's also the place
[0:33] Speaker 1: where I answer your questions about technology. I believe the
[0:36] Speaker 1: tech should be interesting, useful, and fun. Let's open up
[0:40] Speaker 1: those phone lines at triple eight rich one oh one.
[0:44] Speaker 1: That's eight eight eight seven four to two four one
[0:48] Speaker 1: zero one. Give me a call if you have a
[0:49] Speaker 1: question about technology. Email is also an option. Just go
[0:53] Speaker 1: to rich on Tech dot tv hit contact guests. This week,
[0:59] Speaker 1: we've got Lauren brow On from Apple, Apple's environmental product manager.
[1:03] Speaker 1: She'll talk trade in and recycling. At Apple stores, you
[1:07] Speaker 1: can turn in old devices the right way and what
[1:10] Speaker 1: really happens to all the stuff inside of them and
[1:12] Speaker 1: the gadgets themselves. Then later in the show, We've got
[1:15] Speaker 1: Menca sang Vi, author of Your Best Digital Life, Use
[1:20] Speaker 1: Your Mind to Tame Your Tech. She will talk technology
[1:23] Speaker 1: and how to take control of your screen time. Well,
[1:27] Speaker 1: this week we saw two major lawsuits against big tech companies.
[1:32] Speaker 1: Early in the week, it was the FTC against Meta,
[1:36] Speaker 1: saying its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were strategic moves
[1:40] Speaker 1: to eliminate competition. And then later in the week, it
[1:43] Speaker 1: was the Department of Justice winning a case against Google,
[1:47] Speaker 1: ruling that the company illegally monopolized the digital advertising market.
[1:51] Speaker 1: They found that Google's control over both the buying and
[1:54] Speaker 1: selling of online ads harmed publishers and consumers. And you
[1:59] Speaker 1: might remember Google was under fire earlier last year. Back
[2:04] Speaker 1: in August, another court ruled that Google violated antitrust laws
[2:07] Speaker 1: by maintaining its dominance in search. They said that Google
[2:11] Speaker 1: secured its position through those exclusionary agreements you know, like
[2:15] Speaker 1: where they pay Apple and Samsung and other companies to
[2:17] Speaker 1: make Google the default search engine on their devices. So
[2:21] Speaker 1: the government nothing has come of these cases just yet,
[2:24] Speaker 1: but the government says they might look into making Google
[2:28] Speaker 1: and these agreements or even forcing them to sell Chrome.
[2:31] Speaker 1: Of course, Google, for their part, has appealed both rulings
[2:35] Speaker 1: meta fighting theirs as well. But let's discuss here is
[2:39] Speaker 1: a pattern that I've seen over and over in the
[2:41] Speaker 1: time that I've been covering technology. Companies built something great,
[2:45] Speaker 1: they dominate the market, and then someone else comes along
[2:49] Speaker 1: and just does it better. And when that happens, the
[2:52] Speaker 1: old guard falls usually pretty fast. Now, in the early days,
[2:56] Speaker 1: you might remember it was all about Internet Explorer, and yes,
[3:00] Speaker 1: we know how that came to be on top, But
[3:02] Speaker 1: after that was fixed, it was a different story. Firefox
[3:06] Speaker 1: beat Internet Explorer. Then Chrome came along and beat out Firefox.
[3:11] Speaker 1: And now because of the blow and privacy of Chrome,
[3:14] Speaker 1: people are moving to other browsers like Brave and Duck
[3:18] Speaker 1: Duck Go. Now you might think, Rich, why is in
[3:21] Speaker 1: everyone on Edge because that's pre installed on every Windows laptop?
[3:24] Speaker 1: Why is in everyone on Safari that's pre installed on
[3:26] Speaker 1: every Mac laptop? People go to the products that work well. BlackBerry,
[3:31] Speaker 1: remember that one it was dominant. It was the force
[3:34] Speaker 1: in the phone industry until the iPhone came along and
[3:38] Speaker 1: instantly wiped it out. And now that is just a
[3:41] Speaker 1: distant memory. Search Yahoo at a time was absolute king
[3:46] Speaker 1: of search. Then Google came along and they did something better.
[3:50] Speaker 1: You actually got the search results you were looking for.
[3:54] Speaker 1: And again people switched email. Before Gmail, everyone was on
[3:59] Speaker 1: high hotmail and Yahoo Hotmail gave you like a megabyte
[4:03] Speaker 1: of storage for your email, maybe a little bit more.
[4:06] Speaker 1: Yahoo a little bit more than that. And that's the
[4:09] Speaker 1: one that I used back in the day. It was
[4:10] Speaker 1: pretty good. But then Gmail came along and gave people
[4:14] Speaker 1: unlimited space, better search, and a much cleaner design. And
[4:17] Speaker 1: what did people do? They switched to Gmail. Consumers will
[4:21] Speaker 1: switch if something better comes along. We've seen it over
[4:24] Speaker 1: and over. Remember ask Jeeves. This was the hottest search
[4:29] Speaker 1: engine for a hot minute because it promised natural language search.
[4:34] Speaker 1: It did not deliver, and people moved on. More on
[4:37] Speaker 1: that in a bit now. In the early days of technology, yes,
[4:41] Speaker 1: we did need a lot of these rules to keep
[4:43] Speaker 1: companies from forcing us to stick to their products. Companies
[4:47] Speaker 1: used to use physical tactics to get us to stay,
[4:50] Speaker 1: like installing a satellite dish on our roof, putting a
[4:53] Speaker 1: cable box under our TV, locking us into a three
[4:56] Speaker 1: year contract for a free phone that barely got reception. Yes,
[5:00] Speaker 1: I'm talking about you original iPhone on AT and T.
[5:03] Speaker 1: I switched to Verizon the day the iPhone was offered
[5:06] Speaker 1: on that better service. Now, back in the day monopoly laws,
[5:11] Speaker 1: they all seemed rooted in physical infrastructure right, protecting us
[5:14] Speaker 1: from this railroads, oil pipelines, telephone lines that these big
[5:19] Speaker 1: giant companies maintained and kept us on and also charged
[5:24] Speaker 1: us a good price. For these days, we can jump
[5:26] Speaker 1: between streaming services, phone carriers, and even home internet in minutes.
[5:31] Speaker 1: Another example, YouTube dominates video, but they couldn't figure out shorts.
[5:36] Speaker 1: TikTok came along and ate their lunch. Now I message
[5:40] Speaker 1: this one actually still bothers me. This is one of
[5:42] Speaker 1: the few services that I still believe hijacks your phone number.
[5:46] Speaker 1: And there's really no alternative to it, at least on
[5:48] Speaker 1: the iPhone. That is sort of more lock in if
[5:51] Speaker 1: you ask me, versus innovation. And yes, you can argue
[5:54] Speaker 1: there's a million messaging alternatives on the iPhone, but none
[5:58] Speaker 1: of them are as integrated with the operating system, so
[6:01] Speaker 1: that one I still take an issue with. Now, sometimes
[6:03] Speaker 1: imitation does work. Instagram stole stories from Snapchat, and yes
[6:07] Speaker 1: it's become a main mode of storytelling on that platform.
[6:12] Speaker 1: But they also tried to copy TikTok's magic with reels
[6:15] Speaker 1: and guess what most people are talking TikTok not reels,
[6:18] Speaker 1: and again better we'll win.
[6:20] Speaker 2: And right now, TikTok does short videos better.
[6:23] Speaker 1: So this is kind of the issue I have with
[6:24] Speaker 1: some of these heavy handed lawsuits and government regulation. They
[6:27] Speaker 1: all assume that we're trapped, but these days we're not.
[6:31] Speaker 1: We're not always trapped, and sometimes the best regulation is
[6:33] Speaker 1: really choice. We saw that with Spotify. Okay, so think
[6:37] Speaker 1: about back in the day. You paid a lot of
[6:39] Speaker 1: money for your albums, right, your records, your CDs, your tapes,
[6:43] Speaker 1: your cassettes. And then Apple came along with iTunes. You
[6:47] Speaker 1: not only could put all your music in one place,
[6:49] Speaker 1: but they decimated an entire music business overnight, inventing a
[6:53] Speaker 1: whole new way to buy just one song at a
[6:56] Speaker 1: time for ninety nine cents. Now, you would think that
[6:59] Speaker 1: when screaming services came along, Apple would have the upper hand, right,
[7:03] Speaker 1: everyone would just transition to Apple Music.
[7:06] Speaker 2: That did not happen.
[7:07] Speaker 1: Everyone transitioned to Spotify, and that knocked out what Apple
[7:10] Speaker 1: built over the last ten fifteen years overnight.
[7:14] Speaker 2: What about Netflix. Same thing.
[7:16] Speaker 1: Blockbuster was the way to get your movies back in
[7:19] Speaker 1: the day, and somehow Blockbuster could not stay current with
[7:23] Speaker 1: the times. They couldn't figure out how to do DVD
[7:25] Speaker 1: by mail like Netflix was doing. Even though they offered
[7:28] Speaker 1: that service, it was not as good. And even today,
[7:32] Speaker 1: Netflix still remains the top streaming service. But think about it,
[7:36] Speaker 1: they do it with little promotion. When was the last
[7:37] Speaker 1: time you saw Netflix ad on TV? What about discounts?
[7:40] Speaker 1: They don't offer any discounts. They don't offer free trials anymore.
[7:44] Speaker 1: You can't even try the service without paying. And by
[7:46] Speaker 1: the way, when you go to cancel Netflix, if you've
[7:48] Speaker 1: ever gone to cancel, there is no screen begging you
[7:52] Speaker 1: to stay. They say, okay, we'll see you later, come
[7:55] Speaker 1: back anytime now. I do think that would change if
[7:58] Speaker 1: Netflix continues making these terrible movies that they're making, because
[8:03] Speaker 1: not every movie. You know, they have a lot of stuff,
[8:05] Speaker 1: not all of it is very good. Yes, they have
[8:07] Speaker 1: some gems on there, but I'm not sitting there every
[8:10] Speaker 1: Friday night saying, oh my gosh, Netflix, you're making the
[8:12] Speaker 1: best stuff. But the overall experience of Netflix is very good.
[8:16] Speaker 1: The search is good, the way you can download stuff,
[8:19] Speaker 1: the fact that there's always something on there, the fact
[8:21] Speaker 1: that there's stuff for everyone in the family. But people
[8:24] Speaker 1: will leave if they mess up. They always do. Even
[8:28] Speaker 1: Google Search, the king of searching for so many years.
[8:33] Speaker 1: If you asked me a couple of years ago, is
[8:35] Speaker 1: Google search the search in town? Is it ever gonna
[8:38] Speaker 1: go away? Probably would have said no. But guess what
[8:41] Speaker 1: happened November twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three, when chatchybt
[8:46] Speaker 1: came out boom overnight, Google is left scrambling. Chatchybt is
[8:52] Speaker 1: now the way to search for so many people. It's faster,
[8:55] Speaker 1: it's less cluttered, it's more direct, and Google has been
[8:58] Speaker 1: left scrambling. Not only are people using traditional search less,
[9:02] Speaker 1: no one is using Gemini, which is Google's AI as
[9:06] Speaker 1: a proprietary eponym for AI. And yes, Google and Meta
[9:11] Speaker 1: are both being sued by the government, and I get it.
[9:13] Speaker 1: I'm not one of these people that says no government absolutely,
[9:19] Speaker 1: oh my Google phone is disputing what I just said
[9:22] Speaker 1: about Google Search. It literally just said, I think there's
[9:26] Speaker 1: a misunderstanding in your statement. Okay, Gemini, not only okay,
[9:31] Speaker 1: so yes, So I'm not one of these people that
[9:34] Speaker 1: says no government oversight, right, Like, of course we need
[9:37] Speaker 1: government oversight in various aspects of our lives.
[9:40] Speaker 2: Guardrails matter on this stuff. We have AI.
[9:43] Speaker 1: The tech industry has been largely unchecked for years. But
[9:46] Speaker 1: that's been very important for the growth of a lot
[9:49] Speaker 1: of these things. But let's not forget a lot of
[9:51] Speaker 1: these giants did earn their spot by building something better.
[9:55] Speaker 1: Back to those whole ad networks, right, this whole lawsuit
[9:59] Speaker 1: against Google. I'm not an expert in the ad networks
[10:02] Speaker 1: are publishing, but think about the ads that you see
[10:05] Speaker 1: on the bottom of so many ad publishers pages, right,
[10:08] Speaker 1: it's all garbage, all that stuff with those weird pictures
[10:11] Speaker 1: and the weird headlines and the clickbait. You skip right
[10:14] Speaker 1: past them.
[10:14] Speaker 2: Right.
[10:15] Speaker 1: Google made ads that are relevant, People click them. It's
[10:18] Speaker 1: good for the publisher, it's good for the ad network.
[10:21] Speaker 1: It's good for everyone. Now Instagram it's the unifying social network.
[10:26] Speaker 1: Everyone is on it.
[10:27] Speaker 2: Again.
[10:28] Speaker 1: The market moves when the product improves. It's just that simple.
[10:32] Speaker 1: So the companies that are still out there thinking that
[10:34] Speaker 1: they can cling to their market share with gimmicks or
[10:36] Speaker 1: digital strongholds that may work in the short term, but
[10:40] Speaker 1: as history shows us, in the long term, all you
[10:43] Speaker 1: have to do is build something better or someone else will.
[10:46] Speaker 1: It's still happening today. All right, coming up, we are
[10:49] Speaker 1: going to have some of your questions. Triple eight rich
[10:51] Speaker 1: one on one eight eight eight seven four to two
[10:54] Speaker 1: four one zero one. You are listening to rich on Tech.
[10:58] Speaker 1: Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging
[11:01] Speaker 1: out with you, talking technology at triple eight rich one
[11:04] Speaker 1: oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four two four
[11:08] Speaker 1: one zero one. Richard is in bell California. You're on
[11:11] Speaker 1: with rich.
[11:15] Speaker 2: Richard.
[11:15] Speaker 3: Hell, when I click on check out, you know you
[11:20] Speaker 3: get that lock symbol with a spinning thing around it. Well,
[11:24] Speaker 3: that never stops. It just keeps going and going for hours.
[11:28] Speaker 3: What's going on there?
[11:29] Speaker 1: So you're trying to check out on PayPal and you
[11:31] Speaker 1: can't get past that spinny screen.
[11:34] Speaker 4: Yeah, okay.
[11:35] Speaker 1: Typically what's happening there is you have something that's interfering
[11:38] Speaker 1: with the functionality of the website. Ninety nine percent of
[11:41] Speaker 1: the time if there is a problem with a website loading,
[11:44] Speaker 1: it is some sort of extension on your browser, or
[11:48] Speaker 1: an AD blocker or a VPN. So those are the
[11:51] Speaker 1: things to look for anytime there's a problem that what
[11:55] Speaker 1: I do is typically toggle off if you're if you're
[11:58] Speaker 1: using a good ad block or there should be an
[12:01] Speaker 1: option on the ad blocker to pause on that website.
[12:05] Speaker 1: So try reloading the site by pausing it and then
[12:08] Speaker 1: reloading and see if that helps. If that does not,
[12:11] Speaker 1: make sure you're not running sort of a network ad
[12:14] Speaker 1: blocker or a VPN on the entire network. And then
[12:17] Speaker 1: the other thing you can do is wipe that site
[12:20] Speaker 1: off of your browser and start over so you can
[12:24] Speaker 1: go in on Google. When you're on a website, there's
[12:27] Speaker 1: actually a way to just erase the cookies from that
[12:30] Speaker 1: particular website. To the left, if you're on Chrome, to
[12:34] Speaker 1: the left of the URL bar, you'll see kind of
[12:36] Speaker 1: two little I know, they almost look like dashes with circles,
[12:41] Speaker 1: And you tap that, it says view site information, and
[12:45] Speaker 1: it tells you connection is secure, third party sign in
[12:48] Speaker 1: cookies and site data, So you can tap the cookies
[12:51] Speaker 1: and site data and it says manage on device site
[12:55] Speaker 1: data and you can tap that and you can actually
[12:57] Speaker 1: delete the data from that web site.
[13:00] Speaker 2: So right now I'm on Reddit and I've got.
[13:02] Speaker 1: The two little cookies from Reddit, and I can just
[13:04] Speaker 1: delete those cookies and then what's going to happen is
[13:07] Speaker 1: it's basically if you're signing to that website or it
[13:10] Speaker 1: has saved any information on your computer, that information will
[13:13] Speaker 1: be wiped clean and now you can deal with that
[13:16] Speaker 1: website in.
[13:17] Speaker 2: A fresh way.
[13:18] Speaker 1: So, Robert Richard, the other thing I would try to
[13:20] Speaker 1: do is go to this website, the PayPal site, from
[13:24] Speaker 1: a private browser window or use a different browser.
[13:28] Speaker 2: That's the other thing I'll do.
[13:29] Speaker 1: So if I really don't want to deal with all
[13:31] Speaker 1: these things, I'll just open up like say Safari on
[13:33] Speaker 1: my computer or something. And because that's kind of a
[13:36] Speaker 1: browser I don't typically use on a daily basis, there's
[13:39] Speaker 1: nothing in there, so it doesn't have any extensions on it,
[13:41] Speaker 1: it's got no ad blockers, and so I'll just go
[13:44] Speaker 1: to that website from there and see if that website's working.
[13:48] Speaker 1: And if it is, then you know it's something that
[13:49] Speaker 1: you have installed on your other browser that is interfering
[13:53] Speaker 1: with this website. But I would say my experience, ninety
[13:56] Speaker 1: nine percent of the time it is either an ad
[13:58] Speaker 1: blocker situation. It's basically stopping some sort of code from
[14:03] Speaker 1: running on that site, or it is a cookie that's
[14:07] Speaker 1: just kind of needs to be cleared out and started over.
[14:10] Speaker 2: A great question.
[14:11] Speaker 1: Happens all the time, and it is very frustrating when
[14:12] Speaker 1: that happens, because you're sitting there wondering like, hey, is
[14:15] Speaker 1: this me? Is it the website? But I would say
[14:18] Speaker 1: a majority of the time, if it's a large website,
[14:21] Speaker 1: it's probably something on your end, because it's not like
[14:23] Speaker 1: Paypalace sitting there for hours of the day and the
[14:27] Speaker 1: website is not allowing people to complete their transactions. Great question.
[14:31] Speaker 1: Thanks for the call. Let's go to Dennis and San Dimas. Dennis,
[14:35] Speaker 1: you're on with Rich.
[14:37] Speaker 5: Hi, Rich, and thank you for taking my call.
[14:40] Speaker 2: Absolutely, what can I help you?
[14:41] Speaker 6: Hear me?
[14:41] Speaker 5: All right?
[14:42] Speaker 2: Yeah, you sound great.
[14:44] Speaker 5: Thank you. I work in a small printing company and
[14:49] Speaker 5: we have a mixed Macintosh and a Windows environment. I'm sorry,
[14:54] Speaker 5: I'm kind of old school. I still call it an
[14:56] Speaker 5: IBM environment, but it's a Windows environment, and we heavily
[15:02] Speaker 5: use Adobe type products like in design, Photoshop and so
[15:06] Speaker 5: on and so forth. So we have a large amount of
[15:09] Speaker 5: customer files that are in design files, and then we
[15:12] Speaker 5: have terabytes worth of this data. I'm trying to find
[15:16] Speaker 5: some type of attached storage network attached storage or something
[15:21] Speaker 5: similar to it, a server maybe that we can store
[15:26] Speaker 5: all the data and files for our customers, but it
[15:32] Speaker 5: also needs to be friendly with not only Macintosh, but
[15:36] Speaker 5: Windows computers also are shared on the same network. Do
[15:42] Speaker 5: you have any recommendations?
[15:44] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, so here's the thing.
[15:45] Speaker 1: I think that you're going to find that this is
[15:47] Speaker 1: a lot easier than you think these You know, the
[15:50] Speaker 1: cross compatibility of both Mac and PC has come a
[15:54] Speaker 1: long way since you know, you mentioned the IBM stuff.
[15:56] Speaker 1: I mean, it's pretty much plug and play at this
[15:58] Speaker 1: point for all of the main provider.
[16:00] Speaker 2: So I can tell you the one that I've tried.
[16:02] Speaker 1: I've tried the consumer side of things, but these companies
[16:05] Speaker 1: make them for sort of the business. This sounds like
[16:07] Speaker 1: you need kind of a prosumer version of one of
[16:11] Speaker 1: these NAS drives. But basically you're looking what you want
[16:14] Speaker 1: to look for is make sure it supports SMB. That's
[16:19] Speaker 1: the standard one for Windows Apple. There is something called
[16:22] Speaker 1: AFP Apple Filing Protocol, but that is I don't really
[16:27] Speaker 1: think you necessarily need to look for that specifically. I
[16:29] Speaker 1: think you just want to look on these NAS drives
[16:32] Speaker 1: or these NAS servers, and make sure they say they're
[16:34] Speaker 1: compatible with Mac and PC. Sinology and q nap are
[16:38] Speaker 1: the two brands that I've just looked up and confirmed.
[16:41] Speaker 1: They both will work for home and business. I think
[16:44] Speaker 1: they're great for that and they will support both the
[16:46] Speaker 1: Mac and PC side of things. So check out Synology,
[16:49] Speaker 1: check out q nap. Just make sure that the server
[16:51] Speaker 1: that you get is maybe a step above what you
[16:55] Speaker 1: would get as a consumer, because a lot of people
[16:57] Speaker 1: are going to be accessing this. Sounds like you're moving
[16:59] Speaker 1: big file for sort of a high transfer rate as
[17:02] Speaker 1: well like a faster support speed on this thing. So
[17:07] Speaker 1: but Dennis, I think you'll find it pretty easy. These days,
[17:09] Speaker 1: most of those are plug and play. Thanks for the call.
[17:11] Speaker 1: Eight eight eight rich one oh one eight eight eight
[17:14] Speaker 1: seven four to two four one zero one. Coming up,
[17:18] Speaker 1: we'll talk more tech right here.
[17:19] Speaker 2: I'm rich on Tech.
[17:21] Speaker 1: Welcome back to rich on Tech. Nintendo has updated it's
[17:24] Speaker 1: information for the upcoming switch to remember, there was this
[17:30] Speaker 1: whole issue with tariffs and they're worried that they might
[17:33] Speaker 1: have to change the prices or the pre orders. But
[17:36] Speaker 1: pre orders are going to start in the US on
[17:39] Speaker 1: April twenty fourth. The launch date will stay the same,
[17:42] Speaker 1: June fifth, twenty twenty five. I know a lot of
[17:45] Speaker 1: people are excited for this console. It's been many years
[17:48] Speaker 1: since Nintendo completely revamped this. The base console price will
[17:53] Speaker 1: still remain at four hundred and fifty dollars, that's what
[17:55] Speaker 1: they said from day one. The bundle with Mario Kart World,
[17:58] Speaker 1: that's going to be five hundred dollars. So if you
[18:00] Speaker 1: want to play that game, get the bundle. It's going
[18:02] Speaker 1: to save you at least thirty dollars. Game pricing, Mario
[18:06] Speaker 1: Kart World at least eighty dollars, Donkey Kong Bonanza seventy dollars. Now,
[18:11] Speaker 1: what Nintendo said is they are raising prices on some
[18:14] Speaker 1: of the accessory on some of the accessories for this
[18:17] Speaker 1: device due to quote market conditions. So a pro controller
[18:22] Speaker 1: eighty five bucks, a new pair of the JOYCN twos
[18:26] Speaker 1: which magnetically attached to this thing ninety five dollars, the
[18:30] Speaker 1: doc set one hundred and twenty dollars, carrying case bundle
[18:32] Speaker 1: eighty five dollars, and Nintendo says it may adjust prices
[18:36] Speaker 1: again based on anything that shifts. But the good news
[18:40] Speaker 1: is the price of the console is staying the same.
[18:43] Speaker 1: The accessories, you know, you can get those over time,
[18:46] Speaker 1: but I know people were interested in the pre launch
[18:49] Speaker 1: date or the pre order date and the actual price
[18:53] Speaker 1: of the bundle and the base console. By the way,
[18:55] Speaker 1: my pal Matt Swider, who you've heard on this show
[18:59] Speaker 1: many times, the short com He's got all the details
[19:02] Speaker 1: on the Prouder stuff.
[19:03] Speaker 2: He stays up with that stuff much more than I do.
[19:06] Speaker 2: So check him out. Let's go to another Richard. Wow,
[19:11] Speaker 2: Richard and Arcadia, you're on with rich Hello.
[19:15] Speaker 7: Hi, I'm looking for a recommendation for photo scanner, and
[19:21] Speaker 7: also you can suggest app or a software so I
[19:25] Speaker 7: can label a file picture so I can locate it
[19:28] Speaker 7: or find it easier.
[19:30] Speaker 1: Okay, what are you scanning? Prints or negatives?
[19:34] Speaker 7: Basically a picture?
[19:37] Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, all right, So there's a couple ways do this.
[19:40] Speaker 1: The first is the most expensive but also the fastest,
[19:43] Speaker 1: and I've tested this it is incredible. It's the EPSOM
[19:46] Speaker 1: Fast Photo FF six' eighty w and this is a
[19:51] Speaker 1: real high speed system. You take a bunch of your pictures,
[19:54] Speaker 1: you put them in the feeder. It goes through them
[19:57] Speaker 1: just as fast as you can imagine. So you can
[19:59] Speaker 1: put a whole bunch of in there at a time,
[20:01] Speaker 1: it'll scan them. That's the absolute quickest way to get
[20:03] Speaker 1: these things scanned. It's also very expensive, over five hundred dollars.
[20:08] Speaker 1: So when I did my segment on this for TV,
[20:10] Speaker 1: I said, look, split this with a family member, right,
[20:13] Speaker 1: you pay two hundred and fifty bucks. You can you know,
[20:15] Speaker 1: scan your pictures. You go and have these and now
[20:18] Speaker 1: it's a lot cheaper. And everyone has photos around in
[20:21] Speaker 1: their garage they want to scan, So ask a couple
[20:23] Speaker 1: of family members, or you can sell this thing on
[20:25] Speaker 1: you know, let go or offer up when you're done,
[20:27] Speaker 1: something like that. So that's the first way, the fastest,
[20:31] Speaker 1: but the most expensive. The second way is a flatbed scanner.
[20:35] Speaker 1: And also I would look to epsyn. They've got a
[20:38] Speaker 1: couple of these flatbed scanners much cheaper. You can get
[20:40] Speaker 1: one for under one hundred dollars. They go under the
[20:42] Speaker 1: Perfection name. And the downside to that is that you
[20:46] Speaker 1: are going to be taking a much longer time to
[20:49] Speaker 1: scan these pictures because you got to put them on
[20:52] Speaker 1: that flat bed tray or that. Yeah, I guess it's
[20:54] Speaker 1: a tray one at a time, and so that's going
[20:58] Speaker 1: to be a much slower undertaking, but again, you can
[21:01] Speaker 1: do it. And the nice thing about that is that
[21:04] Speaker 1: if your pictures are different sizes, it'll be a lot
[21:07] Speaker 1: easier to scan those, you know, if they're different thicknesses,
[21:10] Speaker 1: weight sizes. A flatbed makes that process much easier. Now
[21:14] Speaker 1: the third way, the third option is to use an app.
[21:17] Speaker 1: So if you don't necessarily care about the highest quality
[21:20] Speaker 1: of these photos, if you just want to get them
[21:22] Speaker 1: scanned in Google has an app called photo scan.
[21:27] Speaker 5: Now.
[21:27] Speaker 1: I do not think that they have updated this in
[21:29] Speaker 1: a while, so that's the only downside, But I mean,
[21:33] Speaker 1: it does what it needs to do, and the big
[21:35] Speaker 1: thing about photo scan is that it will remove the
[21:37] Speaker 1: glare from the pictures because it makes you take four
[21:40] Speaker 1: pictures of the picture and then it uses some machine
[21:44] Speaker 1: learning to merge those together. Yeah, the last time this
[21:47] Speaker 1: was updated was in twenty twenty two, so it's not
[21:49] Speaker 1: the most up to date version of a photo scanner app.
[21:52] Speaker 1: But Google still keeps it on the App Store and
[21:54] Speaker 1: it's available for iPhone and Android. The other one I've
[21:58] Speaker 1: tested that's actually really good Photo Mine p h O
[22:02] Speaker 1: t O M y n E, and this one is
[22:05] Speaker 1: much more updated regularly. It's got five million downloads. And
[22:09] Speaker 1: this is a company that lets you scan photos. You
[22:12] Speaker 1: can scan negatives, so they do a great job of
[22:15] Speaker 1: not only scanning your photos but also restoring them as well.
[22:18] Speaker 1: And again the name is photo Mine P H O
[22:21] Speaker 1: T O M y n E. And finally, to answer
[22:24] Speaker 1: your question, Richard, when it comes to labeling your pictures,
[22:28] Speaker 1: I do not believe you need to do that. We've
[22:30] Speaker 1: got AI. You can put these into any sort of
[22:35] Speaker 1: photo storage site like a Google Photos, a OneDrive, Amazon Photos,
[22:41] Speaker 1: and Apple iCloud, whatever you want, and every single one
[22:45] Speaker 1: of them will slice and dice these pictures based on
[22:47] Speaker 1: what is in them. So if it has people, you
[22:50] Speaker 1: can easily find the people in those. It will identify
[22:53] Speaker 1: that places, it will look for landmarks. You'll be able
[22:56] Speaker 1: to search Paris and see all your pictures from Paris,
[22:59] Speaker 1: and on and on and on. So I don't really
[23:02] Speaker 1: think there is a need to organize pictures anymore because
[23:05] Speaker 1: AI has gotten so good at helping us find pictures.
[23:09] Speaker 1: I know I can find any picture in my library
[23:11] Speaker 1: in about one second, except for the actual picture.
[23:14] Speaker 2: I'm looking for.
[23:15] Speaker 1: Any other picture that's similar. Sure, I will be able
[23:17] Speaker 1: to find. But that one that I know I took,
[23:20] Speaker 1: that's the one that does not get on earthed. I'm
[23:22] Speaker 1: kind of kidding. Most of the time it does work.
[23:24] Speaker 1: But those are the ways that I would recommend. You know,
[23:27] Speaker 1: the scanning stuff, it's going to take a while if
[23:29] Speaker 1: you want, if you want just an expert to do it.
[23:35] Speaker 1: There are some companies out there that can do that.
[23:38] Speaker 1: But scan my Photos is one that I actually use
[23:40] Speaker 1: to scan my pictures. They're based i think in Irvine, California.
[23:44] Speaker 1: Issue They used to allow you to drop them off
[23:47] Speaker 1: if you wanted to, like, if you don't want to
[23:48] Speaker 1: send them through the mail, because that's kind of the
[23:50] Speaker 1: big thing with scanning pictures is you got to send
[23:52] Speaker 1: them in the mail and so that there's you know
[23:54] Speaker 1: a little bit of apprehension there if you're sending pictures
[23:57] Speaker 1: through the mail, because something could happen there. Great question, Richard,
[24:01] Speaker 1: thanks for it, and yes, get those pictures scanned. It's
[24:04] Speaker 1: so great to have the old pictures in your digital
[24:07] Speaker 1: library because it's fun, you know, not only for Flashback
[24:11] Speaker 1: Friday and Throwback Thursday and all that fun stuff on
[24:14] Speaker 1: social media, but you know, it's kind of fun to
[24:16] Speaker 1: have these things show up on your photo frames or
[24:20] Speaker 1: just on your memories on Google Photos. Like half of
[24:22] Speaker 1: my fun on my phone now is just watching the
[24:25] Speaker 1: Google Photos memories. Kind of makes me sad at some
[24:27] Speaker 1: point because I'm like, oh my gosh, my kids have
[24:29] Speaker 1: grown so fast, but it's also really cool. Let's see
[24:34] Speaker 1: here if you are if you bought something from HP.
[24:39] Speaker 1: There is a settlement this week that has they put
[24:41] Speaker 1: up their website, so four million dollars settlement. HP has
[24:44] Speaker 1: agreed to overclaims that it advertised misleading discounts on its website,
[24:49] Speaker 1: So if you bought something from HP's website recently, you
[24:53] Speaker 1: could be owed up to one hundred dollars. The lawsuits
[24:55] Speaker 1: said that HP made deals look better than they actually were,
[24:58] Speaker 1: causing customers to overpay. Of course, as with every settlement
[25:02] Speaker 1: with every company, HP admits to no wrongdoing. But they
[25:05] Speaker 1: are paying out this four million dollars, which quite honestly
[25:08] Speaker 1: is not very much for a company of this size,
[25:10] Speaker 1: but I guess to make this thing go away, that's
[25:12] Speaker 1: what they did. If you bought an HP laptop, a desktop, mice,
[25:16] Speaker 1: or keyboards from HP dot com between June fifth, twenty
[25:20] Speaker 1: twenty one and October twenty eighth, twenty twenty four, you
[25:23] Speaker 1: may qualify. Like I said, the payouts range from ten
[25:26] Speaker 1: to one hundred dollars, So if you bought a mouse,
[25:28] Speaker 1: you're probably gonna get closer to ten dollars. If you
[25:30] Speaker 1: bought a laptop, you're probably gonna get closer to one
[25:33] Speaker 1: hundred dollars. Claims are due by June ninth, so we've
[25:36] Speaker 1: got a couple months here. You will need some details
[25:39] Speaker 1: from your order, like the product name, order number, purchase date,
[25:43] Speaker 1: and the final court approval is set for August twenty first,
[25:46] Speaker 1: so nothing's gonna happen before then. But you can go
[25:48] Speaker 1: in the meantime to hpsettlement dot com HP settlement dot
[25:52] Speaker 1: com to put your information in and you know, search
[25:55] Speaker 1: your email to see if if you think you bought
[25:57] Speaker 1: something on HP dot com might be worse fit to
[26:01] Speaker 1: put your name in for that. One little programming note.
[26:05] Speaker 1: So I was off last week. We did a best
[26:07] Speaker 1: of show. I don't typically announce those before I go
[26:10] Speaker 1: on vacation, but I did. While I was on vacation,
[26:13] Speaker 1: got so many emails from folks saying, hey, Rich, where's
[26:16] Speaker 1: the podcast?
[26:17] Speaker 2: What the heck? Happened, is my podcast working.
[26:20] Speaker 1: I know Bobo just perked up because he delivered the
[26:22] Speaker 1: podcast to me, But I don't typically post the podcast
[26:25] Speaker 1: when I'm on vacation, and there's a couple of reasons
[26:28] Speaker 1: for that. A. I'm trying to stay on vacation number one.
[26:31] Speaker 1: B It's a best of show, so I feel like, Okay,
[26:33] Speaker 1: people have heard what I said before, but from what
[26:36] Speaker 1: I've heard from you emailing me, you would rather have
[26:40] Speaker 1: all of the shows in your podcast reader no matter what.
[26:43] Speaker 1: So in the future I will probably post those. I'm
[26:47] Speaker 1: not going to guarantee, but I will probably post those
[26:49] Speaker 1: from here on out because I got so many emails
[26:51] Speaker 1: from people that said, Rich, you ruined my whole weekend.
[26:54] Speaker 1: I was waiting there, I was trying to download your show.
[26:57] Speaker 1: I was trying to listen and I couldn't. And you know,
[26:59] Speaker 1: I'm a laborating a little bit, but that's kind of
[27:02] Speaker 1: the uh, it's kind of the image I got in
[27:04] Speaker 1: my head. So anyway, moving forward, if you follow the
[27:06] Speaker 1: newsletter rich on tech dot TV, I will give you
[27:09] Speaker 1: a quick heads up on that if that does happen
[27:11] Speaker 1: in the future. But I know from what I've gathered
[27:14] Speaker 1: you like to hear the show, you like to have
[27:16] Speaker 1: the podcast, So it's probably better to have the best
[27:19] Speaker 1: of show in the feed versus not eight eight eight
[27:22] Speaker 1: rich one o one eight eight eight seven four to
[27:24] Speaker 1: two four one zero one. The website rich on tech
[27:28] Speaker 1: dot tv coming up. If you're a college student, you
[27:33] Speaker 1: can get free access to Google's AI. I'll tell you
[27:36] Speaker 1: how right here, I'm rich on Tech. Welcome back to
[27:39] Speaker 1: rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you
[27:42] Speaker 1: talking technology at triple eight rich one oh one eight
[27:47] Speaker 1: eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.
[27:51] Speaker 1: As I mentioned, I was on vacation last weekend.
[27:55] Speaker 2: We went to Hawaii.
[27:56] Speaker 1: It was a great trip. Always fun there. The kids
[27:59] Speaker 1: have a great time. Actually, one of our best friends,
[28:02] Speaker 1: Bald Bryan of you might know him from he's on
[28:05] Speaker 1: the Adam Kroll Show for a long time. Now he's
[28:08] Speaker 1: doing his own newsletter all about movie picks. And by
[28:10] Speaker 1: the way, I so I helped him, you know, I
[28:13] Speaker 1: do this newsletter. And so he was asking me about,
[28:16] Speaker 1: you know, starting a newsletter, and I said, absolutely should
[28:18] Speaker 1: start one. And he's a great writer. He knows his movies,
[28:21] Speaker 1: that's his big thing. And so as a test because
[28:25] Speaker 1: he kind of pitched himself to come on this show
[28:28] Speaker 1: during while we were in Hawaii, and I said, you know,
[28:31] Speaker 1: I might consider that, you know, the streaming kind of
[28:33] Speaker 1: a tech angle. You start a newsletter, and so as
[28:36] Speaker 1: a little test, I watched a movie that he recommended
[28:39] Speaker 1: on his newsletter and so I was like, let me
[28:42] Speaker 1: just see. It was like, so he does this pick,
[28:44] Speaker 1: like a streaming pick each week, maybe a couple of them,
[28:47] Speaker 1: like stuff that you can watch for free on your
[28:48] Speaker 1: streaming services, and so he recommends, you know, stuff you
[28:51] Speaker 1: might not have heard of. And it was this movie
[28:54] Speaker 1: called Logan Lucky twenty seventeen. It was a crime action
[28:58] Speaker 1: thriller actually had like Katie Holmes, so big stars in
[29:02] Speaker 1: this movie Channing Tatum by the way, Bobo, you'll appreciate this.
[29:06] Speaker 1: My wife and I are surfing through the movies, you know,
[29:09] Speaker 1: on on the TV. Yeah, and she just somehow, somehow
[29:15] Speaker 1: happened to knew who Channing Tatum was.
[29:17] Speaker 2: She like like, oh, the movie with that hot guy
[29:19] Speaker 2: in it.
[29:19] Speaker 6: I'm like.
[29:22] Speaker 2: She just kind of like slipped it in there, right.
[29:24] Speaker 1: She was like kind of like Jones gonna watch that movie,
[29:26] Speaker 1: but didn't realize, like I don't know if that movie
[29:28] Speaker 1: really appeals to us. She's like, well, that guy's in it,
[29:30] Speaker 1: that guy's in it, we can watch it.
[29:33] Speaker 2: That was funny.
[29:35] Speaker 1: But Adam Driver's in this, Daniel Craig, Riley Keo, Hillary Swank,
[29:40] Speaker 1: Katie Home so all star casts, but I never heard
[29:42] Speaker 1: of it. Anyway, long story short, or probably longer in
[29:45] Speaker 1: this case, I did watch it on the plane on
[29:47] Speaker 1: Netflix and it was great. And so yes, Brian will
[29:50] Speaker 1: be appearing on the show because I do trust his recommendations,
[29:54] Speaker 1: not that I question them, but he's doing a great
[29:56] Speaker 1: job with his newsletter. And anyway, his kid was there.
[30:00] Speaker 1: So one thing I learned on this trip is that
[30:02] Speaker 1: when you were on a trip with your kids, having
[30:05] Speaker 1: other kids to play with, it kind of leaves a
[30:07] Speaker 1: lot of time for the parents to have time to themselves.
[30:10] Speaker 1: And my wife and I went on so many vacations
[30:12] Speaker 1: over the years where our kids were little and it's
[30:14] Speaker 1: like all hands on deck, and this time around, it
[30:17] Speaker 1: was like, really, like, wait, do we like disturb the children?
[30:20] Speaker 1: They're doing well? Now, I will tell you my kids
[30:24] Speaker 1: both had their smart watches on, right, so they can
[30:26] Speaker 1: kind of roam free, right, And it's so funny when
[30:30] Speaker 1: you give a kid a smart watch, it's a good
[30:32] Speaker 1: thing and a bad thing. The good thing is you
[30:34] Speaker 1: can be in touch with them. The bad thing is
[30:36] Speaker 1: they are in touch with you for every single decision
[30:39] Speaker 1: that they need to make in their little lives.
[30:42] Speaker 2: Hey, dad, can I order the burger at lunch? Yes,
[30:44] Speaker 2: you can order the burger? Dad. Can we do this?
[30:46] Speaker 2: Can we walk over to that?
[30:47] Speaker 1: Yes, you can walk over there, as long as you're
[30:48] Speaker 1: not leaving the property, jumping in the ocean, whatever. But
[30:51] Speaker 1: it's like all these little decisions we used to make
[30:53] Speaker 1: on our own as kids. Right, Like we were out
[30:56] Speaker 1: all day. I know, you were bobo and I was too,
[30:58] Speaker 1: Like we were just roaming the neighborhood. Good luck fine
[31:00] Speaker 1: to me, Yeah exactly. You came home for dinner, that
[31:03] Speaker 1: was it. And I had to come home when street
[31:05] Speaker 1: lights came on. Yeah, yeah too, because you couldn't see
[31:08] Speaker 1: anymore pretty much.
[31:09] Speaker 2: That was it, and you knew dinner was being served.
[31:11] Speaker 1: And by the way, it's like back in the day,
[31:13] Speaker 1: we made very questionable decisions, like very questionable, and not
[31:17] Speaker 1: all of them, but we made we found our way.
[31:19] Speaker 1: So I guess my thesis here is that I think
[31:22] Speaker 1: and I talked to my wife about this. She says,
[31:24] Speaker 1: it's leading to a generation with no grit, right, Like
[31:27] Speaker 1: these kids are much more fragile than we are because
[31:32] Speaker 1: they are always pinging someone. It's kind of like me
[31:34] Speaker 1: with CHATCHYBT. Now, I don't make any decision without asking CHATCHYBT.
[31:37] Speaker 1: Maybe I'm becoming frail. Bobo laughed at that one. Come on, man,
[31:43] Speaker 1: I'm not kidding. It's tough people. I'm not the only one.
[31:46] Speaker 1: People are asking chatchybt all kinds of stuff. One other
[31:49] Speaker 1: thing I noticed when I landed at the airport, Uber
[31:53] Speaker 1: and Lyft both sent me notifications, Hey, welcome back to Lax.
[31:58] Speaker 2: Do you need a ride home?
[31:59] Speaker 1: And I just thought that was so interesting because it's
[32:01] Speaker 1: a little reminder to check the privacy permissions for all
[32:05] Speaker 1: these apps on your phone now. I went into the
[32:08] Speaker 1: the location privacy for both Lyft and Uber, and I
[32:12] Speaker 1: thought maybe they had access because the apps love to
[32:15] Speaker 1: have unfettered access to your location, right. They want always
[32:19] Speaker 1: on access, And most of the time I will say no,
[32:22] Speaker 1: you can have access only when this app is open
[32:26] Speaker 1: or only when I'm using the app, But then they
[32:28] Speaker 1: try to convince you otherwise. So anyway, look in your
[32:30] Speaker 1: privacy permissions on your phone and just check to see
[32:33] Speaker 1: the location privacy of the various apps, because you might
[32:36] Speaker 1: have said, hey, you can have permission to this, and
[32:38] Speaker 1: now they don't really need that anymore.
[32:40] Speaker 2: So just a reminder for that.
[32:42] Speaker 1: Oh and the other thing I got into crossword puzzles,
[32:45] Speaker 1: I did so many. I've never done a crossword puzzle
[32:47] Speaker 1: in my life. Now, Bobo's what what?
[32:49] Speaker 2: Now? What just such a nerd? What have you ever
[32:53] Speaker 2: tried a crossword puzzle?
[32:54] Speaker 6: Yes?
[32:54] Speaker 2: I used to do them a lot. Okay, so you're
[32:56] Speaker 2: the original nerd. Now now who's the nerd?
[32:59] Speaker 1: Now at all?
[33:00] Speaker 4: It?
[33:00] Speaker 1: Okay, you grow about it out of crossword puzzles. But
[33:04] Speaker 1: I will tell you here's what made me like crossword puzzles.
[33:07] Speaker 1: They have a feature and they may not have had
[33:08] Speaker 1: this when you're doing them, uh, when you're younger, Bobo
[33:11] Speaker 1: an auto check feature, so as you go along you
[33:14] Speaker 1: type in the word, it will.
[33:15] Speaker 2: Check the letters. So if you have to play it
[33:18] Speaker 2: on like any of any of them have it.
[33:20] Speaker 6: I know.
[33:22] Speaker 1: That's why back in the day we get paper, paper
[33:25] Speaker 1: and pen or pencil, and you did them on slate anyway,
[33:31] Speaker 1: So they so now they have this auto check feature
[33:33] Speaker 1: where it will check the letters as you go along,
[33:36] Speaker 1: And to me that has been the best thing because
[33:38] Speaker 1: I cannot do a crossword puzzle with just guessing all
[33:41] Speaker 1: the words and at the end saying, oh, check the puzzle,
[33:43] Speaker 1: and I got to go back and rechange everything. So
[33:45] Speaker 1: having that feature, that auto check, even though it feels
[33:48] Speaker 1: a little bit like cheating, it's like, hey, if it's
[33:50] Speaker 1: making me do this, why not.
[33:52] Speaker 2: I think that's a good thing.
[33:54] Speaker 1: Uh, let's go quickly to Albert and Chatsworth.
[33:57] Speaker 2: Albert, you're on with Rich.
[34:00] Speaker 8: Thanks for taking my call. Sure, I'm kind of surprised
[34:04] Speaker 8: I'm able to talk to you. I've got I've got
[34:06] Speaker 8: for some reason, I've got pop up ads that are
[34:10] Speaker 8: driving me totally. It's paralyzing my phone, and I'm trying
[34:13] Speaker 8: to figure what I can do to get either get
[34:18] Speaker 8: the ad where programs or something you recommend, or or
[34:22] Speaker 8: what else where the procedures I can do to check
[34:25] Speaker 8: before I'm I'm clicking any of these new apps and.
[34:28] Speaker 2: Stuff you've got.
[34:30] Speaker 1: You've got You've got a bunch of websites that you
[34:33] Speaker 1: visited or apps installed in this phone that are delivering
[34:37] Speaker 1: these pop up ads. So first off, on your Android phone,
[34:42] Speaker 1: I would go through, go through and uninstall any app
[34:45] Speaker 1: that you no longer need or recognize. That's the number
[34:48] Speaker 1: one thing. Then restart your phone, and then on your browser,
[34:52] Speaker 1: I would completely clear out the cash and browser history
[34:56] Speaker 1: on your browser. So on Android, go into your Brouser storage,
[35:01] Speaker 1: clear the cash and that should do it. Now, if
[35:03] Speaker 1: these things are putting pop ups, there is a section
[35:07] Speaker 1: inside Chrome where you can get rid of the pop
[35:10] Speaker 1: up notifications as well, So look in there for that,
[35:13] Speaker 1: but get rid of the apps that you no longer
[35:15] Speaker 1: need to use. That should typically take care of it.
[35:17] Speaker 1: Eighty to eight rich one oh one. This is rich
[35:19] Speaker 1: on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro
[35:23] Speaker 1: here hanging out with you, talking technology at triple A
[35:27] Speaker 1: rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four
[35:30] Speaker 1: to two four one zero one. The website for the
[35:33] Speaker 1: show rich on Tech dot TV. If you're not following
[35:37] Speaker 1: me on social media at rich on Tech, yeah, you
[35:40] Speaker 1: guessed it.
[35:40] Speaker 2: Just go down the line there.
[35:42] Speaker 9: Uh.
[35:42] Speaker 1: Coming up this hour, we've got Lauren Brawn, Apple's environmental
[35:46] Speaker 1: product manager. She's going to talk trade in and recycling
[35:50] Speaker 1: at Apple stores. Yeah, if you have some old gadgets
[35:52] Speaker 1: laying around the house, you might be able to get
[35:54] Speaker 1: cash for those or at least recycle them. And they're
[35:57] Speaker 1: offering a discount, so she'll explain that. And then later
[36:00] Speaker 1: in the show, we've got Menka Sang, the author of
[36:04] Speaker 1: Your Best Digital Life. She will talk technology and how
[36:07] Speaker 1: to take control of your screen time. Let's go to
[36:12] Speaker 1: uh to me in Orange, California. Did I get that right?
[36:16] Speaker 4: Yes? You did. I love your show.
[36:20] Speaker 2: Oh, thank you. That means a lot.
[36:21] Speaker 4: Yeah, oh, yes, you're such a body accessor to Leo.
[36:26] Speaker 4: My question to you is I had I'm talking about
[36:30] Speaker 4: an iPhone and I had, you know, all my contacts
[36:35] Speaker 4: on an exchange server, and then after that it became Yahoo, Gmail.
[36:43] Speaker 4: So my contacts are spread over all these oh servers.
[36:48] Speaker 4: I guess I want your recommendation on how to consolidate
[36:53] Speaker 4: them into just one.
[36:56] Speaker 2: One like main list. Great, great questions.
[37:02] Speaker 1: This is this is such an issue, and to me,
[37:04] Speaker 1: I've kind of I've declared like contact bankruptcy because I've
[37:09] Speaker 1: given up on organizing my contacts. I've given up on
[37:12] Speaker 1: organizing my photos and my contacts because thankfully the storage
[37:17] Speaker 1: is there and the search is there.
[37:20] Speaker 2: So I do have all these.
[37:22] Speaker 1: Contacts that I'm like, eh, I'm not gonna sit there
[37:24] Speaker 1: and try to fix these and make a perfect address book.
[37:26] Speaker 1: But what you're trying to do is really consolidate these
[37:29] Speaker 1: contacts and kind of get them all into one place.
[37:32] Speaker 1: So there are many many ways you can do this.
[37:35] Speaker 1: I'll go over a couple of the ways. So number one,
[37:37] Speaker 1: what you want to do is export your contacts from
[37:40] Speaker 1: these various services. So no matter what, download them all right,
[37:44] Speaker 1: put them into an export file, make sure you've got them,
[37:47] Speaker 1: and then you know, once you have them all in
[37:50] Speaker 1: one place. Now what you want to do is upload
[37:53] Speaker 1: them to a different place and organize them. So there
[37:58] Speaker 1: is a there is an app out there called contactsplus
[38:02] Speaker 1: dot com, and this will allow you to go through.
[38:06] Speaker 1: It basically does exactly what you need. It'll help you
[38:09] Speaker 1: sort of merge all of these contacts and put them
[38:12] Speaker 1: into one place and organize them. That's probably going to
[38:16] Speaker 1: be the most expensive way to do it, because you
[38:18] Speaker 1: got to pay for that. If you're going over one
[38:20] Speaker 1: thousand contacts, which may not be that you know, you
[38:23] Speaker 1: may be fine with just a thousand. I'm looking at
[38:25] Speaker 1: mine I've got let's see here, nine hundred and fifty nine,
[38:29] Speaker 1: so I guess i'd be okay, I'm just under that
[38:31] Speaker 1: total there. But depending on how many you have this,
[38:34] Speaker 1: it's free for a thousand, okay. So what you want
[38:37] Speaker 1: to do is upload all of those there and get
[38:40] Speaker 1: those kind of cleaned up and SYNCD up and all
[38:43] Speaker 1: that stuff. And then once you have them uploaded, then
[38:45] Speaker 1: you want to download them and re upload them to
[38:48] Speaker 1: the contact manager of your choice. So if that's your iPhone,
[38:52] Speaker 1: if it's iCloud, if it's Google, then you re upload
[38:54] Speaker 1: those okay. So that's number one. And by the way,
[38:57] Speaker 1: you want to delete them from that service before you
[38:59] Speaker 1: upload them. So download them all to lead them off
[39:01] Speaker 1: those services. And now you have a couple of files,
[39:04] Speaker 1: upload them to this third party service, get them cleaned up,
[39:07] Speaker 1: download and then redo it. Now, there are many many
[39:09] Speaker 1: ways to do this, like I said, So even if
[39:12] Speaker 1: you're just uploading them all to your iPhone, like you
[39:14] Speaker 1: said you have iPhone, there is a I think it's
[39:17] Speaker 1: a relatively new feature in iPhone where you can open
[39:21] Speaker 1: up your Contacts app and it says show duplicates. So
[39:26] Speaker 1: let me see where that is to this. So if
[39:28] Speaker 1: I go to all contacts, well, I thought there was
[39:31] Speaker 1: a way to do that, but I guess it's in
[39:33] Speaker 1: there somewhere, but I know on Google there is. So
[39:36] Speaker 1: what I would do is, this is probably the easiest
[39:38] Speaker 1: way to do it is if you go to Contacts
[39:41] Speaker 1: dot Google dot com. And this is completely free, whether
[39:45] Speaker 1: you use Google or not. Just you know, you can
[39:47] Speaker 1: just go here contacts dot Google dot com, upload all
[39:51] Speaker 1: of your contacts.
[39:52] Speaker 2: Let it kind of sift through them.
[39:54] Speaker 1: It's gonna take a little bit, it's not gonna be instant,
[39:56] Speaker 1: but you will see this little section on the left
[39:58] Speaker 1: hand side that says merge and fix. Okay, So if
[40:02] Speaker 1: you tap that, it will show you all of your
[40:05] Speaker 1: contacts that have multiples and you can go through all
[40:09] Speaker 1: of those and do whatever you need to do. So,
[40:12] Speaker 1: for instance, I've got my first contact to modify. It
[40:15] Speaker 1: says there's a secondary email address. I can add that
[40:18] Speaker 1: and now it's in one contact. So this will merge duplicates,
[40:22] Speaker 1: we'll add all the useful details, everything you need to do.
[40:24] Speaker 1: And by the way, that's completely free. Now, if you're
[40:27] Speaker 1: not going to use Google afterwards, like if you still
[40:29] Speaker 1: are stuck with iCloud or you want to do something
[40:31] Speaker 1: like that. Once you're done with this process, you can
[40:33] Speaker 1: just export these out of Google Contacts and upload them
[40:37] Speaker 1: to your iPhone. So that's going to be the free,
[40:39] Speaker 1: the cheapest, the easiest way to do it. If you
[40:41] Speaker 1: want to keep everything on your iPhone. There's an app.
[40:44] Speaker 1: I've not tested it, but it's very popular. It's called
[40:48] Speaker 1: Cleaner Merge Contacts, and it's got a bunch of ratings.
[40:52] Speaker 2: Let's see when was this updated.
[40:54] Speaker 1: It was just recently updated January twenty seventh, twenty twenty five.
[40:57] Speaker 1: So that's going to be a good way to do
[40:59] Speaker 1: it again. And you're probably gonna have to pay a
[41:01] Speaker 1: little bit for that when it looks like it's about
[41:03] Speaker 1: six dollars. So you know, some of these things, when
[41:07] Speaker 1: they know you're just using it one time, you've got
[41:09] Speaker 1: this like specific thing you want to do with it,
[41:11] Speaker 1: they're gonna charge you for that.
[41:12] Speaker 2: But those are the ways.
[41:13] Speaker 6: To do it.
[41:13] Speaker 1: I think the Google Contacts dot Google dot com is
[41:16] Speaker 1: probably gonna be the easiest, but all of the phones
[41:19] Speaker 1: have some sort of way of kind of merging contacts
[41:22] Speaker 1: and things in there. I'm trying to find I can't
[41:26] Speaker 1: where in the world did this go? Maybe I don't
[41:28] Speaker 1: have any duplicate contacts anymore, but I could have sworn
[41:30] Speaker 1: there's a little section.
[41:32] Speaker 2: Maybe it's in the settings. Let me look.
[41:34] Speaker 1: Sometimes Apple puts things in like different places on the
[41:37] Speaker 1: iPhone and let's see here. So if I go to
[41:40] Speaker 1: contacts and let's see it, does I have duplicates?
[41:44] Speaker 2: Now it doesn't.
[41:45] Speaker 1: Okay, So you would think that would be something that
[41:47] Speaker 1: would be front and center, but it's not. But anyway,
[41:49] Speaker 1: good question, and I think that's gonna do it. Just
[41:51] Speaker 1: contacts doc Google dot com. If you want to do
[41:53] Speaker 1: something for free, great question there, Thanks for the call.
[41:56] Speaker 1: Eight eight eight rich one oh one eight eight eight
[41:58] Speaker 1: seven four to two four one zero one. Google is
[42:02] Speaker 1: giving students free access to their Gemini AI. So if
[42:07] Speaker 1: you know a student, you can get not only free
[42:09] Speaker 1: access to Gemini Advanced plus two terabytes of Google storage
[42:15] Speaker 1: and basically from what I understand, you probably just need
[42:17] Speaker 1: to use an edu email address. This is part of
[42:20] Speaker 1: Google's AI Premium plan. This typically costs twenty dollars a month.
[42:25] Speaker 1: You'll be able to use Gemini Advance Notebook, LM AI
[42:30] Speaker 1: tools and docs, sheets, slides, and of course their image
[42:33] Speaker 1: and video generation tools VO and Whisk.
[42:36] Speaker 2: So you have to.
[42:37] Speaker 1: Sign up by June thirtieth, twenty twenty five. It stays
[42:40] Speaker 1: free through June thirtieth, twenty twenty six. So you basically
[42:43] Speaker 1: get this for a year.
[42:45] Speaker 2: Do the math.
[42:45] Speaker 1: That's a two hundred and forty dollars value. I have
[42:48] Speaker 1: to be eighteen and older and you have to have
[42:50] Speaker 1: a dot edu email. So enroll by June thirtieth, twenty
[42:55] Speaker 1: twenty five and basically just get Ai for free.
[42:58] Speaker 5: Now.
[42:58] Speaker 1: I know chat GBT is obviously, uh you know a
[43:01] Speaker 1: lot of people like to use that. They're doing a
[43:03] Speaker 1: similar thing. They're giving their service for free, but only
[43:06] Speaker 1: for the next I think two months through like the
[43:08] Speaker 1: end of May. So they're all these companies, you know,
[43:12] Speaker 1: they want to get the college kids using it because
[43:14] Speaker 1: guess what, the more you get these college kids to
[43:16] Speaker 1: use it, the more they may stick with it when
[43:18] Speaker 1: they're out of college.
[43:20] Speaker 2: And so it's it's been the same thing ever.
[43:21] Speaker 1: I mean I remember remember they used to sign you
[43:24] Speaker 1: up for a credit card on campus, right, Like the
[43:26] Speaker 1: credit card you got on campus was the one that
[43:28] Speaker 1: you probably used for a while and the one that
[43:30] Speaker 1: got me into a lot of debt. Thank you, MBNA
[43:33] Speaker 1: or whatever that company was. I got a free T
[43:35] Speaker 1: shirt and like five grand in debt. Thank you paid
[43:38] Speaker 1: took me forever to pay that off.
[43:40] Speaker 10: Uh.
[43:41] Speaker 1: Gemini dot Google slash students is the website Gemini dot
[43:46] Speaker 1: Google slash students.
[43:49] Speaker 11: Uh.
[43:50] Speaker 1: American Airlines gonna give you free Wi Fi? Uh sponsored
[43:55] Speaker 1: by AT and T. That's kind of interesting, right, So
[43:57] Speaker 1: starting this is going to take a bit. But January
[43:59] Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, American Airline is going to offer free
[44:02] Speaker 1: in flight Wi Fi. But here's the catch. You have
[44:06] Speaker 1: to be an Advantage Loyalty member, which is not that
[44:08] Speaker 1: big of a deal. Just remember to sign up before
[44:10] Speaker 1: you take their flight. Now, they are going to be
[44:14] Speaker 1: doing this on planes equipped with Via Sat and Intel
[44:17] Speaker 1: Sat satellite internet, so I'm guessing that internet is faster
[44:22] Speaker 1: than what they have. I would hope they have about
[44:25] Speaker 1: ninety percent of their fleet covered. I would guess that's
[44:27] Speaker 1: the case. I didn't look this up to see if
[44:29] Speaker 1: it's like the super fast like Starlink type satellite. But
[44:34] Speaker 1: what's interesting about Wi Fi on planes is that this
[44:37] Speaker 1: is something that used to cost.
[44:39] Speaker 2: A lot of money.
[44:40] Speaker 1: Like I remember on United it was fifty bucks to
[44:43] Speaker 1: connect from New York to LA fifty bucks and now
[44:48] Speaker 1: it is down to ten dollars. And then with Starlink
[44:51] Speaker 1: coming on board a lot of these airlines, they're making
[44:54] Speaker 1: that free, which is ironic because the capital outlay to
[44:57] Speaker 1: install starlink on all these planes is probably a lot.
[45:01] Speaker 1: But yet they're subsidizing it in the form of, you know,
[45:04] Speaker 1: their ticket prices and all the other fees that they charge.
[45:07] Speaker 1: But I guess they've identified that people do not like
[45:10] Speaker 1: to pay for Wi Fi or I guess this is
[45:12] Speaker 1: a lost leader where you know, you want to fly
[45:15] Speaker 1: on a plane that has fast Wi Fi. For instance, Like,
[45:19] Speaker 1: I'm getting kind of annoyed now that I've tried this
[45:21] Speaker 1: the starlink on Hawaiian Whenever I go on an airline
[45:25] Speaker 1: that doesn't have starlink, it's like, I can't even use
[45:27] Speaker 1: this basically, So anyway you'll be able to get to
[45:29] Speaker 1: do all this stuff messaging, web browsing, email and streaming,
[45:32] Speaker 1: which leads me to believe it's fast internet, no need
[45:35] Speaker 1: to pay or sign up, so uh yeah, there you go.
[45:38] Speaker 1: They tested the service on select flights and saw strong
[45:41] Speaker 1: performance and reliability, and AT and T sees this as
[45:45] Speaker 1: a way to extend always on connectivity even in the sky.
[45:49] Speaker 1: So there you have it. I guess it's an ad
[45:51] Speaker 1: for AT and T. That's I guess they're subsidizing it.
[45:53] Speaker 2: There you go.
[45:54] Speaker 1: Eighty eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven
[45:57] Speaker 1: four to two four one zero one. The website for
[45:59] Speaker 1: this show, so Rich on tech dot TV. If you
[46:02] Speaker 1: want show notes for anything I mentioned, just go to
[46:04] Speaker 1: the website. Rich on tech dot TV. This is episode
[46:07] Speaker 1: one seventeen. Back after this, Welcome back to Rich on
[46:11] Speaker 1: tech Rich DeMuro here talking technology with you. Eighty eight
[46:16] Speaker 1: rich one oh one rich on tech dot TV. Let's
[46:20] Speaker 1: go to Jeff in Clearwater, Florida. Jeff, you're on with Rich.
[46:25] Speaker 6: Hey, Rich, good to talk to you. You know, I
[46:27] Speaker 6: always enjoy your show. Hey, got a quick question for
[46:30] Speaker 6: you on those you know, earbud translator products. Sorry, I
[46:35] Speaker 6: just you know what I'm talking about. I have a
[46:38] Speaker 6: specific question. I got kind of an odd hobby. I
[46:41] Speaker 6: like to listen to news talkstations from around the world.
[46:45] Speaker 6: Pretty much limits myself to just English speaking stations, but
[46:49] Speaker 6: I have an interest in listening to, you know, Spanish
[46:52] Speaker 6: stations and other things. So looking for an earbud translator
[46:58] Speaker 6: that I could live in to my iPad, you know,
[47:02] Speaker 6: with a streaming newscast or talk show coming in on Spanish,
[47:06] Speaker 6: giving me real time translation. Is the technology there to
[47:12] Speaker 6: do that? Or am I ahead of my time on that?
[47:15] Speaker 6: Is that not yet possible?
[47:18] Speaker 1: So you're saying you want to take the audio from
[47:21] Speaker 1: the stream on your iPad and and feed that into
[47:25] Speaker 1: the earbuds and then have them translate.
[47:27] Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, just you know, nothing fancy, just you know
[47:30] Speaker 6: over you know, just over my iPad speaker, you know,
[47:34] Speaker 6: just in the air with and with the thing in
[47:36] Speaker 6: my ear.
[47:37] Speaker 1: Oh, the iPad speaker. Okay, so it's not I was
[47:40] Speaker 1: wondering if you were trying to get like that direct
[47:42] Speaker 1: link from the now.
[47:44] Speaker 6: Okay, nothing that fancy. So you're just so.
[47:47] Speaker 1: You're just listening and having them transcribe as if it
[47:50] Speaker 1: was another person.
[47:51] Speaker 6: Yeah, but I wanted to, you know, I want to
[47:54] Speaker 6: hear English, you know, hopefully in live time when he's
[47:59] Speaker 6: close to now. I know it's going to be a
[48:01] Speaker 6: little confusing because I'm going to be hearing the Spanish
[48:03] Speaker 6: in the background sort to speak, and also hopefully the
[48:06] Speaker 6: English translation coming back to me. Maybe a millisecond later.
[48:10] Speaker 6: But does that work? And if so, which specific product
[48:15] Speaker 6: would you brand? So forth model would you recommend?
[48:19] Speaker 1: Well, it's uh, yeah, So it's interesting. I for most
[48:24] Speaker 1: of these that I've seen to have that continuous translation
[48:28] Speaker 1: might be tricky because it is, you know, it's NonStop.
[48:32] Speaker 1: So there are things, you know, transcribing and translation has
[48:35] Speaker 1: gotten a lot better in recent years, and so I
[48:38] Speaker 1: think that it's not impossible. I'm trying to see if
[48:41] Speaker 1: there's a way that you can use something like live
[48:44] Speaker 1: Transcribe on Google. But it doesn't I don't think they
[48:48] Speaker 1: read anything out to you. Yeah, let's see, you'll have
[48:53] Speaker 1: an option to type your Yeah, I'm looking at the
[48:56] Speaker 1: so there's a couple of things.
[48:57] Speaker 6: I don't want to see tex right, you want to
[48:59] Speaker 6: hear that that's complicated so that it's hard to read
[49:02] Speaker 6: and listen and so forth.
[49:03] Speaker 7: You know.
[49:03] Speaker 1: And I'm trying to see if the Google Pixel earbuds,
[49:06] Speaker 1: which have you looked at the Google Pixel buds not specific,
[49:11] Speaker 1: because they have they're kind of known for their translation features.
[49:15] Speaker 1: So let's say translation, I'm trying to find her translation.
[49:21] Speaker 1: So the Google Pixel buds they can do a lot
[49:23] Speaker 1: of translating, but I think the brand that has like
[49:26] Speaker 1: made their name on translating in real time is Time Kettle,
[49:30] Speaker 1: Time Kettle dot Co. And all the folks that I've
[49:35] Speaker 1: talked to that you know that have done this and
[49:37] Speaker 1: use these say that these are the best. I have
[49:40] Speaker 1: not personally tested them. I actually reached out to them
[49:42] Speaker 1: to try to get a pair to test out some
[49:45] Speaker 1: I'm waiting on that, but those are the brand. That's
[49:47] Speaker 1: the brand.
[49:48] Speaker 2: Now.
[49:48] Speaker 1: The main thing is I understand between the most expensive
[49:52] Speaker 1: because you look on their website, they've got some really
[49:55] Speaker 1: expensive stuff and they've got some less expensive stuff. As
[49:58] Speaker 1: I understand, the more you pay for this stuff, the
[50:02] Speaker 1: more immediate and wide ranging the translation is going to be.
[50:06] Speaker 1: So I think in your case, you know, the cheap,
[50:09] Speaker 1: the cheapest pair at like one hundred and fifty dollars
[50:11] Speaker 1: may not cut it because that might be more for conversation.
[50:14] Speaker 6: Yeah yeah, yeah, okay? Would would the would battery life
[50:20] Speaker 6: also be an issue because you know, a talk show
[50:22] Speaker 6: might be on for an hour or something. I suppose
[50:25] Speaker 6: the batteries might burn up pretty quick.
[50:27] Speaker 7: Huh.
[50:29] Speaker 1: I don't think an hour is going to be that
[50:30] Speaker 1: that wild. Let me look at the specs on here,
[50:33] Speaker 1: let's see. So uh yeah, so the the most expensive
[50:37] Speaker 1: pair they have is about four hundred dollars And I'm
[50:41] Speaker 1: trying to find like the specs on the battery life,
[50:44] Speaker 1: but I think, I mean earbuds battery life in general
[50:46] Speaker 1: is pretty I think they're pretty good. An hour is
[50:49] Speaker 1: not going to be a problem. But I think it
[50:52] Speaker 1: depends on, you know, how long you're going with these
[50:55] Speaker 1: things and between charging.
[50:57] Speaker 2: But I think you'll be okay for that.
[50:59] Speaker 6: I wouldn't worry for this time Time Cattle and the
[51:02] Speaker 6: higher end Time Kettle.
[51:03] Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, I what I would do is
[51:05] Speaker 1: just beware. I would for sure check the return policy.
[51:09] Speaker 1: Make sure because you're you know, if you're not buying
[51:11] Speaker 1: these from Amazon. You know, the return policy could be
[51:13] Speaker 1: a little tricky because it's a third party. But that
[51:16] Speaker 1: would be the main thing that I would do, is
[51:18] Speaker 1: check the time, check the uh the return policy. Like
[51:21] Speaker 1: see if you have to do this. I'm looking at
[51:23] Speaker 1: the charging time. Uh translation period on a single charge
[51:26] Speaker 1: is about six hours for the expensive ones, three hours
[51:30] Speaker 1: for the less expensive So again I think six hours
[51:33] Speaker 1: you'll be fine. But again the website Time Kettle, Dot
[51:36] Speaker 1: Coco and uh yeah, that's a very specific use case.
[51:40] Speaker 1: But if you look at their website, I mean they
[51:42] Speaker 1: have everything. They have not just earbuds, They've got all
[51:44] Speaker 1: kinds of handheld translators, a lot of stuff out there
[51:49] Speaker 1: for this. For this company, they sort of specialize in this.
[51:51] Speaker 1: Like I said, thanks for the call, Jeff, appreciate it.
[51:54] Speaker 1: Eight eight eight rich one O one eight eight eight
[51:56] Speaker 1: seven four to two four one zero one. Coming up,
[51:59] Speaker 1: we are going to talk to Lauren Braun. She is
[52:02] Speaker 1: Apple's environmental product manager. If you've got some gadgets laying
[52:06] Speaker 1: around the house, you want to trade them in, maybe
[52:08] Speaker 1: you want to get some cash for them, maybe you
[52:11] Speaker 1: want to recycle them. You can actually do this at
[52:13] Speaker 1: Apple stores. And so she's going to talk all about
[52:15] Speaker 1: that and most importantly, not only what you can do,
[52:18] Speaker 1: but what happens to these things once you recycle them.
[52:21] Speaker 1: Because people are worried about the batteries, you know, the
[52:24] Speaker 1: minerals inside these things.
[52:26] Speaker 2: She will explain how they reclaim a lot of that stuff.
[52:29] Speaker 1: Eighty eight rich one on one eight eight eight seven
[52:32] Speaker 1: four to two four one zero one. Back after this,
[52:36] Speaker 1: Welcome back to rich On Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging
[52:38] Speaker 1: out with you talking Technology at Triple eight Rich one
[52:42] Speaker 1: O one eight eight eight seven four to two four
[52:46] Speaker 1: one zero one. You can call me up with a question,
[52:48] Speaker 1: submit it on the website rich on tech dot TV.
[52:51] Speaker 1: We'll get back to your calls in.
[52:53] Speaker 2: Just a moment.
[52:54] Speaker 1: But first, did you know that the Apple Store can
[52:57] Speaker 1: actually help you recycle your old gadgets? I didn't know
[52:59] Speaker 1: that until I met with them and brought in a
[53:02] Speaker 1: couple of my own. I brought in four things, I
[53:05] Speaker 1: got money for two of them, and then two were
[53:07] Speaker 1: properly recycled. So if you've got an old Apple product
[53:10] Speaker 1: or an Android phone, you can have them look at
[53:13] Speaker 1: the value of that and you'll walk out with a
[53:15] Speaker 1: gift card. Or if you just have cables and clutter
[53:18] Speaker 1: at home, you can just bring that stuff in and
[53:19] Speaker 1: they will recycle it. So let's hear from Lauren Braun,
[53:23] Speaker 1: Apple's environmental product manager, about this entire process and what
[53:28] Speaker 1: happens to those devices you bring in. Environmental concerns at
[53:32] Speaker 1: Apple always kind of a big part of the presentations
[53:35] Speaker 1: that Apple does.
[53:36] Speaker 5: Yep.
[53:36] Speaker 11: Why because it's one of our core values the environment
[53:40] Speaker 11: and making products that are not only amazing for users,
[53:44] Speaker 11: but also are better for the environment. So we really
[53:48] Speaker 11: believe that you can have both, right, you can have
[53:50] Speaker 11: a great product that also has a lighter footprint. And
[53:53] Speaker 11: so you see that come through not only in the
[53:55] Speaker 11: keynotes and the presentations, you also see it come through
[53:59] Speaker 11: when you shop right. You can learn about how these
[54:02] Speaker 11: products are made with recycled materials, We use renewable electricity
[54:06] Speaker 11: for manufacturing, and we try to ship them with modes
[54:10] Speaker 11: that create less carbon, right, not on an airplane, on
[54:12] Speaker 11: a boat, on a trent, or on a truck. So
[54:15] Speaker 11: we think about, you know, not only how to make
[54:17] Speaker 11: it beautiful and yellow and fast and performant, but also
[54:23] Speaker 11: to make it in a way that.
[54:24] Speaker 12: Uses less resources.
[54:25] Speaker 1: And so I mean, with so many products being made,
[54:28] Speaker 1: aren't there some there like carbon neutral at this point?
[54:30] Speaker 1: Like wasn't the Apple Watch like the first carbon neutral
[54:33] Speaker 1: Apple products?
[54:34] Speaker 11: Yes, the Apple Watch was our first carbon neutral Apple product.
[54:36] Speaker 12: That was two years.
[54:37] Speaker 11: Ago now series nine and apple Watch Ultra and the
[54:40] Speaker 11: things I just mentioned using recycled material and manufacturing the devices,
[54:45] Speaker 11: renewable electricity, and lower carbon transportation, those are the ways
[54:50] Speaker 11: that we made that product carbon neutral. And the Macmini
[54:52] Speaker 11: which is also carbon neutral, So we really make efforts
[54:55] Speaker 11: to reduce the amount of emissions that are generated from
[54:59] Speaker 11: that products. So with Apple Watch series and I'm reduced
[55:01] Speaker 11: them by seventy eight percent.
[55:03] Speaker 1: So I always get a lot of questions around batteries, right, Oh,
[55:06] Speaker 1: people are always like batteries, they're bad, this and that.
[55:08] Speaker 1: Can you explain kind of like where these batteries come from,
[55:11] Speaker 1: and do they get a second life or can they
[55:13] Speaker 1: be recycled in any way?
[55:14] Speaker 11: Yeah, So batteries actually can be recycled, and we've taken
[55:17] Speaker 11: steps really recently to put more and more recycled materials
[55:21] Speaker 11: into our batteries. So within the last year, almost all
[55:25] Speaker 11: of our products use recycled cobalt in their batteries. And
[55:28] Speaker 11: something like that really matters because cobalt is used in
[55:31] Speaker 11: every lithium ion battery, and batteries are everywhere, right, You're
[55:35] Speaker 11: in your car, they're in your iPad, they're in all
[55:38] Speaker 11: the devices in your house. And so by creating a
[55:42] Speaker 11: source of recycled cobalt, not only make that available to
[55:45] Speaker 11: add the products, but also to other companies, right, create
[55:48] Speaker 11: a marketplace for that. And so when you use recycled cobalt,
[55:52] Speaker 11: it means you decrease the dependence on mining cobalt from there.
[55:56] Speaker 1: I've also noticed that the product packaging has changed over
[55:58] Speaker 1: the years. It's gotten slim or less inside. Can you
[56:02] Speaker 1: talk about that a.
[56:02] Speaker 12: Little bit for sure?
[56:03] Speaker 11: Yeah, are very brilliant packaging engineers, in addition to making
[56:06] Speaker 11: it sound good and look perfect, also take great care
[56:10] Speaker 11: to figure out how can we package our devices in
[56:13] Speaker 11: a way that is still incredibly secure. They're safe during shipment,
[56:17] Speaker 11: but uses less volume less packaging. And also we've been
[56:21] Speaker 11: working on transitioning all of our packaging to one hundred
[56:24] Speaker 11: percent fiber based. So we're not quite there yet, but
[56:27] Speaker 11: we're very, very close.
[56:28] Speaker 12: And when you have.
[56:28] Speaker 11: Something that's fiber based means that it's easier to recycle
[56:31] Speaker 11: in most places.
[56:32] Speaker 1: So Apple Store, you buy new products, obviously they're made
[56:36] Speaker 1: from some recycled stuff. What about the products you have
[56:39] Speaker 1: at home that you may not want anymore?
[56:41] Speaker 5: What can we do with those?
[56:42] Speaker 1: I always say what I like about Apple products that
[56:45] Speaker 1: you can pass them down to, like someone else in
[56:47] Speaker 1: your family when you're done with it and you upgrade.
[56:50] Speaker 1: So explain some of the things that you can do
[56:52] Speaker 1: with a product that you're done with.
[56:53] Speaker 11: Sure, will you nail it rich? Like The best thing
[56:55] Speaker 11: you can do with an Apple product you're not using
[56:58] Speaker 11: is to give it to someone else to use it.
[57:00] Speaker 11: Because the longer that product stays in circulation, the more
[57:03] Speaker 11: use you get out of it, and the better it
[57:04] Speaker 11: is for the planet. So if you can't pass it down,
[57:07] Speaker 11: you have a couple of options. You can trade it in,
[57:10] Speaker 11: or you can bring it to any Apple store and
[57:12] Speaker 11: recycle it. A lot of people don't know that every
[57:14] Speaker 11: Apple store can recycle your old devices and accessories, and
[57:18] Speaker 11: we'll do it for free. And if you don't live
[57:19] Speaker 11: near an Apple store, you can.
[57:21] Speaker 5: Do it by mail.
[57:22] Speaker 1: So when you talk about bringing it in for let's
[57:25] Speaker 1: talk about trade in first. How do you know if
[57:28] Speaker 1: the product has any value?
[57:29] Speaker 11: So our store specialists will take you through an immediate
[57:35] Speaker 11: assessment of the value. They can do it on the
[57:37] Speaker 11: spot and they'll let you know what the value is.
[57:40] Speaker 11: And the thing about Apple devices is that they hold
[57:42] Speaker 11: their value longer than competitors. So compared to Android smartphones,
[57:47] Speaker 11: iPhones hold forty percent more of their value, which means
[57:50] Speaker 11: that even if you have a really old device, you
[57:52] Speaker 11: might still get some value for it. And when you
[57:55] Speaker 11: bring it in, you capture the value that's in that device,
[57:58] Speaker 11: rather than letting it sit in your drawer for another
[58:01] Speaker 11: year where the value goes down.
[58:03] Speaker 1: Okay, and then what about just recycling. What do you
[58:06] Speaker 1: accept for recycling and what happens to that product?
[58:09] Speaker 11: Sure, so we accept a lot more than you might think.
[58:12] Speaker 11: Will take any of your old Apple products, but we'll
[58:14] Speaker 11: also take accessories. I have a couple of examples here.
[58:18] Speaker 11: We will take the cables that you no longer use,
[58:21] Speaker 11: maybe with USBA. We will take adapters and dongles, things
[58:26] Speaker 11: that you know, accessories to devices you might not have anymore.
[58:30] Speaker 11: Other examples of cables, Maybe you have some old Lightnings,
[58:33] Speaker 11: So we'll take accessories. We will take older Apple devices,
[58:38] Speaker 11: and then we'll also take devices from manufacturers in ourn't Apple,
[58:43] Speaker 11: but we will take your Android smartphones. We will take
[58:47] Speaker 11: you know, things like printers and scanners. Uh, there's a
[58:51] Speaker 11: whole list on our website if you go to Apple
[58:52] Speaker 11: dot com sash Recycling and you can actually see every
[58:55] Speaker 11: kind of device or accessory that will take.
[58:57] Speaker 1: Now, I'll be honest, Like a lot of people ask
[58:59] Speaker 1: me like where I can cycle stuff?
[59:00] Speaker 2: I usually say like best Buy or Staples.
[59:03] Speaker 1: I wasn't really aware that you guys took non apple products.
[59:07] Speaker 1: So that's a pretty good thing because.
[59:09] Speaker 2: You have so many stores everywhere.
[59:10] Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, do.
[59:11] Speaker 11: You try to don't need an apartment to come in.
[59:13] Speaker 11: You could just walk in with your products. It's a
[59:16] Speaker 11: great idea to check online first to see you know
[59:18] Speaker 11: which products you can bring in, and then any of
[59:21] Speaker 11: our associates can help you recycle it. And what's cool
[59:25] Speaker 11: is that you know those recycled products they actually get used. Right,
[59:29] Speaker 11: even if there's not value for you and trading, there's
[59:32] Speaker 11: still value that's locked up in that product because we'll
[59:36] Speaker 11: take them, we'll disassemble them, and then we'll cover the
[59:40] Speaker 11: key materials inside of them, like gold or tin or aluminium.
[59:45] Speaker 11: And so by recovering those materials and then recycling them
[59:49] Speaker 11: to a new form, we're able to use them again.
[59:51] Speaker 11: So that aluminum, maybe it goes and becomes part of
[59:54] Speaker 11: a window frame or part of a car part. By
[59:57] Speaker 11: bringing it in, we're able to recapture those materials instead.
[1:00:00] Speaker 12: Of letting them be lost.
[1:00:01] Speaker 1: People are always concerned about privacy and security of their data,
[1:00:05] Speaker 1: especially on a product that may not turn on. Do
[1:00:08] Speaker 1: I need to format it, wipe it before it comes in?
[1:00:11] Speaker 1: I mean it'd be nice if I can. But what
[1:00:13] Speaker 1: if I can't?
[1:00:14] Speaker 11: Yeah, I don't know how, Yes, we hear that a lot.
[1:00:18] Speaker 11: You can go to Apple dot com and you can
[1:00:20] Speaker 11: find all of the steps for getting your device ready
[1:00:23] Speaker 11: for a new owner. It's actually quite quick and easy.
[1:00:25] Speaker 11: It will walk you through how to sign out a iCloud,
[1:00:28] Speaker 11: how to transfer your data, how to wipe all of
[1:00:30] Speaker 11: your data, turn off, activation, lock, all the things you
[1:00:33] Speaker 11: need to do to get it set up.
[1:00:34] Speaker 12: And if you can't do that, that's okay.
[1:00:36] Speaker 11: You just bring it into an Apple store and one
[1:00:38] Speaker 11: of our specialists can help.
[1:00:39] Speaker 6: You do it.
[1:00:40] Speaker 2: You've got a robot named Daisy.
[1:00:41] Speaker 11: Got a robotnam Daisy and what to Okay? So, Daisy
[1:00:44] Speaker 11: is an iPhone disassembly robot. Will be built especially to
[1:00:48] Speaker 11: be able to recover all the materials that are inside
[1:00:50] Speaker 11: an iPhone. So an iPhone passes through several stages where
[1:00:54] Speaker 11: we take off the back and we remove the battery
[1:00:56] Speaker 11: and remove the glass. Throughout this Daisy put so that
[1:01:00] Speaker 11: those materials can then be used recycled for other products.
[1:01:05] Speaker 11: Daisy can do thirty six types of iPhones and up
[1:01:08] Speaker 11: to two hundred iPhones in an hour.
[1:01:10] Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, getting the job done.
[1:01:12] Speaker 1: She really is, and you're going through that many I mean,
[1:01:15] Speaker 1: I assume a lot of them are coming in. Fortunately.
[1:01:17] Speaker 11: People are really keen to recycle or iPhones, which is
[1:01:19] Speaker 11: great because the more we can get back. If we
[1:01:21] Speaker 11: can get you to take them out of your drawer
[1:01:23] Speaker 11: right instead of leaving them there, we can actually put
[1:01:26] Speaker 11: them to good use. I think the best thing to know.
[1:01:29] Speaker 11: You know, everyone has that drawer at home right that
[1:01:31] Speaker 11: is full of the devices we don't use, the accessories
[1:01:36] Speaker 11: that are long gone. Bringing the stuff in that drawer
[1:01:39] Speaker 11: into an Apple store is a much better thing for
[1:01:41] Speaker 11: the planet than just leaving it there for another year.
[1:01:44] Speaker 11: And regardless of what happens to it, whether it gets recycled, repaired,
[1:01:49] Speaker 11: traded in or passed on, that is better for the
[1:01:52] Speaker 11: Earth than.
[1:01:53] Speaker 5: Leaving it there.
[1:01:54] Speaker 9: All right.
[1:01:55] Speaker 1: Once again, that was Lauren Brawn, Apple's environmental product manager.
[1:01:58] Speaker 1: So right now, if you if you bring something in,
[1:02:01] Speaker 1: like I said, you can get one of two kind
[1:02:03] Speaker 1: of paths. You can either get value for that item.
[1:02:05] Speaker 1: If it has any value, they'll give you a gift card,
[1:02:08] Speaker 1: or if it doesn't have any value, they'll give you
[1:02:10] Speaker 1: ten percent off select accessories. This is sort of an
[1:02:12] Speaker 1: Earth Day promotion that Apple is doing. This runs through
[1:02:16] Speaker 1: May sixteenth. It is only in store, so you have
[1:02:19] Speaker 1: to bring in something and then they will recycle it
[1:02:22] Speaker 1: and they'll give you that ten percent off. You can
[1:02:24] Speaker 1: use it on things like selected air pods and various
[1:02:28] Speaker 1: other things, Apple watch bands, a lot of accessories basically,
[1:02:32] Speaker 1: and so that is the promotion. I'll put the full details.
[1:02:35] Speaker 1: There are some terms and conditions on my website. Rich
[1:02:38] Speaker 1: on tech dot TV. I did get an email from
[1:02:40] Speaker 1: Shelley into Pega. She was actually disappointed. She said she
[1:02:43] Speaker 1: brought in all of her old products to the Apple Store.
[1:02:47] Speaker 1: She gathered up her old Apple gear, mouse, keyboard, iPod,
[1:02:50] Speaker 1: brought them to the gifts the Apple Store, expecting a
[1:02:52] Speaker 1: gift card and got nothing but a thank you. She says,
[1:02:55] Speaker 1: you should have mentioned only newer items qualify for credit.
[1:02:58] Speaker 1: But Shelley, I can't predict what your items are gonna
[1:03:02] Speaker 1: be valued at. When I brought in my stuff, I
[1:03:04] Speaker 1: had no idea. One of the laptops I brought in
[1:03:06] Speaker 1: was worth nine hundred and forty dollars, the other was
[1:03:08] Speaker 1: worth one hundred and ten dollars, and I thought the
[1:03:10] Speaker 1: second one was just gonna be recycled, so you never know.
[1:03:13] Speaker 2: And that's the thing.
[1:03:14] Speaker 1: Now, you can go on Apple's website, check out the
[1:03:16] Speaker 1: recycling section and you can put in your product and
[1:03:19] Speaker 1: start there to at least get an idea of the value.
[1:03:22] Speaker 1: But if you're talking old gear like a mouse or
[1:03:24] Speaker 1: a keyboard, that's probably not gonna be worth much. Even
[1:03:27] Speaker 1: an old iPod and even some of the older Android
[1:03:30] Speaker 1: phones as well. So my point is it's better to
[1:03:33] Speaker 1: know that this exists and to actually try it, and
[1:03:36] Speaker 1: to get this stuff properly recycled. And the bonus is
[1:03:39] Speaker 1: that you might get a gift card as well. Eight
[1:03:41] Speaker 1: and eight rich one one eight eight seven four to
[1:03:44] Speaker 1: two four one zero one. Coming up, we'll take more
[1:03:47] Speaker 1: of your questions on rich on Tech. Welcome back to
[1:03:49] Speaker 1: rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you,
[1:03:52] Speaker 1: talking technology. I mentioned how I went to Hawaii and
[1:03:56] Speaker 1: I was so surprised that I still had to fill
[1:03:59] Speaker 1: out that little declaration form. It's like saying that you're
[1:04:03] Speaker 1: not bringing any plants or animals into the country. And
[1:04:07] Speaker 1: I'm looking at my friend Johnny Jet's newsletter johnnyjet dot
[1:04:10] Speaker 1: com and he said, uh, Hawaii makes landing procedure easier
[1:04:14] Speaker 1: for visitors with a new digital declaration form. Genius, and
[1:04:18] Speaker 1: now I can fill this out on your phone. I
[1:04:20] Speaker 1: don't know if it's a permanent thing or oh, it's
[1:04:22] Speaker 1: a pilot test. So according to the Governor's office, purpose
[1:04:26] Speaker 1: of the pilot is to test the effectiveness, compliance, and
[1:04:28] Speaker 1: use of the online form. But what a great thing
[1:04:31] Speaker 1: because like they pass out these forms on the plane,
[1:04:34] Speaker 1: you got to fill them out. Half the people don't
[1:04:36] Speaker 1: have a pen, you know, and you're sitting there like
[1:04:39] Speaker 1: writing stuff out. So having that digital form you can
[1:04:42] Speaker 1: do on your phone so much easier. Although I wonder
[1:04:45] Speaker 1: how it works because if you don't have internet in
[1:04:46] Speaker 1: the air, you gotta do it. I guess right when
[1:04:48] Speaker 1: you land. But anyway, Johnny Jet dot com, thanks for
[1:04:52] Speaker 1: that information.
[1:04:53] Speaker 2: Let's go to.
[1:04:54] Speaker 1: George in Laguna Hills, California. George, you're on with Rich.
[1:04:58] Speaker 9: Yes, thank you very much for speaking with me. I
[1:05:01] Speaker 9: have a problem in I've had T Mobile for five
[1:05:06] Speaker 9: years and I had no problems with reception for with
[1:05:10] Speaker 9: my router until the end of twenty twenty four. Since
[1:05:15] Speaker 9: that time, I've had haphazard connections. When I went to
[1:05:21] Speaker 9: the store and I called up the text. They said
[1:05:24] Speaker 9: it was a router problem. I replaced eight routers over
[1:05:28] Speaker 9: the several months. It turns out that it's traffic congestion
[1:05:33] Speaker 9: from the tower that's closest to my house and they
[1:05:38] Speaker 9: need to increase the bandwidth. They put high priority with
[1:05:41] Speaker 9: the engineers, and it turns out they're.
[1:05:44] Speaker 2: Not going to do that.
[1:05:46] Speaker 9: What are my options because I can't switch to AT
[1:05:49] Speaker 9: and T and I can't switch to Rising because they
[1:05:52] Speaker 9: all use the tower, and there are other towers in
[1:05:54] Speaker 9: my area, but I guess they're too far away. And
[1:05:57] Speaker 9: they said that they have to construct a new tower
[1:06:00] Speaker 9: and they're not going to invest the money in that
[1:06:02] Speaker 9: at this time.
[1:06:03] Speaker 1: Well, okay, first off, I'm a little confused because you
[1:06:06] Speaker 1: said the router. What do you mean, because routers don't
[1:06:10] Speaker 1: have anything to do. Is this your cell phone or
[1:06:12] Speaker 1: is this your home internet?
[1:06:13] Speaker 9: No, it's it's the router. Is the galaxy that the
[1:06:16] Speaker 9: for my home internet? I have one of these these
[1:06:21] Speaker 9: devices that will connect my home computer to their signal.
[1:06:28] Speaker 1: So it sounds to me, George, that you're probably using
[1:06:32] Speaker 1: too much data and they're slowing you down.
[1:06:34] Speaker 2: That's what's happening here.
[1:06:36] Speaker 9: What okay, but I'm able to get with the think
[1:06:41] Speaker 9: I can get the reception sometimes and I can't get
[1:06:44] Speaker 9: at other times. And they're telling me that the tower
[1:06:47] Speaker 9: that's near my house. I live in Orange County. I'm
[1:06:51] Speaker 9: not in the total sub boondocks of where I live,
[1:06:57] Speaker 9: but they said there's too much traffic congestion on there
[1:07:00] Speaker 9: and the bandwidth needs to go. Okay, not the it's
[1:07:03] Speaker 9: not the galaxy here whatever you call that a box
[1:07:06] Speaker 9: because I get good connection when it works.
[1:07:09] Speaker 1: Yeah, well when it works, and that's the thing. So
[1:07:11] Speaker 1: what's happening is I'm guessing at the beginning of the month,
[1:07:14] Speaker 1: this is starting out fast, and then as they realize
[1:07:17] Speaker 1: you're going through gigs and gigs of data, they're slowing
[1:07:22] Speaker 1: this down to prioritize other users in the area. That's,
[1:07:24] Speaker 1: you know, well within their rules and regulations. You know,
[1:07:27] Speaker 1: the fact that you're using this line as a router
[1:07:31] Speaker 1: for your home computer, you know that changes things because
[1:07:34] Speaker 1: you're using a lot more data than what a cell
[1:07:37] Speaker 1: phone would typically use. And I think their network is
[1:07:39] Speaker 1: picking up on that and deprioritizing some of your network.
[1:07:43] Speaker 2: Now are some of your speeds? Now?
[1:07:45] Speaker 1: What they're saying about this tower and you know the
[1:07:48] Speaker 1: building and the priority. I think that's all just kind
[1:07:51] Speaker 1: of like, you know, gobbledygook for the customer service folks
[1:07:54] Speaker 1: to tell you. I don't think that they have investigated
[1:07:57] Speaker 1: your specific tower. I don't think they're looking at the
[1:07:59] Speaker 1: information on how many people are using it, nor do
[1:08:02] Speaker 1: I think they would share that information to a customer,
[1:08:04] Speaker 1: because it just doesn't sound right. So I think your
[1:08:07] Speaker 1: options here are to switch to a T Mobile, a
[1:08:11] Speaker 1: proper T mobile home Internet connection, which they do offer,
[1:08:15] Speaker 1: and I think that would probably clear up your problem.
[1:08:18] Speaker 1: Switch to a proper home internet connection in general, you know,
[1:08:21] Speaker 1: from a traditional carrier that's providing internet at the you
[1:08:26] Speaker 1: know the amount that you need to run an entire home,
[1:08:30] Speaker 1: or you can switch to AT and Team Verizon if
[1:08:32] Speaker 1: you feel like T Mobile is not giving you what
[1:08:34] Speaker 1: you are paying for now. The fact that it's the
[1:08:37] Speaker 1: same tower does not mean that you would get the
[1:08:40] Speaker 1: same experience from AT and T or Verizon, because even
[1:08:43] Speaker 1: though they may share a tower, they are not sharing
[1:08:46] Speaker 1: the bandwidth on that tower. They have independent controls of that,
[1:08:50] Speaker 1: and if you were to sign up with AT and
[1:08:52] Speaker 1: T or Verizon, you would get something of a different experience.
[1:08:56] Speaker 1: It also could be the plan you're on with T Mobile.
[1:08:59] Speaker 1: You know, these plans, they do allow the carriers to
[1:09:04] Speaker 1: deprioritize your signal when you go over a certain amount,
[1:09:07] Speaker 1: and typically if you're in a congested area where a
[1:09:11] Speaker 1: lot of people are using that tower and you're sort
[1:09:13] Speaker 1: of gobbling up all of the data there, they may
[1:09:16] Speaker 1: reserve the right to slow you down. And that can
[1:09:19] Speaker 1: happen at any point throughout the month, and it's just
[1:09:21] Speaker 1: something that they reserve in their terms and conditions. There
[1:09:24] Speaker 1: are some plans like now here's the other thing. There
[1:09:27] Speaker 1: is a little bit of a and I'm not sure
[1:09:29] Speaker 1: of you know what AT and tier of Verizon or
[1:09:32] Speaker 1: T Mobile would think about using their system as a
[1:09:35] Speaker 1: router for other products. You know, that's well within the
[1:09:38] Speaker 1: idea of a hot spot on your phone, sure, but
[1:09:41] Speaker 1: if it's like completely like dedicated for your home internet,
[1:09:44] Speaker 1: that's kind of a different use case scenario than what
[1:09:47] Speaker 1: they spelled out. So the other thing you can do
[1:09:50] Speaker 1: is look at a plan, like I know AT and
[1:09:51] Speaker 1: T if you look at their plans, they've got some
[1:09:55] Speaker 1: sort of plan that says like you will not be
[1:09:57] Speaker 1: deprioritized whatsoever.
[1:10:00] Speaker 2: They've got this like.
[1:10:00] Speaker 1: At and T unlimited Premium pl unlimited talk, text, and
[1:10:05] Speaker 1: high speed data that can't slow down based on how
[1:10:08] Speaker 1: much you use. And I think that they're the only
[1:10:10] Speaker 1: ones that do that. I don't think that Verizon or
[1:10:13] Speaker 1: T Mobile offer that. Now there are some other third
[1:10:16] Speaker 1: party carriers that may do that as well, but I
[1:10:18] Speaker 1: think at the end of the day, you're sort of
[1:10:20] Speaker 1: using this service in a way it wasn't necessarily intended.
[1:10:23] Speaker 1: So I don't think the carriers are really hip to
[1:10:25] Speaker 1: help you out. But the options you have are to
[1:10:28] Speaker 1: switch to a different carrier, try it out, see if
[1:10:30] Speaker 1: it works, and see if it helps. But I don't
[1:10:32] Speaker 1: think the tower is the problem. I don't think that
[1:10:36] Speaker 1: the UH. I think it's just their algorithms are kicking
[1:10:38] Speaker 1: in and saying, hey, this guy's using a lot of
[1:10:40] Speaker 1: data in a way that is, you know, we're not
[1:10:43] Speaker 1: seeing any of this type of usage. We're seeing all
[1:10:46] Speaker 1: this type of usage, So that might be the problem there.
[1:10:49] Speaker 2: All right, good.
[1:10:50] Speaker 1: Question, George, thanks a lot, appreciate it. Eight eight eight
[1:10:52] Speaker 1: rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to
[1:10:55] Speaker 1: two four one zero one. The website for the show
[1:10:58] Speaker 1: rich on tech dot TV, you can submit your questions.
[1:11:03] Speaker 1: There gets your emails, No big deal there. Coming up,
[1:11:07] Speaker 1: we're going to talk about the rise of AI powered frauds.
[1:11:11] Speaker 1: So many scams floating around. I've got scam warnings from Microsoft,
[1:11:16] Speaker 1: Google and the FBI coming up pure On rich on Tech.
[1:11:20] Speaker 1: Welcome back to rich On Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging
[1:11:23] Speaker 1: out with you, talking technology at Triple eight Rich one
[1:11:27] Speaker 1: O one eight eight eight seven four to two four.
[1:11:30] Speaker 2: One zero one.
[1:11:30] Speaker 1: If you can't hop on the phone, go to the
[1:11:32] Speaker 1: website rich on Tech dot TV. All my segments from
[1:11:36] Speaker 1: TV are there. All the notes from the show were there.
[1:11:40] Speaker 1: My newsletter is there. If you have not signed up
[1:11:43] Speaker 1: for that, We've got forty seven thousand of you strong.
[1:11:46] Speaker 1: So thank you for continuing to read that. And uh,
[1:11:50] Speaker 1: it is my excitement of the weekend writing that and
[1:11:54] Speaker 1: getting that into your inbox.
[1:11:55] Speaker 2: So appreciate you enjoying that.
[1:11:57] Speaker 1: I got an email or a message from let's see
[1:12:00] Speaker 1: Amy on Instagram. She said, Hey, Rich, I keep getting
[1:12:04] Speaker 1: an email that my iCloud account is going to expire
[1:12:06] Speaker 1: and I can't tell if it's fraud. Can you tell? Oh, yeah,
[1:12:09] Speaker 1: I can tell it's fraud. I don't even have to
[1:12:11] Speaker 1: look at the email, and I know it's fraud. It's
[1:12:13] Speaker 1: not fraud, it's it's bogus. They're trying to get you
[1:12:15] Speaker 1: to click the link, and they're trying to make you
[1:12:18] Speaker 1: put in some information that they're then going to steal.
[1:12:20] Speaker 1: Either they're either going to steal your payment information or
[1:12:23] Speaker 1: your personal information. Apple does not send emails like this.
[1:12:28] Speaker 1: I posted this on my Instagram actually a while ago,
[1:12:31] Speaker 1: trying to see when was this post. This was one
[1:12:33] Speaker 1: of my first January fourth, so it's been a couple
[1:12:37] Speaker 1: months since I posted that. But that is fake and
[1:12:41] Speaker 1: got a couple of fraud notes here. You know, scams
[1:12:44] Speaker 1: are big, and so if you follow me on Instagram
[1:12:46] Speaker 1: at riche on Tech, you know that I love to
[1:12:48] Speaker 1: post these things. I call them anatomy of a scam
[1:12:50] Speaker 1: because I get these emails, either I get them or
[1:12:53] Speaker 1: you send them to me, and then I kind of
[1:12:55] Speaker 1: break them down and explain what's happening there. So if
[1:12:57] Speaker 1: you're not following me on Instagram to stay ahead of
[1:13:00] Speaker 1: the curve at rich on tech, do it for sure.
[1:13:03] Speaker 1: And the best part is you can share these things
[1:13:04] Speaker 1: with your less tech savvy friends and family, or just
[1:13:07] Speaker 1: for yourself because the more you see these things, it's like,
[1:13:11] Speaker 1: the more you can identify and spot them, and so
[1:13:14] Speaker 1: that's why I kind of keep posting these to break
[1:13:15] Speaker 1: them down and explain what happened. I just did one
[1:13:18] Speaker 1: about Instagram to let you know how they hack your
[1:13:21] Speaker 1: account there, and so it's just information that's useful. Now
[1:13:25] Speaker 1: I've got three notes on that topic. One from Microsoft.
[1:13:29] Speaker 1: They say that AI powered fraud is really taking off.
[1:13:34] Speaker 1: They said they stopped four billion dollars in fraud attempts
[1:13:38] Speaker 1: last year and get this, one point six million bots
[1:13:42] Speaker 1: sign up attempts per hour, So they have one point
[1:13:45] Speaker 1: six million bots are trying to sign up for Microsoft
[1:13:48] Speaker 1: services every single hour of every day. That is insane.
[1:13:52] Speaker 1: That's what we're up against here. AI powered scams are
[1:13:56] Speaker 1: making scams easier to create.
[1:13:59] Speaker 2: Criminals are using.
[1:14:00] Speaker 1: Tools like deep fakes, fake storefronts, and chatbot based fraud
[1:14:04] Speaker 1: to deceive people. So here are the places that are
[1:14:07] Speaker 1: growing fastest. E Commerce scammers use AI to clone real websites.
[1:14:11] Speaker 1: They include fake reviews, chatbots, customer service you buy something
[1:14:14] Speaker 1: from their game, over job listings. AI generated job scams
[1:14:19] Speaker 1: now include even fake interviews and profiles. So not only
[1:14:23] Speaker 1: are they trying to lure you in, but they're also
[1:14:24] Speaker 1: applying for jobs in a fake way.
[1:14:27] Speaker 2: Maybe I don't know, maybe that's not true.
[1:14:28] Speaker 1: I mean I know they were, but that's a much
[1:14:31] Speaker 1: larger scam. But most of them are trying to get
[1:14:33] Speaker 1: you tech support scams. This has been going on forever.
[1:14:37] Speaker 1: They impersonate IT staff and they trick you into granting
[1:14:40] Speaker 1: access to your computer via remote access tools like Windows
[1:14:44] Speaker 1: quick Assist, which is built into Microsoft Windows.
[1:14:47] Speaker 2: So what are they doing.
[1:14:48] Speaker 1: They are fighting back with various scareware blocker tools, fake
[1:14:53] Speaker 1: job detection tools, deep learning fraud protection, and they're also
[1:14:56] Speaker 1: blocking forty four hundred suspicious Quick Assist connections per day.
[1:15:00] Speaker 1: So when they say, hi, we're tech support, we just
[1:15:02] Speaker 1: need to connect to your computer here do this. If
[1:15:05] Speaker 1: it looks like it's coming from some sort of server
[1:15:08] Speaker 1: farm in another country, they're going to block those connections,
[1:15:11] Speaker 1: So be careful. Anything that looks too good to be
[1:15:14] Speaker 1: true it usually isfy. Verify anyone that you are giving
[1:15:18] Speaker 1: your personal information to and never click those links and
[1:15:22] Speaker 1: share your bank account or personal information. And if you
[1:15:25] Speaker 1: have a scam from Microsoft, you can go to Microsoft
[1:15:27] Speaker 1: dot com slash report a scam Now, Google let's see
[1:15:32] Speaker 1: this is. Developer Nick Johnson posted details on x about
[1:15:36] Speaker 1: this sophisticated phishing scam he came up against the email.
[1:15:40] Speaker 1: This is the twist here. You know, I always tell
[1:15:42] Speaker 1: you to check the email address that you know, let's
[1:15:44] Speaker 1: say Google saying hey, your account's going away, sign here
[1:15:48] Speaker 1: or do something here. Well, if you look at the
[1:15:49] Speaker 1: email address and it's usually something like Google Tech support
[1:15:53] Speaker 1: at gmail dot com or something, it's like, come on,
[1:15:55] Speaker 1: give me a break. That's not the real email address
[1:15:56] Speaker 1: that Google's sending things from. But here's the twist. Now
[1:16:00] Speaker 1: they've gotten so sophisticated. They are actually sending these emails
[1:16:04] Speaker 1: from an actual Google account. So it says no reply
[1:16:08] Speaker 1: at accounts dot Google dot com. How did they do that? Well,
[1:16:11] Speaker 1: it gets very complicated, but basically, the attackers figured out
[1:16:14] Speaker 1: a little hack in Google system to let them send
[1:16:18] Speaker 1: They tricked Gmail into signing that email as legitimate. And
[1:16:23] Speaker 1: it's kind of a complicated process. But if it's your
[1:16:25] Speaker 1: full time job to do this stuff, that's what you're
[1:16:27] Speaker 1: figuring out. So now we have to worry about Okay,
[1:16:30] Speaker 1: these emails look real? Are they real? So the now
[1:16:33] Speaker 1: the thing you have to do is double check the URL,
[1:16:35] Speaker 1: So if the email is claiming to be from Google,
[1:16:38] Speaker 1: make sure you double check the URL. Do not enter
[1:16:40] Speaker 1: info on a support page unless your shirt's the real thing.
[1:16:44] Speaker 1: But basically, if you click this link, it takes you
[1:16:46] Speaker 1: to a fake support page on Google Sites, which then
[1:16:49] Speaker 1: redirects to a fake Google sign in page. So always
[1:16:52] Speaker 1: always always check the URL before you put in any information. Again,
[1:16:56] Speaker 1: this is the thing we're up against, these scammers that
[1:16:59] Speaker 1: are working twenty four to seven to make these things
[1:17:02] Speaker 1: look more real and to trick us. And that's what
[1:17:04] Speaker 1: it really comes down to. We're just tricked. We're tricked
[1:17:07] Speaker 1: into signing into something that we think is real and
[1:17:09] Speaker 1: it's not. And by the time you realize it isn't,
[1:17:11] Speaker 1: they've already taken action and hacked you. Third one, FBI
[1:17:17] Speaker 1: warning of a new scam where scammers are impersonating employees
[1:17:22] Speaker 1: from the Internet Crime Complaint Center. They call it the
[1:17:24] Speaker 1: IC three. So this is where people go to report
[1:17:27] Speaker 1: scams that they've been a part of or lost money in.
[1:17:31] Speaker 1: And this scheme targets people who actually lost money in
[1:17:34] Speaker 1: previous scams, so they offer help to help you recover
[1:17:38] Speaker 1: these funds. They contact victims through email, phone, social media,
[1:17:42] Speaker 1: and even forms. One tactic they use is they fake
[1:17:46] Speaker 1: profiles to gain trust in online support groups. So if
[1:17:49] Speaker 1: you're on some sort of like Facebook page or group
[1:17:52] Speaker 1: talking about what happened to you, they come in and say, hey,
[1:17:54] Speaker 1: we can help. I'm sorry, We'll help you recover this money,
[1:17:57] Speaker 1: and then, guess what, You're led down the path where
[1:17:59] Speaker 1: they're just gonna get your financial info and steal even
[1:18:02] Speaker 1: more from you. So please do not fall for this.
[1:18:05] Speaker 1: The IC three says it never contacts victims directly through
[1:18:08] Speaker 1: social media, email, or messaging apps. They don't charge to
[1:18:11] Speaker 1: help you recover funds, and don't send money, gift cards
[1:18:14] Speaker 1: or crypto to someone you met online. Seems like a
[1:18:17] Speaker 1: pretty like basic thing, right, But you'd be surprised. I mean, look,
[1:18:21] Speaker 1: they don't have those signs at Target by the gift
[1:18:24] Speaker 1: cards for no reason. Every gift card I purchased now
[1:18:26] Speaker 1: it's like, hey, you're not. Like the last time I
[1:18:28] Speaker 1: got one was like a verbal yes. I had to
[1:18:30] Speaker 1: say that I was not sending this to someone on
[1:18:32] Speaker 1: the internet. I couldn't believe it. It was like, does
[1:18:35] Speaker 1: my eleven year old grandson in Idaho count as sending
[1:18:40] Speaker 1: to someone on the internet.
[1:18:41] Speaker 2: No, I think that's okay. You can do that.
[1:18:43] Speaker 1: But if it's somebody you haven't met, if it's your
[1:18:45] Speaker 1: long lost grandson that you've never met before, that's appealing
[1:18:48] Speaker 1: to you. For this iTunes gift card no. Ic three
[1:18:51] Speaker 1: dot gov is where you can report suspicious activity. Oh
[1:18:54] Speaker 1: my gosh, man, that's what we're up against here. Let's
[1:18:58] Speaker 1: go to Craig in Los Angele list. Craig, you're on
[1:19:00] Speaker 1: with Rich Welcome to the show.
[1:19:03] Speaker 13: I'd be going on a bit.
[1:19:05] Speaker 2: I'm doing it all.
[1:19:07] Speaker 13: I'm going to La. Well, I'm in La. I'm going
[1:19:12] Speaker 13: to joun the Tree, and I'm going up in the mountains.
[1:19:16] Speaker 13: Now there the I don't know the website. Well, you
[1:19:20] Speaker 13: don't have cell towers?
[1:19:23] Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, Joshua Tree, Yep.
[1:19:26] Speaker 13: That's stunding on the iPhone. We that have a high
[1:19:29] Speaker 13: sixteen plus. What did that happen and what is it for?
[1:19:35] Speaker 2: Okay?
[1:19:35] Speaker 1: So you're you're talking about staying in touch with satellite messaging.
[1:19:39] Speaker 2: That's what I'm hearing here, right, I guess. Yeah.
[1:19:45] Speaker 1: So if you are in a section of an area
[1:19:49] Speaker 1: that does not have cellular service, almost all of the
[1:19:53] Speaker 1: major new smartphones we're talking the Pixel nine series. Uh,
[1:19:57] Speaker 1: the iPhone they've had this actually since the iPhone fourteen
[1:20:01] Speaker 1: I believe, and then the Samsung is the latest S
[1:20:04] Speaker 1: twenty five has this. The S twenty five series, they
[1:20:06] Speaker 1: all have built in support for satellite messaging. So this
[1:20:10] Speaker 1: started on the iPhone with just emergency messages. And so
[1:20:15] Speaker 1: if you want to try this out, Craig, go into
[1:20:18] Speaker 1: your settings on the iPhone, scroll down to Emergency SOS
[1:20:24] Speaker 1: and then scroll all the way down to where it
[1:20:27] Speaker 1: says emergency SOS via satellite and it says try demo,
[1:20:31] Speaker 1: and so you can try a demo of what this
[1:20:34] Speaker 1: would work or how this would work if you actually
[1:20:37] Speaker 1: needed it. Now with now there might be a different place.
[1:20:41] Speaker 1: Let me just see, because they actually expanded this. So
[1:20:43] Speaker 1: it started out as just for emergencies, and now it's
[1:20:46] Speaker 1: actually encompassing. You can use satellite on the iPhone just
[1:20:50] Speaker 1: to text message people and share your location with folks.
[1:20:54] Speaker 1: So let me see if I can find that satellite.
[1:20:57] Speaker 1: Oh okay, surprising, I can't find it on the US.
[1:21:01] Speaker 1: But anyway, if you go into this does kick in
[1:21:05] Speaker 1: automatically if you are in an area that does not
[1:21:08] Speaker 1: have a cellular connection. You will notice in the upper
[1:21:10] Speaker 1: right hand corner of your phone it will have a
[1:21:13] Speaker 1: little icon of a satellite. Now, there is some confusion
[1:21:17] Speaker 1: because when this first came out, people were thinking when
[1:21:19] Speaker 1: it said SOS in their upper right hand corner, that
[1:21:22] Speaker 1: meant they had access to satellite. That does not mean
[1:21:25] Speaker 1: you have access to satellite. It's only when you see
[1:21:27] Speaker 1: the satellite icon. So again, you can go into your
[1:21:31] Speaker 1: settings and look for under emergency and SOS satellite and
[1:21:36] Speaker 1: you can do a demo of how to work and
[1:21:37] Speaker 1: that'll kick in automatically. Now, if you're on the Samsung,
[1:21:41] Speaker 1: they let the carriers handle this. So on Samsung you
[1:21:44] Speaker 1: can go into your connections and see under your plan
[1:21:47] Speaker 1: if it has satellite connectivity. So, for instance, Mine sets
[1:21:51] Speaker 1: satellite networks Verizon included with your account. You're subscribed, and
[1:21:55] Speaker 1: so I can send text messages via satellite when a
[1:21:58] Speaker 1: mobile network is not available. Mobile also has that functionality
[1:22:01] Speaker 1: at and T has that functionality with certain respects. I
[1:22:05] Speaker 1: think they're rolling it out. I'm not sure everyone has access.
[1:22:08] Speaker 1: Starlink obviously is another way to get that through T Mobile,
[1:22:11] Speaker 1: and then on the Pixel they have the satellite messaging
[1:22:14] Speaker 1: as well. For emergencies. So it's a little bit different
[1:22:17] Speaker 1: depending on the carrier. But here's the thing I've realized
[1:22:20] Speaker 1: with these mv and os, you know, these mobile virtual
[1:22:22] Speaker 1: network operators that people are saving a lot of money on,
[1:22:25] Speaker 1: they so far have not announced support for this satellite
[1:22:28] Speaker 1: messaging or satellite help, and so I think that's going
[1:22:31] Speaker 1: to be a big differentiator in the future for your plan,
[1:22:35] Speaker 1: because if you're saving a lot of money, you may
[1:22:37] Speaker 1: not have access to that. I don't know how they're
[1:22:38] Speaker 1: going to handle it, because so far I haven't seen
[1:22:40] Speaker 1: one say hey, we're going to add this to our plan.
[1:22:42] Speaker 1: But if you're on one of the big carriers, the
[1:22:44] Speaker 1: big plans, or you're on an iPhone, no matter what
[1:22:46] Speaker 1: plan you're on, you do have access to that satellite
[1:22:49] Speaker 1: messaging as long as you have a recent iPhone. All right,
[1:22:53] Speaker 1: coming up, we will take more of your calls at
[1:22:55] Speaker 1: eight eight eight rich one oh one eight eight eight
[1:22:57] Speaker 1: seven four to two four one zero one. Plus we'll
[1:23:00] Speaker 1: hear from you on some of your emails. Right here,
[1:23:02] Speaker 1: I'm rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech.
[1:23:05] Speaker 1: Rich Demiro here hanging out with you talking technology. The
[1:23:09] Speaker 1: website for the show Rich on tech dot TV. I
[1:23:13] Speaker 1: take very good notes. Everything that is mentioned on the
[1:23:17] Speaker 1: show is listed there. So if I mentioned, you know,
[1:23:20] Speaker 1: a solution to a problem, or a website or some
[1:23:23] Speaker 1: sort of link to something, it is all there. Craig
[1:23:26] Speaker 1: was asking about satellite messaging on the iPhone, the demo.
[1:23:31] Speaker 1: If you want to try it, just open the Settings app,
[1:23:33] Speaker 1: go to Apps and then messages and tap satellite connection
[1:23:36] Speaker 1: demo if you want to try that, and so, and
[1:23:39] Speaker 1: then Kim was asking, Hey, is this free? And so
[1:23:42] Speaker 1: it's interesting because when the iPhone first came out, this
[1:23:45] Speaker 1: came out on iPhone fourteen, and they originally said that
[1:23:49] Speaker 1: this was going to be free for two years, and
[1:23:52] Speaker 1: then at the end of I guess maybe a year
[1:23:54] Speaker 1: or so, they said, we're actually going to extend it
[1:23:56] Speaker 1: by another year. So, so far Apple has not charged
[1:24:00] Speaker 1: for any of this satellite messaging on their iPhone. But
[1:24:02] Speaker 1: I think they're in a very tricky situation. They've invested
[1:24:05] Speaker 1: a lot of money in the company that they are
[1:24:08] Speaker 1: partnering with, Global Star, and so they want to recoup
[1:24:12] Speaker 1: some of this. But at this point it's kind of
[1:24:13] Speaker 1: getting tougher and tougher to charge because a lot of
[1:24:16] Speaker 1: these companies, the cellular companies are building it into their plans,
[1:24:21] Speaker 1: and so it's kind of like, who's going to pay
[1:24:23] Speaker 1: an extra fifteen twenty dollars a month. That's how much
[1:24:26] Speaker 1: T Mobile wants for non subscribers if they just want
[1:24:30] Speaker 1: to add Starlink satellite messaging to their phone. I think
[1:24:32] Speaker 1: it's fifteen or twenty dollars a month. So we're going
[1:24:35] Speaker 1: to see this is going to be interesting because in
[1:24:37] Speaker 1: the future, we're going to be connected no matter where
[1:24:39] Speaker 1: we are, and eventually the satellite's going to get so
[1:24:41] Speaker 1: good that you'll have satellite calling as well and even
[1:24:44] Speaker 1: satellite data, so it continues to get better. So Verizon
[1:24:50] Speaker 1: has satellite messaging on the Galaxy S twenty five series.
[1:24:53] Speaker 1: It's currently free on the Pixel. Google said it's going
[1:24:57] Speaker 1: to be free for two years on the Pixel nine
[1:24:59] Speaker 1: and later models, but they haven't said how much it's
[1:25:01] Speaker 1: going to cost after that. So again it's really kind
[1:25:04] Speaker 1: of this new uncharted territory where nobody wants to make
[1:25:07] Speaker 1: the first move because if it's going to cost ten
[1:25:10] Speaker 1: dollars a month for this carrier, but Verizon's offering it
[1:25:13] Speaker 1: for free, now you might jump to Verizon so, but
[1:25:16] Speaker 1: at the end of the day, it's a great thing
[1:25:18] Speaker 1: that we have this. It has already saved lives and
[1:25:21] Speaker 1: keeps people connected, especially in places like national parks and
[1:25:25] Speaker 1: wherever else you may may not have a signal anymore.
[1:25:28] Speaker 1: Robert writes in on the website, Hey, Rich, I'm hoping
[1:25:31] Speaker 1: you can steer me in the right direction. I'm looking
[1:25:33] Speaker 1: for an Android app that's free for faxing documents and
[1:25:36] Speaker 1: hip a compliant. Thanks Robert, Robert, I had to do
[1:25:40] Speaker 1: some research on this one because you know, here's the deal.
[1:25:44] Speaker 1: When you're looking for something like a free fax, yeah,
[1:25:46] Speaker 1: no problem. Those are easy to find. There's a lot
[1:25:48] Speaker 1: of apps out there that can offer you a free
[1:25:50] Speaker 1: fact But when you're looking for something like a premium
[1:25:53] Speaker 1: feature like hip a compliancy, that is something that the
[1:25:56] Speaker 1: app has to go the extra mile to do, and
[1:25:59] Speaker 1: most of the time that kind of stuff is not
[1:26:01] Speaker 1: going to necessarily be free. But I think the best
[1:26:03] Speaker 1: option to look for to start is facts dot plus.
[1:26:08] Speaker 1: So facts dot plus they do have paid plans, but
[1:26:10] Speaker 1: they have a free plan that lets you send up
[1:26:12] Speaker 1: to ten pages, and then they have Hippo compliant plans.
[1:26:16] Speaker 1: I'm not sure if the free tier is Hippo compliant,
[1:26:19] Speaker 1: but I would guess you're using maybe the same sort
[1:26:21] Speaker 1: of technology, so that's the first place to look. There's
[1:26:26] Speaker 1: another website called I Facts, which lets you send a
[1:26:29] Speaker 1: fact for free through their website. The paid service, once
[1:26:32] Speaker 1: again is Hippo compliant. They don't mention on the free service.
[1:26:35] Speaker 1: If that's Hippo compliant. Then there's HP Mobile Facts. So
[1:26:39] Speaker 1: this is an app that you can download to your phone.
[1:26:43] Speaker 1: It is free and according to their website, it says
[1:26:45] Speaker 1: it does support hip hop compliant transmissions. So HP Mobile
[1:26:49] Speaker 1: Facts that actually came with my printer when I installed
[1:26:52] Speaker 1: my printer app that was part of it. The HP
[1:26:54] Speaker 1: Mobile Facts was like built into the printer. So that's
[1:26:57] Speaker 1: another app that you can download, and my favorite fact
[1:27:00] Speaker 1: service in general. I've not used this in a while
[1:27:03] Speaker 1: because it's been a while since I had to. You know,
[1:27:05] Speaker 1: most people have switched to just scanning documents and DocuSign
[1:27:08] Speaker 1: and all that stuff. But it used to be called
[1:27:11] Speaker 1: Hello Facts and now it's called Dropbox Facts. So Dropbox
[1:27:14] Speaker 1: purchased Hellofax. They built it into their service and you
[1:27:18] Speaker 1: can use that as well. They offer a free few
[1:27:21] Speaker 1: faxes to get started, but otherwise you will have to
[1:27:24] Speaker 1: pay for that. I was using Hellofacts for a while,
[1:27:26] Speaker 1: signing a lot of stuff and never really ran into
[1:27:29] Speaker 1: a price ride to pay, And if I did, I
[1:27:31] Speaker 1: think it was like ninety nine cents or something. But anyway,
[1:27:34] Speaker 1: those are the places to look, investigate, see which one
[1:27:36] Speaker 1: works best for you. But I guarantee if you email
[1:27:39] Speaker 1: the doctor's office or whoever you're sending this to, they'll
[1:27:42] Speaker 1: probably just accept a scan in an email. Trish writes
[1:27:46] Speaker 1: in I love your show all the good info. I
[1:27:47] Speaker 1: work in a management office of a mobile home park.
[1:27:49] Speaker 1: Once in a while we need to notify residents, about
[1:27:52] Speaker 1: two hundred of them via text. I'm an Apple person,
[1:27:55] Speaker 1: and I'm wondering if there's a way to send a
[1:27:56] Speaker 1: mass text without everyone seeing everyone else's info or replies.
[1:28:00] Speaker 1: Looks like iPhone messages can't do this. I don't mind
[1:28:02] Speaker 1: paying a small fee for it. So again, you're right,
[1:28:07] Speaker 1: I message does not do this. You can send a
[1:28:09] Speaker 1: group text, but you probably don't want to do that
[1:28:11] Speaker 1: for this sort of mass communication. So you probably want
[1:28:14] Speaker 1: to use a service that is paid, because texting is
[1:28:18] Speaker 1: one of those things that if it's not paid, it's
[1:28:20] Speaker 1: probably going to be abuse. So most of the texting
[1:28:22] Speaker 1: services are paid, so I would check out Simple Texting.
[1:28:26] Speaker 2: That is the one that I identified.
[1:28:29] Speaker 1: Seems like it works the best, It does exactly what
[1:28:31] Speaker 1: you need, and it's pretty much geared towards solutions like yours.
[1:28:35] Speaker 1: To check it out Simple Texting. The alternative is textedly.
[1:28:40] Speaker 2: All Right.
[1:28:40] Speaker 1: Coming up, we're gonna talk about breaking free of the
[1:28:44] Speaker 1: stranglehold of your smartphone on rich on Tech. Welcome back
[1:28:49] Speaker 1: to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you,
[1:28:51] Speaker 1: talking technology the website for the show rich on Tech
[1:28:56] Speaker 1: dot TV. Thanks for hanging out with me and talk
[1:29:00] Speaker 1: about how great tech is. But sometimes it can be
[1:29:03] Speaker 1: kind of mind numbing. And if you've been on vacation,
[1:29:06] Speaker 1: or in a high school, or around pretty much any
[1:29:09] Speaker 1: human being in this world, there are a lot of
[1:29:11] Speaker 1: folks who are just sort of addicted and using their
[1:29:15] Speaker 1: phone a lot. And I'm not saying I'm perfect, believe me,
[1:29:18] Speaker 1: because I think that this stuff really challenges all of us.
[1:29:21] Speaker 1: And I think the main part of it is that
[1:29:24] Speaker 1: our phones are so useful that we want to have
[1:29:27] Speaker 1: them twenty four to seven. But we also do a
[1:29:30] Speaker 1: lot of mindless stuff on them. So joining me now
[1:29:32] Speaker 1: is Menka Sang, the author of your Best Digital Life,
[1:29:37] Speaker 1: Use your Mind to Tame your Tech. Thanks for joining me,
[1:29:42] Speaker 1: Hi Rich Pleasure to be online. Yeah, So tell me
[1:29:45] Speaker 1: about the problem we face in our world with technology.
[1:29:52] Speaker 10: You know, I think a lot of people think that
[1:29:54] Speaker 10: it's just that we're spending too much time on our phones,
[1:29:57] Speaker 10: but it's so much deeper than that. It's the way
[1:29:59] Speaker 10: that it it affects our attention and because of that,
[1:30:03] Speaker 10: the way that it affects our well being, our productivity,
[1:30:07] Speaker 10: and our relationships with each other. And it's the fact
[1:30:12] Speaker 10: that we always have them in our pockets, so they're
[1:30:14] Speaker 10: always accessible to us. It's constantly interrupting us like a
[1:30:17] Speaker 10: kind of a metronome throughout the day. I think that
[1:30:20] Speaker 10: the latest studies show that we know we're touching our
[1:30:23] Speaker 10: phones every four minutes or so, and it adds up
[1:30:26] Speaker 10: to a lot like thirty percent of our waking life.
[1:30:29] Speaker 2: Basically, that's wild.
[1:30:32] Speaker 1: And so I'm a big fan. You know, I have
[1:30:34] Speaker 1: an Apple Watch, I've got an iPhone, and I'm a
[1:30:36] Speaker 1: big fan of when I get a notification from an
[1:30:39] Speaker 1: app on my especially on my watch, that I do
[1:30:42] Speaker 1: not need. I immediately take action and I swipe and
[1:30:45] Speaker 1: get rid of not only the notification, but say no
[1:30:48] Speaker 1: more notifications from this app, because I call them notification abusers, right,
[1:30:52] Speaker 1: Like some of these apps that just they take our
[1:30:55] Speaker 1: time and it's like these nonsense things that they're sending me, like, hey,
[1:30:58] Speaker 1: have you thought of ordering doors today? It's like, no, no,
[1:31:01] Speaker 1: I don't need you. Like I will when I'm hungry,
[1:31:03] Speaker 1: I will decide when I want to order door dash.
[1:31:06] Speaker 1: But these phones are not going away. And so what
[1:31:09] Speaker 1: do you think is the solution here? What does your
[1:31:12] Speaker 1: book kind of delve into?
[1:31:16] Speaker 10: So I think that at the end of the day,
[1:31:18] Speaker 10: digital tech is an extension of our minds, and so
[1:31:23] Speaker 10: our relationship with technology can only ever be as good
[1:31:26] Speaker 10: as our relationship with our own minds. And so the
[1:31:29] Speaker 10: book is really a deep dive into mindfulness, neuroscience, behavioral change,
[1:31:36] Speaker 10: trying to get people to understand that that actually it's
[1:31:39] Speaker 10: one and the same thing. And so I'll give you
[1:31:43] Speaker 10: an example. You know, if you have a little a
[1:31:46] Speaker 10: notepad with you and you make a note of every
[1:31:49] Speaker 10: time you sort of unconsciously pick up your phone or
[1:31:54] Speaker 10: turn to your device and then write down exactly what
[1:31:58] Speaker 10: you're feeling just before you did that. It's usually some
[1:32:02] Speaker 10: sort of discomfort, you know, whether it's boredom or being stuck,
[1:32:07] Speaker 10: frustrated with your work, or it's something that you just
[1:32:10] Speaker 10: don't want to be feeling. And so unless you apply
[1:32:14] Speaker 10: mindfulness to that feeling and try to get to the
[1:32:16] Speaker 10: bottom of that, we're always going to be turning to
[1:32:19] Speaker 10: our phones.
[1:32:19] Speaker 12: You know, that's the easiest solution.
[1:32:22] Speaker 1: So that's interesting because I notice a lot that people
[1:32:25] Speaker 1: will pull out their phones in sort of social situations
[1:32:28] Speaker 1: where they may not want to engage. Does that apply there,
[1:32:30] Speaker 1: Like if you're you know, if you're in a Starbucks line,
[1:32:33] Speaker 1: or you are at a cocktail party and you don't
[1:32:36] Speaker 1: have someone to talk to at that moment, people kind
[1:32:38] Speaker 1: of turn to their phones to take up the time.
[1:32:41] Speaker 2: Is that what you're talking about?
[1:32:43] Speaker 12: Totally?
[1:32:43] Speaker 10: I mean, that's that's a perfect example, because in a
[1:32:46] Speaker 10: situation where you're feeling a little bit uncomfortable, and come on,
[1:32:49] Speaker 10: we all know relationships are uncomfortable.
[1:32:51] Speaker 12: That's like part and parcel of.
[1:32:54] Speaker 10: Being human and communicating with each other is that there's
[1:32:57] Speaker 10: going to be awkwardness, there's going to be misunderstandings. You
[1:33:00] Speaker 10: know that people don't speak with subtitles yet anyways, and
[1:33:04] Speaker 10: so the idea is that it's more convenient to turn
[1:33:09] Speaker 10: to our phones and now with with you know, AI
[1:33:13] Speaker 10: personalized companions, people are preferring to talk to their bots
[1:33:19] Speaker 10: then to talk to their friends and family because they're
[1:33:24] Speaker 10: very empathetic.
[1:33:25] Speaker 12: Now AI bots and just that much more seamless.
[1:33:29] Speaker 10: So you know when you say people are already turning
[1:33:32] Speaker 10: to their phones when they're in a social situation and
[1:33:35] Speaker 10: it's getting a bit awkward, that's just going to get
[1:33:38] Speaker 10: worse and worse. And we're slowly going to start losing
[1:33:41] Speaker 10: the skills to be able to have those relationships and
[1:33:44] Speaker 10: deal with the challenging aspect of relationships.
[1:33:47] Speaker 1: Now, I don't want to call out the younger generation
[1:33:50] Speaker 1: because look, I mean, I think adults are affected by this,
[1:33:52] Speaker 1: but we have grown up and we actually matured having
[1:33:57] Speaker 1: to do these things for ourselves, whereas our kids don't,
[1:34:00] Speaker 1: like they're growing up in this always on demand kind
[1:34:03] Speaker 1: of Like you said, asking chat Gibt, I made a
[1:34:06] Speaker 1: joke earlier in the show that I asked chat Gibt
[1:34:08] Speaker 1: before I make any decision. I mean, people are doing this,
[1:34:11] Speaker 1: like I joked, but it's actually happening. Like people are
[1:34:13] Speaker 1: using it as a therapist, they're using it as a companion,
[1:34:16] Speaker 1: they're using it to just chat back and forth. And
[1:34:19] Speaker 1: I always make the statement that, imagine, right now this
[1:34:22] Speaker 1: is just on our computers. When it's embodied in sort
[1:34:26] Speaker 1: of a robot that is rolling around our house or
[1:34:29] Speaker 1: sort of a companion, I mean, it's just going to
[1:34:32] Speaker 1: get worse, Like people are humans are just we're not
[1:34:34] Speaker 1: long for this world, are we.
[1:34:37] Speaker 12: Yeah?
[1:34:38] Speaker 10: Yeah, no, I completely get it. We don't want to say, well,
[1:34:45] Speaker 10: you know, young people are getting it all wrong. I
[1:34:48] Speaker 10: actually want to make make an interesting kind of point
[1:34:52] Speaker 10: about digital detoxes, which is that a lot of young
[1:34:57] Speaker 10: people are using tech in a really skillful way. And
[1:35:04] Speaker 10: it's the nuance is when they get really clear about
[1:35:08] Speaker 10: what they want to get out of that relationship with
[1:35:12] Speaker 10: their tech and they start customizing it, they start getting
[1:35:15] Speaker 10: into the settings and experimenting with it, that's when it
[1:35:20] Speaker 10: gets interesting. That's when you can really start using it
[1:35:23] Speaker 10: like a tool, you know, which is what.
[1:35:25] Speaker 12: It meant to be.
[1:35:25] Speaker 1: Like this is my phone, I'm in control. Here's what
[1:35:29] Speaker 1: I want it to do. Like, for instance, my phone
[1:35:30] Speaker 1: right now has a focus mode that I've created called
[1:35:34] Speaker 1: reduce Interruptions, and on the weekends it flips into that
[1:35:37] Speaker 1: mode and nobody can text me except maybe one or
[1:35:41] Speaker 1: two people like it doesn't break through that reduce interruptions.
[1:35:45] Speaker 1: And so what happens is at the end of the
[1:35:47] Speaker 1: day or something like, I will look at my phone
[1:35:49] Speaker 1: and be like, oh, here's a bunch of notifications that
[1:35:51] Speaker 1: I didn't need at the moment, and I'm in control,
[1:35:54] Speaker 1: and so does that What it comes down to is
[1:35:55] Speaker 1: like kind of you say, tame your tech, use your
[1:35:58] Speaker 1: mind to tame your tech.
[1:35:59] Speaker 2: Is that?
[1:36:00] Speaker 1: Is that what we need to do is come up
[1:36:01] Speaker 1: with these ways of kind of we're in charge exactly exactly.
[1:36:07] Speaker 10: It's like almost like becoming a power user or a
[1:36:09] Speaker 10: tech connoisseur, you know. I think the key message, if
[1:36:12] Speaker 10: I was going to say one thing, is not to
[1:36:15] Speaker 10: use tech in a passive, default, automated way. And research
[1:36:20] Speaker 10: shows that hardly anyone ever changes the default settings of
[1:36:23] Speaker 10: an app.
[1:36:25] Speaker 12: And that's shocking, isn't it. But it's just we open it,
[1:36:29] Speaker 12: we start using it.
[1:36:30] Speaker 10: And the opposite of that is to think, well, this
[1:36:33] Speaker 10: is a tool, what do I want to use it for,
[1:36:35] Speaker 10: What time of the day do.
[1:36:36] Speaker 12: I want to use it for? And how can I
[1:36:39] Speaker 12: really make it work for me?
[1:36:41] Speaker 10: And knowing that your best digital life is going to
[1:36:43] Speaker 10: be very different from everyone else's.
[1:36:46] Speaker 1: And so what's the takeaway from the book? What will
[1:36:48] Speaker 1: people learn in your best digital life?
[1:36:53] Speaker 10: To We have a method called more, which I really
[1:36:59] Speaker 10: love because it's really practical. It's about not letting any
[1:37:03] Speaker 10: digital well being expert like me or anyone else tell
[1:37:05] Speaker 10: you what to do with your tech, but develop your
[1:37:08] Speaker 10: own strategy. And to do that you need to start experimenting, so,
[1:37:13] Speaker 10: you know, figure out why your values, your goals, observe yourself,
[1:37:17] Speaker 10: not the aspirational version of yourself, but the real you
[1:37:21] Speaker 10: reflect on that, figure out how it's impacting your well being,
[1:37:25] Speaker 10: your productivity, your relationships, and then test things out like
[1:37:29] Speaker 10: small things, changes, microadjustments, beats, you know, grand big gestures
[1:37:35] Speaker 10: any day, and then customize your experience, you know.
[1:37:39] Speaker 12: So that's what the book is about.
[1:37:42] Speaker 10: And we are kind of trying to approach this with
[1:37:47] Speaker 10: this kind of positive spirit because I think tech is
[1:37:49] Speaker 10: really exciting, especially right now, and so just because it's overwhelming,
[1:37:55] Speaker 10: we kind of check out of it and an alternative
[1:37:58] Speaker 10: approach is to lean into it and to figure out
[1:38:02] Speaker 10: how to make it work for us.
[1:38:03] Speaker 2: Oh that's so true.
[1:38:04] Speaker 1: I hear from so many people that just say, Rich,
[1:38:08] Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't understand this. And I call
[1:38:10] Speaker 1: it like laying you know, you just you just turn
[1:38:12] Speaker 1: over and lay down. It's like you just I don't
[1:38:14] Speaker 1: I don't understand this.
[1:38:15] Speaker 2: I give up.
[1:38:16] Speaker 1: It's like, no, let's figure this out and figure it
[1:38:19] Speaker 1: out for you. Because, by the way, these are tools
[1:38:21] Speaker 1: built for us, and so we are ultimately in control
[1:38:24] Speaker 1: of them.
[1:38:25] Speaker 2: And I get it.
[1:38:25] Speaker 1: It's overwhelming and people think they're gonna break something, or
[1:38:28] Speaker 1: they're you know, not going to get a phone call
[1:38:30] Speaker 1: or going to flip their phone into some mode that
[1:38:32] Speaker 1: ruins it. But at the end of the day, go
[1:38:34] Speaker 1: through the settings on these apps and really engineer them
[1:38:37] Speaker 1: for you.
[1:38:38] Speaker 2: Real quick before we go.
[1:38:39] Speaker 1: Uh, if you wake up every day you reach for
[1:38:42] Speaker 1: your phone, what's one tiny change you can make on
[1:38:45] Speaker 1: that note starting immediately.
[1:38:48] Speaker 10: It is a perfect example of what we're talking about,
[1:38:50] Speaker 10: because that's the cliche of a bad digital habit. You know,
[1:38:56] Speaker 10: for one person like me, I have a rule not
[1:38:58] Speaker 10: to check my phone until I've dropped my son to
[1:39:00] Speaker 10: school and I'm at my desk and that keeps my
[1:39:04] Speaker 10: mind free for you know, enjoying my breakfast and singing
[1:39:07] Speaker 10: more on the songs on the school run, right, But
[1:39:09] Speaker 10: for someone else it's important to wake up and actually
[1:39:13] Speaker 10: check in on family and friends abroad to check that
[1:39:15] Speaker 10: they're alive and healthy. That's really important and what a
[1:39:18] Speaker 10: magical thing to be able to actually do that, and
[1:39:20] Speaker 10: that's a great digital habit for them, you know.
[1:39:22] Speaker 12: And so having said that, if you do conclude that you.
[1:39:26] Speaker 10: Don't want to reach for your phone, the first thing, easiest,
[1:39:29] Speaker 10: best thing to do is just keep your phone out
[1:39:31] Speaker 10: of the bedroom or if you can't do that, away
[1:39:34] Speaker 10: inside a drawer that you can't reach, and have an
[1:39:37] Speaker 10: alarm clock instead right next to your bed. And also
[1:39:40] Speaker 10: think about the second time you reach for your phone.
[1:39:42] Speaker 10: A lot of people make this mistake. Just put an
[1:39:44] Speaker 10: alarm clock, your phone's out of the way, but then
[1:39:46] Speaker 10: ten minutes in the bathroom they're using the phone, you know.
[1:39:49] Speaker 10: And so for me living in London, the second thing
[1:39:52] Speaker 10: I usually want to do is check the weather, so
[1:39:54] Speaker 10: unpredictable for other people as a traffic update, So think
[1:39:58] Speaker 10: about how you can get the information you need in
[1:40:00] Speaker 10: the morning without having to expose yourself to the everythingness
[1:40:04] Speaker 10: of the phone.
[1:40:04] Speaker 12: You know, all the messages or the updates.
[1:40:07] Speaker 10: Maybe the answer is an AI voice assistant like Alexa Siri.
[1:40:10] Speaker 10: It's not necessarily anti tech. It's just selecting your tools
[1:40:14] Speaker 10: using them wisely.
[1:40:15] Speaker 2: Excellent advice.
[1:40:16] Speaker 1: We're gonna leave it there, Amenka saying VI, thanks so
[1:40:19] Speaker 1: much for joining me. Author of Your Best Digital Life,
[1:40:22] Speaker 1: Use Your Mind to Tame Your Tech, available now right
[1:40:25] Speaker 1: on Amazon.
[1:40:26] Speaker 12: Indeed, yeah, get the book. I think you like him.
[1:40:28] Speaker 2: Congrats on the book launch.
[1:40:30] Speaker 1: Very exciting again, your Best Digital Life, Use your Mind
[1:40:33] Speaker 1: to Tame Your Tech. I will link it up on
[1:40:35] Speaker 1: my website. Rich on Tech dot TV. Small changes, big impact.
[1:40:40] Speaker 1: That is what I'm hearing when it comes to technology.
[1:40:43] Speaker 1: All right, coming up, we are going to open up
[1:40:45] Speaker 1: the feedback two weeks worth. I hope we can get
[1:40:49] Speaker 1: through all of it. You're listening to rich on Tech.
[1:40:52] Speaker 1: Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here talking
[1:40:56] Speaker 1: technology with you. We're going to get to the feedback
[1:40:58] Speaker 1: in just a moment. But first two items of note.
[1:41:02] Speaker 1: First off, if you have AT and T. If you
[1:41:04] Speaker 1: have an AT and T, service, your autopaid discount could
[1:41:07] Speaker 1: be changing. Starting on April twenty fourth, twenty twenty five,
[1:41:11] Speaker 1: AT and T is changing its autopay discount rules for
[1:41:14] Speaker 1: wireless and Internet customers. So if you pay with a
[1:41:18] Speaker 1: debit card, your discount is dropping from ten dollars a
[1:41:20] Speaker 1: month to five dollars a month. If you use a
[1:41:23] Speaker 1: credit card, you're not going to get a discount anymore
[1:41:25] Speaker 1: at all, unless it's the Yeah, unless it's the AT
[1:41:29] Speaker 1: and T Points Plus card from City Bank, then you'll
[1:41:32] Speaker 1: keep a five dollars discount. If you want the full
[1:41:35] Speaker 1: ten dollars per month per line discount, you'll have to
[1:41:38] Speaker 1: switch to a bank account. That's what I did yesterday. Sadly,
[1:41:42] Speaker 1: I handed over my bank account and it's not something
[1:41:45] Speaker 1: I like to do. But basically they're raising prices unless
[1:41:49] Speaker 1: you do that. So again, this change applies to all
[1:41:51] Speaker 1: wireless and internet plans using auto pay and paperless billing.
[1:41:56] Speaker 1: You can change your payment method at att, dot com,
[1:41:59] Speaker 1: slash chain And I'm not a fan of this, but
[1:42:02] Speaker 1: it's a trend we're seeing with all these companies. Like basically,
[1:42:05] Speaker 1: if you want to save the most, you either have
[1:42:06] Speaker 1: to sign up for their credit card, or you got
[1:42:08] Speaker 1: to hand over access to your account. They like that
[1:42:11] Speaker 1: because A it costs them less to process the payment,
[1:42:15] Speaker 1: and b when something goes wrong, it's much easier to
[1:42:18] Speaker 1: dispute on a credit card doing that versus them putting
[1:42:23] Speaker 1: the money back into your account. And it is National
[1:42:25] Speaker 1: Park Week runs through April twenty seventh. The booking site
[1:42:29] Speaker 1: camp spot says the top searched parks for twenty twenty
[1:42:34] Speaker 1: five include Yosemite or as I like to call it,
[1:42:36] Speaker 1: Yosumite I love when Bobo just shakes his head, Yellowstone, Glacier,
[1:42:44] Speaker 1: gran Titan, Sequoia, Acadia, and more and more, of course
[1:42:50] Speaker 1: and more. Yosemite number one for its waterfalls, cliffs and trails,
[1:42:55] Speaker 1: Yellowstone for geyser's and wildlife like bison and Bear's Glacier,
[1:43:00] Speaker 1: Grand Teeton, high alpine drama and fewer crowds. Okay, under
[1:43:06] Speaker 1: the radar Gems, Indiana Dunes and Hot Springs National Park.
[1:43:10] Speaker 1: If you're not familiar with camp spot, they highlight nearby
[1:43:14] Speaker 1: private campgrounds with amenities and easier booking than inside the parks.
[1:43:19] Speaker 2: Have not tested them, but I've wanted to try that
[1:43:21] Speaker 2: out all right.
[1:43:21] Speaker 1: Time for the feedback These are the emails that you
[1:43:24] Speaker 1: send me throughout the week. First off, Timothy from Ohio
[1:43:28] Speaker 1: writes in, I watched your recent report on the amaze
[1:43:31] Speaker 1: Fit Bip six smart watch. I have a bip Pro
[1:43:34] Speaker 1: that I've used for a couple of years. I agree
[1:43:36] Speaker 1: with your overall take on a maze Fit. The one
[1:43:38] Speaker 1: issue I've had is with step tracking. It doesn't count
[1:43:41] Speaker 1: steps accurately unless I'm actively swinging my arms. I've reached
[1:43:44] Speaker 1: out to the company a few times with so far
[1:43:46] Speaker 1: no fixed battery life is starting to fade. Otherwise it's
[1:43:49] Speaker 1: been reliable. I appreciate how they keep improving the free app,
[1:43:52] Speaker 1: which also works great with my Android phone. I really
[1:43:55] Speaker 1: enjoy your reports and always get something useful from them. Yes, yeah,
[1:44:00] Speaker 1: amaze Fit great smart watch for eighty bucks, and I
[1:44:04] Speaker 1: agree it's really good for the price. And I don't
[1:44:07] Speaker 1: know about the step tracking with the non moving arms,
[1:44:09] Speaker 1: but I mean, maybe they've got to just adjust their algorithm.
[1:44:13] Speaker 1: Last week, in my newsletter at richontech dot tv, I
[1:44:16] Speaker 1: mentioned all of the apps that I like to use
[1:44:18] Speaker 1: on a daily basis, and I asked you to write
[1:44:22] Speaker 1: in with yours. Pete says, Hey, Rich, I'm really enjoying
[1:44:25] Speaker 1: rock Ai Beta on x. It seems way more thorough
[1:44:29] Speaker 1: than the others. Marie from Downey, California writes in The
[1:44:33] Speaker 1: live Transcribe app helps those of us with hearing loss
[1:44:36] Speaker 1: by captioning audio dialogue. It's not perfect. It once displayed
[1:44:40] Speaker 1: a swear word my dad's doctor definitely didn't say, and
[1:44:43] Speaker 1: it occasionally misses words, but overall it's been a big help.
[1:44:47] Speaker 1: Mike from Fargo, North Carolina, North Dakota writes in via
[1:44:51] Speaker 1: kvl kV l y picture, this is a great app
[1:44:55] Speaker 1: that lets you snap a photo of any plant or
[1:44:57] Speaker 1: flour and instantly get an ID. I use it all
[1:44:59] Speaker 1: the time I'm in my garden on my iPad. It
[1:45:01] Speaker 1: does have a twenty five dollars annual fee, but it's
[1:45:03] Speaker 1: way more accurate than the free apps. Speaking of free,
[1:45:07] Speaker 1: my wife uses plant net on her Android phone. It
[1:45:09] Speaker 1: works fairly well. And did I mention it's free?
[1:45:14] Speaker 2: Let's see.
[1:45:15] Speaker 1: Mia writes in Hey Rich, I'm not trying to fall
[1:45:17] Speaker 1: for anything thanks to you.
[1:45:18] Speaker 5: Lol.
[1:45:19] Speaker 1: Is this Venmo Facebook settlement legit? So I always go
[1:45:23] Speaker 1: to the website Topclassactions dot com to search for that.
[1:45:28] Speaker 2: It looks like this is legit.
[1:45:30] Speaker 1: It stems from a class action lawsuit alleging that Facebook
[1:45:34] Speaker 1: improperly tracked users' activities on non Facebook websites with the
[1:45:38] Speaker 1: like button. So it was a ninety million dollars settlement,
[1:45:42] Speaker 1: So yeah, you might be getting that. Let's see here, John,
[1:45:47] Speaker 1: how long do we have a low?
[1:45:48] Speaker 2: Less than a minute? Okay? This is this goes by fast.
[1:45:51] Speaker 2: John says Rich.
[1:45:54] Speaker 1: I took your advice and ordered one of these products,
[1:45:56] Speaker 1: But what you didn't point out is their horrible return policy.
[1:46:00] Speaker 1: Ourch twelve dollars shipping plus a handling fee. Who does
[1:46:02] Speaker 1: that anymore? All for a power bank that doesn't fit
[1:46:05] Speaker 1: our iPhone eleven promacs. I might try to get an
[1:46:08] Speaker 1: adapter rather than losing half my money on a fifty
[1:46:10] Speaker 1: dollars item, But next time I'm sticking with Amazon. John
[1:46:13] Speaker 1: apologies that that happened, but yes, always always check the
[1:46:17] Speaker 1: return policy on a website before you purchase. Most of
[1:46:20] Speaker 1: the time I link the original website from the company,
[1:46:24] Speaker 1: but just because that's where you get the most information.
[1:46:27] Speaker 1: But if you're going to purchase from them directly, I
[1:46:30] Speaker 1: would definitely check the return policy every single time. I
[1:46:33] Speaker 1: always default to Amazon. Sometimes you pay a little bit
[1:46:36] Speaker 1: more because the shipping quote unquote free shipping is built
[1:46:39] Speaker 1: into the price, but it's definitely worth it. I ordered
[1:46:42] Speaker 1: a case yesterday put out on my phone. It did
[1:46:44] Speaker 1: not work. Sending it right back is going to be
[1:46:46] Speaker 1: completely free to do that. Thanks for the email.
[1:46:48] Speaker 2: That's going to do it.
[1:46:49] Speaker 1: For this episode of the show, you can find links
[1:46:51] Speaker 1: to everything I mentioned on the website rich on tech
[1:46:53] Speaker 1: dot tv.
[1:46:54] Speaker 2: I'm on social media at rich on tech. Next week
[1:46:56] Speaker 2: we'll have an expert.
[1:46:57] Speaker 1: With a alternative take on how social media platforms really work.
[1:47:02] Speaker 2: My name is rich d'miro. I'll talk to you real soon.

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