It is time for Tech Tuesday with rich de Burrow, our tech guy. He's also on KTLA every day, rich on Tech every Saturday, right here on KFI eleven am to two, Instagram at rich on Tech website, rich on tech dot TV.
Good morning, Rich, Good morning too, Bill.
Okay, we have a few things to talk about.
Microsoft is making a push to go passwordless. How then do you have the kind of security that you need if there's no password there?
Well, I'll be honest, passwords are actually the worst security in the world.
I know that sounds counterintuitive.
But they really are easy to crack, they're easy to steal, they're easy to trick humans into handing them over. And that's why Microsoft is really moving past passwords. And if you look at a lot of the startups that I'm seeing, when you and if you've signed up for a new product or service lately, you might have noticed when you go to the website, it says put your email address, and you put your email in. The next thing does not say create a password. It says we just emailed
you a code. Pop that code in or click what's called a magic link, and that magic link you go to your email, you click it and next thing you know, you're logged into that website. So this is definitely a trend we're seeing. Passwords are not going away overnight. But Microsoft is a big company that is really trying to push people to stop using them.
So what do you use instead? Is that your question?
Face recognition?
Yeah, so it could be your face, it could be your fingerprint or even a pin. And you know, they say these are eight times faster than logging in. And really this is all part of something called past keys. So Bill, let me paint you the picture of what happens in the future. Let's say you get rid of your Microsoft password, which they're actually telling people, log onto your account.
And literally delete it.
And so once you do that, the next time you log in, it'll say, hey, we just pushed a notification to your phone. Go to your phone and do your typical authentication, whether that's your face, your fingerprint, or your pin, and the website will log you in.
Huh.
One of the things I and maybe I'm off track here because I'm not your tech Maven, That's why you're on the show. But whenever I get a code for my bank or whatever for authentication, and I use my phone, I don't use computers. Maybe that's my problem because my phone is my computer, so it gives me the code and I have to memorize that number because I'm switching over to the program itself.
Am I doing something wrong?
Well, there is an option on the iPhone to automatically have that code populate into the keyboard. So you should see a little option where that code coming from Messages should like appear right in the keyboard, like above the keyboard list. And that's pretty common for a lot of these apps to do. That is to basically, your Messages app is reading that you've got a one time code and it's putting that there.
So look for that next time bill because that does help.
Otherwise, Yeah, you're right, you have to swipe to the other app, copy the code, put it back in. Especially when you're on an email situation where they email you the code, you got to go to your email. But I'm telling you there's a reason for all of this. It's because and Microsoft said, by the way, they are dealing with seven thousand password attacks per second right now,
which is double last year's rate. And these new systems are much more resistant to phishing because let's just say you set up a pass key on your Microsoft account, you go to a fake Microsoft account that's trying to log you know, get you to log in. It's not going to trigger that little activation to your phone or to your computer to say, hey, you know, log in with your password or your face, your fingerprint, because it can't.
It's a fake website. It doesn't have that connection. So this is going to be a slow process.
I know it's it's kind of confusing, but at the end of the day, we're very used to opening up our phone with our face or our fingerprint or passcode. That's going to be kind of the new way to authenticate all of these apps that we're logging into as well, and websites and things like that.
Okay, moving over something that I actually know something about use all the time, and that's Roku.
Uh and uh, this is uh.
And I'm switching over from Roku just to my smart TV because I find Roku a pain in the ass.
Uh.
We're going to do.
I yeah, yeah, I do. I don't know why smart TV running, what kind of operating system?
How the hell do I know?
Well, I know it's you know, it's let me tell you, it's my wife who's the tech maven.
I don't even know how phones.
Work without a wired to the wall, for God's sake. So that's where I'm at. But here is the issue. Roku users are starting to see ads when they pause content.
And I pause all the time.
I've got to go get I've got a p i've got to deal with the dogs.
And so I pause it and then move on. Big problem. Huh is this what roku is really gonna do?
Yeah, this is what they're gonna do. And so this is a new feature called pause ads. So when you pause your movie or TV show, a static AD will show up on the screen. And typically it's an AD along with a QR code for something. If it works properly, it's something that's related to maybe your search history, or they somehow have built a profile of the things that you might be interested based on your age or where
you live, things like that. And this is appearing across multiple apps on the row, and people are starting to see this and yeah, this is a feature that we're seeing, or I guess a trend we're seeing across lots of streaming apps, especially when you're on you know, the AD supported apps like.
A Hulu or a YouTube or an HBO Max. This happened to me the other day.
I was on Peacock watching a movie and I paused the movie, came back to the room, and I was surprised.
It was like, oh, there's the pause ad.
So the first time you see it, you're a little surprised, But I think bill at the end of the day, you know, these marketing companies are looking for ways of grabbing our attention, and they have a very small window at this point because of you know, just how everything is. We're always kind of switching between different things and how we watch and our tension span, and if you're paused on the screen, you're gonna notice it for sure.
You know. I even Instagram, which I use because people will send me Instagram stuff all the time.
You have the ad that appears for before you start.
Anything, but it's like five seconds and then you go skip this ad, which that's livable. Are we talking five seconds, fifteen seconds, thirty seconds?
Well, the ad itself is the Typically the ones that I've seen are static, so they are just on your screen while.
You're paused the entire time.
So if you're pausing the show for a minute, you know, you might see that ad for a minute. But the idea is that these ads are just there in between, and so you know, and the ones I've seen, it just kind of works because otherwise, what do you see on the screen as your TV show paused right or your movie paused? But yes, it is a shift in the way that we think about entertainment because here you are, you know, watching an action movie or something and you
pause and it's like an ad for Dominos. And those are the kind of ads that I've seen, and they're smart and savvy. And again I think that unless I think the delineation here will be if we start to see them on content that we have paid to be ad free.
So for instance, it's Netflix, right.
Like they have you know, their top of the line subscriptions don't have ads, but they do have subscriptions that are ads supported.
So does Peacock, so does YouTube.
So I understand if you're if you're getting your your subscription for less because it's ads supported, if you see ads during pause, I mean that's kind of an all fair game. I'd say, all right.
Fair enough, Rich, we were talking about the ads and Roku is now going to have ads static ads when you put whatever show on pause. And this is one of the things that is really bothering me, that we're moving in the direction where we're going to have ads no matter what or where unless you're willing to pay
insane amounts of money. When TV first came out, it was a minute top and bottom for ads, and then we went to cable and you would pay to not have and I still think in terms of paying anybody to not put ads in, and it's moving the other way, and it is is there any possibility that you know, unless you're willing to pay twenty five to thirty dollars a month maybe more, that you're gonna have ads in everything you see on television?
Oh?
Absolutely, I mean it. Look and here's the thing. The fastest growing area of television. We've talked about this before is these free ads supported streaming services. So people are actually looking to cut costs with their cable bill, with their streaming bill, with their cell phone bill, and they don't mind having the ads, and so it's not.
That big of a deal.
And the options for having no ads remain, but they're getting more and more expensive, like you said, and so people will pay to get rid of ads. If they want to. But there are many many people out there who don't real mind the ads. They see it as a natural break. They see it as you know, this is the way TV was in the past. This is free content, so why not why not just get it for free? And it powers a lot of businesses. So I think that no matter what there will be, there
will always be a level that is ads supported. I think it's interesting that some of these ads supported plans cost money, Like Netflix, you know their ad supported plan, You're still paying for it, So it's interesting versus something like a twov or a Pluto TV, where you don't pay anything and you get all the content for free because of the ads.
Yeah, that's where I think my gripe is.
And it could because I'm dated, because I'm used to starting non paid TV subscription TV, which wouldn't even dream of having an AD and now you're paying, paying to have ads. And the only place that I ever remember having ads where it was not appropriate in the movie theaters and you'd have la times run And this was way back in the day. And I come from a generation of people who came into watching at that point cable TV, and I didn't pay for it.
But I think you're right.
If you have someone who has only recently started watching TV. I'm talking about that last decade or two, just getting involved with their kids, you know what, It's just part of doing business.
And hold on Bill.
Even taking it a step further, half the content nowadays is ads. So when you're flipping through Instagram or you know, Instagram reels or TikTok, a lot of that content is sponsored itself. So the content that you're watching, like if it's a review of a toaster, oven or something like that, like a lot of times the company has paid that influencer to make that video. And so now it's like this merging of like hold on what's true, what's real,
and what's not sponsored in any way. And I think that part of it is also really tricky moving forward.
And for some reason, well you know, that seems to work. I mean, that doesn't really bother me because I'm pretending that I'm seeing content, the influencer is pretending that there's content there, and everybody's happy. For example, we have a success from Scratch which we just brought back, and it is a sponsored segment and it is literally sponsored by and the rest of it is truly content. Now, if I were do a sponsored by and I would do the content on that ad or on that business every week,
it's a different story. So I guess it's just a question of levels. And by the way, on the sponsored stuff, I stopped. I stopped really caring when I saw an eleven year old kid getting twenty million dollars a year for opening birthday presents.
I mean, that did it to me.
Yeah, And I think he has a line of toys at Target now, and I think he's actually I think he just turned forty seven.
Yeah, I mean it's just, uh, it's like the cars for causes kids. I won't even tell you what happened to them, right, you know most of them are dead of old age now.
And you're right, Oh my gosh, okay, I know nothing saturder than when I watch movies and I look up the actor and I'm like, oh, please, don't some of that person's dead?
Oh yep, they're dead.
Or how about when they're alive and they don't look so good?
Well, no comment there.
That has some point Some people don't age. Well no, no, we can't. We can't figure that out, you know what I mean? Like you can't. You can't make that happen. I think on the flip side, when you go to further, you know, when you're really changing your looks. So many times it's like, wait, who's this person?
Now? You don't even recognize them.
Yeah, Okay, Rich, we're out of time.
I wish we had gone some way a little bit more time, because there's a bunch of stuff we'll probably do next week.
Then.
Rich Demuau Rtech Guy KTLA every day, Channel five every Saturday, eleven in the morning at two pm, right here on KFI Instagram, at rich on tech website, rich on tech dot TV. See this, I'm pitching you and people pretend we pretend this is not sponsored stuff.
When I give the pitch, it's not sponsored. You're no, it's not sponsored.
Come on, I'm accusing you of paying for that. Hey, don't hate the player, hate the game, you guys. No, let's start that rumor. Okay, all right, Rich, take care. We'll catch you over the weekend. Bye.