iPhone can now be used as a security key for Google fit It gets a new blood oxygen monitoring feature. Verizon launches a new privacy focused online search site. Plus Your Tech Questions Answered. What's going on? I'm Rich Damiro. This is Rich on Tech, the podcast with different intro music every single week of the year. Producer Megan.
The music is so funny, it's making me laugh.
You made it back from CS?
Did I?
Last week we were in a minivan recording this show. This week we are back in our amazing studio. Luxuriously appointed. That's the theme of our studio here at headquarters Ktila, Los Angeles, California, United States, Northern North America.
You said this last week, Earth Earth, Galaxy one.
Galaxy one. Anyway, welcome back. We've got a lot to talk about. I feel like a lot of people did not send any questions last week because they're like, you're just too busy with CS, even though we have enough for the podcast, believe me, but it's still it was like a trickle.
Oh do you think people really were like, he's at CS, it's not the time.
No people could care last thing. People have no idea, They don't even you know, like, who's who's keeping track of my schedule? Right?
I'm just curious when when is the busiest time for questions like did.
You get to take the holidays? Yeah? What was your biggest takeaway from CS last week? I know we talked a little bit, we're not going to harp on it. What was your biggest takeaway?
My biggest takeaway that like self driving cars, Like that's that's going to happen. And it became very real for me.
Being in that because that was your first time, that my first time.
I think we talked about this last week, but yeah.
They did, but we were in a we are going to have self driving We just edited that story and did you watch it?
I haven't watched it.
Oh it was great. Like so Megan and I actually shot the story ourselves, and so it's always a little dicey for our editor to do these stories because when we've shot them, it's like a crapshoot, like you don't know if the shots are there, you don't know if any You can't take anything for granted. Because we shot it on like our iPhone.
I got like car sick because I wasn't like I wasn't watching the road I was just like shooting right right, trying to get a.
Good try to get a good angle.
Megan had to take a breather one point, the phone just drops to the floor. So we're gonna have that story on KTLA and soon. But that was a great one.
That was that was really interesting Monday.
Yeah, well, whatever day you're listening to this. This is the thing. When you're doing social media, time does not matter. There's no such thing as time, because you could be listening right now midnight in twenty twenty five. You could be a time traveler. You could literally be.
Listening eye and you could be listening it doesn't even exist anymore, so you can't even look at it.
Or you could be back in nineteen sixty two and you're listening from the future because you went to the future, downloaded our podcast and now you're listening on your way back home. Yeah, I mean, we don't know believe in that. Oh I wo, I love I mean, come on, back to the future. Is my When I was a kid, I tried to build my own dolore and with like a flex capacitor.
Are you still trying to build your own Dolore?
No, I'm just still trying to get back to the future, get back to back in time. I'm stuck. I didn't want to tell you, but I'm actually here from another time. So oh wow, Yeah, it's weird, it's complicated, but let's start with Google. You can now use your iPhone as a security key for Google log in. And what this means is that you always hear me talking about the importance of two factor authentication. What that means is that you sign up for a website and it will text
you a code when you try to log in. Well, that's secure, but it's not that secure because that code has to travel through the Internet, or through the telephone lines or through waver to arrive to your phone. And if you're using something like Google Voice, you might have your number and your text connected to a bunch of different devices. So the most secure way is this physical security key. And what this physical security key does is it is in close proximity to your computer and it says, hey,
is this you logging in? And you approve it. Megan is really grinning over here. I'm not sure what's going on.
An email?
Oh okay, good, We'll get to the emails in just a second.
Sorry, but so.
Now, if you have an iPhone and you want to really secure your logins to Google, go ahead and set up what's called the Google smart Lock app on iOS, and it uses your built in security on the iPhone, which is called the Secure Enclave to store your information.
And the bottom line is when your phone is in bluetooth range of your computer that you're logging in to Google on, it will pop up a little thing on your phone that says, hey, is this you and you can say yes or no. And the reason why it's more secure is because the there is this thing right now where you can use your where I don't know if you've logged into Google anytime recently, but a lot of times instead of now texting you a code, it will say open the Gmail app on your phone and
approve this login. So you've been able to do that for a while now, but that that little approval process still has to go through the internet, where this new bluetooth thing is all proximity, so it handshakes. It's very it's it's basically very good security. So if you want the best security, set up your iPhone as a two factor authenticate or a I guess a physical key for your Google stuff. I know it sounds very complicated, but just no, but that's just it.
Yeah, I have a Google account.
You want the most security for your stuff, right, you want to you want to keep those tech talks private?
Yep, Oh that's not it.
That's it.
That's it.
One of these days. It's only been what seventy episode?
Yeah, now like you should really I should probably understanding it.
But we'll just you know, cor ight, I stop it?
All right?
Go ahead, man?
All right? So this next question comes from Louise. Actually that's some of our photographer.
Is this coming from inside? The emails are coming from inside?
Yeah, this is from R. Louis.
Let me read it to me and I'll tell you in a second. If this comes from Marlowis.
He wrote this on your Facebook page. So he wrote, good morning, mister Demiro. I just saw an app called drive Mode. Have you seen it?
And do you recommend it?
It does sound like Carlouise.
It does sound like Carluise.
Could be all right, So drive Mode it is. Let's see. It's founded in twenty fourteen by entrepreneurs from Zipcar and Tesla, and it's a hands free messaging and calling app. It looks like it's for Android only. Now, there are two drive mode apps though there is one from drive mode dot Com. Then there's AT and T drive Mode, So I'm not sure which one he's referring to, but I wonder if AT and T drive Mode is a version
of drive Mode. But either way, these apps are meant to help help you use your phone while you're in the car and do things like messages, calls, and also music. So do you need this? I would say probably not if you have an Android phone because it's only available for Android. If he's talking about Android, then I would say, don't worry about this app because you can use Android Auto.
That's what I would use. Now. The thing about Google is that they are actually getting rid of the standalone Android Auto app and just making Android Auto a part of Google Assistant. So I think at this point, I'm not sure if that's happened yet, but there will come a point in time when you basically say, like hey, Google, let's drive, and it will turn your phone into a miracle of driving companion. Wow. I don't know if that's
the case just yet. They previewed it io last year in May, and Google takes a really long time to like actually implement things for some reason anyway, So I would recommend that, I would recommend trying Android Auto first. But drive Mode the app, just looking at it seems fine. It was last updated. This how I size up apps. It was last updated January ninth, twenty twenty, which means
it's actively being updated. The only thing is there are in app products offered at two ninety nine to three ninety nine per item, which I'm guessing some of the best features you probably have to pay for, which Android Auto probably gives.
You for free, so don't even so I.
Would try Android Auto first, Luise, and then if that doesn't work for you, go and do drive Mode. So okay, that's that's my advice.
Cool questions.
All right, let's talk about fippit.
You just threw a piece of paper.
Fippit is releasing a new feature to their monitors or their you know whatever you call them, fippit activity trackers, activity trackers, and smart watches. This is blood oxygen monitoring. And if you have an issue with sleep, apnea or snoring, or a breathing issue like asthma, this is really really fantastic. And here's the weird thing. Fipbit devices have had the these blood oxygen monitors on them for like two years now,
since twenty seventeen, they just have not been activated. So this feature is not something that you need to go buy a new device for. You just have to get it activated through your software update.
Oh that's nice.
This is kind of nice. When do you get something for freight? So the devices that have this currently getting activated are the Fitbit Ionic, which is a smart watch, the Versa which is another type of smart watch, and the Charge three Fitness Tracker, which is pretty much their most recent one of their most recent models of their fitness tracker. So look for it in your app like go and make sure you do like the software update the firmware update on your device and if you have
this feature, it's kind of cool. Now, most people with blood oxygen it's usually like ninety eight percent to one hundred most of the time. Have you ever taken your oxygen level? No, it's like a little thing. If you have asthma, it's very important.
I use I mean I had childhood as Okay, yeah.
So you don't remember having to take it like a little finger monitor where they put your finger in like a little thing that looks like.
Et Yeah, monitors your Yeah, that sounds familiar.
And so it's it's basically that feature but built into the back side of the watch. And I'm not going to go into how they're figuring out, but it's kind of cool. It's useful, really cool, and it's just one more thing to have. Uh. The Apple Watch does not have this just yet, and so Fitbit's a little ahead of the game here.
What was I gonna say? They kind of the fipbits the newer.
Ones look like they look like the Apple Watch.
Yeah, are they cheaper?
I think. I was actually almost going to buy one the other day. It was like, because I had these, I had the fippit. Yeah, I.
Know, but you want to test it.
I like to test and I wanted to kind of see because I had the Fipbit Versa when it first came out and I've loved it. It was great. The software is just a sore point to me because it's just not as good as the Apple Watch, and the Apple Watch has a lot of apps that are available to it, so almost anything I do. Like, my kids were watching Apple TV the other night and on my Apple Watch, the show they were watching, the name comes up the title and The best part was I can
pause it right for my watch. So I'm like, kids, time to brush your teeth, and like, no, no, And I just went in my bedroom and I just tapped my watch and I went to pause, and they're like, what just happened? How did that pause? Oh my god? I'm like, I'm not telling you crying. Yeah, And so it was great. So anyway, so there's a lot of If you have an iPhone, there's a lot of ways that the Apple Watch sinks to it and works with it. But if you have Android, I think the verses are great.
And you know that Google bought or is buying fipp it, so there's gonna be Yeah, there's gonna be a lot of improvements with fippit in the upcoming year. Or Google will just run them into the ground like they do with a lot of other companies.
We'll say, oh, okay, really, oh yeah, what they do?
Yeah, a lot of these companies they absorbed these little companies. No, no, they don't want to get rid of They buy them with the best intentions, and then they figure out that like just everything has to be dismantled and it ends up being like a team buyer. They just bought the employees that were.
Intental sue, and Sue they fire, Yeah.
They fire everyone else. Say like, I'm not saying this is gonna happen, but it's it's just like over and over we've seen these large tech companies acquire a company and say, oh, we're gonna build all this stuff, We're going to all the synergy, and it never comes to fruition. Okay, and that's it, Sonia, go ahead, Megan, all right, So enough of my complaining. I know. Wow.
This next question comes from Amy. I have my stepmom's computer that never allowed her to upgrade to Windows ten when it was telling her to do so. Now that the time is here for non support, she is in a panic thinking she can't use the computer after January twentieth. Is this really true or is it just that she won't get any supporter updates anymore for Windows?
Yeah? Good question. This is in response to Windows seven being I don't know if the term is depreciated or whatever you want to call it, but it's no longer being actively supported by Microsoft. And what that means is they are no longer going to put out security updates or software updates for this program and It's been around for a long time. I think it launched back in like two thousand and nine. It's had a good run.
People loved it. People are very hesitant to upgrade to Windows eight was like a non starter, Like nobody got Windows eight, so there was no Windows nine. And Windows ten came out to kind of clear up all the issues, but a lot of people were hesitant because Windows ten was very different from Windows seven, So a lot of people did not upgrade. There was a time when it was like I think three years where you could upgrade for free, and a lot of people were just like, no,
this works for me. Everything's working. I don't need to upgrade. And now you're talking ten years later since Windows seven came out, people are kind of like, uh, okay, now what So to answer the question, things don't go away. It doesn't stop working. But what it does is it puts you at a security risk because now when the bad guys find an exploit on Windows seven and they want to use it to their advantage, Microsoft is not going to come.
To your rescue and making hack the computer.
Basically, now, I'm not saying that's happening today or that's even gonna happen tomorrow, but it's a very big put possibility. And what happens is, let's say you're a company. You're running a whole bunch of computers running Windows seven. The bad guys find some sort of exploit. Now they're targeting machines around the world, and your machines are part of that target group because they're not running the latest software.
And there there's a hole basically on that machine when it comes to the security, and so they go for that hole to try to get into your network or to whatever. And so you don't want that to be you. So my advice number one is, if you are going to continue using this computer, things are going to still work just like they did yesterday. It's just that you're not going to get updates. And so I would be
very careful browsing the web. Make sure you're not downloading random things that could put you at risk, or clicking weird attachments and links and stuff. That's number one. That's very basic. I mean, that's like you can't really protect yourself just doing that. Second thing is you probably want to upgrade your computer to the latest Windows ten software or get a new computer completely. And I know it's like, oh, rich,
just buy a new computer, no big deals. Yeah, just go out and toss the old one.
Go get a versa watch or whatever. Just always getting a new tech item.
So that's my recommendation. There is Uh, there was some talk online about a way to still get a free Windows ten upgrade, and I think if you Google, you'll probably find some blogs that explain how to still do that. Apparently Windows forgot to conveniently forgot to turn off one of these little like links that lets you get a free copy of Windows ten, and apparently people are still using that link. So if you google free Windows ten upgrade, you can see how people are using that. I don't
think it's illegal. It's just like I think Microsoft is like slyly letting people still upgrade.
Oh okay, so she could upgrade.
Yeah, I don't know. I can't guarantee it. Microsoft's official stance is that you can pay one thirty nine to upgrade, or you can purchase a new computer. If your computer is three years old or older, they say they recommend a new computer. Okay, So that's that's the party line, got it? Now? Speaking of well, I should say apropos to nothing.
Okay, that term, I'm gonna assume it means like connected to the stories.
Not connected to the story apropos of nothing so random, Yeah, exactly.
Just going in a new direction, okay, new tangent.
Verizon has launched a new search engine called one Search, and I'm sure you're just ready to flock to.
Using this, but I already downloaded it.
It is kind of unique. It's called one search dot com and it's totally private. That's their party line, so totally private. No cookies, no retargeting, no personal profiling, which means like Megan does not have a profile on this site that when you go to that site, then I'll say, oh, Meghan's back and she's searching for more beauty products. Whatever. Wow, what does Megan search for her?
I don't even know.
No sharing of personal data with advertisers, no storing of user search history, unbiased and unfiltered search results. You know that when you search Google, you bring with you everything you've ever done with Google to the page. So when you search for let's just say, you know, an app, okay, it may know that you use an iPhone and put the iPhone version of the app higher up on those results. Now I'm just giving that as an example. Or it may be that when you search, Megan keeps bracing herself.
Every time you speak, I brace myself.
It's pretty typicult. But so like, let's say it knows that you live in Los Angeles when you search for a restaurant name, and let's say there's that same restaurant name in Austin.
They're not going to show me Austin because they're like, you live in Los Angeles.
You live in Los Angeles. You live in that fancy neighborhood. Yep, Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills. You live in that mansion in Beverly Hills. Now here's the thing that's kind of interesting about this. They have something called Advanced Privacy Mode, which is on by default. And this is the interesting thing. So your searches are encrypted, but so are your thanks to these searches. So let's say you search.
For something, Okay, I search Rich Demurro.
Let's say you do your daily search for Rich Demurro on your computer, right, and I'm like, hey, Megan, can I borrow your laptop to go search for something? And I go and I'm like, let me see what Megan was searching for? In her history, and I go to your history and it says one search, one search. It's called one search, one search, one search, one search, and I click those links to see what your search results. Nothing comes up. They expire after an hour. So that's
kind of interesting. So yeah, okay, so let me give you a real world example exactly. Let's say you're searching for wedding rings because you want to propose to your your boyfriend finally, right after all these years he refused to propose, he refuses to pop the questions. You're like, you know what, I'm just going to go ahead and do it. It's been a week, it's the two twenties or whatever.
It's been a week of dating. It's time to get married.
It's the twenty twenties. We met on Tinder. It's time to just make this real. Okay, Oh my god, I'm just giving real world examples here that you can understand.
No, I know.
So you search wedding rings wedding rings, and then your boyfriend comes home, he uses the computer we live together. Yeah, well he's just coming over, yeah to Friday nights whatever, And he goes onto your one search and he clicks that link and nothing comes up, so boom. That's a real world example of like it just it just brings him to the homepage.
But if I wanted him to see it, I would stay on Google.
Yeah, you would use Google for sure, and you would leave like you know, a couple links open and like something minimumier pictures and all that stuff. So anyway, so kind of interesting, that makes sense, and uh, you know, so there it is one search dot com if you want to search more private search.
Okay, I just okay, I just I think I can. I like to ask the question.
Okay, So this next question comes from bamb I'm getting into digitizing and then imprenth this us. She says, embroidery designs for sewing machines and was informed that a single function digitizing monitor will eventually be required. Have you done any research on this type of equipment?
Oh? No, I have not.
And then she goes on to say, the Yanova MVP to zero you something is what's recommended.
And you just bought.
Yeah, I want to just get this morning. I ordered it. I'm wondering if it's worth the money and whether or not it is plug and play into a USB port on my current computer.
Okay, I I just I'll just give this. I have no idea what Bambi is talking design?
What is sewing machine?
What is the thing? Give me the model number. I'm just gonna look it up for Okay MVP.
Well, Yanova MVP two zero, ukay plus f E plus f E.
Yeah.
So I guess she's like, yeah, like.
A secret like f nod to me, all right, what is it? This?
Uh?
This a three dollars full HD tablet monitor, Mac and Windows Hdmi plus USB port, ready to use with Yanova Cloud PC. I don't know. I just don't even know.
So is this for like she draws a picture, it looks like that's exactly what she wants and then she can embroider it on.
That's what I think it is. Yeah, thank you for really cool for breaking that down, Megan. I don't know. So anyway, I think it looks like it's USB compatible. It looks like it's also Hdmi compatible. But it looks like you have to use some sort of cloud PC and maybe that's a program that you plug this into. Interesting, but again, this is like a little bit, you.
Know, it's not it's a it's above your pay grade.
It's above my pay grade. And so that's yeah, wow, we really knocked knocked that one out of the park.
No, I mean, like I.
Just I okay, So good question.
Should I ask another one?
Sure? Go ahead?
Okay, So this next question comes from Okay, I'm not actually not gonna ask you. These questions are not sorry, I.
Told the light.
These are from just like your expression right now is really funny. Okay, This next question is from Richard. I am Richard, My I am, My wife is Nancy, and I watch your segment on Fox six Milwaukee. We just received our first cell phone this last Christmas. Magan, you are disrespecting I'm not from our daughters.
About fifteen years ago, we purchased a thirty inch JVC I art television.
Okay, yeah, that's what TV.
Okay, I know it is, obviously, he says television.
As time went on, we decided that when the JVC dies, we would upgrade to a larger flat screen. We are starting to believe the JVC will outlast us both.
Oh god, this really took a dark time.
My question for you is what is the best TV for us to get?
Now? I get one with like a three year lifespan.
Yeah, and then say that they want like potentially like a sixty five inch, and that Samsung is the best brand for most people.
Okay, Richard and Nancy and Nancy, I okay, so a couple things. Yes, it's time to upgrade. If you have a thirty inch JVC that you've been rocking for fifteen years, go ahead. And I think it's time to spring for the upgrade.
Uh.
And so I will say, yes, Samsung is a very good TV, very good brand. And if you want a good picture quality, go with Samsung. It's a very Samsung's go on sale a lot. They have a good deals. Like everyone knows Samsung, so they they saw a lot and people when you go into the store, it's easy for the best buy guy to recommend Samsung because they know it. Right.
I know what you're gonna recommend, though, what go ahead, You're.
Gonna recommend the TCL with roqu six series.
That's a sixty five inch.
That's right.
It's about five hundred dollars.
So that's why I recommend. I don't even have to do this job anymore. I will walk out and Megan, you can do the rest of the podcast.
All right, So here's the door.
But I agree, and I will tell you that I. Okay, so I and this is why I don't just talk about this stuff. I actually do this stuff. I actually try this stuff out. So I bought two TVs recently. One TCL actually got the five series for my mom, okay, and so I bought that one and then had the Roku. And then I bought the Visio for myself, and I bought the video is just a cheap o model at
Costco for the kids. And I will tell you I set both up and I was much more impressed with the TCL from the quality of the device, like how it physically looked and felt, to also the software. And I just feel like now I'm fully invested in recommending the TCL.
Do you feel like you wasted your money on the video?
No, it's fine. The video is fine for the kids. For the kids, like if their eyes go bad because they're watching a terrible TV, it's fine. Yeah. No, I will say, but the picture quality on both these TVs is pale in comparison to the Sony's or the Samsung's or the LG's and I did run into my power. David Katzmeyer of cnet. He reviews all the TVs for them at CS and he, you know, basically tried to look away because obviously we used to work together. And he's like, I don't want to be bothered.
Oh yeah, yeah, you know.
But I did stop him and I was like, David, I'm like, what's up, Bud. I'm like, what TV would you buy if you had one chance to buy TV? And he's like, dude, LG without hesitation LG OLED And I said, wow, over the Sony OLEDs. He's like, well, if you want price and performance, that's what I recommend. So he probably had no idea he'd be quoted in one of the top tech podcasts of the world in this podcast Wow.
But now he's famous.
And now he is well, and that's so anyway, So I'd recommend the TCL if you want a good price TV, and he recommends the LG O lead if you want like the best, and the LGO lead is it's like twelve ninety nine maybe or seventeen.
Exactly what it is on Target.
Yeah, Megan, that's why, that's why, that's why I'm standing now.
Yeah, that's why you get to stay and I get to go. Well, I also googled it and I knew the price is from searching it.
Let's talk about Google. Google at CS announced a more helpful Google Assistant, So several new features you should be aware of. If you have one of these Google assistants in your phone, in your home, in your displays a new feature which I cannot wait for. It is called scheduled actions. Later this year, you'll be able to just ask Google, Hey, Google, run the coffee maker at six am. How great is that? Wow? So I do this thing. Every night. I turn on my lights in my bedroom.
Like at a like the like the disco lights, its light.
No, like on the night stands. Every night I turn those on and every night I put them to a certain level or whatever so I can read before I go to bed. And how nice would it be if just every night Google turned them on at five pm when I go to sleep.
Oh my god, Okay, so cool.
So that's one example. The other example is I also turn on my kitchen lights every day at a certain time when I come home.
What I just know, it's just.
So every day I have to say, hey, Google, turn on the kitchen lights, and it turns on the lights. And then the other thing that I do is I'm doing now is I'm asking Google when I get home to turn on the living room chrome cast, which shows my pictures on my big screen.
So I just think it's so funny. How many things?
What do you do when you come home?
I literally just like eat food and then I cry, No, I don't like think about putting my pictures on my TV.
Sorry, So these are the things that I do. So my point is Google has imagined these scenarios, and they say, wouldn't it be cool if I can just know every day the chrome cast comes on at two pm and the chrome Cast turns on the TV. So anyway, these are all kind of cool things. So now you'll be able to do that with Google, and clearly I have lots of good ideas for this company. Second thing, household notes. It's kind of like a sticky note, but on your
smart display. So we've talked about the Google Home Hub. Like these displays that let you do all this stuff. Now you can say, or soon you be able to say, hey, Google, leave a note that says I already fed the dog, and it'll display as like a sticky note on your display.
That's actually helpful.
Isn't that cool? Yeah? So that's it. Another thing is long form content. So if you've ever had one of these apps, or if you've ever heard a robotic voice read you the news, it's terrible. And there's a reason why people like me are hanging on to jobs that we have for as long as humanly possible, right.
Because we can I thought you were a robot.
No not no, ideally, ideally, if I can pop my brain out in the future, they talk about being able to take your brain out of your body and putting it into a robot so you can live forever. Wow, you never thought about that possibility.
Well, I know that they saved Walt Disney's brain.
Did they? Or is that just a Snopes thing? Look it up on Snopes, you know Snopes, snopes dot com.
It's not like all the theories.
Yeah, it's like all the crazy things that like people wonder. Look up the Google Snopes Walt Disney. I bet you he wasn't preserved like they said he was. But anyway, so now Google says they are so good at reading that they can make things, even long articles, sound more natural, so you can actually listen to them without wanting to pull your eyeballs and ears off your face because it sounds normal. Have you ever heard of robotic voice? Try
to read you something? It's really terrible. No. So now you're soon gonna be able to say, while you're looking at a news article on your Android phone, hey Google, read this, and it will start to read you that page. Wow, which is great for the hearing or the visual impaired. That's kind of cool, but also for just anyone, like if you're just like you know, at home and you just don't feel like reading something, you just say, Hey, read this to me. That's another thing, And the other
one is privacy. Two new voice privacy controls. You can now say hey, Google, that wasn't for you, and Google will automatically forget what you just said. Like you know, you ever see you don't have Google at home, but sometimes it pops springs to life when you say something yeah, and all of a sudden you'll see the light and you're like, yeah, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa?
Google, Slow your role, I'm not talking to you.
So you say, hey, Google, that wasn't for you, and it's like, I'm sorry, I'll just send that right to the authorities. No, just kidding, but it'll kind of forget that you just you know that even you just get it. Yeah. And then the other one is, uh, hey Google, are you saving my audio data? And it will tell you more about your privacy controls and go to your setting
screen to change your preferences. So, I you know, people want to want to paint Google as this evil company that's, you know, trying to collect everything about You're right, they probably are possibly right, But at the same time you I think that they are in twenty twenty and twenty nineteen doing some things to kind of be a little bit more forward when it comes to the data they're collecting and help people control that data. So yeah, rest assured.
Cool.
This next question is from fram end hi Rich. My question is about the new air pods pro. Me and my husband bought a pair each and loved them at first, but started having issues with them soon after. It seems like the left pod is not charging.
How is that possible? The right pod is one hundred percent and the left is zero percent. Wait, so they.
Each have a pair and both pairs are having issues.
Is that a thing?
Do they say? AirPods pro? Yeah, this is the thing. It's a thing. It's the AirPods Pro have had a a rocky start, And did you buy yours the first ding you got regular as I got Regular Air? Have you had any problems with them? No?
Love them?
Yeah?
But my aunt just returned to hers yesterday. I think there were a pro though, And I'm like, I'm convinced of the pro why would you, I would never return.
You're like, oh, it's amazing. Yeah, so uh, I yes, I will agree that there have been a lot of issues with the AirPods pro In fact, I have experienced this issue where for a while, well one of my AirPods was at one hundred percent and one was at zero, and I was like, is this something in the charger? Is it whatever? So what I did was and what I've recommended is unpair these from your device and then repair them. So you go into settings and like forget
about them and then repair them. And that seems to like connect and fix the things.
How often do you have to do that?
Like once, I did do it once, But I did do it once, and it did fix the issue for me. Now, notice I've been having other issues with some connection issues, like on my Apple Watch when I was running it, it's been all over the place, like it'll just stop working like the AirPods Pro, like they'll just stop putting music out, and I'd have to go into my Apple Watch and switch the modes. So they have like this
transparency mode and then off and then noise canceling. I think those are the three, and I have to just toggle the modes to get the things to work again. So you can try that if you're having problems. But I think I was reading an article today and I saw that they had some firmware updates for the AirPods Pro that kind of like didn't work as well, and so I think there was some issues that they're correcting.
So like Apple's ever going to tweet and be like we've noticed you've been having issues, Like, but the other thing is going to go yeah and like just put out a software update and you know, next thing, you know, you just think you're crazy because like maybe I was the only one. Yeah, when you come on a show like this and you realize you're not the only one framed, You're not the.
Only worry do sad music. Okay, don't worry.
I need a tiny You're just like you. I need a tiny violin.
Except I didn't buy the really expensive AirPods I got the cheap ones.
Oh let me there we go.
Oh the world's smallest violin.
That's for you, Framandy.
It is really annoying though, Oh yeah, these little problems that people run into.
And this is why people love shows like ours, Megan, is because you feel that tight community of knowing I am not alone in this world. Yep, I can go to Rich and to a lesser extent, Megan and talk about my prob whoa, whoa, whoa. I mean, come on, And that's that's why these things exist, because you don't want to feel like you're alone. And and with tech stuff, it is super frustrating. And look what go aheadhead speak, speak your mind, speak your mind.
Man.
No no, no, go.
Ahead, no no no.
I mean, like I was, you said something about like you don't want to feel like you're alone, which is why I'm on the podcast too, because if Rich was talking to himself, it kind of depressing.
That's the rest of my day. Yeah, all right, let's move on. HP article out of well, actually this was sort of originated from CNBC, which got their info from a Morgan Stanley analyst, which said HP might be moving away from their Razor slash Blade model for printers because guess what, twenty percent of customers don't print enough ink or even buy enough or print or buy enough ink to be profitable. So the whole idea behind these inkjet printers from HP. You've probably seen them. You see them
at Best Buy for fifty bucks. You're like, oh my gosh, that's amazing. I should buy a new printer. Next thing, you know, your ink runs out and you go to buy a new ink and it's sixty bucks. It's fifty five dollars for a cartridge. And you're like, oh, let me check Costco and it's fifty two dollars and it's it's wild, and so you what do you end up doing?
You end up putting water.
That was my idea. I don't think you can do that, but that would be funny.
Try that. Your printer would probably crack.
Open the thing. Just put a little water, like a little droplet of water, like.
I want expensive?
Like what is because they were doing the razor blade model. When you buy a razor, you buy the razor.
Always buy a new razor, do you really?
Yeah, you don't buy a new blade, are you kidding? No?
I buy like a new blade, I buy.
It disposable razor.
What they're all disposable?
Oh well the handle is not.
Oh yeah, I like I literally just by anyone.
Okay, well, clearly not all of us are that rich that we can just buy no.
I also, okay, we're not getting into this conversation.
Okay, Anyway, the ink carter is here's the problem. So so the the article says that HP might be lowering the price of its ink cartridges. But here's what's gonna happen. The initial price of the printer is gonna go off. Yeah, and I think that's fine for most people though, because once you rather have the printer be more expensive and then the replacement cartridges be cheaper over the years. Yeah. Of course, I don't know about you, but for me
with my printer, I don't have an ink jet. I have a laser printer, a laser.
Jet that I've had.
I've had a laser printer for so long now, and it is super expensive. When the printer. The difference, well, laser is like uses toner oh instead of ink, and so it like heats up a drum that pushes the that that this is like you know when you put your finger like a wet finger on toner. It doesn't it doesn't smudge. When you put a wet finger on Inkjet,
it'll smudge most of the time. That's I you can always tell if it was you know, Wow, And Inkjet uses a little tiny dots this season anyway, So whenever I buy my laser toner, it is so expensive. In fact, the last time I bought it, I went to Office Depot and the cartridge was literally twenty dollars more on there versus Amazon, and I felt so bad. I was like, you know, I'm trying to give business to my local business, but they're actually ripping people off by selling these things
at such a high cost. But they have to because they have a big store and they've got people at work there, and it is sad, and it's like, how are they going to compete in the future. I had the Inkjet toner or the toner on my doorstep the next day from Amazon, and I felt I never felt so bad in my life because I specifically went to Office Depot to try to be nice.
Is this what you talk about in therapy.
I don't have a therapist, but if I did, it's me they would Yeah, this show is my therapy. Wow.
That is crazy, But I have.
Nothing against therapists. If you think you need one, get it and get that help you need. I probably should have one, but I have this show as my outbum No I think. Yeah, anyway, is that the end of the show? Are we going to end it on such a sad note? It is?
We have one more question?
Nope, you want to Is it a good question? I'll give you time for one more question if it's super good and I can answer it quickly. It's kind of okay, Okay, is it a good one?
It's not like the best, but I'm still gonna ask.
Okay, go ahead, Okay.
This is from Dawn.
I have a need to send a text message to an email account. There's been someone sending me over the top messages and I've been letting it go and go, and now it's escalated to defamatory comments, et cetera.
Are you speaking in the third person? Is this you? Megan?
Of apps?
That I can send a string of text messages too on my Gmail account?
Thanks?
Okay, So I think with this one, I actually had to look in uh and see what because with with iPhone, I would tell you're basically out of luck, like there's not a lot of apps that can download your message are but they're like paid and they're very complicated, and it's not as easy. It's just like downloading stuff on Android. It's super easy. You can download a million apps that will give you access to your text messages and download them.
And so there's a couple apps that i'd recommend. Number one, there's an app called SMS Backup and Restore, which is like the gold standard. A lot of people use it to just back up their texts and so you can do that. But the app that I recommended to Don is one that I haven't tried before, but it seems to do all the things that he wants. And I'm gonna just imagine that this is actually Don and not you asking me, Megan. But I found SMS Backup, Print and Restore, Export pdf, HDML and CSV and so pdf,
I mean export. You're super easy. You install the app and you download your stuff as a PDF. And it was updated back in December. It has one hundred thousand installs and four thousand reviews. Oh cool, And I believe that Don actually wrote me to tell me that this worked for him, so, oh did he? I think that was the I think this is this is ringing a bell. So anyway, so that's what I recommend.
I just want to know what these messages.
I know, I kind of want to know. Now I will tell you this is account hacked. No, I think that the I think that what happened was someone was sending him mean stuff and that's what happened with Don. I don't know Don, but you know what can happen. But here's the thing. A lot of people email me and they want to wedge me in between some sort of legal thing, and I usually stay out of it because I don't want to be like, oh, rich On Tuck told me that you know, and here how did
you get these messages? Rich On tech like. So usually if you email me and it's a meritable spat or some sort of like you know, if it's something that I feel like needs to go to the authorities, maybe I'll forward your email. But you, oh, that has not happened, thankfully. No, Actually that's not true. I do get a lot of I do get a lot of.
Weird emails, like end of marriage from giving a suggestion of like.
That wasn't because of my email, No, it was something from your book someone wrote me and said that my book and ruined their marriage. Can we talk about I don't even.
Know if you can say, don't you say it in the book?
Maybe I know, I think I said no. I don't think that. I think you just like, yeah, totally all right, Megan, let's talk about the show. Thanks so much for listening. If you like this podcast, go to rate this podcast dot com slash rich on tech. There you can rate the podcast and makes it easy for you to rate the podcast so you can tell your friends all about it or tell other people about it. But if you have friends, tell them about the podcast.
And if you don't have friends, tell your family.
Yeah. And if you don't have family, leave it in your will.
Tell your pets.
If you don't have pets, tell then you know what?
You know what?
Put a little message in a bottle and throw it out in the ocean, but make sure it's biodegradable, because you can't do message in a bottle anymore. I mean, that's a totally unequal. Why would you put a straw there? Are they gonna slurp out the message? Megan? How can folks get a hold of you? Oh? Let's you know what. I've realized we're not going to promote you anymore on you to be TikTok talk. So how can people find you on TikTok.
I'm on TikTok. My account name is han Meg with two g's.
Oh my god, that's so complicated, and yeah, okay find her there. She actually did two funny little videos I thought were pretty good. I am on Instagram at rich on tech my website rich on tech dot tv. And if you want to submit a question for the podcast, where do you go? Meghan?
You go to rich on tech dot tv and you click the contact and then you fill out the form and then you send your question.
That's going to do it for us. Thanks so much for listening on behalf of producer Megan, myself, and everyone associated with anything that makes this podcast possible. Thank you for listening. See ya,