What's going on.
I'm Rich Tamiro and this is Rich on Tech, the podcast where I talk about the tech stuff I think you should know about, and it's where I answer the questions you send me. I'm the tech reporter at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles. If this is your first time ever listening, welcome to the show. It's a little bit different for this episode because I don't have my full setup, so I'm just going to do questions that you send me.
And since this is the first show of twenty twenty.
One, I've gotten so many questions in the past couple of weeks from you over the holidays, and so I'm going to do my best to just get through a whole bunch of questions and just do what you like the most on this show, and that is answer questions. So first off, Happy New Year. I cannot believe that we are in twenty twenty one. It feels like all of twenty twenty is a blur because of the pandemic, and I've been working from home for so many months
now that in itself is just unbelievable. As a as a news reporter, you know, I always imagine that i'd be in the studio and you can't really do what I do at home, and that has been proven wrong because I've been at home now for nine months and it's been pretty cool. And what I like about working from home is I don't know if I mentioned this previously, but I love having all the things I need at my disposal. So if I want to compare you know, what Siri says to what Alexa says, to what Google says.
You know, I've got all three of those smart speakers set up at the ready, ready to go. It's a little bit different than you know, being at the TV station, where I've got a great set and great audio and great video, but I don't have access to all the little things that I have at home, whereas at home, you know, the set isn't that great, the audio is not that great, the video is not that great. But I do have all of the things I need. You know, if I need to, you know, shoot something in my
living room, I can do that. If I need to shoot something in the kitchen, I can do that. So it's been really interesting. It's been a learning curve and at the same time it's been fun. And you know, I'm not begging to go back anytime soon, because I think we're going to be through this, hopefully in the next six months or so with the vaccine coming up and through. But you know, the reality is, I'm kind of enjoying being at home for the time I can.
So let's get to the questions again. I don't have my full setup with me, but I am going to do my best to just get through these questions because what the reality of this show is, it's all about the questions, you know, and believe me, you send a lot of them. All right, let's go, Mikey says, good morning, Rich. I was hoping you had some advice about a situation with my MacBook Pro. I purchased my MacBook Pro from a best Buy in West Lebanon, New Hampshire in April
of twenty sixteen. It worked well for two years, then it all went downhill fast. Turns out my machine is actually a twenty twelve MacBook Pro. I thought I was buying a twenty sixteen and twenty sixteen both best Buy an can't help and best Buy I won't even let me trade it in because it's too old, even though I bought it in twenty sixteen. I think the date the computers are made should be printed out on the box.
Any advice on this odd dilemma, Thank you, Mikey. That is a really odd dilemma, but it's not unheard of, and I number one agree, one hundred percent. I think that the year something is made should be very prominent on it. And it's interesting because when you're searching on Amazon for stuff, sometimes there will be a little notation that says there's a newer model of this device available, and sometimes it will say the twenty twenty version or
the twenty nineteen version. But Mikey, I one hundred percent agree. I think that with consumer electronics there should be a year stamped on these things because sometimes you might go through a whole purchase, and especially if you're buying something on sale or discounted or from a third party retailer, you may not realize that what you're buying is actually something that was made a couple of years back. Now, when you bought a twenty twelve and twenty sixteen, that
is pretty wild. That's a four year old device, and I'm actually pretty surprised that they still had that in stock or even for sale. So I don't really have a good answer for you. And you know, I think the answer that I have is to just if it's really not working out for you, And now you're talking this is.
An eight year old device.
I think that you just you just cut your losses here, you put it on eBay, you sell it somewhere. I mean, it's getting a little up there. But my wife actually used as a computer that's almost as old, so and you know, does what she needs. So I think that you can still use this or someone else can find some value in this. I think for you sounds like you need a machine that's going to be a little bit higher powered. So I would say, you know, put on eBay, trade it in. You can trade it in
through the Apple website. I don't know how much you're going to get for that, but you know, you and go that route. But that is a great question, and that's a new one I had not really I've put some thought into this stuff, because especially when you see stuff on sale, especially around the holidays, you know, if you're seeing major discounts on these things, a lot of times, yes, they are a little bit older. So that is a
great question. And I'm sorry that that happened to you, But It's a great lesson for future reference to always think about the birth of the device that you are purchasing. Just see when it was made and make sure that that is the latest model. With the iPhone, it's pretty simple because we.
Know the numbers and the models.
But when you're talking about laptops, it's not always that clear. And I'm gonna have to look at my MacBook box and see what numbers are on there, because that is an interesting thing. And but the other thing is a lot of us are buying stuff online, so you do need to kind of look at those little things on Amazon.
I know, if you scroll down.
There's a little section that says date first available. So for instance, with the with the iPad, that's a really tricky one because the iPad, you know, they don't really go by like right now, it says new Apple iPad, latest model eighth generation. So I mean, you know, you might not know what you know if it didn't say latest model, eighth generation.
I don't know, is that the new one? Like it should say twenty twenty iPad. But if you scroll down on Amazon, there's usually a little section that says date first available. I'm gonna see now this is a very uh okay uh date.
Release date nine fifteen, twenty twenty, so that gives me an indication that this is the eighth generation, is.
The latest model.
So another place to check I always talk about this is the MacRumors. They do a buyer's guide, so Buyer's Guide dot MacRumors dot com is another good place to look. But check those out, all right, good question. Sorry that happened to you, Mikey, but thanks for writing in. I do appreciate it, all right. Phil A writes in, Hey, Rich, can you recommend an alternative to WhatsApp? I feel like I need to delete my account after reading about it's
new privacy policy. Am I overreacting? Let's see here basically seeking a chap at with video functionality that I can use with my iPhone friends. Thanking it, thanks in advance, Happy New Year.
Now.
I've been getting a lot of questions about this WhatsApp you know, new privacy policy, and Facebook owns WhatsApp, they purchased it, and Facebook what they've been doing is slowly but surely they are just merging everything into one, you know, cross platform, whether you use Facebook, whether you use WhatsApp, whether you use Instagram, whether you use Messenger, it's all kind of working together. And you know, that makes sense for them from a business standpoint to just kind of
merge everything and not keep it all separate. But for users, especially with WhatsApp. You know a lot of WhatsApp users were on there and then Facebook purchased them. They said they were going to keep things primarily the same. That didn't necessarily happen, as we see over and over in the tech world. You know, these companies they buy something and they say nothing's going to change, and then sometimes are ninety nine percent of the time things change. And
we saw this in a big way with Instagram. Right now, I'm reading that book No Filter, which is all about Instagram and how it started, and you know, the whole thing is, you know, I'm reading between the lines of why the founders left Facebook, because it's pretty clear that the changes that Facebook wanted to continue to make to Instagram, the founders of Instagram were just not comfortable with, and
that's why they eventually left. And you know, a spoiler there a spoiler alert, But I mean, I think we all know that. But as I'm reading the book, I'm reading through between the lines and realizing this is why they're leaving. So What's app kind of the same thing now the let's see, So it says the new privacy policy actually, according to PC mag won't affect WhatsApp users who decided to stop sharing data with Facebook back when
the option was available in twenty sixteen. So they will continue to honor the opt out if you opted out back.
In the day.
But they say, you can check in your setting Account settings tab, look in the download your data function and see. But the reality is what's happening is WhatsApp is going to have a new privacy policy that's going to share more data with Facebook. And I think it's going to be kind of the same data that Facebook collects throughout all of their other apps.
And I think they're just kind of aligning all those things.
Now, if you have a Facebook account, I would say, honestly, you know, what's the difference if you use Instagram and you're using Facebook. I think, Phil, you know, you're already putting yourself out there with their privacy policies. So WhatsApp is just going to be more in line with those privacy policies.
Now. To answer your question, if you.
Want to delete your accoun you can fully do that. I think one of the reasons why people like WhatsApp is that the messages are end to end encrypted as far as I know, and so let me just let me confirm that and to end, I think that the yeah WhatsApp is yeah. So WhatsApp is end to end encrypted, which means that even WhatsApp can't read the contents of
your messages, your photos, and your videos. So that's that's why a lot of people are attracted to it because it's secure, but the fact that it's also owned by Facebook gives people some pause. So answer your question, I would look at two things. I use an app called Telegram and it's a nice cross platform app, but you're talking about video functionality, so scratch that.
So the two I would.
Recommend is I would say Google Duo. But again, I mean that's Google. So you know who has the better privacy policy Google or Facebook.
I don't know, but you've got that going on.
So Google Duo is a great cross cross platform app that does video chatting with iPhone and also Android.
The other one you.
Can look at that's really secure is Signal. So if you are worried about privacy, I think that Signal is probably going to be your best bet because Signal is the most secure chat app, and I guess they also do video I have not used it, but they also do video chat as far as I can tell, So I would say maybe to switch to Signal. Now here's the thing that's really tricky is that most of the challenge is getting your friends that have iPhones to use
these other apps. You've already gotten them to sign up for WhatsApp, Now you have to get them to sign up for another app. And I find that because Facebook or not Facebook, because FaceTime is built into the iPhone, most iPhone users are like what now. I think the pandemic has helped that situation just a little bit because they know, you know, they're more open to different apps. And I think Zoom is also a fine alternative as well. But the problem with Zoom is that it's a little
bit too much. I think Google Duo is more of just a video chat app. So oh, you're saying, I'm basically seeking a chap at with video functionality, So that could mean two things. I'm not sure you meant you want to be able to send videos or you want to be able to chat with video chat, so either way Telegram, which is what I used, they will do that. I think that when it comes to video chat, it's good, but I'm not sure it's the best.
But they do let you send videos. So good question.
Thank you, Phil, and yeah, appreciate that. All right, let's move on to the next question. Tom says, Hey, Rich, I hope you're doing well. I have a question for you. I have to transcribe one of our production meetings from a Zoom session we had. I remember you reporting about an application in which you could take an audio file and convert it to a printed outline. Do you remember that, Tom, I sure do. And there's a lot of ways you can do this. The simplest way I think is going
to be well, there's a couple of ways. Let me. Let me explain what I mentioned into my piece on KTLA. So this whole thing came about because there's a really, really good app built into the Pixel phones that is called Recorder, And this thing is like pure magic.
You set it up to record.
And you see in real time on your screen everything that's being said. And this is a life saver for me as a journalist because I can set up my Pixel and if I'm on an online call and I'm you know, in a briefing or something. I can literally have it transcribe everything that everyone's saying and have a nice record and go back, you know, oh wait, did they say sixteen gigs or ten gigs. It's just it's
really amazing. And I could also transcribe my interviews. So if I'm feeling a little lazy and I've got a long interview that I want to transcribe, I can just play it and the Google Phone will listen to it and transcribe it.
And it's pretty magical.
And if you're a college student or even any student, you can put this in class.
And it can be recording.
And the cool thing is wherever you're recording, you can tap and go right to that spot in the recording. You know, you can tap the text and you can listen to exactly what that person said. I believe the iPad. Does the iPad do that? Something does that? A lot of the note taking apps. Oh I think the note from Samsung does that as well. But the reality is there's a lot of ways to do this. Tom that's just one, but you have to have a pixel phone.
I've tried installing that app on other androids, and it does work, especially on Samsung's. So if you find the APK for that app and you're comfortable doing that, you can install it what they call sideload it, and it works just fine on the Samsungs. On the OnePlus devices, it doesn't work as well in my experience, but you know, perhaps that's changed. But that's one way of doing it. The other way is an app called Otter. This is an app that works on both iPhone and Android, and
it's called otter dot Ai. And again you can listen to your you know, a lecture, a meeting, an interview, and it will transcribe that pretty much in real time, and it works pretty well. I believe that you would be able to upload, you know, upload a a audio file into the app and let it transcribe that too. I've not personally done that, but I'm sure you could. The limitation on that one is that you get six hundred minutes of transcription for free, so that is the
main thing. Oh yeah, import or sync recordings from services including Zoom, so that's another one I would check out, But you only get six hundred minutes per month, which is a lot. I mean, depends how long this thing is that you're talking about. The thing that I think is The other one is called descript D S c R I p T, and that one is really full feature. This is a full app. You can download it to your desktop. It's from Andrew Mason, the guy who started what was that gosh it Evading Me the.
Deal site, I can't remember.
It was out of Chicago, groupon he started groupon and then he left there and now he started this one called the Script very full featured. Again, you do have to pay for that one. I think you get a certain amount every month for free. Let's see how much you get three hours of transcription just one time. So you might be able to try this and see how it works. But if you want to upgrade to something like Creator or Pro, they are going to charge you.
But that really integrates nicely as well into Zoom. The other one is if you have a Microsoft three sixty five account.
This is the one that I thought was pretty cool. So if you open up Word on the web, you can upload a file into Word, look for the transcribe button and it will take a couple of minutes and transcribe the entire file for you and I think if you are working for a company or you have somehow have access to Microsoft Office three six y five on the web, that would be a really nice way to do that. So again, as a as a reporter that's always transcribing interviews, I go back and forth. Sometimes I
think it's really great to have everything transcribed. Other times I just do it quickly on the fly. You know, if I'm not transcribing the entire thing. Most of the time when I'm writing a story, I don't need to transcribe the entire interview. I'll listen to the entire interview for what I call our selects, and then I will kind of pick which ones I think are the best, and then I will actually go through and you know, just transcribe on the fly the ones that I need the most.
All right, thanks for answering, Tom, and or thanks for the question, Tom.
I do appreciate that.
All right, Moving on here, Jeffrey, can you tell them out of sorts here a little bit? So I don't have my standard setup, so it's a little bit different. You know, I don't have my sound effects and all my little things, and my timer keeps the timer I'm using for the podcast just keeps going dark on my iPhone, so I have to keep like unlocking it to see.
Don't you think that on the iPhone when you're running a stopwatch, it should keep the screen lit, Like I would think that that would be a thing, because if you're actively running a stopwatch, maybe there's a time out after a certain period. But like you know, if you're running a stopwatch, don't you want to see like what you're recording? Uh? Jeffrey says, good afternoon, sir, and happy New Year. Do you know how to use an iPad
as a second monitor of the iMac? I know it's called sidecar, but I'm not sure how it works.
Thank you.
So I don't use this a whole lot, but I do use it sometimes. It's a great feature. But I also just forget that it's even available. But it's a feature that's built into I believe it was as last Mac operating system. The new one is called big sur which, oh, I finally updated my computer to big sur so I wiped my computer clean and oh gosh, this was Actually it was kind of a little bit of a nightmare because there is some real heavy security built into the
new map books. It's mine specifically has this like security chip. I think it's called the T two or Apple loves to name their chips, but it's this chip that for security purposes. It makes it so that someone can't just like straight up erase your Mac and like start over.
It's really tricky.
So I did that to my Mac and next thing, you know, it would not let me install the new operating system because I needed to authenticate that.
And so what I had to end up.
Doing is I had to reinstall the previous operating system, and then I had to create an account, keep that active, and then go in and somehow I forget now that I did it, it's like I got through it and I forgot.
But it was like it was quite the process.
And I got through it, but it threw me for a loop because I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that I just had to erase my whole computer, reinstall the old operating system, and now go back to do the new operating system. It was kind of a it was a bunch of extra steps, but I got it to work. But word to the wise, I wish I could remember what the problem was, but I tweeted about it, so it's on my Twitter at rich on Tech. But it was it took about four or five times
as long as it should have. Let's put it that way. But Sidecar is built in, and the way I see it is that it's super super easy. You just have a iPad next to your computer and it will show up in the display settings and you just go in there and it will just show up and you just say, you know, choose your iPad from the menu when it says connect to and there you go. On Catalina. You can use the airplay icon and it depends how you want to do it. Sidecar you can mirror to your
other display, or you can extend your display. But again this does require the use of an iPad. So but once you do it, it's really cool and it's very simple, and you can also do it if you don't see the settings for Sidecar in your menu bar, just go into your settings, your system preferences, and you'll see a little icon for Sidecar, or you can just search for Sidecar in your settings and you know, set it up that way.
Or your system preferences. I should say, but it's a.
Really handy thing. I you know, I love the idea of multiple monitors. I just don't really use them because I have this little program that I really like on my computer called Rectangle, and it kind of like I can arrange my windows on my computer like either the left, the right, the top, the bottom, the center. It all kind of snaps into these you know, pre defined areas, and so I find that pretty handy. And again that app is called Rectangle for the Mac. But you know,
it just depends what you like. If I had maybe if I was like not mobile and I kind of always had my desks set up a certain way, I think the multiple monitors would be kind of cool because you can keep like, you know, certain things like Twitter on one monitor and other things on other monitor and it just kind of stays all in one place. But for me, I'm always moving around, and so I can't really stick to one standard setup.
But that's what sidecar is.
And oh, I don't know what's going on with me, because you're saying, do you know how to use an iPad as a second monitor of the Mac? And you literally said that, and I keep saying you need an iPad, but yes, you know that, Jeffrey. All right, by the way, thank you for one hundred thousand followers on Instagram. If I had a sound effect, I would play it, but over the holidays it was kind of a personal goal.
Before the end of the year.
I didn't really say that to anyone, but I noticed that my Instagram was getting up towards one hundred thousand followers, and I was just like, is this really gonna hit it before the end of the year, And sure enough it did. And as I stand one hundred k on my Instagram at rich On Tech, what does that mean? It doesn't really mean much. I mean, it's really just symbolic.
But to me personally, it means that what I feel like I've been doing on Instagram, which is giving my followers the best information I can give them in a you know, not in a you know. What I try to do is is not play games. You know, I'm trying to just be myself. And when I see information I think you should know about, I put it on there, whereas I just, you know, I don't want to play
a lot of games. And sometimes, you know, it's a lot of my I mix a lot of stuff like what I say in my in my because there used to be this struggle with Instagram because I used to not post anything tech related. It was just basically like personal stuff. And then you know, then I got into like posting more tech stuff and more tips and you know, like just using it in a lot of different ways. And so now in my bio, I say sharing cool
new gadgets, tech tips, and my life. So my life part is the part that throws someone sometimes because they're like, oh, I followed you for that cool tech post, and now I see a picture of your kids.
What gives you know?
If you don't want to see the full rich DeMuro, you know, like all different aspects of my life, then
you know that's not the place to follow me. But the reality is I want to show a three sixty of here's who I am, here's a cool tech tip, but also here's what I'm doing on the weekend with my family, because I am a normal person that has a regular life, and you know, I feel like I like seeing that with people that I follow, and I like to see what they like, what they're drinking, what they're eating, where they're going, what they're doing with their family.
Like some of those posts are really interesting to me because I'm always curious how other people are living and you know, especially people that I follow that are tech people or public figures, like it's always fascinating, but I also follow them for a reason. I want to see what they're sharing when it comes to tech and when it comes to reviews. So for me, I kind of share all those different things. And I feel like the one hundred k means that it's working. You like what you're seeing.
And yes, you know, a bunch of.
People on follow me every day. Bunch of people follow me every day, So I'll just keep doing what I doing. I'll just keep doing what I do and hopefully we'll grow to even more than one hundred thousand folks on there. But thank you for following me on there. If you're not at rich On Tech is where I'm at, and be prepared for good stuff, fun stuff, interesting stuff, personal stuff, sappy stuff, and everything in between. Just sint To writes in good Morning. A lot of people write me good morning.
This is an ongoing joke in this show because they're watching the morning news, where I primarily appear on TV, and then they say, oh, yeah, I want to write that guy, and then they write an email and they say good morning. When I read these things, all throughout the day. But so I like to read the good morning because I think it is a trend that a lot of people. It's like an inside joke if you listen to this show a lot.
Just since it says good morning.
I'm curious if there is something out there that would allow for a traditional keyboard to be used with a cell phone, specifically wanting to be able to use it when posting lots of content on Instagram without killing my thumbs. This is a funny question and just sint to As far as I know, almost any bluetooth keyboard will work with the iPhone. So you can just get a Bluetooth keyboard, pair it up to the iPhone and it will work.
In fact, I've done some videos on this with I did a mouse where I connected a mouse to the iPhone and that was a that was a fun little video. But I think I connected I know I've connected him in the past because specifically, my father in law wanted this solution and I ended up getting or recommending him a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard that was kind of a travel keyboard or so I forget. It was very specific, but it had a place where you can actually stick your
iPhone like. It kind of had a little ridge in there that would let you stick your iPhone almost like a am almost like.
A tribe not a tripod. What do you call that?
I don't know what you call it, but it was just a keyboard that would just yeah, I guess it was a tablet keyboard, iPad keyboard. Oh. Here it is Bluetooth Multi Device keyboard K four eighty. And there you have it. Switch typing between your computer, phone and tablet. It's only fifty bucks. You compare up to three devices and there's a little gosh, I don't know what you call a ridge that you just put your phone in and it's it's really simple and easy.
And again you can just put any of those.
Devices in there and it works now if you Oh, it's also weather proof.
Wow, that's pretty cool.
The other thing that you can do is if you're on an Android device, I believe, you can just plug a USB keyboard right into the bottom of that device and it should recognize it as long as you know.
It depends.
Every Android manufacturer is different, but for most of them, you know, if they use the standard you know, USB connector I forget it's called like OTG or something. It will it will recognize that keyboard. But that's another thing you can do. And I think this little keyboard I'm talking about as well on the Logitech one, the K four eighty also says it works with Android, so you can use it. Now do I recommend it?
I don't know.
I mean, if you're posting, if your job is to post Instagram content, maybe you need that.
And I think that one of these keyboards would be great.
But I post a lot of content on Instagram. No more than one post a day generally, because that's like the unspoken Instagram rule. I don't know who came up with that, but it's like, why is it that you can only post one thing on Instagram a day.
I don't know.
I've broken that rule sometimes and I'm still here to talk about it. But you know, there you have it, So find the keyboard, see which works for you. But I just you know the other little trick I use, and this is a little inside baseball, but you know, the iPhone and the mac computers they work so well together. You can copy something on your Mac computer or your
iPad and then you can paste on your iPhone. So if you don't know about that you can literally just if you have a Mac computer that's on the same iCloud account as your iPhone or your iPad, you can literally hit command C on your computer and then paste on your iPhone and it will paste from your computer. Now, it's only for a certain amount of time, and the two devices. I don't know if they have to be in proximity of each other, but I think that might
be one of the requirements. But it works, and it does it and it's a great little hack because sometimes I'll type things out on my computer because it's simpler, and then I'll just paste it on my iPhone and it works really well. All right, Moving on to Marta, Marta says, hey, Rich, thanks for all the information you give out day after day. As one of the older generation, I have learned a lot from you. Thank you. Now a question Adobe flash Player. Should I delete it? As suggested?
What will take its place? And she looks like she pasted in something that says since Adobe will no longer be supporting flash Player after December thirty first, twenty twenty and Adobe will block flash content from running in flash Player beginning January twelfth, twenty twenty one. Adobe strongly recommends all users immediately uninstalled flash Player to help protect their systems.
Many thanks for your help, Marta. Yeah, I would delete it from your system because there is a good chance that it could be a vulnerability on your system if you still have the flash player installed. And if you just look at flash player, Adobe flash uninstalled, if you
look at their official uninstalled instructions. So I would go to Adobe flash Player, search for Adobe flash Player end of life and make sure you're on Adobe's website and they will give you the instructions on how to uninstall it from your computer, which is a you know, whether it's a MAC or a PC. So I would uninstall it because it's a potential risk because if the software is not being updated, that means that hackers can exploit any vulnerabilities that they find in that software because it's
not being updated. So there's no security patches that are being administered to this software via a software update, and I don't know when it says no longer supported. So if there was a major major security up issue with it, perhaps they would issue some sort of software update. We've seen that happen in the past with Windows, even though
they said we're not supporting this Windows anymore. But then when something really bad happens, they said, okay, well we'll go ahead and one last time, we're going to update this and patch it, just because we know it's a major problem. And a lot of you are still running that software, and I imagine a lot of people probably still have Flash Player on their system, even though to
answer your second question, what will take its place? Honestly, Marta, ninety nine point nine percent of the web has not been running Flash for a very long time, and what we use now is called HTML five and there's a lot of new open standards that just work much better than Flash. And honestly, most of the time Flash is just not used. You know, it's not used on YouTube, it's not used on all the video sites. It's not
it's pretty much just not used anywhere anymore. I think Farmville was the last holdout, and I think that closed down as well as of January first, because they said, peace out. We built this whole game and Flash and we're done. There might be some specialized applications of Flash that you might still need for something that you run, like an app that you know your company might have, and I think you'd be instructed from your company how
to get around that if that's necessary. But for ninety nine point nine percent of the people on the open web, most of the stuff that you are that are your running or encountering or have been, you know, running into over the past couple of years, has not been flash based.
It's just not.
And so I don't think that you're gonna see a big issue with flash going away.
And I would delete off my computer.
And Steve Jobs he predicted this many many years ago. He famously decided not to support flash on the iPhone. And guess what if I had my ding bell, I would say that's right, because he was right.
So long ago.
He saw the web moving to different, more secure, more open standards, and the iPhone really helped push that along because the iPhone, he said, you know what, we're gonna run apps, and we're gonna run web browser stuff, and you know, we're not gonna support the flash stuff because it's just it just isn't in line with what we
want on the iPhone. And I think Android ran flash for a very long time, and that was a big delineation between the two platforms, because if he had a Samsung, it was like, well, I could still run all these Flash things. If you're on iPhone, it would say sorry, not supported. But nowadays we're just not seeing that problem.
So Marta, I know I say, great question for everyone, but that is truly a great and very timely question right now because a lot of people are getting I got the email from Adobe, and as far as I know, Flash is not on my computer because it was not installed when I reinstalled. This is why I like to do a clean install of my operating system every year,
because I like to clean off all the junk. I install so many programs throughout the year to you know, test new things, test new features, and so I like at the end of the year when they come out with the new Mac operating system, to wipe my system clean and start fresh. And it feels like a new computer when you do that and you get rid of all this stuff. The downside, and I've talked about this in the podcast, is that there's so many little programs
I have to go through and reinstall. Yeah, it's a pain, but it's definitely worth it. And I like the fresh start because it challenges me to kind of take nothing for granted. So, for instance, I switched to Edge last year, towards the end of the year, I was using Microsoft Edge as my web browser, and I will report that
I have gone back to Chrome. I tried when I first installed Big sur I did try to use Safari as my web browser and not install Chrome, but I just found that there's too many things I like about Chrome, and I will admit it's sluggish. It's noticeably slower on this Mac which is a really you know, a nice high end MacBook Pro, and Chrome just just drags it.
It really does.
Safari is fast, it's speedy, but it's just kind of not what I want. And it had all the extensions I wanted, but it was just like, it doesn't work the way that I like.
And so for that reason, I just went back to Chrome. And I'm trying to deal.
With it, and it's gotten a little bit better, you know, as my computer's been on for a couple of months or a month now of the new operating system, but still feels a little weird, all right, Connie says, Hey, Rich I watch you on Channel five all the time and enjoy all your information. Well, thank you, Connie. I hope you and your family had a fabulous holiday season, which I did thank you like to know about the new Samsung Galaxy S twenty one doesn't have the same
feature as the iPhone eleven. The feature that I'm looking for is picture on picture, where you can be walking and talking to the phone and it shows you but the background is what you're looking at. I'm a realtor and can benefit from this feature tremendously. I've had an Android for many years and I really do not want to switch to an iPhone. Can you help me out with this question to get answered, I don't like a big phone right now. I've got the Samsung Galaxy S eight. Yes,
I know it's old. That's why I need a new one. I'm waiting for the one that has the feature with the camera. I look forward to your reply. I have a blessed day, Connie.
This is a question that is okay, So a couple things.
First off, what you're referring to is a feature called double Take, and this is an app that they introduced.
I think it was with iOS thirteen. They showed off this feature that allows you to use both cameras, so you can choose the combination of cameras and you can record two of them at the same time either side by side picture and picture where you're off to the corner, or you can just record two discrete streams and work with them later and you can go you know, front camera plus rear camera or front camera plus wide angle, or you can do wide angle plus rear camera or
telephoto plus wide you know, just take your pick of the two cameras.
And this is a really cool feature.
In fact, one of the guys I like on YouTube uses this as his primary way of shooting. He's called flave City, and it's he does all kind of like he goes into a grocery store and he records himself looking at the food and specifically the food label, and he kind of talks about what's good and what's bad on that food label. And so you always see him in the corner and then see the food label on the other side. You know, the big the big picture is the food label. The little picture in the corner,
Pip is him. And so this got me to thinking, I did try this a couple of weeks ago with a Boba tea making robot, and I recorded myself with the robot and I kind of did it play by play where I'm in the corner talking about, you know, the play by play of what the robot's doing.
And I uploaded it and I thought it.
Was pretty cool. You know, it's like, you know, it's different. It was the first time I tried it, and then I tried it again last week. What was the video I did? I have to look at my Instagram because I'm trying to remember what this was. It was, Oh, this new coffee machine I got, which, by the way, Oh my gosh, I am in love with my new coffee machine now I bought it. I actually bought three coffee machines through this pandemic. The first was a Briville.
It was called Grind Control, and I liked it because it made a fresh cup of coffee by grinding the beans and then brewing them. And we had that for about eight months, and honestly, it was good, but it wasn't as good as I wanted. I was imagining like a super fresh cup of coffee. It never truly tasted
that way. And then the grinds got stuck and I was like, Okay, this thing kind of broke and yes, I'm going to go through the you know, year warranty or whatever and kind of get it fixed and then you know, put on eBay for someone else to use for parts or whatever, or maybe even they just want a coffee machine. But it got me to thinking, you know what, I kind of you know, I was trying to get away from the cake cup because I felt
it tasted stale. But cakeup is just so easy. And what that machine taught me was that the cake cup is just a whole lot easier. So then I bought this machine that was a cake cup side by side with just you know, a brewer machine that you just put ground beans in. You have to grind them before, but just like a drip brewer. So it was a
drip brewers plus the cake cup. And I thought, you know what, I'll use the cakeup during the week to be fast, and on the weekends, I'll use the drip and I'll make a pot for my wife and I. But the problem is I set this whole machine up and it was leaking. And I looked on Amazon, and sure enough, like half the review said, oh yeah, this machine leaks. So I brought it back to best Buy and as I was doing my research, I found this machine from instant Pot of all companies, you know, the
one that makes the instant pot that everyone loves. This is called instant Pod and apparently they only sell it at Walmart. But it is a CA cup slash an espresso. Now they don't use the word in espresso. It's just the Espresso pods, but they're an Espresso pods. And I thought to myself, Oh my gosh, this is amazing. This is the best of both worlds. During the week, I can make the ca cup and then in the afternoons I can make an espresso. And let me tell you,
this machine is so amazing. I absolutely love it. Yes, I'm using you know, the ground things that are already you know, pre made whatever. But I gotta tell you, I'm loving making my cakeup in the morning and my espresso in the after And to make it even better, I found this stuff called ready whip, sweet cream or sweet foam. And okay, you know, say what you will about you know the ready whip, and it's probably you know who knows what's in there. It's got a lot of sugar, but I don't care.
It is so good.
It's like making your own little espresso with.
A nice little foam.
Even when I go to Starbucks to get this thing called I know it's called a dopio or dopyo, but it's basically a shot of espresso with some whipped cream on top, and it's just fantastic. And this recreates that experience at home. And I am loving, loving, loving my coffee right now.
And I'll be honest.
I mean, well, by the way, the machine I bought, I bought it for one hundred and twenty bucks, and I guess the price dropped to one hundred and Walmart automatically refunded.
Me, which I thought was cool.
But then as I posted it to my Instagram, people were like, oh, this is only eighty bucks at Walmart. So I was like, wait, it dropped again. So the price dropped another twenty dollars. I wrote Walmart an email and they said, now we don't do that again. We don't even do price They don't do price drop refunds, which I thought was weird because they automatically did it for my you know, the twenty dollars. But anyway, so I figured, you know what split the difference. I got
my twenty bucks back. Sure, I could have brought the whole machine back and bought it for the you know, eighty Bucks versus the one twenty. But you know, it's already set up and it's fine. So the reality is I'm loving my coffee machine. If you look it up, it's called the instant Pod. If you like k cups and you like a little inn espresso.
In the afternoon.
I have just been really, really enjoying this, and now I need to research how much caffeine is too much in one day, because not like it's I'm going overboard, but I'm having two k cups in the morning and then the espresso in the afternoon, which is kind of like the most coffee I've ever drank, and I don't want to go overboard. So I'm still kind of figuring that out. I don't have the espresso every time, nor do I have the second cup every time. Hey, you
know what you're listening to Rich on Tech. You're getting way more information than you need. So let's go back to this question. What was the question about the s twenty one? Is it going to have that same picture and picture feature. The short answer to your question is you've waited this long wait until January fourteenth, I think, is when they have the Samsung event and see if
they have that feature. I have a feeling they will have that feature because it's a feature on the iPhone, because a lot of loggers, myself included, are really finding that feature useful. And when I looked for an Android app with that same feature, off the top of my head or off the top of Google, I could not find one. I do know of a phone that does
have it too, which is called the LG Wing. And that's what got me started on that whole thing, is because LG sent me the Wing to test, and I thought that that was like the coolest feature that you
could hold this phone and record yourself and other stuff. Now, I am just gonna I'll be honest, I'm gonna totally blatantly rip off flave City, and I have plans to go into a Costco or a best Buy and just kind of go through the tech stuff that I see there that's on sale that I like, and just kind of give you a walkthrough of how rich On Tech's brain processes what I see at Costco, especially because I'm always going in there, and it's been an ongoing joke
in my family with my wife that when we walk into Costco, I say, honey, you know I have to go through the electronics section. That's just built into me, and I know I don't need to buy all this stuff, but I like to see what they have and what's available because I'm curious. I've been like that forever. Same
thing with Best Buy. I just like to walk in there and just see what's what is being presented to the average person, what's on the end cap, what's for sale, what's you know, what has a big display, what has a small display, what's there. I don't walk through Best Buy as much as I'd like to, especially with a pandemic, but you know, I used to just go in on a Saturday and just kind of check things out, and so I think it'd be fun to do a video like that.
The main thing is.
You don't want to get caught, because you know they will toss you out of the stores if you are recording, so you know you have to be careful, and you know, I don't want to show a whole bunch of people
in the background. So anyway, so Connie, to answer your question, wait for the S twenty one, wait to see if that's one of the features, and if it is, I would jump on it because I'm really, I really like what Samsung did with the Note twenty Ultra, and as I mentioned in my last podcast a couple of weeks ago, I may be tempted to jump to the s twenty one if it has all the features I want and
most importantly, the camera is solid. I'm thinking the camera is going to be very similar to the Note twenty, So if I can get that Note twenty features in a slightly smaller form factor, I am all about that, all right. Jason writes in Hey, Rich, I was wanting your suggestion on buying a not too expensive camera for selling things on my website that's being created. We print and sell clothing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Jason. Jason,
my advice is start with what you got. I think, because you're telling me you are starting a website, that means that you're just getting this off the ground. I don't think you need to spend a ton of money on a DSLR. I just don't. I think that the smartphone you have is gonna be just fine. And I think it's more important to have good lighting and a good background for your clothing that you are taking a
picture of. I mean, let's be honest, ninety nine point nine percent of the people that are coming to your website are going to be coming on there from a mobile phone or their desktop, and they're not gonna be looking at high res pictures of these clothes. They're gonna be looking at a small thumbnail that they might expand into a bigger picture. But again, even if it fills up their whole screen, you're gonna be just fine with
the resolution that you get from a smartphone. So if you have a later model iPhone or a Samsung, as long as you take nice pictures, I think that's where you start. I don't like to see people spend a lot of money on equipment when they're quote unquote starting something up, because it takes away from what you're trying to do. And what you're trying to do is build something, and you when you build something with a lot of
expensive equipment, there's a lot of pressure there. So, for instance, with this podcast, and I know it probably sounds a little bit different today than it generally, does, you know, I started the podcast with I think I was just recording directly into my computer with just like a standard like I don't even remember that. I think it was like the iPhone mic or something you know, like the headphones.
So I think that you can just use what you've got, make a nice background, maybe get some nice lighting, and then you know, if you find yourself in a place where you really need to step up your game and you really need to sort of, you know, have a much better looking setup, that's when I think you buy the DSLR and you know, once you need to do that, I would look at it site like wirecutter and just see what they recommend for like a budget or entry
level camera or you know, there's so many websites out there that rank cameras. I would just look at one of those and see what they got. All right, Sandy, how are we doing on time with this podcast? Sandy says, Hey, Rich, I wanted to find out what sites are safe to order from, Like when getting a PS five. I see eBay and these sites, wondering which you would suggest to stay away from.
HM.
This is a tricky question because I don't want to cut out, you know, all these random websites that are selling things. But honestly, when it comes to something like the PS five, which is very much in demand, you want to stick to the main players. And I'll tell you this from experience, because I got a bunch of emails from folks when I was talking about how to get a PS five that said, you know, they got burnt.
They were just buying from these random websites that said they had them in stock, and guess what, they did not have them in stock. And in some cases they hand it over a payment via PayPal and guess what, good luck getting your money back from that, because it's just not happening eBay. You know, if you're gonna buy from eBay, I would say, you have to be sure that the seller is not it's not their first rodeo, right.
You want to find a seller that has a lot of good feedback, and not just feedback on you know, two dollars items for the past month and then all of a sudden they've got this thousand dollars PS five on there. You want to find someone that has a solid track record, you know, that has been selling stuff of expensive value, that has good feedback for the past couple of months and then has jumped into this PS five. Because it could just be someone looking at an opportunity.
They went to their local target, they found one, and now they're flipping it, and you know, I can't knock them for that, Do I do? I think that should be happening. No, But does it happen yet. It's been happening forever, you know, scalpurs have been going on as long as humankind has been around. People see opportunity. It's you know, it's a marketplace. If someone's willing to pay more because they're in a position to do that, that's their progative. Would I pay more? No, I would not.
I would just wait the six months or the three months or the four months, whatever it's gonna take to get this at the normal price from best buy dot com or from Amazon dot com, or from Sony or from one of these main websites that you can just order it and get it through the standard channels. That's what I would recommend. When it comes to these other websites, I would really really.
Stay away because you just don't want to deal.
With losing a lot of money, especially when you're overpaying to begin with, because you're probably paying a premium going from.
One of these websites.
All Right, Wow, I got a lot more questions. I just kind of copied and pasted a bunch of the questions I've gotten in the last couple of weeks, and I'm gonna jump around here a little bit. Richard writes, good morning, rich I hope this year, this New Year finds you healthy. Thank you it has knock on wood. My question has to do with the safest payment method for my subscriptions. Some like Netflix have the option of
either credit, debit, or PayPal. So given those three options, what is your advice a credit card, a debit card, or PayPal when given the opportunity. Thank you for your time, Happy New Year to you and his family in his service. RC. Richard, Well, this is a question that is at the top of my mind all of the time. If you've listened to this podcast, you know I am not a fan of credit cards, but I do use a credit card for various reasons, and some of those reasons have to do
it travel. When it comes to business travel. You know, it's just easier when it comes to booking flights and stuff like that. It does give you a little bit more protection to have a credit card. When it comes to large purchases. I do like putting those on a credit card because you do get a little buffer.
Between you and your money.
And when it comes to shopping online, I like to use a credit card because I'm not putting my debit card number, which is linked to my checking account, out there on the open web, and if that site gets hacked, boom, Now they've got access to my debit card, which gives them access to my checking account.
And yes, you do have a lot.
Of the same protections with getting your money back with a debit card, but the reality is it's more of a headache. And just to test this, I went on my bank account and I looked at one of my transactions I made with my debit card and on my app on my on my phone, and I looked for a dispute transaction button and I didn't find one. And then I went on my credit card app and I found dispute transaction right on my app. So again it really comes down to if something were to happen with
this transaction, are you protected? And so I would say for things like Netflix and those recurring payments that are really not going to change, I think you're safe using your debit card.
I kind of split the difference.
I've moved a lot of them to my credit card because I just like the idea of especially with recurring transactions. I don't Number one, I don't like anything auto built, you know, unless they have to something like Netflix, they have to auto auto charge you. And you know the number doesn't really change month to month, but things that do. Like historically a cell phone bill back in the day,
it would you know, it would change every month. You know it would you know when you're getting different minutes and different stuff. Now you know the way the cell phone companies have got this little racket going where they give you a discount by using your debit card because it saves them money every month times millions of customers. And so I do use my debit card with my
with my wireless bill. As much as I don't like it, it saves me twenty dollars a month to pay with my debit card and with my with my NOH paper bill. So these companies are very smart and they will try to get you any way they can. And you know, something like Netflix, I think you'll be fine with a debit card. But again it's to me, it's like, here's my rules when it comes to credit versus debit. If my card leaves my hand, I generally like to use
a credit card. So that means if I'm in a restaurant and someone's taking my card to a back room to swipe it, I'm gonna give them my credit card because you know who knows, they might take a picture of my card. There's a chance for that to get stolen. If my card does not leave my hand, I will generally use my debit card because I'm the one swiping it. And again I will always default to my phone tap to pay when in doubt I've got my debit card
on my phone, i will tap to pay. Because they don't hand over your actual debit card number when you're dipping your card using your chip. Also, again they do not hand over your actual debit card number that's printed on that card, so you are protected. The place where you are most at risk is when you wipe your card or you write down your card number into a web form. That is when you are most at risk
for that card number being hacked. So with Netflix, you know if they're storing it on their server, you know that there is a risk if they were breached, but it's it's generally minimal. But again there is a risk, and so it's up to you PayPal. I would say X that I use PayPal. I've been using it more online, but again only for a transaction that.
You know is not going to be disputed.
So again, if you're buying something that you think you might return, then you know, maybe use your credit card. Though, you know, and again these are all personal. Finance is very That's why they call it personal finance. It's very personal. Some people like to use their credit card for everything because they get those points. Personally, I don't go for the points. I would rather not have to pay that
bill at the end of the month. And so I like to use my debit card and have a you know, an ongoing kind of like seeing how much I've got in that account. I use a separate account for my debit card purchases that I load up with a certain amount that is sort of in my budget and say, this is what I use for, you know, dining out and this and that, and I know and I can see that that number dwindling, and so it does help me with that.
So there you have it.
Those are my sort of thoughts on it, and you know, it's it's different for everyone, So just use what makes you comfortable, all right. Wow, I can't believe it, but we have made it to the end of the show. I hope that this show sounded good. Like I said, I'm using a slightly different setup for this show, so hopefully it sounded good. I know I didn't have the full everything going, but I did want to get an episode out to you and make sure that I did get one even though I don't have my full setup.
But thank you for listening.
If you would like to submit a question for me to answer, just go to rich on tech dot TV. Actually, you know what, Just go to rich on tech dot TV slash podcast and look for the contact link and you can submit a question there. I am using a new service for my podcast called pod page, which I love. It's really good and I just love how clean it is, so you can go There's two ways to find it. You go podcast dot richon tech dot tv or rich
on tech dot TV slash podcast. If you would rate and review the show, that would really help other people discover it.
There's also a.
There's a link there to rate it as well. You can find me on all social media at rich on tech Please tell a friend about me about my podcast, about my social media, especially Instagram, that is really where I'm putting a lot of my effort these days. And again, this only grows with the thanks of you telling friends, Hey, this guy is sharing stuff that I think you can
use on a daily basis. It's tips, it's information that is useful, it's timely, it's gadgets that are interesting, and you know, I just feel like the stuff that I'm trying to share is stuff that the average tech consumer just needs to know about. My name is Richardimiro. Thanks so much for listening. Have a fantastic day, Happy New Year, Happy twenty twenty one.
I will talk to you real soon.