Amazon’s evolution, best big-screen TVs & better home internet (159, January 31, 2026)

questions about technology. I believe that tech should be interesting, useful, and fun. Let's go ahead and open up those phone lines. You're ready, triple a rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one eight eight eight rich one oh one. Give me a call. If you have a question about technology. Email is also open. Just go to the website richon Tech dot tv and hit contact guests this week. Okay, we had a little up last week with our guest Caleb Dennison, but he

is back. He is going to explain what to look for in a good TV for the Super Bowl, and we've got business insiders Julia Pugachevski. She's gonna explain why bricking your phone is the new dry January. What does that mean? We will find out. Well, I hope you're having a fantastic day. We got some big news from Amazon this week. Amazon is making some big changes. The company is cutting sixteen thousand corporate jobs and shutting down all of their Amazon Fresh grocery stores and all of

their Amazon Go convenience stores. They only had a handful of those, but the Amazon Fresh grocery stores, I think they had several dozen of those. They closed them all over in Europe a couple months ago, and the writing was on the wall. Let's start with the job cuts.

fourteen thousand jobs last October. Context, of course matters here. Amazon employees about one point five million people worldwide. Now, not all of those people are full time. Obviously, that reaches into the you know, the daily hires and things like that, but even a cut this big amounts to about two percent of its total workforce. Now here's a line from the employee letter that stood out to me.

Every team will continue to evaluate ownership, speed, and capacity to invent for customers in a world that's changing faster than ever. Now there's your allusion to AI, for sure, but that's Amazon in a nutshell. This is a company that for years has not been afraid to invent and reinvent themselves, and importantly, they're not afraid to move on when something does not work. Now, I've been covering Amazon

and been a customer of Amazon since day one. I could remember the early things I ordered from them, and I was just in awe of how, you know, I grew up with things that you would get delivered. But remember it was six to eight weeks. You would literally mail in a form with your payment information, and six to eight weeks later, after you forgot about ordering that item,

it would show up on your doorstep. Now, yes, there were things where you can call in and you know, get to an operator in this and that, But when Amazon came out. Not only did they have the website with books, but they also had pretty fast delivery. I remember joining Amazon Prime back in two thousand and five. I was a TV news reporter in Shreveport, Louisiana, and

the pitch was pretty simple, unlimited two day shipping. I didn't think that could ever work, and I told my wife, has said a girlfriend back then, I said, you know what, I'm going to sign up for this thing. I think it was about eighty dollars a year. They're gonna give us unlimited two day shipping. And by the way, back in the day, you had to pay for shipping, and this was all completely free and included. Now I've been a member ever since. The price has gone up since then, obviously,

but they've gotten really good at shipping. Just this week, my kid saw a yo yo that his friend had at school. He wanted it, and he ordered it on Amazon and it was delivered before he woke up in the morning. How wild is that now? I think, on the flip side, instant gratification for kids these days, you know, that's a little that's a whole another topic. But other things that Amazon has done has been kind of complicated.

I was at the launch of the Amazon Fresh stores in Los Angeles back in twenty twenty and later the Amazon Ghost stores, and I will be honest, from the moment I walked into both, I said to myself, I don't think this will last. Not because the idea was bad, but because grocery is a brutal business, cutthroat, especially in Los Angeles, where we saw several companies come in and go fresh and easy haggins. I think that's how you say it. They were from like the Pacific Northwest. They

were all hype. They literally were in town for maybe six months. So Amazon stores tried something new. They had a complex system called just Walk Out with these cameras in the ceiling. They had sensors everywhere, automatic receipts when you walked out. When it worked, it felt pretty cool, but the receipts were slow. People had all kinds of issues with things they didn't purchase. They had to get

a refund. Amazon eventually ditched that tech in its own stores, but you can still find it in places like airports and stadiums. Then there was the dash cart. This was a smart shopping cart that tracked items and wager produce automatically, but it turned out most people just wanted a cashier, and Amazon caved and eventually added self checkout too. So

now these stores are closing quickly. If you have one in your neighborhood, it might be gone by the end of the weekend, except in California, where we have stricter labor laws, and the stores will close in mid March. Now some locations, if you're lucky, are going to become a Whole Foods, which Amazon bought, remember, and they're doubling down on that brand. That's a tried and true product. And if you use Amazon Fresh for delivery, that's not

going anywhere. But all these closures got me to thinking about how many Amazon products I've covered over the years that were eventually canceled. The firefhone. This had a three D screen but no Google apps. It was dead on arrival. I think it lasted maybe six months. The dash wand this was a barcode scanner for your house. You would scan items that you need to replaced and they would order them. That was replaced by the echo speakers. They

had these things called dash buttons. These you would put by your items like detergent or dog food. You would press them when you're low and it would reorder that item. Those are gone Amazon Style. This was a high tech clothing store I went to in Glendale, California. They had a Magic closet. It was basically a high tech fitting room. You choose things on a screen that you wanted, and an associate would slip them into this back door of the fitting room, and then you'd open the front door

and there was the clothes. Voila. That didn't last. Amazon Books, Amazon four star, Amazon Echo Glow. That was a toy for kids that didn't last. Amazon Halo. This was a wristband that tracked your emotions. That didn't last, and now Amazon won. This is their Palm scanner that's also being phased out due to low use. This isn't a way that you can pay using your palm, But let's be honest, who wants to hand over your Palm biometrics when Tap to pay is already in your pocket. The list goes on,

but here's the bottom line. Amazon is willing to try big ideas, and they're just as willing to walk away from them. Now, let's talk about this stuff that's worked with Amazon, The Kindle, Blockbuster, Echo Alexa, fire TV, self publishing, shipping that keeps getting faster, and now they're doing what's next, robotics, healthcare, satellite internet, AI, drone delivery. Remember, some of the biggest retail giants in history refuse to adapt. They stuck with

what they thought worked until it didn't. And now they're gone Sears, Circuit City, Toys, r US Radio, Shack, Borders, Blockbuster, BlackBerry. They all ignored what was going to happen in the future, and they're all gone Amazon, for better or worse. And throughout all these job cuts, they keep evolving. Now, if you excuse me, I need to go place in order, all right, eight to dight rich one on one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. We got a lot on the show. We're going to

talk Super Bowl TVs. I can't wait to hear what the latest is. We're also going to talk about that Sony and TCL deal. We're gonna talk about bricking your smartphone. Yes, people are putting down their smartphones to do less on social media. We're also going to talk about AI in the workplace. We've got your calls at eight eight eight rich one oh one. Of course, the feedbag. Those are coming in hot and heavy on the website richon tech

dot TV. And on top of all that, who do I have in studio Bobo on the board and my kids Parker and Tanner are here? Can you say hi? Oh there you are? What?

uh Midge in Atlanta, Georgia. Midge Jerome with Rich rich.

because it's mine, but it won't send to Gmail. You know what I mean.

to the Apple sign in page. Okay, so let's just go to iCloud dot com and then you can go let's see here sign in and I do this from a web browser, and then type in that Gmail address and then uh, after you do that, say forgot password. So actually, let's go to a Let's go to Apple forgot password. Let me see what that website is. So there you go. You go to okay, it's I forgot dot Apple dot com. I forgot dot Apple dot com. What a great website. And then you tap you sign

in with that email address and tap reset password. And then once you do that, I think you're going to get an email to that Gmail account and it will give you the information on how to reset. That's that's my guess. Now it could be that someone else is using that Gmail account, but I don't think so because they don't have access to it. So those are the things that I would do to try to regain access

to that. And then once you have if you have two email addresses and two different accounts, there is a way to merge your Apple accounts and I will link this up on the website, all these things that I'm telling you, there is a way to Apple just introduce this merge Apple accounts. They have a special page where you can basically migrate your old account to your new account, and so once you have control over both of these accounts,

you can then do the merging. But that's the only I mean, the only thing I can think of is if it's given you that that message that says, hey, this is already in use, then you know, somehow you may have signed up for this over the years without realizing it, and that's what's happening now. The other thing you could do, you said you were scanning stuff in the scanning app in preview, and you're sharing it, you know, to yourself. You could just I'm just testing this right now.

If you scan something in the app and you want to share it out to a different email address, just go ahead and tap the document, tap the share, and then go ahead and send it via your email And you can put in any email address you want in there. So that's another way of just if you want to send stuff to yourself. But I think Midge, you got to you gotta get some of these things kind of cleaned up and figure out why this is saying that. So I'll link up all those pages that I mentioned

on the website. Rich on tech dot TV, thanks for the call and thanks for the emails over the years. Let's go to al in Inglewood. Al You're on with Rich.

So that's number one, and I'll put the instructions on how to do that. Yeah, So you go into your Safari settings. Then you go into apps. So you go into Settings and then apps and then Safari and you scroll all the way downwards. Says clear history and website data. I would do that first and see if these clear up, because these sound like they're a scam if you ask.

an option that says storage. And right now I can tell you I've got one point four of two terabytes used, and then it'll tell you how much you're actually using of your legitimate storage Now, if you're truly almost towards the end of your storage, you can tap into your storage and it will give you some options on how to clear it out and clean it up. But I'm telling you, al, I think that what you're seeing are bogus and I've seen them go around they kind of scan.

Is it animated when you see this message as it say like hey, checking your cloud all that kind of stuff.

stuff for a long time. But first off, before we get into your picks, I want to know what your take is on this Sony TCL thing. I mean, that's a huge shift in the industry.

They make great TVs, they're just not selling enough of them. And I think a partnership with TCL could make things a lot better for.

and all that stuff. I think, you know, people will probably be impressed with what they're getting for the price at this point.

lot today, so just get used to it. They have this new SQD or super quantum dot TV that is legitimately just flabbergasting to look at. I've got one here right now, so I've been able to check it out in my own space and mess with the settings myself. It's not a controlled demo, and it's still amazing and and I mean that's some of the highest praise I can give it.

that we'll see from them down the road. They're getting closer and closer to old in terms of the blacks and the contrast, to the point where most people are gonna want to save money and get a bigger screen and still get that amazing black level in contrast.

of them have tons and tons of HDR content. So yeah, brightness is important, but more for getting the best picture quality, not for just you know, blasting you out of your seat and your home.

told us. So if you're looking for those TV picks, they are all on the website. Rich on tech dot TV. This is episode one fifty nine. That's right, this is your number four of this show. If you can believe it, I can't.

doing anything that requires like your brain, just stop. Twenty nine hundred dollars for a smartphone with a five hundred and twelve gigs of storage, one color, and apparently it's already sold out, like apparently people already. I don't know how many they made of this phone. But now remember if you're into Samsung devices, the new one is coming out next month, So in February at least, it's gonna be unveiled next month. That's the rumor. We don't know

for sure. Samsung has not said specifically. I think they're getting through the publicity on the trifold. Once that WANs then they'll go to the new phone. But there it is. All right, Let's go to David in Claremont, California. David, you're on with Rich Rich Good afternoon.

says clean up space. I've got seven hundred and nineteen gigabytes that I can clean up. So that's the number one place you want to go, because I have a feeling that you may have your storage cleaned up on Gmail. But if you click into the area where it says storage, you will see it breaks it down by service. So I'm using four terabytes of five terabytes, and in Google Drive, I've got about three hundred gigabytes. In Gmail, I've got

forty five gigabytes. How do I have forty five gigabytes of emails?

If you're using Gmail, your storage is actually shared across all these different Google properties, Google Photos, Google Drive, Recorder, Gmail, and so anything that you have stored in Google Photos, even if you did a takeout, it's still in there. A Google takeout does not get rid of the files. It just gives you a copy of them to download. So what you'd have to do is, if you want to really clear this up, you'd probably be best to

either tap one of these things. It'll just say clean up space, and it gives you suggested ways to do that. Large photos and vide large drive files. Emails with large attachments, so bobo to your question or your comment. I've got seven gigabytes of emails with large attachments, which is not that much I mean over twenty years, and then I've got files in trash two and forty nine megabytes, So I guess that's another big question of is does the files in your trash take up the space on Google?

And it looks like I'm guessing the answer might be yes, because why would it say cleanup suggested items and show me my trash if that wasn't actively taking up storage. So I can try emptying my trash, but I don't want to do that right now because I want to see But those are the places to look, so go into again. It's one. If you've got Google storage and you're struggling with your phone saying you're out of storage, go to one dot Google dot com and just explore

that page. They don't really advertise it that much because think about it, why would they want to. The more you've got in this storage and the more you don't understand it, the more you're paying Google. And what's the fastest growth area of Google, Amazon and Apple right now? It's called services, and that's cloud storage. That's where they're making their money. So I know, for me, I'm paying you know already I think twenty five dollars a month.

But Yeah, before we go to break here, Yahoo is back. They've got a new AI search tool. It's called Yahoo Scout. You can go to scout dot Yahoo dot com. It's an AI answer engine, so instead of just like a bunch of those blue links, it's going to give you direct answers, kind of like you know, all these other

AI services we're seeing out there. Yahoo says they are bringing thirty years of experience with search plus stuff they know about you, plus information from across the web, and they're going to roll this out to all of their products. So you're gonna start seeing Yahoo Scout in Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo's Sports, Yahoo's shopping. I know, we discount Yahoo because that's a brand that's kind of gone away, but they still run some pretty popular properties

on the web. So be on the lookout for Yahoo Scout or go to the website and you can check it out yourself. Rich on Tech dot TV eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. This is rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you talking technology at Triple eight Rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Phone lines are open,

you've got the feedback, We've got the website. This is episode one five nine, so if you're looking for something that I mentioned, it's all on the website. There, don't forget. If you like listening to the show, subscribe to the podcast. It is free. We're on all the main podcast services, so you can listen to whatever you might not catch catch the first time around. There's a new air tag

this week. Apple launched it without a lot of fanfare, but you know, you know, how do you improve on a device that's already being used by millions of people around the world. It's the best selling item finder. Apple announce that, and now there's a new version. It's got better range and louder sound. So it's got a new ultra wide bandschip, letting you use that precision finding from up to fifty percent further away. Now this is a little confusing for people because there's two ways you can

use an AirTag. You can just see the location on your phone at any time, no matter where it is in the world. But you can also use your phone if you have a recent model iPhone, to lead you right to the air tag. So if it's in your house, you lost your keys. You can turn on this precision finding mode and your phone will literally direct you left, right forward backwards to the device. Now that range is longer. In my testing, I was able to find the old one up to a range of about fifty feet away.

With the new one, I was able to go about one hundred and fifty feet. But I imagine there's lots of different reasons why that might be longer, depending what else. The speaker is about fifty percent louder, so it makes it easier to hear when something's lost nearby, or if it's like under a couch cushion. And for the first time, you can use precision finding on newer Apple Watches to

locate the air tag right from your wrist. So if you've got your air tag on your keys, you can use your Apple Watch to find where your keys are. And by the way, I didn't even know this I was setting up the new air tag. You know, you can edit that like little pop up screen on the Apple Watch when you press the flat button. There's like the airplane mode, the Wi Fi, the battery percentage. You can edit those tiles if you scroll all the way down. And now I've set one as the air tag that

I'm about to let you hear. Okay, so here's the audio on the old air tag. The new one sounds slightly different. You're ready, So here's the old one. I'm gonna press up play sound. Okay, so you're pretty familiar with that sound if you've ever used an air tag. That's the old one. Now the new one I'm putting in this same length away from the mic. Let's hear

what that one sounds like. Ready, there we go. So it's a higher pitch sound, right, and it's also a louder sound as well, so you're gonna be able to find things easier. Hopefully, design is the same. They didn't change that, which thank you Apple for doing that. They could have changed it and made accessory makers a whole bunch of new money because you would have to buy everything new. No old accessory. Existing accessories will still work and you don't need to run out and upgrade your

air attacks. They still work. You can replace the battery when they go dead. You just this is moving forward. If you want something that's louder, you want something with more range, you want to use your Apple Watch on it, now you can with the new one. Same price twenty nine dollars for the one pack, ninety nine dollars for the four pack, same as before. How do you tell the difference? There is one way to tell the difference on these. My kids are in studio. Can you tell

the difference on the back? What's the difference I'm showing Parker, Can you tell what's the difference? At first glance, I will reveal the letters on the old air tag are upper lower case. The letters on the new air tag are all in upper case. So there's no visible way to tell except for that. So now you know, all right, Let's go to Beth in Cyprus, California. Beth on line four you're on with.

of look behind that. Okay, so here it is applying for credit unfreeze your credit file. So mine actually is frozen right now. So yeah, so if you go online, Beth, and I know you're a little concerned about the online stuff, they won't. Did you call in now? Yeah, here's the reason why I think they won't let you do it by calling in, because think about it, there's not too much identifying information anymore these days, and someone could easily call in and just say I'm Beth, and here's all

my info. Let's say your data was out there in a breach, and then they can unfreeze and then get more stuff. That's probably why they're doing it. I would say, it's relatively safe to do. To sign up on Experience dot com, the number one thing you need to do is make sure you're on the right website. Their website is Experience dot com. Number one. Don't don't go to like a you know, imitation website.

I don't know if they do two factor authentication. Let me see here. Yeah they do, okay, so I would lock lock down with two factor and I just looked at my account. I need to do that actually. So those are the things to do. And then once you're in there, you can do the freeze right from there and it should show that you're frozen. Now here's the

here's the rub here. I I don't know if they're gonna let you sign in because your account is froz you know what I mean, Like you may not be able to sign up fresh because your account's frozen, so that you may run into a scenario where you try to log in and they say, sorry, your account was frozen. We're not gonna let you log in. But I'm not sure that's the case, because you could do other things on this website than just unfreeze your account.

get this card. But yeah, So the main thing to do when you go on there after you sign up, if you want to unfreeze it, remember to freeze it again. You can. Oh, interesting, it says you can schedule a thaw. Let's see what that does. Okay, schedule a thaw before you apply. So if you do a thaw, which will allow access to your experience credit file, and I guess maybe they freeze it again. So in case you forget

that's interesting. Oh yeah, set a date range. Okay. That's so you can set a range if you're applying, like you go on a bender and just like apply for like ten cards at once. You're not gonna do that, right best, No.

called YouTube. No, I know what you're talking about. You're talking about a black box.

may not be able to update this thing. Anything could break along the lines, So please stick to fire TV, Apple TV, Google TV, Roku, and you're gonna have to pay for those subscriptions like everyone else. Richard eighty eight rich one o one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one More rich on Tech right after this, Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you talking technology at Triple eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to

two four one zero one. I always have like a bunch of announcements for the show, and I always forget to do them. No, nothing like nothing's changing, but I'm just saying I have like all these things. Like, uh, let's see, I'm at rich on Tech on Instagram. There I post the latest scams to be aware of, plus tech tips and a little glimpse into my life as a tech reporter, traveler and dad. This is why I don't read these. Be sure to subscribe to my free newsletter.

It's packed with helpful tips, tricks, and the latest tech news I think you should know about, and much more. Just go to rich on tech dot tv and hit sign up. Did you also know I'm a tech reporter on TV? You can watch all of my segments at richon tech dot tv. You're such a dad. The feedback is where I read the questions, comments, and whatever else you send me throughout the week. To submit yours, just go to on tech dot tv and hit contact. Okay, actually,

this one I like. If you want to watch the monologue of this show that's like the first ten minutes, you can just download the free KTLA plus app on your Fire TV, Roku or Apple TV and look for rich on Tech Weekly. It has the first ten minutes of this radio show, plus more in depth versions of my TV segments. I'm actually very proud of that show. I was watching all the pieces yesterday for next week's and my editor Luis does such a great job. He takes so much pride in editing those pieces, and I

watch them. It's a shame it's only on streaming. It's only made it to like KTLA over the air like twice, and people write me they're like, oh my gosh, Rich, congratulations, Like no, we do this every week for like years now, but it's on streaming, so not everyone sees it. But I keep asking KTLA. I'm like, hey, can you put this over the air? Can you put it over the air? Okay, let's go to Bob in North Hollywood, Line one. Bob, you're on with Rich.

digital creator and it goes from there. And I have no idea what that means.

gives you. The main thing that this gives you is a whole bunch of insights into your account, so you can see when people are looking at your stuff, how your content did. You might be eligible for like monetization things like that. It's odd because it's not like you

have a huge following. Like this typically happens with people that may have reached a limit of like five thousand friends on Facebook back in the day, and they would say, oh, clearly you're doing something that's more of a public facing account, so let's switch this on for various reasons because you probably want to see but for you, was there an option to turn this off?

in just a moment. Kim did mention that the air tags are on sale on Amazon for seventy bucks for a four pack. And then here's the thing that you need to know, because I mentioned that they have new air tags, so you're gonna see a delineation first generation

versus second generation. So the second generation are also at Costco, but they're selling for one hundred dollars for a four pack, so you're probably gonna see I would say even more discounts on the first generation air tags as retailers sort of clear them out whatever stock they have. The big thing is do you need to get the old or the new. If you're interested in that precision feature, like if you need that longer range or if you need

the louder speaker, go with the new ones. But if you don't, the old ones are going to be just fine. Everything else is like completely the same, all right. Sharon guys on the line. She is an AI expert and former Ali Baba strategist and author of the upcoming book, How to Do More with Less future Proofing yourself in an AI driven economy. That is a hot topic these days. Sharon, thanks for joining me.

whether it's right for your life. Personally, I think it's it's made a huge shift and the way that I work, the way that I think about things, the way that I live my life. You know, the Internet get paved way for this burst of information to just be at our fingertips, and I think AI just makes it even faster that that information is not just exploded, it's hyper exploded in front of us.

with AI. You know, if you've seen the reports of MIT says there's an MIT study that says ninety five percent of AI projects have failed so far, and so we're in that reckoning where there's a lot of things that's not working in the ANI space, but that's just a temporary hold before things start before product to before productivity actually has that uptick. So for the in terms of jobs, you see a lot of entry level work

being displaced right now. So if you are you know, maybe twenty two just graduated, the things that you know is not really based on experience because you don't have experience yet, and so if your job is quite junior, that's the exact layer of roles that we're seeing being affected.

when the Internet emerged, jobs were displaced too. We used to have a lot of people that were type this, and that was their job is to be a type this or a secretary of some sort, or like travel agent of some sort, where your job was to book tickets, book plane tickets for people. And then Expedia I came

and then we didn't really need those people anymore. So I think change is just part of life, and I think we don't give ourselves enough credit sometimes with our humans natural ability to adapt to change.

plane with that little wipe they give you. So I'm like cleaning the plane now I'm not flying the plane. Obviously, checking into the hotel. You're doing that from your phone. I mean, there's just so many things that we've taken on the duties for. Like you said, there's people that used to do these jobs, but you know, it's not as if you go to these places there's no one there, there's less people, but there's definitely you know, people have been displaced in various ways and they find new things

to do. I think this analogy you give in the book about this this busy bees. If you're drowning in meetings notes and repetitive data entry that leaves you burnt out by five pm, what's your advice there? That's kind of interesting.

How do we remove some of that drudgery from our work so that we don't have to grown on the Sunday evening going into work.

going through a lot of checkboxes. It wasn't thinking more strategically about where should I better spend my time on. And I think once we start to do that too, we start to excavate our own human potential. We can realize there's more creative things that actually need our time and attention that we can actually make an impact towards versus spending our time in something that's not worth.

DSL Extreme is not open on the weekend, so I'm not happy. I'm watching TV on a out of rabbit ears last weekend. But anyway, come Monday morning, I called them. They I'm on the phone with them. They tell me that everything appears to be fine, the signals coming out. I'm but they say they have to contact AT and T. Well,

fast forward the story. On Wednesday, I get I talked to DSL and they tell me that AT and T says there's a serious wiring issue at my building and it may not be fixed until wait for it, February twenty fourth. I'm about I'm going about insane right now.

they can, wherever they have their service. Their whole deal proposition is that I'm guessing you're either getting a better price or a better service by using this company. How much you paying them a month for your Internet?

a great job and they fixed it. I was not sure they were going to be able to fix it because it's one of these problems that like, we don't know what's going on here and so, but they came out and they they worked on it, and they figured it out, and people had to go up on the poll and all this stuff that like I never wanted

to do. It did not take a month. I will tell you that it is actually way faster than I thought because I was almost in the same place where my internet was going in and out, and so I was like kind of going nutty because I was like, Okay, this is crazy. Every day at three pm my internet goes out. How's that happen? They ended up figuring out what the problem was, and it's a whole long story, but anyway, you also have Spectrum in your area. Those

are the two wired services that you have. Okay, Spectrum can usually come out like pretty quickly, like almost the next day or the same day to get you installed at and T as well. So I would if I were you personally, unless you're in love with this company that you're working with, I would I would call up Spectrum or go online and see how quick they can come to install internet. That's number one. Then you've got

these wireless providers. So if you want to save a ton of money and you have a good signal at your place, like from T Mobile or Mint Mobile or Verizon, you can switch to home internet and it's significantly cheaper than usually the wired internet, and it's you know, depending on what you're doing like if you're just doing basic stuff like watching TV and surfing the web, you're gonna be just fine and you're gonna save a lot of money. Who's your cell phone provider?

little bit more. But I would look into those two things and see, you know, if you want to stick with see if you sorry, see if you want to stick with this provider, or if you're willing to switch. If you're willing to switch, I would just cut ties and say I don't want to wait until, you know, three more weeks for this, and you can get internet installed at your house, you know, as quick as tomorrow.

Good question, Bob. In the In the meantime, try your hot spot on your phone if you have it for connecting your devices, that'll at least keep you connected in the meantime. Eighty eight rich one oh one back after this, Welcome back to Rich on tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology, triple eight rich one on one eight eight eight rich one on one. If you're

one of these Strava users. They have added a new feature, turn by turn navigation to the Apple Watch, so directly on the Apple Watch, starting in beta, you can now follow pre loaded routes, see your elevation, and get directions right on your wrist. That means you no longer need your iPhone if you're out running, biking, or hiking. Runners and cyclists are saying this is a big upgrade they've been waiting for. Some people say both free and paid

users have access at least during the beta. But this does make the Apple Watch much better if you use Strava. So if you Usetrava, if you use the Apple Watch app, check it out if you haven't looked at it in a while, because apparently they got some new features that are quite helpful. And if you like candy Crush, I told you that I love that new ca Andy Crush Solitaire game. It's just fun, Like Candy Crush has a

cool thing going on. They have a new game called Crushable and this is kind of a quick once a day game instead of like a long ongoing game. And it's exclusively on Yahoo Games in the US. One new puzzle every day, and the goal is kind of like to replace sort of supplement. They notice a lot of people are doing like wordle in the morning or a

quick crossword puzzle or Sodoku. This is kind of along those lines where you just you kind of knock it out in the morning with your coffee or with your breakfast. And it's again at Yahoo Games. It's called Candy Crush Crushable. Let's go to Brian and West Hollywood line too. Brian said, he sounds like something going on with DSL Extreme as well.

The only difference is is the speeds when it comes to fiber versus standard cable like cable internet from someone like Spectrum. Is that with fiber, you're upload and download speed the same. So if you have a five hundred megabitz connection with AT and T, that's five hundred up

and down. I think they're slowest is actually one gigabit, so that'd be one up and down, Whereas on Spectrum these speeds that they advertise, let's say it's five hundred, three hundred down, whatever it is, your upload speed is usually capped to like thirty five, so your upload is significantly slower. Now for ninety nine point nine percent of people,

that is not an issue. Most people are downloading stuff from the Internet instead of uploading stuff to the Internet, unless you're in a creator job like myself where I'm always exchanging large files and things like that. And in California, especially Southern California, a lot of people in the entertainment industry. They are uploading, you know, things that they're editing from their homes and stuff like that, so fiber would be

a better choice. And then of course you have wireless internet, which is delivered over cellular lines, and that also has its advantage that it's easy and it's inexpensive and there's no wires. I mean there's a wire from I mean really there are no wires because you would just it's just a cellular receptor and then it's just beams out the signal the Wi Fi in your home. So really there's just a plug to plug it in. Thanks for

the call, Brian. For what it's worth, DSL Extreme does have a status page that you can check secure dot DSL extreme dot com, Slash support Slash network status and they're saying all their services are normal right now, and so that must mean that anything that is happening or that you're experiencing in the area is due to the

lines in your local kind of place. And by the way, if you want to see the providers, the internet service providers in your area, you may not realize that there are probably several providers that you can choose from speed test runs a great site. If you go to speed test dot net, I'm trying to see the direct okay, speed test dot net slash performance, speed dot net slash performance. You type in your zip code. I'm gonna put in

a West La zip code. It will tell you all of the providers at that zip code, and you may realize there are more than you think. So for instance, this zip code in West La, I just put in You've got Spectrum, You've got Frontier which is soon to be Verizon again, Earthlink Fiber, who knew, Storry that's another wireless internet that's in certain places, T Mobile Wireless Internet, Mint Mobile Wireless Internet, Starlink Satellite Internet at and T

Internet Air Wireless Internet, Verizon via sat and Husenet. Now I wouldn't go with the last two unless you're desperate because those are you know, old school kind of satellite technologies. But that's a lot of providers, So shop around if you and it'll tell you the actual speed of your area. This is a great website, so it tells you all these different providers and what the actual speeds are that people are getting from those providers. So that is a

really good resource. Speed test dot net slash Performance and type in your zip code and you'll see and it'll tell you explains everything. The speeds that you're getting historical, It's unbelievable. I've lived in the LA area for a long time and the Internet has changed so much. I remember getting my first cable internet line and thinking it was the coolest thing ever compared to just standard dial up. And I remember bringing my friend into the room and

I said, check this out. Look at this. This is the future of Internet. And I was playing a video. It was a music video and I'm not kidding. It was the size of a postage stamp on my screen, and he was laughing so hard. He's like, that's the future. I mean, now we just take for granted you're getting all your stuff through the Internet. I mean, it's just wild. Samsung is coming out with their new Galaxy S twenty six lineup. I mentioned this earlier in the show Coming Out.

The rumor is the end of February is when they're gonna have their event. They usually call them Galaxy Unpacked, and they've always done them in like different places around the world, so we'll see where that's gonna be. But they have a new feature they are promoting they haven't revealed exactly how it works or specifics, but it is a privacy feature, so it looks like in the videos that they've shown off that don't exactly show it on

the screen. It's almost like one of those privacy screens on your phone, but built into the hardware of the phone. And not only does it kind of blur out certain parts of the screen, but it's like if you get a notification, you could say, any notification from telegram. I don't want people to be able to see it from off angles, and when someone's looking at your phone from like the sides, you can't see it. I mean, it's really interesting. So I'm not sure how this works. But

Samsung does say it is a hardware feature. It's not just software, so it's built into the display itself. And the way to think about it is that people on the sides of your phone can't see what you see on the screen, and you'll be able to literally customize this to your choosing. So if you say, anytime I open up YouTube, I don't want people to be able to see it. Only you'll be able to see it. Now, again,

I don't know how this works in real life. We're gonna have to see this in person, which I will be there. But I'm very curious because cell phones have become so standardized over the years. They all have the same features at this point, so we need something besides a foldable that sets them apart. And if Samsung says, hey, when you're on your phone in public, on a train or at this sports event or whatever, nobody could see what you're looking at on your screen without a privacy

screen protector, that's a pretty cool thing. Let's see here, We've got a new voice to text app for Windows. Willow Voice is now available on Windows. So you know my favorite whisper Flow. I've also talked about type lists. Willow Voice now has an app for Windows. So all you have to do is speak where you'd normally type, and it will turn your voice into clean formatted text. It removes filler words, fixes grammar, learns how you write over the time. There is a free plan, so no

credit card required. You get about two thousand free words per week to try it out. Then it's about twelve dollars a month. But if you have been wanting to try this out, I've been talking about this on my show for so long. I love it. The only way I type now on my computer is with my voice. And it's not just voice dictation. It's not the same thing that we used to have back in the day where it's just transcribing word for word. This is understanding

what you're saying. So the website is willow Voice dot com. Willow Voice dot com. This is Once you try this, you will never go back. I'm not kidding. It's so much better. W I l l Ow Willow Voice dot com. Rich on Tech dot tv is a website. I'll put a link there. Mortgage on Tech come in your way right after this. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you talking technology triple eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to

two four one zero one. The website for the show is rich on tech dot tv. All the stuff that I mentioned is on the show notes. People often ask me on a weekly basis, like, hey, how do I find what you mentioned on the show. It's all on the website rich on Tech dot tv. If you tap radio, it will bring you to the show notes for not only this show, but every show I've ever done here and there's even a little search icon so you can

search for a keyword something you remember. So I just mentioned that really handy website from speed test that's on there. The new voice to tech stapp is on there, which is Willow. My kid Parker has downloaded it and he's testing it as we speak. How's how's it so far? So far? So good?

all into your tasks in an organized way. So that's pretty smart. Again, this is called to doist Ramble. To doist Ramble it's really tough to type and talk, by

the way. And I'm looking at this and yeah, it's a new feature that you know AI is I am obviously I'm guessing it's AI featured, but I you know, this week, and I talk about this in my newsletter, I found a new I'm on a quest for the perfect note taking app, and so I'm always testing a new one upsidy and it's kind of like my go to, but I'll be honest, this one I found this week is called Craft is actually pretty good and it's got this beautiful design. And it's funny because I've downloaded so

many of these apps over the years. This one, when I went to log in, it was like, oh, that emails already in use. I'm like, oh, okay, I must have logged in and tested this app, and I remembered what I didn't like about it. It was because it was only on Mac back in the day. But now they came out with an Android app as well, so it was on Mac and iOS, but it wasn't on Android.

Now it's on all of them, so now I can look at it because, if you know me, a couple of things I want out of my note taking app has to be cross platform, got to have the ability to take nice notes, got to have folders, I got to have the ability to print. I want the ability to export, and it has to work on all my platforms. So this one is pretty good. And what I like about it is it integrates not only the calendar but

also your tasks. And something I also liked about another note taping taking app, it actually lets you put notes in your days. So let's say, for today, I just wanted to take a note and remember something, almost like a journal. You can just put that in there and it's linked to that day and you can just keep flipping between your days, so if you want. I mean,

it's just really well done. So they have a free level, the paid levels one hundred dollars, which I always look at because I know I'm gonna be paying that in the future. So one hundred bucks a year is a lot for your notes, but you know, if you're getting value out of it. For me, I'm always planning my radio show, my TV segments, and my newsletter in this app, and this one does a lot, so I'm actually I'm kind of sold, but not yet. You know, it takes me a while to figure this stuff out to see

if I actually like it. Vincent in Linnwood writes in I'm a big fan of chromebooks because they're easy to use and usually pretty affordable. I'm seeing some newer models advertise for under two hundred dollars, and I'm wondering which of the current chromebooks are actually the best bargains right now. So Vincent, I would say, yes, two hundred dollars chromebooks exist, but I'd say they're best for very light use, so

we're talking basic web browsing email. I would say, if you want to get a chromebook, I would probably look at the Chromebook plus models. They're going to cost a little bit more, but you're going to get the best performance, more memory, bigger screens, or better screens. I should say, which I do think makes the difference. The place I would say to look is slick Deals. They have a laptop section, and if you go in there and you type in chromebook, you'll see the different chromebooks that people

have voted up. So right now, there's a refurbished a SUS for one hundred and twenty five dollars typically four hundred on eBay. There's another a sous flip ninety dollars on eBay. Those are the two that are coming up right now. But you can also type in chromebook and see But I would go the Chromebook plus. Oh yeah, Parker found one HP fifteen inch Chromebook for eight gigs of memory sixty four gigs, one hundred and seventy nine dollars. But now see that one doesn't have as many thumbs up.

I'm looking for stuff that has a lot of thumbs up because that means that people on the web have, you know, said it's good. Yeah, there's bobo the thumbs up. Oh, Tanner wants to read a message. Okay, go ahead, Tanner, you can read the one for car message storage. Go ahead, Dennis.

your car may not support two terabytes. So what I would recommend is going on your manufacturer's website and checking to see what the specs are for your car's US be poor. So if your drive isn't formatted properly, it's not gonna work, or if it's too big, it's not gonna work. So those are the two things I would check.

Great question. All right, Coming up, we're gonna talk about why people are not just ditching their phones in the new year, but trying to actively use them less, even with a piece of hardware that keeps you from physically using your phone. We'll explain coming up next right here on rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you talking technology. You know, I love technology, but also you got to take a break from this stuff at some point. I'm not kidding.

One of my favorite pastimes is just watching how people interact with their devices. And I am telling you America is addicted. They are. People cannot get enough of their screens and it's been an amazing thing. Right, Like this little phone can do so many things. You can travel around the world with just your smartphone. Well, let me think about that. You might need a passport in some place anyway, but you get my idea. You could almost go anywhere with just your phone and that's it, and

you'll be fine, like survivor like you'll survive. But the problem is it's a flip side of These things also keep us scrolling. People are unhappy. It's a whole thing. Here to talk about. This is Julia Pugachevski. She is the senior health reporter at Business Insider, and recently she did a little experiment. She used this device called brick to brick her phone. Julia, is that is that what it's called? Is it called brick? Yeah? Okay, so welcome to the show.

I bought it last year, and yeah, I've been using it since and it's been the most effective thing I've done for myself personally.

If you want some variety in which apps you're blocking. But you know, I block the Internet and email for example, And you just take your phone and then you want to tap it to the Brick device and then until you untap it, all your apps are blocked.

that works. But I was out at an event and this person I was talking with said, oh, I can't use my phone right now because it's bricked. And I said what, and she said, oh yeah, and I can't on brick it unless I tap this device. And I've left it at my house, so you can leave. People leave this device in other places so they physically can't unbrick their phone.

could be doing with your time. That for me, I found it very helpful to Like, I tap my brick at night and then I tap it again in the morning, so you know, I go to bed without scrolling my phone. I read a lot more, I'm more present with my husband or with if I'm hanging out with my friends. And then in the morning, I I go to the gym on time. I used to get to the gym's like two seconds to fair if that, or even late.

And I've never been late because I there's nothing keeping me and I'm just up and I'm ready to go. And it's just I think it's very hard to realize when you're in it how much time social media and the Internet and news and everything takes up in your life.

my wife, they're all inside like waiting for me. But it's like you feel a little guilty, but you're also like, this is me time, Like, but I'm not the only one. I just read this article where apparently people do this and they sit and they you know, get home from work and they scroll on their phone for a little bit.

I'm needless to say, I don't do that anymore. But it's funny that I think it's almost like you're transitioning from one task to another, and maybe you're resisting it, or you know, you come home, you have all these other things you have to do, so then it's this like a cigarette break.

It is that time the feedback We're about to open it coming up next right here on rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. I remember exactly where I was when I heard this song. I was applying for a job at Bob's Bob's clothing store. It was a it was a chain back on the East Coast, and I was applying for a job and the store wasn't even built yet, so I was in like some you know, temporary place. But this song played on the radio.

I thought it was so cool. You should tell the people what song it is on a podcast roll to me. It's by Delemitrie and it was one hit. Wonder I believe. I don't think they had another. You know, back in the day, you know, you'd buy a whole you'd hear a song on the radio. You'd buy the whole CD and you'd be like, wait, that's the only good song? What I just spent eighteen dollars for this? All right,

let's get to the feedback. These are the comments, the questions, the emails that you send me, and yes, you like to send me a lot of them. I try to reply to a lot of them. I can't get to all of them, but sometimes it makes it to the feedback. Sometimes it makes it to the show, the newsletter without further ado, let's just get right into it. I got my two kids here, they each have one to read. So you want me to start or Tanner? Tanner wants to start, Yeah, you can start, I can start, Okay.

Ed Ed, listening on WHCU and Ithaca New York, says Rich you talked about the privacy risks of TikTok and its ties to China, which I agree with, But then I heard you recommending TCL TVs, and that made me pause since TCL is also a Chinese company. Most smart TVs are connected to home networks all the time, so I worry about data collection. I personally still with LG or Samsung. I know they collect data too, but I'm just more comfortable with those brands. Just some food for thought.

You are right ed. TCL is a Chinese company. I am aware of that. You know, the big difference is twofold number one. I mean, unless your TV has a mic or a camera, which a lot of them do you know, those are concerns. But I think for the information that TVs are collecting, it's not like your real time location per se. But you can also just easy fix. By the way, just don't connect it to Wi Fi. I know most of them are smart TVs, but just if you're worried, like for mine, I just don't have

my connected to Wi Fi. Tanner, You're up, Kathy.

significant difference. So definitely open up both apps. If you are taking ride Shairs, go ahead, Tanner, Okay, Leo, oh wait, I think it's my turn. Alan in New Jersey. If you are someone in your house has trouble hearing the TV, I've got a solution that finally worked for me. These are the Insignia RF wireless headphones from Best Buy. I tried everything before this, including Bluetooth. Most options were clunky or had annoying lag. These just work. I now own

four pairs. They're plug and play, easy to set up. You control the volume right on the headphones so everyone else can keep the TV at a normal level. And because they use RF instead of Bluetooth, there's zero audio delay. The sound stays in sync perfectly. They're usually around ninety dollars. I've seen them drop as low as fifty dollars. They've got four point four stars and thousands of reviews. Rock solid, and yes, right now they're ninety nine dollars. The Insignia

RF wireless over the ear headphones. I'll link them up on the website. But watch those price drops. Like Allan said, great, great tip, Allen's a lot of people are asking about that. All right, Tanner, now your turn, All right.

goes out. I might be a little over the top, but I've got ten of them around my house. If the power goes out overnight, I've got lights to turn on, and it lets me shut down my computers properly. I'm a big fan of APC ups units. About every three years. I take them to Batteries Plus to replace the batteries instead of buying new ones with my account. It costs around twenty two dollars each, which is way cheaper than replacing the whole ups. Good, good idea ups. But also

one of these power banks, these giant power banks. All right, park weet less than a minute, so you gotta be very quick.

that's gonna do it. For this episode of the show. You can find links everything I mentioned on the website rich on Tech dot tv. I'm on social media at rich on Tech. Next week fun guests the Computer Exorcist will join us. Thanks so much for listening. There are so many ways you can spend your time. I appreciate you spending it right here with me. Thanks to everyone who makes the show possible. Bobo Parker Tanner say hi ye, thank you. By My name is Richdmiro. I will talk to you real soon