Amazon announces a bunch of new devices and they all have that a ward built in Ring unveils its cheapest camera yet. I've got details on my new book about iOS thirteen and the iPhone. Ways to make your web browsing more private. Plus your tech questions answered. What's going on? I'm Rich Demiro. This is Rich on Tech. This is the podcast where I talk about this stuff I think
you should know about happening in the tech world. Plus I answer the questions that you send me, whether it's through email, the website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or by messenger Pigeon. Welcome as always to producer Megan. Welcome to the show.
Hey, thanks for having me.
Uh. I'm glad you're back up for it, because for a while I thought you might not return.
What why?
Just last week was a little little dicey, But I'm glad to see you back. It's at dicey and we are ready. We have a lot to talk about this week because I just want to get this out there because you don't see me angry very often or do you? Probably every day? No, but I will say I am very competitive, do you know that?
Yeah?
Oh yep, yeah. So we did not get invited to this Amazon event.
That happened this week coming out with it, and I.
Mean I didn't talk about this on Twitter, I didn't make a big deal out of it on my Facebook, and m'post about it on TV, none of those things. But here on the podcast where I talk to you and only you, I want you to know my true feelings on this. And I feel like Amazon made a big mistake in not inviting us to their event this week where they unveiled a gazillion gadgets that, by the way, are exactly what my audience is asking about. Yep, okay.
And here's the thing. This happened. So when Amazon had their first event, they invited me. It was in somewhere like Los Angeles. I was like, oh, that's cool, it's in a life. This is many years ago, probably I would say like eight years ago. Then they had another event, like a smaller one. It was like we weren't invited. It was like, eh, oh no, they had one New York Sorry New York still invited, went to New York for their event. Next one didn't get an invite. I'm like,
that's weird. So email the people at Amazon whatever and you know whatever, This one hear about it. Everyone gets their invites, and so I email someone remains to be unidentified, and their response back to me was basically, invites are really tight. I'm like, okay, so whatever, I just couldn't go. And I look at everyone on Twitter and their mom and they are all there. I mean, I'm talking for everyone. Yeah, even if I did, I've broken iPhones and Apple still
invites me their events. And by the way, Apple is the best tech company in the world right now.
And thought that is tight.
That's called the tight list. Yeah, yeah, let's talk.
About tight lists. Let's talk about let's talk about the fire phone. How'd that do?
Yeah? Exactly. Maybe that's maybe that I'm actually going to be totally honest. Maybe this is why I did not get invited. I never I never returned the firephone. Well oh no, let's let's.
Just get it out there.
But I'll tell you why I didn't, because it was such a colossal failure that I told Amazons are like, you have to give this back to us now, and I said, you know what, I just want to wait for one more software update, which was true. I wanted to see kind of like if they made any improvements and after that software update, They're all right, you got to give it back now, and I'm like, I'm not. I really wanted to keep it because I felt.
Like probably, but also it's not it Okay, I mean I don't know anyway. But also you're a Google person.
I'm not a Google person.
You are for your home, all your homestill okay, okay, And so I will say so maybe they think he doesn't even like Alexa, he doesn't like.
That is wrong for him to think that way, or they just they like, if you're a tech company and you're thinking you're not going to invite someone because they don't use your products, then half the tech reporters would not be there because guess what, half the people at Google in two weeks are going to be using iPhones and Apple watches. Yeah, that's just the way it is right now. When you go to Apple, everyone's using iPhone. I'll be honest.
Oh yeah, I mean so.
I'm just saying that. I'm telling that to you because I want you to take what I say about all these new devices with a grain of salt, because I may not be so kind to them. And also I don't have the basis to tell you what you really need to know about them, right, because I'm just reading what they sent to me, because they did send me a synopsis of the event so nicely. Oh cool. Yeah, And so I told the person who sent me that. I was like, next time, why don't we be there?
You should read like the synopsis for one device and then or just say what you think it is and then read the synopsis, just so that people can get an idea of what Amazon wants you to think.
And here's the thing. So Alexa, I've said this before, I don't think is as good as other assistants out there. So they can build it into a million and one products, and I still don't think it's as good as Google Assistant, and even Siri for certain cases, like Siria is very good at commanding your phone, not so good at commanding all kinds of knowledge. Alexa, when I had it set up in my house, I would ask it the simplest things like to turn off lights, turn on lights, and
it would never get it right. And then with the skills, it's it's kind of tricky. Anyway, They've done very well with Alexa because the price points are good and they've got them into a lot of hands and they've got a lot of products with it, but I'm still not convinced. So without further ado, let's get into some of these products. Echo Dot with Clock. This is an Echo Dot that has an LED display that shows you the time, the temperature, timers,
and alarms. That's sixty dollars. I think this is probably going to be the most popular device they launched because it's an Echo Dot for your bedside that has a clock on It makes perfect sense. You could put this thing anywhere you could put it. I mean think if you run like an Airbnb, could put this on a bedside table, you know whatever. You could put it in the spare room, in the bathroom, whatever, and it still
kind of works. It's cute, and it's sixty dollars, which really means an Amazon money that it's probably like forty when it goes on sale because these Echo Events devices always go on seal. Yeah. Echo Show eight is their answer to the Google Home Hub. This is an Echo Show that has an eight inch display and the main thing here is that it has a built in camera shutter because privacy is top of mind these days, and so you can slide that closed and it's one hundred
and thirty dollars. Echo Studio is their best sounding echo. This is kind of a giant echo and if you really want to convert your whole house to Amazon Sound, then you probably want to get this thing. And it's one hundred and ninety nine dollars. That's expensive, but it's not as expensive as if you compare it to something like Sonos, and that's kind of what they're putting this up against. Echo buds these are my head scratcher of
the day. These are wireless earbuds that have bows active noise cancelation or noise reduction technology and hands free access to you know who. One hundred and thirty dollars. But here's the thing. These have micro USB, which has not been used on a gadget like five years. Okay, most of the gadgets these days, or ninety nine percent of them, are USBC, which is reversible, it's faster, it's better, it's the standard nowadays, and lightning obviously on Apple products, even
some Apple products. The new ones are USBC, and they're still micro USB on these earbuds, so that's a big like eh. And they're not in air buds replacement at one hundred and thirty dollars. No way, air buds are one sixty or AIRPODSDS get the AirPods?
Or are the Samsum buds the.
Galaxy buds those are like ninety nine on them.
Can you connect those buds to your phone?
Yeah, they're just Bluetooth so the work. Yeah. Echo Frames these are two experimental products. Echo frames are glasses that have hands free access to a and those are one hundred and eighty dollars. They also have I mean you basically can use them and hear Alexa. There's no camera inside, there's no display. It's not like one of those like futuristic glasses. They're just glasses that in the sides have like microphone and speakers. You can talk to Alexa all day.
I don't know. Those are only compatible with Android phones, which limits their you know, broad appeal. Echo Loop is a smart ring that provides access to Alexa on the go. This is one hundred and thirty dollars and it has two microphones and the tiniest speaker ever on a Echo device, plus a tiny haptic that vibrates. So if you now, that's kind of cool. So if you get an incoming call, your ring vibrates, which is kind of cool if you
don't want to watch right. It also can announce you know, you can be Here's how they describe get this.
I feel like you're getting No.
They can you can discreetly ask how much is the right amount to tip at dinner. You can confirm you lock the front door, or announce you're on the way home. Or you can use it for short phone calls.
Or you could just google it like on your phone.
Yeah, or you can just use your phone. This the echo loop smart ring. If it was a fitness ring, I could see the benefit of it, and maybe there are some fitness things, but no, Amazon is really stretching with some of this stuff, like give me a break, right.
I wonder if Jeff Bezos is going to get engaged to his girlfriend with the ring. That would be I hope, so sorry. That's yeah, that's just funny.
See the way you think Amazon's smart oven. This is a convection oven, microwave, airfrer, and food warmer. You can ask Alexa to preheat the oven starter, stop cooking, and be notified when it's ready. I actually think that's really cool. And there's also a barcode scanner, so you can scan smart foods or special foods from Whole Foods and Marie Calendars and Guarden and it will tell you like it'll cook them properly. That's kind of cool.
That is cool.
I actually like the idea of a smart oven because I love the idea that when I'm on my way home, I can preheat the oven.
Yeah.
You know, when your dad you're like making nuggets for the kids and stuff. So it's always like, I know you're going to like Sweet Green for like a fifteen dollars salad like with you know, protein.
I literally never go to Sweet Green. I wish I could afford that. That's so expensive.
It is expensive, but it's all local and it's really good.
It is.
Sweet Green is like my absolute favorite. Yeah, but I feel like every time I go in there, it's just more and more expensive. I'm like this, get like another dollar more expensive.
My favorite thing is to like look up a salad from there and then find regrade it.
Yeah. My new favorite thing has been going to salad bars. Oh so it's like at Gelson's.
You see that I'm not good at putting it together.
I need here's what you do? This guy, doctor Grieger. He has the how not to die and he just has his list of twelve things you should be eating every day, which is like nuts, seeds, greens, cruciferous. Just dump all that in the salad and it's great. So just go for like anything that, like most people don't want in their salad. That's what you put in there, like the the atamamae beans, the sunflower seeds, the good you know, kale, the you know, like anything that you
don't want, that's what you have to eat. Okay, that's it, and you just dump it all in there. Put a little dressing. Tastes good, It tastes great.
Little chicken obviously, chicken makes anything taste good. I think.
Finally, Echo Glow this looks really cool too, So I'm not hating on, you know, on Amazon, I mean, but Echo Glow is a multicolor smart lamp that pairs Alexa and it's just thirty dollars and I love this.
I think I would get this too.
Did you see it? Yeah? It looks really it looks really cool.
It reminds me of.
Yes, the Hue the you go.
Yeah, yep, it's literally the same thing.
Yeah, but for half the price.
Right.
So that's why I love it.
And so basically doesn't it increase in brightness as you're waking up, so it helps you wake you up, helps wake you up.
You can put on your bedside to do that. They're they're doing they're marketing it as a multicolor smart lamp for kids, but it can you know, there's a lot of things you can do. But I just love the idea of the kids. You know, they love building forts and to have this little glowing in fact, you know, I'm just going to order this right now, pre order done. I don't be released on November twentieth. I mean, why would I not want this?
Yeah?
Now, can I control it with my phone? That's the only thing.
That's what I was about to say. I have a Google Home Yeah I don't have.
I want to make sure that I can get it with Bluetooth, because that's the thing about the phone. Yeah, because if I can't do it with Bluetooth, that's a problem. Because I can't. I'll I have to look on into this a little bit more.
You know. What I started using, yes literally yesterday, was there's a sleep app that I used to use and I haven't touched it in a year. And it basically it's.
Called a good story, Megan, what cool story?
Tell against sleep cycle? Okay, have you ever used it? No? So basically what it does is it wakes you up when you're in the lightest like frem or whatever. And like I woke up at two thirty ish, like I started to wake up, and it like turned on the alarm then because it knew.
I was like, actually, have to put your phone on your pillow, No, you.
Put it on your used to have to have it on your bed, but now you can put it like on your bedside table. And I don't know, but it's like it knew that I was waking up like naturally, which I don't ever do. I normally like can't wake up. It's like hard for me to wake up like always, I've always been this way.
You're a dead sleeper.
Yeah, Like even if I have to wake up, even after if I have to wake up at like ten am on the weekend, it's hard for me. So it literally is the safe funny.
I know, I'm a jump out of bed kind of person. I wish I could. I wait to wait.
I will wait as long.
As I'll look over at my little alarm clock and see I like tap my watch and I'll be like, is it time to wake up yet? And I'll just like lay there and like wait, and I'll wake up like a little bit earlier than my clock sometimes. All right, let's get to the first question of the day.
All right, So this first question comes from Janetta and she wrote to you through Facebook, which is Facebook dot com, slash rich stamiro Right rich on Tech, rich on Tech. She asked, what do you think about mobilio app? Is it safe to use? I've never heard of this.
I have not heard of this either. But here's the thing. I've noticed that a lot of people email me questions about stuff they see advertised on TV. Because when I'm at the gym, I see a whole bunch of stuff and I'm just taking notes. I'm like, I need to cover that. I need your story on that, and what's that app? What's this? So I guarantee you this is something that she either saw shared on Facebook, advertised on Instagram,
or on a TV somewhere. So I looked it up and Mobilio is an app where you drive with this app on your phone, and the better you drive, the more they reward. You, but they don't reward you in cash. They reward you with their own cryptocurrency called Mobilio. Now, I don't think there's anything wrong with this app. I think that it's an interesting idea. But what they're doing is there, and they are paying you for your data.
Unlike Google Maps, which is doing the same thing. It's collecting all kinds of data on you, it's not paying you for that data. So I like the idea that they are paying you for the data they're collecting. But do I trust their weird crypt currency. No, And for that reason I would not get this app. Now, with that said, let me just see. I'm curious. I'm always curious. You can't really trust Okay, yeah, it's only has Okay, interesting, it's from uh, it's from Germany, so it's not necessarily
a bad app. But I just I don't. I don't know. I just feel like I'm not really convinced that this is the way to go to give up all your data about driving. And I'd also be concerned if something were to happen, if you got into an accident, if someone could subpoena the data from this app. Yeah, So I don't. I don't think you should go for that. But good question.
It's an interesting I've never heard of something like that.
Well, something that people don't realize is and I told Uber this when I was in contact with them about you know, long story short, a lot of these apps like Uber and Lyft, they're actually looking at what the drivers are doing on those apps while they're driving. So there is monitoring software inside those apps that see if a driver is handling their phone, if they're speeding, yeah, if they're breaking too hard. And I don't know if
all the drivers know that. They probably do know that, yeah, And I'm not sure that even Uber is using this data to you know, score drivers or you know x drivers from their system or their platform. But I'm just saying in a lot of these apps that you download, there are a lot of things that you may not know are happening in the background. And I think we're seeing this with iOS thirteen. Actually, have you updated your
phone yet? Okay, so if you've updated your phone, you have definitely noticed that you're getting all these little alerts that say this program has been using your location in the background, this program has been using Bluetooth. And so for me, I got one from Ralph's. You know, Ralph's the grocery store. Why would Ralphs need access to my bluetooth? And I got this message on iOS thirteen. Ralphs has been using your bluetooth thirteen times in the past, you know,
in the background. And here's why, because a lot of these companies will use bluetooth as a beacon to track you and see where you are inside the store. They can see what things you walk past. Serious, absolutely, and so now iOS thirteen is cracking down because something you wouldn't even have thought of.
Thanks Apple.
Yeah, they're being very cool, and so is Androids doing the same thing. They're both getting because we went through this renaissance of apps and the beauty of all the things our phone can do, right, and now we're getting into like, okay, we let you have free rain for a long time. Yeah, now we're gonna pull back a little bit because hold on, what's going on here, and that's kind of what we're seeing with these new operating systems.
So wow, if you see those messages, the maps one looks a lot scarier than it really is, but you have to it gives you pause. So for me, I've an app called Citizen which alerts you when there's crime in your area. We've talked about this before. Yes, for that one, I do want my background location on at all times because no matter where I am, I can get an alert about crime happening near me to scare
the hell out of me. With the other one, with Ralphs, when I saw the bluetooth thing, I don't need them to have access to my bluetooth. I'm not using the Ralphs Alexa microphone in my phone or whatever, so I don't need that. So immediately I said, Nope, don't allow. And in my book, by the way, we'll talk about in a moment, but I do talk about how you can turn off access because there's a lot of new ways to turn off access to stuff on your phone in iOS thirteen than you had before. So we talk
about that. I'll get to that after the next question. But let's talk about Ring they have. This is related to Amazon, but they also launched their most affordable security camera to date. It's called the Ring Indoorcam. Everyone loves indoor cameras now, there's so many of them, fifty nine to ninety nine, which is considerably cheaper than what Nest offers. But not as cheap as what Wise offers. Wise has
a camera for about twenty dollars. If you just need a basic indoor security camera, Wise is the way to go. Former Amazon folks did that. Amazon Cloudcam also not a bad way to go. But the Ring Indoorcam can be mounted anywhere in the house. It's got ten ADPHD video. It also has a privacy feature that lets you disable motion and audio recording from the app, not on a physical key, which a lot of these things are doing. And there's also an indicator light that lights up whenever
the camera is recording. Then they also announced their third generation Ring stick up Cam, And I love the idea of the stick up camp because it's really simple. A lot of times you don't want to When they came to my house to install the Nest Cam, it took forever. They had to run wires and this and that. It was a whole big nightmare. You need power and all this stuff. The stick up Cam you can put anywhere by yourself, and you can power it by pluggin if
you got a plug nearby. Great battery if you want to recharge it, or solar which is kind of cool. So if you want a camera in your backyard and you don't have you know, a plug close to wherever you plug. Put the camera in Solar Boom Ring stick up cam and they call it stick up because you just stick it up anywhere. Wow.
Okay.
And both new cameras of course work with you know who Alexa. Yes, so you can say Alexa, show the backyard or show the living room or answer the living room.
So anyway, sorry, yeah, sorry but yeah.
Oh and the Ring Indoor Ham is available today sixty bucks Ring dot com, Amazon dot com, Best Buy dot com, Target dot com, Home Depot dot com.
You sound like one of those.
Marcials late at night.
No, no, no, like the people that sell our.
Our oh our auction. All right, let's hear it.
The next question comes from Galen and she's looking for a charger phone case for her iPhone. I'm looking for a lightweight, slim phone case that will charge my phone. Getting ready to go to Australia. She wants to be efficient and prepared. If you have a suggestion for a portable charger, I'm happy to learn this as well.
Oh, she wants a portable charger or a or a phone.
Case that charges her phone. So one or the other.
All right, well the phone. There's two phone cases that are and she has iPhone, okay, so the two phone cases are kind of the gold standard. Number one is even before Apple did it, a company called Mophi did it. Oh yeah, and everyone's heard of the Mofi case. So Mophi has a juice pack and that's what I'd recommend. So it depends if you want. They have different levels of them, but your phone basically slides into this case.
Nowadays a lot of them are wireless, so you still get the use of the lightning port on the bottom. It used to be your phone would snap into the case like this and it would take over the lightning port because the charger the case would charge the lightning port. Now it just sits on your phone on the back and it wirelessly charges because all the new phones have wireless charging, so you still get access to your charging port if you need to plug in anything, headphones, whatever.
So that's the main thing. Those are about one hundred dollars. I would recommend the Mofi one. Just go for that. If you want to stick with Apple and stay in the Apple family, then I would go with the Apple iPhone Smart Battery case and did she say which model of phone she had? No, No, okay, so they should have it for most phone models. So it just depends. But you know, that's the phone. Now. The one from Apple is a little bit more expensive because that's Apple.
You're paying that little premium that's one hundred and thirty dollars. And the only reason I like the Apple one a little bit more is because it's grippy. It has that silicone case, which is grippy, and I find that that's really cool.
The only way does it have two stars?
Oh that's just on the Apple website. Who knows. Okay, they probably don't like that as grippy. But the main problem with the grippiness for a guy is that getting it in and out of your jeans pocket not so easy. Oh yeah, so I've had.
The grippy girls put their phones in their genes part in the back too.
But it's but it's a little bit easier because you're sliding it in, like screen first. I feel like, how do you put your phone in your back pocket? Screen first?
Or screen first?
Yeah, that's what I feel like, Yeah, do you do that. I've started to do that because I really am concerned about having my phone in the area that it's in when it's in your pocket, you know what I mean, right, Like that area is a little sensitive, you know, right, So I feel like that I've been carrying a phone there for like twenty years now I'm done having kids.
Radiation, Yeah, I never thought.
Yeah, oh, you've never thought about that. I also think about it with my wrist with the Apple Watch, because this has cellular and I feel like cellular is just you know, pouring down on my wrist all day.
That's really crazy.
So I've actually started and I think, so one should do this putting my phone in my sock.
But then if your foot gets cancer.
Well that's fine. They can just chop it off, right, I mean, if it comes down to that, that's much. It's a much better place if I had to pick. I mean, let's hope we don't get to that. And I'm not saying that phones do that, but you just it's been a long time, and yeah, you know, like.
Sometimes when I watch TV on my laptop and it's on my stomach, I'm like, this might not be good.
Depends how much you're binging. If you're binging a lot, yeah might ours Yeah, cash out for that I'm not a doctor, so don't take it. Don't take any medical I and I love. I love having two kids because they play together so much. It's amazing.
I think that's the perfect America.
It really is. Oh that's mean you have three in your family. So mean.
When I have kids, I've thought about, well, I used to want four if this is when I was like twelve, and now I'm like, I think two. I don't know. Everything's so expensive these days. I'll probably just stick to cats.
I'm just kidding.
I don't have cats. I have a dog. That's my child for now. My mom's one of eleven, though, so that's a lot.
Yeah, that's a lot of kids. I was one of five.
Oh yeah, and luck how you turned out.
I'm yeah the thing. I was early in the bunch.
Yeah you're the first.
Oh my, I'm the second. But all my siblings are great, and it's I actually loved having five because it was a party. Yeah, and I'm sure you know, I love you know.
I loved having like I thought it was so normal to have such a big family. And I love all the cousins.
So and solo kids. What do you call it? A single thing?
And my dad's an only child.
Only child. Only child's probably great too. You kids probably love that because.
They get all that at all the attention.
Yeah, but I love my kids. I love I call it like autopilot when they're just playing with each other and I'm like.
Oh my gosh, this is That's like when my dogs play with each other.
It's the same thing, very similar. And you're like, come on, come and get it, come and get the food. Let me tell you about my new book, because I am very proud of this, Megan. We've talked about this on the show before, but now it is actually available so exciting. It is called one and one iPhone Tips and Tricks, and I say it is the key that's going to help you unlock the most useful features on your phone.
Now you might be remembering that I wrote a book last year, and you might be like, Rich, I already got your last book. I don't need a new book. Stop trying to get me to get this new book. This new book is completely up, updated for iOS thirteen. So while everyone else was out this summer vacationing sunbathing, you were in Hawaii. Guess what I was doing.
You were in New Jersey.
I was writing my book no matter where I was, and so I've been pouring over iOS thirteen finding all the little nuggets new things that you can do in this operating system, and I wrote the book all about it. So I tell you about the new way you can update, delete, and rearrange apps, because that will throw you for a loop when you try it. There's a new photo editor and video editor. How to set time limits for apps, and I can set time limits for websites too. Oh
wow cool. Okay, you can set your phone up to help out in the emergency situation, block robo calls, activate the dark mode, swipe to type, create an eye message profile, which I'm surprised you have an update because that's like one of the best features. When you text someone now it shows their stuff, which is really cool.
Is there a reason why I don't see your profile?
Yeah, because you're not on iOS thirteen yet.
Okay.
You can ask Siri to play any radio station, all kinds of stuff. And if you're wondering how much of this book is different from the first, I was very cognizant of writing it for someone that purchased the previous book, So yes, there is some stuff that repeats, but even if it repeats, I do put a new twist on it, but a majority of it is new now. Right now, it's available as an ebook on the Kindle on Amazon.
The paperback is coming soon. We're just literally finalizing the cover like this weekend, like it should be any day now. Once that's done, you'll be able to get a paperback. But the ebook is available. And some people have been emailing me because they can't seem to figure out if they don't have a Kindle how do they get the Kindle version. Well, you don't necessarily have to have a Kindle device. You can download the Amazon app, it's the Amazon Kindle App to your iPhone or your iPad or
any tablet and read the book on there. But here's a little trick of this whole thing. If you're trying to buy the book from an iPhone, it will say this item is not available for purchase on this device. It's because Apple and Amazon are at war over a commission on books sold. So you have to go to a desktop computer buy the book that way, and then you can just download it's your Kindle app anywhere you want. That's a little trick to know. Or if you're really slick,
you can do what I can. What I would do is I would just request the desktop version of the website on Safari on Amazon and just buy it through the website because you can buy it. Of course, you can buy something on a website. So the problem is if you go to Amazon on your phone and type in you know, one D and one, Well, now I have it on the desktop. So anyway, that's it one and one iPhone tips.
Can you read us something from your book?
Like not?
You know, you don't want to give a lot of it away. No.
If you go on Amazon, you get literally the first eleven chapters for free as a sample. So if you want to get an idea of this book, just go ahead and download the sample.
And I'm doing it now.
You get like the first ten chapters. I mean, it's pretty amazing. But I I talk about all kinds of fun stuff. So I mean, let's see, like privacy, every app wants access to your location at all times. The reason they can use this information to build a more precise profile of you and have better luck as selling you stuff. Of course, there are many benefits to sharing your location with an app. It's how car sharing service finds your house or weather app shows your local forecast.
Apple understands that location access can be a double edged sword, which is why they're giving users more precise sharing options in iOS thirteen. There you go.
Anyway, And I keep telling Rachi Sha do an audiobook.
Oh see, that's what it would sound like. You're just gonna get me to read a little chapter every time and post it all together.
It's because I love listening to audiobooks when I go on walks.
So you want to take me everywhere? I get it?
Yeah? No, okay, moving on. Next question comes from Rich's Instagram account, which is rich on tech. Blue Moon asks what is the best GPS watch for a person with autism that does not have a phone.
Ooh, there, this is a market. If you're listening and you are handy in any way, shape or form, come up with a smart watch for kids because all the options out there are terrible. And Apple should make the Apple Watch for kids, but they don't. Oh yeah, but the one that I've been testing with my kid is the cool Pad Dino. I think we did a story on this. It's a smart watch kind of a random company that you probably haven't heard of, but it's a great little watch. It does what it needs to do.
You can track your kid, it's GPS, it's got built in cellular. You can buy this thing by itself. I think the watch is like one hundred and fifty bucks. Then you have to buy the cellular plan. Yeah, the plan, which you know, they have various plans, but it's great. It works with iOS and Android. You can send text,
you can call your kid. We've done calls like where they are at, like knots Berry Farm or something, and you call them on It sounds great, and you really do when your kid has this thing on the wrist, which she doesn't all the time, but you really do feel peace of mind that your kid can have a longer lease. They can kind of go because you know you can get in touch with them, so I kind of I mean, that's what I'd recommend Dino kids dot com. Okay, the website to go to. All right, Oh my gosh,
we're almost out of time on the show. I can't believe it. What did I promise here? I should? Oh my gosh, Okay, let me get to a couple of things. We talked about ways to make web browsing more private on KTLA, and so I just want to go through some of the tools that we talked about because I thought that this story did fantastic.
I love this story.
First thing we talked about startpage dot com. You probably haven't heard of it, but it builds itself as the world's most private search engine. And the cool thing about this search engine is twofold number one. The results are from Google, so you can actually use it and get good results and still protect your privacy. The second thing
is that you can visit any search result anonymously. So next to each search result says something like anonymous visit, You click it, and it sets up a temporary proxy between you and the site you're visiting. So I always give the example of you know, you think you got something wrong with you you want to look it up, but you don't really want that on your permanent Google record,
That's what I call it. And so you look up this weird you know thing that you think you have, which, of course is going to lead to you thinking you're dying. Have you ever done this, Megan? Okay, of course everyone has. Yeah, So again you don't want reminders of it, you.
Know, beam a headache and Google like headache in the back of your brain. It's like taniarism, and then you're like, how many minutes do I have?
So true exactly, you've done this lately. The next thing is the Brave web Browser. Brave web Browser is entire web browser dedicated to privacy, so by default, it blocks trackers, it blocks ads, it forces secure encrypted connections on any website that supports it. They say that webpages load faster because of all this, and you can also see how Brave is working because they give you a little report card for each site, but that's kind of like a
heavy handed approach because you're switching your entire web browser. Now, speaking of switching your entire web browser, there's one called Firefox Focus, and this is a mobile web browser, but this is for a super private web browser on your phone. And the thing about this web browser you probably wouldn't replace your web browser with it, but it's kind of
fun to have for those searches. Like you said, if you're looking up some sort of weird, you know, medical condition you think you have and you don't really want this on your phone. Every time you type into series something and it's like you start with S and it's like you know or are, and it's like weird rash on side of leg you know what I mean, Like, maybe you just don't want that, So Firefox Focus blocks
all the stuff you don't need. It's highly secure, and at the end of your search session you press a trash can and boom, everything is gone, so there's no record of it. That's cool. Duck Duck Go Privacy Essentials This is good if you're hesitant to switch browsers. This is an extension for Chrome and other browsers that will put a shield between you and spying trackers. So it does all kinds of stuff. The only downside is it changes your search engine to Duck Duck Go, which is
not very good. Yeah. I hate to say. They say that they source results from four hundred different things, but Google is not one of them, clearly because it's You'll be fine, but it's just not Google like Google, let's be honest, as the gold standard for search engine. And then a lot of people were asking me what the difference is between just all these things and using incognito
or private browsing mode. The difference is that incognito and private browsing won't remember your search history, but it doesn't necessarily block what you're doing from your ISP whoever's giving you that Internet connection, which by the way, could be your employer. So if you're searching for this stuff on Wi Fi at work, your employer could see everything that you're searching. So that's the main difference. Okay, you got a quick question, Megan.
Um, Yeah, this question comes from Alex, she asks, and she says, quick question. Oh perfect, I have Pixel three. Thinking of changing thoughts on S ten versus Note versus Pixel four.
S ten versus Note versus Pixel four. So S ten and the Note are pretty much the same. They're both Samsung. Yeah, she has a Pixel three or he I would be partial to seeing what the Pixel four is gonna be all about. I mean, if you're used to that Pixel three camera, it's gonna be really tough to go to
a Samsung camera. Not that the Samsung camera is bad, but it's just not as fast and like spot On the first time Pixel camera, no matter what you tap it and it's gonna be a perfect picture every single time. There's literally just no there's no fu whatsoever with Samsung. It takes great pictures, but sometimes it could be hit or miss in the low light situations, the selfie situations, whatever it is. Sometimes it can be good. Sometimes they're
not so good. But with that said, I will say that Samsung makes some of the most fun cameras I've ever seen on a smartphone. When I have a Samsung device in my hand, I just feel like I want to take pictures in various ways, like I want to take portrait mode, I want to take live video, I want to just do all kinds of cool pictures with that camera. Pixel is great, but it's kind of a I always say this, it's a one trick pony. It takes a picture, it's great, it looks cool, but that's it.
There's no wide angle, there's no you know, there's no telephoto. You know, there's nothing. It's just boom, you take a picture. So with that said, Pixel four is going to add that wide angle lens, So that'll give you a lot more in terms of creativity. So I'd wait for that and i'd probably see what they offer and then make your decision. But when it comes to S ten versus note, I would go S ten plus because it's a smaller form factor. Unless you need that stylus, it's a much
easier to handle phone. It just is cool, all right? What else? What else? What else? Oh my gosh, I feel like we have so many things to talk about. Let's talk about Google play Pass. So both Google and Apple have introduced a new way to purchase games, and these are the Netflix subscription model, and that means you pay one price a month, which is five dollars a month, and you get unlimited access to games. You talked about Apple Arcade last week. Google play Pass is what they
call it. The best part about these games there are no ads or in app purchases, and we have been so trained over the years to buy these games or download them for free. Next thing you know, you're hit up for fifty bucks for gold coins, two dollars for this, three dollars for that. These games don't have that. So I love that. I'm trying to get my kids to
play these games on the iPad. My kids says are not as good because the main thing is he wants these tycoon games, which are just sort of addictive games that are terrible. But he wants those, and of course those aren't offered in this model because guess but the whole point of a tycoon game is to sell you ondoing things faster, which means you need to buy gold coins to do it faster. So it doesn't even work with this model of no in app purchases. There is
no game. The game is psychological warfare on your brain to get you to want to buy stuff, and if you're taking that out of the equation, there's no reason for those games.
So it's a world that I don't Yeah, I don't know much about.
So I will tell you that the play pass and has Tokoboca games built in, which is really cool if you have kids, which I know you don't, but Tokboca games are fantastic for kids. And for five bucks a month to get unlimited Tokoboca games, that's really cool. I don't know if it's all of them, says Tokoboca Classics to the Mytown series. That's really cool. That's worth That
is worth the price of admission right there. And by the way, Playpass is only a dollar ninety nine for your first twelve months for a limited time, So if you're on an Android device, I would jump on this even if you don't necessarily care today. Locking that price for twelve months, you get twelve months of gaming for twenty four dollars. That's awesome them. Then it jumps up to four ninety nine a month and they can do
that at any time. And if you don't get in that one nine nine a month, you're gonna be kind of sad. I'm gonna subscribe to it just because.
Yeah.
I was looking through the games so a lot of stuff on there.
Do you play a lot of games?
I don't at all? Zero for your kids, Yeah, so I'm but they're always playing games, so I'm I actually I shouldn't say zero. I've I've probably played an hour total last year of games. Oh okay, and I do play a little like just to test amount sometimes. Yeah, all right, uh wow, end of the show. Yeah, let's do best of the week. I found a quote last night in a book I'm reading that I really liked. Okay, and do you want to go first or you want me.
To go first? You go first? This is like legit.
Okay, So this was a great quote that I just thought was really good. I posted this by my desk at work. So and this was the quote. What do we mean by talent? In the most general sense, talent is a sum of a person's abilities, his or her intrinsic gifts, skills, knowledge, experience, intelligence, judgment, at itude, character, and drive. This is the most important part. It also includes his or her ability to learn and grow. I just thought I could read this over and over. It's
just so interesting. When you think of someone being talented, you think, oh, they're really good at something, But if you think about it, talent is really a sum of all these different little things about a person, and it does include intelligence, judgment, attitude, character, drive. Someone could be really talented and be really annoying to work with, right, probably that's probably me. No, then I have to be talented, I guess to fit in that.
Wait.
This is from the book named Grit, which I'm reading right now. Oh yeah, And the whole thesis of the book, as far as I can discern from the first like two chapters, is that being you know, people described as a hard worker, but having that drive and that kind of like just doing doing doing is sometimes more valuable than just intrinsic talent. So that's why they're defining what is talent. So I thought that was a great quote.
I love it and it reminds me actually of you, Megan, because you shot something yesterday at an event we went to, and it was kind of like a no brainer that you did a really good job on this thing that you shot, and I thought that was really cool. Sometimes we shoot things for social media on an iPhone and it's a talent to be able to actually just do that. I mean, obviously we have skilled camera people that do.
Luis our camera guy we love, and he is a fantastic camera person, but sometimes you don't burden him with these little social media things we do, so they could not look as good as our typical, like professional stuff. But anyway, he did a really nice job, and it just makes me realize that talent is. It's tough to like just say one thing when it comes to talent.
Yeah, so I agree. I agree.
So that's mine. What's your best of the week?
Oh my gosh, mine is not as meaningful.
That's okay, it doesn't have to be.
So my brother has a YouTube page and it's called magic Mikey, and he basically does like reviews and stuff on like restaurants, and so he yesterday went to some bakery and brought home a ton of donuts and like horrible things I shouldn't be eating, but it was really nice and like I like had a donut and it was just like prop so far the best.
That was the best part of your week. I love that.
That's sad. I just I don't know, it was nice. My mom and I.
Like like chowed down. Yeah, do you have more than one or no?
I had like half of an apple fritter, but those are huge.
Those are good though. After fritters. Yeah, your brother he's doing a good job. Yes, I see his videos pop up on my feed because I'm a subscriber.
Are you a subscriber to him on YouTube?
Yeah? Of course cool. Yeah, so his little videos and on my YouTube like auto plays a little bit, so I can see like a little preview sometimes and I'll sit and watch some of them. Yeah, it's it's you know, it's one of these things that he's eating like ten thousand calories, twenty thousand calories, like in a sitting. He's trying he.
Yeah, so he's trying to do less of that and more of just like.
Like features and yea yeah, features of food.
But that was what, like, you know, got him a lot of followers in the beginning, was the whole cheat day stuff.
Well, I love donuts, as well. I would if I could, I would eat no joke. I could eat a dozen donuts, no problem, like the glaze ones, not like a full fritter kind of thing. But I could just sit there and eat that like that is. I can't because it's not good.
For you to be here.
I would. I would be dead, Yeah, I would.
Donuts and bagels are pretty pretty amazing.
Bagels have a good place in my heart. Yeah all right, Well, thanks so much for listening to the show. We do appreciate it. If you want to get in touch and submit a question, you just go to my website. It's rich on tech dot tv. Just hit that contact form. I also have a newsletter that I send out usually weekly. Just go to rich on tech dot tv. Hit newsletter, put your email address in. It's totally free. Subscribe to that. You'll get that every week or whenever I decide to
do it. Most of the time it's weekly, but it gives you kind of a rundown of all the stuff I mentioned. Producer Megan, how can people find you online?
I'm on Twitter at producer Megan, and I'm on Instagram too, Megan mcmonagall.
We don't mention that one because you change it to producer Megan. Yeah, I am rich on tech on all platforms for the most part that I care about. Thanks so much for listening. The book again is one hundred and one iPhone Tips and Tricks, available as an ebook on Amazon. Look for the new cover in what.
Color it's in blue? Well, it's black and blue.
Look for the new black and blue cover. That is the cover you want to look for. Don't get the old one. Make sure it says iOS thirteen. Thanks so much for listening. You have a fantastic day. We will talk to you real soon.