Bitchat explained, sports card tech & a must-have security app (132, Aug 2, 2025)

The new messaging app that works offline, the list of jobs that AI will impact the most and the least, a visit to the Tesla Diner in Hollywood, plus your tech questions answered. What's going on. I'm Rich Demiro and this is Rich on Tech. This is the show where I talk about the tech stuff I think you should know about. It's also the place where I answer your questions about technology. I believe the tech should be interesting, useful, and fun. Let's open up those phone lines at triple

He'll talk about how AI is changing that world.

And later in the show, entrepreneur Lily Vita vita Ya rus School, founder and CEO of water Lily is going to join to discuss how families can plan for long term care and you guessed it, how AI is helping predict future health needs. Well, this is a very special weekend for me and my family. My mom is in town number one, which is very exciting. Arrived yesterday, last minute thing, and you know, she gets off the plane.

I was like, how was it.

She's like, well, it was great, except no, the whole time I couldn't watch anything on my phone.

I said, well, what happened? Well, I don't know.

Every time I take out my Bluetooth headphones and you know, put them near my phone, they connect. This time they didn't. I said, well, was your phone in airplane mode?

And she said yeah. I said, well, the Bluetooth is probably off. So she sat there.

I said, what about the seatback, you know, did you watch anything on there?

Oh?

No, I didn't want to break anything. Mom.

You're not going to like, you know, mess up the plane. You're not commanding the plane from your seatback entertainment. So she didn't want to touch the seatback entertainment. So she just sat there and read the whole time, which I guess is fine, but I was cracking up also.

So this is kind of a long story, but long story short.

I booked her in a premium class because it was the same miles as economy class, and so I told her, I said, look, you get a meal, you get booze if you want it, you know, so here's what you do. You get on the plane, you have a glass of wine, you have your meal, and then you go to sleep. Because she loves to sleep on the plane, and so I said, don't sleep right when you get on and so she goes, okay, okay. So I said, did you gut your glass of wine? She goes, no, they didn't.

Now.

We had a whole team of people at the hospital.

Now it's just us and I drove down Santa Monica Boulevard so slow, you would not believe. You could probably push a car faster than the way I drove because I was so nervous.

And now he's fourteen.

He's telling me he has a year and a half before he gets to start driving, which I can't believe. But the best part is this morning we went through all the pictures on Google Photos.

You put him up on the TV, and it's just amazing, Like it truly is.

The idea that you have this memory bank on your phone that you can just access at any time and bring you right back to that moment was just incredible. So that was really cool. And I also use Google AI to ask a couple of questions. I'm not kidding. If you are not using Google AI to tap into the data that you have in Google, you are not experiencing life life, because it is quite impressive. So I just asked, you know a couple of things about my son,

And it got it. I could not believe it. So here is my new thesis.

The AI that will win in the future is the AI that has access to your data.

So everyone is all.

You know, Google has an early lead because they've got access to our data. Chat g Ebt has an early lead because it's just really good, but it doesn't have access to all of your data. Apple has been really kind of knocked around right now because they are not good with anything with AI.

But here's my new theory.

They will have no problem because guess what, so many millions upon millions of people have all of their data stored in Apple mail, in messages and in photos and in notes. So Apple has secretly been building one of the best AI databases. They just need the right AI to be able to tap into that. So I know Apple has been kind of you know just washed around,

Be very very powerful.

Let's talk about this new app that has just been kind of commanding the tech world, at least in my world. It's called Bitchat. Yeah, the name is kind of interesting, but once you get past that, the tech behind it is really quite incredible. So this is a new messaging app from Jack Dorsey. You might remember that name. He's the co founder of Twitter. He also founded Square cash app and also blue Sky as well. He was an

Now.

The interface is very bare bones. You just open it up and whatever you know, whoever's around, is instantly in that group chat. So you can change your username if you want, just by tapping it. Messages go away by default. They're sort of ephemeral. They are encrypted. But think about it this way. You're turning wherever you are into a pop up chat room. Think about the power of that. You are at a club boom, you're chatting with everyone else.

Right?

This is going to take time for people to figure out why it's so powerful. Now Bluetooth powered messaging has been used in the past. Right, there's an app called bridge afy which is still available. I downloaded it yesterday. It does work. What's interesting about this is that this one is a little bit more anonymous and a little bit more instant.

Like the Bridge of File.

You have to log in, sign up all that good stuff Bitchat, you download it, you're off and running. And they just released a new feature. They just updated the app where now if you're not in Bluetooth range on bitchat, you can still chat with your favorites, so you can mark someone as your favorite and your messages will go over the internet as well. So now it's kind of getting into it, even bigger app where it can do stuff locally but also globally. Okay, so limitations of course,

You can easily be tricked. So if you know what you're.

Doing, you can go to the Bitchat website and download the APK from GitHub. If that all sounds foreign to you, don't do it. Just wait for an official release there. I think this is fascinating, a new way to message people anywhere you are, pop up chat rooms. I say, download it, try it out. Obviously, security, privacy and abuse implications gore.

But this is really really interesting.

Heyda Da rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four two four one zero one your calls after this. Welcome back to rich on tech rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology at Triple eight rich one on one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Mom's in town. Yes, she did the playlist back by popular demand. Last time my mom programmed the playlist for this show. I got a lot of emails saying rich you should be fired, which really hurt me. But I'm fine.

I get it.

You like her music, but uh yeah she picked the music this week. She put a lot of effort into it. So enjoy.

Uh.

By the way, rich on tech dot tv is the website. If you want links to anything I mentioned. I know I talked about the bitchat app. If you want the link to download that, you can go to the website and get that. Make sure you do like the official links because anytime there is a new hot app, there are always what I call Klingons. You know they advertise

You're on with Rich.

Hello, Rich, always enjoy your show, my friend.

Thank you.

You were beginning to speak about chat, GPT and those kinds of things, and I wanted to ask if you've ever heard of the platform po poe like Edgar allam Poe. To me, it looks like it's a combination or a plethora of other chat sites and it pulls the best from other platforms. Do you know anything about poe as a search engine?

Yeah?

Ai, yeah, this is this is actually started by the people who started Quora, that question and answer website.

So it's uh, it's you.

Know it's from a notable company and yeah it's it's basically all AI in one. So I actually had this downloaded to my computer at some point when AI first started, and it basically lets you choose from various like pretty much any AI that you want.

You can you know, ping it and ask it a question.

You can ask the same questions to different AIS see how they respond, so it kind of is an all in one product. The advantage, I guess is if you're really into comparing what these things can do the powerful nature, or you like one one AI for one thing, another AI for another. I believe there's also some paid upgrades, so you can't necessarily use all the features without paying

My last part of the part of the interest on my part is my last name is Poe, and so I might pass this off is my creation to close friends.

I don't know, Stanley Poe, tell them you made it and say, hey, check out my my app and see what's what's the deal? But yeah, they have they've got platforms for all of them. They've got the mobile apps, they've got a desktop app, they've got a web app. I have not used it in a while because I kind of when I first started using AI, I was all about Claude and then I was all about Now now I'm all about CHATCHYBT. But I also so really like Gemini, So I'm looking at all these different bots.

All right, let's bring on Scott Budman.

He is the tech reporter up for NBC Bay Area in the Bay Area.

Scott, Welcome to the show.

Thanks you Rich, thanks for having me on.

How long have you been reporting on technology up there?

I have been up here now for more than twenty five years. I'm a Big Area native.

Spent some time down there in LA and when I got back up here, the tech boom was taking off and it has just not stopped since.

It's been a lot of fun.

So I'm going to geek out for a second fanboy here. So I remember I was in Shreveport, Louisiana, and you had like a show, right, it was like a weekend show or something that was I'm trying to remember the name, not tech Check.

Was it tech Check?

It was tech Now actually tech Clars.

Yet and there somehow I was able to watch it when I was in Louisiana. Did they syndicate it to different channels or something at some point they did?

You know?

It was right around ninety eight, ninety nine, two thousand, the tech boom and bust both really really popular times for focusing on Silicon Valley, and so yeah, a lot of stations were really interested at the time in what Silicon Valley was doing. They loved us, and then they lost money, so they hated us, and now they're kind of back to loving us again. So yeah, once again, I'm hearing from places all over the place saying, wow, there's a lot of money to be made, or should I buy bitcoin?

And it's coming literally from all over the country.

That's what's so wild because I always joke because I work at a major TV station and you know, I'm on every day, but when they really care about me is when the iPhone comes out, you know, all these like major tech events. But the rest of the year, I'm like, I'm still here doing my thing, you know, And I think tech is interesting and important every day of the year, but it's you know, the mainstream kind

It is the currency in Silicon Valley. It's the gossip in Silicon Valley. You hear about Mark Zuckerberg and Meta offering hundreds of millions of dollars to steal individual people away. I mean, I watering NBA contract like money to get

Goes to what schools.

Tech is just kind of the dominant thing up here in Silicon Valley five days a week, seven days a week.

It's kind of like in Los Angeles. It's all Hollywood obviously, and you.

Know there's people, but there's people that you know have made a nice living on not just Hollywood but also technology here because in the early days a lot of the creator economy was sort of headquartered in Los Angeles. But now we know, I mean, this is the beauty of technology. You can be anywhere. And that is I think what you know, especially through COVID, you know, with all the hybrid stuff, it kind of spread out where stuff happens nowadays.

Yeah, COVID's the perfect example. All of the sudden, you had all this content that was streaming becoming the default way that we watch movies and TV shows. It wasn't the movie theater or anything like that. So Netflix, which is headquartered here, had a huge, huge presence in southern California because of the Hollywood of it all. Apple, which is headquartered here, as a huge presence down there. Same with a whole lot of tech companies. Snapchat is headquartered there.

And I love the idea that LA is getting a lot of the tech love as well.

So what are some of the things you've been covering. I mean, obviously AI is hot any any I mean, is it still open AI? Chatchybt. I mean there's a sort of all that stuff is happening. Anything else that's really interesting that's going on.

Yeah, I really.

Am interested in the environmental impact of what happens.

So, you know, crypto AI bad for the environment. They use a lot of energy.

But we're also at the forefront of things like electric cars, even electric planes. We've got these giant drones that are working on carrying people. We've got a couple of companies here that do that, and so you're seeing the electricity start to take over from gas, and so you can now order an uber or a lyft that is electric.

You can obviously order a weimo.

It's a big thing to do up here that not only is electric, but there's no driver.

And so you've got a.

Lot of this technology that's going in a sci fi direction but also a cleaner direction at the same time.

And I really appreciate that.

Yeah, that is I mean, to me, the wey mo is just it's like we are living in the future, but it's like it's like the future. It's not necessarily the future we imagined, but it's here right now. Like the fact that you can hail a car that has no driver is just wild, and when you're in it, that's also equally wild. What's your thoughts on that? I mean, those things are everywhere in la They're probably everywhere where you are as well.

Yes, really are. They've been here for a while.

And the thing that's interesting to me is that maybe people our age are still a little wow, this is kind of interesting. But if you're a teenager or someone in their early twenties, this is very normal to you to hop into, in Wamo's case, a Jaguar that has nobody in the front seat. So it's maybe you by yourself or a couple of friends, and you're being driven somewhere in a taxi, just like your parents and grandparents did,

Have a driver, yeah, or a driver's license. My wife works at a school and she would tell me this is years ago when uber was like the main thing and She's like, oh, no, kids don't even care on their birthday about getting their driver's license. I mean you and I remember your birthday is like the day you go you get your license, like that is the thing. And she said, now kids don't even care anymore. They just dy Uber everywhere. And it's just such a paradigm shift.

And yet it's an economic lesson too.

I mean people our age and we have teenagers and they go to parties and they're thinking, O, I'll do the responsible thing and take a lift or a Weimo or whatever, and then you get that call at midnight when serge pricing kicks in and they're like, I had no idea it would cost one hundred and twenty dollars

Oh my gosh, we've thought about that so many times.

It's easy to get to the place with the uber and it's like, oh, wait, hold on, after this concert, how much is it going to cost me to get home? Because yeah, they're going to and that you know, that's a whole other debate and conversation around, you know, equity and all this stuff because you know, taxis were the same price for everyone all the time, and now it's like, you know, every single person that's served up on the app.

What do you think has changed in the twenty plus years you've been covering this stuff?

I mean, really, the money of it all, and that's what drives this and the idea that venture capital is to have taken over not only funding companies, but now having a big role in the political world. For decades, Silicon Valley wanted to be alone and away from government and just sort of like a hands off thing. And the new generation of vcs want to be in government, and the new generation of CEOs want to have a

But we know the reason for that, because tech, i mean big tech is largely gone on regulated and they want to be in place so that they sort of write if there are regulations coming down the line, which it seems like there needs to be as we go into a more tech center centric world. They want to be on the front line of that because they want it done to benefit them the most.

Well, you're absolutely right.

You just talked about income inequality, and that's a huge thing here in Silicon Valley as far as who can afford a two and a half three million dollar houses and how many homeless people we have at the exact same time, And that goes to deregulation. Tech companies being able to do what they want and make a ton of money and do their credit, create a whole lot of jobs and a whole lot of wealth, but at the same time, there are a lot of people left behind.

All right, Scott, what's the best place for folks to follow you online?

I mean, really, it's I'm still on x still posting a lot at my name at Scott Budman, also Instagram and to an extent TikTok.

We are trying as a business. You know this better than anyone. I've followed you for a long time.

We know we have to go where the action is, and so to go on social media is just as.

Important right now, if not as important as TV.

I mean, like you, I'm on TV every day, but when people come up to say, hey, what's up, or let me comment on a story, it's much more likely they've seen it online on social media, and I.

Respect that, and that's something we as a business really have to get into.

Yeah, and I've seen you do more of those reels on Instagram, So keep it up, all right. Scott Budman, NBC Bay Area Tech reporter, Thanks for joining me eight eight eight rich one on one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. More of you coming up next. Welcome back to rich On Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you talking technology at Triple eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four

I was telling my mom before I left for the show.

I said, you know what, this is one of my favorite times of the week, just coming in here talking with you mostly you know, it's not just a one way conversation.

That's what I love.

It feels like a community, and that is what I think is so brilliant about this because it's kind of like with my social media. It feels like we are all together, right, and I love that back and forth and just the idea that I can say something here, you can call in, you can comment on my socials

Let's go to and Diamond Bar. Kathy, you are on with Rich.

What's up, Navish?

Thank you for taking the call. I'm not the most techy person in the world, and I'm looking for a luggage tracker.

I'm going to be going to Africa.

This year and I don't want to lose my luggage.

Ah.

Okay, I have ah.

What kind of Android phone?

It's a Moduology for.

Okay, So it's not a Samsung. Okay.

So when it comes to trackers, there are a couple options out there. Number One, if you're on iPhone, obviously the air tag is where it's at. But if you're on Samsung, they have their own version called the smart Tag, and that's a Samsung version of sort of the air tag. Now, the nuance about how these things work is the network that they ride on. And so anything with iPhone is

So twenty nine dollars not a bad deal. All right, let's see, we got one minute.

Let me just read tell you about this story. Thanks for the question, Kathy. By the way, Dropbox Passwords is shutting down, so if you're using this Dropbox passwords feature, you have to export your data by October twenty eighth. So, yes, Dropbox had a password manager. I don't think many people used it, That's why they're shutting it down. Most people know Dropbox as a place to store files and to

So you've got to.

Export your passwords out to a new password manager. Dropbox recommends one password. I really like bitwarding, So again, if using Dropbox passwords, come up with a plan to get rid of your passwords into another app.

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 oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. The website for the show is rich on Tech dot tv. There you can find links to everything I talk about on today's show.

It's also the place.

You can subscribe to my newsletter, which goes out every weekend.

It is free.

You can sign up a lot of people like it because it's basically this show, but in kind of a newsletter version, so you get all the links, all the things that I come across in any given week that I think are interesting. I put in the newsletter and send it out to all of you. Let's go to Andrea in San Diego. Andrea, you're on with Rich.

Good morning Rich. For us non techie people, how does one access the Google AI that you talked about that you've got so much wonderful information.

About your son from.

And also you talked about the fact that there's a password app that's been discontinued. I'm not familiar with that one or any of the others, and I'm wondering if you could recommend one that's user friendly, easy to use.

Yes question, okay, and are you on an Android or an iPhone?

iPhone?

Okay?

So first question for Gemini, a couple of ways to access it. Gemini dot Google dot com is how you access that on the web. So Gemini dot Google dot com is how you access that on the web. And then for the apps, you can search on the iPhone for Gemini and let me just see what comes up. Because you know, like I said earlier, there's always like Klingons, so when you search Gemini, they know people are searching for that, so they have other apps that look similar.

Right.

You can say, give me a list of the top ten states for retirement, right, and it will go through and find all the information on the web and synthesize that and come.

Up with what I call like a little book report.

Or you can ask any kind of like theoretical question, open ended, whatever you want. That's one level. But if you have your data in Google, it gets really interesting because now you can ask Google for information about the

I mean, it's that good.

The other day I asked it, you know, find my oldest picture of me and my wife or whatever. You know, you could just the possibilities are endless, but if you go on the Gemini app online on the website, there's a little settings icon like a gear icon the lower left hand corner. Tap that and then tap apps and that will give you the ability to see all the

Just does it.

And the beauty of this is compared to the old way of doing things with your voice, is that AI understands what you're trying to say, right, even when you don't say it perfectly. So for so many years on our devices with things like Alexa and Google Assistant and Siri, you had to say things a perfect way for them to respond and understand. The beauty of AI is that you can use natural language, so even if you don't say it perfectly, it will still understand what you're trying

For those two.

The reason why I like Bitwarden is because it's what's called cross platform and third party, which means it is not linked to anything else out there. It is its own separate thing and it works across all devices, and so for that reason, I really like it.

It is slick.

You will not believe that it's free. Some people are paying, you know, fifty sixty seventy eighty dollars a year for a password manager. You really don't have to. Now, there might be some advanced features and things like that, but it's it's very bitward It is incredible for free, and I really recommend that, and I would recommend if you're I know you said you weren't tech savvy, but if you're in the least tech savvy, it's probably better to

Oh my gosh, we got through a lot with that one. Andrea and san Diego.

Speaking of password managers, this is a two factor authentication app, which I also believe you should absolutely have in your arsenal. Two factor authentication app is an app that generates codes every thirty seconds or so that help you log into your accounts. You may get two factor authentication codes by text or email. I think an app is the safest because it is separate and it's by itself, and I don't recommend that you use your password manager to generate

It's number one. It's free.

It's available on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux. If you've got a Linux out there. It's open source, it's ad free. It does not lock you in, which I love. You can import or export your two factor authentication codes. Unlike SMS codes. The app is much more secure because you know your phone ewer could be lost, stolen, changed, simswapped, and this is an app, so everything is inside an app. And it also supports biometrics so you can have it.

Okay, let's see what I want to do. Let's see here.

I'll tell you about one more thing before we go to break here. I'm trying to see you. Do I have any calls that I can do quickly here?

Probably not.

So Uber has launched a new women Preferences mode. So if you're a woman and you want a woman to be driving you, which you knows various reasons why you may want that, safety, security, whatever, this feature lets you choose to have matched with a woman. And so this is rolling out in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Detroit's not everywhere just yet, but if you're a woman on the app, you can request a female driver on demand

She requested a ride. I happen to be in it.

We got a female driver and we asked her all about this and she said, oh my god, it's great.

It's like, I love this. It's so great.

It's you know, I can drive other women around and it's just people. The women that I'm driving, they all talk about how much they love it. So again, it's just another option. Uber is if you want to check it out in your settings. You can check that out if you live in one of those cities. Otherwise, if you want to try that feature, Lyft does have it all right. Eighty eight rich one On one eighty eight seven four to two four one zero one. I know

And coming up.

We got more interviews, more of your questions, and more tech news right here on rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here eighty eight rich one On one eighty eight seven four to two four one zero one one. The website for the show rich on tech dot tv links to everything I mentioned is right there. Let's go to Sarah in Santa Ana. Sarah, you are on with Rich.

Hi.

My daughters starting college and her laptop is dying, and I don't have any money really to buy anything new, but she wants a MacBook. What do you think my best option is? Do you know anything about financing? Are there student programs where she could get something for a loan or for free? Or if I had to buy something, what should I get?

Well, I don't necessarily promote financing or loans, so I don't really necessarily like that avenue. We're talking about nine hundred dollars one thousand dollars here. So my advice is to save up and do whatever you can to save up that money and buy it. Because a computer that's paid for is probably going to feel a lot better for your daughter than something that you're making payments on. So that's my number one kind of the way that I do things in my life. I don't like a

I get it.

There have been times in my life where there's just the money is not there and you can't buy it, and so I get that. In the meantime, you know, there are libraries at college she can use. There are inexpensive laptops. I mean there if she just wants something, that is the absolute most inexpensive laptop that you can probably cobble together some cash for it is the M one MacBook Air. And you can get this thing for

Now, I get it. Sarah.

I understand that you know you're going through a tough time right now with the financials, but I feel like it's one of these things where just, you know, try to just cobble together that cash, sell some stuff around the house, whatever you can do to get that money. You can even trade in old things, like if you have some old gadgets and things that are even Apple gadgets, you can trade those in at the Apple Store to

So I hope that answers your question. I know it's tough.

It's these things are not cheap, they're really not, and it's a big purchase for people. But I like the idea that you're thinking about the Mac because it does last a very long time. Thanks for the call Mark and Woodland Hills.

What's up?

You know?

I just want to practice by saying, there's another tracker that our company has found to be extremely efficacious. It's called Track E, a track with an E on the end of it there, and it's independent and you can use it with any kind of phone, and we found that our drivers who know about it, we rely on it because we've got to know where our drivers are going. Anyway, I'm calling basically about family tree sites. My wife and I are interested in passing on our family tree to

Well, I don't have a good answer off the top of my head, but just doing a quick search while you're talking here, I've summed upon a website called Blackpast dot org and they've got an entire page with links to just about I mean, this is the most thorough. This is so thorough, and it's got links to every single thing for African American family history resources. And it's not just their stuff. It's like they've gone out and found links to every single website that deals with this.

Rich on Tech after this.

Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you talking technology. A couple of weeks ago, I posted a picture of me eating a hot dog on social media.

There was a reason.

It's because I went to a place called Wiener Snitzel where they are now using AI at the drive through. Here to talk about that is Gela Fairv is the CEO of Presto. They are the folks that are putting AI in the drive through order boxes. Let's already has to say about how this is changing the way we place fast food orders.

So Presto is an AI business which is creating an AI solution for the drive through for the QSR industry.

So how good is the AI like? Can it replace the human that's currently taking orders?

And what's the vain Yeah, and in a vat majority of instances the system can do that. So we have something called a non intervention rate, and that's the industry standard. So that's the number of times that the system works or without a human having to step in, and those are already in the nineties, so in a vast majority of instances that works. Their drive through is a very complicated environment, and so on some occasions you do need the store to step in.

Anyway.

In terms of the advantages, I think for the our customer, so the restaurant, there are two clear advantages. One of those is the labor redistribution or replacement. So very often they're not actually removing that at that staff member, they're putting in somewhere else in the restaurant, so they could man the front counter or do other things. But that

This one didn't, so I'm going to try this.

Item a bit more So from a restaurant perspective, you get greater revenue or greater check size, and you also have more efficient or less labor costs, so you get a really significant impact for the customer as in sorry, the end of consumer. The advantage for them, I think is also the consistency of the system. So you know, very often if you pull up and you speak to a different person every day, you might get a very

And who's using this system and how tough is it to get started.

In terms of the industry altogether, we are now kind of at the major roll out phase. So this is where over the last two years, a lot of large chains and medium chains have begin trialing this. They've been picking their supplies, they've been honing this systems, and they're now enrolled out. So whilst it may only be in sort of around one percent of all drive throughs at this stage, that that number is increasing very very quickly, and so you will expect to see that change quite

To do so.

You know, we saw with the automation of you know, eight hundred numbers, people just say can I have an operator? Like do you have the option of getting a human if you want one? And are people asking for that or they like this system?

Yeah, So people can say can I'd like to speak to a human and they be put through to the store. It's actually very rare that they do that because the order is being taken quickly and efficiently, and people tend to want to get through the drive through quickly themselves. To go and ask for a human just makes your experience longer. And as a result, they only really do it if somebody is you know, maybe technically struggling with it.

And so how is the AI at taking orders?

Yeah, it's getting it's getting better. I would say that if you'd ask me that two years ago. The technology was still pretty nascent and so it was effective, but it had, you know, lots of things that couldn't quite do it wouldn't be able to handle certain questions, or wouldn't be able to handle specials or coupons or things. But in particular over the last six months, the rate of pace of advancement has been you know, quite extraordin. You know, our system can now do things such as

And what have you learned in this process about how people order or you know, something that you didn't really think about before and how you had to implement it.

I think the complexity of the drive through is the big one, and I'm going to split that into two things. One is that there is the kind of technical complexity of the drive through. So there's so many systems that actually sit behind the scenes that people don't see. So you've got a different POS system and base station system in all of these different chains. And the menu complexity at the back end is incredibly difficult to navigate, and that's something that we have to spend a lot.

Of time doing.

But then on the second box, it's just the things that happen in the drive through you would just not imagine. So every drive through environment is different, and that's why it has taken us a couple of years in order to hone our system to the quality it is today. You think about some drive throughs the next to freeways, and other ones are not. Some drive throughs are in you very heavy rain areas, and other ones are not. You have people pulling up with three kids in the car,

Getting one of these jobs an order taker, while it's imperfect, you know, it's kind of an entry level job.

And you know, is that going away or are we going to have this job in the future.

I think the actual taking of the order probably not. I think these systems are going to get so robust, but I don't think that that means that fewer people are going to be working usr are working for these brands. As I say, a lot of what we talk about

And finally, any hacks for the customer or anything to know, like how do you know you're talking to AI? And is there anything fun you can do with it in the drive throw?

So how do you know?

So it's interesting some of our customers want it to sound like a robot because they want the customer to know it's AI, because it could be quite helpful for

There you have it, Geel a fare from Prestol. They are putting AI in the drive through fast food restaurant ordering windows. Fascinating how that's happening, and I guarantee you will encounter it at some point. Not every restaurant's doing it, but you know, if they can save money be more efficient and of course upsell like you heard them say, yeah,

I mean that's kind of a random list.

I think they just looked at like, like what can we find as like the randomeest list of things that like we'll just make this report sound better that like, Okay, if you're a stone Mason, you're you're fine. I mean, athlete, I guess it's time for me to uh start hitting the gym and learn, uh learn football eight to eight rich one on one eighty eight seven four to two, four one zero one. Coming up, we're gonna talk about baseball card collecting and how tech is changing that. Welcome

Is this? Bobo?

Is this?

Is this Sinatra? Okay? Frank Sinatra, Frank Sinatra my way?

Yeah, okay, So my wife and I on Sunday nights will do a thing called Sunday Supper and we just turn on the Frank Sinatra playlist.

Yeah, it's great. Really takes you right back. Okay.

Let's let's talk to Ted Man. He created an app called Collects really kind of revolutionized baseball card collecting, trading, valuing of cards. And he's calling in from Chicago today.

Hey, Rich, Yeah, I'm at the National Card Show. Oh wow, in Chicago, in Rosemont, Illinois. It's it's it's quite a show. It's every year it seems to get bigger and bigger. I think this year they might hit about one hundred and fifty thousand attendees, so it is way large. It took me a minute to run out trying to find a quiet place to talk. So I'm not doing it on the show floor. But it's been it's been a really good one here. It's pretty exciting time to be a car collector.

Yeah, this is huge. My kid, by the way, it's his birthday this weekend. He is a he loves cards. He pulled a like a I don't know, a couple hundred dollars card the other day. And I've gotten, of course into it because of all the raw and graded and like I know all the lingo now, but it all started with your app. Explain quickly before we get into the show, like what you came up with a couple of years ago.

I don't know whether to say, you know, you're welcome or I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah, how many parents have told me that, Like now they're getting back into it, The kids are getting into it, and you know, it's a it's a kind of a double edged sword, but it's fun.

Oh wow, into the app. That is incredible.

Yeah, I thought I would. I would call in just to share because I I love listening to your show, like you were on my mind, not just because people were telling me they heard about the app from you, but also because I have it on my calendar. I try to listen every week. I knew this today I was going to be at the show, but I h I pinged you just because I thought it would be kind of fun to share some of the technology that

Yeah, well, let me just I know, because people are going to want to download the app if they haven't used it.

It's called COO l l X. That's what you search right, collects.

Yep I phone Android, totally free app. Take a picture of any trading card, It'll identify it, you get the value and under a second and then you can build your collection. And we have a marketplace. Now. Marketplace is booming. It has been growing steadily and I think it's really kind of become a place that people look to buy cards every bit as much, if not more than eBay.

Wow, that's wild. So what's happening at the show? What are some of the neat things you're seeing there?

So there were like sort of three text stories I was thinking about, like what are the most interesting kind of trends? And the first is is live live selling. So are you have you ever been on whatnot or any of similar platforms.

Yes, I did a segment with them, and it's wild. I mean, I'm not I don't do it personally, but yeah, I'm familiar with the idea. It's like QVC for like a you know, anyone can do it from their phone basically exactly.

So, I mean it has become such a big part of the hobby. There is probably maybe a fifth of the show floor here and it's a big it's a big show all dedicated to to what Not streamers. Breakers.

Oh wow, Walmart too.

Huh.

Yeah. I kind of like it because it I used to go to auctions with my parents, and to me, you know, there was always you know, as a kid, there's always like an auctioneer. There's always a person kind of like pitching and selling this stuff, you know, like you know, the rapid fire like you know, auctioneer like ease. Yeah, And I kind of like it because it feels to me more like like what an auction was always supposed to be. So I think it's a really fun experience. Okay, dangerously addictive.

Yes, yes. And people.

I mean we we sat through there was like a sneaker place that was selling on whatnot and they sold I think, like I think it was like ten thousand dollars worth of shoes in like a couple of minutes, like eight minutes or something.

It was pretty wild.

It's nutty. So right, breakers are like one hundred million dollar business.

I've got about a minute left. So what what else are you seeing there?

Tech wise? You said three stories? What not live?

Yeah? Two other I'll be quick. The other one is digital repacks. So one of the things that you were talking about grading cards. One of the things that's become really popular is people will buy like a graded card kind of like in a like in a box and then you basically rip it open like you would but rip over a pack of cards. So that's become like huge. There's companies like Derek Jeter start a one called Arena Club that does that courtyard. So I think that's really interesting.

I got got to run.

Hang on one second, we'll go to break Well, we'll be back after this. Welcome back to rich On tech Rich Demiro here hanging out with you talking technology. What a fruitful show so far. We've done a lot here. We've still got a little bit to go here, and it could go on forever. I mean, we could just do this.

I know.

Bobo said he'll stay all day, so he said fine. Rich Rich on tech dot tv is the website to go to if you want links to anything that I mentioned here in the break. I'm slowly but surely switching over my two factor authentication codes to this new Proton Authenticator app. So if you are looking for a new authentication app, so far, I've found no flaws in this one. It seems to be really good. Hit all the things that I want in a good app. So check that out.

Let's go to line four. Paul and Columbus. You're on with Rich.

Hey, Rich, thanks for taking the call in good playlist from your mom there.

Oh see, every time people seem to like it. Okay, what can I help you with?

Oh?

Probably more in my age range than yours, but anyway, I'll try to make a simple question and I can get more details. That's needed. Some apps when you're awaiting your home Wi Fi use to cellular data. Other ones require me to have a hotspot. Why and can you any there a third party software that could direct it otherwise.

I I'm trying to so what apps require like a hot spot versus the cellular data because I haven't really run into that.

I know that some apps want, you know.

Sort of a better data connection, and so they'll have like an option that says, you know, only use Wi Fi by the fall.

But what do you mean by that? Which apps specifically?

Okay, Well, for example, I'm using the metaglasses. I'm visually impaired using the metaglasses, and they do really nice job and there's no you don't need a you know, a special connection or hot spot. It will just work with your cellular data. There's another brand that's coming out that it looks very good, specifically made for people. It's this vision problem and they use they use them a form that you have to use a hot spot to get that while you're away from your Wi Fi.

Interesting, Okay, so I think the the reason for that is probably the data needs of that device. That's the only thing I can imagine that they because it's doing something, maybe it's doing something in real time, or it's it's pulling some sort of database, and it needs just what I would call like a you know, a fat connection to the internet, you know, like a bigger connection that that sort of can handle more data at once versus

Like I go through all my apps.

The first thing I do when I set up a new phone, you know, I test all these phones, is I just go through all the apps like Spotify, Netflix, this and that they all default to wanting to just download on Wi Fi. I'm like, no, my cellular's great, Like, go ahead, use as much data as you want. So that's the only thing I can think of, is that's a specific need of that app. Are you on iPhone

I know.

On Android, there's an app that I can't think of off the top of my head. But it's an app. Oh gosh, I gotta find it. But it's an app that lets you kind of change how other apps can use data. Like you can go in there and say, I only want my kindle to use Wi Fi, I only want my kindle to use Cellular, And you can do it for a case by case basis for any app, even

If you want to send.

Me an email with the name of the actual product, I can look into it a little bit more and see like what their reasoning is and I can maybe even reach.

Out to them.

So if you want to do that, you know the email address it's you can just send it to hello at rich on tech dot TV and that will get it to you or get it to me. Paul, Thanks for the question today. I appreciate you calling in from Columbus.

Let's go to ka.

Kay has also been waiting for a long time here in Sherman Oaks, Okay, you're on with Rich.

Oh Rich, thank you so much worse the wait definitely.

Well, we don't have the answer, yes, so don't don't say that prematurely.

Okay, fair, No, what can.

I help you with?

Well, I did. I have an Android A fifteen, okay, Samsung, and I'm really happy with it. I did my first update about six or seven days ago. And after I did the update, which I believe it's called you I seven point zero.

Yes, okay, it recons figured my phone, and I know that that happens when people do updates, but to the detriment of my ability to use the phone.

So I have many windows. When I load Google Chrome, the windows aren't completely websites aren't completely loading. There's a lot of blank spots. I have been trying to troubleshoot myself, just researching, but I can. I haven't found it, so I defer to your expertise. I definitely need help. I don't it seems to be an extension issue, but I don't know for certain.

Okay.

So you updated to the one UI seven, which is you know, almost their latest.

One.

UI eight is Samsung's newest, but only a couple a handful of phones have that. So you got a pretty major software update with one UI seven. Did this add any AI features to your phone?

Or no?

It did?

And I don't. I'm very I'm tech friendly, but I really don't want AI chat. It did load Google Gemini very I can't. I haven't. I would like to not have it on the.

Well, I don't know if you can go back on that.

I know that's kind of tricky, but there is a setting in Galaxy AI in your settings. There's now what I recommend. Typically when you get a big software update. You said you're tech friendly, So what I like to do? And I said, I like to do this on my Friday or Saturday nights instead of going out hanging out with friends. I like to go through the settings on my smartphone and just kind of see all the different options I have. Right, I'm kind of joking, but I

I'm not doing it on a.

Friday or Saturday night, but you know what I mean, like, just, you know, take some time to go through all the new options you have, because there are a lot, but specifically with Galaxy AI, there is an option under your settings under Galaxy AI to process data only on device, and that means it's only going to do the things that it can do without pinging the internet, So that will actually kind of limit some of the AI features on that device. That's number one. When it comes to Chrome.

I don't know, And let me just I'm I'm user friendly. I'm not tech savvy.

Okay, God, that's.

An important correction. Yeah, Okay, So when I the Windows don't load since I did the update, they don't load completely. Pictures prompts with the little where it has a lot of like pre configured questions and you can tap the arrow, everything's frozen.

Okay, So it's all kind of messed up on Chrome specifically. Okay, So have you gone through and have you made sure all your apps are updated after you did the software update? Like, did you go into Google Play and make sure all your apps are up to date?

I don't even use google Play. I only use I use the least amount of permissions I did. I have gone through everything as much as I know how, and I've repeatedly gone through settings within the apps settings, you know internally apps on the phone, and then actually settings through Chrome Live. Let's say, does that answer your question?

Okay, so yeah, So what I would do is I would open up Google Play. I know you don't have to install anything new, but I want to make sure that all your apps are updated. So there's a couple of things I'd like you to do. Number one and I'll put this all in the show notes. You don't have to like write it all down. But number one, go into Google Play and you know, you got to

I just did it. It says your device needs to restart to complete the update. Do that.

Then I want you to go into Chrome. Tap the menu bar the three dots in the up right hand corner, and where it says delete browsing data. I would like you to delete probably all of your data and that has done okay. That you've done okay, and that still didn't fix it, No, And did you do that for all time or did you do it for just like fifteen minutes.

I've done it many times. All the help servers say to do that, okay, And I want to confirm something with you, yeah, when you I don't have any apps that I go into to you right other than like okay, Chrome and Google. But I'm not signed into anything.

Oh you're not signed into even on an Android phone. You didn't sign in? Interesting, okay, Well, so I don't use.

Any services, only Chrome, Google, incognito. I used only search, very very basic.

And are you when you're okay?

The only other thing since you've cleared that activity, It could be that clearing the activity on Chrome could be making these websites take longer to load. That could be the other thing that's happening here, So maybe put the brakes on that. Try to load these websites one more time. You can always pull down on a website when you're in Chrome to reload the page. So try that and see if things pop up. Eighty eight rich one oh one eighty eight seven four to two four one zero one.

Nate.

You're on with rich.

Ty.

I want to ask, what do you think of the new Nintendo Switch two?

Oh, good question.

Uh well, I think it's great, but I mean there are some caveats to that, so it really depends on whether you need to upgrade or not. So so I'll just give you kind of my quick review. But you know, this thing is selling very very well.

It was.

It's it's available pretty much. I think you can get it at this point, like pretty widely. But it builds on I think what made the original popular, which is portability, flexibility. It's got a lot of games you can already play, including some new ones. The screen is bigger, the unit overall is much bigger, still pretty easy to hold. I think the biggest improvement is really the way the controllers attach.

So I think the.

Biggest downside that we've identified is the battery life, So depending on how much you play, you might not get as much battery life as you did before.

And the price.

It's expensive four hundred and fifty dollars or five hundred dollars bundled with the new Mario Kart game. And I think that's the other thing that was a little bit lacking was like a title that like a must have title. Donkey Kong Bonanza has come out, which is it's really fun. I mean I've played it. It's like you're just bashing rocks the whole time. I mean it's like you could play that thing forever. But people are really really enjoying that game. So the bottom line is do you need

Well.

I did something this week.

I visited the Tesla Diner, which opened up while I was in Hawaii, so I had to make my way over there to check it out. It is in Hollywood. This used to be a little bit of trivia for you if you're in the LA area. This used to be a Shaky's Pizza and I used to live in this area, so I knew it pretty well. I mean it's very congested in that area for sure. It's like it's kind of like the right at where West Hollywood starts and Hollywood ends. But this is a futuristic, sort

And when you pull in, you.

Can charge, and then you can order food right from your dashboard, which I thought was pretty cool.

It is neat.

It shows you like a little burger on your screen. You tap that, the menu pops up. You've got burgers all the typical diner, food, burgers, fries, tune the melt. I got my souvenir cup which was seven extra dollars and you can feel it's metal and it says Tesla Diner, Hollywood, California on it. It all feels very disney esque, very like amusement parky like. Even the way it looks on

Becau I'm gonna be hanging out here.

So they do have like a grace period, unlike other charging stations which might charge you immediately for leaving your car there. This you get like thirty minutes. So best times to visit Weekdays, weekends are going to be super busy.

The burger, by the way, I loved it. It was delicious.

So anyway, Tesla Diner in Hollywood definitely going to be attraction people visit when they come to La coming up next, we're going to talk about how AI is impacting long term care. Right here, I'm rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology. The website rich on Tech dot tv. Find me on Instagram at rich on Tech. Before we get to our interview, just a couple of notes here. Number one,

We've got Lily.

Via vida Ya Ruschul to join us to talk about how families can plan for long term care and how AI is helping Lily. Apologies for butchering your name. I do appreciate, I do apologize for that. But this is an important topic for folks because long term care is something that seems to sneak up on people, but in reality it's something that could be planned for right absolutely.

It's a pleasure to be on this show.

And you're right that on average in the US, every single household is going to go through a serious form of long term care events.

So have it to dive in.

Yeah, what I mean? So you have a personal story with this, You why you created this? Right?

I do?

So.

I founded water Lily a couple of years after we navigated a personal long term care.

Event in my family.

My aunt, she's a really integral part of our first generation immigrant family. She had to raise me growing up, and she was diagnosed with terminal stage colon cancer, and what came with that post chemotherapy was the fact that she was so frail we had to navigate her daily long term care needs. A lot of us know that as needs that our grandparents have or our aging parents have, such as bathing, dressing, getting in and out of bed, twiddling, incontinence, et cetera.

So just daily activities that we do.

All the time that we take for granted because we're strong and independent.

And so what is long term care exactly?

Is this?

Is it always in a facility or can you have it at home? Like, explain that aspect of it.

Yeah?

I love that question.

Starting from the basics, which is a lot of folks assume, oh, long term care is a type of facility or type of home care, when in truth, long term care basically is needs that you're going to have as a result of not no longer being able to be independent. Independent

That is, those are long term care needs. Essentially.

The space usually calls them activities of daily living, and when you have those needs, you could get help with them, usually from family members or some professionals that could come to the home to actually physically help you, or if you need more consistent care. That's where folks start to realize it might be more affordable to go into certain types of retirement can unities or facilities.

And this stuff. None of this is cheap.

None of this is cheap. You're right where at the home?

On average, I see the cost is like anywhere between twenty five dollars to thirty dollars an hour for help. And usually when you start to have those needs, like when we go visit our parents when they need help, it's several hours a day at the home, and that could grow into easily between like forty to eighty hours per week and usually that's facility based care and that can go north of ten thousand dollars easily a month.

Wow, So what what does your platform do? Like, what does it help do? And how is AI involved in this.

Fantastic question?

So what we do that has never been done before is we use AI to actually predict when you're going to have long term care needs, your likelihood, how long it's going to be for, and we focus on the needs themselves. We actually focus on like how many hours of help you're going to usually start off with, let's just say if it's around age eighty five, and how

So I'm looking at the website and it's just this this falls under the idea of people like they know this is going to happen, they know they might need this, but they don't want to know the answer in advance because they're like, oh, I'll just have to deal with it when I have to. But that actually makes it more stressful, and it probably is better to know this

Yeah, I you know, I noticed a lot of the tools that are built in a long term care space. Folks that are in this space, like they're either coming from the medical profession or they're coming from insurance, and.

Then you build from that lens.

And that was like the fundamental issues just families just didn't understand what long term care was. And one of my favorite influences for building out this system so that was consumer friendly, was like beautiful systems like Instagram or Airbnb or whatever else where. I just wanted it feel so intuitive and very and very simple to navigate. So

Long, et cetera.

Is this for someone to do themselves?

Like?

Do you like I look on the website and it's got like stuff for advisors? Is this something you can go on and do yourself? Or do you have to go through a third party, like explain that aspect of it.

Yeah.

Absolutely So, there's already hundreds of financial professionals and care professionals that use our platform as a way to guide their clients through what is long term care looks like? What's the cost? How do we solve that cost? However, if you join onto our waitlist right now, I personally love to kind of eat my own cooking, and I

And what's the So the endgame is that you get you know, the person that's using this gets the information about what they might be up against in the future, and then they can get the right Can you refer them to people that actually are the long term care facilities and things that they need or what is that part of this?

Yeah, that's a really great question.

So we first and foremost focused on education, which is like, what are your needs going to look like? We tell you the associate costs, so we even hyper personalized to your zip code of where you currently live or where you're going to retire, and we map those your needs to that care resource and from there, when we figure out what the cost is, we allow you to input.

Things that you don't have to buy.

You know, if you want a self fund, if you want to consider insurance, if an insurance agent's trying to sell you insurance, you can actually upload that policy into the system and we actually analyze that policy dynamic to your predicted scenario, so we could actually see is it going to be a better ROI than self funding and just help you make the decision yourself because the logic is so clear.

Wow.

Okay, So the website is Waterlily dot com and Lily. What's your background? Have you done a startup before like this or is this your first?

This is the first one that I founded, But prior to this, I was actually on an aerospace trajectory before I went into the healthcare industry. So from twelve to sixteen was working at NASA. But when I was sixteen, we navigated that long term care event. I went to

So yeah, it's really organizing kind of this disinformation into a way that's easily understand animal and of course AI is really helping with a lot of that. Do you just love the fact that you've got AI on your side with this?

I don't always build AI into our products, but I love that the AI makes long term care real to people decades in advance, so that they could get ahead of that healthcare inflation, so they can get ahead of that really high cost by planning today. So that's what I love about it is that it gets people to lean in and it's almost like a personality quiz. People want to know it's a much more serious form of just like what kind of.

Animal are you? Are you a panda?

Are you align or whatever else, And it just makes it much more concrete than using national averages or you know, average of code calculators.

All right, once again, the website is Waterlily dot com, Lily Vidora School. Thank you so much for joining me today, appreciate it. Coming up, we are going to open up the feedback and get into what you were emailing me throughout the week is rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich On Tech. Rich DeMuro here, what a show, had so much fun, answered so many questions, and now it's time for the feedbag, which is where read all the

Again. Hm, I wish I would have done that.

Carlos from Pomona, listening on KFI says about the caller with a low tech water leak detector, tell her to get a Mini smart speaker. Most of them can pick up audible alarms and send a notification to your phone no matter where you are. The HomePod Mini does this really well, and even lets me know when my wife burns a tortillas while I'm at work. Yeah, I forgot about that feature. The HomePod can listen for any sort of alarm and relay that to your phone. That's pretty smart.

I wanted to share.

I have eleven leak detectors throughout my home anywhere a leak might happen. If one detects water, the main line shuts off automatically. I use a system from Yo Link. It's been great. Bruce writes in, I love my Flume brand leak detector attaches to my water meter with a rubber band, no plumbing required. It can detect leaks as small as two tablespoons per minute. It connects via Wi Fi and sends alerts to my phone. Yes, I did go home and buy a flood and free sensor from Ring.

Sounds like you're a good dad and you raised them well. Thank you, Bob.

I'm still raising them, so I can't give you the full you know, I can't tell you how good they turned out until it's done.

I guess. Let's see here.

Bob from Northern California rites in a week a few weeks ago, you read a letter from someone who backs up scan documents to flash drives. Well that's a good start. I'd argue it's not a real backup unless the copies are stored in different locations. If the drives are kept in the same place as the originals, one disaster could wipe out everything. Absolutely, always have things redundancy for sure.

A change to my backup number, so I enter the code.

Soon after, I got an email from Hilton saying my password had been updated. Turns out they linked my Hilton to my Amazon and drained over a million points one million, ninety three, six hundred ninety six to be exact, across four transactions. Another two hundred thousand points were transferred elsewhere. Hilton opened two fraud cases, but it's just a big mess. Heads up to your listeners, if you have a high points balance on your travel or rewards accounts, stay vigilant.

Oh.

This is the sunset selfie tip from Kawhi. The subject will be lit, the sunset should still show up in the background. I've used this technique successfully with my DSLR. I'm heading to Kawhi in August and we'll try a sunset selfie on my phone and report back. I love the show. I'm a faithful listener, all right. I think that's what we're going to do for today. Let's see one more. John from Carlsbat says Rich, thanks for your great tips. I enjoy the podcast while riding my mountain

I get your.

Newsletter, but it would would be willing to subscribe if it included a transcript option. Thanks for tweaking my eighty year old brain. Rich on tech dot TV you can get the links to the show note there. Find me on social media at rich on Tech. Next week you've got Adam Daud. He's going to talk about consumer tech and US Mobile CEO Ahmed Kattak he's going to talk about US Mobile. There are so many ways to spend your time. I appreciate you spending it.

Right here with me.

My name is rich Dmiro. I will talk to you real soon