eSIM explained

broadcasting live coast to coast from Los Angeles. Phone lines are now open at triple eight Rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four two four one zero one. Give me a call if you have a question about technology. Email is also open. Just go to Rich on tech dot tv and hit contact. That's Rich on tech dot TV. Hit contact. All right, We got some great guests coming up this week. Scott Johnson, founder of the frog Pants Network and the host of a video game news and

views podcast called Core. He will be joining us to talk about Sony's new PlayStation portal portable gaming system. We've got doctor Chris Pearson, founder of Black Cloak, to talk about AI and hacking, and a little bit later in the show. Emily dry Belbis, electric vehicle reporter for PC mag. We'll talk all things evs well in Hollywood. The big news right now is that Bob Barker has died. Legendary game show host ninety nine years old, nineteen time Emmy

Award winning game show host. And Bob has a special place in my heart because I was actually on The Prices right in college. It was one of those things where I'm from New Jersey, come out to school in California and they say, hey, we're doing a field trip to The Prices, right, anyone want to go? And I said, sure, of course. I mean, who didn't grow up with that show?

full name. It was Richard Demiro. Come on, down, and I mean, at that moment, it is so tough to explain what your brain feels like. But the best way I could describe it is it went to Jello. If someone asked what my name was, I wouldn't have known. The energy level. All the excitement in that place was so fun. I ended up not winning anything except the consolation prizes because I bid seven hundred dollars on a sewing machine. And how would I not a sewing machine costs?

I had no clue, but I did find it interesting. Bob Barker's biography here. He worked part time in radio during college KTTS Radio in Springfield, Missouri. Then he worked in Florida at WWPG Radio. Then here in Los Angeles, he got his own show, The Bob Barker Show, that ran for six years out of Burbank. He did a show on k and X Radio in Los Angeles and he was just on the radio and Ralph Edwards, I guess a big producer was looking for a TV host

and he heard his voice. He loved it, and he said, you know what, I would like to do a version of Truth or Consequences on TV. And Bob Barker said, the day I met Ralph Edwards. My life changed forever. It certainly did. He went on to host that show for many, many years and at the end of the show, we all remember what he said, This is Bob Barker reminding you to help control the pet population. Have your pet Spader newtered. When I was a kid, I had

no idea what that meant. Like half the people watching that as kids, we were just like, what does that mean? It was like this mysterious thing he said every single time at the end of the show. And now, of course we know Bob Barker died of natural causes at ninety nine. And you know, by the way, I posted the video clip of me on prices right on my Instagram at rich on Tech if you want to watch it. It's a little bit dated, I'll be honest, a little

bit dated because it was a long time ago. But it's really interesting because you know, this is my birthday week actually, and so whenever it's my birthday, I always kind of think I'd be get very retrospective about things, and I kind of think about my life and where I've come and where I've been and what I'm doing and where I'm going, and I don't recommend you do that because it can really mess with you a little bit.

So just anyway, I tell you that because I've just been very, very retrospective, and I feel like when people that you grew up with, your idols start passing away as you get older, it's a check, you know what I mean, Like you're really sitting there thinking about this stuff, and that's where I'm at. So anyway, rest in peace, Bob Barker and all the other folks from my child hood that are now passed it. Really, you know, I

don't want this show to be a downer. You know, I'm a very positive guy, but it's like, oh my gosh, you know you're getting old. When let's see what happened this week? Oh yesterday, Okay, So I went through this whole thing of switching to the pixel fold. Okay, Google pixel Fold. I got the phone into test and I said, you know what, I'm gonna see what Android is like. We got a couple of weeks until the Apple event.

I know I'm gonna switch the iPhone fifteen. Let me see what Android's all about by putting my SIM card in there. And so I put my SIM card in there and it was great. Everything was good, but it became this whole thing of my I message and this is like this lock that Apple has on Americans with this I message situation, and people would it. Really. It was fine for a bit until someone sent me a video and the video was like postage thumbnail sized, and

I was like, what is this video? I couldn't even My friend was trying to explain something to me in a video and I couldn't even see it. He was actually to show me how to cut open a I think it was a papaya that he grew in his backyard. He's like this, how you open it? And so I couldn't watch the video because it was so small. I said, all right, I got to go back to my iPhone. So I tried to switch my my SIM card back to my iPhone, and oh my gosh, what a hassle.

All these phones have switched to what's called e sims, electronic SIMS or embedded SIMS, which means there's no physical SIM card. So theoretically you can do the switch online, but that did not work. So I was on phone on the phone with a customer service representative yesterday for over an hour trying to get my old phone to work, and meantime I had no phone line, so I was using my test phone to actually call the customer service rep. But it was a mess and we spent an hour

doing this. I said, I got to go. I got to pick up my kids at school. I have no phone line. I'm growing to pick up my kids. And finally, you know, I get back home and I said, let me call again, let me try again. I get someone on the phone and I'm like, I've you know, it's been very frustrating. This has taken over an hour with the last person, do you think you can do it? And she goes, well, what's the eSIM number that you're trying to activate on the new phone. I said, here

you go. I got a message on my phone that said your phone's active. I said, wait, what you just did in thirty seconds when it took the last person an hour to try to figure out? And I tweeted about this, I said, you know this happened, and people are calling it customer service rep roulette. Sometimes when you're not getting the satisfaction you need from a customer service rep, it is okay to just go ahead and say, you

know what, we're not getting anywhere here. Let me just call back, and you call back, you get someone else, and they change your life. It happened to me. I'm not getting thirty seconds, and it was it was all figured out eSIMs. I also get some messages from time to time on the show about talking about things and not thoroughly explaining them. So let me explain what eSIM is. So physical sim cards, if you've ever seen one, is

that little tiny card. It looks like a chip that you pop into your phone and it helps you get the cellular signal connects the phone to the cellular network. And so we've used these for many, many years. But an e SIM is now built into the phone, so you no longer have to put that physical sim card into the phone. Now. Apple was the first to introduce this back in like twenty eighteen, and they did it secretly.

They didn't really tell a lot of people. But they've started activating these things in the in the Apple stores without really making a big deal out of it. And I wanted to test it out and see how it worked, and sure enough, it became good enough. We're on the iPhone fourteen, which is the phone I have it on they just did away with the physical simcard slot, so there's no way to put a physical SIM card in

this new iPhone. And so Apple said, you know what, we've been testing this secretly for a couple of years. It seems to work out and it's all good. So now we're ready to jump off the you know, off the dock into the water and just let everyone do this. Well, that's great until you have a situation like mine yesterday where it just didn't work. So what's the benefit. Well,

you don't have to go into a store. You can have multiple SIM cards on your phone, so if you travel internationally, you can have your regular simcard plus an international SIM. It makes it really easy to switch carriers. By removing the simcard slot, you can make sleeker and smaller devices. In fact, one of the first devices that Apple had this on was the Apple Watch because it was an embedded simcard, just a little piece of technology inside.

Now pretty much every major phone that comes out has eSIM. Google, Samsung has it, and there is a phone I tested recently, the Nothing Phone, which didn't have it, which was a little odd because I was like, oh, that's weird to not have an e SIM. Also, this enables things like laptops and tablets to have cellular connectivity. Basically, with eSIM, every single device in the world could theoretically be connected

to cellular, which is what the cellular companies want. They want to make sure every device can have it, and it's cheap enough and small enough where they can just build it into this device and now you can have a cellular line or a data line for ten bucks a month, whatever it is. So eSIMs are really handy. If you are wanting to switch carriers, you don't have to go to a store, you don't have to go

get a SIM card. If you want to travel internationally, it theoretically makes things more competitive because you have the choice of all these carriers. If you don't like who you're on, you can switch instantly to a new one. If you go overseas, you can download an eSIM. Now that's all when it works out perfectly. Many people have

had issues with this, including myself recently. But now I'm wondering was it just the customer service person I was talking to, because the other person did it in about thirty seconds, So is it really the technology or is it maybe someone that wasn't as trained on this technology. But the bottom line is, now you know what an eSIM is. Electronic simcard is probably in your phone, so next time you go to activate your phone, they may not have to put any sort of simcard in. The

Samsungs have both eSIM and a physical SIM. The Google phone still have an eSIM and a physical SIM. The iPhones just have the eSIM. So now you know all about ESM All right. Coming up on this week's show, we're going to talk about Threads. Remember Threads. This is Meta's answer to Twitter. They took a big step this week. It is now available on the web. So will it make you use Threads more? I don't know, we'll find out. Also, we'll talk about AT and t's new option to get

internet into your house. If you want wireless internet, at and T now has that for you. And the phone lines are open at triple eight rich one oh one. Give me a call if you have a question about technology at eight eight eight seven four to two, four to one zero one. This is rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you talking technology at triple eight rich one O one. That's eight eight eight seven four to two, four to

one zero one. I was talking about my peer and on the price is right. I posted it to my Instagram at rich on Tech and Steven says, question, do you still own that rug doctor? That is? That is what I got. That was my departing gift. I got a rug doctor. I got a encyclopedia set. That's how old this was. It was like a something like that, and then a jewelry box. And I sent it all to my house back home in New Jersey. Like so I never actually even saw this stuff. My parents just

had it. But anyway, let's go to uh, let's go to Scott to kick things off in Atlanta, Georgia. Scott, you're on with Rich.

both platforms. But for some reason, and Apple knows this. The reason why Apple does not open up I message to the world is because they know people would switch away from the iPhone. The iPhone's an amazing device, but what really locks people in, at least here in the US, is the fact of those blue bubbles. You can debate me all day you want on that, but that is

what keeps people locked into that platform. Yes, the iPhone is amazing, but people would quickly forget it if they use something else like a Samsung or a Google Pixel or the variety of other Android phones out there. I mean, the iPhone is special, but it's not that special. It's really more about the ecosystem. And so anyway, I tell you that because yes, I do have a system that uses Sunbird, which we've actually had them on the show here, and there's a couple of things I'll go through Scott.

You mentioned one, you mentioned Beeper, But there's a bunch of companies working on the cross message solution. And by the way, Apple does not condone any of this, and Apple try well, you know, they don't allow this, they don't want it, they don't build an easy way to do this. But these companies have found solutions around Apple's

lack of support for cross messaging solutions. By the way, I Message is proprietary and it's fantastic, but there are cross messaging solutions that would make every phone in the world function like I Message. It's called RCS, and Android incorporates RCS, which means if you go from Android to Android, yes, you can send big videos, you can send you know, read red receipts, responses, people can see when you're typing, all that good stuff. It was a long time coming

on Android, but now it's across the board. And what Apple does is with you know, if they're not if you're not sending an I message, like if you're sending from Apple to an Android. The reason it pops up green is because they're using just SMS, which is you know, short Messaging service, which has been around forever, but it's

an old standard. The new standard is RCS, and Apple refuses to adopt that because again I explain why, because if they did, it would make everyone happy, and it would make people forget about this whole iPhone versus Android message debacle. I tell you all this because yes, you mentioned Beeper. That's one of them, and all of these things are either really tricky to set up or still invite only. So Beeper is one b E E P E R dot com. The one I'm using is Sunbird.

And then there's one called Blue Bubbles and this is open source and you can install this yourself, but it is very complicated, so just fair warning there. It requires you to have like an Apple computer on at all times in your house acting as a server or another setup, which is also equally tricky. Then there's one called air Message dot org and they do I message. But if you have a Windows computer, Windows actually has a solution.

Microsoft has what's called phone Link for iOS, and this is available for Windows eleven and this will effectively allow you to see your I messages on your Windows computer, not necessarily on your Android phone. So those are a bunch of solutions you can do. But again, like the one I'm using is not necessarily secure because I do have to log in with my Apple ID to a third party service, and whenever you're doing that, you are really opening yourself up to a variety of issues security

wise and elsewise. So while I know a lot of people use these solutions, I can't necessarily say for the average person they're very good. I personally wish that Apple made an I message app for Android overnight. It would be the number one messaging app at least here in the US. They could charge ninety nine cents a month for it and people would buy it, people would use it, But Apple knows on the flip side there would be

people who deflect to Android. So great question, Scott. To kick us off, if you have a question, It's triple eight rich one on one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Coming up, we're gonna talk to Scott Johnson about the PlayStation Portable. This is a new way to play your PS five games on the go. You're listening to rich on Tech.

and what you can sort of expect. This device promises we'll see if it delivers to be able to take you out of the house or anywhere that there's a decent Wi Fi connection and be able to remotely not only wake your PlayStation five up, but also play that game with as little latency as humanly possible.

the cloud and let you play these games remotely. The big difference here is this is a you device, meaning this is not a server on the internet somewhere. It's not a service you subscribe to. It is your PlayStation five at home, running and using your home Wi Fi and the Internet to send it to you wherever you are so that you can play it. And that may sound a little maybe a little out there to a lot of people, like maybe this is just a weird

way to play your games. But if you can have a successful connection and keep that latency low, there's some value in saying, well, I spent three hours last night playing this game. I'd sure like to take my progress on the road, and that's what this is designed to do.

are kind of they're already. But I think you are going to have situations where some people just don't have a good setup in their house, so they haven't replaced their router in twenty years, and they don't know why it's slower there, and so they're going to be a lot of tech calls about why isn't this working right? Some of those issues and That's why I'm encouraging people before they slap the two hundred bucks down that they maybe look into try and remote play on other devices.

Try it on your phone, your Mac, your PC, whatever, and see what you're already getting in that environment. Chances are, if that's a decent experience, it'll be even better with the portal.

It will allow you to connect to these devices your PlayStation portal and be able to hear audio in a lossless way. It's also got two channels and by the way they're making these heads they're making a headset and a pair of earbuds to coincide with this launch. One is called PlayStation Pulse Elite that's the large over the ear headset, and the buds are called PlayStation Pulse Explore.

The real thing to know about those is both of these support that link technology, which means this device will work wireless wirelessly with those very low latency lossless audio. That's really good if you're into the ecosystem and that's what you want to hear. But this device does not support Bluetooth. So if you've got existing headsets, earbuds or whatever laying around and you want to use them with

this device, you're out of luck. Ironically, though, those devices support Bluetooth from other sources, so you could use those earbuds, for example, with your iPhone or Android phone, and it would recognize it as a Bluetooth device. So it's kind of weird it's serving one side and not the other.

They really want you to buy one of these headsets, otherwise you're stuck with speakers or some sort of dongle adapter, or at the very least you just you know, plug it in with a with a wired headset, which it does have support for.

this sort of thing. If that's the case, and you are that level of purest PlayStation player and you play all the hoteny releases and you subscribe to their service, I think this might be a good buy for those for that very specific kind of person, which is what I mean about it being kind of a weird, not niche. But it's a smaller percentage of even the PlayStation market. I think they could have passed a wider net, maybe

even made this device work with other services. They're not going to make it work with xCloud, obviously, but maybe it could have worked with in videos service or somebody else's, but they chose to keep it all in house. And again, if that's all you care about is your PlayStation games and you continuing to play them in bed or off on your trip, or on the plane or wherever you

can get that connection. Then yeah, I think two hundred bucks is okay, especially if you already spent the six hundred a couple of years ago, and you've already you know, you've forgotten about that loss of cash in your wallet.

record you can think of, including reviews and scores. Kind of just shattered the world this year and a year that has already got amazing games in it, Balder's Gate three is the place to be, and PlayStation five owners are about to get it, so I'm excited for them, and it probably will plague really well on this device, so I guess look forward to that, all right.

to handle that part. The main thing you need to know, and this, I think is is really tricky for a lot of people, and myself included when I when I was going to Europe for the first time, this was I had no idea what to expect. You know, I didn't know if my phone was going to melt when I plugged it in, right, But the reality is most of the I guess you would call it the plug, you know, the thing that you plug into the wall here in the US, right, what would you call that, John.

little bit of fluctuation with the power supply. But I think what it comes down to is, you know, the plug on the end needs to be converted to be able to plug into a European plug, you know, wall outlet or something like that. So I don't The short answer is all you need is an adapter. Do you have an adapter?

So I like that one. And it's got one USBC. So the idea is that you can actually plug that into the wall and then you don't even need your converter. You can just or your wall adapter. You can just plug your USB directly into that. Now that's going to work nicely. But if you want something that powers up devices faster, I do also like this one called one Adapter one World one hundred, and this is a little

bit more expensive. It's closer to like ninety dollars, but this will power things like your laptop and your tablet without the need for your adapter at all. So you can plug that directly into the wall, then plug your USBC into it. It's got two USB C two USBA and you can plug that. But what you need to know when you travel is that most of your regular gadgets, like your phones and your tablets and your laptops, those will all be fine with the adapters that you already have,

and you just need a travel adapter. It's when you look at things like appliances. So if you're talking about a hair dryer or a hair straightener, that's when you need a travel voltage converter. And so that's where it gets a little bit trickier because those have a different power requirement, and so those those definitely are not definitely but many times need a converter. So that's the answer

to that. I know it's so complicated because it's but basically, what I've found is that most of the things just sort of work. So that's the good news, all right, John, thanks for the question today from a mission Viejo. Appreciate that. Let's see here. Let me talk about two things that I think you should know about here. Number one, Meta Meta has rolled out a new version of threads, and Threads is now on the web. So remember we talked about threads. This is sort of their answer to Twitter

from Facebook. It is now available on the internet. I know it does not sound weird, but it was. It was previously available on the apps on iOS and Android and on the internet you can only view someone's thread. But now you can actually go to the website threads let's see, is it threads dot net and you can search, you can post, you can repost whatever you want to do. You can basically do most of the functionality that you

can do on the app version on the web. So what does that mean, Well, it just gives Twitter a little bit more of a competition because before, if you were a really hardcore user of this, you had to go on your phone, and it was tough to just leave this on on your computer all day because it wouldn't do anything. But now you can leave it on your computer. You can do the same stuff you can do. So if you haven't checked out threads lately, check it

out again threads dot net. You just log in with your Instagram and you can read, you can write, you can post, you can repost, and it just gets a little bit closer to a product that is easier to use more so. You know, they had one hundred million sign ups within five days of launch back in July, and then a lot of people dropped off, so according to let's see Reuters and Let's see similar Web says daily active users on threads dropped to ten million from

a peak of fifty million within a month. So yeah, I mean I could tell this myself and just kind of like, you know, casually observing that. Yeah, I just didn't really use it that much because you had to go on the phone app and I just forgot. If you have a LinkedIn account, they are under attack. Cyberint says their research team has observed an alarming trend lots of people getting hacked on LinkedIn and this is happening

to people around the world. And what they do once they get into your account, they post bad links, they post mean things, They try to use your account to trick other people. They do a whole bunch of the standard stuff that they do when people hack you. People always say, why do they want to hack me? What do they want to do with my account? Well, they're

trying to trick your friends. They're basically when you have a hacked account, that account is legitimate, and so because it's a legitimate account, you can do things on that account and fly under the radar for longer, which means you can message a lot of people and ask for money. You can post a lot of stuff without the spam flags getting you because it thinks that you're a regular account. So that's why spammers don't just set up a new account.

They love to have your account because your account is marked as a legitimate account. Computer systems can figure out when spammers sign up for thousands of accounts all at the same time because it all comes from the same IP address, and there's other things that kind of indicate

that that those are not real people, their bots. But when they take over your account, it says, oh, this is an account that's been around for a while, it's been used for a while, and so it's more trusted and that's why they like those accounts better than setting up new accounts. Anyway, if you have a LinkedIn account, it is now a good time to go through and make sure that there are no other email addresses or

old email addresses on your account. Change your password, make sure that it is a specific password just for LinkedIn, don't reuse one, and turn on two step verification. This will send you a text when someone tries to log into your account. Definitely secure your LinkedIn account because you do not want something posted to your LinkedIn and your boss sees it, right, and it's something that's really bad. That would be a really look because this is what

people use for work and all that good stuff. So all right, if you have a question for me, give me a call Triple eight rich one on one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. If you hear something that I mentioned on the show, you can go to the website rich on tech dot TV. I keep very good show notes and I put links to everything I mentioned right there, Triple eight rich one on one. You are listening to rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out

talking technology with you. 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. Phone lines are open at triple eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Coming up this hour, we're gonna talk to Chris, doctor Chris Pearson. He is going to talk about def Con, all things AI and hacking. Plus, uh, maybe you got

an email from Shutterfly. I'll explain what that is. I've got a cool new app that is a good alternative to IMDb, and plus I'll tell you about AT and t's new way to get internet to your house. Let's kick things off of John John in Los Angeles. You're on with Rich.

If you think you have your you know, like you said, you wrote down your code word, you have your password, and you still can't get access to this account. Now, remember these are free accounts, so I mean, you know you're always giving and taking with that because I'm sure in the terms of service at some point it says somewhere like we don't guarantee anything. You know, we may take this away from you at any time. So I say that because you know, we got to back up

our information just in case something like this happens. Now, I think that you will get regain access to this account. So what I would do is I would try logging in from another device that you have, like your smartphone. I would try logging in from there see if that works. And you know, I know that you didn't log in from that before, but it may. It may like the fact that you're logging in from another device that you've either surfed the web on with Google or done something

on there, even though you didn't log into there. You can you know, obviously, you can go to the account recovery, which it sounds like you've already done. But on that account recovery page, if you Google and you got to be careful with the phone numbers that you call, because if you just Google for a phone number, I don't

recommend doing that. But if you type in Gmail recovery into Google, and Gmail help page comes up says how to recover your Google account or Gmail, and it gives you some tips on there, and I think, John, there's a couple of good tips on there. Where it says let's see here, it says that there's a way to you know, like log in from a device that you've already logged in from. It gives you like, oh, yeah, here we go some a tip from Tips for Recovery. Okay,

answer as many questions as possible. Use a familiar device and location. Use a computer, phone or tablet where you frequently sign in, use the same browser being a location that you usually sign in from home or work. Be exact with passwords and answers to security questions. And let's see what else here? Enter an email connected here account. So those are all kind of ways you can do it.

If you look in the upper right hand corner of this help page, there is a contact us and I think that that would be easier to contact Google than calling them. I have chatted with Google before with issues, and they absolutely do help. And I think that the chat is a much better way of getting some help with this than calling in the phone number. Like you said, I feel for you. I like that you had things written down, and you've got your recovery word and your password.

Everything is written down. It sounds like you're doing the right thing. But this is indeed frustrating. And I know how frustrating is because in this very room that I'm sitting in, the first time that I logged into my Google in this room, I set off some sort of red alert at Google that locked out every single one of my Google features. And I about had a heart attack when I saw every single one of my systems.

I saw my computer, my phone, my tablet, everything logged out because it said, sorry, we noticed unauthorized access to your account. I guess because it was the first time I was logging in from here and they didn't like it. And my heart stopped because I said, what if I don't get access to my account again? That would be really,

really bad. And what you've just described is the fact that even if you take the time to make sure you have all of your login info, these systems can lock you out for any reason, even as simple as changing your ISP your Internet service provider, and it's saying, hmm, we don't really like this. We've never seen John log in this way before. So it is a scary reminder

that we need to back up our information. We need to write down those recovery passwords and those codes that they give us, and we need to keep good notes about our passwords because sometimes they ask you for an old password and they say, hey, what was your password before this? And you know, Google is up against a

lot of stuff here. They're up against a lot of people that are trying to break into accounts twenty four to seven, and so they come up with these systems that are not perfect, but hopefully they filter out a lot of the bad actors. So John, check out that support page, try to chat with Google. And you know, if you're listening to this, make sure that you back

up your stuff. I'm guilty of not having a backup of everything, so I need to do that, and so do you, especially your pictures, your files, anything that's important. Your Gmail. You can use what's called Google takeout. So if you have a Google account, check out Google Takeout. You can download your data from Google using that service, and it may take a while depending on how much you have, but it can definitely help. Thanks for the call, John, and I hope you get recovery on your account and

email me and let me know if you do. Speaking of shutting down accounts, shut or fly has been setting a lot of emails. At first, they were going to shut down any accounts that had not been active for eighteen months, so if you didn't make a purchase, or if you didn't do anything on your account, basically, if you didn't make a purchase in the past eighteen months,

they were going to delete all of your photos. Well, apparently a new CEO has taken over and they said, we're gon, we're gonna pause this idea because we don't like it anymore. So now accounts that even if you didn't make a purchase in the past eighteen months, they're going to keep your photos on Shutterfly. But if you haven't done anything in five years, they're still going to delete them. So you may have gotten that email from Shutterfly.

The bottom line is if you want to keep your photos on Shutterfly that you've had there forever, you need to make a purchase within five years, So that's that's kind of the bottom line that I'm reading here. If you haven't made a purchase in eighteen months, we still designate your account as inactive, but we're not going to delete those pictures. Very very confusing, shutterfly. You need someone better to write your emails, because it took me about an hour to read this email and figure out what

you're trying to tell me. So this app is pretty cool. A lot of people are talking about it. It's called call Sheet c A L L S H e e T. This is an iOS alternative to IMDb. IMDb is really cool because it can keep track of all the movies you want to watch. You can look up people, but it's gotten really cluttered ever since Amazon purchased it, and it's just got a lot of junk on there. So if you want something that's really clean, check out call Sheet.

A lot of people are talking about this. I downloaded it. It is very clean. It's only on iPhone for now, and you do have to pay after a bunch of free searches. It's either a dollar a month or nine dollars a year, But don't let that dissuade you. I would still download this if you are looking for an app to keep track of your movies and you know you just want to look things up. It's pretty cool. So it's got a way to look up actors, see

what movies are in. You can keep a list of the things you want to watch, and it also links out to just watch to see where a TV show or movie is streaming. It's not quite as detailed IMDb, but it still works. It's called call Sheet c A L L S H E E T. I will put

it on the show links. And by the way, if you want to get in on the feedback segment, which is at the end of the show, if you have something to say about this show or about me or anything, you can go to my website rich on Tech dot tv, hit the contact button and I'll make sure you get in the feedback segment at the end of the show. All right, coming up, we'll talk about AT and t's new Internet air plus more of your calls at Triple eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four

to two four one zero one. This is rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich On Tech. Rich Demiro here at Triple eight rich one oh one that's eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Let's go to Judy in San Diego. Judy, you're on with Rich.

Let's see what else here. Forty two seventy million hour battery slide lock to prevent unintended displacement. Oh, removable and replaceable battery. That's what you were talking about. Huh. Now here's the thing. This is aimed towards construction workers. So that's are you. Are you dropping your phone a lot? Or are you on construction side?

I'd have to look at the the software kind of like what they say, and I'm trying to see if it says it on here, you know, because a lot of the new Android phones the software is updated for about three to five years, so it depends if this phone, you know, has that many years of lasting out. I think you can be just fine with a phone that

has a really nice case on it. Like if you went with like, let's say you want to stick to Android, you can get a Pixel seven a for like four hundred and fifty bucks something like that, and a case that is like maybe fifty dollars, and you could have a case that's pretty much going to be almost as protective as this device.

the stuff from Spec so those are great cases. But I mean you can get one that's our zag. They have them that are you know, rug it up to like thirteen feet drops and then you get a nice screen protector on there and you're pretty much covered, and this will have a home button. I think the iPhone SE would probably be a good one for you. It starts at four hundred and thirty dollars. By the time you get the case and the screen protector, you're talking

maybe five hundred dollars. And once you've got to protected, this is going to be easier because it has everything you need. You've got friends and family to help, You've got the Apple stores to walk into if you need help with that, so, Judy, I think that that might be a better bet. But if you like the Kyo Sarah and you like the rugged phone, I just think you're gonna be paying more for something you may not need.

So good question. Thanks for calling today. Coming up next, we're going to talk to doctor Chris Pearson, founder of Black Cloak. We're gonna talk about AI and hacking right here on rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here talking tech with you at triple eight rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Give me a call if you have a question about technology, or hop on the internet and send me an email. Just go to

rich on Tech dot tv hit the contact button. And yes, you are all having a field day with my old school video of me on the Price is Right. Yes I had a different haircut, Yes I was younger. No I didn't win anything. Yes I got down to contestants row And actually I didn't mention this when I first told you about Bob Barker, but he actually scolded me on the show because I was going to USC and the guy next to me was going to Pepperdine and

here in Los Angeles, Soo's are kind of rivals. Not really, but I made a jab at Pepperdin and Bob Barker just barked at me. He was like, don't make fun of his school, and I was like, whoa. It was like, okay. Joining me on the line is doctor Chris Pearson, CEO and founder of Black Cloak. Doctor Chris, Welcome to the show.

are really expensive, high end solutions, high end cameras. There's a whole other extra layer of patching that needs to happen, security updates, and really system architecture. These homes are kind of like small businesses, so to speak. So there's a lot more there. But for the everyday consumer, phrase told you to do one thing, it would be this, turn on dual factor authentication onto your IoT, your Internet of Things device, your camera system, whatever it might be. Turn

on dual factor authentication on there. That is going to protect you up at that ninety five percent plus mark.

for the latest and greatest technology. Talk to the vendors, talk to suppliers, figure out how new things can either automate more make more simple their corporate structure, the corporate security posture, and also to integrate and talk to and collaborate with one another. It's probably one of the biggest benefits of me as a former chief information security officer.

It could be for anti fraud purposes, for into money laundering, for cybersecurity. But machine learning has really grown up a lot and been integrated into a lot more corporate cybersecurity products.

the everyday person. Corporate security AI, I mean it is evolving, but not quite there yet.

in common parlance here in the United States. And so I want to write an email that tells you that your username and password has expired and you need to click here on the link. Well, I can tell that to chat GPT and it will push out something that is grammatically correct, looks accurate, has much better English, no broken English, and therefore it makes it for a consumer to spot whether it's a phishing email or not because it's been generated correctly.

voice identification and fingerprinting, so to speak. So what we're seeing is this happening a lot more. You know, can you hear me? And then the answer is yes, Oh wow, that's tricky. Yeah, Well it's one of those things where you know, you say, hey, is this rich? It's your bank? On answer is yes, hey rich, can you hear me? Is this call going okay?

now have a baseline of what I sound like. So any anomaly, any differential from there will be flagged as a variance, and then they will go into stepped up authentication a you know, rich, when what type of phone do you have? When was the last time you up your service? When was the last time you're actually in a Verizon store?

Triple eight Rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one is the phone number to all. Let's go to Alex in Nuevo California. Is that how I say it? Nuvau Neuvaux, California. Oh, okay, we gotta. I can't hear you, Alex. Uh, maybe call back Alex. We had a back connection there. Let's go to carry in mission via ho is this our second mission? Viejo call today? Carry your on with rich Huh. Oh, we're having problems with all of our callers right now. Okay,

Well maybe it's us. It's not you, it's me. I was explaining to my kids. They asked me last night, Uh, Carrie, I can't hear you either, so maybe carry there? Yes, oh there you are, Okay. I was explaining to my kids last night. They said, how do you break up with someone? And I said, well, you just say it's not you, it's me, And they laughed. What can I help you with.

can get one for sixteen bucks. So I would probably try a USB mic because I think that that's going to be that'll get you around this other issue of this microphone plugin situation. Now here's my other question. Does your computer have a built in microphone? Yep?

that works. But try this this website first, this mic test website, and do that and then see if your MIC is detected if it's you know, actually going into the computer with the audio, and that's the first place I would start if it. If it doesn't work there, then the microphones that you're having and that's that jack on your computer is just not working anymore. What concerns me is the fact that the computer microphone also doesn't work,

so there's something a little funky there. Do you have any apps that are interfering with this, like any sort of audio routing apps?

give me a call at Triple eight. Rich one on one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. There's nothing more frustrating then something not working on your computer, like a microphone, and you're just sitting there trying and trying and trying and plugging and unplugging. It happens to the best of us. You are listening to rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here talk in technology with you at Triple eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four

to two four one zero one. You know I've mentioned this before, but I'm always testing something new. So this week I've been testing the Pixel fold, which is Google's foldable smartphone, and I've got to say it's actually pretty fun. It's a great it's it feels like a passport, like that's the form factor is like a passport. So it's got a screen, nice big screen on the outside and you open it up to a bigger screen on the inside.

It's very heavy and very hot, so it runs very very hot for some reason, and it's probably one of the heavier smartphones I've used. But with all that said, it's very endearing. It is a very very endearing phone, and it better be for eighteen hundred dollars. But it is. It's a nice little device. It takes good pictures.

I'm also I just got this today. It's called fabric fab ri c dot so and this is one of those kind of like everything all at once bookmarking services. So you can just put like a link in there, you can put a photo, and then you can search everything, so it's kind of like a smart search. And then later on they're gonna have connections so you can search all of your stuff, like Google Drive will be included, your bookmarks, your notion, your dropbox, your screenshots, your email,

your text messages, so your history on Chrome. So they've got, you know, all these connections. They're going to add soon. So basically be like a search engine for all of your own stuff that you remember. That's called fabric fabric dot so and I've been testing that. What else I've been testing so many little things. Oh, a new car this week, the Nissan Aria. It's an ev We're gonna talk to our I'm gonna talk to my guests about that. Coming up, Emily dry Belbis, electric vehicle reporter for PC

mag will be joining us this hour. She can talk. I'm gonna talk. I've got a little bone to pick with evs because charging a non Tesla is not as easy as I thought, and we're gonna talk about that with her as well. Let's see. AT and T has a new thing called Internet Air. This is a home Wi Fi that is delivered over a wireless network. You can install this in your house in less than fifteen minutes. Now, you may say, Rich, I already know that T Mobile has this and Verizon has this. Yes, but now AT

and T has it. And it's a good thing that these companies all have this because it gives some competition to the cable companies that service your house. Traditionally, homes have like one, maybe two options for Internet. Most of the time's either your phone company or your cable company, or both. If you're lucky, now you have a third option. But in many cases it's also a phone company because it's AT and T, Verizon or T Mobile. So what they're doing is they're using these strong five G networks

that they have to supply internet to your house. So you get this box, it's called the Internet Air. You scan the QR code and then you set up the box near your your strongest area of the house with your five G signal. They have a little app that tells you how to find that, and then you turn on the box and it takes the five G wireless signal and it broadcasts it out as Wi Fi. So it's very similar to having the Internet come through a

cable to your house, but it's just delivered wirelessly. And I know it's confusing, you say, Rich, why not just use the five G signal. Well, it's easier to have your devices connecting to a Wi Fi signal than a five G signal because not all of them could do that. AT and T Internet Air is available in parts of Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Pennsylvania, Las Vegas, Phoenix, specifically Prescott let's see Chicago, Detroit, Michigan, New Haven, Minneapolis, Portland, Salt

Lake City, Seattle, and Tampa, Florida. So if you're in one of those places, this is fifty five dollars a month. There are no overage fees, there's no price increase at twelve months, let's see, no annual contract. And if you qualify for this Affordable Connectivity Program, that's the government program that'll give you thirty dollars off a month. Basically, if you're on Snap or some sort of government assistance, you can qualify for that ACP program that'll give you thirty

dollars off the price of this. So I think this is a great thing. I have not tested it yet. AT and T is supposedly going to send me one to test. We'll see, but I have tested the one from Verizon and it works as advertised. And the downside is really just the speed of the service. So you're limited by the speed of what the five G signal

that comes into your house offers. So what I would do if this is available at your house, whether it's T Mobile, Verizon, or AT and T, check the speed on your phone using either fast dot com or an app called Medior met Eo r Medior Speed app that will that will test the speed of your Internet connection. So if you have AT and T, go ahead and test the signal on your phone. That'll give you an indication of how fast this might be. If you have Verizon,

test the signal on your phone. If you have T Mobile, test the signal on your phone. If you want to switch to one of these other companies and get you know, your Internet from AT and T. When you have a friend over, I know it's a nerdy thing to do, but say, hey, can I test the speed on your phone to see what it's like? Because I'm curious about this. Let's go to Paul Paul's in Long Beach.

else need that? No, most people, unless you're a video editor, you do not need that sort of speed up and down. So I think for many people the wireless does work if you are just using you know, Netflix, and you're just surfing the web and you're doing your email and you're doing your zooms, as long as you have a good signal. If you don't have a good signal, like if your cell phone is spotty in your house, this

is going to be spotty. Now it's going to probably pull down a little bit of a better signal just because it's a box that's dedicated with a better antenna than your phone, you know, your phone. Even though it's it's pulling in a good signal, it is regulated by how much you know radio frequency. It wants to emit and also capture, so it's not going to be the strongest. You don't want this thing that's like, you know, as strong as a dedicated box in your pocket because it,

you know, it may not be safe. So what what are you looking to change your Internet? Or are you looking to change your cable TV? Which are all the above?

got all the channels, including the local channels. I just think it's too expensive unless you are consuming a lot of TV and then you by the way, also sports is the trickiest thing about getting you know, these streaming services, because you either have to have the cable or you know, like if you like the Clippers, they have their own service. I mean, there's a lot of different factors when it comes to what you watch. I think is the biggest issue when it comes to switching to just sort of

a streaming service. Now, for me personally, I switched to streaming about I'd say maybe four or five years ago, and it was a big decision and my wife was very much against it because it's very complicated and she saw, you know, like me Chrome casting stuff to the TV, and I decided none of that. But now it's pretty easy. You've got Netflix, you've got Hulu, you've got Prime Video. Like you said, you've got Paramount, so you can get

a bunch of the movies and things and content. It just really comes down to the traditional network television that you want to watch those shows, and also the cable shows and also sports. So I think when you decide to make that jump, you have to figure out what you want to watch and do your research and see if you can get those on streaming. For instance, if you're a big sports fan, a lot of the sports in many cities are not on a dedicated streaming service.

Some cities have it, some cities don't, and so that really comes into play whether you want to subscribe to like an NBA League Pass or something like that, but even with that, you may not get the local games. So there are many, many considerations when it comes to streaming. I think, both for Internet and when it comes to

your television service. At the end, of the day. If you're watching a ton of stuff and you like a bunch of shows on the traditional cable networks, it may just be cheaper to go ahead and do a bundle. But otherwise, if you want to piecemeal it together and subscribe one thing here, one thing there, it can be cheaper. But when you cancel that cable service, many times your

internet price will go up. So that's when these other alternatives like the the air, you know, the wireless internet services may work because T Mobile, Verizon, AT and T they're really trying to push these new ways of getting Internet, so they're giving you a deal right now, and it's a little bit cheaper, but the signal may not be as strong or may not be as fast. Triple eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one is the phone number. This

is rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here. Yeah, it's my birthday week. I call it birthday week because we've been celebrating for a while now, can you tell now, I'm just kidding. Counting Crows one of my all time favorite bands. They're actually playing in the LA area like right now, and anyway, we didn't get tickets, so wampwomp for made. We have a wamp womp sound. Let's go to Andrea in h Are you Andrea in LA or Louisiana a Los Angeles? Okay? Says

la here. When I lived in Louisiana and I say la, it meant like when I see the letters, it meant something different. But you know, anyway, what can I help you with? Welcome to the show?

stay on top of those things. You are sending in your phone for service.

That is the easiest way to do it. If you don't want to do that, there's an you know, if you don't want to use iTunes and you don't want to use your computer. The other way is really a flash drive, and you can plug the flash drive into the bottom of the phone. But you're gonna have to

get one of those. So if you can go to like best Buy and look for either the sand Disc, you need what's called a lightning USB drive, So it's the brand from sand Disc is called I expand the letter I expand, and then pn Y has one as well, and pn Y is again but it's brand new, so they may not have in the stores just yet. But again you need what's called a lightning to a lightning

flash drive. So if you go into the store and ask for that, you can plug that into the bottom of your phone and then use the software to download the photos onto that flash drive. That's probably the best way to do it. If you don't want to do that, I think that a backup using Google Photos would work well. There's also a website called i drive which is really fast and easy. I might just use that. You can download the app for i drive and download your photos

to there and they'll be backed up. It's in the cloud. You didn't want the cloud, but those are the two best ways to do it. You're listening to rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here talking technology with you at triple eight Rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to two, four to one zero one on the line. Emily dry Beelbis, electric vehicle reporter for PC mag Emily, thanks so much for joining me today.

because you can charge. You know, if you're just commuting, it's not unless you're commuting like three hundred miles a day, you're going to be fine. Now, when it comes to road trips, that is a different world. Entirely. And I do feel like, and I think that this was reinforced this week with my test drives, that Tesla is really the only game when it to road trips at this point. And you can debate me on this, but I feel like it's really tricky to go on a road trip

in a non Tesla because of the charging situation. What do you think of that?

The first one I couldn't get to work. The second and the two fast chargers were used, and then the second one the charger was broken. It was like out of service, and the other chargers were in use. And then the third time, both chargers were in use. And because you're not doing supercharging, these chargers sometimes take a little bit longer. And so I realized the frustration of like, here I am talking about these electric cars and how

great they are. But if you're getting one of these cars and you're spending a lot of money on it, and then all of a sudden you're not you know, you're not charging at home or you think you can do this, it could be really, really frustrating.

We're gonna go get some groceries, no big deal. And I get there in all the stations, all eleven are just out to get for maintenance and improvements. And the issue there is, you know, I navigated there on Google Maps,

and Google doesn't know that they're that they're out. So we have kind of an app component to it as well, and you know, the vehicle navigation needs to know that Google if you use that other apps like plug share, So there's a lot of factors that go into what charger you choose and kind of how it works with your car, the port, and then why you go there, what you want to do when you're charging. So that one didn't work on a good day, that would have

been a fantastic option for me. And then I also went to two others and the other one was in a parking garage, and I had to get a ticket and everything.

The other thing that I noticed is that, and this really really bugs me, Please car manufacturers, there should not be an icon for gas stations, like on the main screen on your built in navigation software. And I get it. My wife is debating me. She's like, well, maybe you

want to find a restroom or like a soda. I'm like, I don't know, it's just like bad form, like show me ev stations, Like I don't know anyway, So do we feel like the battery tech is getting better because people always you know, we've seen the cars, they've been around for a while. Is battery technology getting better, Yes, it is.

I mean Chinese battery makers and then Toyota, Honda. That's where I'm hearing the big battery announcements, and it seems like at least in the short term, US automakers will be partnering with them for those big advancements. And then Biden has allocated billions of dollars to stimulate US battery production. Because we are so far behind, and we get ninety five ninety seven percent of our batteries are from overseas, so we have brilliant engineers in the US. We do

have startups working on fantastic technology. We are just a little bit far behind, and we will be partnering probably with overseas companies who are doing an amazing job with the technology. So we could benefit from that, and I think probably in the next maybe five.

For better or for worse, rich on Tech come back after this. Welcome back to rich on Tech, closing out the show here with your feedback. If you like the show, you can follow me on social media at rich on Tech. I'm on Instagram, Facebook x formerly, Twitter, and threads. You can also listen to this show as a podcast. Just go to rich on Tech dot tv, click the podcast icon and you can subscribe there. I also have show notes for the show and you can watch my TV

segments on the website. Yes, I do TV segments as well. So get through a couple of news items before we get to the feedback. As promised, Samsung has a special TV for Disney fans celebrating Disney's one hundredth anniversary with a special edition of the Frame. The Frame is a TV that displays artwork when it's not in use, and it looks like real artwork. I mean, this thing, if

you've seen it in person, is very, very impressive. It's available in sixty five, fifty sorry, fifty five, sixty five and seventy five.

this thing? I don't have the price anyway. Limited edition while so applies last, Samsung dot Com, slash US, slash Disney, and Best Buy Atari bringing back the twenty six hundred with a recreation The twenty six hundred plus a recreation of the console that first appeared in nineteen eighty will be launching worldwide on November seventeenth for one hundred and thirty dollars. It'll include ten games. It looks just like the original. It actually uses the same cartridge slot. And

this is the coolest part. I think that the original cartridges will plug into this new machine. So if you have some old Atari twenty six hundred or seventy eight hundred cartridges, they will work with this machine, which is pretty cool. Then the cartridge it comes with has ten games built in, including Adventure, Combat, Dodgeum, Haunted House, Mays, Craze, Missile Command, Real Sports, Volleyball, Surround Video, Pinball, and Yars Revenge. Does not include Pong. Was that not on the original?

I thought it was. It also has some modern necessity like an HDMI output and USB, plus a recreation of the original c X forty plus joystick. And finally I tested this out Samsung. Remember a couple of weeks ago I did the Apple AI Voice clone. Well, now Samsung has it. So if you have a Samsung Galaxy and it's got the latest software, you can train Bixby on your voice and then you can have the voice assistant talk in your voice.

online on my Instagram at rich on Tech. It does not sound like me at all, So it didn't really work that well, but you know, it's a start, and it's just kind of fun. I mean, your results may vary. Maybe my voice is just not as clonable. All right, let's see. Can I get to a couple things people said? Jet says, Verizon's offering me seven hundred dollars for my iPhone thirteen? Should I trade it in or wait until

the new iPhones come out? Wait, don't buy iPhones right now, just wait every either deals will get better, the price will come down. Just Senda says. Cox has two different affordable Connectivity programs. One is ACP, which can be applied to any Cox Internet. Then there are several different level programs. COX will assist with under Connect Assist and Connect to Compete. One of the benefits includes one hundred dollars off a laptop.

Cox recently increased the broadband speed with no additional charge. Their customers just send to I don't know if you work for Cox or what, but thank you for the public service announcement, so ask for those discounts. David says, what's the best site for NFL on TV? Ooh, at this point, it's YouTube TV. They got the exclusive rights to Sunday tickets, so that's probably the best place at this point. Richie said as evs. Electrify America has its own app which shows if the charger is in use

or not, making it easier to choose where to go. Yes, that is true, but I've also found like last night we went to the Electrify America stations, it was like a it reminded me of like a fifties like what are those places called, like where they the people on skates roller skates like a whatever? That's you know, like what bobo, what are those called?

Barry asks, I want to buy a watch for someone with dementia in case they wander. They are elderly. Is there a smart watch or device I can keep track of it? She does not have a phone. I would look into something called the geobit jiob t. This is real time location tracking. It's kind of like an air tag, but with a built in cellular signal. So gobit jiobit I think will be your best bet there. Roger asks, you always have great news. Thank you. I'm looking for a way to get rid of ads on my Android

phone without cost. Is there a way? Ooh, great question, And I do have a good way, easiest way I know of. This is built into every Android phone. It's super simple. All you have to do is go to settings, Network and Internet Private DNS, private DNS provider host name, and you type in DNS dot adguard dot com and that will block all the ads on your phone without installing any programs. It just has to run your URLs

through ad Guard. So obviously do your research and figure out if that's something you want to do, because it will send all of the websites that you go to to this website. But that's really easy. Oh my gosh, two minutes yea we go? Was that really two minutes? Let's see?

our servers and desktops. Even my TVs have a UPS. Beverly says your show is amazing. My family and I have listened since your first show where you appreciate your informative and entertaining program. You truly have content for every listener. I tell my friends about Rich on Tech and I

encourage them to listen. Thank you. And Mark says, hey, Rich, listen to you yesterday and was ready for you to make a joke when you aired voicemails the woman asked for a good computer cleaner, and I was waiting for you to say, Windex. You do have a good sense of humor and have done it a yeoman's job of replacing Leo Yeomen. I've never heard that word, have you, Yeoman. I'm guessing that's like a good job, I would assume

since it's a nice email. Thank you, Mark. Yes, I wanted to make that joke, but I try to be nice. All right, let's see. Oh and finally, oh gosh. I hate to end on a bad note. Ginger and your Blinda says, what happened to your Sunday show? I'm so disappointed. I listen on Saturday and I've looked for you on Sunday. Love your show. I don't do much TV. We haven't had a Sunday show since I started. This is only

on it depends where you listen. I guess on different stations they play it on different days, but it's only one day a weekend. All right, that's gonna do it for this episode. You can find links to everything I mentioned on my website richon Tech dot tv. Next week we'll be talking from Ifa, Berlin. My name is rich Dmiro. You can find me on social media at rich on tech. Thanks so much for listening. There are so many ways you can spend your time. I do appreciate you spending

it right here with me. Thanks to everyone who makes this show possible. I will talk to you real soon