T mobiles free, Netflix, Steel has a big new catch. Consumer Reports slams Tesla's autopilot, The magic behind Google Duplex, plus your tech questions. What's going on? I'm Rich Demiro. This is Rich on Tech, the podcast where I talk about this stuff I think you should know about happening in the tech world. Plus I answer your questions with the help of producer Megan. What's up? Producer Megan? Hey,
how are you good? How now? A couple weeks ago I asked you to change your Twitter handle, yes, from your name to producer Megan. How is that transition going?
You know? It's fun because I think that people can find my Twitter obviously easier and they can see the fun stories that we're doing that I post about because obviously you post a lot. But I have a different angle.
You have a different angle. What is your angle? What do you think that is?
I I'm slowly discovering whatever my angle is.
Just behind the scenes, okay, be oh interesting?
So kind of liked the camera You're.
Giving folks like a little taste of stuff. Well, yeah, welcome to everyone joining us on Facebook Live. We're doing it there too, so people can watch on Facebook. We do the show live here, and I will say I think the show has evolved in a pretty big way since we started this journey, and I think it's going to continue to evolve. I think it's gotten a lot better.
Yeah, I mean it's fine. I'm excited to be a part of it.
Do you like the questions this week? Because basically what I do is you guys email me a whole bunch of questions. I forward them to Megan and then she picks the ones she likes to feature on the show. So did you find some good ones this week?
I found some really good ones, some interesting questions that we haven't gotten before that I haven't read before.
Okay, well that's good. Yeah, And if you're watching on Facebook, you can call in the number on your screen. We'll take you as part of the show as well. And the way that works, if you're listening on Facebook and you get in on the call, just kind of hold on until you hear me announce your number, so I might put you on whole That's the way it works. Because we're kind of producing this all ourselves. So there's
a lot of moving pieces in the show. So let's just get right into what's happening with Apple, they are
holding one of their biggest events of the year. They usually hold maybe three events a year, one for the iPhone one kind of you know event where they just have a bunch of Actually now it's just about two events a year, so it's well, you know what, near mind it is three because one of them is usually about their services, like remember they one with like the Apple TV Plus and all that stuff, which was a total bummer.
And Apple News Plus.
Yeah, Apple News Plus, Apple TV Plus. And the next one is WWDC and this is happening on June third up in San Francisco, really San Jose. So what happens at WWDC is they have a whole bunch of developers come out and kind of celebrate Apple. Not only do they celebrate what Apple's accomplished with their operating system and their products, but also they learn how to create the
apps that we know and love. So if you're a developer from like Milwaukee that makes a cool iPhone app or anywhere the Netherlands, you come to this event and it's it's tough to get tickets. It sells out in like record time every year. Wow, and they have I think about five thousand people come, so it's kind of cool as a journalist. And this is what I love about my job is I'm just like a schlub that gets to like come to these things, right, Like they're
just like slub. Well it's true. I mean, I'm not like developing apps. I'm not sitting there like doing anything amazing for the world. But yet Apple is like, oh, you can come, you know what I mean.
Yeah, and like you're covering the event. You're telling the story of what's happening.
It's not nothing, yeah, but it's in the scheme of things, Like I'm not creating a life changing app, you know what I mean. Like a lot of the people there have created things that are pretty amazing. People have made a lot of money off of their apps. I mean, there's there's some amazing stories that come out of this show. I call it show. It's really an event. But they
stay for like the whole week. I go for basically about three hours on Monday morning, I hear the whole keynote, and enduring the keynote, they kind of show you what's next. Now you know. I wrote that book one hundred and one Handy Tech Tips for the iPhone.
No, I have no idea what he's talking.
So the book is really about iOS twelve. And so me when I'm sitting in the audience, I'm sitting there going, oh my gosh, look at all these things I need to update in the next version of the book. If that happens, no guarantee that that's gonna that's gonna happen. But this is me writing the book.
Is that a typewriter?
No, I'm actually I've upgraded to a computer, so I'm using a computer now typewriter. But yeah, so anyway we learn basically, this is the thing I hate about the show is that they show us a whole bunch of stuff that does not come out for a while. So they show us all this great software and all the new features of iOS and of course the iPad and the MacBooks, and then they say, oh, and this will come in the fall, and see then you have to wait, like, you know, three to six months for this stuff to
actually hit your phone. But it's fun. And the main thing that people do when they look at these invites is they try to figure out what Apple means by the invites. And so the invite they sent for WWDC, it was a picture of a unicorn with its mind blown. So there's like a whole bunch of like stuff coming out of the unicorn's head, like augmented reality, and you know, the app store and all these little things that nerds love, right,
So I love this kind of stuff. I love just seeing what the vision for the company is because it is getting much more competitive these days because iPhone rules in the US, but when you think about the world, there's a big world out there, and so Apple is just getting more competitive with what they do and the features that they add to the iPhone because people are now more critical than ever of kind of what they
have in their pocket and what they're using. So anyway, so that's happening June third, I will definitely be up there and I will bring you all the updates for what you need to know.
One question, how much does it cost to go if you're a developer?
A lot. It's it's gosh, let me shout look it up.
It's it's a yeah, I'm just curious. Yeah, I'm working on an app.
It's WWDC twenty nineteen. Tickets. They probably don't even ticket price. I love that I can just google this and see sixteen hundred bucks. Wow. So all right with that said, producer Megan. First question.
Okay, so our first question is from Instagram and it's Apple related from Brandon K nine two seven. Hey, Rich, how much hands on time have you had with the Galaxy S ten. I have been a longtime Apple user and currently have the iPhone X iPhone ten. Since it came out. I feel like it's starting to slow down and the battery life on it is getting pretty bad. It's starting to make me want to try out the S ten.
Interesting. Okay, So Brandon was that his name? Yeah, Brandon. So here's my advice. Number one. He has the iPhone ten. Right, So, if you have the iPhone ten and things are slowing down, I don't think you need a new phone. And I'm not trying to knock the S ten. I mean I and with respect to your question about how much hands
on time. So here's what happens usually with phones. So usually I get a device as a review unit, and I use it for a couple of weeks, right to kind of come up with my initial thoughts and what I think of this thing, and then after a while I'll switch back to kind of what I'm using most of the time, which is either like my ant preferred Android or my preferred iOS device, and then they come out with a big software update, a major update to
the camera, major update to the operating system, whatever it is, and I'll go back to that device to kind of revisit it. And that's probably like a month later, right, because a lot of times these devices come out and then they get a big software update afterwards, and so you want to go back to them. So that's kind of like my experience with the S ten is I probably used it for a couple of weeks and then I've used it a little bit more after that. It's
a good phone. It's a very solid phone. I do have some other favorites out there, but I think overall, the S ten has kind of like every feature you want. I don't think the camera's as good as some of the other phones out there, like the pixel, but the pixel is also very boring. So to answer your question, what I would do is, I'd probably stick with the iPhone because I don't know if you need to switch
phones just because your iPhone is slowing down. I think you're probably getting a little bit bored with the iPhone, but that doesn't mean you should switch because it's expensive to switch, and you have the iPhone ten, which is like a brand new phone. So my advice would be to just actually go in and start over. So go into your settings, factory form at it, which means you're going to RaSE it back to the way the factory put it, and then don't do a backup restore. So
don't restore it from your old phone. Literally, just go through and install all the apps once again, and your phone, I think will run like new, and I think you'll be just fine.
I mean that takes a lot of work.
Though, Yeah, but you know what, Yeah, it's a thousand dollars afternoon.
How often do you recommend doing a factory reset?
I do that pretty much once a year, i'd say with the iPhone. Yeah. In fact, when I get new phones, I don't like to restore them because think about it, you're restoring all the mistakes that you made on your old phone, all the settings, all the gunk from the apps, all this stuff. Like why do you want to do that? Like start fresh? It takes an afternoon on a Saturday, and you know, yeah, you have to redo your home screen and all that stuff. But like it's kind of fun.
It's like a fresh cleaning closet.
Maricondo, I like that. Good question, good answer. That So T Mobile. T Mobile is the carrier I love to hate because T Mobile they here's the thing about T Mobile. They're like the loudest person in the room. Right, They're always screaming. I feel like, you know if you think about T Mobile, Yeah, don't you always see an ad on TV for T Mobile? Like sure, Verizon and AT and T. But T Mobile is always like kind of hammering the other people, right, They're always like we're the best,
We're the best. Where the best, like Verizon sucks eighteen T sucks. But T Mobile is not perfect, right, they do have their downsides. And number one, their network is just simply not as good as AT and T of Verizon. That's just a fact. But they're getting better. But here's what I love. Let me just give you an example of here's what something they did. So they sent an email today to all journalists with like some news and the news. The headline was love your discount, not your carrier.
T Mobile will match or beat that discount on magenta and magenta is their color. Right, So the email goes into explaining the fact that they are introducing a new plan in uh, let's see in June. I think June second, where a lot of people stick with their cell phone carrier because they have a great discount. Right if you're with AT and t 're on this old plan. So now they're saying, call us up. We will match that and basically give you that same discount, so you can
switch to us and start fresh. So that's number one. Then they hide in this thing the fact that they're changing the name of their plan. So T Mobile used to be called T Mobile one. Now it's being called T Mobile Magenta and then Magenta Plus, which I don't know. Why why do you need to change the name, Like what's the deal? Like why that's so complicated? Okay, So that's number one. Number two. Then this is, by the way,
about towards the end of the email. So the new plan, you get some more benefits, including three gigs of high speed smartphone hotspot, which is great. People love that used to be whatever they say, it's a three dollars value per line whatever. T Mobile one had no LTE hotspot, it was all slowed down. So and hotspot is when you connect to your phone for your data, like from your computer versus like a Wi Fi hotspot. Right, it's
safer to do it that way. But then they put number three Netflix on US changes to account for the Netflix price increase earlier this year, Magenta includes Netflix Basic for families. So it used to be Netflix Now it's Netflix Basic. By the way, Netflix Basic has no HD video. Do you want to watch videos and non HD? No? So I mean you're getting it for free? You don't care?
No I care?
I mean no, no HD is. You don't want that. So if you want to continue on the Netflix Standard plan, now, they're going to charge you two dollars a month for that. And I get it. It's two bucks a month, big deal, not that much. But I tweet this out and I get a response from T Mobile saying, Rich, we think you're wrong. You said that people are going to be paying two dollars extra to T Mobile. Well they're not.
It's Netflix. There's nothing we can do about it. And I said, well, wait a second, So is Netflix charging the two dollars? How does this work? And it's so confusing. The two dollars Netflix pass through charge will be on their T Mobile bill. It's not just our charge, our plan isn't changing anyway. It's so complicated. Bottom line is, if you have T Mobile one and you enjoy Netflix with h D quality, you're going to see a two
dollars charge on your bill. Or you can now get rid of Netflix altogether so you don't have that benefit, so you don't have the two dollars charge on your bill. Or you can switch to T Mobile Magenta and get T Mobile Basic for free, which has no HD streaming by the way. Yeah, so it's it's going to be old school quality. Okay, you know what that means, Megan.
It's time for another question. Yes, okay, So our next question is from Mark Rudisil. Oh, Rude Rudisil. I bet that's pronounced a lot better, like it's like friend.
No, they don't, No one else knows that.
So this is about cell phone traveling in Europe. I was wondering what is the most economical way to have a cell phone while vacationing in Europe?
Oh okay, So if you said, Mark, Yeah, if Mark would have asked me this a couple of years ago, I would have told him that getting a local SIM card is probably the easiest and the most economical, because you know, it was really expensive to bring your phone from America over to Europe, and so you would just get a SIM card there and pop it in your phone and it would work great. I've done that many times.
I've done that in Spain, I've done that in England, and every state or every country over there is slightly different because some have like, like when I got my SIM card in Spain, they wanted like all this personal information, like my driver's license and all this stuff. I'm like, I'm not signing up for a plan. I'm just like buying a SIM They said, no, that's the way our government works. So okay, everyone's different. So that's number one,
there's a little bit of a learning curve. Number two, your phone has to support it, right, So your phone has to be able to have an unlocked SIM card slot, which most of them for international do. So that's what I used to recommend. Now I just recommend adding the ten dollars a day to your plan. If you have AT and T or Verizon, it's basically ten dollars a day to use your phone the same way overseas that you use it here. There are some limits on the data and stuff that you can use but to me,
I think that's worth it. Now if you do the math and you say, rich, I'm crunching the numbers here right, I'm crunching the numbers and I'm coming up with three hundred dollars a month. A yeah, it's like you're like there's a lot of like computing going on. Yeah, okay, So you do that and it comes out to three hundred dollars a month, which sounds like a law. But how long are you taking a If you're taking a month long vacation, you can afford three hundred dollars for
the month exactly. I'm assuming he's it's going for a normal time, which is probably like a week if you're going to Europe. So a week is seventy bucks. That's seventy dollars to use your phone the way you use
it here, I say, just do that. So what you need to do is just call up at and T or Verizon or I'm not sure what Sprint does, but and with T Mobile it's included actually, so if you have T Mobile, you're fine if you're on their one plan, if you're on eighteen tier Verizon usually for ten dollars a day, you can add the data and you're good to go.
So what about just putting your phone in airplane mode and just calling people through Wi Fi? Ef No, some people don't want to spend.
Ten dollars a day. Okay, I hear you. I hear you.
Economical.
Oh he said economic. Okay, but but he said, how do I use? Okay? So, yes, Megan, you came up with the right answer. Well though, you okay, okay, the right answer. Yes, the most economical way is to turn off your phone and never use it. But or or to put airplane mode and then Wi Fi. Yeah, that's the most economical, but that's also the most annoying. So if you want to do that, mark, you can do it. But I'm giving you my advice as someone who has
traveled to these places, and I've tried different things. I mean, believe me. I tried doing it on the company phone, which, by the way, was a big pain because you got to call someone in your company ask them to add the international plan. It's a whole rigamarole. I tried doing the thing, right, I didn't do anything, and I got a nine hundred dollars bill from AT and T because I uploaded like thirty megabytes of pictures to dropbox and
thirty megabytes in China was nine hundred dollars. So, by the way, if that happens to you, you call your company and you ask them to pro rate or backdate you. So ask them to put on the international plan backdated, and they can do it. They'll take a little bit of like like the guy actually was really mean to me. He was like, this is your mistake. You deserve to pay. I was like, come on, dude, I'm like, come on, this is like who I am. So it was like
a thirty dollar They made me pay thirty dollars so wow. Anyway, well that is yeah, that was a great value. What happened? What do I do with all my papers? I have no where? Did like the rest of my questions go? Okay, they just merged into I took over.
I'm just gonna start talking about the.
Story Consumer Reports is knocking Tesla once again. I'm beginning to think that Consumer Reports is clickbaiting us with these Tesla stories, because it seems like every six months, Consumer Reports somehow like majorly knocks Tesla, and then they come back six months later and they say, oh, we like them again, and this has happened a couple times. I remember, you know, several times in the history of these two
companies that this has happened. Well, now Consumer Reports is saying that autopilot technology on Tesla is not very good. In fact, it requires significant intervention from drivers, and it's far less competent than a human driver. Now, if I had to imagine autopilot, which you know, it's an emerging technology, yeah, of course it's less competent than a human right, duh yeah, So I don't do I have something for duh? No, no, I do, Like, wait, I don't have Yeah, I don't
have that one. So but the reality is there's okay. But there's a couple of interesting things that they say in this article. This is from tech Spot, which is basically rewriting the Consumer Reports blog. But they say autopilot has difficulty detecting vehicles that approach quickly from behind, which means that Tesla kind of cuts off cars that are driving faster than it, which is kind of risky. But you see people do that all the time on the freeway.
So I guess maybe you know what. Here's the problem. The engineers at Tesla are from Los Angeles because they're right here in Hawthorne. They are programming this autopilot to drive like an LA driver.
I don't know if we need more LA driver.
It's so funny because literally I am I am. I am a grandpa driver. Okay, I will tell you. Have you ever been in the car with me? You are? Yeah? Yeah? Did you notice that I was a grandpa driver or no? Yeah, I don't want to say anything. It was when we first started working. Yeah, but you notice that, right, Okay, I'm a grandpa driver.
Stay in the outside lane. Yeah, thirty miles per hour and.
Not that I'm not that slow, but no, you just take your time, take my time. I don't care. I am not cutting people off, honestly, I respect. I'm a simple merger. I'm very easy, right, And I will tell you that people don't like it on the road because what every day when I'm driving home, it's like someone I see it every time they come right up to your the bumper on your car, super close. And then I'm just like, I'm not speeding up. I don't care.
I'm listening to my podcast, not my own podcast, but a podcast, and well sometimes.
My own Honestly, it's probably.
Yeah, nine times out of ten, it's my podcast. So and then I go and you know, the guy of course like finds a little opening on the left and here, you know, and he comes around and it's like, I don't care, and of course he's looking at me for the reaction, for the finger or something, and I'm like, no, I'm not going to give you that satisfaction. Not going to happen.
So well, good for you.
It's no big deal. By the way, if you're watching on Facebook Live and you have a question, feel free to dial the number on your screen and I will get you on the show live. So be prepared to talk live. Just call the number on your screen on Facebook and we'll get you in. But in the meantime, Megan, what are the folks saying on Facebook? You have some comments. Are you've seeing anything interesting or people asking any questions? There?
Someone said, no more giveaways? Uh, we have a giveaway today.
We did a giveaway on KTLI. So I mean we did a giveaway. You giveaways, You know what. Giveaways are a lot of work. They take a lot to arrange, they take a lot to You're the one that has to call these people like today. Yeah, you would think that like, more giveaways are better, right, But more giveaways, Like let's say someone's like, oh, we can give away one hundred pairs of tickets. Guess who that falls on?
Producer Megan over here. She has to she has to sit there and call one hundred people and get their nailing address and info and all this stuff.
Also, if you ever enter a contest, like nine times out of ten when we call, no one picks up. Oh yeah, and then I have to wait two hours for you to like actually call back. It's a It takes a lot of time.
It's funny because the people don't pick up because it's a number they don't recognize. It's usually the KHL a number. But just pray if you see a three two three number. Go ahead, Yes, all right, do you have a question, Megan, I do have a question.
This next question is from Cheryl rimmel Is. Facebook spying is the subject.
Oh I love this question already.
Hi Rich, I enjoy seeing you during the five thirty mornings.
Go ahead, Hi, rich, I.
Enjoy seeing you during the five thirty morning news on KTLA five. We have a weird phenomenon in my office. There are three of us sharing office space, and we discuss daily things that we are working on. Within a day or so of a discussion, my coworker will receive a random sponsored advertisement on Facebook relating to something we have discussed. Ordering try tips online, ingredient labels happy socks, koa campground.
Happy socks are good. Actually know what I like my happy So I don't like my happy socks as much as I do other socks. Anyway, go ahead, Maybe.
Not always work related, she says. Anyways, this cannot be a coincidence. She has an iPhone six, as does my other coworker. She must have some sort of app on her phone that is spying on our conversations. Do you have any idea what this might be? Thank you so much, Cheryl.
This is a great question, Cheryl. It's one that I get all the time. And actually, Megan and I we have tested the theory. The theory is if you have Facebook installed on your phone and you talk about something to someone else, next thing, you know, and ad shows up on your feed for that product, and this is so you and I we talked. I talked about these socks. They're called bombas, right, bombas. Yeah. I went to the Point Sky event in New York City, and they gave
me this in my little gift bag. It was a pair of Boomba's Bomba's socks and they're my absolute favorite socks in the world. By the way, love these socks so much that I will not buy them because they're too expensive. They're fifteen dollars a pair, so I will not even though I love them. That's a lot for one pair of socks.
I buy one dollar socks.
One dollar socks, yeah, forever twenty one. Oh my gosh, one dollar socks.
Maybe they're two dollars.
I don't know, Okay, Well, the point is you like a value for your socks, yeah, and so do I. But I still like, like I have socks that I like. My favorite are well the Boombus.
Sorry looking at your socks.
Socks today are from Express, which that's where those are my second favorite. Those are great socks and they usually sell for about I think it's like three pairs for twenty five if they're on sales something like that. Whatever, it is. The point is I love these socks. I got right, So that's not the point of the story.
But the point is I told you about them because you had never heard of them before, and we kept saying it out loud in front of our phones in hopes that the boombas would show up on your feed, and they didn't. They did not. So here's what's happening, Cheryl. Facebook uses something called a Facebook pixel, along with about a thousand other ways to get signals as to what you're doing, what you're interested in, and what add its should show you next. So here's my theory or my
best solution for what's happening in your office. Facebook sees that you look up something online like Koa campgrounds. Right, then they see the fact that your phone is on the same Wi Fi network as your colleague's phone, right, and so your colleague may look up travel and next thing you know, they go, hmmm, we see that Cheryl's phone is near Megan's phone, and we're just gonna show her that Koa campground because we think that maybe she might be interested in that as well. And that happens
all the time. Now, that is a very basic explanation, but that's what's happening. So when you go online and you search for the new Game of Thrones oreos and you think they're so good, and you're at work, and next thing you know, Oh my gosh, what happened to our lights? Here we are producer Megan, I'll let you go and tell them to turn on our lights. But in the studio, by the way that we're doing this in live, we had the lights go out. They go out after a certain amount of time. Apparently I guess
we're off the clock. But the reality is that this system uses a lot of different cues to kind of figure out what you should be shown in your feed, and when it sees you interacting with people over and over, it kind of just assumes that you're talking about this stuff with them, and so it just kind of shows
you their stuff that someone else is talking about. And that's how you get this phenomenon of when you talk about something at work and next thing you know, you see the same stuff that someone else sees at work. That's what happens. And you've seen this happen before, like literally, we've all seen this. But I will tell you this
because everyone always asked me this question. In the four or five times I've tested this, I've tested it with several people, myself, my wife, a guy here, Chris Martinez, we tried it. We talked about vacations in a place. I can't remember what the place was, but we had never been and we both just talked about it with our phones out and nothing came up on the feed about that place. So, Cheryl, I hate to bust your bubble, but it's not listening to you as far as I know.
But that does not mean that they are not the smartest marketers in the entire world. Facebook knows what they're doing. And I will tell you back to that Facebook pixel. Every single website that you visit has a Facebook pixel installed nine times out of ten. And what that Facebook pixel does is it reports back to Facebook saying, oh,
we got Megan here, she just visited this website. And so Facebook's advertising database of you begins to build this giant database of here's the websites you like to go to, Here's the places where you shopped. When you get to the checkout page, they know that you're there. So again, they have a lot of data. Yeah, doesn't scare you. It doesn't scare I could care less, not.
Really, But I also make the mistake of when I'm on Instagram, if I get an AD nine times out of ten, it's like, actually something that I would like, right, Well, that's I swipe up and I like, go to the website and I've never heard of the brand before.
That's the whole point.
I know, I know, And it's so for me. I'm like, Oh, this is cool. I can learn about new clothing stores I've never heard of.
I totally agree. Gee, but yeah, my wife's same thing. She's like, oh, I bought this dress off of Instagram. Like what what? Yeah? Like, oh, it's so it's perfect for me. I'm like, of course, it's perfect for you. It is targeted in like a thousand different ways to you. Like they know your body type, they know what you like, they know what color you like, they know what other people you look at on Instagram that have those similar dresses.
I mean, it's crazy what they know. So, speaking of AI, I find Google Duplex to be fascinating and I've talked about it on this podcast before. And the reason I think it's fascinating is because Google they love to use AI to solve all these kind of problems. Right, And I told you the story on a past podcast about how we made a restaurant reservation in Palm Desert using Google Duplex because the restaurant did not take reservations over
the internet, and so you have to call. And every time we tried calling, they were either closed or didn't answer. So I said, hold on, let me, let let me offload this to Google and let them do it. And Google Duplex, sure enough, had their computer system call and
make the reservation and it worked out perfectly well. The New York Times did an article testing Google Duplex and the main thesis of the art article is that about twenty five percent of calls placed through Duplex actually start with a human, So the AI is not like there, right, But seventy five percent is still pretty good. But about fifteen percent of calls that began with the automated system have a human jump in at some point. So it sounds to me like they have this big call center.
The computers are doing their thing, but when the computer stumbles, it kind of flips the call to a human that takes over, right, got it? So I imagine that's kind of like this, Like the call goes.
Through, Hey, this is Elcholo, Hi, this is Google.
I'm calling on behalf of a client. Oh okay, I'd like to make a reservation.
Okay, how many people?
Four people?
What time?
Seven pm?
Actually we don't have any availability at seven pm?
Mmmm?
Are you still there?
Yes? Hi, I'd like to make a reservation.
Okay for how for how many people?
I forget? I think it was four?
Okay for what time?
Seven pm?
Yeah? I just said we don't have availability then, but about.
Yeah seven thirty, seven thirty will work?
Okay, great? What's your name? Uh?
Rich?
Okay, Rich, we'll see you at seven thirty.
And my phone number for my client? Yeah?
What is your phone?
UM? Three one zero five nine four three zero zero three. Are you confirmed?
Yes, you are confirmed for seven thirty.
Okay, thank you. I don't know why.
I just could not contain.
Could you imagine that that must be?
So it must happen out?
Okay? So what what New York Times did, which was pretty cool is and why didn't I think of this? They basically sat there with the restaurant and made these calls and had the person at the restaurant pick up so they could listen. Yeah. So it's like when you do it, they do the call probably immediately anyway, So they did. It's a great article New York Times. It's called Google's duplex uses AI to mimic humans sometimes, and they say that let's see. I mean, there's just it's
just so great. They the bot introduced itself as Google's automated service. But here's the best part they do. During one of the calls, the manager who the managers know that it's automated because they've gotten so many of these calls by now, they're pretty familiar with it, right, So he goes like this to them. After the reservation date in the party size, the guy goes, are there any kids? And the Google bot goes, I'm actually booking on behalf of a client, so I'm not too sure, which is
pretty good. Yeah, I mean, but that's not like an outrageous question. But the guy said everything was perfect after mister Park said, after an interview with conversing with the Google bot, it was like talking. It was like a real person talking. Oh that's cool.
So client client, I want to be like, are you a robot?
And I think they asked that. Hold on, let me say do they know? Okay, the person did ask are you robot? And the guy said, no, I'm not, And it turned out to be true. He wasn't a robot. It was one of the real callers from Google. So but I wonder it sounds, but if you ask like Google Assistant, if you're a robot, they have like some funny like responses. So yeah, but anyway, good good improvisation.
Yeah that was like acting for the day.
Yeah that's that's way too much acting for me.
Okay, all right, So our next question comes from Janice. It's a short question. Just would you happen to know if there are dash cams that can capture rear end collisions? Did a story on.
This, yes, so okay, great question, and I will tell you this. So when I got my new car a couple like two years ago, literally first month I have my new car, I get rear ended coming out of the airport. So I'm driving out of the airport and I just you know, you stop it a light and just person behind you right into you. Thankfully I wasn't hurt. Too bad?
Wait too bad?
Well, so because the yeah, well I did, I got. I got a little tiny settlement. I can't talk about it, but I got. You know, they do they pay you off, like her insurance company. I think they gave me like a thousand dollars to like you have to sign away and say that like you're not hurt for the rest of your life. So they did. Anyway, so, oh, we have a caller here, so I'm gonna put them on
hold on. But yeah, so they basically make you sign away your life saying like here's a thousand bucks, like you basically can't sue us ever again or this girl or whoever. You know. So I was fine for the most part, I think, anyway, but.
I still recovering.
But I thought about it, like, oh, my gosh, wouldn't it have been great if there was a dash cam in the back that would because I have a dash cam in the front. I was like, wouldn't it be great if there's one in the back that can record like what happens because most of the time you're getting rear ended. That's kind of like, I mean, some of the accidents I'm sure happened in the front too, but like, you know, anyway, yeah, go ahead.
I was going to say that the some cars have cameras on the back, if those cameras recorded, yes, record, Yes, that's the future, Megan, I agree, But then if something happens.
Then they give you the video. But the Tesla does do that apparently, so I think in the future. But yes, every car now has Do you have a backup camera on your new ride? Sweet new ride?
Yeah, but I don't have censors. Okay, well I'm just saying that because I'm not a great parker, so oh okay.
Yeah, neither arem my yesterday I am the worst. I'm an easy driver, but I also run over a lot of curbs. I don't know, it's really a problem. Yeah, anyway, to answer your question, this was Cheryl Cheryl. Yeah, Jannis Janis. To answer your question, the only one I know of is called Pearlauto dot Com. And so this is something that this company was a big startup. I think they were acquired. But they have a device that kind of
goes around the back of your license plate. It's like a like one of those frames that has a camera built into it. So it is three hundred dollars, which is a lot.
But but if you get rear ended a lot this well I hope.
It's not happening a lot like one time is probably too much. But yeah, anyway, so that's the only one I know of the cameras that I've seen, Like with the dash cams, what they're doing is there's a camera in the front and a camera facing inside on the car. But that's really not going to help you unless you maybe are able to see kind of like out the back window, which in my case, like I watched the lady through my rearview mirror like slam into me. Yeah,
on her phone, so she was fiddling with her phone. Oh, that's usually how it happens, right. Unfortunately, if you're on Facebook, you want to call in, we can have time for one caller, So the numbers on the screen, go ahead and call. I'll get you guys in or get one person in. So that's the answer to that. But this I thought was fantastic. Iced tea? Do you know iced tea? The not the not the drink? The actor is he actor?
Yeah, he's on, he's on, he's on.
Don't tell me, hold on. I know what you're gonna say, and I think you might be wrong. I know what you're gonna say.
I'm right, that's iced tea.
Yeah, but what show? Were you going to say? Law and Order?
Because you thought I was gonna say criminal minds?
I didn't know which which law order you were going to pick. There's so many. Yeah, I think you're I think he was on a Law and Order s vu he used to be a rapper. He was also on Ice Love's Cocoa Yemer.
That Melody Show. But he also was a rapper.
But he's also a prolific texter or sorry, text tweeter. Oh okay, he's also a prolific tweeter. And here's what he tweeted. Message to Amazon. Now that you have regular people making your home deliveries, maybe they should wear a vest with Amazon Delivery on it. I almost shot an MF creeping up to my crib last night, just saying iced tea. What's MF mean?
I can't say it when a podcast mother.
Oh okay, you're right, so.
What's a mass?
But I was just kidding.
You knew. I knew.
Hold on, if I said it to you, could I mean, look, we are on a podcast. You can say whatever you want, but we're being respectful in case you're listening with the kids. There's no the FCC doesn't care about live streaming. We can do whatever we want.
I can't.
I'm not going to say it, but we know what it means. So he has a point. I will tell you this. I was in my neighborhood the other day and I'm watching this guy walk up to a house and I'm like, oh my god, I'm witnessing a robbery in progress. I'm gonna turn out to be a delivery guy. All of a sudden, I see when he turns the package that he was holding. I was like, oh my gosh. And this happened the day before I saw the the
tweet from iced Tea. He has a great point because Amazon is sending out all these people that are like independent contractors. So are all these delivery services Postmates and you know, door Dash and grub Hub. Get these people some sort of uniform. Yeah that has reflectors. Right, But here's the thing, and this is gonna be scary.
Oh I know what you're gonna say.
Yeah, tell me.
People are going to wear them pretending to be Postmates and then they're gonna get into your house and they're gonna kill you.
Yeah, not kill you, that's right, but like.
It opens up. But you know, if you ordered something like I just don't know, you don't you.
Know every time you order something. I'm surprised every day when I.
Literally don't open my door, like if someone I don't.
Oh yeah, your house is like that movie Quiet, what is it? Don't say a word?
Isn't it called the quiet Place?
Is it quiet?
I've never seen it?
But what why? I know there's a bunch of movies that were like this. There was one. Don't say a word. Oh that's not that movie. That's not that's definitely not the movie A.
Quiet Place, saying someone could easily get into my house.
No, I'm just saying it's like that movie where like there was a crazy movie. It's not a quiet place. Oh gosh, what the one where like it was this crazy like military guy that like American beauty. No, no, no, it was maybe that was like it. Anyway, my point, I was making a joke about your place for like every like the doorbell rings, everyone's like quiet is like super scary.
No, I that's why I go quiet.
I do too, Like I don't want to answer the door most like knock weird, knock weird. Sense the yeah you can sense it canna be awkward and then you gotta yeaheah. But anyway, so he has an iced tea iced tea great point, yeah, because I I but I see what you're saying. I think that if we get these vests, next thing, you know, the new rash of robberies and criminals are going to wear these things.
But then again, like the whole garage Amazon thing where you can have an Amazon person open up your garage and leave a package, like someone like a criminal could pretend to be one of those contractors.
Right, but they can't open your garage. So see, that's the beauty of having that system is that they're not gonna have the code to your garage, whereas if they knock on your door. You know, So I'm gonna have a sign on my house that just says it's supposed to go in the garage, buddy. So now, oh, that's actually really Oh that's a that's a horror movie. Yeah, it's like remember that old horror movie.
This should be a horror movie where.
They're like, oh, the calls coming from inside the house. The new horror movie is gonna be when you order something from Amazon, they're suposed to knock on the door. But you know it's a criminal because they're trying to murder you because you've said it's supposed to go in your garage. Yeah, you're like, that's not supposed to go in a house.
Movie moment this morning where I was like I feel like you're late for work. No, no, no, I do you want me to tell you? It's kind of quick. When I was like walking out the front door, I realized that I forgot milk for my coffee. So I liked, I like just went back to the kitchen. I didn't lock the door. Oh the front door. I just like and then and then like the thought occurred to me while I was like opening up the fridge, I was like, what if I just hear the front door open right now? Oh?
That'd yeah, I always yeah, forty.
Five in the morning, Yes, it's the middle of the night. That and like and then I was like terrified. And then I like into my car, yes.
And like, yeah, isn't that funny? Like because we get up really early, so we're always like in these weird shifts and stuff. So it's so weird how the mind can really play games with you and like get you totally, like in this place where you're like oh yeah, like looking around, like there's shadows this and that, and like literally it's like any other night of any other day. But like, the mind is a is a powerful thing. It's kind of wild, so you gotta watch out for that.
But guess what that's gonna do it for the show. Another fantastic rich on Tech podcast. Thanks so much for listening. Subscribe if you haven't done so already, just search rich on Tech in your favorite podcast app. Apple Podcasts is a great one. Pocket Casts is another. Overcast is also one that's really good. My book is called one hundred and one Handy Tech Tips for the iPhone. It's available on Amazon and paperback. Thanks to my colleague Megan Henderson
for giving me a major shout out on Instagram. She posted the photo to end all photos. No one even noticed my book in the photo because she looks so great. So she posted this on her at Megan Henderson show. So go there and like that. Uh, don't forget to sign up for our newsletter rich on Tech dot TVs where you go Just click that put in your email and every week I will send you a digest of the stuff that I think is interesting. Producer Megan, I ask you every week, did you enjoy the show?
Yeah? I had fun time flu Yeah, this was honestly this one by really fast.
I think cover all the stories.
We covered all the stories.
Well, there's never there's never, you know, it's free flowing. We don't know we don't know if we cover everything.
Yeah, I mean we get to the important stuff.
Where can folks find you?
Twitter producer Megan within eight.
Wait, that sounds like your Twitter producer Megan. You're on Twitter at producer Megan.
Sorry, Yes, I'm on Twitter and my handle is producer Megan.
Okay, I'm Rich Demiro. You can find me on Instagram at rich on Tech, on Facebook, Facebook dot com slash rich on Tech, and on Twitter at rich Demiro. I should take my own advice. Yeah, you should change your name. I can't. They won't let me have it part mm hmm maybe.
Rich on Tech.
All right, I'm Rich Demro. Thanks so much for listening to the show. Have a great day. We'll talk to you real soon