Broku has some new players. Alexa gets smart about the election. Facebook has a new way for you to video chat if you're willing to invite them into your home. What's going on. I'm Rich dmiro. This is Rich on Tech, the podcast where I talk about the tech stuff I think you should know about. Plus it is the place where I answer your tech questions with the help of producer Megan. Welcome to the show. Hello, Rich, Hello, I like how you say hello, like. We have not been
working together for like six hours this morning so far. Yes, but here we are and welcome to the show. Thank you for joining me once again. Of course we are about to embark kind to contractually obligated to be this. I do test. I think. Look, I will tell you, I will tell you, and I'll kind of let you in on a little secret here. But the podcast is doing very well. People like the podcast. Yes, so the feedback I get. I don't share all the feed back
with you, especially when people comment on your outfits. But it's fine.
I mean it's weird because they can't even see them. Then they're already hating me.
They just comment on your voice, What do they say? No, they love your voice. It's just interesting because the feedback we get is good and it's you know, when the emails first started, it would be asking me stuff, and now they're like, oh and tel producer Megan this because we don't reveal your email address.
It's all mine, so it could be they can send emails to.
Your personal one.
Yeah yeah, but my social Security number.
So it's getting it's the downloads are increasing every week, which is a good sign. That means that people are actually coming back and listening.
Yeah.
I'm sure that there's a amount of people that leave us every week, but sad for them. Yeah, you know what, and we don't need that.
Okay.
I will tell you one thing that happened to me this week. I went to a concert at the Greek Theater here in Los Angeles. Oh yeah, yeah, which, by the way, Megan, thank you for hooking me up with those tickets, because Megan was instrumental in getting me these any time. It was Maren Morris. If you're a country you've heard of her. If not, you've never heard of her. But anyway, the Greek Theater was great. But here was the craziest thing about it. There was no I've Verizon.
There was no Verizon service, and they had Wi Fi there that would not work. So I was, I think, this is the longest stretch of time I've ever been without cell phone connectivity. So I used to go to a lot of USC games, and connectivity in that coliseum historically has been horrendous.
Yeah, it doesn't exist right now.
Apparently they have Wi Fi this season. But have you ever experienced that where you're just like out of touch with your phone, like it's not working. Yes, it's really bad, Like it really makes me.
At the same time, like I think that it's a good thing because then you can think, you like you can What I love about like Instagram now is like you can always story the next day. Like if you go to a concert, you don't have to like you can actually be in the moment, film it on your phone and like you know, sing along instead of like, oh I have to post this now.
Like I do feel like that's a problem at all. Almost every event people are they're not living in the moment for the event, they're living it through their phone. And so I will say the side effect of this concert and no connectivity was that I kind of just ditched my phone. Yeah, I took about three pictures. I posted one of them on Instagram, but I think I took three pictures the whole night, and I wasn't. I recorded two songs. One song I recorded because I was
surprised that Maren Morris did that song. It was called Loveful Love Fool by the Cardigans, which was a song that, like, when I was in college, that was a popular song, and I'm surprised that. No, it's like, it's such an old song, but it was a catchy song and it was it was the Cardigan's like top hit basically, it was their one hit, wonder kind of thing, and so she played that, so I thought that was cool. So I recorded that. And then there's another song she did.
I think I recorded for my kids, I thought, because they like it. But other than that, that's it. I mean, it was really like anyway. So my point is the Greek is at the top of this mountain, and so I had to walk all the way down to get my uber or lyft whatever. I switched a lift recently and I got to the gas station finally had connectivity. Everything started coming in, you know, finally like crying.
My screen wife was like, okay, you have a you might have a problem.
So the best part is that the people we are with what they were, they had AT and T and they're like, oh, this is working just fine, And I almost had them set up a hot spot.
That's okay. On THEO, I went to the Greek last year for a concert and I remember having service.
Yeah, because you have a Yeah, So.
I, yeah, I do have AT and T.
All right, let's see what should we start with this week. I know the big story this week is obviously everyone's getting their iPhones. Probably by the time you listen to this you may have yours in hand, but lucky, yeah, I I do not have mine in hand yet. So I'm not going to really talk about what I know about the phone because we already talked about that last
week we went hands on. But until I have next time you talk to me on the podcast next week, I'll have a lot of hands on time, so I will have time with the phone, and I'll have a much better understanding. So all the headlines I've seen so far is how great it is. It's better than the pixels camera, it's the best camera ever made. And all those things may be true, but you have to understand that, you know, I mean, number one, the people who got
this phone early are generally people who love the iPhone. Yeah, I mean, let's be honest, like that's who's going to get it first from Apple. So now I'm not saying they're all I have no doubt that this is probably one of the best phones in the world, but it's just one of these things like, of course it's going to be better than the pixel that came out last year. So let's see what it does against this year's pixel.
And I'm not knocking. I think this year what And I just got off the phone with Apple actually to talk about it and the stuff they're telling me. I mean, they really do think about the end user, and they think about kind of how people use their phone, the pain points they have. And they did increase things like the battery life and the camera quality and you know, the low light they heard kind of the and by
the way, the front facing camera. I've always been saying, like, we need a wider angle lens, like all these things I've wanted on the iPhone. They kind of did. Yeah, so I got to give Apple kudos for that.
I'm excited.
Let's talk about the other big story as I just ignore you that you're excited. Yeah, oh what was that, Megan?
Guys? Classic?
Sorry, what did you say?
Classic? A day in the life.
Go ahead, let's talk about Facebook Portal, because this is a device that I think is has I think this is an amazing device. The problem is, are people ready to invite Facebook into their home in a big way? And that's what you have to do if you want to use a Facebook Portal. The first set of these devices totally failed do a I don't think anyone bought them. And the new ones I think they address some of
the privacy concerns of the previous models. But there are three new models, the Portal, the Portal Mini, and the Portal TV. And the Portal and the Portal Mini look like a picture frame that you would have on a shelf in your house, and they do display pictures when you're not using them, and that's great. But the other one is for the TV and it is basically a video camera for your TV, so you can video chat from your couch, which I think, I know your family
all lives here, You're not like you know. For me, the idea of video chat like FaceTime to a lot of people is just kind of fun. And convenient to me.
Like I've lived away from my family for a long time, and I feel like the killer the Killer app is really not like video calling on your phone, but video calling on your couch because you can sit down and actually kind of just like have a conversation with someone without holding up your phone or holding it in front of you or having it shaky, like my sister is always like moving her phone around while she's talking to me, and she's moving around the house and all the like.
If you're just on the couch, it's very natural to just sit there and kind of like chat. The kids can come up, sit down, talk whatever. So that's what the Portal TV does. That's my pick for this device. The problem with this device in the demo I got is that it does some streaming things but not all of them, so it can't replace your streaming device, which means you have to switch inputs every time you want to use this. You it was kind of sluggish, like
it wasn't the best. I think what Facebook should have done is just created a camera that plugs into the Apple TV, the Fire TV, your regular TV whatever, and it kind of just works with whatever box you have.
Where would it plug in. On the Apple TV, I.
Think there's some sort of like USBC on the back. I don't think it's usable, but I think there is on the Apple TV. Okay and Fire TV I think has one as well. But my point is that's not going to happen because all these companies are at war and they don't want to work with each other. So you can The video calling is fantastic. It works really well. The cameras follow you around the room. It looks great,
it sounds great. Scary thing on the Facebook TV one is there are eight microphones, so talk about Facebook listening to you.
Why I know why eight?
I guess just to get you no matter where you are in the room, so you don't have to like be loud. I don't know. Here's the main thing they did that. I think it'll probably quell some privacy concerns, but not really. Yeah, they do have little sliding lens shutters on all all of the devices so you can physically shut it off and know that the camera's not looking at you and know that the microphones are not listening to you. Is that enough? I mean, I don't
know what do you think of this? Imagine Mom lived in Hawaii.
Okay, well yeah, I mean.
Like drink and Opinia.
Penia classic Maggie. I think that for me, I just can't get over their the privacy issues with Facebook. I think that the last year has just been a lot and so in terms of like just the pr of the company, Like, I just think that I don't trust them, I don't want them on my don't trust see.
I trust I fully trust them. I really, I have no problems with Facebo.
Do you not trust no one?
I really? I I this whole idea of people not trusting tech companies, like you're being tracked. You go on the web. The open web is the most trackable thing there is in technology. Yeah, so the fact that you think your phone's listening to and Facebook and stuff like, they're just a portion of what's happening. Yeah, and also people are just learning about this. But to me, the idea that you're being tracked.
I just think the camera you're going to the.
Grocery store, you're being tracked.
I think the camera is going to get hacked.
It's not going to get hacked. I don't think so. Well, and you have a camera on your phone that you carry everywhere, and a microphone on your phone that you've carried everywhere for how many years? Now? How many years have you had an iPhone?
Since I was one?
Yeah? So your whole life?
No, no, no, it's been six years. Yeah, I've had it for like ten years.
Again, No, I know, I know this is the world we live in.
That Yeah, I don't know. I think I want to see, like give it a year and like see what the reviews are.
Like they have they have given it a year and I just gave the review. No, so October fifteen out for a year the portal has. These are new versions of it. They came out last year with ones that just totally the last year ones did not have the shutter.
These are the new like.
So anyway, there's also Amazon Alexa built in.
Are you going to try it?
I would love to try this, but here's the reason why I don't think it'll work because who am I going to use this with my mom, my sisters, my brother, My brother and I we already know how to video chat where like the techi's in the family. So it's really my dad, my mom, and my sisters to get them to plug this into their TV, set it up and change inputs when I want to call them just not going to work. Right. My mom will never get back to her fire TV if I tell her to
change the input to go to go to portal TV. No, it's a pain. And I get that that's a pain point and they need to figure that out. So then so I think what Google has, and I think maybe the solution for my mom would be one of these fixed ones, because like I said, there's three models. One that sits on top of your TV, the other two where they look like a picture frame. Yeah, and they have a camera built in you video chat there, so maybe that's better, But that means you have to sit
in front of it. And if she's going to do that, I'd probably just rather give her a Google Nest Hub Max, which does the same thing.
Well, now I have a prediction. I think in the next two years three years, TV's are just gonna have cameras on them.
Well that okay, talk about privacy. Now, would you rather have a camera built into the TV or one that I attach? I'd personally rather have one that I attach rather than having one that's built it cover it. Yeah, but I'm just saying why.
I just I don't know I have I have to think about this topic.
I'll tell you the prices and you can put that, okay to your thinking caps October fifteenth for the portal and Portal Mini. That the portal TV is going to be on November fifth. The portal Mini, I'll just start at the smallest one is a portal Mini that's gonna be one thirty. The portal is one eighty and Portal TV is one fifty. If you buy any two portal devices you get fifty dollars off. So sorry, that's not what I meant. I did not. That was totally That
is not has nothing to be the board. I don't know the board.
Sorry.
All right, you got to get my friend, my friend bald Brian does this for a living, so he would be if he ever listened to one of my podcasts, which she doesn't shake his head, he would really be sad.
All right. So this first question comes from Rich's Facebook ray posted on your wall. He said, good evening, Rich, I have the iPhone TENNS Max and was thinking about the iPhone eleven base model. Would it be a big step down or would the camera be worth the switch?
iPhone eleven base model eleven?
Sorry TENNS max.
What do you say again?
He said, I have the iPhone TENNS Max and was thinking about the iPhone eleven base model. Okay, it's actually a common question, a lot of common questions about this.
I feel like, here's the bottom line on all this upgrade stuff. If you have the only reason to upgrade from the here's my upgrade cutoff if you have anything before an iPhone ten R. So if you have an iPhone ten R, iPhone ten S, or an iPhone tennis Max, I don't I don't think you need there's no impetus
to upgrade. Now. With that said, all the phones below that, if you're ready for an upgrade, you want to upgrade, you will notice a huge increase in camera quality and that's really the only reason and battery life from your current device and snappiness now with these higher end devices, do you need it only if you want that wide angle lens. And to me, that is something that I've been accustomed to on phones because Samsung has had it for a while. LG has had it for even longer
than Samsung. And to me, like when I first started shooting with those wide angle lenses in taking pictures, it's so much fun. You just have such a blast taking pictures in so many different ways that it is a really cool feature to have. Is it a must have?
Is it an upgrade? Like a must upgrade? Not necessarily, but if you want that, And that's kind of the only reason, like if you're thinking your phone's gonna be faster, snappier, all that stuff, like no, no, no, for the for the cutoff that I said, yeah, so again, that's that's my cutoff, right, And will he be happy with the eleven? I think the eleven will be just fine for ninety nine point nine percent of people.
And we talked about this last week. Isn't the camera on the ten s the same? Like pretty much the same as the eleven? Like it's the same, Oh oh big step better?
Is cameras upgraded? For sure?
But I thought it was like a slight up you don't know.
I well, again, I need some time with it to see.
Oh I was listening to our podcast last week.
Yes, we said, from what I've learned, it is a it is a sizeaball upgrade. Yeah, it seems like okay, and so and I think that the other sizeble upgrade was really from the ten to the ten R and ten s like it jumped, like there's you can tell the difference in the camera quality, and I think this is another jump. And later on in the year they're going to introduce software that makes the camera quality even better because they're gonna start even putting more AI into
it like Google does. So yeah, it's gonna get even better. And they're calling it. I forget it's something fusion, but it's it's kind of like, okay, this is like iPhone's getting real, like Apple's getting real.
Yeah, they're they're stepping. They're not game.
They're not sitting back letting these other companies, you know, just takeovers.
You have that sound on your board?
What sound?
Okay, there's like a fun radio sound that they play.
Oh yeah, people are very The sound effects in the show are very divisive. What's the word when it divides people? It really divides people. People don't like them, but.
You know what, I feel like we should have a sound though, for like when we talk about how all these companies are like battling, I don't I don't know.
That's great, Okay, definitely not work all that.
Yeah, oh, I was like trying to do the sc fight song sound, but you know you should like that because you went there.
You know, yeah, I did go there, talk about Roku. Roku has some new devices as well, and let's see Roku has the things you need to know about Roku. Number one, Roku users are streaming an average of three and a half hours a how much are you streaming a day?
That's probably that's.
It really is.
I have it on and then I like do stuff.
That is so wild I can't Okay, I know you don't watch it. I know I don't watch TV.
But I'm like, I'm probably for that three hours sitting and watching for thirty minutes.
Okay, but but you have it on. You're streaming stuff, and what what show like? Give me? I know it's all like Real Housewives, I know it.
No, no, no, r h o C. Depends on the day, friends, Okay, Grey's anatomy like the old episode school stuff, vander Pump Rules, okay, garbage, Bachelor in Paradise or garbage.
You just you just like trashy stuff.
I was gonna say Band of Brothers.
I don't even know what that is. Is that an HBO show?
Yeah?
Okay, well I there.
I have my classy shows and then I have my trashy shows. It depends on like, if I'm trying to decompress after being with you all day.
That I got reality a lot of trashy TV.
Trashy TV like really relaxes me. But if I'm like ready for you know, emotions and stuff after and we.
If we know Megan, we know she's ready for emotion, Oh my god. Yeah. So three and a half hours of Roku a day. They've got thirty million active accounts, which I guess that sounds like a lot of people. I don't know, wow, But here's what you need to know. So they've got two new devices that I kind of got from their presentation, Roku Express, and the Roku Express is smaller. It also includes an Hdmi cable and it's
just forty bucks. So for forty dollars, that is a really cheap way to get into streaming, right, Yeah, I mean that is that's really cheap. But the only thing about that device it does not oh sorry, thirty dollars.
Isn't the fire TV stick?
Yeah? Fire TV is cheap. Two yeah, But I mean this is this does not include four K so but it does include an Hdmi cable, which, you know, kind of cool. I guess the four the stick just sticks right in your TV, so I guess that doesn't really matter. Okay, now here's the one I'm interested in, the top of the line Roku Ultra. This is brand new. They say that everything is faster on it. So all the channels launch faster. Have you noticed when you launched something that it's not that fast?
I don't know. Okay, I've noticed that.
So now it's faster, and news channels are twenty percent faster. Top one hundred launch channels average of seventeen percent faster. But here's the new feature that a lot of people like, personal shortcut buttons, which means there are two buttons on the remote that you can personalize to make whatever you want. So you know how on your remote you've got a couple of buttons that are like Netflix and all the
stuff Sling. Yeah that you're like, I don't use slinging, right, you can't reprogram that because Sling paid to be there. So if you want, now you have two buttons that you can make your own. So one can bring you directly to the latest episode of Real Housewives of Orange County. The other one can bring you directly to Band of Brothers Orange.
That is so trashy.
You've got total whatever, total control, miss mcmonogall, miss and they have a full lineup now there are let me just count how many sat one, two, three, four, five.
Six years on Facebook.
Yeah. I just mostly listened to my own podcasts and watched my old YouTube videos. No, I watch movies on the weekends, so I will attempt to watch a movie on the weekend. So actually last weekend, No, this is how sad. It was so last weekend. So by the time we get the kids in bed, it's like we're tired and we're like, all right, six Yeah, it's like six thirty. So last weekend we watched I was like, oh, there's this new Jim Gaffigan thing. This is when you're old.
You watched like Jim Gaffian comedy on on Amazon. And Lindsey's like, I think we watched that last weekend or whatever or last time we sat down. I was like, no, I don't think we did. So Amazon shows you the last time you played something. Yeah, So it was like we were halfway through and I had totally forgotten that we watched it. We watched the other half. Oh you really, I'm really not. I'm just not a I'm just I'm not like.
It's good at your you. When you have free time, you are productive, create and creating. Yeah, I'm trying to wasting.
No, I'm trying to create and I'm trying to organize. You know, I was writing a book for the last six months, so I mean that definitely. You can't feel good about yourself when you're sitting down watching a TV show in the middle of the day when you have a book that you're trying to write. That's just the reality of it. Now, when this book is done and out there and you know, into the masses, then I can relax a little bit more. That's the reality of it,
all right. The other things I thought was cool about Roku. They're gonna have a new release called Roku nine point two, and you will be able to search by movie quotes, which is kind of cool. So do you have a movie quote that you like?
I said it earlier, but.
Nobody puts baby in a corner?
No? No, no, shoot, okay, keep going. I'll think of my quote and.
The thing you need to know that's different. If you're going to go for that cheapy, the low end one, the express I would go for the Walmart exclusive of the Express plus ten dollars more because you get a better remote control which controls the power and the volume on your TV. So if you're going for the super cheap one for thirty dollars, you do not get those controls. Just those are those are the kind.
Of things say hello to my little friend.
Ah, very good, very good, Megan.
All right, So your next Twitter, your next Twitter, Your next question comes from Twitter at bb or at b Besser five zero two. Which screen protector do you recommend for the iPhone eleven Pro and Promax that is durable, anti fingerprint and anti glare without interfering with the clear screen display.
I will tell them about the one that I have on my phone right now, and I just install.
This tech the one from ces.
Oh that's a good one too, But this one that's Belcan Belcan. Yeah, that was a good one. But they put that on for you.
Yeah, it also cracked.
But it's been dead.
It's been long.
It's been a while. It's been a while, but I like I like tech armor a lot, and tech armor is the reason I like tech armor stuff is because a I've met the folks behind it, and B they sell them for really cheap and they're good quality, and I really like them because you know, if you go into the Apple store, it's like fifty bucks for a screen protector.
What the heck? Oh no, I know what.
Megan actually knows the board, so it's fifty dollars. This this tech Armor one is so much cheaper, and it's I would say, let me just look up, let's just see how much it is.
What's actually insane. And then they're like, it's twenty dollars for me to put it on, and then there's bubbles. Really no, I don't know.
Oh, I was gonna say, well, I feel.
Like I would go to the store just because.
They know how to put it on, right, I agree with that, and I do think that's worth it a little bit. But yeah, here's the thing with tech Armor, A three pack is nine to ninety five. Wow. Now here's what I really like. And I did not discover this. This is this is what happens to me. Sometimes these companies send me stuff. It takes it. It takes me a while to get to it sometimes, so I will be totally on your book. Well, no, I'm doing a
lot of stuff and everything's prioritized. So screen protectors. I'm kind of like, I get it. You sent me a lot of scream protectors. I can't really put these all on my phones, so I will be honest. I just put the screen protector on my iPhone TENNS max and they sent it to me. I looked at my stuff like last August, I think, so I was going through and I was like, why did you put it on like two weeks ago?
Oh? Okay, so you know you like it? Well, Like it's like it's been twenty four hours, Like oh.
No, and I've tested these before. It's just taken me a while to put it on this exact phone. But I'll tell you what I thought was so cool is this. It comes with this plastic tray that you snap your phone into so that when you put the thing on top, it's perfectly aligned with your screen. It was amazing. And I sat there at my desk and I was like, why did it take me so long to install this?
And I felt so dumb emailing the company because I was like, Oh, They're like, yeah, we've had that, like since we sent you that like a year ago.
Yeah. They're like come on, They're like rich come.
On, They're like, we wondered why you didn't respond to our emails and say how great this was. So I think that's really cool and I love that feature. And I will tell you, if you look at my phone, do you see one imperfection in this screen? I mean, look at this. Isn't it great? Oh?
Wow?
I mean it really is. And I had one. I had one bubble in the middle of my screen after I did it, and I was very concerned, and after about twenty four hours it evaporated and it was fine. And that happens sometimes when you instat yourself. So anyway, for a three pack, and they have various levels of their there's yeah, they're qualities you can get like ones that don't show what's that? Like the the one the
Privacy film, which is really cool. So people are looking at your phone from other angles.
I love that.
Have you ever had that on your phone?
No? But I like see people that are on their phones and it's dark, and I'm like, you can't. Yeah.
Megan always has that side eye looking at people's phones, and when they have that, you're just like, darn it, why foiled again? Oh? No, I give it.
I was going to press it. I thought about it, I was like ready.
To go, Oh, I give up on that. Yeah, anyway, tech Armor check them out. Love that and I think it's a great one.
So it's a great one.
Let's see what else do we want to talk about. I'm doing something a little differently this week. I didn't print out the stories, so it's really I'm being eco friendly. But it totally derails the show because it takes me longer to like figure everything out. You want to talk about Alexa and the election, Yeah, do that. Alexa is getting much smarter about the election. They are programming her to know everything about the twenty twenty US presidential election,
which by the way, is just over a year away. Now, before you get we're not getting into politics here on the show. So Megan, I don't want to hear it. I don't stop it.
Don't know who's running for Okay.
Thank you. So the thing is, you are not going to get opinions out of Alexa on the election. I'm gonna stop saying you name because I don't want to keep activating things if I'm doing that. But you will get data. And Amazon was very clear to say that they are a conduit for news they are not creating the news, so that makes sense anyway. So here's the things that you can ask her, which is kind of cool. Let's see Number one, you can donate to a candidate's
contribution fund fundraising effort up to two hundred dollars. That will start next month. I have to say, is A donate to Blank? And we don't even know because we don't even know who's running, so we can't even say even say Rock? Who Rock?
I just thought of the rock, the Rock? Yeah, Rock, he should run.
You should run. He'd have a solid campaign.
Oh fans?
Okay, Alexa? Oh sorry? You can say A who is running for president? A? How is Blank pulling? A who endorses Blank? That's kind of interesting? A when is the Blank caucus? So like, I don't know what a caucus is. I'm assuming that's like the primary thing. Yeah, I sound really dumb, but I can stay.
We don't I do tech, I do technology. We don't play in.
DC, Alex, A, how does Blank stand on education? So I'd like to hear that one? And A when is the next debate? So those are all the things you can ask and you can donate, which is kind of cool. I mean, so many people have these things in their home, and I'm sure I would just love to see all the questions are being asked to these smart assistants throughout the day, because I see the way my kids interact with Siri on their iPad and it is insane. It's
totally different. They say I love you, good morning, good night, all this crazy stuff.
Yeah, that's actually really cute.
I know, but it's kind of sad because Alex, like, make a friend. No, Siri just responded. She's like, I am sorry, I understand that, and they keep asking. I'm like, well, used to. She doesn't understand anything you're asking. She has no clue, she has no heart, she has no soul.
She's not even a.
Mom and dad.
Love you more kids, all right, So this next question comes from Cookie. She wrote in on your.
Sorry Hold it Together, Megan.
She wrote it on your website, Rich on tech dot TV. All you have to do is go to the contact link and just fill it out there and you can ask Rich any question you have regarding tech, not anything else.
Don't ask me anything else.
Don't ask him anything anyways. Hi, Rich, I wonder if you can help me. I keep seeing the commercial about Alexa playing music for a senior at home, and think about getting it from my dad. He is ninety years old and of course he's technically challenged. Not sure if it would work as he has a flip phone, but he does have Wi Fi. What do you think with a different system would a would a different system be better or would you would any really work for him?
What does she want to do for him?
Get him an Alexa to play music?
Yeah, I think that would work just fine.
You don't need a phone to like connect.
To set it up. You probably need a phone can do that, but she can do that. I mean you could set up with his WiFi once and then you know it's off and running by itself.
Yeah.
I personally am a little bit more towards the Google Home kind of things. Yeah, and I think that I think for music, you're gonna be fine with a home Pod, which is the most expensive way to go, or an Echo which is she's talking about from Amazon, or a Google Home Mini. So those are your three options I personally like, I mean, if you want the best, I would go with the series with the home pod because
that the sound on that thing is amazing. If you're just doing Apple music with that it's pretty awesome and it sounds great, and she gets all the queries perfectly. So if the dad is asking to play music from you know, the twenties or whatever, hey play the play the latest song from nineteen twenty one, Sason.
As nineties used born in the thirties.
Oh so he's not playing twenties music. Okay, So he's.
Playing like way, I don't even know.
So okay, hold on if if it's twenty nineteen and he's ninety years old, yeah, born in nineteen twenty nine, So if he was a teenager, he'd probably be playing songs from nineteen forties, nineteen forties to nineteen fifties, which is perfect. Wow, so you can ask, you know, uh, Siria be like, hey, play that do wop song? You know is that a song?
I'm sorry, I just can't get that mental image out of it.
Like so I new, yeah something like that.
Yeah, I love that.
So I would say that's too. She doesn't want to do that because that's way too expensive. But I would say I would go with the Google one. But then because Google also well, like I say, both work with Spotify. The only benefit to the Amazon one is that the music subscription might be a little bit cheaper if she has like Amazon Prime and she can hook it up that way. I think it's like seven ninety nine versus nine ninety nine.
And you can play radio on Alexa.
Yes, but here's the thing again, I think that's easier on the Google because you can ask it to play any radio station. It pretty much plays it, whereas I think with Alexa it's a little trickier because you have to enable the skill. Maybe not, maybe I could be wrong. I actually set up in Alexa in my house to kind of like refamiliarize myself because I'm not that familiar because I just kind of write it off because I
feel like the Google Home is so much smarter. Yeah, I had Alexa and I basically and I know a lot of people have it, so I'm probably all these people are like, oh, Rich, Yeah, but I just found that like when I asked it to change things like the lights and stuff, it's just like it would always give me an error message. I'd be like, sorry, I don't know what's like you're talking about. And like with Google, I can literally just be like, hey, tron on lights
and it will know that I'm in the kitchen. And will turn on my kitchen lights. Oh wow, he just kind of understands that stuff. Yeah, it's smarter anyway, So I think that that's the way to go go with one of those. But wait until October fifteenth, because that's when Google is announcing all of its new stuff. So just wait until then to purchase anything. Is it my turn?
Uh yeah?
Oh okay, gosh, so many things to about.
Do we already talk about iOS thirteen.
No, that's a good one to talk about, because.
I want to know right now. That was going to be my question today, if you know, should I download it or should I wait?
I say, Well, here's the thing. There's a couple couple of things. Some people are saying that it's buggy. I've been playing with the beta of iOS thirteen for since June, and I found it to be quite good. Now, it was not on my primary phone. I was using a test device to kind of like not keep it on my main phone. But I wrote the whole book with it and it was fine. Every every feature that I wanted to try out worked except for one that I can't wait to try out today because it wasn't live
in the beta that I was doing. But apparently. I'm not sure if this is totally true. I gotta I gotta figure this out. But apparently there's something to do with fonts on the new one, and I I don't know if you can change fonts on the whole phone, because I feel like that's very Samsung slash Google or androidy And I can't imagine Apple letting you, like change your font to like that comic sands on your whole phone.
Right, that is totally going to be here, But that was the.
Only thing I was not able to test out. But otherwise I'll just tell you. I'm just going through my book right now, so I have it right here. One hundred Well plug it. It's one hundred and one iPhone Tips and Tricks. That's the new title along with the subtitle is Unlock the useful, time saving and fun Features in iOS thirteen. So I'm just going to tell you all the things that that's in this book. Dark Mode, new privacy filters for a location, you can create a
name and profile photo. You can swipe to type, you can access the emoji keyboard faster. You can pick up the cursor to move it. You can rearrange your apps. You can see app shortcuts in a new way, stop robo calls, choose your Wi Fi and Bluetooth connections fast. There's a new on screen volume control. You can make an emoji that looks just like you, even if you don't have a phone that has the face thing. Generate
personal stickers, organize your contacts in a new way. Download large apps on a cellular connection, which is something you can do in the past. You can ask Siri to tune into any radio station. You can look around a mapps, you can share eta, you can close out old tab since Safari. By the way, that's just like up to number nineteen. There are one hundred and one of those tips. So not all of them are iOS thirteen specifics. Some are more just about the iPhone. But a lot of
things have changed, like slightly in iOS thirteen. And I will tell you I think this is one of the best versions of iOS ever. Really, it looks cool, it's clean. I think people are going to be a little bit sad that so many things have changed. The looks like the share menu when you go to share something for the first time, totally different. Oh, it's like boom, like in your face, just like menu. It's like now they're instead of like the little icons at icons, they change
it to a menu that's long. Everything's like its own line which icons. Yeah, and it's also customized using like AI for like what it thinks you want to do? Oh, it's it's just different anyway. So I'm downloading it as we speak, finishing the books. I'm gonna do screenshots and then publish this thing phone. Yeah, on my main phone. Now. I also what I like to do, and I know
nobody else likes to do this, but I do. When a new operating system comes out, I like to fresh start install it, which means I like to delete everything off my phone and start over. As not a popular opinion, I don't recommend you do that, I personally like to do that as an old nerd that kind of likes the idea of a fresh start. But you lose all your setting year.
It's a yeah, exact new tech year.
And it kind of makes your phone, you know whatever, it was kind of like lingering on your phone, all these little problems that you had. Something I kind of want to do that, you know what I'm saying, Like, you know, how you download something, you delete it, you get rid of something, You change the setting and you just kind of forget about it. This kind of puts everything back to like fresh start.
So is it just like the main like ten apps and then you have to download everything else.
I actually did that the other day. But what about your texts that that's an eCloud? Those can come back if you want, you can re you can do just like your text I believe. I don't see why you couldn't. But have you ever wanted a fresh start? Megan?
Yeah? Always? Oh what is that I wanted to do?
That? Are the touchdowns?
Open the ferry fresh screw me?
A fresh start?
Fresh start?
That's it. It's a new you know, It's just you just want a new year sometimes. And that was like Parker yesterday he had my son had a rough day and he's just like he's just like I just you know, I just uh, I forget what he said, like I want this day to be over something or I just had a bad day. I'm like, you know, sometimes you just need a fresh start. Like sometimes you have a bad day, you just want to go to sleep and like wake up and have the next day.
Do you want to go to about at like two pm? Because you're like today was so bad. I might as well.
I haven't, but I've gone as early as like six pm.
Oh me too. I didn't.
Screw it. I'm going to sleep. I'm done.
I'm going on this day over.
Yeah. So okay, So iOS thirteen, did I answer your question?
Yeah, I mean, I guess I can download it.
But some people are saying it's kind of buggy, and there is this wait, this is the other weird thing they're coming out with an iOS thirteen point one. They've already pre said that they're coming out with that, I think on September thirtieth. So if you want to wait the eleven days to just or whenever you're listening to this, But if you want to wait until then to get the first kind of like Creed do yeah, like the
redole errors. Okay, but you know me, I'm doing it now. Anyway, if you want to find the book, I believe you can search for one hundred and one iPhone Tips and Tricks on Amazon and pre order it as a Kindle. You can't pre order the paperback just yet, because I'm not done there yet. Yeah, but save some trees in order the kindle version, we'll do. Okay, I got the right one.
There we go. Okay, So this next question comes from Lisa on Facebook. She wrote question for friends, what's a good tracking app for families, especially with kids. I have friends that with kids that have iPhones, but parents have androids, so the find my friends or find iPhone app doesn't work for them. Thanks.
The one I always recommend is is Life three sixty. They're the ones that kind of do what you need and it's kind of like, you know, if you have iPhones, everyone uses that find my app, which is also new in iOS thirteen. They consolidated Find my iPhone and Find my Friends into one app. So you know. So anyway, the Life three sixty works cross platforms. You installed on
both devices Android iOS, you set it all up. It's free for its basic but like any free app, after using it for a week, you're just super frustrated with all the things that you don't get and you just end up subscribing. Is that ever happening? That happens with every app with me? I just start out, I'm like, I am not subscribing to this app, and after like
a week, it's like like I've been using ever. Note again, I'm just like I am not like the last time I canceled ever, note is because my renewal came up and it was like seventy bucks for the whole year just to take notes, which by the way, Apple has like notes built in h which also got a major upgrade on iOS. It's really good now. It searches like inside text, inside photos and stuff inside your scans. It's pretty good. Maybe not inside the photos, but inside scans
that you do. Actually I think it is in photos, but it's it's pretty good. Yeah, I should know. I wrote the book. I got to test that one more. But Life three sixty does this. And the other thing about Life three sixty you have to know is that you know you're giving some you're giving some of your privacy up because this is an app that is free, that is tracking you at all times, and so they are collecting some data about you. You have to understand
that they're making they have a business. My friend has a theory that they are. My friend has a theory that basically, if you're driving your car with this app around and it's like, you know, you're going eighty miles an hour or whatever, they're logging all that. Like, Okay, let's say you get to an accident, your insurance company is like, oh, we want a subpoena all the records from your life three sixty account, which I don't know if that's happened before, but that think about that.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, there's a lot of apps on your phone that are sort of like looking at your GPS and that kind of stuff. So will that be something that insurance companies will want to just take a little looky loo at.
Well, it's like the camera for your surveillance camera for your car.
Yeah, yes, to see like, oh.
We want a subpoena. Fun word. You know, were you on your phone when you got into that thunder bender?
Right? You get one of those little cameras that points both ways you know and in and you're like, oh can I cover up that in? Like you? And next thing you know, you're like, you.
Like take the camera after you hit someone's car because you don't want anything, right, and.
You're like burning the SD card because you don't want I mean, it's like a whole big think about it.
No, I mean a total like going to happen.
Oh of course it is. And with the new cars they're going to have all this built in. Who owns that. So let's say like you have a Chevy and you know, next thing, you know, you get to an accident and it's got all these cameras that are recording the whole time. There's a black box DVR in your car. Can they subpoena Chevy and be like, hey, we want that video and they're like, well, we don't know what happened to it. Rich deleted it right after that accident.
Rich burned it in a fire.
Rich's car is currently at the bottom of a river.
According to this GPS Oh my gosh, wild we joke, but it is a seri serious scary future. Yeah, it's definitely gonna happen real quick.
I'm just gonna talk about the Nintendo Switch Light. This is the new version of the Nintendo Switch that's a little bit cheaper, a little less expensive. Reviews are out for it. It's one hundred and ninety nine dollars for the switch light. It hits store shelves on September twentieth. And I've not played with this, but my kid loves the switch and the switch light is kind of like a smaller version of it. It has better battery life,
it does not connect your TV. This time because the old switch connects your TV or I should say the standard switch, and it has no kickstand, so that can present some complications because the controllers also don't disconnect from it. So you know, it's basically a modern game Boy that you know or whatever, Nintendo three DS or DS, whatever you want to call it, but it's kind of a mobile first gaming platform, whereas the switch bridge the gap
between the TV and mobile. So I think the switch, I think for my son personally, like it's funny because he was playing the switch exclusively by like disconnecting it from the TV and I kind of rehooked it up to the TV, and I'm like, Parker, you and Tanner can play on the TV together. So now for the last three nights they've been playing Mario Kart on TV together and it's kind of cute to watch like the brothers, you know, play games. And that frees up Dad to basically do my own thing.
Yes that you can not watch TV but write your next book.
Yeah, I can do something else. I actually I am writing another books. Yeah, it's I started the other day. It's one hundred and one Essential apps and it's basically like all the apps.
Are very serious. Why didn't you tell me this earlier?
This is just started writing news to everyone, but I just started writing it and uh, it's it's it's really cool. I've got one hundred and six apps right now, so I need to narrow that down to add but it's cool. It's like all the apps I just think you should know about, you know, like just stuff like that.
And it's going to be a book.
It's going to be. Uh. My goal is to make this a very inexpensive ebook, like I'm talking probably less than adult.
What if people want the paperback.
There is no paperback in this. There will be no paperback. If you're printing out a book about apps. I'm sorry, but that's just.
Not you know that there's people.
Out there's people out there that want to do that, and you know, maybe I will do it. You know what, never say never, yes, Megan. One thing you've learned in life never.
Ever say ever. And everything happens for a reason.
Everything happens for a reason. Yes, all right, let's end the show with a new thing I call best Thing of the Week. Yes, do you have a best thing in the week? Megan?
Yeah, I mean I think it's kind of funny. But normally every year for Halloween, I know it's September, but like I always wait till like the day before or the day after Halloween to actually be like, oh, I should have you know, been whatever a catween. So my friend and I have already started discussing what we want to be for Halloween.
Okay, I like that.
That's a good One's kind of silly.
I my best part of the week or best thing of the week. I don't even know what the segment's called, but I made it up. The best thing of the week is, I'm gonna say, is all the pumpkin stuff. I've been enjoying what I bought pumpkin like currig Ca cups, which it's like to me, it's like the little things in life that I don't know why I've been so obsessed with Target lately, but it is. It's kind of a problem.
Are you sponsored by them or something?
I'm not. But here's the thing. I do all my shopping on Amazon and I don't go into stores. But for some reason, it's like really interesting to me that you can buy all this stuff in a Target like this. All these things I think are like so cool on Amazon. I'm like, oh my gosh, I can get this on Amazon, and it's like like any little thing like toothpaste, and I like order on Amazon because I think I'm like
being smart. I'm like I can go into Target and choose from like five hundred different toothpastes in one.
Eyele the drug store has.
See that's the thing. I don't go to the drug store to buy anything because it way too expensive. The three letter word one three. Yeah, I don't. That's like whenever I tell it. Whenever that is like I love that place, but it is so expensive and it's like I just have to not buy anything there because it's triple the price of anywhere else. It's true, and it's convenient because there's one in every corner.
But Target's expensive too. I mean for like drug store makeup, Like whenever.
I go, I'm not buying a lot of that. So I don't know. Yeah, sure, you think it's expensive for drug store makeup.
Yeah, Target it's like more expensive.
Some things are oddly expensive, yeah, there, But.
I do really like Target, Like it's definitely a happy place.
It's kind of cool.
It's like the Disneyland of and you just go.
Out of there and like you get so you get everything you need in one place like Costco. You go in there and you probably don't go to cost git you don't have kids, but no, I've you been in costover.
You're familiar with the concept. Yeah, yeah, but it's one of those places where you go in there and it leaves you always leave satisfied but also desiring something that you did not get because you either had to buy it in bulk, yeah, or it they didn't have it, and now you're left with, oh, I gotta go somewhere else.
I got a really cool, like fuzzy carpet from Costco for like seventy dollars and it was like a huge carpet. Yeah yeah, I was like, what.
So rang to fit it in the car?
What do you mean? How did I finish?
Did you a giant carpet in the car?
Uh? You know what? It was like? Definitely tight in the car. We had to like fold it or something. Yeah, it's been like four years since.
Okay, you're telling a four year old story on a show in twenty nineteen.
You definitely tell like ten year old stories.
I do know all the time.
Oh yeah, sorry, everybody.
I'd probably tell them over and over. Yeah, all right, let me tell you how to get in touch with the show. Rate and review us please. We're on Apple Podcasts. You can search for us in there. If this is the first time you're listening to us, subscribe, Please also rate and review because I feel like that helps. Why not if you see a show that has a bunch of ratings and reviews. And by the way, we're holding steady at five stars, so please keep that going. That's good.
Oh I thought that's not the right one now, and I just was like she was reaching to the board.
No here, story of my life, sad.
I think that I think this show will bring it down to four stars. So let's see. You got the rate and review. If you want to get in touch with us, you can just go to my website rich
on tech dot tv hit the big contact button. And I know people don't like to put stuff in a contact form, but I will tell you it actually is the best way you can do it, because that puts it in a filter on my Gmail and I can actually see I can filter and see all my viewer emails or listener emails, and that actually is a good thing because then I don't forget to respond to them, whereas other emails sometimes they get a little bit, you know, they can get sidetracked. What else do I want to
tell you? I am at rich on tech on Instagram, which Megan is very proud of growing my Instagram following. This is like your personal project. I will tell you. I'd look, if you've listened this far into the show, you're not just a rando.
Right, yeah, You're a super rich on techie.
You're a techy. You're rich on techy. So I'm gonna this is when I really reveal the stuff that we don't. But I will be honest with you. When I started with Meghan, I had what how many followers on Instagram?
I had like thirty one thousand?
Okay, and how much am I up to?
Now? You're at seventy one thousand?
Yeah?
And I started what like in November last year? Yeah, so almost been a year.
And I will tell you Meghan doubled. Yeah, I've doubled. And Megan is Megan.
Isld not me? You know it's all.
But you gave me the push and you told me that people care about Instagram and I was like, no, they don't. Who cares about Instagram? You said no, people get news and information from Instagram, and sure enough, when I kind of took that paradigm shift, I started thinking like, oh my gosh, there are people that are just flipping through Instagram and they're seeing stuff, and I'm affecting them in a way that like, oh, I learned something rather
than what I used to. If you look, before Megan started, I only posted pictures of like me, my family, Yeah, you know that kind of stuff like travel, and it wasn't It was cool, but it was not useful. And now I do a mix. Yeah, and who are we trying to be? Who's your friend that we're always trying to Oh?
Oh we are saying names.
But Megan is very competitive.
We're both competitive. I think it's good to be competitive.
Yeah, it is. How do people get in touch with you?
I am on Twitter producer Megan, and then I'm also on Instagram Megan mcmonagle. If you can spell.
That, then then you deserve to be a follower. I five you can spell that, you deserve to be a follower. All right, Thanks so much for listening to the show. Follow my newsletter just go to Rich on tech dot tv hit newsletter and every week or with regularity, I send out an email newsletter with all the stuff that I think you should know, kind of like this show and that's about it. I think that's going to do
it right. Yeah, anything else I talk about here and the book, you can find it on Amazon to pre order one one iPhone tips and tricks, we'll tell you all about iOS thirteen. Thanks so much for listening. Have a fantastic day. We can't wait to see you back here. I'm Rich demiro On behalf of me and Meghan. Have a great one. Bye bye. You're des No