Disney is raising prices on its streaming service again. Well, one wireless carrier has another sneaky feet. Android phones can now alert you about air tags that are stalking you. LG has a new wireless TV and you won't believe the price tag. Plus your tech questions answered, What's going on? I'm Rich Demiro and this is Rich on Tech. This show where I talk about the tech stuff I think you should know about. It's also the place where I
answer your questions about technology. I believe that tech should be interesting, useful, and most importantly fun. Phone lines are now open at triple eight Rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Give me a call if you have a question about technology. Email is also open. Just go to Rich on tech dot TV, hit the contact link and submit your message. If you have feedback for the show, I'll get that to get to that later in the show as well.
We've got some great guests this week. Doctor Chris Pearson is going to join us. He is the founder and CEO of Black Cloak. Black Hat and Defcon are happening right now in Las Vegas. These are two of the biggest annual hacking conferences. So Chris is going to talk about what is being discussed, especially with AI on the scene now because hacking is gonna get a little bit easier because of AI.
We'll talk about the implications of that.
And then later if you're thinking about buying a TV, Caleb Dennison, Editor at Large at Digital Trends, is going to give us his picks for the best TVs for your money. I know you don't want to spend a lot, but you want to get a good set. That is what Caleb is going to tell us. So we'll have those guests later in the show. I do want to say I am thinking about the people of Maui, and our hearts are with them, our thoughts are with them.
It is just unthinkable what happened over there. And we were just there as a family a couple of months ago, and I was looking up some of the places that we had gone in Lahina and it's really sad that we ate at one of these places we like called Cheeseburger and Paradise. I went there for my honeymoon and yeah, I know, I took my wife to my newly went to a burger place for our honeymoon. That was just one of the places we went to, but that I
was sad to find out had burned down. And the place we ate at for lunch there as well, really cool old hotel. Kids were playing with the birds they had. I can't remember the name of it, but it was a really interesting menu. I had breakfast ramen there and which was delicious, by the way, and that has also burned down.
And then the tree.
There's this great old Banyan tree that I took a picture of that was really really cool, over one hundred years old. I'm told that that's still standing, but you know, definitely burned and sinned and all that stuff. So just unbelievable to think that a town like that, so old and so steeped in history, something like this could happen. So thoughts, And I will tell you, as a person who you know would like to help financially, you know,
donate money, you feel good doing that. I'm actually confused because I've seen so many places to donate online and people sharing on their stories. It's actually like, where do you put your money? Right, Like, if you want to donate, I'm not really sure. I mean, I guess maybe like
Red Cross something like that. But there's so many different places to donate, and so maybe I'll get some clarity on that and figure out where to send that, because I've been wanting to do that, but I just didn't really know how.
Let's see what else my mom is in town.
So whenever you have family in town, you're always kind of like it's almost like you're a visitor in your own city. And so we've just been going NonStop, you know, between work and trying to bring my mom out and go out to places to eat and do and see, and so that's been interesting.
I've been running around kind of all over town.
But I think it's pretty cool when people come to town because you do act like a tourist in your own city. And so, for instance, yesterday I had bookmarked a place little subshop that wanted to try because I read an article about it, and so we went to
that place. And I'm really favoring local places right now over the chains, just because I feel like the world of like restaurants has changed so much that I feel like the small places are really putting their best foot forward right now because they know that they need to survive, and so you get a little bit better service a little bit more friendly service, a little bit more personal service. And so I've really enjoyed doing that, which is funny because back when I was kind of grown up, I
always favored like big chains. I always love chains, and now I'm kind of always like, no, is this place independent?
Is it local? Is it small? Okay, let me go. It doesn't have to be small per se.
Anyway, So yesterday went to the subplace, and then after the subplace, I was like, you know what, you know, we were buy an airport, and I said, there's got to be a place to watch the plane's land with
the kids by the airport. And so sure enough, we pulled into this one parking lot that was near the airport and it was totally not the right place, and I was like, there's got to be a public like observation area, and sure enough, I went on Google and I just kind of zoomed in on the map, and on Google Maps you can see there's like little camera icons for places that are really scenic and cool and
that you should visit. So I think you should lean on this because it's an easy way to find either not just like Instagram photo ops, but also just like cool sites in your area, and you don't have to be in a main place. You could be anywhere. Right now, I'm just scrolling the map and I'm seeing all these little camera icons. But I was like, there's got to be a way to search for these, and so I
figured it out. If you search for on Google Maps scenic spots, it will give you all the scenic locations in your area, and you can just pick one and go to and it's almost guaranteed to be really fun to check out with the kids or just by yourself or whatever with family, friends, people in town. So that's just one way that I kind of found these places. The other one is this is kind of a secret thing.
That's if you're into Instagram. You go to Instagram and you just search for like a city, like just search for like Las Vegas, okay. And once you search for Las Vegas, there's a tab called places, and you go to places and then you look for Las Vegas. Okay, there it is, and it will show you Las Vegas
on a map. But if you press the X next to the name, now, all of a sudden, you get all of the places in Las Vegas that are the most popular with instagrammers and so you can literally see, like in almost real time, the coolest places in any area. And so you can even sort down by restaurants, cafes, sites, hotels, parks, and bars. And so if you click sites or tap sites now you can see all these things that people
go to. The Neon Museum, Let's see what else, The Mob Museum, the World Market, Las Vegas Zipline, Las Vegas Festival Grounds, Children's Discovery Museum. So it just kind of a cool way again to kind of see where the places are that people are taking pictures. And going to Valley of Fire looks really cool, and so you know, you still have to use your own judgment to kind of figure this stuff out, but it's still just a nice little way to check those things out.
Let's see. Oh, another thing I wanted to tell you about.
So we were back to school shopping and I think I don't think I mentioned this last week, but we were in a store getting sneakers from my kid, and I just kind of scanned the sneakers just to see if they were on sale anywhere else. And I use Google lens to do that, and if you look on
your phone, if you use the Google app. Maybe I mentioned this last week, I can't remember, but if you look at the Google app on your phone, if there's a little lens on the cerch like it looks like a camera icon, you tap that and you just you can either scan the barcode on the item, or you just scan the item itself and it will bring up all the places that that item is for sale, and it might be on sale somewhere. Now, if you have an Android phone, this is right on the search bar
on your home screen. Again, just click or tap the little camera icon and Google Lens will just search across the web for that product. And so, for instance, the sneakers that we were buying my kid, no joke, they were on sale somewhere else for thirty dollars less.
And so I asked the guy at the place.
I was like, hey, will you price match and he'said, yes, as long as they're for sale locally. I said, well, this is foot locker and you're you know whatever. It was the sporting goods store, and they said, yeah, we'll do that. So I say thirty bucks in literally two seconds, just by scanning the item on my phone. And you don't have to feel bad about doing this, obviously, if somewhere else is selling the shoes for a cheaper price, like they're still making money on this, so don't feel
bad doing it. I thought that was pretty cool. Oh yeah, I also went to the Taylor Swift concert. I know, I know, I'm not going to do my review of the Taylor Swift concert. That's not this kind of show. But I will tell you two things Techi related to the show. First off, we were really debating whether we should drive to the venue. And in Los Angeles it's
called Sofi Stadium. It's notoriously tough to get in and out of whether you are driving, whether you're parking, because there's no direct kind of like train Like I would like rail service right to this stadium.
It would make things really easy, but it's not.
And so we were trying to decide if we should drive or uber, and Uber at the end of the night would just be a mess. People have horror stories of waiting an hour two hours because, as you can imagine, seventy thousand people all trying to get home at the same time. Not so easy without a lot of public transportation. So we ended up doing this app called spot Hero, which I just bought a parking spot at a nearby school, and it was super easy. You'd buy it from your phone,
you navigate right to the spot. We got in, we got out. It was so easy. And again it's called spot Hero. There's a lot of differ parking apps, but you have to be careful because I actually had a friend that was scammed by one of these parking apps because she bought parking. People were reselling parking at the location that wasn't real. So when she got there, she went to scan the code and they're like, nah, this doesn't work.
You got to pay again.
Now the good news is because you bought it through an app, you can just kind of cancel that and it worked out great for us. So spot Hero was really nice. Finally, the other thing I wanted to talk
about was the LED bracelet. So if you've been to a concert lately, they've got these bracelets that they hand out at a lot of concerts that light up with LED lights that you know, kind of changed color and sync to the music and this and that, and so Taylor's was really elaborate, like someone programmed these things really well, Like at one point these things did a wave throughout the entire audience and it was really really cool how that worked. So I wrote down the name. It's called
pix mob and it's a little led light bracelet. It was super, super cool and it kind of became part of the show. If you've been to a concert back in the day, they would, yeah, at one point you'd hold up your lighter at the concert. This is like that time's a billion because there are lighters or I guess lights the entire time.
So anyway, that was fun.
I'm not a swiftye but definitely enjoyed the concert. My wife really liked it and we had a good time. All right, let's get some of your calls on the show Triple eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. If you have a question about technology, give me a call, or you can go to the website rich on Tech dot tv hit contact if you want to submit your question that way. My name is Rich d'muro. You are listening to rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech.
Rich DeMuro here talking technology with you. Earlier, I was wondering about donating to help the people of Maui. Uh, and I got Patrick said, Hey, Rich, I donated to the Maui Foodbank dot org. And then I found a list of cash donations for Maui fire victims. These are some of the organizations accepting donations. By the way, if you want to hop on the phones, triple eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. If you have a question about technology,
give me a call some of these. This is Honolulu Civil Beat website. They have the main one. Okay, the Maui Strong Fund is the main fund. It seems like focusing on rapid response. Then you've got the Maui Food Bank, Maui United Way, Salvation Army, Public Schools of Hawaii. Oh wow, Yeah, they're going to help out through October. First with you
know some of the schools. We were walking in the front street in Lahina and there was like a school right there and we were wondering what happened to that school, So clearly that was impacted. You've got a whole bunch of them. So I'll link that up on the website as well. In the show notes. If you have an Android phone, by the way, you now have protection against
air tags trying to stalk you. Now this happens, but you know It's one of these things where most of the time it's probably just going to be a friend or family member's AirTag or a coworker's air tag, but it's nice to know that Android phones can now alert you. Natively, they built this into the Google operating system, so it is an update. You don't have to do anything to
get this. It's rolling out, which means your phone may not have it immediately, but already I had a family member get one of these notifications because I guess, you know, my mom's been hanging out with us. She has an Android, and I guess our keys have air tags, and so when I wasn't there with them, it said, hey, do you know that this air tag is kind of following you? And so she got the alert. I said, oh, wow, you're one of the first people to get that alert,
So screenshot it and let me talk about it. So Google announced this feature during Google Io twenty twenty three, that was a couple months ago. It is now rolling out to Android phones Androids six point zero and up. That's pretty much you know, any Android phone at this point. It only works with air tags right now, but if you want to check and see how this works, you can go to settings on your Android phone Safety and
Emergency and then Unknown Tracker Alerts. So again, open settings on your Android phone, scroll down to Safety and Emergency, and then you'll see a new setting called unknown Tracker Alerts. And inside this little Safety and Emergency there's a lot of cool stuff like earthquake alerts and things like that. Now, if it's not already toggled on, you can toggle allow Alerts on. And then there's also the ability to do
a manual scan as well. So if you think there's a rogue air tag around you, you can tap scan now and it will only identify air tags that the owner is not present for. So clearly there's a lot of stuff going on in the background here, like you know, a lot of like smarts, and so when you tap that manual scan, it will only show you stuff that doesn't have an owner. So if like someone left an air tag at your house, it would probably show that one. And it will also proactively detect air tags if an
owner is not nearby. Now won't do it immediately because it wants to kind of see is this something that you're on a train and this air tag is nearby, or is it in your bag, and so you may not get that notification immediately. Now Google is going to have their own air tag or basically their own kind of version of air tags very soon. There's gonna be a lot of companies that do this stuff. So if you have an Android phone, you can't use air tags
just yet with them, I don't think ever. But there will be other companies that are rolling out air tag style devices that work with Google's network that they're building. It's called the Find My Device network. And if you want to see all this stuff, by the way, I made an Instagram video on Instagram at richon Tech. So again, Android users now have that protection. Let's see Taya in more parks, says hey, rich I recently scanned all my
family photos and converted them over to digital format. Do you know of a software that will do facial recognition and group like photos together as well as well as identified duplicates? Tagging all the photos is time consuming. There's got to be a better way. Well, Taya, congrats first actually scanning in your family photos.
I did this a while ago.
I still have a bunch of my mom's garage I'd like to tackle, but I did a bunch of this and it's really fun to kind of bring these back to life. What I recommend is putting them into Google Photos. And I know it sounds simple, but I find that it is the most powerful way to slice and dice these pictures. What it's gonna do, it's gonna identify all
the people in your pictures, even in the videos. So if you have a picture of video with like grandma and grandpa and it back from you know, back in the day, it will find them in the video, and all the people at your kid's birthday parties and things like that, and it will put them as a face, and so you can find them in the videos that
you upload as well, grouping like photos together. It doesn't necessarily do that, but sometimes in the Google Memories it will say similar shots and you can see those as well as identified duplicates. This is something that I wish Google Photos did, but it does not identify duplicates.
That is the biggest downside. Google.
You've got the AI, you've got the smarts, Please identify the duplicates, all right, give me a call if you have a question. Triple eight rich one o one eight eight eight seven four to two four to one zero one. This is rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich On Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you, talking technology at Triple eight Rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Another tweet about Let's see what was it? An email from Margie about Maui.
She said, don't forget the firefighters. Yes, firefighters, Uh, very much working hard. I think the Maui Strong Fund would cover that. That seems to be the main one to go to. Uh, let's go to Nancy. Nancy is in Anaheim. Nancy, you're on with Rich.
Hi.
Rich, Hey, I have a question for you. I believe there is a person sending a very strong signal that blocks out my WiFi, my phone, my cell phone.
Even if I don't use.
AT and T, I use Wi Fi calling, It goes on and off. Is there any piece of equipment that would monitor a signal, a very strong signal or something and otherwise I could get some more information. The person has enormous amount of antennas on their place and has issues doing things not so good before. So is there any piece of the equipment I can buy that could.
Monitor sounds like a neighbor that's This is more than just the antennas that's happening here.
Yes, And to be honest with you, there's a history of this with the SEC, and I'm just trying to get more information.
I know.
It's pretty bad. You know, it's just impossible. I can't down want, I can't do anything.
That's one of these houses.
I've had the phone company out, that's the problem.
Yeah, it's one of these houses that has a lot of antennas on it that like you don't really understand what they're what they're doing, like, what are they doing their own broadcast station?
Like, what's happening here?
Probably?
Probably? Probably?
Well, okay, so I think have you talked to neighbors? Are they having issues with their WiFi?
It's not necessarily, but if they're in the same direct task as my house, they are.
Okay. And what type of Wi Fi router are you using?
Oh?
Gee, I don't know.
Is it from it? Is it from your cable company?
I have it from the phone company, okay, from AT and T, And then I also try Wi fi calling. But when one goes out, they all go out and I have to reconnect, and that it goes out and reconnect. I mean this happens fifty seventy five times a day.
Oh my gosh, wow, I know that's frustrating an insane. Well, I mean, I'm sure there are devices that can measure signals that are being omitted, but they're probably not consumer devices number one. You know, it's and I don't know the level of what this person is putting out. I mean, I'm sure if they're doing something that is have you talked to.
Them in person?
They deny it?
They well, I mean, can't you see the antennas?
Oh god?
Yeah, okay, Well, I mean do you have an Android or an iPhone?
An Android?
Okay?
So, and on Android it is a little bit easier because there are some apps called Wi Fi analyzers that will provide something.
Yeah, okay, wi Fi analyzers.
Okay, So if you go into the Google Play Store on your phone, you know that's where you download your apps, right, So if you type in wi Fi analyzer, you should find a list of apps that will scan for net wi Fi signals. Now, keep in mind, this is only going to work with Wi Fi signals, and so it's you know it, but it could give you an idea if you see that one of the signals is like super duper powered versus the rest of them. That may
give you an idea of what they're doing. Now, the other thing is you may see the channel that they are broadcasting on, and so you may want to steer clear of that channel. So most of the modern routers out there will automatically find a clear channel for your signal to go through that doesn't kind of overlap with your neighbors. But you know, it may just be a good thing to kind of look at this information and see.
Oh, thank you so much, because I do know sometimes I look at my bone for the nearest tower things, ye know, that house or you know close, So I think the signal is too strong and it's blocking mind. But I'm not a tech person.
Yeah, that's that's frustrating because I've you know, I don't know if they would have a Wi Fi signal that strong that would really interfere with yours. But it could be that maybe they're just broadcasting on the same channel that your router's on, and that could be a problem. So also I would just check, so okay, just to complete this, I would say, download the Wi Fi analyzer, See the signal that's the strongest, See what channel that
signal is on. And then you'll see your WiFi as well on there, and so whatever your network is called, look for that Wi Fi in the list and then see if that's on the same channel or a nearby channel, and then maybe if that's the case, you want to change the channel that your WiFi is on. You can do that by going into the settings on your router. I know you said you're not a tech person. She may have to enlist the help of a nearby techie
to help you do that. But yes, exactly like any kid that has been on TikTok for half their life will be able to figure out how to do this, you know.
But that's what I would recommend.
And otherwise, I think you've got a bigger issue going on here with your neighbor, Nancy. And I'm sorry to hear that, because you know what, we get to pick the neighborhood we live in some times, but we don't necessarily get to pick our neighbors. And we all have that neighbor on our street that's just a little bit out there, and so I understand that, but hopefully you can figure out maybe maybe you'll get some clues with the Wi Fi analyzer.
Nancy.
Thanks so much for calling today from Anaheim. Speaking of Anaheim, home of Disney. By the way, phone lines are open. Triple eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Let's see speaking of Disney here, Disney Streaming service going up again, raising prices.
Now.
I have said over and over the free ride is over. We have been on this cho choo train of awesome pricing for streaming services for too many years now, and everyone it's just like waking up, like one by one, they all just woke up. I'm trying to think what was the first. I think Netflix was the first to raise prices, and all the other people said, oh, if Netflix is doing it, I can do it because they're kind of like the king of streaming and if they can get away with it, we can. And so all
of these services have slowly but surely been raising prices. Anyway, Disney Disney Plus will be raising prices in October. They're launching a new bundle called the Duo Premium. This pairs Disney Plus and Hulu without ads for nineteen ninety nine a month. And you may say, rich, I'm already paying nineteen nine ninety a month. That doesn't sound like a price hike. Well, guess what you're getting ESPN Plus bundled in that twenty dollars currently, that will not be bundled anymore.
If you have that bundle, that will be going up to twenty five dollars a month. So what do they want you to do? They want you to say, well, I don't watch ESPN that much. Let me let me go down to that twenty dollars. It's the same price I'm paying, and now you've lost one third of your services.
So it is a price hike. Let's see what else.
By the way, our friend of the show, Jared Newman, who writes Cord Cutter Weekly, had a great rundown. He put all of the different prices in order. So Disney Plus with ads not changing, that's eight bucks a month, Disney Plus ad free going up from eleven to fourteen, Hulu with ads going from eight, no change, that's staying the same, Hulu ad Free going from fifteen to eighteen.
So again, the trend we're seeing with all of these streaming services, if you are the kind of person that likes that premium experience without ads, you're going to be paying more. Most of these services are keeping the ad free or the sorry the service with ads at a lower price. But then again, you have ads that are subsidizing your costs. So Disney plus the latest to raise prices, and it's not fun, not fun if you are a
consumer and you have a couple of these services. I have decided that I may end up just canceling all of my services and just go back to buying a movie, like renting a movie for six dollars when I want to. I'm just going to kind of see how much I spend, Like I think I spend like fifty bucks a month. That's I think movies a month I can rent at five bucks apiece. Maybe that's just easier.
All right. Coming up on the show, we've got a couple of great guests.
Doctor Chris Pearson, founder and CEO of Black Cloak, is going to talk to us about the hacking conferences going on in Las Vegas, and later in the show, if you're thinking about buying a TV, Caleb Dennison is going to join us. He's going to talk about the best TVs for your money, plus your calls at Triple eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Welcome back to Rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you talking technology at Triple.
A Rich one oh one.
That's eight eight eight seven four to two, four to one zero one. You can find me on social media. I am at rich on Tech on all the major platforms Instagram, Facebook, x formerly, Twitter, and threads, so you can find me there. Salas in Chicago, Salas on with Rich.
What's up?
Hi, Rich?
How are you?
I'm doing great? How are you?
I'm doing good? I have a question. I'm getting bombarded with the spam phone calls on an iPhone, okay, and I don't know what else to do. I know, I think a few shows ago you had talked about something that was an app. I don't mind paying a few dollars for an app, but it's just getting worse and worse. And I figured i'd give you a call and asked the expert, what can I do? What do you recommend?
Okay, Well, so I know this.
I feel like these things come and go in waves, and so it's tough to kind of nail down why you're getting so many right now?
Has this always been happening or is this a recent thing?
Now?
It just started because I filled out a few applications and stuff. Yeah, I'm retired, so I've been looking for some sidework and you know, all these apps ask you to put your phone number. And then yesterday I was like, oh, I think I made a mistake.
Yeah, but I called Rich exactly.
And that's what happens is usually you're putting in some sort of personal information and they're just sharing it.
And it's funny.
My wife was filling out a form today my kid's going to like a birthday party, and it was just asking for everything, you know, data, birth their data, birth her data, birth her driver's license, upload her licenses. Why do they need this to go to a birthday party? I mean, these companies, they will try to get as much information out of us as possible because it's in their best interest. So I always just fake every answer anyway. Okay,
so what cellular carrier do you have? Okay, so all of the main cellular carriers have their own call filtering apps. So Verizons, for instance, is called call filter and so you can download that app for free. They maintain it and it is you know, kind of piggybacking on their network and some smarts that they have to help block some of these calls. So that would be my first kind of suggestion is whether you have T Mobile, AT and T or Verizon, I would download the carrier specific
app that you have and see if that helps. Now, the iPhone is a little bit tricky in the architecture because these apps can only do so much. The call list to block actually has to be downloaded. They can only download so much. But by downloading Verizons they can do some of this at the network level. But that's
what I'd recommend is downloading Verizon call Filter. That may or may not work, and it's free to get the basic version, and they may try to upsell you to get call Filter Plus, which is like four dollars a month. Let's see what does call Filter Plus do. It gives you caller idea on every phone number, not just the spam numbers. You can do your own personal block list
and different things. So if you feel like you want to pay four dollars a month, I personally don't, but you know that's an option to you on AT and T if you've got that. Let's see, let's see they've got this spam. I've got to remember which one this was. Oh, it's called active Armor or sorry, call Protect is theirs. So if you look up on AT and T you can download call protect and that's there.
Let's see they change this. Okay, so active.
Armor is a free Oh yeah, okay, so it is called active Armour app. So if you have AT and T you can download active Armor. And then if you've got T Mobile, they have their own spam blocker. It's called scam Shield and so you can download that. Now that's if you have one of the big main carriers. If you don't have one of those carriers, you can look into something that's a little bit more high powered. To of the apps that are very popular. Robokiller is
an app that I've actually interviewed them. They do a lot of stuff when it comes to research and trying to figure out where these spam calls are coming from. And the thing about these apps is that you may have to forward your calls to these apps them to do the best service. So it's not ideal, I don't think personally as the setup, but robokiller does that. And then the other one is called true Caller. Now True Caller is very popular as well. Some people think that
when you sign up for true caller. You're actually handing through your phone number in the hands of people that may then use it to spam you. So that is something to keep in mind, because you do have to register with your phone number. I have this on my phone, I have my phone registered with it.
It seems to be fine, but.
Again, these are all things to keep in mind, especially if you just go to the app store, you download a call protection app and you just start putting in your phone number there. Not all of these apps are created equal, and so they may actually use that information against you at some point. So the other thing is if if you're on a Pixel phone, they have a
really good level of call filtering built in. And if you're on a Samsung phone, they've actually got a really cool feature now too that Pixel has had for a long time, but they just added it to Samsung which actually lets you screen your call with Bixby, So you can actually have Bixby pick up the phone and say, hey, why are you calling me, and then the person on the other end can say what they're you know, oh, I'm trying to get a hold of Rich and then
you'll see that pop up on your screen. And this is actually happening on the iPhone too with iOS seventeen. So sal long answer, short answer is that things are getting better, but I think this call screening is probably going to be the best way for most people to to kind of screen this stuff. Now I'm looking at my Samsung right here, and I actually have caller ID and spam protection turned off. So if you have a Samsung phone, go into the phone app and then tap
in the upper right hand corner. There's three dots and it says settings and see if your caller ID in spam protection is turned on or off. So I'm going to turn that on. It's actually provided by a company called Haya, and then you of an next level that's just for caller ID and then you can block spam and spam call. So clearly that is not turned on by default on a Samsung phone, so if you want
that extra level of protection, it is built in. The other feature to play with if you have it available, is called Bixby Text Call, and this is so cool because Bixby can actually answer your phone and say, hey, why are you calling, and what the person says will be transcribed in real time on your phone screen, so then you can decide if you want to actually answer that phone call in real time and on the same
on the pixel that's available as well. iPhone again is going to be getting that feature with iOS seventeen.
So things are getting better.
Sal But in the meantime, maybe download the Verizon Call Filter app and start with that and see how it works.
All right, let's talk Amazon for a moment.
Amazon is having another Prime It's not Prime Day, It's called Prime Big Deal Days. I know, confusing. This is a new sale that they are launching in October. This October, We're bringing an exclusive shopping event to Prime members called Prime Big Deal Days. I'm excited for Prime members to discover some of Amazon's best deals of this season across nineteen countries including the US. Will share more details as we get closer to the event. I can't wait to
give our Prime members access to exclusive early savings. What is up with Amazon and all these Prime Days? How many Prime Days do we need a year? It started out with one day, Now we're up to two days, and now we're up to two Prime Days and a Prime Big Deal Days. And I guess they're just trying to get a leg up on the whole holiday shopping season, which really kicks off on Thanksgiving these days, so this is a month before Thanksgiving. They haven't said exactly what
day it is, but again October. If you're holding out for something that you've been wanting to watch on Amazon to buy, maybe you just wait a couple more months until October because there will be prime big deal days happening there. My thing with Amazon, I just put everything in the in the saved cart and just you know, kind of when it goes on sale, I will buy it.
And by the way, if you get something from Amazon on your doorstep, like a blender and there's no box, don't wonder like look around, be like wait, what just happened here. Amazon is now trying to deliver items without packaging, so TVs and blenders are arriving their original boxes. According to the Wall Street Journal, the change is part of Amazon's efforts to make its delivery process more efficient and
environmentally friendly. And you know, people kind of like it because they're like, oh, that's cool, I get my stuff and there's less waste. About eleven percent of deliveries now come with no box. So now you know, if you get something on your doorstep, there's no box from Amazon.
Someone money, your neighbors didn't open it up.
That's just how they're delivering it. Eight A eight rich one oh one. You are listening to rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology. This is the show where I talk about the tech stuff I think you should know about. It's also the place where I answer your questions about tech, and boy do you ask a lot of questions. I think my inbox is so filled it is.
It's become. I don't want to say that I can't handle it anymore, but it is wild and I love it because you know, it goes to show that a we're reaching a lot of you, and I think that the show is resonating.
So I do like that.
But I just feel bad because I can't respond to every single email individually in real time. And so just know that if you email me, I do my best to answer the questions that I see over and over or the questions I can quickly answer, but if they're more in depth, sometimes it just takes a little longer or I have to address them on the show. So
the best way is to call at Triple eight. Rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two, four to one zero one, And of course you can always submit your question on the website rich on tech dot tv the contact button and on the website there's a lot there. There's all of the previous shows. You can listen to them as a podcast. There's also the TV segments that I do, so you can watch those on YouTube or you can link to the actual site and see the different things that I mentioned, because I
do a lot for TV as well. So thanks for checking out the website rich on tech dot TV. All right, let's kick off this hour with Roland. Roland is in Hillsboro Beach, Florida. Welcome to the show.
Rich A pleasure talking to you, y, thanks for calling.
I bought a Dell last year. It came with an eighth and a four gig memory the deltas will hold to thirty Two's My question is if I take the four out and put in a single thirty two, will that work? Will I see an improvement?
And where huh.
Are you, my friend, Frank, Because we were literally just talking about this the other day, so that Frank, okay, we were literally just discussing this because it's been a while since I have upgraded any sort of RAM on my computer.
But I used to do this a lot.
Nowadays a lot of the systems are sort of soldered onto the machine, so it's tougher and tougher to upgrade them. This is this a desktop computer or a laptop?
Okay?
And they said that you can put in up to thirty two gigs two thirty two okay, And you're asking if you can leave the four there, but then put in a thirty.
Two, take out the four and put it in thirty two. It came with an eight and a four.
Oh, and you just want to consolidate into one.
Well, can I leave the eight in? And thought it from a twelve to forty?
It all depends. It depends on the computer.
So I'm trying to remember back in the days when I used to do this, and I remember that a lot of times it had to be mirrored like the same amount, so you couldn't necessarily have like a two and then an eight or something like that. So the best way have you heard of the website crucial dot com I have Okay, have you tried their system scanner?
Okay?
So they've got this great tool that you can download and it will scan your system and tell you exactly what you're able to do. And so it will tell you the memory slots that you have, what you currently have in there, and the different configurations you're allowed to put in there. And so it's super easy. I've used this in the past, and that is the best way to figure this out because you don't have to open up your computer.
You don't have to guess.
You can just go on here and it will tell you the combination that you can use.
And if you don't do video editing or games, is it really worthwhile to improve the rams sufficiently?
I think?
So, what do you have right now? You have a what'd you say, A four and an eight? Yeah, so you've got twelve if you put in I mean thirty two gigs these days? Is I mean the cost of it? Have you priced the cost of this?
Which is my next question. There's several manufacturers that will sell it for a third that Dell wants.
Your thoughts, Oh, yeah, don't don't. You don't need to get it from Dell.
You can definitely get it from Crucial or I would just get it from Crucial dot com. Where you redo this, they'll they'll have a better price for sure, and you know it's just a better way to do it. You can even you can even cross reference. If you take the code that they give you from Crucial, just pop that into Amazon. They may sell it there as well, the same exact memory module for even cheaper or just easier because you already have your Amazon information in there.
So I think you can do that, and I think I think it's worth it. I mean, it's it's a very it's so inexpensive. I mean, let's see what thirty two. Oh, by the way, it I'll tell you the type of memory you need as well. But I mean you're looking at thirty two gigs. Now, this is a thirty two gig set is two by sixteen. That's sixty three bucks. I mean for sixty five bucks to upgrade my computer,
I would say that's a done deal. And you're going to notice that programs are gonna run faster, especially when you're on the internet. If you're using Chrome especially, that's a memory hog. All of these programs that you're using, even if you're not editing video, it'll just run faster and smoother. And your computer, I think, is going to
be better. Now if this was back in the day, like a three hundred dollars decision, I'd probably say if you're just surfing the web, you probably don't need it. But at this point, because it's a sixty five dollars decision and it's an easy upgrade and it keeps his computer running nice, I think that's definitely something you want to do. So again, yeah, Crucial dot com is the way to go. Check it out and enjoy the faster computer. I would also when you do this after you get
your computer upgraded, and obviously take the precautions. You know with static electricity when you're opening up your computer, just be very careful with that. You know, you've got to tap your hand onto something that's metal to like discharge all any static you might have. Just make sure you follow those directions because, believe me, I have fried computers in the past. It's not fun. So definitely take those precautions. Do it, and I think you'll like that upgrade. Thanks
for calling Roland, appreciate it. Let's see, I noticed something sneaky going on in restaurants, and I talked to you earlier about how I've been frequenting like local places, but I've noticed a trend. And this has to do with the technology that these local restaurants are now putting in their systems because a lot of these restaurants they used to have kind of like older systems. Now a lot of these restaurant companies are selling them on newer POS
systems point of sale. That POS means something else, but we're talking about point of sale here, and so these systems that they're selling them are more high tech and the whole point and I'm assuming that some of the sales techniques that these companies use is saying, we can boost your revenue because we can increase your sales. And if you've noticed these different these different restaurants are now using those handheld point of sale systems or they have
touch screens where you're ordering stuff or online ordering. But I've noticed inside restaurants there's something interesting going on. And this could be a Los Angeles thing, but it could also be happening in other cities. So I want you to be aware of this. If you notice on your bill, more and more restaurants are adding fees and surcharges onto your bills. Okay, and you know obviously, and I just
want to make this very clear. I am one hundred percent all about taking care of your server, your weight, staff, everyone who helps you in a restaurant. If they're doing something for you, you should take care of them.
Okay.
Because if you're in a place to eat at a restaurant and someone's helping you out, believe me, you take care of them.
Okay.
So I'm not trying to cheap out on tips or anything like that. Okay, what I'm saying is sometimes you could get tricked and you have to be careful, because I've noticed this at several restaurants where even if you're a smaller party of four people, five people, whatever, they're now including tips inside the actual bill and it's a items. So you're going through your bill hamburger, cheeseburger, french fries,
service charge eighteen percent. Now, if you are the kind of person that when you get your bill at the table and you just hand them your credit card, which by the way, I don't recommend doing, because I think that you should look and make sure everything's right on your bill. When that then second receipt comes back to you, that secondary receipt, what does it do. It just shows the transaction amount. Okay, eighty five bucks, and you think, Okay,
that's how much I just paid for dinner. But what you don't realize if you're not looking at that original bill, is that it may include that service charge already in there. And then I've noticed, like on this receipt I have right in front of me here it says ad tips. And this was a bill where it was already included. And then it says ad tips eighteen percent, twenty one percent,
twenty five percent, and custom tips. And this one really kind of this one perplexed me because I said, wait a second, I thought that it said service charge included. So when in doubt, you can ask the server and say, hey, you know, what's the deal do you get these? So, like last night, I got another bill and on this bill it said add one admin fee, which I've never seen before at a restaurant. Now, this was for my kid's birthday party, so maybe that was an admin fee
for the party, I don't know. And then it said one service charge and it doesn't even tell me how much the percentages of that service charge it's on there for the charge and so, and then when I got my regular bill, it said, you know, ad a tip and so I actually in this case, asked the server. I said, hey, do you get that service fee? And they said, well, we all split it, and so I was like, well what does that mean. She's like, well, you know, some of the cooks get it, the runners
I get some. And I said, okay, well, so shall I be giving you more? She's like, no, no, it's fine. What was on there, But I'm just letting you know now I gave a little bit more. But my point is just be aware of these extra fees and went in doubt, feel free to ask because they are confusing, and restaurants are just putting all kinds of different things on your bill. I've seen healthcare surve charges. I've seen cost of doing business in California surcharges. I'm not kidding.
Order a pizza from a like a chain, literally a nationwide chain, and it says the cost of doing business in California is so high that we we charge you five dollars and forty nine cents just on top of your entire you know, pizza fee.
And so just be aware of these things.
I think some of them are junkie fees, I really do, but and I think some of them are a result of these systems that they're using just make it easier for them to add fees. So just be aware and at the end of the day again take care of people who are waiting on you. But you know, just be aware of not over doing things if you're you know, if you're already paying for it. All right, Triple eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Hop on the phone if
you have a question or comment about technology. Coming up, we'll talk hacking and AI and more of your calls and emails coming up right here on rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here talking technology at Triple eight Rich one one eight eight eight seven.
Four two four to one zero one on.
The web at Richontech dot TV. Joseph is in Santa Barbara. Joseph, you're on with Rich.
Hey, Rich, thanks for taking my call.
Absolutely, what's going on?
Hey?
I have an Apple account that I put my new phone number on probably about six months ago, and apparently somebody else had this number before me that also had an Apple account and they have that number listed as their number. So any any message that goes through an Apple computer or phone goes to them, not me.
Okay that before?
Yes, so okay, are you talking like I? Messages basically are being delivered.
To that oh yeah whatever whatever the message route for the Apple.
Okay.
So I tried calling Apple and they, you know, they have a really funky system.
Yeah.
Well, and when he doesn't even know what to do, Yeah, it's.
Kind of odd.
So first thing I would do is check inside your iPhone settings under messages and when you go in there, where does it say you can send and receive messages from? Does it say anything about it? Does it have two numbers listed or just the one number?
Well, if I check us out, if I go on my my MacBook Air, the messages will come there to right under other messages, but but they'll also go to the person that used to have the number. And I tried talking to the person, you know, I called uh or I just wrote them a message on my Mac and they got it, and I tried to tell them the situation, but it thought it was some kind of weirdo and they hung up.
Have have you gone into the find my app on your phone under devices and see if this person's device is showing up under your account?
Uh? I think I did something like that, and I couldn't find it. It's it just it showed when I call it. When I dial that number on my macair, I can reach them. They'll pick up because it's still listed as their number on their account on their Mac account.
Okay, yeah, because it's it's okay.
So that's you know, that's a total security.
When did you get this phone number?
I've had it like two years and.
This has been going on for two years.
No, I just I just recently, you know, about six months ago. I gotta you know, I went from Android to.
Mac phone and okay, so that's fine, that's what I.
Found out that was happening, okay. You know. And my brother, you know, he's an Apple user, so he was wondering why I wasn't getting my messages, and I'm going, I don't know, you know, okay, and he finally figured it out, you know, and he, you know, he worked for Steve jobs right hand man for like twenty years, and he doesn't know what the problem is.
That's wild. Okay.
Well, a couple of things that I would do to alleviate this situation.
Number.
The first thing I would do is stop using I message because what's happening is I message uses your phone number as a way to route your messages to different devices, and so if it's you know, it's your iPhone, it's
your Mac computer. But also if this person is on your account, and a lot of a lot of times this happens, by the way, with families, what they do is they give their kid a phone and they say, oh, I don't want to get my kid their own iTunes, Apple ID, and so I will just I'll just sign in with mine and next thing you know, the kid is getting all of the parents' I messages on their device. And this actually happens in my house.
Yeah, it's happening on my on my Netflix now too with my mom's account.
Well they'll they'll crack down on that pretty soon. My mom had to get off my Netflix account.
Because I mean it says you could put that you can have three different you know, accounts on one thing, and I have figured out how to not have my own account on there.
You know, well, if they're not charging you for it, don't worry about it.
Okay.
So so Joseph, the thing, there's a couple of places I would look for this because you know, number one, there's an Apple service called de register I Message. So what I would do right now is go to this website. If you search on Google deregister I message, you'll come up to an Apple website. What you do is you type your phone number in that website. Okay, and well, first you can turn off I Message whatever, but you type in your phone number, it will send you a
confirmation code to that phone number. You type that code in, you press submit, and your phone will no longer that number will no longer.
Be associated with I message.
That's the number one thing I would do, Okay, and that will deregister this guy's phone or this person's phone as well. Once you do that, I would wait a couple of days, make sure that all of your messages are only coming to your phone, and they're coming in they should come in green, because they won't be I messages anymore. Once that's happening. After a couple of days,
I would go through your account. I would go on your Apple account and make sure on your find mind that you don't have any devices listed on your account that you don't recognize. And so when you go there, just go to your Apple ID on your phone and it will give you a list of all of your devices, so I can see my iPhone, I can see my MacBook, I can see my iPad. If there's a device on there that you don't recognize, tap that device and it will give you the option to get rid of it.
It'll say remove from account. I would do that. Then once you get all that figured out and you're in a good place, then you can go back and turn on I Message on your iPhone. And by the way, before you deregister, go ahead and turn off I Message on all your devices. That's what I would do, Joseph, and hopefully that should knock this person off of your account and hopefully they can't come back. Eighty eight Rich one O one. We're talking AI and hacking. Coming up
next on rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here talking technology with you at triple eight Rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Let's go to Michael in Waco, Texas. Michael, you're on with Rich.
Hey, good day, Rich Good to talk to you. So are you familiar I would imagine you are with the Samsung Galaxy keyboard setup. Yes, you get the upper case.
Lower case.
Numbers and characters all on one screen.
Yes.
Yeah, so that's the thing one of the things I love about Android. But I and I've tried iPhone yep, and I went back to Galaxy because of that. It might sound petty, but that particular thing is very important to me with when texting and all that. So I'm wondering from you, Rich if you know of how to get that keyboard on an iPhone.
Well, you can change the keyboards on the iPhone, but I will tell you yes, And you know this because you've said you've compared the iPhone versus Android.
It's not the same.
The iPhone lets you swap out the keyboard, but to be quite honest here, I go back to the iPhone keyboard because the experience is not very good. It's fact they try to let you do things on the iPhone that kind of like, you know, into great third party stuff, but sometimes it's not like they just push you back to Apple because you're so frustrated that you're like, never mind.
It's not good, right.
I'm just wondering if you knew a better solution for some for an Android or a Galaxy fan like me to have that experience on the iPhone because all my people at work, they're all.
On iPhone, They're all on I Message.
Even the business is an iPhone based communication with our calendars and business and all that. So just looking for a solution.
Yeah, well, okay, there are keyboards that allow you to do this. And I think we had this question earlier one like an earlier show, and I believe swift key was the keyboard that kind of became the one that people liked for this and swift Have you heard of swift key.
I'm writing it down right now.
I have not.
Okay, So swift key is and I'm actually installed it right now to see if we've got this keyboard here.
So let's see.
We go to swift key and we have to do the layout and let's see settings. Okay, sorry that I'm doing this on the radio live. That's always always makes for great radio. But yes, I added number row and now I'm back to the keyboard and let's see. Let me try typing something. Sure enough, there it is, so the number row. So what you what this is called is the number row, Michael, And that's what you want
to look for in the app. And so it's funny you say this because I'm actually actively testing a lot of Samsungs right now because it just came out with all of their you know, foldables, and I've been logging into a lot of things, and of course with passwords, a lot of them are numbers and letters and a combination, and they do have that number row at the top, and I was thinking about, like, oh, that is kind of handy to have, but.
Very hand swift key will let you do it.
So I'm looking at this right now and I can type rich on Tech twenty twenty twenty three and it's right there. You just have to enable that in the settings, but it's there. So swift key will do it. And let's see.
That does that have the dual key to get to characters as well?
Yes, it does, and it has exactly it's it's pretty much. I mean, this is Microsoft bought this company, and swift key is probably like the top keyboard outside of the you know, the standard you know keyboards that are installed now.
The other one is g board.
Yeah, I've tried that one.
It didn't that one doesn't have it.
It didn't work for me.
Okay, so so I would try swift key.
I think people like that a lot, and that's the one that I try now on iPhone. You know, if you're listening to this and you're wondering how to switch keyboards on iPhone, you can switch keyboards by once you install a couple of keyboards, you'll see a little globe in the lower left hand corner. You can tap that and switch between the keyboards. So if you want to switch to the emoging keyboard or the regular, you know,
iPhone keyboard, you can do that as well. So, but you know, I think swift key's going to do it.
For you, Mike.
If this one works, I wouldn't be switching back, that's for sure.
Really, So what what do you like?
You just the iPhone just makes it easier for you for just getting on board with everyone else.
Well, yeah, for communicating and all that, and especially the calendar thing that we use at work. But I just have enjoyed for years and years the Galaxy and the all in one. I don't have to switch screens to go to capitals or to the numbers or to the characters. It's just I've just been so used to the Galaxy. Switching over was frustrating.
Yeah, I hear you, and it goes both ways. People at our iPhone, they don't want to switch over to Android and Android they come over and they're like, wait a second, this is all this is all too easy.
No, I'm kidding.
My wife thinks I'm a moron, absolutely, and it's just my thing.
Yeah, I get it. It's what you like and people get used to things. So all right, good question. Check it out, Michael, and send me an email. Let me know if it works.
Okay, I will thank you.
All right, thanks, call and then finding me. I appreciate that, all right. Eight eight eight rich one oh one. Look at this solving problems all day long here. I love it when it's that easy. Eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. I've said before, I don't have all the answers, like off the top of my head instantly. Sometimes it's fun to kind of you know, you're just trying to figure this stuff out. And what
I was actually talking to a friend about this. One of the things I love about having this show is that I'm learning so much because I have a certain amount of knowledge and the things that I cover and the stuff that I talk about and the stuff I'm interested in, and then you come to me with a question like that, like Rich, I need a number road at the top of my keyboard. I wouldn't think about that because I don't need it. I don't want that, I don't need I don't have that need for that feature.
Not that I don't want it, but I just don't really think about it. And so when you come to me, I say, oh, that's interesting, and then it all kind of goes, you know, into the help for other folks. Let's see here Verizon raising prices. Verizon is raising prices for several unlimited post just unlimited wireless plans. They call them post paid. That means that you get a bill, but now everyone's on auto pay.
It's kind of.
Confusing because there's prepaid and then there's post paid. But no matter what plan you're on, you're pretty much paying your bill on autopay at this point because if you're not, they're charging you extra. So most people are forced into paying automatically. And the reason I don't like doing that, even though I do it myself too, is because when you have a problem with your bill, what happens. They've already got the money. Now you've got to fight them
to get it back. And so this happened with me. The other day my bill went up. I activated a smart watch for my kid, and it was so such a pain to activate this thing. I figured I should not have to pay whatever it was. I think it was like forty dollars to activate it, which, by the way, it's self service most of the time. But in this case I did have to talk to a customer representative
because nothing worked and it took a while. It took like two hours to activate this thing, And I said, now, why should I have to pay the forty dollars are going to charge me when it took so much time of me, of my time to do this. Anyway, but they already had it on my bill. It was auto pay. It came out of my card. It's like, what am
I gonna do? And by the way, it's not even on my card, it's like out of my checking account because that you have to put your checking account in now to make it, you know, so they don't charge you ten dollars a month anyway. I say all that because starting with the September bill cycle, customers on the go unlimited beyond unlimited, above unlimited, we'll see a price hike of three dollars per month. So if you're on Verizon and you notice your bill's gone up a bit,
there you go. It's up five dollars now. This is an addition to a two dollars monthly price hike various Verizon plans had a couple of months ago. Back in April, AT and T raised prices for its old unlimited Elite plans by two dollars and fifty cents per line per month.
They did that.
Verizon says the rate adjustment is aimed at funding network and service improvements and customer a Oh, by the way, they're encouraged to switch to the new Unlimited Plus or Unlimited Welcome plans. That is really what this is all about. It's all about getting you on new plans because the old plans typically are better. Doesn't cost them anything to keep their system with the old plan in there, but somehow they want you to switch to the new one. The changes do not impact the do more, Play more
and get more plans? Are we still talking phone plans here? Sounds like you're out like a club do more, play more, Get more?
Uh.
Affected customers will be informed about the rate adjustment through email, physical mail, and their next bill. Basically, they just tell you on your bill, like, hey, this bill's going up, and by the way, you've already paid it. So there you go. Daved Busters, do more, play more, get more. That's your Verizon plan, all right. Triple eight rich one on one eight eight eight seven four to two four to one zero one is the website rich on Tech dot tv. Sorry is the phone number. The website is
rich on tech dot tv. You can follow me on social media at rich on tech. Love more of your calls and I'll tell you why the uh the end call button is moving locations on the iPhone.
Ah the humanity. You're listening to rich on Tech.
Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out talking technology with you at Triple eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Gary's and Coasta mesa.
Gary, You're on with Rich.
Hello, Rich, thank you. My questions are regarding prayer copiers. I'm using EPSOM to narrow it down here for various reasons, and I've been using for years older brand name inks, but I discovered that there are remanufacturers inks for about a tenth of their price, and I'm doing a lot of printing, so it's been costing me thousands of dollars
for ink, and I'd like to pay less. And so I'm wondering if there's universal opinions about using the remanufacturing cartridges, and I guess I have some specific questions about what might be problems with them.
Well, I think you know, if you talk to the manufacturers of the printers, they don't want you to use them, and or you know, because they make more money on the ones that are expensive.
Yeah, that's why I'm asking you.
Yeah, and they would probably also tell you that the cartridges are higher quality. They're going to preserve your warranty, your printouts are going to be better, You're not going to damage your printer. But I would say I wouldn't worry about any of that stuff. If have you tried these cartridges?
Oh, yeah, I have. And it may be only coincidental that I did have one color one of the color novels was plugged up after using it, But I don't it may be only coincidental because then I had to replace the printer because of it, because I couldn't make that work right. I still may be able to fix it, so I have it maybe resell or something. But anyway, I tried it on another one and it seemed to work.
It didn't cause a problem until the next question I have is the problem is that it says on the screen when I'm using that, and it didn't at first. I'm a new one, and all of a sudden it started saying, you're not using an original cartridge, and then it wouldn't let us go on ahead, whereas previously on both the new machine and the older one, it would say you're not using an original cartridge? Do you wish
to go ahead? And I'd say yes, and then they'd say nine original cartriges can cause problems or something, but they didn't delineate why, and then it would work. And I did that for you know, maybe half a year now. But now with the new machine it's, uh, it's not letting me go ahead and print anything. So I'm wondering whether updates in the meantime have caused it to to
do that. And they have an update now that that blocks you from using the original ones or something else, or you know anything about that or how to reverse that update. If that's the case.
Well, this has been going on as long as printers have been around and it's a you know, it's d r M. Basically, they want you to use their genuine stuff because they make more money on it. It's uh, you know, it's it's part of their business plan. They want you to use. You know, it's like a it's like a razor blade. You know, you can buy a razor and get a different blade for it and it's going to work, but you know, it may not give you the same cut. So it's the same thing with
these cartridges. And I guess the bottom line and all this is you can look online until your eyes fall out of your head and get different opinions on what people think about this. Right, some people are vehemently opposed to the fact that these cartridges and these printers push their own and they actually have DRM, like you said, the software that blocks other cartridges that are not genuine. And some people believe, like, wait a second, you know
this is my printer. I purchase this, and this is what I want to use, and I want to put this in there. But if you read the terms of service, a lot of times they may have in there that you only can use their cartridges. So I think the bottom line for you gary is that. If it's working for you, then go ahead and use it. You're printing a lot. It's costing you a lot of money. If you feel like the print quality is fine and your printer is performing the way that you want it to,
go ahead. But you've already told me that you already had to replace one of these printers because the nozzle got clogged, and now you have this headache with your printer, saying this is not genuine. And sure, you can search online for the name of your printer and the model number and how to bypass that cartridge protection or they, you know, whatever they call it. Just search for DRM on EPSOM, printer model whatever it is, how to turn that off, and they may have a way to do that.
But again it's how much time do you want to spend on this and how much headache do you want? So do the cost comparison, figure out. If it's working for you, then go ahead use these cartridges. If it's not working for you, go back to the genuine and you know, maybe just buy them in bulk or buy them at a place that you can get you know, a discount on or you know, you buy a certain amount and you get a refund later on, or a you know, coupon for a future reference, whatever. But I
think it really comes down to personal preference. I have an HP printer. I use the HP Inc Subscription because I print a lot for this show.
And do I like it?
No?
Do I think it's kind of ridiculous that I pay thirteen dollars a month because I'm beholden to my printer ink?
Yes? Is it easy? Absolutely?
When my artridge almost runs out, I get a new one in the mail. I don't even have to do anything because it's figuring this out for me. So again, I really think it comes down to personal preference.
Here. Is it illegal to use a cartridge that's remade?
No?
Is it bad?
Probably not. There are entire stores dedicated to refilling printer ink. This stuff is the subject of like court appeals where people are you know, these businesses are saying, hey, we just want to refill cartridges. I mean it's wild. I mean if you bought a car and they said you can only use this kind of oil for it, I think people would say, huh ah, I can use whatever oil I want. So again, like I said, Gary, it just really comes down to what you think and what you feel comfortable doing.
So that's what I would do.
But if you already had to replace that printer head once, you know, maybe find a brand of cartridges that you like that are reputable and they work. Thanks for the call today, appreciate it, uh, Saraphine, Am I saying this right? Saraphine in Studio City, California.
You're on with Rich Absolutely correct.
We spoke about a year or so ago, the artist that I spoke with you about.
Oh yes, I remember absolutely. Hello.
Hi, Okay, I have periodically had to shoot videos for an exhibition, so I need to make a mock up and then shoot the video as though it's the show. I want to know if on my iPhone I can edit the videos like people do in imovies, because I don't want to have to learn another software.
And you already know iMovie.
No, I know the video. I know how to shoot videos, okay, but I just you know, I just found out about eyemovies because I asked someone younger than myself who.
That's usually the way to do it, right.
Yeah, I'm gonna be seventy five. I just you know, I'm I can do photoshop, an illustrator and all that kind of stuffs. Well, I just didn't want to have to spend the time to learn iMovie.
Okay, well, if you want to edit, you're gonna have to learn it. But I'll be honest, it's pretty easy and it depends how you know in depth you want to make these videos. But I have used I've used iMovie, and it's actually my least favorite on the iPhone, So I actually wouldn't necessarily recommend it unless you're just doing something really simple. I think it's actually the most complicated
out of all of them. But if you want something that's free that will do it, I personally would recommend either cap Cut c ap Cut.
It's called cap cut.
It's actually owned by TikTok, which I know might turn some people off, but it is a great free video editor. It works on both iPhone and Android, and it is quite incredible what you can do for free. My other choice after that is called Splice s p L Iice, and that works on both iPhone and Android as well, but it is it's free, but you will have to pay if you want to use the premium feature. So
I check out capcut Seraphine. I think that that's probably gonna be the easiest to use, and again you can ask that same young person for help and they'll probably know how to use it. You're listening to rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology. This is the show where I talk about the tech stuff I think you should know about. It's also the place where I answer your
tech questions. Phone lines are open at eight eight eight Rich one oh one, triple eight seven four to two four one zero one. Coming up this hour, Caleb Dennison, Editor at large at Digital Trends, is going to talk about the best TVs for your money. So if you're confused about led versus Mini, led O, Lead versus everything else, refresh rate all those terms you see on the box.
It's all very confusing. Caleb will break it all down and have his picks for the best TVs to buy, so you don't have to do any more research, just get the TVs. He mentioned he tests these things for a living. Why should you spend your whole day trying to figure this stuff out. We'll have that in a little bit. Also, I was talking about the whole surcharge thing on the bills, and let's see here.
Who who was this?
Fred fred Effects on Twitter tweeted me an article from eater Los Angeles. Reddit users in LA have created a Google sheet listing various restaurants service charges, noting restaurant names, neighborhoods, the surcharge, and more details, including conversations with servers about how they allocate these service fees.
Look at that. So other people are just.
As wild about this as I am, and they ask the servers, hey, does this go to you? And so this list is, oh my gosh, it's got let's see two hundred and thirty six restaurants on it, including a pretzel place. A five percent searcharge will be added to ensure competitive industry compensation for all of our valued full time employees. This one says where it is owners keep credit card tips. I'll put that in the links in
the show notes. The call end button is moving in iOS seventeen and people are all up in arms about it. Apple is relocating the end call button from the bottom center of the phone screen to the bottom right corner. Why are they doing this to accommodate the new contact poster full screen backgrounds during calls? So in iOS seventeen you can pretty much create your own. They call it a contact poster. It's what you look like when you call someone else's iPhone. It's like a picture of you.
You can change the text, change the font, everything, And so because of that, they need to change where the call end button is. The end call button is now mixed in with other in call control buttons like mute and FaceTime, and people are saying, ah, I'm gonna be faced. I mean, people are muting them because I don't know where this phone button went. People are criticizing the change
on social media. It was first introduced in the iOS seventeen beta in June, but I guess people just noticed it more now and it's making the rounds.
Will Apple change it back? We don't know.
I mean, this is the deal with beta software. They take this feedback into consideration, so maybe they will put it in a different place. And so that's why, you know, when you hear this stuff on the news, you always want to just be aware that whenever we're talking about beta software, it's not a done deal until it's released. We're in August. This was released in June and or July. It was like a couple of months ago, and they released the final software in September, so anything can change
until September. Whenever you have beta software, it is not a done deal until they release it publicly, you know, as a final software in iOS seventeen. And even then, Apple can still change things. I mean they still tweak stuff all the time.
Let's go to dan in Uh. Oh gosh, I'm gonna say this wrong.
San Jacinto Dan Nacinco Sand Okay, we'll take your word for it.
How can I help.
It's out by him anyway?
Oh?
Got it? Okay?
I know, I know it's believe it or not. It's older than Hammett. But what can I say? Back in the day you have to go to Santa Season and trade your animals.
Ah, okay. And what's what's it known for nowadays? What is it like a now restaurants or it's kind.
Of like a nut. It's not really known for anything. It's just kind of an attachment to salmon, I mean, ja Hammet.
Okay, all right, what can I help you with? Dan?
Anyway?
I have a a fire TV Cube third generation, the new.
One, okay, and.
I also have the upgraded remote, the.
One that lights up.
Yes, that's cool.
Yeah, I love that feature.
In fact, I wish it was included because you're getting you know, the fire TV Cube is the most premium fire TV device that Amazon makes, and they make you buy another remote.
For what thirty five bucks?
Yep.
But it's a great remote because it lights up, so if you want to light up remote in the dark, it's easier to see the keys. You can also program the keys too. Aren't there two like hot keys you can program?
That's correct, So anyway, that's cool. Yeah, well the other they're kind of abate in the ad. What thing is is that the there's four buttons down below the that you know, the different services.
That that yeah, yep, Prime Video, Netflix.
If you order if you order a new remote, well, I have different ones on it.
Oh, so that you're saying that. So this is called the elect A Voice Remote Pro. That's the one with the back light, and it's got also has a remote finder feature, so don't forget about that. You can actually locate this remote if it gets lost in the seat cushions. You can ask, I believe you just ask Alexa to find your remote, right and it'll ring it.
Yeah, yeah, it'll ring and light up.
Okay, So that's useful.
But you're saying that the Prime Video, Netflix, Disney, and Hulu on this remote are different than the included remote.
Than the remote, Like, I'm noting a problem with it. So I got a replacement remote because I thought maybe it was the remote, and I the it now has the bottomer doesn't have Hulu on it anymore. It now has Prime, Netflix, Direct TV and Peacock Direct TV.
Yep, what is what is that? That's kind of weird.
I'm sure it costs the money.
That is really strange. Okay, well that's interesting. What can I help you with?
Well, my problem is is that I am I'm kind of hard of hearings, so I use wireless headphones to connect to the TV.
So go out?
Do they go crazy?
Sure?
And the headphones that are any headphone that I've tried, and I've tried by the call of them under one hundred and fifty bucks that I've tried. He interferes with the operation of the remote. You can't you can't use your navigation controls. You can't. You know how you push the blue button and give it likes to command, You can't do that. It won't function correctly.
Huh.
When you have these when you have these Bluetooth are they earbuds or are they headphones?
They're over the ear head?
Okay? And what brand are they.
Any?
All different kinds of brands. I've used the white ones, I've used the ad of fires. The first one that I've found that works strap way decent is the Live JBL six sixty. Okay, but they heard on my head.
Yeah, So that's so if it's not one thing, it's another.
Yeah.
So I was curious if you had any ideas of headphones I could buy it weren't four hundred bucks?
Well, I have I have not heard of this issue. With the Fire TV Cube. We use Bluetooth headphones with it and I have not had an issue. I'm going to go back and retest because we use my kid you us as headphones to listen and I haven't heard of any issues.
So that's it's this is the first I'm hearing of this.
So what I would say number one is I would try to just make sure all the software is up to date on the Fire TV Cube, because you know, there could be something that they updated and it just works better.
So that would be the number one thing.
And with the Fire TV Cube sometimes they update the software and automatically and sometimes there is an update available, so just be sure to go into the settings and you know, search around for the software update and just make sure that these software is up to date. So that's the first thing that I would do, and then of course i'd restart the cube just to make sure
that everything is going well. And when it comes to headphones, I mean for an update, for a you know, a recommendation, I would defer to the expert that we typically talked to, Lauren Dragon at Wirecutter. She's got a whole bunch of great picks for headphones. But the problem with headphones is they're very individual. You know, what may fit your ears and feel comfortable may not feel comfortable in someone else's ears.
So it's going to be a bit of a you know, you're just gonna have to try them and see if they work. But her picks, and you want something that's not super duper expensive, but she's got a pick that is the one More Sono Flow best budget headphones for around one hundred dollars. Again it's called the one More Sono Flow. So those might be a good choice if you want noise cancelation. The anchor noise canceling headphones are
pretty highly regarded. The Soundcore they're called, and let's see there that I believe it's Q twenties and those I mean, if you look at the ratings on Amazon.
I've recommended these to a few people.
Those are forty five bucks and they have sixty six thousand ratings four and a half stars, and they're on sale right now for forty five bucks. Now, the good news is if you buy these and they don't fit, you don't like them, you can return them. But the interference, if you're getting that with a lot of different headphones. It's odd because you would think that this would be a known issue with the fire Cube, and this is
the first I'm hearing of it. So again, update the software check out, you know, just make sure that's all working and then maybe just try one of these pair of headphones and see if they're going to be better than what you've got. But that's the first I'm hearing of these issues. So Dan, thanks so much for calling in today. Appreciate it, and hopefully you get those things working again.
Let me know on the website. Rich on tech Dot TV.
Eighty eight rich one on one eight eight eight seven, four to two, four to one zero one. This is rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich On Tech. Rich DeMuro here talking technology at triple eight rich one on one eight eight eight seven four to two, four to one zero one. Well, California has solidified itself as the epicenter of self driving cars. Way Mo and GM Cruise are now allowed to offer paid autonomous vehicle services in San Francisco twenty four to seven, basically robotaxi services twenty
four to seven. So this means that San Francisco is pretty much the center of the autonomous car industry. Now, as you might expect, not everyone was happy about this. There was a pretty contentious vote before they approved it. But now if you go to San Francisco, you can hail a Waimo or a Cruise just as you can and Uber with a human driving, except these cars have no drivers. They've got about five hundred of them on
the street. Waimo is allowed to drive it up to sixty five miles an hour, Cruise is limited to thirty five miles an hour in some weather conditions. As you might imagine, people are not happy. Some people are worried about these cars just stopping the middle of the streeting obstructing emergency vehicles. Other people that support this say, hey, this is jobs, this is a positive ECONO impact. There's also another article about people summoning these cars and how
do we say this nicely? Doing things in the back seat because there's no one in the front seat. So that's interesting. That was an article today. Boo, are you saying you think that's a good thing. I don't want to be in that seat after these people. This was an article in the San Francisco Standard. I haven't heard of the San Francisco Standard until I read this article, but now I know all about it. And it didn't go into, you know, specific details, but let's just say, yeah,
that's an interesting thing. I wouldn't have thought of, but now I know, and I can't get out of my head. Speaking of electric cars, GM has unveiled the twenty twenty five Cadillac Escalade IQ. Yeah, twenty twenty five Cadillac Escalate IQ is the first ever all electric full size su from Cadillac. They've got the lyric, but this is like, okay, lyric, hold my beer, I'm the Cadillac Escalate. I mean four
hundred and fifty miles on a full charge. It's got this cool fifty five inch diagonal display inside supercrus driver assistance, which basically lets it drive by itself on the freeways or highways. Plus bi directional charging, which means you can charge your house or I guess power your house with this thing. It's built on the Ultium platform, which is what GM is now pushing as their new kind of
battery technology. Seven hundred and fifty horse power. It can go from zero to sixty and less than five seconds. And this is this a big boy, So that's saying a lot seven hundred and eighty five pounds of torque. Let's see what else supports? Eight hundred vault DC fast charging. You can get up to one hundred miles of range in ten minutes. And it's got all the you know, GM technology stuff. Let's see starting price. Here we go, one hundred and thirty grand. All right, lost my interest.
These things are not cheap, but they're beautiful. The last time I drove an escalade the gas version, I mean these things are they're like, they're amazing.
Uh.
The only thing that would keep me from getting this besides the price, there's no car play or Android Auto. According to the Verge, it will use Google's infotainment, which I'm sure is fine, but I'll be honest. So you know, my car doesn't have Android Auto or car Play. And because I you know, my car had the hit and run, it's been in the shop for six weeks. I've had a rental with Android Auto and car Play and it's just so nice, so nice to have.
John is in Alhambra. John, you're on with Rich. I'm doing fantastic. What's up?
Well, I'm calling a new gush that I call her with thee printer. Sure I do that as long as it's not doing any type of facialty printing anything like that.
Since you're looking to the epstin.
Aco tank, which comes with four bottles of me Epsen, has ustimmitted that those bottles of beink for a regular user with the last two years, so he could use that, but the refills for another two years with the bean, which is another four bottles. There's only fifty bucks.
Oh it's pretty.
You also get it at someone like at Costco. They give you the four bottles of ink and then they fill an additional set as a member of four more bottles of beank. So you have four years of bottles for that same price.
Wow, that's what I love about Costco.
And you you know you've got to pay for your membership, but they always give you like a little bit extra, you know, like anything you buy there, you're going to get like a bigger size or like a little something.
So have you used this printer and you like it? You you vouched for it.
Yes, there's not a problem. They were great direction limp and you know Costco beats up all their stuff and like what you said, upo at Costco.
Let me think about it.
It's eighteen cents a day for a person. If you get two cards, it's five hours a month. So how can you go wrong?
Right?
The maybe is going to be.
Worth it all the time.
Yeah, well except for the fact that when I go to Costco, I always spend more than I think.
So I don't know.
Sometime sometimes I've actually exited Costco once with buying one thing, and I was so proud of myself. I posted it on my Instagram because that is no easy feat. John, thanks so much for calling.
There.
You have it, epson Eco Tank. If you want to save money and refill yourself, you're like your own little printer professor, refilling your inc All right, coming up, Caleb Dennison is going to talk best TVs for your money. This is rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here talk in technology with you. And I'm very excited for my next guest. Caleb Dennison is editor at large at Digital Trends and we are going to talk TVs. No it's not Super Bowl. No it's not
Black Friday. It's just the summer. And you know what, I'm getting a lot of questions about TVs. Caleb, welcome to the show.
Hey, thanks for having me. So you were on.
One of the first shows and we were talking right after ces Has anything changed since then?
Well, most of what's changed is that I've had an opportunity to actually get these TVs that we talked about before. I've actually got them in my lab. I've been able to test them and experience them on the long term, and so all the promises and dreams that come along with seeing the fancy, flashy new stuff at CEES has
become sort of more real and tangible. And you know, I've been able to go through these things, poke some holes in them, learn what I like, learn what I don't like, and you know, get a feel for what's really good out there and worth the attention.
And one of these things that we saw at CES.
And I don't expect anyone listening to actually buy this, but I just want to talk about it because it will become, you know, probably commonplace in the future. But this LG signature O led M ninety seven inch wireless TV for thirty grand. You got some hands on time with this thing, huh?
I did I actually have one on its way to me right now? We're very excited about Yes, yes, yes, yes, I'll be one of I'm one of the fortunate few to actually get one from LG for you know, long term testing. I should mention though the ninety seven inch one is perhaps the most exciting because it's so huge, and of course it's got a price tag to match, but there is also an eighty three inch and a seventy seven inch version of this wireless oh led TV,
and so that makes it a little more attainable. I mean, it still costs a pretty penny, but there are some, you know, not gargantuine sizes that are a little bit more. I won't say affordable, but maybe a little more unattainable.
Well compared to the thirty thousand. I mean, I thought this was a typo because it said the eighty three inches eight grand and the seventy seven inches five grand.
Are those prices correct? That is correct?
I mean, so that's like way more reasonable than thirty thousand. Not that I'm gonna been eight thousand on a TV, but five thousand, I think is you know, if you want something that you know clearly this is cutting edge, but this is a TV that uses this a zero connect box that you can put anywhere in your room. You connect everything to that and then it wirelessly transmits the signal to the TV.
Does a signal look good? It looks great.
It is indistinguishable so far as I've seen thus far from you know, having an HBU my cable you know, running into your TV. So yeah, you've got it right. You connect your Xbox or PlayStation, your Blu ray player if you still got one of those cable box whatever, you connect it to this little black box and as long as you've got it within about thirty feet and it's got line of sight, you know, once you start
going around corners or hiding in a closet. That'll knock down the range a little bit, but sure enough, you know, full four K resolution up to one hundred and twenty hertz. It'll do all the stuff the new game consoles can do, and it just be that video signal wirelessly. And the idea there is that, Like, I think there are a lot of folks who are getting more comfortable with installing their own TVs. And everything's finding good as long as you've got a power out let nearby. But then what
do you do with those HDMI cables? Like, how do you get them up to the TV without seeing these cables running up to your TV? That usually requires you know, drilling holes and drywall and running conduit and phishing things through. Not an easy thing for folks to do, which is why most folks hire professionals to do that. That professional service costs a decent chunk of money. So you can either pay a professional to run out your wires for you, or you could go with this wireless O lead TV.
There you go.
All right, let's talk about some of the TVs that are more attainable that people might get. LED versus Mini LED versus O LAD. What's the deal?
There.
What's give me explain those three things?
Okay, Well, OLEAD is is kind of special. It's not exactly new anymore. It's been around for you know, eleven years or so.
Now.
O Lead TVs have pixels that that basically make their own light. And the advantage there is that when you turn them off, they're they're perfectly black, pitch black, and that's what gets you just this amazing contrast, this super deep, luscious, rich looking picture. Also helps the TV be like ridiculously thin, like thinner than your iPhone thin. And you know, the
picture quality is absolutely outstanding. Old has gotten brighter and brighter and brighter over the years, to the point now where you know, the the the advantage of the brightness that we saw from LED and many LED is kind of getting mitigated. The only drawback is that o LEED TVs are pretty pretty expensive. They come down a lot in price, but they're still a little bit a little bit expensive. So OLED TV I generally have the best picture quality that you can get, and so you pay
a little bit of a premium for that. On the other side of the coin, we have LED or mini LED based sets, and these are actually LCD screens like they've always been, but the back light, the lights that they that shine through, the different layers, the color filter and whatnot. In order to get you a picture on the screen. With LED, it's a standard size LED light. But now we have these mini LEDs that are just
like they sound. They're much much smaller LEDs and you can pack them in much tighter clusters and you can get more control over them, and all of that leads to you know, better contrast and higher brightness for L C, D TVs than than standard LED. At least that's the promise. That doesn't always bear out, you know, but it is a good advancement for the technology. And so you really
have two camps. You've got O LED and then you've got LED or Mini LED and the mini LEDs that you know, try to get as close to OLED as they can. That's that's the idea.
Got it?
Okay, give me the quick because I want to get your picks. Give me the quick on the refresh rate, because I think people are tripped up by this. Do you get the sixty? Do you get the one twenty? Now I'm sure there's probably two forty out there. What's the deal with the refresh.
Rate, well, you know, refresh rate.
There's a couple of camps.
So if you're big into playing video games, you know, if you want the best out of your Xbox or your PlayStation, you want the smoothest motion that you can get, then you want a high refresh rate TV one hundred and twenty. We're now seeing TV's push up to one hundred and forty four hurts, even although anything higher than one twenty requires a fancy gaming PC.
To take advantage of.
The latest gen game consoles push up to one hundred and twenty hurts. And not only that, but they can vary the refresh rates so that you know, they update the screen really fast when things are moving quickly on the screen, and then they kind of take their foot off the gas when you know the action's a little bit more docile, if you will. Most folks don't need more than one hundred and twenty hurts. Like I said, PC gamers might take advantage of something higher than that.
I generally tell folks get one hundred and twenty hurts capable TV if you can, just because the advanced motion processing that is built into those TVs makes for a smoother looking picture when you're watching sports, sports in particular, a lot of fast camera pans going on, and a lot of fast action, and one hundred and twenty hurts TV is going to look a little bit cleaner and
a little bit smoother. That doesn't mean that sixty hrtz TVs are poor by comparison, but what we found is that the better looking TVs, they just tend to have one hundred and twenty Hurts refresh rates. Now, okay, so if you're if you're shopping for something nicer, it's probably got one hundred and twenty hurts.
Already got it.
Okay, So let's uh, we got about a minute, so let's get into your pick. What's your top of the line O lead pick?
Uh, it would have to be the lg G three Moon. There's two O leads I love. There's the LGG three O lead and then there's the Sony A ninety five L quantum dot O lead. Brand new technology, brand new TV. Just absolutely over the top awesome. I love it, expensive, but I love it.
Okay, how about under one thousand dollars? I want to get your under one thousand, and then your budget, I guess your middle middle ground, and then your absolute budget.
Okay, so middle ground, I would have to say, either the TCL Q M eight You can get a sixty five inch one of those for under one thousand dollars, or the High Sense U eight K also available in
a sixty five inch for under one thousand dollars. And then when it comes to the budget, you can well, you can either buy a smaller screen size of those TVs I just mentioned, going down to a fifty five will save you some money, or if you want to stick with a sixty five and spend a little less, the same two manufacturers, rich, I'd say, take a look at the TCLQ seven or the High Sense U seven K. Both of those come in around you know, six to seven hundred dollars, and they looked fantastic.
Wow, and brands like Samsung, I mean, I didn't hear any Samsung recommendations.
I know a lot of people buy those. Are those Okay? Yeah, they're great.
You know the thing about you know, Samsung and LG is that you know, you pay a premium for the brand, so you're just spending more money for the same tech than you would with the TCL or the High Sense. They're perfectly fine TVs, but when it comes to bang for your buck, TCL and High Sense are owning the game right now, all.
Right, Caleb Dennison, Editor at Large at Digital Trends, Thanks so much for joining me today. I love hearing your recommendations because there are so many TVs out there, and just hearing what you pick because you test them all, you know, makes it so much easier for folks.
Thanks for joining me today. It's my pleasure.
Rich.
Thank you all right, have a great one. I'll see ces all right.
Coming up the feedback segment, all of your emails and things that you've sent me throughout the week right here on rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich On Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you. Closing out the show with the feedback segment. Bob sent an email saying, Hey, Rich, which app would you recommend to search for charging stations? I currently have a gas vehicle and want to purchase an electric car. I want to use an app to see if there are a sufficient number of charging stations
where I go. Thanks Bob. Bob, I'll tell you the three that I like. The first is called a better route or route however you say a better route planner. This was actually just purchased. Oh gosh, who bought this purchased? I want to say Rivian. Yeah, Rivian bought this app, so you know it's good because Rivian bought it.
So that's the first one I like.
Then you've got charge Point, which you know they run a network of I mean any of the network of chargers, so like Eve, Electrify America, charge Point. Those are good if you're using those. And then the other one I really like is called plug Share, So if you'd search plug share, that's that has a pretty complete look at the different charging stations.
So good question there. Let's see.
Angie says, my charitable group lost it's Facebook administrator with no backup. Now we can't get in and update our site.
What to do?
I emailed back and said, what do you mean lost? And she said she died. Ooh, you got to get too. Now for this case, specifically, you've got to get You've got to get Facebook to help. You probably have to send them a death certificate and move this over to someone else's account. I'm sorry to hear this happened, but if you run a Facebook account as an admin, you've
got like a Facebook page your business or something. It might be a good idea to add someone that you trust to be a secondary admin for situations like this and others. I've had people email me saying, oh, we had an employee quit and they ran the Facebook page. Well, yeah, I got to get in touch with that person because they're the only person that can get that for you.
Travis says, Hey, Rich.
I need an inexpensive program to view Adobe Illustrator files. I can use any OS platform, Thank you very much. You could just use Adobe Acrobat to do this. So you can just download Adobe Acrobat and it will figure it out for you. So, yeah, convert. They have an online converter, Adobe Acrobat Online AI two PDS converter and you just drag and drop the file in there and there you go. Adobe Illustrator will be converted into a PDF. You're not gonna be able to do a lot with that,
but you can at least view it. Let's see here, can you give me some advice. We're sixty nine. My husband has never had a cell phone. He finally decided that he should have one for emergencies. I was thinking of getting him a simple flip phone no internet. I think it's I don't know if it's wiser to buy when you read get minutes with no specific carriers. I know the minutes expire after a certain amount of time.
Any advice we much appreciated. Thanks in advance. I will recommend yes a flip phone, very simple at Walmart, Track Phone, Orbit Journey V bundle fifty bucks gives you a phone plus ninety days of service. It's a simple flip phone. I've got this at my house to test out, and it's great. It's just a flip phone. That's all it is. You dial numbers. I joked that I was going to give this to my kid for his first phone. He
probably would not be happy with that. But check it out track Phone or Journey V, and then all you have to do is refill the minutes. I would buy minutes that last in at least ninety days, because that way you don't have to have them expire too much.
Let's see comments.
John says, I'm driving in my car and listening to your show on Extra one six three here in Atlanta. I heard the guy call in about getting a ransom note on his PC. I agree with your advice about starting the computer backup to see if the issue was still there. However, before doing that, he should disconnect his network cable so that the PC would not be online. Given that he said it was an old computer, I would have to assume he's still has hardwired. First time
I heard your show today and I really liked it. John, Thanks so much for listening in Atlanta, and that is good advice. If you have sort of a ransom situation on your computer ransomware before you restart, it might be best to just unplug it, get your computer up and running, see what's going on, and then plug it back into the internet. Dave says, I noticed you recommended dban to someone. Dban is abandon where it has not been maintained in
many It's full of bugs. It will not even boot on a UEFI only system, which is most of them.
These days.
There is a modern fork called en wipe and a bootable version called shred os. These are both on GitHub and maintained. D band should not be recommended these days. You can research these as well. Love your show, Rich as a longtime LEO listener, Dave, thanks for the feedback on that. I will stop recommending dban. So many people call in with like how to get rid of their hard drives or format their computer. It's tricky for the average person to do that. Even what you mentioned is very,
very tricky. Ruth says, just want to say you do a super job. Thanks for including the personal stories. I listen to your podcast Saturday night when I couldn't sleep. I get a bit irritated when people call in with situations you can't really solve unless you're there. People are too cheap to call a technician, which is the reason I can't really listen to these home repair shows where you have to be there to know what's really going on.
Same with tech.
It's easy to leave out one small but important detail when describing a situation, but you do your best.
Yes, I try.
I know some of these situations are tough to diagnose over the phones.
Let's see. JR says.
I never emailed anyone before, but I just have to thank you for the Twitter x rant really shows the authenticity of your show.
I really enjoy it.
Just a couple of things, Oh, here we go, trim the interviews and about half the time, don't be political, and thanks for being genuine and keeping up the amazing work.
JR.
Thanks for the suggestions. Leani says, I've been listening since Leo left. You ever mentioned Linux as in what os Linux? This saves a lot of PCs from the landfill. I have not mentioned that, but I often mentioned Chrome OS Flex, which I think is a pretty good solution for a lot of people. And let's see, I probably have time for what another one? Steve says, Hey, Rich, you have a regular listener in Singapore. I listened over ALEXA. I'm a US person from LA but I've lived and worked
in Asia for many years. He goes on to say, how the government there laid Oh, this is a great idea. They laid fiber to one hundred percent of households and opened it up to all the phone companies to fight over customers.
That sounds like a good idea. They should do that here in the US.
All right, Thanks Steve for listening all the way over there in Singapore. If I ever go there, I'll bring you up.
All right.
If you can believe it, that's gonna do it. For this episode of the show. You can find links to everything I mentioned on my website. Just go to richontech dot tv. This is show number thirty two. If you're looking in the show notes. I know we're just babies here, We're just growing up here. My name is rich Dimiro. You can find me on social media at rich on tech. Thanks so much for listening. There are so many ways you can spend your time. I do appreciate you spending
it right here with me. Thanks to everyone who makes this show possible. I'll talk to you real soon.