Instagram adds a new way to connect, but its map feature has people worried about privacy. A big new version of chatchybt is here and it's smarter than ever. Hulu is going away kind of sort of plus your tech questions answered. What's going on? I'm Rich dmiro and this is Rich on Tech. This is the show where I talk about the tech stuff I think you should know about. It's also the place where I answer your questions about technology. I believe that tech should be interesting, useful, and fun.
Let's open up those phone lines at triple a 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 an option. Just go to Rich on tech dot tv hit contact. That will send your message straight to my screen. Guests this week Adam Dawd. He is a freelance technology writer. He's always testing something new. He's gonna talk to us about some of the latest gadgets he's been trying out,
including lawnmowers. These robotic lawnmowers everyone seems to be talking about.
And we have the CEO of US Mobile.
This is a great cell phone service he's going to talk about how you can get better coverage and save money. And they've also got this cool feature that can get you two networks at once. Well, welcome to you, Welcome to the show. Thanks for tuning me in. We do so we don't live stream the show on TV or on the internet, but we do record the show and then I've got this show on KTLA called rich on Tech Weekly. It airs on KTLA Plus. So if you're
watching there, thanks for tuning in there. Thanks for tuning in over the radio the podcast, however you watch or listen, I appreciate it. This week, it is the last week of summer in the DeMuro household, which I cannot believe. Summer went very fast. Kids are going back to school, and you know how tough it is over the summer to keep kids entertained. They went to camp, but you know, the default was always screen time. And so I did
something interesting this week. I ordered some kites on Amazon. Yes, kites, the old school thing that you fly, you know, go fly a kite. And I came home from work one day and I said to the kids you know who were on their screens, and said, hey, we're going to fly some kites.
Let's go, And they're like, I don't want to go to as a note, we're going.
So we grabbed some sandwiches. My mom is in town, so we grabbed her. We went to the park and we put together these kites. I had no idea I'd not flown a kite in like, you know, thirty years or something. Put them together and I didn't know what to expect. But all of a sudden, we're putting these kites together, We're getting them in the sky, and it was great. Oh my gosh, we had It's such a good time flying these kites, figuring out how to get
them up into the air. So my advice to you, order some kites, go go fly some kites with your kids. It's it's just such a good reminder that like the simplest things in life are sometimes just so much fun. Like that cost me all of like twenty dollars minus the sandwiches, which costs a little bit more.
But we had a great time.
My kids, who were, you know, complaining about it at the beginning, by the end we're like, let me fly again, let me fly again. So we had a great time doing that. I talked that we got some sandwiches on the way. This was another thing we tried this week, ordering discounted gift cards online. So we were going to this place, you know, the sub sandwich place Jersey Mikes.
I'm sure you've heard of it, and I was like, I wonder if they sell a discounted gift card, you know, because some places never have a discount, and this is one of them. And so I was like, I bet you can buy a gift card online and then use it on the app. And so we found this website.
It was called Let's See Where is It card, cash Card cash Dot, and you go on there, you buy your gift card at a discount, and basically it's other people that have this gift card that don't want it, and they sell it at a discount to this website, and then the website sells it for a little bit more to you. And so I bought like an eighty dollars gift card for like sixty five bucks, and then we used it to order our food, and so we saved like fifteen to twenty percent just by doing something
that took about two seconds. So I thought that was pretty cool. And then I went through all the gift cards that I had laying around the house and I sold them to card Cash, So you know, yes, you get much less than the face value. But this one gift card I literally had sitting in my home for fifteen years. It was a fifty dollars gift card and
so it didn't expire. The value was still there, and I sold it for like, I know, it was twenty seven dollars, which is half, but if I went to the restaurant to use that gift card, it probably would have cost me a couple hundred dollars, right because it was for like a nice restaurant. So I was like, you know what, I'll just take the twenty seven dollars instead of the fifty. And I literally, I've I've had that gift card sitting in my house for so long.
I know it sounds silly to do that, but clearly people do it because there's a lot of gift cards on that website that's card Cash. There's other websites similar to that, like I think Raise is the other one. They might have changed their name to Gift Card Exchange.
So we did that.
The other thing we did this we got new furniture for the kids this week before the new school year. You know, they had these old beds and things, and so typically I would just put their old furniture out by the curb, wait a day and hopefully someone takes it. If not, schedule the trash to pick it up. My kid, my oldest kid, was like, Dad, we got to put these things on offer up. I said, nobody wants to buy these old dressers. He said, yes, they will.
I will do it. I said, all right, you do it, and I'll split the money with you if it works out.
So he took the pictures, he wrote the listings, he put it on offer up using my phone, and I'm not kidding. Within seconds, these messages just start coming in like, hey, is this available?
Is this available? Where are you? Is this available? I was like what?
And you know, they were not expensive, like maybe fifty bucks each, And so finally we got someone. He's like, I will be there at this time and I'll pay the hundred bucks in cash for both of them. It was like all right, you know, like the one is broken this and that. He's like, no, it's fine, I do this all the time. So sure enough, this guy shows up. He's got to pick up truck. He picks up the two dressers and I said, what do you do with these? Do you like refurbish them and resell them?
He goes, no, I just kind of fix them up and we rent them out for homestaging. I was like, brilliant. So again, I mean, we've heard the old adage one man's treasure, one man's trash, another man's treasure. I mean it's so true, and these apps lets you kind of tap into this world that has never been available before. Sure, you could have a garage sale, it takes a lot of effort, but we sold this within like a couple hours, and it really was awesome. I gave my kid half
of it. We ended up selling their old bed as well. And that's like a little bit longer. The person was. They said they'd be there a certain time, they didn't. We ended up waiting till like the night time, and the person finally showed up. But they and then they show up in this tiny car. I'm like, there is no way you're fitting this giant bed in this car.
I don't know how they did it, but they got it all in there and they got and that was another you know, one hundred dollars for that so again, think of these things offer up the main thing you have to think about when you're selling this stuff like Facebook, Marketplace, whatever. You have to be aware of the scam artists. There's a lot of scams out there, so be careful with that.
But you also have to have patience because there are so many messages that you're getting about this stuff that you really have to have patience in answering those questions. So anyway, I thought that was pretty cool. Now the big news of the week Instagram. They've got this new feature that people are just going nuts over because they're worried that Instagram is sharing their location. It's this new maps feature that when you open up Instagram, you can
see where all your friends are on a map. So people are freaking out because they said, hold on, I didn't turn this on, and I see myself on this map. So here's what happened. So Instagram made this feature smartly opt in, which means it is off by default. But here's what happened, and this is why people are freaking out. They saw themselves on the map because they had tagged
one of their posts with a location. And if you do that, even if you turn this feature off or leave it off, you're still going to be showing up on that map. So here are the options for sharing this is this new Instagram maps feature. Okay, number one. The first option is the most generous. It is letting everyone see where you are that you follow, who follows you back, your quote unquote friends, Right, that's the most generous, Like pretty much anyone can see your location if they're
following you that you follow back. Then you've got your close friend list, which this is the list that you might have set up. It's like the starred friends on your stories. When you share a story, you can share it widely or you can share it to just your close friends. That's the second option for sharing your location. The next option is just thesise civic people. Maybe you just want to share with your spouse or your kids
or vice versa. You can make a new list that says, hey, I just want to share my location at all times with these people, and then no one at all is the default, and that's the one that a lot of people are choosing.
Now.
If you choose to share your location, it updates every time you open the Instagram app. And so again people misunderstood this because they all of a sudden saw this map and saw themselves on it and said, wait a second, Instagram opted me in. No, it's because you went to a restaurant and you tag that location and it showed that location on the map. So you got to be aware of these things. I made a post on my Instagram at rich on Tech so that people understand this
and I get it. This is the thing like this feature would be so cool if it worked, Like I would love to share my location at all times with my friends because think about it, I fly all the time. I'm always going to a new city. Let's say I go to Denver, New York City, or wherever I land. I don't know every one of the people that I know that's in that area, but it'd be cool if I landed, I open up Instagram maps and I say, oh, yeah, Jim lives here. Let's let me call up Jim and
let's go grab a drink or go to dinner. You know, that would be super cool. Let's say you go to a baseball game or a concert. You say, I wonder who else I know that's here. You could open up this map and see who else is there, So it'd be really cool in theater where you are at all times, because for them, that's what their world is all about, right, meeting up with friends, making sure they're at the party on Friday night or at dinner, whatever they're doing, they
want to be there. But I think with Instagram it's weird because Instagram is such a blend of public and private. It makes this feature really tricky. So you've got the closed systems like find my or Life three sixty, which you're specifically using for that sort of friend finder feature. Instagram is much more nuanced with so many different privacy settings. So anyway, if you see that setting and you don't want it, you can just keep it turned off.
That's no one at all.
You don't have to go your Facebook or your Instagram settings on your phone. A lot of people are saying you got to go in and revoke Instagram's ability to see your location at all. You could do that if you're really worried, but you don't have to just keep this setting off. And I put a link in directions on how to find that setting on Instagram onmind. Just go to at rich on Tech. You can find it
there all right. Coming up on today's show, I'm going to talk about all kinds of great stuff, including Hulu is changing in a big way.
I'll talk about that, plus your calls.
Eight eight eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two, four to one zero one. Give me a call if you have a question about technology.
My name is Richdmuro.
You are listening to Rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you talking technology at Triple eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.
Uh.
We've got everyone here.
We've got Bobo on the board, We've got Kim on phone owns, We've got you on the line.
We've got emails already coming in.
Uh.
The playlist is from my mom, so direct all comments about the playlist to her Bobo.
What songs do we have coming up on there? Uh? Let me see what else you got on here?
Got some Fleetwood, Fleetwood, Mac, some Bruno, Mars, Aretha Franklin, Okay, yeah, she's she's some some Aerosmith, Okay.
Eclectic eclectic? You were you were? You had a question earlier with the with the offer up, with.
The offer up?
Yeah, did you meet them at your house or did you meet them somewhere else. No, I met them at my house. So did they recognize you?
They didn't.
Well, you never know, yeah, you know what I mean.
But I I you know, I kind of put on the hat with that little mustache and the glasses and I come out and I'm like okay, and I talking now. I mean, you never know, like people some you know, that's always the risk. For me like that, that is a very isolated, like because I'm on TV, it's a little bit different, like average person doesn't have to think about that, right, Yeah.
True.
For me, it's a little bit more like weird because yeah, there's always this chance this person comes like, hey, aren't you that guy?
It happened to me, Yeah, oh it did. Yeah.
I went to buy a couple buy a pair of shoes from a guy a couple of years ago, and he kept like he kept looking at me, and then when I said something, he was like I know you And I was like, no, you don't, Like I don't even live in this area. He was like, nah, your voice, you bobo, you work on a radio. I was like, oh, yeah, that's me.
That's how people actually, I would say, the most come up to me is say well they I mean, obviously they know from TV, but it's always the voice. I heard you around the corner and I heard your voice, or I mean, it's just it's all kinds but.
Part of the job, part of the job. But try it.
Jim Jim rode in by the way, for the gift cards, he said this, this website gives all current discounts for every gift card and every site that sells discounted gift cards. It's really convenient and it seems like it's been pretty accurate every time I've used it. It's called card bear doc. And what's really neat about this it's almost like an aggregator site. So it shows you all the different gift cards and where you can get them for the discount.
So like, for instance, it's funny the gift card that I sold is actually on here on the front page, and it gives you all the different places you can buy it with a different discounts. So card cash is
listed GCX, card depot Cardcookiecardcenter, gift cards dot Com. I guess there's a lot of these websites that sell gift cards, but I'm telling you, it only takes a couple of seconds I'm guessing if you do this a lot, there is a chance you could be burned, right, because there is some you know, there could be fraud whatever, so just be careful, you know, maybe try one or two.
But I did it again with DoorDash. After the first time I did it, I was like, I'm kind of liking this because you say five to ten, especially with food, Like if you're trying to buy like a Target gift card or a best Buy Home Depot Walmart, you're not going to get a big discount because those are very very popular places. All the food places are very heavily discounted because there's a lot of there's a lot of extra I guess I don't know cost in there. Like
you know, you're buying a sandwich for ten dollars. It only costs them a dollar to make it, so there's a little bit of extra in there. But let's go to Maryland in Chula Vista, Maryland. You're on with Rich Hi.
Rich.
I have a smart TV. The brand is high Sense. We get our table through at and t u Verse. My favorite channel is Turner Classic Movies comes through just fine on the cable TV. So I also installed on my smart TV the Watch TCM app so that you can also watch excuse me, Turner classic movies through the app. Sure, and it worked just fine, and then all of a sudden one day it quit working. I couldn't figure out why.
What happens is when I click on the little you know icon there on the screen, it shows watch TCM and the music comes on to introduce it, and then all of a sudden, the little white arrow thing starts spinning at the bottom and that's all it does.
Okay, so nothing's happening.
I tried to uninstall it and then reinstall it. I did that twice. Did not work. I tried unplugging the TV, plugging it back in, didn't work. And by the way, all my other apps do work. Did what the only one that has suddenly quit working?
What type of software is this TV running?
Oh?
I'm sorry, rich, I don't know what.
Well, okay, it's a high Sense TV. Is it running Google TV? Is it running Roku TV?
Like?
Yeah, so it's a high Sense running Roku. Okay.
Interesting, I'm looking for the Watch TCM. It says available online iOS phones and tablets, Android phones, Amazon and Apple TV. It doesn't say anything about Roku which is interesting. So that's that's odd in itself, Like it doesn't seem like this app is available, but maybe they just haven't updated their website. What I think happened is, uh, there's probably a bad update to this app. So I think he
did the right things. Uninstall, reinstall, restart the TV. Other than that, I would say, unless you're running some sort of VPN that is or an AD blocker that's messing with it, check for that. It's probably just an app update. You gotta wait for an app update, reinstall the app, make sure your apps are updated.
And hopefully it comes back to life.
Eighty to eight rich one O one 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 eight Rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Uh Kim says, this is the Ocean Spray Cranberry juice song. Remember that the viral video. The guy he was, Uh, I guess his name is my house?
Off of it?
Did he yep me into buying a house off the money he made this?
Wow?
There you go.
He was on a long boarder drinking ocean spray and remember it was like just like a twenty two second video that guy I see here it is on TikTok. Let's let me let me watch this, Yeah, just cruising along. You gotta love social media. I mean it really has launched. I mean I go to all these events. So I've been to like all the tech events for you know, fifteen years now twenty years, and.
It's just amazing.
It used to be when you went to these events, I'll be honest, it was just a lot of like you know, you know, standard tech journalists, let's put it that way, from over the years, like maybe a little bit older folks, you know, from the big newspapers and
you know, and it just was very different. And now you go, and what I love about all these tech companies, Google, Samsung, Apple, they pluck these people that are, you know, the TikTokers of the world, the Instagram folks that do really well, and they bring them to the events or they invite them at least I don't know if they bring them or invite them.
Either way, sometimes it's like a mix.
But it's just so cool because now it is such a diverse group of people.
You've got young, you've got old.
You've got people from all over the world, and really the entree is just if you did something cool with your phone, you can now be a part of this world because you have an audience and you've got followers, and you're you've got a voice, and you share something that's unique, and so it's really cool.
It's not.
I mean literally, when I started, it was the people from you know, the major news networks, the major newspapers, and the major you know, YouTube sites, just literally the biggest people. And now anyone who's got you know, who's kind of taken off online can be invited and be a part of this, and I just think that's so cool. Big new oh eight eight eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. The website for the show rich on tech dot TV.
Everything I mentioned is listed there. Uh let's say we had an email from someone saying, hey, what was that website for the you know where you sold the furniture offer up, It'll be listed on the website rich on tech dot TV.
I do link up everything we talk about.
This week chat GPT got a big new update they call it GPT five, and I was it's so funny how I get excited about this stuff. I literally was sitting there refreshing my screen on my computer all day yesterday waiting for my app to get GBT five.
I mean, what a dork. I mean, it's such a nerd, but.
It's cool, and you know, you see it and you're like, oh, what can this do differently? I mean, I don't know, but it just seems better and so it's faster, it's smarter.
So the big news about.
GBT five is that it's now a unified model, so it now kind of understands what your question is and decides the best way to respond. Now you might be thinking, rich, didn't it always do that? Yes, but now it's thinking, Okay, are you asking a coding question, are you asking a deep reasoning question? Are you adding a quick are you asking a quick question like you know which cities have the most people in the US. You know that's an
easy question. But it can also understand if you're asking something deeper, and it will go into its different modes automatically in the background to figure out the answer. So that's really cool. So it's just basically one one window for everything. Now you don't have to check a lot of boxes and things like that. Coding, it's gotten much better at coding. It's gotten much much better at writing. I use my chat gbt to polish up my newsletter
every week. If you're not subscribed to the free newsletter, definitely get on the list. And I noticed yesterday when I was polishing, it just seemed a lot smarter. And it seemed to kind of stick to my writing a lot better, which I like because I don't want it to change everything. I want it to keep how I write, but just kind of, you know, keep the grammar perfect, you know, make sure that everything's spelled right. So it's just better at doing that. Yesterday I noticed better health responses.
So a lot of people are asking questions about mental health and just in general medical questions and things, so it's better at that. It's more accurate if flags concerns, better adapts to a user's knowledge level. Still not a replacement for a doctor. Do not use chatchybt's your doctor. I mean just even in my house, like my kid came to me, he's like, Dad, what's this thing on
my face? I'm like, it's a scratch. He's like, I asked chatgybt and it said it could be this, this, this, I'm like Tanner, come on, like, dude, relax, it's a scratch. You scratched your face. Less hallucinations, that's the big thing. You have to be concerned. Like these ais will just spit out answers like nobody's business, and you'll think they're right and it's like completely wrong sometimes, so you got to be careful about that. But it says that it's
much better at that at this point. Also, it's less agreeable. So like a lot of times these GPTs will just agree with you, like no matter what you say, it's like yeah, yeah, that's a great idea, it's like, no, it's not. And now it's less agreeable, so that's smart. And they also have different personalities. Now, so when I asked it the question for the first time, it said, do you like this personality? I said, I didn't realize you had different personalities to choose from, But now you
can ask for different personalities. You've got a cynic, a robot, the listener, and the nerd, so I haven't switched to one of these different personalities, but you can do that as well. So again, GPT five, if you're opening up CHATCHIBT and it says, hey, we have a new version. It's available to everyone, even if you're on the free model. And you might be wondering, well, why do I have to pay for CHATCHYBT if I get the free model for free? Well, the difference is how much you use it.
So if you start using this a lot, it will at some point say, okay, you're out of your free answers. If you want to continue with this model that's advanced, you have to pay or we're going to drop you down to the lesser model until you're I guess the usage resets after a certain amount of time twenty four hours or something like that. The other big news this week, Disney Plus is going to integrate Hulu into the Disney Plus app, so the Hulu standalone app is going to
go away. So this is gonna happen where Disney is going to fully merge Hulu into Disney Plus in the next year, so no more separate Hulu app, which already they've integrated the Hulu content, which I think is kind of annoying because it's like, oh, let me watch that show.
Sorry, you got to pay for Hulu. I'm like, oh, why'd you show me that?
So now I guess that's going to get even worse because Hulu is just going to be completely gone as a standalone app, and it's just going to be inside Disney Plus. So the integration, I get it. It makes sense because now it's just one place for everything. And then ESPN, I guess they did a big thing where they are going to launch their first direct to consumer
streaming service on August twenty first. This is going to be twenty nine to ninety nine a month, and it's going to include all of the ESPN networks, ESPN Plus and forty seven thousand live events per year. For the one thing you want to watch, you're gonna go to that app be like, oh let me watch the game. Not gonna be there. It's gonna be on the one service you don't subscribe to. So the bundle deal at
launch this is pretty good. Actually, ESPN Unlimited Plus, Disney Plus and Hulu for twenty nine to ninety nine a month for your first twelve months. That sounds pretty good. I'm guessing that that is the ad the version that includes ads. There's no way they're giving you all that stuff for thirty bucks a month without ads. Maybe I don't know, because I feel like I paid twenty dollars a month for Disney Plus just by itself.
I remember when Disney Plus launched, it was so cheap. It was like six ninety nine a month.
You're like, wait a second, I can get everything that Disney has ever made in its entire lifetime for seven bucks a month? Why would I not subscribe? And all of a sudden, over the years, what's happening. Oh, it's just click click click click click.
More and more and more and more and more.
And by the way, the new stuff to watch was like less less less, less less. And that's the other thing, the old school movies, like you try to go back to these movies that you watched as a kid, which was you know, ratings as a kid, like basically you just didn't watch a rated AR movie, you know, like if you're a kid. I snuck into one rated AR movie once, and I tell my kids this story. I was so scared. It was the scariest experience.
Of my life.
My best friend and I went to a movie theater. We snuck into a RATEDAR movie. I remember the movie. It was called Jacob's Ladder. That's dating me long time ago. We got into this movie and we were not prepared for what we saw. And I don't even know what we saw. All I know is I was so scared. We ran out of that movie theater. I was like, this is what adults do, Like, we just ran out. And to this day I tell my kids that because
they want to watch rated R this and that. I'm like, look, you don't need to watch that right now, like, just there's a time and a place for it. And then my kid the other day in the car is like, Dad, have you watched any NC seventeen movies? I'm like, what, Like, what are you talking about? I don't even know if they make those anymore? Say, oh, yeah they do. I looked it up on Google. They gave me a whole
list of them. I'm like, what this. Oh my gosh, I'm telling you, these kids today are so far advanced. They really really are. And you know, if you don't have those parental controls. By the way, on your internet, you got to uh eighty eight rich one O one eighty eight seven four to two four one zero one. All right, coming up, We've got more of your calls. Plus Google is giving college students free access to AI.
I'll tell you about that.
Plus there is a new streaming service you can subscribe to you for just three dollars a month.
Eighty eight rich.
One O one eighty 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 eight eight eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two.
Four one zero one.
Did you know you can listen to this show as a podcast. If you want to listen to uh segment again, or maybe you missed a show you're out and about. Just search Rich on Tech in your favorite podcast app or audio app and just hit subscribe and you'll get every show. Frank from port Chester, New York writes in Hey Rich, I love your idea about saving a note in Google Keep about a person and then adding relevant
info about them. I'm a sales guy and this is a great way for me to track what's been said at meetings, like noting a client has two kids, hates Italian food but loves German. I'm trying to adopt this system, but I'm struggling with using Gemini to enter notes. It doesn't always do what I want, it'll start researching a topic instead of entering my notes. For example, I'll say something like client is interested in AI, and instead of recording that, it starts reading facts about how AI will
change the world. It also sometimes cuts me off mid sentence and only saves part of what I said. I know I can type or dictate notes directly into Keep, but I loved your idea of integrating Gemini.
Help. What am I doing wrong? Well, thanks for listening in.
New York City there or at port Chester, I'm guessing that's New York area, right, You're right. I think that Gemini is finicky and the system that I described is not perfect, but it is really good when it works. And so the trick that I found is you have to use specific starter phrases like create a note or take a note. So if you say something vague like remember, it might trigger a different AI mode. So that is the main advice that I have if you're trying to
use Gemini with any of Google's apps. So if you go to Gemini dot Google dot com, go into the settings on the left hand side and then tap apps, and it gives you the hints for all of the different apps. So for instance, for Gmail, it says prompt to try find emails by topic. So for instance, I would say to Gemini search my emails for and that will trigger it to look in my emails, versus saying something like I want to email.
Blah blah blah blah blah.
Like you have to use these phrases, and yes, this is going to get better, but right now it is a little bit sort of mechanical. It's kind of like the old days of you had to know what the syntax was to kind of use the voice systems. That's the way I feel it is because think about it, these AI systems are doing two different things. One is saying, oh, let me look into your personal stuff. The second is, oh, let me just kind of go at AI knowledge in general.
So that's my main answer is try to use the keywords at the beginning of your question. So for instance, when I want to do a calendar invite, I'll say create a calendar invite that says take a note that says remind me to do this, and that's when it really triggers those Google apps.
So good question.
Thanks for the email, Frank, appreciate you listening there on wr in New York City. Doreen from Irvine writes, in you reported on how to use a flash drive to back up photos from a phone. Is it possible to use a flash drive to back up contacts or text messages?
I have a Samsung phone.
Yes, it is so for text messages, and you're thankfully you said Samsung, because if you said iPhone, there's no there's no easy way to do this. There is an app called I Amazing, which we'll do it, but I believe you have to pay for that. Apple doesn't really give you an easy way to get your texts as far as I know. But on Samsung, very very easy. You can download an app called SMS Backup and Restore. SMS Backup and Restore. I've used it for many years.
You just download it and next thing you know, you can say export my messages and it will go right into your phone storage, or you can send it to yourself, upload it to the cloud, whatever you want to do. Now, for contacts, it's actually quite easy as well. So if you go into the Contacts app on your Samsung phone, go into Contacts, look in settings, tap settings, and right there you see export Contacts. You can just export your
contacts wherever you want. You can put them into storage, you can put them on a flask drive, whatever you want to do. Now, I also discovered lo and behold. The iPhone actually lets you do this as well. So if you open up the Contacts app on the iPhone, go into your list. So in the upper left hand corner it says lists. It's of course a hidden feature. But if you tap on one of your lists, press and hold, lo and behold, it says export. You tap export and you can export that entire contact list like
of it, nine hundred and eighty contacts. It'll send it wherever you want. You can email yourself that file, you can upload it to the cloud, whatever you want. So again on the iPhone contacts lists, tap a list, press and hold on it, it says export. It's like a secret menu that you would never find if you were just looking. I didn't even know it existed until I looked for it, and now it's there. So great question, Doreen.
Appreciate that. Jay from Los Angeles writes in I use Wirecutter and Consumer Reports for reviews of products I want to buy. Please recommend a few more reliable review sites. Thank you, Jay, Those are great great sites. I often look at Wirecutter, you know, I love Wirecutter. I feel like sometimes their stuff can be hit or miss. So I like to kind of do my own research as well. So obviously I'm always recommending stuff that I like, but I find that Wirecutter is pretty good.
They do a wide span of stuff.
Consumer reports, you know, I think they're really good as well. I think I use them for my washer dryer the other day that I bought, and I will be honest, they're fine. It's not like amazing, but it's fine. The site that I think is really interesting is called Vetted v E T T D vetted dot AI, and so what their idea is is they use AI to help
you find stuff. And what they do is they go through all the different websites that have reviews that are sort of vetted, I mean hence the name, and they will look at all those reviews and aggregate them and put them together and then come up with their recommendation. So, for instance, I just did best espresso machines and Vetted Analysis comes up with the leel It Bianca V three. This machine is best overall for ideal for serious home
buristas three thousand dollars Bobo. You know I'm not spending three grand on a home buriste. Okay, so that's ridiculous. I am not spending that. I love my coffee, no.
Way, I'm not a coffee drinker. But you spend it. I would not spend it. I barely.
I wanted to buy a sixty dollars cake cup machine at Target the other day.
I wouldn't buy that because I'm too cheap.
I was like, I'll try to see if the one I have at work still works.
And it didn't. By the way, you know about of shoes that I sent you either, and that was one hundred and twenty.
No, I'm a cheap skate when I love buying stuff, but I don't buy stuff that I don't need. It takes me a while to buy stuff, like it really really does. Like I'm not I like buying. But it's not like I'm just sitting there, like you sent me those shoes that I've wanted, I'm like, oh, these are cool. I'm not just like that person that just presses By no way, believe me. I've got a brand new peril on right now.
I'm still wearing my crocks.
I need a new pair of crocs I've been wearing for three years on this show, and I won't buy those and I wear them every weekend. Anyway, vetted dot ai is great and chat gybt and Google are really doing a lot of things with reviews on ai, so check those out as well. Eighty eight rich one oh one eighty eight seven four to two four one zero and more rich on Tech after this, welcome back to
rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro 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. Bar brights in on email. Hey Rich love all your tips and ideas. I watch you on KTLA two. I wonder if you've had this question before. I have an iPhone sixteen Pro. I don't use iCloud. It bugs me when they keep asking for money just to back up
my data. I use Google Photos and Google Drive, and I just learned that iTunes is only used for podcasts. I used to use iTunes to back up my phone. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks for your time. Yes, you actually still can use iTunes on Windows to back up your phone to your computer. It's not as straightforward or as apparent as it.
Used to be.
But I just downloaded it to my Windows computer sitting here, and sure enough it's you plug it. So download iTunes to your computer.
Okay.
And by the way, iTunes is not just for podcasts, it's for everything still. It's got music and shows and you know, it's just everything is through the cloud now.
So Apple wants to push the cloud.
They don't think people are plugging their phones into computers anymore because that doesn't get them any money, and so they don't want to promote that.
But you can still do this.
So if you plug in your phone to your computer and unlock your phone, it'll say do you want to trust this device? And you do that, and you will see up at the top where it says music and things like that, underneath the little menu bar there would be a little tiny icon of a smartphone. Tap that icon and you'll now see all the settings for your phone,
just like the old days. And then you'll see somebody that says backups, and so it says automatically backup iCloud, backup the most important data on your phone to iCloud or this computer. You can tap that and it will automatically back up your iPhone a full backup of your iPhone will be stored in this computer. Now, the only thing that gets a little tricky there is if you have a ton of photos on your phone's it might run out of space because you're trying to put all
those photos on your computer. So you said you use Google Photos. What you can do is you can go into Google Photos and there's an option to delete the pictures off your phone. So if you tap press and hold on the Google Photos icon on your smartphone, it'll say free up space. You tap that, it will delete all the pictures off your phone, but keep them in Google Cloud for safekeeping. Of course, you always want to have a secondary backup somewhere else, just in case something
happened to Google Cloud. I don't expect that to happen, but you never know it could. So again, Barb, to answer your question, you can absolutely use iTunes to back up your iPhone to your computer on Windows eleven. Just know that they don't make the icon as visible as it used to be, So when you plug in your phone, just look underneath the little menu bar for that tiny little phone icon and it will.
Bring you up that backup option. Let's go to Mark and Woodland Hills Mark.
You're on with Rich, Well, Rich.
I know you travel quite a bit and you're the tech guy, so I'm gonna see what you can advise us with. I have to get a whole new travel kit. I'm looking at carry on luggage, Hardshell check the luggage. I'm getting contradictory information online and from TSA about smart suitcases because I guess some of them have lycium batteries embedded into them. And I'm just kind of confused at this point. And I was hoping that you could help
me get a fresh start. And I don't plan to do more than you know, three days a three weeks travel day, for instance. And is there anything locally, like a nice outlet that has reasonably priced equipment, you know, for travel?
Yeah, well, good question. I've actually been looking at new luggage myself. I'm currently using Amazon Basics luggage, which I think I purchased for about I should look because this is talk about being cheap. I travel around the world. My suitcase has been to like twenty countries. I don't know so many countries and it's literally Amazon Basics, And I'm looking at my Amazon to see how much I spent on this and.
I'm telling you it's held up. Let's see my luggage.
Okay, I order this in twenty twenty one Amazon Basics Urban Soft Side Spinner, a three piece set.
Okay, let's see how much this cost me? Three pieces?
Okay, of course it's not it's no longer available, but let's see if I can see my order details. So I bought three pieces of luggage I still use, okay, more than I thought. Two hundred and nine dollars for three pieces. That's actually pretty good. I mean, yeah, that's pretty that's pretty cheap.
I think I have a suggestion, Yes this is weird for me, if you literally go to Believe it or not home Depot and look up suitcases like luggage on home Depot. I bought my son a three piece set for ninety bucks.
Oh that he's still using. And it's see this is the.
Thing about luggage, and I'm looking at Amazon Basics now it's actually way cheaper. So the same or similar three piece which looks way better than what I got, is only one hundred and twenty three dollars now, so the price is actually dropped. It drop yeah, And I'll put this link on the thing because I've brought the luggage around the world. It has been perfectly fine. It is great, and there's I mean, it's got the little wheels that spin, it's got the telescoping arm. I mean, it's it's perfect.
And my wife keeps bugging me to get a new luggage. She's like, Ranch, you travel so much, you have to have a nice luggage. I said, why, this luggage works just fine. I even when I landed in Mexico City a couple of weeks ago, it was pouring rain. My luggage was out in the rain for like thirty minutes. It took about an hour to get my luggage. And I'm not kidding. I opened it up.
It was fine.
It was even repelled the rain. So again, why do I need something that's more expensive? So she's been trying to convince me to get something like, you know, this priceier luggage American Tourist or the Away Luggage and Mark. To quickly answer your question about the place that's local, I mean, if you want to go super pricey, obviously to me is fantastic.
You're gonna spend an arm and a leg in there. But if you.
Want there actually is an away luggage store in the Los Angeles area, and Away makes you know. They're kind of this like company that's super hip and cool, and they make really nice luggage that people like. And they've got a store in West Hollywood, so if you want to see that stuff in person, it's on Melrose. That's the stuff that I really like, Like I think Away
makes really nice stuff. There's also another luggage that's called Props Props Props luggage, and this is really cool because it's got the legs built in.
So.
I don't know about you, but I do not unpack when I get to a hotel room. I just use my luggage to live out of. And so I just take that thing out of the closet, that like little luggage stand, that luggage rack, and I put it in the room and then I just put my luggage on top, and I just live out of my suitcase.
As they say. But I know some people like to unpack.
But Props has that little luggage stand built into the suitcase itself. Propsluggage dot Com. I have not tested this, but they pitched me on it a couple of years ago.
I thought it was a cool idea.
I've got some friends that use it. It's let's see, it's probably I'm guessing it's quite expensive. Let's see graphite. Yeah, three hundred and ninety nine dollars for one suitcase, so it's not cheap. The other thing is you mentioned the lithium battery in the suitcase. Why that is my question? Why do you need smart luggage? Why do you need a battery pack in your suitcase? You do not need that.
Battery packs are cheap, they're inexpensive, they're thirty dollars. You want it in your backpack when you're on a plane because you want to be able to charge your stuff. I do not understand this fascination with USB ports and power packs inside the luggage.
We don't need that.
And the thing about the lithium batteries, I am not an expert in this, but i do travel with a lot of gadgets and I've often you know, they always ask you when you check in your luggage do you have any lithium ion batteries in your luggage? And I'm like, oh, I have like a portable bluetooth speaker, I have a
phone in there, I've got a tablet in there. Sometimes I'll travel with stuff in my actual check loveuggage, and from what I've understood, and don't you know, don't quote me on this, like don't pack stuff in your bags without telling the airport. But what I've understood is that those lithium ion batteries are specific to like medical devices. It seems like they are very specific. It's not like
if you bring a Bluetooth speaker in your luggage. I don't think that's what they're talking about, or an air tag or something like that. Like, I don't think they're worried about that. I think they're worried about really big, like very energy dense batteries in your luggage, and so I think that's what they're talking about. But Mark, the short answer is, when you are talking about luggage, I
think that there are so many options out there. I'm not the best person asked because I again, I have Amazon Basics, so I'm not really interested in the top quality luggage, even though I think it'd be nice to have that. I just don't think you need the luggage with all of the tech built into it. So thanks for the call today, I appreciate and hopefully you're going somewhere fun. Google is giving college students free access to its most advanced AI tools. So here's how to get it.
College students eighteen plus can get twelve months free of Google Ai Pro. This includes their highest level of Gemini. It also includes two terabytes of storage, so just that alone is a fantastic deal. That's like a two hundred and forty dollars value for the year. So if your kid's going to college, there is no reason why they shouldn't sign up for this. So go to Gemini dot Google slash students. That's a weird website, Gemini. Let me just go to it. Got Google slash students. It's weird
that it's dot Google. I'm just confirming and absolutely that does work. Gemini dot Google slash students. You can go there and get the free pro plan for a year. You have to claim this by October sixth, but yeah, I mean, if you're a student, I get it. Everyone likes chat GBT. They also have i think sort of educational deal that they've had in the past. I'm not sure if they still offer that, but go for it.
I mean, get this free pro plan just for the two terabytes of storage plus the notebook LM, which is really cool.
So that's that's.
An amazing deal right there, Gemini dot Google slash students. I will link it up on the website rich on Tech dot TV. Uh, do I have time for one more? We heading right to break. Nope, we're heading to break all right, eighty eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Coming up, I'm gonna tell you about this new streaming service for three dollars a month, launched by Roku. And we got Adam Daud on the way. He's gonna talk about robotic lawnmowers.
This is rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology at eight eight eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to.
Two four one zero one.
Let's go to Bonnie in Ohio. Bonnie, you're on with Rich Hi.
Rich.
We have a text three several weeks in Ohio on items like laptop things for kids to go back to school. I'm wondering if you have a laptop under five hundred dollars you would recommend just for basic internet searching email? Uh?
Are you interested in a Chrome book or do you want like a Windows based or a Mac based Windows based Okay, Windows based okay, because the Chromebooks are very inexpensive and so you can get that for a deal. I think when it comes to the Windows based laptops, my favorite is really the Asus the Vvo Book it's called, and I love this because it's such a great laptop for not a very expensive price. So those are the
that's the one that I really like. The problem is you got to find it when it's on sale and you said you have like a you've got like a tax free holiday coming.
Up, Yes, through the fourteenth, I believe.
Okay, So I wonder when they uh do that, you know, do the sale or the sales as good? Because this laptop was on sale for even though what I'm testing, which is the Asus zen Book, which I really like, that one was on sale I think for six ninety nine, which is incredible, Like this thing is brand new, beautiful, So that that brand I like, if you see a sus at the you know, if you're going to Best Buy or wherever you're going to buy it. The other thing is really I think that what it comes down
to is the specs of the computer. So you know, I can give you the top brands that I like. I think Lenovo is great. I think a SUS is great. But I think really what it comes down to is the specs. And so if you're looking for specs, I think you want to make sure that you're getting something that's either it's interesting because they've got these new processors called Snapdragon, which the battery the battery life is really good with those.
So if you're.
Looking for a Snapdragon, I think it's called like the x E Leade or something like that. The battery life is really good on those, but it's not so good for things like super high end processing, like if you're video editing or something like that, it'll work, but it's maybe not as good as like an Intel or an AMD processor. But in general, in general, i'll give you my thoughts for these things. So for the Intel chips or the AMD, you want at least an Intel five
or an AMD five. They've got different levels, but if you go with five or higher, you're gonna be good there. Hard drive, you want a one terabyte hard drive, So one terabyte hard drive is going to give you plenty of room when it comes to RAM. This is the gigabyte number, like four gigs, sixteen gigs, eighteen gigs or sorry, eighteen. It's usually in numbers like four, eight, sixteen, thirty two. I would look for at least sixteen gigs of RAM. I told you about the hard drive for a terabyte.
Now the graphics card, that's the other thing under five hundred dollars. You're probably not gonna find a separate graphics card instead these computers, but you might, and so you'll notice it'll either say integrated graphics or it'll specifically give you the graphics card number. Ideally, you would want a computer that gives you a graphics card number separate, because that means that it's got better graphics processing than one
that's built into the processor. And then with the screen size, you always want to get the biggest screen size you can. Fourteen sixteen inches would be ideal. I had a thirteen inch laptop and it just it was way too tiny. But again, yeah, I'm looking at this. Oh wow, look at this. So they've got best Buy has a list of laptops under five hundred dollars, so you can actually go through. Let me see, I'm going to type in
some of the things I just put in there. I said sixteen gigs of RAM, and the storage and let's see what comes up. So they're coming up with two hps. Those are refurbished. Oh wow, so it might be a little tough. Let me see, you might have to go. Yeah, the sixteen gigs of RAM is really tricky. Interesting, Maybe it's thirty two. Let me try one more thing here, maybe you can get even more O there you go. So it looks like you can get those specs for
under five hundred. A lot of it is the Dell and the HP models, so you know you can find it. It's just a little trickier to get that under five hundred dollars price point. You're gonna watch something that's on sale for sure. But great question, Thanks Bonnie. I know back to school is coming up and it's one of these things. My kid went back to school and they gave him like a Chromebook and it's just like this thing must be like one hundred dollars.
Like it's just it's so bad. It's just like, oh my gosh.
So get the best specs you can with the money that you have to spend, and that is the best advice because it will last you longer. Roku has launched a new streaming service called Howdy. This is a only three dollars a month, ad free It's gonna be on Roku devices at start. That's not a trial price, no ads, no contracts. Got ten thousand hours of entertainment from all the different companies Lionsgate, Warner Brothers, Discovery.
Plus Roku originals.
Designed to complement premium streaming services, not replace them. So it's gonna be available now on Roku devices and rolling out to other devices and platforms soon. Roku, as you know, has a whole bunch of stuff. Now they've got the Roku Channel, which is free and ad supported. Then they got Friendly Tv which they just purchased, which is like a live TV kind of cable TV kind of thing. And now they've got Howdy which I think is a great name the website Howdy dot tv. So streaming for
three dollars a month. I think this is going to have a back catalog of older stuff. But again, it's like, if you like what they're doing with Roku Channel where it's all free, but you kind of want some stuff that's ad free. You just want to watch stuff, this is probably a good option Howdy dot tv. I'll put the links to everything I just mentioned on the website rich on Tech dot TV.
Coming up, Adam Daud.
He's going to talk about robotic lawnmowers and some other things he's been testing on rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you talking technology. Triple eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. The website for the show is rich on tech dot tv.
Uh.
There you can get the show notes to anything we talk about. This is episode one thirty three. Everything is right there.
All right.
Joining me now is Adam Dawd, freelance technology writer. He is always testing something. We're always running into each other at all the events around the world.
Uh.
This guy travels, I think more than anyone I know. Uh, and is always trying something. Adam, Welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me. It's good to be here.
Are you on the road a lot throughout the year or what?
Uh?
So, I'm I'm usually on the plane at least once per month going somewhere or doing something, So yes, I might travel a lot.
Yeah.
And you've got you've got a quite the freelance proliferation of sites that you write for. What's your primary do you have like a primary place you write.
Probably slash Gear is where I do get a lot of my bread and butter. I do a lot of editing behind the scenes at slash Gear, though, so but I write there too, so you'll see my work there.
But most of the work that.
I do there you'll never see, because you know, the good editors, they never know.
What you do.
Yeah, I love that.
So you've been testing a bunch of stuff, robotic lawnmowers. I've been fascinated by because the idea of a spinning, cutting sharp blade on a robot making its way around my lawn with kids and pets and things just sounds curiously interesting.
So what do you make of these things? Which ones did you test?
Okay, so I tested so far, I've tested six of them. The most notable comes from Napimo, which is a sub brand of Segue, which are you know, the little Paul Blart scooters that around. Yes, also did one from Sunseeker. Also did one from Yarbo, which is is a trip by itself. Yeah, Yarbo is is a bit of a trip. So just to uh.
To put aside, one of the one.
Of the the the the popular culture things that you mentioned, is this maning blades. Unlike a traditional lawnmower, a robot lawnmark is basically just a plastic disc with like little razor blades about an inch long that sticks out the end of it. So like it's not the metal bar that traditional so, and it's because it reduces the weight that the motor has to run because these are usually
battery powered. So that's you know, that's one of the things like even if it did run over your foot, which by the way, one of mine has it, it probably won't do a whole ton of damage.
Okay, So it's it's they've they've thought about that that so it's more like almost like one of those weed whackers. Remember it has like that little kind of blade that comes out. I mean, I get that. So it's all it's just plastic. Okay, So it's not as dangerous as you might think.
I mean, it is a metal blade at the end of that plastic disc, right, Yeah, it's like it's like the little blade that you'd find in like a like a like a thing you shave with.
Okay, got it. Okay, So so you charge this thing up, you set up the app. Do you have to tell it where to go or does this find its way around your lawn or what?
Yeah, so some of them will find their way around their lawn by yourself. Other times you have to like draw a boundary and then it'll go in. Like it'll go in and just like figure out the best route to go. Like with all the obstacles and stuff like that, most of them you just you just draw the out
external boundary and it just goes. And the nice thing about these things is you set it and forget it, like once you go through all the initial setup, which by the way, is a lot, But once you go through the initial setup, you just let it go and you say, I want you to mow my lawn, you know, three times a week Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and you have a perpetually short lawn. It doesn't go through the long and then short and then long in the short phases.
It's just perpetually all that one, which is really nice and uh it's it's also a great conversation starter. I have had cars stop back up.
And say, excuse me, what is that?
Yeah, now on that note, what's to keep someone from just stealing this thing?
Is it the same?
You know, like it's there's a few things. First of all, most robot lawnmowers have built in security, like if they get picked up, they'll like go into like a lockdown mode.
Uh.
Second of all, if you can't charge it, you can't use it. So if you're gonna steal the mower, you better steal the base station as well. And also most robot lawnmowers have a third element, which is called an RTK beacon, which.
Is you're getting fancy on me here, I am, I.
Really am, so this RTK beacon. The probably the most robot lawn mower is the stay use GPS there boundary wires are very rarely a thing anymore. But the problem with GPS is the GPS you're using to drive down your street has an accuracy of roughly three to nine feet find when you're driving down Hollywood Boulevard. Not so great when you're trying to stay stay off your neighbor's lawn.
So these robot lawnmowers use an RTK beacon, which is a fixed point on the planet Earth where the GPS satellites will talk to this beacon and say, I say you're here, and the beacons like nope, I am actually here five feet to the north, and then the satellites will be like, oh, I must be a little bit off, So I'm going to tell your lawnmower that everywhere I think it is is actually five feet to the north, and with that you can get down to like centimeter level accuracy.
Wow.
That's used in robot lawnmowers. It's also used in like large construction vehicles like John Deere. Construction vehicles have these RTK beacons that can like their graters will like actually use this beacon to figure out where they are so they can they can push away dirt where they're supposed to and not push away dirt where they're not supposed to.
Okay, it's really wild. It's got the beacon. Which of these three did you like the best? I guess the takeaway is like, which features should we look for in a good robotic lawnmower?
And what's the price point? I feel like these things are expensive too.
They are very expensive, not appropriately enough. The most expensive one that I tested was also my favorite.
But the mowers start at about.
Above a thousand dollars, so roughly one thousand to twelve hundred. Maybe that's for the for the lower end ones. The one I the one I like the most, was like closer to five thousands.
But they have smaller versions.
I can one guy live with me for that price.
The one I have is designed for like golf courses, so like they have smaller ones that are closer to like, you know, fifteen hundred to two hundred to two thousand rathers.
So they are pricey.
However, you know, think about the man hours that you spend pushing this thing back and forth across your lawn.
You know you're in la so you do this year round.
Why don't do anything?
Let's be clear, Oh Kia, I've never mowed a lot in my life. I actually have once when I was a kid and I had the blade so close to the grass. My neighbor had to call my dad and say, never again, because your kid ruined all of my grass. And so that was the one and only time I ever mowed the lawn. Now, my dad, by the way, loves mowing the lawn like he is a lawnmower OFFICIANTO. So he would not want this technology in any way, shape or form, because he likes to be out there.
I think it was his way of being away from the family, you know, like, oh, gotta go mow that lawn again.
See he goes and mows the lawn. I go to London and we just have our different methods.
Yeah, there you go.
But but yeah, so it's it's really cool.
And they are expensive, no doubt about that, but they are coming down in price.
They're actually a lot more popular in Europe than they are here.
Another mowere that I tested up was from Huskvarna and they actually developed the first autonomous lawnmower back in the nineties and this thing used you know, boundary wires and stuff like that. It kind of went across your lawn, kind of like a robot vacuum cleaner inside your house. But but yeah, Husbarn has been this in this for a long time. Navamo, this is actually one of their first that they that they launched, so I was kind of.
Surprised that they did it as well as they did.
So, wait, which one is your favorite, the Navamo the Sunseeker or the Yarbo the.
The Navamo is is my favorite because it was the easiest to set up and it it does the best job.
The Yarbo.
Man that is a study in over engineering because this thing has like tank treads, and it's designed for like real like solid.
And dust use.
But the nice thing about the Arbow is you can put a snowblower attachment on it.
Oh my gosh, I'm not kidding.
And you can put a leaf blower on it. They have a couple of other modules that you can do. But but yeah, so the Arbow is is.
Oh I'd love to see an autonomous snowblower going down the street, like on your sidewalk. Like people would just be like, what the heck is going on at the DeMuro house, although it doesn't really snow where I live. So, okay, we got we got about a minute left. I want to quickly talk about your take on Samsung's foldables. My thesis was that they've gotten to a place where I can actually recommend them this year, but you have to have a reason for wanting it.
What's your thought?
Very similar to this is a remarkable leap forward. I'm using the fold seven as we speak. It's a great leap forward and very much needed. Samsung was doing a little bit of laurel resting up until this year, so now it's caught up with a lot of the competition and actually surpassed a lot of the competition, which is great to see, and uh, it's still a little bit too expensive.
The flip is less impressive.
But they increase the UH screen on it, which is great, the cover screen on it, which is great. And I think the funny part about my opinion foldables is I judge foldables based on how much I can use them when they're folded, not when they're open. And both phones do a really great job in that in that respect.
So yeah, if.
You're in the market for a foldable, if you work with a lot of spreadsheets, spreadsheets are great on this thing then and I'm a data nerd, so I use spreadsheets all the time. But anyway, yeah, if you're if you're into that, then yeah, these are great.
Yeah.
I think this year is like if you have a use case, like you're like, oh, yeah, I wanted a bigger screen to watch movies or use spreadsheets or you know, edit photos, whatever, or if you just want to be like on the cutting edge and have something cool that's different than Sure, I couldn't say that in previous years, Like this is the first year. I'm like, yes, this is You'll be completely happy with these, all right, Adam Daud. We're gonna leave it there, dead Technology. That is your
user name on threads, Adam Dowd Dead Technology. There is a story there, but you're gonna have to ask Adam if you want that. He can explain.
This is nothing. It's just it's silly, it's funny. It's silly anyway. Thanks for joining me today.
Adam, Thanks for having me forward to doing it again.
I will see you at the next event. I'm guessing the Pixel event in New York City. Uh eighty to eight rich one on one eight eight eight seven four to two, four to one zero one. More of your calls and emails.
Right after this.
Welcome back to rich on tech rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology the website rich on tech dot TV. The phone number is eight eight eight rich one on one eight eight eight seven four.
To two, four one zero one.
Real quick, I had a quick, just a hot tip when you're trying to or organize your email.
I was just, you know, I get an email.
I just got an email from like Domino's Pizza, Okay, And what I do when I get an email like that and it's something that I just don't need, I go through and on Gmail, and this may be different depending on the email program you're using, but you tap the more icon and then it says filter messages like this, and so I can tap that and it will find the email address and just search for all the emails in my account that are from Dominoes, and then I can just take them and just delete them all because
I don't need any emails from Dominoes in my inbox or you know, my archive. So it's just kind of an easy way to clean up your inbox as you go along. So if you get some of these emails and these promotional things, you know, you can just just clear them out as you go along. Let's see here, Sarah says, wonderful show. I always learned something new. Keep your old luggage. A new suitcase always looks expensive whether it is or not, and thieves will steal it for
the anticipated valuable content. Sarah in Las Vegas. That's I never thought about that aspect. So my old dumpy luggage is actually a good thing. Sunday ticket NFL Sunday ticket is here. It's an NFL season and I was wondering can I pay less than the four hundred and eighty dollars they want me to pay for Sunday Ticket, and the answer is yes, you can get it for cheaper. So if you buy this as a recurring customer returning customer, you're gonna pay four hundred and eighty dollars. You can
get it either through YouTube TV or YouTube. So this is the other thing. By the way, you do not need to subscribe to YouTube TV to get Sunday Ticket. I don't know if they make that clear, but you can subscribe by itself on YouTube and when you do that, all you do is go to YouTube to watch the Sunday Ticket games. So just to be very clear, you do not need the base cable service to get YouTube
or to get NFL Sunday Ticket. But there are some caveats to that because basically you're not going to get all the games because the ones that are local or are on a different channel or something or yeah, like Prime TV ins or Prime Amazon, Prime Peacock, you're not going to get those necessarily, So just be aware of that. But here are the deals that I found online. Number one, Verizon, you can get NFL Sunday Ticket for free if you get a.
New line with them, if you add a line.
Existing customers pay two hundred and seventy six dollars, so that's you know, decent savings. There Best Buy two hundred and fifty eight dollars if you do the my best Buy Plus membership, So if you already have that, you can get it or you have to buy that membership which is fifty dollars a year. Students, this is the best deal one hundred and nineteen dollars via YouTube Student plan.
So if you're a student, I think you have to be a college student because I couldn't figure out how to do it for my kid who's in you know, elementary school and high school, so that we couldn't take advantage of military first responders, nurses, teachers, and medical providers. That's a lot of people. One hundred and ninety eight dollars. But you have to get verified through id dot me.
If you're not familiar with it. This is like a platform that has a bunch of discounts on things, but you have to verify your eligibility and usually you only have to do that one time. So if you're already verified, this should be pretty easy. But in the case of my wife, who is a teacher, she basically had to submit like her social Security number, and I was like, uh, not doing that. So I ended up going with the Verizon deal two hundred and seventy six dollars.
That's what I did.
You can also get it if you're a new customer for two eighty through the YouTube you know, the standard YouTube YouTube TV thing. So anyway, yeah, watching football, it turns out is very expensive, something that I did not realize till my kid got into it. Uh, Comcast is moving their email service to Yahoo. So a Comcast is shutting down it's Infinity email platform and it's going to migrate all Comcast dot Net accounts to Yahoo Mail over
the next few months. So yes, Hiler, Hiler, Hiler, things are changing.
Uh.
Now, I think this is probably gonna be better because you know, if you're using some random third party email service, it's probably not that good. So Yahoo has a decent, you know, email platform, which I think is going to be better in general. But I get it, it's going to be a major shift for a lot of people. But everything's going to transfer over all. Your messages, your folders, your contacts, your email addresses are going to stay the same.
So basically the only thing that's going to change is everything where you go to log in and of course the way everything looks. So I guess they started sending out messages on August second to customers, so if you got that, it is legitimate. About thirty days after that, so we're talking September second, you're going to get an email that's going to tell you to log in at connect dot exfinity dot com to accept the new Yahoo terms, and then you have one hundred and twenty days from
that day to complete the migration. If you don't, you might lose your entire account. So again, you've got one hundred and twenty days to do this, but you know you should probably do it earlier than later. Now, if you don't want to switch to Yahoo Mail, you can just export all of your stuff and close your account. You can do that at export dot exfinity dot com. So that is happening. It's going to be a big change.
And finally, before we go to break here, Amazon Autos is now selling used and certified pre owned vehicles just in the LA area. So Amazon Autos basically if you want to look for a used car, you can do that there three year, three day, three hundred mile return policy, thirty day, one thousand mile limited warranty, no hidden fees, transparent pricing. So basically you can buy the car on the website and then you go to your dealer to pick it up. So they're working with local dealers that
list these cars. I guess, so one more option. I think they're going up against the car Maxes of the world and also the Carvanas of the world. Now you can go to Amazon for your use car eight to eight rich one O one eighty eight seven four to two four one zero one. We got more rich on Tech coming your way, more of your calls, more of your emails, and more news stories after this. Welcome back
to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you talking technology at triple eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two, four to one zero one. The website for the show is rich on tech dot tv. There you can find links to anything I talk about. All of the good websites and recommendations and whatever we talk about is all there on the website rich on tech dot tv. You can also email there. Just go to rich on tech dot tv hit contact
up at the top. That'll send your email to my inbox.
Uh.
Coming up this hour, We've got us CEO, Ahmed Kattak. He is going to talk about the services that they offer and how they have this need this need offering where basically you can have two networks on your phone at once, kind of like the old days of Google Fi what they were trying to build there, but you can actually do this with them. And I'm a big fan of their service. So we'll talk to him and here he's building over there. Let's go to Sabrina in Eugene, Oregon.
What's up, Hey, I traveled last weekend and I used the hotspot on my phone to connect to the internet the first evening and the next morning, and then I left to go watch a granddaughter's game, and after that I could not connect to the internet. Figured I just didn't have a good enough signal from a hotspot to work. I got home and it still will not connect. I can see an IP address, it will not connect to Google.
You know.
I can't use the Chrome browser, I can't use the Fi, I can't use Firefox. I pinged a couple things and the ping does not work. Can you think of any settings I might have done to make it not work anymore.
Okay, So where where is this hotspot coming from? Your phone?
My phone?
Okay? Do you have an Android or iPhone?
iPhone fourteen on AT and T okay, iPhone fourteen on AT and T.
So here's my question.
Does if you go to you know, the web on your phone itself, does that work?
It does?
Okay?
So and then but then I got home and my internet provider is Comcast, and it still doesn't work. I have full bars, I can see the Internet, and I can see IP, but none of my browsers and none of my cloud kind of apps nothing works.
Well, what do you mean when you're connected to the hotspot or in general, because the Comcast wouldn't be that doesn't really have anything to do with your hot spot?
No, right, once I got home, I quit using my hotspot and connected like I normally would at home. Yeah, and it still doesn't work.
Oh okay, So it sounds like the device that you're using is not working.
How How I don't I don't. I'm just kind of wondering. No, okay, So, and I guess it could be hardware.
But yeah, well that's.
Because I'm really hyper sensitive on how I take care of my computer because it's my livelihood.
Well, so it sounds like the computer's not working, not the hot spot, because if you're saying you're connecting your computer, it's your home Wi Fi and it's still not working. Right, That has nothing to do with your hotspot. Now now we're talking, it's just a computer that's not working.
Oh no, I agree with that, and so I just can you think of any setting or something I may have done on the computer so that it wouldn't connect.
The only thing I can think of is, well, a couple of things. I mean, obviously you've tried restarting the computer and all that good.
Stuff multiple times.
Yeah, all right, So the only thing I can think of is that it's trying to connect to the hotspot and it's not getting a good signal from there, and that's causing the issues.
Does does anything work on this computer?
To see all my options? And I can clearly click on you know, my two point four, my five from my home Wi Fi and it still doesn't work.
And it still doesn't work.
Okay, So so it sounds like this computer there's something going on with it. Have you tried hardwiring it to your modem to see if it works.
That way, I have hardwired in it does not work.
Doesn't work that way either, Nope. Okay, Well what kind of computer is.
This Mac fourteen pro?
Okay? So it's a Mac. Okay.
So what I would do is if you go into your network settings on your Mac, you can you can go in and delete the different services like the Ethernet service. I don't think you could delete the WiFi Fi service, let me say, and that could help you know and when you when you reconnect it.
Oh.
The only other thing is you can look inside and this gets a little bit kind of techy, but you can look inside the Wi Fi kind of settings and proxies do you have. Are you running any sort of VPN or anything?
I do have Decender VPN, but I've since to say that I deleted it. I'm installed it to see if that made any difference, and it didn't.
Interesting okay.
And if you tried a different web browser on this computer, yeah, I.
Did, Firefox, Chrome and Safari.
All right, Sabrina, I think it sounds like it's time to take this computer into the Apple Store and get them to do a diagnostic on it and see what's going on. Sounds like you're pretty tech savvy, so it sounds like you've done all of your due diligence on
this thing. You've checked the different networks. And it's interesting though that you came to me thinking that it was the hot spot on your phone, because I was going to say, if if the computer is working on your home Internet, I was going to say, you probably just ran out of your hot spot data allotment on your phone because you were using it so much on the vacation or on the trip. So that doesn't sound like
it's the case, because nothing's working on this computer. So I would take it into the uh the Apple store and have them run a diagnostic. It could be that your it sounds like to me like there's some sort of DNS issue with your like if you were using like a different DNS setting or something like that. That's what it sounds like to me, like it's not getting Let's see, I'm trying to look in here and see what i've got, Like your your your IP address, I
mean you said your IP address was fine. I mean it's just everything you said sounds like you've checked it out and it's just that, Yeah, something something's weird there, So uh, bring it in and see what they say and hopefully they fix it, because that is not good to not be with.
Your computer for sure. Thanks for the call.
Eighty eight rich one oh one eighty eight seven four to two four one zero one. If you use Microsoft Lens, it is shutting down. Microsoft is retiring its popular Lens PDF scanner app for iOS and Android. This according to Bleeping Computer. I guess they found a help note on this on the Microsoft website. So this used to be called Office Lens. Now it's called Microsoft Lens. But it
doesn't matter because it's all going away. So this was actually one of the better free PDF scanners out there, and' I mean clearly it had fifty million downloads on Google Play.
That's a lot. Wow.
Retirement is starting mid September, so if you're using this mid September, you got to think about a new program that you can use to replace this mid September rather mid November. It's going to be removed from the app stores December fifteenth, twenty twenty five. No new scans are possible inside the app, so existing scans will remain viewable in your my scans folder, but you can't do any new ones. And there's no more support. So what do
you do. You can download, Oh my gosh, you're gonna love this, the Microsoft three sixty five Copilot app, and so yeah, they're trying to get you to do more with their with their AI. So I did check this Microsoft Copilot app. I did download it, and if you press a hold on the icon, sure enough, the scan functionality is in there.
It's just as good as it was before. And it's I think that the Microsoft one has pretty good scanning.
So let's see what this does. Yeah, I mean it does. It does everything you need. It copies the text, it cleans things up, you can write on it, you can. Yeah, it's it's really good. So again, if you're using Microsoft Lens formerly Office Lens, you need to transition to a new program called Microsoft three sixty five Copilot App. You can also use the built in scanning functionality that's on the iPhone or the Adobe Scan app which is also cross platform and that's really good. Or you can use
Google Drive. They also let you scan documents as well, so there's a lot of ways to scan documents.
Now.
It's pretty easy at this point, but the Microsoft one was a good one.
Let's see here.
Nick from Alpine writes in Hey, Rich, I listened to your show and you mentioned that Google Photos has a storage saver setting that compresses your photos. Does Gmail have a similar setting. I'm nearing my limit. There's no compression option that I know of in Gmail. But they do have a feature called Google Storage Manager. And if you go to one dot Google dot com, you go there, you tap storage okay, and then you go scroll down.
Let's see where is this.
Get more storage? Cleanup space. Tap cleanup space and you will see it'll tell you how full your storage is. And I'll give you all all of these suggestions for cleaning up your storage. So I can get rid of large photos and videos. I can save nine hundred and forty five gigabytes. I can get rid of large drive files, save one hundred and eighty two gigabytes. I can Okay, here's the wild one. I can delete emails with large attachments.
I can get rid of seven gigabytes in my Gmail right now, and then you can tap it says clean up by service. You can go in and get even more specific with all the giant attachments and things, so you can go emails with large attachments, emails and trash spam emails, so you can offer to it'll offer to clean up all of that stuff for you. So emails with large attachments, Gosh, I only have thirty two of those. I've cleaned them all out over the years, so but yeah,
pictures will take that up. But anyway, that's where you.
Want to go.
Nick one dot Google dot com.
Check out those clean up your storage options and you can get rid of all of that stuff. Good question eighty eight rich one oh one eighty eight seven four to two, four to one zero one. On the website rich on Tech dot TV. Follow me on social media at rich on Tech. Free newsletter, go to the website hit sign up. It's all right there, got a great new issue today, more.
Of your emails and calls.
Plus I'll tell you why AT and T is paying out one hundred and seventy seven million dollars in a data breach settlement. Coming up next, Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology. Eighty to eight rich one oh one eighty eight seven four to two, four one zero one.
My mom is doing.
The playlist today, Paulette wrote, wrote in on my Instagram at rich on Tech, your Mom's playlist is killing it again. I think you need to make her your permanent music person, Paulette. That really hurts me and Bobo. We sit here every week and pick out the music for this show and we think we do a nice job, and we never get compliments on our playlist. Never, no one ever comes in, Oh.
My godness, the great I know.
It's like, well, what I mean, what was that song you just played? Good film Florida.
Okay, that's not all that unique. Come on, we would have played that j just because Mom wanted it and we get some love too.
Was that on her list?
That was?
Yeah?
Yeah, okay, so she's I mean no, it's not like she pulled something like some deep sided B track or something.
Anyway, I get you when you go home, hopefully they're not listening.
At and T is paying one hundred and seventy seven million dollars in a data breach settlement.
So you might remember this. This was back in twenty twenty four.
They had two data breaches impacted seventy three million customers in April and one hundred million in July. And there was a lot like one of these was worse than the other, but they had all. This was like the mega mega data breach. I mean we're talking names, addresses, social security numbers, pass codes for the account.
I mean this was bad.
So settlement is twenty eight million for the April breach, one hundred and forty nine million for the July breach. Now, if you were like really affected and you've got like traceable I guess quote fairly traceable losses to the April breach, you can get up to five thousand dollars. The July breach victims can get up to twenty five hundreds. So I think the April must have been the worst one
with the socials. If you do not have direct damages, like someone like myself where my data was breached, it was out there, but there was no traceable, you know, damage to it, you'll get a smaller payment. They haven't said what that payment is, but the claim window is now open until November eighteenth. The court will finally approve this on the December third. Payouts expected early next year. If you didn't get an email about this, you probably will.
They do them in like rolling waves, so you might not have gotten it immediately, but you eventually will. Or you can just go on the website and file yourself preemptive preemptively uh telecom data settlement dot com.
Telecom data settlement dot com.
That's for the AT and T breach to get your uh get your name in there. Yeah, I'll put that link up on the website. Rich on tech dot tv, uh Bob from Los Angeles writes in Hey, Rich, I always shoot video on my Samsung phone in horizontal mode because it feels like I get a fuller frame. But when I go to edit that footage, especially with the Instagram edits app you recommended, I sometimes get weird black bars on the sides. The video looks fine on my phone,
but not so much after importing. Is there a right or wrong way to record video? If I know I'll be editing it later. This is the biggest problem of our time. I mean not really, but it's one of them.
Now.
There was a time, there was a time when I would pooh pooh vertical video, like I would say, you cannot shoot vertical video ever. But here's the problem. We are in a world with two different videotypes. When you're looking at your computer screen, it's horizontal. When you're looking at your TV or a movie, it's horizontal. When you're looking at your phone, it's vertical. And what are people doing. They're flipping through these videos on their phone and it's
all vertical. So this is the bane of all creators' existence because when I'm out on a shoot, my photographer is shooting a horizontal and I'm shooting at vertical because I know I'm going to post my stuff to social He's going to create the other piece for TV. So what I would recommend, Bob, if you want the best of both worlds, go into your camera app and turn
on the grid. In your settings, there's an option for a grid, and when you're shooting, keep your subject in the middle of that grid between the two lines, and that way you've got horizontal covered and you've got the vertical covered. If you ever edit it, that's the reality of it is that you either shoot it one way that works for both, or you shoot it one way or the other way. Now, with respect to edits, there is a way to get rid of things and get rid of those black bars on the sides or the
top or the bottom. So when you're in your video, you have to tap the video and you'll see something where it says crop and you can crop your video, expand it. You can usually pinch it, just use your fingers to pinch it, or you can snap it to like nine by sixteen is the standard kind of up and down video. Half video, half half square video, sixteen by nine and you could do all these different things. But that's called the aspect ratio. But you're not alone, Bob. This is this is a major issue.
They used to have.
They used to have apps that you can use on the iPhone that even if you were shooting horizontal, it was still shoot vertical. I mean, it's a whole thing or vertical whatever. So confusing now, but yeah, basically, know where you're putting the video. If you're gonna watch it on your TV, shoot it horizontal. If you're gonna edit it for Instagram reels, shoot it vertically. That's the bottom line. Eight A eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one rich on
tech dot TV. If you're not watching my TV segments, you can do it there.
You know.
I've got a whole bunch of TV segments I do every week for KTLA in Los Angeles and our partner stations across the US. This week I talked about the Samsung Z Fold seven and the z Flip seven. I've got my review there. I visited the Tesla Diner in Hollywood. I've got my video of that, and I've got my preview of iOS twenty six Liquid Glass.
It's all on the website. Rich on Tech dot TV.
All right, coming up, we're gonna talk to the CEO of US Mobile right here on rich on Tech.
Welcome back to rich on Tech.
Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology the website rich on tech dot tv. If you need a link to anything I mentioned. HBO is going to crack down on password sharing. HBO Max says it's about to get aggressive with users who share their accounts. So here's
what we can expect. According to droid Life, they will Warner Brothers Discovery will roll out tougher messaging to suspected account sharers in September, so if you're sharing your account, you might see like, hey, you should really get your own account. Some messaging will require action to keep watching instead of the easily disablable warnings from before. But by the end of the year Titan enforcement, so it's going
to be even worse. The goal the company has spent months analyzing data to identify legitimate versus unauthorized users, which basically means they want to convert shared accounts into paying subscribers. So if you are freeloading on someone's HBO Max, you better start saving your money now because you're going to need your needs your own account by the end of the year.
Let's bring on.
We've got the CEO of of US Mobile, Ahmed Kattek, Thanks so much for joining me today.
Great to be on your show, Rich.
I'm a fanboy for a little bit.
I just got to say I absolutely love what you're doing at US Mobile. I really am impressed, genuinely. I've got two lines with you guys, and it's unbelievable.
Just it's okay. So US Mobile is it's a carrier.
You may not even have heard of, by the way, But what's cool is that you've built the carrier that I want because you've done it in a tech forward way that lets me control everything I need to control from a dashboard without going into a store, without talking to someone, without really doing anything except just doing what I want.
So good job on that.
Thank you, Rich, And for those of you who haven't heard of US Mobile. I promise you you'll all hear us about us you know, in the next year or so.
So what explain what US Mobile is.
So US Mobile is what you call a virtual network operator. But what that means is that we offer cell phone service, but we don't really operate any of our net networks. And we are basically built on top of existing networks, which in the US means all three.
Major networks.
We are the only virtual network operator that's built on top of all three major networks. And and and just just an f I I if you know, if you know, you know when you're using any of you know, whether whether you're using Venmo or any of these tools, remember
that they're also not banks. They're also virtual banks. So this technology, this business model has existed for a very long time in insurance and banking, and now more and more people are obviously learning about it on the on the wireless and telco side.
And the neat thing is that you can choose from whatever network you want to run on you. You've got funny names for them like dark Star and like, uh warp, what are they dark star?
Warp and something else light speed.
The part of it is I grew up watching Star Wars and start directly, and I dreamed of being in a spaceship when I was a young kid. So I think there was a bit of uh, you know that geekness playing into this. But also US Mobile is probably the most public wireless network in a way that we are subredded. Sees tens of millions of views, and I'm there responding to people directly. A lot of these names
are just crowdsourced. We asked our customers what we should name these networks, because contractually we're not allowed to, you know, call these networks with the parent carrier's name, like Team Olverizen or AT and T so, so we had to come up with our own names, and we thought it'd be fun to ask our users what they wanted.
Yeah, and you actually have a feature that lets you this is so I was earlier in a ts that like you kind of did what Google five was trying to do many years ago, which was like unify the networks into like their idea is, you'd have one mega netlik you didn't have to think about what network your phone was using.
It would just choose the best network.
And you've sort of done that now with your plan, you can add a secondary carrier that it'll it'll default to if the first carrier doesn't have as good of a signal. Can you explain that feature?
Absolutely?
Rich, So, you know, we call the US Mobile a super carrier, and the reason we call it is because we're the only network in America that has access to all three networks. And the timing was right.
So the way the Google Fi did it was they.
Had their own you know, they they on a network level try to steer traffic to different networks based on different parameters. And one of the biggest sallegies with that is, you know, the Google file said, we're on t mobile land, we ere on Sprint like tmobile is spind to any of these and they're not going to tell you if they're bad in a specific area. And also, the way latency works in network, because you're bad for that one second might not mean that you're bad for the next
second or the second after that. Having said that, all networks have their strong suits in different cities and areas urban suburban, So we took a different approach towards it. We combined all three networks, but we gave the users the power to switch to any network instantly.
And there's two ways you can do it.
Pretty much every single recent flagship phone in America has two SIM cards in it. But having said that, iPhones started going double SIM cards back in twenty seventeen, so you know, you've almost had seven or eight years, You've had hundreds of millions of phones. iPhones and Samson phones actually have the ability to have two networks on them.
And so that technology is.
Called DSDs which is dual same dual standby, and we are going to get into DSDA later that I can talk about which is dual same dual aggregation, and I'll explain both of them, so it be dual same dual span by. What happens is you can have two networks at the same time. And there's you can either with
a flip of a button switch networks immediately. So with for example, on my iPhone with the US Mobile, I've set my iPhone up here, I double tapped the back of the phone, or I use the action button and the switches it, or you can go into the settings off your phone. You know, this is goes for pretty much all these dual save phones, and you can have
the phone decide. You know, there's a all of you if you you know, you can go into your settings and you'll say allow automatic data switching, right, and then the phone decides based on congestion ratios and vice versa, and and and so so that you know, and so US Mobile kind of was born a few years before that technology became mainstream. What's special about US Mobile is that we've built the whole carrier around. We built the whole experience around the fact that you should be able
to switch. So when you when you get a plan with US Mobile twenty five dollars limited plan or a forty four dollars and limited plan, depending on whether you travel abroad or because both them are limited and uncapped. The forty four dollars aimed plant comes with one multi network lin so you can add a second network. The twenty five dollars one you can spare anywhere between five
to ten dollars. But what that basically means is you will never end up anywhere in America without having cell phone bars unless you're I was in in a moab Utah like last year's and other house November. But even that we are solving, right, I mean, that's where satellite comes in.
Well, I was going to ask about that, because that's you know, and I've been you know, people wonder like why should I go to an MV and O versus an AT and T, a T mobile or a Verizon you know, in the satellite I think is going to be a differentiator. But are you guys going to add that to your to your plans?
Like how where are you with that?
With some With some companies we're talking directly like startlink with others, you know, uh, with others, we're going to get that as a detrit from our carrier having that partnership. So like one of our carriers is parknering with ASD Space Mobile.
So the point is it's going to be part of our It's going to be part of our plans.
Okay, because that's I mean, because people in the future. That's to me, it's like I want a phone that not only supports satellite, but also a plan that does it as well, and I think that's important. And then the other thing is the cellular watches. I know you recently added that feature. Do people even care about that? I mean, I know, like for me, like I run a lot without my phone, so I always like the
cellular But when I talk to people. Most of them are a majority don't have a use case for that because they're not without their phone most of the time.
I think it's a there's a two prong issue. Should you have a cellular watch one hundred percent? Just imagine the peace of mind it gives you, I mean rich, forget the fact that you run without your phone, what if your phone's battery dies. It's been an absolute game changer. So everyone should have cellular connectivity. US Mobile gives it for free with the forty four dollars plan, and then so you can add it as lewis five dollars. Then why doesn't everyone have it? Because carriers make it really
hard to activate it. You had Apple that built a really great technology. I think it's a mixture of Apple and carriers who really couldn't figure out that really great experience. With US Mobile, we really redefine that experience. We're adding a cellular watch is basically two or three clicks. I would say that's the bigger issue. And by the way, Sellar watch has been a huge driver for US Mobile, not in terms of subscribers. Sure, we're adding more subscribers
on Apple Watch, and probably most carriers out there. But that is how now people are learning about us if you look at even our Twitter and how I mean starting with Jack Dorsey who you know, basically found US mobile because he was looking at for a cellular watch than a lot of other people. If you actually go to any GPT in America, CHAGPT, clode Rock, if you ask what the best Apple cellular watch plan is, the number one response will be US Mobile on it. So
I would say it's everyone should have it. It's a great security. And now with all these schools banning phones, Apple, like, I mean, watches are the way to go, but the reality is it's hard to activate it, and that's where you lose most of the customers.
Well, I like US Mobile because you know, I test a lot of phones, and I'm not kidding. I switch my sim my e sim to a different phone pretty much like every week, and that is nearly impossible to do. I've been locked out on like the main carriers. I get where it goes into I call it never never Land, where it leaves my phone and never makes it to the new phone with yours.
It is so easy.
I literally say I need to activate this on a new plan. It sends me a QR code to my email, I scan it and within seconds that line is on a new phone. I know that's only my use case, like not a lot of people need that, but for me that the ease of activation and switching and changing the plan like features is so nice.
Listen, you're not wrong, and I'll tell you why. It's hard because most of these carriers don't own the hardware and the software together. There's a third party company that's built the software for them, and that's what made Tesla great. That's what made some of these other companies great, which is whether you agree with Elon or not, the Tesla is a product works really well because they own that software layer.
And that is what happened with.
You Apple too, same thing. I mean that the phone software in the hardware, we got a run. But in US Mobile dot com is the website. You can go there check it out. What's number one reason why someone should switch from their standard carrier.
I believe you to have service anywhere in America, no one offers that. And then the second reason is we were ranked and we're one on the consumer reports to have the best customer service. And you can reach out to me anytime on reddit on our subreddit. So I would say, you ask for one reason, I gave you three reasons.
You know, in ten seconds, three reasons, three carriers. There you have it.
US Mobile CEO Ahmed Katak, thanks so much for joining me today.
I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Streach.
All right, coming up, we are going to open up the feedbag and read some of the emails, the comments, and the questions that you sent me this week as coming up right here on rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology. We're going to get to the feedbag in just a moment. Good article this week from Consumer Reports which details how to get better sound from your TV if you can't really hear what's happening on the screen.
Not just if you're you know you have hearing loss, but just in general. You know, sometimes you just can't really hear what's happening. So even if the volumes up, dialogue can be tough to follow. This is like a thing on TV. I don't know, as someone's explaining to me why this is nowadays, but there's just so much going on anyway. They say to start with the TV audio settings. Look for dialogue speech, boost voice clarity or
clear voice modes. Turn off night mode if if flat is the dialogue, switch from surround sound to stereo sound, or boost the center channel sound, or use the EQ to lower the base and boost mid high frequencies where voices typically are. They've got sound bars with voice enhancement, which include the Sons Ray and the ARC Samsung Voice Enhancement LG Clear Voice, and then z Vox and then wireless listening. You can connect Bluetooth earphones or earbuds. TV
listeners they've got those. I've seen them at Costco, like those STETHOSAP style headsets like TV ears or Sendheiser, they've got them. And then of course you might be able to connect your hearing aids directly to the TV. So the main bottom line is that if you just want the easiest and most effective way to listen to audio or hear our see audio, just turn on the close captions, which is what we do in our house. And it's not because we can't hear the TV. It's mostly just
because our kids are so loud in the background. We're like, what are they saying? All right, I'll link that up on the website. Rich on tech dot Tv. Time for the feedbag segment. That is your feedback plus the mail bag. These are the emails, the comments, and the questions I get from you. If you'd like to submit yours, go to rich on tech dot tv hit contact. Mike writes in from Bakersfield, I just watched your review on the Samsung Galaxy Fold seven. You gave a good review, but
there's one thing I learned from my Fold five. I've had to change the screen twice in two years. It starts out as a black dot along the crease, then it spreads the AT and T repair shop says it's common. Luckily, my phone protection plan has covered the repairs. I do like the phone and its features, but get cell phone protection because you will need it. Mike, I do believe that Samsung said the screen was more durable this time around, so but good warning. Thanks for the comment on that.
Julia from Los Angeles writes in, Hey, rich rose Bud, you mentioned it before. It's an awesome app for journaling, dream analysis and even thrown out problems that it will solve like a therapist. I still use it every day. I'm never stuck with anything. I've never stuck with anything this consistently when it comes to journaling. It's great at remembering details and learning about you.
Yeah.
Rosebud just celebrated it's one year anniversary. They said they have over one hundred thousand users. We profiled them when they first started, and I'm glad to hear it is working out for you. Karen in Tarzana says I had trouble controlling my Sled smart bulbs with my Alexa recently, something I imagine many of your listeners have experienced. I got an email from Amazon saying the Sengled skill no longer works in Alexa, but I found a workaround that saved me from buying new bulbs.
I have an Echo Show eight.
I put the Show eight into this device discovery mode using a voice command. Then, one by one, I reset each bulb by switching the lamp off and on ten times until the bulb blinked. About a minute later, Alexa discovered the bulb, I renamed it, put it back in its usual spot, and now I can control all my bulbs by voice again, even in Alexa routines. This Sengled app no longer sees the bulbs when I'm okay with that, Thanks for keeping us up to date and all this
tech stuff. I'm a loyal podcast listener and a KTLA viewer. Yeah, you're not the only one that had issues with Single. I look this up. Apparently they were so off and on with their support that Amazon said we're no longer allowing you to be on this Alexa Skills platform. So the company's still in business, but they just weren't living up to their side of things, I guess. So I'm
glad you hear that things are working for you. Incidentally, in the future with thread, which is local control of your smart home stuff, a lot of those issues will not have to go to the cloud, so a lot of these devices will be controlled in your home by your devices in your home. So things should get better in the future. Melody from Carlsbad says, I listened to most of your radio shows on KFI or co Go. I wanted to give you a scam alert. I got an email claiming to be from Triple A saying I
had a thousand points to redeem for roadside equipment. I've been an AAA member for years, so it seemed legit. I called them to verify, and sure enough, it was a scam. I deleted the email before hitting the redeem button. There you go. Okay, so watch out for that. Hey, rich, I really like your show, Warren says from corpus Christy. You provide so much good information. One recommendation on the MacBook answer is to consider Apple refurbished devices combined with
a student discount. Thank you, Warren for looking out for us. That is going to do it for this episode of the show. You can find links to everything I mentioned on the website richon Tech dot TV. You can find me on social media. I am at rich on Tech. I've been hanging out a lot on threads lately. I'm testing that out. But my bread and butter still is Instagram. So if you want to follow me in one place, Instagram is the place to do it. Thank you so
much for listening. There are so many ways you can spend your time. I do appreciate you spending it right here with me. One reminder before I go, please do not text and drive. Whatever it is it can wait. It's not just your safety, it's for the safety of everyone around you as well. Thanks to everyone makes this show possible. Bobo on the board, Kim on Phones, my mom on music. My name is rich Damiro.
I will talk to you real soon