Motorola brings back the Razor, Android finally gets its I message. Disney Plus is here and your tech questions answered. What's going on? I'm Rich Demiro. This is Rich on Tech, the podcast where I talk about the stuff that I think you should know about happening in the tech world. Plus it's the place where I answer the questions that you send me, and believe me, you send them to me. Thanks and welcome to the show, especially if you're listening for the first time. Maybe it found me through Leo
Laporte's show. Let me bring on Megan producer.
Megan, what's up, my.
Trustee sidekick here for loaded with questions.
Today, right, Yeah, We've got a lot of good questions, lots of good questions I've never seen before.
They come in fast and furious, that's for sure. And it's almost a full time job to just answer all these questions, but I do. And you know, if you write me, most of the time you will get a response, as long as you're not crazy, and maybe if you're
crazy you might get one sometimes. So you know, I was out late last night, yeah, because Megan had to do a little extra time this morning to make sure our segment was ready for the air at five am, but I didn't stay out too late, probably like ten o'clock, but still you still have to wake up at like yeah, like three.
Yeah.
So but I was at the for a good reason. I went to the Motorola launch party for the Razor. And so the way it worked is we had Motorola in the studio in the morning and then at night.
You know, like twelve hours later basically.
I mean they came in at eight am, no, nine am, yeah, and the party started at seven pm, so you're talking almost eleven hours later.
Yeah.
I went, you know, to the party, and the party was held in downtown Los Angeles at like you know this new like arts district where a lot of stuff is seemingly to start there. Now it's like growing.
Yeah, it's really cool.
Yeah, and it is really cool.
The place was, I forget, it's called like the Container Yard, and it was you walk so when you got into this party, you walk in through this design that this art designer had made. It was like an installation and it was all these refrigerators filled with ice, but like sculptures of like old Moto Razor phones and like just general Motorola stuff.
It was really odd.
It was almost like a haunted house kind of walking through. So you get through there scared. It was a little apprehensive. We have to wait outline for like outside in line for like half an hour, and everyone's like, why do they have to wait this part?
It's not like an open party.
Yeah, and that was the reason why, because they only let like ten or fifteen people in this little area at once to like look at these art exhibits.
They didn't want it to melt.
Yeah, well it was in refrigerators. And then you go outside and the party was actually outside in the middle of this thing. Diplo was there playing tunes.
Diplow was there.
Yeah, I listened to his songs. I don't really know Diplo.
I know Diplo does a lot of no Diplo.
But he does a lot of like you know, collaborations. Yeah, he's not like his own like you know justin Bieber.
I knew that song. He does a lot of collaps, he.
Does clap, but he's also a DJA. He has his own It.
Was great DJ, great DJ.
But the way they launched this phone is kind of ironic because it was all of a sudden Diplo came on and they introduced him or whatever, and then there's like this whole thing, this garage that opened up to all these smoke and mirrors, and that's what they showed the phones on, which is kind of ironic for a phone. You don't usually want to associate smoke and mirrors with your product. But it worked and it was very impressive.
I will say that the early reaction to this product and we went hands on with it, now a lot of people have seen it, is that it's very cool. They did a great job with the foldable design on the screen, unlike some other phones we've seen out there that just kind of were almost a proof of concept.
But let me go through some.
Of the specs here, so it's a you know, they kept kind of the phone the same way as you remember back when you had it in like two thousand and five or whatever. But now when you open it up, the entire thing is a screen that is a foldable screen. So it's a six point two inch foldable plastic o lead panel. It is running Android nine, which I was a little disappointed at because you would want Android ten.
I think Android just needs to do away with the versions and just focus on like if it has the current software updates, because realistically, the difference between nine and ten for most people is not a big deal, but it's still just it's a way for tech reporters to just be like, oh, this phone is already outdated.
Exactly, They're already a year behind.
Right, But the way that Android works versus iPhone is just not the same.
So let's just.
Drop the version numbers for Android and just focus on does this phone get current software updates?
Because most of what you can.
Accomplish on an Android versus iPhone is done through app updates, not the main software update.
Does that make sense?
That makes sense?
Like you can add like.
Any feature you want basically to an Android phone by just downloading an app, and it'll change kind of how that phone works now certain core features. Maybe you need the new operating system anyway. So the design is really cool. It's got a fingerprint sensor, which is nice. It's got USBC on the bottom. Again, the screen inside is really cool.
There's also a screen on the outside which is two point seven inches, And they said that they made sure they worked on this screen a lot so that it's not going to fail.
And nothing can get behind it.
Like little specks of dust that will take down the entire phone. I will say that the open and closed mechanism is definitely not as simple as the original.
So my wife went me to the party last night.
And by the way, she does a great job with like holding things in her hand, like she was a little hand model.
She was like, oh, shoot a quick video of me.
She wanted to take a video.
For her dad.
No, for her dad, she wanted to send him a video. And so I watched her do this and like she actually did a great job of like showing off the phone whatever. She maybe featured in a future segment. Yeah, so she but she did notice when she picked up she said, wow, this is actually very impressive. But she did notice that it is a little bit tougher to open and close with one hand than the original.
It's heavier and it's just different.
That's a great point, good observation. Yeah, I didn't actually get told it yesterday.
See.
Oh and I told her this too. I said, I actually mentioned you and Luis. I said, it's funny because she didn't touch it either. And I was like, Lynn, get in there, like go touch the phone, like pick it up, feel it. And I said, so many times you go to these tech events where I have my producer and my photographer. We're so busy collecting everything and getting it.
We need to touch it. You actually don't touch the product. Yeah.
My sister asked me about the iPhone when we went to the event. She was like, did you hold it?
And I was like, no, So always remember, like just get in there, like just just you know, grab it.
I feel like I'm working. I can't which give me, give me twenty minutes.
But it happens to me too, like sometimes I will forget. I will go through my motions of what I want to do for air and I'll forget to like actually just kind of play for a little bit and just see how this thing works.
So it's one of those things you just have to remember. And she was like, oh my gosh, you're right.
So did she like it?
She loved it. She thought it was really great.
She said it's gonna be tough to compete with the iPhone, right obviously, but she was very impressed. And I think that's the I haven't read any of the reviews, the early reviews, but it seems like people are impressed with what Motorol has done, and I think that's a good thing. That's cool. It's not a phone for specs. This thing has an older processor. It's not as fast as the flagship's Snapdragon. It also doesn't have the best camera. It's it's just an average camera.
What else.
It's exclusive to Verizon. It's going to be fifteen hundred dollars, so it's super expensive. The one question she asked, which I thought was pretty good, was is it going to come in colors? And right now the party line is that.
It's just black. Whatever color we saw yesterday that black guy.
I have a feeling that coming.
But I think they elluded last night that there's going to be some fun colors and I think that would make a lot of sense. Again, and you can close the phone to end a call, which is really neat. So is this a major win for Motorola. Probably too early to tell, but I do think that they did a nice job with this. They did their homework. Is it the phone for everyone? Probably not. Is it going
to make people switch from iPhone? Probably not? But is it something that when people walk into Verizon and if they do some sort of special on it, maybe get the price down or I also see it as kind of like rich executives that want like a phone that fits in there their soup pocket. Like it's a little
bit more comfortable. It's heavy, but it's it's a nice feel, and so I think it's gonna appeal to those types of people and anyone who wants to make like a statement, like someone who doesn't need the craziest, flashiest phone or even an iPhone, This is going to appeal to.
That's why I already ordered it.
I know you love your iPhone, so I know you're not going to get it. Okay, that's the story with the Motorola Razor.
Okay, let's start the first question of the day from Alexander. He asks, I was wondering what are your thoughts? Oh sorry, I watched your review on AirPods Pro when they were released, and I was wondering, what are your thoughts on them now that you've had you've owned them for a few weeks, are you still using them or is there something you prefer better for Jim slash travel.
Great question, and I like to follow up what's his name again?
Alexander?
Alexander, So, here is the thing about the AirPods. They are great, but you have to be comfortable with two things. And my original review kind of stands. And I've been using them for a while, like I've taken them on four flights now, I have taken them to the gym several times. They actually have fallen out of my ears at the gym. The original air pods have never fallen out of my ears once.
Actually that's not true.
They did once on a treadmill and it almost went into the groove and I had to pull it out. Yeah, it actually did go into the groove. These fell out of my ears a couple times, especially when you get sweaty, they definitely start to want to fall out, and when you're kind of bending over doing a stretch something like that, like on the treadmill. Not really an issue, but I do notice myself pushing them into my ears more so.
My overall recommendation is go with the regular AirPods unless you need the noise canceling and you want to consolidate your packing. When I pack for a flight, I take a big pair of noise canceling headphones and my AirPods. I like the idea of the AirPods pro because it's just one thing, but I will say there's a lot of pressure in your ears no matter what when you have these things in noise canceling mode. That's just the reality.
I know.
Apple says they did all this work on them and try to to make that not happen, and I feel like it is less.
But it's still there, Okay.
So it's one of these things that it's And this is the tough part about earbuds is that how do you really try these things on? I mean, the best you can do is buy them and like return them if they don't work for you. Yeah, I mean they don't let you try them on at the store, Like I don't even think Apple lets you do that. So you can't see how these things are until you take them home. You put them in and you use them for a week or two, and you got to see
what the return pulse he is. Yeah, and it's not bad if your return them, because they're just gonna replace the little tip on them.
They should make like dummies that you can put on in the store. They're just like lasting.
They should still like see the field with the little tips that pop off, so you.
Just you don't know, pay two fifty. Yeah, yeah, I am curious about the return.
Post expensive thing.
I'm sure you can return them, and you know, I mean you can return like a computer to Apple store.
Yeah.
So they might charge your restocking fee.
I don't know, and they might be like hesitant when you try to return them. You know, they're like, oh, okay, you know how to deal with that.
They like give you a little wink, They're like, did you just try this on?
Yeah? Okay, did you yesterday? Yeah?
But hey, you know, I mean it's at the end of the day. I don't think Apple is hurting for cash. So I think you'll be okay if you if you truly get them and you don't like them. I mean, it's they're two hundred and fifty dollars, so return them if you don't like them, go with the regular AirPods.
Yeah.
So we talk about I message all the time, and I message is one of the primary reasons why people love the iPhone. It's not the only reason, but it's definitely one of those contributing factors. And it's funny because our car wash guy here, Manny, you know, I get my car washed all the time, and he texted me this morning, hey, do you need to wash? And I noticed it showed up blue. Yeah, and so I was like, Manny, I'm like, did you get the phone? Did you get
an iPhone? He's like oh, And he explained to me that he used to have an iPhone, but then his daughter would use his tablet the iPad, and all of his I messages would come through. So he turned off I Message and he actually got her a tablet, her own tablet, and so now.
He's back to the I message.
So but it's just one of those conversations that you would never normally have except in iPhone world, you know. Well, anyway, I mentioned this because Google is saying, you know what, carriers, we are sick and tired of waiting for you to make a solution that is equivalent to I Message for Android,
and we're just going to do it ourselves. So now Google is turning on what's called rcs on their Messages app on Android, which means all Android users are now getting their version of I Message as of today.
Wow, which is huge for the Android world. So what does this mean.
This means that you can now send and receive text over Wi Fi or mobile data, which is huge. You can send and receive high resolution photos and videos, so no longer. When you send a video from one Android to another, is it going to come up totally pixelated and weird and tiny and crazy and useless. And people can now see when you've read your messages and when you've received your message again, all like I Message huge,
better group chats. You can name your groups, you can add to remove people from groups, and see if people have seen the latest messages. So this is all rolling out starting today in the United States. If you have the Messages app on your Android, which is sometimes pre installed, but if you don't, if you have a Samsung I don't think it's pre installed. So you go into the Google Play and download Android Messages and yes, this is a ploy to get you to use Google's messaging app,
but it's basically their standard SMS app. But now you have RCS and if you want, you can go into your settings on this app and it says enable chat. They call it chat And it's not working on my phone just yet, but this is a rollout, so it's gonna be by the end of the year.
Everyone's gonna have it. They can't do everything overnight.
I wish they chose like a fun name Chat.
RCS is well it's because that's a standard. So this is a standard that all the carriers are supposedly adhering to worldwide. Okay, so it's not like I Message, you know, they can't call it something fun like Google Message.
So the other thing to know.
About this is now it actually makes the divide between iPhone and Android even bigger. Yep, because Android to Android will be fine, iPhone to iPhone will be fine. Android to iPhone is still going to be a mess because guess what, the iPhone does not support RCS, nor will it anytime soon ever in the history of mankind.
I don't think they ever will. So it's now full on war.
It's a full on But anyway, if you're on Android and you have Android friends, you can finally, like let's say you're a couple and you have Android Android, finally you get to experience life kind of the way iPhone gets to your experience, and which is huge.
It just always makes me think of BBM and I never had a BlackBerry, and I remember all my friends could BEBM each other and I was like, I'm not part of that party.
BBM was I message before I message came along? Totally all right, Megan, what do you got okay?
So this next question is from Lisa, and she's very unhappy with her Galaxy Note ten. She said she always has problems with screen pressure when she's typing. She's had to replace it twice under insurance, so she's done. She says, I mostly used for word processing, accessing drive, no gaming, some videos, very little actual phone calls. I don't like Apple phone. So what would be the best replacement for
my Note eight? In your opinion? How about the Pixel four or is there a phone I'm not familiar with. I'm with rizin Uh.
I would recommend the Pixel four XL or she didn't mention pictures in there at all?
Huh uh huh. So if she's not mentioning.
Photos, because Pixel four XL is great for a couple of reasons. It's got fantastic software, it's a great overall phone. It has okay battery life, it's not the best, but it'll be fine, and it's got a lot of nice little features, and it's kind of pure Google. So it's just overall a very nice device. If you want some think a little bit less expensive, I would check out the one plus seventy.
But I do.
Believe that phone is exclusive to T Mobile in the stores, but I think if you buy it online it can be on mock. She said she's on Verison Eisen. Yeah, so I think you have to go online to buy that phone. And the advantage of the sevent is you're still gonna get great software, You're gonna get a battery that lasts very long, and the camera is just not going to be as good as the Pixel. So if
but she's gonna save a lot of money. That phone I think is five ninety nine versus the Pixel, which I think is like seven ninety nine, but the Pixel is gonna be discounted over Black Friday.
What about the Pixel three?
I would not recommend the Pixel three.
Okay, no, because it's too old at this point, Like pixels don't really have a long I mean they do, but they at this point, Like it's what phone does she have? She is a Galaxy Note ten, which is weird because it seems like she is giving up on that and she that's a brand new phone, so it must.
Be it's confusing. She goes, I'm happy with my Galaxy Note ten, and then she all so calls it her Note eight later on, So.
Maybe it's Okay, So I think it's a No. Eight.
Okay, So I think those are the two phones that I would recommend for her. I think that she'll be happy with either one of them. I prefer the Pixel just for the pictures. But again, she didn't mention pictures like some people when they email me, they say pictures are most important. Yeah, she didn't say that, So that means she's morched in games and all the other little things you can do.
On your phone.
Pictures are not necessarily, like, you know, if pictures are your number one priority, like if I was saying, I want what I want out of a phone. I want the best pictures, the best video, and the best apps and the best video of content creation possibilities. So I think those two phones will be great, So look into those for sure. You know, Megan, this week was a big week.
You are a Disney fan. Yeah, and there are a lot of them out there.
There are so many.
Disney Plus you're a fan launched this week. No, I've never been a Disney like fanatic.
Okay, no, never.
I do appreciate what Disney does. Yeah, I've been to the parks, I have seen the movies. Yeah, but I'm not what you would call a I don't have one of those like ap things in the back of my car.
Oh you know, I'm talking.
About annual pass. Yeah. Yeah, I did not want to put that on my car when.
I have But do you have one? You have one? I do feel like.
From like three years ago, but then they changed the past to be like so much more expensive, so I stopped.
Okay, do they give you that when you Yeah, they do, so that's why people have it, Okay.
Yeah.
So anyway, Disney Plus launched this week in the US, Canada, the Netherlands, and it has about five hundred movies, seventy five hundred episodes of TV shows from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, and more. It's got some new stuff, but mostly the old catalog, and they're gonna they're gonna slowly but surely bring in a lot more new stuff.
You can watch all of the Simpsons. There is For the first time, Star Wars first seven Star Wars movies are available in four K Ultra HD for the first time that they're all available in this format.
That's kind of cool. Who framed Roger Rabbit? Toy?
Story one, two and three are also available in four KHD, so it works on pretty much every device. But I've been getting a lot of emails about this because there are some exceptions.
The notable one is Visio.
There is no Visio, there's no Disney Plus app for Visio TVs. And also people said, oh, well, no big deal, I'll just chrome cast it to my TV because Visio TVs have chrome casts built in. It didn't work, and the reason why is because the version of chrome cast that video is using is not high enough to authenticate for what Disney wants. Oh so that's kind of a bummer. So there is a workaround. You can use airplay, but you have to have an iPhone or an iPad to
do that. So if you had an Android Plus video and you wanted a chrome cast to your TV, wouldn't work.
About a fire TV stick, Well.
Okay, so but that's different. That's not built into your TV. When people buy a smart TV, they get used to kind of using the apps on screen. And this is why I never recommend using the smart of your smart TV now unless you're on a major platform like Roku, right tcls and you're safe most of the time. Sometimes there are some distinctions but most of the time you're okay.
But this is why generally I recommend a third party device like an Apple TV or a Fire TV stick because or a Roku player, because that way you always get the latest and greatest no matter what happens. So sometimes these TVs are not as updated as the separate streaming devices. So anyway, the other thing to know about Disney Plus is you can get it for free if you have a Verizon Unlimited plan. A lot of people have been emailing me about that.
It's pretty simple.
You just go into the Verizon app, you look under your entertainment under add ons, and you add it. And the trick there, it's not like Verizon's just being kind to you and giving this. They are, but the trick is that once you're set up there, next year when it renews, it will be on your Verizon bill and so that's kind of like and Verizon gets recurring subscription.
They get a cut of that.
So the more people that they can get on their plan that also say, oh, I'm not going to cancel Verizon because look at they give me. I get free Apple Music, I get free Disney so I'm not going to cancel. But after the next year when that starts to kick in that six ninety nine, Verizon gets a tiny portion.
And then Apple Music is that.
That's unlimited forever forever. Yeah.
Wow, Verizon really has a bunch.
Of Like well, AT and T does something similar, so does TEA Mobile. Team Mobile gives you Netflix. At and T has Spotify for free. Depends on your plan. It all depends on your plan. Yeah, it's obviously on the higher end plans as well. But anyway, my kids have been is Disney plus for you. My kids have been watching They watched Aladdin the first two nights. I feel like for six ninety nine a month, it really pays for itself. You rent one movie a month on Apple
TV and that's five ninety nine. So yeah, six ninety nine, you're getting the whole back catalog as long as there's enough to keep you interested.
And I think Disney will.
I'm worried because they put that whole catalog out there, like at the beginning. Oh so it's kind of like you get you get kind of like spoiled totally.
But I'm excited. I feel like your kids now can watch like the really classic TV shows of like the two thousands that aren't on Disney Channel anymore, like stuff like that's a raven, like that was what I grew up with, and now like if you don't really I sometimes I've seen Disney Channel now and I'm like, the shows are just now very advanced. Yeah, so it's cool that, you know. I mean, I don't, I don't even know. I mean, it's just it's just different. It's just different.
But it's it's cool. There's a lot out there, and yeah, I mean you can kind of get spoiled.
With it, but I think for families it's gonna be for six ninety nine a month.
It's it's such a no brainer.
I think for adults who are into Star Wars that signed up for Mandalorian and then when that's over, they may find that they're kind of over it because you know, there's only so much there for adults.
But I'm assuming they're going to keep cranking out new series, but it's not really like centered towards you know, an adult crowd.
Well, I think they're trying to do that with the Mandalorian and the Star Wars and the Marvel.
Stuff and the National Geography.
Yeah, which yawner.
For me, it's my favorite Channel next.
I'm sure people love that stuff, so I, you know, yeah, but yeah, we'll see and people some people might wonder if you have cable and you've got Disney Now, which is their companion app for a cable subscription, you can sign in and using your you know, streaming or cable
log in. I did look, and it seems like a lot of the shows like Vamporina and Puppy Dog Pals and all these little shows that are currently on TV, seems like the new episodes are going to the Disney Now app and then kind of like last season and before are going to Disney Plus.
Got it? So it depends how much you Wantflix exactly.
Will your kids notice? Who knows? So?
But the reality is how many of these subscriptions can you sustain? I know that I'm going to cancel my EIGHTE and T TV now, which is now going up to sixty dollars a month.
It started out as thirty five when I first subscribe.
Now it's up to sixty and you know, I just don't use it, and so that's going away.
So what will you have?
Then? You'll all have Netflix?
Okay, Time Now, which is or prime video from Amazon Netflix I'll have Disney Plus. And I am still subscriber to YouTube Premium, which is twelve ninety nine a month, huh, which also gives me YouTube music, but I may drop that as well. I just hate seeing ads on YouTube, so I don't know if that's worth twelve ninety nine a month though or not, because I don't watch that much YouTube.
I just always when I get those ads, I always click, like the like if it's like an age ad, I just always click it and then it's done. Oh you do yeah, Like I just want to.
Yeah, but I feel like they're collecting so much data on you. You know what, I make it up? Oh, if you make it up, yeah, then.
That's yeah, between sixteen and seventy five, like whatever, Okay, okay. This next question comes from Gina. How do you upload Android contacts to a computer for editing?
Uh?
It's funny how many people ask about contacts. And my recommendation is always to keep your contacts in the cloud, whether that's iCloud or you know, Google Cloud. But I've gotten a lot of people when they switch phones, they realize their contacts are stored on the phone itself, and the main thing you want to do is go into your contacts on any platform, whether it's Android or iOS, and make sure that your contacts are being saved, either
iCloud or Google. That's what I recommend. And to find your contacts that she uploaded on an Android phone, generally those go right into Google. So just go to contacts dot Google dot com from a desktop computer and you should see all of your contacts right there. If you don't, they may be stored. If she has a Samsung, did she say what kind of phone?
She just said she is an Android.
Okay, she might have a Samsung, and in some cases they are stored in kind of your Samsung account, so you can also sign in there and see if they're in there. But either way, I would say on like a majority of the Android phones, they're generally stored in some sort of cloud storage. You just need to figure out which cloud storage they're in.
Cool and Apple.
This week in used the elusive sixteen inch MacBook Pro. This computer has been rumored and speculated for so long. I'm glad they finally got it out there, and it's the computer that I want.
I know you were going to get it.
I was going to get it.
I think I didn't remember I was going to get a new computer a while back. Yeah, and I was just going to settle for the fifteen.
Now you have a Christmas present from yourself.
It's going to be tough because I just spent all this money on the iPhone, so I don't think I'm in a position right now to purchase this, but.
You never know, maybe, I mean, okay, ever know.
The spoiler alert is that it starts at twenty four hundred dollars, and of course I want to get more hard drive or more SSD whatever you call them at this point, and that's going to make it even more expensive because I want at least a terrorbyte.
This can go up to eight terabytes of storage the first time or sorry, I think it's six terribytes. Eight terabytes. Yeah, eight terabytes of storage. Wow, that is unheard of for a laptop.
I guess if you're making like movies.
Yeah, you need that.
You need it.
And that's exactly who this is.
Apple says it's for developers, photographers, filmmakers, scientists, music producers, and anyone who relies on a Mac to create their life's best work.
AKA. What I would say is this the creator's device.
This is not the device if you're flying to Omaha and watching Netflix, that's not what this is for.
No, No, this is not for checking email iPad. This is for creating content, and that's really who this is for. Now.
The main thing that they've changed on this is the keyboard. Everyone complained about the keyboard, including myself. My MacBook keyboard MacBook Pro is just terrible. It's there literally.
When I'm doing my emails. It's so bad that I make more mistakes typing than I do.
Love my MacBook Error keyboard oh so much better. When I use it, I'm like, oh, this is your keyboard.
Is a little bit better because you have a newer MacBook Pro. But mine is the one where they didn't improve anything. It's like the first generation of this mechanism and it was terrible. So now they say it's totally redesigned. It's got more travel, which travel means how far the keypresses down. Yeah, and old keyboard now had a ton of travel that travel.
Yeah.
And it's got better speaker system, it's got touch bar, touch ID and the track pad. It also has longer battery life and you can really spec this thing out with oh my gosh, eight terabytes of storage, sixty four gigs of memory. I mean, you can really make this thing awesome.
Yeah.
It also says that the keyboard is quieter, which was a huge deal because when I'm in meetings and stuff, my keyboard is so loud it's almost borderline.
Like sound aggressive when you're typing early, I'm just typing.
Starts at twenty three ninety nine. You can spec it all the way up to I think six thousand dollars. Wow, you might want to get the Apple Care on that one if you do that. Now, that's the good of this computer. Here's the bad. It still has a boring, terrible webcam seven to twenty people.
I mean, come on, yeah, can.
You believe that?
So the iPhone webcam or front facing camera is now four K this thing has.
You're spending all this money, you get a terrible webcam.
It doesn't make any sense to me.
And it also has last year's WiFi, so it doesn't have the new Wi Fi six. It still has the old style Wi Fi, which.
You know, it's like those aren't deal breakers, but it's just like, come on, Apple.
Yeah, Okay. The next question is from Jason. I have Microsoft one Drive and I had some storage that expired. Is there a way to add storage without paying a monthly subscription for it?
I don't think so.
I mean this is I mean, I think it used to be back in the day when you got all these cloud services, like it was Dropbox and one drive, they were giving you storage like it was yeah, not.
All that, not forever.
Oh so they three years they would give.
You storage, and then I think they slowly but surely pulled it back and it used to be one drive. I believe when it first came out, you got a terabyte of storage.
That's a lot.
Yeah, I think that was the case.
I'm gonna go to mine and see what I have, because I was an early sign up for this thing, and I remember it was like one of these things where you just got a ton of storage.
So I now have five gigs.
I'm pretty sure at one point in my life with one Drive, I had a terabyte.
But that's gone.
Same thing with Dropbox back in the day, used to get I think it was a lot, and used to be able to earn by referring friends, and of course that's all been pulled back now, so now basically they all wanted to get you in there because the more stuff that you dump into these online drives.
Yeah, then you're stuck.
You become attached to it, and then of course the storage goes like okay, well your promotional one terabyte has run out.
Now you got to pay us that.
It's like forty dollars.
Yeah, and so for Google Drive, I paid ten bucks a month for a terabyte, which or maybe I've get two terabytes at this point, I can't remember. But it's it's enough where it's like, okay, it's kind of annoying, but it's also what are you gonna do?
You know?
Yeah, I mean a hard drive is really cheap compared to that. Oh, I have a lot of pictures in one drive.
But a hard drive you can lose.
Hard drive you can lose. I mean, theoretically you could lose cloud, but chances are.
That's on them though, right, and then it's gone. Then it's really gone. Do you back up to the cloud and to a hard drive?
I actually right now know because I don't have my NASS set up, so I need to do that. It's I have a little bit of sprinkling that's a network attached storage. It's basically a hard drive in my house. That's a mini server. But ever since I moved my office around, I disconnected it and it's all it's all complicated because it's I just need to clean up everything, like it's just got like fragments of stuff and like I need I need a text.
And when you eventually get a new.
Computer, yeah, that's when I'm gonna do it, which I know, it's really it's one of those things that like you just put on the back burner every weekend.
You do it for like your half birthday.
Yeah much, I'm celebrating my half birthday.
Yeah, like you're you know, well i'd say Christmas, but no, that's coming up soon.
So cool new feature in Google Maps that helps you speak where you need to go to someone that is in a foreign language. So let's say you're in Japan and you want to go to a restaurant. Well, have you ever seen the names of some of these restaurants and some of the streets in Japan? How would you say that to someone?
And I've been on the corner where I say to the person like, oh, this is where I want to go, and I point and they look at me like I don't know, Like you know, I don't know. They just look at me like I'm crazy, right, I'm like, you can't read what's on my street? Right here?
Help me out.
So here's the new feature.
Google Maps is kind of merging, not merging, but they're they're mixing in a little bit of Google Translate. So now your phone will speak out a place's name and address in the local language.
All you have to do is tap the new speaker button, which will show up next to the name of a place or address, and Google Maps will say it out loud. So I can go up to you. If you're in Japan and you spoke or let's say.
France and you spoke French, not English and not English, and I would go up to you, even though I speak English. I would hold my phone up and I would press a little speaker button next to the restaurant I want to go to in France and I'd be like and it would be like Parley Voo franceis yeah, yeah, is the restaurant and it's on the.
You know, the Peach Street and Peach and you'd.
Be like, oh, yeah, that's right, and you'd speak to me yeah, and I'd be like, wait, I don't understand what you're saying.
So, how does that? But you would basically point me in the right druck?
Got it?
Okay?
That's really funny.
So the speech to text technology automatically detects what language your phone is using. So for instance, if you're in if your phone is set to English, but you're in Tokyo, it knows like, hey, let's read.
This out in Japanese. Okay, because it's doing that.
So anyway, it's rolling out this month on Android and iOS in Google Maps, and it will have support for fifty languages.
So I think it's a cool little feature. I think it's right.
It is funny though. I went to a wedding once in France and it was like French people and then a bunch of American people. It was like split in two and the American people. I mean, I was with my aunt, so she was French, so I was good.
But all of these American people who were walking around the wedding with their translator things, and all the French people were saying to each other like in French, like oh the American like kind of making fun of it, but you know, hey, like if it helps you like communicate, do it if you don't know French, like it'll save you.
Or if you don't know French, you know nothing.
Yeah, you know nothing. I don't know French, so I shouldn't be talking. Okay. So this next question comes from Karen. My triplet grandkids are gamers, and Grandpa thinks VR is the next step for them. Will this be okay? And if so, which one do you suggest for them? One of our grandkids has autism. Are there any problems there with VR? Have your She also said she has your books, uh, which she's not gonna buy anything without checking your so she wants your opinion obviously before they buy.
Did she say how old the grandkids are? No?
Okay, so ten year old? Okay, because that's that's what I thought was interesting about this. Yeah, the VR thing, Like, my kid begs me every day to do VR. He's eight and from everything I've seen, and you should not do VR unless you're thirteen and up.
Okay.
So I don't recommend all these parents that email me about VR. I always say, don't do it. So when you're under a certain age, your brain is still forming, things are still happening, and I just there's a reason why these big companies don't recommend VR for kids under thirteen. I'm not sure what that exact reason is, but I'm gonna kind of stand by that. And I don't know if kids necessarily need to be in VR at that
young age. And you know, I know that kids want to do it, and of course it is the cool thing and it's very awesome, and you can go to places like these VR setups in the mall and stuff, and they will allow younger.
Kids to do it, and it's at the end of the day, it's your choice, like Dreamscape, I believe, so I think you can be ten and.
Up for that oh weird that you do have to do.
I think there's a certain age. I don't quote me on that, but there are I believe there are certain ages for these things.
And I'm not sure if there's.
Any physical proof or whatever or like research that they've done that says like this is the but I think it probably has to do something with the eyes.
And the brain.
I don't know, I've never heard this.
But that's generally my consensus is everything I've seen is thirteen, So just wait till they're thirteen. And these kids have enough screens in front of their face, so do they really need one that's right like at the eye level, like burning into their retina's like probably not so just well, you know what I mean, screen's right.
There, it's right there.
It's good, it's kind of so that's that's my recommendation.
And all these cheap little VR things that you see, yeah, these VR things that you see at the mall that you put your iPhone in stuff, there's no good iPhone.
VR by the way, so just don't just don't bother.
It's a waste when you sick your phone inside of.
And even on Android they have that, and even on Android they've gotten out of that because Apple are sorry, Google and Samsung used to make a big deal out of their VR headsets when they launched their phones. Last two launches, they didn't say a word. So clearly it's not right now. It's not a growth place. I think I do believe in VR. I think it's amazing and I think it's going to change the fabric of our world once again, like Facebook did and like Internet did.
But it's just not there right now.
It's not the time.
But I think that companies like Oculus and stuff, they're trying to make it better.
What did I do. I did that hollow.
I mean it's still almost like made me sick to my stomach for hours. Yeah, and so I just it's getting there.
It's not there.
Yeah, And I do go out there and try it because it's awesome, but it's like Dreamscape is the best that I've seen.
There's one called The Void, which I haven't tried.
And there's another one they're trying to get me to try it at the mall and I haven't tried that one either. You know, you have to go with like a bunch of people and like it takes like some time to set it.
You can go by yourself, but it's kind of more fun to go with a little group. Yeah. All right.
Let me tell you about something that is really cool because I talked about this on the Leo Laporte radio show, but I just want to talk about it here too because I am just obsessed with this. It's an app called libby l ibb Y, and I thought this was
too good to be true. I saw an article in nine to five Mac and the writer was talking about how Apple Books needs integration with the US Public Library just like the Kindle has, and I'm like, wait, what so I download this app called Libby, and I was like, I don't have a library card, so I gotta go sign up and I gotta get one. Maybe I'll just use my kid's library card. Well, it turns out you can just pop in your phone number and somehow it
signed me up for the LA Public Library. And it seems like they have these deals with public libraries all across the US, So wherever you're listening, you can try this out. Download the app, you get a library card through the app, and next thing you know, you can search for books like you would have the library. But the brilliant part is that not only can you read these books on the app or listen to their audiobook on the app, you can send the book to your Kindle.
That's so cool.
Which do you have a Kindle? No? Well, have you ever used one?
You gave me a one, but I gave it to my dad. You never have used it, but I can try to use.
It on You should try linking it up.
I sho We're going to do a story on this for Ktle because I was telling my wife last night. I was telling her she came over to watch the kids. Yeah, and she's an avid reader. And I was like, do you know you can get like books for free from the library. She's like I know, of course I know that. I'm like no, no, for like free to your kindle.
Yeah.
I was telling my mom about it too, and I was like.
Her reaction, she was like, wait, that's so cool.
You have to set it up on my phone and I'm like, and.
I'm telling you, it's one click once you set up. And by the way, this Libby app Usually when you think of apps like this, you're like, they're clunky, they're terrible. The way this app is set up, it's a really cool app. You search in like good terms, it like kind of talks to you almost in chat style anyway. So the main downside of this is that you don't get the book immediately, especially if it's a popular book. You have to wait, just like you would at the
public library for it to be in stock. So even though it's digital, they don't just give out unlimited copies.
So with the.
Public library, you have to keep going back.
No, I think nowadays nowadays you just put yourself on a wait list and they email you when it's ready. So it's the same thing here, except you'll get an alert on your phone. So I've put a bunch of books on my wait list. So I guess the trick here is that you just have to build your catalog up of what you want to read, and as they come available, get them, put them to your kindle. You get them for twenty one days like a normal library loan, and then I'm assuming there's some way to renew for
a certain amount of time. Okay, So again, I just bought a lot of books this month for you know, twenty five dollars that both books are available on there. One was available instantly and I could have saved twelve ninety nine. The other one is a little bit longer. It's called The Body, which, by the way, fantastic book.
Oh, I need to read it. If you I.
Actually available, it's probably.
It's not available. It's it's probably one of the most
popular books right now. But I was reading my kids and my wife all the highlights because it goes through every body part and explains the like how it works and what all this stuff and the history of it, not the history of the part, but like how doctors discovered how things work in the body, And so I was reading all the highlights that I've made in this book to my kids and my wife and we were all just like loving it, so like there's it's just such a good book. So anyway, Libby, l Ibby, check
it out, especially if you have a kindle. Link them up and you can thank me later when you're reading your first book.
Yeah, I'm literally trying to find a book that's available.
Okay, do we have time for one more quick question? Megan?
Okay, so this is from Zereda.
Oh no more time we right now? Kidding? All right, quick question.
So, basically, she's looking for a digital frame where she can send pictures directly to the frame without using a flash drive. I thought you mentioned one on your show, but I cannot find this story. I have seen one on my feed called Skylight. Not sure if it's the same, Please let me know.
On her feed.
So she clearly was searching for things, and then all of a sudden, Facebook is like we got someone. She's looking at picture frames. So I don't know anything about Skylight. I've never heard of it, but I and this one.
I'm looking it up right now.
It's one that it's a touchscreen photos frame that you can update by email from anywhere and it looks fine, but I think that the one you want is from the company I last tried. It's called nicks Play, and it used to be there are so many of these frames, but now it's kind of like they're a dying breed.
The thing I like the best.
If you this, this is a specific ask for something that is USB right. She wants a flash drive, but the one that I recommend is just get a Google Home.
No, she said, without using a flash drive. She wants to send pictures directly to the frame, without using a flash drive, so from like a phone.
Oh my gosh, oh gosh, I totally misread this. I thought she wanted a flash drive so she can pop it in the back of the frame and bypass the cloud. So if she just wants a frame, the best one out there is from Google. It's called the Google Home.
Oh there you go.
Now now it's called the Google Nest Google Nest Hub.
So that's what I have.
I actually don't show pictures on it.
Wait do you yeah?
I got it from cs Oh.
You don't show your pictures on it?
No, it's also this small like the streams. Okay, I'm gonna oh my god, you have to set up your pictures on it.
It's the best.
My sister just got one and she loves it. And she actually got the Max, which means we can video chats. I actually meant to do that last night with her anyway. So get the Google nest Hub. The best part about it it's one twenty nine. It's going to be cheaper over Black Friday, So just wait until Black Friday to purchase this. It'll be on sale everywhere. It's one hundred and twenty nine dollars. I expected to be ninety nine
bucks for the holidays. Wow, ninety nine dollars. You download the Google Photos app on your phone and the best part is that you can select the photos you want, or you can have Google Photos curate the best pictures that you take and put them on the frame automatically.
It's so great. It's my favorite feature.
When it was my kid's birthday and we had a birthday party, I just made a automatic album of Tanner. So every picture that showed up on all the screens throughout my house were all of my kid through the ages and so, and it was super simple to set up and Google picks the best.
They try to pick the best pictures that people are smiling in they're well lit.
Not always perfect, but yeah, you can easily try and it's great.
I'm trying to find the name of the Body book the.
Body it's called. I think it's called the Body.
Let me say, okay, I'm just curious.
Let's see kindle. I'll go to my kindle and see what it's called. I think it's just called Body by the Body by Body Bill Bryson, cover by Bill Bryson. And it's a best selling author of the short history of nearly everything.
It's so great.
The Body a guide for occupants if you're into like you have to be a little bit into science and like kind of like doctor stuff.
Like it's just fascinating to hear nine weeks nine weeks to get it.
Yeah, but also can I put in different libraries? Are you not supposed to do that? Well?
I think it's all LAPD or LA Public Library. Oh, since it's digital, it's not like your local branch. Got it all right, that's going to do it for the show today. Thanks so much for listening. My book is called one hundred and one iPhone Tips and Tricks. It's available in paperback and on the kindle through Amazon. I just got a whole bunch of these yesterday delivered to my house, the latest version. Because I did revise a few things. I told you about this, so I surprised me.
They came a week early. So I've got a whole bunch of these. We're gonna do a segment on KTLA featuring some of the best features in the new book. I'm gonna be promoting it in a couple different places. But it's great. It's ready for the holiday, super easy gift again. It's called one hundred and one iPhone Tips and Tricks. You can actually read it for free using Kindle Unlimited, so if you sign up for a free trial of that, you can read my book one hundred
percent for free. So if you're thinking about giving it for the holidays.
Read it yourself for free.
Preview every single page, read the whole thing, and then be like, oh, this is good enough to give to my family. And give it to someone that you love that uses an iPhone, and believe me, they'll thank you for it. You can subscribe to our show if you are listening for the first time. Just all you have to do is press subscribe in your favorite audio app, and if you love the show, Please rate and review it. That really goes a long way. Producer Megan, where can people find you?
I'm on Twitter at producer.
Again and she's always tweeting a bunch of good stuff, always always tweeting. You can find me at richon tech dot tv. I'm on Instagram at rich on tech and that's gonna do it for today show. Thanks so much for listening, Have a fantastic day.
We'll talk to you real soon