Smart ovens with a mind of their own. Google makes a big change to one of its nest camps, all in the name of privacy. An airline tries VR in the Skies. We've got a special guest coming up, my boss, and as usual, I'm answering your pressing tech questions. What is going on? I'm rich Deimiro. This is Rich on Tech. This is the podcast where I talk about the stuff I think you should know about happening in the tech world. Plus, like I said, I answer your tech questions, and believe me,
you are not shy about sending me your questions. But I will tell you you are always surprised when I write you back. Joining me fresh from Hawaii producer Megan Aloha.
Hello, I was gonna say it, but you already did so.
You told me when you were in Hawaii you felt like you realized you had an addiction to social media.
Tell me about that. What made you think that? Well?
So soh My sister she like from the start of the trip, she was like, I'm not going to use my phone the entire trip, and she truly barely did.
Like she went on, and your sister is how old she is?
Eighteen?
Oh?
That's impressive.
But then there was me and I like noticed that I was like so on my phone all the time, and she just was like chilling. And it's funny because at the end of the trip, I was like, so, Katie, like, how do you feel, like you know, did that make a change for you at all? And she was like, honestly, like, I'm just like not really obsessed with my phone to begin with, so like she didn't, but like I was like, okay, so now I I gotta do that.
That's amazing. Yeah. So here's the thing.
So I've realized, because I do this my wife sometimes, that when you don't use your phone as much, you actually notice how much someone else is using their phone. So in my house, I try my best not to use my phone between five and seven pm. Very tough sometimes, but I noticed when I'm not using it, I get very angry at the folks around me using their phone.
So is your sister getting angry?
I think? I mean, I feel like that's totally possible. Yeah, she probably just like noticed how often I was on it because she wasn't on hers. But then again, I think that it like, you know, you're on vacation, you're like in Hawaii and you're like, oh, like, what's this person doing? Oh Italy, Well, that's so cool.
I don't exactly like enjoy.
You gotta enjoy, So it's tough.
There's no easy answer. There's no easy answer.
I was in Vegas over the weekend, by the way, after New York, I went to Vegas, and I don't know why I'm mentioning that. I'm just mentioning it because I had the time. It was great, it was fantastic. And I will say that I was on my phone, but not as much you probably saw. I did do one I love doing I love doing this that you were, well, like this the instagrams that I posted like this, I love doing this. Sometimes I love doing the standard instagrams, like I did the flames at Benny Hanna like you.
I like that.
I like that.
Anyway, all right.
Let's get into our first story, because enough about us. There is tech news happening, yes, and Google is doing something that I got this email yesterday, and I was a little taken aback because I'm totally for privacy, but at the same time, I do believe that as a consumer, we should be in charge of the gadgets that we buy and have the most options. So what Google is doing is they are removing the ability to disable the
light on your Nest Cam. The light there's always a status light on your Nestcam that you can previously turn off in your settings because, for instance, in my kid's room. I remember when my kid was little, I put the Nestcam in his room and he didn't like the lights coming out of it, and so I turned off the status light. Now there's other lights, like infra red lights that kind of like help illuminate the room in the dark.
I couldn't really do much about those, and they were kind of scary, but I played it off to him like, no big deal.
Those scary red lights like the stars, No biggie.
So you cannot change turn the light off at this point. So now the light will be on the whole time. And the other thing is they're taking it to another level. When someone is actively viewing the video from the camera, the light will be blinking. So imagine you're at someone's house and you're in their living room and you see the light blinking on that thing.
You're like, uh, who's watching me right now?
So creepy, but I like it.
But it's less creepy than before when you didn't know if a camera was active. Obviously, anytime a company makes a big change like this, and this affects Nest cams, Nest Hello, and also Drop cams, which are the older Nest cams, anytime someone makes a change, people are gonna be up in arms. And one of the points I've read is quite valid. They're saying that potential burglars will
be aware when a camera's active. Maybe you just have a nestcam that's old and it's not activated anymore, and you just have it at your doorway or in your house and you're a thief and you come in there and you go, a ha, I know this thing's not working because the status light's not on.
Yeah. I mean that's a stretch. No, that's a total stretch.
But I'm just saying it's one of the it's a concerned So I have a nestcam in a couple of my house and last night I told my wife said, oh, do you notice that the light is on?
And she goes, and I love my wife for the stuff. She goes. I thought it was always on, and I was like.
Okay, okay, I'm a dead guy, guy, I know.
Oh whoops strong Uh oh there we go. Oh there we go. Okay, so I did get it. I'm not even gonna go ahe no.
Go ahead, So I'm actually going to be reading a You got an email from someone who started Visible. This is from Pamela Sanchez. She said she wanted to switch to another cell phone carrier and she's so glad that. She said, I'm so glad I got to see info you provided for Visible. Long story short, I switched. I have one month with them and no complaints so far. It's fast, better reception, and most importantly, I am saving money.
So love it. Yeah, I love it. I know. Here's the thing.
Anytime I do a story on KTLA, there is an immediate interest in what I talk about because we reach a lot of people, and that's fantastic.
I love that aspect of my job.
The other side of my job is that I go to sleep every single night scared to death that I'm gonna say or do something that is in some way going to harm someone.
And that means when I.
Talk about Visible and this forty dollars plan, I have done as much homework as I can. I tried it out, I didn't sign up myself, but I got them to send me a phone with a SIM. I did all the research, I interviewed the CEO twice. As far as I can tell, it was great. Yeah, but still you're going to have those people. And I got a lot of emails from people saying, Rich I couldn't activate my phone. Rich I had a problem that and all of them. Of course, I got in touch with Visible to like
make sure we resolve them. But at the same time, I sit there and I go, was it something that I did wrong? Ninety nine percent of the time it was a small error on someone's part, you know. And the other thing about Visible specifically is that they were slammed. And a lot of these companies that I cover, they do get because sometimes it's not just me covering them.
In the case of Visible, even though we had one of the most prominent stories on them, other places cover them as well because it's a great deal.
So all the tech.
Media is covering them. So I love hearing this email. That is a good one. And I got a lot of positive stuff from the Visible. I got some negative, but most of those negative things we were able to work through.
No one told me that it was a scam.
No one said, rich, I signed up for forty bucks a month, guess what my bill is eighty?
No one said that.
People said, oh, my phone wasn't activated, or I didn't get the SIM card the next day like they said, or something like that.
I don't think anyone actually said that, but.
Well, it just goes to show how much work and effort you put into like these stories like it. You know, you want to hear that, but obviously you have to like check your facts and make sure it's real.
And legit and not everything's going to be perfect for everyone totally. Another example was Lumen, Well was a lumin thing.
So we did a.
Story about the app for people over the age of fifty, and you got an email from someone who said that there are a lot of.
Like, oh, scam artists exactly.
But that's the reason why we did the story, because the whole point of it is that they are trying to avoid the scam artists. In fact, I was reading another article today about Luman. Someone else wrote an article very similar to ours, so kind of interesting. This was a lot of fun. We went to the first car vending machine in California, located in Westminster. This is from a company named Carvana. I've heard of this company. I considered selling my car to Carvana, and I did not.
I end up going to CarMax, which now I feel so bad and you regret it, yeah, I do.
I don't regret it.
I just got seven hundred dollars less by going to Carmacks. Yeah, and instead of Carvana. But I was impatient and I just wanted to go there, and it was something that I knew. I had done CarMax three times before, so I knew what the deal was with CarMax. Carvana seemed too good to be true. And so what Carvana does. They're online buying and selling website. You can buy cars on there in as little as ten minutes. But here's
what they do that's kind of interesting. They have these car vending machines in about twenty different cities across America. And when I've seen the commercials for these things and the website all this stuff, I always thought it was kind of like, give me a break, Is this real?
Is this totally a publicity stunt?
Like do people really put this giant, oversized coin into this vending machine and get a car out at the end. Yes, they do, and there's good reason for this. The reason why Carvana does these vending machines is because, think about it, they're an online website that delivers cars to people's homes. That's a lot of expense. I was driving back from Westminster yesterday. Imagine that they had to do a delivery to my place in LA You're talking an hour and a half to get up there and then an hour
and a half to get back. So it really does make sense if I'm sitting there and I go, oh, I can go to Westminster on a Saturday morning at nine am and pick up my car with my wife. That's kind of fun. And the kid see this giant machine in action.
It's an experience.
It is what you went up on it before I did, because I'll admit, since since you know you press played on the podcast, I was a little hesitant in going up in this eight story building.
Right.
It's this giant eight story building that holds thirty cars. It's seventy two feet high, which doesn't sound high at all, by the way, No, but but when you're up there, it did right well.
When we got there, I was like, oh, I wonder if we can you know, go up in the you know in it and you were like, no, there's no way.
That's what I was like.
The first thing they said, we're gonna go up like you guys are going to get to see you know, the top, and I was.
I got so excited.
I thought it was so cool.
There were way too many moving parts for that to be a safe operation for us.
Was there so safe though? I thought it was so safe.
It was basically up and down and it spun around. Yeah, yeah, but it was really cool. Yeah, I'm glad I went up. I'm glad I went up and four. No, that was just for the that was just for the look for the Facebook thing. I went up all the way when I did the KTLA.
Okay, okay.
In fact, I was a little mad that they didn't put me all the way up for the Facebook live thing I did or live to tape. Oh got it, because I couldn't say, hey, can we go up higher? Or I didn't even think about it.
Probably choose it was really hot too, that it was very hot, Yeah, because it's in a glass like but really cool.
And I will be honest right now, I'm saving up for a tesla as we speak.
Is that a quarter over by? You? Can I have that? Oh? Yeah, here, thank you.
I'm saving up for a Tesla as we speak, and I will be honest, I think maybe I'll just buy it used from Carvana, save a couple thousand bucks, and I now that I know the company. Whenever I meet someone from a company and I know them and I get to see them and kind of talk to them a little bit off camera, there's either an immediate trust I have with them or immediate distrust I have with them. And this company I got immediate trust.
Yeah, who do you not trust?
I'm not naming names, I'm just giving okay, But there are some companies that I've done stories with where I'm like, nope, and I'm not going to do business with this company. I will feature you, but I'll feature it in a way that I'm making sure I'm not showing any sort of endorsement. Like sometimes you have to cover stuff because they're in the news totally. It doesn't mean you have to sort of be behind it.
Yes, all right. So our next question comes from Lee Mitchell. My son twenty three and in college, has one of these MacBook pros that he bought in twenty seventeen, and we would like the information on what he should do to get a new battery and if he can or cannot fly with it. I may have heard on another station, but I can't. I can't find a link on your site. Would love to hear and be able to advise him.
He's talking about the fifteen inch MacBook Pro battery recall. This has gotten a lot of publicity because it's funny, because it hasn't gotten as much publicity as when the Galaxy Note happened.
Remember what Samsung?
But well, I remember this is a fifteen inch MacBook Pro battery recall. Apple has determined that some of the batteries inside these devices might overheat and pose a fire safety risk. They were sold between September twenty fifteen and February twenty seventeen. That's your first hint if you purchased a fifteen inch MacBook, which, by the way, the average person, and this is probably why I didn't really highlight this in our segments too much. The average person is not
buying a fifteen inch MacBook Pro. They're mostly buying a thirteen inch either a MacBook Air or a MacBook. I have a thirteen inch by the way. I'd like a fifteen inch now because this has gotten too small for me to edit.
Yeah, well you can borrow mine.
Yeah, I know you have a better Meghan has a better computer than I do.
Actually, mine it's Katy.
Do you get to take it home at night?
Yes?
Okay, then it's yours.
I mean, although you well what I was gonna say, do you have the administrator password?
But I think you might have somehow caught that.
So anyways, moving on.
That's that's the reason why I don't want to in trouble. This is why I never want a corporate computer.
I don't want to be beholding figured. We figured that you have.
But I'm just saying, this is why I don't want a corporate phone. I don't want a corporate computer. I'm not being behold into corporate it policy.
Yeah.
After you mentioned that to me after I got the computer, I was like, Okay, I need to get a computer for myself.
But that's just that's a lot. Don't do that. Don't do that. It's fine.
So you want to go to the website support dot Apple dot com, Slash fifteen Dash inch Dash, smash Book, MacBook Dash Pro, Dash Battery Dash recall, or just go on Google and search MacBook Pro recall. Look for the Apple support page and you will find it and just pop in the serial number of your device and it
will tell you immediately if it's eligible. If it's eligible, they will tell you how to get a replacement, which means that you have to either send your device in for repair, or you can just take it into a Apple store or an authorized service retailer which now includes Best Buy. They say the service might take one to two weeks, and I will tell you you may lose all your data in this process, depending on what Apple does, because when you bring your computer in they may say,
you know what, we don't care. We don't feel like dissecting this thing and replacing the battery. We're just gonna give you a new one or a refurbished So you always, always, always when you bring your phone or computer in for service, want to have a nice backup of that.
It's very easy on the Mac. Just use time Machine. Yeah. No one likes robo calls, Megan.
I love them, you love them.
You like talking. It's the one time you actually talk to people on your phone.
The first social connection, yea that I get of the day, T Mobile and AT and T are putting aside their differences to start a new type of caller authentication technology that will work across their networks.
It's called shaken stir, and the bottom line to know about this is that if a robo caller initiates a call from the AT and T network using a spoof phone number, and they try to call a T Mobile phone or vice versa, the phone will say call unverified. Is it really Are you really going to see that on a daily basis?
I don't think so.
Number one, I don't think robo callers are using the standard ways and means to make phone calls. They're using sophisticated computer programs that make billions of calls all at once. So I guess if you see on verified, that's a good thing because you're like, oh, I guess this number is not verified. But it could also be coming from Sprint, or it could be coming from Verizon, or it could be coming from a host.
Of other places. So this is a good first step.
I'm not gonna knock them, but I think that it's a little bit too early to say all of our robocal problems are over. I'm gonna do another quick onefore you go into your next one.
Just for today.
This one's really scary. Smart ovens. We did a story with this oven, this specific oven. We didn't review it, but we interviewed the CEO. It's called the June Oven. And apparently some of these ovens have been turning on by themselves in the middle of the night. The Verge with the report that says at least three owners have noticed these ovens have turned on and.
Started to preheat.
Oh my goodness, and this sounds crazy because okay, so one owner's oven turned on around two thirty am and broiled at four hundred degrees for hours. And the best part is they capture this on their nest cam.
Yeah.
I looked for the video. I would love to say, because I wanted to put that in the story.
Absolutely see that oven come alive in the middle of the night.
Well, it reminds me of an old movie. There's like a movie about like the Little Toaster. There's a Disney It's a Disney movie, an old movie.
For Megan, it's like it came out like two years ago. Gosh, there's an old movie.
It was the live action of Aladdin. Oh yeah, Megan, that was last summer. The other oven was a let's see, Oh, a person roasted potatoes at five pm.
Apparently forgot to take them out.
The brave little toaster came out in nineteen eighty seven.
Okay, I don't know that, but so the toaster came on in the middle of the night by himself and preheated to eight hundred degrees.
Yeah, well, toaster oven very similar gadgets.
Oh my god, that's awesome. Okay, let's see what else. The second guy left potatoes in his oven, and the oven came on at one twenty am and baked them for four hours and thirty two minutes at one hundred and four hundred twenty five degrees. Wow, this guy though something else was going on in his house. He was he was toasting more than than potatoes, because who doesn't notice their own.
Else was toasting?
What do you think, I don't know.
For four hours and thirty two minutes. Come one who doesn't notice their oven on for four hours and thirty two minutes.
No, that's weird.
Maybe I mean it was at one twenty am, so maybe that's why. Yeah, But and then you have another one that said this woman found her oven at six thirty am, preheating at four hundred degrees and it was ready to cook. She had been unplugging her June every night because she knew that this was kind of a possibility.
CEO Matt van Horn, who we.
Spoke to at CS, told The Verge that the owners, not the oven, are at fault, but just in case, they have a software update that's going.
To help with these misfires.
But the funny thing about this story, Megan, is that whenever I give the example of a smart oven and how brilliant I think they would be. Yeah, I love the idea of preheating my oven before I get home, because often I'll make like nuggets for the kids or something, yeah, or a frozen pizza or yourself or myself, I end up eating them. I'm always like, how many nuggets?
Dot?
Dinosaurs?
They do have the dinosaurs right now, but we go through phases of different types. But the kids seem to like the dinosaur. The shape one's the best. Anything that's unnatural that's always the best. But I always tell my wife, I'm like, wouldn't it be so great if I could just turn on the oven from my car?
And you know, when I get home it's done.
I don't know why. I just think that that is just really strange. But I'm sure that's going to be a thing.
A thing it already.
I'm sure they have smart ovens. I mean, like the normal ovens. These are small ovens, but I'm sure they have big ones. But we also love to turn on our air conditioning from remotely, so when you get home, your house is nice and cool.
Yeah, but the AC is different than like an oven.
I know, an oven is like a fire awaiting. Yeah, you want to burn down your house? All right? Sure, go ahead, turn on your oven. Let it pre eat, all right.
So this next question comes from Pam Ashman. Ashman, do you recommend into a system for converting v HS tapes to DVD? I am willing to pay money. I should put three dollars signs, so I don't know if.
That means a lot of money.
I will pay a lot of money for ease of process. Thanks so much. All tips we used from you have been so helpful. See that was an exclamation point.
Love that. Yeah.
See it's funny because I will get I will get really nice emails majority of the time, but every once in a while I'll just get an email that's.
Like, f you rich Well, I think that it's usually from you.
Yeah, but I think it'd be funny at the end of every podcast, maybe we we uh mean one.
I don't know if I get that money. I did get one today that would probably.
Fit that we can find like a mean thing on like a review or whatever, like the one that called me brain dead, like a forum.
Actually, you know what, we probably can't. That's actually I like that we're gonna add we're going to start. I will tell you. I generally like I like to be very positive in my life. Yeah, and I feel like by bringing in that negativity or even amplifying it, it's what's the point.
Now.
I don't mind joking about it from time to time and saying that, you know whatever, or bringing it up, but.
Like to make it a feature.
I don't know, because then that feels like people are inviting You're inviting people to be mean, and I don't love that people to be mean.
Okay, so the occasionally occasionally maybe we read one.
Let's answer the question anyways.
So I tested two devices. One is the El Gato Video Capture for Mac. I do think that is the best Mac captured device out there, possibly the best captured device.
Uh. The other one I.
Tested was the Roxio VHS to DVD three for PC. Worked fine, wasn't as smooth as the Elgato, but then again, you're doing this on a Mac versus PC, it's a little bit different. You also need a VCR old school VCR and you will need a lot of hard drive on your computer to digitize these and then after you do that, I recommend throwing them all into Google Photo
because this is the best part. When I put these things into Google photos all because I did it, I went through a phase where I digitized a bunch of tapes. It was so crazy because it actually pulls the faces out of your old videos and now you can group and like click on my dad and see all the old videos that he was in.
So it's really cool.
They're applying with like a lot of smarts. The other thing you can do if you want totally another free option and you want to share things more is you can upload them to YouTube for free and use the unlisted option. You could toss them in iCloud if you have iCloud, but just make sure that you have your videos backed up before you toss the original tapes, because once the original tapes are gone, they're gone. The other thing you can do with vhs to DVDs you can
take them to Costco. They use a service called or just go to Yes Video. I believe it's Yesvideo dot Com. They are pretty much the biggest VHS to DVD or VHS to digital out there, and you can just either do it online or go to one of their retailers. They pretty much use everyone. I can't recommend like CEA box because I did email them and ask them for a test box so I can send in some stuff and try it out, and they never really responded in
a big I don't think they responded at all. So whenever that happens as a journalist, I really am worried about the consumer side of things because if they're not responding to a journalist, and I've said this before, yea, what are they doing with consumers?
Yeah?
Now, I like to think maybe they're just too busy with their customers that you know, they can't respond to me.
But it's weird.
I really need to do this for my parents because their wedding video. We watched it a couple months ago, and some of it you know, was messed up.
Yeah, you should probably do it very soon. It's getting well, your parents are getting very old.
You're getting very you know, Maggie is not going to like that.
Maggie, Maggie listens.
No, Maggie is I will I will tell you. Megan's mom. No, she's a darling. She's very young, and I will tell you this. Megan plays along with what I do here, but her mom takes it. When we did a video, look us up. We did a rain video, one of the first things that Megan and I ever collaborated on together. And we did it and her mom was around, Yeah right, and your mom. I said, hey, do you mind just being in this video real quick? And I didn't give her almost any direction except I'm gonna come up to
you and do this. And she ran with it and it might be the best part.
Of the whole video.
It's so good.
And I walked past her in the rain and she like looks at me and I don't even remember, but she did it.
So well, like missed no beat.
Okay, you show me any you show me any parent that would be that quick thinking on their feet in an actress. She was really good and it wasn't even acting.
She was just like she was just smart Maggie.
Yeah, just being mag just being Mags, Mags. I don't know if I told you the story Megan, but I one time tried out virtual reality on and on an airplane.
Flight get sick. I did not get sick, but I could not watch the whole movie.
Oh yeah.
I wanted to test out because I had a thesis that watching a movie in VR would be really cool on a flight, because why not, right, you have this giant screen in front of you.
Virtually you watch a movie, it's a plane.
But I was really embarrassed to actually do it on the plane because I thought people were I thought they're gonna turn the plane around because they're like, what's this weirdo doing with this headset? So I was a little concerned about that. No one cared. But British Airways is going to start introducing three D movies with VR headsets, so from now until the end of twenty nineteen customers traveling on select flights.
Oh and oh, you gotta be in.
First Yeah, I was going to tell you it's first class since I read this story well earlier.
Okay, so the common folk can't have VR first class, give me a break, number one.
And they're only doing it for like a month.
Yeah, if you're in first class, you don't need to watch a VR movie. You're going to watch that giant screen that's in front of you, and you're gonna go to sleep because you have live flat sleeper. This is I'm talking for the for the chickens in the back like me, the cargo that sits in like economy basic. Okay, I don't really sit in the economy you you know, I did once, but I do say I try to get economy.
But even for that, you need it. Yeah, so I know it. Just throw away this story.
This is I don't even I don't even care because you know what, if you're flying first class, flying first class to British British Airways to London, you do not I don't need to Number one, you're gonna you're gonna snub your nose at VR.
You'd be like, excuse me, what's that? I didn't use that. I'm not putting that in my face. It how many people do? Actually I would do that too, And.
I'm not disgusting.
Germophobe, but not a snob.
Okay, so switching gears. This next question is from Louise P. For a second, I thought it was Louise, Louise R Louise, and I was like, that'd be funny. Hello, Rich and Megan. Maybe it's Louise. I know, yeah it is.
I know.
Over the past few months, you have mentioned the app that Apple home Kit will store video feed from compatible security style home cameras for about two weeks for free. My question is where can I find out what security style cameras are compatible for this Home Kit feature and our popular brands such as ring Arlow or Nest compatible with this service. PS love the podcast and find it super informative. Thanks for all that you both do.
Both. Yeah, and that's so nice.
I've never seen Megan beaming so much as to right now.
She's used to me knocking her down.
Yeah, true facts.
So I would recommend number one tell me this person's name again, Luise.
Oh, I said it like a thousand times see this.
Yeah, yeah, welcome to Megan's life. I would recommend Luise that this actually might be Luise because like he's.
Really into camera stuff. He might have changed his name, Louise. I don't think so. No, that's not him.
So the Home Kit has been very slow to launch, and there are not many things that work with HomeKit. As you know, Google and Alexa have absolutely dominated when it comes to the smart home. Apple is just not there. There are products that work with HomeKit, which is their version of Made for Google or Google Assistant, whatever you want to call it, but basically people think it either works with Google Assistant, it works with Alexa, or to
a very very very very lesser extent HomeKit. And that's not to say that Apple can't come up and do better with this.
I think that they're doing. They took the slower approach.
You got so many alexas in homes that they had a very early headstart, and then when Google came out, they got so many Google homes and homes that they got a headstart. Apple doesn't really have anything for the home except for the HomePod, and that is not a top seller. So people don't have a way to inn interact with these things through Siri except on their phone, which does work, but it's not as simple as having
a dedicated speaker. Maybe it's not at the forefront of your mind to think like this would be the way to do it, but With that said, if you are in the Apple ecosystem, you want to use home Kit because it works with your phone and it works with all your Apple stuff. Long story short, the feature that Luis is referring to is Apple kind of put the industry on notice when they said, if a camera is compatible with home Kit, you will be able to use this camera to collect clips in the cloud for free,
and a lot of other cameras don't do that. If you buy a Nest camera or even a Ring camera, when you activate those cameras, you will get a live stream from them, but you will not get clips from them recorded necessarily.
So if you.
Miss what happened on the camera live, you're not going to see it unless you pay. Now, not all cameras are like that. The Amazon cloud cams do give you fourteen days of storage, so does the wisecam, but I think.
That apples in the beginning though.
No, that's included forever. But it's only fourteen days of clips. A clip can be only you know, fifteen to twenty seconds. If you want the most out of these cameras, you probably want to pay for a little bit longer subscription,
you know. Anyway, that's a long answer to tell you that there are exactly two cameras that I can see that are compatible with HomeKit right now, according to Apple's website, which by the way, you can go to just go to Apple home Kit on their website and it will give you all the accessories, which includes cameras, bridges, lights, locks, outlets, censor switches, and thermostat. But there are two cameras listed, the Logitech Circle two.
And the r Low Baby. Megan. We have a special guest on the show today.
I know we do. It's so exciting.
Jason Ball, news director at KTLA and host of the News Director's Office podcast, is joining us.
Welcome to the show.
Thank you. You guys have a little fancier operation. I don't know how that happened.
Well, you know somehow you.
Yeah, well you're testing it out, you are testing it eventually.
This is new.
Yeah, this is new.
It's uh, this is you're referring to our road Podcasting Board, which is just amazing. This is revolutionized podcasting for a lot of podcasters, and it gives you the ability to not only have sounds like we do. You can't hear them off that phones on. But right now we're doing a typewriter, and it also gives you the ability to live stream as well and take calls, which is how the rich on Tech podcast was originally done, was with
live callers. Eventually we may bring that back, but we love Megan so much that she brings.
The questions it.
That's a real star.
So Jason is news director here at KTLA and runs a very large operation here, not just news for KTLA, but also you run all of the podcasts for Dine.
Yes, that's true.
What's that called.
Tribune Audio Network, which is I think we have about fifty or sixty active podcast right now, so that's pretty cool across the forty two TV stations, and they very you know that we have a great one out of We have two great ones out of Greensboro, North Carolina. One is on NASCAR, which is a huge hit. It's I don't know that much about NASCAR, but I still it's fun to listen to just because they're so excited
about what they're talking about. So that's really cool. And then they have a podcast about this girl who was at a track meet and got hit in the head by another like rammed another girl in the head and she has amnesia every day she thinks the same. It's the same that same day. Every day she wakes up and has to go through that same day, and it's really remarkable. She goes that one's called Caitlin Can't Remember, and the other one's called Dirty Air, which is.
Really dirty air.
The name of a podcast is always like, you know what I mean, the better it is that, you know, that could be for anything. Yeah, but I like that for NASCAR. Is that referring to like the exhaust or something, and then and the dirt?
But yeah, that's what it's really good. I mean that. And that TV station w g HP and North in Greensboro, North Carolina, is it is an innovative station anyway. I think they're just really great. And then there's a new one that just came out two weeks ago, I think
out of Memphis our station there. It's called Killing, Killing lorenzen and it's about an NBA player, Lorenzen Wright, who grew up in North Mississippi and Memphis played for the Clippers actually for a little bit, and the Grizzlies, and he was murdered and this went on for like ten years, and they like the case leads back to his ex wife and her friend. But it's really great and it's
doing really well too. It's very interesting they do that, you know, that crime that crime drama is always always a good hit on the podcast.
That's what got you into podcasts. Wasn't it Cereal or was it what?
What did you listen to when you were because I remember you came to you and you're like, Rich, I'm loving podcasts And.
It was actually ninety nine percent invisible.
Actually you told me about that podcast and I still listened to it.
That Roman Mars.
Mars's got the great I mean, you guys have great voices too, but he's got the coolest voice, like you are, no cool.
We can't stand listening to our own voices, are you kidding? Like, yeah, I have a horrible voice. I listen to this on repeat in my car every day and I still cringe every time. Yeah, I hate twenty four to seven. And Megan, she listens you always. You skip my parts and just listen to yours.
Yeah.
I mean my family, we just constantly are playing our podcast. Yeah, that's our music.
No, you pipe it into the house.
No, I can't.
I think everyone has an aversion to that. But you know, think about sitting across from professional people who have amazing voices. It's really is gonna be a little intimidating.
That's what you do on your show. Yeah, so tell us about your show.
Okay, So actually next week is our hundredth episode, which I feel like is a pretty big accomplishment in itself, just to be able to do it, and and we do. We started out doing one episode a week, and then now we we got way ahead, and then I'm like, let's just do two a week, not thinking that it's actually twice as much work.
That is a lot of work.
You're you're in your office and it's actually recorded in Jason's office ninety nine percent of the time, and it's always someone's always in there.
Yeah, it's it's been really great. It's been fun to talk about. It started out because, you know, there was a lot of media bashing in the media, and I'm like, we do a lot of really great things and a lot of really cool things. We should talk about that. And it was also an example to set for the newsroom. If you know, if I can do a podcast, you
can do a podcast. You know, you can find the time to do it, but you have to do something you're passionate about and I am passionate about this, So it's it's been fun to talk to newsmakers and talk about the things that they do good. Like the first episode was with Megan Henderson and we talked about our trips with UNSEF to Africa, and so that's been really great.
And then we've had some really just amazing non news people on it, and people who used to work in local news and now do other things and the skills that they learn learning that, you know, meeting deadlines, understanding story, being able to decipher quickly both sides of a story or with the three sides of a story, or you know all that. So it's been it's been really fun to do it and to get it out and to
share people. And the response has been it's good. We get a lot of people like young in the industry who want to figure it out. So it's you know, it's these are people that they look up to, like.
You Ridge, and it'll tough to believe, but it's funny because I remember when I was coming up through the Now I'm getting older as the longer I stay here, I'm just like Megan calls me old man.
Now, I mean only on Mondays.
Monday is on my grumpiest but it's but it's true.
It's like, you know, we all had these people that we looked up to, and back in the day, there was no like when I was listening to Casey case you didn't hear a behind the scenes podcast with Casey talking about how tough it was to become who he was. Nowadays, with these podcasts, you can hear that, and it does give people more strength and more drive if they want it, because they can find these interviews. And I think that's what's the best thing about your podcast is that there's
always little nuggets of information throughout the podcast. I sit there and like, like Megan Henderson, for instance, she said something that will stick with me forever, and she said that you're getting your first job was like going to
graduate school for journalists. And I said, that is so brilliant, because my first job was so miserable if I would have thought of it that way, that this is just school where I'm getting to do what I did in school, but on a daily basis and get paid eight dollars and seventeen cents an hour.
At least you're not paying them like you know, you're not gonna be in debt when you get right.
No, it was still in debt when I got out, but it was different, you know, it was my own doing. But the point is it those kind of little nuggets that you pick up from a show like yours is really helpful.
One of the other things I talk about a lot is, particularly on air, is a craft, and you have to be good at craft. You have to do it over and over and over again. So that first job you get should be somewhere where you can do twenty thirty live shots a week.
Be happy if.
They run your ragged in the field and you're going from story to story, because what you learn in six months doing that is better than graduate school. It's just doing that reps and doing the repetition of practicing every day. You get to practice every day on air before you come to the Los Angeles, and you know, because you want to make your mistakes and learn it. What was your station? K T A L K T A L.
I always said, just switch those last two letters.
You've seen a lot of people do their first kind of on air stuff for you know, like in their early part of their stage. Because you catch people early and Jason, by the way, has had a great record of finding talent.
It's not a perfect science, that's for sure. You're one of the people, one of the few people I've had the luck of hiring twice.
You did hire me twice, and I do thank you for that. I remember Jason found me when I was working at CNET in New York, and I remember you called me up. You're like, can you just do the same thing you're doing at SNET here in LA And I'm like, yes, when can I get out there?
Yes, I can do that.
Well.
That is the other thing too, about picking the station you go to work at, because a lot of particularly big market stations want to be innovative and want to be cool and want to do things differently, but then they get a first scare.
And that's what happened to me at that first place.
Because it's funny because I always tell people I am doing exactly the same thing I've been doing for I don't want to say how many years at this point, but many years.
Fifty five still better at it.
Well, you hopefully get better, but the reality is you're still doing the same thing, like what I was doing when you hired me at cakel is the same exact thing I'm doing here, except it's accepted here and people understand it and we actually made good of it, whereas there it was kind of like we didn't understand right, and that was not your fault, it was other people.
Yeah, when you left it just see yeah.
But uh, okay, so you've got the podcast. You've got how many you said? With the Tribune Audio Network, I.
Think we have fifty or sixty active because some of them we do seasons with them, like Caately Camember was the season. Then well they're going to revisit her in a year and see how she's doing on that. But the Today's episodes is with with Chip Yos, one of the reporters here, and he told me a story about me not hiring him, and I don't remember it at all.
It was so embarrassing, but it was good and they got it all worked it the way it should because he should be here with us, being a Orange County Bureau chief. So it all all worked out. But you hear those fun stories about people.
Get very honest on podcasts for some reason, I don't know what the deal is, so much.
More intimate, I feel like, and maybe it's you're sitting around and there's no I don't know that it's the camera that's intimidating as much as it is the lights, because I always get people. Yeah, I guess it feels you know that, you know the cliche of the police investigation room where they got the light on you and your sweating and.
Yeah, it's the little beads of sweat. You can see it.
Like I interview people and I see like the little beads of sweat starting. I'm like, oh, this is going downhill because they.
Get Most interviews are like that, because I mean, if you're interviewing a co founder, like they are not used to being on camera, and the.
Ones that are really slicky can trusty.
Yeah, yeah, I always get really nervous. Yeah, going on TV or even doing the podcast, I would get really nervous. But that's part of you know, That's the other thing about is again practicing your craft. You know, one hundred episodes in, I feel like I'm much more I don't know if I'm good at it, but I'm much more
relaxed about doing it. And you figure out for even I do this occasionally now we get ten minutes in, I'm like, oh my god, what am I going to talk to this person about for the next twenty minutes? But it always works out fine. I still get that moment, that one moment of like panic.
Yeah, you read a lot of books, don't you.
I try to.
It's you know, it's a challenge reading anything.
Right now, I am reading a couple of things. I am reading this book about transition, which I can't remember the name of, but I can give you for the notes. Since we are about to go through this transition, you know, managing transitions, that's hard.
It has transition somewhere.
But since our company is being bought by another company and we're going to go through transition, so I'm hoping I can some of those tools I can used to help all of us, you know, get through it. It's gonna be fine. But you know, people don't always believe you when you don't. It's gonna be fine.
It's the company I used to work for, right KTL was owned by the company.
That's buying us.
Now now they're going and it's crazy because it's the same people, you know, I remember them coming into our newsroom and it's the people have not really changed there.
So that's a good thing.
Well, I appreciate that they're broadcasters at their core. They started out at one TV station in Scratton, Pennsylvania, so I appreciate that they are broadcasters. They are interested in the future of broadcasting, as opposed to some of our previous owners. So that part, I think is going to be good. They understand our business, they care about our business, they care about where our business is going. They hear about the digital aspects of our business. So I'm hopeful.
So one hundred episodes that will launch in a week or.
So, Yeah, I think next Thursday's one hundred.
And is it time to retire now? Or is I keep.
Waiting for someone to say, okay, enough it's I want to stop doing that. But no.
Have you gotten good feedback though, because it's a it's a very inside baseball kind of show that other people can appreciate, you know, if you're working at all. But it is for the media business. It's it's great insider info.
I mean, everything has been very positive about it. I mean, the people that we have on the show always have a good, great experience. And I was in ABJ last week, the National Association for Black Journalists, and I interviewed some of our colleagues from our other stations there and it was great. And one of our colleagues in from Norfolk
is is actually a past president of the organization. So we talked about really the importance of these organizations in creating and continuing to foster that diversity among our business.
Is it one of the on air because they have a fun podcast out of there off scripted or something?
Really, I haven't heard that one.
I think maybe it is that w T k R.
Yeah, okay, yeah, they have a fun one, but I don't maybe it's not under your umbrella.
You might probably is.
There's sixty I have to bring them in. I don't know all their names.
The one that came out this week earlier this week is Barbara Sciarra, and she's an amazing got ahead an amazing career, and she grew up in Pittsburgh, but it went to college and Arizona and got her first job in Arizona, so in Yuma, so that was a very oh no, and Tucson. So that was a big, you know, cultural shift for her to go from you know, Philadelphia, I mean to Pittsburgh to to Arizona and then ended up in having a long, long career in Norfolk. So she's been she was great and.
A long career in this business, Megan, it is rare, especially in local news. Sometimes you know, it's it's uh the ones who make it you know a long time.
It's always a good thing.
I think local news has a long longer, maybe even than some of the network news in the cable because we do serve that local community, and it's it's the live newscast, and broadcasting to me is really is about live, live events, sporting events. The biggest shows in primetime are those, you know, contest shows, the ones that are live where you need to watch to find out what happened so you can talk about it tomorrow at work or you know that sort of thing. And news kind of falls
into the line too. We have a short shelf life. It's not like you're gonna watch past episode.
You're gonna be jump catching up from last year's nine. We don't have a news at nine here, but we should. Yeah, we have at nine am. I was thinking nine pm.
Yeah, we don't have one of those yet.
Soon four hour.
All right, that's gonna do it for our show today. Jason's podcast is the news director's.
Office, the news director's office.
It is available on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts, and it's part of the Trubune Audio network, which so is this podcast You haven't noticed because we have a little chime at the beginning, so that makes it official.
So we swear a lot less, you're not anyway. We did say F on this show. Not just what we said. We said F. We said the word the leg What would your grandfather's Okay.
I'm gonna the letter, not going to say any When did we say the letter?
We talk about stand on the show?
We yeah, we have we No, I don't think we have.
You need to show a news director's office with Megan interviewing about our.
Grandfather I talked to interesting, It would be interesting.
Megan has some good roots here at Katla.
She's a legacy.
Yeah, I am.
Her grandfather's picture hangs in my office.
He has a couple of pictures here.
Should we say who our grandfather is?
Yeah, my grandfather's stand Chambers and so he was.
We started working here the year the TV station went on the air, in nineteen forty seven. Yeah, and he ca.
I know we're over, but there's no over in a podcast.
This is a great story. When I interviewed for the job of the news director at KHLA, I interviewed with the corporate guy and I said, because they had laid off some of the older reporters there, And I said, if firing stand Chambers is the job, I am not your guy. I am not going to be the guy. You know, the first of all, the nicest man you ever want to meet in your life, and such a great reporter and such a great storyteller. And then when he came to me and tell me he was retiring,
I said, I don't believe you. Come back tomorrow and tell me again. And I had him do it three times because I'm like, I am not going to be responsible for trying to stand Chambers out of this business.
Oh gosh, that's amazing.
But he was a great man, and you know, we miss it, and I just feel fortunate that I got to work with him a short time, even late in his career.
Yeah, it's definitely really special to be here and somehow kind of follow in his footsteps. But you know, so we'll see.
And I like the stories every once in a while that Megan will just come up with what do you mean just with you know, just talking about him and just oh yeah, her family watched a lot of the news too, so it's nothing. Missus a beat with the mcmonagall family.
Oh yeah, my mom, she knows everything. She's obsessed with kat.
Dad not so much. All right, Thanks so much for listening to the show. Please subscribe if you haven't done so already. All you have to do is search rich on Tech in your favorite podcast app. That could be Apple Podcasts, pocket Cast, or Overcast. Those are a few good ones. You can also check out our website ktla dot com slash rich on Tech.
We'd love if you review the show.
That way, other folks can know what you like about it, and I think it helps with iTunes.
Who knows.
If you have a question that you would like answered, just go to rich on Tech dot tv and hit that contact button. And I always ask Megan at the end of the show how you think this show went? So I'm gonna ask Meghan and Jason.
Megan, well, I think it went very well. That was a fun podcast.
Jason, when do you ever get to interview your boss? I mean, that doesn't that didn't happen ever? Five years ago, ten years ago. Thanks all right, thanks so much for listening. Jason, You're on Twitter.
Twitter at Jason Arball and on Instagram mister Jason Ball. I like Instagram the best.
Yeah, so we all, Megan, I have a problem.
You're your producer, producer Megan on Twitter.
Yeah, Twitter, I'm Rich dmiro Rich on tech dot TV. Have a great day. I will talk to you real soon.
I can mes say