Siri Settlement, $60 Fitness Tracker & WiFi Password Worries

the first time in twenty twenty five. Dial up eight eight eight rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to two four to one zero one, or you can go to the website rich on Tech dot tv and hit contact guests. This week, got a lot of great guests to kick off the new year. Kaiitwan Move from All Trails is gonna share expert tips on exploring the outdoors with one of my new favorite apps.

Then later we've got professional photographer Christa Kowalchek. She's going to share how to preserve and organize both your digital and print photos. And later on Gerald Cassulis from nord VPN war REVIALE twenty twenty five's top cyber threats, the stuff to watch out for, from dark web dangers to AI driven scams. Well, I hope you had a great holiday season. It is the new year. Happy twenty twenty five. This is the first show of the new year. Very happy to be back in this seat talking with you.

Got some good time off. In fact, towards the end, I was like, I'm ready to get back. I am ready to get back to work. You know, as much as I love my family and I love the time off, I always feel like I'm unemployed after a certain amount of time. Like it literally it's like, wait, do I still have a job? Does my email still work? I wondered if my card would still swipe when I went into the studio because I just wondered if it still everything was still working, But it is. We got a

nice quick trip into Sedona, Arizona, over the break. If you have not been, I highly recommend it. It is a I know from LA. It's a nice drive, probably about eight hours or so. That's what we did. I love road trips.

ever imagine at your fingertips. All right, the big story of this week, Apple has agreed to pay ninety five million dollars to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that Siri violated users privacy. Now, this has been percolating for a while since twenty nineteen. A lot has changed since then, but Apple finally decided to say, you know what, we're

gonna stop fighting this. We're just gonna settle it. And as you might expect, ninety five million dollars is not a lot of money when it comes to Apple's monopoly money. I mean, this is a company that made fifteen billion dollars in the last quarter. So this is just, you know, a gnat that they're swatting away. But there are some lessons to be learned from this. So here's what happened. The lawsuit claimed that Siri was evesdropping on conversations and

sharing those recordings with third parties. Now, I think the term evesdropping is very sexy for this lawsuit. I think that it gets a lot of people's attentions, but that shows intention of Apple to listen, and I don't think that that was Apple's intention. Did it happen? Absolutely? Does it happen all the time.

you go, ah, okay, you were listening. Now these things are listening, but the way that they're listening is typically local for that hot word, that keyword, and then if it thinks it has that keyword identified, it will then send what it hears after that to the server to figure out what you're trying to do, Whether it's asking for the weather, whether it's asking for information, a question, whatever it is. Now. Back in the day and Apple and a lot of these companies still do this, you know,

shared recordings with third parties for quality control. So the idea behind this lawsuit was that not only was Siri triggering without these users knowing, but then the information contained in those recordings was with third parties. And so most of the time those third parties were there to sort of quality control and see, Okay, here's what the person said. Do we get their answer right, did we get the

hot word right? Whatever. You know, they're trying to make sure that these systems are working and they're trying to make them better. Now, typically this was probably in the user's you know, terms and conditions that said, hey, if you're going to use Google Assistant, if you're going to use Siri, if you're going to use Alexa, you agree to this happening. And I think people since twenty nineteen

a lot has changed. Like I said, we've gotten more hip to these privacy controls, and so since then a lot of these companies have given us more control and more choices over these assistants. When we first set up our devices, it's not perfect, but it's it's better than

it was now. The original lawsuit and you'll probably hear about this as well, also claim that Apple shared recordings of what these people were saying with advertisers, and they mentioned a whole bunch of ads that popped up in their news feed after they talked about things in front of their phone. But I don't think this was fully

substantiated in the lawsuit. I don't think it made it to the final settlement because Apple has been very very clear about how they share user data and the user privacy that they keep in mind with almost every product that they make, and I just don't see Apple sharing what we're talking about with advertisers.

Believe me, I've talked about stuff in front of a friend or family member and all of a sudden that ad shows up in my news feed. It's happened to all of us. Facebook, of course, says they have certain ways of making that happen. It's all magic, based on things that you search, and your phones close to each other and all that kind of stuff. But anyway, so Apple settle settling this means that they're not admitting any wrongdoing. They just want this to go away. What are you

going to get? Individuals will likely get up to twenty dollars per device that they had activated since twenty nineteen, so it might have been even earlier than that. This was a large swath of time. But it's a maximum of five devices, so even if you upgraded your phone a couple of times, the most you can get as one hundred dollars. And most likely you're gonna have to say that, yes, Siri was accidentally enabled on my device.

I attest to that, and I want my money. And the final settlement is slated for February fourteenth with the judge, so we're not gonna have anything until, you know, later this year. And then of course you have the time period where you have to submit your claim or you know, get yourself out of the class action all that good stuff. So it's not gonna happen overnight, but just something to

keep your mind on now. I think that this case really highlights the import of understanding privacy settings on your devices and the terms and conditions whenever you set up a device. Ninety nine percent of the time, the selections that are sort of pre selected are going to be in the company's best interest, not yours. Right, they want the most that they can get out of you because they're collecting as much data as possible to make their products better and of course make money off of what

you do. And so there are a couple things you can do to you know, improve your privacy. Number one, on the iPhone, you can turn off this entire area where you're improving Siri and dictation with your interaction. So if you go into your settings Privacy and Security, then Analytics and Improvements, that's where you can say turn off Siri and Dictation. The other thing you can do is also flip your phone over. If you don't want your iPhone listening to you, just flip it over and so

if it's screened down, Siri will not be listening. Go ahead and try it, say Hey s with your phone face up, it'll spring to action. Flip your phone over, it will not spring to action. So that's another way to do it. Now. On Android, there is a way to sort of manage your voice and audio activity. So if you go into your settings, you tap on Google, You've got your name and an email address at the top.

You can go into Manage your Google Account, Data and Privacy, scroll down to history, tap Web and app activity, and then you can uncheck the box next to include voice and audio activity. Yeah, they don't make this stuff very easy to find. Alexa same thing. You can go into your Alexa app and delete your existing voice recordings, or you can prevent Alexa from saving your future voice recordings and using what you say and interact to help improve

the service. There's also a setting on Android which is quite handy. They don't have the same sort of flip over to disable Hey Google, but there is a setting on there where you can toggle the mic off globally, which is really handy. So if you don't want your phone listening, you don't want the microphone on at all. You can go into your quick settings up at the top, and there is one that you can add for your microphone.

So right now I have microphone access toggled off, which means my phone will not listen to me in any way, shape or form while that is off. And that means you can go ahead and try it, try voice typing, whatever you want, it will not listen.

on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you, talking technology at triple A Rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Let's take our first call from riverside. Joe, You're on with Rich.

July first. That clearly didn't happen. Huh. Yeah, Now, they did just launch this transparent TV here in the States, which is that was like sixty thousand dollars. So was the M Was the M three here or no.

this TV. I mean, there's so many models that are available that.

of that wireless connectivity on more TVs. I think LG was sort of like the first that really pushed that. I remember them showing us that, and I think more companies maybe will have that this year, so it'll probably be standard in a couple years.

a TV. But I was just like, I want to see I want to see the price point on the m for you know, and see if it makes sense to get that wireless or if it just makes more sense for me to fish my HDMI cables through the back of the drywall, which is not terribly hard.

note of it to check at CES this year. Thanks for the call, appreciate.

for your kids? And literally you send your loved ones a list of stuff and they just ship it to your house. And we were getting boxes. We're like, who's this from? Had like, no, noe, no nothing. It's like, is that really the meaning of gift giving? All right? Coming up, we're gonna talk about one of my new favorite apps. It's called All Trails. I'll explain coming up right here on rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking

technology at triple eight Rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. The website for the show richon Tech dot TV. If you've got a Samsung phone, Samsung is releasing a very inexpensive fitness tracker, the Galaxy Fit three. It will be available in the US on January ninth. This thing is just sixty dollars, so it looks like a smart watch. If you've been wanting to get on that smart watch fitness tracker sort of thing, but you didn't want to

spend two three hundred dollars for something. This is a great deal at this price. So it's got a small touchscreen, monitors, obviously over one hundred workout types, running, swimming, cycling, tracks your sleep, you're snoring, blood, oxygen, heart rate, even your stress. May not want to check that one when you're at work. Up to thirteen days of battery life if you've got the display sort of like turned off. If you have

it always on, you're gonna get like three days. Like I said, it's got everything you need for sixty bucks, so not a bad deal. I like how Samsung has a wide variety of products, right, Like they don't just do the premium, high end stuff. They've got stuff for everyone's budget. And this Fit three has been available in other countries for a while now, but they're bringing it to the US on January ninth, so kind of cool.

And I love the fact that it works with all the Samsung phones and apps that they already have all right, speaking of getting fit, Like I said, I was in Sidona recently and we did a lot of hiking, and this is an app that I've had on my phone for a while, but I had sort of a light bulb moment in Sodona with this All Trails app and it just really really helped us explore the outdoors. So joining me now, Kai Twan Mo from All Trails, Welcome

to the show. Thanks Rich thanks for having me so explain what All Trails is for the person that doesn't know.

I know there's so many different hikes. I wanted to find stuff that was appropriate for my family, right, like my two kids, and so I put on like literally the I switched the filters to say, like, I only want four and a half stars, right like the top rated trails. I want stuff that's you know, easy or maybe moderate great views, Like, there's so many different sliders you can you know, kind of dial in exactly what you want. So how do you figure all this stuff out?

supposed to go in green. And so if you come up to like a fork in the trail, you know how sometimes people walk off trail and they kind of make an area that's really not the trail. And all trails, by the way, does a good job of like showing you where the trail is on your phone. But I love the idea that literally you look at your watch and you just kind of move your watch left and

right and it will highlight the correct path. That to me is like it just gives you so much reassurance that you're not going to get lost out there.

I want to talk about is privacy. So, you know, since this is a community, you know the things that you do sometimes could be put on your profile that could be public explained like what's public versus private, like without changing any settings, and what people should look at if they want to change those settings.

be adjusted in your privacy settings. You can make it either totally private so that only you can see it if you don't want to share your outdoor adventures with anyone else. You can also set it to just people, you know, a sort of smaller group, or you can, of course, like you said, have it be public and our public trove of you know, reviews and photos. That's a huge part of what makes All Trails special and

our communities united by love of the outdoors. So we're really grateful that people continue to pick us outside that way.

accessibility info. Really kind of game changing if you're planning a trip to a place where there might not be great service, and so many spectacular outdoor places are exactly that way.

as this incredibly interesting intersection of outdoors and tech. You know, this is a company that is so focused on innovation and moving incredibly quickly, but also fundamentally so deeply committed to being intentional technology. You know, you mentioned earlier. We're on our screens so much, we're at our desks so much. We know that time outside is essential to physical and mental health, and so we want to make sure that people can do that as part of their everyday life.

That is not a special occasion to go outside. And so just that that mission, the commitment to the mission to get the world, help the world find its way outside.

The website richon tech dot TV. If you want notes for today's show, just hit episode one oh three, and if you want to email me, just hit contact up at the top. Rich on tech dot TV. So no doubt you heard about these two attacks, one in New Orleans, one in Las Vegas. They both involved cars that were rented through a service called Turo. And this is not the publicity they wanted, but obviously a lot of people are now just hearing about Turo for the first time.

So what is Turo. Turo is like Airbnb, but for cars. So if you have a car, let's say, you know, use it a couple of days a week, but the rest of the time it just sits there. You can rent this out to other people. And this has been around for a long time. It's not like a new thing. I've personally not used Turo. I'm well aware of it. For me, it's always been a matter of every time I look to rent a car on there, which, by the way, it started out really cheap, but now I

feel like it's not anymore. It was just always kind of like the same price and more hassle than getting from Hurtz or Avis or something like that. So what's the deal with this Turo thing? So they have what's called a Turo risk score algorithm. So when someone rents a car from you, you know, they put all the information into the app, their driver's license, stuff like that credit card number, and then they, according to Bloomberg, look

at fifty different data points to screen renters. Now I don't know how both of these renters got through this risk score with no problem, but Turo did confirm that both of these cars were rented through them. One was a Tesla cyber truck. Obviously you know that because that was very much in the news. The Ford f one point fifty was a lightning, which is their electric car or electric truck, I should say, So what went wrong here? I mean, this just brings up the idea of you've

got these peer to peer platforms and they're everywhere. You've got Airbnb, I mean Uber is really peer to peer. You're driving your car picking up strangers. Turo is where you're literally renting someone else's car from them and they may drop it off to you at the airport. You may pick it up at a parking lot if it's something like a Tesla or another car that has like you know, easier sort of digital key access. That makes

life a lot easier with renting these things out. But you know, it just it just raises a lot of questions about like what's the vetting process of these companies? Are we safe using them? Are you safe renting through them or you know, driving through them? How are these people screened? You know, you think about Uber, you know this driver, It's like, how do you know what this

driver's all about? And every time I've asked Uber or Lift about their screening process, you know, they do a very if you ask me, it's a very light background check. In fact, I'll tell you the story that I told when I went to Nashville last year or year before. I think it was my driver, you know, I got to the area of my hotel I said, oh, it's a really nice area, Like, what's the deal with it? And he's like, Oh, I don't know. I'm just I'm

just driving for my brother who's in the hospital. What like. He literally just used his Relatives app to sign in and you know it was just picked up his phone and started driving the car. Now, that is something I never thought of in a million years, Right. You think that the driver that you have is the driver on the app that you ordered. And I don't know if you've ever looked at the picture of the driver on the app, but it's always blurry. It's not like the

clearest thing. It's not like you could tell exactly who this person is. And so ever since then I'm like, Okay, that's an a fear unlocked that I never really thought about. Someone could just literally drive with someone else's app. So I know that Uber does sort of like because I looked into it. Afterwards, they will ask drivers to take like a selfie at the beginning of their shift or

something like that. But again, these systems aren't perfect, and so being aware of the implications of these is always a good thing. And for me now I always check the driver. I always check their picture I always kind of try to make sure it's the person that's driving me. But again, you know, it's just one of these things where we have to think about this stuff. Turo, for their part, they said they're, you know, cooperating with law enforcement.

Neither attacker had a criminal background according to their research that they did. And this is a company where you know, they've got like four hundred thousand cars listed for rent, billions of dollars that's been done through this. I look at Turro reported hundred and twenty two million dollars in revenue in the first nine months of twenty twenty four. So people are using it for the most part. It's fine, but it's just stuff to keep in mind when you're

using this stuff. Let's go to Mike in Los Angeles. Mike, you're on with Rich.

it depends how much you're sending. But just taking a quick look online, you know, some people are reporting that the dot net domains are sometimes associated with more spam, so maybe Hotmail has sort of flagged these servers, but it's odd that it's happening with all of those domain emails. Now the other side of this is that you know, Yahoo has taken over sort of servicing all of those email addresses that you mentioned, the Cox email, the SBC, the AT and T that's all being done by Yahoo now,

so there could be something there as well. I would just make sure sure before you send these, just make sure that your account is on the up and up, like you're you're not at your limit, you know, these attachments things like that, and see if that helps. But I'll keep an eye out on this. That's an interesting one eight eight eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four two four one zero one. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you,

talking technology at triple eight Rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to two four to one zero one. The website for the show is rich on Tech dot tv. If you want links to anything I mentioned, just hit the episode number one oh three, and coming up this hour, we're gonna talk pictures. I don't know if you've scanned in your pictures yet or if you have a way to kind of organize and manage your digital photo collection, which mind just grows by the dozens

every day, every single day. We're gonna have Christa Kowalchik talk to us about preserving and organizing both your digital and print photos. We'll have her on just a little bit later. Greg writes in through the website. When I open up the passwords app on my iPhone and select the Wi Fi option, I see my Wi Fi information and other networks I've accessed. Some are listed as WPA two personal, and I can unmask their passwords, including my own. I have two big concerns. Can I unmask my Wi Fi?

Can others unmask my Wi Fi password using the passwords app? How can I prevent this? Is it normal for me to see passwords for other networks? This feels like a security issue. I'm worried my Wi Fi password could be exposed to anyone nearby. Has Apple addressed this as a security flaw? Good question, Greg. For many years password Wi Fi passwords were sort of hidden on the iPhone, mostly inaccessible unless you really knew what you were doing. But now they are all inside the passwords app. So this

does bring up some good concerns. Number One, there there's not a security flaw here. This is just what's new, and so Apple has by default put all of your passwords for Wi Fi networks that you've connected to in the past in your Passwords app. That's the new app

they introduced with iOS eighteen. It's on most iPhones at this point if you've upgraded to the software, the latest software, and so before there were ways of seeing the passwords for Wi Fi networks that you connected to with previous iOS versions, but it wasn't clear and it wasn't easy. Now this is much easier. So I understand the concern there. These are networks that you have connected to, So these are not random networks. These are not networks that our secret.

They are everything that you've connected to. So the answer to your first question, can others unmask your Wi Fi password? Yes, they can, only if you've given them access to your Wi Fi network. So that's the main thing to know here. Now, I understand that a lot of people scan QR codes to log onto Wi Fi networks and the password is just in there. It's not secretive. So typically what I'd recommend is that you do not use a password for your Wi Fi network that is easily guessed or that

accesses other stuff anywhere. And I take it a step further, I would not allow people in your home to use your primary Wi Fi network, I would set up a guest network. And I understand there's a little bit of like, you know, it's a little bit of social awkwardness when someone comes to your house and they're like, oh, what's the coach pat your WiFi and you're like, oh, here's

the guest network. I get it. It's a little awkward, but for security reasons, and I usually just tell people, Hey, for security reasons, I have everyone log onto my guest network. In case there's a major issue, I can wipe all those off the network very easily. So I would suggest having a guest network in general. Is it normal for me to see passwords of other networks? This feels like

a security issue, Yes, now it is. So again, it goes back to that whole idea of don't use a password that is easily guessed or that accesses other stuff in your life. So do not use your email password as your Wi Fi password. Let's see, I'm worried my WiFi password could be exposed to anyone nearby. No, that's

not true. They would have to connect to your network before they can see the password, and you would have to give them the password for them to connect to the network, so it's a chicken versus Egg kind of thing. You know, you have to give them the password. Once they have that password, they'd be able to see that password even if they sign in with a QR code. That QR code has the password embedded in it, so anyone with a QR code reader could look at that.

So I'm looking through all my passwords and it's actually kind of funny like looking through these because people do use some interesting passwords for their works, so yes, be aware of that. It is available. And on the Android side of things, you can see the passwords as well. So if you go into your settings, you go into connections and you look at let's see here, I got to find where they are on here, but if you look at the let's see, I'd have to look for it.

But if you look for oh, managed networks there it is. So if you go to manage networks, you tap one of those networks, you can easily see the password for that network as well all the networks that you've connected to. I actually think it's kind of fun to see all the networks you've connected to because it's kind of like a little who's who list of where you've been. But yeah, please be careful with your Wi Fi passwords. Don't just give them to anyone and set up a guest network.

Kia is recalling over twenty two thousand of their EV nine electric SUVs. The reason some of the back seats might be missing their bolts. Yeah, not a good not a good look, Kia. So this apparently was an assembly line worker error at their plant in South Korea. The good news is no one's been hurt. There's not been any reports of injuries or accidents. But this is this is twenty over twenty two thousand EV nine electric SUVs

from model years twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five. Now, these are the SUVs that have second and third row seats. This was a hot this is still a hot suv. It's all electric, it's got third row seats. This was one of the first EV's that had third rows besides like the Rivian, and so you know, this was a

very popular car, still is. And so this is not exactly the look that Kia wanted with this car because a lot of people probably got it thinking oh this is cool, this is new, and now this is happening. So not every car has the issue, but Kia will You're gonna have to bring this car into a dealer to have them inspect it and put in the bolts if they're not there. So Key is going to start notifying affected owners by male starting January twenty fourth. This

will all be free, of course, for the fix. But you know loose, You might hear loose or rattling seats and if that was driving you nuts, because you have one of these cars, it's not just you, it's them. Let's go to eight eight eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Let's go to Diane in a menafee. You're on with rich.

of that picture. But it's because it's capturing. It's almost like a think of a film strip, right, So you've got when you take a picture, you're taking just one of those frames of that film strip. But what this phone is doing, it's capturing a couple of those film stripped, you know, those frames. So if you want to turn this off, it's actually quite easy. It's a feature called

motion photo. And in the upper part of your frame of your phone, when you're taking a picture, you should see a little square box that almost looks like a play button, and if you press that, you can toggle it on or off. It's called motion photo. And so that is that is the feature that I would toggle off. You can also go into your settings for camera and

toggle it off that way as well. So if you can't find it on your screen, you can go into your camera settings and you can switch it off inside there. So if you go, let's see, I'm looking for my camera settings, let's see here is it in there? Let's see, Yeah, shooting methods, okay, settings to keep let's see. I'm on a beta version of the software, which I realized quickly that I should not have done that for the purposes of this show, because my settings are completely different. But Bobo,

you've got the Samsung. Do you see that little when you open up your camera? Do you see a little almost like looks like a play button inside you know, a square? Yes?

to find things. All of my stuff is different it's all in different places eight eight eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four two four one zero one The website rich on tech dot tv more after this, Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you, talking technology. The website for the show rich on Tech dot TV. While you go there, be sure to sign up for my free newsletter rich on Tech dot TV. Hit sign up. It will arrive at

your inbox usually every Saturday morning. It's filled with a whole bunch of tips, tricks, stuff I'm thinking about that week. It's kind of like a version of this radio show, but in newsletter form, so you get a lot of good information, a lot of useful information and things that I think you should know. Let's go to Steve in Edmunds, Washington. Steve, you're on with rich.

exceeded the free level. You're going to have to pay, And so I thought, well, you know, what's a few bucks? Well just kept Now I'm paying like ten dollars a month because of the level that I'm at for a five to twelve phone, and so I thought, well, they I'll just do this on my own. I'll turn off Google Photos. I know there's a lot of tips online about doing that, but I don't see anything that works.

And I'm reading about that people complaining you really can't turn it off, and so if you do, try to just nuke it on your phone, you risk losing all your pictures. There's no assurance that I can see that you're gonna that I can survive that. Even if I do have back my pictures back up backed up, I just don't want to go through that hassle. So so that's why I'm I'm wondering about how do I.

that's a lot I've got. I mean, I'm saying that I've got like two terabytes. It's I mean, my my Google photos is a whole other concern. But ill, let's get through yours. So what i'd recommend is, you know what you need to do is, first off, I would just back up all these photos from your phone to an external drive. Once you know you have them all backed up, are good, then you can go into Google Photos,

and you can turn off Google Photos. There's a setting on there that just says, you know, back up, and if you go into your settings, you just turn off backup. And so.

dot com from your computer. Don't do this on your phone. Do this on your computer and you'll see where it says storage. You tap that and it says clean up space. And once you go in there, you can clean up either large files. Like what I would do is for you just get rid of some of the big photo files, right, some of the big photos or videos that you have inside there. So you can do that and that's very easy.

It'll organize all your pictures by large and you can just delete, like whenever I need more space or want to get rid of some stuff. I just literally go through there and delete, you know, ten or twenty files whatever. The other thing you can do is, if you want to get rid of these photos from Google but keep them on your phone, go to photos dot Google dot com from a web browser and you can now delete pictures out of your Google account, but they will not

delete off your phone. And that's what I would do there. So those are the two things that I would do. One dot Google dot com free up storage. If you want to get rid of these pictures completely, go to photos dot Google dot com and you can select a whole bunch at once and just delete them. They'll remain on your phone, and make sure that backup has turned off. Great question today, Steve eighty eight rich one oh one. We're gonna talk more about pictures and videos coming up

right after this. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you talking technology at Triple eight rich one oh one. The website for the show is rich on Tech dot tv eighty eight seven four to two four one zero one. I was just checking my Facebook. I forgot that I posted about this, but Facebook dot com slash rich on Tech. My kid got this uh weighted blanket for Christmas. My my mother in law gave it to him. I don't know if you asked for it or what, but I was like, what

is the deal with a weighted blanket? And so he said he loved it, and I was like, I don't let me try this thing. You put this thing on. I don't know if you've ever been to the dentist where they put that extray blanket, that's what it feels like. But I'm not kidding. I've had my like three best naps I've ever had in my life. We were joking because my wife put it on on our drive to Sodona. She put it on in the car. She never falls asleep in the car, fell asleep like a baby. So

we think this is like a magic blanket. You know it. I have one, You have a weighted Why is everyone keeping these a secret?

That's next. I do like my sleep mask. I'm telling you. See, I thought the sleep mask was the way to fall asleep, and now it's like the sleep mask, the weighted blanket. Slept like a baby yesterday. All right, joining me now. Professional photographer Christa Kowalcik. Christa, thanks for joining me.

was floodwater and it just destroyed homes. There were over five thousand homes that they lost every they lost their photos.

a few clients a year. They go right to them and help them to organize and digitize their pictures.

we lost them. They're you know, the birthday party or the baby shower, just things that we have old print photos of that aren't necessarily being passed down for generations, but we want to have that memory saved, and I think photomine is a fabulous app for that.

album of like some of my favorite pictures. I think that's very exciting.

rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you talking technology took me a bit there. I was furiously typing up the show notes for all the things that Christa, our photo guest, mentioned. It's all on the website rich on tech dot tv. So everything that she just mentioned, all the different ways to organize your photos, it's all right there on the website rich on tech dot TV. Let's see here coming up, Let's see. Oh that's next hour.

I'll tell you about that next hour. Let's talk about Gloria. She wrote in is it a bad idea to buy electronics like cell phones, tablets or laptops from shopping channels? Good question, Gloria, I don't think so. I would say my main concern would be to make sure the return policy is good, like make sure it's easy to return, because you're getting these site on scene, and that the warranty matches what you're getting if you bought it from

somewhere else. That's the main thing. The other thing I would say is just, you know, just make sure you know what you're buying and if it's actually a good deal. I think a lot of times are these home shopping networks and these home shopping channels you know, the whole point is like you've either have credit with them or it's for easy pay or something like that, so you may be spending more than you need to on these gadgets.

So i'd always look up the actual model number on something like an Amazon or Best Buy and just see if it's the same price. If it is, it might be easier just to buy it from a place you already go to. But and then also make sure that it's the current model. So sometimes you may be getting a really good deal on these things because it's the previous model or a model that's no longer being made. But you know, I don't know, I have no problem

with this. I actually I actually have always thought that I'd be a great person to be on these channels, Like I love talking about gadgets. In fact, it's funny when you do kind of like a first look at gadgets, you know, that's what you're doing. You're you're basically like if you're talking about it to camera, you're kind of memorizing all these different little features and then kind of selling it to camera. So I always thought it'd be really fun to be on like a home shopping channel.

But I think a lot of people just buy this stuff because it sounds really cool, and then they get it and I don't know do they open it or use it. But Gloria, if you like it, it looks good, go ahead get it. I have no problem with it. I got an email from someone asking about advanced data protection. Actually, this person contacted me on Instagram. They said, hey, I saw this reel tells me to turn on advanced data protection on the iPhone. Should I do it? So, let

me explain what advanced data protection is. This basically gives you end to end encryption on your iCloud data. So iCloud data is pretty much a lot of your stuff that's on your iPhone is already end to end encrypted, but this increases that protection from certain categories, like certain things like already it's end to end encrypted, but this increases that protection of more categories, including your entire device, backup, your photos, and your notes, which means only trusted devices

can access them. So with ADP, which Advanced Data Protection activated, Apple cannot access your encrypted data in any way, shape or form. So this means that if there's a data breach on Apple servers and your stuff got out there, no one would be able to see your pictures, or

your data or your info. Sounds great, right, But the downside is if you forget your password or you forget the recovery key for your iCloud, there is no way you'll be able to recover this data ever, never, ever, ever, So if you're someone that loses your passwords can't remember things, this might not be the best thing to turn on. That's one of the downsides. The other downside is that all of your devices that are linked to your iCloud account have to be updated to the latest operating system

to have this benefit turned on. So that means if you're running a combination of devices on your account, all of them have to be updated. If some of them can't be, then you cannot. You either have to remove that device from your account or you can't activate this.

The other downside is that a lot of functionalities of act accessing your iCloud data via the web will be disabled because you cannot access this stuff via the web because it's a whole complicated situation, but because it's not a trusted device that has the key to unencrypt your information, it can't access it. And the web browser is not equipped to do that, So that means you just can't access.

So if you ever said, oh, I lost access to my phone, let me go to iCloud and grab my pictures or grab my contacts, No, not going to happen because you have this ADP on. So this would fall under the category of stuff you see online and it looks really good and you see this expert quote unquote telling you what to do and you don't realize there are implications, pros and cons of every action in this world. And so I get these things all the time. Cybersecurity experts,

data experts, iPhone experts, Android experts, expert, expert, expert. If someone calls themselves an expert, I'm always concerned, right because what does that mean? Do you have a PhD and iPhone? You have a PhD and Android? Like, what is expert mean you've studied these or does it mean that you just you know? Like I always, I don't consider myself an expert anything. I just know a lot about technology

and I don't even know everything about technology. I just cover this stuff on a daily basis, so I'm versed in it. And again, when it comes to answering tech questions, you know people think you have all the answers. I

don't have all the answers. But the difference between someone like myself and you know, people that are smart about technology is that you understand how to figure out the answer, Where to go for the answer, who to talk to for the answer, what the implications of that answer is, the pros and cons of things that, to me is much more useful than expert tells you to turn on this setting, turn off this setting. If you look at all the stuff that I post to Instagram, Facebook, I

explain the pros and cons. I explain what's going on, so you understand and you can make an informed decision. I don't just say you should turn this feature on. I explain what the feature is and why you might want to turn it on. So with this advanced data protection, in all these advanced security features, there's a reason why Apple doesn't just turn them on for you, or Android doesn't just turn them on for you. It's because there usually are reasons why you may want them on and

you may want them off. If you're smart, you know what you're doing, You're with it. You understand technology, turn it on, understand it, you understand the pros and cons This is rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. My name is rich Demiro, hanging out with you talking technology. The website for the show rich on Tech dot tv. If you want to send me an email, go to

the website rich on tech dot tv. Hit contact and there you can submit feedback, submit questions, comments, whatever you'd like. That's what KL did. KL wrote in about my comments about the weighted blankets, saying kids have died using weighted blankets and that was news to me, but I did look it up and apparently, yes, there were a couple of kids that did die in April twenty twenty two by these weighted blankets sold by Target, which led to

a huge recall. Now those were apparently a design flaw, but you know, just looking at the tips here, it's saying that you got to be age appropriate, not recommended for babies or toddlers. Check the manufacturers age recommendations, proper size and weight. Kids should be supervised. And you know this is all common sense. It goes without saying. But you know, since I did mention them, I should probably

say that. You know, if you're going to use one of these blankets, you know, probably make sure that your child can handle something like this.

I mean there wasn't even seatbelts. I mean kids would sleep like on the you know they had these big old station wagons, right and kids would sleep on like the back like you.

that was the coolest thing ever. And now when you think about, like how these rear end crashes, like maybe not the best place to put your kids something so.

Keep up the great content in twenty twenty five. This has been an ongoing question since day one of this show. The short answer is no. The other answer is if you want to see the first ten minutes of the show that is part of my rich On Tech Weekly show, which airs on KTLA plus, part of the TV station I work for here in Los Angeles, you can see the first ten minutes of the show that you would have to download the KTLA plus app on your Roku, your Apple TV, your Fire TV, or your Samsung Smart TV.

And that's a weekly show that airs and you can see the first ten minutes of the radio show. Don't really have plans for live right now. I'm on TV Live every day, and so this is sort of like, you know, a time when I'm not doing live unless something changes, we'll see. Let's go to Deborah in Santa Monica. Deborah, You're on with Rich by Rich.

reason to use it. Another reason is you just want captions because you're, you know, watching something in class. You don't want to disturb someone else. You know, there's lots of reasons why you might activate this. I made the joke Tebra about no one ever changes features, because it's an ongoing joke. When someone comes to me with a problem, they say, I didn't change anything. But you know, sometimes

what happens is we tap a button by accident. We you know, just something you know, gets hit in our pocket, whatever it is. And so that's just kind of my inside tech show for anyone. My mom calls me with a problem and I'm like, she's like, and I didn't touch a thing. I was like, Okay, no one ever touches anything. But here's how we do it. So this is an accessibility feature. So there are a couple of ways to turn it on and off. The first way is to go into settings and tap accessibility and to

choose live captions and turn that on or off. Are you is that the feature that's not there?

way of bringing it up. The other way to bring it up is to press the volume button on your Android phone, and when you press that volume button, there is a little captions icon. So if you press volume up and then press Settings, you should see a little live caption's icon. In that main settings page of your volume. You'll see a whole bunch of sliders you tap there

and that should toggle it on or off. The third way to find it is to swipe down from the top of your screen and you see a whole bunch of widgets like to turn on and off, the airplane mode, the flashlight location, whatever it is. And then if you tap the little edit button there, it's like a maybe a pencil icon, and then you tap edit on your widgets for your These are called quick tiles that it should say available buttons, and one of those should be

labeled live captions. Tap that and you should now it'll put it into those quick tiles. Tap done, and then once you swipe down to bring up those quick tiles, make sure you expand it. You should have a new option that says live caption and you can toggle it on or off right there. So those are three ways, Deborah, to turn that on and off. Please send me an email. Go to rich on Tech dot TV. Send me an email so I have your email address and I will give you when I get home, I will give you

specific directions for the one plus phone. But that is the three ways in general on Android that you can turn on and off live caption. If you ask me, they should have it right on the captions when they show up. That would make the most sense. Let me just see, I'm playing a YouTube video and you would think it would have them right on, you know, a little toggle right on there. But I guess it doesn't do that. Eight eight eight rich one O one eight

eight eight seven four two four one zero one. This is rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich On Tech. Eight eight eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four two four one zero one, the website rich on Tech dot tv. Don't forget this show is available as a podcast. Just search rich on Tech in your favorite audio app. Never miss an episode. Of course, the best way to listen is live right here on the radio. That's my preferred way. But the podcast is fun as well.

Apple Fitness Plus. I don't know if you're a person that wants to close your rings on a daily basis, I know I am. If you have an Apple Watch, those rings represent the move minutes that you get on a daily basis standing up every hour for like twelve hours. And then what's the third one? The steps you take on a daily basis. Let me say, I don't even know. I'm only worried about the move minutes. Let's see here, Oh, great segment, rich You don't even know what you're talking about.

Move minutes exercise interesting? Oh move is your calories? Okay, I don't worry about that. So you got the calories, exercise minutes and then stand minutes. So yeah, if you're someone who wants to do that. Apple came up with this thing called Apple Fitness Plus a couple of years ago. During the pan lets you work out from your phone or your Apple Watch. It started out you had to have an Apple Watch. Now you can do it just

through your iPhone. But I visited their Apple Fitness Plus studio in Santa Monica to get a little preview of some of the new programs they have for twenty twenty five. They're launching all of these on Monday, January sixth, largest ever lineup of their fitness and mindfulness programming. And they've got new strength training. So the thing about strength training, it's very intimidating. You've got people like Bobo that work out all the time and they know what they're doing.

Every time you go on Instagram, he's with lifting more weight. I'm like, I never lift that. But if if you're intimidated by that, you know, maybe you just want to start small. So this program you can start with any weight and it could be anything. So if you if you strong and you already want to lift a lot, you can start with that, or if you don't want to lift a lot, you can start with that. Then they've got pickleball conditioning, so that's new. I know pickleball

is very popular. They've got these programs so you can learn like specific yoga poses and then of course breath meditation. The other feature I really think is great. If you're just trying to move your you know, move yourself, get yourself up and out of the house, it's called time to walk. And so they interview all these like celebrities and notable people and you just walk with them, so they're in your ear. You just walk and they talk and tell their story and before you know it, you

got thirty minutes of walk time. Fitness Plus is also integrating with Strava for the first time ever in a big way, so you can see detailed tracking and workouts shared on the app, so it's a bigger integration. I don't use Strava, so I'm not totally knowledgeable about that, but I know a lot of people love it, especially I think it start out with like the biker community, not the motorcycle bikers.

get it. But anyway, it's kind of fun. Let me just give you a quick idea of Apple, how they operate, you know, and I know I talk about Apple a lot. I also talk about Android. I like both, but you know they're two very different companies, right, But like Apple, So I go to these studios and they open the door for me and they're like, hey, before you go in, just so you know, we have a lot of energy around here. I'm like, all right, what does that mean?

They opened the door. They had secretly collected every employee in the building. So I'm talking like I don't know one hundred people at this building, and they were all standing there in the lobby when I walk in, and all just like clapping and shouting and saying welcome, rich and it's just like, you know, these big smiles. And I was so taken aback because it's just like this is Apple is just such a unique company. I mean, to grab everyone. Can you imagine doing that at any

company you work for? Say, hey, this guy's coming in today. Let's let's grab everyone downstairs and let's have them all, you know, say hello in the lobby and like cheer for him. Bill from Kingston, Pennsylvania, who listens to the podcast, writes in I'm considering replacing my Moto Edge twenty twenty two with a Pixel xcel Pro. I'm also intrigued by the one plus thirteen, which is coming out in January. The Pixel has a higher price plus two extra years

of support, but the one plus looks impressive. What's your take? You don't mention one plus often, but I know you're a fan of the Pixel. Here's my take historically, and I am testing the one plus thirteen, so I have been using it. I can't tell you everything I'm under embargo, but I will tell you that here's my thought. The Pixel is all about the software and camera. One plus is all about very very good hardware at a great price. So if you're looking for the best camera out there,

I'd say probably go with the Pixel. If you're looking for a great value of hardware and price, I think the one plus thirteen might be your best bet. But I will have more about the one plus when I can talk about it and give my full review. That will be coming up soon in the next couple of weeks. But I will say the photos are looking good off of this one plus thirteen. Coming up next, we're going to talk to Gerald Casulis of nord VPN about the biggest scams to watch out for in twenty twenty five.

Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here talking technology with you. We're going to get to the top scams of twenty twenty five in just a second here, But first, Kenny from Warwick, Rhode Island, rights in I rented a Kia EV six while traveling in North Carolina and love the quiet responsive drive. However, finding a reliable EV charger was a challenge. I dealt with charging anxiety when Google Maps led me to chargers I couldn't use or were occupied. Is there an app that makes finding

chargers easier for non Tesla drivers, Kenny? This is why I only rented a EV once, and I drive an EV, so believe me, I love them, but I think renting one is a little bit different because people are not prepared for the fact that you do have to charge this thing, and charging a non Tesla EV can be tricky. As you experienced, these third party charging stations can be very hit or miss. Sometimes they don't work, they're not maintained, just it's a mixed bag. So two apps that can help.

One is called plug Share plug Share. This is a really handy app. It's crowdsourced. People put information in about apps or sorry about apps, about the charging stations everywhere, so you can look for them that way. The other one is called a Better Route Planner a Better Route Planner and this was actually bought by Rivian, but it

still operates. It looks like it operates independently, and they do have an app and so you can put in your information you want to look for, you know, chargers along the way, you can say what kind of car you have. It's got a lot of great information there, but at the end of the day, like you experience, sometimes when you get to these places, the charger may just not work. And that's getting better because Tesla is opening up its super charging network to third party cars

and brands. But you need an adapter most of the time. And it is a kind of a slow process because they've announced this, but not everyone's on board right away. So Kenny, thanks for the email, Thanks for listening to the podcast to appreciate it. Gerald casulis now on the line from nord VPN. You probably have heard of NordVPN. They have all kinds of security programs and VPN programs. He's going to talk to us about twenty twenty five

top cyber threats. Gerald, thanks for joining me today. Hi Rich, thanks for having ny So what is NordVPN all about? What I mean, I know the VPN, but you guys got a whole bunch of products.

could be your email. There's another website I got breached somewhere that could be your address, And that combo list is going to be basically everything, all the information accessible from numerous different breaches that could potentially have your full contact details, your social security number, your telephone number, your addresses, a bunch of information that would made for cyber clinels to potentially steal your identity a lot easier and purchase those type of combolists.

deep fake technology. It makes that type of synthetic identity fraud a lot easier, and combining the real information with fake information will be would be a lot harder for you to get triggered to know that's happening in the background. And it differs from the traditional identity debt where normally your full information would be used where you might find out about it a lot sooner because it could come up on your credit report a lot easier.

of some sort, to put malware attacked together. Right, So meaning that for me, the entry barriers as a potential hacker gets very very low, where I don't need to know how to code, how to put active activities frogun activities together. AI tools would do that for me, and I'll be able to target Rich. I could have your email, I'd be able to send out automate I think emails that would be AI generated with intention of defrauding you.

So sophistication itself, it goes to the roofs and make it makes it a lot easier for individuals to actually operate in a negative manner.

update your Internet of Things devices. If you've got like a smart refrigerator, make sure you update those devices because being they're not tooriously weak in terms of cybersecuity measures, some very easy to for hackers to actually get into them. So I think that many things that we can do so not all of it is lost, which is a good thing.

It was like looked brand new. And it turned out I was trying to you know. When we passed by, I was like to my wife, I was like, I got to take a picture of this thing? What is this? And sure enough I see a little sign TSMC like TSMC What I did not realize they had a giant manufacturing facility in Arizona. That's a Taiwan semiconductor manufacturing company.

They make chips for all kinds of devices. So this is kind of like the I mean, I know some of you will get angry for me saying this, but this is almost like the intel of our you know, current times. Like they just make all kinds of chips and everything. And this was a multi billion dollar plant anyway near Phoenix. So the cars in that parking lot. You can always tell a good company by the quality of the cars in the parking lot, and these were

some nice cars. The entire parking lot was solar paneled, you know, coverage. So you're looking for a good job, I don't know, this might be the place. Anyway. I thought that was really cool to, you know, remind us that all this stuff we take for granted, there's a lot of chips that go into these phones and computers we have. They got to be made somewhere. This was interesting. Someone asked me to test out something like a free trial of a program, like some security program, and so

I signed up. It was like fifteen dollars a month. They offered like a seven day free trial. And here's the thing, Usually when I sign up for something, I cancel it right away, or I snooze the welcome email for you know, two or three days after so I can check it out and then remind myself to cancel. Well, I didn't get that welcome email, so I thought, that's

kind of shady. Come on, if you're signing up for something that requires your email address, you should get an email from that company that says thank you for signing up. Your trial ends on this day. Companies that don't send that, I would be wary of doing business with them, because that, to me is already getting off on a bad foot, because you know, I had no way of remember like it. Just a couple like hours later, I'm like, wait, where's this email? Never got it, went to the website directly

and canceled it. But anyway, and finally before we get to the feedback, my wife and I the other night needed some stuff for you know, like a little like whatever, just random stuff around the house. I forget what the one thing we needed was. But anyway, I said, why don't we try doordashing It Like, by the time we drive to Target pick up these three items, like DoorDash might be cheaper actually I think it was Uber Eat. And here's the thing. A lot of these companies are

doing like first time deals. So Uber was giving like fifty percent off your first like non food delivery order. So Target, you know, qualified, I'm not kidding. This stuff was at our house within twenty minutes. We ordered like five items and it was so cheap. It was cheaper than going there ourselves. And by the way, when you go to Target, you spend extra money because you buy stuff that you weren't thinking you were going to get.

And this thing was at our door, and I was like, this is wild, Like what world do we live in where this stuff is at our door quicker than we can drive to Target? And so I thought about that, but I was like, you know, the catch about all this is that, of course it's fifty percent off right now. All they want you to do is try it so that the next time, by the way, it's not going to be fifty percent off, you'll remember how convenient was

and maybe you'll do it again. And that's how these all these tech companies build business, so that they do it really cheap at the beginning, and then when you actually, you know, later on, use it again. It's like, Oh, where'd that discount go? There's no there's no promo codes anymore. All right, let's get to the feedback. Howard writes in

I enjoy your segments and radio show. I received an email about a one hundred dollars settlement from an auto parts antitrust case, but wasn't sure if it was legitimate. I searched online and found mixed results, but no news coverage. Can you suggest how to verify this? Yes, I can go to the website top class actions dot com, topclassactions dot com. He actually forwarded me the email and I popped it into this website the actual case number, and

sure enough it came up. And so any class action lawsuit type in a keyword into this website and it will tell you all the details on that. That's where I go to verify Top Classactions dot Com. There's a lot of those class action lawsuits, you know, percolating. Make sure they're legit before you do anything with them. Let's see here. Rudy from San Jose writes in you had a caller with an epsoen printer and an AT and T wireless internet who mentioned they had printing issues. I

wanted to share a tip. Many routers create two networks, a personal network and a guest network. The phone or computers on one network and the printer is on the other, they might not see each other. I had a similar issue at home and discovered this was the case. Thanks Rudy JL from Illinois rights in. I'd love for influencers like you to help educate people about the downsides of vertical video. It's becomes so common, but many people don't realize how much better videos look if they were shot

and horizontal. Even when the issue is pointed out, the trend continues. Can you help spread the word, you know, Jl, I used to care about this, and now I'm sorry. With TikTok and Instagram reels and all these vertical videos, that format is here to stay. My best solution is, if you are shooting anything that you're not sharing on social media, yes, shoot it in widescreen because that's what you see on your TV. But you know it's I

have no problem with it anymore. I have to shoot videos both ways because I'm shooting for TV and social It's just kind of the way of the world. Vanessa from Nevada rights in this while camping in Montana, my e bike was stolen. I tracked it with tile for nine hours all around town without success. Then two days later it pinged at a storage unit across town. With help from my son, daughter in law, her brother, and nephew. Oh wow, they brought out everyone. We went to the location.

I rang the tile, called the Sheriff's department and they heard the ring. After getting a warrant and cutting the lock, I got my one thousand dollars plus e bike back. I listened to you on KFI through iHeart on my echo. I love your show. Be careful when you're getting Just because you can see the location doesn't necessarily mean you should go in like the but you did the right thing,

got the officer involved. Teresa from Chicago rights in. I saw your segment before Christmas and immediately went out and got the remote control Geko at my local Target. It was the last one. My four and a half year old granddaughter loves it. I'm not very tech savvy, but I enjoy your segments. Thank you. My kid also loved the remote control Geko. We got it for him and now we're getting it for can't mention because they might

be listening. Kids love it, that's gonna do it. You can find links on the website rich on Tech dot TV, follow me on social media at rich on tech. Very important this week because I'll be at CES twenty twenty five in Las Vegas sharing the latest and AI wearables, cars, TVs, all the other good stuff. Thanks to everyone who makes this show possible. My name is Richdmiro. I will talk to you real soon.