Twitter is going to elon. Apple will now help you repair your own iPhone. Snapchat has a drone plus Your tech questions answered?
What's going on? I'm Rich Demiro and this is Rich on Tech, the podcast where I talk about the tech.
Stuff I think you should know about. It's also the place where I answer the questions you send me. I'm a tech reporter at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the live viewers on Facebook. And this time around, I'm actually taking live callers. So I've been wanting to try that for a long time. You know what, Let's just see if this works. Now, here's the deal. This is live on Facebook. The podcast goes out later on. But the reality is I'll take
the calls. I might have to chop it up a bit depending on how this works. I have no idea, but let's see. We've got two to one three on the line. Two one three you're on with Rich.
Hello, my name's Charlie. I got a new Samsung, the one you called the Model AF or F.
E Okay, yep, yep, af Yeah, the F the Samsung Fi Fan Edition, Right.
I love the phone. It's great, but can't figure out how to make it charge other items when you set them on the back.
Oh, that's a good question. Does it have the reverse charging capability?
Actually I thought you said it did. Let me say when you were reviewing it.
Oh, you know what, Yes it does. Okay, So here's how you do it.
So on your phone, open it up and swipe down from the top, and then you have to swipe down again and you have to edit press that little there's like a little upper right hand corner. There's like three dots and it says edit buttons, and then there should be a button if it's not already in there for the wireless charging.
So it's called power Share. Let's see if it's on this one. Uh no, I got to add it. So do you see what I'm talking about here?
Well, I swiped down twice. Let me Oh, the three dots run the top right buttons. There we go.
Okay, Now it says available buttons. I know, I say button weird. And then there's one that says wireless power Share.
You drag that.
Down to the uh to the bottom there and that will give you that button.
Okay, I have to re enter my pin. Darn it.
Yeah, it's a it's a handy feature and it's uh, it's basically once you so it doesn't it's not activated all the time, so they only you know, they want to save power by not having it activated all the time, so it's only when you press this button that will activate. So did you get to the part where it lets you edit the buttons?
There it says available buttons, and then I have to go to the let me see.
Not finding it, so it says edit buttons.
So did you see the upper right hand versays edit and then up at the top it says available. And there should be one that says wireless power shares on mine it says wireless po because it's cut off a little bit, okay, and then once you find that you can drag uptown.
Mine says wireless poo.
That's it.
Ok So, now you drag that down to the to the area with all the buttons and then you tap that before you want a power share and that should do it.
Great.
Thank you so much, Charlie. Where are you calling in? Founder? La?
I take it, La. Yeah, I work downtown Los Angeles. Have been at my job for twenty seven years. But I'm not going to say it because people are criticized me, don't call in while you're at work.
Bunch, don't worry about it.
We thank you for the call, appreciate it, and I'm glad this all worked. It seems like people can hear you, so that is amazing. Thank you and appreciate the rest of your da Have a good have a good day there in downtown La. Uh wow, I've got to say, I am what can I do for that?
I can. I don't have any clapping I have to do. I have to do this.
It actually worked to take the phone call. I cannot believe it. This is something I've wanted to do for so long, and I've done it in different iterations, but it's uh, you know, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But now I've got this full set up here and it's gonna work every time. So if you want to call in, give me a call. The phone number is three one nine five two seven six seven three seven.
Where's that area code? Area code three one nine? Where is that? I have no idea?
That is uh Iowa, But you know, it's just a phone number. They kind of generate. So if you have a question, call me. If you just want to chat, give me a call. Since this is kind of an experimental show, I'm not going to hold you to like a specific tech question, but if you want to just say hi, or test it out, whatever, I'm totally open to that. All right, let's talk about Twitter's new new owner, who is Elon Musk. I'm sure you've heard this story.
It's been in the news so much. I'm not going to do a whole lot on it because right now we are left with a lot of rumors, speculation, and just a lot of kind of opinions in this aspect of what's going to happen to Twitter now that Elon Musk is going to take it over.
But I'll just give you the nuts and bolts of it.
Twitter is now going to be owned by Elon Musk once this deal goes through. It's probably going to take six months to go through. But Elon Musk offered about basically paid forty four billion dollars for Twitter.
Bunch of that many.
Money came from himself from cash, bunch of the money came from Tesla in the form of a loan, A bunch of banks gave him.
Whatever. I'm not a finance guy, so I.
Don't know what they call it like a I don't know whatever, it's some sort of loan, but it's like financing.
I don't know, it's like debt financing. I don't really understand that stuff. But that's it.
He will own Twitter in the next six months, they're expecting. And of course this has been a hotbed issue because people are wondering what he means by making this a He wants to make free speech the bedrock of a functioning democracy. So people on the left are angry that it's gonna, you know, just basically take a downward spiral
into a very not nice place. People on the right are excited because they feel like they can you know, they feel like they were being held down by Twitter and so and people in the middle are just kind of like, I don't know, We're gonna wait and see what happens. But the reality is this is going to be a change. Elon wants to make Twitter better by giving it new features. He wants to open source the algorithm, defeat the spambots, and authenticate humans. So here is the
bottom line with this situation. The bottom line is that this costs a lot of money. Elon Musk is a smart guy and I don't think he is going to just let Twitter run into the ground and be a place where, you know, it's just full of hate speech and misinformation and all the things that you know, you can't really do on the other platforms.
So we'll see.
I mean, I'm optimistic that he'll make it better, right because Elon Musk has done really amazing things with Tesla, with SpaceX and Twitter. Even though I can't one hundred percent say that, I am a huge fan of what he's been tweeting ever since he took over.
Like I'm like, it's a little.
Bit like on the on the scale of like, uh, what's going on Elon, it's kind of like a nine out of ten right now, maybe a ten out of ten. And so I'm kind of hoping that's just kind of just to give him, you know, he just likes to kind of get people flustered and all this stuff. But I don't know, you know, there's also talk, of course, people talking in the chat room about unbanning Trump from Twitter, but we don't know, we don't know what's.
Going to happen.
So I'm hopeful that Twitter will become a bigger social network than it is, maybe more people. It's kind of an insider social network where people that are in the media, people that are select brutes brands use it, but average people don't typically use Twitter. Average people use Instagram, they use TikTok, and yeah, like Frank said in the live chat, he's not the most mature. No, he's definitely not for someone that's just spent forty four billion dollars on Twitter.
The stuff he's been tweeting has been a little bit surprising, you know. It's like, it's just I hope that it levels out. Let's put it that way. But that is the news with Twitter, and we'll see what happens. I mean, I'm curious, and I just hope that it's a good thing for Twitter personally. When it comes to Twitter, for me,
it's my least. It's interesting. It's a very important social network professionally, but it's not an important social network for me as a I don't know what you call a creator or someone like this, Like I'm choosing to go live here on Facebook because Facebook is where I have a lot of people following me. I would go live on Instagram. If I went live on Twitter, I'd have three people watching if so, it's just not a big place for me personally, so I just don't put that
much stock into it. Even though I love Twitter. I love the way it works, I love the functionality. I love how you can actually post stuff and post a variety of stuff, unlike Instagram, which is very much like complicated. Even though it looks pretty, it's complicated on the creator side because you know, it's just tough to do a lot of stuff on there, like you can't even post a link very easily.
So stay tuned on that one. All right.
You can call in if you want, if you want to chat, you can call in. That's one hundred percent okay. Otherwise, I'm gonna get to my questions that I have that people have pre sent in.
Uh, let's see, Eva says.
My husband and I are having discussion about what three words? Please help us understand why it's better than using GPS coordinates or just sharing your location with something like Google Maps.
Great question.
So if you watch me on KTLA, you know that I did a story on this app called what three Words?
And what three.
Words is basically GPS but in words. So what they've done is they've divided up the entire world into ten by ten squares, and so the app will reveal your ten by ten square wherever you're standing, and it will translate that into three words, and those three words you can send to someone and they can navigate right to those three words.
So how is it better than GPS?
Yes, every address in the world, well not every address, but I guess they do. It has a GPS or a physical address. So why would you give some of the three words. Well, let me give you one good example. Let's say you are tailgating in a parking lot at a big stadium. Now you tell someone I'm in the stadium right in front of tunnel forty seven or twenty six or whatever it is.
It's really tough to find people.
And so what you have to do with what three words is you can narrow down to exactly where you're standing in that parking lot, and then you can send that location to someone using those three words, and then they can navi gate right to that location using those three words. And the three words are different every ten feet, So you can imagine if you're standing one hundred feet down, your three words would be different than the person that's one hundred feet away, so it would bring them right.
To your tailgate.
So that's the best way that I can describe it. The other scenario I would see is that if I happen.
To be stranded.
If I was taking a hike and I got stranded on a mountaintop somewhere, and I literally had like one percent battery left and there was nothing else I could do except like make one tweet, make one phone call, I would go to this app, get my three words, and tweet it out, and basically, you know, let's say it's like shovel, horse fly, you know, And that way, someone would know exactly where I am specifically because of
that app. Now, it might take them a little bit to realize, like what are these weird three words that Rich used as his last three words of his life. But you know, if someone figured it out, it could be very advantageous to finding me.
And also, let's say I can only.
Make a voice call, I would tell the person you know, horse fly, shoe, whatever, and I wouldn't be able to say my GPS coordinates, like no one can say. I mean, yes, if you want to say your GPS coordinates, it's like a really involved number and your address if you're on a mountaintop, you don't know your address. Oh I'm on I'm on King Mountain. I don't know. It's it's like
you're not gonna be able to relay that. So the best way I can describe what three words is it's a simple, fast, easy way to relay your location in three simple words. And also another example is if you were a farmer's market person, Like let's say you a
little booth at a farmer's market. You can say find us at the you know, West La farmers Market, we are at cat you know, toy mouse, whatever the three words are, and someone can navigate right to your booth instead of just, you know, somewhere in that giant inside that giant farmer's market trying to find your booth. So that is the that is the the kind of the DL on what three words. I think it's pretty fantastic. I think it's pretty smart. I just think a lot
more people need to learn about it. And I think it's just the app is easy to use, but it's also like one of these things where ninety nine percent of the time you can just send someone a pin. But this also works across platform, and there's just a lot more like even for voice recognition like in cars. They're building this in and so I think it's a smart way, uh to do voice navigation as well, because you don't have to say the address, you can just
say the three words. So I think for marketing purposes, and I think they had this in mind for marketing purposes. It's really cool because it's super easy to tell someone where your store is if you just uh, you know, if you just say those three words. All right, we got another phone call six oh two, six oh two.
You are on with rich what's going on? Who's this?
Green's the name of follows on Always Birds is passive.
Dongie is CEO of winning team based in Toney.
Las Vegas.
I'm having a great time and loving the apps and all the different technology.
That's coming out.
I'm just saying, what are you seeing for the world in the future. What am I seeing in the world in the future? Pastor I am seeing? And I think if if you're do you do you run a church too?
Yes, sir, I have a broadcast network.
We have three meeting listeners and.
Oh wow, okay, well here's what I'm Here's what I see as the future. I see virtual reality as the future. So if you are not doing a virtual reality church or that's not in the plans, I'm telling you you can be standing in I could tell you, but I'm telling you if you've put on that VR headset, it
is phenomenal. And I'm telling you virtual reality is going to bring people together in ways we have never even imagined, and especially for someone like yourself that's trying to get a message out to a lot of people and also connect with those people. I think that VR is going to be a huge part of that. I don't think it's there just yet. I think it's gonna be a couple of years before it's you know, progressed and the technology gets better. But I'm telling you what Facebook's doing
with the Metaverse. I know they've got that fancy name and everyone's kind of making fun of it, but I'm telling you they're onto something. And I think we're gonna start seeing people traveling in VR. I think we're gonna see them attending church in VR. They're gonna they're gonna check out hotels before they check into them on VR to see if it's somewhere they want to go. I just see a big, big potential for that pastor.
That's big.
Well, thank you for knowledge.
I'm telling my get some of this education, all right, send them my way, Thank you, thank you so much. All the way from Las Vegas. They're one of my favorite towns. I love Las Vegas. I don't think I could live in Las Vegas because I think I'd become pretty degenerate quickly. But I love Las Vegas. I know a lot of Vegas one of those places that people either love or hate. But I gotta tell you, I've been playing with VR more and more and it is just mind boggling. How how I mean, we're just at
the beginning. I was watching Netflix and VR the other day and you put the headset on and next thing you know, my entire living room was transformed into a giant mansion in the middle of on a snow capped mountain.
It was snowing outside. I could see the window.
I had this huge, big screen TV, nice fireplace, coffee table, and I'm just watching that nature documentary inside the headset. And it just blew my mind that this is what Netflix has built, like a virtual theater, and just times that times everything, I mean, a virtual experience is just it's such I don't think the headsets are there just yet because they're kind of bulky. They kind of hurt your eyes to watch for a long time.
It's not that clear.
It's not as clear as a regular TV. But I really think that there is something there and it's really really exciting to me. Let's talk about Apple. Self Service Repair is now available. So Apple has this new website, the Self Service Repair Store. You can go on there and order over two hundred individual parts and tools to fix the display, the camera, and the battery on your iPhone twelve, your iPhone thirteen or the iPhone se. These are all genuine products. They're selling them at the same
price that they sell to their authorized repair providers. They'll also give you the instructions, they might give you a small credit when you return a part for recycling, and they'll also rent you the tools to do this for forty nine dollars. So I think this is a good thing overall, really good thing. The downside of this, according to Ifix, it is that they link all of the parts to a serial number on the iPhone, which makes it just there's just a little bit of resistance, a
little bit of friction there. You can't just go on and order like twenty five screens and then help people repair things. But you know help you know, neighbors all repair their phones. You'd need like their serial number to do that.
But I think this is cool. I think it's a good step. I guess I should try replacing a screen. Why not? I should? I should?
Actually, you know what, let me note to self, I should do a story where I try repairing an iPhone like a cracked screen and see if I can do it.
What a brilliant story.
So the last time I replaced something on a device was I'm dating myself. But this was an iPod and I replaced the battery on the iPod.
And it, you know, it was great.
It the battery like ran out, and so I ordered a new battery on I think it was Amazon.
Pulled it out.
It was really tough to get, like the glue and all this stuff out from the bottom.
I did it.
iPod worked great and I probably used it for another six months or so, so it was kind of fun.
Uh.
Susan says, I'm increasingly getting more spam text messages. What are your thoughts about this or any other spam? And she sent a link to a spam text blocker called text Killer.
Well, so here's the thing.
I My advice with the spam text is that it comes and goes. So the number one thing you want to do is is, you know, sign up with whoever your carrier is. I mean there's only three at this point, AT and T, T Mobile, and Verizon. So make sure that you have whatever protections they offer turned on. And so I think for T Mobile it's called scam Shield, For AT and T it's called call protect, and for Verizon,
I think it's called call Filter. So make sure you have those features turned on and those apps downloaded to your phone. They also work with phone calls, and I believe they do a certain level of text message filtering. Now, this text Killer, I don't know because I'm just curious how it's going to block texts, because I just don't know how it would intercept texts. Like the way that iOS is set up is that you can't really have a program intercepting the texts, and so I'm trying to figure out.
I guess I'd have to look at this, but it says.
Eliminate ninety nine percent of text messages. But I'm not really sure, like what how it's getting, you know, how it's intercepting your text messages. That's the main thing I want to know, because you can't like iOS doesn't really let you do that. So I have to look into this program more. I probably would not recommend it right at this time. I mean, it's made by Robokiller, which I do trust. I do trust that company, so that's good.
Let's see how much it is. So it looks like it's thirty dollars a year or three to four dollars a month for this protection. I don't know if spam protection is worth four dollars a month. I mean, you're already paying your cell phone bill and I get, you know, my phone number is kind of out there a lot, and so I don't even get that many spams where I would think it's worth four dollars a month.
There's just probably no way I would do that.
So the thing you can do if you're really worried about spam messages is or spam texts, you can go into the iPhone and there's a setting that will filter unknown senders. I think even that's overkilled because a lot of messages from random people, like let's say you order an uber and they text you that would go into that unknown messages and you might not even see it because they kind of go in there silently. So personally, when it comes to text, I think texts are very important.
I don't like to mess with them at all. I want to get them if it's a bad one, which I've gotten. I've gotten some pretty dicey texts, and you know, I just say, I see it. I'm like, wait what, and I just delete it so I know it's it's kind of jarring. The main thing is not to click links inside those texts. If you're on an Android phone, the main thing you want to do is use Google Messages because they do have spam filtering built into Google messages.
So that's what I would do. That's what I would do for sure. All right, let's get to another caller. Here. We have six two six on the line six two six. You're on with Rich.
Hi.
Hi, Robert under from Mexican.
Robert.
I recognize Robert's name, Robert. It's good to put it's good to put a voice to the name because I see you, I see your comments, I see your likes, and I wonder who is this Robert? So you're calling from? You said Pasadena Oh, Temecula.
I love Temecula. I used to go there a lot. So what's on your mind?
Yes, this week I had with my question is my wife is looking at a device called Remarkable. I was wondering if you had any any knowledge of it. It's a it's a note taking device that works with windows, and basically she can take notes and pull them up whenever she needs to find something she's written over the last month or two, okay, and she's been reading a lot of negative feedback on it, so I was I told her I would ask to see if you had any ideas on it.
Well, okay, let's see. So I the fact that I am not familiar with this is number one my my worry. The number two thing that makes me worried is that when you google it, it says remarkable is it legit? Now I'm looking at a Tom's Guide review and it says, uh, you know, it's a unique tablet, it's the ultimate tablet for writers. It got it got a Editor's Choice award. So the problem is that I would see with this is that it looks like it's kind of expensive. It's
like three hundred dollars. But it's also it's also a proprietary device. So for me, now, why is there a reason why she doesn't want an iPad?
I well, on the iPad, are you able to connect that with your your desktop and pull up notes as you need them by the date?
Yeah, there is a there's an app that I like called Notability, which is really good, and that can do you know, you can take notes and do that.
I've gotten they just sent this to me.
But there's a screen protector called paper Like and it's actually kind of a screen protector that is almost like a matt finish, like a grippy kind of a It mimics the feel of paper.
So I haven't put it on there yet. They just sent it to me. I'm gonna test it out.
But that could also be a good a good solution, So if your wife really wants to do this personally, if it was me, I would go with something like an iPad, just because Apple has put so much effort into their experience of the pen and paper on this iPad. Plus you get the you get the most apps for this, like remarkable. You're gonna have to use their proprietary app.
Plus you can add things like the successory that I mentioned this paper like, it's paperlike dot com if you want to check it out, but it's a screen protector that has you know, it feels like paper. And so again it's for all of those reasons that I think it's probably a better a better thing to go with the with the tablet that so many people have gone with, versus this remarkable. Now I haven't tested this remarkable. It could be amazing, but to me, it seems like a
one trick pony that might be good. But also if this company goes under or if they stop supporting it or the software doesn't come out. And also it's just not as flexible as having an iPad that you know, when she's done writing, she can do other stuff like, you know, if she wants to use it for email or watching videos.
Or things like that.
So it looks like it has kind of a kindle screen, which I did play with one of these at a show once, but it you know, it's like a pen and paper, but it's it's a it's an expensive pad of paper. So you know, is there a place that you can try it out before you buy it?
I don't.
I haven't seen one yet, And I, like I said, there's a lot of negative feedback online about their uh working with the customers, so I was heading against that. I figured the iPad would.
Be the better choice.
So I just wanted to pick your brain.
Yeah, I think I think go with the iPad. I mean that iPad Mini is.
I mean, I don't know how big she wants the screen, but the iPad Mini is a nice size if you want something that's smaller. But uh again that that paper like screen protector. Definitely look into that and see what the deal is because uh, I think that that could be onto something if she wants that pen and paper kind of experience. So, Robert, it was great to talk to you. And now I have a voice to the name. And I'm I'm happy that this whole uh, this whole
call and thing actually worked out. I'm actually like floored right now that this is so easy for me.
Yeah, thank you, and I'll keep watching your show.
Thank you, all right, Robert, take care of thank you, and uh, let's talk about another new product.
And this is the thing.
So like, uh, you know, when people ask me about stuff, like a lot of times I have to make kind of a what's called a you know, not an educated guest. But a lot of things I do play with and I do get to experience, you know, most of the gadgets that are out there, like the mainstream ones. But then there's a lot of stuff that I have to
make like an educated guess on. And so I get so many questions about these photosticks, and people are like this, you know, they advertise them on Facebook or wherever, and
they say should I get this? And I can look at the website and in one second I can tell if a product is scammy because of the website, if the website is using high pressure sales tactics, if it's got like a big discount right off the top, if you move your mouse off the main website, and all of a sudden it says, oh, stay, we'll give you two for the price of one. The other one I'm
seeing it with right now. Are all these eco savers, like these fuel saver gadgets, And you know it's like, come on, if you could spend twenty dollars and pop something into your car and get triple the gas mileage, like we'd all have that, right So well, I wouldn't because I.
Have a Tesla. But you know, you know what I mean people that have a gas car would have that.
But you know I'm saying, I mean, it's one of these things where you know, I can just tell when I go to these websites that people send me that they're just they're just not right. And another thing that they do is this is something that's a little bit elevated for you know, the average consumer.
To kind of know.
But like they these companies when they come out with a product that is kind of like scammy, they put out a press release and then a lot of these big mainstream websites, you can pay to have your press release.
Put on that website, and so it looks like that product is being talked about on you know, a mainstream news site, and it's actually just a press release. You can look closely and it might.
Say sponsored or press release provided or news provided by.
And so you have to be on the lookout.
And this is why I'm here, is to help you navigate all these things, because you know, these people are trying to trick you. It's it's been going on since the beginning of mankind, right, all right, So snap snap is the new name for snapchat. So when I say snap, that's what I'm talking about, but they don't want to be called Snapchat because I think they're just called snap now. But they came out with a new drone. It's called the Pixie. This is a two hundred and thirty dollars
autonomous drone. Joanna stern Over at The Wall Street Journal got one in advance of the announcement today and she tried it out, and basically, it sounds like it's fun, but for two hundred and thirty dollars, it's probably not something you're gonna rush out and buy. The pictures aren't as good as you would get on your phone. A lot of times she was wondering why she wouldn't just set up her phone on a tripod to take pictures.
But yeah, you can't discount the fact that it is fun to send a drone up into the air to have it capture pictures of you. That is really cool. You're on a hike with your kids, you send this drone up. It's all autonomous. There's no controlling it. It just you just pick one of four flight modes. Okay, so there's hover, which the Pixie reverses a couple of feet and floats in front of you. Like a hummingbird,
and you can get up to sixty seconds. It's kind of like an indoor it's kind of like a video selfie. Then you've got the reveal. This is kind of that fun shot that we see all the time on movies and TV shows where the drone starts above you and then it just flies way up in the air and it reveals kind of like the whole area around you. So that's really cool. Then there's follow which it will follow you, but very very slowly. Joanna said that its
struggled to keep up with her casual walking speed. And then there's the orbit, which makes a full circle around you and records that. So it's cool and I think that you like Snap calls themselves a camera company, now they're not just like they don't want to be known as just for Snapchat, so they're trying new things with cameras, and also snap is going to be on the cutting edge of virtual reality as well. You can't count out
these companies. They have very smart people working there. And although what they're doing right now, like this drone, you'd be like, that's not really like, I'm not spending two hundred and thirty dollars on it. It's part of a bigger picture that they're building. And that's really what's happening here with so many of these companies. Right. Let's take another question here, Oh, I can actually use my Oh no, it's not a I shouldn't. I need the dial tones again?
Two on three? Who am I speaking with? You're on with Rich?
Hi is Deon?
Hi Deon? How are you?
Ok? Hi?
I'm well, thank you?
Where are you calling it from?
In my storage?
I'm calling from Inglewood? Okay, you're in here, You're in your storage?
And uh huh. And I got an old computer, and I remember watching me on the show one the News a couple of weeks ago, and you mentioned software or an app to put one advice to make them terment. I went on the website and I can't find it.
You know, you have the number one question of anyone, not the software, But I can't find what you talked about on TV. So let me, uh, first off, let me first off give you my trick for finding anything
that I've mentioned on TV. So I always search for like one keyword, which is like, you know, old computer, new software, and then I add DeMuro ktla or ktla DeMuro and that nine times out of ten when I need to search for something, because people text me all day saying, hey, rich, can I you know what's this story? And I just find the link that way, So that nine times out of ten if you ever hear me mention something on TV or social media, that's kind of like how I find it and how most people can
find it. What you are specifically referring to is called Chrome os Flex, and this was software that is put out by Google to turn an old computer into a chromebook. And what a chromebook does is it is fast, it has software updates, it doesn't need a lot of memory or processing power to run really fast, and it can really breathe life into an old computer.
Like you said, you have one of these things. It's free to download, it's free to install. But here is the problem, deionn.
I talked to an expert who tested this out for me, okay, and he installs Chrome on a lot of computers, and he said that quite honestly, this is not ready for primetime just yet, because we're going to do a story for KTLA, a bigger story on testing it out and showing how it works. And he said, it's just not ready yet. So the good news is that you can still try it if you want to try it yourself.
It's fully downloadable. You can put it on a USB drive, you can put it on the computer, and you can see how it works if you can get it to work. I tried a little bit just quickly to see if I can get this to work, and I just got stalled at something and then I got distracted. But once I talked to this expert, he said, Rich, it's better before you go prime time with this and show everyone exactly how it works.
Let's make sure it works really well.
And so.
I would say, maybe, wait a little bit, but what are you hoping to do with this computer? It's just kind of browsed the web or what.
Yeah, I'm looking to get back in the job. Oh and I don't want to send in the library all day.
Okay, So basically like doing resumes and all that kind of stuff, do you have.
A good resume?
Exactly?
Exactly do you have a good resume?
Not just yet.
I feel like I need to tweak it.
Okay, let me let me give you a hint here. I've got a oh my gosh, I gotta find this because I've got a a website that I found that helps you do a It'll write a resume for you for free. So tell me, tell me about what you'd want to do while I look for this.
Well I have I've been a hairstylist for twenty years.
Oh wow.
And then with COVID nineteen coming through, it's like, Okay, now I need to get a second career because I was considered non.
Essential, which is ridiculous.
Ridiculous, right, But I have a bit of history in customer service, you know, working in Macy's and that kind of stuff. And also my husband passed away of heart disease, so that sent me into becoming a mat. So before he passed away, I was like, you know what, I think I can do CNA work and then I, you know, continue, you didn't continue. But now I'd rather I'd rather do health care than.
Any of these things.
Okay, So you want to help get and I need to do resume in health care.
Okay, So you want to you want to like in home care and stuff like that, right, and that's a that's a that's a growing area too.
Okay.
I found the website. It's called Leaked Resumes l E. E. T. Resumes dot com and so it says they will write your resume for free if you're a professional with two years of experience in the US and Canada and the only thing they work on is a tip. So I would say give this a shot, check it out. I've interviewed the guy who helped start this website and he's a very smart guy, so I think that he's probably doing really cool stuff with this. But Diane, good luck
with everything, and thanks so much for calling. The fact that I can take calls on the show, it's it's like the most fun thing for me. All Right, let's talk about the next story, which I'm gonna kind of be a little negative about. But Charter and Comcast are developing a streaming platform now. So if you think of streaming platforms, we have Apple TV with tvOS, we have Amazon's Fire TV, We've got Chrome Cast, We've got Roku. You know, those are the main, like big platforms for streaming.
So when you have a device for streaming, it's or you know, you might have a Samsung TV that has their streaming stuff built in. If you've listened to me for a while, you know that I personally like to choose one of the major streaming platforms, whether it is Apple TV, whether it's Roku TV, whether it is.
Five.
Those are the three Fire, Roku, and Apple, all the ones that are built into the TVs. They're okay and they work as long as the apps that you want are on there. But I've mentioned this before. Apps are updated more often on these kind of what I would call core platforms. So that's why I really like them, because you're getting the latest, greatest, up to date apps. But if what's working for you, if what you have
on your TV is working, it's absolutely just fine. So don't don't get too caught up in that part of it. So Comcast and and Charter are coming up with their own platform, which I can't imagine a world where I would ever want to seed my platform to a giant cable company.
I just can't imagine why.
How can they do something better than an Amazon or an Apple or a Roku, which is a nice independent company like Comcast and and Charter do not have and this, you know, this is my opinion, they do not have the same intentions or the best intentions of the you know, of the customer in mind, because you know, they've got so many businesses like you know, Charter. If you think about them, you know, they're they're trying to you know, sell you Internet and they're trying to sell you cable
TV and comcasts. You know, they own NBC and they own all these other you know, the Peacock Network or the Peacock platform and all this stuff.
So you know, it's tough for them to say, oh, let's really push Netflix. Now.
I'm not saying that this platform is not going to be okay, and it's not. You know, they're gonna get a lot of people on it. They're gonna come out with TVs, they're gonna come out with streaming boxes. But the reality is I don't want it, and I just don't see why anyone would want it, because, uh, it's just one of these things where I'd rather go with a kind of a third party independent company rather than
a big cable company. And part of that reason is because they have they have crossed us in the past. You know, they have proven time and time again with the price increases, with the you know, the modem rental fees.
And all these little things. There's a there's always a gotcha, you know what I mean. And it's just something.
When I plug in my Amazon Fire TV stick, it works really well. Amazon customer service is really good.
When I use.
Roku, they offer everything everyone's on that platform. Yeah, they have some problems once in a while with some of the providers, and you know it's a money grab and this and that, but you know, Apple TV it works really well. The apps are really nice. So again I'm just telling you what's coming up because you will see this and this. Because it's marketed by Comcast and Charter, it will be a big deal because they're.
Gonna sell it to a lot of people.
Now, when they sell you cable, they're gonna say, hey, by the way, we can send you a box for free, and you know you can use that box to stream all your stuff.
And you're gonna say, oh, okay, that's cool.
And you know, next thing, you know, you've got this streaming box from Comcast and Charter, which you know, who knows is if it's gonna be very good.
I don't know.
I'm just maybe I'm being too negative about this, but I'm I'm kind of a pessimist when it comes to large, large companies like this trying to do good for the customer. Like I just can't imagine that this could be a good thing. And you know, you can challenge me on it, put it in the comments. But the reality is I've never really sat there and said like, oh, I love my cable company.
I love my you know, Mike.
I mean, look at cable boxes for the longest time. The screen on the cable box was like trapped in the eighties. Why because they had no incentive to change, and if you called them to like get a new box, they would charge you for the upgraded box.
I mean, it's just the way it works. So that's just you know, my, my thoughts.
But you're listening to the rich On Tech Show, so of course I am allowed to share my thoughts. Let's go to nine oh nine, nine oh nine, you are on with rich Who's this.
Mike? How you doing, Mike? Welcome to the show. Hi doing well, Thank you great.
I'm just wondering what you thought about direct TV stream.
Okay, Well, if you were hearing my if you were hearing me go off about what I was just saying with the Comcast and Charter, I probably won't be as kind about DirecTV stream. Now.
Direct TV stream is kind.
Of like, uh, is that basically there that that old it's like a cable provider, right, but all streaming.
Yeah?
Correct?
So was this the old? Okay?
I remember covering this because I was at like the launch thing, but it was like AT and T had like a streaming cable thing for a while, and I was a subscriber for a long like a year.
I think I got But what was that called? Do you remember that? I think it became DirecTV stream?
Yeah. I think it was AT and T stream or something like.
That, AT and T now, at and T TV now. So that's what it was, and I had this. Okay, So here's here's my thing. I think this is cool if if it has you know, if you want that kind of cable experience, you want cable channels. You know, Direct TV is in a precarious position because for many many years they were the leader. You know that you couldn't challenge Direct TV because they had satellites, They had
access to content and programming that nobody else had. And that may still be the case with certain things on this direct TV stream. So what is it that appeals to you about this specifically? Is it some kind of programming you can get on there?
Well, the programming is great. It's nice because my mom is disabled and I'm able to have it at her home as well as ours. But then we can watch it anywhere we go. So that's what makes it pretty cool.
And what do you pay?
Okay, I'm looking at the prices. It's like, see, now here's one thing I don't like. It's you know, you've get these these starter prices where it's fifty nine ninety nine for the first three months, and then it goes up to sixty nine ninety nine and then you get the premiere for one hundred and fifty bucks and it's you know, it's just it kind of reminds me of
the old cable pricing. Now, with all of that said, I'm looking at you get unlimited Cloud DVR, which is included, you get you know, you can choose from these four packages.
You can stream you know, anywhere you want, and you've got all these.
Different networks, and it looks like the main thing that they offer that nobody else does is they've got more regional sports. Is that kind of something you are interested as well? Not necessarily, no, okay, And it looks like it works on the different streaming boxes or you can get their device.
Do you have their device with this, the stream device?
No, I have no devices. I just have the smart TVs.
Okay, I mean, you know what I'm looking at here is it seems like it's very similar to what you get with like YouTube and you know, Hulu or Sling TV, So I would kind of put this all in the same bucket as those. So in that case, I would just go with the one that offers the channels you want. It sounds like if it's working for you, I have no problem with it. I mean, I would definitely do a price check to see what you're paying for this
versus something like a YouTube TV. If it, you know, if it gives you those same things for that price, then I you know, I think stick to it until they either raise the price or something like that, or they do something that you don't like, and then you know. But it seems fine. I mean, it just seems like it's a it's a cable TV service that's delivered through the internet and that with the unlimited DVR, which and it sounds like you can use it at different places,
which is nice. So I don't see a problem with this, Mike, I really don't, Okay.
We love watching you on the channel type. Thanks so much.
Now my question is do they have Channel five on this direct TV stream? I'm trying to remember if it was on AT and T.
I don't think it. Oh they don't go.
Yeah, Well that's not really a direct TV thing, that's honestly, it's a KTLA thing. It's our our parent company the way it was before and this our new company is now doing. You know, we have the app that's free and so that's nice. But for a while we weren't on sort of any streaming and that was that was
definitely a tough period. But at least you can get us for free somehow, and it's you know, we're not on the streaming services per se, but you know, people are finding us on KTLA Plus, which is nice and also you know over the air, right all right, Well, I know I know Temecula, Well I know, uh do you know where Clinton Keith Road.
Is over there?
I absolutely do.
Harvest and Lake Okay.
I used to my wife's grandma and grandfather lived out there, so we would come to Temecula and you know, hang out there. Sometimes I'd sneak off to uh Pachanga for a bit and uh, while the family was all meeting. But it's a it's a nice place and uh it's it's uh, you know, probably getting hotter soon out there, though, for sure.
Yes, it's a beautiful city. It's a great place to raise a family. I've been here my entire life. My parents came here in nineteen seventy seven, so we've seen a lot of growth. Yeah, and Clinton Keith like two exits down from us. It's not that far and they're actually building a brand new Costco that's opening in June. So that'll be exciting.
Oh that's that's always exciting, a new cost go we you know, all right, Mike, Well, thanks for calling in.
Appreciate it.
I'm glad the calls worked. And again I'm still quite impressed with this little setup I have because it's the easiest setup I've ever had.
And so it's kind of fun.
Jason says on the on the chat from Seami Valley, Me and my family enjoy watching your category bit on KTLA five. Thank you, Jason, it's funny. I you know, I've been on KTLA. I was thinking about this. You know, I've been on there for ten plus years now, which is just absolutely wild.
To me.
But also it's really wild to me just how many people that KTLA reaches. It never ceases to amaze me no matter where I am, whether I'm in LA or another city in America, you know, because they do syndicate the segment.
It's just it's just pretty.
Wild that, Like, I've been in the oddest places and people come up to me and hey, rich, I like your segment. And the good news is when people come up to me, it's always like they're very nice and they're always like, I like your stuff, which is good.
I've yet to have someone come up and be like, your segment is the worst You're you know, blah blah blah.
So I do like the fact that people like what I'm doing, so I'll keep doing it. All right, let's talk about Google Search. Two things today that I posted about Google. So, number one, they've got a new forum or not a form, a form where you can request to have some of your personal identifiable information removed from Google Search.
Now here's the thing.
This sounds good, and the reality of it is that it's not necessarily what you probably need. So if you've ever been on Google Search and you've searched your own name. You've probably noticed that your phone numbers on there, your address is on there, all kinds of information. If you go to a website I think it's called I don't even want to give them a publicity because it's so scary.
But if you go to a website called fast.
People Search, you can basically find information about anyone because what they're doing is they're calling all of these public records and putting it into an easy to search and find database.
And it's perfectly legal. That's the thing.
If you've bought a house or if you've done some sort of business, it's it's all there and it's all legal, So they're not gonna take that kind of stuff down.
What what Google will now take down is you know your contact information, phone number, email address, physical address, but only if you're somehow at risk, right if someone is harassing you, if someone is intentionally putting this information out there to you know, to really you know, to put you at risk, your family at risk, you at risk, And so they will then take that information down from
their search, not from the original website. Google does not have the ability to go to the website itself and take it down. But since Google Search is so big and prominent. If they take it off of their search, it's going to be tougher to people for finding that information.
Uh.
This is often called dosing.
That's when basic least someone happens to journalists a lot, where you know, someone gets doxed or anyone. It could be anyone in the public light, could be anyone in general, I guess. But they basically put your information out there saying, hey, here's here's their information.
Do with it what you want.
I'm just saying, maybe you show up in front of their house and protest about something. And so that's really called doxing someone and or you know, scaring someone or whatever.
It's not very nice. It happens a lot, it is.
Sometimes it happens inadvertently, like let's say you screenshot a text message with someone that said something mean to you and you kind of put their name out there or the user name. That's that's pretty much doxing, where you're basically like, oh, I'm sorry, did I put your information out there.
It's not a very nice thing to do.
So anyway, Google will they have a new form where you can fill out and say, hey, I think that I'm at risk, and they will review that and see if they will take down that information. If it comes from a public source like a you know, a government record or something, they're not going to take it down. So it's only if someone put it up there maliciously. I've got the link on how to do that on the website rich on Tech dot tv. The other thing that Google can do, and this is kind of cool.
I made a video about this on my Instagram today, so if you want to check it out, go to my Instagram at rich on Tech.
But they have a new feature that lets you.
See fewer ads in certain categories including weight loss, pregnancy and parenting and dating ads and also alcohol and gambling.
So you can go on this website ads.
It's Ads Ads ads settings dot Google dot com and it will give you a picture of who you are. So I went to this website this morning. And you can also turn off ad personalization in general. Personally, I leave AD personalization on because if I'm seeing ads, then I want to see ads that are personalized for me. Oh and Jason just said here on twitch, me and other streamers always have to be careful about dosing. It's an issue on live streaming. Very true because let's say
this actually happened to me on TV one time. I was showing something on my phone and my wife's phone number popped up.
And I am not kidding.
She got so many phone calls. This was at five thirty in the morning. She got so many phone calls all at once. Everyone thought it was my number for some reason, so they're just starting. They weren't nice. Everyone was very nice, but they would just call like it was like the circuit the all circuits were busy. It was that many people, and it was a total mistake on my part, but I guess I really did docs her.
Let's see what the definition of DOS is.
On docs is okay search for and publish private or identifying information about a particular individual on the Internet, typically with malicious intent, So quote unquote hackers and online vigilantes routinely docs both public and private figures.
So that's the definition of it.
But anyway, I tried calling my wife to tell her what happened, and I couldn't get through to her because so many people are calling her phone number, and so I ended up texting her and she was like, what just happened?
And I was like sorry.
And some people actually stored her phone number for a long time, and they would text her at random times to like get in touch with me. It was really funny. So that's simmered down, so it's all good at this point. Anyways, So you can go to ads settings dot Google dot com and see what Google thinks it knows about you. For me, it thinks that I'm into lows door, dash, Accura, air travel, android, apps, apparel, auto exterior, which is true.
I like to clean my car.
Beaches and islands, sure, Big Island, Hawaii, BMW, Boston Metro Like, no, I'm not really into the Boston Metro.
I don't know what that means. Casual games, commercial properties, I don't think so.
Credit cards. I do have one credit card, but I've talked about how it's funny. I'm obsessed with credit card research, but I don't actually get credit cards because I like to use my debit card. Face and body care, I mean, okay, guilty. I don't know flowers, food, GPS and navigation. I mean, who's not into GPS and navigation, horror films, hybrid and alternative vehicles.
Okay, I'll give you that.
Now.
A lot of this stuff is because I, oh this is one. I took issue with parental status not a parent, So you can go in there and I can turn this off. I can't believe that it thinks I am not a parent. That's really sad. I am a parent, so now I'm parenting.
Okay.
Anyway, if you scroll all the way down to the bottom, you can turn off these sensitive ad categories including alcohol, dating, gambling, pregnancy, and weight loss. Two more stories I do want to get through because I think they're important. Number One, Fidelity is going to allow retirement plans to have bitcoin for
the first time. So Fidelity is a company that does handles many of the retirement plans for twenty three thousand companies, and so the fact that they're allowing those companies to give their users or their employees access to bitcoin inside their four to one K is a huge deal. Now, as we know, bitcoin all over the place. Some people love it, some people don't really understand what it is. The rest of the folks are just sort of in the middle, just maybe have a small position in some
app like Robinhood. But the fact that they're allowing people to add bitcoin to their four oh one k's that's a pretty big deal because this is a big, legitimate company. Obviously, you know they make money. I'm guessing somehow on fees on you know, providing this service and your inside your retirement plan. You know, retirement plans do have fees, but they're they're not really noticeable unless you look at your statements. But if you look at your statements, you are being
charged retirement plan fees through your company. It's usually in your statement at the bottom it says like a some sort of fee that you know they take out of your retirement basically. Anyway, I thought that was a really big deal. And the other story I wanted to mention because this is a question I get a lot, but a lot of people have hearing aids and they want to be able to listen to the TV through those hearing aids.
A lot of the new high tech hearing.
Aids are basically Bluetooth compatible or some sort of wireless compatibility either connect to your smartphone or you know, different things using Bluetooth, and so fireTV now the fireTV Cube can connect directly to hearing aids. So this is very important. If you have a loved one in your life that has hearing aids, it might be time to get a fire TV Cube because if they have some of these high tech hearing aids, you can just literally link them
up with the fireTV. Now they can listen through their hearing aids to whatever is on that streaming player.
So this is the first.
Streaming media player to support audio streaming for hearing aids commonly known as ASHA, so it's pretty cool you connect them directly. It works with various hearing aids, including brands from Starkey.
All Audible, New Ear, micro Tech, and Audigy.
So this is something again that you should look into if you've got someone that has hearing aids and they want an easier way to listen to streaming stuff. That's this is a pretty big deal and and kudos to Amazon for putting that functionality inside the fire TV Cube. So again, it's only the fire TV Cube and it has to be certain hearing aids for this to work, but I think that's a pretty big deal.
All right.
If if you want to get in on the line before I go, it's area code three one nine five two seven six seven three seven. I'll take one more question if I have the time, but that's pretty much gonna do it for this show. Let me see what else do I have here? Let's see here. Oh my gosh, so many questions. Uh, Cindy says, Hey, Rich, I love the Samsung Fold, but it was still too thick for my small hands. Is there anything on the horizon for a small screen Android similar to the iPhone Mini?
Which is perfect? But I'm an Android fan.
It's funny you say this, Cindy, because the iPhone fourteen apparently is not going to have a mini, so I guess not many people purchase the iPhone fourteen Mini, which is a small, good sized phone. But I think it's funny because we saw this trend of bigger screens. People think that if it's a big screen, they're getting more value for their money. So with the new iPhone, they're actually going the opposite direction.
They're giving the.
iPhone Standard thirteen is going to come in a bigger version this time, so you're actually gonna be able to get a bigger iPhone sorry, iPhone fourteen and a bigger screen size for like two hundred dollars less than having to go with.
The pro model.
So that's a pretty big deal. Let's see, we got some comments here. Oh my gosh, Let's see what else do we have here? Oh, Jason said, keep up the good information and entertaining tech topics, and remember to.
Be careful of what you share.
Yeah, it's a challenge, you know, doing stuff that's like ninety nine percent off my phone. I mean, I'm always showing my phone screen, so it's really tough. Especially when you're doing like mapping apps and things. There's always some sort of personal information on your phone screen. So, oh my gosh, you know what that sound means. That's gonna
do it for this episode of the show. If you would like to submit a question for me to answer, just go to my Facebook page, Facebook dot com, slash rich on Tech hit the big blue send email button, or go to rich on Tech dot tv and hit the email icon. Also, I'm gonna try to do the live stream more often, so definitely follow me on social
media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. I will put a heads up when I'm gonna do this next time so that you can get your question prepared, get your speaking voice ready.
And call into the show.
Also, I would love it if you would rate and review this podcast. Just go to the listening app of your choice write a quick line about what you like about this show. So that other people should can understand why they should listen. You know you see this podcast Rich on Tech.
What does it mean?
Well, explain to people what do you like about it? What do you like about what I do? And that helps other people go, Oh, that sounds like something I might like too. You can find me on social media. I am at Rich on Tech, and no matter where you live in the US, you can download the free ktla plus app on Apple TV, Fire TV, and Roku. Once you do, scroll to the tech section and do me a flavor and watch all of my tech TV segments on demand.
Not tech TV. That's a whole nother thing.
But my name is Rich Demiroe. Thanks so much for listening. There are so many ways you can spend an hour of your time. I do appreciate you spending it right here with me. Batteries running now on my smartphone. I gotta cancel. I got to close out the live stream, but thanks so much for watching on Facebook Live.
Have a fantastic day.