TCL's $250 smartphone is a budget-friendly breath of fresh air

Facebook dot com slash rich on Tech. My name is Rich Damiro, tech reporter at KTLA Channel five in Los Angeles. Joining me is producer Megan. What's up?

a store on Facebook instantly. And I think this is a really big deal because Megan, I know you're on Instagram, maybe not so much on Facebook. Are you even on Facebook at all?

Instagram page. Why would I want to go to a separate website to complete that transaction? Why would I not just want to press purchase right inside Instagram and buy your candle? Doesn't that make sense?

You can customize what your shop looks like with a cover image and accent colors, and that means that anyone can sell on Instagram and Facebook instantly. And the other thing is you can kind of help people discover what you're selling through Instagram stories, Facebook stories or the million dollar ads, right, So that's what they're really trying to do.

They're offering this for free because Megan, once you set up your shop on there, now you want to buy ads to get your candles in front of more people. So it makes a lot of sense. I could see you do.

obviously the purchase process. So somehow people are gonna have to check out and someone is going to get a percentage of that transaction. So if you sell a candle for forty bucks, when the person checks out, you're only going to get thirty seven dollars out of that or whatever they you know, the small percentage, But to me, that's a small price to pay. Now, if you think about this, this really takes on something like an Etsy. But you know, yeah, it's kind of sad for Etsy.

I don't think Etsy is going to go out of business, but that's kind of what they're taking, you know, taking aim at here.

just go on there. And it's whistleout dot com and cell phone plans and you say how many lines do you want? Two lines? You can say if you already have a phone, or did they already have a phone. It'll say I'm own an iPhone user, okay, So I would say she probably already has her phone, right, and I would say that she has a unlocked GSM phone And that's it. And now you can say the networks you want, so you can first look at Verizon and see what they've got, which you know they're gonna be

a little bit more expensive. But it just depends. I mean, but that's what I'd recommend, because for me to just tell you what's perfect for you, I don't know. I mean, there's so many plans out there, and you know, if you want to be on the Verizon network, I mean, it depends how much how much are you talking on your phone? Do you want all unlimited data? Like for me, I want unlimited everything, so don't have to think about anything.

But you may say, rich, I'm in my house, like ninety percent of the time, I just use Wi Fi and I just want a lot of texting and you know, unlimited calls. So I mean something like this, Like here's straight Talk, okay, straight Talk wireless, which I don't know if you've ever been in to a Walmart, but they sell it there. This is ninety dollars.

If you just go to the Verizon website, you can see what's there if you really want, like the cheapest for fifty five up. I think that T Mobile has like a fifty five and up plan, which is there let's see, Yeah, unlimited fifty five plus discount plan for seniors. I guess they are a senior theoretically, but I don't really think that's the definition of senior. But this is fifty five or over you can get twenty seven dollars and fifty seve fifty five dollars for two lines.

That's that's an amazing deal. I pay. I pay like one eighty five a month to Verizon for two lines. That includes my Apple Watch though.

people touch. Now, would you go into an Apple store and touch an iPhone at this point right now to like pick it up and look at it.

California they're not actually opening the stores just yet. It's going to be a drive up situation where you have to you know, drive up you can drop off your phone for repair and pick it up, you know, say the next day or something. Okay, Monterey, Roseville, Sacramento, San Luis, Obispo. Is that how you say it, San Luis, San Louis, Obispo.

off expires today. High pressure sales tactics. Right then it's got all these logos of different companies. Now, if you ever see a logo of a company on a website but you can't click through, that's a red flag because I see that it's featured in tech Crunch, giz Moto, Huffington Post USA today, yet I can't click any of those links to see what tech Crunch wrote about them, what Gizmoto wrote about them, what Huffington Post wrote about them.

And if you go by the way, these look like the Jive minipods look like identical to a knockoff AirPods AirPod. And do you remember when we were in China when the AirPods were everywhere, the knockoff one and they were like twenty bucks to purchase and they started out at one fifty and I was like negotiating with them and they kept following them.

if you want a cheap pair of earbuds. I would go at these for thirty three dollars that eleven thousand people have rated versus these random whatever you're finding on there. And now the thing is, and I know this is what people like, people like the AirPods look, and these don't have the AirPods look, So I know that's kind of a problem. But we did do a story and I can't remember what the name of the company was, but we did this in tech Updates a couple days ago.

price of AirPods. And the difference between the two sets, I remember is with the ninety nine dollars one, you get the sensor and you get a longer battery life, and the sensor means when you pull them out of your ears, they will pause the music, so right, I would maybe hold off for those if you can. I believe they're coming sometime this summer, so you can go on their website on Urban Ears and sign up for updates. Now, we did do a review on a TCL smartphone this week.

TCL is the company known for the Roku TVs. Megan, I believe you have one of those, right, yes, I do, and you love it?

fifty dollars price tag. The ten Pro for four to fifty I'll be honest, I'd probably recommend a pixel at that point or something similar. No, probably just a pixel. So at two hundred and fifty dollars, I was very skeptical of this phone, but I got to say, I really enjoyed this device because it doesn't play games with you. A lot of these cheap Android phones they're garbage, honestly,

and this is not garbage. It's got a nice display six point five to three inches, it's got four cameras, has an actual headphone jack on the top, which I thought was really cool. And again they're playing to that budget connoisseur that may not want to spring for Bluetooth headphones. Have headphone jack, so you can plug in a headphone jack without an adapter, and again playing to that budget connoisseur. You can now tune in FM radio through this device

because they put in an FM radio app. I'm not talking. iHeartRadio, I'm not talking, you know, one of these streaming apps. This is radio that is taken through the airwaves and sent through your headphones. And the reason why that's cool is because that means you can listen to music or talk radio without using your data plan. Then they have a smart key on the side of this thing, which is really cool. You can program that to do any kind of functionality you want, whether it's your assistant or

three clicks to clear your memory. This has sixty four gigs of storage, six gigabytes of RAM USB C. Which is another thing that these budget devices do is they give you the older micro USB, which is terrible and it's not very good. See there's hardly any bloatwear on this phone. The software is really good. They've got an air drop kind of fileshare feature that lets you transfer things back and forth between your computer. The camera is

I would say it's very good for the price. This is not going to beat out the iPhone se it's not going to beat out any sort of flagship pic android phone. But for two hundred and fifty dollars, it was just fine. In fact, I was sitting there taking pictures going wow, oh oh, okay, that's actually pretty good.

to be video submissions. So I'm thinking that she's recording these things because she also talked about garage band, which, by the way, I've been working, you know, for twenty years in news and TV and audio, and I've never used garage band because it's so complicated and I don't like it. I edit this podcast in final cut because it's so much easier, and I'm sure I'm not alone, Like, you don't need to use garage band unless you are of like trying to literally start a garage band, Like,

you don't need that. I think everything's way too complicated. So you've got the microphone, you've got the mixer. So what I would do if I was in your shoes, Heidi, and I was helping my kid get into musical theater, which awesome, I would just use the camera, the Rebel T six on a tripod and yeah, and I would just connect the microphone and mixer to the camera and I would record everything. So you're basically recording the submission on the camera, but the mic is coming through the

nice microphone. That would be what I would do. And then you can take that video, import it into your computer and just clip the you know, wherever you need to clip the beginning and the end. You can do that in quick time.

need to. Now, if she's doing these things on Zoom, that's a different case scenario, right, And yeah, it doesn't seem like she's doing on Zoom because she said they have to be video SUBMISSI and so, and I don't think that these schools are auditioning everyone on Zoom like a live It seems like you would make a tape and send it. So that's what I would do, and I'd even I'd even take it up a notch. I would just use my iPhone And why even bother with doing I.

and Apple came out with their exposure notification system. This used to be called contact tracing, but the word tracing and contact seems way too privacy woo for most people, so they rename this because this system only works if people actually use it and the so far only a couple of states have used this. But let me just explinks, I'm getting a lot of questions about this on my Facebook page. People are so scared of this system and there's really no reason to be scared of it. It's

not tracking your location. It's not going to tell everyone in the world that you have coronavirus. It's not broadcasting where you are to anyone. It's really the way they design this program is actually very simple, and the way they designed it is your phone is broadcasting a simple code that changes every couple of minutes, no matter where you are. When another phone gets close, it picks up your code and it remembers it, and it doesn't remember

who you are, doesn't remember where you were. And when someone in that system, let's say all those codes that are paired up, and imagine all the codes paired up means here's all the people that came into contact with each other within six feet for a couple of minutes, whatever it was. When someone in that registry says, bing, I got coronavirus, it sends out a message to all those phones saying, hey, it looks like you came into

contact with someone that has coronavirus. Doesn't tell you their name, doesn't tell you where I don't know if it even tells you when probably does, because within the last fourteen days. That's it. Now you go get tested. If you figure out, you know, do I need to self quarantine. It's not recording, this data is not being kept, it's not being put

on public databases. So it's fine. And I know that people are gonna be like, Rich, you're just drinking the kool aid of these tech companies and you're just you know, our privacy is at risk. It's not. The way I've been on the phone calls with Apple and Google, and the way they built this system is they made it so that your privacy can't be at risk. And I was reading an article from tech dirt dot com. They say the case for contact tracing apps built on Apple

and Google's exposure notification system. This website is a very smart website and they basically said, yeah, this is fine, and they do a really good explanation with a system involving raffle tickets instead of like the more complicated Bluetooth beacons that they're using. And it's a great explanation. So if you want to read it, read it. But I imagine that people listening to this show are probably you know, they're probably thinking it's fine anyway. But when the Apple

software came out, did you update your iPhone? Megan no. So when the Apple software came out, it had this contact thing in it, and people were like, what, it's turned off by default. It is only turned on when you download an app that takes advantage of it. Right now, there's only three states in America that have them, which is North Dakota and two others I can't remember and South Dakota. Was it South Dakota, I feel like it was.

I feel like it was too but I felt like that was too convenient, like the two Dakota's, And then I think it was Alabama. California has not had you know, they've not mentioned any plans for them, which you of course know, Google and Apple want California because that's a big get, right, that's their home stakes. And the other place is the US. The US does not have a nationwide use of this yet, they don't have an app.

So the other thing that came out, of course, to go against everything I'm saying, is that North Dakota's app has been sending data to four Square and Google. Now this is from a privacy company called Jumbo Privacy. Their whole business is getting you to be worried about privacy, right because they can sell you stuff against privacy. I'm not knocking them because I love the fact that we have whistleblowers like this that look into the code and

see what's going on. And I would imagine that what happened is North Dakota, whoever developed their app, was probably using off the shelf stuff just popped in a bunch of modules, and it included tracking for for Square and Google. They probably didn't realize that they needed to take that stuff out. That was my best guess, but I could be wrong. Maybe the whole state of North Dakota is trying to track everyone on four square and send that to Google. I don't know, but I don't think so.

So anyway, I think that stuff is all safe. If you want to look in your phone to see it, you go into Settings General, you know, Settings Privacy, Health, and then you'll see the COVID nineteen tracker. It should be turned off by default because pretty much unless you live in one of those states, there's no way to turn it on without downloading one of these apps.

I dug up a press release from April twenty first, twenty twenty which now they have a blood pressure application for their Galaxy Watch devices. So I do remember at the Samsung event last year, they announced that they were going to do some stuff with blood pressure. It took a while for this to happen. But the Samsung Galaxy Watch Too, I believe, has this feature, But according to this press release, it looks like you have to calibrate it with a traditional cuff, so it's kind of confusing.

The Samsung Health Monitor app will be available on the Galaxy Watch Active Too within the third quarter and will progressively expand upcoming watches, so it looks like you can actually from It's a little complicated because it looks like you need to use a cuff. No, you know what, it doesn't. This is very confusing. I think it's fine. I think it says once you're okay, so you calibrate

it with a traditional cuff. So I think what you have to do is have you ever been into like Walgreens or CBS where they have like the blood pressure cuff in there?

something like your phone or your iPhone. I think Whvings is the company that does all these things. And they do have a watch steal HR, but I don't know if it does blood pressure. Let's see learn more heart rate, activity, sleep, battery life. Yeah, it doesn't say anything about blood pressure. Uh yeah, it doesn't say anything about blood pressure. But anyway, that's those are the companies I would look at. All right,

I got a couple of things going here. Oh and I should probably say the Apple Watch I do not believe has that feature. I don't. I actually know it doesn't, but maybe the new one does, Maybe the one that they're coming out with I know has ECG and you know those features, but it doesn't with the Apple Watch. Is lacking is sleep monitoring, and like you said, blood pressure. Okay, so a couple of little things just to get you on the same page, I'm gonna give three little things.

So number one, Hulu is updating its interface. I do you have Hulu. Yes, It's the worst worst interface in the world. It is so complicated.

and that's what Netflix uses. That's what pretty much every streaming service uses at this point except for them, and so Roku and tvOS. It is rolling out beginning today and I don't have it just yet on my apples or my Apple TV Hulu app, but it is coming out any day now. So if you don't have it just you're just on the list to be rolled out. It's going to come soon to other devices. Google podcasts a big app for their Google's app for iPhone. I don't see a big use case scenario for this. We've

talked about this in the podcast. Why I think it has potential because of the way Google searches the words inside the podcast and can give you recommendations. But the reality is it didn't have car play support until now. Now it does, and if you open up car Play, you have the Google Podcast app on iOS, you can now play your podcast in the car. This I'm very

excited about. You can't believe how many people have emailed me about how they can play poker with their friends online during this whole quarantine, because a lot of people get together and they play poker games on a Friday night whatever Saturday night, and so I recommended one called Poker in Place, and that was done by a developer. This one looks really cool because it's actually even easier. It's called Lee Poker l I poker easiest way to

play poker online. You can play games without having to download or sign up for anything. You just share a link to your friends. It works on desktop and mobile, has in game video chat and messaging. Super easy, Megan, no download, no sign up, one click link. This is what I love about these new tech companies are finally understanding the beauty of a one click link. When we got on Google Meet for this meeting, I just sent you a link and you clicked it and you're in.

It took one second. Now you were probably logged into Google, so that helped. But I think also Zoom kind of realized this. You make it easy for folks, they will join on and the easier you make it with those one links. Now Facebook does this with Facebook Messenger rooms. Just one link, get people in there.

didn't feel like it. But it was The directions on the email chain were absolutely insane because they were using the PokerStars dot net, which is like a big company and PokerStars dot net. What do they want you to do? They want you to really play poker with real money on their website, and yes they offer the ability for you to do this with your friends, but they don't really care about that. They're just trying to get you

to sign up, log in. So the question the sign up process was so insane and just kept going and going, and it was like, and I was sitting there, I was like I didn't have the heart to tell them, like you literally know you can do this with one link and it's so much easier, but I don't want to tell Max.

Oh the website, by the way, I should probably give you that because that's the thing you need to know. Let me uh, let me see. It's l I Poker, l I poker dot ioh l I poker dot I. Oh, it is so easy. You and I can start playing right now. That's how easy it is.

how to do everything. So when you have a question about the rules, they're the person you turn to. They're the ones that are doing all the little bets and like making sure you've got the blind and the big blind and the small blind and taking them you know cars. No, they don't do that, but they just know what's up. They are the person, They're like the gatekeeper. Right, I'm just sitting there like I have no idea. I'm just turning over my cards, I'm folding. I'm like I have

no idea. They keep you going, you know, and they count everyone out. It's just there's always mark my words. If you play poker with friends, you know there's that person.

So a couple websites i'd recommend. First, one is my current favorite, which is called Real Good R E E L g oo D. I'm pretty much browsing this all the time in my free time, trying to find like the best stuff to watch for the kids, for myself, for Lindsay Right now, I'm on an eighties movies kick. So last night I was looking at all the eighties movies that are available across my services. But what's cool about Real Good is that they will help you find stuff,

even free stuff. There may be stuff on like two B or what are all these other random like there's so many random ones now Pluto, so they may They will help you find stuff across fifty different services, and you can add your services and you can look for movies like so we just watched Big and then I was trying to find similar movies too Big, and so I went to Real Real Good and it will give you the other movies. People also liked more female director movies,

more New York movies. I mean, how cool is that. So you can just look through there and it's a very well designed website. They also have an app, It's the best. Now there's a new one that I don't think is as good, but you should know about it, and it's called Universe V You. It's a V and

then Universe Vuniverse. And what worries me about this website is that their logo is kind of inspired by the TV guide logo and anytime you're starting a startup and your logo is kind of lifted from a different company, I'm worried, like you're impersonating like another company's logo. But they do have some smart people behind this. But yesterday when I signed in, I did the same thing. I put big into the engine and the movie didn't even come up. So that was kind of a little red

flag there. So that with Arnie no Tom Hanks, Oh, who's Arnie? Like Arnold Schwartz, you call him Arnie.

looking through. You can also look through the TV app on your iPhone that'll give you some ideas of stuff that's available. But Netflix is not included in there, so I'd stick to these two anyway. Okay, finally, before we go or be TV, this is a head scratcher. They are starting a or maybe they already have it. I don't know, it's already available, but it's a new satellite

TV company. How weird is that I could get satellite TV installed at this point, I don't know, but they are doing it, and their whole proposition is a value proposition. Forty bucks a month and you get a bunch of cable channels, but they also put an antenna on the satellite dish that gives you your over the air channels,

which I like. I like that aspect of it. But it's just weird to think that you would have to have someone come to your house install a satellite dish and now you need to use their proprietary box to get your stuff. And I just feel like it's fine, Like I get it, Like there's people out there, like you know, less tech inclient that would want something that's similar to cable but not as expensive or similar to satellite.

But I feel like you can get all the stuff you need at point through a streaming service and you don't have to have someone come to your house and put this thing on your roof. Now I get it.

The whole local channels thing is kind of a problem sometimes, but I think you'd be better served by just putting your own antenna on the roof or in your house, or get you're evenna pay someone, pay someone ninety nine bucks to install it on your roof, and get something like a Tableau or even a TVO that has the recording built in or the locals built in.

it's great. They'll both do the same thing. But to me, like I would rather hack together my own little system because then you have the freedom. Let's say you're not happy with the channels that ORBTV offers for forty bucks a month. Well, you can't just download an app and now get YouTube TV because it's like their own weird platform. So if you had a Fire TV stick, you could just download YouTube TV. Oh I don't like YouTube TV. Okay, well let's go to Hulu Live TV. I don't like that.

Let's go to Fubo. Oh I don't like that. Let's go to Sling. Oh I don't like that. Let's I mean, there's so many options. When you have your own the box.

and I'm gonna update my Apple TV app. Then I'm gonna worry about the rest of the stuff. Well, can you believe it? That's going to do it for this episode of the show. If you'd like to submit a question for me to answer, just go to rich on Tech dot tv and hit the email button at the bottom of the page. Also, we would love it if you would rate and review this podcast to help other people discover it. Just go to rate this podcast dot com slash rich on Tech and Will Michael just left

a review five stars. Megan timely tech and tips explained researched well wow, great tech info. He writes tips questions answered in an understandable way. Rich clearly has high tech credentials, but he doesn't show off his knowledge, but makes it his goal to be the conduit of his insights to the rest of us. Wow. He also doesn't assume the listener has unlimited funds and seeks to identify good deals that the average person can afford, kind of like that

TCL phone we were talking about. Show is also entertaining in great chemistry and good humor between Rich and producer Meghan. Oh, thank you, Will, We appreciate it.