If you're downloading the number one app right now, watch out for imposters. Tesla has cheaper new cars, but are they worth it? And Chevy is bringing back an old favorite. You'll soon be able to go courtside to watch a major NBA team in virtual reality. Plus your tech questions answered. What's going on? I'm Richdmiro and this is Rich on Tech. This is the show where I talk about the tech stuff I think you should know about. It's also the
place where I answer your questions about technology. I believe that tech should be interesting, useful, and fun. Let's open up those phone lines a ready, here we go Triple eight rich one oh one. That's eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Give me a call if you have a question about technology Triple eight rich one oh one. Email is also open. Just go to rich on Tech dot TV and hit contact guests.
This week, we've.
Got the founders of Trilogy Media, Ashton Bingham and Art Kulick. They are going to tell us how to spot fraud, fight back and protect yourselves protect yourself from today's biggest scams. They've got a new TV show, and later in the show, we've got Steve Arnset of Team Liquid. He's the co CEO there. He's going to talk about esports, how it's evolving, and why gaming is creating real career paths beyond just the screen. Well, I hope you're having a great week.
This is the Prime Day hangover. Yes, did you make it through Prime Day? Did you order everything that you wanted? Hopefully everything on your list was on sale. A lot of things that I wanted were on sale, so I thought it was a pretty good Prime Day, although it's a little interesting. Typically after Prime Day, Amazon comes out with a press release and they say how great Prime Day was, and they say about, you know, how many items were ordered per second? It's some crazy number. And
then they talk about you know what people ordered. It's usually some nonsense thing like they'll be like the life straw was the top most ordered thing. It's like, wait, what okay, a lot of people are drinking water out of a river. I don't even understand that. Back in the day, it was the DNA test. They used to sell a ton of those until we all we all know what happened with twenty three and me. I did order a bunch of stuff, and my wife ordered a
bunch of stuff. We basically ordered everything on our list. And here is the irony. My Prime Day order. Out of every single box that got delivered to my house, mine was not delivered. I got a text from Amazon that said, sorry, your order was undeliverable. There was no safe place to leave it. What Okay, they said they came to my house at a certain time and they
said it was not safe. Now, okay, inside the house all the chaos with the kids and you know us, maybe, but outside, come on, you can leave a package on the porch. Now we have ring cameras. No one came to the house at the time they said we were also home. No one came to the house. So I
don't know what was going on here with Amazon. I have seen in the past sometimes delivery drivers, I think if they're really slammed and they need like you know, there's these hard deadlines like Amazon now tells you like the window your stuff's getting delivered. If they know they can't make that window, sometimes they will just mark a package as like, oh sorry, I can't deliver this right now, and they'll just come back the next morning and leave
it on your doorstep. No problem there. This was like a whole nother thing that I've never seen before. I don't know if someone stole the package and then said, oh, it was on deliverable, or if the driver just literally quit his job and was like, never mind, I'm out
too many Prime Day deliveries. But no matter what happened, it was kind of annoying because guess what, all the stuff that I had ordered that was on Prime Day by the time I got this text, and it was too late to order again, and they never tried to redeliver it. So I ended up having to cancel the order and I had to reorder just a couple of things I needed. The other stuff, you know, all the
prices went up, so I didn't get again. So I just tell you that story because I just thought, is the one time that I put this giant order into Amazon getting all the stuff that had been in my saved list for so long didn't work? And I don't even understand what the end game was here because now my package is in like never never Land. So I
did send on an email. I usually typically send my newsletter once a week, and I'm very hesitant to send any more emails in next I want to spam people, but I did send a special newsletter with the the items that I would purchase on Prime DA. I said, you know what, people probably want to know, what would I buy out of all this stuff that's on sale. And so I got the results of what people clicked on the most in my newsletter and you're ready, here here's what you wanted now, mind you. I find it
very interesting. Nothing on this list is over was over thirty dollars, So that goes to show you people like to buy things that are affordable, you know. Because I did have a bunch of things on there. The iPad was an outlier. It did a lot of people clicked on the iPad five, a JBL portable bluetooth speaker, that was the number five item that people really liked because it's so inexpensive. I mean it really not really is not an expensive thing. I'm trying to get my blog
post up here, so it's not an expensive thing. I think it was on sale, and all these things have gone up in price, by the way, so if you did get one of these, it was great. But yeah, the speaker is forty bucks. I think it was Prime Day like twenty seven, so that was a great deal. This little JBL speaker. It's awesome. Number four micro fiber cleaning cloths. This is like the simplest thing ever. It's like an eight pack for ten bucks. I just keep
them everywhere. I've got them in my car, I've got them in my bag, I've got them near my computer.
My kids have them. I mean, they're just great.
It's just a simple thing that you can use to clean your gadgets, and those are on sale.
Number three.
I love this gadget, the cord brick weighted cord holder. I mean, how many times have you had a cord that's on your desk? You pull your phone out or whatever it's plugged into for charging, and the cord just immediately slides behind the you know, like someone pulled it from behind the desk. This little device is like ten bucks, and it just holds the cables in place, and it holds a bunch of them. I love this thing. I've got it on all my desks. That I think was
twelve dollars now it's fifteen, but it was. I think the regular price is like twenty. Number two. Let's see here. The Balkan Portable Battery Pack is a ten thousand million amp charger USBC. It's got the cable built in. You have to have one of these if you don't have a portable power bank somehow on your person. When you travel, there's going to be a time when you are really looking for a place to plug in your phone, and you're probably not going to find it. So this little
portable charger I keep. I always have one of these on me. This one is now up to forty dollars. It was twenty seven when I talked about it, and then finally the number one You're ready number one thing people clicked on in my email. This magnetic smartphone ring another thing that I always have with me because it is I don't like having anything on the back of my phone, and other people like the pop sockets and things.
I don't like that permanently there.
But when I'm traveling or I want to prop up my phone just to watch videos, either on a plane or anywhere, this is great. It's just a magnetic ring and so you attach it to the back of your phone with that magnetic circle that's already on the back of your phone mag say f on Android, or you have it built into your case and it just makes a nice little tripod for your phone so you can kickstand. Really, I mean, that thing is great, and I think it was on sale for like ten bucks.
Now it's up to.
Seventeen, so I would say the prime sale was great. I think people really did save money if you planned a little bit. And I think that if you still want to see that list, I'll link it up on the show notes Rich on tech dot TV. But you know, the prices have gone up, so if you didn't act on it, you probably missed out. But you know, watch
these things throughout the year. All right, So we're talking about Amazon and there is a prime settlement and I've mentioned this prime settlement two point five billion dollars from the FTC.
They said that Amazon made it really tough to.
Cancel Prime, which I don't know if I ever thought that, but I never really tried to cancel Prime, So maybe it was they had some dark patterns on the website that would trick you and it'd be really tough to cancel. But one point five billion of that money, I think a billion was a fine, and then one point five billion is a refund to consumers. So here's what you need to know. Number One, you have to be to qualify, you have to meet all three conditions US based Amazon
Prime customer. If you're listening to this right now, you probably are. You signed up or tried to cancel between June twenty nineteen and June twenty twenty five. So I guess that disqualifies me because I've had Prime since day one, literally day one. I will never forget signing up for Prime. And I'm trying to remember. I think it was eighty nine dollars when it first started, and I told my wife,
I said, you're not going to believe this. Amazon is going to deliver us packages in two days unlimited for free, for an entire year for ninety bucks. And she's like, I don't believe it. You know, back in the day, you remember you paid shipping. Things cost to ship, and somehow Amazon figured out, like, hey, we can ship you this stuff for this one fee. And they did a
great job. And by the way where I live, it is now by the hour, Like they're literally saying, okay, you're ordering this this morning at nine am, and they give you a window we'll have it to you between four and eight pm. I'm like, how do you do this? What are the logistics of this? Company, except for that
one time I needed it. It didn't work. Okay, so you tried to cancel unsuccessfully between June twenty nineteen and twenty twenty five, and then you used fewer than three benefits, so you didn't watch any Prime videos, you didn't listen to Amazon Music, you didn't ship anything to your house like, you didn't really get anything out of your membership. So automatically, you are going to get up to fifty one dollars
back automatically by Christmas Day, which is great. I love that they picked Christmas Day, so you don't have to do a thing. You're just gonna get that money back. It's going to be automatic. You don't have to fill out any forms. Now here's why I'm telling you about this. Scammers. They are going to exploit this, which means you're probably going to get an email in the next couple of weeks that says, hey, we're your friendly Amazon customer service and we'd love to give you this refund.
Please fill out this information or click this link.
Now.
If you click that link or you fill out that information, that's when the scam starts and they're going to try to get either your Amazon login from you and someone's going to buy a bunch of gift cards on your account, or they're going to try to capture your personal information.
Do not fall for that.
If you want more information, you can go to FTC, dot gov, slash Amazon. I tell you this because I tell you this about every single thing we talk about. Scammers take what we know and they twist it just a little bit so it's believable. It's something we're familiar with,
but then they use it against us. So for instance, how many times have you been at a checkout at the store and you swipe your card or you tap to pay and it says sorry, that didn't work, And you immediately get a text on your phone that says, hey, was that you at Target that just tried to buy the thirty seven dollars and forty nine cents worth of stuff? And you go, you know, press y or N and so if you've seen that, you know that that happens from your bank. But the scam artist send you that
same text. But of course it's like, hey, click this link to approver deny and that's you know what they do. They twist things to make it seem like it's something you're familiar with, but really it's evil, nefarious, it's not good, So don't fall for that stuff. All right, coming up on the show, We've got a lot to talk about. We've got your emails. Uh, We've got some calls here going on. I've got tons in the feedback. We've got
great guests. Eight eight eight rich one oh one. If you want to join in eight eight eight seven four to two four to one zero one, your call's coming up right after this. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology at Triple eight Rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one one. You can follow me on social media. I am at rich on Tech on Instagram, always posting little stuff there just for fun.
Let's see here.
Let us let's go to the phone lines, I said, lettuce, let us lettuce, tomato, pickle onion. Let us go to the phone lines. Let's go to nas in Los Angeles, nash around with Rich.
Good morning Ridge, Rich.
I just recently transferred my wireless service from Spectrum to T Mobile Home, and once I connected everything to it, for some reason, my Netflix and my Amazon Prime path stole work. Everything else works YouTube works. Hulu doesn't work either.
Well that's not good. What define defined doesn't work?
Netflix doesn't load up at all?
Okay, you know a little circle keeps going and then it says error. I googled that error code. It tells me to go and clear out some stuff on my settings on my Sony TV.
Okay, I did.
That doesn't work.
Amazon Prime actually loads up the content. For example, I was trying to watch the game, and once you you know, you choose the game to watch, it just keeps going in circles, buffering, buffering, and then nothing.
Okay.
Have you done a speed test on this T mobile five G home Internet? I'm assuming it's the wireless internet.
Right, Yes, have you done a speed test? Okay?
It sounds to me that this speed you're getting in your home is not very good.
How do you have this set up? And why? Why did you decide to switch the price.
No, it's just outages, constant outages in my area.
Okay, all right, well so now do you Okay, So here's what you need to do. You got it number one to troubleshoot this. You got to figure out if it is the speed you're getting. So if it's what I would do is just hook up your phone. Is there an Ethernet port on the back of this little router they gave you, Yes, okay, so if you can, I would connect my computer to that router with an Ethernet cable and I would do a speed test. You can go to fast dot com and uh that's that
will give you the speed test. And once you do that, let it do the speed test. And then there's like an extra speed test you can do. So once it finishes the primary it says show more info. You tap that and that will give you the details about your connection, which is your latency and also your upload speed. So if your latency is bad or your upload, your upload's probably not gonna be that good anyway. But basically you want your latency to be good, so a low number there,
and you also want your speed to be good. Now, all these services do not need a lot of speed, like the whole point of streaming. Like the thing that the magic that these companies invented really these content delivery services and Netflix in particular and YouTube is how to make streaming really good even on low speeds. That's the magic. Back in the day, if you wanted to download one movie.
It would take you forever. Now we just stream it because they figured out how to get those little tiny packets separated and sent over the internet and then they reconfigure them somehow on the back end here on your device.
So that's number one. You got to do a speed test.
If you're not getting the speed that you need, you may have to consider moving this device to a window or closer to somewhere in your house where you get a better signal.
Do you have T Mobile phone? Yes, okay, so you.
Can shortcut some of this stuff. The signal that the box pulls in is going to be better than your phone because it has a stronger antenna. So but you can just go with your phone and kind of go around the exterior areas of your house, like sorry, the interior near the windows, and see where you get the strongest T Mobile connection. So, for instance, for me, in the center of my home is a complete dead spot for every provider. If I go towards the backyard, some
of the are stronger. If I go towards the front yard, some of the other providers. And I test these things all the time at and T T Mobile Verizon. So go to the kind of the areas of your home, see which which area has the strongest signal, and that's probably where you want to place this little router that they gave you. And then once you place that there, do the speed test again. If you're getting anything over like ten megabits per second, you should be fine because
these services do not need a lot of speed. Once again, but it could be just that the signal is not good at all, and it's not it's not powerful enough for these apps to load up and stream.
That's number one.
If your speed is good enough, you might consider plugging the cable directly from your TV into the router. I know that may be tough if your TV is mounted on the wall. Hopefully they ran an Ethernet cable behind the wall that you could use to do that. If none of that stuff is working and everything is fast and it seems like it should be working, I would see what's going on with the TV. Sounds like these apps are built into the T so I would delete
the app, reinstall it, see if that helps. That'll clear the cast, That'll clear all the data, and then I'll kind of start you fresh on there. I'd also make sure that your software is up to date on your TV, the operating system and the firmware on that Sony TV. Uh great question as thanks for the call today, appreciate it. Eight eight eight rich one on one eight eight eight seven four two four one zero one. If you're downloading the number one app, I've got a warning for you
coming up next. Welcome back to rich on tech rich Demiro here hanging out with you talking technology. Phone lines open eight eight eight rich one on one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. If you're more of an email kind of person, which I am, I love everything in email rich on tech dot TV. Hit contact that'll send the email right to my screen. I like everything in email. I hate texting. I know people love texting. I hate texting. I'll tell you why.
And I hate to use the word hey. But I dislike texting a lot. And I'll tell you why. It's because I just don't look at it. I never think to look at my texts ever. What are you laughing at, Bobo?
What? What's so funny?
I hate to use the word hate. I do.
I really try in my life never to use the word hate because I don't like hate to use the I hate to use the word hate. I know, I see what I did there. I know, but I just don't like it. I don't care what you're talking about. Hate is a very strong word, and I tell my kids that too, so Paul Atte writes in, I'm listening to the show.
Quick question.
If you don't have to do anything to get your prime settlement, how do they know where to send the money? I believe they would just use the email address that you signed up for Prime with. That's probably what they'll do, so that's probably where it will go. Andy writes in from Los Angeles. Because I set up the new Nest sermonsats, I'm assuming you replaced your older models as I did, because the old app is going to no longer work. That's exactly what I did. I went from the standard
Nest that I had. I think it was a first or gen. I think it was like the first. Yeah, had to be the first twenty eleven. That's when I installed it and went to the new one. Because I'll explain the second. But I have a question about Google Home, which still shows four thermostats two as offline and I can't delete them. It's irritating because the off offline ones appear first, so I always have to scroll down to see the active ones.
Do you know how to get rid of them? Yes? I actually had to reach.
Out to Google to figure this out because I was having the same issue. I kept going into the Google Home app and I could not delete the thermostat. There was no option for it. So I'd see this like thermostat, I said offline, and I'd see the new one. Here is the answer. If you're trying to do this, you have to go into the Nest app. So download the next app, log in you can remove the old thermostat there. Google Home does not have the ability to remove it.
I still think that it seems like Google Home. You know, they're still integrating all the Nest stuff. So just go to the next app, delete the thermostat from there and they will disappear from Google Home.
It works perfectly.
And by the way, if you have one of these original Nest Learning thermostats, the first generation or the second generation, it's no longer going to connect in the Nest app or the Google Home app. It will still work. And this ends on October twenty fifth, twenty twenty five, so your time is running out. The thermostat will still function on the wall, it will not be remote controllable, and
it's no longer going to be smart. So just remember that if you've got one of these old Nest thermostats, you installed it the first generation or the second generation twenty eleven, twenty twelve they came out, so it's been a long time. If you have one of these, you have to you should replace it probably, And by the way, you should have an email from Google saying that you have a discount on the new Nest thermostat. I believe it comes from Oh God, I put it in last
week's newsletter. I think it's Google home at Google dot com or.
Something like that.
But just look, just search Nest Learning Thermostat fourth gen and it typically sells for about two hundred and forty dollars. But if you have one of the old ones, I think you got a deal to like upgrade, like for like one fifty. Vicky is in San Diego. Vicky, are you there? You're on with Rich Hi? Rich Hi.
I'm having problems setting up audio connecting my Samsung TV to my Kenwood A MS SUM receiver.
Okay, what's the problem.
Well, I'm getting I'm not getting any sound I've got I'm using a converter, an analog to digital converter, okay, and I've got that all hooked up correctly with the cables. I don't know if it's a setting that I'm not setting right. I've spent hours on the phone with Samsung.
I've been back and wait, you've spent hours on the phone with Samsung. You expect me to know the answer to this. If they couldn't figure it out, what makes you think I can? Okay, So let me get this straight. You've got the TV and you've got this receiver. Where does that con come in? What are you converting with?
It's an old, old ken Wood AMFM receiver okay, And I'm using the RCA red and.
White jack okay, out out from the receiver, the red and white jacks to what.
My son to the optical. That's what I need the analog converter for. And then I have the optical cable from the converter into the TV.
Okay, so the optical so the little converter converts it into an optical signal. Yeah, and it's an out. Your shirt's an out yeah, okay? And do you have any other options on the back of that thing.
No, just HDMI. But I can't use HDMI because the receiver's so old, and that's what my speakers are hooked up to.
Okay, so you've got the speakers hooked up, so you want to do Okay, Well, here's the thing. So if your speakers are hooked up to HG, you can't have both. You can't have optical and HDMI at the same time. That's the problem with your TV, oh have You can only have one input at a time, or one output rather well sorry, one input. So you're doing You're you're going optical out of this little converter into the TV.
I'm going from the optical cable on the back of the TV to the optical box, right, and then the optical box has the red and white cables that go from the optical box into the receiver.
Okay, so if you are going optical into the TV, that would be the input. See that's interesting. Are you sure this the TV? The optical is the input for the TV. You've got that set up?
Yes, because I can see it. I've got two choices. I can use the TV speaker, it can use optical, So I keep changing the seting.
Okay, optical.
Optical typically means out because that's usually you're connecting that to a sound bar. Are you sure it says optical in?
Well, I mean on the convert itself. There's two choices.
I can use co X so optical or right they can Okay, So here's what I think is happening. I think that your TV is the optical is an out, and that's where you would connect it to a third party like receiver or soundbar using like my TV, I haven't connected to my soundbar using the optical out. So you would have to ensure that this TV has an optical in, which means you're using that to connect to your TV with that optical in sound input. I don't know if that's the case, if your TV can handle that.
Your TV doesn't have on the back, doesn't have any other way to connect. So you're trying to get the sound from this receiver to the TV. Is that what's happening?
You're trying to get that I'm trying to get my TV to play on my speakers.
Oh okay, okay, so I'm confused.
So the receiver, you're going from the TV to this little box then to the receiver.
Yes, yeah, okay, so it is. Okay, so it's the out.
I thought you were trying to get your your radio, your AMFM tuner into the TV and then out. Okay, So your speakers are connected to the HDMI on your TV.
No, no, no, my speakers are connected to the receiver.
Okay, got it?
Three old old think all like thirty years ago.
Okay, all right, So here here's what I think you need to do. I think that you you got to go from the TV to this little box and that that little that that signal is coming out through the optical into that box, and that box should take that optical and then send it into your receiver. The thing you need to make sure is that your TV says optical out in the sound settings. You cannot use two different settings for the for the audio out on this TV.
Yeah it does.
It says optical out okay. And I can even see the bars, like the sound bars moving on the optical setting. But there's just no found.
Okay, So the sound is not making it. So the sound is going out through the optical cable and it's making it that little converter box.
Are you sure this converter box works?
I just bought it.
This is my second one.
Okay, that's the thing I think might be the problem. And then you're sure. You're going from the converter box and it's sending a signal out through those cables into the receiver.
Is that right the light screen?
So I mean, there's not much to the converter box. But yeah, I would say pretty sure.
Okay, yeah, cool, Yeah, I'm looking at these little converter boxes. It's got yeah av okay, so HDMI it's got okay, a lot of different things, and you're.
Powered the Insignia it's the Insignia one.
Okay, it's I'm it's really tough to figure this out without seeing what's happening here, without seeing the actual cables. But I think the as long as you're going out from the TV, like the audio output is set as that optical and you're going into that box and that box is sending the signal to your receiver, it should work as long as that receiver can tune into those RCAA you know, inputs that you're putting it on and then it's going out to the speaker, so it should work.
In theory.
What I would recommend is trying a different connection. Maybe ordering a box that does HDMI out to h like HDMI to RCA, if you can do that, and then you can use the HDMI connector on your TV. They have something called Arc Hdmi RC and that would probably be a more an easier way to one of the look on your back of your TV.
If one of the HDMI.
Ports is labeled ARC, that means you can connect a converter to that HDMI and do the sound of output that way, and I think that that would probably work better. Okay, so I know it's a little bit of a pain, but you know, you're trying to troubleshoot here, and it's really tricky without seeing it and without me testing it.
But you can just order.
You know, one of these things is fifteen bucks. It's worth ordering it, trying that and seeing if it works. And you got to make sure that you're this little box you got the conversion is the right way, Like make sure it's going from optical to the av port. And I'm looking at this one that I'm seeing right here, and it looks like it's going from RCA. It looks
like it's converting the other way. The input is the RCA, the output is the optical So I would just make sure that your system is set up properly and that this little box is actually is converting things the right way.
Did it ever work? Did this set up ever work?
Yes?
It See I moved. I moved, and I had it set up before, and ever since I've moved, I can't get it set up right.
Okay, Well, if you had it set up before, then everything I'm saying about this not being the right box is move because it's just a matter of the connections. So what I would do is restart your TV, make sure the optical out is selected, make sure everything is connected to the proper inputs and outputs. Check to labels again it should work, and make sure that your system is running on that right, that right input when you go to the RCA cables complicated question, Vicky, I'm sorry
that's happening to you. I have faith in you, though I don't have faith in myself because if Samsung couldn't figure it.
Out, I mean yeah.
Eight eight eight rich one o one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one coming up. I'll tell you about Sora if you're thinking of downloading it. There is a warning today about Sora that's coming up right here.
I'm rich on Tech.
Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology triple eight Rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. The website rich on Tech dot tv. There you can find the show notes. I take very good notes, uh. And there you can also subscribe to my free newsletter packed with helpful tips, tricks, and the latest tech I think you should know about. Just go to rich on tech dot tv. It's all right there. All right, let's
get to the gadget of the week. I love this thing. It's super cool, the HP film scan five touch screen film scanner. Now, if you listen to the show very closely, you'll notice one of my guests last week mention this and I happen to have it in my place, you know, in my lab for testing, and so I pulled it out, and I was like, all right, now's the time to test because she said she likes it. Let me try this thing out. And sure enough, I couldn't believe it.
But I did find some negatives around my house. I was gonna ask like my in laws to see if they had some but I couldn't believe the first place I looked, the first box I checked, I found negatives.
Old school, Remember, you.
Used to get your pictures back in an envelope and it came with the pictures in the back and the negatives in the front. And my mom always was like, don't touch the negatives, you'll ruin them. And think about this, When you took pictures back in the day, you had to wait to see what was on that role at the end. How wild is that now to think about that now, I'm not kidding.
I was at dinner the other night.
I watched these teenagers take about seven hundred and fifty selfies before they picked the right one they were gonna post. Now, it's so different than it was back in the day. You'd take a bunch of pictures, half of that role what was it, twenty four pictures on a roll, maybe some more. Half of them would just be garbage. They were literally just throwaways, and you'd be like, oh, I thought that was a better picture anyway. So this thing is great because all you have to do is take
the slide. You don't even need a computer, and it has a nice five inch screen on it. You put the slide into a little tray and it takes slides or negatives. You put it into the side, it shows up on the screen and then you just press the capture button. It works with thirty five millimeter film one ten and one twenty six. You can view it, you can crop it, you can fine tune things. But you
can do all that in your computer anyway later. But the coolest thing about this is that it's a touchscreen, so it's really easy to use compared to all the other ones on Amazon that are much more you know, button based, and you're sitting there tapping all these buttons. So you pop a memory card into the back, you press that capture button. It puts the file right onto that memory card. Then you can put that memory card on your computer, or you can put it on your phone.
If you have an Android or iPhone, you can just plug that right into the bottom of your phone using a memory card reader.
I did this.
You can see my video where I test this out on Instagram at rich On Tech and it's just super cool. And I found an old picture of me and my wife in Cabo. Can you believe that we were at the world's smallest bar anyway, So you put this stuff in, you archive it and it's just a great way to digitize your pictures. It's two hundred and thirty dollars on Amazon. I will admit it was a little cheaper during Prime Day, so if you got it during Prime Day, you did well.
But watch for this over the holidays. It's not something you need to buy right now, but just watch for a good price drop over the holidays because we know it went cheaper, so you know it's going to drop at some point again. Anyway, it's called the HP film Scan five inch touchscreen at film Scanner. That is this week's Gadget of the Week. This segment sponsored by Shopback. So I told you about my Amazon Prime Day shopping. Yes,
I did shop on Amazon Prime Day. Okay, so maybe I didn't get everything that I needed, but I did do that and a lot of the stuff did arrive.
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You know why because you get cash back on the stuff you're already buying. So before you shop, all you have to do is activate shop Back. You'll either pop up on your web browser or you can use the mobile app if you have that. It's got a browser extension which makes life a lot easier. After check out, you'll get an email showing you how much you spent and how much cash back you're going to earn, so
it figures things out pretty quickly. The money that you collect on shotback goes right into your PayPal account, so you don't have to get points, you don't have to get gift cards, just actual cash that you can withdraw. And I've transferred this money into my bank account. It's pretty easy. The other thing about Shotback that I like is it stacks with coupons and retailer deals, so you can save up to three times more than other cash back apps.
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for this go to the quests page. That's where you can earn bonus cash back just for completing certain purchases. So join shopback for free today at shopback dot com. That's shop back dot com, shopback dot com. Download the app or the browser extension. Amazon rates are available for a limited time only. All right, If you are downloading Sora, you've heard of Sora, right. This is the app that lets you make videos AI generated videos. It is invite only.
Be care There are dozens of fake Sora and Sora two apps on the app store, and I know that people are downloading these because people have been emailing me asking me for my invite code. I give it to them and they say, oh, Rich, that didn't work. Nope, you're probably using it in a bogus app. So be careful when you download this app. Make sure you get the actual app that is called Sora two. And you should know that it's Sora, the actual app. Let me get I'm going to the actual app store right now.
It should say underneath it Sora by open Ai, a new video app by open Ai.
Open Ai.
It's the number one video right now in photo and video. It might be the number one video on the app Store at this point because it's it's been trending. They had over a million downloads in just five days, which is more than Chatchy BT got when it came out. So just be careful. Do not just download any Sora app. Make sure the developer name is open AI eight to a rich one oh one eight to eight seven four two four one zero one. We'll take your calls. Coming
up right after the break. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demurou here hanging out with you, talking technology Triple eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Got a lot going on this hour. We've got some great guests. We're gonna have Ashton Bingham and Art Koulik, founders of Trilogy Media, and they have a new show called Scam to Getting Even.
They're gonna talk about how to spot fraud, fight back, and protect yourself from these scams that are happening every day. You would not believe how many. Well actually you probably would believe it because you see them every day. It's just unbelievable, and people fall for him, they really do. If you go there's the Better Business Bureau actually has a great website. Called Scam Tracker. So if you just want to browse through scams that are happening, you can.
You can just literally go there and just look up, look up a scam, and you'll see all these scams that these people online purchase bulk Jersey Supply website. I ordered a shirt from this company, and after repeated attempts to reach them, they after a month, they said it would take longer and longer. Then they sent an email to all customers with their personal information saying we know you're waiting, YadA YadA, YadA, and anyway, they lost fifty eight dollars.
You can just go and they go on and on and on.
We got lots of replies about Vicky's question with the receiver and the TV Ron in California says if Vicki's system was working before, she should double check every button and setting on her receiver, especially the tape monitor switch. If that's pressed in, she won't hear any sound. Randy writes in make sure all the cables are correct from the TV to the converter box and from the converter
to the receiver. Then confirm the receiver is set to the right input source to hear the TV audio and then JP says, ask Vicky what she plugged the RCA JAX into on her receiver. On some older models, the monitor function has to be turned on or the audio signal won't reach the amplifier. So there you go a couple of suggestions there. Let's go to Lisa eighty eight rich one oh one eighty eight seven four to two four one zero one. Lisa is in Los Angeles. You're on with Rich Hi Rich hiight.
Good to talk to you. Fabulous show.
Thank you.
I also get the newsletter.
Oh I love that double bonus. Where's my bell? Double double double bonus?
Okay. So I have an HP laptop that's like five years old. Okay, it's Windows ten okay, and it would not allow me to upgrade to Windows eleven. Okay, So much to my Chagarin. I go out and I decide I'm going to buy a Mac laptop.
Okay, good choice.
Two or three days later, Microsoft comes out and says, oh, we're gonna support ten for the next year. You just have to do ABCD, go down the list and do all that stuff. So I thought, well, okay, I'm going to do it. I did it. They said you're now supported. Do you know how secure that is?
It's as secure as it can be. You got one more year. But now here's the thing. Are you in your return period for the laptop?
Yeah?
Okay, then just return it, return it and just stay with this for a year, if you know.
But the next year, yeah, I'm gonna want it. I mean, I got to decide.
You got to decide. I mean, did you buy it from the Apple Store or somewhere else? Okay, you only have fourteen days and they do not charge a restocking fee as far as I know on the laptops, So I mean you're in a good place if are you good with the Mac?
Like?
I mean, look, don't get it. Don't get me wrong, I love the Mac too. Like I'm I'm just saying, I guess it really comes down to the money. Do you care about spending the money on the laptop?
Und I had put the money aside for the Mac because I knew this was coming.
Oh look at you, I love you. What what a great planner.
I try.
I try till Microsoft pops up and says, oh, you'll have one more year.
You just spend one thousand bucks and now you don't have.
To thank you, So I just kept to figure it out. But I'm I'm loving the Mac and.
Demaca is great. What'd you get the small one?
The thirteenth I got the fifteen in fifteen inch MacBook air Yees, yeah, I mean, great laptop.
And you know it's going to serve you for a good probably eight to ten years, I think on that side.
Oh that's good to hear they tell me.
But well, I mean they they the software might be supported for a certain amount of time, but Apple, you know the thing will work for much longer. But you know, here's the deal. So what you're talking about with the with the Windows end of life, that's going to end on the fourteenth of October. So after that, if you're not updated with this extended security updates, your computer could
be vulnerable. Now, once you do those updates, like you said, you opted in, your computer will get security updates for the next year until October twenty twenty six. So what I've advised people to do is definitely hop on either upgrade your computer Windows eleven if it lets you do the extended security software updates. If you can't do that, and then you have a year to plan for a new computer. Now, in your case, you already went out
and bought the new computer. You've already got it. You just have to decide do you want to wait until next year to rebuy this computer or do you just want to cut your losses now and just you know, recycle.
The Windows machine.
So, but you have an option.
You You've got your time to decide this, and there is no right decision here. Obviously the Mac is going to be nice and fast and smooth and up to date.
In mind, No I noticed the difference.
So maybe that's the answer you.
If you're already liking what you're using and you've already spent the money, you know, maybe just stick with it.
My husband might get the HP for the next year.
There you go, now you're talking give him the old one? Ouch?
All right, Rich, thank you so much. I appreciate it, all right.
Lisa, enjoy no matter what, no matter what. You can't make a wrong decision there. I mean, if you're using a brand new Mac, you're gonna love it. And if you're using the HP for the next year, it's familiar. It's gonna run a lot slower, but at least you're protected from yea, all that stuff. So yeah, if you're looking to uh, if you've got a Windows ten computer, the way you know you have Windows ten. Okay, go to your little computer. Go to your Windows computer. Press
the Windows key on your keyboard. If you press that key and your menu pops up in the middle of your computer, you're good. You're on Windows eleven. No need to think about anything. If it shows up on the left hand side, left corner of your screen, that menu pops up there when you press the Windows key, that means you're running Windows ten. Now, before you email me and you say Rich, you can change where the menu pops up on Windows eleven.
It can go to the left. I know.
But most people that I'm talking about right now that are trying to figure out they're running Windows ten or eleven, they don't. They don't know how to do that, so they're not moving the menu to the left. That's why I can say that with confidence that if it pops up on the left, you're probably running Windows ten. Pops up in the middle, you're running Windows eleven. You don't
have to think about it. So what you need to do if you're running Windows ten, you've only got a couple of days here, You've got to enroll in these extended security updates that'll give you one more year of updates security only on your computer before you know you have to buy a new computer next year.
So there you go.
Great call eighty to eight rich one on one eighty eight seven four to two four one zero one. Natalie writes in listening to the podcast, I've never cracked a phone screen before, but now it's happened to my Motorola Edge twenty twenty four. The damage isn't terrible, just some hairline cracks and a couple deeper ones on the side, but the repair quotes shocked me. Diy kits run about one hundred dollars and repair shops one hundred and fifty
or more. Since the phone still works fine, I'm torn between just fixing it or fixing it and just living with it until I upgrade. Any advice on whether that cost is worth it, Natalie, I think it's worth it because number one, hairline cracks and deeper cracks turn into larger cracks, and the reason is because the integrity of that screen is now forever ruined. And this is what happens. People drop their phone, they say, oh, my phone's fine, Oh Whoo, I escape that one. You drop it again, Oh,
I escape that one. The third time you drop it, boom, the whole thing shatters. The reason is because there were tiny little cracks and the integrity of that screen was probably implicat impacted by the other falls. So you can drop your phone one hundred times and nothing happens. It only takes one time where you drop it on a certain angle, or you drop it and it just hits things just right, and those stress fractures ruin it, so it could turn into more. I personally don't like using
a crack screen at all. I think it's really annoying. I actually don't think one hundred and fifty dollars is that bad. The problem is, I think if you're getting one hundred and fifty quote, i'd want to get it done at a place that warranties the repair. So if you have a place like a U break I fixed, they will give you a free quote. I don't think one hundred and fifty dollars sounds that bad if you can really get it fixed for that much, but make sure it's not like sort of a fly by night
place that you're never going to see again. If it's a place in the mall, make sure that they're there. They've been there for a long time. If it's a local place, make sure they've been there. But ask about the warranty, like, hey, if this thing cracks again, what are my well, you know, can you replace it again for free? See what they say. I'm not sure what the answer to that is. But also put a screen protector on this thing too, if you can. I know it's a Motoral Edge. Is that I think that's uh,
let's see what that looks like. Okay, so this is just yeah, I would get a screen protector for this phone as well, once you get the screen replaced, I would do that now this Uh okay, now I see why you're Okay, you can buy a brand new Motorol Edge twenty twenty four for two hundred and ninety nine bucks. In that case, I don't really think one hundred and
fifty dollars repair is worth it. I might just get a new phone or deal with this until you need to get a new phone, because that's that's fifty percent of the price of the phone. Now I know why you were So you were wondering about that. Okay, that makes much more sense. Let's see here what we got less than a minute debian, California. Here's an easy one. I love your show on KFI and your segments on KTLA. I still have an iPhone seven and want to upgrade.
I'm not sure which model makes sense. I don't use my phone for business or heavy camera work, mostly every day things like web browsing and photos. What would you recommend? iPhone sixteen E? For sure, iPhone sixteen E is the standard basic iPhone. It's still great. It actually is really really good for the price. One camera, basic specs, but you're gonna get everything you need, so it's still gonna have a nice screen. Doesn't have that always on display as far as I know, does it No, So you're
not getting that. But I think you're gonna be just fine with the sixteen E. And the price is pretty good. The retail price is about six hundred bucks, but you could probably get it for about one hundred dollars cheaper at Carrier stores or maybe even on Amazon. So iPhone sixteen E DEBI is probably the phone that you want. It's got all the modern features, but not that expensive. Eighty eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. If you want
to email, just go to the website. Rich on tech dot TV. Got a burning question, just hit contact right there. Uh, and you should get that right to your screen. Anything else is burning. Uh, that's not something I can answer. That's not my department, rich on tech dot TV.
We'll be right back.
Welcome back to rich on tech. Let's go to Kevin in San Clementy. Kevin, you're on with rich.
Good afternoon, rich. Let me get you off a speaker phone here. Anyway, I've got an issue. I came back after a trip for my computer and went to open up. I've got two Gmail accounts and both of them did the same thing. I go to log in and Gmail comes up and says, you know, uh, just please be advised that we collect this, this, this, and this. It was a bunch of personal things that they said they collect and I had to either accept or decline. I had hit decline and I could not get into my
email account. So what I hit accept, went back and hit accept. They didn't let me into my email account. But the things that they wanted to collect, I don't agree with. What are my options?
What are they ask?
What are they saying what do they want to collect.
They want to collect telephone numbers, get into my address book, account information. I mean it was a laundry I'm not in front of it right now, but it was a laundry list of personal things that I don't want out there.
Okay, well, okay, it depends is it was it a scam or was it legitimate from Google?
It was legitimate from Google. Okay.
So here's the deal.
If if you're using a free product, they they do ask for things in exchange. So could it be that you set up this Google account a long time ago? Yes, okay, so probably when you set up this Google account, they did not require as many things to identify you as they do now. And without seeing what they're asking for, you know, you're saying account info. I don't know what that means, Like that's you know, like what accounting for?
Are they asking for? The things that they would typically ask for would be things like your name, maybe your address, your phone number, your email. You know, those are the identifiers that they would typically want.
I believe was even okay.
Date of birth.
That is that's legitimate because you know, here's the thing that's happened in the past couple of years since all these account creations happened. Is that back in the day, they they were in a growth phase, right, and so they wanted as many people to sign up as fast as humanly possible so that they can go back to their investors and say, hey, we've got one hundred million people using Gmail. We've got two hundred billion people, you know,
blah blah blah. Now number one, people have gotten very savvy with privacy, and you know, there's also things that have happened. You know, we saw that Cambridge Analytica thing with Facebook, where you know, there's a lot of information out there, and these companies are now asking for more because they're also protecting themselves because of all these new privacy laws that are coming into effect, especially over in Europe.
We don't really have too many in the US, but because these companies operate globally, they are now doing everything on a national scale, so are a worldwide scale. So I think that it's probably trying to fill in some of the information that it did not have on you so that it could then sell more things to you or monetize your account more.
So, could I excu me, can I go into the personal settings, then on Google and decline individual things within the account.
Once I'm in, I'm looking right now to see what I have so basic info. It's got my name, my birthday, my gender, contact info, phone number, addresses, IDs, profiles, and then password. So I think it really you can see what they'll let you get rid of. I'm not sure that you know they'll let you get rid of. I have twelve phone numbers in here. Oh my gosh, it's a lot of phone numbers verified. And Italian phone number
is verified in my account. Okay, I don't That was probably when I went to Italy and they Yeah, so Google is trying, you know, they're trying to get as much information as they can. You can go in there and see what you can delete about you, but you know it does want personal information. It does want certain information data. Birth is going to be tricky because you
know they want that for protection reasons. Like they had this whole thing where they're basically using AI to figure out teens birthdays because either parents sign up for their kids or the kids sign up themselves. They put a fake birthday in so that they can be eighteen and
not have to deal with all these different parameters. And security and privacy settings and protections, and then Google says, well, hold on, you know, we need to make things that work for teams, we need to make things that work for adults, and so we do need to know your birthday. So I would say it is a trade off. If you want to pay for your own email account, right, then you can go on and buy a service that may require less information, that's more private, that doesn't sell your data.
But you are using.
Google, and if you're using Google, if you're using Facebook, if you're using Instagram, if you using TikTok, these are all free services that you know, they monetize you as a person, like your data is what they make money off of. So if you're not comfortable with giving them that data and you know, then you might have to switch to a different service to get that same level of whatever you're getting. Now, with all that said, whenever you're signing up things for things, always give the least
amount of personal data, and that is always what I'd recommend. So, and you can even sign up those websites like cloaked dot com, which you can create entirely new not identities almost, but kind of where you can make up a phone number, you can put in a new phone number, new email address. It's all one time use. So if you really want to get private about this stuff, you can you can do that. There's also another great website called privacy dot com,
and this thing is great because it basically connects. It does connect to your bank account or maybe your debit card one or the other, but you have to you can't use a credit card with it. But basically it generates one time debit cards that you can use to sign up for products. So if you sign up for a free trial, chances are you're going to forget to cancel if you use this privacy card. It's like a one time use. It'll just not work when they go
to charge you. Privacy dot com really really cool. Thanks for the question, Kevin, do appreciate it. Coming up, we're going to talk about how to protect yourself from some of the biggest scams out there. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you talking technology. Triple A rich one O one eight eight A seven four to two four one zero one links to everything I mentioned in today's show. Go to rich on Tech
dot tv. Hit episodes at the top. This is episode number one four two oh one four three Episode one four three.
All right, joining me.
Now, we've got some guests to talk about scams. I love, Uh, I like talk. Okay, let's see what's happening here. I am I hearing myself. Oh that's why. Okay, I'm there. We go, Thank you, Bobo. Uh yeah, this is my first day doing this. Why not make mistakes? Ashton Bingham and Art Koulik, founders of Trilogy Media, stars of Fox Nations Scammed getting even Welcome to the show, guys, Thank.
You for having Thank you so much for having us.
Uh so, tell me, well, first off, how did you guys meet up? And how did you start this Trilogy Media? And what is that? Exactly?
Go ahead?
Art, I mean I was literally like kinpointing on Ashton. Well, trulygy media. We opened Trilogy Media as production company.
Me and Ashton.
We came to Los Angeles, California to do specifically creating content, being in filmmaking business, and then you know, everything was amazing. We created company twenty sixteen and my brother Ashton, we used to be a roommates. He he answered robo call and that scam robo call change the curse of the direction of what we've been doing in the past ten years.
What was the robo call?
It was one of those you know, and they call you and say that your taxes are overdue and you're going to be arrested. And I mean, I knew it was a scam, but you know, we opened this company,
we had no intention of going into scam dating. We kind of fell into it because that video that I posted of that call when insanely viral, and we just, like, you know what, we have the drive in the in the dreams, we just didn't have the vehicle, and scambating was the perfect vehicle of being able to do something where we could be who we are on our terms with our personalities, but also do something that like really was important and raise awareness and use a platform to
actually like help people and you know, make these scams more in the public eye about how deep and dark they are and how much more complicated than most people realize.
Yeah.
So what okay, So first off, defines scam bating, What does that mean exactly?
Well, scam bating is basically the art of I don't know why my picture is delaying here, Sorry, maybe'll turn the camera the art of wasting a scammer's time in the sense that they will think they have what will
be a profitable victim for them. But what we're really doing is social engineering them to stay on the phone, waste their time so they can't scam other people, and most importantly, learn what it is they're trying to get out of people, so that we can expose those methods and warn people on what to look out for, and hopefully at the end gather you know, identifying information about
the perpetrators. And in classic trilogy style, we love to actually get outside, get boots on the ground, and actually go find these people and confront them and hold them accountable.
So are these people in the US most of the time or where are you going to find these people?
It's funny a lot of people kind of assume that scams are only in like, you know, one corner of the earth, or you know, you get a call with someone with an Indian accent and the whole scam is
in India. There are yes, certain pockets of the world where certain types of scams are more prolific just based on their skill sets and everything, but there are scammers everywhere, and especially one thing that we didn't even realize until we really got into doing this, is that these scams, although yes, there might be a call center in India, they're using people all over the planet to facilitate this. They have deals with Chinese mafia to launder the money.
They have cash mules here in the United States that will go and collect the money from elderly victims. They have people planted in the bank systems and in the in the you know whatever. It might be working for different companies that you know, can can give them an inside look or an inside you know whatever into databases of people's information or whatever.
That's interesting you said that because I remember when this there was like a hack, a SIM card hack or SIM swapping attack, like you know, I think it was a T mobile or one of these, But it came out that like there was people on the inside, like you, you're not really safe from this when there's people at the company working there that are going to do the scam or help the scammers.
And you know a lot of people think that, you know, oh, I'm too smart to get scammed or I would never fall forward.
It's so stupid.
Well it's not.
You look at it.
On one sentence on a piece of paper.
Yeah, maybe it sounds stupid, but when you really dive in and you're actually spending your time talking to these scammers and then more painfully talking to these victims, you're learning about the real long term emotional manipulation that they go through, and how complicated it is, and how many degrees of separation there are between the victim and the scammer, that it's really done by design that way, and you
really start to learn why these things are so successful. Unfortunately, so we have to you know, we have to expose it. We have to keep our you know, we have to keep our elderly especially aware because that's the big target.
Is Yeah, is it fun art?
Is it fun to to you know, catch these people, expose them and you know, kind of shed some light on this stuff.
Well, it's well, the majority of the time, yes, it is fun. But also, you know, when we're doing this kind of line of work, I don't even call this work.
We love what we do for a living.
It's it's literally dream. When we just got back from Nigeria, we had treaped to India as well. When you go to somebody else house and you go to the country and you know, if it's a tech support, it's going to be out of India. We've went to India when somebody been scamming people and then been doing these successfully for twenty five thirty years, and you come to their house and you stop this procedure, right, they want to kill you. So to answer your question, it's fun until
it's become danger Until it's becoming dangerous, you know. So yeah, you have to just like you have to balance it out.
Ah, that's scary.
I mean, yeah, I get it because I'm sure some of this involves organized crime and things like that. So what are the things that people need to watch out for these days? Like what are you seeing kind of bubbling up? And are these little things that we see like, you know, we get these text messages, we get these posts on Instagram, we get these emails. Is that really where the scams are? Is it really the phone calls
that people get? Like, just give me some high level of like what we need to watch out for right now?
Literally everything you can't trust anyone or anything. Yeah, whether it's text messages, DMS, email, email, phone calls, it's it's literally they're going to keep getting you from every way that they can. And with the with AI growing the way that it is, it's only going to get harder to spot. But yeah, you know, a general rule, just don't anyone that's unsolicited reaching out to you for anything.
You need to be skeptical. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Definitely, don't click any links that you're sinn, especially if it's a number you don't recognize, if it's a phone call, like I don't even I mean, I answer my phone for spam calls because that's what we do, but in general, in my day to day life, I don't even answer numbers I don't recognize.
They can leave me a message.
I'll call them back if it's important, you know, they'll they'll have my number. So, you know, you just got to be very careful about what people want, what they're asking you to do, and don't just take their word for it. If they say they're with the DMV, if they say they're with the I R S, you can't just take at face value. You know, it's you can never be afraid to ask questions and never be afraid to take your time and ask a loved one like
don't ever especially elderly people remind them. Do not ever let anyone pressure you into anything. Scammers will play on your fears or your dreams, and a really good scam will do both. So being pressured, being rushed, being threatened always massive red flags and links. Be careful with links, don't ever click them.
If you receive an email in duties and number to call again, don't call the number. And no matter who is calling, exactly like Ashan said, if.
It's j M V.
Sheriff who is coming to arrest you because you didn't pay taxes, no matter what's happening, We're living in a life that if you booking tickets, you're putting booking cruises, you shopping on Amazon, no matter what's happening to you.
Do your own research.
If you got a message about from Amazon or from Netflix, on from anything, don't don't take the word for it. Don't trust anybody. Do your research. Go and put Netflix dot com or whatever the website is, and call yourself. Don't let Bank of America, chase bank whoever is claiming to be or government officials. Find independent number online and call that number. And this is it. And that's how you know. If you're calling people and you're asking for help.
It means everything, okay, but if somebody is calling you and urging you to do things, don't do it.
Yeah, it's gotten to the point where like if I you know, any one that calls, like if it's you know, one of these companies that you do business with, whether it's your bank or credit card or an insurance company, and they say, you know, we'd like to confirm some information, I'm always like, hold on, wait a second, Like I make sure that they're the ones. Well, most of the time, I just kind of try to ignore the call, like
I'll just call back or something. But if they're if they're trying to confirm information, like let's say a simple scam could be like I call, you'd be like, okay, let me just confirm some information, right, let me your date of birth is what?
And then you tell me that and your social is what? And then you tell me that.
Now I've got pretty much everything I need in like less than five minutes, and before you even realize like, oh wait, hold on, who is this person I'm talking to again?
Well, that's the thing is when they're calling you is when you need to be really careful. Even even if your caller ID says that it is your bank, Like if you recognize the number, that doesn't mean it's your bank. Call spoofing is very easy to do, and you can make your call, like if I got your mom's phone number, I could spoof her number and call you right now and make your phone would say your mom's calling you.
So the best thing to fight against that is hang up and call them back, because when they're call spoofing, they can only outbound the call, they can't receive it. So you call the number on the back of your credit card and you ask them do I have a problem or was that fake?
And they will obviously let you know.
This is this AI voice stuff. We've only got a minute, so I want to hear about the show real quick. But is the AI voice stuff something to be worried about too?
Yep?
People calling impersonating your I mean it used to be where someone would call your grandma and say, you know, hey, we have your son here. He's been arrested. They tried this on my Gramdma that he's been arrested for DUI he needs money. Of course that wasn't true. But now it's to the point where they can listen to your voice, especially someone like me who's online. You can find hours
and hours of my voice. They can clone it, they can create it to say literally anything that they want to, and you'll never know.
You'll never know who the hell you're talking to.
That's why it's important between families to have like a pass code that only your family knows. You know, if you're ever unsure who's calling or who's talking, if there's an emergency, make sure you guys verify that between yourselves.
All Right.
The show is called Scammed Getting Even As on Fox Nation. How do folks watch this?
Foxnation dot Com? At premiere is October twenty second. We are so so freaking excited to be able to bring scam bating and scam awareness to a mainstream level. It's a six part, six episode season one, one episode every Wednesday starting on the twenty second, and it's every episode is very different, very exciting.
Exilit right, they're playing us off, Ashton Bingham and Art Koolik.
Thanks so much for joining me today. Really appreciate it.
Thank you so much, you guys, guys.
All Right, more rich on Tech coming up right after this. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you Talking Technology, triple A, rich one oh one.
Uh.
Chat gibt got a big new feature this week. They've got apps now built into chat gebt, so Booking, dot Com, Canva, Corsera, Expedia, Figma, Spotify, Zilo. These are all things that you can now access inside of chatchept, so it's kind of like a mini app store that you can talk to in natural language. That I think is the biggest takeaway from this is that Spotify make me a workout playlist, which you can already do on Spotify anyway, but I think the Zillo example
is the best one. So Zillo show me homes in a city under a certain price with this many bedrooms and walking distance to whatever a school, you know, a university. So again it's natural language. And I think this is what we have been waiting for when it comes to interacting with our computers. And I think this is part of the reason why chat gbt has become so popular and so incredibly useful for so many people very quickly. It's because you don't need to read an instruction manual
to learn how to use it. You just talk to it and you can do a lot of stuff just by talking. You could do a lot of stuff just by pasting in some data and it figures out what you're trying to do. Peloton, Target, Uber, and open Table are also coming later this year.
So what does this mean.
This means that you can now use all of these apps without actually opening the app. So we're getting to a point where you're gonna be able to do say to chat GBT, hey can you reserve me a table at Peter Steakhouse Thursday night at eight pm? And it will go out and it will do that for you. Can you find me this product at Target and order it for me? And because your account is linked up, it'll be able to do all that stuff. I mean, this is really really powerful. I just I find this
to be really really incredible. So anyway, check it out Chat GBT. If you're using it, all you have to do to activate this. It's not on my app just yet, so if you have the desktop app, it's not I don't see it there just yet. But if you go to chat chat GBT dot com and you just do the at symbol, you'll see Booking dot Com comes up, Canva comes up, Corsera, Expedia, Figma, Spotify, Zilo, and a couple other things, so you can just interact with those
things by talking. I think this is really the next level, and it really puts chat GBT in a very powerful position of Imagine when we get to the point where we're using these little devices to interact with AI, like a little tiny like you know, iPod shuffle type looking device, you'll be able to do all this stuff. Hey, can you check my target to see if that video game
I want is in stock? It'll go, it'll look at it, it'll pull it, it'll figure it out, and it will come back to you with the answer, Hey, can you order this for me from door Dash? It'll just do it. I mean, really really wild stuff. So check it out if you haven't. The Canva one I'm looking forward to trying out. The ones that are interesting to me is
zillow booking dot Com because you can ask for hotels. Hey, find me a lodge style hotel in the middle of Wyoming that's got a nine rating for customer reviews and a four star rating for stars. I mean, that's stuff that you can do already, but to be able to just ask in natural language is pretty cool. Now we'll see if it actually works as well as I want
it to. But I think that this is great also for accessibility, you know, like that anyone can use this if they can speak or they can type that you know, you get lots of options for this stuff. Now, pretty pretty cool? All right, let's see here. Tony is an Orange County just has a quick comment. It sounds about the scam stuff. Tony, what's up?
Hey, good only rich? How are you?
I'm doing well? What you got? Almost got scammed?
I did, And it has to do with what the gentlemen said. Although all the advice was great, when you're looking up. In my case, it was a brokerage account. I couldn't find a call in phone number. Yes, kind of a complex question, m hm. So I looked up the website and I found one that appeared to be who I was looking for. I called the number and at first the accent kind of gave me a bit of a hesitation, But then the questions came, you know, what's the uh, what's your name? What's the email associated
to this account? And it started going down and they put me on hold, and I'm thinking, wait a minute, after what I've already given them, they shouldn't really know who I am, just from my phone number, because my phone numbers associated with my account and so I disconnected. So I just want everybody to be careful, even if you do look up a secondary source to reach somebody, to really make sure. Because what happened after I hung up, they called me back and were texting me, called me back, and.
That was That's that's the giveaway.
It was not who I was, because as soon as they heard the amount of money I was trying to figure out how to move. He probably would have got promoted that day.
Yeah, it was. He perked up.
He's like, hold on, we got a good I always think of it as like they're in like a boiler room kind of situation where there's a bunch of people in like a room with all these computers, like we got we got a good one. We got a good one. But Tony, I'm glad you didn't fall for that. But
your spidey sense was was right. This happens a lot when people look up they will dial or they'll go on Google and they will just type in the name of a company like Delta phone number, right Spectrum phone number, or AT and T phone number, and these people actually buy sponsored results up at the top that display a phone number, and I'm looking right now to see if there's any you know, they maybe Google has gotten a
little hip to this. But you really have to be careful because so many people got dinged on this over the past couple of years because their Spidey sense did not go up. And if you think about it, Tony, like you said, immediately, they're asking you for information to confirm your account, stuff that they should have. But again, our accounts are real accounts. Do this like when you call your bank Sometimes I'm like, you have this information?
Why are you asking me for all this stuff? But it's like because they're trying to make sure you know you are who you say you are. But now I'm giving you my account number, I'm giving you my data birth, I'm giving you the last four of my social and all that information. If you just start spouting that out to some scam artists, they're going to run with that.
So good advice, do not Google.
You can Google for phone numbers, but do not take the number off the Google search results. Go into the actual website of the company you're trying it. So for Spectrum, Okay, so I typed in Spectrum. Go to Spectrum's website and then make sure you're at the official website.
Go down.
Usually it's at the bottom of the page and it'll say customer support call that number eight eight eight rich one on one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Coming up, we'll talk Google Pixel Fold reviews.
Coming up right here in rich on Tech.
Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you talking technology at Triple eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. The website for the show richon Tech dot TV can go there, get the show notes, uh and follow me on social media. I am on Instagram at rich on Tech. You can find me there. You will find me posting, not two you often I do post, but only when it's something that's uh, you know, interesting
or useful or helpful. So yeah, it's all there. Let's see who has been holding the longest. Let's go to Let's go to Don in provo.
Let's see what line is that that's.
Don You're on with rich that you're amazing, You're handsome.
Well, thank you, I mean I'm on the radio. You can tell.
I called you a long time ago about Zelta dot com, d E L d t A dot com and you, and then the last couple weeks ago you said you like original ideas, right.
I love original ideas.
That sparked me. I have like four thousand pages of text, you know, okay, prolific, prolific in problem and yeah, every day there's a new something, new original idea pretty much every single day, maybe even more.
What's what can I help you with?
Oh, I'm just gonna ask a question. I'm trying to find the best free AI for my one and a half hours of video musical that I was in Once Fun of Mattress, to clean up the scenery, to set the costumes, the music, the scene etcenta from the musical Once Fund of Mattress nineteen eighty five. With an old has an old video camera videotape file is the file is vo b.
Oh vo b. That's a. That's a. That's a tricky one.
Well, so you're trying, okay, you want to you want to run this through and get this cleaned up. So here's the deal. I am sure there are ways of doing this. At this point, I don't think there is a popular way to do it, nor do. I think there's a consumer version of this. So we are just at the point right now where where AI is doing a lot of stuff with photos. Obviously Google's Nano Banana and Gemini is like probably the best at that. So
I think we're getting there. But I think when it comes to just taking this VOB file, which by the way, are very tricky. Those are typically from DVDs, so you'd have to convert that into a file that's you know, a regular you know, and like an MP four or something.
You could do that with.
What's that program, handbreak, So you can take handbreak. That's an easy conversion program, open source, put it in there, get it into a better format. But I don't think at this point, as far as I know, there's not a website I can just recommend and say, oh yeah, take this video and throw it in there and it will clean up everything on that video. Like, there's just not a place that I know that will do that. Photos no problem. We can restore photos very easily on Gemini.
If you take an old picture and you pop it into Gemini and say restore this photo, it will do it. It's just incredible the results. So I think we're getting there don with the other stuff, but I don't think we're there just yet. Yes, it is someone listening and they're saying, Rich, there's a will do this, like there probably is. I don't think there's a consumer version right now that's that's very good at doing an entire video and ai ing it. I mean, if you look at
Wizard of Oz, they did that at the sphere. It cost him one hundred million bucks to do that. So it's not like you can just take that video and just throw it into some program some website that you're gonna find and it's gonna do it for free and clean up every frame.
It's just not possible right now.
So I would I would think in the next I would say a couple of years, and I'd say a couple of years probably gonna be quicker than that. But I think we're going to see some of these apps that can probably do that. Thanks for the call, don appreciate it.
Let's go to Richard in Costa Mesa.
You're on with rich Back in the day, I upgraded my Windows seven laptop to Windows ten. Have been putting all the updates all the way up till today. My question is is there an advantage to downloading and installing a current Windows ten file to my laptop. Verse over you know what I have right now, which is an old Window ten file.
Yeah, I'll tell you what's happening.
So basically, if you use the one that's already on your computer, it's probably like are you talking, it's like stored on your computer like a partition or something. Yeah, Like it's just already there versus downloading it. So basically, the version that's on your computer is as old as that computer. So it's it's you're talking, it's, uh, you know how old is this computer?
But I heard that it's eight years ago that Windows ten was available to upgrade from Windows seven.
Okay, so it's you're talking eight years old.
The bottom line is that, yes, you can install it from there, you're going to be spending the next you know, a couple hours doing the updates on that program. So either way, we'll get you to the same ending place, which is you know, you'll have you'll finally be updated after a while.
If you no advantage, I don't think there's an advantage.
I think it's easier because you don't have to you don't have to worry about downloading it, and how are you downloading it and installing it?
Like you know how to do that?
Well, yeah, you go to the Microsoft website, download the i ISO file to your laptop, and then install it from there.
Uh.
Usually it's not that easy.
Usually you need to put that uh that file onto like a flash drive and then make it bootable.
There's a player. Yeah, yeah, Okay, it sounds like you know what you're doing.
So I would just do that personally, because that way you're getting a fresh, nice, clean install and you're getting something that is uh, you know, up to date, so you're gonna have you still have to probably do some updates on it, but I think it's going to be less than you'd have to do if you were to install this from your uh whatever's residing on your laptop. But Richard, it sounds like you know your way around. If you if you're talking rufus and i ISO files,
you know what you're doing. I would say do it that way, and I think that's a much cleaner method than using the old program, which is fine, but it's it's going to be you know, dated, and you have to update it immediately. It's gonna take a while to do that. So thanks for the call. Appreciate it. Eighty to eight Rich one on one. The reviews are in for Google's Pixel ten Pro fold. I did not test this phone. I saw, I went hands on with it,
but I did not test it. So I will rely on the folks that did from all these other websites that I rounded up some of their reviews. But you know, I'll be honest, I didn't really want to review it because it's not something that people are really demanding. They're just not like a lot of people are not asking me about foldables. This thing is eighteen hundred dollars. And also I think that the you know, and I'll tell you what the end result is of all this, but
let me just go through the reviews here. So here's the improvements. You've got a new hinge, you've got new dust and water resistance. You've got G two built in on it, which is nice, the magnetic charging. It's got a bigger battery, so there are some improvements. The reviewers say that it is the most durable foldable yet from Google, so that's nice. The Verge buried it in sand and
it did survive. Google did not make this thing any slimmer, it's still heavy, bulky, And when you compare it to something like Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold seven, which is just a marvel of engineering, it's like, hold on, there's two, Like what's at Google? You just took two phones and you literally slapped them together, whereas Samsung went back to the drawing board and engineered that Fold seven to be such an amazing device and super thin you won't even
believe it. The cameras are not necessarily pro level.
They're good.
It's a pixel camera, so it's going to be good. But the reviewers say it's the same sensors as the base Pixel ten, not the higher end Pixel ten Pro series. Gizmoto even called them regressed compared to last year. Battery life and build quality was good, but some of the AI features I disagree with that. Some of the AI folks as folks said that the AI features like magic q are gimmicky.
I don't think that's true.
Magic Q is this thing where let's say someone texts you and says, he, what's that restaurant reading out on Friday night? Google using AI will look through all of your emails and your texts and your whatever stored on your phone and it will figure out that information and present it to you, and then in one click, you can just send it to your friend. So I think that's great. I've liked that on the Pixel ten series.
But the ad me feature, which is the ability to take a picture and then add yourself to that picture, is very gimmicky.
And it's actually very tough to use.
I don't even understand why that's still on these phones, because it's just I don't think anyone's using that.
Zd net says.
The Pixel is better for dusty environments, but Samsung wins on basically every other thing performance than this multitasking.
So the verdict across the board.
It's great for durability and battery life, but the z Fold seven is still the foldable to beat. And I could have told you that without reviewing this phone, because I played with it a bit at the Google event, and while it's nice, it's not really an upgrade in a big way from the last Fold from Google. And this is the third generation. They didn't really change too much.
I mean, yes, they made the dust resistance, they've added the Chi charging, the wireless charging, and the battery, but in the hinge is better, but it's really the z fold seven. They just improved every aspect of that device. But my biggest downside is that it does not have the magnetic ring on the back, which is really annoying in this day and age because you're paying so much for that phone. To not get that feature as kind of a bummer. So anyway, Pixel foll ten, you know,
probably want to skip. I think unless you love the pixel lineup and you love a foldable, it's probably not the best foldable out there. But I do love the Pixel ten. I will tell you that I do love that phone. I think there's still some issues with it. There's still it's not as the performance is not as great as the iPhone, and the software is incredible. It's really a smartphone, but it's still just like not as polished.
Like it's crazy to me that like this phone is still just not as polished as the iPhone, even though I think the software on the Pixel is better. But you can do more on the on the iPhone because so many more developers have tapped into what Apple is built. And that's really to me, the defining the differentiating factor between these two devices is that on the Google Phone,
it does a lot of things. It's super smart, it's got all the googlely stuff, but that's sort of where it ends, Whereas on the iPhone it's like, okay, so Apple doesn't have everything you need necessarily built in, but there's anything you can think of that you want to do, a developer has thought of it and has worked it into Apple's ecosystem.
So still both great phones.
This year, no matter what you go with, whether it's the standard Pixel ten series or the iPhone seventeen series, really really the best phones there. Eighty eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one. Coming up this hour, we are going to talk.
E sports and let's see what else do I have?
Oh, I promise we'll talk about the Tesla cheaper model. Tesla's coming up as well. This is rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you, talking technology. Eighty to eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two one zero one. Let's go to Steven, Orange County.
Steve, you're on.
With Rich.
Oh hright, Rich, thanks for taking my call.
Absolutely, what's up?
I have a two part question here, my I have a Windows uh laptop and it automatically installed co Pilot onto it. You don't want that, yeah, And my understanding is that it's uh stream shots periodically like quite often. Whatever you're yes, that's that's a feature called recall. Recall. Yeah, no, you don't want so I was running first of all, why they just put it on there without my knowledge?
And then second law, how I get rid of it? Okay, so with relling on everything, I am yeah, yeah, exactly, an email and everything, and I like.
Well, so recall.
When it first came out was it was promoted heavily by by Microsoft, and they thought it was going to be great because what it does is it takes a screenshot of your system every couple of seconds to remember everything that you've done on your computer. Now, doesn't take a genius to figure out why that may not be the best idea in the world for a lot of reasons, right, even if you're not necessarily doing anything bad on your computer. Right,
Let's just say you're checking your email. Well, think about the emails you check, Hey Rich confirming this is your social Hey Rich, here's your bank account number, Hey Rich, here's this. Now that's all fine. What if now all that data stored on my computer, all those screenshots with all that private information. What happens if a hacker gets access to that repository of all that stuff, you know, now they can go through it and see everything.
That's just one scenario.
Other scenarios what if someone gets access to your computer and they search They just go and search through your recall and find all kinds of stuff that you were looking at and find the you know, either private information, embarrassing information, whatever.
So that's number two.
So as soon as Microsoft launched this, there was no fanfare. It was like it was like a screech of a record. It was like, this is not a good thing, and so they went back to the drawing board. They ended up delaying the installation of Recall. They went back to the drawing board, figured out some more privacy situations, figured out some more privacy protections, and now it's back, and
now it is I just checked it is. You're right it is pre installed because I just found it on my machine and I'm assuming when you first set it up, they ask you if you want it or not. But you can turn this feature off. So if you go into your settings on Windows Privacy and Security it's under recall and snapshots, and the main feature you want to look for is take snapshots that has turned on. I honestly did not even realize this was turned on on
my computer. So I'm actually now I'm not going to turn it off because I want to go through some of these screenshots. I just want to see what's in here. That's pretty wild. So okay, I've got one hundred and fifty gigs dedicated to my screen shots and ninety days worth of stuff that is this is wild to me. So you can go through and you can turn off
safe snapshots, and you can delete snapshots. You can delete all the snapshots, so you can delete all, or you can delete from They give you some nice options past hour, past twenty four hours, past seven days, past thirty days, so if you just need to delete some. And then they've got filter sensitive information snapshots were potentially sensitive infos, detected words, credit cards and more will not be saved.
You can filter apps, you can filter websites, and so they have thought about a lot of these things, but the reality is for the average person, I you know, the idea is that you were surfing a website, you were looking at genes, or whatever, and you can't remember what that website was, and so you type in genes, or you type in a color, or you type in whatever description and it would be able to find that it's cool in theory, and I actually think it's kind of fun, but I get it. There's a lot of
privacy aspects of this. So that's how you turn it off again. Go into your settings Privacy and Security and it's under save snapshots. You can turn that off. Why did they install it on your computer? You know, a tech company just like to do that. There is another app if you are this is for my advanced listeners.
If you are advanced advanced advanced okay, there's an app called win Arrow Tweaker WI n A E r O. And this is an app that if you really want to decide how your computer works, you can do this with this app. So it is let's see, is it freeware? Looks like it's yeah, free app. So you can just tweak all the hidden secret settings that Microsoft doesn't necessarily
let you adjust easily. So if you want to disable things, you want to disable copilot completely, you want to you know, whatever you want to do, this will let you do it. It really has like, I mean, every feature you can imagine. It's kind of like you're in control of your system again. So but again you have to be an advanced user for this. But I mean you could do so many things.
Look at this.
I mean it's just if you look at the list of things that this lets you do, it's just a laundry list. I'll link this up on my website rich on Tech dot tv. Again the name of the app is win Arrow Tweaker, and also put the instructions on how to disable recall if you so choose. A great question, Steve. Coming up next, we're going to talk e sports right here on rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging out with you, talking technology. So
many things to talk about. I never get to everything I want to talk about in the show, ever, it never happens. I literally have a laundry list of things I want to get to and I just can't get to the mall. So maybe I need to plan less for the show, Like I just maybe I need to come in unprepared one day. But I don't think the show would be as good if I did that. But that's all debatable. So let's bring on Steve Arnssett. He is the co CEO of Team Liquid, this and esports organization,
and we met at this UCLA. They opened up this gaming lounge at UCLA. That's where we met, and I just was fascinated by this world of like e sports and e athletes and they call them e athletes.
Maybe Steve, welcome to the show.
It's great to be here, Rich.
So what is Team Liquid? Explain what that's all about.
So, Team Liquid we're an eesport team, just like any other kind of sports team, think forty nine Ers or Golden State Warriors, but instead of throwing around a football or dribbling a basketball, we're playing video games. So we have a bunch of gamers that compete underneath the team Team Liquid, and they play in games like League of Legends, Valorant, StarCraft, and then tons of people watch them compete and play against other gamers.
And that's esports. Wow.
Interesting, And how many like your Team Liquid? How many other organizations are there out there in the world? And are they part of like a league like are you part of like one conference like versus another?
Yeah, so there's probably about three hundred esports teams globally around the world, and each team competes in a number
of different titles or games. So instead of us just playing football or just playing soccer, we're actually competing in a lot of different types of games, and we're each of those games has their own respective league, like the NFL or NBA, and then our business is run by our commercialization within each of those respective leagues, and that's why we have one hundred and sixty or so players that compete underneath Team Liquid all around the world.
Now you compare yourself to sort of like these big teams out there, you've got athletes. What makes e sports similar or different from like, you know, the NFL or the NBA, yep.
I mean, one thing that is similar is that we are all about the fans.
We have a global fan base.
This is something that is a little bit different than other traditional sports is that there are a lot of gamers out there and they're all around the world, and so that is pretty much the same.
Some things that are different is.
That we are more digitally native, which means that our demographics skew younger. Someone once told me, for every baseball fan that die is basically two esports fans are born. So there's a lot of gamers and there's only more gamers going into the future. As you know, computers and tablets and stuff are more ubiquitous with day to day kind of activities.
Yeah, and I want to talk about that in a moment, But first, I mean this whole esports industry, Like I remember, you know, I would get pitched on it pretty hard to like cover these stories and these tournaments and all this stuff, and it was like it was big, and I still think it's big, but it's definitely gone through some changes. So was there a bubble that burst or something like? What happened?
Like?
What?
Why do people some people have the perception that esports isn't as big as it might have been five years ago or something.
Yep.
So esports, just to put it in context, is the third most watched sport in the world after cricket and soccer, so a lot of people watch it.
So what happened in two Yeah, it's just wild, it's mind blowing.
But in two thousand and four team there was pretty much like this gold rush into esports, and that was when a lot of professional sports team owners and investors all came in and put money into teams and agencies and players and developers and the whole ecosystem, just like what would happen in like the crypto bubble or what may happen in the AI bubble, Right, a lot of capital gets deployed, and those expectations were set pretty high, and if you're familiar with the Gartner hype cycle, inflated
expectations not able to deliver in the timeframe that was needed by a lot of these investors, and the bubble burst, And so that happened about two years ago, and I think that caused a little bit of this kind of.
What's happening in esports? Is it real?
But the thing is is that there's still more people watching esports events every year prior.
So we just beat last year's records.
And that just shows that the demographics are still on our side. That you know, they're just the aging of the population, more people on the internet, more people gaming. And so what has happened over the last two years is it just a lot of consolidation. There's been a number of teams that have went bankrupt or ceased to exist, you know, either their investors didn't have the right horizon
on the investment or poor management. But then there's the haves and the have nots, And so a lot of the organizations that are the top of the field, are in pole position, have used this time to consolidate and buy other esports.
Teams and basically become bigger.
And so you saw that three hundred number that I'm talking I spoke about that's been consolidated down to probably one hundred.
Oh wow.
Okay, So we're talking about all these esports and like, it's great if these these athletes are you know, they're they're good at these games. What games are they playing? By the like, what's the most popular esports games?
Yeah, the two most played esports games. Number one, League of Legends. It's made by Riot Games. They actually have their headquarters in Santa Monica in Los Angeles, California. And the second, which surprises a lot of people, is Mobile Legends Bang Bang, which is a mobile game that's predominantly played out of the Philippines and Indonesia.
Wow.
Okay, So now parents listening, parents sitting there going hold on, you know, you're talking about all these things that these kids can do, and I assume these you know, these esports personalities make a decent living doing this as well,
because at the top of their game. But like, parents are already struggling with screen time, right, They're sitting there, they're trying to get their kids off Roadblocks or off Fortnite or off Minecraft, and so it's like they're like, hold on, if every parent got their kid off these screens, no would ever make it to this level. So what how do you kind of ride that line? Like, how do you know when like your kid is healthy doing stuff on you know, esports or not.
Yeah, well, here's my take.
You know, I think gaming is one of the best vessels for education and retaining information. Like, for example, you know, my geography is actually really good, and I in part say because I played a lot of where in the world is Carmen.
San Diego by US history?
You know that's putting it way back Steve, Yeah.
Put the way back right. And the same thing with like Orgo Trail.
There's a lot of parents that probably played that in their computer labs at school, right, And that's how you learn a lot about US history. There's something about gaming that just makes it where you can retain the information and learn the information really well. Here's the other side is that it's highly addictive. And there's a lot of different types of games out there, and most of them are not good and they aren't providing the kind of
development and skill that is possible. So, for example, in a lot of these games that are like strategy games, you're thinking about critical placement. In team based games, you're communicating with other gamers, usually with a headphone, so you're learning communication, resolving, conflict, leadership ability, and team based games. And in a lot of these games, you're also piecing
things together and they're very complex. And so it's just about finding the right kinds of games, which is really hard, and it's making sure that you do it in moderation. And I think those two kind of key factors come into play.
And the last thing that.
I'd say is that like, if you've got a kid, Let's say your kid was really interested in you know, football or baseball, you probably go in the backyard, grab a glove, throw the ball around. Right, Why aren't you doing that with your kid If they're playing Fortnite, like grab a controller, sit down with them and be interested and curious like how do I play this?
And I know you're thinking, oh my god, I won't know what I'm doing and I'm gonna mess it up. That's okay.
That's actually better because your kid is going to teach you this game and there's a whole learning and bonding process that happens with that.
So I always encourage parents to just sit down and play.
What is it realistic for your kid to become an esports?
Do you call them? You said athletes?
Right?
Call?
Yeah?
Yeah?
So do you Is it realistic for a kid to become that? Is that becoming like a pro athlete, you know in the NBA or whatever, like is it that or is it more realistic? And also there are other kind of like opportunities in this world. If your kid is into video games, right.
I mean, I think the probability of an average kid making it to a pro team is miniscule.
It's very very small. There's just a lot of gamers out there and think it's it's the same thing in like football or baseball. Right, You do these.
Things because you're learning what it's like to be in a team sport, you are being coached, you are taking those skills, but you don't really have the goal of going pro. Now, maybe if your kid is playing a particular game and reaches like the top twenty of the respective in game leader board of that respective game.
Your kid may actually.
Be a pro gamer, but for most they're not going to make it that far, which means that you just use this like any other kind of tramural sport that you can learn life skills and collaborating with other players. And so what we're finding more and more, just like you mentioned at the UCLA campus, is at universities, colleges, high schools, even elementary schools are now investing into like building out these labs, these gaming centers where kids can
learn play the right games, develop those skills. And I mean I compare that to when I was a kid, Like we didn't have access to those things. So I think it's just so cool.
Yeah, it's really, I mean it's it's a different world for sure. I Mean, I you know, I played video games. I think a lot of people, you know my age have played video games. But this this is like next level stuff. Like when I've seen some of these pro gamers, especially like the way that they're doing things, I'm just like, how how are you doing that so fast? So what's next for you guys? What's next for Team liquod We got about a minute left.
Yeah, you know, Team Liquid. We are the largest esports team in the world. Old We've won more prize money than another team. We have the most championships of any team. We feel the most teams and players. I want Team Liquid to be a household name around the world and it's our ball to drop or our misclick to happen. So I want to continue expanding our brand into important regions of the world where we don't have a base yet and continue to just field the best players and teams across the globe.
That's the goal for TL.
All right, Team Liquid, It's Team liquid dot com. Steve Arensett, thanks so much for joining me today.
Thanks for having me rich, I appreciate it.
All right, Coming up, we are going to open up the feedbag. It is overflowing this week. We're gonna hear what you had to say in my email this week. Coming up right here on rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich On Tech. A couple of stories to get through before we get to the feedbag. First off, Apple Vision Pro users are getting something special this basketball season, Lakers games in Apple Immersive. I guess Apple's working with Spectrum to stream these live games to Spectrum Sportsnet customers,
but so cool. Maybe I'm assuming you can get them otherwise even if you're not a Spectrum customer. But anyway, the cool thing is this is something that Apple promoted back in the day when they came out the Vision Pro. They showed us like a little clip reel and it was like, you're gonna be sitting courtside at your favorite games, and now that's going to be a reality.
It's really cool.
The problem is nobody has one of these Apple Vision pros to be able to use this to try it out. I mean, I'll be able to try it out, but I mean it never became like a big time thing. So maybe this is the killer application. I mean, if you can sit at home and watch a game like courtside, that's pretty cool, so watch for that. This season, Tesla launched Cheaper Model Y and cheap Cheaper Model threes, but
they kind of cut out a lot of stuff. So the pricing is under forty thousand for both of these, and they've got pretty solid range, but a lot less of the features, so like no autopilot, no AMFM radio, no leather seats. I don't think they had leather seats to begin with, no rear screen, no panoramic roof. It's just a lot of like they cut, like a lot of the things that make a Tesla nice. You're not getting those. But if you just want an electric car,
then these new cheaper models might fit the bill. And speaking of EV's Chevy Bolt is back. They're bringing back this EV next year, reviving the Chevy Bolt because I guess customers wanted it.
They canceled it back in twenty twenty three.
Now it's going to be under thirty two hundred and fifty five miles of charge, and it's got an NACS charging port, which will be nice because then you can use Tesla superchargers. It's got Google built in, but no CarPlay. That's a bummer. I will tell you as I drive a car. I have my rental car Head CarPlay, my regular card does not. I could not believe how much I loved CarPlay. I loved having that and Android Auto they're just so great. And then the CrOx I'm wearing
what a croc? I'm wearing crocs right now. They are Windows XP themed crocs. You got to go to my Instagram stories if you want to see the picture. At rich On Tech, they're celebrating their fiftieth anniversary with these Windows XP themed crocs. They've got the Bliss Green and Blue Sky, the wallpaper from Windows XP, and they've got six Microsoft gibbets, Charms, Clippy, the MSN Butterfly, Internet Explorer, and the Recycle Bin. And you can now buy these.
They were originally just going to be a giveaway that but so many people wanted them. Now they're selling them for eighty bucks a pop. So if you want crocs and you want Microsoft, go ahead. All right, Now for the feedback. Karen from California. My husband and I enjoy watching your TV segments listening to you on the radio.
Now.
Your podcast keeps me company on my commute. Sorry to hear about your accident. Hope your recovery is doing well. In a recent episode, you said you preferred Google Docs. I yelled at my car radio. Microsoft Office even the free version has features Google doesn't just go to Office dot com to sign in. This includes immersive reader for read aloud and translation and dictation that even autopunctuates. All right, Karen, I'll give it another try, but I'm kind of in on the Google stuff.
But I like it.
It's good to have options. Office dot Com sign in for the free web version. Sean writes in TVO comment, I've got two tvOS with lifetime service. I'll have to pry them for my cold dead hands. I still use one every day to record over the AIRTV Sean, I stayed home from work. I could probably tell the story now because it's been many, many years.
Twenty years. Probably.
I stayed home from work to wait for my first TVO to be delivered.
I set it up.
It took forever because it was over phone lines back then, and I'll never forget invited all my friends over for my work, had a little party, and then the middle of Survivor, I just paused the TV, paused live television. Everyone went nut's like wait what? And I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I was a fan of TVO for so many years. Kim writes in from Tennessee she recently ran into a messaging mystery with her Samsung S twenty five vulture. Using Google Messages, one of her
friends wasn't getting photos. She switched to MMS SMS and then couldn't get RCS back for that contact. Well, it turns out the issue was not her phone. After some detective work, she discovered her friends was using Samsung messages, which does not support RCS.
Ah good to figure that out.
So, yeah, if your friend's not getting your RCS, you're doing that stuff. Check to see if they're using Google messages. Let's see, John, I should have listened to you, Rich. I bought an iPad eleven for three nineteen. Just days later it dropped a two seventy nine. I called Amazon. They said the only way to get the lower price was to return it and reorder. After hours sitting up and charging it, and decided it was not worth the hassle.
Still cheaper than the Apple Store. But next time I'll follow your advice and wait for those Prime Day deals to kick in. Joey says, you made my week with the shortcut to auto reply to texts. I've needed this for two years. Thanks Rich. Credit goes to Steven Roblez. He was my guest Beer dot FM. I set up a whole bunch of shortcuts after last week's show because I was so excited about him. Let's see here, we've got Victor in California. Hey, Rich, your newsletter has golden info.
I was looking through it for Windows ten fixed options, and behold found the answer. I went to admin settings check for updates A few minutes laters, a few minutes later it appeared. Now I've got another year to save up for a new computer. I'm a happy listener and subscriber, Neil and Anaheim, Rich I love all your tech shows. You're an amazing guy helping us navigate the challenging world
of home technology. I could say more, but that's really seriously just grateful you're out there helping the masses, or maybe the messes of people. Thanks rich Day in Los Angeles.
Love your work.
Thank you rich And Janine writes in thank you for all your great info and another terrific show. I just don't know how you keep up the energy. Well, thank you, Janine, I really appreciate that. All right, if you can believe it, that's going to do it. For this episode of the show. You can find links to everything I mentioned on my website. Go to richontech dot tv. Find me on social media. I am at rich on Tech. Next week we've got a former FBI operative. He's going to tell you how
to stay safe from the biggest online threats. Thank you so much for listening. There are so many ways you can spend your time. I really do appreciate you spending it right here with me. One reminder before I go, do not drive distracted. If you're texting driving, all that stuff it can wait. Please for the safety of everyone, including you. Thanks everyone who makes this show possible. Bobo on the boards this week, Kim on the phones, me on the mic.
My name is rich Demiro. I will talk to you real soon.