Visiting Shanghai for CES Asia 2019

me is producer Megan, the driving force behind this trip. Meghan, Welcome to the show. Me How she she? That's about all I've learned so far since I've been here. But you really wanted to do this? Why?

So this year, five or six giant halls of exhibits. And yeah, there's a lot of random tech accessories. I mean that's to be expected because we're in Asia. I mean that's this is where they're all made. But they had a lot of cartech, they had Ai, they had five g lots of keynotes from big companies. Huawei gave the keynote, which is kind of awkward because you know, you've heard Huawei in the news so much. They're they're

facing that major band in the US. I think they're already banned at this point, so but I think they're fighting it. But my big takeaway from the show, did I see one thing that just like blew my mind? Not really, but I saw lots of little things and a lot of cool stuff too. That all kind of makes you realize it is a very big world out there.

In the US, we're very focused on Apple on Samsung, but here there are so many people and what I've noticed about people in Asia is that there is not one theme I see right, except for the fact that everyone's on their phone all the time. But they use a lot of different tech. Like in the US, it's all Apple, it's all Samsung, and you know, a couple other brands. But here it is like I was looking at people's phones and I couldn't identify what phone models

they were because there's so many different types. So I think that's my big takeaway is that really this is a huge world. Keep in mind that when you talk about tech and you see tech, there are a lot of different people out there and there's something for everyone. Okay, so let me talk about the way this show is gonna work, because it's a little different than our previous shows.

Instead of talking about all the tech topics from this week, I'm going to share my thoughts about this whole experience here in China. But we're still going to answer questions. So in between my thoughts, I'll take a question. And I guess now's the perfect time to start with our first question, So Megankay take it away.

don't have to have keys anymore for people. So I've given out codes to like so many people because they can just like my in laws, they can come in when they need to. You can say when you want them to have access. So like for instance, with the with the cleaning service I have them, they can only access it at a certain time, like they come on this day from you know, seven to nine. That's it, you know what I mean. They don't need access twenty

four to seven. So it's like these little things I never thought of, Like here's for the past twenty years, you know, cleaning service had a key to my house. This makes so much more sense. So anyway, when it comes to the water leaks at your house, and by the way, I had this happen at my house, and it's not pretty a water leak. I think it cost us insurance. I think it was about almost fifty thousand dollars for I'm talking one little leak that was from

the water heater. It exploded basically overnight and got leaked into our floor like for about twenty four hours. And I thought, no big deal. I just stepped on the floor and it was kind of mushy. Oh my gosh. I had no idea. You have to replace the entire wood floor, I mean, the walls. They gotta cut the walls up to like you know, so they can replace all the everything had to be replaced, mold exactly had

to be dried out for a week. Well not because we've found it quickly, you know, but they still have to dry out your house for like a week to make sure that doesn't get any more.

what's happening with that water going through there. So number one, they can sense like is your toilet leaking because they use an algorithm to kind of figure out, like we we can fingerprint this leak, and we know from the other millions of fingerprints that we've taken that this is a water leak from the toilet, or this is a water leak from the shower, or this is your washing machine using too much water. So it's really fascinating what they're doing with the fingerprinting of this of the water

flow in your house. So the two that I would probably take a look at. Number one is called flow Flo and this is actually owned by Mowen. You've heard of them, right, the brand, Yeah, So that's number one. The one that I know that I've seen a demo of is Finn p h y N And this is made by Belkan, which I guess they used to be. I mean I think they are and.

out a couple several thousand dollars with that leak. This is something that I do want to get and I keep, but it's like one of those things like do you really like you know, you have all these things of what you want to spend your money on, like a water flow leak detector in your house is not really on the top of my list. It's probably last on the list, but it is something to look into. So I think the technology this is going to be something that's on every home in the future, especially when it

comes to water conservation. So those are the two that I look at, Flow and finn and you know, I think, once you have it, you probably gonna like it. YEA, So good question. Okay, So moving on with China, the number one thing that I have noticed about this country is the Great Firewall, as they call it right. It is real. You've experienced it. Connectivity here is such a challenge. And that doesn't mean that there's not Wi Fi. Doesn't

mean there's not cellular. There's cellular everywhere, there's Wi Fi everywhere, but it does not work the way we think about it working in America. So everything that we use on a daily basis is pretty much blocked. And that includes Facebook, that includes Instagram, that includes Google, that includes Gmail, that includes Google Photos, Google Drive. As you figured out, the list just goes on and on, like all this stuff

that you just think. You open up Instagram, it's just like sorry, could not connect, and you're like wait, what, Like, no, there's Instagram. You send a message to someone on Instagram doesn't work, nop. So the thing that I found is twofold number one. If you are using a cellular connection from an account from the US, like I have Verizon, if I'm using that on my phone, even though I'm going through China Mobile on my phone because it's roaming,

it still works just fine. So that's number one. But on your computer, what do you do right? So right now I'm using a hot spot from my phone that gets expensive.

how do I roam when I'm in whatever country? And a given you, your experience in other countries is a lot easier because you do have WiFi. That's that works. Like if you go to Italy, the WiFi is gonna let you access all the stuff you normally access right so here it's a little more challenging. But what I did recognize is I always recommend to go on the travel paths or whatever they call it, like international travel whatever.

It's ten dollars a day usually on AT and T and Verius and the two big ones, and that gives you your plan as normal in any country in the world pretty much. So if you use your phone it's a ten dollars charge, it works as normal, like you can call people, you can use your Internet whatever. But what I did not know until this trip is that you only get a half a gigabyte of high speed data and after that they slow you down to a crawl,

which is basically unusable. So now I feel like it's still the easiest way to travel internationally, but that half a gig is not enough. I mean, you know, you want to upload a couple pictures to Instagram find but for me, like I was uploading a couple of videos and stuff to like Facebook, and I want to back up my pictures to Google Photos. No dice, because half a gig is like nothing. You'll burn through that instantly.

And the best part is when you're done with that half a gig and text you and they say, oh, we notice that you burn through your half a gig. We're gonna slow you down or reply yes for another ten dollars, we'll give you another half a gig.

a savior there. And you had an experience with a couple of things that were censored, so tell me about that.

being watched. We do have the FBI, but it just doesn't feel as in your face as it does here. Yeah, all right, another question, Megan, you're up.

dollars every time someone downloads your software. And you're like, okay, cool. I mean it's just so it comes with that software. So that's what happened. And it's, by the way, really tough to usually get rid of this software because it doesn't show up in the uninstalled tool but you know, uninstalled panel. It's just not like as legitimate as like a Google toolbar back in the day or like a normal company, So it's just tougher to get off your machine.

So what I'd recommend is malware bytes. So I think that malware bytes is you know, it will find this stuff on your computer and help you uninstall it. So that's the main thing. If that doesn't work, I mean I think that'll work. So it should work. And there's if you actually search on Google for how to get rid of my search dot com redirect, you'll see. It's funny because I you know, I help a lot of people with their computers, and I can tell whenever someone's

like I'm having trouble with my computer. If I start searching on Google and it goes like some random search, I'm like, oh, well, first off, you have malware on your computer. And this happens all the time, Like people don't even realize, like you'll get like these random like

my Way Search. I mean, there's so many random search toolbars. Yeah, like engines that are like and they're all just the way they make money is they're just hijacking the ad data, so they're trying to get you to click on ads. They get a little portion of that referral fee, and then they make money. It's a whole terrible industry. But malware bytes I think should get rid of it. They're the biggest kind of like anti malware. And it's usually free.

You can download it for free. I'm sure there's some paid versions of it, but it's it's usually free and it gets good reviews, Like a lot of the tech people recommend it because it is pretty legit. So now we talked about the bad side of China, which is the censorship, but I will talk about the benefit of China, the amazing part of China, which is like the people

here are very kind. I describe them as gentle, like they just seem like I mean, we're in a city of Shanghai which has I think like twenty four million people, and it seems like the people here are just so like nice and like not just nice to us, but kind to like they're fellow human, which I find really interesting because you're in LA and it's like it's every man for himself, you know, and especially with the traffic and all this stuff. But it's and it's also really clean.

So the city we were driving and I just could not believe, and I remember this from China last time, they keep this place so clean. It's just unbelievable because you're in a big city, but it is pristine and you can argue, you know, the government the way it is here and all that stuff, but I don't care. I'm putting all that aside. Like still they have figured out somehow in twenty nineteen, with twenty four million people

to keep the streets clean. The flowers were like, I mean, I couldn't believe that just a regular street where you're driving was so nice. Now let's compare that to Los Angeles, where I always say that the big city has given up on the people because you drive in La even Sunset Boulevard, which is a street that is like the nicest street in the world. I mean, who doesn't know Sunset Boulevard or Hollywood Boulevard and you drive down them and there's trash, everywhere. I mean, you know the problem

in LA it's really bad. I mean it's trash everywhere. The streets, you're not maintained, nothing's maintained. And so to see a city like this that has somehow figured it out. And I'm not just singling out LA. I mean New York City, same thing, a lot of this. It's just thirty San Francisco. I don't even want to start on that one. And that's like the dirtiest city I've ever seen at this point. So what is it about America? And again, and you know, don't call me like a

China lover. I mean, look at Tokyo, Japan, same thing, huge city it is. I would eat my lunch off the streets in Tokyo. It's that clean. For a yeah, I wouldn't do that. But my point is, like it's part.

it works in Shanghai. How do they have all these people and somehow they keep the place clean because LA we can't seem to figure that out, and it'd be nice if we could. The other thing I noticed about the people here is that everything is mobile, Like everything is done on your phone. We can't get I've I've been talking about QR codes literally for fifteen years talking about technology. I still can't get the average person to

scan a QR code. Here in China, everything is scan this QR code, you can pay, scan this we Chat you can do payment. Everything's through we Chat, this app that's kind of like their messaging app basically, but it does everything, does everything. So I mean, it's just funny that, like somehow it's America is very forward facing. Yeah, Like we're very old school in a lot of like weird ways, like with this whole mobile payment thing, like people are you know, like mobile payments and tap to pay have

been a thing in other countries for like years. Yeah, and like somehow in the US, like people are still hesitant to use tap to pay or like mobile payment. Venmo is taken off, but I'm not a big fan of that. So right anyway, right, all right, I feel I sound like I'm moving to China.

love about Pandora and I have used it off. Okay, so have you ever seen We're like basically you choose your stations, right and once you have them, they're great. They play music that you kind of love, right like it always kind of figures out like good music for you. But my favorite feature was the Shuffle all of your

Stations feature. So like a lot of times with like Spotify, you're locked into like country music or pop music or rap music, right well, sometimes I like a mix of things like everyone has, Like you know, remember the old mixtape where you get like a bunch like a random song next to another random song, right, Well, that's kind of lost with all these playlists now that we're experiencing

on these services. And so I really like the feature on Pandora where you choose your whatever stations, you know, five stations or whatever you want, and then you say shuffle my stations, and then all of a sudden, I'll pull a country song from your country station, It'll pull a pop song from your pop station, it'll pull a jazz song from your jazz station. I find that really cool.

So that's what I like about Pandora. The downside of Pandora to me is that I don't think the it doesn't have as much music as like Spotify, so I feel like you hear the same stuff over and over and over. So that's that's number one. And ads. Also, like you said free or paid, I mean you got to pay because even if you're doing the free Pandora, there's way too many ads, so you have to pay the five dollars a month just to get Oh my gosh,

it's crazy. And nothing bugs me more than like being like a you know, hairplace, like a whatever, like where they're playing like Pandora or like an uber and you hear like an ad and I'm like, seriously, like just pay the five dollars a month and get rid of these ads because you're like, come on, wasting my time. But also check out Spotify Stations. That's the new app that is kind of like their answer to Pandora. So what I do was it Jose Laura Anthony, Anthony, Lara Anthony.

What I would say is I would pay for Spotify ten dollars a month download Spotify and then download Spotify Stations, which is basically their version of Pandora, So you get the best of both worlds. When you want all the cool playlists, you go there. If you just want the sort of Pandora, sit back, not really think very much, experience use the stations. So what do you think of that? Answer Megan, I love.

is that. So when I was in China the last time, which was a couple of years ago, they had Uber and I thought it was so cool that I was able to use Uber and I got actually got tripped up because here's what happened. So I took Uber from let's say, the convention center to the electronics store that

I wanted to check out. It's like this giant, giant, like twelve story electronics store, right, So That was easy because I just my pick up point was a convention center, which is well known, and the electronic store is well known. Super simple. What I did not think about is going from the electronics store back to the convention center. IMPOSSI to get my Uber because it was such a busy

area there was no way. So what happened was I said, you know, I could put the locations in, but the Uber driver kept calling me to say where are you? Like who are you? You know? Because yes, I could not understand. So it was really bad. And I was like, so, bottom line, we have to take a taxi because I just waved one down, but you know, not ideal because I don't you know.

I just don't know. And when you don't know, it's like, especially when it's a service that's not from your native country, I'm like hesitant to sign up. Are they going to take my credit card? I just didn't know, right. So I was at breakfast and one of the other people on the trip was like, oh, DDI's great, got to

try it. So I was like, oh, so that's all I need another American and so I downloaded d D and I signed up, which was, you know, pretty simple, and they took my credit card, and I got to say very impressed they We have taken them about ten times since we've been here. They have so many selections, kind of like Uber where you can choose like what kind of car you want? You know, the drivers, I will say, the level of driver I've seen was amazing.

that hanks at them. It's really bad. Yeah, and I'm not you know, maybe it's not the higher levels, like I'm talking Uber X most of the time if i want like a better drive, like if I'm putting my mom in an Uber most of the time, getting her like the select or something like that, right, because the drivers do get better when you get the higher levels, right, But it's it's kind of it's sketchy, like they let anyone be a driver for Uber at this point.

while you're in the car. When you start this trip, we're going to access your microphone and record everything, which I was like, okay, I mean that's kind of weird, but it makes sense, right, Yeah. And then the second second drive we took, they asked for video permission. They said, can we access your camera? And I thought, I mean again, it kind of is funny because we're in China with the surveillance society, and it like, yeah, it's kind of funny that the d D would ask to do that.

But I was totally like, all right, cool, yeah, and maybe it does bring that higher level of quality because they know that they're being watched. Ye, so and I was on my best behavior because of that.

free trial of Apple News Plus to download magazines. I did a free trial like HBO, Cinemax Showtime to download movies through Apple TV, like the new service because all their channels you can download everything.

it's over. So that one I do have to cancel after before my month is I think it's a month, right, yeah, But all the other ones, Cinemax do cancel su as you sign up because you don't forget, just go right in and you still have it for the week.

lot of people. So a lot of people have a computer that has Microsoft on it and they need tech support whatever, and so you just think like, oh, I have a computer and Microsoft is calling me to say I need help or I got to pay this fee or whatever it is, and you think like, oh, okay, like I think that that might sound legit. And given this person, she obviously was hiped to it and was like I don't remember signing up for that. But they're

just doing a numbers game. So they're just getting a lot of people, you know, doing millions of these robo calls. And if one person falls for it, which by the way, I know someone personally that called me frantic saying that they had fallen for this and they gave their credit card number and all this stuff over the phone, and they go halfway through they realized like, wait a second, what am I doing. The person took control of their computer. So this is a scam. It's just a new twist

on an old scam. So I'm not sure where this scam is because she said they wanted to charge her like four hundred and thirty dollars, Like where does it if they're like, oh, let's confirm your credit card number and maybe you give it over again, Like I be like, come on, let's you know. I don't know how this scam works exactly, Yeah, but clearly they're trying to get money out of you, right, so weird And.

your iCloud or whatever. And that's a really good scam because you know, in every iPhone, built into the contact address book is the Apple phone number, so you have to just spoof that and your iPhone looks like Apple's calling, So watch out for that one if that ever happens

to you. But it's so these scam artists, I mean, this is why they call them scam artists, because they try these things and they do work and people fall for and you know, it's one of these things where it just happens, and it's been going on forever, even before there was I mean, scams have been there forever, you know, whether it was back in the day when they sold like, you know, oil with a snake oil, you know, like all these things like vitamins, I mean whatever. Yeah,

still scam. It doesn't work. It's someone's selling you on something, right, And.

every day of my life, right. And I've had fried rice since I've been here every single day, and I've had other weird little things that like not that that's weird, like other like I've tried one little random thing off the buffet every day that like I wouldn't normally eat, right, like dragon fruit. I know, Yeah, I didn't try anything like noodles like I had. I had spare ribs yesterday,

like at Disney. We'll talk about Disney in the moment, Yes, but I had spare like, and it was like bones, I'm like pulling bones.

much more adventurous than I am. So I get a pizza and I asked the guy because it was a pizza that had it said the description was margarita or sauce, garlic and chili paste. And I was like, oh, that sounds good. I asked the guy. So just making sure this has cheese on it, right, And he goes, sorry, it's a pizza of course that has cheese. And sure enough, what happens when I get my pizza.

is a frappuccino basically so good. It was really good, Like it tasted so much more real than the green tea frappuccino I've gotten in La Yeah in Starbucks. Yeah. So and I'm not like a big green tea person either, but I do like it. I mean it's nice.

years ago, it was like a big thing. Well those those are still here, Chris cut fries, veggie cup and Chris cut fries, and a small corn cup which I saw someone actually orders. I thought it was pretty cool. But Chris cut fries. I really wanted to try but this is how this is how lame I am. I was like, I don't want to ruin my experience in case they weren't good. I like regular fries. Two other drinks that were at the McDonald's coconut drink with jelly,

and coconut drink with bubble, and then coconut water. I'm guessing I don't know, maybe it or was just bubbly. All right, get another question. Then we're gonna get to Disney real quick, and then we'll yes the last question. Make it a quick question, Okay, don't read it quick like maybe I can answer it quick.

He just wants to get rid of it. He wants to unload this gift card done, so sell it to your friend on Facebook, or you can go to raise dot com so our ai s. Have you heard of this? It lets you buy gift cards at a discount, and you can also sell your gift cards. Now, when you sell your gift card, you're not going to get very much on your dollar. So but here's the thing. These companies, and there's more than just Raises the one that I use, so I kind of like it and I have experience

with it. There's other ones that work the same way. But this is the thing the whole market is. If you get one hundred dollars gift card from a store that you don't use, right like sharper image. Let's say I don't even know if that exists anymore. Let's say you get that. You don't care if you get eighty dollars for that, right, because you're still getting eighty dollars cash. You don't care about the value of that card. You're not worried about one hundred dollars because you never use

it. It might go to waste in your drawer. So that's how these companies kind of work is that they you know, they're basically not praying on but they're they're catering to the fact that you don't care if you get fifty bucks for this hundred dollars gift card, right, and then they go and they sell it for seventy. They pay you fifty. You're happy they go and sell it for seventy. The person who buys a seventy dollars gift card or one hundred dollars gift card for seventy is also happy.

Everyone makes money in that scenario. The person who loses out is Grandma who actually spent one hundred dollars to buy the gift card.

it was Disney Shanghai, which is pretty new. I think it opened in twenty sixteen, and number one great. I love new places, right it was. It was really nice and it's like little like shiny, like that's how different, so different than than Disneyland. Number one. The line to get in was absolutely bananas.

Everything is double the size of America, Like the streets are double as wide as they are you know in Disneyland, and it's just I mean, the food was good, Like.

so silent. You're on this amazing track. The technology they have now for rides is just so so way ahead of what we had twenty years ago, you know, So it's just it was amazing. I loved it. My lunch was not very good. I got like something weird that was not That was the low point of it. I did get good popcorn they have. They had really strange popcorn flavors. I got caramel because I'm of course boring. But they had crayfish, which is like I remember Louisiana crawfish.

It's like probably like a crayole thing.

you for listening to the show. It continues to grow, by the way, So you guys obviously like what we're doing, so we're going to keep the format the way it is. I think Megan is going to stay as part of the show. Is that cool with you? So you like the questions keeping coming? If you have a question, send it to me. You can go to my website rich on tech dot tv, or you can send it to Hello at rich on tech dot tv. Just put in your subject either way podcast question and we'll do our

best to answer it. And thanks so much for listening. If you haven't subscribed already, do so. Just search rich on tech in your favorite podcast app. That could be Apple podcasts, that could be pocket casts. Overcast is also a really good one. My book is called one hundred and one Handy Tech Tips for the iPhone. It's on Amazon and paperback. It's for iOS twelve, iOS thirteen. Yes is coming out, so Megan knows. I've been struggling with the fact that I will probably be writing rewriting my

book very soon. So that's the last you'll ever see of me. Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter. It's at richon tech dot tv. Producer Megan. I always ask did you enjoy the show?