Google's new self destruct mode goes live. Amazon announces a new way to avoid porch pirates. Verizon sweetens the deal on their forty dollars unlimited plan. A new website for travel lovers, Plus your tech questions. What's going on. I'm Rich Demiro. This is Rich on Tech, the podcast where I talk about this stuff I think you should know about in the tech world. Plus, as always I answer your tech questions. Joining me is producer Megan. Welcome to the show.
Hello, how are you.
I am good. You know that I went to Sedona, Yes, Arizona. Have you ever been? No, never Sdona. I just realized that rhyme Sedona.
Arizona, Sedona, Arizona.
And I kept saying to my brother, who I went with my little brother and we did like a hiking trip, and I kept saying my Sedona in the sound of my Sharona And he didn't get that reference. Do you know that?
So I don't.
I'm an older thingna. Anyway, it was really nice. Highly recommend that place. We went hiking for like eight hour, not eight hours, seven miles. We went on another little hike. We went to a vortex, which I don't know if you've heard of these vortexes. No, but it's like five places there that are identified as having like a super
spiritual magnetic field or something. Oh wow, I didn't really feel anything, I'll be honest, but I did get a little giddy while I was up there, so maybe I did feel a little.
Something that that's really cool that makes me want to go there, to be honest.
It is a fantastic weekend trip. Highly recommend it. It is a place that's it's sort of easy to get to. You have to fly to well, depending on where you're coming from, but you fly into Phoenix, you drive up two hours. Yeah, beautiful. It was. It reminded me a little bit of Utah. It had a lot of different things going on. So really cool place, Sedona, good job. The only thing that happened is that I bought a shirt that was too small for my kid, so I'm gonna have to go back.
Good excuse.
Yes, all right, let's get to some of these stories. One of the big stories this week is Google's new controls for letting you turn automatically delete things like your search history are now live. You are able to actually turn these things on. So let me explain what this is. All about. Google calls them auto delete controls, and they are inside the easiest way to find them is inside
the Google App. So, if you have the Google app on either your iPhone or your Android, all you have to do is open up the Google App super simple. In the upper right hand corner. There's a little profile picture of yourself. You've seen that. It it looks like your little profile pick. You hit that and it says search activity. You tap search activity and the next thing you know, it says choose to delete automatically under Web
and app activity. Then it gives you three options. The default, which has been the option forever, is keep until I delete manually. Then the next option, which is new, is keep for eighteen months, then delete automatically. And then the next option is keep for three months, then delete automatically. So why would you want to have Google automatically delete your search history? Well, first off, you have to understand what the search history is all about. So let's say
you're planning. I use the example of planning a vacation in Hawaii. You research some restaurants. Clearly, Google goes into mode of saying, oh, we know that Megan wants to go to Hawaii. Let's start showing her stuff related to Hawaii. Hawaii ads for airfare, Hawaii hotel deals. They know when you start searching the letter h they might put Honolulu at the top of the search autocomplete instead of something else because it all goes back to the search history.
So that's why they want to keep it, because it makes things easier. You type something into Google Maps an address, and then the next time you go to like kind of search for that address, it already kind of pops up at the beginning at the top. Why would you not want it? People don't want their search history. They feel like their entire world is kind of up for grabs on Google. They think that what they're searching is being used by Google and selling that and of course
selling ads across that, which is kind of true. So personally, I'm not turning this off. I like to have my search history because two reasons. Number one, I kind of like a record of everything, like I just think it's better to have that for the years. The second thing
is that it does help make Google products smarter. So if you think about it, Google always seems really smart, and it's like, how do they know what I'm predicted or that they always seem to be able to predict everything that you want to know before you even start typing it. And that's part of the magic. That's the autohistory and the search history is why that magic happens. So if you do want to change it, and everyone's different, if you want to turn that off again, you can
do that. I did make a video about this, so you can go to what's the easiest way to find that, I guess rich on tech dot tv and just look for my video on how to automatically delete your web and app activity. And that's the funny thing that Google calls it the web and app activity, which is so confusing. Just say search history.
Yeah, it's your history.
I mean, there's more to it than just your search history. But come on, like that's what people are really interested in, right Megan? Cool?
All right, So our first question comes from Facebook. John Weaver basically is asking about Harry Potter, the Harry Potter game that came out last week, and he's concerned because his older phone won't work on it, he says, so they have to be up to date phones. The most expensive phones, the ones that common people can't afford to have fun with the game. He has a Samsung Galaxy J two. He obviously doesn't want to update and get a newer phone just to play the Harry Potter game.
So you know, he's just commenting on the fact that it's frustrating and he wants to be able to play the game, but he can't because he's an older phone.
So so he's saying that the new Harry Potter Wizards Unit game does not work on his phone because it's a Samsung Joah, that is a basic smartphone, and he's onto something, and he kind of he has a good point. So we take for granted if you have an iPhone, a new iPhone, if you have a new Samsung, if you have one of these newer phones, you take for
granted that everything works really nicely on there. He has what we would call a basic or a budget phone without all the bells and whistles of your typical smartphone. And in this case, it is proving to not be so good because the Harry Potter game uses a lot of horsepower. I even noticed I tried it on two different phones. I tried it on my Samsung and then the Pixel, and I noticed on the pixel it was a little bit slower, Samsung a little bit faster. So
he has a valid point. And I'm guilty of this, and I think all tech people are guilty of this, but I feel like I'm guilty of it in less or so of a fashion because because I'm on TV and because the people that are generally watching me are
not always the enthusiast tech person. I feel like I'm better connected to what the average person deals with on a daily basis because of the emails I get like this, Whereas if you are writing for a major tech website where people go to see what the latest tech is and they're interested and they're ready to buy it, that's totally different than my viewer. The viewer on KTLA is someone who's watching the news and I happen to pop up and tell you about something that is in the
tech world. So I do think there's a delineation there, and I think that tech people do take for granted that everyone has the latest, greatest, and I don't take that for granted because I do and I've always been like that. I just love the latest technology. I always want to get the latest thing, the newest software update, the newest phone, the newest computer the day it comes out. Not everyone's like that. I totally understand it, and I get where he's coming from. I don't know what a
solution is. Ye, if he really wants to play this game, that's a tough one.
Yeah, it is frustrating, especially if you're a fan and you want to take part in like this exciting new game.
You know, but that's always been the case with a lot of technology, where if you want the latest, greatest, newest game something like that, you have to get the latest, greatest hardware that can handle it. Yeah, that's been going on for a while. But good, good point to bring up there, for sure. Let me tell you about Amazon, and I feel like we talk about Amazon so much.
I said this to you this morning. I say, I feel like we're like the Amazon spokespeople, because it's there's Amazon news at this point, almost on a regular basis, almost on a daily basis. But I do think this
is interesting. They are launching something called counter So if you're familiar with the concept of Amazon lockers where you can get your stuff delivered personally, I've never done that because I don't see the point I have a house, leave my package at the house if it gets stolen, so be it.
You have cameras, What am I gonna do?
Yeah? So, but I understand that there could be a use case scenario for the lockers, and I also understand that this is kind of ending upon that. So this is called counter and it's just like the lockers, except it's with people. So it's a staffed point where you
can get your package delivered. And specifically this is going to be inside right aid stores, which I'm amazed at Amazon being able to convince all these companies like Cohal's and Write Aid that they're killing on one end, but then they're like, hey, do you mind if we build a little side shop inside your store? As we kind of it's just like I feel like it's a pack of like wild wolves chewing one end of the business up. On the other end, they're like helping them run away.
Yeah, And they're trying to appeal obviously to like a ride aid customer. Maybe it's an older person that like doesn't shop on Amazon and now we'll start shopping on Amazon.
And maybe they're worried about their packages being stolen. Because totally, to me, this is really a play for like porch pirates and the way right, AID is in on it is. They're saying, okay, well, if we have people picking up packages in the store, what happens. You see a pack of gum that you want to buy, you need a new shampoo. You go in there and you buy end up spending twenty thirty bucks just because you walked in to pick up your business on package. So I understand
how it can work out for these companies. The bottom line, you get your stuff delivered right to write AID. When they get it in their store, they will send you a text message and then you have fourteen days to pick it up. You've got a little QR code on your phone. They scan the QR code, they give you the package, and boom, you're on your lovely way. That's in one hundred stores right now. They say they're going to roll it out to fifteen hundred stores by the end of the year.
That's cool.
There's a lot of stores. Yeah. I like having the options. Again, I don't really want my stuff now. I will tell you I also have a PO box. I get a lot of tech stuff delivered that I don't want sitting outside my house. So I do have that. So maybe I you know what I'm probably coming from a different angle because anything I get that's expensive, I'll have shipped there anyway. So I guess that makes sense. And so this is sort of a free peo box for someone.
You don't have to worry about porch pirates and you get your stuff delivered for free through there. Yeah.
I think it's definitely a great it's a good option.
Good option. I saw one. One person tweeted Dave Zat's he said that, Okay, so I've got this right. You pick up your stuff at right A, then you return it at Kohle's. Because those are the two things that they're doing. So good tweet there.
That's nice.
Before we move on, just want to talk about Prime Day. This is the extravaganza for Amazon every year where they have their best deals. I will tell you last year, I did not even spend one dime on Prime Day. I thought it was kind of a you know, yeah, nothing nothing too exciting for me. With that said, Amazon sells a lot of stuff on Prime Day. And so here's my thing for Prime Day. And since we have about two weeks before Prime Day starts, here's my advice.
Anything that you want to buy on Amazon that's not your standard, like you know, something that's you know, like a like a pack of like for me, it would be like a pack of snack bags for the kids, right that you can buy today. Okay, anything else, like if you're getting something for your bad you're interested in a new bag, anything, go ahead, add it to your
Amazon shopping cart and let it sit there. And that way, when Prime Day comes along, you can see if the price changes for the things you actually want, instead of doing what Amazon wants you to do, which is impulse by the ten deals they put on your homepage that day. Okay, that's my theory.
Yeah.
So when is Prime Day? Monday July fifteenth, starting at midnight, and for the first time ever, it will run for forty eight hours. Wow. I think the first year it was twenty four hours. Then they did like six twenty four plus another twelve, and now they're doing the full two days, so forty eight hours July fifteenth, July sixteenth. Again, Amazon says you'll find your best deals on the you
know a devices, the Echo. I don't want to say the word yeah, so I don't want to activate her, but if you ask her for the best deals, she'll give you the best Prime Day deals, and right now they do have a deal that's actually pretty decent. It's a Tshiba HD forty three inch fire TV addition Smart TV say that ten times fast for one hundred and eighty dollars.
Oh wow.
And I looked and they still have them available. This is the deal that's going on through June thirtieth, So depending on when you're listening to this, it might be gone by the time you listen. But if you need a secondary TV and like a kitchen or something, one hundred and eighty bucks not bad. Forty three inch forty three It is not four K though. This is not ok okay anyway, but still not bad.
Yeah, not bad at all.
All right. One thing I want to mention about Prime Day, and I found this interesting in the USA Today article I read about it, is that the number one thing that Amazon gets out of Prime Day besides the sales is new Prime members. A lot of people are signed up just because of this, and by the way, they have one hundred million Prime members. One hundred million people are paying Amazon one hundred and twenty dollars a year for.
Amazons, basically ten dollars a month.
If you pay monthly. It's actually more.
Oh, I just pay for the year.
Okay. So if you if you do pay monthly, which they offer, it's you pay more. So yeah, the best bet is to pay the one twenty yearly.
Yeah.
I'm not going to do the math on one hundred million times one hundred and twenty. It's a lot. It is a lot because I don't even know how many zeros I need to put in there.
But yeah, Jeff, I'm not worried about Jeff.
No, Jeff's doing it, okay.
Okay, So this next question is from your Instagram account.
Twelve billion dollars. Oh wow, twelve billion dollars a year in revenue just from Prime, just from Prime, just from the membership.
Okay. So this next question is from Oscar Umana one seventy eight. He asks, Hey, Rich, I'm in the market for a new drone. Any recommendations. Will use it mostly for family vacations. Thank you?
What was the name Oscar? Oscar? Okay, So my recommendation if you're getting a drone is Dji. They are the market leader. They make the best stuff there. The most popular. Dji is where it's at when it comes to the drones. They have a couple that are really popular. They've got little tiny drones, which are probably the ones that you want. So I would say something like, let's see the spark. Perhaps is a is a mini drone which is really fun. That's like a tiny.
How much is that?
Let's see how much that is? Wow? Look at that this spark that looks really cool. So that's that one is. Let's see, oh, out of stock, three hundred ninety nine dollars, so four hundred dollars for that drone. Then they have a bunch of other ones. But I will tell you my bigger advice to you is you probably don't need one. Let's be honest. I mean, yeah, what I think look.
Cool, shots to happen amazing.
But how many times are you actually going to use this for four hundred dollars? And I think that's my biggest problem with all this stuff that's not your phone. This is why we're seeing the phones get three lenses, four lenses, wide angle, super slow motion, hyper lapse because it's in your pocket, it's charged, it's working at all times,
and it's easy to share. I've noticed personally, when I shoot any sort of video on a device that's not connected to the Internet, the video sits on there for a while.
I'm yeah, a canon. Yeah, no, it's very true. I wonder is there a drone that you can put an iPhone on?
And like, they're probably I don't want to do that because I just if you crash it, you lose the drone and your iPhone. Now, they do have things like the app where you can link up the app with the drone and capture the video and share it quicker that way. In my experience, I'm just saying that I find unless you have a very specific use case for
this stuff, you probably don't need it. And he's saying that he wants it for family vacations, which is great, but how many times you actually going to do that?
Could you imagine if all of your family vacation video was just taken on a drone, so it was just shots from.
From just see everything the whole time.
Yeah, it's kind of that would get boring.
So last year I told you about something called Visible. This is a company that's owned by Verizon, but they offer unlimited talk, text, data, and hotspot for just forty dollars a month. It sounds too good to be true, and I'm not saying that you can't get cell phone service for forty dollars a month. But this is cell phone service that's truly unlimited, and it's on Verizon's network, which, in my humble opinion, offers the best network out there.
I know AT and T has a good network. T Mobile is good in certain ways, but when you think about overall, in my experience over the past ten years of using cell phones, well probably more than that, I feel like Verizon is really really good, and my advice is anyway. So what's happening with the whole Visible thing is that they are when I told you about them the first time, I said, there is one caveat to the service, and that's the fact that they had a
five megabit speed cap. So if you were trying to download something, you were capped at five megabits. Even if the Verizon network in that area was faster than five, which most of the time it is. Most of the time, you're getting anywhere from twenty to eighty on your download speeds. Visible would always make it just five using throttling technology.
So now Visible is saying, you know what, forget you ever heard about that we are for a limited time going to uncap the speeds, which means for forty dollars a month, now you are getting Verizon's full network. Wow, without any caps on the speed.
That's incredible.
Now, I think you just started. When we did the visible speed test, and remember we were outside. We tried YouTube, we tried Facebook, we tried Snapchat.
I totally remember this. Yeah, and it all was the same. I mean like it was fast, and it wasn't anything super noticeable, right, It wasn't like.
It was buffering forever and hover. So now you do get the whole speed and you get the whole network. So I think this is a fantastic deal. I'm doing the research to see if I should switch my wife because we're on a family plan, so I need to do. Here's the thing that I've noticed that's a little bit tricky about the family plank, cause I was going to switch over immediately. We have Verizon. I pay like I think it's like one hundred and eighty bucks a month
for the two lines. I was like, okay, that's ninety each. So I was like, okay, if I split her off to forty a month, well, hold on, now she loses Apple Music, which is ten dollars a month. And also I don't know if my bill goes up for just you now, right because now it's not a family plan. So I got to see what spread is on. Are we really saving fifty dollars a month? Or are we saving like ten dollars a month? So I need to look at that.
Can she keep her number?
You can keep your number? Oh wow, Okay, everything kind of follows over suit.
Right because it is under Verizon at the end.
Even if it wasn't, you would still be able to bring your number to another carrier. It's called porting and it's super easy. Oh but bottom line on Visible is I thought it was a fantastic deal to begin with. Personally, I can't switch because I have an Apple Watch with a cellular plan. They don't offer that. So again, who's this for? I think this is if you're single, you have one line, you don't have an Apple Watch with cellular,
and you don't need international roaming. Those are the kind of the main caveats that I think you don't get with Visible, other than that they don't have stores. You have to do it all online. You have to activate your phone online, they send you a SIM card. You gotta be able to put that into your phone, and you have to do everything on your phone. Their customer services everything is through chat. So got it? Okay, and if they need to get in touch with you, they'll
call you. But so great, great deal, honestly, yeah, great deal.
All right. Time for the next question, also from Instagram. It's from Ryan Bay. Hi, Rich, I was wondering if you knew of an app or site that will run your email address to see which accounts you may have created over the years, and what might even allow you to delete them. I love your show and all your helpful tips. Thanks for the help.
That's a good question. I don't know of a site. I do know there are some sites, and I used to have one. I'm trying to look forward on my bookmarks that would if you had a username that you liked. Let's say mine is rich DeMuro or rich on tech. Let's say I would put that into this website and it would show me all the popular sites and whether that's registered. I don't know where that is in my bookmarks, but that's kind of what he's talking about, Okay, but
he's talking about if he's actually registered the appropriate username. Now, I think for security reasons, sites are not really willing to give out that information.
That makes sense.
It makes a lot of sense that you would not just be able to put in your user name and then see, oh she has a Skype, she has this, because then be easy to hack you totally. So I don't think anyone's doing that. But what I will say is if you want to check and get rid of some of these old accounts, which a lot of people do, there are two websites that I am looking them up right now, but one is called account Killer account killer dot com and the other one is called just the
Leap Me. So if you go to account Killer, you can type in Skype and it will give you the directions on how to get rid of your Skype account or how to get rid of your Facebook account. It's super easy and they have a lot of stuff. Let's see if we just like want to get rid of Yahoo because you know, we don't use them anymore. Although you know what, I don't know what happened here? What's going on here? Why is Yahoo not coming up? That
scares me? There? It is how to delete your Yaho account. Okay, so it's got Yahoo, so it's got all the different websites you pop them in and next thing you know, you can get rid of all the things that you don't use anymore. And by the way, it's a good idea to get rid of those totally because the more sites that you keep open in kind of the background that you're not using. We talked about this last week, it opens you up to hacking. So close down those
old sites. You're not using them anymore. If you're not using Yahoo, if you're not using I'm just looking through some of these things about me.
Is there a way, I mean, I feel like the answers know, but is there a way to go through your email and see what you've signed up for? Don't you think that that should be a thing, like you go through your email and see what.
You've Yeah, it's kind of tough.
I mean your account too.
You could you can see, I guess you can look for like one sign up mail, but every every email is different. Like if I sign up for one website, the way that they welcome me to their website, you might just look up for welcome and maybe you know, yeah, usually a lot of websites say welcome to Yahoo or whatever. Yeah, but that's an interesting one. But yeah, good to get rid of those whole things. Speaking of websites, I love this site. I found this site. I believe it was
through life Hacker, and I'm obsessed. It's called flights from dot Com. And you know, I'm a travel junkie. Yeah, I'm no Johnny Jet, but I love my travel. And this site is so great because I have this airport called Burbank in the LA Area, which is this tiny little airport that I resisted going to for so long because I thought it was rinky dink, And now I'm sort of liking it because it's so much easier than that.
At Okay, see, like forever she's loved it. I was kind of a Burbank hater for probably twenty and now I'm like, I don't even want to tweet when I go from there because like people I know will be like, oh, now you're flying out of there.
Huh oh Okay.
This website, flightsfrom dot Com, is really simple, but it's really cool if you like data about flying and websites. It The main thing that it does is that you can pop in a website or an airport and it will give you all the direct flights from that airport.
So for Burbank. For instance, if I'm planning a spring break and I want to see where are the places I can easily travel from Burbank on a direct flight to hop in Burbank and boom, I get a list of the destinations from Burbank and it's more than I thought. But it shows you because you don't have to like, how would you find that information otherwise?
Right, I have no idea.
How tricky. Yeah, you can go to Burbank's airport or their website and kind of look around and see if they list. This just makes it super simple. Plus it gives you a lot of data about the airport. It's like really nerdy stuff that's just like highly they they take all the data and make it easy to digest. So let's say I put in Burbank here.
Yeah, I want to know, and I'll tell you.
Some of the data that they're giving me. Okay, So immediately it starts with destinations and flights. The route with the most route with the most departures is to San Jose, which I go to all the time. Yeah, eighty seven flights from Burbank, which is fourteen percent. The two longest flights are Burbank to JFK, which takes five hours, and
Burbank to Boston with five hours twenty eight minutes. Southwest Airlines is the most is the largest airline here by the number of departures, with three hundred ninet nine scheduled takeoffs every week. That's six times as many as the second biggest airline, Alaska the most interest. The aircraft with the most scheduled flights are Boeing seven thirty seven and embry are nineteen. The longest flight is to Boston or do that and then it has the most popular destinations
San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, Phoenix, Las Vegas. Biggest airlines Southwest, Alaska, United American, top aircraft types. It's just fun, really information.
Yeah, and now, like I mean, if you know you're going to New York, would you fly to Burbank?
Well, they go to JFK and I usually fly to New York. Sokay Burbank. You hear me? Right now, let's do some uh b U R T E W L. Yes, that would be a dream. Yeah, that would be.
I know, Burbank's great and it's really small, so you can like move around there like you go to Lax and it's like a city.
I go from my car to the terminal past security and I've timed it like seven minutes.
Oh wow, amazing. Okay, So this next question came in an email from Jose M Alvarez. He asks, I would like to ask about routers. Are routers with d d w RT firmwhere safe, secure and as good as enterprise routers. Keep up the good work. Love your podcast, Jose and Olivarez.
Jose, Sorry, hold on, Jose, you get the for the nerdiest question so far on the rich on Tech podcast.
Yeah, I don't understand this.
This is so this is my gosh, the funny thing. Okay, where do I even start? D Okay, So all routers you know that help you get your Internet throughout your house. Yes, usually on wy Fi. Nowadays they have software on them which generally the manufacturer delivers to your router. It comes on the thing. You know. You don't have to do anything, it's just installed. Well, some people like to take things up a notch and install this secondary software that replaces
the original called DDWRT. And this is open source and it's works on a bunch of different routers. And what is the reason why you want this at this point, I'm not sure. But back in the day, when I install this on one of my routers, yes I'm a nerd. I was creating. This was before mesh networks. Now I always talk about mesh networks. You get three access points throughout your house. It kind of brings the Internet throughout your entire house in a great way, like a blanket.
Back in the day, we didn't have that. So I took two routers that I had in my house and I linked them together with a wire. But to get the second router to work.
In it with a physical wire, with.
A physical wire that to run from one room to another. But to get the second router to work nicely and play nice with my network on my first one, I had to install this special firmware that allowed it, which was called DDWRT. So, Okay's question is is this safe? My answer is, I'm not sure how updated this is at this point, and that would tell me how safe
it is. So what I'm seeing on Wikipedia, which I can't really tell, is that it says the last stable release was in two thousand and eight, which I don't know if that's true. That says ten years ago.
I'm not sure, interesting.
But it has support for a bunch of routers. I will tell you this generally when it comes to and I'm looking at the website and the last thing updated was in twenty eighteen. But generally, when it comes to open source stuff, it's usually some of the most secure stuff because you have a whole bunch of people from around the world looking into that software and trying to make it better and trying to squash the bugs and find the security exploits. So I don't know what you're using.
Everything could be hacked everything, So I can't say whether you know. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, if you want to install it you have a need for it, go ahead, but just do so at your own risk. Good stuff. So I we talked about this app this week, and if you listened, I tried something new on my podcast this week called the rich On Tech Quick Hit, which is kind of a bonus episode. So if you like those, let me know a lot of you listen to them.
So that's good news. But I interviewed the CEO of a company that makes a product called Firewall. This is a new app that is best described as the most extreme robocall blocker I've ever seen in my life. And the way it works is it blocks all your calls unless they're in your address book. And that could sound like a dream to a lot of people because you might think to yourself, why don't I need anyone else
to call me unless they're in my address book. Clearly people call outside of your address book, so firewall has provisions for that. So how this app works, you forward all your calls to them. It's four dollars a month. By the way you forward all your calls to them, they receive the call. They also have a copy of your address book, so if the calls in your address book, they get one voicemail that says, Hey, this is rich what's up? Leave me a message. I'll call you back now.
If it's in your address book and your phone is on, it will just route right to your phone like normal. If your phone is off, you know whatever, or if it goes to voicemail, it'll get that special voicemail. Secondary. If someone is not in your address book, it will not ring your phone. It will send them straight to voicemail and it's a separate voicemail that you can say whatever you want on so on mine, I said, hey,
this is Rich. I'm screening my calls because you know robocalls, So leave me a message, or better yet, send me a text, and that will be the secondary message that will pretty much stop all of your unwanted robo calls because they're not going to leave a message and they don't really Maybe they will leave a message, but they don't really care. They're not going to text you. Although maybe I shouldn't say text me because that might give them ideas. Try to text, Hey, Rich, I'm trying to
text you about this scam. I want you to be a part of. So my thoughts on this app is it's probably best for someone who is maybe doesn't have kids, because if you have kids, you're getting random calls because a couple of times my kids have gotten hurt at school. It's always a random number and you're like, do I answer this? I know it's in my area code, but like who is this? And of course you answer it using your your intuition as a parent, and it's always
the worst call you can get. It's like your kids just hit their head and it's bleeding. Great, oh gosh, yeah, let's see. So it is a cool ideas. It's a great way if you are getting a lot of robo calls and you can deal with the whole firewall process because it is a process. Yeah, and I ended up turning it off full disclosure, because I was testing it. I want to see what it's like. Personally. I don't have a robo call problem, and when I do, I
can kind of recognize the number. Also, in iOS thirteen, they're going to be building in some smarts robo calls. They will have a very similar feature where if a caller is not in your address book, they can send it to voicemail. Also, Google's going to add in some smarts where they're going to use Siri to identify things. So tell me if this has ever happened to you, Megan, where you get a phone call and Siri says maybe, and it has the person's name. Where Siri is getting
that data is from your email. So when people leave a signature in their email with their name and phone number, Siri remembers that, and then when it sees that phone number come up on caller idea, it says, hey, I think this is this person.
Oh, that's where that comes from.
That's where that comes from. Okay, So clearly I think what Apple's going to do. And I haven't downloaded the beta of iOS thirteen just yet, but I think they're going to use that data. So if you call me, even if from your business line, let's say that was in your address book.
In the bottom right of my email.
It will still allow your call. Through some unknown caller calls me and it can't find any data on that, it will send that to voicemail.
Oh interesting, I'm smart, right, yeah?
Oh wait is it? Yeah? It's your turn.
Okay, so our next question is from Cheryl Lane. I think it's Lane, Emma or Lane.
I love that you have to deal with all these user names because it's like reading a license plate. It really is.
Well, it's an Instagram account and so this came to you on Instagram. Hi, your opinion, please. My daughter wants me to get the Apple Series four for the medical features, especially the EKG. I've been with Samsung and I'm an Android owner for years. How would you rate the difficult level in converting to an iPhone to allow watch full feature use?
Thanks, Marty, Marty, I think that there will be a learning curve. She's talking about getting the Apple Watch series four, which has the EKG feature. Yes, also the fall detection, which I think is just on the flour at this point. That's what you have, That's what I have, and I've done. It's funny. I just showed my little brother the EKG and we were on the Sodona trip. Yeah, so I was showing him. I'm like, O, look, I could take an EKG. Of course, I'm like, oh no, I hope
it's okay. I hope it comes up okay, as I'm like demo ing this thing right, but it did. But you can take an EKG on your Apple Watch. And I think that's a great feature. It's a really neat feature. It's something especially if she has a heart issue, like maybe that's why her daughter is telling her to get this, so in that case, it's probably really nice to have. I love the Apple Watch series four, and I think I've said this before.
I like we say this on every podcast. I feel like it's like our constant thing.
I think I could do without the iPhone, but not without the Apple Watch. That's how good it's gotten. Yeah, it's just so key. Although I will say my one problem with the Apple Watch when I took my hike in Sedona. I was so excited. Exuse my longest hike yet was like seven miles. My Apple Watch crapped out. The battery died at about forty minutes in. Now, I don't know what happened. I think if I had to
guess it charged, it was fully charged overnight. I think what happened was I did install an app the night before that I had not had on my Apple Watch before, and I think that that crashed it in the morning as soon as I put it on my wrist, and next thing you know, the battery was going crazy, something was crashing inside and it died. Because my brother had
his fitbit on and his lasted the whole time. And the Apple Watch I never tested it for a seven hour or seven mile hike because it is using GPS during that time the whole time, and that does use a lot more battery. Yeah, but I still think it's supposed to work for that amount of time. So I can't really explain what happened because I can't. I got to go on another seven mile hike to see if it was just the time or but it ran out so early in the morning. I'm talking, I got up,
you know six am. It was dead by like nine, so it.
Was had problem plugged in and it was charging over.
Now yeah, I mean it started one hundred percent, So that's weird.
So yeah, it must be an app that was I think maybe it was fully downloaded.
That's I think maybe what happens, something just happened where it's just it just hung up the watch and just ate the whole battery up.
Yeah.
So I was so annoyed the whole hike.
Because you wanted to track your life.
I wanted my numbers. Like you know, if you if you have an Apple Watch, you know that the best part of your day is the tracking of what you're doing throughout the day. I live for those rings every day. I live for my little thirty two minutes or whatever it is of exercise that I get to hit every day. Live for that. My wife and I that's what we discussed every night. She's like, I only got four minutes so far today. I'm like, well, you got to do more.
I'm going in there in the room and I'm doing an active I'm going in the room I do I'll do like an active workout. I will literally do whatever I wan.
It makes you want to reach your goal. It constantly reminds you, like by the way, Yeah, I mean I don't have one, as you know, but I think that that's the best future.
Sure, I know what Christmas gift I'm getting you, Megan, So don't buy an apple Watch anytime soon. It is anyway. So when it comes to our email and the question I'm getting, I think that there will be a learning curve, especially if she's going from if Samsung to both iPhone and Apple Watch. You're gonna have to You're gonna have to learn some new stuff.
Totally.
I don't think it's impossible to learn, and I think that six months in you're gonna be loving it. Here's the other beauty of iPhone is that when you switch to an iPhone or you have an iPhone, you can ask your friends and family because they all have it, they know what to do. Sometimes they know how to do what you need to do. Sometimes they don't. The reality is there's a lot of people around you that you can ask me, like, Hey, what's this thing on
my Apple Watch? Or you can always get a copy of my book.
True, but you don't have a book about the Apple Watch.
I don't, but I really need to do one because I've you should, I know, because there's so many things. I'll be honest, I haven't even explored the.
Apple Watch, or maybe you do a book about like each like Apple watch, computer, and then.
I sure should I just quit my day.
I'm just giving you more to do.
There's no way that I could do all that stuff.
I think it's time for another story.
All right, what do you want to hear about? You want to hear about ordering food through Google or LinkedIn ordering. Okay, this was great because we actually tried this out. Yes, Google, now lets you you know the problem. If you've ever ordered food through one of those apps. You've got Postmates, you've got door Dash, you've got grub Hub, you've got
Uber Eats. Have you ever done this on a Friday night where you just sit there and you like kind of surf all the different apps and see like what the deals are, what's good, what's bad?
Like every Friday night.
Honestly, so Google saw the issue and they said we're gonna make this a little bit easier. Now. On Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Assistant, you can search for the food that you want, whether it's a restaurant specific name or a type of food. So in my case, I searched for Reuben sandwich and next thing you know, it came up with Cantor's Deli and a couple other places
nearby here in LA And here's the best part. Underneath the restaurant, you look for a big button that says order online, and you tap it and it now gives you all of your options for ordering, whether it is DoorDash, Postmats, Delivery dot Com, Slice Chownow, or Zeppler, which I haven't heard of, but I think that's sort of on the East Coast and central oh Okay. And then you order
your entire meal right through Google. So if you have to have Google Pay set up to do the final transaction, which you just add your credit card kind of like Apple Pay, and your food is on your way. We got a Reuben. It was perfect. It was delicious, by the way, and it was so easy because now you don't need if you have a restaurant in mind, you just search for that restaurant on Google and then tap
order online and they'll figure out which platform handles the delivery. Yeah, you don't have to sit there and be like, oh, it's not on Postmates, let me go check Grubhub. Oh it's not on there. Let me try eat twenty four or I think they're grubhub now. But again, Google's just making life easier. Of course, Google probably gets a cut of the sale. It all goes through them, which they gives them more data on what people are ordering. You see what I'm getting at?
Ye right right? Does Amazon have a food delivering So they.
Did, and they just closed it down. It was called Amazon Restaurants and I think they just told everyone that it's shutting down.
So it failed. And I used Google Delivery Friday night last week and I just searched like Thai food and it was so straightforward and I like had my food in like forty five minutes and delivery was just like one dollar.
Were you eating alone?
No, I eat with my family, Okay, I just.
Like you and like your sad lights out one little candle. My god, I remember Rich talking about this.
Let me try it, yeah, exactly.
I do want to tell you something very exciting though, Megan, I did guest host another podcast here in the Tribune Audio Network family. It's called The News Director's Office, and this is a podcast that's hosted by my boss Jason Ball, who has steadily employed me for nearly ten years now. So I do have a lot of respect for Jason Ball. He found me when I was in New York at Sina and brought me over to KKEL and now here at KTLA. So I love Jason. He has done a
fantastic job here at KTLA. He has his own podcast where he talks from a news director's perspective about what it takes to sort of make it in the US business, and he's talked to all kinds of great people. He's on vacation, so he said, Rich, would you guest host an episode? I said, sure, who would I talk to? Immediately? I called Leo Laporte because I thought he would be such because me as a tech person, I'm curious about
what his background was. I know him from his shows and this and that, and I've actually filled in for him on his radio show, but I didn't really know what his story was. And so in the podcast, I talked to Leo and he is obviously he started twit, which is a big podcast network. He also has a syndicated radio show. But I asked him everything how he got to start in broadcasting. He explained his idea of
why he thinks podcasts should be called net casts. He also talked about how the landscape for radio and media in general has changed. And I felt like Leo really did me a solid by doing this job, by doing this podcast, because he he did such a great job. He just like basically answered my questions, didn't hold anything back, found out where he's from, childhood, all that good stuff,
and it was a great listen. So if you want, search for news Director's Office in your favorite podcasting app to listen to the episode where I interview Leo Laporte. That's gonna do it for this show.
I'm excited to listen to that.
By the way, Thank you. And I know your mom is too.
She loves leeas Oh yeah, she's a big fan.
She's a big fan of Leo. That's gonna do it though, for this show. So subscribe if you haven't done so already for this the rich on Tech podcast. You can find us in your favorite podcast app, which might be Apple Podcasts, pocket Casts, or overcast. Those are a few good ones. Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter at richon Tech dot tv. Megan, did you like the Thai food? And most importantly, did you like the show.
I loved the tai food and I thought the show was great today.
Right, Well, that's gonna do it for today. You can find producer Megan at.
Producer Megan on Twitter, Twitter, Twitter dot com, slash producer Megan.
You can find me at Rich on tech dot tv. I'm Rich tomorrow. Have a great day. We'll talk to you real soon.
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