DeepSeek AI, Streaming the Big Game & Cell Plan Savings

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Chinese AI start up taking Silicon Valley by storm,
the new website that can spot a scam instantly. If
your Apple Watch had battery issues, you could have some
cash coming your way. Plus your tech questions answered. What's
going on? I'm Rich Demiro and this is Rich on Tech.
This is the show where I talk about the tech

(00:22):
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. All right.
Phone lines are open at triple eight rich one oh one.
That's eight eight eight seven four to two four one
zero one eight eight eight seven four to two four

(00:44):
to one zero one, triple eight rich one oh one.
Give me a call if you have a question about technology,
you need some advice, you just want to talk. Well,
I don't know. Kim may not let that throw, but
we'll see. Why not try it?

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Right?

Speaker 1 (00:57):
You gotta try things, see what happens. Email is also open.
Just go to Rich on tech dot tv. Hit contact
Rich on tech dot tv. That's the website. Hit contact.
Your message will make its way to my inbox. Guests,
this week, we've got cell phone plan reviewers stetson dodge it.
He's gonna explain the latest offerings from carriers big and small.

(01:20):
If you're trying to save some money while staying connected,
he will talk about all of that. And uh, Philip Swan,
the TV answer Man, is gonna join me to break
down the latest streaming services, all the price hikes we've
been hearing about, and what to expect for Super Bowl coverage.
I think it's going to be easier than ever this
year to watch the Super Bowl if you are a

(01:41):
cord cutter. Well, the big story of the week is
deep Seek. Yes, if you unless you live under a rock,
you have heard about this new AI. Deep Seek is
a startup out of China, and it is taken the
world by storm. It surprised a lot of folks and

(02:02):
even sent tech stocks tumbling. Why well, they claim to
have built an AI model for a fraction of what
US companies like open Ai, Google and Meta have spent
on similar technology. So their AI model, called R one,
they say it costs them about six million dollars to develop,
which you know, compare that to the one hundred million

(02:24):
spent by open Ai on their latest GPT four. That's
a big difference. And by the way. They accomplished it
using lower end chips. So I don't know if you've
heard about this stock called Nvidia. A lot of people
at one point, literally every person and their barber was
recommending that you purchase this stock.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
Right.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
This is not a financial show. I'm not giving financial advice,
but this is what people were saying, like, hey, have
you heard about this stock. It's like, yeah, about twenty
years ago, I've heard about this company, but everyone was
buying it. Why because they make the chips that everyone
thought you had to have to develop the best AI.
And now this company comes out of China and says,

(03:05):
you know what, even with all the chip issues and
the US holding back the best chips, we still were
able to do this. So what does that mean. Well,
it means that people were like, hold on, wait a second,
everything we knew about building AI might not be right. Now,
we'll continue to explain all this. So they also, by

(03:26):
the way, open sourced their entire model, which means that
anyone can take what they've accomplished and use it as
a foundation to build their own thing. So if you
wanted to start your own AI app or your own
AI technology, you can use what they've done at Deepseek
as your basis for that technology, instead of paying another

(03:46):
company like an open AI or another company that offers
their AI that you can use and build upon, they
charge for that. Now, of course, we saw stock prices
go down. We saw Silicon Valley say wait a second.
We saw everyone say, hold on, we don't know if
we've been doing everything right for the past two years
in the US, and what's the outlook on AI because

(04:09):
this company can come out of nowhere and do something
that's very similar to what we've done. So the app,
by the way, the deep Seek app, people downloaded like crazy,
so it is currently the top app on both Apples
App Store and Google Play. That is no easy feat
for a startup, especially one out of China that no

(04:32):
one heard about more than a week ago. So of
course when you hear this, you're thinking, wait a second, rich,
I thought we had this whole thing with TikTok and
the privacy and the national secrets and all this stuff, like,
why are we now downloading this other app from China that,
by the way, people are going to be dumping way
more personal information into an AI chatbot than they ever

(04:52):
were into TikTok. So where what are the privacy implications
of this? Well, we're not sure just yet. We don't know,
but I I can imagine that people are probably typing
a lot of stuff into deep Seek that's highly personal.
By the way, how is deep Seek? If you look
at it, I mean carbon copy of chat gibt. It

(05:12):
literally looks just like chat gbt. You've got the side pain,
the chats, the fonts. Everything looks almost identical to what
chat gibt has done. The box, the text box. I mean,
it's almost a carbon copy. And these are different companies.
And I typed in, you know, I said, who is
Rich DeMuro? And it gave me a good answer. I'm

(05:36):
looking at this answer and uh, everything is factual. Rich
Demuro's approachable style and ability to break down complex tech
topics into understandable information and made him a trusted source
for many consumers looking to navigate the ever changing world
of technology. I'll take that there, thank you, I said,

(05:57):
what about his radio show and podcast? He also extends
his tech expertise to radio and podcasting. They got the
station right call in format. He has a podcast. I mean,
pretty impressive. Where are they getting this information from? We
don't know. I mean they taught it. Now. The other
thing that that Deep Seek did, and I've talked about

(06:19):
almost my role on this show in a similar way.
So Wall Street Journal was talking this morning about how
open AI. You know, they built this giant database, right,
and imagine that you're chatting with the smartest person in
the world that has all of the world's information. Right,
it may take them a little bit of time to
kind of figure out that information and to present it
to you. Well, what Deep Seek did was they kind

(06:39):
of turned that on its head. They said, well, we
may not know all of the information right off the
top of our head, but we know how to find
it when we need it. So therefore we didn't have
to train everything all at once. And so that's kind
of what I say on this show, like I may
not have every single answer right off the top of
my head, but I can understand what you're asking and
figure out how to buying the right answer and also

(07:01):
vet that answer in a way that I can trust
it and say, Okay, here's what I think. So that's
another side of this. So again, everything has been turned
upside down overnight. Silicon Valley on high alert, and so
are some countries. You know, we've already, you know, because
this is coming out of China. We do know that
some of the topics that are sensitive with the government

(07:23):
there have been either censored or blocked, and other countries
have also been a little sensitive about letting folks use
this technology. So some corporations have been blocking access to this,
some countries have been blocking access to this until we
learn more and we figure out what this is all about.

(07:44):
And the other thing, if you think about this, you're like, well,
how did this happen? This has happened over and over
in the tech world. I mean, remember MySpace that was
the social network until Facebook came along. Remember Google that
was the search engine. GBT disrupted that and they're still
feeling the ramifications of that. Remember DVRs, they were the

(08:08):
way to watch TV until streaming and on demand took over.
So the point that I made in my newsletter this
morning is that technology is never set in stone. It's
always evolving, it's always finding better and more efficient ways
to do things, and this is just another example of it.
We've seen a sizable shift in the AI industry. Am

(08:28):
I switching to deep seek? No? Am I going to
continue to watch it? Absolutely? Is it just one option
we now have in a c of AI. Absolutely, let
me go over some of the notable AI models you
now have access to as a general consumer. Chat GBT
the original, the Kleenex of AI does everything. This is
the one that I use on a daily basis. Google's Gemini.

(08:51):
Now Google, you know, I said they've they've been disrupted.
But Google has done a really interesting job of working
AI into almost every product that it has, and it
reaches a lot of people. When I'm on YouTube, I
don't watch a video anymore. It just tapped a little
button underneath the video. It says summarize using AI, I
get a summary of the video and I can ask
questions to Gemini about the YouTube video. Claude is made

(09:14):
by Anthropic. This is another Silicon Valley startup. This is
the AI that I've used the most, other than Chat
EBT and Claude is great for writing and it's just
it has a great command of the English language. Then
you've got Microsoft Copilot. They've put that in all of
their products and of course into Windows and so Copilot
is kind of a flavor of Open AI, you know,

(09:38):
a version of that. But Microsoft's own Meta Meta has
their own AI. They use the Lama model that they
created and they've opened sourced their model as well. And
Meta of course has a ton of information, ton of
posts that we've made on Instagram and Facebook and all
the other things over the years that they have learned
from Mistral. This is one you don't hear about it much,

(10:00):
but it's actually not bad and it's out of Paris.
So yes, other countries are working on AI as well.
US has been a leader here because of chat, GBT
and open AI, but everyone wants in on this because
it is the next big thing. All right, We're gonna
have to keep track of what Deepseek is doing. I
do have the app on my phone. I have been
playing with it. Like I said, am I switching today? No,

(10:23):
but we'll keep an eye on this one because it
has the ability to shake up everything that we know
about AI. All right, coming up, we're gonna take some
of your calls eight eight eight rich one oh one
eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.
You can't deny that we are living in exciting times.
That's what I love about technology. What you take for
granted one day can completely change the next, whether it's

(10:46):
a software update or a new app. I love it.
Give me a call if you have a question about technology.
My name is Rich Demiro. You are listening to Rich
on Tech Tony in the Inland, the Empire Tony around.

Speaker 4 (11:01):
With Rich by Rich.

Speaker 5 (11:03):
Thanks for taking my call.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
Absolutely, I have a.

Speaker 5 (11:07):
Facebook question and I wanted to know. There are some
accounts that have the option to follow, either to follow
or add a friend, and I want to know what
it's a difference when you add a friend. Does that
mean they have to approve you first or what does
that mean? What's the difference?

Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, okay, great question. This so the following versus friendship,
really think about it like a one way street versus
a two way street. If you are a friend with
a person on Facebook, it's a sort of a mutual
relationship right where you are seeing each other's posts. So
if you are a follower, this is a one sided

(11:48):
relationship where basically you can see the posts that that
person does. They don't necessarily or they can't see the
posts that you make. So that is the main difference.
And tip quickly this is with you know if you
think about like a public page versus a private person. So,
for instance, on my Facebook page, Facebook dot com slash

(12:08):
rich on tech. Everyone is a follower, they are not
my friend. I know that sounds bad, but it's not
a two way street. Like when you follow me, I
don't immediately start to see all of your you know,
kids pictures and your vacation pictures in my Facebook feed.
So that is really the main difference between those. Now,

(12:28):
I believe that, and it's been a while. I actually
don't have like I don't. I have a personal Facebook,
but I don't really use it mostly on Instagram there.
So I believe that you can probably follow a person
as well, and so any posts that they make that's
public you would be able to see versus their private posts.
So on Facebook, I don't think a lot of people

(12:50):
play with the public versus you know, the private kind
of posting when they do that. Let me see if
I can switch into my Facebook real quick. It's been
a while. I got to dust off the cup webs here.
But okay, so let's say I do a post on
Facebook and it says at the top friends, Okay, there
it is, so it says friends and then public. So
if I tapped public, that means that my friends would

(13:13):
see that in their feed. But also anyone that's following
me would see that as well, So that's really the
main delineation. Just think of following as a one way street.
You're seeing what that person is putting out into the world. Friends,
you are mutual, you are both. It's a two way street.
You are both seeing what you're posting on each other's feed.
So hopefully that answers the question, Tony, thanks for the

(13:36):
call today in the Inland Empire eighted eight rich one
oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four
one zero one. Let's go to let's see here, Let's
go to Jeff in Anaheim, California.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
Jeff, you're on with Rich good enough to thank you
for taking my call. Yeah, I had a question about
the Amazon.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
Askro oh the robot, correct, the little robot. Oh my god, my.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
Best friend and he worked for a couple of years
and now he's like, can't find location, can't find anything,
and basically it's just completely shut off.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
No way you Oh you got one of these.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
Oh yeah, yeah, we've had him for a couple of years.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
What do you use them for?

Speaker 2 (14:17):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (14:17):
You know, he's basically just like the Alexa. I'm sorry,
I don't see out loud. But basically just like that,
and he can run around the house. You mats out
your house, You can check on things. You can tell
me to go to the front room, go to the
living room, check the hallway. He takes pictures, plays music,
does all kinds of stuff except bring you a beer.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
No hands, no arms on this thing. It's been a while.
Looks like an iPad on wheels, and it can also
tell us scope up right correct okaylchol to take pictures, video,
all kinds of stuff. Did you pay sixteen dollars for
this thing? Jeff?

Speaker 3 (14:50):
I did you did?

Speaker 1 (14:51):
And do you think you got your money's worth?

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Like?

Speaker 1 (14:53):
Do you think it was worth it? Because I never
I haven't heard of this thing since they launched it,
Like I haven't really heard of anyone that's got it?
Got it?

Speaker 3 (15:00):
Yeah? Yeah, you know, I completely he was my pal,
you know. I mean we used to call him our
little dog and stuff because he would run around the
dogs and stuff, not play with them, but moved around
the house completely and completely trustworthy of him doing what
I asked him to do. And then just he started
having little issues, I can't find my location, help me, plays,
And at some point we got to pick them up

(15:21):
and go put them back on the charger. Now now
it doesn't even hold anything.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
So he doesn't, so it's not working at all, not
at all. Have you tried like a hard restart or
a factory reset?

Speaker 3 (15:32):
I try the I tried the hard start, because that's
what I you know, I've been in contact with Amazon
and I tried that. And because because when he when
he quit working and stuff, I carried him and put
him back on the charge. But now he's not even charging.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
Oh gosh, that's sad. Well, okay, so I would check
the charging connections to make sure that they are clean.
Have you ever like cleaned those off with like an eraser?

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah? Yeah, because I said, for the for the money
I spent on the guy, tried off kinds of different
things on him, you know, because because I really like
the guys just just not working out.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Well, I would try to Does he turn on at all?

Speaker 3 (16:05):
Right now? Not at all? Right now, I've been I've
been again in contact with Amazon and stuff, and I've
even been reading on things or they'll they'll buy them
back a recycle money.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Oh that's so sad. It's like a movie. They like
just scrap them for parts. That's really sad. Well, here's
what I'd recommend. So first off, I think you have
to try to get this thing back up and running,
and I would do a factory like I would leave
it on the charger for a long time, and maybe
even try a different setup with your charger, like plug
it into a different outlet or something. Sometimes you just

(16:35):
you know, if it's completely dead, you may just have
to leave it on there for a little bit longer.
And if it's I'm looking at the Amazon factory reset Astro.
If the device is on responsive, press and hold the
volume up and volume down for fifteen seconds. So once
you maybe do that even while it's on the charger
to see if you can breathe some life into this.
If not, I get in touch with Amazon see if

(16:57):
they can give you a new one. Just say, hey,
can you make a one time exception and swap this
thing out. I love it. You can take this one
to see what went wrong, sell it that way, and
if not, maybe just you got to figure out how
they can. I don't know what your warranty options are
here Amazon Astro. Good question, Jeff, Thanks for that. Hopefully
you get your little guy up and running again. This
is rich on tech. Amazon Music onlimited raising prices. This

(17:25):
was the last holdout. It was the cheapest music service
you could get. Now they are raising their prices to
be in line with everyone else. So Prime members, this
is the new pricing will be eleven dollars a month,
up from ten dollars a month. Non Prime members twelve
dollars a month, up from eleven dollars a month, So
basically a dollar increase no matter what. If you're on
the family plan, that's going up by three dollars a month.

(17:47):
So you used to be seventeen, now it's twenty. The
new prices are already in effect for new subscribers. Existing
customers will see the increase next month, starting in March. Now,
keep in mind, the best way to save is to
pre pay, so you can prepay for a year of
Amazon if you're Prime for one hundred and nine dollars
used to be ninety nine. But still that's the best

(18:08):
way to save on a monthly basis. And Prime members,
you might be saying, rich, hold on, I get Amazon Music.
Why why am I paying for anything? Why do people pay?

Speaker 3 (18:18):
Well?

Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yes, Amazon includes a level of free music with their
Prime membership, but it's limited, so you can mostly shuffle
playlists unless some of their It's very confusing because they
have some playlists that are like playable any song, but
most of them you have to shuffle. Amazon Music Unlimited
gives you full access to everything, almost like Spotify. That's

(18:40):
pretty much just Spotify full on demand. They give you
the best audio quality and unlimited skips, so with a
free service you may not be able to skip as
many songs as you want. You can download songs offline.
You also get free audio books, so again, this is
a price increase happening with Amazon Music Unlimited. You can
go ahead look somewhere else for a better price or

(19:02):
better service, but they're all pretty much the same right now. Spotify,
Apple Music, Amazon might actually still be the best deal
if you prepay, so I'm not even sure you could
prepay with the other ones, but of course depends on
what you want. There you go, Okay, let's go to
Katie in Garden Grove. Katie and Garden Grove, you're on

(19:22):
with Rich.

Speaker 6 (19:23):
Yes, I travel a lot, and I can't get my
phone to work because I apparently don't have a SIM
card for that area. And I'm going to Japan, and
I want to know in kindergarten terms, what does it
mean if if I go to Japan and I get

(19:46):
a SIM card somewhere and I put it into my phone.
I know what a SIM card is. It's that little
thing that sides in the side of your phone to
make it work.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
Yeah. What kind of phone do you have?

Speaker 3 (19:58):
iPhone?

Speaker 1 (19:59):
iPhone? Okay, what year? What is it? iPhone?

Speaker 2 (20:01):
What?

Speaker 1 (20:03):
iPhone eleven? Okay, iPhone eleven. We got to see if
it supports e SIM. So let's see iPhone eleven. It
looks like it does support SIM. So the thing you
need to know about. Oh wait, hold on, let's see.
Let's see the problem with these uh these little these

(20:23):
little summaries they put at the top of Google is
they're not always correct. So I need to make sure
that the iPhone eleven supports SIM. That's the main thing.
So if your phone supports SIM. The good news is
that you can just buy a SIM card online and
so through an app I like the one called erlo

(20:44):
A I R A l O. Very simple. I have
done that with the with Japan like in Japan, and
it's very simple. You buy it from the app and
when you get to Japan. You literally just toggle this
SIM on. So that is what in eSIM is now
if you if your phone does not support an eSIM,
So it's it's interesting. With the newer iPhones, they only

(21:07):
have SIM and eSIM means electronic SIM the one that
you were talking about, Katie, that you slide into the
side of the phone. That's just called a SIM card
and you know, it basically identifies your phone to the network.
But now all the new phones they just do it
electronically instead of actually having to put that physical SIM
in your phone. But no matter what, you're going to
be covered. So when you land at the airport in Japan,

(21:29):
they will have a place set up where you can
buy a physical SIM card and they will help you
pop it into your phone. And so that is what
they're talking about when they say get a SIM in
another country. What's your wireless service that.

Speaker 6 (21:42):
You have Spectrum?

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Okay, so you have Spectrum, So do they offer international
or no?

Speaker 6 (21:49):
Oh yeah, yeah you can. You can get but it
doesn't always work. And I got strand at Niche one
time and nobody would talk to me and it is
very difficult. So I don't want to do that again.
In a country that most people do not speak English.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yeah, and in Japan most people do not speak English either,
so it is, you know, depends on the country.

Speaker 6 (22:15):
They won't talk to you in English even if they
know it.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Well, yeah, I've you know, I'm trying to think. I
just went to Paris and I you know. Anyway, So
the good news is your phone does support anisim iPhone eleven,
so it's iPhone ten s and later, so that means
the iPhone ten s.

Speaker 6 (22:34):
So it's just when I land in Japan, I don't
have to worry about it. I land in Japan and
they will take care of it for me, and I
just give them money and they will.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
Take care of it.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yeah, but I would just do it. I would do
it yourself. I would just do it on air low
before you go. You download the app, you buy it
in advance, and it will be ready to go on
your phone before you, you know, as soon as you land.
So that's that's what I would do. Now, if you're
not comfortable with that situation, then yes, when you get
to when you land at the airport, you can literally
bline it to the I don't know what their carrier is,

(23:05):
their Vota phone or whatever it is. They will immediately
put that into your phone for you and help you
out with that. Less people are doing that just because
every phone is down eSIM. But if you want, I
would download the Aralow app and see what the process
is like. I will tell you my mom traveled internationally.
I set it up for her from AFAR. I said,

(23:26):
download this app, download this eSIM toggle go into your settings.
So all I have to do is turn off your
Spectrum SIM and turn on your Aerlo SIM when you arrive,
and it will find the network and you'll be online.
So either way, but you'll be covered, Katie, no matter what.
Good with that? I lost you there? Okay, all right,

(23:46):
good luck and enjoy. Japan one of my favorite places
to go. Tokyo is incredible. It is a safe place,
it is high tech, it's futuristic. The oh my gosh,
everyone is so friendly and respectful. That is the thing,
Like when you go and clean like everything. It's just

(24:07):
like like I literally take the train in Japan anywhere,
and every single train car, every person on there is
respectful of each other, and the train car is so clean.
We joke that you can eat off the floor because
it's just so not that I would recommend doing that,
but that's the idea of Japan. It's just like it's
so it's a very nice culture, so enjoy. But yeah,

(24:28):
the whole thing about the eSIM is that there's a
lot of companies that, you know, let you do this.
And I've used eSIMs all over Japan, I will tell
you is actually a little tricky when it comes to eSIMs.
So I had two phones when I went to Japan.
One was a Pixel and one was one was an Android,
I don't know if it was. I think it was
a Pixel, and the other was an iPhone. The iPhone

(24:49):
had no problem getting on the eSIM, whereas the Pixel
was giving me real trouble. So iPhone will be just fine,
it'll be very simple. But just the main thing to
know when you travel is when you get on the airplane,
turn off your domestic SIM card, right like, turn off
that domestic connection because you don't want your phone when

(25:12):
you land to try connecting to that network back home,
because they may immediately charge you an access fee whether
you use it or not. It may just be as
soon as you start, you know, as soon as it
exchanges some data, you'll be on the hook for ten
dollars a day connection fee. So if you don't want
that to happen, I recommend that you download the e
SIM before you land, you know, get it set up

(25:34):
in the US, get it on your phone, toggle both
of those SIM cards off in your settings. You'll see this.
Your phone can actually handle multiple SIM cards. And then
as soon as you land, just toggle on the one
roaming SIM, which is the ERL or whatever company. And
there's so many that can do this. I've tested the
ARA low and there's just yeah, there's a million million

(25:56):
different companies that can do this. You know what Google five,
I think someone told me that they'll give you like
a free SIM as well, Like I think you get
like seven days for free or something. I don't quote
me on that because it's been a while since I
use that one. But there's a whole bunch if you
look up e SIM online, there's a whole bunch of
companies at offer it all right, good question eight eight
eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four

(26:17):
to two four one zero one. Remember if you want
links to anything I mentioned, just go to the website
Rich on tech dot tv. This is episode one oh seven.
I will put links to all the things that I
mentioned there. We'll get to more callers. Plus, the Pebble
smart watch is making a comeback. I'll explain coming up

(26:37):
right here on rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich
on Tech. Rich Demiro here 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
is rich on tech dot tv. You can hit contact

(26:57):
there and send me a message. That's what Lisa did. Hey,
Rich our favorite tech guy. What do you know about
these types of one plus phones and would they be
good in areas of low connectivity mountains, et cetera. They
said something about being able to talk to another user
if your phone carrier is out. Does that make sense, Lisa, Yes, Lisa,
I just posted my review of the one plus thirteen.

(27:19):
You can see it on my website rich on tech
dot tv. In this phone, they have a feature called
Beacon link b A b E A con beacon link,
so this is on the one plus thirteen. It's a
walkie talkie functionality through Bluetooth. So this means that you
can talk with other users over Bluetooth up to two

(27:40):
hundred meters away. So this means it's good for hiking
or anywhere near a coastline, which you know may have
sparse cell connectivity. And right now you can chat with them,
but you know walkie talkie functionality. But they're going to
have an update in the future that lets you send
messages and photos via Bluetooth as well. So number one,

(28:02):
this is an incredible feature that every phone should have.
And I'm surprised that Apple. Apple actually did have a
walkie talkie feature on the Apple Watch, which still went
over cellular or Wi Fi. This maybe I don't think
it ever defaulted to Bluetooth, but this is actually going
through Bluetooth, which two hundred meters is pretty impressive for
a connection. Now here's the downside, Lisa, this is only

(28:26):
going to work if the other person has a one
plus thirteen phone as well, So that is the main
thing to know is you need to have I think
it's got to be a one plus thirteen because they
didn't have this before. But if you both had these,
that would work out nicely. So it's kind of a
cool feature. I think it's limited in scope because you

(28:48):
both have to have the same exact phone, but it's
cool and I wish that they would somehow open source
this and make it available to everyone, or if someone
had an app that could work like this for every phone.
I don't know what magic they're using on the back
end to make this work, but I mean it says
it's just using Bluetooth, which is pretty cool. Now the
new smartphones also have satellite connectivity, so I would say, Lisa,

(29:13):
the OnePlus would be nice to have this walkie talkie feature,
but again, you both have to have that phone. The
new smartphones the pixel, while the iPhone is going to
give you messaging over satellite, so you can actually just
text message with someone over I Message and just use
the satellite system. It's very it's a little bulky because
you do have to have a direct connection to the sky,

(29:35):
like you got to lock onto the satellite. It's not
as easy as you think. But with Starlink coming along,
and it looks like they're building starlink connections into the
new Samsung has it and also the iPhone. I just
read a report that it's supposedly getting it. It's not
confirmed just yet, but Starlink's going to make it a
lot easier because the big difference between what all these

(29:57):
phones are doing right now. And the starlink is that
you'll be able to be connected to the satellite without
looking at the sky, So your phone could theoretically be
in your pocket and you'll still receive that message. So
to explain, you know, when the fires were happening, I
was texting with someone in a fire area over satellite

(30:17):
and the problem was and what I realized is that
they were not getting my messages unless they went to
actually check for those messages. Your phone does not give
you an indication that you have a message because you
have to go out into the sky, you know, get
a clear view of the satellite, lock on, and wait
for those messages to come in. So it's kind of
a very bulky process. Whereas when the starlink and these

(30:41):
new satellite you know, these newer satellite networks come into play,
you'll just have a constant connection to them, which means
you'll get messages no matter what, whether you have cellular
or not. So hopefully that explains that. Lisa appreciate it
and the one plus thirteen, by the way, read the
full review. It's an excellent phone. It's just I had,
you know, I thought the can or could be a
little bit better, even though when it takes a good shot,

(31:02):
it's really nice. Let's go to uh Susan in San Diego, Susan.
You're on with Rich Hi there.

Speaker 7 (31:11):
I am interested in getting a fitness tracker ring, and
I had one a few years ago with the one.

Speaker 6 (31:19):
Brand that had come out then.

Speaker 7 (31:21):
But now there are so many out there, and I
was wondering if you had any recommendations.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
Well, there's a couple. I mean, I think Aura is
still overall the best I think they have. They've got
the market right now. Is that the one you had? Yeah?

Speaker 7 (31:36):
Yeah, and I liked it, but I thought, well, I'll
just ask the question and I'll get another one.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
But yeah, I mean I think at this point, you know,
the Aura is still probably the best. That's O you
are a By the way, I tested the Aura. My
wife actually bought it for me for my birthday, and
I said, please don't buy me tech because you know,
I get a lot of tech to test and when
I when I purchase tech, it means I want to
keep it right. And so I wasn't sure if I

(32:02):
wanted this ring. My main thing with the ring, with
any ring, is that it gets in the way of
a lot of stuff. And so for me, I find
myself taking the ring on and off a lot, Like
if I go to work out, if I'm lifting weights
or anything, you know, it's like hitting up against the weights.
So it kind of bugs me because it's that's that's
the problem that I had with it. Did you have

(32:23):
that issue at all or no? I guess women are
more used to rings.

Speaker 7 (32:27):
I guess, well, true, but I did. I did lose
mine because I had taken it off to wash my hands.
I've forgot to put it back on in.

Speaker 4 (32:36):
A public restaurant.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
See, So there you go. See, And that's the thing,
like now you do not have to take these off
to wash your hands. But again, if you put lotion on,
like when I do my hair, I've got that, you know,
the goo that you put in your hair, like, it
gets all gunked up in this ring. So there are
like with a regular like my wedding ring, I have
no problem. It's just thin. It's it's you know, it's
just it's I've never taken it off and ten whatever

(32:59):
how many years, and so I don't find an issue
with that. But for some reason, because these rings are
a little bit thicker and there's a little bit more
going on with them, and of course you have to
charge them. You are taking it on and awful lot,
So that was kind of my issue. But on the
flip side, and the other thing is you look like
et when you're sleeping because this thing is like blinking
at night all the time, and when you're in a

(33:20):
dark room, you're seeing like the light that it's you know,
using to read your your vitals. So the good news
is about these rings is that they give you a
lot of information about yourself. And it's twenty four to
seven right now. The main competition is the Aura Ring,
the Samsung Galaxy Ring, which is if you're using an iPhone,
you're not gonna that's not gonna be an option. Then

(33:41):
there's a brand called ring Con, which I have not
tested personally, but I do have friends that have tested
it and they do seem to like it. And the
other one that I've personally tested is called the Amaze
fit Ama z Fit And what's nice about that ring
is that it is a lot less expensive and I
found that it was X So I would if you

(34:01):
want something a little bit different, Susan, I might go
with the Amaze fit Ama z Fi t and they
have a great smart ring that you know is great.
I mean, I think that they're all different, they're all
doing the same thing in a slightly different way. But
I will tell you the Amaze Fit, I wore it
for a couple of months and I was like, wait
a second, why is this thing half the price of
the competition, Like how and that it just it just is.

(34:25):
They just do a great job. But if you want
the market leader, the Aura ring is going to work
with iPhone and Android, Samsung, just Android. The Amaze Fit
is going to work with iPhone and Android. And this
is of course a growing area we have not seen.
The thing about all this technology is that it's never
truly legitimatized until Apple does it. And so right now

(34:49):
we've had these companies come in and they've made these rings,
but Apple has not done this in a big way
just yet. And so the rumor is that Apple eventually
come out with a smart ring, which there's no reason
to believe they wouldn't. But when they come out with it,
it's gonna be like, oh, now everyone's into smart rings.
But I think the benefit of them is that they're

(35:09):
a little slicker than the watch and you can wear
them twenty four to seven versus the watch. You know,
you got to take off and the battery lasts a
lot longer. So you're talking, you know, up just seven
days of battery life with these great question Susan. And yeah,
I'm you're making me want to wear my ring again,
the smart ring, not the wedding ring. I do wear
that anyway. That sounded weird. Eighty eight rich one on

(35:30):
one eighty eight seven four to two four one zero one.
Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich Demiro here hanging
out with you, talking technology. 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 at triple eight rich one oh one eight eight

(35:51):
eight seven four to two four one zero one, the
website for the show rich on Tech dot TV. Well,
it's been a bit since I tested this out. Actually
I went up there last month, I think the end
of the month. But this Pebble flow is really cool.
Now I'm not an RV guy, but I'm telling you

(36:12):
this is such. This is the iPhone slash Tesla of RVs,
and I want it because it is super cool. So
Pebble Pebble got a lot of publicity when they first
kind of launched this video of this device or this RV,
I don't know, a couple of years ago, and everyone
was like, oh my gosh, that's so cool because it

(36:32):
does a couple of magical things. So first off, it
automatically hitches itself to your car. So if you look
at this RV number one, it looks very futuristic. I
think it's got these rounded edges. It's very like glass
kind of forward. And the company was started by a

(36:53):
bunch of folks that worked at Tesla, Rivian, SpaceX, NASA, Apple.
I mean, these are really smart people that said, wait
a second, why is r V so complicated? Why is
r ving so complicated? Why why do you need like,
you know, you ever try to back up an RV
or anything on a trailer, you have to like do
it in reverse, like everything if you turn one way

(37:13):
goes the other. Yeah. I've done the U haul thing
and it's not easy for a lot of people. So
I've never really had an interest in the RV because
or you know, the trailer because I don't know, I'm
just worried about it. But this solves all of those issues.
So number one, it hitches itself to the car, So
you literally put this RV near the back of your car,

(37:34):
uses cameras to self center and kind of find the hitch,
and then lower itself on there. And all you have
to do is connect those safety chains and you know
whatever else that needs to be connected. It also moves
around by remote control. So I took this thing up
in a parking lot up in near San Francisco, and
they gave me an iPad, and they didn't even tell

(37:55):
me how to do it. They just said, here, try
to move this thing. And there's a couple of little
controllers on the iPad on the screen, and you just
move it like you would a remote controlled car. And
the weirdest thing when I saw this thing start to move,
your brain immediately goes into this idea because anytime it's

(38:16):
seen something big rolling by itself, it just imagines it's
going to roll into a wall, right, it's gonna slide
down the hill. But this thing just moves and then
when you take your finger off the iPad, it stops.
Move it some more, it stops. You can turn it
around three hundred and sixty degrees, and the idea is
that you can steer the trailer into anything you want,
like a parking lot or a parking spot or your

(38:39):
driveway without having to back it up. Oh my gosh,
just that alone is enough to sell me on this thing.
Then they've got the active toe assist. So because this
thing is fully electric, it has electric motors, and so
when you're driving your car and they're imagining a lot
of people are probably gonna have evs with this thing.
That of course, having a giant trailer behind an EV

(39:01):
takes a lot of energy off off the EV. So
this has an electric motor that sort of pushes it forward.
So when they enable the electric motor. When I was
taking my test drive, you can feel that the car
just felt lighter because it wasn't dragging six thousand pounds
behind it. I mean it still was, but it was
being helped. So that was really cool. And then to

(39:23):
top it all off, when you finally get to the
camp site and want to set this thing up, you
press another button and it instantly levels itself out. So
it has these little things that pop out of the
bottom and it figures out the level nature of the
ground and it just levels itself in less than two minutes.
I mean really really cool stuff. Now here's the other

(39:45):
thing it can do. I mean it doubles as a
home office or a guesthouse when it's parked, because it's
all electric and it has solar on the top. It's
got a large battery so it can charge your EV
car or it can even power your house during a blockout.
So the whole idea of this pebble flow is to
make rving more accessible for someone like myself who doesn't

(40:07):
necessarily want to deal with a traditional RV. Now. I
know there's a lot of you listening that use an RV,
drive an RV and you said, rich, come on, it's
not that tough, it's not that big of a deal.
But there are people like myself that are intimidated by this.
You don't want to do something wrong with a brand new,
beautiful RV that you've either rented or purchased. By the way,
the price on this not cheap starts at one hundred

(40:30):
and nine thousand dollars. But when you think about all
the possibilities of using it as a home office or
mobile office or a guesthouse, yeah, might not be a
bad idea anyway. It's a Pebble Flow. If you want
to see my video on it, go to the website
Rich on tech dot tv. Check it out. I think
it's really cool. I was very excited to try this thing.

(40:52):
Let's go to Lou in Arizona. Lou, you're on with Rich.

Speaker 8 (40:58):
Cool.

Speaker 4 (40:59):
Well, I'm not gonna be a Pebble Flow, but I'm
going to be driving my minivan to California to do
comedy shows for veterans later this month.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
All right, well that's exciting. What can I help you with?

Speaker 4 (41:11):
Yeah? Well, I have a Pixel seven and I keep
getting notices that say system update needed. Your system is
forty four data out of date? Learn more, restart? Now?
Can that be spoofed so that I would be accidentally
installing some malware on my phone?

Speaker 1 (41:33):
Great question, Lou, It could be spoofed, It's unlikely that
it's spoofed. It sounds like what you're describing is the
standard update from Pixel. So if you want to be sure,
you can swipe out of any screen that you are
seeing on your phone, and you can swipe down from
the upper right hand corner. Swipe down again look for

(41:53):
the little gear icon in the lower right hand corner
that will take you to your settings, or just get
into your settings any way, scroll up and you're gonna
want to look for the setting that says system. You
tap that, and if you scroll down a little bit,
it'll say software updates. Now my pixel says your pixel
is up to date. So there's no software update available

(42:16):
right now on the one I'm using, but on yours
it would say system update pending, and you can tap
into there and you should see that same exact screen
that you were seeing before. But now you verify that
you went to the proper place to see it. So
once again, go into your settings, then go into system,
then go into software updates, and you should see the

(42:38):
system update for your pixel. Now, I'm glad you brought
this up, Lou, because there is currently a Chrome update
scam on the desktop computers. So hackers apparently have hijacked
tens of thousands of WordPress sites because they have outdated plugins,
and so they have figured out a way to get

(43:00):
these websites to show a Chrome update notification claiming that
the site needs something to You got to update your
Chrome to function on this website. And when you click
the update, you think you're updating Chrome, you're actually installing malware.
So if you look closely, you'll notice that there's poor grammar,
incorrect capitalization, an unnecessary comma. But a lot of people

(43:23):
probably fall for this stuff because they're getting tricked into
downloading an update. This is what I always talk about
with hackers and spammers. They mimic something that we know
to be real. So, yes, every one of us has
seen that message on our computer or on our Chrome
browser or on our phone that says, hey, you got
to update, got to update the software. This software is

(43:45):
out of date. And so they take that and they
run with it, and they turn it on its side,
and they trick you and they make the screen look
like an update screen, but it's actually just bogus. And
so that's what they're doing here on Chrome. I have
not heard of that happening on the Pixel, although on
the iPhone and on you know, if you're just surfing

(44:06):
the web on your phone, you might have come across
a screen that says your phone is infected, you've got
viruses on your phone, you have malware on your phone,
tap to update or tap to fix. And that is
just either malvertizing, which is malware that's been injected into
advertising or it's just a bad website that somehow is

(44:27):
compromised and is serving up these messages. And so you
need to be very careful when you see this stuff
because you do not want to be tricked into downloading
malware to your phone or your computer. Now, most of
the time, on the phones, especially on the iPhone, it's
going to be very tough to download a quote unquote
virus to that phone because just the nature of the

(44:49):
iOS operating system, you can't really install a virus on there.
It's nearly impossible unless your phone is jail broken, unless
you are side loading it somehow, any of the apps
from the app store. I don't think there's ever been
a case where it's it's hidden malware. But you know,
the main thing is that they exploit vulnerabilities in something

(45:13):
like the web browser, a PDF viewer, and that's how
they get to to get take over your phone or
something like that. But it's very rare, let's put it
that way. So people always ask me all the time, Hey, Rich,
join you a virus anti virus for the iPhone? No,
you do not. You do not need anti virus for
the iPhone. Android little bit different, a little bit of

(45:33):
a different operating system. There's a little bit more freedom
on Android, although out of the factory, the Samsungs of
the world and the Googles of the world with a
pixel they really lock down these phones so that it's
very tough to install something on there outside of Google Play.
But and what a lot of people like about Android

(45:54):
is that you can if you know what you're doing.
So for me personally, I was installing an app the
other day outside side of the Android Google Play and
it gave me a couple of warnings saying, hey, you
know you have to toggle these switches on for security
reasons to make sure we know that you're understanding what
you're doing here by quote unquote sideloading an app. So,

(46:14):
if you're just a regular person, when you see that message,
you're going, huh wait a second, hold on, do I
really want to do that? So just be careful for
when it comes to Chrome. By the way, the way
they update is you'll see it in the upper right
hand corner. It'll it'll give you a message that as
update Chrome. And if you're ever in question about that,
you can go to the settings on Chrome and tap

(46:35):
about Chrome and it will check for updates and sure enough,
mine has one right now, it'll say nearly up to date.
Relaunch Chrome to finish updating. So there you go. Thanks
for the call. Loon Arizona. I remember you from the
comedian guy right you do the comedy shows. Very cool,
Keep up the good work. Eighty eight Rich one O

(46:55):
one eight eight eight seven four two four one zero one.
Coming up, I'll tell you about the Pebble smart watch
making a comeback. I'll tell you why why do we
need the Pebble in this day and age. I'll explain
right here on rich On Tech eighty eight Rich one
O one eight eight eight seven four to two four one

(47:17):
zero one man two segments on Pebble. Huh another one
with Pebble. Pebble smart watch is making a comeback. Pebble
founder Eric Mitchakowski, who has been on this show. Uh.
He talked about his plans to bring back the original
smart watch because he just doesn't like what's out there,
and he says the Pebble smart watch would have an

(47:39):
always on e ink display that, of course you can
see in the sunlight, multi day battery life, physical buttons
for controlling music without looking at the screen. Tens of
thousands of smart watch faces compared to Apple's Apple Watches
zero third party face support an open source operating system,

(48:02):
which means anyone can do whatever they want with it,
build upon it. It will support iPhones. And this all
happened because he, I guess, went to Google. So Pebble
was a smart watch back in the day. It was
one of the first reviews I did at KTLA, and
it was like a big kickstarter device, and it was
just a cool looking watch. I mean, now it doesn't

(48:23):
look that cool, but it used to. But I had
an e ink display all these things he's talking about.
And now, of course we've gone fully futuristic with the
smart watches with apps and all this other stuff. But
he just wants something simple that shows you your notifications,
controls your music. The battery lasts for a long time,
and it's just a very simple display that you can
customize in a million different ways. So it's kind of cool.

(48:46):
But Pebble went out of business around I think twenty sixteen.
Fitbit purchased them during that time, and then Google ended
up purchasing Fitbit for like, I don't know, a couple
billion dollars a couple of years later, and so Eric,
the original founder of Pebble, had to go to Google
and convince them to open source the original Pebble operating

(49:08):
system so that he can build the new Pebble smart watch.
So if you're interested in this, Repebble, repebble dot com
is the website. I don't know. Would you trade your
Apple Watch for a Pebble watch. I don't know if
I'd do that at this point. I mean, I like
the idea of simplicity. I like the idea that works
with Android and iPhone. Apple Watch is very like you know,
it's iPhone centric. It's a great watch, but it's very

(49:30):
much like just iPhone. Michelle writes in I don't trust
a lot of people online talking about Apple features. Just you.
I listened to your tech advice if it applies to me. Lately,
I've seen video reels claiming Apple's latest update will automatically
install Apple AI. Is that true? Can we really disable AI?

(49:51):
Please ease my mind. This stuff is making me nervous. Michelle,
thank you for trusting me. Your first mistake was watching
reels because there's a lot of nonsense. There could be fun,
but the amount of cleaning up I have to do.
It's like mopping up the misinformation that people see on
TikTok and reels and all this stuff. Anyone could just

(50:11):
put something out there and people have to figure out
if it's real or fake. And so with tech news,
of course, it's like, oh, this scary new feature or
this new thing or that or whatever. Change this setting.
Without giving you the basis of why you should do
that or why you shouldn't do that. They just tell
you to do it. But yes, you can disable yet.
So you're right. Apple is automatically enabling the Apple Intelligence

(50:34):
with iOS eighteen point three. Used to be had to
go in and toggle it on, but you can toggle
it off. It's very simple. You just go into settings.
You'll see an option for Apple Intelligence and Siri, and
then you tap that and you'll see Apple Intelligence. You
just toggle that off. Now, keep in mind, you can't
even get Apple Intelligence unless you have an iPhone fifteen

(50:56):
Pro or above, so iPhone fifteen Pro Promac and any
of the iPhone sixteen models. So even if they automatically
force this upon your phone, you may not have access
to it because your phone may be an older model.
So good question, Michelle. Thank you for putting your trust
in me. I do appreciate it. Pat from Sherman Oaks

(51:16):
writes in can you recommend a good website to chart
a trip on a map? Or is an app required?
Road Trippers road trippers that is the best planning tool.
So that's the one I used last time. Great great
features on there, so road trippers road trippers dot com.
Let me make sure that's the website. Yep, road trippers

(51:37):
dot com. Great website for planning a road trip. All right,
coming up, we're gonna talk to We're gonna talk cell
phone plans. You think you have a good plan, you
want something cheaper, you want something better. We're gonna have
cell phone planned reviewers stets In dodge It on the
line to talk about the latest offerings from carriers big
and small. This is Rich on Tech. We'll get back

(52:00):
to the phone lines in just a moment, but first
let's bring on Stetson dodge It. He is a cell
phone plan reviewer. He's been doing it since twenty fourteen,
when he was researching the best plan to go along
with his iPhone five. Just to give you an idea
of how long he's been covering this stuff, stets and
welcome to the show. Rich thank you so much for
having me.

Speaker 9 (52:20):
I'm so excited to be here and to help your
listeners save money on their phone bill.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
So you've got your YouTube channel where obviously you're talking
about this stuff. Tell me the channel name.

Speaker 8 (52:31):
It's just my name, stetson Dogget.

Speaker 9 (52:34):
Users can find that if they search for best cell
phone plans on YouTube.

Speaker 8 (52:37):
I've been doing this for so long.

Speaker 9 (52:39):
A lot of my videos tend to come up and
I talk about, you know, the best cell phone plans
for individuals, the best unlimited plans, best plans for families.
If it's related to cell phone plans, I'm talking about it,
even how to get the best deal on the newest
iPhone when that comes out as well.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
So I guess my question is what is the biggest
question people have when it comes to carry I mean,
I'm sure they're confused because there's so many options out
there nowadays.

Speaker 9 (53:03):
Oh my gosh, it can feel overwhelming as a customer.
There's over fifty cell phone carriers that I compare on
my website, over four hundred cell phone plans, and I
think the biggest question people have is like, how can
these smaller carriers, these mv and os as they're called offer.

Speaker 8 (53:21):
Such affordable plans.

Speaker 9 (53:22):
I mean, you look at Verizon, their cheapest limited plan
is going to be sixty five dollars a month. Then
you look at something like Visible Wireless, their own limited
plan is just twenty five dollars per month.

Speaker 8 (53:32):
How can that be?

Speaker 9 (53:33):
And the answer is really that the big carriers sell
access to their networks to these smaller carriers so that
the small carriers can create their own bundles, create more
affordable options in the marketplace, and start to create plans
for different demographics of consumers, so targeting different niches and
market segments. And that's how you can find affordable plans

(53:57):
that still use the big networks for coverage.

Speaker 1 (54:00):
And there's really I mean, so I know there's three networks.
You've got T Mobile, you've got Verizon and AT and T.
But then we have this new one from Boost coming up.
So are they really building like their own network or
are they what's the deal with that?

Speaker 9 (54:12):
Yes, Rachel're absolutely correct. Boost is building their own network.
They're building a five G only network, So any customer
who signs up for Boost, they will only be on
the Boost network if they have a five G phone
that's compatible with the Boost five G network. Otherwise, Boost
has the agreement with AT and T at Mobile, and

(54:32):
customers will actually roam on the AT and T network
or the T Mobile network for coverage. So even if
you sign up for Boost, you'll get nationwide coverage. But
their specific five G network is really just starting to
light up predominantly in cities and more urban areas to
cover as many people as possible.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
I've got to imagine it's going to be pretty good
because if you're building it from scratch like they are,
I'm sure they're using like the latest technology, so that'll
be interesting to check out out. So where do you
think someone should start, Like how do they figure out
like what they're you know, if you let's say you're
paying ninety bucks a month and you're like, I know
I could be paying less than this. Like where do
you think people start? Do they download their bill? Like
take a look at what That is a great question.

Speaker 9 (55:13):
I think when you think of the telephone telephone space,
your bill is made up of two things, the cost
of your phone and the cost of your plan, and
you want to try.

Speaker 8 (55:23):
And optimize both of those things.

Speaker 9 (55:26):
And I would say the best place to start is
think about how many lines you have on your phone
on your plan. If you just have one line, you
typically want to be spending fifty dollars or less for
both the phone and the service. I mean, you could
grab a twenty five dollars unlimited plan such as Visible Base.
You can finance a phone that's going to be twenty
thirty dollars a month, and you're looking at maybe fifty

(55:48):
to fifty five dollars for both your plan and your service.
If you have multiple lines, that's where it can make
sense to go with a big carrier like T Mobile,
like AT and T, like Verizon, and you can do
a phone trade deal. So every three years the new
iPhone comes out, the new Samsung Galaxy comes out, you
can trade in your old phone and get the new one,
and the combination of the plan and doing the phone

(56:11):
trade in deal ends up being pretty reasonable if you
have four more lines. But if you've got one, two,
three lines, that's when you're starting to think about, Okay,
maybe I buy the phone outright and I go with
one of these lower costs cell phone carriers, because I'll
save a lot of money over three years in the
long run.

Speaker 1 (56:28):
So what are you not getting when you do one,
like one of these mvn os, like this Visible plan
for twenty five bucks a month. What am I not
getting compared to like Verizon for sixty five or eighty
a month.

Speaker 9 (56:39):
That is another great question, like what are you missing
out on? A lot of people initially think it's coverage.
We kind of covered this all carriers in the United States,
whether they're the mv and os or the big carriers.
They're riding on AT and T, T Mobile, Verizon, or
Boost Mobile for coverage, So coverage.

Speaker 8 (56:56):
You'll get the same network.

Speaker 9 (56:58):
Really, what the differences are are going to be?

Speaker 8 (57:01):
I think there's three big ones.

Speaker 9 (57:02):
Number one the phone financing deals AT and T, T Mobile, Bryzon.
They're all offering one thousand dollars off the new iPhone,
the latest Samsung phone, the latest Google Pixel phone when
those devices release. So if you're someone who loves to
finance their phone and do the trade in deals, the
bigger carriers are going to be your option if you
want to save money. The smaller carriers they're not going

(57:24):
to do the one thousand dollars off promotions, but they
will offer great value on the service itself, so you're
not going to get the same kind of trade in
deals with the smaller carriers. The second difference is how
you get support the big carriers. You can go to
a physical store, walk into the AT and T store
and be like, Hey, I want to do this trade
in deal, or I need help with my service, or

(57:46):
I'd like to get my friends set up with this
new device.

Speaker 8 (57:49):
They'll be able to help you.

Speaker 9 (57:50):
A lot of the smaller carriers they are online only,
and that's one of the reasons they're able to offer
such affordable plans. They're not paying to staff sales employees
or key inventory for accessories.

Speaker 8 (58:02):
They operate online only.

Speaker 9 (58:03):
They have a much more streamlined process that doesn't cost
them as much. They pass those savings on to the customer.
And the third big thing is certain features. RCS is
a brand new feature just announced. It's kind of like
bringing I message features to Android devices in between iPhone
and Android users. It turns out some smaller carriers they

(58:25):
don't quite support RCS just yet, and this is actually
kind of the fault of the big carriers. They need
to sort of offer a bundle for the small carriers
to use to enable that feature. But some features aren't
quite working and sometimes you won't be able to add
things such as a tablet.

Speaker 8 (58:42):
Line or a smart watch line.

Speaker 9 (58:44):
But outside of that, you're using the same network for coverage,
and you really are getting just about the same experience
on the small carriers as you are the big carriers.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Great explanation. I found that out the hard way. By
the way, I switched my wife to one of these
mv and o's and she had a problem with their
phone and it was like I had to chat with
them through the app to get support, and then finally
after chatting for like a half an hour, they're like, Okay,
here's our phone number. You can call us. And it
was just like, oh my gosh. They make it hidden.
So you also run a website called CoverageMap dot com

(59:15):
and then Bestphone Plans dot net. So definitely check those
out to see, you know, what service has the best
coverage in your area. But I want to hear like,
sort of what are your favorite budget friendly plans right now?

Speaker 9 (59:28):
Yeah, so I've got five picks for your listeners. I
think they're really going to like these options. So I
personally use a plan called US Mobile Unlimited Starter twenty
five dollars per month, thirty five gigs of high speed data,
your choice of coverage.

Speaker 8 (59:42):
So you can activate this.

Speaker 9 (59:43):
Plan on Verizon, you can activate it on AT and T,
or you can activate it on T Mobile. And I
think it's just a great overall option for people to
get started. And again, just twenty five dollars per month
per line, all taxes and fees included. If you want
something more premium, I think the best premium unlimited plan
is going to be Visible.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
Plus.

Speaker 9 (01:00:01):
This gives you unlimited priority data on the Verizon network
when you're on five g ultra wideband, fifty gigabytes of
priority on LTE. It includes unlimited hotspot data at ten
megabits per second, a free Apple Watch line if I'm
going to be an Apple Watch user. Forty five dollars
flat per month, taxes and fees included. You can even

(01:00:22):
get an annual version of this plan, which brings the
cost down to just thirty three dollars per month, which
is pretty good if you're looking to get the best
plan with a free phone.

Speaker 8 (01:00:31):
I actually really like what boost Mobile is doing.

Speaker 9 (01:00:33):
They have their Infinite Access for iPhone plan and their
Infinite Access for Galaxy Plan. Listeners can walk into a
Boost Mobile store sign up for this plan, you get
a free iPhone or free Galaxy phone today with no
trade in, and then every year after you can trade
in your current phone to upgrade to the new one,
pretty much for completely free, which is a really good value.

(01:00:54):
This plan costs sixty five dollars per month, so a
little bit more expensive, but overall rate value. If you're
looking for something custom Mobile x less, you choose how
many minutes, texts and megabytes of VITA you want per month,
very affordable. A three gig plan would be thirteen dollars
a month and again completely custom and the best cheap plan.

(01:01:14):
If you want something very basic, maybe for your your
kid or your grandparent who doesn't really use their phone
that much. US Mobile has a two gig plan for
ten dollars flat and again your choice of coverage Verizon
AT and T or T Mobile. So those are five
options I think your audience would be interested in and
can check out.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
All excellent options. We're gonna leave it there. Check out
the website Bestphone Plans dot net. I'll link it up online.
Rich on tech dot tv cell phone reviewer sets in
dogg It thanks so much for joining me today. Thank
you so much, Rich, you really know your stuff. I
can tell your passionate about this and I love it.
So thanks for sharing that excellent information today. Really really
appreciate it. You're welcome back anytime. Eighty to eight rich

(01:01:57):
one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two
zero one. Coming up. I'll tell you if you had
an Apple Watch with some battery issues, you might have
some money coming your way. I'll tell you how to
figure out if you're one of them. This is rich
on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro

(01:02:17):
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. Don't be shy. Go to
the website rich on Tech dot tv. I just updated
all of the mobile plans that we just talked about
that Stetson. That Stetson mentioned are his favorites, ranging from

(01:02:39):
ten dollars a month to sixty five dollars a month
including a phone, so check them out on the website.
Rich on Tech dot tv even mentioned a couple I
was aware of, like that US mobile ten dollars a month. Wow,
that's pretty good. So I've got them all linked up there.
We got an email from Steve in Durham, North Carolina.

(01:03:00):
He says, Hey, Rich Friday, I and a bunch of
others got an update that the T Mobile Starlink Beta
I signed up for in January is now available on
my Pixel nine pro. Here's an article about it, and
apparently T Mobile and Starlink sent out a lot of
invites to Pixel nine owners. So, if you have a
Pixel nine, you've got T Mobile and you signed up

(01:03:20):
for the Starlink beta, check it out right now. Once
you get it, you'll be able to message through Starlink
on your phone. Voice calls will come later. Right now,
it's just messaging. Now, don't forget On the Pixel you
do have satellite messaging, but it is for emergencies only.

(01:03:40):
And on the iPhone it used to be for emergencies only,
and now it's available. You know, you can use it
just to text. And we still don't know the price
of all these services, right, So all these carriers and
phone companies have said, yeah, you've got satellite messaging, but
nobody has put a price tag on this yet. And
I think it's really tricky because let's say you're Apple,

(01:04:01):
how do you put a price tag on if someone
doesn't subscribe to this satellite messaging. They have an emergency
and they need to use it. You can't keep them
from using it. You don't want to do that, right,
You don't want that publicity of someone being stranded. They
have satellite messaging, they weren't able to use it becau
they didn't pay the bill. So there has to be
some sort of like one time use scenario where they
can just use it on demand. But then that keeps

(01:04:23):
people from subscribing to it because they know they could
just use it in an emergency. So it's a really
tricky situation because we have this connectivity, but how do
you price it? And by the way, the new Samsung
device does have the satellite connectivity as well. But right
now they're doing it a little bit differently. They're doing
it through the carriers. What did I do with my phone?

(01:04:45):
I don't know where my Samsung phone went. It's missing.
But yeah, so they're doing it a little bit differently.
They're doing it through the carrier. So if you have
a Samsung the S twenty five Ultra, I've got I
see it here, Adam, I put it over there. But
if you if you have the Ultra, the new one,
or the S twenty five series from Samsung. You do
have satellite messaging. They didn't really advertise it in a

(01:05:06):
big way. That's because they're not doing their own so
Google and Apple sort of like baked it into their
phone doing their own deals. Samsung is saying, no, if
you have Verizon, you'll do it through them. If you
have T Mobile, you'll do it through them. If you
have AT and T, you'll do it through them. So
it's a little bit different. And the MV and o's
that's an interesting delineation as well. Well. They have satellite messaging.

(01:05:29):
Apple Watch Batteries swelling settlement, so if you had an
Apple Watch back in the day, you could be eligible
for up to fifty dollars from this new twenty million
dollars settlement. Apple agreed to pay twenty million dollars on
a settlement that certain Apple Watches the batteries swelled and
that damaged the screens. So if you had a first
generation Apple Watch through an Apple Watch Series three and

(01:05:53):
you reported swelling between April twenty fourth, twenty fifteen and
February sixth, twenty twenty four, you can get fifty dollars
per of So the trick here is you had to
have had you you had to have had reported this
issue to Apple to get this fifty dollars, which is
kind of like a weird, you know thing, but it
says no claim form is needed, payouts will be automatic,

(01:06:15):
but you should verify. You'll probably get an email. The
website is watch settlement dot com. Watch Settlement dot com. Uh,
let's go to Lynn. Looks like Lynn has a question
just to kind of bookend what we were talking about
with the MV and o's Lynn, you're on with Rich.
What's up?

Speaker 10 (01:06:30):
Hi?

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
Rich?

Speaker 11 (01:06:31):
I love your show.

Speaker 1 (01:06:32):
Thank you?

Speaker 11 (01:06:32):
Sign up for an mb no and you're you're converting
your photos and your contact via I guess it's the
e simcard or some process. How easy and reliable is
the process once you signed up? I don't want to
get stuck or caught without having my phone and then
kind of being in no man's land and lack of
customer service. So tell me it's a quick and easy process.

Speaker 5 (01:06:54):
Please.

Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
Yes, it is when it works, asterisk when it works.
So I have been on both ends of this. I
have been on the side where you switch your SIM
to another carrier and it's instant, it takes seconds and boom,
your phone lights up. I have been in no man's
land where you go to switch this thing and it
just does not take. And I had this happen with

(01:07:16):
both my main carrier and also an MV and O.
So it doesn't matter if it's an MV and O
or not. The difference is with the main carrier, at
some point you can march into a store and say, hey,
fix this, whereas with the MV and O you are
beholden to typically text chatting through their app or calling

(01:07:36):
them through a phone number. Now what happened with me?
My SIM got stuck in never never Land. I test
a lot of phones. Sometimes I will switch my actual
SIM into that phone, and if it's an e SIM,
it's a little bit trickier a physical sim. You could
pop out of one phone and pop into Another problem
is the new iPhones do not have a physical sim anymore,
so you are you are not able to do that.

(01:07:58):
You have to go eSIM and when it works, it's great,
it just switches it right over. But when it doesn't work,
it could be a problem. So in my instance, because
my SIM went off of my phone, my eSIM and
it did not make it to the other phone. Next
thing you know, I had no signal on my phone,
and so what did that mean. I couldn't even call

(01:08:19):
the carrier to get help. And when I got through
the carrier because I used a different phone, they said, well,
we can't verify you are who you say you are,
because typically we send a text message to your phone,
and I said, well, you can't because I don't have
my phone line anymore. And so we ended up figuring
that out. I convinced them after many I must have
spent two hours on the phone with them. But I'm

(01:08:42):
telling you all this len because it's supposed to work,
but if you are faint at heart with any of
this tech stuff, it can be a little tricky. And
you know, most of the time it works, but anytime
you're switching a sim, especially in eSIM, there could be
something that goes wrong and it could get stuck and
next thing you know, you've got to figure out how

(01:09:03):
to make this work. And by the way, I don't
know if you've ever not had a phone for a
little bit, but it gets really gnarly very fast. Like
for me, I was going to pick up my kids
at school. I had no way of hearing, you know,
if the school had to call me for some reason,
I couldn't get a phone call, I couldn't text them,
So I mean there are implications. Now, with all that said,
it sounds very scary. Most of the time this works

(01:09:25):
out just fine. So I did switch my wife from
a traditional carrier to Envy and Z and she was
very concerned about it. And I'll tell you this is
what keeps people from saving money because they're concerned just
like you are, and so they just don't do it.
It's that inertia of I'd rather just stick with what
I got. I know it works. I don't want to
save you know, it's forty bucks a month savings worth

(01:09:47):
all the headache. But when it works, it works great.
So to answer your question, hopefully it works. If not,
you know, you'll figure it out. But your phone calls
and your contacts and all your photos and stuff that
is not affected. Just your cellular connection is affected. This
is rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech.

(01:10:10):
Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology and
having fun while I do it. Jacqueline writes in on
the website richon Tech dot TV. Hey, Rich, I've recently
discovered your program on nine to ten AM radio in Michigan.
I'm really enjoying it. Thanks for all you do. Here's
my question. I had an iPhone twelve. It wasn't working.
When I went to the store, the Exfinity store for help,

(01:10:31):
they were not able to help me, and they suggested
I got a new Samsung A thirty five. The phone
is free. They did not have iPhone deals. The problem
I have is they did not transfer all the photos
from my iPhone to my Android. Initially, they told me
it would take a few days for the transferring to
be completed. When I called back after seven days, they
told me they couldn't help with that. They had done
everything they could do. Is this something you can help

(01:10:52):
me with? Thanks so much for your time, Jacqueline in Heartland, Michigan. Yes, Jacqueline,
hopefully you have your old phone. The on the iPhone,
install Google Photos and that that is the best way
to transfer. So once you install Google Photos on the
iPhone twelve, have it download all of the photos from

(01:11:13):
your collection, or I guess upload all the photos from
your collection into Google Photos and then once it's in there,
they should show up on your new Samsung phone. I mean,
there's a million ways of doing this, but I think
that's probably the easiest. I mean, the other way you
can do it is you can make sure all your
photos are uploaded to iCloud on the iPhone and you

(01:11:34):
can then go to iCloud dot com and download them
and then upload them to photos dot Google dot com.
But basically your Samsung device. I mean, there's a way
that you could Gosh, there's just so many ways to
do this, but the easiest, I think is to just
use Google Photos and put Google Photos on the iPhone twelve,

(01:11:55):
upload all the pictures from there into Google Photos, and
then when you open up Google Photos on the new
they should all be there. Now, if you don't want
to use Google Photos for some reason, then you probably
need to download the photos from the iPhone to a
computer and then transfer them to the Android that way,
and that would involve either plugging the Android into the

(01:12:16):
computer and dragging them in from the computer folder. Or
you can use a flash drive. I mean, there's just
so many ways of doing this. You could use one drive,
but you can also use the smart switch program on Android.
So on Samsung, they have a program called smart Switch,
and you could run that program and then when it

(01:12:39):
asks you to switch. You can say I want you
could plug in your iPhone and it should kind of
suck the pictures over to your device. So many many
ways of doing this, but get a cable. I would
try the Google Photos one first because I just like
Google Photos because then your photos are backed up as well.
But if you want the I guess the smart switch
is probably like the easiest wirelessly or wired solution to

(01:13:04):
do that. So good question. Thanks for finding me there
in Michigan. Let's see what was our other question here?
I thought I had another one. Alan writes in from
sandmis Hey, Rich, I'm sitting at home listening to your
radio show. I have a quick question. I receive the
iPhone sixteen Promax and an Apple Watch ten for Christmas.
When I receive texts, I only get the notification on

(01:13:26):
my watch when I'm wearing it and no longer on
my phone. Is there a way to change the setting
so I can get messages on both at the same time.
Love your show, Keep up the hard work, Allan. Yes, So,
by default, when you put an Apple Watch on your
wrist for reasons to not drive you crazy, they typically
only deliver the notification to one of those devices, it'll

(01:13:47):
still deliver it to the iPhone, but it's silent if
you're wearing your watch, and so your watch would vibrate
or make a sound and show you the notification. The
idea being that while you're wearing a watch, so that's
where we're going to send the notification because that's the
one that you're going to look at immediately. So that's
the default. But you can change this, and you can
easily change it by going into the watch app on

(01:14:10):
your phone, so you know, just search Watch and then
scroll down to where it says messages and instead of
saying mirror my iPhone, say custom and then allow notifications
and then you can do the sound, haptic, whatever. But
that's the main thing is that it's basically the iPhone

(01:14:31):
is deciding when your Apple Watch is off if it
doesn't sense it on your wrist, it's saying, Okay, let's
deliver it to the iPhone and let's make a sound
or vibrate on the phone. When your Apple watches on
your wrist, it's saying, oh, they're wearing their Apple Watch,
let's notify that device first, and let's not notify the
iPhone in the same way. Because then both would be

(01:14:51):
ringing at the same time or vibrating at the same time,
and that might be a little off putting. So if
you want that, go ahead. But there's a reason why
Apple did it is, as you know, people by default
may just want a notification one place, otherwise they feel
like they're getting buzzed all over the place. So good question, Alan,
thanks for listening, and Sandymus and appreciate that. All right,

(01:15:13):
let's go to uh Chris in Long Beach. Chris, you're
on with rich.

Speaker 2 (01:15:20):
Hi Rich, Hi, Hi, thanks for taking my call.

Speaker 1 (01:15:24):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:15:26):
I have a Mac computer that's up okay, and I
usually use the Google Chrome browser. Sure, but I find
I cannot print with it. It will not print anything.
I have an HP printer that I just bought that
took up well. I used to have an epston and

(01:15:49):
it wouldn't print to the Epston And I've gone online.
I've called both of their help you know numbers. I
haven't gotten any results from that. It's part of the problem,
I'm afraid, and I hate to say this is I
had a hard time understanding of them. So I don't know.
Is it just that Google will.

Speaker 1 (01:16:11):
Not connect with no Well number one Chris, you know
the rule on this show we don't take printer questions,
but I will make an exception for you. So printers
are very tricky, notoriously tricky, and everyone has a different
setup and we get the fair share. It's always a joke,

(01:16:31):
like the printer questions. So that's why I say we
don't take them. But here's the thing. Yes, Chrome will
work with your printer. But Chrome is really just kind
of the liaison for your computer. So it's just like
any other program. It's actually looking at your computer setup.
You said you have a Mac. Okay, Now have you

(01:16:52):
gone into the system settings and looked at the printers there?

Speaker 2 (01:16:59):
I wanted toys some settings. The only print I see
is the one that I have hope set.

Speaker 1 (01:17:03):
Okay, so you do see it there?

Speaker 2 (01:17:05):
Yes, I see it there.

Speaker 1 (01:17:07):
Okay. So if you see that there, the Google Chrome
should see the printer. Now here's the other thing. When
you initially set up Chrome, there might have been a
notification can it look for things on your network? Because
the way Apple works now is that they kind of
like keep everything very secure, So there might there might

(01:17:29):
have been a setting when you first set up Chrome
that said, hey, can we find stuff on your network,
and you said no by accident, and now it's that's
called permissions, by the way, so that could have been
what's happening and why it's blocking your printer. Now, when
you go to your printers and scanners on this system settings,
do you see the area that says your printer?

Speaker 2 (01:17:51):
Okay, let me get there.

Speaker 1 (01:17:54):
I do okay, yeah, okay, And you says scanner a printer.

Speaker 2 (01:18:00):
Well, it says printer scanners okay.

Speaker 1 (01:18:02):
And then and your print it.

Speaker 2 (01:18:05):
Says it shows my computer is the default computer.

Speaker 1 (01:18:10):
Okay. What does it say is the default printer?

Speaker 4 (01:18:14):
Uh?

Speaker 6 (01:18:14):
Added?

Speaker 2 (01:18:15):
It says it shows and then it says underneath ad printer.

Speaker 1 (01:18:22):
Okay, so you don't. So do you have a printer?
That's so, is your printer listed there?

Speaker 2 (01:18:28):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:18:28):
It is? Okay, So when you tap the printer, let's say,
let's say you go to the printer, can you can
you say set as default It is my default Okay,
it is your default okay. So okay, so it's ally
it sounds like your printers in there, which is good.
And I'm just trying to see if we can do

(01:18:49):
a like a test page or something. But you've printed
from this.

Speaker 2 (01:18:55):
One of the things that says in the box that
I just opened here this printer on the network.

Speaker 1 (01:19:03):
Yeah, but that's network.

Speaker 2 (01:19:05):
Yeah, that's not it.

Speaker 1 (01:19:06):
That's well, that would be if you had other computers
that you wanted to use this printer with. Like this
is so okay. So now when you go to when
you open up Chrome, if you go into your settings
there and you you go into settings okay, okay, and
then on the left hand side are actually in the
uh let's see if I can find the printer settings here.

(01:19:28):
So actually it's going to be even before you go
into settings, it should just say print. You see where
it says print when I go into Google. Yeah, so
on your on your Google Chrome, hit the menu, and
then it should bring up a whole menu for like
new tab, passwords, history, there's one that says print. Do
you see that?

Speaker 11 (01:19:47):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:19:47):
Yeah, okay, I do.

Speaker 4 (01:19:49):
Let me open.

Speaker 1 (01:19:54):
And then when you see destination, is your printer listed there?

Speaker 2 (01:19:59):
Printer?

Speaker 1 (01:20:00):
Okay, No, it's not listed there at all. What happens
when you tap see more, it's just there's no.

Speaker 2 (01:20:12):
Well, let me look the more.

Speaker 1 (01:20:17):
It's there, okay, all right, okay, So this is this
is uh, this is why it's tough to do the
printer questions because it's you know what I'm I can't
see your screen right now, so I can't tell what's
happening there. But basically, the main idea is that you
need to go Chrome is just using whatever's on your computer.
So if you go into that print menu, you should

(01:20:40):
see something that says destination and then you can tap
see more and there's a manage button there and that's
going to bring you back to your system setting. So
again it's all just going through your system setting. So
once you pick a printer where it says select destination,
that should work. Now there is one more option that
you could try. Okay, there's two more. Actually, when you

(01:21:03):
go into that printer that printer window, when you go
to print something, it says more settings and you can
tap that and then scroll down it says print using
system dialogue. So now this is going to bypass Chrome
and it's actually going to use your Mac. Your Mac's
default and built in printer dialogue, and so you can

(01:21:24):
use that, and if that doesn't work, you've got a
bigger problem. But I think that at the end of
the day should work because if your printer is on
your Mac. It's going to honor that when because you're
using your default system dialogue for that. So it all
sounds very complicated, but again, go into your settings on Chrome,
press print and then tap more settings and then it

(01:21:44):
says print using system dialogue. If you can find your
printer in there under printer, select it and then press
print and you can print. That's the way you can
print from Chrome from here on out. If you can't
figure out how to get this to recognize your printer,
Thanks for the call, appreciate it. Chris long Beach eighty
to eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven
four to two four one zero one. Coming up this hour,

(01:22:07):
we're going to talk super Bowl. Philip Swan, the TV
answer man, is going to join us to talk about
how you can stream the Super Bowl this year. Plus
I'll tell you who has the fastest Internet speeds in
the US. This is rich On Tech, who has the
fastest Internet speeds in the US? New data from UKLA.

(01:22:30):
These are the folks that do speed test dot net.
So when you go to speed test dot net and
run a quick speed test to see they are logging
all of that information on the back end so they
can come up with reports about you know who has
good Internet. So T Mobile ranked as the fastest mobile
network in the US for the second half of twenty
twenty four median five G download speed of two hundred

(01:22:52):
and eighty one megabits per second. When it came to
fixed internet, AT and T Fiber is the fastest there
that clocked in at three hundred and fifty seven megabits
for downloads and two eighty six for uploads. And I've
talked about this before, but the main difference between a
fiber connection like AT and T Fiber and a cable

(01:23:14):
company connection is that typically the cable company will give
you a really fast download speed but a much slower
upload speed, whereas fiber connections are typically the same up
and down. So when they say a five hundred plan,
that's usually five hundred megabits down and up. So if
you're uploading large files back to the server back to

(01:23:35):
the cloud, they should be just as fast as downloading.
Pittsburgh had the fastest mobile speeds at three hundred and
two megabits per second. Raleigh, North Carolina, had the fastest
fixed internet speeds at three hundred and twenty nine megabits.
This is median, so some people at faster, some at slower.

(01:23:55):
Let's see Florida, let's see Ala, Alaska had the slowest
speeds for both mobile and fixed internet. That's sad. If
you want to see the full speed test, I'll put
on the website. It's again from Ukla Okla. Michael from Glasgow, Glasgow, Glasgow,

(01:24:15):
Kentucky writes in I saw a Facebook ad for something
called the car Tablet pro Max and was thinking about
ordering it, but I wanted to get your feedback first.
I have an older car without car play. I'm not
really looking to pay for a full installation. Have you
heard of this product? Thanks for all you doing prayers
to everyone affected by the California wildfires. I have not

(01:24:36):
heard of this car Tablet Promax. Sounds interesting? Hm? Interesting? Okay.
It looks like a little car play system.

Speaker 3 (01:24:47):
Huh.

Speaker 1 (01:24:47):
Actually doesn't look half bad. I've just never heard of it,
and I don't know if it's good or not, but
it looks kind of cool. I would check the return
policy and see if it's If you, I think you
can be able to return this if it doesn't work.
They say they have one hundred day return policy. I'm
a little I don't know This looks kind of cool. Actually,

(01:25:08):
it's basically looks like a little screen you can install,
like a almost like a GPS screen from back in
the day. But it's got a camera on it and
also CarPlay, So if you want to try it, try
it. It sounds like you don't have a screen in your car,
so if you want to get a car play adapter,
like if you had a screen that you wanted to
use with it, there's a wireless CarPlay adapter, I like

(01:25:32):
call car link it, but I think that means that
you already have. Oh Kim is saying they're all over
TikTok okay. So yeah, I'm a little I'm always a
little weary about things, or I'm always concerned when things
are advertised on these sites because there's no real way
to vouch for them unless someone like me tests it
and let's see if there's an actual, like legitimate review. Yeah. See,

(01:25:55):
the first thing is like a Reddit asking yes. See.
The problem is there's no one that's like actually reviewed
this thing, like from like a verge or like a wirecutter.
So that tells me that I'd be concerned. I'd just
be a little bit concerned about this thing. So be
careful and maybe buy it with a credit card, so
if there's ever an issue, you can get your money

(01:26:17):
back and just you know, tell them that there's a problem.
Luis writes in I enjoy your morning segments on TV.
I have a question. Can you recommend a digital business
card app? Hey, Luis, thank you for digital business cards.
I like two of them. Poppel is the one. I
use popl so they were kind of the first to

(01:26:38):
the market. They started out with NFC where you tap
the back of your phone. Now they all use QR
pretty much. Hi Hello is the other one. That one's
a little bit more business friendly. But to be honest,
what I do now is I just make a note
on my phone with all my info and then when
I meet someone out they just take a picture of it.
So it's much easier than all these other apps, and
it's free. Coming up, we're going to talk Super Bowl

(01:26:59):
and streaming services with the TV answer man. Right here,
I'm rich on Tech. Welcome back to rich on Tech.
Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you talking technology. The
website for the show rich on Tech dot TV. If
you want links to anything I mentioned, it's all right there.

(01:27:20):
Super Bowl coming up super Bowl fifty nine. Here to
talk about how to stream it, how to watch it,
and all things streaming is the TV answer Man, Philip Swan.
Welcome to the show, Hi Rich, thanks for joining me
once again. So did I get that right? Fifty nine? Right?

Speaker 10 (01:27:40):
Super Bowl fifteen?

Speaker 1 (01:27:41):
L L I X I am.

Speaker 10 (01:27:44):
I am so old. I actually watched the first one
on a thirteen inch TV.

Speaker 1 (01:27:48):
Oh my gosh, no way.

Speaker 10 (01:27:50):
That's a scary thought, but it's true.

Speaker 1 (01:27:52):
Well, I imagine you were just a little kid, so like,
was it.

Speaker 10 (01:27:55):
I mean, yes, embryonic at the time. Actually, I mean
I'm not wasn't even one year old yet.

Speaker 1 (01:28:01):
Let's just go with that story, okay, and it's continued
to build ever since then. So we've got Chiefs Eagles
this year, New Orleans, Sunday, February ninth, three point thirty
pm Pacific.

Speaker 10 (01:28:15):
Yeah, right, that is specific time, okay, thirty And it's actually,
as we know with these things, we'll probably got six
forty AI e t for the kickoff.

Speaker 1 (01:28:23):
But it gets you to tune in a little little early.
So what is so you know, you talk about on
your website all things cord cutting and you know, streaming
and all this stuff. So this year, what is different?
Anything new? Anything different with the Super Bowl?

Speaker 10 (01:28:39):
Yeah, there is something really different and big. I think
if your four KATV lobb the Fox has announced that
they're going to have a four K fee for free
at the pub streaming app, which is a free ad
supported app, which is pretty cool. You can just go
to that app and watch it for free.

Speaker 1 (01:28:58):
A four KP not incredible.

Speaker 10 (01:29:02):
It is incredible, but probably very few people know out
there that there are certain conditions. You're gonna have to
have an Android TV or a Roku or k ROCU
what Apple TV? Yes, yes, it's like you just can't
do it with any four K TV, And a lot
of people are going to go to two B on
Super Bowl Day and go, oh, what the heck is

(01:29:23):
going on? But you got again, have an Android TV
or a four K enabled Roku or a four K
enabled Fire TV or Apple TV. If you don't have
one of those products, you can't watch it in four
K on.

Speaker 1 (01:29:38):
Two b Okay. So okay, so I was a little
ahead of you. So a Google TV, a Roku, a
Fire TV, or an Apple TV, but they have to
be a four K model. So a lot of these people,
especially with the rokus. They've got those little streaming sticks
that are not they're just HD or even with fire
you know, you may have just a basic so it's not.

Speaker 10 (01:29:57):
A four K enabled device. You're out of luck. Now
there's one other thing that's going to be different at
to Be this year to Be. If you've ever seen it,
it's pretty cool. They have all kinds of movies and
shows and they're all free and you don't have to
register or anything, give a credit card and all that
sort of stuff. You just start watching Super Bowl, you're
gonna have to register, put your email down there at

(01:30:19):
create an account before you can actually start.

Speaker 2 (01:30:21):
Watching the game.

Speaker 1 (01:30:22):
Oh that's interesting. So, I mean I get it. They're
gonna they're gonna drive a lot of downloads of this app,
but they want to get that information of the viewers.
So right, if you're having a party, don't do this
at three point thirty PM, like sign up, download the
app and make sure. So do you have to go
to the website to do this hike? How do you
sign up for to b?

Speaker 10 (01:30:42):
You go to the to b app where you can
go to tub dot com and do it right there
on their website.

Speaker 1 (01:30:47):
Either way, what is to be explained to.

Speaker 10 (01:30:50):
B is owned by Fox, and it's one of these
news services that have emerged in the last two years
three years. Particularly. They're free. You can go there and
watch hundreds of channels, all kinds of on demand content,
and all for free. However, you have to watch the
ads that come with it. It's kind of like old
school television of the fifties and sixties with antennas, and

(01:31:13):
so you can do that with TUV and it's it's
pretty cool. It's like Pluto TV and Roku Channel and
things of that kind.

Speaker 1 (01:31:21):
Okay, yeah, I mean I just watched the show Mister Wizard,
Mister Wizard's World. I don't if you remember that. When
I was a kid. That was a popular show, and
I was like, oh, I think my kid might like this,
and so I searched and sure enough to Be which
is now owned by Viacom, which I guess owns Nickelodeon.
They had the whole back catalog and it was completely free,

(01:31:41):
and I was like, this is amazing.

Speaker 10 (01:31:42):
It really is. It's incredible the amount of content and
programming it's on these things, and really old stuff shows,
you you know, like back in the fifties that you
thought would never exist anymore. Now had the whole two
or three seasons, it's amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:31:58):
Well, I imagine someone like a Fox or Paramount they
literally look in these cold vaults and they're like, how
can we just you know, put these online and we'll
sell the ads against them? And why not?

Speaker 10 (01:32:08):
That's it exactly. And I think we're going to talk
a little bit later today about Netflix's price increase and
that dovetails into what they're doing with Toby and some
of these three services.

Speaker 1 (01:32:19):
Well, go ahead, yeah, no, I'm curious about that because
we did just see another Netflix price increase. So now
the top of the line plan I think is up
to like twenty five a month.

Speaker 10 (01:32:28):
Yeah, that's the four K plan. It's twenty five a month.
And man, you got to really love four K to
pay twenty five dollars a month for Netflix just to
get four K. It's not a good value. But even
their fifteen forty nine plan went to seventeen ninety nine,
and even their ads included plan went from six ninety
nine to seven ninety nine. But it's seven ninety nine,

(01:32:51):
and that looks pretty good compared to twenty five dollars,
doesn't it.

Speaker 1 (01:32:55):
Well, Yeah, I mean, but you can't download. I'm guessing.
I'm guessing you can't download offline. So that's one of
the main things for me when I travel, I want
to be able to download a show. Do any of
these streaming services like the two bs, they probably don't
let you do that either, do that?

Speaker 10 (01:33:09):
Yeah, they don't. It's again, it's it really is like
the idea whose time has come again, and it's you
watch television and you get ads, and you don't get
anything special with it. It's no fancy whistles, bells and whistles.
You just get to watch TV and ads.

Speaker 1 (01:33:26):
But that is but that is the fastest growing aspect
of streaming services, right, yes.

Speaker 10 (01:33:31):
Because people still love free. What a what a surprise,
They love free, and they're going to gravitate towards free.
Particularly when you have the pay TV services, cable satellite,
and the streaming services raising their prices all the time.
It just makes them all the more. You're going to
go watch the free stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:33:49):
Yeah. So my other question is this whole fu boo
they sorry, fou boo, fu bo They just increased prices
I heard, and they're also there's like a merger with Hulu,
so what's happening there.

Speaker 10 (01:34:03):
Well, Fubo just raised their prices by five dollars a month.
That's pretty comparable to the other live streamers, YouTube TV,
Hulu Live, direct TV stream and so forth. Direct TV
stream can be a little more expensive if you get
the regional sports network plan. But yeah, they raised the prices,
and they have agreed with Disney to merge Fubo with

(01:34:26):
Hulu Alive. Probably be at least a year before it
gets approved by the FEDS, but that's coming, and I
think it's going to be an interesting thing what happens
with the live streaming category, whether you're going to have
made a direct TV stream go well, you know, maybe
we should be hooking up with Sling TV to combat
Fubo and Hulu.

Speaker 1 (01:34:45):
Wow, so we've already gotten far enough into the streaming
where now we're seeing mergers and streaming And.

Speaker 10 (01:34:51):
Yeah, the live streaming category started ten years ago with
Sling TV, and it never developed the way companies thought
it would. It's really it's maybe got about twenty million
tops now in subscribers when you combine them all the
top five or six live streaming services, and that's not
a big chunk over ten years so it's time for consolidation.

(01:35:14):
So you'll have probably maybe two or three services in
maybe eighteen to twenty four months. That's my prediction.

Speaker 1 (01:35:21):
Wow, I did not realize that's such a small amount
of subscribers. I mean, that is not a significant amount.

Speaker 10 (01:35:27):
Well, it's not a surprise, rich because again because they
have had raised prices, they're not that much different than
a cable satellite does service. Now when you're talking Fubo
and YouTube TV and who live eighty ninety dollars a month,
you know, that's pretty much what you were paying for
cable and satellite a couple of years ago or maybe

(01:35:47):
even now.

Speaker 1 (01:35:49):
Yeah, it's still a pain to find where your game
is playing before I run thoughts on direct TV my sports,
who's that for it is?

Speaker 10 (01:35:58):
That's a good question, because I don't think there's an
audience for it if they're charging seventy dollars a month
for what is basically twenty five channels, and it's a
combination of sports channels and news channels basically and broadcast,
and it's designed to be the kind of the all

(01:36:19):
you know, great sports plan. If you are a sports lover,
you'll pretty much have the channel that do all the
sports program and the problem is with the plan, they
don't have all the sports channels. They don't have TVs,
they don't have TNT, they don't even have CBS now
and so consequently, if you're a sports fan, you're gonna
miss a lot of great sports on direct TV's my

(01:36:41):
sports plan. So it's it's an idea that makes sense
in theory, but in execution right now, it's leaves a
lot to be desired.

Speaker 1 (01:36:50):
All right, We're gonna leave it there. Philip Swan, the
TV Answerman tvanswerman dot com. Who do you have in
this year Super Bowl? Before we run?

Speaker 10 (01:36:57):
I see the Eagles winning sixty three eat nothing. All right,
that's what I'm hoping for. Different I think I think
the Chiefs are gonna win.

Speaker 1 (01:37:07):
I have to say, all right, TV Aanswerman dot Com.
Check him out. He's got all the info on all
of the streaming services. Philip Swan, thanks for joining me today.
Thank you, rich all right, appreciate it. Coming up, we
are going to open up the feedbag, so we'll read
some of the emails that you sent this week. Plus
I got a couple of things here. Google's new game,

(01:37:28):
the website that helps you spot a scam, and a
helpful website with online tools. It's all coming up right
here on rich On Tech. Let's get to a couple
of items before we open up the feedbag, which is
just overflowing as usual. I'll get to as many of

(01:37:49):
these as I can. But first off, helpful website to
help you detect scam. So if you get a text
message or an email, just take a screenshot of it
and upload it to this website and it will analyze
it using AI and tell you if it thinks it's
real or not. And so the website is scam dot Ai.
It's brand new and it can tell you if a

(01:38:11):
deep fake image is real, anything any image or screenshot,
it'll analyze it and it's pretty good. I tried it
with something and it worked. Another website that's helpful browser
links online tools, so you know sometimes you have to
like convert a picture or resize something, or replace text,
or shuffle words or convert words to numbers. I mean,

(01:38:34):
there's so many tools here and it's really really simple,
and it's all done through the browser. It's called onlinetools,
dot com bookmarket. There are just so many tools you
can search for what you want to do, but they've
got them all listed there. I mean, there's so many tools,
PNG tools, jpeg tools, text tools, image tools, list tools,

(01:38:55):
time tools. I mean, there's just everything you could possibly imagine.
And they get pretty nerdy too, like the fractal tools,
integer tools. Anyway, it's all on there online tools dot com.
That's a great bookmark. And then finally, if you want
to have some fun, search block Breaker on Google. They
just added a hidden arcade style game and search. You

(01:39:17):
don't have to download anything. Just search block Breaker on
Google and tap play and it's basically, you know the
old school game, the arcade style. It's kind of like
Atari Breakout, but you know Google's version. All right, all
that's linked up on the website. Rich on tech dot tv.
Let's open up the feedbag. Let's see Gary writes in

(01:39:38):
I picked up the Pixel nine Pro for on sale
for about nine hundred and fifty dollars. It's been a
big upgrade from the Samsung S twenty four FE. The
sound quality both for calls and media is better, no
more shrill, tinny audio. The cameras also sharper, especially when
taking pictures of my handwritten notes. The Pixel nine pros
slightly smaller size and lighter weight makes it more pocketable,

(01:39:59):
which I appreciate. That said, I still prefer Samsung's UI.
It's more customizable and what I'm used to, but overall,
I am happy with the switch. Thanks for letting me know.
Gary Germo from Los Angeles writes in Uber Eats gave
me the run around after a delivery fail. I couldn't
find a phone number to contact them, and when I
finally emailed customer service, they told me I'd missed the

(01:40:21):
forty eight hour window to report the issue. I disputed
the charge with my credit card and got a refund.
But now Uber Eats wants their money and I can't
use the app unless I pay them. Oh well, not
hoping for this to happen again. I think Girmo was
replying to me posting on Instagram a warning because I
had a problem with my delivery order. I didn't say
anything for over three days, and when I did, they

(01:40:43):
were like, oh, sorry, forty eight hours. So if you
have a problem with your Uber Eats, get in touch
with them immediately, don't wait like I did. Let's see.
Rick writes in I bought the Samsung Galaxy Ultra unlocked
five hundred and twelve gigs from Samsung dot Com for
eight hundred dollars plus tax. That price includes my five
hundred dollars trade in on the S twenty one, plus

(01:41:03):
an eighty dollars credit for online purchases at check out.
Thanks for the tip. All right, enjoy Rick, I think
you're gonna love it, Sarah writes in don't knock cassettes.
I use a radio cassette frequently to record a radio
show and listen later. No Wi Fi needed. I may
not be in California, but I'm thankful for Wi Fi
to catch your show. Oh you're recording my show. Oh
my gosh, that's amazing. Someone's recording this show on cassette

(01:41:26):
and listening to it. I love it, Sarah. I must
have made fun of a cassette tape on another show,
but I don't hate cassettes. I many many years using cassettes.
George from Temple Rights in another family tear jerker is
the Disney film Old Yeller. When I was in when
it was in theaters, kids and parents alike were left crying.
If you haven't seen it, it's a great family movie.

(01:41:48):
George is replying to my wild Robot recommendation last week,
and it was great, but I don't know if I'm
ready for another cry. I did watch a movie last night,
The Saturday Night Movie by Jason Reitman. Excellent. If you
like Starday Night Live or whatever, it's just great. Goes
By flies by that movie. And by the way, another
recommendation the Letterboxed app. I don't know if you know

(01:42:10):
this one letter Boxed. I think it's b letter box
bo x D so no E letter boxed and it's
for iPhone and Android. But it's now my favorite app
for like following movies I want to watch and stuff
like that. It's really great. It's very it's just it's excellent,
all right. Moving on Blair from Santa Barbara writes in

(01:42:31):
stop Drop is a great product to prevent losing things
under your car seat, founded on Amazon for twenty five dollars.
Love your show. I think Blair was responding to the
fact that I said, when I wear sweatpants in my car,
I always all this stuff always drops out into the
crevice between the seat and the door or the seat
and the middle console. And I think stop Drop was
a Shark Tank product thanks, maybe I'll get one. Let's

(01:42:54):
see long, Ben wrights in. Long in the Tooth comes
from the practice of checking a horse's age by examining
its teeth, where seeding gums made them appear longer. Similarly,
don't look a gift Horse in the Mouth advises against
assessing the value of a gift, encouraging gratitude instead of scrutiny.
I must have used long, long in the tooth because

(01:43:18):
I was talking about sayings that we say, and long
in the tooth. It's like we say this stuff and like, wait,
where did that come from? Long in the tooth? Now
we know horses and Robert rights In. I'm listening in
Federal Heights, Colorado, while delivering mail. I love your show, well, Robert,
thank you. I always wonder what the mail carriers listen
to while they're delivering, because my guy does too. He's

(01:43:40):
always listening to something or he's on the phone. But
he always says hi, and we always say, Hey, how's
it going, what's up? Always a smile on his face.
John from Haines City rights in you recently talked about
charging cell phones in an emergency using battery packs. I'm
surprised you didn't mention the most obvious option your car.
Many cars, including my twenty year old Ford X Expedition,

(01:44:01):
have live twelve volt outlets even when the ignition is off.
Cars typically have large batteries, ranging from fifty to ninety Ah.
I'm guessing that's ampier hours, making them a great resource
for charging phones, even for the whole neighborhood. If the
battery starts to run low, just charge the engine and
let it recharge at idle. Okay, you know, John, good tip,

(01:44:23):
But I didn't think about that because you know, I
do have an electric car, so of course you can
always charge stuff from there. But I imagine in an
emergency people might be conserving their gas or their battery.
But yes, that is a great option. And I'm glad
you didn't call it the cigarette lighter, because that's what
I think of every time I see that. All right,
that's going to do it for this episode of the show.

(01:44:44):
You can find links to everything I mentioned on my website.
Just go to Richontech dot TV. Can find me on
social media. I am at rich on Tech. I'm on Instagram,
I'm on X I'm on Facebook, very active on Instagram,
and don't forget This show is also available as a podcast,
so if you miss an up, just search in your
favorite podcast app or audio app for Rich on Tech.

(01:45:05):
Next week, we're going to talk to YouTuber Jimmy is Promo.
You might follow him for all of his Samsung stuff.
He's going to offer some Samsung tips and tricks for
your new phone. Thanks so much for listening. There are
so many ways you can spend your time. I appreciate
you spending it right here with me. Thanks to everyone
who makes this show possible. Adam in for Bobo this week.
Kim on Phones. My name is Richdmiro. I'll talk to
you real soon.

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