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June 11, 2021

Apple reveals new features coming soon to iPhone

A recap of WWDC 2021.

Apple outlines new features coming soon to iOS 15 and Apple Watch; Amazon Sidewalk launches; Rich's experience on the VanMoof electric bike; Instagram reveals why it shows you certain posts; iDrive unlimited photo and video backup; Amazon intros DJ Mode for streaming stations; Apple introduces spatial audio on Apple Music.

Listeners chime in on ways to save messages on an iPhone; ask whether an iPad with an ageing battery needs replacing, how to view Instagram Stories on a desktop computer, the way to disable government and Amber alerts on a smartphone, best Apple TV to upgrade to and best travel site to track the fare on a specific flight.

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Transcript

00:00:10 

New features coming soon to the iPhone and Apple Watch. Should you opt out of Amazon sidewalk? I've been riding the coolest electric bike ever, plus your tech questions answered. 

00:00:21 

What's going on? I'm rich demuro and this is rich on tech. The podcast where I talk about the tech stuff. I think you should know about. It's also the place. 

00:00:30 

Where I answer the questions you send me. 

00:00:34 

I'm the tech reporter at KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles. Welcome to the show. Thanks for tuning in. I mentioned that last month was the best month for the show in a long time. 

00:00:47 

Probably like a year, you know, since people are finally commuting back to work and all that good stuff. 

00:00:54 

So thank you for all the downloads. Thank you for listening. If you're new. Thanks for being on board if you're. 

00:01:01 

You know a regular thanks for sticking with me. 

00:01:05 

65 weeks, by the way, it's been 65 weeks that I've worked at home. I just asked Siri. 

00:01:12 

I can't believe it, and you know, I've been asking to go back into work. It's kind of complicated. It's not like as easy as you think. 

00:01:19 

In California at least, so apparently there's some rules and regulations for people going back in, and it's a whole big thing. 

00:01:26 

And so I'm you know they said, just stay stay at home just kind of stay put, relax, do your thing you're doing great everything is good so I'm going to keep. 

00:01:34 

Doing what I do. 

00:01:35 

Although the world is reopening, which is really nice, I mean you know we had some friends over last night, which was the first time that we've all been together? Well, that's not true. We went to the park a couple times. 

00:01:46 

But I'm saying, like in our backyard, it's the first time we've all been to. 

00:01:48 

Together at my house in over a year so it felt really good. The kids were just wild. They were all running like they were just wild wild maniacs for like the first hour and then they they realized like oh OK, yes these are all my friends again like I can, you know, play again and it was great. So it was a nice time and. 

00:02:09 

It felt. 

00:02:09 

Felt pretty normal, I gotta say. So hopefully things are probably actually. If you're listening outside of California, things have probably been like that for a while. 

00:02:18 

In California, we're kind of like this. We're our own thing, right? I mean, California is just. It was just a little bit different throughout this whole thing. 

00:02:25 

But it seemed. 

00:02:25 

It seemed. 

00:02:26 

To work because you know, it's, I guess we're getting back to very normal very soon, so that's going to be exciting for most of us. 

00:02:35 

This week, another virtual event from Apple Apple held their worldwide developers conference 2021 and they showed off the new features coming soon to the iPhone coming soon to the iPad coming soon to Mac OS, Monterey, keeping with a California theme. 

00:02:55 

And then what else? There's the Apple Watch, so all kinds of stuff I'm not going to go over everything. 

00:03:01 

Honestly, quite honestly, yes. There was a lot of updates. Was any of it like Oh my gosh like was I sitting in my chair? 

00:03:09 

Just going this is just mind boggling, probably not. 

00:03:13 

But a lot of it was cool. A lot of it. 

00:03:15 

You know a lot of it's catching up to Android, and I know I'm not saying that facetiously, it's just kind of like the reality of of the way Apple does things versus Google. 

00:03:25 

And it's just, you know, Google. Kind of does things early. Samsung does things early. Apple takes a little bit more time, but they do it with a little bit more refinement. 

00:03:34 

And it's also a. It's just a different way of thinking about things, and I've talked about this before with the iPhone. The features go to millions and millions of devices around the world all at once, whereas with Android. 

00:03:45 

Things are much more fragmented. Google might have a feature and it might not reach every phone, but it's available, it's out. 

00:03:51 

There, and it's gotten better. I think in recent years, but some of the major updates share play. This is kind of like the ability to do things on your phone with other people, so share your screen, share TV shows and stuff that you're watching. 

00:04:06 

Of course, a lot of this requires that you have an iOS device on the other end or an iPhone. 

00:04:11 

On the other end, and also depending on the app letting you do this. So that's one thing. 

00:04:17 

FaceTime got some big updates. You know it's kind of too little, too late, but of course a lot of people use FaceTime, so I'm sure these features will be used, but it's kind of like all the stuff that you had available on zoom and other video chatting programs are now coming to FaceTime, so you can look at people in a gridview. There are microphone situations. 

00:04:37 

To kind of block out background noise, a portrait mode to blur your background spatial audio. Apple is really big on spatial audio right now, which is audio that comes in from all directions. 

00:04:48 

They just introduced it on Apple Music, which I tested it out and it was fine. I mean, it's one of these things. 

00:04:53 

Is that you know it's probably a slow burn. You know it's like we'll take it for granted that we'll have it in a few years. 

00:04:59 

Right now it's not like you know, they said it was kind of like going from SDTV to HDTV or whatever, but to me it didn't really feel that way. 

00:05:07 

But I still need to listen to it in a better pair of headphones. I just tried the air pods. Now I will. 

00:05:11 

Say if you do listen this podcast, you say rich. What are you talking about? 

00:05:13 

You were going. 

00:05:14 

Wild over spatial audio. When you listen to it, when you watch that movie on your iPad up in Seattle or Redmond back in January. 

00:05:22 

And yes, I did I I was. I thought the movie sounded fantastic so maybe I just need to listen a little bit more. I think the problem with audio is that. 

00:05:30 

But you know? 

00:05:31 

Like music, the way I consume it, I'm only it's either in my car or in my house. 

00:05:36 

It's more of a background thing like I'm never actively listening per southeast, and I know a lot of people probably do that, but I just don't like. 

00:05:44 

I don't sit down on my couch and like listen to the new album from someone or listen to music like it's always just put on in the background. 

00:05:50 

And so the 3D spatial audio stuff doesn't really occur to me because it's just not a way that I listen. 

00:05:56 

But in general, it's kind of cool. The iPhone is getting some new ways to focus these focus filters, so you can have like sort of different home screens or different setups for. 

00:06:05 

You're different situations. I think this is a big one because I struggle with this a lot. You know on the weekends I really want to be a little bit more disconnected from my phone, but it's really tough because you know, on social media and with just your phone, it's just. 

00:06:19 

It's just very tough to give it up and just you know, like I ideally would just travel with my Apple Watch, but then I don't have a camera. 

00:06:26 

And then what I'm going to bring like a standalone camera, which I don't really have at this point, so I'd have to buy one of those, and then that's kind of weird, because then you gotta sync all the stuff up. So I I haven't found a good way of doing that. 

00:06:37 

Uh, what else? What else, uh? 

00:06:40 

A big addition to Apple wallet. They did this thing where it's like you can store your ID, but they didn't really say which states you're going to support it, but that's coming soon. 

00:06:48 

That's kind of my personal dream that if that is a thing that would be amazing. You know, if I could travel with just my iPhone and a couple bucks in my pocket, you know, like some cash and then just use. 

00:07:00 

Tap to pay. That would be really cool and have my ID there. I know you can in California at least, I believe you can use a digital copy of your. 

00:07:09 

Insurance card on your phone, so I've never tried that. I still print mine out, but it's still pretty cool that I think they accept that in California, so we're getting there. 

00:07:18 

It's not like California is not totally on board with that, uhm, what else? What else live text? So this was a kind of a big demo they did, but I didn't. 

00:07:28 

Find it that exciting because you know this is Google Lens and basically it's the ability to use your camera to search for things. 

00:07:35 

So when you take a picture of something, you can search the text. You can scan the text, you can copy a phone number, you can dial a phone number. 

00:07:42 

You can see a landmark whatever I mean, you know that's been going on in Android for a long time or not just on Android. It's been going on on Google Lens for a very long time. 

00:07:52 

And you know the difference is now that Apple is doing it. It's built into iOS, which means more people just somehow discover it, because it's part of the operating system. 

00:08:01 

Now you know with Google you had to use a Google app. You had to download the app so this all goes back to kind. 

00:08:06 

The way Apple does things versus everyone else, and you know Apple when they do things they built it in its. 

00:08:13 

It's very much at the core of their operating system, and that's kind of like the big. 

00:08:16 

Difference, I think that's about it for iOS 15. Again, nothing to me like screaming my name like Oh my gosh, I can't wait to update to get these features, but I think the focus will be kind of cool notifications. Got a little upgrade as well, so we'll see. I mean, I think that it's always, you know. 

00:08:36 

Apple has gotten to the point where it's just kind of a solid upgrade. It always adds useful features. They do a really nice job with things. 

00:08:43 

Yes, the Android folks will say it's been on Android forever, but it's you know I was one of those people for so long, but it's just Apple. 

00:08:50 

People don't care about Android, they're not looking at Android, they're not, they're not using the features on Android. So so to them, it's it's different, and it's new, so you can't really compare the two, and it's not one of these things where. 

00:09:03 

You know it's it's one is good. One is bad, they're just different. There are like I've always said, there are things I like about Android. 

00:09:09 

There's things I like about iOS, and yes, I've been using an iPhone quite regularly for a long time. 

00:09:15 

Now, which is, I think the longest I've ever gone. But you know, I, I do find myself itching to get back to Android, especially with the Pixel 6. 

00:09:23 

If that's going to be a solid device, I'm hoping that Google launches something because I do like to go back and forth because they do offer different things and I think that they both have their pros and cons. 

00:09:38 

All right, let's get to the first question. This is actually a comment. Greg says hey rich. Last Friday I believe you were answering a question. 

00:09:45 

I guess the last podcast about saving messages from an iPhone a while back I use this app called Phone View. 

00:09:50 

It saves text messages, including photos, just as they were written. Also voicemails media. I'm not sure how up-to-date. 

00:09:57 

It is, but it worked very well. Hope this helps Greg. I looked it up. It's from E Cam and I love E Cam software so I'm surprised that it wasn't aware of this app but phone view it does kind of what we were talking about where it's, you know Apple lets you make a backup of your phone but it doesn't really let you see what's in that back up easily. 

00:10:17 

And so this is $30. And again, this kind of goes back to what I was talking about, that it's it's a paid thing. 

00:10:23 

So on Android, yes, I believe the app I mentioned was free, but it was like 5 bucks. If you wanted to get no ads or something. 

00:10:29 

But on iPhone, they don't really have a free solution that I found. So yes, this phone view will do it, and it seems I haven't tested it, but it looks like it would. 

00:10:37 

The other one I think Tony regular listener chimed in with amazing. 

00:10:42 

And I looked at that one and I actually got in touch with them to get a demo account. And I did download it. 

00:10:47 

And yes, this one looks like it does exactly what you want. It's kind of like their entire business, and so it's it's actually pretty cool. 

00:10:55 

You can browse the contents of your phone in a very easy way. It's kind of like the app that you wish that Apple would have made. 

00:11:03 

Right? It's kind of like what iTunes just covers everything up makes everything very complicated to kind of transfer stuff and things like that, but this seemed like it was very easy. 

00:11:14 

Now I could not actually test it out just yet because my phone has so much stuff on it, right? 

00:11:19 

Now that I need to clear off all the pictures because it just tries to back up everything and you can't just browse your phone, it has to actually make a backup of your device and then it browses the contents of the backup. 

00:11:32 

So it's a little tricky. I think 'cause they're getting around. Some of the things that Apple puts in place, but again, it's called I mazing 

00:11:39 

Com and now how much is this one? Because they gave me a license to check it out. 

00:11:44 

So this is a device lifetime for three Apple devices. Is 50 bucks. One device is 3499 for lifetime, so that's not too bad. 

00:11:54 

You know one time purchase 35 bucks you can you know kind of crack into your iPhone. It's not doing anything bad, it's just that's you know I, I just use that term. It's not like bad thing. 

00:12:04 

But but those are some of the apps. The other one that I like is called Walter, and this is kind of a one-way app, but WLTR and it just came out with a new version I believe called Walter. 

00:12:16 

Pro and this allows you to drag and drop any file onto your iPad or iPhone, and so if you use an iPad or an iPhone a lot with a lot of different things like books and Kindle books and videos and stuff and music and you just want to like drag and drop, this program is fantastic. I have not tested the new one the pro, but I use the old one. 

00:12:36 

For many years now, and it's the real deal, it just works really, really well and that's $30. But again, all these apps, you know, a lot of these apps have built a world around the iPhones. I'm, you know, I'm not going to call it trickery, but. 

00:12:49 

The complications that arrive from using arise from using. You know, the whole situation. With the iPhone, you know Android is very simple. 

00:12:59 

It gives you access to like the file system and all that. But iPhone is just. It's always been a little bit trickier, but those are some of. 

00:13:05 

The ways that you can. 

00:13:06 

Get around that all right now. We talked about iOS. 

00:13:10 

15 let's talk about watch OS. I'm not going to go into the other stuff because I feel like the Mac stuff. 

00:13:16 

You know, it's like gets a little nitty gritty there and the I can't really remember anything else that I saw there that was like told. 

00:13:22 

Really, you know like I need to talk about, but watch OS actually let me look at my story I did for katela because that's where I put, kind of like the the big things that I thought were interesting. That's probably an easy way to do it, so let me see. 

00:13:36 

OK, let's see. We got iOS 15 FaceTime spatial audio. Oh, this was interesting on iOS 15. Apple is adding a feature that lets your friends know when you have do not disturb turned on so that when they try to text you it will say hey your friends got do not disturb. 

00:13:50 

Do you still want to send? 

00:13:51 

That text and this got a big reaction on Twitter. People are like, hey, I don't want apple telling people when I have DND. 

00:13:57 

DND on, but I believe that you'll be able to obviously turn this feature on or off. It's kind of like CarPlay in the car. 

00:14:04 

They send a text to people that says hey rich is driving right now. He'll get back to you when he's not driving. 

00:14:10 

Let's see what else I talked about. The Apple wallet stuff. The live tech stuff. Oh legacy, contact. This is a big one. So legacy contact lets you set a loved one or a phone. 

00:14:20 

And that will get access to the contents of your I cloud after you die, which I thought was a really nice feature because I know it's a topic we don't want to talk about. 

00:14:29 

But at the same time, it does cause a lot of headaches for people you know family members trying to tap into. 

00:14:34 

You know the photos or the videos or the you know whatever people had stored on their phone and this also got a lot of. 

00:14:40 

Reaction on Twitter, but again, it's something you can set up. You don't have to set it up, but if you want to, you can. 

00:14:46 

Google has something called inactive account manager, and Facebook also has a legacy contact, so it's not a new idea, it's just something that you can do all right. 

00:14:56 

Watch OS8, let's see. I don't really see anything huge and watch OS 8 but they have a new photos watch face it was. It was revealed that the photos. 

00:15:06 

Watch face is the most popular watchface on the Apple Watch which I would not have thought of, but now they have a portrait version so you can now choose your portrait photos to go in there. I don't know. I mean, I don't really. 

00:15:18 

I don't know. I don't really use the photos thing on my watch. I think it's just not for me. 

00:15:23 

The Breathe app is gone. Now it's going to be called the mindfulness app because now it's going to be doing daily reflections and daily breathing, which you know I'll be honest. 

00:15:31 

I always had a funeral a couple days ago and you know it was. It was sad and I actually. 

00:15:38 

Did use the breathe function on my Apple Watch while I was sitting there listening to everyone talking. 'cause, you know it was. 

00:15:44 

It was definitely emotional and I just felt like, OK, this probably helped me. Kind of just, you know, rest, you know, relax a little bit. Take a take some deep breaths and it was kind of like. 

00:15:53 

You know, I just activated the feature on my watch and I just take took some nice deep breaths and it did really help so I don't use the breathe app often enough. 

00:16:02 

I feel like I should and it really does help, so I always ignore the notification and I just shouldn't, you know, because it really the breathing is such a such a powerful thing for the body. 

00:16:14 

Let's see what else it's going to support. Respiration tracking while you sleep. So basically kind of how you breathe at night and it will. It will. 

00:16:23 

It just uses the accelerometer in your watch, so they're actually not measuring anything on your skin. It's just the it's kind of what Google is doing with their home, their Google Home. 

00:16:32 

Hub UM? 

00:16:33 

Or their nest hub, whatever they call it, the little tiny one that has sleep tracking built in it actually looks at the rise and fall of your chest. This is doing the same thing, but just figuring out the rise and fall of your body. 

00:16:45 

Using an algorithm so it's like monitoring micro movements, small things or be the timer app on the Apple Watch can handle multiple timers. You can also label them. 

00:16:54 

And there's a new contacts app on your wrist on your watch, so that's kind of cool and you can respond to messages using GIFs, so I think those are the big kind of main things on the Apple Watch. 

00:17:06 

I just think the Apple Watch continues to get better and better. It just really, really is an amazing device. 

00:17:13 

I've said it over and over. I don't think I could live without it and. 

00:17:18 

Even if I switch to Android, I'd still probably find myself using it like. I'd still keep it on and figure out how to still use it. 

00:17:23 

I mean, my big thing is my minutes every. 

00:17:25 

Day like I've got to hit. 

00:17:26 

Those you know, oh also fine. 

00:17:29 

My is going to be on the Apple Watch, so that's kind of cool, so you'll be able to see where your devices are on your Apple Watch as well. 

00:17:40 

All right, let's get another question. Hello rich. My best friend recommended that I contact you about a problem with my iPad. 

00:17:48 

I guess you've helped her a lot. My iPad Pro I bought it July 2017 still works for my needs. Email, reading iBooks, playing solitaire, no music, very few pictures. It loses battery life. 

00:17:59 

Very rapidly, so I keep it plugged in. My question is, is it time for a new iPad? If so, which one is the best for my limited use? Or do I wait? Thank you, Maria. 

00:18:09 

Well, I think in. 

00:18:11 

July 2017 to 2021. 

00:18:16 

Is it 2022 or 20? Oh my gosh, I don't even know what year it is. What year is it? 

00:18:20 

I think it's 2021. Yeah it's 2021. Still OK. That was weird I I like had this feeling it was I knew it was 2021 but I just wanted to make sure because I know we've been locked up for so long. OK, yes 2020. 

00:18:32 

One so that is 3 that's four years. 

00:18:36 

So four years, your iPad should still be working just fine. I mean, it's probably slow and you know, but The funny thing is you didn't say that it's slow, so you know for your needs you're doing email. 

00:18:48 

You're reading books or playing solitaire, no music, few pictures, so it's not like you're really asking a lot of this device and a four year old iPad. 

00:18:56 

Should still be able to handle those things now the battery life, depending on how you charged it and how you used it. Yes, it could be. 

00:19:03 

Issue So what I would do is number one before you do anything crazy. Like you know, buying a new iPad. 

00:19:11 

I would actually go into settings and then if you Scroll down you'll see a battery situation and then you click that and then you click battery health and it will tell you under that maximum capacity. 

00:19:24 

And see what that number is at. Right now. My phone says 100% so if it's at like you know, 60% something like that it it may be, you know, that's probably why your battery is not lasting that long, so you might want to, you know, there's a couple things you could do if your iPad is perfect. 

00:19:40 

Be fine, I would bring it to a place like you break I fix or any local place that you have that does repairs and see how much they charge for a, you know a repair. 

00:19:53 

So if you want to do like, let's see, let's see how much that let's see does it give you like let's do iPad. 

00:20:00 

Let's do iPad. What did you say it was? You said it was an iPad. 

00:20:06 

Pro July 2017. So let's say iPad Pro. I'm guessing that's the maybe the second generation, maybe the 1st. I'm just going to say we'll just go with the 2nd and we'll just see if it gives me OK broken screen, don't know and I don't know if you can get an estimate, because if you can get an estimate, you know what I would say is get an estimate. 

00:20:27 

From one of these places to see how much it costs to do your repair and you could just replace the battery. 

00:20:33 

Yeah, it doesn't say how much so you know, take it in and see how much it is to replace the battery if it is. 

00:20:38 

I would say under $100 maybe I don't even know I'd actually say under 80 bucks because 100 seems like a lot. 

00:20:45 

That's that's a third of the price of a new iPad. So basically what I'm saying is figure out how much it costs to replace the battery. 

00:20:52 

Figure out if your battery is a problem and also uninstall any apps you don't need. You know, maybe make all the software updates. 

00:20:59 

And then figure out the battery situation, then bring it in. See how much it would cost to give you a free estimate. 

00:21:04 

If it's like under $100 like I'm talking 80 bucks maybe. If that's worth it to you to just replace the battery, you'd have to really deal and you can. You know, two years you can figure this out. 

00:21:13 

And you can go longer, but it may be too slow at that point. Or you can just buy the new iPad for 300. 

00:21:19 

I would recommend the one for $329. It's just a standard iPad and I would also go on Google and search iPad deals and the bloggers generally blog about the best iPad deals out there and so you can. 

00:21:33 

See the iPad 10.2 just got a massive. 

00:21:35 

Price cut and let's see how much that is. It is $299 so I would buy the new iPad for 299. 

00:21:43 

If you feel like the battery situation is gotten to a place where it's just too expensive, you don't want to deal with it, and then by the way, sell your old iPad Pro on Gizmo, go xemo gizmo, go. 

00:21:55 

Com and get rid of it and get some money back for the new iPad. 

00:21:58 

Great question all right. I probably spent way too long on that question. Alright, Amazon sidewalk. Oh my gosh, the scariest thing to ever hit neighborhoods, right? 

00:22:08 

If you've been listening to the news, it's like everyone just pruning on Amazon sidewalk. Here's how to opt out. 

00:22:14 

Here's how to opt out and you know, I'm guilty of this somewhat. I did my Amazon sidewalk story. 

00:22:19 

Back in December. 

00:22:21 

It was my understanding that they were going to turn on the network back then. I guess they didn't, but it turned on. 

00:22:25 

I believe January or June 8th and so if you have pretty much any ECHO device or when it comes to ring devices, if you have there wired floodlight cameras, and I think there might be another one, but it's mostly I think it's a spotlight Cam and the wired. 

00:22:41 

Floodlight cameras those are all on this Amazon network and I think the thing that Amazon did that everyone got really up in arms about is that they they kind of turned it on automatically. 

00:22:51 

They didn't give people the option to say hey, do you want to turn this on or do you do not want to turn it on? So my feeling is number 1. Apple did the same exact thing by the way. 

00:23:01 

A couple weeks ago when they they, you know did the whole find my thing. I mean, that's the same thing that's going on. 

00:23:07 

I mean, I know. 

00:23:07 

It's using, you know, Bluetooth, but it's it's basically the same thing. It's a, it's a low power low energy network that uses a little bit of your phone's power and Internet to kind of help out other people. 

00:23:21 

That's what Amazon is doing. They are using a little bit of your Internet to connect, you know, help these devices connect to each other and also to you know the greater situation that's going on. 

00:23:33 

So let me give you an example. OK, let me give you just a real world example. Let's say that you buy a new Amazon product, right? 

00:23:41 

And you have an iPhone. The way it typically works, you have to have your phone sense the product. 

00:23:46 

And it you know it goes through this whole thing where you might have to connect to that product Wi-Fi and you have to switch in your Wi-Fi settings, figure it out, you got to find the product and you gotta switch back to your Wi-Fi. 

00:23:55 

It's like a whole big thing that is a little bit complicated, especially on the iPhone. Now, let's imagine that that product can now just find the Amazon sidewalk network all by itself. 

00:24:06 

And because it knows how the proximity to your phone it says, oh, we see you've got a new device to set up. 

00:24:11 

Would you like to set it up and it uses the Amazon network to send all of your information to that device and set it up automatically in about 2 seconds versus all this back and forth and go to your Wi-Fi settings. And this and that. And and it's. 

00:24:24 

Done and not just that the tiles tiles are going to connect to this Amazon network. So now you have a nice competitor to Apple. 

00:24:34 

Why should apple? I mean, I literally was having this debate with my friends last night about, you know, they were like, oh, I gotta turn off sidewalk and I'm like, why? Like why is everyone so ready to turn off sidewalk without even knowing anything? 

00:24:45 

Got it and I get it. Amazon turned it on without people's permission, but so did Apple. I mean find my is on by default in your iPhone and you have to go in and turn it off if you don't want to be a part of that crowd source network. 

00:24:56 

Amazon is doing the same thing, so the other little nugget I thought was interesting. Someone commented on my I don't know if it's my Facebook page. 

00:25:04 

Or whatever, but they said and this is a blog post from 2019 when Amazon was testing sidewalk in Los Angeles, they said that they got their Amazon employees and friends and family to conduct a test. And with just 700 ring lights that supported 900 megahertz connections, they were. 

00:25:24 

Able to cover. 

00:25:25 

Almost all of the Los Angeles basin with just 700 devices. So Amazon knows that a lot of people are going to turn this thing off. 

00:25:33 

But they also know that, like literally, with just, you know their devices, that their employees are using that are probably going to leave them on or just a fraction of people leave these things on their networks going to be just fine. And you know what? I'm good with that. 

00:25:46 

Because I actually like the fact that we have a competitor to Apple's find my network, let's give tile a little run for its money or apple. It'll run for its money with these tiles and I'm totally good with that. 

00:25:59 

What about when Google decides to do this with Android phones and Google Nest devices, which they probably will end up doing? 

00:26:06 

And yes, Google is going to get a hard time as well, but Amazon is just getting a lot a lot of a lot of I don't know, they're just I don't know what the word is. Flack is that it, but I thought the best article was actually. 

00:26:19 

Written by John Chase of Wirecutter and he was the only one that was was. 

00:26:25 

I don't know, had the courage to write a headline that said, Amazon sidewalk will share your Internet with strangers. 

00:26:32 

It's not as scary as it sounds, so John thank you for being a voice of reason in this world of I call him Klingons of just all these little blogs that say, oh, a lot of traffic. Let's just get all the traffic. 

00:26:46 

That people are. Let's make Amazon really scary because it's a big scary company. 

00:26:50 

Doing mean things raw. 

00:26:53 

And it's just that's the way it is. And everyone just wrote those articles about. Here's how to turn off sidewalk. 

00:26:59 

Here's how to turn off sidewalk without really explaining what it is and how it works. And yes, there are definitely some questions about the security, but let's be honest, Amazon is a big company I I think that I want to believe they're doing good. 

00:27:13 

And I I hope they are. And yes, I think you should be skeptical and very critical of all these things. 

00:27:18 

But I think that you should also understand the entire situation and put it into perspective with what's going on in the world at large and. 

00:27:28 

When you do that, personally I'm leaving the sidewalk network on because I want to help people find their lost dogs and their lost keys and all that good stuff, and I want to give Apple a little bit of competition so that the air tag is not the only thing that is able to find stuff, so hopefully you still listen to my podcast even though I just totally. 

00:27:48 

Gave my support to Amazon sidewalk, how dare I? 

00:27:55 

All right, hi Rich, we are not too tech savvy and are afraid of adding apps onto our home computer. 

00:28:00 

We only use a home computer, no cellphones. We get Instagram posts, but we seem to be missing out by not getting Instagram stories that people are referencing all the time. 

00:28:09 

Is there a safe and easy way or an app that you know is safe so we can get Instagram stories? 

00:28:13 

Our home computer. Thank you. 

00:28:15 

Wow, no name given, that's a rarity. Yes, super easy instagram.com. Just go there and tap Instagram in the upper left hand corner if it's not already tapped and you should see a whole bunch of circles on the upper left hand side of the page. You click these circles and you will see people. 

00:28:36 

Stories and you can see and scan through them and swipe through them. Well, it's mostly. 

00:28:41 

Clicking just the way you were on a phone. Now if you don't have that option, maybe you need to update your web browser. 

00:28:48 

I'm using a recent Chrome version and it works just fine. It might not work on every web browser so but that's it. 

00:28:56 

Just go to instagram.com. As long as you're logged in, you should be able to see stories. Instagram has slowly but surely. 

00:29:02 

Been increasing the amount of things you can do on their website right now. You still, as far as I can tell, cannot post. 

00:29:11 

You cannot post posts from Instagram on the website, but you can up. 

00:29:17 

Load Instagram TV IGTV. Why am I not able to do that? What's going on here? 

00:29:21 

Why am I not? 

00:29:21 

 

00:29:24 

Why am I not being able to see that? Usually I do. 

00:29:28 

I'm curious why mine is not doing this. It used to just have a place where I can upload a new story. Let's see, do I have to go to my? 

00:29:39 

Did they take that away? Oh, here it is OK. Yeah you have to go to. You have to go to your own profile and then click IGTV and there's an upload button. So if you ever want to upload IGTV content from. 

00:29:49 

Instagram, you could do that. By the way, can I tell you that you know I'm playing Instagram game with this whole vertical video thing on Instagram? 

00:29:56 

And it's just. It's not that you know Instagram when IG TV first came out it had to be vertical video and I used to do the thing where I used to say ho rotate your phone. 

00:30:04 

So I still wanted to make. 

00:30:05 

It full screen, but here's the thing. I I do things the way I consume. 

00:30:10 

Stuff, so when I think about what I do for the viewer on my social media platform. 

00:30:16 

I'm trying to do things in the way that people use the platform. So with Instagram I don't sit there and turn my phone to the side ever. 

00:30:25 

And I also hate looking at videos that are small, so if it's a 16 by 9 video that yes you can upload to Instagram TV. It will work just fine. 

00:30:35 

It's so tiny on my. 

00:30:36 

Phone screen that I don't want to watch that. 

00:30:38 

And so if I don't want to watch that, I am assuming that other people don't want to watch it in that format as well. 

00:30:43 

Now, on the flip side, when I upload stuff to IG TV in the vertical video format which I've been doing, I love it because it fills up my entire phone screen and it just feels like I'm immersed in that content, and so that's why I've really been doing that with all my videos as much as I do. 

00:30:58 

I don't want to shoot videos that way because I just feel like they're unnatural for Instagram. That's how it works, and that's what I do, and so. 

00:31:07 

That's kind of why when you look at my Instagram, it's the reason why I have my videos vertical because it's IGTV I can go a little bit longer than the 60 seconds they give you as a square video, but it's also not so annoying as a as a 16 by 9 horizontal video that's so small that on a phone screen you just can't see now on Facebook. 

00:31:27 

It's just the opposite. I don't mind putting things on Facebook that are 16 by 9. 

00:31:30 

Because you know, it's it. I don't know. It's Facebook and that's I'm much more used to watching video content on there like that. 

00:31:38 

But also you can watch it on your TV screen also on your computer screen, most people are consuming Instagram on their phone and it's also in a vertical mode, so that's why I'm doing that and I feel like it's the most. 

00:31:50 

Immersive, even though for me as a quote, unquote content creator. I mean you know to use that word loosely for me. 

00:31:59 

It's it's just not ideal like I I wish I could just do you know 16 by 9. I could fit much more into the video and I could put it in more places, but it's kind of they've locked me in with this IGTV so that's why you see my stuff in that format. All right? Speaking of videos I did one on this bike. 

00:32:18 

The headline is I rode the Tesla of electric bikes and it completely changed the way I think about getting around town. 

00:32:25 

This has been the most popular story on the KTLA website for three days now. I don't know why. I mean, it's not like that. Many people are interested in this bike. 

00:32:33 

But I actually emailed our web team to say hey, where is all this traffic coming from? Like 'cause I looked on Reddit? 

00:32:38 

It wasn't on, it wasn't posted to Reddit. It wasn't. It's not like a I don't know where this is coming from, but I I now I have an idea because he said all the traffic is coming from Google itself and so I think what happened is that this story got tagged. 

00:32:53 

As either a Tesla story or the van move, the bike itself or electric bikes as a broader topic and it's being served up to everyone Google discover feed. 

00:33:04 

Or Google News feed and their customized Google News and when that happens with the story, it's almost magical because it just gets taken away in this like whoosh of like traffic because it just Google serves your story to so many people. If they've ever shown a big interest in either Tesla Electric cars or sorry electric bikes or even. 

00:33:12 

 

00:33:24 

I would think less so. The van move, which is the specific bike I'm talking about. But anyway, I hope I didn't talk about this on the podcast before, but I've been driving around the van move, which is the electric bike that. 

00:33:35 

It took a while for them to send it to me because I kept saying no, no, no. This bike is too expensive. 

00:33:39 

I don't want to, you know, I don't really feature super duper expensive stuff in my reports because I'm not really expecting people to buy a $2200 electric bike, but when I go to a bike path in Ventura or in Santa Monica and I see half the bikes whizzing past me or electric or if I'm stopped in the bike. 

00:33:55 

Path you know here in LA, and I'm seeing a lot of electric bikes. I'm like OK, I got to do a trend piece and I need some hands on time. 

00:34:02 

So that's where I said OK, fine, send me the van move. I put it together. This spike is just phenomenal. 

00:34:07 

It is literally the electric bike that I would purchase if I'm going to purchase an electric bike and I may end up buying this bike I don't know. 

00:34:13 

But it's expensive, but it you set this thing up and it looks like it's just sleek. It's slick, it charges up nicely. 

00:34:21 

It connects to your iPhone or your Android. It's got like this little digital display on it. I did a video on it on my Instagram of just the bike soon. 

00:34:29 

I'll do on me riding it so you can get an idea, but it's just so cool 'cause you give yourself. I didn't know this. 

00:34:33 

But I didn't know how electric bikes work and This is why I like to get hands on time. We call it background experience with these devices and these things. 

00:34:40 

'cause then I can talk about it as someone who's actually used it right. And so that's why it does take a little bit extra work for me to do my reports in the way I do them. 

00:34:50 

But I do like to have some hands on time with these gadgets and these things because then I can talk about them and answer questions in a smart way versus just reading a press release. 

00:35:00 

And saying, Oh yeah, these electric bikes are very popular. People are buying them and you know. And I don't really know, because I've never really been on. 

00:35:08 

So I've been riding this bike around, you know, not too much, but enough, and it's it's really fun. It's such a slick looking bike. 

00:35:16 

Everyone looks at it when you stop at a stoplight or whatever, and it's so smooth you can. So I didn't know this about electric bikes. You get the power, at least on the ones that there's different models, but the one. 

00:35:27 

I'm using. 

00:35:28 

Is the power is in the pedaling so when you pedal it actually gives you like a little boost, like when you one rotation is going to take you a lot further because the engine kind of carries you. 

00:35:37 

It gives you like or the motor or whatever you want to call it, not the engine. The electric motor kind of like gives you like this little boost as you press turn the pedals and you can decide. 

00:35:48 

What kind of boost do you want? And it's on this bike. It's from one to four. Or you can do no boosts at all and that was my big concern with electric bikes was that I was like ah if I'm going to be bike riding I want to get the exercise. 

00:35:59 

And on this bike, and maybe all electric bikes, you can just have the option of no boost and so you can ride with it as a 0. 

00:36:06 

And so I did that I wrote it with my son. We had a great time, went on like a nine mile bike ride and the cool thing is you can go on a real long bike ride, but then you can use the assistance on the way back. So if you're tired you get a little assistance. Then there's a boost. 

00:36:18 

But and so on. 

00:36:19 

The handlebar there's a boost, so you press that and you get an immediate jolt of boom. You just go. 

00:36:24 

And the battery goes anywhere between 30 and 90 miles. This this bike goes up to 20 miles an hour. 

00:36:30 

I test drove another one at a place called electric bike attack, rather in Venice, and they have bikes that are, you know, similar to the van move. 

00:36:39 

The van move is definitely the most high tech I've ever seen, but a lot of electric bikes, some of them look like. 

00:36:44 

Moped, some of them look like motorcycles, you know they're much more electric than this. This bike that I tested which is more like a. 

00:36:52 

Kind of like a everyday bike, but it's just powered with electricity, electricity versus some of these. Other bikes are much more by key and like Motory, right? 

00:37:01 

If that makes any sense, it just depends what you want. Some people want, like a high powered motorbike. I would rather have something like the van moof that is much more like a bike that also happens to be electric. 

00:37:12 

But it's kind of sly, right? 

00:37:13 

And so now once you have an E bike, you're just thinking of all the ways that you can drive that E bike instead of your car and so around my neighborhood. 

00:37:20 

I'm like, oh, I can go to breakfast, so I've drove to breakfast with my friends on a Sunday morning and I said I'm taking my bike and it was only 15 minutes and I used Apple Maps and found my little way there on Apple Maps 'cause they have biking maps and it was just such a cool experience. 

00:37:34 

Something that I just have never done before, and now that this idea has gotten in my head, I'm like OK. 

00:37:40 

I think I could be that person who takes your bike on different errands for the weekend. You know if I want to go to 711 or something, or you know go to the I don't know wherever I can just take my bike and you know pick up a little backpack, whatever. 

00:37:52 

 

00:37:53 

Or go out with friends you know, drive to my friends houses that are nearby and just park my bike and you know instead of driving, I just take a bike and so anyway, it's just. 

00:38:02 

It's just a really, really cool thing that until you actually kind of get on one, you don't really think of this stuff. 

00:38:09 

And again, This is why I like to do this because I think about it and it it changes little things. 

00:38:13 

The little pathways in your brain change so that your brain is now considering all things, not just one option, which in the past has been a car or walking or. 

00:38:22 

You know a regular bike, but this van roof is just. I can't speak highly enough, but you gotta watch the video on the Instagram. It's just such a cool cool bike and I just can't get over it and then move from. 

00:38:35 

Oh, can I talk about that? I don't know if I can anyway. 

00:38:40 

I know I can't. I don't know if I'm I forget sometimes I forget when people tell me I'm not allowed to talk about something. 

00:38:44 

But anyway, Van Moof is a really cool bike company. They're based out of somewhere in Europe and they have some stores in different cities. 

00:38:54 

I think they had to pop up in Los Angeles at once. Maybe they're coming back to LA at some point. 

00:39:01 

But anyway, I just thought this was really cool and just I'm I'm now a believer. I really like my headline said it all. 

00:39:07 

I rode the Tesla of electric bikes and it completely changed the way I think about getting around town. It's 100% right. 

00:39:12 

Because when you're on the electric bike, you can go way further than you could on a standard bike. And yeah, I get all these people. Don't don't come. 

00:39:20 

After me for the whole exercise thing, 'cause I'm, I believe that same thing like you should get exercise but at the same time there's a lot of people out there who may have mobility issues who may have joint issues, who may have an injury from sports or just in general with their knees. 

00:39:34 

And so this is, this also opens up possibilities for them. So no matter how you look at it, it's just. 

00:39:40 

It's just really cool that we have this option, and seeing a bike as slick as van move to me is just like this is the future, like when bikes or this slick and the price comes down. It's like game over, you know people will be deciding in in urban areas. 

00:39:54 

Of OK, I can just get a bike and really get by between a bike and Uber and Lyft and scooters and it's that's a win for a lot of different situations. 

00:40:08 

All right, let's talk another question. Laura says hey rich. I have an iPhone 10R with boost as my current carrier. 

00:40:14 

Is there way to permanently disable the horrible Amber Alert alarm I have? I'm fine with a visual notification but that alarm is beyond alarming. Thanks for all you do. Laura of Long Beach. Well, Laura. 

00:40:27 

Yes, I think you're doing this. I think you're saying this because we got an Amber Alert in Los Angeles. 

00:40:32 

This week, and, you know, in my house with all the various devices around, you know it. Definitely it was like on my watch. 

00:40:38 

It was on my phone. It was on my wife's phone. It was on my kids iPad. Maybe not the kids iPad, but you. 

00:40:42 

Know it definitely. 

00:40:43 

It definitely rang a few things up, so yes, you can turn these off in settings under settings notification at the very bottom of the screen it says government. 

00:40:52 

Alerts and you can turn the alert on or off, but you know as much as I'm also qard by them, I leave them on because I just I don't know like I just don't want there to be a situation in the world where I need to know something right? 

00:41:08 

So you have three options, at least on my phone you have Amber alerts, you have emergency alerts and public safety alerts. 

00:41:14 

So if you want to turn the Amber alerts off, go ahead, turn them off. I mean, I'm I'm not going to recommend it just because I feel like I like the fact that you know. 

00:41:23 

Yes, it's annoying, and it's definitely you know it butts into whatever you're doing, but at the same time. 

00:41:28 

It's like I I don't know, it's just I don't know I feel better having it on, you know. 

00:41:32 

I'm trying to trying to be a good human. I guess the you know, but you can do whatever you want and a lot of people turn these off. 

00:41:39 

Believe me with news and Internet nowadays, it's like if there is an Amber Alert in your area that does apply you. 

00:41:44 

You're probably going to see it in another way, so or around. You has a phone where they're going to get it. So I've been on planes where we get special alerts and the whole plane. 

00:41:47 

Or something? 

00:41:47 

 

00:41:53 

Just erupts in like you know. 

00:41:54 

You know, sounds so anyway. That's where you turn them off. Now with the sounds I think I don't, I could be wrong. I'm not sure if the I think the sounds might. 

00:41:56 

 

00:42:07 

I think they're silent if your phone is on silent. My phone is on silent like 99.9% of the time and so I don't think I ever hear sounds on my phone ever because I'm always, you know, I'm always shooting something like recording something, and so I've just grown up in TV and I'm always you have your phone on silent. You know it's on vibrate and with the Apple Watch it's been amazing because. 

00:42:27 

I never need to think because my wrist is going to tell me what I need to know, but that's how you do it and and no judgment if you want to turn these off. 

00:42:33 

I you know, turn them off. I mean, that's that's your prerogative. It's your phone. You can do whatever you. 

00:42:38 

You know, so that's that's, that's your. You know your decision to make, but that's how. 

00:42:44 

You do it all right. 

00:42:45 

Instagram revealed a little bit about they kind of pulled the curtain back a little bit, and maybe this is not interesting to you at all. 

00:42:53 

Maybe it is, I don't know. You know I tweeted this. Not too many people cared, so I probably shouldn't even talk about it on the podcast. 

00:42:58 

But I I will just really quickly. I thought it was interesting because it's always people are always curious about why isn't my stuff being shown on Instagram who sees my stuff on Instagram? 

00:43:07 

And you know, people think it's this mysterious algorithm which it is. There definitely is some mysteriousness to it. But Instagram kind of revealed a little bit and I thought it was interesting. So here is the bottom line. 

00:43:18 

With these signals in the algorithm right so number one in order of importance. When you see feeds and stories right? 

00:43:26 

This is how algorithm ranks them number one information about the post. How many people have liked it before? So if a lot of people like a post, yes, it's going to be shown to more people. Also how old the post is, right? 

00:43:38 

So if it's an older post, they're going to start showing it to less people that just make. 

00:43:41 

Sense information about the person who posted it. So if the person is interesting to you, that means like if you interact with that person a lot, they're going to show you their stuff more and you can easily just do this with my account. 

00:43:53 

If you're tapping on my stories a lot or my you're liking my my Facebook post or my Instagram post. Rather a lot Instagram says, oh cool, we got one. 

00:44:01 

We got one. We're going to show that person more to them, it just makes sense, right? I mean if you like something, you're going to see more. 

00:44:06 

If it it your activity, so how many posts you've liked on that person? That's kind of. That's another thing like I also, you know, this kind of goes about the person, but also the activity in in the posts that you like from that person. 

00:44:20 

So you may you may never like a post in that person, so they might not show you as many posts. But if you like all those posts a lot, they're going to show you more. 

00:44:27 

And then of course, your history of interacting with someone and this a big one is the comments. So if you don't comment on someone posts a lot, they're going to show their their posts, you less so. 

00:44:36 

So that's basically it. So imagine the more like this is the bottom line. They kind of condense it into this the the more time that you they think you're going to spend on a post. 

00:44:49 

Comment on it. Like it, save it or tap the profile the more they're going to show you that post. That's it. Bottom line. I mean, it's very easy. 

00:44:56 

Now, of course there's a lot of signals that go into that. You know a lot of, like number crunching and formulas and all that stuff. 

00:45:02 

But that's the bottom line, and it just makes sense. The more you interact with people on Instagram, the more they're going to show you their posts. 

00:45:07 

The more you do on Instagram, the more you're going to see. The more you like stuff, the more you're going to see similar stuff. I mean, it just kind of makes sense, right? So now you know. 

00:45:12 

Just just. 

00:45:12 

 

00:45:20 

All right, another question. Let's see what question James says. Hey Rich, a few days ago I went to the Delta website to book round trip tickets to Cancun and the economy, plus was 738. 

00:45:30 

I had points to bring it down to 3:30 at day and a half later, the same fare increased to 500. 

00:45:35 

I know there are fare checker sites where you enter a date and destination, but I have specific Delta flight numbers. 

00:45:42 

Is there a site that can Alert me when that particular flight changes prices? Thank you James. Yes, James I use this every day. It's called Google flights. 

00:45:50 

Super duper easy. Google flights. Just select the exact flights that you want so these delta flights and once you select them there will be a big button that says track prices sort of in the middle of the screen. 

00:46:04 

It's a toggle switch and just track the prices and next thing you know you'll get a bunch of alerts. 

00:46:10 

On Google, you'll get an alert when the price is about to go up, like if they if their little prediction says you know what in the next 10 hours. This is going up. 

00:46:16 

50 bucks you'll get that alert. You'll get an alert when the price goes up, which happens very often and you'll also get an alert when the price goes down and these are not perfect bulimi. 

00:46:27 

Sometimes by the time you see them, you know if you're not checking your email every two seconds, or if you're not on an Android that might deliver these things as a notification, you'll you know. 

00:46:37 

You can get to the website the Delta site and the price is already changed again, but that's what I use. I am always tracking at least one fare. 

00:46:45 

And believe me these things. They change a lot and very significantly. I've seen prices go up. I've seen prices go down. 

00:46:53 

I've seen prices go up and down and all around, and it's just there's no rhyme or reason, but I will tell you one thing that it seems to happen as soon as you track a price the price goes up for some reason. 

00:47:05 

And it happens all the time and that's why I always say, you know book. If you see a price that you like, book it immediately like that first price that you got might have been the best price for these Cancun. 

00:47:15 

People are traveling a lot right now and prices are are going pretty wild. In fact, I'm going to work on a story with some some travel tips because. 

00:47:24 

I you know I have a couple sites that I use actually asked folks on Twitter today about their favorite travel websites and tools and it's a lot of the stuff that I've known. 

00:47:32 

But you know, there are some things that there are some trends where people you know definitely like the same things in Google flights. 

00:47:39 

I feel like it's like a hidden gem. I feel like not enough people know about it because most people know about kayak. 

00:47:44 

And maybe they do that. I don't know if they if they, I don't really use kayak. Honestly, I haven't used it. 

00:47:49 

I remember when Kayak came out I was a reporter in Shreveport, LA and I thought it was just the most amazing thing ever. 

00:47:56 

The fact that you could actually compare flight prices on one page from different airlines was such a new idea. 

00:48:03 

And you're talking. This was what 2000. 

00:48:06 

Gosh, this was probably 2000. Let's see Kayak launched. I mean this was a lot like 2003 maybe. 

00:48:15 

Year, let's see. Kayak launch. Yeah 2004 there you go so 2004 I just you know it was it was just wild. 

00:48:24 

It was a search engine for flights and that was just something that had never been done before. Expedia and all that stuff. 

00:48:30 

You know it was. It was a very different thing. It was much more of like, you know, things were programmed in, but KAYAK was much more like we don't really care where these numbers are coming from. 

00:48:41 

We're just going to find them everywhere and put them all in one page, whereas Expedia worked more like a search travel engine I think and and still now I feel like. 

00:48:50 

Kayak is much more like a search travel engine, but I don't know if that makes sense, but anyway, Google flights is the much I feel like it's the most kind of like independent out of all of them and it just gives you like the most independent kind of results that are not. 

00:49:06 

They're not, they're not putting one thing higher than another because you know, United paid them for that placement. Does that make sense? 

00:49:14 

That's kind of so, anyway, that's where I'd go, and that's what I'd use all right? This is kind of interesting. 

00:49:20 

We talked about this whole idea of limited storage on Google Photos and so of course there's not to me. 

00:49:26 

There's not really a good alternative because. 

00:49:29 

You know Google Photos just does so much. I already talked about this in the last podcast, but I have been testing something called. 

00:49:35 

I drive photos and this is a local company in Los Angeles and I'm always very hesitant when it comes to talking. Or, you know, discussing any photo backup because there have been so many. 

00:49:49 

That have come and gone. 

00:49:50 

That they never survive, and it seems like you know only the big guys survive. You know, like the the Microsoft of the world, the Dropbox is and you know so many have come and gone. 

00:50:00 

So I'm very hesitant to recommend this, but I will say it does work as promised and I might use it as a secondary backup because it is unlimited. 

00:50:10 

Photo and video storage for iOS and Android. Forget this 995 a year. That's $9.95 a year. 

00:50:19 

 

00:50:20 

Now I drive is been around for a long time. They're actually a company. I think it's been around for like over 20 years and so they are doing this. 

00:50:28 

I guess they have experience in the field, but I I downloaded the app I signed up. You can do a 7 day free trial and so far I have uploaded in my free trial and I'm talking just the photo just to. 

00:50:41 

The photos that are on my phone. 

00:50:44 

Or my new photos? I guess I have uploaded tells you which I also like in the settings. 59 gigabytes so 60 gigabytes and no problem. 

00:50:53 

It's unlimited photos and videos by the way, at full resolution. This is called I drive photos. And by the way, the first year is just $0.99. 

00:51:03 

$0.99 for the first year and then $10 a year after that, so. 

00:51:08 

It's very compelling and for me, I think what I'm going to do is I think I'm just going to pay for this every year for 10 bucks, as long as it's around as just a backup backup. 

00:51:17 

Like if I take a picture on my phone, it's going into this backup and if I ever need it, I'm not going to organize them or anything. 

00:51:23 

I'm not going to delete stuff, but I'm just going to leave it in there. So if I ever find a thing where my phone, you know. 

00:51:28 

Crashes or whatever, or my other cloud storage goes kaput. I just go in here and I'm like, oh, that was the picture I took yesterday. Here it is. 

00:51:35 

So the website isidrive.com/photos idrive.com/photos. You can get a free seven day trial with no credit card needed. 

00:51:48 

Again, I can't vouch for this company because I don't know how long they'll be around doing this, and they could change their mind when people start uploading. 

00:51:55 

Gobs and gobs of photos. And there's not really like a search functionality. I guess there's search, but it's very limited. No, the search is either photos or videos. 

00:52:04 

And there's like nothing special about it except it just organizes them in a timeline. And you can favorite some as your favorites. 

00:52:11 

You can see, yeah, that's basically it. But it does what you need. It just backs up your photo, so if you just want like the cheapest solution that does unlimited and you have to think about much, you know check it out. Just make sure it's not your only. 

00:52:25 

Solution but I am going to do a story with this company because they are local and I'm curious to hear what the founder says, like how they think they can do this when Google itself can't do it is beyond me, so maybe they're just figuring that because they're smaller than Google they're not going to get as many people you know, bogging them. 

00:52:40 

Down, but I feel like if word gets out about this, you know people are definitely going to try it out. 

00:52:44 

So anyway, I drive photos I signed up for it. We'll we'll. I'll keep you posted on how it works. 

00:52:57 

All right, let's see question here from Denise. Denise says hey rich. We currently have the Apple TV third generation and looking to upgrade. 

00:53:05 

Since You Tube is no longer available on it, my husband is somewhat tech savvy and our daughter and son in law more so, but did see. 

00:53:12 

That there is an Apple second generation Apple TV 4K that launched in April. Have you done any research on it? 

00:53:18 

Is it user friendly? What model do you recommend? We are getting rid of cable and go with streaming you have. 

00:53:22 

Any recommendations will definitely be a learning curve for me. I appreciate any help. I've reached out to you in the past and your great help. Thank you and stay well Denise. Alright, well Denise, I know that not. 

00:53:32 

Everyone watches every segment that I do on TV, but I definitely did a review of the Apple TV 4K recently when it came out. 

00:53:39 

And you know you can watch those, by the way on the KTLA Plus app, no matter where you live. 

00:53:44 

Download it on your Apple TV on your fire TV stick or your Roku and just open up. It's called KTLA plus. 

00:53:50 

It's free, no sign up, and you just, you know, download the app and you can watch all my text segments that are that air on TV, so it's pretty handy there. 

00:54:00 

But what I what my conclusion is about the Apple TV 4K is it's fantastic. I mean, if you have an iPhone, it's like the best companion ever. 

00:54:07 

It's just a very expensive way to stream, and if you don't mind paying the money for it, then it's what I would recommend because it's it's got great apps. It's got every app available. It's got a great version of every app. 

00:54:19 

And yes, You Tube is on there and it's it works. So uhm, you know. As far as recommending the model, there's two. 

00:54:28 

Models there is a 64 gigabyte and a 32 gigabyte. Oh gosh, is that the case Apple TV 4K? I gotta look that up. 

00:54:37 

I think it's 64. Yeah, 32 and 64 and so you know the main thing is just deciding which one of those you want. This. The 32 is 180, the 64 is 199. 

00:54:48 

I would go for the 64 gigabyte just because you know apps are getting huge these days and 32 gigs not like you're downloading movies to this thing. 

00:54:57 

Anyway, that's the old days, but it's streaming mostly everything, but it still does need that space for things like if, especially if you're going to play some games on it. Apple Arcade, you know if you're downloading just a bunch of apps like. 

00:55:09 

I just think for the extra 20 bucks go for the 64 gigabyte version. You get the new remote control which is really nice and you know yes You Tube does work on there. And As for the streaming like cutting the cord. 

00:55:24 

I always recommend a website. Calleduntangle.tvsountangle.tv is the website that I recommend you pop in all the shows that you want to watch all the channels that you like and it will give you a list of all of the recommendations it has for streaming services. So that's what I would recommend. Check those out and. 

00:55:45 

You know, I've I cut the cord couple years ago. It's been fantastic. I mean the big missing link in Los Angeles was really getting katela over an app because we're not on the streaming services and once we're on KTLA plus, I mean, it was pretty transformative for a lot of people. I suspect a lot of people. 

00:56:03 

Cut the cord when that happened and you know. Now you can watch your local news. You can watch all of our extra programming on demand and then you can also just subscribe to things like Netflix and Disney plus for all the other stuff that you want to watch. It's worked out perfectly for us, so untangle Dot TV is the way to go. 

00:56:23 

OK, let me just talk about two quick moment 2 quick things before I go Amazon DJ mode. I gotta tell you, I've been testing all the music services and I I really have. Amazon Music is like. 

00:56:35 

I really like it and I just, you know, I think it's actually. It's simple, it's straightforward and I'm actually digging it because it is so simple and I find things to play very quickly because their playlists are not like Spotify has so many playlists. I'm like what's country chill versus country backyard BBQ versus country Rd versus country. 

00:56:55 

You know, whatever it's like, I don't know like I have to. I spend I have to spend so much time looking at the nuances of these playlists and it takes me so long to figure out which one to play. 

00:57:05 

And Apple Music is great, but it's you know same thing, have so many playlists I think they said they have 30,000 like human curated playlists on there. 

00:57:14 

I mean, that's just unbelievable. 

00:57:16 

Amazon Music they and then they introduced this thing called DJ Mode, which I personally love. 'cause I've I've mentioned this before. I'm a radio guy. I love radio. 

00:57:25 

And so you know to me when a streaming service does not have a DJ, it's it's tricky because you don't know you have no context for the song that's playing, right? 

00:57:35 

You don't know if the song that's playing just came out by that artist or came out five years ago and they just picked a cut off an album and so by having a DJ introduced songs which, like SiriusXM has and iHeartRadio has, it's kind of fun because you get a little bit of insight in Apple Music has it with their you know DJ stations like there they have a country. 

00:57:55 

Radio station they have a hit station. They have their original Zane Lowe station. 

00:57:59 

And so I mean, you know, I think and I kind of predicted this. But it's the DJ is making a comeback. 

00:58:05 

The DJ is making a comeback on streaming music services, so now on Amazon you have four DJ stations. It's called one is rap rotation. One is country heat. One is all hits and then another one is a Billie Eilish. 

00:58:19 

Station, so if you want to play these just say the a word, play rap rotation in DJ mode or play country. 

00:58:25 

Heat in DJ mode. Play all hits in DJ mode. Play the Billie Eilish take over and I listened to this yesterday in my house. 

00:58:32 

Two ways I listen on my iPhone, which was fine. It worked Gray and Alexa. I almost said it the a word even comes on with some music. 

00:58:39 

Trivia, which is kind of fun in her voice, but. 

00:58:43 

But there's also. 

00:58:43 

DJ's, they're not live. It's it's very clear it's recorded and tracked, but it's still kind of fun and maybe they'll do live later. Who knows, Apple is live, which is kind of fun. A lot of their morning shows, at least. 

00:58:54 

Or some other show I don't know. They're live and taped when it's definitely much more of like a person sitting there for four hours like doing the show versus this just sounds like they go in with like a paper and read a bunch of stuff. 

00:59:04 

It's a start, but it's fun. It did not work on Sonos, though I think whatever system we're using is not. 

00:59:09 

You know it's not compatible with Sonos, just. 

00:59:12 

Yet, but it'll come. And then the other thing I mentioned. 

00:59:14 

Earlier in the podcast is that Apple Music has this, you know this Dolby Atmos spatial audio so you can open up your Apple Music app. 

00:59:23 

Make sure you're updated to the latest iOS 14.6 and look under Dolby Atmos under. You know in the music and you can. 

00:59:33 

See the spatial audio. They have a whole bunch of playlists so you can use your air pods to listen. 

00:59:39 

You can use your air pods pro. You can use air pods Max if you have them, beats and then if you want to try other headphones which may or may not work, you can go into the Apple Music app in there under settings, choose preferences and then. 

00:59:54 

You can turn Dolby Atmos on always and it will try to you know push out that spatial audio no matter what headset you're listening on. 

01:00:03 

Oh, look at that. You know what that sound means? It is the end of the show. Thanks so much for listening. 

01:00:10 

That's going to do it for this episode. If you'd like to submit a question for me to answer, just go to my Facebook page. Facebook.com/rich Ontech hit the Big Blue send email button. 

01:00:18 

Also, I would love it if you would rate and review the podcast to help other people discover it, it's. 

01:00:23 

Been a little bit since someone left. 

01:00:25 

A written review. So yes, you're rating it with the stars, which is great. I love it. Thank you, but please write a written review and that way I can read it on the show and I really do think it helps people discover like just say what you like about it and leave that in the review. 

01:00:38 

And I think that helps people like understand like hey, I'm a I'm a regular person. I really enjoy this show. People think this shows for techies it's not. It's actually. 

01:00:45 

For non. 

01:00:45 

Jackie's you can find me on social media at rich on tech and no matter where you live in the US, you can download the free KTLA Plus app on the Apple TV, Fire, TV and Roku. 

01:00:55 

Then you can scroll to the text section and watch all of my TV segments on demand whenever you want. 

01:01:01 

My name is Rich demuro. Thanks so much for listening. There are so many ways you can spend an hour. 

01:01:05 

Of your time, I do appreciate you spending it with me. Stay safe, I'll talk to you real soon.