The Windows ten deadline is near.

What you need to know Disney Plus hikes prices yet again.

Amazon Prime customers might have some money coming their 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 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.

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Yes, she is eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.

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If you have a question about technology, email is also open.

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All right, we got some great guests this week.

Dan Ackerman, editor in chief at microcenter News, is going to discuss the Windows ten of life and how to extend your updates for another year and when it might make sense to buy a new PC.

Later in the show, we've got Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president of Environment, to talk about Apple's sustainability efforts, and Krista Kovalcik, author of Beyond the Storm, is going to share her latest photo scanning and preservation tips, plus insights from her new book.

We've had Krista on before, We've had Dan on before.

Always some great guests.

Will I hope you are having a great day.

I always like to kind of recap some of the things that I do throughout the week, some of the things that happened to me throughout the week, and I had a couple to mention before we get into this week's news.

First off, you know I had the car accident.

Thank you for all of the emails and well wishes.

Do appreciate that.

But I did have a rental car for a while and I realized a lesson.

So when I was returning my rental car, there's a little chip on the windshield.

And I don't remember that chip being there when I read, nor do I remember it happening during my rental.

But I wanted to be straightforward with the person at the rental counter.

I said, Hey, you know, I'm returning this car.

There's a little tiny chip on the windshield.

You know.

I just want to be straightforward about that.

I don't think it happened while I had this car, but I just want you to know, and he said, oh, don't worry.

If it's under two inches, we're cool with it.

But here's my lesson I learned, and I will definitely be doing this from now on every single time I get a rental car, just to take the headache away.

Go around your car, take exactly a minute to snap four pictures of your car using the highest resolution your smartphone can do.

Because if I had done that with this car, I could have zoomed in to the picture to see if that little chip was on the windshield.

And I'll just protect You'll give you peace of mind.

There'll be time stamps, you'll just have a little bit more on your side in case there's ever an issue.

So that's it.

A couple of minutes can save you, you know, a lot of headaches in time later.

So I'm going to be doing that from now on when I get a rental car.

I know it's a little awkward, it's a little weird, but just take the extra couple of minutes.

It'll really give you some peace of mind if something happens down the road with that at the scratch or anything like that, you're just wondering if that was you or if it was there.

The other thing I did this week little personal project.

You know, I have this file system at home where it's like, you know, my to do list.

Up at the top, it's stuff that I need to like do, Like a bill I get I got to pay.

I put it on the top file.

The middle file is stuff that needs to be scanned in for safe keeping, and then the bottom file is stuff that I need to shred because it's done.

I've done everything I need with that.

I've acted on the bill, I've scanned it, and now I can shred it.

But this week, you know, I've always wanted this system where I can just scan stuff as it comes in.

If you've ever been to the doctor, and I've been to a bunch in the past couple of weeks due to the accident, I watched them they have these little scanners at their desk and they just feed in your ID and any sort of paperwork and it just, I guess goes into their system directly.

So I was like, I want that at home.

So I took my scanner that I've had for ages, and I went online.

I figured out how to like connect it directly to a cloud service when I turn it on and scan something, and sure enough I could do that.

This happens to be a scan snap but you know, you could probably do this with almost any scanner.

But I connected it to my Google Drive, and so now all I have to do is open the scanner, run the paper through, press the button to stop, and in a couple of minutes it shows up in my cloud storage, my Google Drive, which I love because now it's done, and then my wife can reference.

I shared the folder that I'm scanning to with my wife, so now she can reference those files and find them.

And it's just a very nice organizational system that took me, you know, less than an hour to set up, but now I will have it.

And so if you have a scanner, try to do that.

The only little advice advice I would give you is that unless you're directly scanning to Google Drive, which a lot of the scanners let you do if you're using your smartphone, but that's an extra step because you got to open up your phone, scan through your phone, and then go to the drive.

I wanted this to all be done wirelessly, so I have to use the cloud service that the scanner provides, which let's see, what's it called.

I don't know.

It's some sort of like RICO service.

But the reality is your data is going to travel or pass through their service, So you have to be okay with that because I'm sure those documents are saved in their cloud for just a little bit before they pass on.

So you just have to be aware of the privacy implications of doing something like that.

The other thing, and I mentioned this in the opening of the show, is this whole Windows ten situation.

So many people are emailing me saying, Rich, what do I do?

It is time for me to figure out what to do with my Windows ten because Microsoft is going to stop supporting Windows ten on I believe October fifteenth or fourteenth of this year, and so you don't have that much time.

So Windows ten end of life.

Let's see what the date is here, October fourteenth, twenty twenty five.

So that is it.

Now your computer is still going to work, but you're not going to get security updates.

So I got so many emails about this, so I just picked one of the people that email me.

I said, Hey, do you live in la and can we come to your house and see what the situation is, and sure enough it is a nice woman.

Pat She said, yeah, come on buy And so we went to our home yesterday we shot the whole story for TV and what fun.

Not only do I love meeting the people that sort of watch and listen to me and just get their take on things in real life, but it was great to see her experience.

She said she was so stressed out about this whole switch to Windows eleven.

She didn't want to upgrade her PC right now because a her PC did not support it, and b she was worried about her backup of her computer, like you need to back up your computer before you do any software update.

And so I sat there, I walked through it with her.

We found the screen, the little Windows set up screen.

We found where it says and roll now for the extended security updates.

We did it and if you saw her face, it was just this big smile and like a weight was lifted from her world.

And so it is pretty easy to do.

But we will talk with Dan Akerman a little bit later in the show about all of the ins and outs of this whole deadline, what it means for you, how you can get free updates, for another year to kind of push this off a little bit.

And then also some computers that he recommends to get if you want to upgrade your machine if it can't get the Windows eleven or you don't want to do the extended updates.

All right, The other big news this week TikTok.

I'm not going to spend too much time on this because this is like an ongoing saga forever now.

I can't believe how long this has been going on, but there is now an executive order that will keep TikTok running in the US.

The deal will create a new US based company, a majority owned by American investors, with a board that's all focused on national security.

And then byte Dance, the Chinese parent company will hold less than twenty percent of this new company, and they can only appoint one of the seven directors of the company.

And then you've probably heard the name Oracle being thrown around.

They are going to provide the security and monitoring, the software updates, and store all US data in the US.

So this is all meant to prevent foreign control of the algorithm, the code or data.

Privacy concerns, national security concerns, all of that stuff that's been thrown up in the air about TikTok.

That really avoids the true topic of TikTok, which is the nonsense people are watching on there.

It's like nobody's talking about that.

It's all about the national security and this and that.

But the reality is, let's be real TikTok Okay, it's a great thing that people can share all these videos and this and that, but come on, you scroll through there, a lot of it is nonsense.

They that's not part of this plan.

They're not gonna get rid of the nonsense.

TikTok has one hundred and seventy million American users, and yes, a lot of people do rely on it for income.

There are so many social media influencers that have made a name for themselves on TikTok, and yeah, it's an amazing thing that you can do that.

Businesses, I know personally businesses that have also made a name for themselves on TikTok, And that's an amazing thing.

The fact that you can set up a business, go viral on TikTok and have people standing up or standing in line to get in is incredible and it's a testament to the way our world is now.

So the bottom line is, if you use TikTok or you're a creator on TikTok, the app is not going to go dark like it has been rumored to or I guess threatened to for so many years.

But it will be operating under these new rules, new ownership.

Now here's the other side of this.

China has been silent on all of this.

They have not said publicly that this is going to happen, that they're okay with this happening, or even the fact that they're allowing this to happen.

So right now, this seems very one sided, sort of on the US side.

But I guess this is one of those things that you just have to stay tuned for, and that's what we've been doing for the past couple of years when it comes to TikTok so.

But the good news is if you like TikTok, if you rely on it for any sort of reason, it will stick around, supposedly.

And then the other big news this week, Amazon Prime customers could get back up to fifty one dollars from this new FTC settlement.

Basically, Amazon has to pay back one point five billion dollars in refunds because the FTC claims that it tricked people into Prime.

So basically, if you had Prime, you tried to cancel, you couldn't figure out how to cancel.

FTC says Amazon made it too tricky or too tough to cancel, and so there'll be a couple of benefits.

For people that enrolled, enrolled and used fewer than three Prime benefits, you don't have to do anything.

You'll get a refund.

And then the second wave is for customers who tried to cancel but used fewer than ten benefits, You'll have to fill out a claim form.

All this stuff has not been finalized just yet, so I will keep you posted on when you can get this Amazon Prime settlement.

But if you had Prime, at some point you'll probably be getting some money back if you didn't use all the Prime benefits.

Now ten benefits, I'm guessing that's ten times you ship something or I don't know why, ten movies on Prime or a combination of things.

But anyway, there you have it, and Amazon's gonna make it easier to cancel.

Eight A eight rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two four to one zero one Your calls next Welcome back, to Rich on tech.

Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you talking technology at triple eight Rich one oh one.

That's eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.

Let's go to Nicole in uh holiday Holiday Florida.

If you're on with Rich, Hey, how are you today?

I am thanking my call great, thank you for calling.

What can I help you with?

I have a daughter that's autistic and blind, and she's been gone for a while and she just come home and I noticed she's using a lot of like character dot Ai stuff, and I was wondering is that safe?

And what that I looked out for?

Oh?

How old is your daughter?

She's twenty four, but she's got the mind of a ten year old.

Well, I in a quickly like the most basic I would say, be very careful with this.

And she's blind too, so that I mean I see the appeal of something like a character dot Ai because it's basically like a virtual companion based on Ai and so it's fun, it's unique, it's interactive.

But how long is she spending with these characters?

A long time?

Yeah, that's all she has to do, is her shan.

Well have you have you watched her interaction with these.

Yeah, and it kind of seems like she knows what to say to get the response that she needs or wants, and that's what bothers things.

Right, Well, I mean she is she having like reasonable conversations with them or is it getting into things like you know, a danger zone.

You know, it seems reasonable, like, uh, there's one some kind of vampires show that she used to watch, and they have characters and they tell stories and stuff and they ask questions and then she responds to them.

I haven't seen anything that's unacceptable.

Okay, well I know how dangerous it can get.

It so it bothers me.

Yeah, yeah, no, And I and I think that this really applies to sort of any sustained use of all of these apps, whether it's a roadblocks, whether it's a minecraft, whether it is just online chatting.

I mean, there's always been issues with the online world and safety and privacy and that kind of stuff.

But I think it, you know, as mom, and you're what you're telling me about your daughter is that I think it sounds like there just needs to be some supervision here to understand if this is going off the rails, if she's starting to ask things that are questionable or you know, inappropriate or you know, danger to herself.

Those are the kind of things that I would be watching out for.

She does she allow you access to her phone to kind of see what she's talking about with these characters?

Yeah, I don't virtually, okay, And have.

You found anything concerning No?

Okay, No I haven't, But I mean, I just I know that she finds friends in them, Like I got her one that's really it's a little alien thing.

It's called toln okay, and it's more face towards a child's mind.

And because I've played with it on my own phone, so I knew it was okay, Like they didn't ask stupid questions or try to move you into some other you know, vocabulary or whatever.

It's for kids.

But I've noticed that she does that a lot of the other ones.

And I don't.

I don't know that much about AI, so it kind of concerned me that she has all these AI apps.

The one that she has that helps her work her phone, I don't mind.

Yeah, tell us that's a great thing.

Yeah yeah, And I love that about it.

But the other stuff I wasn't sure about.

So I know, you dabble and all that stuff.

Me and my husband listen to you every weekend.

Oh well, thank you.

Does she have any sort of real life interaction with friends or people or groups that she's with interacting outside of these apps.

I don't know about before that, but now it's just me and my husband the time being.

So I would say, trying to.

Get her all set up back and everything, because she just come back to me last.

Saturday, Okay, I mean, I would say in addition to these apps, like just I think it's kind of the reasonable nature of things, like just monitor what she is doing on these apps time and screen time, but it's also it's just the content as well, because these things can devolve into conversations that can go out of whack, you know, And we were just yeah, and so I think that that's what you need to be concerned about, and just you just have to be aware of the time she's spending on them.

If if you notice any noticeable change in her as well, like you know, her personality and if you see anything that's changed or different, I think that that's a red flag.

Also, you know, just tell her, be like straight up with her and say if she understands, like, hey, I'm going to be monitoring your phone.

AI is not human, it's not perfect.

There's a lot of things that this can do and say that may not be the best for you.

And so I just want to be sure that we're on the same page here, that we're using this in a safe and fun way, because it can be fun and millions of people chat with these AI bots and it's only going to get increased, you know, especially that Well, I understand that, and I think that's that gets into the spot where it's a little bit where you have to be very careful because, yeah, you don't want her to get into a place and I'm not a therapist, I'm not a you know, doctor or anything like that.

I'm just coming from the tech side.

But you don't want to get her into a place where she only trusts that AI, right, that's where it could be dangerous.

So you want to keep that relationship open with her that you know, hey, we're in this together.

We're gonna make this fun, but we're also going to keep it safe.

Great question.

Thanks for the call today.

Eight eight eight Rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.

Welcome back to rich On Tech.

Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you talking technology triple eight Rich one O one eight eight eight seven four to two four to one zero one.

I see the calls, I see on the line.

We will get to you.

Uh, But I do want to talk about this very important topic that is blown up up my email for the past couple of weeks.

Nothing like wait until the last minute.

Let's bring on Dan Ackerman, he is editor in chief at Microcenter News, to talk about all of this Windows ten situation going on.

Dan, Thanks for joining me.

Great to be here, Rich.

So what is the deal?

What does it mean that Windows ten is reaching end of life?

That sounds scary, it does, And it doesn't mean that like on October fifteenth, the day after this, your Windows ten machine is going to stop working, but it's going to stop getting updates, not just feature updates, but more importantly security updates.

And what does that mean?

So if we lose security updates, well yeah, okay, so you lose security, you're not going to get any new features.

But what does it mean that it's not going to get security updates?

But it is in a way.

So yeah, that's the key thing.

Because bad actors are always out there looking for vulnerabilities and operating systems and software, and usually the companies behind these things, in this case, Microsoft or you know, different anti fiyers providers, security providers will find these and issue fixes for them, which you get as updates.

And if nobody is updating Windows ten anymore, then new security vulnerabilities that are discovered are going to be let you know, allowed to run rampant, and there's a much greater chance that you're going to be caught up in a problem.

So if you just let your computer be So that's the thing to know.

Windows ten is not going to stop working the day after they stop supporting it.

It's just going to now be at risk because if there is any sort of exploit, your computer is right up there with you know, with the exploit, like you just don't have any protection on there.

So that's the main issue.

So first off, the main thing that Microsoft wants you to do is update to Windows eleven.

How do you check to see if your computer is eligible for that?

All right, Well, there's a little app that Microsoft has called the PC health Check, and it'll run and say this computer can update to Windows eleven or this computer can't.

And there's a handful of reasons why if you have a laptop or desktop that's more than I have six or seven years old, that it might not be able to it's missing something called a TPM chip, or it doesn't have enough RAM.

But that that's going to be a relatively small percentage of machines, especially if it's less than five years old.

Now can you add those like can you is it worth even adding those things to your machine?

Or no?

Like can you add the what do you call it, the TCM or what's the security thing?

THEPMPM platform module that's built in?

That's tough to add.

But if you had a new motherboard and a new CPU on a desktop, maybe you could.

But if it's that old, you're essentially building a new machine anyway.

And let's be honest.

People that are waiting till the last minute to do this, you know, they may not be the most tech savvy and that's the reason why they've waited, because they're just unsure of what to do, and so they want to do the right thing.

But it's like I'm I.

You know, sometimes when you don't know what the answer is, you just wait and don't do anything.

And that you know, we're all guilty of that.

So if you can update, Let's say you download the PC health check app, your computer says, hey, congratulations, you can update.

Should you update t Windows eleven?

Are you gonna notice any big differences?

Is it going to ruin your system?

You know, I've updated a lot of systems from Windows ten to Windows eleven over the years.

It's actually gotten better as time has gone on.

When Windows eleven first launched, you know, if there were bugs, it was a little inconsistent in places.

These days, it's pretty seamless.

They've been working on it for I think four years now, so it's in a good space.

You can either do it through the Windows Update feature on your PC or jump into it directly from that PC.

Health Check app.

And it takes a while, just like any big operating system update does.

And that's the reason why some people put it off, because like, oh, I don't want to wait, whether it's half an hour or an hour or whatever it is.

But generally speaking, it's set it forget it process.

And the way to tell if you're already running Windows eleven is they've moved the what the Windows icon like to the middle of the taskbar instead of the left that's true.

That's true.

The little box that opens up your your Windows menu is now in the middle instead of on the left.

Or you can you know, right click on the you know, the Sea drive and then get the about info and they'll tell you what operating system you're using.

Okay, so if you want to do this extended security updates, So Microsoft is saying, look, we're going to give you one more year of updates, just security, but you have to sign up for them.

Which, yeah, it's kind of a little weird on their side, like they should have just made it easier, but they're not so, at least here in the US.

So tell me about this Extended Security Update program.

Yeah.

I think Microsoft knew that there were going to be a lot of stragglers and people who waited to the last minute, and more importantly, businesses, small businesses, medium businesses that have a lot of Windows ten machines and aren't ready to update them all right now.

So they had something called the ESU, which stands for Extended Security Updates, originally really intended for businesses to buy into for an extra year of just basic security patches, still very important.

It's available to consumers and it's not free, but it's pretty easy to get for free.

They want you to either agree to backup some Windows settings to OneDrive, which is their cloud provider, or spend a certain number of Microsoft Points which you get from like playing Xbox games, searching with BANG.

But now now in Europe at least, it's going to be totally free, and I wonder if they'll eventually extend that to everywhere as we get closer to that October fourteenth deadline.

Yeah, because there's been a lot of pressure in Europe from the consumer groups there saying, hey, look, these people are going to be left behind.

It's a security This is really a security issue, Like if you're going to make these updates anyway, why not just give them to everyone?

And there they're doing it.

Consumer Reports has been asking Microsoft to do the same here, but so far they have not.

Now we know in the US the rules on things are a little bit more like, you know, company centric versus the individual.

But do you think they'll do that here?

I mean, we only have two weeks.

I think it depends on what the numbers look like over the last next couple of weeks, because if you go back a year, something like sixty to seventy percent of PCs worldwide.

We're still running Windows ten, which is a crazy number.

This year, a dip down below fifty percent finally, so it's in like the high forties.

So we've seen a lot of people do that update over the last twelve months.

I wonder what's going to happen over the next couple of weeks and if Microsoft is going to at the last minute say okay.

It's free for everybody.

Just sign up for ESU and you get at least one year for consumers out of at least the very very important security patches.

And to be honest, and I did this yesterday with someone, it is a very simple process to extend for a year.

I mean for us, it was one click because the person that I was with that was updating her computer to you know, the extended security updates, she was already backing up her settings to one drive, and so it was just like, oh, you're already doing that, en role here just click and then the big points of the Microsoft reward points.

You might already have those, like I have.

I'm looking at my account, I have like I think three thousand points and I don't even know why, Like I didn't, not like I did anything to those points.

Playing Xbox games, playing Xbox games on your PC, surfing with bing, there's a bunch of other things.

I think I have like three thousand points for some reason, I have no idea what to do with them.

Oh wow, you can.

You can update a bunch of people's computers.

You can.

You can.

If my kid plays a lot Minecraft, there you go, so does mine.

I don't.

We still don't have that many all right, So if you do those options, that's that's the easiest way to extend for a year.

But you also have to think about, you know, upgrading or replacing your computer in the next year.

Now, So can you recommend if someone wants to get something, Now, what's your recommendations for, like a nice, budget friendly computer.

Yeah, that's exactly the thing with the su You can kind of hit the snooze button for a year, but eventually, if you're not ready for Windows eleven on your machine, you want to.

Buy a new one, you know.

I think actually Microsoft does a really good job with their surface laptop line that's really well made, relatively inexpensive, you know, a little bit under a thousand bucks for basic model.

Lenovo also has a line I like a lot that's called the Idea Pad, and that's their lower cost line that has a lot of higher end features.

Some of them even have that three hundred and sixty degree hinge that folds all the way back, and you can get a lot of really good models there for you know, six seven into eight hundred dollars, but certainly you know, way less than one thousand dollars plus, which is what.

A lot of people think a laptop costs these days.

Yeah, I mean, and your computer will be probably a lot better that if you're like the woman yesterday that we were talking with.

She said, I think I've only had this computer for like five years.

When we went into her system, it was actually eight years that she had it.

So that's a pretty good amount of time.

Now her computer was working just fine, like it wasn't it didn't look like it needed There wasn't like a million pop ups or anything like that, like and so, but again she has that one year.

I said, now in this next year, you got to figure out what your plan is.

And that's the thing you got to use this year to come up with a plan for your computer.

Yeah, four to five years is usually a good lifespan for a laptop.

It's almost like your phone.

You know, you don't get a new.

One every year, but maybe every you know, three to four years for your phone, every four to five to six years for your laptop.

It's about what people expect these days.

What do you make of this situation?

Have we ever seen anything like this before?

We have, actually, because I remember when Windows eight got retired and that was a really big OS and a lot of people used that.

There was a very similar kind of gnashing of teeth and people waiting till last minute, or people going to upgrade not gonna upgrade.

So every time Microsoft retires.

An OS, we kind of go through the same thing and they say, these OS's should last, you know, ten years of support.

So Windows ten came out in twenty fifteen, we're at that ten year mark.

Yeah, And what do you think of Windows eleven?

I mean, is it is it much different or is it just all the AI stuff?

Like what are the advantages to Windows eleven.

It's not radically different.

They do have a lot more AI stuff and it especially over the last basically two years.

Co pilot is built in which you can ignore if you want to ignore, but it's an interesting way to interface with your PC, you know, using AI.

I like that it can go and tell me some things about my system settings, like the brightness and the audio and other settings and things like that.

But Windows tend to Windows eleven is frankly not a huge change.

And the best OS is frankly or transparent because you're using your web browser, you're playing games, you're using software.

You know these things should work roughly the same no matter what OS you have.

We worked together at Seena many years ago.

You are now editor in chief at Microcenter for their news section.

Tell me about that.

How are things going?

You know it's fan because you know, I get to do a lot of things I really love doing, which is giving people advice reviewing products.

We really talk a lot about AI and how to use it.

I think that's a key thing for people to be educated.

About in twenty twenty five and beyond.

Is how AI is going to affect your life, how it's going to work with business, with your home stuff, and how to get the most out of it without you know, being left behind, especially when it comes to AI that runs on your computer.

And how do you find the website micros I know it's microcenter dot com.

But how do you get to the news section, fad.

You just go to microcenter dot news, or just go to microcenter dot com and click on the big news tab at.

The top microcenter dot News.

There you go.

Dan Ackerman, editor in chief of micro Center News, thank you so much for joining me today.

Thanks so much.

Great talking to you all right.

Really appreciate it.

So if you have Windows ten, get those updates in.

I've got all of the information we just mentioned linked up on my website.

Just go to rich on Tech dot tv.

All right, coming up, I'll tell you about the Disney Plus price hike.

Plus we will get to some of your calls at eighty eight rich one oh one.

This is rich on Tech.

Welcome back to rich on Tech.

Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology.

Triple eight Rich one one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.

The website for the show Richontech dot tv.

Uh.

There you can get notes and links to everything I mentioned.

This is episode one forty one.

While you're there, check out the TV segments that I do for KTLA in Los Angeles and our other partner stations.

The radio show.

You can obviously listen to past episodes and the newsletter every weekend.

I have a newsletter you can sign up.

It is completely free and it's got all the information I think you need to know.

Very similar to this show, except in a newsletter format.

Disney Plus is raising prices once again starting October twenty first.

Disney's hiking prices on Disney Plus, Hulu and their bundle plans.

So Disney Plus with ads is going up two dollars to twelve dollars a month.

Disney Plus Premium with no ads, that's going up three dollars a month to nineteen dollars or one hundred and ninety dollars annually.

That's going up thirty dollars.

Hulu's going up, the ESPN's going up.

So Disney launched the Disney Plus.

I remember this during the pandemic.

It was like a no brainer, six ninety nine a month for everything in Disney's catalog, like their entire back catalog.

It was like, why would you not get this?

And now at twelve dollars or nineteen dollars a month, it is real money, and so that's happening.

It's happening starting October twenty first so if your bill hits before October twenty first, you'll still pay the old fee just for that last time, and then the next cycle you'll pay the new fee.

But you know, this is making people have to make some real tough decisions on what to keep and what to get rid of.

I know every time I float the idea of getting rid of one of these streaming services.

My kids mentioned some show they watch on that.

Oh yeah, I do watch a show on Paramount Plus.

Like really, I've never seen you open that app.

It's like, okay, I can't cancel that.

What about Disney Plus?

No, No, I watched like I'm on second season of I Carly or whatever.

So it's like, no matter what the name of the game is, they like to have the trickle subscription out of your bank account.

Like that's just the reality of this.

It's just like they want you to just continue to pay these things forever, and when you add it up over time, it's a lot.

It's starting to rival what we had with cable.

All right, who is holding no longer?

Let's go to Let's go to Charles in the San Fernando Valley.

Charles, You're on with.

Rich, Hey, Rich, longtime fan all the way back to Sam Ruben on five.

I guess you're still on there.

Hey, listen, this is literally the second time a company has tried to get me to buy a new iPhone just because they're upgrading to iOS seventeen and I have an iPhone eleven.

Am I screwed?

I mean, I don't get it.

Uh well, let's see, we've got to go to iOS seventeen.

So you're trying to hold on, what do you what is your phone running right now?

Oh?

Man, let me chet.

I'm definitely not at iOS seventeen.

I think I think I'm let me just really quick go to settings.

I'm so sorry.

Are you on the phone?

You're on the phone right now?

I take it?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, all right, so yeah, see what you're running.

And the thing is, typically the way Apple works, is they the answer to the question is, really, you're not going to be able to easily download iOS seventeen to that phone, even though it does support if you if you're on the iPhone eleven, it does support iOS seventeen.

But typically typically as far as I know, okay, have you tried going into your settings and updating it?

And what does it say?

Yeah, yeah, it just it just goes right back to the notification.

It just says you must upgrade to iOS seventeen, and it does, and you know, I have automatic updates, so it's it's it's definitely not going there.

And okay, so so if you go to settings general software update, what does it say in that area?

What does it say there?

Okay general here I am.

You know, that's why I listen to you sometimes as long as I can take it, because I'm not very tech savvy.

Yeah, no, I hear.

Yeah, Well that's you know, I'm trying to trying to reach everyone out there, you know, and that's the beauty.

Look, if you're tech savvy, you probably wouldn't be calling me, so I understand that.

Like, yeah, there's a reason why we're doing the show back.

Now.

I'm right at sixty three point seven gigabyte and I only have sixty four on this thing.

So I'm pretty sure I'm dealing with a dinosaur.

But no, you are.

I mean then if yeah, there's just so your your company needs you to install an app, but you can't install the app because they want it to be on iOS seventeen.

Is that right?

Yeah, exactly.

The app is on the phone.

But they're saying, and you know, we've added these updates to your system to make it more streamline.

And I'm like, come on, I don't need that.

I'm looking at the.

Optional I think, but that not the way they set it up.

Yeah, I'm looking.

Okay, So here's the deal.

The iPhone you're on, if you're on an iPhone eleven, you should be able to get a newer version of software for that because it's still supported by Apple.

So I think either you're you're out of storage space which your phone needs to update.

That's what I think is happening.

So why don't you do this?

Have you heard of this app?

I mentioned clever Cleaner.

Clever Cleaner, No, I'll check.

That's almost my last name.

That's so funny.

It's clever that's great, clever cleaner.

Huh.

So if you look it up, I'll put it in the show notes because I don't want you know, there's a lot of random apps out there that purport to do this.

This one is completely free.

It's there's no ads, there's no funny business.

So I like it a lot.

It's from Okay, it's from a company called Clever Files.

So if you want files, yeah, that's so if you download that.

So if you go to cleverfiles dot com, you'll check out this.

You'll see this Clever Cleaner app.

You download that if your phone will allow you to download it and you can clear out some space.

Now, if you can't download it because you're completely out of space, just go into your photos and delete like a big video file and that will clear up.

Okay, regular yeah, okay.

The other thing you can do is if this phone is you know it is getting kind of old, you can do like a factory reset and just clear it completely and get all the junk off there.

But obviously you'd want to have a backup.

But at this point, I'm looking at iOS twenty six.

It is supported on iPhone eleven, so your phone is a dinosaur, but it is still supported by Apple.

There's no need for you to have to purchase a new phone at this point, so it's just a.

Matter of so it just has to have more memory.

I think you just need to clear out some storage and that might allow you to download the app.

And if that doesn't, then you'll have to update your iOS to a more modern version.

Just go into that setting things.

Let me.

Just make sure I get this right.

It's settings.

Let's see here settings general software update.

That's what I'd like you to do, Charles.

Thanks for the call.

No need to buy a new phone.

Look at this, we're saving folks money.

Eighty to eight rich one O one eighty eight seven four to two four one zero one.

With that said, next year, you will need a new device because it's not going to be supported with the new operating system next year.

But you still have a year more rich on Tech coming your way right after this.

Welcome back to rich on Tech.

Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology at triple eight rich one oh one.

That's eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.

If you have a question about technology, need an app recommendation, just curious about something, can't figure something out, give me a call 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.

If you'd rather send an email, you can do it there.

Just hit contact right up at the top.

And if you want notes from anything I mentioned, you can just go to the website.

This is episode one one.

Search Ford or it should be right at the top.

If you go to Google right now, you'll notice the logo looks a little different.

It is the twenty seventh birthday of Google, maybe not today, but sometime around today, and so they're throwing it back to nineteen ninety eight with their original logo.

And if you tap it in a sign of the times it taps, you're right into AI mode and it says, what's the story behind Google and its name?

What does it mean?

How has a logo and search product evolved over time?

The name Google originated as a misspelling of Google, the mathematical term for the number one followed by one hundred zeros infinite amount of information.

Before that, their search engine project was named BackRub.

This was all started at Stanford.

And the thing about Google is that it did search better.

There was something called Yahoo, and there was something called Excite.

There was something called Alta Vista.

There was Ask Jeeves.

There were many search engines before Google.

The thing that Google did well is they actually gave you the answer you were looking for, not some nonsense that their computer systems that these other places came up with.

You know, a lot of them were just directories and things like that.

Like Google actually figured out what you were looking for and serve that up, and they were so confident about that.

They still have the same button today, the I'm feeling lucky button, So if you are just looking for something and you wanted the best result, you could tap that and be taken to it in one click.

Now the Google homepage has gotten a little bit.

I wouldn't say it's cluttered.

It's still pretty clean for you know, millions upon millions of people visiting it every day.

But now they've got let's just see how many ways to search.

You've got voice search, you've got image search, you've got Ai Mode search, you've got standard Google Search, and you've got the I'm feeling lucky search button.

So it has definitely expanded over the years, and many other products have come out of Google.

But if you want to check out the new logo or the new the old logo, it is there Google dot Com.

All right, let's go to line five.

Here, Kirk is in an Upland, California.

Kirk, you're on with Rich here.

It's how you're doing.

I'm doing well?

Thanks for asking?

What can I help you with you?

What's that can you here?

We okay, yeah, you sound great.

Okay, I'm on a different point.

I have an iPhone eight that I inherited from my mom about two years ago.

It's on my brother's family plan.

I haven't had any problems with it until YouTube wanted me to update, and so every time YouTube comes up, I have to quit in order to to watch YouTube, and it won't let me download certain apps.

Right now, I just tried to download the the Clever Cleaner app that you were talking about on the iPhone.

So I have it in that mode right now, and it's wanting my mom's It shows either her email address or pass code, and I don't know either one, and I'm just wondering how I can get past that.

I tried to update before, or I tried to.

I think I even tried to factory reset, but I still needed that to do it.

I think or that it was under another account.

Yep, yep.

It's called activation locks.

So if you yeah, like, let's let's let's say someone let's say someone found this phone and they just erased it like you did, you know they would not be able to use it fully because it would still be linked to the other account.

So the thing you need to do is get in touch with Apple.

So if you are you said you inherited this from your mom that passed.

I'm sorry to hear that, but you can request if you have the proper documentation, you can ask Apple to remove this activation lock.

They're not going to give you access to the data on that phone.

It sounds like you have access to the phone itself.

So if there's any photos on there, there's any pictures, any notes, anything like that, you want to download all of those before you do this.

And so if you have photos, get those off of that phone onto some other either the cloud or just transfer them to a computer.

Notes, anything that could be stored on her phone that you may want to keep, you need to transfer off that phone.

Get in touch with Apple.

If you have the right documentation, you might need a death certificate or some sort of whatever you may have that Apple will ask for.

You can get in touch with them and ask them to remove the activation lock.

And once they remove that activation lock, then you can go through and format that system and you can set it up as your own phone.

Now, the caveat to all of this is that you said it's an iPhone eight that is no longer supported officially, by Apple, so you will not be able to get any software updates.

I'm not even sure you're able to download new apps on there because it is running such an outdated version of the operating system.

So I guess the bottom line is if you want to use this device and continue to use it as your own device, then you can get in touch with Apple and try to do this process.

But it may not be worth it because it sounds like you have access to this phone no matter what.

You can unlock it, you've got the passcode or whatever.

It's just that you can't really do anything account related on this device because you don't have the master password for her Apple ID.

That's what it sounds like to me.

So, but you can get in touch with Apple.

They've got a support page.

If you Google how to remove activation lock, and you scroll all the way down, it'll say if you need help removing activation line, can have proof of documentation.

You can start an activation lock support request, and you can do that with Apple.

For the rest of you, I would say, set up what's called a legacy contact access key, so or sorry, set up what's called a legacy contact so you can do this with Google.

You can do this with Apple.

You can do it with Facebook, I believe.

But there is the ability to set what's called a legacy contact.

This is someone that can get access to your account if you pass away.

And so I know this is not something you want to think about, but it's something that can happen.

And so if you're set up and you want someone to have access to your photos, your notes, or whatever you have on your digital account, you can set that up in advance.

And so, for instance, on my Google I have it set up where my wife will get an email if something were to happen to me and I don't access my count for a couple of months, she will get an email that says, hey, Rich has not accessed this account for a few months, would you like to access it?

And that is something you can set up.

You don't need to, you don't have to.

You can also just leave your password behind if you want.

This is just a more probably a more secure way of doing that.

But no matter what, come up with a plan for your key accounts, whether that is social media, whether that's file storage, whether it's your photos, just come up with the the I guess continuation plan.

If something were to happen to you, just like you would with anything in your in your in your life.

You know, your car, your your estate, whatever it is.

You know, this digital stuff holds a lot and you may want to pass that on.

You can also just download everything and put it on a drive and just keep it safe for your kids.

You know, you can do that too, but come up with a plan.

It's it's probably the nice thing to do for your family members.

Thanks for the call, do appreciate it.

If you're using chat gbt, they've got a new feature called this is getting wild.

Chat gbt is just they are throwing stuff at the wall and just trying anything because they are right now, they are the market leader when it comes to AI.

They really are.

They've got the brand name.

And this is a new feature called Pulse.

This is a preview.

Everything now is preview.

It rolls out.

It's for pro users, so you have to be paying to see this.

But it's daily personalized updates.

So chat gbt kind of goes through all of your chats, all of its memory, anything you said to it, maybe your email, your calendar if you've connected those, and at the beginning of the day, it'll say, hey, here's a whole bunch of stuff we think you should kind of think about today, whether it could be a travel tip, an event reminder, next step on a project, or an email that you have to follow up with, and it's little cards on your screen.

I have not seen these arrive on my app just yet, but I find it fascinating because it's the next step of AI where it's more proactive versus reactive, and that is really what I think is going to help us in the future, is having more proactive AI.

I'm not sure if this is the answer or this is any good, but at least they're trying it, and it kind of makes sense because think about the way you can use this.

You can tell chat GBT you know already.

You can say, remind me that I need to do this tomorrow.

But imagine when you open up chat GBT says, hey, remember it's your mom's birthday today, or it is your anniversary.

Can I help you get some presents you know, or whatever, it's your thirtieth anniversary, that's silver.

Let me let me find some gifts online for you.

So it can really be helpful and useful.

This is a focus set of daily updates, so you just see him once in the morning and then it stops until the next day.

And early testers say it's useful, but they guide it with specific feedback, so they say like, Okay, I like this, but I don't like that.

So Pulse.

It's called from chat Gibt.

If you are on the pro plan, look for it on your phone.

I have not gotten it just yet, but I'm telling you this week with CHATCHYBT, I set up all these projects, which are basically instructions for things that you do over and over so over and over.

When I come up with a guests for this show, I make a line that says what that guest is going to talk about or you know who they are and what their company is.

So I just taught chatch Ebt how to do that, and now I just drop in some information about my guests and it makes that line in a second something that used to take me, you know, five ten minutes to do.

So it's just you can become very efficient with these things.

Lots going on in AI and it can be very helpful.

Eighty eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one coming up more of your calls.

Plus I'll tell you about the app that was paying people for their call recordings to harvest the data for AI.

It's been shut down, but I'll tell you what that's all about.

Coming up right here.

I'm rich on Tech.

Welcome back to rich on Tech.

Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology.

Eight eight a rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four two four one zero one.

I was talking about setting up the legacy contacts for your various you know, Google, Facebook, Apple accounts.

Google actually calls it the Inactive account Manager, So if you're looking for that online, it's called the Inactive Account Manager.

I've also got it linked up on the website rich on Tech dot tv.

This week I got access finally.

I can't believe it's been almost a year, I think since I went to New York to cover this.

But the Alexa Plus, which is the new AI version of Alexa, and OMG, it is good.

I posted a video on my Instagram at rich on Tech.

Check it out.

I wasn't even sure one of my devices was going to get this, but two of them got it.

I just got an email and said, hey, you've got early access to Alexa Plus.

Check it out.

And so this is something that's going to be a free benefit for Prime members, but for non Prime members it's going to be twenty dollars a month, so which is silly because Prime is cheaper than that.

Twenty dollars times twelve months is two hundred and forty dollars.

Amazon Prime is one hundred and forty.

So don't pay for Alexa Plus, just pay for Prime and get Alexa plus.

Super weird there, But what is Alexa plus all about?

Oh my gosh, the conversational aspect of the voice and the smarts is just so refreshing.

It used to be you had to say things a very certain way for this assistant to respond.

Now it is just like an AI persona you would imagine.

So you got to watch the video on my Instagram at Richon Tech.

It's just all natural, Like you don't have to say please turn on lights in living room, like you just say, hey, you know, I'd like you to turn on the lights by the couch in the living room, you know, if you haven't set up that way, But it just figures that out.

And so then of course you can ask all the information.

You know, it's pre set with all the information in the world.

You can ask questions just like you could before, but it's much more natural.

And then kind of the coolest aspect is that you can feed information to Alexa using their app or their website and then it can reference that information.

So if your kid has a list of soccer games coming up, you can scan that in you know, take a picture of it with your phone, upload it through the app.

They have a new app, and then when you say, hey, do we have a soccer game this weekend?

The assistant can tell you if that's the case.

And you can say, hey, and what do I need to bring for snacks?

What are they asking for?

And if it's on there, it'll tell you.

So I mean, really really big upgrade.

I think the big thing to look out for right now is what Google's going to do because Google, they've been teasing that Gemini, which is their AI assistant, is going to take over a Google Assistant on all of their smart home devices come October first.

Now, it may not happen that day for everyone.

All these companies like to roll things out, so it may be a slow rollout.

But again, I think if those are the two that are really gunning for control of the home right now, and if it's good as good as it seems like it's going to be.

It's kind of going to be a whole new world of home control because we've been controlling all this smart home stuff for a long time, playing music, radio stations, controlling lights, smart home devices.

To be able to do all of that in a much more natural way, plus to have the memory, plus to be able to answer questions just back and forth, this is going to be just a whole refresh of that genre with the smart home.

So I am excited for that for sure.

And just in my short time in sort of fooling around with Alexa that sounds weird, Pobo, just in my short time, it seems very promising.

So check it out.

If you want to try Amazon dot com slash Alexa plus, check it out.

I mean, really really cool.

And I asked it, by the way, one of the things I asked the fire TV, which also got the upgrade.

I said, Hey, play the movie that is where the guy says in it roads where we're going we don't need roads?

And sure enough, Bobo, do you know which movie I'm talking about?

Sure no, he doesn't.

Okay, sure enough, right right away, back to the future at the end, that's what doc Brown says, he goes, roads where we're going, we don't need roads?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I know it, And so Alexa easily she said, Oh, here's your movie.

She goes, I think you're talking about back to the Future.

And you know when you say a quote for a movie, you have to say it like the person said, I'm like, and the quote was roads where we are going?

We don't need roads?

Now which movie is that?

Bobo?

I am I'm not like a movie quote person.

Are you do you remember?

Like I've got people at work, like a couple of people I work with that Are they remember every movie quote?

Imaginable?

I am not like that, not everyone, but a little bit of them.

Yeah, what about Iceberg?

Right ahead?

The Titanic, that's right, Come on minute, Well give me one.

You must have a movie quote.

I'm a dude playing a dude disguise is another dude?

Oh don't know it?

Serious?

Yeah?

Tropic Thunder?

Oh god, yeah, I mean I saw that.

But I see again.

I when I watch a movie, it just goes in one ear and out the other.

I none of it sticks unless it's a movie like Back to the Future or Christmas Vacation or home alone.

I mean, I know these are all very like them three movies I just mentioned, like thirty years old.

Like I basically don't remember anything from new movies.

Eighty eight rich one on one eighty eight seven four to two, four one zero one.

Coming up, we are going to talk to Lisa Jackson.

I spent no less than eight hours in the woods with Apple, and I'm telling you.

I'll tell you why coming up, But uh, yeah, it was interesting.

Eighty eight rich one O one eighty eight seven four to two four one zero one more rich On Tech right after this, Welcome back to rich On Tech.

Yes, I spent over eight hours in the middle of nowhere, northern California in a redwood forest to check out Apple's new investment there.

Apple has partnered with the Conservation Fund to basically safeguard over fourteen thousand acres of forest in northern California.

Beautiful area up there, but zero cell phone signal the whole day.

But this is their plan to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

It's all part of their plan to go carbon neutral by twenty thirty and that's coming soon.

So these trees basically suck the carbon out of the air and store it and this is part of an initiative they have in northern California, but they've got them in other places as well.

While I was there, I talked to Lisa Jackson, vice president at Apple for Environment Policy, SEE and Social Initiatives.

So, first off, beautiful area we're in, I mean, amazing trees behind us.

I learned a lot about them today about how much carbon they can take in and just keep forever.

Basically, that's right.

Why do you think it's important that Apple does a project like this and there's several of them.

Yeah, well, I mean, first off, just being here, I think is indicative of how we approached our.

Commitment to the environment and climate change.

You know, we we back in twenty twenty, we made this announcement that we wanted to be carbon neutral across our supply chain and across all of our customers energy use.

And it sounds like, oh, it's just another thing Apple says.

Then you know, you know we're going to do it because we say we're gonna do it, But we wanted to give a little sneak peek into what that means and some of the creativity and innovation and technology.

You know, trees are.

A technology for us as well as being beauty and part of nature that we used to get there.

So, as you said, you know this this redwood tree behind us and the forest that you probably got a glimpse of, and the act of restoring a redwood forest means that those trees have to grow big trunks and leaves and roots like this, and that's pulling carbon out of the air.

So when we came up with our plans, we knew that just the technology available to us today meant about twenty five percent of our missions.

We weren't going to be able to take those to zero, and so that twenty five percent, we started looking around for the best technology to make up for it, and we decided that the technology already existed.

And what's lovely about it, you know, this is one of about twenty four projects around the world on six continents.

Is that each one of them are different, and I've gotten to see several, but we try to include the community.

You know, we have wonderful partners like the Conservation Fund.

The reason we like it is that they approach it as regenerative agriculture, which has an impact on the community.

This is a community that has a long history of timber and lumber production, and that's part of what makes us a sustainable project.

Why not just buy your way to carbon neutrality?

Well, you know, that's not very innovative.

It's certainly a solution.

And I don't want to knock it for people who that's where they choose to spend their time.

But at Apple, we've always looked at our footprint as an opportunity to lead on the technology.

You know, we've been doing clean energy and investing in clean energy for well over a decade now.

We've run the company on clean energy since twenty eighteen.

When we looked across at what it would take to really move our products.

We knew the material that makes up our products, if we can move that to recycled material.

We've had incredible success changeing our supply chain to incorporate more and more recycled material, like recycle cobalt in you know, ninety nine percent of the cobalt in our batteries now is recycled material.

Those things make changes that last for everyone.

They don't just change Apple, and they don't just change our products.

They change the approach that the world can take.

And that's the same way we feel here, you know, removing carbon and doing it through projects that invest in communities around the world and doing it in ways that allow the communities to be economically viable.

That's something that can be an example that could be used and change it for more than just us.

And you know, we want to be the ripple in the pond that that more we change, but the world changes.

Well you just answer my next question.

You know, are you setting example do you feel like I mean, Apple's a huge company moving millions upon millions of products, So if you can do this, is that a message that other companies can do this?

You know.

One of the real opportunities has been to work with our supply chain.

I mean, I don't like to think of us as being bragging or telling any other company how to do their business, but we have these supply chain that's pretty broad and you know here in the United States, and if we can work with our suppliers to help them be able to harness the power of clean energy or invest in nature based carbon removal as we do, that's that.

Will change a lot.

You know, that's a huge ripple because of the size of our supply chain, because we're around the world, because we're doing projects all around the world, and so yeah, I think I think it's part of our responsibility is to say we're not just doing this so we can feel good and pat ourselves on the back, but we want to bring just the way we bring our supply chain alone to make our products, we want to bring them along on this as well.

I think mother nature is reacting to us.

I think so average consumer, they buy a phone, they expected to work, they expected to function NI and Apple does a pretty good job at that, very good job at that.

This is kind of another side of things.

Do you think consumers can feel good the fact that they are upgrading, they are getting new products, they are using these products.

Do you think they can feel good knowing that you've thought about all this stuff about how to make this a sustainable business.

I hope that our customers take away from this that we are doing a lot of that thinking for them, so that they can know that the pledges and the promises we made are backed up by real work.

First off, and we're happy to give the examples and explain what we're doing and talk about our partners, but also that they see their role in it, you know, as our customers the best job in the world, you know, is being an Apple customer, but also taking seriously this idea of bringing back the product at the end of its life.

You know, we know our products last a long time, they have great trade and value.

That's another opportunity because every time we can get those products back into the recycling economy, back into that big circle of reusing material, it means less material has to be mined from the Earth, and that's a great thing.

So we're really proud of that as well, and I hope it's a delightful moment for customers.

Did you just feel delighted to know that the same expertise that makes these amazing products is being put to work on behalf of the planet as well.

The final question your relationship with nature?

Why do you do this?

What you know?

What makes you interested in doing this?

Such an interesting question.

I'm actually a city girl.

I grew up in New Orleans.

I live in the city, as I was saying before, But for me, the planet has always been tied to people.

We're part of this amazing ecosystem, and you know, we need the planet.

We need clean air to be healthy, and clean water, and we need our stable climate that can support us, and I think for me, the connection of these nature based product projects to the local economies and then to the economy of Apple is something that is profound and really important.

Yes it is.

That is Lisa Jackson, vice president of Environment Policy and Social Initiatives at Apple.

While I was in that forest for eight hours with no signal whatsoever, I did have a chance to check out satellite messaging on the iPhone and I will tell you it works.

The thing to know is that you do have to have a clear signal to the sky, and it's a slow process, so it's slow to send the message, it's slow to receive the message, and you might not get a notification that you have a new text, so you'll have to sit there and connect again to check for those messages.

So the other thing to know is that satellite messaging would not activate on my phone, and I was like, what is going on here?

And so finally I restarted my phone and sure enough it worked.

So if you're ever in a place where you need to use satellite messaging, your phone is not allowing it to activate.

Restart your phone, and by the way, not sure if you know this, you can ask Siri to restart your phone.

You can say hey, Siri, restart my phone, and that'll restart your phone.

So that's another way to do it.

The other thing I discovered because we were on the windiest road I have ever been on in my entire life.

Like when I tell you windy, I actually thought it was almost like torture.

It was so windy, Like I don't get carsick, and I was carsick.

There is a feature on the iPhone called Vehicle Motion Cues.

You can turn it on in accessibility, but it puts these little dots on your screen and somehow they move with the motion of the car and it makes you feel like you're not moving as much, Like you can look at your phone screen and not get as sick feeling.

So check it out.

They can go on automatically, like if you get carsick all the time, you can just turn this on once.

It'll recognize when you're in a car and it will just toggle that feature on again.

It's called vehicle Motion Cues.

And the other thing that I discovered up there is a beautiful place in California called Healsburg.

Oh my gosh, So I stayed there the night before I had to go into the woods and it's like this little wine sort of I don't know, I guess it's like a it's kind of in your Napa valley, but beautiful.

It's like a little town square in the center, and there was like tasting rooms, restaurants.

Definitely somewhere I want to go back.

So northern California beautiful, beautiful place, and it's nice to know that Apple is helping out by preserving some of the woods up there.

Redwoods by the way, if you haven't seen them, those trees are incredible.

They'd last forever and they are just huge, so really really cool.

Anyway, if you want to see my story, I did a TV segment on this, you can go to the website rich on Tech dot tv and just hit the icon or the link that says here's why Apple is investing in a California redwoods forest.

All right, coming up, more of your calls eighty eight rich one one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.

I'll tell you about the app that was recording call for AI and then one plus coming out with the one plus fifteen.

I'll tell you all about that.

Right here.

I'm rich on Tech.

Welcome back to rich on tech eighty eight Rich one oh one eighty eight seven four two four one zero one.

Mike is in Huntington Beach.

You're on with Rich.

Hey, Rich, thanks for taking my call.

Can you hear me?

All right?

Yeah, thank you?

Okay, so good.

This is first time caller.

And uh, I've been wanting to ask you this question for years.

So here it is.

I found an old Nokia sixty three fifty my flip phone that I have a picture that I took of my daughter in nineteen eighty eight.

Oh man, Then yep, I'm telling you what.

It's just a real memorable one.

And so I I really don't know anything about any kind of phone.

But as I'm looking at it, I took out the little card where you used to be able to see what pictures are on your card, and it's not on that card.

So that means that it must just be in the phone somewhere.

Does that make sense to you?

Is it possible that.

It's just in the phone?

And so I was wondering if there's any way I can get to that and have it, you know, get a copy that made.

So you want to remove this photo from the phone, That is correctly, Okay, and you don't.

Okay, So there's a couple of things.

Number one, if it's got the SD card, there may be a way to copy that.

I mean, do you have the charger for this phone?

Is it like powered on everything?

It's it's it's charging right now.

I have a battery for it and the charger, And yeah, I keep looking at it.

Like once a year agoing I got to call rich on.

Tech and ask them this, do you have a USB CA do you have some sort of cable for it for your computer?

You know, I don't know that answer.

Okay, if that if that's that's something I'm going to write down and see if I do.

Is that possible to have those out there that would sit.

Into my mac?

I mean probably you could get like go on eBay or something like that to see.

But let's I think I think there's gonna be a way to do this.

This is you said this in Nokia sixty three fifty.

That's what it is.

Because this one, okay, this I'm looking online.

It says that was released in two thousand and nine, so that's probably not it.

There must be an older one.

I'm guessing I'm looking.

At it right now.

Let me see did I make a mistake.

They could have reused the number or the naming convention you know later on.

But anyway, I think there's there's a couple of ways to attack this.

Number one, I think that if you can copy that photo, if there's some sort of functionality, like when you're viewing that photo on that phone, look for some sort of way to copy it to the SD card.

It might say there might be a menu in there that lets you copy that to the SD card.

That would be the absolute easiest way to do it.

So that's number one.

Number two, I think this is going to be the second easiest way is bluetooth, So you can bluetooth.

Typically you can send that photo via Bluetooth from that Nokia phone to your computer.

And this was one of the ways that we transferred things back in the day before we got all the high tech stuff that we have.

Now.

Have you investigated that aspect of this, No, I haven't.

I've just asked a few people and you know, and they say, yeah, I have no idea how to do it.

So I've gotten written down there, you know, either copy it to the phone or to the card, which there is no card in it now.

So I can't do that, but I think this bluetooth thing, I'll try to figure out if I can hook it up to the computer and do it that way.

Those are the only two options.

I've even taken it into like photoshops, and they didn't.

Know what to do with it.

No.

I mean, the only other option would be is if you could go on eBay find a cable, the original cable for this.

It might be like the old school USB cable, plus you know, some sort of proprietary connector that Nokia used on these phones, and then you can connect it to your computer.

There's no guarantee that that phone will show up as a drive on that computer, but it may because you know, back in the day, we didn't really transfer things wirelessly as much.

We did everything manually, so it may show up.

Yeah, it also may not show up on your Mac.

It may you may have to try, you know, try your Mac and then if you have a friend with a Windows computer, maybe try it on there.

I if the bluetooth thing doesn't work, I think the bluetooth thing is going to be your best bet.

So what you would do is you would just turn on the bluetooth go to that picture on the device and then on your computer.

If you're trying it on the Mac, you know, toggle on.

There's like the thing called Bluetooth File Exchange.

Let me see if we can find it here Bluetooth.

You have a Mac, you said, yes, I do.

So if you open up the Bluetooth File Exchange and let's see settings here.

I'm trying to see, you should be able to like put your computer into like a receiving mode and then have it receive that file from the computer so that or you can even try it with your iPhone.

I mean you can just try like all of your different like any of your devices that you have, like another Android if you have it, or an iPhone, put it in that pairing mode, like pair it up and just try to send that file to that other device.

So that's that's another way to do it.

So I think between the SD card, the microSD, whatever kind of card it had on their memory card, try to copy it there.

First you may have to be a memory card.

Second is a Bluetooth, third is the USB cable.

So those are the three ways to do it.

There used to be like a program and you might find these out there.

There's like a Nokia suite or something like that.

But it looks like all the downloads are not official anymore.

So you have to proceed at your own risk with downloading that program.

So I would be careful with that, Okay.

Yeah, I.

The knowledge that I have in my brain is kind of telling me maybe the pairing thing and just trying different devices.

Try to go with the Bluetooth and.

Just see if you can get in receiving mode, see if it will transfer over.

Yeah, so I think I have a good I have a good place to start.

Thank you so much.

I sure appreciate it.

I bet it's kind of work, all right, Mike.

Yeah, I want to hear the report card on this.

I want to see if it works because I've done this in the past.

You know, I test a lot of phones, and I've done this exact thing in the past.

Now I can't say I've done it with this exact phone, but in the past, when there's been a challenge of getting a photo off an old phone, Bluetooth is typically the best way.

Now, it's gonna be a slow process.

It's gonna you know that less than one megabyte file is probably gonna take, like, you know, a little bit of time, you know, thirty seconds to transfer over or something.

It's not gonna be like air drop, so just remember that.

But I think that you'll be able to do that with the with the Bluetooth, and that's probably the best solution I can think of.

The Other thing you could do is activate this phone again, just get it activated.

I know it probably doesn't have Wi Fi, but maybe you can activate it with a SIM card and just you know, exit to yourself.

If you do that.

That's a very expensive option, but you know, you can get a prepaid SIM out there and pop it into this phone and text that picture to yourself.

That's one more option, So lots of different options.

Hopefully you get that precious picture of your daughter off of that phone and into some sort of online storage so that you can keep it forever.

Great call, Thanks a lot.

Eighty eight rich one on one eighty eight seven four to two four one zero one one plus skip it over the one plus fourteen and going right to the one plus fifteen.

Uh.

They announced it and I will tell you more about that coming up right here on rich on Tech.

Welcome back to rich On Tech.

Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology.

Triple eight rich one oh one eight eight eight seven four to two four one zero one.

The website also available.

If you want to get in touch, just go to rich on tech dot tv hit contact.

Did you know you can listen to this show as a podcast Now?

I always think listening live is the best way, but if you miss an episode, you can always listen later.

Just search you guessed it rich on tech in your favorite audio app.

A couple things to get to before we get back to the phone lines.

Here.

One Plus coming out with the one Plus fifteen.

They officially announced it at the Snapdragon summit in China.

It's going to have the new Snapdragon eight Elite Gen five chip, whatever that means.

Now here's the interesting part.

They are dropping their five year partnership with Hasselblad.

This is the I believe European company that was doing all their color tuning.

They made a big thing about this for the past couple of phones, but I guess they're ditching it and now they're using one Plus's own detail Max engine for photography.

So I'll be honest.

I love one plus phones.

They are really really good on the Android side, Like I'm talking the best specs you can get on a phone, and the downside has always been they were not able to tune their camera properly.

And I don't know why.

Every year I get this phone, I'm like, this is a phone I want to use, and then I, you know, take a couple of pictures of the camera, like, ah, okay, we'll try next year.

They did skip the fourteen.

They went from thirteen to fifteen because four is unlucky in Chinese culture.

Camera specs promises clear, natural, real shots.

No pricing or release date just yet.

But the other thing to know is that one plus phones often launched without a carrier here in the US, so you do have to go out of your way a little bit to get them.

But otherwise, if you like spex, one plus phones are always screaming in that aspect.

There's this app called Neon that promised up to thirty dollars a day for recording your phone calls and then getting all the data from them and selling that to AI companies and they would pay you for that, basically pay you to record your calls.

The company has apparently paused service.

This app went to like the top of the app store because I guess people didn't mind having their phone calls recorded and harvested for data.

I said they only recorded one side, which was your side, so they got around the two party states.

But I'm not sure.

I'm not a legal expert, but I don't know if that does that.

But apparently this app is no longer functioning.

I guess let's see Neon see if you go to the app store, ooh, simon, there it is.

Doesn't really say anything.

Let's see if the website says that it's been paused.

Apparently tech Crunch found a flaw that let other people access the recording, So what a thought.

I mean, I don't know.

This thing is just weird.

We talked about it on TV.

I just don't get it.

I mean, I understand about making money on your calls, but like, who's going to do that?

I would not do that, but I know you can record calls, and it's just anyway.

The app is called Neonmobile dot Com.

If you want to check it out.

I can't record that you do this, and I'm not even sure it's working anymore.

But yeah, and then we'll get to a call in a second.

But Steve wrote in, hey, Rich, I heard you talking about the new Alexa.

It might be the latest and greatest, but I actually switch back to dumb Alexa when I want to turn on a light for say two hours.

The new Alexa makes you set up a routine.

All I wanted to do was turn on a light for a certain amount of time and then shut down.

So if one time I want the light on for one hour and then one and a half the next day, it makes you set up a routine for every time.

So I switched back to the dumb Alexa, and now I could turn on a light for any duration without setting up a routine.

I have not checked that.

I will try that when I get home and see what happens.

All right, let's go to Christina waiting patiently in Monterey, California.

You're on with Rich.

Hi, Rich, thank you for taking my call.

Yeah, Hi, So I question my Google account that I've had for over five years.

All of a sudden, just send me an email saying that they can not verify that I'm an adult and they're restricting parts of my account because of this.

I went into like, I only use it for my Android phone basically just for emails and just to have an Android phone active with the Google account.

But I couldn't find any settings, and I couldn't respond to the email they sent me because it was a no reply email and they didn't even ask me for any proof of age.

And I just don't know where to find the setting to correct that, because I'm looking at it from my androids phone and I don't see anything that says we need your proof of age in the account itself, other than the email.

They sent me.

Right, Okay, So a couple things.

First off, Google is indeed using AI to verify users ages.

So are you over eighteen?

Oh?

Yes, I'm well over eighteen.

I'm fifty seven.

Oh okay.

Are you looking up things like cartoons, music, toy reviews, gaming videos, educational videos on YouTube?

No?

I mean just recently.

I just used the only recent chain of I mean, I subscribed to Turning Point USA.

But what about searching for things like fried egg, jellyfish, no, screaming Harry Armadillo.

No, okay, these are things that kids might search.

And so what Google's doing is they're using a bunch of signals to figure out if someone is under eighteen.

And the reason for this is all these child privacy and safety and security things, most of it is over in the UK, but it does affect people here as well.

I will be honest.

My mom got this and I could not I was laughing because she said I never heard of it before.

She said, I got this email from Google saying they can't verify my age.

I know I'm over eighteen.

What is this?

And I never heard of it?

And they wanted her credit card to verify.

And I said, that sounds like a scam.

But after some research, it is not a scam.

And so it sounds like they have flagged your account for being potentially underage.

But you can go to a page on Google to verify your age, and they might ask for something like an ID or a credit card.

They do a verification of like a dollar or something, and then they credit you once they do it.

Now the age if you go to my account dot Google dot com slash age dash verification.

If you go to that page, mine says congrats, your age is verified.

You don't need to take any action because your Google account doesn't require age verification.

You can close this window.

But I'm guessing if you go to that page, it may say that your age is not verified, and so you should follow the instructions there to verify your age.

You might also take a closer look look at that email that you got and see see if there's any link in there that lets you do this.

Now, obviously you need to be careful because you know, scammers try to, you know, exploit these kind of things, and so just make sure it's an official email from Google.

But but yeah, I mean, so it's just I.

Think, I'm sorry, do I need to do that from a computer because I'm at my Google account right now on my Android phone and it's a Google account, and is it under is it under data and privacy or.

I'm well, if you go to, uh, let's see my account, you can do it on your phone.

Let's see my account dot Google dot com.

Let me see if I can find like the actual my Account's tough to type in there, my account dot Google dot com.

Okay, so I type that in and I'm looking at personal info.

Yeah, i'd have to, I'd have to look and see.

But I think the direct one is just that website that I gave you.

And I'm sure there's a link in here somewhere under your Google account where if you go to my account dot Google dot com, I'm sure you can find some sort of link, but the direct link is my account dot Google dot com, slash age dash verification.

I'll put that link on the show notes so you can find it.

I'll also link up this help article.

Google announced that they were using AI.

Let's see when did that happen?

A couple months ago because I mentioned it on the news, But basically that's when they started doing this in a big way, is when AI.

They just said, Hey, we're gonna start using AI to find all these signals and verify people.

And it's really for your security, their security.

They're just covering themselves as well to make sure that no one's accessing this.

Oh yeah, start in July.

Make sure nobody's accessing Google that might be underage.

The same thing is with Apple right now, they've got a system where you can now if you what happened was during the pandemic, everyone was rushing to set up their kids accounts because we all had to get on there, they had to get on computer and things like that.

With Google and also Apple, it was kind of a free for all back then, right, and so Apple is now letting parents go in and change the age of their child to make sure that it is the proper age for that account, because what most parents did they didn't want to deal with all the issues that come with setting up a child's account because then you have to deal with all the screen time restrictions, the age restrictions, that download restrictions.

So people just would say, oh, they'd give their kid a higher age than they were.

And now Apple has realized that and they said, okay, you can now go in with iOS twenty six and you can change your child's account to the right age, so that all these restrictions and things we have will now fall in line with your child.

So, yeah, sorry, that happened to you, Christina, But find that page, find that link, and hopefully you can verify who you are.

That's you say you are.

Let's see here.

Paullette says, I heard you talk about a caller named who was asking about Visible.

I signed up a couple weeks ago and it took some time, but their website chat walked me through everything I needed help, but got it all done online without a problem.

All right, Well, that's good to know, paul At thanks for writing that.

In Visible is actually going to be now at best Buy.

So if you're on like the traditional Verizon plan, you could and if you're a little tech savvy, you could switch to Visible, which is the same network but like half the price.

And now you'll actually be able to go into best Buy to sort of ask a couple questions.

Make sure your phone is compatible, get a simcard, and that all starts on September twenty eighth, so you can do that, and yes, basically this week, so Visible.

I think it's a fantastic deal.

I'll be completely honest.

I switched my wife a couple of years ago.

She fought it because she's like, well, how is this better than Verizon?

Are different?

I said, it's not different at all.

You don't use your phone that much.

So unlimited everything.

I think they're doing it for like nineteen dollars a month right now.

Yeah, nineteen dollars a month for one year for like unlimited everything basically, and they have plans that are nineteen twenty nine or thirty nine.

So I would I would strongly consider looking into this if you like Verizon and you're paying a lot more.

You basically just have to sign up online or go into the Best Buy store next week and just talk to someone and say, hey, is my phone going to work?

With this, you can keep your number, all that good stuff, but it can save you a boatload of money because Visible is literally run by Verizon.

That's the bottom line, all right.

Eighty eight rich one on one eighty eight seven four to two four one zero one still come up this hour.

We are going to talk photos, preserving your photos, scanning your photos.

We'll get some great recommendations from our photo expert, Chris de Kay, more of your calls, your emails, and just good information.

Right here, I'm rich on Tech.

Welcome back to rich On Tech.

Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology.

This song goes out to all my demon Hunters out there.

This movie blew up on Netflix k Pop.

Demon Hunters watched it with the kids the other day and it was great.

We had such a good time.

I mean, I love when things just surprise you, right, Like, I've heard so much about this movie.

I've heard this song on the radio, and now I'm just like, yeah, it's it's good.

Whenever there's a unique idea, I love unique ideas, like you, there's a lot of unoriginal ideas out there, but sometimes things just pop right not to you know, no pun intended.

But this movie just popped because it was so different and it had a great storyline, it was visually appealing, it was different, but also it had the music to go along with it.

And so there's a lot going on here.

And it's clear why it became so popular anyway, Kate Pop Demon Hunters.

Why, I mean, it's it's a kid's show.

It's like a kid's movie.

But I've got kids, so I watch.

I don't know if adults would like it on their own, but it's I think they would.

Uh, let's go to Virginia in Utica, New York, Virginia.

You're on with Rich.

Hello, Rich played to reach you.

Yeah, all right, my laptop cannot be upgraded to Window Aladdin.

Okay.

My dilemma is do I get a Mac or do I get another Windows.

I'm paying a fortune for Advance for anti virus and their whole package.

Would I need it with a Mac?

No?

No, I've been running a Mac for twenty years and I've never put antivirus on it, So you don't need it.

I don't think you need it.

On the Windows side of things either.

They have their own Windows Security built in, which as long as you keep that updated, you'll be fine, why are you wanting the Mac?

Is it only for the virus stuff?

For what?

Basically?

I do use an iPad and an iPhone all.

Okay, So it's a halo effect.

You love what you do there and you love how those work, and now you're like, hmm, I wonder if the laptop would work just as well.

Is that what you're thinking, right, I've never used a Mac.

Yeah, so it would take a little bit of getting used to.

But what are you doing on the Mac?

Are you doing like standard surfing, watching Windows?

Yeah, surfing emails and I use open Office word in spreadsheet.

Okay, well you can get that on you can get that on the Mac side of things, so open Office let me just make sure, yeah you can, you can download that for the Mac.

I would say, if you're if you're wondering, how long have you had your old computer?

I guess I mean yeah.

And are you thinking a laptop or a or a desktoptop?

Okay, I would think I will tell you this.

I test everything, and I my personal computer that I buy every year is the MacBook.

Usually I buy a Pro.

This time I want the Air and and it is fantastic.

It does everything that you need.

I call it the money maker because it literally makes my living.

I do everything on here, and so I have no problems with it.

It works every single time, it's fast, it's efficient, the battery lasts forever, like I never think about the battery on this thing.

The software is slick, Everything that you need is on there.

And the price.

Are you an educator or anything like that?

Do you have any discount?

No?

Just a retired host.

Life Okay, all right, well, I mean I would say go try the MacBook Air.

I really love these computers and they could last.

By the way, for like, my dad is using my old one.

I think it's over ten years old.

I'm not even sure.

Actually it's probably not supported with software anymore, so I probably should get them a new one.

Is there a size I need to know?

I personally would go with the fifteen inch.

The reason why if you go with the thirteen you are going to be struggling for these green real estate and I did that.

I made that mistake once and I would never do it again because you just especially now today with like AI.

You may I don't know if you're using chat GBT or not, but for me, okay, well, if you're not using a program on the side.

I like to have my chat GBT on the side of the screen, or my text message is always on the side because I'm always chatting with someone or messaging, and so I have.

I have a fifteen inch monitor attached to it.

Okay, so and you like that size?

Yeah yeah, so I thirteen is gonna feel too cramped for you.

So I would say, do you have a store near you, an Apple store?

I don't think so, best spine, Okay.

I would go in there.

Check out the MacBook Air fifteen.

It's got the new newest processor, the M four.

Uh starts at nine ninety nine.

But obviously you're if you're gonna get the bigger screen, it's gonna be a little bit more expensive.

But I would just do that and just make the switch and uh yeah, the fifteen inch starts at twelve hundred.

Make the switch, and I think you're gonna love it.

I really do.

I really think that.

It's just it's such a solid computer for the long term.

Good question.

Thanks for calling, Virginia.

I appreciate it.

Coming up next, we're going to talk photography, preserving photos, scanning photos, all that good stuff.

Right here on 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.

This is one of my favorite topics.

Photography.

I've got over I don't know, two hundred thousand photos in my Google Photos, and Krista Qualchek is all about making photo organization easy, making sure you have those old pictures digitized, all that good stuff.

Christa, Welcome to the Welcome back to the show.

Yeah, absolutely, thanks for having me Rich.

So you've been busy give updates since the last time.

You have a book that's out now, Beyond the Storm too.

I'm very excited.

My book came out in June and just been a busy world end of a summer promoting the book and doing book signings and stuff.

But it just documented my time after Hurricane Ian.

So I helped people to salvage blood damage photographs site.

So I wrote a book about that experience, but I filled it with all of the tips, all the easy solutions anybody can use to be proactive with their photos and not go through what I.

Saw after Hurricane Ian and make sure your photos are safe.

Yeah, I mean that's the thing, like we we always think like I'll do this tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, and then something happens and then you lose them.

We had a caller earlier that was trying to get a photo out of a Nokia phone from nineteen eighty eight.

He said, which, all on, I wait, nineteen eighty did they even have no kias in?

Anyway, it was an old.

Yeah, I was wondering, I don't know the math on that.

Yeah, And maybe the maths was great.

Advice, Your advice was great, But.

Anyway, it's like, you know, these things happen, and like I've got this old drive at home that I've been trying to get pictures off for a while.

You know, it's just like we kind of put this stuff off.

But what are you hearing out there when you talk to people?

What is sort of like the biggest issue people have with their photos?

You know, just not having enough time to do the project, putting an auful tomorrow, procrastination.

And I really think that this is something that is so important, and especially as we're hearing more and more of these stories of natural disasters.

But then also time, I mean, whether it's digital photos or it's those old print photos, time is eating them away.

And I really think procrastination is the biggest issue, and it's the biggest hurdle, and it's the one thing we really need to stop doing, stop progressing in the photos because after Hurricane and I heard over and over again it was the most difficult loss, and these are people that lost everything.

So I think it's just so important that everybody let's that message sink in and really gives their photos the love they deserve.

Yeah, there's not a quick solution for procrastination because it kind of permeates various aspects of our lives.

So get those photos, get them into digital places, get them backed up, all those things.

I mean, I hear all the time people email me say I lost my phone, or I dropped my phone, or I broke my phone, and like none of the pictures were backed up.

How can I get them back?

I'm like, I don't know.

There's not a way to get them back if you don't back them up.

No, for sure, you're absolutely right, and it's really not that hard to you know, add dropbox or Amazon Photos or one of these extra layers of security.

They're all layers of security.

So I always suggest everybody has in addition to the iCloud.

If you're on iPhone or you're on Android, you know, you just have to have an additional layer of security.

So I definitely always recommend that.

So whatever you're uploading to, if you are, that's great, that's amazing, but also have something else because you never know there could be another Like you're really supposed to have your things in three places, right the physical on the phone, in dropbox, or in Google Photos and Dropbox, or you know, whatever combination you want.

But what you mentioned Amazon Photos is a good one.

It's kind of like a sleeper because people don't realize that's included on Limited with your Amazon Prime membership for photos only video.

They only give you five gigs, so just turn off, which, by the way, I got to give credit to Amazon.

They could have made it tricky by not letting you turn off video uploads right, and that would have gobbled up all your stuff instantly.

But they do give you the option in the settings to say I only want my pictures uploaded, which is just a great way to get them sort of protected.

Let's talk Nano Banana.

So I talked about this on the show a while a couple episodes ago, but I'm pretty impressed.

What are you seeing with the abilities of this Google nano Banana.

I am between love it and I have a couple cautionary tales.

The things that can do is amazing.

So going back to Hurricane Ian, I had some really really super professionals working on digitally restoring photos for me, and we took things that had some severe damage and they were able to spend hours and restore them.

I took those same photos and I put them into nano Banana and I got some pretty comparable results in thirty seconds.

So wow, amazing.

I wish this tool was available three years ago.

But my warning, my cautionary warning for everyone, is that I found that when it's sending you back the restored photo or the altered photo, whatever you've done with that photo, it's giving you a much lower resolution photo and I could not find a way around that.

I think it's something that's going to be corrected.

Maybe it'll be something a lot to pay for, But do not delete your original photo.

If you're looking to eliminate that son in law that's not in the picture anymore and you want to get them out of the photo, this is a great option.

You can remove somebody from the family photo, but you have to make sure that you keep that original for the time being because what you're getting downloaded, what you're saving.

It might be fine for Instagram, it's fine for Facebook, but once you print it, you're going to see it it's a pretty low quality photo.

Okay, that's a great thing to note, So yes, keep that original because technology continues to evolve and we may have a better way of doing this or Google just may give us the option to get a higher quality image out of this.

But for social media sharing, quick sharing, sharing with the family, that's that's great stuff.

And by the way, if you're wondering what Gemini Nano banana is, this is Google's AI so it's kind of like chat gybt but Google's version.

And you can go to Google Gemini dot Google dot com or open up the Gemini app on your phone and under tools or you'll see a little button that says create images or might be a banana next to it.

That's for the nano banana is just a fun way of saying we Google updated their image their AI image editing with this fun name.

Basically, speaking of AI, there's also the project Indigo from Adobe.

What do you know, about that.

Yeah, yeah, I've been using that as hunt.

I really like it.

So you know, this is the app.

You're downloading this to your phone and it's working as another camera.

I wouldn't open up this app to take any photo, but for your anything it's in low lighting.

It is amazing what the difference is.

So I've taken photos in just some interior things, even.

Not not I mean a night sky.

I think it would do a fabulous difference, but just an interior photo where you're not using your flash and it's a little darker.

I've done comparisons and it really is a much better photo.

So you know, it's just a it's a free app right now you can download a phone on your phone.

It's it's giving you another option to take some better pictures and especially in low lighting situations.

Yeah.

Project Indigo.

This uses computational photography.

And the guy who is behind it started out as the sort of grandfather of the Pixel camera on Google.

His name's Mark Lavoy, and he switched.

He was like the kind of the guy in charge of all the stuff at Pixel and then he switched.

He went to Adobe and he said, hm, I think we can do this same technology.

But in an app, because the pixel camera has always been like Google's phone has always been ninety nine percent software like instead of just having like the bigger lenses, the better lenses.

So yeah, that's kind of worth trying out.

I used it in a dark kind of hotel lobby when I was in Mexico City.

That's when it launched, and so I was taking a bunch of pictures with it there, and it is quite impressive with what it can do.

But again, I agree with you what you're saying.

Don't necessarily use it for all of your photos, but it is kind of a fun way to see, especially if you have an older phone.

I think it works an iPhone twelve and up.

It'll like, uh grade, Yeah, it'll upgrade your camera like pretty well.

So that's a free app from Adobe, all right.

I always like to get your latest recommendations, scanners, printers, you know, any of your tools that you like.

Tell me some of the tools that you're loving these days.

For sure.

Well, you know, I am all about getting those old photos digitized, and honestly, that technology is not what I recommend for people.

Is the same I've recommended for a couple of years now.

I love the EPs and Fast Photo scanner.

You can you can go through so many of your photos you can scan.

I think it does thirty a minute where you are just getting a digital copy of all of those photos.

And you think the average person has thousands and thousands of old photos.

This is taking that project and turning it into a weekend not a three month project like it would be with the flatbed.

So I always recommend the APPS and Fast Photo.

There is a new slide scanner if you have any of those old slides, the HP Film Scanner.

It's new, it's the same technology, it's kind of just been rebranded with a touch screen.

So it's just kind of an easy tool and gets you a decent quality scan of old slides, especially, so those are the ones I recommend the most for just getting those digital copies of that that old those old prints, the old memories, and making sure they're safe.

I think they just sent me the HP one.

Is that one relatively new or is that maybe I got a new version of it or something like?

It is new?

Yeah, it's new.

The touch screen aspect is the only thing that I would say is new.

The technology of it is been around, you know, it's it's not new technology necessarily, but the touch screen aspect makes it nice.

And you know, I've used it's great quality scans for what it is, just this little and you don't even need a computer to use it.

You just pop a memory card in it and it saves them to a memory card.

So I really li that make anything simple because, like I said after Hurricanie and my goal was just to make sure that people are taking steps to make sure their photos are safe and I don't want technology to be a barrier between somebody having safe photos or not so.

And then I think this is a great solution for.

That and real quick before we have to go three hundred or six hundred DEPI isn't that like the question they ask when you're scanning, like one is a little bit slaw?

Six hundred Yeah, okay, I always use six hundred.

Yeah.

I think you're going to be better.

From a printing perspective, I think it's best and you know, it's it's just yeah, better to have the option to be able to print a photo.

Okay, there you have it.

The christa k dot com, The christa k dot com.

That's your website.

Sign up there get uh, don't you get like a free little pdf of all the stuff you love if you sign up for your newsletter or something I do.

I do a whole list of every tool.

It's over seventy items now.

Every time I test something out, I added to the list.

But it's my free photo resource guide and it is everything from photo labs I've tested out, to picture frames and scanning devices and even new apps.

So it's all there in one place.

All right, christa qualchick, thanks so much for joining me the christak dot com.

I'll put the link on the website.

Coming up, we are going to open up the feedbag and see what you're saying this week right here on rich On Tech.

Welcome back to rich On Tech.

Can't get this song out of my head.

Olivia Dean out of England.

Just so good.

This song is just I just want to put this song on.

It's just like it instantly you're relaxed.

It's soothing.

It's like a warm cup of like tea or coffee.

Ah, just so nice.

I just play that song on a repeat anyway, Olivia Dean, if you want to check it out, all right, it is time for the Feedbag.

This is your feedback plus the mail Bag These are the emails, the comments, and the questions I get from you.

If you want to submit yours, you can go to rich on tech dot tv and hit contact real quick.

On my instagt I posted, you know, I've got ring one of those ring doorbells, and I've got the AI what do they call it officially?

I don't know what they call it?

Ring?

AI?

Yeah, video descriptions, so it basically looks at what's happening on your ring doorbell.

It doesn't just say someone's at your front door.

It gives you like a description, so it'll say like a USPS person is delivering mail to your mailbox.

But I got one yesterday I thought was hilarious.

A person is fixing their hair on your porch.

And I posted that to my Instagram and I just said, I'm glad I have an AI doorbell for alerts like this.

But it's very descriptive.

It'll be like two kids are approaching your front door with an ice cream cone.

Like it's very funny.

Anyway, I just thought that one was really funny.

It was my friend.

We were he's picking up a kid at my house last night.

It was just I'm sure he put his hands in his hair or something.

It was not me fixing my hair.

Uh, let's get to the feedback.

It was me.

It was bobo, Sean.

I had my backup codes hidden in a closet under some clothes.

After hearing you suggest keeping them in a safer lock box, I realize that's a much smarter idea.

You are a lifesaver.

Thank you, Sean.

Don and Maryland writes in I used Monarch Money for a year, but dropped it when it stopped connecting to all my investment accounts.

I now use both Empower and Fidelity Full View since I'm a Fidelity customer.

They aren't perfect.

Some bank accounts and a credit card don't link, but they give me a better picture of my overall net worth than Monarch did.

In the end, it comes down to personal finances and preferences for what works best.

Yes, I talked about how much I love Monarch Money.

I still love it.

I think it's amazing.

It did drop one of my accounts.

Yesterday, I got like a notification that I said, your account was having some trouble connect connecting.

But that's the first time I've seen that.

With all the other ones, I had so many issues I was using Rocket Money.

I definitely have used Empower.

I think that one's great.

I've not tried Fidelity, but again, it's good to have options.

But if you want to see your net worth on one page, monarchy is great, and power's great, and I guess fidelity as well.

You got to pay for that feature on the Rocket Money.

By the way, Mark writes in I updated to iOS twenty six, and while there are some cool features, I'm underwhelmed.

I couldn't figure out how to save or share the new three D photos.

Spoiler, you can't.

I also turn on call screening, thinking it would only block spam, but it screened legitimate calls, which is tough since I'm in sales.

Maybe that's my fault for not fully understanding the setting.

But overall, I'm not finding the total value yet.

I understand that it might take some time to warm up.

And yes, there the call screening feature is great, but yes, if you're in any sort of business where you rely on random people calling you, probably not the best thing.

Frank and Alcoholane says, love your show.

I look forward to listening to the podcast every Sunday while walking my dog.

Just be careful not to turn into an Apple fanboy.

You've been pretty balanced lately, but the last couple of newsletters have been loaded with iPhone coverage.

Crazy how Apple gets credit for catching up, and then you gave Meta's new ray band display glasses only one sentence, even though they might actually point towards a future where we don't even need phones.

Frank, I'm not turning into an Apple fanboy.

I was covering what happened with Apple, and there's a lot of stuff so I get invited to Apple events.

Meta has yet to invite me to an event, so that's why I didn't cover the ray band display glasses completely.

But I did have a guest on the show that was at the event, and so you know, I do try to be balanced, and I think I do a pretty good job at that.

Thank you, though, and I'll thanks for keeping on my toes.

Gerald writes in thanks for finally giving Apple some love.

Oh we just had someone say I'm an Apple fanboy.

Now we have thanks for finally giving Apple some love.

Usually praise Samsung more.

I used to hate Apple and was all in on Android, but after my Samsung phones kept breaking down after two years, I switched to iPhone and have never looked back.

I bought the iPhone sixteen Pro and now wish i'd waited for the seventeen Pro.

Honestly, what I notice a big difference.

I went from a twenty twenty se to the sixteen Pro, which is already a huge jump.

I love your show.

Keep up the good work, Like I say, if it is working for you, Gerald, stick with it.

You made a big leap.

The iPhone sixteen Pro is still a fantastic device.

You still get iOS twenty six Oh wait, am I starting to sound like a fanboy.

No, it's a great phone.

Look if it was cheap to upgrade to the seventeen Pro, like you know, one hundred dollars or less, I'd say go for it.

But it sounds like you keep your phones for a while.

You'll be just fine.

Let's see.

Noel writes in I'm glad you made it through your recent car crash.

I had a similar experience when I was younger, something I wouldn't wish on anyone.

Yes, I want to share a cool site.

Satellitemap dot space attracks all the STARLINGK satellites, including failed and degraded ones.

Pilots also see some interesting satellite activity on approach flights before sunrise.

Some of us think it could actually be NASA's Starling program, a swarm of cube SATs testing autonomus coordination in orbit at his way above my pay grade.

But satellitemap dot space sounds pretty cool.

Yes, you can see all the satellites.

Mariel writes in your show is so helpful and amazing.

Just want to say thank you, Mariel.

Salvador more love, he says, thanks for all your help.

Love you on KTLA and I listen to your podcast.

Thank you Salvador for doing that.

And Doug writes in I love your shows on KFI and KTLA.

You're the best.

Oh my gosh, let's just leave it there.

Thank you, Doug.

That's gonna do it for this episode of the show.

As always, you can find links to everything I mentioned on my website.

Just go to rich on tech dot tv.

If you haven't already figured it out, you can find me on social media.

I am at rich on tech check out my Instagram.

That's where I am most of the time.

Next week, we've got Steven Robles, tech journalist and content creator.

He had a viral video recently about how to set up this shortcut on your iPhone if it gets stolen to take a picture and like send you a message.

So we'll talk to him and a friend of the show, Mark Vina, a principal analyst at Smart Tech Research.

He's going to talk about some of the gadgets he loves.

Thank you so much for listening.

There are so many ways you can spend your time.

I do appreciate you spending it right here with me.

One reminder before I go, please do not drive distracted for your safety and the safety of everyone around you.

Thanks to everyone who makes this show possible.

We got Bobo, we got Kim, We got my mom doing music.

My name is rich Dmiro.

I will talk to you real soon.