The Tech Guy Episode 1926 Transcript
Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.
Leo Laporte (00:00:02):
Podcasts you love from people you trust. This is TWiT. Hi, this is Leo Laporte and this is my tech guy podcast. This show originally aired on the premier networks, 200 stations coast to coast on Sunday, September 11th, 2022. This is episode 1,926. This episode of the tech guy is brought to you by Cachefly. Deliver your video on the network with the best throughput and global reach making your content infinitely. Scalable. Go live in hours. Not days. Learn more at cachefly.com. Why? Hey, Hey, how are you today? Time to talk high tech Leola port here, the tech guy. Yes. The matter of the hour computers, the internet home theater, digital photography, smartphone smart watches, all that jazz. Eighty eight eighty eight ask Leo is my phone number (888) 827-5536. Toll free from anywhere in the us or Canada outside that area. You could still call, but you'll have to use Skype out.
Leo Laporte (00:01:11):
Or I guess we had a call yesterday from Portugal over a Google voice. You could use that too. Anything to let you call a, a landline. And since the landline is told free should be free to call website tech guy labs.com, tech guy labs.com. That's where you'll find all the links that I mention transcript of the show, audio and video the show too, after the fact tech guy labs.com. So apple had an event. Did you, did you, did you notice it's interesting, these, you know, these used to be, I used to call 'em the you know, the you know, Christmas for apple fans, you know, the, the, the annual apple holiday, the big iPhone event in September. It is a bit, I mean, I guess it's not as big as it used to be, right? I mean, it was big when every year apple would say something that would blow your mind, or maybe my mind's just been blown so many times.
Leo Laporte (00:02:10):
I don't, I no longer feel it nothing particularly mind boggling this, this year. There is a new, very different looking apple watch the ultra, which is aimed at extreme athletes. And I, you know, I think they clearly talked to extreme athletes. And then maybe even more importantly looked at Garin, which is the leader in this category. The, you know, the expensive thousand dollars extreme athlete watch for runners, for divers, for mountain climbers. And they made a watch that I think competes head to head directly against the, the high end garment for a little less $800. It's big, but it's titanium. It's gonna gotta be rugged. I think it's got unlike the current apple watch a flat glass or Sapphire, I guess, flat Sapphire face that is then slightly protected by a titanium lip around it. I don't know. We'll see, you know, most of the people buy, it are not gonna be extreme athletes like me.
Leo Laporte (00:03:17):
I bought it, you know, it's my job. I gotta look at it. But I also, you know, like, like an extreme athlete, <laugh> got the special band that's will stretch over your wetsuit cuz who knows someday I may wear a wetsuit. I don't know. <Laugh> I'll have that on the 23rd. I'll have the new iPhone next Friday. So I'll be able to talk next Saturday about about it, biggest difference on the iPhone, which is kind of, I think I cool, you know, in order to put front facing cameras on these phones and to get the phones, to have the biggest possible screen, there's two ways to put a camera on the front of a phone. One is to have a, a lip or a chin or a, I guess you'd call it a forehead right above it, which is all black, which is the screen.
Leo Laporte (00:04:10):
Doesn't go past this point. And there's a little bit of a, you know, a quarter of an inch, less an eighth of an inch where the camera will go. But then that means the screen is smaller. And so lately, most manufacturers, including Google and Samsung and, and apple have tried to cut into the screen, apple up to now has been doing a notch, but the high end iPhones this year will not have a notch. They will have a whole cutout, actually two, a lozenge and a, and a next to each other, but Apple's taken this, you know, regrettably unfortunate thing that they have to do. And every manufacturer has to do to give you a front face and camera. And, and they've decided to make a, I think this is actually it's at Le at the very least brilliant marketing, if not brilliant engineering make a feature out of it.
Leo Laporte (00:04:59):
So they have something called the dynamic island. They make the whole area of the screen, black, not just where the cutouts are, but everything in between. And it will expand to accommodate more. So if you've got music, it's like a permanent widget on your screen. If you've got music playing that dynamic island will get a little bit bigger and show you the what's playing. And, and maybe even a control of that, it'll show you the weather up there. So all sorts of stuff. And, and I'm happy to say this. Apple has said, developers can use it too in their apps. So you may be in an app and that, that, you know, ugly admittedly ugly hole will at least have something going on with it. We'll see when we get the phone, how great that is iOS 16, if you are an apple user will come out tomorrow.
Leo Laporte (00:05:48):
So be prepared for that. I saw a British bank. I think a bank that is used by very fancy people, Coots bank. I think the British Royals user private banking in wealth management, Coots bank put out a warning to people. Don't upgrade. Please, if you have an iPhone and you use our Coots application, do not update your iPhone, it will break the application Coots. You make some money, you make some money. You could perhaps invest in a, in an app that doesn't break. When the new iOS comes out. Chairman Lord Wal will. Grave says down, please. If, if you are, if you can possibly avoid it, do not upgrade everybody else you should upgrade. Yes, I think so. Everybody else should upgrade. Speaking of Coots bank and, and the UK are condolences from your former colonies over the passing of your Monarch.
Leo Laporte (00:06:53):
And congratulations on king Charles. The third, this is also a very solemn day in the us, of course, September 11th. And while I, I won't because it's just not done on radio. Do a moment of silence. I think we can all think back those of us who are alive then to September 11th, 20 2001. And and that dark day in our history. And thanks to the first responders eternal, thanks to the first responders there and, and evermore for running toward danger. When all of us are running away, I'll I'll is incredibly emotional experience going to the nine 11 Memorial in New York city. That itself is incredibly emotional. It's a beautiful Memorial, but then going into the museum, which is underneath underground, where, you know, the twin towers were, and one of the first things you're confronted with is a, a fire truck, FDNY truck.
Leo Laporte (00:07:56):
That's mostly melted because that was the truck that immediately rushed to the rescue and, and those first responders who passed, of course, who gave their all for that are heroes. And this is a beautiful museum. If you're ever in the Manhattan, if you ever get a chance to see that highly recommended, but bring a Hank, bring a Hank. It's also the 45th anniversary today is something that for me is important. It's it's, it started my interest in technology, whatever could it be Leo, whatever could it be? Well, one year before I had, I had gotten into radio college radio and got my FCC third class license. So I was already a radio broadcaster. So it's not, it wasn't radio, but in, on this day in 1977, the Atari 2,600 game machine came out. I have a little miniature version of it, which looks just like it with a little joystick.
Leo Laporte (00:08:56):
And that was the first I think that I can, you can call it a computer. The first computer I got, I got it because I had spent so much money, so many quarters playing games in the Chucky cheese arcade. I thought, well, golly, if I put all those quarters together, I could afford to get it in Aari 2,600. And no quarters games weren't as good either, but I soon realized this isn't it. So I got an Atari 400 computer soon realized that wasn't quite it. So I got a Atari 800 computer and the rest is history. So roughly the same time I got into radio, I got into technology in order to support my habit started to buy, right? You can't afford this stuff. Right? So I started to write for computer magazines. In fact, the first thing I wrote I think was so I could get a a disc drive for my Atari 800 computer. So I dunno for me, this is a, this is a memorable date as well. Alright. We are gonna go take some phone calls. What do you say? Let's talk tech questions are fine. Comments, suggestions, ideas, thoughts. Eighty eight, eighty eight. Ask Leo the phone number. I would very much like to hear from you, Leo LA port, the tech guy, your calls next.
Leo Laporte (00:10:24):
Hey Sam, how are you? Hello, Leo. I see you in front of an Equinox. That is the Equinox EV coming just about a year from now. I saw the ad for it. Yesterday looked pretty good or Thursday on the football game. What is this thing? You call an ad ads. I don't see those on TV. If you watch football, you're stuck. I'm sorry. You gotta watch ads. They go to, they go hand in hand. I wish they didn't actually, you know what they do. In fact, you know, so football season began Thursday and Amazon starting next week will stream these. But I was very pleased to see it back. Not only cuz I enjoy watching NFL, but because the ads I think are a cut above on football, I think they realize these guys are gonna go to this, go get a sandwich if you don't, if you don't catch 'em.
Leo Laporte (00:11:16):
So they really work hard on those ads, even, even not just the super bowl, but even, you know, on just everyday NFL games. So how are things in IPS Slane? What's that? How are things in IPS? Slane? Good. we're expecting some more rain later this afternoon. Nice. at it's about mid seventies right now. Very nice. I'm actually flying out to San Francisco tomorrow morning. Oh good. What are you doing? Be out? I've got got some meetings with a few companies and Cruz is doing an event on Tuesday evening. They're doing an open house
Sam Abuelsamid (00:11:52):
At their headquarters and gonna get a ride in one of their vehicles and hopefully getting a couple of other rides and a couple of other autonomous vehicles over the next couple of days. So
Leo Laporte (00:12:03):
Yeah, we we were in San Francisco on Wednesday for Motley crew and <laugh> I
Sam Abuelsamid (00:12:08):
Saw the pictures. Yeah.
Leo Laporte (00:12:10):
And <laugh> while waiting for our car the next morning we saw about three Waymo's go by. They all had safety drivers and I was really looking for a cruise cuz they don't, I guess they don't use safe safety drivers in San Francisco. Well,
Sam Abuelsamid (00:12:25):
They, they have safety drivers in some parts of the city. So they do some of their testing. They do without safety drivers, some they do with safety drivers. Right. the service, the, the robo taxi service they're offering right now, the driverless service is only at night. So from 10, a 10:00 PM to 5:00 AM. Ah,
Leo Laporte (00:12:47):
And
Sam Abuelsamid (00:12:47):
Only in the Western and Northern oh, okay. Part of the city.
Leo Laporte (00:12:51):
Yeah. The avenues where it's very geometric. Well
Sam Abuelsamid (00:12:54):
There's very little traffic
Leo Laporte (00:12:55):
Traffic. Yeah, yeah,
Sam Abuelsamid (00:12:56):
Exactly. Yeah.
Leo Laporte (00:12:58):
I don't know the Northern part. Isn't quite as good. That's more like the piers and stuff, but okay. All right.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:13:05):
Yeah. Not, not quite right up to the Northern like saw
Leo Laporte (00:13:08):
They saw lot of Waymo's a lot of Waymo's. Yeah. They're funny looking, man. They're crazy.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:13:15):
The the eye paces, the Jaguar eye paces.
Leo Laporte (00:13:17):
Yeah. They have all those. They have so many devices hanging off of 'em
Sam Abuelsamid (00:13:22):
Yeah. Lots of lidars. Lots of radars. Lots of cameras. Yeah, I think they, they have at least at least five LIDAR possibly more than that. And a whole bunch of radars. Yeah. There
Leo Laporte (00:13:36):
Was reds off the just off the right headlight, big old box, I guess that was another LIDAR that's
Sam Abuelsamid (00:13:46):
That's that? No, that's the radar sensor. Radar.
Leo Laporte (00:13:49):
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Cause there's of course the spinning LIDAR on the roof. Yeah. Which makes 'em look like the Ghostbusters car. And
Sam Abuelsamid (00:13:56):
Then, and then they've got smaller short range lidars around the perimeter, on the fenders and on the front and rear bumpers. Interesting. and then there's radar sensors. So there's a whole, whole, and same, same thing on the cruise vehicles and zoos and everybody else, everybody that's actually, you know, trying to do a competent job at this.
Leo Laporte (00:14:14):
We will talk in 15. Thank you. All right. Take care. Astrid Gilberto buzz buzz. The phone is a ringing. And when you answer the phone, it'll be this person. Right. Totally wrong
Kim Schaffer (00:14:29):
Person. But I buzz feel like I should be wearing a buzz basket buzz of fruit on my
Leo Laporte (00:14:32):
Head. I love her. I love Gilberto. Beto. How are you? Kim Schaffer phone angel. I love you too. I love you too. If you sang, I would just then it would be all over. Oh,
Kim Schaffer (00:14:42):
I will never sing.
Leo Laporte (00:14:44):
<Laugh> you do not need to hear that. You are, you got here early. You've been slaving over a hot phone to prepare our callers. Who should I start the show with? Oh, let's go to Ben and Louisville Ville. Nice. Are you practicing? Yeah. Louisville, Louisville, Louisville. And it's apple week. So of course Louisville. It's gonna be an apple two syllables Louisville. Thank you, Kim. Hello, Ben Leo. The tech guy. Welcome.
Caller 1 (00:15:12):
How are you doing Leo?
Leo Laporte (00:15:14):
I am great. How are you?
Caller 1 (00:15:17):
Kinda concerned about my iPhone 12, my friend.
Leo Laporte (00:15:21):
Okay. I'm sitting in front of an iPhone. 12 myself did not upgrade last year.
Caller 1 (00:15:25):
Yeah. Mine's the pro and I gotta tell you it's been alright, but I'm kind of intrigued by what apple announced this past week. And I don't know if it's worth or not upgrading to the 14 pro from what I have, cause I've had it for two years or so probably. And when my dad and I bought it, least bought it with the well, I was on a pixel for a, before this 12th pro and I love my 12 pro don't get me wrong. But the thing is I was hella intrigued by the new song
Leo Laporte (00:16:02):
Hella intrigued. Now we're talking, forget the reality distortion field. I'm Helena intrigued.
Caller 1 (00:16:09):
Yes.
Leo Laporte (00:16:10):
What is so I, I am now I, I have a pixel six, so I'm, I'm used to Android now also have a Samsung has 22 and I use all three. So I I'm familiar with the ecosystem. I, I like the iPhone 12. My basic thought on the 14 is not enough of an upgrade. I'm gonna buy it cuz I, you know, I need to review it, but it's not enough of an upgrade for most iPhone 12 users I would say, but, but maybe I'm wrong. What is it that intrigues you?
Caller 1 (00:16:37):
Well, I gotta be honest the way the phone that I have now does notifications and yeah, I have to say that I is 16 on it is a little oh, cause you see
Leo Laporte (00:16:50):
You're ahead of me cuz I haven't tried iOS 16 cuz you know you're using the public beta obviously man,
Caller 1 (00:16:55):
It's really my experience so far has been a little wonky on,
Leo Laporte (00:17:00):
Is it slow? Is it sluggish or just not reliable? It
Caller 1 (00:17:04):
Is like, it's not reliable. I mean my battery drains like mad. Yeah. And you know, I do have a dev account, but you know, it's like I
Leo Laporte (00:17:15):
Gotta, but you you're staying up to date. You've got the most recent developers update. Yes.
Caller 1 (00:17:19):
I got the most recent pill, the whole shebang.
Leo Laporte (00:17:21):
That's almost certainly the same as the one that they'll put out tomorrow. So
Caller 1 (00:17:26):
Yeah, if it's almost the same as the one they're releasing tomorrow sometime, and I gotta tell you, I don't know if there's something up with my phone or, or what, but when I checked the battery health on it, it said it's 88% complete. Yeah. And
Leo Laporte (00:17:41):
It's just about right for a two year old phone. That's that's pretty good. Right?
Caller 1 (00:17:45):
Yeah. I don't know if that's something exactly cause it or what?
Leo Laporte (00:17:49):
Well, let me look at my battery. I'm gonna go look at battery health on on my phone. Yeah. I'm also 88%. <Laugh>
Caller 1 (00:17:58):
So I don't know if that's normal.
Leo Laporte (00:17:59):
So that's normal for a two year old iPhone. Apparently that's normal. Cause mine's exactly the same. Yeah. Do you run outta battery before the end of the day?
Caller 1 (00:18:09):
Pretty much. Yes.
Leo Laporte (00:18:11):
Yes. So that's obviously not optimal. That's not optimal.
Caller 1 (00:18:13):
It's probably not optimal. No. Now I have thought about doing something like taking it into the store and getting a replacement. But with this new phone being released soon, I'm like, I might as well just upgrade.
Leo Laporte (00:18:25):
Are you a developer develop for iOS or you just have the account?
Caller 1 (00:18:29):
No, I, I just test the new software.
Leo Laporte (00:18:31):
That's all I do. Yeah. Okay.
Caller 1 (00:18:33):
Cause I mean, you know, that's a perfect justification, you know? Yeah,
Leo Laporte (00:18:36):
Yeah, sure. I need, yeah. If you're looking for a justification, if you're looking for the Leo seal of approval, let me get my stamp out here. Good approved purchase approved. You could tell your wife purchase approved. <Laugh>
Caller 1 (00:18:50):
Exactly. Well
Leo Laporte (00:18:51):
I think every other year is not unreasonable. Here's what will be noticeably different on and you're gonna get, I presume the pro or the Promax
Caller 1 (00:19:02):
The pro probably cause I don't wanna go over loaded. My, so
Leo Laporte (00:19:07):
The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 plus do not have the dynamic island. They still have the notch that you and I have on. Well, I know, I know, but the dynamic island I think is a very interesting user interface. That might be a reason to try the iPhone 14 pro the the camera. I think, you know, it's hard to say apple is so good at marketing in my head is still floating around in the, I
Caller 1 (00:19:35):
Do a lot of on, I do a lot of pictures sometimes. And I do also film concerts with, with the video
Leo Laporte (00:19:42):
Option. Well, the, the new video, you know, the big, this is a funny thing. The big new feature of the video is not 4k. A 60 frames are 120 frames. It's 4k 24 frames because that's the film frame rate. And so maybe if you wanted a dreamy concert video, you might actually film a film. Look might be better for you. It wouldn't be good for action sports, that kind of thing. Lower framing. Well,
Caller 1 (00:20:09):
I'm not really a big sports, but like
Leo Laporte (00:20:11):
Personal. It's a weird thing for apple to tout. Oh, now we can shoot 24 frames per second. That's lower, not, oh, I know. Not higher.
Caller 1 (00:20:19):
I'll I do film sometimes with my phone, some tech tutorials, things like that on. Oh, nice. So yeah.
Leo Laporte (00:20:25):
Yeah. I, I think here's the biggest camera improvement is 48 megapixels and the availability of pro raw, which is Apple's way of saying, we're gonna give you if you want, most of the time, what you'll get is a 12 megapixel image. They'll take the 48 pixels on the sensor and what do something they call bend them, combine them to give you a very good quality, very good, low light concert for concert photos. Believe it or not low light is important because as you know, even though they've got those bright lights, they're not, they're, they're, it's low light photography. So I think you're gonna see a much improved even with a 12 megapixel bidding. They've got a, a aperture that's wider and they have a new two X mode as well for the telephoto. I think all in all that might make a big difference. If that's the thing that you're most interested in, I
Caller 1 (00:21:18):
Gotta say, I have taken some video and stuff on my 12 pro and I am just not really too pleased with it. So I think it would make sense in Myers' art at least to upgrade my,
Leo Laporte (00:21:30):
This is one of the problems apple has with being so good at marketing. When you actually get the phone, you go, oh, <laugh> well, okay, it's nice. It's not gonna change the world like apple implies. And I think that that's, that's potentially you know, the risk with getting this iPhone 14. I think in general, my advice is always you certainly don't need to upgrade if your phone's only a year old, two years old, then it's a, then it's a your call. If, if it's three or more than you will want it. So you're right. You know, you're right in the cusp, you are using iOS 16. You say, I don't like it. It's not fast enough battery. Life's bad for sure. They've actually claimed an extra hour of battery life on the iPhone pro. So for sure that will improve. Plus it'll be a hundred percent instead of 88%. Yeah.
Caller 1 (00:22:22):
I mean, you know,
Leo Laporte (00:22:23):
If you're, if you're looking for the seal of approval, you got it. And I'll tell you what, Ben I'll have it next Saturday. We can talk Leo. Leport the tech guy, Sam bull, Sam car guy. Next I give you permission to upgrade. I gave you some reasons too, right? Gave you some reasons to upgrade. I have not tried iOS 16 yet, so I don't know. I don't know what it's how demanding it is and everything. There's not a lot of new features, to be honest with you, once you cut through all the hype and apple is Apple's the king of hype. But I, but I think since you do concert video, that's a good reason I think, to get the new camera.
Caller 1 (00:23:11):
Yeah. Can I ask you one more thing about this Leo? Sure. Well, I also went to T-Mobile last night and compared it to the apple price and apple said I had to get 6 69 or something back on it. And then I also but I still had to pay the 10 99 or whatever it was toward this. Right. And and so I went to T-Mobile on their chat and they said I could get a thousand back from them, which is almost covering the whole cost of the dollar,
Leo Laporte (00:23:43):
Go for it. So like,
Caller 1 (00:23:45):
Like
Leo Laporte (00:23:45):
Go for it. And you know, the fine print will be, and you have to stay our customer for the next two years.
Caller 1 (00:23:50):
Well, I mean, we have good coverage in Louisville.
Leo Laporte (00:23:53):
Yeah. If you're happy I'm at T I've been on T-Mobile for a decade or more. Yeah. Especially now with the new 5g T-Mobile's been, I think done a very good job of rolling out what they call the mid band 5g. So on your T-Mobile phone, I think it says you, you know, 5g, you see if you're seeing that around. Yeah. That's I mean, that's really fast.
Caller 1 (00:24:14):
Yeah. It's you know, so that's kinda why I want to I want to go buy it through T-Mobile because you know, you
Leo Laporte (00:24:24):
Could go, you could get it. I think you, I don't know, you should try this at the apple store. I think if you say it's for T-Mobile wouldn't you get the same discount or maybe not. I don't know.
Caller 1 (00:24:34):
I'm not sure, but
Leo Laporte (00:24:35):
I always buy it unlocked and that's, by the way, that's another big one. And I should have mentioned this. That could be a deal breaker for some, no SIM tray. So if you travel and you're, you know, you're one of those people that buys a SIM in country, that's gonna be a problem. But other than that,
Caller 1 (00:24:53):
I don't really do much traveling.
Leo Laporte (00:24:55):
No, I think the EIM is an improvement. I really do. I think it's a big improvement.
Caller 1 (00:24:58):
Yeah. I don't really travel all that much out of the us. So, you know the only time I really do is when my family goes to Finland where my mom's from. Right. So the only time that's the only time we really,
Leo Laporte (00:25:12):
But you're because you're on T-Mobile you probably don't even care. You just, they're very good with their international plan. So,
Caller 1 (00:25:18):
Right. So that's the only time we really need that. Yeah.
Leo Laporte (00:25:22):
Yeah. That's actually a good reason to stay with Tmobile. My
Caller 1 (00:25:24):
Dad wants to do and the, yeah, hopefully hopefully by the same time you get the 14, I'll have the 14 and we'll go from there.
Leo Laporte (00:25:31):
Good. We'll talk. Thanks, Ben. Great to talk to you. Take care. Yeah. I forgot to mention that EIM thing and that actually is gonna be a big deal. They said multiple, the EIM, multiple carriers. They didn't say two. I don't know if it is only two. It was, it is at least two might be more. So you know, the only issue is if you ever wanted to put a physical SIM in there's no tray anymore. So, but if you go to a country that supports EIM or if you're just in the us, Em's great because it means you there's very little friction moving to a new carrier. So if you got tired of a T-Mobile up to eight. Wow. Wow. That's really that's very interesting. That's gonna change things. All right, Sam, we're gonna talk automobiles next. They kind of are virtual Sims aren't they? Pretty much. Yeah. And it's, I think it's it's kind of bold of apple to say no more SIM tray. That's I mean, it certainly, that's an advantage courage. It's a lot of courage, courage, Leo, that one, you know, you can justify cause it does save space. It also seals the body. You know, I think there's that one you can really say, well, there's some benefit.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:26:59):
And the reality is most people never swap their Sims. Right.
Leo Laporte (00:27:02):
Right. We had a ritual, you know, when the O new iPhone would come out, all, all the family would show up. <Laugh> I'd get my SIM poker. And we'd, you know, we'd poke we'd slowly. This phones would get slowly handed just down line, down
Sam Abuelsamid (00:27:19):
The, around the table. Yeah.
Leo Laporte (00:27:20):
Yeah. It was pretty funny. Then
Sam Abuelsamid (00:27:22):
The oldest one goes to recycling.
Leo Laporte (00:27:23):
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Leo Laporte (00:30:08):
100% availability, 10 times faster than traditional methods on six continents, 30% faster than other major CDNs on 98% cash hit ratio. Why aren't you on Cachefly with their 24 7 365 priority support? You'll never alone. They're always there when you need them learn more at cash, fly.com. It gives me a great pleasure every time to say bandwidth for the tech guy show provided by Cachefly at C a C H E F L y.com Cachefly. Thank you. Cash fly. It's time to talk. Auto mobiles car talk and time with Sam bull Sam. He he, during the day by day, a mild mannered analyst for guide house insights by night podcaster wheel bearings.media. Hi Sam.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:31:00):
Hi Leo. How are
Leo Laporte (00:31:01):
You? Good to see you. How's things in the car business.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:31:05):
Oh, just more of the same, more, more seems like more EVs being introduced almost on a daily basis. Is
Leo Laporte (00:31:12):
That driven by, I know it's driven by regulatory requirements, especially in California, but is it also driven by consumer interest?
Sam Abuelsamid (00:31:22):
It, the cons the regulatory requirements for what poll were created, the initial poll for EVs, but now we're finally starting to get some consumer poll as well. Cons growing consumer demand for EVs as more, more and more EVs come out at, in different form factors and different price points, consumer and people see them more and experience them. And one, one of the keys to getting people to consider an EV is to actually get them in one first, you know, cause people think a lot of people have never been in an electric vehicle, they think, oh yeah, it's just, you know, it's a glorified golf cart. And once they actually ride or drive in a modern EV they realize that, oh yeah, I mean, this is actually really good.
Leo Laporte (00:32:04):
They're fun to drive
Sam Abuelsamid (00:32:06):
The, the performance. Yeah. The quiet, the smoothness
Leo Laporte (00:32:10):
I'm going in for my first maintenance on my Mustang, ma, which I've had since February of last year, the 10,000 mile maintenance. And by the way, my four dealer
Sam Abuelsamid (00:32:20):
Tires and
Leo Laporte (00:32:20):
There's not much my four dealer filters, you know, said, you're gonna need oil change. I said no, <laugh>
Sam Abuelsamid (00:32:28):
Don't think I need one just yet. Not
Leo Laporte (00:32:30):
Yet, but there are fluids. There is a 12 volt. Yeah. Traditional car battery in there. And of course you wanna rotate the tires. I probably should rotate the tires more often than every 10,000 miles, but
Sam Abuelsamid (00:32:40):
It's yeah. It's probably a good idea to rotate your tires probably about every 5,000 miles or so dollar. Ten's not bad. I'm I'm but, but
Leo Laporte (00:32:48):
That's the beauty of it kind of an unknown beauty of electric vehicles. There's no maintenance on the motors, those things that's right. They just go they're sealed and they just go I, I also hear from Tesla drivers who for often a lot of people, their first electric vehicle is a Tesla and they say, oh, I love my Tesla. And what I've, what I've said to them is check that because what I think you love is electric vehicles try some others cuz the thing that makes the Tesla so great to drive makes every EV so great to drive that instant torque when you hit the pedal, it just leaps forward. If you wanted to yeah. The one pedal driving, which sometimes people go, oh, I don't know if I can do that. But once you get used to it, you hardly hit the brakes. You it's a much smoother ride. I can go on and on. I
Sam Abuelsamid (00:33:37):
Mean, I will, I will give, I will give Tesla some credit, you know, on a couple of other areas, you know, first of all, you know, not having to go through the traditional dealer rigor
Leo Laporte (00:33:47):
Role, hallelujah
Sam Abuelsamid (00:33:48):
Is an advantage. You know, a lot of people consider an advantage and also they have done a much better job with charging than everybody
Leo Laporte (00:33:57):
Else. They've better range than most. And they also have those supercharges, well,
Sam Abuelsamid (00:34:00):
Real world range is actually comparable. Is it they're they Teslas tend to fall about 20 to 30% shy of their EPA rated range. So when you actually compare them head to head with, with competing vehicles, the range is usually about the same. Yeah. As, as most competitors. Okay. So now
Leo Laporte (00:34:19):
GM is going all in on electric vehicles.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:34:22):
We have GM and, and a lot of other manufacturers are going all in on
Leo Laporte (00:34:26):
Evs. Yeah. We have a Chevy bolt, which a 2019 Chevy bolt, which we love. And of course our 19 year old says, I, I think I like the E U V better. That's the, the newer bolt, but now they just
Sam Abuelsamid (00:34:40):
Come out. It's far longer now
Leo Laporte (00:34:41):
They've come out with
Sam Abuelsamid (00:34:42):
He's tall. So yeah,
Leo Laporte (00:34:43):
He's tall. Yeah. The Equinox is a little bit more like my Mustang ma it's a crossover, huh?
Sam Abuelsamid (00:34:49):
Yeah. It's, it's a crossover. It's a little bit smaller than your Mai. So this, this past week we had big announcements from both GM and Jeep with their upcoming EVs. First off, we'll start, we'll start with, I
Leo Laporte (00:35:03):
Would love an electric rank Equinox. That would be cool. I'll ask you about that later.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:35:08):
The, the Equinox is coming out about a year from now. Okay. if you're watching the same, is it the same
Leo Laporte (00:35:12):
Platform as the bolts?
Sam Abuelsamid (00:35:13):
No, it's different. It's their next generation platform. It's the it's based on LTM. So it's got better battery technology, better motors everything is improved. So it's, it is the next generation platform. And the, the thing about the Equinox, this crossover is gonna, is targeted to start at a price of about $30,000. Wow. With a 250 mile range front wheel drive. Very nice. It's a little, little bit bigger than the current gas Equinox. And then they'll have versions with all wheel drive with two 290 horsepower and ranges up to 300 miles for the Equinox. And so, you know, this is kind of right in the heart of the market today. It used to be that after pickup trucks, the next best selling segment in the us market was mid-size sedans. People have moved away from sedans into compact crossovers, like the Equinox, the RAV4, you know, if you take out pickup trucks, the best selling vehicle in the United States now is the Toyota RAV4 used for, for 20 plus years. It was the Camry. Now people are buying Rav four S instead for Honda, it's the CRV for Chevrolet. It's the, the Equinox, it's their best selling vehicle after the Silverado. That's
Leo Laporte (00:36:28):
Actually good news for EV manufacturers cuz they need that extra space for the battery.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:36:32):
Yeah, absolutely. So this is you know, this is, I think is gonna be a really popular vehicle when it arrives next year, as I said, starting price is gonna be $30,000 that's before any incentives. And so that's, that's coming soon. And then the other thing that we saw this week was a big announcement from Jeep.
Leo Laporte (00:36:52):
They
Sam Abuelsamid (00:36:53):
Last year they announced that by 2020 fives, they're gonna have electrified versions in every segment there they compete in by 2030, they'll have battery electric versions of every of everything they build. And so this week they showed their first three EVs. One that they showed pictures of earlier this year is called the Avenger. It's a small, smaller, much smaller crossover that one's only for the European market. It's too small. They wouldn't sell enough of them here to make it viable product, but they also showed the recon, which is what's on the screen behind me. And also the Wagoner S the recon is about the same size as the Wrangler. But it's a different body style it's looks like sort of a, between a Ford Bronco land Rover defender and with a little bit of the, the front end of the new Jeep grand Cherokee. And so it's gonna be because the body's wider than the current Wrangler, cuz the Wrangler, the Wrangler's actually pretty tight inside cuz it's got that relatively narrow body, but those big fend on there that, you know, looks really cool to a lot
Leo Laporte (00:37:58):
Of people. Yeah. But it takes seats practical. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:38:01):
So this one is gonna have a wider body, same, same overall width, but the, the body is gonna be wider. So more room
Leo Laporte (00:38:08):
The side recon. Now when we, when a manufacturer goes to EV you throw out the window, all the previous reliability information it's, it's a whole new platform. Right. So
Sam Abuelsamid (00:38:18):
Pretty much yeah. Their
Leo Laporte (00:38:19):
History doesn't matter so much. Right.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:38:22):
Not, yeah. It, I mean to, to some degree, I mean, you know, if they, if they've got, if they've generally got a good history of, of producing quality products and reliable products, you know, they'll probably do a pretty good job with their EVs. Right. you know, if not, you know, then they, they might have issues. So this, this is the, the recon like the Wrangler it's got removable doors, removable windows, you can't fold down the front window, but it's got a PowerTop and everything.
Leo Laporte (00:38:48):
I want a snorkel mate, so I can drive under water.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:38:52):
So you can, yeah, you can do that, you know, the whole offroad thing. So this is gonna be competing with the Rivian, you know, which is right now Rivian kind of got that offroad electric market to itself. Yeah. So this will be going up against the Rivian R one S and then the, the Wagoner S is more of a luxury midsize crossover, similar in size to the grand Cherokee, but it's gonna be significantly more premium than that. And that one is supposed to have a range of up to 400 miles zero to 60 and three and a half seconds. So it's nice
Leo Laporte (00:39:26):
To see
Sam Abuelsamid (00:39:27):
Gonna be a lot of options, more
Leo Laporte (00:39:28):
Choice in EVs. And finally, we're getting away from those, you know, weird looking EVs. They look more like normal vehicles, right? A vehicle you're not embarrassed,
Sam Abuelsamid (00:39:38):
Don't make fun of the Nissan leaf wheel
Leo Laporte (00:39:40):
To try. And it looks like an alien. Sam does full Sam from guide house insights, listen to his podcast, wheel bearings. And of course he joins us every week. Thanks Sam.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:39:50):
Thank you, Leo.
Leo Laporte (00:39:54):
That recon looks nice. It's a little pricey for me. Yeah. But it looks very, very
Sam Abuelsamid (00:39:58):
Well. They haven't said what the price
Leo Laporte (00:39:59):
Is gonna. Oh, I thought it was gonna be roughly Rivian price.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:40:03):
No, I mean, it'll, it'll be competing, you know, for the same kind of buyers, lifestyle offroad. Yeah. Buyers as the Rivian. Right. But I think that, I think they're gonna try and keep this one lower in price.
Leo Laporte (00:40:14):
It'll go nicely with my extreme watch.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:40:17):
Yeah, exactly. <Laugh> or your extreme or your ultra,
Leo Laporte (00:40:21):
I mean my ultra yes. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be perfect. A perfect combination. Yeah.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:40:26):
Yeah. My my guess is that they are probably gonna try and keep the recon under $60,000. Okay. the Wrangler, you know, because the, the Wrangler is kind of the icon for Jeep. Yeah. That one they'll probably allow go a little bit higher. That one don't
Leo Laporte (00:40:41):
Have a luxury wa Wagoner or Wrangler,
Sam Abuelsamid (00:40:44):
Right? The, yeah. The Wagoner is gonna be the luxury model, you know, probably in the 85 to a hundred thousand dollars range. Wow. For a Jeep, the the Wrangler, you know, I'm guessing will probably be in the 60 to $70,000 range. Jeeps have gotten expensive if you've, if you haven't shopped for a Jeep in recent years. Oh boy.
Leo Laporte (00:41:02):
I always thought they were less expensive. Expensive. Okay. All right.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:41:05):
Yeah. No, no, well, not, not since they got really popular. Yeah. They've, you know, supply and demand, you know, a lot of people want Jeeps. And so where's
Leo Laporte (00:41:12):
My EV Bronco. That's what I wanna know.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:41:15):
I'm guessing probably 20, 25, maybe 26. Yeah. It will, it will be coming. Yeah. it's just a question of when, rather than if right. Let's
Leo Laporte (00:41:27):
See. I'm gonna have a lot of choices in two years, that's for sure. I, I told Lisa, I think I'm just gonna keep the mock because I love it. And it's, it's resale value is gonna be higher than the
Sam Abuelsamid (00:41:41):
Lease and that may well be the
Leo Laporte (00:41:41):
Case buy back. So yeah. Maybe just buy it and sell it. It would be one option. Yeah.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:41:47):
You know, for, for a lot of people like over the last year and a half that have leases expiring that's what I've been recommending to people, cuz it, in many cases, you know, if you lease a vehicle in 20, 19, 20, 20 2018 and you're coming off, lease chances are your buyout at the end of that lease is less than what the current market value of that vehicle is. So even if you don't wanna keep the vehicle, you know, buy it at the end of the lease and then turn around and just sell it and you probably get several thousand, not many thousands of dollars more than what the buyout was.
Leo Laporte (00:42:25):
Wow.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:42:26):
Yeah.
Leo Laporte (00:42:27):
Wow. So you can't go wrong. I understand the doesn't do buyouts anymore on leases, but mine, mine is grandfathered in yeah.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:42:37):
Starting with the 23 models. Yeah. yeah. For, for the EVs, they are no longer offering a buyout option. So at the end of the lease, you have to turn it in. Yeah. Cause they've, they've recognized that yeah. Hey, you know,
Leo Laporte (00:42:48):
We've given up money.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:42:49):
Yeah. We we're, you know, we've got so much demand for our EVs that we are better off to take them back from the customers at the end of the lease. Yeah. And then turn around and sell them as used through our dealers. Right. rather than, than, you know, and let the dealers get that profit. That's amazing rather than the the customers.
Leo Laporte (00:43:09):
Yeah. Yeah.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:43:13):
All right. Let's see. Phoenix warp asked why create an entire new Jeep model and not just make a Wrangler EV so there is a Wrangler EV coming, they are doing that as well. What they're doing with, with the recon is they basically trying to go after a little bit different customer, you know, this is, you know, because this is a, a different, it's similar in overall size, but a lot of people, you know, look at the Wrangler like just a few weeks ago, I was listening to accidental tech podcast. Well, I'll, I'll finish the story during the next segment.
Leo Laporte (00:43:53):
Save it for, for the top of the hour. You're gonna stick around. Good. Yep. Yeah. Killer tech says 57 Chevy EV yeah. Now we're talking
Sam Abuelsamid (00:44:03):
That can be done.
Leo Laporte (00:44:03):
Yeah. Conversion. All right. Thanks Sam. We'll talking a bit Leo Laporte, the tech I eighty eight eighty eight. Ask Leo the phone number mark on the line from Santa Ana, California. Hi mark.
Caller 2 (00:44:17):
Hey, how you doing? And thanks for taking a call.
Leo Laporte (00:44:19):
I'm wonderful. Thanks for calling.
Caller 2 (00:44:22):
Yeah. Okay. So I have two questions. I got a Google pixel six a for me and my son, when they had that $300, you know, return your phone. Good. Which both far have been a case and proceeding condition. And we got $58 back.
Leo Laporte (00:44:35):
Well, that's disappointing.
Caller 2 (00:44:37):
<Laugh> yeah. And I tried calling and I'm just wondering you know, the first question is to either you or anybody out there listening know how to get contact? No,
Leo Laporte (00:44:47):
No. There's no one in the building at Googled. It's all robots. They don't know. I tell you, I see this I, I follow the forums on Reddit, the pixel forums on Reddit. And I see this a lot. It's the, you know, so did you get, you had an online offer and then you, when you sent it in, they gave you much less. Is that what happened? Yeah.
Caller 2 (00:45:07):
Yeah.
Leo Laporte (00:45:08):
How much did they offer you?
Caller 2 (00:45:11):
300.
Leo Laporte (00:45:11):
Did they say why? They're only giving you 58?
Caller 2 (00:45:15):
Yeah.
Leo Laporte (00:45:16):
Why?
Caller 2 (00:45:18):
I, they don't say, oh,
Leo Laporte (00:45:19):
They didn't say you
Caller 2 (00:45:20):
Can't get ahold of anybody
Leo Laporte (00:45:21):
Though. But so sometimes when they, when they give you the, the new offer, they'll say, well, there was damage or something. They didn't, they nothing, they just said, here's your 58 bucks. Yeah.
Caller 2 (00:45:30):
Well, the only thing there was his little crime around the phone was cause I chased everything. Yeah. I'm very careful. So it was my son.
Leo Laporte (00:45:36):
Yeah. It's unfortunate. Scooter X says he got a $350 trade in from Google, from his pixel too. So that's gonna make you even more irate. Thanks scooter. I, they screwed you. And I don't know how you can pursue this except to go through customer service. And you probably should. If you go to reddit.com/r/pixel, you'll see a number of people. Who've had problems like this. You'll also see people like scooter X who say, oh, I got $489. So it's Google is pretty much a random company. And there's no customer support. Generally. My advice, you know, your phone company will offer you trade in the manufacturer, whether it's apple or Google or Samsung will you offer you trade in?
Leo Laporte (00:46:29):
Honestly, I think you're better off going to SWAPA or gazelle or one of the many resale people and get, at least get a quote from them. And I think they stand by it a little bit better. Google is a monolithic monster company. You, you know, certainly you should complain to customer support and you should call 'em. You should be aggressive. Not mean cuz it's not the customer service representative's fault, but just say no, no, no, really this is, this phone was in perfect condition. I've gotta, I've gotta know more what the heck's going on. Let me talk to your manager. Let me talk to your supervisor. Do whatever tricks you can to upgrade it, but I can't give you much hope. Google's notorious for just being completely opaque, completely opaque. So you know, I, we generally do not take the trade-ins. The one exception I would make from the manufacturers.
Leo Laporte (00:47:19):
The one exception I would make is Samsung on when you, on the day of the release of the phone or the pre-order of the phone, they seem to be unusually generous. You always still have that risk cuz you know, they're gonna say, oh good, I'll give you a thousand dollars for that flip three. And then you pack it up real nice and everything you sent them and said, well really it's only worth 400. Usually by the way, you have the option at that point to reject. In fact, I know you do to reject their offer. So it, it, that's another possibility to say, no, I reject your offer, send it back. And now if it's in all the good shape, you say it is, you should be able to go to SWAPA or gazelle or any of the other resellers and and, and do it.
Leo Laporte (00:48:04):
Now the difference with apple is you could, you can get that quote in person so you can bring it to the apple store and the genius can, can give you the money directly. So you will at least have the option there. But every single person I know of that does the Rebi, every company that does a Rebi will say, you can reject this offer and will ship it back to you. I'm sure Google offers that as, as well. The 58 bucks seems ridiculous. Especially if the phone's in perfect edition, that seems absurd. You know, I don't, I don't understand that at all. Say no, no, thank you. I'm going. I'm going elsewhere. I think you got a great phone though. The six a is an excellent phone. I'm just sorry that Google treated you. So shambly Fred Frazier park, California Lee Laport, the tech.
Caller 3 (00:48:50):
Hey Leo. I've got a phone question be before I asked that you were talking about EVs and I used to commute like 150 miles a day. I live in the mountains in California. I commute down to a city and I go through snowstorm, ice storms and stuff like that are tow. Truck's gonna have like past chargers on them. Yeah.
Leo Laporte (00:49:12):
Yeah. They do already. Tesla will come and charge you up. That takes a while. I 300 miles. It's it's 150 each way.
Caller 3 (00:49:21):
No, it's 75 each
Leo Laporte (00:49:22):
Way. Oh, you won't have a problem almost. Yeah. Cuz there's a lot of, if you charge it up the night before my car.
Caller 3 (00:49:28):
Yeah, I don't do that anymore. That, but I, I, it came to mind when you were talking about,
Leo Laporte (00:49:32):
About it. Yeah, look, it let's be honest. There's not everybody is a good use case for an EV. If you live in apartment building where there's no charger and if you live in snow country these batteries don't do as well in low temperatures. So that might be a problem, but 150 miles. No problem. I get, you know, when I fully charge my Mustang, it's about 250 miles. That's a hundred miles extra. Those estimates are very accurate. They get more accurate as you use it. And you will have a pretty good idea as you drive of how you're doing. I wouldn't worry at all about 150 miles.
Caller 3 (00:50:05):
Well cool. Anyway, my phone question. Yes, I have a Uverse phone setup goes way back. I replaced just a standard phone with the universe so I could do wifi with a laptop. And I plugged a portable phone base station into that router, modem, whatever you want to call it. Well, last week my phone went dead, my portable phone. And when I pushed the buttons on the phone, it would be, but there's absolutely no dial phone. So I, I thought, well, I'll go reset the modem. I tried that ding to a thing and I'm legally blind now. So I can see like light and dark and color in the light areas, but I can't read or write or anything like that. Well, I tried resetting the modem, sticking it in my face and there seemed to be one status light on. And that was it. Well by a lot of patients, I got through to customer service at, at and T and they ran some checks and they said, your modem's not synchronizing. What's that mean?
Leo Laporte (00:51:06):
<Laugh>, that's great. That means it's it's not talking to us. So the lights on the route are actually very useful. I saw a few routers that don't put lights anymore on 'em that seems really, really dumb. So there's a link light, which says you're connected, but the sync light says you're connected and we are talking. So a, so to understand this, you have to, and I won't go into the details, but there are many layers of a network connection, seven OSI layers. There's the physical layer. So the link light says, yeah, we got a physical connection. But then above that, there's a software layer that says, and we are talking, you're not talking. So you probably rebooted it. Right. that didn't fix it.
Caller 3 (00:51:50):
Didn't do a thing
Leo Laporte (00:51:53):
At and T should say, oh, let's send, they should be able to tell you what the problem is. And they can sometimes they'll say, oh yeah, we don't have your Mac address on record or something happened. And in that case they should be able to send a signal down the line that Resy. So
Caller 3 (00:52:11):
Yeah, we tried that and it didn't work. It didn't work. Here's the weird
Leo Laporte (00:52:13):
Part. They need to give you a new one. That's all,
Caller 3 (00:52:15):
They've already done that. Okay. That in fact they did it so fast. It startled me.
Leo Laporte (00:52:20):
<Laugh> yeah. They don't wanna lose you,
Caller 3 (00:52:22):
But, but what was weird? Okay. I live up in the mountains and I put that Uverse thing in first. I replaced my old regular landline. And then I said, you know, we are power outages. And if there's an emergency I gotta have a phone. That's
Leo Laporte (00:52:38):
Right. That's exactly right. I
Caller 3 (00:52:39):
Put the ups in that's not really gonna last too long. So I put a landline in, I got a cell phone eventually. So I'm all set that way. But what happened before I did the landline and the cell phone where you plug in the, the phone, which is where I have the portable phone base station plugged in, I put a splitter and I thought, well, I'm gonna do an experiment and see what happens. Well, our power went out one time and I on one side of the splitter, it was like two, two things you could plug into. I had the base station plugged in. Then I just plugged in a regular handheld line and I got a dial tone. Wow. And that was with no power.
Leo Laporte (00:53:20):
Good.
Caller 3 (00:53:21):
Well then when it went down this time, I tried the same thing.
Leo Laporte (00:53:26):
Yeah. I got, I got a break cuz of the network, but we'll hang on. I'll talk off the air. Leo. LePort the tech guy you're on DSL with you verse probably you have VDSL
Caller 3 (00:53:43):
I, I, I got at and T I don't know whether that is.
Leo Laporte (00:53:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the same thing.
Caller 3 (00:53:48):
Oh, okay. Well here here's the deal. I, I did my first experiment when the power went out and I plugged in the second phone, got a dial tone, fine. This time when the modem went out, I plugged it in no dial tone whatsoever. So
Leo Laporte (00:54:02):
The battery may have died. So they have battery backup in those things.
Caller 3 (00:54:06):
Well, I've got a battery backup in it. In fact, that was another thing. Well,
Leo Laporte (00:54:09):
That's the thing. If, if it's not working, you may have died. The battery doesn't last forever.
Caller 3 (00:54:13):
Well, I think when I did my first experiment, there wasn't a, a battery in it, cuz at and T got real weird. They'd come by and they take your battery away and say, we don't support that anymore. <Laugh> so I went a long time without a backup battery. I finally had to call the manufacturer of the modem and I actually had to make some threats to get 'em to sell me one. But a anyway, I tried the thing of plugging in the second phone and no dial tone, nothing. Now I've got a new modem. So I'm, you know, I'm not a out of functioning or anything like that, but I wondered why that happened.
Leo Laporte (00:54:51):
Yeah. I don't know. This is why generally we recommend having a real landline that may not be an option for you cuz the phone company,
Caller 3 (00:54:58):
I've got a real landline and I've got a cell
Leo Laporte (00:55:01):
Phone. So the good news about the landline is that will work.
Caller 3 (00:55:04):
Yeah. Cause that's powered by the, the
Leo Laporte (00:55:06):
Switching company, the cell phone may or may not work depending on how widespread the outage is. Cause remember the cell phone tower also requires power. They usually battery backed up. Sometimes generator backed up.
Caller 3 (00:55:16):
You've got one. That's about the cell tower's about two years old. Three years.
Leo Laporte (00:55:20):
Yeah. Okay. It's probably okay. But again,
Caller 3 (00:55:22):
It's only about two
Leo Laporte (00:55:23):
Or three. The thing that you can really rely on is the landline. Then the cell phone, the least reliable as any voice over the internet solution, cuz that's gonna be the that's gonna, that has multiple failure modes. I'm not sure why you're not getting dial tone. Now my guess would be that the battery, you know, they only have a two year life shelf life. So it may well be that the battery is worn out and isn't taking a charge. That's probably a call for at and T I don't, I don't really know what's going on there. I have to run, unfortunately, because we've got a really nice fellow Sam, who's just sitting here waiting to talk about automobiles.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:56:05):
All right. Thanks Leah. All yours. So to, to finish off the story, I was I was telling earlier on the external tech podcast, which is the show that Marco Orit, John Syracuse and Casey list do over on relay FM or actually, no, it's not on relay anyway. This is the show that they do. Marco was recently telling a story about going car shopping. He wanted a second vehicle. They, he and his family live on fire island and he needed a vehicle for driving on the beach. And the three vehicles he decided to take a look at were the Jeep Wagoner EV or plug-in hybrid the Toyota 4runner and the land Rover defender. And he took his, took his 10 year old son and they they, they took a look at the, the Jeep.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:56:58):
They took it for a test drive and the, one of the reasons why they opted not to get the Jeep, even though it was the only one of the three with a plug and, and Marco is, is a big fan of EVs. Now he's, he's on his second Tesla model S but he opted not to get the Jeep in part because it is really quite cramped inside. You know, it's, it's not really a small vehicle, but because of the way the body is shaped, it doesn't have a whole lot of cabin width in there even, you know, for his 10 year old son, his 10 year old sunset of the three, it was the, the least comfortable in the back seat. So that's that's why Jeep is part of why Jeep is doing the recon, you know, as a distinctly different vehicle, it's still gonna have the offroad capabilities of a, of a Wrangler, but it is you know, it's designed to be more amenable to families you know, have be a roomier vehicle inside, even though it's got a similar overall footprint to the to the Wrangler.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:58:06):
So couple other things that came up in the chat let's see somebody asked about turning the Suzu amigo into an EV. Frankly I would not recommend that. To be honest, I would not recommend the Suzu amigo under any circumstances. The best thing to do with an Isuzu amigo is just to park it and walk away. <Laugh> and there's lots of reasons for that. But also somebody mentioned a 57 Chevy as an EV and actually this is something that you could do. Increasingly we are seeing manufacturers offering retrofit kits you know, just to, you know, through their performance parts divisions for, for a long time, they've offered crate engines you know, which is basically a full engine in a box that you can get, you know, and they GM, for example, offers crate engines of different varieties of their small block V eights and some of their other engines.
Sam Abuelsamid (00:59:03):
And you can order these and, you know, get it with a wiring harness and everything, and you can drop it into all kinds of different vehicles. Similarly Ford Ford does the same thing. Over the last couple of years, they have started to offer electric crate motors. So in the case of GM they're offering a kit that is basically the battery pack, the motors, the electric motor, and the power electronics from the Chevy bolt as a kit. And they've done a couple of concepts that they've shown at the annual SEMA show in Las Vegas, the specialty equipment manufacturers association and last year I think they did a mid 1970s Chevy blazer that they converted with this kit. And I forget what the one they did the year before was, but they've done, you can, you can take this and you can package this in a lot of different ways.
Sam Abuelsamid (01:00:00):
And you know, so you can, you can do this it, you can convert something like a vintage Chevy a 57 Chevy into an EV because the motors are so small, the, the toughest challenge is actually going to be just packaging the, the battery pack. But there are ways to do this that, and it's gonna get increasingly easier in the coming years. I think we'll be seeing manufacturers putting together a lot more of these types of conversion kits that you can use in different vehicles. Bernard Adams is asking what is the most prestigious car brand in your opinion? So there's not a, I don't like so many things, you know I don't think there's a simple answer to that. It depends on what your definition of prestige is, you know, what, what you're looking for, you know, are you looking for the most luxurious premium vehicle?
Sam Abuelsamid (01:00:58):
Are you looking for the highest performance vehicle? You know, those are two very different things you know, on the, the luxury prestige side you know, Rolls-Royce, you know, obviously needs to be considered up there but also Bentley Mercedes, my bot you know, they're all, you know, they've, they've all got vehicles that, that fit into that category. You know, if what you're looking for is the most prestigious sports car, you know, Ferrari obviously is one that, you know, that always comes top of mind. You know, they have a long history of winning in motor sports and they make some incredible vehicles, but, you know, also Lamborghini. So it it's, it's rarely is it, it it's like when somebody asks me what's my favorite car. And it's like, I, it's hard to give a single answer to that question.
Sam Abuelsamid (01:01:55):
And then earlier Mike Heis asked in chat about the metropolitan police replacing the current armored Jaguar sovereigns that they use for moving royalty and, and officials high government officials around with new armored Audi, a eights they asked about why not replace those with armored land rovers. My guess is, you know, it probably had to do with a number of factors including reliability. They probably put out a tender offer, you know, request for quote and say, you know, you know, how much are you gonna charge us for these vehicles? So they, there's probably a, a wide variety of issues that chose that led them to not choose a British built vehicle for this particular round of upgrades. The Audi, a eight armored Audi, very
Leo Laporte (01:02:52):
Nice vehicle, but it's not British. What the hell? No,
Sam Abuelsamid (01:02:55):
It's not. Yeah, well, they probably had a better deal on it. You
Leo Laporte (01:02:58):
Imagine how much anger there'd be if the beast were not made in the us <laugh> that's Cray. Cray.
Sam Abuelsamid (01:03:05):
Yeah. Well, that's the way it goes sometimes. Thank
Leo Laporte (01:03:08):
You, Sam. Have a great week. All right, take
Sam Abuelsamid (01:03:10):
Care. You too. I'll talk to you next week. Bye.
Leo Laporte (01:03:13):
Well, Hey, Hey. Hey. How are you today? Leola port here. That's me. I'm your tech guy. Time to talk computers, the internet home theater, digital photography, smartphone, smart watches, augmented reality, virtual reality, real reality, electric vehicles, all that stuff. 88, anything with a chip 88 88, ask Leo. Yeah, really an EV is is, is, is basically a computer on wheels. These days. We were talking about the new iPhones. One thing I did not mention that actually could be a show stopper for some people, you know, how apple got rid of the headphone Jack. And they said, courage, courage, well, equal courage shown. They've gotten rid of the SIM tray. So on most smartphones most phones in general, you may know there's a little tray in the phone. You can use a poker. I often use a paperclip to press the hole in the tray and it'll pop out a little tray.
Leo Laporte (01:04:18):
Be careful don't don't poke the poker in the microphone hole. That's the wrong hole. It'll be a <laugh>, it'll be a hole surrounded by a line. You know, an oval line. That's the tray. You press that hole. And the tray pops out inside. There's a little electronic chip, a, they call it a SIM card. And the SIM card is how for most carriers you identify yourself. That's how they know it's you. That's how they know it's you know, your phone number, your account, all of that stuff. It's, it's actually SIM stands for subscriber identity module. It's actually, that's what it is. It says who you are, but the capabilities existed for some time to do an electronic SIM. In fact, if you think about it in the old days Verizon and sprint didn't have SIM cards, they were CDMA and the old phones, they just did it.
Leo Laporte (01:05:09):
You would call 'em or you would go online and they would activate the phone. Well, that's how it's gonna be for everybody. Good news. The way apple has implemented, that's called an EIM. The EIM allows you to have multiple Sims. I think up to eight different Sims. Only two can be active at any one time, but that's, you know, that's good. Why would you want that? Well, it's especially valuable as you travel overseas. There are some countries with multiple carriers, India, for instance, you can go one mile and change carriers. So very popular in India to have dual SIM phones with the two different carriers that you you're nearest to that kind of thing, but it's bad news for anybody who does travel to countries that don't support EIM. And there're quite a few that don't at this point. So if, if you are an international traveler and you like to go to a country and buy a SIM card at the airport, that you stick on the phone so that you have inexpensive calls and data, this is no longer gonna work in those countries.
Leo Laporte (01:06:08):
So check before you go, make sure your EIM will work. They're only selling the EIM phones in the us right now for that reason, but no more SIM trays in the iPhones. And I think that actually deserves the courage award. That's, that's kind of brave. Won't affect most of us. If you don't, you know, leave the us not a big deal. In fact, it's actually a good thing because it means it's gonna be much easier to switch carriers. Carriers may not like it, but if you're on a carrier and you don't like 'em, you can easily call another carrier and switch over. You don't have to get them to mail you a SIM. You don't have to go to the phone store to get a new SIM. It's all done in software. That's great. That's that means it'll be much easier to move from carrier to carrier ADA. I just, I wanted mention that just cuz that is one feature that might throw some people for a loop, eighty eight eighty eight, ask Leo that's my phone number. If you wanna talk high tech, I'm here to talk high tech with you. Eva is on the line from Prescott valley, Arizona. Hello Eva.
Caller 4 (01:07:13):
Hi Leo. How are you doing already?
Leo Laporte (01:07:15):
You're laughing and I, and we just got on together. I'm well, how are
Caller 4 (01:07:18):
You? I'm wrapping cuz I'm so happy. I'm getting to talk to you. Woo. I had the wonderful pleasure of meeting you one time, years ago when you were still in Petaluma and you were just a pleasure to be with. Aw, aren't you. I listen to you all the time.
Leo Laporte (01:07:30):
Aren't you kind well, thank you. It's nice to see you again. Thank
Caller 4 (01:07:34):
You. Yeah. <laugh> I got a kind of important question to me. I don't know how important it'll be to everybody else, but we have an RV and we travel quite a bit and on occasion I have to do some work and different things. And so I need a really basic, I don't doesn't need to be color or anything. I need a printer. I don't always have real wifi. I do have hotspot, so I need something that I can be reliably used that way. Yeah.
Leo Laporte (01:08:03):
You don't want a network printer. You don't. You want one that you connect via USB is what you want right
Caller 4 (01:08:10):
By USB. Okay. That's
Leo Laporte (01:08:12):
How printers used to so in the, the old, oh, you're printing from a phone or a tablet? Not a computer,
Caller 4 (01:08:19):
Correct?
Leo Laporte (01:08:20):
Ah, so you don't have a USB port. Oh, okay. Okay. Leo, next time ask the right questions. So what kind of phone are you using?
Caller 4 (01:08:31):
Right now it's an iPhone 12 truck. Okay.
Leo Laporte (01:08:34):
So iPhone has a technology. They call air print which does connect wirelessly to the printer. The question would be, if you're not online, can you still print? And I believe you can. So
Caller 4 (01:08:52):
I have a wireless printer in my home.
Leo Laporte (01:08:55):
Yeah. And your, and it's on your wifi network as, is your phone so correct? I mean, my initial thought is, well that will work because it's using the wifi. But if you are not on a shared wifi network, can you still print? Is the question. Yeah. And that's an interesting question. So when you are on the road, you don't set up wifi, you just use your, your 3g or, or LTE connected device and use its internet. You don't set up a network for the RV.
Caller 4 (01:09:33):
That's correct. Okay.
Leo Laporte (01:09:36):
So I think what you're gonna need to do to print to your printer with air print is set up a wifi connection. It doesn't matter if the wifi setup doesn't have internet access. But that's how it's gonna that's that's the network that it's gonna use to talk to the printer.
Caller 4 (01:09:58):
So, so you're saying I don't actually have to have wifi. I just have to,
Leo Laporte (01:10:02):
Well, you do have to have wifi. You don't have to have internet <laugh> so,
Caller 4 (01:10:06):
Oh, well see, the problem is I can't get wifi.
Leo Laporte (01:10:09):
Yeah, you can set up wifi because you can get something to ha that will have wifi. Let me see here. Do I need wifi to print using air print? Mac printers can rec computers can receive print jobs through USB if you don't have access to wireless direct print. Yeah. Sounds like if you're not gonna be wired. Oh, there's another way to do it. Come to think of it. You can, with your printer, many printers can print directly direct print. It's called you would set up a wifi network on your phone. You'd hotspot your phone and you'd have the printer join. Let's see, is that the right way to do it? Or vice versa? No, you set up your, you put your printer in direct print mode. It creates a wifi hotspot, which your, there we go. Which your phone joins. So your phone will see HP server, seventy three, seventy two, nine nine. You go, oh, I see it on your, in your wifi settings. You join that. And now you can air print to the printer. But so the printer has to support something called direct print. Most printers do by the way. And what, the way direct print does is it sets up a wi what's called an ad hoc wifi network. It sets up a wifi network that only connects to that printer, not the internet, not anything else. Then you join that wifi network with your phone or your tablet or your other device and print to it.
Caller 4 (01:11:34):
And do you know if there's any particular printer that is
Leo Laporte (01:11:37):
Almost all printers do that, but do you have one already?
Caller 4 (01:11:42):
Well, I have one at my residence, but I, I don't think I'd wanna bring that with me. It's kind of big.
Leo Laporte (01:11:48):
Oh yeah. So those, so there are definitely, there are small mobile printers. You don't wanna get too mobile. I mean, they make 'em you know, for sitting like on the seat of your car <laugh>
Caller 4 (01:11:59):
Yeah, well, the RV's not tiny, but it also, you know, every inch matters. <Laugh>
Leo Laporte (01:12:04):
All right. Well, HP makes a mobile printer that will do I think almost all cannon does as well. They're fairly small. Just make sure when you look at it, that it has direct print. It has that capability of creating a network. And I don't know if air print would do it or not come to think of it. I'm gonna have to think about that. Direct print would allow your phone then to join the wifi network that your printer's on and print to it directly via the phone.
Caller 4 (01:12:34):
Understood.
Leo Laporte (01:12:36):
I can look, I can look. That's how
Caller 4 (01:12:38):
I felt.
Leo Laporte (01:12:39):
I figure I, yeah, this is so complicated. I, I figure that that any portable printer is gonna support it because that's, how else would you print to it? So I think that probably, if you look for portable printers, you you're gonna see I'll put a link to some reviews of the best portable printers, but I think they're all gonna support direct print HP off a jet office jet two 50. That will do it. That's actually a nice little printer. That's very compact. You could take a look at that. Does color, which is good. Canon makes one, a portable printer that Pima tr one 50 Epson makes one the workforce E C one. That's their smallest workforce printer. It's portable. It supports wifi direct as well. So that's what you're looking for. Direct print. Or sometimes they call it wifi direct. Yes.
Caller 4 (01:13:34):
Do you still have your sweet little puppy on
Leo Laporte (01:13:37):
I don't. He passed away a couple of years ago. You saw you met Ozzie, huh? I know
Caller 4 (01:13:43):
That doggy was adorable.
Leo Laporte (01:13:44):
Wasn't he? A sweetie? Oh, we loved him. Yeah. Yeah. We miss him quite a bit. Thank you for asking.
Caller 4 (01:13:50):
Oh, I'm sorry.
Leo Laporte (01:13:50):
No, that's alright. It's what you did. Yeah. I mean, yeah, we, we love that little P well that, did you come with your family or just by yourself or
Caller 4 (01:13:59):
I, I came with my husband, John. The two of us were in there. Didn't we had a great
Leo Laporte (01:14:03):
Time. Oh, well, come back as soon as C's over. I, whenever that is come <laugh> come back and visit. Thank you. You. Thank you, Eva. All right. Have a great one. Take care. Leo Laporte, the tech guy, more calls 88 88. Ask Leo in just a little bit and photo time with our photo sense. Chris Marko, you stay right here. Well, I won't go that far. Leo Laporte, the tech guy, eighty eight eighty eight. Ask Leo the phone number. Chris mark coming up in just a little bit, but first Tom is on the line from Niagara Niagara falls. Hi Tom.
Caller 5 (01:14:45):
Hi, slowly I turned Leo.
Leo Laporte (01:14:47):
Was that the three Stooges?
Caller 5 (01:14:49):
It sure was.
Leo Laporte (01:14:50):
Wow.
Caller 5 (01:14:52):
<Laugh> Hey, it's great to, it's great to talk to just wanted to say I'll echo many other callers that say they've been with you since SDT and screensavers. I just hope, you know what a fixture you are on so many. Oh, anyone with a cable, TV and electronics ended up on your channels. It does.
Leo Laporte (01:15:11):
It was fun because, and this was 1998 through 2004, and it doesn't seem really that long ago or pre-internet or anything, but it was the case, I think, especially in the late nineties, that if you were a geek, if you were really into this stuff, you know, there were other guys at the radio shack you could talk to, but it was, you were kind of like a, you know, a small group. And I think to do it, to do a TV show for those people was talking about courage. Wasn't my money I think was great because it, it gave everybody a sense of belonging and, and it really, you know, it lasted and I think that's really good. Yeah. I was very fortunate.
Caller 5 (01:15:53):
You were the man for, so thank you. My question is I have a older Mac that was running high Sierra, and I recently acquired a newer one Intel also, and I wanna move everything over. But I really don't want the op whole operating system and everything. So I wondered what your advice would be on.
Leo Laporte (01:16:14):
So do you have a new one now or you say I have an existing one? I wanna move stuff over to,
Caller 5 (01:16:20):
Well, I have an existing one and I just required a new one that
Leo Laporte (01:16:23):
I wanna oh yeah. When you get the new one, when apple does this quite well. I think everybody does it now, but when you get the new one, you turn on that Mac for the first time, it'll say, oh, do you, do you wanna move your stuff over from your old computer? It will not move the operating system. It will just move the applications, the data. In fact, you even get to choose there. You'll get a, a list of D things that can move over. And it does quite a very, very good job. It's called a migration assistant. And even if you're not running that Mac for the first time, you can run migration. I system it's in the utility folder in your applications folder, you can run that directly and go through that whole process. I, that's what I always use when I get a new Mac. It's best if you can, to connect the two together with a high speed cable, depends how old the old one is. If the old one has Thunderbolt, that's the best way to do it. But you'd also use an ethernet cable or even wifi that just is, you know, faster with a direct connection.
Caller 5 (01:17:20):
Okay. I'm familiar with that. I have a couple time machine backups. I didn't know if I forget. Oh, that's
Leo Laporte (01:17:24):
A, yeah. And that's another option actually. Yeah. is one better than the other time machine will be faster because you can connect that hard drive directly. Yeah. If you have a time machine back up, that's another way to do that. And I've never used the time machine. I always do the migration assistant. Cuz then you're getting exactly what's on the old computer, but if you've been keeping your time machine up today yeah. That's probably the fastest way to do it. I, yeah, absolutely.
Caller 5 (01:17:50):
Would time would time machine clone the whole drive and again, I don't want all,
Leo Laporte (01:17:53):
No, no it won't. No, no. Apple's careful not to move the as, as they should not to move the operating system over that's that's fraught with peril because you know, your operating system has a lot of hardware specific stuff in it, so you definitely don't want that. Yeah.
Caller 5 (01:18:10):
Yeah. I'm going from high Sierra to Monterey, so
Leo Laporte (01:18:12):
Yeah. Yeah. You wanna it'll keep it Monterey. It won't change it. Migration assistant lets you choose either a direct connect or the time machine. So either wanna work. Yeah.
Caller 5 (01:18:23):
Okay. Last question. Will it change the language? From the old extended journal to the new one, the PS
Leo Laporte (01:18:30):
That is up to you and how you format it. The drive is already formatted. If it's a brand new computer, it's formatted to a PS now. Okay. And and so it doesn't care about the drive formatting. It's not gonna copy the drive formatting. So you've got an APF F you want a PS? I take it
Caller 5 (01:18:47):
Yes.
Leo Laporte (01:18:48):
Much better. In fact, you'll see the time machine is much better with the new apple file system is very good APF S yeah.
Caller 5 (01:18:56):
Okay, great. Well, thanks again for everything. Good and bright future bright future to you and the TWI network. And I think you have arising star and Micah sort of, oh,
Leo Laporte (01:19:05):
I agree. So he's gonna carry that. Torch. Micah and Jason Howell and Ann Pruitt. They're gonna carry the torch forward one. We hope they're younger than I am. <Laugh> a lot. Okay. <Laugh> cause I think, yeah, it's not such a special thing these days. If you're into technology, everybody is to some degree or another, but I still think we need a place for us geeks to gather and talk and, and that's what, that's what the podcast network is for. Thank you for the very, very kind words, Tim. I appreciate it. Can you see the falls from your house?
Caller 5 (01:19:36):
Not now, but I used to live just a couple box from, and I, when I, when I opened the window at night, I could hear it. Oh, so it's pretty cool. Believe
Leo Laporte (01:19:44):
It or not. I've never been to Niagara falls. Lisa says we gotta do that. Should we do the made of the missed boat ride?
Caller 5 (01:19:50):
Absolutely. And I highly recommend what you would do is fly into Buffalo, spend a day at the falls. You can do everything at the falls. You can go to the Canadian side.
Leo Laporte (01:20:02):
I hear the Canadian side's nicer than the Buffalo side. Is that not true?
Caller 5 (01:20:06):
Well, they're two different, they're two different things.
Leo Laporte (01:20:08):
Two different views. Yeah.
Caller 5 (01:20:10):
The American side has the falls and the, from the Canadian side, you can see more of it. But on the American side, it's more park in nature. Canadian. Side's very commercialized with a lot of
Leo Laporte (01:20:21):
That's hysterical. I that's the OB exact opposite of what I thought I'm going to the American side. And, and what kind of barrel do you recommend for going over the falls? Do you have a preference? <Laugh> no, I won't do that. I promise highly,
Caller 5 (01:20:34):
I highly repaired one, but I would also recommend combining it with a trip to Toronto. It's only a,
Leo Laporte (01:20:40):
I love Toronto used to work there one week a month for several years. You're right. I think Toronto's a great city. Good suggestion. Thanks Tim. Leo. Leport the tech guy. Love Toronto. Okay. So Benino, you don't need to bring him up until half passed. Also. Is this the shot that you actually wanted on camera one? <Laugh> because I'm looking at it going, you came in here to get that shot better. And this is what you uhoh. There goes somebody in an RV. I hope they're using wifi printing. Yeah. It's it's easy to knock it. Maybe I, I could well have knocked it Cris and then CLO over and over. Hello, Chris.
Chris Marquardt (01:21:33):
Hello? Hello? Hello.
Leo Laporte (01:21:35):
What are we doing today? Do I need a pick, find something in don't
Chris Marquardt (01:21:39):
Know. No. Anything you can lean back and talk with me about doing a photo walk. Oh, you might wanna bring up, you might wanna bring up a website called easy travel. I Z i.travel.
Leo Laporte (01:21:50):
Okay.
Chris Marquardt (01:21:52):
And but I want, I wanna show pictures and I want to talk about how to,
Leo Laporte (01:21:57):
What is a photo walk? I think that's a great, great topic. Yes.
Chris Marquardt (01:22:02):
Yes.
Leo Laporte (01:22:03):
That's a good shot. I like that shot. Thank you, Bon
Chris Marquardt (01:22:09):
And I have slides here to show, so I will bring those up when we need them.
Leo Laporte (01:22:14):
Nice.
TWiT Ad (01:22:15):
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Leo Laporte (01:22:47):
Momo. Take my Koda Chrome it's time for our photo guy. My photo sensei, Mr. Chris mark@sensei.photo, where he leads workshops and coaching sessions. He's got great books in photography and does the world's best photographic podcast tips from the top floor@tfttf.com and ladies and gentlemen, he is now appearing in our living room. Hello? Hello, Chris. <Laugh>.
Chris Marquardt (01:23:12):
Hey, it's good to be back. How are today?
Leo Laporte (01:23:14):
It's magic. I'm great. How are you?
Chris Marquardt (01:23:18):
I'm fine. I've just returned from a photo walk. Oh, from a photo. Have you ever done a
Leo Laporte (01:23:23):
Photo walk? Oh, many times. And I haven't done one in so long, but I love photo walks. I really think they're fine. So tell the world what a photo walk is.
Chris Marquardt (01:23:31):
Well, a photo walk is, is like a, like a community activity. You meet with friends who like photography with photo photo enthusiast, and you walk around with a camera and take pictures of
Leo Laporte (01:23:41):
It's. It's my favorite way to do photography photography.
Chris Marquardt (01:23:44):
It's it's wonderful because you are doing the thing you love with like-minded people. Yeah. And often photo walks are themed. And that's what we did today. A friend, a couple of friends organized that. I did like an hour drive to castle, a city in south from here. And we did a, a themed photo walk about castle street art. Nice. Which there's a big art festival going on there right now. And there's a lot of murals and, and city art and stuff. So that's what we did. And so I wanna talk about first of all, how do you find the photo walk cuz photo walks. I mean, you could of course do your own photo walk. If you're the photo quality,
Leo Laporte (01:24:29):
Occasionally we'll even announce the photo walk for our TWI fans. We've done one in Vegas. We did one in, so by Southwest in Austin, those are so much fun. And it's nice if you can get a real photographer like you along for the ride for the tips and tricks and you know, and then I just copy or,
Chris Marquardt (01:24:47):
Or just for looking over, over, over the shoulder,
Leo Laporte (01:24:50):
Basically the copy. Yeah. No that's exactly. Yeah.
Chris Marquardt (01:24:52):
That's totally fine. Totally fine. Oh good. So well, first of all, I want, I wanna point out a network. I didn't really know about this for the longest time, but I found out about it and I think it's really cool. It's called easy travel. I Z i.travel. It's a website. They also have an app and that's a, a website where you can, if you click on the listen button, you can type in, I don't know, San Francisco and it'll, it'll show you tours about certain things. Doesn't have to be photo related, but it's a themed tour. And a lot of people put audio guides in there. So you get like a tour with a map on different stops. And then you get a little audio snippet at every stop that tell and these something about it,
Leo Laporte (01:25:33):
Photos specific outsourced, but it gets you out there and tells you what to be looking for like that.
Chris Marquardt (01:25:39):
And it helps you in, it makes this an in, into a structured kind of experience
Leo Laporte (01:25:44):
And its, so I'm glad to know about this. We usually hire, hire a guide in a city, but this way you could, you could get a local in your ear. Oh, I love this.
Chris Marquardt (01:25:53):
Yes, totally. I'm I'm a fan of that. So, so we used that and we found this street art walk. That's like a two, three hour walk and we used that as a template to walk along and take photo and do some photography. So and then everyone is of course different. Some people brought a big, big mirrorless camera and several lenses. I thought I play it. Well, let's say a bit lazy cuz I've just brought the iPhone and good. If you, if you, if you do street related stuff, like if you were involved, if you get, get, wanna get some strangers on the photos and things like that, the smaller camera is usually the better one. It doesn't get too much attention from people cause it's just a phone. And so yeah, I, I want to briefly talk about some of the pictures. I brought some pictures that I took today and again, as iPhone used use I I'm, I like black and white, so I said everything to black and white and really harsh contrast. And so that's
Leo Laporte (01:26:56):
Another thing you can do with a photo walk is you have your own personal assignment in, in there.
Chris Marquardt (01:27:02):
Exactly. Yeah. So what I like is looking around for interesting, unusual looking things. I also like to include people in photos. So here's a, I D yeah. Think it's an entrance to some parking. I like this structure and that's a person walking. We had nice sunshines or harsh shadows, nothing wrong with that. If you look for interesting shapes, this is like weird dots on the ground. I have no idea how they got there, but they looked weird. So I like it
Leo Laporte (01:27:34):
That you a
Chris Marquardt (01:27:35):
Shadow element, a
Leo Laporte (01:27:35):
Shadow over the dots, which made it much more interesting.
Chris Marquardt (01:27:39):
I want the human element in shots if it's possible, because that adds interest. That adds a lot of interest. See, I
Leo Laporte (01:27:46):
Just learned something and it wasn't even on the photo walk <laugh>
Chris Marquardt (01:27:49):
I love it. Unusual things that you find. I mean, I have no idea who left those shoes out there and the parts, the cooking parts. But we found that on the side of a building somewhere. So of course I'm, I went over there and took a picture. It
Leo Laporte (01:28:05):
Looks like you're using the wide angle lens on the camera too.
Chris Marquardt (01:28:08):
I like doing that. I like doing that because I can get something big, large in front in the front of the picture, closer to the camera, which makes that stand out so much more than if you take another lens. Let me find one, here's one of a car with a, with a funny emergency exit sticker on the back, which I <laugh>, I went really close up to with the wide angle lens and then you get this amazing depth and the weirdness of the whole thing. I like weird stuff that, that is, is a, is my cup or a weird poster in the front. Here's a, a cow licking its nose in a street. So why not? It adds a funny element to it. So yeah. Unusual things, big things in the front wide angle works really well. Strong foregrounds. This is not the default camera we've talked about this before. This is the Argentum app, which unfortunately I think is only on the iPhone, but
Leo Laporte (01:29:13):
It's a good black and white focused app though. That's kind of neat. Yeah.
Chris Marquardt (01:29:17):
Comes with a free filter. I think you can buy additional filters. And this is the AA filter, which is mimics a bit of the Ansel Adam style. So it cranks up the contrast and tries to get the skies darkened down and it's the same. Yeah. Then look for weird things,
Leo Laporte (01:29:33):
Same filter I've got on my AR genum right now. <Laugh>
Chris Marquardt (01:29:37):
Which, which, which is, I think it's the only one they should be selling anyway. Yeah. It's
Leo Laporte (01:29:42):
Really good.
Chris Marquardt (01:29:43):
Yeah. That is just such, such a fun filter. So yeah, go out to a photo walk go find some the easy travel website and app that can think that you're probably gonna link this in the show notes. It is a good starting point and find a few like-minded people and the photography is so much more fun. If you'll have people around you who also love photography, cuz you will be, you'll be, you'll be stopping in places and no one will mind. You can take your
Leo Laporte (01:30:15):
Photos. Yeah. We're all looking at the new iPhone and the photography capabilities, the new iPhone I'll be getting mine on Friday. I think this is a, a good way to test it out. Right. To go out there and take some, some pictures.
Chris Marquardt (01:30:27):
So yeah, totally. I, I would, I would totally do this. I'll I'll skip the 14 cuz I go every second year. Me too. So me too. It's
Leo Laporte (01:30:35):
Good. We're in sync. So
Chris Marquardt (01:30:36):
13
Leo Laporte (01:30:37):
I'm on the 12. I'm going to the 14. You'll go to the 15. That way. We'll always have the new one to try out. Yes. Chris mark, what is our photo assignment? Another excuse to get outside and start taking pictures.
Chris Marquardt (01:30:47):
We're still doing the evil assignment
Leo Laporte (01:30:51):
Eval. Oh man. I had a big opportunity with Motley crew. I could have taken so many pictures of E evil. Oh shucks. Remember it. Now the idea is you take a image. It doesn't have to be the fancy camera. Smartphone's fine. Of illustrating the word or the ID evil. We won't tell you much more about what that means. That's up to you. And then if you find an image you like upload it to flicker.com. That's a free photo sharing site. We have a, a group there, the tech guy group. So if you not all remember join it and then submit it to the tech guy group. Make sure you put the tag T G evil in there. And that way we'll know Renee silver and our moderator will know it's a submission. And I think we're about two weeks from our, our review. Or do you wanna do it next week? It's up
Chris Marquardt (01:31:36):
To you? No, no, two, two weeks, two weeks, maybe even three we'll we'll
Leo Laporte (01:31:40):
Figure this out plenty of time to take an evil picture, but get on out there and do it. Chris marwars@sensei.photo. S E N S E i.photo. Lots of beautiful images there. Coaching workshops, books and his great podcast. Thank you Chris.
Chris Marquardt (01:31:57):
Thanks Leo
Leo Laporte (01:31:59):
Leola port, the tech guy. Very nice. Loves that. That's first and easy is gonna be great cuz
Chris Marquardt (01:32:13):
It even allows you to download those those audio things for offline. They are of varying quality cuz they're all crowdsourced, but the ones I've listened to so far seem pretty good. So
Leo Laporte (01:32:28):
I doubt there's one for Petaluma, but let me look. Maybe I should record one that's
Chris Marquardt (01:32:31):
I know, I didn't find one. I actually looked, I actually looked <laugh> you'll find a few for San Francisco and there's like 15,000 different for the, for the entire planet pretty much.
Leo Laporte (01:32:41):
So we often, when we go to somewhere new, we'll hire a tour or we go to tours by locals, but that's expensive. This sounds like when we were in Hawaii a couple of years ago, there's a company that puts these out and you put 'em on your phone, but they're expensive. I might, I might try these. That's great. Really
Chris Marquardt (01:32:58):
Cool. And you can, you can of course pre-list to them so, and read what they wrote. Yeah. So you
Leo Laporte (01:33:04):
Get a good idea check ahead of time.
Chris Marquardt (01:33:04):
What you're gonna get. Yeah.
Leo Laporte (01:33:06):
Yeah. I z.travel. I just book
Chris Marquardt (01:33:09):
Comes, comes with a map, comes, comes with a map, comes with a, like a map that, that has, that has numbers on them for each of the different stops and so on. So very nice, very interesting little service. I like this. Very nice. And it's it's free. I think you can, you can pay for the app to get rid of a couple of ads, but I think that's about it.
Leo Laporte (01:33:30):
Thank you, Chris.
Chris Marquardt (01:33:32):
Absolutely.
Leo Laporte (01:33:33):
You have a wonderful week.
Chris Marquardt (01:33:36):
You too. See you next week.
Leo Laporte (01:33:38):
Thank you, sir. Take care. Leo Laporte, the tech guy, 88 88. Ask Leo. Let's go to Huntington beach where Randy is on the line. Hello Randy.
Caller 6 (01:33:51):
Hello there, Leo. I just got a we, we talked a couple weeks ago about a, a problem I had, I didn't have enough Ram for my laptop, so I traded it in, got one with 32 gigabytes of Ram rather than 16. Cause as we talked, we know that Ram is often soldered into the computers nowadays. Yep. So I'm trying to set up windows 11 without a Microsoft account and I was able to do it on the previous computer. Yeah, but it appears after 22 H two all the old, no longer work.
Leo Laporte (01:34:21):
No <laugh> so the, the last trick was that you take the computer off the internet set up a local account cuz you're not online, but with windows 11 and the new version what happens? It says no you need a Microsoft to count. Sorry.
Caller 6 (01:34:39):
Yeah, it, it, I install out on having to get a wifi password set up. I'm trying not to do that.
Leo Laporte (01:34:46):
Yeah. Just to don't turn on wifi disconnect. The ethernet. This was always the last resort. So Microsoft has for years been really working the way up to the idea that in order to install windows, you have to associate it with an existing Microsoft account. And there are lots of reasons people don't wanna do that. You know, chiefly privacy and tracking used to be for a long time. You could do that. But it's I am told by our windows experts, Paul thro and Mary Jo Foley that in the home version of windows, there is no longer a work around disconnecting from the internet doesn't work and you've got to set up the Microsoft account. So their advice is to set up a dummy, bogus Microsoft account, you know, one use only and use that. There are some disadvantages one of the reasons not to use a Microsoft account was so that your home directory would have a name of your choosing as opposed to the fragmented name that it comes up with based on your Microsoft account log in. Yep. I guess we're just gonna have to live with it. There's as far as I know, there's no work around now.
Caller 6 (01:35:56):
I was hoping somebody was more brilliant than I
Leo Laporte (01:35:59):
Thought. Yeah. Well I think you're right. That it's 22 H two that has, that has changed this forever. But the chat room is giving me a couple of links. One from gacs.net. One of YouTube saying, now this one's from may 20, 22, so that's not gonna be that's that's not gonna do it because they've changed this. But if I'll put the chat room link from Keith five 12, Keith is this subsequent to 22 H two I obviously can't watch that YouTube video you're posting. I hate YouTube videos for this exact reason <laugh> and everything nowadays, all the computer help and advice all seems to be in a YouTube video that for the first three minutes is like, and subscribe, hit the button, do the bell, you know, do Hey, Hey, Hey everybody. And I just, I just put it in writing, would you and I could follow along.
Leo Laporte (01:36:53):
It'd be a lot easier, a lot easier. So a lot quicker. Yeah. Apparently I'm gonna say apparently it's my understanding. There's no workaround anymore. There was a workaround right up until 22 H two, which is just come out, Microsoft, you know, they don't want you to do that. They want it. They wanna know who you are. And I find that quite offensive. It's one of many reasons I prefer not to use windows. I use it. I have to, but only because I do this show, the minute I retire, <laugh> all windows machines turning into Linux boxes and that's that. And I think that's probably the case for almost everybody. They use windows cuz they have to, it's rare that they use windows cuz they want to, you know, maybe if you're a gamer, something like that. But yeah. It's, you know, so make a dummy account, no big, you know, you don't have to ever use it again. I think Microsoft would say, well, we do this because people keep forgetting their passwords. So if you use a Microsoft account, we can get you back into your windows. We're tired of the phone calls. That's gonna be their public statement more privately when they're at home at night and everybody's asleep and the lights are out, they think to themselves and this way we can set ads against your account. We know who you are. So that's my guess.
Caller 6 (01:38:13):
Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm trying to disconnect from all of those giant companies. It's Gama. Yeah. Yeah. We've got Google and apple and Microsoft and meta and Amazon and I think the big
Leo Laporte (01:38:27):
Gama, I like it. I like it. Yeah. Used to be Fang, but now they've renamed a meta and Meg just doesn't have the same ring to it. So I like gamma. I'm gonna go with gamma. Yeah.
Caller 6 (01:38:37):
I wonder if meta is short for metastatic or metastatic
Leo Laporte (01:38:42):
Tre. They're definitely metastasizing <laugh> there are spreading there cancer that is spreading. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'll tell you what we are getting a lot of links that people saying, oh no, this is still work. So I'll, I'll put those@techeyelabs.com and I'll let you go through them and at your, I will as well. But, but I remember Paul being fairly upset about this, that this is gone. This is, this is no longer an option. And the advice he had was the advice I had make up an account use that if you don't, if you wanna stay private, Hey, a pleasure talking to you. You're not really private anyway, Randy, you know better.
Caller 6 (01:39:19):
Yep. Exactly.
Leo Laporte (01:39:20):
They know exactly what you're up to at all times now.
Caller 6 (01:39:23):
It's yeah. They know when we are sleeping, they know when we're awake.
Leo Laporte (01:39:26):
Yeah. Yeah. It creeps up on you too. Right. I mean, this has happened over the last 20 years and at this point, if you are online in any form, if you have an electric bill <laugh> people know what you're up to. And the idea of hiding yourself from big business is just I think it's a pipe dream, unfortunately, but that's the world we live in now. We're we? And you know what? It was inevitable. We're so interconnected. We're so dependent on one another. It's just, I don't know how you would avoid that. I really don't sorry. But you know, again, there seems to people, people think the other option by the way is get windows pro. And as far as I know, windows pro for a hundred bucks more does let you create a local account. If you care that much to Hatfield PA we go good friend Jerry on the line. Hi Jerry.
Caller 7 (01:40:18):
Hello, Leo, Leo. I've got a situation here. I want to cut my cut the cord. I currently have a dish DVR receiver and I have programs on it. Yeah. But if I, if I kill, if I kill my subscription, they kill my DVR. Eight
Leo Laporte (01:40:40):
Days are here again. You didn't think you owned that DVR or those recordings, did you? You didn't think no, no. That you think you own it
Caller 7 (01:40:52):
Stupid of me.
Leo Laporte (01:40:53):
<Laugh> you are not my friend, the customer, you are the product. When will you little people get that through your head? Yeah. So what they do with those and this actually isn't Dish's idea. In fact, dish for a long time, fought the TV and motion picture industry, you know, they had the hopper remember to let you skip commercials. They tried for a long time to to, to favor customers over big business, but they have failed ultimately in order to do the DVR, they have to heavily encrypt the contents of that DVR. And as far as I know, TiVo does the same thing. It's impossible. You know, you, you know, you've got your shows on that hard drive. It was a hard drive in there. You know, your shows are on there,
Caller 7 (01:41:35):
Right?
Leo Laporte (01:41:36):
There's a hard drive on there. You should be able to take it off that hard drive and, and watch them, except that they're so heavily encrypted. And, and the encryption key is held in the, in the dish box. So
Caller 7 (01:41:48):
My question to you, my question to you is if I'm going to get rid of dish, is there another device I can buy? Yes. I, you know, from, from my, from my dish HDMI into another recorder,
Leo Laporte (01:42:05):
Ah,
Caller 7 (01:42:06):
Boxes, ah,
Leo Laporte (01:42:06):
Yeah. I, that's an interesting question. There are several companies HD home run is one, there are a number of companies that make DVRs that are not encrypted. So, and I, but, but would it connect to your dish? Yeah. Cuz the dish box is doing the toing tuning. The HDMI coming out of that is just normal HDM. I, you might have to do it manually because I don't know if you're gonna have the program guide and it won't be able to control the dish box tuning. So you might have to tune the channel and record it.
Caller 7 (01:42:42):
Oh no, no. I can go to my dish DVR to my hard drive and
Leo Laporte (01:42:47):
Oh, and play it out. Oh yeah. Yeah, of course. That's the so-called analog hole. Yeah. I think you should be able to do that with a variety of devices. They have to support HDCP the copy protection scheme. But I suspect that's possible. Leo Laporte, the tech guy. That's an interesting question. Cuz it would have to support, it would have to support the copy protection that so dish will not play those DVRs out that port, unless everything along the chain is HDCP has the HDS copy protection on it. So what could you record to that has HD HDCP that's an interesting question. There are, this is a little trickier and this is really what annoys me about copy protection. All we're doing is teaching you how to become a pirate. Jerry <laugh> so
Caller 7 (01:43:56):
Well it doesn't come out of the of the DVR protected.
Leo Laporte (01:44:00):
No, it does TV. No, it does trust me cuz the TV is HDCP the, the cable is HDCP and everything has to be HDCP compliant. And so when it comes out, if you plug that DVR into a, something that can record at H DMI, it will say it will query it. HDCP right. And if it's not, it will say, Nope, can't do it now. Nah, but that's the bad news. Here's the good news. There are about a thousand Chinese companies. They sell H D M I converters <laugh> Uhhuh. They don't list them as stripping HDCP but they do. We found a number of them by accident buying them that, that just strip 'em off. So get a cheap Chinese H D M I splitter on Amazon. Okay. And even though it won't say it's strips at HDCP, it almost always does. And then you connect that to anything. That'll take an HDC, you know, a laptop, whatever that will record over H D M I and you're golden.
Caller 7 (01:44:59):
Now, if, if I go and get a, like a replay or like Acast whatever they call it, I, I want one that has a remote control RF remote. Cause I have four different locations. Right,
Leo Laporte (01:45:11):
Right. Who has RF remotes? Well, one other way you could do it used to be anyway, you could get a harmony or one of the
Caller 7 (01:45:20):
Used to be
Leo Laporte (01:45:21):
Used to be. Yeah, they're gone. Used to be, let me think if, because they, they had RF remotes, there were companies that would have RF remotes out there. I'm not sure to be honest with you. But that should be listed. So try getting, just take a look at the universal remotes and see if, how many, you know, I'm sure there are universal remotes that are RF mm-hmm
Caller 7 (01:45:46):
<Affirmative>. Is there a website like the, a G GSM marina where you can put your, your your particular qualities that you want in and it'll give you the equipment. It'll, you
Leo Laporte (01:46:00):
Know, I wish, I don't know of one. I that's one of the things I love about GSM marina, you can say, you can find out what specs any Android device has. I don't know, off the top of my head, maybe somebody in the chat room.
Caller 7 (01:46:13):
Well, why should go to the AV four on YouTube, but I might be looking for something that doesn't even exist.
Leo Laporte (01:46:19):
Yeah. You might be AVS form would be a good place to ask.
Caller 7 (01:46:24):
Okay,
Leo Laporte (01:46:24):
Jerry, I gotta run.
Leo Laporte (01:46:26):
Thank you, my friend. Great to talk to you. Take care. But I should mention that that is, that is possibly the answer to our caller's question. You create your your install with rufuss, which is a free ISO USB creation tool. And you put your windows 1122 H two on a rufuss and the, and when you do that with rufuss, they, they have some settings, you know, that's what I should do is I just download this, see if it's still out of those settings, that you can turn off all that rufuss dot E. Well, Hey, Hey. Hey, how are you today? Leo LePort here I am the tech guy, time to talk computers, the internet video, audio AirPods, iPhones, pixel phones, Samsung phones, eighty eight eighty eight. Ask Leo that's the phone number. If you want to talk high tech now is the time 88 88, ask Leah website tech ilab.com. Oftentimes even after the call is over, we put additional information there, thanks to the team tech guy in our chat room@irc.twi.tv and team tech. I team tech guy comes to the rescue again, N suggesting other ways to get around the requirement that you set up your new windows, 11 version 22 H two with a local account.
Leo Laporte (01:48:01):
Apparently I'd forgotten this. Rufuss lets you do that. So rufuss which is a free tool you can download. You might already have it. It's the tool we always recommend to make USB boot discs or installers. So when you're gonna make that windows 10 windows, 1122 H two installer use rufuss to make it. And it gives you check boxes to allow you to do a local account. They're bypassing something. So that is one way to do it. There's another way, which is wild <laugh>. And I have not tried this, but you can use a banned email address as your Microsoft account. This comes from Neo win. If you use the email address, no@thankyou.com <laugh> windows will say, oops, something went wrong on the next screen. You click next and it lets you set up a local account.
Leo Laporte (01:49:05):
So there, so when asked for, I haven't tried this when it asked for a Microsoft account, try no@thankyou.com. Now I have to think this is a cat and mouse game. Microsoft really, really, really, really wants you to use a Microsoft account. So they know who you are. You know, maybe, maybe it's to reduce piracy. I don't know. Maybe it actually would have that impact. Wouldn't it? Maybe it's to keep an eye on what you're up to so they can sell you advertising. Probably they they're gonna say I'm sure. Oh, and it's a case. You forget your password. That way we can always, you know, recover it for you. Okay, fine. But if you don't want any of that it's getting harder and harder and Microsoft's doing everything they can to prevent it. So I suspect any backdoor method you find will only work for a limited amount of time.
Leo Laporte (01:49:56):
Now, once it works, you're done. I think, I don't think Microsoft's gonna come back and say, well, wait a minute, which your count now? So try no at thank you. Dot com. <Laugh> somebody's asking, does apple do that? No. In fact you do not have you, you, they ask you to use your apple account to install Mac OS, but you don't have to. That may be just a matter of time before apple does it too. I wouldn't be surprised Linux. I can tell you right now. Doesn't cuz you don't have a Linux account. They no such thing. Eighty eight eighty eight ask Leo that's the phone number? Eighty eight eighty eight. Ask Leo's the phone number? Let's get back to the phone. Chuck in Minneapolis. Hey Chuck Leo Laporte. The tech guy
Caller 8 (01:50:46):
Months ago. I re I remember hearing.
Leo Laporte (01:50:50):
Yeah, go ahead.
Caller 8 (01:50:52):
You said something about eliminating passwords.
Leo Laporte (01:50:57):
Yes. The future one hopes is passwordless it's not here yet. So let me remind everybody the use. You know, nowadays you need to remember hundreds of passwords. Well, you can't do that unless you use the same password over and over a bad idea, bad idea in this day and age of breaches. And there are so many all the time. If you use a password on one site, that site gets cracked, then that password they call it credential stuffing. A bad guys will try that password on every other possible site. And that's gonna be a big security nightmare. So in order to be safe in this modern age, you need to use unique, long non memorable passwords. Why memorable means easy to, easy to crack. If you can remember it, it's a bad password, but wait Leo, wait a minute. How am I supposed to remember it?
Leo Laporte (01:51:53):
If I can't remember it? Well, you don't have to. That's why you use software called a password vault or a password manager. And if you're not using one big risks, big risks out there, please be, do me a favor. There are many password managers. There's the commercial big boys. Last pass one password robo form. They're fairly inexpensive. There's an open. There are open source solutions like key pass that's free bit warden is free. Find one and use it and let it generate long passwords. As long as this site will let you use cuz the longer, the better they'll generate truly random passwords. And when you look at 'em you go, well, Leo was right. You can't memorize that. No you can't. There is one password. You'll have to remember. That's the master password that gives you access to all the others. Make that a good one.
Leo Laporte (01:52:51):
Make that a good one. But you, you can, you can make that one. Something you can memorize. You need to memorize it or write it down I guess, but keep it somewhere safe. Cuz that's the keys to the kingdom. So step one, use a password manager. We still need passwords. They're not gone yet. Step two, use two factor authentication. And you know what that is? Cuz your bank probably requires it of you when you log in, it says, what's your name? Fine. What's your password fine. And now we're gonna send a code to your phone type that in that's called second factor authentication on your most secure accounts as vital. It's truthfully not ideal to do it over the phone and be better to use an authenticator app banks. You know, they, they know their users are gonna get confused. So I'm gonna do the same thing.
Leo Laporte (01:53:39):
Just whatever it is. It's it's just a speed bump for bad guys. Even if they get your password or guess your password having to get that text message is one extra thing. That's good. Now I did say we won't have to use passwords someday, someday. I don't think I'll still be around, but someday this nightmare will be over. It's a nightmare. It's terrible. It's bad for security. It's bad for users. Everybody hates it. There is a group called the Fido Alliance that has proposed a new way of doing this. It's kind of related to your two factor.
Leo Laporte (01:54:18):
It is the colloquially called past keys, not past words. And it's roughly the same. You may have already experienced this. Some for instance, when you with Microsoft windows, when you sign into a Microsoft account, you usually give it your Microsoft email, you know, leo@outlook.com or whatever that is. And then it won't even ask for a password. It will say, okay, now go to the Microsoft authenticator app on your phone and select a number and the number will be on the screen select 20. So you do that and you're in boy. That's a lot easier than a password. Isn't it that's very much like the new pass keys system turns out. Most of us have an authentication device. That's very strong, very good in our pockets. It's our smartphone smartphones. These days use biometrics, fingerprint or face recognition to unlock them. That's very, very strong authentication.
Leo Laporte (01:55:17):
And then you can put an app on there that will further identify you to another third party. So that's what Pasky is what the PHY Alliance is trying to do. Microsoft, Google and apple have all signed onto this, almost all the password managers. This is why I mentioned password managers will support this too. So if you're already using a password manager, that'll be the easiest way to move to this new S keys system. It's not here yet, but in the next year or two, you may start seeing sites say, oh, you know, scan this QR code to get in and you scan it on your phone. Your phone will launch, it'll say, are you and do face ID or touch ID or, and then say, oh yeah, it's Leo and let 'em in. It'll be a collaboration. There's all sorts of complicated scenarios. I won't go into those in detail.
Leo Laporte (01:56:09):
I hope this rollout goes smoothly that people can kind of gradually move into it. But the first step, most important step is the step you take today for sites today, which is to use a password manager, use a password manager, turn on two-factor authentication on every site. You can Facebook. They do it. Yeah, Amazon. They do it. Yeah. Your bank. Yes. Every site that you can turn on, two-factor you, by the way, you'll only have to do that. Two-Factor once the first time you log in on any given browser and then as past keys become more popular with websites, cuz the website has to modify to do this. Those password managers will start to roll past keys into your life bit by bit. I go a step farther. I don't, I don't use fingerprint touch ID. I use a little device, a USB device on my key chain that only I have access to. And that's how I authenticate it. I give my name, you know, my email, my password. And then they say, okay, plug in your security key. I plug it in, tap a button. And it says, oh yeah, that's Leo. So in order for people to steal my accounts, they'd need this physical key and well, if they've got it, then something happened to me and <laugh> I don't care anymore. Eighty eight, eighty eight ask Leo that's the phone number? (888) 827-5536, toll free from anywhere in the us or Canada website. Tech guy labs.com more calls right after this,
Leo Laporte (01:57:48):
Rodney. How are you? Hey, how are you? I'm good. How are you feeling? I'm fine. Thank you. It took us a little longer than I expected about 10 days, but we're we're clear. Was it? I think was cross infection going there. Yeah she and so did Sherry get it or something else? No, she got it about three days later. And you know, we looked at each other and talked about, you know, separately, isolating that's what more and said, forget it. Forget it. Let's just let's share it. Yeah. I said Lisa, kiss me, baby. Give me that. Yeah, exactly. Give me the co virus. I don't care. The black death, the black death. How are you? You, you oh, we're fine. I didn't get it thing. Yeah, I didn't get it. I didn't get it from Nicki six either. So that's good. He spit on me, but I didn't get it.
Leo Laporte (01:58:33):
So I think I'm okay. Woo. Think I'm okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well I'm glad to hear that. Cause I, I was, I was, was really like cringing when I got home and I thought, oh, I have to call a few. It's not your fault. It's not your fault. You didn't know you had it. No I didn't. If I did, I I would be a real dastardly wouldn't I? Yeah, but you're not, but you're not. And you didn't so I'm not, I'm not worried about that. Not one cotton pick and bit, you know, I, I enjoyed your little conversation about passwords just where we, we got on here together because I, I got back from the Arctic and for some reason I've been logged out of everything. Maybe location services said, oh, he's out of the country. Let's just dump it. That's not unusual. But that was the new one.
Leo Laporte (01:59:14):
Oh, and that's good. That's that's what you want. Well, it's good. Except then last pass. Wouldn't let me back in. It kept saying, oh, you can't go online. You can only use your, your local something or oh wow. Wait what? Yeah. Oh, that's not good. So I'm still trying to figure out why cuz the password's correct. And they're not pushing the password back. They're just saying, oh dear. Yeah, we can't get you online. Oh dear. So I just manually copy everything down and go to another password volume or something. It's still thinks you're in the, so you brought that laptop to the Arctic, right? I did. Yeah. Maybe so. That's what it is. Yeah. Well it thinks you're there, but it should reset at some point. How could you reset that? Boy? I wish I had someone to call like the tech guy, cuz this is clearly something for the tech guy.
Leo Laporte (02:00:04):
Well I haven't really jumped online to do a ton of research yet either. I'm sure somebody else has gone through this. So I think there's gotta be a way that's really interesting to reset that cuz this should know where you are right now. You've read the machine and everything I'm sure. Right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That seems like last pass is maybe. Yeah, maybe that is a little annoying, but I, I have an idea for the whole password thing. Yeah, right. Yeah. What, so I think we should do it by DNA and we just have little patch on the computer that we lick. Oh we're practically there. What do you think? Yeah, I think we're not that's no, I think that's not far off. Yeah. Yeah. <laugh> wow. I mean that's kind of what, that's the biometrics, right? That's what you're doing. Well, yeah, it's just a crude diversion of it.
Leo Laporte (02:00:54):
As you might expect from a person like me <laugh> I just wanna make my computer. I love it. So, and also your, your, your talk with Sam today. I, I didn't know about the Equinox. That's interesting. Yeah. It's a good looking car. It is very nice. Yeah. We saw an ad for it on the football game on Thursday and, and Lisa said, tell me about that. Tell me all about that. <Laugh> it's a Chevy <laugh> it's a Chevy baby, but I didn't know what platform it was on. So it is a new platform. So that's interesting. Yeah. All right. We'll talk in about 12 minutes. Very good. Thank you, sir. I just wanna hear the rest of this song. Leo LePort the jazz Jack tech guy, eighty eight eighty eight. Ask Leo that's the phone number. If you want to talk high tech 8 8 8 8 2 7 5 5 3 6. I didn't know this scooter X passed along this article from CNET tomorrow.
Leo Laporte (02:01:51):
Of course we're getting iOS 16 and all the people who use iPhones. And what I didn't know was that pass keys. The new feature that I was just talking about will arrive on Monday for iPhone users. Google's also gonna do this. PA keys will be built in browsers will start having to support pass keys. There is one more step though. And this unfortunately is the one that's gonna be the laggard websites also have to start supporting PAs keys. The places you're logging into have to support PA keys. So instead of a bunch of keystrokes, you know what I would, you know, the way we do it now you'll be able to a biometric check on your device. Your phone will say, yeah, that's Leo and log you in. It's gonna be an improvement. No more passwords should be more secure as well.
Leo Laporte (02:02:45):
People have raised issues, you know? Well, what happens if your phone is lost or stolen? Of course there, there are, you know, backup solutions behind that. So it's, it's in there now. <Laugh> it's in iOS 16, but I honestly, I don't think you'll be using it. So what'll happen is you'll go at some point someday in the future, you'll go to a website or it can be an app too, anything where you have to log in with a password and it will say let's set up a pass key or sign in with PAs key. I look forward to that day, not here yet. Now that iOS 16 supports it. Maybe it maybe it'll come sooner than later. There's no point in doing it now. Right? But once iOS, once, once phones start to support it widely then so it'll say, okay, log in with your pass key or sign up with your PAs key.
Leo Laporte (02:03:43):
And then you'll use an authentication technique depending on the device and your choice. You know, fingerprint face will be the most common ones and and you'll be in. And the next time you go in to that website, there'll be a button that says sign in with PAs key. You'll click it. Your phone will buzz. You'll look at it or you touch it and you're in. So that'll be nice. That'll be nice. I, there are lots of lots of questions. Like what happens if you lose your phone? Lots of questions that will, you know, as always with any new technology, the devil is in the details, but I suspect so I did not realize it was gonna come out. So I was gonna come out. I O S 16 tomorrow, Mac O S Ventura, the new Mac O S next month. That means, you know, some really hipster websites or maybe some apple focused websites might start turning that on.
Leo Laporte (02:04:37):
Google says PA key support will arrive in Android. At the end of the year for developer testing, Microsoft is gonna add PAs key support to windows in the next couple of months. So as, as, as that happens, it becomes more and more likely that some website somewhere we hope <laugh> we'll we'll, we'll offer you that choice sign in or sign up with Pasky. I, I just remember this. Remember you heard it here folks. And when that day comes, you could tell your kids. I was there when passwords disappeared, do you think they'll disappear? He's always gonna be some dumb site, right? They're not going away. That's why get the password vault now get ready. Get ready. Now. one of our chatters user 26 32 says apple pay took several years to become pervasive. It did didn't. In fact, it was C that kind of jump started it.
Leo Laporte (02:05:36):
If it weren't for COVID. I don't know if we'd all be using touch to pay as much as we are. It came out a couple of years ago. Remember? And at the same time, when was this? 20 18, 20 17? I can't remember laws changed and credit card policies changed and merchants were required to update their credit card. Remember <laugh> I'm old enough to remember going to Macy's <laugh> with my Macy's charge card and you give the, you give in fact, that's how I bought my first Macintosh in 1984, you give 'em the charge card and they had a metal thing. Do you remember this? That they put a, a, a, the pay slip in first, they put the card in the little slot. Then they put the, the little receipt in there. It had carbon paper, and then they'd run, they'd go, they'd run, run a, a handle across AK.
Leo Laporte (02:06:33):
And it would imprint the credit card number on the receipt. One of which they'd send to the bank, one of which they give to you. That's how it worked for a long time. Boy, you couldn't get more analog than that. And I guess they'd look at the back of the card and see if it matched your signature, who there's high security. Right? We got a little more sophisticated with electronic systems, but a couple of years ago it was required that all merchants start using more up to date systems. That's when touch to pay became possible. So that's kind of the phase we're at now with PAs skis. It's possible, but I can remember, you know, <laugh> saying, can I, can I just can I use my phone to pay for this and getting the blankest looks ever? No, I see you have that kind of thing.
Leo Laporte (02:07:16):
Can you see where it says, right? Yeah. What, what do you do? I said, well, watch. And I pressed the button on the phone and tapped it against the, the <laugh> the screen and it, and the, the cashier said what it worked. I remember this vividly, it worked. Yes, it worked. And someday everybody will be doing this. Well, I don't know about you, but I pay with my apple watch and my iPhone now, far more often than I hand over cash far more often. Right? that is, that is, and I, I think COVID has probably been the driving force there that has become the, the predominant way that we pay for stuff. So I would say, you know, we will someday you'll be able to put Daniel your grandkids on your knee and says you, you had in the early days of the internet, we had to remember passwords before we get anywhere.
Leo Laporte (02:08:08):
What grandpa, tell me more. Oh yeah. It was horrible. Someday. And we're at that very beginning stage, you know, we're, we've gone past the credit card slider stage. We're now at the stage where people are starting to get the thing that you could tap, but now they've gotta start using it. I would bet before the end of the year, you and I will run across one site, one app, that'll say, Hey, would you like to used pass keys to sign up? I, I cannot wait. I cannot wait coming up. We're gonna talk space, rod pile, man, from the future next,
Leo Laporte (02:08:45):
Did you notice that I had to talk that whole segment? Do you know why I had to talk that whole segment? No callers. <Laugh> this happens when football starts every year KFI goes to football and then I lose all my callers. Good Lord. Wow. Thank God. You're here. I only have one more break to fill <laugh>. Geez, Louise. I mean I've, I didn't, I didn't think you ever had no, I don't. I don't remember this. I don't remember ever going a whole segment without being able to pick up a phone call. <Laugh> even last, even football last year, but you covered very well. Geez, Louise. Oh my God. God.
Leo Laporte (02:09:37):
Well you gotta do the George Nury thing and have the wild card line so people can call in about any topic. Right? All our lines are wild card lines. <Laugh> that doesn't help. Well, there's that that's oh man. Oh yeah. Yeah. Call in with football questions. Go ahead. Is it a football day? It is. It's the beginning of isn't sad that I don't even know. Yeah. I just, my Niners just lost to the crap. Chicago bears. I'm not happy. Aww. Mm it's alright. Your Rams lost the Buffalo bills. Yeah. Who, who can care? Who can care? Who could care?
Leo Laporte (02:10:20):
It's okay. I don't need, I don't need those stinking calls. I'm gonna do the rest of the year without any calls. How about that? It, it it's. So I feel so pressured when I go to a, a party anymore, because people want to talk about either football or sports and that's I picked up sports, which ball is which sport, you know, it's like, that's exactly one. That's exactly why I learned how to BS. And then after that they wanna talk about finance and it's like, look, I'm an independent author. Okay. Don't ask me about F it's a really funny scene towards the end of better call Saul, where he's got a hob knob with a security guard. And all the security guard wants to talk about is, is col is this college team, his favorite college team and, and Saul knows, you know, nothing about college football. <Laugh>. So at first he's just vamping and it's very funny, but eventually he has to start reading the sports pages and come up with some things to say, yeah, one reason I never joined the rotary. I guess it's funny in real life. I, I don't know if I could fill 15 minutes, but on the radio, I know how to do it. Yeah. Well, you've had a little practice.
Leo Laporte (02:11:37):
What is that supposed to mean? <Laugh> literally 30 hours a week for the last three years. Right. That's great. By the way, I wanted to ask you, usually we have callers. I wanted to ask you when I, after I was up there last time, I had never that chair that you use on the afternoon show, the big show. Yeah. Yeah. you know, when you're watching online, you don't see the, the big clinging on metal bowl with the rivets of the that's. Awesome. Where did that come from? Restoration hardware. We have a ton of it. It's aircraft aluminum. And when we've built the big studio, the old brick house I bought a bunch of stuff from restoration hardware to dress the set. And we got two of those. I call 'em Dr. Evil chairs and yeah, unless I turn around, you don't realize that, that, that whole thing, it's a, you know, kind of a sixties wing chair, but it's made with aircraft aluminum.
Leo Laporte (02:12:31):
It looks like a clean on eye patch on the back. I know it's fantastic. Skull. Yeah. It's really something. Well, we wanted it to be we wanted the brick house to be kind of a little steampunk. So that's kind of our steam punky kind of thing. Well, do you need a couple of, of Ray cannons in the background somewhere? We had a, we had a what do they call those arches? We had the from that TV show, you know, <laugh> yeah, that one. Sure. The time travel TV show, you know, time tunnel, not time, time tunnel. They were like time tunnel, but it was later stargates we had stargates yeah. Oh, we had a whole bunch of Stargate. Did you ever, you never saw that studio. That was an amazing studio. No, I never did. Oh my God. God. It was, sounds like something.
Leo Laporte (02:13:20):
My finest hour. Here we go. Oh, it's time to talk space with our very own space, man. Rod pile the author of space, 2.0 amazing stories of the space age. First on the moon he's editor in chief of the ad Astra magazine, the official publication of the national space society@space.nss.org. He's back on his home planet. Welcome home rod. It's good to see you. Greetings, earthling. How are you? <Laugh> I am well, there's a lot to talk about. First of all. Well, no, you choose. I'll let you cause you know, I hijack, I hijack you segment every time. I'm sorry. No. What do you wanna talk about? I thought the coolest thing I saw was, and this is a story by our friend Tark over its space.com SpaceX launching yesterday. They're for they, they used a Falcon nine booster for the 14th time, which is a record.
Leo Laporte (02:14:20):
Same booster has been used 14 times, same booster. Wow. And they're only rated for 10. So that's, you know, given that we're at a culture of 50 years of using them once, that's pretty cool. 41St flight of the year for SpaceX, which is more than I think pro possibly any country. I don't know if China's got that many, but this is one company. Right. That's amazing. But the cool thing is, so they launched another 34 Starling satellites. That's not news that adds to the 3,300. They have floating on. And those amazing chains that go across the sky. Yes. Yeah. But they did a ride share with this company called blue Walker three. Have you heard of this? Wait a minute. Blue Walker. Three rode along. Yeah. <laugh> to do one. Yeah. You'd expect that to be a dedicated launch. Cause it's a 3,300. That's a lot S of satellites.
Leo Laporte (02:15:04):
Yeah. So this is a big antenna, about 700 square feet. And the idea is you may have already talked about this, but I had no, I haven't. It's a, so it's a prototype communication satellite that will allow much like what SpaceX is trying to do. But with more bandwidth will allow existing cell phones to work via satellite. Oh, directly. So that's, this is what apple, the new iPhone is gonna do. Emergency satellite communications. They're doing a deal with global star. In fact, it's a very lucrative deal for global star. Apples said we'll pay for 95% of the launches that you have to do. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> and, but it's weird cuz the phone cuz the satellites are moving, has a thing that says aim at the aim. No, Nope. To the left, left left, keep aiming, keep aiming. And they said it could, you know, if the satellite is overhead and that you're in an open, empty field, the communications are fairly quick, not enough to do a phone call, but you can talk back and forth within a few seconds.
Leo Laporte (02:16:02):
But if you're in a, if it's a leafy or cloudy or you don't have a good view of the sky, it could take minutes, two hours to transmit. Right. Well, and that's what was going on with my GPS. When I was up in the Arctic with GPS texting, it could take a few minutes or it could take a couple of hours. We saw how the, the sat phone worked out. You know, if there's not one overhead for more than three minutes, you're done, this would provide broadband because they're gonna launch their plan is to launch 300 of these big things. And that's very cool. They parked, I'm confused five cell providers cause Elon is doing this with Starlink and T-Mobile is this different? Well, this as I understood it and, and this, most of this news I got from you last weekend, but my understanding was that that that was going to be it's the blind leading the blind, isn't it?
Leo Laporte (02:16:51):
No, no. I think T-Mobile implied that you'll be able to it'll be broadband, but I have, it won't be super high. I don't know. Well, it kind of makes sense though, because if you have thousands of thousands of little satellite antennas or a few hundred, very large ones, you know, either could do the same thing. This company's called AST space mobile. So I don't know much about 'em yet, but it's the, the heaviest payload of Falcon nine has launched yet at least separately. And yeah, it's it's the 25 cell providers are involved. The 10 will be involved with the test. Once that thing gets up across six continents, sorry, 100 a plan, not 300. Are we worried about space filling up with this stuff? Well, yes we are. So there's two things there. One is the astronomers are just losing it because they're saying, look, we've already got all these Starling satellites up there that are making little white dots drifting across our optical observations.
Leo Laporte (02:17:47):
And some, some issues with radio astronomy, mostly optical. And so SpaceX, as you know, tried to find ways to better camouflage the satellites. So they weren't such a hindrance to astronomy, but it's, it's still a conversation. These big things which may be visible to the naked eye, cuz they're so large, well surely will be, are gonna be a much bigger hindrance. So unless there's some kind of deep matte black, I don't know, you know, and even if they are, they're gonna block out things. So it may not create a big white splotch on your, on your Astro photographer or observation, but it will drift across what you're trying to observe. You know, it's intermittent, you can design software to, to take care of that. I'm kind of surprised. Basics has an engaged bit yet already. This is, it seems like we have what's problem.
Leo Laporte (02:18:33):
We have, this is so frustrating because we have all this overlapping capability because capitalism, well, I'm not gonna share my revenue with you global star. Right? So everybody has to launch. One says that Amazon and Starlink and global star and this other company, they're all launching their own satellites cuz they don't wanna share. Well, didn't wait till China gets in on the act. That's gonna double it least. And as you mentioned, you know, there's a lot of stuff up there. So there's a lot, you remember the, the, the, the castle syndrome, right from gravity, the whole thing about well winds, there's a certain amount of mass and material in, in lower orbit. They're gonna start banging into each other and breaking up and then those pieces banging into others and you get this cascading effect and then you virtually cannot launch through lower earth orbit.
Leo Laporte (02:19:20):
Well, here's the good news it's gonna, we don't have to worry about global warming because you won't be able to see the sun anymore. <Laugh> that's true. There have been conversations about that too, but they're a little different they're about, you know, launching sun shields out to no, but the Kessler, the end game on the Kessler syndrome is you have so many small particles in the atmosphere that sunlight can't get through. And now we got heat deaths. So, well we're a long way from that, but, but it is, you know, it does become a hazard to navigation. So the air force tracks space force now tracks as much of that stuff as they can certainly anything bigger than a golf ball. But you know, there's hundreds of thousands of these things. And as we've discussed before, even something the size there was a paint flake, the size of a dime that took out the front pain of one of the space shuttles, windshields.
Leo Laporte (02:20:09):
So these things have a lot of energy. If they're coming to hit you from the right direction, wait, wait a minute. It took out the windshield, just the front pain did ASRA go flying out the front windshield. No, cuz there's there's five layers of quartz could as oh, okay. So they were smart when they designed the shuttle and, and every other spacecraft sense, but, but it did crack that window, which was a sobering moment. And if you ever got a chance to look at the heat shields on the bottom of the the heat tiles in the bottom of the shuttles, you can see all these dings and Knicks where various little bits of space plots of mag jets and ran into 'em. So it is a problem. There's work slowly being done on it. There's a number of companies and a few countries that are trying to figure out how to either scoop this stuff up or force it down to lower orbits company.
Leo Laporte (02:20:50):
Well, the FCC has proposed a five year rule for old satellites. Right? You have to collect your old satellites. Yeah. So the nation that launches it owns it. So even if it's a private company, it, you know, it it's, it's under the control of the United States, for instance, for, for Starlink. And so you either have to deorbit these things when they age out or send them out to what's called a graveyard orbit way out, beyond lower orbit. And that's something they're looking at again, because we think some of those are, are too low to really be effective or you rehab the satellite. And there's a few companies working on that too, if you set it up properly. So there's a grapple on it and a port to either recharge it or, or put new fuel in it or whatever it is it needs, you can go up and service these things with a space T but nobody's really, there's just a few tests have been done.
Leo Laporte (02:21:37):
So that's all very, very young. But before we get too far, we need to talk about SLS. Oh, okay. What's happening with SLS? We're all waiting. Are they, have they decided yet to bring it home? Or are they gonna leave it on the pad? So they're they manage over the weekend to replace those seals? So these are the quick, oh good dis this is a quick disconnect pipe for hydrogen fueling. It's an eight inch fuel line. So it's not a small thing. And so they're, they were ringing their hands over, you know, do we roll it back to the VA B well, that's bad for the rocket to roll it back and forth. And then we can't test it with cryogenic temperatures because there's no cryogenic fuel at the Bab. It's all at the pad. So they kept it at the pad. They built little structure around it for weather protection replaced that seal.
Leo Laporte (02:22:19):
So they're gonna fueling do a fueling test. They hope on the 17th, which is one of the big advantages of keeping it, the pad. And then we hopefully get a launch either on the 23rd or 27th of September. Oh, perfect. I'm seeing Roger Waters on the 23rd. It'd be nice to have a rocket launch at the same time. Rod pile space, 2.0, thank you rod. Thank you. Leo point D tech guy. Is that a pig? No, it's the Artemis. Oh, so on the chat room, somebody wrote, you know, what's the deal with the hydrogen leak and the problem is hydrogen. It's a tin molecule. Yeah. So it leaks out of anything. It's the tiniest molecule only NASA. And I think China have mastered working with it at least to any extent, but that's why Musk and Bezos are using methane, right. Because it's a little easier to contain and it's almost as high energy, but hydrogen is kind of the ultimate chemical.
Leo Laporte (02:23:16):
There's also kerosene. Right? You use kerosene. Yeah. And kerosene's really easy to see a lot, but it's got a lot less energy in it than hydrogen does. So we like hydrogen for that reason. But you know, so the SLS is suffering from the same thing the shuttle did, which is all this really advanced engineering. That's great. And we really admire it and it's awesome and it's high energy and all that, but it's really hard to do. And so you gotta kind of give a nod to Elon with the Falcon nine and going back to V brown with the Saturn five and early rockets, you know, kerosene's not as effective, but it works. Didn't didn't Bezos use kerosene. Did they use kerosene? I think they used kerosene on the new shepherd. Yeah. But the new engines are using methane. Okay. And they like methane also, cuz it burns cleaner than kerosene.
Leo Laporte (02:24:01):
Right. So it's better for the environ cycle. Those things. Yeah. Well it's better for the rocket engines. Right? Cause they don't get all sorted up. So between uses you don't have to go in there and scrape off all the carbon or something like you used to have to do with spark plugs all the time. It feels like we're in the space age. And yet the space age is still kind of the stone age in many respects. <Laugh> it does. And until we get off chemical propulsion, it's gonna be, yeah. So there's a, a lot of people working on nuclear again and we had a really good run of nuclear. What could possibly go wrong back in the sixties? Well, but you know, they have gotten to the point now, first of all, they're moving from the really ugly stuff like plutonium to low enriched uranium, which is a little safer, but also they've gotten good at casting this stuff so that if it does have a, a launch accident, even if it goes in the ocean, it's fairly safe.
Leo Laporte (02:24:48):
Now how you do that with a bigger nuclear engine without making it very, very heavy. I'm not sure. Just spill the darn space elevator and get it over with. Well now there's a cool topic we should talk about someday. All right. Maybe next week friends with the space elevator people and they just love talking about, oh, it's gonna happen tomorrow and you're gonna go well, solve this whole, you know, problem. Cause the hard part about space is getting outta the Earth's gravity. Well get yeah. Get outta the gravity. Well, things happen well and, and again, you know the moon with all that water ice up there, if you even with chemical propulsion, at least up there, you can make your own fuel. Right. So that's, that's a big help. Right. But yeah, Mr. Rod, I'm glad you're feeling better. Give my regards to Sherry. I'm glad she's feeling better.
Leo Laporte (02:25:31):
Thank you. Regards to Lisa as well. And what are you doing for the next 15 minutes? <Laugh> oh, I got, I got calls now. They, oh, people took pity on me so we'll we'll see. We'll see. Awesome. I got two close. Thank you, sir. Yeah, take care. All right, bye. Thank you for letting me be your tech guy again. Leo LaPorte, your personal tech guy here. Thanks to professor Laura, our musical director. She does all the musical interludes here with her little band. They're very good. They're probably the best cover band in existence. I think. Thanks also to Kim Schaffer, the phone angel, she's the one who answers the phones gets you all tidied up for your appearance on national radio. Thanks. Most of all for you for listening and for calling couldn't do without you time for a couple more calls before we wrap things up for the weekend. Paul is on the line from Rialto, California. Hi Paul.
Caller 9 (02:26:29):
Hi there. How are you?
Leo Laporte (02:26:30):
I'm well, how are you?
Caller 9 (02:26:32):
Oh, gotta just tell us your memory. Do you remember about Ooh, 2005 or six at UCLA at the camera shop, you know, live show there. Oh
Leo Laporte (02:26:40):
Yeah, that was fun. I did that for KFI our, our mothership that was a lot of fun. Were you at that event?
Caller 9 (02:26:47):
Oh, I was there shaking your hat at the end. And you were getting in the car, the, the classic car, 60 something Mustang or whatever it was. <Laugh>
Leo Laporte (02:26:55):
How fun I've I? That was a long time ago. But boy, I had a great time doing that, you know, in the radio for years. Especially as you're starting out, you do a lot of, they call 'em remotes. You'd go. You know, I remember going to the carpet store and it was always the worst because you'd be sitting there trying to do a show, trying to get people to come out and I always hated doing it. That was the last one I ever did. And I have to say, I didn't hate that. First of all, it was at a great camera store. Now I think now gone as I remember. But so many people showed up and I was so glad it was so much fun. So you, you left me with a good taste in my mouth about doing remote. So thank you.
Caller 9 (02:27:35):
I was introduced to myself is look for Morris, the cat and the hat. Cause I wear my hat.
Leo Laporte (02:27:39):
I remember you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. Wow. That is but is that fifth? 17 years ago? Holy cow.
Caller 9 (02:27:46):
Yeah. Yeah. I gotta to the map, but yeah, it was quite a while. It was a year lost my father and I had moved from my native Encino where I lived blocks away from the Jackson's family house and sunny and she's original house and all the little names like sun field at grand Dyke. Wow.
Leo Laporte (02:28:02):
So did you just come by to say hi or were you just walking by at the time?
Caller 9 (02:28:06):
No, I, I lived about 10 miles from there. Oh
Leo Laporte (02:28:08):
Nice. Well, I'm glad you came over. Yeah.
Caller 9 (02:28:10):
I went to school down the street there. UCLA's elementary school and one of my classmates was Adam Nemo. He gets who his father was.
Leo Laporte (02:28:18):
Oh my, oh
Caller 9 (02:28:19):
My, yeah, this is a few names I can draw there. But
Leo Laporte (02:28:23):
I, if I wish I could remember the name of the camera store. You don't remember that offhand? Do
Caller 9 (02:28:27):
You? I should. Because you know why the, the owner's brother worked there and he lived next door to me in Encino, small world. <Laugh>
Leo Laporte (02:28:35):
I wish I could remember. It was one of the great LA camera stores, if not the great LA camera store. And I seem to remember many years later, cuz most camera stores are gone now.
Caller 9 (02:28:47):
Is it possibly called har camera? I think that was an LA downtown. I don't remember, but I'll look it off. I'll probably figure out one,
Leo Laporte (02:28:53):
You know, who would remember? Cuz she's still a KFI great boss, Robin Bucci God bless her. Still there. And was she who set that up? I believe that was a lot of fun. Those were the days I am glad I don't have to do carpet stores anymore.
Caller 9 (02:29:08):
Well, I was hoping to see you do a live one again when he
Leo Laporte (02:29:11):
Maybe once C's over. That's my that's my story. <Laugh>
Caller 9 (02:29:15):
And, and bring your, bring your friend, Mr. Waz. I will cause I, I, I will know him a little. I got him a little bit up there at San Jose state. Why
Leo Laporte (02:29:22):
Is this awesome? Oh yeah. He taught at San Jose state. Were you there when he was a student?
Caller 9 (02:29:27):
I was there from 81 up, so
Leo Laporte (02:29:29):
Yeah. Yeah. So he was by then. I think he fully graduated.
Caller 9 (02:29:33):
Yeah he, yeah, but I remember him being affiliated with Berkeley and he came from old neighborhood, the valley down here. Yeah. But I didn't know that. Totally.
Leo Laporte (02:29:39):
He's a great, great, generous, friendly fellow. If there's anything wrong with Steve Wosniak one of the founders of applets that he's too generous. He doesn't, he's not good at
Caller 9 (02:29:50):
No big deal.
Leo Laporte (02:29:50):
Yeah. He's not good at saying no, but he married a friend of ours Janet, who has proven to be an excellent bodyguard and protector and says no for him. And unfortunately she says no to me, even though I know her well, and I know <laugh> was, well, every time we say, come on, get Waz on the radio show. She says, he's too busy, Leo. You know that, you know that I think it might be Sammy's I think you might be right. I don't know. But I don't wanna name names because in case in case it's they're not out of business <laugh> I don't wanna, I don't wanna say anything anyway, Paul, it's nice to meet you again. 17 years later, let's talk again before 17 years go by. How about that? Phil Stevenson, ranch, California. Last call of the day. Hi Phil.
Caller 10 (02:30:40):
Hey couple of weeks ago I called and I had a you know, media server that you know, died and you suggested Plex. Oh yeah. I gotta tell. I gotta tell you it's amazing. Oh,
Leo Laporte (02:30:56):
I'm so glad.
Caller 10 (02:30:57):
Yeah. You know, the device that you gave us was you know, really, really good. You know, you know, the server, I I've got a Sonology where every, all my media is on it and I, I can play it everywhere and anywhere. And it's just, you know, one of the best things I ever purchased.
Leo Laporte (02:31:20):
Ah, hallelujah. Yeah. I have a lifetime membership. It wasn't very expensive back then. But I think it's, it's a inexpensive monthly or yearly
Caller 10 (02:31:29):
Subscription, you know, it's good. It works unfortunately, you know, the DVDs are like little res and stuff like
Leo Laporte (02:31:38):
That. Yeah. Isn't that funny. Now we used to think that was the ultimate format didn't we
Caller 10 (02:31:43):
<Laugh> yeah. You know, they were so cool back then, but you know, time goes on and everything, you
Leo Laporte (02:31:49):
Know. Well, you know, we had that caller earlier who has all these recordings on his dish and I don't wanna say anything, but almost certainly all those shows are streaming in high Def or UHD now. Yeah, you don't really need to record anything anymore. It's all there, you know, and I
Caller 10 (02:32:08):
Know, you know, get yourself a, you know, subscription to something and you know, you can stream it in 4k or
Leo Laporte (02:32:15):
Do you do the do you do the Plex because Plex has its own streaming stuff. Have you tried some of that stuff as well?
Caller 10 (02:32:22):
No, I, I haven't gotten into that yet. You know, that's,
Leo Laporte (02:32:26):
I haven't either. Right. But they've been adding movies and they have live channels and stuff. It's not yet a replacement for your cable subscription or YouTube TV or sling, but I think they're moving in that direction.
Caller 10 (02:32:37):
Youtube TV right
Leo Laporte (02:32:39):
Now. Yeah. Me too. Very happy with it. Yeah,
Caller 10 (02:32:41):
Yeah. Yeah. I I'm extremely happy with it and more channels than my cable system has in, you know, Southern California.
Leo Laporte (02:32:49):
Isn't that amazing? Well, I'm so, you know, I, I recommend things all day and I often wonder, and, and of course my big fear is when somebody calls in says, you know, you recommended Plex to me and then I go, okay. And then what happened? So I'm very glad Phil <laugh> was a good recommendation. I think you're right. I think everybody agrees. Plex is kind of an amazing thing. P L E x.tv. It's a, it's a, it's probably the best media server out there right now. So
Caller 10 (02:33:19):
I'm glad. Yeah, your honor, I highly recommend it. And I just wanted, you know, make a note that I've been watching you since you know, the old tech TV and stuff like that. Thank you. So you thank you. And you know, I, I, I always you know, you know, get you on the internet and watch the whole show and see the background and everything else. Oh,
Leo Laporte (02:33:40):
Well, I'll wave at you. And when you watch this show, when you download this show, you'll see me. Hi. Hi. Hi there, Phil. I'm waving at you now. <Laugh> <laugh>. Thank you, Phil. I appreciate it. Thank you so much, right? Take care. Bye bye. Thank so lot. Yeah, it's nice to put it on a network attached storage, like a Sonology not only cuz it's easy to install, but you have a lot of storage. Abdol in our cha says he has 20 terabytes of content on his Plex server. That's more movies than probably you'd ever watch for the real collector out there. It's kind of, you know, it's fun and now you don't have to pay anybody. If you wanna watch a movie, I have to say though, the world has really changed the idea of having your own content or owning DVDs.
Leo Laporte (02:34:25):
Pretty much out the window. Now I had a good friend many, many years ago who recorded every episode of cheers. He had a closet full of VHS tapes and I think of him now. And I think, boy, that's a shame. You spent all that energy cuz you can watch it on Netflix. Anytime you want all the episodes in hi da. All right, that's what we do on this show. We cover our changing world and it is changing a lot. I'm so glad. You stopped by again. I hope you'll come by next time. Remember the website tech guy labs.com has all the information from this show and more. This is episode 1926 tech guy labs.com free no charge. And I do podcasts all week long. You'll find more there as well. Tech guy labs.com Leo LePort. The tech guy have a great geek week.
Leo Laporte (02:35:14):
Well that's it for the tech guy show for today. Thank you so much for being here and don't forget TWIT T w I T it stands for this week at tech and you find it @ twit.tv, including the podcast for this show. We talk about windows and windows weekly, Macintosh on Mac break, weekly iPads, iPhones, apple watches on iOS today. Security and security. Now, I mean, I can go on and on and on. And of course the big show every Sunday afternoon, this week in tech, you'll find it all at twit TV and I'll be back next week with another great tech guys show. Thanks for joining me. We'll see you next time.
