Speaker 1: It's time for our Tech segment with Rich Demurow.
Speaker 2: Good morning, Rich, Hey, good morning to you, Bill, welcome back.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 3: I have to tell you, as you know, and as
Speaker 3: people now know, I went off to Italy where I
Speaker 3: got married and engaged in my honeymoon.
Speaker 1: And did you know, let me tell you.
Speaker 3: Do you know how many times your name came up
Speaker 3: in the two weeks that I was gone?
Speaker 1: Three weeks and I came that I was gone.
Speaker 3: Not once, that's correct, absolutely, yes.
Speaker 4: Zero, Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1: You're welcomed me humble absolutely.
Speaker 3: Rich of course is not only kfi's tech guy and
Speaker 3: heard on the show every Saturday here on KFI eleven
Speaker 3: to two pm, but he's also a reporter on KTLA
Speaker 3: every day, the tech reporter Instagram at Rich on tech website,
Speaker 3: Rich on tech dot TV.
Speaker 1: We're also very proud of the fact where at least
Speaker 1: the station is at Rich. You are syndicated and started
Speaker 1: right here on KFI.
Speaker 2: Yes right there, have expanded since it's been great and
Speaker 2: KFI is still my first love.
Speaker 3: Uh. That's his contract talk here by the way, I
Speaker 3: have seen his contract. He has to say that all right,
Speaker 3: big news on the tariffs, of course, that is the
Speaker 3: economic news globally, and you think of tariffs in terms
Speaker 3: of goods and services that are brought in, let's connect
Speaker 3: tariffs to tech because we get so much tech from overseas,
Speaker 3: at least the manufactured.
Speaker 1: Part of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think that, you know, for me,
Speaker 2: the only thing that I think of when it comes
Speaker 2: to tariffs. I know, we've talked about cars and all
Speaker 2: these different things from maple syrup to whatever, But for me,
Speaker 2: it's all about tech because all of these goods come
Speaker 2: from overseas.
Speaker 4: Pretty much a majority of.
Speaker 2: Them are made in China and of course Vietnam, Taiwan.
Speaker 2: So the entire tech industry is wondering, like, hey, what
Speaker 2: is happening here? Are we going to be seeing higher
Speaker 2: prices from the consumer standpoint? And also companies like what,
Speaker 2: you know, what do they do? How do they react
Speaker 2: to this? Do they immediately put these things on and
Speaker 2: pass the added costs on to consumers?
Speaker 4: Or do they wait and see?
Speaker 2: Because there's so much turmoil right now, we don't really
Speaker 2: know what's happening. So the Chinese tariffs are supposed to
Speaker 2: happen starting April ninth, which is tomorrow, we don't know
Speaker 2: if that's going to happen. According to a report out
Speaker 2: of Bloomberg, they're saying that Apple stores saw a rush
Speaker 2: of consumers buying things like iPhones. And I would say
Speaker 2: just in general, like people texting me and asking me questions,
Speaker 2: there's been a lot of interest in especially phones and
Speaker 2: laptop computers. That's what people are wondering, you know, are
Speaker 2: these things going to increase in price? And then Nintendo,
Speaker 2: while you were gone last week, Bill, they announced the
Speaker 2: switch to and then they said they have to delay
Speaker 2: pre orders because they're just not sure, like how this
Speaker 2: is all going to shake out.
Speaker 4: Do they have to charge more?
Speaker 2: These things are going to be more expensive than four
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty dollars, which is the announced price that
Speaker 2: they came up with.
Speaker 3: Yeah, with this tit for tat with China, and I
Speaker 3: don't see g President g or President Trump backing down.
Speaker 3: Both these guys have no problem playing chicken, and that's
Speaker 3: what's going on. And they both have a lot to
Speaker 3: lose and a lot to gain with these tariffs, more
Speaker 3: to lose than to gain.
Speaker 1: But let's talk about iPhones.
Speaker 3: If the tariffs go up to one hundred percent, which
Speaker 3: looks like Wednesday, they very well. Might I don't see
Speaker 3: Trump backing down very quickly. What is an iPhone going
Speaker 3: to cost right now? It's a thousand bucks for an iPhone?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there's a report over the weekend. You know,
Speaker 2: the top of the line iPhone could be like over
Speaker 2: two thousand dollars.
Speaker 4: Twenty five hundred something like that.
Speaker 2: You know, most people are getting the basic iPhone for
Speaker 2: eight hundred dollars. If that doubled in price, that'd be
Speaker 2: sixteen hundred. I from everything I can tell, the tech
Speaker 2: companies are taking sort of a weight and see they
Speaker 2: do not want to raise prices right now. And to
Speaker 2: give you an example of a computer, you know, there
Speaker 2: are still deals to be had out there because a
Speaker 2: lot of the stock that we're seeing is stock that
Speaker 2: has already arrived in the country. It's already in the country,
Speaker 2: so those prices don't go up necessarily overnight. But future
Speaker 2: stock that arrives that's where the problem is. And like
Speaker 2: you said, you know, these are two countries that don't
Speaker 2: want to back down. I mean, those are two leaders
Speaker 2: that are just sitting there, you know, with the world
Speaker 2: in their hands right now, and we're the consumers that
Speaker 2: are just feeling uncertain. C NEET did a survey and
Speaker 2: basically one in ten shoppers made big ticket purchases late
Speaker 2: last year or early this year to avoid these tariff
Speaker 2: price jumps. And I think the rest of the people
Speaker 2: are just worried and wondering, like, hey, what do I
Speaker 2: do now?
Speaker 3: Realistically, when they talk about doubling prices, the price is
Speaker 3: one thousand dollars. iPhone is not going to double the
Speaker 3: two thousand dollars because shipping costs are not going to increase. Certainly,
Speaker 3: the forty percent profit margin that Apple makes her thirty
Speaker 3: five percent profit margin, that's not going to double to
Speaker 3: seventy percent.
Speaker 1: So so it's the cost of.
Speaker 3: The good at Goods as it leaves China and comes
Speaker 3: to the US. But still we're talking about a huge,
Speaker 3: huge jump in price, and.
Speaker 1: You know what, and.
Speaker 2: The you know look, these companies, I think at the beginning,
Speaker 2: if this goes on in a small way, these companies
Speaker 2: are probably going to take a hit on the profits
Speaker 2: that they make, right They're probably going to try to
Speaker 2: hold off any giant price increases as long as possible.
Speaker 4: On the flip side, if one.
Speaker 2: Company doesn't, because right now, nobody wants to be the
Speaker 2: first electronics the first tech company for a big headline
Speaker 2: to say iPhones just went up by one hundred dollars, right,
Speaker 2: They don't want to be the first, because that's going
Speaker 2: to kick off a chain of events where every tech
Speaker 2: company can now say, Okay, now we can raise the
Speaker 2: prices too.
Speaker 4: And then for consumers.
Speaker 2: Who are already sort of like in a tailspin here
Speaker 2: wondering like what's going on, that's not a good thing
Speaker 2: because then all of a sudden everyone has an excuse
Speaker 2: to raise prices. And it reminds us a lot of
Speaker 2: that pandemic era, right where one person raised prices and
Speaker 2: the grocery store prices just.
Speaker 4: Kept going up, up, up, up up. We don't want
Speaker 4: that to happen with our gadgets.
Speaker 1: Well, it's not going to be fun at all.
Speaker 3: And thank goodness that I just bought my new iPhone, which,
Speaker 3: by the way, I still don't know how to work it.
Speaker 1: Uh, I just you know, it's kind of need the technology.
Speaker 3: I don't know if we talked about this, but I've become
Speaker 3: a grilling freak for you know, just for some reason,
Speaker 3: I'm now grilling like every day, and uh, there is
Speaker 3: a thermometer that I have that works on an app.
Speaker 1: That immediate of the meat.
Speaker 3: It's so neat, and I still don't know quite how
Speaker 3: to work it because it's an app and it's I'll
Speaker 3: get there because right now I'm.
Speaker 2: Just the meter bill.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: It's a little thing with the black handle that you
Speaker 3: it just sticks in the meat and you just put
Speaker 3: it on the grill.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's about one hundred dollars.
Speaker 4: Meter is the big one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's I mean, that's probably a meter, but
Speaker 2: it's it's basically an app connected thermometer. So I tested
Speaker 2: the first one way back in the day. Wasn't a
Speaker 2: big fan because it was like a beta version. Now
Speaker 2: they've you know, they sent me a new one. I
Speaker 2: have yet to try it. With summer grolling seasons coming up.
Speaker 2: What do you what do you make in most days?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: Steak?
Speaker 3: And I went to, uh, this is this is one
Speaker 3: that I never thought I would do, and that is
Speaker 3: I go to Costco, of course, where I buy my meat,
Speaker 3: and I am buying prime meat at twenty six dollars
Speaker 3: a pound for the high end steak. Now keep in
Speaker 3: mind twenty six dollars for one pound of meat is
Speaker 3: equivalent to two shirts or two pairs of pants at Costco.
Speaker 4: And you got to make choices?
Speaker 1: Do you want to? But that is uh, just just
Speaker 1: to become a grill nutcase.
Speaker 3: All right, We're gonna come back and we have a
Speaker 3: bunch more to talk about. Uh smart watch a budget
Speaker 3: one the day, oh app which I have absolutely no idea.
Speaker 1: Is this a Harry Belafanie uh situation here?
Speaker 4: I have no idea what that means.
Speaker 3: But okay, okay, fank okay, you don't know what that means?
Speaker 1: The stated me kno, that.
Speaker 3: Is that is that's that day.
Speaker 1: You depour bunch all right?
Speaker 3: Banana okay, Uh, that's okay. That's the deo song Harry
Speaker 3: belafon Eclipse of Music, having nothing to do with this
Speaker 3: app at all. But I just wanted to throw that
Speaker 3: out because I just wanted to throw that out.
Speaker 1: So what is the dao app?
Speaker 4: Okay?
Speaker 2: Well, I do know that song, by the way, that
Speaker 2: was in the Beetlejuice movie, So I do know that.
Speaker 3: Oh that's right, it wasn't the Beatle Juice music. Harry
Speaker 3: Belafani introduced Calypso music the United States in the nineteen fifties,
Speaker 3: and he also and he then went on to become
Speaker 3: one of the great heroes of the civil rights movement.
Speaker 3: He was there at the march on Washington, the Martin
Speaker 3: Luther King, I have a dream speech day and on
Speaker 3: and on. But anyway, let's talk about the app, because
Speaker 3: this is good for you for knowing that. By the way,
Speaker 3: the yeah, what's the app?
Speaker 2: You know a little bit of pop culture. So this
Speaker 2: is an app called deoh. It's it's based out of Portland.
Speaker 2: And the whole thing is to reward you for spending
Speaker 2: less time on social media. So if you can limit
Speaker 2: your usage to thirty minutes a day, you could earn
Speaker 2: five dollars in rewards, and you can exchange those rewards,
Speaker 2: you can bank them and then get discounts on products
Speaker 2: like JBL YETI, a whole bunch of other products that
Speaker 2: they have listed inside the app. And the whole point
Speaker 2: is to keep you off of Instagram, TikTok, Facebook X.
Speaker 2: And the founder said they did this because you know,
Speaker 2: we're not getting anything in exchange for this unless you're
Speaker 2: a social media influencer making money off this stuff. You're
Speaker 2: basically giving up your data and your attention and they
Speaker 2: want you to reclaim that, so we'll see how this goes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm a little confused.
Speaker 3: You're getting points for not going onto all of these
Speaker 3: social media apps?
Speaker 1: Correct? And how do they measure how many? You're not
Speaker 1: going to?
Speaker 4: Great question?
Speaker 2: So on the iPhone they're going to I'm assuming they
Speaker 2: take advantage of the screen time where they can read
Speaker 2: how long you've been on certain apps.
Speaker 4: So under thirty minutes you're good.
Speaker 2: Over thirty minutes, they start docking that five dollars down
Speaker 2: to zero.
Speaker 3: And who is coming up with the five dollars if
Speaker 3: there if they're not monetizing.
Speaker 2: This, well, it seems like since you have to put
Speaker 2: the five dollars towards these rewards, it seems like it's
Speaker 2: more of a these companies have you know, given products
Speaker 2: to this Dayoh, startup and that's how you get it.
Speaker 4: So let me look at the products that they've got.
Speaker 2: They've got north Face hydro flask and Espresso dice in.
Speaker 2: So it seems like it's it's more of a partnership
Speaker 2: with these companies to say, hey, look, you know, we'll
Speaker 2: give you a discount. You know, it's like maybe you'll
Speaker 2: get fifty dollars off of dice in if you if
Speaker 2: you spend that little bit of time on social media.
Speaker 2: So it's kind of a partnership, it seems with these
Speaker 2: makes sense.
Speaker 1: It's marketing again. I'll buy a marketing partnership. That's I'll
Speaker 1: buy that. Now.
Speaker 3: The five dollars is signifies what a length of time
Speaker 3: And I don't quite know the formula here.
Speaker 2: Thirty minutes or less gets you five bucks. So thirty
Speaker 2: minutes or less you get the five dollars. You get
Speaker 2: that every day. So if you theoretically in a month
Speaker 2: you can rack up one hundred and fifty dollars, that
Speaker 2: to me, Bill seems way too good to be true,
Speaker 2: because that seems like if you're on this thing for
Speaker 2: two months, that's three hundred dollars worth one of these brands.
Speaker 2: So there must be like some fine print. I act
Speaker 2: only use it towards like fifty percent of the product
Speaker 2: or something like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you have to be somewhere A Nigerian prince
Speaker 3: is connected to this.
Speaker 1: I'm convinced of.
Speaker 4: That, well, a Nigerian prince in Portland.
Speaker 3: But that's remember those remember those scams, God, I love
Speaker 3: those all right? Rich, thank you Saturday Morning, eleven to
Speaker 3: two pm here on KFI and Instagram, at rich on
Speaker 3: Tech website, rich on Tech Dot TV, rich you have
Speaker 3: a good day.
Speaker 1: We'll catch you tomorrow on this year on the TV.
Speaker 1: Take care bye, Thank you, Bill all right,