WEBVTT
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Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the
ever changing world of technology? Check it
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Out can help make some sense of
it all, breaking down geek speak into
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street speak. Technology columnist, author, and TV personality Mark Saltzman covers consumer
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technology each week for every listener,
Mark tackles the latest news, reviews,
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and how toos to help you understand
what's hot, what's not and why.
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Hey, everyone, welcome to tech
it Out. This is episode three forty
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three. Hope you're all doing great
today and I'm thrilled you're tuning into this
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show devoted to making sense of tech
in plain English, or, as I
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like to say, breaking down geek
speak into street speak. I'm recording this
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right now from New York from the
LaGuardia Airport in fact, so apologies for
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any ambient noise. I did some
TV interviews today across the country from a
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studio in Manhattan, all tied to
National Small Business Week. I'll share those
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highlights with you in fifteen minutes from
now as well. Before that, we'll
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kick things off with the new product
called the Rainstick Shower system and how it
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recycles your water as you shower and
cleans it too, but could save you
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hundreds of dollars a year on your
water and energy bills, says the company.
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Also on the show tech Life expert
Carly no Block on great tech for
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the Spring, and Bitwarden joins us
ahead of World Password Day next week on
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what password managers are all about,
why Bitwarden, what we're doing better at
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using passwords, and what we're still
doing wrong when it comes to passwords.
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All of this and more on an
all new tech it out powered by Intel
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Core Ultra PCs, which I'll tell
you more about shortly, including a sale
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on one at Costco, but we'll
get to that. Let's officially kick off
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this new tech it out with our
first interview. As much as I'm a
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proud homeowner, you don't want to
be around me when I open up my
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utility bills every month, you know, for electricity, natural gas, water
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usage. Where I live in the
country, rates are insanely high, and
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so I've been trying to invest in
smart home tech to help lower my bills.
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The one thing I haven't yet tried, though, is saving on water
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usage, which leads me to our
next guest. Alisha mcphetrich is the co
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founder and CEO of Rainstick, a
clean technology company committed to cutting residential water
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usage in half with its smart shower
system. Hi, Alisha, thanks for
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your time. Hey, thanks so
much for having me. Mark looking forward
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to being here. All right,
So why don't we start off at a
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high level. What is Rainstick all
about? Yes, Rainstick is on a
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mission building water technology that allows people
to thrive using only thirteen gallons of water
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per person per day. Right now, within North America, we use closer
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to ninety gallons, and so we
know that we have a lot of work
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to do. We're extremely passionate about
reusing water within the residential home and allowing
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folks to save a substantial amount on
their water and energy bills. So our
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first product is Rainstick shower, which
does just that. It actually provides a
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three gallon per minute flow rate from
the shower head while only using half a
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gallon per minute from the house supply. It's a recirculating shower that saves up
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to eighty percent water and eighty percent
energy while providing no compromise that we're typically
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accustomed to with low flow options.
So your first product is a shower system
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to use only a fraction of the
water that we would typically use in a
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shower, but with the same flow
that we're used to, so like there's
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no trade offs like less pressure or
less heat or anything like that. Yes,
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that's correct mark. So current point
in time, the only innovation within
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the showering space has been regulating the
shower flow rate, so ratcheting it down.
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I mean, in nineteen eighty,
the regulated flow rate used to be
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three gallons per minute, but today
we have hit a wall with compromise and
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experience. So in a lot of
states as well as provinces, the regulated
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flow rate is between one point eight
California and two point two and we're seeing
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that trend project downward. So it
already forces people to compromise with the status
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quo. So with rainstick, we
don't care about how much water's coming out
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of the shower head. So we
actually take folks back to nineteen eighty in
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terms of experience. We provide a
spa in a stick in terms of that
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shower pressure, so we actually offer
more than the regulative flower because we don't
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care about wasting it, because we're
reusing every drop up to six times and
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we're only using half a gallon per
minute from the actual house supply. Please
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forgive my ignorance here. So if
you're recirculating this water, then I've got
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two questions for you. The first
one is when the water goes down the
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drain, you obviously have to have
a plumber install this I guess like piping
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system that brings it back up to
the head again. So that sounds ambitious,
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but that is that essentially what we're
talking about. That, yes,
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totally. So when you see what
rainstick looks like, it actually essentially looks
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like a rain stick, and within
that stick is the full appliance. So
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you don't have to worry about all
of this stuff that's happening behind the wall
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because you essentially attach rain stick like
a picture frame within your shower. So
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it's a straightforward installation for bathroom renovations
as well as new build projects. The
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only thing that's different is actually the
base within the shower cavity, and so
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we ship out it looks like a
linear drain. It's only three inches in
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depth and that only holds half a
gallon of water, but that's enough for
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our system, and that essentially is
that storage of water for the point of
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use water recycling. That's where the
pump connects to that sits at the base
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of our system and allows for that
point of use for circulation and real time
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cleaning. Okay, thank you for
that. And then my other second question
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tied to this system was if it's
recycling your water, are you, in
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essence showering with dirty water, which
might defeat the purpose of showering? Please
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correct me if I'm wrong. We
have folks that you know ask the question
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I think you know. First off, they want to know what rainstick is,
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how it works. And then the
next question is you mean I'm showering
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in dirty water? Can you tell
me about how the system is cleaning in
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real time? So I'm not alone
here? Okay, okay, good,
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So one thing I'll say so,
rainstick actually provides a very hygienic experience,
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often more hygienic than your own shower
today, and we're able to do so
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because of a few real time cleaning
methods. Number one is at the base
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of the system before anything can enter
for the reuse, we have a micron
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level screen and that removes anything larger
than a grain of sand. Number two,
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we have constant refreshment. We actually
only use every drop approximately six times
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before it goes down the proper sanitary
dream and the reason why we're constantly refreshing
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the water is because in about ninety
seven weds your water is back to poddable
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water. But also we're refreshing it
with hot water to maintain temperature. And
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then lastly, before any drop goes
through the showerhead, we have high intensity
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UV treatment which addresses ninety nine point
nine nine nine percent of bacteria, any
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viruses that may be you know,
within any biofilm build up, as well
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as addressed through automatic cleaning cycle assume
as someone jumps out of the shower.
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But altogether, because of these cumulative
cleaning methods, we're able to achieve a
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very high degree of hygiene, so
drinking water standards need to achieve just to
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put into perspective about a ten log
reduction in between users, Rainstick we also
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are able to achieve approximately ten log
reduction, So we're very confident in the
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ability of the system to be able
to constantly clean and make sure that every
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drop is very hygienic for the user. Awesome. We're chatting with Alicia mcfetrich,
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co founder and CEO of Rainstick,
a company and product name that is
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tied up at least for their first
product to a shower system. It's not
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just the shower head, as we're
learning about, but it is a system.
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We'll ask you about how it's installed, if it's handled professionally or as
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homeowners. We can do it.
But first I'd love to ask you who
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it's for. Is this primarily for
those who want to save money on water
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consumption? Who do you think your
target audience is? Number one is for
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the water and energy savings. This
technology, once installed saves, just to
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put into perspective in California, approximately
seven hundred and fifty to one thousand dollars
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on an annual basis. Wow,
so very strong payback. And I'll say
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not even so just from the water, but from the energy, the cumulative
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water at energy savings. That's where
you're getting that cost savings. And then
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the other side of that is just
people that want a better shower experience.
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They're so tired of compromising because of
the regulated shower flow rate, and so
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they want something. They want a
spa experience. They want three gallon per
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minute flow rate. We go down
to places where they don't even care about
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the water and energy savings, but
they care about the three gallon per minute,
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So why not be able to do
so in a way that saves a
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substantial amount of water and energy at
the same time. And please tell us
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a bit about the app. I'm
a techie, so I'm curious. I
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think it's optional, but would love
to hear about it. It's optional,
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yes, okay. So nowadays there's
lots of apps within the home, and
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some people love the apps, mark
like yourself, and some people are a
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little bit intimidated with the apps,
and so we made it fully optional.
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But this Wi Fi enabled app allows
you to track water and energy savings in
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real time down to the leader or
the gallon saved down to the kilowatt hour
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abated, so you can see where
it used to be in terms of your
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shower habits and where you are now
with the rainstick. This is also personal
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data to you. And then the
other part of it is if you decide
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to choose to go with the app, you can see when maybe there's a
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replacement or when the rainstick original cleaning
product after sixty showers, it suggests adding
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or topping up product. So it
allows you just to really seamlessly have your
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consumer preferences as well, but also
be able to know what you're saving.
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Oh yeah, and then the benefit
is also you can start it from wherever
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you are. So if you're laying
in bed you want to start your shower
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so it's nice and hot, you
can do so just from the app.
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Before we wrap up and talk pricing, is this something that we should install
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ourselves or does it need to be
professionally installed? Our recommendation is any certified
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bathroom pro so and the reason why
you're doing it during a bathroom renovation or
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you're doing it during a new construction
project. You are putting in that linear
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drain. So we do recommend working
with someone who knows the bathroom space.
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Yeah, I figured it makes sense. And then finally, how much does
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rainstick cost? Where is it sold? And what's the best place to learn
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more? Yeah? So, the
MSRP of Rainstick shower is four thousand,
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nine hundred and ninety five dollars.
You can find Rainstick in various showrooms,
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or you can go to www.
Dot Rainstickshower dot com. All right,
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Rainstickshower dot com. MSRP of course
stands for Manufacturers suggested retail price, but
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it could vary a bit depending on
the retailer. Alicia Thank you so much
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for your time. We'll have to
have you back on the show. And
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you've got other products in the home
outside of the shower as well. Thank
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you again. Thanks Mark. We
love that. We'll check it out when
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we return after this short bring listen
to check it out whenever you want to
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find the Check it Out podcast,
did I too, or wherever you get
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your podcasts. Welcome back to check
it out everyone. I'm recording this week's
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show from New York from the LaGuardia
Airport. Believe it or not, I
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found a little quiet area where I
can host the show with my microphone and
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laptop. Gotta love technology. But
you may hear the odd you know,
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kids screaming or announcement over the PA
system for a flight that's porting to acknowledge
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and think, Intel title sponsor on
this program and its Intel Core Ultra processors
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powering today's cutting edge PCs. In
fact, there's a sale on one right
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now at Costco. It's down to
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It's the MSI Prestige sixteen Intel Evo
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fifty five H along with Intel's Killer
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five point four technology. The first
thing you'll notice, though, is at
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sixteen inch qHD plus IPS display.
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and a fingerprint reader, a full
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a privacy shutter. Under the hood
is that Intel Core Ultra seven CPU,
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along with thirty two gigs of system
memory or RAM, and a two terabyte
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solid state drive, which is a
huge amount of fast storage. More on
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the MSI Prestige sixteen Intel Evo Edition
on sale right now at Costco is at
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costco dot com. So, as
I mentioned, I'm in New York City
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working at a studio called Next Millennium, chatting about Small Business Week with about
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twenty five TV stations across the country. Found a little quiet nook where I
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can share with you our listeners what
I've been talking about on TV tied to
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National Small Business Week, which takes
place this week, and so I've got
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a few suggestions for hardware and services
for small businesses, which make up the
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backbone of the economy. There's always
so much attention on enterprise level companies,
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but the SMBs, small and medium
businesses and solo entrepreneurs and startups. They
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deserve a lot of the attention as
they're pouring their blood, sweat and tears
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into their company, and so I
wanted to share a few suggestions with you
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right now. Let's start off with
one of the most important decisions you need
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to make, and that is buying
a laptop. The HP Dragonfly Notebook G
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four is packed with innovation to empower
any small business. In addition to its
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thin and light design to take your
work with you anywhere, a huge trend
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these days, This Intel Core powered
PC features a stunning thirteen and a half
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inch display along with a wide angle
five megapixel webcam for you to look and
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sound your best and move freely during
calls. This laptop is sustainable too,
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with enclosures made from ninety percent recycled
magnesium, while your business's data is protected
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with HP Wolf Security. Speaking of
HP, before we move on to another
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item for small office and home printers, you can maximize your workplace productivity with
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the HP Color Laser Jet Pro three
thousand series. It's a new and high
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quality laser printer family nodding jet that
delivers fast, reliable and professional performance bring
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all your business documents to life with
incredibly vivid color and much faster print speeds
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than its predecessor, And it includes
the new and sustainable Tera Jet toner enabling
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up to twenty seven percent reduced energy
consumption which is good for your wallet,
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and up to twenty eight percent reduction
of toner cartridge plastics, which is good
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for the environment. Next up,
if something designed for small conference spaces,
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the poly Studio R thirty Video bar
is the next best thing to being there
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in person. It makes every interaction
remotely feel incredibly natural, as if you
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are side by side with your colleagues. It kind of looks like a soundbar
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that you would have just below your
TV, but it handles video too.
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In fact, it offers exceptional video
quality, intelligent camera framing, and a
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wide one hundred and twenty degree field
of view, ensuring an immersive collaboration experience.
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And it's not just how it looks
but how it sounds, as the
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poly Studio R thirty elevates meetings with
exceptional voice clarity and intelligent noise reduction to
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ensure every participant can be heard on
that video call. If you're just joining
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us now, it's national small Business
Week and so on Thursday, I was
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on several TV stations showing products like
the printer, laptop and video bar I
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just chatted about as well as discussing
services ideal for small businesses to give them
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an edge over their competitors. So
let's get to that. If you are
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a small business owner, Block it
Advisors by H and R. Block should
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definitely be on your radar. You
could think of them as you're all in
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one team for your business needs that
can otherwise be confusing or time consuming or
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both. Just outsource it to the
experts, right fusing cutting edge tech with
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professional expertise that can help with taxes, of course, that's what they're best
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known for, but also setting up
your business bookkeeping and handling payroll. With
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more than two million small businesses already
using their services annually, they know their
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stuff. Blockadvisors dot Com has more, and finally, Vontage business Communications.
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They give small businesses a cost effective
way to communicate and collaborate from virtually anywhere.
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They've been around forever Vontage, and
for good reason. They were one
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of the first, but remain a
leader in voice or voiceover internet technology.
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It's easy to deploy and It supports
voice calls, messaging, and video conferencing
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on your computer or mobile device,
and it works with voipe deesk phones too.
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Features include chat, screen sharing,
recording, digital whiteboarding, and more,
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and can be integrated with popular business
apps like Microsoft Teams and Salesforce,
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as well as Vontage contact center.
Vonage dot com has more and for more
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on everything I've covered here today,
including if you want to see these items
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in action, the laptop, the
printer, the video bar, and pair
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of services that I recommended for small
businesses, you can simply head on over
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to in thenews dot tv. That's
in thenews dot tv. And just a
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reminder that on the show today,
we're also going to have Carly Noblock,
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tech lifestyle expert, to share some
Spring related tech with us, some great
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things for homes and families, including
an air purifier. Last week we spoke
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with tech expert Ambermac who also recommended
one, and also on the show today
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Bitwarden ahead of Thursday, which is
World Password Day, we're going to get
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some tips to using a password manager, tips to creating better passwords. So
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we've got a lot more tech at
outcoming this hour. If anybody wants to
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reach out on social media. I'll
spell my name in a moment, but
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I'm on all the big platforms like
x in Instagram, threads, Facebook,
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YouTube, TikTok and so on.
It's Mark Saltzman, M A R C
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S A L T Z M A
N. When we return, we're going
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to catch up with Carly Noblock on
Springtech to help welcome in this season.
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We'll be right back. I want
to follow Mark Google Mark with a C,
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that's Saltzman with a Z, breaking
down geeks peak into street speak.
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This is check it out. Check
it out with technology columnist, author,
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and TV personality Mark Saltzman. Welcome
back everyone. You're listening to tech it
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out well. The spring season is
all about fresh starts, and that includes
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your home tech. Joining us with
her Spring must haves for families is tech
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lifestyle expert Carly Noblock. Hi,
Carly, good to chat with you again.
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Hi, Hi, thank you for
having me again. Mark and Yep,
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I've partnered with a few brands to
help your tech get a fresh start
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this spring season. I know you're
doing a bunch of TV interviews today.
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The set that you're on right now
looks great, and we'll plug a website
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where our listeners can see some of
these suggestions in action. But why don't
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we start off with a great addition
for the homeless season keeping you know,
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fresh and spring in mind. Absolutely, if you have pets like I do
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this spring, you'll appreciate Lavoid's Vital
two hundred s smart air purifier. It
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captures the fur, the dander,
and the smell from our furry friends.
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But it not only helps you get
rid of those pet house odors, which
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let's face it, nobody wants those, it also captures allergens pollen, smoke,
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and more so for allergy season,
it just can't be beat. It's
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also very quiet, which I really
appreciate, and the app will even show
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you how clean the air is once
it's done doing its thing. So this
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is really the perfect thing for keeping
your home fresh and healthy for everyone you
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love, pets included. But it
definitely makes a huge difference, especially this
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time of year, no doubt.
As you can probably hear, I am
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an allergy sufferer. Pollen is my
nemesis, yeah, but also pet dander
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and hair and stuff like that,
even though we love to dog sit.
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So this is a smart air purifier. The Lavoit Vital two hundred s.
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All the pricing, by the way, will be on the website that we're
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going to plug in a couple of
minutes from now. Oh why not,
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I'll just give it a go right
now in thenews dot tv. Why let
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people wait if they want to see
these and grab links to where they can
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buy them as well. So a
smart air purefire perfect for spring and for
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home offices. What printer stands out
for you, Yeah, for home offices
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and busy families. What I've got
here is the epsom Eco tank Et thirty
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eight fifty printer, and it's a
really great little warhorse. It gives you
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fast, sharp text and colorful pages. But the best part about this particular
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printer is that it's cartridge free.
It comes with ink tanks instead, and
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it comes in the box with enough
ink for the highpacity ink tanks to really
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last for ages, which can help
save you tons of money and just no
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more messing with those cartridges and no
more having to run out for ink at
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the worst possible time, especially when
that book report needs to be printed and
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you know you don't have any ink
and it's it's the absolute worst. So
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it also has so many additional features
like wireless printing, a scanner, a
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copier. It's really perfect for families
juggling school and work and pretty much everything.
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So I feel like at some point
people were talking about not needing a
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printer as much anymore. And now
that you know, we're working from home
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and the kids are doing you know, school sometimes from home, the printer,
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you know, is definitely here to
stay, and you want to have
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one that really is there when you
need it most. Yeah, whatever happened
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to that paperless office thing, didn't
they? Yeah? But I am a
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fan of the absent Eco Tank family
of all in one printers as you As
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you mentioned up to five thousand pages
of black or color ink and then when
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it's time to replace them, they're
inexpensive bottles rather than pricey cartridges. And
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I actually use it. We had
a three year old over the other day,
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our friend's daughter, and I used
my voice with a smart speaker to
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ask my Eco Tank to print coloring
sheets for her. And that's one sort
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of little known feature that a lot
of people don't know about with their Epps
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and printers, which is great.
So that's the Eco Tank Et thirty eight
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fifty all in one. I think
the general rule of them is the higher
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the number, the more features,
and the bigger the paper tray is,
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so you can pick a model based
on your needs and budget. We are
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chatting with tech lifestyle expert Carly Noblock, who's joining us from New York to
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chat about some Spring related tech,
whether it's air purefires or working from home
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needing an all in one printer for
work and play. Now let's pivot and
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speaking of being from home. With
Spring being here, we may not be
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home as much, we may be
out when we get our packages. We
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want to stop those nasty porch pirates
in their tracks. What can you recommend?
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Yeah? I love this and it's
a huge problem for everyone, including
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myself. So Amazon's got your back
here. With Amazon key in Garage Delivery,
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if you're a Prime member, you
can get packages delivered inside your garage
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where they'll be protected from those porch
pirates and bad weather as well, because
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there's nothing worse than a soggy package
that you're really excited to get. So
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the service works with the majority of
smart garages, so you might already have
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what you need to get started,
but if it's not, it's really simple
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and affordable to set up and then
you just select in garage delivery at checkout,
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And it's so simple and really a
game changer that takes so much stress
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out of ordering things online because I
know for me, if I'm ordering something
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to the house, it's always just
kind of like a race to grab it
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off the front porch before someone else
does. Hm. Great point, especially
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around holiday time, but you know
anytime of year. Really. Yeah,
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I love those videos on YouTube for
people who catch the porch pirates, but
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no, it's not fun or funny
what it happens to you. And so
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this is a smart solution. And
what I like is that you don't have
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to share your garage code if you
have one like a keypad to open it.
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It's all done through scanning apps and
all that with a vetted Amazon driver
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who will be able to put that
in there. And it also works with
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cameras if you want to see them
and all that, so, which is
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really great. So that's the Amazon
key in garage Delivery. I wrote about
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that quite a bit last year.
It seems like when the economy takes a
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turn, the incidence of theft increases. Makes sense, all right, Carly,
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why don't we end off on what's
new in over the counter hearing aids
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for those who may be experiencing hearing
loss. I know that went through last
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00:24:26.400 --> 00:24:29.200
year, which was a huge benefit
to the industry. You didn't have to
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00:24:29.440 --> 00:24:32.799
go through medical channels if you didn't
want to talk to us about what's new
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00:24:32.839 --> 00:24:36.119
there. Yeah, kind of life
changing for a lot of people. If
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00:24:36.160 --> 00:24:40.279
anyone in your family has mild to
moderate hearing loss, you're going to definitely
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00:24:40.279 --> 00:24:45.160
want to know about the lexib two
plus powered by Bose. They're affordable hearing
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00:24:45.160 --> 00:24:48.240
aids that, like you said,
now you can get over the counter and
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00:24:48.279 --> 00:24:53.240
they offer incredible quality and customization right
from their app. You can take a
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00:24:53.240 --> 00:24:59.440
free hearing test at lexihearing dot com, where you'll get really top notch expert
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00:24:59.480 --> 00:25:03.920
support and a forty five day risk
free trial. So because you're doing all
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00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:07.960
of this online, you definitely want
to make sure that you know you're working
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00:25:07.960 --> 00:25:12.279
with people who can assist you all
the way through and that you have time
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00:25:12.319 --> 00:25:17.200
to return them if you don't enjoy
wearing them. But the top notch expert
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00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:21.599
support that they offer is really what
sets this apart. But this can really
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00:25:21.640 --> 00:25:26.480
help people live their best life.
Their FSA HSA eligible and they may even
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00:25:26.519 --> 00:25:30.799
be covered by some insurance plans.
So there's just so many reasons to try
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00:25:30.799 --> 00:25:33.240
this out if you are suffering from
mild to moderate hearing loss. Not a
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00:25:33.240 --> 00:25:37.279
whole lot of downside to giving it
a try. Yeah, one hundred percent.
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00:25:37.440 --> 00:25:41.160
Again, that's Lexi l e Xie, the B two plus and in
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00:25:41.240 --> 00:25:44.839
partnership with Bose, and I think
they know a little bit about sound quality.
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00:25:45.079 --> 00:25:47.359
Yeah, awesome. All right,
So Carly, as we wrap up,
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00:25:47.359 --> 00:25:49.400
where can we find more info on
everything you've chatted about today? And
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00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:53.279
as I said earlier, pricing and
some videos and photos and all that links
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00:25:53.440 --> 00:25:56.359
exactly, Yeah, including links for
everything I covered, and you can just
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00:25:56.440 --> 00:26:02.880
visit inthanew dot EV. All right, inthnews dot tv. Carly, great
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00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:06.799
to chat with you as always,
Thanks for these awesome spring suggestions. Looking
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00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:08.799
forward to chatting with you again soon. Thanks Mark. Fun. As always.
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00:26:08.920 --> 00:26:11.400
When we return on tech it Out, we're going to catch up with
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00:26:11.519 --> 00:26:17.519
bitwarden about its password manager, just
ahead of World Password Day coming up on
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00:26:17.599 --> 00:26:22.200
Thursday. Stick with us, we'll
be right back breaking down geek speak into
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00:26:22.279 --> 00:26:37.079
street speak. Check it Out hosted
by Mark Saltzman. Welcome back, everyone,
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00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:41.400
you're listening to check it out on
the Radio America network. World Password
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Day is coming up. It's always
the first Thursday in May, so this
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00:26:44.839 --> 00:26:48.480
year it's May second. It serves
as a reminder for better password habits,
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00:26:48.839 --> 00:26:52.519
good password hygiene, if you will
well hot off the heels of its just
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published report about passwords. Is Bitwarden
a leading company when it comes to password
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management apps? And we'll get an
update now with Gary Ornstein, chief customer
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00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:06.319
officer at Bitwarden. Good to have
you back on the program. Gary,
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00:27:06.599 --> 00:27:11.400
thanks for having us mark before we
talk about World's Password Day and findings from
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00:27:11.440 --> 00:27:14.799
your latest report, your fourth annual. If I'm not mistaken, please tell
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00:27:14.880 --> 00:27:18.000
us a bit about Bitwarden. Sure, as you said, Bitwarden makes a
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00:27:18.079 --> 00:27:23.839
password management application that serves both individuals
as well as businesses. More recently,
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00:27:23.880 --> 00:27:30.000
Bitwarden has expanded to offer other solutions
as well, helping developers manage secrets as
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00:27:30.039 --> 00:27:34.720
well as developers manage passkeys and how
they implement passkeys. But we're most well
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00:27:34.720 --> 00:27:40.759
known for the password management application that
we provide to individuals and companies around the
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00:27:40.759 --> 00:27:45.000
world. So password managers are always
a great idea because we're supposed to use
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00:27:45.039 --> 00:27:48.880
a different password for all of our
online activity for obvious reasons. If there's
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00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:52.680
a data breach, then the nefarious
folks out there can use that password to
386
00:27:52.720 --> 00:27:55.640
log into another account that you have. But we're also supposed to have a
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00:27:55.680 --> 00:27:59.799
long and complicated password or past key, so not so easy to remember.
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00:27:59.920 --> 00:28:03.720
The obvious answer is use a password
manager. But my question to you,
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00:28:03.799 --> 00:28:07.480
Gary is why Bitwarden. There are
obviously other apps and websites out there that
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00:28:07.599 --> 00:28:11.599
do a similar thing. I think
there are a few things for folks to
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00:28:11.680 --> 00:28:17.160
consider, and one thing we'll say
is using any password manager is better than
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no password manager. But why might
you want to choose Bitwarden? Certainly as
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00:28:21.079 --> 00:28:23.279
an individual, if you're just getting
started, you might want to have something
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that you can try that's fully featured
without any additional costs. So bitwarden does
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00:28:27.519 --> 00:28:33.559
offer that for individuals. A lot
of people like the bitwarten open source architecture,
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00:28:33.640 --> 00:28:41.240
which creates trust between our users and
our customers in understanding exactly what's happening
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with the underlying encryption. That's something
that bitwarden is very transparent about in order
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to build trust with our community.
And you know, the basics are that
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you can store an unlimited number of
passwords across an unlimited number of devices and
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take great security and control of your
online activity. And so that's a great
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00:29:00.720 --> 00:29:06.240
reason for anybody to get started with
bitwarden. If it's a website and an
402
00:29:06.279 --> 00:29:08.880
app, is it synchronized so that
if I create a new password on my
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00:29:10.319 --> 00:29:14.000
smartphone, when I log in on
my tablet or on my laptop or desktop,
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00:29:14.039 --> 00:29:18.359
will the Bitwarden there also have all
those passwords updated automatically. Absolutely all
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00:29:18.400 --> 00:29:23.079
of your logins across all of your
devices always synchronized. And of course,
406
00:29:23.160 --> 00:29:27.559
the beauty of a password manager like
Bitwarden that's cross platform is that could be
407
00:29:27.880 --> 00:29:33.960
your iPhone or your Android phone,
or your MacBook or your Windows laptop,
408
00:29:33.200 --> 00:29:38.200
or any of the eight or nine
different browsers that Bitwarden supports, where each
409
00:29:38.240 --> 00:29:44.319
browser has an extension. So one
of the important things about being a useful
410
00:29:44.359 --> 00:29:48.440
tool for folks is to be everywhere
that people are in their online lives.
411
00:29:48.559 --> 00:29:52.759
So bitwarden can operate across all of
those environments. Does bitwarden also create passwords
412
00:29:52.759 --> 00:29:56.319
for you if you want or do
you need to come up with that long
413
00:29:56.359 --> 00:29:59.960
and complicated, I don't know,
twelve character password with upper and lower case
414
00:30:00.119 --> 00:30:03.640
and yeah symbols, Bitwarden will do
all that for you at the click of
415
00:30:03.680 --> 00:30:06.960
a button. In fact, I
often, you know, I haven't created
416
00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:11.720
a password on my own in four
years since I've been using bitwarden here,
417
00:30:11.160 --> 00:30:17.359
And so all of that anxiety that
folks might have about how do I think
418
00:30:17.400 --> 00:30:19.640
about a new password and where am
I going to store it? And then
419
00:30:19.680 --> 00:30:22.480
how am I going to remember it
when I'm at home or at work or
420
00:30:22.680 --> 00:30:27.880
traveling, all that solved by using
a password manager like bitmod And with the
421
00:30:29.240 --> 00:30:32.799
free version, what do you get
versus the paid version? Sure, so
422
00:30:33.160 --> 00:30:36.599
we want to make it easy and
simple for folks to get started. And
423
00:30:36.640 --> 00:30:40.720
of course, you know, we
believe that everybody who's online deserves to have
424
00:30:40.759 --> 00:30:45.519
a password manager. So what the
basic free version will get you is the
425
00:30:45.559 --> 00:30:51.640
ability to store an unlimited number of
passwords across an unlimited number of accounts,
426
00:30:51.839 --> 00:30:57.400
and also including security mechanisms to have
two factor authentication set up with your bitwarden
427
00:30:57.440 --> 00:31:00.759
account because you want to stay protected. And that's when you not only need
428
00:31:00.799 --> 00:31:03.759
your password to log into an online
account like a bank, but you also
429
00:31:03.839 --> 00:31:07.880
get a one time code send to
your mobile device that you also need to
430
00:31:07.880 --> 00:31:10.920
type in to prove that it's really
you yep, and you have options you
431
00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:15.200
can store that within bitwarden if you
want, so that's one of the paid
432
00:31:15.680 --> 00:31:21.640
capabilities to be able to have an
integrated authentication so you don't have to lose
433
00:31:21.720 --> 00:31:26.200
track of your two factor codes.
You can keep those within bitwarden. Other
434
00:31:26.559 --> 00:31:30.799
options in the paid version include the
ability to store file attachments, so that's
435
00:31:30.799 --> 00:31:37.440
something people might want to do for
picture of an important document or identification card
436
00:31:37.240 --> 00:31:41.279
or something cool. And then there
are some advanced reports, so if you
437
00:31:41.319 --> 00:31:47.119
want to stay on top of there's
a basic breach report in the free version,
438
00:31:47.160 --> 00:31:51.200
but then there are some advanced reports
to help you keep your online credentials
439
00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:53.039
extra secure and safe. At the
end of our chat, I'll ask you
440
00:31:53.079 --> 00:31:56.759
how much the paid version is,
but sounds like you get a lot for
441
00:31:56.799 --> 00:32:00.000
the free version, again for consumers
rather than businesses. Now pivot and talk
442
00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.920
about World Password Day coming up May
second. What's it all about? So
443
00:32:05.079 --> 00:32:09.119
World Password Day is a chance to
celebrate our online security and what we find
444
00:32:09.240 --> 00:32:14.920
is a need to talk about it
so that we can educate ourselves and educate
445
00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:17.880
others, our friends, our family, our colleagues, and how to stay
446
00:32:17.920 --> 00:32:22.759
secure online today. Of course,
a lot of our lives revolve around passwords.
447
00:32:22.799 --> 00:32:27.839
We also have new technologies such as
pass keys that are coming into place,
448
00:32:28.039 --> 00:32:30.839
and in a nutshell, what we
find with the results from this survey
449
00:32:31.119 --> 00:32:36.599
is that, unfortunately, some of
the risky habits still remain. People are
450
00:32:36.720 --> 00:32:39.359
still using their memory to manage their
passwords as opposed to getting help from a
451
00:32:39.359 --> 00:32:44.359
password manager or a yellow sticky note
that your colleagues can find or a yellow
452
00:32:44.400 --> 00:32:47.359
sticky note is not necessarily going to
keep you the most safe. The use
453
00:32:47.400 --> 00:32:52.519
of a password manager is increasing,
so that's positive news. And I think
454
00:32:52.559 --> 00:33:00.319
the awareness of tappening with phishing attacks
and various types of scams are causing people
455
00:33:00.400 --> 00:33:06.519
to focus more on two factor authentication, so we've seen an increase there.
456
00:33:06.680 --> 00:33:09.359
All right, more with Bitwarden.
When we return on tech it Out,
457
00:33:09.359 --> 00:33:14.680
stay with us. Follow Mark Saltzman
on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram,
458
00:33:14.720 --> 00:33:28.640
listen to check it out whenever you
want. Before we continue on with
459
00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:31.400
Bitmarten, and speaking of cybersecurity,
I wanted to give a shout out to
460
00:33:31.599 --> 00:33:37.839
Visa as one part of the solution
to protecting yourself online is securely shopping while
461
00:33:37.839 --> 00:33:40.799
you're online. And I'm thrilled about
my partnership with Visa on tech it out,
462
00:33:40.839 --> 00:33:45.119
as they've made some significant investments in
fraud prevention over the past five years,
463
00:33:45.200 --> 00:33:50.519
as much as ten billion dollars that's
billion with a bee to support Visa's
464
00:33:50.519 --> 00:33:55.559
brand promise to protect the financial information
of individuals and businesses. Zero liability means
465
00:33:55.599 --> 00:33:59.559
peace of mind when you shop online
using your Visa card. There can be
466
00:33:59.599 --> 00:34:02.559
no half measures when it comes to
cybersecurity, which is why the company takes
467
00:34:02.599 --> 00:34:07.519
an aggressive and multi layered approach to
combating the rising threat of malicious software and
468
00:34:07.599 --> 00:34:13.239
other threats by well funded and global
criminal enterprises. Read more about Visa and
469
00:34:13.239 --> 00:34:17.400
how securing the world's payments is priority
one at Visa dot com slash security.
470
00:34:17.480 --> 00:34:22.599
We are chatting with Gary Ornstein.
He's CCO or chief customer officer at Bitwarden,
471
00:34:22.760 --> 00:34:27.280
a leading password management company. You
are going to touch on. I
472
00:34:27.280 --> 00:34:30.360
guess our bad habits when it comes
to passwords. I guess people are still
473
00:34:30.440 --> 00:34:32.840
using things like password one, two, three, four, five, or
474
00:34:32.960 --> 00:34:37.320
their birthday or anniversary day. Is
that fair? Yeah, there's still you
475
00:34:37.320 --> 00:34:43.159
know, the classic ones are using
the personal information. So we ask people
476
00:34:43.239 --> 00:34:46.400
do they still use personal information,
and about a third said yes, And
477
00:34:46.440 --> 00:34:51.280
then we asked, you know where
might that personal information appear on social media
478
00:34:51.719 --> 00:34:55.719
or public records. So the takeaway
here is pets names are not the most
479
00:34:55.760 --> 00:35:00.360
secure way to keep your online account
safe. We also see a lot of
480
00:35:00.440 --> 00:35:05.599
people who are sports fans might be
using sports team names, and of course,
481
00:35:05.599 --> 00:35:07.800
you know in the workplace, you
don't want to use your company name
482
00:35:07.920 --> 00:35:10.079
in any of your passwords. So
again, all of this goes away when
483
00:35:10.159 --> 00:35:15.400
you're either generating a pass key for
the website that you're logging into or using
484
00:35:15.559 --> 00:35:21.079
bitwarden or any password manager to generate
that long and unique credential for you.
485
00:35:21.320 --> 00:35:24.480
Before we wrap up, what's your
take on biometrics authentication, So using a
486
00:35:24.480 --> 00:35:29.320
part of your body to identify you, your thumbprint to your face, your
487
00:35:29.360 --> 00:35:32.880
iris, is that slowly going to
replace passwords or at least augment it,
488
00:35:32.960 --> 00:35:37.719
Like maybe that's going to be multi
factor authentication where you need your face and
489
00:35:37.119 --> 00:35:40.679
a good password to log in or
something, or a pass key. Absolutely,
490
00:35:40.800 --> 00:35:45.480
I'm a huge fan of biometrics.
You know, I use biometrics to
491
00:35:45.760 --> 00:35:51.039
unlock my phone and then I use
the same biometrics to unlock my Bitwarden vault.
492
00:35:51.280 --> 00:35:54.519
When I'm logging into a website,
I can just use biometrics to have
493
00:35:54.599 --> 00:36:00.280
bitwarden auto fill that information. So
even today, even though many of the
494
00:36:00.280 --> 00:36:02.960
websites that I use I still use
a password and others I use a pass
495
00:36:04.039 --> 00:36:07.880
key, it's a passwordless experience because
of this biometric authentication option. And then
496
00:36:07.880 --> 00:36:13.880
I think you're correct. Over time, we'll see combinations where sometimes it's going
497
00:36:13.960 --> 00:36:15.679
to want your face, sometimes it's
going to want your fingerprint. Maybe it's
498
00:36:15.679 --> 00:36:19.639
going to want a combination. Maybe
it's going to want a voice signature,
499
00:36:19.880 --> 00:36:23.079
your heart, your electro cardiograph readings, which could also be unique. Yeah,
500
00:36:23.159 --> 00:36:29.360
all kinds of things that will add
different degrees of authentication based on the
501
00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:31.280
use case. And I think that's
the more that we can make it those
502
00:36:31.360 --> 00:36:37.079
natural forms of authentication, I think
the better. That could be your iPhone
503
00:36:37.239 --> 00:36:40.480
or your Android phone, or your
MacBook or your Windows laptop. All right,
504
00:36:40.519 --> 00:36:44.599
Gary, So how do we get
going with Bitwarden. Do you recommend
505
00:36:44.639 --> 00:36:46.559
going to the website, just downloading
the app from the app store? How
506
00:36:46.639 --> 00:36:51.480
much does the paid version start at? The Easiest way to get started is
507
00:36:51.519 --> 00:36:54.760
go to bitwarden dot com. On
the website or search in your favorite app
508
00:36:54.800 --> 00:36:59.679
store for bitwarden, you can sign
up with a free account and that lasts
509
00:36:59.679 --> 00:37:02.559
forever and enjoy that to your heart's
content. If you do want to upgrade
510
00:37:02.599 --> 00:37:07.000
to the paid version for individuals,
that's just ten dollars a year for those
511
00:37:07.039 --> 00:37:10.639
extra features, oh wow. And
then if folks want to explore, there's
512
00:37:10.679 --> 00:37:15.400
a family version for six people that's
forty dollars a year. And then there
513
00:37:15.400 --> 00:37:19.079
are business plans for teams and enterprises
as well. So not only do we
514
00:37:19.119 --> 00:37:22.159
want everybody to be secure at home, but we also want them to be
515
00:37:22.239 --> 00:37:25.760
secure at work. So those are
options to consider while we're celebrating online security.
516
00:37:27.079 --> 00:37:30.079
Well, Happy World password Day to
you. Gary. Thank you so
517
00:37:30.159 --> 00:37:32.440
much for carver you some time to
talk today. Appreciate it. Very informative,
518
00:37:32.559 --> 00:37:36.280
It was fun. Thank you,
Hey, thank you for tuning into
519
00:37:36.440 --> 00:37:39.920
tech it out recording this show from
the LaGuardia Airport, about to board a
520
00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.559
flight back home, but I wanted
to produce this week's show regardless of where
521
00:37:44.639 --> 00:37:46.000
I am. Hey, It's like
when you listen to the radio when the
522
00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:50.239
hosts are on location somewhere, you
know, at a mall or at a
523
00:37:50.440 --> 00:37:53.320
restaurant or bar, or a sporting
event. They call that a remote,
524
00:37:53.360 --> 00:37:57.159
so this kind of has the same
vibe when you hear the people buzzing ap
525
00:37:57.199 --> 00:38:00.480
out behind me. I wanted to
remind you about that sale on a Intel
526
00:38:00.519 --> 00:38:06.800
Core Ultra powered PC at Costco.
It's the MSI Prestige sixteen Intel Evo Edition
527
00:38:06.960 --> 00:38:10.239
down to eleven ninety nine from thirteen
ninety nine. It's got a very powerful
528
00:38:10.320 --> 00:38:15.920
Intel Core processor one fifty five h
along with fast Wi Fi seven and high
529
00:38:15.960 --> 00:38:20.719
speed Bluetooth. It's got a gorgeous
sixteen inch qHD plus IPS display, a
530
00:38:20.800 --> 00:38:24.920
white backlit keyboard with fingerprint reader,
advanced webcam, lots of system memory,
531
00:38:24.960 --> 00:38:29.880
thirty two gigs of RAM, a
two terabyte solid state drive, and more.
532
00:38:29.960 --> 00:38:32.639
Again for eleven ninety nine for an
Intel Core seven processor. This is
533
00:38:32.679 --> 00:38:38.119
fantastic. The MSI Prestige sixteen Intel
Evo Edition at costco dot com and speaking
534
00:38:38.159 --> 00:38:42.920
up computers. Don't forget to properly
back up your files on a regular basis.
535
00:38:42.960 --> 00:38:45.760
I always trust my files with sand
disk and Western Digital. There's always
536
00:38:45.760 --> 00:38:51.119
sales going on at westerndigital dot com
and at retailers like best Buy dot Com
537
00:38:51.159 --> 00:38:54.239
and Amazon for external solid state drives
and external hard drives and so on.
538
00:38:54.360 --> 00:38:57.760
Hey, thanks so much for tuning
in to check it out everyone. Hope
539
00:38:57.800 --> 00:38:59.840
you, hope you have a great
week ahead, and I look forward to
540
00:38:59.880 --> 00:39:02.559
catching up with you next time for
another episode of Check it Out Bute.
541
00:39:02.559 --> 00:39:04.119
Bye for now.
1
00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:04.440
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the
ever changing world of technology? Check it
2
00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:08.039
Out can help make some sense of
it all, breaking down geek speak into
3
00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:13.359
street speak. Technology columnist, author, and TV personality Mark Saltzman covers consumer
4
00:00:13.400 --> 00:00:18.320
technology each week for every listener,
Mark tackles the latest news, reviews,
5
00:00:18.399 --> 00:00:23.039
and how toos to help you understand
what's hot, what's not and why.
6
00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:29.239
Hey, everyone, welcome to tech
it Out. This is episode three forty
7
00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:32.759
three. Hope you're all doing great
today and I'm thrilled you're tuning into this
8
00:00:32.920 --> 00:00:36.719
show devoted to making sense of tech
in plain English, or, as I
9
00:00:36.840 --> 00:00:40.920
like to say, breaking down geek
speak into street speak. I'm recording this
10
00:00:41.039 --> 00:00:45.920
right now from New York from the
LaGuardia Airport in fact, so apologies for
11
00:00:45.960 --> 00:00:50.320
any ambient noise. I did some
TV interviews today across the country from a
12
00:00:50.359 --> 00:00:55.039
studio in Manhattan, all tied to
National Small Business Week. I'll share those
13
00:00:55.119 --> 00:00:58.840
highlights with you in fifteen minutes from
now as well. Before that, we'll
14
00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:03.000
kick things off with the new product
called the Rainstick Shower system and how it
15
00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:06.959
recycles your water as you shower and
cleans it too, but could save you
16
00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:11.079
hundreds of dollars a year on your
water and energy bills, says the company.
17
00:01:11.319 --> 00:01:15.439
Also on the show tech Life expert
Carly no Block on great tech for
18
00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:19.239
the Spring, and Bitwarden joins us
ahead of World Password Day next week on
19
00:01:19.319 --> 00:01:25.359
what password managers are all about,
why Bitwarden, what we're doing better at
20
00:01:25.480 --> 00:01:29.280
using passwords, and what we're still
doing wrong when it comes to passwords.
21
00:01:29.319 --> 00:01:33.040
All of this and more on an
all new tech it out powered by Intel
22
00:01:33.079 --> 00:01:37.239
Core Ultra PCs, which I'll tell
you more about shortly, including a sale
23
00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:40.760
on one at Costco, but we'll
get to that. Let's officially kick off
24
00:01:40.799 --> 00:01:44.079
this new tech it out with our
first interview. As much as I'm a
25
00:01:44.120 --> 00:01:47.000
proud homeowner, you don't want to
be around me when I open up my
26
00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:51.159
utility bills every month, you know, for electricity, natural gas, water
27
00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:55.200
usage. Where I live in the
country, rates are insanely high, and
28
00:01:55.280 --> 00:01:57.680
so I've been trying to invest in
smart home tech to help lower my bills.
29
00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:01.079
The one thing I haven't yet tried, though, is saving on water
30
00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:06.760
usage, which leads me to our
next guest. Alisha mcphetrich is the co
31
00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:12.599
founder and CEO of Rainstick, a
clean technology company committed to cutting residential water
32
00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:15.360
usage in half with its smart shower
system. Hi, Alisha, thanks for
33
00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:19.120
your time. Hey, thanks so
much for having me. Mark looking forward
34
00:02:19.159 --> 00:02:21.680
to being here. All right,
So why don't we start off at a
35
00:02:21.719 --> 00:02:27.120
high level. What is Rainstick all
about? Yes, Rainstick is on a
36
00:02:27.159 --> 00:02:34.639
mission building water technology that allows people
to thrive using only thirteen gallons of water
37
00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:38.360
per person per day. Right now, within North America, we use closer
38
00:02:38.479 --> 00:02:42.800
to ninety gallons, and so we
know that we have a lot of work
39
00:02:42.840 --> 00:02:47.560
to do. We're extremely passionate about
reusing water within the residential home and allowing
40
00:02:47.639 --> 00:02:53.520
folks to save a substantial amount on
their water and energy bills. So our
41
00:02:53.560 --> 00:02:58.360
first product is Rainstick shower, which
does just that. It actually provides a
42
00:02:58.479 --> 00:03:04.840
three gallon per minute flow rate from
the shower head while only using half a
43
00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:08.680
gallon per minute from the house supply. It's a recirculating shower that saves up
44
00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:15.719
to eighty percent water and eighty percent
energy while providing no compromise that we're typically
45
00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:20.719
accustomed to with low flow options.
So your first product is a shower system
46
00:03:20.800 --> 00:03:23.159
to use only a fraction of the
water that we would typically use in a
47
00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:28.199
shower, but with the same flow
that we're used to, so like there's
48
00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:31.360
no trade offs like less pressure or
less heat or anything like that. Yes,
49
00:03:31.800 --> 00:03:36.680
that's correct mark. So current point
in time, the only innovation within
50
00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:42.520
the showering space has been regulating the
shower flow rate, so ratcheting it down.
51
00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:46.199
I mean, in nineteen eighty,
the regulated flow rate used to be
52
00:03:46.280 --> 00:03:51.919
three gallons per minute, but today
we have hit a wall with compromise and
53
00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:57.039
experience. So in a lot of
states as well as provinces, the regulated
54
00:03:57.080 --> 00:04:02.879
flow rate is between one point eight
California and two point two and we're seeing
55
00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:09.080
that trend project downward. So it
already forces people to compromise with the status
56
00:04:09.159 --> 00:04:13.719
quo. So with rainstick, we
don't care about how much water's coming out
57
00:04:13.719 --> 00:04:16.839
of the shower head. So we
actually take folks back to nineteen eighty in
58
00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:21.879
terms of experience. We provide a
spa in a stick in terms of that
59
00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:27.519
shower pressure, so we actually offer
more than the regulative flower because we don't
60
00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:30.839
care about wasting it, because we're
reusing every drop up to six times and
61
00:04:30.879 --> 00:04:35.000
we're only using half a gallon per
minute from the actual house supply. Please
62
00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:41.000
forgive my ignorance here. So if
you're recirculating this water, then I've got
63
00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:43.560
two questions for you. The first
one is when the water goes down the
64
00:04:43.639 --> 00:04:48.360
drain, you obviously have to have
a plumber install this I guess like piping
65
00:04:48.399 --> 00:04:53.360
system that brings it back up to
the head again. So that sounds ambitious,
66
00:04:53.399 --> 00:04:55.959
but that is that essentially what we're
talking about. That, yes,
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totally. So when you see what
rainstick looks like, it actually essentially looks
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like a rain stick, and within
that stick is the full appliance. So
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you don't have to worry about all
of this stuff that's happening behind the wall
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because you essentially attach rain stick like
a picture frame within your shower. So
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it's a straightforward installation for bathroom renovations
as well as new build projects. The
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only thing that's different is actually the
base within the shower cavity, and so
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we ship out it looks like a
linear drain. It's only three inches in
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depth and that only holds half a
gallon of water, but that's enough for
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our system, and that essentially is
that storage of water for the point of
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use water recycling. That's where the
pump connects to that sits at the base
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of our system and allows for that
point of use for circulation and real time
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cleaning. Okay, thank you for
that. And then my other second question
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tied to this system was if it's
recycling your water, are you, in
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essence showering with dirty water, which
might defeat the purpose of showering? Please
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correct me if I'm wrong. We
have folks that you know ask the question
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I think you know. First off, they want to know what rainstick is,
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how it works. And then the
next question is you mean I'm showering
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in dirty water? Can you tell
me about how the system is cleaning in
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real time? So I'm not alone
here? Okay, okay, good,
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So one thing I'll say so,
rainstick actually provides a very hygienic experience,
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often more hygienic than your own shower
today, and we're able to do so
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because of a few real time cleaning
methods. Number one is at the base
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of the system before anything can enter
for the reuse, we have a micron
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level screen and that removes anything larger
than a grain of sand. Number two,
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we have constant refreshment. We actually
only use every drop approximately six times
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before it goes down the proper sanitary
dream and the reason why we're constantly refreshing
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the water is because in about ninety
seven weds your water is back to poddable
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water. But also we're refreshing it
with hot water to maintain temperature. And
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then lastly, before any drop goes
through the showerhead, we have high intensity
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UV treatment which addresses ninety nine point
nine nine nine percent of bacteria, any
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viruses that may be you know,
within any biofilm build up, as well
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as addressed through automatic cleaning cycle assume
as someone jumps out of the shower.
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But altogether, because of these cumulative
cleaning methods, we're able to achieve a
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very high degree of hygiene, so
drinking water standards need to achieve just to
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put into perspective about a ten log
reduction in between users, Rainstick we also
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are able to achieve approximately ten log
reduction, So we're very confident in the
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ability of the system to be able
to constantly clean and make sure that every
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drop is very hygienic for the user. Awesome. We're chatting with Alicia mcfetrich,
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co founder and CEO of Rainstick,
a company and product name that is
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tied up at least for their first
product to a shower system. It's not
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just the shower head, as we're
learning about, but it is a system.
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We'll ask you about how it's installed, if it's handled professionally or as
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homeowners. We can do it.
But first I'd love to ask you who
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it's for. Is this primarily for
those who want to save money on water
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consumption? Who do you think your
target audience is? Number one is for
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the water and energy savings. This
technology, once installed saves, just to
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put into perspective in California, approximately
seven hundred and fifty to one thousand dollars
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00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:33.080
on an annual basis. Wow,
so very strong payback. And I'll say
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not even so just from the water, but from the energy, the cumulative
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water at energy savings. That's where
you're getting that cost savings. And then
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the other side of that is just
people that want a better shower experience.
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They're so tired of compromising because of
the regulated shower flow rate, and so
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they want something. They want a
spa experience. They want three gallon per
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00:08:54.399 --> 00:08:58.600
minute flow rate. We go down
to places where they don't even care about
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the water and energy savings, but
they care about the three gallon per minute,
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So why not be able to do
so in a way that saves a
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substantial amount of water and energy at
the same time. And please tell us
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a bit about the app. I'm
a techie, so I'm curious. I
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think it's optional, but would love
to hear about it. It's optional,
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yes, okay. So nowadays there's
lots of apps within the home, and
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some people love the apps, mark
like yourself, and some people are a
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little bit intimidated with the apps,
and so we made it fully optional.
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But this Wi Fi enabled app allows
you to track water and energy savings in
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real time down to the leader or
the gallon saved down to the kilowatt hour
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abated, so you can see where
it used to be in terms of your
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shower habits and where you are now
with the rainstick. This is also personal
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data to you. And then the
other part of it is if you decide
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to choose to go with the app, you can see when maybe there's a
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replacement or when the rainstick original cleaning
product after sixty showers, it suggests adding
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or topping up product. So it
allows you just to really seamlessly have your
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consumer preferences as well, but also
be able to know what you're saving.
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Oh yeah, and then the benefit
is also you can start it from wherever
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you are. So if you're laying
in bed you want to start your shower
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so it's nice and hot, you
can do so just from the app.
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Before we wrap up and talk pricing, is this something that we should install
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ourselves or does it need to be
professionally installed? Our recommendation is any certified
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bathroom pro so and the reason why
you're doing it during a bathroom renovation or
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you're doing it during a new construction
project. You are putting in that linear
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00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:41.039
drain. So we do recommend working
with someone who knows the bathroom space.
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00:10:41.320 --> 00:10:45.360
Yeah, I figured it makes sense. And then finally, how much does
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rainstick cost? Where is it sold? And what's the best place to learn
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00:10:48.120 --> 00:10:52.759
more? Yeah? So, the
MSRP of Rainstick shower is four thousand,
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00:10:54.159 --> 00:10:58.240
nine hundred and ninety five dollars.
You can find Rainstick in various showrooms,
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00:10:58.360 --> 00:11:03.720
or you can go to www.
Dot Rainstickshower dot com. All right,
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00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:11.279
Rainstickshower dot com. MSRP of course
stands for Manufacturers suggested retail price, but
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00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:13.360
it could vary a bit depending on
the retailer. Alicia Thank you so much
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00:11:13.399 --> 00:11:16.279
for your time. We'll have to
have you back on the show. And
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00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:18.960
you've got other products in the home
outside of the shower as well. Thank
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00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:20.840
you again. Thanks Mark. We
love that. We'll check it out when
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00:11:20.879 --> 00:11:26.039
we return after this short bring listen
to check it out whenever you want to
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00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:28.600
find the Check it Out podcast,
did I too, or wherever you get
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00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:43.879
your podcasts. Welcome back to check
it out everyone. I'm recording this week's
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00:11:43.919 --> 00:11:46.799
show from New York from the LaGuardia
Airport. Believe it or not, I
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00:11:46.840 --> 00:11:52.080
found a little quiet area where I
can host the show with my microphone and
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00:11:52.200 --> 00:11:54.080
laptop. Gotta love technology. But
you may hear the odd you know,
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00:11:54.279 --> 00:12:00.679
kids screaming or announcement over the PA
system for a flight that's porting to acknowledge
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00:12:00.679 --> 00:12:05.840
and think, Intel title sponsor on
this program and its Intel Core Ultra processors
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00:12:05.919 --> 00:12:09.600
powering today's cutting edge PCs. In
fact, there's a sale on one right
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now at Costco. It's down to
eleven ninety nine from thirteen ninety nine.
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00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:20.399
It's the MSI Prestige sixteen Intel Evo
Edition powered by the Intel Core ultraprocessor one
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00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:26.240
fifty five H along with Intel's Killer
Wi Fi seven chip and high speed Bluetooth
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00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:28.320
five point four technology. The first
thing you'll notice, though, is at
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00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:35.039
sixteen inch qHD plus IPS display.
It's a stunner with a white backlit keyboard
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00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:39.360
and a fingerprint reader, a full
HD infrared webcam with dual mics, and
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00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:43.679
a privacy shutter. Under the hood
is that Intel Core Ultra seven CPU,
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00:12:43.799 --> 00:12:46.840
along with thirty two gigs of system
memory or RAM, and a two terabyte
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00:12:46.879 --> 00:12:50.600
solid state drive, which is a
huge amount of fast storage. More on
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00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:56.720
the MSI Prestige sixteen Intel Evo Edition
on sale right now at Costco is at
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00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:00.840
costco dot com. So, as
I mentioned, I'm in New York City
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00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:05.759
working at a studio called Next Millennium, chatting about Small Business Week with about
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00:13:05.799 --> 00:13:11.440
twenty five TV stations across the country. Found a little quiet nook where I
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00:13:11.480 --> 00:13:16.720
can share with you our listeners what
I've been talking about on TV tied to
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National Small Business Week, which takes
place this week, and so I've got
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a few suggestions for hardware and services
for small businesses, which make up the
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backbone of the economy. There's always
so much attention on enterprise level companies,
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00:13:31.679 --> 00:13:35.320
but the SMBs, small and medium
businesses and solo entrepreneurs and startups. They
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00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:39.039
deserve a lot of the attention as
they're pouring their blood, sweat and tears
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into their company, and so I
wanted to share a few suggestions with you
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00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:46.679
right now. Let's start off with
one of the most important decisions you need
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to make, and that is buying
a laptop. The HP Dragonfly Notebook G
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00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:56.159
four is packed with innovation to empower
any small business. In addition to its
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00:13:56.240 --> 00:13:58.600
thin and light design to take your
work with you anywhere, a huge trend
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00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:03.720
these days, This Intel Core powered
PC features a stunning thirteen and a half
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inch display along with a wide angle
five megapixel webcam for you to look and
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00:14:09.600 --> 00:14:13.960
sound your best and move freely during
calls. This laptop is sustainable too,
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with enclosures made from ninety percent recycled
magnesium, while your business's data is protected
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00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:22.759
with HP Wolf Security. Speaking of
HP, before we move on to another
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item for small office and home printers, you can maximize your workplace productivity with
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00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:33.759
the HP Color Laser Jet Pro three
thousand series. It's a new and high
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00:14:33.879 --> 00:14:39.000
quality laser printer family nodding jet that
delivers fast, reliable and professional performance bring
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00:14:39.039 --> 00:14:45.039
all your business documents to life with
incredibly vivid color and much faster print speeds
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00:14:45.039 --> 00:14:50.120
than its predecessor, And it includes
the new and sustainable Tera Jet toner enabling
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00:14:50.200 --> 00:14:54.240
up to twenty seven percent reduced energy
consumption which is good for your wallet,
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00:14:54.279 --> 00:14:58.440
and up to twenty eight percent reduction
of toner cartridge plastics, which is good
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for the environment. Next up,
if something designed for small conference spaces,
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the poly Studio R thirty Video bar
is the next best thing to being there
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in person. It makes every interaction
remotely feel incredibly natural, as if you
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are side by side with your colleagues. It kind of looks like a soundbar
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that you would have just below your
TV, but it handles video too.
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In fact, it offers exceptional video
quality, intelligent camera framing, and a
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00:15:22.799 --> 00:15:28.600
wide one hundred and twenty degree field
of view, ensuring an immersive collaboration experience.
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And it's not just how it looks
but how it sounds, as the
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poly Studio R thirty elevates meetings with
exceptional voice clarity and intelligent noise reduction to
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ensure every participant can be heard on
that video call. If you're just joining
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us now, it's national small Business
Week and so on Thursday, I was
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on several TV stations showing products like
the printer, laptop and video bar I
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00:15:50.679 --> 00:15:54.200
just chatted about as well as discussing
services ideal for small businesses to give them
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an edge over their competitors. So
let's get to that. If you are
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a small business owner, Block it
Advisors by H and R. Block should
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00:16:02.120 --> 00:16:04.120
definitely be on your radar. You
could think of them as you're all in
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00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:10.519
one team for your business needs that
can otherwise be confusing or time consuming or
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00:16:10.559 --> 00:16:14.519
both. Just outsource it to the
experts, right fusing cutting edge tech with
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00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:18.559
professional expertise that can help with taxes, of course, that's what they're best
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00:16:18.600 --> 00:16:22.000
known for, but also setting up
your business bookkeeping and handling payroll. With
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more than two million small businesses already
using their services annually, they know their
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00:16:26.600 --> 00:16:33.279
stuff. Blockadvisors dot Com has more, and finally, Vontage business Communications.
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They give small businesses a cost effective
way to communicate and collaborate from virtually anywhere.
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They've been around forever Vontage, and
for good reason. They were one
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of the first, but remain a
leader in voice or voiceover internet technology.
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It's easy to deploy and It supports
voice calls, messaging, and video conferencing
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on your computer or mobile device,
and it works with voipe deesk phones too.
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Features include chat, screen sharing,
recording, digital whiteboarding, and more,
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and can be integrated with popular business
apps like Microsoft Teams and Salesforce,
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as well as Vontage contact center.
Vonage dot com has more and for more
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00:17:08.200 --> 00:17:11.519
on everything I've covered here today,
including if you want to see these items
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00:17:11.559 --> 00:17:15.920
in action, the laptop, the
printer, the video bar, and pair
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00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.039
of services that I recommended for small
businesses, you can simply head on over
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to in thenews dot tv. That's
in thenews dot tv. And just a
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00:17:26.200 --> 00:17:29.799
reminder that on the show today,
we're also going to have Carly Noblock,
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tech lifestyle expert, to share some
Spring related tech with us, some great
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things for homes and families, including
an air purifier. Last week we spoke
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with tech expert Ambermac who also recommended
one, and also on the show today
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Bitwarden ahead of Thursday, which is
World Password Day, we're going to get
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some tips to using a password manager, tips to creating better passwords. So
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we've got a lot more tech at
outcoming this hour. If anybody wants to
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reach out on social media. I'll
spell my name in a moment, but
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I'm on all the big platforms like
x in Instagram, threads, Facebook,
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YouTube, TikTok and so on.
It's Mark Saltzman, M A R C
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S A L T Z M A
N. When we return, we're going
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to catch up with Carly Noblock on
Springtech to help welcome in this season.
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We'll be right back. I want
to follow Mark Google Mark with a C,
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that's Saltzman with a Z, breaking
down geeks peak into street speak.
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This is check it out. Check
it out with technology columnist, author,
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and TV personality Mark Saltzman. Welcome
back everyone. You're listening to tech it
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out well. The spring season is
all about fresh starts, and that includes
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your home tech. Joining us with
her Spring must haves for families is tech
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lifestyle expert Carly Noblock. Hi,
Carly, good to chat with you again.
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Hi, Hi, thank you for
having me again. Mark and Yep,
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I've partnered with a few brands to
help your tech get a fresh start
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this spring season. I know you're
doing a bunch of TV interviews today.
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The set that you're on right now
looks great, and we'll plug a website
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where our listeners can see some of
these suggestions in action. But why don't
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we start off with a great addition
for the homeless season keeping you know,
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fresh and spring in mind. Absolutely, if you have pets like I do
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this spring, you'll appreciate Lavoid's Vital
two hundred s smart air purifier. It
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00:19:27.759 --> 00:19:32.160
captures the fur, the dander,
and the smell from our furry friends.
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00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:34.240
But it not only helps you get
rid of those pet house odors, which
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let's face it, nobody wants those, it also captures allergens pollen, smoke,
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and more so for allergy season,
it just can't be beat. It's
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also very quiet, which I really
appreciate, and the app will even show
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you how clean the air is once
it's done doing its thing. So this
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is really the perfect thing for keeping
your home fresh and healthy for everyone you
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love, pets included. But it
definitely makes a huge difference, especially this
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time of year, no doubt.
As you can probably hear, I am
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an allergy sufferer. Pollen is my
nemesis, yeah, but also pet dander
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and hair and stuff like that,
even though we love to dog sit.
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So this is a smart air purifier. The Lavoit Vital two hundred s.
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All the pricing, by the way, will be on the website that we're
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going to plug in a couple of
minutes from now. Oh why not,
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I'll just give it a go right
now in thenews dot tv. Why let
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people wait if they want to see
these and grab links to where they can
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buy them as well. So a
smart air purefire perfect for spring and for
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home offices. What printer stands out
for you, Yeah, for home offices
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and busy families. What I've got
here is the epsom Eco tank Et thirty
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eight fifty printer, and it's a
really great little warhorse. It gives you
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fast, sharp text and colorful pages. But the best part about this particular
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printer is that it's cartridge free.
It comes with ink tanks instead, and
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it comes in the box with enough
ink for the highpacity ink tanks to really
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last for ages, which can help
save you tons of money and just no
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more messing with those cartridges and no
more having to run out for ink at
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the worst possible time, especially when
that book report needs to be printed and
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you know you don't have any ink
and it's it's the absolute worst. So
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it also has so many additional features
like wireless printing, a scanner, a
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copier. It's really perfect for families
juggling school and work and pretty much everything.
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So I feel like at some point
people were talking about not needing a
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printer as much anymore. And now
that you know, we're working from home
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and the kids are doing you know, school sometimes from home, the printer,
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you know, is definitely here to
stay, and you want to have
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one that really is there when you
need it most. Yeah, whatever happened
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to that paperless office thing, didn't
they? Yeah? But I am a
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fan of the absent Eco Tank family
of all in one printers as you As
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you mentioned up to five thousand pages
of black or color ink and then when
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it's time to replace them, they're
inexpensive bottles rather than pricey cartridges. And
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I actually use it. We had
a three year old over the other day,
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our friend's daughter, and I used
my voice with a smart speaker to
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ask my Eco Tank to print coloring
sheets for her. And that's one sort
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of little known feature that a lot
of people don't know about with their Epps
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and printers, which is great.
So that's the Eco Tank Et thirty eight
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fifty all in one. I think
the general rule of them is the higher
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the number, the more features,
and the bigger the paper tray is,
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so you can pick a model based
on your needs and budget. We are
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chatting with tech lifestyle expert Carly Noblock, who's joining us from New York to
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chat about some Spring related tech,
whether it's air purefires or working from home
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needing an all in one printer for
work and play. Now let's pivot and
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speaking of being from home. With
Spring being here, we may not be
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home as much, we may be
out when we get our packages. We
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want to stop those nasty porch pirates
in their tracks. What can you recommend?
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Yeah? I love this and it's
a huge problem for everyone, including
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myself. So Amazon's got your back
here. With Amazon key in Garage Delivery,
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if you're a Prime member, you
can get packages delivered inside your garage
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where they'll be protected from those porch
pirates and bad weather as well, because
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there's nothing worse than a soggy package
that you're really excited to get. So
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the service works with the majority of
smart garages, so you might already have
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what you need to get started,
but if it's not, it's really simple
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and affordable to set up and then
you just select in garage delivery at checkout,
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And it's so simple and really a
game changer that takes so much stress
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out of ordering things online because I
know for me, if I'm ordering something
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to the house, it's always just
kind of like a race to grab it
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off the front porch before someone else
does. Hm. Great point, especially
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around holiday time, but you know
anytime of year. Really. Yeah,
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I love those videos on YouTube for
people who catch the porch pirates, but
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no, it's not fun or funny
what it happens to you. And so
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this is a smart solution. And
what I like is that you don't have
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to share your garage code if you
have one like a keypad to open it.
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It's all done through scanning apps and
all that with a vetted Amazon driver
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who will be able to put that
in there. And it also works with
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cameras if you want to see them
and all that, so, which is
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really great. So that's the Amazon
key in garage Delivery. I wrote about
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that quite a bit last year.
It seems like when the economy takes a
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turn, the incidence of theft increases. Makes sense, all right, Carly,
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why don't we end off on what's
new in over the counter hearing aids
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for those who may be experiencing hearing
loss. I know that went through last
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year, which was a huge benefit
to the industry. You didn't have to
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00:24:29.440 --> 00:24:32.799
go through medical channels if you didn't
want to talk to us about what's new
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00:24:32.839 --> 00:24:36.119
there. Yeah, kind of life
changing for a lot of people. If
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anyone in your family has mild to
moderate hearing loss, you're going to definitely
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00:24:40.279 --> 00:24:45.160
want to know about the lexib two
plus powered by Bose. They're affordable hearing
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00:24:45.160 --> 00:24:48.240
aids that, like you said,
now you can get over the counter and
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00:24:48.279 --> 00:24:53.240
they offer incredible quality and customization right
from their app. You can take a
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00:24:53.240 --> 00:24:59.440
free hearing test at lexihearing dot com, where you'll get really top notch expert
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00:24:59.480 --> 00:25:03.920
support and a forty five day risk
free trial. So because you're doing all
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00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:07.960
of this online, you definitely want
to make sure that you know you're working
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00:25:07.960 --> 00:25:12.279
with people who can assist you all
the way through and that you have time
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00:25:12.319 --> 00:25:17.200
to return them if you don't enjoy
wearing them. But the top notch expert
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00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:21.599
support that they offer is really what
sets this apart. But this can really
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00:25:21.640 --> 00:25:26.480
help people live their best life.
Their FSA HSA eligible and they may even
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00:25:26.519 --> 00:25:30.799
be covered by some insurance plans.
So there's just so many reasons to try
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00:25:30.799 --> 00:25:33.240
this out if you are suffering from
mild to moderate hearing loss. Not a
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00:25:33.240 --> 00:25:37.279
whole lot of downside to giving it
a try. Yeah, one hundred percent.
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00:25:37.440 --> 00:25:41.160
Again, that's Lexi l e Xie, the B two plus and in
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00:25:41.240 --> 00:25:44.839
partnership with Bose, and I think
they know a little bit about sound quality.
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00:25:45.079 --> 00:25:47.359
Yeah, awesome. All right,
So Carly, as we wrap up,
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00:25:47.359 --> 00:25:49.400
where can we find more info on
everything you've chatted about today? And
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00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:53.279
as I said earlier, pricing and
some videos and photos and all that links
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00:25:53.440 --> 00:25:56.359
exactly, Yeah, including links for
everything I covered, and you can just
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00:25:56.440 --> 00:26:02.880
visit inthanew dot EV. All right, inthnews dot tv. Carly, great
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00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:06.799
to chat with you as always,
Thanks for these awesome spring suggestions. Looking
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00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:08.799
forward to chatting with you again soon. Thanks Mark. Fun. As always.
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00:26:08.920 --> 00:26:11.400
When we return on tech it Out, we're going to catch up with
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00:26:11.519 --> 00:26:17.519
bitwarden about its password manager, just
ahead of World Password Day coming up on
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Thursday. Stick with us, we'll
be right back breaking down geek speak into
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00:26:22.279 --> 00:26:37.079
street speak. Check it Out hosted
by Mark Saltzman. Welcome back, everyone,
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00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:41.400
you're listening to check it out on
the Radio America network. World Password
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Day is coming up. It's always
the first Thursday in May, so this
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year it's May second. It serves
as a reminder for better password habits,
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good password hygiene, if you will
well hot off the heels of its just
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published report about passwords. Is Bitwarden
a leading company when it comes to password
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management apps? And we'll get an
update now with Gary Ornstein, chief customer
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officer at Bitwarden. Good to have
you back on the program. Gary,
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00:27:06.599 --> 00:27:11.400
thanks for having us mark before we
talk about World's Password Day and findings from
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your latest report, your fourth annual. If I'm not mistaken, please tell
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us a bit about Bitwarden. Sure, as you said, Bitwarden makes a
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password management application that serves both individuals
as well as businesses. More recently,
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Bitwarden has expanded to offer other solutions
as well, helping developers manage secrets as
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well as developers manage passkeys and how
they implement passkeys. But we're most well
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known for the password management application that
we provide to individuals and companies around the
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world. So password managers are always
a great idea because we're supposed to use
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a different password for all of our
online activity for obvious reasons. If there's
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a data breach, then the nefarious
folks out there can use that password to
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00:27:52.720 --> 00:27:55.640
log into another account that you have. But we're also supposed to have a
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long and complicated password or past key, so not so easy to remember.
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The obvious answer is use a password
manager. But my question to you,
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Gary is why Bitwarden. There are
obviously other apps and websites out there that
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00:28:07.599 --> 00:28:11.599
do a similar thing. I think
there are a few things for folks to
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consider, and one thing we'll say
is using any password manager is better than
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00:28:17.160 --> 00:28:21.039
no password manager. But why might
you want to choose Bitwarden? Certainly as
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00:28:21.079 --> 00:28:23.279
an individual, if you're just getting
started, you might want to have something
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that you can try that's fully featured
without any additional costs. So bitwarden does
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offer that for individuals. A lot
of people like the bitwarten open source architecture,
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00:28:33.640 --> 00:28:41.240
which creates trust between our users and
our customers in understanding exactly what's happening
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with the underlying encryption. That's something
that bitwarden is very transparent about in order
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to build trust with our community.
And you know, the basics are that
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you can store an unlimited number of
passwords across an unlimited number of devices and
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take great security and control of your
online activity. And so that's a great
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00:29:00.720 --> 00:29:06.240
reason for anybody to get started with
bitwarden. If it's a website and an
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app, is it synchronized so that
if I create a new password on my
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smartphone, when I log in on
my tablet or on my laptop or desktop,
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will the Bitwarden there also have all
those passwords updated automatically. Absolutely all
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00:29:18.400 --> 00:29:23.079
of your logins across all of your
devices always synchronized. And of course,
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the beauty of a password manager like
Bitwarden that's cross platform is that could be
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your iPhone or your Android phone,
or your MacBook or your Windows laptop,
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00:29:33.200 --> 00:29:38.200
or any of the eight or nine
different browsers that Bitwarden supports, where each
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browser has an extension. So one
of the important things about being a useful
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tool for folks is to be everywhere
that people are in their online lives.
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So bitwarden can operate across all of
those environments. Does bitwarden also create passwords
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00:29:52.759 --> 00:29:56.319
for you if you want or do
you need to come up with that long
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and complicated, I don't know,
twelve character password with upper and lower case
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and yeah symbols, Bitwarden will do
all that for you at the click of
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a button. In fact, I
often, you know, I haven't created
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a password on my own in four
years since I've been using bitwarden here,
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And so all of that anxiety that
folks might have about how do I think
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about a new password and where am
I going to store it? And then
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how am I going to remember it
when I'm at home or at work or
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traveling, all that solved by using
a password manager like bitmod And with the
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free version, what do you get
versus the paid version? Sure, so
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we want to make it easy and
simple for folks to get started. And
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of course, you know, we
believe that everybody who's online deserves to have
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a password manager. So what the
basic free version will get you is the
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ability to store an unlimited number of
passwords across an unlimited number of accounts,
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and also including security mechanisms to have
two factor authentication set up with your bitwarden
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account because you want to stay protected. And that's when you not only need
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your password to log into an online
account like a bank, but you also
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get a one time code send to
your mobile device that you also need to
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type in to prove that it's really
you yep, and you have options you
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00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:15.200
can store that within bitwarden if you
want, so that's one of the paid
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capabilities to be able to have an
integrated authentication so you don't have to lose
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track of your two factor codes.
You can keep those within bitwarden. Other
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options in the paid version include the
ability to store file attachments, so that's
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something people might want to do for
picture of an important document or identification card
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or something cool. And then there
are some advanced reports, so if you
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want to stay on top of there's
a basic breach report in the free version,
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but then there are some advanced reports
to help you keep your online credentials
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extra secure and safe. At the
end of our chat, I'll ask you
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how much the paid version is,
but sounds like you get a lot for
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the free version, again for consumers
rather than businesses. Now pivot and talk
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about World Password Day coming up May
second. What's it all about? So
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00:32:05.079 --> 00:32:09.119
World Password Day is a chance to
celebrate our online security and what we find
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00:32:09.240 --> 00:32:14.920
is a need to talk about it
so that we can educate ourselves and educate
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00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:17.880
others, our friends, our family, our colleagues, and how to stay
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00:32:17.920 --> 00:32:22.759
secure online today. Of course,
a lot of our lives revolve around passwords.
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We also have new technologies such as
pass keys that are coming into place,
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00:32:28.039 --> 00:32:30.839
and in a nutshell, what we
find with the results from this survey
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00:32:31.119 --> 00:32:36.599
is that, unfortunately, some of
the risky habits still remain. People are
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still using their memory to manage their
passwords as opposed to getting help from a
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00:32:39.359 --> 00:32:44.359
password manager or a yellow sticky note
that your colleagues can find or a yellow
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00:32:44.400 --> 00:32:47.359
sticky note is not necessarily going to
keep you the most safe. The use
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00:32:47.400 --> 00:32:52.519
of a password manager is increasing,
so that's positive news. And I think
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00:32:52.559 --> 00:33:00.319
the awareness of tappening with phishing attacks
and various types of scams are causing people
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to focus more on two factor authentication, so we've seen an increase there.
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00:33:06.680 --> 00:33:09.359
All right, more with Bitwarden.
When we return on tech it Out,
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00:33:09.359 --> 00:33:14.680
stay with us. Follow Mark Saltzman
on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram,
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00:33:14.720 --> 00:33:28.640
listen to check it out whenever you
want. Before we continue on with
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00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:31.400
Bitmarten, and speaking of cybersecurity,
I wanted to give a shout out to
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00:33:31.599 --> 00:33:37.839
Visa as one part of the solution
to protecting yourself online is securely shopping while
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00:33:37.839 --> 00:33:40.799
you're online. And I'm thrilled about
my partnership with Visa on tech it out,
462
00:33:40.839 --> 00:33:45.119
as they've made some significant investments in
fraud prevention over the past five years,
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00:33:45.200 --> 00:33:50.519
as much as ten billion dollars that's
billion with a bee to support Visa's
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00:33:50.519 --> 00:33:55.559
brand promise to protect the financial information
of individuals and businesses. Zero liability means
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00:33:55.599 --> 00:33:59.559
peace of mind when you shop online
using your Visa card. There can be
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00:33:59.599 --> 00:34:02.559
no half measures when it comes to
cybersecurity, which is why the company takes
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00:34:02.599 --> 00:34:07.519
an aggressive and multi layered approach to
combating the rising threat of malicious software and
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00:34:07.599 --> 00:34:13.239
other threats by well funded and global
criminal enterprises. Read more about Visa and
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00:34:13.239 --> 00:34:17.400
how securing the world's payments is priority
one at Visa dot com slash security.
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00:34:17.480 --> 00:34:22.599
We are chatting with Gary Ornstein.
He's CCO or chief customer officer at Bitwarden,
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00:34:22.760 --> 00:34:27.280
a leading password management company. You
are going to touch on. I
472
00:34:27.280 --> 00:34:30.360
guess our bad habits when it comes
to passwords. I guess people are still
473
00:34:30.440 --> 00:34:32.840
using things like password one, two, three, four, five, or
474
00:34:32.960 --> 00:34:37.320
their birthday or anniversary day. Is
that fair? Yeah, there's still you
475
00:34:37.320 --> 00:34:43.159
know, the classic ones are using
the personal information. So we ask people
476
00:34:43.239 --> 00:34:46.400
do they still use personal information,
and about a third said yes, And
477
00:34:46.440 --> 00:34:51.280
then we asked, you know where
might that personal information appear on social media
478
00:34:51.719 --> 00:34:55.719
or public records. So the takeaway
here is pets names are not the most
479
00:34:55.760 --> 00:35:00.360
secure way to keep your online account
safe. We also see a lot of
480
00:35:00.440 --> 00:35:05.599
people who are sports fans might be
using sports team names, and of course,
481
00:35:05.599 --> 00:35:07.800
you know in the workplace, you
don't want to use your company name
482
00:35:07.920 --> 00:35:10.079
in any of your passwords. So
again, all of this goes away when
483
00:35:10.159 --> 00:35:15.400
you're either generating a pass key for
the website that you're logging into or using
484
00:35:15.559 --> 00:35:21.079
bitwarden or any password manager to generate
that long and unique credential for you.
485
00:35:21.320 --> 00:35:24.480
Before we wrap up, what's your
take on biometrics authentication, So using a
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00:35:24.480 --> 00:35:29.320
part of your body to identify you, your thumbprint to your face, your
487
00:35:29.360 --> 00:35:32.880
iris, is that slowly going to
replace passwords or at least augment it,
488
00:35:32.960 --> 00:35:37.719
Like maybe that's going to be multi
factor authentication where you need your face and
489
00:35:37.119 --> 00:35:40.679
a good password to log in or
something, or a pass key. Absolutely,
490
00:35:40.800 --> 00:35:45.480
I'm a huge fan of biometrics.
You know, I use biometrics to
491
00:35:45.760 --> 00:35:51.039
unlock my phone and then I use
the same biometrics to unlock my Bitwarden vault.
492
00:35:51.280 --> 00:35:54.519
When I'm logging into a website,
I can just use biometrics to have
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00:35:54.599 --> 00:36:00.280
bitwarden auto fill that information. So
even today, even though many of the
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00:36:00.280 --> 00:36:02.960
websites that I use I still use
a password and others I use a pass
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00:36:04.039 --> 00:36:07.880
key, it's a passwordless experience because
of this biometric authentication option. And then
496
00:36:07.880 --> 00:36:13.880
I think you're correct. Over time, we'll see combinations where sometimes it's going
497
00:36:13.960 --> 00:36:15.679
to want your face, sometimes it's
going to want your fingerprint. Maybe it's
498
00:36:15.679 --> 00:36:19.639
going to want a combination. Maybe
it's going to want a voice signature,
499
00:36:19.880 --> 00:36:23.079
your heart, your electro cardiograph readings, which could also be unique. Yeah,
500
00:36:23.159 --> 00:36:29.360
all kinds of things that will add
different degrees of authentication based on the
501
00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:31.280
use case. And I think that's
the more that we can make it those
502
00:36:31.360 --> 00:36:37.079
natural forms of authentication, I think
the better. That could be your iPhone
503
00:36:37.239 --> 00:36:40.480
or your Android phone, or your
MacBook or your Windows laptop. All right,
504
00:36:40.519 --> 00:36:44.599
Gary, So how do we get
going with Bitwarden. Do you recommend
505
00:36:44.639 --> 00:36:46.559
going to the website, just downloading
the app from the app store? How
506
00:36:46.639 --> 00:36:51.480
much does the paid version start at? The Easiest way to get started is
507
00:36:51.519 --> 00:36:54.760
go to bitwarden dot com. On
the website or search in your favorite app
508
00:36:54.800 --> 00:36:59.679
store for bitwarden, you can sign
up with a free account and that lasts
509
00:36:59.679 --> 00:37:02.559
forever and enjoy that to your heart's
content. If you do want to upgrade
510
00:37:02.599 --> 00:37:07.000
to the paid version for individuals,
that's just ten dollars a year for those
511
00:37:07.039 --> 00:37:10.639
extra features, oh wow. And
then if folks want to explore, there's
512
00:37:10.679 --> 00:37:15.400
a family version for six people that's
forty dollars a year. And then there
513
00:37:15.400 --> 00:37:19.079
are business plans for teams and enterprises
as well. So not only do we
514
00:37:19.119 --> 00:37:22.159
want everybody to be secure at home, but we also want them to be
515
00:37:22.239 --> 00:37:25.760
secure at work. So those are
options to consider while we're celebrating online security.
516
00:37:27.079 --> 00:37:30.079
Well, Happy World password Day to
you. Gary. Thank you so
517
00:37:30.159 --> 00:37:32.440
much for carver you some time to
talk today. Appreciate it. Very informative,
518
00:37:32.559 --> 00:37:36.280
It was fun. Thank you,
Hey, thank you for tuning into
519
00:37:36.440 --> 00:37:39.920
tech it out recording this show from
the LaGuardia Airport, about to board a
520
00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.559
flight back home, but I wanted
to produce this week's show regardless of where
521
00:37:44.639 --> 00:37:46.000
I am. Hey, It's like
when you listen to the radio when the
522
00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:50.239
hosts are on location somewhere, you
know, at a mall or at a
523
00:37:50.440 --> 00:37:53.320
restaurant or bar, or a sporting
event. They call that a remote,
524
00:37:53.360 --> 00:37:57.159
so this kind of has the same
vibe when you hear the people buzzing ap
525
00:37:57.199 --> 00:38:00.480
out behind me. I wanted to
remind you about that sale on a Intel
526
00:38:00.519 --> 00:38:06.800
Core Ultra powered PC at Costco.
It's the MSI Prestige sixteen Intel Evo Edition
527
00:38:06.960 --> 00:38:10.239
down to eleven ninety nine from thirteen
ninety nine. It's got a very powerful
528
00:38:10.320 --> 00:38:15.920
Intel Core processor one fifty five h
along with fast Wi Fi seven and high
529
00:38:15.960 --> 00:38:20.719
speed Bluetooth. It's got a gorgeous
sixteen inch qHD plus IPS display, a
530
00:38:20.800 --> 00:38:24.920
white backlit keyboard with fingerprint reader,
advanced webcam, lots of system memory,
531
00:38:24.960 --> 00:38:29.880
thirty two gigs of RAM, a
two terabyte solid state drive, and more.
532
00:38:29.960 --> 00:38:32.639
Again for eleven ninety nine for an
Intel Core seven processor. This is
533
00:38:32.679 --> 00:38:38.119
fantastic. The MSI Prestige sixteen Intel
Evo Edition at costco dot com and speaking
534
00:38:38.159 --> 00:38:42.920
up computers. Don't forget to properly
back up your files on a regular basis.
535
00:38:42.960 --> 00:38:45.760
I always trust my files with sand
disk and Western Digital. There's always
536
00:38:45.760 --> 00:38:51.119
sales going on at westerndigital dot com
and at retailers like best Buy dot Com
537
00:38:51.159 --> 00:38:54.239
and Amazon for external solid state drives
and external hard drives and so on.
538
00:38:54.360 --> 00:38:57.760
Hey, thanks so much for tuning
in to check it out everyone. Hope
539
00:38:57.800 --> 00:38:59.840
you, hope you have a great
week ahead, and I look forward to
540
00:38:59.880 --> 00:39:02.559
catching up with you next time for
another episode of Check it Out Bute.
541
00:39:02.559 --> 00:39:04.119
Bye for now.
