A Song for Trevor? Have a listen to this caller's story!

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I was gobsmacked. I spoke to you on the Tuesday.

Thursday afternoon there's this lovely courier man at me back door with a parcel for me.

All I know is we've been 24 hours mate. You had it sorted after five weeks of hell, raising hell.

Mate, I can't thank you enough.

Join the conversation. Head to eftm.com and click Ask Trev.

Helping Australians with tech questions for over 15 years. The EFTM podcast with Trev along.

Real Australians. Real questions. Every week.

You can text Trev now. Thanks to Vodafone on 047-657-657.

G'day, g'day. Great to have you company. Happy June folks.

We are five twelfths of the way through the year.

I mean, can you believe that in less than 30 days we'll be halfway through the year?

That is insane to me. It's going to hit me every week. I'll tell you right now. It's just weird.

But anyway, it is what it is. I am currently in London but we're still here bumping out the shows for you.

As I said, next week I'll be at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino for the Worldwide Developers Conference.

Looking forward to that. And this week there will be news from Amazon.

So keep your eyes on eftm.com. I'm literally just right now in the back end of the website

adding some details to the Ask Trev page because I had this thought that

you need to tell people to come to me.

So if you're on Facebook, let's be honest, that's where a lot of the, you know, how do I do this stuff happens.

You need to tell people to why don't you just ask Trev. So what I've done is it worked? Has it worked? Yes it has.

I've added a banner that has my face and the big thing got a tech question asked Trev.

And so essentially if you just go to eftm.com and click Ask Trev yourself and then copy that URL, that website address,

go back and paste that in the comments of your mate's tech question. Get them to ask me.

That's what I'm here for, right, is to help take your questions.

And so, yeah, don't be afraid to tell people to get in touch. You can advocate for me.

See, the thing is, as we continue 16 plus years into doing this talk back stuff here on the podcast,

you dear listener, you're well aware of how everything works. You don't have a question because you're savvy.

You've been listening. You've learned from me, hopefully over the years.

That said, there is no such thing as a dumb question.

So if you have a question you think is dumb, ask it because you'll be blown away by how absolutely logical it is

and how many other people might be asking just the same thing and will benefit from the same question.

And that to me is the fun part of this is other people benefiting from your question.

So give it a crack, folks. If you paste the Ask Trev URL into Facebook, you're basically sharing a picture of me.

You know what I'm going to do? publicly put it out there.

Now I'm going to put it on my Facebook page now so that people know they can ask that question.

Simple as that. Because that way we get your calls. Otherwise, what are we going to do on this show?

We do have a lot coming up on the show, though. A lot of companies want to be on the show,

so we've got a lot of interviews coming up over the couple of months ahead.

We're going to talk to Samsung, HP, the Australian ACANN, Communications Consumer Action Network, I think it stands for,

because I want to talk about the spectrum pricing. I want to talk to Hisense about their XR10 projector,

which has just been delivered to my office. There's so much I want to talk about.

So we'll talk to people. And if someone you want me to talk to, then let me know.

See, it's a two-way relationship here, this thing. You can ask me and I can benefit from that.

Producer Rob can get ideas from you. If there's something you think we should cover, just text it through.

Producer Rob sees all the texts. He can write it down. He might even use his initiative and come up with an interview on it.

But he's very busy because he's a granddad. Producer Rob's a granddad.

He's doting over a beautiful new baby, which is lovely.

So he's not 100% focused on his computer, which is absolutely as it should be.

Family First is what I say to the boys. And I say that all the time, because I believe in a person.

I will put Family First every day of the week. Now, weirdly, I work stupid hours.

I work like 14 hours a day, most days. So am I putting Family First not on a weekday, but I get home.

I sit around the dinner table, we talk rubbish, and I go to bed. But on the weekends, I'm there.

And if there's something that the kids need to be at, I'll give up my time because I can leave work easily because I'm self-employed.

So I'll say no to events because I've got something on for the family. I believe I put Family First.

But when Scott, Daniel, Rob, or whoever it is that's involved need something or need to do something,

I would prefer they put their time into their family than anything AFTM.

And speaking of family, and I'll say this here because it's like the quiet club.

And this news is now a week old, but I don't think I would have announced it anywhere yet.

But just between you and me, part of the family now is JBbuddy.com.

Do you remember a year ago? I think we had Kyle on the show.

We certainly talked about it on the radio, and I published it on AFTM JBbuddy.com,

a website created by a young Aussie guy who just wanted to be able to give you the better prices.

Find the best price for a model.

So I've been playing around with obviously the AFTM TV Search, the Buyer Guide,

and love it, still a big fan of mucking around with it, and it's great information for me.

But I've also got to work on getting the prices.

So what I'm essentially hoping to leverage through acquiring JBbuddy.com,

and by acquiring, I mean I didn't buy the domain name, I bought it all.

AFTM now owns the whole site, the database and the processes,

and Kyle is helping out on an ongoing basis for the next couple of years,

at the very least, run it, manage it, and keep it up to date.

But we've also agreed to work together over the couple of months ahead

to build out my thing and his thing into something pretty special.

So I imagine, in my mind, just between you and me,

I imagine you've got the JB...

The point of JBbuddy is I know what I want, find me the best price.

The point of the AFTM which to be able to buy is I don't know what I want, help me out.

And so you essentially come in with the first question,

do you know what you want, or do you want to help finding it?

And you cascade through the flow chart,

and we will end up finding you the best price online

without any affiliate marketing, without taking any commission,

just through sheer data power.

So welcome to the family JBbuddy.

Thank you to Kyle, who was absolutely awesome about the concept and the process.

And yeah, really, really excited to take that data and make something of it for TV buyers.

Lots of TVs are bought and sold every year.

So let's be part of that, let's be part of that conversation.

I'll be honest with you.

I can't stop thinking about doing the same thing for electric cars.

Like, I know there's websites that narrow these things down,

but they overcomplicate it.

It's like car sales and you've got to answer too many questions.

No, no, I just want an electric car with range this long.

Oh, but it's less than this price.

I don't know, I feel like there might be something in there.

But producer Rob, make a note.

It's already in my head.

It's in my personal notebook pretty heavily.

But I've got to think about how.

Anyway, I shouldn't openly think out loud.

It's bad for me.

Let's get on with the show.

Let's take your calls, whatever it is, 0477657657.

This is the EFTM podcast.

Great to have you company and taking your calls anytime you've got a tech question,

you know where to go.

You can save it in your phone.

0477657657 will try and help you out.

Blake's on the line.

G'day, mate.

G'day.

G'day, how are you?

Hey, really good.

What can I do for you?

Just wanted to call out.

Apologies about my voice.

That's OK.

I just want to call out about these low-conductive headphones

that I keep seeing open up everywhere.

You're getting ads for them on the internet, are you?

Flat out.

Holy Julie.

And so why do you think they'd be right for you?

Well, that's what I want to find out.

I do sort of stick with the earbud system.

Most of my day talking on the phone.

But just wondering if they're worth to change

and if they're safe in that regard with the EMS.

Oh, there's certainly no safety concern at all with them

because they're essentially exactly the same headphones

as what you've got now, except they vibrate against your skull

instead of projecting your sound into your ears.

So the waves, instead of waves coming into your ears,

it's a wave going into your bone.

Does that make sense?

So that's how the sound works.

I don't know.

I think, for me, I see them as a really valuable thing

for people that are walking and running

because they are what we call open.

Your ears are still exposed to the world.

So if someone yells out, hey, look out, you hear it.

You're going to hear it.

So that's critical for people that are on the go,

especially out running,

which is why I think they're perfect for runners.

Are you a truckie?

Is that what I understand?

Yes.

So mate, one of the things I would say to you is,

I don't love wearing in-ear headphones for a long time.

So I wonder whether, as a truckie,

they become in your ear.

It becomes uncomfortable.

So bone conducting would be brilliant in that sense

because they're just kind of sitting on your ear and your head.

They're not really in your ear or even hanging on your ear.

And I've seen some that have a little headset mic on them,

which would mean excellent quality for making phone calls

if that's what you're doing all day up in the big rig.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah, for sure.

So mate, I know there's probably a lot of ads for them,

but the one I've only seen one,

I would call them traditional brand doing them.

I'm sure there's hundreds of brands doing them online,

but the brand I would recommend is Shox.

SHOKZ, Shox.

And the reason I recommend them is not just because

they're sold in JB Hi-Fi and they're a reputable brand.

I've seen their other products.

They're the one that I can see online.

They've got one with a little headset microphone at JB Hi-Fi.

Officeworks.

So I reckon that one would be awesome for the truck

because you're going to get great quality calls, comfortable,

and it's going to work great for you, mate.

Fantastic.

All right.

So it's time to go shopping, mate.

It's time to go shopping, mate.

They're like a pair of Shox and a way to waste your time

and money with those.

The ones that keep saying laboratory.

And mate, let us know how they go.

And are you talking on your phone or earbuds now?

I'm talking on the earbuds now, mate.

So then you need to make me a promise.

Producer Rob will reach out in a few weeks

and see if you bought them.

And then let's have a quick two-minute chat

to see what the quality is like.

All right?

All right, mate.

Copy that.

We'll do it.

Brilliant stuff, mate.

Stay safe out there.

Legend Trans, good on you, mate.

All the best.

No worries at all.

Blake's in the truck.

And very importantly, stay safe on the roads and focus.

So yeah, I think the bone can...

I've seen more people running with them lately.

And I think that's a safety thing, which is awesome.

I want people to be safe when they're walking, you know?

Think about the looking down at your phone

when they cross on the road thing.

That's bad enough.

But people running that can't hear the world around them.

That's a challenge, too.

So yeah, shocks, they definitely...

They make a lot of products.

So that would be a great option right there for Blake.

Great to have you company.

We'd love to hear from you.

If you want to talk tech, if you've got a tech question,

tech problem, whatever it might be,

0-4-7-6-5-7-6-5-7, send me a text or a WhatsApp message

and we'll get you on the show.

Producer Rob will be in touch.

Margaret's on the line.

Good day, Mark.

Hi, Trevor.

Thanks for taking the call.

What can I do for you?

My absolute pleasure.

I have a question.

I'm a volunteer at a local nursing home

where I've started writing songs for the residents.

But most of the residents don't have mobile phones.

So I'm hoping you can suggest another device

that they could maybe have in their room

so they can listen to their song.

Because otherwise I have to be there and play it on my iPad.

Yeah, right.

So you can play it to them whenever you want.

But obviously, if you're not there,

which you're not all the time,

they're going to struggle.

Now, are you talking about like a speaker device

or what kind of device?

I don't know.

In the past, like long time ago,

I know my daughter had like an iPod

or there were MP3 players and that sort of thing.

But all I had was my iPad and my phone

that I can send the song to a phone.

So what else could I send the song to

so that someone could come in and maybe press the button

for them every now and then they could listen to their song.

Do you use Amazon for shopping at all?

Yes, I've got a PrimeMem should I think.

Well, I mean, you could be in a world of pain here like I am.

I'm just looking, I just logged on to mine

and I can see so many items in the shopping cart

and I realized my wife has put all these things

in the shopping cart to discuss with me

because they're clearly,

she's trying to renovate my bathroom here at the office

and I can see that's what they are.

But anyway, as I browse,

what I searched for on Amazon was speaker

because we want it to be a speaker, right?

Not a device.

MP3 because you're going to,

what you're going to create hopefully are MP3 files

that you can then put onto.

We want to put an MP3 file onto a device

like we used to do with an iPod

but we want it to be a device they can hear out of

without having to pair with Bluetooth

and all that kind of thing, right?

That's in my mind, that's the ultimate.

That's what I think would be kind of perfect.

So straight away on Amazon,

a lot of little like less than $20 speakers come up.

They look like they're going to be absolutely tiny,

tiny little things.

So look, you could buy one of those

and just see how it works

because the problem's always going to be the ease of use.

You know, you're relying on, you know, a carer

or a nurse or someone else at the facility

to press the button or whatever for them.

You can't make it too complex for them, right?

Now, the good news is you might end up with just something

that is you only put one file on it

or if you put two or three files on it,

it always just plays through the three

and they don't get to choose the song or choose the music

but it still would do the job.

But the other brand I want you to look at is Laser,

Aussie company and they make, you know,

affordable electronics normally sold

at places like Big W

and sometimes Harvey Norman and the like

and I know they have a range of products.

They've got a portable boom box.

Now, it's $100.

It looks exactly like an old school cassette boom box, right?

It will play cassettes,

but it also has a micro SD card slot.

And so again, you could save your song onto that memory card

and put it onto the boom box and play it there.

The thing is though, I mean, we're spending money

on every resident here.

It's starting to cost you a bit, right?

How many residents have you made songs for?

At the moment, about 10 out of 160.

Oh, okay. Wow. Wow. Okay.

Yes.

That's going to add up a lot.

Now, here's what I've got an idea.

Why don't I talk to the people at Laser?

Chris and Ronnie Brisket and the team at Laser.

Who make these products and ask them what their simplest

slash most affordable product would be.

Because if it's the $100 unit, fine, but whatever.

And let's get you one and see how it works.

Oh, really?

Because then we know how it works

and if that's going to be viable for you long term.

Because whether it's 10 residents or 100,

the problem will always be the people that need to operate it.

Be it the family member or the carer.

And I think you need to play with that first.

So, if you're okay with that,

I will talk to the team at Laser and I'll ask them

the simple question,

what would be their advice in this situation?

And can we get one for Margaret?

So you can use it, all right?

That would be wonderful.

Try it out anyway.

How are you writing these songs?

You're a musician.

No, no, no.

This is with AI, music AI.

I write all the lyrics.

I put them into a program and it gives me the song.

And now, hang on, I did this years,

it feels like maybe a year ago.

Well, I don't know, but there was a thing called Suno.

Is that the one thing you're using?

Yeah, that's the one I'm using.

But in this case, you're writing the lyrics, are you?

Yes, they're my lyrics.

Right, so you're writing the lyrics

and then you tell it what style of song you want.

Yes, all of that.

I spend half an hour with the resident

and ask them all their life questions

and then I go home and write the song,

come back the next day and I play it for them.

Beautiful.

You know, they get a kick out of it and so do I.

And producer Rob, she sent me a message and a link

to what I assume, because it's called For Trevor,

I assume you've written this for me.

Oh, that's your song, yes, that's your song.

Well, I'll play the whole thing at the end of the show,

but let me play just a little bit of it now, OK?

So hang on, let's have a listen to a little bit of this.

OK.

Well, that's wild. So you wrote these lyrics.

I did last night, yeah.

Listen, how long have you been following or listening to me?

I've always seen you on television for years,

years and years, it goes way back.

Wow.

Yeah, she's always got something interesting on the

today's show for sure.

That's very nice. Well, that's lovely.

I'll play the whole thing at the end of the show

so people can hear the whole song.

OK.

So, all right, we've got a plan,

because that's a lovely thing you're doing for the residents there.

So you just do this in your spare time,

because you're retired, did you say?

I'm retired, I couldn't work anymore because of my health,

but my husband's in the nursing home

and so I spend my day with him,

and then I go home and write.

Oh, wow.

So you spend your day with him,

but you also duck out and see the other residents

at the same time?

Yes, absolutely.

Oh, that's lovely.

I'm a volunteer.

That's so lovely.

And it's lovely that you can spend that time

with your husband as well, which is important.

How many songs have you written for him?

Oh, heaps and heaps.

Couldn't remember.

I've written over 300 songs altogether.

Wow.

So he comes into quite a lot of them.

How did you come across Suno?

Well, I've been writing poetry

and putting it on Facebook,

and I said to my son in law,

one came down from Alice Springs,

and I said, I'd like to hear this song.

And he said, all right, Mum,

and you looked up on Google,

and he said, this is programmed for Suno.

And would you like to try it out?

I said, yeah, why not?

And so that's how I started.

I didn't buy anything.

I did the free membership for a little while,

and then I thought,

now I'm just going to pay the subscription

because then they're my songs.

They don't belong to Suno.

Oh, gotcha.

But now they're mine.

Yeah, so I pay a small subscription every year,

and I can write that many songs.

I can't use up all the credits that I've got.

That's wonderful.

Oh, because I feel like when I tested it out

some while ago,

I paid some money for a credits or something,

and so I could churn out songs.

So is there a different plan that says

you kind of own the rights as well?

Yes, there are three different levels of plan.

Right.

So you can do the freebie,

but the songs don't belong to you.

So if you pay the next subscription up,

they do belong to you.

Then there's a higher one for pro,

which I'm not going to go that far.

But yeah, it's fun just to have a go.

It will write songs for you.

I know there's an option,

but these are all my lyrics.

Yeah, I remembered using it,

and it was like you could give it a theme or an idea,

and it would come up with the lyrics and everything.

So you're essentially using it for half the process.

I noticed in your lyrics,

because now that I'm looking at the one you sent,

there's little prompts there for, you know,

musical chorus and things like that.

Are you putting those prompts in or is that doing that?

Yes, now I have to do all that.

Right, so that you're essentially explaining the song to it.

Yes, you have to get,

otherwise you don't get what you want back.

So how long did it take you to learn,

because that's a really critical learning about AI,

is what you need to give it is more important

than actually the basics.

That's exactly right.

Probably in the last six months,

I've become a lot better at it,

knowing how to put the prompts in and what to say

that I want to get whatever back.

You have to put the right words in,

otherwise it gives you something that's totally off the planet.

And you just have to scrub that song.

But you know, I've got that many credits,

it doesn't matter.

They like to mess you up every now and then.

I'm sure just to use up the credits.

Just to use up some credits.

Yes.

But it's fun, you know,

you can just delete them, it doesn't matter.

Well, I've got 550 credits,

I don't know how many that is.

Oh!

Is that a lot or a little?

Yeah, it's 10 credits when you get two songs.

Oh jeez, okay.

But you've got a lot.

I obviously went crazy in the early days.

You have to start writing.

I'm almost certain that I've since unsubscribed or, you know,

turned it off because I see what happens in my life is

I sign up for everything because I've got to test everything.

And then, and I'm lucky I've got a business.

This is my job and my business.

So it's all a business expense.

But every now and then I go, hey, Trev,

like we should tighten the purse strings here a little bit.

And you just go through the AMX statement and you go,

hang on a minute, $12 a month here, $20 a month there.

And it really does add up.

So.

I know.

Yeah, I can imagine what I did was go give me all the credits

on day one and thought it was amazing.

Well, you might have.

I probably did.

So you must go and have a go.

I might have another play around with it and have some fun.

But well done.

Yes, have some fun.

Thank you for the little song about me.

You're welcome.

Lovely work you're doing for the residents there.

And I hope your husband's doing okay.

And we, producer Rob will reach out and we'll get your address details

and we'll get the people at Laser to get in touch and get you

something to play with and see whether that's going to help.

That's great.

Oh, I'm so excited.

Thank you very much for your time.

No worries at all.

Thanks for the chat.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

No worries at all.

Lovely.

What a lovely thing she's doing.

And you know, it's heartbreaking to have to think about going

and visiting your own partner in a home every single day.

But then she's taken that and she's doing some lovely things

for other people as well.

That's just lovely.

So let's try and help Margaret out as much as we can there.

And the Chris and the boys will absolutely send us something

and we'll see if that's going to be maybe give her some sense

of what might work for the longer term as well.

You're listening to the EFTM podcast.

Tech, cars, lifestyle.

This is the EFTM podcast with Trevor Long.

Lovely to have you company.

And if you have a tech question, please get in touch.

Send me an SMS 0477657657 or you can send a WhatsApp message,

whatever you prefer, and we'll get you on the show.

Try and help you out.

Laurie's on the line.

Good day, Laurie.

Hi, Trevor.

Good morning.

What can I do for you?

Look, I have had problems with my Asus laptop,

which I have owned for about seven years.

And I think it's on its last legs.

It doesn't want to do what I want it to do.

So is it slow or is it running out of battery?

What's happening to it?

Yes, it's slow.

Not only slow, it's the battery.

That is a big problem.

I have to keep it charged to power all day long if I'm using the laptop.

Do you know anything about the model number?

Yes, I do.

It's a 509F, Asus 509F.

Because I did ring Asus at one of their branches, I think,

based at 7Ls.

And the guy said to me, you can get a battery,

but we first have to check it out and this and that and the other.

And I thought by the time he checks it out,

I will have covered a quarter of the cost of getting a new laptop.

And that's the challenge because back in the day,

remember when laptops were like an inch and a half thick

when they first came out,

there was like two clips and the battery would come out

and they actually often came with a second battery

so that you could get through the day.

You're right.

Whereas these days, they're kind of wired in.

So it's not something you can do yourself is the bottom line there.

Do you know how much that laptop cost you back seven years ago?

About seven years.

I paid about 1100, I think.

So it was a decent valued laptop.

And what do you feel like forgetting the current problem?

Do you feel like you got good value out of it over seven years?

I do.

I have to say I did and, you know, I have no regrets

if it's kind of come to its old age.

You know what?

I appreciate your foresight there

because that's what I was getting at, essentially.

I think you're right.

You can replace the battery.

And it may, let's say the battery replacement,

the physical battery is a couple of hundred dollars

and the labor is a couple of hundred dollars.

Let's say you're in for five or 600 dollars, right?

Maybe even a little bit less.

That's half the price of what you paid for it.

And the reason that doesn't sound like a smart move

is because we've come so far with laptops in seven years.

I would argue we've come so far with laptops in two years.

What do you mainly do on the laptop?

What do you use it for?

I'll tell you, because I've retired,

I do mainly my Word documents.

I keep track of my accounts,

which is my payment of bills, bank statements, whatever,

on an Excel spreadsheet.

So I know I have all my paperwork in chronological order.

And of course, just emails that I get from friends and family.

And that's basically what I use it for.

And how big is the screen on it, do you know?

15.6 inches.

So here's the thing,

a modern Asus brand new 15 inch Intel Pentium

256 gigabytes of hard drive space is 800 bucks.

Oh, wow.

For a brand new, and this is a nice big laptop,

it's got a stupid thing to observe,

but it has a number pad on the side of the keyboard

so you can type numbers on the side, you know,

like a proper big screen keyboard.

That would be the cheapest one I'd want you to get

because anything less than that,

there's probably going to be some form of compromise.

Outside of that, there's obviously a lot of money

you could spend a lot of different amounts of money

on a computer these days.

But an interesting observation would be,

in my view, one of the most beautiful laptops on the market today

is the Asus ZenBook A14.

I think in fact, I don't have my magazine near me,

but I'm pretty sure we gave this best laptop of the year last year

in our awards.

Now, it's normally $2,000.

It's currently on sale at JB Hi-Fi at 1,600, 1599.

Now, there's a couple of things about this device.

Big hard drive, very thin, thin and beautiful.

It's only a 14-inch screen, but it's a beautiful OLED screen.

It has this stunning feel to it.

It's got this lovely feeling on the outside.

It doesn't feel like a cheap laptop at all.

And because it has what's called a Qualcomm processor instead of Intel,

the battery on this thing will last 20, maybe 30 hours.

This computer will last you the same.

It'll be a five- or seven-year laptop for you once again.

I have no question about that.

And look, that's an extra investment I hear.

So I'm presenting you two options.

$800 for a lovely...

It's a beautiful... Have a look at these on JB Hi-Fi.

It's a lovely-looking laptop with all the ports and HDMI's

and everything you might need if you needed

a few extra little bells and whistles.

$800, lovely.

But double that, and you are getting what I think...

And I remember my wife is not heavily engaged

in what I do for a job right, but she notices things.

And she was looking at my magazine last year

where I gave this device an award.

And then a few weeks later, she said to me,

oh, my God, Oprah has given this...

Has her best laptop of the year.

Oprah Winfrey people.

So if it's good enough for Oprah,

it's good enough for Ferrari, I reckon.

Yeah, I guess so.

Trevor, one question about the big hard drive you mentioned.

Is it 1TB?

Because this is what I have at the moment.

The ASUS ZenBook A14 that I'm looking at is 512.

How much of the 1TB are you actually using?

I haven't used a lot, because like I said,

I don't need a lot of...

I actually store all my data, my important data

on an external hard drive,

which means if anything happens to the laptop,

I haven't lost everything.

And look, that's why I would...

I'd be amazed if you needed 256.

I'd be amazed.

So if you were able to get the 512,

it'd be a nice balance between what you have now

and what you really need.

And stay in that habit of using

external hard drive for your important documents.

Oh, yeah, I do.

But at the same time, Laurie,

have you got any cloud storage available to you?

No, because I use my hard drive,

so I don't know much about cloud storage.

I have to admit, I'm out of the workforce

for the last 10, 12 years, you know.

Well, I want you to play around.

It sounds like you've got

probably Microsoft 365 for your office.

Yes, I do.

That will come with, I don't know how much,

but it will come with an amount of storage in one drive.

Right, okay.

And I think one drive is a really nice integration

of the cloud, because it appears

in a new computer in Windows 11,

it appears like on the left-hand side of the file explorer,

it just looks like another hard drive.

You remember how back in the day,

we used to have an A drive, a C drive,

and a B drive, and whatever.

These days, you know, they don't really show that,

but it's still there.

But essentially, one drive appears

like it's a hard drive on your computer,

and you drag a file over there,

or you save by default

all of your important spreadsheets and documents

to one drive.

You can still back them up to your external hard drive.

But by default, they're saved in the cloud.

And so if someone stole your laptop

and you got a new one,

you logged into your Microsoft account,

all your files are still there.

Now, tell me something. I do have one drive.

I have absolutely no idea

what it stood for.

It shows up every time I open a Word document.

That's what it is.

Because they want you to default to it.

Look, it's a bit frustrating,

but if you made the decision

that from the time I get my new computer,

I'm going to put my folders.

So in my documents,

I'm assuming you've got folders for different things.

What you do is you store those folders

in your one drive.

And so by default,

when you save a spreadsheet, you go one drive,

you know, family planning, one drive,

Christmas party, whatever, you know.

And it doesn't make

any difference to you on the computer.

But whenever you've got

any connection available, it'll synchronize that

up to the cloud.

And then, hey Presto, you're good to go.

And you'll never lose that file again.

And remember, you can still

sync it to your hard drive,

your little portable hard drive as well.

Yes, yes, that's what I do on a regular basis.

And one last question is

how do I get all my data

transferred from the old

C drive to the new one?

What do I do? Do I have to go

to a particular computer shop

and get it done?

When you say data, what do you mean?

Your documents?

Yes, my documents that are on the C drive.

How do I transfer them across

to the new laptop?

Well, you've got two options. Well, you've got three options.

One, you could take it to someone

and they will do that for you at a price.

Two, you've got yourself an external

hard drive. Just drop them there.

Put them on the external hard drive.

Or use this

as your moment to start

using one drive.

Okay, right, right.

And here's the number one thing for someone that's using

the cloud, because the great thing is your computer's not dead.

So when you buy a new one, you're going to have them

sitting side by side, which is great.

Yes, yes.

So you don't have to panic about losing something.

But if you, just tonight,

this afternoon today, whenever you want,

just create a single folder in one drive

and move a few files

in there, a couple of spreadsheets or whatever you like.

Yes, yes.

And then an hour later, open up the internet

just in a browser

and go to one drive on the internet,

log in and see if you can see those files.

Okay.

Because if you can see those files

via a web browser,

it means they're in the cloud.

And that's all you need to do.

And when you get your new computer,

you just log into your Microsoft account

and it will synchronize all that one drive

onto the new computer for you.

Okay.

So one drive is like another folder.

Exactly.

Except it's another folder,

but it's in a building outside of your home.

Okay, I see.

And I need to create a login

ID to get access to one drive.

No, it's just your Microsoft one.

It's probably already logged in.

It's probably already logged in because

you have

Microsoft 365 and all those things.

So if you go to,

actually, I'm going to guess here,

but I think it's OneDrive.com

because I don't really use it that much myself.

If you go to OneDrive.com,

mine has automatically logged me in as Trevor Long

using my Microsoft account.

And I can see in here

a bunch of files

that I've saved in my OneDrive.

There's some company reports I've done

in different things because I've been using

a Windows computer at the time.

Easy as pie.

It's just another folder,

but it's not on your computer.

Right.

And if for some reason I want to remove

the old hard drive that I have

on the current ASUS laptop,

I can do that, isn't it?

Remove it physically?

Yeah, physically, and then just smash it

up after I've done all the copying

from the C drive

to the external hard drive.

If you've got a screwdriver and pulled

that computer apart with all your nails,

with the greatest

respect, I don't think you'd know which was

the hard drive in there. No, I don't

because you know what happened?

I rang Bunnings one time and they

told me what to do. They literally

sent me a picture and I gave it to

my brother-in-law who got it out for me.

Here's what I'd do.

I'd go to Bunnings.

I'd buy a set of safety glasses

and a pair of safety gloves

and a sledge hammer

and I would have all the fun in the

world on the driveways smashing that laptop.

Oh, good on you.

Well done.

Laurie, if you take that laptop

to your local e-waste recycling

centre, ain't no

one there going to look at the hard drive. Trust me.

Oh, really?

Don't worry about it.

People scare you to death about having

the hard drive seen in all laptops.

Laurie, do you work in the Defence Department?

No, I don't.

Do you work for the State Government?

No, I work for the State Government.

Do you have State Government secrets on that laptop?

No.

No one's looking at you through a window

waiting for you to throw that laptop out.

Trust me.

We do have a lot of recycling

services.

Do the right thing with it.

Send it into e-waste recycling

and if you want to

open it up and try and remove the hard drive yourself.

And it's not that hard if you can locate

which is which. No, it's not.

No, it's not because Burning's actually

sent me a picture step by step.

My brother-in-law's pretty good.

He got it out for me.

Alright, the ASUS ZenBook

A14 would be an absolute cracker if you got it.

Yeah, so the ZenBook

A14, alright.

Enjoy.

If you go now, you'll get it nice and cheap.

Yeah, actually as you said

it's now the end of financial years

so I may shop around.

Good idea. Good on you, Laurie.

Great to hear from you. Cheers.

No worries at all. Lovely to hear from you.

So there you go. We've solved that problem.

I think seven years is a good

number for a Windows laptop

and I do think critically

that point about fixing

that now

gives you access

so changing the battery

gives you access to a seven-year-old laptop

very different to a seven-year-old phone

or five-year-old phone

because we've come so far in the last few years

with laptops. So I think

the current laptop is a much better investment

than the repair.

Tech, cars, lifestyle

this is the EFTM podcast

with Trevor Long.

You can text

Trevor now thanks to Vodafone

on 047

657

657.

Great to have you company. Bruce is on the line.

Good day, Bruce. How are you, Trevor?

I'm really good. What can I do for you?

I have a Google Nest

and smart speakers in my house

and the problem is

my wife says if she's in the bathroom

and something happens, she calls out

I can't hear her downstairs.

So what I'm looking for

is a speaker

preferably a battery powered speaker

to put in the bathroom

so we can broadcast if she needs help

or I need help. Hang on.

So it has to be a smart speaker?

Well any sort of speaker

that can broadcast.

That can broadcast as in a message from

as like an intercom? Yes.

So I mean it's going to have to be a smart speaker.

I can't think of another way of doing it, frankly.

But you're all in on the Google system

are you? Yes.

They used the original

Google Home

which was a funny looking cylindrical thing

with an angled top.

There was aftermarket accessories

that came out for it

that allowed you to put it on a battery.

Yes.

The biggest problem we've got is

are they even selling Google speakers

in Australia anymore?

Well I've got the Google Nest

and the Google smart speakers

but I've had

looked online and I really can't find anything.

That's what worries me.

I mean I've got the system and it's

I can't get another speaker.

Yeah. Honestly

Google's just got this weird thing where they've just

almost abandoned the market. I feel like they're waiting

for the fullness of

technology to hit the speakers so that we get

Gemini with the speakers as opposed to

just

what it is now. We're very

not conversational speaker.

However

I would argue

and I'm almost certain as I Google it right now

yes there are

plenty of products made for Amazon Alexa

speakers.

So I'm just looking now

at what this is. It's a battery

base

because look mate

Amazon Echo speakers are sensational.

Okay.

And here's the great thing. You can have both.

There's nothing. We've got a Google speaker in the

dining room which pretty much only gets

used to set timers while we're

cooking and it's got a really

big clock on it. So when my

wife's aunt who's intellectually disabled is around

she's always like when's lunch and we're like look at the clock

and it's a big digital clock and she can see that it's

not 12 o'clock yet.

But in the lounge room we've got an Alexa speaker

for playing music and things.

So you can have both.

I wasn't aware of that because I've used

my Google Nest for my

broadband

and I didn't know you could mix.

Yep.

100%. So basically

what do you use the Google speakers

for?

Just basically playing music.

There's one in a room where my wife does

yoga. I use that

and I've got

a display downstairs with some photos

on it. Yeah.

That's about it. And a doorbell.

Right. So the only time

it becomes complex having two

is when one can do

something that the other can't. So for example

if you have a set of smart lights that

only one can control. But the good thing is

normally that happens across Apple versus the others

because there's some stuff that's only home kit

compatible or that's not home kit compatible.

But I've never found a product

that isn't both Google and Alexa compatible.

Even a smart light from

Bunnings is normally going to have Google and Alexa

compatibility. It just means you've got to set it up twice.

So if you had a smart light

you can set it up twice. Your

Nest doorbell camera is still going to be

answered through the Nest app

or the Google Home app on your phone

and it's going to show up on that screen in the

house. It's not going to show up on an Alexa screen.

But right now I can already see

that, mate, if you go to Amazon, an Amazon

Echo speaker, they're like under a hundred bucks, right?

Yes. And a quick search

online. I found a company called Mission

which make these battery bases

for Echo speakers

and there's each of them.

There might be in the US, so

I don't know, we need to find a local

option. But I suspect if you spend a little

bit of time on the Amazon

website

you'll find a bunch of

battery options.

OK, great. And that, mate, you just got to set

up one and the great thing is the Amazon

if you bought two

you can do, do they call it

announce? There's a term they use

for it on the Alexa app

and it allows you to speak to the other speaker,

right? OK. And that's all you're doing is

just announcing to the other speaker

what it is you want said and it gets said on air.

Weirdly, I did it on the

today's show, I don't know, eight years ago and I

weirdly saw the segment the other day

come up in a YouTube memory

or something and it was

yeah, it was just a simple demo. I've just

on the phone, I spoke to the

phone and then it came up

and spoke what I said

it transmitted my voice

onto the speaker sitting on the studio. So

very easy to do

great little system

and you can do it from one speaker to another

so you can say, I'm not going to say the

term Alexa, you can say hey to the speaker

and

announce this to the bedroom or announce this to the

bathroom

and it will announce it just to that room.

Great, thank you for your help, I appreciate it.

All right, buddy, anytime, no worries at all.

Thank you. Thanks, mate, cheers.

Yeah, I mean, there's something weird

about, I mean, let's look at the Google Store

Google Store because

it used to be

that they would sell a bunch of products

and you remember that they had, they were

the first smart home here.

Speakers, let's click on speakers.

Nest Mini, you can still buy Nest Mini.

Is this Australia though? Oh, I don't know, it's

actually things were in Australia.

I'm going to change it to

AU

and AU and it still

comes back to GB. So there is a Nest Mini

for $79

dollars.

All of them are out of stock.

Like it's

listed on the website,

but it's out of stock.

That's the biggest tease ever.

All of them, out of stock, the Big Nest

Audio and the Nest Mini, all

out of stock.

Completely useless.

Goodness me.

You can't win with these people.

So yeah, I would, the displays in stock,

let's have a look at that.

Hub Max, out of stock.

Hub

2nd Gen, out of stock.

Google, just

unbelievably out of stock.

Google, next I'm searching

J.B. Hypo now. Nope, no smart speakers.

Isn't that wild?

No smart speakers from Google.

They're just letting Amazon run this country.

And people

like Bruce are just going to go and get

Amazon speakers because they're easy to set up

and done.

Well, good luck to them.

But that's a great solution there for Bruce.

Thank you for listening. Another great

show. And I made a promise there

while talking to Margaret.

We played a bit of the song. We could play the whole song.

Why not? She wrote these lyrics.

Margaret

wrote these lyrics. And what a wonderful

human being she is

for everything she's doing

in that facility, for those

lovely people.

So she's gone to the trouble of writing

this for me. I think we should absolutely play

the whole thing.

So thank you, Margaret, for this. Thank you

for taking the time and thank you to Suno

for putting a sound

to this. And I can tell you, I think

from what I can see here, I'm just

looking at the thing.

Summary. I'm going to copy this

summary so I can read it easier.

It says

her instructions on this.

We're kind of cheating here a bit. We're learning Margaret's

vibe. But her instructions

are follow the instructions.

Free flowing lyrics.

Versus beautiful engaging music.

Medium to slightly upbeat tempo.

Very deep, rich,

smooth, beautiful female voice.

Sing a songwriter with a clear

diction. Love song.

Clicking percussion sounds, breathing

noises, choir, speaking

voice, male vocals, clicking

fermata, vibrato,

classical, epic, American accent

clapping. That's a lot of...

Sorry, those are negatives.

Love song. No

clicking, no percussion sound,

no breathing noises, no choir, no speaking

voice, etc. So there you go.

So you can remove things from its

thought as well. That's very cool.

Knowing that she wrote the lyrics

and what I meant in my conversation

with her is she has these little notes in there

which says intro verse, beautiful engaging

music. Then it says chorus, multiple

female voices singing louder.

Then it says, like it's even got giggling

in where she has the giggling sound.

Then again, chorus, verse, etc.

So and musical outro, fade.

They're the instructions. It's pretty

detailed. So she's learnt

over time how to

essentially manipulate the AI

to give her the result she wants.

So without any further ado,

here is the entire version.

I think it's about four minutes and nine seconds of

For Trevor

written by Margaret

composed by Suno.

So

you

A Song for Trevor? Have a listen to this caller's story!

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