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Thank you for listening. Great to have you company and I'm not going to muck around here.

We've got a lot of calls to get to today. Plus, I want to talk about Alexa. I'll be

going to be careful how to say it because they've got three of the four of the speakers

in my office here and she has a habit of hearing a name very well. Does Amazon smart assistant

and going off and talking and then playing music randomly, which may happen during my

interview shortly with Jackie Corbett, who's the head of country or country manager for

Amazon devices. I met her the other day. Actually, Amazon had some Christmas drinks

in the city and I happened to meet Jackie before our conversation. Do you know what?

Just a passionate lover of Kindle and Amazon devices and not at all the country manager

I expected. Just so passionate about the job and the devices and that's what you want.

That's what you want in your country manager. Someone who just loves what they do and loves

the devices they're there to sell essentially. If you're a Google family, maybe we could

sway you. Maybe we could sway you. But if you're an Amazon family, there's some

cool new products coming out and available soon that you can get your hands on and

Jackie will run us through those. Plus, of course, your calls and most importantly,

we've got to say we've got another three weeks. We're going to do another three

shows if we get enough calls and content before we take a little summer break.

I need to decompress. I need to December 16th or with the last show and then

we'll take a little break until after CES and come back safe and strong

in the new year. I need a couple of weeks to take a break there. Let's be

real. It's been a busy year and that's mainly producer Rob's fault because

he's made me work hard. And I used to just used to just take weeks off.

And now Rob says, no, no, we can we can power through. What a joy.

Anyway, so yeah, three more weeks. So if you've got a tech question leading

up to Christmas, now's the time to ask at EFTM dot com.

Download the EFTM app or send me a text.

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Brad's on the line today, Brad.

Great, well, man, I'm really good.

What can I do for you, buddy?

Thanks. Well, I own I currently own an Aura Smart Ring.

It's a Gen 2 Smart Ring and now the batteries,

a lot of batteries, you know, not performing as was it used to.

And it's not really five years since November 2020.

I guess for a tiny little, we've got to think here for a moment, right?

This is a ring on your finger and the battery must be the tiniest thing we've ever.

Do you know when you open like a, I don't know, a little,

I had a pen the other day that had a torch on the end and I opened it up

and I went, gee, where's the batteries are tiny in this?

But now think about the battery in that ring.

So I guess five years is a pretty good run.

What had you found the Aura ecosystem good?

Yeah, a lot of it and they've just refreshed the apps.

So it's looking even better now.

Right. And so you're going to replace it with another Aura?

Well, I was thinking about this plenty of other options

and just about every in my Instagram, I get all these ads for other rings

and there seems to be so many out there on the market.

And it's about do I pay the extra and stay in the aura?

You can system or go with something else that to get similar, but cheaper.

I struggle with this because I you've been at it five years.

So you're definitely going to lean towards more towards more towards Aura

than anywhere else, I would say.

I tried the Kogan ring as like 150 bucks or 100 bucks.

And I thought it was amazing because it did everything it said on the box.

Now, I did have someone contact me and say, oh, it's blood test

for all health readings or something blood pressure, blood pressure,

blood heart rate were not accurate because they went to a hospital

and they did a test and it didn't show the same numbers.

And I went, look, I've never said it's a medically certified,

bloody thing. But what I look at is I go, it's it's like a step counter.

Two different step counters will measure 9100 steps versus 9100 173.

Is that bad? No, because it's about using the same device every day.

And do I notice a difference?

So is my heart rate elevated because I do something different or not?

You know, that's the way I look at it from a health perspective.

So I would say to you, you could spend a lot less money

and get something simple.

But I would also say, mate, JB Hi-Fi has aura rings at 30 percent off.

So not a bad time to be shopping, brother.

Yeah, I know. I know.

It's just that subscription that I'm worried about 10 bucks a month.

It's a lot like it's crazy, isn't it?

Like, yeah, I know, whereas the other rings don't have it.

And what so what are the measurements you get most from it every day?

What do you look at in terms of health data?

My sleep and I like to look at the heart rate and heart rate

variability is pretty much and then just my readiness score

that's based on your activity and your sleep sort of scores.

So that's kind of the main things that I get from your ring

and mainly sleep. Yeah.

And when you say heart rate and things like that,

is there any medical concerns about your heart rate

or are you just looking for fluctuations and variability?

No concerns, but just that the sort of family history of some sort

of heart attacks on my dad's side.

He was a smoker in that, but just to sort of keep track of track of that.

Yeah. And as it gets an early indication, if something's going wrong, yeah.

Look, the only thing I could suggest if you wanted to like to really

save money, you got to go to the the non brands.

Obviously you got all right.

You got Samsung and then pretty much everything else

is going to be from the same factory in China, I would suggest.

Yes. But, you know, if you could stump it,

maybe just go and grab like the Kogan aura with an A

and wear it wear it on the other hand for for a week or three

and think to yourself, like, yeah, it's different measurement.

Yeah, it reads different sleep.

But is it consistently because they're always going to be different?

One's going to say, except for seven hours and twenty three minutes.

Well, same thing as I said before,

but is it is it noticing that I slept less last night?

And that's all that really matters.

Is it noticing the time to get up?

Correct. Yeah. And I mean, I think the value of the Kogan

is remarkable in that sense, but I also know that you're coming

from a space where you've had reputable and strong data for some time.

So I wonder whether there's a there's a lost leader in that.

Look, throw some money at the Kogan because it's cheap.

And you know, maybe maybe you do it in the in the period of return

and you just say it's not acceptable or whatever.

And you send it back after a week or two, if it's giving you bad measurements.

Yeah, there's, you know, that's probably your best option.

But I do think the kind of understanding of its consistency versus the other,

not its accuracy versus the other, its consistency versus the other.

It's probably the way to go.

You know, thanks. I appreciate that.

But that 30% of J.B. Hi-Fi might just keep me doing the same with Aura.

I know.

And you know, and get someone in the family to throw 120 bucks

at the Aura for the next year's subscription.

Yeah, no, that's good.

I think that might be because I do I do like all the extras that I get

with Aura and just the look of the of the app.

It's such a good app.

Yeah, yeah, good luck with it.

Yeah, I appreciate it.

Do you know much about the Rinkon 2 at all?

No, I haven't seen it.

No, I've only really used the Samsung, the Aura.

What's the other one?

Oh, shit, what's it called?

There's UltraHuman.

UltraHuman, that's it.

UltraHuman, I've seen that one.

Yeah, to be honest, I'd be sticking with a big brand.

Like, if you're going to go there, you might as well stick with Samsung or Aura.

And Aura seems to be where you're at.

So stick with it, bro.

Thanks. Yeah, thanks, mate.

All right, no worries.

Thanks for getting in touch.

Appreciate it, Trevor.

Thanks a lot.

No worries.

Good on you.

Yeah, I mean, that's a funny thing, isn't it?

Sale can get you out of the line and the people at JB,

because I'm doing it today, show segment, yeah, 30% off.

Like, that's an enticing number.

That's an enticing number for a product that you like to be replaced.

And I think five years is a good number for a ring to last.

It's a tiny, tiny thing.

It's frankly remarkable that it lasts that long.

Tech, cars, lifestyle.

This is the EFTM podcast with Trevor Long.

You can text Trev now, thanks to Vodafone on 047 657 657.

Great to have you company.

Get in touch any time.

Sarah's on the line.

Good day, Sarah.

Hi, how are you going?

Really good.

What can I do for you?

I'm just trying to find a little bit of information

if you have any in regards to the retro game consoles.

They're all over the internet at the moment.

And you, like, you say good and bad reviews,

but they also start at $25, but go up to 100 in the 100.

So I'm just wondering.

Here's the tip.

The internet is full of scams and shonky products.

Absolutely no doubt about it.

A lot of them, especially if you're getting them

fed to you on like Instagram or TikTok,

I worry they're scams, right?

Because the basis of them is you

can get anyone in China can build a little box that

looks like a retro gaming console.

And there's these chips that they can put in

that make them kind of show some games.

But what they come with, how they work, what level games

they are, very different problem.

However, there are some really reputable ones, which

are unbelievable.

So for example, there's a really cool Atari system,

which comes with a single joystick remote.

It's like $130.

Well, that's right now, around Black Friday, right?

That's around the money you definitely

would need to be spending.

If it's $20 or $30, it's a hard no for me, right?

Because it's definitely going to be a bit of a G.R.

So what I would look for, I would honestly,

where are you based?

What city are you in?

I'm in Victoria and Melbourne.

I would head on to the Gamesmen online, just gamesmen.com.au.

They have a bunch of, they actually have old consoles,

so actual legit old playstations and things.

But they also have a bunch of retro things.

So like the joysticks, the Atari machine,

when they're available, they're the people that'll have them.

Now, they do come in waves.

So for example, a few years ago, it was the Commodore 64

that they created and re-released.

Then it was the Nintendo.

Now it's the Atari.

So look, I'm more regarding to the handheld ones.

Do you know the handheld ones?

Oh, like Game and Watch style?

Yeah, the old school Game and Watch.

Like the portable.

Like similar looks like they're trying to rip up

off a Game Boy kind of thing,

but it's got like a thousand games on it.

Oh, I know the one.

Yep.

And I've seen those too, yeah.

I have seen those too.

Then my only advice with that is to say to yourself,

look, I need to find, hey, if I click a link

and it goes to some store I've never heard of, avoid.

If I can find it on, say, Amazon

or even Kmart, right, those kind of places,

if I can see reviews next to it, then I'm in a winner.

But it definitely should have a price tag to it.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, don't be...

Yeah, I just didn't know what was like a proper one

or what was like a copied.

Because they were like, do you know what I mean?

Or are they all copied?

I'll put it this way.

They don't make the Game Boy.

There's no official Game Boy re-release, yeah?

No, no, no.

It's more of these people that...

What happened is I think the Game Boy

is now out of copyright license.

So basically people can now take on that design

and sell it themselves.

So that's essentially what's happened there.

But yeah, I'd be worried about where you buy it from

and I'd be looking for reputable reviews.

That's the only advice I could give you at that point.

Because even while the good guys sell it, which shocked me.

Okay, well the good guys do they?

And what do they call it?

They call it the Laser Handheld Retro Console.

So all these companies have got them

but they might just put their logo on it,

like their name on it.

I know the one and I know the company.

So again, see, that's 100 bucks.

That's the money you need to be spending.

It's not $25.

Now, will that have on it?

So I've used the Laser Projector.

There's a really cool gaming projector.

Will it actually have the games that you know

and used to love or think are gonna be on it?

Probably not.

Can you add them to it?

Yes.

Yeah.

Okay, so basically that handheld,

I'm looking at it now, the good guys,

that has 15 retro game emulators built in

is what it says.

If with a bit of...

Is this for you or someone in your life?

No, this is for my nephew.

How old's your nephew?

He is 10.

I don't know if he'll be able to do it.

I'm thinking about my son when he was 10.

I mean, he might have been able to,

but if there's someone in his life with a bit of now,

so what happens with these things?

They have a little memory card or USB slot on them, right?

And you can go online and you can find,

either for free or for a very small amount of money,

a download that gives you like hundreds of games

and then you just store that on it.

Yeah, I remember when my kids were young,

they had the, not the Game Boy,

the Nintendo, it was the Nintendo one.

Yeah, anyway, you could buy one at a chip.

I remember and it had a hundred games.

So this is less about modifying the device

and just put it this way.

Laser can't sell you a device like this

with Tetris on it.

They don't have the license to do that,

but they can sell you a device

that will happily run Tetris.

You just got to get off the internet.

So a little bit of research about how to get those games

and that's a cracking little console,

the retro game console from Laser.

And see, the reason, what I go back to

is that's the good guys.

They're not selling a scam.

All I want is to avoid the scam

but that you buy something for 30 bucks

and you end up in the mail with a tennis ball.

Which can happen.

It's been like, all the apps are selling them too

now that I'm looking, I can't believe

the big companies are selling them.

So, and I'm thinking big companies

might give you a warranty.

Well, look, the Laser one is going to come

with a warranty covered by Australian consumer law.

It's an Aussie company selling it as a retailer.

Just my only caveat to buy the Laser one's also 100 bucks.

Just remember, you're going to need to find

the games online to download for it.

That's the little challenge you've got

with your 10 year old nephew after that.

Yeah, okay, no worries.

Good luck.

Perfect, thank you so much.

I appreciate your help.

My pleasure, any time.

Thanks for getting in touch.

Thank you, have a good day.

Cheers.

Yeah, I mean, so the difference between

the one that Laser is selling at the good guys

and the ones that come up on Instagram is,

when you walk into the good guys,

they've got it sitting there

and you can feel it and touch it and it's real.

But as I said, talking to the guys at Laser

about their projector,

which didn't have a lot of games built in,

it's so easy to get the games,

you just got to do that legwork after the fact.

That's all.

Join the conversation.

Head to eftm.com and click Ask Trev.

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Sean's on the line today, Sean.

A trim, how are you?

Yeah, really good, mate.

What can I do for you?

Whatever I have, a desktop that I use a little bit.

And I'm not even 12 months old,

I've run over just one with everything in the tower.

And did a Windows update a fortnight ago

and it didn't work.

I managed to get on to Microsoft.

There were a few ideas.

I gave them access to the computer remotely

and they ended up deleting Windows

and put another file on there

and told me to load that still in work.

And then they told me I'd have to download a file

on the USB stick and reload it that way,

which I got my son to do for me

and we tried to reload it

and no luck.

And since then, a fortnight ago,

I keep just seeing a call back from Microsoft

and I get nothing.

All I get is they come back

and say they're assigning an agent

and then the next day they say case sorted.

So where's it at right now?

Well, I'm sitting here looking at it now

and it all comes up and says

warning, no operational system found.

Oh, wow, that's bad.

It was a blue screen but for some reason

it's gone to a white box saying that.

Did you, it's a Lenovo you said, yeah?

Yeah, it's a Lenovo.

So look, I don't know the device perfectly well.

You have two options here, okay?

The first option is to call Geeks to you,

get them to come round and take care of it.

Like it's that old adage I say,

listen, if your plumbing was spurt and water everywhere

you wouldn't be ringing around

and waiting for tech support on the phone.

You just call a plumber and they come fix it, right?

So that's what Geeks to you is good at, right?

They'll just come and hopefully fix it

and you'll pay them for the fix.

But the other option in terms of where you go next

if you wanna keep pushing yourself

is I wonder whether the Lenovo has a built-in

system restoration.

Most laptops do and I think most desktops

that are installed like that do as well

if it's the name brand.

How you get to that, I don't know

because you need to do a little bit of research

but the quick search shows me

that there's a Lenovo button menu.

I don't know whether that's in the BIOS.

So basically you need to get,

when you're booting up the computer

there's a button to push basically,

whether it's F8 or F12,

basically you push a button while it's booting up

and it will take you hopefully to a place

where Lenovo actually has stored a copy of Windows

and it will just reinstall it.

And that's your basic hope

is to do it from the Lenovo backup

but I worry that what Microsoft did on the phone

might have been deleting that backup as well.

So that's where we have the biggest fear

I would say in this point.

Right.

So that's the angle I'd be going down

in your next level of kind of search inquiry is a,

so basically don't go for Windows restoration,

go for Lenovo factory reset, Lenovo system recovery.

That's where I want you to be

in the Lenovo system recovery area of the PC

assuming it exists and hopefully

that will give you some lead into restoring Windows.

So would Lenovo have a support system

to talk me through that?

I mean, they might, they should.

I don't know.

I've never dealt with them, unfortunately,

but how old is the PC today?

A year or so?

Not even,

4th of December last year, I've got it.

Definitely.

Look, you should be able to get support.

I would just be Googling to start with.

I'd be Googling Lenovo system restore

and find out what the settings are.

You could even put in your model number.

There'll be help pages on this on their website.

Get as far through it as you can

and then log a request with Lenovo for support.

Okay.

Sorry, I can't help you directly,

but I think you've been taken down a path already

that's changed the basic processes.

And aside from finding Lenovo system restore,

I'd be calling Geeks to you

and having them come on a reinstall windows.

Right.

Well, I might have to do that if they come out here, Trevor.

Save you a lot of body headache in the end, Sean.

Yes, you're probably right.

You're probably right.

But if you're someone that loves to tinker

and get it going, then that might be a fun thing to do,

but it sounds like you're already ready to pull your hair out.

So I'd be taking it easy with my friend.

Working on a farm, Trevor,

I don't get the time to sit in front of it.

Well, that's all the more reason, mate,

to just delegate.

Delegate responsibility.

If you tell Geeks to you,

firstly, you got to check as you say,

do they come to your area?

But if you tell them broadly

that your windows is corrupted and needs to be reinstalled,

that's a pretty, not an easy thing,

but that's a basic thing for a computer IT support to do.

All right.

Sorry, I couldn't help you more directly, Sean.

That's all right, Trevor.

Just before you go, a quick one.

I rang you a few years ago

about getting wireless sensors through our chicken sheds.

Yeah.

And I, in conjunction with the process that we contracted to,

we came up with a crowd out of Eastern Europe called Aronet.

Wow.

And they, I've got a, sitting in my office,

I have their base station

and then through each chicken shed,

the furthest one been about 600 meters away.

We have two temperature sensors,

relative humidity, CO2 and automators,

and these are all done wirelessly.

Perfect.

It comes back and gives you a readout on your computer

and also on your phone.

So at a glance, you can just see what's going on.

At any time of the day or night,

even the other side of the world, Trevor.

That's brilliant.

Well done.

Aronet, is it?

Aronet, yeah.

Very cool.

They are Aronet, too.

There's a solution for every problem, mate.

There is.

So they have a wireless reach of about three Ks.

That's amazing.

I guess it's basic, simple data.

I guess it doesn't need a big bandwidth

or anything like that.

That's probably why.

No, it doesn't.

Nice.

Well, good one.

Well done.

Thanks for updating me.

Thanks very much for your help.

Cheers, mate.

Any time.

Thanks, Trevor.

Thank you.

So not an answer, not a solution,

but it feels like he's been taken down a path

that is a path of almost no return.

So hopefully he can get that one fixed.

The EFTM podcast, thanks to Swan,

home security to connect, detect and protect.

A whole bunch of boxes just arrived

at the EFTM offices for me to review.

And it's smart speakers.

And I luckily do have a few of the same brand here

that I can either replace or, you know,

sit side by side.

We'll work it out, but it's all from Amazoners.

They're kind of a refreshed lineup of smart speakers

and other products that they're launching.

And to talk about that and more, Jackie Corbett,

the country manager for Amazon Devices is on the line today.

Jackie, how are you doing?

Hey, Trevor, how are you?

Great to talk to you.

Really good, thank you.

OK, let's just run through what we've got, what's new,

because I feel like, and you'll correct me

where I'm wrong, and I'm probably wrong,

but I feel like it's been longer

than normal between new Amazon Echo devices.

I feel like we've had some great ones

and maybe that's why they didn't need anything changed,

but now some new devices coming to market.

Well, I must say, I don't know how you found it,

but it was certainly a huge announcement

that we had last month.

I think, you know, it's certainly the biggest

that I can recall and I've been here eight years.

You know, we had news across Ring, Kendall, Fire TV,

Blink, and, you know, across our Echo devices.

So, super exciting from my front.

Like, honestly, on those Echo devices,

I couldn't be more excited.

We launched, sorry, go for it.

Well, I mean, what is it that sets the new devices apart?

So, for example, in our lounge room,

there's a big Echo device.

It's a sphere.

It's like a globe sitting there.

It's a big thing.

What am I going to get if I upgrade?

Is it as much for existing users

as it is just to offer better product to new users?

Well, I must say, I've upgraded in my house, Trevor.

So, you know, don't let me guide you in this,

but there's a couple of really cool things

that I think have launched here

that I'm really excited about.

The first is that, you know,

you've got to redesign audio architecture.

So, these devices, and, you know,

we know that sound and music is really what these devices

get used for on the day-to-day basis,

and what the guys have been able to do

in this space is super exciting.

So, I can run you through some of the details on that,

but don't let me get caught on it for the now.

But I think the new chips, you know,

you heard us talk about it.

We're talking about the most powerful echo devices

that we've ever created.

You've got custom silicon, advanced sensors,

our best microphones and sound.

Personally, you know, they're just beautiful.

Like, they're really, really gorgeous products.

They've got the new 3D niche, which I must admit,

you know, I saw it on a bit of paper,

but when the devices arrived in the office,

we were just blown away.

And so, you know, don't want to sound vain,

but I'm very particular about what I put in my house,

and these are beautiful devices.

You're describing my wife,

but it's remarkable that I'm allowed in the front door.

Hey, it is very important, right?

Like, how, these are part of your home.

You know, tech gadgets is one thing,

but these are part of your home.

And, you know, it's certainly the bar that we hold.

So, you know, they're really, really beautiful.

I mean, personally, the Amethyst purple

is something I've been loving.

And one of my daughters has stolen that for her brain.

But yeah, beautiful devices.

But I think just in terms of performative,

like we're talking something now that has two new chips,

you know, got the AZ3 and the AZ3 Pro.

And these are just miles ahead.

You're talking big improvements in processing power,

in memory, and edge-based computing, you know.

What does that mean for some other?

Like, what does a new chip mean?

Like, if I speak to my,

I've got to be very careful in this office

because I haven't muted you,

but if I speak to the dear,

the dear person named Alex here in my office,

you know, I use Alexa to turn on the lights

and have routines when I come and go

and different things like that.

I might ask what the time is

when I'm not near a clock,

but little things like that.

And I'll obviously ask you to play music.

What does a better processor do for the average Echo user?

Yeah, I think it's about where we're going, Trevor.

I think, you know, the AZ3 Pro is designed

to run multiple AI models at once.

You need talking voice, video images,

and switch between them in real time.

So you're looking at devices that are ready

to unlock these new GenI experiences

that we're seeing coming through.

And I think that is what makes this really exciting.

You're talking about devices that are

much, much more powerful in terms of processing power

that can kind of keep up with demands

that we know that GenI is going to have on them.

So they're like future proofing.

They're getting ready for what can come.

Very much so.

And I think, you know, technology evolves very quickly.

And I think making sure that you've got the hardware

ready to take advantage of that

is something that we're very, very focused on.

There's a thing though, I'm kind of curious about,

and we'll talk about kind of both parts of it here,

but I remember there was an answer

when I feel like earlier this year

or last year about Alexa Plus,

which seemed pretty amazing, but it was America only.

And then there's this conversation about ambient AI.

So obviously, AI is a big deal, right?

But what are we getting today?

And what does the future look like?

Yeah, I'll talk about the future first,

because that's the one that everyone

always gets excited by, right?

But I think what we have now is just truly astonishing.

I'm a massive smart home fan.

I think, you know, I get me in a corner for five seconds

and I'll tell you about all of my smart home in my house

and how it makes my life that little bit easier.

And I think that's what ambient AI is.

Ambient AI is about those kind of experiences

that fade into the background.

It's where, you know, your kinder remembers

what book you were reading.

Your ring camera detects a person when you're not there.

It's all of those experiences

that kind of fade into the background.

So it's there when you need it,

but fades away when you don't.

A great example of it just coming with these devices

is something called the Omnisense platform,

which stands to name,

but essentially means that it's a combination

of a custom sensor platform.

So lots of different sensors within the device

that can really start picking up

when there's someone in the room,

when the temperature changes,

when there's sound in the room,

when there's not sound in the room

and then helps you set up routines

that are based on presence, motion and temperature.

So great one that I have.

We've got lots of kids in our house, adults now,

but they still have the same habits when they're children.

They don't turn off the lights.

They're not paying the electricity bill, Trevor.

So it's probably not a sensitive for them as it is for us.

But one of the things that we have set up is a routine

where if there's no motion in the lounge room to 30 minutes,

the lights will turn off.

Little thing, right?

But that's what this ambient AI is about.

It's about the little things

that just make life a little bit better.

And where we go to,

and this is where the world of Alexa Plus comes in,

is that we start moving into a space

where Alexa will start taking action on your behalf.

So at the moment where we're working with Omnisense

and we're being able to set up routines

and have all of these different sensors

that are so much more advanced than these devices

than we've ever had before.

But Alexa Plus is where it goes to that next level.

It's when you start having a customer system

who is able to take actions on your behalf.

So we think about AI today and we think about ChatGPT

and like people have tried ChatGPT,

they haven't tried it enough

if they haven't installed the app work

and you can literally have a conversation with it.

Is that the future where,

because you know, Alexa is great right now.

I feel like she's able to answer me,

but I also feel like it's a very one-way street.

I'm commanding, you know?

And a lot of people talk about the need to think

and all those kind of things,

but there's no real smarts to it

outside of a bunch of strict commands.

So is generative AI essentially the basis of Alexa Plus?

Is that about having a bit more of a conversation

and having it linked to,

you know, we've already got skills and it's linked to things,

but is it about linking it to even more?

Absolutely.

I mean, Alexa Plus is designed

to be the world's best personal assistant, right?

Instead of that kind of one-way interaction,

it's that generative AI that allows you to go

and have a more conversational tone

and be able to talk to people.

I think one of the things that's really held smart home,

you know, in the state that it is,

like I'm a huge smart home user

and a lot of people use it to turn on and off their lights,

but I could give you 20 routines, Trevor,

that are really awesome

and whenever I tell people about them,

they're really excited.

But you've got to remember what the words are, right?

You've got to Alexa speak.

And this is where Alexa Plus kind of takes that away from you

in two ways.

One, you can just speak to her, you know, in its own way.

You know, my husband has not ever set up a routine

in our house, but with Alexa Plus,

instead of having to know the exact words,

the exact phrase, the name of the light in the lounge room,

he can just say in a conversational tone,

what it is he wants to do, you know,

turn off all the lights in the house when the kids are gone.

And Alexa will set that routine up for them.

So that's the world that we're going to.

And it's super, super exciting.

I mean, I know Australian customers

are just going to be so excited when we get there.

I think, you know, our intention is certainly

to bring Alexa Plus to all of the places

where we have Alexa now

and making sure that we do that in a really measured way

so that we can really preserve the experience

that we have for our customers.

We've got millions of customers that love Alexa.

And we have a real obligation

to make sure we do this in a measured way for them.

But I assume Alexa Plus will require

these newer style devices

because it's going to need that processing power.

It's going to need that modern tech under the hood.

Look, it's certainly the best way to experience.

You know, we know that the best way to experience

Alexa Plus will be on, you know,

a screen device with the best chip,

but we're making it backwards compatible.

So I know that's already been announced in the US.

I think I heard back to 2016,

we launched Alexa Plus here in 2017.

So, you know, very much going to be available

for most customers on their current device,

but obviously the best, you know,

to get the best out of it,

it will be using these new experiences.

For people that aren't in this space yet,

so they've never bought a speaker for whatever reason,

there's three on the market.

There's really only two that are competing

in any great way for the smart home space.

What is your sell to some?

What's your elevator pitch

to someone to choose the Amazon range of products?

Yeah, I've been working on smart home

and devices for a long time, Trevor.

And things haven't changed in terms of the pitch,

which is that we work so hard

to make sure our device can work

with all of the other devices around, you know,

we're trying to work with the,

I don't want to name any of the brands,

but we've done lots of work with TP-Link

and, you know, in Australia particularly,

we've had bundles and things like that.

We work really hard with all of the other brands

to make sure that, you know,

whatever it is that you want to have as a customer,

that it's going to work with Alexa Plus

and I think, sorry, with Alexa and Alexa Plus,

and that's going to continue.

So that's the main, the big thing.

I think, you know, we're really focused.

There's an absolute mandate within our business

to make sure that we are delivering devices

that are brilliant on their own,

but truly magical when working together.

And I think that's where the real benefit

is going to come that you're going to see.

When I, when I met you the other day,

you were extolling the virtues of your Kindle.

You're a Kindle fiend.

You know, e-readers are such a game changer

for people who love books.

Kindle is essentially the default word

for an e-reader these days.

Is Kindle the most successful part

of the Amazon devices business in Australia?

Like is that, is that the sleeper?

Because I feel like it is just, you know,

we don't need to talk about it much anymore

because people just, if they want an e-reader,

they just go by Kindle, right?

But does it still need that drive behind it?

I must say, you can't ask me to pick

between my children, Trevor.

I love them all weekly.

We're all parents.

We all know there's a favorite.

Look, I will say that Kindle is certainly my oldest child.

It's the one that I experienced first as a customer.

Well before I ever arrived in the Amazon world.

It is, it's an amazing product.

I think, you know, that one thing

of distraction pre-reading

is just, you know, it's unbeatable.

And I think customers love Kindle.

And we love bringing Kindle to customer

and continue to innovate in that space.

So, you know, we had a really successful year

bringing Kindle ColorSoft to Australian customers.

And that was just so exciting.

You know, we've had such a great response.

Customers just love that device.

And, you know, it's really exciting

to be able to innovate

on something that I thought was pretty much perfect.

Right?

Like when we took a camping 11 years ago,

it was a really, really great device.

But adding color to it is just, it's that next level.

Yeah, there's a couple of little features

that just really take it to that next level

and customers are loving it.

But we're still seeing it across the entire portfolio.

You know, reading is having a moment, Trevor.

And that is all for the good.

Book talk.

It's helping.

In terms of across the platform, across the devices

is the strength of your business

and growth Amazon.com that are you

or do you have strong buying through traditional retail

as well across the device's portfolio?

Yeah, I think we work where customers are, Trevor.

And I think, you know, making sure that we can, you know,

offer our devices and have people be able to explain

how they work in a JV Hi-Fi, in an Officeworks.

It's super important.

So, yeah, we work where Australian customers are

and make sure that we're offering them, you know,

amazing products that they can have access to

when they want to buy.

Well, I've got a lot of things to unbox

and set up on my Amazon Alexa account.

Like, it's problematic because I'm gonna feel sad

to say goodbye to maybe an old favorite,

but it needs to be replaced with a new.

But I think it'll find a place

in another part of my home, perhaps.

But, and that's the great thing about upgrading, isn't it?

Like, I remember when we changed

some of the devices downstairs,

well, the old devices went into the kids' bedrooms

and then you start to open up the full ecosystem,

especially if you go smart home, right?

Because then the more rooms are covered,

the better the overall smart home experience.

Absolutely.

You know, we went camping on the weekend

and I didn't have my echo device with me

and so now I'm trying to work out

how to put one in my caravan because I didn't realize,

you never realize how incumbent it is in your life

and how reliant you are in this part of your daily routine

until you don't have access to it, so.

I appreciate the brand loyalty there,

but are you camping, okay?

Leave Alexa at home.

It's just a little thing, just a little thing.

You know, I had to know whether,

how long it was going to rain for, Trevor.

Okay, okay.

Well, it's exciting.

I love the new gadgets, I love new products,

so I'll be having some fun with those over the weeks ahead

and we appreciate you joining us

to have a little chat about the world of Amazon devices

and there's lots more behind that

and we might talk again soon.

Awesome, thanks, Trevor.

Thank you.

Be hard of the show.

Thanks to Vodafone,

you can text 0477657657.

Great to have you company

and yes, you can text anytime you like,

0477657657.

Myself, producer Rob will get you on the show,

we'll have a chat and try and help you out.

Gary's on the line today, Gary.

Hi, Trevor.

What can I do for you?

So, I have a question.

I have an iPhone,

sort of been Apple for a number of years,

but I guess I've lost interest in the interface a little bit

and I'm looking at all the available Android phones,

especially the Samsung phones

and very, I just find them a lot more exciting.

Yeah, tell me what it excites you about it.

Well, just the interface,

I think the way the screens scroll,

maybe I'm just sort of looking in a different area

and seeing something different

and getting excited about it.

Can I ask, what do you have?

Do you use an iPhone or do you use an iPhone?

I use them all, but right now I've got an iPhone

because we're only a month or so past iPhone launch.

And to be honest, this is the time of year

where I stick with iPhone

because there's no new Android's coming out.

And then in probably February,

there'll be a new Samsung and I'll switch to Samsung.

So, mate, across the year,

I probably use for more than a week in a time,

I probably use six, seven, eight devices easily.

And I think they're all great.

Like, I don't think there's a bad smartphone out there

if you know what you're getting in for,

even the cheap ones.

And like a couple of weeks ago, I was using a Xiaomi,

which is a new brand coming into Australia.

They've been around for ages globally,

but coming into Australia.

And mate, this is a beautiful phone,

great solid handset, beautiful cameras.

Like, there's just nothing it doesn't do

that you might want it to do.

So what stops you switching

if you've looked at Samsung's already?

There's others out there, what stops you switching?

Okay, so that was what I wanted to talk to you about.

First of all, I've had a look at the Samsung range,

love it.

But when I first started playing around,

a friend of mine had a really old Android phone.

It was a Samsung, gave it to me.

And I started making around.

I started getting into a few issues with iMessage.

And then did a bit of research and found out

I've sort of got to delete the number from Apple.

Yeah, you've got to deactivate iMessage first, yes.

Before you switch.

Yeah.

But I was really seeking some advice for you

whether you saw any disadvantage.

But I think you've sort of explained it.

You're as excited as me about using

all sorts of different phones.

Honestly, as much as people love their ecosystems,

you talk to someone, they go, they're an iPhone user,

I'd never use a Samsung user, I'd never use an iPhone.

It's just, honestly, it's almost silly

because they've all got their advantages.

And you know what, they all have their disadvantages.

There's plenty of things that, you know,

maybe an iPhone could do or should do it.

No, my number one gripe about an iPhone is stupid,

stupid, but every night I'm a bit OCD.

I'm not actually OCD, but I'm a bit OCD with alarms.

Because I don't want to slip in.

I don't want to miss my alarm, right?

So I'll set an alarm for 3.03 a.m., 3.06 a.m. and 3.09 a.m.,

like multiple alarms.

And then I'll put my phone down

and then I'll pick it up again

and check that I set those three alarms.

On an Android phone, when I set an alarm for 3.06 a.m.

and go save, it says alarm set for 12 hours from now

or eight hours from now.

And if you stuff it up

by saying I want this alarm on Wednesdays only

and I turn it on, it'll say alarm set for two days

and three hours from now.

And I'm like, oh, that's not right.

And so it's a really simple thing that Android does

that Apple doesn't, that drives me insane.

And you know what?

I don't know that apart from iMessage and FaceTime,

which are brilliant communications apps and tools

for iPhone to iPhone users.

The fact is that on WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger,

you can do video calls and you can send messages

to any platform.

So that's why I don't actually use the Messages app

on an iPhone very much at all.

I would receive in a day four text messages

and about 40 or 45 WhatsApps.

That's where I live.

I live on WhatsApp.

I use WhatsApp.

Yeah, I use WhatsApp too.

And it's available on Android, so yeah.

Oh no, it's the way to go.

So my biggest advice is, mate, give it time.

You will hate it for days.

You will be frustrated by it.

But everything you do, what I suggest you do is write down

what it was that annoyed you.

Write it down and then work on that thing,

discover how to fix that thing.

And then when you then go to the next thing on the list,

don't try and fix everything at once.

Establish a solution to every problem one at a time.

And I think within two weeks, you're like,

I don't know why I've ever been so loyal

to a company I could switch now easily.

You know, before you do it,

live your life hopefully in the cloud.

So if you've got a Gmail account,

make sure all your contacts are in Gmail.

If they're not, if they're an iCloud,

if you've got a Mac,

try and export those addresses urgently

and put them into Gmail.

With your photos, download the Google Photos app

to your iPhone and set it up immediately

to synchronize your photo library.

So that when you do have an Android phone,

everything's there for you, mate.

When I get an Android phone,

I take it out of the box, I power it up,

I turn it on, I put in my email address and password,

which are my Gmail account.

And within an hour or I've got 12,000 contacts,

I've got 80,000 photos,

they're all available to me on that phone.

Okay.

Yeah, I think you've answered my question.

I've been running parallel with Google Photos

for a long time.

So I have got Apple Photos set up,

but everything syncs to Google.

And I'm using Microsoft for the email.

I like Outlook.

Yeah, sure.

And that works for us.

Outlook app is available on the Samsung

or other Android phones.

And you don't have to use the Outlook app,

you can just use the native mail app as well.

There's no issue there.

I am using the Apple calendar.

And that's only because I sync with my wife and that,

but I think I might be able to sort of do a switch there

with that.

It's hard to export one calendar to another,

but if you start the move now

and use your Google calendar,

and we have a Google calendar,

my wife is 100% on iPhone,

she wouldn't know what Google is,

but she has a Gmail account

and we just created a family calendar on Gmail.

So our shared calendar,

I can look at my calendar right now,

all the red items, their mine,

all the purple items,

they're shared with the EFTM team,

all the yellow items,

they're shared with my wife and family.

It's easy.

She looks at it on the Apple calendar

or she looks at it on the Google calendar?

She looks at it on her Apple calendar,

but I've recently installed the Google calendar

because I think it gives her better information.

So there's not,

because you've got to remember with the Apple calendar app,

either on a Mac or an iPhone,

you don't have to use your iCloud account

or your Apple ID,

you can just use a Google account and it shows up.

So if I open on my Mac here,

I don't know that I've installed it, yes I have.

If I open the calendar app on my Mac or on my iPhone,

it shows me my events for today,

but it's actually showing me a Google calendar.

Right, okay.

Total easy to do.

Trevor, I love your show

and look, I think you've answered my question.

I was trying, when I was thinking about this the other day,

I thought, who the hell am I gonna ask?

Well, I'm glad you came to me.

Thank you.

Mate, let us know how you go.

When you end up having that phone,

let us know what you buy

and after a few weeks,

let's talk about what the experience was like,

the pros and cons.

Okay, we'll do.

Thanks for getting in touch.

Okay, bye-bye.

Good man.

Yeah, I mean, if you're open-eyed to it

or open-minded to it, it's not that hard.

It's really not.

The EFTM podcast, thanks to Swan Buddy 4K,

the doorbell that answers the door for you.

Great to have you company.

You're getting in touch anytime.

Andrew's on the line.

Good day, Andrew.

Good day, Trevor. How are you, my friend?

Yeah, really good, mate.

What can I do for you?

Mate, I have a Samsung A71 Android,

which has been a very reliable phone

for the last number of years.

I use it as

by the Android Auto and a USB cable

in my car for Google Maps

because I like to have the visual display of Maps

as opposed to the Samsung built one.

Now, about the last three weeks,

I have not been able to get Maps to display

on the car's display.

I have tried swapping various USB cords.

I have updated the phone software that's up to date.

The apps are up to date.

I have tried it in my wife's car, not work.

Oh, OK, that's good to know.

My wife has an iPhone.

Now, she tried her iPhone in my car

and it did work.

OK.

So you've done a really good trial and error plan here.

So the daughter's phone, what does it do?

It's in the Android

and hers doesn't work with her car reader.

Oh, did it ever?

Yes, it did.

It did. So we're suspected

it must be in the Android app issue.

So how is hers a similar model phone?

Yes, it is.

Interesting.

So it feels to me like there's probably a software issue

with the A71.

Samsung probably did an update.

You might not have even known it happened.

The challenge is,

mate, going backwards on software is near on impossible.

Very hard to go backwards.

And I don't know how you fix that compatibility

with without rolling back to a previous version of Android.

See, I don't think you mentioned the apps being up

to date and all that kind of stuff.

I don't think it's the apps.

I think it's your version of Android,

the underlying operating system that for some reason

is no longer correctly supporting Android Auto.

And while they may come out with an update at some point,

God, goodness only knows when.

Hmm.

Sounds like it might be a job for a new phone

by the sound of it.

I mean, I hate with a passion saying,

oh, it's not working.

Get a new phone.

That's such a cop out.

However, and the A71 is,

while it's what a four, three, four year old phone,

it's it's the premium end of the A series.

So it's not a it's not the $200 version.

You know, this was not a cheap phone.

However, you know, you've got two courses of action or three.

First one is just check tonight that all the act

don't worry about the apps.

Worry about the Android software.

So go into the Samsung settings

and check for software update.

See if there's been any fixes done at all.

Secondly, you know, a full restart.

Obviously is is is warranted

because I don't want you to, you know,

assume that it's not something just simply

in the operating system that's gone buggy.

So just do a full hard reset of the phone.

You could look into instructions,

which will be online on how to roll back

to a previous version, but trust me,

it's nerdy as all hell and will be very weird.

And I can also represent on your behalf

to the people at Samsung and say,

hey, is there any known issues here with this version?

So what I would ask you to do is go into your settings,

find the version of Android that you're running.

Might be called the version of one UI,

but get a screenshot of that

and send it back to main producer Rob on the text line.

And I'll then talk to our talk to Samsung

and see whether there's any known issues on your behalf.

I will do that.

Thank you very much.

You'll have that text within an hour.

Good man.

Well, I will keep us informed the listener.

Here you go.

Well, thanks for your time.

No worries, buddy.

Anytime.

Yeah, I mean, that's a tough one

because it works and then it doesn't.

Like why?

And it can only see great trial and error explanation there

by Andrew.

He's tried different cables.

He's tried a different phone.

So it's not the car.

It's an isolated thing to two very similar phones

with probably very similar versions of the Android.

So hopefully we'll,

hopefully we can help him out

and get a bit more information from him

to solve that problem.

Or we'll let you know here on the AF10 podcast.

The EFTM podcast, thanks to SWAN,

Home Security to Connect, Detect and Protect.

Thank you very so much for listening.

Been a great show.

Great to have your company.

Great to speak to all those people

and hopefully help some out.

Some not so much, some a little bit more.

You never know your luck with this, with this job.

It's always been the same way with helping people.

Sometimes you can smash out an answer.

Sometimes it's a bit of a stretch.

Sometimes people are willing to work hard for themselves.

Sometimes they're not.

But we try and help as best we can.

So a couple of weeks to go before Christmas.

A couple of episodes to go.

So if you're looking for advice on what to get,

what's cool, what's interesting,

get in touch, send me a text.

047757657 or you can send a WhatsApp,

same number, or you can head to the website,

EFTM.com.

Thanks so much for listening.

Let's do it all again next week, folks,

as we wind down the year.

This is the EFTM podcast.

All the new Amazon devices, plus your tech questions!

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