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Handheld gaming revolution and the Cricut craft revolution!
Handheld gaming revolution and the Cricut craft revolution!
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About this episode
Dive into a lively discussion on the latest in handheld gaming with ASUS's ROG Xbox Ally, exploring its portability and power for serious gamers. Then, discover the creative world of Cricut cutting machines, transforming personalized crafting with a passionate community and innovative software. The episode also covers practical tech advice, including troubleshooting PC Wi-Fi issues, smartphone security concerns, and affordable fitness trackers like smartwatches and rings. With engaging guest insights and listener calls, the show blends tech, lifestyle, and creativity in an accessible, informative way.
Topics:
rog xbox ally handheld gaming
cricut cutting machines
personalized crafting
gaming portability
pc wifi troubleshooting
smartphone security
fitness trackers
chromebooks for students
tech advice calls
black friday shopping tips
This week I'm joined by Glenn Rogers, Executive Vice President of Cricut - not the sport, the global crafting phenomenon - what is it, and what can it be used for?
And Bradley Howe from ASUS joins to talk about the stunning ROG Xbox Ally X - a portable gaming device like no other.
Plus your calls on tech questions!
Send me and SMS anytime thanks to Vodafone on 0477 657 657 - all thanks to Swann!
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"initially typically we start off with core crafters who are used to spending hours with their hands a..."
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The EFTM podcast, Talkback Technology.
Got a question about tech?
Trev's here to help.
Not sure what to buy.
Ask Trev.
Australia's number one Talkback Technology podcast.
I was God's mate.
I spoke to you on a Tuesday.
Thursday afternoon, there's this lovely courier man at me back door with a parcel for
me.
Just to thank you so much because whatever your involvement, you truly got some magical
powers and don't ever let us down.
You can trust.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for allowing me.
Great to have you company.
Great to be home too.
A big show coming up.
We've got a few things to talk about.
We've got your calls.
We'll talk Wi-Fi.
We'll talk messaging.
We'll talk smartwatches.
We've got your calls shortly.
Can't wait for that.
Plus, we've got to talk a bit of cricket.
But you know, I love my baseball.
We're not talking sport.
We're talking craft.
So we're going to talk to one of the heavies, one of the bosses of cricket, the global
phenomenon that is taking the crafting world by storm and has been in Australia for
many years.
Something my wife absolutely loves.
Something I love doing as well, but I just don't do it a lot.
But whenever there's a gift in our family, it's personalized.
My wife will personalize it.
She'll cricket it.
And it'll be unbelievable.
So look forward to that chat.
Plus, we're going to talk gaming and PCs with Bradley Howe from ASUS and their recent launch
of the ROG Xbox Ally, a phenomenal device.
So we'll talk to Brad about that and computer gaming and all that and more shortly.
I am home and it's great to be home.
I was thinking about my flighty stats.
And when I say that, I mean that's an app.
So it's an app on your iPhone.
It's not on Android yet weirdly because it's annoying when I travel on Android.
I don't have the benefits of flighty.
First and foremost, it's a record.
So I can tell you that I took 45 flights this year.
I traveled 274,346 kilometers through 12 airports and seven airlines.
And I was in the air for a total flight time of 14 days and eight hours.
What?
6.8 times around the earth I flew in terms of distance.
Almost to the moon, 0.7 times to the moon.
I don't think that's a goal that I have is to make it to the moon.
That 14 days, 344 hours in the air in a bloody metal tube flying at 500 to 800 kilometers an hour.
It's a bit weird to think about, isn't it?
But see the other benefit of flighty, along with stats, by the way,
I think I've been tracking flighty for 10 years.
1.95 million kilometers traveled.
48.7 times around the world.
Well, that's got to be to the moon and back a few times, doesn't it?
Let's look five times to the moon and back.
And that's just in the years I've been tracking.
But the real benefit of flighty is notifications.
You get notifications of gate assignments, aircraft assignments, baggage carriers,
all that stuff far before the airline ever tells you.
So honestly, if you travel, get flighty.
It is such a cool app.
Really, really love it.
It's one of my first installs on a new device when I'm switching around.
So yeah, anyway, I'm home.
We're not officially the last trip of the year because we leave for CES on the 31st of December.
Jacko and I get on a plane 31st of December.
No, beating around the bush.
It was just bloody cheap.
Far cheaper to leave on the 31st than it was to leave the day after.
So I chose to get permission from the wife to leave on our wedding anniversary.
And yeah, we'll head over on the 31st of December.
I think Jacko and I'll be in town for a day before Stig arrives.
We'll head to Dodger Stadium, buy some merch, do our best and enjoy.
But in the meantime, we've got a packed show.
Lots to talk about.
We've got Cricket, Asus and your calls here on the EFTM podcast.
Great to have you company.
And thank you for listening.
Thank you for downloading.
You can get in touch anytime.
Thanks to Vodafone.
Send a text 0477657657.
We'll get you on the show and try and help you out.
Now gaming is, it's a word that can be misconstrued
because some people think of gaming as Candy Crush.
Some people think of it as the enormous PCs that get built.
And when I think of it in my world of motorsport,
I saw a video last night of a guy who had three sim setups,
one for like a two year old, one that looked like mine
and one that was in a separate room that looked like a VH Supercar.
It was the coolest thing I've ever seen.
And I can only imagine the PC that it would have taken to drive that.
But then I think about my kids and it's pretty much console gaming
whether we've got a PC and it gets a bit of everything.
But I gotta tell you, the last couple of weeks has been something very special.
And that is why I have my next guest on Bradley Howe from Asus is on the line.
Brad, good day, mate.
Hey, Trev, how are you?
I'm, well, I'm very lucky man because I have the ROG Xbox Ally X
and I gotta tell you, this thing is phenomenal, phenomenal.
Don't let me do all the talking.
Sell me, sell my listeners the elevator pitch on the ROG Xbox Ally.
Yeah, sure.
It's an amazing device and something that we've very much just recently launched
just brought to market officially a couple of weeks ago.
And in particular, the one that you're fortunate enough to have is the ROG Xbox Ally X.
So that's our top of the range model.
It's the top of the tree basically.
It is something, it's actually our third iteration of the Ally
and Mobile Handle gaming console.
We're finding, based on a lot of the consumer feedback we've had over the years,
we've built this device specifically around that.
And it's exciting to see it in market.
We've had enormous, enormous success with the pre-orders and initial sales.
And we're starting to see the stock finally arriving to reach the market.
Finally arriving to retail is when it's not sold out.
It's been a great start.
And we're really seeing gamers are changing.
Gamers that just typically would always be a laptop or a PC or even a console gamer.
We're finding that just moved and evolved into something that's a lot more mobile.
So the ROG Xbox Ally is ticking the boxes for a lot of people now.
So the big thing about this, as you say, it's not the first,
but this is the first to carry a very important name and logo.
Not only are you able to call it the ROG Xbox,
but you've also, there's an Xbox button on it.
And that's not just something that happens by chance.
That is, I'm assuming something that requires a lot of relationship,
a lot of certification, a lot of testing.
I don't think Microsoft has just thrown that logo around.
No, they definitely not.
And we're fortunate to have some amazing global and then local relationships
with the Microsoft and the Xbox team.
So yeah, we do have the button physically on the device.
So one of the first in the world to have that and bring some new experience
to the consumer as well.
The call out is play all your games anywhere,
but it's also this is an Xbox.
And ultimately we want people to understand that moving from a console
traditional gaming environment into an ROG Xbox ally.
You'll still have that very familiar look and feel.
And then obviously the device itself is actually built around the shape.
The hand grips is built around the shape of an Xbox controller.
It's taken to the next level.
It's a weird one to talk about on the radio,
but this last week I was talking about on the radio and I'd say,
okay, so just imagine in your mind an Xbox controller,
which I think most people can do.
And now cut it in half and put it like a screen in the middle
with a Windows computer behind it.
That's what the ROG Xbox ally is.
And so there's two of them.
Now they're very easy to discern because the ROG Xbox ally is white
and the ally X is black.
I think the ally X is exclusive to JB for a little while as well.
So that's 1600 and 999 for the standard.
What's the broad difference?
Is it really just like performance and power?
How's it how's it differentiated?
The differentiation is basically the whites being our 999 solution.
That's our up to 720p gaming playback.
So it's basically there as a great entry to the market.
But then if you're wanting to be the enthusiast style gamer,
you're going to want the ally X, which is the black model
and currently exclusive in store retail with JB Hi-Fi.
But then also we have it available in our Suzy store as well.
But ultimately that's your 1080p gaming.
That's your pinnacle.
That's your AAA titles.
That's the people that are after the best of the best.
And they're getting it now in a 1599 handheld gaming console.
It was an interesting one for me to set up
because I've used consoles.
I've got a big PC with Steam on it
and you download all your games and that kind of stuff.
The kids have got like Nintendo Switch
and it's a very different style of gaming really.
Your portability of a Switch, which is very,
I just describe it as fun gaming.
It's a much more serious level of gaming
when you want a Windows based gaming system
because of the type of games that are available.
AAA style class.
The first games I installed on ours were Hollow Knight
because my son is a massive fan, my little 14 year old.
I installed Call of Duty because I thought
I needed something that was very iconically AAA.
And then I think I installed City Skyline
as a weird one because I was a massive SimCity fan as a kid.
And so I've always wanted to get into City Skyline
but any time I installed it on either my work PC
or my laptop, my productivity goes down
because it's available to me, right?
So I put it on the ROGX Box, LiX, and mate,
I took it to America.
So much to my son's chagrin
because I left the country with it.
But mate, I played City Skyline on the plane, right?
For hours.
And then I'm sitting in my hotel
and I've become a person that never turns the TV on a hotel anymore
because it's just news is boring, whatever.
So if I'm taking a break from work and I'm just chilling,
I'm playing a computer game in the palm of my hand.
It's quite a phenomenal thing to experience.
I don't know, maybe that's just me,
but I think it's a remarkable step forward in gaming.
Yeah, it really is.
I mean, it's a perfect real world example,
but people are now trying to find new opportunities
to be able to game on the go
and the ROGX Box Ally and the Xbox LiX
give that chance now.
So whether you're a more entry-level gamer,
you'll obviously look for the wide edition of the machine.
But if you're that more premium,
you've got the chance to step up
and you're getting a better solution overall.
But ultimately, if you're on the bus,
you can quickly get an hour or so of gameplay
on the way to work or on the way back home.
And I think that's where people have now really,
they've taken our mobile handheld console to the next level
because they can see the benefit of them in real-world scenarios.
It isn't just playing on your notebook at home
or playing on your standard traditional console.
You've now got the ability to go anywhere and play all your games.
And games are passionate people.
I'm sure your 14-year-old son loves it
and he would have been devastated if you took it away with him.
But people do love to just fill in their time with gameplay.
It's a passion for people
and has been for many years.
And we can see it just evolving even more into the future.
Is there an evolution?
Have you seen through...
Republican gamers is a brand that's been around for a long time
and you've obviously got hardcore PCs
and quite a wide range of them, too.
But have you seen an uptick in the last few years?
I mean, obviously, maybe during COVID
there was an uptick because we're at home.
But in general terms, is there a shift to gaming?
Because I feel like there is.
We had a bit of a peak with some console launches a few years ago
but I feel like just generally
I think people are using gaming as a escape.
It's a escape from the headaches of the day,
the dramas of whatever's going on.
It's just like I'm just going to immerse myself in whatever it is.
And it might be hardcore, but you call it duty.
Or it might be something simple.
Like I actually quite love watching my son play Hollow Knight
because it's seemingly very innocent and simple
and somewhat challenging,
but not enough to be stressful.
It's a great pastime.
Yeah, I completely agree with my son.
It's a big part of his life in just playing on his console
and he has hit me up for an Xbox ally
so I'll have to see what I can do there.
But ultimately it is an escape.
It's something where you can see
they get passionate about what they're playing
and I think the more and more solutions
in this space that we can provide
and obviously as I mentioned,
this is our third iteration of the ROG Ally
and if you think back to the OG
which we like to affectionately call it the OG
the first one we launched a couple of years ago to now
we've made significant change in that time
and it's all based on consumers feedback as well.
We've actually taken some of the little bits
of pieces of information we've taken from social media
we've taken from firsthand feedback
in retail environment as well
talking to people about the device
and you know it would be great if it had this
you know it would be great if it had this
and then that new full screen Xbox experience
is a big part of that feedback as well
so obviously it's been evolving for quite some time
and we're fortunate to have partnered
with the Xbox team on this
and yeah there's definitely more to come in the future
we're a company that innovates
that is in our DNA
we'd love to be different and we'd love to innovate
and I can guarantee there'll be something new again.
Is it tough in your role
because from ASUS perspective
we've got obviously there's enterprise
PCs and laptops
there's consumer PCs and laptops
and then there's gaming
it's quite a wide portfolio
and we've had such a big push
in the last two years really
with you know consumer laptops
they are now so powerful
so much performance
amazing battery life
you know it used to be the kind of things
performance wise that you'd numbers you'd
strive to get from a gaming
laptop for example
but is it a bit important to
let people know that there's still
capabilities that come from
a gaming machine that you won't
really get from you know a modern
AI PC for example because
you've got to be careful of the difference between
corporate performance and AI performance
and gaming performance
yeah I think there's a key
there's a key difference out of there
and also I think you mentioned as well
having a separate device for a separate
purpose can be key from
a productivity point of view as well
but you know we're really fortunate at ASUS
and the product portfolio we have
across our lifestyle range
into gaming you know we really do have a device
that suits every type of consumer
and we've even gone to the point where
we've tried to make some devices look
a little bit less gaming but they still have
that gaming performance built in
because people don't want to go to
a you know corporate boarder meeting
with all their flashing lights and RGB here
and RGB there and sit in front of
the professional community in terms of
the boardroom style environment so
we've sort of I guess cut down
I remember seeing that stealth device at CES
you were like this is the gamer's device
for the corporate boardroom
exactly right so that's the Zephyrus range
in particular but we've extended that now
into the lifestyle range so I think that's
the key and we're very fortunate we do
have you know 5,000 engineers globally
that build us these amazing products
and you know as the years pass
we just seem to be taking it to the next level
making sure there's a solution for everyone
Is that a difficult thing to
you know for an individual
and I often have this conversation with people
who it doesn't matter what the product is I'm reviewing
a mobile phone is a great example to
use a non specific one for you but
people will say oh this phone
is the same as last year and I go yeah
but it's got a slightly better
this slightly better that but they're not selling it
to last year's owner they're selling it to the owner of one
four years ago it's kind of
the same with laptops isn't it it's like
I know that the laptop last year
was amazing I'm not suggesting you need to sell
that and get another one that's not how
even enterprises work you know they
work on three and four and whatever year
cycles the average individual is
probably running a laptop that's five
plus years old
for those people and I guess you would
see this in some way through research
or feedback you get it must
be a dramatic leap that people get
these days when they get a new laptop
whatever sort of laptop
in 2025
yeah and if you're using
a four to five year old PC you're going
to notice a significant change
from something that was in
2020 or 2021
to 2025 and then into 2026 next year
obviously there's evolution
of silicon technology from you know
the likes of Intel AMD
and now Snapdragon with the third
silicon brand in the market but
ultimately people are now having
different conversations to what they used to have
and I think battery life has become
such an important topic to
actually discuss with the consumer
when they're in store and you know
you go into I go into retail stores
often and I listen to the conversations
people have and they're not coming in
saying I need a fast processor
they're coming in saying I need
multi days of battery life or I need
a lightweight machine it's not
just about performance now obviously
that is important and that's
just a I guess guarantee you're
having more performance but
as you move up the stack obviously
in terms of price point you'll get a better
performance in that way lower down the stack
you may have you know may compromise
on a few things but you know making sure
there is a device for everybody is key
and I think ultimately you know
we're seeing a real change in consumers
especially some of the board something
from five years ago today's
experience is significantly different
but also that that conversation
they have seems different as well
there's something completely different
everything we talked about and that's Chromebooks
left of field probably but
I want to give you an anecdotal story
of my experience because
I've known about Chromebooks forever right
and every time I do a segment about laptops
I go can you give me something very affordable
I often end up with a 300 or 500 or 900
dollar Chromebook and it's like
this is cool and it's a great way of saying
to people you don't need to spend whatever
and my kids my
then 13 and 14 year olds now
in my school had windows laptops
and they looked I'll be honest
they got good life out of them early early days
I thought well done you've got multiple years
which is a big deal for kids right with the
way they treat them and everything right
you know one had a broken screen the other one
I think the battery whatever and I said to them
both they both knocked on the door looking for
something very very very in high
demand and I think you can imagine
what kids ask for from their parents
in both phone and laptop space and I said
absolutely not no way in the world
the office and I went I've got a Chromebook here
and I gave it to my daughter she was the first one
to break a laptop and I said here it is
the next day you've got a laptop and many kids
probably have to wait and I said
just trust me use it
and then in the
in the six months since
my son has had the same problem and he's got a
Chromebook both ASUS by the way
and you know what
they're bloody good
and while of course
they wish that they could do X, Y
and Z on it there's no actual need
for those X, Y's and Z's
and this is what I said to parents don't listen to what your kids want
because your kids want something
that isn't what you bought the laptop for
so while I think Harry might want
to play Minecraft but I think he worked out a way to do that
but anyway
it's built into the school ecosystem
I see my daughter now who's in year 9
using websites like
Notion and then Google Classroom and combining
she's using Google's notebook
LM and it's all happening on this device
that was far cheaper than it would have cost
me to replace it with a Windows machine
which when you know
in your heart that she's in year 9
and she's got several more years to go
there's definitely going to be another laptop in my life here
because she's probably going to choose some creative
thing and need more power and performance in year 11 and 12
Mate
shout out to Chromebooks
they're bloody good because these kids are doing everything
they need to do with a Chromebook
I'm super impressed
Yeah same, both of my kids
moved to exactly the same sort of
change from a Windows device
into a Chrome in their
in their high school years
and it was actually just based on the fact that I wanted
them to trial it because
I didn't know that Chrome was here
I knew that Chromebooks, I've sold Chromebooks
for 10 years but ultimately
I'd never used one myself and I'm actually now
using one as a companion device
it hasn't replaced my Windows PC
for me it's a companion
and I was fortunate enough to get a very nice one
so it is a
Chromebook Plus so it's got some amazing features
probably massive overkill for
what I need but the fact that it's just seamless
What are the core features of a Chromebook Plus?
So you've got to have
a much higher spec processor
so Minimum Core i3
and more Core i3
So that's how you get the evolution of it
It's like going from ROG Xbox Alloy to ROG Xbox Allax
Exactly, exactly, you're just moving up
a stack so I was
I'm using a nice premium one at the moment
just finding it to be one as seamless experience
that initial setup
process is just so fast
so fast
and then the fact that I already
use everything on the cloud anyway
the accessibility of what I've got on my main PC
to then use on my Chromebook
when I'm just going between meetings
and things it's all there
and it's a very simple way of using things
and I can just leave my other machine behind
for the purpose of a meeting
or coffee catch up whatever it might be
but there's such a great device
and we do have
quite a broad range in that space now
and it is exactly
like you said, there is a lot of schools
that are just saying you have to buy a Chromebook
like it's not an if or a but
so this is what we
have within our corporate SOE
or environment that we have within the school
buy a Chromebook and the fact we've got a range
is great but
kids are very used to it as well because if they're
potentially an Android user
maybe not as many out there as I'd like to
Harry is, he's got a nothing phone
and he was
clouting the other night to his sister going
look at this face ID on his phone
on the nothing and then boom his laptop's
unlocked he's like you can't do that
you definitely can't
and they're the great features that I think
come to life when people actually get
immersed in the technology
and Harry sounds like a perfect example of it
but maybe dad's got plenty of tech
floating around he gets amongst it as well
which is great. Now before I let you go
we are coming up to probably
the biggest and most important
retail week or fortnight
of the year Black Friday
what are your insider tips
that you can share with us publicly
for people coming up to Black Friday
because everything
everyone I talk to in
both retail and supplies and things
give me the vibe
and maybe they're just hyping it for me this is
going to be epic
I think you might be
you might have the right vibe
we're definitely seeing some
things coming through in the very near future
obviously November is the month
of Black Friday and then obviously kicks
into cyber Monday the Monday
after but there's definitely
significant deals that are going to be out there
I won't give too much away
but we're definitely seeing some
new price points we've never seen before
we're seeing the market
activity and the expectation
from all of our partners
whether it be sort of alliance partners or retailers
they're all saying this will be
the biggest by a long way
so there's a lot of expectation around it
it's boxing day used to be
our big TV
for the year and Black Friday has taken
over that and it's been a number of years now
if you can get your back to school technology
shopping done in November that's not a bad
thing and the same time
some kids will be
putting laptops or gaming
devices
on their Christmas list so
I think it's a really exciting time to be
doing that shopping because
the vibe is very very good
time to shop this Black Friday
and it sounds like it's the same with ASUS
and ROG products so that's very good to hear
mate congratulations on the
Xbox ally it is
a phenomenal device I'm a massive fan
I do
I'm excited
my biggest problem is I just need to understand city skyline
better but once I understand
the game better I feel
like that's going to be my retreat now it's going to be
as you said it's my little retreat
from the real world it's my way of
decompressing
from the day
it's not a bad thing whatever game
you choose to play it's a great thing to do to switch off
from the world let alone the day
that's exactly right it's important
wouldn't for everyone to have a bit of a break I think nowadays
good on you mate great to chat
let's catch up soon thanks Trevor
bye Shadow
you're listening to the EFTM
podcast
you can text
trip now thanks to Vodafone
on 0477
657657
that's all you got to do get in touch
and we will get you on the show Tom's on the line
go Tom
good morning how are you? yeah really good mate
what can I do for you
we spoke last week
on the radio
I had an issue with my computer desktop
mine died because of a power
surge electrical storm
I got a new one through insurance
they posted it to me and
everything worked fine except
I cannot get the wifi to work
and it turns out that
the issue is in the motherboard
because I changed
it to a wifi card
and it works great
it just won't work off the computer
and it's a wifi motherboard
okay so but you've got it working already
on a card or is that card
borrowed
I've got it working on a card
it's great
the motherboard itself
with the wifi installed
it can't even
detect it Trevor it just says
broadband or dial up
no wifi
it sounds like a motherboard designed
for
some sort of ethernet or other connection
not for wifi
but the motherboard
is a B670M
wifi 2
B670M
yeah
Aces B670M
and it's wifi 2
and it's got a wifi aerial
and the connector at the back
and it's got a real tech
real tech PCIe card
it just doesn't want to work
well I mean my question to you
really is what do you want to do
about it because you've got it working
through a third party means
is there something else you want to do
well yeah I've stolen
the PCIe card that's working
out of my wife's computer
and she wants it back
and I could send it back to the
insurance company
but they took six weeks to get it to me
so that means I'm going to be without a computer
for another six weeks
yeah right okay so B for Bob
760M for Mary is that correct
no 670M
670 sorry yeah
B670M
for Mary
and it says wifi 2
so
what brand is the PC did it come to you
as a fully assembled PC or did you build it
they they built it for me
because the insurance company gives you
new for old like for like
right who's that they tried to match
RAC insurance
they built a PC
so
they got a technician company to
build it with
with the same stats as what mine already
had because they replace it like
you know who that company is
yes I do but
like I say if I send it back
to them
I'm going to be without a computer for another two months
have you spoken to them though what do they say
yes I did and they said
you'll just have to send it back there's nothing we can
do for you
they sound like the life of people don't they
okay can I ask you what's why
why a PC why are you
your wife as well why are you using big
tower PC still when we're in such a place
where all in ones or laptops or tablets
what do you get out of having a you know
PCI based PC going on
I do I'm an old guy but I do a lot of gaming
yep yep and
I like the thing I like about desktops
is you can modify them and upgrade them
and do all sorts of stuff throw new
RAM when you need it yeah
yeah well I've got a
change from an 8 gig video card
to a 12 gig and things like that
I can't do that with a laptop I don't know how
absolutely and you know what
you can't that's that's you stuck with what you get
for a long time
I wish I
to upgrade my PC
yeah
well that one's lasted me eight years
until the power surge blew it up
well look I will
I'll talk to ASUS and see whether we can get you
any local support that might
be able to give you software suggestions
that aren't you know take it back to where
you got it from because that's obviously not what you want to do
and we'll see
whether that can give us some advice on
getting that working B for Bob 670
M for Mary
yeah and don't forget the Wi-Fi
2 because there's two versions of the card
right of the motherboard
and it's definitely the Wi-Fi 2
I've got all right let's see
what we can find out it says
it says it's a known problem on the internet
but then it says
it could be by us it could
be drivers
it could be
too many things I can't find the right one
alright mate I'll see what we can do for you on support
all right thank you so much
thanks mate cheers thanks for getting in touch
and we'll see what we can do for you
cheers no worries at all yeah I spoke to Tom
on 6PR on
Thursday last week and
gave us some suggestions and now
isn't that annoying
and it's also fascinating that
he's insured I went to the trouble of getting
a PC made spec for spec
I guess that's what you do right
but I'll talk to ASUS see whether we can get him
some more direct support
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taking your calls if you've got a tech
question get in touch anytime you want
Kim's on the line can I Kim?
Hi Trevor how are you going? Yeah really good
what can I do for you?
I've got a question about
can people hack into your phone
my husband received a text message
from me last weekend
and then he responded with a no so
I called him up and said what's this
he sent me a text message saying
our friends are going to be there soon and I said
I didn't send any message like that
and then when I came the message was gone
the message on his phone was gone
correct yes
that's where I get suspicious
so first and foremost let's be clear
unfortunately it is possible
for scammers to
what we call spoof numbers
so how it works is
they've got technology
they've got computers and SIM cards and stuff
and they can simply type in a phone number
and then they can make calls send
text messages from that number
now in your case
if that was what happened
probably very random although
they did text your husband
which is less random right
so in that instance
what you do is you draw how does that happen
well Optus, Medibank, Qantas
there's a lot of reasons why
they could easily know who you
are married to because two
entries in a database
of scammers with the same
address same surname
well they're going to assume their spouse
right so that's how they make those kind
of assertions they've got a profile
of us all that's how scammers work
they build profiles of us
and they use those profiles to defraud us
of money and information
so let's just assume that's how they did it
in that case they spoofed your number
and they contacted someone directly close to you
in the hope that
you know Ghana some other response
the question is
how did that message disappear
because it's not as your husband got an iPhone
or a Samsung
no he doesn't he's got a Samsung I've got the iPhone
and he goes
he said I did get it like I'll take a screenshot
and send it to you and then when he went back
he did look at it and it was gone
and is he using just the messages app
or what's he using WhatsApp
messages, only messages
see the reason that's even
well actually
I wonder if he could tell
whether it was a text message or an I
message because you're
it would have always come through as a text message
because you're on iPhone and he's on Android
it's always going to be green bubble in that sense
so
Android
SMS I'm just looking at whether or not
it's even possible
to remotely do that for text messages
I don't believe so
so
that's got me in touch worried
like I'm
yeah same with me because I feel like there's
there's been a lot more going on
with somebody like
maybe even
I'm scouting to my security system
that's what I thought at first and now I feel like
my phone's been listened to tapped
yeah that sort of stuff but I don't know how to find out
whether it is or not
this will require both you and your husband
doing this but I think you both
if you're nervous and you rightly
are
I would factory reset both
phones for format
so
delete everything so make
sure your photos and your messages
and your contacts are all backed up wherever they are
in the cloud most likely on Gmail or something
like that and then
yeah on both phones to a factory
reset so on an iPhone it's
a race all content and settings in the
in the settings settings general
reset a race all content
settings on an Android phone
just go to settings and search for factory
reset
and and when you've done
that essentially
take great vigilance around every
app you install and where those apps
come from because on your husband's
phone being Android there is more
likelihood of erroneous
app being installed that might
do some of these things but it also
it's all very very
distant
it's so unlikely but
look I don't know what else has happened
in your world with computers and other
systems we just never know but in terms
of your phones if you've got any nervousness
wipe it wipe it and start again
and be very
cautious about any apps you install
any links you click and install
some internet security software on both phones
go and sign up for a trend micro
internet security and make sure
that's both
phones as well as you
have a trend micro that's
so I'll get him
you get five devices so
I'll hook him up to that
alright so that's the best advice I've got for you today
okay wonderful thank you very much
for that no worries at all let me know how you go
okay thanks Trevor I appreciate that
good luck no worries at all
look
Kim's off the line
and I gotta tell you I feel like there's something else going on there
it's just my vibe
so back in the day
when I worked on the Ray Hadley morning show at 2GB
he got a lot of calls from people
a lot of calls from people
who had a problem or an issue or whatever it was
and my job
is what we call call vetting
so vetting the calls
every call that comes to a radio station doesn't get through
and nor should you think you have the entitlement
that you should get through
because it's about informing and entertaining
okay is that a boring phone call
don't put them through we had simple roles
but one of the things was
if there was some extraordinary story
maybe we need to dig deeper into it
so we wouldn't put you to air until we dug deeper into the story
maybe we'd heard the other side of the story
bunch of questions there
so I think Kim's call
poses more questions than answers
to me
so yeah a lot more to unpack there
I would think that's all I'm going to say
but that's a good start
erase the phone see how you go
great to have you company
and
you can get a touch anytime
just go to the website eftm.com
or send me an sms or a whatsapp
0447
657657
now
I don't know when it was
I feel like it was
maybe five six years ago
I was doing a mother's day
segment on the today show
and good PR friends of mine
sent me a thing
called a cricket and I had no idea what it was
but my mother-in-law said
ooh can I use that
and I still haven't got the machine back
and since then
my wife has gotten
into this machine
and this crafting world
we have
I think two cricket machines at our home
and every birthday every celebration
every time
we're putting together anything that relates to a gift
or an end of season something
my wife's personalising it
whether it's a drink bottle or a specific gift
and it's all thanks to
the cricket, what the heck is a cricket
well let's talk to our next guest which is Glenn Rogers
executive vice president
of cricket internationally joins me on the line
he's in Australia at the moment
what's your elevator pitch how do you describe
what a cricket is
thank you Trevor nice to be here
it's not that easy doing an elevator pitch on cricket
we're a little bit complicated
here we go
we effectively make connected cutting machines
that when
connected to our design space
application
it allows you to design
and then cut out hundreds of different materials
and effectively make
a personalised gift
or a personalised project
which you would typically use for yourself
or give to a loved one so the best way
is to use some examples
so a vinyl decal on a water bottle
and iron on that you would apply to
a t-shirt something like that
so the creation of personalised gifts
that you will give to friends and family
I was looking at your history
you worked at Seagate
my audience would know hard drives
you've worked at Logitech
some of the great accessories
and products for the tech world
could you ever have imagined
that you'd be saying to someone
you'd be talking about a cutting machine
and software based
cutting machine in your career
it's quite an amazing
story
the story of Cricut let alone its growth
over the last 5 or 10 years
it's certainly different
but in many ways it's very similar
we make hardware, we make software
that try and give great experiences
to our consumers
the major difference with Cricut
I would say is the passion for what we do
and the passion of our members
you said your wife and your mother-in-law have gone into Cricut
hopefully they're pretty passionate about what they do
and really Cricut
is building a community
which tech brands struggle to do
a lot of the time
this is a community of as I say
passionate folks who love what they do
and that is very humbling for us
and it's a community that
kind of learn together too don't they
so I remember early on
it was for my mother-in-law
it was about cards
you take cardboard
and you create beautiful
birthday, Christmas whatever sort of cards
because it could not only cut
the cardboard into a shape and design
that was just beautiful but then it could
use a pen in the machine
to draw
either designs or the words on the card
so it is so much more than
just a cutting machine
but people learn from each other
whether it's on a Facebook group
or whether my wife has friends
who each have a Cricut
and she might show them something she's done
and then they go how do you do that
what material did you use
it's quite an amazing learning community isn't it
100%
it's the best marketing
strategy ever
is you produce a beautiful gift for somebody
you give it to that person
and they say how the heck did you make that
and then the explanation begins
and away you go
and as you say it's a positive community
it's pretty rare these days
that our members they help each other
they're there for each other
they explore different possibilities together
and just very grateful to have
that sort of member base on our side
and you mentioned software because it's kind of fascinating
a machine like that
you can't just open up Microsoft Word
and go hit print
it doesn't just print in the same way
you can buy a dot matrix
laser whatever sort of printer you want
they just work
whereas this requires
your software but your software has to be
user friendly
and I would argue
that I can sign off on how user friendly
the cricket design space is because
I don't use it much
but the two or three times I've gone to use it
I've just gone so I want to make a present
for my wife and I want to use it
I'll secretly make a design
and hit print and cut it out
and I've got myself sorted
it's very easy to use
well thank you
it is
and like you said it's not the printing of things
which is fairly straightforward it's the cutting of things
so you need special files in our design platform
to be able to do that
I'm really pleased that you say you found it easy today
it's about to get a lot easier by the way
we know
from research that there are probably
five or six major projects
that people would typically do
that would be and I've mentioned a couple of them
that would be a vinyl decal
an iron on t-shirt
making cards, greeting cards
doing print and cut stickers
and of those four or five or six
major projects people typically do
we're about to really reinvent
the software to hold your hand a lot more
through those projects
so you can either start from scratch
which you might have done to date
with some sort of specific idea in your mind
or you can come into the software
in the very near future and say
I want to make a t-shirt for my mother-in-law
and hold my hand to do that
and we will make it extremely simple
so both options will be there for you
have you thought about the risk
of redesign of software
you know plenty of companies
have done things internally thinking
this is going to be great and the software is going to be better
and more user friendly but in the end
it perhaps backfires
because of the loyal rusted on
oh I think of Sonos, I think it's a great example
of a company that went
to a new extreme with software
and it marginalised their existing community
do you risk that when you redesign
or change anything in your software?
I think we should be good
but that's top of mind forever
I mean we don't want to certainly alienate
the existing member base that we have
which is in the millions
but we want to make the experience as simple
as possible for all of our new members
that will join us in the future
and you can do both like I say
if you've enjoyed one making experience date
you can keep doing that
in the future and you can choose to go down that route as well
How is business?
Because a company or a product
shall I say like Cricket
once it hits a certain threshold
of popularity
you start to gain notoriety
and you also start to find competitors
there's always been competitors in space
but I'm assuming there's been more
and I wonder
how business is as the company grows
through a competitive landscape?
Yeah it's a great question
I mean business is good
we're a relatively young company
particularly in Australia
we landed here about 8 years ago
we grew very nicely
as we started
and then the pandemic came
which obviously wasn't nice for any of us personally
but from a business perspective
it allowed Cricket to really take off
everyone being stuck at home
Cricket was a great way to spend
the hours and enjoy our experience
since then I have to say
it's been tough as it has been
a little bit with some discretionary categories
out there coming off that slight
pandemic hangover if you like
but we're only just getting started
what's great about Cricket
and the fact what's great about Australia in general
is we know Australians are very crafty
from all of the research
that we do if not one of the craftiest
countries in the world quite frankly
and
we've described Cricket on this podcast today
but not every Australian has heard of Cricket
and like I said
we're barely getting started
so our ceiling we believe is a long
long long way away and we hope to bring Cricket
to the masses over the years
how do you view the Australian market
because we sit here
sometimes back in the day
and I'm going back to my childhood
it was we were a second tier
global citizen because
movies would launch in America and then 6 months later
they'd be here when the iPhone
first came out at launch in America and then it came here
months or weeks or whatever later
now we get things
before everyone because of time zones
but we certainly get them on launch day
is Australia a good
test market
are we a different in any way to other
markets you've already mentioned we're crafty
in your sense but how
is Australia viewed as a global market
it's a great market
it's a really great market
it punches above its weight
we like many
tech companies these days we try and do things
globally and are able to
so Australia is not
late for the most part
we haven't used it as a test market either so it hasn't been early
but it's bang on time
craftier than many countries
like I was talking about
we are penetrated
in Australia more than some of our other
developed markets I would say
thanks to the craftiness of the country
thanks to starting here 8 years ago
we just think it's a fantastic market
and we love our members here
we talked a little bit about our thriving
community which astounds us every day
with its positivity and Australia
has no exception to that
the Aussies are there for each other
like you spoke about
they will advise what next projects
to get into, what more fun to have
so it's just a fantastic market for us
do you as a business
and you must talk to different
members of your both executive team
who they are do you look at them and go
are you marvelled
by some of the creations you see
because obviously you don't see what people create
unless they share it and obviously
that sometimes happens
in Facebook groups and the like but
is it often just a wonderful
feeling to see what people have created
that you might not never have imagined
I love that
question Trevor we are marvelled by two things
I would say one is the creativity
of people and just the
the ingenuity of some projects
that they create and two
and maybe even more importantly is
the emotional connections that they create
through those projects
a couple of examples so
one you know a much
beloved grandmother who would have
a family recipe passed through the generations
and the daughter using a cricket
machine would
cut out that recipe
on iron on iron it onto a tea towel
and give that tea towel as a Christmas
present to the granddaughter for example
and we hear
stories like that every single day
we hear that cricket is a great therapy
for people because it's you know it's crafting
it's mindfulness
but it is the personal connections that are
made because I thought of this
I took the time to do it
I'm showing you that I know you through
the personalisation of this project and I'm showing
you that you matter to me that's what we
love about what we do
you know it is creative isn't it
because I look at my wife and we started
out you know just making drink bottles so
when my kids make the baseball
grand final you
I would buy a drink bottle for every kid on the
team and we'd put their name on it and the team name
from that year and so it's this wonderful
memory really and you don't realise
how long a drink bottle lasts we've still got the bloody
things from five years ago in our cupboards you know
it's quite simple in that sense
but then I look at my wife wears
earrings that
she's made using the cricket
how do you even do that and it's like
I know it's like leather or something that she's cut out
it's a combination of all the different
materials stuff of which
I didn't even know you could do is that part
of the problem with cricket in a good way
in that you've got
you could start out and just say it's a vinyl cutter
but actually it's
600 other things and how do you sell
or market those other things
to even existing users
yeah that's a great
question it's
probably an opportunity in the sense that
the machines are so versatile
they can cut so many materials into the hundreds
like you some of the examples
you gave you know even your wife cutting leather
for earrings absolutely
it's a bit of a blessing and a curse
we can confuse people sometimes
with the vast amount of things that you can cut
but what typically happens is
someone will enter through one particular
project type
a great example is I want to do
my own wedding I'll do the invites
the place that things all of that
I come in for that need
and then I discover everything else
and get into the everything else
so yeah then the versatility
comes to life and people
go from there. Do you have data anecdotally
or otherwise about how
the shared experience becomes
the owned experience I'm thinking about
people in our community
who you know maybe came around
to our place
and you know cricketed with my wife
obviously we do the cutting and then they
sit in vinyl together and then you know that
six months later they've got their own machine
we do we know that
it doesn't exactly answer your question but we know
that our single best marketing strategy
like I spoke about is word of mouth
nearly half of our new customers
come from the recommendations from existing
customers which is amazing
for us because it just means people are happy
with their experience and again it is
the giving of those gifts or
meeting around at those cricket making parties
like you described
the community is just so vibrant
and so positive and so optimistic
that it's a bit of a snowball
we say you just got to push the snowball
down the hill a bit if that analogy works
in Australia push the snowball down a bit
and away it goes and that's typically
what we see.
How tough is it building a
product roadmap when
you've already got a great product like honestly
and I talked to your amazing power team
here in Australia and you know there's something new
regularly and I'm like what more
can it do like you know
it is already an amazing
machine what more can it do
and why the
upgrade is it one of those things where you need to
we need to talk to people and make them
realise that in fact you're not
required to upgrade all the time on these things
often the new versions are just for new customers
but it's a very hard
thing when you've got such a great product already
to bring improvements
to market.
Well thank you
we also believe that we have
fantastic machines already but
we never stop I mean we have
designers and engineers who every
single day are thinking about what's next
and trust us there is a lot more that we could do
there is a lot more
that we're thinking about and that will be revealed
in the coming months and years
but yeah we find ourselves at the
intersection between tech and craft
which not many people do
and as a technology company our life
blood is innovation so we will just keep going
and going and bringing just
fantastic new experiences to our members
as much as we can. I'm always
fascinated by big companies
tech companies specifically obviously
and I look I've often said if I could
give it all away because I'm very
lucky I have a great job I get to see amazing
things but I could give it all away for one thing
it would be to work in
let's say the Apple R&D team
for a month and just see how far ahead
their roadmap goes and you get to experience
that cutting edge
innovation sense do you
do you admire and
kind of overwhelm sometimes
by the view that you
get of the future because you're sitting
here you're talking in your mind thinking
these are cool things I can't tell you about
but you know what's coming
it must be amazing to get
that view of what's coming
in the world it's a great unique
position you have
it is cool it is cool I have
to say we're quite privileged to
you know our minds have to live in the future
but our feet have to live in the present
so striking that balance is not
obvious but it is cool what
what's particularly exciting at Cricket
is we know how passionate our
members are and we know
how many people we get to reach because we're
still a relatively small company in the grand
scheme of things although growing fast
and all of that is to come
so that makes my day job just super
exciting and in
terms of the Australian market
you know you had some very
very decent launch partners
and retail partners I know that
spotlight's been a massive massive thing
here in Australia Harvey Norman as well
having that
mainstream retail really
made a difference for Cricket I think because
it could have been seen as a niche
craft store thing but to be
in Harvey Norman to be
a whole aisle essentially in spotlight
really does elevate
the brand let alone the
concept of cutting as a machine
you're right
you're right we have some great partners
that we're very very grateful for and
you know when we talk about who Cricket can
appeal to
initially typically we start off with
core crafters who are used to
spending hours with their hands and making
great things and they you know migrate
to a cutting machine as
next step but really we appeal
to anybody we do a lot of research
we call
our addressable market anybody
that has done a creative
pursuit and we have a list
of about 25 different creative pursuits
and if they've done one of those
in the last month or so
then they'll be right for Cricket
or we think Cricket will be right for them
and that's a large swath of
the population so you know don't
think just core craft is anyone
really who is into the creation
of anything creative and
who would enjoy giving gifts or even making
things for themselves we even have
a tranche of our business
which are we call them prosumers
somewhere between a consumer and a
business prosumers
people who prepare weddings
people who
make cakes and want to do cake toppers with their
cricket machines people who do labels for
their small business so really
that we've only just started like I said
and that distribution that you spoke about helps
us get to many people as we can
can reach a cricket well it's a whole lot
of fun it's
remarkable to me the innovation and the
ideas that just come out of my own home
and both my wife and my mother-in-law
but when you take that to
the global scale and you realise what people
are doing with this thing it's I could
never have foreseen it honestly I
think I probably glossed over it in the early
days but I very quickly
realised what it was and the power of it
and you've also done the same and
you get to travel the world talking about it so
congratulations to the team on
the product and to the local
team here in Australia who are obviously doing
a great job to share
their load and do a great job building it
as a brand here in Australia and really
appreciate your time Glenn
not at all thank you to
you please thank your wife and your mother-in-law
for being into cricket as well and
many thanks to you
you're listening to the EFTM podcast
music
join the conversation
head to eftm.com
and click Ask Trev
music
great to have you company
go for it double seven six five seven six five
seven Chris is on the line can I Chris
good day Trev how you going
yeah really good what can I do for you mate
I'm just inquiring
about smartwatches yeah
I'm in a fitness train
at the moment I just need something to
help me track my steps and a bit more like
health
tracky type of thing basically
what sort of fun have you got
I've got an iPhone 13
okay so you're in the Apple
ecosystem that's a good start have you thought
about or do you have any opinions about
the Apple Watch for example
I've had a look at
Apple Watch's
SE I think it is or the URI or whatever
the base model yep
yeah um but it's
I think it's around 500 isn't it
uh SE so there's a new
SE out it starts at
400
but I would think that's the smaller
version so you're 449 for the
44mm so 449
is probably your starting price for that one so you want
to go a bit cheaper than that
uh yeah I've um I've had a little
bit of a dive into like
smartwatches and once you do that you start
seeing a thousand bucks mate yeah exactly
so what in the mainstream
world because you can get a lot of ads for rubbish
from China so in the mainstream
world you know JV Hi-Fi style
what have you seen or narrowed it down to
um the one
that I keep seeing pop up is a hard
hat one it's a Australian brand
yeah I've seen it yeah yeah I've seen it
and um I was just going to say your thoughts
on that if you've got any opinions on it
I don't because I've seen the ads but I've
not used it my concern
if I'm if I'm to be really brutal
about it is I don't know
who they are where they're getting them from
but they're basically come to a
you know a designer or a factory
that can just produce something a bit more durable
I see that as being for the
the tradie market is that where you work are you a
tradie
I can't I work in manufacturing
so I do use tools and everything
like that but nothing like an actual
proper tradie so
look my only concern is just apps
compatibility the things it can do
so for example what's that worth by
the way the hard hat
it's on sale at moment for $199
so let me
give you one that's cheaper than that
the CMF
if you go to JB Hi-Fi they've got a thing called the
CMF watch which is made
by the people who make the nothing phone
and mate
that comes in a bunch of colors very simple
beautiful elegant design round
round screen
aluminium body you know customizable
watch faces
tracking your heart rate
certainly tracking your steps
I mean in general terms
for $109
$100 it is
ridiculously good value
I've got one actually
I do have one here I've got one with me
I love the look of it now they say
the things got a you know
two week or three month battery life or something
forget that that's rubbish
you know when you're using it like you're using
it you want heart rate you want tracking all that
stuff then it's definitely
it needs longer
so it's going to charge
every day or two
I would go
the watch 3 pro if you could
because it does have a better battery life
at $155
it's a good looking device
like it's good so have a look at the nothing
range at JB Hi-Fi
excellent stuff really good
outside of that
price point
you're not going to probably get a Garmin
or a Sunto or any of those kind of things
but here's the other thing
I'd recommend you look at
and I tried this
Kogan have a ring
like a ring for your finger
called the Aura A-U-R-A
Kogan.com
I think they're about $120 right
and I remember
seeing the Samsung one or something
which is $700
right
so the Kogan Aura
is $139
and mate
it tracks your heart rate
tracks your steps
tracks your blood oxygen level
like it does heaps and it's got a great app
you don't have to have a watch on your hand all the time
you charge it maybe once every
five to six days
honestly dude
it's epic because
you know what
a normal analog watch or no watch at all
but the ring stays on all the time
you can get it in a bunch of different colours
titanium look, a steel look
chrome look
it's $139
honestly if you just want
kind of that fitness
you know tracking and data
big winner
yeah pretty much this one
that for you mate go get that
go get the Kogan Aura
yeah I'll have a look at it
buddy good luck
no worries buddy anytime
awesome see ya
see ya mate anytime
look the smart rings are great but they're very expensive
right but the Kogan one
unbelievable
so well worth a look
helping Australians with tech questions
for over 15 years
the EFT and podcast with travel on
thanks once again for listening great
to have you company appreciate it
we'll be back here next week well will we
I mean producer Rob's on holidays
I don't know who approved that
I certainly bloody well didn't
he did that thing cheeky employees do
but he's not an employee I should be very clear
he's just doing his best
you know when you have you've ever been a manager
and have staff come and say
apply for leave and they've just booked my flights
I'm like you haven't approved the leave
this happened to me very early in my time
SPS I had a one of the admin
team talk about their holidays I'm like
have you applied for that because that's a busy week
for us and they're like no but it's booked I'm like
you can't you can't book before you've
applied for the leave that's insane
it's like this sense of entitlement
so yeah I take it personally Rob
so look if I can
cobble together a show I will
but we may need to wait for him to get back
we may may happen I don't know
it's busy week next week so we'll see what happens I've got a bit on
but we'll get through it rather than regardless
we'll be back soon we'll be
back trust me
we will be back
great to have you company as always and
I look forward to speaking to you again soon if you want to get in touch
you know how I'll go to eftm.com
we'll send me a text
hopeful double seven six five seven six five seven
this is the eftm podcast
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