Handheld gaming revolution and the Cricut craft revolution!

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

break-ins and aggravated burglaries

concern us all but what if you can prevent

those crimes before they happen

SWAN has been a trusted name in security

for over 35 years and their max range

of 4k long range wireless cameras

can help keep an Australian home

safe see Australian homes we've got

different sizes we've got big properties

we've got small properties see unlike

regular wireless cameras these use

a new Wi-Fi technology which is stronger

signal and can transmit through

obstacles like walls and ceilings and trees

they can transmit further with a long

range of up to 600 meters

you can see everything in 4k day and

night prevent crime with AI people

and vehicle detection that triggers sirens,

lights, mobile alerts and more

visit your swan reseller or swan.com

that's swan.com

the max range of 4k it's the

strongest wireless for maximum

home security from swan

you

just what you want

not having to go to the door anymore

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

Handheld gaming revolution and the Cricut craft revolution!

BMW i3

Volkswagen Crafter

About this episode

Original notes