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I was gobsmacked.

I spoke to you on the Tuesday.

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

All I know is, we've been 24 hours, mate, you had it sorted after five weeks of

hell, raising money.

I'm sure you've been here 24 hours.

I've been here 24 hours.

My text says hell.

Raising Hell.

Thank you.

Join the conversation.

Head to eftm.com and click Ask Trev.

I'm hoping Australians would take questions for over 15 years.

The EFTM podcast with Trev along.

Real Australians.

Real questions.

Every week.

You can text Trev now, thanks to Vodafone on 047657657.

Great to have you company, thank you for listening.

And I look forward to helping you out

with your tech questions if you have one, get in touch.

This is the show where you get to listen to everyone else.

They're not medical health problems, they're tech problems.

And I love learning what's going on in the real world from real people

and, you know, helping out where I can, advising a little bit here and there

and just sharing the knowledge that I have as best I can.

And if you have that same knowledge, then share it with me.

I don't I'm not here just to be the only single source of truth.

There's others who have knowledge.

If you hear someone that I give the wrong advice to, let me know.

Let's just get you on and let's help everyone out with that same information.

We all learn from each other here.

That's the plan. Can you believe it's almost February?

Like, my God, I'm very fortunate this weekend.

I'm heading down to Melbourne for the Men's Australian Open final.

I was invited months ago, like late last year, Mastercard invited me.

And they were like, we'd like you to come.

I'm like, it's months away.

What are you talking about?

And they were like, you need to lock it in.

I'm like, oh, man.

So I have locked it in.

It's out of the ordinary for me because I mean, I watch I watch the tennis.

You know, when it's fascinating, when there's an Australian involved,

I'm always watching, but I've never been to the final.

So looking forward to that and, you know, Mastercard,

obviously doing some pretty cool things in tech and payments.

So I'll probably learn a bit about that all while I'm down there.

A bit of knowledge inside at the same time.

And that means we're also a month away from the formula one.

Yeah, baby, can't wait.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a great exclusive chat with Oscar Piastri.

That's on the Today Show YouTube channel.

If you want to check it out,

I did get a really nice text message from someone about that,

which was lovely and I appreciate the kind words.

So yeah, great to have all those things coming up.

We're still waiting to hear from Samsung about their next event.

We assume that's going to occur in February.

I'm not going to go to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress this year

because essentially it clashes with the formula one.

And I'm more interested in covering the formula one for the Today Show

than one or two mobile phone announcements in Barcelona.

So sorry about that.

Yeah, and then I guess the year's going to really ramp up from then on.

But nothing else major plan.

We've got a lot of electric car vehicles booked to drive

as well as some plug-in hybrids with Stephen and I

with the two-blade story electric cars now in its third year.

Two-blade story tech later this month in February

and late February celebrates 15 years.

So we've been at this a while.

This show even more because this show under many different guises

has been around for a long time.

So we know what we're doing when it comes to podcasting folks.

We're not we're not Johnny Come Lately's.

Anyone can get a podcast mic now, folks.

But how many people are doing talk back on a podcast?

OK, I challenge you that.

That is not a radio show.

So it's a radio show with talk back and it gets podcast different.

This is a exclusively produced talk back podcast for you

only for the podcast listener.

This is not a radio show.

That's it. Simple as that.

By the way, while I speak of radio, we're getting well into the year.

So a lot of the a lot of radio networks are back from from holidays

and the break. So shout out to the triple M network.

You can hear me on triple M, Gipsland, triple M, Griffith, triple M,

Sunrasia, triple M and the Witsonays with Jane Dave, triple M,

Newcastle with Tanya and Steve, triple M, Dubbo with Matho,

triple M, Port Macquarie with Sarge, Patty and Maz, triple M,

Gosford, triple M, Orange with Neil Gill, Robin Carly across WA.

Fraser Coast up at Meribara with Andrew Bland

and across regional WA as well with Michael and Leah

and Mount Gambier as well. So a lot of triple M stations.

Plus we've got Trev tips or tech talk.

I think it's called across every triple M regional station.

So 38 stations across Australia.

You'll hear my my tech talk every Monday and Wednesday.

I think it is you'll hear it.

And well, that's just a recorded little bit that goes out

across all the triple M regional stations.

So if you're if you're listening,

switch your habits to triple M, folks, just because I said so.

It means a lot.

Anyway, lots of calls to get to. So let's get to them.

This is the EFTM podcast.

Great to have your company.

You look forward to helping out with any tech questions you've got.

Sue's on the line.

G'day, Sue.

Hi. How can I help you?

Travelling to Vietnam in a few weeks.

And I was interested to know what your thoughts were on the translator

pods. Well, which ones is the big question?

Because there's a fair few out there that claim that they do it.

Which ones have you been looking at?

I've looked at the Samsung ones for Galaxy, because I have a galaxy.

Perfect. And I think the one that came in above that was Sona something.

So the big question, have you done some research on Samsung

and what languages they support?

I haven't done the languages yet.

That's the most important thing.

You can see Apple, for example, you know, launched with great fanfare,

this new AirPods thing.

But it's only like four languages expanded to a couple more.

But broadly speaking, it's, you know, it's it's not, you know,

widespread in the sense of you might you might want.

But the Samsung, I would say a little bit different

because even without the AirPods or the iPods, the Galaxy Buds,

you can use your phone in a really great way.

So I'm just quickly on the Samsung side.

I'm seeing the Vietnamese listed as a language

that you can download language packs.

I feel pretty comfortable that you'll be able to download that to

what's called the interpreter.

Now, you want to set up your phone.

You know, when you swipe down on your phone

to get up the little control panel with a Wi-Fi button and all that stuff.

Yes, interpreter might not be in there by default.

But if it isn't to customize it and set it in there

so it'll be really easy to launch because the interpreter is what you want.

That's the whole, you know, you see two panels

that splits the screen into two and you can see what's being said

and you can speak and backwards and forwards, etc.

Right. I don't know that you'll get that pure, you know,

wearing an earbud and listening to a whole conversation thing working.

I'd love to hear from you after you've tried it

because it's not something I've tried yet.

I genuinely haven't been to a country yet where they speak another language

that I've had the earbuds or iPods to try.

And I haven't really seen, if I'm honest,

a lot of people online showing it.

So I'm not sure that it's that it's any better.

So what I'm saying is my phone.

Yeah, I mean, the phone.

So what it's fantastic.

You hold it in front of you, you press a button, you speak.

It says in the language that they can read or hear.

I mean, it's basically old school language book.

But in the modern form, it's the simplest way to go.

It also doesn't require you to.

Do you know what you're standing talking to someone and they think,

hang on, how's this person understanding what I'm saying?

And also there's always going to be a delay.

So even if you've got the best earbuds, so Galaxy Buds, they're working,

there is always going to be a second or five delay.

And that is going to create that awkwardness.

So you're better off being the awkward tourist going, here's my phone

and typing what you want and speaking what you want and having it translated.

So yeah, I think you're on a winner.

Samsung do really great stuff with their language packs.

So spend the time now setting up the shortcuts so that it's on your home screen

in the control panel, make sure you've downloaded the language.

Another tip for travelling is maps.

Open up Google Maps and go into the offline mode.

You can actually download hundreds of square kilometres of mapping

so that it's it's on your phone and you're not using data when you're out and about.

Excellent.

Have you got connectivity sorted for when you're on the ground?

Yes, off your website.

A guy did a blog on Simify, I think it is Simify.

Yep. Yeah, that one.

Perfect. Well, yeah, you should look like you're going to have a great time.

How long are you away for?

10 days. 10 days.

Wow, is this your first time to Vietnam?

It is. Yeah.

Are you going with my sister?

Wonderful. What a great little trip.

Well, I know, have an absolutely brilliant time.

Thank you. Stay safe.

Enjoy the food.

Enjoy the people and we look forward to hearing back from you.

I want a full report on the on how you got through with the Galaxy phone.

All right. All right.

Thanks, Trevor.

Good on your safe travels.

OK, time. Bye.

No worries at all.

Well, that sounds like a great trip.

Wonderful stuff.

And yeah, I mean, you know, as much as it doesn't get talked about as much

as I guess Apple does, Samsung have been doing the translation stuff

as a feature, you know, since they launched Galaxy AI

and their interpreter app is, you know, it looks fantastic.

So there's plenty to do there.

And with Galaxy Buds, potentially amazing.

But I hope she gets to try that out.

We'll see. We'll hear from her again once once she's back from that trip.

Join the conversation.

Head to eftm.com and click Ask Trev.

Great to have your company taking your calls.

You can do exactly that or send me an SMS.

Thanks to Vodafone 0477657657.

Peter's online. G'day, Peter.

G'day, Trevor. How are you?

Yeah, really good, mate. What can I do for you?

Well, I'm looking to upgrade my my internet, you know,

there's offers out there now for 500

megabytes a second or whatever.

What do you got now? What are you paying for today?

What am I paying for?

Yeah, what's that?

I've got two two lots.

One's or both is in the 50.

Now, I need to know, why do you have two?

Well, I've got two houses.

That's a whole other house.

That's completely fair.

Then as long as you're getting value from it, wonderful.

And so do you feel like you want for the 500, for example,

or are you just feeling that you're being someone else's got more than you?

Do you want to have better?

No, I probably want a bit more.

Certainly with one of the houses where my son comes, he wants it quicker.

And we've got the opportunity to upgrade the NBN to accommodate it.

Fiber. Yeah, right. OK, that's excellent.

Yeah, so.

All right. Well, what's stopping you, mate?

You got a good internet provider who you with?

Currently with one with Buddy and one with Spintel.

OK, yeah, both got reputable.

I've heard good things about both.

So what's the plan?

Well, I'm wanting to know what, because I don't think the modems these days

were the ones that we had accommodated.

So I'm looking at what modems do you get?

And my place up in Perth is I've got my tune app attached to it.

Now, if I change a modem, what do I have to do?

You know, do I have to do all the settings on the QNAP or what?

So let's deal with the simple things first.

So do you know if both places are fiber to the node at the moment?

Is that the type of technology? Copper line?

No, the one of the places is, you know, it's got fiber all the way through.

And the one down south, which is where I'm at at the moment,

it's just getting upgraded to fiber to the house.

And what is it now, though?

It's copper at the moment.

Right.

So that one, the house down south, you'll need a new modem.

You'll definitely need new gear because the modem you've got now

is essentially like an old dial-up modem.

It's using the copper to make a connection.

You essentially need new gear there.

But the thing is, the gear, what happens,

and you should know this from the place up north,

is there's actually no modem required.

There's a port in your house, and that's the NBN.

And you could literally just plug into it with a computer and you're online.

The reason you get a device like a router

is to distribute Wi-Fi through the home.

So for the place up north in Perth,

I suspect you need to do nothing other than ring your telco

and say, I want faster speeds,

and they'll just give them to you and you'll get them tomorrow.

Like it'll just be instant.

I'm always confident of that.

And worst case scenario, they say it won't kick into the next billing cycle,

but that's ridiculous.

I'd change telcos if that was the case,

because anyone else would pro-rata charge you for the higher speed

and you're not going to be paying much more.

It's probably going to be a few dollars to go to $500.

But you could go to $2,000 if you wanted to at that place.

So that's that place in Perth.

The place down south will need new technology.

So whatever they put into the home, the plug in the wall,

will need something to connect to it to provide Wi-Fi in the home,

and Ethernet if you want it.

So that's where you'd get a mesh system, a Wi-Fi mesh system,

Netgear, Orbi, Google, Wi-Fi, Amazon, Eero.

They're the most popular ones.

I've obviously had a long-term relationship with Netgear,

so they've been wonderful.

I've had great success with their products.

So I'd recommend a Netgear Orbi system.

And the good thing about an Orbi is, for example,

if you get kind of a mid to high range one,

it'll have Ethernet ports on the back of the satellite.

So you put the router next to the NBN,

you put a satellite, two rooms away,

and it's got Ethernet on the back.

So you can actually then plug your TV and stuff into that

to give them a wired connection to your local network,

which is pretty cool.

So at the place down south,

once they've done the fiber upgrade,

I would recommend you get yourself a good mesh Wi-Fi system.

At the place up north,

nothing required other than to call your telco,

and the good news therefore is the QNAP's fine.

Nothing needs to change.

Oh, awesome. Awesome.

Because what happens is a worst-case scenario,

you'll need someone to reboot everything,

like essentially turn it off, turn it back on again,

like you had a blackout.

Do you know what I mean?

Just so that it finds the new speed.

But best-case scenario, they enable it at midnight,

and it just works.

Right.

Oh, okay. That sounds awesome.

No, it works.

Because you get a little bit worried

when you're having to change things.

Oh, for sure.

For sure.

And when you're not that familiar with your QNAP

and all that stuff.

Well, if the QNAP was in the house down south,

there'd be a little bit more work to do,

because you would need to reconfigure it,

because it's going to be different, everything.

But I think you're going to be totally fine up north.

Pity.

All right, thank you.

Well, that's awesome help.

Thank you very much.

No worries, buddy.

No worries. Have a great year.

Okay, so we do.

Cheers, mate. No worries at all.

There you go.

I mean, that's fascinating because you think about it.

The fear for the people have around change

is what effect will it have.

But in fact, the speed change,

if you're on an existing technology

and there's no requirement for them to dig a trench

or pull a cable, the speed change isn't over the phone thing.

They can literally do it pronto, very, very quickly.

So yeah, worth considering that at every step of the way.

Tech, cars, lifestyle.

This is the EFTM podcast with Trevor Long.

You can text Trev now, thanks to Vodafone

on 0477 657 657.

Great happy company.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you for downloading.

Please tell your friends and get in touch

if you need help anytime.

You know the number.

Kim's on the line today, Kim.

How are you, Trev?

Yeah, really good.

What can I do for you?

Just an inquiry.

I'm going overseas later on this year.

And I'm a bit confused with the travel SIM cards.

Right, right.

Okay.

What sort of phone have you got?

iPhone.

What?

How old?

Only about three years old.

Okay.

I think, so where are you going, mate?

Italy.

Okay.

Very cool.

Very, very cool.

Italy for how long?

Three weeks.

Nice.

Lovely trip.

What have you looked at so far?

Well, like, I know I can purchase cards when I get there.

Yep.

But then I know there's a company that I normally use,

which is just a web-based company called Simify.

Yes.

And then, I've just noticed recently,

there's all these new ones on Facebook like Romulus, et cetera.

Stick with what you know, my friend.

Avoid the imposter.

So, there's only two I'd recommend.

Simify.

I've tried.

It works.

Scott tried it recently in, I think he went to Vietnam

or Cambodia or somewhere and it worked well.

And then I use Airolo.

I have an app on my phone called Airolo, A-I-R-A-L-O.

The only reason I'd suggest that is because

if you use the discount code E-F-T-M,

you get 10% off at the checkout.

I make no money from that.

It's just a lovely offer they made

because I talked about them so much.

So, if you want to compare prices between Simify and Airolo,

go for your life.

Often, what I find is some countries,

they'll make available a full range of plans,

so one with data and calls and texts.

And other places, you can only get data sims.

So, just think about what you need and then compare the prices.

I like to Simify for the idea of just picking the country,

picking the time and then off you go.

Airolo is very similar.

You pick your country and then there are multiple options for duration.

Good thing about Europe is,

even if you do step out of Italy, it'll still work.

It all works across Europe, so there's no real issue there.

So, mate, I think the smart move is to stick with what you know,

especially if you're the kind of person

that likes to be planned and prepared and organised.

You can buy it all before you go.

And when you land, you just activate it

and might take half an hour to activate,

but you'll be ready to go.

Don't have to worry about, don't buy at the airport.

They're always going to be a better deal somewhere else.

And you don't have to spend two hours

looking for a mobile phone store and getting a SIM card.

Great.

Mate, so enjoy.

Where abouts in Italy?

We start off in Rome, and from Rome we go to Florence.

Florence to Venice.

Venice to Milan.

Milan to Naples.

Naples to the Amalfi Coast.

Wow.

And you've been to Italy before?

No.

Oh, mate.

What a beautiful, beautiful country.

Steeped in history.

I went first as a kid, like as a 17-year-old,

and I thought it was horrible because I didn't understand

why I'd have all these old buildings.

But I was in Italy three months ago,

and we were with someone who took us on a little tour of Bologna

and took us to a local restaurant that was not busy or popular,

but it was just pure, proper local food.

And they love their food, mate.

They love their food.

They love their history.

It's overwhelming.

My number one advice, especially for Rome,

avoid the tourist areas, you know?

Because you've got to go to the Colosseum,

but ignore all the vendors and things on the street

and just take it in, see what it is,

and then enjoy the walk.

It's a beautiful place to wander around.

There's such a spectacular place, mate.

You've got a good amount of time, mate.

So it sounds like you're going to have a wonderful, wonderful trip.

I should do.

All right, mate.

Enjoy.

All right, thanks, James.

Thanks, mate.

Good on you.

Have a great safe travels.

There you go.

Bit of travel going on.

People, you know, really hitting the air to see the world.

And why wouldn't you?

Why wouldn't you?

Ending, starting in Rome and ending on the Amalfi Coast.

It's a tough life.

Now, Kim, tough life.

We'll hear more travel stories, I'm sure, across the year.

Great to have you company and would love to hear from you.

Download the EFTM app, especially on Android now.

It's just a stunning app on Android.

All the iOS lovers should be jealous

because the Android app is, honestly, I'm so proud of it

and I really appreciate Harry's work on that

over the last few months.

Yeah, it's miles ahead of iOS at this point,

which is a unique and rare thing.

We'll keep going with your calls.

Jeffrey's on the line.

Good day, Jeffrey.

Hello, how are you?

Very well.

What can I do for you?

Well, I wanted to talk to you about full detection and smart watches.

I'm quite old as my wife is getting on a bit.

We're both in our eighties.

We live in a retirement village in South Australia.

And obviously, one of the things everybody has to be conscious of

is having falls.

Now, my wife had no less than three falls

in February-March last year,

two of which ended up being hospitalised.

And I decided when she came out of hospital,

she's fine, by the way.

I decided when she came out of hospital

that she really should have a smart watch with full detection.

For sure.

Looking at all the smart watches that are available from the smart watch

health for people, they're all pretty ugly

and they're really not designed for women.

So I wanted to do it a bit of a cheap way around.

So I bought a secondhand Pixel 1.

Okay.

It worked absolutely perfectly.

But would you believe in November,

I decided that perhaps we should upgrade it

because the Pixel 1 was coming to the end of its life.

So we went off to Harvey Norman

and we talked to the people about watches with full detection

and they immediately said,

well, what sort of watch of you?

What sort of phone have you got?

And she said, I've got a Samsung A55

and they said, well, you really don't want a Pixel 4.

You want a Samsung Watch 8.

Also with full detection,

it's got heart monitoring all the rest of it.

So we bought the Samsung Watch 8.

Later in the day, I decided because I'm nearly 82

that perhaps I should have another watch as well.

But I have a Pixel phone.

So I bought a Pixel 4 watch.

Excellent.

So all went well until about four weeks ago.

My wife had a very nasty fall again

ending up with a night in hospital.

But would you believe her 4 Watch didn't operate?

Nothing happened.

So we checked it and we checked it as you're supposed to check it

by throwing yourself onto the bed and it didn't work.

Does it say that?

Is there actually like a guide that tells you

that's the best way to check it?

Yeah, well, that's what they say is the best way to check them.

By the way, when I was testing my Pixel,

I nearly broke my nose throwing myself onto the bed.

But that's bye-bye.

Anyway, cut along the story short.

We took the watch, the Samsung Watch back to Harvey Norman

and they changed it without any problems.

Well, since that time on Facebook Marketplace,

I've seen a number of Samsung 8 watches

on the market on second hand, all nearly brand new.

And I'm wondering why they're being put on Facebook

when people have just bought them.

One of the reasons might be they're often offered as a gift

with purchase or an incentive for people to buy new phones.

Often Samsung or retailers will offer you a free smartwatch

if you buy the new phone, things like that.

So I wouldn't read into it.

Anything other than some people just already have a watch

and don't want another one, things like that.

I haven't heard widespread reports of issues.

All I would say to you, and you're going to hate this,

is that I've never heard a problem with an Apple Watch.

In fact, I've heard nothing but the most amazing stories

of Apple Watch fall, crash, and every other detection.

Look, I'm not suggesting it's the only path forward,

but for a truly reliable and genuine path forward,

switching to iPhone would mean that you could use an Apple Watch.

It's an expensive switch, though,

because you need a new phone as well as a new watch.

You can't just have an Apple Watch with a Samsung phone,

unfortunately.

Well, that's the problem.

And that's why I've got a Pixel,

because I've got a Pixel phone.

And it is fantastic.

And as best you can tell, the Pixel 4 Watch

is also working effectively.

It's all working correctly.

Now, so is the Samsung.

But, well, we think it is.

But the concern that we have is that when I,

with the first one after my wife had had this fall,

I contacted Samsung on the helpline thing online.

And they said, well, we're going to transfer you to an expert.

Well, the next thing was that I got surely transferred

to the expert and then said, please pay us a dollar.

And we will answer your question.

That absolutely sounds like a scam.

And then it said, for $59 a month,

or whatever it was, $55 or $59,

you can ask any question any time.

And I thought that it was absolutely appalling

that Samsung should be allowing these companies

and their own people.

Are you sure that was through Samsung's own website?

Yes.

So that's all my concern, really.

A, for elderly people who need fall detected,

detecting caveat at all, be very careful what you buy.

Fair enough.

And so that's my story.

Sounds like the advice might be for you

to get your wife a Pixel Watch 4.

Sorry, I didn't hear that.

Somebody's rattling the kettle.

Yeah, well, it's time for coffee.

Perhaps you should get a Pixel Watch 4 for your wife then

and pair that with a Samsung phone.

Yes, well, that's what we had before.

It was very good.

But the new Samsung, the replacement one seems to work

because once again, I threw myself on the bed

and it went off straight away.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, look, the worst part of this honestly, Jeffrey,

is that I'm glad you're able to test it in some way.

That makes me feel a little better.

But I also absolutely worry that anyone

rely on any one technology for anything in this sense

because especially as you get older

and these things become more impactful.

The last fall might have resulted in one night in hospital.

We don't want the next one to be worse.

And we also don't want the watch to fail

at any point in one time.

So, yeah, I just very, very worry about the overall reliance

on that, especially if it's happening commonly.

So, yeah, I mean, regular testing

perhaps is the smartest thing you could do as well.

So it's a fascinating story.

But I'm glad to hear that you were able to shed some light

on what's working for you and what's not.

I'm also very glad to hear the Pixel's working well for you.

You're obviously a fan of that watch.

It works for you overall.

And you like the Pixel environment as the phone as well?

Yes, I do.

I find that sometimes it gets a bit complicated.

One of the things is answering it in time

because it doesn't ring long enough.

But I've had the watch.

I've had the phone for a couple of years now.

So it'll probably be upgraded before very long, I expect.

Well, thank you for sharing your story, Jeffrey.

I appreciate it a lot and much love to your wife.

I hope she's feeling better now.

And I hope it's not another regular occurrence for her.

And you can live long and healthy.

Thank you, Trevor.

My pleasure.

Good on you, Jeffrey.

Thank you.

Yeah, I mean, I'm so torn by that

because I don't want someone to...

I don't know that I could put all my faith in any technology.

And is it wrong that when I think about that,

I think the only one I would put my faith in is Apple?

Like, have I been, you know, brainwashed in that sense?

I've never heard a...

In reality, that's the first time I've heard a bad word

said about Samsung's fall detection as well.

So maybe it was a faulty watch.

It's been replaced and it's been tested now.

So that's the good thing.

But there you go.

Maybe the best learning for all of us from that is test.

The old fall on the bed, eh?

Who to thank?

I wonder how you have to fall.

Do you stand up on the bed and fall?

Do you just fall from the side?

Yeah, interesting to see, you know,

how much you need to fall to trigger the fall detection.

Anyway, thank you, Jeffrey.

This is the EFTM podcast.

Great to have you company and please get in touch.

If you're thinking about anything to do with technology,

I'd love to hear from you anytime.

Shane's on the line today, Shane.

Hi, how are you?

Yeah, real good, mate.

Sorry, I was looking at the list and there's like

three S names in a row.

Oh my God, which one am I talking to?

Shane, what's happening, my man?

Yeah, not much.

Yeah, we're just cruising on working today.

Before we get to what you wanted to talk about,

which is mobile coverage on the East Coast.

When I rang you, you got a call screening happening

and then it went through to your watch.

And you mentioned you had one of those hard hat watches.

I see them advertised on TikTok a lot.

How long you had it for?

What do you think of it?

Yeah, I've had it over a year.

Yeah, it's been pretty good.

Like, it works fine.

It took me a while to get around it

because I'd always had an Apple watch.

Right, so my next question,

you used to have an Apple watch, right?

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And why the change?

Are you a tradie?

Are you brutal to your watches?

Yeah, I'm a delivery driver.

So I'm in it, you know what I mean?

Yeah, but I also found the Apple watch I had.

And it was small.

It looked a bit girly on my wrist.

You got big hands, mate.

Okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.

Yeah, so the only problem I've had with the hard hat

was is the band itself, it seems to come off easy.

But I've ordered a new one of those

and see how I go with that one.

Oh, okay, well, your watch itself is good.

Okay, well, it's funny because, excuse me,

I look at them all and I think,

you know what, in the end,

you know what I use a smart watch for?

I mean, looking at the time

and looking at who's texting me and who's calling me.

I actually don't use many of the other features at all.

In fact, I've been wearing,

because I've got a beautiful tag smart watch,

which I love because it's a tag

and I try to wear it as much as I can

because I spend a lot of money on the bloody thing.

And you know what, it's in airplane mode most of the time.

Because I'm just wearing it as a piece of jewelry

with a customizable screen.

That's literally what I'm wearing it for.

But anyway, that's a good endorsement

of the hard hat, mate.

Well done, so what have you done?

You've been driving, you're on the East Coast,

what prompted you to message me, mate?

We constantly, we drive up to Queensland probably twice a year

and this time we found that our mobile phones

were dropping out a lot.

And the wife was asking me all this and I said,

I don't know, I didn't know how to answer her.

How do you make it up?

I'll just make it up.

And I thought, you know what?

I'm going to ask Trev.

So tell me about the route.

Where are you coming from and to?

So from Central Coast to the Gold Coast.

Yeah, we just found we were dropping out a lot.

And I thought, is it because, you know,

we're driving in and in between towers

and that's the kind of explanation I gave her.

I mean, when you say dropping out,

how are you noticing this?

Are you on a call in its last year streaming?

Are you going to stop?

Yeah, calls drop out.

You'd be listening to say iTunes.

And the songs aren't there

because they're not downloaded onto the phone.

Because we've got no signal, so it won't play any songs.

And the other problem we had too was when I've been on a phone call,

turning into apparently sounding like a robot.

Now, Telco, who are you with?

Telstra.

Yeah, see, that's really interesting.

And you're both with Telstra, obviously.

Yeah, both with Telstra.

How often do you make this trip?

Twice a year.

It's just been, it was pretty bad this year.

We noticed at most trips, but this time it was really noticeable.

You know what I mean?

I mean, look, the number one answer is simply not coverage everywhere.

Or a big country.

Yeah, yeah.

But the second answer is they switched off 3G.

And that was the kind of fallback for everything.

You know, even when you were just a million miles from 5G

or just out of touch of 4G, you just had this 3G sitting there

and it would just still work.

But it's gone now, right?

So that whole chunk of, and the only way I would,

if my wife gave me the time, but she wouldn't describe it is

to say that if you think about tower, a 3G tower reaches a long distance.

A 4G tower doesn't quite reach as far.

A 5G tower reaches even less.

And so you essentially need more towers to cover the same space.

And they simply haven't done that.

And that's because of priorities and cost and a whole range of things.

What I would be most interested in on your next trip

is for one of you to be on Telstra and one of you to be on Vodafone or Optus.

Because between Vodafone and Optus, there's a lot of coverage.

The Optus regional network is quite extreme.

It's nowhere near as deep as Telstra.

But on the highways, I'd be blown away

if you didn't think that they were at least equal on that drive.

And that's when you say to yourself, hang on a minute,

this is the road we drive most.

And if we look at the bars of coverage regularly

and stream on the Optus phone on the way up

and Telstra on the way back or whatever you want to do

to get a bit of a sense of it,

I'd be blown away if you didn't think that it was at least as good,

if not better.

And therefore you start saying to yourself, what am I paying for?

What am I paying for Telstra?

So there's a couple of other things you can do on the phone.

You can set your phone to be only on 4G.

And so it doesn't try and get 5G.

Because it's a simple thing, but there's just not as much 5G, right?

So maybe you want your phone to focus on the 4G network.

But then you leave yourself open to a hole

where there might be a 5G tower and no 4G

and you'll get nothing again.

So if you go into your mobile settings,

there's a few little bits and bobs there

that might be worth looking at,

but made in the end for the best advice.

And I do this before we go.

We're going away on Friday.

I'll just set up our playlist

and I'll download the music

so that we've got music all the way.

Yeah, that's what we did once we got there.

And in the end, you know, it's look,

I'm not going to say it's a first world problem

because obviously it used to be a bit better.

I can say it used to be better

and I think 3G is the loss.

But if we look at the watt, most of the time,

it's people going, well, music dropped out

or your kids are streaming Netflix.

Guys, come on.

We're in the middle of nowhere.

You can't expect everything.

And if you pulled over and sat still,

you'd find the phone call

would probably sit still and work

because it's not having to bounce

on a 10 minute phone call up the highway.

You might pass through three different tower settings.

And so your phone has to negotiate between them

and bounce the call.

That's where the call becomes challenging.

Okay.

I don't know if any of that helps you,

but basically that's rubbish you can tell your wife.

Well, we're looking at swapping after 30 years.

We're looking at swapping telcos.

I mean, look, I only say it because you know what?

I'm not, I'm not bagging Telstra.

Guys, Telstra's amazing.

But in a day where people whinge about the price

of something going up and the eggs are this

and the milk's that,

why are we not having that conversation

about our mobile phones?

My kids are on $150 a year plans

because I'm not paying $70 a month

for a Telstra connection.

You don't have mobile connectivity at your school.

I don't give a rats.

It's not that big a deal.

I want one of us in the family

to have the better of the networks

just to be sure if we were relying on,

if we were doing a lap of the map,

I'd definitely have a stretch across networks.

But my whole family is on the Vodafone network.

My wife and kids are on Kogan.

I'm with Vodafone directly

because I travel internationally in Rome.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, we travel, we drive into regional New South Wales.

It is better now than it ever has been

because of the Optus Roaming Deal,

but it's still not perfect.

And I don't care because, mate,

if I break down in the middle of nowhere

and I need triple zero,

if there's a tower,

my phone will connect

because it will just use Telstra.

I've got an iPhone.

If there's no tower, it'll use satellite.

So for emergencies, I feel safe.

But for streaming Netflix,

Spotify and making calls,

I can wait till I'm in near the next town.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

What do you think about Aussie broadband?

Are they a good company?

Love them as an internet NBN, Telco?

Yeah.

They're just a reseller of,

what are they, reselling the Optus network, I think?

Optus, yeah.

I think so.

Look, all the resellers are great.

I like what I would say is,

find your new network first.

So it doesn't matter which Telco you use,

just find an Optus, a Vodafone, a Telstra to test.

And then once you've done that,

mate, find a 365-day plan

because it's the best way to do it.

If you can pay upfront for your mobile,

you are going to save huge dollars,

huge dollars in the long run.

And that's the way to go.

Yeah, yeah, cool.

All right, buddy.

Safe travels.

Next time it happens,

I want to hear back once you've done your secondary test.

Yeah, for sure.

Thanks, Trev.

All right, buddy.

Thanks, Shane.

All right, see you.

Cheers.

Good to hear from you.

Yeah, I mean, look,

there's money to be saved, folks.

It's really quite simple.

There's money to be saved

if you're willing to switch.

You're listening to the EFTM podcast.

You can text Trev now.

Thanks to Vodafone on 04777657657.

Thanks, Dixie.

Appreciate you being the voice of the show, mate.

The voice of JB Hi-Fi,

the voice of Channel 7,

and the voice of the EFTM podcast.

I mean, it's definitely on his resume, don't you reckon?

I'm pretty sure.

He's probably updated his LinkedIn profile.

The great John Deeks.

I'd love to have you on the show.

Send me an email.

Ask Trev.

Just click on that at EFTM.com.

Use the app or send a text.

John's on the line.

G'day, John.

G'day, Trevor.

Happy New Year to you and your team.

And to you, mate.

We're almost in February.

What can I do for you?

Last week, I sent you an SMS

by definition's short message service.

So I apologise for sending you

the longest SMS in history.

Go for it.

What was it about?

Remind me.

It was to do with LG screen image retention

or screen burn.

Burning, man.

You're an OLED.

I got an OLED.

I jumped into the OLED sort of market in 2018,

but prior to the purchase,

I did a bit of research into screen burn

and they basically said,

you need to leave a static image on the screen

for a week or two straight

without moving for that to happen.

Yeah.

So sure enough, after I go back to,

I bought it in 2018.

Fast forward to 2023

and I'm noticing some foxtel screen image retention.

You know, the logos of foxtel.

I'm noticing that in the top screen

and some other banners and boxes,

this, that and the other.

And sure enough, the warranties run out

by this point, Murphy's Law.

And even worse than that

was the center of the panel started to dim or dark

and that concerned me.

And I fired a sort of email off to LG saying,

look, I may have a faulty panel here

and after sort of lots and lots of correspondence

and talking to different customer service agents

sent all the info they requested,

they sort of declined the offer to replace the panel.

So I'm just wondering from your experience

from your latest trip to America,

do you think LG has improved the game

as far as having inbuilt smarts

to eliminate or avoid this type of problem?

I would say yes.

So the timing is pretty relevant

to what you're talking about too,

which is why I'm glad you give me those numbers.

2018 was certainly not the first year of,

they've been doing it for 13 years now,

but it was still early in the technology on a mass scale.

And I remember very vividly going to Samsung's headquarters

and they were demonstrating their technology

and they had an unnamed brand,

but it was always LG, of course.

And they were literally showing the burn in.

Now, they were just burning one image in for weeks on end,

so they were doing it intentionally.

And that was them trying to prove

that that's why OLED wasn't the great technology.

But LG also knew that.

And so LG were, of course, working on it

because they were worried about it as a technology downside.

So what's been introduced over the many years since

changes in the way the pixels actually illuminate,

the brightness of them,

the technology used to amplify the brightness

so that you still get the same picture,

but the pixels don't need to light up as much.

Because essentially, the brighter the pixel,

the more likely it is to burn because it's organic.

OLED is organic light emitting guide.

It's an organic material by its very nature

going to burn in at some point in some point of its life.

What they're doing now

is managing if that ever happens

or under what circumstance it happens.

And there's a couple of things they've done.

Firstly, and weirdly, I noticed this first

on the Samsung OLED TV.

I was sitting in a...

They often book people like me a hotel room.

They put the TV in there

and I get to stay there for a few hours or the night.

And then the next day,

another journal comes in and looks at it.

We all just share the one hotel room over and over again

and we watch this TV.

I had the kids at this hotel

and I was watching this TV

and I took a photo.

And then about an hour later,

I took a photo again and I went,

you know what?

The picture on the TV is offset.

It's a little bit to the right.

As if to say the border on the left

was bigger than the border on the right.

Now, I mentioned it.

It was by a millimetre or so.

But my eyes noticed that it was not fully centred.

So I said, guys, there's a problem with this thing.

This TV is faulty.

What's going on here?

Samsung came back going, no, no, no.

That's a thing called Pixel Shift Technology.

And I've since investigated this on Kogan OLED TVs.

And I've got Kogan OLED TVs here in our studio,

which are 77-inch OLEDs

and they are constantly playing very similar images

for hours on end

because they're just the background to our podcast.

And it also has Pixel Shift Technology built into it.

And LG, of course, have the same.

And so what that does is it essentially,

without you seeing it,

it moves the picture across by a millimetre or two

or up or down and left and right.

You don't notice it,

but it essentially moves the pixels around

so that it doesn't have the opportunity to burn in.

And now...

Is that like the old screensaver technology

on a computer screen?

Almost, except because you're watching television,

it's moving a live picture just over by...

So if I'm watching the tennis,

when the swipe comes across the screen

and they change to another angle,

it might Pixel Shift by a half a millimetre

and then all the pixels are refreshed.

They haven't stayed on all that time.

Look, I would say to you,

I don't believe it stops burning,

but I believe it prolongs

the life of the TV before burning.

Now, seven years is a great amount of time for a television.

I'll say that to you very clearly.

These days, five to seven years is a good number.

I'm lucky I've got bloody 13 years out of one of my TVs.

Yeah, well, I've got a 2011 Samsung

and it's going great.

You know what, I was thinking in the...

I was sitting in the kids' playroom the other day

and there's a 65-inch Samsung on the wall there,

which has got to be now 10 years old.

Now, we don't watch it every day.

It doesn't get a workout, so that's probably helping it.

But you know what?

I think we're getting more life out of TVs these days.

How big is the OLED? What size?

It's the 65C series.

C series. So it was their mid-range,

so it's not like you didn't skimp on the...

and got the cheapest one.

And look, to be honest,

it wasn't the most expensive one at the time either, but...

No, I think G was the top of the line.

And look, here's the thing, John.

I'm happy if you send me an email

with your previous correspondence with LG

and maybe a customer reference number or something.

I'm happy to ask the question of them.

But I think we both go into it going,

you have got seven good years out of that TV.

True. True.

But the only argument I would make

is that you invested more heavily seven years ago

than anyone else because you went OLED.

And so just for the...

Not because of the burning,

but because of that potential darkness on the screen.

That's why it's worth asking the question.

Just one more time.

All right, so we'll do that on your behalf.

I'll get you my email address.

I'll get producer Rob to send you my email address

so you can send that over.

And look, just basically,

I need an email from you that I can forward on.

Yeah? So it's a quick two-paragraph summary of the problem.

Any attached documentation, photos,

and the customer reference number of any communication

you've had with them, like complaint number

or reference number,

so they can look it up in the system.

And look, they're going to say yes or no.

They're as simple as that. Okay.

And then the great news is,

I would say to you this in the overall scheme of things,

what you've got now is a 65-inch TV

that's perfect for the man cave

or the bedroom or somewhere else.

And I would give you...

I would want to give you confidence

that buying an OLED today

is still the best TV you can buy.

Right, okay.

It's the best TV picture you can buy.

We are some years away from a better technology.

Right now.

All right, well, that's made me feel a lot better

and thanks for your time and taking my call, Trevor.

My pleasure, mate, any time.

Okay, bye-bye.

Good on you, John. Thanks for getting in touch.

Yeah, look, quite simple.

Yeah, burn-in can happen.

It could happen on a today TV

if you left it on the same picture for a month

and I've got no doubt.

All the pixel ships in the world

is not going to fix it if you're forcing it.

So, but for the average viewer,

I think seven years are a really good length of time.

And I think...

I think if John bought an OLED today from LG,

I think in seven years,

he would not see what he's seeing today.

I think there'll be many more years

in that before any sense of pixel burn-in occurs.

Tech cars. Lifestyle.

This is the EFTM podcast with Trevor Long.

Sam's on the line.

G'day, Sam.

Good morning, Trevor.

What can I do for you, mate?

Mate, I've had a NikGear Orbi Mesh Wi-Fi system

for about seven years now.

And it's run pretty well,

but I decided to upgrade recently

to a newer Wi-Fi 7 model

than having a few issues with it.

Okay, what's the issues?

Well, just go back a step.

What sort of NBN have you got?

What's the style of connection you have?

We've got Fiber to the Home.

Fiber to the Home.

And do you have a modem set up

or are you just using the Orbi Direct?

No, Orbi Direct, mate.

Just put it straight into the router.

When you say, hang on, stop.

When you say router,

do you mean the NBN box on the wall

or have you got a router from another company?

No, no, just the NBN box on the wall.

So straight into the NikGear system, yes.

So you bought the new system using the Orbi app.

Where does it fall over on you?

Finding the internet?

No, what the issue is, it seems to be,

well, we did have problems connecting through the app.

So I ended up having to direct connect the ethernet cable

to my PC and go in through the back end,

I guess you'd call it.

And I'm able to get the internet through the ethernet cable

and I'm also able to connect to the guest Wi-Fi network,

just not being able to get the main Wi-Fi network

or the internet of things network to work.

So it's very odd.

That is very odd.

So you're saying to me, on a mobile phone,

you could connect to a guest Wi-Fi network and see the internet.

No dramas at all.

You're telling me that you can plug a computer or device

into the Orbi's ethernet port and get internet.

No dramas at all.

But on the broadcast network that you've created

or the IoT network, you can't get a net,

you cannot connect or you can't get internet once connected.

You can't get internet once connected.

It can see the network, it can connect to it,

but it just comes up with that on the iPhone

and it'll come up with that orange Wi-Fi symbol

with an exhalation point through it saying no internet connection.

Have you enabled any of the extra features

like parental or parental controls or net gear armor,

the security system?

Ah, no.

Okay.

Yeah, that's because my first thought is, okay,

well, you need to go backwards and the ISP

and the internet provider and all this stuff.

But in the end, if you've got a form of connection,

that makes zero sense.

Have you had any communication with net gear

via online about it?

Yeah, I did actually ring them up, got through them.

We ended up going through a reboot process with the router,

ran through the setup process again.

They suggested at the time that I need to enter my ISP username

and password, but at the time when the caller couldn't remember it,

so we had to end the support there.

That's absolutely not true because with Fiber to the home,

you could plug your computer directly into that NBN connection

and it'll just work.

You're just on the internet.

That's the way Fiber to the home works.

Yeah, there is no authentication.

Who's your internet provider?

BuddyTalker.

Okay.

I haven't used it, but Buddy was set up originally.

It was owned by Aussie.

Now it's been sold, but in the app for Buddy,

I assume it would be the same as the Aussie broadband app.

There's all these support options

and some of them are diagnostics.

Have you tried any of those?

Yeah, I actually have.

It's very similar to the Aussie one because I had Aussie before.

Because the one I want you to do is a kick connection.

Have you done that?

Yes, I have done that.

I mean, that to me, a sidebar to your Orbi issues,

that to me is the greatest support app in the history of the world

that I can go right here.

Here's what I'm going to do.

I'm having, like if I was in your situation,

I'd be doing a factory reset on the Orbi,

which you've probably done a million times.

And then I'd be going in.

I'd be doing every reset possible on the network.

And then I'd be starting again.

You've obviously done that a few times.

Look, I think the best thing I can do is try and get you some

more executive level support from Netgear.

So I will get producer Rob to send you my email address.

And what I want you to do is look in simple terms,

and I just said this to a previous caller,

so apologies, listeners.

But in simple terms, summarize the problem

in a way that I can forward it on.

Yeah?

So what's the model that you bought?

Your style of internet connection,

the things you've tried, the things you're seeing,

and the support you tried to get.

And then let's try and get you, you know,

just bypass the first level of customer support

and get you up a level

so that we can have someone try and diagnose that for you

and see whether there's anything they can see.

Yeah, that'll be great.

Thanks very much.

No worries at all, mate.

Make it something I can forward on,

and I'll get Netgear onto it.

ASAP, my friend.

Excellent.

Is it one more quick one I can just pose to you?

Hit me.

When you're at CES,

did you see your ecovacs

bringing out a new updated goat lawn mower anytime soon?

Yes.

Yep.

I did a video on it real quick.

It's on TikTok and Instagram,

but it was about all the ecovac stuff,

but there's two there.

Well, I don't know for sure,

but they're both going to come out,

but I suspect they will.

It's more a later in the year thing

from what I could sense.

The pool stuff is more important to them

because it's a bigger market,

but they are definitely going to bring out the goat again.

And it has, so I looked underneath it

because I've still got the goat running around my place.

It's got dual blades.

So two spinners.

So a wider cutting width

and a little whipper snipper on the side.

Oh, great.

So it's still on the edges as well.

If it can truly do that,

dude, wow.

Do you know what I'm saying?

Like that is crazy good.

But I'm going to reserve my judgment on that one

until it's in my backyard doing some stuff.

And also, it apparently doesn't need beacons.

So I don't know if you've seen with the goats

before you needed beacons around your backyard

so it could work out where it is.

It's now using a dual LiDAR setup.

So I think it's mapping the backyard

in a more robot vacuum style

than the beacons system they were using.

So I'm pretty excited about that, mate.

Later in the year.

I'll wait for your review.

Thanks, Trevor.

All right, buddy.

No worries.

All right, cheers.

Send me that email.

We'll get you sorted with Netki, mate.

Awesome.

Thanks.

Cheers.

No worries at all.

Yeah, I mean, look,

unless I'm sitting there

trying to reset it all myself,

pretty hard to help.

But we'll see if Netki can do something

and maybe they've got an angle

because of that specific issue

which is I can get guest network

but can't get the other.

That's very strange.

Join the conversation.

Head to eftm.com and click Ask Trev.

All right, a bit of work to do there

following up on those calls.

So producer Rob is already onto that.

I can see the text messages flying already.

So we'll try and help out

both John and Sam as best we can.

We look forward to hearing from Sue

about her amazing trip to Vietnam.

I'd love to hear from you.

If you've got a tech question,

get in touch, folks.

We're also really on pump

with a number of people using the eftm app

for the competitions.

So every single week there's a competition.

There's something to win.

Eftm and win is what I'm calling it.

So, you know, keep it simple.

And yeah, I've sent out a note to all the companies

I know and said,

listen, let's do this every week.

Come on, let's do giveaways every single week.

So the plan is that we giveaways every week.

So keep me in check on that.

And hopefully that makes the eftm app

more appealing to everyone and useful

and you jump in it way more.

I'm still fascinated by it

because you can enter every single day.

But not everyone does.

I think it's averaging probably three entries

per week for people, maybe a bit more.

But there's definitely some people entering just once.

I might update the image

so it very clearly says enter daily.

But yeah, love, love.

And I mentioned it earlier.

The Android app, unbelievable.

So if you're on Android,

make sure you have the eftm app.

It is in top notch condition.

And I love it.

I'm so proud of it.

And I really appreciate the work that Harry has put into it.

So yeah, thanks for listening, folks.

Let's do it all again real soon, right here.

OLED Screen Burn in? A problem? And Travel issues sorted!

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