Safer Batteries a must for the tech industry

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G'day, g'day, and welcome to the EFTM podcast.

Great to have you company.

Big show for you today.

We're going to take your calls.

We have lots of calls to get through,

so hopefully we can do that.

Continuing with the questions about NBN

upgrades and speed changes.

We catch up with a couple of people from previous shows

about things like battery life on phones

and smartphones for kids.

We have travel questions.

And I want to take some time to talk to Chris Lau,

the managing director of Laser.

Laser Corporation, Aussie tech company

who bring to market some amazing products

at excellent prices.

And you'll find them at Harvey Norman,

JB Hi-Fi, Big W.

A lot of their products at Big W.

And they've made a very clear decision

about batteries in their technology

and making them safer.

And I'm fascinated by this

because it feels like the kind of thing

you'd normally hear at the top end of the market.

Big brands talking about not a challenger brand

working at a affordable price point.

So it's a massive shout out to them.

I wrote about this a few weeks ago on EFTM,

but I just got the time to grab Chris

on the phone today.

So we'll talk to Chris Lau from Laser

about battery safety.

It's a huge issue.

And we've all seen the stories

in the newspapers online, on TV news.

It's, you know, this bloody scooter exploded.

This thing exploded.

Use your smartphone safe to charge

and all these different questions.

And Chris has got some strong views on those things

and what both the government and the industry as a whole

should be doing about it.

So it's gonna be, I look forward to unpacking that

a little bit more with Chris right here

on the EFTM podcast.

But whatever you're in the market for,

I'd love to talk to you.

Get in touch.

You can text me or you can send a WhatsApp

to 0477657657.

We'll get you on the show and we'll have a Chinwag, all right?

It's really that simple.

Next week we're gonna talk Amazon new devices

that they've been announced.

And it's, yeah, it's all happening.

We're very well ahead of time here.

I understand where we're planning things.

So some of the interviews that we do don't land

around the time of the announcement.

So I have to say, because we're just busy.

We've got things going on.

I wanted, I wanted Richard Moore class week, for example,

to be on the show before Bath.

It's not afterwards.

So despite Amazon announcing new devices already,

we'll talk to them on next week's show.

And we'd love you to be part of next week's show.

So get in touch, folks.

You know how to do it.

It's very, very easy.

Right here on the EFTM podcast.

Helping Australians with tech questions for over 15 years.

The EFTM podcast with Trevellong.

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Russell's on the line.

Good day, Russell.

Good day, Trevor.

How are you?

Yeah, really good, mate.

What can I do for you?

Yep.

I've recently got an email from my NBN provider

that they were going to be upgrading the speeds for my NBN,

which I thought, brilliant.

Awesome. Who are you with?

Which provider?

Kogan.

Yep. Oh, awesome.

Okay.

Well, everyone should be doing it

because it's an NBN wholesale upgrade that's happening.

And anyone that's on hybrid fiber of the old Foxtel cable

or fiber to the premises is getting better speeds.

What's your NBN technology coming into the house?

You know?

It could be fiber.

It could come from the old Optus cable.

Right. Okay.

It's probably fiber.

The old Optus cable was killed off.

It was the Foxtel cable they started using.

So what plan were you signed up to?

What speed were you getting?

It was 100 megabytes per second.

Wow.

So instantly you're going to get five times that speed.

You're going to be getting 500 downloads.

Yeah, but there's a catch.

What's the catch?

I don't have to pay extra for it,

but I've got to check that my router is good enough

to take the extra speed.

And is that something Kogan said in their communication?

Yes.

That's excellent.

I respect that because we've talked about this a little bit

over recent weeks and months.

I spoke to someone from the NBN about it, Jane McNamara,

because see, it's great, isn't it?

Everyone's getting these great emails

and I'm getting faster speeds.

But actually now when you get these amazing speeds,

it is going to be your home network most often

that lets you down.

So I'm encouraged that they're at least telling you

that in advance.

So is your concern that you're going to need

to spend money to do that or what's your question?

Well, I'm unsure what to upgrade to.

I've been doing a little bit of research

and I find that there's wireless 6 and wireless 6E

and wireless 7 and all sorts of things.

My current router is an Orbi RBR50 or RDR50.

And it's got a satellite unit

and it's worked fine for the last five years.

And I'm just wondering,

do you have any recommendations perhaps

of something I could get to take care of the good speeds?

Well, I'd love you to rush out and spend money.

I wouldn't spend a cent until you know

what sacrifice you're making.

So for example, that system is capable

of 500 megabit transfer speeds.

Well, I've got kind of no doubt about that.

But it's really about what else is happening on your network,

what other devices are connected

and how much congestion there is on your network.

So roughly how many things do you think

are connected to your Wi-Fi network?

Oh, there's probably only about 10.

Yeah, right.

So here's what I would do.

Did Kogan say when the update's happening?

Has it come through yet?

There was a bit of a delay and they're saying now

I think it's going to be on 1st of October.

Okay, so the first thing,

have you done a speed test yet on your current setup?

I have. I used the Ucla speed test.

Excellent. That's the one.

On your phone or on a computer?

On a computer, laptop.

Plugged in via an Ethernet cable to the Orbi or via Wi-Fi?

Just by Wi-Fi.

And what speed did you get?

It's been around the mid-40s.

Down?

Yeah.

Yep, that's all.

Well, that's not great to start off with

because that system should be delivering you 98 to 105.

You should be seeing those kind of speeds.

Now, a couple of things to take into account

and that's why I asked the specific questions

about how you did it.

Wi-Fi is not as fast as Ethernet for a start.

So find an Ethernet cable.

If you have to buy a cheap one, go for it.

Just go to JCars or Harvys

and get yourself a quick little Ethernet cable

and plug your Ethernet cable into the Orbi.

Now, is your connection...

Just talk me through what's happening

where the NBN comes into your home.

Is there a little black box?

There's a little black box that says NBN.

The little black box means you're on the foxtel cable.

You're on the old hybrid fiber coaxial.

Okay.

And then from there, it's the Orbi

or is there something else in between?

No, that's it.

Plug it straight into the Orbi.

Perfect.

So what I want you to do

is I want you to plug your laptop into that Orbi,

the one next to the NBN box.

And I want you to do a speed test then

once that's plugged in.

Because that's essentially going to tell you

what speed is coming to the Orbi.

Right?

So if you imagine like looking at a flow of traffic,

you can go, oh, people are going 100 kilometers an hour

up to this point

and why are they only going 20 over there?

You can go, oh, there's a speed bump, you know?

So what you're doing is you're analyzing the traffic.

So you're plugging in there and you're going, okay.

Now, mate, if you plug into that Orbi

and you get 40, I think there's something else amiss.

And I would, and again,

I don't know how Kogan customer service works,

but I would be talking to their customer service

about whether or not you can do some other speed tests.

Now, it's a bit tricky

if you don't have great understanding

of the customer service support line

because for example, I'm with Aussie Broadband

and they have all these tools in their app

that allow me to do things like reset my connection

and kick the connection to all these tests

because what you can do is you can plug

that laptop cable into that NBN box.

And so you basically unplug the Orbi

and you plug into the NBN box,

which is like plugging into the backbone of the internet

and that's truly going to tell you

what speed you're getting on the NBN.

Now, just to be clear, sometimes if that doesn't work,

you might want to unplug the NBN box,

leave it for five minutes and plug it back in

with your laptop connected

and then it'll find your laptop

and you might need to do the same to get your Orbi working again

a little bit back and forth, right?

But plugging into the NBN box

will tell you exactly what speed you're getting right now.

And now if you're getting less, mate,

if you're getting less than with one device plugged in,

if you're getting less than 80,

I'd be on the phone or the email to Kogan going,

hey, what's going on here?

I meant to be getting 100,

let alone the 500 that's coming.

And so think of it like a little bit of a daisy chain.

The first link in the chain is that black NBN box.

The second link in the chain is the Orbi on plugged in.

The third link in the chain is Orbi via Wi-Fi.

And what you can do is you can monitor the speeds

on each of those things.

So what's the speed when I plug into the NBN box?

Okay, let's set the Orbi back up.

What's the speed when I plug into the Orbi directly?

And now what's the speed I get standing next to the Orbi

and then standing 10 meters away from the Orbi?

Because that's going to be,

so you can build a little map,

a little daisy chain of locations around your home

and you'll understand what your situation is today.

And then when the upgrade comes through

and you plug into the NBN box or the Orbi

and you start to see 400 or whatever the number is,

then walk around the home

and do those same speed tests on Wi-Fi.

And if you don't think you're seeing enough

and what is enough, that's entirely up to you.

But I wouldn't spend $1,000 on a new Wi-Fi system

if you're getting 300 meg speeds at the TV

on the other side of the house

because that's pretty fast.

It's not really something to complain about, is it?

Yep, yep, that's correct.

So I feel like there's two things going on here.

The first one is to establish

whether or not you're actually getting what you're paying for

from Kogan.

So dealing with that actual core NBN connection

and checking that there's no faults

or anything in the line or the connection

and making sure you are signed up to the 100 meg plan

and ask them what their average evening speeds are

because they should be logging that.

And then once you sort that out,

you can do the other tests

to actually work out how your Orbi's performing today.

And then finally when the upgrade comes through,

you can work out how your Orbi's performing

after the upgrade.

And then and only then is it worth going,

okay, well look,

I've got five good years out of this system.

Maybe I'll look at something new,

but that's a good system you've got, mate.

I honestly think it probably should perform pretty well.

It's a tri-band system,

so it means there's multiple lanes of traffic in your home,

allowing it to do its work without interrupting you.

And from what you've said about your network

and 10 devices and things,

you don't need to spend thousands of dollars on Wi-Fi.

If you were to get a new system,

I think $1,000 or less is going to cover you

for a nice new Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 system,

which again will prove you long into the future.

Sure thing.

One question though.

I have my Dell laptop doesn't have the ability

to plug in a blue cable.

Well, this goes to how much you want to spend on diagnosis,

but you can just go to Amazon

and you can get a little Ethernet adapter,

USB-A to Ethernet adapter.

They're very, very affordable.

And look, handy little thing

to have in diagnosis terms regardless.

I do have a desktop computer connected via cable

through the Orbi Rapper.

We'll just use that.

Mate, just use that.

100%.

Perfect.

Yeah, totally fine.

All right, well, mate,

let me know if you have any problems diagnosing

where that issue is.

And then let's hear from you

once you've got the big speed upgrade, mate.

Excellent.

Thanks very much for your help.

Good on you.

Cheers.

Thanks for getting your touch.

Okay then.

Good stuff.

It kind of explains there

that it's not as easy as it looks, you know.

It's not as easy as just saying,

well, I got the new speeds

because here's a problem.

I think it's 500 and he's only got 40 now on Wi-Fi.

He's never going to get more than 40

unless, unless Kogan's only delivering 40

on the 100 plan.

I've not used Kogan's Internet.

It's through Vodafone.

Essentially, it's a reseller of Vodafone.

I assume.

So I don't know.

But I would be looking into that core problem

before I look at spending any money on Wi-Fi.

I'm here to, I'm here to sell your stuff.

Don't worry.

I want you to, I want you to spend money in the market.

But I also don't want you to waste money for no reason.

This is the EFTM podcast.

Great to have you company wherever you're listening

and whenever you're listening.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you for downloading.

Greg's on the line.

G'day, Greg.

G'day, Trevor.

How are you?

What can I do for you?

Wait, we're heading overseas in a couple of weeks

to Singapore and Hong Kong.

Nice.

And I heard you this morning on the radio

talking about a SIM card.

But I didn't catch the full gift of it.

So we want to be able to get some data at least.

But I did hear you mentioned something about a Vodafone one.

So I was hoping to get a little bit more info for Ken.

What carry are you with now?

Yeah.

The company phone, which is Telstra.

Is the company paying if you add roaming on?

Yes.

Well, not normally roaming.

No.

So look, the Vodafone deal is essentially for customers.

It's not really the kind of thing you just go and get

for a month or so.

What I would recommend in your case is you got a,

what sort of phone?

You got a recent model?

Yes.

iPhone 17.

Sorry, sorry.

Not 17, 16.

I got a couple of weeks ago.

16 Pro.

You got a 16 a couple of weeks ago, bro.

Like a week before the 17 went on sale?

Yeah, I know.

I know.

Okay.

I didn't get it.

Company bought it.

Okay.

Good.

Runout sale or something going on there.

So what I would recommend is you do what we call an eSIM,

which is an electronic SIM.

You can download an app.

Yep.

And you can then just simply install it on your phone.

It's so, so easy to do.

Now, I have spoken so much about this company that

they've heard about it and they've even started

offering me discounts.

So the good news is if you download Airolo,

now it's spelled A-I-R-A-L-O, Airolo.

Airolo.

Yep.

What happens is you log in, you sign up,

and then you choose the country you're going to.

Right?

So I'll just do this search for you now on my phone.

Where are you going?

Singapore.

Singapore?

Yes, I'm in Hong Kong.

Now, I don't know whether they interoperate,

just to be clear.

Like if you go to Italy,

then you can use your SIM card in France.

It's kind of pretty cool.

But that's Europe.

Yep.

You might need to pick days.

So in Singapore, I can get for three days,

three gigabytes of data for $10.50.

For seven days, I can get 10 gigabytes of data for $23.

So basically, you can buy data on a, you know, day rate.

Interestingly, there's no options here for a call

and data package.

So what you need to do there is remind your friends

and family that you're going to have data only.

So if they want to call you, use WhatsApp, for example.

Okay.

Yes, yes, yes.

Yep.

Yeah, that's fine.

So basically you pick the number of days that you're away

and you choose the SIM card.

You click a few buttons.

You pay for it.

And then it sits on your phone,

installed under the, and when you go to settings and mobile,

it's sitting there.

You just turn it on.

And when you land, it's working and off you go.

And the great news is you can get 10% off

just by using the discount code

of the checkout EFTM, which is my website.

Okay.

EFTM.

Yep.

Just think everything for the man.

EFTM.

Mate, you'll get 10% off whatever you buy.

10% off.

Yep.

And the Hong Kong rates look pretty much the same.

The same?

Yes.

Okay.

Where are you staying the longest?

Singapore or Hong Kong?

No, we're staying a week in both.

Yeah, okay.

So we're doing a week in Singapore.

Then we're cruising for four nights.

And then we come back to Singapore.

Then we fly to Hong Kong for a week.

So Hong Kong, $26.50 will get you 10 gigabytes of data

or $46 will get you unlimited for seven days.

So you choose.

Do your best.

Yep.

Okay.

Mate, that's like, it's the easiest.

So when you land in both those countries,

there'll be little shops selling SIM cards and all that kind of stuff.

But it's just so much easier to have it all sorted before you go.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

That's awesome.

Have a look at that tonight.

Yeah.

Excellent.

And don't forget the product discount code EFTM, 10% off.

TM.

Yep.

Excellent.

All right, buddy.

No worries.

All right, mate.

Thank you very much.

Much appreciated.

Thanks for your help.

Anytime.

Thanks, mate.

Cheers.

Yeah.

So the people at Aerello heard me talking about it and said,

do you want to discount code?

Okay, fine.

The thing is I don't instinctively do those kind of things.

But hey, I figure if you're listening and you're traveling,

do it.

Take the 10%.

So yeah, pretty awesome stuff.

And hopefully he has a great, great trip.

The EFTM podcast, thanks to Swan, home security to connect,

detect and protect.

Great to have you company.

Get in touch 0-4-7-6-5-7-6-5-7.

Thanks to Vodafone Center.

It's a text or a WhatsApp.

We'll get you on the show.

Jeff's on the line.

Good day, Jeff.

Good day.

How are you, mate?

Mate, very well.

We spoke a few weeks ago about battery life woes.

Yes.

It's a concerning thing for a lot of people.

You know, people think that it's the phone driving them nuts,

but we sent you away with some homework.

What did you discover, mate?

Much to my dismay.

I listen to music on my phone through my hearing aids all day.

Okay.

And I also run a lawn Facebook page with 12 and a half thousand odd members.

Yeah.

And as it's coming into the warmer season,

I'm spending longer and longer and longer on the phone answering questions.

When I went down and had a look and saw where my usage was,

it was predominantly Facebook, a little bit of TikTok and the music.

And how much battery was the music using, for example?

Now, let's be clear.

You're not just listening to music.

You're also kind of broadcasting the music over the Bluetooth,

which is a radio signal.

So there's extra power there.

Was it a shock to you?

No, definitely.

I mean, I was embarrassed when I saw it.

I thought, I go and ask the questions.

I think my phone's stuffed and I get told a couple of home truths

and find that it's me and what I'm doing is causing the problem.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, but you wouldn't know that in advance.

How would you know that?

No, I don't.

But see, I don't use it through all my music goes through my hearing aids

because then I can walk through a shopping stand

and there's no white things.

No one knows I've got them on.

Yes.

So people must think I'm weird walking along singing.

I was going to say, if you're singing,

it's going to raise some eyebrows.

Let's be honest.

Yes.

Yeah.

But I sort of sing quietly.

How's that?

OK, fair enough.

But I spend probably five to six hours answering queries

on lawn a day at the moment.

Wow.

That's a lot of time, bro.

Yeah, well, I'm retired.

OK.

And we help people with their lawns

and tell them what to do and what they cannot,

what they can try to solve problems.

Exactly what you're doing about computers.

Well, you know what?

Great to have you company because I love my lawn,

but I don't care for it enough.

Like I love mowing it.

I love taking the edges,

but it's out of control with weeds.

And so you know what I did?

I fell suckered straight into the lawn hub team

ads on social media.

Yep.

You know, I'll tell you honestly because I like their approach.

It feels a bit local for a start.

It felt like I was supporting an Aussie group

and it felt like it was going to work.

And I bought the stuff and then it arrived

and I'm like, I don't have, now I need like a sprayer.

Like I don't have a sprayer to spray this stuff.

I don't have a sprayer.

I don't have anything.

You can go to Bunnings and buy a Makita

or an Ozita or something.

Don't pack pressure sprayer.

Then it said you got to...

Don't let anyone touch the lawn for 24 hours.

I'm thinking, oh my God, what poison am I putting out here?

My wife's going to lose her mind.

No, no, don't be silly.

Mate, your wife doesn't have to know.

That's a hundred percent how I operate.

Oh, that's funny.

There's no need for your wife to know what you're putting.

I'm just putting on fertiliser.

Look, I used to kill my lawn with products.

I was trying having to get it right.

And then I decided I'll let it go for a year

without buying any except a wedding agent and a granular.

And now I've gone with a lot more select approach.

I have never put a weed killer on my lawn.

I have never sprayed bow and arrow.

I can't remember what lawn hub called their stuff.

Oh, it's all double on tundras with them,

which I also play into.

I don't mind where they're going with it.

The pack was called Grow and Blow.

I mean, they're pretty smart.

I'll give them that.

Oh yeah, you can grow and blow, yeah.

I mow my lawn every week during winter

where people think I'm crazy.

I don't take a lot off.

But weed seeds take 10 days to germinate.

And they get blown in from your neighbors

and bird droppings and whatever.

So if you mow every seven days,

you pick up 80% of the bird seeds.

And if you do see an odd weed, you just pick it out

and you don't have...

I've never sprayed for weeds in 20 years.

Can I interest you in the idea of a robot lawnmower?

How do you feel about that?

Is that just a sacrilege to you?

To me personally, yes.

But I know there's a really good mate of mine.

He has a customer who mows his lawn every week.

But the guy runs four robots over it during the week,

so it's never as bad.

And they are becoming a bigger thing.

And with the technology they've got now,

there is a guy I know who runs a podcast

about Australian lawn and gardens podcast.

He's putting in a $65,000 robot machine

at the school level across the road.

He can come out at two o'clock in the morning

and mow it five o'clock in the morning,

and then come out every night and keep mowing.

So I have a backyard and then kind of three front yards

because my driveway is on a corner block.

And so I have three sections out the front.

So the front is all me.

But the backyard, mate, I've been running robot lawnmowers

for seven years.

And no, it's not.

Lush is not stunning, but it's weird.

I wouldn't say weed-free,

but it's nothing like the front

because, as you say, it's just every second day

a robot is out there trimming it.

It's out there.

Just trimming it.

They don't have the chance to flourish

like they do out the front.

And robot mowers are great for people like yourself

because you're afraid of flying to America or China

or somewhere and looking at the newest products.

I don't think you can rely on your wife to mow it.

I don't think you can rely on your boy

or your kids to mow it.

So you need something that's going to do it.

And your front lawn would suffer

when you go away for a week and a half.

And the weed seeds are blowing in.

You get home and I've got to get mowed the lawn,

but then you've got to catch up on your podcast

and your memes.

See, now I don't know if I should be spraying

the bloody weed killer now.

Jesus.

Yeah, do it.

But go and get yourself a battery-packed sprayer.

OK.

It's herbicide.

Selective herbicide is what it is.

Yes, it's broadleaf selective herbicide.

But not all the weeds are broad.

Some of them are little.

Oh, no.

It's like what?

I'd be your idea.

I want to be one of those.

When I retire, I'll be like you.

I'll have a scarifier.

I'll have everything.

I will destroy my lawn once a year

to make it look amazing.

Well, mine is coming back.

It's eight days after a birdie mow

where I went down to dirt.

That was video.

And that's coming out on a podcaster,

a chat in about five or six weeks.

I had a guy up here,

the guy from Australian Law and Garden podcast.

He wanted to show how a renovation is done properly.

Yep, yep.

So he videoed it all.

He had drones flying around and whatever.

And I'm looking forward to seeing it

because on the page we get people who come along

and say, I've scouted my lawn.

I've renovated my lawn.

I've scouted it and I've punched some holes in it.

It's not a renovation.

There is different in what you do.

But it's, yeah, it is really...

Look, I love it because my wife passed away

80 months ago and it gives me something to fill my time in with.

Mate, look, it was a blessing in disguise ultimately.

But yeah, look, it's my passion.

Yeah, well, good on you, mate.

I've had my lawn...

I went in a competition

and we got 900 likes to win by 400

in the best lawn in the state.

Let me ask you this, Jeff, just finally.

If I had the opportunity to get a robot to review,

would you be willing?

Yeah, of course I would.

Okay, well, keep in mind because...

I've only got one backyard, right?

I've only got one backyard.

But like robot vacuums,

I've only got one house.

I can only review one at a time.

And so, mate, it's...

That's right.

And I know Robo Rock's got a new one coming out.

Dreamy's got one.

EcoVax has got a new one.

So, mate, if the opportunity arises,

I will get producer Rob to note down your details.

And we might get in touch in the weeks or months ahead

and just have a play.

It might just be like the one you mentioned.

It might just be something that goes out.

And then you still do your thing,

but it's just there to help you out.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

That's right.

I mean, I try...

People say, can you try this?

And I never take freebies

because I want to be seen to be unbiased.

So, if I look at what the externalizer say is,

I'll buy a bag, I'll try it,

then I'm telling people my thoughts, my honest thoughts.

Yeah, good stuff.

All right, legend.

Well, I'm glad you solved the battery problem

and, mate, just charge a call.

That's a good name, legend,

because my name on my page is Western Australian Lawn Legends.

Western Australian...

Oh, mate.

I lived in Perth for two years, longest decade of my life.

There's nowhere that takes lawn...

That's for other reasons.

There's nowhere that takes lawn more seriously.

The fact that they call sprinklers a reticulation

and it is like a religion blew my mind.

And I loved having a lawn there.

I loved having reticulation and a sprinkler system.

That stuff doesn't exist over here in the East.

It just doesn't.

Really?

No.

I don't know anyone with an automated sprinkler system.

Mine's being upgraded in the next couple of weeks.

I'm changing more sprinklers out

and putting in R-vans, which is a different type of sprinkler,

because I get quite a lot of wind in these fights to wind more.

So there's always something you look at to do to improve.

You live and learn, mate. You live and learn.

Yeah.

Good on you, mate.

Great to go.

Cheers, buddy.

Thanks for the call.

I appreciate it.

No worries, any time.

Cheers, mate.

Good on you.

There you go.

Who knew this would become lawn talk with Trevor and Jeff?

But, hey, we've found ourselves someone

who can help review a robot lawn mower in the future, too.

So that's great news.

This is the EFTM podcast.

Thank you for listening.

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Tech cars. Lifestyle.

This is the EFTM podcast with Trevor Long.

You can text Trev now thanks to Vodafone on 04777657657.

You're getting touched.

I'd love to have you on the show if you had a tech question

or you want to talk about any tech in your world.

I would love to hear from you.

Now, everyone's heard and seen the stories about battery fires.

Just the term lithium batteries now

is kind of surrounded by fear and danger in many ways.

You don't have to go back too far to smartphones

that had problems.

Now we've got people that worry about everything

from electric bikes to electric cars

to the little power banks that we carry with us.

When I get on a plane now, some airlines say

you can't charge your phone.

Some airlines, the last one I was on said,

you can charge your phone as long as you are supervising it.

I'm thinking, okay, that's a very weird thing to say.

But then there was a nice opinion piece,

a little bit of a thought leadership piece

published on LinkedIn by Chris Lau,

the managing director of Laser Corporation.

I've spoken about Chris and about Laser

many, many times over many, many years.

And this was a fascinating thing for me

because it was a kind of turning point for their business

and for essentially the Australian industry

around what technology we use in batteries.

So Chris is on the line to talk about that right now.

Chris, how are you doing?

Thanks Trevor.

Mate, this is, I feel like this is a big thing

for you to come out so publicly about a technology

in this sense.

What drove you to, you know, talk about the fact

that you're making a shift away in the portable battery market

so we're talking about power banks and things like that

from, you know, what we know of

as traditional lithium batteries?

Yeah, I guess it was a decision

in the making over a couple of years.

We had seen many incidents in the market

concerning the old lithium ion

or the current lithium ion technology

and we sort of stumbled across the LFP

in the launch of our big power stations.

I remember those, the NRG Bolts, yeah.

Yeah, so we started to learn a lot about that

and then as we sort of mentioned

we sort of fortuitously got an insight

into what BYD we're doing with their LFP batteries

and wondering why we couldn't roll out the same cells

into a portable power bank

or for that matter into everything we sell

from dash cams to tablets to, you know, car play.

And so the move was put forward

to all of our suppliers to migrate the battery tech

from lithium ion over to LFP.

It may not be LFP, it's LFP at the moment

but we're certainly looking at next technologies

like solid state as well.

So LFP is just flat out safer?

It is.

It's still a type of lithium

but in short it just doesn't catch on fire

or have the thermal runway that normal lithium ion does.

If you've seen the videos of how lithium ion

catch on fire it's not very nice.

No, that's right.

But it's not like explosive, it's more like a firework, isn't it?

It's this really intense spark

that escalates.

Right, it's sort of like when you're back in school

with those chemistry with magnesium

it just burns bright and sharp

and it sets everything on fire

which is why you unfortunately have a lot of house fires

and as you said why the airlines have moved

to be more cautious about carrying lithium batteries.

Do you think, now let's be clear

is this a more expensive technology

and therefore are you eating this up

because you're not known for expensive products?

You're trying to create value for people

and you always have.

So are you having to drive slightly up the price

of your power banks and things because of this shift

or are you looking at making this a shift to your business

as a leader in the industry?

We've made the decision at a financial cost to us

but we think the long-term benefits are very apparent.

So yes, there is a slight increase in terms of cost to us

but we've sold more than 7 million power banks

so we're hoping to amortize that across the volume

of power products that we do.

7 million power banks.

That's crazy numbers, Chris.

It is a lot and there's a lot of things that we do

in Seoul that have lithium batteries

so people may not realize that

your noise cancelling headphones, your Bluetooth speakers,

those big parties speakers, your tablets,

they all have lithium.

And at some point in time,

especially with the strain conditions with the high heat

that we get, they could rupture or burst

or we'll still catch fire.

So yes, it has been a financial cost to us

but in the end I think, and it's not just for us,

we're encouraging all the importers and manufacturers

to move to a safer, it doesn't have to be LEP

but move to a safer technology

and we're certainly lobbying government

and bodies to make clearer and better instructions

on how to handle batteries, especially scooter batteries

and power tool batteries, neither of which we sell

but there needs to be some guidelines we feel

to educate consumers on how to handle lithium.

I mean that's the challenge, right?

A lot of the stories that we see reported,

the videos we see of amazing and often tragic fires

are things that are broadly unregulated.

The industry is broadly unregulated

and I don't know and I'm happy to hear

whatever you can add to this

but one of the challenges I hear

and I say to especially talk radio hosts

who kind of complain about this,

the problem isn't the biggest names

in electric scooters for example.

It's the cheap stuff that comes from overseas.

It's the second charger that people buy

thinking it's going to be acceptable for that scooter.

If we can't regulate what people are buying

directly from China, is it going to have any impact

if the government regulates what battery technology is sold in

for example major retail stores?

Yes, we feel that we have to work hand in hand

with the government and the regulators.

China is making big in-modes into doing that.

They recently or a couple of years ago

launched the triple C program for batteries

and domestic flights.

I'm not sure if they'll take it to that level here

but certainly there needs to be some guidelines

in terms of how to use and store

and how to charge and what to buy.

All the power banks that come to Australia

from the brand of players

were controlled by regulations

in terms of safety and approvals.

Perhaps the stuff that you buy online

might not be government by the same regulations.

And that's the point, right?

If your work and the work of the industry

can push the government to move the industry

towards life-po, LFP batteries

which is just a battery chemistry.

It's lithium ion phosphate, right?

If we can push that or how would the government do that?

Would they set a date for it

or would they incentivise it in some way?

How would you see that happening?

If you are in the legislation?

Yeah, there was form of regulatory body

which involves different parties

that could include the fireries

and the compliance people and brands

and build a framework of which to identify

what is a safe battery like maybe there's an approval sticker

like an RCM sticker for batteries.

And then there would probably some guidelines on best use

so that the airlines could adopt it

and you could identify when you're getting on a plane

or when you're traveling or when you're shipping a product.

There are a lot of products online to online transactions

and we have to go to take measures

to make sure the dangerous goods even applies as well.

So there just needs to be a conversation

around the topic we feel

to highlight the dangers to consumers

and just that they're aware of how to use it.

Even on the biggest brands like General,

I wouldn't put it on my dashboard.

I wouldn't sleep with it under my pillow, a power bank.

I wouldn't connect it to a charger all day long.

Just general best practice things like that.

Yeah, so it's education we need.

Education about best practice around use of batteries generally.

Education about the types of batteries,

labelling around batteries.

Like you say, you go to an airport and I have this,

as you know, I travel a lot and I carry a lot of batteries

for things like cameras and lights.

So it's basically a 50-50.

We play a sweep as whether my bag is going to get pulled aside

or I empty the, even when they say don't empty your bag out,

I empty the batteries out because then at least

I show that I'm being open about it.

But you have the TSA, whoever they are, they look at it

and they're looking for the numbers on the battery.

So what we need is clear signals and signs on the battery

that says actually this is a safe battery

and it's under whatever power limit you respect.

So labelling, education,

and none of this can be done by one company like Laser, I guess,

is the ultimate conversation, right?

That's correct.

And we're working towards creating video and content,

putting it on packaging.

At the end of the day, you've bought a power bank

and you may not have had that educational awareness.

The other thing which we'd mention is that,

like most things, the power capacity of the battery

as in the milliamp hours, the watt hours,

and the power output as in the PD,

whether it's wireless, two-charging, is increasing.

So it's not like two or three years ago

when you were carrying a 5 or 10,000.

We're carrying 20,000, 30,000 milliamp hours,

which is a fairly sizable battery.

I mean, there's a lot of cells in it.

And now we're pushing beyond 18 watts to 25 watts.

And wireless, some of the new phones are getting a bit warm

when they're charging on 25 watts.

So they're all considerations.

Everyone buys bigger batteries with more power

and more battery density as in more run time.

That's just a bigger thing to go wrong.

So certainly labelling and best use is very important.

Have you ever had an issue with batteries you've shipped?

You mentioned you shipped 7 million units.

I actually stumbled across a recall this morning for a...

I would say they're an Aussie brand,

a bit of a startup doing this stuff.

It's almost shocking to me that the one product they ever sent me

bulged within like a month of having it.

And I thought that's very weird,

and I didn't review it, didn't use it, I disposed of it.

And I'm pretty sure that's the product that's been recalled.

So has that been a problem for you over the years?

No, thankfully not.

We've had a very good record on lithium products.

That's not to say it can't hit anyone

because of different circumstances.

You could drop a cell in a pool or get it wet

or have it like I said on a dashboard too long

and any brand will start to expand and have some issues.

But yeah, there's a lot of things built into the battery

in terms of safety and circuitry over charge, over discharge,

just temperature sensors.

So there's a lot of the safety measures built into the bigger brands

which come into Australia, not just us.

But then those are missed on some of the cheaper brands

which get imported,

because certainly when you buy a power bank overseas,

they're not required by regulation

to have some of those safety measures.

And I think that's the final most important thing to talk about is

when you buy through big W, JBs, Harveys,

there's a level of checks and balances, is there not

or am I wrong on this,

that the retailers put a product through

before they'll even list it for sale

and put it on a shelf because they don't want to be liable

or either do they,

whereas those checks and balances don't exist

with an Alibaba product.

No, absolutely.

All the biggest retailers have very strict compliance requirements

and they go through tests including backing the product open

to see that you've got the circuitry

and those safety measures.

The other thing I'll say is that those brands

who are established in Australia who are bringing product in

have product liability insurance.

So in the unfortunate event that something may happen

to those brands will have you back

in the terms of tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars,

an online brand won't simply won't have that

so you will get no recalls

if that product fails having bought it from overseas.

It's not a one-day exercise this conversation.

This is a conversation that needs to last many months or years

and it's a credit to you for essentially leading the conversation

in Australia but hopefully it picks up,

hopefully government really do look at this kind of thing.

It's not going to be headline six o'clock news

but maybe the next time there is an issue

we will hear government or spokespeople talking

about the fact that we do need to educate more.

We do need to look at safer battery technologies

which do exist and that might make people think

about what they buy next.

I guess that's the ultimate hope here, Chris, isn't it?

Absolutely, you're 100% right.

Chris, I really appreciate your time, mate.

No problem, thank you very much.

You're listening to the EFTN podcast.

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

Great to have you company and happy to help wherever I can

if you get in touch on that number.

Troy's on the line today, Troy.

Good night, Trev, how are you?

Mate, really good. What can I do for you?

Mate, I'm just calling you back, mate.

I was on your podcast a couple of weeks ago

and I had a discussion about the new iPhone 17.

You had a daughter the same age as mine

and we both realised that the 0.5 was critical.

Where did you land on the iPhone 17 range?

It wouldn't have been the air because of the 0.5.

What did she end up with?

Mate, I took your advice and the iPhone 17,

same colour, the lavender.

So I went for that and she loves it.

Father of the year.

Yes, mate.

Yes.

I didn't go to the strap part, Trev.

I didn't go to the strap part.

Do you know what's interesting?

I gave my daughter one of the straps to use on her phone

and she's like, no way, what am I doing?

I thought Apple was all funky and hip, but apparently not.

No, I was exactly the same.

I got a very bizarre look when I said,

we'll get the strap later down the track

and she goes, no, thank you, dad.

Here we are taking our lead from Apple,

one of the funkiest companies in the world

and it turns out they're not hip to be square at all.

It's not the 15-year-old at the moment anyway.

She loves it.

As you and I discussed last time,

the fact that they don't have the 0.5 ultra-wide on that air,

because you can't tell me she wouldn't have loved the air.

It's a beautiful phone.

But mate, she's got to have the 0.5.

You've got to have the 0.5.

That's what it is.

And just, you know, she's been taking heaps of selfies.

She's been taking heaps of photos.

She's on holidays at the moment.

I'm not with her, but I've been seeing some of the shots

and yeah, they're amazing.

Hey, just quickly, how's she going to deal

with the social media ban in December?

Yeah, well, look, she's not on Facebook at the moment.

She's just on the Snapchat and a TikTok.

But yeah, look, I don't think it's going to be easy.

It's not going to be easy for her

and it's not going to be easy for us,

but it's just going to be something

that we're going to have to persevere with.

Yeah, fair enough.

Well, we'll go through it together, my friend.

Yeah, that's right.

But look, you know, she can still use the phone.

She can still take photos.

She can still share them.

It doesn't have to be on the social media platform.

So we'll see how she goes.

All right, Troy.

Well, I want to talk to you in December

and find out what she's doing

so that we can keep in touch and make sure they're out.

We're across where our daughters are

on this new world of non-social media.

They'll be faking it somewhere, I reckon.

Oh, definitely, definitely.

They're 15-year-olds.

They'll work it out.

Good on you, Troy.

Great to talk to you, mate.

Thanks for the feedback.

Yeah, you too, Drew.

Thank you for the advice.

No, good man.

Thanks very much.

There he is, Troy.

And yeah, his daughter turned 15, I think,

very similar around the age of my daughter turning 15.

And there you go.

The 17's a winner.

Just the entry-level 17.

It's all you need.

It's a great phone.

Honestly, that phone, the more I think about it,

the more that phone bats way above its average.

So well worth considering that as the phone of choice.

Yeah, get your home security sorted.

Swan, I've got you covered.

And I'd love to hear from you.

0-4-7-6-5-7-6-5-7.

Simon's on the line.

Good day, Simon.

How are you, Adam Trevor?

May I really good?

When I rang you, I got the call screening.

You've got a new iPhone 17.

What do you think of it, mate?

It's pretty good.

And how many times does that call screening happen?

Is that the first time or?

It's pretty good.

It said that it may be you on the phone.

Lovely, lovely.

Now, what can I do for you?

What did you want to talk about?

The Optus outage.

Yeah, right, OK.

Are you an Optus customer?

No, I'm not, but I was many years ago

and I had a similar problem there 20 years ago with them.

Really?

20 years ago?

What happened?

I tried to make a AAA call

and there was network congestion on the Optus at the time

and I couldn't make a call.

I pulled the SIM card out and was able to get straight through

and I challenged them about it.

They said, yes, we're aware of the problem

and we're not going to fix it.

And I left Optus and haven't been back since.

That's a fair grudge to hold.

Who are you with now, Telstra?

Vodafone.

Even better, mate.

And so you must have been with Vodafone

through the height of their dramas then.

Vodafone back in the 2011.

Yes, they've gone through some growth

and they've invested quite a few dollars to improve their system.

Yeah, I mean, look, I've said a lot of times.

Apart from COVID year where I switched around a bit

because I wasn't travelling,

I stuck with Vodafone for the majority of the last,

I would say, 10 years.

And look, honestly, I don't know why

anyone would rule them out as a carrier

other than you live in the most remote parts of Australia.

And I think most people would be surprised

where their coverage worked.

Do you travel much, Si?

Not a great deal.

I recently travelled up to Mildura on the main roads

and I had to coverage the whole way.

Yeah, yeah.

It's funny how people think that it's a certain way.

Do you know by chance

whether that road previously didn't have coverage

and whether it got better coverage in the last six months

or 12 months because of the optosteel that they did?

I believe it has improved because of the optosteel.

Yeah, I genuinely think it has, mate.

So even though you're not an optosteel customer,

you're getting a little bit of a benefit of their towers,

but you don't have to give them any money directly, okay?

That's the good news.

That's correct, yes.

Well, mate, I'm sorry to hear how to drama back in the day

and see you're the kind of person that we need more of,

people that vote with their feet.

If you're annoyed about something any company does,

you've got to switch.

You've got to let them know.

Otherwise, they have no idea

because if they see a large number of people leave their business,

then it's alarm bells.

But a lot of people don't do it, Simon.

That's correct.

You talk to them first.

If they won't come to the party,

it's time to walk and go elsewhere.

Simple advice, mate.

Thank you very much for sharing, mate.

Good on you.

Thank you.

There you go.

Simon didn't love Optus back in the day

and has stuck strong avoiding them.

And look, their dramas are not simple.

They're not going to be solved in any easy way.

But we'll keep our eyes on that, of course.

The EFTM podcast, thanks to Swan Buddy 4K,

the doorbell that answers the door for you.

Thank you once again for listening.

It was great to have you company once again this week.

And we'd love to have you back next week.

As I said, we'll talk to Amazon about their brand new devices,

which you can read about at eftm.com.

But we'll unpack that with them next week.

Some pretty exciting stuff there.

And lots coming up for us as well.

I am traveling again next week.

I will in fact be with Amazon next week.

I'm just trying to look at my schedule right now, actually.

Yeah, I will be with Amazon next week as well.

A different part of Amazon.

See, here's the thing, a little inside baseball for you.

Amazon's a big company, massive company.

I got invited to the US three times in the next two and a half months.

One with Amazon fulfillment.

So think the warehouses that do the deliveries.

One with Amazon devices.

Think the stuff they announced.

And then we'll talk about next week.

And one with Amazon web services.

Think that powers the internet.

And I couldn't do Amazon devices because it was so close to the other trips that I'd already made.

And I was going away the week after and I had the magazine to do.

So I just didn't fit with the schedule.

I am doing the fulfillment story because hopefully there'll be some cool robots and things.

But I'm not going to do Amazon web services in December because it's just,

it's not a massive consumer story.

It's a little bit more for the back end of the world, the nerds of the world.

So we'll see how that goes.

But yeah, so that's all ahead of us in terms of travel.

But it's actually winding down.

I'm doing less than it's going to.

Hopefully once I get back from this next trip, I don't think I'll go away again.

There might be one.

Hopefully we'll be home so that we can get the magazine out.

We can promote the magazine.

We've got some cool competitions happening as a part of the magazine over a course of three months.

So rather than one spoiler, rather than one big competition,

we're going to do 12 weekly competitions.

I feel like that's a cooler way to kind of approach the giveaways that we have.

And the mechanisms behind all that.

And I know it's inside baseball again, but the updating the app and updating the back end

so that we can do literally weekly competitions.

That's where I want to land.

Another task for producer Rob to manage the competitions.

That's the plan is to really ramp that up for 2025.

So stay tuned for all that.

But anyway, in the meantime, thank you for listening.

Thank you for letting us out of your company.

And we'll do it all again.

Thank you.

Safer Batteries a must for the tech industry

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