Your TV Takes Screenshots Unless You Turn It Off

Your smart TV isn’t just “smart” anymore, it may be reporting back what’s on your screen. We walk through how Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) works, why it can track far more than streaming apps, and why that data is valuable enough to help drive down TV prices. Then we get practical: we share where these settings hide, what they’re often called by brand, and the extra privacy switches that matter like interest-based ads and voice remotes with always-listening microphones.

From there, we zoom out to the bigger problem: home network security. We explain why locking down Wi‑Fi is more than changing a password, and why putting smart TVs, doorbells, cameras, speakers, printers, and thermostats on a guest network can add real device isolation. If you’ve got a home office or a small business setup, we also talk about why conference room TVs and “connected” displays deserve the same privacy attention as your computers.

We also dig into the end of cell phone dead zones as satellite-to-phone service expands, what it can do now (including richer messaging), what still blocks it (like roofs and tunnels), and where it’s heading next. Finally, we wrap with a Windows 11 favorite: Phone Link, which lets you text from your keyboard, see phone photos instantly, share clipboard items, and even take calls from your PC.

Subscribe, share this with a friend who just bought a new TV, and leave us a review so more people can find these privacy and security tips. What device in your house do you trust the least right now?

Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Tech Agenda

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hey there and welcome to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's News and Talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, President and Founder of Refresh Computer Superstore, and technician Adam Littlefield. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have a comment during the show, go and use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. You can also check out the website over at Refresh Computers.net or stop in at the Refresh Computer Superstore in Longwood at 820 East State Road 434, just three and a half miles east of I-4 in Longwood. Store hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., which means if you're listening to the show here on Saturday, it means you still have time to stop by. They'll be open until 7 p.m. today. And now for David Levitt and Adam Littlefield.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

All right. Thanks, Greg. And thanks everybody for listening to yet another edition of Tech Talk with Refreshed Computers. We have a tech-filled show today. Yes, we do. And we're going to be talking about a few things. One of them is your smart TV is watching you. So, you know, when you open up that new smart TV, you plug it in right out of the box, it's keeping track of things that you're doing. And we're going to get into the details about that. And then we're going to also tell you how to turn that off. And then the next segment, we're going to be talking about how and why you should be locking down your home network, your home Wi-Fi. We talked a little bit about that in a previous episode. We're going to get into a little bit more detail about that later on. And then we're going to get into hey, the dead zone is dying as far as cell phone service is concerned. You know, last summer we talked about my trip out west where I was able to connect to Starlink satellites in areas that I had no cell phone service and I could still text. It was just very rudimentary, could just send and receive basic text. That was about all. Well, there's an upgrade to that, and we're going to be talking all about that as well. So stay tuned for that. And then we're going to finish the show off today with our weekly Windows tip: how to use your phone right from your computer. So let's get into the first topic.

How Smart TVs Track Everything

SPEAKER_01 2:15

We're going to talk about a thing called ACR. And ACR is the system that's used to keep track of everything you're viewing on your TV. And Adam, it doesn't, it's not just the shows you're watching. No. It's anything you're doing on your TV.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

So anything that you've got plugged into it. It could be a game console, a laptop plugged into it, you know, Hulu, Netflix, even just streaming regular cable.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Right. And so it's something that all of the manufacturers have installed in their computers now. So ACR stands for automatic content recognition. So what it's doing is it's taking snapshots every second or two, right? It's it's taking a snapshot of what's on your screen. Yes, it's actually doing that. So again, it doesn't matter if you're watching a movie, watching a Netflix, watching stuff maybe you shouldn't be watching. I don't know, depending on who you are, and having your computer connected, your gaming console, like Adam pointed out. It's taking a screenshot every few seconds.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

You can you can think of it almost like Shazam for your TV screen for all these companies to collect data about what you're watching because that's what they want to know. So they can uh push more, what's the word for it, curated advertising towards you in your in your Google bubble or you know, whatever brand bubble they may be.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

And you know, and these TVs, you know, in fact, and the manufacturers are are so hungry for this information. I'm gonna get give you the reason why. But you know, that that's it started off with every second or every two seconds. Now it's like every every second, maybe two snapshots per second. Yeah. That's how many times. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

It reminds me a lot about that of that Windows feature we talked about a long time ago, one of our shows, Windows uh recall.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

That's right. If you remember that, it still does that in Windows. Yes, it does. So your your Windows computer uh basically Microsoft screenshots your computer, yeah, you know, all day long, as long as it's on, and there's a way to turn that off as well. But we're gonna be talking more about the how what you can do for your TV and how you can turn that ACR feature off. So it's it's really, you know, it's it's streaming apps, you know, Netflix, Hulu, Prime, YouTube, all tracked. Regular cable, or if you're watching on an antenna, guess what? Tracked. It's tracked. A DVD that you're watching, a game console, even a laptop, like you said, Adam, plugged into an HDMI cable. Guess what? It's being tracked also on smart TV.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

If it's on the screen, ACR can track it and read it.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

So where does that information go? It goes to the TV manufacturer. Why? Have you wondered one reason why big screen TV, smart TVs, have dropped so dramatically in price? It's because they're not making all their money off that TV anymore. They're making it off of selling to advertisers the information that they're snapshotting on your TV at home. And if it's connected to the internet, it's it's being sent to them almost instantaneously.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

I uh I actually had a moment a couple months ago. My uh I had a Visio TV that I have connected to my computer, and I've had it disconnected for years from the internet because I don't need updates to it. I use it as a regular TV. I've never once used the smart TV functions of that. And I went and turned it on one day and it's it just popped up showing me it was updating all of a sudden. Yeah. I'm just like, okay, you know, I don't I don't remember reconnecting you, but sure, we'll go with that. And I looked at my network uh report actually, and the TV uploaded over 200 gigabytes of data that I think it was collecting over that period of time. Probably. Oh, yeah. I didn't have it connected. That's what happened. And it just shot that whole uh that whole data payload back to the manufacturer.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Wow. So you know, and you might think to yourself, hey, I didn't agree to this. Yeah, how can they be doing that to my TV? Well, guess what? You probably did. You probably did. Yeah, you did. When you turn, you know, it's one of those little fine points, you know.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

I just want to watch the football game. Okay, yes, yes, yes. Here's my firstborn onto the show.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

So, anyway, so you can you can turn it off. Yes, so and and it's free to turn off. So basically, every TV manufacturer has a way to turn this feature off, and and they all call it maybe a little something different. So, so listen up. And and by the way, I'm gonna get into the details of all the major manufacturers right here on the show. And you'll be able to recap this by going to our podcast. Go to refreshcomputers.net, click on that podcast link in the upper right-hand corner, and you'll be able to hear this show in its entirety. And in the description area where we do a little bit of a transcript of the show will be all these bullet points that you'll see. And how do I know these bullet points are going to be there, Adam? Just because I said it, my AI tool is going to make it for you. Exactly. So the the the beauty of AI.

Turn Off ACR By TV Brand

SPEAKER_01 7:15

So Samsung, if you have a Samsung Smart TV, they call it viewing information services. So you go to settings, then general and privacy, then terms and privacy, and turn it off. There's a place right there, just turn that off. LG, if you have an LG phone, LG TV, they call it Live Plus. So you go to Settings, All Settings, General, System, Additional Settings, Turn it off. Boy, they don't make it easy, do they?

SPEAKER_02 7:47

They really they really bury these settings, and it's you know, it's I hate to say it, but it's really just almost obvious that they don't want you turning this off with how much it's buried.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Well, because they make money off of you. Yeah. So here, okay, Sony's. You have a Sony TV. It's called Samba, interactive TV. What? So you find it in settings and you turn that off. So Samba, S-A-M-B-A, maybe Samba, I'm not sure how to pronounce it. Interactive TV. So it's in the settings, turn it off. Visio, a lot of you have Visio TVs. It's called viewing data. Hey, that that's a really good idea. That actually makes sense for the name of it and what it does. Yeah. You go to menu, system, reset, and admin, turn it off there. If you have a Roku TV, a TCL TV, or a HiSense TV, guess what? Yep, they're all doing the same snapshots. So in any of these TVs, you go to settings, privacy, smart TV experience. That's odd. Smart TV experience, yeah, for them. Turn it off there. So and you last is fire TV. So you so you have a fire TV direct from Amazon. So you go to settings, preferences, privacy settings, turn off a thing called device usage data. So you don't have to write all this stuff down. I know it was too quick. This is a radio show and a podcast. So you're you're not able to just pause. Well, you can pause if you're listening to the podcast and and replay and do that. Again, the place to do that is refreshcomputers.net. Click on that podcast link in the upper right hand corner. Or better yet, while I'm at it, go down to the bottom of RefreshComputers.net website, at any page on refreshcomputers.net, put in your email address, click subscribe, and then you will be notified the minute via email that this is ready for you to be l to be listened to on the podcast version of the show. Because every radio show we do here at Tech Talk is converted into a podcast a little later on. So I'm gonna give you a couple bonus moves while you're in there, while you're in your settings.

Kill Targeted Ads And Always Listening

SPEAKER_01 10:04

Also, if you can find interest-based ads in the same privacy menu in a lot of these TVs, just turn that off.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Yeah, it may also be called um curated ads. I know on a lot of TVs I've been calling it that now as well.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Okay. So if you're remote, here's another thing that that's very important. You know, a lot of these remotes, like the Roku remotes now, they have a microphone. That's just not there to make it easy for you to just say, hey, do something, TV. Yeah. That's also listening to you. And so you can go into settings and you can turn off the voice or that's sometimes it's called always listening feature. Boy, do you really want your remote control on your TV to always listen to you?

SPEAKER_02 10:50

I can tell you right now, I can't think of any reason why I would need it just on standby, always listening, because half the time I'm going to change something, I'm already grabbing the remote to do it. Right. I don't think to just start yelling at my TV, hey TCL, flip the channel or something.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

I've never used the microphone in my remote, but I know it has one. Yeah. But since I learned about this, I have turned it off because it was on. Folks, it's on by default. On by default. All these features I'm talking about, these things that you need to go and shut off on your TV, it's on by default. So it you it's not something that you would have had to turn on. It's already on.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

These manufacturers want these things enabled as well. So it just makes sense that they are, you know, enabled by default, but not to us consumers. Doesn't make sense at all.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

So I I will play devil's advocate. Maybe you are someone who likes to have those interest-based ads. Suggestion for a television show that you haven't seen before. But there are lots of beneath a lot of the things.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

That's a good point, Guru.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Um, and also I listen, you're listening if you're listening to us on WDBO, we are not a free radio station. We pay people and we have advertisers that work with us. So a lot of these things are very valuable to companies like a WDBO or other companies that are looking to really figure out who's listening, how they're listening, how often, and things like that. So it's I wouldn't say it's all necessarily nefarious. I do think it's nefarious when it's hidden. I don't like the idea of it just being kind of hidden in your tr in your regular terms and conditions. Right, right. You think it's just an okay button that you're pressing. It should be more explained to the general public. Hey, this is going to be collected. This is what we do with it. If you'd like us to continue with this, press okay. If you don't want it, press no. You're right.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

I'm I'm really glad that you jumped in because there's there's a lot of people completely okay with it. And there's a mindset out there also that, hey, we're being tracked on everything we do anyway.

unknown 12:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

We're pretty much defenseless against it.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

It's a war on all fronts, if you kind of think about it like that, too. You know, it's just and you know, you make a really good point, Greg, that there are companies that you know use this information for you know very good reasons. You know, it's how they can run their business. And it puts the question, I guess, in my head to play devil's advocate to your devil's advocate of what happens if somebody gets into one of these big companies and can just collect that data and can find a way to abuse it.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

But that's always an issue. Exactly. That's that's the issue with any kind of monitoring system, any kind of system, you know, government, especially, you know, uh red light cameras, uh the license plate readers, you know, there's been reports of those being like hacked into or used by the personnel who are trusted to keep that data safe.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

You know, now we even uh we even have you know changes. I know over overseas, and I believe uh that in Europe they're starting to change um social media age, where you have to be verified with age, who knows if they could use monitoring stuff to figure out you know who's using what?

SPEAKER_01 13:35

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

That's you know, it's there's all these questions up in the air of what they can use this data for that I think rubs, Dave, and I a little odd when it comes to just everything collecting data about.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

That's true. But listen, I want to bring up something else too. So if your TV gets a software update, so you know a lot of times there's a firmware update that happens on your TV, a lot of times it's automatically. Even though you switch all these things off, when you get a firmware update, sometimes it's switching it back on. Right. So you need to be aware of that and you can turn that off. So small business owners, the same tracking is real, it's a real risk on TVs and conference rooms and lobbies in your business. It can capture what's on the screen during a presentation or video call.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

Something confidential.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

So do you really yeah, something confidential? There's a lot of confidential meetings going on, right? And they're the they're showing stuff on the screen. And if that screen is connected to the internet, oh, you don't have anything to worry about. Well, you do have something to worry about. If it's not connected to the internet, you don't have anything to worry about. But like you said, Adam, as soon as you connect it to the internet, it's retained as much information as it can possibly retain. Yep. And it's going to shoot that information on over.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

We'd love to hear your response. Use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app and let us know if you're okay with it. Or, hey, maybe that's something that we need to make sure is turned off on our TV at home. You're listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. Or you can always leave an open mic comment inside that WDBO app. And now back to David and Adam. All right.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Thanks, Greg, and thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. If you missed the first segment of today's show, we had a really good segment on how your TV, your smart TV, is watching you, whether you know it or not, whether you want it to or not. And you can turn it off. We gave specific steps for each of the major manufacturers on how to go into your TV and turn that off. And if you want to recap that, you can listen to this podcast by going to refreshcomputers.net, click on that podcast link in the upper right-hand corner. You can hear the show. And there will be bullet points inside there where you'll see the instructions on how to turn off that snipe sniffling feature. Sniffling. Sniping feature, whatever you want to call it, spying feature that's on your TV.

Lock Down Home Wi-Fi Properly

SPEAKER_01 16:28

So in this segment, we want to talk about well, you know, speaking of your things on your home network, how refreshed computers can help you set up and lock down your home network and why it's more important than ever to get that home network locked down. And what do I mean by that?

SPEAKER_02 16:46

There's a little more than just plugging in the boxes and getting off to go, you know? That's how that's how easy a lot of these internet companies make it seem.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

That's right. And it's a lot more than resetting a default password on your Wi-Fi system, for example. So, you know, one of the things that we can help you do at your at your home or office. So maybe you have one of these smart TVs in your conference room and you don't want it capturing everything that's that you're showing on that in that uh conference room is that we can come out and help you turn that feature off on your smart TV. Yes. So we can also help with setting up your Wi-Fi the right way. So making sure there's a strong signal in every room with maybe a mesh system. So no more dead spots in the back bedroom, for example, or the garage, or you know, right outside at the far corner of your patio. We can help you get that all set up right there at your home. Making sure that all your gadgets are talking to each other in the most efficient way.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

That's one of the hardest things to do with with uh home networks is getting everything just to talk right. You know, it's it always seems like at least me at home, I'm always being frustrated that my nest thermostat just keeps disappearing off the internet. I go look at it and it's like, oh, it just forgot that it was connected to the internet.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Well, you know, so we're talking about TVs, right? We were already talking about printers, speakers, cameras all over your house, thermostats, like you just said, and all kinds of, you know, basically whatever connects to the internet, you need to lock it down. And we talked about in a previous show. One good way to lock that down is making sure that all your peripheral equipment, everything other than your main computer and laptop is on a guest Wi-Fi network. Don't have all your, don't have your blink doorbell on your main network. Put that on the guest network. And there's a reason why you need to do that. It's for sure your security. Isolation. It really is. It isolates all that stuff. And so it keeps basically if it's on a guest network in your home or your business, there's a firewall between that network and the main network. Yep. So whatever's on the guest network can't get into the main network where you have your computer where it can be snooping around on your computer. Exactly. Excuse me. So getting all your gadgets to talk to each other and on the correct network is very important. And refresh computers can help you do that. So we can also make sure that your router password is a very strong password. And again, we can set up that separate guest network for you if you have not already done that. And we can get all your peripheral devices set up on that guest network if that's something that you don't have, you know, the knowledge or or maybe you just don't want to try to hassle with.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:26

You know, that's what Refresh Computers is there for. We can come out to your home or office and get that done for you. It's a simple phone call to our free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. It's not a free service to come out to your home or your business, but we can give you some tips over the phone by calling that number 407-478-8200. So don't forget, we provide those on-site services for both your home or your office in the Greater Orlando area.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

It's such a great option to have, especially if you're a local small business that doesn't have your own full IT department. Yeah. What a great option to have somebody local come out and be able to help you out with that. If you've got a question about that, give them a call. Again, that free tech support hotline, 407-478-8200. You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, president and founder of Refresh Computer Superstore, and technician Adam Littlefield. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have a comment during the show, go ahead and leave an open mic inside the WDBO app. You can also check out the website over at Refresh Computers.net or stop in at the Refresh Computer Superstore in Longwood at 820 East State Road 434, just three and a half miles east of I-4 in Longwood. Store hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., which means if you're listening to the show here on Saturday, you still have time to stop by. They'll be open until 7 p.m. today. And now back to David and Adam.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

All right. Thanks, Greg. And thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. I'm David Levitt, the owner and founder of Refresh Computers, a 26-year-old computer store and service location right here in Central Florida. We've been around for a long time and just happy to have this radio show called Tech Talk, also, that you know, hopefully inspires your inner nerd a little bit. And hopefully you find a lot of stuff here interesting that we talk about on the Tech Talk show. We talked earlier about how your smart TV is watching you. So you're not just watching it, it's kind of watching you too. The two-way road. That's right. And it's listening to you too, if you have a remote control with a microphone in it. So, you know, you might want to catch that show by going. That segment by going to refreshcomputers.net, click on that podcast link in the upper right hand corner. You'll be able to hear the show in its entirety. And while you're at it, scroll down to the bottom of the page, at any page at refreshcomputers.net. Just type in your email address. That's all we asked for. We don't need anything else. Just put your email address in there and click submit, and you will be signed up to receive an email notification every time one of these tech-packed podcasts are ready for you to listen to. And uh, you know, so we we you'll also get updates, by the way, once a week or so. You know, special deals. We call it the Refresh Insider program. You'll get updates on special deals we have at Refresh Computers. We promise not to bombard you with a gazillion emails, so you that's not gonna happen. You're only gonna get what you signed up for, which is notification that the podcast is out there, and maybe once a week or so an email about some deals. Yep.

Satellite Texting Shrinks Dead Zones

SPEAKER_01 22:56

So in this segment, we're gonna talk about the dead zone on for from your cell phone. It's dying, right? It took long enough. It took a while, took a while, but you know, no more dead space for your cell phones and how that's happening. So right now it's mostly happening because of SpaceX, right? Starlink is right out of our own backyard. That's right. Starlink folks. I mean, they launched special satellites that broadcast a regular cell signal right from space. That those are already out there. We talked last year, Adam, I think. Yeah, it was like last August, I believe. I was on a road trip out west, and we had some dead spots in some of the national parks that we were going in, there's just no cell phone service at all. And on my T-Mobile iPhone, I saw the little thing called TSAT up there in the right hand corner or SAT, and then I was connected with a satellite. I couldn't talk, couldn't make conversations, yeah, but I could send and receive simple text, no message or no photos or anything like that, just simple text. But guess what, folks? That's all has changed, right? So what it can do today, it can send and receive text, including texting 911, which is a great, great feature. That you can share your location, and now today you can actually send photos via the text.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

There, I actually see it here on my phone. It's actually uh says that you can I can send and receive text messages, and I can also use data so I can actually connect to the internet and be able to, you know, view resources instead of just being out in the middle of nowhere. I can finally access that map that I have lost on that road trip. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

So lots of apps you can use now, uh weather, your weather apps, maps, like you said, WhatsApp, if you use WhatsApp, even some voice chats. You know, there's a voice chat feature of WhatsApp, even that works.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

So much of that's been expanded after SpaceX started this Bluebird program. So these new satellites that they're sending up that are specifically for use with these broadbands or these cellular signals that they've utilized. They just sent up another batch here this actually this last week. That's why I know a little bit more about it right now. Oh, wow. So they it's then they're actually larger than their normal satellites. Yes. Usually a SpaceX satellite, when they send them up, they're in batches of about 26 to 29. These only brought up three of these Bluebird satellites. They are much larger than their usual payloads. So uh those three satellites went up. There's another block of them scheduled to go up here later this year. So you'll continue to see that coverage expand and expand. And that's mostly, or is that all for a cell phone service? That is all for cell phone service. That is specifically for cellular devices.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

So yeah, so it's so don't be surprised if you're in a dead zone, you see something called uh T-Mobile SpaceX or TSAT or SAT. And even though it's the deal, I guess, with SpaceX was with T-Mobile, they've also rolled it out through T-Mobile. I'm not sure how that works, but through T-Mobile, they've rolled it out to all the other major carriers. So, you know, no matter what carrier you have, you should be able to access the satellite texting service. So, what's coming tomorrow? Well, it's the next generation of satellites, and that's going to be next year, 2027, they're saying. It aims for full voice calls and real internet, especially you know, basically 5G from space. Yeah, high-speed internet. So that's that's awesome. So the goal, I guess, is to feel no different than a regular cell tower.

SPEAKER_02 26:23

Yeah, make it kind of almost like a seamless interaction where you're, you know, bouncing between cell towers and you get out of range of all those. Well, now you're bouncing between satellites. You know, just they they got to make it seamless and as easy as possible.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

Well, you know, and this is something I predicted years ago when they first started launching the satellites, when SpaceX started launching their satellites out in space for internet service. I I I mentioned right here on this show, it must have been how long has SpaceX been putting satellites out in space now? I don't I have to look at the I don't even have a year. Yeah. Back then I said self self-service is next. Yeah. It's just the natural progression of things because if they can send and receive data through like an internet service, right? Uh I think it'd be pretty easy to figure out how to do cell phone calls and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 27:12

And we uh we we always were shown, you know, in front of us that the this was possible with very specific and special equipment. You know, the we have communications to the ISS. Whenever we have uh missions out into space, we are able to communicate with our astronauts out in the middle of the void. You know, now we're starting to get to this point where we can use that in our own bubble here. And we don't need any special equipment. We don't need any special antennas, you know, no big uh brick phone with that giant antenna that goes two feet above your head, you know, that you see in movies. Now it's just your own conventional smartphone has the built-in capabilities for satellite communication. And, you know, I I know you and I were talking about before the show today, Dave. It's to me, it almost I almost think that there was a lot of writing on the wall for smartphone manufacturers to start putting this capability in, you know, before it even became mainstream, kind of where it is now.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Because I don't, you know, I don't foresee a SpaceX phone. And Elon Musk has even said no, there's not going to be a SpaceX phone. Right. You know, because you know, let's face it, you know, he's well, I was gonna say he's got his hands full, but he always has his hands full. Yeah, he's got so much stuff going on. I don't think that a SpaceX phone would be all that big a deal for Elon to put out there. But but I I think the question would be why would he? Right. You know, he's already providing the service out there, and I don't know that he would want to go that far. Maybe in the future, but right now, definitely not.

SPEAKER_02 28:34

It's such a saturated market, the the phone, the phone market is yeah, the hardware market. You've got so many manufacturers out there already that, you know, to to Elon Musk, he's seeing, you know, hey, there's already 20 or 30 people doing this. But how many companies are sending satellites to space to get ready to set the infrastructure for satellite communications?

SPEAKER_00 28:52

Still very few. Exactly. I mean, you know, we're we're already seeing some of the issues of kind of relying on one company to do that, Blue Origin with their recent issues out there at the Space Coast, right? And their Amazon Leo satellite constellation that has now been put a little bit on pause because they can't launch anything right now. So SpaceX has been consistent in both getting launches going and their satellite coverage. So I think that's a big key to there.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

Because, yeah, because Amazon is basically trying to direct compete with SpaceX with their satellites to provide internet service. And they're just, like you said, Greg, just having a little bit tougher time getting that stuff up there. I remember comment that Elon Musk made when somebody asked him, What? You're building rocket ships? You know, what makes you think you can build a rocket ship? He says, I can't build a rocket ship, but I got the money to hire the best rocket scientists there are on the planet. Right. Yep. Absolutely. And that's what he did.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

And you know, to touch a little bit on what you were mentioning with Blue Origin and, you know, the unfortunate spontaneous disassembly they had on that launch pad. You know, that was something also SpaceX really specialized in when they first started off. They didn't have, you know, a smooth running slate. They they had some they had some stumbles too.

SPEAKER_01 30:01

But I love the term spontaneous disassembly, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

There's a term they use at SpaceX. I can't remember what it is right now, but it's it's close to But that's why we called it. That's what I'm calling it.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

Disassembly. In other words, an explosion.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

And you know, it's it you're you you hit it on the nail too, saying that Amazon is really trying to directly compete because that's that's what happens when new innovation happens, right? Yeah, we see more companies come out to innovation to keep the price down.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

Yeah. And it's it's it's good, it's good competition for that kind of program. Competition. Yeah. And you know what's the best thing of all? It's not the government doing it. Exactly. It's private companies doing this stuff in space. This is just so awesome. So, but there's a you know what?

Limits Today And What’s Next

SPEAKER_01 30:45

There's a caveat here. And I'm gonna get into why they're gonna get around this caveat.

SPEAKER_02 30:50

Like there is with all technology, there there are pros and there are cons.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

Absolutely. So the con right now of being able to use your phone should be pretty obvious if you haven't thought of it already.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

If you're inside your house, yes, you have to you have to have a clear view to the sky, you know. Maybe a couple clouds may slow down your signal a little bit, but if you're inside your house or inside a recording studio like we are now, it's not gonna work.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

It's not gonna work. You you you drive under a bridge or through a tunnel, you know, you know, it's not working there. And you know, but the good thing out in the middle of the desert, it works great, you know. But the thing is, and my prediction is that that's not gonna be an issue too much in the near future, not because a satellite signal can get through a wall or your roof, because that's probably not gonna happen, but it's unless they come up with some kind of new radio technology from space. But what's going to happen is in place of 5G towers and cell phone towers will be relay towers. Basically, the same kind of thing is probably would still use 5G technology, but instead of 5G towers being splattered out all over a neighborhood, they don't need this many. It's just relaying the signal from space from that tower into your homes. So it'll still work. Like a worldwide mesh network. Yeah. Something like that. A worldwide mesh network.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

They could be designed to you to get past some of the blockages that we may have. Again, major storms are a major like thing that causes so many, you know, signal disruptions right now. A satellite that, you know, you could build the towers high enough, you might be able to get past it. You never know. The main thing for me with satellite, though, is just, you know, like you were saying, Dave, in the in the middle of desert, it works great. But if you're in the middle of Florida, you know, here, say you're in the middle of like a huge, you know, storm, like we've been talking about on the last show, how to prepare for those, you know, satellite coverage may may still not work at that time. It might not.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

Yeah. It might not. And you know, and you might, you know, being honest here, I mean, you can never truly disconnect anymore, right? You that you might be in that, except for there is one feature that works every single time. I don't care what device that you use, and that's called the off button.

SPEAKER_02 33:02

You used that today, didn't you, Dave? Yes. It's something that we forget that we can do is we can turn our devices off.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

As long as you still have that off button, you're okay if you don't want to be tracked or followed around anymore. So, you know, and so dead zones again. They're going away. Think of the past for any kind of cell phone service, whether it's voice conversations or texting or even sending right now, you can send photos and stuff like that, which you couldn't do last year when they first came out with the service. So they've already upgraded the satellite some for that. And so the next thing is like we already mentioned, is in 2027. Next year, there is a plan to have voice communications on your cell phone via satellite. But keep in mind, even then, if you're inside your house, it's not going to work because you'll still need your your your T-Mobile, your ATT, your Verizon, or whatever services you use, you'll still need that add-on package to your plan. Yes, and there'll just be another method to use your current carrier's service for voice would be through satellite. Right. And they might charge a premium for that. Right. Because the basic place that you would be using it for when the service first comes out are the dead zones that we talked about earlier. It's when you know you're in the middle of a national park like Yellowstone or you know, one of these big parks in the middle of the park, there's no cell phone service at all. You can still make and receive phone calls with the satellite service. So I think it's more like an add-on as opposed to a replacement of cell phones today, even in 2027 when this comes out. But in the future, yeah, it'll probably be more along the lines of replacing that type of service that you're used so used to today.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

And so much of my favorite part of this is that it's all really driving the economy here in our own backyard here in Central Florida and out on the space coast. So it's really cool to really be right on the ground level and really involved with that. But what do you think about all the new space industry coming here to Central Florida? What do you think about maybe not having to have that ATT carrier anymore? Maybe just a Starlink setup for you in the future. Let us know. Use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline, 407-478-8200. You can also check out the website over at refreshcomputers.net. And now back to David and Adam.

SPEAKER_01 35:58

All right. Thanks, Greg, and thanks everybody for listening to another tech-filled edition of Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. We talked a lot about how your smart TV is keeping track of everything you're doing on that TV, whether you're watching TV, playing a video game, watching a DVD, whatever you're doing, it's taking a snapshot every couple seconds, or maybe it's almost too smart for its own good. Too smart for its own good, and it's sending all that data back to the factory. And we're going to tell you why, or we told you why that's happening. If you miss any of that and want to recap, go to refreshcomputers.net and click on that podcast link in the upper right hand corner of the webpage, and you'll be able to listen to the show in its entirety.

Windows Phone Link From Your PC

SPEAKER_01 36:38

So we are going to give you a nice little Windows tip today. And it is called Phone Link. If you have not found that or have not used that, listen up. We're going to tell you how to connect your smartphone to your desktop.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

It's one of my favorite Windows features. It really is. I use this almost every single day. It took Microsoft forever to get this feature done.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

It's been around for a few years now. Actually, it came out with I think Windows 11 when Windows 11 came out. And but boy, does it work nice? I use it also, I love it. And so basically, you know, it's free. It's it's already on your Windows 11 computer, so you don't have to add anything to it. But you know, hardly anybody even knows it's there, Adam. Right. So, but we're gonna tell you how to do it. So it basically connects your phone to your computer so the two can work together. And what it lets you do, well, it it can read and send text messages using your real keyboard.

SPEAKER_02 37:35

Yeah, no more fumbling over your small phone sitting at your desk trying to send a text.

SPEAKER_01 37:39

I've seen some people with their thumbs that just zip across the you know the little keyboard on the display on their phone. I was like, man, I can never be like this. How they do that. They can, but anyway, no more fumbling with your thumbs on your phone. You can, you know, just use your computer keyboard to send and and and l watch text come across and you can reply to them right there, right on your computer. You can see your phone's photos on your computer instantly, right? So you don't have to email pictures to yourself. How many people do that? Right? I mean, I used to do that all the time. I'd take a photo and I got, oh gosh, I need this on my computer. So I'm gonna email it to my to myself. Yep. And so I email it to myself, now it's on my computer. I can get it into my email on my computer. But now you don't have to do that anymore. So you can just see all your you take a picture of it, your phone, boom. You can you if you have this phone link set up, you see it right there on your computer.

SPEAKER_02 38:31

And your your clipboard as well. Say you you've got a password saved in the the notepad on your phone, which I don't suggest doing, but you know, sometimes you just want to copy something from your phone and you want to paste it to your computer. Phone link lets you do that. Yeah, it's seamless. You you copy it on your phone and it you can go to your computer, hit control V, or like we talked about on one of our shows, use Windows V or the clipboard history. That's right. And you've got it there as well.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:55

It's it's it's one of these major features that I really like because I use password managers all the time. And I always have it on my phone. So I will have it on my phone, copy it, it goes over to my computer just instantly.

SPEAKER_01 39:07

It's there. Yeah. Because if you use phone link. And so I mean, stay tuned. We're gonna show you how to get there. We're gonna uh talk about how you get there and how to set it up on your computer. But you can even make an answer, you can make calls, answer phone calls right from your keyboard.

SPEAKER_02 39:21

You can either open and control apps now. That's a new feature that they added recently to be able to almost mirror your phone screen and just control it with your mouse.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

So this is how you do it, folks. I want you to click the start button and just type the word phone link. Those two words, phone link, then open it up, follow the prompts to pair your phone. It's very simple, and it walks you through every little step that you need to take in order to link your smartphone to your computer. It works with Android phones and it also works with the iPhone too. So finally, you know, that you can do something like that with your smartphone. And while you love it, because sitting at your computer, when your phone buzzes across the room, you don't have to get up and disrupt your your workflow. It's you can deal with it without getting up. You can just answer the phone from your computer. Yep. So it's especially handy for like long text replies. You know, I I try not to send long text replies myself, but sometimes they're necessary. It happens, you know. It's a lot easier to beat those replies out right there on your key computer keyboard instead of trying to use that smartphone.

Final Takeaways And Sign Off

SPEAKER_01 40:23

So stay tuned for tomorrow morning. We have a great show uh coming up. We're going to be talking about a whole bunch of new tech features. That's all we have time for today. This is David Levitt signing off. We'll be talking to you again tomorrow morning.