The EFTM podcast – Travelling with a powerbank, mid-range noise cancelling earbuds and more calls

Episode: Travelling with a powerbank, mid-range noise cancelling earbuds and more calls
Podcast: EFTM
Date: 30 June 2026
Host: Trevor Long

[00:00:03] VOICE OVER: The EFTM Podcast. Talkback Technology. Got a question about tech? Trev’s here to help. Not sure what to buy? Ask Trev. Australia’s number one talkback technology podcast.

[00:00:33] VOICE OVER: Join the conversation. Head to eftm.com and click Ask Trev. Helping Australians with tech questions for over 15 years, the EFTM podcast with Trevor Long.

[00:00:44] Trevor: Real Australians, real questions, every week.

[00:00:50] VOICE OVER: You can text Trev now, thanks to Vodafone, on 0477 657 657.

[00:01:04] Trevor: All right, and welcome. Great to have your company. This week’s episode of the EFTM podcast is brought to you by Jackery, the power solution providers. And that’s an ad-libbed tagline. I know nothing about them other than they make big, big batteries. Camping, outdoors, they got you covered. And they’re going to be covered right here at the EFTM studio because we’ve had a blackout for the last hour and a bit, and Ausgrid says it’ll be back sometime. So I went downstairs and grabbed a Jackery Explorer 1500 Ultra, which is bloody heavy. It has 2 normal power points, a kind of AC output and multiple USB ports on the front, as well as a little 12-volt connector as well. And it’s powering this podcast, it’s powering my laptop, my phone, and the RODECaster. And happy days, we can get through in darkness, no problem at all. Just what we all needed. So there you go, I’m in the middle of the review of this thing and I’ve just proven how great it is. Now, do I need one this big? No. So this is overkill for the reason, but it is a great example to me as to why these products are a great thing to have.

[00:02:21] Trevor: We have one at home, a different brand, and it kind of sits at the front of the garage. We have an area at the front of the garage where I charge all the batteries for the lawnmower, the whipper snipper, all the security cameras. They’re all just kind of there. And we have one of these sitting there and I plug it in every now and then to make sure it’s topped up so that if we have a power outage, we can just go, right, let’s put this on the table and plug in what we need. It could be the air fryer, it could be the fridge, whatever we choose. Of course, we’ve also got the electric car in the driveway, which can power a lot of things. But broadly, one of these things is a great thing to have, just a little bit of peace of mind. You know, we just want some light, or we just want to keep the food from going off. Let’s just plug the fridge in and put it on eco mode and don’t open it still, but keep the stuff going, especially if it’s going to be a long outage. But for me, I knew this, look, we have power outages now and then. I knew this would be an hour or two. So I thought, I’m not going to wait and delay my day. So what about that? I’m able to do my job effectively and the same. You wouldn’t notice if I didn’t tell you, just because of this battery here. Jackery, J-A-C-K-E-R-Y, Jackery. I’ve seen them at trade shows, CES and the like, for years. And they reached out for this review and they’ve got other products with huge batteries, smaller batteries. They’ve got big solar panel style things. They’ve got it all happening. So yeah, really cool products. And they look and they feel really well made too and really robust. I’ve seen some cheap ones, I’ve seen some good ones. I know EcoFlow makes some good ones, but this thing just feels just another level of robustness to it, which I really enjoy. So thank you to Jackery for being in my review pile at this very moment in time so that I can make sure the EFTM podcast is happening and ready for you. We’ve got a lot of calls to get through today, so we’ll chug on and get straight to them. Whatever your question, whatever your issues, if you want to be on the show, I’d love to hear from you. Get in touch, 0477 657 657, or send me an email via the website eftm.com, or click Ask Trev in the EFTM app, and we’ll get you on the show. Let’s get on with the show.

[00:04:38] VOICE OVER: Helping Australians with tech questions for over 15 years, the EFTM podcast with Trev Long.

[00:04:46] Trevor: Great to have your company. Happy to help wherever I can. Whether you’ve got a tech question or you want to go buying something new and you need some advice, happy to be your secret shopper anytime you want. Just send me a text, 0477 657 657, or go to the EFTM app and click Ask Trev, or online, eftm.com. Andrew’s on the line. G’day, Andrew.

Andrew — RedCap 5G backup plans for NBN outages

[00:05:06] Andrew: Morning, Trev. How you doing?

[00:05:07] Trevor: Yeah, really good. What can I do for you, mate?

[00:05:10] Andrew: I’ve got a question about the telco plans that are out at the moment. Ubiquiti recently released a device that you can add to your network that acts as a backup 5G connection to your home NBN, and it uses a new 5G RedCap technology. And from what I understand, RedCap is reduced capability, so it doesn’t use the full 5G bandwidth. But are there any telcos offering plans that use this technology in an affordable way? Because you don’t want to pay full price, you just want it as a backup, so you don’t want to pay a lot of money for this plan. Because there’s no point buying the hardware if there’s no plan to go with it, I suppose.

[00:05:59] Trevor: Yeah, it’s a funny one because I’ve definitely heard of it briefly mentioned, but I’ve never heard anyone talk about plans for it. Now, Optus, for example, were talking about this a couple of years ago, having trialled RedCap on their network. So we know they’re thinking about it and they’re working on it. But my problem is, and I could be completely wrong, but I bet you they’re working on it for themselves. For example, Telstra offer an NBN modem that has 5G backup. That’s probably programmed with RedCap and we don’t even know it, because you don’t pay the extra for the SIM, you’re not paying for a plan, you don’t care, it just works. Optus likewise have probably done something similar for their own backup and redundant situations. I’m not aware of any actual, shall we call them RedCap plans, if you want to put it that way.

[00:06:55] Andrew: Yeah.

[00:06:56] Trevor: So you are essentially left with the idea of literally just having a normal plan and paying for it. So you’re not getting any of the advantage of the RedCap capable technology, which is a pain in the bum.

[00:07:10] Andrew: Yeah. Because you’re already paying for your NBN. We appreciate the NBN is going to have minor outages and you just, especially if you work from home like I do, you just want that extra coverage. So when there is an outage, it doesn’t mess up your day for a couple hours while you’re trying to get everything back online.

[00:07:26] Trevor: And I think the problem is any telco would say, no, no, it’s fine, our network is RedCap compatible. So if you put a SIM card in, it will work, right? But you’ve got to pay a normal rate, you’ve got to buy a normal SIM, you’ve got to have that sitting there waiting to go. Now what I personally would look at, I’d look at whatever networks I have, and hopefully you’ve got Vodafone, Optus in addition to Telstra. I’m paying for so many mobile plans, honestly. I’ve got them for the whole family, and then there’s one on each dash cam, a portable broadband, the phone I’m calling on now. I can do with one less. But I’d be looking for a 12-month plan with Kogan Mobile to put in there, because the problem is if you go with anything that’s essentially pay as you go, you’re going to pay huge. Like if your power’s out, like my power’s out right now as we talk, essentially my NBN is down now. If I had power to my Wi-Fi, let’s say you had Ubiquiti running on backup power, you’d be drawing on that pay as you go plan and you could be using huge amounts of data. And that’s a challenge with any lower end plan is they might not have enough data to cope with even a 2-hour outage of your system.

[00:08:47] Andrew: Yes.

[00:08:48] Trevor: So in the end, I think the answer to your question is no, we’re not equipped yet for this level of telco backup. But maybe because the telcos have got exclusivity over their own networks, they don’t need to sell RedCap plans to anyone else. Because if you want a 5G backup, you go with Telstra is what they would think, get their modem, it does it.

[00:09:08] Andrew: Sure.

[00:09:10] Trevor: So yeah, whereas I’m assuming you’ve got a Ubiquiti network throughout the place.

[00:09:13] Andrew: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:09:15] Trevor: And what’s the power of that for you? Is it just the technical capabilities of it or is it its range? Why did you choose it?

[00:09:27] Andrew: Because it’s the flexibility. I’m in a rental house which has Ethernet throughout the house. So rather than buy a system where I’m limited by the devices, I’m able to work out exactly where to put each access point to give all the right coverage through the house. I work in the office and it gives me the ability to put a switch in the office for all the office computers so I can work comfortably. So it’s just that flexibility to make a tailored solution rather than just one off the shelf.

[00:10:03] Trevor: Yeah, well, sounds like a great solution, but there’s no backup plan for you other than to say if you wanted to put that 5G in, I’d go and get a Boost Mobile or a Kogan SIM for 12 months, because how many times do you think you’re gonna use it? Like how many times has your NBN gone down?

[00:10:19] Andrew: Probably once a month.

[00:10:20] Trevor: Really? For a couple hours.

[00:10:22] Andrew: Yeah, yeah. I’m at Mount Colah, so.

[00:10:24] Trevor: Well, and what technology, HFC?

[00:10:26] Andrew: Yeah, HFC, yeah.

[00:10:28] Trevor: Have you logged a fault?

[00:10:30] Andrew: Yes, yep. And I’m with iiNet and they give me the text message, yes, we’re aware, NBN has told us there’s an outage, blah, blah, blah. So it’s all fully tracked. But yeah, I’ll regularly lose it for a couple hours once a month.

[00:10:43] Trevor: Dude, I don’t think that’s acceptable. I was going to say, oh, a couple of times a year I just accepted that was normal. But I don’t think it is. No, I genuinely don’t think it is. What I would like you to do, text Producer Rob back and get my email address and send me an email with anything you can. If you can document a couple of months’ worth of outages and your address, I’ll ask the NBN whether they can investigate, because it could be that there’s an issue with one of the splitter boxes, because HFC is a brilliant technology until it’s either overcapacity or there’s noise on the network and things like that. It’s very simple little things that can put it out, as well as a tree coming down because your HFC’s over the power lines, right? I live in a leafy area, not too far from you, and if it’s a windy day or big storms, we just expect that, we expect something’s gonna go down, power and everything. But on the regular, I don’t think that’s acceptable, mate. So at the very least, I think we should find out from the NBN whether they think it’s acceptable. Okay, so get me a little rundown of when it happens and what they’ve said, and let’s go from there.

[00:12:08] Andrew: Okay, we’ll do.

[00:12:09] Trevor: All right, buddy, good luck.

[00:12:10] Andrew: All right, thanks, Trev.

[00:12:11] Trevor: Thanks, buddy. No worries. Yeah, it’s a strange one. So firstly on RedCap, it’s a fascinating, very nerdy technology, but I don’t think you’re going to get any luck. But if anyone knows any different, please let me know. But I don’t think an outage a month is acceptable. So I don’t know, am I wrong? I’d be hearing from my kids if that was happening. But maybe it’s also more visible because he’s at home and you notice those things if they’re happening during the day. But certainly any scheduled outages shouldn’t be that often, and network outages should be looked into.

[00:12:49] VOICE OVER: This is the EFTM podcast.

[00:12:53] Trevor: Great to have your company. Get in touch anytime you want. Laurie’s on the line. G’day, Laurie.

Laurie — New ASUS ZenBook laptop and Microsoft Office one-off purchase

[00:12:56] Laurie: Hi, good morning.

[00:12:58] Trevor: We spoke a few weeks ago. You’re looking at laptop options, I think your battery on your laptop was not great. Where are you at? What have you done?

[00:13:07] Laurie: Well, I have now managed to buy one, the same brand that you recommended, and I have now got it sitting in my bedroom. I haven’t opened it till now, but I am going to do so.

[00:13:20] Trevor: So tell me, what did you get?

[00:13:22] Laurie: I got the ASUS ZenBook A14.

[00:13:25] Trevor: Nice.

[00:13:26] Laurie: And it looked really lovely because they had a model on display, looking at it, and I really was taken up. I thought, no, I’ll get it, doesn’t matter.

[00:13:36] Trevor: Yeah, that’s good.

[00:13:37] Laurie: An arm and a leg, I’ll just get it. It’ll last me probably till the time I pass away.

[00:13:43] Trevor: Oh, stop it, stop it. No, it’s great. It’s a great laptop. I really think that’s a great laptop. You’ll love it. It’s an investment, but you’ll enjoy that a lot. So you haven’t set it up yet?

[00:13:56] Laurie: No, I haven’t. My nephew is a little bit of a tech savvy person, said to me he was quite happy to come and help me set it up and transfer all my data.

[00:14:12] Trevor: Gotta love the nerdy nephew. That’s what we want.

[00:14:14] Laurie: Yes, yes.

[00:14:15] Trevor: So what’s the exchange rate on that, Laurie? What’s your go-to, scones, cakes? What are you making?

[00:14:21] Laurie: No, no, no, no, no. I give him cash. I always give him cash.

[00:14:25] Trevor: Listen, I can speak on behalf of all the nerdy nephews. A hot scone would be wonderful. Just make a meal.

[00:14:37] Laurie: Well, he’s a bit fussy with what people give him to eat, so he likes his own cooking his mother makes him, so I leave it at that. But look, I’m sure he’ll do pretty well on getting the data transfer. You know, Trevor, he worked for Microsoft. He went into TAFE to do some course which Microsoft had sent him there to acquaint himself with different matters that they were wanting him to learn. And when he was there, the lecturer said to him, who asked you to come on this course? He said Microsoft. And he said to him, you shouldn’t be in this course. So my nephew said to him, what do you think I should be doing? He said, you should be doing electronics because look at the marks you scored at your HSC. So he had to change over. He was quite upset he had to change over. His mom said to him, why don’t you do what the lecturer is advising you? You didn’t take my advice when I advised you at HSC, you did what you wanted, you’re better off listening to your lecturer. So he’s now gone into electronics and he’s doing very well. Very well.

[00:15:51] Trevor: That’s lovely. Well, hopefully he gets that all set up for you nice. It’s a beautiful laptop. It’ll give you many happy years of service.

[00:15:59] Laurie: I’m sure it will, Trevor. Thank you. And Trevor, the other thing is about the 365, the Windows, I know it is a bit expensive. I was going to buy the personal product which is for use on one laptop by one person, but it’s a bit expensive, it’s about 300 something plus dollars, one-off. I was quite sort of staggered when he told me the price. Anyway, he said there is a 12-month fee, if you buy the other product, it’s for 12 months and it’s about $100 and something, so he says you can use it.

[00:16:37] Trevor: I didn’t know you could still do Microsoft as a one-off. Honestly, if you can, I would do that, because why would you pay $100 a year when you could be using that for 5 years?

[00:16:49] Laurie: Yeah, that’s what I told him. He says, no, it’ll last you for 10 years, but then every year you will get a reminder and you don’t have to renew. I said, what do you mean I don’t have to renew? I’m not going to get all my updates if I don’t renew. And I said, cost-wise, it is going to work out more in the long term, I would rather buy the one-off. He says, yes, you can buy the one-off, just shop around and look for the best deal as to who is giving you a better price for that product. Honestly, I had no idea you could still just buy Office outright.

[00:17:19] Trevor: I thought it was an entirely subscription product. So there you go.

[00:17:24] Laurie: It is a subscription, but you can buy the one-off if you wanted to.

[00:17:28] Trevor: I’m looking online now on the Australian website. Office Home 2024, one-time purchase for one PC. Classic 2024 versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.

[00:17:39] Laurie: That’s right.

[00:17:40] Trevor: $219 from Microsoft themselves.

[00:17:44] Laurie: Oh really? Okay.

[00:17:45] Trevor: So just get your nerdy nephew to install that for you. He’ll just download it online. You don’t need to go anywhere.

[00:17:52] Laurie: Can I buy it online from Microsoft?

[00:17:54] Trevor: Yes, you can just go to the Microsoft website. I searched on Google for “can you buy Office outright?” and I scrolled down past all of the other results and I found a link to Microsoft which says “Buy Office Home 2024.” Make sure you’re on the Microsoft website and it’ll tell you there what it is. Click “Buy Now” and you’re good to go.

[00:18:18] Laurie: Okay, excellent. So maybe I’ll, because I bought the product from Officeworks. And the only reason I went there was because I have Flybuy points, so I used some of my Flybuy points, so it didn’t cost me all that much, it just cost me a little over $1,100. So I thought I’ll use my points. And that’s when the guy said to me over there that you can buy it from us, but they were pretty expensive, $300 and something plus dollars at Officeworks.

[00:18:51] Trevor: Buy it direct from Microsoft, $219. You can buy it online once that computer’s set up.

[00:18:55] Laurie: All right, excellent.

[00:18:56] Trevor: Good luck, Laurie.

[00:18:58] Laurie: Thanks, thanks for all your help.

[00:19:01] Trevor: Good luck. My pleasure, my pleasure. Thank you. There you go, she’s got a new laptop. It’s a beautiful laptop, the ASUS ZenBook A14. I didn’t want to dampen her spirits by telling her I think it’s on unbelievably good discounts right now for end of financial year, so I hope she got a great deal. But there you go, that’s Laurie with a follow-up from a laptop battery problem a few weeks ago.

[00:19:26] VOICE OVER: Join the conversation, head to eftm.com and click Ask Trev.

[00:19:32] Trevor: Great to have your company. Rosemary’s on the line. G’day, Rosemary.

Rosemary — Phone repair shop wiped messages and photos

[00:19:35] Rosemary: Hello, Trevor.

[00:19:36] Trevor: What can I do for you?

[00:19:38] Rosemary: I took my phone to a phone shop in Queanbeyan just to get Google Maps working. It was already on the phone, but I just couldn’t get it to work.

[00:19:46] Trevor: All right.

[00:19:48] Rosemary: And I didn’t realize, I looked at the phone and yeah, that was working. But when I got home, all my messages had been deleted. So I went back to him the next day because I don’t live in town. Went back the next day and he did work on it for a while, but he didn’t get the messages back. There was no PIN needed then to get in, the COVID photos removed. It was just a mess.

[00:20:18] Trevor: You know what he’s done? On the second time, he’s basically done a factory reset, he’s wiped the phone. And so that’s what you’ve got the second time. And so you’re looking for your old text messages and things like that, are you?

[00:20:32] Rosemary: Yeah. Yep, that’s right, so stuff from family and all that. I had saved some photos, but yeah, some I hadn’t saved.

[00:20:41] Trevor: Unfortunately, Rosemary, I don’t think the news is good.

[00:20:43] Rosemary: I know.

[00:20:44] Trevor: I don’t suspect there’s any backups of it. Messages are not something that’s kept easily in the cloud. Photos are often stored somewhere, emails sometimes, but text messages and things like that are rarely stored in backup processes, especially if it’s been through a factory reset, because a reset is basically wipe it clean, start again. And when you put in your email address, did you give them your email address and password to set the phone up?

[00:21:10] Rosemary: Yes.

[00:21:12] Trevor: The other thing I want to say to you is, I want you to change your password.

[00:21:16] Rosemary: Yep, yep.

[00:21:17] Trevor: Not that I don’t trust the lovely person that did try and help after they clearly stuffed it up, but I want you to change your password because you should never let your password out of your own sight.

[00:21:29] Rosemary: So yeah, he was very unpleasant at the end there, unfortunately.

[00:21:33] Trevor: Well, even more reason to please change your password. And look, I don’t want to go full freak out on you, but as good life admin and a good security update, now’s a good time to change as many passwords as you can. So first and foremost, your email, because you probably gave him any password you gave him, change them. Secondly, change your bank password. Change the obvious things that could cause you harm.

[00:22:07] Rosemary: Yes.

[00:22:07] Trevor: Right? And I don’t want another phone call from you at some point saying, “I’ve lost everything and been scammed out of $20,000.” So for your own safety and protection, I think that’s the smart thing to do. And unfortunately, the only learning here is not to go to that guy again. Yeah, dick. Over something as simple as Google Maps not working, was probably something to do with the GPS not being configured correctly or turned off, or goodness only knows, right? It probably didn’t have location permission, something very, very simple.

[00:22:35] Rosemary: And just a simple thing like that, and yeah, it’s caused me a lot of grief.

[00:22:41] Trevor: I can imagine, Rosemary, because it’s weird. When I saw your message that a repair had caused you to lose messages, often people go to, say, an Apple Store with an iPhone, and Apple say, no matter whether you’re handing over a broken screen or a problem with the phone, they say, have you backed it up? Because you never know what they’re going to do to the phone, or if they say it’s not fixable, we’ll give you another one, who knows? So that’s why they say that, and it’s disappointing that you weren’t given that advice as well.

[00:23:09] Rosemary: Yeah, learned a lesson.

[00:23:11] Trevor: You’ve learned a lesson, Rosemary, unfortunately. Have you got all your contacts still though, like people’s phone numbers and things?

[00:23:16] Rosemary: My contacts were still there, but just all the messages gone.

[00:23:20] Trevor: Well, the only hope you’ve got is if there’s little things that you want to remember, or photos, or just addresses, or whatever. Let’s try and find the upside. Do you remember the movie Pollyanna?

[00:23:34] Rosemary: Oh gosh, that’s a long time ago.

[00:23:36] Trevor: So my beautiful aunt, my wife’s Auntie Chelle, who has an intellectual disability, and she turned 63 last weekend or the weekend before, loves Sound of Music and Pollyanna. We watch it pretty much every 3 weeks. And little Pollyanna comes to town and she’s just innocent and all that, but she has this game called the Glad Game. What can we be glad about? And what I want to do is go, what can we be glad about here? Well, let’s be glad about the fact that you can reach out to people in your contacts and say hi: “Hey, it’s Rosemary, remember that thing you sent me?”

[00:24:07] Rosemary: I lost it.

[00:24:07] Trevor: “Can you send it to me again?” And do you know what, a lovely reconnection with people. Because it’s weird when I get a message from a relative like a cousin or an aunt or someone I wouldn’t normally talk to regularly, it just rekindles that thing. And you might send them a little photo of your kids or something. So a nice way to reconnect and rekindle a conversation with someone anyway.

[00:24:26] Rosemary: Okay, thanks very much, Trev.

[00:24:28] Trevor: All right, Rosemary, good luck.

[00:24:29] Rosemary: I really appreciate you ringing me.

[00:24:31] Trevor: Anyway, my pleasure, my pleasure. Good on you.

[00:24:34] Rosemary: Thank you.

[00:24:34] Trevor: Bye. Ah, poor Rosemary. I feel bad, but there’s not even anything I can do for her now, do you know what I mean? It’s one and done, it’s gone. Very hard to fix that one. Anyway, hopefully she does reconnect with some people and maybe there’s some joy in that, something to be glad about, as Pollyanna would say. You’re listening to the EFTM podcast.

[00:25:07] VOICE OVER: You can text Trev now thanks to Vodafone on 0477 657 657.

[00:25:14] Trevor: Great to have your company and would love to hear from you. Whatever your tech question, if you want to buy something new and you need my advice, I’m happy to help, I’ll secret shop for you, I’ll spend your money for you, no dramas at all. Or if you’ve got a problem with something technical in your world, send me a text 0477 657 657 or click Ask Trev on the EFTM website or the EFTM app. Barry’s on the line.

Barry — Choosing a portable power bank for overseas travel

[00:25:35] Barry: G’day, Trevor.

[00:25:36] Trevor: Sir, how can I help you?

[00:25:38] Barry: Well, I’m interested in buying a power bank for my phone, which I’m going to take overseas with me. And there is just such a plethora of devices online, and I’m wondering what you’re saying about what size and what’s best.

[00:25:53] Trevor: Are you only needing to power your phone, or are you worried about tablets and laptops and things like that as well?

[00:26:01] Barry: Try not to take the laptop overseas, you don’t get much of a holiday, do you? But probably that would be useful for use in Australia as well, so probably a bit of both, but it’s either a laptop or a mobile phone. Mobile phone’s with me all the time, laptop I try and avoid.

[00:26:18] Trevor: Do you think you will travel to China with a portable battery? It’s a very important question.

[00:26:26] Barry: We’re talking Europe.

[00:26:26] Trevor: Okay, perfect. Because China has very weird extra regulations on planes, because you would have heard all the rules about planes, you can’t put them in your baggage, you have to carry them with you, and you can’t actually use them while you’re on the plane. Very weird set of rules. But anyway, in China, the battery has to have an extra level of certification on it, which not a lot of batteries do, so I literally had to buy special batteries just for that purpose. Look, it’s much easier just to say a battery for your phone and tablet is pretty easy to buy. If you do want the laptop down the track, you need a big bulky one, not something I would recommend you get for travel. So I’d park the laptop thing and worry about that when you come back if you need portability. The thing I would say is it comes down to how often you think you’re gonna carry it around, because a big battery can be heavy. So in my mind, 10,000 milliamp hours, some of them will just say 10K, but 10,000, that is gonna charge your phone twice. That’s a no-brainer. So that’s basically something you could have with you during a day, and if you felt like things weren’t going well on the phone battery, plug it in, and by the end of a couple of hours you’ll have full battery again. And you probably won’t need to charge that battery every night, you’ll just take it with you where you go. 10,000 milliamp hours is the number, very nice, 10K, and super portable, very lightweight. I would carry a 20,000 because I’m the kind of person that’s going to go, oh, I’m nervous, I’m at 50%, I’m going to plug it in now. The other thing is I would recommend you buy from a major retailer, JB’s or Harvey’s, and go with a reputable brand, so you’ve got safety built in, because a little random startup brand, I don’t know anything about their safety and fire safety. I’d be looking at a Belkin or a Cygnett, Aussie company is Cygnett, Belkin’s a global company, very, very reliable, trusty, and huge range of designs, so you can see which one you really want to carry around. 10,000 milliamp hours is where I’d want you to be.

[00:28:33] Barry: So I see that some of them actually have a plug-in device that’s actually attached to the power bank, but I assume the problem there is that like everywhere else, depending on where you’re travelling, you may have to use an adapter.

[00:28:49] Trevor: True. So why bother?

[00:28:52] Barry: So why don’t you just charge it the normal way?

[00:28:54] Trevor: Correct, correct. So when I travel, I always have some sort of power brick that’s going to plug into the wall so that at nighttime I’m always just charging on the wall in the hotel. But I’m the kind of person that’s still going to carry a battery with me in case I use the phone crazy during the day. But if you don’t think you’ve got a problem during the day with your phone use, which you’re probably not going to have given you’re on holidays, let’s be honest, then I actually think you’re better off just finding a really good power brick solution that has all the plugs. So you’ve got European plugs, British plugs, Australian plugs, US plugs if you go there, and then you don’t have to worry, because don’t rely on a hotel having a USB port. They’re often very, very slow, not great. If you get, same brands actually, there’s another brand called Twelve South which is really good, has a nice portable charger, portable little power brick if you like. Belkin, Cygnett, they’re all gonna have one, a travel pack that’ll get you going in the hotel room. And then you don’t need the battery if you feel like you can get through a day without it.

[00:30:05] Barry: And Trevor, on that point, I think these days, given what phones offer people, video, photographs, the whole thing, I think we do use it more than simply phone calls.

[00:30:15] Trevor: Oh yeah.

[00:30:15] Barry: And so it’s those things that I think drain the phone and that I’m trying to avoid, being stuck somewhere, seeing a great sight and not being able to use the phone.

[00:30:23] Trevor: Another tip is go into airplane mode whenever you’re not needing to. If you’re out, let’s say you’re in some beautiful European town and you’re going to be out all day, it’s like 6am and you’re probably not going to be back till after dinner, it’s going to be a big day, that’s going to really challenge your battery. But if you are on the bus or on a train or on a walking tour and the phone’s in your pocket, put it in airplane mode, it doesn’t need to be connected to the internet, and because it’s on, it’s still easy to open it and grab your, take a photo. You don’t need to be connected to the internet to take a photo. So not being connected to the internet or mobile network, being in airplane mode is the best thing your battery can do because it’s not searching for networks. So if you’re on airplane mode for 40% of the day and the rest of the day you’re just snapping photos, and then you turn off airplane mode to find out what’s happening in the world, quick scan of the news, check some emails, whatever, go back onto airplane mode, because while the phone’s in your pocket, what does it need to be connecting to the mobile network for at all?

[00:31:28] Barry: It’s great advice, and of course you forget it from time to time, so that’s good advice.

[00:31:32] Trevor: Have you thought about your connectivity? Do you have a travel, are you roaming with your travel?

[00:31:37] Barry: That’s the next one. I actually, I know this is very boring, I actually think Telstra does a pretty good job.

[00:31:44] Trevor: They do a great job, it’s just a little expensive on the daily rate, it’s $5 to $10 a day depending on how much data you use. But you’ll be fine, because I’m the kind of person that wants to just act like I’m at home when I’m away, so I’m just using my phone, I actually use more data when I’m overseas than when I’m home. That’s why I’m happy because Vodafone has a, you basically get your normal limit, whereas Telstra gives you a certain amount of data per day. You won’t need to use more than that data because you’re doing your basic things, sending some photos, sharing some photos, all that stuff. You’ll be totally fine and you’ll just get charged by the day for Telstra. Easy done.

[00:32:22] Barry: And you’re saying Vodafone’s got a better deal?

[00:32:24] Trevor: I think Vodafone’s a better deal ’cause it’s $5 a day to use your local data. So if let’s say I get 40 gigabytes of data per month here in Australia, when I’m in America or London, I also get 40 gigabytes of data a day. Whereas Telstra is like a few hundred megabytes. But you’re not gonna change telcos just for one thing.

[00:32:43] Barry: No.

[00:32:43] Trevor: I’m not that insane.

[00:32:45] Barry: But the next time I lose my phone, I know what to do.

[00:32:47] Trevor: Where are you, were you going to Europe? How long are you away for?

[00:32:50] Barry: About a month.

[00:32:51] Trevor: I might see you in London, I’ll be there in 4 weeks, I think it is.

[00:32:55] Barry: Oh, terrific. All right, I’ll buy you a beer if I see you in the pub.

[00:32:59] Trevor: All right, Barry, good to hear from you, mate.

[00:33:00] Barry: Thanks, Trevor.

[00:33:01] Trevor: Bye. Thank you. There you go. Look, I didn’t want to say it while he was on the line because that would be rude, but anyone with a good ear would recognize that Barry. So if you recognize that Barry, you know who I was talking to, and he’s an absolute champion, legend bloke, and I appreciate him reaching out to me for tech advice.

[00:33:24] VOICE OVER: Tech, cars, lifestyle. This is the EFTM podcast with Trevor Long.

[00:33:30] Trevor: Thanks for listening, Barry, that was Barry, the previous caller. Brad’s on the line. G’day, Brad.

Brad — Netgear Orbi router bricked after a factory reset

[00:33:35] Brad: G’day, mate.

[00:33:36] Trevor: How you doing? Really good. What can I do for you?

[00:33:38] Brad: Probably about 4 to 5 years ago, I purchased a Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi, I think it was the old RBR850, on your advice.

[00:33:48] Brad: And it’s been working perfectly for the last 4 or 5 years, but I can no longer get into the interface through the app or through the IP address directly into it. I have a lot of devices on the network and I actually specify the MAC addresses to a specific IP address and I can’t get to that anymore.

[00:34:11] Trevor: That’s very nerdy. Is that a security thing? What, why do you like to do that?

[00:34:18] Brad: I find it actually, I have less conflicts. Everything works perfectly when it’s got its own dedicated IP.

[00:34:25] Trevor: Yeah, right.

[00:34:26] Brad: I just have, sometimes things just spool for ages if I don’t do that.

[00:34:32] Trevor: How many devices have you got?

[00:34:36] Brad: About 65, 70, something like that.

[00:34:38] Trevor: How do you set an IP for something like a light bulb or something smart homey, is that hard?

[00:34:48] Brad: No, because I haven’t been into it in a while because this has been going on.

[00:34:52] Trevor: Oh, so can it connect on its own and then you assign it its own fixed address?

[00:34:58] Brad: Yeah, so when you see it pop up in the Orbi system, you say that MAC address, I want that IP address, and whenever it reconnects.

[00:35:05] Trevor: Yep. So to be clear, your Wi-Fi is working great, loving life?

[00:35:23] Brad: It was, but, no, but you can, well, it was until I took some advice on doing a full reset on it, and since I’ve done that, all the settings have cleared and I can’t get back in to reconfigure it, even with, I’ve got a direct Ethernet connection to my—

[00:35:41] Trevor: What comes up on the screen?

[00:35:44] Brad: Nothing. It literally just says that site is unavailable. The app says it won’t connect. I’ve tried to do a full new reinstall, a new setup, and it just will not connect to it.

[00:35:59] Trevor: And so now you’ve got no internet, this is not working at all now?

[00:36:02] Brad: I’ve gone back since, for like the last 4 or 5 weeks, I’ve gone back to the iiNet provided modem.

[00:36:08] Trevor: Oh dear Lord.

[00:36:10] Brad: Yeah.

[00:36:11] Trevor: So is it your thought that the Orbi, since a factory reset, is now like borked? Because it’s not working at all, you’re not getting any internet and you can’t get into the back end.

[00:36:24] Brad: No, it’s like I’ve just—

[00:36:28] Trevor: Because one of the things I see, I assume this might have been it, but it’s not, is I see with Orbi it’s like, you know, it’s an unsecure website or something, I get past that and then go in and let you in and that kind of stuff. Or, mate, I turned upside down our home internet about 3 weeks ago because I was trying to set up a static IP for my son on a computer to create a Minecraft server. Long story short, and I couldn’t get into the back end because I’d forgotten the password, so it was a full reset required. So you’ve done a full reset and it no longer shows, are you getting lights on the modem, like, is it technically working?

[00:37:10] Brad: It stays with a solid white light, I can connect to the Wi-Fi network, but I can’t do anything with it, I’ve got it connected directly from my iiNet provider modem.

[00:37:21] Trevor: So it’s emitting a Wi-Fi signal.

[00:37:23] Brad: Yes.

[00:37:24] Trevor: Under the original Orbi network name. And the original Wi-Fi password, working?

[00:37:34] Brad: Yes, it connects to it, but I just can’t, it’s literally bricked itself.

[00:37:39] Trevor: And obviously, with the greatest respect, I’m just going to ask this and make sure, but you sound already definitely savvy enough, you’re trying to IP through to your gateway?

[00:37:50] Brad: Absolutely, because the computer or phone I connect to, it tells me my gateway.

[00:37:56] Trevor: Yep, yep.

[00:37:56] Brad: So yeah, it just pings back and says site unavailable.

[00:38:01] Trevor: All right, well, look, I think me trying to coach you is like you trying to coach me, mate, where you’re probably on a higher level than me with that router anyway, so—

[00:38:09] Brad: Oh, I wouldn’t say that.

[00:38:10] Trevor: Why don’t you text Producer Rob back and ask for my email address and then email me as little as you can, but as much as you can if this makes sense. So maybe a screenshot of what you see when you put in the gateway IP address, a screenshot of your computer showing that is the gateway and showing that it’s connecting. And then just a quick 3 or 4 dot points of what happened. And then let me send it up the chain to Netgear and see if we can get a higher level of support to talk you through it and see whether there’s something that can be done to bring that baby back.

[00:38:48] Brad: Yeah, I really appreciate that.

[00:38:50] Trevor: No worries, mate, let’s get on it and we’ll make that happen this week.

[00:38:55] Brad: All right, great.

[00:38:55] Trevor: All right, buddy, cheers.

[00:38:56] Brad: Thanks, Trev.

[00:38:57] Trevor: No worries. Look, can’t guarantee assistance, it sounds like it’s potentially a faulty device, now begs another whole question of warranty and is it covered. And I would argue for the age of it, I think Australian Consumer Law would cover a Wi-Fi router, I think under 7 years a Wi-Fi router should have a good life. So let’s see if we can hook him up with some Netgear contact and get him sorted.

[00:39:28] VOICE OVER: Be part of the show. Thanks to Vodafone, you can text 0477 657 657.

[00:39:35] Trevor: Happy to help wherever I can. Send me a text and we’ll get you on the show to try and help with your tech questions. Jackie’s on the line. G’day, Jackie.

Jackie — Choosing noise-cancelling in-ear headphones after losing her AirPods

[00:39:44] Jackie: Hi, Trevor.

[00:39:44] Trevor: Now listen, this is crazy, even family on the podcast. This is my wife’s auntie Jackie. And here’s the funny thing, Jackie, only, I don’t know, 15 minutes ago, we were talking about your sister, because I had the lovely Rosemary from Queanbeyan on, and she’d basically, not been scammed, but something had happened to a mobile phone from some dodgy mobile phone repair store. And I said to her, listen, we’re going to play the Glad Game. She goes, what’s the Glad Game? I said, my wife’s Auntie Chelle loves Pollyanna. And in Pollyanna, oh God, you wouldn’t believe how I weave Pollyanna into this show. Anyway, Jackie, what can I do for you?

[00:40:25] Jackie: Well, basically I lost my AirPods.

[00:40:28] Trevor: Oh, what?

[00:40:30] Jackie: Yeah. And I mean, it was ridiculous. As my daughter said to me, well, if you had Apple, you wouldn’t have lost them. And I thought, well, that’s fair enough. But anyway, basically I looked for an hour and a half and that’s when I was so frustrated, I thought, well, I wanted to Google or figure out what I wanted because I want noise cancelling. One thing, some of the things I didn’t say on the test which I should have, was that I don’t listen to music with them, I listen to podcasts and books, and it’s while I’m walking around the streets.

[00:41:02] Trevor: So you want little in-ear ones, not over-ear?

[00:41:04] Jackie: Yeah, I don’t like over-ear, I mean, I know my sister has over-ear, but that’s another story, but no.

[00:41:09] Trevor: Have you got a budget in mind?

[00:41:11] Jackie: Well, I didn’t want to go hugely, I mean, some of them, God, you’re going up to $500, $600, and I didn’t want to go that far, so I was thinking probably I’m prepared to go up to $300 or whatever, but I want—

[00:41:24] Trevor: You still rocking a Samsung phone?

[00:41:26] Jackie: No, I’ve got an Apple.

[00:41:28] Trevor: That’s why I’ve got an iPhone.

[00:41:29] Jackie: Okay. Yeah, I’ve had my iPhone, well, not this one, but I’ve had, I’ve gone, oh, about 2, 3, 4 years ago.

[00:41:36] Trevor: I mean, wow. It is hard to argue with AirPods.

[00:41:42] Jackie: Yeah.

[00:41:43] Trevor: We have to be completely frank, they are simple, they’re easy to use. Now, let’s be clear, no guarantee you’re gonna find them if you lose them, that’s really critical, there’s no guarantee you’re gonna find them. When you have in-ear ones, do you like the ones that have the little silicone tip that kind of pushes into your ear, or are you okay with ones that really sit and rest in your ear and you don’t find them falling out?

[00:42:06] Jackie: No, well, that’s the problem, and I went along to JB Hi-Fi, and the people were fantastic, they were really good, there was a girl there, it was fantastic, but I said to them, can I have a look at them, can I see them? No, I can’t see them. So I’m spending this money, I have no idea where it sits in my ear, whether it’s going to be good, whether it’s going to be comfortable, and this is so frustrating. But I don’t know, I want ones that aren’t obtrusive, put it that way, that don’t, you know. And sometimes, like when I travel or when I go to people’s places, I like to listen to the radio at night, so I want them in bed, but that’s okay, I can live with ones because my last ones were very uncomfortable in bed, but yeah, I don’t mind, it doesn’t worry me, I would like them to go into my ear though.

[00:42:54] Trevor: I reckon then your best bet, JBL, they have a product called the Live Beam 4. Now the great thing is, Apple doesn’t do, they come in colours.

[00:43:07] Jackie: Oh, how exciting!

[00:43:08] Trevor: But you know what, sometimes everyone wearing white AirPods, everyone just looks like they’re all wearing Apple AirPods, whereas these are black, blue, green, and beige. The beige ones might look good because they don’t stand out, they don’t look like an AirPod poking out of your ear. The Live Beam 4, these are $270, I would put them at the top end of your budget.

[00:43:34] Jackie: And are they noise cancelling?

[00:43:36] Trevor: Yes, oh yeah, very much so. They come with a case that has a screen on it that you can plug into the aeroplane so that you can listen to the in-flight video or movie on your existing headphones.

[00:43:52] Jackie: Oh wow.

[00:43:52] Trevor: Very, very cool.

[00:43:54] Jackie: Oh yeah, because that’s the other thing, because I had the ones I had were Pixel Pro, which was supposed to be noise cancelling but weren’t, and I got really frustrated, going on the plane, you can’t hear anything above the noise of the plane, and also the other thing was when I’m walking around the streets, a big truck goes past and you can’t hear anything.

[00:44:15] Trevor: I think those ones I’ve just recommended to you might be a coming soon, they’re on preorder, but because they’re not available yet, because it’s end of financial year, JBL’s $400 headphones are reduced to $250, they’re called the JBL Tour Pro 3. There again, they push into the ear, they’ve got the little silicone tip.

[00:44:41] Jackie: Yeah.

[00:44:42] Trevor: And that’s another thing about noise cancelling, remember this, noise cancelling isn’t all in the technology, some of it is just in how snug it fits in your ear. So make sure you try the different silicone tips, it’ll come with 3 or 4 different sizes, some people have got bigger ear holes.

[00:45:00] Jackie: Yeah, fair enough, we’re not all made the same, correct?

[00:45:04] Trevor: And so find the one that fits you correctly, sometimes the app, I think the JBL app does actually do a fit check. There’s a brand also worth looking at called Nothing, and I legitimately mean that, Nothing. Little Harry loves them, he’s got the Nothing phone, he’s got the Nothing headphones, they’ve got a kind of funky look, a nice look, $200 for a set of noise-cancelling headphones. So I think the JBLs will offer you the best noise-cancelling for your budget though, because they’re normally $400 headphones reduced to $250.

[00:45:39] Jackie: Wow, pretty bloody good, right? And so you don’t recommend the Apple ones at all?

[00:45:44] Trevor: So the reason I asked you about the style is the AirPods 4 with noise-cancelling, which are only $300, they don’t have the silicone tip on the end.

[00:45:54] Jackie: All right, right.

[00:45:55] Trevor: And so in my ear, yeah, they’re fine when I’m sitting here, but if I go wandering, I can’t guarantee they’re not going to fall out. And if I wear them on a plane, they’re definitely gone by the time I wake up if I’ve fallen asleep. I need something that’s stuck in the ear, so the AirPods that are like that are the AirPods Pro, and the AirPods Pro, last time I looked, are $429.

[00:46:19] Jackie: Right, yeah, I think Amazon had them on special for $350 or $359 or something like that, but still, not bad.

[00:46:28] Trevor: But honestly, for $250, you can do just as good noise cancelling and sound quality wise with the JBLs.

[00:46:38] Jackie: Okay, so that’s JBL Tour Pro 3.

[00:46:40] Trevor: That’s it.

[00:46:42] Jackie: Okay, great, so they’ve got them at JB, have they?

[00:46:44] Trevor: JB, you’ve done it again.

[00:46:46] Jackie: Yep, okay, right.

[00:46:48] Trevor: Okay then, enjoy.

[00:46:50] Jackie: Okay, well, I hope I’ve helped other people as well.

[00:46:52] Trevor: Well, I hope so too, I’ll see you soon.

[00:46:55] Jackie: Okay, thanks so much.

[00:46:56] Trevor: Bye-bye. There you go, that is my wife’s Aunt Jackie. See, you know how sometimes I say I get emails all the time and I don’t respond to them, because what would be the point in that? The whole point is, this is how I, this is my work, I make this podcast. Even family have to come on this show, even high-profile politicians. It’s been a day, okay, it’s been a day. The EFTM Podcast.

[00:47:27] VOICE OVER: Tech, cars, lifestyle. This is the EFTM Podcast with Trevor Long.

[00:47:35] Trevor: Great to have your company. Frank’s on the line. G’day, Frank.

Frank — Roborock vacuum and mop won’t connect to the app or base station

[00:47:38] Frank: Hello, Trevor.

[00:47:39] Trevor: What can I do for you, mate?

[00:47:41] Frank: Roborock, issue connecting to the app.

[00:47:45] Trevor: Oh no, what’s happened?

[00:47:47] Frank: Well, firstly, it’s a Roborock Edge that I got as one of your prizes.

[00:48:02] Trevor: Oh wow, it was March, awesome.

[00:48:02] Frank: But it’s given me a bit of stress actually.

[00:48:02] Trevor: Right, so talk me through the process. You’ve followed the instructions, you’ve unboxed it, you take all the little packaging bits off and everything like that, you power it up and then you’ve downloaded the app, so you’ve got the app on your phone, you’ve got the thing sitting plugged into the wall, and normally, it’s been a while since I’ve done a Roborock, but normally you’ve got to add a device, pair a new thing on the app, and then you press a button on the Roborock and it kind of starts communicating, finds each other, and you set up the process. Are you stuck there?

[00:48:30] Frank: That’s pretty much it, did all that.

[00:48:35] Trevor: So did it find the robot? Did it say in the app, I’ve found your robot, I now need to connect it to Wi-Fi?

[00:48:45] Frank: Yeah, yeah, did all that, fairly comfortable with it all, went through all the process of the 2.4 GHz, and when you press the button on the Roborock, it flashes blue, which is correct, but then on the phone it just continually waits. Went through that process many, many, many times.

[00:49:09] Trevor: So do you think it’s stuck at the point of the Roborock connecting to your Wi-Fi, or is it the process after that?

[00:49:18] Frank: Well, I’ll take you through a bit further, because I tried on multiple phones, right, and ended up going to Roborock support by phone and they took me through the process I’d already done. In doing it, I sent them the serial number to make sure I was connecting to the right device, because it didn’t read the QR code on the robot itself, so I had to do it manually. Now, manually, I thought the unit was the Edge 3, which was what was advertised, but on inquiring, they told me it’s the Edge. So I then thought, well, that might be the issue, I’m connecting to the wrong robot.

[00:50:10] Trevor: All right.

[00:50:11] Frank: I still had that problem. Then I contacted Roborock by email, and that’s where they said to me I needed proof of purchase.

[00:50:23] Trevor: Jesus Christ.

[00:50:25] Frank: To get further support.

[00:50:26] Trevor: Yeah. Story of my life.

[00:50:28] Frank: I was a bit frustrated after all that. And I don’t know what popped in my head, but I thought, you know what? So I tried several phones, my daughter even came over, she’s very good with solving problems, she couldn’t nut it out. I had an old Pixel 2 lying in my drawer, 8 years old, don’t know why I thought I’ll give that a go, and lo and behold, it connected.

[00:50:50] Trevor: Wow.

[00:50:51] Frank: So I thought, oh great, at least I know there’s an issue with the later, the newer phones, I’m using a Pixel 10, which I thought, you know, was going to work anyhow. So great, I thought, at least that’s one step. So I sent it off, it’s great from the app because you can use all the functions, sent it off, did it, did a vacuum, fantastic. Then I tried doing a mop, went off again, it vacuumed, it didn’t mop. What’s going on here? I thought I made an error. So I’ve gone back, tried it all, checked it, I looked down on the phone and it says the Roborock robot can’t, there’s a connection issue between the robot and the base station, so it’s not connecting to the base station. So that’s sort of where I’m at at the moment, so I don’t know where to go from there because Roborock need further proof.

[00:51:45] Trevor: Well, the good thing is that we’ve got that proof, so we can—

[00:51:48] Frank: Yeah, yeah, good, good. Yeah.

[00:51:49] Trevor: Well, the good news is, we thought it was an Edge C, did we?

[00:51:55] Frank: Yeah, it was an Edge C, which I think the Edge is actually a better model.

[00:51:59] Trevor: I’m going to say the one you’ve got is better, right?

[00:52:01] Frank: It’s better. Just want to—

[00:52:03] Frank: it’s a better model.

[00:52:03] Trevor: Because I was going to blow up a treat there if they sent you a lesser model.

[00:52:07] Frank: Right.

[00:52:07] Trevor: So let me, I just want to resolve that for a moment. You ended up getting what is basically their top of the line $3,000 model as opposed to the $2,000 model, not big differences, just its ability to lift off the ground and things like that are slightly different, has a voice assistant, there’s a few primary things that are better about it. But bottom line, I’ve never heard of so many dramas trying to get a robot vacuum working, it’s normally such a simple process.

[00:52:34] Frank: But with that connection issue, it just tells you to clean the sensors on both the robot and the base station, which first I thought, well, that’s a bit odd, it’s brand new, it’s spotless clean, I still wipe them and clean them, but I still get that.

[00:52:48] Trevor: Yeah, no, totally. Look, I think what we do here is we go, right, let’s acknowledge that products have problems and people use tech support, but always the problem with a prize you win is you can’t prove your purchase. So let’s just bypass that by getting you to email me quick dot points, really simple, what the problem is. And I don’t know that you’ve got any reference or record of the previous contact with Roborock, but if you do have anything, send it. Because what we’ll do is we’ll go to Roborock and say, can you escalate this to the top of the pile, and don’t ask for proof of purchase ’cause he won it, and we’ll go from there. So let me get Producer Rob to send you my email address so you can shoot me a note and we’ll get Roborock to reach out to you and hopefully solve that problem.

[00:53:33] Frank: Excellent, that’s fantastic. Just one other thing I’d like to say too, from several years ago when I was looking for a phone for my wife and went by your recommendation, saving a lot of time and the phone’s been fantastic for her, it was I think a Motorola G84 from memory, a few years ago now.

[00:53:52] Trevor: Nice phone.

[00:53:53] Frank: God, your recommendations are great, mate.

[00:53:56] Trevor: I appreciate that, it means a lot. So hopefully we can make you happy with that robot vacuum real soon.

[00:54:01] Frank: Thanks a lot, Trevor.

[00:54:02] Trevor: All right, buddy, we’ll be in touch.

[00:54:03] Frank: Thank you, thank you, bye-bye.

[00:54:05] Trevor: Cheers. No worries at all. Never fun when you’ve got a technical problem, but it’s even worse when it’s a freebie. I had this once with, I think it was a Samsung fridge, this is like a decade ago, a guy comes to the house, he goes, you’ve got proof of purchase? I went, mate, no, I don’t even know how to begin to tell you this, but Samsung sent it to me, okay, it’s free. And people just don’t believe you, because why would they, that’s a crazy thing to say. So we’ll intervene on Frank’s behalf and get him sorted.

[00:54:32] VOICE OVER: Tech, cars, lifestyle. This is the EFTM podcast with Trev Long. You can text Trev now thanks to Vodafone on 0477 666 666. Well, that was one for the ages.

[00:54:48] Trevor: My wife’s Auntie Jackie, we talked Pollyanna, and we had an absolute legend on the show, Barry. Now, tell you about Barry, if you haven’t worked out who it is, I feel like I’m gonna try and not tell you, but going back to, my God, I don’t know when it would be, but in the late 2000s, so would it be 2008 or ’09, Chris Bowen and I, Chris was still at 2GB, I would’ve been at SBS, we were like, we should do a demo of a talk show. So we did, we sat in the studio and we did a demo. And Barry at the time had a very important job and he and I followed each other on Twitter, so we’d had engagements. So I reached out and said, mate, can you be on this fake talk show as a guest so that we can prove how we interview people. And we did, we interviewed him. And we sent that demo to John Brennan, who was the program director, and he listened to it, and Trev and Bowen, and we ended up doing some shifts over summer and different things. So Barry was an integral part of me doing more than just tech and talk. And isn’t it weird that the full circle moment is here he is on my podcast, which is talk and not radio? So there you go. Anyway, thank you for listening, thank you for downloading, and we’ll do it all again next week here on the EFTM Podcast. Talk to you then, folks.

[00:56:20] VOICE OVER: This is the EFTM Podcast.