The Two Blokes Talking Tech podcast – Episode # 752 – Telcos join forces to offer disaster roaming, OpenAI says sorry

TBTT #752 – Telcos join forces to offer disaster roaming, OpenAI says sorry

Podcast: Two Blokes Talking Tech
Date: 1 October 2026
Hosts: Stephen Fenech, Val Quinn

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[00:00:00] Stephen Fenech: Well, welcome back, Val. Uh, your last week in the, in the chair, mate. Trevor’s back next week. It’s been a pleasure having you on the show, mate, you’re for, for the, the 3 weeks.

[00:00:08] Val Quinn: Oh, thanks. I’m going to be sad to not have a place to, you know, talk about tech and, you know, vent my frustrations and talk about what’s, what’s amazing.

[00:00:15] Stephen Fenech: So you’ll be welcome back in the future, mate. Don’t worry about that. You’re a friend of the show and you will continue to be. I love it. So, uh, yeah, busy week for you again, eh, this week. You’re, uh, what, what, what’s been taking up your time, mate?

[00:00:26] Val Quinn: Tell you what, just getting back into the swing of things once you’re away, it’s always, uh, it’s always tricky to catch up on what you didn’t do while you’re overseas. And, uh, you know, uh, there’s always work piling up. And plus this, I don’t know what it is, this time of year there’s just so much happening. There’s so many big launches from big brands and everybody wants to kind of get out just before the whole kind of buying frenzy kicks in with, uh, you know, with Amazon and, you know, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, all that stuff.

[00:00:50] Stephen Fenech: It’s coming, everyone wants to come here, mate. Everyone, uh, and, and they’re releasing products I think ahead of Christmas. They want to get everything in the market.

[00:00:57] Val Quinn: Yep.

[00:00:58] Stephen Fenech: And having their events.

[00:00:59] Val Quinn: Plus there’s, you know, controversy out there too, you know, especially AI is always creating, you know.

[00:01:03] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, we’ll talk about that.

[00:01:04] Val Quinn: A lot of problems.

[00:01:05] Stephen Fenech: A lot of dramas. And yeah, of course, mate, we’re busy guys. That’s a good thing, I suppose, when you work for yourself. So we work for ourselves. So yeah, I welcome that, mate. I don’t mind being busy. Not being busy would be the worry.

[00:01:19] Val Quinn: Yeah, that’s true.

[00:01:19] Stephen Fenech: Being busy is a good sign that the business is going all right. There’s always something to talk about, always something to write about.

[00:01:25] Val Quinn: That’s what I love about this category. I mean, we’ve both been doing it for more decades than we’re willing to admit, probably. But the thing is, you know, because there’s so much change and sometimes confusing, it keeps us talking and creating and telling people what we know.

[00:01:39] Stephen Fenech: Absolutely. Well, you know, I think I do take pride in the fact that I can explain it to people as well, like on Tech Guide and on the radio as well, and, and on here as well with you. But anyway, let’s get into it, buddy.

[00:01:52] Val Quinn: Let’s do it.

[00:01:54] VOICE OVER: Welcome to Two Blokes Talking Tech.

[00:01:56] VOICE OVER: Not a bad price.

[00:01:57] VOICE OVER: With Trevor Long from eftm.com.

[00:02:00] VOICE OVER: Really handy device.

[00:02:01] VOICE OVER: Stephen Fenech from techguide.com.au.

[00:02:05] Stephen Fenech: Two Blokes Talking Tech, episode 752. Uh, thanks to our mates at Netgear and Arlo. We’ll tell you more about them later. Uh, not Trevor Long, as you heard in the intro, but I’m here with Val Quinn, who is the editor of gadgetguide.com.au, his website. He’s got an amazing YouTube channel as well, and it’s a pleasure to have him here with us again. Val, welcome.

[00:02:25] Val Quinn: Thank you. You know, it’s just, you know, if you catch that Canadian accent, then you know it’s not Trevor.

[00:02:29] Stephen Fenech: Dead giveaway, mate.

[00:02:30] Val Quinn: That’s a dead giveaway.

[00:02:31] Stephen Fenech: Uh, let’s kick it off, mate. Mate, there’s, uh, an announcement that came through overnight, uh, about the temporary disaster roaming. Now, I’ve, uh, this is up on Tech Guide. This is a, a new move where all the telcos have gathered together to create a situation where in the event of a disaster, like a natural disaster, a cyclone, a fire, that any, any network that is— say that you’re a Vodafone customer and in your area Vodafone’s been knocked out, you’re able to access Telstra and Optus in that regard so that you can, you can still keep in touch, communicate, find out information. And, uh, it’s, it’s been a long time in the coming, and this follows dramas with the triple zeros and those outages, which we’ll talk about as well, but This is, I think, a welcome sign that at least the telcos are working together.

[00:03:32] Val Quinn: That’s— that is good news. I mean, and so the distinction here is that this isn’t just during— just for a triple 000 call. This is for actually having a connection so family can locate you and you can find out really important information.

[00:03:45] Stephen Fenech: So I imagine the scenario would be, say there’s a cyclone up in Townsville and you’re— you might be a Telstra customer and you’re— all the Telstra network is out. This, the TDR, the, the temporary disaster roaming, will then allow you to link into Optus and Vodafone.

[00:04:04] Val Quinn: And do you think you’ll have to do anything on your phone side? It’s probably going to be seamless, I imagine. It just picks up.

[00:04:10] Stephen Fenech: I believe that if there’s another network, so it’s similar to how the Campon works with Triple Zero. So in this, in this case, it’ll be the network will just be present to those users, and this is all controlled through each, each of the networks has like a control center that will be manned 24/7 so that if any situation occurs, they will then make sure that the network that’s still available can handle the excess traffic. Because that’s one thing, if, uh, if, if there’s an outage and you just bundle everyone onto one network, it might overwhelm that network and bring that down as well. So there’s, there’s, there’s systems in place that will allow each of the networks to say, right, yeah, we’re good to take all your callers in this period. Because you think about it, that’s the time when you need the most contact and you need to call for help or call your relatives, find information. Those are the critical periods where that’s going to happen. So it is that communities stay connected, they communicate, find information, and it’ll be provided at no cost as well to customers. It won’t cost them any money.

[00:05:19] Val Quinn: I mean, that’s incredible. And hopefully, I mean, it obviously comes from some of the learnings with the Triple O and maybe it’ll even use the same system because if they have to allow you to camp on with Triple O, maybe this is part of the same, I guess, underlying technology. Yeah, not sure. So when, Steve, is this going to happen? When are we going to see this?

[00:05:35] Stephen Fenech: It is going to begin, I think, as we speak. It’s ready to go.

[00:05:38] Val Quinn: Right.

[00:05:39] Stephen Fenech: I understand too, I was contacted by Telstra today. And the difference with Telstra is that in some areas Telstra is the only network available. So if you happen to be traveling through that area and need to communicate, then they will allow you, even if you’re on a different network, to connect through Telstra.

[00:05:58] Val Quinn: So even if there isn’t a disaster in that instance?

[00:06:01] Stephen Fenech: Well, I’m not sure about that. I think if there’s something, if there’s a need to connect, right, then this TDR will allow them to connect there as well. So, uh, because in, you know, in some areas, Telstra pointed out, they’re the only network available, whereas other areas there is more. So, but this, this is also— so having this communication with the other networks, so say there is a disaster and you do need to ring 000, I think it’ll make the Camp On a little bit easier knowing that there is another network that’s been ready. You’ve given— been given access to that network and you’re ready to go. Because as you know, we’ve had all these dramas with the Camp On and how long it takes to connect. So at least they’re sort of— they’re forward thinking here, so they’ll be able to still offer that, the availability of a network. You’ll know it’ll be there in case you do need to contact emergency services.

[00:06:51] Val Quinn: Yeah, I think this is fantastic and it takes it out of that sort of commercial realm. It’s not about who makes money on what, it’s about the government saying, hey, this is an essential service, it can save lives. Obviously we know that. And look, I think it’s great for everyone. They’re working together. You know what’s interesting too is that, I mean, it’s all— you imagine the technologies that are coming out as well. So this is our terrestrial mobile phone networks, but soon we’ll have potentially direct-to-cell satellite services. And it might mean that there’s another layer of connectivity we can have that goes directly up to the satellites and across and back down again. Yeah, that’s what the likes of Elon Musk’s system and all of that.

[00:07:28] Stephen Fenech: It’s only Telstra that has the, the satellite messaging at the moment, isn’t it? The other networks have— I know there’s a deal, there’ve been deals done, but I don’t think that they’ve actually announced them. I know Telstra’s been— it’s over a year. It’s been like 13, 14 months since Telstra announced theirs, and that’s another point too. So if you’re out of the regular cellular range, at least you’ve got the satellite. But that’s only for Telstra customers. Yeah, this way at least you’re covered if you’re not a Telstra customer. And as they explained, the Australian Telecommunications Alliance is the body that sort of organized all this. So having that connectivity now, customers can stay in touch with family, make voice calls, text messages, users and access data to use emergency service apps and even things like WhatsApp and iMessage, which work over data anyway. So having that communication is, uh, I think is paramount. And as I said, it’ll be managed between the mobile operators themselves through their respective network operations center, which will work 24/7.

[00:08:34] Val Quinn: That’s great news. Yeah, let’s just hope we don’t have a natural disaster.

[00:08:37] Stephen Fenech: Yes, exactly. It’s one of those features that you hope you never need. Exactly, like your seatbelt. You hope you never need to use your— to—

[00:08:42] Val Quinn: if the seatbelt comes into play.

[00:08:44] Stephen Fenech: But, uh, this is one of those where, okay, good to have it, but let’s hope we never need it.

[00:08:48] Val Quinn: It’s encouraging.

[00:08:49] Stephen Fenech: Absolutely. All right, mate, well, if you want to read more about that, you can check it out. I’ve written about it at techguide.com.au.

[00:08:55] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech.

[00:09:00] Stephen Fenech: Now, I’m sure you’re across the OpenAI situation this week, mate. They came out and, uh, with a little bit of an apology first of all.

[00:09:09] Val Quinn: Yes, they have been in the news, haven’t they?

[00:09:11] Stephen Fenech: Have they ever? So they came out and said, look, we’re sorry for what happened. Now, what, what they’re sorry about about is the fact that— and we spoke about this last week— they, they revealed that back in June, they, uh, with some— one of their AI agents actually illegally, uh, hacked into the Medicare website. Now the background to this is— it’s interesting because in, in their statement there, they did a blog post. Basically said, we are sorry and working to do better in the future. But they kind of explained what happened. In, in the incident. And the— my— how they explained it was the, the agent was tasked with finding medical stats, some health stats about, um, certain, certain citizens in Australia, like, I think it was Victorians. And it was given the task, okay, go to the website and find it. And long story short, it was basically— it wasn’t told that it has to do it legally.

[00:10:11] Val Quinn: Yeah, it just needs to find the information.

[00:10:13] Stephen Fenech: So it went in, instead of going in the front door, went the back door, you know, using code and everything and got the information. So it achieved its objective, but really didn’t do it in the appropriate way.

[00:10:23] Val Quinn: Yeah, well, it’s, it’s a really interesting thing because it kind of reminds us that an AI doesn’t see the world like we do. So it doesn’t go to a website’s front door and say, oh, I can’t get the information, there’s a login and there’s a password you need, and I’ll stop here. What it does is it just sees a wall of code and it says, okay, can’t get in this way. Oh, there’s a hole over here. I’ll just go in that way. So it doesn’t have a sense of right or wrong, what it should be doing or shouldn’t. And those guardrails, as they’re called.

[00:10:47] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:10:48] Val Quinn: They’re kind of difficult to define if you really have to tell a system. It’s like when it just looks at code and like, how does it know what it should do and what it shouldn’t, where it should stop and all of that. So it’s exposing an issue here.

[00:10:59] Stephen Fenech: I think it’s a— this is one of the real issues and good that OpenAI is willing to sit down with the Australian government and sort of help us formulate those guardrails, because that’s kind of what we need. Like, the— it’s okay, AI is great, but the, the worry is that it can just get out of the box. And if it’s not, if it’s not controlled and, and set up correctly, it could go out and— look, look at this, it went and hacked a website to, to, to achieve its goal. So, uh, having— I think the— it has to start there. I think everyone needs to be singing from the same hymn book in terms of the rules, the guardrails, whatever you want to call them, code of ethics, code of conduct. And that, that’s kind of conspicuous by its absence at the moment because everyone’s sort of going along their merry way as fast as they can, really not, not paying attention to the damage they’re causing.

[00:11:51] Val Quinn: No, because it’s incredibly competitive, this industry. So they aren’t trying to slow down and think, oh, maybe we should think this through before we release it. In actual fact, right now, OpenAI, the company that makes ChatGPT, is actually holding back on upcoming releases for that very reason. So they’ve got something ready to go, another upgrade or improvement, and they’re not releasing it because they need to spend more time evaluating it in the context of this. The other thing I thought was interesting is that when they were talking about the particular hack here on the Australian government site, there’s been numerous ones similar to this that have happened to US sites from ChatGPT. So this isn’t the first one. They’ve had plenty of them like this. It’s only one.

[00:12:32] Stephen Fenech: They’ve got, they’ve got, they got runs on the board already.

[00:12:34] Val Quinn: Oh yeah, absolutely, with government sites in the US. So this is not the first time, it’s just big news because our Prime Minister decided to have a conversation with Sam Altman, the, uh, the leader of, uh, OpenAI. So it is not the first time. So this is an issue that’s been happening for a while.

[00:12:48] Stephen Fenech: What had happened, like, part of this big statement they released was the fact that, um, OpenAI revealed back in July that Remember they said all the models had broken out of the system that were designed to isolate them?

[00:13:01] Val Quinn: That’s right.

[00:13:02] Stephen Fenech: Now, for some reason, that became known as the Hugging Face incident. They called it— I don’t know why, but it said its models persisted and collaborative, that without safeguards they can find and exploit security weaknesses across websites, which is exactly what it did.

[00:13:20] Val Quinn: Do you know what? Maybe, maybe this has something to do with, you know, the, you know, an alien, you know, the movie Alien, and they have those facehuggers that basically kind of attached to someone’s face, and then they plant an alien in someone’s body, and then they carry it maybe unknowingly for a while. Well, there was a— with OpenAI and with ChatGPT, there was an instance where it was able to get out of an air-gapped computer. That means—

[00:13:42] Stephen Fenech: air-gapped, wow—

[00:13:43] Val Quinn: means that it’s not plugged into the network around it, and it used a DNS exploit to somehow get out. I don’t know the particulars of it. And again, it wasn’t that it was evil in saying, I’m going to break out of my air-gapped computer. It was just, I have a task and I’m going to look for every possible way of performing this task. And it somehow, using a DNS server, somehow relayed itself out of it. So maybe that’s the facehugger thing they’re talking about. It kind of put itself into another thing that walked across the air gap and then—

[00:14:15] Stephen Fenech: Incredible.

[00:14:16] Val Quinn: The alien burst out of the chest, so to speak.

[00:14:18] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, that’s the chestburster.

[00:14:20] Val Quinn: Maybe they should have— Yeah, sorry guys.

[00:14:21] Stephen Fenech: The hugging face. But look, But it’s— it really does illustrate the fact that it’s— it’s like— it’s like, you know, if you’ve got a savage dog and it’s not on a leash, it’s gonna— it’s— you don’t know what it’s gonna do.

[00:14:36] Val Quinn: Yeah.

[00:14:36] Stephen Fenech: So that’s sort of the similarity here, is that if these things are unchecked, then— like, the worry for me is that these are the— what— the cases we know about.

[00:14:47] Val Quinn: Yes.

[00:14:47] Stephen Fenech: How many would you reckon there would be where we don’t know about it that are going on right now, maybe even from from other countries and other, other foreign actors.

[00:14:56] Val Quinn: Absolutely. I mean, like, um, uh, OpenAI reported it, but quite a bit after the fact. Um, so there’s potentially ones that these companies don’t report, or we don’t hear about them. And then, yeah, say in China, they’ve got, you know, uh, Deepseek and a bunch of other AIs. It’s not within the, I guess, the, uh, Chinese government’s best interest to reveal some of these issues. So who knows what’s happened with theirs.

[00:15:17] Stephen Fenech: You mentioned China. That’s, that’s the other That’s the other, uh, factor here is the fact that Trump, President Trump’s approach to this is we want to be the best, we, our, ours are better. So he was calling superior intelligence, all this sort of stuff, and his, his competitive nature, especially against China, he doesn’t want to put in, he doesn’t want to put the brakes on, he wants to go harder. Yeah, it’s just building up this situation where, you know, the, the President of the United States has encouraged him to go even further than what they are right now.

[00:15:48] Val Quinn: Well, it’s, it’s, I think you described in the last episode, it’s like an arms race. Race. And it really is. It’s like, it’s, it’s commercially highly competitive. It doesn’t make sense to, to go slow. You can’t go slow. And you know what else too, there’s this whole, whole story around the competition too. Like there’s ways that one AI can distillate off another AI. So for example, Deepseek could catch up, which is this Chinese one that really kind of made its mark because it was very capable. It didn’t require a huge powerful computer to run. And what they were saying is that it distillated its knowledge from the existing AI. So basically you use another AI like ChatGPT and you ask it a whole bunch of questions and that’s what trains a new AI. So you don’t have to build it from scratch. You distillate it from something else. And there’s all of these things and it’s fascinating. But man, it’s a head-scratcher.

[00:16:37] Stephen Fenech: OpenAI, they’ve said that their chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon, is going to appear at the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence in Sydney on October 6th, which is next week. So That’d be very— he’s going to answer questions about what OpenAI knows and how it can respond and what steps it has to take to do better moving forward. Oh well, at least they’re conscientious like that.

[00:17:00] Val Quinn: Well, we got Donald Trump saying go faster, push harder, that’s it, better, and then you, you have this. So it’s, uh, it’s, you know, pulling it in opposite directions. That’d be a tough spot to be.

[00:17:09] Stephen Fenech: Absolutely right. Radio, if you want to hear more about that, check it out at gadgetguide.com.au and techguide.com.au.

[00:17:17] VOICE OVER: Everything about tech you never wanted to know. This is Two Blokes Talking Tech.

[00:17:25] Stephen Fenech: Two Blokes Talking Tech is proudly supported by Arlo. Arlo is the place to go if you want to set up and buy your cameras. If you haven’t got a security system at home, now is a great time to do it. The people are— we’re getting towards the end of the year, we might be planning holidays, and I think if you want some added peace of mind about your security of your home then, uh, Arlo is a great place to start. They’ve got cameras starting from below $100 or all the way up to their wide floodlights. They’ve got the video doorbells as well. They’ve also got the brand new pan-tilt cameras also that can cover really large areas of your home. Maybe you’ve got a large front yard, a large backyard, and when it does spot any movement, it actually tracks that movement and you can see that in your notification. There’s also the secure plans as well that really tie all the products together, so you get 30 days of cloud storage of all of— from all of your cameras. But there’s also safety features like fire detection, sound detection. If it hears sirens or smashing glass, uh, it has— it has flame detection. So you think about how fast flame is. You know, we’ve got smoke detectors, but flames actually come before smoke. So you’re actually being notified of a fire before there is any smoke. So, uh, and that one of the added features of the Arlo Secure plan. But, uh, yeah, if you head over to the website, they’ve even got a bundle and save section that allows you to, uh, to put all your products together. If you are, if you are buying multiple products, then you can group them together and get a bit of a discount. And everyone loves a discount, so check them out if you want. Arlo.com.

[00:18:56] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech with Trevor Long and Stephen Fenech.

[00:19:03] Stephen Fenech: It’s with Val Quinn and Stephen Fenech today, and we are talking about now the Motorola Signature 27. Now I’m tired of— we’re tired of talking about iPhones. Yes, they’ve been released, but there are other brands out there, including Motorola. And I’m sure, as I have, you’ve written about the new Signature, which was just announced last week. The Signature 27.

[00:19:23] Val Quinn: That’s right, other phones are doing things right now.

[00:19:25] Stephen Fenech: That’s it, there are other brands.

[00:19:28] Val Quinn: And it looks pretty cool.

[00:19:29] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, it does, I think. So the Signature 27, I believe it was announced at the, the Snapdragon, uh, the, the Qualcomm conference in Hawaii, which we were both invited to, but we both decided to go to Meta Connect instead.

[00:19:41] Val Quinn: That’s right, one of my guys went, so at least he had the experience.

[00:19:44] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, so that’s right, Angus went, didn’t he? That’s right. Oh, half his luck, mate. But, uh, yeah, this was one of many announcements which has the— with the, the new Qualcomm silicon. And first of all though, I’ve got to say, the design, it looks really premium, this product.

[00:19:58] Val Quinn: It does. I mean, you turn it over and the camera housing on the back, so that’s where all the lenses are. I count like 1, 2, 3, 4 It’s actually 5 circles. I mean, not all of them are lenses. One is the, uh, the flash. But I mean, wow, this thing is very, very capable looking, and the spec sheet is pretty impressive too.

[00:20:13] Stephen Fenech: Absolutely. Yeah. And look, design-wise, I think it’s really premium looking. Definitely, definitely a flagship device. And they’ve also said that, uh, apart from, yeah, obviously really nicely designed and all those great features, great camera system, but also to the, the naming convention of the, of the phone. So they want the flagship phone to reflect the upcoming year, which is exactly why it’s called 27. Similar to iOS, really, you know, they want— they want to, uh, they want to be seen as to be the current model.

[00:20:43] Val Quinn: Yeah, that’s a good reminder. It’s like, this is the current model, which is a little bit, um, subtle to say that once it’s past 27, you don’t have the current model anymore, so you might want to upgrade to the next, the 28, right?

[00:20:54] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, what do you think? Have you— you’ve used Motorola? They’ve— the last few years, Motorola has really come through with some pretty nice devices.

[00:21:02] Val Quinn: Look, they really have. Like, you might be surprised. I think globally Motorola’s— I don’t know, and I could be wrong— it was number 4. So like, there’s a lot of Motorolas sold, and they, they really try to be different. They try to stand apart. They use, um, you know, like top-tier, um, like hardware that you get from, um, you know, like that you’ll see in a lot of great Android phones, like you said, Qualcomm chips. But also Motorola’s— I love the design. They partner with Pantone, which, um, are these guys that, uh, They’re the masters of color, they, you know, the ones that create these color swatches that you might look at when you’re picking wallpaper. So they’re kind of like the, um, I guess the, the color setters, and they establish these, um, color trends every year. So what Motorola does is they, they partner with Pantone and they figure out what the hot color of the year is. And I don’t know how they figure this stuff out.

[00:21:47] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, well, the colors are Pantone Coal Smoke and Pantone Capulet Olive.

[00:21:54] Val Quinn: Well, the Capulet Olive is what we both have a picture of here on our screens, and you can check them out on our sites. But, um, it is a— it’s a great looking phone, great looking phone, and the tech is really good. Uh, I’m always impressed with how slim and light these are, and the screens are also very, very good with these too.

[00:22:08] Stephen Fenech: So I think they’ve got aluminum silhouette, sort of contoured edges as well. So they’re, they’re looking for, you know, obviously design is very important, but again, they’ve got other features including a new cooling system and a new feature we’re seeing a lot nowadays, vapor chambers. Because you know what, the processing’s got to a point where it’s so high that they need to cool these things down. And being such a small product, so like, not like a computer that’s got fans in it, they can— they need to have these vapor chambers to keep things under control and keep it cool. Because as, as it gets warmer, then performance takes a hit, so it might throttle back. So having a cooler means maintaining high performance.

[00:22:48] Val Quinn: That’s right. And that vapor helps kind of move the heat out of the, um, out of the phone itself. It is a closed system, so it’s not like it’s venting vapor, but, um, it’s, it’s what we’re seeing in the, in the top-tier phones. The other thing about— I have to say about Motorola is that, you know, if you want something different and you want something that’s like offers a whole lot of value for the money, you know, like a flagship, uh, I mean, this, this year’s flagship is only $1,499, and that’s like all of the top-tier features. We’re not sure what this new one’s going to be, but on the 627. But, um, you know, like, we’re talking 200-megapixel, um, megapixel cameras. We’re talking about, you know, a fantastic Sony sensor too. Sony is pretty much the sensor to have, uh, for cameras in phones. Every— all of the big brands use them because it is really the industry standard.

[00:23:29] Stephen Fenech: 200-megapixel periscope telephoto lens, which seems to be being more popular among flagship phones.

[00:23:35] Val Quinn: Yeah, which basically means that the, the, the lens actually runs, uh, lengthwise down the phone, and they kind of— then there’s a little periscope mirror that shoots it outwards. So you can get—

[00:23:44] Stephen Fenech: so that’s like a physical— that’s a physical lens. This is digital, so it’s actually optical. That’s right.

[00:23:49] Val Quinn: So you have pieces of glass running down the length of the phone, and then the periscope lens shoots it outwards. So instead of that, you’d have a lens sticking straight out of the phone. So it’s a way of keeping it flat while still giving you a pretty incredible zoom. So yeah, this is definitely a phone to watch. I’m really going to be, um, curious about that, get into my hands.

[00:24:03] Stephen Fenech: Even the— there’s obviously AI on board too. So there’s, uh, through Google Gemini Yep. So that integrates, uh, through more apps and services as well that, that people use every day, all the, all this stuff. So have not— I think not having AI is, uh, pretty conspicuous. AI is now a central feature. It’s as important as the screen and the camera is AI on board nowadays.

[00:24:24] Val Quinn: Yep. And Gemini is very good. It’s, you know, Google’s, um, Google’s own, um, sort of chatbot. And everything else now does a lot more than that. You can take a picture of what’s in your fridge and ask it what to make to— for dinner. You know, this is the kind of things that these, these phones can do these days.

[00:24:37] Stephen Fenech: So to, to top off premium quality of this phone, they’ve even partnered up on the audio side with Bang Olufsen.

[00:24:46] Val Quinn: Yeah, that is a very—

[00:24:47] Stephen Fenech: they’re no slouches—

[00:24:48] Val Quinn: premium speaker brand. So yeah, it always amazes me what they can fit into a phone and, uh, the audio experience. But it does make a difference. Sometimes you get this, uh, sense of, uh, I guess separation. You can actually hear the sounds coming from one side of the phone or the other, so it can really make a difference.

[00:25:03] Stephen Fenech: Oh yeah, you get like— you get like Dolby Atmos, yeah, spatial audio out of all of those. It’s great. Yeah, so no, no word on the pricing. It’s going be released, I believe, before the end of the year.

[00:25:13] Val Quinn: Yeah, that’s, that’s what I understand as well. But I, I would definitely say—

[00:25:16] Stephen Fenech: what do you think it’ll be called? What do you think it’ll cost?

[00:25:18] Val Quinn: Oh, look, if it’s $1,499 last year’s, uh, yeah, current flagship, I reckon this one will be—

[00:25:24] Stephen Fenech: don’t forget memory and storage shortage, they’ll use that excuse to bump a few.

[00:25:27] Val Quinn: I think it’s gonna have to go up a little bit.

[00:25:28] Stephen Fenech: I think it’ll be $1,999, like a 2012 phone, or, you know, $1,799. Yeah, maybe not as expensive as the iPhone Pro phones, but not far off it, I reckon.

[00:25:38] Val Quinn: Well, this is the thing, when Apple raises its prices, it’s like a green light for all of the other brands to where they can push it, because Apple’s already set that sort of precedent. Everyone’s like, oh my God, that’s so expensive. And then it’s— so, uh, hopefully $1,999 is not correct, maybe $1,799.

[00:25:53] Stephen Fenech: I think, yeah, well, there’ll definitely be a 1 at the front of— start of it. It won’t be 2, uh, like other brands. But, uh, if, mate, if you can get—

[00:26:00] Stephen Fenech: if the—

[00:26:01] Stephen Fenech: if that’s $1,799, even, even $1,899, that’s decent value.

[00:26:04] Val Quinn: It’s a lot of capabilities.

[00:26:05] Stephen Fenech: That’s a lot of phone.

[00:26:06] Val Quinn: Yeah, I would really say, like, don’t always think about the, the the big brands, have a think about Motorola. Not that it isn’t a big brand, but I mean, it’s— have a look, get your hands on it, you know, when you’re out there for your next phone. Really kind of touch and feel what’s out there, because I think there’s some really great products to choose from.

[00:26:19] Stephen Fenech: Because they are keeping in touch with the flagships, like they’ve got— because they recently released a folding phone too, didn’t they? Yes, the Motorola Fold, which is pretty nice.

[00:26:26] Val Quinn: Yeah, they’ve, um, they’ve been sort of long in the folding business, uh, with the original, uh, well, second-gen Razrs. You remember the original Razrs? Yes, but, uh, they’re— that’s the sort of the flip phone style. But then they came out with a sort of book phone style this, this year, which is really nice too. I like that a lot.

[00:26:41] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, and they’ve been around a while, haven’t they? It’s not like— since the early 2000s, they’ve been— remember the Razr? What was that, like ’03, ’04, or later than ’05? I think it was.

[00:26:51] Val Quinn: All I remember, it was my favorite phone.

[00:26:53] Stephen Fenech: I left it in the back of a taxi and I was heartbreaking.

[00:26:56] Val Quinn: But it was, it was one of the thinnest, um, and it was also very durable because it was made of like, um, aluminum or steel or something like that. I loved it. And the whole Hello Moto thing, so like, yeah, they were—

[00:27:06] Stephen Fenech: oh, that was so trendy. That, that’s what it was, it was really trendy brand. Yeah, still is, I guess. But, uh, yeah, they’re keeping in touch with the, with the flagships, mate, with the Samsungs and Apples of the world.

[00:27:16] Val Quinn: Yeah, well, I think the Signature 27 looks to be— oh, it looks definitely one to watch.

[00:27:20] Stephen Fenech: Which color’s you, mate? You’re getting—

[00:27:21] Val Quinn: oh, go for the olive for sure.

[00:27:22] Stephen Fenech: Olive, really? Yeah, yeah, actually, I would go the olive.

[00:27:25] Val Quinn: Well, you know what, I mean, with the iPhone and its burgundy color, I quite like that. I think it’s very subtle.

[00:27:29] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I’m with you. I’ll go, I’ll go olive too.

[00:27:32] Val Quinn: Yeah, well, you can always go, you know, black is always, you know, safe.

[00:27:35] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, for sure, mate. No, I’m, I’m not scared to try things. Right, uh, well, if you want to read more about more about the Motorola Signature 27, you can find it at gadgetguide.com.au and techguide.com.au.

[00:27:48] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech with Trevor Long and Stephen Fenech.

[00:27:54] Stephen Fenech: Mate, what about Vodafone has come forward with Australia’s first 4-year, 48-month, whatever, however you want to say it, plan, uh, for your smartphone? And yeah, I wonder, timing, interesting timing.

[00:28:09] Val Quinn: Yeah, I think spread across 4 years of time.

[00:28:14] Stephen Fenech: Just happens to be a few weeks ahead of the iPhone Duo launch, which as we have discussed on the show is not going to be a cheap phone, starting at $3,499. That’s the starting price. So I’d say Vodafone has made the smart move here and giving people a chance to spread the pain over a longer period.

[00:28:32] Val Quinn: Well, if you want to upgrade the iPhone Duo to the top spec of $5,800 or 2 terabytes of memory 4 years.

[00:28:41] Stephen Fenech: There you go. Yeah, spread it out.

[00:28:43] Val Quinn: But it is interesting, they’re obviously, um, yeah, reacting to, um, higher prices and giving people, you know, more flexibility. I mean, we knew that this, the Duo was going to be, uh, you know, bought on the plan most, most likely. That’s how people tend to, to do these things. So yeah, here we are. How do you feel about 4 years?

[00:28:59] Stephen Fenech: 4 years? Well, you know what, it, it plays into the trend of us holding on to our devices longer anyway. Like the stats that I read, recent stats were that we’re holding on to our devices for an average of 3.5 years.

[00:29:12] Val Quinn: Yeah, that’s about right. I mean, you’ve got an iPhone 15 or 16, it’s— it makes sense. But still, I mean, you know, the thing about this one, and, and I think it’s, it’s great that that plan is there, but at the same time, because the iPhone Duo is such a new experience for people, it’s sort of a— it’s a leap of faith in some ways of saying, okay, I’m signing myself up for 4 years maybe I’ll like the foldable thing, maybe I won’t, maybe Apple has done a great job, or maybe it’s got some issues. So it’s, it’s, it’s a little bit of a risk, I suppose, but who knows.

[00:29:39] Stephen Fenech: I mean, but it depends on how much you’re willing to do it. It’s interest-free payment too. So previously the terms were 12, 24, or 36. Uh, now they’ve— the first— Vodafone, the first to offer 48. Are you— who are you? You’re a Telstra guy, aren’t you?

[00:29:52] Val Quinn: I was, I was, yeah, until recently. Yeah.

[00:29:55] Stephen Fenech: All right, so who are you now?

[00:29:57] Val Quinn: I’m on a Telstra NVMO, which is a, uh, third-party supplier. And no, this one is Tangerine.

[00:30:02] Stephen Fenech: Tangerine. Okay, that’s right.

[00:30:04] Val Quinn: So we’ve got a, we’ve got a list of the best prepaid and postpaid deals on our site, and I decided to actually pay attention to it.

[00:30:10] Stephen Fenech: There you go. Good. You know what I encourage people to do? If they’ve had the same plan for longer than 2 or 3 years, shop around, because you’ll find that maybe there’s more data available to you for a cheaper price.

[00:30:24] Val Quinn: Absolutely. Listen, I was astounded. I was paying top dollar for not a lot of data, and that was a legacy plan, and I could have swapped plans, but Telstra doesn’t seem to be that willing to wheel and deal with me. And there’s just so many other competitive offers out there, so I thought I’d try it out, and, um, and it’s been okay.

[00:30:37] Stephen Fenech: You know, the other thing that bothers me is that when you see, like, I’m with— I am with Vodafone. Reason I’m with Vodafone, and I’ve said this very often, is for the $5 a day roaming. Yeah, all the travel we do, it adds up. It is so good being able to not have to think about getting a SIM, an eSIM, or anything. You can just use $5 a day, no restriction on the amount of data, use your plan as if you’re in Australia.

[00:31:01] Val Quinn: That is—

[00:31:02] Stephen Fenech: that’s attractive.

[00:31:02] Val Quinn: That is very true.

[00:31:03] Stephen Fenech: But what bothers me though, I’ve seen offers from Vodafone and other telcos that are only available to new customers.

[00:31:10] Val Quinn: Oh yeah, isn’t that a bugger?

[00:31:12] Stephen Fenech: Like, imagine you’ve been with a company for years and yet why can’t I get it? I’ve been loyal to you for years, but oh no, no, for new customers only.

[00:31:19] Val Quinn: I know, it’s so much for your loyalty, you’ll pay more. It is ridiculous. Yeah, they, they’re saying, hey, we’re going to try to get new people on board you’re not going to get rewarded for your—

[00:31:28] Stephen Fenech: they’re basically saying, look, we’ve already got you, I don’t need to get you again, you— we’ve already got you. But for the new customers, we’re going to try to bring them in.

[00:31:34] Val Quinn: The thing is, like, it used to be very sort of a pain in the neck to churn, as it’s called, from one— yes— to another. But nowadays, especially with broadband as well, your home sort of network, it’s so much easier to churn over if you’re not on a plan, that is. So you can just move around and you can just shop around. So I might be back to Telstra, I might be in Vodafone or Boost or whoever, whoever is offering So that’s called porting.

[00:31:54] Stephen Fenech: You can port your number. I think a lot of people don’t realize that you can port your number. You own your number. The telco doesn’t own your number. So you can— if you decide today to think, I’m going to switch to Telstra, I’m going to switch to Vodafone, you’ve got to let them know. Or they’ll let your telco know, but they’ll also do a lot of checks as well to confirm it’s you. Because there was been some dramas in the past where some cyber— some, some scammers actually were able to transfer numbers. That doesn’t surprise me. But now there’s a bit more security around it, thank God. But yeah, it’s, it’s the ever-evolving world of the telcos and mobiles. But this is the first 48-month plan. It’s a longer— that’s a long relationship.

[00:32:37] Val Quinn: Yeah, that’s true. Hey, one last thing to add to this is that this is the first time I’ve tried switching over to an eSIM. And so when it comes to changing—

[00:32:43] Stephen Fenech: oh, so you’re on an eSIM?

[00:32:44] Val Quinn: So I’m on eSIM, so I don’t have a physical SIM to plug into my phones anymore. So what’s good about that is that assuming your phone has an eSIM as an option, is that you don’t have to worry about getting a physical SIM, taking it out of one phone, putting in another. So when you do want to switch to a different provider, it’s all very quick and it all happens sort of electronically. So your number gets carried over to the other provider, and it just basically— they send you a code and then your phone— you don’t need a little bit of plastic, you don’t have to wait for them to send you something in the post, you don’t have to go into a Telstra or a shop and—

[00:33:16] Stephen Fenech: what about when you want to swap? So like, you and I, we use more phones than anyone else, right? So what about when you want to switch to another device Are you— do you maintain the eSIM or do you get a, a regular SIM?

[00:33:27] Val Quinn: What I do is I go to the provider and you say you want to switch phones and they give you a code, a QR code normally, and then you just, in your new phone, you just, uh, show it the QR code or you type in the code and then it just reassigns the eSIM to your new phone. So, so through the network you just have to go to who’s supplying the, uh, service to you, uh, you go online, yeah, it’s all electronic, it gives it to you quickly, instantly, and then you just, you provide that to your new phone.

[00:33:53] Stephen Fenech: Reason I ask is because, you know, the Duo is eSIM only.

[00:33:56] Val Quinn: That’s right. So we’re all going to have to get used to it.

[00:33:58] Stephen Fenech: We’re going to have a crash course in eSIMs.

[00:34:01] Val Quinn: Yeah.

[00:34:01] Stephen Fenech: In a few weeks’ time when the iPhone Duo lands.

[00:34:03] Val Quinn: It hasn’t been bad, I have to say. It hasn’t been a big pain, and we do swap phones quite a bit. Um, the only thing is sometimes they send you a QR code and then you’re like, well, how am I supposed to show the new phone the QR code on the old phone?

[00:34:15] Stephen Fenech: That’s it. Yeah.

[00:34:16] Val Quinn: So you have to kind of like take a picture of it and then hold it up to the other phone.

[00:34:19] Stephen Fenech: It’s a little bit tricky, but it’s gone There’s got to be an easy way. Yeah, there’s got to be.

[00:34:23] Val Quinn: There is a code that you can type in, like a manual one, but it isn’t too bad.

[00:34:26] Stephen Fenech: So, but we are, but we are going to get used to eSIMs. We’re going to get a lot closer to eSIMs with the Duo.

[00:34:32] Val Quinn: Yep. Well, I mean, it means they don’t have to find room for a physical thing to slot into a device, and I think in the end of the day it’s, it’s better for us to get rid of those things.

[00:34:41] Stephen Fenech: Similar to, uh, the iPhone. Did you ever use the iPhone Air?

[00:34:44] Val Quinn: Uh, yeah, yes, that’s eSIM only as well.

[00:34:46] Stephen Fenech: Not enough room for the physical SIM, although yet the, uh, it’s opposite number at, uh, at Samsung, which I quite like. Remember the, uh, what was called the S25 Edge? Yes, that’s right, the really thin one that had a SIM card slot.

[00:34:57] Val Quinn: Yeah, they figured it out. Maybe it was a little bigger, but it didn’t seem thicker.

[00:35:00] Stephen Fenech: And I don’t know whether many people are aware that you— if you buy an iPhone in the US, no, even the iPhone 18s and any other iPhone for the last 4 years, yeah, they’ve been easy. No SIM card tray.

[00:35:12] Val Quinn: Yeah, yeah.

[00:35:13] Stephen Fenech: So it’s all eSIM.

[00:35:14] Val Quinn: Yep.

[00:35:15] Stephen Fenech: So they’re, they’re, um, I was convinced that this year would be the year they switched Australia over 2. Yeah, like I thought the 18 Pro range would have been eSIM only and the Duo. They’ve persisted with the SIM card. I reckon next year— and the big rumor is, while we’re talking on the subject of Apple, the big rumor next year is that they’re going to skip 19 as the number, right, and go straight to 20. Sort of like, think about it, there was no iPhone 9. Yeah, there was also no Windows 9, remember that? Yeah, so they went for Windows 8 10, iPhone 8 to 10. What’s it— what is it with 9?

[00:35:49] Val Quinn: It’s not like a, you know, Chinese where like 4 I think is an unlucky number.

[00:35:53] Stephen Fenech: I don’t know. Yeah, I don’t know.

[00:35:54] Val Quinn: But I know 9 is—

[00:35:55] Stephen Fenech: yeah, you think about it, it will be nice because it’s the 20th anniversary of the iPhone next year. So having an iPhone 20, which is apparently, if the rumors are to be believed, has gonna have like edge-to-edge, like, you know, what do they call it, like, um, waterfall glass on the, on the outside. So it’ll be like there’s borderless display, no border on the display. And it’s gonna be a massive change.

[00:36:17] Val Quinn: Yeah, I’ve been, I’ve been sort of hearing about that too. They wanted to make it, because it’s a special anniversary, they really want to make it next generation, the kind of the new language, just like they did with the iPhone X, or was it called the X?

[00:36:28] Stephen Fenech: It was X, and that was the first iPhone without a home button. Yeah, that was an all-screen.

[00:36:32] Val Quinn: So I think we’re gonna probably see maybe the Face ID camera is going to go, that notch sort of thing, maybe like you said, edge-to-edge, a borderless display.

[00:36:39] Stephen Fenech: Yep.

[00:36:40] Val Quinn: Who knows what else after that? I don’t know. Any ideas?

[00:36:43] Stephen Fenech: Well, you know, another fold, they’re pretty strong. Yeah, well, I think the, the And it’s like the Air and the Duo, they don’t have numbers on them. So that’s just— they’re gonna— they’ll probably release a Duo every 2 years, maybe. Yeah, or 3 years. Like the iPhone Air, I think, is going to get updated next year with the 18. So you know how they didn’t have the entry-level 18 this year, and we know that they’re going to have an event or a launch next year for 18, 18e, and iPhone Air 2 perhaps. So, um, stay tuned for that one. But yeah, that’s why the Duo doesn’t have number yet. Maybe the second one might be called Duo 2.

[00:37:18] Val Quinn: That’s a really good point. Yeah, well, I guess one— at the end of the day, we’ll be just seeing more, I guess, separate— well, more announcements from Apple about phones throughout the year instead of just one big one. We’ll see at least two.

[00:37:28] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:37:28] Val Quinn: And a lot more devices shared across.

[00:37:30] Stephen Fenech: Uh, but bottom line is you can at least go— you could— the furthest you can go is 4 years when you plan to—

[00:37:36] Val Quinn: oh, I hope it doesn’t turn to 5 and 6. It’s like a mortgage.

[00:37:39] Stephen Fenech: But I did check with Telstra yesterday and I said, oh, how about your, uh, your mates over there, over the road, with the 4-year deal. And they said— I said, are you going to do that? They said no, probably not.

[00:37:49] Val Quinn: No, interesting. Yeah, interesting to see what comes out with it.

[00:37:51] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I don’t think, uh, well, no one’s come forward with anything just yet. Anyway, if you want to pay off that Duo, you’ve got 4 years to do it.

[00:37:59] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech.

[00:38:02] Stephen Fenech: Two Blokes Talking Tech, proudly supported by Netgear. Netgear is the company if you want to get your mesh router and Wi-Fi across your entire home. Their Wi-Fi 7 Orbi range, the 970, 870, 770, 370 and the 370, uh, are the products to look for if you want to have whole home Wi-Fi from the front door to the backyard. Not everyone has consistent Wi-Fi, and this is a way to get it. Your modem might be at the front of the house and your TV and all your entertainment, your PlayStation, all your, your gaming and everything is at the back of the house. Then you need a mesh router to get that consistent. And of course, if you live in a multi-story home and there’s a few people in the household then you’ll want to provide that, that smooth Wi-Fi across your entire home. Get the speed you’re paying for across your entire home. I get so many people calling asking, my, my internet is, uh, it’s not really the best. That it’s not actually their internet, it’s their Wi-Fi. If you can improve your Wi-Fi, you can solve a lot of problems. And everyone I’ve recommended this product to all come back to me with the same result: it has solved my problems, it’s a game changer. So check it out for yourself, netgear.com.

[00:39:08] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech.

[00:39:11] Stephen Fenech: Now Now, uh, you and I, mate, we were up at, uh, Cafe Sydney. Thank you very much for a, uh, a nice, a nice little product launch. We both had our own little individual briefings about the new Snapmaker U1 3D printer. This is— I’m impressed, I’m impressed. So it’s, uh, it’s a, it’s a— was— it came through Kickstarter and had so much support, it generated more than $20 million of support. And so they’ve gone ahead and made this thing, which is now going to be in stores in JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, uh, on October 15th. If you pre-order it, you get $100 off, so it’ll be $1,299. If you wait until after the launch, it’ll be back up to the regular $1,399. But, but I was impressed, and I’m into 3D printing. I’ve got the, the Bambu Lab H2C, and I’m into 3D printing. And I’ve got to say, what impressed me about this one was was, uh, the, the ease of use of it and the how you don’t really need to be— if you’ve never done 3D printing before in your life, this product can onboard you and allow you to get involved and, and make these handy 3D prints.

[00:40:23] Val Quinn: Yeah, look, I think this is, um, a great first-time 3D printer for people. And, you know, you probably heard about these before, they’ve been around a long time, but they’ve really come a long way. And then I have one too, that I’ve been using and reviewed on Gadget Guy. But this one is really simple. But the thing that I love about this, it will print in multiple colors. So, so nowadays you can have, you know, 4 colors. So there’s 4 different spools. There’s even more that you can print in, but I’ll talk about that in a minute. And it’s, it’s really simple. You just plug it into your computer, or you can even just pair it with your phone. And you can download these models of pretty much anything you can think of from a huge community of creators.

[00:40:59] Stephen Fenech: There’s a huge maker community through the app, which, which is great. Like if you, if you don’t know, 3D modeling, then you, you’re okay because you can still look at all these suggestions from the app.

[00:41:10] Val Quinn: That’s right.

[00:41:11] Stephen Fenech: But the, uh, the, the, the, the U1, the, the printer it has is a 4-toolhead printer. So what that means is that each, each of the colors, each of the filament has its own toolhead to come into the printer. So what normally happens is that with a 3D printer, there’s one nozzle and the filament takes turns coming through the same path. Yeah, with this one, each of the colors have their own path, so that’s less complication, less chance of there being an error or filament break, and also saves time as well. The tool head change takes only seconds, whereas another one could take minutes. Now, did you remember too, on the table in front of us at the presentation, they had like a model of like a lizard they printed out?

[00:41:55] Val Quinn: This is a great—

[00:41:56] Stephen Fenech: and there was a very example, there was a plate there where that was a rival 3D printer and all of the waste, so all the little bits of wound up filament that’s, that gets sort of put into the bin of the, of the printer. There was a whole plate full in one model, and the amount of waste on the Snapmaker’s version, there was like 2 or 3 little spools. I think that in itself is amazing.

[00:42:19] Val Quinn: Yeah, there’s literally handfuls of, of waste, uh, filament or plastic, um, that you, you would have because when you’re switching colors a lot, it would waste a whole bunch every time you switch each color.

[00:42:29] Stephen Fenech: Every time the tool head changes, it has to sort of wind it out and do this and that.

[00:42:33] Val Quinn: And yeah, yeah, like it’s, um, so it’s a really clever idea. It’s kind of addressing some of the pain points that people have, and one of them is wasting a whole lot of filament. It’s kind of like if you’re— I mean, for those that haven’t used it, again, it’s sort of like, it’s like a— to imagine a printer that prints, you know, prints out your, you know, letters and things, only this, this uses a plastic filament. And there’s different types. Sometimes they’re, they’re fabric-y, um, sometimes they’re, they’re good for high temperatures, sometimes they’re really sturdy, or others are strong.

[00:43:00] Stephen Fenech: There’s all different types. Yeah.

[00:43:02] Val Quinn: So what you do is you You kind of load up the printer with all of those different materials for whatever you’re printing. You download a blueprint of something, or if you’re good enough to do it, you can make it yourself in 3D, or even scan something with your phone and turn that into a 3D model.

[00:43:14] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:43:15] Val Quinn: And they’re great for anything around the house or hobbies or creating figurines. Or like, my brother’s a mechanical engineer and, and he rebuilds motorcycles. There’s all these— I mean, he uses CAD so he can use this thing in a really advanced way, but just for like, for rebuilding his motorcycle, there’s always little parts that are missing or little plastic stoppers or pieces So he uses it for that. But there’s so many things you can do. And I have to say, if you’re even vaguely interested in a 3D printer, go and go to a maker community website, just type in 3D printer models. I follow Astounded by how much you can choose, and that’ll make you want to go and buy one. And I think that with this one in particular, it’s really made it easy for people. You don’t have to be an expert, and it gets rid of the whole wasting filament problem. And it’s, it’s, uh, it’s, it’s actually a really nice box. It just, you know, it is.

[00:44:03] Stephen Fenech: And you know what, surprisingly small footprint too. Like, it’s the, the print volume, so that’s the area that it can print. I think it’s 2700, uh, 27 centimeters by 27 centimeters by 27 centimeters, so 270 mil each way. Uh, but I do follow a lot of makers on, on Instagram. There’s a few really clever, and some of the things they come up with, yeah, it could be— you can look in my Star Wars cabinet here here. See on the top row, the top left there, that, that ship, the, the Darth Vader’s TIE fighter, that was 3D printed.

[00:44:34] Val Quinn: Wow.

[00:44:34] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, look at the detail in that.

[00:44:35] Val Quinn: That’s incredible.

[00:44:36] Stephen Fenech: See the second shelf with the TIE fighter next to the Star Wars logo, on the left of the Star Wars logo?

[00:44:41] Val Quinn: Yep.

[00:44:41] Stephen Fenech: 3D printed.

[00:44:41] Val Quinn: 3D printed. Yeah, it’s, it’s amazing.

[00:44:43] Stephen Fenech: It’s remarkable.

[00:44:44] Val Quinn: It’s— and I mean, you can either print them out and paint them yourselves, or with these multicolor printers, that was the color.

[00:44:49] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, well, that’s a good point, the colors. So you can have 4 different colors and And there’s even, I think, what were they talking about? How that they’ve got a technology that can actually mix colors. Well, that’s right.

[00:44:59] Val Quinn: So just, just like, um, the way, uh, like a painter would do it, like, uh, like when a magazine is printed, um, you can create all kinds of colors from cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. So those are your 4 primary colors. So what they have is this really cool technology where the filament is sort of see-through. And so you have, uh, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black see-through sort of translucent, um, filaments. Then it can make pretty much any color from those. So yes, it’s a 4-color printer, you choose your colors, but if you want to have more, you can choose these, uh, translucent base colors that then can be specially mixed to produce just about anything. So it’s— the technology goes even further.

[00:45:38] Stephen Fenech: They had a great example. Remember they had the parrot?

[00:45:42] Val Quinn: Yeah, looking multicolor.

[00:45:43] Stephen Fenech: And they said, count the colors on that. And I counted like 6 or 7 colors. They said, that’s actually 4 colors that have just been mixed.

[00:45:49] Val Quinn: Yeah. And I was like, I was like, I couldn’t figure out, so how did you print this with a 4-color printer? Yeah, because it can actually layer these translucent ones in such a way to create a new color. Takes longer because it has to layer them very thin. But the other thing too is it’s really cool is that when you actually create a 3D print, it will— there’s a little camera inside and it will time-lapse the creation of it. Yeah, it does take a little while. It could take an hour or two.

[00:46:12] Stephen Fenech: That camera, you can also check in on it. So say you’re out, you can actually log in and look through the app and say, oh, see the progress of it. Oh yeah, they’re nearly finished.

[00:46:19] Val Quinn: How’s it going? But I just love seeing these kind of things more into life. Uh, you know, it might take a few hours.

[00:46:24] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I love that, love that. But, um, the— yeah, so I love the fact that it’s not just for, you know, for creators and hobbyists, but also newcomers. If you’re new, new to 3D printing, this is a really nice entry into the market. And I mean, I’ve printed so many things. Like, I’ve printed things— I, I often talk about the, uh, I printed my wife a colander. So she loves having the blueberries in her yogurt. So I printed her a colander that had a funnel, so when you put it in the sink sink and you, and you turn the tap on, it goes into the funnel and that then brings the water in and swirls it around inside the colander.

[00:46:56] Val Quinn: That is— I’ve seen that, something similar. And this is the thing about 3D printers is that they can make such complex shapes that you normally, uh, if you’re doing like a molding type of creation, you couldn’t get it. So like it can make tubes inside of solid objects and things. It’s really amazing. I think the last one I did was I did a headphone stand, which is where I hang my headphones. Um, I have a couple of ice scrapers that I use, uh, to, you know, in the wintertime when I go skiing, and there’s little things like that. Yeah, there’s all kinds of stuff.

[00:47:22] Stephen Fenech: Like, I’ve made, uh, like, yeah, like my little controller for a remote control holder, so you put all your remotes in it. I made a pen holder, uh, I’ve made little clips. I’ve made clips to sort of put on to chips and other food that you want to seal as well. Yeah, I’ve made a few of those.

[00:47:39] Val Quinn: You know, I’ve been seeing a lot of too is that, um, because you can get these flexible, um, uh, fab— like, they’re flexible, it’s kind of like a rubbery one that you can do too. Now I’ve been seeing people make really cool shoe designs. Yeah, shoes. They’re all, um, they’re all kind of— they look super high-tech, sort of like a Yeezy shoe or something that Kanye West has done. So you can, you can come up with your own ideas, you can try it out. There’s so much to do.

[00:48:00] Stephen Fenech: And with the volume to the size of it, you can actually— it’s pretty generous the size-wise. So you can, you know, whether you want to make a nice little Star Wars figurine like I have, or something for the kitchen, or something for, you know, printing a spare part for you. I’ve seen people printing, um, you can, you can print out not like attachments for your vacuum cleaner. Yeah, like if you’ve got a Dyson, whatever brand you’ve got, there’d be one— someone’s made something out there that’ll fit, that’ll fit yours. Like, what I’ve had a look at, um, you know, you print phone stands as well. I’ve printed a few of those out.

[00:48:30] Val Quinn: And my friend, my friend John broke a piece of his dishwasher rack and he printed that out. I’m just, you know, like, there’s the sky’s the limit. But there is a lot of things like figurines, creative stuff. Like, if you’re a creative person, I, I definitely think you should check out a 3D printer. And also, um, Snapmaker is, is is, um, new to Australia. So it was just introduced itself out here, but it’s actually been around for quite a long time. I think since 2017 it’s done, um, yeah. So you can check out their website, but, um, yeah, they’re not a— they’re not new.

[00:48:56] Stephen Fenech: They definitely, um, yeah, first time in Australia. Yeah, first time around the world. And just on the waste side, I’ve got the figure here: 85% less filament waste. 85% less.

[00:49:07] Val Quinn: Wow, that’s, that’s huge. I mean, this matters because you have to buy the— each filament rolls about, I think it’s about 500 grams.

[00:49:13] Stephen Fenech: Um, so you can buy 500 or a kilo. They’re kilo as well.

[00:49:15] Val Quinn: So the difference is, is that you just don’t have to buy them as often. And yeah, you got a pile of sort of plastic waste bits, and you know, what are you going to do with those?

[00:49:23] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I know, that’s just rubbish.

[00:49:24] Val Quinn: Recycle them or something.

[00:49:25] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. So now they’ve also got the smart calibration. That also helps with the speed of as well. Like, they did comparisons of the speed of prints as well. Like, there are prints that can take hours. Like, we’re talking, like, I’ve done prints that have taken like 32 hours. Yeah, that’s, that’s a day and a half, right? But there are the, the comparison between this, the, the, um, the Snapmaker and the, and other brands, we’re talking hours quicker there in the, in the production. So, and that comes through from the, you know, the, the less waste is also a result of its efficiency, but also to changing the tool heads, that, that’s, that can happen in seconds rather than in minutes as well.

[00:50:05] Val Quinn: That’s good. And that 4-tool head thing means you can also also have fabric on one color and another one different, so you can mix them up too. So it’s not just the colors, so it’s a clever idea.

[00:50:13] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:50:13] Val Quinn: And yeah, just great— God, great for school kids’ projects, all kinds of stuff.

[00:50:17] Stephen Fenech: I think 3D printing was sort of into a new phase where 3D printers really catching on. And like, this is pretty affordable too. Like, years ago, a decent 3D printer like this would have cost twice as much. Yeah, they’re really coming in with a really competitive price here too. And the fact that it’s easy to use and really approachable, I think, is going to make it really popular.

[00:50:38] Val Quinn: Yeah, and hey, if you’re a part of the Kickstarter, you get for even cheaper. That’s it.

[00:50:42] Stephen Fenech: You do, exactly. If you’ve invested early, absolutely. But, uh, if you want to, uh, purchase it, the Stampmaker U1, uh, pre-orders are on now. JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, $1,299. That’s the discounted price if you want to get in early and pre-order. Otherwise, uh, afterwards when it goes on sale on October 15th, it’ll go back up to to $13.99.

[00:51:01] Val Quinn: Oh yeah, and I think with JB, if you buy it there, they’ll give you, uh, they’ll throw in some more filament.

[00:51:06] Stephen Fenech: Lovely.

[00:51:07] Val Quinn: So there’s, I think there’s a pre-order.

[00:51:08] Stephen Fenech: Won’t say no to filament. Filaments like money, mate. You can never have too much filament.

[00:51:12] Val Quinn: Exactly.

[00:51:13] Stephen Fenech: Righty-o. The Snapmaker U1, uh, you can read about it at techguide.com.au and gadgetguide.com.au.

[00:51:20] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech with Trevor Long and Stephen Fenech.

[00:51:25] Stephen Fenech: It’s with Val Quinn and Stephen Fenech. And Val, you’re gonna— there’s a, there’s a product that you’ve got, you guys have reviewed on Gadget Guy. Tell us about it, the Ring Outdoor Plus.

[00:51:34] Val Quinn: Yep, Ring Outdoor Camera Plus. So, you know, we talked about security cameras before, but what I like about this one is that obviously we’re coming up to that time when weather’s heating up, days are getting longer, you’re gonna, you know, plan some holidays, go up the coast, down the coast, and of course you want to keep an eye on your property. So especially around the outside, see what’s going on, even if it’s just watching the neighbor’s dog, right? A little bit of peace of mind. But what I like, and there’s a lot of security security cameras to choose from, but what I do like about Ring’s outdoor camera is that this one is, is pretty simple. It’s, you know, you can get ones that pan and tilt, but this one is, it’s, it’s $199. But what it does is it connects to a solar panel, and that means it’s a set-and-forget camera, because there’s nothing worse than having to figure out how to get back up to wherever you mounted your outdoor security camera, pull the battery out of it, or worse, run, run a power cable. Yeah, so this just has a little solar panel that runs separately, so you just run a cable between the camera and the solar panel, and it needs, I think, 3 hours of sunlight a day to, to basically charge up. But it’s also got a big battery in it too, so it’s not like if you don’t get that sunlight it will run out of battery. It just means that, you know, it needs some extra to top itself back up. But the idea—

[00:52:44] Stephen Fenech: the panel comes with it, doesn’t it?

[00:52:45] Val Quinn: Panel comes with it, it’s part of the pack, and you just, you just hook it up and you’ve got like a 2K camera, so there’s lots of detail. You can keep an eye on, you know, the back, the backyard, or the front yard, or the front door away wherever you want to mount it. It’s weatherproof as well, and you just have the solar panel. So I think that for outdoor cameras nowadays, I would really think that they should all have solar panels just so you don’t have to worry about—

[00:53:06] Stephen Fenech: that’s becoming more common actually. But I do love about this too that it supports both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Yeah, that’s a real band support, really easy to set up then. I know a lot of people think, well, how do I get the 2.4? That’s really— if they don’t know where to do it and how to do it, it can be a bit, a bit of a pain.

[00:53:23] Val Quinn: But I’m glad they’ve got both bands Yeah, because 2.4 does tend to give you a bit more range, but more people have to compete for that, that kind of, you know, the neighbor’s Wi-Fi might be on that too. So it’s good to have both options. I think it’s, it’s good that way.

[00:53:36] Stephen Fenech: So 160-degree field of view, that’s pretty big.

[00:53:38] Val Quinn: Yeah, it’s, it’s big. So that means you could just have one in the center of your property and kind of, it should be able to kind of cast wide and out there as well. And, and like I said, it’s, it, the thing too is that you do have to have a subscription, but it’s only just under $5.

[00:53:50] Stephen Fenech: I was gonna ask about that. Yeah, like you don’t have to, all Ring cameras, even the doorbell all you need is subscription.

[00:53:55] Val Quinn: Yeah, I mean, you don’t have to, you can still use it without, but the beauty of having a subscription is, is that at least the footage is being stored in the cloud. So if someone steals the camera, they, they take it, if there’s a thief, like, you don’t have to worry about, um, normally if you don’t have that, it’ll still, it’ll store it on the device.

[00:54:10] Stephen Fenech: So you’ve got that $4.95 a month.

[00:54:12] Val Quinn: Yeah, so it’s 5 for a single camera, and then what is it, $14.95 for multiple cameras if you want to have, if you’ve got a few of them around. But what that also does is that it, it, Ring’s got some pretty impressive AI, so it allows, it kind of analyzes your footage, figures out what’s in it, gives you notifications that you want to know about. Not just, oh, tree moved or whatever, it’s more someone’s come and dropped off a package. And, uh, you can, you can basically just make sure that when it does tell you something, it’s something you want to know about. Yeah, so that’s, that’s pretty important. And also you can now search things too. So if you wanted to search for, um, I don’t know, an occurrence or an event, um, in all of that stored footage, you can say, show me when the postman—

[00:54:50] Stephen Fenech: is that, that’s AI?

[00:54:51] Val Quinn: Yeah, right. So it knows what a postman is. Or you say, show me when the cat moved across the on.

[00:54:55] Stephen Fenech: So it will show me when the package was delivered, the package.

[00:54:58] Val Quinn: So it will know what’s in your footage, understand it, and then you can ask for it in just normal typing.

[00:55:02] Stephen Fenech: Hopefully you won’t be asked for show me where my package was stolen.

[00:55:05] Val Quinn: Yeah, well, that’s, that’s one thing people say. Well, it’s all great and well to see someone come and steal it, but, but there is, you know, okay, I’ll answer that question. There is, um, you can also set, um, actions depending on the camera, of course, but you can have a floodlight turn on. So if they’re, you know, if it’s the dark, you know, it’ll light them up. Or you can have a, like, certain cameras have like red and blue flashing lights, so you can actually have this sort siren go off or lights go off. So sometimes that might scare people away, might not.

[00:55:31] Stephen Fenech: Absolutely.

[00:55:31] Val Quinn: That’s a good thing anyway.

[00:55:32] Stephen Fenech: Awesome.

[00:55:32] Val Quinn: Yeah, so I’m excited about that. Definitely a good deal. Um, you don’t usually see them for that kind of price. Um, and I would always say outdoor cameras should have a solar panel attached to save you a headache.

[00:55:42] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, and I think Ring’s sort of one of the OGs when it came to like the doorbell. Remember, it started with the doorbells.

[00:55:47] Val Quinn: People know the doorbells.

[00:55:48] Stephen Fenech: When my dogs— when I had my dogs, we used to have a Ring doorbell, and whenever that sound, they’d run to the front door. But then even when we changed to Arlo and, um, the ad would come on TV and it would make— they’d hear it and they’d run to the front door thinking it’s the TV, mate.

[00:56:05] Val Quinn: Well, what is that? That’s Pavlovian.

[00:56:06] Stephen Fenech: Pavlovian classical conditioning right there. I can confirm, mate, that my dogs responded to that one.

[00:56:13] Val Quinn: I think I respond to it too. I’m not much different than a dog.

[00:56:15] Stephen Fenech: I’m like, oh yeah, but right, you can read about the Ring Outdoor Camera Plus Solar at gadgetguy.com.au.

[00:56:21] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech with Trevor Long and Stephen Fenech.

[00:56:30] Stephen Fenech: Well, Val, that’s the end of the show, mate. We really appreciate your time over the last 3 weeks. It’s a pleasure to have you on the show, mate.

[00:56:37] Val Quinn: Great to talk, Steve. Really enjoyed it. Always a pleasure to chitchat about our favorite things.

[00:56:42] Stephen Fenech: Good for you, mate. It’s been great having you here. Your expertise is always welcome, and you’ve always been a friend of the show and will continue to be. So what’s on for you, mate, in the next few months? Any more trips planned, or you’re gonna keep your feet on the ground?

[00:56:56] Val Quinn: Well, there’s probably another phone launch in the, in the Wings, uh, and, uh, maybe another, uh, big sort of love, um, Adobe phone launch.

[00:57:05] Stephen Fenech: Which phone is it?

[00:57:05] Val Quinn: Oh, I think Oppo is going to probably do something. Maybe, um, really, maybe then before the end of the year. I think so, I think so.

[00:57:11] Stephen Fenech: If you heard it here first, folks.

[00:57:13] Val Quinn: Yeah, well, let’s, let’s see, let’s see. Unconfirmed, unofficially, but I think I’m expecting something there. And what else is there big coming up?

[00:57:20] Stephen Fenech: I think we’re just doing a lot of— you doing Adobe Max?

[00:57:22] Val Quinn: You’re gonna do that? Adobe Max. So I’ll go over and check out if you’re a creator and you like to, you know, you create videos or music or, or Photoshop, like a lot of our teams do that kind of thing. And there’s some really amazing things that you can do now with AI and, and still be creative and not have it absolutely take away all your creativity. So I’m going to find out the latest on that too. And it’s a, it’s always a good one to see what that is.

[00:57:44] Stephen Fenech: And of course, come early in the new year, mate, we’ll both be in Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show.

[00:57:50] Val Quinn: I don’t even know if I’m excited.

[00:57:52] Stephen Fenech: Well, we kind of know what to expect now, mate.

[00:57:54] Val Quinn: I think, you know, we’ve pretty experienced.

[00:57:57] Stephen Fenech: How many, how many CESs have you done?

[00:57:58] Val Quinn: Oh well, I don’t know, probably 17, 18.

[00:58:02] Stephen Fenech: I’m up to— this will be my 22nd CES.

[00:58:06] Val Quinn: Yeah, wow, that’s a lot. Yeah, there’s, there’s, there’s very few years that I’ve missed. And, um, yeah, you know, we kind of got to get ready for it. But it’ll be interesting this year because I think that, um, we’ve both been to IFA. That’s the kind of the European big tech show. I think there’s a lot, um, kind of held back, um, this year from a lot of the bigger brands. So it’d be interesting to see whether it all kind of gets announced at CES instead. So big stuff on the entertainment front, I think we’ll see.

[00:58:29] Stephen Fenech: Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:58:30] Val Quinn: But it’s interesting too because everyone’s, you know, we’re all feeling the pinch in terms of the, you know, the cost of living crisis. You know, our interest rates have just gone up. So these big companies, you know, they realize that people may not want to go and buy a brand new high-tech refrigerator or a brand new TV. So be interesting.

[00:58:46] Stephen Fenech: Competition is going to get tougher, I think, uh, you know, because prices are going up in the tech space as well, as we’ve discussed.

[00:58:52] Val Quinn: That’s just it, isn’t it?

[00:58:53] Stephen Fenech: Where do you— where do you— where do people draw the line? And where will companies respond to try to— try and make things a bit easier?

[00:58:59] Val Quinn: Well, that’s what I’m really curious about, is, um, yeah, these are great new products with new features, but how are we going to afford them? So yeah, maybe, maybe we’ll see some sharper pricing, maybe some surprises.

[00:59:08] Stephen Fenech: Hope so.

[00:59:08] Val Quinn: Maybe some, you know, you could buy option A or less expensive option B. Maybe we’ll see more choice. I don’t know, it’ll be interesting to watch.

[00:59:14] Stephen Fenech: Good on you, mate. Well, if you— anything you wanted to— anything of Val’s you want to check out, go to his gadgetguy.com.au. Also check out his YouTube channel, put a lot of work in that, over more than half a million subscribers.

[00:59:28] Val Quinn: I know, it’s, uh, it’s hard work pays off there, bro. It’s nice to see, nice to see. But thank you all too who watched my videos. That’s really what I have to say.

[00:59:36] Stephen Fenech: No worries, mate. Thanks again, uh, really, you’ve been a terrific, uh, uh, stand-in for our mate Trev.

[00:59:43] Val Quinn: Yeah, it’d be interesting to see what his, his tales are when he comes back and hopefully be nice, rested and tanned and happy.

[00:59:48] Stephen Fenech: So he’ll have plenty to say, mate, as he normally does.

[00:59:50] Val Quinn: Us.

[00:59:50] Stephen Fenech: But until then, mate, thank you again, Val, and, uh, really appreciate you coming into the show, onto the show. And don’t forget to check out his website, as I said, gadgetguide.com.au. And you can check me out at techguide.com.au. Val, catch you later, buddy.

[01:00:03] Val Quinn: Catch you later.

[01:00:05] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech with Trevor Long and Stephen Fenech.