The Two Blokes Talking Tech podcast – Episode #757 – Reddit in court, not too much Apple

TBTT #757 – Reddit in court, not too much Apple

Podcast: Two Blokes Talking Tech
Date: 5 November 2026
Hosts: Trevor Long, Stephen Fenech

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[00:00:00] Stephen Fenech: I’m feeling good.

[00:00:02] Trevor Long: Glad I hit record before that. I’m so glad I hit record before that.

[00:00:06] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, mate, I’m here, aren’t I?

[00:00:08] Trevor Long: Well, I don’t know, sometimes perhaps reluctantly, although I can’t wait for the EV show in 2 weeks to show people what you arrived in.

[00:00:19] Stephen Fenech: Yeah,

[00:00:19] Trevor Long: I honestly cannot wait to drive it.

[00:00:20] Stephen Fenech: I’ve got a few looks, I’ve got to say.

[00:00:22] Trevor Long: Yeah, a few

[00:00:23] Stephen Fenech: looks, people thinking,

[00:00:24] Trevor Long: do you need me to get you out of that?

[00:00:25] Stephen Fenech: Which idiot is this?

[00:00:27] Trevor Long: Pry you out of that. Although I watched you getting out, it seems— it seemed to fit you very well.

[00:00:31] Stephen Fenech: Was better than I thought.

[00:00:32] Trevor Long: I’ve seen some videos, it’s actually quite tall inside.

[00:00:34] Stephen Fenech: It is, yeah, you’re right.

[00:00:36] Trevor Long: We’re talking about the Honda Super One. Google that, folks.

[00:00:39] Stephen Fenech: I don’t want to give up what I was going to say on the EV show, but I like the layout and the gear controls as well. It’s really smartly done.

[00:00:49] Trevor Long: Bring it on.

[00:00:50] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I can’t wait. Stay tuned for a, uh, electric cars. Yeah.

[00:00:54] Trevor Long: Yeah, that’ll be in 2 weeks. It’ll be the 16th, that one. Yeah.

[00:00:59] Stephen Fenech: I believe. Planning Christmas shows now, are we?

[00:01:01] Trevor Long: No, no, we’re only a week away. Week ahead.

[00:01:03] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, it’s November already, that’s right. Yeah.

[00:01:05] Trevor Long: I feel like we’re only gonna have to do one Double Down at some point in the next little while, ’cause I do have to do something in December.

[00:01:14] Stephen Fenech: Yes. You haven’t told me what that is, have you?

[00:01:16] Trevor Long: No.

[00:01:17] Stephen Fenech: Can you reveal that?

[00:01:18] Trevor Long: I don’t think I’ve told you I’m doing anything.

[00:01:19] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, you did. You said you got to travel. Oh, I did. You changed the show to a day earlier.

[00:01:27] Trevor Long: Here’s what happened. I’ll be honest with you. I’ll tell you what happened. I can’t tell you. I’ll tell you off air, but I can’t expose to everyone. So I had a conversation in America with someone who wanted to do something. And I’m like, oh, listen, I can’t do anything in November. It’s in December. Okay, cool, cool. And I thought it’s a pretty good pitch. I’ll pitch it into the Today Show. So we’ll see what we can do. Anyway, so I get it. Today Show, yes, let’s do it. I put it in the family diary, good stuff. Amanda gets a little bit of the irits ’cause I’m gonna land back on the 13th and she’s like, “It’s your birthday the day after. I wanted to celebrate your birthday that weekend.” And I’m like, “Babe, well, we got Aunty Cheryl coming around. We’re gonna have a great, let’s go to lunch.” We had a whole debate about that not being enough for my birthday anyway. And I said to the person who invited me, I said, “Oh, that’s kind of perfect. I’m gonna leave on the Wednesday. My daughter’s presentation night’s on the Tuesday.” Lovely. So I get to see Bibi get an award. I don’t know if she’s getting one. I don’t know. Anyway, so then I get back and there’s a text. Hey, just need to have a quick chat. There’s been some changes to the pitch and to the date. I went, oh, that’s great. So the pitch has changed slightly, not enough to affect it overall. And the date, ah, it’s 2 days earlier. I’m like, so now I can’t do Victoria’s presentation day. So I’m like, ah, don’t think I’ll bother. But then I said to Amanda, but I’ll be back on the Friday. So I’ll be back the whole weekend. Birthday if you want it. So anyway, so basically now that Tuesday that I moved our recording day from Wednesday to Tuesday, the Tuesday’s out now because I’m leaving the week before. So we might have to, yeah, there’ll be a remote for— we could do— see, the good thing is I think we’ve proven we do movies remote. And yes, if it’s a trip, you know how trips work, sometimes they’re hectic. But if it’s a trip with a day spare, yeah, man, I’ll just do the movie. But it might be mean doing it on the weekend.

[00:03:07] Stephen Fenech: People have discovered the fact that we did Donnie Darko remote. Did anyone say anything about that?

[00:03:12] Trevor Long: A Donnie Darko sounded

[00:03:13] Stephen Fenech: pretty good.

[00:03:14] Trevor Long: I’m trying to, you know how they have that thing where, where did I get that message? What platform did I get that message on?

[00:03:20] Stephen Fenech: Someone, I remember you saying that it sounded, you sounded better. I think you had,

[00:03:25] Trevor Long: so Bill Weaver, big fan, long time listener, radio guy, audio aficionado.

[00:03:30] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:03:32] Trevor Long: Messaged me after the tech show. So for Donnie Darko, honestly, quality, I think you’d tell, right? But I used the same equipment to do Two Blokes Talking Tech last week.

[00:03:43] Stephen Fenech: Yep.

[00:03:43] Trevor Long: And I put it through noise cancellation. Yes.

[00:03:46] Stephen Fenech: And it sounds really good.

[00:03:47] Trevor Long: Amazing.

[00:03:48] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:03:49] Trevor Long: And Bill said, what are you— what gear are you taking now? Or have they upgraded the Call Me on the RODECaster? What’s happened? And I went, mate, you would not believe that I was holding a RODE wireless microphone like the Wireless Go, the influencer style thing. For the tech train. He thought it was awesome.

[00:04:04] Stephen Fenech: So, okay, that’s good. So good. Rafa wrote.

[00:04:07] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:04:07] Stephen Fenech: So, and then— and what was that, just a plugin or something?

[00:04:10] Trevor Long: Noise suppression. It was just Riverside. Riverside has a—

[00:04:13] Stephen Fenech: oh,

[00:04:13] Trevor Long: okay— remove background noise or something.

[00:04:15] Stephen Fenech: Very nice.

[00:04:16] Trevor Long: So it did a good job.

[00:04:17] Stephen Fenech: So, yeah, great.

[00:04:18] Trevor Long: Yeah. So we can do that. Anyway, that’s just us planning out.

[00:04:21] Stephen Fenech: So when are you going to interview Donald Trump? What’s the story? Is that the— is this the trip that you’re going on?

[00:04:25] Trevor Long: It’s, uh, it’s, it’s pretty big. Yeah. No, uh, so that’s Yeah, for the week of like the 9th, 10th, 11th of December. Yeah, I won’t be here. So we’ll just have to plan some EV stuff. So what is the interview?

[00:04:38] Stephen Fenech: You do an interview with someone?

[00:04:39] Trevor Long: There is an interview involved. Yes. Yes, there is an interview involved.

[00:04:43] Stephen Fenech: Okay. I’m curious. You can’t say nothing just yet, can you? Yeah. Oh

[00:04:48] Trevor Long: yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Yeah. It’s honestly not that exciting, but it’s exciting enough that I can make a Today Show segment out of it.

[00:04:57] Stephen Fenech: So. Right. And they’re taking you to the US for that?

[00:05:01] Trevor Long: Correct.

[00:05:01] Stephen Fenech: Right. Very nice.

[00:05:03] Trevor Long: Yeah. The other side of the US.

[00:05:05] Stephen Fenech: Hope you bring, oh, New York.

[00:05:07] Trevor Long: Well, I’m not saying anything.

[00:05:09] Stephen Fenech: Hey, that’s great. Good on you.

[00:05:10] Trevor Long: Yeah, I look forward to it.

[00:05:12] Stephen Fenech: Very nice.

[00:05:13] Trevor Long: Anyway, I don’t know, I’ve got nothing else. You got anything?

[00:05:16] Stephen Fenech: I think I know what you’re pointing at before you were pointing at.

[00:05:19] Trevor Long: Yeah, I know.

[00:05:20] Stephen Fenech: The thing that’s, yeah, I can see.

[00:05:21] Trevor Long: The thing that I pointed up, I pointed in a fashion.

[00:05:24] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. Aye, yeah. Aye, yeah. Righto.

[00:05:27] Trevor Long: All right, enough of that. Let’s do this.

[00:05:31] VOICE OVER: Welcome to Two Blokes Talking Tech. Not a bad price. With Trevor Long from eftm.com.

[00:05:36] VOICE OVER: Really handy device.

[00:05:38] VOICE OVER: And Stephen Fenech from techguide.com.au.

[00:05:41] Trevor Long: Great to have your company. Episode 757, the beautiful 757. Wow, that’s a great plane.

[00:05:48] Stephen Fenech: When we get to 767, that’s going to be a special number too, mate.

[00:05:51] Trevor Long: Yeah, because we did the 747. Yeah, we’ve now done 757. We would have done 737. I probably would have acknowledged the aviation link there as well.

[00:05:58] Stephen Fenech: 767 is my first grade number from Souths.

[00:06:01] Trevor Long: Oh, okay. I was talking about planes.

[00:06:03] Stephen Fenech: Well, that too. But 767 is my Souths—

[00:06:06] Trevor Long: You know my first grade number? No, I was just zeroing in.

[00:06:10] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, that’s my number, baby.

[00:06:11] Trevor Long: Right. Well, we look forward to celebrating in 10 weeks. Will that be next year?

[00:06:15] Stephen Fenech: Next year, mate, at CES.

[00:06:18] Trevor Long: I don’t know. We’d have to do the counting.

[00:06:20] Stephen Fenech: It’s less than 8 weeks to Christmas. Is it? Yeah.

[00:06:22] Trevor Long: Jesus.

[00:06:22] Stephen Fenech: But it’s November. Hello.

[00:06:24] Trevor Long: No, I get it because of the Flighty app, which I can’t believe you don’t use, you’re mad.

[00:06:29] Stephen Fenech: Flighty? Is that one for your travel?

[00:06:30] Trevor Long: Yeah, all my trips are in it. So I know in 7 days I’m going to Coolangatta, in 30 days I’m going to that thing we just talked about.

[00:06:37] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:06:37] Trevor Long: And in 60 days I’ll leave for CES.

[00:06:40] Stephen Fenech: So what date? I’m going in December again this year.

[00:06:43] Trevor Long: Yeah, well you’re an idiot. Yeah. Mate, I’m landing and doing the show.

[00:06:46] Stephen Fenech: Ah, in and out. Hey, we’re pretty tight on the time. I’m in there overseas for 18 days, nearly, well, Nearly just under 3 weeks.

[00:06:54] Trevor Long: This is a man whose wife enjoys him not being around and his kids don’t need him.

[00:06:58] Stephen Fenech: Well, you know, she’s got up to Newcastle this weekend as well, mate. So I’m on the ace as well.

[00:07:02] Trevor Long: Keeping her M1 frequent flyer trips going.

[00:07:05] Stephen Fenech: Yep. She’s got up. Good on it.

[00:07:06] Trevor Long: This week. Yeah. Little Jack. Big Jack. Big Jack.

[00:07:09] Stephen Fenech: Yes. 4 months old there, mate.

[00:07:10] Trevor Long: He’s ready to front row it.

[00:07:12] Stephen Fenech: Geez, he’s growing too, mate. He’s a big boy.

[00:07:14] Trevor Long: He’s not a hooker. He’s a front rower.

[00:07:15] Stephen Fenech: Front rower for sure.

[00:07:17] Trevor Long: Anyway, thanks to JBL and Arlo for their continued support of Two Blokes Talking Tech. We appreciate their support and we would just hope, Stephen, I think I think it’s a well-acknowledged thing with our sponsors. We just hope that if you’re in the market for something, give it consideration, variety. So if you’re thinking about security cameras, just when you’re at the shops, have a look at Arlo and go, ah, it’s not a bad price.

[00:07:38] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, it’s not a bad price.

[00:07:40] Trevor Long: If you’re online, make sure you search and check. And if you’re buying a blue— look, and Black Friday’s coming up. Yep. Christmas is coming up. And I got randomly asked this morning on a radio spot, oh, just before we let you go, Christmas is coming. What’s hot this year? Same thing that’s hot every year. Headphones and Bluetooth is actually a really good present because there’s always an affordable and something for every price.

[00:08:01] Stephen Fenech: Everyone likes it, male or female, young or old.

[00:08:04] Trevor Long: So it is.

[00:08:05] Stephen Fenech: In fact, the other day I was outside, I was at Eastgardens and I bumped into, remember Josh I took to CES, he shot my videos a few years ago? He was there with his—

[00:08:13] Trevor Long: COVID Josh we call him—

[00:08:14] Stephen Fenech: with his female friend.

[00:08:16] Trevor Long: Okay, yes.

[00:08:17] Stephen Fenech: And they were saying, oh, we’re looking for some headphones, some earphones. She goes, oh, the AirPods don’t really fit me properly. And I went, you know what you do? Have a look at JBL. JBL, good value, good sound.

[00:08:27] Trevor Long: There you go. And just on that, and we’ll get to the drone in a second, I did, I was in Korea a couple of weeks ago and I did do a little 11-minute video just explaining some of the history of JBL. Yes. I was honestly, I learned a lot. I thought it was really interesting. And so I actually sat down and kind of talked through it. It’s not overwhelming. It’s not crazy fact-based, but yeah, I think you might be interested by that. So if you’re watching on YouTube, same channel, just have a look for the JBL, you know, 80 years there.

[00:08:50] Stephen Fenech: Your business is running 80 years later, you’re doing something right. Well, I’ll spoil the

[00:08:54] Trevor Long: ending of the video, which is something that’s played on my mind with a lot of companies. And we talked about it at IFA. It’s this, you know, you’re walking through the Dreame stand, you think Dreame make robot vacuums, and there’s a friggin action camera, right, taken on GoPro. And it’s the jack of all trades, master of none theory that a lot of tech companies are suffering from right now. And so I ended the video by saying, you know what, it bugs me that I have that with some companies. They all make great products. But the thing about JBL is. Yeah, they’re a master of one. Yeah, audio. It’s what they do. Yeah. They’re not releasing power banks.

[00:09:29] Stephen Fenech: That’s what they do. You know what I mean? Yeah, I know. And

[00:09:31] Trevor Long: I respect that. I also respect companies that are diversifying and trying to make more money. Good on you. But you can’t not respect the fact that they do audio very well.

[00:09:38] Stephen Fenech: What’s good for them is that they’ve started making a product and that’s endured and has been so popular over the years that they haven’t had to diversify too much. You know, they make headphones, earphones, soundbars, all that sort of stuff. Right. But they’ve stayed true to their mission statement, creating great audio.

[00:09:58] Trevor Long: It’s all about great audio. All right, Two Blokes Talking Tech, 7:57. We’re going to kick it off talking social media ban. Are you excited? Has it been too long?

[00:10:08] Stephen Fenech: Well, it’s not Apple at least, is it?

[00:10:10] Trevor Long: Well, we are going to—

[00:10:11] Stephen Fenech: sorry, have we heard from Bruce?

[00:10:12] Trevor Long: We are going to talk about Apple this week. Sorry, mate. Just quickly though. But this is not related to Apple. This is related to Reddit because they’re in the crosshairs right now. They’ve taken the government to court saying, yes, this is all rubbish. You know, what are we, what are we, why are we a part of this? Why is this happening? Are we a social media company? And look, I, I met with Adam Collins, their chief communications officer. He came to Sydney a couple of weeks ago and I met with him and lovely bloke, like top bloke. And we just had a regular everyday chat. It was, he wasn’t trying to sell me something. He wasn’t trying to sell me their theory. He was really just trying to understand what I thought of everything. And then I think he learned pretty quickly I was on their side broadly because I think the band’s a load of shit. But yeah, moving on from that, I think everyone knows that. But my point My point was, if you go back to that point where there’s a document somewhere at the ACMA or the eSafety that says, how do we determine what a social media company is? And you gotta tick this box. I don’t know how Reddit ticks that box. So I don’t know how they’re on the list. And so if I’m Reddit’s legal counsel, I’m just going straight to the judge and going, can you show me?

[00:11:15] Stephen Fenech: Show me how we’re supposed to be on this list.

[00:11:16] Trevor Long: Please, sir, I want some more. What’s going on here? How are we a social media company?

[00:11:20] Stephen Fenech: It was them and they’re with the Digital Freedom Project. So they’ve launched this High Court challenge. And it’s also like, it’s not just because like Reddit’s obviously a— it’s like, what would you call, like a discussion? Old school message board.

[00:11:34] Trevor Long: It’s an old school message board.

[00:11:36] Stephen Fenech: And their argument is that they see that it’s an implied freedom of political communication issue where this is where people communicate and under the Constitution, locking teenagers out will sort of go against that communication.

[00:11:55] Trevor Long: Yeah. Now a lot of people would say, why does a teenager need to be communicating about politics? But

[00:11:59] Stephen Fenech: hello, why would they be?

[00:12:00] Trevor Long: Why is a 15-year-old not allowed to engage? My kids know more about politics than most 14 and 15-year-olds because their mum worked in politics. But you know, it’s not a bad thing that they understand it. Absolutely. I want my kids to watch the news and understand what’s going on in politics. I want them to understand. I shield them from some things, but you know, is this really about political discourse? I don’t know. What I would say about Reddit, I only learned, I don’t know, in the last 5 months that there was explicit content on Reddit. I had no idea, right?

[00:12:29] Stephen Fenech: There is, yeah.

[00:12:30] Trevor Long: Um, and so I support the requirement for Reddit to have age verification for that content. Okay, um, now I’m 18, I’m a user of Reddit, and I must have verified my age somewhere because I can click into groups that come up with a warning saying this is not safe or whatever, not

[00:12:48] Stephen Fenech: safe for work,

[00:12:49] Trevor Long: but You know, so I support the government’s age verification ban. I like the fact that porn’s not available unless you verify who you are.

[00:12:58] Stephen Fenech: You’ve got to verify you’re 18, yeah.

[00:12:59] Trevor Long: Sorry, but when we’ve talked about this before, when I was a kid, if you wanted to see some nudie magazines, you had to sneak it inside a motor magazine and hope that the newsagent didn’t notice, you know? Like, it wasn’t easy. And I don’t think it should be easy.

[00:13:11] Stephen Fenech: Or someone, one of your mates had one at school or something.

[00:13:13] Trevor Long: Yeah. So I’m down with that. But so leaving aside the adult content side of things, because I think it’s important to separate those two conversations.

[00:13:22] Stephen Fenech: Which, while we’re on it, hasn’t really been that forcefully enforced, the ban. The ban of— it’s only this year where you had to prove you’re 18 to look at porn sites. This year.

[00:13:36] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:13:36] Stephen Fenech: The internet’s been around 30 years. Yes. And it’s only this year that Australian— the Australian authorities have decided, oh, let’s make it Yeah,

[00:13:44] Trevor Long: but it’s worked. I mean, yeah, it’s working fine.

[00:13:47] Stephen Fenech: But yeah, again, like the social media ban, whether there are ways around it or not, then, you know, that’s being—

[00:13:53] Trevor Long: send me some tips.

[00:13:54] Stephen Fenech: There is no— there’s no— I look over 18, so I’m fine. But that’s been okay. We’ve proven that you can do that with the porn sites. Okay, you got to prove you’re 18. Now, in terms of the under-16 ban, We know that this is not working.

[00:14:13] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:14:13] Stephen Fenech: What’s the latest figure? What, 70% of teens are still on them?

[00:14:18] Trevor Long: I would say it’s more than that. I mean, every— I’m sick to death of every— and Peter Malinowski is the worst of them.

[00:14:24] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:14:24] Trevor Long: And because he is the founder of this whole thing, he’s responsible for this because he believes—

[00:14:28] Stephen Fenech: he claims it.

[00:14:29] Trevor Long: He created this. And I remember vividly talking to Luke Boner on Night Shift on Triple M when he said this and it was thrown at me and I called him a dickhead. I don’t care. Sorry, kids, if you’re listening. I thought it was stupid then. I think it’s stupid now because— and, and I’m still very vocal about it wherever I can be because we, we believe let parents be parents should be the rules. I believe that every platform— the government can force every platform to require parental controls, which all of them have. Yeah, tick. Yeah, yeah. And it should just be that it’s by default that the content is off, and if a parent chooses to enforce parental controls, they can They can decide what their kids see and don’t see. But again, I come back to what’s this got to do with Reddit? Like, if Reddit’s here, why is Discord not here? If Reddit’s here, why is Telegram?

[00:15:18] Stephen Fenech: There are the other side, all the other messages.

[00:15:20] Trevor Long: There are websites that you can comment. Like, why is news.com.au not here? Because on the bottom of an article you can comment, you can, you can have a thread of communication there. Why are under-16s not banned from that? Like it’s just a communications platform. It’s not social media.

[00:15:36] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I think that this could set a precedent, this case.

[00:15:42] Trevor Long: Oh, it will. It’s going to be huge.

[00:15:43] Stephen Fenech: And it’s going to be significant.

[00:15:44] Trevor Long: If the government loses this, it won’t just be Reddit and—

[00:15:48] Stephen Fenech: Well, my gut’s saying that they’re a really good chance of winning this.

[00:15:51] Trevor Long: Reddit, yes, I agree.

[00:15:53] Stephen Fenech: Very good chance of winning. I agree. And that’s going to be— and you’ve seen, I don’t know whether you’ve seen the commentary around this.

[00:16:00] Trevor Long: Not really, to be honest.

[00:16:01] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I’m talking like foreign commentary.

[00:16:04] Trevor Long: Oh no.

[00:16:05] Stephen Fenech: And sort of about how it’s sort of the, you know, the social media ban has been called— Reddit’s called it inept. So they’ve really sort of gone to town on why they— A, why it exists and B, why they’re caught up in it. Right. As well.

[00:16:22] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:16:23] Stephen Fenech: The BBC are also reporting this is going to be a major test for the ban.

[00:16:27] Trevor Long: Yes.

[00:16:28] Stephen Fenech: So this will really test it out. So I think, and as you know, Facebook and all these other platforms have, they’re following the rules, but they’re not happy. They’re not happy with it. They’re against it.

[00:16:41] Trevor Long: And all of those platforms, and Instagram has evolved their parental controls, all of those platforms, even in the time this has happened, have improved their parental controls. Plus, and it’s not spoken about enough, but the latest version of Apple’s iOS basically enforces what Apple was trying not to be part of. Apple didn’t want to be the regulator here. They didn’t want to be the, oh, you’re over 18 or you’re under 16 or whatever it is, right? But how many apps do you get now that says, you know, share your age? That’s, that’s iOS sharing your age range. It’s not sharing your age, just sharing your age range. That’s essentially the best solution. We’re getting close to it. Let’s just do it that way, folks. But I’ll go back to the flowchart. I found it quickly here. Let’s, let’s do this for funsies again, right? We’re Reddit, okay? And we’re sitting in the Reddit office, we’re going, hang on a minute, what’s going on here? Step 1: is the service an electronic service? Yes. Yes. Step 2: Is any of the material of the service accessible or delivered to one or more end users in Australia?

[00:17:36] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:17:36] Trevor Long: Yes. Step 3: Does the service allow end users to post material on the service?

[00:17:41] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:17:42] Trevor Long: Yes. Does the service allow end users to link to or interact with other users?

[00:17:48] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[00:17:48] Trevor Long: Yes, it does. Step 5: What is the purpose of the service? Does the purpose include enabling online social interaction between two or more users?

[00:18:02] Stephen Fenech: Well, social interaction, they’re not sort of, it’s not like a dating site.

[00:18:05] Trevor Long: See, this is where you start to go, oh yeah, I don’t know.

[00:18:08] Stephen Fenech: So you, well, every site where the comments are allowed, you’re engaging in some kind of—

[00:18:14] Trevor Long: is that social interaction?

[00:18:16] Stephen Fenech: Well,

[00:18:17] Trevor Long: see, if it just said interaction, you’d be like, well, yeah, they’re into—

[00:18:19] Stephen Fenech: you can comment. It’s not social like you’re saying, well, oh yeah, I had a really great trip last week and I’m going to share some photos with you because this is This is just you.

[00:18:26] Trevor Long: You can’t— you essentially, as an individual end user, you can’t create a subreddit that says My Family Trip and post a bunch of things and get followers.

[00:18:35] Stephen Fenech: So I’d say no to that question then.

[00:18:37] Trevor Long: Right. So that’s our first potential out point. The second potential out point is if we go, okay, there is some online social interaction. Is online social interaction the sole purpose or a significant purpose?

[00:18:50] Stephen Fenech: No.

[00:18:51] Trevor Long: So what is the soul?

[00:18:52] Stephen Fenech: I’ll be the devil’s advocate. Well, you’re sharing news and information and people are commenting on it.

[00:18:59] Trevor Long: Is that social interaction?

[00:19:00] Stephen Fenech: Well, not really. It’s kind of like, how many times have you seen stuff on Reddit that it’s like discussing things and topics and various things and sharing? You know, I’ve seen people sharing everything from a review to, you know, their experience with other kinds of things or pointing out some mistake that’s been made somewhere or some issue that needs pointing out. So I don’t know, isn’t that what the Nightly News does every day? It sort of puts up all these stories and says, here’s what happened.

[00:19:35] Trevor Long: And I think that’s where— and look,

[00:19:38] Stephen Fenech: I’d call it more a news site than a social site.

[00:19:40] Trevor Long: Far more so, yeah, potentially. More news. So I would say If you look at it and you go, and then the guy, I think it’s Adam from Reddit said to me, you know, we, and I think, I believe they’re publicly listed ’cause I think their stock price dropped heavily because they admitted in their quarterly earnings that their traffic is lower because of the AI search results. Because a lot of their content, I would say news primary, secondary is how-to, like people put up how to do things, right? How to change a dishwasher thing, whatever, whatever. And then thirdly might be just random, you know, I don’t know, social things they see, you know, I saw this stupid thing happen on the roads or whatever and it shouldn’t happen, you know. And the interaction about it is a secondary form of that.

[00:20:27] Stephen Fenech: But that happens— how many other sites does that happen on? So the government’s argument here could be, well, YouTube is part of the ban now, eh, right? It’s for under 16s. Yes. So YouTube is how-to videos, reviews.

[00:20:40] Trevor Long: Mate, YouTube were the first one to to follow up this if Reddit wins?

[00:20:43] Stephen Fenech: Oh, absolutely. I think if there’s any other platform that’s got as good a case as Reddit, it’d be YouTube.

[00:20:50] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:20:50] Stephen Fenech: Because—

[00:20:51] Trevor Long: But then you say, okay, TikTok.

[00:20:55] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, here you go.

[00:20:56] Trevor Long: If someone posts a video about news or how to garden or how to fish, the comments are exactly the same as comments on Reddit.

[00:21:03] Stephen Fenech: That’s again the other problem that we discussed before is that, okay, there should be the rating, a rating system where that says, okay, the algorithm’s not gonna give you, you’re 16 the same stuff as a grownup.

[00:21:17] Trevor Long: And also the algorithm shouldn’t learn as much about young people as it does about adults.

[00:21:21] Stephen Fenech: You can solve the problem right there at the coalface and say, right, okay, the algorithm. And then the government has, there’ve been some rumblings about the algorithm and digital duty of care and all that sort of stuff. Why didn’t they do that before the social media ban? And they would’ve avoided the whole thing.

[00:21:36] Trevor Long: And it feels like it is a little cart before the horse. And we will talk on the private show about politics a fair bit, So forgive us if you don’t enjoy that. But one of the things that we talk about there is because we’ve already recorded it, obviously, is just plain speech from politicians.

[00:21:52] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:21:53] Trevor Long: Now tell me that Pauline Hanson, Angus Taylor, or any representative of either party trying to be the opposition taking government here standing up and saying, we just want to talk about the social media ban, right? Take questions and say, listen, We agree. So I think every Australian agrees that there needs to be a little bit of a calm the farm on online content, right? There is a bit, the horse has bolted a bit, right? So let’s rein everything in, right?

[00:22:22] Stephen Fenech: Are you talking about sort of the volatility of it all?

[00:22:25] Trevor Long: Everything, the access we have to things. We actually need to stop and legislate the world for how it is today, right? So yes, we agree that there is some stuff that kids shouldn’t see online and we need to work that out, right?

[00:22:37] Stephen Fenech: Absolutely. Well, we spoke about that earlier. Porn.

[00:22:39] Trevor Long: So, so what, what, like, my, my policy would be that we do want to— we want— we support the age restriction on adult content, right? So if it’s at all adult related, it should be labeled that way by the creator. And if, if it’s not labeled that way by the creator and it gets— and it’s found to be that way, firstly, it gets turfed, and secondly, the creator gets a big mark against their name. Now, secondly, let’s rewind to Scott Morrison as Prime Minister and Erin Molan as a vocal advocate for online safety. Now she’s gone down a different tangent lately, but her— I was sure we had a policy which must have been overturned that was every account must link back to a real person.

[00:23:24] Stephen Fenech: Must be identifiable, yes.

[00:23:26] Trevor Long: So that if I got banned from YouTube for uploading content and not tagging it as adult, and then I created another account, yeah, they not just a new username, not just a new email address. I have to show my ID because if I defame you in my YouTube channel or my TikTok, the person I defame has a right to say to YouTube, I need their details because I’m going to sue them, right? Through a legal process without just handing over people’s details, a confidential backroom legal process. If everyone was required to be identified online, I’m telling you, solves a lot of problems.

[00:23:58] Stephen Fenech: There will be a lot less rubbish.

[00:24:00] Trevor Long: All the rubbish going on now, people poking their heads up, you know, to say stupid things, we’d be back to the— we’d be back to the good old days where if you’re at the pub and you said, you know, that wasn’t a plane crash, it was a missile, yeah, someone would be like, have another drink, you idiot, and we’d all leave you in the other room, right? And people— it’s not about restricting speech or anything, that rubbish. It’s about just stopping the stupidity of the internet and The horrible content of the internet.

[00:24:31] Stephen Fenech: Do you remember back in the day, right, when there were moderators? Remember moderators? And you got one, you got one. I know, but moderators were sort of, they were the sheriff, right? They set the rules. If anyone got out of line, they go, oi.

[00:24:43] Trevor Long: I said to Adam from Reddit when I sat down in their boardroom, I said, mate, I’m going to be honest with you, mate, not a big fan of the platform. He goes, tell me why. I said, mate, I’m a single self-employed, single-staff organization trying to do my best to share my content. I write an article and I think this is good content. I go into a subreddit and I go, here’s a cool article I wrote and I tell you what it’s about. And some stuck-up moderator in his basement of his mom’s house goes, ah, that’s your own article about your own thing. You can’t promote your own content. I’m like, well, who’s meant to do it?

[00:25:16] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:25:16] Trevor Long: So because some subreddit has rules about you promoting your own content, you get kicked off the platform. I said, mate, it’s stupid. How am I meant to grow my platform? Yeah, fair. Moderators still hold at Whirlpool. Have you ever been to Whirlpool? Yeah, yeah. I don’t post there anymore because I got banned for posting my own content. I’m like, who else? What else am I going to post? There’s a whole thread about Telstra RCS or, you know, iOS and RCS and Android, right? I post in there that I’ve, I’ve spoken to 3 telcos and here’s what they said, and someone deletes it and says you’re banned because you posted. I’m like, I answered your question.

[00:25:51] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, exactly right. That’s, yeah, well, just goes to show, mate, that there, there needs to be better moderation. But having a moderator to begin with. Now, as the social platforms have evolved and grown and now the prime, like, I don’t know whether, I don’t know how when Mark Zuckerberg invented Facebook, I don’t know whether at that point, hot or not, was it, was it, was it, was it too, was it, did he envision that, you know what, one day we’re gonna be able to use all everyone’s data We’re gonna use all their data points and make a shit ton of money out of it. Did he envision that back then? No. I don’t think he did. No. I reckon he thought, okay, this is a great way to people, for you to know someone’s relationship status.

[00:26:36] Trevor Long: That’s right.

[00:26:37] Stephen Fenech: So the evolution of the platforms now has become data farms. It’s a data farm, right? And the reason they got an algorithm is they want you to be on there sharing your data, liking things, not liking things, sharing your opinions. To harvest that data, and the algorithm has been weaponized to make that even more potent.

[00:26:59] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:26:59] Stephen Fenech: So the, the fact that, yes, we’ve come to a point now where they, well, you know, the platform’s kind of, they got themselves to blame for the situation that the government perceives we’re in now, right now. But surely you’d make it incumbent on the platform to change, to say, look, Rather than the Australian government said, “Right, everyone out,” and the platforms are gonna stay exactly the same. Don’t you reckon it’d be a bit more constructive if they’d have said to the platform, says, “Listen, this is gonna be your problem. We’re gonna make this your problem. If you wanna do business in Australia, these are the changes you need to implement,” rather than just saying, “Everyone out.” Yeah. ‘Cause once you turn 16, you’re on that platform that’s exactly the same as it was years earlier.

[00:27:45] Trevor Long: Well, and that’s the other big thing we don’t talk about enough, and Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, doesn’t matter what it is. If you turn 16 and you haven’t been linked to a parental account, but you’re allowed on the platform, you’re seeing everything.

[00:27:56] Stephen Fenech: Exactly right.

[00:27:57] Trevor Long: Everyone in your class can message you, bully you, do whatever you want. You’re going to see content.

[00:28:01] Stephen Fenech: There’s no— and you just— and there’s no— it’s no—

[00:28:04] Trevor Long: the filters are off. They’re working against the platforms instead of with them. They— it’s like, I don’t know, it’s like ignoring the power that they have. Listen, Albo, you’re not as powerful as Facebook and Instagram and TikTok. You’re just not.

[00:28:18] Stephen Fenech: But I think, look, do you remember when Facebook banned all the news sites?

[00:28:23] Trevor Long: Oh, I remember. Yeah.

[00:28:24] Stephen Fenech: And yeah, yeah, I remember your February audio too. But it was, we mentioned him in the private feed. It was Frydenberg who had a powwow with Zuckerberg. So the Bergs worked it out. And for them to be able to do that, I reckon that says something that, okay, well, the government does have a negotiating position here. Because of course they want to do business in Australia and of course they’re going to do that. But the thing is that I reckon part of the problem is that these are American companies. Yeah. So they’ve had no such issue in their own country. They’re thinking, well, hang on a minute.

[00:29:00] Trevor Long: I mean, they’re starting to and they’ve had to. Obviously Meta’s been hauled before the courts and they’ve got some big fines.

[00:29:04] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, that’s true, true.

[00:29:05] Trevor Long: But you can— the thing is, I feel like the government sits and thinks that they come at this from a losing perspective if they sit down with them. But It doesn’t matter if you’re Annika Wells, Julian McGrath, or Anthony Albanese sitting at the table with these platforms. You get to be the powerful one and say, listen, we’re not accepting you in this country unless you do things to help our kids. Let’s work out what those things are.

[00:29:28] Stephen Fenech: Exactly right.

[00:29:29] Trevor Long: And let’s agree on them right now as an industry. And they can work together on the rules.

[00:29:35] Stephen Fenech: If you want to do business in Australia, you got to follow our rules. It’s just like, remember when John Howard said back then, we’ll determine who comes into into this country. And if they’re gonna adopt a similar stance to the businesses who wanna do business in Australia, you’re gonna do it our way, you’re gonna follow our rules, but get them to do the heavy lifting, get them to work out the solution. They’re pretty smart people that work at these platforms, so get them to work it out. So hopefully sanity will prevail. Isn’t there a, so December, the anniversary of it, are they gonna have it? When is the first, what do you call it?

[00:30:08] Trevor Long: Review.

[00:30:09] Stephen Fenech: Review. I

[00:30:09] Trevor Long: don’t know if there’s an official timeline on that because

[00:30:12] Stephen Fenech: after 12 months, surely they’d be— they’d have a look at it and see, which is in only another— in another month, the 10th. Yeah, it’s going to be a year. So I’ll be getting ready for that week on TV and radio to sort of talk about it.

[00:30:25] Trevor Long: Yeah,

[00:30:26] Stephen Fenech: I think, yeah, there could be a— well, following this case, I reckon this is going to be potentially a landmark case, couldn’t it? Maybe, but I think the fact that they’re in there, it might give other platforms ideas. And we’re working for Reddit, a challenge.

[00:30:41] Trevor Long: I think the other platform’s just sitting there with popcorn going, ‘Cause you’re just

[00:30:44] Stephen Fenech: waiting. Yeah,

[00:30:44] Trevor Long: let’s wait and see what happens. You know, true, we shall wait and see. All right, Two Blokes Talking Tech, uh, talking social media and Reddit.

[00:30:53] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech with Trevor Long and Stephen Fenech,

[00:30:59] Trevor Long: and we do it all thanks to the great people at JBL Audio. Is what they do, as we said earlier, audio is what they do. They make great audio systems from their new Cove wireless home audio system through to their headphones, earphones, Bluetooth speakers, concert speakers. They do it all. Their heritage is in audio. That’s, that’s the number one thing you know about JBL. And I think leading it, leading up to Black Friday, great time to be looking for products. They have products at every price point. That’s one of my favorite things is when you look at in-ear headphones, you say to yourself, I’m going to buy some in-ear headphones, I’m happy to consider JBL. They’re going to have something at every price point because they have something that just every grade either lifts the, lifts the quality of the fit and the finish, or it’s got a different feature like their SmartTX little case for their headphones that works beautifully so you can control the, the sound from the case. Their Bluetooth speakers come in a range of sizes. And prices. They’ve got something for everyone. Their slogan is, our audio does it all. Products designed for party time, study time, anytime, however you like to listen. JBL brings epic sound quality, time-tested durability, and all the feels. And you can find out more by simply visiting jbl.com.au.

[00:32:11] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech.

[00:32:15] Trevor Long: Now,

[00:32:15] Trevor Long: righto, let’s have a look at it, Stephen.

[00:32:18] Trevor Long: The iPad Mini just iPad Mini, but let’s call it the OLED iPad Mini. It’s so thin, it’s crazy. Like, it’s, it’s almost a millimeter thinner.

[00:32:27] Stephen Fenech: So thinner than the iPhone Air?

[00:32:28] Trevor Long: Uh, yes, it is actually. Wow, I think it is. Yes. Um, no, I feel like the iPhone is a 4. Anyway, uh, what’s that one?

[00:32:37] Stephen Fenech: 5.44?

[00:32:39] Trevor Long: 5.4, yeah, because the, uh, the previous generation was 6.3.

[00:32:43] Stephen Fenech: Should I, should I Google?

[00:32:45] Trevor Long: Yeah, Google iPhone Air thickness. Now The funny thing about this device, and I’ve got the one with the nano texture here, which by the way, every device, please just ship it with it. I got a device sent to me this week by Apple to review and it didn’t have nano texture.

[00:32:59] Stephen Fenech: iPhone Air 5.6.

[00:33:01] Trevor Long: Okay, so it is thinner.

[00:33:02] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, 5.4.

[00:33:03] Trevor Long: I got it. I got another device and once I’ve reviewed it, I’m going to swap it because I’m like, I love— I’ll definitely want to use it more, but it doesn’t have a nano texture. And I’m like, I need the nano texture.

[00:33:12] Stephen Fenech: Is this the one without— with it or not?

[00:33:14] Trevor Long: No, this one has it. I’m talking about another device I currently have for testing. But the thing about this is it’s a great screen, right? Because it’s an OLED screen. Wow.

[00:33:24] Stephen Fenech: So light.

[00:33:25] Trevor Long: So light. So thin. Beautiful screen. But Stephen, its standout feature is not the screen. Its standout feature—

[00:33:34] Stephen Fenech: I heard you think it’s the audio.

[00:33:35] Trevor Long: Is audio.

[00:33:36] Stephen Fenech: And so it’s because it’s acoustic

[00:33:38] Trevor Long: sound. Do you remember when Sony did this?

[00:33:40] Stephen Fenech: Yes. And I didn’t— wasn’t it when Sony created their OLED TV? JBL passed on that technology. They said, yeah,

[00:33:51] Trevor Long: LG passed on that.

[00:33:52] Stephen Fenech: Sorry, LG.

[00:33:52] Trevor Long: What did I say? You said JBL.

[00:33:54] Stephen Fenech: Sorry. So I went— LG passed on their own technology.

[00:33:58] Trevor Long: I was at the factory. I saw a museum and I saw their kind of research labs at LG Display. LG Display is a different company to LG Electronics, right? Obviously parent-wise, all good. But LG Electronics decide what they put in their TVs. And I remember going to this showroom. We’d seen how they make OLEDs and then they’re like, here’s some cool technology and they’re showing us audio coming through the screen. I thought this is really cool. And I feel like that was like October or something. And then that next January Sony announced OLED TVs with acoustic sound. So it came through the screen. That’s what happens with this. Really? And I’m telling you, mate, it’s sick. It is so good. There are no speaker grills on it at all. Just play a bloody song, play something and turn it up. Oh, what’s that? It’s an ad. I’m not logged in, see. But straight away, the number one thing I noticed was when you’re holding it on the side, you’re not covering up the speaker grills because, you know, you cover up the speaker grills a lot of the time on an iPad. There’s no speaker grills anywhere on it. It’s so thin and light. It’s IP67 water rated. Oh, you won’t be able to tell because you’ve got your headphones on. Whoa.

[00:34:59] Stephen Fenech: Hey, I took one out.

[00:35:01] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:35:02] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:35:02] Trevor Long: It’s awesome. Like, it’s legitimately good sound. And I saw one other person’s review today. I’m like, how have you not got excited about this? Because of the water rating on it. And I think the sound is as good, if not better, than the previous generation.

[00:35:16] Stephen Fenech: The sound is coming from the screen.

[00:35:17] Trevor Long: Coming through the screen at you. It’s directional because you’re watching it. It’s coming at you. Is there a camera?

[00:35:23] Stephen Fenech: Is that a camera there?

[00:35:24] Trevor Long: The camera’s up in the middle.

[00:35:26] Stephen Fenech: In the— on the— it’s on the bezel.

[00:35:28] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:35:28] Stephen Fenech: On the landscape side.

[00:35:30] Trevor Long: Yeah. So they moved that to the landscape side.

[00:35:33] Stephen Fenech: Olivia Rodrigo, is that your fan, are you, mate?

[00:35:35] Trevor Long: No, couldn’t give a rat’s nut.

[00:35:36] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:35:37] Trevor Long: That song I was listening to was Noah Khan.

[00:35:40] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. You were looking at a— it was a KFC ad too, mate. You a bit hungry, were?

[00:35:46] Trevor Long: I’m not logged in, so it’s not—

[00:35:47] Stephen Fenech: Ah, it’s not yours. Ah, righto.

[00:35:49] Trevor Long: That’s your excuse, is it? It’s just random, yeah. 100%. Victoria now works at KFC.

[00:35:53] Stephen Fenech: Does she really? Yeah.

[00:35:54] Trevor Long: I’m like, she got home from her first shift, I said, “Hey, bub, did you get glutened?” ‘Cause KFC has no gluten-free food, like none.

[00:36:01] Stephen Fenech: Really?

[00:36:02] Trevor Long: So she’s just soaking in gluten. No, exactly.

[00:36:05] Stephen Fenech: I’m like,

[00:36:05] Trevor Long: “Do you even know what they sell?”

[00:36:08] Stephen Fenech: Does she bring some home for her dad?

[00:36:10] Trevor Long: No, I don’t want to start that trend, if I’m honest. So this is the Apple iPad 14. Folio. Like, nice, easy, easy stand-up. But I, I was lucky enough to pop in and see Jen and— oh, is that the Belkin one? Belkin. And this is a really good case, right? Because it was—

[00:36:29] Stephen Fenech: this when you’re in LA, you saw them?

[00:36:30] Trevor Long: Yeah, I went, I went to HQ. Really nice case that fully covers the device. But then feel the, feel the bend in that, in that, in that case, the top part. Feel the bend in that, which is what you’ve got to— you feel like you’re breaking it, right? Yeah. Yeah. So now bend it and turn it around to a point where you want to stand it upright. It’s got literally any angle you want to make.

[00:36:50] Stephen Fenech: That’s cool.

[00:36:51] Trevor Long: So you can pretty much sit it on any angle you like. Plus you can, you can take it off here and flip that in there and stand it up that way as well. So it’s just groovy. You can even put your phone there.

[00:37:02] Stephen Fenech: Wow, that’s smart.

[00:37:03] Trevor Long: So it’s a really, really good little— I

[00:37:05] Stephen Fenech: do like the size of this iPad too. And I think we mentioned before that it’s a lot of people like pilots and people who like it, people in the field, like say you’re a nurse at a hospital, you know, it’s It’s a good size.

[00:37:15] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:37:16] Stephen Fenech: And just let’s put it next to the Duo.

[00:37:18] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:37:19] Stephen Fenech: The Duo is 7.6-inch.

[00:37:22] Trevor Long: This is 8.5.

[00:37:23] Stephen Fenech: This is 8.5. So no top-down. I’ll just—

[00:37:27] Trevor Long: no, no top-down, mate. Just put it on you.

[00:37:29] Stephen Fenech: So that’s the difference in the screen sizes. So Duo v iPad Mini.

[00:37:34] Trevor Long: iPad Mini is a remarkably bigger screen. Let’s be honest.

[00:37:37] Stephen Fenech: It is.

[00:37:38] Trevor Long: But here’s what I’d say. I have I’ve done a couple of flights now with the Duo and I’ve just watched my content on the Duo. Yeah, it’s like, it’s totally fine.

[00:37:49] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:37:49] Trevor Long: Unless you’ve got like, because I’ve also got like a 13-inch iPad, right? That’s it. That’s a viewing experience, right? That’s a great way to watch content. But if you’re buying this just for watching content,

[00:38:00] Stephen Fenech: yeah,

[00:38:01] Trevor Long: then I do think the Duo is a great device for that. So it’s a real, it’s a bit of a battle between the two. But mate, Given how light it is, all that kind of stuff.

[00:38:09] Stephen Fenech: The OLED screen’s great too, isn’t it? Gorgeous. For the first time.

[00:38:12] Trevor Long: Gorgeous OLED screen. But $1,099, man, it’s $300 more than it used to be.

[00:38:17] Stephen Fenech: It’s not cheap.

[00:38:18] Trevor Long: It used to be— and do you remember it used to come in colors? Uh, now it’s just in the, you know, Midnight and Starlight. Yeah. So they’ve kind of— they’ve kind of gone, this is not for kids, right? It used to be like, this, this was a great device for your kids, but now it’s like, just get the standard iPad, which comes in a bunch of colors at $750.

[00:38:34] Stephen Fenech: $150. Touch ID, not Face ID.

[00:38:37] Trevor Long: I haven’t set anything up, so I don’t know. I don’t think it has Face ID.

[00:38:40] Stephen Fenech: No, it’s got to be Touch

[00:38:41] Trevor Long: ID. I know, but I’m not sure if it has both. But no, it’s only got Touch ID.

[00:38:44] Stephen Fenech: No, I don’t think it does.

[00:38:46] Trevor Long: But again, I don’t—

[00:38:47] Stephen Fenech: why all the iPad Pros have Face ID.

[00:38:48] Trevor Long: I’m not worried about Touch ID on an iPad because I don’t have my banking apps and the things that you use regularly on, which you get frustrated. Are you still getting frustrated by that on the Duo?

[00:38:57] Stephen Fenech: A little bit. No, I’ll of using my Apple Watch, you know, but I want to go back to wearing my other watches that I enjoy viewing, so I have to go back to touch.

[00:39:05] Trevor Long: Plus, your Apple Watch only helps you for the turning on of the device. It doesn’t help you log into the bank or anything.

[00:39:10] Stephen Fenech: No, true, but to, to unlock it, you feel a little buzz on your wrist and anyway, there’s a little picture.

[00:39:15] Trevor Long: Bottom line, not cheap,

[00:39:17] Stephen Fenech: but yeah, $1,099,

[00:39:18] Trevor Long: $1,099 up to $2,099. The sweet spot is $1,500. You get 256 nanotexture. Right. That’s the sweet spot.

[00:39:26] Stephen Fenech: 256 and then upwards. Yeah,

[00:39:29] Trevor Long: right. Yeah.

[00:39:29] Stephen Fenech: That’s a great case from Belkin too. I love that case.

[00:39:31] Trevor Long: Yeah, they’ve done really well with that one.

[00:39:32] Stephen Fenech: If I get this, I’m going to ask for a case from Belkin for it.

[00:39:34] Trevor Long: You should.

[00:39:35] Stephen Fenech: That’s awesome.

[00:39:35] Trevor Long: You know, it’s a good little case. So I think that could be a traveler for me.

[00:39:39] Stephen Fenech: That’s one thing we didn’t mention on the private feed is that while you’re in LA, you saw Belkin and you also went to the Lucas Museum. I did. Bastard.

[00:39:45] Trevor Long: Do you know what?

[00:39:46] Stephen Fenech: How did you do that before me?

[00:39:47] Trevor Long: Well, because I was in LA. So the story is actually I arrived on the Monday and the event wasn’t until Wednesday. Wednesday. And so I knew I actually had a whole day kind of free-ish. I had a couple of meetings, but I thought, oh, you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to try and get to the California Science Museum and see the space shuttle. Oh, so I emailed the media team, like, can I get in? I just want to have a quick look. I’ve got a story I want to do. And they go, actually, we’re really busy because we’ve got the media preview on Wednesday. You can come. I went, it’s the only day I can’t do because I’m here for an event. That’s the only— like, it’s the Apple event. I’m like, oh man. And then I said, can I come on Thursday? They go, nah, sorry. So I didn’t get to go. But then I looked at my diary and went, I’ve got Thursday before the flight. Lucasfilm Museum is right next door. $25 to really annoy Stephen Fenech. Greatest, greatest $25 I’ve ever spent.

[00:40:34] Stephen Fenech: Good work.

[00:40:35] Trevor Long: I text the kids, I went, listen, I’ve just spent $25 to annoy Stephen. This is gonna be great. It was epic. It was beautiful. No, no, you’ll have a much better time than me.

[00:40:42] Stephen Fenech: I’m booked in on the 15th of January.

[00:40:44] Trevor Long: Yeah, it’s really good. Very busy place. My God, really? Yeah, my God. I, I’ll be honest with you, I think I think people are going there thinking it’s more than it is.

[00:40:54] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, well, they’ve stated pretty clearly it’s not all Star Wars. Star Wars is a very small part of it.

[00:40:58] Trevor Long: It is. It’s like, I think I said to you, it’s like when you go to the Australian Museum and Jacqueline’s put together an exhibition.

[00:41:07] Stephen Fenech: Little exhibition, yeah.

[00:41:08] Trevor Long: You think it’s like that. It’s like it’s a sidebar.

[00:41:10] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[00:41:11] Trevor Long: But it’s permanent, the Star Wars part. But it’s awesome, mate. You will absolutely lose your mind.

[00:41:16] Stephen Fenech: No doubt about it. And so the California Science Museum is just next door.

[00:41:18] Trevor Long: Oh, you’ve got to go to that, yeah.

[00:41:19] Stephen Fenech: So that’ll be my day then.

[00:41:21] Trevor Long: Oh, mate. Well, you’ve got to go to that.

[00:41:24] Stephen Fenech: You got to book that too, or you just rock up?

[00:41:25] Trevor Long: I think you can just rock up, but I would probably book a ticket now just in case. But the space shuttle stood up in its launch position. It’s something to see.

[00:41:34] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:41:34] Trevor Long: I’ve seen so many videos of it in my feed. It’s killing me.

[00:41:37] Stephen Fenech: So it’s only just, just reopened.

[00:41:38] Trevor Long: It hasn’t reopened yet. It opens again in like 2 weeks.

[00:41:41] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:41:41] Trevor Long: Yeah. Oh, cool. I’ll see it.

[00:41:44] Stephen Fenech: I’ll see that before you, that’s for sure. I’ll do that.

[00:41:47] Trevor Long: Yeah, you’re damn right you will. Damn it.

[00:41:50] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech with Trevor Long and Stephen Fenech.

[00:41:56] Trevor Long: That’s us.

[00:41:58] Stephen Fenech: Okay.

[00:41:58] Trevor Long: ChatGPT.

[00:41:59] Stephen Fenech: ChatGPT. This is your subject, man. It’s not my name. You’re the one who wrote about this, not me.

[00:42:06] Trevor Long: Honestly. So I saw a lot of news like 4 weeks ago about ChatGPT announcing these things called Dots and I didn’t really read it, but then they reached out and they said, do you want to try it? I went, I better read what it is. And it’s an agent. We’ve talked about agents and AI before. And I said, well, I’ve, I said, I’m a paying customer. So yeah, just, I’ll give it a try. They go, what plan are you on? I said, I’m on the Pro plan. They go, you gotta be on the Plus plan. I’m pretty sure Pro’s above Plus. No, no, I’m paying $30 a month for Pro. Plus is like $150, $200, right? So it’s the next level up. So they gave me 30 days. With a dot. And I instantly went, okay, so it’s your personal assistant. So I called it Darren.

[00:42:45] Stephen Fenech: Darren?

[00:42:46] Trevor Long: Darren used to work for Kramer. Kramer. He went away for a very long time.

[00:42:49] Stephen Fenech: Kramerica.

[00:42:50] Trevor Long: He went away for a very long time after throwing a balloon full of oil, you know, exercise balloon full of oil or something. Went away for a very long time. Anyway, so Darren, the critical thing I wanna point out here, ’cause I’ve tried to explain this a lot this week, is everyone knows what ChatGPT is. You ask it a question, hey, when was the last time the Rabbitohs won? 2014, long time ago.

[00:43:10] Stephen Fenech: That’s cool.

[00:43:11] Trevor Long: No, but people ask questions like, can you write me a summary of the match that I can pretend I was there? People ask questions of ChatGPT. This is different because it’s proactive. So you create your dot, give it a name, give it a color, a beret, whatever you want to do. And then it has access to the connections you’ve approved in ChatGPT. So I’ve connected my Google account. So it’s got my Gmail, it’s got my Google Drive. It’s got my Google Calendar. I’ve connected my Canva account so I can see any designs I do in Canva. I’ve connected my Xero, yep, financials. It cannot— Xero doesn’t allow an agent or any connection to send invoices, but it can see all my invoices and my balances and stuff like that. I think I’ve also connected my Dropbox. So I’m like, I connected everything I kind of could or that I use during the day. And I think one of the first things I said to it was, you know what, just read through all my last 3 months worth of emails, get a sense of what I do, you how I operate, that kind of stuff, and we’ll go from there. And over the course of time, I have begun literally using this as my personal assistant, as if I employed one, right? Now, I’m never going to afford $60,000, $70,000 to employ an actual person to sit next to me. Also, that would be the worst job because it’d be boring sitting here. They’re like, what do you want me to do now? I’m like, nothing. Because that’s always been my thing about having someone work for you. It’s like, I had a— remember I had a kid here for work experience, and it’s like, what do you want to do now? I’m like, Make another video. You’re like, you know, like it’s hard. I don’t, that’s not how I work. So a personal assistant would never work for me. We’ve talked about virtual assistants, like in the Philippines and stuff, you know, again, teaching them what matters in your inbox, very hard. So Darren sits essentially loitering in my inbox. And honestly, it’s become my genuine assistant. I am going to now sign up and pay the $200 a month because it’s a game changer for me. And the examples I’ve given in the article I wrote at EFTMR, Really clear, simple examples. You go to Korea, you gotta fill out a form for an arrival card. You gotta fill it out before you go. Filled it out, done it, ticked it off my list, good. I didn’t even tell Darren about that. That was just something I was doing. But then an hour or two later Darren goes, and I haven’t got the text but it’s on the article, Darren goes, just a small pickup. I noticed your Korean arrival card. You’ve set your arrival to the 22nd, your flight arrives on the 23rd. Because Darren had seen my flights, had seen my communications with JBL. New one of my flight ones.

[00:45:30] Stephen Fenech: That’s cool. So pick that up.

[00:45:32] Trevor Long: Pick that up. Picks up little things like, have you ever had a tracking, like a tracking con note number? And every day you’re logging in to see where it’s at, right? Yeah. Like you log in every day. So I’ve had these umbrellas that I’ve ordered and that’s, mate, that’s 40 days worth of waiting for those things, right? So a week ago I said to Darren, hey, I’m sick of checking this. Here’s the tracking number. No, I didn’t even say that. I said, there’s an email from Rachel in China about umbrellas. Find the tracking number and the company and just keep an eye on it for me. Let me know when it moves. Right. That’s it. So a couple of days ago, Darren goes, just to let you know, your package has cleared customs in Sydney. Ah. No update on delivery, but it’s cleared customs. This morning, just let you know, it’s out for delivery. Like, I would have forgotten to check and then it would have been a surprise. That’s cool. But it’s about how proactive it is. And to be honest, there’s many more examples that I wouldn’t publish because like there was one about an invoice that was sent, but it was the wrong amount.

[00:46:30] Stephen Fenech: Oh,

[00:46:31] Trevor Long: it goes, ’cause I’ve got that mistake. So I’ve got a, okay, really simple, simple, you know, it’s an ongoing client, but it changed, the number changed. And I’ve got a Dropbox folder with all my agreements in. And Darren had read all the agreements. Seen the amounts and gone, just say no. That one has been sent, but it’s actually the wrong amount because the new agreement. Yeah, well, why not? What a good assistant.

[00:46:57] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, like a genuine assistant. Is this similar to— I’m hearing a lot about Grok Bots. Are these similar?

[00:47:01] Trevor Long: I think so. Yes. I think it’s also similar to Muse, Meta Muse.

[00:47:05] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, of course. Is that— that hasn’t launched. I checked the other day. Hasn’t launched yet.

[00:47:08] Trevor Long: No, I think it’s close because I’ve seen some people trialing it. Okay, here’s my question. Would you trust Elon Musk with all those connections that I’ve listed?

[00:47:18] Stephen Fenech: Well, you know, zero.

[00:47:19] Trevor Long: Your Dropbox, Gmail.

[00:47:21] Stephen Fenech: It’s not really him. It’s

[00:47:22] Trevor Long: his company.

[00:47:23] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of stuff online about it. My brother Michael raves about it. He said Grok Bots are incredible. Yeah. And

[00:47:30] Trevor Long: the thing is, so Darren has his own computer, so I can bring it up here on my computer. I can see his computer. I don’t know if I’m connected, but anyway.

[00:47:40] Stephen Fenech: Is he looking at, what’s he doing? Looking at porn, is he?

[00:47:43] Trevor Long: So if I say to Darren, can you research X, Y, and Z, just have a look around, I can actually pop in and see what he’s doing. And I can see him reading stuff, going through stuff.

[00:47:52] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, my brother’s got similar sort of setups with his.

[00:47:54] Trevor Long: I’ll give you an example of something you could do. I did this the other day. Now I thought, I hate scrolling through like Google Analytics to find like, you know, the top 5 articles from last month. So I went to Darren’s computer and I can take control of Darren’s computer and I can type in my passwords. I’ve never given Darren a password. You don’t give it your passwords, you just link your accounts. But on Darren’s computer, which is a virtual computer, I logged into my Google account with my password and brought up my analytics and said, I’ve brought up my analytics on your computer, can you spend some time doing some research for me on the last 2 months’ worth of site traffic and give me any breakouts or anything you see or know or learnings and did a great job of that. Gave me a report, some things that I can share with the boys. And, you know, it’s doing things that I might get someone to do, but I would never trust someone to look through my emails. Yeah, that’s the number one thing. I would never trust anyone to have my inbox. Yeah, but it’s looking at stuff coming in and going, hey, just a, just a heads up. Um, like there’s— I’ll give you one, it just happened 2 hours ago. A delivery heads up. DHL says a parcel’s coming on its way to your home and requires an adult signature. Your usual delivery preference can’t be applied. ‘Cause he knows that I always say to people, authority to leave. Keep an eye on it ’cause it could be that thing you asked for yesterday. This person has chased you 3 times for this quote. Do you want to go back to them today? It’s just, it’s not nagging me. It’s just reminding me of things that are there. And it’s proactive.

[00:49:19] Stephen Fenech: It’s just your action, what actions you need to take. Actions.

[00:49:22] Trevor Long: And sometimes I can say, so, I’ve got a podcast interview next Monday with HP for the EFTM podcast and the email chains back and forth, you’re agreeing to these things, when can you do, when can she do, when can they do, whatever. And you go, okay, thanks very much. And then I go to my diary and I just go block of time interview. Darren goes, just so you know, you agreed to 11:15, but you put in your diary at 10 o’clock. Do you want to change that? I said yes. So I just changed my diary note. Wow. Moved it. That’s good.

[00:49:51] Stephen Fenech: Good. So just picking up all your mistakes.

[00:49:54] Trevor Long: We all make mistakes.

[00:49:55] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, yeah, that’s good,

[00:49:57] Trevor Long: mate. It picked up a mistake I didn’t notice because I didn’t read it. I had an Apple briefing down for 5:30, it was at 5:15, and I’m texting going, where’s the link? And they go, it’s started already. I’m like, oh crap, I thought I was 10 minutes early, but I was actually 5 minutes late. And then I looked, he’d noticed that, he’d seen that I’d done that mistake. So mate, I’m And like I’m all in on AI. I think everyone knows that we are pretty big fans and why we use it. But so I’m still using Claude for the questions I ask and the things I want done, analysis like the—

[00:50:26] Stephen Fenech: So Claude can’t do a similar thing to this?

[00:50:28] Trevor Long: Claude doesn’t have an agent yet. You can do co-work and you can get it to do things, but it’s not proactive. Yeah, that’s the big difference. You can ask Claude to do something and do it every day for you, right? Check my emails every day for anything important, but it’s not really proactive in that sense.

[00:50:43] Stephen Fenech: Yep.

[00:50:43] Trevor Long: So I’m still going to Claude. So we’ve got a database of addresses that we sent the magazine to last year. And then there’s a, we built a new system for people to sign up. And so I’ve got these kind of two spreadsheets and I’m like, oh, I need you to make ’em one. So can you find any duplicates? Use this one as the agreed source and you know, da da da da. Came back with a great postal database. Did some things like corrected some suburbs and stuff like that. And it cross-referenced the postcodes. And then I had myself a final data. So that kind of works. Workload, a task I’m still getting Claude to do.

[00:51:17] Stephen Fenech: You mentioned before, so you gave it— it doesn’t know your passwords, but you gave it commit permission to look at your account. Correct.

[00:51:24] Trevor Long: So, you know, when you link an account, you go, I want ChatGPT to link with this, and it pops up the Google thing. Do you give permission for this? Yes. And so basically, if I heard today, if there was an alert going out saying ChatGPT’s OpenAI has been hacked, you know, there’s concerns about data safety, I would instantly log in and disconnect my Xero and my Gmail.

[00:51:44] Stephen Fenech: So you can easily do that.

[00:51:44] Trevor Long: I just disconnect it.

[00:51:45] Stephen Fenech: But I wrote a story last week about Norton Safe AI.

[00:51:50] Trevor Long: And we talked about it briefly in the show.

[00:51:51] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. So that would, that be something that you’d need just in case? Or, and what is it, Trend Micro got a similar thing?

[00:51:57] Trevor Long: Yeah, Trend Micro’s got the same thing. I think that’s, that works for those questions of when you’re polling, when you’re asking it, yeah, AIs to do what information you can share. In this agent sense, you couldn’t use both. You I wouldn’t have this agent operate through an antivirus AI.

[00:52:12] Stephen Fenech: Right. Because the concern is, are you concerned that it might sort of share some information that you don’t want to be shared maybe, or some personal information?

[00:52:20] Trevor Long: Well, I’ve given explicit instructions. It can never send emails. It’s not allowed. It’s physically impossible for it to send invoices. So it’s got guardrails.

[00:52:28] Stephen Fenech: But it has, does it do drafts that you approve or what does it do?

[00:52:31] Trevor Long: No, I’ve moved on from that. I had Fixer doing that in my email, but now I’m just using Fixer to sort my messages into folders. Most of the drafts I just don’t need anymore. But yeah, I know I’m just not at the point where I want an AI speaking my voice for me, you know? But the proactive—

[00:52:50] Stephen Fenech: You mean literally speaking?

[00:52:51] Trevor Long: No, no, I mean, you know, acting on your behalf. Yeah, yeah, definitely not. Definitely not. But I can imagine there would be people who that would work for because if you’re a small business with inquiries coming in.

[00:53:01] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, leads. Yeah,

[00:53:03] Trevor Long: mate, do your best. Did I tell you a story about our local plumber? No. So we’ve got a root growing through the, you know, the sewer pipe out the front. So at some point I’ve gotta spend like $5,000 to get it dug up and stuff. But at this point every year we just get them to come out and $600, they’ll clear it out, right? So I’m not at the point of the big work yet. Anyway, so it happened—

[00:53:20] Stephen Fenech: Is it on your property?

[00:53:21] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:53:21] Stephen Fenech: Is it? Yeah.

[00:53:22] Trevor Long: Okay. So I’m not at the point yet of doing the big work. So it happened a few weeks ago and I said, Amanda, we’re gonna have to do this. So friends of ours run this plumbing company. And so Amanda’s on the phone and I sat down and went, I said, “That’s not Belinda, who’s that?” And she goes, “I don’t know.” I said, “That’s AI.” That’s

[00:53:35] Stephen Fenech: an AI agent.

[00:53:36] Trevor Long: And mate, it was unbelievable. Yeah, wow. Very, very clear, not a computerized tone or voice, but an Aussie female voice saying, “Is it overflowing? Do you feel like you need this looked at today?” And then it basically came back and said, “Listen, the best advice is to limit the use of, limit the flushing and the use of like, dishwashers and washing machines and baths. And that way we can come out on the Monday ’cause we don’t do normal service work on Sundays. It was Sunday, right? And then that went through to the plumber and she rang us and goes, “Just, you’re definitely cool with that?” And Amanda was like, “What just happened?” And she’s like, “Oh, it’s a fully trained.” It’s been trained on all of their circumstances and stuff. Like, that’s cool. But for this stuff, mate, for $200 a month, if you’re self-employed, small business, overwhelmed with admin and email and and just challenges like that, game changer. I’m telling you.

[00:54:35] Stephen Fenech: I might give it a crack.

[00:54:36] Trevor Long: I would give it a crack. Just give it 30 days. It only took me 2 and a half weeks to go,

[00:54:41] Stephen Fenech: “Yeah,

[00:54:42] Trevor Long: I’m in.” Awesome. And I think if I can like something in 2 and a half weeks, I think in 30 days, any small business should be able to work out whether they like something or not. Anyway, so you can see screenshots of some of the things that Darren did for me and my full thoughts at eftm.com.

[00:54:58] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech.

[00:55:03] Stephen Fenech: Two Blokes Talking Tech is proudly supported by our great friends at Arlo. And Arlo sell all kinds of cameras, security cameras, wired floodlight cameras, doorbells. And if you haven’t started a security system, there is a great facility on their website to bundle and save. So if you’re, if you’re going to start from scratch, you’re going to buy a few cameras and and get yourself set up. They do have a way for you to buy those products online. You’ll enjoy all the, all the existing discounts as well, by the way. But if you spend $500, you get 10% off. Spend $1,000, you get 15% off. Spend $1,500, you get 20% off. So it’s worth exploring. And we’re talking from their Pro Security Cameras to their Essential Pan-Tilt Indoor and Outdoor Cameras, their Wired Floodlight Cameras, their doorbells. Even they’ve got their Go2 Camera, which you can put a 4G SIM in if there’s no wireless network for you to monitor. And of course they’ve got the doorbells and the Secure Plan. You can even include the Secure Plan as part of that bundle. So the Secure Plan then gives you all the smart notifications, knows people as well, people that you’ve listed in your account. It’ll, it’ll recognize those people and name who they are. So, you know, Joe Fenech at the front door, and I’ll know that they’re talking about my wife, they’re not talking about just a random person. So worth exploring. If you are putting together a system, head over to Arlo’s website, click on the bundle and save option in the top menu, choose all your products, and enjoy the discounted price and the improved security at your place. Check it out at arlo.com.

[00:56:42] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech.

[00:56:46] Trevor Long: Sorry to get distracted, Stephen, but I just checked our Uber Eats order. Yes, and the order was cancelled.

[00:56:52] Stephen Fenech: What? What?

[00:56:52] Trevor Long: Like I said, it’s outrageous. The live activity just said order cancelled. Oh, I’ve tried to reorder. Well, I think it’s the wedges again. I think it’s because I ordered wedges. Why wouldn’t they just change it and put chips in instead? Anyway, I’ve gone for priority. We should still get some food in the next 20 minutes. Okay, so just everyone relax.

[00:57:08] Stephen Fenech: That’s part of my rider, mate.

[00:57:11] Trevor Long: Everyone relax. In return for him driving out to the country with his passport, yes, we provide We provide food and drinks here. It’s a fair deal.

[00:57:19] Stephen Fenech: I think it’s a very good deal.

[00:57:21] Trevor Long: To be honest, it’s a very good deal.

[00:57:22] Stephen Fenech: Very good deal.

[00:57:23] Trevor Long: What are we talking about here?

[00:57:25] Stephen Fenech: Vodafone have named—

[00:57:27] Trevor Long: This is our first show.

[00:57:29] Stephen Fenech: They’ve identified some call scams. And you know what? Cyber criminals, you know, I don’t want to give them any kind of credit, but they’re very creative with their scams. And Vodafone, who, as you know, and we’re both Vodafone customers on our mobiles, but They also have a solid system that has been blocking. This year alone, Vodafone has blocked more than 60.5 million scam calls and 48— 43.8 million scam text messages. And it’s just— it’s November. There’s going to be even more. Yeah, it’s going to be more than that.

[00:58:05] Trevor Long: Yeah.

[00:58:05] Stephen Fenech: So they know what they’re looking— they know what they’re doing when they— they know what to look out for. And they’ve identified 3 scams that are targeting Australians. The first is the Australian Federal Police impersonation scam.

[00:58:18] Trevor Long: That’s a big one.

[00:58:19] Stephen Fenech: So you get a call saying, oh look, I’m from the Australian Federal Police, we’re investigating an arrest. Your ID, your identification has been found on a suspect’s device. Would you, you know, they’re thinking, okay, so what are we talking about here? So the idea is for you to, they’ll say, look, you know, feel free to—

[00:58:36] Trevor Long: Fear straight away.

[00:58:37] Stephen Fenech: Yeah. So they’re creating a sort of thinking, okay, what have I done here? What do I need to do? Okay, we’d like to speak to you. So it’s designed to sort of build your trust and then potentially share, get your personal information, verify credit card information, information, things like that. The other one is police number spoofing. Now this is where you can copy a number. So you get a call thinking, hang on, what are the Marooba Police Station ringing me for? Yeah. And you think, well, hang on, this must be serious. And so you’re thinking it’s a legit number. And if you actually Googled that number that you see on your screen, you’ll think, hang on, that’s actually Marooba Police Station’s phone number. Yes. So you’re thinking, geez, what’s happened here? And so if they’re then the fraud, then attempts to extract your personal financial

[00:59:19] Trevor Long: or and the worst part about that is it, you know, people would trust it because it’s coming in from a number that looks like that. Because they would say, you don’t need to hang up, you just stay on the line, Google this phone number, trust me, we’re the police, right? Whereas what you need to do is hang up and call them back and you’ll realize that that’s not them and they’re not calling.

[00:59:35] Stephen Fenech: There you have it.

[00:59:36] Trevor Long: Wow.

[00:59:37] Stephen Fenech: The other one is the AI crypto scam. Now I don’t know how much crypto you’ve got, but if someone rang you and said, someone said, listen, there’s been an unauthorized withdrawal from your crypto wallet, I’ll go, that’s not me, mate.

[00:59:48] Trevor Long: Do you not have any crypto?

[00:59:49] Stephen Fenech: I don’t have any crypto at all.

[00:59:51] Trevor Long: Do you have some? Yeah. Really? How about 20K?

[00:59:52] Stephen Fenech: How’s it going?

[00:59:54] Trevor Long: Yeah, only cost me 2.

[00:59:55] Stephen Fenech: Wow.

[00:59:56] Trevor Long: 10xed it.

[00:59:57] Stephen Fenech: That’s good. Wasn’t there a massive heist recently?

[01:00:00] Trevor Long: Oh, what about that? North

[01:00:01] Stephen Fenech: Korea. Yeah. Incredible.

[01:00:03] Trevor Long: 6 or 9 billion.

[01:00:04] Stephen Fenech: Well, so you’ll get targeted here saying, oh, you might get some, there’s been an unauthorized withdrawal and they’re supposedly posing as a crypto support staffer, right? Trying to build a sense of urgency. Listen, we need to resolve this and then But the voice though is AI generated. So the person you’re talking to and there’s a sample of the audio, they sent a sample of it and it sounds like, okay, well, who are you from? And then the bloke asked the same question a couple of times and they responded exactly the same way. So you’re thinking,

[01:00:34] Trevor Long: hang on a minute, that’s dodgy.

[01:00:36] Stephen Fenech: So

[01:00:36] Trevor Long: they’ve really ramped up their, I guess, spam and scam detection at Vodafone because they also came out pretty publicly a few weeks ago talking about how a huge source of scam calls and texts coming in was through like the Aussie Broadband network. Whoa. Selling, you know, SIMs and not knowing what was being done with them.

[01:00:57] Stephen Fenech: So I’m with Aussie Broadband. You’re on it too, are you?

[01:00:59] Trevor Long: Yeah, but not the internet company.

[01:01:00] Stephen Fenech: Not the mobile. Yeah, I’m the bad mobile. Yeah, sure, sure.

[01:01:03] Trevor Long: I’m not with them. Yeah. No, but yeah, they’re really ramping that up.

[01:01:07] Stephen Fenech: Are they ever? So, you know, they recommend, you know, keep your security credentials obviously to yourself. Like don’t share passwords and other codes and stuff. One-time codes. That’s if someone asks you for a one-time code, you think, hang on a minute. Never transfer money to a safe account. No such thing. Hang up and verify independently.

[01:01:24] Trevor Long: Yeah, you think that’s the number one thing?

[01:01:25] Stephen Fenech: It’s Maroomba Police Station. So I’m going to call you back, pal. And then

[01:01:29] Trevor Long: you go, listen, I’m a bra boy, what are you talking about?

[01:01:32] Stephen Fenech: Who are you again?

[01:01:33] Trevor Long: You don’t talk to me like that.

[01:01:34] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[01:01:35] Trevor Long: All right, keep an eye on that. Details at techguide.com.au.

[01:01:38] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech with Trevor Long and Stephen Fenech.

[01:01:43] Trevor Long: Stephen, Grand Theft Auto 6.

[01:01:46] Stephen Fenech: Yes.

[01:01:46] Trevor Long: Are you excited?

[01:01:47] Stephen Fenech: It’s dropping. It’s also— it’s gonna— it’s— is it— what date did they state?

[01:01:51] Trevor Long: So the actual launch is like the 19th of November, but they’ve announced now that the preload will happen on the 10th. So

[01:02:00] Stephen Fenech: this is essentially how long it’s going to take.

[01:02:02] Trevor Long: Well, that’s probably half the problem is they— so the internet is going to be overloaded. This is going to cause capacity issues. And so I think what they’re probably trying to do is drip feed it out there. So yeah, Rockstar has advised gamers they’ll be able to load the game from Tuesday, November 10th, excuse me,

[01:02:21] Stephen Fenech: but not play

[01:02:21] Trevor Long: it. Not play it. PS5 gamers will be able to start downloading at midnight, Xbox at—

[01:02:27] Stephen Fenech: that’s me, baby— 11 hours later at 11 AM. Xbox or PlayStation?

[01:02:31] Trevor Long: I think I bought it on PlayStation.

[01:02:35] Stephen Fenech: Yep, I bought it too. I think we bought it the same day, 25th of June, I bought mine.

[01:02:40] Trevor Long: Yeah, right.

[01:02:41] Stephen Fenech: And it cost me $160. And any gamers

[01:02:44] Trevor Long: who purchased a physical copy will be able to preload their code-in-the-box versions with consoles beginning on November 12th. Wow. It’s, it’s big, 212 gigabytes. So the best advice there is really get an external drive, free the space now, because it’s going to try and preload it. If you’ve ordered, it’s going to try and preload it. If there’s no space, it won’t. So go in and delete Grand Theft Auto 5, delete Forza, whatever other things are.

[01:03:09] Stephen Fenech: I play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and it’s awesome.

[01:03:12] Trevor Long: Is it?

[01:03:12] Stephen Fenech: The multiplayer is excellent.

[01:03:16] Trevor Long: What about the story?

[01:03:17] Stephen Fenech: The campaign’s good too. Yeah, it’s in Korea.

[01:03:19] Trevor Long: Do you have to finish the campaign before you can play multiplayer?

[01:03:22] Stephen Fenech: No, no. I sort of alternate. I play an hour of the campaign or get online, whatever I want.

[01:03:26] Trevor Long: Yeah. Okay.

[01:03:27] Stephen Fenech: It’s been good. I’m back into it. I even got, even got player of the match a few times as well. This is beautiful animation.

[01:03:35] Trevor Long: Get a Claudio seafood voucher?

[01:03:36] Stephen Fenech: What?

[01:03:37] Trevor Long: Claudio seafood voucher is what we used to get player of the match.

[01:03:40] Stephen Fenech: No, we, uh, I got, uh, it’s just my, my, I’m Sharky 6, uh, number 6 and the word 8. Sharky 6 and the word 8. So if you’re coming up against him online, look out because I’ll, uh, get the red dot. I, I was, uh, top of the list a couple of times in a few matches there.

[01:03:58] Trevor Long: Maybe I still got it.

[01:03:59] Stephen Fenech: Still got it.

[01:04:00] Trevor Long: Harry’s asked if you could play it.

[01:04:02] Stephen Fenech: Oh really? He’s not 18 yet, man.

[01:04:04] Trevor Long: But it’s MA 15+.

[01:04:05] Stephen Fenech: Is it? Is it? Yeah. Oh, there you go.

[01:04:06] Trevor Long: That’s what he keeps telling me.

[01:04:07] Stephen Fenech: Is it? I thought it was rated R. No, it actually makes sense. It’s not as gory as one would be, although the multiplayer can get a bit gory.

[01:04:14] Trevor Long: I’m like, mate, I don’t give a rats, if I’m honest. Yeah,

[01:04:18] Stephen Fenech: but tell him if he wants an education, I can sort of teach him the ropes.

[01:04:21] Trevor Long: You just snipe him in the back of the head. But the issue is his mother walking past and going, what the hell are you playing? Oh yeah. Oh really? So we need to have that conversation.

[01:04:29] Stephen Fenech: Bring him here to play, mate.

[01:04:30] Trevor Long: Yeah, I don’t really want to be Hiding my children’s activity from their mother. Fair call, mate. That’s not how I roll.

[01:04:36] Stephen Fenech: Fair call. I respect that.

[01:04:37] Trevor Long: We have a strong and clear relationship. I respect that.

[01:04:40] Stephen Fenech: She makes the rules. My 12-year-old son used to play Call of Duty with us. He was probably even younger than that and used to kick our asses.

[01:04:47] Trevor Long: Really?

[01:04:47] Stephen Fenech: He was so good at it. Yeah. I don’t know whether he’s still got it or not. You must invite him. I’m going to get my brother Mark.

[01:04:53] Trevor Long: See, Harry would want it on Steam because he plays on the PC laptop.

[01:04:57] Stephen Fenech: I was going to give— I’ve got a I was going to give my brother Mikey, I got a PS5 I can give him. And he said, mate, get on, jump on and we’ll play together again. We’ll get our clan back together again.

[01:05:06] Trevor Long: Let’s go, clan. Yeah. I haven’t had a clan since Rainbow Six, Tom Clancy in 1998.

[01:05:11] Stephen Fenech: Mate, I really enjoyed it. AU clan. Yeah.

[01:05:14] Trevor Long: Still never found anyone that was part of the clan.

[01:05:17] Stephen Fenech: Yeah.

[01:05:18] Trevor Long: If you were part of the AU clan with Rainbow Six in the late ’90s, get in touch. That was me.

[01:05:24] Stephen Fenech: That’s still a popular game, isn’t it?

[01:05:26] Trevor Long: I don’t know, Rainbow Six?

[01:05:28] Stephen Fenech: I think— what is it? There’s another game. Is it Overwatch that people play competitively?

[01:05:32] Trevor Long: Overwatch? I don’t

[01:05:32] Stephen Fenech: know. Call of Duty, hats off, very good game.

[01:05:35] Trevor Long: When’s Far Cry 7 coming out? That’s what I want to know. I love Far Cry.

[01:05:39] Stephen Fenech: What is Far Cry 7, GTA 6, Modern Warfare 4?

[01:05:42] Trevor Long: We’ve got a folding iPhone before we got a GTA 6.

[01:05:45] Stephen Fenech: What?

[01:05:45] Trevor Long: You know what I’m saying? Yeah, we got a touchscreen laptop from Japan before GTA 6.

[01:05:51] Stephen Fenech: How are you? Couple of weeks in Duo, you’re happy?

[01:05:54] Trevor Long: I’m still all in. I’m still fine.

[01:05:55] Stephen Fenech: Still working it? Yeah. Because I read online Marquez Brownlee’s gone back to his 18 Pro Max.

[01:05:59] Trevor Long: Yeah, but did you see his response? So I saw on Threads he goes, slow news day.

[01:06:03] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, I saw. Yeah.

[01:06:04] Trevor Long: I mean, he just said it’s the camera and it’s like, fine.

[01:06:08] Stephen Fenech: He uses it more.

[01:06:09] Trevor Long: I’ll be honest, I’m ready to go back to the Air.

[01:06:12] Stephen Fenech: Really?

[01:06:12] Trevor Long: Because I love the lightweight.

[01:06:14] Stephen Fenech: Yeah, right. Okay.

[01:06:15] Trevor Long: But there’s plenty of times where I go, hang on a minute, I’m going to scroll the internet and it’s very good on that big screen. Me too. I’ll tell you what, I open it way more than I ever did a Samsung. Yeah, and it’s probably, it’s probably moved to 50% now.

[01:06:27] Stephen Fenech: I’m about even, I reckon.

[01:06:29] Trevor Long: Still, the problem is there’s too many apps that are like, oh, what’s going on here? And what happened?

[01:06:33] Stephen Fenech: Put a screen protector on the front too. The Belkin, yeah. And it had, they had the case, the proper loading case, you know, you put it in, it fits in, and you do it and fight. Perfect.

[01:06:43] Trevor Long: Wonderful. Well done.

[01:06:45] Stephen Fenech: Protected. Can’t do that for the middle screen, but, uh, all good.

[01:06:48] Trevor Long: No, no, don’t need to do that. Keep that there. All right mate, well done! See you next week.

[01:06:54] Stephen Fenech: Uh, all right ciao,

[01:06:56] Trevor Long: arrivederci,

[01:06:57] Stephen Fenech: ciao ciao.

[01:06:59] VOICE OVER: This is Two Blokes Talking Tech with Trevor Long and Stephen Fenech.