03-28-26 When Technology Gets Smarter Why Do We Feel Lost?

Your monthly tech bill is creeping up, and it’s not always obvious why. We walk through the “subscription squeeze” hitting streaming services and everyday software, where prices rise while features quietly disappear. We talk about what to look for in plan changes, why Netflix-style tier reshuffles frustrate so many people, and how subscription fatigue builds when you’re juggling logins, passwords, and constant renewals.

From there, we get practical about a problem almost everyone hits sooner or later: “storage full” on your iPhone or Android phone. Photos and videos matter, but we zoom in on the overlooked culprit, unused apps. We share a simple approach to deleting apps you don’t use, avoiding duplicate browsers and stacked security tools, and being careful with cleanup apps that ask for broad permissions. If you’ve ever downloaded three different “phone cleaner” tools out of frustration, this part will feel familiar.

We also cover why tech can feel more confusing as it gets more powerful: constant updates, settings that move, and products designed for power users instead of regular people. Plus, a cautionary story about niche apps that vanish from the app store, and what to check before you delete something you might need later.

If you want fewer surprises, fewer wasted subscriptions, and a phone that feels simpler again, listen now. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s tired of updates, and leave a quick review with the most annoying subscription you’re paying for right now.

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Transcript

Welcome And How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_00 0:08

And then welcome to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580 Orlando's News and Talk. I'm Greg Rhodes, sitting here with David Levitt, president and founder of the Refresh Computer Superstore. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have any other comments during the show, go ahead and leave an open mic using the WDBO app. You can also check out their website at refreshcomputers.net or stop it at the Refresh Computer Superstore in Longwood at 820 East State Road 434, just three and a half miles east of I-4 in Longwood. Store hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. If you're listening to the show here on Saturday, that means you still have time to stop by. They'll be open until 7 p.m. today. And that for the man himself, David, love it.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

All right. Thanks, Greg. And thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. Again, I'll repeat what Greg just said. If you're listening on Saturday, you still have time to stop by the store. This show repeats every Sunday from 8 a.m. until 9 a.m. And if you're listening during that time period, well, we're closed on Sundays. So stop on by during the week. We're open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. And I I hope you're enjoying the new format. Well, I call it the new format. We've been doing this now for probably six or seven weeks, Greg. Yeah, something like that. Where we talk more about tech topics that we think you might be interested in hearing about, maybe some new things going on. A lot more about that kind of thing, technology news and technology enhancements and advancements, as opposed to you know just being an hour-long plug for refresh computers.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Even though it kind of is, we want you to enjoy this and think of refresh computers by the end of it, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:52

We definitely do, we definitely do, because refresh computers pays for this space. So, you know, we we we hope that you enjoy what you're you're listening to. And if you do, and if you have not signed up yet, go to refreshcomputers.net. At the bottom of every page on our website, there is a sign-up form. It's very simple. All you do is enter your email address and click submit, and that's it. And then you will be signed up to receive notifications, such as when we send one out, usually every Saturday around 3 p.m. When three between 3 and 4 p.m., you'll get notified via email that the latest podcast has been released, it's been published. And what's really cool about what we're doing with these notifications now, Greg, is we are we are actually, you know, this is like a no-brainer, you know, but when now we're which we haven't been doing in the past, embarrassingly enough. I've had several customers request this, which is why we we're doing it now, is uh a brief synopsis of what the show was what we talked about on the show. So at least you know some have some idea of the different topics, all the different topics, because sometimes we'll cover three, four, five, six topics on one show. And now you'll get to see those bullet points in the email letting you know what we're gonna talk about before you click on listen to the show because it is about 41 minutes of listening without any commercial breaks.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

A man of the people listening in uh giving them what you what they wanted, Dave. I love it.

Today’s Topics And The Big Shift

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Well, thank you. Yeah, and you know, we've gotten a lot of positive feedback about doing that the last several weeks is what we've been doing. So again, bottom of any page at refreshcomputers.net, there's a place to just put in your email address. We don't ask for blood, we don't ask for your name, we don't ask for anything. Else, just your email, and that will sign you up to receive notifications of when the podcast is ready to be listened to. And also, you'll get uh weekly, once a week, you'll get inventory update like the latest and greatest laptops and desktops that comes out every Monday morning around 7 a.m. That email, and you'll get to see what's the latest and greatest that we have we got in stock in the past week because we're always getting new inventory. So what are the the tech talk topics? It's almost a tongue twister. Tech talk topics today are going to be uh streaming services, which are again are quietly, some maybe not so quietly, raising prices again. And not only are they re raising their prices, Greg, they're changing their plans around a little bit. So you're getting a little bit less, maybe, and you're paying a little bit more. And so we'll talk a little bit about that. Also, there are major apps are pushing more subscriptions than the everyday tech. So, you know, you used to own everything, right? You used to just go and one-time feed, that's mine, I own that now. I own it, and maybe every couple years I'd have to r buy it again because you know it got outdated. Yeah. You know, I'm talking about things like Microsoft Office, remember those days, QuickBooks, remember those days if you have QuickBooks where you just paid for it and just used it. We still have people coming in the store, Greg, with like 15-year-old versions of QuickBooks who just refuse to update. And the problem with that is they can't even use a computer with Windows 11 because it won't work. I mean, I mean it's it's the older version, just won't work on it. So they have to use old computers and and so may, you know, maybe it's time, you know, to get with it. And that's what we we pretty much try to as politely as possible to let them know, you know, hey, i if you're doing something that's so important that you have to use QuickBooks. You want to keep that secure, keep keep it secure, keep it updated and make sure you get the latest and greatest out of those kinds of things. So we're also going to talk a little bit about device storage is becoming a bigger issue for most users, and we'll get into the reasons why. And people are hitting tech fatigue is a new kind of a new term these days. There's just a lot of tech going on all around us, right? And it's hard to keep up with.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

It's ingrained into everything, it seems like now.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

And there's you know, like too many accounts, too many logins, and things like that, you know. And I'm I'm just waiting for my white microwave to ask me to for$400 four dollars and ninety-nine cents a month or something. You haven't asked you yet?

SPEAKER_00 6:21

I had to I had to click the box that says don't ask me this again. Did you? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Yeah. So let's get into the you know the subscription takeover movement right now. You know, all these companies are requiring people pretty much to sign up for subscriptions to things as opposed to outright owning them, right? And then renewing them every few years, like the old way. And you know, white people are fed up with that. So what's happening right now, definitely, definitely more companies, most tech companies, pretty soon all of them, I think, will be shifting to subscription-only models. I mentioned Microsoft Office, what we know as Office. They keep changing the name now, Office 365, you know, and now their AI version of 365. Yeah, and it's just it's gotten out of hand.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

You can't even keep up with the names of them anymore, much less the price on the subscription.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Yeah, Microsoft's changed the name of Office like five times in the last two years, and it's hard to keep up with that. And you know, you're not gonna be able to just buy Office anymore and and have it. You know, that that's they they held on pretty long, but uh they're they're gonna stop allowing you just to buy it. You're gonna have to pay for it every month or once a year.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

I used a copy of Office XP for the longest time just because that was the last one that my mom bought at the house. So it just kept on moving up into all these different computers that we had because it was still around.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Well, you know, and I used to be you know, same thing with me. Years ago, I was so hard-headed and so stubborn, you know, like a lot of our customers, you know who you are out there, that I'm not paying them, you know, to subscribe to anything. I just would just refuse to do it, even though I could afford it, even though it was not a big deal financially for me to do so. Right. It just was just didn't feel like the right thing to do to, you know, keep give these companies money every month. But now, if you don't do that, then you're gonna be stuck. You're just stuck, and you you kind of have to do that. And I I would say I made that that uh paradigm shift way of thinking about office probably about six or seven years ago and been paying for this subscription ever since. Because you know what, Greg? And I have to admit, you know, I a little bit of foot and mouth here, I was ecstatic after I decided to change and got past that paradigm shift of thinking about I can't I'm not gonna rent something, I'm just gonna own it.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

And once I got past that and started using Office every day, the the rented it's always updated. I never have to worry about it. I can download it on, I think, five or six computers and actually have the actual copy of Office on my computer. And by the way, folks, I don't get paid a penny from Microsoft for any of this advice. It's just it's just a way to do it now, anyway, I think.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

And the integration that they have with like the cloud sharing and things like that, it makes it so much easier to share it across your platforms. So yeah, no, it's it makes sense that some of these have gone to that subscription service, but that doesn't mean that it's not a concerning trend, right?

Streaming Prices Rise Behind Your Back

SPEAKER_01 9:35

That's right. That's right. And another concerning trend uh is a good segue to get into that your streaming services that you're that you know, you pay attention to those folks because they are quietly, yes, and sometimes very sleuthily adjusting pricing tiers and their features. So they might come out and say, you know, this one particular streaming service, oh, you the price is going to go up$2 a month or$3 a month. Well, the first thing you think is, oh, darn, two or three dollars more a month. Oh, well, whatever. I have to do it because I need it. But then what you need to do also is go back and look at what else they're doing. Because they're actually, in a lot of cases, reducing the amount of features that you're getting. So it's not just that they've increased the price, which is the first thing everybody pays attention to. Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

That's well, that's the headline grabber. That's the headline grabber. And that's that's something that's actually very, very timely right now as we talk is Netflix, and I'm gonna call them out directly because I Netflix just went up. Awful opening day game. Absolutely. Oh, that was horrendous. That was horrendous. I if you if a little self-plug, I did an article on WDBO.com if you want to read a little bit about how bad I thought the opening day game was. Or the opening night, sorry, quote unquote, opening night.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

The foggy and I thought something was wrong with my TV. Right. And then they would switch cameras and think, oh no, that's just the fog in the lens or something from that center field camera. It was terrible. The production was bad.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

I didn't like the calling. They they missed the first EBS game. They did. They did because why? Because they're better. They're doing one of their 19 interviews that they did during the game.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Stop doing interviews, Major League Baseball, NFL, NBA, all of you. When the game is on, we want to watch the game.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

You'll like my article, Dave. You should read it. But anyway.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Stop doing interviews in the middle of an inning.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

I know. But it's terrible. But Netflix specifically, I'm gonna call them out because they did a price increase this. They did. And they're one of those, they're one of those groups that is notorious for, oh yeah, we're just gonna increase your price of your plan, but we're gonna strip away multiple details of your plan. You can only stream it on two devices now. You can only have you no longer have access to the 4K content, you can only have HD content, things like that. They're notorious for those little details that you don't think about in your plan until they're not there anymore.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Yeah, probably the biggest one that is. And and they were the one of the companies I was thinking of when I was making that statement is you know, they're increasing their prices, but they're giving you less stuff at the same time. And so you have to kind of re-peel it back and look at that. And you know, what probably that Netflix increased their prices because they had to pay Major League Baseball a lot of money. And the Paul Brothers, yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly. To air that first Major League Baseball game, opening day game. And you know, no secret, I love baseball, I think you do too. And but I was so disappointed in in in that game, and in more ways than one, too, even the outcome, but that's another story. But anyway, uh so again, monthly costs are adding up, multiple subscriptions. You just forget about them. Right. Right? You after a while, you you know, there's the there's a whole there's a whole cottage industry going on right now of companies, you've probably seen them coming out. Hey, you can pay us so we can find all your subscriptions you don't know you have anymore.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Right. Pay us a subscription fee so that way we can find all the subscriptions that you don't need anymore.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Yeah, that's a whole thing going on right now. And you know, then then there's also things that they're doing that they're locking features behind paywalls. So you even though you're paying them a monthly subscription, there's some things, you know, uh there's a lot of a lot of the AI companies are are are good for this, Greg. The ones that come out with all this AI stuff.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Well, we've seen recently one of with X and XAI on with Grok use on Twitter, or now formerly Twitter, now X, where you could previously ask in the comments, hey Grok, is this something? And Grok would review the comments and give you let's spit back a feature. Well, now you have to be a subscribed member of X to be able to use that feature to use it, yeah. And that was something that had been free for the longest time. It was kind of one of the big things that made Grok a little bit different compared to Cersei.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

It was, but you know, they kind of fell in with everybody else because you know they're all wanting you now to I mean there's a free version, but let's face it, that one doesn't really give you much. And then well, any of them, whether you pay for it or not, but especially the free versions. I'm gonna throw this out there. Be careful of the advice and the the the results that it's given you, and especially be cautious when it can keeps congratulating you. Oh, you are so smart to answer to ask such an intelligent question, you know, things like that. When you see that, no, they're they're just buttering you up.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Stop talking to me like that, AI. Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

So I don't know. So, you know, things like you know, how many subscriptions are too many? You know, do people even know what they're paying for? And so and some of these subscriptions, are they sustainable in the long run? And I will tell you that as more that tech gets advanced, the more that people seem to need re a company like refresh computers. So you would think it would be the other way around. But you know, we're there for using. We have that free tech support hotline, 407-478-8200, or bring your device on into the store at any time that we're open, and we'll be able to help you out.

Subscription Creep And Feature Paywalls

SPEAKER_00 14:49

And all these subscriptions and all these extra apps you have, are they what are what leading to you running out of storage on your device? We'll tackle that topic coming up next here. You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. Hey there, welcome back to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's news and talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, president and founder of the Refresh Computer Superstore. And you can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. And if you have any other comments during the show, we'd love to hear them use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

And now, back to Dave. All right. Thanks, Greg, and thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. We appreciate you listening. If you're listening on Saturday, we're still open. So come on into the store. We're there till 7 p.m. If you're listening on Sunday morning, then we're not open. So we'll hopefully see you afterwards. If you need help, even when we're not open, you can still call that free tech support hotline and leave us a voicemail message. We'll get back to you the next business day with a response. So that number is 407-478-8200. Or you can send an email to us. The email address is actually Longwood, like the city of Longwood. So Longwood at refreshcomputers.net, and we can uh we'll get that and ask your question there. We'll respond to you there. Or you can go to the website, refreshcomputers.net. There is a contact me form right there. You can spell out your whatever your you want to contact us about right there, put in your information, and we'll get back to you there also.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

That email is going to be handy for people to send you like screenshots of error messages and things like that as well.

Why Your Phone Storage Disappears

SPEAKER_01 16:46

True, true, true. And you know, even our phone number you can text 407-478-80200, and we will be able to receive that as a text in our system and respond to you that way, too. So that's another 24-hour way of getting, you know, getting at least getting in touch with us initially. So this segment we want to talk about why you might be running out of storage space. What's causing you to run out of storage space, especially on something like your smartphone, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Sure. Especially so many of them anymore. You don't have that expandable storage option. You're stuck with what you got.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

And people, you know, like to hone in on photos and videos, right? Because let's face it, that's a big culprit of taking up a ton of your storage. But what I would like you to do also is look at your apps and see which ones you just don't use anymore. And and delete them. You'll be surprised how much storage space that you can free up by deleting unused apps. I mean, there's people, you know, we've we help people, you know, if you have issues with this or you can't figure out what to do, bring your device to the store, we'll help you out right there at the store. And so we see it, you know, I see people with, you know, 200 apps or something on their phone or 300 apps, and and a lot of them are clouded, we call it clouded out. So they're not active because they have been reduced to to not being usable.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Right. Like a sleep mode kind of space.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

A sleep mode, but they still are taking up space. Yeah. So so just and then you would have to you know re-download them in order to use them again. But here's a secret, here's a tip, is that you're not really re-downloading the whole app. It the whole app is still really actually most of it is still on your phone. It's just in sleep mode and it's in the background in order to save up a little bit more space. But if you delete that whole whole app, even though it's in sleep mode, then you'll get more space that way too.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

So much of that ends up being those games that just get downloaded when you do updates, like it's this isn't a mandatory game for whatever reason on some of these smartphones. I I free up so much space by deleting those games that I never even touch on my smartphones.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

There's games, yeah, the games that just come with your phone when you get them. Yeah, delete that stuff. You know, if you don't really need it, if you don't use it, delete those apps. That's gonna be one of the ways you're gonna be able to free up more space on your phone. And speaking of apps for your for your phone, there are apps that will help you free up space on your phone. So be careful, make sure you get the right one. There's several of them out there right now. Look for one that's highly rated, look for one that has you know a lot of ratings, not just highly rated. Sometimes you'll see an app with a 4.8 rating or something. And then you if you look a little deeper, you'll see, well, it only has 10 ratings. So get one, if you're gonna get one of these apps that will help you clean up your iPhone or your Android phone, make sure you get one that has thousands and tens of thousands of reviews on it. You know, that's it's because it's gonna be a lot more legitimate. You can be taken because you you have to give access to your photos and your videos in order for it to delete them. So you don't want to use a brand new app. I just wouldn't wouldn't go there. I'd wait for an app to to get popular.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

So make sure you know what you're giving access to and why it needs it. But did this all sound a little maybe complicated? You're not alone. A lot of people feel that way. Tech is getting more and more confusing. We'll try and tackle that topic for you and more coming up next. You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. Hey there, and welcome to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's news and talk. I'm Greg Rhodes, sitting here with David Levitt, president and founder of Refresh Computer Superstore. And you can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have a comment during the show, we'd love to hear it. Use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. You can also check out the website over at Refresh Computers.net or stop it at the Refresh Computer Superstore in Longwood at 820 East State Road 434, just three and a half miles east of I-4 in Longwood. Store hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. And if you're listening to the show here on Saturday, that means you still have time to stop by. They'll be open until 7 p.m. today. And now back to the man himself. David, love it.

Tech Gets Harder With Every Update

SPEAKER_01 21:19

All right. Thanks, Greg, and thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. I'm hoping that you are enjoying this episode. You know, we talked in the beginning about streaming services that are quietly raising prices while at the same time reducing features that you may not be aware that they're even doing because you're most people hone in on the price increase, but they've got to peel back down in a little bit. You're not really getting more for that price increase. They're actually taking away features, Greg. So major apps are pushing more subscriptions, right? In the everyday tech. We talked about that, and we talked about why device storage is becoming a bigger issue for most users. And right now, We're going to get into why tech is getting more confusing and not easier.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

And isn't that the whole point of all this is to make our lives simpler, easier, more navigatable, right? Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

It's a you know, and there for a while it seemed like it was it was on a roll, it was doing that kind of thing. But the the more tech advances, especially since AI has gotten involved, the more that tech has advanced, the more confusing we are getting. And so, you know, and I and I've said this before, and I'll say it again, is that one of the things that keeps us in business is the fact that tech is advancing so much. It is not the not that the other way around, you know, because people I've had customers say, Well, geez, you know, tech has advanced so so far, pretty soon people aren't going to need you anymore. And it's like, no, it's actually the other way around. It's advanced so much that people need us more.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

The people that didn't think they needed a tech guy now all of a sudden need a tech guy because they can't understand what's going on, right?

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Because it's supposed to simplify your life. But for many people, it's doing the opposite, Greg. So what's changing? So there's more accounts out there, more different types of things going on, more passwords you have to keep track of. And then, you know, one of another big headache is are the constant updates that that these apps are doing, and they're changing their layouts. So you just get used to the way the way something looks, and then there's another update to that app that you're using, and boom. Now you've got to relearn things all over again. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

That is the worst. You think you finally figure out exactly how to you you built out your process, you know how to navigate inside this whole program, and then all of a sudden there's an update and it says, Do you want to hold on to the old view or do you want to go to the new view that you're going to be required to have in the next update? Yeah, exactly. And you're like, oh no.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

And it's just like, you know, I'll let you know some of the things that, you know, what we're hearing today. People coming into the store, people calling us on the phone, that free tech support hotline again is 407-478-8200. The things that we're hearing right now is, you know, it worked yesterday and today it's not working. That is a constant thing when an app gets an update, right? Settings keep moving. So we just talked about you know the screen, the whole the entire screen sometimes change is rearranged. Or you used to be able to go to a specific spot to get to your settings, and now that spot's gone. Where is it now? So that kind of thing is going on. Features being hard to find, that you you were finding before, but now you're not. And there's just simply, you know, wait, maybe just too many choices. Too many choices, too many things, too many options for you to try to figure out things. And why are there so many options? And and this is important, it's because these tech companies, Greg, they design these apps, every single one of them for well, not everyone, but I would say 99% of them probably design these apps for the power user for the one that's going to take advantage of all these features that most of us don't care about or have no need for. And so you have to get past all that. And I'll and I'll throw it, you know, QuickBooks is one of those. There's so much crap in QuickBooks. If you so much. And you know, and another annoying thing, you know, I'll call QuickBooks out just like you called Netflix out on the baseball game. You know, QuickBooks, I pay you a monthly subscription. I pay you a lot of money for a monthly subscription. I don't want to see your ads popping up across my screen, trying to buy me some, trying to get me to buy something else. If I'm interested in it, I'll go research it and I'll find it myself. Never have I ever seen an ad QuickBooks that you popped up on my screen that I said, oh yeah, I can use that. Right. Ever. Because I have a very specific use for it. It does a lot of things for us, but you know, we're we're we're sick and tired of these things. You're paying for a subscription, you don't want to also see ads. You know, so there's a lot of applications where it have a free version, or you can pay them money for an ad-free, you know, ad-free version. So you know, you get a free version with ads, or you can pay a little bit of money and get no ads in the in the app that you're using. A lot of games do this and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

Netflix.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

In Netflix. Yeah. But come on, QuickBooks, we're paying you a lot of money every every uh month. Uh you know, we don't want to see your ads, you know, when they're coming out there, so there's just too many, too many things going on. So another few examples of why people will bring their device to us, Greg, or because these things are getting too complicated, is that you know, settings that we talked about earlier, and they're they're actually instead of like having a main settings button that like we're used to seeing there's settings. Oh, okay, where's settings? Oh, it's right there where I can see it. I can click on it. Uh-uh. Settings now, and a lot of these apps are buried in menus. So you got to know which menu to click on just to get to the settings. And that's a bit of annoying because when you want to change something in your settings or you want to check out something in your settings, well, you just want to go to settings. You don't want to have to navigate to find settings. And and another thing that you the these apps are doing is just we talked we brushed on this earlier, but just way too many features, things you just don't want or need. And again, it's because they're designed for for power users. And and a lot of these companies want to make sure they hit all the bases that just in case there's somebody that needs that third base app. Right. You know, we're gonna throw that in there, although most of us only want to get the first base.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

And you know, it used to be that you would have to specifically subscribe for that level of the software. You would have to either you'd get the additional disk or you would get the you know, you know what I mean? And now it's it it's all ingrained because again, everybody's just trying to simplify on their side. Let's just put everything together in one one program and send it out, people can buy it. That's that's what our option is. There's no tiers to these kinds of programs anymore.

Simplify Your Devices With Fewer Apps

The Risk Of Apps Vanishing

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Well, and I I think a simple explanation for that would be, you know, to they're trying to make it more capable. In doing so, they're making it more complex. Yeah. They're just making it so much more complex for us. And which is, you know, keeping companies like Refresh Computers around is helping because you know, people need us to help navigate through all these changes that's been going on. So, what can what can you do about these things? What what what do we tell people that come in or call us about these kinds of issues? Maybe you know, look at if you can, if you can get past this, simplify your devices. You know, simplify. You know, again, I'll go back to get rid of all those apps that you you don't use or you barely use. You might use one, oh, I might use Flight Aware because I go on a f a two flights a year or something. So I don't want to get rid of that app because I want to use it again. You know what? Delete it anyway off your phone. If you're only going to use something one or two times a year, delete it off your phone because guess what? When you go back into the app store, it's still there. You can always re-download it. Yep. And you know, and it and it knows that you had it before. And even though you delete it on your phone, at least on the iPhones, I know that on the Apple iPhone, because this happens on my phone, when you delete it and then you reinstall it six months later, it still knows all your login information. It still knows all that stuff because it's stored up there in Apple's. Let Apple store all that stuff for you. They they have all the storage space, right? You don't need to store it on your phone. So if you use these apps once or twice a year, even and you're afraid to get rid of them, go ahead and just delete them. They're not going to go away. And I will dairy-freeing. Well, I I will caution there there is there are some apps out there. If you use an app that's not maybe it's not a very widely used or very well-known app, I'll give one example. It's called Y Ion. It's W-I-O-N, which don't look for it because you can't find it anymore. And so what happens there with that one, I I used to use that to control my pool pump.

unknown 30:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Wi-Fi mode, a company called Y-Ion or Y-On, W-I-O-N, and used to control the pool lights, what time you put the pump on, schedule the pump, control it, turn it on, turn it off remotely, do all those fun things. And during a recent update to something else on my iPhone, Greg, that was one of the apps that went to sleep. And so fast forward, you know, six months later when I needed to use it, I went to it was still there. And then I went to click on the little cloud thing, you know, that so it'll download again on my phone. That app is no longer available in the in the Apple store. Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 30:59

So that one went out. Do you remember the Flappy Bird craze? A couple of years ago, it was a game on the iPhone called Flappy Bird, and the developer made it and it went it went viral. Everybody downloaded this one game. Well, then the iPhone, the the developer canceled the game after a couple of months. He got too it got too popular, he didn't feel comfortable with it anymore. Couldn't keep up, couldn't keep up. So he canceled the game and that deleted it out of the iPhone store. Well, people lost their minds if they couldn't download this game anymore. Then phones that still had that game downloaded on it were going on sale on eBay for thousands of dollars. Even though this was like a three or four-year-old iPhone, it was on sale for thousands, and people were buying them. People were buying them just to have access to this one game.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

So yes, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

Like you mentioned, if you've got that app that you really like to use and is maybe one of those indie developers or something like that. Yeah, so that's be careful with those.

SPEAKER_01 31:51

And I felt like I had to mention that because you know you have to I'm I'm here I am telling you, advising you to delete these old apps that you only use it once or twice a year. But before you do that, you may want to go check to make sure that app is still available. You may have the next flappy bird in the app store, and that's easy to do. Just go to the app store and look for it, and if it's still there, well, it's still there. If you can't find it anymore, well, then maybe you don't want to delete that app. And you know, the sad part, Greg, is like what happened on my phone, is that when you do the an update, you know, so you got a new iOS update and that you want to uh update your phone with, the sad thing is a lot of times Apple just by itself will just shut shut down a whole bunch of apps in order to do the update. And if that's one of the apps they shut down and it's not in the app store anymore, you're not gonna be able to get it back.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

You couldn't download the latest updates, otherwise you deleted the app for you. So yep.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

So you just gotta be careful about those kinds of things. So, but you know, folks, you can come on in. I I keep throwing this, you know, this this show is sponsored by my store, Refresh Computers. We're located at 820 East State Road 434, there in Longwood. If you're having any of these kinds of issues, you know, we're there. You know, we have a store full of very smart guys, very smart, you know. We have Greg, we have the the nicest bunch of nerds that I can lovingly nerds, lovingly calling them nerds. Lovingly, lovingly. No, because I say that because the the they're nerds with human skills, the people skills. Yep. I mean, so they really know how to take care of you. And we we we do we we have an inter through our interview process. I've mentioned this a time or two on the show, you know, we do a little bit of a psychological thing with these with folks. It's not hard. And because we want to make sure they'll they'll be able to not only know what they're talking about, but be able to talk to you about it if you come in the store in a way that you're gonna understand, not try to talk over your head. I I cannot stand when a tech purposely tries to show how smart they are by talking over your head. And I I guarantee you none of my techs will be doing that kind of thing because they just don't, you know, they're just all a bunch of bunch of nice folks. So you can come on into the store and visit us again. It's Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. We are closed on Sundays. Well, you know, we like to have a little bit of a breather once a week, and so Sundays, of course, is the obvious day to do that. And so we're hoping to see you there. And don't forget this podcast, just go to refreshcomputers.net. You can listen to this show in its entirety by going to that website, you can click on the podcast link and you'll find it right there. And if you want to be efficient about it, just while you're at refreshcomputers.net, go to the bottom of any page, put in your email address, and we'll notify you via email sometime Saturday afternoon when this podcast is available to be listened to with highlights in the email so you'll know what we're talking about before you have to start listening.

Stop Stacking Tools You Don’t Need

SPEAKER_00 35:02

We spent a lot of this show talking about the apps that you need to delete, but what if you need to download a new app? Well, slow your horses on that one as well. We'll talk more on that. You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. Hey there, and welcome back to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's news and talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, president and founder of Refresh Computer Superstore. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Also, check out their website over at refreshcomputers.net. And now back to Dave.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

All right, thanks, Greg, and thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. I hope that if you've been able to listen to this whole show, I hope you were, that you've enjoyed our tech talk topics of the day. And if you missed anything, go to our website at refreshcomputers.net. You can click on the podcast link at the top of the page and listen to the show in its entirety, or better yet, sign up for our emails by going to refreshcomputers.net at the bottom of every page, put in your email address, and we we will notify you when the show is being ready to be listened to and with with some highlights in the email so you'll know what we're talking about. And also every Monday morning you will get the a list of the latest three or four laptops and three or four desktops that have made it to the Refreshed Computer Superstore there in Longwood so you can keep track of the inventory coming in. So we talked about a whole bunch of things today, and we we we need to finish off by why you don't need so many apps on your phone. You just don't. And we talked in the previous segment about going in and just finding all these apps that you haven't used. You know, I and if you only use an app once or twice a year, delete it. You might want to go check and make sure that that app is, if it's especially if it's kind of a specialty app, make sure that that app is still going to be available by just going to your app store and checking to make sure it's in there. If it's not in there, then probably shouldn't delete that particular app if you want to use it later because you won't be able to if it's not in the app store anymore. But you know, a lot of these popular apps, you know, you have probably have more than one browser app. You know, I I always use Chrome. I was gonna say there's Chrome, there's Safari, there's Opera, there's a Zilla. Yeah, and so I deleted so you can delete Safari on your iPhone, which is Apple's app. You don't have to have it there. And so you take it out, delete it, and you can delete a lot of the apps that you don't need anymore. And that's gonna clean up a lot of space too. You'd be surprised how much space you're gonna clean up on your phone if you're running out of space if you just delete those unnecessary apps. You just you don't need them. Some people have multiple security apps. You know, you just figure out which one you need. And again, if you need help figuring out which one you need, that's what we're there for. You know, use that free tech support hotline, 407-478-8200, or come on to the refresh computer superstore at 820 East State Road 434, three and a half miles east of I-4, right there in Longwood, and we'll bring your device. We'll we'll just we'll take a few minutes with you, go through it and help you figure out what's going on. People have multiple cleanup tools because they downloaded a cleanup tool, used it, it's too confusing. Let me download another one, use that one, I don't know, maybe that one, or then they just stop using them. Sometimes people have three, four, or five cleanup tools we're finding on the phones. Delete all those. Just get them out. And get that's one of those tools, Greg, that you can always just keep deleted off your phone. Sure. Just put it on when you if you want to use it, reinstall it, use it, delete it again.

SPEAKER_00 38:59

And often so many times, I know on in at least with my Samsung, that tool's already built into your phone. There's ways to do that with your phone without downloading an additional app.

Final Thoughts And Next Week

SPEAKER_01 39:07

So but you know, but there's still apps out there that you can get to to do the same thing that's already inaired on your phone. So you just gotta watch out. So what's the better approach? You have fewer, better tools, better apps on your phone. Learn what you actually have. Take a few minutes, like you know, I told you, some people come in, we'll we'll see a hundred, two hundred apps on their phone. That's insane. I don't, you know, who you don't need that many. Right to delete, delete a lot of them. You'll free up a lot of spaces. So learn what you have and and and take it from there. And again, avoid stacking unnecessary apps because you can do that, and you know, we see that all the time. The same the same type of thing that you have five apps for on your phone. You don't need the five different apps, especially if you see that they've been clouded, I'll call, you know, where where they're not really completely on your phone, but if you need them, you can download them again. Delete those. Just get them off your phone if you can. That's a better approach. I'm pretty sure that you'll be happy that you did that if you do, if you do. So uh so we're out of time, folks. I really appreciate you listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. This is David Levitt, owner and founder of Refresh Computers, and we'll be talking to you again live from Lake Iola next week, right, Greg? That's right. Spring Fiesta in the park. All right.