Download the app, turn on those updates. Nick Russell, VP of Operations at WatchDuty, thanks so much for joining me today.

Thank you, Rich. Take care.

Thanks for everything you guys have done. 888-RICH More of your calls, richontech.tv. Welcome back to Rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here talking technology at 888-RICH 888-742 The website for the show, richontech.tv. We've been talking a lot about the wildfires, a lot about technology and its role in all of this. Nothing will replace your home. Nothing will replace the memories lost. And I am thinking of everyone that has been impacted by this. I mean, really, really just everyone knows someone, right? That is impacted by this. And so no matter what, even if your home is still safe and sound, you're thinking about how you can donate, how you can support your friends, their families, anyone. And I do love that aspect of our world that people do come together during these times. Now, don't get me wrong. There's a lot of finger pointing. There's a lot of complaining. There's a lot of blaming. And that's always going to be there. But at the end of the day, what I see is the good in all of this. And people really do want to help each other. Let's go to Susan in Santa Monica. Susan, you're on with Rich.

Hey, Rich. Thank you so much. What a great show, and thank you for the question the gentleman posed about backup power and your great answer.

Thank you.

So I'm in Santa Monica. I've never felt the need until now to get a smartphone. It was not a good feeling the other night when I thought I may have to get out of here. And knowing I do not have connection to the Internet, what is the simplest, easiest, basic phone that I might get? It could be a flip. What do you think? The basic, simplest, easiest phone. And it would be for emergencies only. I do not need to use it all the time.

Do you want a smartphone or a flip phone?

You know what? Just as long as I can get to the Internet when I leave.

Okay, then you want a smartphone. Flip phone is going to be really tricky with the Internet, so I would say a smartphone. Okay. And I'd go with the simple smartphone. And what I'd do is I would go something like, I mean, you can go with an iPhone. Obviously, that's going to be the gold standard of phones, but those are also going to be expensive. So if you're talking, you're only going to use this thing once in a while, you may not need to do that. But if I was going to recommend an iPhone, I'd probably say just get a refurbished iPhone, something that's inexpensive. You can go on Amazon Renewed and look up the iPhones that they sell there. They sell refurbished iPhones and they're a little bit older, so they're a little bit less expensive. And so that's one aspect. Let me just see what their Apple, what their iPhones are going for. So you can get an iPhone 12 for $250. You get an iPhone 11. I may not go iPhone 11. That might be a little bit too old. They got an iPhone 14 for $400. So they've got an SE second generation for $138. So you can get a cheap iPhone, contrary to popular belief. Yes, you can buy a cheap iPhone. We're talking under $400, under $300, under $200. So that's if you want an iPhone. The reason I'd say iPhone is just because you got the accessories. It's going to work. It's going to be simple. People know how to use it if you need to ask for help. So that's number one. And then what I would do is just buy a prepaid plan. So I would just pay for the year in advance. So something like a Mint Mobile, you want to pay for the entire year all at once. And that way you don't have to think about paying for the plan month to month. Just pay for the whole year at once. And they've got plans that start at, let's see, five gigabytes, $15 a month. So if you buy 12 months, 12 times 15, $180 up front. So you can do that. Wow. Okay. You can get unlimited right now. If you pay for the... Wow, that's an incredible deal. Unlimited right now on Mint Mobile is $15 a month for 12 months. If you pay for that, $180, you have unlimited data for 12 months. That's a great deal. That's just a limited time offer right now. I'm just looking at their website. That's news to me. So I would do that. You can also, if you want, you can go to a retailer like a Walmart and buy a SIM there. But the thing is, most of these phones have eSIMs and you can just activate them right there. The other one that might work is MobileX because they have a plan that's really cheap. They've got a plan that starts at like $4 a month. And so you can get that plan and you only pay for the data that you use. And so that may be a cheap way to sort of just have this phone running without paying a lot. But I personally like the idea of just paying in advance for the whole year. So that's what I would do. And again, if you want to look at an Android side of things, I would say the Pixel. So I know I talk about Pixel all the time, but I just think it's a very simple phone. It works. And they've got a couple different models. And actually, Google just started selling Pixel renewed, so refurbished. So let me look at what their prices are. So they just opened up a certified refurbished Pixel store on the Google store. So you've got the Pixel 7 Pro, which is pretty new. That's starting at $629. So that's too expensive for what you're talking about. But you can go with the refurbished Pixel 6a for $250. And that's, again, that is outright. You don't have to pay monthly. You don't have to think about how much you're paying for this phone every month. Because the idea for you, Susan, is that you want to have this phone and service ready to go. So all you have to do is charge this thing up, keep it charged up, and that's what you need. And you mentioned the battery, get a portable battery pack, make sure that you have that charged up as well. So that way you always have this phone at the ready. And I will say throughout this time, the service providers have been doing a pretty good job of the connectivity in the areas. I mean, obviously, if you're in the real burn areas, that area has been trickier than others. But surrounding LA, the networks have withstood a lot. And these companies have brought in a lot of additional kind of, what do they call them, cows, cells on wheels. And now they even have satellite connectivity as well. That is one aspect I will talk about after the break is the satellite connectivity that we are now getting into. And it's making staying connected a whole lot easier in situations like this. T-Mobile has it. Apple has it. Pixel has it. Amazon's starting it. I'll tell you all about that coming up right here on Rich on Tech. Welcome back to Rich on Tech. Rich DeMuro here hanging out with you, talking technology. Obviously, giving you lots of updates on tech's role in helping folks out with these wildfires, getting them information, getting them updates, getting them to safety, keeping them connected. There's just a whole lot to talk about here today on the show. But I was at and I am going to get to the satellite connectivity and how AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Uber, Lyft, all these different companies have responded in the wake of these wildfires here in Los Angeles. But I do want to talk about CES for a bit because that's where I was this week. And everyone there, very, very well aware of what was happening in Los Angeles. But there was a lot to see. This is one of the largest tech events of the year, certainly one of the largest tech trade shows. I think the only one that may be bigger by people is IFA in Berlin, but that show you're allowed to bring friends and family. This show in Las Vegas is not open to the public. So they get over 130,000 people to Las Vegas that are all in the industry. They're all tech folks, either working as media, salespeople, marketing people, startups, just everyone that's buyers. I mean, there's so many.