Refresh Computers Tech Talk
Audio files of our weekly radio show on WDBO where we talk about your electronic life. Help and advice are given on a range of technical issues from computers to everything internet-related.
Episodes
No bars for 200 miles sounds like a nightmare until you know what actually works now. We talk through modern ways to stay connected when you’re traveling far from cell towers, including what “satellite texting” can and cannot do today, and why it’s a big deal that it’s built into phones and supported through carrier partnerships. From there we get practical about Starlink satellite inte...
One price tag can be the difference between paying zero sales tax and paying all of it. We break down Florida’s sales tax holiday in plain English, including the $1,500 per-item rule, what qualifies (desktops, laptops, monitors, accessories, components, Wi-Fi gear), and the gotchas that surprise people every year, like business-name purchases, location exclusions, and why cell phones and video game consoles ar...
Gas prices rise, Florida heat hits triple digits, and somehow your car and your laptop are dealing with the same enemy: heat and cost. We’re Greg Rhodes and Adam Littlefield from the Refresh Computer Superstore, and we walk through what’s changing right now in the electric vehicle market and what it means for everyday drivers who just want a reliable commute and fewer surprise expenses.
We talk EV...
A “deal” can be a discount, a distraction, or a straight up illusion and the only way to know which one you’re looking at is to check the receipts of the internet: price history, seller behavior, and review quality. We walk through the most common online pricing tricks that show up around major sales events, including sudden pre sale price increases that make a markdown look dramatic. If you’...
Your wrist can do more than show the time now. We talk through how today’s smartwatches are evolving into practical safety tools, including fall detection that can automatically call 911, crash and collision alerts, and location sharing that helps first responders find you fast. If you have ever wondered whether an Apple Watch, Samsung Galaxy Watch, or other smartwatch is actually worth it, this conversation l...
The sky is getting smarter and so is your tech. We talk through the real mechanics behind modern Fourth of July spectacles, where drone light shows can paint flags and eagles in midair with hundreds of synchronized aircraft, and why so many cities are now blending drones with classic fireworks for that can’t-miss grand finale. You’ll hear what makes these shows work, what can make them fail, and why safe...
Your family memories are sitting on borrowed time. Those shoebox photos fade, VHS tapes get sticky, and the players you need to watch old camcorder footage are getting harder to find every year, especially in Florida heat and humidity. We walk through a realistic, do-it-now approach to digitizing old photos and home movies so you can preserve them, share them, and stop worrying that one failed device will erase deca...
DJI is getting pulled off US shelves, and that’s not just “drone hobbyist” news. We walk through what the DJI ban means for anyone who flies for fun, shoots video at weddings, inspects roofs and job sites, or depends on drones for fast situational awareness. Adam shares why DJI became the go-to brand in the first place, and we dig into the real reason this story keeps coming back: national security...
One lightning flash down the street can quietly take out a TV, a router, and the computer you rely on for work and you won’t always know why it happened. We live in Florida, where thunderstorms are frequent and the power grid is constantly fluctuating, so we decided to get practical: what actually hurts electronics, what protects them, and what mistakes people keep making without realizing it.
We break ...
Your smart TV isn’t just “smart” anymore, it may be reporting back what’s on your screen. We walk through how Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) works, why it can track far more than streaming apps, and why that data is valuable enough to help drive down TV prices. Then we get practical: we share where these settings hide, what they’re often called by brand, and the extra privacy switc...
Passwords are turning into a liability, and not because you are “bad at security.” The rules changed. AI-driven guessing, phishing, and nonstop automated attacks are making the old “strong password” playbook harder to live with and easier to break. So we talk through the shift that Apple, Google, and Microsoft are already pushing hard: passkeys and passwordless authentication. We explain what...
Smart glasses are not a sci-fi flex anymore. They look like normal Ray-Bans or Oakleys, but they behave like a wearable computer with speakers, a mic, a camera, and an AI assistant that is always within reach. We share what it is actually like to use Meta smart glasses day to day, from answering calls with your phone in your pocket to taking hands-free photos and video the moment something happens, plus quick &ldquo...
Humanoid robots are no longer a “someday” product, they’re showing up in real shopping carts with real price tags. We walk through what you actually get when a humanoid robot costs $18,000 to $20,000, starting with the Unitree G1 and the sensors that try to keep it upright and aware, like depth cameras and 3D LiDAR. We also talk candidly about the gap between flashy demos and everyday home reality,...
Siri has been “fine” for timers and quick lookups, but AI has moved on and Apple can’t afford to stay in catch-up mode. We dig into why Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is such a big moment, and why the most interesting rumor is also the most uncomfortable one: Siri may get its new brain from Google Gemini. That would make Siri far more conversational and useful, but it also forces the...
AI didn’t just change productivity tools, it changed crime. One of the biggest mistakes we can make right now is assuming scams still look like scams. Today, Greg Rhodes and I, David Levitt from Refresh Computer Superstore, dig into the AI cybersecurity arms race and why major institutions are warning that AI-powered attacks are arriving faster than defenses can keep up.
We walk through what “AI a...
Space and tech collide today, starting with a plain-English look at the rumored SpaceX IPO and why a two-trillion-dollar valuation has so many people paying attention. We talk through what it actually means when a company goes from private shares to a public offering, what most everyday investors can realistically expect around IPO access, and why we keep repeating the same disclaimer: we are not financial advisors,...
If your phone suddenly loses service, it might not be a carrier outage. It could be a SIM swap, and that can hand a criminal the keys to your bank, email, and social accounts in minutes. We explain how attackers impersonate you with data from phishing and breaches, why SMS based two factor authentication is now a liability, and what that scary “my phone went dead” moment really means.
We also unpa...
Streaming was supposed to make TV cheaper and simpler, but the math is starting to look painfully familiar. As Netflix, Disney+, Max, Prime Video, Spotify, and others keep raising prices, a lot of us are right back to paying a cable sized bill, just split across a bunch of apps. We dig into what’s driving the increases, why ad-supported tiers are changing everything, and how weekly episode releases quietly kee...
Record profits used to mean stability. Now it can mean something else: a company realizes AI can do more with fewer people, and the layoffs start anyway. We talk through the real-world signals, starting with Cisco cutting thousands of jobs while reporting strong results, plus other examples like GM trimming IT roles. The takeaway isn’t panic, it’s clarity: AI job displacement is already happening, and th...
AI is no longer just a productivity tool, it’s a force multiplier for cybercrime. We dig into Google’s Threat Intelligence Group warning about the first confirmed case of criminal hackers using AI to discover and weaponize a zero-day vulnerability, the kind of software flaw nobody can patch because nobody knows it exists yet. That changes the clock on security from “weeks to respond” to &ldqu...
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