Apple is building in Houston

Today on the High Tech Texan Show:

• Apple building huge server warehouse in Houston. Does this mean more local jobs?
• Amazon finally announces an update for Alexa. But is too late because we use so many other virtual assitants?
• TV streaming options that won't cost you a lot of money

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Is Michael Garfi.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Michael Garfield.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Michael Garfield's joining.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
In the high Tech Texan. Michael Garfield is here with
a high Tech Texans.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Its to make life easier, new.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Technology, and Michael Garfield has something you might like.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Michael Garfield is your high Tech Texans three decades helping
you make magic with your gadgets. Heard worldwide on the
iHeartRadio add now you're high Tech Texan Michael Garfield.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Wherever you are listening, you for spinning an hour or two,
even if you spend five and a half minutes. Actually,
I think we want you for fifteen minutes because according
to our personal people meeting with Nielsen's, I think that's
how we get counted for ratings. So hang in there
for a few more minutes. People, we can use all
the ratings help we can get. It is Michael Michael Garfield.

(01:09):
It's called the High Tech Textan Show. I swear this
is so much more than just technology. I do not
geek out. Nope, we make technologies sexy along with so
many other consumer products. It is an interactive show. It
is a call in show three four six twenty nine Texan.
You can give us a call callum read may be happy,

(01:33):
maybe not be yet. Maybe I don't know you cranky callum,
drink some coffee. He may pick up the phone, he
may not feel free to interact. Also online high tech
text and Hi g h T E h T e
x A N on the Instagram, on x slash, Twitter, Facebook,
you could even find me and email me man. I
never thought email would be low tech, but high tech

(01:55):
Textan dot com Michael at high tech Texan dot com.
It's one of the as many ways that you can
reach out. It's kind of the middle. I guess it's
the end of winter doldrum. We've been through the Consumer
electronics show in early January. Covered a lot of the products.
There nothing certainly back to school that doesn't happen until

(02:16):
late summer early fall. Not a ton of products are
being released. We did get some news last week about
the new low cost and I'm using air quotes Apple
sixteen E. It's not that low cost, but it's the
lower level version that's coming out. Got some news from Amazon.
Amazon is upgrading after all these years, they're alexa. I
will tell you about that in case you still have

(02:39):
the old school like Echo dot like I still do.
Finally getting a little Ai Alexa AI having a little merger,
which is about time too, along with some other goings on.
It may not be busy in the tech tech world,
but we're going to entertain you. But there's a lot
of stuff happening in the local regional entertainment world for

(02:59):
all of those listeners living in and around the Houston
Dalveston area. We have got the kickoff the opening this
weekend of the World Championship Barbecue Contest. I go every
single year. I am I'm actually, I'm honored. Is that
the word? I want? Honored? To be a judge, I
judge to judge the best barbecue. And I got on

(03:22):
this judging circuit, this particular one, eight to ten years ago,
and this is the one you don't want to get off.
And I don't even drink, I don't even eat a
lot of red meat. But this is the one you
want to be on because people fight tooth and nail
to get on this thing. And so that will happen
late Saturday afternoon when we get off doing the show
live plausibly live. Yesterday I judged some junior steak thirteen

(03:48):
year old kids. The rodeo was kind enough. They do
this every year. They give them little tiny Weber grills
and the kids by themselves, they file ay a piece
of steak. And I was one of the celebrity judges there.
And if that's not your cup of tea, Marty Gras
is going on, and yes, we have a lot of
New Orleans and Louisiana listeners have fun. I've never been

(04:10):
to the real the wal Marty Gras parades in New Orleans.
I have been to the ones in Galveston, though, And
this is the second and final weekend of the Galveston
Marty Gras. Last night was a parade, and there is
I think Saturday is the final parade. And it does
get fit. The weather should be decent. If you've never been,
go down. It's in the Strand, which is kind of

(04:30):
the downtown area. You buy a ticket to get to
the Prairie parade route. You can get up to the
balconies if you know someone. But that's a blast and
a ball. We gave away some tickets last week to
the Marty Gras, so if you didn't win, sucks for you.
But you can still go down there for Marty Graus. Galveston,
so lots of things happening in the world of having
fun as we I guess ring in springtime almost past

(04:54):
week or two across Texas. It with a little chili.
Now we're just eating chili and drinking a a lot
of brown water and a lot of beer, because that's
what happens this time of year. You know how to
get a hold of us and we have an other
Do we have anything to give away? Don't have anything
to give away? Oh, by the way, what I do
want to mention this if for some reason today, well Saturday,

(05:14):
and if you're in Houston, and if you want to
celebrate Marti Gras and you don't want to hit Marty
gra Galveston, there is a big Marti Gras part hey,
and I'm talking big stuff and it is crawfish, potato, sausage, corn,
perfect for the season in the weather. It's a big
family affair. It's at Patterson Park. Patterson Park. It is

(05:37):
a it's an indoor outdoor massive bar, and I don't
want to call it a sports bar, even though they
have like forty plus TVs. I hung out there a
lot in December to watch a lot of the foot
college football games and the bowls, the UT games, starting
at twelve o'clock. Spicy crawfish nine dollars a pound. That's
pretty good. And you got you know, as I said, potatoes,

(05:57):
sausage and corn, big music, Bring the kids. They have
complimentary face painting from two to four pm in the afternoon,
and you can you know they're gonna paint the character
favorite Marty GK characters. And there's just a fun atmosphere too.
There's a lot of traditional New Orleans drinks, the Hurricane,
the Dakri, the sazaraq Go Celebrate twenty two oh five

(06:18):
Patterson Avenue. So it's on it ten, not far from
downtown the Heights area, just near Shepherd if you know
where that is, it's a Patterson It's just just north
of By ten. And so Lonnie Schiller and the team
do a just they do a great job. So happy
Marty Grass from Patterson Park. But I actually may run
by there. I won't get there at twelve, but I may.

(06:39):
I may buy there, but run by there. I'm gonna
do a two for I may do a drive by
at Patterson Park Marti Gras party, and then I'm gonna
go on site to NRG Center for the World Championship
Barbecue Cookoff contest. This is just not it's not a
local week people. It's fun, it's all get out, man,
but it's just it's just not a low cow week.
Favorite barbecue restaurants, favorite barbecue recipes. Let's talk about it.

(07:02):
I told you this isn't just about a tech show.
His a lifestyle show. Three four six two nine T
E X A N. No matter where you are, you
can get to us. I will say this. I this
past week has been kind of sad. Some sad news.
We've I heard that the Pope is not doing well,

(07:24):
has some some sort of a respiratory respiratory illness. He
was on a he was you know, helped being you know,
on a brief breathalyzer breathalyzer, but anyway, it was a
breathing apparatus. So the Pope, we hope he does well.
The Pope is kind of down for the count for
a bit, as so as pop And I'm talking about
Greg Popovich, the San Antonio Spurs legendary basketball coach. He's

(07:47):
not coach for the rest of a season because he's
not doing well. But the worst of the news that
I heard Hooters may file for bankruptcy, and folks, I
am beyond myself. I'm just it's I can't even take it.
So we've got the Pope, we've got pop, and we've
got puffers all in the Newspeople. Yeah, I was telling me,

(08:07):
I listen, I like Hooters easily, some of the better
wings I've ever had. And I am you know what,
this is not a dude saying this. I don't care
if the male general This is not an endorsement. By
the way, it's that Hooters does not pay me. And
I have not been to Hooters in a while, but
back in the day when I used to take my
three boys there for their birthdays. I am not kidding him.

(08:27):
I love their wings. I don't care if the male
general manager, who is a dude, I don't care if
he served me wings. I didn't need any. But you know,
females in the short dolphin shorts, this is no sexist thing.
Whenever they had some dang good wings, they had the
Bentley wings in fear that that was the hot wings.
I love this stuff. Man. How was the place to be?
How are they bankruptcy? I told my kids because they
all sent me links. Oh my godness, remember we went

(08:49):
here for our birthdays. They're frolling for bankruptcyes. A bankruptcy
doesn't necessarily mean they're going to shut down. They can reorganize. Actually,
I guess it's kind of a boot lift, is reorganizing.
We've got to keep this show clean, very clean. People.
You know the number. When we come back, I'm got
to tell you. I saw I'm going to tell you
about the new Alexa update. If you do have an

(09:11):
Alexa and you use it, and I'm just probably setting
off every single one of your Alexa machines in your
house right now, I apologize. If you do have that
virtual assistant, I will tell you what Amazon to just
update it. There is a cost, but there is a
free way to get these upgrades. But there's also some
whole devices that are not going to get this upgrade.

(09:33):
Plus the NFL getting ready to get into my technology world.
The NFL just announce they're using some new tech next season.
Can't wait to tell you about that. And I just
hope it helps the cowboys. That's all I really care about.
Michael Garfield, Welcome to the High Tech Text and Show.

(10:12):
If you were watching the Oscars this Sunday night, I've
long watched the Oscars, not nearly as much as I
did when I used to go to the movies when
I was growing up so much. I mean, I've watched
it because the problem is, I of all the Oscar
movies that are nominated for Best Pick, they may not
have seen one of them. I don't think I didn't

(10:32):
see a wicked I didn't see any of this stuff. Nope,
I haven't done all.

Speaker 4 (10:35):
I know.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
I had Sunday Night Conan O'Brien, pretty funny. It's hosting
the Oscars, and listen, I love him saying and hosting.
I do that. It's a big part of what I do.
Good business model for me. I travel the country, give
me a microphone, put me on camera, whatever it is.
My job is to fire people up, keep things on time,

(10:57):
stretch when I need to stretch. I don't know if
I do the Oscars, because that's like a no win situation.
I mean, other than the fact that maybe in our life,
in my life, well it's my life's I'm Billy Crystal Long.
I mean, he killed it back in the day and
he said, you know what, I don't want to do
it anymore. Bob Hope, I believe is the longest. He's

(11:18):
done it more than anybody else. Billy Crystal did it well,
but they keep rotating. I mean, I like Jimmy Kimmel,
but I mean I'm a Conan fan, so I'll probably
tune in for at least a monologue to see what's up.
But I guess what I'll, you know, go online on
my Instagram and I'll see the highlights later. Which is
how more and more that we are consuming. I saw
this list every Oscar Best Picture winner ranked. I'm just

(11:41):
gonna spend a minute of this. There have been ninety
six Oscar Best Picture winners. Obviously this is I guess
this is the ninety seventh Oscar, right ninety seven. I'm
perusing this list, and I'm gonna give you the top ten,
and I want to see how many of the top
ten of the I don't even know voter. The best
overall Best Picture winner is number ten. One Flew Over

(12:06):
the Cuckoo's Nest, Never seen it? Number nine Godfather Part Two,
Never seen it. Eight Silence of the Lambs. I actually
did see Silence of Lambs, don't remember it too much.
Seven French Connection. Interestingly enough, Rest in peace, Gene Hackman Popeye,
Doe passed away this week, horrible story, French Connection. Number seven.

(12:26):
Number six rock Me Amadaeis. Never saw that was nineteen
eighty four. I was in high school then I didn't.
Actually I was in college. I didn't understand it, didn't
want to see it. Number five a nineteen fifty movie
All about Eve. Nope, don't dig Black and White. Number
four on the water Front, also nineteen fifty four. Marlon Brando, Nope,
never seen it. Three Here we Go, Shindler's List saw it.

(12:49):
Sad Spielberg won the Oscar Good Friend two Casablanca. I
saw it because I had to when I was studying radio,
TV and film in my communications graduate program at the
University of Texas. Had to see it. And number one,
the number one most the best ever of all ninety

(13:11):
six previous Best Picture winners, The Godfather and Folks. If
you're a longtime listener, I've never seen it. Do not call,
do not yell, Do not at me. I've just never
seen The Godfather. I just I've never was a a mafia, gangster,
shoot them up type of dude. Never seen it. All right,

(13:34):
I just lost some listeners. We move on to the
high tech textan show I am going to ask my
Amazon Echo to count down. I can't c is it
a her? I guess Alex is or her her favorite
top ten movies this year? Because Alexa has a new update.

(13:54):
I don't talk about Amazon a lot, and I don't
talk about Amazon Alexa. What is your favorite virtually assistant?
Because there's Apple has SERI, Samsung has big Speed. You
know Google's got Google Mast And I just set off
my Google by saying that Amazon's got Alexa. I mean,
it just goes on and on it does. Alexa was

(14:14):
one of the if not even the the big, the big,
first to market once and Alexa has been around. Well,
guess what Amazon They finally rolled out and upgrade is
a new generation. They had a big event which Amazon
did not invite me to. It's a next generation of
the assistants and it's powered by guess what, generative AI,

(14:35):
and the company's promising a smarter, more conversational, and approachable
virtual assistant. I don't know how a virtual assistant could
be approachable. I don't know. It's the new generation. It's
called Alexa Plus. And and again I'm reading this in
a press release since I haven't I didn't go into

(14:56):
the New York press conference. Apparently you can book dinner reservations,
you could say, reminders on your calendar. You can order
and send gifts to people. You can learn your routine
likes and dislikes over time to better serve you and
everybody else in your household. Makes sense? I mean, I
guess it's an upgrade because everybody needs to hop on

(15:17):
the AI bandwagon. But hasn't. Hasn't this Alexa help set
reminders on your calendar? I mean maybe they haven't done
dinner reservations. They can have, you know, nearby restaurants, So
I mean, I guess there's an upgrade. I haven't tried
it yet, but apparently can also control your smart home.
It could monitor your security cams. It could dim your lights,

(15:40):
turn them on and turn it off again. I'm reading
from a press release. Haven't tried it, so I cannot
review it, and I can't promote it, and I can't
pimp it. But Alexa plus. Oh, by the way, everybody
wants to make some money twenty dollars a month? Would
you pay for this upgrade? Twenty bucks a month to
do that? But breaking news if you're a prime Amazon

(16:03):
prime member, and I'm taking a guess you are. It's free.
It's gonna start to roll out next month. And the
other thing is it doesn't it doesn't work with older devices.
I have one two. I think I have two Amazon devices.

(16:25):
I have a very relatively old and I say relatively
it's not very old. I mean it hasn't been out
that long, a relatively old Amazon Echo Dot. It's the
size of hockey puck. Thing was like twenty five bones.
That was the thing to do. Thing to get it was.
It was relative, it was very and it's inexpensive back
in the day, and I think that was my first
virtual assistant. It's sitting in my living room and I

(16:47):
just don't use it because I also have a Google
Nest sitting on my kitchen counter and I use that
not only daily, several times a day. I mean I
use it as a clock. I play music, and I
get my recipes and everything with it. But it but
it's not going to work with the first generation Echo
Echo Dot at Go Plus at Go Tap, Echo Spot

(17:08):
or the Echo Show. Oh guess what. The second generation
Echo Show won't support it either. Now there still are
many Echo devices that apparently are going to work with
this new exo. Plus there's something new called the echo flex.
No clue what that is. But if you got this
stuff at some point, start looking for this thing. And
if you do use it, I'd love to hear from

(17:29):
you because it is. Yes, I host this radio show,
and I do my TV segments, and I write columns,
and you know, I recommend products and services that are
supposed to help our lives. Does AI help your lives?
Have you used it before? I'm slowly using it a
little bit more. I mean I've had some fun with it.
It's like, hey, can you know you give me an

(17:50):
image of Darth Vader holding a hanukah menora. I mean,
just you know, crazy stuff like that. I don't really
use it of writing presentations or you know, doing calendar
invites or things. But give me a shout here three
four six two nine Texan t X and Michael Garfield's
a name, Calum Reid. May pick up the phone, may
not if he doesn't leave a voicemail. We do have

(18:13):
the right to play your voicemail if you do leave
a voicemail to answer your questions. But there's a lot
of these and uh, personally and again not a paid endorsement.
I'm more of a Google guy, a big Android fan,
as you know, and I have one too. I mean,
I've got the doorbell, I've got the Google Nest doorbell.
I've got the Google list of my kitchen. I've got

(18:34):
the Google little play speaker next to my bed. I
just I've got a little tiny hockey puck type of
Google whatever they think call it in my office. I
just that's what I use more often. I don't know,
maybe I'm brand loyal, but you use what you want
to use. I'm just telling you what is out there
and what is an upgrade, because that's what I do
here on the H T T Show. All right, good

(18:57):
do that now when we come back. Who missus football season? Man?
These these six months, man, like mid February till like
mid to late August. This is not my wheelhouse. I mean,
I just it's it's kind of like you know winter.
Everbody gets depressed sometimes when there is no football college professional,
and you know, listen, yay XFL USFL whatever it's called.

(19:20):
It's you know, I'm not there yet, nothing's happening, so
the countdown is on. But yeah, I know, we've got
the combine and we've got the draft coming up. But
the NFL just launched some news that actually they should
had me up with Roger Goodell to roll it out
because the NFL is using some new technology next season.
Watch a lot of you when you hear a Ye're
gonna go finally, it's just opray help us. My Dallas

(19:43):
commedis that Texan show bought up the hour.

Speaker 4 (19:45):
Couple that.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
And now I already said earlier this show that this
is a not a lo cow week, at least for me.
This past Sunday, I was at the kickoff for Rodeo Houston.
Probably what my nineteenth twentieth year. I was one of
the media celebrity judges in the Rodeo uncorked Best Bites.
That's a big one people. There were six thousand people.

(20:34):
It wasn't It wasn't a cheap ticket, but if they're
going to invite me to judge, I'm taking it. One
hundred local Houston restaurants and about four hundred and fifty
or five hundred different wines award winning wines. I don't
drink wine, so that wasn't a big deal, but it
was it was nice snacking on about I probably sampled
thirty five different appetizers andres and desserts. Really cool winners.
That was fun. Yesterday, Friday of this week, I was

(20:57):
a judge at the Rodeo Houston Junior cook Off, a
little you know, twelve thirteen year old kids. They were
cooking filets and steaks. Today after the show, I will
be judging the official barbecue as I got. But on
top of that, I'm still going to talk about food.
If you are hungry, my friends, I will tell you
where I eat easily over under two and a half

(21:18):
times per week, per week. Cabo Bob's Easy and Easy Out.
Four locations in Houston, mini in Austin, one in San Antonio, Dallas.
I know you're listening in Dallas on eleven ninety talk radio.
Sucks for you because you don't have any yet, But
it's great. Arnold Lori I know them. They run the
entire division here in Houston. They are so good. You

(21:38):
go through the line and you can tell them what
you want to make your own tacos, burrito bowls, casadillas.
I had a can of chicken casadea I've made. Oh,
they're so good. Thing I love about is they're tortillas.
It's not like you know you go to these restaurants. Oh,
here's one flavor of tortilla. You got five choices, everything
from the tomatillo to the buttermilk flour. Tell them what

(21:59):
you want and you will watch them press the tortilla
and heat the tortilla and you just load it up.
Uh checked that out. And by the way, why don't
I'll tell you what. Call it number ten right now
seven one three, two one two five nine five Oho
caller ten. I'm gonna give you a twenty five dollars
gift card. You are welcome people, and if you don't win,
sucks for you. Go buy your own because it is good.

(22:21):
It's not that expensive either. Lunchtime, man, they get crowded.
I've been to all for the locations here in the
Houston area. They are just it is just smoking awesome,
good Cobo Bob's twenty five dollars gift card. Eat is
up for you right up. Guess what app stop calling
we gotta winner? When I went, I lunch dinner, chicken dinner,
whatever you want, so good, just just and the staff
is so nice and they just they know how to

(22:43):
do it. Well. Man, there's a lot of food talk
this week. We gotta we gotta keep going because it
is time to talk about one of my favorite subjects,
the NFL. Love football, Miss football. Can't wait till August.
Just not into baseball yet, only in the playoffs, which
is actually during football season. NBA again when he gets

(23:06):
to kind of the playoffs hockey. No clue about hockey
because I'm a Texas boy. Even though I did watch
the USA Canada final match in that four Nations tournament.
That was pretty cool. Sadly Canada beat the United States,
but that was a big deal. Let's get back to
the NFL. NFIL has been criticized a long time for
not really utilizing a lot of technology, especially when it

(23:27):
comes to first downs, because it's long been used the
low tech, old fashioned away where two umpires are easily
twenty to twenty five yards away holding sticks and an
actual metal chain that is ten yards and generally the

(23:48):
referees used their eyesight. Where do they think the ball
made its forward progress? Stop? It's just not there. Well
guess what. Goodbye chain gang, Hello high tech Texan and
FL technology. They are finally making a twenty first century
approach to this new first down measurement system starting next year.

(24:10):
All right, they are going with the technology tracking system
and it starts this coming season two. It's going to
be called the Hawk Eye Virtual measurement and that is
going to determine the line to gain and it's going
to be the primary method for measurements now that the
chain gang, those dudes who hold the chain, they're still

(24:33):
going to be there as of now, they're the backup. Oh,
by the way, secondary method determined distance. So instead of
bringing out the change, this league is going to go
with a virtual measurement and it's a system. It's going
to work with cameras that are inside the stadium, the
track players and the officials and the ball they dig it.
And I'm telling you right now, there are going to

(24:56):
be issues now. They have tested this the Hawkeye system.
They did a lot of testing of this that you
didn't know about this past season. I hope it improves
the game. I hope it makes it more efficient. Is
it going to slow it down? Technically? It should speed
it up a smidch because every time there's a very

(25:17):
close down, you don't have to have the Chang gang
run twenty yards, stretch the chain out, have the ref
sitting there and look, oh he made it by half
an inch. Changgang runs off if it worked seamlessly and
quickly Boom called it first down and line up again,
play the ball. NFL fans want this, and it's the

(25:40):
twenty first century. It is about time. There has been
some major controversial calls over the years, and including a
few months ago in the playoffs. In the twenty twenty
four playoffs, it was an AFC championship game. It was
the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills. They remember this.
It was a fourth quarter. Bills were up twenty two

(26:01):
to twenty one. They decided to go for it. Josh
Allen quarterback snake. He attempted it. It looks like he made.
It looks like he made it wasn't definitive and they
did refereece it. Nah, Nope, Kansas City got the ball,
Kansas City went down, scored a touchdown, Kansas City won
the game, Kansas City went to the super Bowl. I'm
happy about this. Now we can look at it and again,

(26:23):
I'm a sports guy, and I gotta talk about this
all day. We've got virtual umpires. Also, I know the
minor leagues has tested the virtual umpires. Is it going
to happen in Major League Baseball. I'm not one for
people losing their jobs without a doubt. I don't want umpires.
It's you know, I don't want, you know, the chain
gang to lose their job. Umpires will always be there

(26:45):
because if it's not to call balls and strikes, it's
to keep peace on that ball field, it's to keep
peace on the diamond because there have been fights, there's whatever,
and there's there's other things that umpires do not even
the the homeplay umpire. You got the first, second or
third base umpire, They're going to be there. They're like

(27:06):
the on field. I mean, they control things right in
the referees on football, they've got to wind the clock down.
But if you have to look at one sport that
has utilized and kept up with technology better than others
and people feel correct me if I'm wrong. First thing

(27:27):
that comes to mind is tennis, because tennis has used
the Hawkeye system. And if you ever watch tennis, and
really the only time you're watching tennis, probably are the
only four major tennis tournaments, and then probably you don't
watch a lot of the Australian tennis tournament because it's
usually in January that you forget that it's tennis season.
It's in Australia, so the time zone is just horrific

(27:49):
here in the United States, and it's also in the
middle of football season. But come US Open, come Wimbledon,
and come to French Open and some extent if you
like that stuff. You will see if one of the
tennis players challenges a call, and in a lot of
the times it's on the serve, but you know also
the baseline too, they will quickly on the big scoreboard

(28:12):
for everyone to see the umpire who sits right there
at the net, the players and all of the fans
in the stadium. They will show an animated cartoonish slow
motion replay of where that tennis ball bounces, and it
bounces and they put a spot shadow and if it
touches the line, if it's beyond the line, boom and

(28:34):
it's accepted. Now I'm not sure if the players that
can then get ticked off and recall that again, but
the hawkeye technology seems to work in tennis one hundred
percent of the time now. But with cameras with trackability,
there's no reason that sports, which is a multi multi

(28:57):
billion dollar industry that literally drives EV revenues, ratings and
how much sadly we have to pay all of our
cable bills or whatever like that because those those rights
continue to go up. They have to get these calls right.
So yes, let's go back as we end this segment

(29:17):
over here, NFL good luck. I hope it does work.
I hope it speeds it up because the Cowboys haven't
been in three decades to a Super Bowl. Maybe did
they need some luck. Maybe it is tech because the
lass when the Cowboys first won their Super Bowl super
Bowl six, it was a Gil Brandt. He utilized he

(29:39):
utilized technology in your computer as they for drafting players.
So maybe the Cowboys do like technology. This is me,
mister Cowboy fan. What am I going to do? One
more segment this hour? Don't go anywhere if you want
to chime in. I'm at three four, six fifty nine
techs in Michael is the name.

Speaker 5 (29:54):
I'm being High Tech tex And Show.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
I know six or seven minutes of this first hour
of the High Tech Texan Show. Happy Weekend, first weekend
in March March, first March fourth, which that's that's actually
a full sentence right March fourth March. First you go, period,
it's one of the shorter sentences in the history of
actually sentences. That's me not knowing a lot of grammar.
I'm more of a mathematics type of guy. Mathematics. That's numbers.

(30:41):
That's a phone number, three, four, six, nine T E
X A N. That's how you going to get to
me if you have questions, answers, comments here on this
long running show. Big Hello. Shout out to everybody listening
in and around the Houston area over the air on
k PRC nine fifty am, Am, folks, that's amplitude modulation.
You know, it's where talk radio generally is found. News

(31:03):
Radio twelve one hundred WOAI that's got a big fifty thousand,
while Blowtorch that's in San Antonio and up in Dallas,
Big d my hometown, the Mighty Mighty eleven ninety, Talk
Radio eleven ninety. You can also listen to us on
the iHeartRadio app. Anytime podcast will go up bunch, the
show is ova. Just look for my name, Michael Garfield.

(31:24):
That's what you need to do. And I hope we
continue to do the show as long as we can.
Unless an asteroid out of the blue hits Mother Earth.
I joke because I've watched the movie Armageddon dozens and
dozens of times. Yes, this is the same guy who
earlier in the show talked about the oscars, which will

(31:47):
be this Sunday night. And I just listed the top
ten best picture movies in the history of the ninety
six years. Somebody ranked them, and I've seen two of them.
I don't see a lot of movies, but dang, if
Armageddon done, come on and there's Bruce Willison, Ben Affleck
and Billy Bob Thornton, and this asteroid is getting ready

(32:09):
to hit Earth. And then they have to launch not one,
but two space shuttles and the land on an asteroid
to you know, implant the bomb eight hundred feet depth
down so it explodes and shatters into two and then
the asteroid barely misses the Earth. Yes, this is It's
a Michael Bay movie. Without a doubt. This actually potentially

(32:29):
could have or may still happen in real life. I
don't know if you heard this story, but for the
past month or two, NASA and I think the European
Space Agency they've been tracking an asteroid that they say
could do just that they could hit Earth in twenty
thirty two. Twenty thirty two, so stand by seven years
from now. But they gave it the odds of about

(32:52):
three percent, the highest odds three percent. Well, apparently I
don't know this people in NASA. They were off by
a lot. NASA now has lowered the odds to point
zero zero one, meaning this asteroid probably is gonna safely
pass the Earth in twenty thirty two and there's no
threat of impact for the next century. That's no fun, man,

(33:16):
That's not a plot of a movie. Now. There needs
to be a threat. There needs to be a good
love song thing with and a hot chick like Livdiler.
This is an asteroid missing Earth is just that's not sexy. Man.
Give us something to look forward to, something for NASA,
so we can start funding NASA a little bit more.

(33:39):
Hey man, we need some oil drillers. Oh you know,
you know, get out there. It's just that that Nope,
not gonna do it. Oh, by the way, there is
a one point seven percent chance that asteroid could hit
the Moon. I mean it's better than heading Earth. I mean,
what's the moon do? I mean? I know it affects

(34:00):
that our water and our tides and stuff, and you know,
you look up there and it looks like, you know,
there's some cheese or something, but whatever. No, So we're
going to be tracking this thing. You know, it will
be cool because I'm talking about percentages over here. How
I'm going to Vegas in two and a half, two
weeks from now. It's my annual March Madness trip. I
go every single year every year in the first weekend

(34:20):
of March Madness. And I you know, I can bet
future odds. I mean, I can bet, you know, who's
gonna win the Super Bowl, who's gonna win the World Series,
the NBA, you know, a year from now. Whatever. Do
you think a sports book can actually have will and
asteroid hit Earth? Because if it's a high percentage, and
if it hits Earth, odds are we're all gonna be

(34:40):
dead and no one's gonna collect the money. I mean,
if you think about it, it's pretty smart. Like I play,
I have, I have the app. This is I have
an app Friese Picks. You ever tried it? Because it's
I mean, you could. In Texas, gambling or betting. Some
betting is not legal. Legal. Prize Picks is legal. I
need to go they should have Will an asteroid hit

(35:02):
in the payoffice seven years from right now? I don't know.
I need to talk to the prize picks people, some
of Mike. That's your science and technology update as this
show is heard across Houston and Galveston, which does include
the Clear Lake area down south of Houston, which is
the headquarters of NASA and everything. If some of you
rocket scientists have want a way in love to hear

(35:22):
from you, appreciate all you you know, smart women and
men do of triangulating and trifixating and whatever. Now had
figured out that there's a point zero zero zero one
seven percent chance of that asteroid hitting us, good for you?
Why why did you start at three percent went down
to one percent? Did all of a sudden about a

(35:44):
month and a half, did the asteroid get that more
close to Earth so you could actually lower the odds?
Talk to me NASA three four six twenty nine Texan.
And by the way, why did you discontinued the vomit comment?
I got the go oh in the vomit commet the
weightless zero gravity airplane that was retrofitted from what was

(36:07):
at a CAC one thirty five years and years ago
as a I'm not gonna call myself a journalist, but
as a media personality, I was up there doing a story.
But anyway, I went through training and zero gravity and
the hyperlic Barrick Chamber and all that. I actually got
to float in zero gravity. And yes, my hair actually
does float in gravity. It's pretty fun. So anyway, big
fan of NASA. Big if you're visiting, you can go

(36:30):
see Space Center. Pretty cool stuff. Always wanted to be
a I don't know where I'm going with this, but
when I was a kid, kids sit back. I got
about a minute. Let me just go ahead and kill
the rest of this segment. I used to take my
lunches to school. My mother, who's listening right now, probably nah,
she ain't listening. She's sleeping. She's in Dallas. She used
to pack my lunches. And back then we had lunchboxes,

(36:53):
not brown bags like I put my kids lunches in. No,
we had lunchbox and they were metal lunch boxes and
they had everything wrapped on them. There were Saturday Morning
cartoons and my favorite one was I ten eleven years old,
whatever it was, I had a NASA astronaut themed lunch kit.
Raise your hand. If you're with me, give me a call.

(37:15):
Let's reminisce it. And inside there was how smart we're
lunchbox companies of putting blass lined thermaces in there, so
she would put I don't know, hang kool aid or something.
She would chill it. And it was glass because that's
what kept it cold before. I guess. Yet he created

(37:36):
this thing years and years later with it with the metal.
That's really smart. Let's shout out the glass over there.
But anyway, I had this who didn't want if you
were born like in the seventies or something, right when
you'd be a hollow you know, missions were here and
I'm not. I'm just I'm speaking for boys and males
because I don't know if they want female astronauts back then,
if there should have been I know there where they
are now? Yeah yah yeah serious something. And we just

(37:58):
wanted to be an astronaut. I mean, how cool? How
cool is that? Man? And I just now we can
because it's all private, cize right now, what are you
gonna do? Uh? This is this is what we do.
I have one more hour of just having some fun
and playing. When we've come back, I'm actually gonna give
you more partner than news if you're ready to cut
the cord. More streaming opportunities and packages are coming out.

(38:20):
Ices are being raised, but I found some that are
actually a little cheaper than others. And plus, good news
for Houston. Apple is coming to the city to open
a big factory here. It's actually good news bad news.
I'm not we'll figure that out. Michael Garfield, it's the
high Tech Taxi Show. Is Michael Garfield.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
Michael Garfield. Michael Garfield's joining.

Speaker 3 (38:52):
The high Tech Texan.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
Michael Garfield is here with a high tech Texan technology.
Michael Garfield has something you might want. Michael Garfield is
your high Tech Texas. Three decades helping you make magic

(39:15):
with your gadgets occurred worldwide on the Iheartwaredio Act. Now
you're high Tech Texas. Michael Garfield.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Our number two halfway through the show, which means we
are a halfway to happy Hour. And by the way,
if you're anywhere near in Southeast Texas, Houston, Galveston Happy
Hour has been under way for a while. This is
the final Saturday, the final day of the World Championship
Barbecue Contest. Just right around the entire NRG Stadium in

(39:54):
RG Center areas. Houston Rodeo kicks off for early next week,
and it's if you drive by that area of town,
there's this wath of smoke, of barbecue smoke, because teams
from all over the world hence the World's Championship Barbecue Contest,
have been out there by their pits smoking that beautiful

(40:15):
meat chicken and ribs for the past week or so
the contest. I actually will be one of the celebrity
judges in the contest later Saturday, so I'm actually excited
about that. That is pretty cool. But anyway, that the
point is the barbecue contest. There's a lot of cocktails
going on. People have probably I mean, no one ever
should drink and drive it, and I'm not saying they do,

(40:37):
but they took breathalyzers that they may blow a little
bit more than a point zero zero zero zero. So
happy hours in full effect. And also a little further
down south in Galveuston, this is I think the last
day of the Marty Gras Festival Marty Gras Parades and think, oh,
actually maybe one more week. No, I think this is it. Yeah,
big Marti Gras Festival and parade that is happening on

(40:58):
Saturday too, and Marti Gras is anonymous with beads and
maybe some cocktails, maybe some cocktails. I have been down there.
Speaking of which, Big Martin, I know where there are
some cocktails, and I know where there's a big party Saturday.
And as we do, the show live plasitively live right now.
If you're in and around the h Town area in Houston,

(41:20):
check out Patterson Park. Patterson Park. It's a great sports bar.
It's I mean, I call it a sports bar. They
have TV's there, but it's this massive wood inside outside.
Yes they got air condition Yes they got TVs. What this, Matt.
I love the bars like an inside outside bar. You're
having a Marti Gras party starting right now, twelve o'clock.

(41:43):
They've got spicy crawfish nine bucks a pound. I think
that's a pretty good deal. And it's got the corn,
the sausage, potatoes. It's great weather, and bring the kids too.
From two to four there is face painting, so you
can I guess, I guess Marty Grass like porn, right,
you know you can select. You know, they could make
it just up like Hayman or something. A lot of

(42:04):
fun atmosphere and they got cocktails too. By the way,
sazaraq dak Or Hurricanes. It's at twenty two five Patterson Avenue,
which is about itenan Shepherd area not too far from
downtown right, So between the gallery area and downtown you
can go check out a Patterson Park patio bar. So
say I do a Kyla and Lannie and everybody else.

(42:27):
I don't know, man, I'm gonna hang up the microphone
here and in fifteen minutes or so, and baby, I'll
just roll over there before I roll down to Energy
Bark and have some barbecue. We have talked a lot
about food, and I guess we probably should get in
a little technology, a little consumer lifestyle things. What's Michael
driving this week? You know I do get to test
drive one to two cars every single week, and vehicles

(42:49):
I was people, I know, do I know you're jealous?
I was in a sexy minivan this week? People, That's right,
the twenty twenty five Kia Carnival Carnival. Nothing cooler than
a minivan. And at least twenty years ago when I
had three younger kids. Now they're older, and now they
are asking me why I'm driving a minivan because I

(43:10):
do this for a living. It is my job to
talk about, review, recommend or dis vehicles and it's not
sponsored Keith Carnival. That's one I was. I Also I
had another one. I was in a Masda c X seventy.
Mazda c X seventy. I haven't been the biggest fan
of Mazda over the years, but this wasn't good. It's
a it's a suv. It's you know, it's got two rows,

(43:34):
the seats full down, and it's pretty good drive. It's
a lot, very roomy. I will tell you that. I'm
just not a big fan of the way Mazda does
it's infotainment system. But again, I'm picky, but I'm supposed
to be picky. I'm supposed to be picky. Phone number
here if you want to get in it is three
four six twenty nine Texan three four six two nine
g E X A N and UH. I mentioned the

(43:57):
Houston area. Big news in Houston, it's big news. I
rarely talk about Apple. I'm not an Apple fanboy. I
do not have an iPhone. I'm an Android guy. However,
not that I'm going to change or baby, but Apple
is building a big ol' mama two hundred and fifty

(44:20):
thousand square foot AI server manufacturing facility in h Town.
It's gonna open in twenty twenty six. Maybe you don't
know what they're gonna do, depending on what's happening with
the economy. And it's part of a five hundred billion
dollar investment in the US half a trillion. I guess

(44:43):
it does half five hundred billion dollars in the US
over the next four years. And apparently in addition to
this new texta facility, Apples said it's going to plan
to hire around twenty thousand employees across the US over
that period. We'll see, we'll see, hope. So I mean,
I'm really personally sick and tired of this company laying
people off, and then the government and laying people off

(45:04):
and firing into it. It's great to hear somebody, some
company at least send out a press release to say
they're going to hire people now freaking do it. Then
maybe I'll talk about Apple some more. Not that Apple
has gone back on its word before. I'm just saying good,
welcome to Houston. In twenty twenty six, two hundred fifty
thousand square foot So they're going to manufacture servers, manufacturer

(45:29):
service for the Apple, intelligence for the iPhone, the iPad,
the Mac computers. So okay, So there's gonna be new
jobs and whatever in Texas. So okay, I can dig that.
I just thought that that was worth mentioning because we
need some good news what's going on with the economy.
We just it's some good and so as for Houston

(45:50):
Base and I used it has long been my flagship station,
KPRC nine to fifty AM, and iHeartRadio, so good. If
I hear of anything, any job openings, I will let
you know. And maybe I don't know, maybe they're hiring.
Maybe I could do something from Monday through Friday instead
of just working on the weekends. Oh one other thing,

(46:12):
you know what, Okay, I'll get my Apple one bad Apple,
don't spoil the whole arm. I'll get my Apple information
out of here. Apple AirTag, I don't have any of
those either. I have other trackers, Bluetooth trackers. But American
Airlines just improved its bag tracking system if you fly

(46:32):
American because they're working with Apple air Tag. They've been
ound support for Apples. It's called Share Item Location feature
and it's going to make things easier for passengers to
I guess find reunite with their lost luggage that you
track with an air tag. Last year, American Discamp be right,

(46:53):
the airline. Okay, the airline transported two hundred and twenty
six million passengers. There was the busiest, one of the
largest carriers here in the US. I'm trying to see
if they could tell me how many bags were lost.
Of course they didn't put that in the information over here.
By anyway, there's this share item location. It actually was
introduced in the Apple AirTags last December with its latest

(47:14):
iOS update eighteen point two. So if you're an AirTag user,
you're able to generate a shareable link within Apple's find
My app if you have an iPhone, an iPad, or
some max and that's going to allow others to access
and interactive mapp showing the location or at least the
last known location of a missing item. So I did that, okay. Now,

(47:37):
United Delta Air Canada, I think they've also integrated this too.
American Texas Space Carrier, which I like to also LFTANSA.
I think I've done it. Virgin. I think they now
they're good to support it too. Come on Southwest, you
know I'm a Southwest guy. You need to make sure
your WiFi is faster. I appreciate the two drinks as
an a list preferred. Let's go, man, find my luggage

(48:00):
deck because you know what, not one but two bags
fly free. By the way, there's your technology news of
the day when it comes to airlines. When we come back,
did you cut the cord? Did you cut the cord?
Who wants streaming TV? All right, I'll tell you about
some packages. There were just a launch that some prices
are raised, some actually were lowered. I like this. And
also CBS, look at them. They're getting customer friendly. They're

(48:23):
doing something that I always thought was a head scratcher
back in the day.

Speaker 5 (48:28):
I'll tell you what that is.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
Coming up to do right now on the high Den
text show'd a weekend.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
Wherever you're listening, and also however you're listening, if you
are old school, I don't know, maybe a new kid
on the bloc who just discovered AM radio. We thank
you for doing that. If you're listening terrestrially in Houston
KPRC nine fifty a, m WAI twelve hundred, San Antonio

(49:14):
and then Dallas. What's up Big d eleven ninety, the
Mighty Mighty eleven ninety. My parents may be listening be
eleven ninety. I mean they should be awake by now.
I mean, come on, people, they know, I mean they
sleep late, but not this late. Michael is the name
Michael Garfield. If you happen to be in the Houston area,
I've been kind of telling you what's been going on.
We've got the World Championship barbecue contests coming to an

(49:37):
end on Saturday. That's been going on for three days
I think to Saturday's also the last day for Big
Marty Grock Galvison going on in Galveston. If you got
if there's some big things going on in San Antonio
and Dallas, don't hesitate, pop me a note. Michael at
high Tech Texan dot com. Also, I know on the
north side. Actually, I'll tell you what. Hey, Dallas, South Dallas,

(49:58):
I mean way South Dallas in Montgomery County up near
the Woodlands. That's a stretch I know north North Houston
will both. It's the Montgomery County Home and Outdoor Living
show that's happening all this weekend. It's at the Lone
Stark Convention and Expo Center. It's actually in Conroad, not
too far off of I forty five going there, and

(50:23):
you could see I used to broadcast my show from
a lot of those home and garden shows and outdoor shows.
Those are fun. I mean, you got gardening, you've got
home improvements and kitchens and closets and windows and roofs
and bathrooms and outdoor living. Go check it out. You
can just google it. Montgomery County Home and Outdoor Living

(50:44):
Show seventh year. It is that the loan just it's
the lone Star Convention and Expo Center, open to six
o'clock on Saturday, March first, and then Sunday goes to
five pm March second. And oh, by the way, it's
free admission, free admission. We like fre so again just
giving you. I'm giving you things to do, so you

(51:06):
could twiddle your thumbs and countdown to the Oscars on
Sunday night, which I don't know how many people are watching.
I don't know. I'll tune in for the Conern O'Brien
factor and that that may be about it. If you
watch the Oscars, there are several ways to watch it.
You probably pay an arm and a leg for cable,
but because it's on ABC, you can watch it free

(51:27):
because I I long told you no matter where you are,
there is free over the air networks. That just like
I don't know when a lot of us grew up
in the seventies or whatever, there was no cable.

Speaker 4 (51:40):
Really.

Speaker 1 (51:40):
He just put an antenna on top of your roof
and you got ABC, CBS, NBC, GBS and some UHF channels.
There was no Fox back then. Yeah, man, I really
date myself with that. But nowadays there if you have
a digital antenna, which you can get most anywhere, not
expect twenty bucks whatever and they're not big, you can

(52:02):
put it by your window. You can just just kind
of I would put it by a window and kind
of point it towards where the broadcast tower is in
your city, in which you can find out like an
antenna dot Colm, I think it is antenna dot gov
one of those. What do I uh that that's free too. However,
we're gonna talk about streaming right now. More and more
people they're cutting the cord. More and more people they're

(52:23):
figure they're realizing why did I cut the cord and
why are my prices of cable so high. My Comcast
bill is it's it's it's almost the same as my mortgage.
It's it's horrific, all right. But if you're thinking about
getting streaming TV, I go through this probably once every
two to three weeks. I go through, What do you got?

(52:44):
You got YouTube TV, you got Hulu plus live TV,
there's Swing, there's direct TV, Steam, Steam, there's Fubo, there's Filo,
there's a lot of stuff. Again, that's for the live stuff. Now,
there are other ways to watch TV, like I during
the Super Bowl, I was all Fox was all over it.

(53:05):
There's two B t Ubi in most cases two B.
You're not gonna get live TV. You're gonna get a
ton of channels that have reruns of movies, sitcoms, whatever
it is. But alas it's TV and that you can
get that for free. You can get it for streaming.
But if you want that live TV means you want
to watch the new you want to watch a sporting event,

(53:25):
you want to watch something of that nature ESPN. That's
where youre gonna have to start getting. You know these
these streaming services too, and they're not cheap. YouTube tv
just raised their prices a month ago. Eighty three or
so bones a month. I mean, I remember when they
launched it was thirty five bucks. Oh my, this is phenomenal.

(53:46):
But that's the welcome to the world that we live in.
Everything has to go up, and the rights fees for
these streamers who pay for mostly sports mostly The NFL
NBA signed a multi billion dollar package also with a
lot of it's streaming partners too. These networks have to
pass on these these fees to somebody and it goes

(54:09):
all the way down to us, the little tiny consumers.
So I'll say it. The recommendation is this, go to
these websites of these streamers, go to YouTube TD go
to Hulu plus Live TV and Sling and Direct TV.
Look at the channels they offer, and look at the
different packages they offer because they bundle them together. If

(54:33):
you see a lot of channels that you don't watch,
there's no reason to get that package. If you never
watch sports, you're gonna set yourself a lot of money
because it's sports and the sports rights that costs so
much money. If all you do is you watch your
local news, maybe you don't want you Maybe you want
news channels. Maybe you want to watch your in business
and me see your your your Fox News, You're you're

(54:53):
seeing in whatever it is, Uh, you're AMC or a
few movie channels, go find the package. That's that, there's
no reason to get the entire package. And that's always that,
that's always be fuddled the cable industry. I probably get.
I don't know several hundred cable channels. I watch literally

(55:18):
no more than six channels, and number one, I watch
ESPN ninety two percent of what I'm watching. That's it.
I'll flip through maybe AMC, do I see an Adam
Sandler movie? And but that that's all I get. Why
am I paying so much? It makes no sense? So
you want these bundles? Do you want the bundles? The
loves of it? So that's that's it. So watch the

(55:41):
price you pay. HBO's you know they're getting ready to
start charging, you know, ten dollars extra per month because
you know VR Sports, you know it's in barstool Sports.
They're getting ready to come on. But there's a lot
of them up there. So a quick glance. YouTube TV's
about eighty three bucks, Fubo TV eighty five dollars, Hulu
plus Live TV eighty three dollars. You see there's a

(56:01):
trend here. Direct TV stream seventy dollars and up and
up depending but they have no contract. Though no contract.
I like that. Sling has Sling TV. You can customize
live TV and that starts at forty six dollars up
about forty six dollars up. Let's see, then we get
the free stuff. Two be is free, but you're not

(56:23):
gonna get a lot of live TV plexus free. There
is a Sling but not Sling TV. Sling is free.
And don't forget, by the way, before we get ready
to take a break here, so many of you have
Amazon Prime right because you want things in two days?
Do you realize that not only are you a member

(56:45):
of Amazon Prime so you can shop and you know
you get the two day free shipping and everything you
get Amazon It's act I'm sorry, it's called Prime Video,
which does give you Thursday night NFL football during football season.
It does give you. I think they also stream some
playoff NFL playoff games. They're getting more into sports, and
they have relatively new first run movies or at least

(57:09):
second run movies that comes with Amazon Prime. Don't forget
about that. And also not that I want you to
listen to the music. They also have Amazon Music, but
you should be listening to iHeart music, iHeartRadio app for free.
I'm a company man, so I gotta say that think
before you purchase. And if you purchase and you think
about it and you don't run a contract, cancel the
durn thing, my lips, your ears, do it, people, because

(57:33):
that's what I want you to do. Hey, I mentioned
earlier this hour Apple is moving actually building a warehouse
two hundred and fifty thouand square foot warehouse in Houston
to build an AI server factory in about two years. Well,
guess what there was a I'd like the fact that
more corporate headquarters are moving to our great state. There

(57:53):
is another announcement that a electric vehicle company just announce
its head is moving to Houston. I know there's a
Tesla on the consumer level, there's a Tesla headquarters in
the Austin area. Houston is getting a new headquarters when
it comes to electric vehicles. I will have a one

(58:13):
arm link interview with the president of the company when
we come back on my tech dot show. We are

(58:41):
back at it. It is Michael Guardfield. We wish you
a great weekend no matter where you are listening here Houston, Dallas, Sannatotio,
terrestrially or across the world. And iHeartRadio. We do thank
you for tuning in twenty three years. And it is
my job, Yes, I actually have a job. People, is
to talk inform you, answer your questions, and answer is
about some of the great products of what to buy

(59:03):
with the purchase sometimes what the stay away from, but
also news in the world of tech, automobiles, consumer lifestyle
that is exactly some of the things that I do.
And got some actually good news I want to talk about,
certainly where I am based in Houston. Houston continues to
be one of the largest cities in the country and
it's a hotbed for companies that are moving to town.
And just about what one two weeks ago, we heard

(59:26):
about another company moving to Houston. It's always nice to
steal other companies away from other states. And the company
is called enviro Tech, and I am familiar with this
company and also the CEO because it is an EV company,
but standby ites not so much as a lot of
the evs that I talk about from the consumer level.
It's more of the business stuff and you know when

(59:47):
we talk about you know, the delivery trucks. You know
you see Amazon rolling around and you know they've got
the EV's that is an incredibly big segment. Their headquarters
are going to be here, and so I wanted to
give you a little play by playbook is happening. So
joining me right now for a few minutes. He is
the president of enviro Tech Vehicles. His name is Jason Maddox.
He joins me. Let me start with welcome to he town, brother.

Speaker 6 (01:00:09):
Welcome, Thank you, Michael. This is fun.

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
Okay, Arkansas to Texas. I know you're you've been around
for a while. Welcome Why Texas? Why now?

Speaker 6 (01:00:18):
Well, Arkansas has been good to us. It's a big
we have a big footprint there. But we are looking
for a major metropolitan city to move our headquarters too,
so that we can get some you know, top tier
talent in a big urban city. And it seems like
to me that Houston is becoming that city for transitioning

(01:00:40):
their energy sector into more of a environmentally clean energy
and the logistics hub of America it's becoming. So we're
in the logistics commercial market. It's also we operate with
the gig economy and all this new tech stuff. So
we love Houston. We think it's a great spot.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
Sucks for you Arkansas, right, Oh, I said that you did.
Don't worry about it because Texas is the place to
be in Virotech. You in your company, you're going to
be selling electric delivery vans and electric buses and electric trucks.
Talk about the product line that you're gonna start with.

Speaker 6 (01:01:15):
Yeah, so our product line starts with the heavy duty
commercial vans. So heavy duty is more of your you know,
not your regular van size. That would be the heavier
lift ones over ten fifteen pounds, so it's just bigger
dual axles on the back and can carry a little
bit more cargo. So that's going to be where we

(01:01:37):
have our focus. They don't also have passenger conversion vans
as well. But also the bus. So we're launching our
school bus to a bunch of Texas schools actually under
EPA grant, so that's super exciting. It's under the EPA
Clean Air grant for students in urban cities to have
clean air. And then we're gonna be launching our urban

(01:02:00):
transit bus as well. And then we're going to look
into the future the near future, hopefully on smaller urban
type vehicles that are for cities. So everything that has
to do with logistics and moving businesses forward and the
gig economy, et cetera.

Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
I like it. You know, there is a massive marketplace.
I mean there's the I mean the whole d m
A here, seven plus million people. There's so many companies
that are headquartered here. Do you see Houston as a
market where you're actually going to sell the vehicles? I mean,
do you vision opening a physical showroom maybe the distributorship
here in Houston for Environtech.

Speaker 6 (01:02:34):
Yeah, for sure. That's why one of the big reasons
have pulled us here is we think there's a huge
customer base in the Houston area between all the new
energy Corridor building with lots of employees coming in and
needing transportation solutions to work on these new refineries and
different things like that, as well as the growth in

(01:02:57):
the city. We're working on in the future on autonomous
drive systems and different types of tech to be able
to move through the city and make deliveries. So we
think that Houston's probably one of our biggest customer bases,
you know, aside from Los Angeles. New Jersey. There's some
large incentives for this type of stuff, but Texas also

(01:03:19):
has incentives, and we're excited about the Houston clientele. We're
probably going to be rolling out dealerships and looking for
new types of dealers that can help promote and service
our product locally, So stay tuned for that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
Jason Maddox joining me is a president of in Virotech Vehicles,
a company that is just moving its headquarters to Houston.
You were talking about the buses. I'm familiar with these buses.
They're big, old yellow electric school buses. I think you
call them the Bumblebee, which which actually like lots of
school districts in Texas and I think they've already ordered
a number of them. Tell us about this, this Bumblebee

(01:03:56):
buses that you're going to be delivering.

Speaker 6 (01:03:58):
Yeah, so we have a grant to deliver twenty five
electric school buses. Predominantly they're all going to Texas schools,
underserved communities. And again it's under the clean air so
that kids aren't breathing in diesel fumes. And you know,
very loud buses. These are silent buses. They're very clean,

(01:04:19):
very safe. We ground up engineer designed from environ Tech.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
I like it. It's funny and actually, you know, I
remember my first school bus. I didn't do it a
lot of school buses, but I was in sixth grade
growing up. Actually it was in Dallas. I remember the
school bus and they were just it was loud and
it was bumpy. But you know, I know, you know,
these are very high tech, comfy, smooth one. But I
love the environmental aspect of it because I remember, you know,
just seeing all the fumes coming out of those old buses.

(01:04:45):
And I'm dating myself going back to the seventies and
eighties right now, So I certainly liked this. I've actually
never driven a bus. Can I drive one of these?

Speaker 4 (01:04:52):
One day?

Speaker 1 (01:04:52):
I totally could see me rolling up to a school
man the high tech bumblebee bus.

Speaker 6 (01:04:56):
We drive it all around. It's an amazing bus. And
I mean the safety features on it. You can you
can go back and forth along the road to almost
a twenty degree angle, and it it stays on the
road in track. So it's a it's an exciting engineering
feat for us.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
I love it like that. Well, speaking of watch yeah,
I mean see, I'm I'm a marketing again. I'm a
brainstorm guy. Okay, I'm here to help you. All right,
here's an idea. Here, here's an idea. You know, I
do a radio show, I do podcasts, but I also
like the ev and the environmental thing. Man, how about
we create I've always want to do this. I want
to create a mobile radio or podcasting studio lot. Now,
I mean, you could trick out a van and that's

(01:05:31):
the neat thing. Your van's obviously their their environmental. They're
all electric. What I mean we can put you know,
damper and pads and microphone and everything like that. How
about we create a high tech text in podcast van
and we just go around the whole state doing some things.

Speaker 6 (01:05:44):
I'm in.

Speaker 1 (01:05:45):
I love it. I like that thing, which is you're
my first guest though. All right, I wonder how long
you know what? Years and years ago, I did a
promotion with Toyota and when the when the gas prices
were really high. In this true story, Toyota Prius was
only one of the first hybrid vehicles. And I actually
created a hybrid tour of Texas and I went from
Houston to Corpus to San Antonio to Austin to Dallas

(01:06:06):
to Houston on one tank of gas. I did this
whole type of thing. Now we don't even need gas.
Let's see how far we can get one of these
like these. You know, I'm gonna drive it all across
the state of Texas.

Speaker 6 (01:06:16):
We could do it. I like it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
This is fun. We're gonna do this thing. His name
is Jason Maddox. If people want more information about Envirotech,
what can they do, potential dealerships, potential employment opportunities, what
do they do?

Speaker 6 (01:06:26):
They could go to www dot ev TV USA dot com.
We're launching a new website in the real near future.
On that website, you should be able to click on
our email our links and be able to email us
through the email site, through the website, and we'll get
back out to you with our team. And we're gonna

(01:06:49):
start rolling out our dealer network. So if you're interested
in being a dealer, you can connect with us there
and you could also check our LinkedIn page and we'll
we'll be in touch and we'll have many updates as
we build out Houston.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
Yeah, and so if companies do want to order some
of these vehicles, who are listening right now, that's they should.

Speaker 6 (01:07:09):
Get more takeout orders now. We have lots of vehicles
on the road. We are building our Houston service centers,
so you'll have plenty of customer support service and we're
right here and you can order them and and typically
we have we're shipping you know, live or within you know,
ninety days of a custom order. So it depends on

(01:07:31):
our batches and how our assembly lines. But we're we're
keeping up with the demand right now.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
I like it a lot. Another win for the state
of Texas. And it's a great company. It is in
Vira Tech. Actually it's a publicly traded company. It's on nasdak.
It's you want to follow him, it's ev TV. Yeah,
I actually I like those good cool initials of ev
TV on NASDAK. He is the president, Jason Maddox. Welcome
to Texas, my man. I look forward to following and
helping promote and everything because I really love what you

(01:07:56):
guys are doing.

Speaker 6 (01:07:57):
All right, we're excited to be here, Michael, We're excited
for the future.

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
Vira Tuck all the way. All right, you're listening high
Tech Texan show. Name is Michael Garfield. We have open
phone lines. Don't go anywhere because we are here for
another hour.

Speaker 4 (01:08:09):
At least stand by my friends.

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
Michael is the name of Michael Garfield A the High
Tech Texan show heard not only in h Town, but
also Dallas and San Antonio. I'm sorry, those are just
the three biggest city in the state of Texas and oh,
by the way, three of the top nine most populous cities.
So many people listening. And if you happen to live
near a Total Wireless store, which by the way, you

(01:08:54):
should be getting a lot of your selling data service
because it's it's very inexpensive and it's a very high
It's what I've been using for about six or seven months.
Right now. They've actually got a little promotion going on
at least in the ones in Houston's in San Antonio
this coming week March sixth, that is a Thursday A

(01:09:14):
there's a Total Wireless truck and it's what is it called.
It's called Fuel Your Hustle And they got some special
giveaways and some good deals to stay connected, which why
child like giveaways. This coming March sixth, it is going
to be in Missouri City, which is a southwest suburb
of Houston. It is at seventeen sixty one Texas Parkway.

(01:09:37):
I've actually I lived near there. I actually think I've
been to that specific store Missouri City. I checked that out.
And then March fourteenth, which is a week from Friday,
it's gonna be in San Antonio. What's up, essay, We
love you. It will be at eighty eight thirty Southwest
Loop four ten on the Southwest Loop twelve to three

(01:10:01):
in the afternoon on March fourteenth. Go check it out
the Total Wireless. You see some of the national commercials,
which I'm not on and I should be. It's going
to be there, and they got some giveaways and good
deals too. Actually, I spoke with one of their executives
about how to save money for tax seasons coming up, which,
by the way, we're about a month and a half
before your taxes are due, and so he gave us

(01:10:21):
some good tips on how to save money, how to
write off some of your business lines too when it
comes to taxes. I know they're having a promotion right
now where you get an Apple iPhone thirteen for free free.
All right, So if you've got a new account and
you port your number in or if you add a line,
you can get a free iPhone thirteen. Also, if you're

(01:10:42):
a Samsung fan the Galaxy A fifteen DS five G
specifically free. If you activate a new line of service
five G or five G plus unlimited plans, you're going
to get a new Samsung Galaxy A fifteen lot of stuff.
Go check it out. Total Wireless specifically. I know I

(01:11:03):
like walking into some of the stores that are owned
by a company called Victra V I C t R A.
But the ones I mentioned San Antonio, Missouri city, big
events coming up Victra Total Wireless, Total Wireless dot com.
You also can get some home internet some really good,
really good price. I'm serious. That's my that's my service
that I used for now. Let's see one. How long

(01:11:25):
do we have? I got a question I want? Somebody
wrote in Michael Love the show. I know you talk
a lot about cars. I'm thinking about getting EV, but
before I get an EV, I do want and probably
need to get a charger. What's the easiest, best way,
best charger the whole process of putting one inside my home?
Good question? All right? That comes from Janet Janet actually
in San Antonio, Janet installing a home EV charger. It's

(01:11:51):
not that easy, and I'm using a very high level
of description there let me, let me give you a
way or two to easily, you know, get it done.
You can install it yourself, but it's not as simple
as you think, because it depends on what type of
vehicle you have, what kind of charger you want, how

(01:12:12):
fast do you want it to charge. There's a lot
of options. Some of the choices they may be as
easy as plugging in an appliance, but for faster charging options,
you're probably gonna need a help of an electrician. So
a few tips that you may need. You need a
good evy charger itself. Tesla makes one, charge Point makes one,

(01:12:38):
United Charger makes one. There's a number of them, okay,
And you have to look at the price points of whatever.
For example, you know, I went on to Amazon that
the Tesla it's I think that's about five hundred and
fifty dollars the charge Point one. Also, if you look
that on Amazon, that's going to be about six hundred dollars.
So that's just for the charger itself, all right. Then

(01:13:01):
you need to figure out what kind of evy charger
do you need. There's a level one charger, which is
a standard plug. It goes into any outlet in your home.
And maybe it's gonna charge you maybe five miles of
range every hour that you plug it in, and that
depends on your charger and your vehicle and other things.

(01:13:21):
You can go up to a level two charger, which
I would recommend. That's much faster, it's got a higher
charging output, gonna give you about twenty five miles of
range per hour of charging, and that could probably charge
your battery from zero to one hundred percent overnight. Now,
if you drive under twenty miles before you plug it in,

(01:13:43):
plug it, probably you're okay with a level one charger.
Anything above that, definitely go consider a level two charger.
For a level two charger, you're probably gonna want to charge,
get a get a professional, get a get a professional electrician.
Because if you already have a special two hundred and
forty volt outlet, that's the stuff that you probably see

(01:14:04):
where you plug your washer dryer and your dryer in
your stoves. You could plug your level two charger into that.
But I don't know if you have a level two
charger in your garage, if you have a hair if
you have a washer dryer system in your garage, go
behind there, look at your dry if you've got that
crazy big round three prong system that's a level two charger.
You can just plug it into there. You know, probably

(01:14:26):
don't need an electrician.

Speaker 5 (01:14:28):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:14:28):
At that point electricians know what to do. They do
this more often than not. You're probably gonna pay one
hundred dollars an hour for labor. It's gonna take about
three four hours. You're gonna spend four to five one
hundred dollars. Now one good thing, But then's a good
thing when you buy an EV. If you buy EV,
ODDS are your dealer, they are going to potentially they

(01:14:52):
could throw in the charger this themselves, and they could
throw in the installation. I'm seeing that now be the
norm more than it hasn't. And so they're gonna find
a trust with the electrician. They're going to give you
the whole thing and they'll bring in it. That's the
easiest way to go. So Janet Hook that answers a question.
Doesn't even matter what type of EV you're thinking. I mean,

(01:15:14):
I can. We're running out of time in this show.
You can go to my website. You'd actually, by the way,
if anybody wants to hear any of my auto reviews,
I have done that for fifteen years. Every single week
I get to test drive a brand new vehicle. I
get to keep it a week. I give you my thoughts.
It is not paid, it is not endorsed because so
I rag on them. I'll tell you what's bad about them,

(01:15:35):
but I'm also gonna tell you some of the good
features about them too. I do a lot of EV's.
Got a Spotify good iHeartRadio. Go to Apple and look
for Michael Garfield, or you can look for a high
Tech Texan. Spell the whole thing out, high dash Tech,
high Tech Texan and you could see years and years
and years obviously the most recent ones if you want to,

(01:15:55):
over the past six months or a year. I have
a lot of evs that I will talk about. So
that's one of the ways that you can find me
and listen to me and help make a big purchase,
because that's where I'm here for. And with that, it
is time to go eat me some barbecue. And I
do thank you for tuning in and for all of
our partnershare from Cabo Bobs to Total Wireless to.

Speaker 4 (01:16:17):
The death.

Speaker 1 (01:16:17):
You know the nice folks at US Coins and Jewelry.
If you're looking for a Rolex watch any type of jewelry.
You got graduations coming up, and if you collect coins
us coins and jewelry on on Katie Freeway on itm phenomena.

Speaker 6 (01:16:31):
Guy.

Speaker 1 (01:16:31):
Go seeing you, Kenny, You of the Matthew Kenny, your
Matthew or the drunken boys here so greatly. We appreciate
you tuning in. Thank you to Callum, Thank you Will
and everybody else who's keeping us on the air. We
will see you next week unless an asteroid hits the
Earth and cars your fingers. That did not happen. Happy
Marty Garras, Happy barbecue, Happy Rodeo season. My name is Michael,
and right now on my show is oh Ba