Apple may owe you money

Todayy on the High Tech Texan Show:

• Apple may owe you money. Here's how to claim it...
• Google has a solution for those "unpaid toll" text scams
• The ONE smart home gadget you need

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Is Michael Garfi. Michael Garfield. Michael Garfield's joining in the
high tech Texan. Michael Garfield is here with a high
Tech Texans it to make life easier, new 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 3 (00:47):
Memorial Day weekend and yet here we are again, twenty
plus years of me killing, spending my time with you
on a weekend where you should be traped, sitting out
of the sun, having some cocktails. You actually may be
doing all of that right now while you're listening. And
when we do, thank you for taking your phone, putting

(01:09):
your headphones on, maybe downloading iHeartRadio specifically listening to me,
maybe over the air when you're driving. Whether you are
in Houston or Dallas or San Antonio where my show
airs terrestrially, don't matter how you listening, but we do
thank you. We are going to try to entertain you

(01:30):
for the next two hours while you may be sitting
at the pool pop on a coldie. I will hold
off until the end of this show and then pop
a few coldies myself. By the way, if you do
want some drink recipes. You never really know what's gonna
happen on this radio show. It is called the High
Tech textan show which you think we're going to talk

(01:50):
about technology. You know, people, if you've just given me
an opportunity one week, two weeks to listen, you're like,
what's this do talking about? He's all over the place,
And I'm fine with that, man, I am actually fine.
Generally you're not gonna hear me talk about politics. That's
one thing I'm gonna avoid. Sports. You're gonna hear me
talk about sports. Not too much sportsy stuff going on.

(02:13):
I can just applaud from a man Scottie Scheffler from Dallas,
from the University of Texas, very happy that he won
the PGA Championship. We've got the NBA Finals, four teams
I certainly don't care about. No Texas teams are in there.
You know, it's something to watch. And then when when
the NBA playoffs are over, when they crown a champion

(02:34):
here about two weeks, it is gonna be a bad
two months. I'm just not the biggest baseball fan. It's
just hot. It's just to count down the football season.
But you may hear me talk about some drink recipes.
Actually I tried a new RTD earlier this week, A
ready to drink it can had gin in it. Not
a big gin guy, but I must say it was
a quite refreshing, quite refreshing. So whatever pops up, including

(02:58):
the phones, and this is where I look to you.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
You.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
I look to Callum, read hello Callum, and will across
the way in through the beautiful glass panel, who are
pushing buttons and doing whatever making me sound sexy? Thank you?
Can you put a little reverb, Calum, little a little reverb,
reverb verb, And they were answering the phones. This is
the last time I checked date. Not a podcast, Well
it is a podcast because we put my live show

(03:21):
on the podcast later. But if you do want to
talk to me, and you think you're listening to me live,
the phone number three four six twenty nine texts and
I will say this, uh, Father's Day coming up in
a few weeks. Don't need to get me anything. My
three kids they're gonna get me the usual. I don't know.
Let's see the Mavericks hadn't done anything. They get me

(03:43):
a sports jerseys. They know I don't need any piece
of technology gear or any sort of device. They did
get me. Uh, let's see, I've gotten everything from I
didn't you know what. I will say this, and I
am remissed because I don't follow hockey too much. Dallas Stars.
If the Stars go far, they should finish. My father's dead.

(04:06):
If the Stars win, my kids will give you a
Dallas Stars T shirt. Maybe not a sweater or jersey.
That's a little too expensive and I don't know if
i'd ever wear it around, but that could be the
gift if you're looking for dad, If you're looking for
something in the realm of a TV or a car,
or a phone, or a gadget or sunglasses or whatever,
I could be the guy three four six twenty nine

(04:28):
textan more than happy to talk you off the ledge.
And also, graduates, I will say this, you know, let
me give you a first graduate tip. I've got the
graduations coming. Got a friend of the family their son
graduated from med school. Overachiever, went to his party about
a week ago, and can you believe this? They actually

(04:50):
hit well, do graduates do this? Now where they have
a wish list where they they went online somewhere and registered.
I mean, I guess, I mean, I know you do
that for weddings and potentially baby showers, but I guess
graduates have a wish list now. But you know whatever. Anyway,
I didn't look at the wish list. I got him
knowing that he probably has some sort of a high

(05:11):
tech smart watch, Apple Watch, be it whatever. I got
him a device that sits on the counter, maybe it's
next to his bed, that will hold and charge a
wireless watch and your phone and your earbuts cost about

(05:31):
what was it one hundred and ten hundred twenty dollars.
You can find these from a number of different companies.
It was an Apple did Apple even? I don't know
if it was an Apple brand Moxie. Just just go online.
It's just it's like a universal charger for your watch.
But it's like a three in one thing. I thought,
you know what, that was pretty good. He's going he
graduated med school. He's got to, you know, be matched
up with the hospital. He's gonna have to work like

(05:54):
eighty hours a week. He's gonna need to be woken up.
He's gonna need a phone charge something. Again, that's a
low hanging fruit and there if you give me a call,
hop a note to me on ex Twitter, send me
an email Michael Garfield at iHeartMedia dot com. We do
monitor that. Maybe give me a feel. I'm like Chad GPT.

(06:15):
Just give me a few descriptors about dad or about
the graduate you know it's at likes athletics, works out
in the gym, is a runner you know, likes to travel?
Or you does somebody that I can actually help hone
things down. By the way, the GM GPT stands for Garfield,
it really doesn't. Let me tell you a few things

(06:36):
that we will touch on all right. Number one, how
about all that have you been getting text from somebody
some people about having unpaid tolls? I don't know how
that became the scam, but Google just announced a solution
to help those unpaid toll tech scams. Should you use

(06:59):
an Android phone up, you should be all right? So
staying out for that Apple, Yes, I'm talking about Apple.
Apple may owe you money. Did you know that? I'm
gonna tell you how to get it in about ten
minutes too. Also, sometime during the show the one Smart

(07:20):
Home gadget that you actually need, not want, but need.
If your home is not a smartphone smart home yet,
I will tell you how to make your home a
smart home. But if you could only choose one gadget,
one piece of technology in your home to make your
home smart, I want you to think what it should be,
what it is, and I will tell you my idea.

(07:40):
That's how we do it at the High Tech Textan Show.
Michael Garfield is the name. If you're traveling, we're gonna
come back. We'll also going to have a travel story
record number of flyers this year compared to a year
over year of Memorial Day weekend. It will give you
some tips. That's what I do right here on the
guards High Tech Textan Ship. Appreciate you hanging in there.

(08:28):
Many things that you could be doing. This Memorial Day
weekend of twenty twenty five should do me a favorite.
Don't give me the oh my gosh, I can't believe
the year is flown by. It's already the end of May,
it's almost June. Quiet man, just be quiet, all right.
We see it's been a long year. It's only going

(08:48):
to get longer because it's only going to be one
hundred percent of humidity and one hundred degrees. I'm not
get off my lawne guy, I'm not. I am an optomist.
I mean I make Annie look like a I'll tell
you that, but I'm a realist. I don't know how
the summer did. I mean, summer just kind of smoothly
drags on. Maybe because I'm just waiting for something that

(09:10):
But maybe because I'm waiting for cool weather, because I'm
a runner, like you know, I like doing things outside.
Maybe because I'm waiting for football season. Maybe because I'm waiting.
I don't know the travel somewhere that's cool. I don't know,
but where where you are? Happy early summer and we
still got what seven months ago in this year, so
suck it.

Speaker 4 (09:31):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
That's how we roll. And I also roll with the
phone number. Uh. Maybe may give away something here on
the radio show two three four six twenty nine Texan
three four six two nine to eat x A N.
For some reason, callum wait god Bro Calm does not
answer the phone. It may go to voicemail. Gave a voicemail.
We have a right to play your voice, and then

(09:53):
you could be heard all over the state of Texas
and the entire country. The I talk a lot about it,
and I've talked a lot about smart homes. What makes
a home smart? Well, what's your IQ? What did you
get on the SAT? Now? That's not Smart homes are
homes that have some sort of gadget that assist what

(10:18):
you do in everyday living. It could be something like
an Amazon device, a smart speaker, Google device, Google Nest.
It could be a doorbell, It could be a lighting system.
It could be a thermostat, it could be it could
be to some extent, an alarm. There there are alarms now,

(10:40):
newer alarms that actually could you know, do things and
detect ai your faces as it approaches and automatically call
the coppers or something. Smart. These these these gadgets, in
my opinion, are good. They're great. Now. I know there
are people out there who have trepidation. Well, I don't
want big Brother listening to me. I don't want them
watching me. I don't want you know, I'm fine, you know,

(11:03):
vacuuming my own you know kitchen. That's why there are
smart vacuums and smart mops too. Robo Rock makes a
lot of them. My acts, I'm playing with one or
two right, now. But if you had to choose one device,
or for those of you who do not have one
device that you think is quote unquote smart to make

(11:24):
I'm smart. I have I have my opinion on what
I think the one smart home gadget that you need now,
I could say cameras. If you are obsessed with security,
if you have kids, and you have a relatively large
house or two floors or three floors in your home,
and you want to see what's going on when you

(11:44):
hear noise upstairs, you can log onto your camera and
you know, see what's what's up. You can always check
your backyard, your front yard, what's going on from absolute
that's good security system's good. Lights automatically turn on when
someone approaches at night. That's nice. Smart speakers you should
be if you're home listening to the show via your

(12:05):
smart speaker, all you need to do is just tell
your use your wake up word, like hey Amazon, peep,
I'm just helping you out here, Believe me. Amazon. Listen
to Talk Radio eleven ninety in Dallas on iHeartRadio. Listen
to KPRC nine point fifty on iHeartRadio. Listen to WOAI

(12:29):
twelve hundred on iHeartRadio. You say those words right now
seriously to your smart speaker. You can hear the dulcet
tones of my voice all through your home, not just
through your headphones or on your terrestrial radios or on
your phone. No, that's pretty smart too. But finally, finally,
to pay off this long stick, the one smart home

(12:51):
gadget that I would recommend is one of It may
not be, it may have been the first gadget that
I got my home many many many years ago, and
that is the high tech smart thermostat, especially here in
our great state of Texas where I am based, because
I think to me that takes center stage as they

(13:14):
must have upgrade because in the long run it can
save you hundreds of dollars. I'm not here to endorse
one brand of thermostat. I can go on and on
with nest ecob and Honeywell and blah blah blah, just

(13:35):
it goes on. That's not the point. They're easy to
install yourself. And if you don't think you can install
yourself by ripping out your low tech, old fashion one
and putting a new one on the wall and connecting
a few hours, call a company. Ask your kids, Hey, me.
It can be done, but there's not much to learn.

(14:00):
If there's an app, whatever it is that you could
download for free, connect that smart thermostat to your WiFi
and your home, and at any given time wherever you
are around the world, and I mean around the world
you're traveling. I mean I was in wherever I go,
and I travel quite a bit. I monitor the temperature.
I set my temperature, but it also learns about my

(14:21):
processes when I'm home. I generally work from home during
the week. It knows roughly when I wake up because
there's motion detectors. It senses what's going on. If I
leave the house there's no movement, it could automatically turn
the thermostat up so I can save the energy and
electricity in the summer. It knows when I come home.
Maybe I come home at five o'clock in the afternoon.

(14:42):
Right before that, it'll turn it down. It's that's what
makes it smart. I was reading something online I think
was c net. C net did a survey twenty twenty four.
Energy survey found that about seventy eight percent of US
adults are concerned about the rising home energy cost. All right,

(15:02):
I have no clue why one of us adults aren't
concerned about the rising home energy costs. But that's neither
here nor there. The keeping the thermostat on a hold or
trying to remember when to turn it on or off.
It drains energy and it eats money. I think one
of the most amazing parts of smart thermostat is the

(15:22):
ability to keep your home at a comfortable temperature but
also balance energy uses in some cases. And I kind
of take a buck. I say this because my electricity
in my energy contract is about to renew. I get
a decent rate right now in terms of killo OOP
per hour. I'm still shopping around. I can be convinced

(15:43):
I'm not endorsing one of those either. But I looked
at trends. I went on my bill, and this is
this is how I research things. I look at the
my own usage. You can go back to your energy company,
go online, look at your bill. Obviously, well, at least
for me, my bill rise. This is greatly in the
summer because we live need some air cone deshan. The

(16:03):
cheapest bill I get any year probably in January, December,
January and February. Yes, there are plans that you can
get but also by having a good plan with Killowhites,
but also getting one of these smart thermostats can save
you twenty bucks, thirty bucks or more off your monthly bill.
Especially I think at the winter, why you don't need

(16:28):
to wire these things anymore. A lot of this stuff
is wireless. I mean, it's just because they can talk
and it. Let's put this, they can connect to Wi Fi.
In my mind, a mild mannered smart device, maybe from
Google Nests, maybe from Amazon, maybe from Eco b maybe
from Honeywell Home, whatever it is, Google News, it's got
it has a good ability to address energy issues and

(16:51):
save you, save us all money. It's worth spending two
hundred dollars on this day to make your home more efficient.
So that's what I say. If anybody wants to know
which ones, I'm not endorsing it. I have three floors
of my home, so I have three different thermostats, all

(17:12):
the same brand. Use them for gosh, I've had these
eight nine years or so. I think they're on the
fourth version. Pop me an email, send me a DM
we could be tight eight and I can tell you
which one I had. It's not here to endorse it.
I'm just endorsing smart homes could be good for you.
And this is what I'm here for. I hope so
this is why you listen to me. Now, who's traveling?

(17:35):
That's way. If you're traveling, I hope you lowered. I
hope you wrote using your smart thermostat to figure out
what the temperature is while you're gone. This weekend, Memorial
Day weekend, over three million people are expected to fly
in the United States alone. I like that because that's
an uptick. When we come back, we will talk to

(17:55):
someone who's in charge of the entire customer service with
a very big airline, very big presidence in the state
of Texas and actually across the country, if not the world.
Travel tips that they are launching that they are using
to help travelers go through their system. That's coming up
on Antech Texas Hip. We are back at it. Happy

(18:39):
Memorial Day weekend. It is Michael Garfield, the long running
high tech textan show heard certainly trestly all across Texas
and all around the world on the iHeartRadio network. We
got a few phone numbers here. Actually, I'm gonna hold
off because we have got a very hot topic right now,
especially if you are traveling. This weekend, which I hope
you are, and I hope you made it to your

(19:00):
going safely and having some good time wearing some sunscreen.
Record number of flyers that I've been seeing that have
been up and down this weekend, and you'll get it'll
continue probably at least till Tuesday of Wednesday next week.
I'm based in Houston, which is also where United Airlines
has a very big hub, and obviously I want to
get to the bottom of everything that is everything and

(19:22):
when it comes to summer travel season and all the
cool divite ops and technology that companies are using to
make customer service just so easy and so well. United
has a lot of that stuff. And so what I
did is I whipped up my list of contacts and
I dialed up my good friend Andy Jamison, Andy Managing
director of Customer Service at United Airlines. Andy, as the

(19:46):
weekend is here, how crazy has it been so far?
But how cool and calm has it been thanks to
United Systems.

Speaker 5 (19:54):
Well, Hey, Michael, good morning, Thanks for having me. You know, yeah,
you said, we're gearing up for a Memorial week, Memorial
Week in where we're going to see record demand of customers.
We estimate that between May twenty second and May twenty
eight that throughout our entire network throughout the world that
will welcome over three and a half million customers to

(20:14):
the skies of United Airlines. In Houston alone, we anticipate Friday,
May twenty third be in our busiest day, the launch
of a new flight schedule, our summer flight schedule in Houston.
We'll have over five hundred daily departures and over sixty
thousand seats out of Houston. We're excited about it.

Speaker 3 (20:32):
You said about three million travelers this week. I think again,
I'm crunching numbers. It seems to be about maybe about
a ten percent increase in compared to last year's I
love it. It's great. It's great for so many industries
and economies. I mean, can you specifically attribute to that
anything or you're just happy to get people from here
to there?

Speaker 5 (20:50):
Well, obviously doing it safely is our number one priority.
But we're excited about the growth and capacity, growth and
fight schedules, larger airplanes and because of our I had
a next plan and it continues to work.

Speaker 6 (21:02):
This year.

Speaker 5 (21:03):
Compared to last year, we're anticipating to fly over five
percent more customers than we did last year.

Speaker 3 (21:10):
It's yeah, I love it. I recently, as my listeners know,
I just got back from and you know too, I
was on a long, long journey to the Far East.
I was in that Hong Kong flight. I got there safely,
my friends. I appreciated about that. But some of the
tools that I use when I checked in, I get
it to the bush, intercott and the airport. I love

(21:31):
the fabs that I have the United App, but there's
some neat features that United continues to add to make
travel safe in terms of checking the weather and tracking
your bags. One of which is that bag tracker. You know,
you're now incorporating the Apple Tracker with the fine my stuff.
How does that work?

Speaker 5 (21:49):
Yeah, so you could use it through the United App,
or if you don't have the United App, you don't
have to. You know, we get about ninety nine percent
of our bags for their final destinations, either before the
customer reaches there or at the same time. And so,
but there's a few customers that don't reach their destination
with their luggage and when that happens. If it happens,
we'll reach out to you and say, hey, we're working

(22:11):
on it, but if you like to share if you
have an eyeball air tag, if you'd like to share
the information with this, it.

Speaker 6 (22:16):
May help us quick quickly reunite you.

Speaker 7 (22:19):
With your bag you use.

Speaker 3 (22:21):
It seems a lot of digital resources, which which is great.
I mean, there's so many industries I find. I mean
even the cars that I test. I mean you can
remotely start and find them from the app and things.
But I mean the digital resource that your teams continue
to put out to help travelers have that smooth journey,
journey as light years ahead. When I started flying many many,
many years ago. What are some of the other features
that you have from that app or those digital resources.

Speaker 6 (22:44):
Well, you said it.

Speaker 5 (22:45):
I've been in the industry a long time and it's
been really fun to see it evolve over the years.
But the recent enhancements have been the most exciting. Are
United App. If you're flying, you need the United Airlines App.
It's award winning everything from booking your flights to your
entertainment platform if you're on an airplane, to navigating our airports,

(23:08):
checking in verifying travel documents if you're going international, or
if you just have a question, you could connect with
the United Airlines Agent twenty four to seven.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
I've actually tried that just to pop it up. The
live activities on the phones is good. By the way,
it works for Samsung too. I'm an Android guy, so
good job for integrating both of those plays, which is good.
Andy jamis enjoining me for a few minutes. He's the
managing director of Customer Service at United Airlines. Going into
a weekend like this, and you've been in this industry
a while, there's I mean, listen, there's there's so many

(23:43):
things out of your hands you can't you know, touch,
I mean, is the weather and whatever like that. I mean,
what's your Is there an anxiety level? Is there an
excitement level? What you're feeling right now?

Speaker 5 (23:53):
All the above, Michael that the thing that comforts us
leaders is that we have strong teams. We have professionals
that United Airlines in Houston, we have over fourteen thousand
United Airlines employees that make the inner workings of our
huge operation just come together, whether it's navigating challenges with
weather or things that just come out throughout the day.

(24:14):
The teams collaborate and work together things that the flying
public wouldn't even know that We make that your your
journey as seamless as it possibly can. That's all attributed
to the hard working and professionalism of our employees.

Speaker 3 (24:27):
I mentioned the weather delays coming up, and actually I
saw a feature that you also have to that you're
I believe you could text live radar maps, use AI
to the people so they can keep informed with what's
going on. Is am I close to that? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (24:41):
Yeah, if we have issues with that weather or routings
or whatever the case may be, our teams remotely are
connecting with customers as they travel to include weather maps
or you can interactively look at the weather within the
United app, because sometimes you can be looking out the
window and there's nothing here. The sun is shining and
everything is wonderful, but it could be around the airfield

(25:01):
or in between us and where you're going to. And
so just helped bring a little bit ease to customers
to know that there are issues that we're navigating through
them to get them there safely.

Speaker 3 (25:09):
How far in the future can you honestly say that
you will be able to control the weather.

Speaker 6 (25:18):
I don't have an answer for that, Mike.

Speaker 5 (25:20):
But the good thing about weather, as we continue to
evolve our operations, we continue to get better and forecasting
and being able to see what's coming and have plans.

Speaker 6 (25:30):
To work around it.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
What did the Obviously I got a few press releases
from you guys, and really exciting to and especially I
can relate to this. I just got back, as we
talked about, from a literally a worldwide trip. I mean literally,
my nickname on the strip was Magellan. As I went
from Houston to Hong Kong on your flight and then
continuing all the way back around here to Houston, I had,

(25:53):
you know, very you know, it was a nice ride.
It's a very very long ride. It gets better and
you're starting to come up with new you know, how
can can can pascity just remain more comfortable? I just
saw you made an announcement that you're even making an up, up,
upgraded level of service. It's uh, it's like the Polaris
studio suite. It's like a flying apartment. You gotta explain

(26:14):
this thing with caviar. What's going on here here?

Speaker 5 (26:17):
You're right, Yeah, we just had a big release last
week in Brooklyn. It's scheduled to launch later this year
on our new seven eight seven fleet type. But yeah,
you said it, it's like a small flying studio apartment.
Lie down seats with the the ability to if you're
traveling with the companion, you can you can raise or
lower a sidewall and and interact with that person. There's

(26:40):
an ottomen in there, huge TV screens, more lang room.

Speaker 6 (26:45):
It's it's really really exciting.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
Set it again at some point. It's certainly as and
we'll talk about this in a seconds, as the Wi
Fi and the connectivity service continue to get faster with Starlink.
Now that you've got the studio suite, I mean literally,
you're building a TV in a radio studio for me
in the air, Andy, So you're prep for me to
actually broadcast live from a plane. You cool with that?

Speaker 6 (27:05):
Let's do it? Yeah, Yeah, Starlink it's super exciting.

Speaker 5 (27:08):
You mentioned I know you're excited about it given what
you broadcast on. We're just getting off the ground with it.
We're starting with our regional fleet. We anticipate that to
be mostly complete by the end of the year. In
our main line. The larger airplanes will begin next year.
But talk about taking your couch to the air. As
far as connectivity, it'll be like you're in your living

(27:29):
room and it's free.

Speaker 6 (27:31):
It'll be free for our customers and.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
Yeah, I saw there was a test you guys did
not too long ago. But listen, Wi Fi being connected
nowadays is something that we all want to do.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Well.

Speaker 3 (27:41):
Listen. You know, kids still need to you know, want
to play their games and whatever. And obviously there's business flights. Listen.
I was on a plane that was fifteen to sixteen hours.
I mean, that's a lot of downtime, but I made
it uptime because I still had Wi Fi connectedy connectivity.
It was okay, the fastest thing in the world. Again,
because right now, you know, no air line has got
like super super speedy, but it seems like the Starlink

(28:02):
that you're working with is going to be very, very
super speedy.

Speaker 6 (28:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (28:07):
Well, you know, if you imagine flying from Houston to
Chicago and you want to use Wi Fi in today's infrastructure,
you might have to connect over seven satellites in just
that short fight. And in doing that, obviously there's transmission
times and things that are delayed, which delays the what
customers experience. Starlink allows one single source of connectivity at
speeds higher than anybody can ever imagine. While you're sitting

(28:29):
in a metal tube of an airplane, find it almost
a speed of sound.

Speaker 6 (28:33):
It's it's pretty cool to think about it.

Speaker 3 (28:35):
I can't wait till you you launch it, and again
I want to be the first one who tests that.
His name is Andy Jamison, Customer Service at night. You're like, listen,
good luck this weekend, my man. I'll tell you what
you know. You may you may lose little hair. Oh,
I'm sorry, punt Into.

Speaker 7 (28:52):
I know.

Speaker 3 (28:52):
And he's a buddy. He's got he's got a very
nice dome. But he is one of the nicest and smartest,
and he leads a great team. United Airlines always get
folks there safely, and we appreciate their time. So fly
the friendly skies, my man, and I do appreciate you
joining the high Tech Texan Show.

Speaker 6 (29:07):
Hey, Michael, appreciate it. Thanks for having us.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
You got it. That is uh Andy Jamison. Folks, if
you guys are if anybody is traveling this weekend, like
right now, I'd love to hear from you. You know
the phone number seven one three two one two five
nine five. Oh, Michael Garfield is the high Tech Texan
Show when we come back. That's right. It is still
a father's day coming up, Graduation day coming up. I

(29:30):
got a ton of recommition, recommendations of what dubai and
also where to go for your gifts. I am here
for you high tech texting dot com. Thank all right?

(30:01):
Who has left on a jet playing? I actually play that.
Back in the day, we would actually play leaving on
a jet plane, you know, kind of just a little segue.
We just talked to United Airlines folks, travel season No, no,
can't do it. Our wonderful company doesn't want to pay
the licensing for anything. I wonder, callum, if I ask
this before, if I sing a song, you think the

(30:25):
AI police would pick up my horrible singing to realize
I'm actually singing a commercialized song and get away to that.
And again, I'm not trying to take away money from
the artist. They deserve it and break any rules really
percent But we used to play I mean, any song

(30:48):
known to man or woman was fair game for the
first what eighteen years of my show. Now I'm here,
I'm in year twenty three or something like that. The
music is just some you know, elevator music that has
been free to license. It's just a you know what,
this is the state of radio and podcast. But this

(31:10):
is my voice. It's not AI yet as we continue
the I take texting show, Happy Memorial Day weekend to you.
Coming up next hour. Apple may owe you money, and
I'm gonna tell you how to get it. There was
a lawsuit that just came down ninety plus million dollars
and if you were affected by this little issue on Apple,

(31:32):
you may get some mona could be a little, could
be a lot. But that's gonna hopefully tease you to
stay around another ten, twelve, thirteen minutes for that. I
will tell you this tip here. How would you like
to get some money back every time you order something online?
Specifically Amazon? Specifically Amazon? I thought, I thought this was

(31:55):
a pretty good There's there's this shopping Assistant's browser extension,
all right. It's a browser extension, which means whatever browser
you have, So if you have the Microsoft Edge Browser
or something like that, you can look for these extensions,
which means this is these little tiny bots pieces of
software code that are added to your browser that do

(32:18):
certain things. I mean that you know, they know where
you live and this is how the weather affects it,
and they you know, they serve up some ads. But
this is a browser extension that you actually have to
download and it's called shop back Baby, got Back, shop
back b a ck. It just launched here in this country,
already popular and a few other countries around around the world.

(32:39):
Here's what you do. You install it and the extension
automatically activates when you go to a website that supports
it and shows you what kind of reward you can earn. Now,
this is everything from door Dash to Expedia, to Macy's
to Walmart to Best Buy, and there's a lot more.

(32:59):
And to entice you right now, they're offering the shop back.
This is not an atom just I haven't used it yet,
but I've verified it by two or three different sources.
They're giving you one dollar one dollar cash back on
every Amazon order. About that. I'll take a book back

(33:22):
maybe got buck back. So they have bonus offers. There's
load of time promotion promos that reward you for you know,
doing a number of different shopping milestones. Uh, it's listen.
This is a tool that it really, at the end
of the day, encourages you to shop more. That's the

(33:44):
trade off. It looks for promotions and it encourages you
to spend. But if you're already planning to make a purchase,
why not earn a little something something back. Apparently in
cash out works pretty well. Heypal think you have to
have five hour minimums to withdraw. Allegedly, it doesn't track

(34:05):
your browsing history or every site you visit. It just
collects data from the supported sites whatever you go to. Again,
I mentioned some Best Buy, Walmart, whatever it is, so
go ahead and try it. If it works for you,
let me know and then I can tell you to
shop for something for me and buy it for my
Father's Day president so you can get some cash back.

(34:25):
Do you see? This is what a professional radio host does. People.
That's how you roll. That's how you roll. Oh, speaking
of sales, An got an email. I got a question
over here. Somebody wrote to Michael Garfield at iHeartMedia dot
com and this is what I do. If you're too
shy to call me open phone lines though, three four

(34:45):
six twenty nine, Texan, you can also send me that
email Michael Garfield at iHeartMedia dot com. You can also
post something on my Twitter x account high tech Textan
spelled the whole thing up, Garf. Been listening to your
show for a long time. Appreciate all the tips you've
given me. Over the years, I've bought cameras, if I
got phones. I even bought a car once over the
years listening to you, so I really appreciate it. I

(35:07):
have an older TV that's upstairs my home that I
really use, doesn't have an HDMI, but I'm thinking about
trying to upgrade it instead of buying a new TV
and getting one of them upgraded fire sticks type of thing.
Are there? How much are they and do they work?
All right? This is from Rodney. Rodney is here and
where's it? Rodney is in the Woodlands, which is just
north of Houston. Wherever you are listening around the world country,

(35:29):
that's that's where it is. Appreciate that. Thank you for
taking my advice. The issue here it's you don't have
an HDMI or how old is your TV? Rodney? How old?
I mean? I want you to look again. Just because
sometimes older TVs have USB sticks, they can also have

(35:53):
HDMI sticks to HDMI. Those are the imports. HDMI has
been around for quite a while and that's how you
get the high definition cord from your cable to your TV.
HDMI stands for high Definition multi Media Interface, all right,
and right now, that's the standard plug for transmitting the

(36:16):
digital video and audio from a source, So from that
TV cable box or a computer or to a TV
or a projector, and most every new monitor type of
thing they have that right now. So you need to
check to see if it's got to your fate. Now,
let's just assume if you have a USB and new HDMI,
get a freaking new get a new TV. Just there's

(36:38):
my advice. You're welcome. But if you do have an HDMI, yes,
get a fire stick. Get a I say firestick. That's
Amazon's brand, all right, Roku has a stick. There's a number.
But I just speaking of Amazon. Amazon. Now when is it?

Speaker 8 (36:57):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (36:57):
I just pulled this up. Memorial Memorial weekend, all right?
I guess it goes through Memorial Day week, Memorial Day,
Monday or something. Amazon's firestick HD normally thirty five dollars.
This week it is on sale for twenty dollars. What
is that. That's about a forty forty five percent discount.

(37:18):
That's not bad. I guess that is Amazon. I have
I'm a Memorial Day sale. Otn't know. It's one of
the best streaming devices that I know out there. I
have a rocous stick. It works well. Some of these
sticks come. What you do is you put plug it
into your HDMI and what it is it's it's it's
about the size of your thumb. You plug it into

(37:38):
your HDMI which is in the back of your TV,
so gently it's not gonna stick out. There's a Wi Fi.
There's Wi Fi built in this thing. You connect it
to your Wi Fi of your home and now you
can cut the cord. You could stream Netflix. You can
see it for for an older TV. That's one of
the reasons that you can get it. So this one,
specifically the fire Stick HD this and does have ten

(38:01):
eightyp streaming. It does have a remote that can control
the power and volume on the actual TV. Firestick Light
does not do that. It has Alexa sorry for saying that,
for voice control, and it does have an automatic interface
for Netflix, HBO, Max, Hulu and some of the other things.

(38:26):
It cannot stream things in four ten. Absolutely not a
big deal because not a lot of things are shot.

Speaker 7 (38:32):
Or streaming in fourteen.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
Don't hold off of that. It is a streaming stick
for HD kids a high definition. It's good price, good price.
It definitely would recommend this thing for twenty bucks for
some reason you do want a four K max stick
that's doubled it for forty bucks. But that's fine. I
didn't know it is remotely a big shopping sales is

(38:54):
like President's Day week. Here, we're gonna go by mattresses
July fourth, mattress sales. Your memorial is such a big sale,
dective it is. Let me take as we get to
the top of the hour, let me do sure to
see if I can find you some more. But when
we come back, I am going to talk about Apple
r o you money, and I'm gonna tell you out
to theater. Right here, I'm a high tech.

Speaker 1 (39:16):
Dextre is Michael garfil Michael Garfield. Michael Garfield's joining you
in the high Tech Texan. Michael Garfield is here with
a high tech textis its to make life easier technology?

(39:40):
So Michael Garfield has something you might like.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
Michael Garfield is your high Tech Texans three decades helping
you make magic with your gadgets. Heard world one on
the ihardware. You'll ask right now you're high tech texts
in Michael Garfield.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
Our number two starts right now on the high Tech
Textan Show. Second hour of our two hour show which
means we're halfway, which means we are halfway to a
happy hour on a Memorial Day weekend, which means if
you don't have a nice cocktail in hand, something say,
something's wrong with you, because you can have a mocktail. Also,

(40:32):
if you don't have something to drink or sip, come on,
people have some fun. That's all we do on this show.
We have fun. So let's let's do it that way.
So seven actually, let me give you the phone number
over here. It's eight three to two. No, it's not
it coming back up. It's my mind's still in like
the twentieth century when I started the show three four
six twenty nine text and three four six two nine

(40:54):
t e x A N is how you're gonna get me?
A big shout out to KPRC nine fifty am and
Houston Talk Radio eleven ninety in Dallas and News Radio
twelve hundred WOAI. That is right. That are you you
listen to restrially at some point during the weekend. If
you're listening on a repeat, it's called the podcast, which
you could download the iHeartRadio app, and we do thank

(41:15):
you for doing that. If you do want to hear
what we missed in hour number one, I told you
the one smart home gadget that you need, not want,
that you need. If you're going to have only one
smart home gadget, go back. Once we're done, callum, you're
gonna put up this on the podcast. Listen, goo to
iHeartRadio dot com search high Tech Texan go back. I
think it was in the second segment I told you

(41:38):
the one smart home gadget that you can need. You
could throw out everything else. No, I really don't want
you to do that. But if you do have to
have one and trying to make your home smart, I
told you what that is awesome. We talked about a
new streaming stick I just talked about that was on
sale and a way to say one dollar cash back
on a lot of shopping sites, including Amazon, on every

(41:59):
single order, or just by downloading this an extension for
your browser. It's very very simple. This hour we are
going to actually if you and your kids are looking
to get certified in something or go to school, look
for a job. There is it's the IT industry to

(42:20):
some extent, but there is a local community college here
in Texas that is offering some classes and certification on
things that it's a trend and they are. There are
a lot of jobs that you'll hear, so well, we'll
talk about that at the bottom of the hour. You
know the phone number over here. But now I'm going
to tell you how to possibly get some money Apple.

(42:45):
If you ever ever have done a double take after
an AD came up on your Apple device, it's like, what,
how's this? Just listen to me, What's what's going on?
You may be qualified to have some money. Apple has
agreed to a ninety five million dollars settlement. It's a
class action lawsuit that accused Apple of recording users' private

(43:09):
conversations without their consent after they unintentionally activated Siri. All right, now,
this goes back four years. It was a case that
is called Lopez v. Apple Lopez versus Apple four years ago,
and it claims that confidential or private communications were allegedly

(43:30):
obtained by Apple and or shared with third parties as
a result of an undetended Serri activation. So, if you
own or bought certain Seriri enabled devices in the ten
year span ranging from twenty fourteen to twenty twenty four,
you're eligible for a payout as part of the settlement.

(43:52):
How about that. So if your phone is over, if
your Apple of iPhone, for example, is over two years old,
smell that, smell that and money, Danny. So that's pretty cool.
I mean, I guess it's cool. I hope they didn't
distial of your words. All right, So ninety five million
dollars class action lawsuit. Who qualifies for a settlement? So

(44:15):
if you've owned or purchased a syrianenable device twenty fourteenth
to twenty twenty four you're eligible to make a claim.
I can give you the long website, but if you
really want to do it, well, you know what here
it is. It's Lopez Voice Assistant Settlement dot Com. I'll
say it once. That's it. I'm gonna make you go
to my high Tech Texan X account. H I G

(44:39):
h T E C h T E x A N
got a high tech Texan. You will see it on
x Twitter. You will see a link to how you
can submit a claim to potentially get some money. Now,
I'll say this, I've done these before. Whether it's a

(44:59):
printer who conned me out of ink, whether it's a
phone company, whatever it is, millions of dollars to be had,
split by hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people
at the end of the day. I may have been
part of that payout two three, four times if I

(45:19):
can remember, but it's been so minimal the payoff. I
forgot about it. Sometimes I don't know. I may have
gotten a check fronder ten bones. I don't even know.
So it is providing ninety five million dollar funds for
payments to settlement class members who are individual, current or
former owners or purchasers of a serie device. I mean, listen,

(45:43):
it's worth a shot, right high tech Texan dot com
look for Lopez v. Apple lawsuit and you can get
money back. Now. Is that? Is it called restitution? Is
that what? It's ten fifteen to twenty dollars? If you
got five hundred dollars, is that enough not to make
you mad? Like? What do you mean? They were legally

(46:05):
listening to me when I was talking to Siri. What's
up with that? Man? This is the price that we
pay nowadays to utilize our devices. It's it was not
right of Apple to do that if indeed they were guilty,
but apparently they admitted some sort of guilt because they're
paying ninety five mili out. But if you don't want

(46:27):
anybody listening to you if I'm I'm not maybe I'm
not trying to scare you. But if you read between
the lines and interpret like, oh my goodness, I'm getting
rid of my phones, I'm getting rid of my service
because I don't want, you know, this to happen again,
and people are listening to me. It's not exactly what
I'm trying to say. But there's a trade off. We

(46:52):
have the convenience of utilizing devices like our phones, which
I think in our generation, two generations, our lifetimes here
is one of the greatest single devices that we ever
can have. What we hold in our hand on that
phone are so much more powerful then the actual physical
computers that we had ten years ago, certainly fifteen years ago.

(47:17):
And the trade off is why is it so cool?
Why is it because we do allow these apps to
get our information, We do allow these data and cell
phone companies to have our location. But you know what,
if it didn't have our location, if I didn't give
up my location to Google, I would not be able
to use Google Maps. And I use Google Maps on

(47:37):
a daily basis not that I don't know where I'm going.
I want to know the traffic situation, I want to
know the best route just because of rex or whatever.
And that's just one. I want to know my weather. Well,
how do ASN know where I am? Because it uses
a tracking thing. Yes, I can turn things on and off,
but it is a tradeoff. Sadly, a lot of these companies,
either directly or inevertly, maybe by a third party company,
and I'm not defending them. They use these for potential,

(48:01):
potential malicious things. In this case, somebody slapped the hand
of Apple, whoever mister missus Lopez was back in the day.
Thank you. This maybe is going to keep Apple and
other companies, many other companies clean for just a little while.
All right, coming back, what do you got? There is
a crazy TikTok challenge that I didn't know about because

(48:23):
I don't use TikTok. That is, I don't like it.
Your kids may be doing it, especially if they are
in school, especially if they're in grade school, and can
be very very dangerous, dangerous.

Speaker 4 (48:35):
I will tell you if any on the other side.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
Generally, at some point during the radio show, we try
to give things away because this is radio, and radio
is about promotions, and radio is about giving things away.
And you know what, back in the day, if we
didn't give out hats and T shirts and coozies, man,
we weren't worth our weight in salt. Nowadays we're not
worth our weighting salt. As a radio station, it's up
to me to go out and find partners in clients. Hey, man,

(49:21):
could I Bob'm gonna beg you you want to give
something away. I don't give things away just any fly
by night companies or parties. I actually have to use
the product. I want to love the product. If it's
a restaurant, I eat there. In this case, I do.
Who wants to win a twenty five dollars gift card
to the great Cabo Bobs. That's right, go in, build

(49:42):
your own burrito, your bowl, and your salad. Four locations
in Houston, eight locations in Austin if you're listening up there.
One in San Antonio, Dallas sucks for you right now
because they don't have any caller number ten seven to
one three two one two five nine five zero collor
ten you were a winner seven to one three two

(50:03):
one two five nine five Oh just if you if
you last longer than the next forty five seconds, hang
out because you're not gonna win because the phones are
lighting up. Cabo Bob's absolutely phenomenal. I was there Tuesday,
I was there, was I there last Saturday. I was
there last Saturday. I was there on Tuesday. I will

(50:25):
prop I'm not gonna be their Sunday because they're closed
on Sunday. Generally, get a salad or a bowl, get
a little brown rise, get the chicken smoke perfectly on
a come out of Joe, get the pico, and I
get the tortill at chips. Now, I will tell you
this when I hang up this phone, because I do
the show on Saturday Live. I will go. Because they're
closed on Sunday. They may be closed on Monday, Memorial Day.

(50:46):
You have to use Go to Google if you have
lit up your phone with data plan, find out if
they're open on Monday. Not the point. It's Memorial Day weekend.
Could have some people coming over hanging. I'm gonna have
at least two bags of chips, a big thing a
case on, a big thing of guacamole. Always something that
I have. I do not I'm serious. I do not
go to a grocery store and buy a bag of

(51:07):
chips anymore. Used to all the time because I'm not
addicted to anything in life. The closest thing I'm addicted
to ESPN and Caeso and chips. I go to Kabo
Bob's to get their Their chips are freshly baked, fried
double thickness. Crunch crunch, crunch, crunch crunch. All Right, we
got a winner. We have a winner. Stop calling. We

(51:28):
do have a winter And thank you so much. Every
week I do give it and a big shout out
to Arnold and Lorie Rios, the entire staff at all
their locations across the state of Texas where they are
and they're they're they're just so good. See, we give that.
That's what radio does. We give things away. If you
have a kid who has recently taken part of the
Chromebook challenge, no Kabo Bobs for you. They do not

(51:50):
get it. You you've heard of these challenges, TikTok challenges
whatever you remember how sometimes that what was it called
the ice challenge that you I nominate, I nominate you
callum read my producer here who puts the show together.
I want you to dump a big old ice bucket
of water on your head because we're gonna make donate

(52:13):
to this charity, challenges, challenges and all this other fun stuff.
You know exactly what it is. Right, So there's another challenge.
This one is not good. This one is not good. Apparently.
It began just a few weeks ago, and it is
called and I'm telling you, parents because I want you
to watch it. It's called the Chromebook challenge. And what
it does. It encourages students. It gets you so stupid.

(52:40):
It encourages students to stick small items like paper clips
or pencils inside of their school assigned Google Chrome books,
USB ports what all in hopes for a small cloud

(53:01):
of smoke or a spark to ignite. Listen. I was
a kid, it was semi stupid. When I was fifteen
years old, there were no such things as a laptop,
absolutely nothing even in the realm of mankind as a
cell phone. We had a big TV with a big

(53:24):
back on it. It was called a tube TV. I mean,
the only idiot thing that we could do was take
a paper clip and put it inside an electricity socket.
I did not mean to say that. Kids, if you're listening,
do not listen to what I just said, and don't
ever do that. Do not ever do that some fifteen
year old high school kid in New Jersey was arrested
in charge with third degree arson and criminal mischief for

(53:45):
intentionally manipulating his chromebook as part of this thing. You
see kids go to jail. Who comes up with this?
Number one? Who comes up with this? Number two who
video tapes this? Number three who uploads it to TikTok
or whatever platform? And number four who looks at this

(54:08):
and says to themselves, ha, look at that. Man just
ruined a three hundred dollars or so chromebook laptop, almost
electrocuted himself for herself, and oh, by the way, got
arrested by the coppers, and who copies that? Come on, man,

(54:30):
it's dangerous placing items like paper clips inside any USB
port anything like that. It can cause the laptop to
short circuit. It heats, it sparks, it smokes. We as
teenagers actually moste everything in life, no matter howld you are,
we need to stay away from things that heat and

(54:51):
spark and smoke, including cigarettes. Kids don't do SIGs. Do
not put paper clips inside USB ports because what happens
The paper clip becomes a pathway for electricity to travel
outside if it's intended circuit path. You see, that's the
easiest way for me to break it down. Ruins everything.
Laptops so, by the way, contain lithium ion batteries. When

(55:12):
those batteries are heated too much, toxic gas generation, fire,
potential explosions. Awesome, awesome. Make sure you get that on
videotape too. School dishes right now, even though school's about
to close or shut down for the summer, they're sitting
letters to parents using social media to educate these things
about the chromebook challenge. All right. By the way, why

(55:38):
just a chromebook because they're the most inexpensive of laptops,
which generally they are. You don't want to blow up
a two thousand dollars Apple smart Come on, man, did
TikTok take the stuff down? Who is even running TikTok?

(55:58):
Remember TikTok were supposed to be take it down?

Speaker 4 (56:00):
Oop?

Speaker 3 (56:00):
I'll get in a politics all right. As we end this, sing,
what is the stupidest thing that you did as a kid?
I could say, as it pertains to that, did you,
I don't know, sit in a bathtub with an alarm
clock or something? Kids don't do that either. Stupidest thing
you did as a kid three four six twenty nine

(56:23):
t E x A N three four six twenty nine
textans do calum do me favor? I want you to
screen these calls. Is I'm not I am absolutely not
trying to promote things like this or whatever stupid things
you did as a kid. But if they're kind of
funny and they and maybe they can't be replicated today,

(56:44):
I don't know because the technology is too sophisticated. I
do want to hear three four six twenty nine textants
stupidest thing that you did as a kid that did
not get you arrested and did not calm you, harm
you bodily, function internally or externally. When we come back, parents,
here's some good news. You want to tell your kids
how to get a job, find a profession that actually

(57:07):
is hiring, that actually can pay quite well. Welp, stand by.
I got an interview with a community college that is
offering a very unique course. Yes, it has something to
do with technology. That's coming up right here.

Speaker 8 (57:18):
Just after the break of the High Tech Tension Show.

(57:39):
Continuing the long running High Tech Texting Show.

Speaker 3 (57:42):
Michael is the name Michael Garfield. You can hit me
online Michael at High tech, texting, dot com, and every
other means of social media that you can think of.
If you know me, you know my cell phone text me.
If not, I ain't giving you my text number, So
just suck it up. People, there's other ways to reach me.
Phone number here seven one, three, two one two five
nine five zho. I have given that number out twenty

(58:03):
three years. I have been doing this almost a quarter
of a century, and my job is to answer questions
or give you the answer that I think is best.
And I know if I categorize a lot of the
questions that I get over the years, it has been
a lot of Hey, Michael, I want to get a
smart home. Where should I start? Who should I start with?

(58:24):
What's the Is it simple to do it myself putting
a security system? Or if I want to put a
camera system in there, how do I do it? I'll
take you back twenty years. It was not easy before wireless.
I mean, I remember my why I bought a home
twenties or so years ago. I hired a company who
came in with a little league jackhammer and a hammer

(58:45):
and they popped thirty or forty holes in my wall
to drag the coaxle cable and the whole thing it was.
It was a long, long process. Nowadays it is easier
because there are so many products and yes you can dy,
you can do it yourself, but at some point you
do need skilled workers to do the audio video systems.

(59:06):
Is to set up the smart home and do you
want one system like a control force system? And that's
where I make recommendations. But I have another recommendation, why
don't you go to school and freaking learn how to
do it yourself? And with that I have an answer
right here in Houston. HCC Houston Community College, I have learned,

(59:27):
has a higher program now that teaches students how to
be in the smart home smart building technology where they
can do everything from wiring and networking and structuring cable.
I want to learn more about that, and with so
I'm going to go to the resource himself. His name

(59:47):
is Matt Adams. He is a program coordinator for the
Electrical Technology and Smart Building Facilities over at HCC Houston
Community College. I bring in Matt right now, where what
was this class like twenty years ago that I've could
have taken. Why did it take you so long to
create this? Mat?

Speaker 9 (01:00:06):
Hey, Garth, thanks for having me on the show. I
mean part of it is I've been researching this for
five years and we just launched August nineteenth. And the
one they I've learned is all these people that do
this stuff, they were so busy doing it that they
didn't bother to lay out an infrastructure. So it's been
coming out of different aspects of different skills. So everybody

(01:00:30):
knows what it networking is, that's great. Well, like what
they do is not it networking. It's more connecting networking
for connected devices. So they've taken things that have been
out there, maybe commercially industrially, and scaled it in a
different way to use it and do some really impressive
stuff with it. But they don't exist with the Department

(01:00:53):
of Labor, even though they actually do exist.

Speaker 3 (01:00:56):
It's called your program that you really just launched a
few months ago in the fall. It's called the Smart
Building Technology Program and it's at HCC. What I'm gonna
start with the careers because I get a lot of
questions also, Hey, Michael, should I you know, should my
kid go into this career, this career with it? I
know it's big, but what kind of careers are students
preparing for in this field of smart building technology.

Speaker 9 (01:01:18):
Trying to define it on where you can go. It's
so broad every time you trying to find it, it's
something more. But to break it down to basic type categories,
I mean, you can become an infrastructure person where you're
laying down networking, cable, fiber optics. They don't do as
much coax anymore, it's kind of dead. You can get

(01:01:38):
into networking, but networking not like it, but networking for
connected devices where you're interconnecting things. Because ultimately you can
have a light switch and a light bulb, but how
can I tie that into other devices my TV, my
thermostat for things like energy management and comfort in your
house and health and wellness. It gets into lighting and

(01:01:59):
light control, which is kind of my favorite. I'm very
fascinating with what some of the things are doing with
low voltage lighting. On a next level, it's bizarre audio
visual everything from just your regular soundbar and TV to
digital signage, distributed audio and video things like that where
you're wanting to broadcast a single signal out to multiple locations.

(01:02:22):
You've got security and fire both security systems, access control
camera systems, and it's even though that's that much. It's
still so much broader than that. It just depends on
where you want to go and how you want to
take the knowledge.

Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
Talking to Matt Adams here, Matt is with the HCC
preparing students. Let's go back to that because I know
probably a lot of students graduating right now from high school.
What do I want to do parents a listening? How
does the program prepare students for real world work as
the installers and technicians and the integrators in residential but
also the commercial settings.

Speaker 9 (01:02:55):
Well, you know, one of the things we always get
when you're an academian is everybody we're just theorists that
are teaching a whole bunch of book knowledge, whether you're
looking at a professional system on some of the manufacturers
out there that are high end level to even some
of the DIY stuff. And of course some of the

(01:03:15):
stuff that I try and teach them is not just
in the class, but how they even work on their
own homes as part of their teaching environment. So besides
them just learning in class, they're going and doing at
their house while playing around with the technology.

Speaker 3 (01:03:30):
I can honestly say after doing this for so long
and being in this space where people are asking me
recommendations or you know what my thoughts are of which
I should build or a career to go into. How
important would you say is it to have this workforce
skilled in things like the structured cablings in the security technology.

Speaker 9 (01:03:47):
Everybody always asks me are their jobs in this? I
like jobs. There are jobs everywhere. In fact, my nine
students keep getting job offers. Every time we go out
to a field trip, a show and anything. They're like, hey,
can I hire you people? I only have nine They're
not done yet, and so I think the funniest one

(01:04:07):
was one of my students that just got out of
the military in the summer and he went to a
free training on access control, which is like badge entry,
and all he had was a security license and just
finished his first semester of starting a second semester, didn't
know much. He got two job offers. One of them
was for like eighty something thousand bucks, and he's like,

(01:04:29):
I don't know anything. We don't care. We just were
so desperate for people because one of the bad things
is with them not existing through the Department of Labor
as a complete industry, it's hard to get data. So
when you look up low voltage jobs. It can be
hard to find these companies, and yet all of them

(01:04:49):
are hiring, and all of them are really in need
of people with skills. And those skills could be everything
from mechanical skills and learn how to use using tools,
electrical electronics, networking type skills, sensors, and the list goes
on and on. But if you've got some good skills,

(01:05:10):
it's not hard to get a job.

Speaker 3 (01:05:11):
I'd love it. Matt Adams here giving me an idea
for my side gig coming up, where I may enroll
an ACC so I can get smart.

Speaker 9 (01:05:17):
Well, I mean, well, it's like one of the things
that one of my friends turned me onto in the fall.
I was like, I need something for the students to use,
and so he Linux. I'm sure you know Linux. Linux
has a distribution called home Assistant and it's free, and
so I've had my students get on eBay. I've been
teaching them about buying use computers off eBay for fifty bucks.

(01:05:40):
Take that load up Home Assistant on that and they're
automating their whole houses and it's building a sandbox at
their house because it's giving them an infrastructured system at
their house to learn, make mistakes on things like that,
and they kind of do weird stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:05:59):
Weird stuff always happen at HCC. His name is Matt Adams.
If Matt to wrap this up over here, if a
listener is thinking about a hands on maybe that tech
driven career, why should they consider rolling in this program
at HGC And if so, what information what website can
you give us?

Speaker 9 (01:06:14):
Well, one of the things is we've got lots of seats.
I always like to say at school, empty seats make
bad students. And we've still got seats available for summer
and fall. But one of the things that, of course
higher education is getting a bad rep for these days
of student loan debts. Great thing about HC is we've
got inexpensive classes. We've got tons of you can get

(01:06:36):
financial aid, but plus, because we're a electrical trade, you
can apply for tons of scholarship money there. And I've
got jobs when you graduate. But if you're interested, you
can go to ACCS dot edu and go on there
and you can look up smart building technology.

Speaker 3 (01:06:50):
And I'm very familiar with HCC and I love how
they keep expanding something like this, and I think, certainly
from my seat where I've been doing this for a
quarter of a century over here. Matt. This is something
that is much needed. Smart home wants steroids. I like
it all right, Matt. Congrats on this. Very great. Glad
to hear something like this is starting and rolling too.

Speaker 9 (01:07:09):
I did want to make one other thing. This is
the first two year associate degree in the United States
in this field. So there are a couple of small
programs around the country, but this is this is full
deep dive into.

Speaker 3 (01:07:20):
This sounds great, Matt. Congrats on the success. It's great
to hear something like this is being started right here
in the Texas is certainly HCC at is EIGHTCCS dot
edu if anybody wants him. Matt Adams getting ready to
come over and work in my house.

Speaker 9 (01:07:33):
Cool sounds like a plan, Garth.

Speaker 3 (01:07:35):
I appreciate that. Continued success and have a great summer.
Michael is the name. Questions about this and anything else?
You know how to get a hold of me. We're
going to be right back.

Speaker 7 (01:07:42):
Don't go anywhere, and there you go.

Speaker 3 (01:08:02):
For those kids or even adults who want to participate
in a Houston Community College class, for those sort of
a certification of low vultage of being able to wire
the doorbells and the security cameras if you want to test,
if you want to get you picked tests. I may
have a few things that I could be upgraded. My
home is pretty well tricked out, but feel free to

(01:08:23):
get in touch with me. But again, in most all serious,
I always could use help. But it's a good vocation,
and it's it. That's it. That's some bright news, some
good news, just like Lester Holt says as he ends
his nightly newscast that you know, maybe there is an
opportunity to go out and get a new profession or

(01:08:45):
you know, teach kids of you know, a really neat trade.
So I do thank Matt Adams and the folks at
Mused Community College for coming on spending some time. So
we do wind up the show. I want to pay
off a few of the things that we teased. Texting.
Who has ever received one of those unpaid toll hex scams?
I don't know when this started, but past year or so.

(01:09:06):
It's I'm not getting as much right now, but really,
I mean, it's what's going Hey, you have an unpaid
told click this button? Yeah, okay, if you get a
text from any number that you don't know any number.
You don't know number one, probably delete it. In a
worst case scenario, I go, I'd say, go to a

(01:09:26):
pay phone, but you kids don't know what a payphone is.
Go to a phone, a wired phone, your office phone
or something and call the number. Don't call from your
cell phone. If you do call from your cell phone,
you can use the old trick star six' seven to
hide your number so you don't see who's, calling just
to see if it's. Real but you just don't do
any this stuff. Anyway Android, google who's the man makes

(01:09:50):
The android. Phone they're actually getting. Smart they are coming
out with this new. Technology google is updating it's scam detection.
Technology should you have An android phone to spot hoaxes
like the unpaid toll text some of the most common
types of text related. Schemes that's according to The Federal Trade.
Commission this new scam detection is going to be in

(01:10:13):
the new update To Google. Messages AND i Use Google
messages BECAUSE i have An android and that's the messaging
app installed on Most android phones by. Default Now i'll
tell you right, Now Google message does a pretty decent
job of monitoring text for other types of ploys like
fake job offers and bogus PACKAGE deff. Alerts still maybe

(01:10:34):
once or twice a, WEEK i still get something that's very.
Suspicious but apparently it's start just starting to roll, out
AND i do need to go check and What i'm
going to do as soon AS i get out of
the radio here in about seven, Minutes i'm gonna go
to my. Messages i'm gonna go to actually see if
there's an, update go To Google play see If Google
messages has. Updated sometimes it does it. Itself sometimes you

(01:10:55):
need to kind of jump start it. Here but this
is all In. Kanjut google had a big developers conference this.
Week they announced a number of different thing cosmetic changes
to the a lot of This google SOFTWARE ai And
Android helper and all this other. Stuff but text scams
related to phony unpaid, tolls they've been on the. Rise
AND i got some stats here for, you Stat, boy

(01:11:18):
the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint center received about sixty thousand
complaints related to toll scams just last. Year fake unpaid
told texts quadrupled Between january and Late. February this is
according to, McAfee the software maker for security and apparently

(01:11:40):
this blows My this blows my. Mind consumers lost four
hundred and seventy million dollars to text scams in twenty twenty.
Four somebody is not listening to my show or watching
MY tv segments BECAUSE i constantly tell you and try
to help you avoid. This who loses four hundred and seventy?

(01:12:04):
Million who loses four hundred and seventy? Dollars who loses
forty seven? Cents don't click on these. Things it's a.
Problem i'm trying to delve Inside google is. Doing but
it's an anti spam. Technology what it does it analyzes
a conversation for red. Flags it's kind of like those

(01:12:25):
phishing scams that you get on. Emails oh this looks
legit because it's got a logo Of amazon or some
company you, know or a. Bank. AH a lot of
these texts they have poor, grammar they have urgent. Language
oh you gotta do this, now suspicious, links faked, logos
blah blah. Blah just don't do. IT i let things

(01:12:48):
go to voicemail more than you can. Know IF i
do not know the, Number i'll listen to my voicemail
eight out of ten times IT'S i don't know who this.
Is it's a, fake it's, bot it's a. Scam it's
really consumer. AWARENESS i have taken to consumer awareness and
brought in the use of, technology because the technology is

(01:13:08):
how we we don't even. Use we don't very few
people use wired, phones landline. Phones my, parents if you're
listening In, dallas shout out to. YOU i, know still
the same phone line THAT i had WHEN i was
living there many, many many years. Ago but nowadays it
are these technological devices that can fake who they, are
and bots who they, are and THEN ai this AND ai.
That just be freaking. Careful would you please please be.

(01:13:29):
Careful it's as simple as. That all, right last thing
or two that we're missing. HERE i talk about cars a.
Lot i've been, testing test driving some new. Cars what is? This,
oh who uses, well speaking of apples And? Android who
Uses apple Car play Or Android? Auto, right those are
becoming so prevalent in newer. Cars used to be you

(01:13:52):
had to plug your phone in to use. These and
what it does it mirrors what's on your phone and
it puts it on the screen on the, right on
the infotainment, screen so you don't have to take your
eyes off the. Road, nowadays it's more and More, bluetooth
so you just wirelessly turn your blue tooth. On you're
gonna get it To apple Car play is getting a
very big. UPGRADE i think they've upgraded that thing in

(01:14:14):
a long. Time apple Car play right, now it's used
by hundreds of, thousands millions of people who use that
phone's app over the built in apps for their. Cars infotamus.
System something new coming. Out it's called Car Play ultra
and it's new. Software but it's gonna help iPhones capabilities
into a vehicle system so you can use your vehicles

(01:14:36):
features and use the smartphone. Too, allegedly it's gonna make
it more user friendly and. Whatever so according To, apple
this is the next. Generation it's going to be the
ultimate in in car, experience ultimate in in car. Experience
so some of the brands that you are going to
see is going to feature this Car Play, Ultra, Hyundai, Kia,

(01:14:56):
Genesis apparently they like playing With South korean made, cars
and you're gonna see it more and. More This divine so,
anyway it's going to have multi screen, integration advanced vehicle
specific features for those, Vehicles enhanced vehicle function, controls some new.
Widgets when do we expect this? Thing that is a

(01:15:16):
very good. Question but right, Now CarPlay ultra works with
the iPhone twelve or. Later if you're running iOS eighteen point,
five one of the latest iOS you may want to.
See the dropperning system is updated so over the Next,
actually it's launching with The Aston martin. Models, OH i
have so many of my listeners who have Askedon martin's

(01:15:37):
actually don't. HAVE i probably. Do but it's going to
be available to vehicles all over the world within the
next twelve. Months, okay good news out Of google with Their,
android with their anti text news out Of. Apple man
it is cat and. Mouse what do you? Got you
got a blue, dot you got a green, dot dead,
matter it doesn't. Matter use your son. Screen this, weekend
as we wind up the, SHOW i want to wish
you a Happy Memorial. Day who used this weekend and

(01:16:00):
we Use monday As Memorial day to remember and memorialize
those who have made this country free for, us and
so we thank you so much for. That while you're out,
sunning while you're out, drinking, skiing, surfing whatever you're, doing have,
fun can be. Safe thank. You everybody who has put

(01:16:22):
the show. Together Calen read And will And Brian rickson
and everybody At iHeartRadio wherever you, are have a wonderful
and very safe, weekend and we will see you back next,
week the final weekend Of. May that's when we come.
Back my name Is Michael. Marky it's Called The High
Tech Technique. Show and right now my show can move.

Speaker 6 (01:16:38):
Over