Cyber Monday Deal Still Available; Apple NameDrop?; Googles Deactivating What?

• Cyber Monday deals that are still available.

• What you need to know about Apple's NameDrop.

• Google starts deleting inactive Gmail accounts. Here's how to save yours.

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
Is Michael Garfier. Michael Garfield.Michael Garfield's joining in the high Tech Texan.
Michael Garfield is here with a hightech textans items to make life easier,
new technology, and Michael Garfield hassomething you might want. Michael Garfield

(00:26):
is your high Tech Texan. Threedecades helping you make magic with your gadgets.
I heard worldwide on the iHeartRadio addnow your high tech Texan. Michael
Garfield. Do you remember the veryfirst part of December? I know,

(00:48):
I know, calendar has changed.It is December, the very first Saturday
in December. If you're listening liveHello, good late morning or good late
evening, depending on what time you'relistening to the high Tech Textan show,
I know. Don't say it.I can't believe it sorty of December.
Shut up, man, it's beena long year. It's been a tough
year. It's been a rough yearsfor some people. I'm just here two

(01:11):
hours a week, like I've beenfor almost a quarter of a century,
just trying to give yourself a littlesunshine, make you laugh, give you
some advice, somebody to talk to. I'm your pal. I'm not bringing
you down with any politics, anything, like that. I am your gift
guy, your product guy, yourconsumer lifestyle guy. I'll tell you where

(01:32):
to eat, where to go,where to shop, what to do,
what not to do, what notto eat, and try to keep you
living in healthy as we try tomuddle through these crazy times that we are
living in. As we finished thelast month of twenty twenty three. Garf
is my nickname. If you havemy cell phone, I am not giving
that out on air, but alot of people have my cell phone.

(01:53):
Text me to say hi, thenmaybe I'll give you a shot back.
If you don't know my cell phone, you could talk to me on air.
That's what calumraid. Hello, Hell, how are you? How was
your Thanksgiving? Buddy good turkey hamvery nice looking, svelt looking good?
You're ready for the last month cocktailtime? Callum. He is my man
running all the operations on the otherside of this glass. He will pick

(02:14):
up the phone. Maybe you areyou going to pick up the phone?
Mood call. He may pick itup at seven one three two one two
five nine five oh two one twofive nine five oh and never hadn't changed
in the twenty plus years that I'vebeen doing this radio show. The products
I've talked about continue to change andevolve on the radio show as well as

(02:37):
services. This is what we havefor you on Tap today. I'm going
to start off here in a secondor two about Cyber Monday. People.
If you found something for Cyber Monday, which was this past Monday, and
we can go back to Black Friday. This is my post, my first
post Black Friday show. What didyou guys get anything cool? You got
a good deal? There are someCyber Monday deals, as I just checked

(02:58):
before I went on air, thatare still out there. I will tell
you about that controversy with Apple.I don't know now's the time for you
Apple Hawks to actually switch to Android. I'm not telling you you should or
could, but there's a controversy rightnow that you and your kids may want
to know about called name drop.I will give you the p by p
of what is up with this namedrop and how you actually parents could protect

(03:20):
your kids and turn into this thingoff. I love the feature, I
love what it does. But policeare now they're warning parents about this new
feature. If you have a Gmailaccount and you have not used your Google
Gmail account, you may want tocheck it because starting two days ago,
Google is starting to delete inactive Gmailaccounts. I will tell you how you
can save your free Gmail accounts alongthe way. It's the end of the

(03:46):
year countdown and other fun things.I saw the word of the year from
Miriam Webster. You're actually going tobe a maze balls at what the word
of the year it is. Andalso some other fun things of food and
drinks, some music to really roundout and make your December a very peppy.
So you know the number, youknow how to get me at high

(04:06):
tech textan on pretty much all thesocial media and the last I checked,
the last I checked calum verify isis X still actually running right now?
Elon Musk and listen you could,you could think what you want. I'm
not going to give my thoughts onElon Musk, whether he's a good dude,
bad dude, weird dude, antianti semi, I don't know whatever

(04:27):
you keep that, but Elon Muskhas been in the news. He's constantly
in the news for just doing someoutlandish and I think that's a fair word.
I think that's a uh. IfX formally known as Twitter is still
up and running on a daily basis, I would be surprised because they could
be out of business. I willtell you about that. So I'm on
threads also, and I'm on Instagramand all as high tech textan h I

(04:50):
G h T E C h TE x A. And let's start with
this Cyber Monday. Not sure ifyou got anything. There's a record day
for Cyber Monday Day and a recordday for Black Friday. The number of
people who have purchased things online,not just at their desktop, but not
more people are shopping on their mobilephones. I was pretty amaze balls that

(05:10):
Black Friday there were in the retailsegment. If you were out and about
last for about a week ago Friday, there were very few people getting up
early, lining up, standing inthe cold weather to try to get their
deal on a high def TV oran air fryer or a pressure cook or
something. People are doing it online. Cyber Monday comes along and they another

(05:34):
billions and billions of dollars were soldAmazon Walmart. There were smart home devices,
there were gaming consoles, there werekitchen appliances. I did see a
few things. Now, listen,I'm going to go through a thing or
two real quickly in the next twominutes before we take our first break.
They did catch my eye. Ifyou're still looking for some late Cyber Monday

(05:55):
deals, I will tell you this. You need to continue shopping every day
because stores will gelttinue to put thingson sale on sale. The big caveat
is when is the cutoff date?Read the fine print of when is the
last day? This can be shippedto you to make it towards either Hanuka
Birthday, Christmas, or whatever holidayyou celebrate. Some of the favorite,

(06:16):
my favor or interesting Cyber Monday dealsthat are still out there that I checked,
so a few of them are onAmazon. I see someone best Buy
ride over here. If you stillnot into if you're into streaming and you
still have an older TV or evena newer TV, you know there's all
these streaming devices out there. Rokuare Oku. I saw a Roku Express

(06:39):
four K plus four K plus.It's twenty five bucks. You say fifteen
dollars. Normally these things are fortytwenty five bucks. It's a really good
streaming device, probably one of thebetter ones they came out this year at
twenty twenty three. It does supportfour K even though there's not a four
K out there. I will tellyou this breaking news knows this ship.

(07:00):
But it seems that CBS is goingto show the Super Bowl for the very
first time that CBS has done itin four K. Should your Houston technans
be in there. But for twentyfive bucks, that's not a big deal
at all. If you want anApple Watch, these kids out there,
there's this series nine Apple Watch.I think the Amazon had this for three
hundred and twenty nine dollars at seventydollars off. Seventy dollars off. There

(07:24):
was a fitbit, the Fitbit Chargesix. If you want one of these
counterstep type of things, saw itone hundred dollars at Amazon. That's sixty
dollars off too. Don't don't letI've learned the hard way. Guys.
Don't get your women women or multiplehow many women you have, or even
one. Don't get them an appliancefor holidays or birthdays, like a vacuum.

(07:47):
But if you dare, there's adis in v eleven cordless vacuum one
hundred and seventy dollars off at bestBuy. So it's four hundred dollars at
best Buy. So if you wantto get out of relationship, you may
want to give your significant other avacuum or maybe an air fryer. Trust
me, you want to stay awayfrom that thing. I got a number
of other deals, but can iflet me put it this way as we

(08:11):
get out of here on this break, if you are debating on a deal,
because you're debating on this product versusthis product, is this one better?
This is what I'm here for.I've got about an hour and forty
five minutes with you seven one threetwo one two five nine five ozho.
If you cannot get through, popme a just at me at high Tech,
Texan on one of these social mediasand I can respond to it.

(08:35):
I'm more than happy to and giveyou a shout out here in the radio.
So lots of things coming up,so do be fair. We don't
go anywhere. Just turn the TVdown, turn the radio up, and
you can still watch the Longhorns playin the Big twelve Championship. Happy holidays
from everybody here, kap Interceed nineteenfifty eight to you. I say happy
holidays because there are a number ofdifferent holidays people celebrated, and now that

(08:58):
is December. I guess you canofficially say that I believe you can officially
put your holiday lights up if you'reClark Griswolding yourself. And I don't know
if there's a proper time for that. I started seeing Christmas decorations and stores
before Halloween. You probably did too, and people are you know, it's
funny. I see aw these memeson social media. Once Thanksgiving ended,

(09:22):
It's like, yes, now,officially you could put your Christmas lights if
I love Christmas lights artist, Ijust thought Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer that
was on CBS last Monday. Andwhat else I love? And I don't
celebrate Christmas. I love these Christmaslights, Christmas music Sunday ninety nine.
All Christmas music, all the time. As much as I tell Mark Sherman,

(09:43):
our program director, to play alittle Hanukah song by Sandler, he
may play at about three in themorning. I just did to put it
puts I don't know, it justputs me in the mood. What else
was on? Oh? I sawthe Grinch. You're a mean one,
mistood a grinch. I've not seenCharlie Brown yet, callum favorite Christy.
You're too young, I am,And I don't want to throw away my

(10:07):
age because people are going to startgoogle this. So my age, I
was born the same year that Rudolphthe Red Nose Reindeer and Charlie Brown Christmas
came out. That's how old Iam. I am the same age as
the Super Bowl. I am thesame age. I was born in the
sweet spot. I don't I know, I don't look my age. I
certainly's a hell don't act my age. But I grew up with the stuff.

(10:31):
But you know, I never hadthe opportunity to wake up and run
underneath the Christmas tree. It openedthings. No, I had eight crazy
nights, but it's it's it's stillnice just to be put in the mood
cold. When the weather's cold,it also puts me in the mood thanks
to the week. It was awesome. Man As a runner, I'm out.
That's the best running weather. Andthen a few days ago then these

(10:54):
nasty tornado type of season came in. It needs to get colder, and
so I digress when it comes toholiday seas. But this is what I'm
talking about. I'm talking about gifts. If you have a gift suggestion,
I just gave you some cyber Mondaysales that I that I checked, not
long ago that was still on there. If you were debating about something and
including cars and trucks, I'm gonnagive you. Next hour, i'm gonna

(11:16):
get into cars, EV cars.I find myself getting into conversations with people
who asked me about EV's electric vehicles, and it's not so much now is
now the time to buy one?The question is now should I even get
one? And if you're a longtimelister, you know my thoughts on electric
vehicles and I'm not gonna spil itright now, but next hour I'm gonna

(11:37):
really get into some numbers that Ihave been seeing, including on a report
that Consumer Reports Great magazine and websitejust came out with that. I wasn't
too shocked, but you may shockwith before you actually and go buy cars
out there. Seven to one tothree two one two five nine five zero
at High Tech Text and high TE H T E x am. I

(12:01):
want to get into this iPhone namedrop thing. Parents You should parents,
you should always listen listen to thisone over here. So Apple has this
they have an update, this newsoftware update iOS seventeen. Did anybody download
the new iOS update? I didnot because I don't have an iPhone iOS
seventeen, and it has an update, and it has a feature that allows

(12:24):
users to share contact information and photosby simply holding two iPhones together very close
range. And it's a feature it'scalled name Drop, and it's activated by
the users who have installed this recentsoftware to iOS seventeen. And according to

(12:50):
Apple, name drop only works forsending new contact information, not updating in
existing contact. Well, law enforcementagencies now are getting into this. They're
warning people, especially parents, abouta privacy about this privacy update that allows
these users to see a private information. So the police are getting into this

(13:15):
thing. And let me give youa quote over here. This is intense.
The Henry County Sheriff's office, thoughit's in Tennessee, they posted a
warning along with police departments in Virginiaor something in Ohio, Wisconsin. Let
me give you a quote here.This is intended for the public to be
aware of, as this is somethingthat can easily be mistaken or looked past

(13:39):
by elderly or children or other vulnerableindividuals. See the intentions of the information
provided is to inform the public ofthis feature and adjust their settings as needed
to keep their own or their lovedone contact information is safe. So what
is happening over here when two peoplehold their iPhones together. I believe it
seems like there's an opportunity over herewhere every singing one of your contacts can

(14:01):
be transferred from one phone to theother. Not good. Like a lot
of people have my phone number andmy contact information and my birth date and
probably my waist size. I don'twant that information getting out. That's my
government. People, that's my government. Don't be jacked with my government.
So if you're sharing this information somebodyelse, I don't want anybody else to
get my information. So you needto potentially want to turn this thing off.

(14:24):
How do you turn it off?Well, I will tell you how
to turn it off. When usersinstall this iOS seventeen, name drop is
defaultitude on. That's right. Soto shut off the feature, go to
your settings, go to general,go to air drop. Then there's something

(14:48):
called bringing devices together. It willnot say the word name drop, and
then select off settings General air drop, bringing Devices Together, select off.
I'd probably would recommend doing that.I remember there were when when apps first
came out. This was the secondgeneration of the iPhone two thousand and eight.

(15:11):
Let's just say there was a prettycool feature. I mean certainly back
then. No, we didn't needto carry business cards. Hey, who
needs a business card? Here?Let's just I forget the name of this.
It didn't last long. It wasn'tcalled name drop or shadow. If
anybody remembers this, text me oractually put it on social media, you
would put two phones together and usingthe it was either NFC or nearfield communications

(15:37):
which most all phones have, orBluetooth, you would just see her information.
Oh my goodness, it's just populatedmy phone. How cool is this?
I thought it was cool, andit didn't last. It didn't work.
This is relatively the same thing.By putting it in depending listen,
you could be sitting on a bus, subway wherever you are, if you're

(15:58):
listening on streaming, because there's nosubway here in the Texas, any anywhere
in Texas. You could just actuallyput your phone right next to somebody without
them knowing you start sharing information.Not good. I would recommend turning this
thing off. So this is alittle PSA between me and you. It
is called name drop. Other thanthat, anything else you want, I'm

(16:18):
I'm here seven one, three,two, five, Oh coming up.
Don't go anywhere I'm gonna have aquick conversation with a frequent contribute to the
Show's name is Steve Winter. Steveis with a company called Astounds here in
Houston. They're a web developer,uh, but they're also SEO search engine
optimization and for companies out there,if you still have it figured out that

(16:41):
this is a an incredibly effective andalmost a must have way to advertise and
reach out to get your business infront of people. Along with radio,
which obviously I have to say isprobably one of the most effective, if
not the most effective, way toadvertise. We'll talk about search engine optimization,
search engine marketing which is SEM,and other things. So just a

(17:06):
Trevor shrove of information as we continuethe High Tech text and show. Michael
is my name, don'g go awharewith people having too much fun? We
are back at it. Michael isthe name, Michael Garfield, High Tech
Texan. Hope everybody is having awonderful day over here. Early December.
Early December people, I mean,you gotta think, man, you gotta
think twenty twenty four is rolling aroundhere by the time you know it,

(17:30):
and you need to start planning forthings. And I know We're talking a
lot about what you buy, whatgift giving is for this holiday season.
But you know, I talk alot about businesses, small businesses, medium
sized businesses. I mean, howwas your year? I mean was it
good? I mean? Do youadvertise? And I do? I'm really
involved in the online advertising. Doyou I remember back in the day you

(17:52):
got to sign up for newsletters?You know, now it's social media.
How many eyeballs do you have?But also you can't sleep on SEOS search
engine optimization and also sem search enginemarketing. There's all there's so many different
things. I always enjoy having aconversation with the buddy of mine, Steve
Winter. Steve runs a organization,a company here in Houston. It is
called a stounds A S t OU N d Z put a Z on

(18:18):
it because he thinks he's hiptowns dotcom. They do a great job across
the board, including web design.So if you look at my high tech
tech dot com website, they totallyredid that for me. It's coming up
on three years. I believe,Steve, as you join me right now,
that you redid my website is forthe companies who haven't touched their websites
in about seven or eight years.No, what do you do to fire

(18:41):
them up? Actually, you know, because you need update your website just
because of search and everything. Wellyeah, I mean you have to do
it if you want to build yourbusiness and it matters about being found online,
you have to keep it updated.And you know, we helped the
commercial HVA company here in Houston andhe kind of came in kicking and screaming,

(19:03):
but he needed help updating his website. I said, I'll do it
for you, but you got todo SEO for your business, and you
know, very reluctant. And I'lltell you what. A year later,
we ran into him and he waswith his accountant and he said, hey,
it's the best thing they ever did. It absolutely blew their business up,
you know, and you see allthese home service businesses and everything else.

(19:26):
They spent a lot of money onSEO and it's for a good reason
because they get a lot of businessout of it. Well they do.
You know. It's funny SEO.And again for those unaware, it's search
engine optimization and Steve, I've knownyou since it's almost going back to high
school for to day. But searchengine optimization I remember having a conversation with
you, and I'm going to goback eight, nine, ten years ago.

(19:48):
It was it was in its infancyand with companies wanted to get their
name and branding out. You lookat traditional media, you know, look
at radio, TV, print andwhatever, and oh, by the way,
there's this thing search engine optimization thatpeople needed to be educated on and
then they were fighting with their bossesto maybe get some sort of a budget.
This is what you deal with aregular basis. But anecdotally to me,

(20:11):
search engine optimization is now built in. We don't need to explain with
people because they know what it is. They're taking advantage that they need to
know how to do it right.They need a company like years to handhold
and do it. But it's notas big of a sell to companies now
like it was ten years ago becausethey realize it works. Yeah, I
mean we just got you know.I saw a thing on next door or

(20:33):
Alignable the other day and someone said, hey, do you need SEO?
And I thought there would be somederogatory things out there because SEO does have
its connotations, because there are alot of fly by night companies out there
that will take your money and notdo anything and all that, but you
know, it was overwhelmingly that ifyou if your business needs leads, you
have to do search engine optimization.And it's so competitive these days, there's

(20:56):
so many websites out there and somany new websites coming up. But the
great news is even if you havean older site, if you've got a
mature domain out there and all thatis certainly helps you. And then when
you go to optimize it, havingthat longevity certainly helps in Google's eyes.
So you know, it's it's oneof those things that you invest some time.
You've got to invest a little bitof money. But unlike SEM the

(21:19):
urge in your market, we haveto pay for every click. Once you
get there, then the clicks itdoesn't matter how many times someone clicks on
it, right, it's you're thereand you'll show up. And so those
are quote free clicks that you've investedin. Talking to Steve Winter, he
runs astounds dot com pretty much,SEO web design and so many other things.
How difficult is it if people wantto attempt to try SEO themselves or

(21:45):
the people just say, you knowwhat, I need to leave it to
a professional company like you. Youknow, it's we learn more every day.
We do this stuff every day andit's changing all the time, you
know. I mean, they're thebasics out there that one can learn and
do and all that, but it'sconsistent work that you have to do on
the website. You know, it'sit's technical. You got to set up

(22:07):
things technically right, it's analytical,you got to go know where you can
and can't compete. It's functional.You got to write content and you know
AI helps it right. You canhelp chat gbt CA and right things till
the cows come home. But youstill got to link it right and all
that, and then you've got toget the proper back links and things like
that in there. So it's it'songoing work and you know to to hire

(22:33):
us to do it. You know, we're we're one tenth one twentieth the
cost of a full time employee doingit. So it's a heck of a
lot better investment to outsource it thanit is to try to do it on
your own. Once you outsource itand you do it once and you optimize
it so when you know you putin the keywords like Houston Pizza Pairland nail

(22:55):
shop or something I'm again, I'mbreaking it down as about as rudimentary as
I can. How often do youhave to continue to change these things and
keep it up the maintenance, Well, you have to. Once you get
there, it's a lot easier tomaintain it. Okay, you don't have
to invest nearly as much. Butyou know, we've worked with the folks
of like ABC Home and commercial pestControl. Go look at pest Control or

(23:19):
Exterminator. They're number one or twonow, okay, but they invested some
money into it and they'll continue toIt's their whole business, and they do
a great job. Okay, they'rea great company, but you know,
you've got to continually work at it. They're creating content all the time,
they're doing things. It is anongoing process because if not, the Orcans

(23:41):
and termin X's and all those inthe world are going to continue changing their
website and continue trying to win.Okay. So it's kind of like the
analogy of how do you get inshape. You don't go work out one
time and think you're in shape,and you don't go get in shape and
stop working out and think you're goingto stay in shape. SEO is the
same thing. You have to continuallylook at it and work at it.

(24:03):
Some keywords you may stay there thewhole time, but there are going to
be other ones you're going to dropin and out of. And Google is
changing their algorithm literally on a monthlybasis, if not more sometimes, And
so that's why we're constantly looking atit and seeing what has changed. Where
are we doing good? Where isthere any place we're doing bad? You
know? Do we need to addmore links, do we need to create

(24:26):
more content? What is happening outthere? And checking it daily because it
is changing all the time. Butknock on wood, we do it very
you refer to it as white hat. We're not trying to game the system.
We're not trying to do anything,you know, to get around Google's
algorithm. But we have to workwithin their parameters. And when these algorithm

(24:49):
changes come out, hopefully we dobetter than our competitors, which is what
we see often is when they makean algorithm update because of how we do
it, that we actually do orinstead of falling talked, I'll leave you
with this. When I talked aboutyou know, end of year companies or
maybe now planning they should be planningfor twenty twenty four. If you give
one piece of ice to companies,you know, obviously maybe in the internet

(25:11):
realm, website, domain realm orwhatever like that, maybe it's SEO,
what's what's what's the one number oneadvice you would give a company just to
make sure that they go out andgrasp twenty twenty four as quickly as best
as they can marketing with. Yeah, I mean, well, what we
try to be for a client istheir least expensive salesperson. And that's what
your website can be if depending onyour business and all that for you know,

(25:34):
anywhere from five hundred dollars, youknow, and it can go up
to five or ten thousand dollars,but depending on your industry. But for
literally hundreds of dollars, you havea salesperson that can work twenty four seven,
three sixty five for you, justsitting there waiting to help you build
your business. There you go,spoken like a true winner like he has.

(25:56):
His name is Steve Winter Companies calledAstounds, astoun dz dot com,
Houston Base. But for those listenerswho don't even live in this market,
there's no reason you still can't usethese folks, because I know you got
clients customers all over the country.How about a phone on all over the
country people in a contest seven onethree nine zero four five thousand and one,

(26:18):
nine oh four, five thousand andone. And like you said,
as Towns dot com is where youcan easily see and learn about us.
And look at our reviews. They'rereal, they're intact. And that's the
other thing to do is people payattention to reviews. Get people to give
you reviews on your Google business listing. Yeah, and here's what beer right
now. I went through your process. I literally came down, sat down,

(26:41):
I went to you the questionnaire youbeen helped me home down my business
models and goal five star review forme. And that's that's true. So
I appreciate your help helping to growthe brand. Baby, that's how you
do it. Can appreciate it enough, Steve Wader, listen, great talking,
Do you have good advice, Havea happy holiday season, and we
hope to with you seeing on ourregular basis in twenty twenty four. Absolutely,

(27:03):
thank you, you got it.You're right, all right, take
that advice to heart. People comingup on the High Tech Texan Show,
we've got more info over some cyberMonday deals that are still hanging around and
also stand next hour talking about carsand evs. This is something you really
want to do right now before youpull the trigger. Ah, that's a
teach you can't go anywhere right here. Michael Warfield in the High Tech dex

(27:26):
and show. I got it.Thank you so much to mister Steve Winter
from s Downs. That's as toun d Z put a z on an
estounds dot Com there here in Houston. But if you're listening outside of this

(27:47):
market, you don't need to behere because that's how the Internet works.
They can work with you if youneed a new website, if you need
a new if you need to figureout what search engine marketing, search engine
optimization is. That these cats arereally cool. It doesn't cost you anything
to at least talk to Steve andteam to see what's going on at stounds
dot Com. Got a few openphone lines here, But I do have
some other stuff to talk about.Miriam Webster. I never met Miriam.

(28:12):
I wonder if she was hot.Apparently the Merriam Webster way back in the
day created a what a dictionary orsomething? Actually, I should look up
Miriam Webster in Merriam Webster. Maybethere's a picture of her. I don't
know. She sounds like a redhead. I'm not sure. Merriam Webster has
released the word of the Year fortwenty twenty three Word of the Year.

(28:33):
I always very interested in stupid stufflike this. It is not instead of
doing something kind of weird and quirky, like a maze balls, which was
a few years ago. Here's theword of the year. Here for this.
Authentic. Authentic the twenty twenty threeMerriam Webster Word of the Year,

(28:59):
and I'll tell you why they sayand authentic was consistently among its most looked
up words of the year of chatGPT generated content. Celebrity is trying to
present their real selves, their realselves through music or their memoirs. So
authentic is the word, man,that's a cop. Ow They got to

(29:22):
be something. I mean, whatelse? Open listen if anybody's got better
If you could think of better wordor even a phrase, the word of
the year hit me up here athigh Tech Texting Because authentic, that's that's
a cop Merriam Webster. No,I don't even care if you have a
hot sister, don't talk to meanymore. Don't talk to me anymore.

(29:42):
This portion of the show we arebrought to you by my good friends at
US Coins and Jewelry. I wasat US Coins and Jewelry on Katie Freeway
right there at Vass on Wednesday.This place is hustling and bustling and it's
now just getting into December. Tooksome video and as a matter of fact,
this coming Wednesday, I will beon I'm doing a segment on Great

(30:06):
Day Houston, Channel eleven, ofwhich I am a regular contributor, Thank
you so much. I am havingmy Garf gift Guide and I'm spotlighting some
Houston based stores with products US Coinsand Jewelry top of my list, and
I am bringing in You're right forthis. I am bringing in a four
hundred thousand gold Boullyons, so muchso that the I have to have a

(30:32):
security guard with me. It's oneof the things they sell other things than
that. But we're just gonna havesome fun with it. But if you
do have a lot of coins sittingaround, they will pay you cash for
that, or if you want tobuy some coins, they will do it.
It's funny because I was standing there, I was there's about thirty year
now. I was there about anhour talking to Kenny and Matt Duncan family
run business for well over thirty fiveyears. People were coming in with just
boxes and they're wheeling suitcases in noreason to be afraid of anything they have.

(30:59):
So this is probably be one ofthe most secure locations in the city
of Houston. They've got cameras insideand outside. They've got security guards and
once you're inside, you feel sosafe. You sit in a little private,
little cubby. They will evaluate yourwatches, your rolex and they will
pay you on the spot. Theywill sell you some rolexes. They're gorgeous.
They got a slew of those inpre owned rolexes, some really beautiful

(31:21):
ones. And they got tennis bracelets, they got ear rings, They've got
Texas memorabilia, the big you knowTexas maps from back in the day with
eighteen thirty six. It's just it'sa neat, neat place to go.
US coins and Jewelry dot Com.If you're not in the Houston area,
you can do all the transactions online. US Coins and Jewelry dot Com.
We thank them for their big partnershipGoogle. I'm a big fan of I

(31:47):
have probably eight to ten Gmail accounts. Don't ask why, don't ask why?
I don't use all of them untilearlier later, this probably about a
day or two ago that Google isnow beginning to delete in active accounts.
I want to keep on my Gmail. You never know when you need an
email account every time you sign upfor a deal or a newsletter. I

(32:10):
never give my number one main emailinbox. I don't want to do that
to get on the spam. SoI'll create these other emails and then maybe
I'll check here there. But ifyou if you have a Gmail account and
I love Gmail. Gmail. Man. When Google released that years and years
ago, it was kind of abeta test. You had to have an

(32:30):
invite. I love it just it'swhatever Gmail dot com and it's free.
You can make up as many asyou want. But if you haven't used
it, they can be deleted ifit's been an active for two years two
years. Google said this, it'sbecause they're protecting users from scammers, because

(32:51):
if you've got to forgotten your unattendedaccount, odds are there more likely to
be compromised because they've often rely onold or reused passwords that may have been
compromised and they don't have two factorauthentifications set up, and there's fewer security
checks by the users. And Googlesays their internal analysis shows abandoned accounts are

(33:12):
at least ten times less likely thanactive accounts have two step verifications set up.
But anyway, they're starting to deletethose beginning like two days ago early
December, and Google's going to firststart deleting accounts that were created and never
used again. And before deleting anaccount, Google said it would send multiple

(33:34):
notifications over the past few months leadingup to the deletion. So maybe you
have seen this and maybe it's sittingin your inbox like, ah, they're
not going to delete it. Yes, they're going to delete it. So
here's how you keep your Gmail accountactive. Number one. Sign into your
Google account least once every two years. That's what Google says. So if
you want to do it, signit out, read an email or send

(33:59):
it inmate, send an email,send an email to yourself. If you
want to also watch a YouTube video, Oh you didn't know that Google owns
YouTube? Nice to meet you useyour Google Drive, go, go upload
something or which is a cloud that'spart of the company too. Download an

(34:20):
app on the Google play Store,and again, using the Gmail account that
you have, use Google Search,do something with Google. This is not
a ploy to get Google's name outthere. This is not a eployee to
use Google. They're serious about deletingthese accounts now. Listen is at the
end of the world. If youdelete your Gmail account that you haven't used
in two years, maybe not.You may have some documents, You may

(34:44):
have emails that you want to keep. Maybe it's from a loved one,
maybe it's from someone who's no longerwith this that you're just kind of keeping
there for something. But I'm justit's just a fair warning. Just go
ahead and keep it. It doesn'tcost anything. That's the whole thing with
Gmail did These things are free becauseonce your Google account is deleted, you
will no longer have access to itor products linked to it, and you

(35:07):
cannot reuse the same email to createa new account. So go ahead and
do that. How many of youhave more than one Email account? You
really should. This is actually somethingI talked about in the past, probably
two weeks. I'm doing a lotof the media rounds of how to protect
yoursel Actually it was Black Friday andCyber Monday. Did you wake up last
Monday, Cyber Monday, with yourinbox just filled with deals, deals dealed

(35:31):
with newsletters that you had no cluewhen you signed up, why you signed
up, and you never hear fromthis, but they came out and drove
Cyber Monday ten percent off, fiftypercent off. Do this then? So
I did some. I did alot of media, a lot of radio
hits Monday. Hey Michael, whatare the best cyber deals of the day.
I didn't start with the cyber deals. I'm thinking this actually should be

(35:52):
another day. We come up withanother name. It's like it's called unsubscribed
Monday, because my inbox was feeledfilled with where did this come from?
So I spent most all day Mondaygoing to every single email, scrolling to
the bottom and hitting unsubscribe. AndI know sometimes that's a kind of dead

(36:14):
giveaway, like hmm, well youjust let these people know, Michael that
it's an active account. They're goingto start spamming you. Maybe. I
mean, at this point, I'mgoing to take the risk. But I
also do one other thing too.Not only do I unsubscribe, I then
and I use Microsoft Outlook, andif you use any other email client,
you may be able to do thistoo. I actually write clicked on that

(36:36):
email, and I sent it tomy junk folder, and I made sure
that every time my email client seesthat address, whatever it's coming from email
address, it goes straight into myjunk mail fol and I never see it
again. It's just a way.It's a timesaver because I get a lot
of emails every day and I'm justsick of the crap that I get that
I didn't even sign up for.So a little tip. That's why you

(36:59):
come up probably with another email addressertoo. So when you're signing up for
something, make it a secondary emailaddress that you do check on a semi
regular basis. Obviously, maybe youhave that email ford you your important email
to your number one email account,but I think it does behoove you to
have more than one email address.There you go, people, Anything else

(37:20):
I can do for you, Well, I got one more hour, all
right, Next hour, I willtell you more ideas how to keep your
data private. And also I'm gonnareally dive deep dive into electric vehicles,
and I may convince you now isnot the time to buy one, But
this is what I do. I'mnot paid to tell you whether to buy

(37:42):
one, whether or not to buyone. I just give you true facts
because it's all no hyperperly here.I'm giving you the straight BS because I
do have a BS degree and itdoes not mean back to your science.

(38:07):
Is Michael Garfier Michael Garfield. MichaelGarfields joining us in the high Tech Texan.
Michael Garfield is here with a highTech Texans. It was to make
life easier, some new technology,and Michael Garfield has something you might want.
Michael Garfield is your high Tech Texan. Three decades helping you make magic

(38:32):
with your gadgets. Heard worldwide onthe iHeartRadio Act. Now your high Tech
Texan. Michael Garfield halfway to HappyHour folk for halfway through the high Tech
Texans Show. Whether you're listening onk orcifty in Southeast Texas, Houston,

(38:54):
odds are it's either just after twelveo'clock PM in the afternoon on Saturday or
during our repeat because someone of youjust want to hear me twice a day.
It is early Sunday morning from werun it from eleven to one eleven
am and eleven pm am to oneapm All garf all the time after twenty

(39:14):
plus years. Hapy Holidays to you. Last hour, we ran down a
number of different things, including MiriamWebster's Word of the Year, which I
think it was a cop out.Did still see some cyber Monday deals?
If you are still looking at buyingthings. I am your consumer shop or
your consumer lifestyle. This is nota political show. This is not a
gardening show. This is not aninvestment show. I just sit here and

(39:38):
tell you what's going on in theworld of streaming or televisions or phones,
and coming up this hour really interestingdive into electric vehicles evs. I don't
tell them one of the bigger,more frequent questions that I get asked because
every week for the past well overfifteen years, I get to drive a
brand new car direct from the manufacturer. I am a member of the Texas

(40:01):
Auto Writers Association, which means somebodyvalues my opinions and I will give you
thumbs up thumbs down. These arenon paid. None of this is an
endorsement, none of it is asponsor. I'm going to give you my
ideas why some of these cars,trucks, SUV cuvs are crap and why
some of them are the bomb,meaning yes, you should get these things.

(40:23):
I did see an interesting article onConsumer Reports about evs and I'll wait
the next segment or so to talkabout that, and I'll certainly we'll take
your calls phone number here. Thisis what we do to seven one three,
two one two five nine five.Oh, there's Callum Read and a
few other boys back there on theother side of the glass, looking like

(40:45):
they still are in a Turkey comafrom the big holiday season. Uh oh,
Calum, you're a football fan too, did you? And I want
to talk about this also? Thisis this is I'd like the convergence of
what is happening because I I ama massive football fan. I'm still scratching
my head why I do not havea show on our sister station seven ninety

(41:07):
sports here on iHeart. But that'sneither here nor there. I live football,
I breathed football. My two teams, College and FRO are having a
phenomenal season so far. My TexasLonghorns, my Dallas Cowboys. It's not
going to end pretty. I've becomingused accustomed to that, but so far

(41:27):
it's not embarrassing whatsoever. Thursday,Thanksgiving Day found me obviously it's a tradition,
tradshaw I smoked a turkey time towrite to halftime of the Cowboy game.
And is there anything better than eatingsmoke turkey, watching Dolly Parton and
at Cowboys cheerleader outfit. I don'tthink so. That's what I do.
That is my thanksgivings growing up inDallas. That's it. But for the

(41:52):
first time ever, the next day, Friday, Black Friday, there was
a football game. There was anNFL football game. I don't know if
you saw not. It was onAmazon, Amazon Prime and you did not
need anybody could have watched it.You don't even need to subscribe to Amazon
Prime. They opened it up toeverybody. And this was kind of an

(42:14):
experiment with the NFL was doing.Callum, did you see this game?
It was a horrible It was thishorrible game. It was Miami Dolphins,
New York Jets. Jets are justhorrible. But I wanted to watch specifically
specifically because this is what they werebillion as, this is going to be
the future of the melding of watchinga sport and shopping interactively because it's on

(42:37):
Amazon. So I was watching thepre game and I was watching some of
the commercials. Is every time acommercial would come up, there was a
QR code. You know that square, black and white little code. You
have no clue what's going on.Every time you see a QR code,
you can hold your phone up toit, and you do this in restaurants
certainly it's COVID and you hold yourcamera up to it and a website will

(42:59):
pop up. It'll take you tothat website. So they wanted to see
how interactive it could be to thesefootball fans, even non football fans who
were tuning in about how can theyget tie these things together? And on
Black Friday there was extra deals twentypercent off, thirty percent off. I
was watching during pregame. I don'tI think if one of the pregame guys

(43:20):
kicked a field goal or did something, they would knock off another thirty percent,
which he did, and if youhold your phone up to the QR
code on the screen, you canget that deal right now. It was
it was interesting over it, butit was just it was the first step,
first four ray into the thing.I thought. I thought that was
pretty neat. So if you sawthat, it's we have seen commercials with
QR codes famously. I think itwas the Super Bowl last year or two

(43:44):
years ago, where some company spentsix and a half million dollars for a
thirty second ad and there was nothingbut a QR code that was slowly balancing
across the screen. Didn't even knowwhat it was for. That was actually
one of the more well received commercialsout there. And then if you hurry
up, you could get your phoneout there and see what was going on.
We're gonna see more of that stuff. But there's bundling and putting two

(44:07):
things together is the way of theworld so much so I saw another one
out there. Is anybody instacart customer, I'm not. I don't do this
grocery delivery or pickup. I aman I am og man. I like
driving to the store, getting outof my car, pushing my cart,

(44:29):
buying things that I want, andthen going In Texas, we can do
that. There's massive stores, plentyof parking spaces, big wide aisles.
It's it's almost it's it's kind oflike a social thing, sampling and whatever.
I don't do this. Instagra Well, if you're an instacart fan,
and I guess they have a higherend version of it called Instacart Plus.

(44:52):
I don't know an away. Instacartjust partnered with Peacock. Peacock is the
NBC streaming service, and if youare an Instacart Plus customer, you now
get Peacock Premium for free. Soyou see what they're doing over here.
This is for kids out there.Let me tell you you know where I'm

(45:14):
going. This is what they calla collab, which, by the way,
that should be Merriam Webster's Word ofthe Year twenty twenty three. Collab,
which is short for collaboration, whichis short for let's do things together.
At some point, these kids,when one of my three boys decides

(45:35):
and finds the right woman to getmarried, I don't think he's gonna say,
will you marry me? I thinkthese kids are gonna say, yo,
you want to collab for life?Neither here nor there, Peacock Instacart,
it's a perk, it's an addon, it's an added value.
So if you have Instacart, whynow, why should I get Instacart versus

(45:59):
Door Dasher. I guess that's oneof them. I don't even know.
Well, if I get, ifI pay for Instagcart Plus, I'm gonna
get Peacock Premium for free. Notbad. I do have previews, I
have Peacock. I'll watch it allthese streaming Oh, by the way,
I bought one thing on Black Friday. One thing. I may have mentioned
this last week's show, the dealof the Day. It was. It

(46:22):
was a pretty good deal out ofthe deal of the year Hulu. I
don't have a lot of streaming services, and I don't have Netflix anymore because
they cut down on passwords sharing.But Hulu was on sale for ninety nine
cents a month for an entire year. They sucker beat you into that.
Now I do have to sit throughads, and I'm fine with ads because

(46:42):
in about thirty seconds I'm gonna breakaway and shut out because we're gonna run
an ad which keeps this radio stationfor free. I don't mind ads.
But I got Hulu and I startedwatching some Hula things. Okay, this
is where I'm gonna stop. Here'sa tease. I'm gonna give you a
list of the top TV shows oftwenty two twenty three. One of the
reasons I got Hulu is because thisTV show is on Hulu. I've seen

(47:05):
one episode and I'm still debating isthis a good show or not? You
can help me decide when you comeback on the High Tech Texting Show,
Michael Garfild losing that gr eld norelation to the cat, although I'm getting

(47:27):
just about as heavy as he is. No more lasigner for me, people.
I'll give you the phone number here. We got about forty five more
minutes left in this long running radioshow based in the Houston, Texas Area's
seven one three two one two fivenine five ozho give me about ten more
minutes and I'm going to get intothis electric vehicles. Amazing article that I
saw on Consumer Reports that it mayshock you if you're looking to buy a

(47:52):
new car, specifically it's an electricvehicle or even a plug in hybrid electric
vehicle. I'm not surprised about thisbecause I do cover the car and truck
industry pretty intently. I was talkingbefore the break about streaming services. If
you're an Instacart Plus customer, theyjust teamed up with Peacock streaming service from

(48:13):
NBC Universal for Peacock Premium, soyou can get that. I don't have
a ton of streaming and you needhere's the end of the year check you
should do. How many streaming servicesdo you have? If you're still complaining
about, oh no I have whyis my bill so high? Well,
maybe because you still have everything fromNetflix, Disney Prime, Hulu, Roku.

(48:42):
It just goes on and on andon. These things add up if
they're anywhere between eight bucks to twentybucks per month, Apple Plus and the
whole thing. I don't have aton of them. But on Black Friday
I saw a deal for Hulu,which is owned by or partially owned by
ABC Disney. They show a lotof tea if you miss some TV.
They've a lot of movies too.Hulu ninety nine cents a month for their

(49:07):
advertising support. Yeah, I'm gonnaget ads, but for that nine cents
a month, it's not bad.So anyway, I sucked it up and
I did it. That was mybig purchase of the year. Yay.
Actually it was a dollar seven withtax, and so I went ahead and
splurged on myself. So I startedwatching The Shoe. One of the reasons
I got is because a lot ofmy buddies said, you got to watch
this show. You gotta watch theshow's coolest show. Well, simultaneously,

(49:28):
I just on the New York Times, which I rarely read, but they
just came out with but it's agreat TV critic James Pawnee Wozick, I
think that's how you pronounced it.He came up with his best shows of
twenty twenty three Best Shows of twentytwenty three, and the first one,
well, I guess it's because it'salphabetical. The first one is on Hulu.

(49:51):
I watched the first episode, andCalum and anybody else feel free to
chime in at high Tech Texan oneepisode. I'm still debating whether it's good
or not. The number one oneof his best shows according to this TV
critic and now on Hulu. TheBear. So people says, man,
the Bear. You gotta watch theBear. I'm like, what is the

(50:13):
bear? And I'm thinking, isit like Grizzly Adams. I seriously,
I don't know anything about this bear. I mean, I knew nothing about
this. What is the bear?How crappy Chicago football team is doing this
year? What is it? AndI watched episode number one and what it's

(50:36):
been out for about a year,very hyped up. And it's a drama
edy, which is a common todramaede. And it's about a restaurant in
Chicago. Maybe that's why I callit the Bear. I don't know there
was a bear or a flashback ofa bear in episode one, and there's
this dysfunctional family and they feed.Guess it's about food. So now I'm

(51:00):
thinking, is this a reality showabout food like Gordon Ramsey or no it's
not. Has anybody seen the Bear? And should I continue watching? After
what I I didn't love it.I didn't hate it, and it was
very fast paced, which is goodfor a dude like me. It kept
my attention, but I don't knowwhere it's going. Yes or No.

(51:24):
Seven? Five? Oh, it'son Hulu. I'm not selling this.
I'm asking you. Should I savemy time? Does it get better?
I mean I could dig the theI mean I know how the shows and
movies are structured. Characters. Man, there's some character flaws. There's some

(51:45):
craziness here, there's some love.It's just I don't I don't get I
don't get the bear. Don't getthe bear. So that was my Hulu
purchase. Other best shows of theyear, We're gonna go I love doing
this. We're gonna go down thelist. And I am pop culture guy,
pop culture. I have been doingpop cult. I love pop culture,
but I am I getting old orI just have other things that are

(52:07):
tearing me away. There's a showcalled Beef on Netflix. I don't have
Netflix. Never heard of the wordbeef. I don't eat beef. I
don't eat a lot of ridden meat. So that's maybe why something I show
Time called The Curse. Never heardof it. The Curse sounds scary.
I don't do scary things. AmazonPrime. I do have Amazon Prime show

(52:27):
called Dead Ringers. Sounds kind ofscary. I haven't seen it. If
it an't a comedy, I'm probablynot gonna watch it. I never seen
it Amazon. There's another one calledI'm a Virgo Again. Anyone no clue
about that? Amazon. I've heardof this one. This is called Jury
Duty, and this is kind ofa reality comedy show. I've seen one

(52:51):
episode of this. I didn't digit. Man. So there's like this
fictional law case jury thing, andthere's eleven fake jurors or actors, but
then there's one real juror, andyou don't know which one is real.
I don't know. I watched itbecause James Marsden, the actor, plays

(53:12):
himself, and I like James Marsden. I actually met James Marsden last October,
about two months ago. He wasat a football game I was at
up in Dallas. Cool dude livesin Austin from Oklahoma, and he yes,
ladies, he looks just as goodas he does in real person as
he does on TV. I justI just didn't get it. That's on
Amazon. One of the best showsof the year, The Last of Us

(53:37):
and somebody somewhere. The Last ofUs has been around for a while.
Pedro Prescal never seen it. Iknow I'm in a reservation. Dogs on
FX, No Clue, south Sideon Max, Nope, Succession Now,
Succession has been around for a while, but apparently this guy it's on HBO

(53:59):
did it end. He said itwas the one of his best shows.
I saw one succession. This apparentlythis is what my life is turned into.
Listen. My attention span is notgreat. You can ask a lot
of people who I hang around with, and obviously the people who I don't
even talk to anymore. I needit. I need something to keep my
dick dick dick attention span. Itbetter grabbed me and the Succession thing.

(54:22):
It's the family and it's inbred fightingover who's going to control. So again,
I saw one episode and I haven'twatched it since. Not saying it's
bad, but I probably should watchit because I still think I have my
friend Perry's HBO or my Max accountsomewhere. So theres are your best shows
of twenty twenty three. If youguys like that, I don't know.

(54:43):
But if you are still interested instreaming some things, I could tell you
some streaming devices. Let's go back, let's flip it up. If you
don't have US, if you havean old fashioned TV, you need a
device. Maybe your elderly parents theydon't want to spurs for a TV with
that streams with Wi Fi and it'stoo difficult to set up. You can
get these devices that just plugs intoyour you know, HDMI on the back

(55:08):
of your set. Some of themare cheapest twenty five dollars. I saw
a Rokup four K for twenty fivedollars. Normally it's forty dollars. So
these are the things that are outthere that will help you bide your time
in and watch your shows. Ithink it's because it's during football season.
I mean my football watching it's offthe charts. If you know me,

(55:28):
you listen to me. Ninety fivepercent of everything I watch is on ESPN.
That is ex That's all I doholiday season. On Thursday of Thanksgiving,
I watched one two three NFL gamesOn Friday. The day after,
I watched the the Black Amazon BlackFriday game, the Jets Dolphins in the

(55:49):
afternoon, and obviously I watched theythe University of Texas Longhorns beat Texas Tech
to get them into the Big TwelveChampionship. Saturday, I wake up.
I watched them Ohio State Mission gameSaturday night. I'm watching Florida State game.
Sunday. I actually went to theTexans game. Folks, What's up?
Look at me? I got invited. That's how bored I was on
Sunday. Cowboys didn't play on Sunday, so I'm gonna miss it. I

(56:13):
actually went to the Texans game.C J. Strauss stud nail bider fifty
eight yard field goal just comes upa bit short. This is my life.
I don't need to watch TV.But other part of my life is
reviewing things, including cars. Folks, when we come back, gather the
family around podcast this. If you'rethinking about about buying an electric vehicle,
definitely want to get here what I'mabout to say about this coming up high

(56:36):
Tech Texicans show. Yeah, underthirty minutes left in this particular program with
a high Tech Technis show. Happyearly December. If you're listening here on
KPRC nine fifty a m terrestrially,if you're listening to streaming, thank you
very much for downloading the iHeartRadio app. This program always free because we have

(57:00):
ads and that's how it works.So we do thank you for you know,
just patronizing a lot of our customers, and again particularly this show our
good friends at US coins and Jewelry. Great time of year to go get
that jewelry, Go get a Rolex, go get a lot of things.
Papas PLR rum you definitely need.Instead of bringing wine to somebody's house,
why don't you bring something different,Coach, every time I let people sample

(57:22):
Papa's PLR. It's the ernest Hemingwayrun out of key Wes. Go get
it at your favorite store, Papa'sp I L A R. Papas that
was the name of Papa's arnestanming Ways, but four different flavors. They got
the light, the blonde, butthey also have the dark, the cherry,
oak cask good stuff, Papa's Pilar, So thank you for listening and

(57:45):
taking care of our folks out there. I do not A car company does
not or a dealership does not sponsormy show, and I don't know why,
because I talk more about cars andautobi biles than probably any other person
on local radio because I give reviewsgood or bad, so you can trust
me when I say it's this isnot endorsed, this is not paid for.
I'm not paid to say this thingis great, and I never do

(58:05):
that. I'm not paid to saythis thing is great. I have turned
down in twenty years all my endorsements, more opportunities than I have said yes,
because I absolutely believe in everything thatI sell. I was that so
I learned that when I was ayoung show host on QVC, I better
believe in something before I pimp it. And while I do like a lot
of cars and a few dealers cardealerships, I don't like a lot of

(58:30):
them, so it'll be a rightmatch. But what I'm about to say
is I'm going to talk about aboutelectric vehicles because this is a bit of
big question that I'm going to becauseI do get to test drive every type
of vehicle for fifteen years. Everyweek, every Thursday, generally I get
a car or vehicle or two totest drive. It does not come from
a dealership. It comes directly fromthe manufacturers. And when I say manufacturers,

(58:52):
it comes directly from GM, Dodge, Jeep, Ford, BMW,
Mercedes, Kiya, Hyundai, directlyfrom the manufacturer. That's right, all
the way from Michigan down here tohe town. I am your guy.
They're in the business of if ofreviewers, analyst, journalists, whatever you

(59:12):
want to call me, of sayingthis is good, this should be improved,
or this is this is not thatgood. That's what I do.
Electric vehicles have been big. Iget electric vehicle probably once every month and
a half and I get it forone week. And I love electric vehicles.
You know the story, people,it's rope because I talk about it
all the time. I love evsin terms of they are sexy, they're
cool, they're futuristic, they arevery fast. A lot of them go

(59:35):
to zero to sixty in like twoand a half three four seconds. They're
quiet. Obviously there's no engine,there's a lot of room. Me personally,
I would not buy an EV andthat's because me personally, it's as
I live in Houston, which isa massive, massive city and region.
I drive all over the place.I can go on Loop six' ten,

(59:59):
I could go on Beltwa, Ican go on ninety nine and a
snap of a click of a finger. Sometimes I may roll up to Austin
to go visit my son, goto a UT football game. My parents
live in Dallas, two hundred andseventy miles away. I do not want
to worry about where to stop andcharge that electric vehicle. It's as plain

(01:00:19):
as simple as that. I willnot get electric vehicle per myself right now
because of the way the United Statesinfrastructure of charging that battery is. Sometimes
I'm in a quandary because when Ihave these vehicles for a week, I
have range anxiety, which is absolutelya thing. Range anxiety is how far
is this range? A lot ofthe ranges on these electric vehicles, they're

(01:00:40):
getting up there. Maybe they're twohundred and fifty. There's some that are
pushing three hundred and fifty miles,not bad, but a lot of them.
Once you turn your air conditioner on, which I do, once you
start jamming the tunes, which Ido, that brings the range down.
Maybe it's one hundred and fifty miles. Maybe it's two hundred miles. That
ain't getting me. Non stop toAustin, that ain't getting me. I'm
lucky to get from Houston to Galveston, right and the hell if I am

(01:01:05):
stopping in the middle of somewhere halfwaybetween Dallas and Houston. I love Centerville,
loves stop at a woody. Shoutout the woodies. There's two of
them there. They don't have electriccharge. They have gas stations out the
wazoo. I love me some BUCkies. BUCkies is soon. I announced last
week they're coming with electric Tesla chargingstations. Right now, it's gas gas
gas. So now I am searchingaround, watching my range go down fifty

(01:01:30):
miles, forty miles, thirty miles, and I'm feercely looking for a charging
station. I get to the chargingstation, maybe there's three or four slots,
if you will, stalls. Maybeone or two of those stalls it's
broken and it happens all the time. Maybe they're not fully charging all the
killowats they're supposed to, which meansit's gonna be a slower charge. Then

(01:01:52):
when you find one that works.Odds are there's a car already in there,
sitting with the dude inside with hisair conditioning on, getting charge,
so he's going to be there thirtyor forty five minutes. Once that dude
is there, then you pull yourvehicle in and now you're waiting thirty to
forty five minutes for potentially what couldbe an eighty percent charge. And none
of this is free because electricity stillcosts money. That ain't me. They

(01:02:15):
may be good second cars, unlessyou know you're going no further than one
hundred miles, if you have acharger at home, if you've got a
charger at work, you slept thekids to soccer, you go into radius
of maybe twenty or thirty miles.Perfect, get it. But as a
one car dude who can needs togo somewhere to snap, it ain't for
me. Point is, as Icalm down, Consumer Reports, who I

(01:02:37):
trust, and I've trusted for fortyplus years, they've published a very extensive
ranking of vehicle reliability. And I'mquoting and I'm citing Consumer Reports, and
again you already heard my thoughts beforeI even read this. Consumer Reports,
and the results pour cold water onthe dependability. Listen to that word,

(01:02:59):
people indability of evs and plug inhybrids. Here's a quick recap. Survey
says electric vehicles suffer from seventy ninepercent more maintenance issues than gas powered vehicles.
Plug in hybrids have one hundred andforty six percent more problems than gas

(01:03:23):
vehicles. These troubles to me,it shows the industry growing pains with the
relatively new technology of what is goingon in our world? Record temperature highs?
Are we global warming? What isgoing on now? The survey,

(01:03:44):
this is consumer ports, does notdo anything. They don't take things lightly.
They gather data on three hundred andthirty thousand vehicles, tons of models
from two thousand to twenty twenty three, and some of them are in early
twenty four vahicles and there's a lotof potential troubleet aeros. Maybe it's the

(01:04:05):
internal combustion engines, the evs,the traditional hybrids. They they listen gas
powered vehicles they have their issues too. They combined the data with its track
testing. Plug in hybrid vehicles they'recalled phs. PHV hybrid means it is
gas but they also do have amotor. You have to plug these things

(01:04:28):
in. Maybe you're gonna get fifteento twenty five to thirty miles on that
battery, and then obviously it'll switchthe gas and you're gonna get more.
I don't mind hybrids, but Ilike non plug in hybrids, non plugin
those actually scored well. These arethe ones like the Prius or the camer

(01:04:50):
Hybrid, or the Lexus Ux,the Rav four Hybrid, the Highlander Hybrid.
These are the ones that use regenerativebreaking. Every time you break,
it charges the end. You neverhave to stop and plug anything in.
If you're looking for a hybrid,you may want to look at non plug
in hybrids. I'm not a bigfan of the plug in hybrids. Jeep

(01:05:12):
came out with a plug in hybrid, which is funny. It's like,
wow, Jeep gas powered, butyou could plug in. There's certain Jeeps,
and I'm not knock a Jeep.I think Jeep is a phenomenal brand.
They're fun cars, wranglers, butyou plug it in and you're gonna
get a whopping eighteen miles twenty miles. Wait, what is that gonna do?
Fully electric cars, fully electric carsand SUVs. According to Consumer Reports,

(01:05:38):
they have a mediocre average score mediocreelectric pickups. That's the newest technology.
What's going on now? They scoredthe worst. I'm not surprised about
that, with an average of thirtypoints out of one hundred. If you
want to come out, I don'twant to get the specific brands. We

(01:05:59):
just talk about the overall thing.You can actually go. You know,
look at the consumer reports review andI notaly. I have talked to two
friends of mine who own dealerships.Am I trying to talk? I'm giving
you facts. People. They sayelectric vehicles aren't moving fast, they are
pricey. Governments tried to give youto them incentives. At the end of

(01:06:20):
the day, how much is yourtime? Is worth? Time flowing like
a river. Time to me isone of the most valuable things we were
on this earth for a given amountof time. One of my biggest slogans
you do not put don't puts around, you make the most of your life.

(01:06:42):
I cannot puts around sitting at acharging station. That is not me.
There are electric vehicles that are sexy, that are neat, that may
be good as second cars. Butall I say is this, do your
research, listen to me. Ifyou want something specific, feel free to
call into this radio show. Ido it every week. Feel free to
send me an email. Go tomy website high Tech Texting. I answer

(01:07:04):
emails. Garth. I'm looking atthis. Should I get this hybrid?
Should I get this car? Should? Should I wait? Five years?
My guess, I hope in fiveyears that there is going to be a
much more elaborate and better charging systemthat is going to be rapid charging.
We can get up and go.Maybe it's going to be replaceable batteries.
I'll walk into well, I'll pullup to a BUCkies and just like I

(01:07:29):
replaced double A or triple A batteriesand all my products, I can just
swap out a battery that takes tenminutes and put a new battery in and
go, kind of like propane propanetank. Maybe that's the answer. I
just want something to come so thatI could like EVS more. But until
then that ain't made. But I'mstill your boy, with no more segments
Ago Michael Garth off the high TechText and final eight and a half men

(01:07:58):
between me and you. This weekit is in our field. I will
shoot up and then you can returninto your favorite football game. Should you
be listening live on Saturday afternoon,including the big twelfth Championship happening right now
and Arlington, Texas. Don't enoughstay with me, hook them mores.
People, just you get to listento me. The game is still going
to be going on. I'm notgonna give out the phone number because I
got a few extra things I wantto go through. But I do thank

(01:08:20):
you for participating in this show,including our sponsors Papa's PLR Rum holiday season.
Don't sleep on rum, especially thecertain varietals that Papa's PLR has just
unbelievable by itself. Yes, youcould put a little soda, maybe you
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(01:08:42):
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US coins, Jewelry and I willsee you next Wednesday, nine in the

(01:09:03):
morning on Great Day Houston, Houstonon Channel eleven CDs. I am doing
Garf's Gift Guide. I'm not goingto be doing technology. I'm going to
be spotlighting some of my favorite localstores with some really kind of crazy outlandish
product products, one of which willbe US coins and jewelry. You'll be

(01:09:23):
surprised of what I'm going to bebringing on there. That's it Double threat
TV radio actually social media, triplethreat. I am the least threatening person.
Probably you will. You will findhere other gift ideas. Has anybody
ever tried cameo? You know whatcameo is? Calum right here, I'm

(01:09:43):
looking at you behind the glass.You ever tryk you know a cameo?
Yeah, you are right. Cameois pretty entry cameos. It's it's a
service where you could pay a celebrityor somebody famous to create a personalized video
to you or anybody else. Andpeople usually use these things as gifts.

(01:10:04):
And so if you go to cameo, and there's different prices too, if
you want really somebody big and famous, they're going to charge it for a
thirty second little video. You know, Hey, Steve, your buddies just
wanted to tell you a happy birthday, and I just wanted to think it's
great and thank you for following myfootball career, were listening to my music.

(01:10:24):
It's pretty lucrative. I was withRick Flair about a month and a
half ago. Rick Flair, Imean, probably one of the more famous
people in the world I've ever hungout with, Like I hang out with
famous people. A wrestler, entertainer, the Nature Boy. I was in
New York with them, and Iwas in seeing an event with them,

(01:10:45):
doing this live thing, and I'min a hotel. We're in the hotel
lobby, We're waiting for the carto pick us up. He's got security
with them, but I'm right there, so I had security with me too.
And he's on his phone and thedude is seventy four, I think
right now, and he's on hisphone looking into it and he's talking into
it. So I'm thinking he's videoconferencing, facetiming somebody. But he gets

(01:11:06):
into his Rick Flair persona and hesays, I just want to wish you
a happy birthday, brother. Thisis phenomenal whoo and he stops and I'm
like, what was that and hegoes, oh, I just I just
recorded a cameo and we had thisabout three minute conversation. So I want
to understand how it works from acelebrity standpoint. He in his spare time.

(01:11:29):
If he could be sitting in thebathroom, he could be sitting on
a plane. Well, obviously hehas connectivity. Apparently. If you sign
up and I looked at it,there's on the client side. If you
will, there's a button you push, there's a script that says the name
of the person, what's the occasion. This is what you say and shout
out and you hit, you holdit up as a selfie, you send

(01:11:53):
it and go and it's done.It's very simple for the celebrities to actually
do this, and they could doit quickly. You know who's I think
made the most money ever in thehistory of cameo. It's the actor who
plays Kevin in the office, thekind of large guy, very funny guy.
He makes all this funny things.Do I should I tell you how

(01:12:15):
much Rick Flair told me how muchhe's made from camyo. Ah, that
may be too much. If youever said, listen, it is not
even funny how much money Rick Flairhas made from doing cameo over the years.
It takes seconds of his time.It is very lucrative. Okay,
there's my cameo story. The reasonI do this because Cameo now has included

(01:12:38):
this year Elmo and Cookie Monster.So if you want to get your kids
a personalized message from Elmo and theCookie Monster, I guess you can go
to ky. This is not acameo. I wish they were paying me
to say this now, because actually, how much would anybody pay me?
Like if I I mean, I'mnot a celebrity, I mean I'm a

(01:13:00):
medium personality. If actually, letme see how much Rick Flair calls?
How much does this cambut? Let'sgo to cameo Rick Flair. Let's see
how much it costs for him tomake something cameo Rick flat five hundred dollars?
What? No, yep, fivehundred dollars for Rick Flair to say

(01:13:27):
something personal for you. How muchis it for Cookie Monthster They just came
out. This is the reason I'mtalking about this. It costs nineteen dollars.
Okay, how much would I chargefor a personalized video message? Let
me help you out. I wouldhave to pay you, and actually I

(01:13:50):
probably would. It would make myego feel better. If anybody wants a
personal video message for me, Iwill probably let me know I actually will
pay you. I have some beautifulbourbon. I have a lot of gift
cards that this is the sad personof me. Cookie Monster nineteen dollars.

(01:14:12):
How much is who else? Oh? Elmo? Hello? And also I
can actually do fake Elmo voices?Elmo's also nineteen dollars. How much is
Kevin from the office Kevin? Oh? There it Brian Boubmgatner's his name.
One hundred and ninety five dollars.He has made more money. So if

(01:14:32):
you ever see me, just askme how much. I really don't want
to give you how much, butit is. It is a ton of
money that these people can make fromcameo. So do I go privatize your
Elmo cookie Monster for your kids?That's another gift suggestion for me. Here
on the high tech text textan showlast up. Let me wrap it up.

(01:14:55):
iHeart radio a great way to listento all your streaming. All your
music doesn't cost anything. It isfree. A lot of people outside the
market of Houston they can listen tohere this time. There are there not
that I'm promoting other music streaming thingsthat are free that you can also pay
for. Spotify is a very popularone to the end of the year.
Spotify always has what's called Spotify rappedwr app asn't wrap it up rap a

(01:15:17):
gift. They're wrapping up the thingand they will take every song that you've
listened to in your account and theywill put it into a really interesting fun
graphics one minute two minute graph.You go to Spotify even they're doing on
your desktop right now. This year, for the first time, they will
say, hey, Michael, hereis your Spotify rap. I watch mine

(01:15:40):
and it's interesting to see what Ilisten to and who I listen to this
year, and you kind of yousee a little about yourself over what genres
I mean, different genres I listenedto. So I will give you a
listen. If you've listened to myshow, you know I live and die
by the eighties, little yacht littlething too, the genres I listen to

(01:16:03):
more yacht rock number one, eightiesnumber two, pop three, soft rock
four. They will tell you thetop artist and top song every year.
My top artist because I listened alot when I'm running, because I have
the earphones that I run, soI listen to a lot of good music.

(01:16:25):
I listen to what I want to. I listen to fire up music,
music that I'll get my blood boiled. Every year, hallo Notes generally
is my top artist, folks.This year, hall of Oates follows one
notch to number two, the numberone most listened to artists by the High
Tech Texan in twenty twenty three.Kenny Loggins and there you have it.

(01:16:49):
There you have it. I haveno clue, White Kenny Loggins and the
number one. Get this shows youthe number one song, the number one.
So yeah, here's my top fivesongs. Something about You by Level
forty two is number five. FoolishHeart Steve Perry. There's my Journey Fixed
number four, Valerie. Look atthat, Steve Winwood. U, this

(01:17:14):
is it. It's a great song. Also, that's Kenny Loggins and my
number one most song listened to overthe year on Spotify, Playing with the
Boys by Kenny Loggins. I guessI was in a top gun mood or
top Gun fix. I have noclue. I just thought it was fun.
Point is and I'm wrapping up inone minute. This is data.
Data is key. Data is everything. We give our data out Spotify and

(01:17:39):
all of its advertisers now know whatI listen to. So I do expect
next year to get inundated by allthese new soft rock, pop rock and
yacht rock and eighties concerts who arecoming through Houston selling me tickets because they
know protect your data. Be wary, create another email or two, and
just just be careful who you're givingyour government out too. But we do

(01:18:02):
thank you for tuning in. Andwe know a lot about our demographics here
at KPRC nine to fifty, butwe can't even drill down that much.
I do not know your social Securitynumbers, but you're so inclined you know
how to reach me. Show isover, people, Thank you so much.
Hey, listen, my man callum, have a great first weekend championship
weekend. We're going to see who'sgoing bowling in the College Bowl season by

(01:18:24):
the time we come back on nextweek. Everybody who has been a part
of the show, we do thankyou for tuning in. My name is
Michael Garfield, belong running high TechTexan show. Enjoy your day, enjoy
your weekend, and stay warm rightnow my show. Guess what say it
with me? People? My showis over.