How Spotify determines your listening age and why you are OLD

Today on the High Tech Texan Show:

• How Spotify determines your listening age and why you are OLD
• A great Texas getaway - Georgetown
• Holiday gift guide for all ages - drones, cars, liquor

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Michael Garfield, Michael Garfield's joining in the high Tech Texan.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Michael Garfield is here with a high Tech Texans.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
It was 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.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
Michael Garfield, and away.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
We go the first show of the last month of
twenty twenty five. It finally got cooler. Oh you feel
it my voice, people, and I thank you for tuning in.
And Michael is the name. As you heard that big
booming voice. It is called the high Tech Texan Show. Alas,
it ain't all about technology. Actually, we are in the

(01:09):
midst of one of my two or three busiest months
of the year. It is holiday recommendation gift guide season.
For me. I've been traveling a bit. I'll tell you
where I've been this past week. Actually two trips, very
quick trips, very fun. I got to see some upcoming products,
some of which I can't talk about, some of which

(01:31):
I can. But I am here for you if you
want me to help you decide whether you want a
certain car, because don't forget I review a car every
single week from almost every manufacturer. If you want something
that beeps and buzzes from the tech world. If you
want some fashion advice, yeah, I mean just you could
turn to me almost almost any category except love. Yeah,

(01:54):
I've kind of struck out with that way. But that's
neither here nor there. People, let me give you the
phone number to say high call in three four six
two nine eight three nine two six if you can
have if you have good enough ice sight, you can
see those little letters. That's three four six twenty nine
text and T e X A N. For some reason,
the phone rings rings, rings, or goes to voicemail, leave

(02:17):
a voicemail, and then we are allowed to actually Eric
on the radio show. I've got callum, I've got Will
on the other side, and uh yeah, we've got two
hours of fun stuff, got some interviews. We may have
some give Do we have anything to give away? I
think we may have a gift card or two, because
you know, that's what we like to do. We like
to entice people. But some of the things we are
going to yap about today are year end products, some

(02:40):
of the the better, cooler things that I saw, some
of the new products that I am already getting emails
from companies that want me to visit their big booth
in one month almost from today, actually from today at
CEES formerly known as the Concernsumer Elixtronics Show. I will

(03:02):
be out there in Vegas, my twenty third time. I
think I will be uh you know some of the
net twenty twenty six products. I'll tell you this, this
is why you listen to me. This is why you
like me. I'm jaded when it comes to consumer lifetoc products,
and this is the type of guy you want to
recommend and review and break down things. I used to

(03:27):
be impressed all the time if a company sent me
a battery, a double a battery, Oh my god, this
is the greatest thing in the world.

Speaker 5 (03:35):
Is unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
At last five if you know, five years I was,
I just I was. I'm super excited guy. But I've
been doing this a quarter of a century and I'm
now and I'm not old guy. Get off your lawn, guy,
But I am okay, Yes, another phone, wonderful? What does
this one do? Because phones right now are pretty much

(03:58):
the same. They're all about six in just six and
a half inches diagonal, and you can touch the screen
and you can make video calls and text. Okay, what
does this one do? I really now look at products
in a different light, and I'm going to find things
that I hopefully think, well, maybe I don't know, make
your life easier. I'm not going to say change your life.
But I'm JD guy, and I gotta tell you it's

(04:19):
I'm kind of hard to please. Let's go back to
the UI. I'm strucking out in love, but I'm kind
of hard to please right now. It's really tough to
wow me. But I think that is a very smart
trait for somebody who is in my position, who answers
your calls, who answers your emails, who gives speeches of like,
you know, what's the next trend over here? Listen? I

(04:40):
mean AI is cool. AI is not a product. AI
is a software. It's a meta thing. It's a yeah,
some of those things kind of do raise my eyebrows, going,
that's pretty, it's neat. It's interesting. Is this going to
take away jobs? Or how is this going to help
my life? But I do deal. I love products. I
love wearables. I've been playing with a pair of really
cool glasses that sadly I can't even talk about till January.

(05:03):
January fourth, I think that of people ask me, Michael,
what's the one of the harder things that you have
to do. I mean, I don't live the hardest of lives.
I mean, I've worked my butt off to get where
I am right now. But one of the hard thing
is shutting up. Because my job is to yap, my
job is to talk, My job is to recommend, and
a lot of the a lot of the times I

(05:23):
am under embargo, I have assigned n D a form
that I can't talk about. I can't even tease it.
I can't even dangle in front of you for weeks
at a time, weeks at a time, and sadly I'm
under some of those And so I guess that's it's
it's you. It's your bite, your tongue, garf. But I'll
tell you, well, when then I bargo list it's it's

(05:44):
gonna be cool, Michael at high Tech Textan. If you
want to follow along on my Instagram, you actually can
see some of the places I've been this week and
some of the products I'm testing. I've been putting more
and more Instagram, Instagram reels, h I G H T
E C H T exa n dot com dot com
that is actually the website and you can follow them

(06:05):
pretty much. I'm high tech text and across the board.
If you spelled the whole thing out on social media,
if you are not blocked, I will review some cars.
I want to start with this, and I know I'm
killing most of segment ones. Only have about two more
minutes to talk about this, but I'm gonna tease it.
One of the biggest things that happened this week that
probably hit your inbox that is causing people to listen.

(06:27):
It's a great market employee every year if you listen
to Spotify. Spotify is an online streaming app, which I
know I don't have to say that iHeartRadio streaming app
is my favorite, but if you are listening right now
on iHeartRadio streaming app, that should be your favorite streaming app.
There is another one. There's a lot of them, actually,
but Spotify is a big one. In every year for

(06:49):
the past several years, in December, they come out with
a personalized, personalized year in recap called Spotify wrapped w
r apped like they wrapped it up in a gift box,
and it's a it's a fun little snapshot of what
you listen to the previous year, and it kind of

(07:12):
gives you an idea of, Hey, this is this genre
I like. Am I a yacht rocker? Am I a
hard rocker? Am I an R and B, soul, pop, country?
Whatever you're listening to. But one feature that is causing
a lot of a hubbub bub this year, it's Spotify
has now pinned an age, an actual listening age based

(07:38):
on what you listen to. They are putting a number
on your listening age, and it's an algorithm depending on
what year the songs came out. Listen. I'm an eighties guy, right,
But then again, I was a teenager in the eighties
and the number of my age and I'll tell you

(07:59):
what my age is before we get to the end
of the break. But there's a lot of people who
are freaking out because they're listening age is a heck
of a lot older than they are. I will talk
about that, actually, I'll talk about a future that I
Heeart Radio has. They have one also. They just came
out called iHeartRadio. Rewind twenty twenty five. I've got my
favorite products of the year. I'm gonna tell you how

(08:20):
to extend your battery power in your phone, some travel tips,
some new laptops. I saw all this from a sixty
four year old listening age. At least according to Spotify,
I am younger than that. Michael Drivefiel could have been
the name. We're going to be back on the Highday
Texan Check. I remember back in the day when I

(09:03):
began this radio show in two thousand and three. I
think I've been doing it twenty two, twenty three years
right now. And I'm not ragging on my on you know,
the corporation, the company who actually owns and produces this show, Hello,
we love you Irt Radio. But I remember we had
bump music that was like holiday music, I mean real

(09:24):
holiday music. I mean it was everything from Mariah Carrett
well actually she was a young Mariah Carey. I was
playing Charlie Brown, Vince Garaldi music. You know, we don't
have any money right now, we don't want to play
the rights on podcasts, and so we're listening to generic stuff.
I keep asking this will Callum. You know, the guys
are you guys awake behind They are okay, you are awake,
all right? Wave to me. I've asked you this again.

(09:47):
If I sing bump songs to do we still get busted?
Do we have to pay the rights because I suck?
I mean you probably couldn't even decipher ay. I couldn't
even decipher and pick it up to actually alert the authorities,
either here at I art or the I don't know
the FCC that I'm actually singing a song, so we
don't have to pay royalties. By way, we are back.

(10:08):
It's Michael Garfield. This is the High Tech Texan Show.
I hope all as well. We're whatica? Did you with
what people are talking about this week? Certainly in the
the world of technology and streaming and apps? How old
are you? According to Spotify phone number here is three
four six twenty nine Texan. If you're too shy to call,

(10:31):
you can go to my x account high Tech text
and spell the whole thing out. Spotify came out with
their annual Spotify Rapped, and they got a new feature.
It is your listening age. Listen. I may be old
in Spotify's eyes, but I got to see some damn
cool concerts back in the eighties and nineties. People. Yes,

(10:51):
I saw Prince, I saw Michael Jackson, I saw I
saw a lot of that stuff. Listen. It's a fun
annual roundup of your listening habits. Every year, the music
streaming app it has new features, all right. In this
year there's a new there's actually there's a game called
Wrapped Party. And then there's this new thing that is

(11:12):
just like an in your face assessment of your listening age.
And this blew my mind a little because I know
how actually old I am, but I'm still hip. I listen.
I know what's going on here with the Taylor Swifts
and the Somber and all this stuff. And I listened

(11:33):
to him too, and this this is what the cool kids, man,
they're in the teens listening to. But then again, I
am eighties guy. If you were a long time listener
on my show, I am sorry. I'm not I'm not
even sorry. I don't apologize. I still live in the eighties.
Look at my hair, look at my fashion, look at
It's just that that's how it works. Eighties. I mean,
I yacht rocking eighties baby, I don't care. Hall and Oates,

(11:56):
Michael Jackson, Michael McDonald, Christopher Cross, Tode. I'm that guy,
so I knew my age was gonna be roughly around
my age, which it actually kind of was. And if
you're just I'll just blow the lead. My age listening
age is sixty four and I'm actually sixty, so it
is about four years older. And I'm looking at this, going, man,

(12:18):
I'm old. Well guess what. Over the next day or two,
I find out that everybody is freaking out because the
number that Spotify has put on it is older than
anybody is in And I'll ask you this. If anybody
has used this is looking at their feature this past week,
Spotify listener age, if your listening age is actually younger
than you actually are, I want to hear from you

(12:40):
right now. I want to hear from you because I
think it's impossible. Three four six twenty nine text in.
Let me quickly tell you how this works. I'm gonna
tell you how Spotify determines your listening age, all right.
According to Business Insider, and I saw this, Spotify looks
at the release year of all the songs you listen
to this year, and it finds an era's music that
you listen to more than other people that are your

(13:04):
actual age. So the site assumes that people like music
that came out when they were maybe sixteen to twenty one.
So they put this algorithm in there, and you know,
whatever you listened to in your late teenage years, they'll
start subtracting and adding in the whole thing. But here's

(13:26):
what blew me away. My son, My oldest son is
thirty one years old. My oldest son is half my age.
His listening age I found on Spotify is ninety four
years old. There was someone who I think who had
three digits. There were one hundred. Like, what do you
you talking about? I am a marketing guy. It is

(13:50):
brilliant what Spotify did. And I think Spotify meant to
actually up your age. They up your age because they
want everybody to be kind of ticked off because it
gets people talking about it. I just I'm doing a
six minute or so bit on my national radio show
right here. I'm talking about it. Good for the publicity,

(14:10):
Yay for you guys. You just did it again. So
in a way, that is the what Spotify is. Let
me give you one more over here, because I gotta
give love to iHeart. After I was ragging on them
iHeart Radio, and I listened to iHeartRadio and honestly do.
My bosses don't tell me to listen to it, but
I actually do. It's a great app and if you're
listening on iHeartRadio, it is totally free and you can

(14:32):
listen to me anytime in my podcast. iHeartRadio sent me
an email. They send everybody in an email if you are
an iHeart subscriber earlier this week, and they have what's
called the iHeart Rewind twenty five as in twenty twenty five,
and they don't give me my age. But this year
I tuned into iHeartRadio for eight thousand, sixty six minutes.

(14:58):
That's very impressive. You know what, Bob Pittman, who is
the president and CEO of this wonderful company of ours,
who has no clue who I am, what the company
should do? Take all the iHeart employees and people on
iHeart and whoever has the most listening minutes. We call
it eating our own dog food. They should get a prize.

Speaker 6 (15:20):
Eat that.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
That's a lot of that's a lot of minutes. My
top listening day was May thirty. First, I listened for
three hundred and five minutes. I think I was visiting
my son in LA. And when I'm in La, I
run a lot. And when I run, I run with
my phone. I run with my headphones. And I listened
to a lot of radio and my and that may

(15:43):
have been at I don't know. I have. I added
some pre sets my favorite my top podcast. Ladies and gentlemen,
I present to you my number one top podcast. I
listened to the Michael Garfield High Tech Textan show. Should
I be embarrassed about that? Should I be embarrassed? And

(16:03):
I'm listening to myself. That's like a you know, a
parent eating it. They're their kid. I don't even know
my favorite station is. And this is no surprise. I
listened to Kiss FM in the Los Angeles. That's Ryan
cacrest home station.

Speaker 6 (16:19):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (16:19):
They got great pop music. See that's what That's why,
because I know the music of today. That's why I
thought my listener age was going to be younger. I
listened to Kiss. iHeart says I must be a big
top forty in pop fan. I am. And they've got
recommendations for me. Oh, they wanted they wanted me to
buy tickets to the Jingle Ball Okay, that's the end
of that story. Anyway, that's that's it. If anybody is

(16:43):
younger than they actually are, I'd love to hear from
you three four six, twenty eight nine texts. And when
we come back, I'm actually tell you what I do.
When we come back, I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you
one of the two trips I took this week. And
if you live in the South or live in Texas
and you want to get away and a really neat
Hallmark type of town, and I'm like Khitding Christmas town,
stand by, guys, I'll tell you all about Georgetown, Texas.

(17:08):
Coming right up, we do continue the very long running

(17:37):
Michael Garfield High Tech Texan Show Heard Houston, San Antonio, Dallas,
scene in Houston and Austin. Baby, I am the King
of Texas. Thank you so much. We got a few
open phone lines as we do the radio show. Here
we are the first week of December. You hear the
pep in my voice. Man, it is holiday season and
the gifts are starting to come in. I'm giving you

(17:58):
tips on where to buy and where to go. Also
and where to go and you know what, I started
out the holiday season this past weekend with a quick
overnight trip you ready for this, Wait for it, to Georgetown, Texas,
just a little north of Austin, in the center part

(18:19):
of this great state of ours. For when I was
a kid growing up in Dallas, and my grandparents lived
in Austin, and we lived up and down I thirty
five all the time. And I remember as we approached Austin,
you know, going south, we're passing Waco, were passing Temple,
and there was Georgetown. And listen, I'm gonna go back
fifty years or so, and Georgetown was a you know,
relatively little tiny town back of the day. I know,

(18:41):
you know some things about it. But the nice folks
at visit Georgetown, they said, you know, Garf, you kind
of got a nice following. You're the king of Texas.
Why don't you come and hang around that The city
is decorated with all the trees lit up, and there's
there's shops, and there's fun things to do. Went there
last Sunday, spent the entire day. The weather was great.

(19:03):
I gotta say it is one of the I'm gonna
use the word cute, man. It is a cute town.
It is a great getaway even for one night. I
can't even imagine how awesome fun would be in the summer.
That's a hint to the visit, to the visit Georgetown, folks.
I want to go back, but it was really really
need and I wanted to share a little of my
experience in a little history about Georgetown. And with that,

(19:23):
we are joined by the executive director of the Williamson
County Museum. Her name is Danielle Howck. To talk a little,
actually a lot about because there's a lot to talk
about that beautiful town of Georgetown. Danielle, thank you so
much for joining us. I'm jealous that I'm not there anymore,
but you get to live in that beautiful city.

Speaker 6 (19:42):
Yes, I'm very lucky to live in the most beautiful
town square in Texas, Georgetown, Texas.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
You know, was I just told the story of my audience,
Like you know, I'm from Dallas, and I went to
school in Austin, and my grandparents from Austin, and we
just lived up and down I thirty five, and we
knew we were nearing Austin every time we saw the georgetownside.
As we're getting closer, and it really just this is
I'm gonna go back forty plus years ago.

Speaker 4 (20:04):
I had no idea that Georgetown.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
Would grow into such a beautiful but also large, you know,
very vibrant, you know town. When you describe Georgetown to
people who have never been there, how do you do it?
What are some of the words you use?

Speaker 7 (20:17):
The angles?

Speaker 6 (20:19):
Yeah, so Georgetown is a place where everyone is welcome.
We say more than welcome because it's really a really
great place of community. People like to help out everybody.
You run into people so always. Because of that historic
square with all the historic buildings, you feel like you're

(20:39):
in like a little Hallmark small town movie, and it
really creates this really great sense of community Hallmark.

Speaker 4 (20:48):
That's great.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
And actually I use that word. I was there, you know,
just earlier this week, and I used it especially at
night because right there in the in the center of
the middle of that beautiful square, it's you know, you
could see these things from movies. It's you know, be
at the courthouse or just be at the gathering place.
But the decorations, I mean, has Hallmark movies been shot there,

(21:09):
because it's a perfect background for that.

Speaker 6 (21:12):
Not Hallmark movies, but a lot of different movies have
been shot and the courthouse has been in a few
of them, but Georgetown has had a long history of
being kind of Christmas centric. Actually, in nineteen thirty nine,
Georgetown was actually named the Mistletoe Capital and the Kissing
Capitol because there were some enterprising men who decided to

(21:33):
take all that, you know, mistletoe that grows natively on
oaks and harvest it and sell them package it all over.

Speaker 7 (21:40):
No, now you tell me that.

Speaker 8 (21:41):
Okay, now I really have to come back again to
the great Georgetown.

Speaker 7 (21:46):
We're talking with Danielle Houck.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
She is at the Williamson County Museum in beautiful Georgetown,
just not too far, just north of Austin, off of
I thirty five.

Speaker 4 (21:55):
So many things to do.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
You know.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
I was really playing around on the visit Georgetown website
before I because I wanted to make sure, you know,
I kind of maxed out my day in the night,
had a unbelievable beautiful stay at this airbnb called the
Hardy House. I mean it's just it was the cutest thing,
two bedroom walking distance from that downtown. But downtown, I
mean I lost count of the wineries in some of

(22:16):
the breweries dead hell, there's in the shops too. I
mean that must be phenomenal for tourism.

Speaker 6 (22:22):
It's great. I mean there is something from everyone. So
there's you know, there's combination brewery, coffeehouses, there are wineries.
There are you know, things like Misky Creek Outfitters, which
they like it to be your living room, you know,
so you always have community. There's watching, there's football games happening.
You've all kinds of different bars, all family friendly. It's

(22:44):
really great because it really does foster sense of community
and people come down and they stay. There's great food,
the great activities. You can go see a show at
the Palace, but or learn just some of the history
around the buildings because there's a lot of historical markers
around too.

Speaker 7 (23:00):
You talk about the families.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
One of the things that I did notice, I saw
a lot of families and again Thanksgiving weekend, a lot
of it seemed grandparents and then their kids, but also
their grandkids be it in strollers walking around. So I
can see the generations who probably still live in the
Georgetown area and they just kind of want to show
their kids and grandkids. Specifically, you talked about the Palace
theater because I actually saw a show there. I saw

(23:22):
Frozen for a few hours in the Palace Theater. That's
a throwback to like the old you know theaters that
you know you see in movies or you know, back
in the.

Speaker 7 (23:31):
Nineteen fifties and sixties.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
It was just such a great community and so I
can see why people live there. And so in terms
of residents, I mean, what are some of the things
that the residents enjoy where to go in the area.

Speaker 6 (23:45):
So the residents, I mean, one, we have obviously the
beautiful downtown right and all the great small businesses, but
also we have a really great systems of like parks
and really close to downtown we have Blue Hole, we
have San Gabriel Park, and there's hiking trails and biking trails.
So there's I mean, really you can find anything for

(24:05):
somebody in Georgetown, right, whether you want to be active,
whether you want to shop and eat, whether you want
to go see a show. It's all there.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
The blue Hole I actually sold. It was a little chilly,
but anyway, I went down to the Blue Hole. You know,
it's right there. Again, it's I mean just a stone's
throw from I thirty five is very simple, you know,
he's very commute, but that looked fun. There was a
you know, Santa Claus was there and there was a
park with a petting zoo and then a candy cannon.
I mean, it's this is a perfect time, you know
for me to go. I definitely want to come back

(24:33):
in the in the spring, certainly the summer too, because
for some reason, Georgetown's also very famous for poppies.

Speaker 4 (24:39):
What's the story there with this poppy stuff.

Speaker 6 (24:42):
Yeah, so you have to come back in the spring
for a red poffee festival. But the reason why we're
famous actually the state of Texas named Georgetown the Red
Poppy Capital in nineteen nineteen nineteen ninety because there was
a man named Henry Pearl Oker Compton and he was
a World War One so he was kind of a character.

(25:02):
He was even featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not,
because during World War One he served as an infantryman
and he actually took two Germans captive without a gun
because he spoke fluent German because he was from that
central Texas kind of German stop. But he was so
inspired by the red poppies that grew at Flanners Fields

(25:23):
that he actually took those seeds and mailed him to
his mother who lived on Sixth Street in downtown Georgetown,
and we started planning them and then they have grown
kind of since then, and so now we are named
the Red Coppy Capital of Texas.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
It was everywhere, So no, I definitely need to come back,
and again it's a year on visit. It's I mean, listen,
I have audiences right now listening not only in Houston,
but also Dallas and San Antonio. I mean Georgetown. I
think if you look on a map, it is pretty
much plopped right in the center of that. It's very
very simple to get to. And last thing before me
to let you go, because I know you are the
executive director of.

Speaker 7 (25:59):
Williamson County Museum.

Speaker 4 (26:01):
It's it's a historic place.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
I mean I lost count of how many Texas historical
markers I saw on all of the buildings. And so
by walking into that museum, I mean, what can people
expect to see? I mean, you know how far back
to the city of Georgetown goes.

Speaker 6 (26:14):
So Georgetown and Williamson County was actually founded March thirteenth,
eighteen forty eight. So we've been celebrating, you know, for
almost one hundred and seventy seven years at this point.
And so there are historic buildings that are still standing
as old as eighteen seventy where Hydrate is where you
can get Smoothi's, or there's a saloon kind of saddle

(26:36):
shop upstairs, or like you mentioned the Georgetown Palace that
is an Art Deco building and they're celebrating their one
hundred years in nineteen twenty six next year in twenty
twenty six.

Speaker 4 (26:47):
It's the history's great.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
So this is listen. I can give you, you know,
twenty different ways, you know, white reasons to go for
the families.

Speaker 7 (26:54):
The hiking, the food, the brewery.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
But if anybody out there and then there's so many
historical historians.

Speaker 7 (26:59):
Over the state of time exis. I mean, this is
just one of.

Speaker 3 (27:01):
The best places in this great state of ours to
check it out. It is Georgetown. Her name is Danielle Hawk.
She is with the Williamson County Museum. Thank you for
your time, and I'll tell you what next time I'm coming,
you want show me around. I want you to take
me to the better wineries and breweries. Okay, because that
was also my favorite part. Okay, all right, thank you
so much for your time, and if anybody wants to

(27:23):
visit that a beautiful place here. Let me give you
the website. It's visit dot Georgetown dot org dot org.
That is, it's wonderful things like this. Listen, check out
my Instagram soon. I'm gonna be posting a lot of
photos and I don't know, maybe one day we'll go
back and we'll do a live broadcast. Let's just let's
just a big concert. Brought you, brought you by me, uh,

(27:43):
Michael Garfield all across the status Texas.

Speaker 5 (27:46):
Don't go anywhere.

Speaker 3 (28:14):
Here you go people, just if you hung on through
the commercial break, I'd like to thank the nice folks
said visit Georgetown for having me up there and overnight.
Really cute Airbnb. It's a neat town, I mean, Michael Garfield.
By the way, it's called the High Tech Texan Show
heard all across the state of Texas driving distance to Georgetown,
and I hope to go again. But I forgot to

(28:36):
ask how long the lights the Christmas the holiday lights
are going to be up? I mean it was something
out of a Wholemark commercial just north of Austin, Texas
on I thirty five. So go check out Georgia Georgetown
as we continue The High Tech Texan Show this segment
brought to you by US Coins and Jewelry. That is
one massive location in Houston. Or next month or two,

(28:57):
they're opening up a brand new showroom right on Iten
Katie Freeway at VOS just outside of Loop six Tad.
You don't need to be in Uston to this month
actually purchase or sell or do anything, because they could
do it online. You go to US Coinsanjewelry dot Com.
Got to quickly see Kenny and Matthew Duncan. These guys

(29:18):
work there off all year round for twelve months. But
this month they are in over drive because people are
coming in obviously because it's a great shop to come
in and get some jewelry. They've got a whole new line,
even more rolexes, which they usually have a wonderful batch up,
but they got more. They've saw a lot of women's jewelry,
the hoop ear rings, the tennis bracelets, also coins. It's

(29:41):
called US Coins and Jewelry. The Kenny Duncan one of
the top new mesmatists in the world. Man, that dude
knows everything about coins. If you have a coin collection,
now is the time to sell it. If you want
to get some kids started in collecting coins. Why don't
you go ahead and start it there. There's no better
place to do it than US Coins and Jewelry. You
could talk to Will, you could talk to so many
of the other people. Lots of wonderful security. You can

(30:01):
incredibly feel safe, you feel warm, you feel inviting, and
I just I like this particular time of year because
you go in there's just a lot of you know,
holiday spirit and hubbub it's going around. It's really nice
sports cards, trading cards, watchwinders, go in US coins in
Jewelry dot com and you tell them Michael Garfield, there's

(30:23):
another Michael. I think, who pimps him? But I'm the
real deal people Michael Garfield, because I sport one of
their watches at all times, because I know what tim
and is. It is time to do your holiday shopping
at US Coins and Jewelry, as we do continue what
we call the high tech text and show. Got my
favorite products of the year. Not that it's again I

(30:43):
told you, I'm very jaded and it takes a lot
to actually go wow, man, this is cool. Recommend it
one of the things, one of my top products. It's
it's a drone and I've never been a drone guy.
I think it's really fun to be able to control
a very light device that flies on four little quad copters.

(31:09):
It's got a high end four K eight K camera.
I don't have a business need for it. I mean, listen, realtors,
without a doubt, you're seeing more and more realtors actually
use these drones to fly through homes, to fly above
their properties to show how many acre it is. There
are roofing companies who utilize this to make it safer

(31:30):
in still instead of climbing up on the roof to
assess any damage, they'll use drones to actually get in
and zoom and improve things to insurance. Hey, listen, there's
a lot of useful things that drones for. I just
you know, sometimes it works for me because I'm doing
more and more videos and you know, would be kind.
But anyway, the point is drones, for a lot of
the drune companies out there, they're not the easiest things

(31:53):
to learn how to control to get really good at it.
Some of them. Obviously, if you cannot live too close
to an airport, you can't get them close to airplanes
because the FAA rules, and there's different types of drones there.
I'll be in Consumer Electronics Show, the Big Show in
Vegas next month, and I will see an entire section
of the Las Vegas Convention Center that is dedicated to drones.

(32:15):
I mean, police use drones right now to help manhunts
and searches. Firefighters help use drones because there are some
heavy ones that actually can you can fly up and
drag a water hose to reach the second or third
floor of a building, some really unbelievable stuff. I don't
need those. But getting back to it, I did play
and with a drone that I can recommend because it's

(32:35):
fun and it's easy to learn, and if you're a
longtime listener, you've heard me talk about this for about
a month or two. Not an endorsement at all. I
wish they would pay me because I like it. It's
from a company called hover Air and it is the
hover Air max X one. It's I think it was
listed to Time magazines Honorable Mention and one of the
better new products of the year. It's one of these

(32:56):
follow me drones. And what a follow me drone is?
It will, among many things, if you are an outdoor
active person, if you ski downhill, if you a biker,
if you're a runner mountain biker, sometimes you want a perspective,
maybe it's your point of view. Maybe you want something
to kind of like a camera, you know, behind you,

(33:20):
watching you where you're going to get the whole aspect
and the meson scene. As we say in the communications world.
This is a really simple one to do number one,
because let's start, it is incredibly light, so much so
that it will fold up and fold into your pocket
and you fold it out once and there you go.

(33:41):
It is incredibly light. I love the design of this
thing because of the four propellers, and I have played
with I've played with drunes before and I have crashed.
I have crashed your drones. The propeller breaks and your screwed.
Unbelievable design because the four propellers are in a very
lightweight plastic cage, which means if you if it does

(34:02):
happen to drop to the ground, the cage is going
to take the brunt of the hit instead of the
propeller breaking. That's that's another one over here too. It's
got an unbelievable camera shoots up to eight K that
you can control. But one of the I think the
feature that makes it so simple. They're pre programmed flight
patterns that you don't really have to learn and they

(34:24):
look phenomenal. Number one, it's the bird's eye view. This
is when it goes straight up fifty feet, one hundred feet,
whatever you tell it to go, and it all of
a sudden it gets a perspective and it starts coming
down just like a eye of a bird, a bird's
eye view, and it'll come right down into the palm
of your hand. And so if you're standing on your propert,
you're standing on your golf course, you're in your swimming pool.

(34:46):
It's a neat aspect of how high here's the world
in the world is zooming down, and here's Texas, and
here's Houston, and here's you know, wherever you are. That's one.
There is one call to follow me, which means it
will lock using AI, it will lock on you the subject.
And as you're skiing down the mountain, as you're running,
as you're on a mountain bike, it will follow you.

(35:06):
There's one called hover, which just means it's just gonna
hover right in air and if you move left, move right,
it's gonna follow you. There's a tracking shot. It's a
great movie move with a camera means if you're walking
ten feet, twenty feet, fifteen feet, it is going to
slowly follow you just like you're walking, talking like movie camera.

(35:27):
And it's hover Airmax one of my favorite products of
the mirror. Not indoors, sadly, but I absolutely help me
can go get this.

Speaker 5 (35:33):
I was jazzed out about this.

Speaker 3 (35:35):
Two versions, one eight hundred dollars, one's five hundred and
six hundred dollars cover air Max.

Speaker 7 (35:40):
You'll see new hundred free.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
Views and the air show our number one OVA. When
we come back, I'm gonna tell you more news about
some things I saw at another trip I took. I
just came back from the Tree Light team ceremony at
Rockefeller Center. I was in New York. I didn't go
up there for the food writing ceremony. I want to

(36:01):
look at the new products from a company that will
be showcasing your products at c S. I can't tell
you much. I can tell you about one. I'm telling
you all about the funny time like that in New York.
When we come back. Right here on the High Tech Text.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Shop is Michael garfil Michael Garfield.

Speaker 4 (36:27):
Michael Garfield's joining.

Speaker 1 (36:28):
In the high Tech Texan. Michael Garfield is here with
a high tech textis items to make life easier Technology and.

Speaker 3 (36:36):
Michael Garfield has something you might want.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
Michael Garfield is your high Tech Texans. Three decades helping
you make magic with your gadgets. Heard worldwide on the
Iheartwaredio Act. Now high Tech Texas Michael Garfield.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
We are a halfway through the very first show of
December of twenty twenty five, which means we are halfway
to the hour here on the Michael Garfield Show. You
should be happy because number one, if you're a Texas
is finally got cold. It freaking finally got cold. I
didn't think it was ever gonna happen. It's the holiday season. Listen.

(37:28):
You may be short, You're gonna get the next few
weeks off of vacation. You're maybe traveling. That's what we're
here for. I cover consumer livestyle products, including travel, which
I'm about to tell you what I did a few
days ago. Just got back from New York City. Get
a rope. That's right. I had fun in New York
Christmas tree lighting and Rockefeller Center. Lots of food, lots
of fun. Also earlier this week I was in Georgetown, Texas,

(37:53):
did a little getaway, a little romantic getaway for one night.
I actually may I may replayed the interview we played
at last hour. But it's a neat getaway if you're
thinking of what to do, and if you don't want
to hop on a nitplane. If you're listening in and
around Texas. Certainly my show is heard in Houston, San Antonio,
in Dallas. And actually, if you take a map and

(38:13):
you triangulate the center between those three cities, you're probably
gonna land on Georgetown, Texas, which is just north of Austin.
And I don't know. It's just an unbelievable Hallmark looking
holiday decorated city. Phone number here three four six, twenty
nine Texan. You could follow me high Tech Texan on Instagram.
On x you can find high Tech Texan dot com.

(38:36):
I did just get back from another trip. I was
in New York for twenty three hours. Maybe that's it.
I flew up on Wednesday, and I did not know this.
You want timing. I knew this. It was a trip
and I was going up there on behalf of Asus
as US, which is a great computer laptop company, one

(39:00):
of the world's largest. They do some phenomenal laptops, and
they were showing off to some media what they're going
to be debuting in early January at CEES. So I
had planned this trip up there, and I get up
there on Wednesday. I arrived Wednesday LaGuardia. I take an

(39:21):
uber which was almost the same price as the freaking flight,
that's how bad it was. And I get into the
city and there's traffic, and I don't know it's going
I mean, listen, I know traffic holidays. The lights happened
to be in about an hour the Rockefeller Tree lighting
ceremony was getting ready to take place live on NBC,
and so the whole freaking Northeast corridor was in Manhattan

(39:46):
as I'm trying to navigate my way into from LaGuardia.
So anyway, every time I go to New York, there's
a few mus stops. I've been like three times in
four months. I'm not a big, big New York guy.
It's just business has taken me there several times these
past few months. I always make one stop. It's right
around the corner from Rockefeller Center. I'm a big Capital
Grill fan, and there is a phenomen I love it.

(40:07):
The Capitol Grill. It's on West fifty first Street, and
I'm telling you, it's right across the street from Rockefeller Center.
And so well, I'm in this. I don't want to
get into it, but I'm actually not a new uber.
I'm in a lyft. Have you ever been in an
uber or a lyft and you get into an accident.
This driver gets into a fender bender about ten blocks

(40:29):
away from Rockefeller Center, and I'm in a backseat, and like, dude,
I don't have time for this stuff. And so he
gets out and he starts insurance and things, and I'm
not hurt and it was really just a small little thing.
But the guy in front of us, he was pissed off.
And I'm like, I'm telling the guy, I said, can
I get out walk? Oh no, no, no, no, no, It's only
gonna be two minutes. I'm like, whatever. I literally I
didn't want to make a mad but I carried my

(40:51):
luggage and I just like snuck out of the car
and I just left. I paid for it. Still, they
still busted me for with the costs. I walked ten blocks.
I'reading six degrees with my suitcase with one hundred thousand
people making my way to Rockefeller Center. I couldn't even relate.
I couldn't get near near near the actual tree because
there was the roads were blocked off, So obviously I

(41:13):
went straight into the Capitol Grow and I had a Roger.
That's the bartender you need to speak to and you
need to say hi to Melissa. I posted this on
my social media accounts, and it's really nice because a
lot of people are going to New York this time
of the year. Michael, what do I need to do?
Where do I need to go? Go see the Rockefeller
Christmas Tree. If you want a nice hot, toddy, great meal,

(41:34):
walk one block. It's there's three locations of Capitol Grills.
This is not a Capitol Girl advertisement. They don't pay
me a thing. But go to one right across from
Rockefeller Center West fifty first Street. Melissa, she's the managing partner. Hey,
I heard you on Michael Garfield's radio show from Texas.
It's just very hospitable.

Speaker 5 (41:53):
It was good.

Speaker 3 (41:54):
So that was New York. I then walked through Times Square.
I always had fun, made some video o's, and ended
up I had a great Peruvian chicken, probably the best
one of the best chickens I've ever had. What was
then It's called is it p O p O p
I O p i os on tenth West. It's on

(42:15):
the west side on tenth Avenue. It was just phenomenal. Anyway,
the next day I woke up and I went to
a press conference for as wus A s US. I
got to see Sasha and David and Winston and all
the people who were kind enough. I cannot talk about
most everything I saw. I saw some new laptops I

(42:38):
will probably get I don't know, they will probably kill
me for even saying the word laptop. I saw some towers,
I saw some all in ones. I saw some neat
things they were coming out, which I will talk about
and show off in the first week of January when
I'm allowed to at CEES. There's one thing I can
talk about. I did see one of their latest powerfilm computers,
and this is a good time to check out if

(42:58):
you're a laptop fan. They have a series called the
pro Art Pro Art and this is for creators, and
so many people are creators. I mean you may not
think you're a creator, but I mean I'm a creator
because I you know, shoot videos, I edit some things,
and this has some phenomenal power. It was the pro
Art P sixteen. It's the latest Denaesus's line of high

(43:21):
end note books, again design for creators. It's sixteen inches,
hence the name P sixteen. Great specs the a md
riizin AI nine. It's got a CPU. This has an
Nvidia g fours high end graphics card. It's got a
lot of RAM sixty four gigs, a RAM four terabytes

(43:43):
solid state drive. At least, this is the one that
I was looking at here in this configuration, high end
resolution thirty eight forty by twenty four hundred pixels. It's
got the great Asus Lumina O l ED the O
lead display. It's got a ton of USBA and uh
USB sports full size SD card slot, so if you

(44:05):
are taking photos with your DSLR hop into there too.
It's got the full size h d m I jack,
really good performance. It's got a nice little touch pad
over there. Not the cheapest thing, and maybe you know
it's upwards. You could configure this thing upwards of four
thousand dollars or so. But I'll tell you what. This
is the one. And I'm not an Apple guy. But

(44:25):
if you want a comparison and your you know what's
going on with Apple MacBooks or the MacBook Pro M
four pro. This is one probably you know you may
want to you want to look at nice. This is
the one thing that I probably can't I can talk about.
It's relatively light, it's great for on the go, powerful creation.
It's also has Windows eleven Home. We like Microsoft Windows,

(44:47):
but it's AI powered, It's it's it's it's a good one.
Great the one hundred and twenty hurtz Anti reflection screen.
That's one of the things that I got to see
and hold. And that's the only thing I can tell
you about right now. That's why you need to tune
in for the earlier January shows when I'm at CES
and I can tell you more about a sus They
are good folks, all right. When we come back, more

(45:08):
holiday item recommendations, your calls, Hi Tech Texan show hurt
all across the world, and my heart it's the holiday season.

(45:36):
I told you I was going to sing some music
as a bump in since we don't have any money
to actually license real songs. As we go back to
the Michael Garfield High Tech Texan show heard all across
the state of Texas terrestrially shout outs to Houston, Dallas
and Santio and San Antonio and everywhere around the world.
Should you be listening to iHeartRadio, Happy holidays to you.

(45:57):
How many parties over? We are sweat worse five six
days into December over under amount of parties you've been to?
I mean, I guess you can count the Thanksgiving season
your Thanksgiving thing. I have been. As I do the
show here, Saturday night will be my second holiday party

(46:19):
already of the year. You know, you gotta get you know,
Luckily I don't have to go out and get a
new well, I don't get a new dress, I don't
have to get anything. But anyway, Saturday night I will
be Tonight, I am heading out to Big Easy Ranch.
That's my new JAM. I happen to be a member.
I joined just a few months ago. Probably once a

(46:42):
week I'm out there. Columbus, Texas. By the way, if
you don't know where Columbus, Texas is, it is pretty
much between Houston and Austin, not far off of Highway
seventy one and I ten. And for those of you
who are interested, if you are a golfers out there.
I will start with the number one rated right golf
course in the freaking state of Texas. Number one. All right,

(47:04):
it's a gated Don't think you're just gonna get in.
Don't you ain't gonna make a little tea time on
Ammuni course?

Speaker 7 (47:10):
People?

Speaker 3 (47:11):
Uh uh, this is Big Easy Range. People. You better
know somebody or why don't you just suck it up
and join, because that's what you need to become a member.
I may have to approve you.

Speaker 7 (47:21):
You know.

Speaker 3 (47:21):
I don't like hanging out with you know, some people
every day. I love every single person to hang out
at Big Easy Ranch. You know why because they actually
well they starts with the membership director, Nicole Scarborough. You
start with her. If you're interested in taking the tour,
you can go to Big Easy Ranch dot com. Nicole
has been doing this for years and years and years.
According to her boss, Billy Brown, who's vision this was,

(47:43):
she is the best in the entire South when it
comes to showing around and telling you about the positives
and everything that goes on at Big Easy Ranch. They
have everything from a wild game, lots of bird hunting,
there's pheasants out, there's a skeet shooting lodge is umble.
They got six or seven executive chefs. Can't wait for
dinner tonight at the big holiday party. And they also

(48:05):
have opportunities where you can purchase your own lot if not,
and then build your own home. I think there there
is one model home that is out there that is
available for purchase. It's a May Built Custom. That's the
name of the company, May Built Custom Model Home. I
actually got a tour of this not long ago. It

(48:27):
is google just gorgeous. One and a quarter acres, one
in a quarter acres. It overlooks whole number four of
the Antler course. It's I mean, you can look at
valleys of the golf Academy's I mean listen. For some reason,
you're a corporation, you can own it over tier two.
It is pretty much brand new, sixty six one hundred

(48:50):
square feet, five bedrooms, five and a half bass, three
car garage, lots of glass open areas, a beautiful kitchen.
It's unbelievable. So anyway, if that may be people, if
you're looking for a last minute holiday gift, I think
that's the only one available for sale. But they are
starting to sell lots. They have a Phase one, but

(49:10):
also phase two they started to too, is it? I
can't wait to make a little bit more money so
that I can go buy one of these houses too.
But I am a member Big Easy Ranch dot Com.
Congratulations really to the division with Billy Brown of what
just everybody who is involved out there, including Nicole, who
can guide you through these wonderful tours. Should you want

(49:31):
to become a member or more importantly, should you want
to purchase a lot? As we continue what we call
the high Tech textan show, have fun at your holiday
seasons or whatever you're doing. I was talking, oh something
to look at the emails over here, Michael, I heard
you talk about the pro Art sixteen from a SEUs.
I do need a new laptop, and I am what

(49:54):
you can consider a part creator because I'm talking about Creators.
Does it work as an actual real laptop with the
with the Windows eleven. Absolutely? I mean, if you want
to get listen, there are gaming laptops, there are Creator laptops.
There are chromebooks there, which means you know they're you know,
relatively inexpensive, relatively lie to all you want is word

(50:14):
processing out there. But I do know Asus the one
Asus that I've been really using for the past several
months is the Asus Vivo book. I've had this. I've
showed this off on some of my my TV segments
and in Austin and also Uston too. Microsoft Windows eleven,
which by the way, everybody should be having it should
be up to speed on Microsoft Windows eleven, especially because
Microsoft Window ten is really kind of out of service.

(50:36):
You're not gonna be able to get help customer service
with that. The Vivo vi I v O book that
has been out for a little while, it's it's wonderful.
But the new one that I was just talking about
is the pro Art sixteen. You can use it for
a lot of stuff. And this one, as I said,
it's it's probably one of, if not the highest in
line that Asus makes. But it does everything you can.

(50:59):
You know what, if you think about it's a career builder.
You can start learning how to become a career because
you could take a pin and you know that you
could draw on the whole thing that you know, sets
up like a tent. It it does a lot of stuff.
And so I got that got an email over here, Michael,
you were talking about a few weeks ago some Wi
Fi cameras. I need to get a few of these,
especially from something. This is someone from Houston, and actually

(51:20):
this is a really, really, really interesting subject. Let me
start with cameras. I was talking about some cameras from
Real Link R E O, L I n K. Real Link.
They're also one of the world's leaders when it comes
to Wi Fi cameras and security cameras. Cameras nowaday really
simple to install. Set them up to your Wi Fi network,
make sure there's a password on your network, and then

(51:41):
at that point you can absolutely take download the app,
log in, see what's happening in your house, talk through
the microphone, listen to the speaker that you have. Also,
you can get alerts if people are walking by. They
have some other under two hundred dollars. Some of them
are they have nice solar powered things and so you

(52:03):
don't need to charge them, but a lot of them
are battery powered and they do. They do a really
really nice job. You can get these specifically a Best
Buy and a lot of Texas cities. I know they're
out in Lubbock. I know they're on Bomont if you're
listening to but check out real Link and I am
going to learn even more about those new cameras and
some of the new stuff when I go to CEES.
But I'm a big real Link fan and I have
a lot of these all over my house too. Speaking

(52:27):
of issues with cameras, and I know I just talked
about a Wi Fi camera if you're in Houston and
actually around the country, but I've seen this happens. There's
something going on in Houston right now. This happened in
the Sugarland area, which is on the southwest side. And
I saw something that happening in bel Air recently too,
which is a little, you know part of town that's
you know, centralized Houston. There are bad people who are

(52:51):
breaking into homes and using a Wi Fi jammer to
shut down their ring home video cameras and in a
lot of things. Yes, you can do that. You have
to be sophisticated and you do have to have some
knowledge of how these jammers work. But it is possible
to jam your entire Wi Fi network. What I recommend

(53:14):
is I recommend having two Wi Fi networks, and you
could set this up using your own. You don't need
two routers. You just come up with a secondary SSID.
The name of your router, okay, the name of your SSID,
have password codes, and then if you have ring cameras,

(53:35):
you can have even two ring cameras, put them on
each different networks. That's what you can do. But it's
sad how people are always trying to buck the system.
And so I know a friend of mine who live
in Sugar Lamb. What they did is they actually got
a wired system. They put cameras with the old fashioned
ethernet wiring. That is not cheap to do, but then

(53:57):
again they're very nice people and they actually have some
money off there are ways around it, and so yes,
wired is always going to be more secure than Wi Fi.
And one of the reasons why there's three letters WEP WEP.
When Wi Fi, certainly Wi Fi cameras first came out
years and years ago, there was this thing called web.

(54:17):
It stands for Wired Equivalent Protocol and just by the
name of it, the Wi Fi wireless cameras, they were
telling you that, well, they're very strong signals and you
can't break throw them. They're so good that they're the
equivalency of wired. They're comparing themselves to wired. So yes,
the wired is always no matter what you do and

(54:37):
I'm not knocking wireless any Wi Fi anything because I
have so many Wi Fi units and devices inside my home.
They are out there. I do like real link if
you have to get it, But if you really really
want to make sure what's going on, you can just
blow off the Wi Fi and you can get something
that's wired. Well, we're gonna take a break at about
him the hour got a number of different emails, Michael,
I just missed the tail end of that Georgetown, Texas interview.

(54:58):
Could you replay it again? Well, I'll tell you what.
Tell you a little bit more about my day long
visit nighttime visit to a couple little town in central
Texas called Georgiatown. On the other side, if you do

(55:26):
continue the very long running Michael Garfield High Tech Texan
show heard Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, scene in Houston and Austin.
Maybe I am the King of Texas. Thank you so much.
We got a few open phone lines as we do
the radio show. Here we are the first week of December.
You hear the pep in my voice. Man, it is
holiday season and the gifts are starting to come in.

(55:49):
I'm giving you tips on where to buy and where
to go also and.

Speaker 7 (55:54):
Where to go?

Speaker 3 (55:54):
And you know what, I started out the holiday season
this past weekend and with a quick overnight trip. You
ready for this way for it to Georgetown, Texas, just
a little north of Austin, in the center part of
this great state of ours. For when I was a
kid growing up in Dallas, and my grandparents lived in Austin,

(56:17):
and we lived up and down I thirty five all that,
and I remember as we approached Austin, you know, going south,
we're passing Wake, we're passing Temple, and there was Georgetown.
And listen, I'm gonna go back fifty years or so,
and Georgetown was a you know, relatively little tiny town
back of the day. I know, you know some things
about it. But the nice folks at visit Georgetown, they said,

(56:38):
you know, Garf, you kind of got a nice following.
You're the king of Texas. Why don't you come and
hang around that The city is decorated with all the
trees lit up, and there's there's shops and there's fun
things to do. Went there last Sunday, spent the entire day.
The weather was great. I gotta say it is one
of the I'm gonna use the word cute. Man. It

(56:59):
is a cute town. Is a great getaway, even for
one night. I can't even imagine how awesome fun would
be in the summer. That's a hint to the visit.
To the visit Georgetown, folks. I want to go back,
but it was really really neat, and I wanted to
share a little of my experience in a little history
about Georgetown. And with that we are joined by the
executive director of the Williamson County Museum.

Speaker 7 (57:20):
Her name is Danielle.

Speaker 3 (57:21):
How to talk a little, actually a lot about because
there's a lot to talk about that beautiful town of Georgetown. Danielle,
thank you so much for joining us. I'm jealous that
I'm not there anymore, but you get to live in
that beautiful city.

Speaker 6 (57:34):
Yes, I'm very lucky to live in the most beautiful
town square in Texas, Georgetown, Texas.

Speaker 3 (57:39):
You know. Was I just told the story of my audience,
like I'm from Dallas and I went to school in Austin,
and my grandparents from Austin. We just lived up and
down I thirty five, and we knew we were nearing
Austin every time we saw the georgetownside. As we're getting closer,
and really just this is I'm gonna go back forty
plus years ago.

Speaker 4 (57:56):
I had no idea that Georgetown.

Speaker 3 (57:57):
Would grow into such a beautiful but also large, you know,
very vibrant, you know town. When you describe Georgetown to
people who have never been there, how do you do it?
What are some of the words you use?

Speaker 7 (58:09):
The angles?

Speaker 6 (58:11):
Yeah, so Georgetown is a place where everyone is welcome.
We say more than welcome, because it's really a really
great place of community. People like to help out everybody.
You run into people so always because of that historic square,
with all the historic buildings, you feel like you're in

(58:31):
like a little Hallmark small town movie and it really
creates this really great sense of community Hallmark.

Speaker 4 (58:40):
That's great.

Speaker 3 (58:40):
And actually I use that word. I was there, you know,
just earlier this week, and I used it especially at
night because right there in the in the center of
the middle of that beautiful square, it's you know, you
could see these things from movies. It's you know, be
at the courthouse or just be at the gathering place.
But the decorations, I mean, has has Hallmark movie's been
shot there? Because it's a perfect background for that.

Speaker 4 (59:04):
Not Hallmark movies.

Speaker 6 (59:05):
But a lot of different movies have been shot, and
the Courthouse has been in a few of them. But
Georgetown has had a long history of being kind of
Christmas centric. Actually, in nineteen thirty nine, Georgetown was actually
named the Mistletoe Capital and the Kissing Capitol because there
were some enterprising men who decided to take all that,

(59:26):
you know, mistletoe that grows natively on oaks and harvest
it and sell them package it all over.

Speaker 7 (59:32):
No, now you tell me that.

Speaker 8 (59:33):
Okay, now I really have to come back again to
the great Georgetown.

Speaker 7 (59:38):
We're talking with Danielle Houck.

Speaker 3 (59:40):
She is at the Williamson County Museum in beautiful Georgetown,
just not too far, just north of Austin, off of
I thirty five.

Speaker 4 (59:47):
So many things to do.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
You know.

Speaker 3 (59:48):
I was really playing around on the visit Georgetown website
before I went, because I wanted to make sure, you know,
I kind of maxed out my day in the night,
had a unbelievable beautiful stay at this airbnb called the
Hardy House. I mean, it's just it was the cutest
thing to bedroom walking distance from that downtown but downtown,
I mean I lost count of the wineries in some

(01:00:08):
of the breweries down now there's in the shops too.

Speaker 4 (01:00:11):
I mean that must be phenomenal for tourism.

Speaker 6 (01:00:14):
It's great. I mean there is something from everyone. So
there's you know, there's combination brewery, coffeehouses, there are wineries.
There are you know, things like Misky Creek Outfitters, which
they like it to be your living room, you know,
so you always have community. There's watching, there's football games happening.
You've all kinds of different bars, all family friendly. It's

(01:00:36):
really great because it really does foster a sense of
community and people come down and they stay. There's great food,
the great activities. You can go see a show at
the palace, but or learn just some of the history
around the buildings because there's a lot of historical markers
around too.

Speaker 7 (01:00:51):
You talk about the families.

Speaker 3 (01:00:52):
One of the things that I did notice, I saw
a lot of families and again Thanksgiving weekend, a lot
of it's seemed grandparents and in their kids, but also
their grandkids.

Speaker 7 (01:01:02):
Be it in strollers walking around.

Speaker 3 (01:01:03):
So I can see the generations who probably still live
in the Georgetown area and they just kind of want
to show their kids and grandkids.

Speaker 7 (01:01:10):
Specifically.

Speaker 3 (01:01:10):
You talked about the Palace Theater because I actually saw
a show there. I saw Frozen for a few hours
in the Palace Theater. That's a throwback to like the
old you know theaters that you know you see in
movies or you know, back in the nineteen fifties and sixties.
It was just such a great community and so I
can see why people live there. And so in terms
of residents, I mean, what are some of the things

(01:01:33):
that the residents enjoy where to go in the area.

Speaker 6 (01:01:37):
So the residents, I mean, one, we have obviously the
beautiful downtown right and all the great small businesses, but
also we have a really great systems of like parks
and really close to downtown we have Blue Hole, we
have San Gabriel Park, and there's hiking trails and biking trails.
So there's I mean, really you can find anything for

(01:01:57):
somebody in Georgetown, right, whether you to be active, whether
you want to shop and eat, whether you want to
go see a show. It's all there.

Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
The blue Hole I actually sold. It was a little chilly,
but anyway, I went down to the Blue Hole. You know,
it's right there. Again, it's i mean just a stone's
throw from I thirty five it is very simple. You know,
he's very commute, but that looked fun. There was a
you know, Santa Claus was there, and there was a
park with a petting zoo, and then Candy Cannon. I mean,
it's this is a perfect time, you know for me
to go. I definitely want to come back in the

(01:02:26):
in the spring, certainly the summer too, because for some reason,
Georgetown's also very famous for poppies.

Speaker 4 (01:02:31):
What's the story there with this poppy stuff.

Speaker 6 (01:02:33):
Yeah, so you have to come back in the spring
for a red poffee festival. But the reason why we're
famous actually the state of Texas named Georgetown the Red
Poppy Capital in nineteen nineteen nineteen ninety because there was
a man named Henry Pearl Oker Compton and he was
a World War One soldier. He was kind of a character.

(01:02:54):
He was even featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not,
because during World War One he served as an infantryman
and he actually took two Germans captive without a gun
because he spoke fluent German because he was from that
central Texas kind of German stop. But he was so
inspired by the poppies that grew at Flanners fields that

(01:03:15):
he actually took those seeds and mailed him to his
mother who lived on Sixth Street in downtown Georgetown, and
we started planning them and then they have grown kind
of since then, and so now we are named the
Red Toppee Capital of Texas.

Speaker 3 (01:03:31):
It was everywhere, So no, I definitely need to come back,
and again it's a year on visit. It's I mean, listen,
I have audiences right now listening not only in Houston,
but also Dallas and San Antonio.

Speaker 7 (01:03:40):
I mean Georgetown. I think if you look on a map, it.

Speaker 3 (01:03:43):
Is pretty much plopped right in the center of that.
It's very very simple to get to. And last thing
before me, let you go, because I know you are
the executive director of Williamson County Museum. It's a historic place.
I mean I lost count of how many Texas historical
markers I saw on all of the buildings. And so
by walking into that museum, I mean, what can people
expect to see? I mean, you know how far back

(01:04:04):
to the city of Georgetown goes.

Speaker 6 (01:04:06):
So Georgetown and Williamson County was actually founded March thirteenth,
eighteen forty eight. So we've been celebrating, you know, for
almost one hundred and seventy seven years at this point.
And so there are historic buildings that are still standing
as old as eighteen seventy where Hydrate is where you
can get Smoothi's, or there's a saloon kind of saddle

(01:04:28):
shop upstairs, or like you mentioned the Georgetown Palace that
is an Art Deco building and they're celebrating their one
hundred years in nineteen twenty six, next year in twenty
twenty six.

Speaker 4 (01:04:39):
It's the history's great.

Speaker 7 (01:04:41):
So this is listen.

Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
I can give you, you know, twenty different ways, you know,
white reasons to go for the families, the hiking, the food.

Speaker 7 (01:04:46):
The brewery.

Speaker 3 (01:04:47):
But if anybody out there, and there's so many historical
historians over the state of Texas, I mean, this is
just one of the best places in this great state
of ours to check it out. It is Georgetown. Her
name is Danielle Hawk. She is with the Williamson County Museum.
Thank you for your time.

Speaker 4 (01:05:02):
And I'll tell you what.

Speaker 3 (01:05:03):
Next time I'm coming you and show me around, I
want you to take me to the better wineries and breweries.

Speaker 4 (01:05:07):
Okay, because that was also my favorite part.

Speaker 7 (01:05:10):
Okay, so good, all right, thank you, So much for
your time.

Speaker 3 (01:05:13):
And if anybody wants to visit that a beautiful place here,
let me give you the website. It's visit dot Georgetown
dot org dot org. That is, it's wonderful things like this. Listen,
check out my Instagram soon. I'm gonna be posting a
lot of photos and I don't know, maybe one day
we'll go back and we'll do a live broadcast. Let's
just let's just a big concert. Luck you by me,

(01:05:35):
Michael Garfield all across the Status Texas, don't go anywhere.

(01:05:55):
We have reached the final segments of this week's high
Tech Text and Show. My Michael is the name Michael Garfield.
Hope all as well. You can find me a high
Tech Text and h I G h T E C
h T e x A N high Tech textan dot
com not only on social media, but also right here
at the radio. I'm not going to give out the
number anymore because this is our last segment and we're
just kind of kind of, you know, kind of end

(01:06:16):
things up over here. A lot of things happening in
my world right now. I was just trying I just
got back from New York. I told you about that.
I was in Georgetown, Texas. We just heard another interview
about that. I think I am other than popping up
to Columbus, Texas to hit my ranch, Big Easy Ranch
a few times, maybe to Austin once more for my
TV show, I think I'm kind of grounded until the

(01:06:40):
into Las Vegas. I'll be up there January fourth, sixth, seventh,
and eighth, pretty much the first week I will be
up there for the Consumer Electronics Show. I am getting
a lot of invitations. Michael, you got to come to
this booth. You got to come to that booth. You
got to see this thing. One of the fun things
I always like going to. I like going to a
massive section for smart homes, and they have so many products.
And when I smart homes, we're not we're just talking

(01:07:02):
about cameras and Wi Fi systems.

Speaker 7 (01:07:06):
In in things.

Speaker 3 (01:07:08):
There are a lot of interesting things, including high heck toilets.
I am not kidding you, Toto, Holar and companies. I
don't even know what's going on, but I think it's funny.
There's high tech everything, including I saw this funny story too.

(01:07:30):
It was just a few months ago. It was just
a few months ago that Holar they launched a camera
that attaches to a toilet and it uses AI to
examine Dare I say this word your poop? I mean

(01:07:55):
some people say you just can't put a price on
good gut health. This thing costs six hundred dollars for
the device. Well wait a minute, there's a subscription fee
of maybe seventy to one hundred and fifty dollars per
year for them for this thing to analyze it. Do
we want to talk about this just you know, maybe

(01:08:17):
lunchtime may be dinner time. You're listening to us. It's
There was a blog post, however, that was published this
week that raised questions about the company Color their data
practices for its new toilet gadget, and the company was
forced to explain what it meant by encrypted data for
customers and what its policy is for its training, its algorithms.

(01:08:40):
And it's not straightforward as it's initially it initially is.
Color says that it analyzes gut health and hydration and
detects the presence of blood in the toilet bowl, providing
data for building healthy habits. They say it's end to
end encryption and nobody could see this over here too. Listen,

(01:09:01):
I can get into the technical aspects of this stuff
about being encrypted. Listen, we talk about our data and
our privacy concerns. Talk about a privacy concerns is I
really don't want people to find out my social security number,
don't need people to find out my credit card number.
I really don't anybody. Don't want anybody to finding out
my government like my middle name or anything that needs
to be when something is analyzing that something that comes

(01:09:25):
out of you. Is is that almost too much? I
respect doctors and going to get to things like but
this is what technology has brought us to. And don't
think I'm not going to see more of this stuff.
Because I got an invite to another company and I've
never heard of this. It is a company that makes

(01:09:46):
I'm quoting right now. I'm reading an email from him,
Michael Meet the world's smartest toilet with real time health checks,
family safety alerts, and full automation unquote. There's a but
he called I've never heard of it called Vovo vo
Vo USA Vovo they got a smart toilet. I'm not

(01:10:07):
kidding you. They want me to come check out. I
don't know if they want me to try it. It's
called the Neo it's a health monitor safety system. It
checks your wellness every time you use it. It has
or you're not gonna be the price of this built
in urine analysis sensor, checks hydration. It has got an
advanced bidet system. It is touch free everything. All right,

(01:10:33):
any ideas how much is this going to cost you,
ladies and gentlemen. This is yours for the low, low
lit go price of five thousand dollars. That's exactly what
I want, exactly five thousand dollars smart toilet. I'm looking
at it right here. I'm going to if you tune
into my Instagram, mate, this is why you need to
follow me. High tech texting people. This is the stuff

(01:10:55):
that I talk about. Hi g h T E c
h T e x A N Always busy, lots of
traffic the first week of January because I am just
uploading videos of products that you will either see in
twenty twenty six this coming year or you will never
hear of. But these companies want me to come by

(01:11:15):
and bring the cameras. People, bring the cameras. My goodness, Yes,
this is what things have become. Would you guys use this?
And it's a rhetoric question because I'm not taking phone calls.
We're about to end the show. But that's what we got.
My freaking goodness, I'm not surprised. I am absolutely not surprised.

(01:11:36):
Other things like that, Oh here's something. Uh. A buddy
of mine I told the story. This is like week two.
Buddy of mine, who's a long time iPhone guy, got jealous.
Believe it or not. I didn't convince him because I'm
an Android guy and he wanted to try an Android.
So he is you. I let him. I mean, he's
using one of my Android phones right now. I asked him.
He said it two weeks. He doesn't love it. He goes,

(01:11:57):
there's a learning curve. I'm like, dude, you're in your fifties.
You're incredibly intelligent. It's a freaking phone. It's got emojis
and icons, and you can call people and text people.
It ain't that hard. I'm not trying to convince anybody
to flip from iPhone android. I've always said this, but
there's little things in terms of great cameras and new

(01:12:20):
tricks that Android's coming out with. Maybe you want to,
you know, if it's time to change, it's time to change.
I saw this one because Android has something new coming out.
It's called call Reason. Call Reason and what it does
it flags important calls before you even pick up the phone,

(01:12:41):
so friends in your contact list who also have an
Android phone can signal when this call is not one
to send a voicemail. It is like I guess a
nine to one one. It's in beta testing right now.
It'll only work for people who's saved in your contact list,
and you have to both be using Google's default calling

(01:13:03):
app on Android phones, which I have an Android phone
and that's what I use. But if you often send
calls to your voicemail, or maybe your friends don't pick
up your calls, I like this because this feature allows
you to tell each other when you're calling about something
very important or you need to talk like right now,
without sending in a separate text all Rey's it says
urgent and it picks it up again some of the

(01:13:23):
neat things that I try to cover, not to try
to Maybe it's going to convince you. Maybe you're gonna like,
maybe you should do your own research. But I'm the
guy who's gonna pulls things out there. But I'm also
the guy who's make them to shut up, especially when
my two hours knows about their line. He's just a
plot to do with fighting. I'd like to thank Calum,
thanks Will for keeping us on the air. Brian Erickson,

(01:13:44):
who's the Use Talk program director of all of my
hard regulartations across the South.

Speaker 5 (01:13:50):
If you're going on here, I want everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:13:51):
To have a very teeth December. I will be down
the next week.

Speaker 7 (01:13:54):
There he's coming down more of the great.

Speaker 3 (01:13:56):
Gifts, the last minute things that you shouldn't getting, or
the holiday see Honaka starts this coming week for those
who's a great for Mico's campbells Christmas, if the deadline's
coming up for the shipping packages wherever you are traveling.
Just he saved people because we don't you around. In
twenty twenty sixteen, for everybody that's been part of the show,
my name is Michael Darkfield, thank you for tuning in.

(01:14:17):
He does the high Tech Texan show my show Here's
Oh God.