My Favorite Apps of The Year

Today on The High Tech Texan Show - 

• My favorite apps of the year
  
• The best place to put your mesh router in your home
  
• Reason #100 why I won't buy an EV
  
  

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Is Michael Garfi. Michael Garfield. Michael Garfield's joining in the
high Tech Texan. Michael Garmer is here with a high
Tech Texans.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
To make life easier system technology, and Michael Garfia has
something you might like.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Michael Garfield is your high Tech Texans. Three decades helping
you make magic with your gadgets. Heard worldwide on the
iHeartRadio Act. Now your high Tech Texan, Michael Garfield.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
We well, well, whichwas the weekend after Christmas and all
across the airwaves most everyone still sleeping.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Oh my, what an outrage. You should be listening to
the High Tech Texan because if you have gifts to return,
you won't be a sweaton. No, my name is Michael.
Thanks for tuning in. We've got a pack show, so
start calling in on Samsung, on Hummer, on Amazon we go.
So buckle up, my friends, and let's start this big schizo.

(01:20):
And with that the final high Tech Texan show of
the year twenty twenty four. And you know what that
means if you're a long time listener. It's the weekend
after Christmas, the first show after Christmas, middle of Hanukkah.
As we stand also right now and something tells me
you got a few gifts and you just don't love them,

(01:44):
and so what do you do? Well? For the past
month and I have I have been telling you gifts, suggestions,
what you should get, what you should ask for. But
for some reason, your loved one, someone gave you little
something something that they didn't listen to my advice. And
it just so well, this is the opportunity for you
to call them. You do you know, post something online,

(02:07):
tweet me, email me, whatever youone do. Hey, garf, guess
what I got this and it's a piece of crop.
I'm going to return it. What should I get instead?
Now it could be you like the category. Okay, maybe
it's a nice wireless microphone and what oh it wont
to DJI might do? Now? You got a phone, you
got a phone case, you got a TV, you got

(02:30):
a car, you got an suv? All right, I just
don't love it, but I needed something. You think I
can return it within three days? The lemon law. I
still have the receipt. There's a gift receipt. What can
we do? This is what I'm here for. We always
have a little fun with it because we're always have
a little pep in our step for some reason. You
you were probably not working these last few days of

(02:52):
twenty twenty four. But I do it for you. Let
me tell you how to get in love hearing from you.
I check your voicemails, I listen to them, ilay them online.
I'll play them on air three four six twenty nine
Texan three four six two nine. Spell it out t
e x A n AS in high Tech Texan. That
is me. Michael is the name. Big shout out for

(03:14):
those listening across the state of Texas terrestrially KPRC nine
fifty AM in Houston, the Mighty Mighty eleven ninety in
Big d Dallas Fort Worth, and then news Radio twelve
hundred WOAI in San Antonio. So we've got the big
markets covered, we've got all the suburbs. If you're not
in those cities, you may be listening online. You know,

(03:36):
you could take this show everywhere you go. And that
did not happen well over twenty twenty plus years ago
that I started this show. It was only over the air.
Now we've got these things called apps. Now we have streaming,
so you can download the iHeartRadio app, which by the way,
was just revamped some neat new features. It is free
to download. You download it, you type in high Tech Texans,

(03:58):
spell the whole thing out, or type in your favorite
radio station, type in Michael Garfield, which is my name,
and then you can listen to the two hours live
right now, or if you missed it, you can go
back and podcast it to the extent and all you need.
Some of the things we're gonna be yapping about today,
my favorite some of my favorite apps of the year. Now,
I'm not going to play this game alone. I want

(04:21):
you to chime in, which is why I've given you
the number three four six twenty nine Texan. I will
give you an email. Try Michael Garfield at iHeartMedia dot com.
Tell me some of your favorite apps, and you know what,
we can actually do this. We can actually extend it
to a few things. I'm gonna tell you some of
my favorite apps, which may give you an idea of

(04:41):
what to download with the play around with it on
your new phone. You get some extra time off before
you get back to work. But also give me some
of your favorite other products. Did you get something that
just blew you away? Was it headphones? Was it ear Pause?
Was it an Iron? Was it a steamer. And I
say this is because these are the these are some
of the products that I have been playing and testing

(05:03):
with for the past few weeks, so they're top of mine.
But we can go beyond that. What was your favorite food?
Got a favorite restaurant? Because you listen, I'm I'm done
with Texas based guy, high Tech Texan. We're now in
the three largest cities in Texas. I know my Burrito's,
I know my Tacos. I know my Brecky Tacos too.

(05:24):
You want to get in love to hear you? Three
four six two nine t e x A N. Michael's
the name. I'm gonna tell you here, give me a
few minutes. Because I don't rant a lot. I'm just
one of those you know, I don't really diss a
lot of things because there are so many products out
there that there's just and I'm not a I'm not

(05:44):
a hater. I don't really diss a product. I'll tell
you some of the reasons why you shouldn't get it.
I've never said I hate product. I've never really said
don't buy a product. But I'm sorry, if you could
just I have to end the year with this and
give me to the start of the next break here,
I'm going to give you at least reason number one
hundred why I, and I use the word I, Michael Garfield,

(06:07):
why I will not buy an electric vehicle. Just it.
Just if you're a longtime listener. I review cars, I
review trucks. Matter of fact, got to thank a good
friend of mine, Jerry Reynolds, the car Pro guy. I
sat in for Jerry last weekend. If you were in
one of the sixty plus markets around the country, a
three hour radio show it's called the Car Pro Show.

(06:30):
Gave you my thoughts on my favorite vehicles that I
tested this year. On any given year, I test drive
sixty or seventy brand new vehicles. I get them at
least on a weekly basis. These do not come from dealerships.
These come directly through manufacturers. I am not paid to
talk about them. It is all my thoughts, which means
I can ream them or I could love on them.

(06:50):
It is totally and that's why Jerry said, Garth, I
trust your opinion. You do the same thing I do.
We're both members of the Texas Auto Writers Association. Really
fun got a lot of questions about cars, what to buy,
their kids or they're in the you know, should they
trade in something right now? My car was in a wreck,
and what should I get my kid just left the school?
Now I want to downsize the vehicle. I got that going.

(07:13):
But I also will tell you about electric vehicles. There's there,
there are, There are some reasons you may want to
get them. But for me, in my lifestyle where I
am right now, where my kids are grown, and it
is just me living alone, and I like the freedom
to get in my vehicle and turn the nission on

(07:34):
and drive as far away in just a few hours
from Houston to Dallas to San Antonio. I could go
to Lake Charles. I could go a lot of places
where I don't need to stop and worry about running
out of electricity on that battery, trying to find a
battery charger, waiting an hour plus time, and spending a

(07:54):
good amount of money to charge that thing which happened
to be a few days ago. So stand by. If
you may enjoy this, You may hop on the bandwagon.
You may call and say, dude, what are you talking about? Man,
suck it up, you need to plan your trip out, gotcha.
I will tell you why I will not be buying
an ev MA sway you may not. I'll let you

(08:15):
hear about that. Cees. The Consumer Electronics Show is just
around the corner. I'll be there and is it one week?
About a week, week and a day. I will be
out in Las Vegas. Another reason why you need to
follow me on instad Graham period Hi g h T
E c h T e x A N high tech Texan.
I am going to be uploading videos of stuff that

(08:37):
you do not need intoenty twenty five. That's right, the
world's largest consumer tech show, my twenty second, twenty third
year that I'll be there. I will be broadcasting. I
have a radio and a TV booth brought on from
that Las Vegas convention floor. I will be covering it. Also.
I will be bringing some samples, some demos the companies
give me, and I will be giving them away to you,

(08:58):
maybe on the air right now. But if you follow me,
if you quote, if you comment, when you see me
post a drone or post something, Hey Michael Man, I
love that? And how do I win that? How can
I enter that? That's why you see I'm easily She
doubled my fifty thousand followers to one hundred thousand between
now and the end of the year. But hurry up,
we just got a few days or so. Michael is

(09:20):
the name. Three four six two nine Textan. We are
going to continue and stand by. Buckle your seatbelt, my friends.
If you're interested in NV you may do a U
turn because I'm just not happy right now. It is
the High Tech Textans Show. Come right back?

Speaker 1 (09:50):
What off?

Speaker 2 (09:51):
What off?

Speaker 3 (09:51):
It is?

Speaker 2 (09:52):
You might think, Gardee, we call this the High Tech
Texians Show. It is about consumer products. It's about returning
you're all day gifts. Now as we do the show
just a few days after Christmas of twenty twenty four,
this is the final show of this year. If you're
new to the show, because we just got added on
in San Antonio on WOAI eleven ninety in Dallas. That

(10:17):
expands the listening audience a long time. It's been twenty
three years in Houston on KPRC nine fifty of the
iHeartRadio Network. We thank you. But if you're new to
it is we have some fun. I am not gonna
tell you how to fix your computer. I don't do that.
I will tell you I'll recommend a new computer. I'll
recommend a laptop. I'm gonna answer you. You're gonna ask

(10:37):
me a question. I'm going to answer with a question.
What are you trying to do with it? Is it
for a student? Maybe you do want a laptop? Is
it for an elderly person who doesn't travel and they
just want something to play some games? They need a
big screen. I may give you an all in one
desktop to do. I have a lot, a lot of
ammunition to give you some ideas. If you want a vehicle,

(10:59):
Oh do I I review vehicles fifteen years. I have
reviewed cars fifty to fifty two plus cars every single year.
What is at eight hundred nine hundred vehicles? I have
driven the good and the bad, the ugly. Let me
give you the phone number right now and buckle up
because we're going to have it's story time here. But
it's three four six twenty nine text, and I got

(11:19):
some voicemails. If we don't pick up and you hear
a beat, leave a voicemail. We do have the right
to play that later in the show the following week.
And I've got a few actually to play. But bear
with me over here. I want to see if I
could just recollect what happened to me this week, and
it's about It's about a vehicle. Long story short. Every
single week, every single week, I get a vehicle that

(11:42):
is driven up to my house. This is this is business.
People don't cry from your Argentina. And this is not
a humble brag. This is an fact fact. I review
cars and trucks and whatever it is. There is a
third party company that works with manufacturers, not dealers. Manufacturers
the directment. Most of them are obviously in Michigan everyone.
They deliver a car pretty much every Thursday to me.

(12:04):
They give me the keys, I give them the other keys.
They swap it out. I have one week to test
drive this vehicle, Okay, I try to take it obviously.
I drive highways and byways. Sometimes they'll take them off road.
I have done pickup trucks, electric vehicles, sports cars, minivans,
sprinter vans, Sedan's suvcuvs goes on and on and on,
all right, and I make notes, I take pictures. I

(12:25):
put this on my Instagram high tech textan by the way,
and I have my favorites. Tonight's die and I don't
like some If if one vehicle is good for somebody,
odds are that vehicle may be good for another type
of demographic another person. So if I don't specifically like
it for me where I am right now, well, listen,
I don't have any kids. I don't need a big
old minivan or something. Someone's gonna want them any vans,

(12:46):
So I do keep an open mind. But when it
comes to electric vehicles, I've got to love hate, mostly
hate relationship with that thing. I like electric vehicles because
they are sexy, nicely designed, they are super fast, they
are quiet, and to some extent, maybe they're a little
bit more green. However, there's a lot of non green
stuff and evs. We're not gonna get into the politics

(13:07):
right now. But the problem with me is not so
much as an evy itself. It's the charging infrastructure that
we have in these United States of America. It is
just not ubiquitous enough. I need a charger on a
every single street corner, just like we have a gas station.
That's part one, Part two. I could fill up a

(13:28):
tank of gas as I have because I have been
driving gasoline power cars for without giving out my age,
well over forty years. All Right, You fill up a
tank of gas, it takes anywhere between four minutes to
eight minutes, maybe ten minutes, depending on how big of
a tank you got. You pay, you get out, you're
on the road, all right, you stop at a buckets

(13:48):
or something, Yeah, you're screwed. You're gonna spend another hour.
You're spending another five hundred dollars. But neither here nor
there you get an electric vehicle. Okay, you better tack
on about twice the amount of time that you plan
to get from a to because if you're going anywhere
over two hundred, two hundred and fifty maybe three hundred miles,
you are screwed because you now are gonna have to
pull out like the old fashioned trip tick and plan

(14:10):
your trip because at some point you are gonna have
to stop and you're gonna have to recharge that car.
You're gonna have to hunt for a place to go
charge that vehicle, and your better hope it's a level three,
a really fast super or a hyper fast charger. If not,
you're gonna sit there and it's gonna be a slow
trickle charge. Maybe there's three or four cars already using those.

(14:33):
At that point, you're gonna wait to even pull up
your car, and then you're gonna back your car in
because you forgot that you're charging port was on the
other side. Then you got to wait another thirty forty
five minutes, an hour, hour and a half to charge
your car, and you hope it goes to one hundred percent.
Do you see where I'm going right now? It's a pain.
Let me give you my review. This past week, I

(14:55):
was excited when a Hummer EV holed up in front.
That's right. Last week I had a Hummer Eve. Okay,
h three sexy, one hundred and seven thousand dollars. The
tops can come off. Does the crab walk? It's huge,
It's a looker. I love the lights. It fits well,

(15:17):
it is cool, interesting enough as big as this bad
boy is, because you think it could be all battery.
The max range that I could see it was about
three hundred miles. Okay, generally I don't travel three hundred
miles or so. But you know what I decided to
do because at night or two nights before Christmas, I
went with the buddy and I live in the Houston area,

(15:38):
and we said, you know what, let's go to Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Lake Charles, Louisiana maybe about one hundred and ninety miles away,
takes about two hours and fifteen minutes. And I said,
I'm gonna take this thing well before I go, and
I was gonna spend the night before I went. Had
to find a charger because I don't have a charger. No,

(15:58):
I had to find a charger in charge this thing.
Do one hundred percent. Now I have range anxiety, Yes
I do. I have range anxiety. And that range anxiety
means I have to look at that range. It's gonna
go down to ninety percent, sixty forty percent. At that
point I start schitzing. It gets down to twenty percent.
Now I'm screwed. So I'm thinking we're gonna drive directly.

(16:19):
It's got three hundred mile range, only about one hundred
and eighty maybe two hundred miles. Whatever it is, I'm
still gonna have some mileage on there. There's got to
be a charger or two or ten of them at
this big hotel. And I'm gonna call out this hotel.
Stayed at the Golden Nugget. Golden Nugget, stayed there many
times since it's opened ten years ago. Really nice hotel,

(16:39):
really good, good restaurants. Now got a sports book it's
all good. Drive all the way over there, make it.
Maybe that I have about I have no clue why,
because I was using the air conditioning and use it
and blasting the radio. I get there. Maybe I had
about twenty twenty two percent of my battery left. Maybe
I had I don't know, fifty miles, sixty miles and

(17:01):
maybe less than that. Pull in to the garage is
the golden nugget. I'm driving on Level one looking for
the charger. Level two. I'm going through all I go
through the parking lot, can't find a freaking charger. Pull
up to the valet, I asked the nice kids, Hey, man,
where's a charger. They see I'm in an electric comer.
They look at me and they smile and they're like,

(17:23):
we don't have chargers here. And I look them and
I'm I may have thrown out a cussword. You are
the freaking golden nugget. A beautiful, relatively new hotel. You
have people driving from the state of Texas. I know
a lot of them have EVS. You don't have a charger, No, sir,
we don't. This point, I'm really starting to fits. At

(17:45):
this point, my appetite's gone I'm no, I'm losing weight
already because I don't eat when I just I get ticked.
Where's the nearest charger? Well, there's one in the target
parking lot, and you have to go around here, and
there's the U turn and there's the circle and then
you're gonna turn right over here? Is it open to
You're kidding me, so in a way, I didn't worry
about it. We park, We gamble, go to dinner, Vican

(18:06):
Anthony's cost that an armaal leg gamble a little wake up.
So now buddy's sleeping. I'm thinking I need to get
I need to take care of this thing. We take
care of that. I drive now and I'm watching every
every foot that I'm driving and every percentage that this
my battery goes down. I drive to this target parking lot.

(18:29):
I find out that the target parking lot has a
slew of chargers. Uh oh, they're only Tesla charges. Tesla
chargers do not fit into the regular right, I said,
regularly the chargers okay with the charge coupling system, say okay,
gun work. Then I'm thinking I'm really screwed. Wait a minute.

(18:53):
I look on the map. Just in the same parking lot.
Here's a company called Rivian, And if you don't know Rivian,
in Rivi makes a truck and it's an electric truck
and it uses the same type of charger that the
Hummer does that most of the other cars do. Right,
super fast, super speeding everything. Go all the way to
the Rivian thing, plug it in, get ready to punch

(19:15):
something to give my credit card. We're sorry. These Rivian
network chargers only work on Rivians at this place. At
this time, I'm looking for a brick to throw through
the window of this Hummer, not because I don't like
the Hummer, because I am ticked, because I don't know
what to do. Now. If that's not enough, I'm going
to finish the story and we're going to see if

(19:37):
I've ever made it that to Uston. We'll finish after the.

Speaker 4 (19:42):
Book the hour that High Tech Days.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
I don't bought him at the story time with Mike,
if you're just two moving when I was telling a
story about electric vehicles. I've been test driving this past week,
which I do and review the new twenty twenty five
Homer H three ev it's an electric vehicle. And the
reason in the end of the day is why reason
number one hundred. Why I will not buy an EV

(20:20):
I live in Houston. I'm gonna speed you up. I
live in Houston. I drove with a buddy to Lake Charles, Louisiana.
I get there, spend the night a few days ago.
I'm down to about twenty percent battery. I get to
the hotel. Golden Nugget does not inexplicably, they do not
have an EV charger nothing. I do not know how.

(20:45):
If Tillman, we love you, baby. If you or your
people you need, I will, I'll partner with you. I
will build a network of VV chargers. There. You need
an EV charger. People drive from Texas to go gamble.
You need it anyway, I need to. I wake up
early in the morning. My buddy's still sleeping. I'm out
searching the city of Lake Charles, Oh. And Lake Charles

(21:07):
is a bute people. I'm looking for a charging a charger.
I find one. It's a Tesla charger, doesn't work on
the Hummer. I find another one. It's a Rivian charger,
doesn't work on the Hummer. Now I'm looking out on
the map. Now the map on the GPS. You could
it'll map out all the evs, and I'm thinking, well,
I know car dealer. It's a Monday morning, Monday car

(21:29):
dealerships are open. Well, actually yeah, it's it's Louisiana. Car
dealerships could be open seven days a week. In textas
they're open six days a week. Maybe I'll go to
a car dealership. So I see something it's called and
there's there's a lot of third party charging companies. There's
charge Point, Electrify America Vygo, it goes on and on
and on. I like Electrify America. Electrify America, I know,

(21:50):
generally has a level three. Level three is the highest level.
The level one is when you plug it into your
one ten volt wall. I mean that's a trickle charge.
Level two it's like a hair drive here, a washer dryer.
The dryer plug faster. If you have a plug at
home in your garage, ogs or you have a level two,
still gonna take six seven hours, eight hours maybe to

(22:11):
bloat up overnight, gotcha. But level three you can get
pretty much one hundred percent in an hour hour fifteen,
depending how low you are. It ain't cheap either. So
in a way, I see this Electrify America and it's
fifteen minutes away. Now I'm wondering do I have fifteen minutes?
Do I have twenty miles or thirty miles in this
vehicle to get there? Because if not, I'm freaking stuck

(22:34):
in sulfur Louisiana. I ten, I'm screwed. I go all
the way, and now I mean I got no air
conditioning on I I got no radio. I'm conservating every
ounce of that freaking battery. I make it all the
way to Electrify America. And interesting enough, Electrify America they
had four No, no, they had eight chargers. And it's

(22:54):
in a parking lot of a Walmart, which generally they are,
and I'm fine with that. I live on the southwest
side of you. If I need a charger, I'll go
to an Electrify America. I have an account, I get
an app, I put my credit card in. I hope
no car is already charging itself. I hope all these
chargers are fully loaded and they're not broken. And then maybe,
if I'm lucky, I can get that out of there

(23:15):
thirty forty five minutes at a certain percent. I don't
even care about one hundred percent. I'd make it to
Electrify America. It's now like nine fifteen in the morning,
cold morning. There is an empty slot. Generally there's a
fast there's a ultra fast charger, and for the first time,
I've never seen one of these things, there's a hyper

(23:36):
fast charger. And I'm like, yes, I don't. I don't
have time to putts around. I want to get back
to the hotel. I want to gamble a little bit more.
Hopefully I've got enough juice in the vehicle and I'm
gonna get back. So in a way, I have to
back it in a crazy way because the cord would
not reach. So here I am at nine thirty nine

(23:56):
to twenty in the morning, and I am at Walmart,
and the Walmart's kind of packed because it's a few
days before Christmas. Put my app I get in there
and cross my fingers. It works. It's starting charge. Okay,
if you just tuning in, I am now ten minutes
into the story of why I will not buy an Evy.
I am now ruined. Well, I'm not done yet. I've

(24:16):
not wasted it entire morning. I'm worried about it the
night before, so I'm not concentrating and having a good
time at the casino betting on the Cowboy game last Sun.
And no, no, no, I'm worried about Am I going
to get home? It's on my mind? Okay that you
see where I'm going with over here, So I plug
it in. Well, now I have I have so low.

(24:37):
The estimated time of charging was an hour. Well, what
am I going to do? Well? This is why the
Walmarts and stores of the world love having chargers in
the parking lots, because you ain't got nothing to do
except get your button to that store and shop and
buy crap that you don't need. Well, I showed them
because I've wasted a lot of money at Walmart's. Every

(25:00):
time I've charged my vehicle before I walked around for
a freaking hour. I didn't buy one freaking thing. So
take that Walmart, all right, You still make commission off
of me whatever I paid, which I will tell you
how much I paid. Well, while you're charging, you can
monitor from your app what percentage at. So it's going
pretty fast. Now for those of you under who understand

(25:20):
what kilowatts and how they work and how fast they go.
This old tra no, this was a hyper fast. This
could charge up to and you have to use those words.
Up to three hundred and fifty kilowatts per hour. That
is fast. It really really is if you can get that,
because generally I've seen seventy five, seventy eight, maybe eighty

(25:43):
kilowatts an hour. It's like, I'm not saying it's a
water dripping but imagine now we're at what four times faster,
four to five times faster, Well, it goes up to
three fifty. Well, the max I was getting was about
two hundred and seventy kilowats p hour. I'll take it.
It was still going forty five am, rolls around, ten o'clock,
rolls around. Now I'm fifty minutes. Now I'm fifty five minutes. Finally,

(26:06):
as it gets to the end, it slows down. It
uncharged it two hundred and seventy kilowatts an hour, three hundred.
It goes down to charges like thirty five kilowatts an hour,
nice and small, just to top it off, just to
top it off. I have no clue why they need
to top it off. It's not like it's gonna overflow
with gas, but they're just good. They just topped it off.

(26:27):
Now finally I stop. I'm at a hunt, am I
even one hundred? I think I'm ninety eight percent bat
on my Hummer Rev. I now got have him back
to two hundred and eighty miles range. I have wasted
over one hour in the morning just sitting at the
charger walking around Walmart, on top of another half an
hour forty five minutes going to try to even locate

(26:50):
and find and drive to three different locations to find
a charger that works. Look at the app. Anybody guess
how freaking much I spent four an hour charging at
a hyper speed. Mm hm not fun, Nope, not at all.

(27:11):
Let me pull up my receipt over here. Oh and
not only that, do you know how much money I
was wasting Electrify America. I have like a sinking fund,
and every time it deposits ten dollars in there, I'll
get a text ten dollars was just charged to your
credit card? During that hour, I got no less than eight,
maybe nine different text ding ten dollars is added, ding

(27:34):
ten dollars added. I walked out of there. Here's my bill.
Max charging was only two hundred and fifty four kilowatts.
I wouldn't even two seven. I was lying. I sucked
up one hundred and forty two kilowatts an hour. That's
a lot of powers. Because I was really low with

(27:55):
the sales tax. I paid for that hour eighty five dollars. Folks,
Electricity in Texas and Louisiana is more than gasoline. Now
you go to California, it's vice versa. Gasoline is very
expensive on the West Coast, electricity is not that much.
I paid eighty five dollars wasted in an hour and

(28:15):
a half, two hours of that morning, worried about it
all that night. Finally get back to the hotel. I
gamble a little, lose a little bit more. Check out,
load it up, get in the hummer, make it all
the way back to Houston, make it home. Peace out.
That's it. I do not know how you could live
with an ev I'm not ragging her, but let me

(28:37):
tell you this, this is what I do. I'm not
a hater. Let me tell you some certain cases why
an EVY was good for me. No way, I did
not need that heartache. I did not need the worry.
I didn't need the potential wrinkles and gray hair that
that issue gave me. Evs are fine in generally, I

(28:58):
would say if you have two vehicles at home, if
you are married, you live with somebody, make sure one
of your cars is gas powered. Then you can get
the EV car, and whoever has the EV vehicle, use
that just to go play around the neighborhood. Take the
kids to school, take them horseback riding, take them to

(29:18):
swim practice, take them cheerleading practice. You come home and
you charge it in your garage. Maybe you have an
office within thirty forty miles of yourself cut. Hopefully you
have a charger at home. Hopefully you have one extra office.
Charge it, charge it, charge it and get back. But
if you rely on hey, let's go take a road
trip this weekend. Let's go up to Austin to watch

(29:39):
a UT game. Maybe your kids at school, maybe you
go to college station. I don't know wherever you go.
You're gonna need to plan this thing out. You're gonna
need to go. You're gonna need to figure out where,
and you better hope a charger is available. You better
hope it's at full speed. You better hope you've got
some extra cash for that electricity you gotta pay for,
and then you're on your way. It's just it was
crazy that that is in twenty three years. That could

(30:03):
have been my first two segment tirade I've ever done.
Now we're gonna open the phone lines three, four, six,
twenty nine textan anybody feel free to jumping down load
on your experiences, good or bad when it comes to
something like that. But reason easily number one hundred and

(30:27):
I got more of why I won't buy any EV.
That was my weekend. Hey, happy Honka, Marry Chris Mess
We're gonna come back. I'll tell you some of my
favorite apps of the year. Got some questions and answers.
We've got some phone calls. Michael Garfield is the name.
It is called The High Tech Text of Shocks, the

(31:04):
High Deck Dex and shit boy, I'm looking at the emails.
Oh my god, people are just I could I appreciate
you enjoying my humor and story telling senses If you
just tuned in, I spit the last two segments talking
about one of the reasons that I personally personally will
not buy an EV. Don't hate on me if you

(31:26):
have an EV. I'm not against evs, but for me,
where I am in my life, my lifestyle, the kids
are gone and I need to travel. I want to
get in the car when I get gassed. I don't
want to wait. I have ADHD I need let's go,
let's roll, Let's snap snap. But I broke down to
this past weekend when I just took a road trip
and I was freaking out because I thought I was
just I could not find a battery charger. It just

(31:48):
it happens. We need a better, better way of better process.
Not so much the chargers need to be more ubiquitous
in the world. They needed faster, they need to be faster.
Waiting an hour it's just too much, man, how much
you know much we already spend it BUCkies? My goodness,

(32:10):
I think I think maybe big Charger in Big Bucky
got together and said, you know what, we're just going
to make sure that we screw these people and make
more wait another hour, do that three times in that day.
You spend much money of BUCkies, you going to actually
pay for a in actually new vehicle. Let me give
you the phone number here people. Also, the email is
Michael Garfield at dieheartmedia dot com. Uh it is three

(32:32):
four six two nine text and UH, if you call
that number, this is what happens. You've got mail.

Speaker 5 (32:40):
Hi John, just trying to get your thoughts on backing
up a PC or laptop. What you would recommend going
to the cloud, having something in an external storage unit
of some nature, what have you? So, just trying to
get your thoughts on, kind of from scratch, how would
you bet back up your information on your PC?

Speaker 2 (33:03):
Thanks so much, absolute, great question. This is a question,
and thank you John. Appreciate that he called three four
six twenty nine text. And this is a question that
I don't get merely as much as when I started
this program. I started this show twenty years ago. Man,
it's how do you store your information? What's the cheapest
way to do it? What's the most secure way? I

(33:25):
answer that on the regular basis. I don't answer it anymore,
but I'm more than happy to take this on for you.
Wants to know what seems better if you're storing or
backing up information on your PC? Do you go cloud storage?
Do you maybe get an external hard disk drive and
put it on your next to your desk and then
just transferred to via cable. Well, if you asked me

(33:49):
this fifteen years ago, I easily would have said absolutely,
get an external hard disk drive, and even today, these
hard drives, they're relatively inexpensive. You can get a terribius
two terabytes, three terabytes, one hundred dollars or so. That
is really nothing. I mean they used to be measured
in megs and gigs and now they're terabytes. I mean

(34:10):
that's a lot of information. But I'm going to make
a case for cloud storage. I am because I'll start
with this. Backing up important files and data remains absolutely important. Vital,
v it vital, even though I can't spell. Even with
all the security and hardware issues, you have to back
it up because your hard disk on your computer, your laptop,

(34:30):
it may fail, it may get an attack from malware. Now,
hopping data to an external hard drive, it was time consuming,
it was cost effective. Though the landscape has changed. And
let me tell you what. Let's look at cloud storage
versus external storage. Number one, the universal access. If you're
setting up a backup, it is really simple to go

(34:56):
to a cloud storage. Maybe you call it iCloud, maybe
you call it one draw, maybe you call it x drive,
maybe you call it dropbox. Whatever. Cloud storage and backup
technology wins easily when it comes to the accessibility because
once you transfer files from your computer up to the cloud.
And when I say cloud and at listen, I apologize.
I hate using that term. It's not I am not

(35:19):
a meteorologist. Don't look up and oh is that a
serious or a serious or nimbus? No, I'm not. It's
not a cloud. The cloud is a server that is
off site that you really don't see. It's just up
in the air, floating somewhere. Just kind of think of
it that way. It's actually a secure server run by
a company. Bottom line. To transfer files to and from

(35:39):
the cloud, all you need is an Internet connection, period, photos, smartphone, tablet.
You can do it from anywhere, even without Wi Fi.
All right. Now you can access it from anywhere you're
on the road. You need the file, okay, if you
have it, if you put it on your external hard
drive on a terabyte next at your home or office.

(36:02):
That's not gonna do you today, too good, is it?

Speaker 3 (36:05):
No?

Speaker 2 (36:05):
So Number one cloud when it comes to access Number two. Security.
Security used to be a major flaw with cloud storage,
all right, because some cloud providers losers. They were being
hacked and everything. Cloud storage security it's come a long way,
it really has. Most secure cloud systems now use virtually
uncrackable Advanced encryption standard. Actually it's two fifty six bit

(36:28):
aees that you don't care about. Apologize for throwing it
out there, but it's advanced encryption standard, all right. It
protects your data before it even leaves your device, so
that's one. I trust it too. There's another one, the
sink technology. One of the biggest vantages to cloud storage
is you can keep your files backed up all the time,
and that's thanks to sinking technology. It runs in the

(36:48):
background on your device and it automatically uploads any new
or modified files. Every photo you take Boom, you can
set it where it automatically backs up. So if immediately
you lose your phone, everything that you just took as
a photo, it's on the cloud too. Bottom line, I
think now there's a little question that cloud storage is
the best way to back up your data. I think

(37:09):
you're gonna get more peace of mind the ability to
back up your data continuously from any device. In fact,
it may not be too long before physical hard drives
may just become another casually of oh I remember this,
it's not working now. To be sure, if you want
suspenders and a belt, if you're be prepared eagle scout
like me, sure use a cloud and also use a

(37:32):
hard drive. I on my desktop at home have not one,
but two hard drives. I transfer these every time I
get a new computer desktop computer every few years. All
I need to do is take this hard drive, plug
it in. I can down upload it that way. But
even if the cloud goes down, even it's something I
know now, not only do I have a copy of
my stuff down cloud, I also have it on a

(37:53):
hard drive too. But you don't need that. But again,
if all you worry worked out there, if you've got
something precious, all your family and the mentos, the videos,
go ahead and do it down God great question. I
appreciate that we've got one more hour to go thro it.
When we come back, I'm actually going to tell you
a little something about Apple, and I don't talk about Apple.
It's a rumor, but Apple really getting into the smart homes.

(38:14):
They're trying to infiltrate it. I don't know if I
or you like, though, what Apple rumored device is going
to do. I will tell you what that is on
the other side, along with a few of the things
that I think I'm going to see in about a
week and a half at Consumer Electronics show that I
know you're not gonna want and you're not gonna afford.
So we played the game. People, it is Michael Garfield,
high Tech Texting. Happy in the Year.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
Is Michael Garfield. Michael Garfield.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
Michael Garfield's joining.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
And the high tech Texan.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
Michael Garfield is here with a high tech text technology.
So Michael Garfield has some and you might win.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
Michael Garfield is your high Tech Texans three decades helping
you make magic with your gadgets. Heard worldwide on the
iHeart Radio after now You're high Tech Texan Michael Garfield.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
The show of twenty four Happy post Christmas people are
people have emailed me, Michael very cute. Did you use chat,
GPT or AI to come up with your little poem
at the opening the show? No, people, I actually went
to school the University of Texas, took some English classes
and majored in communication, and I can come up with stuff.

(39:48):
So let's one more time. Let's do it. As we
approach the halfway market is halfway to halfy hour in people,
you're probably not working right now in his happy hour
right now, and it's a weekend. You got listen to
Cowboys s and his toast Longhorns are still in play.
So whatever you're celebrating, do it. But which was the
weekend after Christmas? And all across the ear waves most

(40:10):
everyone is still sleeping. Oh my, what an outrage. You
should be listening to the high Tech Texan because if
you have gifts to return, you won't be a sweaton.
My name is Michael, and thanks for tuning in. We've
got a pack show, so start calling in on Samsung,
on Hummer, on Amazon we go. So buckle up me

(40:32):
and migos and let's start this big show. That's how
we do it. People. Yep, no Chapie team, Nope, didn't
do it. Three four six twenty nine Texan got it,
got it. We mixed in a phone call last hour.
I get a lot of voicemails for some reason. We
don't pick up leave a voicemail, and we do have
the right to play it later in the show or
next week or two three four six two nine Texan,

(40:53):
And a big shout out over the ears to Houston, Dallas,
and San Antonio terrestrially, and if you're not in any
of those cities, well sucks for you. People. We don't
have state income tax here in Texas. You may be
listening on the iHeartRadio app. We thank you for that.
Uh where do we start like that? My people ask
me some of my favorite apps of the year, Well,
I like tuna, tartar, nachos are good? Oh? Apps not appetizer?

(41:18):
Oh okay, thanks Callum? Callum is my guy over here?
Is run? You said apps?

Speaker 3 (41:23):
Bro?

Speaker 2 (41:24):
I mean bottomless chips. They're good, you know, maybe a
little French onion soup. Good apps? Oh? Apps? Okay. So
when it comes to technology, all right, we'll tell you
what we're gonna get. If you I'm gonna give you
two or three or four of mine that I can
think of as I'm cruising my phone. Maybe give you
something to download if you've got a new phone for
the holidays. But also if you have something to share,

(41:46):
what was your favorite app? Your favorite product? Three four
six two nine T e x A N Michael Garfield
at iHeartMedia, Twitter x Blue Sky, high Tech text and
Spell the whole thing out and also Instagram growing even more.
That's where I give away. When I talk about something,

(42:08):
let's see if we can give it away. And I
do a lot of that stuff on Instagram, and I
show you a lot of the videos that I'm playing
with a lot of shiny new apps this past year.
Every app is going to revolutionize your life, all right.
Some will stick to the basics, some of them will
go overboard. Some of them are confusing, some of them
cost money, some of them are worthless. There's a lot
of one of the apps that I have probably used

(42:30):
more than anything else. And I've had this over have
I had it over a year? I may have but
one I still like and I'm gonna throw an ash
recovery here. It's a video editing software. I do a
lot of video editing when it comes to Instagram, and
probably the easiest video editor that is so simple that

(42:51):
when I show this to some of my cohorts in
the TV business who like me, learn to edit on
a real Avid edit machine and splice tape and everything
is just unbelievable. How how far editing has come. My
favorite editor that I use, and again not paid whatsoever.
I wish they paid me. None of this stuff is paid.
This is just my opinion. Cap Cut c Apcut. It's

(43:12):
good for Android, it's good for iOS. It's a video
adding it is simple it is for on the go creators.
The only thing that you may want to be weary
and leary about. This company is owned by the same
company that owns TikTok. That same company TikTok, which may
be banned the United States the next few weeks. Byte

(43:34):
Dance owns cap cut. I don't own I've never my
life downloaded TikTok. I use most every other social app.
I just don't use TikTok. I don't use I don't
not use a double negative, I don't not use TikTok
really top of mind because it's owned by a Chinese company,
byt dance, because I use I'm playing with two phones

(43:54):
right now that are Chinese owned companies. I use cap cut,
which is owned by the exact putty bite Dance that
has issues. I just never wanted to use tech doc.
It's just maybe I thought initially it was just for
the young crowd. I know it's not anymore. I just
I don't really have the time or wherewith all do
even download another social media but cap cut simple, I

(44:16):
like it. I use the free of it edition. There
is a pro edition. You could do so many things.
That's number one. What else do I like, what else
do I use? Let's see, I use Android a lot,
and I have been pretty impressed with their What's called
Gemini and what Google Gemini is. It's kind of like
a chat GPT. It's an AI assistant and it gives

(44:41):
you access to a lot of different AI models out there.
One of the recent updates and one of the things
that I'm playing now is like a virtual chat. Instead
of just asking you a question, you literally can have
a conversation with this thing. So you ask a question
Google Gemini, but you download for free and there is
an upgrade version too. You ask it a question and

(45:02):
they give you kind of an answer, but then you
still have another question. Will you ask a question again
on top of that one? And they're going to come
back and I'm not going to say debate, but they
go back and forth. At Rick's works really good. I
thought that was neat too. What is another one I like?
Let's see, I did make a list over here. Here's
one that's called flighty fli ght Y and what it is.

(45:26):
It's going to tell you every single thing about your flights,
real time updates, alerts, delay predictions, so you're always going
to be one of the first to note and rebook.
It's easy to use, easy to read, and it works
very well. Along with that, I have another one over here.

(45:46):
It's called a Ward wallet. I've been using this one.
You sign up for free, and what this does attracts
your credit cards, your loyalty points, your travel plans, and
the secure account that you can get right in your
pocket on your phone. Yes, I use Google Wallet too,
that does my credit cards, my low few points. But
this because it adds in a little bit of travel.

(46:06):
I like this also Award Wallet, and they've got partnerships.
I think this has got a partnership with everything from
Capital One to Chase, to Hilton, to City to Marriott,
Bank of America, and it goes on and on and
so it's a it's a free service and they're tracking
everything from dining to cruises to trains to credit cards
and what have you. And so those Let's see if
I can think of one or two more where I

(46:27):
can think of before we get the break over here,
which is three four six twenty nine textan as I
see some phone calls getting ready to come in, uh,
photo and answers. Some people want to I, you know
what for a long time, my favorite photo. It's not
AI really, I mean, it just enhances your photos. It
will make the colors brighter. It can, you know, do

(46:49):
a number of different things. I like snapseed free, snap
seed long use that. But there's another one I saw
called Radiant Imagining Radiant Imagine. I'm going make shure you no,
not Radiant Photo Radio. Let me give you the exact
website Radiantimagining Labs dot com, Radiant and I guess you
could download the app at Radiant Photo. This one may

(47:11):
be paid. I did try this. I think I got
just a kind of one or two type of thing,
little bit more intricate where you have to start checking
and unchecking some boxes. To me, it's not a simplest napstream.
But cameras are really good. They're getting better. But sometimes
you take it real fast, you have a filter, there's
smudges on your lens, or you want to sex it
up as I call it. You may want to, you

(47:33):
may I want a photo and answer. So those are
the few I have. We're gonna take a break. You
tell me what are some of your best apps. Michael
Garfield is the name Michael Garfield at iHeartMedia dot com
three four six, twenty nine text, all right, when we
come back, got a question and answer? Someone did write
an email and I got a question about a router
where to place it in their home? Because it's a

(47:54):
new type of router. You may have this type of
router too. You may need to know the answer. That's
why you're gonna hang around and high tech text show

(48:24):
you the high deck Text the show, final episode of
twenty four Hi, you're new to the show. If you're
in San Antonio, Dallas, you have no clue who I am,
where you've been people who've been in Houston for twenty
three years. I do want to think my boss is
something that I am thankful for this year and only
took freaking two decades. Brian Erickson, Eddie Martini. They are
with iHeartMedia. They've long been my bosses. They say, garf Man,

(48:47):
you got some good BS, which, by the way, I
really do have good BS, which, by the way, I
have a BS degree, which by the way, does not
stand for Bachelor of Science. If you know what, i'maiah.
They said, you know what, You've been doing this for
two decades in the Houston area. You know, the biggest
city in Texas fourth largest in the country. You know what,
let's let's put you in some other markets across Texas.
And so my hometown of Dallas where my parents can

(49:09):
terrestrially listen to me on eleven ninety am. And also
San Antonio, fun town, great city. What's up twelve hundred WAI.
I do, thank you, and that's nice to have you
guys part of the family. I'm hearing a lot from
you and some really nice comments. You guys are very sweet.
I'm getting for Clymped. Two or three weeks ago, I was,
I was, I was playing a game. I like playing

(49:31):
the over undergame and I was playing the over a
under game on the Equifax. Anybody heard of Equifax. Equifax
had a breach and this is where you know, you
check your your credit and everything was last year or two,
and the government made them settle with most everybody who

(49:51):
was affected in anybody who put a request in to
get money back, and I think Equifax in the US
court settled that Equifax would have to pay four hundred
and twenty five million dollars divided among everybody who put
in a claim. And I've I've played these before. You know,
Apple does this oh, we have to pay out one
hundred million dollars and you end up getting about fourteen tents.

(50:13):
So anyway, four hundred twenty five million dollars months ago,
and you can't do it anymore because my information was
actually breached, and I put an acclaim and I guessed,
guessed the over under was it like fourteen dollars and
ten cents or something like that? Well, guess what I
got an email? I got an email man, and it

(50:35):
did I know exactly? They told me how much I got?
Any guesses? Four hundred twenty five million dollars goes out
to the folks of the United States whose information and
Equifax credit was was hatched. Yes, sir, if anybody wants
coke zero and maybe a coffee, my twenty one dollars

(50:58):
in nineteen, well got juke covered twenty one nineteen. Not
only did I get twenty one nineteen. I don't get
that in cash. I don't get that in check. Oh no,
they email me a prepaid CARDO people, I'm protecting my

(51:20):
phone baby right now because in my Google wallet, I
gots me a prepaid card for twenty one bones and
nineteen cents. It's how I roll life. Is fair, people,
life is absolutely fair. How cool is that? Well? I
was closed? All right? Well we got three four six
two nine te x A N. That's the phone number here,
three four six twenty nine texts in you're gonna call

(51:41):
if someone's gonna pick up, don't say hello. If if
you don't hear anybody, it's a voicemail, leave a voicemail.
We have the right to actually to play it. But
we also read your you know what we read. We
read your emails. We absolutely read your emails, and you
know what. Let's start with one because somebody has sent
me a little something to Michael Garfield Didiheartmedia dot com.

Speaker 3 (52:00):
You've got mail.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
This one comes in from Jonah. Jonah is in Bernie, Texas.
What's up there? You go one of our newer markets.
Thank you for tuning in. Jonah says, hey, dear Michael,
I actually listened to you on app and I've heard
you for many, many years. I asked you a question
years ago about a router, and you talked to me
about this Mesh system router that apparently use. I got
one and it works.

Speaker 3 (52:23):
Well.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
I'm thinking of upgrading mine right now because it's a
few years old. And I want to see what your
recommendation is or is there a place in my house
that I may want to relocate it to to get
me higher speeds because it doesn't seem that my speed
of the Internet transfer is high enough. What are your
thoughts level? Listen to your show, glad you're here on WAI. Well,
there you go. Mesh routers, Well, it's a mesh router

(52:47):
is a type of Wi Fi router? All right, And
we know what Wi Fi is. Odds are you have
a Wi Fi router at home that you either buy
maybe you rent from your Internet service provider. But the
routers themselves, they're not all the prettiest gadget to look at.
Sometimes you hide it in a corner, maybe in a
closet where people don't sit there and look at it.

(53:07):
But then again, there's another type of system. There's a
mesh system. And the easiest way for me to describe
what a mesh system, it's a multi point system. Here's
my analogy. This is how the cell phone industry works.
You know what a cell phone tower looks like When
you're driving around anywhere in this country of the world,
you're on the phone. What's happening is your phone is

(53:32):
connecting to the nearest cell phone tower wherever you are.
But as you keep driving down the road and highway,
that cell phone tower hands off your call to the
next cell phone tower and to the next one to
make it close. What that does that cell phone tower,
it really is like a repeater from the various self
data network. That's what a mesh system is. In your house,

(53:56):
there is a Wi Fi router where the Internet comes
in and it's throwing out a signal to this little
tiny repeater that sometimes you can have two, three, four
of them around your home and it bounces off these
and it makes this signal stronger. Yes, it could be
called a bridge, but now they're called mesh system because

(54:17):
if you close your eyes and pretend like you're in
a tom Cruise Sneaky, you know, you know movie or
something like Mission Impossible, there's this imagine a mesh system
overlapping signals and airwaves that is just meshing and covering
every single aspect of your home inside and out, and
so you've got constant coverage. That's why mesh systems work well.

(54:39):
I like them a lot. I have a mesh system
and I've tested a lot of these things. They're multi devices.
Sometimes you can plug these things into directly into the
outlet on the wall. Sometimes they're the same color. You
really can't see these things. But if you've got a
two level, three level house, you've got a large outside
your back and you can't get the signal up. Try
a mesh system. You can get these from one hundred

(55:00):
and twenty five, two hundred, two hundred and fifty dollars.
Really no way reason to go whether two hundred and
fifty dollars or so. There's a lot of them. But
you got a good question, Jonah, do you actually need
a new mess system? Because Number one, when you position
a router in your home or office or somewhere, you
really need to think about where you're placing it. You

(55:22):
want to consider where that router, where those satellite extenders are. Okay,
some of the guidelines move your main router. First things First,
you want the main router in your setup to be
located as centrally in your home as possible. That's the
same approach you're going to take with you even just
have a single router. Routers put out a Wi Fi

(55:43):
signal in all directions. So placing your router in essential
location within your home. It's going to make the most
out of your connection. If you hide it in the closet,
it's that signal has a lot farther to go. It's
got to go through your clothes, it's got to go
through a door. It may be in the back of
your house, through a bedroom. To even get out of
your house, then you've got a brick wall, and that
thing is very tough going to going through brick walls too.

(56:05):
In terms of the signal mesh systems, same thing. The
strength of the connection near your extenders is largely going
to depend on the strength of the incoming signal from
that main router. So the stronger connection between those two,
it's going to ensure you're hitting the fastest Wi Fi. Now,
your options for moving the roder may seem limited by
that location of your modem and the incoming wiring for

(56:28):
your home's Internet connection. Maybe you get an extra long
ethernet and cable that could come in handy. It could
move it away. Don't laugh. Even moving your router one two, three,
four feet away from where it is may help. Try
not to keep it directly to your computer, Try not
to keep it near a microwave. Try not to keep
it next to a baby monitor because sometimes those frequency

(56:49):
can frequencies can overlap. You'd be amazed how stronger or
how weaker actually, depending on where you move it, that
your router is going to work. So a good rule
of thumb keep it the way. Keep the devices in
your mess set up no more than two rooms away
from each other. It's gonna vary from home to home.
Furniture that can also block Wi Fi signals too. Try
not put anything bulky. Don't put like the you know,

(57:12):
any China cabinets, maybe not like a big old sofa
or something like that. Avoid dead zones. I told you
to watch out for closets, right, don't put a dead zone. Finally,
how do you tell run a speed test? You know
there's diagnostic tools in your messages routers app right, but really,
there are so many free services online that you could do.

(57:34):
I think one's called speed test dot net or something
like that, totally free. Go stand in a certain part
of your house and hit this and hit a button.
You're gonna wait thirty seconds. Maybe it's gonna download something
and it'll show you how fast, how many megabits, how
many gigabits. For second, your speed is keep moving your
router around, stay in your same place, and try that

(57:56):
test again. And when you find one of the fastest,
if not the fastest place, then keep it there. There
you go, and let me give you it real quickly.
But we've got a break before I give you a
few brands. I use Amplify, a m P L I
Fi Amplify. I use that for a while. It's good.
There's a lot of good just as good ones, if
not better ones. TP Link, net Gear Link, Sis makes

(58:19):
a nice one. EO E E R O d Link.
They've long made routers too, Aris A R R I
S they make those things too. Do some research. Maybe
this is something you want to return right now that
you got for Christmas, Honika, that you don't want, but
you know what, you got more and more people using
your wifie. You got kids there, You want a strong
Wi Fi network and you should be set to go.

(58:41):
So I hope that answers Jonah, Thank you so much
for your question. Michael Garfield at iHeartMedia dot com. Just
a few more segments when we come back. What I
expect to see at the Consumer Electronics Show and oh
by the way. I saw something at CES last year.
It was a TV. These TVs that you think we
don't need that TV? What does it do now that

(59:01):
other TVs can't? Well, it just came out and boy
does this one have a price tag? Pretty much you
could choose to have a television or a very nice automobile.
I'll tell you about that on the side. Yeh's could

(59:32):
be more secondents left in this year of the high
tech texting the show Michael Garfield, thank you for tuning in.
Happy uh hope you had a really nice Christmas? I
really do and happy Honka. So technically, well, it depends
on when you're listening. And we got maybe what the
third or the fourth night light? Those candles Honika very
late this year, which means you still have time to
get something you don't want. Are you people celebrating who

(59:55):
celebrated Christmas? You got your gift, man, you better live
with it or you better call in and let me know.
Oh man, Michael, I need to return this day. I
got I got the gift for see what do I
what should I get? I can do that too. I
can tell you something else to get. Three four six
twenty nine, Texan anybody. I guess the holiday movies are
over right now. It took me almost it took the

(01:00:19):
last minute because my favorite holiday is love, actually absolutely
love it. I generally see it a few times each
season before this week started. I don't think I saw
it once, but I ended up seeing at least I
hit it three times. All I want for Christmas is
it shut up. I love that movie. I didn't see
Charlie Brown this year. Saw Home Alone. I saw Home Alone, too,

(01:00:43):
lost in New York a few times, didn't find Home Alone,
saw post alone. I what else did I see? I
didn't see. I saw Fred Claus was on. I seemed
like ten minutes in the movie. I didn't get into
Fred Claus. Didn't see I saw Rudolph okay good, Rudolph
is always good. Didn't see The Year with Out of

(01:01:04):
Santa Claus. I mean, I guess that's it, man, I
guess I have to wait or I can actually go
on YouTube and see the whole thing. I did see
a movie, though, now I could talk about this right now.
I saw a movie at the beginning of December, and
I was under embargo not to give it a review
until it came out Christmas is here. It opened Christmas Day.
Did anybody see A Complete Unknown? That's the new movie

(01:01:27):
about Bob Dylan starring Timothy Shanna may So. I saw
that movie. And I get to see a lot of
media screening movies, just like I get, you know, when
I review a lot of products I am sometimes I'm
under embargo. I cannot talk about it, to read about
a post about it, yap about it until the embargo lifts. Well,

(01:01:47):
the same thing. I saw this in early December weeks ago,
and I've been sitting on it. It is a fantastic
It's an unbelievable movie. And I'm gonna say this. I
am not a Bob Dylan fan, never as much as
a music fan I am. I never got into Dylan.
I really don't like folk music. But what Timothy shallow
May did, and I didn't even know much about Timothy

(01:02:08):
shallow May never so Wonka Ornither or Doune or whatever
they did do, he literally transformed himself. I mean, he
was al Pacino into Scarface, he was Val Kilmer into
Jim Morrison the Doors. He was I mean, unbelievable. It did,
it was great. I think he did his own singing too,

(01:02:29):
It's worth it, especially if you're Dylan fan. A little long,
very heavy on the Dylan songs, which I didn't know
a lot of them, but it was it was good.
I really really like it. So no, there's my two
cents on that three four six, twenty eight nine Texan.
Any other movies or shows that I need to download?
I am here for I promised you this Apple. You're

(01:02:51):
gonna learn that I don't talk about Apple a lot.
I'm more of an Android. Yeah, what an away. Apple's
trying to get into these smart smart home business stronger
and stronger. There's a latest development, and as with anything
with Apple, it's all rumor. You never know. Rumor. They're
reportedly we're apparently their Apple is going after the ring doorbell.

(01:03:11):
Apple is reportedly working on a smart doorbell wait for it,
that unlocks for household members that it recognizes, and it's
going to use allegedly advanced facial recognition technology that wirelessly
connects to a dead boat lock. The doorbell would unlock
the door for people it recognizes, So it's kind of

(01:03:33):
like face ID on your iPhone. Now, if this is coming,
it ain't gonna be for another year or so. But
when I heard about this. I'm like, okay, it makes
sense because it's aligning with Apple's vision to deepen its
footprint in this smart home market, because Apple has long
lag behind Google and Amazon in that smart home market.

(01:03:56):
Many how many of you have the Amazon Echo? How
many you have a Google Nest? I got both of them,
I've got right now. I got a Google door Bell,
I've got one two, I got two Amazon Nests. I
got three to four Google Nests and Echoes and there
everywhere there are. But listen, to be fair, there are
already smart locks that use facial recognition. But Apple is like, ooh, well,

(01:04:22):
we have great commitment to user privacy. We're not going
to sell it to anybody else. I think. I also
heard they're developing an in home security camera to rival Google, Nest,
Amazon Ring and whatever. But I think a move if
they do this into the security camera market can also
boost the adoption of their iCloud subscriptions and things like that.
So we shall see. I know, I guarantee I will

(01:04:44):
not see that at SES. Apple does nothing at the
Consumer Electronics Show zero. They always have their own events.
They always launched whatever they want, So I can't tell
you about that, but there was a massive smart home section.
I'm going to come back with everything from smart toilet,
smart refrigerator, smart dishwashers, smart cameras, and smart Who knows

(01:05:06):
every year I get something else, and so I will
bring those back. Maybe maybe companies will mail them to
me and they'll say, Michael, you've got a nice listener base.
You've got a lot of followers on your Instagram. Why
don't you give something away. I'm like, I will, but
you got to follow me on Instagram. My men, my
men and women, my kids listening right now. High Tech
Texan spell the whole thing out I expect right now.
I want people popping on follow, follow, follow Instagram. They're funny.

(01:05:28):
I'd make sure little funny videos I do contesting it
is high tech t e X A N SO. I
think home the home technology market is going to be
a big thing. I'm going to see in Vegas in
about a week and a half for my twenty third
Consumer Electronics Show. I will be broadcasting radio show segments,
TV snippets from out there. Another reason to follow me

(01:05:51):
on x high tech textent on Instagram, High Tech Texan.
I'm going to see a lot of vehicles the years
ago CES has been I'm a de facto automobile show. Obviously, Yes,
a lot of electric vehicles, a lot of drones, drone taxis.
They're going to have all these things that make it
look like, oh, this thing is out and about right now.

(01:06:13):
Like I sat in a taxi with like a quad
copter last year. This thing is on it. It's neat.
But this is so work on the design drawing board.
My kids are there, My kids' kids may not even
you know, have any of these things. And so I'll
see a lot of stuff in the automobile industry and AI.
I think those are the two letters that are going
to be very prevalent out there. And there's other two

(01:06:33):
letters too. There's the two letters that have always been
prevalent with Kidsumer Electronics show, and that is TV, as
in televisions now. When I first went out twenty whatever
years ago, that was the advent of digital TV and
high definition TV. This is where the new TVs are
rolled out. This is where rollable TVs are rolled out.

(01:06:54):
That's right. Some manufacturers actually make rollable They roll in
and scroll up and you don't even see them until
you need a button and they roll out and they
you've got a TV everything. There's one hundred and twenty
inch TVs, there's projection TVs, there's TVs you don't need.
There was a TV the size of a king size

(01:07:16):
mattress back in the day. It sold for one hundred
thousand dollars of them. Can you not? Well? Last year
one of the most sought after TVs was just hitting
the market, but we didn't know if it was actually
going to come through. Well, it took almost a year.
A year, It took a year because they just went
on the market. LG a manufacturer of many things, including TVs.

(01:07:37):
They just came out with it's called the signature OLED
T O LED, which is O lead, which is organic
light emitting diode, which no one cares about. This looks
like it came out of the Minority Report. If you
remember that great Tom Cruise movie where you could you know,
you take your finger in the glove and you start
moving things on the screen. Well anyway, but you can

(01:07:58):
also see through it. It was unveiled. It's a seventy
seven inch display. It's a great TV four K video
but with a flick of a button, it could be transparent. YEP,
it's like a see through pane of glass that then
transforms into a high resolution video display. So now you're

(01:08:23):
asking why in the world do I want this? Very
few scenarios. Generally, if you hang a If your high
definition TV is hanging on the wall right now, it's
hanging above your fireplace, who cares if it's transparent? What
are you going to see the wall behind it? Well,
pretty much the reason that you want something if you

(01:08:45):
place your TV somewhere in front of a window. Maybe
you live in a condo, maybe you live in a
high rise, and the only place to put it is
in front of a window, but you don't want the
window to be blocked. You want to see what's going
on out the window. You could place something like this
in front of the window, and when the TV is off,
you make it transparent. Now you can see straight through.

(01:09:07):
Oh good. Part two? Would you spend? You ready for this?
Over under? You got ten seconds? How much would you
spend the LG signature LEDT Would you spend sixty thousand
dollars on it? Or would you like to pitch a

(01:09:30):
kid through college or maybe buy a car? Yep, unbelievable.
It's a lot of money. Give it a year, it'll
be six hundred dollars. No, I'm kiding, it's that conna
be that cheap. But this is the stuff that that
I see a sees man. It's crazy. Who knows what
I'm gonna see this year? Maybe a foldable TV that

(01:09:52):
fits in the pall in your hand but it folds
out into one hundred and twenty inch TV. We shall see,
you will hear, you will see what if you follow
me on Instagram. One more segment to go this year,
as we wind up and pack up the bags for
twenty twenty four, don't go even but that music comes

(01:10:29):
the beginning of the final segment of the final show
of twenty twenty four marks the twenty third year I've
been doing this high tech text in program most all
of it, actually all of it in Houston on k
PARC nine to fifty am. And really this was it
was kind of a neat little banner year. Certainly towards
the end of the year for me, our program director

(01:10:51):
directors here at I Heart they expanded it. They said, Garth,
you've been doing You've been doing it a long time.
You haven't been kicked out of the airways by the
FCC yet let's just go. You throw you on WAI
twelve hundred in San Antonio and kay FNX eleven ninety
the Mighty Mighty eleven ninety in Dallas for worth. It's
neat My hometown is in Dallas where I grew up. Parents,

(01:11:15):
still their family, a lot of friends. Now they can
hear my wonderful voice that is doing this for twenty
years that they grew up with. Still got my hair,
People's at my age. I still got my hair and
I'm flying it in Dallas. It's really cool. Shout out
to all my high school are still there w T
white longhorns in Dallas. That's where I went to high school.

(01:11:36):
So many friends. It's a banner year or two on
other fronts for me personally. Continue to got my health.
I dropped a good amount of weight, not that I
really needed to, but I picked up I'm a longtime
marathon runner. I started getting into stationery biking, which helps
my knees and it's a whole different heart rate thing.

(01:11:56):
And you know, I just even made sure my diet
was even better. Dropped a good amount of weight, spent
most of my money this year on my tailor in
buying new clothes, which I was very proud of. Too.
Into the year comes around, I'm doing much more television
here in Houston. We have a radio. We have a
TV show called Great Day Houston on the Technist station,

(01:12:17):
and I believe there's a Technist station in Dallas, channel
eight WFAA. I think there's a Technist station in San Antonio?
Is that even WAI TV? I can't be sure. It's
the morning show and I have been a correspondent for
a while. I got to sit in and fill in
his host not too long ago, and I hope to
keep that up again. Slap a little bakeup on me,
and I guess maybe I don't know, maybe the TV

(01:12:39):
station channel eleven CBS here uses AI to make me
look even younger. Who know, who knows? But it was
fun alas I have three wonderful kids still and I'm
still single, so I got well. Almost everything went right
this year. Maybe twenty twenty five will be different neither. Nonetheless,

(01:13:00):
whatever situation you are in, wherever you are, however you're living,
I hope twenty twenty four was great. I hope it
was prosperous. But let's hope twenty twenty five is going
to be better. It's going to hope world peace is
going to be I hope the economy. Let's hope our
health situation and diseases and everything just go by the wayside.
We don't know. We are just fighting and we're hanging

(01:13:21):
on to the world as we know it. But hopefully
we're going I'm gonna be here with you for the ride,
and so I do appreciate that. Not gonna get out
the phone number anymore. I don't think we have any
more time for calls going through some of the other
last you know emails over here, Michael. Hey, this is
from Jessica. Jessica is in Dallas, North Dallas. Hey, Michael,

(01:13:42):
we just first picked you up two weeks ago. Great
hereing you in Dallas. Didn't know you were actually from
Dallas because I've heard you on iHeart Radio before. Look
forward to what you're going to see at the Consumer
Electronics Show. I always laugh at all the crazy most
expensive things that come out and never buy it, but
I do trust your opinion and anxious to see what
you say from Vegas. Thank you so much. I was
very nice of you Jessica about that. Michael, Is this

(01:14:03):
the year you're going to finally get the iPhone and
suck it up. I know you long have been an
Android phone. What do you think I am probably gonna mind.
I'm gonna make a bold prediction that I am not
going to switch to the iPhone again. I've had one iPhone.
I've had the very first iPhone. I was the first
person to buy Buy I bought it when it was
launched in Houston way back in two thousand. It was

(01:14:26):
June twenty seven, teen twenty eight, two thousand and seven.
I believe I was the first person in line at
the AT and T store in Houston. At because it
was exclusively for the first five years iPhones were only
sold on the AT and T network. I paid six
hundred dollars for it. I wanted to try it. It was,
without of doubt, a paradigm shift. It was glass, it

(01:14:48):
had no physical buttons. It was wonderful, and from then
on I went back to Android. I'm an Android, honk.
I get to try I have at any given time.
I've probably got five, six seven different androids from many
many difff come buddies. I've got two androids I am
holding right now that are under embargo. I told you
what an embargo was. I signed a lot of things
where I can play with things, but I can't say anything.

(01:15:09):
And so give me about another week, week and a
half and I can tell you which new androids I'm
playing with and they're prett day prettday cool. So we
can do that. So not really gonna gonna get into
the iPhones. Michael, I heard you ragging on EV. Oh,
come on, I wasn't. I guess what I was ragging
on EV's I heard you talking about electric vehicle cars
now were number one. If somebody gave you an electric vehicle,

(01:15:33):
would you drive it? Oh it's a good question. If
someone gave me an EV, I would drive it. But
I would absolutely make it my second car. If you've listened,
If if you're just douning in, let me kind of
give you a little something to kill some more time.

(01:15:54):
Go back and listen to our number one of my show.
When we're done, Callum who make sure that the show
goes on all the stations, and he puts it on
the bird and puts it on the podcast. Go to
iHeartRadio dot com look for high Tech text and the
spell or Michael Garfield. Listen to our number one because
I went not one, but two segments with a story.
I did a two segment month. This is about It's

(01:16:16):
about a fifteen minute story of this past week of
me driving an electric vehicle from Houston to Lake Charles,
Louisiana and almost in pretty much freaking out because I
couldn't find an electric charger. I finally found one. That
is one top reason of why I personally personally will
not buy an EV. Again, there's no other adult in

(01:16:37):
my house, not married. I only have one car I
test to. I have a ton of other cars. Answer
the question if somebody gave me an EV, yeah, I
would drive it. I would make sure that it is
my huts, it around town. I'd go from my house
to h g B. I would just maybe go to
the office, maybe go to the gym. That's it. But
if I'm going I'm going up to Big D. I'm

(01:16:59):
going to San Antonio to meet and greet and talk
to all your listeners out there. Ain no way I'm
even getting behind in EV. Just it's not for me.
I'm too ADHD, I have arrange anxiety. It's just absolutely
not going to work. So there's really nothing else I
can say about that. So it's when I talk to
wrap everything up. Either you're new to the show, these
are my opinions, and these opinions are expressed on what

(01:17:22):
I like. I have lived almost six decades. I actually
have I loved six decades. I came close to I've
always been a consumer. I love going to the grocery store.
I love looking at the shopping aisles. I love looking
at colors. I know you know how these companies market
to people, those serial companies, to car companies, to the
soda companies, to the clothing companies. I know what's good.

(01:17:43):
I know it's bad. I like to think I know
some false advertising of what things. Is this really going
to change your life or not. I used to work
on used to be on QVC. My job was to
see the good things in life, why this product can
potentially change your life and make it better for you.
I look at products a little differ than you do,
and I will give you my opinion. I will give

(01:18:03):
you my opinion of a great product, and if I
find one just as good in the same category but
save you money, I'm leading with that one. That's the
way Michael Garfield rolls. And if you're new to this
we're gonna have some fun. So with that, I do
want to thank my big boss is Eddie Martini, who's
the regional president, the big dog of iHeart Radio down
here in the southern part of the United States, Texas.

(01:18:24):
To my big boss who sits behind that in the
carpeted office, pushes some buttons and tells people what's going on.
But he was the opportunity to give me a much
larger audience in Texas this year. Thank you also to
Big Brian Erickson Callum read. Without you, this show could
not be done. He pushes the buttons every day. All
my friends Ralph Garcia, Deborah Duncan, and the folks at

(01:18:46):
Channel eleven CBS. We're am on Greek Day Houston and
everything I do. Thank you so much. My kids they
don't listen justin Josh and Adam. They're doing their own
little influencer thing and they don't even think about me
and the brother. But they don't give me tips. I
need more tips from these kids. More importantly, I have listenings.
I have more listeners now in three of the largest

(01:19:08):
cities in the United States of America, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas,
and we love you I'm gonna leeg you lead. Happy
New Year, enjoy the rest of Hunter Magle talk, hook
them Horn. Maybe next year is the Cowboys year that
these are my loves too. My name is Michael Paulkiller.
This is why I think that's the show and we
will talk to you next year. On the half of everybody,

(01:19:31):
My show and my year are over.