Skype is shutting down, what's next?

Today on the High Tech Texan Show:

• Why Skype is shutting down and the best alternatives
• Google making it easier to remove your personal in from the web
• Self-driving ride-share vehicles have officially launched in Texas. Do you trust them?

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Michael Garfield.

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

Speaker 3 (00:09):
In the high Tech Texan. Michael Garfield is here with
a high Tech Texans.

Speaker 4 (00:14):
Have to make life.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
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 your high Tech Texan Michael Garfield.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
This week on a high Tech Texan show. One of
the original video conferencing services that we used so many
years ago has called it quits. I don't know when
the last time you used it. With that is shutting
down Google making it easier to remove your personal information
from the web. That's a good thing, people, especially if

(01:09):
you have something to hide. And how embarrassed are Tesla
owners right now that they have to start hiding the
name Tesla on their cyber trucks. People, We've got all
that your questions and answers at three four six twenty
nine Texan. That is how you're going to get a

(01:32):
hold of me. Michael. Is the name Garf the first
four letters of my last name Garfield. If we're really tight,
love to hear from you. A big shout out to
everybody listening terrestrially here as we approach oh our last
full day of daylight saving time. I believe that's right, people,

(01:52):
we got to set the clocks forward. If you were
in Houston on KPRC nine fifty San Antonio, what is up?
News Radio twelve Hundai and then Big D Dallas Mighty
Mighty eleven ninety talk radio. Should you not be listening
that way? Hey, thanks for listening to us on the stream.
You can do that by downloading the iHeartRadio app. And

(02:12):
then if you've missed this two hours of just just
fun information, you could podcast. We podcast it right callum.
Once we're done, he will put it on the podcast.
Just look for iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple were over, great
and award winning radio shows are replayed, not mine, but
look for high Tech Texan. Glad you are here and

(02:36):
let me start with this. This has been a very
busy week in a very high caloric week. As I
sit here in my city of Houston, people, I will
say this, I am done with barbecue, and I'm actually
I'm done with food for that matter. After three straight
days of playing around at the world Championship Barbecue Contest,

(03:00):
which was held between judging barbecue, judging steaks, sampling one
hundred different restaurants around Houston about a week ago, four
hundred and fifty bottles of wine which I did not touch.
The wine, by the way, and then starting off with
one of a new rodeo was at the rodeo just
kicked off at Rodeo Houston. I was up in the

(03:21):
Director's club thanks to a friend with all you can eat,
all you can drink. This is this is not a
it's a fun month, but you just yea yeah, gotta
slow it down. And I say this to myself, but
if anybody wants to take advice, because it's make sure
you continue to exercise, strap on the running shoes, get

(03:42):
on your exercise by go to the gym. But just
you got it. And I've known this. This is not
my first rodeo unintended, but I've done this for almost
a quarter of century. Right now, I have too much
fun sometimes and as I'm getting older, I just gotta
slow it down. I gotta sew it out. So in
no way we are on a no food don't even
mention f O O d H for another week or

(04:04):
two or three, I'm not even sure. And then we
got March madness coming up. It's come on people, March
is it came in like a lion. I don't know
if it's like a lamb. It's windy, it's fattening. But
oh think I didn't even participate Marti Gras. I didn't
even have time for the Marti Gras. So for all
you people doing who went nuts on Marti Gras, because
let me help you out, it was more than a

(04:24):
fat Tuesday. It was fat freaking March. I'll tell you
what right now? And I guess what do you say
to people who are who are in the middle of Lent?
Right now? And this is a serious question because I
don't celebrate Lent. Do you say happy Lent? Do you
say clean your lint trap? Do you say? What? What
do you? Because what is lnt? Actually I need to
google this thing. Lent is giving up something for forty

(04:46):
days that that that is to make your life better,
to healthy or something like that. Because I hear a
lot of people saying, well, I'm giving up meat, and
I think, don't you give up me? But you have
to eat fish on Friday? I mean, please, don't come
to me for religion. Folks just don't. But people they don't.
They give up drinking. They I don't know, they a

(05:09):
number of shopping I don't know what it is. Whatever.
If you're celebrating lent, dig into your belly button, see
if you find any and I hope you're having a
good one. However you are celebrating. There's a lot of
so we got it. We got Passover coming up next,
but the Eastern coming up, the very big religious time,
religious time of year, but probably much more so than

(05:30):
Christmas time. There's just a lot of back to back stuff.
I digress because I'm trying to keep my mind off
of food. Let's start with the fact that one of
the original one of the original video conferencing service that
you may have used, is actually fine. Finally, I think
is the word shutting down and I couldn't believe it.
Who remembers using Skype? You remember Skype? Skype was that

(05:56):
first tool that allowedest to one of the first tools
that got us to pretend like we were living in
the Jetsnian age, you know from the Jetsons. If you
remember watching that nineteen sixty era Hannah Barbara cartoon, yes,
I know they have flying cars, and yes everybody has
sky apartments, and yes, if you have to walk the dog,
you got to go out on a you know, automatic
little you know walking machine and you have to yell, Jane,

(06:18):
stop this crazy thing. But it was always interested in
me to me that they had these video televisions where
if George was at the office and Jane or the
kids were back at home the sky apartment, instead of
picking up the phone call, they would just turn on
the TV and they could talk to each other. And
I just thought that was man, eyes, are we ever
going to see that in our lifetimes? Well, we actually did,

(06:42):
and we actually do and we realize it now on
a very regular basis, if not several times a day
via Zoom or be it FaceTime, or be a Microsoft
teams and there's a number of these. But if you
go back, people, one of the more popular, one of
the first video conference application out there was Skype. Years

(07:03):
after was created invented, Microsoft bought the company and to
this day Microsoft owns it. And I think Microsoft said,
you know what, we don't want to be in this business.
Microsoft breaking News is doing It's doing away with its
once popular video conference application Skype. Apparently they are streamlining
their free consumer communication offering. But also, by the way,

(07:26):
Microsoft has something else for years. It's called Microsoft Teams,
and it did kind of, you know, continue to bubble
up in my mind the few times that I use
Microsoft Teams is why does Microsoft still have Teams and
why do they still have Skype? Because Microsoft Teams, for
the most part, is free. Yes, there is a business
option too, but they just don't use it. If you
still use Skype, people listen to my show more often

(07:47):
because you really got to get it to the twenty
first century. Skype is going to be around until May fifth,
so we now have less than two months. It's going
to give users time to explore. This is from Microsoft.
They want you to explore Microsoft Team and decide on
the option that works best for you now real quickly.
Some alternatives to Skype. As I said, WhatsApp is very good.

(08:08):
WhatsApp is a popular app. It is owned by Meta
and that's the same company that owns Facebook and Instagram
that works all over the world, same features as Skype,
along with text messaging and voice and video calls and
even group chats. Zoom without a doubt. Another popular alternative
many people became familiar during COVID nineteen pandemic, and I
think app is best known for its video meeting functions.

(08:31):
Google offers something Google offers video conferencing called meat that
replaced the old Google hangouts, And so anyone with a
Google account can use Google Meet. And yes, if you're
an Apple user, you can use FaceTime across iPhone and
iPad and your Mac devices. We take our first break
over here. I am not right now utilizing any of

(08:53):
these video conferencing. Back in the day, I asked, I
simultaneously did this radio show while using a video conference,
and it was really fun. I mean this was way
before Skype. I mean I set up an old fashioned
webcam and I had a server. But it was neat
because people actually got to see the magic behind the microphones.
Like it's really sexy. It's just me and my hair
doing a show. But when we come back, I'd love

(09:15):
to hear from you. Three four six twenty nine textan
send me a x or tweet high tech Texan Hi
g h T E c h T e x A
N Are you sad to see Skype go? What will
you use? What's your most popular video conference? And then
I'm I've received since this news hit a few days ago.
I've received a lot of emails because I asked. I

(09:35):
put out a little poll. What are some of the
failed or apps or services or.

Speaker 4 (09:43):
Products and technology that you have used recently that are
no longer around.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
We'll take a poll. We're here from you. It is
Michael Garfield, the long running high Tech Texan show. I

(10:10):
missed it before, but I would be remiss in reminding
you that this is the weekend that we lose one
hour of sleep. Now listen, this debate comes up twice
a year pretty much. Why do we still have daylight
saving time? Why don't we have one? And you're not
going to get an argument for me, But you're not

(10:31):
going to like my take because I actually prefer the
winter months. I like when it gets darker a little earlier,
and only because I love being outdoors and I'm a
runner and living in Texas, I don't like running during
the summer it's hot. I think about it this way

(10:53):
because I think three steps ahead of everybody else. If
it gets darker earlier, I know it's the fall in
winter season, which means it's cool outside, which is better
and easier for running and biking at longer lengths without
fitzing during the summer. You see, this is how my

(11:14):
mind works. And if you don't like it, I guess
just to stop listening. But that's how I think about it.
Either way. The point is, when you go to bed
Saturday night, set your clock ahead one hour, you're gonna
lose an hour of sleep. Now, many, many, in most
objects that we have automatically will set your clocks forward

(11:35):
or back, depending if you're in the fall too. Cars,
newer cars do it. Your your cell phone automatically does it,
which means if it's connected to your smart watch, that
will do it. Now things that don't. If you have
an old fashioned clock on the wall, you're gonna have
to take you know, take your finger and just kind
of loop it around an hour. A microwaves, A lot

(11:57):
of older microwaves and current microwaves, they don't don't change.
I've got a microwave, I've got to do it manually.
I've got a clock on my oven that I have
to do it manually. Other than that, computers do it automatically.
Other than that, just don't forget. Because the last thing
you need to do is I always forget this. I
always tell people, if you forget to six o'clock forward,

(12:18):
you're going to be an hour late to church on Sunday,
or you're going to be an hour early. I still
haven't figured that part out, but that is what you
need to do so this coming weekend. So depending when
you're listening to this or how you're listening to this,
you can go ahead and do that and you actually
should be set to go. You know, Scott finished talking
about Skype and how it's shutting down, and I posted this,

(12:38):
I think, on my ex account, and I asked a question.
I said, is anybody sad to see Skype? Go it?
And to that point, what are some of the products
that tech products or services over the years or even
recently that are no longer here that you miss? And
I kind of compile the list and run through them.

(12:59):
Now if I forget something I'd love to hear from.
This is an interactive radio program Folks three four six
twenty nine, Texan three four six nine t X A
n If for some reason Callum doesn't feel like picking
up the phone a voicemail, should pick up leave a voicemail,
and if so, you you do give us the right
to utilize your voice on the radio. The FCC actually

(13:19):
just which I just took my annual class. We have
to tell you that, but feel free to leave a voicemail.
Somebody wrote that Fossil no longer makes smart watches. I
actually forgot the fact that Fossil, which I think is
based in Dallas, good watches, but they made a smart watch.
Fossil ceased the production of their smart watches last year. Okay,

(13:40):
that's pretty good, all you Apple fans. Apple last year
they discontinued a few things. They had a blood oxygen sensor.
They they discontinued the sale of watches equipped with blood
oxygen sensors because they lost a patent dispute. Apple Pay Later,
which I guess was different than Apple Buy Now, the

(14:02):
buy now pay later service was shut down Dan they
did that thing didn't last a year. Uh, and they
reverted back to the traditional Apple pay model. I guess
that's kind of like a layaway that didn't work. Someone
put that the decline of physical media. The trend away
from physical media continued with Best Buy stopping to sell

(14:25):
physical movie discs. I do remember the news that red
Box that was around for like two decades. They closed
all twenty plus thousand of their kiosks. They fought for bankruptcy.
And I mean when I say physical media, it's the CDs,
the DVDs, the cassette tapes, the albums that we used

(14:46):
to have everything. Now most everything is all digitized. What
else died recently? The end of instant messaging services? I
seq remember the letters man if you were a kid
in the nineties, man and the letters I CQ. I
think it was an Israeli They created an israel service
and they created it because it was kind of a

(15:06):
play on letters of the term I seek you S
E E K you, like where are you online? Twenty
seven years that was around that shutdown. Google shut down
a number of apps, Google shutdown, Google pay, Google podcasts,
a lot of number of things. It's sad seeing this
stuff go. But as things go bye bye, things are

(15:28):
also invented. I mean, I've been doing the show what
Now twenty two minutes or something. I can't even tell
you the number of startups that have actually launched around
the world. And that's why I like talking about technology,
tech related things, and I do get excited about that.
And if you don't know, I get excited. If you
can't hear it in my voice, maybe you can see it.
And this is a good time to let everybody know

(15:52):
and not that my radio show is heard terrestrially in Austin.
That's the one big city I have yet to infiltrate,
as we are heard in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio.
But if you're driving on WOAI has got a very
big stick, you may pick that up in Austin, which
Austin is probably my favorite city here. Obviously I'm a
UT graduate, my mom's from there, the whole thing. But anyway,

(16:15):
I very honored to say am the new technology reporter
with the weekly segments on Fox seven in Austin, Texas.
That's right, people, It took me thirty plus years after
I graduated from UT with a Radio Intelligion Film degree.
And when you graduated from UT and you had a

(16:38):
RTF degree or even a journalism for that point, you
kind of wanted to stay in Austin. You wanted to
get a job, or you wanted to get an internship
at one of the local TV stations. And you know,
when I graduated, there was no Fox. It was ABC, CBS,
at NBC and KTBC was a CBS station. It's now
the Fox station that I'm on. I was never able

(17:00):
to get on there. Whatever it thirty plus years later.
Guess what, I guess you can always go home. I
am now on KTBC Fox seven every Monday, seven forty
five in the morning on their Good Day Austin. I
will be there showing some products, talking about news, and
I could not be more excited, along with a lot
of the things that I do on Houston TV with

(17:21):
Great Day Houston. It's kind of fun, very ironic. I
was up there last week. I drove up Monday and
just kind of meet and do my first little shot
on the set in the morning. And I was less
than one mile away from the UT Communications School. And
so I guess everything that changes remains the same or

(17:42):
whatever they say. So shout out to Austin. I continue,
I don't know, before I get to old gray, wrinkly
tired voice is shot. I'm trying to take this entire
state of Texas, if not the country by storm.

Speaker 4 (17:53):
People.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
It's only taking me twenty three plus years of the
high tech texts and brand to do it. So that
is something new to and I am excited new things
that we will talk about that just came out. I
went down memory lane just now. In a few I
talked about how I graduated college and now I'm in Austin.
But I also before that talked about some of the

(18:14):
products and services that we kind of grew up with
or liked that they no longer exist. You know, maybe
it's ICQ or Skype is now shutting down, which brings
us the whole thing. Well, let's go back in time.
I want you to think about this over this next
few minute break. What were some of your favorite games
you used to play as a kid. Now I have

(18:35):
to define this. If you are under forty years old
right now, I know you're gonna come up with a
video game, all right, You're gonna go Super Mario. You
gotta go Tiger Woods Golf or something like that. Okay,
I'm kind of talking about over forty years old right now.
What board games were your favorite? And I'm gonna go
to Shoots and Ladders, Candyland, Monopoly. It goes on or not.

(19:03):
There's a point where I'm going over here, and if
you want to realize how tech is now infiltrating the
old school board games, you're gonna have to stand by.
We'll be right back and I'll tell you that's going

(19:31):
just like that big booman boy said Michael, is my name,
Michael guard Build. We're at the bottom of that first
hour of my High Tech Textan show. Don't go anywhere
we do. Thank you for contributing high Tech Texan on
all the social media. Spell the whole thing out h
I G H T E c h T e x
a N. If you don't want to call in to
three four six two nine T E x A N,

(19:54):
that's how you're gonna get to me. You can post
something like this subject we're about to hit. Go back
back many years ago. If you're over forty years old
or so, what were your favorite games that you used
to play? And I'm talking board games. I grew up
in an era and I was a young kid in
the seventies where there were really no home video games.

(20:14):
There were board games. And today, yes, there's still a
board games, but I don't think youngins play board games
like we used to because there's so much going on.
I mean, we've got phones that do crossword puzzles. Now,
we've got video games, we've got PlayStation and xboxes and
Nintendo's We've got switches and twitches, we got everything. But

(20:35):
back in the day, kids, Uncle Garfy, storytime. Here, pull
up a chair, there were these things called board games
from companies like Hasbro all right, and you would just
on a rainy day, even a sunny day, you and
your friends would sit there around a kitchen table of
your buddy's house and you would just play Sorry, shoots

(20:57):
and ladders, checkers. I was never a chess guy. Uh,
the Game of Life. What was your favorite board game?
You can just hit me at high Tech textan right now.
And the reason I say is is these games still
are here. But I saw this and this is it
kind of brings a little nostalgia, but I love how
the fact it brings technology into the world. Monopoly, pound

(21:23):
for pound, Monopoly probably was my most played board game.
And the funny thing is I could tell you years
in years of playing it up at the street at
my buddy Stuart Robinson's house with with Kurt Johnson. And
again these are some little kid buddies of mine. I
played that game so many times. I don't know if
anybody ever won the game of Monopoly, because can you

(21:45):
win Monopoly? Because it is the longest freaking game ever.
It just went on and on and on, and I
always wanted to be the banker because I don't know.
It really did help me with my math, because I'm
pretty good when it comes to numbers, and I always
had to be you know, there was these little tokens
and you could choose that the top hat, the iron.

(22:06):
I had to be the race car. I mean, I
was a baby. It's like, I ain't playing if I
ain't the race car, or I'm not the banker, I
ain't playing. But anyway, whatever, if you were the banker,
you can kind of cheat too, but that's neither here
nor here nor there. Well I saw this. Hasbro has
announced a new version of Monopoly, and it simplifies the
game by replacing cash and the banker with a mobile

(22:30):
app that handles all the games transactions. Okay, I'm sorry,
I may have to play this game again. That's pretty cool.
It's called the Monopoly App, Banking game and a smartphone
where a tablet takes over the role of the banker.
It keeps track of every player's money and properties. It's
pretty good. So they announced this thing. Apparently it's coming

(22:52):
out later this year. It's gonna sell for twenty five bucks.
But the game board, yes, it's a board, it's an app.
It's a board game, but use an app. But apparently
they it's the same layout with the traditional version. But
what do they they don't have They're trying to make
a kid friendly, so they don't have park place and boardwalk,

(23:15):
which were the most valuable properties. And now it's a
rocket launch pad in the moon, and there's like I
think they put a chocolate factory, a virtual a VR
roller coaster, a dinosaur park. Anyway, apparently everybody selects the
token and a matching bank card and property cards and
you scan them and are recognized by the app. I

(23:39):
like it is this gonna? Is this gonna slow the
game down even more? Because I'm square. I don't know
if I've ever finished the game of Monopoly three four
six twenty nine Texan three four six nine texts, Hey, Mike, Okay,
here's something, Oh Mike, what about card games? How about
go fish Solitaire? You okay, you always had a I
always had a deck of cards around, but you know

(24:01):
you with your I mean, we're not playing My buddies
and I when we were like nine or ten, we
weren't playing poker. No, we were playing colorful games from
like Hasbro and in all these other things. We were
eating cereal and we were watching Saturday morning cartoons. People.
It just if you're under forty, you just don't understand it. Man,
if you're under forty to understand. And here's another thing

(24:22):
that's way begone days. I had a conversation with my uncle.
So I have an uncle who lives here in the
same city with me and my aunt. But I was
talking to my uncle. I don't know, we got We
got on the subject of newspapers or something, cause I
think my name was in the Houston Chronicle. But I
used to subscribe to the actual newspaper. My gosh, I'm
dating myself to sound so old. Uh, And I don't

(24:45):
have it, but we've got to, you know, I he
I don't laugh. But he subscribes to the newspaper still,
And he tells me this, and I literally stopped and
looked at him. I'm like, are you the only person
on your block who subscribes to newspaper? And he he
said yes. He goes he does not remember seeing any

(25:05):
other physical newspapers laying in front lawns, and again, if
you're under forty, you still don't even know what I'm
talking about right now. Anyway, Uh, he's he's if I guess.
If you subscribe to the Physicals newspaper, you get an
online account. Anyway, I have his username and passwords. So
I've ever wanted to see something in the in the

(25:25):
Houston Chronicle or actually at the Dallas Morning News. I
have my parents account number two because I think they
still get a newspaper. Man, I'll tell you what they like.
When I started this show twenty three years ago, I
did subscribe to the newspaper. There was no such thing
as a flat screen TV. There there an electric car.

(25:47):
How is that even possible? How long could the do
they make the cords to plug in your car while
you're driving? Woo people? Things have changed and I have
to change. It is great. Cell phones have changed. Speaking
of cell phone, new cell phones are coming out. I
told you a few weeks ago, Apple announced some allegedly
cheaper phone which wasn't too cheap. Mobile World Congress is

(26:11):
going on right now. Which is that's in Barcelona, which
I've never been. I've been to Barcelona, but I've never
been the Mobile World Congress. It's like the S it's
like the cees. Specifically for mobile phones. Mobile World Congress,
Samsung announced a few things Samsung. They announced the A
twenty six and A thirty six. Now this is not
their S series Galaxy phone. This is similar. It's not

(26:34):
as fast as a chip, but they're pretty inexpensive. Yes, folks,
there are such things as inexpensive phones. The A twenty
six two hundred ninety nine dollars, the A thirty six
three hundred and ninety nine dollars, A lot of the
A series apparently they got upgrades that match kind of
what we saw from this S twenty five, which I

(26:55):
went to San Jose for the big announcement with in January.
I would get these. I mean, you know what, going
back to my uncle just now, how I just my
uncle who who still subscribes newspaper, He does have a
Galaxy A series, not an S series, but and he
likes it. Come to think of it, most all of

(27:16):
my things, I'm not an Apple guy, but most all
my family actually is an Android guy. That maybe somebody
out there actually listens to me. Maybe they do listen
to me. But between now and the next week, I'll
get more news and press releases coming out of what
was launched at Mobile World Congress. I'll see some international
phones that will not be launched here in the US
that are bigger, stronger, faster, thinner, cheaper and whatever. But

(27:38):
the it's nice to see that Samsung, what mini companies
also are releasing phones that aren't a thousand dollars or
eighteen hundred dollars. It's nice to see something in the
three hundred dollars range. But that's one of the many,
many things that I do that I talk about on
the radio, that I will show off should I get
samples and demos on my TV segments, that there are
phones that you do not need to pay an arm

(28:01):
and a leg. There are the phones that are not
made by a company that is the same as a fruit.
And that's what I'm here for to give you alternatives.
Three four six twenty nine textan Michael Garfield is the name.
We're gonna take one final break this first hour when
we come back. Google just made it a little easier
to remove your personal information that you don't want on

(28:23):
the web. Can they like erase like ex wives and girlfriends?
Then then I'll be excited.

Speaker 4 (28:31):
But stand by and said, we'll tell you how this works.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
All right, I'm gonna go back on my word. I
told you I wasn't going to talk about food anymore,
because this past week I've done nothing but judge barbecue
steak restaurants, everything for the Rodeo Houston and what was
going on with the Barbecue Cookoff. But this is the
time of the show where I do want to recommend
if you are hungry and if you are still eating

(29:09):
Cobo bobs. Cobo Bobs four locations in Houston, one in
San Antonio, mini in Austin, Dallas sucks for you. You
don't have any yet. You need to get down and
try some cowbo Bobs. Unbelievable. Go through the line. You
can watch them. You pick one of five tortillas, okay,
and they will press them right fresh for you and
they are massive. They will stuff any type of thing

(29:31):
you want in your burrito and they are massive. You
can make a case Adiya. The chips so great. It's
just I discovered cowbo Bob's. When was it, I don't know,
probably by six years ago or so, maybe seven. Now
that was an awesome because I visited my son in
school and when they came to Houston. I just I
was beside myself. It is great. I go to the
wine on the southwest side and Stafford the Meadows right

(29:54):
on Highway fifty nine. There's one on Mason Road. There's
one Chimney Rock, fountain View area, over and se and Felipe.
Please do go have some lunch, take it on for dinner.
They were open six days a week.

Speaker 4 (30:05):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
Chick fil A stole their business model. They're not open
on Sundays. But Cabo Bobs is it stand by Between
now and the end of the show, We're going to
give away a twenty five dollars gift card Cabo Bobs.
I'm not particularly hungry right now because I've had so
much food over the next last week or so. Okay,
I'll probably eat between now and the end of March,
and so I will go to do me some Cobo Bobs.

(30:27):
In the meantime, we continue the high tech textan show.
Michael is my name? How many times have you continue
to think that your personal information on the Internet is
just way too much? Well, it is, but welcome to
the world that we live in the twenty first century.
Anything that we do, any movie that we make. It's
like enemy of this date. It is. Our information is

(30:50):
out there. How do these companies know what we were
looking at online to send us up a marketing ad
of what we're looking at? I mean, it's just it's uncanny.
How do you remove I get to ask this a lot.
How do you remove some of your personal information out
of search results so you're not found, so your information

(31:13):
is not there? Honestly, it's almost impossible. It is very tough,
and you used to have to jump through hoops and
steps and try to contact someone. I don't know if
it be a Google, be whatever the service you're used.
It's crazy. But news this week, which actually seems good
news if it does work. Google just announced that it

(31:36):
is making removing your personal information from search results easier.
I like it. I like the headline on the forefront. Okay,
so when you search for yourself, what do we call that?
Self searching? Ego ego searching. If you search for yourself
and you see a link that contains information like your

(31:59):
email address, your home address, your phone number, you can
request to take it down in just a matter of seconds.
Now this new feature, it's part of Google's results about
you Okay. It's called Results about You, and it's a
tool and it monitors the web for your personal information.

(32:19):
It alerts you when new search results contain it. Now,
if you've never set an alarm of let me know
when more information is out there and you can get
it alert, you may want to go to Google and
actually do that. But this is something new. It's called
Results about You, and I'm not that familiar with it,
but after reading it, I'm like, okay, I can dig it.

(32:40):
At least I'd like to see. Google's trying to make
it easier. So to use the new feature follow me here.
First you search for yourself on Google. Now, this is it.
Now I'm going to say, I'm gonna listen. Long time
listeners know that I got some quirks. Okay, who does it?
Whether you believe it or not, I'm a different cat.

(33:02):
I have never in my life had a sip of coffee.
Don't want to, won't try it. That's the way it goes.
I've never seen any of the Godfather movies. I mean,
I can go on and on, all right, I'm just weird.
So when I say this, I want you to take
it to heart because I am not lying I have
never searched for myself on Google. I have never put

(33:26):
in another you know why, because I don't want to
see what's out there. Not that I'm hiding anything, because
I'm not. I don't need the ego search.

Speaker 4 (33:35):
Should I as a public figure, because I do radio
and TV and whatever for twenty place years.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
I probably should. I don't.

Speaker 4 (33:43):
Just who knows it's out there? Not the point. If
you feel safe, search for yourself on Google. Type your
name and Google Now.

Speaker 1 (33:51):
If you see a result that contains your personal information,
you tap the three dot menu, a little three nt
we call it a burger whatever it is called the
three dim next to that result. Once that comes up,
you choose the option in the window that says remove result,
and then you choose the option that says it choose

(34:12):
my personal info and I don't want it there. And
that's about it.

Speaker 3 (34:15):
Pokes.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
That's it. Google's gonna review request. They say they're gonna
get back to you it in a few hours, maybe
a few days. You keep going, repeat that for other
search results you want taken down. Now strict keep in mind,
Google's not gonna approve all the takedown request, and even
if a result is removed. It's only gone from Google Search,

(34:38):
not the original website itself. That's a whole different can
of worms. But if you want to, if you want
it completely gone, you're gonna have to do a takedown
request with the original site and good luck with that.
I have not tried it, but the fact that this
is coming from good resources and press releases and everything.

(34:58):
Feel free to try it, and if it does work
for you, I would love for you to share it
with me. And if not, I'm gonna search for you
and I'm coming and get you. And again, search for
yourself on Google. If you see a result that could
change your personal info that you don't want up there,
tap the three dots right next to it, choose removed result,
and then you know, shows my personal info I don't

(35:18):
want there. That's it. Okay, I dig that, man, I
dig it. Google trying to make things easier other than
the fact, trying to make sure that we do pay
them in some way, shape or form, just like YouTube.
That's right, YouTube owned by Google. YouTube just launched something new.

(35:38):
Let me quickly get to this before the top of
the hour. YouTube just launched a seven dollars ninety nine
cent per month advertising free. It's called Premium Light subscription
YouTube not YouTube TV. I wish it was seven ninety
nine YouTube itself. It's a new premium subscription. It's called

(35:58):
Premium Light, and it's gonna let you watch the most
videos ad free for about eight bucks a month, so
you can watch videos across gaming and fashion and beauty
and cooking and news, whatever you gotta do it. Okay,
this is ad for not the real premium, which is
fourteen bucks a month, which is gonna let you download

(36:19):
and play things in the background or watch music videos
without ads. No, no, no, this is a light for
eight bucks.

Speaker 4 (36:26):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
It's whatever I watch YouTube not that often. I'm more
than happy to sit through a few seconds of add role,
just like you're allowed to sit through a few seconds
of ads, well maybe a few minutes of ads on
this radio station, you see, we hear at iHeartRadio. We
keep things for free, and we do that because we

(36:47):
love offering free content, and all we ask from you
in return is not to pay us. Just listen to
our commercials. We hope you actually utilize them, and then
we talk about companies like Cowbo, Bob's or whatever I
just mentioned. We'd love for you to PATRONI them a
shop there and that's all we ask. Do you have
to know? Hope you do, absolutely do when you're gonna
judge you seven ninety nine, thirteen ninety nine, any of

(37:09):
that stuff. Difference between old school good stuff.

Speaker 4 (37:14):
Like good old fashioned radio and all this new high
pollutant online subscription stuff. I've anything like this stuff that
I adds you. Could you information Listen hour number one, OBA,
do me a favor, hang tight, give me about five
or six minutes because at the top of the hour,
listen to some of the ads, because when.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
You come back, you got one more hour of free
brain day. That's how you go. Michael Garfield high Tech
Textans Hill.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
Hiexan is Michael Garfier Michael Garfield.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
Michael Garfield's joining.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
The high Tech Texan.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
Michael Garfield is here with a high tech.

Speaker 3 (37:56):
Texts ad technology and Michael Garfield has something you might
want on.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
Michael Garfield is your high Tech Texans. Three decades helping
you make magic with your gadgets. Heard worldwide on the
iHeartRadio Act. Now you're high Tech Texans. Michael Garfield.

Speaker 1 (38:31):
One hour into the show, one hour ago, not a mathematician.
I play one on the radio, but that means we're
halfway through the show, which means we're a halfway to
a happy hour. You're probably listening to this on the weekend.
Happy hours should be going on. If you're listening on
a Saturday, you've got a few hours to get prepped
and set that clock one hour forward. And if you're

(38:53):
listening on Sunday, especially if you hear it in Dallas
and San Antonia, well guess what. I hope you set
the clock ahead, baby, because you lost one hour of sleep.
You're tired. I will try to talk as low as
possible so you can comprehend. But we need to stop this.
It's a lot of michigans. I don't know why are
we are we? Are we happy with one part of

(39:14):
the year. Why do we keep going back and forth?
It's it's too tedious, as somebody figure this out somehow.
All my life we've done this, but I don't know
a lot of the uh, the devices that we use,
they automatically set clocks forward in back cars, smart watches,
obviously they're connected to your cell phones. They do that,

(39:34):
but still don't forget to check your microwave don't forget
to check your oven. How about the clock on the wall,
take your little finger, rewind it, put it forward, go
check it out. And also don't forget. By the way,
I must remind you to check the battery in your
smoke alarms because this is you know aw I say,
I actually grew up listening to those PSAs. Set your
clocks for spring forward, fall back, and check your smoke

(39:56):
alarm batteries because the last thing you want is that
thing going off at two in the morning. It's it's
not fun. I'll give you the number here three four
six twenty nine Texan. Feel free to call ask questions,
Say hi, way in on anything, Tell me a Joe,
I don't care. Did you love the Oscars? I actually
I caught a little. I thought Conan O'Brien was awesome.
He really was. I think ratings were down a little,

(40:20):
mostly probably because no one saw pretty much nine out
of the ten of the nominated movies Anora the hell
was that man? You never heard of it until last
Sunday Night walked away over everything? But Conan was actually good.
Say whatever you want to talk about. I am your guy.
Three four six twenty nine Texan for some reason nobody
picks up other than voicemail. Leave a voicemail, then we

(40:41):
do have a right to play your voice here on
the radio. I talk about a lot of things, including
cars and trucks. For fifteen years, I have reviewed and
test driven. I think I just hit my nine hundredth vehicle,
kid you not. This past week I was in a
Lexus UX three hundred F sport. I don't do a

(41:01):
lot of Lexuses. Not bad. It was gas, luckily, because
I needed a gas car because I needed to drive
from Euston to Austin to Austin. I had two test
cards this week, and I also had a Chevy Equinox,
which is good, but it's an EV. I like EVS,
but we're not gonna go through this again. I personally
wouldn't buy an EV because all of a sudden, I
just make up my mind to go from Houston to

(41:23):
Dallas to Austin to San Antonio. I don't want to
sit there and plan out my trip like I'm on
TRIPLEA to charge the car, and I have ADHD and
I don't have the patience to sit there and wait
forty five minutes to an hour for the thing to charge.
So luckily, even though the Chevy Equinox EV good price,
good pickup, absolutely looking into that thing. But luckily I

(41:45):
had a gas powered card and this time it was
Alexis UX three hundred f good little plastic key, nice
little pickup, not a huge car, four door fit you
know it fits nice. Two people comflip potentially three small
people in the back got me to Houston to Austin
so I could do my TV stuff good and I

(42:06):
was pretty happy with that. A little overpriced for what
it is, but you know, if you want the full review,
check me out. Go to Spotify. It's the podcast look
for high Tech Texan. I have hundreds and hundreds and
hundreds of reviews to steer you see see what the
punt I did in the right direction or the wrong direction. Now,
speaking of vehicles, I refuse. I absolutely cover the car industry,

(42:28):
the automobile, the vehicle industry a lot. And this was
kind of interesting, surprising, really amaze me how far people go.
Now we're going to talk about Tesla. Now we know
who owns Tesla. It's Elon Musk. Now it is a
Texas based company, so a we got to love that.
Thank you very much for buying it in the revenue

(42:49):
coming into a great state. A lot of people. Again,
as I try to stay away from politics, they're some people.
I'll just say some. I won't even say a lot.
Some people maybe not be too happy with Elon right
now for whatever he's doing or whatever he's not doing.
Don't know, don't follow the news whatever it is, but
Tesla and I'm reading this. This comes from Marketing Daily News,

(43:11):
which I it's a reliable resource because I get a
lot of my information. Tesla owners seem to be finding
creative ways to distance their vehicles from the founder and CEO,
Elon Musk, because they fear vandalism of their Tesla vehicles.

(43:31):
And I'm looking at a picture right now, So City
with the article it's a Tesla cyber truck and on
the back of it in big letters, somebody went to
office depot and just got some of those pelon stick
on letters and they put the word Toyota. In this case,

(43:52):
they're not making fun of Toyota. They're unsuccessfully trying to
remove the test slow logo and let people think it's
another manufacturer not getting you. People are putting stickers on
vehicles in different variations there's even one that somebody put
a sticker says, and I'm again I'm quoting an article quote,

(44:14):
I bought this car before I knew Elon was crazy unquote.
Can't verify that. Not trying to spend rumors, I'm reading this,
but some owners right now they're removing the Tesla logos
from their vehicles and they're replacing with badging from other automakers,
between Toyota, the Honda, Audi did they just don't see it.

(44:36):
That makes no sense to me. And I'll say this
right now, don't do that. It's just at some point
that may ask for more vandalism. You know what a
cyber truck is for as ugly as it is. In
my honest opinion and my personal opinion, I don't care
if you slap a Cadillac, put a BMW, put a Mercedes.
I know what that thing is. You ain't fooling me.

(44:59):
I know what you know. The other Tesla series looks
like just stop it. Then I heard during Marty Grass
there was a Tesla. There were cyber trucks driving up
and down Marti Grap parades and people were booing them. Man,
this world is just a it's a it's a strange
place right now. I'm not going to comment on it.

(45:20):
I really try not to. But it's just you're you're
booing a vehicle in a parade. What's what's up? What's
what is up? People just thought that was interesting. If
anybody loves their Tesla, I'm here for you three four
six twenty nine, Texan if you want more play. But
if you were in the market for a specific, specific
vehicle right now, maybe it's a minivan. I I was

(45:42):
in a Kia Carnival about two weeks ago. Gave my
thoughts in that. Right this week, what am I in?

Speaker 4 (45:49):
Actually?

Speaker 1 (45:49):
I got two vehicles this week. They just delivered it. Oh,
I'm in a mas To c X ninety Premium plus
and it's a PEV, which means the plug in a
high hybrid electric vehicle. I'm not a big I'm not
a huge fan of plug in hybriate. They're only going
to give you what thirty extra miles if you plug
it in to me, doesn't make sense. But this is

(46:10):
what I do. You tell me three four six twenty
nine Texan. What do you want to buy? What are
you thinking of? I will tell you unbiased Nope, it's
not I don't get paid by any but no dealerships
pay me. The manufacturers don't pay me. This is Michael's
content and that is what's key. Three four six twenty
nine Texan. If you're too shy to call, just log
online and go to any of those social media's high

(46:31):
tech textan spell the whole thing out h I G
h T e C h T e XA with that
bright number one of this outline, We're going to be
right back. I'm a high tech texting show. Looking at

(47:04):
some of the events coming up this month now that
it's a lot of events mad between the Houston Livestock
Show and Rodeo, we got south By Southwest and Austin.
If you're tuning in in big a shocking the high
tech Texan who I probably should own south By Southwest
especially it's because it's one of my favorite cities of Austin, Texas,
and I was there thirty forty years ago, when obviously,

(47:28):
you know, I was a young kid when everything started.
It's growing into this massive thing and I don't even go.
I think I've been once for a day or two.
Obviously I focus on cees. But anyway, if we're going
to south By Southwest. It's a movie festival and technology
festival that I should be all over, neither here nor there.
We got a few more weeks. If you're into home

(47:49):
and garden shows, there is one in the northwest Houston area.
It's the cy Fair Home and Outdoor Living Show. I
used to go to the show a lot. Broadcast asked
give some I did it like a seminar. Tony Wood
from a text Wood Shows really does a nice job
of putting on these big home in outdoor and garden

(48:10):
shows springtime. If you're out and about looking for you know,
gardening ideas or home saunas or roofings or cement or whatever,
I actually am planning to be out there. I'm gonna
be out there. I'm gonna go out there on Sunday,
what's March twenty second, March twenty third, And if you
want to come, say hi and meet me and stuff,
and I'm gonna be out there on behalf of Roboock,

(48:31):
which is the ultimate robotic vacuum cleaner. Again, it's a
home show, and there's these things called smart homes, and
I'm trying to bring in more. You know, I'm one
of the guys with a big mouth, and he has
to try out so many of these cool things that
go around your home. Home Robotic Roboock just came out

(48:52):
with a vacuum and mop Vacuum slash Mop. It's a
stand up unit, the F twenty five. I'm gonna be
out there demonstrating it, recording some radios and podcasts and so.
It is sci fi Home and Outdoor Living Show. It
is March twenty second, March twenty third, starts at ten
in the morning on Saturday, eleven in the morning on Sunday.

(49:14):
And the admission wait for it, fr ee. My favorite
four letter word, it is freeze. The Berry Center in Cyprus, Texas.
There'll be a lot of boots out there, and I'll
mention this in the next week or two, but I
hope to see out there.

Speaker 4 (49:28):
MG.

Speaker 1 (49:28):
Michael Garfield, The High Tech Texans Show News around the world.
Actually it is around the world. It's how many of
you are frustrated when this is this is first world problems.
You're on a plane and we're used to Wi Fi. Now,
most every commercial airline has some sort of a Wi

(49:50):
Fi where you can stay connected to the ground. Now, granted,
some airlines wi Fi systems satellite, you know, which obviously
is operated by satellite. They really don't have this long cable.
They don't have like a Cat five cable, you know,
from the tail the plane going down to the to
a airport. Now it's satellite delivery. Some of them are spotty.
I am a big Southwest Airlines guy, and for a

(50:12):
long time I've used Southwest. It's Southwest is not the
fastest Wi Fi I've been on. I think I've used American,
they used, you know, they used there's a lot of
these third party companies. What it's like Bungo. But do
I bring this up is because I saw a little
something that Starlink in Starlink again shocking one another one
of Elon Musk's companies. It's a satellite service and they

(50:38):
are starting to roll this thing out to commercial airlines.
And I just saw that United I think they just
put the first Starlink Wi Fi satellite system in some
of their planes. They are going to upgrade its entire
fleet and yeah, they just updated with mo was this

(50:59):
this is Friday. The first Starlink equipped regional regional plane
is ready to fly. Regional or not. I don't know
what region is flying in. And the interesting thing is,
because I did a lot of research on this scene,
it is not cheap. It is not quick to retro
fit a plane, and a lot of planes are relatively old,
so you have to go in and you've got to

(51:19):
rip up seats and rip up the cabling or ad cable.
It's not cheap and it's not easy to have. United
said it took only about eight hours to install the equipment,
which they say is about ten times faster than installing
other types of Wi Fi technology, which means they're going
to upgrade about forty planes each month starting in May,

(51:41):
and they have a goal of equipping the entire fleet
of two cabin regional aircraft by the end of the year. Okay,
that's cool. I want to know when they're going to
do the I don't want to say real planes, but
the non regional, the the big boys, the big jets.
And I'm telling you right now United, and I know
United has a big presence in Houston obviously used to
be Continental Airlines here. When and if you want to

(52:05):
prove how fast your starlink Wi Fi system is, I
the high tech Texan himself, Michael Garfeld, who has been
a presence in the technology world in Texas for well
over twenty years, and I have broadcasted my show from
so many places around the world. Right, I want to
broadcast my radio show from a moving airplane, from an

(52:29):
airplane up there, which nowadays with the technologies, all I
need I need my computer, microphone and headphones, and I
need a fast internet connection. Shocking to most of you people,
because you think, you know, we have all the studio
and the satellites and the microphones and the producers and
the service. Yes we do. That's the second part of it.

(52:50):
You know, we relay our live voice to these radio
stations with the satellites and towers. But it can eminate
pretty much now from anywhere that we have an Internet connection,
so united. You want some fun publicity pr elon my
man starlink, Happy to do it, big promotion. I want

(53:14):
a water cannon, you know when the plane lands. That'd
be awesome. Maybe they let me actually sit right seat. Now,
you know, I don't want to be the full captain.
You know, maybe I could just got to sit there
and you know, maybe do a segment from the right seat,
just you know, and obviously I bring a video camera,
do the whole thing. I would love to do the
high tech textan show heard around the world, and I
heart radio and I want to broadcast it from a
plane using high speed internet. I have long wanted to

(53:36):
do this, but internet speeds need to be relatively quick,
so we can, you know, get the voice back up
and down to the Earth satellite the whole thing. So anyway,
there you go. That's that is a goal. The other
goal is to fly on Air Force one. Okay, non political.
I don't care who's the president. I just I just
want to say Air Force one. I'll give you the
phone number here other cool places that suggestions I should
broadcast the show from three four six twenty nine Texan

(54:00):
four six two nine T E x A N. That
is how you're going to get me. You could find
me on all the social media outlets, most all of
them high tech texts and Hi g H T E
C H T E x A N. I've done my
show from the beaches of Mexico many times in a
partnership with a lot of resorts over the years, kind
of partnered. They've flown me and some of my producers

(54:22):
down there, and I'll tell you how far technology has
come and I told you right now, we probably could
do a radio show, a live radio show from a
moving airplane if if, if the internet is fast enough.
Back in the day when we had to do live
radio shots, there are several ways to do it. I mean,
going back, even before I was in radio, there was

(54:43):
the there was radio trucks that you would see driving
around town, and you think they're promotional vehicles. KTRH seven
to forty news. There's my KPRC nine to fifty am.
You know, there's all the WAI twelve hundred. They would
have these trucks with this big antenna that would raise

(55:04):
up all right, not when they're moving, but they're parked
in front of you know, maybe a sporting event or something,
these big in hit as. They would rise up in
the air twenty thirty forty feet in with an antenna,
and the antenna would point to the receiving antenna either
at the radio station or at the radio kind of
the radio farm, if you will, in the outskirts of

(55:24):
the town. And these trucks were these trucks and antenna's
they were called Marty m ARTI I believe they were
called Marty trucks. And I had just gotten into radio
when these Marty trucks were being phased out. But that's
how you had to do this live radio shot. And
you just better hope. I don't know if it was
a clear line aside or whatever. Then when I and

(55:45):
again let's go back to two thousand and two, when
I started radio two three, two thousand and three, four five,
six seven, we were able to buy the get these
devices and plug a phone line, an analog phone line,
the copper phone line, a pot, it's pots, a plain
old elevance service fount and we would connect to the
studio with via fax. And man, I am really aging

(56:10):
and dating myself over here. So we would so we
would be at like a home and garden show. And
actually we used to do this from like the Scifare
Home and garden show that I just mentioned a few
minutes ago. So we would have an engineer on site.
Dave Obert used to work You love David. I think
Dave still worked with us here at iHeartRadio. They used
to hear Dave Obert, great engineer. He would come out

(56:31):
there with all this gear in a truck in a
box on wheels, set up this table, put the headsphone,
the headsets, and we'd have to have an engineer to
make sure it's all there, and he would dial in
this phone number, had this local seven to one to
three phone and would dial into our radio stations I
guess server for lack of a better term. It's a

(56:51):
receiving thing. And they would connect and you can kind
of hear it like the old fashioned bod rate. You know,
there's this high pitch signal goes before it connects. I'm
losing half my aut three Where is my audience right
now with this story? But that's how we did. And
then the products these devices got smaller, so much so

(57:11):
that I actually went out and I bought my own
and it was probably about a thousand bucks fifteen hundred dollars.
It was a little investment. It was called the Blue Box,
all right. Comrades was the name of the company. And
this allowed me, because I knew how to connect it,
I didn't need an engineer, not that I'm smarter than engineer,
but it was pretty you know, self sufficient. I could
travel anywhere. I could go on vacations. Now again, my

(57:34):
show has always been on Saturday for twenty plus years.
I mean I could rarely go on vacation with the
family because I couldn't. I had to work weekends. Now
I can travel anywhere, and we used to vacation and
meet the kids were young. We used to vacation in
southern cal all the time, and so I would we
would rent a house. We would. I mean I could
do it from the beach. As long as I pull
I plugged in a telephone cord, it would connect, all right.

(58:00):
That went away along with plain old telephone service line.

Speaker 4 (58:03):
All right.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
Now we could do it via the internet with a
high speed. We could do it on Wi Fi. It's
gonna be high speed. But also when we could do it,
we could do it from home. We just have to
plug you know, the internet in because generally you're gonna
get faster speeds with direct broadband versus versus Wi Fi.
That is how far we have come. So if anybody

(58:24):
has a suggestion, I have done my show from jeez
man and just the mountains of Colorado, the beaches of California. Yeah,
four or five resorts on the beach, literally by the
pool in Mexico. I think I have done. I know
I went. Did we do it from Amsterdam? I went
to Iceland. Once I did I did a few from
the least coast here and there, but I love taking

(58:46):
the show on the road, getting some interviews, setting up
to webcam and so I am your guys. Let's do
it in the air. As all those flight attendants say.
It is garf bottom of the hour. We've got thirty
more minutes. You know the phone number. When we come back.
We'll talk about more technology that was around my twenty
five years ago, much less a year ago. Self driving

(59:06):
robo taxis coming to Dallas along with Waymo just starting
to hit these streets driverless taxis in Austin. People resist,
say you can talk about this coming back on a
high protechnic show. He's got a tax from my buddy.

(59:46):
Kenny dumped in over at US coins and jewelry. The
uh yeah, one of the easily one of the top two,
top three, maybe the top one coin jewelry buy and
sell in the country, I mean country. Kenny Duncan is
not well. He's second generation. He his dad Kenny Senior,
started this years ago. Kenny Duncan, his brother Matthew Duncan

(01:00:08):
is it's family business. I ten Katie Katy Freeway right
did Foss road Dude is a new msmatist, which I
believe it or not, I'm allowed to say on these airwaves.
New mysmatist is someone who actually was an expert in
coin coin collectors. If you have any coins jewelry, gold, silver,
and they are expanding anyway. He just texted me because
I dropped by his place. It was it Thursday, so

(01:00:30):
I was picking out. I check it out the whole
just a slew of Rolex watches and they've got diamond Joey's.
They were showing me this. I guess it was an
engagement ring, folks, I'm not no, No, wasn't for me.
They were taking a picture of this ring. Matthew Dunkle
was taking a picture of this ring, and he was
standing outside in front of the building and there was
like two guards around him, and I'm like, yo, Maddie,

(01:00:51):
what are you doing. He wanted to get the sun
reflecting on this thing. He's holding up this ring, and
I am not listen, we use hyperbole sometimes, I am
not kidding. I almost was blinded by the shine on
this thing. I think it was six carrots. Not only
was this diamond big, gorgeous, but there was it was
diamond encrusted all the way around the ring, I mean
the bottom of the ring. I don't understand. Well, actually

(01:01:12):
I do. I used to sell this stuff, you know,
stuff on QVC. But anyway, one of the many things
that they have it is diamonds. Anyway, he just texted,
he's listening to the show. They are open on Saturdays,
not Sundays. If you don't matter when you're listening to
the podcast right now, if you're not in Houston, doesn't matter.
US Coins and Jewelry dot Com they have sports memorabilia.
They have just got a whole baseball fan, especially Astros fans.

(01:01:36):
They got a slew of Jeff Bagwell and Craig Bigio
dual autograph baseballs, a lot of them stacked up over there.
You can come in. You could purchase those. What a
great gift to get fired up for the of the season.
But go check them out. US Coins and jewey dot Com. Kenny,
thank you so much for being potna here of this
show and tuning in. Garf is the name. And you know,

(01:01:57):
one way to get to US Coins and Jewelry you
could you could drive very big parking lot. And by
the way, they're expanding their building too. I don't know
if I was supposed to say that on the air.
But they are creating another building right next to their
current building and it's gonna be gorgeous. He actually walked
me through it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
Wait, good parking lot. But you can also you could
take a taxi, or you could take an Uber, or
you could take a lift. And odds are in Houston
those services are going to have a driver. And I
say this, It's like, what are you talking about, Matt, Well,
doesn't every car have a driver? No, they don't. People,
Because if you are listening at our great capital of Austin, Texas,

(01:02:32):
Uber and a company named Waimo Waymo they just partnered
in They just launched a self driving car to pick
up passengers. Oh perfect, just in time for the billions
of people going into town for south By Southwest, just launch.
It is an autonomous option. Autonomous. Now there's two keywords

(01:02:53):
I want to talk about her. One's autonomous, which means
it's self driving. It is like Ghostbusters. People ain't nobody
in that driver's sept So it is a paradigm shift
that you may have to be freaked out with. That's
number one. Number two, it's an option when you call
an Uber or Weimo. You get on one of their
the apps, you have the option of saying I want

(01:03:14):
to try one of these autonomous babies or he no,
I want real I want a real human flesh up
there driving me. Now. They already have the service in
San fran Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Weaymo's trying to expand
in the more cities they've cleaned up with umer Uber.
They announced this last September, and I don't know, is
this something that you would do. It's a network of listen,

(01:03:37):
they have human driven cars. They're going to continue to
give rides in Austin. But if you've never been driven
in a self driven car, it's weird. And by the way,
for all you people who are big at University of
Texas and Arch Manning or Cooper Manning fans, apparently it
was it Weimo or Uber one of them. I don't know.
They just did an nil deal with Arch Manning, the

(01:03:59):
quarter back for the Longhorns, and they did they really
need funny I don't know, probably sixty second video on
social media just to announce it. Just this week. You
got Arch Manning, who's the quarterback. You've got his dad,
Cooper Manning of the famous Manning family. And then you've
got Arch Manning, the grandfather, the famous footballer from the
nineteen seventies nineteen eightys. All three are sitting in the

(01:04:21):
back of a waymo and there's no driver and it's
a very funny family. Cooper's a very funny cat. I'll
tell you what. So anyway, they lined that too, So
that's number one. That's Austin. Then I saw this big
d and I know we're broadcast in Dallas on the
Mighty Mighty eleven ninety Talk Radio eleven ninety. How are
you guys doing well? Guess what, You're not left out

(01:04:42):
either because Robotaxis we're gonna call this Lift is bringing
robotaxis to Dallas. Lift, which is a competitor to Uber.
They want to keep pace and they're launching a fleet
of robotaxis as as soon as twenty twenty six. That's
a quote right now. This is according to report that

(01:05:04):
I saw in tech Crunch. These are robocabs and they
are going to be able to and they're going to
use you know, for GM OUTI, Volkswagon, you know a
lot of other stuff. They're going to use these vehicles
and driverless and they're going to pick you up in Dallas.
And I say this because this is kind of a question,
and this is what I do. I love hearing from you, folks.

(01:05:25):
So if you can't get through the phone lines, or
if you want to leave a voicemail three four six
twenty nine Texan, you can go to high Tech go
on x dot com h I G h T E
C h T E X AM. Do you trust this?
Would you ride in a driverless vehicle? Have you ridden
in a driverless vehicle? I want to take this boy.

(01:05:47):
We got about twenty four minutes left to this show,
but I want to hear from you. I have done it,
and I I am a It's my job to actually
put myself out there, try technology, utilize technology so I
can put it into my mind frame, in my words,
and bring it to you. I'm not saying or endorsing

(01:06:10):
that this is the safest way to ride. I mean,
no one is. I mean you can't guarantee anything. And
I'll tell you this. The driverless cars, with all of
their radar and lightar systems and their cameras, they may
be safer than a human driver. They may be not
for me to say yet we're gonna have to study
this thing. But I'm just here to say one of

(01:06:31):
the reasons this has been possible for years driverless cars.
The first time I saw a driverless car, I was
in San Francisco. I was up there for something, and
I'm gonna go back. I'm gonna go back eight years
ago maybe, and I land in San Francisco Airport and
I get into an actual taxi cab. Actually you know
what it was, maybe something I was there for an

(01:06:54):
event and maybe somebody picked me up in a car. Whatever. Anyway,
I was in the back. There was a real human
driving me, and we're on what is it, the the
I five or something whatever that is going north to
San Francisco, the city itself, because the airport is south
of the city, and we're just rolling over here. It's
a gorgeous day and there's you know, there's the mountains,
and I can kind of see the ocean on the
right hand side, at the Pacific's ocean, you know, at
the bay, and then to the right of me, here

(01:07:17):
comes this car and it just it was just not
a big deal. It's you didn't have lights in it,
there was no driver and the first time you see it, dude.
It is freakyeeky. It's like dang, and you want to
you want to move lanes, you want to get away
from it. First time and there was no one in
the back seat. They were just testing this. And I

(01:07:37):
don't know if it was Apple of it was Google,
I don't know, a third party company. Whatever it was,
it it was Craig Craig. It was back. Now we're
at the point where we have riders in the back.
I've tried it at ces. You know, I take videos
the whole thing, and the first thing is the first thing.
I will guarantee you that there's a few guarantees over here.
The first time you ever get in the back of

(01:07:59):
a driverless car, whenever it happens in your lifetime, you're
going to take pictures in video. It's as simple as that.
I remember the first time I was an Uber when
Uber was invented, versus a taxi cab driver. You had
a conversation with Uber driver. It's like, hey, do you
like driving for this Uber thing? And how does it work?
I mean that was mandatory. It's mandatory now to get

(01:08:20):
in the back of one of these riverless cars and
take a picture and post the thing and I'll end
the point. My point with this. It has been around
for many years. Why hasn't it really taken off? Yes,
technology has continues to get better with the radar system
than the eighteen or the eighty plus cameras they have
on board, the light oar system that sees everything. I

(01:08:41):
will tell you the secret, which is not a secrets.
I've talked about this before in my opinion, in my mind,
and I think I'm I speak the truth and I
think I'm right. The reason why driverless cars have not
taken off it is because it is a major paradigm
shift for our lifestyle, our trust, and the way we operate.

(01:09:05):
When Henry Ford created that automobile many many years ago,
there has been a human driver. All right, we trust ourselves.
Do we trust technology? Listen? There's stories about companies and
servers being hacked all the time like that. Do we
trust it? I don't think there is a trust factor.

(01:09:27):
I don't think we do. What happens if all of
a sudden the pedal gets stuck and you're going one
hundred miles an hour and you can't stop. What happens
if you decide the last minutes that wait, mane, here's
my stopper's traffic. I want to get out what happens
if you are in a wreck and the car doors
are stuck in the back seat? Are you're going to
climb over the front seat?

Speaker 3 (01:09:46):
So?

Speaker 4 (01:09:46):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
What happens when you get in a wreck? Whose fault
is it? I know there's cameras? Is it the other
person's fault? Is it the Waymo's Well, you can't see
the driver of weimo because there is no driver. There's
still a lot of questions. But I think it's our
lack of acceptance in the consumer market. Your thoughts, please

(01:10:07):
tell me fifteen more minutes, three four, six, twenty nine
texts and if you don't like it, you know what,
text me your address. I'll come pick you up in
one of the two vehicles that I'm testing this week,
the Lexus UX three hundred F Sport and the Chevy
Equinox EV. If you want the full reviews, you can
go to my podcast Spotify and many other podcasts. You

(01:10:28):
look for high tech texts and nine hundred plus vehicles
that I have been reviewing over the years, and so
you're gonna get my opinion on that coming up we
will wrap up some more news actually going around Texas too.
Hey remember all those drone deliveries that were happening in
all these cities, including College Station in parts of Dallas. Well,
guess what, I don't think people actually like drones flying

(01:10:49):
around to deliver all their products. I'll tell you one
city who said, Ova, We're stopping it. It's right here
on the High Tech Texan Show with me and Michael Breslin.

(01:11:24):
We made it, people, We made it final segment of
this weekend's High Tech text in Show. I do thank
you for tuning in. I thank you for all the
nice comments, especially some of you folks in Austin, where
our show is not hurt terrestrially in Austin. It's heard
in Houston and San Antonio, in Dallas. But I guess
the signal in San Antonio WAI twelve hundred am. It's

(01:11:46):
it's it's a pretty big blowtorch fifty thousand watts. I
guess that reaches into Austin. Just started the gig on
the Austin Fox seventh station. I am the new technology
correspondence reporter. Did my first segment last Monday. So every
Monday seven forty five am. If you are in Austin
or if you want to go online the Fox seven Austin,

(01:12:07):
you can see some of the products I'm reviewing. And
you actually can see what the hair behind the microphone
looks like. That is my actual hair, folks. I'm very
proud of it. To my age. And there you go.
So I do thank you, so shout out to everybody
and everybody coming to Austin for south By Southwest. I
do want to remind you this weekend it is we're
losing an hour of sleep. So whatever time you're listening

(01:12:29):
to this, if you're listening on a Saturday, set a
reminder in your mind before you go to bed Saturday,
sprang forward. Set your clock ahead one hour. For all
those non automatic things like your microwave, your wall clock,
maybe your old timey clock radio like I still have,
maybe your micro your oven, whatever, it is a lot

(01:12:49):
of other a lot of the devices that we have,
they do set automatically. Your phone will reset automatically. Your
if you're smart watch is connected to your phone, it's
going to set automatically. To your computer pretty much sets automatically.
Your cars depend older cars will not do it. I
don't know, depending on the model. I don't know when

(01:13:10):
the time bline was of what year, make, model, but
most of your cars should if they're within the you know,
probably i'd say the last five, six, seven years, they
should automatically update. But if not, the worst thing to
do is if you don't drive on Sunday. You get
up Monday morning to go to the office, and you know,
your clocks in your home are all set, You're all
cool for daylight saving time, and all of a sudden,

(01:13:32):
you're getting your car like we do my good ism
an hour late. You set your set your car clock
back just to forget about that. Hey, speaking your clocks.
One more thing too, about this clock? Where did I
see this? There is a there's an app. Here is
an app that I don't know if you want to download.
And that's that's counterintuitive to what I talk about, because
I generally tell you here's something that you may want
to try. I may want to download. This is kind

(01:13:53):
of a this is a morbid thing. This is a
morbid thing.

Speaker 4 (01:13:57):
Here.

Speaker 1 (01:13:58):
There is a there's an app here. It is called
the death clock. I'll tell you, I guess what that does.
It is a AI powered death clock, and it claims
to predict when and how you will die by analyzing
factors like your age and your health, and your habits

(01:14:18):
and your lifestyle choices. So apparently you I have not
done this app, but I don't want to do this app,
but I thought it was I thought it was interesting.
You download this app, they ask you questions like how
often do you work out? Do you have stress, how
do you sleep, what do you do, do you drink
a lot? What's your cholesterol, your blood pressure? And listen.

(01:14:39):
There is a disclaimer states the results are for entertainment
purposes only and they should not be taken as scientifically accurate.
You know what if it's an interergy it sounds like
it's a betting site. Why not? Where's I use prize picks?
You know it's god, it's a betting app. Maybe do
they have an over under of when some specifically is

(01:15:00):
going to die? This is sound It sounds like it's
it's an opportunity over Here. At the end of the
questionnaire on this app, you're going to get a shareable
page with a quote save the date that shows the
day and the age you're expected to die. People who
comes up with this and I'm serious about this thing.

(01:15:21):
You know what. We don't have enough time to take
questions about this, but feel free to as we hang,
you know, get ready to wind the show down. Go
to x dot com, Go to high Tech Texan spellball
thing on high Tech Texans. Would you do this? It is?
It is? Would you want to know when and how
you will die? It's unsettling. It's unsettling to see a

(01:15:43):
number and a date attached to your final day.

Speaker 4 (01:15:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:15:49):
I guess you can view it as a wake up call,
reminder that we're not going to escape the inevitable, but
maybe you might be able to push it further into
the future. I say it's morbid. The app also offers
some suggestions on how to live longer. Obviously, I think
there's a paid subscription plan here somewhere with personalized longevity plan.

(01:16:11):
Here's a longevity plan. Stop drinking as much, work out, smile,
talk to people, did out love life, you know, just
stop smoking, don't do drugs. I sound like my mother,

(01:16:31):
but I don't know. We all could go at any minute,
but I kind of live by those rules. That's why
I look. I don't think I look my age. I
sure as heck, don't act my age people. If you
know how old I am. And I got the energy
right here death Clock. It is available on iOS and Android.
This was not an endorsement whatsoever. That is the weird
stuff we talk about. Uh did I tease something else?

(01:16:55):
Oh yeah, drones real quickly, I'm sorry about that. I
got about a minute and a half over here. Amazon
did an experiment in College Station, which is a city
northwest of Houston, and I think there may be a
college there. I'm not sure. Okay, I'll just kind of
go with that as a long word. Amazon has been

(01:17:16):
experimenting drone deliveries in college Station for a while. Long
story short. The people who live in College Station population
about one hundred and twenty five thousand. They have not
been too happy with it. And this is a story
that I read on Wired Wired dot com. I'm not
making this stuff up. They people did not like the buzzing,
the sounds. There was I think two drones fell out

(01:17:39):
of the sky. They didn't hurt anybody. People think about
the privacy, you know some people. I was there a camp.
The people don't want to layup by a swimming I'm
reading somebody didn't want lay out by swimming pool. Because
they thought the drones camera was pointing down. You know,
Amazon comes back and forth say no, no, no, this
is at the end of the day. Amazon experiment of
flying drones in college station apparently is OVA. They are

(01:18:01):
shutting down soon, no longer. Nope, that's it. You're not
going to be able. Are you aggy people to order
cookies or toothbrushes or toothpaste at your women? Have it
deliver within the hour. That's another paradigm shift. And we'll
talk about this next week, because we in this show
we talked about paradigm shift of driverless vehicles, the waymos

(01:18:21):
of the world of robot taxis. Would you sit in
a car that's being driven by nobody? Would you try drones?
I haven't seen one of these things work. I probably
should do a story for one of my TV segments
over I'd like to see how it'll work. But I
don't know because I live in Texas and most of
the time, if I got a hanger for some ice
cream and I want it delivered quickly and I'm not
home ill they drop that bluebell in the wrong backyard,

(01:18:42):
man had to waste the money and I got a
big old hot milk shake these a the framings that
I think about, the technology to the forefront that makes
you think too. With that ending the show, Thank you
to Calum Read and thank you to Will. Thank you
to Brian Erickson for me keeping me on all of
these cities here on the iHeart meeting at work. If
you want me Hi tech Texan dot com, send me
an email and I do. Thank you so much for

(01:19:05):
being interactive and listening. We're twenty two, twenty three plus
years Michael Garthurs, my mate, have a wonderful weekend. Sorry
you're losing an extra hour of sleep spring for of
my friends. I'll talk to you next week because right
now my show is over.