Tech Flops of the Year: What Went Wrong in 2024

Today on The High Tech Texan Show - 

• How to prevent your texts from being hacked
  
• Tech flops of the year
  
• Best white elephant gifts
  

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Is Michael Garfier. Michael Garfield.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Michael Garfield's joining in.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
The high Tech Texan.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Michael Garfield is here with a high Tech Texans items
to make life.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Easier new technology.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
So Michael Garfield has something you might want.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Michael Garfield is your high Tech Texan. Three decades helping
you make magic with your gadgets. Heard worldwide on the iHeartRadio.
Add now your high tech Texan, Michael Garfield.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
I will spare you the details of my Spotify rapped
playlist is past year, but rest assured you can bet
it involved a lot of eighty songs in yacht rock.
More importantly, I am focused on the Texas Long Warriends
playing in the SEC Championship this weekend. Folks, we welcome

(01:05):
you to the high Tech Texan Show. Michael Garfield. Does
the name be it? KPRC nine fifty in the Houston
area news Radio twelve hundred WAI, San Antonio, and soon
in another large Texas city starting next weekend. We continue
to take over the greatest state in the Union, and

(01:28):
I hope you're gonna have fun join us here. I
just need a few minutes, maybe an hour or two
of your time. If you don't get the full two
hour show. Wherever you are, we have this thing called
the podcast, so you can listen to the dulcet tones
of my voice whenever and wherever you want. You download
the iHeartRadio app. You look for Michael Garfield, you look
for high tech textan spell the whole thing out, and

(01:50):
then you can get to me. Because it is the
holiday season. Did you survive cyber Monday? And I'm looking
at you, callum, who's my main behind? You know, he's
the Oyes, you know, pay no attention to the man
behind the glass window there, callum. Did you survive cyber Monday?
Get this stature? Thirteen billion dollars in sales. Cyber Monday,

(02:16):
the monday you went back to the office, allegedly and
they named it cyber Monday. Little history for you here.
Cyber Monday is a made up name from the National
Retail Federation, probably started around twenty years ago. It's because
back then, twenty twenty five years ago, a lot of
homes didn't have high speed internet. It was dial up,

(02:39):
you know, AOL and all that other stuff. It was
very slow. But a lot of businesses they had high
speed internet, and so what a lot of online retailers
were seeing. It was the Monday after Thanksgiving, the monday
right after the Black Friday that they saw a lot
of sales coming in during the day. So people were
waiting to get to the office on a high speed

(03:01):
internet connection to shop. National Retail Federation there, you know,
their job is to promote retail sales, and they said,
you know what, let's just come up with something Cyber Monday,
and so stores went with it. In thirteen billion dollars
later this year. That's a record. I have one question though,
remember when people complained about the price of groceries, of

(03:22):
the price of gas and how they were going to
pay for that seems pretty recently where people were kind of,
you know, ragging on that. What happened to that? You
may not have grocery and gas, but you know what
scrot it saw on airfire for forty nine ninety nine.
I'm gonna buy the thing on Cyber Monday. Thirteen billion dollars.

(03:42):
That's a crow. Did anybody shop at stores? I'd love
to hear from you. Let me tell you how interactive
this show is. I'm gonna give you the phone number.
It works all across the state, actually works all across
the country. It's not the world, because we do have
free cell phone service even on the weekends. It's generally included.
It's three four six two nine Texan. Spell the whole
thing out three four six twenty nine Texan. You can

(04:04):
join in. You can tell me, Hey, did you shop
at stores? Did you exclusively do it online? Did you
wake up like back in the day about three in
the morning on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and you're
stocked from all of the stuffing and the dressing and
the turkey, and you just stand in line to get
one of the of the ten flat screen TVs that

(04:25):
were on sale. No, no, I am taking you in
the semi way back machine, but I am interested. Did
you go to stores? I did not, You know what,
I'm going to take that back. I did buy something
on Black Friday online, but I didn't buy it because
of Black Friday. It was it wasn't really on sale.

(04:46):
I bought bought some clothes for my favorite clothing store
based out of California, and it was like thirty percent off,
but they were having this thirty percent off sale for
the entire month of November, So I mean, yes, I
bought something on Black Friday, and it just happened to
be that Black Friday. It wasn't a Black Friday, salf
and I didn't buy one thing on Cyber Monday. What

(05:06):
did you buy? Share it with us, Share it with
my listeners, because I will. Throughout the show, I'm going
to start listing some of the better deals and give
you some gift ideas for the person who is just
so darn hard to shop for. And you're listening to
one right now, you know, and I'm honored, I'm blessed.
You can call it whatever. I don't need a lot

(05:27):
of things. If I do need or want something, certainly
in the technological gadget world, I could, you know, business wise,
I could send an email or contact them saying, hey, listen,
do you mind if I try or test test something out?
And I'll get it for thirty days or so, and
I'll test it and I'll decide if I like it
or don't like it. But then it gives me good content.

(05:47):
It gives me good content to talk to you, show
it on my TV segments and everything on my social media.
That's what I do for well over twenty years. If
you're relatively new to the show, certainly in San Antonio
because we just started on news radio twelve hundred WOAI
was it just about a week or two ago? You
may be listening. I'm not gonna tell you how to
fix your computer. I'm not gonna do it. No. I

(06:09):
will tell you what to buy and what to stay
stay away from. And it's not just tech. I spend
a lot of my time in the automobile industry. I
test drive cars, trucks, evs. I'm actually gonna have a
lot of I have a lot of vehicle and automobile
news coming up throughout the show. Every week I get
to test drive a brand new vehicle, not from a dealership.

(06:31):
None of this is paid, none of it's sponsored. I
can tell you if it's crap. I can tell you
if it's just you know, if it's a gym. Even
this past week, a friend of mine, she was looking
for a brand new EV and she asked if I
would go to some of these deals a few dealerships
with her. And I haven't been to a car or
a vehicle dealership in years. I really think it has

(06:53):
been years since I've stepped into a dealership. I'm a
lot of dealers. I just have I think I've had
a bad experience with car dealers dating back to my
first car that I bought in the nineteen eighties. It's
just they're just tough salespeople. I'm Adhd. I don't want
to wait while they go in the back to talk
their manager and coming back and forth. I mean I
literally had to pop an Adhd pill or two before

(07:16):
I went with her. I gotta say the experience wasn't
nearly as bad as I thought it was going to
be with the salespeople, I guess. We went to some
decent dealerships, testing a few cars out. I have driven
these cars. She has never driven them, So I sat
there and gave her my thoughts and opinions. This is
what we did. We test through which she tested with.
It was a Genesis who I actually think Genesis makes.

(07:40):
I love Genesis brand. This is not an endorsement right now,
but if I was having to buy a Eagle right now,
I would absolutely look at Genesis. I think they've got
great warranties. What they've done with the brand is wonderful.
I think their electric cars are good, not that I
would get an electric car. We looked at a Ford,
We looked at the Ford mock e mustang not badna decent.

(08:01):
It doesn't have a lot of the bells and whistles
of some of the other ones. She looked at a
Cadillac lyric and then she went I think she looked
at a pole Star. I didn't go to that one.
But the polls, there's a lot of evs. But this
is just one of the industry's topics that I can
guide you through if you just tuning in, thinking, oh
the guys gonna you know, tell you how to fix
your motherboard of a computer. People, the only mother board

(08:22):
I mean, I'm on board of my mother But hopefully
today are listening right now on iHeartRadio up in Dallas,
where I am from. That's the only you know, mother
stuff I will talk about today. I am not Father Christmas,
I am not Hanaka Harry, but tiss this season, hey listen,
coming back, we are going to talk about some of
the tech flops of the year. The top twenty five

(08:42):
most viewed Wikipedia pages. Can anybody guess some of the
top ones? Believe it or not. Somebody just sent me
a list of the most popular dog names of twenty
twenty four. I think it's pretty funny if dog names
are pretty much the same as as people daves do
and your calls love to hear from you. If the
phone's busy or if you voicemail comes on, leave a message.

(09:02):
We have your permission by the way of airing it
on the show, and we'll see if we can get
to your questions and answers. Three four six, twenty nine Texans,
This is Michael Garifield having some fun with you, Hooker
Lawren's on the High Tech Texan Show. Mack at it.
It is called the high Tech Texan Show. Happy weekend

(09:24):
to you wherever you are listening plausibly live via San
Antonio Houston. Excited. Next week we're adding another affiliate, adding
another affilia. I can't am I calum ever allowed to
say legally technically can we allude to it? It's it's
I've twenty three years, I've been on in in Houston

(09:45):
on KPRC nine fifty am as the high Tech Textan Show.
That is me. I have trademarked Michael Garfield. I am
the high Tech Texan. Just added San Antonio. I've sentata.
I have not been to San Antonio in a while.
I need to get Santa we need to do a
show from say Antonio, can we do it from the
the iHeart Studio. Let's take it on the road, Let's
take it on the river. Is the river? Is the

(10:06):
river walk? Still a thing I need to hear from
San Antonians, San Antonio whites. San Antonio Studs helped me out,
helping you know, got a great city, Party City three four, six,
twenty nine texts. That is how you can get to
me and say Hi, we don't take anything too seriously.
I do try to give you some hard hitting, good information,

(10:26):
personal recommendations of pretty much anything consumer lifestyle. I am
your guy. Yes it's called the high tech Texan, but
there's technology built in pretty much anything in anywhere, certainly
the auto industry. That's why I talk a lot about
cars and trucks, the fashion industry, watches, and you know what.
The way that spirits, the way that bourbon, the way

(10:48):
that vodka is made and distilled, there is technology over there.
By the way that I had some I had some
good vodka. I'm just learning to drink martinis. I'm just
learning to drink because I'm I'm a brown water guy.
I am a bourbon guy. I have a bourbon collection.
I'm a collector of bourbon, and about a year and
a half ago, I just started drinking some martinis and
so you know, I'm kind of playing around with some vodka.

(11:10):
There is a Texas based podcast I found. It's called
Freo f R. I. Oh, it's not free, but it's
actually it's actually relatively inexpensive. About what fifteen bucks for
a seven hundred and fifty mili about I had a
freeo teeny bought a bottle and I shook it up
and I stuffed my own blue cheese olives. I just
need to open a bar garf bar. So yeah, my

(11:34):
point is, this is the things that I talk about.
So we're having fun holiday season. We are just a
few weeks away from the all important big day. The
Big Man's coming down the chimney the same night Hanakhah
Harry arrives for all the nice little Jewish boys and
girls on on Moishia and Shlomo. It's it's it's a
whole thing. But Cyber Monday, we just we just completed

(11:56):
have a list of some of the top items that
were purchased on Cyber Monday. Any but you could probably
guess if we put some money on it, and I say, hey, listen,
I'm gonna of the five or six most sold sought
after product categories. What would you say? And you could
probably win it. Here's the answer right now. Headphones, speakers,

(12:20):
smart watches, computers. Believe it or not, Boy, hey Mary Christmas,
there's our computer. Electric scooters. Electric scooters. Apparently a lot
were sold on Cyber Monday. A lot of gaming consoles,
the PS five, the Xbox series, the Nintendo Switch, Oled,
the oled some of the most popular items, thirteen billion dollars.

(12:44):
Still looking for anybody who's actually went to the stores,
went to the stores and shop. The problem was shopping online.
It's when after about an hour or two, you kind
of have a knack in your stomach because you're hungry,
and there's no Anti ann pizza nearby your laptop. And
that's a feature that it's you know, you just want

(13:05):
to go to a mall, don't you. You want to
walk by the Anti ANNs, and you still want to
smell that fresh pretzel, maybe a little sour cream and
onion cheese spread on the top too. It said, that's
what one thing we can't get yet. And notice I
said the word yet, I know where technology is coming.
There's it's not smell a vision, but I seriously. I

(13:28):
was at CEES, the Consumer Electronics Show, which I go
every year. Every year. This will be my if January
will be my twenty second, twenty third year. I go
to see yes, and I see the craziest stuff, ninety
percent of which will never be released to the public.
There was a company, probably from Japan. There's a lot
of cool stuff comes from out of there. They had
this this thing that plugged into your USB on your
computer and there's little cartridges and it would it would

(13:51):
blow out fragrances, it would blow out smell to try
to enhance your shopping experience or replicator duplicate some product,
like if they were selling chocolate. You know, your online
and they what these fret with this company was trying
to do is like if you're shopping for candy or
chocolate or peppermint or something like that, as soon as
you go to the website, this the smell, this little

(14:12):
smoke would come out. And it's a good thing these
things never come to fruition because could you imagine get
like shopping online for weed or some of these drugs.
Actually that's what I should have done. I'd be so rich,
I wouldn't need to sit here on weekends, and I'd
do a radio show. Three four six two nine te
x A N. That is the phone number to get

(14:32):
to the high tech text and show. Michael is my name,
three four six at twenty nine at Texas. Uh I
had I have it. For some reason, I have had
over the past week more conversations than normal about Android
versus I thought, you know that that pops up. I
mean it's it's obviously with the Texas versus Texas A
and M game last week, we're talking about rivals. And

(14:54):
by the way, my side came out on top hook
of horns. There's you know that. You've got Republicans, you've
got Democrats, You've got the aggies, you've got the long horns.
You've got Houston versus Dallas. You've got se San Antonio.
You stand alone. That's how good you are. There's always
going to be debate about something in technology. It is

(15:15):
it is going to continue to be Android versus iPhone,
and there is it's a debate that can't be one,
which is I don't like that, which is why I
never talk about politics. I will put my toe into
sports without a doubt, because I do have favorites in sports,
and I wear that on my sleeve, and I do
wear my favorite. When it comes to Android versus iPhone,

(15:36):
I'm an Android guy and the looks that I get going,
O can the high tech tection. You don't have an iPhone? No,
I don't have an iPhone. I have had one or
two iPhones. The very first one when it came out
in what two thousand six, two thousand and seven, I
had the very first iPhone sold. They didn't give it
to me, so I bought it six hundred dollars in Houston.

(15:57):
I was the first person in line because I knew people.
But I got it and that was it. I'm an
Android guy. Quite simply, three quarters of the world a
seventy almost seventy five percent of the world when you
look at smartphones, uses the Android operating system seventy five percent.
I want to talk to the masses, I want to
use the apps. I want to get to know the thing.

(16:18):
I'm never going to convince, and that's not my job.
I don't want to convince iphoners, iPhone fanboys and fangirls.
I'm not trying to convince you to flip to Android.
I don't want to flip Android to iPhone. You know
what you want. You have an ecosystem, all your family
is on this iPhone, so we can FaceTime and face
jet and I message good. But I'm just going to

(16:38):
tell you why I prefer. Why I prefer I'm not
paid for it. I listen. I would say it again
if Samsung or Google on the Android side wanted to
endorse me, I have probably sold more Android phones than
any other form of advertising they've done for free. I
just talk content. I think the greatest advertisement that I

(17:00):
think iPhone could do, certainly in the state of Texas,
is flip me to the Macintosh ecosystem in the iPhone
on the iOS. Because I've staunchly been not a supporter
of theirs for twenty years, I can see, I mean,
I could see TV commercials, billboards, breaking news, the high
tech text and switches to iOS people. My agent is

(17:20):
on standby three, four, six, twenty nine texts. And if
you want to do that until then, you're not going
to get a paid endorsement for any of this stuff.
You're gonna get my true feelings. But when it comes
to working together cross platforms. There was an issue, and
I don't know if you saw this not too long ago,
there's been some hackers, Chinese hackers, that's right, who have
been trying they may have attempted to steal text. And

(17:44):
here's why. One of the things that Apple people love,
it's their text message. They're not vulnerable, they are secure,
they are locked down, they're encrypted. Well breaking news. Yes,
when you in an Apple device text another Apple device,
yes there is encryption. But when an Android device texted androvice,

(18:07):
they're encrypted. Also, the issue is when you go cross platform,
when you go Apple text to Android or an Android
text to Apple, none of that stuff's encrypted. And that's
what happens. Three weeks ago, the FBI and the Cybersecurity
and Infrastructure Security Agency, that's right, there is such a thing.
It revealed that hackers connected with the People's Republic of

(18:28):
China they'd infiltrated the US telecom infrastructure as part of
this broad and significant cyber espionage campaign. Hackers are still
at work, cybersecurity officials this week. They haven't been able
to evict them from these networks. The point is, I'm
talking about encryption right now, So what do you do

(18:49):
got a less than thirty seconds before we get out
of here or break You may at this point if
you do have friends who are on the other platform
of you, and you want to make sure whatever you're
sending them a photo or a text is encrypted, is secure?
Why don't you use a third party company? Example What's app?
What's app? You can text, you can talk, you can
video chat, and you can send encrypted messages. Signal is

(19:12):
another app that you can download. These are free apps
that I'm giving you your folks. These are private companies.
They help stop that stuff. And even the government officials
are suggesting if you're concerned about the security of your messaging,
you should use encrypted messaging system like WhatsApp, like Signal,
and there's a few others. Anybody got some issuse, anybody's

(19:32):
going you know what, if anybody knows my text my
phone number right now, why don't you text me? And
that's right now? I think a green dot shows up
with me. I'm sorry, I'm not a blue dot. But
you know what doesn't matter. People, we're still communicating. Life
is good and I'm the guy with the microphone on
the radio telling you that I'm just kind of an
android guy. Simple as that. Well, back at is Michael,
It's the high tech texting show. The big number to

(19:58):
get into the radio show three six twenty nine texts
and we make it easier for you three four six
two nine T e X A N. Should you go
straight to voicemail because we're just overwhelmed because now we're
heard in several great cities across the great state of Texas.
Leave a voicemail and then as you leave a voicemail
you do, we will tell you that we have the

(20:20):
right to actually play your voice on the radio. Will
make you famous, not that making you're not famous by
getting on the radio, because let me help you out,
that is not true. But if you've got questions, you're
thinking about a big purchase, you're looking at cars or trucks,
odds are I have probably test driven it. I will
give you a non paid response because no endorsements come
to me at all. I don't work with the dealerships.

(20:43):
Do get to test drive from manufacturers, and sadly they
don't pay me one freaking red cent. It would be nice,
but you're going to get the truth from me. Michael
Garfield is the name if me Movies. This past weekend.
It's a lot of a lot of family time. My
three boys who are grown well, they're in their twenties
right now. We're ones and just hit thirty. They came in.

(21:05):
It was great to have all three boys together at
one time. A great football weekend. You know, my Longhorns
beat the Aggies. Going to the SEC Championship this week
and I will be in Atlanta. Look for me. I'll
be wearing the burn orange. By the way, I will
be at the SEC Championship. And so, since we've finished
this radio show, it his wheels up for an up
and back trip and my Cowboys one. I'm a big

(21:27):
Dallas Cowboys fan. Did anybody see any movies Wicked? I
heard that's a long movie. I'm not No. I just
I don't need to see that. I mean, maybe I'll
wait the cable for that thing. Gladiator. I'm not a
Gladiator fan. I don't know how that fared either. I
do get to go to some media preview screenings. I

(21:48):
get invited to a number of them, a lot, relatively
most of them. I don't go to a lot of
them anymore. Am I just getting lazy? Am I getting
used to just watching things on my TV screen, I do.
I mean listen. I grew up in the era, well
the mini I mean listen. I'm old enough to know
that you go to the movies. It's quiet, there's a
big screen, you eat your popcorn, you turn your cell

(22:09):
phone off, and your set to go. I went to
a movie. Bear with me. I went to a movie
screening this past Monday for a movie that's not coming
out until Christmas Day, so I've seen it three weeks beforehand.
And I don't think I'm under embargo to talk about
a lot of the movies that I see. A lot
of things that I do. I get a sneak peek,

(22:31):
I get to play with these gadgets, whatever. But I'm
under embargo not to give my review, my thoughts, and
my pictures anything until the date that this company says it.
Because you know, the gay your companies planned the launches
and everything. I don't think I'm under embargo to talk
about it. But let me give you a quick review.
I saw the new Bob Dylan movie starring Timothy Shallomey.

(22:52):
It's called a Complete Unknown, coming out on Christmas Day.
And I will tell you this. I'm a music fan.
Love music, Okay, but mostly from the late seventies, and
I'm an eighties guy. I'm a yacht rock and then
I'm an eighties guy. I'm a big, big, big pop guy,
and I like the current stuff too, just because of
my kids. I am not a Bob Dylan fan, never
have been a Bob Dylan fan. Matter of fact, I

(23:14):
think the only thing I've ever heard Bob Dylan sing
was a few lines and we are the world all
right back in the eighties. I'm not a folk music fan.
Don't know much about Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Joan Biaz.
Just don't know, and I just really don't care. So

(23:34):
after some reason, I went to this movie. I don't
know why. Maybe it was Monday night, really had nothing
to do on Monday night. Two hours or fifteen minutes.
It easily was my favorite movie of the past year
or two. It was unbelievable. It was a go see
this movie even if you're not a Dylan fan or
a folk music fan. Timothy Shallow May easily is going

(23:57):
to be nominated for an Oscar. This kid, I didn't
know much about Sliman dudes like twenty seven years old
or something, totally transformed himself into Bob Geldolf. All right,
Robert Zimmerman, whatever you want to do. Unbelievable. There's a
lot of music. There's a lot of songs, most of
which I did not know. I know what Dylan sounds like.

(24:20):
Sounds exactly like Dylan, and I think he did his
own singing. Phenomenal movie. Great direction to the director who
did walk the line. The Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash actually
was a part of this movie. Well, not the real
Johnny Cash. There was a character Johnny Cash in the movie.
Great movie. All right, there you go. There's my two
cents about movie three four six twenty nine. Textan Michael

(24:40):
Garfield is the name here, talk about android versus iOS.
Some reason it passed to you know, because I'm going,
I guess I'm going to holiday parties and people. I'm
like a doctor. You know, you go to a party
and you're standing in line in the bar. Hey, what
do you do? I'm a doctor? Really, you know what
do you Yeah, I'm an orthopedic surgy. Oh hey, doc,

(25:00):
let me ask you a question. I've got this elbow problem.
You know it happens, you know me. You meet a dentist, Oh,
a dentists. Hi, how are you?

Speaker 1 (25:07):
What do you do?

Speaker 2 (25:08):
Well, I'm a dentist. You know, I've got a practice
over here downtown. Like, oh really, hey, could you take
a look at this molar? It's really hard. I mean
the same thing people find out what I do. It's like, oh, okay,
well what phone do you use? Yeah? You know, I'm
thinking about getting this TV Michael, you know what do
you suggest? I'm fine with that because people they I'm
honored that people listen to me. They trust my opinion.

(25:31):
And then everybody, a lot of people want to know, hey,
what phone you have? Or when I'm taking pictures or
selfies or you know, whatever I'm doing, I take up
my phone and I personally, I mean I at any
given time, I am probably using four, five or six
different phones and they're all androids because Apple doesn't send
me any iPhone, so I've never had it. I mean,

(25:51):
I don't use an iPhone. But the what I'm using
right now it's the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip Sick. It's
the flip phone, the sixth version of the of the
flip phone. That's my daily phone at this moment, and
they're just awed. It's like, did your phone just fold.
I'm like, where have you been? This is the sixth

(26:12):
version of Samsung. They're on every other commercial for the
past six years that Samsung phones they flip and they fold,
Motorola one, plus all these other companies they make flippable
and foldable phones. People are so stuck in their iOS Apple,
you know, you know, just kind of ecosphere. They don't

(26:33):
they don't even know that phones are foldable. All but
one day, god forbid, Apple ever launches a foldable phone.
It's going to be the coolest and greatest thing since
slice bread. So do I. There's other things that that
Android does over here, And I just saw this Android
just launch some upgrades to some of the things they're doing.
Because obviously there's AI, which does not stand for Apple

(26:55):
Intelligence by the way, but Android just came out with
their latest Apple you know, upgraded Apple. The androids latest
runs of AI features UH, file sharing, and a number
of anythings they got. This one new feature for all
you Android listeners out there, They have expressive captions. It's
a new enhancement. It's called expressive captions. What it does
it generates automatically subtitles that attempt to capture your emotion

(27:21):
and intensity of what's being said. Let me give you
an example. You're you're on a video chat and you're
chatting with a friend who groaned after you make a
lame dad joke. All right, and I'm not talking about me,
but a lame dad joke. So this expressive captions, it's
not only gonna transcribe what this person said, but it's

(27:43):
also gonna include a quote grown, the word grown in
the transcription. So it's going to it's gonna it's like
a wamp want Do you need this or not? Is
it a life change or no?

Speaker 3 (27:57):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (27:58):
And they're out. The Google also come out. Google. I
say Google because they're the creators and they're the ones
who do Android system. They have something called the image
Q and a feature and it helps image descriptions. It's
really it's actually the design to assist low vision users,
maybe blind users, but anybody can use this to describe

(28:20):
a picture in a natural sounding voice. And again, I
guess the point I'm trying to make. When a company
comes out with an upgrade, maybe it's a new version
of their operating system, should you download it? Should you
use it? Because Apple's on what eighteen point two I
think of their iOS version, and so many people, Oh,
I don't want to do the new version because it's

(28:41):
going to screw things up, but I'm not used to it.
At some point you're going to have to upgrade to
the new iOS versions. It's just it's an over the
air software update, because if you don't download that software update,
you're not going to get you know, I'd like to
think it's for the better. I mean, I like to
think that it's for security purposes or whatever, but at

(29:02):
some point your phone is not going to be able
to be fixed, or you know, it's going to go
out of warranty if you don't do your job of
upgrading some of this stuff. So I don't hesitate to
tell people, Yeah, download the updates and then look at
some of the features. It's not just the updates, because
some of this stuff are actually fun. They could be
kind of useful, useful maybe it's the expressive captions type

(29:23):
of things, or you know, the for you know, for
people who have some disabilities, like like I talked about
with this image with the low vision users or the
blind users. Go ahead and download some of this stuff,
and if you've got questions, feel free to ask me
phone number here three four, six, twenty nine texts and
we do continue the high tech text and show. When
we come back, we're going to talk a little tech

(29:44):
flop of the year. What's the biggest flop in your
mind that was released this year? There's there's seemed I
put this out on my X in my blue sky
kind of a pole on my social media this past week.
It's there seems to be one product, h that's kind
of trending. And know, by the way, guess who makes it? Ah,
it's your favorite company, Apple. I'll flop from Apple. I

(30:07):
will tell you after the break. Just like that big
booming boy sounds. I do think that for you that intro.
Michael is the name you can call me. It's don't
make me garf g r F first four letters of Garfield.
That's with we're tied. Michael is fine. Htt high tech

(30:28):
text and yeah, easy on the mic, not the microphone
like this thing. No, no, you know I used to
be Mike Mike Garfield in high school and then then
I'm matured. It's it's it's Mike mister Garfield to you,
doctor Garf. Just you know what my parents, you should
have been a doctor. You know what, call me doctor
Garfield that actually would be impressed. This is called the

(30:49):
High Tech Texans Show. I'm gonna tell tech flop of
the year. We're gonna talk about that in a second.
I gave. I gave my quick review. I got to
see the new Bob Dylan movie about Bob Dylan's life.
It doesn't come out till Christmas Day, but I got
to sell the sneak media preview. It's phenomenal. And I
am not a Dylan fan. I am not a folk

(31:09):
music fan whatsoever. But I was incredibly entertained, just unbelievable.
Timothy shallow May didn't know much about Challo May's what
twenty seven year old actor? He just totally transformed himself
into Bob Dylan. It was an amazing movie. A lot
of Dylan songs which I don't know hardly any of those,
but he was really good. Go see this. I will

(31:30):
tell you that what I loved and enjoyed because I
love and enjoyed the music. Has anybody seen the new
yacht Rock documentary on Max HBO Max. It was released
last Friday. It's been out a week. I saw it.
I watched it three times in the first five days.

(31:51):
Loved that did a great job. If you're a yacht
rock fan, and this is and I look at I'm
looking at Callum over he Calum Reads, a longtime man
who he put together to the show. He's on the
other side of the glass. He's pushing the buttons and
he helps select the bump music. Callum, this was your
cue to play sailing or Ride like the Wind or
anything by Michael McDonald. We can't do it because we

(32:13):
don't because when we podcast it, we don't have the
I guess we don't have the funds at iHeart to
actually pay the licensing fee. So if I sing sailing
right right now, like a few bars, would we get busted? Well,
it's not not down the parade dies, at least it's

(32:33):
not for me. If the wind is right, we can
sail the way. Now. Hey, welcome to San Antonio. Your
favorite son, Christopher Cross. Absolutely watch this. If you're a
yacht rock which is it's the late seventies and early eighties.
It's just kind of the soft field. But all it
gets unbelievable how interwoven the music is. And it pretty

(32:56):
much starts with Michael McDonald, all the members of Toto
and Steely Dan are pretty much all integrated together to
make the sound of yacht rock. And I'm a big fan,
absolute big fan of yacht rock. So there's I'm giving
you something to do. Should you not want to watch
the University of Texas Longhorns play in the SEC Championship

(33:18):
this weekend, you can do that. Tech flops of the
year I do. I mean I sometimes I talk about technology.
It's in the in my moniker, which i've trademark. By
the way, Tech twenty twenty four is ending and you're
saying a lot of countdown list the top ten, the
top twenty five of this and that whatever like that,
What are the biggest tech flops of the year? And

(33:38):
I put this poll out on some of my social media,
which you should be following and commenting on. Just look
for a high tech text and high tech t e
X A N. That's where you're going to get all
your consumer product breaking news and some of my thoughts,
no matter if you're on X, Instagram, blue Sky, whatever
you are. So I put a biggest tech flop of

(33:59):
the year. There seemed kind of to be a consensus.
And then when I followed up asking people, well, did
you get this product and they knew of the product.
Hardly anyone bought the product, which means it was a
flop of the year. It's there's a number of them,
but the consensus to me it seemed to be from

(34:20):
a company called Apple. It was the Vision pro Do,
you know, their little augmented reality headset that literally had
no AR capabilities really almost it's those goggles that you
put on your head that people that you actually can
kind of gentle when you put these VR or these

(34:42):
AR goggles on your head, and you know, Meta makes
a pair of glasses what you're pretty decent too. They're
expensive for what they are, and you look like you're
in this three hundred and sixty degrees. I mean, it's
kind of freaky deeky. If you ever tried these things out,
I would recommend sitting down and actually, which it's fun,
sit down in a rolling chair like a desk's chair

(35:04):
that's got wheels on it. Not that you're gonna do it,
but I want you just to spend if you ever
put these things on, don't move around like you know
you're racing. All you need to do is just you know,
take your feet and turn around left and right and
spend because as you turn around there's this spatial awareness.
You look, you literally tilt your head up and you
can see the ceiling of whatever you are. I was
using one this pass actually tell you. Next hour, I'm

(35:27):
gonna interview. I'm gonna talk to a gentleman with a
project here that's going on in Houston for the next
few weeks. It's called the Infinite And what they did
is they took a high definition three hundred and sixty
degree camera and in the Space Shuttle actually I'm sorry,
the International Space Station and they filmed these astronauts and
there's a whole series of these things and you can

(35:49):
actually go. It's in so if you're in Houston, soar
your yards, which is this really really neat kind of
area not too far from downtown and in midtown. You
can go and you gotta get buy a ticket and whatever,
and you walk into this replica of the International Space
Station and they give you these VR goggles to wear
and you can actually sense yourself that you're actually floating
in space. And so that's overall what these goggles do.

(36:12):
And they're they're pretty good. They're not cheap. The Apple
Vision pro hands down, was it You could hold a failure,
but I also could you know, simmer down and say
it may not have been a failure. It's an interesting product,
but it wasn't ready for the masses yet. And that's

(36:35):
you know, you know, because I you know, I'm taping
when I say these things. It was a I guess
it was a failure that people were not running out,
lining up and buying these things because they were thousands
of dollars, very expensive, and I just don't think really
people even cared even and I'm not just ragging on
the Vision Pro, but this was the kind of consensus
what people said. You know, the Vision Pro. There was

(36:56):
a lot of hype, and I think that, to me
is what makes a flop. If something is hyped up
and it doesn't live up to the challenge, then it's
a flop. And sadly, as a Dallas Cowboy fan, I
could probably say that it's always hyped up and not
living up to the challenge. But I think it was
the Vision Pro this year, Oh this is gonna check.

(37:17):
Everybody's gonna be wearing these Vision Pro things, are gonna
be wearing them. They're still heavy, they're still large, they're
still weird looking and they certainly not meant to go outside.
You need to have a battery pack, you know, in
the most instances to charge this particular version of it.
It wasn't there a few others that I got AI
artificial intelligence, you know, artificial intelligence. Now they're built into

(37:40):
a lot of phones and computers and laptops, but there
are standalone devices like where there's something called the Humane
pen PI in it's a pen that you actually pin
on your shirt, your jacket, your blouse or whatever, and
it listens to what you're talking. It will it will
automatically record and then upload and inscribe conversations. Well, I

(38:03):
don't norm really bought this thing, and I use one.
A company sent me one from a company called plod
p l A U D. It's a plot AI pen
and it's very light. It's like one inch and it's
a little magnet.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
You know.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
I could stick it on on my shirt every time
I'm interviewing somebody, if I'm in a locker room I'm
doing sports interview, if if I'm in a meeting and
I just want to record the thing. But then again,
we could do that on our phones. And now you
can transcribe things phones. Those things were flop easy. Rabbit
was another. If you're familiar in the technology world, and
you know what rabbit the rabbit r one. It's this

(38:37):
little device that no one really even you know, kind
of understood. So those are some of the bigger tech flops.
We get to the top of the hour here. Should
you carry on to the second hour of listening to
the show terrestrially or via the iHeartRadio app. If you
look for Michael Garfield the high Tech Text and I'd
love to hear from you. What is your biggest tech
flop of the year. Please do not list the high
Tech Text and show. I'd like to think it's not

(38:58):
a flop since we've added not one, but next week another,
We'll add two new major Texas city affiliates this year.
I took him twenty three years to do that, but
couldn't be happier day by We're gonna be back for
hour number two.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
Is Michael Garfier. Michael Garfield.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
Michael Garfield's joining us.

Speaker 3 (39:29):
In the high Tech Texans. Michael Garfield is here with
a high Tech Texans. It was to make life easier
to some new technology.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
So Michael Garfield has something you might want, Texas.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
Michael Garfield is your high tech Texans three decades helping
you make magic with your gadgets. I heard worldwide on
the iheartware. Do you add now your high tech texts?
And Michael Garfield.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Halfway through the show, you know what we say? My friends?
We are a halfway to halfy hour and should you
be listening pausedly live on a Saturday, it is happy hours.
We prepare for the Texas Longhorns to play in the
SEC Championship. Sorry about all you Aggie's out. There was
a tough fought game, but I am glad that the
rivalry was back. Michael Garfield is the name, and you

(40:24):
need to hurry up and finish the show because wheels
are up so I can get to the SEC Championship
game in Atlanta, Georgia and see how far my Longhorns
can go. Not a sports show, per se, but I
talk about any darn thing I want to, and I will,
and you can lead me to. You can ask questions
and I will try to answer. Should you have late

(40:45):
Cyber Monday questions? There's still some Cyber Monday stuff on sale.
There'll still be more sales. I do mind you you
better hurry up and buy things should you want them
to be shipped to arrive before Christmas Day, which also
is the same night as Hanaka this year falls on
the same start night of Hanukah. You could check that
out and give me a call. Got a new phone

(41:05):
number here after twenty three years, because now we are
statewide heard not only in Houston but also in San Antonio.
And next week can't tell you what city we're going
into just because my program director Brian Erickson, who's probably
not listening, I probably could just tell you what city
it is, but I'll play along. But next week we'll
go to another large city in Texas. So the number

(41:27):
three four six two nine Texan? Pretty cool? Huh? Three
four six twenty nine Texan? Should you get a busy signal?
Try again? Should you get the voicemail, leave me a voicemail.
We do have the right to play it on the air,
and you know, put the nice sexy dulcet tones of
your voice all across the state of Texas. If you
just want to give a comment. You got a great

(41:47):
deal in a Cyber Monday deal and you want to
share it with this feel free. I did. I did
get a number of emails and should you want to
email me, you can go to uh, let's see, we
can go to Michael at high Tech and we'll try
that one. I only got like eighteen emails Michael at
high Tech texting. By the way, spell the word high high.
It's you know, I'm pretty literal, guy says do the

(42:09):
whole thing Michael at high Tech tex dot com emails
over here is like, hey, Michael, my office is getting
ready to do an office exchange gift party, kind of
a gag thing. Any ideas for like a white elephant gift?
You know, I don't think we could spend more than
twenty five or thirty dollars. And by the way, Michael,
is there a way for me to get out of
this gift exchange? You know what, let's start with that

(42:31):
last part. How do you get out of a holiday
office gift exchange? Because I'm not a big fan of them,
and it's it's because you picks. There's several ways to
do it. Everybody puts their name in a piece of
a piece of their name in a hat or something
we draw. You don't know who you're giving the gift to.

(42:53):
And the worst is and I'll tell you this because
I am at an office white elephant exchange for the
TV show that I'm on that I contribute to. I'm
on Great Day Houston. It's obviously breaking news. It's in Houston,
it's on CBS, it's on Channel eleven, it's in the mornings.
And I know most everybody who works on the show floor.

(43:16):
I know the producers, the executive producers, the host, Debora Duncan.
I'm all tied with that. But apparently they invited some
of the sales sales executives. There's some sellers who actually
sell for the show. I don't know these people, so
I drew the name of some ladies. He's a female
who have never heard of, who's in the sales department.
How am I supposed to shop for this lady? I

(43:40):
don't know anything about it. And so the point is
it's a quandary that I think a number of people do.

Speaker 3 (43:44):
What do you?

Speaker 2 (43:45):
So? I guess you just kind of got to go
generic across the board. So I look for some just
funny tongue in cheeky because what you want to do
when you open these things in front of everybody? I
think you kind of want to laugh. It's like ha
ha ha. It's like and so you kind to stay
away from the the canies you. I don't know. It's

(44:06):
some hairy guy. You want to get him a shaver
or something for your back. I don't even so. I
found a few funny haha things online. Uh, KFC is
selling a limited edition eleven Herbs and Spices fire starter log.
That's a fun best elephant that best. That's a good

(44:28):
white elephant gift because it's intriguing. It is. I guess
it's like a draw dra flame log. It's a four
pound fire log and it's wrapped in holiday people paper
and it's got a picture of the Colonel Colonel Sanders
and apparently it smells like KFC fried chicken. This is

(44:48):
a this is a log that you put on your
fire and it smells like fried chicken. I'm gonna tell
you what. That's actually not a bad deal. I need
to I don't know why this company did not send
me one of these detests, because if this is, I mean,
I guess their marketing is at a gag gift. I
think it's about thirty four dollars on Amazon. I just
looked this thing up and I actually have a gas fireplace.

(45:11):
I couldn't use it, but I got two smokers outside
that I could, you know, put it on with, you know,
before I cook or something. Uh. There's some people the
online reviews claim it smells exactly like the inside of
a KFC. I'm gonna be honest, I have not stepped
inside of a KFC. Maybe since I was like nine
or eleven years old. I'm not kidding you. I think

(45:32):
I've had it. Maybe I've gone through the drive through.
I just don't eat a lot of fried chicken. I
love the smell of fried chicken. But you know what
they're smart? How about making some fireplace starter logs that
smells like side dishes? How about Little Matt, you know,
mash potatoes in there, French fries. I don't know what
else is KFC known for. So I gag gift number one.
I thought that was interesting. Uh, here is a banana foam.

(45:55):
It is a I actually a company did send this
to me years ago. It is a bluetooth phone that
literally is shaped and looks like a yellow banana. Hey,
man's not a banana, myaipop? Is that a banana you're
talking to? In my ear. It is a banana. So
you could pair your phone with this bluetooth banana and

(46:18):
you hold it up to your ear and it's got
you know, it's got the mouthpiece down, it's got the
receiver up tops, a volume button like that, and it's
it's forty dollars. That's actually pretty funny. I actually kind
of like that. Can you can you play music through it?
I don't know the banana fun Yeah, man, you put
a bana phone in am I stocking. Here is a
clock alarm that's on wheels. It's on wheels. It's a

(46:40):
little tiny clock radio that sits next to your bed.
It's about thirty six bucks. It'll tell you the time,
but on the ends of it, it's kind of a
plastic type of thing. It can't break, but it's got
some wheels that are bigger than the clock radio, so
it actually can you hit the snooze button and it'll roll.
I believe it rolls around your room, which forces you

(47:02):
to get out of bed to shut the durned thing up.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
I like that.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
It's from a company called Clockie Colocky Clocky Alarm on wheels.
One more before we get out of here. Saw these
lightsaber chopsticks. I mean, is there really any point to
sushi if you're not eating your food with utensils that
are protected by the force. These are light up light

(47:28):
staber chopsticks. They come in different colors with the press
of a button, little tiny batteries included. These are ten
dollars at Amazon. Haven't used them, not really recommending them,
just giving you ideas for white elephant gifts, folks. I'm
taking first break for this hour. What am I missing?
Hit me up Michael at high Tech textan dot com,

(47:48):
send me a photo, follow me on x on blue
sky on Instagram. What are your white elephant gifts? Or
you can give me a call three four six twenty
nine text and as we continue the high Tech text
and show. Oh, we've talked so much more about technology
than you think, Michael Garfield, you got the new phone

(48:11):
number here. As we expand our footprint across the state
of Texas, Hello, San Antonio News Radio twelve hundred WOAI
along with twenty three years we've been doing it KPRC
nine to fifty AM all across Houston. So we got
used to We got the third, one, two three, fourth
largest city in the country, We've got San Antonio, which

(48:32):
I think is the ninth largest city in the country,
and coming soon we have got another top ten city
in the country that happens to be in Texas. I'll
let you figure that out. That starts next week, all
over the place, two hours of just fun, just interactivity
to get your mind off the world and maybe give
you some ideas of what the shop for, tell you

(48:52):
what products to stay away from, give you my thoughts
on sports. We've never going to talk about politics. That's
what keeps me on. People absolutely keeps me on three
four six twenty nine Texan that is that is the
phone number. I do talk a lot about vehicles. I
do get to test drive cars, trucks, ebs, many of

(49:13):
them just before they're released or they hit the showroom floors.
I don't work with dealerships. I work directly from the manufacturers.
Obviously a lot of the manufacturers based in Michigan. I
got a little company service that every week drives a car,
gives me the keys, lets me play with it for
a week, and there's the switch and swap out fifteen
years people. Yes, that is a perk, but it's at work.
It really is. So I do kind of cover the

(49:36):
very closely cover the automobile industry so much so that
I know what's going on around the world when it
comes to cars. Because how about this, you're familiar with
the Pope mobile. The Pope, the Pope, the head guy
over there who lives in the Vatican kind of makes
some rules for a religion. Pope Francis drives around or

(49:59):
is driven round for years and years and years, like
forty five years in a open hop vehicle known as
the popemobile. Does anybody who know the manufacturer? A little
trivia question? Who manufactures forty five years the same manufacturer? Anyway?
Actually we should give something away. Do we have anything
to give with? Who makes the popemobile? Three two one?

(50:21):
Mercedes Benz. Mercedes has long made the popemobile, right, so well, yeah,
I mean, anyway, let's go with that. Guess what the
Pope got this this week? You ready? Nope, didn't get

(50:41):
a Corvette. No, Pope Francis has received the first ever
all electric Pope Mobile from Mercedes. The all electric Pope Mobile.
It's actually it's a I'm looking at this thing, and
it's a modified version of Mercedes G Class suv. It's

(51:05):
it's in the classic pearl white and I believe Mercedes
got together a very close coperation cooperation with the Vatican.
They tailored it to the needs of the Pope.

Speaker 3 (51:16):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
And the engine has been adapted for low speeds because
you know, he just did. You don't really see speed racer,
Pope Francis, you know, practicing for F one just kind
of goes through the Vatican, you know, just just you know,
waving to people, shaking hands as like that. Uh. There's
a seat that's been heated and elevated so you can
see the Pope better. There's a little grab bar, you know,

(51:38):
so when the Pope stands up, it's better stability over here.
And is this a message? And I don't know this thing.
It is he trying to say the protect the environment whatever?
I don't know. And I don't think it's a plug
in Is this a plug in hybrid? I'm not sure.
But this is a truly first But no, it's not harpard. No,

(52:00):
it's true electric vehicle, So it's not a hybrid. I
think he's tried to plug in hybrid before, back in
the day. But Pope is going EV. Hope is going EV.
Let's see uh, Mercedes. Let's see what these other popes got.
Pope John the twenty third about a three hundred Mercedes

(52:21):
three hundred sel Man, It's good to be Pope Hope.
John the second got to modify G class. Previous popes
had the Mercedes Benz M class. Freaking Ope Francis is
in a G wagon. This dude has stud that's awesome.
Electric vehicles. Test drove some electric vehicles this week. Actually

(52:41):
not for me. Actually had a friend was looking for
an EV and she didn't know much about EV vehicles
and she wanted my opinion. So we got the player around.
I went and we went into Genesis. Was it was
it the G eighty or the G No, it was
the G sixty. I love Genesis. Genesis does a great job.
That was nice. She was in a Cadiacic Lyric. I
got the drive the Cadillac Lyric all electric car SUV

(53:04):
probably about three months ago. That's nice. A lot of
luxury in there. Drove the Mustang mock E, the Ford
mock E. Mustang good fast, just a little bit less,
a little more rudimentary, just you know, less you know,
fu fu stuff inside than the Genesis or some of
the higher end versions, but it's still it's electric. It's electric.

(53:27):
I'm not I'm really not recommending any electric cars. I mean,
I like them in concept, I just do not like
the infrastructure of our battery charging system here that we
have in America or even around the world. I want
to get from point A to point B as fast
as I can, and I really don't feel like stopping
and charging and waiting and going back and forth. I

(53:47):
think evs are a phenomenal second car. If you are
a two car family or more, have a gas vehicle
number one for the quick, long trips. You don't have
to worry about it. Second car. Use it for putting
around the city, you know, taking the kids to school,
to gym practice, to ballet swim meets, bring it home,
charge it in your garage, and just do that again.

(54:07):
It's a good second car. I just there's no way
I personally, and this is me where I am in
my lifestyle lifetime right now. I am not getting an
electric car because in a snap, you know, I want
to drive to see my parents, my friend's up in Dallas,
I go to Austin for someone. The range potentially will
get me to Austin. It may get me on. I'm
like the obviously it's not. We don't call it fumes

(54:28):
because there's no gas. It may drag me into Dallas,
but at that point I got to find someplace to
charge it up. And then I'm just I'm just sitting there.
But anyway, it's good for the Pope. Good for the Pope.
Don't do not need to worry about that. So thoughts
on that if you're looking for a vehicle. This past week,
I actually was in a what was I in this week? What,
by the way, with the new expanded listenership, Callum Callum Reid,

(54:50):
I'm talking to you here. We should create a sounder
or should I get with a Bobian who's our imaging director?
You know? Like, what's garf driving this week? Actually, well,
electric cars don't even make noises. I mean we really
shouldn't even use that vrooms. What's carf driving this week?
This past week I was in a Buick Encore, which

(55:12):
is the relatively small Buick. And I will say this,
people don't sleep on Buock. I think Buick has done
an excellent job of rebranding. Yeah, I think that's what
it is, because they got a new logo and putting
a lot of thought, a little bit more technology, smooth
rides power in some of their buicks. I think the

(55:33):
Buick in Vista E n V I s t A
vastly surprised that the design, the look is cool. That's
a really good car. It's not an electric No, I'm
just talking about vehicles right now. But I know I
was in the Buick Encore, which is a relatively inexpensive one.
It's it's small, it's technically it's a CUV, the compact
utility vehicle, and it fits three people in the back.

(55:57):
I wouldn't put three big adults in the back. It's
got the hatchback. But it got me where I wanted
to go. And so if you're looking for a price
point in the you know, the low forty thousands or
the high thirty thousands, depending on how you can figure it,
you know, go test drive it, go look at a Buick.
And this is what I do. And there's my quick review.
I did not tell you a dealership to go to.
I can't. I can't get you an inside brother in

(56:19):
law deal because I don't know any dealerships. This is me,
as a third party, non paid person who just happens
to test drive vehicles. I will tell you to stay
away from it. Like if you have a brood of
kids that always are going to soccer games, football games, everything,
and you need to take longer road trips, you need

(56:41):
some room. Probably gonna steer you away from the Buick ncore.
You see that if you have a little tiny baby seat,
you got a little tiny baby, You're gonna have to
bend down a little bit lower to get that baby
seat in and out and in and out. Maybe you
want a little bit more room, especially if you're gonna
have one kid and you're gonna have two or three kids.
I mean, I love it. Just take put yourself and

(57:03):
I try to put myself in the position. Where are
you in life? Do you carry a lot? Do you
schlep around a lot of people? Are they kids? Are
you a realtor where you're showing off clients? Do you
want them in comfort? I will tell you. You give
me your scenario and I can kind of tell you
the better vehicles for you. So that's kind of how
to do it. I'll also give you some ideas of
what to do in and around the cities. There is

(57:25):
something special coming on which is pretty cool. That's happening
near downtown usedon. It is called the Infinite, The Infinite,
It's at sore your yards. That is a huge technological
wonder that includes virtual reality and augmented reality goggles that
you put on that put you really literally in the
International Space Station. It runs through early January, so we

(57:47):
have a few more weeks to do it. When we
come back, we're going to talk with one of the
co creators of this entire event, this spectacle that is
going on. So don't go anywhere. Standby as you're continued
to listening to the High Tech Texas Show. We welcome
you back. Michael Garfield is the name of the long

(58:08):
running High Tech text in show here in Houston, k
PRC nine fifty am, also San Antonio, Dallas, Trestrally and
Oh by the way, download that iHeartRadio app and you
can listen to us pretty much anywhere in the world.
I say anywhere in the world. I wonder if you
can hear my radio show in space. I don't know.
I'm going to ask our next guest over here, because

(58:29):
he actually may know the answer. Listen, we're here in
h Town, which you know, if you think about it,
here in the United States, if not the world. I
mean this is you think of space, you think of
Johnson's Space Center, you think of just everything going back
to you know, the Johnson era presidency. A big shout
out to everybody down in clear Lake who's working or
worked on the space program. And so it's it's the

(58:49):
heart of the city what we got over here. And
I talked about a lot and I flid a zero
gravity I've been on the vomit comments, so I kind
of got a little bit of a little little skin
in the game. It's fun, but I really enjoy it.
But the conversations around commercial space travel, I mean, it's
it continues to go. There's news briefs with you, and
there's the astronauts up there right now in the ISS.

(59:11):
They're doing you know, they're doing their social media reels,
are doing their selfies. But can you imagine, I mean,
how so many people, most everybody on Earth is never
going to get the opportunity to do that. But can you,
at least in virtual reality. I do have the answer,
because you can. There is an exhibit going on right
now near downtown Houston that you can participate in. It's

(59:33):
called Space Explorers the Infinite. It is going on for
the next month at the beginning of January. I've experienced
it and it was over the top so cool. I
wanted to talk to the man who kind of directed
it and kind of co founded it. His name is
Felix Legendess. He's the director of the Infinite Houston. He
joins me, right now, please tell me you're on the

(59:53):
International Space Station. I'd love to talk to somebody on
the ISS. Felix, are you up there?

Speaker 1 (59:59):
I definitely wish I was, but unfortunately I'm right here
on Earth.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
Well, we're glad you're on Earth. But I tell you what,
as the director of this, if you weren't in the
ISS to film this, this is one of the most
amazing things I have experienced by putting on the VR
goggles and set. And if anybody has never put on
a virtual reality headset, I mean number one, that's unbelievable
of what it can show you. But to be able

(01:00:24):
to position and pretend to think you're actually standing on
that International Space Station, looking up, looking down, looking around,
you just did a great job. So congratulations on that.
How hard was it to put something like this together?

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
Well, it was the first time ever that a project
of that scale was actually filmed in space, regardless of format.
So we actually sent virtual reality cameras to the International
Space Station in twenty eighteen and we filmed for two
and a half years with twelve international astronauts, mainly NASA

(01:00:59):
astronauts up there on the space station. So we did
everything from the ground, So we were talking to the
astronauts in orbit, sometimes doing video conference, sometimes true email,
sometimes through phone discussing, you know, all the shuts that
we wanted to capture. And it was more than two
hundred and fifty hours of footage that we filmed up

(01:01:19):
there in space over that period of time, and then
we had to download it back to planet Earth. We
had to put it together, and then we spent another
year creating the show Space Explorers the Infinite. So it's
a pretty exhaustive but rewarding endeavor.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
Rewarding without a doubt. I mean, it's just anybody goes
through it, it's like you are got to be kidding.
I mean, I want to be an astro I wanted
to be an astronaut as a kid, obviously with the
you know, the Apollo program. I want was the age
wanted to gause. I want to see if I could
do it again. As we talked to Felix Leginess is
the director of The Infinite Houston. It's it's Sawyer Yards,

(01:01:55):
just on the edge of downtown Houston. It's it's painful.
What about seven eight, eight months so far?

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Is that right, Felix, Yes, it is, And I really
wish that whoever's listening this morning needs to go now,
needs to book it now because it's going to be
there until January fourth. So we have just a couple
more weeks left here in Houston, and Dan the show
will continue its world tour, so it's time to book.

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
Yeah, without a doubt. I need to listen if you
have family in town for the holidays. This is something
totally totally different to do, especially because it's going to
be gonzo out of here in the early part of January.
The feeling that I got, I was, you know, I
can since the emotion, the drama of just listening and
talking and looking and almost touching or shaking the hands

(01:02:44):
of these astronauts because it was so close, but you
could feel them that you could feel I since homesickness,
if you will, because they've been up in space so
long makes space sickness, you know, because you know what
they're going through. But I learned so much of you know,
how they you know, live in zero gravity, how they function,
and what their what their mentality is up there. It's

(01:03:06):
it's it's a whole navigation thing. I mean, it's not
so much about the As a director, I feelix it's
not so much about showing how cool it is, but
it's also bringing emotion and put you know, putting that
the viewer of the audience in their space. Was that
a difficult things as a filmmaker.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
Well, that was really the heart of this project. You know,
we didn't want to capture the spectacle of space. I mean,
for sure we had an interest in that, but really
we wanted to capture the intimate experience of what it's
like to live in space for a long period of
time among you know, fellow astronauts. You know, those heroes

(01:03:45):
are there in space for many, many months. Some of
them go there for up to a year, separated from
their families, separated from their loved ones, and they're there
with just a few people in an environment that is dangerous,
and they perform very dangerous tasks like spacewalks, you know,
which might be one of the most extraordinary things that

(01:04:07):
we humans can possibly do. And and so we wanted
to capture all of that, and we captured with them
astronaut lalgs. So we asked the astronauts to occasionally, you know,
talk to the virtual reality camera as if they were
talking to a fellow crew member, and to really share
their insights, you know, about what it's like to live there,
to be there, to how do they think, what happens

(01:04:29):
in their mind when they look back at planet Earth
from the window, how do they feel. And we captured really,
really all of that material and it really became the
heart of this experience and it's it's a really moving
perspective to hear astronauts talk about their their feelings, their thoughts.
It's also interesting to mention that while we were filming

(01:04:52):
all of this in space, the pandemic happened, and it
turns out that we were filming with astronauts that were
in space while everybody else was on the Earth, and
so we also managed to capture their perspective of what
it's like to be the only human beings that are
not on the Earth during you know, an event of
that scale, and so many things like that I think

(01:05:13):
really shaded the emotional experience.

Speaker 2 (01:05:15):
Of this without a doubt. Felix legendis he's the director
of the Infinite Houston Virtual Reality Just to really exhibit
that is just it blows your mind. I think it's
it's phenomenal, goes through the beginning of January here, it's
your yards will give you more specific information about where
to get the tickets. You talk about the spacewalks, and
that blew me away when I was watching that too,
and in the COVID nineteen thing. But for you, obviously,

(01:05:38):
I mean you got you got the raw footage and
you put everything together. Give me one or two of
your standout moments that that viewers can experience in this
space mission.

Speaker 1 (01:05:47):
So, okay, the spacewalk was something, you know, extraordinary but
also extraordinarily difficult to capture. We had to create a
three sixty treaty camera that is designed to operate in
the vacuum of space, and we sent that camera to
the space station, and so we had to egress that
camera outside of the ISS and attach it to the

(01:06:10):
robotic arm of the International Space Station called Canada Arm
two and then we would use the robotic arm as
a sort of a celestial crane in a way to
move the camera all around the International Space Station to
follow the astronauts during a seven hours space walk. And
so just preparing for that shot took about a year

(01:06:32):
of you know, camera camera choreography with NASA, and it
went through many many steps of you know, approval and
making sure that the camera would not be in the
way and that we would be able to get close
enough to the astronauts to really capture the feeling that
we're there with them, which is really the point of
virtual reality is making you feel that you're not a spectator,

(01:06:54):
but you're actually there. And so preparing for that day
of filming in the vacuum of space to more than
a year and a half, you know, of preparation and
technological development, and so when you see it, when you
are in the experience as of viewer, you just feel
like you're there, floating in space, and you can look

(01:07:16):
around and if you look below, you see planet Earth
the way astronauts would see it from four hundred miles away,
and it's there entirely there, not corrupt by a frame,
because there is no frame, and you see the astronauts
that are, you know, a couple of feet away from you,
performing this extraordinarily dangerous task of a spacewalk, and so

(01:07:36):
you are there with them as they move through the
different work sites. It's a pretty profound, emotionally impactful feeling
to experience all of that at once. And one thing
that stands out for a lot of our audiences is
this feeling of the overview effect. You know, of course
it's extraordinary to look at astronauts doing a space walk,

(01:07:57):
but it's also extraordinary to just look back planet Earth
as if you were floating above it and you see
it all. You see entire continents from up there, and
it just creates an emotion of belonging. You feel connected
to that planet even though you're separated from it. You
also feel that it's fragile. You see you see the atmosphere,

(01:08:18):
and you can see that in the VR experience. You
see this very thin atmosphere that contains all of the
oxygens and all of the life, the entire biosphere protected
by that thin atmosphere, and it just creates a feeling
of belonging. And there's something very very powerful in there
that that I think audiences really respond to.

Speaker 2 (01:08:38):
I went through several emotional stage with exist writing. I
think was the first thing that came to my mind
is just this is this is about as close as
the actual space that I'm probably going to get to,
but it is amazing. Talk about this as we got
about a minute or so left. I think it's a
kind of a it's a family oriented like that. What
ages is it appropriate for? Would you say?

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
So? It's eight years old plus, so we have you know, young,
you know kids that come to see us, but we
also have elderly people, so it's really for everyone. You
don't have to be a space enthusiast, you don't have
to be a technology enthusiast. You just have to be
I think curious about experiencing this very unique experience endeavor

(01:09:24):
that only four hundred humans have had the opportunity to do,
which is go to space and live in space. So
you can be one of them. And I think that
there's something for everyone in.

Speaker 2 (01:09:33):
There, without a doubt. I mean I heard I personally
recommend it, and again I know it's it's been open
for six seven, eight months, but we got less than
a month now for people to get to it. If
anybody is interested in tickets, are getting over there. Give
us the quick information. Where can they get the tickets
and everything else.

Speaker 1 (01:09:49):
The Infiniteuston dot Com. Just go on that website. The
Infinite Houston dot com is very simple and you can
buy your tickets there.

Speaker 2 (01:09:59):
The Infinite Houston dot Com. It's in Sore Your Yards,
which is a really area just on the edge of downtown.
Plenty of parking and it's it is quite an experience. Felix,
that is awesome. I don't know are you eligible for
oscar or something for directing this because if I was
a butter baby, I'd get you in there.

Speaker 1 (01:10:15):
Hey man, oscars in virtual reality. We have to make
that connection, but it's not. It's not really happening yet,
so we have to. We have to make it to
that moment.

Speaker 2 (01:10:25):
I will create a new award just for you. That's
how cool it is. Listen, congratulations on your success, the
success of this. It is called the Infinite I n
FI n it the Infinite Houston dot Com. Go get
the tickets down before the show leaves and gets out
of this atmosphere, at least the used atmosphere. By January fourth,
Best of luck, my friend and I appreciate your time.

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
Thank you, thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:10:47):
You got it all right, there you go. We're going
to take a break right now. It's space exploration. I
don't know, listen. I know we're kind of the holiday
shopping season right now, and I've got a few things
about VR goggles and VR glasses, but the use of
what Felix and his team dead to make a VR
these these classes are absolutely unbelievable. So we'll talk about
that a little bit more as we come back on
the Hi Tech Texan Show right here in Houston, k

(01:11:09):
PRC nine fifty a m final segment of this weekend's
High Tech Texan Show. I'll give out the number one
more time. Maybe we can sneak somebody in. If not,
leave a message next week we will play some audio.
If you got a good question, just don't be rude. Man,

(01:11:30):
have you got questions? This is my real hair, that's
my real teeth. Now, this is who I am, Michael
Garfield three four to six twenty nine texts and we
do appreciate the interactivity three four six two nine Texan
when we log on or sign on next week, not
only can I welcome Houston as I have for twenty
three years on k PRC nine to fifty. Not only

(01:11:52):
can I continue to introduce myself to San Antonio as
for the past two weeks, we've been on news radio
twelve hundred WAI. Next week I will sign on to
another city in this great state of ours, Texas, and
I could not be more happy. And my parents are
probably happy too, because they can listen to it terrestrially
and if you know where I'm from or where they live,

(01:12:14):
maybe you could figure it out. But until then, we'll
just kind of keep it on the deal, make you,
make you tune in next week. It's like, after the break,
we'll become it. It's it's you know, it keeps you
buckled in, and that's that's how we do it here
on the radio. I teased this early in the show,
so I better pay it off. End of year lists,
End of year list, the top this, the top that,

(01:12:36):
and whatever, the top not that. I'm going to go
through all twenty five the most popular Wikipedia pages of
twenty twenty four. I actually like Wikipedia, and in wi
wikiped it's it's it's Google. It's got all a ton
of information you don't really know if it's legit because
anybody and what Wikipedia is, anybody can go in and

(01:12:59):
update there own or change anybody else's Wikipedia background, biography
or whatever. So you never know. Technically, if I had
time or cared, I could say that I was I
was elected vice president. I mean, who knows?

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
What?

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
Do Wikipedia? Very popular around the world? And what were
people looking at the most the Just go through some
of the top ones. The top number one most viewed
Wikipedia page of twenty twenty four by far is Deaths
in twenty twenty four, forty four million page views. Deaths

(01:13:38):
in twenty twenty four. You more big people out there,
you more bid people. That was almost twice as many
as number two, which was Hamila Harris was number two.
The twenty twenty four United States presidential election came in third.
Lyle and Eric Menendez believe it or not, are back

(01:13:58):
in the news. They were the fourth most popular most
viewed Wikipedia pages, followed by Donald Trump. There's your top
five Lyle and ericman Are they still in jail? Aren't they?
Somebody's arguing for them to get out of jail or released.
Summer Olympics made it. Let's see, there's Biden, there's Musk,
there's the Euro twenty twenty four Cups. Apparently soccer's pretty big.

(01:14:21):
Sean Combs Seawan Combs uh Dune Part two movie Robert F.
Kennedy June. A lot of political stuff chat GPT was
looked at. Taylor Swift. There you go, Taylor Swift top
twenty five most ranked pages. If anybody carescept me this,
I don't know why, because I'm not the biggest I'm
not a dog guy.

Speaker 1 (01:14:42):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:14:42):
I don't hate me for not being a dog guy.
It's just, you know, I didn't really grow up with
a dog. And that's it. Top trending dog names of
twenty twenty four. This is from what's this website? It's
called the Dog People. It's on a website called rover
dot com. And I have no clue why this person
sent this to me. To the top male dog names

(01:15:04):
that I'm wanting to I was, I look the only
reason I'm talking about this. I looked at this. I'm
thinking these are like dudes names. They really are. The
top top ten male dog names. Number one is Charlie. Charlie.
That's it, Charlie in the box off He's comings off
the Islands. I thought he was to play with the
Charlion box. Charlie. The number one male dog name Max, Milo,

(01:15:31):
Cooper or Cooper as we say in the Manning Family, Buddy, Teddy, Rocky, Bear, Leo,
and Duke what the duke? The duke? Those your top
male dog named, Charlie? Charge is that? I mean, don't you?
I mean I just thought dog names had dog names.

(01:15:52):
I mean you know, if I had a dog, I
mean I would, I would name it Baxter, maybe because
I'm a you know, Anchorman fan Scooby Resois. I mean,
I would totally be you school with school Charlie Man
Female dog names. This, this is where the show is going,
right now, fit people, We're ending the show on top

(01:16:13):
dog names. Uh Luna, Now that's an interesting name. Luna Bella.
Isn't Bella a princess in a Disney movie. I don't
have girls, so I don't know. Daisy. Look at that
dog them days dukes. Lucy is number four Lily. I
have a cousin Lily. I have a second cousin named Lily. Lola.

(01:16:34):
Shout out to James Simpson, our beer guy. His daughter's
name is Lola, Zoey Sadie. I have a second cousin
also named Sadie. I wonder did my cousins. I'm seriously,
did my cousins name their daughters after this list? Because
I have a cousin Sadie and a cousin Lily Coco.
I do not have a cousin Coco. And then Bailey

(01:16:54):
baylet top. I mean there's list everywhere people, but the
number one name Michael means godlike is my Actually, let
me look at this. What is the hop male name?
Because for years it did used to be Michael, and
I thought that was cool. And then I'm thinking, well,
why do I have such a common name top male names?

(01:17:18):
It's is that Michael's top baby boyd names in the
US In twenty twenty four, Liam no looks like Michael
fell down to number sixteen this year Liam Noah, Oliver James,
Elijah Matteo one of my best friends. His grand Slam's
name is Matteo, Levi Oh and Alexander Asher boy Man.

(01:17:43):
These times are in changing, people, times are in changing.
We do appreciate you, tutored in. What did we forget?
Do we tease anything? No? Not really? Bitcoin? Anybody have bitcoin?
I don't talk a lot about Hey, the cryptocurrency because
I I'm not a big believer. I don't own any
but bitcoin had one hundred thousand dollars I guess the

(01:18:06):
equivalent of a hundred thoughts, one hundred whatever it is,
it's one hundred thousand bitcoins. It's a lot, man. Can
you imagine that? It's the dudes who you know? Because
Bitcoin's been around for a while and I think he
used to play video games and you got, you know,
awarded in bitcoins or something. And I remember the story
there was a dude who had bitcoin and you could

(01:18:29):
actually pay for like Pizza Hut or Burger King or
Papa John's or something like that. Oh here it is, yeah. There.
In two thousand and nine, when bitcoin launched, there was
a programmer who paid for two Papa John's pizzas with
ten thousand bitcoin. Okay, if the dude didn't buy those

(01:18:50):
two pizzas and had ten thousand bitcoin instead of shoving
his face with some Papa John's, he would be sitting
on one billion dollars, which is enough to buy about
two thirds of Papa John's international itself. People, hold on
to your investment. I think big coins a little undree.

(01:19:10):
Hundred thousand that's big. This is not an endorsement or anything.
I just thought it was fine about Really just want
to give the guy some some business over buying to
Papa John's pieces in two thousand and nine, where he
pretty much could have been a really fat cat right now,
is he? These are the things that we talk about
and care about wherever you are listening Houston, San Antonio,

(01:19:31):
around the world. We do thank you for tuning in.
I do thank our program director Brian Ericson for giving
us the greenlight to keep on doing this for twenty
plus years. Thank you to Callum Reed Eddie Martini. The
new Houston I Heart Radio iHeartMedia president just named Paul
Lambert Pablo, longtime co worker of mine. He takes over

(01:19:53):
the daily duties are running the seven or eight iHeart
stations in Houston. Just a good dude. Thank you Paul
for keeping me on. I'd appreciate that too, Big l
s U fan, so uh hey go Tigers. Uh hook
of warns people, let's just uh hope uh And and
if you're a Longhorn listener and fan, we got one
Texas team to go all the way to the national
champion to either US or SMU what do you got.

(01:20:15):
My name is Michael Garfield. Appreciate you tuning in and
have a great week, Happy holidays. We'll talk to you
next week with another city added to the UH to
the listening audience, but right now my show is over.