The real reason Southwest Airlines stopped their "2 Bags Fly Free" policy

Today on the High Tech Texan Show:

• The real reason Southwest Airlines stopped their "2 Bags Fly Free" policy
• Tesla take a dive yet the EV market continues to grow. Some brands you should look at.
• Where to sell your used gadgets for a ton of money

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Michael Garfield, Michael Garfields joining.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
In the high Tech Texan.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Michael Garfield is here with a high Tech Texans to
make life easier technology and Michael Garfield has something you
might like.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Michael Garfield is your high Tech Texans. Three decades helping
you make magic with your gadgets. Heard worldwide on the
iHeartRadio add Now you're high Tech Texan. Michael Garfield.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
I know, I know, last week I said I would
put a teraphone listening to my radio show, but I
want to backtrack and now pay you to listen to this.
Oh by the way, download my pod cast, and with
that we do start this weekend's edition of the High
Tech Textan Show, so much more than technology. If you
think I'm going to geek out and just talk about

(01:09):
tech stuff, people give it a listen, Just give it.
I've been doing it for twenty plus years and we
just talk about whatever Michael wants to talk about. Whatever
you want to call in with three four, six, twenty
nine texts. And that's right. It is an actual call
in show because it does, you know, start on AM
radio and we we do love talking to listeners. You know.

(01:32):
Twenty plus years ago. I began this and the only
way to communicate with me is for you to call
the radio show, for me to respond, for me to
hang out on I've never actually hung up on anybody.
I'm a nice guy. But it was also if you
wanted to write something to me or actually any on
your personality, you had to actually get a stamp and

(01:53):
write out a letter. And again I'm going back to
the early two thousands, I mean, email was around. I mean,
and maybe we had a website. It was just rudimentary. Nowadays, baby,
you were coming in strong on email. It's not even email.
You probably get. Email is like for ogs right now.
It's all about the online comments and stuff. And yes,
you can do that to me right now. I am

(02:15):
monitoring it and on all these monitors I have here
in studio. You can go to High Tech Texan h
I G H T E C H T E x A,
and I'd love to talk to you. If the phones
are jammed, I think a voicemail is going to pick up.
We do have the right to play your voicemail ask
me questions. We are going to cover just a gamut

(02:35):
of things today and in some a lot of car
news ev news. I don't delve into politics really, but
a lot of the things that are happening in the
world of tech and cars kind of I don't know.
It's a gray area with politics. So I'm gonna do
my best too to get you through that. Maybe have
a few interviews, maybe giveaway something because it is radio.

(02:56):
But I do want to start with this, and I'm
i am not I don't give ermans. I do a
lot of public speaking, but I will start with this
daily beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn what
I believe has been the greatest airline that the Great
State of Texas has ever known. For over fifty five years,

(03:21):
me personally have flown Dallas based Southwest Airlines. It has
been tough to find a more brand loyal person than
me when it comes to an airlines. Yes, I delved
into also for Worth based American Airlines back the day
when I kind of, you know, lived outside of Texas
and I wanted to fly internationally and what have you.

(03:44):
But being back home in the great State of Texas
for thirty plus years and being on the radio and
having a TV presence in the original triangle of the
cities of how Herb kellihers started South With Airlines. I'm
from Dallas. I have a radio show on Dallas on
the Mighty Mighty eleven ninety talk Radio. I live in

(04:05):
Houston right now thirty years KPRC nine fifty AM, and
we're also heard in San Antonio News Radio twelve hundred WAI.
My voice goes through the same triangle that Herb and
his partners drew out on the back of a napkin
of how they wanted to start the Great Southwest Airlines.
I continue to fly. I am an a list preferred player.

(04:27):
I have the Chase Southwest Airlines Visa card, I have
a companion pass the last I don't have a companion. Ladies,
if you want to submit your headshots, I'm more than
happy to you know, decide if you would like to
fly with me somewhere. Not the point, but this week
man Southwest was getting more crap than the Dallas Maverick
Scott when they traded Luca a few about a month ago.

(04:51):
Not good news come from Southwest, and I'm not here
to bury Southwest Airlines, but I'm not here to stick
up for them. But I'm going to say this. You
probably actually you definitely heard the news that after fifty
four years, I believe Southwest has decided to end its
two bags fly free policy. That means you, dear traveler,

(05:14):
are going to have to pay for your bags, Like
this is something new that you've never done. Let me
help you out. Southwest has been the only airline carrier,
certainly in the United States to let a bag and
certainly two bags fly free. So if you have flown
American or United or Delta or god forbid Spirit, you

(05:37):
know you have to pay for your bags. So this
isn't like this is something that is earth shattering changing
now for Southwest loyalists like me, it is a step
back now. Personally to me, and I say this personally,
I'm different than you. I don't have to travel with
a spouse or kids because my kids are older right now.
I don't check a lot of bags and I can.

(06:00):
I rarely remember the time that I had to check
two bags on Southwest. Maybe I can remember when I
had to check one bag. But a lot of my
trips are two days, three days. I packed pretty light
and I can carry it on. Plus I can actually
get on the plane first because I'm a list preferred
But I will say this in about two minutes before
we take a break, and I would love to hear you.
Hear you. This is a business. The last time I checked,

(06:22):
Southwest Airline is a publicly traded company. Okay, I may
not be the smartest business person, but I sure do more.
I know marketing, I know how to brand. You do.
Want to grow your business, you have, in this case
shareholders to take care of. You. Recently had a very

(06:45):
large influx of an investor who wants results, who put
pressure on the OG. The old school folks who run
Southwestern lines of how to make more money, how to
make more revenue, and one of the ways to do
it was to start charging for bags time. Anecdotally, I
think I saw a column that I think when Southwest
did a kind of a study that by charging four

(07:07):
bags instead of letting two fly free, they could add
one point five billion dollars per year to the bottom line. Now,
they knew that they were going to lose some customers
with the bad pr which I'm sure they're going to
do maybe in the short term. But it's a business.
And if I ran a business, I'm not a cutthroat

(07:27):
and I'm not an arst a lot of people. Okay,
but I'm if I'm responsible for shareholders, Yes, I want
to maximize the revenue. Is this going to affect the
number of flights per day that I leave from Houston
Hobby Airport and want to hop up to Dallas to
see my parents or want to get over to San
Antonio to visit some of my clients. I hope not.

(07:49):
If this starts cutting into the number of flights per
day or the cities they stop flying into, Okay, yeah,
then I am going to be miffed and ticked. But
right now it's about bags. Yes, I know they change
fares and want to get away. Is no longer there?
And they ask now basic fare and what have you?
None of this starts until the end of May. But
Simma down people. Yes, this is a slow news week

(08:12):
because it's spring break. But Southwest Airlines didn't announce this
at Friday at five o'clock and bury it in the
weekend news. They did it on a Tuesday, and it
was an entire news cycle and everybody got nffed. Listen.
I wasn't happy about it, but I understand what is happening.
I am still, as of right now, planning to fly
Southwest whenever I fly. It's convenient because they fly out

(08:34):
of Hobby Airport. It's much more convenient for me to
go to Hobby than it is to Bush Intercontinent Airport
in this specific case. Now, if the fair start going
up and I find cheaper Farris, because fairs, obviously we
want to get to that from point point to point
A to point B is cheap as we can, safe
as we can, but cheap as we can. But Southwest
has a pretty pretty good rate of safety. They're still fun.

(08:57):
And I just remember growing up going to love Field
for about a year or two. What in the seventies
they had an entertainment little complex with ance skinning rink
at love Field, God Love My parents used to drop
me off. I remember the nice little flight attendant uniforms,
and I remember the great Herb Keller her and I
will say this as we stop. It will take your

(09:18):
phone calls three four six, twenty nine texts and your
thoughts on this, whether you're Southwest Airlines, loyalist, I stockholder, whatever,
if you want a rag on them, bringing on you
know the phone number. But the only way I will
stop flying Southwest and listen to me Southwest people, you better,
you better not stop serving wild turkey because of that

(09:40):
is against the principle of the late great Herb Keller
her That's all I'm saying. It is Michael Garfield. I'm
riled up, coming up x slash Twitter was down literally
this week. What did we do because the world seemed
to melt down? I will tell you how to stop
unwanted photos from popping up on your phone as a reminder.
And if you're a Team Mobile customer, if you had

(10:00):
a long time plan, bad news, your rates may be raising.
I got that all on the High Tech Texan chef stand.

Speaker 4 (10:07):
By whoa man, I'll tell you what.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
I need some wild turkey. I need me some brown water. People.
After that opening rant about Southwest Airlines, yeah they were.
They were in the news earlier this week. Certainly here
in our great state of Texas. As you're listening terrestrially Houston,
San Antonio, in Dallas. It is Michael Garfield, the High
Tech Texans show phone number here too. Look, so I'll

(10:55):
get a phone call, see what's up, whether you want
to talk about your thoughts in the Southwest, the Houston,
the weather, march madness, whatever. I'm your guy three four
six twenty nine textan with that. Let's go to James
see what James has to say. Hey, Michael, this is
James question for you. If I charge my phone to
one hundred percent, does that hurt the battery? James appreciate

(11:18):
that question, and it is actually a very good question
battery life. Do you charge your phone or any gadget
to one hundred percent? Because there's been a there's a
lot of thought process into does it hurt the battery
if you charge it all the way up and let
it go all the way down and up and down
and up and down. Here's the short answer. Phone batteries

(11:41):
are pretty efficient these days, right, and generally you're gonna
get maybe up well a full day on a single charge,
depending on how long you lose. Okay, So instead of
thinking battery life day to day, you may want to
think about battery lifespan, or how your battery remains in
good condition over the course of your entire device's life.

(12:04):
One way to do it, indeed, James, is by minimizing
the time it spends charging. When the battery is right
at one hundred percent, a fully charged battery, believe it
or not, it can't experience stress, and that could reduce
its health in the long term, which can indeed cause
it to degrade faster. How do you get around it? Well,

(12:25):
if you have an iPhone, for all you iphoners out there,
it may your phone may be learning your charging routine
because they have. It's got something in an iPhone called
the optimized battery charging. It's a feature that you enable.
It can keep your device plugged in overnight, but it
won't charge it to one hundred percent until the next morning.

(12:46):
If you want to see how to do this, if
you have an I fifteen or newer model, I believe
you can go to Settings Battery Charging. At that point
there's a little slider and you could chose a percentage
at about five percent increments between eighty percent and one
hundred percent. All right, So if you ask Apple, this

(13:10):
charging limit can improve your phone's battery life span and
even your operating system the iOS. It may recommend it
based on your usage patterns. If you limit your charge
to ninety five percent, I can I prove it, no,
but it seems the features can have a long term
benefits for your phone. So James, good question. No reason

(13:30):
to charge your t one hundred percent get up to
ninety five, ninety six, ninety seven. But I will tell
you this, always make sure everybody wherever you go have
a battery. Have a cord to plug into the walle
at your office, in your home, have a cord that
you can plug into your car. Have an extra battery
pack that you can pop onto your mag safe, you know,
case or what have you. Just you know, try not

(13:52):
to run out a battery because that's that's when people
start freaking out. That's when it's like, uh oh, the
life is ending. So James, I do think you for
that phone call? Anybody else won in three four six
two nine t e x a n speaking of the
world melting down with technology for all you NFL honks
out there. And I am an NFL guy, longtime cowboy fan,

(14:14):
longtime not a happy cowboy fan. But earlier this week
NFL Free Agency started and I was watching it because
I always do, because there's nothing else to watch, really
because March Madness hadn't started yet. And I'm watching my
ESPN and then I'm you know, I go online because
I want to see what's up. And you know, between
my three kids, you know, they're always you know, texting

(14:34):
me breaking news, Dad, I guess what you know? Aaron
Rodgers hadn't gone anywhere yet and this person's been traded. Well,
it coincided with a with a very big tech outage,
Twitter or X as I'd like to say, it had
number of different outages last Monday, which, oh, by the way,
happened to be NFL Free Agency. And all of these

(14:56):
NFL network insiders, from Adam Schefter to Mike Garo or
Ian Rap report they they depend on X of getting
their information out despite the fact that they're on TV,
which is pretty funny and so what a bad day
to go out And so listen, I cover the sports world.

(15:17):
I make sports, not much more so than anything with politics,
and almost much more so than technology do so a
lot of my feeds on X have to do with this,
with this world of sports, the business of sports, the
insiders with sports, the athletes, the reporters and whatever. And
it's just it was so funny reading watching on different
platforms of how the world has been melting down. And

(15:40):
the funny thing is that now I'm realizing that even
football teams, even agents, they follow news of these reporters
on Twitter. They didn't even know what's going on, and
so I saw some football teams freaking out. Also, hey,
we don't know what's going on. Who's you know? You know,
hey the general manager from this city, call me and

(16:02):
tell me what's up. Because X is down. There's a
number of them who switched platforms. They went to Blue Sky,
they went to Threads, and I remember when Threads launched,
was that sh coming up with on three years? Right
now it is July fourth. Blue Sky, I think really
took off last November, right after the election. And I
have both of these accounts, and I honestly don't utilize

(16:25):
them as much as I personally, me personally do Twitter
and X because this is just kind of instilled in
my mind. They because X still does reign supreme. But
I've always said, the only reason I believe that another
platform is going to catch up and overtake X in

(16:45):
this instant of you know, two hundred and forty character
you know, overnight, what did I eat? Type of thing,
it's when there are technical issues in that site goes down,
and that's what happened. That's what happened on Monday. Where
were you when X one down for a few hours?
I actually was kind of monitoring acts. I personally didn't
see anything wrong with it. Maybe I logged on at

(17:06):
different hours of the day or whatever. It's back up now,
I believe. But here's the question, and feel free. This
is where I want you, my dear listeners, to weigh in.
It's like everything melted down. What did we do before
X was around? How did we get our information? Oh?
My goodness, my mid people. We can still live, we

(17:28):
can still breathe. And this is why you need to
have various forms of communication. What happens when your cell
service goes down? You freak out right? Well do you
get on Wi Fi? And do you utilize WhatsApp or
Facebook or whatever? Where you don't need a technical phone number.

(17:49):
You just need an internet connection to connect with somebody.
I've long said that phone numbers, the ten digit phone
numbers that we have area coplus the seven digits, at
some point point we're not gonna need them. Think about it.
If you want to call somebody, FaceTime somebody and utilize Facebook,
all you do is pull up their contact in your

(18:09):
in your phone and you hit their name. You don't
know their ten digits phone numbers, as we know them
at some point are gonna go by by. Right now,
all we're doing is spending money and we're renting these numbers. Yes,
I know my parents are probably listening to Dallas right now.
They have had their home wired phone number with a
two one four area code for literally fifty fifty three

(18:35):
to fifty four years right now. Yes, and they still
get the newspaper. Not the point right now, we do
need backup systems, and you should think about that backup systems.
I'm not saying go get a second phone, because at
some point maybe are the world cell phone service is
going to go down, But it's it was just very
interesting watching this is just it's just sports news, and

(18:57):
it is just sports news, but the see people freak
and melt. What's gonna happen in a reel emergency? What's
gonna happen in real emergencies? Like I just finished watching
a binge watching Paradise on Hulu, which, by the way,
it was a pretty good eight episode show. Season two
is they just renewed it and it'll come out in
a few years. Good actors, few plot holes, but it

(19:22):
was kind of the world coming to an end, and
part of it was at one point when the world
started ending, there was very little cell service to get
in communication with loved ones. What do you do? Think
about it? And that's what I do. I am an
eagle scout. I tell you to prepare, be prepared. I
tell you to have backup plans and we could talk
about that. Also, we're at the bottom of the hour.
It is Michael Garfield. If you do have cell phone service, Hey,

(19:43):
we'd love to have you join in three four, six,
twenty nine Texan at high Tech Texan, high Tech Texan
dot com. Anything you need because I am your dollar standby.
We're gonna be right back. Good big weekend. Should you

(20:18):
be a college basketball fan? Yep? This is it? This
is the conference tournament weekend. People, who's punching their ticket?
Do I have to trademark? Dad? Like like we can't
say Super Bowl? Oops? I said it? Who's punching their
ticket to the Big Dance? My longhorns not looking so good?

(20:40):
We shall see. But one week from today, where are
we gonna be Las Vegas? Longtime listeners know this will
be my thirty sixth year. I will be going to
the first week ind of March Madness. The same eight
guys from college. It's just a fun tradition people. I
just it's just awesome. I'm gonna hang out. We're gonna
we post up at either a restaurant or a sports

(21:03):
book starting at tip offs like nine in the morning
on Thursdays and Fridays because it's on the West Coast.
We just sit there and we drink some beers and
cocktails and just binge on nachos and stuff, and you know,
we bet on all the games. I mean, nothing too big,
But anybody having traditions like that, any send me an
email Michael at high Tech text and post it on
X What traditions do you it? I tell people about

(21:24):
this and people because I've been doing it for three
plus decades, and people said they took my idea. And
I'm not taking credit for it. A lot of people
do it. But and Michael, I remember you talking about
this years ago. Used to go every year. I started
this tradition with my sons, or me and my neighbors
started doing it, or you know, we always go to
the same golf tournament, or you know, once a year
we always go to the baseball game. Do something like that. Man,

(21:48):
life is short, and it seems the world in life
may be getting shorter too. Have some fun. So if
you are out and at Las Vegas next week, popy
and note, I'll tell you where we're at. Maybe it
will get you a beer ski get together. I think
one of the times we're going to be a happy
camper on one of the mornings. It's in fashion show mall.
It's great pizza, cocktails, it's kind of an indoor outdoor thing.

(22:10):
It's great weather this time of the year that you know,
they can slide open the roof. So we may be
there one of the night. So let me know if
you're there, and you know you feel free to pop
me an email. Call three four six twenty nine Texan
got a number of people on hold. We will get
to you. Should we do it now? Should we get
we gotta go call it? Okay, let's go ahead and
do it now. Why not? Yes, we've got mail and

(22:32):
we shall see who is on the phone. Hey, Mike,
this is Doug's there a good place for me to
sell these extra phones and tablets I've hanging around my place?
Dougy Dougie dog? Where is Doug Dougie? Thank you for
that phone call? Woo, I get this probably a few
times a year. Gold in your closet, your garage and

(22:57):
make a list of how how much old gadgets that
you have. What do you do when you get a
new phone? Think about it. Do you wipe it clean
and sell it? Do you wipe a cleaning, give it
to your spouse, your kids. Do you trade it in?
I hope you don't throw it away because there's a

(23:18):
lot of materials in there that you just don't want
to throw away in trash. I hope you do recycle.
It's a good question. And actually, if you think about it,
this is a good time of year, Doug, spring time,
spring cleaning. It's kind of the period of renewal. You know,
you're going through land, you got to passover and stuff.
It's just maybe it's time to kind of take assessment
of what you have and maybe it's time to get

(23:39):
rid of them and maybe get some cash too. Laptops, phones,
gaming consoles, there's new ones that are coming out all
the time. You may upgrade. What do you do with
your old model, especially if it's in good working condition. Well,
let's go through a few options here for you, Doug.
Let's look for some trade in websites or a lot

(24:01):
of people make making some good money selling old stuff online.
And to get some money in your hand without too
much fuss and work, you may want to try some
of these automated trade in websites. This is where it's
not like eBay. I like eBay, but eBay and I
had this conversation with the buddy the other day. eBay

(24:24):
can be a pain because you got to take photos,
you've got to write a whole description. And I know
AI can do a lot of this stuff for you now,
and then you got to do I do an auction
for five days, and suit you do with the whole
thing over there. Some of these automatic trade insights, you
go to a website, you select the device from a list,
you get a quote. Within minutes, you send the device

(24:44):
to the company. They give you cash in a matter
of days. One is called just I made a list
up here for you. Actually, I just quickly researched this
Doug Declutter. I've talked about this one before, and it's
spelled dclut t are right, there's no E at the end,
so it's declare.

Speaker 4 (25:04):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
You could sell phones, the Apples, the Samsungs, the Googles,
but it also takes man you and old school. It
takes CDs, DVDs, Blu rays, video games. They take books.
And what you do is they ask you a few questions.
You know, what's the condition of your whatever you're selling,

(25:27):
and it gives you a quote right there, You complete
the order, they send you a shipping label. They accept.
Let me take a quick look over here, declutter. In
this specific case, they will accept phones as old as
the iPhone seven. How much are they offering for the iPhones?
Oh awesome? Yeah, well, ladies and gents, you may want

(25:48):
I'll use it as a bookmark because I think you're
only gonna get two dollars for the iPhone seven. But
you get my you get that just over here. Here's
another one. It's called back market. Back market, the same thing.
Answer a few questions about your phone. You take your
package device to a UPS store, You show the clerk
a QR code, and then you get your prepaid shipping label,

(26:10):
so no shipping charges. We like that. And then when
they receivement, payment is put in your bank account, so
there's no waiting for a check. Haven't tried it? Do
they take let's see, what do they take? Headphone? Oh?
My gosh, I'm sitting on millions of dollars in my
closet right now. They take speakers and headphones too. You

(26:31):
sell is another one? Us ell it's a broker. And
what that does? That looks for other sites for their
best offers for a specific device. Looks like they're pretty
heavy into iPhones if you have newer phones from other manufacturers,
maybe Samsung Galaxies. This is why I tell you to

(26:55):
protect your gadgets, especially your phone. You always should have
a cover on your phone because it helps protect them.
It stops scratches, it stops hopefully most cases, cracks, because
that makes these status flawless or in great condition or
perfect condition. You're gonna get more money that way. What's

(27:18):
another one? Amazon's got one? Apparently, let's see over here.
Amazon has something called a trade in program, and so
it even puts its own products like the Kindle re
e readers and the fire tablets front and center. But
if you keep going down they trade in so or
for Amazon gift guards. So if you want cash, probably
not the way to do it. Walk in store? Target?

(27:41):
Does Target still hell? Hold, let me look at this?
Does Target still have this? Looks like the Target? I know?
They used to do in store trade INDs, but apparently
now you can't do instore. It's all mail in. So
they still have this thing. As I'm on Target dot
Com right now. So you get a prepaid shipping label,
you drop off at UPS payment, you're gonna get a

(28:03):
gift card, an E gift card. Okay, I mean, I
mean I can shop at Target, and there's a lot
of stuff going on over there. I'm not gonna go
through too many more. Here's one, it's called It's Worth More.
Here's one called buy Backworld b U buy Backworld. All right,
if you want some store trade ends, best buy offers
trade ends by walking into stores. Game stop? Are there

(28:26):
still game stops?

Speaker 4 (28:27):
Aroun?

Speaker 1 (28:27):
Okay?

Speaker 4 (28:28):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (28:29):
eBay is still there too.

Speaker 5 (28:32):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
Here's one I've never This is kid. I like. This
name is called Swappa Swappa Swapa. All right, I'll stop here.
Anybody out there use these sites. I want to hear
from you, like now three four six two nine T
E X A N call me. My name is Michael.
Just love to talk to you. What's the most you've

(28:53):
ever gotten something back? Have you ever been denied something
because you said it's in DC condition and that you
get and they get it and it's all cracked three
four six twenty nine, text in or if not, pop
me a note, post something x Twitter, Instagram. I am
at high tech text and Hi g h T e
h T e x an. It's good question, Doug. I mean, listen,

(29:16):
if you're spring cleaning folks, go into your closets and
look at your old drawers, look at your office stores.
Because I don't want any of my you know, these
nice public relation agencies or these companies who send me
all this gear, and generally when I test gear, I
have to they give me like a thirty day window
to return it and I and I always do if

(29:38):
they ask me to return it. If not, they say,
hey Michael, you can keep it, and it goes into
a drawer. I could be sitting on a college tuition
right now. I really could. All right, we're gonna take
a break right now. Coming up, Woo Team Mobile. If
you've got Ta Mobile, and if you had Team Obile
for a long time, did you get an email that
your cell phone plan maybe going up? I'll tell you
about that. Maybe another choice to choose from. If you

(30:00):
want che your cell phone service. It's Michael Garfield garf
if we're talking and we're talking about gift cards by

(30:24):
trading in some of your old mobile phones and tablets.
Got a call from Doug. I believe, thank you if
you want to get in and ask questions my advice
about anything. Haven't talked a lot about vehicles and cars yet,
stand by our number two man. I got a lot
of thoughts, got a lot of thoughts. I saw an
article about and it's funny because they may have stole
this for me because last week I threw out a
question and I had a discussion about would you ride

(30:46):
in a self driving car? And then USA Today had
a story about it. It's kind of like I'm Google,
you know, I talk about something and then all of
a sudden it pops up on USA Today's you know,
ads or something. I'm also test driving a few vahicles
right now, which I do each week. I was in
a Chevy What was I in? I was in lat

(31:08):
two weeks ago. I was in a Chevy Equinox EV.
You know my thoughts about EV's I actually thought it
was pretty good. It was very roomy. I was in
a this past week Mazda c X ninety a P
have the plug in hybrid electric vehicle. This is Mazda's

(31:28):
largest vehicle sold in the United States. Three rows. Nice
Drive still didn't love their infotainment system, because that's Mazda.
And that's just my thoughts. Next hour, we'll delve into
that a little bit more. Three four six twenty nine, Texan.
If you want to call, ask yourself before you call.
Are you using T Mobile? I only I'm not ragging
on T Mobile. I just talk about news and I

(31:51):
give you my thoughts too. I did see this in
the news, and I read this on c net c net,
so this is I'm quoting my source there. T Mobile
sent a memo to customers about a five dollars per
line price hike that can increase and affect people on
older plans. Man, that sucks you legacy plans. So if

(32:16):
you're on, let me see if I can give you
some deats over here. People who subscribe to T Mobile's
current lineup of plans, which is the Go five G,
the Go five G Plus and the Go five G next,
you're not gonna see a price change, okay. And this
increase does not apply to anyone with the company's price
lock guarantee. All right, nope, but there is a price

(32:37):
hike here if you have Let's see, if you saw
an increase of two dollars last year on a cellular
watch plan, this new price increases would it's not gonna
be on top of that. Generally go check. A lot
of people don't check their bills, and I know there's

(32:59):
rising cost over the past several years in this industry.
I started the show with Southwest Airlines killing their two
bags live free. It's a business, and I'm not raking
T Mobile over the coals. It is a business. It's
a publicly traded business. They need to do what they
need to do. But by the way, this is the
time to actually talk about one of my other sponsors,

(33:19):
Total Wireless. Total Wireless go check it out. You can
get all you can eat five g as low as
twenty five dollars a month. Stores all over Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas,
wherever I'm broadcasting. Going to Total wash you could check.
And the neat thing is you can byod people bring
your own device. That's it. If your sell plan, your

(33:40):
data plan is up. Don't want to spend one hundred
bucks a line, eighty bucks a line, whatever it is
just walk in see if your phone, your device is
compatible with Total Wireless. They actually use the Verizon network too.
Go in and they got promotions running around and you
can get pretty much all you can eat data plan
for a relatively relatively low cost. I've done Total Wireless

(34:01):
for almost a year right now. No, I'm very happy
with this whole thing. They also have home internet. Do
you see her? How much is your home internet? Buddy
of mine told me he pays three hundred and fifty
bones a month for his Internet and his cable with
Exfinity cutting the cap. Go ahead, yeah, because Total Wireless,
you can go get a wireless over the year. It

(34:23):
looks like a router, looks like it is. It's a router.
It to modem what it does. I mean, think of
a hot spot, but it's a hot spot for your house.
It pulls down cell phone five G cell signals and
then it distributes. It throws out a Wi Fi signal
around your house and the coverage is very good around
your house, around my house too. What is that? Twenty
five thirty bucks a month, forty bucks a month, that's it.

(34:43):
That's that's what it costs. I like Total wires so
it's good questions. I'm your guy, I am here for you.
I'll do this. I'll do what. I've been holding on
this for a week or two. I don't even know why. Well,
because I just haven't got around to it. This is
a good way to end the first hour of the show.
But somebody did a study of how saying that you
should take a break from your smartphone because it can

(35:04):
reboot your mood. And I get that, because you know,
I go to bed and I sit there and I
read my doom scroll and I go down rabbit holes
of the YouTube and all this other stuff like that.
But it is mobile app, up to mobile app. But
apparently researcher studied what happened when people agreed to block
the Internet from their smartphones for just two weeks. Okay,

(35:29):
let me repeat that sentence, and I'm gonna break this
sentence down. Researcher studied what happened when people agreed to
block the Internet from their smartphones for just two weeks.
I don't like that. We're just just two weeks of
blocking a cell phone is a lifetime, at least for
me in anyway, continue with the story. Any guess is

(35:51):
the percentage of the number of people who felt better
after a two week break. According to the study. And
you know what, I have to the study because it
was a psychologist from the University of Texas, the greatest
school in the country. Ninety one percent of people felt
better after taking a two week break. I personally would

(36:13):
have a coronary. Apparently. There was research four hundred and
sixty seven participants ages eighteen to seventy four month log study.
They tested the theory that constant connection to everything has
unintended consequences. No surprise there. Ninety percent of Americans fact

(36:34):
have a smartphone okay, internet enabled supercomputer at our fingertips
right there, twenty four to seven. It's great phenomenon. Two weeks, man,
think about this as we take a break. Could you
put your internet connectivity down for two weeks? Close friends

(36:57):
and relatives of mine listening right now are on the
four rolling laughing right now because they know me. I
have ADHD A proud and I control it too, thanks
to my doctor a little pill. It's unbelievable. But I
like things that are shiny, that are bright because my

(37:18):
attention span is bam over next subject. And that's what phones,
that's what TVs give you. That's why I am in
the business of in this business. So many of my
buddies are lawyers. Don't know how they do it, don't
know how they sit in an office from seven in
the morning to sometimes seven at night. Their partners. Now

(37:38):
they're still working just as long, forty plus years later.
I can't do it. I need go, go, go people.
I don't want to put the aft to tell you
what if anybody wants to collaborate and there's some sort
of a study and they want to pay me and
actually put me in a page with cameras and watch
me go crazy and turn gray into a week, I
would think about it. I remember, do not Gon make

(38:00):
for made a show that our number one over much more,
including what is Michael riding this week? Also, you ever
get pop ups on your phone going today, one year ago, today,
five years ago, and it's just a picture you really
don't want to see any more, including of your ex girlfriend,
your ex life. Well, I'll tell you how to stop
those things from popping off to the plus got a

(38:22):
line of questions and phone calls, Feel free to call
in three, four, six, twenty nine. Text of eight is.

Speaker 3 (38:27):
Michael Garfield and you are listening to the high Tech
Texan Show.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
Is Michael Garfield.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
Michael Garfield.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
Michael Garfield's joining Yeah, the high Tech Texan.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
Michael Garfield is here with a.

Speaker 1 (38:51):
High tech text to make life easy.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
Michael Garfield has something you might want. Michael Garfield is
your high Tech Texans three decades helping you make magic
with your gadgets. Heard worldwide on the iheartwadi you after

(39:18):
now You're high Tech Texan. Michael Garfield.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
Halfway through the show, the high Tech Texan Show, which
means we are halfway to happy hour. And if you
think about it, spring break for many people, Saint Patti's
Day on Monday March Madness just about the start man.
It is always happy hour. It is always a happy
hour brought to you by no one at the moment.

(39:47):
But we are always on the lookout for nice brown
Water Vodka Tequila partners. Michael Garfield is the name, very interactive.
First Hour had a number of different phone calls. Feel
free to go and listen to the once we are
finished less than an hour. Our good friend callam Read.
He always puts that up on the old iHeartRadio app.
Just look for high Tech Texan h I G h

(40:10):
T E C h T e X A M or
for Michael Garfield or just a log onto whatever radio
station you're listening to right now. Be it KPRC nine
point fifty in Houston News Radio twelve hundred, WOAI, what's up?
San Antonio Talk Radio eleven ninety and the Big D
hometown Dallas, hometown of Southwest Airlines and I'm not going
to get into that again. Southwest had an interesting week,

(40:32):
to say the least. Who's had a worse month for
a Dallas based organization? Was it Southwest Airlines or is
it the Dallas Mavericks. I'll shut up and listen right now.
It's it's it's a tough one people. What else can
we talk about? Oh not? It's happy hour, which means
I'm happy. I got to give something away. Good friends
of ours, Cabo Bobs, who's hungry? It is? Well, it

(40:55):
could be lunchtime or dinner time wherever you're listening. Cobo
Bob's four locations in Houston, countless locations at their home
base in Austin, one in San Antonio, and then I go
seek them out. Who wants a twenty five dollars gift card.
Let me give you a color number nine three four
six twenty nine Texan Give it a shout three four
six two nine Texan color number nine. Cabo Bob's. You

(41:17):
walk in, go down the line, pick your freshly made tortilla.
They have five different flavors. They sit there and smoke
their chicken. They smoke their beef on a commada Joe
back there. You got brown rash, you got right rice,
you got guak, you got unbelievable chips. I love their chips.
Their case. So they're burritos so big I always have
I always I really kind of make a scene because

(41:39):
you know, I stuffed this burrito. And he finally gets
down to the burrito roller person and I'm on the
other side of the sneeze guard in the counter, and
I'm starting to yell, no way, there's no way you're
gonna be able to roll that up. And they sit
there and smile and they roll it up somehow. So
go check it out. We love Cabo Bob's. We already
have a winter stop calling twenty five dollars. If you
didn't win, sucks for you people. You can go buy it.

(41:59):
They're not the expensive too. Cabo Bob's open six days
a week. They that's right, check fil a copy them.
They're not open on Sundays. But go enjoy yourself. See
this is what we did. We give away things. Later
this hour, bottom of the hour, I'm gonna have a
little discussion with a meteorologist. They use technology without a
doubt to predict the weather. Not hurricane season yet on

(42:23):
the Gulf Coast, but tornado season coming up up in
the North Texas area or potentially probably wherever. You're listening
to Dan Brunoff, meteorologist up in Dallas. I'm gonna have him,
and he's gotcha. He has an interesting news service he
wants to tell us about that will actually give you
a phone call should you particularly, I mean down to
the maybe specific address where you are, you would get

(42:46):
a phone call if there is bad weather, lightning strikes
or whatever. Your in your hood. So anxious to hear
about that. And that's in about twenty minutes from right now.
I tease this, let's pay it off. If you have
a phone, you ever get to pop up on your
phone going today in history or one year ago today,
or ten years ago today, this happened and you really

(43:08):
didn't want to see the photo. It's an embarrassing, painful memory.
It's one of your exes because they live in Texas.
Ever happened to anybody. There's actually a way to stop it.
There's a way to stop it, all right, Apple, I
saw the let's see Apple, we want you to feel
nostalgic every time you open your phone. I understand that.

(43:28):
But there is a feature that works with the featured
content on your phone that can highlight the biggest moments
of your life. And it's actually not it's on several
different widgets and gadgets and phones, but it's on the
photos app. It's in the Photos app. And if you
want to stop unwanted photos from randomly appearing across your iPhone,

(43:53):
this is what you do on how to stop it?
You go to your phone obviously, you go to Phone,
you go to General, and you go to photos and
in your settings too, and then you could change some
of the task on there, which means set the memories
on your phone of how not to pop up or

(44:15):
don't remind me, and in many cases you don't want
to be reminded while you're there. By the way, you
can adjust a number of other things. I'm just and again,
I don't have an iPhone. I'm not an Apple person.
But you can change how your control center looks. You

(44:35):
can change it from light to dark color. You can
lock or hide any of your sensitive apps. Maybe just
have it require face ID or require the touch ID
or something like that. I don't know what sensitive apps
you have. You can turn off loop videos and the
photos app. Like every time you turn on your photo
thing and all of a sudden, the video starts looping.

(44:55):
Go to settings, go to photos and you can see
loop videos. Turn the thing off. Just I just come
up with just a stale screen. I'm happy with that.
If you want to watch the video, hit the thing.
You could have just a view of your calendar. You
want a month view, you want a week view, you
want a deview. You can do that. A lot of
people when they get phones, they just keep the settings
and just take it for what it is. But you

(45:17):
can intervene, man and you can improve anything over there.
You can you know, make different boulder colors and buttons
and what have you, and all of a sudden, and again,
if you want to stop random photos from popping up
on your phone, actually yeah, you can do that too.
What else do we got I'll give you the phone number.
We're gonna take a break up here, we're gonna talk.
We'll do some car talk vehicles. Would you ride in

(45:39):
a self driving car? I asked this last week and
then USA Today had a little article about this too,
and they did a survey. You'd be surprised with the survey, said,
because the survey that I got from my callers last
week was pretty high going. I know, Waimo just came
to Austin and the technology is there with a lidar
and radar cameras, but I don't know if I trust this.

(46:02):
I'll tell you what the the USA Today because they're
really good with poles said also, and then Austin based Tesla, boy,
they had a week. Also apparently the White House was
turned into a used car dealership today because Trump, I
don't know, he rolled out some Tesla's and Elon was
out there and Trump gets in a car. I mean,

(46:22):
it's I'm not gonna ask questions that legal. But what
did Ford? What did GM? Butdikia? What did a hund?
What did all these other companies think that Tesla got it?
Towen al of a big pr boost would you be?
But is the question is is Tesla cooked? Man? There's
a lot of backlash between the stock taking a massive hit.

(46:45):
And I talk about this not from a little political
plant standpoint. I really don't, and I know it touches
in the periphery of politics. But Tesla is a Texas
based company, and I cover Texas based companies. It is
an electric vehicle company, and I cover cars and EV's.
I'll give you my thoughts on this about why Tesla
may be sinking, but the EV market itself is growing.

(47:08):
All this coming up on the High Tech Texas show.

(47:30):
Just like that boy said Michael was my first name. Garfield,
like the cat. Sadly not related to that cat, because
if I was related to that cat, my butt would
not be sitting here on a weekend doing radio show people.
I'd be owning an island somewhere. Nope, Nope. Not Also
related to Garfield, Texas, which is just on the southeast
side of Austin. I always drive through it when I
go from Houston to Austin. I always say, man, I

(47:52):
could be the mayor of that town. Then again, it's
one of those cities when I say, if you blink
when you're on Highway seventy one, just outside of Bath,
you will miss Garfield, Texas. But there's a Garfield Library
and there is a Garfield water Tower. I don't think
it's related to me. If so, I do need to
claim that. By the way, if you do want to
move to Austin but think it's too too expensive and

(48:14):
bass Drop now is too expensive, just keep on moving
out to Garfield. I need a how awesome if I
ran for mayor for the city of Garfield, Texas, let's
still it dates. I don't need a petition. I need
to actually move up there. But there's no AHB in Garfield, Texas,
so I could. It's a long story. I'm not gonna
do that. I digress at three four six twenty nine, Texan.
That's the phone number three four six two nine te

(48:36):
x a N. I will get to some phone calls,
but I promised I want to do a little segment
on vehicles and cars. I am a long time Texas
Auto Writers Association member I fifteen plus years. Every single week,
every single week, for fifteen years, I have tests driven
at least one car. I have now driven in nine
hundred to one thousand different vehicles. This is not paid nobody.

(48:58):
This is not a dealership. This is for the manufacturers.
This is a perk that I get, but I also
work for it too, and I give you my thoughts.
I can tell you they suck. I can tell you
they're horrible. I can tell you don't get them. I
also can tell you this is one of the greatest
vehicles I've ever ever been in. I said, I can
tell you to run out and get one of these
things right now. It is my opinion, and that's why
I have my own radio show and podcast TV segments.

(49:20):
I just tell you what I think. People tell you
what I think. Last week I got on the subject
of self driving cars because they have been around for
a while, and I have been in a self driving car.
It's been a while, but I remember the first and
I told the story. Won't get into it of how
the first time I ever saw a self driving car,
I was out just outside of the San Francisco Airport

(49:41):
on a freeway heading up to San Francisco Park. Car
We're going sixty seventy miles an hour. I'm in an
uber or something, and car rolls right by us in
the next line. It had no driver freaky dekey. First
time you ever see a driverless car, man, you just
what the way? That to me is this is the
sole reason of why we are very slow to accept

(50:06):
the ideas of writing in a driverless car. It is
a paradigm shift and it is scary of not being
in control. That to me is the number one reason
I do believe in the technology cars. Now they have
swelled self driving cars. They have got cameras upon cameras,
they have got radar, they have got ldar, which is
a light type of radar. They are relatively safe, maybe

(50:27):
just as safe, maybe more safe than other types of vehicles.
Because we as drivers, we're human, and we sit on
our phones, or we have conversations, or we're singing to
the radio. They may be more attuned than all of us.
But I asked how many of you would would ride
in a self driving car last week? And I think
about seventy seventy five eighty percent of people say na,

(50:48):
I don't think I would. Well guess what USA today.
They must have heard me. They had a pull, they
had a story earlier this week. Would you ride in
a self driving car? Survey says most Americans would not
written by Seth Jacobson. Maybe Seth Jacinsimmon is a long
time listen of mine. Thank you, Seth. But let me

(51:10):
just kind of sub quote this vehicle this column. The
overwhelming majority still don't trust writing and self driving cars.
This is from a Triple A Northeast Triple A. Remember
Triple A, Triple A. And they did a recent survey.
Just thirteen percent of US drivers indicated they'd feel safe
writing in a self driving or autonomous vehicle, according to

(51:33):
the survey. Good news. That's actually up from last year
because last year nine percent of drivers said they be uncomfy.
That's I don't know, it's it's a fact. It's scari
or not. Robo taxis, which are self driving vehicles for
taxi services, they're in major cities right now. They're in Austin, weymo.

(51:55):
What's up my Austin listeners and viewers? San Francisco, Phoenix,
La Vegas. Hey, I'll be in Vegas next week. Maybe
I'll try one. I'd do it, But the survey indicates
it self driving cars are not particularly important to today's drivers.
How what you think about that? Are they important to you?

(52:17):
What do drivers want? They want technology? That's why I
talk about it. Do they want automatic emergency braking? Do
they want reverse automatic emergency braking? Do they want lane
keeping assistance? I will tell you this, of all the
vehicles that I test on a weekly basis, most all
of them have great safety features. There's you know, Nissan

(52:39):
three sixty safety. This Toyota has, I mean almost every
single day. They have cameras, they have beeps, they have
so much more so than than when I first rode
in a car that I can remember in the seventies.
If I could have one feature, one my favorite, let's
put it this way, my favorite safety feature. It's it's
very simple. It's the rear cross Traffic Alert RCTA. This

(53:06):
is when you're parked in a parking spot head first,
or in you're in your driveway head first, and you
put it in reverse to back out. There are sensors
back there that monitor things that could get in your
way that could cause an accident or harm to people
or to things. If you have kids worried about you

(53:26):
have little kids back there and you can't see them
in the rear view mirror. Beep, beep, beep, it'll beep
and stop the car. The feature that I like and
I'm backing out of a parking space at the grocery store.
You can only see so much by your rear view mirror,
but if there's a car coming and waiting to park,
or just going down the aisle, it'll sense that the

(53:47):
rear cross traffic alert. That's my favorite feature. Yes, I
like lane changing and lane keeping and automatic emergency breaking
and all these other things. I mean, there are features.
You know, Key has got one and that actually bugs me.
But I know what it's there for. It's driving, and
you can set these things. But you know, I test Driveakiya,
and all of a sudden, I'm driving about twenty thirty

(54:08):
minutes down a highway and a little a cup of
coffee emoji pops up right on the info dashboard, reminding
me to take a break drink coffee because I've been
driving too long. Now, you can set that for thirty minutes,
five hours, or whatever it is. But listen, they're there
for safety. But when it comes to self driving autonomous cars,
I don't people don't think they're too They are too safe.

(54:30):
Tesla Tesla's in the news. Tesla had a Tesla got
a lot of free publicity this week. Tesla needs a
lot of free publicity this week, and they have. There
was a apparently there was a car sale at the
White House President Trump and his boy Elawn. They were
showing off some new vehicles, the illustrious cyber truck. I
think there was a model was it a Model three

(54:53):
or maybe it was a Series S or something. But
the Trump got in a car. But it was just
I don't know what other manufacturers thought about. I can't
have or do an interview with a single political person
running for office without what we call equal time. It
is a law that we have to abide with the FCC.

(55:14):
If I interview some mayoral candidate, I better give equal time,
give them the opportunity to come on my share to
do the same. I'm waiting for GM, Ford, Kia, Hyundai, VinFast,
all these other ev manufacturers to have equal time on
the White House. Neither here, neither there. Whatever. Tesla's not
doing well, big stock plunge. And I say this because

(55:37):
it's a Texas based company. I'm not ragging on Elon.
I am giving you facts. Now. Maybe the time to
buy Tesla slot stock. Look at it that way, Tesla owners,
they're selling their vehicles at a big loss, huge used cars,
and how do you make Tesla? Gret that maybe the

(55:58):
new cap make Tesla great again. Sales are slumping eight
hundred billion dollars I believe at least lost in market
value over the past several months or so. And these
are all these aren't hybrid, these are these are all
electric cars. But the point, I guess my question is
is Tesla cooked? Are they bad? You know what? I'm

(56:24):
not one to say, but i will tell you this
about EV's and I'll give you about two minutes and
I'll and we'll take a break. Tesla may be sinking
at the moment, but the EV market seems to be growing.
It was just two years ago, if you think about it,
Tesla was on top of the world. They sold one
point three million electric vehicles, the most in its history.

(56:47):
They reduced a lot of its prices too fast forward.
Right now we're in the early part of twenty twenty five.
The price of some of the Tesla models is dropping.
The pre owned Tesla's cratering, the company's stock price dragging.
There are protested showroom floors overseas. Buyers backlash. Maybe it's
because of politics with Elon. Maybe I don't know people
are sick of I don't even know what it is.

(57:08):
I'm not pointing my fingers. But the news about Tesla,
apparently it's not slowed sales for EVS because according to
Motor Intelligence whatever that is, three point two million hybrid
or electric vehicles were sold in twenty twenty four, and
that is up twenty percent from the year before. It's

(57:29):
a record twenty percent of the vehicles that we are
buying our hybrid or electric. Now one point nine million
of those are hybrid. But still we've got just over
a million EVS. Sales of EVS according to this Motor
Intelligence they were solid, even with the uncertainty about the
federal credits, the bad pr for Tesla and whatever. It's

(57:51):
a lot of changes happen in the last few months.
To me, you get your ev at your own expense,
because I'm fine with evs. I'm all about the way
that we charger. We can't charge our batteries, and we
can talk about that on and on and on. But
we do have a clock. Eye got to it here too.
Bottom of the hour, coming back meteorology time. We've got
tornado season up North Texas. We've got Gulf Coast hurricane

(58:14):
season coming in about two months, we're gonna hear from meteorology.
Meteorologists with an interesting news service that could send you
word life pack at it Michael Garfield be a very

(58:40):
long running high tech texting show. Who are alt across
the state of Texas terrestrially at least Houston, Dallas, San Antonio.
You can find us online at your favorite podcast. Yes,
we do talk about technology. We talk about apps, and
we talk about pretty much anything I want to talk about.
Talk to some friends of mine who are in high places,
happen to be in media. So I think we're gonna

(59:00):
this next interview, this next chow, I'm gonna half kind
of covers all the bases. A longtime friend of mine
who happens to be in the media, who happens to
deal with little technology and the weather, by the way,
something that is all important. I know it is not
hurricane season factually yet for those of you listening down
near the Gulf Coast, but tornado season up in the
Dallas area. I grew up with something like that. It's

(59:21):
not fun. We need to be aware, we need to
be alert, and the one person whose job is to
alert us and keep us aware. His name is Dan Brunoff.
He's a meteorologist News Radio ten eighty a m KRLD
in DFW and also with weather call services. He joins
me right now as a meteorologist. Listen. You know we
all grew up. We watch him on TV. We listened

(59:41):
to him on the radio like you we have for
so many years. Severe weather comes in. One of the
things that you do is hopefully to prognosticate, but it's
also to keep us safe, especially in crazy weather situations.
How does this affect you, know, your job in your
everyday life and you know where do you rank? That is? Listen,
I'm here to make sure that tornadoes are coming, but
we I got to keep people safe, number one.

Speaker 5 (01:00:01):
That's why I'm doing what I'm doing. I mean, do
you remember the tornado in North Dallas back in the
late seventies. It went went up bud Meadow Road and
tore up Preston Royal and yep and gosh, I think
I was nine or ten. I saw that out of
the back of a station wagon and that's what got
me interested in weather. And my goal was to do
weather in Dallas and Fort Worth when I got older. Well,

(01:00:22):
here I am dream come true. So I had a
weather radio when I was a little kid. My dad
got it at Radio Shack, brought it for me for
the holidays, and that thing never left my side, Michael,
I was. It was in the under my pillow, it
was in my locker at school, it was on camping trips.
So from a young age, I always wanted to keep

(01:00:43):
people safe, and I told my parents. I said, I
want to make sure that you guys know when another
tornado's coming. And that's why they bought me the weather radio.
And here I am today.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
Tell you what I remember that like was ester you
and I both grew up in Dallas. It was I could.
And let me tell you something about that day. I
believe it was May twenty fifth of nineteen seventy five.
I was ten. That day will never leave my mind.
I was at home alone after school and I was
all I was the original latch key kid. My parents
were working, and all of a sudden, I hear tornado sirens,

(01:01:12):
something that used in other cities don't have, but there
was tornado siren and I go out and I was
looking at the hail. I'm like, oh, this is cool.
I look up and we are at Midway Road, Royal
Lane north table. We're right there. I look up, Dan,
there is this tornado above me and I as a
ten year old, I'd never been so scared in my life.
I mean made the Wizard of Oz look like in

(01:01:33):
a freaking candy land man. I was horrified. I had
a weatherwedar from radio shack like my dad too, You
and I same thing, but I was so terrified. I'm like, hey,
no way, I'm getting into weather. I'm glad you did, brother,
because I stayed away from it. But we remember things
like that and I don't want to get caught in
that again nowadays. And here's the segue. We do have
services like you listen. There's twenty four hour weather channels

(01:01:55):
and we listened to you on the radio in the
morning in drive time. And there's also apps and you know,
we can go to this. But what weather And this
is where I want to talk about weather call services.
This is something different, It is unique and it is different.
So tell us about weather call services.

Speaker 5 (01:02:11):
Well, basically, it's pretty simple. Everybody knows what the little
polygons are, at least most people do. They're not squares
and not rectangles, but they're odd shapes that are color coded.
You got red for tornadoes, you got yellow for severe thunderstorms,
and then you have green for flooding, and those are
issued when a certain criteria are met with a severe

(01:02:33):
thunderstorm warning, it's fifty eight miles per hour, greater quarter
sized sail or greater a severe thunderstorm warning is issued.
The polygons are issued for tornado warnings as well. The
initial one is for rotation by Doppler radar. A second
one is issued for the same storm when we have
ground truth and we got storm spotters and chasers out

(01:02:54):
there saying this is on the ground. Back October twentieth
and twenty nineteen, same thing happened when that storm came
through the same track as the one in seventy five did,
but it was nighttime. So the ground truth and then
of course the flood mornings are issued when you get
excessive rainfall on a short period of time, and that's
measured by the gauges on the creeps and streams, So

(01:03:14):
the National Weather Service issue those. So imagine if you're
asleep in the middle of the night and your phone
rings and it's mean Meteorologists Dan Brunoff Kroldie radio. You're
in a tornado one storm. We have a tornado on
a ground doing damage. Go to your safe so now

(01:03:35):
and tune the news radio ten eighty KLD for updates.
That technology is out there. Okay, Weathercall Services has been
around for over fifteen years, and we did very well
for years with the local TV meteorologists selling it over
the air during severe weather events. Well, as you know

(01:03:57):
about all the apps that are out there, when did
they blossom? When did they really start going twenty fifteen sixteen?

Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
Yeah, it was it was the second generation of that
iPhone when they actually were invited, So let's go back
to two thousand and eight. But they really blossomed on
when people realized, you know what, the apps are almost
just as more powerful than websites. So yeah, it's been
a good ten twelve years.

Speaker 5 (01:04:15):
Yeah, So as soon as those apps became popular, the
TV meterologists quit selling it because the local TV stations
wanted to develop their own app and to tell people
Dan's going to notify you on the app. You don't
have to worry, We'll follow you everywhere. Well, two things
about the apps. One thing is most people have one

(01:04:36):
hundred and two hundred apps on their phone right and
every one of those apps that they choose to be
notified by, which most people don't go in and click
off off, off, off off. You do your drop down
menu on your phone and you're just you clear that
thing out twenty times a day, so you can miss
a storm warning during the day if you're not paying

(01:04:57):
attention to the weather, which most people don't because everybody's
fighting for first place on your phone. Well, the difference
between us and the app is we are a service
weather call services, or not an app. So if you
know there's severe weather coming, I will tell you on
the radio. Hey we got severe weather coming this evening
and overnight. While you're sleeping, turn your phone volume up.

(01:05:19):
I will call you and wake you up if need be.
So the good tagline is if your phone doesn't ring,
you don't have to worry. Sirens could be blaring outside,
but a lot of places around the state have county
wide sirens, so that storm could be fifteen miles to
your north. Most counties and Texas are thirty miles by

(01:05:41):
thirty miles or perfect squares because of farming right years ago.
So that's the difference between weather call services and doing
an app is we will call you on the phone.
It'll be me with a personal call and in telling
you to gather more information. Along with a phone call,
you'll get a text message with a link to an email.
You click on it to Gmail or Yahoo and your

(01:06:05):
warning will open up. You can read the text from
the National Weather Service. And then we also supply you
with a radar loop overlaid on Google Maps with your
physical address located on that map. Same thing with tornadoes,
but if that storm's going to miss you five miles
to the north because of the information we supplied you
at three am, oh that's going to my north, then

(01:06:28):
you just you go back to sleep. And the same
thing happens during the day too, when you're busy in
brunning errands and stuff like that, you're at sporting events,
and we'll also supply you with free lightning data and
alert notifications. If you're out at the ball field or
golf course within a ten mile radius, you'll get a
phone call as well with a with a ten minute
countdown ticker. As long as no more lightning strikes happen

(01:06:50):
within that ten minutes, then you'll be safe to continue
to play golf. So it's a really good service and
it's only fifteen dollars a year. It's four cents a day.

Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
I did the math like he breaks it down. Meteorologist
Dan Brunoff News Radio ten eighty a m k r
L d UP in Dallas like talking about this. This
is specifically weather cold services. It's amazing that this technology
allows us to do this right now as you can,
you know, going back to when we were kids in
the seventies and it was it was Troy Duggan, and
it was just this is what's happening and cross your fingers.

(01:07:22):
It's going to be near. But it's GPS. If people
want or interested in utilizing subscribing to this, what's the
easiest way to do it?

Speaker 5 (01:07:30):
Well, there's two. So the best way is to go
to my meet KRLD Meteorologist Dan Brunoff Facebook page and
my name gets butchered, so I'll spell it. It's b
As and boy r ou and is a Nancy O
double fis and Frank. Go to Meteorologist Dan Brunoff, search
for it and I'll have a landing page link at
the top and a video also you can watch learn

(01:07:52):
more about it. It's like a minute twenty seconds. But
you click on the landing page, you put in your name, address,
phone number, and allow you to put two emails in
the subscription as well as two phone numbers as well.
So you and your wife, you and your daughter, you
and your son, your grandparents in Sapeka, Kansas. This is
this is all across the lower forty eight. It's just

(01:08:15):
not confined to the lone Star state and that makes
it very very unique. So if you don't get the
phone call, you'll both get phone calls. But for some reason,
you left your phone in your car, but your wife
has her, she can call you immediately. Hey there's a
tornado coming. So that's really unique. And since it's a service,
once you sign up, I am addressed, phone number, emails,

(01:08:36):
and then credit card information you'll get. You click on
a button and you get it. You can get a
test phone call and it'll make sure it's working right
and then you're done. So it's a really really good service.
And we provide other services as well that are coming
here by this summer that are just going to enhance
what a localized one physical address can do. We're going

(01:08:58):
to be able to do a lot more things with
this and there's a lot of exciting things to come.

Speaker 1 (01:09:02):
Well, I know, whether it is your passion with the
point is that whether it can be scary is certainly
this time of year coming up the next few months.
To those in the Gulf coast, June first is always
you know, the date that has circled on the calendar
that is the start of hurricane season, which goes all
the way through November. It so no matter where you
are listening right now, across the state of Texas, not
the country, check that out. It's called weather called Next

(01:09:22):
Gin Services urologist Dan Brunoff, b R O U, n
f F. Go check it out and you can hopefully
subscribe fifteen bucks for a year. Man, I'll tell you
what's that's certainly it sounds like it's worth it. So
congrats on you know, growing up and following your passion,
my man, after all these years, because you're doing well.

Speaker 5 (01:09:41):
Yeah, and you as well. I'm so proud of you.
And we go back a long way together over forty years,
and I know we just had a reunion a short
time ago, and I just want to tell you how
good of a job you're doing. And I've been listening
to you for a long time and appreciate you having
me on your show. It means a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:09:56):
Appreciate it. Just don't tell how many people, how many
years that we've been to together with that for you.
We'll keep it at that, Dan Brunoff, if you need them, people,
we appreciate you tuning in and once again let her
call next gin, so definitely go check that out. This
is Michael Garfield. This is the long, long running high
Tech Textan show all across the country. Appreciate you tuning in.
Don't go anywhere. We are going to be right back.

(01:10:45):
What haven't we covered this show? As we reach our
final segment this week, Michael Garfield, thank you for listening
to the High Tech Textan and if you've listened to
this show, you know it is so much more than
just technology. We started off with a lengthy discussion in
my commentarian thoughts on Southwest Airlines. Not a good week
PR wise for them, but then again, I don't know

(01:11:07):
what's worse the MAVs pr for trading Luca or Southwest
two bags no longer fly free, no time for your
phone calls. But we'll kind of leave it at that.
Talked about how X had a big meltdown on Monday.
People that did the world has stopped. Certainly on the
first day of NFL Free Agency. That was a bad
day to do it. But it's back up right now.

(01:11:29):
Gave away a Cabo Bob's gift card, took a survey
in a poll of would you drive in a self
driving car in the state of electric vehicles. We just
heard from Dan Brunoff, a meteorologist in Dallas, about a
service that could use utilizing technology can actually pinpoint where
you are and actually call your phone. So if you
hear a tornado siren up in Dallas, and I know Houston,

(01:11:50):
you have no clue what that is. A tornado siren
up in Dallas. It may not be in your specific area.
But now you can actually set up phone calls to say, oh, oh,
this is happening right over my house right now. So yeah,
we do cover the gamut next week. By the way,
I invite you to come out and see me at
the Syfair Home and Outdoor Living show. It is next weekend.

(01:12:12):
It is next Saturday and Sunday. Syfair is a northwest
suburb of Houston, and if you're listening across Texas, it's
so worth driving down to come say hi to me.
Why should me do my little podcast. I'm gonna I'm
gonna have a booth and I'm gonna be showing off
some new robotic vacuum and mops. That's right, robo Rock

(01:12:33):
partnering with them, and I've got a nice little booth
and I've got me and a crew and we're gonna
be showing you how these robotic not only vacuums, they
can also mop. They're pretty cool and there's gonna be
some special deals that you can get just by coming
to the Syfair Home and Garden Show. It is Saturday
and Sunday. You can go to techswood shows dot com.

(01:12:54):
It is absolutely free to get into the shows, which
are Saturday and Sunday all afternoons. I think they open
at ten o'clock in the morning on Saturday, eleven o'clock
in the morning on Sunday and they go to about
six o'clock at night free admittance. It that the Berry
Center br r Wy. It's like a nice convention center
and I will be there on Sunday. Sunday Sunday the

(01:13:14):
sy Fair Home and Garden Show. Come out and say hi.
We could take pics and there's always gonna be free
snacks they're given away and things, and so we will
be well be doing that. I always like this Home
and Garden show Tony Wood. The organizer does such a
really nice job to do it. I did see this.
Speaking of robotic vacuum cleaners, the first robotic vacuum cleaner,

(01:13:38):
if you remember, the least I remember, to hit the
market was the roomba. The room Bob's company called I Robot.
They made the very popular autonomous vacuum cleaner. They did
not have a good week gift this week. They told
investors that it could could cease to operate within the

(01:13:59):
next year if not find a buyer. Apparently they need
some help. See Amazon plan to buy the company for
about one point seven billion a few years ago. The
deal collapsed regulatory pressure or whatever it was. Since then,
the CEO stepped down, laid off more than half its workforce,
and then the competition from other manufacturers really hurt them,

(01:14:21):
like robo rock. And I will tell you this and again,
I've tried a lot of these robot vacuum cleaners. I
could not have been and I saw a lot of
these at ces and I've been playing with two or
three versions from robo Rock. I'm just gonna bring them
to the Home and Garden Show, decide for Home Garden
Show next week. But they are vacuuming, they are mopping.
They are so easy to charge you. Really. They have

(01:14:42):
an app that maps out every square inch of your home.
They know where stairs are and so they don't fall downstairs.
What to avoid for furniture. There is one that I'm
playing with right now from robo Rock. It's called the
Saros ten. And by the way, if you're in Austin,
I just featured it on my Fox seven Austin TV

(01:15:02):
segment last Monday morning. Every Monday morning seven forty five,
you can see me reviewing something. This sarahs ten version
of the robo Rock. It has a built in video camera.
Wait a minute, it's got a built in speaker and
a built in microphone. So on your app, on the
robo Rock app, you can launch this app and you

(01:15:25):
can actually use this vacuum cleaner as a fun little
remote control kind of like a remote control car, and
you could zoom it around your house. The camera comes on,
and the microphone comes on, and the speaker comes on,
so you could chase your pet. I say this because
I'm not a pet person, but really, you could find
your pet. You could talk to your pet if you're

(01:15:47):
at work. If you can't find your pet because it's
hidden underneath a piece of furniture or something, you can
go find it that way. Yes, it vacuums, Yes it mobs,
but it's I'm all right, it's it's pretty cool. There's
one I haven't even tried. Ow your robo Rock just
came out with it. I have not tried this one yet.
It has a robotic arm on top, and so as

(01:16:08):
it's cleaning and rolling up and it comes up to
maybe it's a little toy, or maybe it's a soccer,
a piece of clothing, this robotic arm will come out.
It'll pick up this object and move it out the
way so I can vacuum. Man. You remember Rosy the
robot from the Jetsons. It's the same. It's it's even better.
And there's no SaaS because Rosie of Sassy and that

(01:16:30):
that that that lady had a mouthwutter. So away I
will should be showing off some of that from robot Rock.
That is that is pretty cool. Not gonna give you
our phone number because we only got about two more minutes.
Let me see what else we have anything else to
give away. I do want to thank our big sponsors.
Thank you so much to US Coins and Jewelry, United
States Coins and Jewelry, U S Coinsandjewelry dot Com. They

(01:16:51):
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(01:17:13):
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(01:17:55):
THAT i think we're gonna wind it. Up what do you? Think, Callum,
callum thank you so much and will thank you so
much for people with on the air and shout out To, Houston,
Dallas San, antonio Torest. Reli if you're listening online on
The iHeartRadio app wherever you are in the, world if
you thank you so. Much if you want me to
test drive a, car try a product to get my,
thoughts is it worth? It is it not worth? It

(01:18:17):
go to my website and figure out how to reach
Me Hi tech, texting Which i'm to sex thing, half
everybody who put the show together and all our, affiliates
AND i do thank you for tuning. In have a
very good spring. Break follow. Online i'll give you some
insight infer From Las vegas and we'll see you Next
sunday at The Cyfair home And Outdoor Living. Show the

(01:18:40):
name Is Michael gartmilin, right now my show is. Over