Why VPNs and eSIM cards for you phone are a must-have

Today on the High Tech Texan Show:

• Back-To-School: Get these FREE software apps and service for students
• Just how far can an EV go on a single charge? A world record was just broken
• Why VPNs and eSIM cards for you phone are a must-have

Episode Transcript

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

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

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

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

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Its to make life easier, new technology and Michael garfild
that's something you might like.

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

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Lone Star State to the digital Frontier. We welcome you
to the high Tech Texan Show. I am Michael Garfield,
your tech sirpa, your gag guru, a unofficial Dean of
Digital Cool. Today's syllabus, Well, we are diving headfirst into
back to school tech that'll make students smarter, faster, and

(01:12):
maybe even on time. I got budget friendly laptops, noise
canceling headphones, smart backpacks, tracking tags, even a few AI
powered study hacks. I've got the gear that'll help your
kids actually and you start the year like pros plus.
I will take your calls, answer your gadget gripes, and

(01:32):
maybe just maybe recommend something that won't make your wallet cry.
Flass is officially in session let's boot it up. Folks,
if you're a longtime listener and you just heard that
opening about sixty seconds, did you notice anything a little different? Now,

(01:55):
listen when I usually start my radio show, I'm all
hyped up. I got two hours of phone. But if
you listen to the spiel script, for lack of a
better term, at what I just said, anything a little
different than the twenty three plus years I've been doing
this radio show, Well, I'll tell you because I want

(02:16):
to do experiment with something. I didn't write that, and
I never write my openings. I turned the microphone on,
I look at the folks behind the glass, have a
sip of my coke zero or iced, and I'm ready
to roll. No, that first sixty seconds of what you
just heard about the whole lone star State Digital Frontier

(02:37):
that was written by AI, and I wanted to experiment
with it, because yes, I've been dipping my toe and
playing with AI to do a few things to see
how well it does. And I got to tell you
in one specific case, chat GPT is what I'm using,
and there's so many of them right now it's starting

(02:59):
to me and understand me quite simply. I typed in right,
an opening for my high tech text and radio show
that talks about my upcoming topics, including back to school
tech gear suggestions. That's all I hyped in and it
spewed out that sixty second four paragraph spiel set said, quote,

(03:23):
welcome to the high Tech text and Show. I'm Michael Garfield,
your tech shirpa, your gadget guru. I didn't actually say
my name. I put in high Tech Texts and it
went out and it figured out who my name is.
And it does use a lot of the words and
enthusiastic writing like I do. It's scary. Did anybody notice

(03:46):
with that? We do welcome you to my show without
a script. Michael is my name, Michael Garfield. I will
give you the phone number, which I don't even know
if AI even knows this is a radio show. We
love to hear from you. Three four two nine eight
three nine two six. That's three four six twenty nine Texan.
That is how you'll get to meet if you do

(04:07):
actually have questions about back to school gear. It is
the time. It is the second weekend of August. That's right.
It is its real football season. Certainly we've got a
few preseason games under our belt. You know, I'm a
big football guy. You know I'm a big sports guy.
I talk about that a lot. It's still hot. I
always grypick complain about the heat because I'm at a runner.

(04:28):
I run outdoors. I really do not like running when
it's you know, three digits outside on the thermometer. I
gotta suck it up, people. But I do also give
you quality information. And yes, this is time generally what
we do back to school. I believe for most public
schools in our great state of Tahas, this is it, baby,

(04:49):
Your summer is over. School starts early in Texas. And
if you're listening on a podcast on iHeartRadio and download
it and it's actually not the second week of August,
or you're you know what, wherever you're listening, you're like,
why is he talking about back to school stuff? We
don't go back to school till September. Well, if you
live on the least coast, generally you do go back
to school after Labor Day. Not in Texas, people, No,

(05:11):
we usually go to in mid August. And in this
case it is kind of early August. But I'll tell
you the kids they do get out in May mid
May to the end of May, while you're kids on
the Least Coast in New York and Florida and wherever
you are, Oh, they're going. They're going through mid June
to late June. That's how it works here. Just pray
that schools have air conditioning and they're working. So many

(05:35):
times you hear stories like, oh, no, the air condition
is not working, and let me help you out. You
don't go to school and there's no air conditioning pretty
much August through October and starting again probably in March
or April. I mean, that's just what we do over here.
I will answer questions and I am going to give
you some suggestions on laptops, on tablets, on desktops, what

(05:58):
the buy in the dorm room? Do you really need
a TV and a monitor and a laptop and your tablet?
How many screens do you need? Dorms aren't that big.
Do you use an alarm clock? Do you even have
a table side dresser? A nightstand if you will. I

(06:19):
had a nightstand because we didn't have phones back of
the day. We actually actually had alarm clocks. And I
always talk and make fun of my my radio alarm clock,
which I still have next to my bed, and I
still use I do have a backup when I need
to wake up. I yes, I do back it up
with that alarm on my phone. But nowadays, you go
to college, you've got all this gear. And after the break,

(06:42):
I'm going to go through a few things of gear
that I wish I had when I was in school,
which is really not fair because I actually could. I
am at least two generations generation and a half removed
from when I was in school when I was in college,
so I could say I wish I had a computer

(07:05):
in college, and I'm serious about that, all right, versus man,
I wish I had a small laptop, which was the
iteration that came after a desktop computer. Nowadays, you don't
even need a desktop or a laptop. You can go
to a tablet, and technically you actually can go to
a phone or certainly a foldable phone that folds out

(07:27):
to something larger. So I'm gonna kind of cheat going
geared that I wish I had. Yes, I wish I
had earbuds that were active noise canceling so I didn't
have to listen to my roommate in college hear him snore. Right, Well,
we skipped that whole earbuds. I mean, yeah, we had
cans like the earphones I'm wearing now in studio with

(07:50):
the big wired dangling out of it, the pigtail cord
that go over your ears. So I may be a
little out of I mean, I don't think I'm ever
out of touch. But some of the topics I talk
about are the let's go back. When do you remember
before you know, we had to wear seat belts. That's right,
Get off my lawn, kids. The number here three four

(08:11):
six twenty nine text in that three four six two
nine t e x A INN. Michael Garfield is the name.
There is Calum there as Will there on the other
side of the glass. We're taking your calls. If you
do get a voicemail, leave a voicemail. We have the
right to er it and so you can be semi
famous too, with your voice heard all around the world
on iHeartRadio. When we come back, Yes, I'm gonna take
your questions, talk a little about back to school, really

(08:32):
good deals that I'm seeing, and also for you students,
college students who don't have a lot of cash, don't
have a lot of jack. That's what the kids call it.

Speaker 4 (08:39):
Right.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
I got some freebies, found some free software, some free
services and free tools that you could download. Guess what
they may be for students, but I'm already using them because.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
I like some of the stuff.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
It's how mu phone would have them right now on
what we call the high tech text and shadow. I'll

(09:15):
fall asleep with that music. ID ain't chise it. That's it.
But back back when we actually had money here at iHeartRadio,
when we actually could license and actually play songs eighties music,
oh yeah, it was happening. Man. I would come in
and we're just we're jamming. I'm moonwalking, I'm doing Oh no,
not now, we got no money. I'm surprised that we
even still have microphones here in the studio. We hooker

(09:38):
by Crook Baby, appreciate you hanging in there and dune
again certainly in Houston, in the Dallas Fort Worth area,
in San Antonio. That's terrestrially over the radio airways on
this weekend, and if you do download it on iHeartRadio
or wherever, great podcast or her award winning actually I
have won some awards for this radio show back of

(09:59):
the day when and it actually comes to automobile reviews,
I do talk a lot about cars and trucks, which
I realized many years ago they are nothing but technology,
and so I started covering and reviewing cars and trucks.
I am now fifteen years into it. Well test have
test driven well over one thousand vehicles. Because if you

(10:21):
extrapolate fifty two to sixty weeks fifty two to sixty
different new vehicles a year that I get to drive
times fifteen, I'm it's up there. So if you do,
if you are on the market, maybe you're getting your
kid who's going off to college a car. Maybe your
kids just graduated and got a PhD and got a
new job. Maybe your kids want to get you mom

(10:41):
and dad a car. I'm here to help. Doesn't matter.
If it's an EV, doesn't matter. If it's an SUV,
doesn't matter. If it's anything like that, odds are I
probably have driven it three four six two nine Texan
three four six twenty nine te Xa N. You can
also go to most all of the social media other
than TikTok, where my kids are and certainly my son
who's mister influencer, all over the place. You can find

(11:04):
me at High Tech Texts, at h I G h
T e h T e x A and on Instagram,
on Facebook if I haven't blocked you, you can also
go to high Tech text in dot com for the website.
A lot of the stuff that I do on TV
Big Hello for the people who are listening in Austin, Texas.
Every Monday morning, I have a segment and Austin I

(11:26):
am their technology contributor on Fox seven. Have been doing
that for quite some time. Very fun. Gives me the
opportunity to really kind of explore and you know, you
can actually see what I look like behind this sexy voice. Yes.
Number one question that I get. Number one question, is

(11:46):
it an android? You were using this Devin iPhone? Nope,
that's not the biggest question I get. Why do you
talk so fast? Are you on some sort of a
drug or how much caffeine did you have because you're
just so enthused? No, I don't. I don't get that
a lot. Number one question when they people see me
or meet me, is it your real hair? Yes, it

(12:06):
is my real hair. I am proud of it. I
do not color it. I've always worn it a bit long.
It's very thick. It's yes, that is my that is
my nothing. Nothing has been touched. No technologically medical esthetic

(12:27):
anything has touched this body yet. I will say yet.
At some point, maybe I'll have to give in. But
that that's what running marathons and working your butt off
goes what I talk about. Should I get back to
the show. You know the phone number, you know how
you get a hold of me. We are doing something
back to school stuff real quickly. Actually, I wanted to

(12:48):
bring this up in the first thing I started the show.
If you're just douning in, I started the show with
a sixty second opening that I had chat GPT. I
had AI artificial intelligence right for me. I wanted to
test it out. I wanted to see if anybody recognized
the different tone, the different words of how I usually

(13:12):
open the radio show. AI continues to get very smart,
and that was the first time I did it. I
generally don't write anything for this show. It's a live,
plausibly live show. I go buy the emails that I
get your the phone calls that I get your questions,
and I will tailor it that way. I generally kind

(13:32):
of know which way or avenue do I want to go.
Like this time of year, I'm doing a lot of
back to school reviews suggestions of what to go. But
other than that, Hey, but my question is is how
do you know when you're listening or reading something that

(13:52):
has been written by AI that was AI generated. It's
actually tough, isn't it. There are people are using AI
to write sensitive messages to love ones. For example, for text,
I saw a story I think it was on zd net.

(14:13):
People everybody likes receiving a handwritten letter, but those take
time and patience and effort in my ADHD pills and everything,
and then you have to go through multiple drafts to
compose it. These days, some people are turning to AI
chat pots to express their congratulations or their condolences or

(14:34):
other sentiments, or just make idle chat. How do you
know when how do you detect AI generated text? It's
becoming more difficult as chat bots evolve one way, and
that's what I was trying to prove at the opening
of the show. The first and most obvious if it's

(14:55):
supposedly coming from somebody that you know, maybe it's a
loved one, who's who typing you a text or something
like that, it's going to be devoid of the usual
tone in style that the person exhibits. In their written communication,
AI chatbots generally won't include references to specific real life

(15:17):
memories or people unless they've been prompted to do so,
as we as humans so often do when writing to
one another. If the text or email reads as being
a little too polished, well that could be another indicator
that's been generated by AI. And of course you always

(15:41):
look for out. You look for the typical chat GPT's
favorite punctuation, the dash or what we call the m dash.
They do that a lot. There's also ways that you
can check for AI generated text. There is an online
AI text detection tool there, I believe is a program

(16:04):
that's called GPT zero. You actually can cut and paste
and put it through that. I'm not sure if this
is what teachers use, because teachers now they have to
be using, certainly in college software programs to detect that
students aren't using AI. I'm sorry, but if AI chat

(16:25):
GPT was around when I was in school, I I'm
going to be honest, I cannot guarantee that I would
not use that. I can't. A lot of people are lazy,
A lot of students are lazy. So now it's hot
and mouse, it's hops and robbers. It's the hacker bad

(16:49):
guys versus the good police. The bad guys are generally
one step ahead. And I'm not saying AI is bad,
but it's a It can be a cop out. It
could be a way around things. Instead of writing this paper,
I'm gonna have chat GPT, I'm gonna have AI write it. Okay,
Well that's been going on for a while. We need

(17:10):
a new, smarter software program that teachers can use and
download or subscribe to that will go read all this
text and it will quickly surf the web to see
if it's word for word written by somebody else, or
even closely written by somewhere else. God love you teachers,
and I am serious. It is a very to It
has long been a tough job to do so many things,

(17:31):
to get paid so relatively little for what you do.
Now you got to keep up with this stuff. So
I guess the point is as I'm experimenting with it,
and I'm more than happy. I was. The first time
may have been the first time, my ax. You know
what I did. I was playing around a by A
year ago. I wrote a Mother's Day email to my mother,

(17:51):
but I read it on air and I actually told people,
including my mom if she was listening that chat GPT
wrote it. I'm telling you what it was. It was
pretty nice. Got it, got a little foot clemped, got
a little personal. Oh, dearest mom, You're the greatest thing
in history of the world. There's no other mother. I've

(18:11):
done it a few times. I will tell you. I
don't know. Maybe I don't know, Maybe I should I
finally join one of these online dating gaps and actually
have chat Chepe do it for me because I ain't
having luck in real life. No more of my sob story.
Bought it of the first hour coming back. Yes, I
will promise you some back to school. Got a hell
of a deal. I saw on a computer, a really

(18:32):
really inexpensive computer, and some free things, free software and
free tools that anybody could download, especially students. All that
on the High Tech Text Show. You call this the

(18:58):
High Tech Tech Sitting Show. Done it for two plus
decades all across the state of Texas. Appreciate you tuning in.
If you're not in Texas, that means you're listening on
podcast iHeartRadio. We thank you for that. The podcast starts
out as radio and depending how young you are You
may not know the difference between radio and podcasts, but

(19:20):
there actually is. We have a phone number where you
can call in right now, talk to me, ask questions.
We are broadcasting versus narrow casting or podcasting. That's without
getting too technical. Michael Garfield is the name. Phone number
is three four six twenty nine. Texan Back to school
the second weekend in in August, right now, the last

(19:43):
free weekend, I think for a lot of public schools,
a lot of schools in our great state of Texas.
You're going. Good luck to all the kids. If you're
just if moms or dads or you kids are just
starting high school, ninth grade, good luck to you. You
need any gear? Do you need any tablets or laptops
or cell phones? Is I forget? Is it depending on

(20:08):
what school or what independent school district or which can
you bring cell phones to class? Right now? These are
questions that I certainly never had to deal with when
I was a kid, and my kids didn't even have
to deal with in the kids and my kids are
now all pretty much all in their twenties. And if
you can't bring cell phones to school, do you bring

(20:30):
can you? Can you put a tracker? Does mom and
dad have a tracker in a backpack because safety, I mean,
safety is number one. I mean, I'm gonna go back
to when I was in elementia, I mean little tiny
grade school, when I was in the seventies. Then I
was in high school and college in the eighties. I
mean safety. It's like, well, we were walking to school.

(20:52):
It's just not get hit by a car. That was
probably the top of mind when we talk about safety. Nowadays,
I don't even want to go down and the topic
of how scary things are in the world right now,
we hear it and we see it all the time.
The headlines are horrible. Cell Phones ways to communicate do
come in very handy, almost a necessity. Schools let you.

(21:18):
It's not up to me, it's up to the schools.
A lot of people just they put trackers, your air tags,
your you know, your tiles, your you know where, just
in case you can't use phones. You need to know
what's going on some of the tech gadgets that maybe
you're there you're thinking about. I was reading PC World

(21:40):
and there was an article that actually kind of a
jot little you know articles and brainstorms you know down
and you know, yes, I actually steal the ideas. But
then I actually have better ideas when it comes to,
you know, really thinking it through. Somebody had wrote something
about tech gadgets they wish they had in school. Gear
that makes your campus life a lot easier, you know,

(22:04):
if you think about it. Some nowadays back to school purchases,
they're no brainers. You need a new laptop. Maybe it's
a chromebook. By the way, let me stop you right now,
because I'm going to pay off a tease. A lot
of laptops, a lot of desktops, a lot of chromebooks,
a lot of tablets. They're all relative on sale right now.
They're relatively inexpensive, trying to separate you from your money

(22:25):
because it's back to school. I saw a really inexpensive
Chrome book. A chromebook is a laptop. In this case,
it is not Microsoft Windows based. It is not Apple
iOS iOS or the Apple Mac os based. It's quite
simply it is a chromebook which uses Google operating software,

(22:48):
just like Chrome Browser. And because of that, they can
allow themselves those products to be a lot cheaper because
they don't need a license the Windows operating system. Them
form factors are relatively same. They are made by a
lot of the same manufacturers. Dell makes a chromebook, a
SUS makes a Chromebook. I mean it goes on and
on and on, but that's why they're cheap. I saw

(23:11):
Walmart they had an Asus as US and I do
like a SUS incredibly small, incredibly thin, incredibly light chromebook
one hundred and fifty nine dollars. I believe it was
fourteen inch. Now does it have the highest fastest processor?

Speaker 4 (23:30):
No.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
You could play one of these high end third third
three D third party game shoot them up? Think no,
they could, but you really don't want to. Doesn't have
a touch screen. I do like touchscreens when it comes
to to laptops. This one doesn't. But for one hundred
and fifty nine bucks to have something that is I
mean it's not even a pound and a half, I

(23:54):
think it's measured announces. I like it so anyway, neither
here nor there. That's what I have.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
But what's out there now that hadn't that hasn't been
around for a while now, I'm not going to play
the game like what wasn't around when I was in
the college in the mid to late eighties.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
That's not fair. But even ten years ago or so, well,
laptops certainly were around tablets. Yeah, the iPad, by the way,
was not the very first tablet. May there were a
lot of other Microsoft Window based tablets. I remember the
first one from Compac. That's right, Compact based in Houston,

(24:33):
back of the day before it merged with HP and
it became HP. I remember playing with a tablet. Really
didn't have a keyboard. You just kind of touch the screen.
No one knew what to do with it until Steve
Jobs came along and he created the iPad. Oh, everybody
had to have a tablet. Then fine, that's what it takes.

(24:57):
Fapple does something that everybody copies it. In this case,
Out really doesn't copy a lot of things they copycat.
But if Apple makes it, it's gonna be great. I'm
telling you right now. Bookmark. This remembered again at some point,
and I even heard a rumor which is Apple is
finally maybe coming out with a foldable iPhone, a phone

(25:19):
that folds in half, it folds out, it folds up
or down. Are you kidding? Oh my god, how creative.
Only Apple could come up with a phone that takes
that has a piece of glass and it folds and
a half. How is that possible? Folks, When this comes out,

(25:40):
odds are, this may be the first time you see
a foldable phone. Odds are you may not even know
that foldable phones exist. Samsung itself is on the seventh
generation of a foldable phone, Google Pixel one plus one
of my favorite dub manufacturer of phones. There are so

(26:01):
many foldable flippable phones out there, of glasses on any
funny oh oh, and they listen. To be fair, they
don't take up a large chunk of the market. They don't.
But when Apple comes up with there as well, forget
about it. It's the greatest thing in the world. So
it's good. It's gonna happen. So shut up, all you
Apple people. What what? What? What's around now? That wasn't around? Bluetooth.

(26:25):
Bluetooth as we know it has been around for quite
a while, probably a generation. Bluetooth earphones, okay, Bluetooth little
little headsets, okay, right, they're Bluetooth keyboards. You talk about
having a tablet, pretty cool. Some tablets are convertible. They
do come with a keyboard that is removable. And if
it's removable, odds are. As Bluetooth, you can go out

(26:47):
and get a Bluetooth or a wireless keyboard that will
work with so many different devices, between a tablet, between
a phone. Think about it. You could bluetooth. You can
have your phone, say in there up to thirty feet away.
But obviously it's a phone. You're not gonna have that butt.
But now you can have a fold I have a
fold out bluetooth keyboard that is just about the size

(27:10):
of a phone itself, so when I can hold it
in one hand. I got a keyboard that folds out
to it almost a pretty good sized keyboard. And you know,
and a really ASDFG H JK L someth I call
a real kid. Now I don't need to use my thumbs.
That's neat. Logitech makes one think about that back to

(27:31):
school item headphones. Earphones. We've had those for quite a while.
That's generations wired, yes, when I was around. Now they're wireless, obviously,
believe via bluetooth, you can have over the ear, you
can have in ear. You can have a pod like thing.
It has been around. But how about noise canceling. I've

(27:53):
long had earphone when I was in college, I was
growing up, I would listen to my stereo with a
big old old three quarter inch plug that goes into
my audio Jack and I had a pigtail cord, and
I would sit and I would listen growing up in
Dallas to either a late night Texas Rangers game. I
would listen to you know, obviously Casey Casem's, you know,
American Top forty, which is why I got in this industry.

(28:15):
I would listen to music, there's anything, and hopefully my
parents would not hear it and come in and tell
me to go to bed. I was busted a few times.
Then I was in college. I had to wear earphones
sometimes because my roommate Jeffrazanski snored. Now there's noise canceling
ear finds you need to go out, and this is
really almost vital, not the word necessary, pretty close if

(28:40):
you need quiet, peace and quiet. We actually had to
go to something called the library long Story. It's a
big building with books in it. I won't go there.
But now you actually could sit in your room with
your roommate. Maybe he or she is listening to some music,
watching TV, but you've got active noise canceling. You got
a pretty quiet room. Sony bows Anchor, I mean tons

(29:05):
of them. I actually probably have two at least a dozen,
if not a dozen and a half within about a
year of companies have been sending these active noise camfling
Some they're under one hundred dollars. You don't need to
spend that many. Again, just a few ideas for back
to school. We're going to take a break, we're going
to come back. We're going to talk about portable monitors,
computer speakers, Bluetooth trackers, external hard drives, and of course

(29:25):
the all necessary hour banks and printers. Right here, I'm
a high Tech Texan Show final a few minutes of

(29:46):
this first hour. That's right, It's a two hour show, people,
so buckle up. First hour of the High Tech Hexan Show.
We call it that because I am from Texas. I
reside in Texas, and I sometimes talk about technological things
you need to understand. Rarely well, I use the term

(30:06):
megabytes or gigabytes or any of that crap like that.
I make technology sexa. I actually should trademark that. Michael
Garfield is the name. I'll give you the phone number
if you've got questions with back the school gadgets or
gear for your kids or yourself three four six twenty
nine textan you can pop me a note at one

(30:27):
of my social accounts high tech texts and high t
e h T e x a n high tech text
and that's how you're gonna get me. I have been
over Kenny giving you some ideas of some noise canceling headphones,
some bluetooth keyboards, things that your students, certainly in college
in a dorm, may want slash need. And as I've

(30:50):
told my kids many many times in their lives, there's
a difference between wanting and needing. So you need to
kind of put which bucket is in which. And there's
also some there's some free things too, which I like too.
I saw something college students, in many cases they may
be on a budget. Actually all college students should be

(31:12):
on a budget, let me put it that way. There's
some things that you don't need to go out and
bay buy or put up a pay for. There's things
that are free for fuf A free, which I actually
like my favorite four letter word. There's some free tools
and free services that I saw and I kind of
started making a list over here. One of which is
when it comes to computer processing and apps and software,

(31:36):
so often we just kind of go back into our
comfort zone and say, hey, mom, dad or whatever, we
need to go out and we need to get Microsoft
Office because I need Microsoft Word, I need Microsoft PowerPoint,
I need Microsoft Excel, I need all those things that
Microsoft makes so well, well, they are very important, especially

(31:56):
word processing. Microsoft Word I've long used ever since I
actually worked at Microsoft twenty what eight years ago, It's
been around a long time. Microsoft Office or even Microsoft
what is in Office three sixty five? These things can
add up, but it's a productivity suite of things that

(32:22):
you need to help you at school. Well, guess what
we found something that is if r ee. Google makes
something people. It's called Google Docs docss in documents. It
can handle the document creation that you're gonna need over
a semester, if you want to write a term paper,
if you want to crunch data in spreadsheets, you want

(32:42):
to whip up group presentations. It automatically saves to the clouds,
so you don't have the heartache of losing progress. It's cool.
Go download it. Google Docs. Printers and scanners anybody who
scanners that every more scanners are actually good. Actually, here's
something for all you, all you road warriors, people who

(33:06):
have expense sheets. There's a lot of software out there
that will keep track of all your receipts. A lot
of people take their receipts and they scan them. They
scan them. There used to be a software program what
was called ever Note ever Note scannable. It used to

(33:27):
be free. It's no longer free. It goes for something
like fifty bucks for years. Still not bad, but there's
still free mobile document scanner apps out there that are free,
one of which is called cam scanners. That's a tough
one to say cam scanner. Adobe makes one, it's called

(33:47):
Adobe Scam and they're scaled down versions actually because they
do have paid services. It works with Android phones, it
works with Apple phones. But it lets you convert real
world pages into digital p and yes, they have AI
powered features that summarize, they answer question based on the
text and things like that. They're pretty accurate. You use

(34:11):
your camera and it's OCR which is called optical character recognition,
so it recognizes the character on the pages and it
converts them to digital text. It's pretty cool. That's another
thing that's a free And now you're thinking, oh PDF,
how do I get that?

Speaker 4 (34:29):
Man?

Speaker 1 (34:29):
What about Adobe? Adobe Acrobat? You have to pay for
that stuff, especially if you edit it not so fast.
This is why you're listening to the garf Man high
tech text and show get answers Real fast, g arf
or get answers Real free. Actually, I'm gonna change it
to that. Odds are you're probably gonna encounter some PDF
documents at school. I know I do it work.

Speaker 4 (34:51):
Well.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
You don't have to pay for apps like Adobe Acrobat
to edit those files. There's a free web based editor
that I found. It's called handy Taste slack Candy. Yep.
You can modify PDFs. You can convert to and from
common formats. You can take a word document, PowerPoint document,

(35:12):
make it a PDF and PDF port of a document file.
It locks it down. It locks down so nobody can
make changes. I find it very nice. Like if I'm
doing an agreement or something like that, I have all
these you know, here's here's point A, point B, point C. Well,
the last thing I want to do is send a
word document word. The other party is going to be
able to edit it without me knowing it, so that

(35:34):
I converted to a PDF, all they can do is
read it. But sometimes I want to be able to sign. Here, Michael,
can you sign this autograph? I need to sign this
contract well with PDF candy, and obviously there's other programs
and let's go back to the paid Adobe Acrobat version. Yes,
you actually can sign some of those things. So there's
a number of these things out there. I am going to, uh,

(35:58):
if I can find the time, I'm going to list
this on a my x account formerly known as Twitter
high Tech Texan h I G h T E C
h T e x A N also on my website
high tech Texan dot com. I actually probably should write
a little article, a little column. Maybe I'll have a
I actually do it for me where you can get
some of these links. Getting up to it near the

(36:20):
top of the hour here on the next hour. During
the next hour, we are to talk a little bit
more about cars and trucks. Each week, I told you
I test drive one or two vehicles. When it comes
to EV's, I get an EV probably once every month,
once every six weeks or so, so I test drive
those a lot. One of the problems that I kind

(36:41):
of have is I just can't hop in the car
go to Austin to you know, visit one of my kids,
go to Dallas from Houston visit one of them, to
visit my parents, you know, just I don't like sitting
there waiting an hour an hour and a half of
charging it. Well, guess what a vehicle just this past
week broke the record for the longest EV drive on

(37:06):
a single charge. Normally, the range of an EV is
anywhere between two hundred miles to potentially four hundred to
five hundred miles. You're never gonna guess how far this
one vehicle from an established American auto manufacturer that has

(37:26):
been around for generations. I'm not looking at you. Tesla
went on one charge. Yes, there are some mass dress
and the caveats, but I'll tell you, if an EV
can actually go this far on a regular basis, you
may convince me to get one of those that's coming
up all next hour. Don't go anywhere. Michael Garfield is
the name. We're having some fun in the heat in

(37:48):
the second week of August of the High Tech Texan Show.
Is Michael Garfi.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
Michael Garfield, Michael Garfields joining.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
In the High Tech Texan.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Michael Garfield is here with a high tech texts.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
To make life easier, new technology, and Michael Garfield has
something you might like.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
Michael Garfield is your high tech Texans three decades helping
you make magic with your gadgets. Heard worldwide on the
iHeartRadio Act. Now You're high Tech Texan Michael Garfield.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
Start of our number two of the High Tech Texan Show.
We're halfway through the show. So you know what that means.
My longtime listeners say it with me. We are halfway
to happy hour? Are you kidding me? Man? This is
the could be the last weekend of summer before the
school excuar starts for your kids. Happy hour starts. Now

(39:05):
you better be out by the pool, drink and getting
some sun. Kids. I hope you had a good summer,
because he's certainly here in Texas where we generally start
school a bit early, certainly earlier than the least ghost schools.
It is over. I hope you had a good one.
I hope it was cool. And alas, here we go again.
We are in the midst of talking about some back
to school items that you may want, you may need.

(39:29):
Already talked about some laptops. Our tablet's the right way
to go depending what age your kids are read? What
about back to school? Hey, I'm not forgetting about you
adults or you old kids who still consider yourself old
kids like me. You may want a new computer. You
may want something more powerful than the ones that I've
been recommending for the high school with the grade school ones.

(39:51):
This is what I do. Three four six twenty nine
Texan three four six two nine eight three nine two
six We do well. Welcome all our good listeners terrestrially
across Texas in Houston, in Dallas and San Antonio. And
if you're not in those cities, you probably are listening
online or the iHeartRadio app. All you need to do

(40:12):
is download that and you can take the sulitary tones
of my voice and my good BS which really does
not stand for Bachelor of Science. You can take me
anywhere that you aim to please. Hour number one will
be on the podcast very soon. Thank you very much,
Callum and Will for taking care and helping produce this
long time twenty three years in running radio program, twenty

(40:34):
three years. Man, I've been doing the back to school
stuff twenty three years and getting prepped to do my
holiday shopping guide. Things have changed. Without a debt. I
didn't used to talk about cars and vehicles back then. Obviously,
I try to grow, I try to change, I try
to keep up with the times, things that even on
the periphery of technology. But cars, trucks, vehicles, they are technology.

(40:58):
I realize that fifty sixteen years ago, and that's when
I started reviewing and writing and talking about covering and
doing TV stories and radio segments with reviews on vehicles.
And since then I have become a member of the
Texas Auto Writers Association, and that allowed me to actually
meet a lot of the manufacturers, not dealerships, really the

(41:19):
manufacturers themselves, most of which are based obviously in and
around Michigan, Detroit, Michigan and so on a regular basis,
very regular basis, like every week I do get to
test drive a brand new vehicle. It is totally non paid,
non endoorsed, so that means I could give you the highs,
the lows. This is what I don't like about the car,

(41:40):
this is what I love about the car. Nobody's holding
my feet to the fire. These are just me, Michael Garfield,
and my own thoughts about the whole thing. And that's
it's really nice hearing from so many of you out
there going, hey, you know what, thank you for, you know,
cutting away with the bs, the upsell. These are just
your thoughts of what you think about it. Because I'm
not really trying to promote or indoors any type of

(42:01):
dealership or even these manufacturers. They give me and many
other semi quote unquote journalists the opportunity to review them
and we can say what we want. I will tell
you between now and the end of the show. You
know what I've been driving this week or two. But
I do cover the auto industry. Yes, I cover a
lot of the evs, not just EV's. If you do

(42:21):
listen to me, you know my thoughts on evs. I
like electric vehicles. I think they are sexy looking. I
think they are super fast. I do not own one
in the near future. I would not plan to buy
one for myself, just plainly because where I am in
my life right now and my driving habits in style.

(42:45):
You know, my kids are grown. I don't need to
really only take them to school and back at the soccer,
practicing back or whatever. I think evs make great second
vehicles in your family. The first vehicle should be gas
quite simply because you never know where you need to
hop in the car and you want to drive from

(43:06):
Dallas to San Antonio, Houston to Louisiana or something. I
don't particularly have the patients or wherewithal to stop and
wait for a vehicle to charge. I am used to
getting gassed up in five to ten minutes, unless it's
a Bucke's in his thirty five minutes, and then getting

(43:27):
back in the road. But I think they're fine if
you have a short commute. I think they're fine. If
you go from point ah your home where you do
have a charger in your garage, and b maybe you
go to your office thirty forty miles away, maybe round
trip where you do have a potential electric vehicle charger
at your office too, you're always set. Other than that,
I will talk about it. But the reason is vehicle charges.

(43:51):
The it's called range. What's the range on electric vehicles?
How far can you go on one charge? Generally they
started out I remember back in the day was the
Nissan Leaf. It got one hundred miles. That is it
one hundred miles If you live in a large city
light let's just say Houston, certainly Dallas DFW, it's easy

(44:12):
to top one hundred miles in a single day with
the commute, traffic, air conditioning blasting, the radio. Thank you
so much for tuning right here that even degrades that battery,
it's less than one hundred miles. People will you used
to have anxiety range anxiety is an actual term. You
top that up with the anxiety that people already have
with ADHD that I have. Man, it's tough. Range has

(44:35):
certainly extended nowadays. You know you're generally gonna find range
of electric vehicles anywhere between two hundred and fifty three
hundred and fifty, maybe a little bit more four hundred miles.
The larger the vehicle, the larger the battery. And I
say this because a record was just set. An EV
just smashed the world record for the longest drive on

(44:57):
a single charge, and it was done by General Motors
right here in the United States. GM claimed a new
world record for EV driving on a single charge. The
Chevy Silverado EV, which I've driven and it's very nice,
traveled one thousand, fifty nine point two miles without recharging

(45:21):
his battery. All right.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
Now.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
They did this just I don't know. It was a
publicity stop. It took place over seven days on public
roads up near Detroit in GM's proving ground, and they
use smart driving techniques so before you're all like, I
gotta get me one of these, I'm gonna go one
thousand miles. Ease up. They use smart driving techniques, including

(45:46):
limiting the speed limit to twenty to twenty five miles
an hour. Yeah, that ain't happening for me. It was
a new twenty twenty six Chevy Silverado EV work truck
with an EPA estimated range of four hundred and ninety
three miles. But they made a number of just adjustments
and they far surpassed the vehicle's estim made in range,
very very far, surpassing a lot of adjustments. The test

(46:09):
was conducted in the summer for optim and ambient temperature
for battery efficiency. According to GM, obviously the cold sometimes
really sucks a lot of the battery power out of
a battery. Summer is good. They took out the spare
tired of light and low. They optimized the wheel linement.
They did a number of different things. But you know what,

(46:30):
it made headlines that got idiots like me on the
radio talking about it and mentioning the Chevy Silverado. That's nice.
I'll tell you. This was to take our first break
as soon as any EV that I could purchase without modification,
can get a one thousand miles on a charge. Then
you've convinced me. Then at that point I can say

(46:54):
I'm actually going to take a look and potentially get
one of these things. But also, it ain't cheap charging
up your car in Texas. I will tell you this,
after a lot of thinking, a lot of traveling back
and forth. Where California has a lot of ed cars,
it is cheaper to charge an EV in California than
it is in Texas. Conversely, it is cheaper to fill

(47:17):
up a tank of gas a gasoline vehicle in Texas,
a lot cheaper than it is in California. It all
depends where you live. Hey, questions about this, I'll talk
more about cars and many of your questions right here
on a high tech Texan show. Don't go anywhere. Back

(47:55):
at it. Second week of August or twenty twenty five.
Happy back to school coming up by yeah, yeah, I
have for a lot of public schools in Texas. Luckily,
my school days is over. Name is Michael Garfield. That's
actually my real name. I you know, look up my
school records. It was a semi decent, okay kid in
school high school in Dallas, w Y Longhorns Baby College

(48:18):
in Texas, UT Longhorns eight years a long horn and
even if you're not a long horn fan, I still
appreciate you. Listen to me phone number here on the
High Tech Textan show seven one. Actually no, let me
update that three four six twenty nine Textan three four
six two nine eight three nine two six. Getting your
emails Michael at high Tech Texan. You do need to

(48:40):
spell high high. I didn't grab the r L at
the hib anyway. It's a high Tech Textan, just like
you can find it on Instagram, on Facebook. I am
here for you, gotting reading a number of emails and
actually a few calls. I'm just kind of monitoring the
phones here. Thank you very much, Will and Callum for
actually working here on a weekend and typing things out

(49:02):
and answering these phone calls. Maybe I'll pick them up.
Maybe I want about EV's We just talked about how
a Chevy Silverado that was really tricked out by General Motors.
They did a publicity stunt and they broke the record
for the longest drive on a single charge of an
EV without recharging it, just over one thousand miles and

(49:23):
I'll say it again. As much as I like EV's,
but I'm not planning to purchase an EV because no
EV's in a real life world without tingering go a
thousand miles. If I'm lucky, maybe I can get one
that goes four hundred miles, three hundred and fifty miles.
All right, but I'm still not doing it yet. But
any way, I covered the car industry. I have test

(49:45):
driven well over one thousand vehicles in the past fifteen years,
all of it unpaid, unindorsed. It is, you know, the good,
the bad, the nasty part of the whole thing. You know,
choking on the gas fumes, you know, looking sexy in
some of the these, you know, the Corvette C eight
mid engine, fast, hot rides type of thing. I've done

(50:05):
many vans. I do it all. So if you are
in the mode, the mood, the opportunity for purchases in car,
for yourself, for getting one, get it, feel free pop
me an email. I'm more than happy to give you
my advice or my thoughts. When you buy a car.
What are some of the things that you consider? Number one?
Nowadays you do have another you have another big checkbox.

(50:28):
Do you want an EV. Do you want the old
typical gas you know, do you want the combustible the
combustible engine? Right? It used to be the color color
was a really big factor when people bought vehicles. And
don't kid yourself. If you if you're a couple, if
there's a husband and wife, a mom and a dad,
the female many times holds that last card, You've got

(50:52):
to go through them. You've got to go through mama
to check the box, to say, okay, honey, Kenny is
okay if we get this car, I don't know. Let
me don't go well, if it's if it's baby blue
or pink, you know, I'll get the thing. Color was big.
Gas mileage is big. But do you know and this
is I'm not really surprised because when I review cars,

(51:16):
I look for things that I guess regular consumers don't.
How easy it easy is it to program at radio
stations and then change radio stations. Some of them they
don't have knobs anymore. Some of them you have to
reach over to touch the touch screen. Some of it
these are the volumes are on the left side of

(51:36):
the steering wheel while the channel, you know, changer to
get to our local iHeart radio station is on the
right side. Some of it's just not symmetrical. I look
at really weird things, but I also have always looked
at cup holders. And I bring this up for a purpose.
One of the features that people look at to decide

(51:59):
if they're or to get a vehicle are the cup holders. People.
I couldn't make this up. There was a survey JD
Power one hundred thousand car buyers of the twenty twenty
five model year automobiles. I feel like it's the family
feud over here. One hundred thousand people were surveyed and

(52:21):
the results were pretty crazy. But there was a marked
increase in and I'm not kidding you, cup holder frustration.
And I don't know if there's a pill for this,
like ed, but there is. Apparently there's CCHF the cup
holder frustration. There isn't obsession with cup holders, how many

(52:47):
where they are placed? If there's only one or two,
I'm not buying this thing nowadays. How big are the
cup holders? And can they hold those big stay cups,
the big giant yetty gallon ramblers. I want the big
gulp from seven to eleven? Does it hold these things?

(53:13):
And I just talked about records. I talked about GM
with the Silverado just have holding the world record for
the most number of miles on a single charge of
an EV one thousand plus miles. Do you know the record?
And I'm I'm making I'm not gonna use hyperbole. Do
you know what the world record is for the number
biggest the automobile with the largest number of up and
bottle holders? The Subaru Ascent a S C N T,

(53:38):
which I think I had about a two to three
months ago. The Subaru Ascent. It's an SUV nineteen cup
and bottle holders, some of which are really smartly concealed.
Nineteen that's nearly three cup holders for every human it
can carry. Who had it? Who has a Subaru assent?

(54:01):
I want you to talk to me if you like
this thing. Cup holders are actually a big deal. What's
your feature? Not say what? Let me open some phone lines?
Or even if you want to go on the old
X account X dot com, uh, you can go to
high Tech text at h I G H T E
C h T E X A M. What's the number
one feature that you look for either a when you're

(54:23):
shopping or the last time you actually shop for a vehicle.
Was it a cup holder? Was it the color? Listen?
I know price is up there. What's it? Could be
the gas mileage? Now it's range. What what is it?
But apparently cup holders are really out there. I don't know.
Let's let's see if it's out there. Phone number here
three four six two nine eight three nine two six.

(54:45):
Quite recently though, I've actually have played in a number
of different vehicles. I was in a minivan. I I
I listen. We owned we back back during the days
when the kids were young and actually was married. Uh,
Mama ad minivan. We probably had three, two, if not
three minivans Town and Country minivan, remember Town and Country?

(55:07):
That was the was at the Dodge, all right, or
the Chrysler Chrysler Town and Country. Chrysler now continues to
make a probably the best one on the market, the
Chrysler Pacifica. That's what I had. There's only three, if
not for more minivans on the market. Honda makes one,
Toyota makes one two with Toyota Siena, and then the

(55:30):
the Chrysler Pacifica. The Chrysler Pacifica. I liked, Oh I did.
If I had to buy a minivan, which I'm not
gonna buy a minivan, and I'm not gonna buy any
v at least at this point in my life. And
as a built in vacuum cleaner. It turned and steal
and steers and drives like a regular car. It's comfortable,

(55:51):
the hybrid version of the Pacific. It gets unbelievable mileage,
plenty of room for car seats, kids, adults schlepping things around. Absolutely,
highly recommend it. It's just just just one of the
things you know, you happy to be. And yes, I
was in sports cars. I was. You know, it's a
buick that makes them, you know, really nice sedans right

(56:12):
now that I like. So if you are in the
mode for getting a car, I believe it or not. Yes,
it's the high tech textan. Weren't you supposed to talk
about computers? No, I really don't talk about those a lot.
I talk about phones, I talk about cars, I talk
about bourbon, I talk about travel. It's Michael Garfield. It's
whatever I want to talk about, and you want to
hear very interactive. Before we take a break, let me
tell you what's going on. Uh, if you travel, listen,

(56:35):
I talked about traveling summer season. Maybe Ova for a
lot of you because school is back. But however, if
you still go. Buddy of mine, a good buddy of
min John just left from Houston to London. Last thing
I asked him is like, hey, uh, did you what
did you do for your phone? Did you light up
your international calling plan? Did you get a new SIM
card when you're going over to London that's where he's going,

(56:56):
or you're using an e SIM Uh? He actually lit
up his inter national plan and he said I think
he said it's one hundred dollars a month. Does that
seem right? I don't do that. I don't light up
my cell phone plan when I travel internationally. And I
was in China earlier this year, I did Berlin, I
did London last year. I never lit up once my

(57:16):
international plant. It's very easy to get and download an
e simcard, all right, which allows you to continue to
use your phone, use your contacts when you go. I
want to know more about that. Stand by, I got
a hot interview coming up on the other side of it, said,
is Michael Garkol like the high tech texting show, we

(58:01):
are back. Michael's the name, of course, Michael Garfield, the
very long running high tech Texan show in the very
hot summer here, certainly across the southwest US, which means
you should be traveling somewhere. That's right, you guys, about
another month or so before school starts. Where are you
going to travel to? I have open phone lines. I've
can give you some suggestions seven to one, three eight
two eight three nine two six. I've been trying to

(58:23):
skip out on my home base of Texas because it's
just disgust o here. I love the state, man, but
traveling with to much cooler climates and countries is great.
And over the past what three four months? I mean
every year this time of year, I talk about what
to do, what type of tech gear you should get,
some tips of what to do when you're traveling, especially
when you go abroad. A lot of people ask me

(58:46):
questions all them, Hey, Michael Man, I mean, how do
I stay in communication? Should I light up my cell
phone with a new simcard? Should I call my you know,
my current data provider? What I may well recommend? And
I talked about this the past several times this past summer,
shortly since I got back to my trip in China
last last April. What I did is I actually got

(59:10):
used an e SIM, particularly from a company called Era Loo,
and I've talked about that. For those of you who
still don't get it, who still don't understand the way
I explain things, I'm gonna make it easy for you.
I'm gonna go to the resource. I'm gonna go to
the source. Right now. I'm actually gonna talk to for
a few minutes someone from Ara Loo herself. I'm going
to bring it right now. Her name is Emma Brooks.

(59:31):
She is with ARROLO. She joins you right now. I
bet our sound is clear, Emma, because you're talking on
an aar Low SIM card, right, come on, of course always, Hey,
thanks so much for your time. I really do appreciate it.
For those who still who don't know and you still
can't understand the easy way I explain things, I'm going
to ask you what exactly is an e SIM and

(59:55):
how does it work?

Speaker 4 (59:56):
Absolutely, and thank you so much for having me on
the trip and talking. It's great talk about Airlow. We're
thrilled to hear it. eSIM stands for an embedded SIM
and it's exactly what it stands. Sounds like it's a
digital SIM card. So if your device supports eSIM. You
can download a data, a voice, SMS and data plan
straight to your phone and use that when you're connecting

(01:00:17):
abroad rather than using, as you mentioned, a traditional SIM card,
you know, paying for roaming or just relying on finding
hotspots wherever you're traveling. And because that eSIM is built
into your phone's hardware, everything happens digitally, which means you
don't need to be digging around for a SIM tool,
or waiting in line when you get to the airport
to buy a SIM card, or even just juggling those

(01:00:38):
multiple SIM cards while you're traveling worried you might lose one.
So it's a traveler's dream, it really is.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
It was very simple to use. And again there's there's
I guess we'll talk about the traditional type, which is
the SIM card. And I think people may be familiar
with this thing. Every phone you have right now in
your hand to my listening ONDI is right now pretty
much if it's several years old. Traditionally they've had this
SIM card in this this little tiny slot that you

(01:01:06):
take this little tiny paper clip device and you pop
it out and there's this card and it's about the
size of my my pinky fingernail. It's a really thing.
But that actually is that that's the phone number, and
that's the data type of thing. And that's the traditional card.
But newer phones and and this is yes they're the iOS,
but also the Android ones too, they have a built

(01:01:28):
in you know, the e SIM opportunity where you can
download that eSIM number. And that's how I did it
with Aerolow. I went in and I knew I was
traveling to a particular country. I was trying to figure
out how much you know, you know, data I was
going to use in terms of gigs, how long I
want to do is? And I, you know, I paid
for it, and I downloaded the SIM card and I
always set to go. Which what would you say some
of the main benefits of using an eSIM from Aerolow

(01:01:52):
instead of that traditional SIM card I just talked about. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:01:55):
Absolutely, there's several key benefits, especially for travelers, as you mentioned,
very convenient to use. You download it and you activate
it remotely before you leave for your trip. At home.
That means no more, you know, as I mentioned, searching
for that local SIM vendor when you get to your destination,
you know, dealing with multiple potentially physical cards or dealing

(01:02:17):
with multiple physical SIM cards. If you're traveling through different
countries even you're going to need different SIM cards. And
generally airlow sims are much more affordable than international roaming rates.
Allows you to avoid that dreaded bill shock when you
get home from your trip, when you realize you've been
roaming and paid for that roaming. And the other great
thing is you can get transparent prepaid pacing up front,

(01:02:38):
so you decide how much you want to spend, you
don't have to spend more if you don't want to
spend more, and you always are able to check in
to see how much data you have left. Generally, sims
are more secure, they're better for the environment, and they
really just help travelers stay connected.

Speaker 1 (01:02:53):
Works through if you could about how somebody would set
up and use an aerolow eSIM before trip. I find
it very easy and convenient, but I'm gonna let you
kind of explain it.

Speaker 4 (01:03:02):
Yeah, So the first thing we always say is make
sure that your phone is ESOM compatible and network unlocked.
As you mentioned, the newer smartphones generally are ESOM compatible,
but it's always good to make sure. And then we
recommend you set up your eSIM a day or two
before you leave your trip. For your trips, so make
sure you're on stable Wi Fi, likely at home. Very simple.

(01:03:23):
Download the air low app, create an account, start looking
through the plans based on what destination you want to
go to. Once you purchase that plan, it walks you
through step by step installation guide. And then before you leave.
I say you're at the airport getting ready to take off,
just switch off your regular SIM for data and turn
on your eSIM. What it does is as soon as
you land, it will connect instantly to the network and

(01:03:45):
you're good to go. Very very simple. You also can
manage autotop up if you want. That'll less you stay connected,
just in case you're running low on your data.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
Simple to that. I try to tell people like that,
Why did you make it sound much easier than I
even hide you? That's all simple. Talking with Emma Brooks,
she is with aerolow AI r Alo Aerolow. You can
go google that. Talk about the number of destinations or
maybe the countries that aerolow supports. Right now.

Speaker 4 (01:04:12):
I mean, if you're traveling somewhere, we likely have an
eSIM for that destination. We have coverage in over two
hundred plus countries and regions, so pretty global, and we
do offer several different types of plans. You can have
country specific plans if you're only traveling to one country.
We offer regional plans if you're going to Europe maybe
and traveling to a few different spots like Italy, France, England.

(01:04:33):
And we also have global coverage with our Discover and
Discover Plus plants. So if you're a digital nomad and
you're kind of permanently traveling, we have a plan that
covers you anywhere you go.

Speaker 1 (01:04:43):
You say there, I mean, are there any maybe misconceptions
that people have about eSIMs. You know, they're too tough,
they're too easy, may they're not convenient. I mean, I mean,
what's what's out there? I mean I find them convenient,
But what do you say?

Speaker 4 (01:04:55):
I think the thing we hear most is that people
think eSIMs are only for really tech sav users. I
think in reality, it's becoming easier to install over time,
Like some of it is the hardware dependency and how
the hardware your phone is actually set up, But over time,
these newer devices are making it easier to install and
activate eSIMs, and then eSIMs in general can just help

(01:05:16):
you keep you safe online. You know, especially when you're traveling,
you're maybe connecting to some sketchy Wi Fi connections. You
don't necessarily know what people are able to access, and
ESOM will keep you secure and safe because you're using
your own data.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
I mean, it makes sense. Before we let you go,
people want to learn more about it. They want to
get started, read about it like that. What's before the
next trip? What's what's the best information you can give us?

Speaker 4 (01:05:41):
Best place to start is download the airlow app. You
can get on both iOS and android. Within that app,
you can browse all the different plans we have, install
your eSIM, check your usage, manage everything in one place.
We also have our website at airload dot com, so
lots of helpful information there, step by step guides. We
have a great travel blog if you want travel tips
and tricks, and we also have support twenty four seven,

(01:06:02):
so if you know, in case you do get stuck,
our support team of there is really there to help you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
What you're doing, you're really making the world smaller, right
because no matter where you go, we're all connected.

Speaker 4 (01:06:13):
Yes, absolutely, we definitely agree with that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
I like it. Okay, all right, So before I let
you go, I just I just have one idea that
you know, maybe we should hook up with your PR
company or your marketing folks. Here's here's my suggestion. I
should actually travel do a worldwide trip, partnering with Aarolo
and no matter what, I'm gonna close my eyes, spin
the wheel, I'm gonna fly over there, do my radio
show all connected through Aarolow. Okay, I love it. Good. Yeah,

(01:06:39):
so I have nothing else to do for the next month,
Let's let's just travel around them. And as you said,
it doesn't matter what country odds are, Arolow covers it.
So let's get Lily. Okay, I'm gonna let you work
on that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:49):
Okay, Well, both contact my people.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
It sounds it sounds good. It sounds good. Listen, Emma
brooks Arlow, congrats on the success. Truly truly easy to
use something like this, and I know a lot of
my listeners are probably going to take advantage of it.
So I do thank you for your time, Thank you
for having me. You got it absolutely all right, people,
Before we go to break, if you do have questions
about this or other you know, tech travel related gear,

(01:07:13):
more than happy to answer your questions open phone lines
seven one three, two, one two five nine five. Oh.
Obviously you can find me on the socials at high
Tech Textan and also at high Tech Texting dot Com.
It's Michael Garfield, Don't go anywhere. Final segment of is

(01:07:52):
this I guess potentially final free weekend of the summer
of twenty twenty five. I say this because back to
school time people. It's what kind of the some of
the things that we have been talking about in this
edition of the High Tech Textan Show. Michael Garfield Garf
my nickname. That is your your host who will be

(01:08:12):
finally shutting up and having his own cocktail here in
precisely six or seven minutes. I do thank you for
listening wherever you are across the state of Texas, certainly online,
if you're listening to the iHeart Radio app, you can
find me high Tech text and h I G H
T E C H T E X A N. If
you're in Austin, tune in this coming Monday, every Monday morning,
seven forty five am on Fox seven. I have a

(01:08:36):
segment either I am live in studio semi pre recorded
that will kind of trick you because you don't know.
I'm actually there. It's the magic of TV, folks. It's
it's it's like the little it's the powder. It's a
little makeup that I'm wearing. You know, you could just
you know, even a pig can look good when he's
on TV. It's my real hair, though, it's my real hair.
What I'll talk about actually this coming Monday. If you

(01:08:59):
get a new device, let's say you're getting a new phone,
but specifically back to school, back to work. You're getting
a new laptop, you're getting a new desktop. And and
I did the story because I just got a new desktop.
I get a new desktop computer probably every three years,
every three years or so. And I'm not listen. I'll
tell you right now it's a for years and years.

(01:09:21):
I'm an HP guy. I'm an all in one guy,
meaning I get a desktop computer. It's not just here's
the monitor and there's the cord that goes down to
the ground where the computer tower is. Now everything is
built into the monitor. So it's an all in one.
I've used an all in one fifteen years. This Mama

(01:09:42):
is massive. What is this thirty three thirty four thirty
five inch diagonal? It's big. It can rotate horizontal, vertical.
I mean, it's phenomenal stuff. Neither here nor there anyway.
Point is I needed to get all my old stuff,
all my data, all my pictures, my videos, my email,

(01:10:05):
my files, my information, my passwords. I needed to get
that from the old desktop to the new desktop. And
there's several ways to do this, and I actually researched
it because it's not the easiest thing and it's a
time consuming process. I have about a terabyte worth a
crapola of everything on my desktop computer. And you just

(01:10:27):
can't push a button and just go zip zip it
over phone to phone transfer relatively quick. You get a
terabyte or more of data, you're gonna have to actually
send it. Do. Do you connect a cable in between
the two? Do you put it up in cloud and
send it down? Number of different things that you can
do so do I I got a segment aring this
coming Monday. If you're not in Austin to watch it

(01:10:49):
live seven forty five in the morning Central time on
Fox seven. I will have that on my website and
also all of my social media probably on Monday afternoon.
But I did use a soft that I downloaded, and
I didn't need any special cable. It did take a
number of hours, but it transferred everything. Everything it's set up,

(01:11:10):
has my settings, the same colors that I use for
the browser, the same passwords everything. It's it's very very simple.
So do I. That is one of the public service
things that I will do for you. Not going to
give out the phone number anymore. As we almost in
the radio show for this coming week, I was just
talking and thanks for listening to the interview that I

(01:11:31):
just did with the folks from air air lo A
are Alo. If you are traveling and if you are
thinking about getting an e an electronic sim card when
you travel, to make sure your phone is always in
connectivity versus you know, contacting your cell service, your data
service and paying extra and lighting it up. That's that's

(01:11:51):
one of the things that you can do. But to
talk about traveling, international travel not well. First of all,
traveling is not cheap anymore. Froday. I just got back
from Chicago and like dude, I mean I had to
cash in a lot of my Southwest Airlines points. I
mean don't even know what if I had to pay
for the actual thing, how much it was. International travel

(01:12:13):
is even tough too. But another thing other than in
e SIM that I may recommend when you travel is
getting and using and downloading a VPN, a virtual private network.
Those VPNs were vital when I was in China, because
China they don't like any Western anything. They don't like.

(01:12:35):
They may not like people from the West like we are,
but anyway, they don't like any of the media, any
of the I mean, you can't get my IHR radio show,
you can't download it in China unless you have a VPN.
I was able to make calls, I was able to serve,
I was able to send email over there because I
downloaded a virtual private network. And by the way, there
are some free VPNs. I would recommend paying for one.

(01:12:58):
There's a lot of them. I think one that I
I think I bought to Express VPN. I do like
Express VPN. Actually I was able to put that on
my phone, put that also on my table, put that
also on my laptop too when I was traveling. It
actually works very nice. But I saw this that there's
reasons to actually use VPNs virtual private networks even when
you're not traveling. It does predict your data when you're

(01:13:20):
at home, but also when you're at home. There are
sometimes you want to get to websites that if that
are not age appropriate, and I'm not giving you this
idea to give these to give kids under eighteen or
under twenty one bad ideas. So kids, if you're under
twenty one, turn the radio off right now. What are
you talking about? If you're under twenty one, you don't

(01:13:40):
listen to my show anyway. So, but it was an
interesting story, especially in the UK. The United Kingdom is
trying to attempt kids from accessing not safe for work
content and it's going about as well as you'd imagine
because kids are smarter than adults when it comes to
a lot of things. When it comes to internet, electronics,
social media, whatever. Kids have downloaded VPN apps in Gamebusters

(01:14:08):
because these kids are apparently using them to dodge new
age verification rules for some websites. What a VPN does
It disguises your IP address to make websites think that
you're located in another country. A VPN became the most
downloaded app in the UK last week. Half of the
top ten free apps in Apples app Store in the

(01:14:28):
United Kingdom they're VPNs. It's a new worldwide phenomenon. In Texas,
where I'm located, there are websites of the past year
or two that you have to have age verification or
they actually may not even be accessed in Texas, one
of which is you know, I hate saying it, like
porn hub or something like that. You laugh, hand to god,

(01:14:51):
I don't go. I've never checked out that website. But
my job is to cover this stuff. But there are
ways around of age verification. You could download these VPNs
and pretend like you're in any other country, from Canada
to Indonesia or anything, or like this Indonesia country. Sorry
about that. You actually could pretend you're somewhere else and
it gets you around it. This is what the world

(01:15:12):
of technology has become. There are no rules anymore. If
you are a parent, monitor your kids use as best
as you can. Don't let younger kids take their desktops,
take their laptops and use them in the room, put
them out in a public place in your home, use
them in the kitchen, use them in the dining room
so mom and dad can walk by behind it. I've

(01:15:33):
always said this technology sometimes that comes down to common sense,
and when it comes to kids, it comes to parenting.
Now talk about that because it is back to school
time and I wish all of you parents happy summer.
Is Ova kids going back to school? I truly, honestly
ope they were in the same study. Hard don't get

(01:15:53):
in the media industry. I don't know, don't take what Nichols.
I don't know what else I could tell you other
than that. Thank you for listening. Thanks to Will, Thanks
to Lacalan, Thanks to Brian Erickson, the program director of
all of our Heart radio stations across Texas, for having
me on. If you need me, I'm here from you.
We'll see you on TV in Austin next week. My
name is Michael Gardfeld. It's the High Tech Texan show
High Tech Texan dot com Who turn the ac up Baby?

(01:16:16):
Because any nearly over and it is a hot one
for right now. It don't matter because it is happy
hour and my show is over.