Tex Is Michael Garfild Michael Garfield. Michael Garfield's joining in the high Tech Texan.
Michael Garfield is here with a high Tech Texans items to make life easier,
some new technology. So Michael Garfield has something you might want. Michael
Garfield is your high tech Texan, three decades helping you make magic with your
gadgets. I heard worldwide on the iHeartRadio add now your high tech Texan,
Michael Garfield. This is it people. You have waited all year for the
new year to turn and come. We are just hours away. This is
the final high Tech Texan show of twenty twenty three. I don't know unless
my boss will say, you know what, on New Year's Eve, we
may need to do a special ad. Sorry people, because I'm up to
New Orleans baby, because it is sugar Bowl time from my Texas Longhorns.
Maybe we will ring in twenty twenty four in the correct way. In the
meantime, Happy New Year, howards, your Christmas. We've got a full
two hour show. Should you be listening on KPRC nine fifty am in and
around Houston and Southeast Texas. We thank you. I guess if you think
about it, well, actually I have thought about it. As the calendar
turns in, as we do the show another thirty six hours or so,
we will start the twenty first year, twenty second year of the high tech
textan show. Dang people, I am old, but do I sound like
it? Nope? Nope. Still got a little pep of my step and
I do think all the iced ty for that. You may be on vacation,
you may be in this mountains, you may be on a beach earning
twenty percent. Wherever you are, thank you for downloading the iHeartRadio app.
You could take us wherever you are most everywhere around the world. World.
We've got the phone number still working, and we're gonna be trying to do
a little interactive, nice little show for you here because it is the post
Christmas show, which means you got something for Chris, nah, and you
really weren't happy with it? Were you? You want to trade it in?
How do you get rid of? What do you do if you don't
like a gift? Hopefully you did say thank you to whoever you gave it
to. Maybe you like the category. Maybe you've got a headphone, maybe
you've got a TV, maybe you've got something but maybe that wasn't the brand
you wanted. Well, this is what I do. I actually can talk
to you off the ledge and you tell me what you got. You could
say, hey, listen, is the beats by dre earbuds generally about ninety
nine dollars in a bright red Is this something I want? Are they active
in oil? Was counseling? Maybe I need something else, Michael. This
is where you come in phone number seven one three two one two five,
nine to five. Oh, don't be shy, people, you have nothing
else to do. I know you're your blood. You're veins right now are
flowing with either a alcohol or B cheese, and congratulations that they're flowing with
both because you probably don't even know what day it is right now. This
is the weirdest week generally it is throughout the year, especially because Christmas,
New Year's that they're coming to Cayman. They're coming on Mondays. You probably
got the whole week off. And I posted on my Facebook last Wednesday a
few days ago. Obviously I'm a joker, I have some fun and I
put public service announcement. Today is Wednesday. You're welcome. That probably could
have been my most liked Facebook post of the entire year. People were laughing,
but it's true. You did not know what day it was this past
week. Because you were traveling, you probably didn't go to work. And
just because the way that the holiday falls. Either way, we are doing
this on Saturday, and as the calendar turns on Monday nights, sadly we
have to go to work again. Maybe in a day or two. In
the meantime, Yes, sah, we'd love to hear from you. How
do you? I will tell you this interactive people, I got a question
for you. What's your best and worst anything this year? Now? Yes,
it's called the High Tech Texan Show. Yes, twenty plus years ago.
I started out talking about computers, laptops that were incredibly expensive, incredibly
big. Nowadays they're small. Nowadays, they're like, uh, who cares,
doesn't matter what actually what kind of computer I have because there's so many
Windows operating basis and maybe there's a Chromebook maybe not. But what was your
best your worst of anything this year? Technology? Cars, food, drink,
travel spot, your favorite kid. I'd love to hear from you at
it. For some reason, you are too shot at all. You could
hit me up on some of my social media accounts, which is high tech
texting Hi g h T e h T e x A N. We'll start
with this though, how do you how do you get rid of unwanted Christmas
gifts? There are several things that you could do, and let me count
them down in no particular order. But there was a survey. Who did
this survey? It was or some retail website called we thrift. There was
a survey that was revealed that sixty two percent of adults received at least one
unwanted gift at Christmas time. There's also a survey in the Garfield Househole that
at least one adult did not receive one gift at Christmas time. I'm not
huh, I'm looking in the mirror, but that's okay. Don't worry about
me. I'm here for I am here for your enjoyment and entertainment. You
don't need to get me anything. So it doesn't matter if it's if it's
it's a cocktail, it's an alcohol, it's it's jewelry. You may not
what do you do with it? If you dealt well? Number one,
the best thing you could do with your unwanted gifts, in my opinion,
is to donate them to a good cause, I mean charity shop donations you
could apply for I don't know, maybe it could be a tax write off.
Maybe it's a tax relief. Charity shops, children's hospitals, bookstore,
schools, libraries, donate if you don't want it, and then they're selling.
Now these days, you have a lot of options, more than just
eBay back in the day. If you want to sell your unwanted gifts online,
there's a ton of different websites here. There's Facebook Marketplace, which actually
has worked for me if I wanted to sell a few things. If you
decide to sell your unwanted Christmas presents, yeah, maybe some of these platforms.
It's important that your item description is as detailed as possible, be clear
about the condition of the items. If you're dealing with clothes, put the
right measurements, photos, photos, photos, take photos. You can put
almost as many photos as you as you want. The more information you give
about your product, the more likely it's going to sell. You can also
recycle, you can you know, maybe do your built and help save the
planet with your unwanted gifts. A lot of retailers they have programs where they'll
buy back your own want to close, maybe your unwanted shoes. Maybe you
want to recycle your electronics, your games, your CDs. Then there's the
wonderful tradition of regifting. There's another one. If you think the present would
be better suited for someone else, probably should have no shame in regifting an
item to a friend or maybe a relative or equaintance. It's gonna give it
a little better home, kind of like the Island of misfit toys. Weird
on the island of miss fit toys. How about a water one it skirts
jolly or a cowboy that rides an ostrich listen. Regifting guarantees that the gift
is not going to go to waste. Try that. Just rewrap the present,
put it in new wrapping paper, cute gift back. Make sure you
take the go in the bag, and make sure that there's no card that
says hey, hey, happy holidays, Michael. Yeah, you really don't
want to regift that, just so you better hope that that person's name is
Michael too. There's returning and there's exchanging, and this would how many have
you spent this past week returning or exchanging? I mean, as an age
old tradition. I think the Three Wise Men they wanted to return there their
mrror. They try to go to Walmart on the twenty six, I think
it was closed. Listen, it's really smart and it's probably almost necessary.
You have to have a proof of purchase. This is different from years back.
Years back, you could go into so many stores and just say,
hey, this was a gift. Can I get store credit? I mean
probably not cash, but I'm file with store credit. Ooh no, no,
no no. Nowadays you got to have a gift receipt. A proof
of purchase sucks. But there are some rulers who retailers you don't do that.
Hopefully you can find one of those. And also one more before we
take a break. You can repurpose, hold on to the present, turn
into something news for yourself. You know, if it's I don't know,
maybe it's a set of towels or something. You know, maybe you can
use them to wipe up, to dry your car off, or something.
Number of things that you could do. But listen, if you were lucky
enough to get a gift from someone who loves you or cares about you,
good for you. That's really account. It's the that keeps on giving year
round. Clark. All right, when we come back, we will get
into a number of things, including how about the technology Fight of the year.
We're gonna do the end of the year stuff, the technology Fight of
the year, how about the tech promotion of the year. I saw something
that is gonna come in very handy this coming New Year's eve. I love
this idea. There's a business story of the year, and I will reveal
my tech product of the year along with some of my favorite cars of the
year. Because that's what I do. I test things so you don't have
to buy them until you get my thoughts. Michael Garfield, that's the name.
This is the High Tech Text and Show. Happy New Year, Happy
holiday, into the year, best of, worst of waiting for your phone
calls. Here's seven one three two one two five nine five zero, big
booming voice. Just told you my name. It is Michael Garfield. This
is called the High Tech textan Show. Calum reid Man, am I looking
at you across the window here? Hey listen, Boddy, appreciate everything you
do year round. How long we work together? We got we got three
four years. How long you've been here? You pretty much run this station
KPRC. Don't you you run all of our am stations. You're the program
manager. Really, could you put in a a media credential request for the
Natty coming up here in Houston in about a week, especially if my Longhorns
make it. Thank you for all you do year round, buddy, he
answers the phones. If you want to get in and ask me question,
tell me your best or worst. You could try to get in if Callum,
if you I don't know, you may be just kind of maybe you
have a hangover and you don't want to pick up the phone, but go
ahead and give them a try. Seven to one three two one two five
nine five zero. Number hasn't changed in well over two decades that we have
done this show. Hey, speaking of hangovers, Callum, you're gonna love
this story. This is this is my technology promotion of the year, and
it took almost to the last day of the year. It's it's from Burger
King. When is the last time anybody's been to Burger King. I used
to love King, like when I was. I mean, I'm going to
go back while I was thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, I back. You
know, this is before Hamburgers work oh they were hamburgers. I mean these
were fast food. The double cheeseburger, not the whopper, but the double
cheeseburger at Burger king Man that was the It still may be great. I
don't need it. I can't. I can't tell you the last time I've
been the Burger King. But if I was in Brazil over the next few
days, I actually may want to go. I would have probably walked into
a Burger King and tried this, folks. The technology promotion of the year.
And it's a promotion and it worked. It got an idiot like me
to give it, probably give Burger King two or three minutes worth of airtime
here in Brazil, the Brazilian part part of Burger Gig. They just announced
a surveillance technology marketing stunt and it's a stunt. It's this week. It's
called you in for This. I love this. It's called the it's called
the Hangover Whopper, the Hangover Whopper, and it celebrates this week, which
is between Christmas and New Year's with facial recognition. Now, if you think
this is scary, hold on, this is what you have to do.
You walk into a Burger King and all you have to do is hold your
bleary eyed gaze up to a camera. Burger King says, it's face scanning
software. We'll judge how hungover you look, and they will give you a
goopod for a whopper. Welcome to the future. People that you thought this
was nightmarish technology, Now it's a cute little promotional tool. I love it.
Ever ever at the end of there, every year, man, this
is hangover week. It kicks in walk in, but it's facial recognition.
I have no clue, but they go facial rection. I don't know.
Maybe you don't shait guys, Maybe you don't shave for two or three days.
You your hair's messed up. A technology is going to scan your hangover
level and offer a discount. You know how. It runs through January.
Second, Brazil. If you're listening online, if you are listening to your
favorite alto techna Trano, I take Texan. Do they speak Spanish and Brazil?
I don't even know. I apologize for that. If you're listening in
Brazil and you've tried this, you've got somebody Scott to give me a report.
How many of you have woken up in a post Christmas haze after one
too many glasses of a little veno. I mean, I'd be pissed if
I walk I'd be pissed if I walk into Burger King, whether I was
drunk or not. And I'm ready for a coupon. Oh boy, by
the way, the coupon. It's sixty two cents off in American dollars.
How much is a double whopper? Jr? Kid? Someone, here's what
they should do, little lislie cute promotion. I'm a marketing guy. I'm
gonna massage this number one depending on your level of hung overness. And I
just gave up with that word. Maybe you a breathalyzer test. Maybe the
the higher you blow that breathalyze your test, the more discount you get.
What's what's the uh the breathalyze? What's what's the max? You can drive?
Here? A point eight point one? I don't even know. Don't
try drunk, don't even try it. The more you blow you get it,
you get a free whopper? All right? See, maybe you blow
like a point oh one, maybe a point five? Yeah, okay,
there's your sixty two cents off. How mad would I be? Where I
really am hungover? It's like I was on a binge a last night with
some good brown water, and I walk into Burger Gane. I'm expecting a
coupon and this technology doesn't work. It's like, man, Garf, you
are totally sober man. I would just I do nuts. People ask me
why I covered this industry. I don't. I really don't do gardening,
and I did. I don't do a lot of No. No, I
do technology, among many other things. Oh, by the way, here's
the thing about facial recognition. This is my little asterisk. It doesn't work
that well. It's a It does a passable job. It is not one
hundred percent accurate with faces of certain people, certain of different backgrounds, of
different colors, of races, or no. It's really useless when it looks
when it's trying to measure your emotions or your political affiliations, or finding you
a date. It is probably no good for detecting hangovers. Congratulations, Burger
King. I've now given you three and a half four minutes of the high
tech texting Show. What else we got? Seven? One, three,
two, one five. I do actually like this. Did anybody get an
Apple Watch? The new Apple Watch? Nine? I'm trying to eat.
If you haven't heard the news. I updated you this last week. Apple
watched the latest version of the Apple Watch nine. It was banned through a
lawsuit with the International Trade Commission. This was the latest one because there's a
technology on the Apple Watch series nine of the blood oxygen measurements that a company
who actually came up with that didn't give Apple, or Apple didn't pay them
enough money. And I'm really trying to break this thing down. They stopped
sales I think December twenty fourth, and this was known for about two weeks,
so there was a rush. Oh my goodness, before they stopped selling
and pull it off the shelves. We've got to go buy one of these
things. Well, guess what it is back on sale. There was a
temporary court ruling. It's now giving the International Trade Commission until January tenth to
respond to Apple's motion for a longer term pause in the ban. While all
this is appealing, give me a break, man. This could have been
the best promotion of the year. Apple biggest company in the world. They
saying listen, we're going to stop selling our product on midnight and December twenty
fourth, which I really think it did. I think that was the we
gotta rush, we gotta get this thing. We get this thing, then
all of a sudden, we're gonna give it another few more weeks. Don't
laugh. Does Apple need more business from its watch business? Well as a
business, yes. You know how much Apple business generates from the watch side
of the company, About seventeen billion dollars a year. That's, according to
Bloomberg, seventeen billion just for the watches man who actually, okay, who
got watches, who got fitness watches, who got any type of watches.
As you know, if you long term listener, I'm not an Apple guy.
I'm not gonna say I'm not an Apple fan. I do not have
one product that's Apple. I'm an Android guy. I'm a Windows guy because
the majority of the world uses those us, those operating systems, and I
do want to talk to the majority of my people out there. However,
when other fellow non Apple people find each other, it's like the world unite.
I am at a store two nights ago and I'm returning something shocking and
I did not have a receipt and it worked and I got my I got
credit in the store, and there was this girl. I don't know how
she wish. She was probably young to mid twenties, and we were waiting
for a manager to come over to punching some code or something like that.
And I'm wearing my Samsung Watch. I have a Samsung Watch six Classic.
I've had love Samsung watches. They work very well. She has the exact
same watch. I'm the exact same color, the exact same model. She
gets so excited because you don't see a ton of these things in the wild.
And she holds up her watch. She goes, hey, look at
you, and I'm like, what are you talking about? And she goes
to watch. I'm like and I actually was shocked because I don't see a
lot of them, Like, hey, pretty cool. We're holding We're holding
up our watches together like we're the freaking Wonder twins like form of a mountain,
shape of an icicle, Wonder Twin Bower Activate. We both got Samsung
watches. If you got to watch, talk to me here as we take
a break. Seven one three, two one two five nine five. Oh,
do you want to switch it? Do you want to switch it?
Do you want to go from Apple to Android? Do you want to go
from Andred? There's a fit bit thing there's the garment. Garment makes great
ones. If you're a runner, some have worked better for you. You
tell me what you got, I'll tell you. If it's good, I'll
give you the thumbs up. Or you know what, you maybe want to
consider this one seven one three five oh. It's the bottom of the hour,
hour number one. Halfway through the first hour of the last show of
twenty twenty three. Michael Darkfield high Tech textan shizette going through the best in
the worst of pretty much anything that you want here on the year end wrap
up of the High Tech Textan show. A happy twenty twenty three being over
a good year, bad year for you people? This was let's say,
how about did you do? God? Do you rank years? Was it
a happy year? Was it a sad year? Was it a prosperous year
financially? Was it a crap year? Financially? Did something big happen?
You got married, you got engaged, you had a kid, you had
grand kids, you travel someplace that you wanted to go. Talk to me
here with love to hear Yes. Seven one three, two, one two,
five nine five oh. Doesn't have to be technology whatsoever. This is
how this show works. Your favorite tech. Your favorite car would you drive?
And actually, I'm going to rank some of my favorite, if not
the favorite cars that I've driven. One of the things that I do,
should you listen. I am a member of the Texas Auto Writers Association for
many, many, many years. I get to drive brand new cars directly
from the manufacturer. I don't deal with dealerships. There's like, I don't
recommend dealerships. I'm not These aren't paid. I just get to drive a
car from pickup trucks to evs, to SUV's, tow cuvs to sports cars
to all the stuff, the good, the bad, the nasty, the
slow stuff, the fast stuff, the sexy stuff, and the big gas
hog stuff. I would give you some of my favorites in each of these
categories. If you have some love to hear from you. What are your
favorite travel spots? What are your favorite drinks? Your food? What's the
favorite restaurant? Best restaurants that you've been to? Doesn't have to be in
the Houston area, could be around Texas, Dallas, Austin, anywhere in
the world. Who's your favorite kid? I've got three. All depends what
day of the week, what they've done, or what they haven't done to
me. You know, you're allowed to re rank everything, including your kids.
I really think they're and I can do it all I want to,
because my kids don't listen to my show. My kids are smarter than I.
Then. One of my favorite things is I've learned to drink rum more.
And that's just because I've found a very good rum. If you listen
to the show. I've been talking about it a lot. It's called Papa's
PLR p A p A Papa as in Papa Ernest Hemmingway, which is actually
his the Hemmingweight. That's his family. This is their rum made in Key
West. It's called Papa's PLR key I l A R. I did visit
a number of different bars, restaurants, and liquor stores this past week.
Is what else is there to do? And they are all over the shelf.
This is not just your Hey, let's just take a shot a rum.
I probably wouldn't recommend this rum of putting some cocaine there. This is
really I'm not going to call it high end, but it's certainly higher end
and phenomenal. Big you know what it is? Higher end. They've got
a blonde rum. It's not a white run. It's called a blonde rum
that's actually good sipping. Then they've got a sherry cask this oak oh phenomenal,
great price. I was at whereas that they serve it at Capitol Grill.
Shout out to Steve jos j o ees T. I think just Steve,
your parents are in town. If they're listening right now, a happy
New Year to them. They're at west On West Timber near the Gallery in
Houston. Walk in and ask for some Papa's PLR rum. I think I
actually put a bottle in my winelocker, which is not wine, but Papa's
PLR rum. It's a great gift for New Year's if you're going to somebody's
house to watch the Horns game or something today Saturday, if you're listening live
pretty much the last day of the year, you could go get liquor,
which, by the way, here's a public service announcement. Because we're in
Texas, you cannot go liquor stores are closed on Sunday, which we could
talk about at another day and time. Because that blue law is never going
to change. You better get it today because they're also not over to Monday.
Because it's January first, So you got two days of being shut down.
This is the bad thing about New Year's and even Christmas falling on Mondays.
It's two days of them being closed. What are you gonna do?
Actually, your car dealerships they also close on Sundays. Now they also get
a mondayut. Maybe I should have been in the car business because nothing stops
media. I am still here even though it is a holiday weekend. So
papas pla rum. Actually go check that out. The wrap up of things
happening around the world. How about this so the biggest technology fight of the
year, because there's always fights. I just talked about how the Apple Watched
nine was getting sued by a company, and then the government is stepping it.
I think the biggest fight that we saw, and it may never be
resolved. It comes down to Apple and Android, but specifically Apples. I
message, now, we're gonna smile this thing because I'm gonna raise my hand
and I'm gonna say people, I'm a green bubbler, I'm a green bubble
baby. I'm Android guy. Okay, I'm proud of it. I really
don't care. I don't care. But there was a number of things this
year that pointed to the fact that will iPhone and Android ever come together to
bring texting and chatting as simple as one I think there's good news and bad
news. Apple is probably never going to bring eye message to Android, but
it may not actually need to listen. I No one can speak in absolute
terms of Apple's plans in the future. Apple may not even know. Everything's
a rumor. But what Apple has done over the years, their products,
their strategy, their attention to privacy, and the fact that I think I
Message is probably one of the big reasons that some Android owners say screw it,
I'm dumping Android and I'm switching to the iPhone. I think the chances
of Apple expanding I Message to its main competitor are slim to numb. Now
there is some hope of some sort of a white flag truce when it comes
to a few things, one of which is next year will in the next
day and a half, it's going to be this year. In twenty twenty
four, Apple has confirmed that it's going to support something called Rich Communication Standard
for Texting RCS Rich Communication Standard, and that means some of the biggest issues
with cross platform texting or they're going to improve. So number one inches the
videos. Is anybody ever texted I don't know. There's a lot of people
who have iPhones out there. If someone on an Android text an iPhone or
a video, does it seem grainy and small? It does. On the
way back. A lot of people, including my kids, they text me
their little iPhone videos to my Android. It's like, what is it?
I can I hardly see it. That's going to go away. This rich
communication standard that means the videos will not be distorted. I like that a
lot. There was an app that came out less than a month ago that
I talked about here. It's called Deeper Mani NI. Well, there's a
deeper app, but there's a Deeper MANI little different version of it. It
was a workaround that you could install on your Android phones to make it seem
like you actually have an iPhone with my message and begin getting blue tech blue
bubbles or whatever you do. Back and forth, Apple cracked down on it.
Apple said nope, and they went back and forth and they changed everything.
It was going to take these things to me showed this inbred fighting.
Is it the war in the Middle East, which obviously is that that's probably
the worst news of the year horrible still going on? So am I bitching
or gry? Think about? No? You know we can't text between an
iPhone and Android. No, and this scheme of things is not a big
deal. But again, this is the stuff that I cover. It's an
understatement to say chatting with an Android user through the iPhone's default messaging app it's
kind of a bad experience. I get crap all the time. I am.
You know, I have a nine person eight I think it's an eight
person chat group for my high school buddies. I'm the only Android you know
here. It comes once every month or so. Hey, gorf man,
you're screwing up everything. I'm trying to send a video to you guys,
and it's not working. I mean, it's just it's it's it's like the
scarlet letter. We should actually call the scarlet color of green with these bubbles.
It's twenty twenty three. These features should be universal. Rather, the
position is platform specific, don't you think? So? What could you do?
Well? You could turn to third party chat apps. You can go
to What's App, you can go to Google Chat, you go to Facebook.
We have chats. But I message, which I've really never used,
is supposed to be phenomenal. Apple has. They've opened up their little walled
garden in recent years. It actually brought FaceTime to Android with iOS fifteen.
So let's go back about three years ago. Almost you could get FaceTime to
Android, which allows non iPhone users to join a video call. But yet
the iphoners have to send that person on Android a link, the shared link.
But apparently as I read it's what twelve years ago, that's when I
Message was launched. It's more than a messaging can app. It's like a
miniature operating system because I think you could send cash to other iPhone users.
Right, there's location sharing tools, there's a number of other things. I
mean, they do give iPhone personality, they give it some flare. So
if I was Apple, why should Apple bring that to Android rcs. I'm
looking forward to that. Don't know when it's gonna happen at twenty twenty four,
but for all you Android users, it's going to be a little user
to communicate with you iphoners. There you go. I'll tell you what.
That's my tech fight of the year, something that we're going to keep our
finger on. The pulse on as twenty twenty four comes around final break for
this hour, don't go anywhere. I'd love to talk to you. I
do see some people holding on calls. Apparently some people do do have some
questions over Hey, they got a gift, Should I return it? Or
is there a better product like this? In the category. A lot of
people are getting headphones and earbuds, thinking do I want a headphone? Do
I switch it to any earbud active noise canceling vice versa. Let's see if
we could take care of that when we come back after the break. About
ten more minutes to go until the top of the hour. Tell you what,
people just to count down a way not close to very close to twenty
twenty four. I do thank you for tuning in this year and every year
since. We have been doing this for well over two decades here on kp
RC nine fifty a M thank you so much. If you're on hold and
stand by, Do have some stuff I want to get through before I maybe
pick up Callum's what's the temperature of the colors? Are they nice? They're
being sweet? Are they oh? They are so okay? What questions do
they have returning gifts? Act? A lot of them want to know about
active noise canceling on your ear buds act a n C active noise canceling the
uh if you really want to wear find something for your to listen to music
but also cancel out crying babies on airplanes or whatever. Yes, you want
something with a n C active noise canceling and if you really want to make
sure that it works, I would get the over the ear headphones versus the
ear buds. The ear buds they do have active noise canceling. They drain
a little bit more of the battery that obviously have to charge you a little
bit more. But you know, to really drown out something, you want
something it's fully over your ears, kind of like we have here in radio
studios, as we call them cans. That's the name of these big in
ear studio. It's tough to actually have, and I think it's almost impossible.
Well it's not impossible, you can do it. I would love to
have right now in the studio. I've got headphones on the cover my ears,
not that they need to because I actually have I can use wired earbuds
using a Bluetooth earbud in studio and I tried this. Man I tried this
ten twelve to fifteen years ago, Bluetooth was coming out. I'm like,
oh, this is cool. I can use these as my monitor. And
the reason we wear headphones here in studio, it's because I can hear Callum
here on the other side. If he wants to talk to me, I
have to get it. And Plus when I pick up the phone calls.
Should I pick up a phone call, I have to hear you. And
if I didn't have a headphone and I picked up a phone call, there
would be a reverberation. You would hear yourself back and forth and back and
forth, and you can't do that. So that's why we wear headphones over
here. Bluetoth doesn't work because Bluetooth is generally a delay. It's a very
very short delay. And so the first time I try to wear a Bluetooth
and it's funny because we have to plug our studios. You know, it's
still old school. We have to plug these things in. We've got these
you know, three quarterjack or exl R plugs or whatever. So I had
to find a Bluetooth device that would number one have a separate receiver and transmitter,
so we'd plug the transmitter here into the console at the radio underneath,
you know, in our radio studio here at radio booth, that would transmit
it to my Bluetooth ears. But there was like a half a second delay.
Do you know how frustrating it is to hear yourself a half a second
delay, to hear colors half a second delay. It's very tough. So
the point is, we wear wired headphones for the most part, and I
use them over the years, so nobody else can hear anything that's going on.
So if you do want to have active noise canceling that really really work,
gets something that's over the ear. Beats by Dre Sony makes a good
one. You don't even have to have a name brand. Some company sent
me some. Again, if I'm wearing on a plane, these are good
for Bluetooth. I'm not not recommending Bluetooth. I'm only saying Bluetooth really doesn't
work if you're hosting a radio show, Bluetooth headphones are great. Make sure
that they, you know, have a decent enough battery, so you maybe
want to look for review. You can also can call me and run the
name or the brand by me. I've got several of them over here,
but the active noise canceling they do drain a little bit of batteries and so
if that is important to you, return what you got and go get some
with a n C. Those are going to be a little bit more costly,
but that's what's out there too. When you were delivered or when your
parents or whoever, if you're delivering something and Ups or Amazon FedEx, whoever
it is, left it on your porch, how confident do you feel that
that package is not going to be stolen? Because we talk about porch pirates
all the time. Porch pirates, this is this is these are bad,
bad navarious people. They will steal packages that are sitting on your front door
and you'll never see them again. Yes, we have these new ring video
cameras that will help do it, but it's a it's a multi multi million
dollar, you know, sad opportunity that we're losing a lot of packages.
I say this is because there is now a new theft for us to worry
about, similar or a kin to porch pirates. Are you ready for this?
And this is especially in Texas. If you have a pickup truck with
an open cargo bed, people, there's it is cargo. It's cargo theft.
Has this ever happened to you? There are listen my job. One
of my jobs is I test drive cars and trucks. There are more trucks
one about every six trucks in the United States, I believe. I think
that's the status sold in the state of Texas. Of our trucks. We
have pickup trucks and a lot of it. Yes you can, you can
get covers, but a lot of them have open. Has anything ever been
stolen out of your pickup truck? I could see hands being raised everywhere across
the listening audience. Call me if you've if something's ever been stolen out of
your pickup truck? Seven one, three, all right, Well guess what.
There's a new method to prevent cargo theft. Ford has worked with security
company A d T and they have invested in something called the Canopy pickup Cam.
Folks, this may be the last minute, late holiday gift for you.
Canopy pickup Cams a device that has two main parts. One it's a
high def camera and it mounts to your rear window and it keeps watch over
your truck bed. And there's a hub unit that tucks under the rear seat
to power it up. Very simple to use, right out of the box.
And the camera uses a combination of get this artificial intelligence, radar,
accelerometers and cameras to monitor and record record anything sneaky deep going on, like
someone reaching into your truck to steal tools or something. If it happens,
it sends you an alert through an app on your smartphone. But it doesn't
bug you if people are walking right outside of your truck, next door next
to it, maybe if you're in a parking lot. See that's the magic
of artificial television or AI in itself. Now, the hub powers up and
it keeps itself charged through your car, your pickup trucks OBD two port and
that's the little port that's under your Every vehicle has it. It's underneath your
steering wheels, or it's underneath the dashboard. You pair it up your smartphone.
It sends alerts and footage to you over in a cloud. So if
you've got your car broken into, especially if you have pickup trucks, what
do you do. Hey, I'm gonna park something, I'm gonna have to
schlep all, I'm gonna have to take my golf clubs out, I'm gonna
have to put them in the back seat and lock it up. I still
might be would would do it, But the fact is, maybe you get
a little sense of peace with this CA Cannoby pickup cam. It's two hundred
ninety nine dollars and then there's a fifteen dollars a month subscription. Cargo theft
is relatively common. I've seen some stats over here that unlessen the more places
that you have pickup trucks, Like you're Texans, You're your stories like this.
It's like a dash cam too. Who has dash cam? Dash cams
are very popular. I get a lot of people, Michael, to use
a dash can. Well, I mean I switched cars every week. I'm
test driving one, so I don't use a dash cam. But these are
little cameras. I mean, you can get these things for fifty seventy five,
maybe one hundred and fifty dollars, depending on what how you want to
use them. You put them in and maybe your front window, and it
records everything as you're driving, and some of them have a two way wood.
Not only does it record as you're driving, it records what's going on
inside the cabin. You see a lot of these in ubers too. I
mean you can catch everything from rainbows to tornadoes touching down to drivers, but
some plate in some points for insurance purposes. It actually works well. Car
technology right now, hey, listen as we in the first hour, next
hour, we're going to go over some of my favorite cars and trucks that
I've driven this year, maybe the best one of the year. Your phone
calls and other news as we wind up the year. In the High Tech
Texan Show is Michael Garfier Michael Garfield. Michael Garfield's joining us and the high
Tech Texan. Michael Garfield is here with a high Tech Texans its to make
life easier. Those are some new technology. So Michael Garfield has something you
might why. Michael Garfield is your high Tech Texan. Three decades helping you
make magic with your gadgets. Occurred worldwide on the iHeartRadio after now You're high
Tech Texan. Michael Garfield. Halfway there, people, we are halfway through
the final High Tech Textan Show of twenty twenty three. I hope your Christmas
was fun. I see all the phone calls here this past hour. Maybe
I'll pick what up you love your present, because I'm asking for your best
and your worst. We are halfway to happy hour, as we say,
half the hour brought to you by Papa's p lar Rum. Do you like
rum? Don't sleep on rum? People. There's a many many things.
Did you ever try to rum? Old fashioned? Actually? Go try one?
Are the four vertells. Papa's pla rum. You can get that everywhere
from Total Wine Specs, Goody Goodie and some of your free great restaurants too.
I was over at the Capitol, grew up Blue Lagoon restaurant down in
Texas City, Big Lagoon down there, they got Papa's peel out rum.
So wherever they serve this fine rum, more than happy to actually let you
know where it is so you can try it. I'll give you the phone
number. Callum. You've been answering the phones, my buddy. I appreciate
it. It's seven one three two one two five nine to five. Oho
number has not changed in the twenty one twenty two as the calendar changes.
Here the next day or two, we're getting into another year that we have
been doing this. I've been doing it well, not half my life,
but I don't want to give away my too much of my government and my
age. But I do thank you for spending all this time I was at
it. It was really nice. I was in a cademy. I love
the guy. I said this before I was an Academy. This is not
a commercial for Academy. I love Academy. If somebody would give me a
gift card to anywhere, I would just generically, let me just say a
sporting good store. And I'm not a Dick sporting goods fan, so I
guess we got Academy as the de facto Texas based supported it. I've at
Academy after a few days ago because they were having their after Christmas sales,
picked up some new running gear and stuff. It's really nice. I'm standing
in line and I guess it was a father and his son son. I
don't know, maybe he was ten twelve years old. And he's looking at
it, and I'm looking like a schlep pound man. I have shaved.
I have it shaved three days and I'm just like, you know whatever,
it's minding my own business. And he says, are you Michael, are
you? Are you hey? High tech texting? Is that you? And
I'm very very nice. He's been listening for a long time. I think
his name was Greg introduced me to his son and it's it's neat. I'm
like, okay, it's amazing how people know what you look like on radio.
Hey Michael, look you sound fatter on radio. Well, thank you.
I appreciate that. I guess that's a compliment because I'm not as fat
as I sound on radio. Why am I talking about this? I'm not
sure. Uh. Streaming very big news, very big stories. In twenty
twenty three, how many stream services do you have? You have too many?
I know you have too many. You really need to think about how
do we save money? HBO HBO Max renamed itself to Max. That was
a big one. Prices went up across the board, a lot of them.
And I see this. This is another PSA for you. Amazon Prime
Video. I actually do have that one, but I may not have it
for long. I don't use Amazon that much. I really don't. I
actually I got Amazon Prime the service years ago because I wanted to watch one
TV show. I wanted to watch The Marvelous Missus Masel which actually was worth
it. That went off the air. They stopped making I think after season
five it was and I've kept it, and I mean, if I buy
a few things a year, that's about it. I just I don't go
nuts. But anyway, but with Prime Amazon Prime, which is what maybe
one hundred and what does it come out to one hundred and forty hundred and
fifty bucks or more per year? You do get Prime Video, you get
Prime Music, you get some other crap. What do I Starting on January
twenty ninth, just about a month from right now, guess what's gonna happen.
If you're watching Prime Video, You're gonna start to see some ads.
Amazon They're they're going to incorporate advertising into movies, in TV shows on the
Prime Video service. And it is January twenty ninth, and I'm going to
give you a quote from Amazon. Quote, this will allow us to continue
investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time.
Unquote. If you don't like ads, guess what? Feel free to
pay an additional three dollars per month to avoid the advertisement. You may have
got an email. I actually got an email a few days ago. Amazon
Prime currently costs what about fifteen bucks a month? One hundred and thirty nine
dollars annually. All right, now you can do Prime Video alone for nine
bucks a month. But there's new charge for ad free streaming. It's gonna
bring Prime to about eighteen bucks a month, and then we push the standalone
Prime Video to about twelve bucks a month. They're doing this because competing streaming
services, they continue to raise subscription rates across the board, and they're pushing
ads on customers do with their cheapest monthly pants Disney Plus, Hulu Max,
Netflix Paramount Plus, they include ads on there. I guess the most affordable
I mean that were the most affordable tears. Now, the monthly cost of
Amazon Prime is not changing, but you may want to decide whether you want
to have ads or not. By the way, this portion of the show
we're brought to you by US Coins and Jewelry. US Coins and Jewelry.
They've been around for two generations. My good friends the Duncans, Skiddy and
Matt Duncan. They are on Katie Freeway just outside of Voss. What a
great way to start your year off. They can you could purchase gold,
you can. They could buy your gold for you too. They've got rolexes.
They've been around and they are the most trustworthy people sell your coins in
case you want to, you know, some extra cash hanging around, or
you can buy a lot of things. They have sports card collectors and things.
You see what I did, Folks, listen for that forty five seconds?
I just read you an ad. You know what it did? It
kept this radio show free for you. What's the trade off there? Are
you cool with looking ads or listening to ads without paying extra for your prime
membership or any of these other ones? You see, that's what you have
to do. We now return you to Raguar programming, but we do thank
you us. Quaintine Jewelry. Ah. You know what's happening now with movies.
Movies now are getting released in theaters and within one to two weeks they're
coming to streaming services. Does this spell the in for movie theaters? I
don't think so. Did anybody go driving on Christmas Day? Did you just
drive? Did anybody drive by a theater, a cinema? The parking lots
were packed. I love saying that, I really do. And it's a
tradition unlike any other other than Chinese food on Christmas Day, going to a
movie on Christmas Day, I don't think movie theaters are really going anywhere.
It looked like it during COVID Tom Cruise Maverick brought everybody back. But it's
good to know that at least that industry is still kicking because experiences. Listen,
we love the ease of going to Netflix or a Prime or any of
this stuff. It's so great just to dial it up your land in bed,
just sit in front of your fire at home. You canna have twenty
people watching. You can watch it alone. But unless you have a home
theater with a massive screen, Dolby surround sound, hap to feedback chairs and
fattening nasty popcorn that people love, it's an experience. There are so many
experiences. And again I'm an old guy. I get off my lunch.
There are so many experiences now that at some point probably will be lost.
And I don't know when and if the movie theater experience is gonna be lost.
But the more that these companies, of these streaming companies are trying to
get you to subscribe, really do have some quote unquote compelling content unquote.
As Amazon said, we may actually see that the demise of things like theaters,
which I miss. Sneaking into a doubleheader also forty five more minutes coming
back. We're going to talk about some of the favorite cars that I've driven,
some of my and anything with uh that you want to ask seven one
three two one two five nine five oh. Including I'm going to give you
my technology product of the year. What was your favorite tech product of the
year. I'll give you hint. It's a it's a product, but it's
also a service and it came out right around July fourth, and it came
out like gang Busters, totally free. Do you use it? All?
That? Coming up next to the high tech text and Joe, I'll give
out the phone number depending on if I'm an answer not seven one three two
one two five nine five. Oh. Happy New Year people, Baby new
Year about to come and about a day and a half here as we do
the show last Saturday here of twenty twenty three, but doing it for twenty
plus years. I do thank you for everybody listening come up and saying,
hey man, you give me some good advice. I'm trying to give you
some good advice. Would you get for Christmas? You want to return it?
I am or exchange it. I'm here for you. Let me know
you can go to all my social media sites, high tech texts and high
te c ht e x A N. I drive a lot of cars for
a living. You listen, and for fifteen years, I will tell you
what's kind of a game, what's Michael driving this week? And that pretty
much is well, well, it's because I'm a member of the Texas Auto
Writers Association and I happen to be one of how many maybe there's twenty thirty,
maybe there's thirty of us forty in the state where we review cars and
I've done it for a while. We get these directly from the manufacturer.
There's two car services in state of Texas and they're kind of holding companies and
it is out a dealership. We go straight from tier one. So the
dealerships the manufacturers, they will ship these vehicles kind of into a holding place
here in Texas. And every week I get a car that is delivered to
my house and I get to drive it. It is brand new, and
they want my thoughts, good or bad. It is not paid for.
There's no endorsements. So I can tell you some crappy ones. I can
tell you some gorgeous ones. I have driven in twenty twenty three, probably
fifty two weeks a year sometimes ago. I have probably driven seventy to seventy
five different new vehicles, from pickup trucks to sedan's to sports cars to fast
cars smart. So it's they are and I started doing this because they are
based on technology. I realized many years ago that cars that they're all they
are, it's technology on four wheels. They are getting smarter, they are
getting cool, they're getting more electric fied. And you know my thoughts on
electricity, which we can get to. I will give you one of the
one of her two of my favorite electric cars. Not that I recommend electric
cars to people, but I will give you my thoughts. And so I
don't know where to where do I even start. I've got a kind of
a list of all the cars that were really, really impressive, one of
which is I think my brand of the year, if you will, it
may be Genesis, and again not an endorsement. I've driven three or four
different Genesis vehicles and I am very, very impressed of how far they have
come. One of the better, one of the I guess top of mind
ones that I drove is the Genesis Electrified G eighty. That's what it's called.
The electrified G eighty. It's a sedan, and you don't see a
lot of sedans now because now it's the CUV, the SUV, maybe it's
it's whatever, but it's this. It's the typical thing. It's a four
door, low to the ground. It's not a pickup truck. You know,
generally fits two people in the front, three people in the back,
and you go from there. But what Genesis has done with the inside and
certainly outside, the smooth ride, it's pretty good. It is an incredibly
smooth ride. I love the interior. There is an electrified GV. There's
actually, let me give you a few there's an electrified GV seventy, but
there's also the electrified as what they call it, G eighty. It's got
a cool interior. It's really stylish. I love the grill and it kind
of won me over. It's a smooth ride. It's fun to sit in,
and very rarely do I sit in something other than the driver's seat.
I don't sit in the passenger seat a lot, and I certainly really don't
sit in the back seat a lot other than just to get in and out
to see is it comfortable enough. The electrified G eighty is something that I
would love to be chauffeured round in. It reminds me and it probably is.
This is a type of car where you can be chauffe did if you've
got the means to be driven around by somebody. You don't need to step
in into an suv. Sitting in the back seat of an electrified G eighty
is unbelievable. The back seats reclined. They have a console in between the
two seats that you can control so many things, the massage chairs in the
back, and the shades that go up in the back, and the air
conditioning. It's good, very high quality to the touch. I think you
can compare these two Cadillac Lexus of all a really really high end stuff.
Congratulations, Genesis did a very very good job. The electric cars. I've
been in a number of different I've probably had ten electric cars this year.
Electric cars are a pain in the butt. They're a pain in my butt.
I don't have a charger at home, so when I go or approach
the mileage ran, I have what's called range anxiety. I already have anxiety,
and so I don't want range anxiety, meaning uh oh, I'm down
to fifty miles, forty miles, thirty miles. I better find me a
charger to plug this thing in. Generally, I just want to snap my
figures and say, hey, listen, I need to drive to Austin.
I'm gonna go up to a UT game. I'm gonna go see my son
who lives in Austin. But well, that's Austin's what, two hundred plus
miles away from Houston, and in many cases I'd have to plan out.
Okay, if I take an electric car from my house on the southwest side,
I'm probably gonna make it three quarters of the way to bas Drop.
Let's find out where a bas drop. I mean, it's like triple a
trip tick, which if you're not over forty to forty five years old,
you have no clue what I'm doing. I don't want to have to plan
my trip. Electric cars are good for a secondary car. Electric cars are
good for someone who doesn't drive more than thirty forty to fifty miles commute on
a daily basis. Maybe you just want to take your kids to school,
take them to soccer, and you do have a charger at home, and
you do have one at work, So that's my thought of electric cars because
charging in America right now, you know, my thoughts not the greatest.
But in terms of cars, very impressed with the Kiya Kiva. Kia has
something called the EV nine. Always been impressed with this. I've driven two
or three different versions of these things. The Kia EV nine one of the
nice ones. It's an suv. It is it's the twenty twenty four to
one. It's got three rows, it's got two hundred and forty ish miles
of range, It's a relatively decent price for an EV of this size,
and it was one of the I guess neater if there's a ward of cars
that I drove this year. It's got a lot of interior space, relatively
attractive, neat little dashboard and key has been kind of on a roll Kia.
And again funny I mentioned Kiya in Genesis, so we've got, you
know, you know, things from what South Korea are something they're really doing
a good job in terms of an electric car. I certainly like that too.
So take a look at the EV six or actually the EV nine awesome.
I don't know if I said EVC, but it's the EV nine,
it's the new one. I didn't have not driven a Rivian. I have
driven the pickup truck. I have driven and electrified a Ford F one to
fifty lightning. It's good. I look forward to Chevy Blazer has an electric
vehicle coming out soon. I'm gonna try. In terms of trucks, there's
mid size and there's full size. I like mid size trucks because I don't
need to schlep a lot of things. I don't need a bales of hay
or anything. But here in Texas, it's fun look at a mid size.
One. One of my favorite mid sized vehicles I d driven this year.
Driven this year the Chevy Colorado. The Chevy Colorado, or if you
want a little upgrade, we took a look at the Sisters company, the
GMC Canyon. Actually, I think the Colorado took the It won't a lot
of awards. It was a Motor Trains twenty twenty four Truck of the Year
award. But it's it's it's a quiet, it's easy to park. You
don't have to have a half ton F one fifty dodd you know Ram fifteen
hundred. You don't have that stop. It's got good suspension. It is
a mid size so you can still haul things in back if you really want
to upgrade it. I know the Chevy. I think I had the z
R two model, which is kind of the outdoor off road type of thing.
Not that I do a lot of off roads, but take a look.
It's a relatively good price point too, versus some of those bigger trucks.
And I think overall, I have to have my favorite car of the
year. And if you're a longtime lister of my show, you know my
favorite car ever made is a Corvette, and it was last October I got
to ride in the brand new seventy fifth anniversary edition of the Corvette. It
was the C eight version, which is the mid engine, and it was
that Stingray version in it was the sexiest car I've driven this year, and
it is probably the sexiest car on the road. It is a head turner
if you look at it, just from them Maroni and if you get fined
one on the shelves, it's it's a fine one of the dealership. Yet
it only lists somewhere between seventy to eighty thousand dollars. Good luck finding it
at that price of it. I'm a sports car guy. I'm in the
stage of my life where I do not need an SUV. I'm not dropping
off my little kids at the soccer you know, we're the basketball games.
You could take one button touch of the automatic roof goes up and down about
what twelve to nineteen seconds. It is fast, it is loud, and
it is a head turner, and it is sex a y. It is
called sex a. My car of the Year Corvette taking a break out of
the hour, What was your favorite thing that you drove? Did you buy
a new car? They're getting easy to find during COVID, A lot of
issues with supply chain. Let's go find your new car. Let's plan for
one in twenty twenty four. One of the things that I'm here for thirty
more minutes ago. Final show this year twenty twenty three at the High Tech
Textan show, Michael carb what's everybody's travel plans for this year? Got anything
planned already for twenty twenty four? I am off I will beat in starting
the new year off right. Going to New Orleans this coming Monday. And
a little football game that's happening. Betrayed your University of Texas Longhorns and should
that happen? They will be here in Houston for the NATTY National Championship,
and then after that I am off for Vegas. Longtime listeners, you know
what I do. The first week or two of Vegas, I go for
the Consumer Electronics Show actually used to be called Consumer Electronics Show now that it's
called CEES CeX is. It kind of functioned as of a highly reliable crystal
ball. So if you're wondering what's going to empower consumers in twelve months,
you can look at this year's technology offerings. If you want to know what
consumers are going to be buying in eighteen months, you know, I pay
attention to the products that are going to ship in the third quarter of next
year. If you want to know what's in the horizon, you spend time
with big manufacturers to see what's on their drawing boards. And if you wand
you know, hey, man, if you're wondering about potential investments or business
opportunities, to me, CES is a great place to formulate tester technology based
ideas. It's I'm not gonna call it a secret weapon, but it actually
it's pretty fun. Twenty at least the twentieth year I've done this, and
I will be out there. I will be back. See it's not on
a Saturday, it's Tuesday through Thursday or Friday. So on Saturday, January
thirteenth, I will do my follow up what did I see at CES?
Better than that, it's what did Michael bring back from CES? A lot
of companies they give me toys and fun stuff to give away on the show.
It's Christmas in January, so you want to tune in for that.
My guess is I think AI artificial intelligence. I think it's going to be
incorporated into almost every technology I'm likely to see at the show. I think
there's going to be innovations in media, financial technology, I think the mobile,
the wireless, and it's definitely the automotive industry. I think the sports
industry. There's always there's an entire wing of the convention center. It's about
sports technology to sustainability. There's a lot of stuff going on, so stand
by for that. One of my big first things that will be doing it
is Vegas Paopball party time. I want to come up with my tech product
of the year. What was your favorite product of the year. Now,
listen, I'm I told you, I'm going over the best and worst of
everything in terms of travel, kids, restaurants, drinks. But it is
called the High Tech textan show, and I'm the tech guy that does not
get too techy. Very rarely do you hear me talk about gigabytes and megabytes
and things that blow your mind that I just you don't need to hear about
it. It's it's a consumer technology show. But I cover a lot of
stuff. But people ask me, what was the one product that stood out
this year twenty twenty three? Did it change your life? No? I
don't think it is. It's tough to find technology nowadays that actually change lives.
I mean, I'm again for me, I'm very when it comes to
technology again. Two decades I've been going to the Consumer Electronics show. How
many flat screen high definition TVs? Could I see? How many new phones
and new computers? You don't even see a ton of computers or laptops out
there, you know now it is it's almost a de facto auto show.
Then sports, financial, tech and media. Just like I said, what
was the one product this year? Though? That it took note and it
took people around the country, if not around the world by storm. And
to me, the news came on July third of twenty twenty three. It
was right before July fourth, wherever you were. I remember, I was
in Los Angeles. I was in southern California visiting my son. Out of
blue middle of the night, a new product or service, web based app,
whatever you want to call it, was released. That to me,
it swept the technology news world media cycle for weeks. Ladies and gentlemen tech
product of the year, threads. Do you use Threads? I spent a
lot of time in July and August talking about threads. Threads was launched by
Meta Mark Zuckerberg. Meta owns Facebook, that owns Instagram, what it owns?
What's thatpp? That owns a lot of things. But they launched what
they hope would be the Twitter Killer. It may have killed Twitter because not
long after that, Elon Musk, who owns Twitter, changed the name to
X. Did they do it because of Threads? I don't think so.
Did it kill Twitter? No, X, We're gonna call it X from
now on, but X does exist. I still have an X account.
Go to high Tech Texan, go to x dot com slash high tech Tech.
You'll see my and I hate call them tweets, but that's what we're
gonna call them. But Threads was a place that was anti Elon Musk.
Whether you like him or don't like him. I think a lot of people
realize that back in the day what it was called Twitter and X was is
it fake news? Eli Musk was certainly in the news by really ticking off
advertisers by using a four letter F bomb that I can't say here, but
he sure did. Hey, if you don't want advertise, not a good
way to run a company. It did lose a lot of market share,
it lost a ton of advertising on it, and it lost a lot of
people. And they decided to go to Threads. I use Threads. I
use Threads. It is free. It is almost relatively but relatively similar to
use like X. You could put characters one hundred twenty two hundred forty characters.
There's links, you could put photos this, you could put what you
had for lunch, you could put your thoughts, you could put the external
links. You could do whatever. But when it came out, they didn't
make an announcement. It was just pop and it was viral. Within a
day, they had one hundred million, I believe or something subscribers. Because
it was simple, the ease factor of downloading it, using your Instagram account
to create your Threads account and populate everything it needs to know. Didn't need
to really sign up. It was like, hey, Instagram owns. It's
the same company as Threads. Let's go ahead and use it. It has
progressed in the past six months. There was things that you could use hashtags
and sort, but now they're certainly figure that out. Seems like they're going
to improve so much so that I actually the person I think is what's his
name, Adam of Seri. He reports I believe in Zuckerberg. He's always
on Threads. I follow him and then here's the feed very you know,
hey, how can we approve this thing? What's going on? It seems
like a decent guy. It doesn't seem to me to have the vitriol again
that X does. Again, I don't follow politics, I don't follow lot
of the world news. I'm pretty much a sports guy and I follow maybe
what's going on in the auto world, some friends, some actors, But
Threads to me, it took off like freaking wildfar and without an advertisement.
There was no marketing. There was people like me going, hey, you
should try this thing. And then I spent the next you know, probably
a good amount in late July going, you know, doing all my media
rounds on the radio stations and TV stations I work with. Michael, Is
this the Twitter killer? And dare I said, I said, you know
what, this is about as close to anything so far we have seen as
a Twitter killer, because there was a number of other companies that people were
flocking to for the past year or two, Blue Sky and all these other
ones that I do when we don't know of don't even want to use because
they were difficult. You had to log onto a server. You don't want
to do that. You get your news? People? Wake up? What
do you do? How do you get your news? A lot of people
they've grabbed their phones and they've looked at their Twitter account. They look at
their ex account. Right now, they look at threads account. This is
not an endorsement for Threads. I like it. There are a lot of
people right now who's still to this minute, after a four minute discussion,
they have no clue what I'm freaking talking about with Threads. To me,
my tech product, my tech launch of the year, Threads brought you by
Meta. There you go, agree, disagree. There you go. Coming
up the final segment of the year twenty twenty three, the Business Story of
the Year, Any and all of your last questions and a fun kissoff farewell
of what I will missing this year and what I'm looking forward to in twenty
twenty fours High Tech Textans Show missed Mige Garfield shuit all to quinsoms me for
good? What is old Auld? Can someone explain it to me? We
got about eight more minutes left of the final show of twenty twenty three here
on the High Tech Texting Show. It is Michael Garfield. Actually, what
is the quintessential New Year's song? We have so many Christmas songs? Is
there a New Year's song? To me? There is. There's only one
New Year's song that you want to hear. It is Barry Manilow. Another
old lang zign. Google it another old langs It is Auld. I still
don't know what it means. But again I'm a very Maneloe fan, and
that's the one I don't need to hear. Bring in you know the old
Actually, uh, Dan Fogelberg, which is also another I believe that's also
another old lang sign. I like to Dan remember Dan Fogelberg. Of course,
I mean, I am going so yacht rock right now. It's not
even it's not even funny. Actually, Dan Fogelberg has one called the same
old lang sign. Barry Manilow has another old lnsign. Those are the only
songs I'm actually going to listen to for New Year's Eve, and then I'm
listening to the Ice of Texas for the rest of the next day. On
January first, I'm not going to give out the phone number because we are
finishing up and we were winding down the year here of the high tech tection.
I do thank you so much. I don't take you guys for granted.
You Gallas for granted for listening all these years, and hopefully all my
bosses and the people who actually keep me on the radio, the people who
sit in the carpeted offices down here at iHeartMedia, Eddie Martini, Mark Sherman,
Ryan Erickson. Yes, I'm looking at you too, Callum you too.
You kind of run KPRC. Thank you for keeping the entertainment here.
Saturday is eleven to one. Both AM and PM went through some of my
favorite cars, the year, worst cars, the year, best food,
best travel spots, my favorite kids, which the ranking always shifts depending on
what mood I'm in, what mood are in. My technology product of the
Year, I just did that. You're gonna have to podcast this to hear
it. The business story of the year, and I thought about this as
the business story of the year because it's also a technology based story, and
that business story is AI, Artificial Artificial intelligence AI. AI is everywhere.
AI is eating everything every company. Every person running some sort of a company
probably was wondering in twenty twenty three about how to use AI to make their
business more efficient. It was a year ago, almost exactly that chat gpt
was launched. That was big disruptive tech, but it became a corporate obsession.
There's a lot of people who worry about AI that could bring about armageddon.
But I think the consistence is that the new AI defined technological A just
here and big tech technology they're they're in where they're in a rush right now
to dominate the space to make AI experts the hot hot the year's hottest hires
for all these industries. But if you think about it, this is where
the money's at. I mean, the company behind chat gpt it was one
of the most valuable startups with evaluation of something like eighty six billion dollars.
And then you look at what Google's doing in meta and Amazon they spent the
last year making big sophisticated updates to their AI models and new AI powered tools,
and they're putting a ton of cash into startups to help their in house
innovation. I mean it's unavoidable. I mean companies have been infusing their offerings
with AI features left and right. Can listen. They're gonna help users learn
languages and in type messages and summarize your meetings. I mean, if you
can think of its someone's you AI to do it. To me, that
was probably the business story of the year. I mean, listen, we
can look. We can look at the Federal you know, the fed is
hiked their interest rates to the twenty two year high. I don't like to
look at that one. There was there was everybody went. It was on
strike. Apparently this year this summer, the Hollywood actors, the Hollywood writers,
the Detroit's you know Big three, I think ups workers they threaten to
walk off the job. There was a lot of strikes. But to me,
obviously I have to tie it a little of the little technology, and
I think it's the artificial intelligence, and to me that was the big stuff
for you. I don't know. I'm not going to pick up the photo
anymore because we're about four minutes away from ending the last show of the year.
You could tell me on all of my social media, including Threads,
which was my tech product of the year, you find me at high Tech
texts and spell the whole thing at h I g h T E c h
t e x A N. And with that, what am I thinking of?
I mean, I can start wrapping up the you know, the show
in the year. Next week we will certainly know who is in the Natty,
the National Championship, which is going to be held in Houston, Texas.
People in ourg Stadium. It is either gonna be one of four teams.
For a lot of our sake, certainly mine, the University of Texas
Longhorns would be nice if they would be there. After that becomes CEES and
who knows what twenty twenty four is going to bring, hopefully the conflict what's
going on in Gaza and Israel. It's going to be done. It shouldn't
have started. It was horrible to me. That was the worst story of
the year. Should never have happened. Not infusing a lot of politics or
world politics or geopolitics in my shows ever, but I do know when things
are right and things are good, and when things are bad, and things
are very bad health wise. I hope you were fine. I'd certainly look
forward to coming back from CES with a lot more health and wellness apps and
things to play with. We're going to be able to look at our watch
not only tell our blood oxygen levels. We're going to talk about our blood
pleasure monitors, but there you know, be nine to one one calls if
we're falling down or going too fast or in a collision. This is the
neat stuff that I do. You know, it's been one year exactly since
our good friend Randy Lemon has passed away. He was the Garden Goober and
it was an unexpected thing. Died at sixty one years old and affected me,
affected our radio station, affected so many listeners here in the Houston area
because you know, Randy was on the radio a few years longer than I
am currently, well over twenty years. And to give you a lot of
advice, I say this it's because life is fragile. Enjoy life, life
is short, have fun. It's actually you talk about a motto. I
literally have a piece of art that has a number of different sayings of what
I say, one of which is ovap, but also it's life is short,
have fun. I think about him, and I think about every people
that everybody we've lost this year. But all the potentially good news. Twenty
three was it the greatest year for MOI? It was better than twenty twenty
two. I did not like my twenty twenty two for various reasons. Had
a few little health things here and there. For twenty twenty three without giving
you my hippa or too much government. But whatever happened to you, you
know what, Be energetic, Try to be positive as much as you can.
That's what I try to instill. The stories that I talk about,
the products that I talk about, review, I try to have fun my
social media, my post, the things I get to do. I'm very
lucky. I worked hard and I still work hard of doing it because I
could turn my job into fun things. And if that's something that that's a
goal of yours in twenty twenty four, you do that yourself. If you're
sick of your mundane job, you have a boss, you have an old
boss who is about to retire. He or she is mean or is it?
Get off your button, do something, don't puts around. Maybe that's
your twenty twenty four motto. Go for it, because we're not going to
be here for a long time. The relative I say long time. If
you look at the universe and so freaking enjoy the time. And I do
enjoy this time, these two hours every weekend with you Callum Reid. I
do. Thank you. Happy New Year to you everybody else here at iHeartMedia.
I talked about my bosses. Thank you so much. But most importantly,
if you don't listen to people, I probably don't have a show.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Happy New Year. Next time
you hear from me, hopefully well be twenty twenty four on behalf of everybody
who's been a part of the High Tech Texting Show. Thanks for tuning in,
See you in twenty twenty four, because right now the last show of
twenty twenty three is over.