Is Michael Garfier Michael Garfield. Michael Garfield's joining us and the high Tech Texan.
Michael Garfield is here with a high Tech Texans items to make life easier,
some new technology, and Michael Garfield has something you might want. Michael
Garfield is your high Tech Texan. Three decades helping you make magic with your
gadgets. Heard worldwide on the iHeartRadio Act. Now your high Tech Texan,
Michael Garfield. Happy November. Did you be listening live? It is finally
November, and yeah, I'm not one of those guys. Let's say,
you know what, Gosh, it's already November. It's been a long it's
a little it's been a long the freaking year, and it is about time
that we get into the holiday season, which is my busy season because this
is one of the major things that I do. I am your guy,
your boy, your friend, your Powell, your Bobby who can actually help
you decide whether you should buy you shouldn't buy a product because this is what
we do on the High Tech Text and Show. Michael is the name Garf.
If we're tight, feel free to text me if you really know the
number, I keep that number. I may change that number. I'm getting
more spam on my cell phones, which is one of the things that we
can't talk about. I do a lot of consumer reviews and products. It's
not just technology, not just TVs, not just phones. I do talk
about cars. I have been really rolling around in some sweet test automobiles.
I get to brand. I get, if not one, sometimes two automobiles
a week, not from a dealership. I get them straight from the manufacturers.
I like them. I don't like them. I like some things about
them. I love saying love some things about them. Had an electric one?
Got an interesting election story. If you've listened to my show, I've
got a Is it a love hate relationship with electric cars? I think that's
what it is. I don't know if I would ever buy an electric car,
but I like electric cars. I will explain that later. Some of
the things that we were also talking about countdown. I got ten ways to
boost your cell signal. You ever had problems still nowadays in the twenty first
century, where your cell signal is just crapola, Well, it doesn't matter
if you've got an Android or an iOS operating system or what have you.
I can actually give you some ways to improve your cell signal, and some
of which I actually have used myself recently because I've been in places in my
travels where it's still ain't even near five G, so I'll tell you about
that. Privacy continues to be an issue. There is an app I mentioned
it a few weeks ago. I'm gonna go over it again because I've actually
used it right now. It's how to keep your data private, and it's
really begetting a lot of traction where it can help you regain control over your
data, and I'm gonna tell you how to use it. Also, AI,
artificial intelligence man that has been in the news more in the past three
weeks that I could think of your President, Joe Biden and what's going on
in the White House. They had a press conference earlier this week of how
dangerous and scary AI is, how they're going to really start slowing it down
so it doesn't go crazy. It is scary of some of the things and
the deep fakes and the videos that artificial intelligence could do. And then there
are things that you ask yourself, do we really need AI? Case in
point, A new Beatles song was released this past week by my count and
I am a music trivia buff two of the Beatles are dead, sorry to
actually bury the lead, and a new song came out thanks to artificial intelligence.
Now listen. Another thing that you may know about me is I am
not a Beatles fan. The Beatles really were not a big thing in the
eighties. They were not, so I'm not a big Beatles fan. There
were Smidge before my time. Even though there are younger people who love the
Beatles. But I'm not a Beatles guy. Even AI could not help make
this Beatles song good. Oh I went there. Oh, I absolutely went
there. This is what you're gonna get from me. It is no BS.
Listen to people. I have a BS degree from the University of Texas,
and it does not stand for the Bachelor of Science. If you know
what I'm talking about, I'm gonna tell you it like it is. And
I'm gonna start with this one of the most exciting and most fun weeks that
I've had in a long time. Because and I want you to sit down.
If I'm based in Houston, the Houston area, I have been here
for thirty years. I am originally from Dallas. Parents still live there,
still live in the same house I grew up with that was the years where
I was. I learned to speak, I learned to read, I learned
to write, I learned to cheer in root for sports teams. I learned
all my friends. That's where I grew up. I'm still a Dallas boy,
so I have a lot of listeners in the DFW Metroplex. But the
Metroplex this week, my friends, the name has changed. It is metro
Flex because it is the home of the world champion Texas range As. A
lot of people tell me, Michael, you're based in Houston. Really,
you really want to ease down when it comes to alienating your listener base.
Listen. I have a listener base now that's all over the world. And
that's not a brag, but that's on iHeartRadio, which is an app that
has heard of the world. I appear regularly on a Dallas radio station,
I Pop on Dallas or DFWTV. I have a lot of a ton of
my friends still up there, So I'm not trying to alienate anybody from Houston,
because for some reason, when I grew up, I did not understand
that Ustonians really don't take too kindly to the city of Dallas. Because me
growing up in Dallas. We had zero issue with Houston. In matter of
fact, I was jealous of Houston because Houston's a larger city, per se
thing just Dallas, and I'm like, Okay, not a big deal.
I come here and people, oh, you're from Dallas. It's like they
it's like I shot JFK or something. By the way, I was not
born when that happened, so Doway a lot of people did not the Houston
Astros fans, and I am a Houston Astros fan. I am. I
used to live next door to James Mouton, longtime left fielder. The kid
grew up with them, kids the same age I used to go and I
still go to the Astros scams. We as a radio station and our sister
station here at iHeart Houston. We broadcast the Rockets. We broadcast the Astros.
I'm a fan past seven years ALCS ALCS people let me talk about the
Texas Rangers and just suck it up. I am in my fifties, let's
just go that way. For as long as my life has been around.
The Texas Rangers were can't say it over the air, I can say it
on a podcast. They were crapped as a little kid. I was a
little league kid. I used to go with my team. I used to
go with my dad. I used to go with my friends, my friend's
dad's. We used to sit in the worst stadium in Major League Baseball was
Arlington Stadium. It was the hottest place that you could ever imagine because we
didn't have a dome that was air conditioned like Houston. Another reason to be
jealous of Houston. I sat in leftfield bleachers with my glove on, waiting
for a foul ball, which I never caught. In the seventies late seventies,
I rooted for Jim Sunberg, Toby hare Of, Mike Cargrove, Fergie
Jenkins people. I go back. I am a massive Rangers fan. I
was a member of the Doctor Pepper Junior Ranger Club. I go back for
years and years. It was horrible. Rangers made it to the World Series
and twenty ten loss. Rangers made it to the World Series. In twenty
eleven, I got to go to one game. We were not only one
strike away from winning the entire World Series. Twice it happened David Freeze came
on and he screwed that up. It has been years last Saturday Game two,
I said, screw it, I'm going to the World Sit drove up
to Dallas, went to Arlington. Three of my best friends, like kids,
bought tickets. Was not cheap. We lost that game. We did
not lose anymore because the Texas Ranges, the greatest road team in the history
of World Series Playoffs, has won it. So to all my people growing
up who are living in the Metro Flex right now, I salute you.
This has been one unbelievable week. I've already getten a memorabilia. I've got
the front page of the Dallas Morning News and it's really nice, and i'ma
say this. I actually wasn't scared, but I was wondering what was going
to happen when I, who lives in the Houston area for thirty years right
now, and I have so many Houston centric listeners, fans, viewers,
whatever you want to call them. Every time I post something about my Cowboys
or my whatever, I get crap and I'm thinking, oh, goosh,
here we go. So on Wednesday night, when that final out came and
I am screaming and waking up my neighbors, and I take a sip of
my pappy van Winkle, twenty three year old Family Reserve bourbon. I post
it online my feelings about my Texas Rangers. I'm thinking my comments. I
cannot wait to unfriend everybody because these Houston people are just gonna tip typical.
I haven't chipping my shoulder and Dallas sucks. Props to you Eustonians. As
of right now, still haven't gotten any crap. It's listen, hey,
Half of it is like, if the asterisk can't be in there, at
least we have another Texas team. And if not, do what Thumper did,
the great character from the Bambi movie back in the nineteen fifties. If
you can't say anything nice, don't say anything all. But I'm gloating right
now with my Texas Rangers World champions hat, and I thank you for indulging
me in that coming up holiday gift guide time. You can call me a
seven one three two one two five nine five zero with any questions you know
it to get me. I'm a size large. If you want to get
me any World Cities memorabilia, you're gonna go straight to my heart and you
go straight to the first CA or I'm gonna pick up. Also, how
is your Halloween? Oh I got stories, people, Michael Garnfield, here's
the World Champion Award winning Well, I didn't get a trophy. High Tech
Taxi show right here on KPRC Radio and iHeartRadio. Not only was this a
great week because my childhood baseball team, the Texas Rangers, win their very
first World Series ever, people, it was also a Halloween. And if
you listen to me for a while, I'm gonna tell you something. Halloween
is my favorite holiday. It's a holiday or is it a mini holiday?
Am I? And I I don't care how you how do you categorize it?
It's fun. I don't get into the scary stuff with the witches of
the week end of the Warlocks and everything. No, no, no,
I'll say it again. Man, whenever, what other time of year,
what of the world can you knock on somebody ring somebody's doorbell that you do
not know and they give you candy? Case close, case close. Halloween's
the greatest thing ever, by the way, So not only on Halloween,
which was Wednesday, Tuesday night, which I really didn't do anything. It's
sad my kids are grown and I probably would have put on a costume in
gone truck or treating if Game four of the World Series was not on,
but I had to stay home and watch it, so I kept myself company.
I live in a community. It's a gated community, and so I
didn't have any I had to say, had some candy hanging around, but
I don't. I really didn't need to expect a lot of kids coming.
Did not get a lot of kids coming to I didn't get any kids coming
to the door, which is good because I probably would have answered it because
I was too glued to the TV watching the other Rangers win that Game two
versus the Diamondbacks. So it's uh. The next day, obviously it's the
World Series, the Game five, the deciding game five, and so the
Texas Rangers Wednesday. Now I'm on a high because it's a sugar high because
I've loaded up with my reeses. I then my team wins, and then
the rest of the week it's half priced candy. By the way, I'm
open phone lines right now, and hey, callum, how are you do
you mind me talking about your Texas Rangers. I know you're an Astros fan,
would you indulge me? The Astros have had a lot of success,
give me a little love. Thank you so much, that's all. It
just indulged me. Here do you like candy? Callum? Have you calem
my producer? Here is on the other side of the glass. Have you
seen any what's the best deal in candy? Do you buy it a fifty
percent off or do you wait until it's seventy five percent off or maybe ninety
percent off? The problem is the more you wait, the more the candy
goes and disappears. There's a lot of people who will buy it at the
fifty percent mark. I'm kind of the sixty to seventy five percent markof guy.
And I go to the very small walgrains in CBS's and I don't need
candy corn, I don't want to. I just it's just anything with the
Reeses, the His pumpkins. I love the consistency of the Reese's pumpkin,
nice and soft. I'll take any time. If it's chocolate and peanut butter,
give it to me. So if anybody out there seven one, three,
two, one, two, five, nine and five, oh,
I don't know, if you want to call and give a tip of where
you keep your witch store has a good stash of candy on sale, but
weird looking. I mean, they've got to make room for Thanksgiving. There's
is there, there's a there's some fall candy like Hershey's Kisses makes fall colored,
you know, foil wraps, and then comes to Christmas candy. But
Halloween was awesome, so uh coolest? What was it? If I sa
Travis Kelcey and Taylor Swift, I don't know. I did not go to
one Halloween party boohoo again because I was I was in Dallas, and I
was in Arlington this past weekend and I was watching the World Series. So
this was kind of a weird halloweenish to me. But I will take this
every year if my team is in the World Series. So I didn't see
a lot of fun costumes. If you want to X me, you can
go to x dot com used to be called Twitter, High Tech Texan h
I G h T E c h T E x A n uh send me
a photo of your creative Halloween costume. And I have a lot of gift
cards hanging. I I have a gift card for red River, Cantina,
Great text Max place out in Richmond, Texas. Oh my god, the
Caeso Blancos just out of this freaking world. If I see some out of
this atlandish I saw some Benny Hannah gift cards. If I see some fun
things that really tickle me a funny bone, I will I'll d M you
back and I will send you some credit cards. I want the most creative
outfits that you wore. Don't give, don't give me, or you were
your kids? You or your kids still party and I have I have ways
to prove that. There's your phone number and again high tech textan you can
hit me on Instagram, Facebook threads. Also, I'm on there too.
What do we want to talk about over here? I would go through some
emails? Uh no, do I do? I want to do the I
wanted? Do I really want to piss off the Beatles? But yeah,
let's go ahead. So there's this new Beatles song out anybody Beatles fans?
Palm are you a Beatles fan? You're way young? Calum hel what are
you twenty three? Okay? There was this really popular band from England that
Paul McCartney used to be in before he went solo. All right, it
was called the Beatles. Okay, that's the easiest way for me to break
it down, really and pretty much. They were around for you know,
six years, nineteen sixty four to nineteen sixteen nine issues, so kind of
broke up and it's it's it's the de leite. And then one of the
founders was shot and murdered horrible and then and then then the basis, you
know, he died, and there's this drummer with a weird name he's still
living doing about I'm not I'm just not a Beatles fan. But anyway,
the point is a new Beatles song was released this week, which was not
the my high point of the week. So the high points of this week,
let's let's just go back. Rangers in the World Series. It was
Halloween, the Dallas Cowboys went and I also went to the Cowboys game up
in Arlington, so that was a great weekend. I got a Rangers game,
I got a Cowboys game candy on sale. And then there's the Beatles
that rings way lower over here. I heard I've heard, I heard about
a minute of this Beatles song. And what happens that The story is this,
you know, it's one of these lost tapes that have been found that
everybody had to you know, use art use artificial intelligence to actually clean it
up. But apparently John Lennon years and years ago, he was jacking around
in his apartment with a tape recorder or something and he laid down some tracks
and he did something but it was scratchy, and then George Harrison he didn't
like it. So, uh was it? Peter Jackson is at his name,
the guy who did Lord of the Rings. He also did that that
documentary a few years ago about the Beatles, And so apparently he found these
things and he used artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence to clean this a new song
up and then Ringo Star the drummer and Paul McCartney, they collaborated. They
approved it in the estates of you know, George Harrison and John Lennon approved
the whole thing, but this artificial intelligence, they they cleaned it up.
Hey, I just don't like any Beatles songs. This is not even near
a top fifty Beatles song I just did. If please call me tell me
I'm wrong and let me take this from a technology an AI standpoint, Is
this the right thing to do? Is it freaky when you hear a voice
of someone who has been dead? Was it December eighth, nineteen eighty So
it has been forty three years that John Lennon has been gone forty three years,
and his voice all of a sudden is in a new song. Does
that not freaky? Deeckey, I'm sorry they did this with Michael Jackson.
I am a big Michael Jackson fan because that was my era, and after
he died, just In Timberlake and another producer I forget, they came out
and they came out with a pretty good song. But it was a version
of Michael's vocals that they found. I put it together. It was one
of his best songs, but it was great. It was I didn't think
it was freaky. It was just because I'm such a Michael Jackson fan and
had a really good beat. I thought it was nice. But I don't
know if anybody just thinks that it is. The point is artificial intelligence.
This can be done after people are gone and people who don't exist. They
can do videos and they can imitate, imitate their voice. I mean,
if you think about it, we don't need the Beatles, we don't need
Michael Jackson, we don't need you too. We don't need any artists right
now. And this is why artists, and this is one of the reasons
why there was a big breakdown with a writer's guild strike and the and the
actors. What is artificial intelligence going to do to content? And do me
a favorite? Colum? Do not play it? I don't want. I
don't think we even can play the Beatles song because it's gonna cost a bazillion
gazillion dollars if we even have to try to play this thing. I don't
want to hear it. I don't play any any Beatles songs. But if
you listen to this, I just if you're a diehard and I gotta take
a break right now. If you're a diehard Beatles fan, let me hear
from you. Is this good? Is it? Is it? Is it?
Why did they? Why did they do this? I don't think any
of them, the two estates and the two living ones, I don't think
they need the money. Is it for the fans? Is it to keep
their name and their albums? You know, playing on iHeart and Spotify and
all these other things? We don't know? All right, there's my Beatles
ramp, anything anybody else that can really tick off? I mean I have
a seven one three two one two five nine five, Oh Dames Michael's the
high Tech textas show making of songs. After I just went pretty much lights
out on the old love Field's new song that just came out. Did Callum
has that has our sister station Sunday ninety nine? Have they flipped to all
Christmas music yet? It's it's if they did not flip, it's got to
be any day. It's a it's a big deal here Sunday ninety nine.
It's wonderful radio station Dana in the Morning, she's great on her for two
decades plus. Christmas music puts everybody in the mood. Anybody in the mood.
And you know the number one Christmas song everybody is wait for Calum do
not. You don't play this either. Mariah Carey. I got to love
what Mariah Carey did this week. It was it was it was really it
was some good bs. I liked it. She sent out a tweet on
x dot com. Mariah Carey tweeted, really like a thirty second video.
It's a brand new shot. She she was frozen inside of a big ice
block. And this came out the day after Halloween, so they had these
scary pumpkin people holding up hair dryers melting the ice obviously the symbolism Halloween is
over and guess who's inside waiting to sing the song? Mariah Carey, who
either a lost a ton of weight, Semaglue tide, or she used some
artificial intelligence to make her look great. Any Way, she's melted and she
comes out and it's like it's time. And they did like a ten second
thing All I Want for Christmas? Is you good? That's good? I
like it. I like that. However, after the ten or fifteen second
snippet of All I Want for Christmas, I'm already sick of All I Want
for Christmas, which reminds me when is love actually being shown? Which is
that song was in Love Actually, which is easily one of my top three
movies of all the time. We and Christmas People iconic holiday song, the
unofficial song of the holiday season. It's an earworm Thing's been out since nineteen
ninety four, same year my oldest son was born. Every year since it's
been released, it's back on the charts leading up to Christmas. Last year,
it was one of the twenty five songs the Library of Congress chose to
add to the National Recording Registry. I think this. My show was number
twenty six on the list, so I just missed it. I love this
story. There was a bar in Dallas. For all you Houston Eustonians who
hate Dallas, You're gonna love this. A bar up in the Dallas area
went viral about two years ago because they banned the Mariah Carey song to be
played before the month of December. That's smart marketing right there. That is
pretty smart marketing. But alas it is November. Starbucks Duncan, they've added
they put peppermint and other holiday drink flavors on their menus. This past week,
Rocket Fellow Centa just announced it's selected its twelve ton tree this year.
Who was ready for the holiday season. It's big And that's one of the
things that I'm gonna do if you are looking for I'm gonna put out my
holiday gift guide. I usually do that probably mid November, right before Black
Friday. I'll go through some of the Black Friday deals if you are looking
already, because there some deals out there. Television I saw I was looking
for TVs. I need a new TV, a flat screen in my backyard,
and I just want a cheap o one because they make expensive ones that
are humidity free and sun free and dust free. Televisions could be so inexpensive
you can replace them almost every year. I saw one. I saw about
forty three inch one. I saw it as low as about one hundred and
fifty nine dollars, and I forgot what cheb brand it was, got where
it was. But be on the lookout for television sales. This is a
big time of year. I remember when flat screens, digital TVs or HDTVs,
however you wanted to find them. They were the rage back in two
thousand and two, three four five, you know, because they were so
expensive, but you would you you'd see these Black Friday sales and then Black
Friday. This is when Black Friday you physically had to go to stores.
It wasn't too much online and you had to line up, and so the
doors would open at midnight on Thanksgiving night. So after you eat all your
food and finish watching the Cowboy game, you took the nap, and then
you go and wait in line. The doors open at twelve and they would
have these Lost Leader deals where you would get a fifty h HTV for four
hundred dollars because at that point there were thousands of dollars and they only had
like ten of them. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm not the first time
who've lined up Pearson's Tuesday Morning. That's okay. Nowadays, almost I can
I'm gonna say almost every household but households. Let's put it this way.
My listeners and the demographic over under, you've got at least three TVs hanging
on your wall. In some cases you have over ten hanging on your wall.
So televisions aren't that nearly as big as a deal as they were twenty
years ago. But still you do have to replace some of these things.
And the technology has certainly improved. You know, you have smart TVs and
TVs that you know you don't need a wire to get the cable because they
scream that they stream in the whole thing. So watch out for that.
If I don't know if they're gonna there's gonna be Black Friday deals, but
they can't get I'm not gonna say they can't get. But if you're looking
for a thirty two inch diagonal thirty two inch class is what we have to
use the term television, Yeah, you probably can get those around one hundred
dollars. I mean, I found a forty three inch class television for one
fifty nine. It's not the greatest thing, and I probably watch so.
I would not recommend a one hundred and fifty nine dollars or so television to
be your main living room television. If you watch that thing at a regular
basis, then you have to you know, it doesn't. The ones I'm
looking at has sixty hurts, which is the refresh rate, which is okay
if you just kind of watch something here and there. I watch sports,
and the refresh rate means if you're watching a football if you're watching Tyreek Hill
from the Dolphins, who can run, you know, twenty five miles an
hour. You know, I don't want a little kind of ghost behind him.
I want a quick refresh rate. And that's why you look for something
around a one hundred and twenty hurts, if not even higher. I think
one hundred and twenty firsts is decent. You don't really need to go anything
higher. You don't need to go anywhere. Four K is fine. It's
tough to find a TV that doesn't have the ability to show things in four
K. The problem is there's not a lot of four K content. There's
not a lot of four K delivery processes. Even the Comcast cable they may
have one or two or three a handful of channels that can deliver four K
TV. You really don't need a four K do not even think of getting
an eight K There are sixteen K TV. Just feel free to just throw
your money and burn it if you want that. So to be able to
look out for those deals. And again, this is what I'm here for.
And I know I do this live plausibly live on Saturdays from eleven to
one in the morning and in the night. I am around during the week
where pretty much I just kind of puts around. I don't do much.
I run, try to keep healthy, you know, just you know,
read my emails and I respond to your email. So that's you, that's
your TV things. And so keep on the lookout. I will be updating
a lot more things, and I do more than just tech two. If
you want phone advice. Also, I'm into I got a lot of home
appliances. Home appliances are big, you can call them technology because you know,
I hear fryars and the all in one devices that cook, the that
that dehydrate, that toasted bake. I got one of those two. I'm
also I mean, I'm really getting into decorating and betting and new sheets because
I've got this, Like, i just ordered a new duvet and duvet cover.
And I'm telling you something. I have given you advice right here on
my show for a quarter of a century, ah twenty five years or so
on television radio. Can can someone out there help me? How in the
world do you get that duvet inside a douve cover? Because I just cannot
figure it out? Open phone lines now on that one seven, one three,
two one two five nine five. By the way, I got this
different color schemes and patterns. I got to the number of different you know,
how much cotton in there? And what's the thread count? I'm gonna
do. These will be on my Holiday Gift Guy, which I'll post on
my website High Tech textan dot com h I G H T E C h
T E x A N. Speaking of streaming, when I come back,
got a big question. Streaming is getting very expensive, especially if you have
all these streaming channels from Hulu to Disney to Netflix to Amazon to everything.
Question, is streaming video worth it nowadays? I got my thoughts on that
coming up on the other side. Final segment, This first hot work of
the High Tech Texans Show. Hope everybody is having a wonderful day or nights,
depending on what time or where you're listening to this. We do it
on Saturdays. This is the first Saturday of November. Just lovely weather.
Can you imagine for all the people in Texas and certainly Southeast Texas, if
the weather was this nice year round, this would be San Diego, and
our prices would be like San Diego. You know, you laugh, the
heat and humidity, and you know, I've talked to city leaders, community
leaders. It is the thing that keeps everything are cost relatively cheaper than anywhere
else in the country because eight months of the year, it's just it sucks.
The hit. It's the only you have to joke to get around.
Oh my goodness, you live in you used to deal with all that humidity
or you know Texas is in Dallas is so hot and dry. You know,
the humidity is easy to get around. Well, it keeps my skin
nice and moist. I'm really eighty five years old, but I don't look
at It's the only way you can get around and joke point is this is
the weather. If you're a runner like me, awesome, get out and
start running because it is fattening. Season two coming up as I sit here
and I try to kill the all the fifty percent off Alloween candy that I
went out and bought. Uh, if you want to get in and say
hi, it's seven one three two one two five nine five zero out an
email. People say, Michael, listen, I know you were. You
give great recommendations on products. What's the craziest product that you've seen recently that
you can give someone as a gift or a gag gift. It's a good
question. I saw, I got, I get. I get hundreds of
emails a day with press release to what everything. Some company that does memorabilia
from movies, they they they send out, Oh, here's some of the
hot eyems for for for Christmas, for the holidays. Let me see if
I can pull this thing up. Oh here it is here this yeah,
okay, here you go. Here's here's your answer. Uh. Back to
the Future phenomena movie eighties. Love it one of my favorite movies. Just
beautifully written, it's directed. Everything there is a replica Back to the Future
Flux capacitor that Christopher Lloyd signed the Christopher Lloyd Signature Edition prop replica mart of
the flux capacitor. How freaking cool is that? That is good? I
need I need two of those. I need two of them. If you
could have one prop from any EV show or movie, what would it be?
Will be a high tech Texan It's on threads or on X let me
know seven one three two one two five nine five zero. I would love
to have the ss MENO shipwreck and put in my backyard. That would be
pretty cool. That would be nice. I don't know, it's I love
back to the future. I just I guess I could hang the flux capacity
Marty. What else? What else does this company sell collectibles? Over here?
Uh? Uh? Oh? A men in black neuralizer? Men in
black neuralizer? You know that little thing that you put the sunglasses on and
then you know, here's the month, the date, the year, and
it takes you back in time and your whole memory wipes out. How cool?
If it acts would work, that would be awesome. Any actually?
Uh over under Calum ready to play the over undergame? How much is a
limited edition mid in Black Neuralizer prop replica? Over under, No, sir,
your way under six hundred bones, six hundred dollars. Oh, by
the way, I didn't even tell you know how much the a flex capacitor
with Christopher Lloyd's signature is fifteen hundred dollars. Mm hmm, I'm gonna pass
on that one. Gonna pass on that one. Let me let's let's get
to this point over here, because I tease this one streaming t this is
a segue. I am a professional kid, so I can do this like
streaming TV? How many? How many streaming services do you have? The
point is is it even still worth it? Netflix? Apple, TV,
Plus Hulu, Amazon, they won't stop hiking their streaming priceless. Probably still
better than cable, but is it worth it? Two thousand and seven,
fifteen years it was Netflix that first unveiled its streaming video service. That was
pretty cool. No more did you have to get the DVDs that you had
to return Netflix DVD customers. They were paying between six bucks to eighteen dollars
a month with access to a thousand movies over a web browser. Nope,
no more. Was forever ago Netflix's most premium four KSE streaming plan. It
costs now twenty three dollars a month. The standard without ads is fifteen dollars
a month. Was not just Netflix people over the past year, and I
take notes about this, Apple TV Plus doubling its original price started at five
dollars going to be ten dollars a month. Disney Plus they had a big
price increase. I'm not trying to be dramatic over here, but subscribing to
the streaming services that you use the most, it's probably still a bit cheaper
than going for a typical cable plan. If you're in the Houston area,
we've got Comcast Exfinity. Most popular plan has about one hundred and twenty five
channels. Maybe it's when it was at sixty seventy eighty bucks a month,
But then again, wait a minute, you have to also bundle your internet
access everything. I get a bill about two hundred and fifty bucks a month
that I don't even just it's so not worth it. The tax is and
the fees and everything. People have argued that streaming prices hiked, all these
hikes of the dollars, it's going to signal the end of the cord cutting
dream. I don't think so just yet, because cable prices were already high
a few decades ago, and they've risen considerably since then. If anything,
I think the case for cord cutting is even stronger now because there's so much
content available on streaming services. You like Ted Lasso, you ain't gonna get
that on cable, you gotta get it on Apple Plus. You want the
marvelous Missus masel Well, you got to get Prime Video. So there is
some really good show content. Content is king. This is why you listen
to this radio show for my stuff, right listen. Nobody likes to see
their favorite services get more expensive. No, itse is. It's but I
think it's worth acknowledging that why streaming services were so cheap to begin with.
Was it a loss leader? Was it trying to get you as to shift
what your practices. Netflix launched its standalone streaming subscription. It was eight bucks
a month, I think, and that held pretty much basically for about ten
years or so, and then it just incredibly went up. Is that the
writers is the production. It's a lot of things that are happening now.
They're cutting back on passwords. Netflix just had a phenomenal quarter because Netflix stopped
password sharing. No longer can you use or share passwords with your ex wife
or whoever you've got to You got to subscribe yourself. They just added a
million people. Yes, it stanks that Netflix and all these other streaming services
are getting more expensive, but at the end of the day, so far,
I'll take these prices over the higher prices before this streaming era ends seven
one three two one two five nine five. Oh, if you want to
weigh in on that, we have one more hour, so don't go anywhere.
The next hour we're going to talk about how to keep your data private.
A few weeks ago, I talked about this new service that you can
sign up to. It's called Permission Slip, and it can help you regain
control over your data. I'm gonna show you tell you more about it.
I've used it, I'll tell you how to use it. I like it
so far. You're not gonna believe what Google now does. And where was
this when I was in school where I hated math? This is unbelievable.
The types of the days, the era that we live in. And I
talk about not only cars and trucks, and I'm going to give review some
of those that I'm driving around in, but also somebody asked me if I
used a dash cam, a camera that fixed the dashboard. There's a lot
of reasons why you may want to use a dash cam. I'm gonna count
down some of the best, just a few of the things that you expected.
I wur Number two, the High Tech Texan Show coming back is Michael
Garfer Michael Garfield. Michael Garfield's joining us in the High Tech Texan. Michael
Garfield is here with a high Tech Texan 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 Act. Now you're high Tech Texts and Michael Garfield
every time, and I must say it, Actually, you say it with
me. People. It's halfway to happy hour. That's right halfway through the
High Tech Textans Show. No matter which version you're listening to at twelve noon,
should you be listening on KPRC nine fifty A, certainly it's happy hour?
Man. We got football college, great day, lots of stuff going
on. If you're listening to the repeat show, which is eleven at night
to one in the morning. It's midnight right now, just after midnight.
Y you could be happy hour, depending on what shift you were working and
how big are you you want to party, But technically I'm going to give
your permission to have happy hour all day, especially you late night listeners now,
because you are just a few hours away from gaining one hour of sleep.
This is my semi annual reminder to check your clocks now, folks,
we get the fall back, you get an extra hour sleep. This was
a big thing back obviously when I was a kid, you know, in
the seventies and eighties, because the clocks, most clocks had to be manually
reset. Today, our phones reset automatically. A lot of cars, most
cars they'll reset automatically, depending how new or how and certainly how old your
car is. If it doesn't, what are the ones that we forget about?
Microwave ovens, there's not many that are technically advanced to reset them back.
I have a clock on my I have two. Most of us.
If you have a microwaven, if you have a stove or an oven,
they have clocks on them and then you have to reset those that I am
I'm meticulous though I don't like anything being one minute off. I mean,
I live and work in a medium which is radio and media itself, where
we live by the second. I mean when Callum he looked at me,
and my producer says, okay, talk open the microphone, get out of
this hard break because we've got to go to a commercial. My life is
to the second. I mean, yes, it's an ADHD thing, but
yes, this is how I am very meticulous, and it bugs the hell
out of some people. But I don't like any clocks in any any direction
I'm looking. I don't want it to say twelve oh eight, and I
don't want the one on microwave to say twelve oh nine. They better be
synced almost to the second. So when I reset my microwave in my stove,
I'm you know, they're relatively they're they're within arm's reach. I've got
a pretty long wingspan. I'm sitting there with my fingers on the buttons,
going bit to make sure that they set and the times are the same.
I know I'm a weirdo, but other than that, let's see, I
do have I have an old fashioned clock radio, and if you've listened to
me, long enough. You know. One of my famous funny questions,
what is the oldest piece of technology that you have in your house? And
if you were some my ilk age around there. I still have an old
fashioned clock radio. It's digital, don't get me wrong, but I have
to reset it and reset it. Nowadays, kids don't even have clock alarm
clocks. If you will, they use their phones. But I do have
to set my alarm clock or my clock radio next to my bed. I
do have one of my cars, it's a two thousand and five. I
have a two thousand and five car. I don't drive it too much,
but I do have to set that myself. And in my living room I
got a really nice actually it's my dining room. I got a really nice
big wall clock that just runs in a battery, So now I have to
set that. Other than that, I think everything automatically, does it buty
way? Just a reminder. And by the way, I always listen to
every time the radio announcer or the TV folks back in the day saying,
hey, it's time to fall back or spring forth. They always used to
say, and it's also time to check your batteries and your smoke alarm.
So I do that just because that brings me back going. Yeah, I
have the power now to tell people to check their batteries on their smoke alarm.
That doesn't warn you. So anyway, congratulations for getting another hour.
I'm also one of the very few people and I'd love to hear from you
seven one three, two one two five nine five. Oh. You could
also hit me on all of the social media high tech textan if you spill
it out. I'm one of the very few people who like when it gets
darker earlier. It's a it's a very small group of people this coming.
I don't know. A few hours from right now, by Sunday the sun
will start setting. It like five o'clock or five thirty or six. It
gets darker earlier. I mean, kids don't like it because, hey,
they have less time outside to play. I like it for one or two
reasons. Number one, I love winter more than I do summer because,
as pretty much almost a lifelong textan, I hate the summers. I hate
the heat because I run. I am a runner for thirty plus years.
I do not like running when it's one hundred and five degrees with one hundred
percent humidity. So during the summer, I have to run kind of at
night or well, I don't like running in the dark when the sun goes
down, so I start running at about seven seven thirty, which screws up
my entire night. You know, I don't. You don't want to eat
dinner before you run, because that's not good because you're you know, you
got food and your stomach and it's bouncing around. But then by the time
you run and then you start eating, it's late. And then sometimes you
can't go out and hang and go to dinner or go to events because I
know I want to run. It just it screws up everything. So Number
one, I like winter better. And when it's winter, I do no
just from my body clock, it gets darker earlier. Now when it gets
darker earlier, it's cool outside. I can run throughout almost all the day,
but certainly after work five o'clock, right when the sun starts going down,
I can run earlier, which means I have the rest of the night
to go out. I could party, I can hang, I can eat
later. That is pretty much why I like when it gets darker early.
It's weird, it's my thing. But this is why you listen to me,
and this is why you love me. Michael Garfield is the name.
It is called the High Tech Text and Show. Should we get actually,
should we talk about something of content? What I just gave you is content.
This is me looking at you Callum and all these buttons in front of
me and just bs ing. This is why I have a degree in this
thing. I have a BS degree and it does not mean Bachelor of Science.
And kids do not try this at home. I've done this for well
over two and a half decades. When we come back, I am going
to tell you about about phones. About two things. Foldable phones had a
very big year. I would even dare to say they had a very they
had a breakout year. They still make up a very small percentage of all
of the phones out there. But these are foldable phones and flippable phones,
and it's still I've had one, two, I've played with several different manufacturers.
I currently carry a foldable phone and it's so funny because what I I'll
show it to people as recently as last night eight excuse me while I whip
this out, and I'll show this phone, and it's so funny looking at
their eyes. They did not know it exists. Do you know why people
don't know that foldable phones exist? Because Apple doesn't have a foldable flippable phone.
So many people think there's only an Apple and iPhone. Well, you
know me, I am an Android guy, and not just a Samsung.
I have a one, plus I have several others. Are they here?
Should you get one? I'll tell you about that. But also, more
importantly, it doesn't matter if you have an iPhone, doesn't matter if you're
an Android. Does it really tick you off when it's twenty twenty three,
almost twenty twenty four, why are cells signals still tough to get wherever you
are? I was driving somewhere also yesterday, late afternoon, and I was
in a patch near the Galleria in Houston, and like, I couldn't get
a signal. I couldn't figure out where I was the map for probably about
a minute and a half. And it's like, what's going on. I'm
gonna give you ten ways to boost your cell signal people, you tell me
where you can find content like this anywhere else. My name is Garth.
We're gonna come back to the high Tech Texas him. Hey, Hey,
what do you say Rangers to win? Today. I'm sorry. I'm still
on the Texas Rangers high as we continue the high tech textan show. How
many how many different types of people have I have I ticked off in this
past hour and fifteen minutes. Uh proba some Astros fans because for some reason
they don't like Texas Rangers fans, which is just that's that's that's that's crap.
Uh. Definitely I pissed off some of the Beatles fans because I am
not a Beatles fan, and I last hour I talked about the Beatles new
or new ish song that came out earlier this week, which is I heard
a minute, I could even last a minute. It's it's I don't think
it's a good song. But then again, I mean, I respect the
Beatles for what they did of creating I mean, a whole new genre of
music and pop culture without a doubt, But I just I just didn't get
into their songs. Didn't get into their songs. And now there's this new
artificial intelligence. That's why I got into it. They took a John Lennon
vocal track that he recorded on in his room on some small, old,
dirty recording machine, and artificial intelligence cleaned it up, and then Ringo laid
down some new drum tracks and now it's a new Beatles song that's I don't
like it. So anyway, who who else can I take off? Who
the Aggies play today? Because they're gonna lose. Aggies will lose. I'm
a nice guy and I just it's I'm just I'm cocky because the Rangers won
seven one three two one two nine five. Oh. No matter what FOAE
you use or what cell service you use, you can call callum and if
I feel like picking up the phone, callum. Read here he's run on
the board on the other side of the glass. He could put you through
to me. This was a big year for foldable phones. Foldable phones have
been around for a while. This is the phones can actually for you.
Not on iPhone, folks, breaking news. There are most every other manufacturer
in the world makes a phone that flips and folds, which takes the size
in half. Some of them flip up like the old clamshell phones, like
the old Motorola rasors, if you will. And there's glass that's actually foldable
and bindable. It's an amazing thing. There's still a niche. They really
are. It's a very small percentage of the market, but you could find
one from as I said, almost every major smart phone maker except the one
from Coopertina, California. But they've been around for probably five or six years.
The first models from Samsung and Hua Wi. They came up about twenty
nineteen. They aren't cheap. They have high prices. They do some of
them have limited software functions in the design somewhat can be fragile. I remember
there was some issues. I remember Samsung one of their earlier foldable phones had
massive issues. But they're improved right now. A lot has changed over the
past few years. There are are more of them. There's cheaper devices.
I think Motorola makes a razor that's right, or there is a Motorola razer.
It's about seven hundred bones. But there are plenty of neat opportunities and
I like them. There are large screens. This past July, I had
the opportunity to go to South Korea. That was pretty cool. Samsung had
a big announcement for their fifth generation of their flip phones and their fold phones,
and I got to tour the Samsung headquarters and it's a region of the
world I'd never got to go to. But I met the designers and the
engineers and for a month or two I got to play with the Samsung Galaxy
Z Flip five, the Galaxy Z flip fold or Z fold five, and
they were nice. They are good. The cameras on the flippable phones,
they still have a lot, a lot to be added to just because of
the form factor. If a phone folds up, there's a lot of things
you have to, you know, give way to The battery's got to be
in some cases needs to be smaller. They can't have all the five or
six lenses that some cam other you know phones have and so you know some
of them are they it's and we're in the learning stages, if you will.
So the point is when and how to decide on a flip phone or
a fold of a phone. The first thing I ask you is what's your
budget? Because that's the most important question, is when I asked when somebody
asked me anything, Hey Michael, what's your best favorite TV, what's your
favorite EV car? What's your favorite how much you're willing to spend The Samsung
Galaxy Z Fold five, but even the Google Pixel Fold, for example,
they start at about eighteen hundred dollars. We got a zout that we've got.
The Samsung Flip five cost about a thousand dollars. As I said,
Motorol the new motoroil eraser. It's probably the cheapest, around seven hundred dollars.
And that's one of now another one that just came out, and if
you see me in the upcoming anywhere, the phone of the phone du jour
in the high Tech Texans hands is from a company called one Plus. For
about a month right now, the one Plus, it's a company out of
China sent me their brand new OnePlus open seventeen hundred dollars. Again, they
let me play with this. I did not buy these things, so I'm
just fair warning. I actually like that one compared to other models of Samsung's
and motor Roads whatever, I think the one Plus is really interesting design.
It is relatively thinner and relatively lighter that I would think other foldle phones,
and I say folded the phones. These are phones that fold out like a
book. They open left to right the front screen. If you close it
and hold that closed phone, it's roughly the same size of a regular phone,
maybe an iPhone. I don't know. I've never even seen an iPhone
fifteen, you know, maybe some other Samsung phones. But when you fold
it out, it doubles in size and the screen is pretty freaking cool,
and it's funny. When I show these people, it's like, oh my
god, how did that happen? Is this a word? Gammy? It
folds up? Yeah, it does. One plus has really done a really
nice job of utilizing with their software. It is Android software, but they
have their own other software on top of the Android software to utilize that big
screen. When it's open, you can have three different pops running and you
can configure them so you can see all three at once. I can watch
TV on one part of the screen. I can text on another part of
the screen. It's really cool. Again, seventeen hundred dollars. As we're
talking about price over here, you also have to be careful. Now today's
foldable's phones, they're pretty sturdy. They're much sturdier than the first came out
three or four years ago. But just by nature, they have hinges.
The screens are bendable. They're a bit more delicate than regular phones. If
you drop your phone, if you handle it roughly, if you use it
without a case, you need to be careful or you ask yourself on a
foldable phone, because you don't want those things to break. And then it's
like when is the time to buy? And I'm not talking about when as
well. It's just a holiday season. Are they putting on sale or do
you wait until they really get even smarter foldable phones? Just I mean all
the electronics they're released, they're released on a seasonal basis. Generally once a
year, you know you're gonna get new phones from my from Apple, generally
twice a year you may get new phones from Samsung. They did they did
the foldable launch in the foldable and flippable launch last July, but generally in
February they come out with their typical flagship Galaxy phones, the Galaxy S phones,
and there's new versions of software too. The Black Friday it's coming up.
Probably good time to look for a deal on foldable phones. Maybe they're
not going to cut them off the price down, but maybe you're gonna get
some sort of a rebate or something. You ask yourself, what do you
want from a new phone? How do you want to use it? Flip
phone flip meaning they flipping from top to bottom, not left to right.
Flip phones are good for people who want a regular sized phone that can fit
your pocket and your purse. When the Flip five came out in July,
a lot I saw a lot of the marketing of the advertising, and it
seems like Samsung was marking this a bit towards females, because if you look
at it, these flip phones. Let's just talk about the Galaxy Z Flip
five. It looks like a women's compact, you know where they put makeup
in there and you flip it open and the top part has a mirror,
and I think the bottom party has got like some powder or some powder puff
or something. That's the size of it. You can fold it up and
girls can put that in their tiny little purses they're black purses, or if
you're or if they go to the football games and you need the little c
through persons. It's small. It's also has a built in kickstand. They
I mean, listen, men and women love taking selfies. But you know
what, I think the women went out of these selfies things. It could
stand up by itself. You can wave your hand in automatic takes a photo.
So those actually work. Well, what do you want to use from
a phone. Some have better cameras, some don't have better cameras. So
things to look out for when you're thinking of a phone. I know I
got to take a break over here, and I didn't get to the other
part. When I come back on the other side, I'm going to talk
about the connectivity. This has nothing to do with a phone model. This
has how to boost your cell phones. But if you have any questions about
phones, which one to buy, which foldable phone, or which regular phone,
then you want I am here for you, at least for the next
what thirty minutes seven to one three two one two five nine five oh.
And if you don't get me during the radio show hours, you can always
go to high tech Textan dot com Michael at high tech Textan dot com,
and I will try to answer anything as best as I can. All right,
don't go anywhere bottom of the arm right now, seven one three two
one two five nine five Oh. That's how you're going to get to me.
And looking at some I gives a few callers over there, cal I'm
just kind of keep them on hold. Did we give anything away yet?
Callen? No, I do want to thank one of our longtime sponsors US
Coins and Jewelry for this portion of the program. This is why this program
is free to listen to. We love our partners and sponsors. You just
have to listen to me, yeah, for a few seconds about some of
these great companies. Holiday seasons coming up. If you're looking for gold,
they sell gold bars and Bouyon's. Kenny and Matt Duncan, the brothers who
run US Coins and Jewelry. I love going. They take me kind of
behind the scenes. Actually, if you go to my Instagram, I got
a behind the scene play by play of Kenny Duncan on he was showing me,
which I capture on videotape so you can see it too. How he
grades and puts a price and buys coins special coins. It's really cool.
It is on the Katie Freay right at vas So, not too far from
the galleria. They've been around. It's a generational Their dad started. The
dad's still involved. But they not only have coins where they buy your silver
and buy so if you need some extra cash this holiday season, take it
trustworthy. I mean I am talking trustworthy folks. Tons of security. They've
got cameras, they've got security officers over there, so there's no need to
be worried about bringing all your gold and silver in there. They will give
you incredibly fair value. Or if you want to buy golden silver, they
got it there. Love the watches I walk around. I got my Rolex
there it is. They always have a ton of rolexus h and also jewelry.
They have tennis bracelets and nice beautiful diamond earrings and a great collectibles too,
Texas memorabilia, document state flags, comic stuff, along with their new
new end of the business called Celebrityment celebritymint dot com. They've got coinage and
autographs of Rick Flair, Mike Tyson and what they're doing in the sports world.
It's collectibles. It's good. So US coinsan Jewelry dot Com. When
you go in, they're open every day except Sunday. Chick fil Afe,
follow their their their their business model. Go ahead, tell you heard it
on the Michael Garfield program. And if you don't, you know, you
don't live in Houston. They you could trust them on the internet to US
coins and Jewelry dot com. So we appreciate those guys. I promised I'm
gonna I've only been teasing this for an hour or so. I just talked
about cell phones. Foldable cell phones are big. Is it right time for
you to buy a foldable footable cell phone. That's up to you. They're
only going to get better, and sadly they may only get more expensive.
We're not sure, but does anybody still have problems with getting reception? I
was driving somewhere yesterday near the Galleria, and for some reason I lost connectivity
for about a minute or two. I was at it was it Chimney Want
Chimney Rock near Richmond Avenue, and all of a sudden, I know where
I'm going, but I always have a map up because I look at traffic,
and all of a sudden, nothing was moving, nothing was going on.
So I had to turn on and off my airplane mode. And that's
one of the tips I'm gonna give you. I just kind of reset nothing.
I didn't turn the whole phone off, but it lost the signal for
some reason. Maybe it was about five in the afternoon. So that's what
a lot of people are on their phones yapp and talking looking at maps and
so traffic. Cell phone traffic signals. It's very big in morning drivetime and
afternoon drivetime, just like radio. So I'm like, I can't believe we're
in an age right now where we still have to do this. But a
lot of people when you travel, where you live, a lot of factors
doesn't matter. If it's Android drive phone, you can drop calls in.
Some of your text messages just are unsent, and that's it's a pain,
and it ticks me off. And so I kind of compile the list of
things that to maybe help you out of one of which was turn on and
turn off the airplane mode. It worked for me. It's kind of like,
what of my typicult? What's the easy? Hey, Michael, you
know if I've done this show for twenty plus years, Michael, my computer's
not working, well, why don't you turn it off and turn it on?
You laugh about it, but fifty plus percent of the time that works.
Do it. You don't need to turn your whole phone on or off.
It doesn't hurt. But it's quicker just to turn your airplane mode on,
which shuts down the cell signal such it shuts down the Wi Fi too,
and then turn it, give it about fifteen seconds and turn it back
on. Easy to do. You go to your settings and there's this icon
of an airplane and it worked for me, So that that's one of the
things that you can do. You can also move yourself if you're walking around,
so there's no obstructions between your phone and any cell phone towers outside.
Now this could mean stepping away from any metal objects, concrete walls that because
those things kill reception. Go to a window, go outside if you really
want to. Another one is this you may want to remove your phone case.
It doesn't hurt to remove whatever phone case you have on your phone,
especially if it's thick, because that phone has an antenna in there, and
the antenna could be blocked by that case, so it can get a better
signal. One of the other things you can try always make sure your phone
is charged too. Searching for connecting to a stronger cell signalate it drains your
battery power. So if your phone's battery power is already low on a charge,
you may have some difficulty when it comes to getting good service. So
there's another little tip for you. So people sometimes don't forget about the phone
case. What I'll tell you, Yeah, if you really have some issues,
and this is you gotta get a little intense over here. Take the
sim card out of your phone, that little tiny that's a troubleshooting step.
You remove a SIM card and you place it back in your phone with your
phone turned on. Because sometimes that SIM card is dirty, sometimes it can
get a little moisture on there. If it has any physical detects, you
may defects, you may need to replace that SIM card too. Now to
do that, you're gonna need that little tiny SIM card tool, which is
like that little paper clip type of thing you usually get that your little phone's
box. Sometimes you can't actually unfold a paper clip, maybe a sewing needle.
You pop it out. Do that sim card tray is smaller than your
pinky fingernail. Do not drop it. Do not lose it because at the
end end of the day, that SIM card is your phone number. That
SIM card has all the data that you have on. Don't lose that card.
So remove it, maybe just give it a quick little blow or a
little dust off, and then that could work too. All the thing to
do is also check your whoever your cell phone carrier is, check your cell
phone settings, the carrier settings, because mobile carriers sometimes they send out updates
to help improve connectivity for their calls. The data the messages and you know
anything on their network and carrier. If there are carry updates, you can
update it from pop up messages. You can also go to your settings general
and maybe network or about on the phone. You could do that too.
You can also reset your phone's network settings too. Worst comes the worst.
People just call or i'd say call your phone carrier. But sometimes if you
don't have self service, go online or actually walk into a T mobile store
at Att or Verizon store. Because sometimes unexpected signal issues they actually can be
traced back to problems with the wireless carrier. A cell phone tower could be
down, the tower's fiber optic cable could have been cut. That can cause
an outage. You know, sometimes there's this new signal issue that can you
know, be due to a defect with your phone or your SIM card going
bad. And I guess one of the ones that I get questions, Hey,
what the cell phone booster? A signal booster? If everything else I
just said fails, you could try to get a signal booster. I've tried
these. I can't verify that they work on and they're signal boosters? What
they what they do? They're they're they're not cheap. They're you know,
they can cost about a thousand dollars for your entire home. Different companies you
can go to just look at cell phone signal boosters. And what you do
is you put a little antennae up in your back, y'all, and you
put a wire. Then it's like a Wi Fi thing, and your phone
didn't connects to the Wi Fi, but technically it's the outdoor signal. I
recommend this potentially only if you live, if your home, orr apartment,
wherever is in a situation is in an area where the cell phone reception is
totally crapola, where you're constantly having connectivity issues in your home or your office
where you spend a majority part of your time. At that point, it
may be worth investing into the signal cell phone boosters. But also don't forget
about this too. Most all phones have Wi Fi calling. I always get
out a Wi Fi signal when I possibly can. If I'm at a restaurant,
if I'm at a cafe, if I'm at a bar, if I'm
there for an hour or two, and certainly when I'm at home, where
I'm at an office, get up because phone signals if you can't get a
cell signal. They actually can come through Wi Fi. It's called Wi Fi
calling on some phones, Android or iPhone, you do have to go into
your settings and turn Wi Fi calling on. And I'm telling you what this
works great when you travel because when I travel internationally, like I when I
went to South Korea, I did not light up my cell phone's international plan
because Wi Fi is ubiquitous almost almost anywhere in the world unless that I haven't
been in the Serengetti or I haven't been in you know, safaris or things,
but cities, libraries, airports, grocery stores, cafes. Sometimes you
need to ask for the password. And to end this segment in what we're
talking about people, this is we used to worry years ago about oh,
should I get on a Wi Fi signal because people are going to steal my
data. Never do any transactions on your bank or anything personal on Wi Fi
and a coffee shopp because somebody can steal your data. Yes, one hundred
percent. It is not guaranteed. No one's going to steal your data.
But people, this is almost twenty twenty four. The networks or the VPNs
virtual private networks, have greatly improved you do not, and I cover this
industry, I do not hear nearly as many stories of hackers breaking into phones
and stealing signals on Wi Fi. I'm a trusting person for the most part,
and I do pretty much trust a lot of Wi Fi networks and I'm
fine with that. So people there you go, feel free to podcast this.
Send the link to anybody who is having cell phone signals and you can
let them know. The High Tech Tection gives you ten ten different ideas of
how to improve your cell phone signal. Why I try to improve this radio
program which ends at about twelve to fifteen minutes, stand by for the big
finale over here on the High Tech Textan show, first part of November twenty
twenty three. Hey, I appreciate everybody hanging in here for about an hour
and fifteen minutes so far. Why not just spend ten more minutes and we
have. We got the whole schlemil schla mazel here waiting for you as we
wrap up the High Tech text in the show. Interesting things, obviously I
was. I'm still gawking and keveling over my Texas Ranges World champions. We've
been through that. The Beatles released a new song that I do not like
whatsoever. Hopefully your Halloween was great people, Hopefully you got some candy.
Still, I'm getting some emails over you know this, Walgreens over here has
got seventy five percent off the ress, which is always good. So I'm
still taking those. We talked about streaming video. Is streaming video worth it
versus maybe continuing cable? Right now? I think the answer is right now,
yes, streaming video is worth it. But at some point, as
the prices go up for all these streaming companies, it may not Ten ways
to boost your cell phone signal. We just cover that. I gave the
breakdown on foldable phones. Foldable phones had a very big year this year.
But should you get one, All of that can be listened to again and
again and again, because in about ten minutes, my man callum over here.
You were going to put that on our podcast, And you can find
this podcast I Heart Radio. You download that app and you can look for
Michael Garfue, you can look for KPRC and you could just listen to your
Hearts content ova and over again. I wanted to what else did I want
to say? Promise one more thing? Data? Data privacy talked about Wi
Fi and how Wi Fi privacy has gotten better. People used to be very
scared that I don't want to get on Wi Fi public Wi Fi system because
somebody could hack into my phone or hack into my computer. I've seen less
less stories about that right now. I think the Wi Fi networks and the
data security AU networks on the virtual private networks, if you use them,
that's gotten better. And so there was a you don't hear much about that
now as we you know, near twenty twenty four, but your data is
still the probably the top concern of what everybody has every time we log on
them, every time we pick up the phone. What can we do about
it? Well, a few weeks ago they're a service of a free service
actually came about and I saw it. Actually it's from Consumer Reports and when
Consumer Reports, which has long been a magazine that you could trust because they
do not take ads, they do not take an it they tell you the
real I mean I've been reading this, My family has got this since the
seventies and eighties. I mean, before you buy cars and refrigerators, that
used to be the resource Consumer Reports. Now I am your resource that you
need to go to The point is Consumer Reports came out with an app and
I recommend most everybody trying this thing. This is not an ad is they
don't pay me for this one. This is content right over here. It's
called permission Slip. I talked about it about a month ago, but then
I tried it. It's very simple, permission slip. It's your online personal
data because it's everywhere all over the Internet, and there are pieces of your
data that are collected by companies and data brokers they sell to other companies that
they can use your info to sell ads that are targeted to you or whatever
your name is everywhere. How do you fix this? How do you control
your data? Well, there's this app called permission Slip, and what it
does it helps you slowly bring back a bit of your personal data because it
will help you find what's out there and does a lot of legwork of collecting
the places that might have your data, including hundreds of companies that use your
personal information. So quite simply is this. To get started on this thing
called permission Slip, you do have to sign up with on your email address
highly reckman. Signing up with your email address that you use frequently when you
sign up for online accounts, rewards programs, whatever, because that's what you
want to kind of, you know, watch for. And once you then
do that, there's this little tab there. It's called learn more and Take
Action. You select on this app learn more and take Action, You're going
to go to a screen that shows you what sort of data company usually collects
and what your options are. And depending on the company and what state you
live in wherever you're listening right now, you have the options to stop companies
from selling your data or they can delete your account out right. So just
go through it meticulously. Now, what happens is permission slip. It submits
a request on your behalf to all these companies. Sometimes it takes a bit
of time to have your request processed and all your information deleted, So hang
in there and be patient. But the fact is this is kind of an
all in one stop. Now. I do my own little data check on
a semi regular basis, and I did it even yesterday morning when I woke
up, because I check my email and I'm getting I get so much I'm
gonna call them spam email. But I get all these press releases, I
mean, because I'm on so many lists of newsletters and they sell it.
What I do probably once every two weeks or so, when I see all
this, Where did this email come from? I scroll down to the bottom
of each email and then I go down to managed subscriptions or change your settings,
and I click it. It goes to their website and then I hit
unsubscribed, unsubscribe, unsubscribe you from everything on your list. Now I know
I'm not that much of a fool to think that, Oh wait a minute,
they just caught me in a little moment over here the now. They
could have randomly sent me this email. But the fact is I responded it,
clicked on something. They know it's a real working email address, and
they're going to keep sending me more. But then I also take the secondary
precaution. What I do and I use my I use Microsoft Outlook. Actually
I use Office three sixty five, but I have outlooked. But what I
can do is I go to that email and I write click on it,
and I immediately name it junk. And when you hit junk, it'll say
block sender. So I block everything in anything coming that specific email address.
So if something comes from info at newsletter, well I'll scroll to the bottom
of that email, and I will unsubscribe me. Then I'll go back to
the actual email, and I'm gonna junk block anything that ever comes from info
at newsletter dot com. It's just one way to declutter your life, folks,
as we wipe up the show, there's the last thing we need is
more clutter in our life. There's just too much stuff going on. Our
data is out there. But I'll tell you again, if we use the
internet, if we use a phone, there's a trade off. Yes,
we still have to pay for a lot of this stuff too, but data
is important and they the companies, will keep it and they'll use it.
Just try to keep your information as protected as possible. And if you don't
want your information out there, it's too late. It is to even if
you don't even use the internet. My grandmother passed away last year. She
was one hundred and five years old. Never had a cell phone, never
had any never had a computer, never or anything. Her information is out
there, you know, from the government, your social security number, whatever.
But if you think if you get a phone and you don't want anybody
taking your data, people, you are sadly mistaken. Because listen, every
time you turn that there's note it becomes a brick. If you don't want
your data, turn off your phone. Because every time I use a map,
well Google knows exactly where I am, where I'm going, how long
I spent there, and everything. Be careful. The only thing I don't
take from it. I give you information, but I don't take anything other
than you. Love people, and thank you for continuing to give for twenty
plus years. Here on KPRC nine fifty am. We are based in Houston
on the Ihearts Radio Network. Thank you very much to Brian Ericksson, Mark
Sherman, and Eddie Martini who run this Houston market, and everybody else for
tuning in. I will see you next week. Go enjoy the Texas Rangers
World series. Hook them Horns, how about them Cowboys? And it's my
show. I can just yap anything I want, but I do appreciate you
listening to my bs. Maybe it's a Bachelor of Science, maybe it's not.
My name is Garth. Right now, this show is over