Best ways to find a data plan for international travel!

coverage from Augusta. So until then, let's suck it up and buckle up for some fun, informative few hours of your questions and my musings. My name is Michael Garfield, so let's roll. Well, what a week it was, man, What a week for those of you who went to the Final four in San Antonio. We got to see three incredible games. It was really nice to see a lot of people who either I know or who listened to me. You know, my show just started in San Antonio a few months ago. I do live in Houston.

The Houston Cougars were there. I was covering it for a few TV stations. I got some amazing access and so if you are kind of a follower on Instagram or Facebook, you could see some of the shots that I got from the court, from the pregame parties, the locker rooms on the good days for the UH Cougars on Saturday night and the very sad ones on Monday night. But congrats to the Florida Gators, and again such a

heartbreak for the hometown Houston Cougar's. I did get a little sleep, you hear my voice is a little wary still after all of the fun stuff, from laughing with Charles Barkley to acting a fool at the FanFest. It was a major sports event that puts San Antonio in Texas in the spotlight. Whether it was perfect and overall was a fun weekend. Now we move on, we have the Masters weekend and as a longtime listeners should know right now the only major sporting event that is left

on my bucket list to attend. Not yet, not this year. We shall see. Also this weekend we have the start of Passover. For those of you that celebrate the holiday and tradition. I hope you have luck in finding matza, as every grocery store I visited it seemed to be out of it, or maybe it's just too expensive due to the tariffs imposed on Israel. Oops, did I go there?

Good Friday? Easter there next week, which leads to one of my favorite days of the year, the Monday after Easter, when the Reese's eggs go on sale for at least fifty percent off. So, my friends, let the games begin, Let the show begin. Here comes the phone number. We are here for you. Should you have comment, should you have questions about what to buy and what to hurry up and buy, because people seem to be very scared about the prices on many things, certainly electronic devices going up.

It is three four six twenty nine texts and that's three four six two nine t e x A M we do list. Thanks listeners for tuning in over the air on our flagship station in Houston. KPRC nine fifty News Radio twelve hundred WAI. I met a lot of you local listeners this past week when I was there for the Final four, and everybody up in Dallas, the Mighty Mighty eleven ninety Talk Radio eleven ninety. If you're listening to the iHeartRadio app, we're live plausibly live the

replay on the podcast. If you do get a voicemail when you call three four six twenty nine Texan, well all you need to do is leave a voicemail. You do give us the right to replay it and you can answer, ask me in many questions or just comment on anything that you need. You don't need to give me crap to my Texas Longhorns. We're not in the Final four, but at least we did have one almost at two teams. Texas Tech actually made the Final four. But it is good. Houston is not on the docket.

San Antonio is not on the docket for the Final four to return. However, North Texas Arlington actually is on the docket about I think it's about four years. It will be there. And so there you go. There is your sports update, your holiday update. It is now time to talk ah the word of the year so far. Tariffs. Woo, What a week baby. It was this past Wednesday, right at midnight, or maybe it was eleven eight pm Central Time when the tariffs on eighty plus whatever countries were

supposed to go into effect. They actually did for about ten or twelve hours until your President Donald Trump pressed pause on reciprocal tariffs. Except he upped the levy on goods from China to one hundred and twenty five percent in the latest escalation of the two countries trade war. Bottom line, people, you should expect to pay more for

your next iPhone should you get an iPhone. Trump announced there was a ninety day pause ninety day because he said China has not as strong suggestion retaliated in any shape or form. That is a quote. China, by the way, is where Apple produces most of his products. They've responded to each of Trump's tariff hikes this year by increasing tariffs on US products. Telling you right now and first time I've let you know, the plans are in place as of right now, I am planning to go. This

is not a joke. I am planning to go to China in about a week. I have never been to China. I am going as part of a journalistic tour to a city or two where a lot of Chinese products are made. There's a number of different agencies who are taking public relations agencies there who want to have a little meat and rate and show me for one, as a technology journalist and someone who really oversees and reviews a lot of products in the technology world that are made in China. The plan is for me to go

over there. Hopefully they do not teariff my return to the United States because they may not be able to afford to come back. That is how bad this hardball is with China right now. Apple, let's get it back to this has started to move some of its manufacturing

to other countries, including India and Vietnam. Those countries were supposed to be hit with their own tariffs also Vietnam with the forty six percent tariff, India with the twenty six percent increase, but those were among the reprieved on trees. As of last Wednesday, Trump did leave in place at ten percent baseline tariff on imports. This is tough. It's tough to figure out. I don't know any answers. If

you're in the market for a new Apple device. If you are in line, then you're waiting to sign up for the new Nintendo Switch to waiting list that is supposedly going to be released in June, that has been hot on hold. So the question, and I'm getting right now an email. I'm look at him coming in. Dear Garf. Love your show. I love how you stay away from politics, but I understand how you have to weave them in.

My name is Jesse. I live in San Antonio. Sorry didn't get to meet you this past weekend in Final four. But question how much could iPhone prices go up with tariffs? Well, here's my guess. If the full cost of tariffs are passed on to shoppers, we'd probably see a one hundred and twenty five percent increase in prices on Apple products that are produced in China. How could tariffs on China

increase iPhone prices? Well, let's put it this way. iPhone sixteen promax right now, twelve hundred dollars here in the US. It's not it's not even cheap to start with. If you get the full promax, it's twelve hundred dollars. You add a one hundred and twenty five percent tariff, which adds fifteen hundred dollars. Ladies and gentlemen, my dear listeners, the new price of an iPhone sixteen Pro Max could be twenty seven hundred dollars for a freaking phone. Right now,

it's twelve hundred. It could go hood go up to twenty seven hundred dollars if Apple passes that entire tariff to consumers are they don't know? There's a lot more that goes into the price of an iPhone. That's simply where it's manufactured. Apple sources components for its products from just the long list of countries. They could face tariffs after the pause too. We don't know what. Quick question for the break garf well, other tech products also see

price hikes. Smartphones probably not the only device expected to see prices increase because of the tariffs. Best Buy and Target they warned consumers last month to expect higher prices for everything. Apple announced one hundred percent price cut on its new MacBook Air last month. All right, that's a day after the last round of tariffs took effect. All right, what's going on? We'll talk more about that. Should you

buy tech now to avoid tariffs? Later. I'm gonna let you steal on that for another three and a half minutes until we come back. My name is Michael Garfield. This is the I Teck contention.

Here on the High Tech Text and Show. Michael Garfield, nice to have you here, Thank you for returning and coming back. Three weeks ago, I went to my annual March Madness trip in Las Vegas, thirty six straight years of me and eight college guys. We always go the first weekend of March Madness. I place a future bets because I think that's the you know, listen, I place a lot of bets on like in game bets and

what's gonna happen, you know, to this game. But I do place before the tournament starts with the odds of the longest because they still you know, they still have to get the winners, still has to get through, you know, six opponents, six games. I put two bets down. I put two bets down. I bet University of Houston to win it all. I bet University of Florida Gators to

win it all. Boom. So by the time Saturday night rolled around and we knew who was going to be in the championship, it was Florida and uh, I was guaranteed to win. Now I was hoping you h would win because there was longer, I had more, a bigger payout. UH was six to one, six to one, all right to win the championship. When I put money down Florida Gators, I got a plus three fifty. So now I'll take the money and run. I would love to have the UH Cougar's one, but that's how you do some gaming.

So in no way, I'm buying beers next time I see it, people, uh, until I actually uh. Let me put it this way, I have to go to Vegas to cash the ticket out or actually may have to mail it in then I will be buying buying beers phone number here if you it's an interactive radio show on a weekend, Master's Weekend three four six twenty nine text and three four six two nine te x a N Callum Reid. He is on the other side of that glass. Potentially Callum if you feel like picking up

the phone having me talk to some callers. If my voice holds up, we're potentially happy to talk to him. I do want to continue the tariff issue as I did in segment number one. If you are planning to buy a new iPhone, maybe a gaming console, MacBook, other technology, buying it now could save you money if you don't have the cash on hand and you need to use a credit card to buy it now, pay later type

of thing, just to avoid the tariffs. Make sure you have the money to cover the cost before you start accruing interest. Credit cards average right now is more than twenty percent. You know the whole thing. Listen, I'm not a financial guy, but I'm just telling you what's going on. One way to save on products, maybe Apple products, maybe other products, even if prices go up. This is something that you probably know and I talk about it, but I'll remind you again by last year's model instead of

the newest release. If you're if you aren't planning to upgrade in the next year, there really is no reason to rush out and bias new smartphone. So think about it. I told you before the break. If they're right now, China has what a one hundred and twenty five percent tariff that that's solid. Everything else kind of went down or is on hold. But right now China one hundred and twenty five percent. So iPhone sixteen promacs current price

twelve hundred dollars add the tariff. Should they pass that entire tariff along to consumers, that phone is gonna go from twelve hundred dollars to twenty seven hundred dollars. If Apple passes that price on the entire way to the consumers. I don't know if they can do that, But that's an iPhone sixteen. Look at the iPhone fifteen. iPhone fifteen

currently is seven hundred dollars. Now, if they do pass that one hundred and twenty five percent tariff, the seven hundred dollars phone is gonna be fifteen hundred and fifty dollars or so, but fifteen hundred and fifty dollars is a heck of a lot less than twenty seven hundred dollars by last year's model. Maybe buy a used phone. This may be the era of let's go on some of these online sites that have trade in models, where you could people trade in their devices, laptops, tablets, it's

not even it's more than technology. They may trade in lawnmowers, do the eBay thing. Maybe it's time that we're not gonna buy anything new, We're gonna pause on that stuff and maybe just maybe we could actually buy things at a discount of price because they're used, slightly legently used. Should you do that? You want to do your research. You want to look at photos. You want to see that the seller either a whether you have bought from that cellar before, where that is a trusted seller. You

want to you know, do some research. Don't just say, you know, look at a price, going oh, here's an iPhone fifteen, it's only four hundred dollars or something like that. It could be cracked, it could be smashed. You want to look at the condition and so again tips on what you need to do, because now I think people are realizing. I think they've realized it this year. I mean, starting with the eggs. You know, the cost of a

dozen eggs went up to eight bucks. They're a little cheaper right now since we're an egg heaven between passover, the hard bowled eggs and you know, hard boiling and dyeing eggs for Easter. Right now, I mean now they're down a smidge, but there's still expensive. People are really minding their money on what they're doing. And actually, I got some numbers. This is what I do, numbers, buying howbits I'm learning right now and reading some studies on

US adults buying habits. Right now, US adults feel most pressured to buy electronics, smartphones, laptops. Home impliance is out of fear that tariffs are going to lead to price increases. Thirty eight percent of shoppers have felt pressure to make purchases before tariffs raid prices. One in ten shoppers made big ticket purchases late last year or early this year to try to avoid tariff induced price jumps. Twenty seven percent of shoppers are delaying big purchases over five hundred dollars.

On the other hand, eighteen percent are planning to shop sales this year. Sales. You have to look at sales. Those are adults now compared to Gen X and Baby boomers, who are older adults. Let's call my age. I'm gen X. Younger generations are feeling even more pressure. Forty eight percent of Gen C forty five percent of millennials said they felt pressure to make purchases to avoid If I understand the pressure, I understand the anxiety. This now becomes common

consumer sense. Do you need it? And I use these two terms often. I tell you as a father, I've taught my three sons best too. There's a difference between needing and wanting, right, do you need it or do you just want it? A lot of the things, the gadgets, the the shiny stuff, the things that I talk about, the things that I review, their want their want. I mean, if you really place it. Do you want or do you need? A mobile phone? And that's a serious question.

When they first came out many many, many years ago, it was just a want because we needed communication and we had wired phones, and we had office phone numbers and home phone numbers. Did we need mobile phones? When they became necessities back in the mid to late nineties, we didn't need them. Now they're wont not obviously that

it's going down. We that has become our normal and only communication when it comes to talking on things right now, well, yes, you know, we could you know, do things now via the internet. You could use you know what's app on your You could use Facebook Messenger on your computer, on your laptop. Do you need a phone per se? No, you do actually need connectivity. You need you need a cell data connection or you need an Internet connection. So buying you need to stop, you need to wait. So

we're gonna take a break, you know. The phone number. Try to move on to different subjects because it seems like I'm ragging on people and I'm just making people the more depressed. I don't know, I'm still depressed. I still have yet to be gone to a master's and thus I have to suck it up and watch it here on TV. But that is life people, phone number three four six twenty nine, Texsan three four six two nine, Texsan. My name is Michael Garfield. Then we do thinks we're listening.

We're gonna be right back. When's the last time anybody has been to Vegas? I was there about the three weeks ago, right at the start of March Madness, and it was fine. And people ask me, I go to Vegas generally three to four times a year, and I've done that for four held, am I right now for forty one years. I've been in Vegas four decades. Man that that place has changed generally when I got I can count on one hand the number of shows that I've seen. You know, everybody goes to Vegas for shows,

and let's you know, then whatever. I go with buddies generally and we go March Madness. All we do is sit there and we watch basketball games.

really don't go off the strip. I don't go in to go in near ill advised places I'm not supposed to. I'm I'm that's about it. The Sphere was built and complete it about what finally about the year and a half of the game. It was about a year ago. I think it was a little like fourth last year. It was two years ago. But I saw that thing being built for years and years and years. Has anybody

been to the Sphere? So I've been to the sphere one and it was CEES a year and a half ago, which now I think about it, it's the Sphere has been opening a year and now two years the Samsung had an event at CES and I went there and it's it's it really is an amazing place. It's that it's it's owned by Madison Square Garden out of New York, Jim Dolan. He created it, spent billions of dollars. It's unbelievable.

It's still at two hundred and seventy degrees. You know, of just projection and you got concerts, you got you too. You got the Eagles there right now, the grateful Dead. Whatever the point is, did you see what they what they're doing right now? They're going, I say they and I it's it's really Google and the Sphere folks Spear Studios. They've partnered with Google along with a few other companies over here, and they are getting ready to release a special version of The Wizard of Oz to be shown

inside the Sphere. And it's not really it, but they have to remaster the film. I mean the film was. I think it came out with nineteen thirty nine black and white in color. Everybody knows The Wizard of Oz. It's it's really not a remastering the film. It's it's actually more of a reinvention because they have to really rebuild the film seen by scene to feel the spears gigantic one hundred and sixty thousand square foot wrap around led screen. And it was a pretty big technological challenge.

And I was reading about it, and I think they had a preview. Google had a preview a little snippet last week, and I don't know. The original film was shot in four x three, which is how you know TV. You know, ratios used to be kind of a square type of thing. Obviously you see a lot most all TVs right now are sixteen by nine, which is more horizontal high definition. I mean it was when they shot it, it was never intended for a two hundred and seventy

degree immersive experience. So what Google had to do they had to what's called out paint to generate the visuals way beyond the original frame and more than ninety percent of the movie I believe was altered or extended to really transform this, this movie into the sphere as a unique format. I mean, you talk about an ambitious project and I don't know when it's coming out, but I'm sitting here thinking, let's back this up. It's Wizard of Oz alone is a freaky, deky movie, especially as a kid.

I remember it in probably most every one of my listeners remember watching it, and it would it used to be on television. I believe it. It was on CBS every single year, right around the end of March. I remember this from the seventies and eighties. It was the end of March. I don't know why I was into March, but they just showed it that It was right before Easter is something I nothing new with Easter, but that

was it. All I know is can you imagine sitting in this sphere with one hundred and sixty thousand square foot wrap around led screen with the freaking flying monkeys coming straight at you. Hell no, no, no, no, no, no, no no. I who is not scared of flying monkeys. No one likes flying monkeys. No, I don't want to see that. I do not need a flying monkey the size of a house flying at me. So I would debate you. So it's if I was invited to this thing. I don't know. I know, I know the movie top

to bottom. I know when the flying monkey scenes are. I'm like, I have to close my eyes. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. Michael Garfield is the name. This is the high tech texting show Again. Things I talk about to start a conversation and you could finish the conversation. Three four six twenty nine Texan. Three four six two nine Texan. That's how you do it with me. Speaking of kids, you let your kids or if you're a kid, how young were your kids or how young were you

when you started doing social media? I think when Facebook came out there was a minimum eight there's still maybe a minimum there's a minimum age. Was it twelve years old or something? Or do I saw this one? This is interesting parents, if you're worried about your kids on social media, Meta, which is the company who owns Facebook and Messenger and Instagram and all that stuff. They are

bringing what's called teen accounts. Instagram already has it, but they're going to automatically move younger teens to these new accounts, and they come with mandatory periphtal control features and restrictions on who they can message and interact with. And from the last I heard, you're not going to be able

to interact with flying monkeys. They first introduced this feature, I think it was last fall on Instagram and now fifty four million teens have the more lockdown accounts, and I think the teen accounts on Facebook and Messenger are going to operate similarly, so the teens won't be able to interact with unknown contacts. They're not going to change certain private privacy settings unless a parent approves the action.

And parents, by the way, you're also gonna be able to monitor their child's screen time metric and their friends' list. Man big brothers looking at you, teens under sixteen? Are you under sixteen? So driver's license and you get to have your full account on Instagram and Meta owned services when you're sixteen. That has something to countdown for teens under sixteen are going to need printal permission to start a live broadcast. Okay, I get it, and listen. I'm

I'm fine with this. I say, I'm fine with this because all my boys are well over sixteen years old. I have passed the point where personally, and I'm just saying personally, I don't really need to concern myself. I have three and they're they're in their twenties and ones there and when's thirty? I asked, we'll call them adults.

Probably the way that we raised them, good decisions, never any issues or troubles because they grew up maybe towards they were older, before social media really got really interesting. And now my kids, like at least my youngest now is an influencer, ironically, is that? So think about this A little question for you over here. We got about another minute or two before the end of the segment. Sixteen years old when I was going up in Texas, and again, you can get a driver's license at sixteen

years old, at least in this state. That was the countdown to when life began. At least for me, it was TikTok, TikTok. And the only reason I wanted. I don't even know why, but the only reason I wanted a driver's license and I was I'll go back to when I was ten, eleven, twelve thirteen. I wanted to be able to drive to Burger king myself to a burger I'm an idiot, I know, but that's it. That's it. I mean, my my birthday's in February, so my birthday came kind of in the middle of the school year.

So I had friends who were several months old to meet, so they got their driver's license. And my best friend growing up, he had a hardship license. He got his license at fifteen, so he was driving me around, hanging out doing whatever a year before I could. But sixteen was the age. Now here's the question three four, six, twenty nine Texan at sixteen, would you rather and you got one choice, would you rather drive or have full usability on all social media platforms. I want you to

think about this right now. Times have changed. I say times have changed me because here's another analogy. I would rather lose my wallet than lose my phone. And I never thought I would say that years ago, because if you ever lost your wallet, I've lost my wallet. Maybe once or twice in my life. Credit cards, driver's license, you got to start a new cancer credit cards. I thought your life was over. I mean it just takes months. Nowadays,

it's your phone. If you lose it's just as valuable, if not more valuable, than you're will Let's go back to my original question at sixteen, would you rather have your driver's license or just say I am an adult on social media. I could do live broadcast, I can have my contact list, my friends list, I could do anything you want. I'm gonna tell you right now, I bet it's the social media because there are some kids

right now. And if I don't know, if you're let's see, I'm gonna go back ten years ago when my kids kind of were around sixteen years old. My middle son did not want to get his driver's license. We had to force our middle son to get his driver's license at sixteen, just didn't want it. First one got it on his birthday when he was sixteen. Second one comes around it's like, eh, I really don't care, It's like,

what are you doing? And then the third one he certainly got it when he probably on his birthday when he was six Dan, what there are some kids who just don't even care about driver's lizes right now, it's I listen. Every every kid is different, and I know my kids are goofballs and oddballs like their father, But I know there are more people out there. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Which one would you choose? Three four six two nine T E x A N.

That is the phone number. If not, you can go online, go to your ex, Twitter and all that other fun stuff on social media where I am over sixteen and you could comment. Just look for high tech text at h I G H T E C H T E x A N. We'll come back with some answers, response and more stories right here on the high tech text and.

Hello friends, how are you? Hello? Friends? I am Michael Garfield Travel I mentioned earlier this hour. I as of right now, I probably am going to China next week for a week or so for a business journalistic type of trip to do some research over there. I don't know't they're gonna let me back into the United States because of the tariffs. I so I'm gonna have to pay a lot, and if it's a lot, lot lot, I'm probably gonna be stuck in China. But neither here

nor there. This is the start of travel season. We got spring, we got summer, and I get the questions all the time, Hey Garf, what what's the best way to keep in touch your cell phones? Do I need roaming fees if you travel, especially if you travel internationally? So and I need to worry about this myself right now, I at least think about it and not worry. But if you're headed overseas and you don't want to rack up roaming charges, there are a few ways to stay connected,

all right. The easiest option is look at your current wireless plan, keep your current wireless plan because if you have a major carrier sometimes they offer some of them offer international day passes. I means you can keep your number and you can keep your data plan while you were brought. Now roughly, I think they're around like if you have AT and T, if you have Horizon, I believe you can get something for like twelve dollars per day for an international day pass or travel paths or

something like that. I think T Mobile has a number of different international roaming at no extra charge. Now, the speeds may vary, so you do need to check some plans. Whatever you have, check your plan because they could include some roaming days and that makes the option pretty good for short trips, all right. Now, then there are you know virtual you know, you know m V and o's virtual carrier carriers moment Mobile and Visible. They also international

offer international book plans too. When I went last year, I did too back to back international trips. I was in Germany and then I went to where I was. I was in London and I actually got an e SIM card. I did that for the first time ever. They're digital SIM cards that you can download right on your phone. Now we know what a SIM card is. I think you do. It's a little tiny physical card is the size of like your pinky fingernail, that flip that fits into your phone. Most all phones have these.

That's technically that is your phone number on that card. You can take that card and you could pop it out, use that little device, that little pen thing that comes with it, and you could take that little card and pop it from phone to phone to phone, and it transfers your phone number. That's how I flip phones all the time. I get new phones to test. I want my regular number. I just popped my SIM card out

and I put it in. But there's also an e SIM card, and phones nowadays allow you to have an actual SIM card but also one, if not two, E SIM or digital SIM numbers. We're not going to call them cards because they're physically not a car. So if you have an iPhone over the past i'd say four or five years, Samsung Galaxy of the past four or five years, you're good to go because they do have these digital SIM opportunities. I believe there's tons of companies out there. One is called s A I l Y.

There's Gigsky. I think that's the one I use. I use gigsky g I g sky erro low Ai r Alo. Just do your little Google search for E S I M E SIM cards over there. Now, most E SIM cards, and I remember, I think I fell into this trap. Most E SIM cards they're data only data versus voice calling. So when you arrive at your destination and you turn on your phone, data is gonna start coming out, which means you can get email, which means you can serve

the Web. But generally, if you just get the data only pans, you're not going to get any phone calls. Now at that point, what you want to do to make calls? Number one, you could pay more. You could pay more for voice so you could talk, or you could start using other things like Wi Fi calling. I did this lot. I remember, I had data only. It's kind of old school, but that's about the cheapest thing.

You put your phone in airplane mode, you turn Wi Fi on, and you start walking around looking for hotspots. There are hotspots in most I don't want to say most, every place on Earth right now. No, if you're going to go to the Seringeti in the middle of Africa or something late in no, No, you're not going to do that. But if you're in a big city, you're going to walk into an airport, a cafe, a restaurant, a hotel, a library, a shopping mall store. It is

Wi Fi, ubiquitous, Wi Fi, Wi Fi Wi Fi. When you're on Wi Fi, and if they're free networks, which is phenomenal, you should be able to use your I Message, your Google Message, and if you have enabled Wi Fi calling and texting on your phone, you're set to go. I use What's app. What's app is I'm not calling it a lifesaver. Whats app is incredibly useful. What's app is like it's also you can use Facebook the messenger too. You could do video calls. But again you do need

to have the connectivity. And so before you travel you need to, you know, think about what your game plan is. Where you're going. Are you in a country that's you know it's big. Are you going to you know, Rome, Are you going to go to you know, somewhere in Canada? Are you gonna go wherever it is that you know where you're gonna be walking around in a city or

in areas where there's gonna be Wi Fi. At that point, you really don't need to get any other types of you know, you know, sell extra service that you know it's going to give you the data plane if you're if you're fine with that, So before you go, look for some apps like that. There's those Wi Fi maps that can help you find free networks that are nearby.

Look like download offline maps, Google maps or Apple maps for the suit of your business so you can navigate you you know before even if you don't have a cell phone signal live fi. Just a few tips before you go, make sure you have a passport and make sure you got this. You know, you've got to star on your driver's license because you know you've got to be good to go and offer. So by the way, if you do have an extra seat next to you and you want a companion, I'm pretty I'm available. I

can do my show from anywhere. My kids rolled up, I don't have any dog.

where my show is broadcast every weekend. It's up there for the final four and Jim Nance and esteemed alumnus of the University of Houston Cougar's where they were in the final four and and over the you know, just quick celebrity siding, several mini celebrity sidings. Actually in the world of sports, mostly the I've thought if there is a big sporting event somewhere. I mean, I'm into that stuff. I mean, I've been to four Super Bowls. I've been

to probably this is my tenth final four. I have been to US Open Tennis a few times, Kentucky Derby, Preakedness, probably four or five National Championship football games, countless bowl games. It just goes on and on and on. I've had the opportunity to do that, and I just love sports. Yes, I love technology too, so anyway, but I also am in the media industry, and so I am enamored, I am a wanna bee, I am jealous. I am you

would ever ever call it. But if there is a famous sports broadcaster, because those are the voices in the faces of of how I grew up and what I wanted to do and what I still want to do,

I mean I'll go back. You know Jim Nantz, who is mean poundful Hound easily one of if not with this well over thirty year illustrious career of doing football, of doing basketball, of the March Madness, calling, of doing golf, of the Masters, and we can go on and on and on so over the over the years, every time I've had an event, Super Bowls, I've had a media credential.

I got to interview him. The Final four was in Houston two years ago, and the day I think there was an off day and there was a pregame and I was roaming the the NRG Stadium floor. He couldn't have been a nicer guy. I just went up to him and Jim Nantz actually because he went to the University of Houston, he got his one of his first gigs. I believe it was on Channel two, which is where I got my first TV gig here many years ago, but he was also on seven forty, our sister station,

seven forty, a m in Houston news radio station. So that my lost leader of going up to him is like, Jim, how are you. It's Michael. You know I worked at you know, I work at iHeart and yet at seven forty and Channel two just sits there. The last few years ago, I had a four or five six minute conversation with me. I asked him a few questions about retiring from the March Madness boy. I mean, it was

just he could not have been nicer. And I've seen him a few other times walking the streets of New Orleans when there was a Final Four, all I know. And again I'm not bragging over here, because if he does not know my name, but he recognized my face. And so it was Saturday night, it was the Final four, Houston versus Duke. We're getting ready to play in that

second game that night. And so between the two games, I was on the court and you know, there's sixty four thousand people here in the in the in the Alamo Dam, and sure enough, here comes Jim Nance. He's wearing his University of Houston cougar's a sweatshirt. He's got his young son with him walking around, and people start recognizing when he was on the court, and they're yelling Jim, Jim, Jim, and everybody's hugging him. You know. You know, he used to work for CBS, you know, right there, so he

knows the crew, he knows everybody. And I'm about I don't know, I'm about ten feet away, and I'm shooting video obviously because there's Jim Nance. I want to get, you know, photo like that true story. He sees me and his eyes lit up and he points at me. It's like, hey, what are you doing here? Hey, good to see you don't know my name? But I know he recognized my faith. Comes over to me. I am

not making this up. How you doing? Good to see you, which is exactly what you're supposed to say when you don't know somebody's name, and I'm like, Jim, how are you? And we talked for maybe ten seconds because everybody's pulling around. I got a picture, of course I did. I got a selfie I post. If you follow me online, go to my Instagram high tech texting and you can see that stuff. But anyway, Jim was. I then walk up and could not have been nicer. I walk out. There's

Iron Eagle. Iron Eagle took us place. Iron Eagle is phenomenal play by play. He's the second lead announcing team on CBS Football, right behind Jim Nansen, Tonio Romo. Iron Eagle now does the lead play by play for the Final Four in the March Madness, along with the basketball and many other things. I go up to Iron literally

twelve minutes before tip off. He is about the broadcast the biggest game that he does any given year, where the world is watching, well, a lot of people are watching, and I just said, I went up some high ario. I introduced him. He's sitting in his seat, headset on. He spent two minutes talking to me. It's just they're nice people over there, so that's what. And then you know there was Charles Barkley. I saw Will Fortey from Saturday Night Live. He's actually starting in one of the

Capitol one commercials. And I actually saw the Capitol one guy. He was there because Capital one like owns everything, I mean everything ever where you go is Capitol one. Capital one, Capital One with all the commercials and everything. But they had a big presence in San Antonio. So I met the Capital one guy. A tall dude is like six six or something, very nice. I got a really weird looking selfie with him because he's so dang tall. And who else? Oh Kim Jong mister Chow from the Hangover,

Big Duke fan. He went to Duke. He there that Saturday night rooting on his his his duchies. He's he was on the floor somehow. And this you talk about the Capitol Watt Capital one guy being tall, Ken Jung is so much shorter in real life than you would ever imagine. I'm not making fun because I could make a fun of a tall guy. I'm not making fun of a short guy. But oh my goodness, he was like this tiny little man, very nice. And I go

up to him, because I'm not shy. I go up to him and I said, Leslie chow, Oh, but did you die? I mean, I'm quoting Hangover lines and he truly it wasn't even a ha. He really was laughing. He was really laughing, how are you? And I shook his hand. Good of course, I said good luck to Duke. I you know, of course I have to say that to him. I took a picture with him too, and again that's on there also. But it's evinced like this.

They bring out fun stuff. It was. The point is it was great to have it in the state of It was great to have the Final Four in San Antonio, San Antonio. And I'll say it again, I have been to San Antonio visiting all my life as a Texas boy. Grew up in Dallas. My grandparents from Austin. We would always, you know, shoot from Austin to San Antonio. We would go to the Pearl Brewery where they would serve kids

a little root beer instead of beer samples. We would go on the river, the river walk the boats and everything you do. I have not been to San Antonio in years other than this past weekend. It's been it's been a while, but this it is one of the best cities in the country to host events like this because every single thing is walkable. I mean, the if it brought people from all over the country, if not

the world media basketball fans to the city. The city, the weather was phenomenal, but the fact is you can walk to the Alamodome to almost every single downtown hotel. The four different teams stayed at four different hotels, and you know, there's there's buses. You know, they wrapped the bus with the logos. There's the Duke, there's the there's

the Auburn, there's the Florida buses. And I bet the teams were surprised because normally when you stay at a team hotel, I mean you've got a twenty minute drive, you're staying in the outskirts. The drive from their hotels to the Almodome could not have been more than three minutes with and that's even with a police escort. I mean, They're like, what is this? How cool is this city? It was very, very fun. So San Antonio, I love

you all. You're listening and also I appreciate all the San Antonio and San Antonio whites of giving me some ideas of where to eat, get the breakfast tacos and some really nice and strong margaritas and some queso flamiato. If you I'm going to be traveling a lot this summer, probably gonna do a tour of Texas. If you want me to come hit your town, let me know and then maybe we can hook that up. All right, there you go. See how much we talk about technology. This

is just a conversation between me and you. Phone number here is three four six twenty nine, Texan. Three four six two nine, Texan. When we come back, it's time to talk about cars. That's right. Cars are technology. And for fifteen plus years I do get to test drive cars, books, SUVs, cuvs, evs. If you want me to test drive something, I will. I will tell you what car I had this week. Every single week for fifteen years, I get a brand new car directly from your manufacturer to drive. It is

not a paid endorsement. I can just rag on them or I can love them. I'll tell you what I drove all the way to San Antonio and how impressed I was with it. So I'm a hih check backing the.

YOUM food baby. Going through the line, I get to pick out one of my favorite tortillas and watch it be pressed hot right in front of me. And I go up and I'm a chicken guy. The way they actually smoke and cook their chicken. On the Kamata Joe's. They also have the beef and all the other fun stuff. And I put a little black beans, a little rice, some cheese, some quawk, and then of course I always talk about the chips. I think they're probably the best chips,

the fresh hot chips. I will go easily once a week probably on a Thursday, and I will get a bag of chips and a caso to go so I can snack on it the rest of the weekend. That's how good they are. Cobo Bob's go check it out. There's four locations in Houston, none in in Dallas, So if you're listening to Dallas, sucks for you people, you better drive down to all to Austin, I got a lot of them. That's where their headquarters. So hello to Arnold Lori Rios. They kind of help run. Actually they

do run all the awesome locations. You guys need to build more around the city. It's running joke. They know they do, and I think they're planning on it too, So thanks. Then, once I get off the radio show, I probably will run up to Cabo Bob's then put my feet up and watch the rest of the Masters this weekend. Here as we continue, when I drive up to Cabo Bob's, it's time to talk about cars. You know, I do drive test drive cars for you. I've done

it for fifteen years. I have test driven probably over a thousand different vehicles. In those fifteen years. I get at least once per week, and if you want to hear some of my previous and past reviews, you can go to Spotify and maybe on Apple, maybe on another a few other podcast sites, but you'll listen to there may be eight nine minute reviews where I will tell you the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful, the things about out to so many of the vehicles that

I get. This past week, I have been rolling around in where I went to San Antonio and I'm driving up to Cobo Bob's here soon in a new Ford Explorer. It is it's been a while since I have test driven a Ford Explorer. This is the twenty twenty five version that I that I'm in, and specifically because there's so many different models of the Ford Explorer. I mean there's the guy, you got the XLT, you got the Limited, you got the Platinum, I happen to be in the Ford Explorer. St Line st dash l I n E.

St Line. What it is. This is their sportier performance style. It's got some blacked out accents. It's got a pretty unique different grill. It's got that st Line badge right there. You could see it. But it's it's pretty strong and it's it's pretty fast too, four hundred horse powers. So I was able to get up and down it in relatively quickly to get to San Antonio before I Columbus or wherever I was. That was like freaking horrible. Went down to one lane. I ten, come on text dot.

You know you got pretty much half of Houston shooting down. I ten to go to San Antonio to watch the cougars. This is the weekend. You couldn't say, you know what, let's just kind of stop. You know, it's some repairing and building on I ten. I know I can neither here nor there. The Ford Explorer got me over there. It's but it is a neat trim level. It's a good sporty appearance, very sport tune, a powerful engine. The Ford Explorers the st line. They start around forty five

thousand dollars. You're gonna get about twenty miles to break down in the city twenty nine on the highway. It's got a two point three liter four cylinder engine, all right, tose about five thousand pounds too, which is not bad. The uh it's very roomy, and I like what Ford has done. I'm all about in terms of the technology in these vehicles. I'm all about what I call screen

estate or dashboard real estate. If you've got a larger vehicle and you've got a relatively large dashboard, if it's an SUV or CUV, don't give me a stupid dinky five inch six inch eight inch touchscreen and Fotama system. You better max that thing out, And nowadays they do so. This particular one on the Ford, the Explorer of the SD, it has got a very nice I think it's about a twelve inch touchscreen. And it's got an app too. Do you know that it actually has an app to

control it? You know, you can remotely start the car and see what's going on. But it's front row heated seats, which I did not use. See I'm an AC guy. See we're in Texas right here. I mean, I think it's so funny. It's all we got heated seats. It feels good like that. I get some vehicles with heated steering wheels, you know, meat whatever like that. You better blow some AC up my takas. I want some air conditioning seats. But anyway, it's got the it's a twelve

inch digital cluster. Digital cluster means when you're driving as a driver, and you're looking through your steering wheel and you're looking at the odometer or this speed dometer and all that that's called the digital cluster. This is twelve point three inches, just crystal clear. It looks great. Then when you go look at the enfotainment touchscreen that is thirteen inches. It's a thirteen inch in the Ford explore

st line. So it's got everything from a head of Bang and Oliphant's Bang and Oliver Bang and Olsen sound system, ten speakers, it's got Hill Start Assist connect. And I'm looking at some of my notes over here. Yes, it's got your typical wireless Apple car Play in your Android Auto, which I actually don't use. I am not, I'm an Android. Yes, it's got Apple car Play and Android Auto. A lot of people like that. I for some reason, I don't know what it is. I don't use my Android Auto.

I have an Android phone, and if I had an Apple I would not use Apple CarPlay either. I just what it does when you plug it? Actually why wireless? Now? It replicates a lot of things on your phone, so you don't have to physically look at your phone, which you shouldn't be looking at your phone when you're driving. You now see it on the big thirteen inch touchscreen. I don't use it for some reason. This actually did have and I'll kind of in the chat with this.

This had Ford's Blue Cruise. And if you don't know what Blue Cruise is, Blue Cruise that is the semi autonomous semi way that you can drive a vehicle without. And you know, and you know what cruise control is where you could take your foot off the gas, you push a button. That thing has been around for probably thirty to forty years. But this is a different type of crew system that General Motors GM. They call it

Super Cruise. Ford calls it Blue Cruise because a third party company has mapped out about seven hundred and fifty thousand miles of divided highway systems across the country. And so thanks to your GPS, your car knows where your vehicle knows where you are. And once you're on one of these highways and I'm talking it ten, you can talk you know, US fifty nine in Houston, er wherever

you are, a lot of these are already mapped. What you do is you hit the button on the steering wheel and then you could take your foot off the gas, but you could also take your hands off the wheel, and your vehicle using a camera system and radar, light ar and all this other things, it will as safe as it can. And you have to give it some trust because the first time I used this thing about two years ago, is like, this is whoo's freaky. It'll start driving and it's crazy, and it really blows the

minds of your passengers who have never seen it. You take your hands off the wheel. Now, how does it know that you're not sleeping? How does it know that you're not looking at the road? Do you have to keep your eyes in the road. All of these vehicles they have a camera that is installed that is looking at your face. There is a camera looking back at

you that's mounted on the steering wheel column. So if you turn your head to talk to your passenger or you start nodding off, it knows to turn off that automatic driving system. It could change lanes without you touching this steering wheel and that still and I've driven this thing for two these vehicles equipped with these crew systems like this, it still blows me away for a while. It knows if there is cars behind you on the

left behind you on the right. If it's clear and you want to immate, it will automatically start switching lanes without you. This particularly one has the what's Ford calls it the blue Crew system. Generally, sometimes it's an upgrade. Sometimes it's about three hundred three thousand, maybe thirty five hundred dollars. Is it worth to you if you drive the highway system a lot, if you commute a lot on the highways and freeways, yes, it could be worth

the extra money. If you don't get on the freeway, if you don't trust Big Brother AI computers or whatever, probably not worth it for you to spend the extra money. But I thought that was pretty cool. Overall, it's a very I mean, I did Ford Explorers have been around for a long time, and there was the Eddie Bauer version of this, and remember these things. But good job on Ford. This happened to be the Ford st line for starting about forty five thousand dollars forty five fifty

thousand dollars. So again I am not I don't indoors dealerships. I'm not even going to tell you a dealership to go to. I personally like it. If you're in the mood in the mode for a vehicle and hopefully it's not going to be tariffed out that you know what,

go check it out. Love to hear your thoughts. If you think I'm wrong, call me three four six twenty nine text And when we come back, we're going to talk about fully autonomous self driving vehicles that happened to be in Austin that I saw this past weekend when I popped up there from my round the World at Texas and four day's trip. Michael Garfield, it is the high Tech Texting Show. We do continue the High Tech Texting Show about thirty more minutes left. Love to hear

from you to talking about cars still. You know, I was just giving a little quick review of my twenty twenty five Ford Explorer, and again just let you know, none of this stuff is paid they I just get to drive these cars on weekly basis and I can just rag on them like there's nobody's business, and sometimes I do. I actually did like the new Ford Explorer the st line. I was talking about the semi autonomous driving and if you have a Ford, the Ford calls

it Blue Cruise. I understand because blue that's their logo. The oval shaped logo. It's the same type of system that's in GM that GM uses, which is called super Cruise, and it's semi autonomous versus autonomous. And I just got an email over here and Michael, what's the difference between semi autonomous and fully autonomous vehicles? Well, yeah, as the name in suggest, you could probably guess fully autonomous vehicles is baby. Now you've got your hands off, you got

your foot off the gas. You ain't doing nothing. I mean you're almost like a passenger where there's no driver there. And that's actually what's happening right now. It's if you've been I was in Austin this past Monday. I popped up there to do my stuff on Fox seven TV and I was downtown and I was behind a Weamo vehicle. And if you don't know what weaimo is Waymo and Weimo has been around for several years and there they

just expanded it into Austin. But what it is it is a Uber for lack of but it's a self you know, hailing ride sharing service. I apologize for using Uber, sorry left and everything else, but it's a self driving vehicle that you can hail a ride from point A to point B and self driving cars. They're becoming less sci fi and very real world with companies like Waimo, which is actually part of Google's parent company called Alphabet.

They're expanding into cities and countries. They expanded into Austin. They actually just expanded it for the first international location into Tokyo. If you ever make it out there, and what you do is you they use Jaguars. They use Jaguars Ipace. It's an EV vehicle. They did just announce they're going to start partnering with Hyundai to bring its Ionic five SUVs coming in there. But Weimo says it already provides more than two hundred thousand paid trips each week.

Obviously kicked off in San Francisco. But if you're watching or driving and you see these in the road, which I did last Monday, and I was behind one in a stoplight or a traffic light, it's kind of odd. You know what they are, and they look a little You certainly can tell what they are, it says Weymeo. On the side, but you can see these radars and cameras really popping out, protruding all along the cars. Because

these cameras and radars and light ours. They need to use that to steer, to drive, to break into gas. And you know, every time I talk about it, I kind of asked this question, are you comfortable riding in a fully autonomous self driving car? And I've done it a few times, and you really have to kind of I don't know. You may have to take a cloniprit or something. You may have to just take a chill pill. And it's like, okay, let me just trust the future, big brother AI. A lot of people won't do it

for some reason. You are in Austin and you see these things, though you have to go through Uber. There is an Uber app because Uber partnered with Way specifically in Austin, and you can request an Uber X or an Uber Comfort or an Uber Comfort Electric and you could be matched with a Weaimo vehicle. You're not gonna be upcharged. If you don't want to take a driverless ride, you do have the option to switch to a standard one.

But if you want to boost your chances of being matched to a self driving car just for the heck of it, you can go to your account in settings and you can click autonomous vehicles and then you can hit the toggle that says get more Weaimo rides. It may be worth it just for you know, just the giggles to drive in the thing. But we are going to be seeing more and more of these driverless vehicles all over the place, so off of the country and

all over the world. Amazon has its own company and they planning to start their fully autonomous driving late this summer in Los Angeles. They've got an interesting one called zooks z X and these are weird looking machines. They do not look like a car. How do I describe this? I actually should put up a photo on my high Tech texan x account if you want to go check it out. High Tech Textan Zookes is the self driving company that is owned by Amazon, and they it's like

a pod like Robotaxi. There's no steering wheel, there's no driver. It's like a car. It's like a cabin car. It's got four wheels and it's it looks like a pod for lack of a better term. No no pedal, no drivers say know anything, and they are gonna lost. Shockingly, they're kind of following way mo'slee. They're gonna do it

in San Francisco, Vegas, Seattle, Miami, and Austin. These things are head turners when you look at them, because they certainly absolutely do not look like cars in these pod vehicles. And it's it, I'll say it again, the self driving scene. It's small, but it's becoming competitive. Zookes Waymo. There are some of the bigger names in the game. Tesla, they unveiled its service called Robotaxi. They announced it and unveiled it. But the Legilist starting in the summer too in Austin.

I'll tell you what, man, if you're in Austin, you better watch out this summer because that's at least three that I've even mentioned already that are going to Austin. There may not be a drive a car or a vehicle with an actual, living, breathing driver in Austin come later this year. But the question is why aren't they more prevalent? Would you do it? And the answer quite simply to me, it's a paradigm shift. As we have known vehicles since Henry Ford created his little black Model

te we have had drivers. A human has been in control of steering and looking and turning and switching lanes and breaking and everything certainly not perfect, very fallible. Rex there's crashes, there's incidents. But now we're leaving this up, we're turning it over to machines with what we hope, and I use the word hope, very smart technology. Software, hardware that can sense from the fact, that can sense obstacles,

that can sense issues. But if you think about it at at its top level, you're in the back of a cab. Everybody's been in a cab generations, all right, So you're feeling comfortable with, you know, a dude, a lady, whoever it is. You don't know if they've just got through driver's license, you don't know if they're eighty years old, that they don't have quick wing flexes. The cab is generally,

I don't know, sometimes dirty. There's a you know, plexiglass, you know, kind of barrier between the front seat and the back seat. Your comfany that that person the driver's not talking to you versus. And again I'm not endorsing these fully autonomous driving cars, but now you're using the best in what it is hopefully the safest autonomous cameras. Software, clean cars, very clean that is that are going to get you to the same places. It's that paradigm shift

we are used to someone driving us. We need as a as a species, yeah, able to let robots, for lack of a better term, drive us around and do that job, just like we let robots do a lot of other things. Did you ever is it? I get yes. I mean, I'm gonna use this analogy. It's not exactly the same. A lot of people have robotic vacuums. I have a robotic vacuum. I love robotic vacuums, robo rock. I've got several robotic vacuums in mops. It saves me time because I don't have to sweep and mop. The

robot just walks around. Or I'm holding up an upright vacuum slash mop and I'm doing it in there. It's helping me. It's different because I'm still if I'm driving, I still need to get point A to B. Is it going to be a person or is it going to be a robot? That really doesn't save me a bunch of time. But we're trusting, and that's the point I'm trying to make. We're trusting these robots, We're trusting software,

we're trusting hardware. To do things. We have long We trust our video door bells, we trust our alarm systems. We trust a lot of things. And I don't know when that's gonna be. I have three boys. They're all pretty much in their twenties. Let's just say they is it their generation, not immediately, but certainly by the time that they have kids. Yeah, they we are. I think it could be much more trusting and much more open to robots and paradigm shift of what's going to happen

again scenario. This is what I talk about. I like creating and storing up not controversy, but just discussion, which we have less than ten to twelve minutes for final break here. If you want to call, say hi, hurry, I'll give out the number one more time three four six twenty nine textan three four six two nine textant. Michael garfielders the name. This is the long run Hi Tech TEPS and show. I know a few minutes of this wonderful show and a beautiful week in a master's weekend,

and I do thank you for tuning in. Michael is the name Michael Garfield. Thanks for following me at High Tech Texts and Hi g H T E c H T e X A N A lot of nice, fun, funny comments. So what a life you leave? I saw you hanging with all the celebs and stars at Final Four weekend listen people. I've worked my off for a very very long time. I'm a sports fan and I am honored and lucky to get to do what I do. By the way, thank you very much to Nissan. By the way, Nissan is a partner with the NZ DOAA.

They were kind enough to help me out with some tickets to the Final Four. If I ran into you in San Antonio. Hello to WAI. Twelve hundred were my radio show airs on every weekend. Basis very nice for you to come up and say hi and thank me for just some of the stuff that I do to please. Don't thank me, I thank you. Don't thank me, I thank you. Also thank a lot of our partners. We couldn't do this show without a lot of our partners

and sponsors. Number One Total Wireless. That is right, total wireless. Wherever you are, what city you're listening in. If you need a really really good deal a you don't want to spend an arm and a leg on data and sell plan, check out Total wireless. They've got sixteen seventeen stores in Houston, also same amount roughly in San Antonio, Dallas. They're up there for you too. You can go to Total dot Victra dot com. That's vic t R a total dot Victra dot com. So make sure that's right.

That is right, and bring your own phone. You don't need to buy a phone over there. And I'm telling you what. You prepay it. You can get things you get monthly twenty five bucks a month, unlimited five g that's one of the plans if you sign up for pre payment. And so they really do a good job. And that is the selfur service that I currently have right now, thanks also to US Coins and Jewelry. I was at US Coins and Jewlry that is in Houston, by the way, and this is the it's listen. Mother's

days coming up. We've got graduation come up. I actually can I guess I can say this now. One of my longtime friends, their son just graduated from med school and they called me. They wanted to They know I work with US Coins and Jewelry. They wanted to get him a Rolex hooked him up with my man Will over there. Shout out to Will and they got him. I'm a I'm hoping they gave it to him. B

I hope he's not listening to blow the surprise. But anyway, they went over to US Coins and Jewelry it Katie Freeway right at Voss, and they found him exactly what they were looking for. They've just got a whole new

stock of a ton of men and women rolexes. They're beautiful, you can buy, you can sell, but they if you want something specifically, they deal with rollies and so much great jewelry and coins too, obviously that they can help you out, So please tell Michael Garfield said, Hi, Okay, there's a lot of Michaels that talk for him, but I am Garfield Garfa doing some selling and pimping for the great US Coins and Jewelry Cobo Bob's, which I'll be having some snacks and chips at in about fifteen minutes,

thank you. And also Campbell's Compounding Pharmacy two locations in the Houston area. Everything's getting more expensive compounding. If you need specific medicine or whatever, that could be the way to go. I certainly trust Campbell's compounding pharmacy. I've known Lance Campbell twelve fifteen years, I think, and they do a great job. When is sugar Land in one year? The medical Center? Thanks also to Astounds with the Z somebody asked me they want to create a website. They

sent me an email. It was Gavin Now, it was a Facebook message listener named Gavin. They want to do a e commerce website. They want to know if I could recommend a web development company that also does se O and e commerce. Astounds as t O U N d Z dot com. You can talk to Steve Winter. He is the president Day. I've known him forever in

a day. But these are the companies that I trust, that I know, and I do appreciate you using patronizing because they do help us keep this radio show absolutely f R E E. One more question here just came in on email. Michael. Here, you're talking a lot about reviewing cars, thinking about the EV right now, and I know I need to get one quick with all the tariffs coming up. What I'm concerned about is the installation

or how to get a home charger. Some of these companies I'm talking to they will quote unquote throw in a charger that is installed in your garage. Are these the best deal, the best value, WHI should I be looking at? That's a great question, because buying electric vehicle major life, major lifestyle adjustment, all right, And then considering the EV, you need to find out where you need

to install your charger at home? You do need one, You don't need one if you have a charger at work, if you live near a charging station or a whole foods or a dealership. No, but it's very dang convenient if you have one at home, because you pull your ride into your garage at night, you plug that in and you're set to go. Now, the best way to charge your EV is probably to install that EV charger

at home. It's it's not as simple as you think because it does depend on what type of vehicle you have, what kind of charger you want, and how fast you want it to charge. So there's a lot of options. So the first thing you need to do figure out how much you're going to be driving your EV and how quickly you'll need to recharge at home. Think about how long your commute is. Are you going to be coming home each night with the EV battery drained or is it going to be maybe only thirty or forty

percent drained. Whatever questions you have, you need to site if you want to level one charger or a level two charger, And I'm just gonna keep it real simple with terms like level one level two. A level one charger is a standard electricity plug that can go into any outlet in your home. You've got dozens and dozens inside and outside your home. You know what it looks like. Plug your blender into one. They are not the fastest charger, as matter of fact, I'm gonna use the word slow.

They can give your vehicle maybe five miles of range per hour of charging, if that does depend on your charger and your vehicle and another factors. You want something faster, you look at level two Level two charger. Much faster charging output gives you about twenty five miles of range per hour of charging, and that could potentially charge your battery from zero to one hundred percent overnight. So if your daily driving needs are under twenty miles, you probably

could do just fine with a level one. Anything more than that, you probably want to go level two. If you want a level one, you don't need any special anybody or anything. You don't need an electrician simply buy the right charging core for your vehicle, probably comes with it. You plug it into the wall outlet, and you're set to go, and then you wait, wait, wait, wait wait,

Level two your most likely want to call a professional. Now, if you already have a special two forty volt outlet in your garage, you could be good to go because you simply plug that level two charger into that. And what a two forty volt outlet is. Go look at your dry your washer, dryer, Go look at your dryer. That's the big semi round plug that has three prongs in there. Stoves also have it too, and again we're talking obviously electric stoves, electric dryers. That's a two forty.

If you don't have that installed in your garage or one mighty manning, mighty long cable, which I don't recommend, you're probably gonna go after an electrician come out, get to your electricity box and install a level two charge. All right. At that point, cost real quickly, because I'm running out of time over here. Maybe one hundred dollars an hour for labor. It's gonna take a few hours to install it.

a shepbook or somebody like that. People. Thank you to Brian Erickson, thank you to Callum Reid and Will and everybody Else's.