Hurricane Prep, Tesla Trends, and Prime Day Pick

If you don't agree, you're probably tuning in on iHeartRadio somewhere in the I don't know, Midwest North least, and you're thinking it's Michigan, Ohio State Texas OLU people, the eyes of Texas are upont And for the first time in a long time that I've been doing this show twenty three years, that kickoff has been simultaneously held at the same time that I start this show right now at eleven a m. Central Time. Should you be listening

live on Kate PARC nine to fifty. But alas, thanks to Texas and Oklahoma moving to the SEC and ASABC ESPN picking up the TV package, kickoff has been pushed back to two thirty Central time. So for the first first time in a long time, I am actually not in the cotton Bowl. I'm not in Dallas, and that is not due really to the late afternoon kickoff time. It actually is a holiday that I'm celebrating right now. And I'm very hungry, by the way, But I'm a toning for the lot of the I didn't it a tone.

I had a really good past year. But I don't have to keep one eye on the television and one eye here on my script as we do the high tech textan show. Hooke them horns, My dear friends, should you be o you sooners? Hey love to hear from you. Let's let's talk trash seven to one, three two one two five, nine to five. Oh uh? Amazon Prime Day once again, it was this past week. If anybody got any good deals, you know, because holiday season is almost

upon us, I'll probably start doing my holiday now. You know my guide to holiday gift giving and deals, Black Friday deal, Cyber Monday deals, I'll start that here towards the end of the month of October. But this was the If not, don't freak out, You're not mistaken. This was the second Amazon Prime Day or Prime Day is this year the big one, and the big one is always in July unless it's a COVID year. But this is the second one. So it's another tradition. And as

I've always said, Amazon, and I'm not knocking Amazon. I mean I'm an Amazon member. Though I don't buy a ton of stuff on Amazon. I do watch Amazon Prime though Thursday night football Amazon. I call this the biggest garage sale in the world. Amazon puts tons of things in their partners and sellers who utilize their service. They put tons of things on sale during Amazon Prime Days. Prime members get what free two day shipping, you know, if you go the perks. But to me, it's in July.

This is these are the two days that it's a fire sale. They're trying to just sell off everything that has not sold year round to clear their warehouse as an inventory, to make room for the new stuff and the new Chotsky's that they're going to sell for the incoming of the next holiday season, and now they did. It's it's still two days that they did this past week. I glanced at some of the products, and believe it

or not, I actually bought This is breaking people. I bought two items on Amazon Prime Day, and this is probably the first time I have ever done that. Now, I haven't been an Amazon member for a long time. Maybe I join four or five years ago and I'll use it. I don't do even though I'm the pimp of technology. I don't even I don't shop online a ton. I'm still og where I like to go into stores and try things on and look at colors and whatever. So maybe I'll buy five, six seven things from Amazon

in a given year. But I don't think I've ever bought anything on Prime Day because I just I don't want to get suckered into something and I really don't need a lot of stuff. I mean, and that's an honor and privilege to say that. But I did buy two things, and I would have bought them anyway, and I'm holding out my hand. I totally swear about this. I was surfing on when then I get back Wednesday night, and I needed one or two things because something of

that had broke on a recent trip. And another item I was using from a company that I was reviewing, but I had to send it back to them because it was just a review unit, and I'm like, I need one of these for real. So I went on and I bought it. I would have bought these items whether it was Prime Day or not. And I even forgot it was Prime Day until I log onto my

Amazon account. I was like, oh, it's Prime Day, you know, six more hours and eighteen minutes, and so I actually ended up buying I bought one of which I bought a wireless microphone kit system for my cell phone to see I shoot a lot of my videos on Instagram and TV for great Day, usedon and in whatever on my cell phones because I have a great Android cell phone Samsung cell phone that shoots very high pixels and

I want the pictures to look great. But one of the most important things, and this is a tip for all you vloggers and influencers and whatever you are out there, one of the most important things when shooting video, and there's two or three of them, and I learned this back in the late eighties when I went to college and I studied radio, television film. Yes, you need good video camera, which we have now on phones. You need a good microphone. You want sound. You also want good lighting.

Those are necessities to really make a good video, especially now if you want it to go viral or people to click on it. You want to brightly lit at least that opening image, and you want good sound. You know a lot of people use their built in microphone

from their phone, which it doesn't work well. That the microphone works good when you hold the phone up to your ear and talking on the phone, it's great, But if you're shooting a video and if someone's holding the maybe you're taking a selfie, maybe you're someone shooting you on a video, and you're six seven eight nine feet or more away, and you're outside and there's other noises, you're not going to pick up a lot of that voice. You want a microphone system, and there's a lot of

wireless wire very good wireless microphone systems out there. I recently used a Dji Mic two, the second version, second generation of their microphone system. They're wireless and what it is, and you can get them in a one transmitter or two transmitter, so I have two transmitters, and so I could be interviewing or talking with another person, and we just clipped these owner lapel and I think the range the range on this is over seven hundred feet. I mean,

I mean that's a long while. So it's good for walking and talking. It's an isolated sound that you're gonna get some good quality. Comes in a carrying case with a charging case, and it comes with a receiver that you can plug into either your Android phone or your Apple iPhone. That whole system is two hundred and fifty to three hundred dollars. Okay, it's that's listen. If you're using it on a regular basis and you want quality, yeah, Dji Mic two is great. But I also saw some

similar ones, and I'm gonna try this one out. I literally, I'm not kidding out. I think I paid thirty five dollars. I think I made thirty five or thirty eight dollars. It's got a charging case, it's got two transmitters, it's got one receiver. It came yesterday. It came Friday because I ordered it on Wednesday Amazon Prime. I haven't played with it. Yet, but I will let you know next week if it works. The range is only supposed to be one hundred and sixty five feet, which is fine.

I mean, I don't shoot anything further the way than that, but this is one of the must and so that's one of the things I bought. So as we take our first break here of the High Tech Texan Show, what did you get for Amazon Prime Day? Did you get a heck of a deal? You want to share it with us? Maybe the deal is still there. And this all lays up to the holiday shopping guide and tips that I'm going to be talking about when we do come back. I am going to talk about something

that really very scary thing that happened this week. It was a hurricane. Hurricane Milton just devastated the Tampa Saint Pete central Florida area. I'm going to talk about what a product that a Tampa Bay hospital used to stop the storm surge. It's a commercial use only thing and it worked. The power worked, it stayed on, there was no flooding here in this that they and there in this company is getting ready to make a consumer version two and so for everybody living in the Houston the

Galveston area. This may be something you want to know. Plus also how to stay safe when cell phone towers are down, and also how to track people as best as we can. Should you have some people in that horrific zone that did so much damnas this past week. Michael Barklay, It is the high tech texting showed that is right, just to order that big blooming voice. This is U the high tech Texan show. But doing this well over two decades. Somehow I still have my voice

a big hello nice as I monitor my email. Michael Garfield at ifartmedia dot com. I've got Rich listening. Rich is it Riches at work? It looks like Rich works in the retail industry. He's got it on on a Saturday as he listens to KPRC nine fifty am. And this is Jessica. Jessica's listens to why she's driving around. She's on the north part of town. And I've been listening to you for years and years. Very sweet, Jessica. Jessica, you should not be texting, actually or emailing while you're driving.

Hopefully you were in a parking lot for that, so I do thank you. I'll give you the phone number here Kilm Marie. Hello, Callum kell how how many years we've been doing this together? You've been here what six? Seven, eight years? Like you were still in high school or something. Young Buck, I don't know. He's Callum is working the phone line seven one three, two one two, five, nine and five. Oh, Calum, you're ready for the Texas OU

game today. It's a tradition unlike any other two thirty pm Today, ABC, and we also carry it on seven ninety right, that is right, seven ninety. Should you be in your car you listen to it on I believe seven ninety or seven forty. You know, it's such a big game every all of our radio stations. She just preempted I think at two thirty today, and Callum, you do run r AM side of the stations, whether Brian Erickson or anybody thinks he does. I give you gretit brother,

you program it so well. I say, you just preempt everything to two thirty today, on nine to fifty JPRC right now seven forty news talk talk, and then it's seven ninety sports just all Texas all the time. Horn's up. Yeah, it's in Texas. Hor up on you. But you can call and Calum may pick up if if if you're feeling like it, if he's feeling like it, and you could put me through the We who live in the Gulf Coast, certainly in the Houston, the Galasteria, all we

know all too well about hurricanes, don't we. Central Florida didn't know a lot about hurricane until a few days ago when Milton just man, have you seen the pictures of the video just barreled? It was a category five at some point. I think it hit land at category three. It is just it just devastated. What a dozen people lost their lives. It just I don't know how many hundreds of millions of dollars it's gonna cost to repair things. The Tropicana Field where the Tampa Bay Rays play baseball,

I mean, the roof is gone. I mean, just imagine the astrodome with the roof blown off. You know what, Come to think of it, that actually probably would be the best outcome of a hurricane hitting Houston is for it to destroy the astrodom. And oh yes, I did say that. And if you're a longtime lister of mine, you know I'm not a fan of the astrodom any longer. Okay, it's an icewhere that needs to go. I never want a hurricane to go anywhere. I never want a hurricane

to come through Houston. I never want a hurricane to come through Houston. That actually is so devastating. It still hits fifty five to sixty miles north of Galveston, which is roughly where the astrodome is. I don't want it to happen, I really don't. But if it does, I want that thing flattened. Okay, just get rid of it. Okay, that's enough of my little die tribe over here. But the Tropicana Field, it just it looks horrible, and they're

gonna have to rebuild that. If it's I think they were the Bays, the Tampa Bay Rays were going to either upgrade that or move in a few years. Now's the time to do that. Neither here nor there. One of the facilities that was still standing was a hospital was Tampa General Hospital. No relation to General Hospital TV show that I was on thirteen years ago, but it's Tampa General Hospital. And what they did is they utilize

something that I think is it's very cool. I don't know the cost of this thing, but it's called an aqua fence, an aqua fence, and it's really exactly actly what you think it is. It is a temporary fence that was put up knowing that this hurricane was going to come through and he could stop. It's a barrier for water surges. And I believe it's a ten foot

high fence. And imagine this. Imagine you know sometimes when you go to a concert and there's barriers and there's this wall that's generally maybe sometimes only four feet tall that you know, security guards, you're on the other side, and you're on the other side, and the whole thing. It's the same thing, but it's bigger, and it's secured,

very very strong. And they surrounded the hospital with this fence and actually have a price for you that cost anywhere between three hundred and fifty dollars to one thousand dollars per linear foot. So imagine how big a hospital grounds are I mean a lot. I mean this is an investment. It's a company out of Norway, been around since nineteen ninety nine. Says it protects now more than thirty billion dollars worth of real estate in the United

States across twenty four states. They shield hotels, banks a number of things. When what it does, these are reusable. You think you could put them up and you could take it down about sixty different times and it it. I'm not saying it's saved, but it withstood Hurricane Helene not long ago, and Hurricane Milton. They just came through. It's a one inch thick panel. It secures to the ground and with stands high winds while protecting floods building

from flooding. That's pretty cool. And I'm looking at pictures of this thing and I guess, I guess it's aqua fence. Just go google aqua FEDS. But it was. That's smart. If you're listening in the Galleston area or anywhere along the coastline, bow Mi anulus and our signal here. He goes all over the area, goes all the way to bow Minded Big actually touches into parts of Noir, into Louisiana. Is this something that you want to invest in if

you have a business. Now, I read that at some point they are going to develop for consumers for houses. They're developing a residential model that would cost around twenty thousand dollars per household. And I'm gonna stop there and I'm gonna leave this. I'm gonna let that sit with you, and we're gonna let this open for discussion. Seven one three, two, one two, five nine five zero. Would you pay twenty thousand dollars that have a fence that not guaranteed? I

don't I believe there's not guaranteed. I don't know if the aquafinse guarantees it. But it's been proven to work to round your home to stop high waters from washing your house away. Now think about this. It doesn't stop the winds from taking off of your roof, things flying through your windows, freeze down falling on top of your roof. But it's just for these storm surges. They think the answer is where do you live? How much is your house worth? What's the value to you at twenty thousand

dollars per house? And I want you to think about this too, What also can you get for twenty thousand dollars? Well, I want you to think about how much you paid at a lot of people bought them this year. How much did you pay for your whole home generator? You know, how much did you pay for a company to come out and install generat generator or whatever brand it was,

Some of these cost over ten thousand dollars. Some of them cost over twenty thousand dollars, depending how big your house is, how many times a year does that kick in, and when you use it when you have a power outage. It's nice to have. It's it's it's it's it's like an insurance policy that keeps the air condition you refrigerator running. Would you spend another twenty thousand dollars for this high tech aqua fence to be built around your home? It's

I don't know. I particularly again, everybody has a different answer. I particularly would not. Whatever what hurricane was it, Barrel Hurricane Barrel came through. It barreled through last July and it went I believe literally the eye went right over my house, right over southwest side of Houston, knock Wood. It was Category one. I think by then else is still standing. No damage to the roof. I was lucky. I think a few a few of my neighbors had

some roof damage. Power was out for maybe forty hours, maybe it was a day and a half. And that's the longest in the eight years that I've owed my house, my power has ever been out. I'm very lucky, so I would not. I am not in the market for one. But if you're along the coastline, if you're near a lake, if you're near a body of water, think about this day. So again I'm the guy who makes you think. I

ask you questions. Now when we come back too, I'm going to talk about the technology to keep you around, to keep your sanity when it comes to hurricane or when it comes to power outages. And I know it's like, why is he talking about it? Now? It's mid October? Guess what hurricane season the last through November thirtieth. We've got a month and a half to go. And if you already know, guess what happened less than forty eight to seventy two hours ago. We already had a massive

hurricane just destroyed central Florida. I am here to give your tips, just like a oil I am Michael Garfield. Before we continue, was just fun hi tech textan show and a big college football Saturday just because it's the Texas ou Gang, which is not starting it normally. It kicks off at eleven am right now. Actually what thirty minutes ago? Nope to thirty today, So standby a big shout out to my boys over at US Coins and Jewelry. I was there Thursday. Yeah, I popped over there Thursday,

saw Matthew Duncan. I made a little I made a little Instagram video. These guys are so good and it was I don't want to it's bad analogy because I'm talking about hurricanes. It was the call before the storm. Got there, right before lunchtime, and I walk in. It was relatively quiet. Relatively quiet because when they usually walk

in there. Man, I love it because it's hustle and bustle, and there there's Will behind the desk and he's looking at all these coins people are bringing in and offering money for him because they buy and sell coins, obviously, but relatively what. Matthew and I had time to chat and I flipped a one of my watches. They sell Rolex watches. They got a great selection there too, and boy they've got some hard to find ones. I ended up getting a Batman. There's a bat do you know

there was a Batman Rolex. There's a Hulk, There's a Pepsi. There's they got there. They come up with these crazy names. There's a sprite, so no way one of the things that I did, and I did some videos. So if you follow me on high Tech Texan h I g h t e c h t e x a n on Instagram one of the several videos that I posted this week, and you go in if you uh, Holliday season, they're just going to be crazy busy, sportsparmabilia, coins, jewelry,

women's jewelry, ear rings, tennis bracelets. But it's if you want to start really getting into coin collecting, you want to start, your kids or your grandkids, great place to start. There's just there're new mismatists on steroids. I am allowed to say that new mismatist. That's someone who collects coins, right, versus a philatalist, which I out also can say on the radio. I am. I'm not a philatalist, but I

used to be easy does it? People do not arrest me? No, no, no, it's a person who collects stamps and my grandparents started that damn collection for me. But us coins and jewelry. They're on Katie Freeway, just outside Loop six ' ten at Voss Voss Rokay. They are open today. They're probably listening. They have not KPRC nine to fifty two and in, Hey guys, girls us coins and Julie. So if you go in, tellt me you heard it on the Michael

Gartfield High Tech Textan show. These guys are great. Speaking of hurricanes, we still have a month and a half in hurricane season. It goes to November thirtieth, believe it or not. And you know, for my over the air listening audience in the Houston galveson DMA, you know how devastating a hurricane can be. Hurricane Barrel came barreling through the Houston area in early July. Power is out for a quite a while. For most number of my listeners out there, you don't dy how would you use it?

How do you be prepared? And and I've talked about this for twenty years that I've done on the radio, Things and things pop up because of the technology. There are apps, there are gadget devices that can help you. We'll go over it again. Yes, you always want to make sure how how can your phone help during the hurricane. It could be a lifeline if you think about it. Many smart many smartphones right now they're waterproof, or at

least they're water resistance. And if your current smartphone is not waterproof, Why don't you run out, like right now and get a waterproof case for it, sealable or reusable. I mean you've seen these pouches. I actually have one of these if and when I ever go on a boat. It's like a very high end baggy that kind of it's like a ziplock that that zips that you could put a lot of your your things that you don't want ruin. Put your passport, put your your money in there,

and certainly put your phone in there. But as a lasts, if you have some thick zip lock bags, maybe an emergency kit, put your phone in there too. Put your phone in there. When you're shopping for a gadget, maybe it's a new phone. You want to consider the if it's water resistant, and there's a rating called the IP.

And then I'll follow by a number that you should look at and consider, especially if you are if you're a boater, if you travel, if you're prone to drop in your phone and around your bathroom or your tub, whatever it is, it's the IP. Right P stands in this case, it stands for ingress protection I n gr eess ingress protection, meaning that it could be submerged in fresh water for up to x number of fee for up the x number of minutes. I suggest you get

something that's at least IP sixty eight rated. And if you've got an IP sixty eight or higher, you can be in water up to five feet for up to thirty minutes without doing any any harm, any bad harm. And then there's backup power too. What's your backup power solution? Backup power is essential in whether related emergencies. You know, if you have cell service in your area, you may not have power. You may be able to access to working power outlet, but without power, your smartphone is useless.

It it's like a box that it came in. It's not a big deal. Get a little power bank. Get these little power banks that started ten to fifteen dollars. You could juice up a smartphone at least once. Get one with a higher milla amp. That's that thing is the m ah. The more milli amps, the more times it can charge up a phone or another device.

But think about this. I mean, you have someone in your family, may have a seatpap machine when they sleep. You need that. Medical equipment, small appliances. Yes, you got laptops, you got lights, you know, go get some. You could

get some portable power generators that can run. I had a neighbor of mine I was with was at an event when so Wednesday night, I saw a neighbor and we were talking and my neighbor and we don't lose power a lot, as I had said, in the six seven eight years I've lived in my house, I mean I've lost power. I can count out one hand if it hadn't been for more than maybe a day and

a half. In the day and a half it was with Hurricane Barrel, this pass Shula, and luckily I was out of town, and I asked, we talked about did you get us one of these home whole home generators? And they didn't want us to spend the money. They didn't want to spend twelve thirteen, fifteen thousand dollars. And I'm like, I'm down with you, baby, because we're lucky. We our houses. Our homes are relatively new and we

live in it that hasn't been hit. But they wanted to go out and they wanted to buy a portable power generator. These things are much cheaper. These things are I can go get four hundred, five hundred, and if you really want to spend one thousand dollars, you could do that. But what they are there, they're very large batteries. They're very large and very heavy. I have two of them that I've been playing with. One of them maybe is maybe about twenty five pounds, and I've got another

weighs about thirty five pounds. I charge them up by plugging them them and I check it every few months, especially during especially during hurricane season. It's I'm always in ninety nine to one. What it is. If my and I used it twice in my house, if my power goes off, I go to my garage and I pick up this battery, and luckily I'm strong, and I take it to my kitchen because I want my refrigerator running. The model I have it will power a refrigerator because

it's got the typical AC and DC inlets. Mine has six different outlets that you could plug in. So I can plug in a fan, I can plug in two fans. I can plug in a charger for my phone. I can plug in my refrigerator, I can plug in a light. I can plug in a number of different things. Also has some of usbc's in USB courts for USBA and USBC runs. Maybe I think this one was about four hundred and five hundred and six hundred dollars. Let me

help you out. It's a heck of a lot cheaper than having a whole home generator installed with the natural gas. You don't have to wait to your city comes to approve it. With permits. Now no get you may want to go get in one of those. It let you plug in some of them let you plug in up to ten appliances. So that was a really interesting conversation that my neighbor had. She went out, I believe, the

next day and bought one. The way. Did you know you still can call nine one one from your mobile phone even if you do not have an active cell phone plan. You do not need to pay for cell service to call nine one one. Bottom line out of bad idea to keep it old. The activated phone in your emergency kit, maybe your glove compartment. Make sure it's charge. Make sure it's charged. You can call, you can, did you know? You can also text nine to one one

if you can't talk. If you need to be silent, you need to be registered for the night for that nine to one one service with your wirelest provider. You could do that too. Other ways thing it. If you have bad service, you find something with Wi Fi. If you have no cell but WiFi, use WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger, use FaceTime, red Cross. They offer a number of different things, folks. It may you think it's oh, hurricane season's over. It's too late. It's not gonna happen to me. It could.

There's tornadoes, there's floods. Life not certain. I am an Eagle Scout, one of the youngest ones in the history of Boy Scouts. I was an Eagle Scout when I was thirteen, and I continue to practice and be prepared. I want you to be prepared. That's why you listen to my show right all right, one more, one more segment this hour before we continue all the way to one pm. It's to our radio show.

Huh beat that on a podcast. Well, it probably could. It's different though, But as soon as the one o'clock hour hits, calib is going to zip this two hour show that I'm talking on right now, it'll put it on our podcast on iHeart Radio. So thank you for downloading the iHeart Radio app wherever you get your fine apps, you can download iHeartRadio and listen to me live through the app, not even on the radio. Oh, by the way, you know You could also listen to me or in

our radio station on a smart device. More people are doing that. If you're around home and you've got your your Amazon Alexis and your googly things and whatever, you know what you can do just talk to it and just say hey, Siri or IXA, whatever you want to say. Listen to KPRC nine fifty am on iHeart Radio. You can walk around your house, put on your marts speakers and everything. It's it's pretty pretty cool, don't die. I

thought so too. A phone number here and what I call, which generally you can't do on podcasts because podcasted podcasts generally aren't live, they're recorded. But here this is what radio is people seven one three, two one two five nine five O. You know, speaking of which generations? Where did I see this? I saw a story over here of the different generation names and years because we we we know Baby boomers, we know Gen X I'm a Gen x er, we know millennials, and it was it

was really interesting read. But it was also about how times and things have changed, what each generation has gone through, why, why it's it's just different. And let me see if I can find this real quickly. Oh here it is no where is that thing? So there's a gen x I'm a gen xer. Then there's millennials, and then there's gen Z gen Z. There we go gen Z. If you were born between nineteen ninety seven, twenty twelve, year gen Z and then here here's the new one. If

you were born between twenty thirteen and today. You know what it's called. Anyone anyone you are gin Alpha, That is, according to USA today, gin Alpha, then Alpha. Who came up with that man? Anything sexier than that?

up a I mean, think about it. I was a very early as I'm aging myself, a very early gin exer. I was born in the very early early cust of gen X if you want to go research that. I remember my dad had a real to reel tape. Not a lot of homes consumers use real to reel listen. I learned how to splice that interring my radio intelligsion and film classes in the eighties when I came to radio. There's a lot of my radio that some of the ILK that I work with over here, who are my age,

are a little older still in radio. Believe it or not. I know they're laughing and listening right now, going good. Remember taking the razor blade and taking the tape and splicing together, and think, yeah, that's how we used to edit that stuff. I remember real the real But then I remember I had a record player, and then we had a thirty three and a third and we had the forty five records of the singles, and we had the albums, and then it was the cassette and I

did jump over the eight track tape. I had an eight track tape, not that that was semi popular, but the cassette tape was awesome. It was so small, and you had a cassette tape in your car. You get your first car in the late seventies and the eighties, and you got a cassette player and you just pop in little you know, I had, you know, the thriller, you know, Michael Jackson, John Googar, Melon Cap, Holloo, It's a journey Man. My first cassette I ever got, ever

got nineteen eighty one, it was journey Escape. Played that. By the time I graduated college, CDs had hit the market. Had to go and take all my money I got from graduation. I bought me a pimp stereo system. Man, Yeah, that's right, man. I got me a cassette player, got the hamp of Fire, got everything. Then all of a sudden, Apple comes along, and then Apple starts they offering iTunes, and then it was uh, you could buy and download these songs for ninety nine cents, and then streaming came along.

Then on our radio comes along. Generations are so different, you know. TV always has been there in some way, shape or form. TVs to me, there was really only three hops, three different versions of TV, one of which, let's just call it was I'm gonna call it black and white TV. Black and white TV was the only thing you got, which how do I even describe black and white TV to you, I'll though, Jennilfahs, it was TV you're watching, you know, with all the vivid colors.

But it was black and white. That that's it. There was white and there was just start stuff. That's it. The mid nineteen sixties that's when it changed and TV shows were starting to be able to They shot them in color with Technicolor, with color cameras. That was dividing point one to two. It was color TV. After that, everybody had to get a color TV. Evs weren't nice and thin that hung on the wall. They were big, old think heavy mamas. They were built into consoles like

my grandparents. Man, my grandparents had such a cool one. They had a big old TV on one side and they had a record player on the other side, all built into this beautiful wood console. Waited as much as a car. And then it was the early two thousands that was the next dividing line. And to me, that's where we are right now, and that's where digital, the standard of broadcasting was mandatory that everything go digital. High definition came in. TV's got thin very expensive. Now they're

relatively inexpensive. I guess we could say there's a dividing line right now, maybe there's a three point five right now, third and a half dite where we're now consuming videos on our mobile devices. But they're mobile devices, they're not televisions. It's the difference between all of these generations, which are you. I don't know. We gotta take a break right now. You as I looked through the glass right now, as he plays the music to gets in the break, callum

read you by believe are gin Z right? Gin Z born between nineteen ninety seven and twenty twelve, right, long hair, looking good looking, dapper, unless you're a millennial before that.

we continue with that. Actually we can still talk about football whatever you want seven to one, three, two, one two five nine five oh one hour down listed in one hour in the books. Then I will let you be on your way to either fast watch college football or whatever you want to do. Big news in the world of automobiles yesterday, Tesla did you see this? Tesla has announced Elon Musk. Yes, that's right. He was out

in California, Burbank, actually California. He announced another interesting vehicle from his company. It is a self driving taxi. Is the robot taxi that's been long awaited. There's a name for it. Finally, it is called the cyber Cab. The cyber Cab, and I watched the online press conference and it took a little deciphering of what the hell is

this thing. It's a futuristic looking vehicle, but it does not have a steering wheel and it does not have pedals, but it does come with a promise from the man himself that it will arrive sometime in twenty twenty six and costs less than thirty thousand dollars. And you can't see me here in studio, but I'm using air quotes with the promise. I don't know, man, I don't know. Hey, is it a tax So it's self driving? Which number

one is nothing new Tesla in this area. They're playing catchup because Waimo Waymo, which is owned by Google's parent company called Alphabet, they've had driverless taxis for years. They say it provides more than one hundred thousand paid rides per week in San Francisco and Phoenix and La where they have these things General Motors. They have robot cabs themselves. It's called Cruise.

a pedestrian was critically injured. Last year. Amazon Amazon themselves they have they're testing a driverless van zookszo X. This is nothing really new, but because it's Elon, you know, Elon has these press Conferencisco very Steve jobsish like back of the day, and so it's going to attract attention because Tesla, yes, pretty much first to market when it comes to the electric vehicles, and because Elon is just Elon man, it's just wherever he goes, he gets coverage.

It's smart marketing on him off to pump himself up. So let's talk about this little Is this something you has anybody ever ridden in a driverless car? I have, and it's just freaky DK And I think one of the reasons why it really hasn't taken off, it's not because the technology is not there. It's not because they're unsafe, because in many cases they are. They use cameras, they use GPS, they use LIEDAR, which is a type of

another type of similar to radar. It's just it's a paradigm shift, and it's ingrained in our brains, going, how in the world can I be driving in a vehicle or riding in a vehicle? Would nobody driving the car? It's scary. The first time I ever saw one of these, I flew to San Francisco for something and I was was I driving was I may have rented a car at San Francisco Airport, driving north to San Francisco, the city itself, and I'm on the what is it, the I five or whatever it is it up there and

I'm next to me. All of a sudden, I look over and there is a car, no one in there, no one, no passengers, but there was no driver, you know, and had all these cameras systems on, and it was just freaky to look at from the outside. And I slowed down because I didn't want to get anywhere near this day for fear it would change lanes and crash

or something. It didn't. There's there's still questions to you know, what if it gets in a wreck and you know who's responsible, you know, how do you ensure this thing? It's whatever this is gonna come to this is something you want to do. And the funny thing is about the cyber cab. It's a robota. When I hear the word taxi, when I hear the word cyber cab, it's okay. It's something that I'm going to be driven in. But they're also going to sell these to the public, So

they're gonna sell them to the public. And it doesn't have a steering wheel, it doesn't have any pedals. You're just going to I mean, you want a paradigm shift. Let's say you buy one of these cyber cabs, which which is for the first one? It looks pretty cool? Is that gonna is what the actual one is gonna look like? Looks like a mini mini cyber truck. A paradigm shift is okay, you're gonna have this is this

is gonna be your everyday car. Instead of getting at the driver's seat, you're now for the rest of your lifetime, you're getting in the passenger seat. Why even have a door on the front left hand side because you ain't gonna get in there. There's no reason to well, other than just to sit. It's it's it's totally autonomous. I'm just not sure that the world is ready for this day. Tesla, by the way, and this is fact that I'm not ragging on testlade love It's a Texas based company, which

I love me some Texas. It's losing ground to competitors in China and even here in the US. Its share of the electric car market fell below fifty percent this year. It stock is down forty percent from its record high, which was back in twenty twenty one. But but Tesla and Elon, they have staked the future on self driving technology and artificial intelligence. I'll give you a quick good and bad before you get out of here. Tesla could win because it is able to collect tons of data

for millions of its cars already on the road. Plus the self driving technology that Tesla uses it's it's cheaper than those that are used by other companies like Waimow, so it could potentially undercut them on the price. Could be a big win for Tesla. But Tesla still needs regulatory approval to operate its robotaxis on public roads. Still hasn't contacted the California Public Utilities Commission as of right now about even applying for autonomous permits. This was just

a press conference. That's it, but again it caused me to talk four minutes about Tesla and give it some free publicity. So Tesla, congrats one of the winners this week. And let's hope the Longhorns ride by on you all right, break time right now seven one three, two, one two five, nine to five. Though, if you want to call, say hi, I asked questions, we could talk cars coming back. I do talk about cars and trucks. I will tell you. Actually, we could play the game what's Michael driving this week?

Because every single week I get to test drive a new car, not from a dealership but directly from a manufacturer. I'll give you my thoughts. It is not paid, not sponsored, so I can rag on any car. But I'll tell you the truck. It's an SUV I was driving, big name. I will tell you if I like it, if I don't like it, And uh, how much does bad Boy costs? Coming up?

I love this. It's based out of Austin. There's four locations here in the Houston area and hope a lot more coming. But it is the place where it's task casual. As we say, you go in and you prepare, you tell the people what you want in your massive burrito or tacos, or the bowls or the salads. It's just a really well run company. I have met the owner who's by the way. His name's not Bob, but it's just you know, they got fish tacos, they've got phenomenal brisket.

They make the tortillas right in front of you, five different tortilla choices. It is good stuff. Caller number ten, let's do this. You want to do this, Calumn, I'll give you the number, color ten. You're gonna get a twenty five dollars gift card to Cabo Bob seven one three, two one two five nine five. Oh do it. And that's the last time I'm talking about food because I

cannot eat until sundown tonight. So folks, good luck to you, as we could dig you the high tech techs in show told you about the nestless cyber cab or the robot taxi that Elon and Tusla unveiled. It's still a few years coming, but cars and trucks are still out there. One of the big things that I do drive and test and talk about. It's not just computers and TVs and cell phones and drones and cameras and all that other fun stuff. I am really big into cars and trucks.

I am a member of the Texas Auto Writers Association, and which means well, it means I get to talk to the manufacturers, the engineers, the marketers. I do not deal with dealerships.

we need theme. Callum's on the phone getting a winner right now for Cabo Bob's We need a theme, want a theme song? What's Michael driving this work? Folks? For one week I was in a twenty twenty four land Rova Defender, nice suv, sporty suv, capable on road, off road, sexy head turner without a doubt, great power, three liters six cylinder engine.

it was relatively easy to climb into. It's it's jacked up. It's a little higher. Great tires, great big tires that come with it. It was what eight speed automatic from the outside you walk around. I like the design spare tire, spare tire. Yes, it does come with a full size spare tire. The spare tire is mounted on the back kind of jeepish if you will. I don't know. Yeah, I don't love that. It's a cool, rugged Look. You keep this thing on a ranch and you go off

roading a lot. Sure, who was the last time you ever had a flat tire? Now, people are different depending on where you drive. You've run over and nail and whatever. Listen, it's been a long time since I've had a flat tire. It's plus so many people have triple A service or whatever service that you got. I don't know if you need to mount this thing there, because when you look in the rear view mirror in this particular vehicle, the land Rover Defender, you see that you see the top

of the tire. It obstructs your rear view view by a bit. And I don't like that this particular tire is pretty heavy drug. It also weighs it down with that fifth tire. I know, listen, I told you last hour, I'm an Eagles scalp. Be prepared. I'm always prepared. You do want to spare tire though, it's kind of a give and take, and I know I'm going back and forth the whole thing, but if again, I'm giving you the ups and downs of this thing. A little obstructive

view in the back. On the inside, very nice, it's a clean look. One of the things I always like about land Rovers. It's very clean. Nice touchscreen, horizontal touchscreen probably it's what.

You know, if I can define outside of the realm of typical car reviews, this one's is a luxury suv and it's a status status vehicle along the lines of the Mercedes the BMW's. But this is particularly if you want the brand, the model number. This was the land Rover Defender one ten X Dynamic s if you really wanted that thing. So I dig it, I dig it. So if you were in the mood for an suv, listen, I can give you a ton of other SUVs that you may want to tap in. Actually, next week I'm

getting a Did you know Buick makes an suv. It's a relatively new one. Next week, I'm getting a Buick suv. About two weeks ago, I just got out of I was at the Texas Truck Rodeo up in North Texas and I got to drive at about thirty different hiccup trucks and some SUVs. If you want to see that, I posted the video a little kind of a highlight ten minute highlight video of just a ton of them on my website high Tech textan h I G H T E H T e x A n dot com.

You can also go to my YouTube channel just YouTube, look for high Tech Texts and again hop me an email call the show here if you have my text, don't text me maybe you know, just don't do it in the middle of the night and let me know I have Michael, I'm thinking of this vehicle. I'm thinking, you know, I need a sportish one I'm having. You know, maybe I want a minivan. And believe it or not, I had a minivan too, about about three weeks ago. Four weeks ago had the Chrysler PACIFICA. I'll be the

best minivan in the road. Don't laugh, man, I test them all for you. That's what I'm here for, to give you the good the bat. I'm not going to tell you tell you a dealership to go get a deal I'm not going to tell you a dealership to go, hey, Rinch in my name and get a discount. I do not endorse a dealership. I would like to endorse a dealership, and I would like our sales folks here at iHeart

to maybe help me out with that. But I'm very picky because I know a lot of dealerships, and I know one or two dealerships who are absolutely the top notch best that I would only buy a vehicle from because they're good. So I'm very picky because I am your consumer guy, and I am on your saw and I'd fight for you. I'll also give you some good information too. Gonna change the tone a little when we come back from this break Attention soon to be parents.

If you've never had a GET and you're expecting a kid, I want you to to listen to this. There is a non I think it's nonprofit. There's an organization here called Motherhood Center. I thought it harkens back to me saying where was this thirty years ago when I had when we had our first kid. They offered some really really neat services that I want you to hear about this. As we continue the high tech text and show, Michael

barbuilds the day Happy Saturday, feel back at it. Michael Scark gives this did nay if you see fifty am ifverybody's having a great day. I was in a conversation with one of my kids the other day and I don't know how we got on and about you know, when when he was born, you know, well over twenty plus years ago. You know, did did you know mom and I know anything about changing diapers? And you know what do we watch? Because you know we had VHS? You know tapes in the middle of the night when

he was crying, you know, to come down. Times have changed now, and you know, so I get into storytelling and there are so many resources, so many more resources and things to help new you know, mothers and in dads and just you know, getting you know, bringing kids and assimilating into the home. Really wish this was around many years ago, and I, you know, we had the three kids. But there is a resource right now. And I spotlighted a little because I think this is really important.

I thought I wanted to bring it to the forefront here in Houston.

and uh and matunity leave and all of that. And so with with that, the technology evolved in in a great way as well.

was born, I changed one of his diapers. And I guarantee you that first diaper I changed was absolutely more than my father had changed diapers. Because it's a different generation. And that's what I want to talk about over here. What's the difference between today's new parents and let's say parents from two decades ago or three decades ago when my son was born, and even let's go back five or six decades ago, when you know, my parents were for the first had a kid.

so definitely, you know, we are very excited. We have even like New Dads meet Up, which is which is a great group and dads can kind of talk about things, you know, they have a beer and you know, and have a conversation at the Motherhood Center about you know, how they are kind of transitioning, you know, becoming or being a dad. And you know, back then, dads were not even allowed to be in the delivery room, right right, My dad was not.

Of course we are not teaching them how to change the diaper, but it's really kind of the safety measures and even just talking to them about the today's gadgets and you know, what's what's out there so they can be really more kind of a part of that, the you know, new babies life and feeling much more kind of comfortable and confident in the in the care and just really being more kind of the part of the conversation because things have changed so much.

And so of course you probably remember, you know, you would be doing shushing noise, you know, all night long, and so now there's a gadget you can just turn it on. You can have you know, different intensities, and so you can just put that in the crib or in the car seat, or you know, if you are in the restaurant, you just kind of turn that on. And so babies are kind of accustomed to the white noise, kind of the shushing noise in the womb, so it's

kind of recreating the womb for that. Another one which we do like here at the Motherhood Center is the rocker.

So it's basically kind of babies like the rocking motion, and so you can just basically hooked that up to to the stroller and uh and so it has kind of like a rocking motion, uh vibrating motion uh to the to the rockers, so maybe kind of kind of easier full asleep and after that they are a little bit more kind of like the intimate uh you know, the wearable uh breast breast pumps uh you know, which you can uh just kind of walk around the house or go shopping and uh and pumping at the same

time and uh it measures everything. So so sometimes you don't even know that the woman is pumping standing next to you.

affect parenting? Does it you know, does it bring the parent and the child further apart because you know, you have this technology in between versus me as a dad changing the diapers, swaddling the kids in saying obviously that was very one on one. What's healthy? Balance?

the physical touch is critical. And I'm always feeling kind of like the the quality of the time over quantity. And you know, obviously we are all busy and and new parents are very busy, but it is it, you know, it can be extremely overwhelming and and kind of the complete reliance on technology.

of that is is putting us behind. So definitely, you know, I feel like technology obviously a lot of great benefits, but not having the the reliance on the technology, and you know, I'm big on trusting your instinct, right, and so if you lose that, uh, you know, that's that

would be very sad for for humanity. So, you know, with the gadgets, like I said, I think it's kind of the like you said that the balance is critical, you know, utilizing it, but uh, but not letting that to kind of run your life or or just really if you know, if if you feel like there's something wrong, you know, don't be looking at the app is like, oh, the app is telling me everything is fine, but you are feeling something is wrong. Will act on on the instinct.

And so you know, I think it's critical to kind of keep it nurturing that instinct and and if you are just surrounded or reliant on on.

Motherhood Center. Should anybody want more information, especially you know, new mothers. I know you've got baby doula services and nannies services, like how can they get in contact with you?

you for tuning in. We do have a winner of the Cobbled Bob's gift card. We give that away once a week. Congratulations to the winner. I told you I'm not talking about food because i am not eating until sundown, because I'm such a center. I'm a toning for all my sins this past year. Happy, young Kipper, should you be some it's the Young Kipper. You probably shouldn't be listening to the show. You probably shouldn't be watching the Texas OHU game coming up at about an hour and

a half right now. But however, you celebrate and reflect on this past year. I wish you an easy fast and if you have no clue what I'm talking about, it's okay, okay. Everybody each to its own. Thank you very much to the Motherhood Center. If you like that interview, I say to you, know, technology infiltrates so many different

industries and processes that we do. I think the highest tech items that we had thirty years ago when our oldest son was born was a VHS and we had Barney on VHS, and so when he would wake up in the middle of the night, I would get up and at three in the morning to comfort him. I would sit there and hold them on my lap trying to get him to go back to sleep while I popped in the Barney video cassette. And that was the only thing that to seem to get him to sleep

or calm down. It sure as heck put me to sleep. And the last thing I ever remember going to sleep was I love you, you love me. Blah blah blah blah. Freaking purple dinosaur. Nowadays, man, there's it's not let me help. Don't get me wrong. I ain't have no more kids. I don't want no more kids. Love. I hope for grandkids out but that's it. What a time we live in. And then the Motherhood Center does a lot of good. If you need help with our assistance with that, you

can check them out. I'm not gonna give out the phone number anymore because we just have a few more minutes. Speaking of phone numbers, last hour, I talked a bit, talked to segment or two about hurricanes. Hurricane Milton, Hurricane Helene just pounded the least coast. Still praying for Kampa. Just a heel and rebuild itself. They just got devastated.

And I know here in the Houston Galveston area we constantly live from you know, at May through November with hurricane season, and we just you got to be prepared. And I get questions all the time, but what technology do you have for us to keep in communication? Should phone lines go down? And there's all let's go back thirty years, let's go back several years ago. Who question? This is rhetorical because I don't want you to call me, but you could if you have a landline Who still

owns a landline telephone? Heart be of that question? Who knows what a landline telephone is? Okay? I know the demographics of my listeners. We do have some relatively young ones. All right, baby boomers, you know what I'm talking about. Gen X, you know what I'm talking about. Millennials may know what a landline phone is. After that over done the gin alphas, no clue. Landline phone. It's attached to the wall and you pick it up and you don't

it doesn't go over cell service. It's it's very interesting. See the kids.

just over. I think it's at and T. They they kind of control a lot of that because there's you see, kids, when homes were built back of these there's these copper lines that that actually go in through the walls of your home. That did they carry the signals that Alexander Graham Bell invented. Again, don't have time for any of this stuff, but it was the two thousands consumers were canceling their home telephone service left and left and left and right, quick stat and we'll leave it at this.

Three quarters of Americans live in homes without landlines right now. Seventy six percent of adults by the end of last year did not have a landline. Go back twenty years ago, only five percent of Americans did not have a landline. Only five percent twenty years ago relied entirely on cell phones. Right now, seventy six percent of people rely solely on cellophones. Thing as though in an emergency, these things pretty much could be life savers because if self powers go down,

you're screwed. It's very tough to get out.

If you're listening to me right now, and you live along the Gulf coast and you're prone to flooding and you're prone to power being down, maybe you're a little bit older, giddy freaking land line. The stories I heard two weeks ago when Helene houred through was it North Carolina ash or something? People were on Facebook going my parents live in Ashfield, North Carolina. The cell towers of down and there's no way for me to get to contact them.

that does not need electricity, does not need electricity. There's old school and there's new school. There you go. If you go back and listen to the show, I think I gave you some pretty good tips. And that's what I do, Like am oil, I give you tips. People, I give you tips Other than that, I think we got to get out of here, don't We tell them

we got to make way for whatever is next. And if you do happen to be a long worn fan, sorry sooner because I think it could be a long afternoon for you, happy young Kipper and a happy Texas ou Day. It's a very, very fun Saturday here in October. For all of you who have been listening to the show, we thank you for tuning in for twenty plus years.

Thank you Callum, Thank you Brian Erics and Mark Sherman, and Eddie Martini who runs the entire Heart Media landscape across Houston and the Gulf Coast, thank you for tuning in. Be Safe coming up in a few weeks. It is the non stop ultimate gift guide to answer your questions, give you suggestions. But in the meantime, go enjoy the Saturday and thank you for listening to the podcast. Michael Garfield, the High Tech Texan Show for this week is over.