Upgrade Insights: iPhones, SUVs, and Simplifying Subscriptions

the year so far. We shall see, which is why you hear a little pep in my voice. We do have some fun. If you've never tuned in, I swear I am not going to tell you how to fix your computer people for years, high tech text and show. I don't want to nod out. That's that's Kim Commando's job. Now I'm going to tell you some sexy stuff, though. I'm going to tell you what cars to drive, what cars to stay away from. You need to do cell phone? How about a new watch. I'm gonna tell you what

to buy. I'm not going to tell you how to fix anything, because a lot of you people out there, you just don't care about fixing things. You just want some good deals. And that's what I'm about, right Callum Reid here on the other side of the glass. He's waving at me. He's punching the buttons to keep my

dulcet tones and sexy voice here for you. How about we give out the phone number because this is the last time I checked an interactive radio show and kids, if you don't know what radio is, it's kind of like a podcast, but it's live and it's heard terrestrially, uh for a lot of places simultaneously too. It's seven one three two one two five nine five.

to newsletters, Uh, your cable. It's easy to subscribe, but it is it is tough to unsubscribe. Well, there's a new law potentially that's soon going to be making it a lot easier to cancel your subscriptions. How cool was that? And it's been a long time coming. We got a few new products, and we got some giveaways.

lineup of what we got over here. So stand by, just put things in check, we'll be set to go. One of the things I don't talk about at time. Maybe I should is AI artificial intelligence or ALAN iverson to whichever way you want to look at it, But I don't talk about AIL lot. AI moves very quickly. It is sometimes difficult to comprehend. Some of you utilize it a lot. Some people, I bet a lot of people are scared of it. You hear AI, and I don't know if it's got a really good rap because

it doesn't have a good PR team. You know, AI is gonna take over my job, you know it. It's taking over my clients. I don't need real people to do this, or you know, people are going with artificial intelligence. Some aspects that can be true, and there's rules and there's laws of what can and can't be done. And I saw something that I did want to I talk about and point out. But this is how how AI is changing things and making things a little bit more scary.

There was a high school senior in Massachusetts. It was right now at the center of a legal dispute after being disciplined for using AI in a class assignment. And for parents out there, if you've got kids who are in school right now, no matter what age odds are, they've been googling things for many, many years. You if you're listening, you're relatively young and you've been in school, or you had a white paper that you need to do. We want all the assistance that we can. But AI

is a different beast. Going back to the kid, the senior in Massachusetts, his parents have filed a lawsuit against a history teacher, a school district, and a local school committee, arguing that the disciplinary actions taken against their son were unfair and not supported by the school's policies when it actually happened. So here's the delio. The student used AI to create an outline, allegedly just an outline for a

history essay on basketball legend Kareem Abdul Jabar. Now, according to the lawsuit, this use of AI did not violate any school rules at the time. Now, despite this, he received a failing grade on the assignment. He was given detention. They still give detention now days in school, he was excluded from the National Honor Society. The law sue claims these actions have negatively impacted the kid's academic record and his chances of being accepted to a competitive college where

he intended to apply. Oh, by the way, no matter that the kid got a perfect score on his ACT straight hey average, he probably could have got into a

good college. So the students' parents have argued that their son did not use AI to cheat, but used AI rather to assist in research, really similar to how one might use a search engine, and they're seeking to have his ap US history grade changed, his Honor Society membership preinstated, and the cheating label removed from his record because they believe these disciplinary actions pose a significant threat to his

college prospects. I get it, man, I'm a parent too, but I read this and it really kind of ticks me off. Can you imagine a teacher telling a student, don't learn to use Google. You go to the library and do your research using the Dewey decimal system. This is the twenty first century. It's absurd. These are the tools of this student's generation. In my mind, not only should he learn to use AI, but the school should be teaching best practices. Don't let your school bully you

into restricting student use of AI. Listen, we may not fully understand the future that's coming, but whatever it looks like, we're gonna be partnering with AI to build it. Now. I'd love to hear from you parents, students, what are your thoughts on this? Have you been busted as your kid been? I hate you busted called out on something like this phone number here seven point three two one two five nine five Oho. I assure you this voice

you're listening to right now is not AI. I'm not that scared that AI one day is going to take over this radio job because at some point I'm gonna be too old, and you know what' screw it. I'm just too tired for it. But right now you got that just energy and that hair and the personality of the real Michael Garfield. To prove it, find me online at High Tech Text and h I G H T E C H T E x A N. When we come back. Is your phone is your iPhone? Did you

upgrade to iOS eighteen? I'm gonna give you a check list to make sure your phone is ready. All great air APRC nine to fifty am happy, Happy Saturday. Should you be listening live on KPRC nine to fifty am. The neat thing of our radio. Once we are done here about an hour and forty five minutes, Callum zips this thing up and he puts it on a podcast.

So I do a radio and a podcast. So if you miss some of it, you can go to iHeartRadio, download that free app and you can listen to this all you want with some of my tips high tech text and show Michael Garfie. You can find it that way. Listen to me a long time. You know, I'm kind of an Android guy because more people around the world do use Android, much more than Apple iOS. Just the

way it is. People to suck it up. I don't talk about iOS or Apple a lot, but I do feel the need to update you and give you the real info. iOS eighteen was released this week. A lot people are very timid, scared, shy about upgrading their operating system. I again, as an Android user, I probably once every three months or so. I'll get a little alert that says, hey, it's time for an upgrade. And I only get in maybe a Sunday morning, and you know, it takes four

or five minutes and I do it. I don't hesitate. I In many cases, an upgrade to an operating system it fix security holes, some potential you know, potential hackers could get in. They're trying to improve the process. And again maybe I'm naive, maybe I don't like what's new because I'm so used to the old, But I do it. It's as simple as that. So if you have an iPhone, and you probably know, Apple released iOS eighteen, the eighteenth version of it, this week, and probably about the backside,

I need to check online. They probably already have eighteen point oh one coming out soon. But it's a major iPhone upgrade, and it does add new features. See it adds a number of things, text message improvements, Apple map enhancements, You can mirror your iPhone from a Mac to a Mac os Sequoia. iOS also changes the way you interact with things with your home and lock screens and your control center, and how passwords are handled. That's a big one, all right. So do you want to do it or

don't you? At some point you are going to need to do it. But upgrading to iOS eighteen it could be a process, a multi step process, and I want to make sure your adoption of this latest version of the iPhone system goes smooth and painless as possible. And by the way, you can bow out in the likely event you need to go back to iOS seventeen, the old days. You're ready, everybody ready to make the leap. I want you to follow along. I'm gonna give you some steps to make sure your iPhone is ready for

an upgrade. Okay, and again if you missed it, I'll talk this. I'm gonna talk as slow as I can, which does hurt callum. We'll put this thing on the old podcast and you can listen to it on iHeartRadio. First things first, you need to make sure your iPhone is compatible with the new iOS eighteen and pretty much it goes back a while. If you have the new iPhone fifteen FRO, the Plus, the Promat, Let's go to the iPhone fourteens, you're cool. Let's go to the iPhone thirteen's,

they're twelves, the elevens, you're fine. You can go back one step earlier, iPhone XS or the xsmax or even the XR. So on all you got about fifteen different phones going back a good four years, four to five years that you're okay on phone sixteen. Obviously it's cool too, that's the new one. But the first thing you should do, everybody, you need to back up your phone. Make an archive in case listen, I'm an eagle scout. Be prepared. Those are the two words that I grew up with and

I still tell people. No matter what it is, you're probably accustomed to using iCloud backup. All good fall back for your data. It's neat works in the background. It involves the least amount of backup friction. Just make sure

you have a lot of iCloud disc space available. But when it comes to moving a full release version of iOS, say again from the jump from iOS seventeen to iOS eighteen, IKE cloud backup kind of has little issue because after updating to iOS eighteen and letting it perform an ICOP backup, if you then decide to let's go back in time. I want to go back to iOS seventeen, you cannot

restore it from that iOS eighteen backup. You can't. Right, So updating to iOS and I'm totally from what I've heard, I haven't done it because I don't have an Apple. It hadn't been a problem but there's a possibil that something can go wrong, all right. That's why you need to archive a backup on your computer. On your computer, use the right cable. The new iPhone fifteen's, well, the relatively newer iPhone fifteens, it includes USBC or instead of

that old nasty, ugly, disgusting that lightning port. And the pro models they can initially support USB three that's the latest one. That's high speed data too. You're going to be backing up a lot of information. Point is, try to get all cables are not cables, is what I'm trying to tell you. The cable that came in the iPhone box, it's really meant for charging, and it's got

a relatively slow speed. It's USB two point zero. You may want to go to the store, go online, get a USB c cable that's rated for USB three point one or even USB four a little look more expensive, but it's speedier. All right. Then you create a little local iPhone archive on your Mac, on your Mac hopefully you have a Mac because you're an iPhone user and that's why you use it. You want to keep within the whole atmosphere, and don't you write make call it

the eye phone. Call it you know, Jennifer, Jessica John's iPhone, backup whatever it is. You can actually do it on Windows too. You can create a local iPhone archive on Windows if you want to. Then you want to make sure your iPhone is otherwise up to date, so before updating to iOS eighteen, you make sure your device is running on the latest version of seventeen. Check for an update. Go to your settings, hit general and hit software Update

and I think it's iOS seventeen point seven. That's the latest. Then you're gonna go to eighteen. Always keep your phone up today. That's what you need to do. And at that point hit the button download. It's gonna take a while. Cross your fingers, cross your heart, crosh your chest, go to church, talk to your rabbi, whatever it is, and you're set to go. But again, that's what you need to know before you update. A lot of people skip a few things. A lot of people skip, Oh, I

don't need to back up. I haven't really lost anything over the years that I've actually had to back up anything. But when I get a new I test laptops all the time. I mean, I swear I love a sus as US computer company. I mean, I have like a relationship with my ups guy. I think I've gotten three new Asus aces laptops over the past week or so, and I test them all. They're really cool. But what I do, I kind of I set them up and I use my you know, account information Google account and

whatever I use with at Microsoft account. But then I back them up and everything. It's good because sometimes there are little, you know, hiccups in the giddy up, if you will, So you got to back, back, back, back up, always back up things. You know, if you don't have your think about it. How many photos and videos do you have right now on your phone and they're sitting there? What happens if you lose it and you've got pictures of your kids, your spouse, your vacation. Just pick them

up to the cloud. At least I don't just back mine up to the cloud. I back my phones up on a relatively regular basis to my actual hard drive my computer at home. So I have two places. I got them in the clown, but I also got them on my hard drove and I've gone back for years. I mean, and I use Samsung's a lot, but I see my Samsung four folder. And I don't even know if my youngest son twenty whatever years ago was born when the Samsung four wasn't around. I kid you a bit,

but that's how long I go back. I tried to do it every several months, especially when I come back from trips. I had a lot of travel this summer, international trips, and I don't want to lose that stuff, and so I back back, back it up, and it's just just a little reminder of what you need to do. So anyway, questions, I am here for you seven one three, two one two five nine five up. Here's another thing. I don't talk a lot about drones. Who's got drones?

I haven't. I remember when drones were like really big coming out. I remember at CES Consumer Electronics Show there was one or two or three drone companies back about twelve years ago. It's about twenty twelve, twenty thirteen. There is now an entire hall within the Las Vegas Convention Center every January at the Consumer Electronics Show, whereas nothing but drones, and drones do more than just here's a little drone, you know, let me just send it up and see what the top of my house looks like

in the industrial use of drones is very big. Police departments, fire departments use drones. They actually can have heat sensing, you know, you know, radar and light r on them to see if there's people inside burning houses. Police departments use them to actually chase people on foot so they can you know, easily find out where somebody is in a hot pursuit of something. There's a lot of things

going on with drones. There is a an act that is that is trying to be a law, a government US government law that is trying to put the cabash on one particular manufacturer of drones because it is a foreign may drone and they think there's you know, US intelligence secrets out there. I'm going to talk to someone within the company and I'm gonna let them explain why they think it's upoo and popa and I'll let you decide. Clot drone talk coming up on the High Tech Jackson Show. Indeed,

our back Michael Garfield is the name. It is called the High Tech Textan Show. Whether you're listening to us truly all across the state of Texas or southwest around the world, and I are radio, we do thank you for tuning in. It is my job for two plus decades. I don't know. It's to answer all your questions, give you my opinions on some of the great phenomenal consumer lifestyle products. Obviously leaning a little bit towards tech and

some of the things to stay away from. But I am here phone number seven one three, two, one two five nine to five ozho not too far from the holiday gift giving seasons, cees is around the court always let my favorite time of the year, especially because you know, so many new products are coming out. You see a lot of deals and sales, you know, be it Black Friday, Cyber Mondays, and then that flows into CEES which I get to see all the cool stuff and it including

I brought this topic. It's come up recently, including the drones. You know, drones are fun, but drones they're not only fun, they're they're some industries that are actually life saving. Seriously, there's a lot of great uses that drones can do. I'm not a drone expert. I continue to need to

fly and perfect my drone skills. But you know, one of the leading, if not the leading company around the world when it comes to drones and other technology for that matter, it's d J. I you've probably familiar with them, and I was. I found out not too long ago. There's actually some there's things going on with the government, the US government as it pertains to drones and specifically DJI, And you know, I know I'm going to get pestry for questions, and so I figured get it. Let me

research a little bit more. And the easiest way for me to research, because I'm a lazy guy, is actually go to the source, and so I contacted the folks at DJI and I found Wayne Baker. Wayne Baker ironically is based in the great state of Texas. He joins me, Wayne, I appreciate you joining me, and what I want to talk about is something called the Countering ccp Drone Act and how it affects everything. But I do welcome you to the High Tech Texting Show.

dropping life jackets to people and water rescues. We began working with DJI on thermal imaging cameras and pushed them to uh you know, initially they were just drones you could buy a Best buy and we were taking them and these these off the shelf drones and adapting to our purpose and we're we're in the police and fire service were the ones that really pushed ej I to start creating these drones, uh, the industrial strength drones for

what we needed. So you know, we've and we've seen countless successes with saving lives all around the world, but most recently your listeners would would have heard about uh, North Carolina where drones were not only finding uh you know, hurricane flood victims, but then later on uh into it so they were located. They were using some of our bigger drones, actually our agricultural drones that normally do spraying of crops. They were using them to carry and deliver food, water,

and medicine. Be getting to your question, I apologize, but the counting CCP Drones Act is really threatening the freedom of choice of people in various industries, from the life saving tools it is for public safety, to even just people that want to have this as a hobby, because it's looking to restrict the market by removing certain products,

specifically DJI products from the market. All with you know, it originally started with this narrative that was proven not to be true that DJI is stealing data and sending it back. And we've had numerous studies that have own that to not be true. Most recently we had a group FTI that did an audit just a few weeks ago came out with it saying there was no data security risk of DJI. But you know, this has changed, this narrative against the you know, our products has changed

from that then too. Well, we need American manufacturers to be able to compete against DJI, and and you know, we understand that American manufacturers. You know, we DJI have been selling our products on the market since around twenty twelve, so we we had a really good start into the market and US manufacturers are you know, several years behind. But we just don't feel like the way to provide competition is to remove competition. That's that's counterintuitive. In our opinion, it makes sense.

know DJI parent company, it is based in China. And I firstly and probably many of my listeners and viewers out there, I mean they you know, we've seen this in other industries, the cell phone, the smartphone industry that it goes back where you know a lot of the cell phones that were manufactured Chinese, you know their band Do you see this more as you know from the US government standpoint you are they are they trying to protect the safety of Americans and security or could it

be more of a business decision? You know, we just want the US to kind of catch up and sell more domestically.

to not be a security risk. And then when when that when that uh you know line was now proven not to be true, then it became well, now we need as you mentioned, we need to protect our market and allow American UH to you know, manufacturers to step

up and compete. And I and I look back to I'm old enough to remember back when this during the seventies eighties was what we did with Japanese auto manufacturers and other you know, Japanese products, and protectionism then didn't work, and it's not good now, it's not good for the market.

And we're talking drones are still a very new product out there and still being adopted into a lot of industries and bringing a lot of safety to those industries and as well as a lot of efficiency to those industries, you know, everything from oil and gas pipeline and being able to catch pipeline leaks in North Texas before you know they get to where they create an environmental hazard is one way drones are being used. So you know

again that protectionism can cause adverse effects. You know, it's shortsightedness, whereas long term. I mean absolutely, we want to see and I would love to work for a US manufacturer. Not that I don't like working for or DJI, it's a great company, but obviously I would want to work

for US manufacturer. Unfortunately, we don't have one that is able to provide the products that we're seeing now at a good cost, with exceptional capabilities from our zoom cameras to our thermal image and cameras, and it just right now, this is the company that's able to help me continue that life saving mission that I've had my whole life.

this point? And its education. A lot of it is legislators, you know, are are hearing one side of the story and don't always understand the technology and the capabilities or the limitations of the drones. And so we're really trying to engage on a lot of different fronts to educate legislators on the technology but also the impact that this would have.

explain the impact it would have on their businesses. You know, there's there's other groups for those that fly drones just as a hobby. They're Facebook groups that are out there that you can become a part of that help share knowledge. And what's great about those is it's not just legislative, it's you know, hey, how do I do this with my drone? Or or is there a better way to you know, get my images to look nicer? Things like that. They share a lot of information, so you know, those

are two of the biggest ways. And then reaching out to your local elected officials, your state senators even uh you know, your your local you know, county elected officials to explain to them why why it would impact them, because everybody's voice gets heard, and the education even down to that level is so much better for you know, keeping this from becoming real.

a number of different things. They make some really good wireless microphones, some gimbals for all you vloggers influencers out there, We want to put your phone on these little handeld little gimble devices for smooth shots. I tested out the DJI Mike to their second version of their wireless mics. It's pretty strong. It's pretty strong. Two hundred fifty ish

dollars or so. Two wireless mikes, a receiver that plugs into your phone, be it the iPhone or the Android, and the range is you got a several hundred feet of a way because it's lighting in audio. A little tip for me to you. Lighting and audio are absolutely key when you're shooting video.

it's just one of the better wireless microphones out there. Yes, there are a number of other wireless microphones. You could find no name ones on Amazon for thirty forty fifty sixty dollars, but the ones I tested out specifically from dji if you tuned in a few weeks ago, are very good. But you know, drones, I don't know. On one hand, I see why the US government wants to make this a law that they don't want a Chinese own company controlling the drone airwaves. They think they're gonna

map and data everything. I get it is that the reason, or as I pointed out the interview, is it because the US is trying to protect our and I'm gonna use the word our market share more. US companies need to you know, produce products and we should purchase them before we purchase foreign things. And this is not just in technology gadgets, it is it is smartphones. There's a smartphone manufacturer out of China called Huawei h u a h Ei or something like that. Years ago. It was

then President Trump. He said no, no, no, they're not going to be sold at all because the Chinese has all the data that we don't want them smartphones over here. Look look at what Biden's doing with cars with evs. There are Chinese made evs that are superior and much less expensive than the evs we have here. I mean

minuscule in terms of the costs. But the US government wants to put a tariff sometimes what fifty to one hundred percent extra tariff or a charge to ship these things here the yes, which at at that point it doesn't make sense. I mean, listen, politics is above my pay grade. Politics is something I don't carry. Politics is one of the reasons I don't have a lot of gray hair. I don't worry about it too much because can't we just all get along?

cell phone manufacturer, but this is a data provider. Listen, you can get any cell phone you want. You get the Apple, you can get the Android. You do need to connect it to something because if not, it becomes a brick. Total Wireless they have stores all across the Houston area and actually all across the country going to some of the stores. They've got a number of different phenomenal plan where you don't need to pay full boat. I've got a plan where I think, I'm what is

it all? You can eat for one line?

is nothing. It's a one time charge. I have it in the middle of my house and it's throwing out a very strong, powerful WiFi saying no, it's a good way to save money. So holiday gift gus giving season coming up. By the way, who wants a twenty dollars gift guard to Total Wireless?

calling after ten seconds. This is what I did. We give away some fun stuff. Got about three minutes over here. I want to hit the email. You can find me on an email also Michael Garfield at iHeartMedia dot com. Michael Garfield at iHeartMedia dot com. Dumb trug dan, I see you. He sends me an email each week, probably the longest listener that I've had here and my parents in Dallas. He even stopped listening sometime. Not dumb trug damn man. Every week is like I can even hear

his voice in the email. Hey man, I got me an androys oone love. I love my man, so thank you for emailing and my buddy. But anyway, somebody sent me an email Michael Garfield atomedia dot com. Hey Garf, I just what do you think about these air tags or these wireless little devices that track you. I was thinking about getting one to put on my kids because he's a young kid. Put it in his school backpack or maybe his lunch or something like that. Do these

things work? And any other crazy place that you've heard where some people wanted to track something? Where did they place the air tags? That's from Jonathan. Jonathan is in Pairland. Funny. It's good question. Apple air tags and Samsung has them too, and a number of other companies say to actually make these things. Tile is another one. T I L E Chippotlo. Not Chipotle, but c I h PO L t O Chippotlo. Actually that's one of the ones I'm using right now.

Pretty amazing. They're little, tiny size of a quarter a half dollar, fit on your keychain. You can put them anywhere. They could be used for ill gotten purposes, but let's just keep it above the line that you actually think you're gonna lose your keys, you're gonna lose your luggage. I've heard the funny stories of where people have put them, number one. Yeah, you can put them in your backpack. You could put them in your kids backpack all right, and in case you want to know where your kid is,

which is always good for safety. But kids lose things, put them inside your laptop bag laptop bats because they can easily be left behind if you're at a coffee shop or at your office. You forgot it in a car or something. Put it in your jacket pocket. How many times have you left your coat behind in a restaurant or at a friend's house forgetting to grab your jacket when you head out. It's easy to do, could be hanging right. What you do is you turn on

your phone. There's an app that comes with it, and it bepep it. Somehow suddenly finds it in your house or wherever it is. Sometimes around the world, speaking around the world. When I traveled outside of the country earlier this year, twice I put a few of these air tags inside my luggage because airports can be tricky to navigate. Sometimes it's tough. You don't know where your luggage ends up. Times it waits thirty minutes for your bag to roll

off the conveyor belt. Sometimes they get lost, so put it in your luggage, and again you can move these at any given time. You can find out if your bags are left on the airplane, if they're on the conveyor belt. And once you find out where your bags are, you actually can remedy where you're going. Because a map pops up, you actually can set it to make a tone or make a beep or something, and so a number of different things. I heard hikers and campers. Somebody

put it in their tent. If you're setting up camp in a location you've never visited, pretty useful to put an an air tag or something in your tent so you could find your camp site. People can find you if you've hiked several miles away from camp. There's nothing that you can't put it. Okay, we're getting ready to take a break. I don't need to hear that some wife put an AirTag in their husband's car. Don't need

to hear that, because I keep things above the line. Okay, there's a lot of networks that'll actually use the thing, and they're not that expensive. And so if you've heard of any crazier stories, I'm taking a take for five six minutes to the top of the hour, come back and we'll pick up your phone call seven one three two one two five nine five. On the other side, subscriptions, they're easy to start, but they are just a pain

in that you know at the cancel. Unless something changes what they think it's about to, you're gonna like this story. I'm going up on a side on the high Tech dex and ship.

my grandparents the nineteen seventies. I mean there was no mo Pack, there was no Dell, there was no traffic or anything. Even in the eighties when I was in college, it was a relatively kind of sweet, cool town. Nowadays, it's overcrowded, it is packed is it's expensive. I still go. My youngest son lives there, my ma Ma mat is there. I go as many games as I can. It's it's tough to go to. So not only is the biggest college football game of the year so far there tonight

Texas versus Georgia, it's also F one weekend. F one is a racing series, and there's only three F one races in the United States in a given year. It's a worldwide circle, but there's only three in the United States. Ones in Miami, ones in Austin, and ones in Vegas. And oh, by the way, some smart dude put it on the same weekend as Texas versus Georgia. Oh and by the way, I think Eminem has his win and only concert of the year. Oh, it's it's it's it's

I don't know, just just watch it on TV. So we are I don't know about what five and a half hours, six and six and a half hours from kickoff? So horns up. You know, I bleed orange and that's how it works. But should you be an aggie? Should you be a sooner? Sucks for you? I know, I'm not kidding about that. I do appreciate you tuning in. I will still answer your questions and talk to you at seven one three two one two five nine five.

Great weather this pass week? Do you agree? Very rarely do you hear me say great outstanding weather in Euston because I cannot stand the weather in Houston. I just it's it's, you know, April, May, June, July, August, September, sometimes to October. I don't know what happened, man, They just flipped the switch a few days ago, and it is spectacular. It is fall, my favorite holiday of the year, uh, including religious holidays. Alla, Wayne, don't know what it is.

I actually I do know what it is. I mean, where else, what other time? What other night of the year can you just go up and knock on a perfect stranger's house and say, gimmerishim candy gimmerishim candy and they just give you some freaking candy. The weather's cooling, it's just it's it's football season. It's awesome part of the tradition, you know, I always say, what's your favorite candy? I don't even play that game anymore. Oh, here's the worst of the top candies. Shut up. It's a Reese's

peanut butter cups into stories. So I'm not doing that game. I will tell you this though. Another tradition of Halloween, it's watching some Halloween specials. And there is only one and only Halloween special, certainly of my age, it is. It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. I grew up in a time late seventies, early eighties kid, and all of the Charlie Brown specials they were on CBS. They were sponsored by Dolly Madison. I can see the start of

it where it goes. It was a CBS special with a little circular cartoonish graphic and every commercial is Dolly Madison. It was just awesome. You know, my childhoods are so much different today than they were back in the day, and I really have good memories nowadays. I don't even know where a lot of these Charlie Brown specials are. But I am here for you because I have the answers, and this is the weekend. People, get your pen and paper up, put it in your calendar, type it into

your outlook whatever it is this weekend real quickly. I'm gonna tell you how you can stream It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown for absolutely no cost. That's right, no cost to you. The most sincere pumpkin badge of the history of the world. Linus is out there falling asleep in the freezing cold. We're gonna let you watch it for free, and believe it or not, Thank you Apple,

because it's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. We'll stream on Apple TV Plus in night October nineteenth, Saturday, and tomorrow Sunday the twentieth. Wait a minute, you say Apple TV Plus. I don't subscribe to that. It's a subscription service. You are correct, sir, You are correct, ma'am, but not this weekend. If you're a subscriber to Apple TV Plus, you don't need to do anything the specials right now. You can stream it right now. But if you're a peanut fan

and you don't have Apple TV Plus. Mark your calendar to night Saturday, the nineteenth of October tomorrow under the October twentieth. It is absolutely free. They're open it up, baby, open an Apple is open it up for the pumpkin. How cool is that it's still on Apple for about four years right now. Not just a pumpkin, it's the Charlie Brown Christmas, which is such a class I don't even celebrate Christmas, but I've got to watch Charlie Brown Christmas,

all the Charles Schultz peunut specials. So good for you, Apple TV. There you go, gather the kids. What's the hottest Halloween costume this year? I look at calam Reid Collens. My guy, you're young guy. What's the hottest costume? I heard it could be that weird chick who was in the Olympics from Australia who was doing break dancing. That could be one. I mean, I think we're past the Taylor Swist Travis Kelcey thing. I think that was kind of last year. You know you're gonna see it this

year too. It's an election year. Generally election you're gonna get the two major candidates, so you're gonna get Trump and you're gonna get a come out. Who else help me out over here? I'll open up for a few minutes. What are you going as? What are your kids going as? Seven? One three, two one two five nine five zero. Additionally, you got ghosts, you got goblins, you got pumpkins. I need to actually borrow somebody's little kid. I'm gonna tell you why, and I tell you how much I love Halloween.

And when I was a kid, I have fond memories of going out with my buddies on Halloween and we would stay out school night or not. We would stay out till like eleven o'clock. I mean the fort lights would be off and we're knocking on doors. And again, this is in the late seventies, and this is when times were safer. We didn't have cell phones. We didn't need to report inn call mom or dad. There were no trackers on us. We just did it and they

trusted us. School be damn the next day, man and I would come back with pounds and pounds and pounds of candy. Fast forward, I had kids, and I love my boys. My boys are my life. My boys are now thirty, twenty seven and twenty four. They're too old technically to trick or treat. I tell people that I had kids for one reason, so I could use them, so I could trick or treat when I was in my thirties, when I had these kids. My son, my oldest son, was born in August. He's thirty years old.

Three months later, two months later, when it was Halloween time, I dressed this kid up as a pumpkin. He was sleeping the entire night. What was he August Obteber two months old? He was two and a half months old. He was sleeping. I don't care. He was in my arms, my butt was knocking on doors, saying trick or treat, holding up a bag, asking for candy for my little son, and they still gave it to me. Now, my kids are too old. They don't live here in the city

for the most part. Need a borrow kid seven one three two one two five five. I'll go through a check. I'm fine. Actually, parents, you can even come with me. Get on my segue. We can make up twice the amount of time. It's all good. Happy Halloway. And by the way, if you want to thank me for all I've done for you for twenty two years, Reese's peanut butter cups, and I will take the Reese's pumpkin shaped peanut butter cups because sometimes those are even better. I digress.

When we come back, there is more high Tech text and I will get to the heart of the matter things. Talk a little about cars. Also, I got to see and dry the brand new unseen not in deliciahips yet the twenty twenty five Chevy Tahoe and Chevy Suburban. You're looking for a big car of the O Mama car a land boat needed to play by play because I have seen it. The embargo is lifted and I'm allowed to talk about it. Coming out on the High Tech

Text and Show. About sixteen seventeen minutes past second hour of this radio show. This is how I've spent my Saturday. He's over one third of my life. I'm not aging or dating myself. But it's been well over twenty years and that a lot of people here who have stuck with me, and I do thank you for that. Michael Garfield.

It's called The High Tech Textan Show. The show has evolved a lot since I started way back in the day in the early two thousands, where I was just talking about straight technology and gadgets and Wi Fi and

high def TVs and computers. We have now grown to really consumer lifestyle stuff where I do have the good fortune of playing with a lot of neat things, including cars and trucks and fashion, and I get to drink cool things bourbons and Vodkas and tequilas at company's and Mecause I don't know, I tell it like it is. I don't hold back. But when I really do find something that I enjoy, I love that I think you like,

I'm gonna be all the way behind it. If something is a little too expensive, or I find something that I think there's a better option, I'm more than happy to tell you too, so uh trust me. That is what I'm here for. If you want to talk, say hi seven one three two one two five nine five oho. If you too shy to talk, you can find me on a lot of the social media at high Tech Text and h I G H T E C H T E x A N. Unless you're blocked, feel free

to make a comment or ask me a question. Look at through some emails here Michael Garfield at iHeartMedia dot com. I'll get to some of that stuff actually two things. I got to pay these things off. I've been teasing some of these things. First of all, about these subscriptions too. I'm gonna get the cars here in a sec. Probably gonna be subscriptions. How many subscriptions do you have across the board? And when I say subscriptions, I mean yes,

I mean you'd subscribe to Cable book Club magazines. You still may be in the CBS CD club where you get eleven CDs for one benny and they're steal emailing you or mailing them to you. You can sign up for newsletters a number of things. It's easy to sign up, so it's sometimes it's one click and you're gone. Here I try to unsubscribe. That's a pain in that, you know what, and there needs to be something done about it. Well, guess what something I believe is going to be done

about it. And this is pretty big news. I actually saw this on the national news the other day. But what do you kind of go through with this? And if this happens, man, I hope it happens, and I hope it follows through and maybe life will get easier. You ever try to cancel a gym membership? Forget about it. I mean, you might as well just cross Middle Earth. It's done. Bring in the FTC, the freaking FTC, the

Federal Trade Commission. They finalized a new rule this week where they want to make it easier for subscription based services as simple to cancel as they are to sign up for. Okay, I'll believe it when I see it, but I like where we're going so far. It's a rule. It's called click to cancel, and what it's going to do. It's going to crack down on subscription tricks in traps that take advantage of all of our free trial forgetful diss and all of our impatience with lengthy customer service calls.

So under the rule and follow me over here. Online memberships should take the same number of clicks to cancel as they do to initiate it. Okay, okay, good, good. You need to be able to cancel through the same methods that you use for sign up, all right, I dig that too. When it comes to free trials, companies need to be clearer about their auto renewal policies, and they can't charge customers without quote unquote informed consent quote, which might just look like another box to check the

sign up. Now, guess what this protection Supposedly it's going to kick in in about six months. For right now, I like this. I don't know who doesn't like this. This may be one of the rules and laws or something that it may be one hundred percent across the board unanimous that it's actually a good idea. I hope it works. I mean, there's no one should be a get well. And I may want to walk that back because the companies themselves, they may not like it because

that's how they make a lot of revenue. How many times, think to yourself, this is just an individual poll question over hear how many times have you forgotten to cancel something? How many times have you tried to cancel something and

it takes forever. I've seen funny videos the social media videos where people were trying to cancel their their I believe it was their cable service, and they would be on hold for twenty five thirty forty minute an hour and they're pulling their hair out because you have to punch this button on the phone you talk to somebody. Oh wait a minute, hold on, We're gonna put you to our retention services. Don't go yet, we'll give you fifty percent off. We'll give you some No, I just

want to freaking cancel it. Can you just stop it? Oh sir, you know how would you like it free for the next month? Shut up and freaking cancel it. The rules should make it easier for regulators to sue companies with slippery subscriptions. You know, the gems or those little I'm gonna mail food to you so you can make it. Those are the most often mentioned and complaints that are filed with the FTC. Now, I hope it happens.

It's good contracts, memberships, they're good and bad. They could lock you into a decent price, but sometimes they handcuff you. I'm gonna throw I'm gonna air my personal information out right now. I have been trying to get out of a contract that it's ironclad. It's stupid, and no one's gonna listen to me. I have Cullagan. I installed the Culagan system in my house. It's a water treatment thing,

which I love. Die. I would not move into ouse without a water ro reverse osmosis water treatment cleaning system. I'm just had it for years and then bought it out about a year ago or something. I think I had to change my filters, which were cost an arm and a leg. And the sales guy came over here and he says, you know, you should get on our monthly service plan. And I'm like, man, I asked questions, and he's like, oh, well, you know, it's only ninety

dollars a month. But what it's gonna do. It's gonna get you the free you know, salt to put into your generators and everything, and then if there's a problem. It is the most wasted doll I have called Culigan to try to get out of it. Oh no, sir, you're signing to go on drug. It's twelve months, twelve month. It is just a wasteful amount of money. If anybody from Culigan is listening, not have with you call again. That's just me good company, love the product, this whole

sign up. Man, you should be able to get out of it. Not that this new FTC thing is gonna help you do that. They just have to wait my time out anyway, Okay, bitch time over here on the Michael Garfield Show seven one three, two one two five nine five ozho what else do you need to have? I'm here for you coming up bottom of the hour. Search engine optimization. I still get this a lot. Every few months I have I talk about search engine optimization. Listen,

we love radio. Advertising on radio forever has been the way to go. Love my radio people, But there's also a mixture of other ways. Actually to advertise. TV is one of them, Trent used to be one. I would not recommend print anymore. We here at I Art, we have opportunity, not me, but our sales folks. They have the opportunity to do sign you up for banners and ads and online stuff. But search engine optimization also very key. We will get to the bottom of that with a

look company here whose specialist specialize in it. So if you're interested, you don't need to go anywhere. And then how much do I have? I only got about another minute or so I don't have to, okay, I promise when I come back after that interview, before the end of the show. For all you people looking for cars, and you know I am a member of the Texas Auto Writers Association, which means I don't get paid by dealerships.

It is my thoughts to tell you the good, the bad, the ugly, the great parts, the crappy parts, of cars, I get the test draw fifteen years, I have test driven a brand new vehicle directly from the manufacturer, which means I'm not gonna tell you where did shop for it. And I did just have the opportunity to go up to Fort Worth where Chevy launched only for the media. They got to let us see it and drive at their brand new twenty twenty five new Chevy Tahoe and

Chevy suburbans. And so we like our big vehicles here in Texas, down't way, down't Way. There are some upgrades and I will give you my thoughts, my two cents. Some of them pretty good, some of them I think they could have done better in areas of how the new Chevy Tahoe and Chevy Suburban roll end. And also another vehicle that I've been testing with. And so it's car time coming up here on the High Tech Texting Show.

What else you got from me? I'm gonna take a break, we'll talk a little search engine optimization, and then we'll wind up the show and then countdown to the on worn football game tonight. Michael Barker ideots the High Tech Texting Show k PERC nine to fifty AM and iHeart Radio. Of course it's Michael Gardfield. I do think everybody once again for tuning in no matter where you are, thank you for taking us not only on your car radio trustfully, but also that app iHeart Radio app heard not only

your crust usedon across Texas around the world. That didn't happen when I started this twenty plus years ago. You know, also which wasn't around twenty years ago. There's a lot of websites and a lot of technology and also you know, ways to actually get your message across when it comes to I guess advertising or for lack of a better term, listen. We love our advertising and our partners here in radio,

but there's other options. Certainly listen, you watch TV. There used to be this thing called newspapers, which I won't get into it. Yeah, but nowadays listen, man, it is it's people do so much research all online, and when they're online, they're hit with so many things. Is it a banner ad or is it email? Or when you search,

I mean do things pop up? And you know, and that's something that I kind of want to continue to harp on and talk about because the technological ways can make your business and it really can help it grow SEO for example, search engine optimization. And you hear those three letters. I think of one company and one person, Astounds, based here in Houston as t O, U, N d Z Sounder. And the leader of that company is Steve Winter, a longtime friend of mine, so I can talk the

inside dirty stuff. He's also a long horn, so I know he's happy. Right now. What's going on? I want to bring him in for a few minutes. How about our horns? First off, Steve, how about those horns?

the major things that your company's downs does. He explains what, explain what SEO is and then the word organic how it fits into everything.

up in Google. That's simple, and you know we're there twenty four seven three sixty five because where they're organically versus the pay per click where people pay to be showing up in the search results, we get you there organically.

And you know, they spend money on advertising, on on everything, a myriad of everything. It's such a competitive business that you know, they they do it across the board and we help them. But what we really did and was a game changer, is we really helped them organically. They were getting killed by the big guys, and you know, weren't showing up well at all. No, now you look up pest control or exterminator here in Houston, go see where ABC Home and Commercial shows up. They're going to

be one, two or three for just about ever. Research and they do pool cleaning, they do other services that they were not showing up for as well as they should have organically. But now they just did an analysis across all of their advertising spend and guess what. Guess what one of their best absolute best returns was organic SEO And you know it's it's it's just a gaining.

And we were just on with another friend of ours, the commercial HVAC company, and you know, you know they're a job to them, could be a seventy five thousand dollars job. I mean we we are absolutely by far the least expensive salesperson they have. And we don't talk back.

spins across the board. But it's an interesting anecdote that you said by him using or let me just put this mixing in some organic s CEO that really as you from the study they showed that really started, you know, getting them on the map for for new new features that they do. I didn't know they didn't cool Clinting, I just killed kill the hands.

all of their advertising marketing. Because the other thing when people hear it on the radio or whatever else and you go look it up if you can't remember exactly what it was, it was like ABC pest or what you know. Now, all these different iterations they show up for, they show up high, so you know you hear something. And that's the other thing we tell our people. It's like we're just a great validation for everything you're doing too. But but you know, depending on your business, yes we

we don't. We don't. You know, if you've got the money, I mean, you want to show up, we can get a client to show up basically about five different ways. In a Google search. You got Google Maps, you've got Google paid ads, you've got Google guaranteed, you you've got uh you know where they the snippets. Uh you know, featured snippets, you have their organic results. I mean there's a lot of ways, and so the more ways we can show up on that first page, the more dominant

we're going to be. So, you know, money being no object. We're going to do everything right, but money being an object. Organic SEO is going to be your best investment overall period.

me a little hook them horns game tonight. Thank you for listening. Fun Show, Big Show talked a little about iOS eighteen. Still a little have a little trepidation of downloading or upgrading it your new iPhone or your older iPhone. Go back on podcast this callum, you will put the podcast up in what about ten fifteen minutes or so. You can go to iHeartRadio LAP It's free. Just search for KPRC that's our radio station, or look for Michael Garfield or high Tech text in and you can listen.

I think it was segment two. I talked about what you need to do to get your iPhone ready. There's a checklist to make sure that you're ready to download and upgrade to the newest operating system with Apple and Diligence or whatever you want to use. Talked a little about little air tag and tiny trackers. Are those good or are some interesting places that you have put or where you have heard people putting their little air tags to track told you about subscriptions. Looks like the Federal

Trade Commission there. Soon I'm going to be able to make canceling all your little subscriptions a heck of a lot easier, just as easy it is to subscribe. Which is about time. I will talk real quickly about vehicles and cars. I am a longtime member. It'll be Texas Auto Writers Association. That is I'm using air quotes here. Journalists like May who actually can get inside, get behind a vehicle, a car, a sports car and as you via pickup truck and give you his or her honest opinion,

unpaid true. What is this car good for you? What are the improvements that this manufacturer made? I was at Big Truck Rally at Truck Rodeo about a month ago, and I got to drive back to back to back thirty different trucks. And so if you're in the mood mode by a pickup truck, pop me a note. Michael Garfield at iHeartMedia dot com. I can tell you what's good and some of the stuff what's to stay away from.

But then there's also SUVs. We here in Texas where I am base, we love our big vehicles and for a long time, Chevy Suburban that's probably been the biggest land boat there is. That thing is massive. Chevy Tahoe is its sister, a little bit smaller version, the brand new twenty twenty five versions of Chevy Tahoe Chevy Suburban. They were just released to a few select media. I was up in Fort Worth about a week and a half ago and I had to bite my tongue because

there was an embargo. However, the embargo has lifted and I can give you my thoughts. I'm a big I am a Chevy fan, and there's little reason why people shouldn't be fans of Chevy. It is an age old. It is good. Obviously. It's a solid manufacturer from GM. Look in your rear view mirror, you see on the grill and you see that Chevy bow tie. You know you're going to get a solid vehicle. They make very solid, sturdy, hiccup trucks and SUVs, and the new twenty twenty five

Tahoe suburbans they follow along the line. They are just as big. I will notice from walking around each of them that they look a little bit more sleek, a little bit more unique, a little bit sexier. Dare I say, not as boxy than you think they normally would on each of the trims. There are trims, I mean each

of the models. Let's put it this one each of the Tahoe and each of the Suburban, there are six six new different trims and trims meaning how upgraded or how low graded or what are you in the mood for? Are you in the move for really going off road? Six to choose from, and I'll start with lowest to highest. There's the LS LS on the Chevy Tahoe. The LS pretty much almost bare bones for lack of a better term, starts at about fifty eight five hundred. We then go

up to an LT. It's got a little bit more family functionality, little lifestyle, sixty one thousand, seven hundred dollars. Middle of the road, we've got the RST r ST versions about sixty six thousand dollars, a little bit more expressive. You want urban, so if you want, you know, drive around the city, it's still gonna be maneuverable. And they've got some nice you know things inside touch screens and

what have you across the board. If you're looking for something a little bit more outdoor, a little bit more rugged, a little bit more lifestyle, and a four wheel drive. I've always liked the Z seventy one version of the Chevy vehicles, the Z seventy one. All right, think you're definitely gonna be able to go off road in this one starts about sixty eight thousand, five hundred dollars. Two more above that, there's the premiere, the Chevy Tahoe Premiere,

the Chevy Suburban Premiere. You're gonna get even more advanced technology in there, a little bit more functionality. You're gonna get some nice leather seats. You're still gonna get a great touch screen, some safety features. That's about seventy three thousand to start. And then if you want the highest level, and I say highest, you know, I don't think Chevy actually likes that term. But if you want the most luxurious, there is nothing else really that you can add. That's

the Chevy high Country. They make the high country in the suburban. They make the high country in the Tahoe. That is bold design, queues, inside, very luxurious, pretty much everything that you want, safety features, the super crews pretty much, and everything starts at about seventy eight thousand. All of them are five drove, most all of them. The ride is solid. You would think a large vehicle like a Tahoe and certainly a suburban. They're kind of bumpy, the

ride is very smooth. If you want to see and actually what I went through, I put together about a six minute video. It is on my YouTube channel, which you should subscribe to, but also it is on my website high Tech Texan, High Tech t e x An, high Tech Textan dot com. It's one of the videos that I put on there and you could see it. Should you be in the mode for a new vehicle. October Generally back in the day, that's when all the new vehicles came out. Now vehicles come out pretty much

year round. I do want to thank the Chevy folks for giving me the inside info play by play, helping me get up to Fort Worth. They did not pay for my thoughts. These are all mine. There are things to me that, you know, they could have improved. Maybe there's a little bit more plastic than I like, maybe they could have had a little bit more wood grain.

But if you want something that seats nine, there is a Chevy suburban that holds nine people, three in the back, three in the middle, and actually they have three seats in front, the two passenger captain chairs, and then there's kind of the armrest that folds up to make it three in the front as nine people. That's actually on their lower end version of the Chevy Chevy suburban. But solid company. It's worth fighting a dealership. I'm not going to tell you. Don't call me saying hey, GURF, can

you give me a deal on any car? I can't. I can't, I don't have it. I do not endorse dealerships. I'd work directly with the manufacturers. And so if you want me to review something, I've got an entire podcast that go back years and years and years. Go to Spotify, iHeart Apple, whatever. Just look for high Tech Texan with

a dash high dash Tech Texan dot com. And I have dozens of dozens and not hundreds and hundreds of my thoughts on your vehicles that I can give you reasons to get it and maybe reasons to look for other vehicles. And that's kind of what I do. So if I surprised you bym not talking specifically about technology and phones in TVs, that's what I do. I didn't that talk about bourbon or beer this time, it didn't talk about fashion, But who knows next week that actually

could change. But I do thank you for tuning in as we wind this up, thank you to our big partnership on the radio. Total Wireless by Victra gave away a twenty dollars gift card US coins and jewelry that time of year, man holiday season. You got sports memorabilia, you want to start coin collecting or collecting a lot of things around Remember of billion for the state of Texas, US coins and jewelry right on the Kadie Freeway at Voss. What a great place go tell my guys hot Campbell's

compounding pharmacy. And also thanks again to Steve Winter with Astounds as t O U N d Z. It doesn't cost anything to talk to them about how to take your website and optimize it for search engines. It is certainly with it. I do. Thank you. Callum Reid, the new division president, el Hefe the division president of the Southwest or Central Division of iHeart my longtime boss Eddie Martinie. He gets a promotion, not that he was already sitting in a carpeted office and the guy gets a leather chair.

Eddie Martini, well deserved. Thank you for keeping me on the air for two plus decades. Hook them horns people, Big game tonight, enjoy The Great Pumpkin Charlie Bound for free this weekend on Apple TV Plus. I told you that go listen to my podcast, have some racism, We'll talk to you next weekend. My name is Garth and my show is over.