You Can Preserve Family Memories With Tools You Already Own

Your family memories are sitting on borrowed time. Those shoebox photos fade, VHS tapes get sticky, and the players you need to watch old camcorder footage are getting harder to find every year, especially in Florida heat and humidity. We walk through a realistic, do-it-now approach to digitizing old photos and home movies so you can preserve them, share them, and stop worrying that one failed device will erase decades.

We also get specific about tools and workflows that actually work. We talk about the Google PhotoScan app for glare-free photo capture, when a flatbed scanner is the better move, and how AI photo restoration can help clean up scratches, creases, and blur after you digitize. If DIY is not your thing, we discuss mail-in digitizing services and the big tradeoff that comes with shipping your originals.

From there, we zoom out to the “keep it safe and easy” side of tech: why cloud backup (think OneDrive-style syncing) beats a single external drive for most people, plus the surprisingly advanced technology running Orlando theme parks. We compare park apps for live wait times, maps, mobile food ordering, Lightning Lane, Universal’s newer Express Pass Now, virtual queues, and even facial recognition style entry options. We close with a simple but crucial reminder: turn on Find My iPhone or Find My Device before your phone gets lost or stolen.

Subscribe for more practical tech help, share this with someone who has a box of photos in a closet, and leave us a review with the one memory you most want to protect.

Transcript

Welcome And What We Cover

SPEAKER_01 0:08

And then welcome to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580 Orlando's News and Talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, President and Founder of Refresh Computer Superstore, and technician Adam Littlefield. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have a comment during the show, go and use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. You can also check out the website at Refresh Computers.net or stop at the Refresh Computer Superstore in Longwood at 820 East State Road 434, just three and a half miles east of I-4 in Longwood. Store hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. And now for David Levitt and Adam Littlefield.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

All right. Thanks, Greg. And thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. I'm David Levitt, the owner and founder of Refresh Computers, 26 and a half year old company right here in Central Florida, proudly serving all of Central Florida. Gosh, we have people coming from actually outside of Central Florida, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

I've I've had a couple people actually come to us from out of state.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Out of state. We have people, you know, out of country even. So we have people that will email us or send us a message from our website. Hey, I'm coming in from Peru, you know, and want to look take a look at some of your laptops. You have these in stock, or can I bring my MacBook and have it repaired by you when I get there? We've had that happen. And we have customers that come over from in the in the state, like as far away as Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, all over. And we're right here in Central Florida. And so we're very easy for anybody within this general listening audience, right, in Central Florida on the radio anyway. You'll be able to conveniently get to us. We're three and a half miles east of I-4 right there in Longwood. So today we're going to talk about rescuing your old photos and home movies before they're gone. So we're going to talk about some things that you can do and some upgrades that have happened and some of these utilities, especially Google came out with a with a tool that's really cool to use that we're going to talk about doing that. And then we're going to talk about the importance of backing up those kinds of things if you have them on your computer. So don't lose those memories because when they're when they're gone, they're gone, right? And we're also going to be talking about the incredible technology right now that's running the Central Florida theme parks, right? Like all of them around here. And we're going to talk a little bit about which apps that you want to download, depending on what park you're going to. If you haven't already done this, if you've already experienced this in one of these apps, you already know how wonderful they are and how much they make your life easier trying to traverse one of these parks if you haven't done it in a while or if you've never done it. So these apps are very important. We're going to talk about those. And then we're going to finish the show today about an important thing that you should be doing with your phone before it's lost or stolen. And basically, it's being able to locate it again if it is lost or stolen and what you have to do before you need it. So we're going to get into that towards the end of the show

Why Old Photos And Tapes Fail

SPEAKER_02 3:17

today. So let's get into rescuing your old photos and your home movies before they're gone. So I mean, I don't know anybody that doesn't have like a box of old photos sitting around in a closet, right? Maybe there's some slides.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Some maybe even some like VHS tapes, or you've got some camcorder cassettes. You know, I know my family, we have those sitting around. And, you know, like it or not, all of that does have an expiration date. And it's the hardware that they are currently on right now.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

That's true. Or if it's just paper photos, I mean they you know we store them, we keep them in a dark space, right? Somewhere in a chest so they they last as long as they can. And but even those, you know, over time they degrade, and you might want to go ahead and preserve those before it's too late. Right. And there's some easy ways that you can do that. And you know, in summertime might be just the perfect time to finally rescue those memories, right? So you take a break and stay inside for a few hours on one of these 100 degree days. And so we're gonna walk you through some things that you can do.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Yeah, you know, so everybody, everybody, as far as I know, has, you know, tons of family memories. You've got photo books at home, you've got VHS tapes or cassette tapes of just old memories of your family, and those don't last forever.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

You know, I know these tapes are 20, 30, 40 years old in some cases.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

And those tapes, you know, in over time inside of them, they get sticky. The the tape starts to deteriorate, it leaches out, you know, just sticky material that the next time you try to turn up that that VHS, it may not turn. It may not, it may just gum up and ruin everything.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

I've actually seen the you know, like the edges of some videos, VHS tape. The edges are all like faded.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

It looks like right. So, you know, that's that's one of the main things that white right now, you know, this weekend, it may be the best time to start thinking about what you're gonna do to preserve that. Yeah, same thing with photos too. You know, the the photos, they they fade over time, the colors can shift, and especially in our heat and humidity, that just speeds everything right up.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

And and I want to add right now, before we get too much further into this, and some things that you can do yourself, because refresh computers does not provide the service that where we're gonna, you know, get your videos off your your tape. So I want to just throw that out there. So if you're listening and you're and you're catching this and and you're thinking, oh, I can bring it to refresh computers. We don't we won't do it for you, right? But we can point you to the right tools and what you can do yourself. And a very important one is what Google came out with.

Google PhotoScan And Better Scans

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Yes, the uh Google Photo Scan app. This was something that, you know, just recently, a couple weeks ago, I actually found and started using for a lot of our old family photos because it I needed to preserve them, you know.

SPEAKER_02 6:11

It's an awesome app, and you can use it on an iPhone. It's available on the iPhone and also Android.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Yes. So, you know, this is uh basically an app that photographs your prints glare free, so there's no distortion on them, and actually will straighten them. So if you've got a crooked photo, it's taken, it'll automatically kind of straighten it up for you and fix it, just the the viewing of it.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

And the glare-free feature to me is so critical because you know how many times have you used your phone in just a regular camera mode, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Every single time.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

And try to take a picture of something sitting on a countertop.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Nearly impossible.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

And without getting some little piece of glare, right? But what's really cool about Google's photo scan is it eliminates that glare. It just does it, it knows how it's smart enough to do that for you. So that's why I really love this feature.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Yeah. And you know, maybe you need to get you want to get better quality on them because your your photos that you're gonna be taking with your phone are only gonna be as good as the camera that's built into your phone. And you know, something like a good flatbed scanner or an inexpensive photo and slide scanner, that's a perfect option to have just hooked up to your computer. Scan them right into your computer then.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Yeah, yeah. A flatbed scanner works great for you know printed photos, right? So you take these and just put them right on your flatbed scanner, scan it in. Typically we'll save it as a PDF, and a lot of scanners will save it as a photo, also as JPEG. And so you can get those scanned into your computer, save them on a on a on a cloud drive.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Because again, these are memories, these are photos, these are videos that can't be easily reproduced. You know, you can't just go ahead and record your kid from 20 years ago, you know, catching his first baseball or something again. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

You can't reproduce that. And the effort that you're putting into it behind the scenes to get all of this backed up. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. It is. So uh a little uh background information on Greg. I used to work at one of those retail pharmacy chains and I worked in the photo department when we still processed film and had the chemicals back there and had the separate telephone and all that kind of stuff. And we used to process slides and help people convert those over to DVDs at the time and things like that. And it's a process, especially if you have a lot of these. So you want to make sure you get as many of those backups set up and preserved as you can because uh it's it takes a lot of time to have to go back and try and do it again. Yeah, probably too.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

We're in a huge, you know, digital media age now where almost everything is available through our computers. Right. That's just how it is and and or smartphones. And now, you know, with the introduction of the cloud, that just offers another way to protect these memories. So going through, sitting down for a couple of hours and doing this is going to save you the heartbreak that you may have six months down the road when something just stops

Mail In Services And Risk

SPEAKER_00 9:07

working.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

Okay, so let's just say that you have a shoebox full or several or or a big case full, yeah, a giant footlocker full of photos that you just don't want to take the time to do. Well, I'm gonna give you the names of two companies that you can contact that will do everything for you. Of course, it's a lot more expensive than you doing it yourself because doing it yourself is just practically just taking your time, but it could take a lot of time. And if you don't have the time or don't want to go through that time, I want you to contact two different one of two different companies, maybe contact both of them and get prices. One is called Legacy Box, all one word. So Legacy Box, you can look them up. You can also look up another company called Scan My Photos. Just simple, just again, like one word, scan my photos. And and with these companies, you basically ship them your box of photos, and they will take it over from there. Now, the only downside of that is You're sending the originals, you're sending them your photos. So if that box gets lost in the mail or something happens, you know, to it, then you know you've lost them forever.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Unfortunately, like I said, working in that industry that happens. It does things happen unfortunately, and it and it's heartbreaking.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

So, and if you don't like these two companies, there's others out there, but just make sure you pick a reputable one.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Yeah, do a little bit of do a little bit of your own research just to find one that you you feel will fit. And you know, I I have to throw it in there. That'd be a great time as well to maybe throw in, you know, trying to use an AI bot just to give you an idea about each of them. You know, they they can do the research a lot faster than yourself or I could.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

That's true. Yeah, you use your favorite AI chat button and ask them for for their suggestion of where you can send your photos for you know to get imaged and and a so they can send it to you in a file, as opposed to you know having to worry about losing the paper, you know, copies of your photos and stuff. Yeah and and listen again, I'm gonna say remind everybody that you know if you didn't get a chance to write down the names of these companies and that we're that we're referring to, and by the way, they we have no ties with these companies, they're not paying us uh to advertise them. It's just a little bit from the research that we did.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Some good sources that we found that you know may work. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

So you can contact them, but you can go to refreshcomputers.net, click on the podcast link right there at the top of the page, you can hear the show back in its entirety. And because through the magic of AI, we have trained our AI to take important details like this that we talk about on the radio, and it will automatically insert it in the notes right there on the page. And when you click on the on the podcast that that we're that we're in right now, and it'll bullet point these items that we just talked about because it our AI tool just knows to do that. Right. Right. And so it's kind of cool.

Converting VHS And Camcorder Tapes

SPEAKER_02 12:07

So what about tapes, Adam?

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Tapes are the tapes are those tough ones. You know, it's I can already tell you right now that if you try to go to your local big box store, you will not find or you it'll be very hard to find a uh player for your VHS and your your camcorder tapes.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

And most people can, you know, you can get one on eBay. Yeah. Still, eBay sells there's a lot of sellers on eBay, and eBay sells uh you know, not eBay, but sellers on eBay. I've seen where you can you might want to convert a VHS onto a DVD. Right. For example. So they have a they have these VCRs with DVD recorders also built in.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

I had one of those growing up.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

Yeah, I had one of those. Pretty cool. Yeah. And so you can actually play back these DVDs and record it on or play back one of your VHS tapes, I should say, and record it on the DVD player built into that machine. Right. That you can, and these are still available on eBay, probably a hundred, a couple hundred bucks. You can pick one up and you get a really nice one, probably for three or four hundred bucks, and it it can do all that work. Again, it takes a long time.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

It does.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

And there are some that will do it in double speed, triple speed also. So you might want to look for that feature. So, in other words, you don't have to wait for the whole if it's a 60-minute video, it'll actually record it onto the DVD in 30 minutes. You don't have to watch the whole graduation back. You don't have to, yeah, exactly. So there's those out there as well. So you can look for that feature when you're looking for one on eBay if you want to do it yourself.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

Otherwise, if you don't want to do it yourself, another mail-in service. Another mail-in service that you can use and you can look that up also. And I don't know if I have one in particular.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

I don't think we found one.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

There's still they're still out there, they still provide the service.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

So if it could be a different name, but I if I remember back to my days, it was iMemories was one of them as well that would do that would do the videotape back. But again, double check, use your favorite chat bot and see what they have to suggest for you.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Well, and back to AI, real quick, too, is is you know, once if you do it yourself, say using this Google app, and you can use AI to take out the the blurry spots, and AI tools. There's all kinds of nice AI tools that'll take out the wrinkles in the photo, maybe your face too, if you're there. And so, you know, it erases scratches and creases and all that stuff, these AI tools from these digital digitized photos that you that you did with using that Google tool to capture that. Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

And if you've got any services that you've used in the past for any of these kinds of restoration services, or if you've tried out the new version of these AI repair services, we'd love to hear it. Use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. Or if you have a comment during the show, we'd love to hear it. Use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. And now, back to David and Adam.

Backup Plans After You Digitize

SPEAKER_02 15:31

All right, thanks, Greg, and thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. In the previous segment, we talked a lot about recovering and your old photos or actually backing up your old photos. I mean, I'm talking about the paper photos, you know, the hard copies, hard copy photos and maybe some VHS tapes and those kinds of things and getting those converted to digital formats so you have them forever. And we talked about some ways to do that, some new tools, a new Google tool that came out that can help. And also there's some things that AI can do for you as well in restoring those old photos that you can do all by yourself. And if you don't feel like doing it by yourself, we even mentioned a few companies that you can send it to. So you can go back and listen to that segment by going to refreshcomputers.net and clicking on that podcast link right there in the upper right hand corner. It'll take you to the podcast page for this episode, where on that page will be bulleted items, including the names of the companies that we mentioned that you can send your photos to in order to have them digitized. Now, on this segment, we want to talk a little bit about backing up that data, backing up where you have these photos. So say you just went through weeks of your own time or sent them off to another company so they can do it for you, converting all those old photos into a digital format. We can't stress enough that you need to have the proper backup tools in place. And today that means you're gonna be backing up in the cloud, right? Whether you like it or not. I mean, if you don't like it, you of course you can back up to a drive that's attached to a USB port on your computer and you can have an external backup. A lot of people do it that way too. That's fine as long as you have a backup. But the preferred method that we always point people to, if you're inclined to do so, is back them up on the cloud. Yes. Because they're accessible no matter where you are.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

And that's something I always stress with the cloud because, like Dave said, it's accessible wherever you are. You know, a lot of a lot of Windows systems use OneDrive, which is the cloud service, but through Microsoft, that's linked right with your Microsoft account. So if you know the email and password, which you should know for that account, and you log into a different Windows computer, you can access the files immediately from the cloud. And that's something that I always, always, always stress is your computer can get hit by a lightning surge. That external drive, all it takes is one elbow off the desk and that could all be gone.

SPEAKER_02 17:55

It could be.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

But cloud uh backups, there's a lot more responsibility, I'll put it that way, on Microsoft for storing that data that they take it very seriously. And their hardware, I can almost guarantee, is going to be more protected than any hardware you have in your house right now.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

Chances of it losing your data is is like slim to none. Exactly. Put it that way.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

So cloud backups, they are just that easy way to do it, and they're pretty much the safest way to do it now.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

Okay, so it's easy for you.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

It's easy for me. Easy for me.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

It's even easy for Greg. So even easy for me. But it may not be easy for everybody. Right. And guess what? That's what we're there for. That's one of the things that we're there for at Refresh Computers. Just bring your device in and you know, we can show you how to set it up so it's properly backing up files to a cloud drive so that you'll always have them. So basically, when you save it on your laptop or your desktop, it's also being saved in the cloud at the same time. You don't have to transfer anything, you don't have to turn on or off anything. It just does it automatically. Not just your photos, but any of your important files also.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Set it and forget it. That's what I always like to say about it because it really is you just you set it up and that's it. It just kind of works. And that's that's isn't that what we all want in the end of the day? You just set something up and it just works.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

That's right. And say that you know it's too late.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

You already bumped that drive off your desk or something.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

And that drive is you can't access it anymore. And oh my gosh, you have all your photos, you have your your files on there that you really need, and you never properly backed them up to a cloud. Then you know, bring that device to Refresh Computers and we can help you get those files and those photos restored. Right. Right there at Refresh Computers. And folks, that's all we have time for at this break until the break, and then when we come back, we're going to talk about the incredible tech that's going on in the Orlando area theme parks right now.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580.

Theme Park Apps Replace Paper Maps

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Hey there, and welcome to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's News and Talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, President and Founder of Refresh Computer Superstore, and technician Adam Littlefield. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have a comment during the show, we'd love to hear it. Use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. You can also check out the website at refreshcomputers.net or stop it at the Refresh Computer Superstore in Longwood at 820 East State Road 434, just three and a half miles east of I-4. Store hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. And now, David Levitt and Adam Littlefield.

SPEAKER_02 20:51

All right. Thanks, Greg. And thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. Glad to be coming to you on this Sunday morning. And if you miss anything that we have talked about or want to recap anything that we're talked about, go to refreshcomputers.net, click on that podcast link in the upper right hand corner, and you'll be able to hear the show in its entirety. Plus, shows going back four years now. And you can also go down to the bottom of any page at refreshcomputers.net. There's a little place there just for your email address. That's all we need. Just type in your email address and click submit. And what that's going to get you is an email letting you know when one of these podcasts are ready to be listened to when they're published on our website. And with a link right there in the email, that all you have to do is click on it and you'll go right to the source. In this segment, we're going to talk about some really cool, incredible technology running Orlando's theme parks and how to use it basically.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

It makes your life a lot easier with theme parks because really gone are the days of getting a paper map at the park, trying to figure out where you're going. You don't know if a ride's going to be open. And there's actually now a lot of Of uh ride reservations that you can do through these apps as well.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

Things that you can do with these apps, and we're gonna get into that. And you know, so gone are the old, you know, I remember the e-ticket days. You don't even know about e-tickets, do you? The uh you've heard of them?

SPEAKER_00 22:14

The farthest back I know is the paper uh fast pass lane tickets you could get at the Disney parks. I do miss those. I do too, trust me.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

Yeah, well, I was around in Central Florida when Disney World opened. I remember that when it opened. I was a kid. Used to go there almost every day in the summer. My aunts and uncles worked there, and all I had to do was get there, and they could get me in every day back then. That you they could sign in family members every day. You know, they didn't restrict them from doing that. Wow. And so I I knew every square inch of that park. I at Disney World, I swear, and it was a fun time. But there was the days of the e-tickets, A, B, C, D, and E-tickets, and the e-tickets were the best ones. Okay. There was for the best rides, the the Space Mountain rides.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

It was like a coupon book, right? You got all these different you had all these different tickets that you get, like a fair entry kind of thing, and you have to go on whichever ones were in that designation. That's kind of cool. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

You know, I I think I remember my schools in elementary school using that as a reward system. Could have been um so I know something like it at least. I can say that.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

But the modern day e-ticket, yes, it is the app on your phone. Yeah, man. So and your phone is your most important tool visiting a park. So if you're going to be visiting any one of these parks, or that all the major parks have it: Disney World, Universal, Sea World, they all run on apps now. So, you know, so if you're going to one of these parks, get that app for that park and download it if you don't already have it. If you already have it, you know what I'm talking about when I say how easy it makes your life. You know, I hadn't been to Disney World in decades and yet, literally decades. I just got tired of going. Right. I was already burned out when I was a kid from it, and I was becoming an adult. I just didn't want to deal with the crowds. And so we always have family and friends coming from out of town. It was my wife who always took people to Disney World. So she's been, I don't know how many times, and she would be the one to escort them around the parks over there and Universal. And I just didn't go. Except last year I decided to go and take a trip. My wife gave uh agreed to be my guide. Usually you have to pay extra for that. So and and you know, and and we had the and she showed me, oh well, look, we just need to download the Disney app. You don't have it on your phone, I have it on mine. And I did, and oh my gosh, I was shocked. Yeah, it was like it made things so much easier.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

It is really a game changer for going to amusement parks because you know, I remember back when I was younger running all the way across Magic Kingdom for one ride, and it's closed because of mechanical issues. Right. Or it's you know got a 200 plus minute wait. And I don't know about anybody else listening, but I'm not standing for 200 minutes in this Florida heat for one five-minute ride. But like even looking at the app now at this moment, I can see you know, wait times for rides. I can see what rides are currently closed right now.

SPEAKER_02 25:10

And a GPS map.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

And a GPS that tells you where you are. It'll give you walking directions of how to get where you're trying to go. So it's there's so much more that's coming out of it now. And even myself, I use it for mobile ordering at a lot of different places around the parks. Yeah. You can place easy to pick up mobile orders and skip right to the front of the line.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

That's important because we I I know my wife said, Well, we have to eat at this uh a pizza place. I forget which one of the Disney parks it was in. And so, oh, it's just the best pizza, you're really gonna love it. And so, but before we we were on the other side of the park and it was getting close to lunchtime. So she's like, Oh no, we have to make the reservation in the app because we're not gonna get there and be able to get a pizza anytime soon because they're that busy. And so we did that. So we we used the app, we made we ordered the pizza on the app, and by the time we got there, probably waited another 10 minutes, to be honest, but it's still it was nice to be able to not have to wait that those long lines.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

And and the nice thing too is a lot of these, a lot of these theme parks are now starting to integrate their apps into the everyday usage, even so far as being your ticket to get into parks. Right. I know I have my annual pass loaded into my Google wallet right now. Right. I know I've seen um Universal Studios is starting to use facial recognition for their technology. So you're beyond your phone now at that point.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

So, but but you you make a good point about the tickets. The tickets you can actually keep in the apps, right? Also, the apps that you download for your favorite park. So you know, skipping the lines, right? That's a big deal. So there's two big systems going on right now, one at Disney, one at Universal.

Lightning Lane Vs Express Pass Now

SPEAKER_02 26:48

So Disney, of course, it's called the Lightning Lane, right? We've heard of that, I'm sure. It's been around for a while. You pay a little extra to reserve a shorter line for popular rides, and you can plan a lot of it ahead. Well, you you almost have to plan a lot of that ahead now.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

It's a it's a game with those lightning lanes, from my experience.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

My Disney Experience app. And you go in there and you know, because you might go in there if you wait too long, it's the lightning lanes are all booked up. Right. You're not gonna get a lightning lane pass, even though you even if you want to pay for it. But one of the cool things I like that Universal just came out with. So if you're going to Universal, they just wrote out their own version of at Epic Universe now. It's at Epic Universe, it's called Express Pass Now. So they've taken it a step further. So with the Disney system, you know, you have to reserve it like the day you buy your tickets, you're you're you're you know, I think they they they make you wait like two days before.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

Yeah, there's like a 30-day window for some sort of thing.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

There's a window that you can't reserve the lightning lane before that, but as soon as that window's open, you have to be ready and get on that app and reserve those lightning lanes. Right and and pay for them.

SPEAKER_00 27:58

And you have to do it throughout the day too. As you use them, you can reserve more, but only for what's available.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

Only for what's available. And most of the popular rides by the same day, they're already not available. Right. But universal with Express Pass now, so that's where you pay to skip a specific rides line, but it's the same day. So it's the same day, and you know, it's in the moment, too. So you decide right there in the app, and it's about 25 bucks. I would imagine they would have to have availability. I mean, if the and so if you go up there and you see a long line of people, you open up your universal app and you want to skip that line now. So you can't do that with the Disney app. Right. You can do that with the Universal app, oh, and if if there's space available, and you just skip that line. So you're so you're finding out about something right now that's new at Universal Studios, as well, that Epic Universe anyway, and where you know, once this catches on, you know, everybody starts using it, and then I wonder how effective it is, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Yeah, regardless of its effectiveness, Universal's raking in the cash with that program.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

Oh, I can imagine, yeah. And see, you know, I know Disney with their lightning lane, they used to have that program under the name Genie Pass. And that was short-lived. I know it was because it just it did not work as they were they were imagining it to. It had some uh it's had some bugs, you know.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

We'll say that. I remember when it was the FastPass and it was free. Yes, included as a part of your pass.

SPEAKER_02 29:27

Yes, fast FastPass was free.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

So it's been a it's been a progression with Disney to finally get to this pay for program. With Universal, it's really always kind of been a pay for pay-for-play kind of program. Yeah, yeah. But this the same day in the moment passed, that's very that's new. That's very interesting.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

That's very new and and that's about 25 bucks what it's gonna cost you per ride.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

So so Disney's kind of the one where you have to do your planning. You have to plan to plan ahead.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

You have to plan ahead if you want the fast lane at Disney.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

Right. But I know Disney, they've uh they specifically have introduced something that they're calling the virtual queue. So this is actually something for the hottest rides that they normally don't let you do a standby lane. They do what's called a virtual queue. You have to be near the location of the park or your resort to reserve a boarding group, is what they call them. Almost like you're boarding, you're playing at the So you're not reserving a specific time.

SPEAKER_02 30:17

Yep. What you are reserving is a time that you're your NQ to be able to get ahead of the line.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

A boarding time for them to let you know to come back.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

And that's, you know, that's for the hottest rides again. I know when Guardians of the Galaxy opened up at Epcot. I know when Smugglers Run and Rise of the Resistance specifically at Hollywood Studios when those opened. They just recently did it for the new Bluey adventure there at uh Animal Kingdom. You know, those those rides, they utilize the virtual queue. And my experience with it, I thought it was it was great because I could be out and about in the park doing whatever else I wanted to do. I get a little push notification through my phone and a text message saying, Hey, your boarding group is up, and I can just walk right up to the rides and do it past it.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

But you got to do it pretty quickly though, right? You do.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

You have to go on, I think, five, 10 minutes and get there. Because again, with these being the hottest rides, this virtual queue, they push you out of it pretty quickly, but you don't have to pay for it like you do with the lightning. That was my next question.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

So virtual queue is something that's free.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Yeah, so you can sign up for it.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

But that's only in the Disney app. And usually

Virtual Queues And Facial Recognition

SPEAKER_01 31:17

it's only for a short period of time after they've opened up a new ride, like the the the Bluey experience that I used as an example. They've already moved on to it just being the regular line now. It's no longer that virtual queue.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

Yeah, whereas I think Guardians of the Galaxy, they had virtual they had that as virtual queue exclusive for a couple months after it had opened. And there were people that I think Epcot opens early in the morning, around like eight, I believe, eight in the morning. There were people lining up at 6 a.m. to have their location at the park to try to get into that virtual queue.

SPEAKER_02 31:46

That's right, because it knows you're there, right?

SPEAKER_00 31:48

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

So you have to be there because it knows you're there and you have to be using the app. Exactly. Yep. In order for them to know that you're there. And so that's something that's kind of cool. And you mentioned facial recognition too, Adam, and Epic Universe, they confirm they're yeah, they're using photo validation, they call it, but you you can sign up for it. It's not something that's that they're making you do.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

Yeah, it's not a requirement, it's it's definitely an ease of use if you go to Universal often.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

So basically you just walk through the gate and and that there will be a gate that has the facial recognition there ready, and it just in your face is your ticket, right? Because you've already paid for your ticket and you've signed up for the facial recognition, then your face is your ticket. Otherwise, if you don't want to use that feature, you still just let them scan your ticket on your phone or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

And and I mean most tickets, most tickets now for uh for amusement parks, at least from my experience, are mostly digitized now. So you have a plastic card that you tap to their readers that uses a reader called NFC, near frequency communication, just to read it. I know Disney with theirs, you scan your pass and then you do a fingerprint. And that's that's how you get in. So there are ways like that. I would like to see Disney try to transition into photo validation, maybe. You know, I think that'd be pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

It would speed the lines up for sure. It would. I would I I would be concerned. And they already take your picture when you go up to something for your pass. So you they've got your face.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

The provide the privacy concerns are out the window. It looks like if it's that, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

Plus, you know, already the security that they have at those parks, there's a lot of, you know, a lot of privacy questions you could probably ask, but end of the day, you're paying to be there too.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

And and for me, there's a big difference too. So you have security and then you have surveillance. Exactly. So there's two completely different things that people get mixed together all the time. When you see these cameras going on and you're using them in in a private enterprise like Disney or Universal or in a store, you know, that are those are security cameras. Those are secure, it's for security and actually for ease of access in those parks. It's all private and and that as opposed to surveillance, is a whole different thing. Surveillance are those cameras you see out in the public squares. Right. Uh flock cameras, for example, and they're doing your license plate. Those are more on the to me, the the surveillance and not security because they're out in public. That's true. Security is mostly for private things.

SPEAKER_00 34:14

So, a couple tips really quick just before we go to break here, you know, with having these mobile apps, being able to see time and stuff like that, use them. They are there, they are free to sign up for an account and to use. I don't understand why you wouldn't want to at this point.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

I just can't really enjoy a park as well.

SPEAKER_01 34:31

I was gonna say I can't imagine going to the parks these days without using the app.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

You need the app if you if you haven't been to the park in a while, like I hadn't been a year ago when I went. Get the app, download it. You're gonna need it when you go there.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

It's worth it. It really is. Are you someone that's gonna spend 25 bucks to skip the line? We'd love to hear it. Use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. And then welcome back to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's news and talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, president and founder of Refresh Computer Superstore and technician at Little Field. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Don't forget to check out the website at refreshcomputers.net. And now back to David and Adam.

SPEAKER_02 35:34

All right. Thanks, Greg, and thanks everybody for listening to yet another edition of Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. I love doing these shows. I hope you love listening to these shows. We have a lot of fun right here in the studio, don't we, Adam? Yes, we do. I think so. And I hope you do too, Greg. We talk about a lot of things even off mic. It's a highlight of my week for sure. So we just talked about that. We're not going to talk about on the radio show. But anyway, this

Set Up Find My Before Loss

SPEAKER_02 36:00

segment. We're going to be talking about finding, you know, this is another quick tip segment for you. Finding a lost or stolen phone. And the fact that you need to actually set it up before you you need it, right? So they don't come pre-set up. You have to set up your devices in order for them to work. And it's called, you know, it's like the find my feature, right? That locates a lost or stolen phone.

SPEAKER_00 36:24

This is something I am setting up right now as we speak, by the way. I've never set it up on my phone. You never turn it on.

SPEAKER_02 36:29

Nope. Shame on you, Adam. Completely forgot it when I switched over to this new phone. Not shame on you, but you just didn't think about it. No. Right? And a lot of people don't think about it. And that's why we have this radio show. So maybe to make you think about it, if you haven't set this feature on, it's really easy to do. And it shows your phone or your tablet or even your laptop on a map where your device is. And it is getting really to the point of pinpointing the location. I mean, to a room in a house.

SPEAKER_01 37:01

We had a story on the on the news this week that talked about how the uh Lake County Sheriff was actually able to utilize this kind of service, help somebody track down their stolen car. Yeah. Because their phone was left in the car at the time. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 37:12

Right. And it's so easy to find. And so that's a good point, Greg. So you you your your car is stolen, your phone's in your car. Hey, if you have this all set up, yeah, it's pretty easy to find where your car is. Or whatever you've you lost or got stolen that your phone was in. Right. It happens to be in there. So so what it does is you know, it's again, it shows whatever device you have it set up on. You can set it up on a lot of different types of devices. We'll get into that in just a minute. But you can have it play a loud sound to help you find it, right? Like in the couch cushions. That happens to me a lot. All the time.

SPEAKER_01 37:47

Set up on my phone. Set up on my watch to my phone and vice versa.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

That's right. So a lot of times it's it's you know, my wife will come up and say, Hey, can you call my phone? I say, You lost it again. Why can't you locate it? Use find my.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

And I actually have I have a setting that with setting it up on my phone just now, it I allowed it to bypass my phone's mute settings. Right. So if I have to ping it, it will play it. It's no long gone are the days of listening for a vibrate, looking for a call for a lost phone.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

Yes. And guess what else it can do? It can lock your phone. Yes. Right? So you can lock it remotely from another device. So nobody else can can get into it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:29

You can even have it show a message saying, please return to this person. You put a phone number on there. Hopefully it's not your cell phone number that you put on there because that's not really going to help you. But you could also put an address if it's lost as well.

SPEAKER_02 38:41

And as a last resort, you can even erase your device remotely if you have this feature turned on. So how to turn it on? On an iPhone, open settings, tap your name at the top, tap Find My, and make sure Find My iPhone is turned on on an Android. It's called Find My Device. Open Settings, search Find My Device, and make sure it is switched on. So it covers your computer and tablet too, by the way, on the Android, and turn it on for those while you're at it. And so if you want to recap this, because we're going to be running out of time here in a minute, you go to refreshcomputers.net, click on that

Where To Get Help And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_02 39:20

podcast link, and then these instructions will be right there in the text version of the podcast. When you click on that podcast link and go to our page, the podcast page, you'll be able to listen to this show, but also read these instructions right there on the same screen. Right. So it's something easy to do. And if you can't figure it out, come on over to 820 East State Road 434, 3.5 miles east of I4, right there on in Longwood, and we'll be able to help you right there. Or give us a call at our free tech support hotline, 407 478 8200. Folks, that's all the time we have for this week. We'll be talking to you again next week.