Refresh Computers Tech Talk
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Refresh Computers Tech Talk
A Gaming Computer Might Be The Best Work Computer
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The sky is getting smarter and so is your tech. We talk through the real mechanics behind modern Fourth of July spectacles, where drone light shows can paint flags and eagles in midair with hundreds of synchronized aircraft, and why so many cities are now blending drones with classic fireworks for that can’t-miss grand finale. You’ll hear what makes these shows work, what can make them fail, and why safety planning like launch paths, geofencing, and radio reliability matters more than most people realize.
Then we switch from the sky to your desk. “Gaming computer” sounds like a toy until you look at what the GPU and faster components actually enable. We break down why architects, engineers, contractors, creators, and editors often benefit from the same horsepower, how a graphics card can transform a system, and what to consider if you want a machine that handles real workloads without wasting money.
We also zoom out to the supply chain and your budget. The conversation covers the push to expand US semiconductor manufacturing, including major investments like TSMC’s Arizona buildout and Intel’s growing US production, plus why robotics and demand might make today’s chipmaking wave more sustainable than past attempts. To wrap up, we share easy ways to cut another bill with free streaming TV options like Pluto TV, Tubi, and The Roku Channel, plus a reminder that the best tech choice is often the simplest one. Subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a quick review so more people can find it.
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Holiday Welcome And What’s Ahead
SPEAKER_01Hey 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, go and 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. to 7 p.m. If you're listening to the show here on Saturday, that means you still have time to stop by. They'll be open until 7 p.m. today. And now for David Levitt and Adam Littlefield.
SPEAKER_02All right. Thanks, Greg. And thanks everybody for listening to this semi-quincentennial edition. Hey, there we go. Try saying that five times fast. Happy Fourth of July, everybody. And just so happy to be uh able to present a show for you on this wonderful, wonderful holiday. And I'm hoping you're having a very celebratory day today. Or night, actually. And so, and actually, today we're going to be talking a lot about some cool things that happened on the Fourth of July, and otherwise known as Independence Day. And, you know, it's a celebration of our independence from England, right? More than the birth of our country, which I know is sounds kind of odd, but but the celebration or the event actually was coined as Independence Day. So it's a celebration of our independence. So happy to be part of that and still and here to celebrate. And you know, we're going to talk about some types of technical celebration events going on around the areas and across the country. Drone light shows. We had a big segment on drones last week and a lot of drone activity these days with uh celebrating the 4th of July and other holidays. We're going to get into what that means and some and what cities are doing some hybrid types of celebrations, including drones and fireworks. And there's actually some cities that went to drones a year or two ago and decided, hmm, not enough thumping in my chest feeling. Yeah. So we'll go back to fireworks. So anyway, we're going to talk a lot about that. And we're also going to talk about gaming computers for your home and what we can do for you there at Refreshed Computers. And gaming computers are a lot more for a lot more than just gaming. So just that term gaming computers, yeah, doesn't necessarily mean it's a computer that you would use for gaming. If you're an architect, an engineer, you probably know what I'm talking about because you take advantage of those video cards or render a lot of your videos. So we'll talk a little bit more about that when the time comes. And then we're going to talk about the great American chip making comeback. Or is it? We will see. How critic. Lasted about four or five years. We'll get we'll get into that and where it was and what happened to it and and why it happened, why it went bust, and why a similar type of activity today may not go bust in this country. So stay tuned for that.
SPEAKER_01Now I know I mentioned it in the beginning segment here. We it is July 4th.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01It is a Saturday. Right. Yep. Store hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
SPEAKER_02Including today.
SPEAKER_01Including today. You guys are open here on the holiday.
SPEAKER_02We are only closed three holidays. We're closed every Sunday. And there's only three holidays we're closed, and that's Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. We're open every other day throughout the year except Sundays. We're closed on Sundays. And then we'll finish off today's show to help you declare your independence from another subscription on TV. We'll talk about a lot of the free services that are out there that you might want to check out and sign up for if you don't mind listening to a commercial like the old days.
SPEAKER_01Right here on WDBO.
SPEAKER_02That's right. Right here.
Drone Light Shows Go Mainstream
SPEAKER_02So let's get into today's main topic, which is drone light shows, high-tech fireworks, and maybe a clue or two or or hint or two on how to capture it all on your iPhone or your Android phone. Yeah. I have an iPhone, so I always say iPhone. But your smartphone. So anyway, yeah, it's not just any 4th of July. You know, America turns 250 years old today. And if you didn't know that, then I don't know where you are. It's a it's our semi-quincentennial. And it'll be a lot of celebration going on tonight, unless you're the city of Altamont Springs. You did it last night. Red hot and boom. We still smell it in the air, though, right? You can still smell it. And yeah, you know, I guess kudos to Frank Martha over there. He's the city manager. I know him. And he I guess he just you know years ago they decided, I don't know if it was before Frank or not, actually, when they decided to do the 4th of July on the 3rd. Because they've been doing it on the 3rd for years, but I would imagine, I'm just assuming here, and that may not mean anything, but it's just to get the crowds before everybody else did. And so you can actually, if you didn't celebrate uh last night, or maybe you did, you can still celebrate again tonight all over the place, you know. So the shows themselves, the fireworks shows, have gone very, very high tech, right? So in AAA says that a record 72.2 million Americans are traveling this holiday weekend, and many of them will be looking where straight up in the sky tonight to see something new. Swarms of hundreds of synchronized drones drawing flags and eagles in the sky, and so Salt Lake City, for example, they're flying a 500 drone America 250 show, they call it. It's a lot of drones. That is a lot of drones. And if you haven't seen a a drone show before, they're there's something else.
SPEAKER_00They are something else to watch. You know, they're they're more than just a floating, you know, image in the sky. I've actually seen a couple of them where they're transformative through the whole thing. You can't even tell when they're changing, you know, whatever scene they're doing. There's just it's like a light a switch flips and they they change around.
SPEAKER_02It's it's cool. Everything is, of course, computerized and synchronized. They're programmed not to run into each other, hopefully. There have been a few mishaps. There have been.
SPEAKER_00Like all technology, there's always some hiccups. But you know, drones, they're they're I would say a little bit of a bigger hiccup because you're talking about uh you know a flying device at that point.
SPEAKER_01It was one of those major events that happened here in Central Florida. Two
Drone Mishaps And Crowd Safety
SPEAKER_01years ago. So the little boy was injured with the drone that hit him in the chest. That's right. So yeah, so it's definitely a hits home. So it's one of those things to to at least be mindful of when you go out to those events.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and that particular show back in tw December 2024, uh, there was an NTSB investigation and they revealed that a missing launch path file.
SPEAKER_01Interesting. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02That's all it took. So it was the engineer programmer's fault that misaligned the show's the center of the show, and the geofence was placed too close to spectators, and that caused the sky elements drones to collide and fall into the crowd. And it seriously injured a seven-year-old. So it's a big deal.
SPEAKER_01That and that really adjusted a lot of comp or a lot of states and l mis municipalities from working with that company. They had a lot of jobs booked up to that point, and lost a lot of money after that incident. Even Orlando adjusting the way that they do those types of shows anymore. Bigger shows like that, they don't even involve drones currently. The Lake Yola show that will be happening tonight will not involve drones, from my understanding.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's just fireworks, is from what I was reading.
SPEAKER_02And understandably, yeah. You know, Sydney, Australia, just in May of this year, they had it's called the Viv Vivid Sydney Festival. And they said an unforeseen radio frequency change forced 89 of a thousand Sky Magic drones. Sky Magic, the name of the company, they fell. They just caused them to plunge into the harbor. So luckily they didn't fall into crowds. And Melbourne, Australia, 2023, 400 drones plunged into the harbor. Ho Chi Min City in Vietnam in 2023. Technical errors caused multiple drones to fall out of formation and descend directly into an area of onlookers. So that can happen. It's rare, and I just want to say, add that these are just a few incidents out of thousands and thousands and thousands of drone shows. And you know, and Disney was doing them for a while and stopped.
SPEAKER_01Right. Yeah, they were at the uh Disney Springs there for a while that they were doing them and they they stopped that program. But the same can be said about fireworks as well. There are mishaps with firework shows every year, it seems. That's a true thing. Even with how advanced those kind of things, it's not somebody just running by with a lighter anymore to light everything up. They use a very sophisticated system to get these all synchronized. Right.
SPEAKER_00And and places that do shows every day, like you were you had mentioned, Disney are, you know, some of the places that you can see little mishaps like that happen. A cannon fires and it doesn't launch it and it blows up right on the cannon is said. You know, there are situations like that.
SPEAKER_01Or I feel like we see a video every year of all of the fireworks going off at once, like in San Diego a couple of years ago. That's right.
SPEAKER_02All at the same time and still on the ground. That's not the place to go.
SPEAKER_01Not what their plan was, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
Why Hybrid Shows Are Rising
SPEAKER_02So there is a big rise in hybrid shows. Yes. So, you know, that kind of fills fills the void of you know, people want they want the boom, they want the the explosions, the to see the starburst in the sky. I mean, that's exciting.
SPEAKER_01I made the joke about the smell, but that's definitely a part of it too.
SPEAKER_02It is it definitely is a part of it. So, you know, in order to to you know help these people or to satisfy these people that want that big boom, a lot of places are doing the hybrids now. So they'll save, they'll do a lot of big drone shows first, typically, and then they'll do the grand finale, which is what everybody's looking forward to, right? The grand finale, and that would be the big booms and fireworks in the skies.
SPEAKER_01And I can only bet that combination makes for some great visuals. So I bet I can only imagine that all those iPhones are going up in the air, but maybe they're not capturing it the right way. What do you you got some tips for them to make sure that they get those videos and photos the right way for those, Dave?
SPEAKER_02Well,
Better Fireworks Photos With Your Phone
SPEAKER_02yes. Number one rule hold steady, be still. Um if you can brace your elbows on something, lean on a railing, or use anything as a makeshift tripod, right? If you're holding your phone. The blur that you get in a lot of pictures comes from your hands, moving, not your phone.
SPEAKER_00I will say a lot of newer phones do have better integration of what's called OIS, that's optical image stabilization. That helps a little bit, but definitely planting your elbows down on something that's stationary, that's not going to move out from underneath you, that's gonna be the best best chance to stabilize.
SPEAKER_01Or lean against a tree. You know, usually you're in a park or something like that. Yeah. A couple of different options for you.
SPEAKER_02Yep. Turn off the flash is another another thing that you might want to remember to do.
SPEAKER_01That is always the worst. When you see somebody trying to take a picture of something dark in the sky and you just see their flash go off. Yes, that's that's still.
SPEAKER_02And it's not gonna make your picture look very well, right? Very good. And when you're zooming, try not to zoom with your fingers. You know, digital zoom just makes it grainy. That's called digital zooming, right? Right. So get the wide shot. Get just get the wide shot. That's usually the most clear shot, and you can always crop it later. Right. Right? So that's that's what I do a lot. And video, don't forget. I mean, video is more forgiving than photos for fireworks. And you can shoot 20 or 30 seconds of a video and then go back and pull still shots. Right. Right. And and and do screenshots of your still shots.
SPEAKER_00Most phones will record in, you know, 30 frames per second, which are almost like 30 pictures a second. So if you are using doing a video, you're gonna get a lot more chances to get that that crisp, clean shot that you're wanting to get.
SPEAKER_01I mean, even my phone, I can do 60 frames per second on recording. So I mean you're getting you're getting great amounts of shots mixed in there. You can definitely pull something if you wanted it.
SPEAKER_02You can go frame by frame and pull out the the clearest shot and and save that as your photo, right? So use your video to take photos. I guess is a way. Here's an iPhone trick too. It's really cool if you haven't used it. It's you know, you make sure you have live photo on, and then in the photos app, swipe up and pick long exposure. And then you get those beautiful streaking light trails this way by doing a long exposure because what it's doing is it's it's taking longer for and it's uh attracted the light, you know, it basically follows the light in in a matter of microseconds, which is the long exposure. It's a pretty nice shot when you can do it that way. And then one other final tip put the phone down. That's the best thing.
SPEAKER_00Enjoy it with your own eyes because that phone screen, it's never gonna capture the the quality that your own eyes are gonna be getting out of that. Exactly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And if you know, if you're like me, I'm I'm lucky enough I can see like like last night the show at uh Red Hot and Boom in Altamont Springs. I can pretty much see from my backyard. Sorry, Frank. And kind of avoid the crowd. So, anyhow. So those are some of the things that you can do with your phones and uh to make your Fourth of July celebration a little memories a little better, and you can save for decades to come.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And again, if you're planning on going to any of these fireworks shows tonight, let us know. Use that open mic feature inside the WDBOF. We'd love to hear about your plans for this semi-quincentennial celebration. You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580.
SeaWorld Drones And Disney Fireworks Facts
SPEAKER_01Hey, 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 Adam Littlefield. And you can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Oregon, you can use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app with your comments. And now back to David and Adam.
SPEAKER_02All right. Thanks, Greg, and everybody thanks everybody for listening to this semi. What's the word? Oh, you were so close. Semi-quincentennial. This is the semi-quincentennial edition. You know, this only happens every 250 years, folks. Yeah. Don't miss the book right here. The next semi-quincentennial tech talk show. Actually, there won't be a next one. There's only one. There's only one. Oh my gosh. I'm here I am trying to get creative and I'm going crazy here. So we were talking a lot about fireworks and stuff, like the things that's going to be happening tonight and a lot of the technology involved in today's fireworks shows, including the use of drones everywhere. And Adam, you said during the break that SeaWorld's actually having drones.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, SeaWorld's doing their own. Um they're calling it Electric Ocean. It's uh kind of like a drone fireworks show, spectacular. Um, it's gonna be a hybrid show. Yeah. Drones and fireworks. Very cool. And they actually have been uh doing it just kind of throughout the summer, but they they saying that they're gonna do a special show for tonight for Saturday.
SPEAKER_02You also mentioned during a break, which I thought was pretty interesting.
SPEAKER_00The number two buyer of gunpowder in the United States is Walt Disney World. And you know, the the only the only entity that supersedes them in that gotta be the US military. It's a U.S. military. So don't figure a little little food for thought there. You know, they put on shows every night.
SPEAKER_02That's right. So oh man, those are great shows, too. They are you know, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I and that uh you know that does kind of highlight too how the fireworks do kind of outshine drones a little bit. Because you feel the concussive blast of it, you know, it is just more mesmerizing, I guess is the word for it.
SPEAKER_02Like last night's show at Cranes Roosevelt, right? The red hot and boom. Right. If they use drones, they would have to take out the boom. It'd be buzz. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It doesn't roll off the tongue the same for sure.
SPEAKER_02So,
Gaming PCs As Video Rendering Workstations
SPEAKER_02anyhow, let's get into a little bit about gaming computers and some misconceptions about gaming computers, because you know, we've actually had architects come into the store and engineers, and they and building contractors, right? That need needs a really powerful machine. They say, you know, we need something that can render this video, these these CAD drawings that we do, we turn into videos and we do all this stuff, and and we say, well, let's go over here to these gaming computers. But as soon as we say gaming computers, I would say nine times out of ten, they would be like, Oh no, I don't want a gaming computer.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm not using this for gaming. I I need to use this for for work. And it's there's kind of a blurred line now between what is uh gaming and work as far as processing.
SPEAKER_02It's and so the better term I think they use in the store, and I think we've learned is instead of saying come on over and take a look at these gaming computers, yeah, come on over and take a look at these video rendiing computers. Yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_00There's so there's other names we have to kind of use because it's such a misnomer now to call these computers gaming computers because that's what they you know primarily used to be for. And now it's you know used for anything, really. CAD, I know there's a lot of architects like you were saying. Um, I've had a lot of video and audio technicians that need that sort of processing power that games need now.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. And so and at Refresh Computers, we have a nice selection of gaming computers, and and you don't have to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to get a quote unquote gaming computer. Let's just say video rendering computer, right? You can spend as little as a thousand bucks or maybe even a little bit less that we have some machines. We have some gaming laptops probably around that that price range as well, or video rendering laptops, I should say. So so you know, gaming computers are a lot more about a lot more than just playing games.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they can do a lot more than that. And you know, I I kind of like to say it's almost like you've got a supercomputer in that you've got in your office that you check your emails on.
SPEAKER_02Well, and you know what else though, too? You might already have a computer that's just minus the graphics card. But it's that graphics card that makes all the muscle than doing your video rendering. And if that's the case, we do stock some graphics cards there that go into your these older machines that will beef up that machine, and you can call it now a gaming computer, even though it wasn't before, right?
SPEAKER_01We'll make that revolution. We're gonna start calling them the video rendering computers. I love that. A new category. They're over refreshcomputers.net. You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580.
How To Find The Podcast Notes
SPEAKER_01I'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 over at Refresh Computers.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. to 7 p.m., including this Saturday, happy July 4th. If you're listening to the show on Saturday, it means that they're open. You can stop by, they'll be open until 7 p.m. today. And now for at for Adam Littlefield and David Levitt.
SPEAKER_02All right. Thanks, Greg, and thanks everybody for listening to the semi-quincentennial edition of Tech Talk.
SPEAKER_00Got it right there this time.
SPEAKER_02I got it right this time. The lead-in to the last segment, I screwed it all up, but I got it right this time, folks. So you know, there is only one semi-quintennial edition of Tech Talk.
SPEAKER_00I guess we can give you a little bit of a break for not being able to perfectly, you know, recite that one word.
SPEAKER_02There will never ever be another one. Right. Semi-quintenial edition of Tech Talk. So, anyhow, in this segment, you know, well, actually, before we get to the next segment on this chipmaking stuff that's going on in the US now, which is really big news, if you missed anything about the fireworks and how they're combining drones with fireworks and how to set your photo your taking capabilities on your smartphone correctly in order to get the best shots at the fireworks show, you might want to go to refreshcomputers.net, click on that podcast link in the upper right hand corner, and you'll be able to hear this show in. Its entirety. And better yet, go down to the bottom of any page at refreshcomputers.net, put in your email address. That's all we need. And then click submit, and then you will be signed up to receive email notifications every time a new podcast, new a new tech talk radio show turned into podcast is published on our website. And the really cool thing there now is this nice bulleted items of everything that we talked about. And if there's something of importance that you would normally would want to write down, but you didn't have time to write down because you're listening to it on the radio, or maybe you're in your car driving, if you go to refreshcomputers.net, click on that podcast link, click on this podcast, you'll see all those bulleted items that you would have normally have taken the time to try to write down. It's right there. You can also listen to the podcast right there as well. So pretty cool.
America’s Chipmaking Push With Robotics
SPEAKER_02So what's going on with this great American chip making comeback right now? So, you know, America is rebuilding its independence and the one technology everything else depends on. Yes, computer chips.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, not talking about lays here.
SPEAKER_02No, exactly. So for decades, nearly all of the world's most advanced chips have been made overseas, you know, mostly in Taiwan.
SPEAKER_00You know, we say TSMC is the uh major manufacturer over in Taiwan. TSMC, correct?
SPEAKER_02And they're they're a giant, right, in the chipmaking industry. They they make chips inside iPhones and AI systems. And anyhow, this company, TSMC, they are investing $165 billion in a massive factory complex in Arizona. So it's one of the largest foreign investments in American manufacturing ever. And what are they going to be making there? Chips, right? And this year, Apple says it's buying more than 100 million chips made in Arizona for its devices. So let's talk about why this matters for you and your wallet. And one of the reasons why this attempt to get into the semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. might actually work. So, but before I get into that, I want to explain why I said why it might actually work, because before, you know, we've tried this before. Right here in Central Florida, as a matter of fact, and it did not work. So you might remember of a company called Cyrint Semiconductors, a JIR Systems, I guess, is the you know, they Cyrent Semiconductors was part of a Gier Systems, and they built a huge facility right here in Orlando. It was, they birthed it out of AT ⁇ T, microelectronics, and Bell Labs. And it was a semiconductor manufacturing plant right here. It employed over 2,000 people. This was back in the year 2000 or so. And it back then it was a multi-billion dollar investment as well. A huge, huge plant. But the plant shut down in 2004. And a lot of that had to do with you know the fact that you know just the fact I even remember thinking back then when they were building this. How are they going to compete against you know the East, you know, Taiwan, China? How are they possibly gonna compete? Because of the just the labor alone is is a big deciding factor on whether or not they can compete or not.
SPEAKER_01Pennies on the dollar when it's when it comes to that right now.
SPEAKER_02And so they just couldn't. So they ended up just shutting down the whole thing. So it didn't even last but just a few years. And by the way, that introduced a huge liquidation wave of pretty current computer equipment and technology. That guess who actually got the contract to go in there and take out of all their equipment rooms.
SPEAKER_01I wonder.
SPEAKER_02That's right. It was us, it was me and my company. And we spent a few weeks in there, truckload after truckload of stuff taken out of that facility. And so, you know, it it was just a bust. I mean, because it just was too hard to compete in the that industry with paying labor, you know, the labor cost, and all the stuff around the labor, too. You know, you you got pay time off that they don't get in these other countries, you got health care that they don't get paid for in these other countries.
SPEAKER_00And you got material costs as well that I can assume would be way more expensive to be importing than just having.
SPEAKER_02Possibly, but you know, they made a lot of it right there too, though. Yeah. So there's a lot of stuff that that went on there that was just something. But but why do I think that this will work today? The reason I think today is because of of another reason that people are afraid of some of this new emerging technology. It's called robotics.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02So, you know, for every one of those employees back in the year 2000 when a JIR system built their plant, this new plant in Arizona, they don't they have a robot. And and probably a robot for every two or three employees that they used to have. And so, you know, the robots you don't have to worry about a robot calling in sick, taking time off. You don't have to pay health care to a robot, you don't have to do any of these things. And so I I to be competitive, we have to be competitive in the labor market as well. And anything that we do here in the U.S. is in manufacturing. It's just a fact of life. But as robotics come into play, uh you now we're leveling the playing field a little bit more, right? So we don't because we don't have to pay those high labor costs to run these big plants. And so I think that's one of the reasons why, in my opinion, that this plant out in Arizona and why TSMC, that giant Taiwanese company, is going to be successful right here because a lot of their manufacturing is just all robotics.
SPEAKER_00I think it also has to do a lot with demand now because there is more demand than ever for just semiconductor production. You know, we've had this AI uh shortage of like RAM and flash storage for I'd say about the last year now, and it's been pretty noticeable as far as just pricing goes. I know we talked even on the last show that Apple announced that they were gonna be doing price increases now because of this chip shortage. And I know TSMC is really hoping to get into American soil, get a plant here, and try to start churning out a bigger supply line of those chips. But I'm just it's a thought in my head of where we're gonna see this kind of level out because the demand is so high compared to what we actually have at production right now in the world.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. And and you're right, Adam, it's contributing to the high cost of RAM seal and the high cost of solid state drives is the prices aren't going
Why Refurbished Computers Save Money
SPEAKER_02down. Right. Right? They're they're they're continuing to climb, and we're seeing this every day, which is another reason why maybe buying a refurbished computer at some place like refreshed computers makes so much sense. Right. Because that RAM that's already in there, that's already been it's already it's already been paid for.
SPEAKER_00We're not we're not having to pay any fees or anything on that, like a lot of these other large companies are having to do now on their material.
SPEAKER_02And there's a lot of very smart business owners out there that realize wait, why should I pay for a brand new computer? And I can get one at a third of the price, right or a quarter of the price, even in a lot of cases, that will last just as long and do the exact same thing that I would need it to do for one of these brand new machines that would do. And this is in 99% of the cases that you would buy a computer. Right. The refurbished computers that refresh computers at a huge, huge discount compared to new is is tremendous. Yeah, and it's a tremendous savings.
SPEAKER_00And that that and they last just as long. Yeah, and not longer. That divide is what I'll call it between brand new and refurbished now is be getting it's getting larger and larger as new machines are going up and up and up in price. Whereas refurbished, it's you know kind of been a steady playing field. Nothing has changed really as far as our systems have gone.
SPEAKER_01I know you've mentioned in the past that you do replace solid state drives and things like that. So obviously that cost is effective of a portion of what you do. But again, that doesn't negate the fact that you are already working with a refurbished machine from a local company that you that is reputable in the in the industry in the city.
SPEAKER_0226 years in the area.
SPEAKER_01And that again, if something is an issue, you're there to help them out. It's not a random one-800 number that they're calling. We're calling a local number that they're able to give get assistance from.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. And and if the rare case is there's something that goes wrong with your computer or your laptop that you buy from refreshing computers, the same kind of thing could happen if you buy a brand new one out of the box. Absolutely. Uh, you know, we're right there. Right. Like you said, Greg. I mean, we're right there. So, you know, and we don't ship your computer or laptop to someplace else to get fixed. We fix, we do everything right there, in-house, right here in Central Florida, right there in Longwood. And, you know, so you you take your computer or your laptop to a box store, any of the box stores. They don't have technicians in those box stores anymore fixing those. They don't. They'll take it in for repair and they ship it. They'll ship it off to Atlanta, uh, you know, one of the big, probably the biggest box stores. You know, I think most of their stuff that used to go to Atlanta, I would imagine it still does. So they so you you're waiting a month, two months sometimes, you know, usually six weeks, right? Turnaround time. So, you know, so you'd have to deal with that. And in the meantime, what are you going to be doing? Because you need the data that's on that machine. And you need to be able to do stuff. So, you know, that's another reason to just to think really hard about where you're buying your computers and why buying a refurbished computer, refresh computers, makes so much sense, especially if you're a business. You know, that's not unusual for a business to come in and buy 20 or 30 machines at a time from us to replace their whole, you know, their whole office, machine, all of the machines in their office. And and and the reason they do that too is because guess what? We have them. They're in stock. We're they're right there. We have hundreds and hundreds of computers in stock. And you can go to the website at refreshcomputers.net and you'll see all the computers right there that we have. You can click on the computer category, and click on the laptop category, tablets, monitors, you know, all the accessories are all right there on the website. And if you see it on the website, it means we have it in the store. Right. And so when you buy it on the website, it automatically deducts the quantity in our store. So it works pretty pretty smoothly. Our point of sale system integrates with our e-commerce system, if that makes sense. And same thing, if somebody buys one in the store, it deducts it from the quantity that it shows up on the website. Right. So, you know, you can rest assured that the your computer or laptop is going to be there at Refresh Computers if you buy one on the website. And right now we have free shipping on anything over $300. Yeah. So you can pull whatever you have in your cart. As long as the cart totals $300 or more, you get free shipping. And so a lot of people are taking advantage of that. You know, we get we get people from all over the place. We talked last week about, you know, Jacksonville, Tampa, you know, Miami, even out of state, even out of the country. People fly in that that are here on vacation and they know of us through friends or family or you know, and and so they make an appointment if they they they try to make you don't need to make an appointment, you just come on in. And but yeah, so we get people from all over the place. And so take advantage of this free shipping that's in the continental USA, by the way. I'll throw that out there in case any of our foreign friends are listening in their countries, because we do get people listening all over the world. Right. And so free shipping in the continental USA, this is especially handy. You know, ever since we came out with this program, we have people from maybe on the other side of Orlando from Longwood. Just save you a trip, you know, and if you can set it up yourself, you have no problem doing that. Just you can buy it online, ship it, ship it, free shipping, as long as it's over three hundred dollars, then you can get it right there.
SPEAKER_01Saving on those tolls is probably just worth it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. Save on the tolls too, and the still high price of gasoline, even though it's gone down a bit. So, anyhow, the TSMC chipmaking factory in going on in Arizona is is a big deal, and I think and I hope them the most success. And by the way, it's not just them, you know, uh Intel also is expanding their American chipmaking capabilities right here in the U.S. They're spending over $100 billion in factories in Arizona, Ohio, New Mexico, and Oregon, as its newest chips for laptops arriving this year are made on its new American production line. Right.
SPEAKER_00And I saw Tesla as well, is uh they have an ambitious program that they're gonna be doing called Terrafab in Texas. Oh, that's right for their AI chips coming in the next couple of years.
SPEAKER_02So well, listen, stay stay tuned, folks. When we come back, we're gonna be talking a little bit about um some free TV services that you may or may not be aware of.
SPEAKER_01You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580.
Free Streaming TV Alternatives
SPEAKER_01And don't forget to check out the website at refreshcomputers.net. And now back to David and Adam.
SPEAKER_02All right, thanks, Greg. And thanks everybody for listening to the semi-quincentennial edition of Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. Happy Fourth of July. Happy, happy, happy Independence Day. It's such a great holiday here in this country, 250 years and it's and and counting. So the great experiment continues, right? So here we are on Independence Day, and we want to talk about maybe your independence from paid TV services.
SPEAKER_00Some freedom for your wallet, if you will.
SPEAKER_02That's right. So I'm gonna list some some some of the big free TV services that you might be interested in because there's some really nice shows, movies, and stuff that you get right on these free TV services that you can get over the internet. And you know, it's like the old days. You just have to watch a commercial or two, right? And I know a lot of people are like, I don't want to watch a commercial. Okay, well, you go go pay for one then.
SPEAKER_00Pay pay for your show. That's okay. And most of these services, too, they already are pre-installed on most smart televisions that are being sold now. So that's a good note to know. You may already have this in your TV right now.
SPEAKER_02And if not, you can go to the app center on your smart TV and download it. Right. Right? So, but a lot of these are turned on. You're right. So here's some of the free ones that you may or may not know about. And again, if you don't have a pen or pencil, uh don't worry about being able to write this down right now. Maybe you're driving, because you can go, all you got to remember is refreshcomputers.net and click on the podcast link in the upper right-hand corner. And today's show will turn into a podcast. And in that podcast will be a list, a bulleted item list of all the things we're talking about today. And you will see, through the magic of AI, I might add, it'll automatically insert all these things that I'm talking about right now as bullet points, and it'll list all these big free TV surfaces. I don't even have to tell it to do it, it just does it for me. So it's pretty cool stuff. So here they are Pluto TV. So they have hundreds of free channels arranged like cable, right? With a familiar channel guide. Just install the app and start watching. So no account, no credit card. You don't have to sign up. You just download the app. Pluto TV. Tubi, that's a huge library of movies and shows on demand. Tubi, T-U-B-I. That's a pretty cool channel. I have that one myself. I think that they're associated with the Fox Network. Oh, are they? Oh, nice. So is the Fox Network o own them?
SPEAKER_01The same people at Fox owns Tubi. Correct. I believe that's correct. You can often sometimes see during sports seasons, they'll air show. They'll they'll air like an NFL game if it's in your market sometimes and on Tubi.
SPEAKER_02Oh wow. Yeah, because I always watch it on Fox or on yeah, maybe that's why I've never seen it on Tubi. I've never looked for it there, but heck, it's there. So, and this one might be a surprise to some people the Roku channel. You don't have to have a Roku to watch the Roku channel. So Roku device, I I mean I use a Roku device in my home. I all my TVs are hooked up to Roku. Because it's just my preferred way of you know watching all of my shows on the internet. But you can actually download the Roku channel on your smartphone or on your laptop or desktop, and you can still take advantage of free movies and live channels right there. I mean, all free.
SPEAKER_00And that's something to know too, is these aren't just tied to your smart television. And I just checked, you know, Pluto TV, Tubi, Roku channel, they do have apps on your phone that you can download as well and watch there. You can also view it through your laptop or your desktop.
SPEAKER_02So you might just want to take maybe take a weekend that you that you decided to sit down and just see what you're gonna be able to channel surf if you're in that kind of mode right now. Maybe that would be a good time to try out one of these free TV services if you're gonna channel surf. Channel surf Pluto TV or Tubi or the Roku channel. I mean, they're all free, and you can you'll be surprised. I bet I bet you you'll be surprised what you can find and watch on these free channels so you don't have to pay for a subscription to anything.
Final Takeaways And Next Show Tease
SPEAKER_02And so, folks, that's all we have time for today. I really appreciate you listening to this semi quincentennial. I got you. You got me. Semi-quincentennial edition of Tech Talk with refresh computers. That's twice I screwed that up. Uh, stay tuned for tomorrow morning. We're gonna come back with another show. We're gonna talk about a lot about smartwatches and also gear and apps that make summer driving better.
