Robotaxis Hit Orlando

A driverless car pulls up, flashes your name in the app, and the front seat is empty. That’s not a demo anymore. It’s happening in Central Florida, and we walk through what’s actually on the road right now with Waymo and Tesla Robotaxi style services, what the geofenced boundaries mean for real trips in Orlando, and why these autonomous vehicles still avoid highways like I-4. We also get into the core tech in plain English: cameras, radar, and LiDAR working together, why redundancy is the whole point, and how “edge cases” like flooding or weird navigation glitches can still trip up even a very advanced system.

We don’t stop at the wow factor. We talk safety data that compares collisions per mile to human drivers, why that statistic matters, and what it does not prove. Then we zoom out to the bigger questions Florida is about to face as autonomy expands across Orlando, Tampa, and Miami: tourism advantages, convenience for visitors who don’t know the roads, and the pressure this puts on rideshare and taxi drivers as the market shifts.

From there we switch gears into practical tech help. We share what we repair at Refresh Computer Superstore beyond standard PCs, including MacBook and iMac service with board-level repair capability, plus PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch fixes like HDMI ports, charging ports, overheating cleanings, and controller stick drift. We also go deep on hurricane season tech preparedness: battery banks, portable power stations, solar charging options, LFP battery chemistry, and why your phone becomes your radio, flashlight, and lifeline when power and service get shaky. We wrap with a spam-call survival guide with exact iPhone and Android settings to silence unknown callers and filter scam numbers.

If this helped, subscribe for more tech you can use, share the episode with a friend in Florida, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Welcome And Show Roadmap

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hey there and welcome to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580 Orlando's news and talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with technician Adam Littlefield from the Refresh Computer Superstore. 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. We're stopping 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. That means if you're listening to the show here on Saturday, you still have time to stop by. They'll be open until 7 p.m. today.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

And now for Adam Littlefield. Well, thank you, Greg, and thank you, everybody, for turning into this episode of Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. My name is Adam Littlefield. I'm one of the technicians over at our Refresh Computer Superstore in Longwood. David, as any of our regular listeners uh would know, is out on his road trip right now. We just heard from him, I believe just a day or so ago. He was outside Des Moines, Iowa, at a small city park where they were sleeping. So sounds like he's making a lot of headway already. And uh I know that he was doing a a route soon to uh Mount Rushmore as well. I think he was picking up a friend.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

So yeah, I know he was pretty excited about that portion of their trip. So uh yeah, no, what a what a what an amazing journey that Dave is on. We weren't weren't able to check in with him for a talk here this week, but you should be able to hear from Dave here coming up over the next several shows.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

That's what I'm hopeful for as well. I think it'll be kind of fun to get some updates from him about what he's been having going on on the road and what kind of tech problems he might have been running into as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Or some advantages, some things that he uh I know that he just outfitted that RV like he's ready for an apocalypse. Right. So I know that he's got some pretty cool tech going on there. So it'll be interesting to hear how that's working out for him on the road.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

So today

Robotaxis Arrive In Central Florida

SPEAKER_01 1:59

on our show, we're uh we're gonna be doing a lot of uh talking about robotaxis and Waymo and you know, just something that Central Florida's kind of getting used to right now and kind of the whole of Florida, I would say, as well. They're all over the place. We're also gonna be talking a little bit about you know what Refresh Computers is able to offer because we don't just work on computers, so we'll get into that in a little bit. We'll also talk more about this hurricane season, how uh it's been eerily quiet and why that may be a trap come in the coming weeks. And finally, we'll uh we'll give a little tip about spam calls, what you can do to keep yourself safe from those spam calls. And before I get into these topics, I do want to put a reminder out there that we are in the middle of our tax-free holiday season right now. That is running from July 20th to August 20th. So if you're listening here today on Saturday, we've still got this tax holiday season going on. So come visit our store in Longwood. Our address is 820 East State Road, 434 in Longwood, about three and a half miles east of I-4, right near the intersection of uh 434 and 1792. So let's get into some of the fun stuff, some stuff that I know our listeners are already aware that I'll probably be very invested in. These are some of Adam's favorite topics. They are. I I love autonomy. I love uh what we've been having going on with vehicles, and we're kind of in a a new stage now in Central Florida, and uh I'm sure you've been you as a listener have been seeing them around. These Waymos all around Central Florida, those spinning sensors all over the place, and those are actually autonomous vehicles. They have no driver, they just can drive themselves all over, you know, their pre-geofenced area.

Sensors That Let Waymo Drive

SPEAKER_01 3:48

So let me kind of get into it a little bit of how these cars actually handle themselves, because they're they're not so much like Tesla's Robotaxi, which I'll uh I'll compare a little bit because we just actually had those begin in Orlando and Tampa earlier this week.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Very limited uh tight run here in Orlando for sure. But uh yeah, no, definitely a very uh interesting step for Tesla to take. I agree.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

So starting with Waymo, you know, just kind of getting into how these cars do it, because you know, you hear your a car driving itself, you may imagine all of these roads are pre-mapped by humans looking out and you know, telling the car this is a safe turn, this isn't. And these cars actually kind of run their own software to use all these different sensors that are built in. Waymo, I know they use ordinary cameras to see radar to uh measure speed and distance through the through rain, and even LIDAR, which is a type of laser projection sensor, that builds a 3D map of everything around the car, you know, dozens of times a second. So this car knows where it is, you know, at all times, so it's able to kind of get itself through streets, can see road lines, can see curbs, other cars, people you name it. The main thing that Waymo has focused on here is their redundancy.

Safety Numbers And Real Glitches

SPEAKER_01 5:05

So, you know, you think of a car driving itself, you want it to be safe. So their cameras can get fooled by a glare. Radar's not able to really see shapes, and LIDAR, it doesn't really like heavy rain.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

We have seen we've certainly seen those reports, especially coming out of places like Atlanta. Right. We saw some of the flooding that happened over there with Waymo driving directly into some of the flooded areas of the city.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

So and you know, I even seen a story in Atlanta where Waymo navigation glitch happened and dozens of Waymo's were clogging up a residential street. Right, you know, just flooded this neighborhood. So, like all technology, these things do have their little their little hiccups. And, you know, not to say that they're the most impervious vehicles on the road because, you know, like driving a vehicle on the road, you're also at the mercy of other drivers. And even this car with cameras and LIDAR and all these other sensors, 360 around it, not always the the safest, but I'll tell you what, I've seen a lot of these robotaxis and Waymo's perform maneuvers that me, myself as a driver, I would have never been able to see the danger coming. You know, I've I've told stories on the show before about my own Tesla that I have navigating itself, me actually almost getting pit maneuvered by somebody on I-4, and the car kind of jerked itself out of the way to avoid getting clipped. So this is this is kind of the future where we're going, and it's something that's a little bit of a growing pain, I would say, for a lot of people. I know myself included, I'm a little hesitant of getting into a car that doesn't have a driver because it's a little shocking, you know, it's a little jarring to get into a vehicle and it's just an empty driver's seat.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

And this is coming from someone who is totally behind it. Right. You know, so I only imagine people that are maybe a little bit less tech inclined or maybe even not really into the full EV self-driving thing like you are. I know you talk about using that sometimes. Right. But there are new reports that are coming out every day that talk about just how safe these really are. A new report coming out from Waymo recently saying that their robotaxis got in 68% fewer collisions on a per mile traveled basis than regular drivers. So there's there's a lot of data that's starting to come out that really does show how safe these kinds of vehicles are.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

That's right. And that's a really good point, too. You know, comparing it to, say, for example, the average amount of miles driven by a human driver per collision, then you look at Waymo's performance or Robotaxi from Tesla, its performance, we're seeing, you know, eight, nine, or even ten times reduction in collisions per miles. I know I was reading something with Tesla specifically that they just crossed over, I think, I think it was 12 billion self-driven miles on their software alone. Wow. So, you know, it uh the the numbers kind of speak for themselves that these are really safe options. And I'll tell you what, this is something that even myself right now, I'm I sound skeptical. I would still, if I had the time, I would go down into Orlando right now and I test it.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

And that's the

Where Waymo And Tesla Can Go

SPEAKER_00 8:12

fun thing. So there are two of these options here in Orlando that you can use right now. You could try Waymo, and the newest option that just debuted this week is Tesla and their Robo Taxis. Right. Now they do have a very limited range for these. Waymo is a little bit larger than what the Tesla test is right now. So Waymo, you can actually utilize in portions of downtown Orlando, even all the way down to like the Universal theme park areas and things like that. They still have the restrictions of not going on I-4 and things like that. So if you're trying to go from downtown Orlando to Universal, it might be a little bit of a longer drive than normal. But they're giving you some of those options. And then Tesla, I'm looking at the boundary lines right now for that. It looks like it runs from the 417 down to the 528. Take the 528 over to Conway. So you take Conway over that way, but it will not go on the 528. That is another one of those options. Runs up the 528 to, I believe that is I can't think of the cross street right now. Not Lake Underhill, but the one just south of Lake Underhill there. A lot of you in that area will know which I'm talking about. It really does kind of restrict it to that lick uh Lee Vista area where you see like the epic theater and things like that. It's really, really restricted for them on that. It does not go to the airport, it does not go to any of the theme parks. So keep that in mind. If you do decide you want to try these out, the range is a little limited, but it is a great first kind of test for these options here in the City Beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

And that's something that I would really like to stress as well is these are limited areas. You know, Waymo's is about 60-ish square miles of space. Tesla's Robotaxi that came out just a few days ago on, I believe, the 21st, we're only looking at about 12 to 15 square miles in Orlando. So, like uh Greg was saying as well, this isn't something that'll get you to the airport, for example, but it is something that sticks to city streets, and I think that's kind of where right now our autonomy is focused the most is on these major city streets, you know, seeing Robo Taxi going to three major cities in Florida: Miami, Tampa, and Orlando. And I've driven in two of those cities, and I'll tell you what, I don't want to drive in those two cities.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

They're not a lot of fun to drive in sometimes. Curry Ford was that cross street. Curry Ford was that other boundary road that I couldn't think of for the uh Tesla test.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

So, you know, I'm gonna get a little bit into these as far as what you can do with them, as far as hailing one. I'm sure a lot of our listeners are used to hearing about Uber and Lyft and their mobile apps. Robotaxi and Waymo, they offer they operate on a on a very similar system. You open up their mobile app and hail it just like any other rideshare, but this is one that'll arrive empty. And it'll on the Waymo's, I know that there'll be some markers to tell you which one is yours. I know with Tesla's Robotaxi, they do give you the color of the vehicle plus the license plate. So, you know, that's one thing to think about too with all these autonomous vehicles. There's bound to be some problem at some point of somebody getting into the wrong autonomous vehicle or at least trying to. And that's something I know me, I would I would hate is to get into my Waymo in downtown Orlando and all of a sudden I'm at Universal when I wanted to go north and you in Orlando. So just something to kind of get out there because this is something that's you know, we're still seeing expand in Florida, and I think we're gonna see a major shift into autonomy in these coming years. I know, at least from what I've watched from Tesla's rollout of RoboTaxi in other states, they are pretty fast to get highway authorization for their operations. And, you know, I can only imagine in the coming years what that could mean as far as like Tampa to Orlando to, you know, Daytona Beach, maybe that whole Strait of I-4. You know, you could take a whole autonomous vehicle that drives itself for you, and all of a sudden you're on the other side of a state. And that's something I think a lot of our listeners are gonna think that's kind of crazy. Right. But it's kind of becoming our reality now.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

I think we talked a little bit about last week how Tesla rewards you kind of for utilizing your uh autonomous driving option in the vehicle. Right. I had a buddy who took his cyber truck from Oviedo to Niagara Falls. Right. And the majority of the trip he mentioned the only times that he ever had to touch the steering wheel was because maybe the Tesla parked itself a little too far away from the charging station. Exactly. That was about it.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

And that's you know, exactly what I experienced this morning in my own consumer vehicle is I got into it at our store in Longwood, hit a button, it drove itself all the way down here into the radio station and parked itself. So, you know, it's it's being shown in consumer vehicles, and I know at least Tesla has talked that their robo taxis are running an even newer version of software that's not on any of their consumer vehicles yet. And I've seen a lot of uh coverage for Waymo and Robotaxis, and they're not without their faults. I've seen some some crazy things happen, like you were saying, Greg, the Waymo's driving into flood zones, getting stuck in fused, drive drive-throughs, getting stuck in drive-throughs, drive-throughs, intersections sometimes. So just like watch just a new driver giving them the keys. Sometimes there are these little edge cases, and that's what a lot of uh people in this community call it is an edge case because these uh vehicles can handle 98% of our driving now. And

Why Florida And Who It Disrupts

SPEAKER_01 13:26

you know, I'm sure a lot of our listeners are thinking, why Florida? Why did this why did this come to Florida? Why my state? And I'll tell you, it's because of our sunshine, our wide open roads. It's very easy to map this state as well. And the biggest thing is our tourism. Sure. We have tons of tourists all over the state, and you know, this is something that kind of is uh a big shining new thing in Florida for them to try, just like a lot of these theme parks. And I'm sure once the uh integration to get to more theme parks is added, I think it's gonna become a very big system that we're gonna be expanding on pretty fast, too.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Yeah, no, like you mentioned, it's a it's a huge opportunity here in Orlando for people that aren't local to the area, that don't know all the roads. Yeah, why not get yourself a Waymo or a Robo taxi to really kind of take care of all of that for you? The real question though, what happens to those rideshare and taxi drivers? It's definitely a concern for that industry. But as we've talked about before, technology is ever increasing and ever growing. Industry changes along with that. So we'll continue monitoring that story here on Tech Talk as those continue to develop. But coming up next, we've got more on not just your PCs, but also Max PlayStation switches and handhelds. What are we talking about here? Well, we'll tell you more next. Right here on Tech Talk on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. Orlando's news and talk. I'm Greg Rhodes, sitting here with Adam Littlefield, a technician with the Refresh Computer Superstore. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free TechSport 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. And now back to Adam.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Well, thank you, Greg, and thank you, everybody, for listening to this episode of Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. If you missed any of the uh previous segment, we talked a lot about robotaxis and Waymo and all that autonomy that I love. If you missed any of that, go to our website, refreshcomputers.net. We have our podcast link in the top right corner. That'll give you this episode and all of our other episodes going back, you know, maybe two, three, four years. I don't even know how long it goes back to now. All of those episodes are there with, you know, a good summary of what we talked about. So I would I would definitely suggest it because we we have a lot of change going on in Florida with our roads and our autonomy, and it's something big I want everybody to just kind of be aware of because it's it's happening fast, faster than we all think.

Repairs Beyond PCs And Laptops

SPEAKER_01 16:10

And for this segment, I want to talk a little bit about some uh repairs that we're able to do at Refresh Computers because you know, like in the name Refresh Computers, you think it's computers, your desktop and your laptop.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

That's honestly before uh going too deep into this, that's exactly what I thought that was all that you guys had. I didn't realize that you did all these.

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Yeah, so we do actually a lot of different repairs as well on other devices. Macs are one of the big things that, you know, still to me, I consider a laptop and desktop, but it is a whole other different world naming scheme. So we do work on Mac computers, desktop and laptop versions, the MacBooks and the iMacs. So if you ever have any issues going on with those, bring them by. We can take a look at them. We can do the same repair as we can do on other machines: board repairs, charger replacements, batteries, body replacements on it, almost anything.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

And so some of those things are really hard to even get the the Apple store to even take a look at it these days. So if you've got someone that's maybe a few years older that the Apple store doesn't have any interest in, refresh computers just might be your option.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

And that's a good point, too. We've actually had some referrals directly from the Apple store before to have people come to us for repairs. You know, we have a board level technician that's in store that works on all these devices, you know, so we're not shipping them out, you're not waiting months to even hear back from it. And, you know, with a board level guy, I want to mention that means like fixing actual components that have failed on the board too. You know, we don't just say, oh, something failed on the motherboard, you just got to put a whole new one in. Sometimes we can actually find the source of it and replace that. But we also do some repairs on PlayStations, Xboxes, some handheld consoles like Nintendo Switches. So we can do things like HDMI port replacements, charger ports on some of these handhelds. I know I've had consoles come in before that are overheating. We've done repastes and cleaning on those machines before. And the biggest thing for any people that are listening out there that are gamers, stick drift on controllers. That's something that we also work on.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

That's amazing. That I like I mentioned, these were I I knew you guys did Mac repair. I didn't realize that you did all the other, but it makes total sense because it's such a very similar architecture, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:17

It is, and you know, that's that's something I was actually gonna say is that handhelds and these gaming consoles, while they are computers, they have very similar builds, and you know, there are some things that are different with them. End of the day, an HDMI port is an HDMI port, and solder is solder. So our board level guy can replace that, no problem. Same thing with a lot of these charger ports. I've seen some USB ports before. And you gotta think about it. It's summer times, summer times, guys, and you know, the kids are home and the their game consoles are probably going for hours upon the day.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

Oh, I remember I remember those summers uh back in the day before I had any real responsibility. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

It was a time to be alive at that point. And you know, that's something that, especially with the heat, these consoles could be overheating, you know, shutting down mid-game, and that's usually caused by dust and old thermal paste. Not too different from your from a computer at home. So I would really suggest bring it in. And if you've got any questions, give us a call. We've got our free tech support hotline, 407-478-8200. You know, what any one of our technicians that you get on the phone as soon as you call in will be able to kind of talk you through some stuff we can do. If it's a repair that we can do, or maybe we want to take a look at it, we'll give you some more details, but maybe bringing it in, test things, and just kind of go from there. So definitely I would stress that. Um, we're gonna go to this break now, but when we get back, we're gonna be talking a little bit about this hurricane forecast and uh why that's been a little bit of a trap, I've been, I think.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Interesting to hear that take on it. We'll talk about it next on Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. Hey then, welcome to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's News and Talk. I'm Greg Rhodes, sitting here with technician Adam Littlefield from the Refresh Computer Superstore. 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 over at RefreshComputers.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. Store hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. until 7 p.m., which means if you're listening to the show here on Saturday, you still have time to stop by. They'll be open until 7 p.m. today. And now for Adam Littlefield.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Well,

Quiet Hurricane Season Still A Risk

SPEAKER_01 20:54

thank you, Greg. And again, thank you, everybody, for listening with this to this tech talk episode with Refresh Computers. You know, we've got a lot of exciting content today, and this next topic we're going to be talking about, this hurricane season, it's a big one. But absolutely. Before I get into it, I I do want to make a mention. Greg mentioned our website, refreshcomputers.net. You know, I talked last segment about how you can go to our podcast link, listen back to this whole episode if you missed anything, and you know, also look at our summary. If you missed any of this information, you want to kind of read through it. That's uh definitely a great source of view that. But our website's also a great source to take a look at our inventory, see what we have available on there. Any of our uh purchases that are done right now through our website, we are offering free shipping, anything that's over $300. So, you know, if if you're in the need for a new computer right now, if your old Windows 10 computer is just really sitting in the corner, just choking, you know, this would be the time to start considering maybe replacing it because we've got that tax free holiday season going on right now as well. So it's gonna be saving you some money, and you know, what better time is it than to save some money right now?

SPEAKER_00 22:00

As long as those are getting shipped here into the state of Florida, they still qualify for the tax free here in the state, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

So getting into uh this episode or this segment, you know, the hurricane season, it's been a bit of a quiet one, hasn't it, Greg?

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Yeah, we just had tropical storm Bertha that spun up kind of randomly there in the Gulf and it went up the northern Gulf Coast and had a little bit of impact there in Louisiana and Texas, but nothing too much here in central Florida. We stayed mostly high and dry from that storm.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Yeah, we've been having, you know, I would say a little bit of scattered storms, which I thought were just fling-off from that tropical storm. And, you know, we are in the middle of a big El Nino that's setting up right now. Right. They're calling it a record-breaking El Nino. It is, and you know, we actually, I believe we not we ourselves, but Colorado State actually cut its hurricane forecasts. That's right. So they cut it down to nine name storms and just one major hurricane this year, and that's well below the an average year for hurricanes. So, you know, the most important thing to know with hurricanes, and we've talked about it before on the show, and I always I want to talk about it again because it's an important thing right now is power. Power is the name of the game these days because what does most of our lives run through now? Our power. Sure. And, you know, when you think about it, it's not really the winds that are getting us anymore with these storms. It's, you know, day three with no electricity. Or for my family, day three with no air conditioning. I'm calling you out dad for that one. He's always the first one to mention it. And I'll tell you what, that's that's the only thing that matters to me when there's a storm going through is you know, days without power. You know, your phone, for example, it turns into your radio, your flashlight, your bank, your insurance information, uh, even a lifeline to your family. So keeping your phone alive in this day and age with storms, it's you know, it's vital to do so. And you know, we've talked uh before about phone operation in remote areas, so where there's no service. And hurricanes are one of those things where service does get spotty throughout it. Now, I'm not saying you can rely on satellite coverage like we talked about in one of our previous shows, because in the middle of a huge tropical storm or a hurricane, me personally, I don't want to be standing outside with my phone held up in the air and you know, 80, 100 mile an hour gusts of winds trying to get a signal from a satellite, right? But keeping your phone at least powered on and having, you know, at least radio access, that's enough to get you through. So that's something that I just really wanted to get into there. And I'm gonna go a little bit through some preparations I think that a lot of our listeners should be going through for this hurricane season because it's not just gonna be as simple as buying a tank of gas and getting some sandbags ready. So

Battery Banks Solar And Power Stations

SPEAKER_01 24:53

let me get into this first one, and that is getting a uh a big battery bank. You know, that's something that a lot of us now normally carry with us. I know myself I have three of them that I keep at the store. I carry a lot of them on me all this time. Greg, do you do you keep a battery bank at all?

SPEAKER_00 25:08

I have a small one, but I also have a very large, more of like it's almost like a battery generator, really. That the they they've come out. You you see the brands all the time, like Jackery and things like that. I have one of those that I utilize for tailgating a lot of the time, but during hurricanes, it's really handy to have that 300-watt pack sitting over on the board.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

And that's you know, that's a really good point, is you know, there are battery packs out there that are large enough to supply a fair amount of power, especially in power outages. I've seen some of them that can push enough wattage to power portable AC units, can power, you know, maybe your deep freeze freezer if you're worried about that, or your refrigerator. So, you know, I would say on average, a battery bank that's around 200 to 25 or 20,000 to 25,000. There we go, milliamp hour power bank, you know, that costs less than a tank of gas at this point. And that can charge your phone four or five times over.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

And if you're looking for something larger like what I was talking about, it's a 300-watt pack that has, I believe it's uh it's multiple amp hours that you're able to have that charged for. Right. That's a that's a lot of phone recharges based around those are coming in, those prices are dropping as we're talking, as maybe down to like $200 for some of those as well.

SPEAKER_01 26:20

So and you know, that's uh what was the brand again that you said that was? Jackery has one.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

I believe they have those on sale oftentimes at Costco. That's a pretty good reliable brand of those.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

Yeah. Another another brand I know that kind of does the uh same uh pack is Anchor. I've said the name Anchor a lot on this show, and this is just another thing of theirs that I stress is a very good product. It's I believe called the Anchor Solix. And it's a large battery pack, and I know Anchor actually has an attachment with it that is an unfoldable solar panel. So say if you are in the aftermath of a hurricane and you know your battery's just kind of I wouldn't say pewtered out, but on its last legs of charge, and you know, that that Florida electricity just hasn't been restored after the storm's been gone for a day or so. Having, I would say, a solar panel array, I'd be I'd be pretty happy with that.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

And it gives it goes even deeper that you can look into those kind of programs through even like your local harbor freight have certain discounted ones that have those smaller packs that we've been talking about, but with a solar-powered recharge. It's a really uh it's a really great little piece of hardware to have lying around when it comes to the hurricane season.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

It is. And the smaller battery packs as well, they actually some of them have built-in flashlights that have you know a regular just flashlight mode. They have a strobe mode that can flash, you know, SOS or just uh rapid strobing light. So these two are devices that can really help you if you if need be. And that's why I suggest, you know, buy two of them even. Keep them charged. Don't always keep them plugged in, just like we talked about laptop batteries and your phones. Don't leave them plugged in 24-7 because that just wears out the battery. But I know mine, I plugged it in, charged it six months ago. I took it out of my bag, and just over time the charge has dropped, you know, maybe 10%. And that's just something to consider with these batteries. Is maybe you charged one three years ago and it's been sitting in a closet. Maybe now's the time just to dig it out, charge it, make sure it's, you know, not the swollen up or anything like that. Right. Another thing I want to talk about, actually, and this is actually a little bit of what we have already been talking about, is getting a portable power station. That's what these large, large batteries are called. And these uh giant battery battery boxes have regular wall outlets on the side, so there's no fuel, no fumes, no engine. They're silent and safe indoors, so you don't have to end up like that, like a guy on the news that tried to run a generator in his house or something like that. I know a couple storms ago I remember seeing a news story about that. And you know, that that really matters too, the indoor operation part of it, because generators you cannot run inside. The carbon monoxide is just too dangerous to be in an enclosed space like that. It is not suggested to do whatsoever. And I'll tell you what, I don't like running outside in the middle of a hurricane to start up our generator. I hate that because you're you're hanging on for dear life as the wind's ripping you around as you're just trying to some pour some gas into the gas into the generator. Now the generator's flooded, and you know, it's it's one thing after another. Murphy's Law. You know, something can go wrong. Normally, it does. So that's something just to consider is having one of those portable power stations because you know, these large wattage ones, like Greg was saying, you can charge your phone dozens of times off of these large ones. And if you needed to, I'm sure I I believe a thousand watt hour unit can run a 50-watt laptop for about 18, 20 hours.

SPEAKER_00 29:49

Yeah, no, same idea. You can recharge, run a fan if you need to for uh like you mentioned, the AC is gonna be out. Maybe you can't run your full air conditioning unit off of some of these smaller ones. But looking at some of these larger ones that you mentioned over at Anchor, and they've got some pretty impressive ones over there. And looking at this one that's 7,680 watt hours and has 240 volt capability. Yeah. So you're able to plug in a 240 volt item into this program. It's about $4,000. But at the same time, it's again, it's it's that reassurance behind it that it's gonna be it's it's gonna be able to do everything. Right. You can power everything in your home based off of that.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

That's you know a perfect example of something you would get maybe for your refrigerator or your freezer to run off of. Because those units pull so much wattage that you need that kind of what's the word I'm looking for here, stability in it and runtime because these smaller packs can't really push the power to run them and they'll pewter out real quick if you try to.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

I would not recommend the 300-watt hour program for your uh for your refrigerator or freezer, right?

SPEAKER_01 30:50

And something I would uh personally suggest, because this is something that I've seen in the past couple of years is becoming new, is there are new battery chemistries that are coming into these battery packs. And they uh I'm gonna give a little bit of the scientific one here. It's it's lithium phosphate batteries. Those batteries are sometimes labeled as LFP. So those those batteries will actually last a lot longer than your your typical lithium ion. They also charge faster as well, they charge faster. Yep. These, I believe, as well also support charging to 100 a lot more. They don't degrade as much compared to older lithium-style batteries. So again, I wouldn't suggest leaving them plugged in 24-7, but storing it at 100% power, you're not going to degrade it as much as you know, older battery packs would. Something else I would recommend talking about battery packs here. I've got you know one sitting in front of me as well right now. Is there are little portable fans now that you can run. They have a flashlight on them, and the one I have in my hand right here is a battery bank. I thought it was a range finder.

SPEAKER_00 31:59

I was like, what is Adam looking at on his Tesla drives over? Maybe he's a rangefinder, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:03

No, it's a pocket fan I can clip onto my waist. It blows just up like the side of my shirt, keeps me cool. I'm around the store. I'm sure a lot of our customers have seen me have it on my side or maybe on the back of my shirt. It's a battery bank, it's a flashlight, it's everything.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

And I keep it on me. That's a great point. You might have a bunch of these battery banks around your house, you don't even realize it. Most portable speakers are usable as a battery bank like that. Uh some of these rechargeable fans, like you're mentioning, are also battery banks. Heck, your drill that you have at home with your rechargeable batteries. Right. Those are also something to keep in mind as well.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

Yeah, and there are there are numerous devices now, and you know, I can't even list off more than what you mentioned already, Greg, that are batteries. Almost anything that you can run and turn on, if it's got a regular USB port in it, some most of the time you can plug into that a phone charger, plug your phone in on the other end, and it's gonna send power out and charge it. It may be slow, but power's power. You mentioned it's if it's got a USB port in it, means you could probably charge from it. Yeah. It

EV Backup Power Plus Data Backups

SPEAKER_01 33:01

includes your car. Right. Yeah, your car, you know, it's it's a power plant in these kinds of situations. You know, if you've got to charge your phone, you've got nothing in your house, you know. I I wouldn't suggest going out and sitting in your car in the middle of a storm. But at the same time, if it's a desperate need, you can do it. Cars are able to be used to charge your phones, and I've talked about it before. The last time we talked about our hurricane season, EVs are one of the things I would recommend charging up to 100% right before a big storm hits because those batteries, you can have it that car sit for days, shut off all auxiliary systems, and the battery does not drain fast.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

That's been a that's been a major selling point for some of these trucks that have been coming out for the including the Ford Lightning and the uh Chevy Silverado EV. Right. Those have all been advertising. Use it on the job site, but also use it to power your home during a power outage. So that's uh utilize the giant battery pack that you might have sitting right there in your driveway.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Exactly. Most uh EV trucks now have a 120. Um, I think I've even seen some that can be equipped with a 240 watt plug on them. I know Tesla with, I believe, the Cybertruck and the Model Y now, they've allowed V2L charging, which is basically vehicle to load. So you can run your whole house off of your EV if you wanted to.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

Really impressive stuff coming up. And also don't forget, maybe take an extra second and back up all of your items before those storms come through. Because you never know when a lightning strike is going to wreak havoc throughout all of your plugged-to-in electronics. Just another thing to keep in mind when you're thinking about the refresh computer superstore. Coming up, we're going to have your weekly tip there for your computers and maybe this time for your cell phone. I think those spam calls that you keep on getting finally stop. We'll tell you how. Coming up next, right here on Tech Talk, you're listening on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. Orlando's news and talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with Adam Littlefield, technician from the Refresh Computer Superstore. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. And don't forget to check out the website over at refreshcomputers.net. And now back to Adam.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

Thank you, Greg, and I want to say thank you, everybody, for listening to this episode of Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. We had a lot of exciting topics today, and you know, autonomy going on in Florida, storm preparation, all of that. So if you missed any of that, I would really, really suggest going to refreshcomputers.net, click that podcast link in the top right corner. That's got this episode and tons of our other episodes talking, you know, about all different types of things, and a lot of it is really good advice, especially right now with the storm season that we're in. Even though we've got this big El Nino, you know, coming up and we're not really seeing a lot of storms, it's still good to be prepared because you know a quiet time is a really good time to prepare for what can be coming up.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the hurricane guide there inside the WDBO app. You can also check that out for any additional information. Also, track some of the storms. We just had her uh tropical storm Bertha make its way through the Gulf.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

Exactly. That's a that's a really good resource. And also just keep yourself any other good forecast apps that you might have on your phone. You're talking about keeping your phone charged, having a good radar on there will help you kind of know when you're gonna be getting a little bit of a break.

Block Spam Calls On iPhone Android

SPEAKER_01 36:33

And you know something I want to break from, Greg? Spam calls. I am so, so tired of these spam calls. And that's what this segment's gonna kind of be about is what we can do to stop those. I feel like that's what's wearing my battery out the most on my phone is all these spam calls. Calls every single day, 20, 30 calls. My dad, you know, for example, he's gotten to a point now that every time his phone rings at home, he just goes, Oh, must be my friend, Mr. Likely, Mr. Spam likely. That's always what shows up. So, and your phone, it actually has a built-in setting now to block unknown numbers, the spam straight to your voicemail without ever ringing. So you don't ever have to be bothered by it. And I'll tell you what, it is annoying to me if I'm doing something on my phone and I get a spam call popping up and swipe it away and it's still vibrating in my hand. So I'm gonna go over a little bit of this because there is different settings in iPhone and Android that you have to set up here. Um, I'm gonna go through iPhone first. There is an area in the settings, you can go to apps and then phone. So you'll open up the settings for the phone app and look for an option that says silent unknown callers and switch that on. Anyone that's not in your contacts, not in your recent calls, not in your email, those calls will go silently to your voicemail so it'll stop ringing for strangers. And I always tell people that if there's a call from a number you don't recognize and it is ringing, to just ignore it. That's kind of the premise of this setting. Yeah. And if it's important, they'll probably leave you a voicemail anyways. Just make sure you're you listen to your voicemail box and also clean it out. That's uh that's a little jab for my manager, Casper, here. Clean out your voicemail box, please. Talking about Android, let's move on to that because Android, they their settings are a little bit different. What you'll need to do is open your phone app where you normally make your phone calls, tap the three dots in the top right corner, and then hit settings. Look for caller ID and spam or blocked numbers, and turn on an option called spam filtering. What this does is it kind of does a little bit of what iPhone setting does, where it won't automatically ring directly to your phone. Google's version even screens calls for you. So it'll say, Hi, this is a Google Assistant on behalf of so and so. Can you please state your name and you know, reason for calling? And then you can see that transcript on your phone live of what the caller is saying before you pick up the phone. So you're you're not really dedicated to that call, right? And the biggest one that I I mentioned to a lot of a lot of my customers I have at our store, your carrier has free spam blocking too. ATT, Verizon T Mobile, they all offer it in the app. You turn it on, and that'll actually catch from a list of known spam calls, it'll automatically block them from ringing and send them straight to voicemail to you. And that's something that I want to stress as well. If you

Robocall Safety And Sign Off

SPEAKER_01 39:24

do ever pick up one of these calls and it's it's it's a robot call, one of those robotic calls, and they're asking you to confirm something, don't say an answer, don't say yes, don't say no. Just just press a key, and you know, if you hear a noise, might mean a live person's on the phone, but my better advice, just hang up. Just hang up. If they call back, let it go to voicemail, see what kind of voicemail they leave because you don't want to get caught up in whatever scheme somebody's trying to spin up. There's a lot of them these days. So I think we're coming to the end of our uh episode here. This has been Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. My name has been Adam Littlefield. If you guys missed any of these segments, go to our rep site, refreshcomputers.net. Check out our inventory as well. Again, we're in that tax free holiday until August 20th. So this has been Adam Littlefield, and I look forward to talking to you guys again tomorrow.