How To Maximize Florida’s Tax-Free Computer Holiday

One price tag can be the difference between paying zero sales tax and paying all of it. We break down Florida’s sales tax holiday in plain English, including the $1,500 per-item rule, what qualifies (desktops, laptops, monitors, accessories, components, Wi-Fi gear), and the gotchas that surprise people every year, like business-name purchases, location exclusions, and why cell phones and video game consoles are not part of the deal. If you’re shopping for school, a home office upgrade, or simply trying to stop overpaying, this is the timing and the checklist you want before you swipe your card.

From there, we shift into how to get help without driving anywhere. We explain how our remote support works, why a one-time code matters for security, what you should expect to see during a session, and when our free tech support hotline is enough to solve the problem. We also talk about the real-world risk of using an outdated Windows 10 machine online, and why upgrading strategically during a tax-free window can be a smart cybersecurity move when hardware prices are climbing.

Then we hit “new phone season”: Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked, the next Google Pixel, and Apple’s fall iPhone cycle, plus why analysts expect price increases as AI demand squeezes memory and components. We share practical buying tactics, including when to keep your current phone, when to buy last year’s model, and how trade-ins can beat those mall kiosks. We wrap with a quick win: using the built-in scanner on iPhone and Android to turn paperwork into clean PDFs without downloading another app.

Subscribe for more practical tech advice, share this with someone shopping for a computer, and leave a review with the one tech topic you want us to tackle next.

Transcript

Welcome And Ways To Reach Us

SPEAKER_01 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 David Levitt, President and Fender 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 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. 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 David Levitt and Adam Littlefield.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

All right. Thanks, Greg. And thanks everybody for listening to yet another edition of Tech Talk with Refreshed Computers. We have a lot to talk about today, as we do every time we do a Tech

Florida Tax-Free Month Explained

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Talk show. And guess what? It's Florida's tax-free month. It's starting. Starting Monday. Yes. And it's tax-free for computer supplies and other things. And we're going to get into that in a lot more detail here in just a minute. And then we're also going to talk about how to, you know, get remote support. You don't have to drive necessarily to your favorite computer store. Hopefully that's Refresh Computers located right there in Longwood. You know, there's a lot of the support that you can get right over the phone. And we're going to talk about how you can do that. We've mentioned our free tech support hotline all the time, but there's also other ways we can help you without you coming to visit us or us coming to personally visit you. And we're going to get into that. And another thing that Adam knows that you're interested in also is, you know, I guess they're calling this like the new phone season every year, right? So the like the next eight weeks is when all the manufacturers will be rolling out their new models. You got Samsung, Google, Apple, all rolling out their new uh phone models, starting uh actually starting this week. And we're going to get into some more details and what they're going to be coming up with and and what they're going to be revealing here really soon. And then we'll finish today with another tip as how to make your phone a scanner without buying an additional app. So you actually already have built-in apps, no matter what kind of phone that you have, that you can use as you know a scanner to scan documents and things like that. And we're going to get into that as well. And as you're listening, you might want to be thinking, oh, I need to take notes of this or that so I can remember to go back because I'm not sitting in front of my computer. You don't actually have to do any of that, because you can go to refreshcomputers.net, click on the podcast link where you can do one of two things, or both. You can actually listen to the show in its entirety, or you can scan the page that the link goes to, because through the magic of AI, everything that we talk about that gives instructions will automatically be converted into a bulleted format. So you can read it right there on the website. So you don't have to worry about jotting things down. How do I do this? How do I do that? Because we're going to get into some things that you would normally would want to jot down, but you don't have to now because you can go to that podcast link at refreshcomputers.net and you can see all the bullet point items right there as if you wrote rewrote them yourself.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

A very handy Cliff Notes version of the show, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

And this is a this is a good segment, I would say, as well, for us to have some notes about this tax-free holiday that's coming up as well.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

That's right, because I I think I believe last year was the entire month of August.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Right. It was, I believe, the first to the 30th.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

And but this year it actually starts July 20th, which would make more sense to me that it's going to start a few weeks before school starts because, you know, in seminal counties, schools open at on August 10th, right? And in Orange County on August 11th. Right. So this gives you a few more, a couple extra weeks to get that computer or laptop purchase and other supplies. So let me just run through what's tax-free, right? So, first of all, personal computers that can be a desktop or a laptop that are $1,500 or less. That's the that's the price ceiling, right? For an individual perch one thing, correct. You can have multiple $1,500 or less items on the same invoice, and they're all tax free. If you have an item that is over $1,500, $1,501, say, or more, then the entire thing is not tax free. So that's something to keep in mind.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

It's a it's an all or nothing scenario. You're not getting tax-free on the first $1,500.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Exactly. So another thing to keep in mind is if you are a business, this tax-free holiday is not for you. So if you go to a store, say like refresh computers, and you go to buy a computer and you purchase it in your business name, we have to charge you sales tax. If you purchase it in your personal name, we don't have to charge you sales tax because you're not using it for business. That would be what you would have to tell us in order to not get sales tax. Who are we to judge? Right? So some other things that are on the list, right? Besides computers, uh clothing, shoes, backpacks that are $100 or less per item. That's for clothing, shoes, or backpacks. School supplies, $50 or less per item, so which includes pens, pencils. I don't know who would pay $50 for a pencil.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

That was the first thing I was thinking. Who's spending over $50 on a on a pencil or a pen?

SPEAKER_02 6:00

But lunch boxes, markers, you know, basically anything that you the kid will take to school, you know, calculators, that kind of stuff. I don't think kids take calculators to school.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

I

What Qualifies And What Doesn't

SPEAKER_01 6:10

don't think they need them anymore, right? I don't think so. Remember when you said you didn't have a calculator, you won't have a calculator all the time. Thanks, Ms. Friesen.

SPEAKER_02 6:17

I remember I was a kid when calculators came out and they wouldn't let you bring them to school because it was cheating. Kind of like you know, today with AI. They don't want you using AI in school because it's cheating. But guess what? Delight calculators, everybody's gonna be using AI. So, anyhow, some other items that that are on the list learning aids and jigsaw puzzles. Oh, hey, might be time to buy a jigsaw puzzle, who knows? For that are thirty dollars or less. So there are some gotchas, and this is where we want to be perfectly clear. Like I already mentioned, it's for non-commercial, home, or personal use. So if you're buying a computer or laptop for your business, it's still taxable, and there's no exceptions to that. Another thing that's not on the list, cell phones. Okay. So cell phones are not on the list. Well, a lot of people are of the mindset that kids shouldn't be taking cell phones to school anyway. So of course they wouldn't be on the list, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Tax man agrees. Right.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

And surprise, surprise, video game consoles.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

You mean I can't buy the brand new Xbox and take it to school and get it tax-free? No. Man.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

No, Adam, I'm sorry. And again, the $1,500 cap is per item. And it's you know, all or nothing. So a $1,600 laptop isn't the first $1,500 tax-free and the rest is taxable. No, the whole thing is taxable.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

It's a pretty pretty solid line that if you step over it with the item price, that's that's it. You don't you don't get to re-renegotiate that price to get underneath it.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

I guess another question with those what about computer components? Are those included in this tax-free holiday or are those uh not included?

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Good and question good question. All computer components are pretty much covered. So accessories too. Accessories, components, and accessories are tax-free. So, you know, you need a new video card, maybe not for gaming, but maybe for video rendering for business or whatever. Well, it could be for gaming too, I suppose. But the video card itself will be tax-free as long as it's under $1,500. Under $1,500. So, you know, and again, you know, get watch that cap. And you know, at Refresh Computers, we have hundreds and hundreds, several hundred different laptops and desktop computers that are priced for the very budget-minded, all the way to the like the extreme gamer version of a laptop or a desktop. And so that $1,500 thing, you know, cap, you know, applies to to pretty much all of that. And it's again a reminder, it's per item, so it's not the whole ticket. So if you bought a laptop and it was a $1,500 laptop and you added a $30 laptop bag, well, they're both tax-free because they're separate, right? Even though they're on the same invoice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

And this exception, too, surprise to me, actually. I I guess I would have thought of this as I I would have assumed this, but I didn't actually think about it. This exemption doesn't apply inside of theme parks, entertainment complexes, hotels, or airports.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

Because it's not for tourists. Exactly. It's for Florida residents. Exactly. And so I don't know. I mean, because uh you know a lot of theme parks sell well, clothing is on the list, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Right, exactly. Backpacks, backpacks, and stuff like that. There's a lot of themed pens I know at like theme parks. Those might be universal.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Those might cost you fifty bucks. You never know. So if you're making that trip to Disney or Universal, then you want to get your kid a backpack that's Disney themed or Universal themed, it won't apply. Don't expect that you're gonna get it tax-free during this period because you're still gonna have to pay sales tax in those places. Now, go to a retail store outside of the theme park that sells the same kind of the same backpack, then you'll get that one taxed.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

So you're getting a double discount.

SPEAKER_02 10:15

That's right. Exactly. So so in practically our entire lineup at Rethrust Computers is gonna be under that $1,500 tax. We do have a few models for the for the people that need the extra power that are over that price. But again, hundreds and hundreds of different products. Now, including monitors, right? So if you need just a new monitor, just you can pick those up tax-free. Now, keyboards, mice, network gear, so new Wi-Fi equipment, for example. You need a new Wi-Fi system, you can pick those up tax-free during this holiday, which runs, by the way, Monday, July 20th through Thursday, August 20th. So it's still for an entire month, it's just not the whole calendar month like it was last year in August.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

It's so interesting to have seen the progression of what was the Florida tax-free holiday. It was just a weekend at one point, then it was just the Florida tax-free week. Now it's a full month. So really it's a great time to take advantage, get those students prepared for school. But like you said, it's not just necessarily for students. If you've got an upgrade you feel like you need to make, now's the time to probably do it.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

It would be, yeah. And so and I know that we see a major influx in in sales and business during the tax-free holiday, and for a reason. That's a that's a you know, a thousand dollar computer or laptop, you're saving in Seminole County 70 bucks. Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Great. That's a yeah, that's a great sale to look at it as, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:46

That's a good savings.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

So and going off of what Greg was saying as well, you know, this uh tax-free holiday it's changed and evolved as we've gone through time. And I actually took a look back at the House bill that or the Senate bill that changed this tax-free holiday, and now we're seeing there's going to be a four-month sales tax holiday on camping and fishing and hunting supplies.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

Starting September 1st.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Starting September 1st all the way until December 31st at the end of the year. I'm also seeing that it includes a three-year sales tax exemption on impact resistant windows and doors and remove sales tax on propane tanks with a certain capacity. So they're expanding this to a large-scale.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

So that's wait, so I was thinking about getting the windows redone in my house.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

So you're yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

So that's tax-free too.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

That's what I see on the bill. It says it's impact resistant, it's tax-free.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

And that starts September 1st for that program, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:38

I'm not sure because the the bill says for immediate release. It doesn't give an effect date for being.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

A lot of those went into effect on July 1st. I'm not I don't want to say for sure that that would have started on July 1st, but a lot of those bills,

Tech Prices Rise And Windows 10 Risk

SPEAKER_01 12:50

that's kind of the time frame that they market that for. So that'll be something to look into. I'm not uh not 100% on that one.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna definitely look at that because you know, replacing windows can be pretty darn expensive. Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Oh, believe me, it is expensive.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

So getting back, I mean, to the the tech uh aspect as well, you know, we've been seeing a lot of uh price increases now of all technology because of the AI hardware scarcity that's been going on. Oh, prices are going up and up and if there's still if there's any a better time for you know a tax-free holiday to replace your your older device that may be stuck on Windows 10, this is this is the upcoming time to do it.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

Oh, definitely. And if you're still running a computer or laptop on Windows 10, fine. So long as you're not connected to the internet. Right. So once you connect that computer or laptop to the internet, you are very vulnerable.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

You're putting yourself at a big risk.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

And if you're logging into any of your bank accounts on that computer, you are really at risk. And and we know, we know because we see it, unfortunately, a lot. Way too often, they're refreshed computers in Longwood where people bring in their laptop or desktop that got hacked because they're still on Windows 10. There's no more security updates for Windows 10, right? Which is why all the hackers out there know that and they're going to go after your data if you're still using it on the internet. So stop doing that. It would be a good time, like you said, Adam, to upgrade now that you don't have to pay that sales tax. Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

We've talked so much recently about the increase because of RAM prices and things like that. Here's your chance to get that little bit of a reprieve here during Florida's tax-free holiday. You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDVO 1073FM and AM580. Hey

Remote Support That Stays Secure

SPEAKER_01 14:47

there, and welcome back to Tech Talk here on WDVO 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. And now back to David and Adam.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

All right. Thanks, Greg, and thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. If you missed the last segment, we talked about the new sales tax holiday that is starting on Monday, this coming Monday, July 20th, and it's running all the way through Thursday, August 20th. So that's a full month's worth of no sales tax. Yep. I happen to believe that every day should be a tax holiday. But in this instance, you get no sales tax on your computers and a whole bunch of other things. And we detailed all of that. And if you missed it, you can go to refreshcomputers.net, click on that podcast link up on the upper right hand side of the page, and you will be able to listen to the show in its entirety. And you wouldn't even have to really listen to the whole show because it'll detail all those things right there on that same page. All those the show notes basically will put there all the things that we talked about and what's covered and what's not for the sales tax holiday. And in this segment, we want to talk about how remote support will actually work for you in a lot of cases. So, you know, we get this a lot and we do a lot of remote support for people already. And so, you know, there's no bringing your computer or laptop to the store. We don't have to go to you in a lot of cases, and in a lot of cases we do have to go or to you or you come to us, but there's so many things that we can do for you remotely. So the first thing you need to know is the free tech support hotline, which is 407-478-8200, because there's a lot of things that we can help you out with over the phone and a lot of times for no charge whatsoever. Right. That we wouldn't even have to remote into your computer for. We can just guide you and help you, and we do that lots and lots and lots all day long.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

And that's something like Dave is saying, yeah, you know, we uh the free tech support hotline, it's a very good source for tips, you know, walking you through some simple uh settings that you might need help adjusting. Maybe a window disappeared on you and you need some help getting it back. We can try to help you through that. But, you know, we do remote support, and that is, I would say, one of the most beneficial things I've been doing in the last year now or so, because I've had people from across the country. I've had people that are, you know, just maybe like 75 or 80 miles away that would make the road trek to us, but just don't want to weather it this time for something that you know isn't they consider a big deal. We can do a remote session and fix it, you know, practically normally within about half an hour, I would say.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

And that's a very, very reasonable car. What do we charge? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

Normally for our remote sessions, we charge $50 per half an hour. And that, you know, includes the the basically half an hour segments. So if we do half an hour and then another 15, it'd be 50 and 50. But you know, within the remote sessions I've done, within that first 30 minutes, uh I've got it all squared.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

Probably 95% of them are done within the first 15 minutes anyway. So if we log in, and so uh describe the steps that we go through to log into your computer and why it's safe to do so.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

Yeah, there's actually a uh link that we have on our website that we direct you to to click on when you're on the phone with us. Basically downloads a remote management software that'll let us uh temporarily connect to your computer. You give us a code, then we connect to it. We do our work, we go through everything on the computer.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

And you and you're watching the whole time. And you see the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Right. We don't we don't do none of that sketchy business of putting a black screen or something. We make sure you can see everything because you know it's like we're working on it right there in front of you, and we want to just be honest about that. So we go through, do everything we need to do, then once we're finished up, we just take our payment. And the nice thing with our remote management software as well that we use is once we disconnect, we can't reconnect. You can't reconnect without you saying okay. Exactly. You have to give us another code, which you know it can only be generated on your computer. And if we've disconnected, we can't get back into it. So it's a very secure way to do it. And I've helped a lot of people and saved a lot of money for some people to save that, you know, 80-mile trip.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

And it's good for businesses, it is very good for business. So we can do it for your you know, personal or business use. And don't forget it all starts with that free tech support hotline, which is 407-478-8200. So just call and describe what's happening, and we'll tell you whether it's a remote fix, bring it in fix, or something you can do yourself within a few minutes.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

And I'll put a quick disclaimer on that only do that with companies you trust. Someone with refresh computers where you have a local hotline that you can call and handle with someone that's in person in your local area that you can trust to do this kind of work because once they do, they have access to everything that you have. So make sure that you're doing this with a trusted company like Refresh Computers.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

Good point, Greg.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO1073FM and AM580.

New Phone Season And Price Jumps

SPEAKER_01 20:20

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, go and use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. Don't forget to 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., which means if you're listening to the show here live on Saturday, it 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_02 21:08

All right. Thanks, Greg, and thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. Earlier we talked about the sales tax holiday that's starting this coming Monday on computers and laptops and accessories, computer accessories, clothing, and whole list of other things that we mentioned. And if you missed any of that, go to the website, refreshcomputers.net, click on the podcast link, and you can listen to the show in its entirety, but also listed now on that link, on the page. And when you click on it, you'll go to the page where you can click and listen. But there'll also be a detailed list of things that we talked about. So you know you don't have to re remember what it was if you you know if you were driving somewhere or or anything like that, you didn't have to worry about taking a note. You can just actually go to the website and read it all right there. It's gonna it's gonna be all listed out through the magic of AI. And you know, while you're at refreshcomputers.com. net might as well scroll down to the bottom of the page, any page at refreshcomputers.net and enter your email address. Enter your email address and just click submit. That's all we ask for. And that will sign you up to receive email notifications with a link to the show that was just aired, that was just published online. So you'll be able to see that because every show we do here at WDBO on Tech Talk is reverted converted to a podcast version that goes out on the website. So it's a pretty cool way to be able to catch up on things that you may have missed.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

It makes it pretty easy since we kind of give the bullet points with listing out some of these uh things that we talk about because a lot of them are you know steps that you have to take and you know if you're driving right now listening to the show it's probably not feasible for you to be taking those steps.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

And this is you know one of the reasons you know I one of the tools that you know that that AI provides is you know because our you know this the when we upload the audio into the program that converts everything and and it and it lists automatically through the magic of AI it will just list all the bullet points of things that we talked about without me or anybody prompting it to do it just knows which items to itemize. And it just does it because it hears us and I instructed it to do that when I set it up. So pretty cool. So Adam this week or starting actually starting Wednesday officially you know the new phone season and a lot of people probably didn't even know or understand that there is a new there's a phone season every year it lasts about eight weeks and it starts off with Samsung and they have this big event called Galaxy Unpacked.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Right that's confirmed for July 22nd 9 a.m our time but live from London I'm gonna let you talk about uh what that means that must mean something galaxy unpacked so galaxy unpacked I know is kind of the the blanketed term they've always used for their releases whether it be their new tablets their new phones computers whatever it may be but this year they're they're specifically putting it under the tagline a new shape unfolds and if if you keep up with Samsung you know that one of the biggest things that they've been trying I say trying they've been kind of succeeding as I've seen as of late is the folding phone market.

SPEAKER_02 24:21

They love folding phones they do pretty much started that whole trend.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Right. And it's you know it's almost like we're going backwards now we started with folding phones and flip phones and got to the big old screens and now we're going back to folding phones. So kind of we've kind of done a 360 with that but not with how capable the phones are. Yeah well now the screen folds exactly difference. So you've got now almost a tablet in your pocket and they're actually you know there's been some leaks pointing this year that they're going to be doing releasing up to three folding phones. So I know they've always had the flip and the fold the flip is your clamshell and the fold is your book folding one. I wonder what this mystery third one is because I I remember I believe it was last year they did the Galaxy Z trifolds and they pulled that from the market months after they released your screen folding twice. That was a screen folding twice I think the phone averaged around $2800 it was that was a pricey phone.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

I'm a little uncomfortable with my screen folding once so the next that I imagine is going to be the galaxy origami where it's going to have like nine different folds.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

Oh there you go start developing new apps based on how you fold the phone I like the idea. So Samsung's not the only one doing this as well. Google's gonna be revealing their new pixel device my around August 12th I believe and Apple they're gonna be revealing their new iPhone lineup in September as they always have done with their keynotes. So you know the next eight weeks they're gonna kind of be packed with these new shiny phones but there's one thing I know that none of these producers are putting in their advertisements and it's something we've been talking about a lot the prices are probably going to be going up.

SPEAKER_02 25:56

Well well Apple did it not in their advertising but Apple did already state that their the price of their phones and iPads are going to be and all their device specifically I saw yeah they're gonna go up and that's because of the AI boom that's still going on and and still soaking up all that RAM that's all over the place. It's hard to get now.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

So with Samsung again July 22nd is going to be their unpacked uh their unpacked event showing all their new phones their galaxy watches sometimes they'll drop a new uh tablet line as well or a new tablet model so you can watch that for free on YouTube if you're curious about it. Um I think also on Samsung's website and that's 9 a.m eastern time eastern time yep it's gonna be live in London though so Eastern daylight savings time hopefully permanent daylight savings time in the near future we we also have August 12th coming up for Google revealing that next generation of Pixel I think that'll be an exciting one and Apple's iPhone event you know like clockwork they always release in September after the the other major phone companies so keep an eye out for that and kind of really watch the prices as well because you know we've talked a lot about AI data centers and how they're they're buying up all of our computer hardware phones are part of that hardware you know a phone is a computer in your pocket and I hate to say it but those prices going up on those phones that bill's going to be arriving right at your door purchasing that new phone. That's right. So that's something to keep in mind you know the these phones have memory chips in them so the RAM in those phones the storage as well those used in your phones also used in desktop and laptop computers these specialized memories systems are now all used for AI as well. So there's a lot of competition there and it's going to be something that I would really stress paying attention to maybe looking back a year or two at what the prices have been on devices because it is this is now a major time to really see what kind of price jump that's happening.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

Well and analysts predict it could be up to 20% higher.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

Exactly and that's a lot of money on some of these phones. You know uh for example talking about that Z trifold that they came out with if you're talking about a 20% increase on a $2800 phone that's right that's a chunk of change that it's going up significant. Yeah. Somewhere between $200 to $400 increase depending on exactly I I've even I've been hearing uh some companies now refer to it as the Ramageddon with all of these shortages that were having so you know they're starting to put names on it rather than just saying shortages. That that kind of scares me normally because you're starting to add a little joke on top of it trying to make it lighthearted now.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

So with some of these restrictions are you expecting some of these makers to kind of repackage stuff that they've had in the past I know outside of maybe the folding phones are we looking at maybe a repackaging of what they've had here previously there could be a chance of that you know if you remember Apple uh released the MacBook Neo I'll throw that out there for example that was actually using an iPhone processor in it to run.

SPEAKER_00 28:52

So you know looking at the repurposed tech there, it's it's hard to say what to expect out of phones right now. I've been seeing that they may be reducing the amount of storage that some phones may be shipping with that's other they may be cutting out the 256 option entirely right the RAM in some of these models as well you know most modern smartphones have anywhere from eight to twelve gigabytes of RAM and I've been seeing some some talks that they may be just capping at eight gigabytes and only the premium of the premium smartphones being 12 or 16 maybe I guess if it's a gaming phone as well. So you know it's the biggest question I would say to be asking yourself right now is should I upgrade? And my honest opinion if your phone's working if you're not getting notifications that your apps can't update keep it.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

Yeah you know this is I still have an iPhone 13. Right and it's working great.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Yeah some my uh my parents I think still have older Samsung A12 devices the budget line for those and you know they they're starting to get some app update issues so I'm like hey this is the worst time to do it but you guys have to upgrade your phones.

SPEAKER_02 29:56

But but hey you know if you do have to upgrade and or if you just want to upgrade right maybe don't go after the latest model.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

Wait till the latest model is introduced and then buy last year's model brand new there there's always a price cut because there'll be a price cut exactly almost always and that might even open up for some of those trade in options too because a lot of these newer phones if you're someone that's been on a payment plan like I recently was with one of the major carriers that phone doesn't qualify for the full amount trade in anymore. Right. They're not offering those trade this in and get a zero dollar payment on the newest and latest and greatest even though your phone might only be three, four years old.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

And you know there's there's some other things to ask yourself too because updates while they are an important thing they're not the only part of your phone to consider you know a big thing that I'm sure all of us do start noticing with our phones is the battery life. You know my I had an old Samsung S23 that I traded in because with us doing this radio show here when I'd come in in the morning to do it my phone would already be at 60% battery. Whereas now with my newer phone I'm at 96. So you know battery degradation is real. I know a couple shows ago we were talking a lot about that. If you miss that I would say go to our website refreshcomputers.net click that podcast link in the top right corner that episode we did was a very very good episode to listen back to

Trade-Ins, Refurbs, And When To Wait

SPEAKER_00 31:15

it's not just applicable to a phone or a computer anything that's got a battery in it they degrade.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

And you know while we're on the subject of going to the website to look at old podcasts you don't even have to search for it anymore because we have a chat bot now on our website. So when you go when you first log in or you don't have to log in when you first get to the website refreshcomputers.net if you wait a little second you'll see a little chat bot appear in the lower right hand corner of the screen and you can ask the chat bot take me to the episode that talked about iPhones or take me to the episode about batteries of batteries and things like that. And it will list the episodes right there in the in the chat sessions. You can just click on it there. So another cool thing that we're doing with AI over there at Refresh Computers. But you know Adam it's the same argument that we make about computers every week. Yeah I mean most people don't need the newest and the latest and greatest thing that's out there because it's not really it may be the latest but it's not necessarily the greatest thing right so especially in a year where prices are just going crazy because of the memory shortage you know you might want to you know hold on to that old phone or consider buying a refurbished phone somewhere. We we don't sell refurbished phones at refresh computers sometimes we'll have refurbished iPads in stock and well we do now actually we have some iPads in stock but you know it's so much more cost effective to buy refurbished and you're getting the same thing and and it's gonna be good in almost every case so why not you know just consider buying something refurbished and if again if you're looking for a computer or a desktop same thing you don't need to go out and buy that brand new device 99% of people don't need that right they may want it that's a whole different all game and I get it you know but in most cases you can go to your favorite computer store refresh computers and pick up that refurbished computer or laptop that will do you just fine.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

Right. And one thing I want to say too before we we get to our break here is that you know I Greg had talked a little bit about trade ins on your devices and that is something I would genuinely say you know if you are considering upgrading talk to your carrier who you may be buying your phone from me personally I buy my phone directly through the manufacturer. So mine I buy directly from Samsung. Yeah and I know that with a lot of these uh shortages right now that trade in prices may be a little higher than what we're anticipating now. That's a good point. I know when I traded in my S23 Ultra and since I already was a Samsung customer they gave me a just a storage upgrade. I think I only ended paying about like five or six hundred dollars for the new S26 Ultra that would have cost me probably $1500. Really? Yes so it's it's very important to look at that and the one thing I want to stress is if you you probably seen them in malls before there there's these machines that you can stick your phone into it'll sense what phone it is and spit out a cash amount it'll give you those machines do not give you the value that those devices are worth no because they'll give you twenty dollars for a brand new phone sometimes. Well because the companies putting those machines in there you know in those places have a lot invested and they got to get that right that money back too so they can't give you very much so it's just a very big thing I want everybody to be aware of those machines not as good as they seem to be so um I think we're getting to the break now so after this we're gonna be talking a lot about uh you know how your phone could be used as a scanner without buying an extra app or using an extra app.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

It's already on your phone.

SPEAKER_01 34:53

If you're looking in looking into any of these new devices we'd love to hear about 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 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 you can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407 478200. And don't forget to check out the website at refreshcomputers.net and now back to David and Adam.

Use Your Phone As A Scanner

SPEAKER_02 35:44

All right thanks Greg and thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers and you know Adam I don't say this enough but thank you too for being here with us. Well thank you for being here Dave with me.

SPEAKER_00 35:56

And thank you Greg for being here with us. Oh well thank you guys for coming in today.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

All right and good night John boy anyway oh what fun we have here at tech talk. So and if you missed any of the fun and excitement that we talked about uh during this show you can go to refreshcomputers.net click on that podcast link and you can hear the show in its entirety also on that same page that you click on in the podcast you'll see a bulletized I list of all the things and instructions if we gave instructions about any particular thing and or things we talked about like the sales tax holiday which is starting on Monday by the way if you didn't catch that already starting this Monday the sales tax holiday on all computers and laptops goes in effect for an entire month. So we talked a lot about that and what's all included and some things that are not included that's all listed right there on that podcast link. So when you click on that podcast you'll go right there and you can just read all of it right there. If you don't want to listen to the whole show you can do that too. Or do both if you want so we are going to talk about an app that's already on your phone that a lot of people don't realize. As a matter of fact I didn't realize it was on my iPhone and I'll just throw that out there until I did some research on this and Adam you didn't realize it was on your Samsung.

SPEAKER_00 37:12

Right. You you mean to tell me there's another feature of my phone that I don't know is there?

SPEAKER_02 37:16

That's right and blasphemy. I'm guessing that you know a lot of you do know it's there and I'm also guessing that a lot of you do not know it's there and that's how to turn your phone into a scanner without buying or downloading any other app it's just already on your phone. So we're I'm gonna talk about the iPhone way to do it and I'm gonna let Adam talk about the Android way to do it. So if you have an iPhone it's in your notes now. So you open a notes everybody has notes on their iPhone as part of the programming that goes into an iPhone. So you open notes and you start a new note you tap the camera icon and then you'll get a choice and you can choose scan documents from right there in your notes. So you hold it over the page and it captures automatically and if you have multiple pages you just keep going and guess what? It automatically will crop it and save it in a PDF.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

No more sending 25 email attachments to get one document scanned in I like to hear that.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

So another way to get to it is you could if you swipe down on your home screen you can search for scanned documents and it'll jump you right there to do that. So that's how you do it on an iPhone Adam we have another minute and a half or so how do you do it on Android?

SPEAKER_00 38:32

So on Android it's it's as easy as opening up the Google Drive app that's normally downloaded on most Android devices already you tap the plus button it's normally the bottom right corner and choose the scan option the same idea you take the you scan it and it saves it as a PDF directly to your drive and again most Android devices especially Samsung and Pixel phones those will already also detect the document in the regular camera app and offer to scan it. And that was something I was messing around with a little bit and it even let me go as far as using Gemini to crop it to balance the photo before it saved it as a PDF so it's as legible as possible, readable as possible. So it's it's a really good what's the word I'm looking for here integration of AI to then scale it a little bit to make it even easier to read.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

And as someone who had known about this feature I used it recently when I went through the purchase of my house and it was great for taking pictures of things like receipts scanning warranty documents in all of the companies accepted it. They preferred it over the way that like a lot of people just take a general picture. They don't want that they want a PDF version of these files and it converts it immediately for you. So it's a great great tool if you're in some of those processes and it's built in.

SPEAKER_02 39:43

Yeah. So you don't have to download another app which is a fact that I'm most like excited about you don't have to have another app on your home screen.

SPEAKER_01 39:50

Yes because you know I have way too many apps.

SPEAKER_02 39:53

And honestly better quality than a lot of those at-home scanners anyways sure I bet it is so you know it's so that's the the tip of the week folks if you missed any of it and you want to recap

Recap And How To Follow Along

SPEAKER_02 40:05

again go to refreshcomputers.net click on the podcast link and you'll get all this detailed right there so you didn't have to write any of this down. You can either listen to it or just read it right there on the page that you click on. That's all we have time for stay tuned for tomorrow morning is yet another new edition of Tech Talk at 8 a.m right here on WDBO