Super Intelligent Headlights

Vinny Caravella (0:10)

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another Nextlander Podcast. Alex Navarro, welcome to it. Happy October.

Alex Navarro (0:18)

Yeah, it doesn't really. I mean, it kind of feels like October. The autumn is starting to creep in. It's getting there, but I need I need more autumn.

Vinny Caravella (0:26)

There are leaves on the ground. Brad Shoemaker.

Brad Shoemaker (0:29)

We don't have leaves here.

Vinny Caravella (0:30)

No, it's too expensive in this economy.

Alex Navarro (0:34)

The tech industry bought all the leaves. That's the problem.

Vinny Caravella (0:37)

Yeah.

It is getting near the spooky season. I know that means a lot of things. For one example, it means that we will be transitioning WatchCast into things like Hellraiser. It means that we are doing Fright or Shite and other spooky things.

I came into this podcast and I am agitated for two reasons. One is relevant to this podcast and we'll get to that in a second. The other one not so relevant to this podcast and I just wanted to vent out. Now, I am mostly agitated often from what happens in the news, what happens in the world. Let's just say the world. Generally. This is kind of a personal thing and I just want to share some of this agitation because maybe some other people have this weird personal thing that is going on in their life. So this has to do with mobile devices and children.

Alex Navarro (1:39)

I think I know where this is going, but go for it.

Vinny Caravella (1:41)

So our current, I have a 14-year-old and a 12-year-old, and basically we are trying to hold out for as long as possible. With my son, who's the 14-year-old doing, he seems to be fine with it, not having the computer in the pocket. I say that very specifically like that because that's what we're aiming for, is not having basically the device in the pocket, tethering to a device that you feel like you want to check or look at all the time. It's not necessarily we don't want texting with friends. I mean, it is kind of necessarily that we don't want social media stuff, but it is not necessarily that stuff. And it's not necessarily like we want them to go figure out how to get out of a situation if they're stuck at school or whatever. So I bought flip phones for the kids.

When they went to camp, basically, when they were gone for weeks, I was like, here's a flip phone if you want to call home, if you text or something, it's a dumb phone. I was like, this basically gets you what I think is what we want, the ability to communicate with us if you need to.

We bought Sunbeam, I believe, is the brand I have. They're basic flip phones. They're not inexpensive. They're a couple of hundred dollars.

Brad Shoemaker (2:58)

Sunbeam that makes toasters?

Vinny Caravella (3:01)

Oh, no.

Brad Shoemaker (3:03)

Wasn't that a brand of like kitchen appliance at one point?

Vinny Caravella (3:05)

Yes, you're totally right.

Alex Navarro (3:07)

Maybe they moved into a different spot.

Vinny Caravella (3:09)

Yeah, no, these are like Sunbeam wireless, maybe is the-

Brad Shoemaker (3:12)

I don't know. I was watching a video about submersible design last night, and apparently General Mills used to have contracts with the United States Navy for undersea exploration devices in the 60s.

Vinny Caravella (3:24)

I believe it's Sunbeam.

It's got a little bird on the phone. Yeah, it's the F1 phone. Anyway, it's a basic flip phone that, you know, it has a little touch screen that make typing a little easier. It texts and it works on our carrier and it's all fine.

Mostly fine. We had them a couple of years. Mostly fine. My daughter got hers this year, which went to camp.

When- okay, bear with me just for a second here. We also understand that everybody else in their lives, in their orbit, has some kind of smartphone. It just made peace with that. Right. And they're all messaging each other. Right. And they're all in group chats together, right?

Alex Navarro (4:10)

Right.

Vinny Caravella (4:10)

So we're like, okay, look, for my daughter and for my son, the way we're going to get around this is they both have access to Apple laptops that we've had because they get passed down or whatever it is. We've had a lot in the house. We're going to set up iMessage accounts using an email address, which allow them to message people who have us, Apple phones, through iMessage with an email address. That works out 90% of the time because in this circle where we are in the United States, there's a lot of iPhones.