Tech Table Radio Show

Tech Table
Thursday, November 14, 2013

November 14, 2013

Justin: Welcome to MPA’s Tech Table. I’m Justin.

Diana: And I’m Diana.

Justin: And we’re your hosts. We’ll be serving up a heaping spoonful of all things tech.

Diana: We promise, it’ll be easy to digest.

Justin: It’s Thursday.

Diana: That’s right.

Justin: Yes, and here on the Tech Table, we’re going to talk about a theme Thursday. We always do this. We always do a different theme on Thursday. And this scared my mom more than anything else. Yes. How do you keep track of your children in busy places? Mom always thought that she was going to lose me. She always said, you know, I was an only child and “I had a hard enough time bringing you into the world. I don’t want to lose you now.” So she always kept an eye on me. I mean to the hilt. That was before we had any technology to help out with that.

Diana: Was she one that they have those things that almost look like leashes.

Justin: No, I was a kid before they had those.

Diana: Oh, really.

Justin: Yeah. The only thing we had back then.

Diana: She could have just used a regular leash.

Justin: Thank you, Diana. That’s great. No, the only thing we had back in my day were the finger snaps and the look-, the eye.

Diana: That still works, right?

Justin: It does, yeah. But my mom-, her methodology was just making me really afraid of everyone else.

Diana: Oh, no.

Justin: So, I wouldn’t want to leave her side and go run off. You know? And it worked. It worked. I had not been lost.

Diana: That’s right. You’re here.

Justin: That’s exactly right. But there is a lot of technology these days that you can use to help keep track of your children in busy places. You know, some of them are more intuitive than others. But before you go shopping in a busy place with your children, which is simple.

Diana: Yes. And this is very appropriate right now because we’re all starting our holiday shopping.

Justin: Right. Exactly. You need to take a picture of your kid when you go shopping with what they’re wearing that day. Just take a picture of that.

Diana: Like using your phone might be an easy way to do that.

Justin: Exactly. And that way if you do get separated, it makes it easier for store security to identify your child by what they’re wearing.

Diana: See exactly what they’re wearing that day.

Justin: Yeah, you can know exactly what they look like at that moment. So, if you can remember to do that, that’s kind of a low-tech tech way to help keep track of your kid. What’s another one?

Diana: Well, a lot of kids these days have phones themselves. A lot of them even have smart phones.

Justin: Yeah, they do.

Diana: So, if they do have a smart phone, you can actually use GPS to track the phone, and we might have talked about this before, the Find My Phone for Apple devices? I’m sure there are some other Android options, too. But you can track using GPS.

Justin: Right. I’ve talked to a lot of kids, you know, when I pull out my “Hey, look at the new phone I got.” And they’re like, “Yeah, that looks like my old phone.”

Diana: Right.

Justin: I’m like, “Oh, great. I guess you’re ahead of me, kids. All right.” So you can use that app on Apple devices and then there are lots of new products coming out for the Christmas season. And Diana, I have no idea how to pronounce this. What’s this word?

Diana: I think it’s Filip.

Justin: Well, it looks like Phillip.

Diana: Yeah.

Justin: But it’s F-I-L-I-P

Diana: I think I see another “L” in there.

Justin: Oh, is there another”L” in there?

Diana: So, F-I-L-I-L-P.

Justin: I need to get my good eye out apparently and look at this again.

Diana: It’s a smart watch. We’ve seen these start to come out now on the market. Where it kind of looks like something from Get Smart, right?

Justin: Right, yeah. It’s interesting. It’s a smart watch for kids 11 and under, and it tracks location and allows kids to call parent’s phone.

Diana: Yeah, so it’s kind of low-tech, but it’s really cool for security. Another app or…

Justin: Product.

Diana: …product by it’s called Guardian, and it’s by Beluvv, which is spelled B-E-L-U-V-V.

Justin: Charming.

Diana: And it’s another child-location tracker. It works by Bluetooth, and it has a really long battery life.

Justin: Cool. All right. So, that will help you to keep track of your children.

Diana: And the FBI has an app, too.

Justin: That’s, yeah, you know, that’s interesting. I’ve not seen that. I wonder how it works.

Diana: I haven’t looked at it either.

Justin: I bet it works…

Diana: They have it for Android and Apple.

Justin: Yeah, that’s really cool. So, you know, if the old fashioned just hanging on to your children doesn’t work and you, you know, they are running around through the store like crazy monkeys, which happens. I’ve seen it.

Diana: I’ve seen it.

Justin: I’ve seen, you know, you can see use hopefully one of these pieces of technology to keep track of your kids.

Diana: That’s right.

Justin: Until next time.

Diana: Take care.

Justin: TechTable is brought to you by MPA of Bloomfield, Iowa, and God’s country radio. You can visit us online at askmpa.com

Diana: If you have questions or comments, please send them to questions@askmpa.com. That’s questions@askmpa.com.

Justin: And thanks for listening.