Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and I love all things tech and it's time for
Speaker 1: a classic episode. This episode published on Christmas Eve of
Speaker 1: two thousand fourteen and is titled The ce S Story,
Speaker 1: so ce S being the Consumer Electronics Show, it's a
Speaker 1: It's a show I haven't attended for a couple of years,
Speaker 1: and I mean to be fair, like they didn't have
Speaker 1: one in because of the pandemic UM. I'm not certain
Speaker 1: what the plan is for one. I think the idea
Speaker 1: was that they were going to have it in person again,
Speaker 1: but it's been a while since I've looked into it.
Speaker 1: I have not made any plans to attend UM, but
Speaker 1: we'll see if I ever go back. It's an interesting experience,
Speaker 1: not necessarily one of my favorite things to do, except
Speaker 1: for the fact that whenever I do go I tend
Speaker 1: to see some of my peers in the tech podcasting space,
Speaker 1: and it's always nice to see them in person. I
Speaker 1: am a great admirer of many of the technology podcasting field,
Speaker 1: and it's just nice to be able to rub elbows
Speaker 1: with them, chat with them, just see how they're doing.
Speaker 1: Always appreciate that seeing the technology in person also pretty cool.
Speaker 1: But there's a lot that goes on at c E
Speaker 1: S that I just find physically and mentally exhausting. Anyway,
Speaker 1: let's listen to this classic episode. The organization behind c
Speaker 1: E s UM basically is right in thinking that a
Speaker 1: lot more people know about this show than than they
Speaker 1: used to. Yeah, it's the Consumer Electronics Association that puts
Speaker 1: on the show, and that that's an organization of around
Speaker 1: two thousand companies that are in the consumer electronics industry.
Speaker 1: And these companies have formed this organization for many since.
Speaker 1: Part of it is the organization conducts a lot of
Speaker 1: market research to kind of find out what consumers are
Speaker 1: interested in, what the trends are going to be, so
Speaker 1: that companies can kind of get a jump on things
Speaker 1: and start developing products that are going to really appeal
Speaker 1: to people. You know that there's always a challenge figuring
Speaker 1: out what people are going to be interested in and
Speaker 1: and developing that because you know, most of these products
Speaker 1: have development cycles that last a couple of years. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so to be able to identify what a trend is
Speaker 1: going to be not tomorrow but two years from tomorrow
Speaker 1: is a huge challenge. So that's part of what the
Speaker 1: c e A does. They also have networking opportunities. UM.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously you've got a lot of these really
Speaker 1: important folks in various major companies and they all tend
Speaker 1: to know each other through organizations like the c e
Speaker 1: A and UH. It's also about education around things like
Speaker 1: legislation and regulation. There's a lot of these industries do
Speaker 1: have legislation and regulations surrounding them, so it's important for
Speaker 1: companies to be aware of that and to know what
Speaker 1: is and isn't cricket before they go into developing a product.
Speaker 1: Well but if but CS is, they're big, like that's
Speaker 1: the thing everyone knows them for. The c e S
Speaker 1: is just it's it's the public face of the organization
Speaker 1: and it's and it's become such a huge event, especially
Speaker 1: from its humble beginnings. Yes, yes, but in in essence, um,
Speaker 1: it's a trade show. UM. Basically a big open floor
Speaker 1: with booths where companies are showing off their products and
Speaker 1: there are people representatives from the company, not necessarily company employees.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they're they're pr people that they've hired to hired
Speaker 1: guns who come in and they've got fact sheets about
Speaker 1: all the different products that they have all memorized, and
Speaker 1: they're happy to spout off. But if you ask them
Speaker 1: anything that's not on the fact sheet, then they give
Speaker 1: you an email. Here take my card. Yeah. Um, we'll
Speaker 1: get into into what it's like. It's it's interesting to note,
Speaker 1: um that this, you know, we were in a gadget
Speaker 1: hungry world now in the in the two thousands, when
Speaker 1: the twenty fe century uh before that, you know, it's
Speaker 1: like the nineties were kind of like that to the eighties.
Speaker 1: We had the Walkman, we had the debut of the
Speaker 1: compact disc player, um, which we'll get into in a minute. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, we we we live in an electronics crazy world.
Speaker 1: But the show goes back a little before that, to
Speaker 1: a time when there weren't um, you know, fifty different
Speaker 1: things plugged into our walls in our living room, uh
Speaker 1: sucking down juice. There were there were this organization, and
Speaker 1: this event dates back into the nineteen sixties. Nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: seven in New York City, that was the first CES,
Speaker 1: and back then electronics consisted of one radio and a
Speaker 1: television that didn't work yet not true. No, that's that's
Speaker 1: t That was a complete and well the seven part
Speaker 1: was true, but the rest was a lie. I did
Speaker 1: find a flicker set of photos from uh from early
Speaker 1: c e s s back in but there was around
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty seven. That's amazing the photos. However, Um,
Speaker 1: it's it's interesting, um to see people lined up at
Speaker 1: the registration booth um where you can count them wearing
Speaker 1: wearing suits and ties. Yes, you know, because hey, you
Speaker 1: know they were members of the press and it was
Speaker 1: a trade show, you know, and it was a trade
Speaker 1: show you dressed up, Yeah, it was. And none of
Speaker 1: them were were platify right right there you are, Perry. Uh.
Speaker 1: The so that that first show, there were two hundred
Speaker 1: exhibitors at that first show, and there were seventeen dollars
Speaker 1: five hundred people attending this show. And we should also
Speaker 1: point out that when we say people, yeah, if only
Speaker 1: I could go for half a day and I'd be done, Um,
Speaker 1: seventeen attendees and and uh, the attendees were all industry related.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not open to the public. Why why
Speaker 1: why would you want to go? Yes? Because I mean
Speaker 1: the idea. I mean, I often ask myself that question,
Speaker 1: but now the uh, the yeah, but I mean it's
Speaker 1: their variations on different TV sets and different kind of
Speaker 1: radio stuff that's interesting. But for the most part, what
Speaker 1: this is for, it's it's for the vendors, that the
Speaker 1: manufacturers to show off new products to retailers so that
Speaker 1: retailers will go and order the devices from the manufacturer
Speaker 1: and start selling them through their retail stores. That's typical
Speaker 1: of a trade show. That's what they're for. That's that's
Speaker 1: the main that's the big business that's going on at
Speaker 1: C E S. And then you have the press as
Speaker 1: well that covers CS. And I think back in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty seven, there probably weren't any bloggers, but it was
Speaker 1: all journalists, um so, and I'm assuming that a lot
Speaker 1: of them probably wouldn't have been interested in this because
Speaker 1: this isn't as interesting to the reader in nineteen sixties seven, uh,
Speaker 1: the general reader as it would be today. Yeah. The
Speaker 1: you know, the there did become kind of an interesting
Speaker 1: uh history at CES for new technologies to debut there,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about those in a little bit. But
Speaker 1: when it first started, it was pretty it was it
Speaker 1: was fairly modest, and it was not the only big
Speaker 1: trade show out there either. I mean, you know, it's
Speaker 1: one of the ones that we hear about consistently today,
Speaker 1: but it's not the only one. It was actually a
Speaker 1: spinoff of another trade show, the Chicago Music Show back
Speaker 1: in the day. Interesting but uh, and then you know,
Speaker 1: you skip ahead by about a decade unless you had
Speaker 1: do you had specific things you wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: in the early history of c e s um No,
Speaker 1: not necessarily, so I was thinking, like back in around
Speaker 1: the c e A decided to try something new and
Speaker 1: hold actually two trade shows per year. It was the
Speaker 1: winter in the summer, right, and the winter one was
Speaker 1: always in Vegas, and the summer one for the first
Speaker 1: first couple of decades was in Chicago. But then in
Speaker 1: c e A decided to try and experiment and move
Speaker 1: the summer city two different destinations and to kind of
Speaker 1: play that, play with that and see how that went.
Speaker 1: Originally they were going to go to Philadelphia in I think,
Speaker 1: and then the problem was it was scheduled directly against uh,
Speaker 1: the E three UM event and E three the Electronic
Speaker 1: Entertainment Expo is another big trade show. UH, And that's
Speaker 1: so a lot of exhibitors were kind of expressing concerned
Speaker 1: about that because they really wanted to be and and
Speaker 1: retailers too, they wanted to be at the other trade
Speaker 1: show as well. They'd have to pick between the two.
Speaker 1: And if if you've got one show that has two
Speaker 1: shows a year and one that only has one show
Speaker 1: a year, well then that's easy. You you skip the
Speaker 1: one that has two, you can go to the other show,
Speaker 1: and then you've got you you still have another chance
Speaker 1: to make it to the first one. So they tried
Speaker 1: that a couple of times. Uh in they decided, you know,
Speaker 1: this doesn't make any sense. We're just gonna do one
Speaker 1: show a year. It'll be that Winter show and it's
Speaker 1: gonna be in Vegas. And that's how it's been since. So, Um,
Speaker 1: you wanted to talk about some of the products, some
Speaker 1: of the technologies that have debuted at c E S. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we actually we actually have several um tech stuff episodes
Speaker 1: about some of the technologies that have that we're first
Speaker 1: shown off to people beyond the manufacturers at c E S. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and um, this is this is one of those those
Speaker 1: things about the show. Um, well, we were going to
Speaker 1: talk about what it's like to go to the show.
Speaker 1: But if you go to to any of the booths,
Speaker 1: I mean, you're likely to see incremental changes in a product,
Speaker 1: the next version of a technology. Yeah, we've got the
Speaker 1: new camera which has a slightly faster, um, you know,
Speaker 1: ability to do burst photography. Well a few years ago
Speaker 1: burst photography was new. Yeah, yeah, so yeast an improvement.
Speaker 1: I'd say the stuff you encounter at C E S
Speaker 1: is just a slight evolution on technology we've already seen.
Speaker 1: But that one percent and and you know they're they're
Speaker 1: um variations on stuff. It'll be uh, you know, things
Speaker 1: that are slightly smaller, you know than last year, or
Speaker 1: they come in different colors, or like the a camera
Speaker 1: that incorporates a button so that you can share photos
Speaker 1: on social networking sites more more readily. Yeah, that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff, well, the new feature that's in a pre
Speaker 1: existing technology. Yeah. Or you'll go to a or will
Speaker 1: go to a press event and they'll we'll find out that, um,
Speaker 1: the TVs are not any particularly larger or or thinner
Speaker 1: than they were last year, but this time they're in
Speaker 1: blue because blue is the trendy color this year. But
Speaker 1: you will find this stuff that is brand new and
Speaker 1: stuff that is that was previously unavailable to the public
Speaker 1: that will be including um. And my first device was groundbreaking.
Speaker 1: And when I mean groundbreaking, it's because it was large
Speaker 1: and heavy. Video cassette recorder yep, YEP. Video cassette recorders
Speaker 1: or VCRs debuted at ce S some as the first
Speaker 1: time anyone outside of the the industry got a chance
Speaker 1: to get a look at one of these, and um,
Speaker 1: for those of you who don't remember, VCRs were a
Speaker 1: big thing. Yeah, yeah, and one of your your hits
Speaker 1: now this I have a list that came from c
Speaker 1: e S itself, the next of which was the laser
Speaker 1: disc player in nineteen seventy four, and that was that
Speaker 1: was pretty huge. Yeah, that was LaserDisc players ended up
Speaker 1: being more of a niche market. There was a like
Speaker 1: an enthusiast market that it was extremely popular, and um,
Speaker 1: I mean there's still devotees of the the LaserDisc player
Speaker 1: out there today, but it never reached a kind of
Speaker 1: widespread adoption. And I'm going to do that thing that
Speaker 1: Jonathan hates it when I do, I want to actually
Speaker 1: hold something up, especially do you recognize this device that
Speaker 1: would be the first cheap digital watch from Texas Instruments. Yes,
Speaker 1: it made its its debut in the in the mid seventies.
Speaker 1: I did recognize it. Yeah, that was if you listen
Speaker 1: to our Texas Instruments episodes, then you know we actually
Speaker 1: talked about that about how t I helped bring in
Speaker 1: this era of of less expensive digital watches. Before that,
Speaker 1: they were all these luxury items that cost hundreds of
Speaker 1: dollars transistors. It's transistors speaking of something that has transistors
Speaker 1: in it. UM a device that I owned in the
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies and this, uh, it's it's interesting that you
Speaker 1: brought up E three in the mid nineties because E
Speaker 1: three is much younger trade show. Um, if you wanted
Speaker 1: to show off the next device, you would have to
Speaker 1: take it to c e S because there wasn't an
Speaker 1: E three UM when it showed up in nineteen seventy seven,
Speaker 1: and now would be Attri's VCS video computer system. Other
Speaker 1: consoles also first debuted at c S, including some that
Speaker 1: debuted after E three started. That includes Pong. That's that
Speaker 1: was that was before E three, But any s that
Speaker 1: also debuted CS in in America, granted, had had already
Speaker 1: been out in Japan, but made its American debut in
Speaker 1: UH on a Winter CES show and then UM also
Speaker 1: the Xbox UM. Traditionally, there are several keynote speeches that
Speaker 1: take place at CES. It's not all just out there
Speaker 1: on the trade show floor where you're looking at booths.
Speaker 1: They also have sessions that they hold where they talk
Speaker 1: about trends and technology and and companies will have a
Speaker 1: press of event where they will unveil the stuff that
Speaker 1: you would be able to see on the floor, but
Speaker 1: you'll get an early look at what it can do
Speaker 1: before you get to the floor. Well, Microsoft has had
Speaker 1: a keynote slot at CS for years, and at one
Speaker 1: of these they unveiled the Xbox So that was It
Speaker 1: wasn't any three thing that was before Microsoft was big
Speaker 1: in games. Yeah, that was. It was a huge splash
Speaker 1: for Microsoft because you know, Microsoft had been involved in
Speaker 1: games on the computer side, but not so much on
Speaker 1: the console side. So this was definitely any big move
Speaker 1: and turned out to be a really successful one, which,
Speaker 1: you know, it's nice to be able to say that
Speaker 1: about Microsoft. Yeah, you're right. I didn't mean to say
Speaker 1: that they weren't because they had done uh, they had
Speaker 1: been releasing games for years, not on the scale that
Speaker 1: the Xbox, right, it was all it was all computer based,
Speaker 1: like Microsoft Light Simulator type stuff. We'll be back with
Speaker 1: more about the ce S story in just a moment,
Speaker 1: but first let's take a quick break the other technologies
Speaker 1: that debuted at CES. UM. Well will you're talking about
Speaker 1: laser discs and VCRs. Let's stay on that topic. There
Speaker 1: was a big year because that was when the cam
Speaker 1: quarter and Compact disc player was shown off. C d
Speaker 1: S and then DVDs also debuted at c e S,
Speaker 1: and as did um Blu Ray. Yes, it also debuted
Speaker 1: at CES. Yeah. Oh, and don't forget that earth shattering
Speaker 1: announcement from Sony the mini disc. Yeah. Very popular in
Speaker 1: other parts of the world, not so much in the
Speaker 1: United States. Um. You know, hi, hi d f TV
Speaker 1: here in the United States. Um you know, plasma TVs, um,
Speaker 1: you know, all kinds of stuff, and of course three
Speaker 1: d HDTV in the in the two thousand nine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so let's talk a little bit about um. Well, first
Speaker 1: of all, let's talk about two thousand. Uh, I've got
Speaker 1: one event in two thousand five. This was before we
Speaker 1: went but in two thousand five we have to talk
Speaker 1: about the the embarrassing moment for Bill Gates, Yeah, that
Speaker 1: that you know what, in doing the research for this,
Speaker 1: I wanted to look for products and things that made
Speaker 1: their debut, and that one was mentioned in several and
Speaker 1: it kind of kind of feel terrible about it. You
Speaker 1: know that so many people remember it. Sometimes stuff doesn't beat,
Speaker 1: that's the problem. So yeah, for that to happen to
Speaker 1: the company's founder and on a keynote speech, here's here's
Speaker 1: what happened, because you know, we're dancing around it. So
Speaker 1: Bill Gates is up on stage and he is, uh,
Speaker 1: he's demonstrating a Windows Media Center to a crowd at
Speaker 1: c e S and as he's demonstrating it, the system
Speaker 1: crashes and he gets the blue screen of death. So
Speaker 1: imagine being the CEO of a company. You're showing off
Speaker 1: your latest product on on a device that has had
Speaker 1: its share of jokes directed at it for its the
Speaker 1: you know, the fact that it does tend to crash,
Speaker 1: and that the when it does crash, you get this
Speaker 1: blue screen. For that to happen in public on the stage,
Speaker 1: that had to have been a little, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: a little bit embarrassing, and the press had a pretty
Speaker 1: good time with it, and it still does. So. Anytime
Speaker 1: you see like a wrap up of big moments and ces,
Speaker 1: like Chris was saying, it tends to be included. Um.
Speaker 1: Um and I have one more big moment in a
Speaker 1: similar vein that I think can and easily launched us
Speaker 1: into the second half of our podcast, where we talk
Speaker 1: about what it's like to be at the show. Um,
Speaker 1: Jonathan and I. The only time that Jonathan and I
Speaker 1: attended c E S together was in two thousand eight. Yes,
Speaker 1: and there was another UM. I hate to use the
Speaker 1: term epic fail, but this is this was painful and
Speaker 1: in its obviousness, UM, I know what you're going for,
Speaker 1: but I want to hear it. We had an opportunity
Speaker 1: to be on the show floor early because we were
Speaker 1: members of the media, so we got a chance to
Speaker 1: kind of seat. Now, most of the booths were kind
Speaker 1: of wrapped off so that you couldn't see it. But um,
Speaker 1: if you look at some of those old photo sets
Speaker 1: of old c E s is, the boosts were very bland.
Speaker 1: It would be a white booth with the name of
Speaker 1: the company written on it. Well, okay, it was black
Speaker 1: and white, so it looks like a white booth with
Speaker 1: a name, and the company very very sober in comparison
Speaker 1: with today's where they have elaborate displays with speakers and
Speaker 1: all kinds of brilliant marketing materials and might even bring
Speaker 1: overlays of stuff so that the cubicle doesn't look like
Speaker 1: so that the cube doesn't look like a cube, it
Speaker 1: looks like something else. Sure, sure, yeah, And in some cases, um,
Speaker 1: you know, you can't really see in it before they've
Speaker 1: started the show, and in some cases they can't hide
Speaker 1: what's going on. So we're walking around the show floor
Speaker 1: and getting an idea of what what we're going to
Speaker 1: get an opportunity to see the next day. And on
Speaker 1: on one side we see Sony's enormous pirate ship of
Speaker 1: the Blu Ray display. Yeah. So yeah, they actually had
Speaker 1: a this this uh set essentially and it was because
Speaker 1: of Pirates of the Caribbean, uh, And they had this
Speaker 1: big pirate ship type set in the middle of their booths. Now, now,
Speaker 1: some of these booths are small, like some of them,
Speaker 1: some of them are only as slightly larger than what
Speaker 1: you would find an office cubicle. Yeah, I mean their
Speaker 1: marketing marketing dollars don't grow on trees for some companies
Speaker 1: because they are paying for square footage. At this event
Speaker 1: and other other ones, especially you know, of course from
Speaker 1: the big company are enormous, enormous booths Panasonic Sony. This
Speaker 1: is taking place. Most of these booths are at the
Speaker 1: Las Vegas Convention Center, which has I think three and
Speaker 1: a half million square feet of space. Yes, and and
Speaker 1: and c e s these days. It's not just one building. No,
Speaker 1: it's also in many other floors. Um. But anyway, you
Speaker 1: were saying, so the Blue Ray, the Blue Ray presence
Speaker 1: is there, and it was obvious, and then a couple
Speaker 1: rows over. It wasn't even that far. It was on
Speaker 1: the same show floor. It was was the and this
Speaker 1: is again one of our very first podcasts that we
Speaker 1: did back when we were five minutes long. HD DVD
Speaker 1: Versus Blu Ray. Right, h D DVD was supposed to
Speaker 1: be at CS and the week before ce S there
Speaker 1: was a big stink because Warner Brothers announced that it
Speaker 1: was going to be exclusively Blue Ray from that moment on.
Speaker 1: And that was one of the few big movie studios
Speaker 1: that had still been backing h D DVD at that point.
Speaker 1: H D DVD they which was from Toshiba, right had
Speaker 1: the Toshiba had decided to pull the h D DVD
Speaker 1: presence from c e S rather than have to endure
Speaker 1: a week long uh onslought of questions about what are
Speaker 1: you going to do now? Yeah? Yeah, and that was
Speaker 1: that was the thing. And there were, um, there were
Speaker 1: rumors that there was something going to happen with h
Speaker 1: D DVD UH I guess in the weeks prior. And
Speaker 1: then it happened right before they had the set in
Speaker 1: place on the show floor and it essentially never opened, um,
Speaker 1: and we didn't know. We got the announcement while we
Speaker 1: were there, UM that they were they were going to
Speaker 1: do it, and then as we were there they said, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're done. Yeah yeah. So that was pretty much the
Speaker 1: end of h D DVD. I had that room down too. Yeah.
Speaker 1: That also was two thousand eight was a big year
Speaker 1: full or for CS. There were a hundred and forty
Speaker 1: one thousand attendees, so up from that seventeen previously, just
Speaker 1: a few more. Now. I actually wrote down the a
Speaker 1: couple of just little facts about every year from two
Speaker 1: thousand eight ton because we were you know, I attended
Speaker 1: all of those, So just a couple of little notes.
Speaker 1: So you covered h D DVD, which was one of
Speaker 1: the notes I had for two thousand and eight. The
Speaker 1: number of attendees was another. And also I have what
Speaker 1: c net picked out as the best of c E
Speaker 1: S because c is the official streaming partner of c
Speaker 1: E S, or was in for those years. And so
Speaker 1: c net always holds an awards UM ceremony where what
Speaker 1: they do is their editors go and hit the floor
Speaker 1: and they all look at all the different tech out there,
Speaker 1: and then they get together and they decide what is
Speaker 1: the what is the best thing on the floor. And
Speaker 1: I think it'll be interested to hear what one over
Speaker 1: some of these years, because as they're not all good
Speaker 1: stories go ahead. So two thousand and eight c NET Awards.
Speaker 1: This one's not bad. Is the Phillips Eco TV show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is a forty two in ten a d p
Speaker 1: H D t V that had a lot of energy
Speaker 1: saving technology built into it. Because two thousand eight, I
Speaker 1: think Chris can remember this to two thousand eight, I
Speaker 1: think was the big trend was green technology in two
Speaker 1: thousand eight. UM. Now you can usually spot some pretty
Speaker 1: pretty prevalent trends each year at c has to do
Speaker 1: you attend what we can talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: that as well. Two thousand nine, Um, that was the
Speaker 1: when the LG Watch phone was on the show floor,
Speaker 1: which never came to the United States, but it made
Speaker 1: a huge hit at the show. Yeah, I got a
Speaker 1: lot of buzz because everyone's saying, oh, it's the Dick
Speaker 1: Tracy watch, except's got video and everything and is a
Speaker 1: touch screen interface. And you know what, we don't have
Speaker 1: the l G Watch phone, but we do have the
Speaker 1: iPod Nano that has a lot of the same functionality,
Speaker 1: just not the phone part. Uh So that's kind of
Speaker 1: an interesting But what one That year c NETS Prize
Speaker 1: went to the Palm Pre, which is kind of sad.
Speaker 1: So justin short, Palm Pre from from from Palm never
Speaker 1: really took off. It very much impressed everyone. Everyone thought
Speaker 1: that it was going to be a real uh competitor
Speaker 1: to the iPhone. Yeah. That was basically the debut of
Speaker 1: their brand new operating systems, and then it just never
Speaker 1: got traction. It took about six months from CS before
Speaker 1: it even hit the market, and by then the buzzard
Speaker 1: died down, so it never really took off. HP ended
Speaker 1: up buying Palm. Uh, the Palm phones began to disappear,
Speaker 1: webOS became a tablet only thing and then happened, and
Speaker 1: no one really was sure what was going to happen
Speaker 1: with webOS because they first HP was saying we're done
Speaker 1: with it, and they're like, no, we're not done with it,
Speaker 1: So we don't know if we're done with it. And
Speaker 1: now they're saying we're not done with it and we're
Speaker 1: moving it to open source. So that's been the journey
Speaker 1: of webo s since C E S two thousand nine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty crazy, And we did a whole episode on Palm,
Speaker 1: so you can listen to that if you want to
Speaker 1: know more about that company. The big thing I remember
Speaker 1: from twenty tenness seeing in tells Nehleen processor running. I
Speaker 1: had written an article about the Newhalen processor and this
Speaker 1: time I got the chance to see it u and
Speaker 1: I was very much impressed. The big win for that
Speaker 1: year was Panasonics three D h D t V. That's
Speaker 1: what Sena gave the award to. And of course three
Speaker 1: D television still has not really taken hold. It just
Speaker 1: hasn't really gained that much attraction. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of televisions out there that have three D built into them,
Speaker 1: but we have not seen three D become a real
Speaker 1: powerhouse in home entertainment. Yeah. And and actually you you're mentioning, um, uh,
Speaker 1: the Nehalen processor kind of reminded me to a lot
Speaker 1: of this stuff on the show floor. I mean we've
Speaker 1: we've had many people, uh tell us that they think
Speaker 1: going to see e S would be a whole lot
Speaker 1: of fun. And yeah, in some ways getting the chance
Speaker 1: to see these gadgets and and and cool old toys
Speaker 1: and talk to some of the people behind it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that that party is kind of cool. But there's a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff where I mean looking at a motherboard
Speaker 1: within an a Halein processor. I mean what Intel does
Speaker 1: when they show that kind of thing off, um, is
Speaker 1: they show a computer running stuff that you know, they're
Speaker 1: talking about the the optimization, but if you look at
Speaker 1: the processor, I mean, it's it's a chip. So there's
Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff there that's just and good
Speaker 1: and it's important and it's it's nice to have in
Speaker 1: your next computer. You know, Oh man, look how fast
Speaker 1: that is. I'd like to have that. But you don't
Speaker 1: stay there all day and just marveling at it because
Speaker 1: it's the coolest thing every we can talk about some
Speaker 1: of that, we can talk about. Some of that also
Speaker 1: going to get into our personal experiences because I've got
Speaker 1: a whole rent I could go off on. But not
Speaker 1: about Intel though. But they're they're expected to show a
Speaker 1: new processor this year, right Bridge. Yeah, I saw sandy
Speaker 1: Bridge last year, and again that was very impressive. So
Speaker 1: that was something for last year being this year as
Speaker 1: we're recording it, but last year when you're listening to this, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I saw, I saw sandy Bridge and that was very interesting. Um.
Speaker 1: That was also it was a big year for tablets
Speaker 1: and smartphones last year. The Motorola Atrix, which was the
Speaker 1: smartphone that could dock with a a laptop like docking
Speaker 1: device and it could power that laptop, so you were
Speaker 1: actually using the smartphones operating system but in a laptop
Speaker 1: form factor. Uh, BlackBerry Playbook was there to play with.
Speaker 1: That was the first time I got my hands on
Speaker 1: one of those. Um lots of different devices seen. That
Speaker 1: gave the award to the Motorola Zoom, which again just
Speaker 1: never really I mean, it hasn't done terrible and the
Speaker 1: it's not it's not it's not a failure or anything
Speaker 1: in the market. But I don't think it ended up
Speaker 1: making as big a splash as we thought back when
Speaker 1: we were at CES. Yeah, and part of that is
Speaker 1: just you know that that was sporting the new Honeycomb
Speaker 1: build of Android. Well within that same year, we've seen
Speaker 1: ice Cream Sandwich come out or at least unveiled. Yeah, So,
Speaker 1: I mean that's that's one of the issues with CS
Speaker 1: two is that sometimes the stuff that you see at
Speaker 1: the show that you think is going to be like,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I can't wait for this to hit
Speaker 1: the market. It's gonna be the next big thing. Some
Speaker 1: of it, some of it never comes to market, and
Speaker 1: some of it will come to market and then just fizzle.
Speaker 1: Uh let me get my Let me get the one
Speaker 1: item that never came to market that just drove me crazy.
Speaker 1: I know what this one is. The Lenovo you won. Oh,
Speaker 1: the Lenovo you won, which was a notebook computer where
Speaker 1: you could detach the screen from the base of the
Speaker 1: computer and it would become a tablet. And it actually
Speaker 1: had two different operating systems. When it was a notebook computer,
Speaker 1: it was running Windows seven. The original build I saw
Speaker 1: when you detached the screen it would switch to a
Speaker 1: Linux based operating system. The second time I saw it,
Speaker 1: which was c E S I can't remember if it
Speaker 1: was the first time or nine. Anyway, the second time
Speaker 1: I saw it, they had switched the tablet operating system
Speaker 1: over to Android. Uh. And in both cases they were
Speaker 1: hoping to aim for a summer release, and it never happened.
Speaker 1: It did. There were some limited releases in China, but
Speaker 1: nothing in the United States. And I this was the
Speaker 1: tablet device I really wanted, because I wanted something that
Speaker 1: I could use as a full computer, or I could
Speaker 1: detach the screen and use that as a tablet so
Speaker 1: that I could preload all the things I needed before
Speaker 1: detaching the tablet part, and then i'd have it to
Speaker 1: refer to on the tablet. That way, for all the
Speaker 1: heavy data processing type stuff or word processing, word intrigue
Speaker 1: kind of things. I could use a keyboard instead of
Speaker 1: a touchscreen device. And um, and you know, I'm still, uh,
Speaker 1: still sad that that never really came out. Um, But yeah,
Speaker 1: let's talk about what it's like when you go to
Speaker 1: c E sum we can. We'll mostly be talking about
Speaker 1: from the perspective of press, because that's what we are
Speaker 1: we we haven't. We've never exhibited at c e S.
Speaker 1: So well it's uh, I can I can say that.
Speaker 1: It's if you're interested in gadgets or you're a member
Speaker 1: of the media, it's the experience is not going to
Speaker 1: be terribly difficult because, um, you're gonna want to see
Speaker 1: as much of the show as you can. Now that
Speaker 1: the show takes the better part of a week. Um,
Speaker 1: and you know, as as as I mentioned and Jonathan
Speaker 1: mentioned before, UM, it's quite a lot of square footage
Speaker 1: in terms of show space. UM, it's grown very, very large.
Speaker 1: There's even an outdoor section where they have mobile electronics
Speaker 1: and things. Car cars. Um. Yeah, that that was the
Speaker 1: first time I saw a Fiat five hundred because Microsoft
Speaker 1: was showing off it's uh uh Sinc. Operating system and
Speaker 1: they had a Fiat five hundred there and I thought, wow, man,
Speaker 1: look at this. They brought a Fiat overseas for just
Speaker 1: for this show. UM. A lot of the audio exhibitors
Speaker 1: are in hotel suites in one of the nearby hotels
Speaker 1: because you know, you don't want to you don't want
Speaker 1: to have to try and just and and show off
Speaker 1: your your high end audio equipment on a show floor
Speaker 1: that's just clamoring with noise. You need to have your
Speaker 1: own little area so that you've at least kind of
Speaker 1: blocked out most of the ambient noise so people can
Speaker 1: really hear what your stuff can do. Yeah, to to
Speaker 1: quote Dr Seuss, Oh the noise, noise, noise, noise, it's
Speaker 1: allowed environment. People are talking. There's media playing from from
Speaker 1: pretty much everywhere. Yeah, the central hall, you get um uh,
Speaker 1: there's usually a few. The one the one audio areas
Speaker 1: you'll hear the most are from our are the the
Speaker 1: car sets, like the the the audio stereo systems that
Speaker 1: go into cars. Those tend to actually be on the
Speaker 1: show floor and they tend to drown everything else out.
Speaker 1: I know that when Leo Lport first got his This
Speaker 1: Weekend Tech table set up over at CS he was
Speaker 1: put directly across from an area where they had several
Speaker 1: of these exhibitors showing off these incredibly powerful stereo systems.
Speaker 1: And so through most of the twit footage of that
Speaker 1: first year, you hear doom, doom, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't,
Speaker 1: like in the background, and like people are shaking when
Speaker 1: they're sitting there at the table. It was pretty intense.
Speaker 1: Had in two thousand eight one night when we went
Speaker 1: they even had marine electronics. They had boats. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh interesting. So some of these, some of these
Speaker 1: booths that you'll you would see are are wide and
Speaker 1: spread out and and in some cases it's that the
Speaker 1: company wants to make a big statement but doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: have that much to show. UM. Sometimes it's that they
Speaker 1: need the space. Like the Parrot drone. The first time
Speaker 1: I saw that. You know, that's the it's got four
Speaker 1: helicopter type blades. Yeah, quadricopter. That's that's not bad. Um,
Speaker 1: and you can control it through and a mobile device.
Speaker 1: It was it used to just be um iPhone, but
Speaker 1: they've expanded it a little bit since then. But that
Speaker 1: was really pretty cool. Well UM and took up a
Speaker 1: lot of space, but it was it was it consistently
Speaker 1: drew crowds. Taser tends to have its own space. Last
Speaker 1: year I saw them tasering people. That was kind of interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it was kind of real charge out of it.
Speaker 1: It's time for another quick break, but we will be
Speaker 1: right back. For every booth that you see that has
Speaker 1: really cool tech in it. They're about fifteen booths that
Speaker 1: have things like computer cases or smartphone cases or smartphone
Speaker 1: decals to put on, like stuff that's accessories for things
Speaker 1: that you already own, so it's not as exciting. It's
Speaker 1: definitely stuff that people want. So that's why it's at
Speaker 1: the trade show, because retailers are going to be looking
Speaker 1: around to see what's available and say, oh, you know what,
Speaker 1: I want my store to carry this line of smartphone
Speaker 1: case because I think that would really move um. But
Speaker 1: as a as a member of the press or maybe
Speaker 1: just a member of the general public, if some how
Speaker 1: you've found your way into see, yes, it wouldn't necessarily
Speaker 1: be like, oh my gosh, look at that smartphone case. Well,
Speaker 1: and some of them manufacturers who aren't necessarily cutting edge.
Speaker 1: You might see a headphone manufacturer there and they're not
Speaker 1: making uh, the latest noise canceling headphones or that hey
Speaker 1: that would come in handy at CES or um uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the the high end cans that you see,
Speaker 1: um people paying three or more dollars where you'll see
Speaker 1: low cost headphones. Look, we've made uh you know, earbuds
Speaker 1: with better response uh that retail for and and that's
Speaker 1: not gonna be exciting news necessarily but it might be
Speaker 1: for retailers who are going, hey, I can I can
Speaker 1: offer a wider range of low cost stuff and sell
Speaker 1: these in my store. UM. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: manufacturers from overseas who are showing off UM how they've
Speaker 1: been able to manufacture things in smaller packages and uh
Speaker 1: and for lower costs. UM, So you might be able
Speaker 1: to it to fill out your low range if you're
Speaker 1: looking for stuff to include in your store. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: actually an entire section that's essentially from Asian um markets
Speaker 1: and it's all these really tiny booths filled with some
Speaker 1: of it's filled with some of the weirdest electronics you've
Speaker 1: ever seen. Like it's all the stuff that you would
Speaker 1: typically say wow that that clearly had to come from
Speaker 1: Japan because it's just so unusual. But um, but also
Speaker 1: a lot of the other like the less expensive, the
Speaker 1: more affordable types of electronics, example, not the cutting edge stuff,
Speaker 1: but the stuff that has been refined to a point
Speaker 1: where the price has really come down. UM. And then
Speaker 1: there are other sections of the floor where you're gonna
Speaker 1: you're gonna see the cutting edge, like the top stuff
Speaker 1: that's coming out the next year. UM. These are usually
Speaker 1: from the really really big companies, And once in a
Speaker 1: while a small company will will really throw you and
Speaker 1: you'll you'll go to some small booth and you're like, wow,
Speaker 1: the parrot drone in a way was like that. A
Speaker 1: lot of people said, Wow, that's really innovative. Um. But
Speaker 1: more often than not, you're going to see people talking
Speaker 1: about the big companies like Sony, Pana, sonic Um, Toshiba, Toshiba, YEP, LG,
Speaker 1: LG always has a really big presence there, Um, Intel, Microsoft, Uh,
Speaker 1: these are the companies that have some of the largest
Speaker 1: booth spaces on there. Like some of the booth spaces
Speaker 1: for some of these companies are the same as if
Speaker 1: you took ten of the other exhibitors together and put
Speaker 1: them all in the same space. Oh yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: these places are are in a lot of cases larger
Speaker 1: than a small retail store. Um. And and the the
Speaker 1: result of that is you can spend a whole day
Speaker 1: looking at a small section of the floor because you
Speaker 1: need a few minutes to take in what it is
Speaker 1: you're looking at. So, I mean you could spend a
Speaker 1: lot of time on your feet looking around, and it's
Speaker 1: it can be wearying, especially if you're carrying uh, twenty
Speaker 1: pounds of paper press kits or and six pounds of laptop.
Speaker 1: They don't they don't do the paper press kitts as
Speaker 1: much anymore. No, Wait, there was a point I remember
Speaker 1: Chris and I both at one point took out all
Speaker 1: the press kitts we had and it was it was
Speaker 1: probably combined. It's probably at least fifty pounds of paper. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thankfully they don't do that anymore now. Now it tends
Speaker 1: to either be on a thumb drive or they give
Speaker 1: you a card that has a link to an online
Speaker 1: press scott, which is so much better. Also, it makes
Speaker 1: it way easier to get hold of things like images
Speaker 1: and stuff if you need to run an article. So
Speaker 1: that that fantastic. Keep that up the but it goes
Speaker 1: on for days. I mean you can after the first
Speaker 1: day or so, you can be quite tired. Yeah, periods,
Speaker 1: and there's there's just a lot to see and a
Speaker 1: lot to do. There are three main halls in the
Speaker 1: convention center, North Hall, Central Hall in South Hall, and
Speaker 1: South Hall is the one that I typically hit first
Speaker 1: and their most several of the big name companies are
Speaker 1: in South. Central Hall has more of the big name companies,
Speaker 1: and I believe it's the Central Hall that has two floors,
Speaker 1: which makes that even more intimidating. And then the North
Speaker 1: Hall tends to have a lot of the vehicle stuff.
Speaker 1: Some of it's in the Central Hall, but most of
Speaker 1: the vehicle stuffs in the North Hall, the stuff that's
Speaker 1: not on display outside the convention center. UM. And so
Speaker 1: you also they also will have special zones set up
Speaker 1: now at CES, so like they'll have a green zone
Speaker 1: area where they've got a lot of exhibitors who all
Speaker 1: specialize in green technology together. They'll have an educational zone,
Speaker 1: They'll have a Senior citizen type zone, so technology that's
Speaker 1: specifically geared toward UM meeting the needs of elderly users.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of interesting that you know, these different
Speaker 1: zones can be in various halls. It all depends on,
Speaker 1: you know, how CEES is arranged that particular year. Uh.
Speaker 1: Then you've got all the different UM ones that are
Speaker 1: in the the nearby hotels UM for example, the Venetian
Speaker 1: often has its own the audio section. Also, the Venetian
Speaker 1: and Sands Expo Center tends to have a hall display
Speaker 1: hall as well. It's a smaller one doesn't have as
Speaker 1: many big names in it, but it's another it's another
Speaker 1: exhibitor hall, so it's not just the Las Vegas Convention Center,
Speaker 1: which is already huge. The Hilton tends to have several
Speaker 1: suites that people are using, the exhibitors are using. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you have companies that don't rent space at c S,
Speaker 1: but they show up and get a suite at a
Speaker 1: hotel and then they try and entice you to come
Speaker 1: over to the hotel so they can show off their
Speaker 1: stuff without actually being part of the CS. So there's
Speaker 1: that issue as well. And then they're all the parties. Okay,
Speaker 1: so people who have never been to ce S who
Speaker 1: are saying, wow, this sounds like it's incredible. I can't
Speaker 1: and there are parties that sounds amazing. Let me tell
Speaker 1: you what a c S parties like. So a c
Speaker 1: S party, you will, you will eat well, and you
Speaker 1: will you could potentially drink as well. I don't drink,
Speaker 1: so that means nothing to me. Um. I mean I
Speaker 1: drink water, but I don't drink alcohol, so that means
Speaker 1: nothing to me. But you go, you'll see some cool
Speaker 1: tech and then you try and talk over the sound
Speaker 1: of everyone else talking. Plus the ambient music, which is
Speaker 1: usually about three, three or four times louder that needs
Speaker 1: to be in order to explain who you are and
Speaker 1: and and find out more about this product. It's all
Speaker 1: business talk. It's not. It's not fun stuff like it's not.
Speaker 1: It's not a part of you go to to have fun.
Speaker 1: It's a part of you go to the network to
Speaker 1: get a little more information about stuff. It's still working.
Speaker 1: So it's not like, um, you know you're you're dancing
Speaker 1: the night away. It's not like that. Although maybe there
Speaker 1: are some of those c S parties and those are
Speaker 1: just the ones I've never gone to. Uh So, now
Speaker 1: at this point I tend to I'll try and go
Speaker 1: to a party now and then because it is a
Speaker 1: really good way to network with people. And it is
Speaker 1: a very good way. Like if you if you write
Speaker 1: about how stuff works, like I do, it can be
Speaker 1: invaluable to get the business card of an executive so
Speaker 1: that you can contact that person and say, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: working on this article about the thing that you specialize in.
Speaker 1: Is there anyone that you're come thing I could speak
Speaker 1: with so I could get an expert uh on involved
Speaker 1: in in writing this article. It's incredible. But now I
Speaker 1: will often try and uh save the time after the
Speaker 1: show floor closes to getting together with some of my
Speaker 1: peers in tech journalism to sit down and just kind
Speaker 1: of talk about what we saw and kind of share knowledge.
Speaker 1: Because there's a lot of that at c E S.
Speaker 1: It's nice. You know, you don't see a lot of
Speaker 1: at least in my experience, I don't see a lot
Speaker 1: of journalists kind of shutting themselves off from everyone else
Speaker 1: and not talking for fear of losing the scoop. It
Speaker 1: tends to be a lot of people sharing their information
Speaker 1: and kind of you know, figuring out what are the trends,
Speaker 1: what what are was it that we're seeing? What does
Speaker 1: this mean for the upcoming year? And that, to me
Speaker 1: is is fascinating. That's one of the parts that I
Speaker 1: like the most about C E S. So sitting around
Speaker 1: in the old what used to be the Star Trek
Speaker 1: experience at the Hilton with with folks from the Twit
Speaker 1: network or from uh from Revision three or from c net.
Speaker 1: That's that's fantastic. I love that. But it's uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not all fun and games, that's for sure. Um No,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of work, it is, and it is
Speaker 1: probably it's one of the most physically tolling things I've
Speaker 1: had to do it. How stuff works, it's by the
Speaker 1: end of the day, you you feel it, and then
Speaker 1: you get up and do it again. Here's here's a
Speaker 1: hint for any of you who are doing ce S
Speaker 1: for the first time this year. If you're listening to
Speaker 1: this might be too late. So if it's the first
Speaker 1: time you're doing cs will here's here's what you do.
Speaker 1: You need to know. If you plan on doing something
Speaker 1: after the show floor closes and you go back to
Speaker 1: your hotel room to set stuff down so that you
Speaker 1: can go back out, do not do not sit down
Speaker 1: and or lie down, because that's it. You're not moving again.
Speaker 1: I have made that mistake so many times. But I mean, oh,
Speaker 1: those chairs and beds just look so comforting after you've
Speaker 1: been on your feet all day long. It's a it's
Speaker 1: a very interesting trade show at I don't think it's
Speaker 1: as phenomenal or magical as outsiders seem to think it is.
Speaker 1: I mean, but that's because I've covered it for four
Speaker 1: years now. So um, if you if you were to
Speaker 1: experience it the way I try and explain to people,
Speaker 1: as if you're a journalist. Imagine walking into the world's
Speaker 1: largest shopping mall, but every single store just sells electronics,
Speaker 1: and it's your job to go into every single store
Speaker 1: and look at every single shelf, at every single device,
Speaker 1: and then you're going to write up what the best
Speaker 1: was when you're done. That wraps up this classic episode
Speaker 1: of Tech Stuff, the c S story. Again, I don't
Speaker 1: know if or when I will be back at C
Speaker 1: E S. There are definitely aspects of it that I
Speaker 1: do miss um and you know, it is really interesting
Speaker 1: to kind of see the technology that's coming up, or
Speaker 1: even often you'll see stuff that's more in a kind
Speaker 1: of concept phase where you're not likely to see the
Speaker 1: actual product or you're not gonna see something that looks
Speaker 1: exactly like that moving forward, but it might be stuff
Speaker 1: that gets incorporated into products. And occasionally you see stuff
Speaker 1: that just plane never comes out, you know, like phones
Speaker 1: that change size, that kind of thing. Anyway, hope you
Speaker 1: enjoyed this. If you have suggestions for future episodes of
Speaker 1: tech Stuff, you should reach out to me on Twitter.
Speaker 1: The handle we use for the show is text stuff
Speaker 1: h s W and I'll talk to you again really soon.
Speaker 1: Tex Stuff is an i heart Radio production. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.