WEBVTT - CES 2018 Roundup 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.640 Technology with tech Stuff from hastuffs dot Com. Hey there, 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:15.920 and welcome to tech Stuff. I am your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:19.040 I'm an executive producer at How Stuff Works, and I 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:21.840 love technology, and you know what I also love. I 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:27.520 love consumer electronics. And this year was a little bit 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:29.159 of an odd one already. I mean we're just in 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:31.640 the very beginning of it as the recording of this podcast, 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:34.080 and it's already an odd year because for the first 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:38.280 time since two thousand eight I stayed home during the 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:42.000 annual ce S event in Las Vegas. I had been 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:44.120 every single year since two thousand and eight, and two 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:47.239 thousand eighteen was the first time that I did not go. 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:50.279 So for those who do not follow tech news and 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:52.479 may not know what c e S is, it's a 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.520 big trade show and it used to be known as 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:59.440 the Consumer Electronics Show, but the organizers have slowly kind 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:01.800 of moved away from that name. They felt that it 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:05.080 might be a little restrictive. It doesn't really encompass everything 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:07.880 that goes on at the show, but it is an 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:10.959 enormous trade show that takes over not only the Las 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:15.360 Vegas Convention Centers three point two million square feet of space, 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:19.679 but also other places like the Sands Expo Center or 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:22.280 numerous suites and various hotels up and down the Las 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:25.920 Vegas Strip, as well as several tents and temporary buildings 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:30.120 on the outskirts of these locations. So at this show, 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:35.679 companies display products. Some of them are already available in stores, 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:38.720 so you might see things that you are already familiar with. 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:42.000 Some of them are things that are scheduled to debut 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:44.639 in the near future, so it might be the newest 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:48.960 television that's gonna hit store shelves in the spring of 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:53.000 that year. Some of them are prototypes or concepts that 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:57.680 don't represent a specific future product, as in, you're never 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:01.000 gonna see that specific thing on say I, but rather 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:05.440 they have potential future implementations for certain types of technology 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:09.000 incorporated into them. So in other words, you might see 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:11.920 a concept car and you're never going to see a 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:15.200 car that looks like that on a lot of a 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:18.680 of a dealership, but you might see elements that are 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:22.000 incorporated into the car worked into various car lines in 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:25.240 the future. It's like that, but with all different types 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:29.080 of technology, not just vehicles. Typically there are a lot 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:31.320 of cool things you can see on the showroom floor, 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:35.520 but there are also tons of more mundane products, So 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:38.959 you might see some really cool robots or three D 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:41.240 printers or things like that, but you're also going to 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:43.359 see a lot of stuff that you know it has 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:46.680 a place, but it's just not as sexy or exciting, 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:51.520 like cell phone cases or television wall mounting frames. The 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:56.040 purpose of the trade show primarily is to connect manufacturers 0:02:56.160 --> 0:03:00.480 or companies with retailers, and then to a less or extent, 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:05.160 connecting the press to this big event. But primarily it's 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:08.320 about the people who make stuff and the people who 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:12.160 sell stuff getting together and saying, yes, that stuff you make, 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:15.280 I want to sell it in my store. That's the 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:17.799 main purpose of it. And when I say that, that's 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:21.400 a very simplistic way of of talking about deals that 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:24.560 are enormous. We're talking about enormous chains that are have 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:28.600 global presence, talking to big manufacturers that also have a 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:31.960 global presence. So we're talking big, big business, and a 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:34.960 very tiny bit of that happens to be the press 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:38.440 who are there to cover everything. I say this because 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:41.120 as a member of the press, I am aware that 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:44.480 we are pretty prone to forgetting that we're a small 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:49.120 part of this equation, and we often start to think 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:52.760 of c e S as our own playground, or that 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:54.960 it's meant for the press to get the word out. 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:57.960 In a reality, that's just one tiny element of it. 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:01.240 That's more of just a gentle prodding at some of 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:04.280 my peers in the tech space who get a little 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:08.240 huffy about the UH the way that press can be 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.080 treated at these events. Though to be fair, sometimes the 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:14.280 press can be treated pretty badly. It all just depends 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:17.280 upon the situation at the time. Now, the way ce 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:19.680 S tends to work is that there are a couple 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:24.360 of days reserved for press events and news conferences, and 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.920 these days happen early on. On those days, the show 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:32.120 floor remains closed except for special events, so you can't 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:34.200 go in and look at all the different booths at 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:38.200 that time because those teams are all out at various 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:41.200 press conferences to give announcements of what they're going to 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.320 be showing that week. The press also tend to be 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:48.440 at those announcements, looking at the different UH products that 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:50.479 will be on display and kind of planning out where 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:53.520 they're going to go. While the show floor is actually open, 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.520 the focus will shift to numerous conference rooms in ballrooms, 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.280 in various Las Vegas conference centers, like the one in 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:04.480 Mandalaid Bay. Mandalaid Bay, as I recall, is the current 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:07.920 location for all the press events. In previous years, it's 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:10.920 been at the Venetian and other places, but right now 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:14.159 it's at Mandalais Bay. Now, these events give companies the 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.560 chance to address large groups of tech press before the 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.440 madness of the show itself begins. And there are also 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:24.680 a few smaller preview events. Uh there's one called c 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:28.360 e S Unveiled, and there are others as well. These 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:30.920 little events give the press a chance to see some 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:33.640 of the products that will be on display, but in 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:37.239 a smaller setting than the showroom floor. So that gives 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.480 the press the chance to see some of these products 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:44.600 before things just get super chaotic, and it might mean 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.719 that you see something that you would otherwise overlook because 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:50.360 it would just get lost in a sea of technology 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:53.159 and people. Now, for most people going to see e S, 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:57.480 the event doesn't really begin until the showroom floor itself opens, 0:05:57.720 --> 0:05:59.920 which is typically a day or two after the first 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.279 press events. This year, the showroom floor opened on Tuesday, 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:08.000 January nine. Now, as I said, I did not go 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:10.640 to the show this year, but there has been a 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:13.000 ton of coverage about things that were on display, so 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:15.160 I thought today we'd go over some of the trends, 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:19.680 the products, and weirdness that was because trust me, every 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:23.960 single year, weird stuff happens at that show, and I 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:26.839 thought started off with something that was from that third category, 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:31.080 the weird category, We're gonna talk about rain and electricity. 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:35.960 So on that first day, Tuesday the ninth, Las Vegas 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:39.280 was the site of a rainstorm, which doesn't sound like 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:42.279 a big deal except it had not rained in Las 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:46.479 Vegas for one hundred sixteen days up to that point, 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:50.320 and the rains caused a flash flood in the city, 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:53.320 and there were reported leaks in the convention center, which 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:57.000 you do not want if you happen to have millions 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:00.440 of dollars worth of electronics stored in there. There was 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.240 a pavilion that Google had set up outside that had 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:05.800 to be closed down early due to the weather, and 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:08.919 from what I understand, getting around Las Vegas was even 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:12.160 more of a headache during that rain storm than it 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:15.200 is during a normal c S, which trust me, is 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:18.280 pretty darn bad. It is not easy to get from 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:22.600 one spot to another in Las Vegas during c e s. 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:28.160 All the different arteries are clogged with traffic. The rain 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:30.800 messed stuff up a bit on that first day, but 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:33.800 the show must go on, and so everything continued, though 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:36.200 I'm sure more than a few booths were struggling to 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:38.480 have everything in place in time for the first visitors 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:41.080 walking through the convention center, just because it took longer 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.360 to get to the Convention Center than it normally would. Then, 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:49.160 on Wednesday, January, the show hit a more frustrating snag. 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:52.480 For a couple of hours, the South Hall of the 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:56.200 Las Vegas Convention Center lost power. The Central Hall also 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:58.760 lost power, but for a shorter amount of time, and 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:01.840 this is where a little geografi lesson comes in handy. 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:06.320 The Las Vegas Convention Center has three main halls. There's 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:10.600 a North Hall, a Central Hall, and then the South Halls. Technically, 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:14.200 because it's two floors, the North Hall is where you're 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:17.760 gonna find most of the automotive tech on display, and 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:21.240 there's some related technologies like vehicle sound systems and other 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:24.680 aftermarket products and a few other things, but that's typically 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.400 what you find in the North Hall. The Central Hall 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:30.680 is where most of the big, big brand names have 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:35.920 their booths. This includes companies like Sony, Panasonic, Intel, and LG. 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:39.640 Some of those booths are truly gigantic, taking up as 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:42.800 much space as a dozen or so smaller booths would. 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.360 The South Hall, like I said, has two floors, so 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:49.000 it's a bottom floor and the top floor, and has 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:51.240 more big names in it, as well as some medium 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.360 and smaller sized companies, and depending upon the year, the 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.319 South Hall can also host some of the zones at 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:01.520 c E s now zones represent general categories of technology. 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:04.400 In recent years, cs has moved some of those zones 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.800 to a different convention center called the Sands Expo Center, 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.360 but the South Hall is still packed with tons of booths. 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:13.800 So when the Central and South Hall's lost power, that 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:17.000 was a really big deal. Now, many of these booths 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:20.880 have monitors, computers, televisions, and other gear plugged into the 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:25.000 building's electrical system, and there are tens of thousands of 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:27.640 people in the Las Vegas Convention Center. I didn't given 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:31.800 time during the open showroom floor hours. The power shut 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:36.520 off at approximately eleven fifteen am local time, just as 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:39.240 the show was supposed to be getting going. Like it 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:41.679 was it was, the show floor had opened, things were 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:43.439 starting to move. There was some hustle and bustle, and 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:46.040 then the power goes out. The Convention Center was able 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:48.440 to restore power to the South Hall after a few minutes, 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:51.240 but the Central Hall presented more of a challenge, and 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:53.719 the power outage lasted a couple of hours. So I 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:56.040 think actually misspoke earlier where I said the South Hall 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:58.560 came back or after a couple of hours in the 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:00.640 Central Hall and after a couple of minutes. It's really 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:02.920 the other way around. Uh, this is what happens when 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:05.920 I don't go to c e S. I mix up 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:08.600 the halls. But the Central Hall out of power, and 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:10.040 that was a big deal. Now, a lot of those 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:12.760 booths also had their own generators, so they were able 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.640 to have like little islands of light in a sea 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:18.400 of darkness. But you might wonder what was the cause 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:20.199 of the power alleges in the first place. Why did 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:22.800 the power go out? What was all that darn rain 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:26.360 from the day before. According to an official statement, the 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:30.120 rain caused condensation to form on a transformer for the 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:35.120 convention Center, eventually causing what is called a flashover. Flashover 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:38.280 is also known as an arc flash, and this gives 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:41.760 us the opportunity to learn about arc flashes before we 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:45.240 jump into news about robots and TVs and stuff. So 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:50.240 what is an arc flash? Well, first, an electrical arc 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:53.840 is the phenomenon of a luminous bridge of electricity formed 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:57.720 between two electrodes, and arc flash happens when a fault 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:00.719 or short circuit passes through the arc gap, or to 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:03.280 put it another way, and arc flash is when an 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:07.160 electric current diverts from its intended path to leap from 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:10.280 one conductor to another, or it can also happen from 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:13.760 a conductor to the ground and it goes through the 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:18.000 air in a really powerful electrical discharge. The term short 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:21.320 circuit refers to a case where there's an unwanted connection 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.880 between a circuit or within a circuit rather that allows 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:28.560 current to pass through that unwanted connection. It's kind of like, well, 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:30.720 it's like a short cut. That's why it's called a 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:34.000 short circuit. You're having a pathway that you didn't intend 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.360 electrons to pass through, and suddenly the electrons can and 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:41.680 will go through it. Generally speaking, electronics work by directing 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:46.600 electricity through specific pathways and that provides power to various elements. 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:48.920 And that's how the electronics work, so if you create 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:53.280 conductive connections between those pathways, suddenly electricity can travel a 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:56.800 different way than what you had intended, and typically short 0:11:56.840 --> 0:12:00.559 circuits can damage circuits, They can lead to overheating, they 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:02.720 can get hot enough to start a fire, or even 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:06.400 with a powerful enough electric discharge, they can cause an explosion. 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:10.080 Arc flashes can often be on the serious side of 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:13.920 that spectrum. Typically it only happens if the voltage is 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:18.440 above volts, and during an arc flash, an intense amount 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:21.720 of energy can be released, and arc flash can produce 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:25.920 heat of up to thirty five thousand degrees fahrenheit and 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:30.079 produce a concussive force called an arc blast that, depending 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:32.960 on the situation, can be strong enough to rupture your 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:36.760 ear drums or even cause your lung to collapse. So 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:41.160 it's an incredibly dangerous situation. So this arc flash shorted 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:43.760 out part of the electrical system to the convention center, 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:47.800 and that necessitated a repair job. To the credit of 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:50.560 everyone involved, the system was back online within a couple 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:53.360 of hours, but two hours lost during a massive trade 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:58.360 show is no small problem. Companies spend a significant amount 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:00.880 of money to secure show flow or space for c 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:04.920 e s every hour representatives are trying to make connections 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:08.200 with potential customers, and with the press going offline for 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:10.960 two hours just at the start of things, wasn't a 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:13.560 great way to begin the show. Now, that's not to 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:16.439 say c E S was a show of doom and gloom. 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.199 There there were some setbacks, but most of the reports 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:21.480 I read seemed to suggest people took it in stride 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:24.160 for the most part, and once the power came back on, 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:26.840 everyone was back in business, or at least they were 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:28.800 once they could get their tech up and running again 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:33.520 after the unplanned power cycle. A few trends became evident 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:35.760 during this year's c e S, and one of those 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:39.880 was incorporating fingerprint scanners into technology. Several products at the 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:43.439 show sported fingerprint scanners. One of them was a smartphone 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:47.000 from Vivo, which actually went a step further. It's fingerprint 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:50.640 scanner is built into the screen of the phone itself, 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:53.920 so there's not a dedicated sensor area that's either on 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:55.960 the front or the back of the phone or anything 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:58.080 like that. You just put your finger on the proper 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:01.240 spot on the screen, and assuming your fingerprint matches the 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:04.280 one in the phone's memory, you access the device. So 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:06.880 how does that work? How can you access just through 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:11.840 a screen? Well, there's a sensor underneath the screen and 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:15.480 it was created by a company called Synaptics. It's just 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:19.680 below the display itself. So if you think of the 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:23.840 phone as a stack, with the screen, the glass on 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:25.960 the front on the top being the very top layer. 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:29.480 Below that you have the display. Below that, you would 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:33.080 have the sensor from Synaptics, and it could actually scan 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:37.600 a fingerprint through the gaps presented between the O LED dots. 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:40.360 Those are the elements that actually generate the pixels on 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:44.160 a screen. So the spots between the little elements that 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:47.200 would generate the light that creates the image on your phone, 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:50.080 that was the scanner, the sensor, and it can scan 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:52.920 your fingerprint. And according to a report from The Verge, 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:56.080 the sensor may find its way into several smartphones throughout 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:59.680 the course of and beyond, giving designers the opportunity to 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:02.320 make owns and not have to set aside space for 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:04.760 a dedicated fingerprint scanner on the front or back of 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.720 the handset. So it freeze up design a little bit. Now, 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.440 when I went to c S in Seen, I couldn't 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:13.760 help but notice that Alexa was everywhere, and I apologize 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:17.960 if I'm setting off your Alexa. I won't give it 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:21.520 really bad commands. Don't worry, But lots of companies were 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:26.400 incorporating Amazon's Assistant into their products. In this year, the 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:30.280 story was more about Google and the Google Assistant. Google 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:33.400 typically doesn't have a booth at c e S. Instead, 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:36.520 people from Google will attend the show in order to 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:39.760 network with various executives from other companies or to appear 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:43.280 side by side with other companies that have a joint 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:46.880 project with Google. And this year Google sponsored that large 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:49.160 outdoor pavilion, the one I talked about earlier that had 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:51.560 to be shut down early during the rain. Well, that 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:54.800 pavilion's focus was all on the Google Assistant feature that's 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:57.920 found in Android phones and Google Home devices. It also 0:15:57.960 --> 0:15:59.440 looked like it was a lot of fun. It had 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:01.840 a big twist t slide on it, and so I'm 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:05.040 kind of sad I missed it. Both Alexa and Google 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:08.480 Assistant can be found in numerous devices. Sometimes both of 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:13.120 them can be found in the same devices, including television's speakers, headphones, 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:16.120 and light switches. So if you can't control your favorite 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:19.400 gadgets with a vocal command, yet that could change in 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:21.880 a couple of iterations of those products. There were a 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.120 lot of other trends at ce SEN, ranging from another 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:28.280 fleet of smart cars, some of which are autonomous two 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:30.840 robots designed to do everything from guard your house to 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:33.560 comforting a sick child. We'll look at some of those 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.760 specific items in this episode, but before we dive into 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:39.000 more detail on what went down at c E S, 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:49.400 let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. And 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:53.400 we're back. And now I'm joined by a good friend 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:57.400 of the show, Shannon Morrise of Hack five fame, who, 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:02.840 unlike yours truly actually went to c E S tween. Shannon, 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:06.040 Welcome back to tech Stuff, Hi, Jonathan, thank you for 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:09.200 having me on. Yeah, thank you for joining. Even though, 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:13.080 just in full disclosure, Shannon might sound a teeny bit 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:17.320 congested because she's fighting off the last remaining remnants of 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:22.080 what we call con crude. Yeah, just that basic respiratory 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:25.320 cold that people tend to come down with when you 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:27.399 have I don't know, like a hundred thousand people in 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:31.320 an enclosed space for several days at the time it happens. Yeah, 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:33.240 it was. It was a hundred and seventy five thousand 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:36.040 people at least that's the estimate I was told while 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:38.880 I was at the convention. But yes, I came down 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:42.439 on the very last day with the concrud, woke up 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:44.159 the day after and I was just like, Oh, I 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:47.520 am not going into work today, that's definitely not happening. Yeah, 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:49.919 And you know, you're based out of the Bay Area 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:52.119 over in California, so so there's a bit of a 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:54.280 travel you know, travel time for you as well between 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:56.880 Vegas and there, and then of course you also had 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:00.320 the additional issues that happened this year. Were you there 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:05.399 when the great deluge the rain storm was coming down, Yeah, 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:09.560 I was. It was crazy. Um, nobody knew how to 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:12.199 drive in the rain, even though it was only like 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:14.800 one or two inches of rain. No one knew really 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:17.480 knew how to drive in it in Vegas because they 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:20.720 never get rain. And one of the roads turned into 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:25.080 a river, and the Las Vegas Convention Center started leaking, 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:28.400 so they had to close some of the walkways inside 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:31.359 the convention center so that people wouldn't walk around in 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:34.920 like slushy carpet. It was terrible. And then the next 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:37.520 day the lights went out. Yeah. Well I talked about 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:39.920 that earlier in the episode about how it appears that 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:43.919 a uh some condensation formed on the inside of a 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:46.879 transformer at the Las Vegas Convention Center and caused and 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:51.840 what is called a flash out where you haven't essentially 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:55.879 a short circuit in an arc. Yeah, really ended up 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:58.480 being a physics lesson for all of my listeners because 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:00.640 I was like, well, I can't talk about CES because 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:02.360 it wasn't there, but I can talk about what happened 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:05.159 at the made the lights go out. So I was 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:08.960 in the middle of the convention center. Ironically, I was 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:12.000 in a meeting with Panasonic about their low light camera 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:14.520 when the power went out, so I was able to 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:17.119 test the camera in the low light setting since no 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:20.040 lights were on, and it worked quite well. That's a 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:22.440 heck of a demo right there. You know, I know 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:28.800 everyone who cares if it tends to you know, put 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:31.320 everyone else out. I mean, come on, this is you know, 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:37.399 we're talking about important products here. Crazily enough, one of 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:39.879 the people I overheard while I was listening to my 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:43.320 b role much later on, I was just walking around 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:46.320 the convention hall in one of the vendors was talking 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:48.200 to one of his co workers and said that they 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:51.240 lost out on about a million dollars of revenue, one 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:53.639 million dollars for just the two hours that the power 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:57.240 was out. So that gives you an estimation of how 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:00.800 much the big boost cost. I you know that some 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:03.800 of the smaller boosts costs eighty thou dollars. So the 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:07.920 it's crazy how much these people pay to have a 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:10.040 booth on the show floor and to have the power 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.080 out for two hours. Yeah, that's definitely going to be 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:15.800 a deterrence for the revenue that you're bringing in just 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:18.520 from all the free advertisement that you're getting. Well. Yeah, 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:21.760 and then I mentioned earlier in the episode about how 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:25.760 the whole purpose really I mean, we we, you and 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:28.160 I Shannon, we often think of it as well, here's 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:30.359 my job as media as to go in, find the 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:33.800 cool stuff, bring it forward, talk about it, analyze it, 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:36.280 give my take, that kind of thing. But really, when 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:37.840 you get down to it, the real purpose of the 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:43.359 show is essentially connecting the companies what makes stuff with 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:47.600 the companies what sells stuff. And when you when you 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:50.800 can't connect with anybody for a couple of hours and 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:53.520 you've spent that much money to have a presence there, 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:56.920 that is not a good thing to have on your 0:20:56.960 --> 0:20:59.360 little Excel spreadsheet at the end of the year, where 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:02.560 you're saying, yeah, so here's how much we spent, and uh, 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:06.240 that two hours of downtime cost us this x amount 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:09.479 effectively because we weren't able to have those sort of 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.320 meetings and those sort of conversations that we normally would 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:15.520 have had during that time. Right. Yeah, it's not great, 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:19.320 I mean, but but I want to concentrate on things 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:22.000 that actually did happen as opposed to all the meetings 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:25.240 that could not happen during those two hours. So first 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:27.560 thing I'm gonna ask you is did you see anything 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:31.480 at c S I. I typically will notice some themes 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:34.320 popping up year over year, whether it's a type of 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:37.520 technology that's starting to get some traction, like you know, 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:40.359 smart TVs, that and three D TVs those were big 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:44.000 themes for many years ago. Now, uh, was there anything 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:46.440 like that this year, Whether it was a specific kind 0:21:46.440 --> 0:21:49.960 of technology or some sort of implementation that you noticed 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:53.359 while you were there, All right, yes, there absolutely was. 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:57.719 This year. We saw a um, mind boggling amount of 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:02.160 people promoting items that had voice assistance technology built in, 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:07.040 whether you needed it or not. So so I'm sure 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:10.080 there were some incidents where you're thinking, okay, that makes sense, 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:12.760 but where there were there anywhere you're just thinking this 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:14.960