Speaker 1: Technology with tech Stuff from hastuffs dot Com. Hey there,
Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I am your host, Jonathan Strickland.
Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer at How Stuff Works, and I
Speaker 1: love technology, and you know what I also love. I
Speaker 1: love consumer electronics. And this year was a little bit
Speaker 1: of an odd one already. I mean we're just in
Speaker 1: the very beginning of it as the recording of this podcast,
Speaker 1: and it's already an odd year because for the first
Speaker 1: time since two thousand eight I stayed home during the
Speaker 1: annual ce S event in Las Vegas. I had been
Speaker 1: every single year since two thousand and eight, and two
Speaker 1: thousand eighteen was the first time that I did not go.
Speaker 1: So for those who do not follow tech news and
Speaker 1: may not know what c e S is, it's a
Speaker 1: big trade show and it used to be known as
Speaker 1: the Consumer Electronics Show, but the organizers have slowly kind
Speaker 1: of moved away from that name. They felt that it
Speaker 1: might be a little restrictive. It doesn't really encompass everything
Speaker 1: that goes on at the show, but it is an
Speaker 1: enormous trade show that takes over not only the Las
Speaker 1: Vegas Convention Centers three point two million square feet of space,
Speaker 1: but also other places like the Sands Expo Center or
Speaker 1: numerous suites and various hotels up and down the Las
Speaker 1: Vegas Strip, as well as several tents and temporary buildings
Speaker 1: on the outskirts of these locations. So at this show,
Speaker 1: companies display products. Some of them are already available in stores,
Speaker 1: so you might see things that you are already familiar with.
Speaker 1: Some of them are things that are scheduled to debut
Speaker 1: in the near future, so it might be the newest
Speaker 1: television that's gonna hit store shelves in the spring of
Speaker 1: that year. Some of them are prototypes or concepts that
Speaker 1: don't represent a specific future product, as in, you're never
Speaker 1: gonna see that specific thing on say I, but rather
Speaker 1: they have potential future implementations for certain types of technology
Speaker 1: incorporated into them. So in other words, you might see
Speaker 1: a concept car and you're never going to see a
Speaker 1: car that looks like that on a lot of a
Speaker 1: of a dealership, but you might see elements that are
Speaker 1: incorporated into the car worked into various car lines in
Speaker 1: the future. It's like that, but with all different types
Speaker 1: of technology, not just vehicles. Typically there are a lot
Speaker 1: of cool things you can see on the showroom floor,
Speaker 1: but there are also tons of more mundane products, So
Speaker 1: you might see some really cool robots or three D
Speaker 1: printers or things like that, but you're also going to
Speaker 1: see a lot of stuff that you know it has
Speaker 1: a place, but it's just not as sexy or exciting,
Speaker 1: like cell phone cases or television wall mounting frames. The
Speaker 1: purpose of the trade show primarily is to connect manufacturers
Speaker 1: or companies with retailers, and then to a less or extent,
Speaker 1: connecting the press to this big event. But primarily it's
Speaker 1: about the people who make stuff and the people who
Speaker 1: sell stuff getting together and saying, yes, that stuff you make,
Speaker 1: I want to sell it in my store. That's the
Speaker 1: main purpose of it. And when I say that, that's
Speaker 1: a very simplistic way of of talking about deals that
Speaker 1: are enormous. We're talking about enormous chains that are have
Speaker 1: global presence, talking to big manufacturers that also have a
Speaker 1: global presence. So we're talking big, big business, and a
Speaker 1: very tiny bit of that happens to be the press
Speaker 1: who are there to cover everything. I say this because
Speaker 1: as a member of the press, I am aware that
Speaker 1: we are pretty prone to forgetting that we're a small
Speaker 1: part of this equation, and we often start to think
Speaker 1: of c e S as our own playground, or that
Speaker 1: it's meant for the press to get the word out.
Speaker 1: In a reality, that's just one tiny element of it.
Speaker 1: That's more of just a gentle prodding at some of
Speaker 1: my peers in the tech space who get a little
Speaker 1: huffy about the UH the way that press can be
Speaker 1: treated at these events. Though to be fair, sometimes the
Speaker 1: press can be treated pretty badly. It all just depends
Speaker 1: upon the situation at the time. Now, the way ce
Speaker 1: S tends to work is that there are a couple
Speaker 1: of days reserved for press events and news conferences, and
Speaker 1: these days happen early on. On those days, the show
Speaker 1: floor remains closed except for special events, so you can't
Speaker 1: go in and look at all the different booths at
Speaker 1: that time because those teams are all out at various
Speaker 1: press conferences to give announcements of what they're going to
Speaker 1: be showing that week. The press also tend to be
Speaker 1: at those announcements, looking at the different UH products that
Speaker 1: will be on display and kind of planning out where
Speaker 1: they're going to go. While the show floor is actually open,
Speaker 1: the focus will shift to numerous conference rooms in ballrooms,
Speaker 1: in various Las Vegas conference centers, like the one in
Speaker 1: Mandalaid Bay. Mandalaid Bay, as I recall, is the current
Speaker 1: location for all the press events. In previous years, it's
Speaker 1: been at the Venetian and other places, but right now
Speaker 1: it's at Mandalais Bay. Now, these events give companies the
Speaker 1: chance to address large groups of tech press before the
Speaker 1: madness of the show itself begins. And there are also
Speaker 1: a few smaller preview events. Uh there's one called c
Speaker 1: e S Unveiled, and there are others as well. These
Speaker 1: little events give the press a chance to see some
Speaker 1: of the products that will be on display, but in
Speaker 1: a smaller setting than the showroom floor. So that gives
Speaker 1: the press the chance to see some of these products
Speaker 1: before things just get super chaotic, and it might mean
Speaker 1: that you see something that you would otherwise overlook because
Speaker 1: it would just get lost in a sea of technology
Speaker 1: and people. Now, for most people going to see e S,
Speaker 1: the event doesn't really begin until the showroom floor itself opens,
Speaker 1: which is typically a day or two after the first
Speaker 1: press events. This year, the showroom floor opened on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: January nine. Now, as I said, I did not go
Speaker 1: to the show this year, but there has been a
Speaker 1: ton of coverage about things that were on display, so
Speaker 1: I thought today we'd go over some of the trends,
Speaker 1: the products, and weirdness that was because trust me, every
Speaker 1: single year, weird stuff happens at that show, and I
Speaker 1: thought started off with something that was from that third category,
Speaker 1: the weird category, We're gonna talk about rain and electricity.
Speaker 1: So on that first day, Tuesday the ninth, Las Vegas
Speaker 1: was the site of a rainstorm, which doesn't sound like
Speaker 1: a big deal except it had not rained in Las
Speaker 1: Vegas for one hundred sixteen days up to that point,
Speaker 1: and the rains caused a flash flood in the city,
Speaker 1: and there were reported leaks in the convention center, which
Speaker 1: you do not want if you happen to have millions
Speaker 1: of dollars worth of electronics stored in there. There was
Speaker 1: a pavilion that Google had set up outside that had
Speaker 1: to be closed down early due to the weather, and
Speaker 1: from what I understand, getting around Las Vegas was even
Speaker 1: more of a headache during that rain storm than it
Speaker 1: is during a normal c S, which trust me, is
Speaker 1: pretty darn bad. It is not easy to get from
Speaker 1: one spot to another in Las Vegas during c e s.
Speaker 1: All the different arteries are clogged with traffic. The rain
Speaker 1: messed stuff up a bit on that first day, but
Speaker 1: the show must go on, and so everything continued, though
Speaker 1: I'm sure more than a few booths were struggling to
Speaker 1: have everything in place in time for the first visitors
Speaker 1: walking through the convention center, just because it took longer
Speaker 1: to get to the Convention Center than it normally would. Then,
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, January, the show hit a more frustrating snag.
Speaker 1: For a couple of hours, the South Hall of the
Speaker 1: Las Vegas Convention Center lost power. The Central Hall also
Speaker 1: lost power, but for a shorter amount of time, and
Speaker 1: this is where a little geografi lesson comes in handy.
Speaker 1: The Las Vegas Convention Center has three main halls. There's
Speaker 1: a North Hall, a Central Hall, and then the South Halls. Technically,
Speaker 1: because it's two floors, the North Hall is where you're
Speaker 1: gonna find most of the automotive tech on display, and
Speaker 1: there's some related technologies like vehicle sound systems and other
Speaker 1: aftermarket products and a few other things, but that's typically
Speaker 1: what you find in the North Hall. The Central Hall
Speaker 1: is where most of the big, big brand names have
Speaker 1: their booths. This includes companies like Sony, Panasonic, Intel, and LG.
Speaker 1: Some of those booths are truly gigantic, taking up as
Speaker 1: much space as a dozen or so smaller booths would.
Speaker 1: The South Hall, like I said, has two floors, so
Speaker 1: it's a bottom floor and the top floor, and has
Speaker 1: more big names in it, as well as some medium
Speaker 1: and smaller sized companies, and depending upon the year, the
Speaker 1: South Hall can also host some of the zones at
Speaker 1: c E s now zones represent general categories of technology.
Speaker 1: In recent years, cs has moved some of those zones
Speaker 1: to a different convention center called the Sands Expo Center,
Speaker 1: but the South Hall is still packed with tons of booths.
Speaker 1: So when the Central and South Hall's lost power, that
Speaker 1: was a really big deal. Now, many of these booths
Speaker 1: have monitors, computers, televisions, and other gear plugged into the
Speaker 1: building's electrical system, and there are tens of thousands of
Speaker 1: people in the Las Vegas Convention Center. I didn't given
Speaker 1: time during the open showroom floor hours. The power shut
Speaker 1: off at approximately eleven fifteen am local time, just as
Speaker 1: the show was supposed to be getting going. Like it
Speaker 1: was it was, the show floor had opened, things were
Speaker 1: starting to move. There was some hustle and bustle, and
Speaker 1: then the power goes out. The Convention Center was able
Speaker 1: to restore power to the South Hall after a few minutes,
Speaker 1: but the Central Hall presented more of a challenge, and
Speaker 1: the power outage lasted a couple of hours. So I
Speaker 1: think actually misspoke earlier where I said the South Hall
Speaker 1: came back or after a couple of hours in the
Speaker 1: Central Hall and after a couple of minutes. It's really
Speaker 1: the other way around. Uh, this is what happens when
Speaker 1: I don't go to c e S. I mix up
Speaker 1: the halls. But the Central Hall out of power, and
Speaker 1: that was a big deal. Now, a lot of those
Speaker 1: booths also had their own generators, so they were able
Speaker 1: to have like little islands of light in a sea
Speaker 1: of darkness. But you might wonder what was the cause
Speaker 1: of the power alleges in the first place. Why did
Speaker 1: the power go out? What was all that darn rain
Speaker 1: from the day before. According to an official statement, the
Speaker 1: rain caused condensation to form on a transformer for the
Speaker 1: convention Center, eventually causing what is called a flashover. Flashover
Speaker 1: is also known as an arc flash, and this gives
Speaker 1: us the opportunity to learn about arc flashes before we
Speaker 1: jump into news about robots and TVs and stuff. So
Speaker 1: what is an arc flash? Well, first, an electrical arc
Speaker 1: is the phenomenon of a luminous bridge of electricity formed
Speaker 1: between two electrodes, and arc flash happens when a fault
Speaker 1: or short circuit passes through the arc gap, or to
Speaker 1: put it another way, and arc flash is when an
Speaker 1: electric current diverts from its intended path to leap from
Speaker 1: one conductor to another, or it can also happen from
Speaker 1: a conductor to the ground and it goes through the
Speaker 1: air in a really powerful electrical discharge. The term short
Speaker 1: circuit refers to a case where there's an unwanted connection
Speaker 1: between a circuit or within a circuit rather that allows
Speaker 1: current to pass through that unwanted connection. It's kind of like, well,
Speaker 1: it's like a short cut. That's why it's called a
Speaker 1: short circuit. You're having a pathway that you didn't intend
Speaker 1: electrons to pass through, and suddenly the electrons can and
Speaker 1: will go through it. Generally speaking, electronics work by directing
Speaker 1: electricity through specific pathways and that provides power to various elements.
Speaker 1: And that's how the electronics work, so if you create
Speaker 1: conductive connections between those pathways, suddenly electricity can travel a
Speaker 1: different way than what you had intended, and typically short
Speaker 1: circuits can damage circuits, They can lead to overheating, they
Speaker 1: can get hot enough to start a fire, or even
Speaker 1: with a powerful enough electric discharge, they can cause an explosion.
Speaker 1: Arc flashes can often be on the serious side of
Speaker 1: that spectrum. Typically it only happens if the voltage is
Speaker 1: above volts, and during an arc flash, an intense amount
Speaker 1: of energy can be released, and arc flash can produce
Speaker 1: heat of up to thirty five thousand degrees fahrenheit and
Speaker 1: produce a concussive force called an arc blast that, depending
Speaker 1: on the situation, can be strong enough to rupture your
Speaker 1: ear drums or even cause your lung to collapse. So
Speaker 1: it's an incredibly dangerous situation. So this arc flash shorted
Speaker 1: out part of the electrical system to the convention center,
Speaker 1: and that necessitated a repair job. To the credit of
Speaker 1: everyone involved, the system was back online within a couple
Speaker 1: of hours, but two hours lost during a massive trade
Speaker 1: show is no small problem. Companies spend a significant amount
Speaker 1: of money to secure show flow or space for c
Speaker 1: e s every hour representatives are trying to make connections
Speaker 1: with potential customers, and with the press going offline for
Speaker 1: two hours just at the start of things, wasn't a
Speaker 1: great way to begin the show. Now, that's not to
Speaker 1: say c E S was a show of doom and gloom.
Speaker 1: There there were some setbacks, but most of the reports
Speaker 1: I read seemed to suggest people took it in stride
Speaker 1: for the most part, and once the power came back on,
Speaker 1: everyone was back in business, or at least they were
Speaker 1: once they could get their tech up and running again
Speaker 1: after the unplanned power cycle. A few trends became evident
Speaker 1: during this year's c e S, and one of those
Speaker 1: was incorporating fingerprint scanners into technology. Several products at the
Speaker 1: show sported fingerprint scanners. One of them was a smartphone
Speaker 1: from Vivo, which actually went a step further. It's fingerprint
Speaker 1: scanner is built into the screen of the phone itself,
Speaker 1: so there's not a dedicated sensor area that's either on
Speaker 1: the front or the back of the phone or anything
Speaker 1: like that. You just put your finger on the proper
Speaker 1: spot on the screen, and assuming your fingerprint matches the
Speaker 1: one in the phone's memory, you access the device. So
Speaker 1: how does that work? How can you access just through
Speaker 1: a screen? Well, there's a sensor underneath the screen and
Speaker 1: it was created by a company called Synaptics. It's just
Speaker 1: below the display itself. So if you think of the
Speaker 1: phone as a stack, with the screen, the glass on
Speaker 1: the front on the top being the very top layer.
Speaker 1: Below that you have the display. Below that, you would
Speaker 1: have the sensor from Synaptics, and it could actually scan
Speaker 1: a fingerprint through the gaps presented between the O LED dots.
Speaker 1: Those are the elements that actually generate the pixels on
Speaker 1: a screen. So the spots between the little elements that
Speaker 1: would generate the light that creates the image on your phone,
Speaker 1: that was the scanner, the sensor, and it can scan
Speaker 1: your fingerprint. And according to a report from The Verge,
Speaker 1: the sensor may find its way into several smartphones throughout
Speaker 1: the course of and beyond, giving designers the opportunity to
Speaker 1: make owns and not have to set aside space for
Speaker 1: a dedicated fingerprint scanner on the front or back of
Speaker 1: the handset. So it freeze up design a little bit. Now,
Speaker 1: when I went to c S in Seen, I couldn't
Speaker 1: help but notice that Alexa was everywhere, and I apologize
Speaker 1: if I'm setting off your Alexa. I won't give it
Speaker 1: really bad commands. Don't worry, But lots of companies were
Speaker 1: incorporating Amazon's Assistant into their products. In this year, the
Speaker 1: story was more about Google and the Google Assistant. Google
Speaker 1: typically doesn't have a booth at c e S. Instead,
Speaker 1: people from Google will attend the show in order to
Speaker 1: network with various executives from other companies or to appear
Speaker 1: side by side with other companies that have a joint
Speaker 1: project with Google. And this year Google sponsored that large
Speaker 1: outdoor pavilion, the one I talked about earlier that had
Speaker 1: to be shut down early during the rain. Well, that
Speaker 1: pavilion's focus was all on the Google Assistant feature that's
Speaker 1: found in Android phones and Google Home devices. It also
Speaker 1: looked like it was a lot of fun. It had
Speaker 1: a big twist t slide on it, and so I'm
Speaker 1: kind of sad I missed it. Both Alexa and Google
Speaker 1: Assistant can be found in numerous devices. Sometimes both of
Speaker 1: them can be found in the same devices, including television's speakers, headphones,
Speaker 1: and light switches. So if you can't control your favorite
Speaker 1: gadgets with a vocal command, yet that could change in
Speaker 1: a couple of iterations of those products. There were a
Speaker 1: lot of other trends at ce SEN, ranging from another
Speaker 1: fleet of smart cars, some of which are autonomous two
Speaker 1: robots designed to do everything from guard your house to
Speaker 1: comforting a sick child. We'll look at some of those
Speaker 1: specific items in this episode, but before we dive into
Speaker 1: more detail on what went down at c E S,
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. And
Speaker 1: we're back. And now I'm joined by a good friend
Speaker 1: of the show, Shannon Morrise of Hack five fame, who,
Speaker 1: unlike yours truly actually went to c E S tween. Shannon,
Speaker 1: Welcome back to tech Stuff, Hi, Jonathan, thank you for
Speaker 1: having me on. Yeah, thank you for joining. Even though,
Speaker 1: just in full disclosure, Shannon might sound a teeny bit
Speaker 1: congested because she's fighting off the last remaining remnants of
Speaker 1: what we call con crude. Yeah, just that basic respiratory
Speaker 1: cold that people tend to come down with when you
Speaker 1: have I don't know, like a hundred thousand people in
Speaker 1: an enclosed space for several days at the time it happens. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was a hundred and seventy five thousand
Speaker 1: people at least that's the estimate I was told while
Speaker 1: I was at the convention. But yes, I came down
Speaker 1: on the very last day with the concrud, woke up
Speaker 1: the day after and I was just like, Oh, I
Speaker 1: am not going into work today, that's definitely not happening. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And you know, you're based out of the Bay Area
Speaker 1: over in California, so so there's a bit of a
Speaker 1: travel you know, travel time for you as well between
Speaker 1: Vegas and there, and then of course you also had
Speaker 1: the additional issues that happened this year. Were you there
Speaker 1: when the great deluge the rain storm was coming down, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was. It was crazy. Um, nobody knew how to
Speaker 1: drive in the rain, even though it was only like
Speaker 1: one or two inches of rain. No one knew really
Speaker 1: knew how to drive in it in Vegas because they
Speaker 1: never get rain. And one of the roads turned into
Speaker 1: a river, and the Las Vegas Convention Center started leaking,
Speaker 1: so they had to close some of the walkways inside
Speaker 1: the convention center so that people wouldn't walk around in
Speaker 1: like slushy carpet. It was terrible. And then the next
Speaker 1: day the lights went out. Yeah. Well I talked about
Speaker 1: that earlier in the episode about how it appears that
Speaker 1: a uh some condensation formed on the inside of a
Speaker 1: transformer at the Las Vegas Convention Center and caused and
Speaker 1: what is called a flash out where you haven't essentially
Speaker 1: a short circuit in an arc. Yeah, really ended up
Speaker 1: being a physics lesson for all of my listeners because
Speaker 1: I was like, well, I can't talk about CES because
Speaker 1: it wasn't there, but I can talk about what happened
Speaker 1: at the made the lights go out. So I was
Speaker 1: in the middle of the convention center. Ironically, I was
Speaker 1: in a meeting with Panasonic about their low light camera
Speaker 1: when the power went out, so I was able to
Speaker 1: test the camera in the low light setting since no
Speaker 1: lights were on, and it worked quite well. That's a
Speaker 1: heck of a demo right there. You know, I know
Speaker 1: everyone who cares if it tends to you know, put
Speaker 1: everyone else out. I mean, come on, this is you know,
Speaker 1: we're talking about important products here. Crazily enough, one of
Speaker 1: the people I overheard while I was listening to my
Speaker 1: b role much later on, I was just walking around
Speaker 1: the convention hall in one of the vendors was talking
Speaker 1: to one of his co workers and said that they
Speaker 1: lost out on about a million dollars of revenue, one
Speaker 1: million dollars for just the two hours that the power
Speaker 1: was out. So that gives you an estimation of how
Speaker 1: much the big boost cost. I you know that some
Speaker 1: of the smaller boosts costs eighty thou dollars. So the
Speaker 1: it's crazy how much these people pay to have a
Speaker 1: booth on the show floor and to have the power
Speaker 1: out for two hours. Yeah, that's definitely going to be
Speaker 1: a deterrence for the revenue that you're bringing in just
Speaker 1: from all the free advertisement that you're getting. Well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then I mentioned earlier in the episode about how
Speaker 1: the whole purpose really I mean, we we, you and
Speaker 1: I Shannon, we often think of it as well, here's
Speaker 1: my job as media as to go in, find the
Speaker 1: cool stuff, bring it forward, talk about it, analyze it,
Speaker 1: give my take, that kind of thing. But really, when
Speaker 1: you get down to it, the real purpose of the
Speaker 1: show is essentially connecting the companies what makes stuff with
Speaker 1: the companies what sells stuff. And when you when you
Speaker 1: can't connect with anybody for a couple of hours and
Speaker 1: you've spent that much money to have a presence there,
Speaker 1: that is not a good thing to have on your
Speaker 1: little Excel spreadsheet at the end of the year, where
Speaker 1: you're saying, yeah, so here's how much we spent, and uh,
Speaker 1: that two hours of downtime cost us this x amount
Speaker 1: effectively because we weren't able to have those sort of
Speaker 1: meetings and those sort of conversations that we normally would
Speaker 1: have had during that time. Right. Yeah, it's not great,
Speaker 1: I mean, but but I want to concentrate on things
Speaker 1: that actually did happen as opposed to all the meetings
Speaker 1: that could not happen during those two hours. So first
Speaker 1: thing I'm gonna ask you is did you see anything
Speaker 1: at c S I. I typically will notice some themes
Speaker 1: popping up year over year, whether it's a type of
Speaker 1: technology that's starting to get some traction, like you know,
Speaker 1: smart TVs, that and three D TVs those were big
Speaker 1: themes for many years ago. Now, uh, was there anything
Speaker 1: like that this year, Whether it was a specific kind
Speaker 1: of technology or some sort of implementation that you noticed
Speaker 1: while you were there, All right, yes, there absolutely was.
Speaker 1: This year. We saw a um, mind boggling amount of
Speaker 1: people promoting items that had voice assistance technology built in,
Speaker 1: whether you needed it or not. So so I'm sure
Speaker 1: there were some incidents where you're thinking, okay, that makes sense,
Speaker 1: but where there were there anywhere you're just thinking this
Speaker 1: is clearly a gimmick. It just doesn't. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: no demonstrable value added to the product by having voice
Speaker 1: activation in here, right exactly. UM. So, for example, Anchor
Speaker 1: came out with this really cool little car plug. It
Speaker 1: plugs into the little cigarette lighter in your car and
Speaker 1: it offers you ALEXA implementation through your car speakers. And
Speaker 1: I thought that was really cool because it gives you
Speaker 1: that ability uh in your car, even if you have
Speaker 1: a very old car that still doesn't have like Bluetooth
Speaker 1: built in or something like that. Plus you get ALEXA
Speaker 1: so you can just ask at things like hey, calm
Speaker 1: or whatever, um, which I thought was really nice. And
Speaker 1: then you have on the other side of the spectrum,
Speaker 1: things like LGS refrigerator, which has built in voice assistance,
Speaker 1: so you can stand in front of your fridge and
Speaker 1: ask it, am I out of milk, and it'll tell
Speaker 1: you whether or not you have milk in your fridge.
Speaker 1: And to me, that seems so pointless because you if
Speaker 1: you're already standing in front of your fridge you could
Speaker 1: open your fridge and find out if you have milk inside.
Speaker 1: Not to mention, the screen on the front of the
Speaker 1: l G refrigerator is transparent, so you can make it
Speaker 1: go transparent and you can actually look inside without even
Speaker 1: opening the fridge. So what's the point of having the
Speaker 1: voice technology? Like, why why can't you just look in
Speaker 1: the fridge without having to ask it to look in
Speaker 1: the fridge for you? I think the only the only
Speaker 1: use case I can come up with off the top
Speaker 1: of my head is if it's an accessibility issues. So
Speaker 1: for example, if I are visually impaired, then maybe then
Speaker 1: I could argue that, oh, it saves me the trouble.
Speaker 1: But then you're talking about something that pertains to a
Speaker 1: very narrow slice of the overall market. You're talking about
Speaker 1: a market for people who are in the market for
Speaker 1: a refrigerator. They want to buy the best of the
Speaker 1: best that's out now, and they have have some sort
Speaker 1: of uh impairment from with their vision. And then you're thinking, well,
Speaker 1: if you start adding all those up, obviously that doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense from a business standpoint to incorporate the the
Speaker 1: voice activation into your product. So I agree with you, Yes,
Speaker 1: it seems like an additional expense that most people will
Speaker 1: probably just think of, like, oh, well, I have to
Speaker 1: pay for this if I want this other cool feature
Speaker 1: that will actually use. Like that's what happened to me
Speaker 1: when I bought my last car. I didn't want the
Speaker 1: leather seats, but I got them because I wanted the
Speaker 1: car to park itself. I mean, that's that's what ended
Speaker 1: up happening to me. Is that, to me, is the
Speaker 1: argument about three D television's right? Like, there were so
Speaker 1: many people who said, I don't want three D three
Speaker 1: D television, I'm never going to use that, But this
Speaker 1: television has the resolution I want, or the you know,
Speaker 1: the refresh rate I want, whatever it might be, and
Speaker 1: it's at the price that I need. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: now we're not seeing three D TV pushed nearly as
Speaker 1: hard as we were five six years ago. But I
Speaker 1: had heard that voice activation was a big deal, and
Speaker 1: it's good to hear confirmation that that wasn't just some
Speaker 1: sort of, you know, one person's experience at ce S.
Speaker 1: It sounds like it was pretty much everywhere. I did
Speaker 1: hear that Google had its own pavilion set up and
Speaker 1: that they did there heavily promoting Google Assistant. Yes they were.
Speaker 1: I I got very very short, limited time over there
Speaker 1: where I was able to walk through the Voice Assistance room,
Speaker 1: and they had a whole bunch of different devices set
Speaker 1: up and modeled just to show like all the different
Speaker 1: types of devices that you can currently get voice assistance
Speaker 1: technology in. They included a fridge out there, They included
Speaker 1: a bunch of different speakers, some things with screens built in.
Speaker 1: Lenovo built a thing that has a screen built into it,
Speaker 1: which is interesting, but I have no use for lots
Speaker 1: of phones, lots of different technology like that, which was
Speaker 1: very cool. You can tell that Google is really really
Speaker 1: trying to catch up with Amazon right now. But and
Speaker 1: you would think just from all the advertisement from CS
Speaker 1: this year that Google took over everything, But when you
Speaker 1: step inside the Las Vegas Convention Center or the Sands
Speaker 1: Venetian Convention Center, everything still has Alexa belt in. So
Speaker 1: I think Google, even though they spent all this money
Speaker 1: on this awesome pavilion and they do have a lot
Speaker 1: of really cool technologies being implemented in a bunch of
Speaker 1: different devices, they still have a ways to go to
Speaker 1: catch up with Amazon, which is interesting because Google takes
Speaker 1: over pretty much everything in the world other than this
Speaker 1: voice assistance technology, so they're still catching up. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I've noticed that Google, They're implementations of certain technologies tend
Speaker 1: to really follow that kind of engineering mindset. So people
Speaker 1: who kind of have that that way of thinking, it
Speaker 1: clicks with them and it really resonates with them. But
Speaker 1: for anyone else it can seem daunting or it can
Speaker 1: seem unnecessarily complicated. Because I look at I look at
Speaker 1: some of the products that Google's come out with over
Speaker 1: the years that didn't go very far, Like Google Glass
Speaker 1: ultimately didn't go very far, excepted now it's being incorporated
Speaker 1: into uh the industrial world and it's like like in
Speaker 1: manufacturing and stuff like that, and there it's doing quite well.
Speaker 1: But as a as a consumer product that never quite
Speaker 1: caught on, or things like Google Wave, which I still
Speaker 1: miss even though I was maybe one of three people
Speaker 1: who found a way to use it, Uh, you know
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. I look at that and I
Speaker 1: think they come up with great ideas. Uh, they have this,
Speaker 1: they have this habit of coming up with great ideas
Speaker 1: that other companies are able to capitalize on. Right, So,
Speaker 1: but there's still a huge powerhouse. There's still incredibly influential
Speaker 1: and UH, and I do think the Google Assistant obviously
Speaker 1: is going to find its way into more stuff, and
Speaker 1: it may very well be one of those things where
Speaker 1: it finds itself side by side with Alexa. I heard
Speaker 1: that there were a lot more products out there that
Speaker 1: had both, like, had interoperability with both. Uh. Panasonic is
Speaker 1: a great example again during their res conference, they were
Speaker 1: talking about adding not just Google Assistance technology, but Amazon's
Speaker 1: Echo technology as well, both voice assistants through car manufacturers.
Speaker 1: So Panasonic is working with both of them to bring
Speaker 1: that ability to all sorts of different manufacturers at the
Speaker 1: same time. So we're not really while they are competition
Speaker 1: with each other, we're not seeing a lot of other
Speaker 1: brands associating with just one or the other. Well that's nice.
Speaker 1: I like that we're not seeing sort of an exclusivity
Speaker 1: kind of thing, because then the more times times you
Speaker 1: see that exclusivity issue, the more you get channeled into
Speaker 1: this idea that you have to buy into a specific infrastructure,
Speaker 1: and the thus all of your buying decisions get based
Speaker 1: upon whatever it was you bought into first, right, like,
Speaker 1: which is exactly in my household. That's how me and
Speaker 1: my wife are. Becca. She uses an iPhone, So Apple
Speaker 1: is makes way more sense for because everything works properly
Speaker 1: with it. I am an Android user, and so I
Speaker 1: avoid all the Apple stuff because it just doesn't play
Speaker 1: well very well my my things, and it's it's not
Speaker 1: like one. I don't think one is inherently better or
Speaker 1: worse than the other. But once you buy in, it's
Speaker 1: really hard to convince yourself to go somewhere else because
Speaker 1: it's just so much work to get everything to to
Speaker 1: work together properly, like whether you're pouring information over or
Speaker 1: you just have to learn a new way of interacting
Speaker 1: with your technology. Uh, that can actually be a pretty
Speaker 1: high barrier to entry. So seeing companies say, you know what,
Speaker 1: we're gonna We're not gonna worry about that mess, We're
Speaker 1: not gonna worry about these exclusivity issues. We're going to
Speaker 1: incorporate both and then whichever platform ends up winning out
Speaker 1: in the long run. We were okay because we supported
Speaker 1: both of them. We're not gonna go obsolete because we
Speaker 1: backed the wrong horse. We don't want to see an
Speaker 1: HD DVD versus Blu Ray kind of situation, you know, Um,
Speaker 1: before I move off of Google Assistant, I do have
Speaker 1: one other question for you that is extremely relevant for this. Okay,
Speaker 1: did you did you go down the slide? No? I didn't,
Speaker 1: you know, I think I didn't see anybody else going
Speaker 1: down it when I was in that area, So I'm
Speaker 1: wondering if it was only open to like invitees or
Speaker 1: something like that, because none of the attendees I saw,
Speaker 1: including myself, were going down it. Yeah. The picture picture
Speaker 1: I saw it look like it was the one way
Speaker 1: to get down from the top platform. But I didn't
Speaker 1: see any ways of getting up the top platform, so
Speaker 1: you may well there was another way. There were stairs
Speaker 1: on the back of it. That's good because otherwise you
Speaker 1: have to be extremely determined to make your way up
Speaker 1: to the top, a lot of a lot of positioning
Speaker 1: and wedging yourself and chimneying up. Yeah. So yeah, for
Speaker 1: those who don't know, you should definitely go and do
Speaker 1: an image search for the Google pavilion. At c E
Speaker 1: S they had a big, like a twisty slide that
Speaker 1: went from the top of their pavilion down to the bottom.
Speaker 1: It looked like it was about maybe two and a
Speaker 1: half three stories to its pretty big. Just about Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was pretty big. So was there anything there that
Speaker 1: you saw at c E S that got you really excited? Uh,
Speaker 1: this is a tough question to ask people who cover
Speaker 1: c e S as media because we can quickly become
Speaker 1: jaded because we see so much of the same stuff
Speaker 1: and we often see things at c e S that
Speaker 1: are never going to happen, Like you see prototypes that
Speaker 1: are just like, oh, look what we can do, but
Speaker 1: we're never going to do this because we won't get
Speaker 1: funding to do it. So it's always tough to say like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is the thing I'm really excited about. But one
Speaker 1: thing I actually saw that is coming to market I
Speaker 1: believe in February, but don't quote me on that is
Speaker 1: um the HTC Vive Pro. And it's like my number
Speaker 1: one device from the show because I've been really getting
Speaker 1: into virtual reality lately and I've been able to test
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of different headsets, so the Vibe Pro
Speaker 1: is like my number one at the moment for video gaming.
Speaker 1: I got to play role data on it and the
Speaker 1: resolution truly truly is like seventy percent better than the
Speaker 1: old one, as they quote, and it was so so
Speaker 1: pretty Wow. Yeah, I've had only a little bit of experience,
Speaker 1: you know, working experience with VR, because it requires a
Speaker 1: pretty hefty investment on the part of the consumer and
Speaker 1: that you need to have a decent computer and a
Speaker 1: obviously you need to have a space set aside for it.
Speaker 1: But the experiences and the equipment that have been coming
Speaker 1: out of the past maybe eighteen months or so has
Speaker 1: been really really impressive, and to know that they're continuing
Speaker 1: to invest in that and improve on the experience is encouraging.
Speaker 1: I often ask myself the question at the beginning of
Speaker 1: every year. Now it's kind of my standard question. They're
Speaker 1: they're too really. The first question is is this the
Speaker 1: mic or break year for VR slash a R right.
Speaker 1: Is this the year where where we finally say yes,
Speaker 1: this is a consumer technology or no, this is just
Speaker 1: going to be an experiential thing that you go somewhere
Speaker 1: and then you get to put on the headset and
Speaker 1: everything and you play, but then you leave. Or the
Speaker 1: question number two is is Moore's Law finally ending this year?
Speaker 1: Those are the two that asking myself every year, and so, uh,
Speaker 1: it's good to hear that this was a positive experience. Now,
Speaker 1: is this a tethered headset or is this one untethered?
Speaker 1: So this one is tethered as well. But they also
Speaker 1: introduced a wireless adapter, an accessory that you can use
Speaker 1: with both the old HTC Vibe as well as the
Speaker 1: new Vibe Pro. So if you plug that in, you
Speaker 1: can go untethered and you don't have to worry about
Speaker 1: a cable hanging down your back and accidentally getting stepped
Speaker 1: on or anything like that. Now, I didn't get to
Speaker 1: test the wireless adapter. They didn't have that plugged in
Speaker 1: when I got to play with it, but I did
Speaker 1: just get to play with the y the Vive Pro
Speaker 1: while it was tethered to a computer, And of course
Speaker 1: the computer that I was playing on had like the
Speaker 1: best GPU on the market, so it looked beautiful and
Speaker 1: it was really smooth and buttery and everything like that.
Speaker 1: But it also sounded good and the gameplay was easy,
Speaker 1: especially when you have that nice resolution, so it makes
Speaker 1: it look more realistic to you and you're not paying
Speaker 1: as much attention to the pixels, which you can still
Speaker 1: see they're still there right in front of your face.
Speaker 1: But since it is more comfortable, since it was more
Speaker 1: engaging experience, because of that higher resolution, you don't pay
Speaker 1: attention to it as much. And um VIA or HTC
Speaker 1: is doing something really good here, like they're making a
Speaker 1: really nice, noticeable increase in performance from the old one,
Speaker 1: and I think they were listening to a lot of
Speaker 1: the complaints from previous users. I just hope that this
Speaker 1: new one doesn't cost a lot, and that's that's something
Speaker 1: I'm concerned about, because they haven't announced the price at all,
Speaker 1: and the old one, I believe, with all the components,
Speaker 1: was like six hundred bucks. The new one could be
Speaker 1: eight hundred dollars just the headset alone because of all
Speaker 1: the upgrades. So hopefully it's not that expensive. Is nobody's
Speaker 1: going to buy it just by itself. I hope it
Speaker 1: would be something like five or less so that it
Speaker 1: would be easy to upgrade sell the old five headset
Speaker 1: if you have an old one, and then you could
Speaker 1: just keep all of your old components. Yeah, yeah, that
Speaker 1: is to me, that's probably the the largest barrier to
Speaker 1: entry is that price point, because again, when you combine
Speaker 1: combine it with the computer that you need to to
Speaker 1: run it, assuming you don't already have one, if you've
Speaker 1: already got a really good gaming rig then you're set.
Speaker 1: You know you're gonna you've got If you've got a
Speaker 1: VR ready PC, then that part is you've already made
Speaker 1: that investment. For someone who's just getting into it from scratch,
Speaker 1: you're talking about almost two thousand dollars in order to
Speaker 1: have both. That's a lot to ask, but it sounds
Speaker 1: like the experience was really compelling. So if the if,
Speaker 1: if more people can get a chance to try it out,
Speaker 1: they might be able to make that argument for themselves
Speaker 1: that it's it's worth that kind of cost to get
Speaker 1: into the world of VR. It's also I mean, this
Speaker 1: is a really tricky thing. It's again going back to
Speaker 1: three D television's until you experience it. It's how do
Speaker 1: you sell it right? Because you can't just show video
Speaker 1: to people because the whole, the whole uh appealed to
Speaker 1: this is the actual experience of being inside a virtual
Speaker 1: environment and getting to do stuff, and we're all used
Speaker 1: to watching video. I mean, that's not to us, that's
Speaker 1: not that special. So it's it's it's a tough sell,
Speaker 1: like you really have to get people out there and
Speaker 1: trying it and have that little lightbulb click on like,
Speaker 1: oh this is why it's a big deal. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree with you. That's tough, but it sounds like
Speaker 1: it's I like that you're optimistic about it, though, because
Speaker 1: I want to CVR succeed. I've wanted to CEVR succeed
Speaker 1: since the nineties when it had its initial crash. Oh yeah, no,
Speaker 1: it still hurts. It still hurts. I I tell this
Speaker 1: story all the time on tech stuff. But there used
Speaker 1: to be a little kind of like an arcade. It
Speaker 1: was a game experience thing at a local mall here
Speaker 1: in the Atlanta area, and my family would go down
Speaker 1: to this mall and I would just take like ten
Speaker 1: bucks and go to this place, and it was a
Speaker 1: VR gaming center and you would go and stand in line,
Speaker 1: and then you would get on this little pedestal thing.
Speaker 1: They would lower an incredibly bulky helmet suspended by cables
Speaker 1: from the ceiling because it was too heavy to just
Speaker 1: put on your teeth, and then you would play the
Speaker 1: Dactyl Nightmare game, which was about as primitive as you
Speaker 1: can get with graphics and still and still have like
Speaker 1: solid polygons. It wasn't like just empty vector graphics or something,
Speaker 1: but just that experience, even though as primitive as it was,
Speaker 1: it was so cool and to finally see a world
Speaker 1: where we can maybe get like really compelling gaming experiences
Speaker 1: and our homes not even have to go out for
Speaker 1: it is really encouraging to me. So did you get
Speaker 1: a chance to see the augmented reality stuff while you
Speaker 1: were there? I didn't not this year. There was some
Speaker 1: a r there, but I didn't get to attest any
Speaker 1: of it myself. Unfortunately. One of the fun parts of
Speaker 1: going to see SUH just on your own, like tag
Speaker 1: teaming it as a podcaster, is having to do all
Speaker 1: the b roll, all the stand up shots, all the
Speaker 1: hosting and editing and writing all yourself, and then trying
Speaker 1: to find a place to upload everything from the show floor.
Speaker 1: So it's very tough to see everything. Um Plus, this year,
Speaker 1: I believe not only did it encompass like the forty
Speaker 1: football fields that is the Las Vegas Convention Center, but
Speaker 1: they also had these stands of Venetian Convention Center area
Speaker 1: as well, and they had a bunch of suites that
Speaker 1: were at other hotels, And it takes like an hour
Speaker 1: to get to anything at c e S. So while
Speaker 1: there was a lot that I did get to see,
Speaker 1: if I made sure to put in a interview request
Speaker 1: and scheduled a meeting with a company that was a
Speaker 1: lot that I did not get to see just because
Speaker 1: I was so busy. Yeah, No, doing doing CS with
Speaker 1: a small crew is incredibly challenging. It's it's it's almost
Speaker 1: to the point where there's so much to cover. If
Speaker 1: you haven't done your homework beforehand and hasn't planned out
Speaker 1: your attack beforehand, you could be paralyzed by choice. As
Speaker 1: soon as you're like looking at your immediately in view
Speaker 1: or twenty booths and you know there are a hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty more booths directly behind the twenty you can see,
Speaker 1: and they all have stuff beeping and worrying and making
Speaker 1: noise and moving and flashing, and sometimes there are people
Speaker 1: who are also beeping and moving and if you're not lucky,
Speaker 1: flashing in the area, and you just it's it becomes
Speaker 1: incredibly difficult to figure out where to go first. Um,
Speaker 1: And as you were saying, like uploading, uploading material at
Speaker 1: CES is no easy task either. Just on its own,
Speaker 1: finding a signal strong enough for you to be able
Speaker 1: to get anything out can be a bit of a
Speaker 1: cha leunge, just because everything is so connected. Now everything's
Speaker 1: got a connection to the Internet, either through some dedicated
Speaker 1: WiFi hotspot or through the cellular networks, and so everything
Speaker 1: gets overloaded very very quickly. Yeah, that's true. Now, the
Speaker 1: VR sounds like it was pretty awesome. That was there
Speaker 1: anything else that that particularly struck you while you were
Speaker 1: walking around c S anything else that was really interesting
Speaker 1: to you. There were lots of robots. That's that's cool.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're well, let me ask you this were
Speaker 1: they Were they interesting robots or because I've seen both,
Speaker 1: I've seen robots, they were interesting. Um. I saw one robot.
Speaker 1: It was a piece of luggage that could follow you
Speaker 1: around an airport. The unfortunate part, though, was that it
Speaker 1: doesn't work on carpet, and it would disconnect from its
Speaker 1: users bracelet. You connect to a via a bracelet that
Speaker 1: you wear, and that's how it knows where you are
Speaker 1: and who it needs to follow through an airport, and
Speaker 1: a lot of times it would just disconnect and then
Speaker 1: it would lose track of where you are, and then
Speaker 1: when it reconnects, it tries to hurry up and get
Speaker 1: to you, and then it runs into your legs. So
Speaker 1: it didn't work so well. But I think that things
Speaker 1: like that, if they figure out those connectability issues, then
Speaker 1: it could be an awesome product. But unfortunately with a
Speaker 1: lot of robots, even LG l G had an issue
Speaker 1: during their press event where their robot its name is Chloe.
Speaker 1: It's also a voice assistance technology to uh that one
Speaker 1: just did not answer the CEO when he was asking
Speaker 1: it a question on stage. So there were there were
Speaker 1: a lot of those little issues at c e S,
Speaker 1: which most likely had to do with the fact that
Speaker 1: it's such a such a huge area with a lot
Speaker 1: of Wi Fi technology happening at the same time, so
Speaker 1: it's inundated by a lot of frequencies happening at the
Speaker 1: same time. But hopefully it's not a problem when it
Speaker 1: gets to consumers well. And we also have to be
Speaker 1: aware that technology, I mean, we know it because we
Speaker 1: deal with it all the time. Technology sometimes doesn't work properly.
Speaker 1: It sometimes just fails because of whatever reason, you know,
Speaker 1: and maybe something very minor that is easy to fix.
Speaker 1: And the frustrating thing is that can happen when all
Speaker 1: eyes are on you at c e S because you're
Speaker 1: you're there on the stage. Cameras literally cameras from all
Speaker 1: over the world are on you at that moment, and
Speaker 1: you just have to hope that your technology works that
Speaker 1: one time, even if it's something where you're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: the time, it works every now and then there's a
Speaker 1: little bit of a bug that we haven't quite worked out.
Speaker 1: But uh, that one percent can still happen while you're
Speaker 1: on stage, and that it doesn't. It doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be anything other than just bad luck, bad timing, and
Speaker 1: it's unfortunate because it can. It can then be the
Speaker 1: dominant part of any conversation moving forward for that particular technology,
Speaker 1: even though it's not really representative of how it works.
Speaker 1: And of course you you probably also I don't know
Speaker 1: if you were at CS that year. Were you there
Speaker 1: the year the infamous year where I wasn't at Gizmoto
Speaker 1: where the people had had the universal remotes to turn
Speaker 1: off televisions during someone's ce s. That's a terrible thing
Speaker 1: to do. I mean, yeah, I just I well, I
Speaker 1: put myself in the place of the presenters, right, I think,
Speaker 1: what if I were up on stage and I'm just
Speaker 1: about to unveil this thing that teams have been working
Speaker 1: on for for countless hours to get it ready. In
Speaker 1: time from my presentation, and this is my part where
Speaker 1: I gotta be up there for forty minutes and really
Speaker 1: sell this amazing technology, and then it's just not working.
Speaker 1: And I don't know that it's not working because someone
Speaker 1: is actively sabotaging me, and I'm like that, what a
Speaker 1: horrible thing. To this day, I get mad about it.
Speaker 1: But but I think I have empathy for presenters, so
Speaker 1: I would never do that to somebody. I just think
Speaker 1: it's cruel. Yeah, I think if you were, if you're
Speaker 1: doing it too. I don't know that there's any justifiable
Speaker 1: time to do it unless you're like at a buddy's
Speaker 1: house and you're really just messing with them, and afterwards
Speaker 1: you're like, you know what, you were a good sport.
Speaker 1: I'm buying you pizza and beer. Then that's okay because
Speaker 1: you're you're making restitution for your horrible prank. But when
Speaker 1: you're out in the public, well not even a public
Speaker 1: venue because it's not really public venue, but a publicly
Speaker 1: viewable conference, that's just wrong. I mean, it's it's like
Speaker 1: bringing rotten tomatoes and cabbage is to like an Apple event.
Speaker 1: You really just shouldn't do that. It's there's a time
Speaker 1: and a place. Um, So, do you any other robots
Speaker 1: you wanted to talk about? I've seen lots of different ones,
Speaker 1: ranging from the really complicated looking ones too very simple
Speaker 1: ones that obviously are more like toys. Did you happen
Speaker 1: to see the Afflac one the duck? Yes? I did.
Speaker 1: I did see the a flack one. So they were
Speaker 1: promoting a really cute little duck that you that they
Speaker 1: can bring to hospitals and the like to help, um,
Speaker 1: help kids deal with emotional troubles and and the problems
Speaker 1: that go along with health issues, and it's supposed to
Speaker 1: be something that helps calm them. And it was really cute.
Speaker 1: It would respond to your touch, so like if you
Speaker 1: pet it or something like that, and it was fluffy
Speaker 1: so that you can like squish it or hug it
Speaker 1: or whatever you want. It would respond to that and
Speaker 1: it would move its neck and things like that, and
Speaker 1: it was really really sweet. Um. I also so saw
Speaker 1: Sony's I want to call it the eyebow. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: they had a new dog and this one has brand
Speaker 1: new eyes. I believe they were led or o l
Speaker 1: e ed eyeballs and they would blink and they would
Speaker 1: look at you and it would respond to your touch
Speaker 1: as well, and it would walk around. It was so cute.
Speaker 1: So there was some really really cute robotic technologies at
Speaker 1: work at the convention center as well. I love seeing those.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've been covering that kind of stuff, like
Speaker 1: some of the some of the companion robots that are
Speaker 1: meant to help either children or sometimes it's the elderly
Speaker 1: be able to deal with emotional issues psychological issues, uh,
Speaker 1: and create some companionship, create an outlet for emotional expression.
Speaker 1: I love that aspect because it's something that I don't
Speaker 1: frequently think about when I think of the term robot.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm often thinking one of two eventualities. I'm
Speaker 1: either thinking the practical application of robots and automation, which
Speaker 1: ultimately results in human beings being displaced from certain types
Speaker 1: of jobs, or I'm thinking terminator. Those are usually the two.
Speaker 1: But thinking about nice robots that are there that that
Speaker 1: help people deal with really tough situations, it's it's quite inspiring.
Speaker 1: I agree. Well, let me ask you. You mentioned the
Speaker 1: the odd, the somewhat odd uh incre ration of voice
Speaker 1: activation in certain products. Did you see anything else that
Speaker 1: was just weird or or you thought unnecessary or you know,
Speaker 1: just one of those things where you look at and
Speaker 1: you think you think they're trying way too hard. Um,
Speaker 1: there was there was some interesting technology coming out of France.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of French prototypes that were brought
Speaker 1: in for some of the press events that weren't necessarily
Speaker 1: on the shelf floor that, but they did show up
Speaker 1: at these press events that the press of media can
Speaker 1: go to h during the nighttime, during the evening. One
Speaker 1: of them was this it was a wine fridge or
Speaker 1: a wine cabinet, and it's it's a smart connected wine
Speaker 1: cabinet that can alert you whenever your wine cabinet is empty,
Speaker 1: or you can scan wine bottles that are in your
Speaker 1: wine cabinet so you can find out other similar wines
Speaker 1: that you might be interested in. It was very like
Speaker 1: naw esque, like you have to be somebody who has
Speaker 1: like forty different bottles of wine in this wine cabinet
Speaker 1: to really appreciate how useful it is. And I was
Speaker 1: just like, I'm not that rich, you know, I can't.
Speaker 1: I have like one bottle of wine from Trader Joe's
Speaker 1: in my kitchen right now, and I think it was
Speaker 1: a two dollar one two buck Chuck, I believe it is.
Speaker 1: So I'm pretty sure this wine cabinet is not something
Speaker 1: that I would ever buy. And it was a little
Speaker 1: bit ridiculous at the same time, but I was like,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe somebody out there once it connected wine cabinet
Speaker 1: for some reason. Well, did you happen to see? And
Speaker 1: if not, I'll be sure to explain to the audience
Speaker 1: what exactly I'm talking about. The weird booth that Netflix
Speaker 1: had set up that was a viral marketing booth for
Speaker 1: altered carbon what's no, Oh my gosh, so on the
Speaker 1: show floor and I don't have the information we're in
Speaker 1: front of me, so I can't tell you which haul
Speaker 1: it was in. They created a booth that was from
Speaker 1: a supposed biotech company that was working on human cloning,
Speaker 1: and they had these giant tubes set up with with
Speaker 1: essentially mannequins but designed to look very very realistic at
Speaker 1: least from a distance of people floating in these tubes. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it was supposed to all be about transmitting your
Speaker 1: consciousness into another form, and they even had representatives doing
Speaker 1: sort of a technobabble speech about the technology around. It
Speaker 1: turns out it was all a marketing ploy for a series.
Speaker 1: It's based off a cyberpunk novel called Altered Carbon. It's
Speaker 1: coming out on Netflix. And so when I was looking
Speaker 1: for weird things that were happening at C E S,
Speaker 1: this popped up and I thought, what the heck is
Speaker 1: going on here? Like this is the strangest thing I've
Speaker 1: ever seen, and um, particularly for C E S because
Speaker 1: that's just not it's not it's a train show, it's
Speaker 1: not a it's not a fan show. It's not a
Speaker 1: genre convention. Right, It's not like a comic con or
Speaker 1: a dragon con or anything like that. So to see
Speaker 1: some company come out with promoting a a series, a
Speaker 1: web series or a you know, a television series at
Speaker 1: C E S is is pretty unusual. You don't typically
Speaker 1: see that there. I'm sad, I'm said, you didn't get
Speaker 1: to see it. But The Verge has a great rundown
Speaker 1: on it. So you'll have to go to the Virgin
Speaker 1: and check it out, because once you see what it
Speaker 1: looks like, you're gonna think, man, I wish I had
Speaker 1: known that was there while I was there. I hate
Speaker 1: to give you that after you've come back, but it's
Speaker 1: definitely something you should check out. Everyone listening to this
Speaker 1: should look at it because it is. It's a head
Speaker 1: scratcher for me, because yeah, it's just one of those
Speaker 1: things where you see it and you think, this is
Speaker 1: this is clearly not the purpose of what c E S.
Speaker 1: You know what CS is all about. It's you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's so weird to see a promotion for a
Speaker 1: fictional work at a trade show. It just is not
Speaker 1: the It doesn't it's a square peg in a round hole.
Speaker 1: It's so weird. But was there anything that you noticed missing?
Speaker 1: As in other words, were there any technologies that had
Speaker 1: in previous years had a lot of representation at C
Speaker 1: E S. Maybe you just didn't really see as much
Speaker 1: of this year. Um. There were two that stood out
Speaker 1: to me. One was three D t v s, which
Speaker 1: I saw none of. They were nowhere to be found
Speaker 1: at all. Everyone's given up on three D televisions, which
Speaker 1: is fine by me. And uh. I also noticed that
Speaker 1: there wasn't that much as far as security and privacy, um,
Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is there were still
Speaker 1: companies that were promoting these like little boxes that you
Speaker 1: can plug into your router and they're supposed to be
Speaker 1: a physical firewall for your entire house. There's there's still
Speaker 1: things like that, but there were still a lot of
Speaker 1: companies that just don't care about security or privacy. Like
Speaker 1: I would go up to a booth and be like, cool,
Speaker 1: this looks neat. What kind of encryption protocols are you
Speaker 1: are you using? And they would not be able to
Speaker 1: answer me at all. And then I'd be like, okay,
Speaker 1: well is your CTO here? And they'd be like, oh,
Speaker 1: well no, And I'd just be like, well, you need
Speaker 1: to learn these questions because I'm going to ask him
Speaker 1: every single year and eventually y'all need to answer. I
Speaker 1: won't promote your your technology. I won't even want to
Speaker 1: touch it unless it's secures my devices. Um, there was
Speaker 1: a little bit of and of course it's Las Vegas,
Speaker 1: so you're going to see a little bit of it.
Speaker 1: There were some adult toys that were connected at the
Speaker 1: convention center as well, and those basically, unless it's listed
Speaker 1: on Internet of Dogs dot com, which is a definite thing.
Speaker 1: My my friend runs that website. He's an information security
Speaker 1: professional and he runs this website for for adult toys.
Speaker 1: Unless it's listed on that site as being secure, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't even consider something like that, because those those divices
Speaker 1: need to be secure because they run such a huge
Speaker 1: risk of being intercepted and being used for something that
Speaker 1: you definitely don't want them to be used for. So
Speaker 1: there's there's still a lot of concern when it comes
Speaker 1: to security and privacy from technology, especially emerging technology and
Speaker 1: emerging companies. And I'm still not getting the answers that
Speaker 1: I want as somebody who is such a proponent for
Speaker 1: security and privacy myself that I would need for me
Speaker 1: to actually start reviewing these products on my show. Well,
Speaker 1: and we were talking earlier about voice activation. Clearly there's
Speaker 1: been ongoing conversations literally about security with voice any sort
Speaker 1: of voice activation, particularly ones that become active very very quickly.
Speaker 1: You know, there's no physical pushing a button to activate
Speaker 1: the device. You just use a call phrase, which tells you, well,
Speaker 1: there's clearly an active microphone. Otherwise there's no a way
Speaker 1: for it to react when you say the call phrase.
Speaker 1: And then that brings up the questions of all, right, well,
Speaker 1: what's happening passively in the background, when I'm not actively
Speaker 1: calling out and giving a command. What is happening How
Speaker 1: much of my conversation is getting picked up, Is any
Speaker 1: of that going anywhere? Is it being analyzed? If so,
Speaker 1: for what purpose? Uh? Is that laid out in the
Speaker 1: terms of service that no one reads and everyone agrees
Speaker 1: to and then they just it happens and then the
Speaker 1: excuse the company has, Well, it's in the terms of
Speaker 1: service and you agreed to it. So it's tough. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I mean to me like that, I knew that
Speaker 1: that was gonna be something you would look into because
Speaker 1: that's that's your focus, and you are really passionate about
Speaker 1: information security, and I agree with you. Like when I've
Speaker 1: gone year over year over year, Uh, the emphasis always
Speaker 1: is on we found out this cool way where we
Speaker 1: can do X, and it's usually three years later like, oh,
Speaker 1: we found a secure way where we can you X.
Speaker 1: But we've totally not been secure for the last three
Speaker 1: years that we've been doing it. So Uh, yeah, that
Speaker 1: that is something. And and considering the high profile nature
Speaker 1: of various information security breaches that we've seen over the
Speaker 1: last couple of years, you would think that there'd be
Speaker 1: more of a focus on that. Even even when you
Speaker 1: think it, you know, the life cycle of developing a
Speaker 1: product can be a year or longer. You would expect
Speaker 1: to at least start seeing that stuff get rolled out
Speaker 1: from the get go, and yet we're still seeing companies
Speaker 1: really dragging their feet on it, possibly because maybe the
Speaker 1: maybe the the attitude is until something catastrophic happens, it's
Speaker 1: not our problem, right exactly. And unfortunately, a lot of
Speaker 1: the companies that I would speak to, not all of them,
Speaker 1: but a lot of them, uh, they would get somewhat
Speaker 1: defensive when I would ask them about if they do
Speaker 1: third party auditing, or if they have an info sec
Speaker 1: uh genre like for their for their company, if they
Speaker 1: have something that you know, somebody that checks their their
Speaker 1: privacy every single day, or checks their network to make
Speaker 1: sure there's no vulnerabilities in it every day, something like that. Uh.
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, when a company gets defensive about those kind
Speaker 1: of questions, which they should be very open about, they
Speaker 1: should be very transparent about their security and privacy protocols
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, then I just don't I don't trust them.
Speaker 1: So it's it's unfortunate that this is still an issue,
Speaker 1: and I wish that it wasn't, but it still is.
Speaker 1: And that kind of leads me into one final thing
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about this is not a fun
Speaker 1: thing to talk about, but I think it's an important one,
Speaker 1: and that is uh so over the last couple of
Speaker 1: years in particular, but definitely it's been an ongoing issue.
Speaker 1: We've seen a lot more discussion about things like a
Speaker 1: code of conduct at various gatherings conventions, More and more
Speaker 1: of them are incorporating codes of con duct to explain
Speaker 1: exactly what sorts of behavior will absolutely not be tolerated
Speaker 1: by the entity throwing that convention or event, uh and saying,
Speaker 1: you know, we expect if you're attending that you are
Speaker 1: going to behave according to this code of conduct, and
Speaker 1: if you don't, then you're going to be kicked out.
Speaker 1: It's just the way it works, because we want this
Speaker 1: to be a safe environment. Uh. Leading into c e S.
Speaker 1: One of the notable stories, unfortunately, was that the the
Speaker 1: c e A, the group that puts it on, still
Speaker 1: not formed any kind of code of conduct. That there
Speaker 1: was nothing from an organizational standpoint to support that kind
Speaker 1: of thing, which seems particularly negligent in an era where
Speaker 1: this sort of conversation is taking more and more of
Speaker 1: the spotlight. It does. It's it was very concerning because
Speaker 1: I saw some articles being posted after I had gotten
Speaker 1: to Vegas that were like, hey, there's still no code
Speaker 1: of conduct at c S whatsoever. And there is also
Speaker 1: there were no female keynote speakers whatsoever either for any
Speaker 1: of the main stages. There were female speakers for some
Speaker 1: of the smaller stages, some of the niche audiences, but
Speaker 1: there weren't any for their main stages. And that's a
Speaker 1: huge drawback when it comes to such a huge convention,
Speaker 1: especially since we've been working so hard it's myself included
Speaker 1: in the past year for more gender equality. Um. Women
Speaker 1: have never had such a huge foothold in technology as
Speaker 1: men have, and it's unfortunate, you know. Ever since I
Speaker 1: was a little kid, UM, when I went to Defcon
Speaker 1: this year, that same week, I decided to post a
Speaker 1: YouTube video on my personal channel that was talking about
Speaker 1: how I was groped at a hacker convention three years ago.
Speaker 1: And it took me three years to finally go public
Speaker 1: about it and be like, hey, this is what happened.
Speaker 1: And the convention it happened at did not have a
Speaker 1: code of conduct in place. So when I went to
Speaker 1: that convention about this information, which I wasn't going to
Speaker 1: report it in the first place, because I was so
Speaker 1: shocked at it happening, because the person that did it
Speaker 1: was an acquaintance. Um. The only reason I did is
Speaker 1: because my one of my lady friends was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you should report that because that's messed up, and I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, I'll talk to somebody about it. So
Speaker 1: I reported it, but they didn't know what to do,
Speaker 1: so the guy didn't get banned until the next year,
Speaker 1: and the only reason he got banned so he he
Speaker 1: ended up coming back, which made me extremely uncomfortable, especially
Speaker 1: since the company I was working with was giving them
Speaker 1: money as a sponsorship, which was really messed up. But
Speaker 1: since he was allowed back, it made me feel so
Speaker 1: much more uncomfortable to go back there because I felt
Speaker 1: vulnerable and I did not like being made to feel
Speaker 1: vulnerable in in a place that is not my normal place.
Speaker 1: You know, it wasn't my house, it once in my
Speaker 1: off the space. It was a hotel in Vegas where
Speaker 1: most of the attendees are males and are not people
Speaker 1: that I know personally. So having eventually, that convention did
Speaker 1: place a code of conduct in place for their convention,
Speaker 1: and the person who did this was banned along for
Speaker 1: a number of other reasons. So now I feel safe
Speaker 1: going back there because I know that I have a
Speaker 1: way to report things, and I know if I do
Speaker 1: report them, they'll actually be taken care of. And that's
Speaker 1: the reason why when I went to c e S
Speaker 1: and I saw they didn't have a code of conduct,
Speaker 1: I felt so taken aback. It's such a huge convention,
Speaker 1: it's such a huge association with so much money behind them,
Speaker 1: so many attendees going, and having so many attendees go
Speaker 1: that are mostly male. It's a male dominated industry. Obviously, Uh,
Speaker 1: we need to have some kind of foothold in the
Speaker 1: industry for for women and minorities so that we do
Speaker 1: feel safe. Now. While I understand code of conducts are
Speaker 1: not going to keep people from doing things, it does
Speaker 1: allow us as people who might end up being victimized
Speaker 1: in some way, even though we don't want to be victims.
Speaker 1: It gives us a way to report things. It allows
Speaker 1: us to understand exactly what we can do and know
Speaker 1: that if we say something that then something will be
Speaker 1: acted upon, Like something will actually get done if we
Speaker 1: say something. It sends the message that you matter, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, like like without it, it seems you know,
Speaker 1: without it. To me, it seems like it's almost sending
Speaker 1: the message that they're complicit in any behavior that would
Speaker 1: otherwise violate such a code of conduct, because there it's
Speaker 1: it's almost a look the other way kind of of mentality,
Speaker 1: which is incredibly dangerous for anyone who's attending such an event.
Speaker 1: I it gets me really upset because I have seen
Speaker 1: incidents at various types of different UH conventions and events
Speaker 1: and parties that kind of thing that absolutely should not
Speaker 1: have happened, and once they did happen, should absolutely be
Speaker 1: handled swiftly and UH decisively, And to see CEES kind
Speaker 1: of dragging its feet on this issue is more than
Speaker 1: a little problematic. I remember years ago, when I first
Speaker 1: started going UH, some of the the some of my
Speaker 1: peers over at c NET, some of the women working
Speaker 1: for s net were chatting and they were saying, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the few benefits of being at
Speaker 1: c E S and being a woman was that she
Speaker 1: never had to worry about a line in the restroom.
Speaker 1: And she was being very sardonic about it because she
Speaker 1: was like this, this is literally the one good thing.
Speaker 1: And whereas as as a man UH and I convention
Speaker 1: center filled with literally a hundred thousand other men. Uh,
Speaker 1: the same cannot be said of the men's room. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, I'm also not in a group
Speaker 1: that tends to be singled out for victimization. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just it's it's a very frustrating thing to see.
Speaker 1: I keep hoping that they will address this and and
Speaker 1: make it clear that it's supposed to be a safe
Speaker 1: place and that they've got your back if something does happen. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, CS is also one of those places where
Speaker 1: it kind of fostered that male dominant mentality for a
Speaker 1: really long time. I don't know how it was this
Speaker 1: past year, but I remember when I started going, the
Speaker 1: whole booth babe. Uh situation was really kind of out
Speaker 1: of control while I was there, and that booth babes.
Speaker 1: By this, I mean that different groups had gone out
Speaker 1: and ordered or had gone out and hired people women
Speaker 1: to dress and scanty outfits and then um try and
Speaker 1: entice people into the booths. And it wasn't it was
Speaker 1: done in such a way as to sexualized products that
Speaker 1: were not overtly meant for that purpose. And uh, it
Speaker 1: created kind of a CD atmosphere. I would say in
Speaker 1: certain areas of the floor, I've seen less of that
Speaker 1: the last few times I've gone. Occasionally you'll find a
Speaker 1: booth or whatever that's still kind of engages in this,
Speaker 1: but for the most part, it's it's definitely toned down
Speaker 1: some which I think is a good a good trend,
Speaker 1: But it does seem like CES is one of those
Speaker 1: places where that that uh more primitive idea of this
Speaker 1: is technology, this is this falls within the realm, and
Speaker 1: masculinity still seems to have a few anchor points and that's, uh,
Speaker 1: that's problematic. But yeah, it's it's definitely still a thing.
Speaker 1: Like I saw some of the quote unquote booth babe
Speaker 1: attire happening the year as well. I even saw it
Speaker 1: at one of the press events I went to, which
Speaker 1: somebody else wrote about, Uh, the fact that there were
Speaker 1: some women who were hired to simply be there and
Speaker 1: hand out tote bags and they were dressed as cheerleaders.
Speaker 1: So they had is because it's every year. Yep, it's
Speaker 1: the same exact one every single year. The only year
Speaker 1: I went and I really enjoyed it was when they
Speaker 1: did the Wizard of Oz theme and then they had
Speaker 1: people dressed up like there was a guy dressed up
Speaker 1: as the tin Man, and there was a girl dressed
Speaker 1: up as the Wicked Witch. And then it was like
Speaker 1: it was like being in a cosplay experience, which is
Speaker 1: very different from dressing up strictly women in cheerleader uniforms,
Speaker 1: because you're doing a football thing, which is for men.
Speaker 1: Now I do like football, but why aren't why there
Speaker 1: were no men? They're dressed up as quarterbacks? Like what
Speaker 1: I'm missing out? I mean, I'm on your side on
Speaker 1: this one, Shannon, totally. I agree. I remember to the
Speaker 1: Wizard of Oz event. I also remember they did a
Speaker 1: weird zoo one one year where people were dressed up
Speaker 1: like animals, but that might have been a different I
Speaker 1: want to say it was the same one we're talking
Speaker 1: about one. Yeah, i'll send you I'll send your links.
Speaker 1: But it was another weird one. But the Wizard of
Speaker 1: Oz I remember because I got a tin of mints
Speaker 1: for my friend Mandy because she's that's her favorite film
Speaker 1: of all time. Well, I mean, here's hoping that we
Speaker 1: can see c e S catch up and and create
Speaker 1: a formal code of conduct. I hope that the pressure
Speaker 1: will continue to be on the organization to do so
Speaker 1: so that they can send out that message that this
Speaker 1: is in fact a space where we wanted to be
Speaker 1: safe for everybody. It's it's a a very business oriented
Speaker 1: trade event, and therefore there's no place for this kind,
Speaker 1: you know, any kind of of harassment or policy where
Speaker 1: we look the other way. Shannon, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining the Please tell everyone where they can find
Speaker 1: all your wonderful work. Thank you. I really appreciate um
Speaker 1: you inviting me on to be on your show. To Jonathan,
Speaker 1: it was awesome. It's always awesome to talk to you,
Speaker 1: especially since we're on other coasts. You can find all
Speaker 1: of my infro over on Twitter. I'm at snubs S
Speaker 1: and u b S. Or you can follow all of
Speaker 1: my tech stuff that I am doing over on tech thing.
Speaker 1: It's t e K thing dot com. Shannon, thanks again,
Speaker 1: and you take care of yourself. Get better, Okay, thank you.
Speaker 1: I want to thank Shannon for coming on the show.
Speaker 1: She's always a joy to talk to and I really
Speaker 1: appreciate her input on what she saw at c E S. Obviously,
Speaker 1: there's a ton of other things that were on display
Speaker 1: at the show. Lots of technology from automotive technology to
Speaker 1: audio to virtual and augmented reality too. Things that are
Speaker 1: pretty mundane, you know, light switches, things like that, but
Speaker 1: still important. And while I didn't go this past year,
Speaker 1: it's okay, I'm not sweating it, but I do hope
Speaker 1: I can go back sometime in the future see what
Speaker 1: else is coming out. It's always an interesting energy that's
Speaker 1: at the show, and I'm sure that as unfolds, I'll
Speaker 1: cover more of the technologies that were on display at
Speaker 1: CESEN in greater detail. For example, there was this amazing
Speaker 1: modular Samsung television called the Wall apparently, and that sounds
Speaker 1: crazy to me, so I should look into that. But
Speaker 1: if you guys have any suggestions for things I should
Speaker 1: cover in future episodes, maybe it's technology that was on
Speaker 1: display at ce S, or maybe it's something totally unrelated,
Speaker 1: but still, you know, in the world of tech, let's
Speaker 1: not go crazy. Send me a message let me know
Speaker 1: what I should talk about. Or if there's someone you
Speaker 1: want me to interview or a guest host you would
Speaker 1: like to have on the show, let me know about
Speaker 1: that as well. My email address for the show is
Speaker 1: tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com, or you
Speaker 1: can draw me a line on Facebook or Twitter. The
Speaker 1: handle at both of those is tech Stuff hs W.
Speaker 1: You can also check us out on Instagram. Our our
Speaker 1: our marketing and social guru, Crystal is killing it over there.
Speaker 1: She's doing a great job, So go check out our
Speaker 1: Instagram account. And remember, you can listen to me record
Speaker 1: these episodes live, and you can watch me, and you
Speaker 1: can you can insult me. Please don't insult me, but
Speaker 1: you can participate in the chat room live with me
Speaker 1: every Wednesday and Friday. Just go to twitch dot tv
Speaker 1: slash tech Stuff. You'll see the schedule there. And uh,
Speaker 1: I love chatting with you guys. I hope more of
Speaker 1: you show up in the future and I will talk
Speaker 1: to you again really soon for more on this and
Speaker 1: bathands of other topics. Because it has staff works dot
Speaker 1: com