Speaker 1: Get into technology with tech stuff from how Stuff, What's
Speaker 1: dot Com? He there and welcome to tex Stuff. I'm
Speaker 1: Jonathan Stripland and this is going to sound like a
Speaker 1: very odd recording because I'm actually recording this in my
Speaker 1: hotel room at the Monte Carlo Casino and Resort in
Speaker 1: Las Vegas, Nevada. We are at c E s S
Speaker 1: today is January five. So we arrived in Las Vegas
Speaker 1: yesterday at in the afternoon and then immediately checked into
Speaker 1: our hotels and headed down to c S Unveiled. And
Speaker 1: this is an event that's a press event. Ce S
Speaker 1: itself is not just a press event. It's actually meant
Speaker 1: for manufacturers to get a chance to meet with retailers
Speaker 1: and other companies that are going to be moved being
Speaker 1: their products. But the press is also there and has
Speaker 1: a very big presence, So we are here to cover
Speaker 1: it just like lots of other people are. And the
Speaker 1: first things that we wanted to check out where the
Speaker 1: stuff that was on display at CES Unveiled. This is
Speaker 1: just a small collection of companies that have a few
Speaker 1: things on display. It's not like the massive show floor
Speaker 1: where you have two point two million square feet of
Speaker 1: show floor space. This is just a teeny tiny fraction,
Speaker 1: like the tip of the tip of an iceberg, but
Speaker 1: it gives you a chance to see some stuff that
Speaker 1: otherwise might fall away, that might disappear with the chaos
Speaker 1: that is the showroom floor. So we went there and
Speaker 1: shot a quick video for how stuff works now, so
Speaker 1: if you have not seen that, you can go check
Speaker 1: it out and see some ridiculous stuff. Like you can
Speaker 1: see me in a chair that's pitching around left and right,
Speaker 1: um as video is playing on a headset that I'm
Speaker 1: I'm wearing. The whole idea was that you can turn
Speaker 1: your couch into an immersive experience. It's almost like pimping
Speaker 1: your couch by adding hydraulics. It's similar to that kind
Speaker 1: of idea, and it was fun. I don't know that
Speaker 1: I would ever do that for my home, largely because
Speaker 1: I'm married and I have a feeling my wife would
Speaker 1: object to getting thrown off the couch if I happened
Speaker 1: to watch you know, Fast and Furious or something. But
Speaker 1: it was a fun experience, and not only that, I
Speaker 1: got to run into some of my peers that I
Speaker 1: hope to grab a few of them and have them
Speaker 1: show up on this recording so that we can talk
Speaker 1: about c e s, what is interesting, what's got all
Speaker 1: the buzz around it, what was sort of a you
Speaker 1: know what fizzled that kind of thing. So I'm going
Speaker 1: to try and grab some of my my years at
Speaker 1: least one or two, at the very least two talk
Speaker 1: about their thoughts on this year's show. Now, to be fair, Uh,
Speaker 1: the unveiled thing was so so relatively tiny, um. And
Speaker 1: we had very limited amount of time there because we
Speaker 1: actually we got we landed just as the event was
Speaker 1: getting started, so we got there a little late. Um.
Speaker 1: And today, as I record this, it's pressed day. That
Speaker 1: means it's just going to be press conferences all day long,
Speaker 1: not not a lot of Look at the showroom floor
Speaker 1: that that is still being put together. In fact, if
Speaker 1: you could walk into the Las Vegas Convention Center as
Speaker 1: I record this, you would see teams of folks putting
Speaker 1: together booths. This will continue all the way up to
Speaker 1: the moment the showroom floor opens on Wednesday morning. It's
Speaker 1: the morning of the sixth, so tomorrow from when I'm
Speaker 1: recording this, and it's pretty crazy, like you'll still see
Speaker 1: folks putting up sign ns and banners sometimes because you know,
Speaker 1: stuff just falls behind as you're trying to get everything
Speaker 1: put in place before the the attendees arrive. But a
Speaker 1: few press will be wandering around the show floors because
Speaker 1: they get early access. They're going to check out some
Speaker 1: interesting stuff that that the rest of us will have
Speaker 1: to wait to see a little bit later um and
Speaker 1: then we'll get a chance to check it out. So
Speaker 1: our plan today is to attend the Toyota press conference
Speaker 1: to record a video for Forward Thinking. That's the video
Speaker 1: series I do about the optimistic view of the future,
Speaker 1: and it's sponsored by Toyota, So we're gonna go check
Speaker 1: out what they have to say. I have a feeling
Speaker 1: it's going to be about artificial intelligence and the massive
Speaker 1: AI research centers that will be funding over the next
Speaker 1: several years. And then that's pretty much it for today.
Speaker 1: That's the nice thing is that on press day we
Speaker 1: don't have a whole lot that we're going to do
Speaker 1: other than research the other announcements that have been made
Speaker 1: so that we know what kind of stuff we want
Speaker 1: to look at in The show floor opens on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: and Wednesday will go to the Las Vegas Convention Center
Speaker 1: try and cover a lot of the stuff that's there. Um,
Speaker 1: it will be impossible. The center is it's huge and
Speaker 1: like one point for one point four million square feet
Speaker 1: of space. That's you know, more than half of all
Speaker 1: the space exhibit space at C E S is at
Speaker 1: that convention center. But we're gonna try and do at
Speaker 1: least a quick run through and get a few cool
Speaker 1: things on camera, shoot a few videos, get some ideas
Speaker 1: for future episodes that kind of stuff, maybe even meet
Speaker 1: with some folks to possibly go into a deeper dive
Speaker 1: in the future for certain types of technology. That would
Speaker 1: be a lot of fun. And then Thursday we will
Speaker 1: be going to the Sands Expo Center, which is Tech
Speaker 1: Center West in c. S Lingo. But that's generally where
Speaker 1: you see startup companies, some of the more innovative stuff,
Speaker 1: the the small scrappy groups that are trying to redefine
Speaker 1: what consumer technology is all about. That tends to be
Speaker 1: where you find stuff like weird robotics, three D printers,
Speaker 1: a lot of Internet of Things stuff will be over there,
Speaker 1: although that's migrating more and more into the main show
Speaker 1: floor as everyone is getting into the Internet of Things.
Speaker 1: So this episode is gonna send a little choppy, and
Speaker 1: it's probably gonna have lots of different audio quality issues
Speaker 1: because I'll be carrying this recorder around with me to
Speaker 1: try and get more reactions as I go through, and
Speaker 1: and talk to some of my peers if I get
Speaker 1: a chance. Um. I know that Shannon Morse has said
Speaker 1: that she will happily chat with me on here, so
Speaker 1: I just have to track her down and be able
Speaker 1: to talk to her about that sort of thing, and
Speaker 1: maybe just get some more perspective on what c e
Speaker 1: S means to other members of the press. Maybe I'll
Speaker 1: even get a couple of the members of our team
Speaker 1: to talk about what it's like. Because out of everyone
Speaker 1: who's here from how stuff works, I'm the only one
Speaker 1: who's done it before. Everyone else is a first timer.
Speaker 1: So I hope this ends up being a great episode.
Speaker 1: It's weird because I'm recording it in chunks, so I
Speaker 1: have no clue what it's gonna sound like when it's
Speaker 1: all over. But this is an adventure, and I'm taking
Speaker 1: you guys with me while I go on it. Take this.
Speaker 1: It's dangerous to go alone. Okay, guys, I'm back after
Speaker 1: some c E S ing, which mostly involved going to
Speaker 1: the Toyota press conference, and I captured two of my
Speaker 1: technology peers and brought them back to my hotel room. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I said I had cookies. Uh, that was true. You're
Speaker 1: going to get a little text tag that lets me
Speaker 1: track you wherever you go. Now that's good. Then you
Speaker 1: can find me again. Yeah, exactly, I don't have to
Speaker 1: track you down. So so with me is As Actar
Speaker 1: and Shannon Morris and we have spent another day kind
Speaker 1: of covering ce S although this is a press day,
Speaker 1: this is not the day when the show floor is open.
Speaker 1: But instead of talking about the stuff that's on display
Speaker 1: right now, because you know, most of us have not
Speaker 1: had an opportunity to really check anything out. Apart from
Speaker 1: some stuff that was at c e S unveiled, there's
Speaker 1: some other events that are going on. We're gonna get
Speaker 1: some early looks at some technology. I thought it might
Speaker 1: be fun to talk to you guys about past c
Speaker 1: S experiences because we always get I'm sure you guys
Speaker 1: have gotten the questions to like, what is it like
Speaker 1: to actually go to c E S because everyone thinks
Speaker 1: it's like the world's biggest toy store, which, depending upon
Speaker 1: your thought about toys, it's possible, but I always liken
Speaker 1: it to the world's largest radio shack, where well, there's
Speaker 1: like ninety percent of the stuff is stuff you really,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's okay, like it's it's cool, but it's
Speaker 1: not mind blowing. And then there's maybe ten percent stuff
Speaker 1: hid the way. It's really interesting. So first of all, Shannon,
Speaker 1: how many cs is have you been to? I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure this is my fifth year I started going. Alright,
Speaker 1: fifth year for you and I s e my ninth
Speaker 1: or tenth one. I can't remember. You skipped one at
Speaker 1: some point, didn't you? Oh but you you I just
Speaker 1: worked with lots of different companies. Yeah, I thought there
Speaker 1: was one year where you hadn't planned ongoing and then
Speaker 1: you showed up. It was it was a joke and
Speaker 1: made a joke off handedly, and I was told you
Speaker 1: should go, and I was like, okay, And that's how
Speaker 1: I wanted in California for three years. Sometimes you wake
Speaker 1: up on the wrong flight and then you just go
Speaker 1: with it. Uh So, yeah, we've all done cs for
Speaker 1: a while. I've done This is my eighth year I
Speaker 1: think for CS. So, um, my first year was when
Speaker 1: I met I a S because I met you when
Speaker 1: you were working at tech V and I got I
Speaker 1: got pulled on to be on tech V because somehow
Speaker 1: Randall Bennett, who was running tech the had known of me.
Speaker 1: What's crazy is we had a booth in North Hall
Speaker 1: production but he somehow talked his way into getting it
Speaker 1: didn't cost us anything, which is absurd to think about
Speaker 1: this little podcasting section for free. And how did he
Speaker 1: do it? I don't know. He just knew everybody. Yeah. See,
Speaker 1: that's the thing is that here at c e S
Speaker 1: there are a few outlets that have space on the
Speaker 1: show floor or near the show floor. There are a
Speaker 1: few more that don't have space on the show floor,
Speaker 1: but they have production trucks that are parked adjacent to
Speaker 1: the convention center. And then there are schmoos like myself
Speaker 1: who have a production company back in Atlanta, Georgia, not
Speaker 1: on site at the time. Uh and uh, it's it's
Speaker 1: a very interesting mix. And I'm because of that, I
Speaker 1: got to meet I S and Shannon. I met you
Speaker 1: for the first time at a ce S a few
Speaker 1: years ago. That's true, isn't it. Yeah, I was I
Speaker 1: was stopping by the Revision three area and you were there,
Speaker 1: and I had never met you, and you ran up
Speaker 1: to me and gave me a hug, and I was like, well,
Speaker 1: she she's on the list of favorite people now too.
Speaker 1: It was out here at CES. It's like c S
Speaker 1: brings all the podcasters together. That's true. Yeah, it's interesting
Speaker 1: because usually we're aware of each other's work. Often we're
Speaker 1: fans of each other's work, but we haven't had the
Speaker 1: opportunity to to meet, particularly for folks like me where
Speaker 1: I'm I'm on a completely different coast although I as
Speaker 1: you're in New York now, so it's still not convenient
Speaker 1: to me, but at least you're on the same time
Speaker 1: to be so geographically inconvenience. Yeah, you're very inconsiderate, is
Speaker 1: what I'm getting at. So, but getting back to instead
Speaker 1: of that's just being a hey, aren't we awesome podcast?
Speaker 1: I want to ask you guys if you had any
Speaker 1: particular ce S memories, things that it doesn't have to
Speaker 1: define C E S for you, but something that you
Speaker 1: associate with c S. It could be a great memory.
Speaker 1: It could be this is the weirdest thing that's ever
Speaker 1: happened to me. It could just be, well, here here's
Speaker 1: something interesting that would not have happened anywhere else, any
Speaker 1: of those, Shannon, I'm gonna go with you first. First, Okay,
Speaker 1: So my first year was back in and it was
Speaker 1: also one of the very first years that I was
Speaker 1: going full time with HACK five h K five, which
Speaker 1: is my main show, And for me, I was still
Speaker 1: extremely nervous, very self conscious, but I was basically being
Speaker 1: thrown into c e S like all hands on deck.
Speaker 1: They're like, hey, guess what you're going to be doing.
Speaker 1: Forty seven episodes. That's fun, you know how? That is
Speaker 1: forty seven episodes within the timeframe of like four days.
Speaker 1: Here is c S. So me and my co host
Speaker 1: were pretty much dead by the end of the week.
Speaker 1: Both of us gone sick for like a week. C
Speaker 1: CS plague is a real thing. It's a total real thing.
Speaker 1: Bring lots of hand sanitizer. Yeah, I want to put
Speaker 1: it in an atomizer and sprints yourself with it occasionally.
Speaker 1: But I think I'll always remember that first year because
Speaker 1: it was it was like the year that I met
Speaker 1: I S. And it was the year that I met
Speaker 1: Tom Merritt and a bunch of other podcasters who I
Speaker 1: looked up to for a very long time. So for me,
Speaker 1: it was a great introduction to them and being able
Speaker 1: to watch them, like face to face, how they interact
Speaker 1: with the camera, and how they are like excellent public speakers.
Speaker 1: So it helped me grow my own abilities on camera
Speaker 1: and it helped me not be so self conscious whenever
Speaker 1: I was in front of the camera. Um. So every
Speaker 1: time I come back to see s now, it's always
Speaker 1: great to see them again in person and be able
Speaker 1: to interact with them now. And now they watch my
Speaker 1: stuff too, so it feels almost like a family reunion
Speaker 1: for me, Like we're all, like you said, we're all
Speaker 1: fans of each other's work. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's the best.
Speaker 1: Like I met tom Merritt for the first time at
Speaker 1: CEES and Molly Wood and uh I met Randall in
Speaker 1: person for the first time at ces he had contacted
Speaker 1: me via the internets. Yeah, so, I mean, it's really
Speaker 1: most of the folks in our space that I have
Speaker 1: met personally. My first interaction was that was that CS.
Speaker 1: What are you? Oh, there's a lot of them. I'm like,
Speaker 1: which one's happening you heard? Yes, Well, my listeners haven't
Speaker 1: heard any of them. My first year. I'll have about
Speaker 1: that one my first year I was coming in with
Speaker 1: a company called Gadgetal. I was their new editor. I
Speaker 1: just finished school and they gave me a job and
Speaker 1: I said, okay, fine, I'll run this site, which is great. Uh,
Speaker 1: And they brought us in and I was stuck in
Speaker 1: the press room for like the week, and it was
Speaker 1: driving me nuts because like, why are we even here
Speaker 1: and probably doing his press releases because we're rewriting press
Speaker 1: release 're not even getting photos sitting in here. We're
Speaker 1: doing this all day. But they're like, don't worry. At
Speaker 1: the end, We're going to the party. Always good every party.
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, okay, fine, you know that. That's that
Speaker 1: sounds like that that will work. I mean we've worked
Speaker 1: until like midnights or nights, and we've stayed up by
Speaker 1: the way. In the very end, we went to like
Speaker 1: a Lenovo party. I'll be good. I want to be
Speaker 1: able to wake up nice and my flight and be
Speaker 1: all right. So I'm like, okay, I will only order
Speaker 1: this specific beer. If they haven't, I won't get it,
Speaker 1: and if they don't, I won't worry about it. Because
Speaker 1: everyone is like it's like all this pure pressure was
Speaker 1: really weird. Like I'm for all adult would get a drink. Alright, cool, alright, fine,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have a Shemay Blue if they have it.
Speaker 1: Blue is this Belgian beer and it's really good, but
Speaker 1: it's kind of expensive. So I'm thinking, there's no way
Speaker 1: they're giving this out at this party because it's kind
Speaker 1: of break or British. So I go to the restroom
Speaker 1: and I come back and everyone at my table has
Speaker 1: a little bottle of Shamy Blue and I'm like, oh no,
Speaker 1: they have blue, and They're like this is great, it's right,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, yeah, that's why I picked it. To
Speaker 1: the point where people at other tables saw that we
Speaker 1: had it, and they started bringing out cases of this
Speaker 1: stuff that they had and they're all wraps, drink wraps,
Speaker 1: and I'm just like, okay, so this is happening. I
Speaker 1: didn't even think of the concept of of free stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm just working like crazy, and I'm like, wait,
Speaker 1: do I have to pay for any of this, because
Speaker 1: like that's like thirteen dollars a bottle, and like you're
Speaker 1: just giving them away. I'm like, okay, I can do this.
Speaker 1: That was a very odd one, but that I was
Speaker 1: only with that company for a year and I got
Speaker 1: sold and then I quent and what to tech Where
Speaker 1: I met you? And you I met somewhere out I
Speaker 1: met you. It was at a bar and there. I
Speaker 1: don't know how I remember that because I was dropped.
Speaker 1: It was and he was there and we had quite
Speaker 1: the conversation to be fun. Yeah, it was very fun.
Speaker 1: Eric Sandean and I As and I do a show
Speaker 1: called Podcast without Pretense. So I met Eric because he
Speaker 1: was working with tech V two. I met him at
Speaker 1: the same time I met i As and Uh, it's
Speaker 1: it's funny because we've the three of us, I As,
Speaker 1: Eric and myself have have been part of some shenanigans
Speaker 1: in Vegas. Not we didn't set out to break any rules.
Speaker 1: We had the best of intentions. Now we were we
Speaker 1: were walking outside um in Vegas, which which you can
Speaker 1: only do for so long before you start to give
Speaker 1: up all hope. Uh, because everything in Vegas is further
Speaker 1: away from you than you expected to make but then
Speaker 1: you realize that everything is just feeling away. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: we had come up with a brilliant idea of let's
Speaker 1: cut down on some of this walking by using the monorail,
Speaker 1: and the monorail runs through several major casinos along the strip,
Speaker 1: and uh, the only problem we had was that we
Speaker 1: were outside and the mono rail stations were all connected
Speaker 1: to casinos, and we were following the mono rail tracks,
Speaker 1: which are elevated. You know. It's not like we were
Speaker 1: in danger of getting run down by a monorail, which
Speaker 1: would have been tragically hilarious. But no, we were following
Speaker 1: the tracks and came up to a casino that was
Speaker 1: right up against the tracks, and then we can't remember
Speaker 1: which one it was. That it was somewhere along the
Speaker 1: southern side. It might have even been the mgm UM
Speaker 1: because it may have may have been walking away from
Speaker 1: the south side where the press stuff was and heading
Speaker 1: back north. But at any rate, we could see the
Speaker 1: station attached to the to the casino, but we were
Speaker 1: on a side of the casino that didn't have any
Speaker 1: entrance for the general public. And these casinos are huge,
Speaker 1: and we were already tired, and so we're thinking, well,
Speaker 1: we can walk around to the front of this building
Speaker 1: go inside, but then we have to walk through the
Speaker 1: maze of casino games to still find the way to
Speaker 1: the monorail station, which we could see. We just couldn't
Speaker 1: get to. And as we stood there trying to figure
Speaker 1: out if we actually had the will to walk into
Speaker 1: a casino and then wander around, we noticed that there
Speaker 1: was a doorway into this casino that was for employees,
Speaker 1: and an employee was coming out. So we asked the
Speaker 1: employee a simple, innocent question. I cannot stress innocent enough.
Speaker 1: We just asked, how do we get to the monorail
Speaker 1: because we just needed to and she said, you have
Speaker 1: to go through the casino. You could probably go through
Speaker 1: this way, which was the employees on the entrance, and
Speaker 1: we're like, okay, this was clearly an employee who thought
Speaker 1: I would like to be responsible for four or five
Speaker 1: young men going to jail. So we went in through
Speaker 1: the employees on the entrance, and probably about ten steps in,
Speaker 1: we walk right in front of the security guard station
Speaker 1: in the backstage area of the casino. The security guard
Speaker 1: looked at us with an air of resignation and just said, gentlemen,
Speaker 1: where do you think you're going? And we're like, we're
Speaker 1: just trying to get to the monorail. He's like, okay,
Speaker 1: you just need to go that way and exit and
Speaker 1: don't come back this way, and so we were really
Speaker 1: lucky that either he was tired or this had happened
Speaker 1: so many times before that really it wasn't a big deal.
Speaker 1: But at the time we were all convinced that, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is we're gonna be calling our respective companies for bail.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure I had to like talk you guys
Speaker 1: into it by saying, like, we're gonna go in. We're
Speaker 1: gonna act like we belong. They're they're not going to
Speaker 1: throw us out. All we gotta do is just walk straights.
Speaker 1: Won't be a problem. Yeah, you're like you particularly Jonathan
Speaker 1: was not this is a bad idea. Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: not something we should do. And I'm like, hey, look,
Speaker 1: I'm not being outside anymore because as we know, and
Speaker 1: if you can't tell, I get cranky when I'm outside,
Speaker 1: I'm too U I get cranky or too tired, or
Speaker 1: if he's around other people, or or if if it's
Speaker 1: a day to ends and day, there's a chance that
Speaker 1: I might do a little bit edgy. So yeah, but
Speaker 1: back then I was younger and more energy to be edgy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so so I as as the little Devil on our
Speaker 1: collective shoulder, wrestled Jonathan the Angel on our collective shoulder
Speaker 1: to the ground and closed his mouth with duct tape,
Speaker 1: and surely enough we went in. Luckily, nothing awful happened.
Speaker 1: We made it to the monorail and we were safe.
Speaker 1: I mean, we the Shenanigans go. That's pretty tame. It's
Speaker 1: pretty cool me backstage, though, it was pretty cool being backstage.
Speaker 1: So it's so the opposite of everything you see, right,
Speaker 1: it's like it's ever being opulent. It looks like a prison. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like all beige walls and that security center. I
Speaker 1: remember that it might be of like now watching Orange
Speaker 1: in the New Blacky. This looks like something out of prison.
Speaker 1: It didn't look like Oceans eleven even a little bit now.
Speaker 1: It was not glamorous at all. So, yeah, it's funny
Speaker 1: because most of the time, the closest to Shenanigans we
Speaker 1: would get up to would be let's go ride the
Speaker 1: roller coaster, Sahara after eating a burrito the size of
Speaker 1: a baby. That's true. That was a baby size barrito.
Speaker 1: That was their marketing speed. Remember that was on the posters.
Speaker 1: Barrito as large as a baby. God, it was a
Speaker 1: business as any wonder it went out of business was
Speaker 1: that the NASCAR, NASCAR Cafe, the Sahara. The Sahara is
Speaker 1: no longer. Yeah, it's no longer with us. It was
Speaker 1: torn down a few years ago. Yeah. So so we've
Speaker 1: had some fun times. And of course, obviously none of
Speaker 1: that has anything to do at tech. If you're wondering
Speaker 1: why are they telling stories that have nothing to do
Speaker 1: with tech, it's largely because year over year, like it
Speaker 1: starts to get hard to separate when you saw stuff,
Speaker 1: because oh yeah it does. Yeah. A lot of the
Speaker 1: tech is is it's iterations, right, It's not like here's
Speaker 1: a brand new thing that literally didn't exist last year.
Speaker 1: It's usually more like, here's a slightly evolved version of
Speaker 1: the thing you saw for the last three years. Well
Speaker 1: one year, and it was it was very early on,
Speaker 1: so it must have been. That was the first year
Speaker 1: the Oculus Riff came and they came to a press
Speaker 1: event and they were showing this very very simple virtual
Speaker 1: reality version of their goggles, which was it was heavy
Speaker 1: and it was obtrusive and it kind of gave me
Speaker 1: a headache. But at the time everybody was like, well,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, this might work one day, but
Speaker 1: not right now, because this one really kind of sucks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it was nice to see something different because you're
Speaker 1: year over year and we kept seeing you know, oh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go to the three D TVs this year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which three D TVs was one that that was one
Speaker 1: of those technologies where companies were pushing it year over
Speaker 1: year and customers weren't buying it. Literally, we're not buying
Speaker 1: the three D televisions, or if they were, they were,
Speaker 1: they were slagging them saying that, oh yeah, I never
Speaker 1: you know, you lose the glasses or it's a pain
Speaker 1: to have to keep up with that kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: And it was nice to see that particular technology fadeaway.
Speaker 1: Another thing that I liked that when the thing I
Speaker 1: liked when it went away, when it came back it
Speaker 1: was better, was the internet connected TVs because when I
Speaker 1: first started going to C E S, that's when you
Speaker 1: had widgets on everything, and uh, turning your television into
Speaker 1: the world's busiest desktop computer desktop is not the way
Speaker 1: to go, I don't think. I like. It almost becomes
Speaker 1: one of those parodies where it's the parody of a
Speaker 1: newscast where it's just tickers and and and and data
Speaker 1: caps popping up all over the screen while the news
Speaker 1: anchor continues to deliver the news. It's like that except
Speaker 1: for everything on your TV. So smart TVs eventually actually
Speaker 1: earned that name because they were pretty dumb when they
Speaker 1: first came out. It was slow too. Not only did
Speaker 1: you have this extra graphical interface, but it took forever
Speaker 1: to pop up or go away or have a selection
Speaker 1: or do anything, and then you're like, oh, it's not
Speaker 1: connected right, or just there was always something stopping it
Speaker 1: to the point where were such a headache. Like I
Speaker 1: remember some of the first ones I got to check
Speaker 1: out on the show floor here at c ES. You
Speaker 1: would have to click like ten fifteen times to get
Speaker 1: to this subject or whatever application that you wanted to get.
Speaker 1: The taxonomy of the of the commands was so dense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I I remember them being so slow that when you
Speaker 1: pull up the weather app you get the weather for
Speaker 1: last week, it's pretty rough or at a like a
Speaker 1: zip code yeah right, oh my gosh, Like it couldn't
Speaker 1: identify your geographic location on its own. You had to
Speaker 1: tell it. It was like it was like the modern
Speaker 1: version of a rotary phone, Like they have to find
Speaker 1: numbers or I have to have this terrible, um, because
Speaker 1: some of these televisions were like, oh yeah, we'll have
Speaker 1: a total virtual keyboard, so it's being able to use
Speaker 1: the buttons like one two fo. Yeah, you actually select
Speaker 1: the things, right, And anyone who's like that reminds me
Speaker 1: of the interface for the Xbox, right. Whenever you have
Speaker 1: to type something in, if you don't have one of
Speaker 1: the controllers that has the little keypad that goes with it,
Speaker 1: or you don't use smart glass or something along those lines,
Speaker 1: you're using the controller to highlight each individual letter. And
Speaker 1: that's not not a whole lot of fun. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: not like they were fundamentally broken. They just weren't ready yet.
Speaker 1: And we've seen that a few times at c e
Speaker 1: s where technology was displayed and you could say there's
Speaker 1: something to that, but it wasn't quite ready. I mean
Speaker 1: I remember several years ago seeing a tablet PC hybrid
Speaker 1: for the first time. Oh yeah, and the very first
Speaker 1: I can't remember the name of it was the X
Speaker 1: one something like that, Lenovo, and it was part Windows,
Speaker 1: part Android of the time. Yes, yeah, maybe it was
Speaker 1: in a splashtop. It might have an Android yet, but
Speaker 1: they had something that you could tear apart and it
Speaker 1: would be a tablet one way and a laptop the other.
Speaker 1: But this is be four windows. Microsoft pushed for Windows eight, right,
Speaker 1: So this so you had essentially Windows seven for the
Speaker 1: PC mode. When you detached the screen and turn it
Speaker 1: into a tablet, it's changed, it changed operating systems. So
Speaker 1: that was kind of interesting, like a very interesting concept,
Speaker 1: and I remember really being intrigued by it when I
Speaker 1: saw it on the show floor. I thought, what a
Speaker 1: what a cool idea, especially since they were really working
Speaker 1: hard to make sure all the apps and programs that
Speaker 1: were shared across the two platforms were cross functional. So
Speaker 1: if you were to start a document in one, you
Speaker 1: could pull up the the software and the other and
Speaker 1: the document would still be there, you know, which was
Speaker 1: a great idea. It just was one of those that
Speaker 1: never quite made it out of that prototype here in
Speaker 1: the United States, at least because they wanted to redo
Speaker 1: it with Android at some point, and there was I
Speaker 1: just remember all the weird splashtop interfaces. You remember that
Speaker 1: at the lightweight operating system that would load before your
Speaker 1: regular operating system. Yes, you work while you couldn't wait
Speaker 1: for the loading time. That's like pre s S d days, Yo, dog,
Speaker 1: I can see that you wanted to to word process,
Speaker 1: and I get word process while waiting for your word processor.
Speaker 1: I've done that idea. I'm like, this would be so
Speaker 1: great on an air like airline flight. Yeah, I just
Speaker 1: quickly load this up and it won't eat up a
Speaker 1: lot of battery. It will be great. And those are
Speaker 1: the those the netbook era, you know netbooks before we
Speaker 1: got to ultra lights, which uh, I guess are still
Speaker 1: a thing, but I don't ever hear it being called
Speaker 1: that anymore. Like they're the laptop now, that's that's just
Speaker 1: what it is. And there's like there's modifiers with the
Speaker 1: other stuff, like it's a gaming laptop, which is code
Speaker 1: for it's freaking heavy. You'll need you'll need a you'll
Speaker 1: need a trolley to move this around. Yeah. I think
Speaker 1: of some of the other tech that I saw that
Speaker 1: never really made it out, at least not in North America.
Speaker 1: Before we started recording, I mentioned like, do you remember
Speaker 1: the LG smartphone watch that when in debuted And that
Speaker 1: was early too, that might have been two thousand nine
Speaker 1: ten something like that. It was early for me because
Speaker 1: I started in two thousand and eight going to these things. Um,
Speaker 1: but I remember that it was one of those where
Speaker 1: you know, you couldn't get your hands on it. They
Speaker 1: had representatives from the booth who were allowed to wear
Speaker 1: it on their wrists, and then you would unless you
Speaker 1: were with someone like seen Net, where you know they
Speaker 1: would want it to get in front of the cameras
Speaker 1: and stuff, you really couldn't get your hands on it.
Speaker 1: It's a little different for people who are able to
Speaker 1: to work for such a well recognized outlet, that that
Speaker 1: some vendors are coming to you guys as as opposed
Speaker 1: to not you, as you are the one who have
Speaker 1: to go with us to go out to them, but
Speaker 1: me in this particular instance, I'm going out to them.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's it's nice being in that kind of
Speaker 1: organization because I was like, I've been part of small
Speaker 1: teams and doing that kind of stuff, and all I
Speaker 1: remember doing is that tech of the year that we
Speaker 1: went to the casino. In the back of the casino,
Speaker 1: I started using the attitude for everything. So if somebody
Speaker 1: was saying, I can't take off the glass off of
Speaker 1: this thing, I said, yes you can, We're here, we're
Speaker 1: gonna do this, and they would do it and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this is working. I can't believe they're
Speaker 1: buying this. It's what they're worth. So we're getting all
Speaker 1: this footage of all this stuff that we weren't supposed
Speaker 1: to be touching. Nobody seemed to care about my Thursday
Speaker 1: and they they're like, Okay, that's true. Who are exhausted.
Speaker 1: We don't want to be here. We want to tear
Speaker 1: down you want you want us to take the glass off? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: that's true. It really is true. If you most of
Speaker 1: the action happens the first two days the show floor
Speaker 1: is open. By the time you get to the end
Speaker 1: of the show floor, show Flora hours like I'm the
Speaker 1: last day. People are really kind of lackadaisical when it
Speaker 1: comes to the policies they've been following up to that
Speaker 1: point because they've been worn down over time. Except Razor,
Speaker 1: they are really tenacious. Really, they don't like people mess
Speaker 1: with anything odd. Because they gave me hands on demo
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, I should I'll change my
Speaker 1: attitude to Jonathan's attitude, which is pleasant and southern. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well shucks, I just brought you all some This gets Gravey.
Speaker 1: If you let me get my hands on that tip.
Speaker 1: It's always very useful to make friends with pr people
Speaker 1: who also have like the same pets as you, or
Speaker 1: like they get their nails done and I'm like, I
Speaker 1: love your nails. Where did you get your your nails done? Right? Right,
Speaker 1: I'll show them pictures of my cats. They'll be like, oh,
Speaker 1: I have cats to Oh my god. That's great. You
Speaker 1: just make a connection, like talk to them about some
Speaker 1: kind of similarity that you guys have and so do
Speaker 1: you take it from Shannon, find some superficial connected tissues
Speaker 1: so you can leverage it. You seem to like technology.
Speaker 1: I like technology to crazy world. You're a little easier
Speaker 1: for girls breathing. It's awesome, right, it really does. It's
Speaker 1: a real problem when you don't can't do that, you know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's you know a starth Vader. Well you can't
Speaker 1: spoiler alert he's dead. Um, yeah, so it's it's uh,
Speaker 1: it's great that I get a chance to catch up
Speaker 1: with you guys. It's fantastic. We're Tomorrow is the day,
Speaker 1: the first day where the show floor is open. Is
Speaker 1: there anything you're particularly looking forward to or anything you
Speaker 1: are trying to seek out this year? Do you have
Speaker 1: a game plan, Shannon? Are you just gonna go in
Speaker 1: and just absorb or yeah, just like I'm looking at
Speaker 1: it every then. Well, this year is nice because I
Speaker 1: don't have to record forty seven episodes about all these
Speaker 1: weird things that I find. I'm just doing one episode
Speaker 1: for tech thing and then that's it, so I just
Speaker 1: get to talk about my favorite things. So this year,
Speaker 1: I'm just planning to hit the Central in South Hall
Speaker 1: and hopefully North as well, while my co host hits
Speaker 1: up the Sands and we're going to find our favorite items.
Speaker 1: I'm mostly interested in the four case Dreaming, which a
Speaker 1: lot of people have been saying is a thing this
Speaker 1: year which I'm I'm a little quizzical about. I want
Speaker 1: to see how it works encoding, Yeah, yeah, exactly now
Speaker 1: that I'm editing, I want to understand the back end
Speaker 1: of it. I want to get geeky. And I'm also
Speaker 1: really interested in more VR virtual reality, augmented reality and
Speaker 1: things like that nature because it's gotten so much better
Speaker 1: and it doesn't make you sick. Now, my coworker has
Speaker 1: a Samsung Gear I think it's called the Gear VR.
Speaker 1: It works flawlessly. The thing is so smooth, and I
Speaker 1: would love to see some more companies working with that.
Speaker 1: UM non proprietary Internet of things would be nice. Yeah,
Speaker 1: where you can actually have Internet of things talking to
Speaker 1: other Internet of things that were made by somebody else
Speaker 1: exactly like I. I believe something is happening along that
Speaker 1: line over in one of the car sections. I believe
Speaker 1: one of the car manufacturers is going to be working
Speaker 1: with a online online store who sells I don't know,
Speaker 1: this thing called the Amazon Echo. You're talking about Ford
Speaker 1: in Amazon. Yeah, Ford in Amazon. We all thought it
Speaker 1: was gonna be Ford in Google, and it turned out
Speaker 1: to be Ford in Amazon. And they're going to actually
Speaker 1: license that technology to other car companies because they're licensing
Speaker 1: into Toyota's. Yeah, so you'll be able to uh to
Speaker 1: talk to your echo in your car, which is a
Speaker 1: great idea. I mean, Internet of things, non proprietary, make
Speaker 1: all your things work together so you can still buy
Speaker 1: the best product and to be summoned into this one brand.
Speaker 1: There's so many times where I've been stuck in traffic
Speaker 1: and thought, I wish I could buy paper towels right now.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's interesting that you that you mentioned
Speaker 1: that I remember seeing one thing before coming out the
Speaker 1: c e S and I'd have to do research to
Speaker 1: actually look up the name of the deal, but I
Speaker 1: remember seeing was an app. And the app is designed
Speaker 1: to talk to different Internet connected products in your home,
Speaker 1: so it becomes kind of a central hub, which is
Speaker 1: an inelegant solution, right. We would all love to see
Speaker 1: a standardized protocol that all of these things worked across,
Speaker 1: so that we didn't have to either all buy into
Speaker 1: one ecosystem or have eight different systems to manage to
Speaker 1: deal with all the stuff in our house. The Internet
Speaker 1: of Things is this amazing view of the future, but
Speaker 1: only if everything works without it getting in your way.
Speaker 1: And so the app I saw was one where you
Speaker 1: could do things like control your nest thermostat and your
Speaker 1: hue light bulbs and all that kind of stuff, although
Speaker 1: I don't know if specifically those brands were represented, but
Speaker 1: that was the idea, and I'm thinking like, well, that's
Speaker 1: that's a good temporary solution, but I don't want to
Speaker 1: see that trend continue where you get this this you know,
Speaker 1: splintered uh marketplace, and then you have to find a
Speaker 1: solution like that in order to make everything work together.
Speaker 1: Because I can't. Can you imagine living in a house
Speaker 1: where you're like, howney, can you turn the lights? I'm
Speaker 1: looking for the app. It's one of these, it said,
Speaker 1: this folder, this smart tech. As you do, you have
Speaker 1: anything that you're specifically looking forward to. And I was
Speaker 1: thinking about all this smart home stuff. You guys, that
Speaker 1: stuff you're talking about, the Internet things, stuff actually talking
Speaker 1: to each other, and how hubbs we're supposed to be
Speaker 1: some kind of middle ground solution. So then Samsung goes
Speaker 1: out and buy is one of the hubmakers, which made
Speaker 1: it even more weird. And Samsung's got like not a
Speaker 1: mini few with Google said those things don't necessarily work together.
Speaker 1: And then Apple's got Home Kit. So I mean, I
Speaker 1: have a house that's got a bunch of different little things,
Speaker 1: and I do have to find apps. What's weird is
Speaker 1: that the real solution is something like like Echo or Alexa.
Speaker 1: These kinds of assistance, let it figure out which app
Speaker 1: is supposed to work with. That to me is way
Speaker 1: more interesting than a lot of the stuff I've been
Speaker 1: originally looking at the fact that Amazon is working with
Speaker 1: Samsung with their fridge. You can have Alexa in the refridge.
Speaker 1: You've heard about their fridge. Does she beg to get out?
Speaker 1: This fridge is a five thousand It's it's called the
Speaker 1: Family Hub. It's five thousand dollars. It's got a twenty
Speaker 1: one in Android touchscreen on it. Uh and it also
Speaker 1: has Amazon Alexa intrigation, so you can ask it things
Speaker 1: like play music or whatever you want. Right, So it's
Speaker 1: kind of a weird concept. So Samsung's working with Famisa
Speaker 1: are going like use our s voice thing, which is
Speaker 1: kind of interesting. The fact that if you had your
Speaker 1: Ford you drive in, you can have it talked to
Speaker 1: your fridge. That imagine somehow us the Alexa stuff can
Speaker 1: talk to each other. Dude, get ready, this guy bought
Speaker 1: a lot of groceries. Fridge just swings open. Welcome home boys.
Speaker 1: The Ford Amazon connection to me is also fascinating because
Speaker 1: between the car and the smart home there wasn't really
Speaker 1: a good connection. It was almost like this it's its
Speaker 1: own island. It was this thing and it's almost like
Speaker 1: you talking in and you're like hopefully stuff with syncop
Speaker 1: and maybe be all right, but no, this actual connection
Speaker 1: between the device and we're like to open the garage
Speaker 1: like that's cool. ELEC Toronto lights or start the car
Speaker 1: when you're inside when it's called out, Like all this
Speaker 1: stuff is like that would be great, well work most
Speaker 1: of the time, secure hopefully. Yeah, that's a big question
Speaker 1: right there. That's an excellent question. It's one of those
Speaker 1: that we uh that we are becoming increasingly aware of,
Speaker 1: especially in the wake of demonstrations such as the terrible
Speaker 1: demonstrations that befell jeep. Oh yeah, that's funny. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: funny if you don't own a jeep. But yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a different it's a different approach
Speaker 1: to technology. It's a different world, one that has new
Speaker 1: concerns that come up. But the potential is really cool
Speaker 1: to to the case of rerigerator literally so to allow
Speaker 1: you to have this kind of interactive and um added
Speaker 1: functionality that you know normally would just be a simple appliance,
Speaker 1: and like even even stuff that is now telling you
Speaker 1: how much energy it uses, giving you that feedback immediately,
Speaker 1: so that you can adjust your lifestyle if possible. I mean,
Speaker 1: sometimes you don't have that flexibility, but if you can,
Speaker 1: then you can end up conserving energy and thus saving money,
Speaker 1: Like especially in markets like California and Hawaii. That's a
Speaker 1: big deal. I mean, your your surge pricing can be
Speaker 1: pretty expensive at peak times, so that's you know, we're
Speaker 1: seeing more of that. It's really a lot of it's
Speaker 1: all about data still. It's all about either giving data
Speaker 1: back to the user so that you're getting an ability
Speaker 1: to quantify stuff that you couldn't before, or it's about
Speaker 1: data interacting between devices so that you have this kind
Speaker 1: of seamless magical experience as you go through your your home.
Speaker 1: You know, whether it's music following you around through the house,
Speaker 1: or your lights turning off when you leave the room,
Speaker 1: whatever it may be. And uh, I love the direction
Speaker 1: it's going in. It's still very splintered. And uh it
Speaker 1: may turn out that the way we get a standard
Speaker 1: is just that someone makes a system that works so
Speaker 1: much better than everyone else's that it becomes the de
Speaker 1: facto standard. That's a possibility. It's not something that people
Speaker 1: willingly enter into. It just happens by by competition. Uh. Sorry.
Speaker 1: There's also lots of issues when it comes to education,
Speaker 1: because sure remember there's there are a lot of standards
Speaker 1: to get audio and video to different components in the house,
Speaker 1: and it's open to d l n A. You can
Speaker 1: have d l n A and nobody really educated anybody
Speaker 1: about that. Apple is airplay. People like, oh, I get this,
Speaker 1: and it totally works. It just works. It's like a
Speaker 1: variance of the same technology. So the fact when smart
Speaker 1: devices started coming out, right, Internet things devices, and there
Speaker 1: was these giant consortiums, and you'd see all of these
Speaker 1: names and you'd see and you're like, great, but they're
Speaker 1: missing the Google one and the Apple one. As long
Speaker 1: as that keeps going on, we're always gonna have three apps. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which is I think at a minimum right now. That's
Speaker 1: that's a fair point. I tell you. The one thing
Speaker 1: that I'm really looking forward to seeing because I still
Speaker 1: don't know if it's really real or not, is the
Speaker 1: Faraday electric car because it it seems like people are
Speaker 1: still kind of referring to it as vaporware because the
Speaker 1: concept that's out there is purely like this is like
Speaker 1: a prototype concept type vehicle. The company appears to have
Speaker 1: emerged from nowhere. So it's one of those things like
Speaker 1: a company forms and makes a car, like that's I
Speaker 1: alwaysn't believing the guy who was showing me a nice
Speaker 1: momote control, like, yeah, that's na that that'll come out
Speaker 1: here to be You have a car? How did you
Speaker 1: have time to build a car? Yeah? Where did you
Speaker 1: get the manufacturing the facilities from these things? You realized
Speaker 1: that that giant competition thing is there and they might
Speaker 1: crush you over time, right, Yeah? Yeah, There's also supposed
Speaker 1: to be a car. I can't remember who makes it,
Speaker 1: but there's also a car that has a drone landing
Speaker 1: pad on it that's gonna be So that's why I
Speaker 1: want to hit the North Hall because there's going to
Speaker 1: be a car with a drone landing pad and I
Speaker 1: need to see this thing. What is it for for
Speaker 1: drones to land on? I asked, what do you think it's?
Speaker 1: So it's in the name. You're saying, Alexa, it's not
Speaker 1: a predator. I need I need those paper towels. Amazon
Speaker 1: is dropping it off on your car that has the
Speaker 1: landing pad. Look, all I can tell you is that
Speaker 1: in the future and this will become a pivotal plot
Speaker 1: point in a Fast and Furious movie heliports. Why not
Speaker 1: a car? Yeah? This is how awesome? Can I make
Speaker 1: it work with my moon roof? So it just like
Speaker 1: opens up and it just drops off the stuff in
Speaker 1: my past feeling that's going to mess up your hair,
Speaker 1: Doe Shannon, It's it's kind of like a car hop.
Speaker 1: I want car hop. Is is a drone coming by? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just knowing that there is a car with a
Speaker 1: drone landing pad on it, and Ces tells me I
Speaker 1: need to see it, if for no reason then just
Speaker 1: to witness it. But yeah, so there's there's always stuff
Speaker 1: that will surprise you at c E s as well, like, uh,
Speaker 1: often that it'll be things that I find out about
Speaker 1: after I return home and someone else with a lot
Speaker 1: more manpower. Yeah, not at all. Yeah, you've got two
Speaker 1: point two million square feet of exhibit exhibit spaces. Even
Speaker 1: if you are diligently walking through all the halls, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna see everything, just because eventually you're gonna get
Speaker 1: that thousand yards stare where you're not really like your
Speaker 1: eyes are looking at things, but you're not taking in
Speaker 1: any information that does happen. So um, yeah, I'm sure
Speaker 1: there will be things that we miss, like, uh, I
Speaker 1: love the quirky stuff that you occasionally come across, Like
Speaker 1: I'll always remember the haptic fork that would vibrate if
Speaker 1: you ate too quickly so that the food would fall
Speaker 1: off your fork. Remember the Intel charge bowl, this wireless
Speaker 1: charging bowls a couple of years ago, and you would
Speaker 1: just dump your phone in there. I'm sitting there, and
Speaker 1: it did along with your milk in your cereal, could
Speaker 1: charge your have to crunch. It didn't Gonza traffic. It
Speaker 1: was insane. Everyone's fascinated with a wireless charging bowl. It's
Speaker 1: like even asked about them, like is it coming back?
Speaker 1: We don't know if we can tell you anything. So
Speaker 1: there wasn't even a tag for your luggage that it
Speaker 1: wasn't even like not a tag tag. It was an
Speaker 1: electronic tag which you would put inside your luggage that
Speaker 1: would allow you to keep track of where your luggage
Speaker 1: was in case you traveled and it didn't arrive in
Speaker 1: the airport that you went to. And I remember people
Speaker 1: were getting really excited by that. I'm thinking, this is
Speaker 1: possibly one of the simplest implementations of technology I've seen
Speaker 1: in a really long time. Was Yeah, they ended up
Speaker 1: selling that on Amazon. I think I just sent my
Speaker 1: friend that link. Yeah, that thing. Yeah, I forget the
Speaker 1: name of it. When I remember seeing about a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, I think I ran into Molly would
Speaker 1: while I was looking at it, and we were both
Speaker 1: kind of surprised at how much attention was a game.
Speaker 1: That's the other thing is he could never predict which
Speaker 1: odd thing is just gonna get people's attention. If you've
Speaker 1: ever wondered why the press gravitates toward these weird, quirky things,
Speaker 1: it's because we've seen countless televisions and it only gets
Speaker 1: so thin. Yeah, and it's also hard to convey that information,
Speaker 1: like two point seven millimeters. So unless unless your focus
Speaker 1: is home theater, or your focus is headphones or cell
Speaker 1: phones or whatever. So like Android Central, they'll probably have
Speaker 1: a focus. So that's what they're going to talk about.
Speaker 1: But for us, we we talk about everything. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it's very hard to look at those things over and
Speaker 1: over again. I think, Okay, well, what's exciting about this? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you increase the ram congratulate exactly. It does the
Speaker 1: things that did before more better now. So yeah, that's
Speaker 1: essentially the gist of many many people think, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty much. So at any rate, as Shannon, uh, thank
Speaker 1: you very much, I'm gonna loosen your bonds so that
Speaker 1: way you'll be free to go after I've kidnapped you
Speaker 1: to force you into this episode of text we Cookies.
Speaker 1: You're kind of get that text tag before you leave.
Speaker 1: Trust me, it's gonna hurt a little bit because I
Speaker 1: actually physically attach it to the top of your ear,
Speaker 1: all right, kind of like you know, catch and release. Um.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, and I'll probably continue this podcast after
Speaker 1: I get a chance to actually see the show flours,
Speaker 1: So more to follow. Okay, I'm recording this last section
Speaker 1: back at the Atlanta office, so that would explain why
Speaker 1: it sounds like this as opposed to the previous recordings. Uh.
Speaker 1: I have already returned from CS. Clearly, I wanted to
Speaker 1: record more in my hotel room while I was there,
Speaker 1: but honestly, I was just so tired at the end
Speaker 1: of the show days and my voice was so fry
Speaker 1: that I wasn't really able to record anything useful while
Speaker 1: I was still out in Vegas. But I thought i'd
Speaker 1: talk about some of the things we looked at on
Speaker 1: the show floor before signing off. So first, the show
Speaker 1: is just too large to see everything. It's impossible. Even
Speaker 1: if you just glanced at each booth and never stopped,
Speaker 1: you'd still miss some stuff because there's just too many
Speaker 1: exhibit areas. I mean there's three days of show days
Speaker 1: like when the show floor is open, but the show
Speaker 1: floor is you know, two point two million square feet
Speaker 1: and that also includes offsite hotels that are not part
Speaker 1: of the Sands or the Las Vegas Convention Center, and
Speaker 1: just getting from place to place, even without maneuvering your
Speaker 1: way through, takes up a lot of time. And there's
Speaker 1: just too many booths. So we went into c S
Speaker 1: with kind of a general game plan, and we stuck
Speaker 1: to it about as closely as we could, with a
Speaker 1: couple of exceptions. We weren't able to see any vr
Speaker 1: A R stuff, and we weren't really able to explore
Speaker 1: the drones stuff because we ran out of time while
Speaker 1: we were exploring. But on Wednesday, January six, we focused
Speaker 1: on the Las Vegas Convention Center. Um So, the LVCC
Speaker 1: has three main halls. There's a North Hall, a Central Hall,
Speaker 1: and the South Hall, and the South Hall actually has
Speaker 1: two floors, which makes it particularly huge. We started in
Speaker 1: the North Hall that's generally filled with auto technology and
Speaker 1: car sound systems that kind of stuff. Some other things
Speaker 1: are there too, but it's mostly car tech, So we
Speaker 1: concentrated on four booths while we were there, Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen,
Speaker 1: and Faraday Future. There were others as well, but we
Speaker 1: had to be really careful with our time. So first
Speaker 1: we started with Toyota, and They're big focus was on
Speaker 1: artificial intelligence and the connected car concept. The company is
Speaker 1: really stressing that their research is all about making the
Speaker 1: experience of driving a car, say for with systems in
Speaker 1: place that can take over should a driver be put
Speaker 1: in danger. So even an excellent driver may encounter dangerous
Speaker 1: situations that he or she can't react to in time,
Speaker 1: and that's where these driver assist systems can kick in,
Speaker 1: potentially saving a life. These same technologies may one day
Speaker 1: lead to fully autonomous vehicles, but Toyota experts stress that
Speaker 1: current autonomous car technology is pretty limited. It's it's great
Speaker 1: for mundane driving situations like moving through a regular city grid.
Speaker 1: It's great for that, but they don't deal with the
Speaker 1: unexpected very well. So Toyota is spending a billion dollars
Speaker 1: in research money over the next five years to help
Speaker 1: push the development of AI, with the goal of finding
Speaker 1: ways to make AI better at reacting to new unprecedented situations,
Speaker 1: or to put it in another way. Computers are really
Speaker 1: good at following instructions. So if you think of a scenario,
Speaker 1: you can program that scenario into an autonomous cars logic
Speaker 1: system saying when X happens, then do why, and the
Speaker 1: car will most likely react the way you want it
Speaker 1: to in those situations. But it's impossible to anticipate everything
Speaker 1: and program everything into your car's logic system. And if
Speaker 1: you have enough cars on the road for a long
Speaker 1: enough amount of time, something that you did not anticipate
Speaker 1: will happen at some point. That's when AI needs to
Speaker 1: react more like a person would, where you would think
Speaker 1: back on past experience and extrapolate what you should do
Speaker 1: based upon the particular parameters of that moment uh and
Speaker 1: also to do it while minimizing risk to yourself and
Speaker 1: to others. And that's that's a very difficult AI problem,
Speaker 1: and that's what a lot of that research money is
Speaker 1: going towards to try and solve. How do you make
Speaker 1: AI able to not just anticipate, but react to dynamic
Speaker 1: situations that it had not been specifically programmed to handle.
Speaker 1: And we don't have an answer for that yet. That's
Speaker 1: exactly what the AI research centers that Toyota is backing
Speaker 1: is gonna That's what they're gonna look into. Meanwhile, over
Speaker 1: at Ford, we learned about Ford's partnership with Amazon. Now,
Speaker 1: originally the rumor was that Ford was going to announce
Speaker 1: a partnership with Google, but Amazon's voice concierge system, Alexa,
Speaker 1: is actually the big news. It's going to be part
Speaker 1: of the Ford's in car systems and it will actually
Speaker 1: allow you to synchronize your car with your smart home,
Speaker 1: allowing the car and home to kind of work together.
Speaker 1: So imagine your garage door is communicating with your car,
Speaker 1: or you could just tell your garage door to go
Speaker 1: up while you're driving your car and it goes up.
Speaker 1: That kind of stuff, or even being able to have
Speaker 1: your car alert your home when you're coming into the
Speaker 1: driveway so that the thermostatic just so that you know
Speaker 1: the house is going to be comfortable shortly after you
Speaker 1: get inside. That kind of stuff, you know, sort of
Speaker 1: this concept of the connected future where everything is more convenient.
Speaker 1: But I could go even further than that. You could
Speaker 1: also while you're in your home, tell Alexa start the car,
Speaker 1: and in your garage or in your driveway, your car
Speaker 1: starts up. And the climate system kicks in so that
Speaker 1: the car is nice and comfy by the time you
Speaker 1: get out there. That could be really useful on a
Speaker 1: very hot summer day or a very cold winter day.
Speaker 1: You could get your car started without having to pop
Speaker 1: outside the house. That's kind of neat. Also, you would
Speaker 1: even be able to use Alexa to maybe get updates
Speaker 1: about your car's status. So if that check engine light
Speaker 1: comes on, you might even be able to ask Alexa, hey,
Speaker 1: what's wrong with the car and get an answer, which
Speaker 1: would be nice before you take it into a mechanic
Speaker 1: right Meanwhile, Volkswagen was showing off its electric concept van
Speaker 1: called Buddy b U D D dash E, or as
Speaker 1: Paul Shore would say, by and probably lost everybody. If
Speaker 1: you know who PAULI Shore is, give me a shout
Speaker 1: out on Twitter tech stuff hsw or at John Strickland.
Speaker 1: I once saw him a beach in Maui. Anyway, back
Speaker 1: to Volkswagen, this concept vehicle design was pretty cool, little
Speaker 1: little funky looking lot of interesting lighting and all this
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. But there's no guarantee we'll ever see
Speaker 1: anything like it actually hit the road. It is, after all,
Speaker 1: just a concept. Um. It's also no surprise that Volkswagen
Speaker 1: showed off electric vehicle technology in the wake of that
Speaker 1: clean diesel scandal that broke in late Now the question
Speaker 1: is will electric cars help repair the damage done to
Speaker 1: Volkswagen's public image. Personally, I'm not sure it was a
Speaker 1: lot of damage done, but at least the company is
Speaker 1: trying to do something now. I will say that I
Speaker 1: thought this particular car design and the features that it
Speaker 1: had were really cool. Had some interesting stuff like you
Speaker 1: could have a you had a platform where you could
Speaker 1: do wireless inductive charging for your electronics. So if your
Speaker 1: phone can accept wireless inductive charging, you just lay it
Speaker 1: down on this platform and it would charge through the car.
Speaker 1: It's not exactly brand new, other vehicles have had this,
Speaker 1: but it was cool to see. It also included a
Speaker 1: connected car concept, so similar to Toyota strategy where you
Speaker 1: want to have your car communicate and and forward strategy
Speaker 1: to where you have your car communicate with the smart
Speaker 1: home and with other vehicles. It's, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: the way the future is going. And speaking of the future,
Speaker 1: there was Faraday Future that was one of my favorite
Speaker 1: booths to stop at on our trip. We went to
Speaker 1: a lot of different booths that c ES, but this
Speaker 1: one in particular was interesting mainly because it was so
Speaker 1: mysterious leading up to the show. Faraday Future is the
Speaker 1: company that's kind of like what would happen if you
Speaker 1: smashed up an Internet start up with an automotive industry company.
Speaker 1: That's what you get with Faraday Future, And no one
Speaker 1: really knew a whole lot of details about the company
Speaker 1: leading up to c S. It was just kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, this this mysterious entity that was supposedly going
Speaker 1: to show off a car, and that car ended up
Speaker 1: being the f F zero one concept race car, and
Speaker 1: that looks like something that came out of Tron or
Speaker 1: Minority Report or even Batman. It's a really weird looking
Speaker 1: race car. But really that was just a design to
Speaker 1: grab attention. It wasn't that Faraday Future is all about
Speaker 1: producing race cars. They just they use that as a
Speaker 1: way of pulling people into the booth to explain what
Speaker 1: their philosophy was. And the philosophy is that Farody has
Speaker 1: created a modular design approach to building vehicles. They actually
Speaker 1: have a modular means of putting batteries together, so instead
Speaker 1: of like a giant battery think of like a series
Speaker 1: of batteries, and depending upon what your car needs to do,
Speaker 1: they can modify the foundation to have the amount of
Speaker 1: batteries appropriate for your car. So, for example, and suv
Speaker 1: that's gonna do a lot of off roading where it's
Speaker 1: gonna need more battery power to generate the power needed
Speaker 1: to actually do those kind of things, whereas a subcompact
Speaker 1: car wouldn't need that much battery power. So from the
Speaker 1: design phase, they could say, well, this, this is how
Speaker 1: many of our battery units were going to include. They
Speaker 1: also had a modular drive train approach, so they could
Speaker 1: have different style drive trains on vehicles, and uh, they
Speaker 1: could also create autonomous vehicles. They could include autonomous technology
Speaker 1: sensors and and drive systems in any of their models.
Speaker 1: So in other words, they've created kind of a base,
Speaker 1: and that base can serve as the foundation for any
Speaker 1: type of vehicle, whether it's you know, an suv or
Speaker 1: a van, or a compact are or a race car,
Speaker 1: whatever it might be. So it also gives them a
Speaker 1: lot of speed when they want to speed and development,
Speaker 1: not not vehicle speed, but the speed to actually go
Speaker 1: from design to building a vehicle. In fact, the FF
Speaker 1: zero one went from sketch to built out car in
Speaker 1: eighteen months, which is incredibly fast in the automotive industry.
Speaker 1: So that was really exciting to actually see this kind
Speaker 1: of disruptive technological approach to the auto industry. I'm hopeful
Speaker 1: that that this will have a big impact. We'll see
Speaker 1: if Faraday Future actually becomes a player in the space,
Speaker 1: or it may just be that Faraday Future is going
Speaker 1: to end up influencing other companies. Either way would be interesting.
Speaker 1: Of course, I would rather see them be a real player,
Speaker 1: just to kind of add another layer of competition in
Speaker 1: and uh an innovation. It would be really exciting. At
Speaker 1: that point, we then moved over to the Central Hall
Speaker 1: of the convention center, still on Wednesday, January six right now,
Speaker 1: when we went to the central Hall, that's where a
Speaker 1: lot of your big electronics companies happen to be. Things
Speaker 1: like Sony, Panasonic, Intel, and a lot of other big
Speaker 1: companies are there too. So first we went to Sony
Speaker 1: and looked at their high dynamic range television's hd R
Speaker 1: t v s. Actually do a video where I explain
Speaker 1: what HDR is and why it's important and why even
Speaker 1: if you have an hdr TV right now, you may
Speaker 1: not have a whole lot to watch on it, So
Speaker 1: keep an eye out for that video that's gonna come
Speaker 1: out on now dot house, stuff works dot com in
Speaker 1: the near future. We also looked at a fridge from
Speaker 1: Samsung that has a manufactured suggested retail price of around
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars. It's smart fridge in the sense that
Speaker 1: it's connected. It's got lots of different interesting features. It
Speaker 1: has cameras on the inside, so you can get a
Speaker 1: quick look at the inside of your fridge even if
Speaker 1: you're not home, which could come in handy if you're
Speaker 1: at the grocery store and you're thinking, gosh, do we
Speaker 1: have any milk left? You can actually look inside your
Speaker 1: fridge and find out. It also had a twenty one
Speaker 1: and a half inch screen embedded in the door. It
Speaker 1: was really an impressive piece of technology. UM, not sure
Speaker 1: that I'm ready to spend about five thousand dollars on
Speaker 1: our fridge, but it was. It was interesting to see
Speaker 1: those kind of features worked in and also it was
Speaker 1: a very different philosophy from another company we would see
Speaker 1: the next day, which was Whirlpool. But we're were you've
Speaker 1: got a whole video coming out about the connected kitchen,
Speaker 1: So keep an eye out on now dot how Stuffworks
Speaker 1: dot com for that that will be coming up soon
Speaker 1: as well. Uh. Then we went over to Intel looked
Speaker 1: at some of the technology there. Intel, of course is
Speaker 1: mostly known as the company that makes the stuff that
Speaker 1: makes other stuff work, so when we go to tell
Speaker 1: you see a lot of cool stuff on display, but
Speaker 1: these are all products that are the result of partnerships
Speaker 1: with other companies. Intel provides the microprocessors or the other
Speaker 1: technology that allows it to work. So we got to
Speaker 1: see things like a robo butler that's a personal uh
Speaker 1: transportation device essentially one of those wheeled skateboards that are
Speaker 1: often called hoverboards, but it could be converted into a
Speaker 1: robot butler, which is kind of cool and very cute.
Speaker 1: It was a very cute robot, and we also saw
Speaker 1: um connected bicycles. We saw a dress that reacts to
Speaker 1: a person's adrenaline levels, so the dress would expand when
Speaker 1: adrenaline levels would increase, and it contracted when it decreased,
Speaker 1: and kind of similar to the spider dress that we
Speaker 1: saw last year, which was fun. So we took some
Speaker 1: footage of that. It was good to see. After all that,
Speaker 1: we moved over to the South Hall. Keep in mind,
Speaker 1: we probably saw maybe of the Central Hall. It's just
Speaker 1: that's how it goes. Because you're running from from place
Speaker 1: to place to get your videos in, uh, you're gonna
Speaker 1: miss out on a ton of stuff. So there was
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff on display in the Central Hall
Speaker 1: that we just didn't see. But we made it to
Speaker 1: the South Hall, which pretty much hosts a big collection
Speaker 1: of different stuff, including things like VR A R, drones,
Speaker 1: all the stuff that we weren't able to see, but
Speaker 1: we did get to see some really cool things. We
Speaker 1: got to go to Codex booth and check out their
Speaker 1: brand new Super eight film cameras, which is great. Kodak
Speaker 1: is bringing film back, So the super eight millimeter camera
Speaker 1: is a classic. That's something a lot of filmmakers worked
Speaker 1: with with back when they were kids. Um, I used
Speaker 1: to play with a super eight camera back when I
Speaker 1: was a kid. My dad owned one and I got
Speaker 1: to play with it. Well, Codex bringing it back and
Speaker 1: pairing it with modern technology. So when you buy one
Speaker 1: of these, when you buy a cartridge of film, the
Speaker 1: cost of that cartridge isn't just for the film it's
Speaker 1: also for the processing fee. So in other words, when
Speaker 1: you buy the film and then you put it in
Speaker 1: your camera and you shoot it, you have already paid
Speaker 1: for the processing. So then you would mail the film
Speaker 1: off the Kodak. Kodak processes the film and returns the
Speaker 1: print to you, but you also get a digital print,
Speaker 1: so you don't just get the film print. You get
Speaker 1: a digital print as well. And there's an onboard microphone
Speaker 1: with this Super eight, which is not the way the
Speaker 1: old Super eight cameras worked. And you get a digital
Speaker 1: audio track as well, so you can sync up the
Speaker 1: audio track with your film. Plus you have the digital
Speaker 1: print where it's already synked. My video crew got really
Speaker 1: excited about this technology, and we'll have a video about
Speaker 1: this as well, so keep that eye out for that.
Speaker 1: We also went to gen Worth Financials booth. Now gen
Speaker 1: Worth Financial is an insurance company. Specifically they provide insurance
Speaker 1: for long term care for the elderly, and at their
Speaker 1: booth they had a really amazed using exoskeleton that I
Speaker 1: actually got to put on. If you follow tech stuff
Speaker 1: on Facebook, you probably saw a picture of me wearing
Speaker 1: this thing. So the whole purpose of the exoskeleton was
Speaker 1: to create a way to start a conversation between young
Speaker 1: people and the elderly to demonstrate the importance of long
Speaker 1: term care. So it made sense like they wanted a
Speaker 1: way for young people to understand what the elderly go through,
Speaker 1: to say, look, the service we provide as a valuable one,
Speaker 1: but I think the actual application of the technology goes
Speaker 1: well beyond that. Uh. They turned to a company called
Speaker 1: Applied Minds, which was originally co founded by a couple
Speaker 1: of former Disney imagineers, and that company ended up making
Speaker 1: the Aging Experience exo Skeleton, which mimics various disabilities, conditions,
Speaker 1: and illnesses that the elderly often experience. So when I
Speaker 1: put this thing on, they were able to simulate these
Speaker 1: various conditions with me, and it was really an interesting
Speaker 1: experience to go through. So the suit included a headset
Speaker 1: and that headset has two video cameras that are mounted
Speaker 1: about where your eyes are, and they that fed a
Speaker 1: live video signal two monitors that were in front of
Speaker 1: my eyes, and it did it really well that there
Speaker 1: was no noticeable lag, which is very important because otherwise
Speaker 1: you would get that kind of swimmy effect you turn
Speaker 1: your head and then a moment later it's reflected that's
Speaker 1: gonna make you sea sick. But I didn't. I didn't
Speaker 1: experience that. It seemed like the lag was manageable. So
Speaker 1: they use software which allows handlers to manipulate that video feed,
Speaker 1: so while you've got video in front of your eyes,
Speaker 1: they can change that video around a little bit and
Speaker 1: simulate conditions like glaucoma or tunnel vision. The headset also
Speaker 1: included headphones and they could manipulate that as well, so
Speaker 1: they could, you know, simulate hearing loss or even tenitus,
Speaker 1: which by the way, incredibly irritating to have that high
Speaker 1: pitch tone in one ear. That's what tenitus is, that
Speaker 1: ears are ringing. If you've ever been to allowed concert
Speaker 1: and your ears were ringing afterwards, that's tenitus. Sometimes you
Speaker 1: develop it and it doesn't go away. So the suit
Speaker 1: was able to simulate that and also could add torque
Speaker 1: to all of your major joints like your shoulders, your elbows,
Speaker 1: your hips, and your knees. And by adding torque, it
Speaker 1: creates resistance, so it makes it harder for you to move.
Speaker 1: So it's more like if you had a hip replacement,
Speaker 1: or if your knees were no longer as as flexible
Speaker 1: if you suffered from something like arthritis. And the whole
Speaker 1: suit weighed about forty pounds, so that helps simulate the
Speaker 1: weakness you would have as a result of muscle loss
Speaker 1: and weight gain. And the whole experience was really enlightening,
Speaker 1: very interesting stuff. I was very pleased that I got
Speaker 1: a chance to do it, even though it meant that
Speaker 1: I was in that weird get up with a lot
Speaker 1: of people watching me. It was a little um you know,
Speaker 1: thank thankfully, I've never been one to shy away from
Speaker 1: the spotlight. Uh So, it sounds like we did a lot,
Speaker 1: but my team only saw a very tiny percentage of
Speaker 1: what was at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The next
Speaker 1: day we hit the Sands Convention Center and that hosted
Speaker 1: stuff like fitness tech, wearables, three D printers, connected home technology.
Speaker 1: Tons of small startups were in the Eureka Park area,
Speaker 1: so we shot several videos there about the technology that
Speaker 1: was on display. But I'm not going to go into
Speaker 1: detail just because it was a lot of stopping and starting.
Speaker 1: And this episode is already running pretty long, so at
Speaker 1: any rate, to keep keep on touch, you know, go
Speaker 1: look at now dot House to parts dot com. We're
Speaker 1: gonna continue to upload videos from our experience at CES.
Speaker 1: You'll be able to see them. They're also forward thinking
Speaker 1: the other show I do. There are a couple of
Speaker 1: videos that we did, including one of me and the
Speaker 1: exoskeleton that will go up there. So after an exhausting
Speaker 1: world wind of shooting videos, we wrapped our production and
Speaker 1: we rested. We left the following day, which was Friday
Speaker 1: the eight, and the show continued throughout that day. So
Speaker 1: we left, but the show was going on and a
Speaker 1: few events even went into the weekend. But by then
Speaker 1: we were back in Atlanta, which pretty much gets us
Speaker 1: up to speed. Uh. And I'm gonna do some shows
Speaker 1: where I talked about some of this technology in greater detail,
Speaker 1: particularly the auto technology. I'm gonna try and get Scott
Speaker 1: and Ben on this show in the near future to
Speaker 1: talk about some of the high tech stuff that's coming
Speaker 1: to cars in the nearer future and kind of get
Speaker 1: their take on it. Also just discuss some stuff that
Speaker 1: they might be aware of that I didn't get a
Speaker 1: chance to see. So that episode will be coming up
Speaker 1: probably in the near future. I'm hoping to record it
Speaker 1: next week, but it might be a few more weeks
Speaker 1: before it airs, just because I've got some other shows
Speaker 1: in the vault between now and then. But if you
Speaker 1: have a suggestion for a tech Stuff topic or a
Speaker 1: guest I should have on the show, we should get
Speaker 1: in touch with me and let me know. My email
Speaker 1: address is tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com,
Speaker 1: or just drop me a line on Twitter or Facebook.
Speaker 1: The handle of both of those is tech Stuff h
Speaker 1: s W. And I'll talk to you again really soon.
Speaker 1: For more on this and bathands of other topics. Is
Speaker 1: it astac works dot com.