Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
Speaker 1: tech stuff from how stuff Works dot Com. Hi, everybody,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the podcast. My name is Chris Pilett. I'm
Speaker 1: an editor here at How Stuff Works. Sitting next to
Speaker 1: me as usual as senior writer Jonathan Strickland. I'm so tired.
Speaker 1: That's probably because it wasn't long ago that you got
Speaker 1: back from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. That
Speaker 1: is true, it was not long ago at all, and
Speaker 1: I'm still feeling it, to tell you the truth. See
Speaker 1: last year I was feeling it too, but you know,
Speaker 1: this year I had other obligations and couldn't make the show,
Speaker 1: So Jonathan went by himself, and I'm sure he loved
Speaker 1: being able to run across all those different show floors. Right. So,
Speaker 1: the the Consumer Like DRAVE showcases this big industry showcase
Speaker 1: in which all these uh these different manufacturers and companies
Speaker 1: come to Las Vegas to show off the new products
Speaker 1: for the next year, hoping to get buyers interested in it,
Speaker 1: hoping to get a lot of press coverage. Um, it's
Speaker 1: just this big, big convention and when I say big,
Speaker 1: it's I mean it's huge. C the c e A
Speaker 1: which puts on cees. Uh. They claim that the size
Speaker 1: was one point seven million square feet. That's a few
Speaker 1: square feet, Yeah, quite a few and all the space
Speaker 1: that's in between them where you have to walk from
Speaker 1: right and it takes place in in the Uh. There's
Speaker 1: several hotels where they have exhibitor space. There's the Nation,
Speaker 1: there's the Sands Convention Center, there's the Las Vegas Convention Center,
Speaker 1: where the bulk of the big big names are. Um,
Speaker 1: there's the Renaissance Hotel, there's the Las Vegas Hilton. And
Speaker 1: then there's some hotels, you know, some some exhibitors. They
Speaker 1: they booked space and hotels around the strip. Uh you
Speaker 1: know that way they get around paying for show floor
Speaker 1: space at the event itself, and then they try and
Speaker 1: lure people into these hotels to take a look at
Speaker 1: their stuff. And that did the couple of those two
Speaker 1: wanted to win, and some other places. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a big show. And one of the big stories,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you were thinking about talking about this,
Speaker 1: was that, uh, everyone was wondering if it was really
Speaker 1: going to be as big as it used to be well.
Speaker 1: I had been wondering that myself. If you are a
Speaker 1: regular listener in the podcast, I was projecting in our
Speaker 1: two thousand nine predictions that the trade shows would start
Speaker 1: to shrink some in the economic down term. So I
Speaker 1: was wondering myself if it was going to be as
Speaker 1: large now. If if you were part of a large
Speaker 1: team of people covering the show, you may very well
Speaker 1: have noticed that it was smaller. There were there seemed
Speaker 1: to be fewer attendees, although when I say fewer, the
Speaker 1: floors were still really crowded. Don't get me wrong. It's
Speaker 1: just that you actually had some space to breathe once
Speaker 1: in a while, which normally isn't the case. Also, there
Speaker 1: were entire sections of the show floor that were unoccupied
Speaker 1: where people who had or companies that had reserved space
Speaker 1: pulled out. And um, so there were there wasn't a
Speaker 1: section I think it was in the North Hall that
Speaker 1: was completely curtained off because there were no exhibitors to
Speaker 1: to exhibit there. Um, they just kind of squished everyone
Speaker 1: else closer in and in a massive game of booth
Speaker 1: tetris um. But from a from a the perspective of
Speaker 1: a single person covering the event. It's still huge, So
Speaker 1: saying that it's smaller than it used to be, that's
Speaker 1: probably true, but it's still ginormous to use a fake word.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so, I mean it's it's not hurting as
Speaker 1: badly as you'd think. All right, let's talk about some
Speaker 1: of the stuff that you saw. Um, I think you
Speaker 1: were saying that one of your favorite favorite pieces of
Speaker 1: technology you saw was Panasonic three D television. Yeah. Now,
Speaker 1: this was the buzz at the event. There were a
Speaker 1: few major um uh exhibits that got more attention than
Speaker 1: anyone else, and this was one of them, and deservedly so.
Speaker 1: So Panasonic had this booth that spanned the entire width
Speaker 1: of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Um, it was. It
Speaker 1: was not very deep, but it was extremely wide. In fact,
Speaker 1: in order to get past Panasonic, you had to hug
Speaker 1: essentially a wall on one side or the other of
Speaker 1: the convention center because you couldn't go through um because
Speaker 1: I had a back to it. But in the middle
Speaker 1: of this was this theater, and inside the theater they
Speaker 1: were doing demos of this three D plasma home theater system,
Speaker 1: which is still on the concept stage. It's not it's
Speaker 1: not going to be commercially available anytime really soon, so
Speaker 1: it won't be working over money for that in stae
Speaker 1: July probably not. UM. No one would really give me
Speaker 1: a uh. No one would nail down a date for me.
Speaker 1: But the technology was phenomenal. I I got in line,
Speaker 1: I think I might have actually crashed it. Um crashed
Speaker 1: in the sense of I got in line when I
Speaker 1: shouldn't have. UM. I didn't realize this till later, but
Speaker 1: they were actually they actually had a booth where they
Speaker 1: gave out tickets for people to go and see this,
Speaker 1: so that they would have a specific time to come
Speaker 1: in and see it. I did not realize this. I
Speaker 1: didn't see the ticket booth because I came from the
Speaker 1: other side of the booth. And uh. And so I
Speaker 1: just got in line and no one asked me for
Speaker 1: a ticket. So I just walked on and sat down.
Speaker 1: They had one space available that they let me sit in.
Speaker 1: And uh. It was a really effective demonstration, in fact,
Speaker 1: the most convincing three D that I've ever seen, and
Speaker 1: I've seen quite a bit. UM it was. It was
Speaker 1: really beautiful, gorgeous high definition. It was just it was
Speaker 1: a fantastic demo. They could not have done better. Did
Speaker 1: you have to wear any special I gear or anything
Speaker 1: like that. If you're gonna be looking at this in
Speaker 1: your home, you're still gonna have to wear glasses. And
Speaker 1: and they they're not the red and blue glasses. It's
Speaker 1: the polarized glasses. So it's not not like you're you know,
Speaker 1: looking like you came straight out of you know, the
Speaker 1: UM And like I said, it was really really effective stuff.
Speaker 1: It was probably my favorite thing that I saw while
Speaker 1: I was at CES. Well, three DS seemed to be
Speaker 1: a trend this year. Oh it was huge. Yeah, Panasonic
Speaker 1: wasn't the only person or person corporation to showcase three
Speaker 1: D uh. There were several other companies that did, including
Speaker 1: Navidia had their three D glasses thing. It's called G
Speaker 1: Force glasses. Um. Those are USB powered or charged anyway,
Speaker 1: and they actually have a shutter speed, so the polarization
Speaker 1: there's actually a shutter. Now. The shutter opens and closes
Speaker 1: at a speed that's far too fast for you to
Speaker 1: to consciously um realize, you know, you can't see it,
Speaker 1: but it's happening at a sixty hurts refresh rate, so
Speaker 1: it's shuttering on and off sixty times per second for
Speaker 1: each eye. They actually call it a hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: hurts because it's for each I right, But it was
Speaker 1: very very convincing. They had a rock band or no,
Speaker 1: I guess it was guitar hero game going, so you
Speaker 1: could actually see the notes coming toward you and all
Speaker 1: the all the the little digital performers, you know, like
Speaker 1: they were actually on real stage. It was kind of
Speaker 1: neat and um I got a chance to play at
Speaker 1: another booth. I played Left for Dead, which is of
Speaker 1: course as zomb survivalist game, and it was in a
Speaker 1: It was set in a wooded uh level in the game,
Speaker 1: and it was phenomenal if and when you start going
Speaker 1: through those trees, it looks very convincing like you're really
Speaker 1: going through a forest. I mean it, it feels pretty cool.
Speaker 1: And now I don't think I can play that game
Speaker 1: without the three D anymore. So, do you need any
Speaker 1: special equipment other than the than the headgear? You have
Speaker 1: to have a special monitor. Yeah, it depends on the
Speaker 1: depends on the tech, which one you're you're looking at.
Speaker 1: Most of these require a special monitor. Just like if
Speaker 1: you wanted to have three D television, you would need
Speaker 1: a special TV. You need one that was three D ready.
Speaker 1: So for instance, the Mitsubishi Laser View is a three
Speaker 1: D ready television. Most TVs would not be able to
Speaker 1: display the information properly, so you wouldn't get the real
Speaker 1: the effect. Um. So, yes, you do need special equipment,
Speaker 1: whether it's a computer monitor or a television. Sounds expensive, Yeah,
Speaker 1: well it's not cheap, but you know, it's really really cool,
Speaker 1: so you gotta you know, it's the trade off, it's
Speaker 1: and of course, just like any technology, the earlier, the
Speaker 1: early adopters will will purchase it, and f enough of
Speaker 1: them purchase it, that drives the price down and then
Speaker 1: the rest of us can get our grubby little hands
Speaker 1: on it. Um. Another one of the trends that I
Speaker 1: saw and following other sites in their coverage of CS
Speaker 1: this year is one of your favorite words, and it's
Speaker 1: maybe the first time that I've uttered this word on
Speaker 1: our podcast, convergence. Convergence was huge. Um. Yeah, So there's
Speaker 1: a couple of different things that are converging into a
Speaker 1: single form factor. Really, one, I would argue smartphones and
Speaker 1: netbooks are really getting closer and closer to becoming a
Speaker 1: single device. So you're gonna put the keyboard up to
Speaker 1: your mouth and type of your tongue something. I mean.
Speaker 1: The point being that smartphones are getting more and more complex,
Speaker 1: and netbooks are you know, kind of these scaled down
Speaker 1: notebook computers. But a lot of the netbook manufacturers are
Speaker 1: looking into using the cellular network as a means of
Speaker 1: transmitting information. So instead of using WiFi, you're using the
Speaker 1: three G network or even the edge network. And um,
Speaker 1: and so, yeah, your your computer is turning into more
Speaker 1: of a phone device. Your phone is turning more into
Speaker 1: a computer device. Eventually they're going to meet uh. And
Speaker 1: then the same thing you could say is going on
Speaker 1: with television. There was lots and lots of interactive TV displays. Um.
Speaker 1: One of the stories I heard was that Yahoo had
Speaker 1: kind of pulled out of C E S, but yah
Speaker 1: who was still everywhere because everyone had Yahoo widgets on
Speaker 1: their interactive TVs. I remember when that was called confabulator,
Speaker 1: and they offered the widgets for your Mac. Of course,
Speaker 1: now dashboards there and Vista has widgets. So and as
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, I saw some of that on
Speaker 1: and C S two thousand and eight. They were starting
Speaker 1: to put in you know, you can put in your
Speaker 1: own news tickers or little widgets. But it seems like
Speaker 1: widgets are everywhere now and it's you know, it's interesting.
Speaker 1: It'll be interesting to see if it really takes off.
Speaker 1: It's something that I would like to use. I would
Speaker 1: love to have a little option to be able to
Speaker 1: check my weather or you know, see the traffic or
Speaker 1: whatever just by looking at not having to wait for
Speaker 1: a newscast or anything like that. Um but you know,
Speaker 1: you gotta make it as easy as possible to use,
Speaker 1: and you've got to make it as easy for the
Speaker 1: cut for the consumer to to see the value in
Speaker 1: it for it to really take off. So right now,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people are still thinking of
Speaker 1: it as well. This is neat, But would I really
Speaker 1: use it right right? Another trend I saw mentioned a
Speaker 1: lot was wireless technology. And of course we've been talking
Speaker 1: about things like Bluetooth and WiFi, but they were talking
Speaker 1: about wireless everything. Um I saw a wireless charger. You know,
Speaker 1: battery chargers are sort of everywhere now, you know, just
Speaker 1: drop your cell phone on a pad and it charges
Speaker 1: for you and even even for your car. Some of
Speaker 1: that and showing up now, there was there's a lot
Speaker 1: of wireless chargers there were, of course. I also got
Speaker 1: to play with Microsoft Surface. Yeah, the the interactive table exactly,
Speaker 1: and that that has the multi touch capability where it
Speaker 1: can sense multiple points of contact with your fingers or
Speaker 1: hands or whatever, and you can manipulate stuff. But it
Speaker 1: also has this technology that allows it to interact wirelessly
Speaker 1: with appropriate devices. So let's say you have I don't know,
Speaker 1: a Microsoft Zoon for example, and you put your Zoom
Speaker 1: down on the surface. You could theoretically synchronize your zoom
Speaker 1: to the surface without ever connecting any wires or cables
Speaker 1: or anything. Or if you had a uh A camera
Speaker 1: that had the wireless capability, you could place the camera
Speaker 1: on the surface and automatically pull the pictures from your
Speaker 1: camera to the surface. Again, you don't need any wires
Speaker 1: or anything. It just all happens as soon as you
Speaker 1: as soon as it makes contact. That's a really cool technology.
Speaker 1: It's something that we're not going to see in homes
Speaker 1: or anything for several more years because right now the
Speaker 1: surface is still prohibitively expensive. It's around ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: This is something you see in like commercial displays, less
Speaker 1: and less likely to see it in a home unless
Speaker 1: you're you know Bill Gates. Well, um, it's funny because yeah,
Speaker 1: you mentioned that that you didn't even see the Microsoft
Speaker 1: surface in the Microsoft area. No, I didn't see it there,
Speaker 1: but you didn't talk to Microsoft and they had someone
Speaker 1: some big stuff. Of course. Uh, Windows seven Beta was
Speaker 1: supposed to be released around then, and they had it
Speaker 1: was this big thing. Um, of course you were on
Speaker 1: the show floor, but they only were limiting it to
Speaker 1: two point five million downloads and having having to open
Speaker 1: it up, and they had some problems with the whole
Speaker 1: downloading process as well. As I recalled, there was Yeah,
Speaker 1: this was stuff that I was hearing while I was
Speaker 1: at the show. Um didn't really affect me because I
Speaker 1: had a physic old copy of Windows seven Beta in
Speaker 1: my hand. But you actually saw Window seven. I did.
Speaker 1: I did. I saw a demo by one of the
Speaker 1: people who made Windows seven. Yeah, it was a personal
Speaker 1: one on one demo and it was it was pretty impressive.
Speaker 1: I mean they were They didn't come out and say
Speaker 1: this is to try and correct the mistakes of Vista.
Speaker 1: The way the way he worded it was that Microsoft
Speaker 1: listened to their customers, took into account the things they
Speaker 1: liked versus what they didn't like and used that to
Speaker 1: design Windows seven, so, you know, kind of dancing around
Speaker 1: the issue of the whole Vista perception problem thing. And
Speaker 1: I didn't really ask about that because I was very
Speaker 1: interested in the technology, not not you know, covering up
Speaker 1: something or whatever. Um, but it was very it was
Speaker 1: a very neat demo. I actually really did like what
Speaker 1: I saw, and hopefully we'll be able to start testing
Speaker 1: out our own copy of Windows seven Beta very shortly
Speaker 1: and and kind of take it for a spin. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that'll be fun. Yeah. Um. And you also like media
Speaker 1: Room media Room. Media Room was so neat. Okay, So
Speaker 1: media Room is this this technology Microsoft has developed that
Speaker 1: allows them to work with cable content providers like a
Speaker 1: T and T for example, was the one that that
Speaker 1: I got to see. And this would allow you to
Speaker 1: do things like let's say you you get home and
Speaker 1: you realize that you just missed the first ten minutes
Speaker 1: of whatever your favorite show is, and you didn't set
Speaker 1: your DVR, you have no way of of watching that. Well,
Speaker 1: this service would actually let you go back to the
Speaker 1: beginning of that program and watch it all the way through.
Speaker 1: It has a lot of DVR capabilities in it, but
Speaker 1: there's no DVR. It's just part of the service. I mean,
Speaker 1: you do have a box that is the Media room box,
Speaker 1: but it's not it's not a traditional DVR, and it
Speaker 1: has so much many more capabilities. For example, let's say
Speaker 1: that you produce a show and you have some great
Speaker 1: bloopers from that show. You know, it's like you know Sitcom.
Speaker 1: Let's say, and there's there's great bloopers. Usually you have
Speaker 1: to wait around for some sort of special or DVD
Speaker 1: or whatever. But for subscribers to the service, it's possible
Speaker 1: for the content provider to add in clips of bloopers
Speaker 1: and you would just push a little button on your
Speaker 1: remote and pull up a menu, and you could go
Speaker 1: through and see what additional content is available for that show,
Speaker 1: and if it's a blooper, you could watch the blooper
Speaker 1: right then and there. Or you could even link web
Speaker 1: content to the device. So let's say you're watching one
Speaker 1: of our programs, how Stuff Works program you're watching the
Speaker 1: one on coffee, and then you think, I'd like to
Speaker 1: actually know a little bit more about coffee. I wonder
Speaker 1: if there is any more information. You push the button,
Speaker 1: you pull up the menu and you could go and
Speaker 1: read excerpts from our coffee article if we were working
Speaker 1: with the media room software and all of that. So
Speaker 1: this is all very early on. There's already about two
Speaker 1: million customers worldwide using this software. Um, but it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's still in its early stages. But I think it
Speaker 1: has pretty amazing potential. I was blown a a by
Speaker 1: the demo. Yeah, yeah, that sounds impressive. UM, let's see
Speaker 1: other different things. I remember you mentioned the Lenovo screen,
Speaker 1: which is the think pads. Yes, this was a monster
Speaker 1: of a laptop. Guys, you would not want to put
Speaker 1: this on your laptop because you would probably crush your legs.
Speaker 1: But it is technically a portable computer. Um. It is
Speaker 1: rather heavy, it's rather large. But there's a retractable second
Speaker 1: screen stored behind the main screen of the laptop. It's
Speaker 1: on the right hand side. You push a little, you
Speaker 1: push the screen in and it pops out just like
Speaker 1: kind of a you know, like a click click off
Speaker 1: type thing, and it increases your screen by about your
Speaker 1: screen uh landscape, I guess by about Yeah. The press
Speaker 1: release that I read said the main screen is seventeen inches,
Speaker 1: which is already pretty big. It's already then you're adding
Speaker 1: another ten point six inches smaller screen so you can
Speaker 1: you can put information off to that side screen if
Speaker 1: you like, and work from your main screen. And that
Speaker 1: way you you have you can reference things that are
Speaker 1: on the the secondary screen and you know while you're working. Um,
Speaker 1: and it means that you don't have to purchase a
Speaker 1: second monitor. I mean a lot of people do use
Speaker 1: workstations where they have a second monitor and they can
Speaker 1: you know, they drag and drop stuff left and right. Um,
Speaker 1: this saves you the trouble of doing that. Um. But again,
Speaker 1: it is a it is a big machine. Not I
Speaker 1: loved it. I saw this and I immediately thought I
Speaker 1: want one. But um yeah, but yeah, a little You
Speaker 1: don't want to carry it around on the show floor. No, No,
Speaker 1: this would be one of those things where I would
Speaker 1: want to leave that at my desk here and then
Speaker 1: maybe get one of the cool netbooks. I saw while
Speaker 1: I was in CES, and there were a lot of netbooks.
Speaker 1: Netbooks were huge this year. Yeah yeah, well, um, speaking
Speaker 1: of huge, actually small, that's what I was thinking. I
Speaker 1: was gonna ask you about the l G watch phone. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's another one of those like the Panasonic three D.
Speaker 1: That was one of those things that everyone was talking about.
Speaker 1: And the l G Watch phone is yeah, it's a phone,
Speaker 1: it's a watch. It has a speaker on it, you
Speaker 1: can talk into it, It's got a little touch screen interface.
Speaker 1: It's really cool. Now. LG was really careful with this thing. Um,
Speaker 1: they had two different types of people who could wear
Speaker 1: the watch who were part of the l G booth.
Speaker 1: There were the spokespeople who could actually talk about it,
Speaker 1: and then there were the mutes. And the mutes were
Speaker 1: for people who, let's say that you have a camera
Speaker 1: crew with you and you want to shoot some footage
Speaker 1: and you want to talk about and you want this
Speaker 1: person to hold up their arm, but you don't want
Speaker 1: to have that chatty chatty kind of thing going on.
Speaker 1: That's what the mutes were for. They were just to
Speaker 1: stand there, look pretty and be a showcase for the watch.
Speaker 1: They were just models essentially. Essentially. It was cool. It
Speaker 1: has some pretty impressive specs. Um, you know, it does
Speaker 1: include Bluetooth. But what I thought was really funny is
Speaker 1: that LGS saying that it has such excellent noise cancelation
Speaker 1: that you're not even supposed to have to put it
Speaker 1: up to your mouth to talk. It should cancel out
Speaker 1: everything that's not you for three feet. Yeah, it's interesting
Speaker 1: to get our hands on one of these and see
Speaker 1: if that's really I would love to. I don't know that.
Speaker 1: I don't know that Dolt would be handing them over
Speaker 1: anytime soon, but I would love to get my hands
Speaker 1: on one there. Actually. Noise cancelation was another big thing,
Speaker 1: just with phones in general. Yeah, there was a lot
Speaker 1: of discussion about phones that had multiple microphones in the
Speaker 1: phone to help with noise cancelation, to try and uh
Speaker 1: so that you know, in theory, you could just be
Speaker 1: in a noisy place like I don't know, the showroom
Speaker 1: floor of C e S and still carry on a
Speaker 1: normal conversation without having to scream your head off. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was there was one booth in particular where they
Speaker 1: would blast noise at you and hand you a phone
Speaker 1: and I'll let you call other people and you could
Speaker 1: you know, they could hear you. You could show off
Speaker 1: the fact that and then you'd walk out and your
Speaker 1: ears would be ringing and you want to go and
Speaker 1: lay down for a while. Well. Um. One of the
Speaker 1: other things that I thought was really cool was the
Speaker 1: fact that you mentioned that they were sort of reaching
Speaker 1: out to kids and to older adults with technology. You
Speaker 1: actually had specific um exhibits targeted towards those groups. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they had two areas. They had an area specifically for
Speaker 1: products aimed at kids, and they had another one for
Speaker 1: products aimed at the elderly. And then there were other
Speaker 1: booths that also had technology that fit these categories, but
Speaker 1: they were not displaying in those designated areas. But it
Speaker 1: was interesting because what we have here is, you know,
Speaker 1: you've got the baby boomer population that's continuing to age,
Speaker 1: funny how that happens, and they're pretty tech savvy, you know,
Speaker 1: for the most part. But their parents, the generation you
Speaker 1: know that came before them, they're not as tech savvy.
Speaker 1: And so it's sort of the the gadgets that will
Speaker 1: allow the this generation, this older generation too, maintain a
Speaker 1: sense of independence and reduce a sense of isolation. And
Speaker 1: uh so that was really the focus of the gadgets
Speaker 1: for them. I thought that was really really interesting. I
Speaker 1: actually talked with a couple of people about their design
Speaker 1: philosophies and it was you know, it was one of
Speaker 1: those times where he kind of felt good after you
Speaker 1: walked out of a booth because you really, you really
Speaker 1: felt that the people designing these things. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: there's a market for it, so otherwise I wouldn't do it.
Speaker 1: But they felt that they genuinely believed in what they
Speaker 1: were doing and that what they were doing was helping
Speaker 1: people stay connected with parents and grandparents. Well, it just
Speaker 1: goes to show you that not everybody needs the latest
Speaker 1: and greatest feature set. They just need something that works
Speaker 1: well with the you know, minimum of difficulty. Yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: you know, so it's just easy access. Um. There's tons
Speaker 1: more we could talk about, but I have one pressing
Speaker 1: question for you. The big rumor since Apple is pulling
Speaker 1: out of Macworld, right, do you think that the Apple
Speaker 1: will be a You know, they did introduce the Pippin
Speaker 1: at A c S in the past, so well, you know,
Speaker 1: it was one of those rumors that was making the
Speaker 1: showroom floor. Um, and and ce A apparently, I you know,
Speaker 1: I should actually check and see if this was true.
Speaker 1: I mean I had heard, I will say, I heard
Speaker 1: a rumor that C. E A said, yeah, Apple is
Speaker 1: going to be here as an exhibitor next year. UM.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much stock to put into that
Speaker 1: because for one thing. You know, it's you know, they
Speaker 1: could always back off and say, oh, they pulled out,
Speaker 1: But if they get that initial rush of Apple fanboys
Speaker 1: all clamoring to be part of ce s, it's just
Speaker 1: better for the show. Um. So I don't know. I'm skeptical.
Speaker 1: I'm skeptical. I think that uh, if let me put
Speaker 1: it this way, if Steve Jobs is still in charge,
Speaker 1: I don't think it will happen because I think Jobs
Speaker 1: is satisfied with doing events his way. So to do
Speaker 1: Apple events at at venues that Apple arranges there, they
Speaker 1: have complete control of the situation. I don't see him
Speaker 1: giving that up. Now. If Jobs is not in control,
Speaker 1: fair game. Yeah, well, uh, I don't know. I think
Speaker 1: it's possible that they may decide to do something non
Speaker 1: computer related, and like if they decided to do an
Speaker 1: iPhone and iPod showcase, you might see some kind of
Speaker 1: presence or you know, there's they're looking for the next
Speaker 1: big thing. They might come out with something entirely different.
Speaker 1: And of course, just because somebody says it's going to
Speaker 1: happen or not gonna happen, doesn't mean it's actually go
Speaker 1: that way either. So we'll have to wait another few
Speaker 1: months before we will find out for sure. That's uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I guess I don't really have any
Speaker 1: other questions for you right now, where we've got some
Speaker 1: articles coming out before too much longer on on some
Speaker 1: of these things, so make sure to keep your eyes
Speaker 1: peeled on how stuff works dot com for those yep. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you can check out stuff everything from smartphones to netbooks.
Speaker 1: We have information on all of this stuff already, and
Speaker 1: of course it's just gonna increase over the next few weeks.
Speaker 1: So you can find all of that stuff at how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com and we'll talk to you again
Speaker 1: really soon for more on this and thousands of other topics.
Speaker 1: Because it how stuff works dot com. Let us know
Speaker 1: what you think. Send an email to podcast at how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Brought to you by the reinvented
Speaker 1: two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you