WEBVTT - CES show w/ Ashley Esqueda 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:12.160 Get in touch with technology with tex Stuff from dot Com. 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.480 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:18.720 and today I've got a special treat I am joined 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:22.080 by Ashley A. Skepta. Please tell me I didn't butcher 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:28.560 your name? Yea. Ashley is my buddy from c NET 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:32.440 and she and I are survivors of the Great War 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:37.599 known as c E S two thousand fifteen. We can 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:42.360 be beaten down, but never defeated. No, never, never. Uh So, Ashley, 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:44.639 I've asked you on the show so that we can 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:46.760 kind of talk about some of the stuff that was 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:49.239 unveiled at c E some of the big themes that 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:53.040 happened during the show. And this is gonna be a 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.320 real discovery for me personally because I was confined to 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:02.000 a very small, relatively speak section of the show and 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:04.200 didn't get out nearly as much as I wanted to. 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:07.160 So I was in the same boat. So I got 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:11.960 to see via all of my colleagues out reporting what 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:14.560 they were looking at. That's kind of how I was 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:17.319 to except for me, it wasn't colleagues. It was peers 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:19.840 because no one else from how stuff works was there. 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:23.320 So yeah, but it was it was still you know, 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:26.839 one of those events where every single year that goes 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:31.160 by you can identify some big trends that happened at CES. 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:33.720 So for a few years ago, like example, a few 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:35.920 years ago, it was three D, right, that was the 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:39.720 big thing, and unfortunately that has gone away. Yes, people 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:43.800 have finally given up on pushing three D. I think. 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.280 I think listening to the consumers say I don't want 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:50.320 that for two or three years, finally got the message 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:53.280 through just such a hassle. I mean, it's it really 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:55.640 blows my mind that anybody ever thought that was going 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.640 to be a really lucrative business model, because I can't 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:03.360 think of a single person who's like, Okay, I want 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:05.440 to buy this three D TV, and I also want 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.919 to buy these two pairs of glasses that run on 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:11.960 battery power, and oh I'm going to need four of 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:14.519 them because you have a family of four. Like, there 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:17.480 is not a universe in which people enjoy that. Yeah, 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.240 I mean, the only use case I really could see 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:23.400 was for gamers who had, you know, a lot of 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:27.160 disposable income and they want they wanted to have the 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:32.560 ultimate gaming you know, console set up to console. Even 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:36.920 then it's like buy a monitor. Yeah, you know, Steam, 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:39.920 get your get your video card. I'm the same way, 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:42.600 I think the same way. It's to me, it was 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:46.200 one of those things where the benefit was not enough 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:50.160 to outweigh the hassle that I have a hard time 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:54.200 just finding my remote control. Yeah, unless these glasses laying 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:58.880 around and you know, like the four K televisions are 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:02.000 so nice that they are. The picture quality is so nice. 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:05.040 It almost gives a feeling of three D because you 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:07.160 honestly look like you could just reach right in and 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:10.120 grab whatever's on the screen. That's true. That's so many 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:13.400 people have described it as being three D like I mean, 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:17.120 I even even Wally Fister, the cinematographer I got to 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:19.480 talk to. He said, when you get to this level 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:23.119 of clarity that's essentially three D, you get the illusion 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:25.560 of depth. I mean, nothing is coming out at you, 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:28.560 but everything looks like it has real presence, like you 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:31.160 could like like like it is just a pane of 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.280 glass between you and the hobbit or whatever. Right, It's 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:36.640 it's just like in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:39.920 where all of a sudden that was all you know, 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:41.880 that the candy bar was there, and it looked real 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:43.720 and then they reached down ground is it's like it 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:46.120 feels like that a little bit. Yeah, yeah, And then 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:49.120 Mike TV of course following along and we can have 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:52.480 a whole discussion justin Willy Wonka, and I'm somewhat tempted 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:56.800 to because CS is exhausting. But but four KTVs, that's 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:59.560 definitely one of the big themes that went through this year. 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:04.520 Every major television producer was putting their four K sets 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:08.040 on display, and all of them, of course claiming that 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:14.080 their sets are more better than everyone else's. It's in 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:16.040 four K and my four K, so you can four 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:18.440 K while you four K. That's right, that's right. I 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:20.880 mean I was there and uh and one of the 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:24.359 things that I saw beyond the four K was beyond 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:29.000 four K, we're already talking about the next generation, whether 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:33.000 that is quantum dots, yep, using the quantum dot approaching, 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:35.240 trying to get to a point where we've got eight 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:38.600 K resolution. And I know a lot of people might 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:41.120 be saying, like that sounds crazy because we don't really 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:44.839 have that much four K content yet except on sites 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:50.000 like YouTube or Netflix. But the truth is that Japan 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:53.839 is going to try and start broadcasting eight K signals 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:57.080 by the end of two thousand sixteen. Yeah, And the 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.440 other thing is is like maybe this is sort of 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:03.599 maybe this is kind of like a jump between you know, 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:06.960 seven twenty eight. So it's like maybe four K is 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:10.800 the seven twenty of this generation, right right, It's it's 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:13.320 one of those things where again, the other part of 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:15.960 this is that it allows us to have larger screens 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:19.880 without depreciating the quality of the image on those screens. 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.359 So when you get to a point where the manufacturing 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.560 costs are low and we see the prices of the 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:29.920 television sets come down as well as adoption rates go up, 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:33.760 it means that we can all create that crazy home 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:39.000 theater experience that normally only hip hop artists were able 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:41.560 to do. So yeah, yeah, or you know Bill Gates, 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:44.840 which is super nice. I mean, just there have been 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:49.960 so many great advances in how we consume content over 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:53.240 the last even you know, five years. I always it 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:56.000 blows my mind that the iPad is just five years 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:58.760 old in February. That's always the thing that kind of 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:02.800 reminds me that it's been so much so fast, right, 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:06.880 I Mean I made a prediction, a famous prediction just 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:09.800 before the year before the iPad came out that if 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:12.160 it did come out, it was going to fail. So 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:14.760 it just shows how I have my finger on the 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:19.080 pulse of technology. Well, you know, sometimes we have to 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:22.280 fail to move forward. That's true. And also, to be fair, 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:25.920 no tablet in the history of tablets had ever now 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:29.279 it's true, it's true, had ever been popular or gained 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:32.440 any kind of mainstream acceptance. Um. And then of course, 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:34.240 you know, when the name came out, people you know, 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:39.919 regarded that with lots of derision. I Pad, how stupid. Yeah, 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:42.960 that's true. Well we were all proven wrong on that one. 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:46.200 I'm okay with that because it's it's led to an 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:53.000 interesting world, especially really pushed the development of mobile applications 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:57.400 and mobile devices. And also I would argue that the 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:00.320 success of the tablet and the rise of the mobile 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:07.960 device also gave rise to another big trend at CS wearables. 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.360 Oh man, there were so many they had wearables for dogs. 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:15.720 They did. I could not believe it's I mean, we 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:18.920 were barely getting getting into or we barely scratched the 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:24.520 surface on human wearables. Now we got dog wearables. Yeah. 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:28.240 I love that that. We're seeing lots of experimentation in this. 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:31.680 I mean, I think where you see the maturity as 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.280 far as wearables go is in the health and fitness 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:38.440 field obviously. Oh yeah, that's where they really got their start. 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:43.600 I'm wearing a a fitness tracker right now because I 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:47.440 mean I'm a sheep. Also, I really like them. I 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:51.000 think it's really cool. I love the idea of quantifying 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:54.200 my activity so that I can look at and make 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:56.920 an assessment as to whether or not I'm doing well 0:07:57.120 --> 0:07:59.400 or maybe I need to push myself harder. I always 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.640 need to push my self harder, by the way. Uh. 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:04.960 But but this is that's definitely the realm where we're 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:08.560 really seeing wearables take off now. Granted, in two thousand fifteen, 0:08:08.560 --> 0:08:10.760 I don't know, did you ever get over to uh 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:14.720 the Sands, you know, I was so bummed I did 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:17.080 not make it over to tech West. So, for for 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:22.000 anybody listening, C E S has just continued to grow exponentially. 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:24.000 And there was a I remember a few years ago 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:27.480 there was a point where Microsoft decided they weren't coming anymore, 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:31.040 and a lot of people started predicting like, oh, this 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:33.480 is the death of CS, like it's gonna start getting 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:35.760 smaller and we're going to have these you know, one 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:39.760 off events like Samsung and and Apple do everyone's going 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:44.559 to start doing those. There's no point now and completely 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:48.680 the opposite of that. I mean, it has grown exponentially 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:51.559 in the last few years to the point where now 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.000 all of the startups and all the weird kind of 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:57.439 quirky stuff three D printing and drones and just all 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:00.920 kinds of things are over in the same convention center. 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:05.200 So they're using the Las Vegas Convention Center, Mandalai Bay, uh, 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:10.280 the Sands, the Venetian. I mean, it's huge. Yeah, And 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:13.720 there's also some companies that'll set up in suites and 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:16.520 hotels around the streets because they don't they don't necessarily 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:18.920 want to dish out the money they would need to 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:22.000 put down to have a booth. Well, maybe they don't 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:23.800 even need a booth. Maybe we just say, well, we 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:26.120 just want to invite select members of the press and 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.040 industry buyers to come to our suite and see what 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:31.800 we have happening. That's true. I did get a chance 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:36.320 to experience the Nintendo we you for the one of 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:38.440 those meetings. It was before they had really started to 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.200 unveil it and had just only talked about a little 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:43.640 bit to the press, and so it was a couple 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:45.920 of years ago when I got to do that. But 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:48.760 that that's you know, that was a rare event for me. 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:51.199 Usually I'm not on those lists. I'm not sure how 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:53.120 I got on that one, but it was awesome. I 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:54.920 need to find out how to get on those lists. 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:57.960 I there's some sort of secret society that I need 0:09:58.000 --> 0:09:59.800 to find out how to get it, like the Skulls, 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:01.920 but it's like for tech. I need to figure out 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:04.360 how to get into that. Yeah, I'm usually only invited 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:06.839 to the ones like here's a new thumb drive. Well 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:10.640 this is I'm not gonna I'm not gonna poo poo 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.679 your thumb drive. But we made these computer cases and 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:16.640 they're super fascinating. You should come see them. Here's here's 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:19.000 a here's a smartphone case for a brand that you 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:22.920 don't own. Well, thanks fantastic. But getting back to the wearable, 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:25.600 some of the crazy ones I saw. I went to 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:30.319 c E S unveiled and I saw the Belty. Everybody 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:34.600 loved Belty this year. I think Belty was this year's 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:38.080 haptic feedback fork. Oh yeah, the happy fork. Yeah, there's 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:40.440 a there's a happy knife now too. If you didn't 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:43.720 see that, there's happy fork and happy spoon or knife 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:46.959 or I don't know whatever. It is so ridiculous. These 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:51.160 are These are some of the more kind of quirky things. 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:53.800 The ring that there was a ring of really bulky 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.520 ring with a little button in the bottom that you 0:10:56.640 --> 0:10:58.800 pressed and you cold gesture and things like that. It's 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:01.920 very strange of The ring is one of those, uh 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:05.600 from why I understand it had a very contentious kickstarter campaign, 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:08.840 one of those where uh, it got funded and then 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:12.640 it was a really long delay between when when the 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.920 funding happened and when anything else was happening. I can 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:19.079 kind of sympathize with people who backed the ring because 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:24.319 I have backed two different smart watches and one regular 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:27.440 but cool watch, and none of the three have been 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:30.120 finished yet. So that was that was more than a 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:32.200 year ago when I backed them, So I totally get it. 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:35.400 But I think it's definitely like one of those situations 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:37.880 right well. So a good example of this is um 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:42.280 Indie Goog had a very controversial crowd fund called the 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:44.720 He'll Be I don't know if you're familiar with this 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:46.920 this one. I'm not familiar with. This is the one 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:49.760 that claims that it can measure your glucose based on 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:55.440 like your skin, Like it's it's so weird, like sweat 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:58.000 you can measure your glucose. This has been kind of 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:01.960 a holy grail in Diabee d S Technology, blood sugar 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:07.280 level healthcare forever. And this company is owned by like 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:10.960 a Russian cake shop owner. Like it's all very shady. 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:13.920 The whole thing is very very shady, and and all 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:16.480 of the science having to do with this is like 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:19.600 kind of bad, shaky science that doesn't really make a 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:22.520 whole lot of sense. So I think, And they've raised 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.959 you know, over a million dollars and and it's so 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:28.720 I mean, for me, it seems so clearly a rip 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:32.320 off but a scam. But I just, I mean, I 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:34.760 just don't know. And they were at c E S 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:37.280 and they were like, oh, yeah, here's our device, but 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.000 you can't use it. This is just what it looks like. Yeah, 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:43.120 there's I've seen some of that. Like it's really interesting 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:45.400 that that's the world we're in now, because again kind 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:47.960 of a look back at what it's like to go 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:51.439 to c S a few years ago. The only companies 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:53.480 that you would see at c S. If you were 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:55.360 in the main convention center, you would see lots of 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:58.880 big name companies and maybe a few distributors as well, 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:02.079 but those be the only ones you'd see. If you 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:05.240 go to the Venetians and sands, you'd see smaller companies, 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:09.319 or you would you were interested in um Audio hardware, 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:12.200 which was often featured at the Venetian where you would 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:14.520 go to a suite and they had more control over 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:17.360 the environment because it's very noisy at c e S, 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:20.199 so so it's hard to set up like a high 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:25.160 fidelity experience on the c e S floor. But you 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:28.040 didn't see a lot of independence out there. You saw, 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:30.440 you know, there were areas where there'd be lots of 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:34.720 tiny companies that had very small booths and they would 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:37.559 just be jam packed, usually ones, a lot of them 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:41.480 from Asia, for example. But these days now we're in 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:46.000 the era of crowdfunding where we're seeing independent projects that 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:49.440 have crowdfunding backing, they don't have like the backing of 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:54.960 a giant corporation, actually actually have a significant presence at 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:57.760 c e S, which is pretty amazing. Yeah, and I 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:00.640 almost wonder, you know, it's like, especially with a crowdfund 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:02.760 it's like, are you using the money that we just 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:06.240 gave you for a booth? Like, like, I have concerns here, 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:08.200 like especially the ones that are just have these like 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:11.480 giant booths and you're just like, you know, I gave 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:14.040 you a hundred dollars to give me, you know whatever, 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:17.880 and now you're here with you know, a skateboarding ramp 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:21.760 and you know, confetti cannons and T shirt guns and 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:24.240 I'm a little concerned about where my kick starter funds 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:26.160 are going to. Yeah it might be like you're not 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:30.800 such a great tech company, but you're an amazing marketing company. Yeah, exactly, 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:33.320 and I just yeah, it's very weird to sort of see. 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:35.800 But tech West was really cool because it was a 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:38.040 lot of those companies, a lot of hey, we were 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:40.840 on Kickstarter, Like three Doodler was there, um, and they 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:43.920 had a successful Kickstarter. They unveiled the newest like version 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:47.040 of their three D pen, their three D printing pen, 0:14:47.960 --> 0:14:51.000 which looks a lot better than the original first jan version, 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:54.240 which is really cool. But yeah, it was it was 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:56.960 really I always like going to see yes and seeing 0:14:57.160 --> 0:14:59.920 those which is like the success stories. You're like, gosh, 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:04.000 like okay, there they are like I backed this on Kickstarter, 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:06.120 or I saw this on Kickstarter and I told my 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:09.760 friends about it. And now they're a successful company and 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:12.960 they're super excited to be here. Uh they love being 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:15.200 there and they like being in the position that they're 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:17.840 in because they have a little bit of name recognition, 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:19.920 which is always nice. But then on that same note, 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:22.880 there's still you know, fresh, and they're still they have 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:25.440 stars in their eyes about you know, making it big, 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:27.920 and it's just they're so enthusiastic about being there. And 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.000 that's one of the things I really love about cs is, 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:33.680 especially over in Tech West. Now there's so much enthusiasm 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:35.840 and so much excitement over there. I mean that place 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.520 was buzzing all week long. Yeah, it's cool. I spend 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:42.880 most of my time there and uh so I got 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.040 to see a lot of these little companies. There are 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:47.280 some big companies over in Tech West as well, because 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:49.480 that was where they put some of their zones. C 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:55.000 e s will also create zones that have related products 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:57.600 kind of grouped together to make it easier to see them. 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:00.560 That was really smart. It is really smart. It doesn't 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.200 work for the big companies because they're just too big. 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:06.440 They don't want to split up their their presence. So 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:09.360 like for wearables, for example, one guy I ran into 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:14.080 had this great saying. He essentially said, uh, every everyone 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:17.680 here has a wearable. Every booth here has got something 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:19.560 in it that's gonna be a wearable or it's gonna 0:16:19.600 --> 0:16:22.440 be used in wearables. You know, It's pretty much true. 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:25.200 So you could go to the Big Boots and see 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:27.200 examples of that, but you could also go to tech 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:32.000 West and see companies that were specifically oriented around a 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:35.680 particular product or a group of products. Um same sort 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:38.000 of thing with three D printing. That was huge over 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:40.880 at tech West, and you know, one of the one 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:45.000 of the most impressive displays of three D printing. It's 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:47.960 been a long time coming. I mean we I remember 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:51.360 when I went to my first c E S maybe 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:53.600 it was even my second one. I saw a maker 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:55.840 Bot for the first time and it was one of 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:59.200 the early early models, and I think it was the 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:01.680 only three D printer that was on the floor that year, 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:04.639 and it really blew me away. And now there's just 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:09.440 an entire section of tech West dedicated to it, full 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:12.040 on section, and they had not only you know, three 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:16.480 D printed jewelry and three D printed objects, toys, things 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:18.760 like that. But they also had three D printed food, 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:23.280 which it's like three D printed chocolate and three printed candies, 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.960 and that just blows my mind. I mean they also 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:29.560 they had the full three D scanner where you could 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:33.119 go in scan yourself and get a print out of yourself. 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:37.040 I know it was tough for me because I showed 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:38.640 up and they looked at me and said, we don't 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:42.119 have enough plastic. So I just turned around and walked. 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:46.200 But then I went straight to the fitness trackers and 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:50.680 they said we can help you. Don't worry, it's all okay. 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:53.960 Another big trend, obviously, one of the things that you 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:55.600 see a lot of at c S, which is kind 0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:59.359 of funny considering that it comes so close to the 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:02.320 Giant to show that happens in Detroit is there's a 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:06.280 lot of car technology on display, and this year, one 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:08.960 of the big ones I covered for Forward Thinking the 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:13.879 announcement that Toyota is has released all of its fuel 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:17.560 cell vehicle patents more than five thousand, six hundred though 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:23.880 the worldwide to be used royalty free, license free. Yeah, 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:28.160 it's it's absolutely a brilliant savvy move on the part 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:31.679 of Toyota for multiple reasons. One is that if you 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.840 want to bring around a world where hydrogen is a 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:40.240 legitimate fuel source for vehicles, you can't depend on one 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:43.760 company to make that change. It's just too big. You 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:47.119 can't hold all your right And you know a lot 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:49.760 of people have pointed out Elon Musk did something very 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:52.840 similar by releasing the patents related to the Tesla, and 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:55.680 that too was a really brilliant move in my mind, 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:59.800 it's great to have both of these technologies moving forward. 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:02.800 I mean, in many ways they're competing, but if you 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:05.680 look at a battery operated vehicle and a fuel cell 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:09.600 operated vehicle, they're both electric cars. It's just one is 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:13.440 getting its electricity from a storage chemical stored battery, another 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.640 one is getting its electricity from a hydrogen fuel cell, 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:19.840 and and it's good to have both. It maybe that 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:23.399 in the long run one ends up winning over the other, 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:28.720 but I think having both is incredibly beneficial, particularly if 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:33.560 we maintain the demand that the electricity that is going 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:37.439 to power our vehicles ultimately comes from a clean source. 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:40.399 That's the big challenge with both of those types of 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:43.760 technologies right well, and especially with gas prices coming down 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:46.639 quite a bit, it's they I know that. I believe 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:50.639 I read they started selling them the Hummer again. Yes, so, 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:53.560 which is a little disappointing, but I mean at the 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:55.240 end of the day, it's sort of one of those 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:58.240 things where it's going to be it's a challenge. It's 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:01.320 always a challenge because when this is an expensive people 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:07.320 don't think about needing economical cars or clean cars. And so, 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:10.280 if I'm not mistaken, the reason why the Volkswagen Beetle 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:12.920 was so popular, uh in the seventies is because of 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:16.159 the gas shortages, people needed these like economical cars. They 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:19.280 started they stopped driving those giant boats that we remember 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:22.320 from the fifties and the sixties, and they started moving 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:25.120 towards smaller cars. So that's how we kind of started 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:28.200 getting smaller cars. And now we're moving towards these sort 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:31.720 of eco friendly vehicles, uh, you know, emission free and 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:35.000 all this great stuff. And man, there was so much 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:38.639 awesome stuff that I saw at CS that how to 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:42.480 do with vehicles. I mean, the concept car for Mercedes, 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:47.879 the f O was unbelievable. It looks like it's something 0:20:48.000 --> 0:20:50.600 out of a science fiction film. It looks like it 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:52.600 came right out of minority report. You just get in. 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:54.960 It's got these four captains chairs. You could swing around 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:57.920 three hundred sixty degrees. It's self self driving, I mean, 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:01.520 and of course you know they're like, this is for you, 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:04.639 this is we're way out in the future. But I 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:07.600 mean it's okay. I think of it this way. I 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:11.600 remember two thousand like it was yesterday, So it's now, 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:13.679 that's another fifteen years of like, I feel like it's 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:17.760 gonna be here like tomorrow. That's I am perfectly on 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:21.720 board with the autonomous car revolution. Yeah, that that was 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:24.439 one of those concepts. I saw the pictures afterwards. I 0:21:24.520 --> 0:21:27.719 never made it out to the North Hall, which kills 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:30.480 me because I wanted I wanted to do a walk 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:33.280 through and really see. The North Hall, by the way, 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:36.959 is where all the automakers have their their booths. You 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:41.000 tend to have major automakers have booths there, and then 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:47.200 all the like super loud boomy based stereo companies, and 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:50.200 then in a whole bunch of like phone accessories. Yeah, 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:51.919 because that's exactly where you want to show off your 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:58.480 phone accessories, next to the gigantic wall of sound that's 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:02.080 just playing bass at you. Yeah. Of course, Uh, one 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:04.440 thing I didn't see a lot of this year. But again, 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:06.480 it could just be that I didn't have a chance 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:10.720