Rob and Jeff share their insights on the very best products and technologies exhibited at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas. They also impart a caution or two about products we may have been sorry we saw, or not! You can decide when you join us for a Tech-Talk.
The Show
175,000 consumer electronics professionals from all over the world attended CES 2020 last week. With over 4,400 exhibitors we’ve done our best to narrow in on what we think our viewers will be most interested in hearing about so here goes.
The Oh!
Amazon announced that within the last year, it’s Alexa platform has been integrated into 200 million devices. Just take a minute… 200 million devices are Alexa enabled. With that technology available to, well, hundreds of millions of users we are seeing voice-activated functionality hit almost every aspect of our daily lives.
Kohler Moxie showerhead Bluetooth-enabled for those of us who enjoy music or news during our showers.
Sleep Number Climate 360 Smart Bed won the CES 2020 Best of Innovation Award… and may win hearts as it hits the market in 2021.
H2-BP wristband blood pressure monitor was another Innovation Award winner for the Wearable Technologies category.
Next Mind won two CES Innovation Awards —Best of Innovation in Augmented and Virtual Reality and Honoree in Wearable Technologies for their brain-sensing virtual reality technology.
The No-Go… or maybe Not?
Ok, so the Segway Segway S-Pod might be concerning or it can be incredible depending on where you sit… literally. For folks with ambulatory issues, we love this. Anything that provides freedom and assistance to those struggling, we’re all in. However, for those of us who don’t need it, we lean more towards the idea of get fit, stay fit by walking those short distances.
That’s our wrap for today, but we’ll keep looking for new and innovative products and services to help you at home and in your business. Meanwhile, be sure to reach out and let us know what you think about these or other ground-breaking tech.
Thanks for watching!
Jeff Bromley
Jeff@thingee.com
973-644-9012
ext. 11
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00:00 Hey everybody welcome back to Tech-Talk
00:01 where we talk about all things tech I’m
00:03 Jeff Bromley and I’m Rob Barra and happy
00:06 new year
00:07 yes Happy New Year we are in 2020 and we
00:10 have all sorts of great stuff that we
00:11 want to talk to you about today from the
00:13 Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show it
00:16 is a gigantic show every year first week
00:19 of the year and for whatever reason they
00:22 release all the new stuff that should
00:24 have been on sale during the holiday
00:26 season which I still don’t understand
00:28 but I don’t know why it’s not in July
00:30 maybe if maybe you’ll see you next year
00:31 probably because it’s 900 million
00:33 degrees in Las Vegas in July but that
00:35 might have something to do exactly
00:36 exactly so one of the things that’s near
00:39 and dear to our heart is Amazon and more
00:41 specifically their Alexa platform the
00:43 Alexa platform since last year has more
00:46 than doubled to 200 million devices
00:48 which is a big deal it’s crazy it is a
00:50 million devices in a year sold I mean
00:52 that is just insane yeah and they’re
00:54 trying to integrate or not trying
00:56 they’re going to be integrating Alexa
00:57 into everything from the gas pump to
01:00 Lamborghinis are going to have them in
01:02 there to help you change the heat I saw
01:04 a new shower head that’s gonna have an
01:07 Alexa speaker showerhead yeah as a
01:09 shower head so I think it’s Kohler’s
01:11 making its shower head that uses
01:14 magnets to mount inside of the shower
01:17 it’s pretty cool hmm that was one thing
01:19 I saw that I thought was interesting I
01:21 also want to thank the folks at Segway
01:23 for bringing us a little bit closer to
01:25 the dystopian future that was foreseen
01:28 by the Pixar movie Wall-e
01:30 they released a terrifying hover seat
01:35 much like the one in that movie if you
01:38 haven’t seen it you should if you
01:41 haven’t seen the Segway thing yeah
01:44 anyway no just just put your Apple watch
01:47 on and go on the mall and walk just move
01:50 yeah please everybody’s help the main
01:53 product that everybody was pitching this
01:55 year at CES were 8k televisions I find a
01:58 lot of humor in that is there’s very
01:59 little 4k content even out right now I
02:02 think the national championship game for
02:05 the NC double-a of football was
02:07 broadcast in in 4k if you had like New
02:11 Jersey 3
02:12 different shades like DirecTV or
02:15 something like oh yeah but satellite
02:16 satellite did it but other than that I
02:18 mean if unless you’re streaming 4k
02:20 content is is very very hard to come by
02:23 might be the resurgence of how satellite
02:25 comes to start winning it you know
02:27 they’re they’re done screaming it’s all
02:28 gonna be streaming yeah
02:29 we’re not going to talk about 8k
02:31 televisions or anything else like so in
02:34 many more detail what we want to talk to
02:36 you about today we’re some really neat
02:37 devices that one Innovation Awards from
02:40 CES that we think will make a difference
02:42 in your life or in your business or in
02:44 our lives because you know they’re
02:47 important first thing I want to talk
02:48 about is Sleep Number Sleep Number
02:50 released a smart bed which does all
02:53 sorts of really neat things its app
02:55 controlled it heats your toes so that
02:57 you can fall asleep you’re telling me I
03:00 get into my bed and the bottom will be
03:01 right so apparently the Sleep Number
03:03 people have looked at things and they
03:06 know that if you have warm toasty feet
03:09 that helps you fall so so I don’t have
03:11 to have my wife putting her clothes feet
03:13 on the back of my calf anymore nope she
03:15 will be able to heat up her own feet and
03:17 then if you turn into big sweat ball
03:20 like other people I know when you’re
03:22 sleeping
03:23 it will also cool the bed oh and the
03:25 feature that I think is probably the
03:26 most compelling and that will probably
03:28 wind up with one of these beds in my
03:30 house there’s an anti-snore feature so
03:33 if first thing that you’re sleeping you
03:34 know it gently now you have to open the
03:37 app which is kind of silly because you
03:39 know hey it’s two o’clock in the morning
03:41 let you on my phone and then you know
03:42 but there’s a there’s a there’s a snore
03:46 mode which will gently elevate the head
03:48 of the person just keep snoring no no so
03:53 that opens up their airway a little bit
03:55 if your spouse sleeps with the ear plugs
03:58 on or other manner of anti-snoring
04:00 devices like some people I know this
04:03 might be of interest to you interesting
04:05 interesting you know the next thing that
04:06 we thought was super cool was they’re
04:09 coming out with lots of wearables but
04:11 now they’re actually gonna have a blood
04:12 pressure wearable that’s actually gonna
04:14 be able to monitor you because high
04:15 blood pressure is just goes on a wrist
04:17 just goes on your it’s on your wrist
04:19 just on your wrist you put it on it
04:21 takes your blood pressure and then you
04:23 can take it off you don’t have to leave
04:24 it on all day long
04:25 we’ll replace all of these giant cuffs
04:28 that people are doing it’ll make it much
04:30 easier for you to help keep an eye on
04:34 your blood pressure if that’s something
04:35 that you need to do is it is it
04:37 connected like it’s connected it is
04:39 connected to two smart devices
04:42 you know phones and and such I’m not
04:45 sure I was looking I’m not sure if it’s
04:46 FDA approved yet
04:48 you can buy it and have it sent it’s
04:51 made by a Korean company but you can buy
04:52 it and have it sent to the United States
04:54 that’s pretty why and it’s really not
04:55 that expensive or not it’s only a couple
04:57 hundred dollars so this this has an
04:59 opportunity to really revolutionize you
05:02 know mobile blood pressure for things
05:04 for people screening rather than having
05:07 that big giant that is kind of yeah my
05:09 mom’s got one she writes the whole thing
05:10 herself which is exactly completely
05:12 convoluted ya know and again if you know
05:15 who it’s the connectivity that’s
05:16 possible you could link it up with your
05:18 caretakers your doctor etc yes that’s
05:22 Wow so the next thing we want to talk
05:24 about is a really neat device from a
05:26 company called next mind they are
05:28 developing a brain sensing VR controller
05:31 brain sensing so it’s a device you put
05:35 on your head and apparently somehow so
05:39 is it like a lot of electrodes
05:40 no it just looked like a little sort of
05:43 so there’s a dome hat thing okay
05:45 that’s neat there’s a little thing in
05:46 the back I don’t know I’m not sure
05:47 exactly how it works and they didn’t
05:49 really go into too many details but
05:51 apparently it can determine what you’re
05:54 looking at inside of the virtual reality
05:57 environment and it can take action based
05:59 on what those you know those brainwaves
06:02 are saying alright so you’ve got the VR
06:04 goggles on the other things on your
06:06 hands on your head yep and now it’s
06:09 knowing what it knows what you’re
06:11 looking at oh it’s knows what I’m
06:12 looking at what you’re looking at and
06:13 and maybe can detect other things I
06:17 don’t know I mean it looks like really
06:18 interesting technology I’m very excited
06:20 about what is gonna be possible in the
06:22 future with technology like this imagine
06:24 like playing a VR video game and it
06:29 knows that you’re scared and it makes
06:32 the game either more scary or less scary
06:35 based on what it’s detecting about your
06:37 brainwaves
06:39 I’ll just be wild I don’t want
06:41 developers to know what I’m thinking and
06:43 if I’m scared yeah but if they’re making
06:46 a scary game when you want them to know
06:48 yeah so anyway we’re gonna put all the
06:51 links for all of these things that we’ve
06:52 talked about today down below whether
06:54 you’re on Facebook or LinkedIn or
06:56 wherever you’ll be able to find all this
06:58 stuff that we’ve been talking about but
07:00 that’s it for today’s edition of tech
07:02 talk the first one for the new decade
07:05 welcome to 2020 I’m not Barbara Walters
07:08 anyway for Jeff Bromley I’m Rob Barra
07:12 thank you for your time and don’t forget
07:14 to subscribe or like or what have you
07:16 and thank you.